iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has withdrawn regulations that would have required higher production standards for organic livestock and poultry beginning in May -- known as the animal welfare rule -- a move animal rights groups condemned as a "travesty" and an organization representing organic farmers and consumers called "unconscionable."



In the latest effort to rescind Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is doing away with a directive aimed at standardizing the way animals are treated on organic farms if their meat is being sold under a certified organic label. The rule was finalized in April 2016 and published in January 2017.



A lack of clarity in organic livestock and poultry standards has led to inconsistent practices among organic producers, according to a USDA fact sheet. This action assures consumers that organically produced products meet a consistent standard by resolving the current ambiguity about outdoor access for poultry. It also establishes clear standards for raising, transporting, and slaughtering organic animals and birds.



The USDA, under the Trump administration, delayed the rule -- which would have made organic regulations more specific -- three times before ultimately withdrawing it. USDA Marketing and Regulatory Program Undersecretary Greg Ibach said the departments resistance to the rule stems from the regulatory authority it granted USDA.



The rule would have increased federal regulation of livestock and poultry for certified organic producers and handlers, Ibach said.



The rule exceeds the departments statutory authority, he added. The changes to the existing organic regulations could have a negative effect on voluntary participation in the National Organic Program.



Among those that backed the USDAs move is the American Farm Bureau Federation, arguing it will keep more farmers in the organic farming business.



"Had the rule gone into effect, we believe it would have forced a number of organic farmers and ranchers to just basically change their production practices, and it likely would have forced many of them either out of the organic sector, if not out of business, Dale Moore, public policy executive director of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement.



Secretary [Sonny] Perdue and Undersecretary Greg Ibach have both made the point that existing, robust, organic livestock regulations are effective, he continued. We strongly believe that the secretarys action, the undersecretarys action kept these rules inside the law.



However, the USDAs withdrawal of the animal welfare rule triggered a backlash from farmers and animal rights groups as well as the organic community.



National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said in a statement that the USDA's action to withdraw the rule is a "mistake." It puts them on an uneven playing field with the types of operations who skirt the rules, yet also benefit from the same USDA organic label," he said.



Joining Johnson in challenging the USDA is the Humane Society, along with its broad and diverse constituency, including both smaller family farmers and the non-organic producer Perdue Farms. The Humane Society's Senior Advisor of Equine Protection & Rural Affairs Marty Irby asserted that USDA's order to end the mandate will defend "a small number of large producers, not a large number of small producers."



The Humane Society, which called the reversal in policy a "travesty for millions of animals raised within the organic system," is exploring "every potential legislative and legal opportunity in the court system" to protect the welfare of animals and the integrity of the organic sector, according to Irby.



Under the withdrawn regulations, outdoor access was defined more clearly, specifically for egg-laying hens that require outdoor pens. Covered porches and similar enclosed structures, such as a wire-caged pen with a concrete floor, would not have qualified as outdoor pens. "Most consumers probably dont realize that some of the organic eggs they are purchasing dont actually go outside, but rather are in cages indoors," Irby said.



Another animal rights group, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also strongly rebuked the USDA, expressing outrage over what it said would be millions of animals affected by eliminating the rule.



The Organic Trade Association -- the group behind an ongoing lawsuit against the USDA -- condemned the USDA action.



The group filed the lawsuit in September 2017 to keep the organic standards and is aimed at the USDAs alleged violation of the Organic Foods Production Act.



The Agricultural Marketing Service received about 72,000 comments on the proposal to eliminate the rule on the Federal Registers site. An overwhelming majority of those comments -- more than 63,000 -- opposed the final decision.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.In response to comments made by Irans foreign minister, ambassador John Bass said the allegations were laughable and entirely false.





The US Ambassador to Kabul John R Bass vehemently denied US involvement in transporting Daesh fighters in Afghanistan.





In a statement issued by Bass on Wednesday afternoon, the envoy said in response to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarifs claims of US support for ISIS (Daesh) in Afghanistan are laughable and patently false.





The facts are clear: US forces have removed more than 1,000 ISIS-K (Daesh Afghanistan) combatants from the battlefield, and the combined efforts of the United States and the Afghan National Defense and Security forces have reduced ISIS-Ks presence in Afghanistan.





As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells said recently, Theyre very much in the cross-hairs at present. The Iranian government should be focusing on supporting the Afghan governments efforts to promote peace rather than spreading falsehoods, he said.





Resolute Support also responded to Zarifs claims and rejected the allegations outright.





Captain Tom Gresback, Public Affairs Director at Resolute Support HQ in Kabul, said in a statement that there is no validity in Iran's claim that US Forces in Afghanistan support Daesh in Afghanistan. - Read More



Posted Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:39 am

The Radium Girls sounds like the name of a 50s sci-fi horror movie, and the similarities extend beyond the title. Characters in the book have radium poisoning and suffer true horror  so yes, the 2016 book by U.K. writer Kate Moore would make a great movie.

Moores tome, however, is not science fiction. Rather its a true mid- 20th century story about a group of young women that receive radium poisoning after painting watch and instrument dials with a special type of paint.

To paint the delicate dials, the young women would lip point by putting the point of the brush in their mouth and twirling their tongues to create a fine tip. They would then dip the point in the radium paint before painting, sometimes repeating the process up to 600 times a day for watches. The workers called it lip, dip, paint. Most who contract radium poisoning die excruciating deaths and exhibit physical deformities. Cancer and bone deterioration can rot their insides until the point their jawbones literally disintegrate.

The women in The Radium Girls are told by their employers that there is no danger in using radium, in fact, they are told radium is a health aid.

Moore, who formerly worked as a ghost writer and editor in the United Kingdom, has written a formidable creative nonfiction look at the womens private lives as they are slowly dying.

The book tells precisely why we need regulation for health and safety on the job and why its important we fight for our rights, Moore said.

Moore said she discovered the amazing story of the radium girls while searching for a play to produce for women. I Googled and found the play These Shining Girls, about the Ottawa, Illinois, radium girls, she said.

I wasnt a serious historian, so I never expected to write a book people would take seriously, she said. The book turned out to be a New York Times nonfiction best-seller.

I wanted to bring the women-ordinary women-out, Moore said.

Moore spent a month in the United States visiting archives, libraries and the hometowns of the women who either worked for the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation in Orange, New Jersey, or at Luminous Processes Plant in Ottawa, Illinois.

I needed to visit the places where the women worked, lived and died. I am so thankful to their families. I didnt know how they would feel, she said.

Her apprehension was not warranted. The survivor families welcomed her in with open arms and opened diaries, scrapbooks and photobooks for her research.

They were amazed I was British and I had come all this way to interview them, Moore said.

Moore found all the women who defied the corporations by pursuing legal action remarkable, but Catherine Donohue especially so.

Her niece, Mary, took me into her Aunts sick room and told me how Catherine had never cried out, she said.

She told me Catherine didnt have the energy to scream. All she could do was moan. She couldnt eat, had a tumor the size of a grapefruit and the radium was boring holes in her bones, Moore said.

The author also follows the womens legal challenges and the work of one of their attorneys Len Grossman.

Although Grossman wins their cases with Donohue testifying on her deathbed, the women receive paltry monetary rewards. Some as low as $50. At that point, Moore relates, money was not the issue  justice was. Amazingly, an audio tape of Grossman discussing the cases still exists.

During the trial, the women learn that one company doctor, who told them not only that radium was safe, but also examined them and testified against them, was not a medical doctor. He was actually a doctor of philosophy.

The radium girls, thinking the radium was harmless, would paint their lips, eyebrows and mouths and take their work home  sometimes with deadly results. One radium girls sister died after sharing a bed with her. Before radium is was mixed with water, its an extremely fine compound and its dust particles cover the body. One radium girl entertained her sisters by playing what she called lets play in the dark.

Most of the girls died young, but many lived for years with debilitating infirmities. Moore said there have been several books written about the radium girls, but they were only technical in nature. One of these books was written by Central Michigan University History Professor Dr. Claudia Clark. In her book, she estimated there were 4,000 women in the United States painting luminous dials.

Even with the egregious medical problems, the plight of the radium girls may have gone unnoticed if the Cold War hadnt spurred research into the results of radium exposure. The radium girls and their cases were studied for decades in an effort to learn what happens when humans were exposed to radium.

Kate Moore Book Signing

March 20 7 p.m. Schuler Books 1882 W. Grand River Ave., Okemos www.schulerbooks.com

Book Club News The City Pulse Book Club selection for April is Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, by Taylor Branch. The book is the first of a three-part series on the Civil Rights Movement. The City Pulse Book Club is looking back on the tumultuous events of the year 1968, which is often referred to as the year that left an indelible mark on Americas psyche. In addition to discussing the book, club members will be asked to recall where they were and what their reactions were when on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Upcoming books include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Di- dion (May) and Bobby Kennedy, by Chris Matthews (June).A New Jersey man is facing a 12-year prison sentence over a mortgage fraud scheme as well as tax evasion, according to the US Attorneys Office for the District of New Jersey.

US District Judge Susan Wigenton delivered the sentence to Mark Andreotti, a former settlement agent, in Newark federal court. Andreotti was earlier convicted on all six counts of an indictment charging him with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, tax evasion, and failure to file tax returns.

Andreotti used false loan applications to defraud banks out of $1.1 million. In 2010, he refinanced the mortgage on his home for $625,000. As owner of Metropolitan Title and Abstract, Andreotti used the business as the settlement agent on the transaction. After Metropolitan received the funds in its escrow account, Andreotti used the money on personal expenses instead.Toys R Us plans to sell or close all of its U.S. stores, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The company's CEO, David Brandon, told employees about the impending changes Wednesday at the retailer's headquarters in Wayne, N.J., the Journal reported. The move would affect up to 33,000 jobs.

Toys R Us planned to file liquidation papers Wednesday evening ahead of a bankruptcy court hearing Thursday, according to the Journal. Multiple media reports in the past week said the company is preparing for liquidation and may shutter all of its U.S. stores. The BBC reported Wednesday that the company's 100 stores in the U.K. will close in the next six weeks after Toys R Us failed to find a buyer.

The company filed for bankruptcy in September and later announced plans to close around 182 of its stores. Fifteen stores in New York were on the list of planned closures, including a Babies R Us in Latham and a Toys R Us in Glens Falls. The Latham store was to close by the end of March and has launched a closing sale, an employee at the store told the Times Union on Tuesday. An employee at the Glens Falls location declined to comment, though some items in photos on the store's Instagram account were discounted.

The retailer also operates a Toys R Us and Babies R Us store across Wolf Road from Colonie Center and a Toys R Us store in Clifton Park that were not included on the list of closures but would be affected by the retailer's liquidation.

Following reports about the future of Toys R Us, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called on the Federal Trade Commission to ensure that laws are not being violated in the case of liquidation and people have time to get cash back for unredeemed gift cards.

"With the entire Toys R Us operation at risk of shutting its doors for good, I am urging the company to redeem outstanding gift cards for cash so they are not as worthless and unwanted as a lump of coal in a stocking," he said Wednesday.State Sen. Carlos Urestis second criminal trial of the year  for allegedly conspiring to bribe a judge in Reeves County  may be postponed until the fall after his co-defendant asked the court for a delay.

Lubbock businessman Vernon C. Farthing III, who made the request in a court filing Tuesday, said Urestis lawyer and federal prosecutors arent opposed to pushing back the trial, which is currently set to start May 7 in San Antonio federal court.New Mexico hit record production in 2017, largely because of strong activity in the Permian Basin, according to the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. In citing Energy Information Administration data, New Mexico produced 172 million barrels of oil, topping the previous record of 147 million barrels in 2015.

In December, the state saw 17.2 million barrels produced, keeping New Mexico as the third-largest oil-producing state.

Growing New Mexicos oil and natural gas industry means growth in jobs, the economy and funding for our public schools and state budget, NMOGA Executive Director Ryan Flynn said in a press release. 2017 was a record-breaking year because of the prolific growth, and potential (that) producers are seeing in the Permian Basin. Last year, oil and natural gas producers invested more than $13 billion in New Mexico, and these investments are clearly beginning to have positive impact on the states economy. New Mexico is rich with natural resources, and safely developing our oil and natural gas economy is key to New Mexicos future.

The release also notes that the International Energy Agency predicts daily output in the Permian Basin will double by 2023.

Other energy highlights

 Permian keeps producing: The EIAs monthly drilling productivity report estimates the Permian will produce 3.076 million barrels of oil per day (bbl/d) and 10.019 million cubic feet per day (cf/d) of natural gas in March. In April, the tallies will jump to 3.156 million bbl/d of crude and 10.252 million cf/d of natural gas.

Oil production from new wells is slated at 635 bbl/d for both months. Natural gas production is estimated to be 1,186,000 cf/d in March and April.

Drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells for the Permian were at 2,815 in January and 2,937 in February.

 More to Mexico: The EIA reported that the value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico exceeded import value for the third straight year. The value of U.S. energy exports to Mexico was $25.8 billion in 2017, including $23.2 billion of petroleum products, the EIA said. U.S. imports from Mexico were valued at $11.1 billion.

Crude oil imports from Mexico averaged 608,000 bbl/d in 2017, about 8 percent of all U.S. imported crude. The top import sources are Canada, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Mexico was the destination for 1 million bbl/d of U.S. petroleum products such as finished motor gasoline, distillate fuel oil and propane. Natural gas exports tallied 4.6 billion cf/d and includes shipments by pipeline or liquefied natural gas.

 Reaching the world: U.S. crude oil exports averaged 1.1 million bbl/d in 2017, and it arrived at more destinations. In 2016, U.S. crude was shipped to 26 countries; in 2017, that number grew to 37. By share, Canada received 29 percent of crude exports, China got 20 percent and the United Kingdom took 9 percent.The El Campo, Texas house - with arguably the largest private swimming pool in the state - finally sold after being on and off the market since late 2014. El Campo is more than an hour southwest of Houston.

Situated on nearly 40 acres of land, the 7,312-square-foot home was originally listed at $5 million before being reduced to $3.5 million. According to its public listing, it sold for somewhere between $2.5 and $2.879 million in early November.Midland County Fire Marshal Dale Little said Wednesday that we are getting really close to calling for a burn ban in Midland County.

Little said the lack of rainfall and high winds are factors in why a burn ban might go before the Commissioners Court later this month or in April.

A burn ban prohibits or restricts outdoor burning for public safety, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. As of Wednesday, there were 91 counties in Texas with burn bans currently in place, including much of West Texas and the Panhandle. Some of those counties without burn bans in place include the higher-populated counties such as Midland, Tom Green (San Angelo), Lubbock and Taylor (Abilene). Midland County is basically surrounded by counties with burn bans in place. Other counties close to Midland without burn bans include Andrews, Gaines (Seminole) and Dawson (Lamesa).

The Texas A&M Forest Service states that the Keetch-Byram Drought Index is an index used to determine forest fire potential. Its measurements go from zero to 800. A measurement of 800 means it would take 8 inches of precipitation to fully saturate the soil. The score inside Midland County is 400 to 500. A score of 400 to 600 indicates that a lower litter and duff layers contribute to fire intensity and will burn actively, according to the drought index. Wildfire intensity begins to increase significantly. Larger fuels could burn or smoulder for several days. This is often seen in late summer and early fall.

The Texas Forest Service reports high observed fire danger covering an area from Midland to Lubbock.

So far this calendar year, 0.05 of an inch of precipitation has fallen in Midland. Less than 1 inch of rain has fallen at Midland International going back to Oct. 1, according to the National Weather Service.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reports moderate to severe drought in and around Midland County. The U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook shows drought persists in the region.

The Climate Prediction Center isnt calling for relief any time soon. Its 30-day forecast calls for a 40 percent chance of above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall. The 90-day forecast from April through June calls for a 60 percent chance for above-average temperatures and a 40-percent chance of below-average rainfall.In February, 18 people were arrested or indicted on child sex crimes in Bexar County, records show.

The tally is slightly lower than January, which saw 23 people charged with child sex crimes in the county.

RELATED: 23 people arrested, indicted on child sex crime charges in Bexar County in January 2018

Of the 18, seven are facing accusations of indecency with a child, seven are accused of aggravated sexual assault of a child and four are charged with sexual assault of a child.

Two suspects, Jessie Jermaine Pearson and Zaragoza Guadaluple Martinez, are facing two counts of indecency with a child each.

The mugshots for Eduardo Gomez-Diaz, indicted on indecency with a child, and David Armont Rice, indicted on sexual assault of a child, were not available.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.comPosted Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:39 am

White nationalists and anti-racist protesters dont agree on much. But they do agree on one thing about last weeks violent encounter outside of Richard Spencers speech at MSU: It could have been prevented or least better mitigated by the police.

Im sure we disagree some on this, but from my view it was the best present they could have given us, said David Langdon, a longtime Lansing resident an antiracist organizer. He was referring to the police.

He said he had never seen a situation where police allowed opposition groups to come into contact.

Im pretty sure they set it up for it to be hard for Spencer supporters, he said. How else do you explain just letting us set up camp right in their way? I dont see how they thought they could just have the Nazis walk a quarter of a mile from their vehicles. Why not park their vehicles in the parking lot next to or behind the venue. I still cant believe that.

Johan Carollo, a white nationalist who was present at MSU, said he agreed with Langdons assessment that this was a deliberate failure of the police I feel like the whole point of it was to get the thing shut down,  the Arkansas resident said by phone.

Ray Hall, U of M Flint police chief and a former captain with the Lansing Police Department, has handled controversial and potentially violent protests in his years in law enforcement. In 2006 he was responsible for planning the police response to a rally by neo-Nazis on the steps of the Capitol.

To maintain order that day, the city and state rented fencing and enclosed the Capitol steps to prevent the two sides from coming together. He said it worked, to a point. Some supporters of the neo-Nazis were infiltrated by opponents and small skirmishes broke out. But Hall points to a limit in policing under the Constitution.

You cant say if you believe A, line up here and if you believe B, line up here, he said. It just doesnt work that way.

The use of barriers to separate the opposing parties is standard procedure, Hall said.

Yet, at Michigan State, there were no such barriers.

Capt. Doug Monette of the Michigan State University Police Department he declined to discuss it beyond confirming there were no physical barriers.

Carollo is a colonel in the Traditionalist Workers Party. Thats a white nationalist group that has joined Spencer as he has toured colleges to spread the white nationalist gospel. In that role, he was informed about security preparations for the event, none of which materialized, he said.

We were actually promised a barrier, he said. The parking lot where the counter protesters, Antifa and such, were congregated was actually supposed to be our private parking area that was supposed to be secured by the police. They told us that there would be three roadblocks set up and we were to come in through the north entrance and into that parking lot and they would secure us entry into the event.

Monette denied the parking lot had been changed in an email Monday. He declined to elaborate, noting that the department does not discuss tactical decisions with the media or the public.

But hours before Carollo and others arrived for Spencers 4:30 p.m. speech, protesters moved their gathering across the street from Commuter Lot 89 to the empty northern parking lot of the Pavilion  the parking lot Carollo said was supposed to be for parking for his group.

For his part, Carollo said his group of about 30 was directed by Michigan State troopers to march into the protesting crowd on Farm Lane.

We asked them how are we supposed to get into the event, where do you want us to go? he said of the conversation with troopers stationed outside the Soil Science Building which also served as media parking. He said if you guys want to go in you got to go that way and he pointed directly towards the crowd.

Led by Carollo and Matthew Heimbach, a leader of the Traditionalist Workers Party, as well as National Policy Institutes director of operations, Gregory Conte, the group followed the directions of the troopers and marched headlong into the protesters. Thats when violence broke out.

Law enforcement, the white nationalist said, did not hold true to any of their promises.

Marilyn Mayo, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, said barriers are one of the key recommendations her group makes to law enforcement having to respond to white nationalist events. She declined to discuss the MSU event specifically because she was not present.

We see a lot of these demonstrations now and events where you have both the white supremacists and then the counter-protesters and Antifa, she said.And what weve seen after monitoring extremist events for decades is that the best thing to do, and the best thing to prevent violence, is to separate the white supremacists and the counter-protestors by using actual, physical barriers enforced by the physical presence of law enforcement officers.Playhouse on the Square is celebrating St. Patricks Day on Saturday with a three-night production of an Irish-themed play featuring 29 kids, three  or four, depending on how you count them  stories, and two directors.

Despite the leprechauns, its clearly no small task.

We are Irish, so  director and Playhouse co-owner Laurie McCoy said. Its a fun holiday. There are holidays, especially Christmas, when you have a lot of plays related to that. Not so much St. Patricks Day. We thought it would be different, and it is.

Blather, Blarney and Balderdash takes a look at Irish culture and traditions by way of storytelling. The foundation is built on the idea that Fin wants to marry his true love, but the girls mother insists he first learn how to tell a story. Thats easier said than done for the somewhat tongue-tied shepherd, but he gets some help from three leprechauns.

Theyre not using Irish accents, but the way its written it has an Irish lilt to the sentences, McCoy said. It also uses a lot of  sayings common in Irish speaking. It definitely has the sound of not being American, and thats kind of different. Its a little tricky to memorize (lines) because of the lilt.

Still, that lilt was part of the appeal for McCoy and her assistant director, Kim Shafer.

It makes it a lot different than anything the kids have done, McCoy said. The playwright specifically says, Do not use accents, and I think its really wise. Its not something just everybody can do. And people who think they can do it, five different people will have five different accents.

Among the leprechauns stories are one in which a mans gentle nature wins him an unexpected surprise, one in which a young man must snatch three feathers from a hen-pecked griffin to save a sleeping beauty, and one in which a girl and some magical animals help a prince rediscover his laughter.

It is, perhaps, an appropriate tale when one considers the laughter that came with the show, McCoy said.

The cast is having some fun with it, she said of the show. They get to be silly. Theres a lot of comedy in it, a lot of blarney. Its definitely not Shakespeare, but its fun.

McCoy and Shafer arent intimidated by the cast size or their actors ages, which range from 5 to 14.

You can do the play with fewer kids and have them double up (on roles), but we always like to get more people involved, McCoy said.

Some of that is to help build a group of kids who want to keep performing as they grow up. Some of it is to help the kids as they do that growing.

Its helping them later in life, being able to deliver speeches, not being terrified to get up in front of people, because theyve already been in front of audiences, McCoy said. It teaches them to get along with others, because youre in pretty close quarters backstage.

It gives them good experience for everyday life.  Weve been able to see them grow up over the past five years.



Blather, Blarney and Balderdash will be staged at 7:30 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday at the Playhouse on the downtown Jacksonville square. Tickets, which are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children, are available at the door or in advance at Our Town Books.

Angela Bauer can be reached at 217-408-2057.Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss spoke to Illinois College students Wednesday about his views as a part of a seven-stop college and university tour.

Students were able to ask the 9th district senator questions Wednesday regarding his plans and stances on several issues, with focuses on health care, the state budget problems, voting and taxing problems.

Senator Biss (D-Evanston) said he hopes to reach out to the younger generation of voters.

Who has the most to gain or lose? Biss said. The younger generation is going to be the most impacted. Some have tuned out politics because they feel it is hopeless, but I want to see them excited to fix things.

Biss is running against Bob Daiber, Chris Kennedy, Tio Hardiman, Robert Marshall and J.B. Pritzker for a spot on the Democratic ballot.

Biss said the current system works well for those that participate, but said it needs to change to work well for everyone.

The Illinois government is not working for most people, Biss said. We have a moral obligation to do the right thing.

He said he hopes to find a way to get people involved again and make a change.

Those that are not participating are those that feel their voice isnt heard, he said.

We need to change the system so that the middle class is heard, Biss said.

With changes to things like universal health care, a staggered income tax, term limits for leadership positions, and rank-choice voting, Biss said he wants to re-engage voters and limit corruption.

He also said it is time for someone who relates to the average family to be elected, not a billionaire who has not experienced the things that impact the day-to-day life of most Illinois residents.

I feel people believe only billionaires can be elected, but we need someone who understands what the policies being passed do to the normal families, he said.

Before taking questions, Biss shared his move from a mathematics professor to politician.

I felt I wasnt playing my part in the world, Biss said.

After leaving his position as a professor, Biss began volunteering on campaigns, before moving into a position with the state before being elected in 2010.

Biss said, if elected, he hopes to change the system for all residents.

Democracy is complicated, Biss said. It works beautifully when it works well, but its troubling, it can be broken.

The primary election will take place March 20.

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.Students at MacMurray College and Illinois College gathered on their respective campuses Wednesday in a show of support for #EnoughIsEnough, a nationwide walkout of students protesting gun violence in U.S. schools.

About 50 MacMurray students, faculty and administrative staff participated in the walkout, gathering on a lawn at East College and South Clay avenues for brief speeches and to remember victims of gun violence in schools.

MacMurray event co-organizer Aury Bradley, a junior from Knoxville, read the names of the 17 victims in the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting and the names of the 25 schools where mass shootings have occurred since the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, shooting in 1999.

The importance of holding an event like this is to raise awareness of school safety, Bradley said. We want to focus on school safety because that is something everyone can agree on.

Event co-organizer Bree Tipsword, a sophomore from Springfield, read some prepared remarks at the walkout.

Coming from an advocacy perspective, its nice to take a stand as a student leader and set an example for others to acknowledge both their viewpoints and the viewpoints of others, in an effort to come together as a whole, Tipsword said.

A third co-organizer, Tory Marrufo, a freshman from El Paso, Texas, made posters for the walkout.

MacMurray associate professor Joe Squillace, director of the colleges social work program, spoke briefly at the walkout.

As an educator, Im really proud to see these students engage as citizens and use their learning to make our communities safer, Squillace said. This effort was driven by the students, and they expressed their frustrations with the nations leadership in not taking action on having real debate about how to move forward, and we as faculty helped the students organize the event.

Squillace and Tipsword, in her remarks, encouraged students to discuss how to minimize school violence, the effects of violence on children and ways to prevent school violence.

MacMurray provost Beverly Rodgers told the crowd that she was proud that MacMurray took a stand against senseless violence.

Meanwhile, on Illinois Colleges campus, about 40 students and staff were present for a nearly identical walkout. IC Student Senate President James Hills, a senior from Pittsfield, opened the event with a short speech.

Today, Illinois College, along with thousands of other colleges around the country are saying Enough is enough, Hills said. We want our legislators to do something about gun violence.

Following his words, IC Senate member Adam Herdman, a senior from Naperville, read aloud the 17 names of the victims of the Parkland shooting, each followed by a minute of silence. Aside from the clanging of the American flag against its pole as the biting morning winds blew past it and the victims name being read each minute, ICs upper quad was completely silent for the duration.

For an event that was pretty much organized overnight, I think this was a good turnout, Hills said. Im really happy to see the students come out here and voice their concerns about gun violence. The community needs these types of rallies because at a level like this, at a small level, thats where the discussion starts to happen.

The event was followed by an open conversation held in a student lounge, where students could discuss their ideas about gun violence openly. Marineth Sierra, a senior from Aurora and public relations committee member, said that she was happy about the student participation.

Its important to discuss these things, especially on a small campus, Sierra said. Getting everyone together and bringing awareness, it shows that were all in this together.Illinois College is adding a neuroscience program.

Neuroscience is a fast-growing field and ICs program will provide students with an understanding of research about the brain and prepare them for a career in medicine, healthcare and public policy.

The program will also serve as a springboard for students hoping to pursue graduate programs in the field.

Jeremy Turner, professor of psychology and faculty director for the program, has a 20-year record of scientific research in auditory and behavioral neuroscience. Turner has published numerous studies covering the brains role in hearing, tinnitus  ringing in the ears  and aging, with particular expertise in the animal models used to study human sensory conditions.

He is working to develop a device that will objectively measure tinnitus in humans through a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Neuroscience is available as a concentration within the existing psychology major and as a minor. Turner said the program is designed to give students an edge in competitive professional fields.

This is a unique neuroscience program with an intentional focus on the liberal arts. It is structured to give students interested in biology and psychology a strong background in neuroscience, while students from from across the entire campus with an interest in learning more about the brain can also benefit, he said.

The neuroscience curriculum will incorporate several key subjects and include faculty members from psychology, biology, philosophy and political science.Teen hospitalized after stabbing

A 17-year-old boy was taken to Passavant Area Hospital and airlifted to Memorial Hospital in Springfield Wednesday with non-life threatening injuries after a reported stabbing.

According to police, officers responded to Passavant about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday after the hospital reported the stabbing wound.

The incident is still under investigation. The boys condition was not available Wednesday night.



Morgan County

JACKSONVILLE POLICE

Arrests, Citations

 Austin D. Sims, 18, of 607 N. East St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:12 p.m. Tuesday on a criminal damage to property charge.

 Monte L. Scott, 49, of 852 N. Main St. was arrested about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday on a criminal trespass to land charge.

 Benjamin J. Handy, 33, homeless, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 12:57 p.m. Wednesday on charges of criminal damage to state property and criminal trespass to land.

Burglaries, Thefts

 Someone stole a cellphone from Firewater Bar and Grill, 224 E. State St., between 11 p.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday, according to a report filed at 7:09 p.m. Tuesday.



Pike County

SHERIFF

Arrests, Citations

 Shelley D. Evans, 46, of Pittsfield was arrested at 9:30 a.m. Saturday on a revocation of bail bond.

 Dalton S. Hobson, 20, of Griggsville was arrested at 5:16 p.m. March 8 on a charge of obstructing justice and on Pike County warrants accusing him of failing to appear in court on unlawful transportation of a weapon and improper lane use charges.

 Jason C. Short, 44, of Polo, Missouri, was arrested at 11:34 p.m. March 6 on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, driving while license is revoked or suspended, possession of cannabis, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine and on a revocation of conditional discharge and on a Pike County warrant accusing him of failing to pay or appear in court.

 Allen J. Hopkins, 26, of Troy, Missouri, was arrested at 7:18 p.m. March 5 on a petition to revoke probation and on a Pike County warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court.

 Laaken L. Logdson, 29, of Barry was arrested at 8:02 p.m. March 5 on a petition for revocation.

Compiled by Greg Olson, David C.L. Bauer and Samantha McDaniel-OgletreeThe two candidates for Morgan County sheriff on Tuesday outlined some of their plans for how they would run the sheriffs department if elected.

The sheriffs candidates  Morgan County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Mike Carmody and Jacksonville Police Lt. Chris Johnson  and Circuit Judge Pete Cavanagh, who is a write-in candidate for appellate court judge, provided the program at a meeting of the Republican Womens Club of Morgan County at the Jacksonville Municipal Building. About 75 people attended the meeting.

Carmody and Johnson square off in the Republican primary election March 20, which will decide who is the countys next sheriff, as there is no Democrat seeking the position.

Johnson and Carmody answered six questions posed by Republican Womens Club member Kaye Coop at Tuesdays meeting. The questions covered such things as background, goals, greatest challenges, training and upgrades to the jail.

Johnson said that, if elected, he would not make immediate major changes to the sheriffs department. He said he would like to update the departments policy procedure manual, provide more staff training and expect more professionalism and accountability from the staff.

I want the sheriffs staff to be efficient and effective, Johnson said.

Carmody said there are many good people who work at the sheriffs department, but he acknowledged there needs to be more professionalism. The direction needs to come from the sheriff, he said.

Carmody said he wants supervisors teaching deputies the Golden Rule. Basically, I want them to treat people like you would want to be treated, he said. He added that he wants to strengthen trust between the sheriffs department and the community.

Johnson agreed that there needs to be a more positive view of police in general. We are there to provide a service, he said. We have to reinvent how we are perceived by the community.

Johnson also said a change he would make is to deputize police officers in Morgan County towns to assist the sheriffs department.

Carmody said something that needs to be addressed at the jail is replacement of the old cell locks, which pose a potential safety issue.

Johnson said he would like to change the structure of the sheriffs departments command staff, which currently has six command officers supervising eight patrolmen. As sheriff, Johnson said, everyone will be available for calls, taking pressure off patrols. I want everyone to be trained and to be held accountable.

Carmody said that when Sheriff Randy Duvendack is away, I do the sheriffs job. I know the job and Im able to do the job. He added that he works well with all the police chiefs in Morgan County.

Carmody has served as chief deputy for 12 years and been with the sheriffs department for 31 years.

Johnson has been a Jacksonville police lieutenant for about eight years and been with the police department for nearly 23 years. Prior to that, Johnson served as a correctional officer at the Morgan County jail for about three years.

Cavanagh, a Republican who is seeking a seat on the Fourth District Appellate Court, spoke briefly near the close of the meeting and encouraged everyone to get out and write in his name on the ballot. Cavanagh needs 1,070 write-in votes in the Fourth District, which covers 30 central Illinois counties.

If elected, Cavanagh would take the open seat created by the death of Appellate Justice John Schmidt, who died Dec. 19.

Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg.Posted Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:40 am

In 2008, nine police officers from the northern Michigan city of Clare banded together to buy a 113-year-old local bakery that was in danger of closing. The officers, essentially the citys entire police force, renamed it Cops & Doughnuts, and the jokes practically wrote themselves. But then something remarkable happened.

They took something that had been part of the community for so long and developed a whole new concept around it, said Heidi Williams, technology and information supervisor for the East Lansing Police Department. They created something that was unique to the area and unique as a business model  a business that was run by police officers that was focused on charity and community development.

And it caught on. Those nine officers spun the success of that first Cops & Doughnuts store into six other locations in northern and west Michigan, ingraining themselves into the communities as they went. And in May, the first franchised version  Cops & Doughnuts Capital Precinct  will be coming to Lansings west side courtesy. Williams and her wife, retired Lansing Police Department detective Michelle Bryant.

Police officers are so used to dealing with people at their worst, but this is a way to turn that around, Bryant said. This is all about fun, and its also a way to give back to local police charities and support the military. Were going to be very active in the community, which is a big part of why were getting into this.

This will be the first non police-related business for either Williams or Bryant, but neither seems too concerned about launching a new career at this stage in their lives. In fact, for Bryant, the new career has a hidden perk.

In my experience as an officer, you spend more time with your police family than with your real family, she said. I thought it would be tough to retire and be done, but this is a good way to stay involved with my old work friends and to be able to interact with the community in a positive way. That really resonated for me.

Williams and Bryant are setting up shop at 6427 Centurion Drive, a location thats been known as a community gathering place for nearly two decades. The storefront was former home to Coffee Jam, which owner Shelby Wielock closed two years ago after a successful 16-year run. A different owner tried to make a go of it for a year, but Coffee Jam permanently closed late last year.

Shelbys specialty was kindness, Williams said. Coffee Jam was something that was like a second home to a lot of people, and when that went away, it really affected them. Hopefully we can bring that back and build on that foundation, with a safe, friendly place with good food, good coffee and good friendship.

Actually, cops prefer coffee thats been sitting on a burner for six hours, Bryant deadpanned. Its what were used to  cops dont do foo-foo coffee. But even though we know that doughnuts go better with bad coffee, we wont do that to our customers.

Cops & Doughnuts Capital Precinct will have three coffee blends specially made at downtown Lansings Paramount Coffee: Day Shift (light blend), Night Shift (dark blend) and an Off Duty blend (decaf). Specialty pastries will include the Felony Fritter (as big as your head), the Squealer (a maple syrup and bacon long john) and the Love Me Tender (made with peanut butter and bananas). Williams said she thinks the store will go through about 100 dozen doughnuts a day, all of which will be made fresh daily at the Clare location and driven an hour and half down U.S. 127 early each morning.

Even if theres a blizzard, the doughnuts will always arrive, Bryant said. And were already getting orders. People have started sticking their heads in everyday while were doing our construction work asking when were going to open. We know theres a demand.

Williams and Bryant have given the interior a fresh coat of blue paint, including a thin blue line that runs the entire length of the store. There will be a mug shot area where customers can take their photos, a mock jail cell and a merchandise area. A section of the wall will feature police patches from other precincts, as well as local police-themed photos and memorabilia. Williams said shes hoping for a May 8 soft opening, with a grand opening scheduled for late summer that may double as a familyfriendly touch-a-truck event.

Coffee Jam had a vibe that wasnt too different from the original Cops & Doughnuts location in Clare, so this seems like a perfect fit, Williams said. Our goal is for this to be a kid-friendly place where people will want to come every day. And hopefully, our little cell in the corner will be the only jail your kid will end up in.

More of a Ruckus

The Eastside Neighborhood ramen shop Ruckus Ramen is expanding its hours starting today. The year-old business, located inside the Avenue Cafe, 2021 E. Michigan Ave., will now be open from 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Friday, with Saturday hours set at 3-11 p.m. Lunch specials will start next week.

People have been asking us about daytime hours since we opened, but over the last few months theres been an increased demand, said owner/operator Steve DJ Ruckus Swart. Weve been talking about it for a while, but decided last week to jump in. And business has been great  this winter has been wonderful. It is ramen season, after all.

Ruckus Ramen (inside the Avenue Cafe) 2021 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Friday; 3-11 p.m. Saturday (517) 999-7549, ruckusramen.comGreetings from the Ridge.

Dont talk to him. Hes a Republican.

Those were the first words I heard my grandfather say when I met my uncle at a long ago family reunion.

And he said it right in front of Uncle Harold.

I hardly came up to the waist of either of these men and I stood there in fear that a fight was about to break out right there between the potato salad and bug spray. Uncle Harold looked at Grandpa and said, Hang on a minute. I left my gun in the car. Then both men broke into a spate of laughter that relieved this little kid a great deal. True, Grandpa was a Democrat and Uncle Harold was a Republican, but both men lived their lives with a ribbing relationship. Their politics were just a part of who they were and they didnt let their political views define them, much less do any damage to lifelong friendships.

I wish we could say the same today.

Ive never known a time when erstwhile friends have become so bitter toward each other and in sadly too many cases its even seeped down to family relationships and done some harm. Its common just before the Christmas season for a few newspapers and magazines to feature stories on what topics to avoid at family gatherings, and most of these are tongue in cheek. There were no metaphoric tongues in cheeks these past two holiday seasons and in some cases it was more like fist to jaw. North Carolina alone reported three serious domestic quarrels that led to hospital treatment, all because someone mentioned politics.

A handful of New York restaurants now put a limit on the number of alcoholic drinks that can be consumed at a single visit, again because of the disturbances caused in the past year by patrons whose political views took precedence over their appetite. A handful of Chicago bars tried banning the mention of politics but found it was an unenforceable edict. The combination of liquor and elections was just too potent a cocktail. Some cities have unwritten rules in their taverns assuring drinkers that they will only be imbibing with those whose politics match theirs.

So far, Ive not read of any politically segregated grocery stores or shoe repair shops, but its still early in the year.

Famed African-American comedian Dick Gregory once said that until we can laugh at a problem we dont have it solved. He was among the first to poke a bit of fun at the ridiculous state of race relations in the 1960s and although his comedy offended some who thought that racial strife was no laughing matter, Gregory kept kidding us about our foibles and attitudes.

Laughter, he said, means youre on your way to understanding.

An aging Ronald Reagan met Walter Mondale in a presidential debate and promised that he would not exploit Mondales age. It brought down the house and no one laughed harder than Walter. Admiral James Stockdale began his vice presidential debate with Who am I? Why am I here? Even the moderator laughed at the mans self-effacing humor.

Al Gore sort of snuck up on George Bush while George W. was answering a debate question. George stopped and gave him a What are you doing? smile and Al smiled back. When Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain were duking it out just a few weeks prior to the election, Obama took the podium at a fundraiser that they were both attending. He said, Contrary to popular belief, I was not born in a manger. I was born on the planet Krypton. McCain laughed the hardest of anyone in the audience.

Once upon a time, in the middle of a far off farm pond, I found myself fishing with my dad. Our little rowboat didnt amount to much but it was enough to take us into the best fishing holes. I remember that the date was Friday the 13th, but from that point on my memory grows fuzzy. All I can recall is standing up in the boat to cast my line toward a nest of bass and in the next moment I found myself in the pond along with Dad and an overturned rowboat.

At his point we had a few choices. We could get angry and curse the fates, blame each other for causing the flip-flop, or berate ourselves for being so careless.

Instead, we chose laughter.

We simply looked at each other and laughed. Then with some desperation I asked Dad if we should try swimming to shore. He told me it would be easier to stand up and walk to dry ground since the water was only three feet deep.

Laughter. I can kill off fear and anger as keenly as any weapon known to man.

You ever in Coonridge, stop by. We may not answer the door but youll enjoy the trip.

Freida Marie Crump chronicles the comings and goings in Coonridge for the Journal-Courier.It's possible to produce Muslim President ...The blockchain technology had been created by Agora's Leonardo Gammar. And, on March 7, 2018, 70% of the citizens of Sierra Leone had their votes recorded using that technology.

That was a first for applying this technology to the election process.

It is programmed to ensure security. That comes from having each new piece of data linked in a chain to the previous piece of data in a ledger. That cannot be changed, at least not without the collective consent of all involved in creating the rules for that particular ledger.

As John Briggs reports in TechCrunch, in Sierra Leone, "the goal ultimately is to reduce voting costs by cutting out paper ballots as well as reducing corruption in the voting process."

Since the data is "locked in," according to collectively pre-determined rules, one wonders if applying blockchain technology could have prevented the dispute about the winner of the 2000 presidential election.

As many remember, that question went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court as "Bush v. Gore." Brandname lawyer Ted Olson represented George W. Bush. And BigLaw superstar (whose star has dimmed some since he represented Weinstein, et al.) David Boies was in Al Gore's legal corner.

A user-friendly primer on this technology is "Blockchain for Dummies" by Tiana Laurence. She is the co-founder of Factom. Here it can ordered from Amazon.

Any size business can promote itself like a big business. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. Here is a brief backgrounder.Thursday, March 15, 2018

Filipino Immigrants in the United States by Migration Information Source



More than 1.9 million Filipinos lived in the United States in 2016, making them the fourth-largest immigrant group. Compared to the foreign-born population overall, Filipinos are more likely to get green cards through family immigration channels and have higher education and naturalization rates. This Spotlight offers key information on Filipinos' demographics, employment, geographic distribution, health coverage, and more.

FILIPINO IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES

KJ



https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2018/03/filipino-immigrants-in-the-united-states-.htmlRally against gun violence in Sonora View Photos

Sonora, CA  A group of residents gathered at Sonoras Courthouse Park this morning in support of a National Student Walkout Against Gun Violence.

The rally began at 9:45am and included a minute of silence for each of the 17 students killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last month. The mass shooting has created a renewed call for legislative discussions and action regarding gun control. Those gathered in Sonora were among the thousands taking place in similar type events across the country.

(The photos were submitted by community news partner Elaine Hagen. News related pictures can be e-mailed to news@clarkebroadcasting.com.)Jason Zachery Haddad View Photos

Update at 9:15 a.m.: A clarification on the suspect that was arrested for attacking and threatening a Sonora High School employee. Originally, Sonora police had reported that is was a Sonora High student that attacked a school employee. Sonora High School Superintendent Pat Chabot contacted Clarke Broadcasting to clarify that it was not a high school student. He further explains, We have a couple of programs on our campus that are run by the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Office and this student was in one of those programs. He had an altercation apparently with an aide in the classroom. We werent even aware of it until quite a bit later, but again it was not a Sonora High School student, it was a student on our campus in a program that is run by the county office.

Original post at 7:50 a.m.: Sonora, CA  An 18-year-old student at Sonora High School has been arrested for assault and making threats while in class.

Sonora Police Officers were called to the campus around 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday to investigate a battery on a school employee. Further investigation identified the student as Jason Zachery Haddad of Sonora. Witnesses detailed that Haddad had become angry and allegedly charged an employee. He then punched the person and chased the school official out of the class room, according to police. The victim suffered minor injuries.

Police caught up with Haddad later at his home. He was arrested for felony battery on and threatening a school official. Police did not reveal any further details regarding the cause of Haddads anger.Thursday, March 15, 2018

Undocumented: Immigration and the Militarization of the United States-Mexico Border by John Moore

John Moore has focused on the issue of undocumented immigration to the United States for a decade. His access to immigrants during their journey, and to U.S. federal agents tasked with deterring them, sets his pictures apart. Moore has photographed the entire length of the U.S. southern border, and traveled extensively throughout Central America and Mexico, as well as to many immigrant communities in the United States. His work includes rare imagery of ICE raids, mass deportations, and the resulting widespread fear in the immigrant community. For its broad scope and rigorous journalism, Undocumented: Immigration and the Militarization of the United States-Mexico Border is the essential record on the prevailing U.S. domestic topic of immigration and border security.

Here is one of Moore's photos.

Click here for more on Moore's book.

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2018/03/from-the-bookshelves-undocumented-immigration-and-the-militarization-of-the-united-states-mexico-bor.htmlA dispute between a man and a women turned deadly early Thursday at Oaklands Lake Merritt, where they were found in the water just before sunrise, authorities said.

The Alameda County coroner identified the victims as 39-year-old Michael Grace and 24-year-old Tayana Johnson, both of Oakland. Family members told police that the two were dating.The family of a 16-year-old pregnant girl shot and killed by undercover Fremont police officers last year filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the department Wednesday.

Elena Mondragon, of Antioch, was killed on March 14, 2017, when two Fremont detectives shot at a moving car in Hayward. She was in the first trimester of pregnancy. Police were reportedly tracking her boyfriend, who was driving the car.

Shockingly, officers engaged in a series of egregious tactical errors and contravened their training and basic common sense, which resulted in an outrageous loss of innocent life, said attorney John Burris, whos representing the family.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, cited the officers reckless disregard for department policy, safe tactics and human life by opening fire on a moving car full of teenagers, Burris said.

The suit was announced at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Last March, Elena, her cousin and two friends  including 19-year-old Rico Tiger, Elenas boyfriend  were swimming at City View Apartment Homes in Hayward while a group of undercover officers from the Southern Alameda Major Crimes Task Force kept watch from afar, Burris said. The officers were reportedly following Tiger, an armed robbery suspect.

When Elena and the others left the pool, police said, she got into the passenger seat of an allegedly stolen car. As the group attempted to drive away, a Dodge minivan and Honda Pilot pulled out to block the cars path.

Tiger, who was driving, rammed the unmarked patrol vehicles, resulting in Fremont Police Sgt. Jeremy Miskella and Fremont Police Detective Joel Hernandez firing their weapons, police said.

Five officers in total were on the scene, but none of them had activated their body-worn cameras, Burris said.

Four bullets hit Elena, who later died in the hospital, Burris said.

The Alameda County district attorneys office concluded the two officers were justified in using lethal force.

In a 30-page report, Deputy District Attorney Robert Graff said Elenas death was unintended and tragic, but that the two officers acted in lawful self-defense when they opened fire.

Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman, said the department would not comment on pending litigation.

The familys lawsuit contends that the plain-clothes officers never identified themselves as police after jumping out of their vehicles with assault rifles. The complaint also argues that police had multiple opportunities to initiate an arrest of Tiger before he, Elena and others got into the vehicle.

Christina Flores, Elenas aunt, told The Chronicle last March that the family was broken after the girls death.

She enjoyed being a kid, Flores said through tears outside of her Pittsburg home, adding that Elena was always smiling.

She was our baby. This family will never be complete.

Tiger fled the scene, police said, before being arrested the next day.

Tiger and Elena were dating, Flores said.

I feel like he was manipulating her. She wasnt involved in what (police) were looking for him for, Flores said of Tiger. Maybe she hung around them, but she didnt do none of those things.

Tiger remains in custody in Santa Clara County on unrelated armed robbery charges. He was also charged with Elenas murder and the attempted murder of two police officers.Pratt may have not been right for Pam, but what if she enrolled at the University of North Texas?

Or what if Andy tried out the "Cornell of the South," Rice University, for a change in scenery?Earl Abel's got a "facelift" at age 85 and is ready to show San Antonio what it's working with -- and offer up some free food.

The San Antonio staple is celebrating its 85th anniversary on Thursday at its new location at 1639 Broadway, formerly Timbo's, near the Pearl.

"How do you celebrate 85 years of being one of San Antonio's most iconic restaurants? With a facelift of course," a Facebook event page reads.

From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., customers can celebrate the milestone with free chicken drumettes, free birthday cake, free milkshakes for kids and 85-cent "Tipsy Earl" milkshakes for adults, according to the page.

RELATED: 5 restaurants to check out in S.A., according to Eater

The restaurant started as a diner on North Main Avenue in 1933, then relocated to Broadway and Hildebrand before operations moved to 1201 Austin Highway in 2006 after 66 years, according to San Antonio Express-News archives.

The Austin Highway location has been closed since September 2017 in preparation for the transition.

Owner Roger Arias said then that menu items like meatloaf, pot roast and turkey pie would not make the move to the new restaurant. The relocation was also expected to change the way the business operated  instead of a diner format, the restaurant would be "fast-casual" with runners instead of waitresses.

Tour the new Earl Abel's Restaurant in the gallery above.

Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkyeSTRATFORD  Students spilled out of Stratford High School by the hundreds, led by their principal and greeted by their superintendent and mayor.

The idea of this walkout, like thousands of them staged around the around country Wednesday at 10 a.m., local time, wasnt to argue politics, most participants said.

It was about remembrance.

It was important that we did something together, said Ryann Wiltsie, 14, a Stratford High freshman and cousin of Vicki Soto, a first-grade teacher killed during the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown in 2012.

Between poetry, and song, members of the Stratford High Student Council  Wiltsie included  approached a microphone perched on the schools stone front steps and read the names of the victims of a Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

One by one, with moments of silence for each of the 17 who died.

Tiffany Okrah, 15, said she doesnt know much about the student whose name she read. But she said that didnt matter.

They were students, Okrah said. I would want the same.

Jeremiah Domschine, a Stratford senior, said the point of the walkout was to show respect for those who died.

And solidarity, said Kristen Navarro, another Stratford student.

Budding activism

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson, who was Newtowns schools chief at the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, said Stratfords walkout was designed entirely by kids.

Right off the bat, they said to me, We disagree. Some of us are very Second Amendment, some of us want to do away with weapons, so we arent going there. What we want to do is honor the victims,  Robinson said.

They also want to be safe, she added.

Students took the lead in most of the area walk outs.

At Shelton High, students wearing Douglas Highs maroon and silver colors placed flowers in a vase as victim names were being read. At Harding High in Bridgeport, Schools Superintendent Aresta Johnson called the walkout a chance for student voices to be heard, and she applauded them for their activism.

Nathaniel Perez, a Harding junior, was instrumental in planning the event, according to Johnson, who was joined at Hardings walkout by Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim.

Across town at Central High, hundreds spilled out onto school grounds, attracting the attention of neighbors.

We ... applaud their good efforts, said Joe Luciano, a Central neighbor. The students were truly amazing.

And at Milfords Jonathan Law High School, where nearly all 920 students participated in the walkout, some said politics cannot be ignored.

We feel very strongly that this had to be a political statement, said senior Colleen Hugo, a student organizer. Some of the teachers wanted this to be only a remembrance ceremony - which, of course, it was - but as students, we feel that our lives were at risk, and were not happy with the way gun legislation is, in this country.

As a moment of silence for each victim was observed, Hugo sounded a Tibetan singing bowl 17 times.

Making a difference

At a demonstration in Washington, D.C., the gun-control debate was more front and center, as several Connecticut lawmakers addressed a boisterous crowd composed mostly of high school-age youth.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recounted how his 6-year-old son, Rider, was locked with kindergarten class in a bathroom as part of an active-shooter drill.

That should never happen in the United States of America, Murphy said. No one should have to go through that.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told the students they all deserved a grade of A for their activism, and declared pride in the National Rifle Associations giving him a grade of F.

And U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., who represents the Newtown area, said she wore green in honor of the 20 children who lost their lives at Sandy Hook.

You are making a difference; you are Americas leaders, Esty told the demonstrators.

At Stratford High, Principal Jack Dellapino said about one-quarter of the schools 960 students decided not to participate, and remained behind in the the school auditorium.

The rest braved a morning cold, many without coats, mingling with school board members and members of the Stratford Clergy Association who came in support.

Paul Kurmay, a deacon at Saint Mark Church, said the Stratford walkout brought attention to what he said was a horrible national situation that needs to be addressed.

Its wonderful that kids are leading it, Kurmay said. I think it will make a difference.

Jillian Soto, Vickis younger sister, was also at the Stratford walkout, and said it was a civil way for students to get involved.

Kids shouldnt fear going to school, Soto said.

She also hoped the walkouts would encourage kindness.

Being kind can go a long way, Soto said. I hope people take a moment and think what can I do to change things.

David Farber, a history professor at the University of Kansas who has studied social change movements, said it is too soon to know what effect the protests will have. But he said Wednesday's walkouts were without a doubt the largest protest led by high school students in the history of the U.S.

Young people are that social media generation, and it's easy to mobilize them in a way that it probably hadn't been even 10 years ago, Farber said.

But whether the students can make a difference on Capitol Hill remains to be seen.

Congress has shown little inclination to defy the powerful NRA and tighten gun laws, and President Donald Trump backed away from his initial support for raising the minimum age for buying an assault rifle to 21.

A spokeswoman for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, newly appointed head of a federal panel on school safety, said DeVos gives a lot credit to the students who are raising their voices and demanding change, and their input will be valuable.GREENWICH  Some houses in Greenwich are private. Others are really private.

Set on more than 2 acres, the house at 118 Butternut Hollow Road is off the beaten track.

Its got a beautiful setting. Not a through street, said the listing agent, Danielle Claroni. Really, very private.

It sits above the Putnam Reservoir in the midcountry, and there are restrictions on development in the watershed area. That makes for a quiet, country atmosphere.

Designed in the Georgian style, the house was built in 1966 but was substantially renovated over the last three years.

Everything has been updated  new roof, pool equipment, said Claroni. The updates arent necessarily visible  all the mechanicals have been updated, but thats not the thing people typically see. Everythings been done here.

The total modernization of older houses is a reflection of todays home-buyers, who dont want any maintenance issues when they move in.

Todays buyers dont want to do any work. This home has had all the major updates. It just needs to be decorated to taste - new kitchen, baths, roof, pool equipment, heating equipment, hot water heater, septic, well, she said.

The house also exudes a sense of old-time elegance. Its a very traditional, said Claroni, which ties in with a long-standing style of architecture in Greenwich, with its colonnaded entryway and arched windows. Theres a wood-paneled library, straw wallpaper, wooden lintels and wainscoting that convey a sense of warmth. The living room is bracketed by a fireplace and French doors.

Fairly large, at five bedrooms, it has a special appeal to young families, added Claroni, especially ones with a taste for the outdoors. Privacy, but not too far away from town. Lots of room to play around in. Kids can ride their bikes, and its the kind of neighborhood where they can really roam around, she said. Lots of interior space, and really well built. And a great street presence.

A partially finished lower level has more room for hobbies or entertaining. As is common in many renovated and modern homes, the family room is off the eat-in kitchen. The master bedroom comes with a dressing room and a marble bath  another de rigueur touch in the current market.

Theres also a pool in the large rear yard, and a stone patio for entertaining.

The New England Land Co. is handling the $1.795 million listing.Police arrested a driver early Thursday after his car gave out during a chase.

Houston police tried to stop the driver around 1:50 a.m. for a traffic violation on South Drive and West Sam Houston Parkway, according to Metro Video. He led police on a chase, and early on, he hit a curb and was driving on two rims, Metro Video reported.

The man's car couldn't go any more and came to a stop around West Airport and Ravensworth. He was quickly taken into custody.

The driver fled from police because he faces possible drug charges, Metro Video reported. He also faces a felony charge of evading police.San Antonio police Thursday discontinued a Texas Amber Alert Network search for two three-year-old children abducted and believed to be in "grave or immediate danger."

In the Wednesday night alert, Leslie Hernandez, 38, was suspected in the abduction of Kinsley and Kolby Hernandez. Leslie Hernandez had been last heard from in San Antonio, according to the alert.NORWALK  Brian Davis, who took the helm of the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk in December 2014 and soon found the institution center stage in the states plan to replace the Walk Bridge, will step down May 25.

In a statement, the aquarium cited Davis family in Atlanta as the reason for his departure.

Davis ties to Atlanta remain strong. His wife, Dr. Andrea Davis, has remained in Georgia for work. His three adult children and extended family reside there as well. After three years of commuting between Norwalk and Atlanta, Davis will be returning to rejoin his family in Atlanta. Last month, with the arrival of his first grandchild, the need to return to be closer to his family grew even stronger, the statement said.

I dont want to miss a minute of his growth and development, Davis said. Three years has been a long time to be apart from my family, I am looking forward to spending some quality time with them.

Michael Widland, chairman of the aquariums board of trustees, and Rob Rohn, the boards former chairman, said the selection process for a new president is already under way. A special committee of trustees is leading the search process.

Davis departure comes as the Connecticut Department of Transportation gears up to replace the Walk Bridge, which bisects the aquarium. The estimated $1 billion project, which is expected to start in 2019, will require the razing the aquariums IMAX theater. The aquarium has developed a plan to replace the theater and create new exhibit space on the north side of the aquarium campus.

Widland praised Davis for leading the aquariums response, which involves a redesign to account for the loss of the IMAX Theater and for exhibit changes necessary to ensure the safety of guests and animals.

Brian arrived here and stepped right into the fire of the Walk Bridge, Widland said. This is not something that the president of any private, non-profit aquarium expects to have on their plate. The replacement of that bridge could be fatal to The Maritime Aquarium, which is an important economic driver for Norwalk and for the state.

Davis came to Norwalk in December 2014 as the seventh president of the Maritime Aquarium, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this summer and draws roughly 500,000 visitors annually.

Since Davis took over, the aquarium has opened several new exhibits including the Dragons exhibit, the Coral Reef Exhibit, the Jellies Cultivation Lab, the new Journey with Jellies exhibit, and the Catch and Release interactive digital wall experience. The aquarium has also seen the addition of a Research and Conservation Scientist and continual growth in membership and attendance, according to the aquarium.

Davis came to the Maritime Aquarium from the Georgia Aquarium, which he joined in 2003 as an executive staff member before the Atlanta facility had even opened. There, he was integral in the aquarium's design and the development of its guest experience at what was then the world's largest aquarium. His final title there was vice president of education and training, according to the aquarium.

A New Jersey native, Davis graduated from Rutgers University in 1992 with a bachelors of science degree and started his career as an educator at the New York Aquarium. He joined the Georgia Aquarium in 2003, according to his biography provided by the aquarium.

He filled the post held by Jennifer E. Herring, who retired after heading the Maritime Aquarium for a decade. During her tenure, the aquarium underwent a $4.5 million renovation, purchase of a new research vessel, greater educational collaboration with local schools, and fundraising during tough economic times.More than a year after entering the White House, President Donald Trump still has not selected his top science and technology adviser, leaving unfilled a critical policy post that guides the administration on everything from artificial intelligence to climate change to cancer research.

While the White House maintains that it is unconstrained in its work - and has staffed up to tackle such challenges as closing the country's Internet-access gaps - the vacancy still troubles policy experts, who feel Trump would be best served by someone who could double as an emissary to the academic and engineering worlds.

"Symbolically, it signals science and technology is at the table in the administration's policymaking," said Kumar Garg, who was an innovation policy aide under President Barack Obama. "But also substantively, because the science adviser is the principal who gets invited to senior strategy meetings ... on critical topics like biosecurity, cybersecurity, [and] how do we make sure America remains competitive against China and Russia in emerging technology."

Technically, the White House has two major science and tech posts. The first is the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which has a broad remit that includes coordinating the country's vast federal research budget. The second is the assistant to the president on science and technology, a title that is supposed to afford its owner access to the person occupying the Oval Office. Often, those roles are held by the same person, and under Obama, the responsibilities fell to John Holdren for eight years.

Since Holdren's departure, the posts have remained vacant. But Trump's aides have actively sought new leadership for months. One of the candidates under consideration is Kelvin Droegemeier, an expert in extreme weather and meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, according to three people familiar with the president's thinking but not authorized to speak on the record. The people said others are in the running, as well.

The White House and the OSTP declined to comment for this story. Reached this week by email, Droegemeier declined to comment.

Under Trump, the White House generally has operated with a much smaller complement of science and tech staffers than it did under Obama. The OSTP currently counts about 50 aides, compared with the roughly 130 Obama had tapped before leaving office. Some of that is by design, as Trump has sought to scale back the size of government. But some of it is the result of the president's at-times icy relationship with liberal-leaning Silicon Valley, where top tech executives and engineers - experts who could have formed his policy ranks - have become some of his biggest public critics.

Among Trump's tech policy advisers is Michael Kratsios, a former aide to venture capitalist Peter Thiel who joined the administration in its early days to serve as deputy chief technology officer. The White House has retained other policy staffers recently who focus on AI and education, and at the OSTP, they have advanced some early initiatives that have satisfied tech giants in Silicon Valley and beyond. That includes efforts to speed up the arrival of 5G, the next generation of ultrafast, wireless Internet service for smartphones and other devices.

At the same time, critics have bristled as the president has proposed multiple budgets that would slash federal programsthat seek to combat global warming, which Trump described in 2013 as a "hoax."And Trump's decision last year to withdraw the United States from a worldwide carbon-reduction treaty, the Paris climate accord, drew outrage from hundreds of business leaders in tech and other industries.

For that reason, veterans of the White House maintain that Trump needs a full-time, senior expert on hand with the same sort of access afforded to his top aides in defense and economics.

"I'm happy they are staffing up," said Kei Koizumi, a former assistant director at the OSTP under Obama who serves as a visiting scholar at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

But, he added, "I remain concerned for them to be fully effective. There'sno substitute for leadership that can back their work and make sure they are listened to."

If it proceeds with Droegemeier, the White House would add a highly experienced meteorologist with government experience to its ranks. He has served as Oklahoma's secretary of science and technology, and he aided the U.S. government's National Science Board under President George W. Bush and Obama.

Publicly, Droegemeier hasadvocated for sustained federal research spending, even as Trump at times has pursued cuts. Meanwhile, he has come to the defense of at least one of Trump's current nominees, Rep. Jim Bridenstine, whose views on climate change prompted Democrats to block his nomination to lead NASA.

Droegemeier could be nominated to run the OSTP, or he could be appointed to serve solely as assistant to the president for science and technology. The latter post, if it is uncoupled from the OSTP, doesn't require Senate confirmation. In that case, Trump might be spared from periodic, high-profile showdowns with his Democratic critics on Capitol Hill, who are itching to challenge him on global warming and related debates.

Previously, the White House considered turning the OSTP over to Jim O'Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who also has ties to Thiel, according to two of the three people who spoke off the record. O'Neill is no longer in the running, they said.Hemlock Semiconductor is offering 30 high school students in the Great Lakes Bay Region a full scholarship to attend Michigan Technological University's Engineering Scholars Summer Youth Program.

Scholarship applications are currently being accepted for students in Saginaw, Midland and Bay counties until April 10.

Summer Youth Program Scholarships provide funding for high school students to attend a week-long program at Michigan Tech to fully immerse them in STEM subjects and explore careers in engineering and related disciplines. Selected participants will receive a scholarship that covers all tuition, classroom supplies, room, board and round trip charter bus transportation from the Great Lakes Bay Region.

"HSC and Michigan Tech have a long and robust relationship -- much of our engineering talent has come from MTU," said Mark Bassett, chairman and CEO of HSC. "We want to give students this experience to explore engineering and experience college life."

Students who are selected for this competitive scholarship program will:

 Explore engineering by constructing a building strong enough to withstand an earthquake, create an artificial intelligence army, and more.

 Get inside information from role models working in engineering.

 Work in teams to solve engineering problems and complete group projects.

 Experience college life-stay in a residence hall, explore campus, and meet others with similar interests.

 Enjoy team competitions, a variety show, and many outdoor activities in Michigan's beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula.

"We have been running Summer Youth Programs at Michigan Tech since 1972. We love giving students a chance to explore different fields of engineering in a hands-on way," said Amanda McConnon, assistant director of the Center for Pre-College Outreach at Michigan Tech. "It's also a great chance for high school students to meet other participants from all over the country who share their interests."

The Engineering Scholars Summer Youth Program runs from July 21-28. Program information and scholarship application can be found at: www.syp.mtu.edu/docs/Hemlock_Semiconductor_Booklet.pdfRoughly a week has passed since President Donald Trump announced he had accepted a proposal to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss denuclearization. The proposal had been relayed by visiting officials from South Korea, who had recently returned from Pyongyang, where they said Kim himself had made the offer.

The idea of a Trump-Kim summit quickly became headline news around the world. Everywhere, that is, except one place you might expect: North Korea.

North Korean state media has not mentioned the proposed talks since last Thursday. The most recent article that focuses on the United States in the Roddong Sinmun, North Korea's official party newspaper, is a commentary that brands America as the "world's worst human rights abuser."

"The U.S. is the matchless tundra of human rights in the world where democracy is crudely violated," read a translated summary published by state news agency KCNA.

North Korean state media is known for its extremely critical stance on the United States and other foreign nations - alleged U.S. hypocrisy on human rights is a recurrent theme of its coverage - so such commentary is not unusual. State media is also known for a considerable lag in its reporting on foreign events: It took more than a week after the 2016 U.S. election for a state publication to comment about it.

Some analysts have downplayed the relevance of any silence, arguing that North Korea is simply taking its time to craft a public message about talks for both the outside world and its own citizens. "North Korea seems to need more time and take to take a cautious approach in setting its stance," Baik Tae-Hyun, spokesman at South Korea's unification ministry, told reporters on Monday.

However, the lack of coverage does suggest that ordinary North Koreans, most of whom have limited access to the outside world, may still be in the dark about the proposed Trump-Kim talks. Japanese journalist Jiro Ishimaura told Radio Free Asia, a news organization funded by the U.S. government, on Monday that he had contacted three North Koreans inside the country and that none had heard about the possibility of a summit.

There has been some public commentary about the proposal from other Pyongyang-related sources. The Chosun Sinbo, a newspaper published by the North Korea-aligned Central Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, published an article on Saturday that mentioned the proposed talks, writing that the intention was to seek to "put a permanent end to the war racket of invading the North done by the U.S. habitually."

The Chosun Sinbo caters to Koreans sympathetic to Pyongyang who live in Japan, though it is not considered official media. NK News reported that the newspaper's website deleted the article about the proposed talks, then republished it, then deleted it again with no explanation.

Shortly after Trump's announcement, Pak Song Il, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, told The Washington Post that Kim had made a "courageous" decision and that it had been the "consistent principal position" of North Korea that issues should be settled by negotiations.

Ri Hong Yo, North Korea's foreign minister, is scheduled to begin a rare trip to Sweden on Thursday, according to the Swedish Foreign Ministry. In Sweden, Ri will meet with Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom to "focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," as well as to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Foreign Ministry said.

Sweden has long-standing diplomatic ties to Pyongyang and also assumes consular responsibility for U.S. citizens in North Korea. There has been speculation that it might serve as a third-party host for Trump-Kim talks.MIAMI -- Four people were killed when a pedestrian bridge hailed for a novel construction method collapsed Thursday over a busy road west of Miami, crushing eight vehicles and leaving rescue workers racing to free victims from chunks of concrete and snapped metal.

Nine survivors were taken to hospitals, a fire department official said. Vehicles were stopped at a red light when the bridge, which weighed more than 950 tons, crashed down about 1:30 p.m.

The bridge was designed to connect the sprawling campus of Florida International University with the nearby city of Sweetwater, and to make it safer for students to cross a frenetic roadway.

"It was going to be a significant project. It was going to be one of a kind," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Thursday night. "To see it on the ground and underneath it those who died and who were injured is a tragedy."

He said the cause of the collapse will be fully investigated. "The victims and their families deserve to know what went wrong. There will be an extraordinary review into what the errors were and what led to this catastrophic collapse."

Juan Perez, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said Thursday night that a number of families would face "a sad outcome" and that a homicide unit will investigate.

President Trump responded to the collapse Thursday evening with prayers.

Perez, at an earlier press conference, declined to discuss whether stress tests had been conducted on the bridge. "It will be days before we have answers," he said. "This will be an intensive investigation. Right now, we are still in search-and-rescue mode."

On Thursday evening, Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference in Washington that a team was headed immediately to Miami for the investigation. Asked if the agency knew of deficiencies with this type of bridge, he said he did not know of any, but that if investigators determined there were problems they have the ability to issue urgent recommendations.

He said the agency had been told construction workers were on the bridge at the time of the collapse. "There's a lot we don't know," he said, and much investigators intend to find out. "We will be there tonight and we will start talking to people tonight."

A news release from Florida International University on Saturday had touted the bridge's "first-of-its kind" construction method, and hailed the permanent installation of the bridge's main span. It stretched 174 feet and weighed 960 tons, according to the release, and was built using what are called "Accelerated Bridge Construction" methods being worked on at the university.

"This method of construction reduces potential risks to workers, commuters and pedestrians and minimizes traffic interruptions," the release said.

When the bridge was installed, crews using an automated process lifted the span from its supports, turned it 90 degrees across eight lanes and lowered it in place, the release said. The university said it was the largest pedestrian bridge moved by that method, known as Self-Propelled Modular Transportation, in U.S. history.

"This project is an outstanding example of the ABC method," said Atorod Azizinamini, chairman of FIU's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, in the release. "Building the major element of the bridge - its main span superstructure - outside of the traveled way and away from busy Eighth Street is a milestone."

Last year, the Miami Herald reported that an FIU student was killed while crossing Southwest Eighth Street.

The university had announced Wednesday it would begin issuing fines as part of a pedestrian safety campaign to help protect students walking to campus from Sweetwater and nearby Westchester. The new bridge was scheduled to be completed in early 2019.

"Just last week we were celebrating the expanse being completed and now we are here dealing with a tragedy," Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez said at a news conference Thursday.

The main builder, Munilla Construction Management (MCM), is a major South Florida construction firm that has been hired to rebuild expressways, update part of Miami International Airport and construct a new test track for Miami's Metrorail.

Increasingly, MCM has also successfully bid on federal contracts, winning almost $130 million in work since 2013. The largest contract is for building a school at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station.

MCM is a major contributor to politicians in Miami-Dade County and has been involved in dozens of lawsuits over the last decade, but often for much smaller issues. This month, the firm was sued over $15,000 in damages when a "makeshift bridge" collapsed under the weight of a security worker using it to access a restroom at Miami airport. The man suffered injuries to his elbow, shoulder and wrist, according to court records.

MCM has up-to-date business licenses and no recent code-enforcement violations reported to state authorities. Recent inspection reports for the site of Thursday's collapse were not immediately available.

In a statement on its Facebook page, MCM said: "Our family's thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. The new UniversityCity Bridge, which was under construction, experienced a catastrophic collapse causing injuries and loss of life. MCM is a family business and we are all devastated and doing everything we can to assist. We will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way."

FIGG Engineering released a statement Thursday afternoon: "We are stunned by today's tragic collapse of a pedestrian bridge that was under construction over Southwest Eighth Street in Miami. Our deepest sympathies are with all those affected by this accident. We will fully cooperate with every appropriate authority in reviewing what happened and why. In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before. Our entire team mourns the loss of life and injuries associated with this devastating tragedy, and our prayers go out to all involved."

Asked if the construction methods might have factored into the collapse, Ron Sachs, a spokesman for FIGG Engineering, said he could not provide any details on the collapse beyond a statement issued by the company.

"They're in a fact-finding mode" along with authorities, he said of the company. "They're stunned and certainly in mourning."

Sachs said he believed there would be a comprehensive investigation involving authorities, including the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"We're going to cooperate with any and all of those," he said.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., had touted the bridge as a "creative solution" for challenges to the area's transportation network in the FIU news release over the weekend. On Thursday, a statement issued through his office reflected the sudden turn of events.

"I am shocked and horrified by the FIU Pedestrian Bridge collapse. I am praying for the victims and families of this tragedy," he said. "As the NTSB has announced they will be conducting an investigation, I will fully review their findings so we can address how this happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again."

Experts say the Accelerated Bridge Construction method involves an integrated system of pieces designed to stand as a complete structure, but that have to be supported during construction.

Amjad Aref, a researcher at the University at Buffalo's Institute of Bridge Engineering, said failures can be catastrophic.

"The loss of stability is a sudden thing, it doesn't give a warning," said Aref, whose work involves designing Accelerated Bridge Construction projects.

Aref said the construction method has become popular over the past decade. He would not speculate about the cause of the collapse. In general he said, the process works this way:

"You bring three pieces, three blocks, each block is really strong and [does] their job but if they are not connected properly, they might not stand," he said. "The idea is in every design you want to take the load from the superstructure, the bridge surface, all the way to the ground safely.

A collapse, he said, would indicate "the system was not completely connected or supported."

In "any construction when you feel the structure is not completely [finished] you shore it, you put support some cables, some cables, whatever supports it," he said.

He said Self-Propelled Modular Transportation, the method of installing the bridge section, is common in Europe. The mechanism would typically involve loading the span onto wheeled heavy machinery that places the main span between the supports, turns and hydraulically lifts it into place.

The bridge was funded through a federal TIGER grant, according to the university, a recession-era program created under the Obama administration that pays for road, rail and other projects.

The role of FIU's Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center in its construction was unclear. The lab says on its website that it received federal funding in September 2013 after the U.S. Department of Transportation recognized a joint funding proposal submitted by FIU, Iowa State University and the University of Nevada at Reno. The funding enabled the schools to "dive further into their mission of" researching Accelerated Bridge construction, the site says. The center received a second round of U.S. DOT funding in December 2016, the side says.

The center lays out its mission on the site:

"The mission of the ABC-UTC is to reduce the societal costs of bridge construction by reducing the duration of work zones, focusing special attention on preservation, service life, construction costs, education of the profession, and development of a next-generation workforce fully equipped with ABC knowledge," it says.

Calls to a university number and an email to Azizinamini, director of the bridge center, were not returned on Thursday.

Alexander Concha, 36, and Ivy Polanco, 23, were about to have lunch at Panther's Boulevard Cafe, about a block away from the bridge. Suddenly, they heard wailing sirens and helicopters buzzing overhead. "Our first reaction was, we hope it's not the bridge," Concha said. "On the side where it collapsed, it didn't seem very secure. It seemed very unsafe."

The bridge collapse happened during Florida International's spring break.

"It's very lucky that we are on spring break and that this didn't happen during rush hour," said Polanco, who is an FIU student. "It could have been so much worse."

---

The Washington Post's Aaron Davis, Michael Laris, and Mark Berman contributed to this report.PORTLAND  For the second time in two weeks, the town has been the target of a ransomware attack on its computer system.

The system was attacked March 9. And no, town officials said, it was not the Russians.

The staff of the towns IT department, a local support company and a forensic engineer worked throughout the weekend and into this week to restore the system.

There was minimal disruption, thanks to the swift action of Dave Kuzminski and Kevin Armstrong, First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said.

Kuzminski is the towns technology coordinator, while Armstrong is the assistant coordinator. We confirmed that no personal information was involved or affected, Bransfield added.

Earlier this month, a similar attack struck the towns system.

That was version one, Kuzminski explained earlier this week. This incident was version two, and it was much more sophisticated and went after our backup.

Ransomware is a subset of malware in which the data on a victims computer is locked, typically by encryption, and payment is demanded before the ransomed data is decrypted and access returned to the victim, according to a definition on searchsecurity.techtarget.com

The definition explains the meaning of ransomware, also sometimes called cryptoviral extortion.

The most recent attack occurred at 1 a.m. Friday. A little more than two hours later, a similar one struck the states judicial website. It was not immediately clear if the two attacks Friday were related.

The assessors files were locked, meaning Assessor Richard J. Lasky Jr. could not access the files. There was a ransom note on the screen informing the town that its files were blocked and demanding a payment to release them, Armstrong said.

The demand was to pay $2,000 in Dash, a digital currency like the more famous Bitcoin, on the dark web, Armstrong explained. The ransom demand was $2,000 within two days, $4,000 for four days; after that, or $8,000, Kuzminski said.

We choose to do everything we can not to pay, Armstrong said. Paying just makes you a future target. So, you do what you can to not stoop to paying a ransom.

Kuzminski and Armstrong notified Bransfield, who in turn contacted Decian, Inc., an IT support company with headquarters at 269 Main St.

She also notified the police because this is a crime, Bransfield said. The department notified state police and the FBI. Relying on a recommendation from the town legal firm Murtha Culina, the town also brought in a forensic engineer from Synacktek in Shelton.

Together, We took a deep dive into the server, Armstrong said.

They determined the malware attack came from a server in Romania, Armstrong said. But that does not mean the person(s) who launched the attack actually live in Romania, he said.

We have made, and will continue to make, some new improvement in safeguarding the system, Bransfield said.

The town will also undertake a concerted employee education process. We certainly plan on doing better going forward, she said. Nothing left us  no personal information got out. It was locked.

Its the price of doing business, Armstrong said earlier in the week. This is one of the pitfalls, so to speak, of technology. There are bad people out there all the time.

It could have been a lot worse, Kuzminski added.Stephen Hawking, the British theoretical physicist who overcame a devastating neurological disease to probe the greatest mysteries of the cosmos and become a globally celebrated symbol of the power of the human mind, has died, a family spokesman told the Associated Press. He was 76.

Unable to move a muscle, speechless but for a computer-synthesized voice, Dr. Hawking had suffered since the age of 21 from a degenerative motor neuron disease similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Initially given two years to live, a diagnosis that threw him into a profound depression, he found the strength to complete his doctorate and rise to the position of Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, the same post held by Isaac Newton 300 years earlier.

Hawking eventually became one of the planet's most renowned science popularizers, and he embraced the attention, traveling the world, meeting with presidents, visiting Antarctica and Easter Island, and flying on special "zero-gravity" jet whose parabolic flight let Hawking float through the cabin as if he were in outer space.

"My goal is simple," he once said. "It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all." He spent much of his career searching for a way to reconcile Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum physics and produce a "Theory of Everything."

He wrote an international best seller, "A Brief History of Time" (1988), which delved into the origin and ultimate fate of the universe. He deliberately set out to write a mass-market primer on an often incomprehensible subject.

Although the book was sometimes derided as being dense, and had a reputation for being owned more than read, it sold millions of copies, was translated into more than 20 languages, and inspired a mini-empire of similar books from Hawking, including "The Universe in a Nutshell" and "A Briefer History of Time."

With his daughter, Lucy, he wrote a series of children's books about a young intergalactic traveler named George. His blunt 2013 memoir, "My Brief History," explored his development in science as well as his turbulent marriages. In addition, Hawking was the subject of a 1991 documentary, "A Brief History of Time," directed by Errol Morris, and countless newspaper and magazine articles.

With the aid of a voice synthesizer, controlled by his fingers on a keyboard, he gave speeches around the world, from Chile to China. He played himself on such TV programs as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "The Simpsons," the latter featuring Hawking telling the show's lazy animated patriarch, "Your theory of a doughnut-shaped universe is interesting, Homer. I may have to steal it."

He insisted that his reputation as the second coming of Albert Einstein had gotten out of control through "media hype."

"I fit the part of a disabled genius," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. "At least, I'm disabled - even though I'm not a genius like Einstein. ... The public wants heroes. They made Einstein a hero, and now they're making me a hero, though with much less justification."

His scientific achievements included breakthroughs in understanding the extreme conditions of black holes, objects so dense that not even light can escape their gravity.

His most famous theoretical breakthrough was to find an exception to this seemingly unforgiving law of physics: black holes are not really black, he realized, but rather can emanate thermal radiation from subatomic processes at their boundary, and can potentially evaporate. Scientists refer to such theoretical emanations as "Hawking radiation."

This revelation impressed other scientists with the way it took Einstein's general theory of relativity, which is essential for understanding the gravity of black holes, and connected it to newer theories of quantum mechanics, which cover subatomic processes.

Plus, he threw in a dash of old-fashioned thermodynamics - achieving a kind of physics trifecta.

"Black holes ain't as black as they are painted," Hawking once said in a lecture, characteristically describing complicated physics in ordinary language. "They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly, to another universe. So, if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out."

He also hypothesized that miniature black holes, remnants of the big bang, may be strewn through space, though he noted that so far they haven't be discovered. "This is a pity, because if they had, I would have got a Nobel prize," he joked.

- - -

Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on Jan. 8, 1942 - the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death, he liked to point out. His father was a physician and specialist in tropical diseases; his mother was active in the Liberal Party.

Both parents were Oxford-educated, and Stephen - the eldest of four siblings - grew up surrounded by books. But he did not show particular academic promise, despite an obvious streak of brilliance that caused his friends to nickname him "Einstein."

"I always wanted to know how everything worked," he told Omni magazine. "I would take things apart to see how they worked, but they didn't often go back together."

He was a bit lazy, and a bon vivant, as he later would admit. After being admitted to the University of Oxford, he skimped on his studies and enjoyed carousing with fellow members of the Oxford Boat Club, for which he was a tactically savvy coxswain. He graduated in 1962 and did just well enough on his final exam to earn admission to the University of Cambridge to pursue a doctorate.

"Physics was always the most boring subject at school because it was so easy and obvious. Chemistry was much more fun because unexpected things, such as explosions, kept happening," Hawking wrote in his memoir. "But physics and astronomy offered the hope of understanding where we came from and why we are here. I wanted to fathom the depths of the Universe."

Then came what he later referred to as "that terrible thing." He'd noticed at Oxford that he'd become increasingly clumsy and would sometimes stumble and fall for no obvious reason. Tests revealed motor neuron disease; he could not expect to live more than a couple of years.

After a period of despondency in which he holed up in his room and listened to Wagner, he attended a New Year's Eve party at which he met a young student named Jane Wilde. Their courtship spurred his will to live. They married in 1965.

"We had this very strong sense at the time that our generation lived anyway under this most awful nuclear cloud -- that with a four-minute warning the world itself could likely end," Jane Hawking later told the British newspaper the Observer. "That made us feel above all that we had to do our bit, that we had to follow an idealistic course in life. That may seem naive now, but that was exactly the spirit in which Stephen and I set out in the Sixties -- to make the most of whatever gifts were given us."

They would have three children before his condition deteriorated to near-complete paralysis.

He received a doctorate in 1966 and became a postgraduate research physicist at Cambridge, where he hoped to study under the celeberated astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Instead, he was assigned to Dennis Sciama - a disappointment, at first.

But, as he later wrote, "This turned out to be a good thing. Hoyle was abroad a lot and I wouldn't have seen much of him. Sciama on the other hand was there, and was always stimulating."

A few years later, while on the staff of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, he formed a close collaboration with Cambridge colleague Roger Penrose. They developed a theorem that the universe has not always existed.

The two showed that if the theory of relativity is true, the universe must have sprung into existence, out of what appeared to be nothing, at a specific moment in the past and from a place where gravity became so strong that space and time are curved beyond recognition -- what is known as a "singularity."

At the remarkably young age of 32, Hawking was named a fellow of the Royal Society. He received the Albert Einstein Award, the most prestigious in theoretical physics. He joined the Cambridge faculty in 1973 as a research assistant in the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics; he was promoted to professor of gravitational physics in 1977.

- - -

While at Cambridge, Hawking began to question the big-bang theory, which by then most people had accepted.

Perhaps, he suggested, there was never a start and would be no end, but just change - a constant transition of one "universe" giving way to another through glitches in space-time. All the while, Hawking was digging into exploding black holes, string theory and the birth of black holes in our galaxy.

Hawking was known to weigh in rather playfully on grand cosmological questions. He once suggested that if the universe stopped expanding and began to contract, time would run backward. He later said that he'd changed his mind on that.

He gained headlines when he declared that humans should colonize other worlds to hedge their bets against the possible destruction of this one.

In an updated, illustrated (easier to handle) version of "A Brief History of Time," he added a chapter on wormholes - back-alley cosmic tunnels that might conceivably let someone travel back in time. Prancing on the edge of the plausible, he nonetheless stuck to what science can tell us.

"He thought about the deep and important questions in novel ways," said David Spergel, Princeton University's chairman of astrophysics. "Hawking's important contribution was identifying new ways to answer those questions and formulating mathematically sophisticated ways of connecting general relativity and quantum mechanics."

Hawking had sought to come up with a so-called Theory of Everything that would essentially put an end to theoretical physics by answering all the outstanding questions. But whether such a theory can ever be found is unclear.

Hawking said our universe might not be the only one there is -- that many more may be popping into existence all around us. He suggested that "cosmic wormholes" briefly link those universes to ours and that subatomic particles may travel from one universe to another through them, accounting for some of the strange behavior of particles that physicists observe.

The power of Hawking's celebrity was measured at times by the tabloid coverage he drew for his complicated personal life. His wife Jane spent hours every day bathing, washing and feeding Hawking, who required constant nursing care. He developed pneumonia in 1985 on a trip to Geneva, and Jane battled doctors who wanted to turn off his life support.

But the marriage grew strained, in part because of her Christian faith and his adamant atheism, and in part because of what she called his remote and stoic temperament. She described him as an "all-powerful emperor" who seemed blind to how demanding his illness became for her as she also took care of their young children. He refused measures that would have made life easier for her, and she felt it was "too cruel" to coerce him to see it her way.

They grew apart and, in 1990, just shy of their 25th wedding anniversary, separated when Hawking left Jane for his nurse, Elaine Mason. He married Elaine five years later after his divorce from Jane became final.

Hawking called his second marriage, which also ended in divorce, "passionate and tempestuous."

Hawking's offices were filled with photographs of him standing with admirers ranging from popes (he was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) to the late Soviet physicist and human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov.

The theoretical physicist once described his heroes as "Galileo, Einstein, Darwin and Marilyn Monroe." The last was of particular appeal to the scientist who hung posters of her and collected Monroe-related bric a brac.

"My daughter and secretary gave me posters of her, my son gave me a Marilyn bag and my wife a Marilyn towel," he once said. "I suppose you could say she was a model of the universe."

- - -

Rensberger is a former Washington Post science writer and editor.NEW HAVEN  John Cotten, executive director of the Veterans Empowering Teens Through Support program, said he doesnt like the term at-risk to describe students the program serves.

I dont call you at-risk youth; I call you youth with hidden potential, he said to about 50 students Thursday at the VETTS Summit 2018 at Southern Connecticut State University, the fourth of its kind.

Cotten said the purpose of the program is to show students who need additional social-emotional supports that they can overcome their pasts and make positive decisions to lead them to a better future. Over the two day summit, VETTS staff introduced students to elected officials, motivational speakers and other community members who found success.

Kyisha Velazquez, director of clinical services for Integrated Wellness Group  which coordinates the VETTS program  said the summit is meant to expose students to life on campus and to connect them with successful people from backgrounds similar to that of the students.

The program also hires veterans to serve as mentors.

We wanted to give veterans another sense of purpose, she said, and to help them reintegrate into society.

Jearel Brown, a senior at New Light High School, has attended three of VETTSs four summits. He said, because of the summit, he had begun to consider the possibility of applying to SCSU.

Khalil Ivy, a sophomore at New Haven Academy, said VETTS had been a consistent positive presence in his life.

It brings you closer to other people and showed me how to be myself and gave me the confidence to be myself and to go to school, he said, likening it to a support group.

In the hallway of SCSUs Engleman Hall, Velazquez warmed the students up in the morning by asking them to step forward if a statement applied to them: a small handful said they like math, but everyone could agree they had made a bad decision in their life.

Afterward, she warned the students against becoming too rambunctious.

You always need to be prepared. Whenever youre anywhere, you have to act like you could get a job, she said. She said the summit is meant to be fun for students, but its primarily to equip students with skills and information.

Avery Washington and Olafemi Hunter, who work at Hillhouse High School and Wilbur Cross High School, respectively, and are both members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, told the students that Leonard Jahad, a youth outreach worker and a brother of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity who also was at the event, is a friendly rival to them. Although they work at different schools and belong to different organizations, any rivalry between them is meant to keep a healthy competition.

Greeks dont always beef, Washington said.

About joining a fraternity, Jahad told the students they must keep a consistent grade point average and receive positive letters of recommendation. To partake in the traditions, he said, they have to make a positive impression and have a record of community service.

Before you pledge, you have to have some things in order, Hunter said. You have to think for yourself. If you dont have a decent foundation of who you are, it can be lost in the process.

Yahkeem Howard, a 2010 graduate of Wilbur Cross High School and a motivational speaker, also warned the students against getting lost. Although he was shot twice and was involved in gangs, he graduated 11th in his class.

You might think its tough, but you could get out of it, he said.

For him, it was joining the military. He said he had no desire to attend college and had a disciplinary record at school. Standing before the students, he told them he had turned his experiences into a positive, being gainfully self-employed.

On Wednesday, the first day of the two-day summit, Akeem Browder, brother of Kalief Browder who received press coverage for spending three years on Rikers Island on a theft charge that was never prosecuted, spoke to the students. Ivy said it was one of the most impactful experiences hed had.

The Board of Education has a $200,000 contract with IWG under which VETTS is funded. The contract was discussed by the board and members agreed the district would create metrics for measuring quality of services provided by contractors.This website is inclusive of tolerant people of all faiths, without exception. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia nor homophobia should ever be acceptable to anyone. We must all strive to live in peace and harmony with each other, regardless of religious affiliations, or none. Intolerance is the mother of strife and conflict.   Mark Alexander

We Britons are Europeans!Wir Briten sind Europaer! Nous, les Britanniques, sommes europeens !  Mark AlexanderEmail me at:markalexander.librabunda@gmail.comFor many of the firefighters who worked for hours to free a teenager from Robber Baron Cave earlier this month, it was the first time they were required to do so  cave rescues are extremely rare in the San Antonio-area.

The San Antonio Fire Department's technical rescue team was called out to the North Side cave, which stretches for a mile about 30 to 80 feet underground, March 8 after an 18-year-old from Robert E. Lee High School on a field trip found herself trapped in an area called the Hole in the Floor.

"I've been here for 13 years and I've made two cave rescues," said San Antonio Fire Captain Brendan Pohlen, adding the March 9 rescue was his third. "Most of these guys have been in caves and trained in caves, but for most of them, this is their first cave rescue."

Pohlen led the firefighters in pulling the girl out.

RELATED: Lee student rescued after being stuck for 10 hours in Robber Baron Cave

The 18-year-old was climbing down into the Hole in the Floor when her torso got stuck. Firefighters used jackhammers and air-powdered jackhammers to chip away at a gallon-sized hole next to the trapped girl.

It took more than 10 hours for a group of about 11 firefighters, working in groups of three or four at a time, to chip away at the cave's floor, creating a bigger hole that allowed the teen to escape. They had to be careful of any cracks in the area.

Her feet were a couple feet off the ground and firefighters placed her in a harness and propped her feet up so she wouldn't slip, Pohlen said.

"There were things that were a little nerve racking when you're in there chipping at rock and there's rock that could fall," said firefighter Justin Anderson.

Anderson has been with the department for two years and the March 9 incident was the first time he was able to apply the skills he practiced in caves across San Antonio.

The technical rescue team recently trained for a cave retrieval in January at a cave near Cornerstone Church on the city's far North Side, Pohlen said.

Anderson said the experience was "wild."

Firefighters, after maneuvering 350 feet into the cave, had to be careful when they got closer to where the girl was stuck as to not injure her with a jackhammer, he said.

Anderson was placed below the girl to chip away at the cave's floor.

While it was an intense situation, the girl kept calm, he said. As she slowly became unstuck, the girl would say, "Oh my gosh I can move I can move," Anderson said.

Pohlen said that those interested in exploring a cave should always tell someone where they're going, never go alone and go with someone familiar with the area.

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5JOURDANTON  In a halting, often vague and sometimes inaudible recording of his interrogation in 2013 by San Antonio police, capital murder suspect Shawn Ruiz Puente appears to confess to armed robbery and firing at various law enforcement personnel during a multicounty chase that ended in the fatal shooting of an officer.

Puente seemed to cry early in the interrogation after blurting out, I didnt mean to.  I do feel sorry, while being questioned by San Antonio police Sgt. Raul Cardenas just a few hours after officer Robert Deckard was shot on the morning of Dec. 8 off Interstate 37 in Atascosa County.

Deckard, 31, died about two weeks later.

Puente and Jenevieve Ramos, 28, were apprehended after a brief second shoot-out with officers in an open field near Poth in Wilson County.

Most in the Jourdanton courtroom, including the judge, strained to hear Puente, then 32, on a digital recording that showed him slumped in a chair in the Wilson County Sheriffs Office, slurring his speech and seemingly under the influence of the drugs to which his defense attorneys said he was addicted.

In a pretrial motion, defense attorney Anna Jimenez asked State District Judge Donna Rayes to suppress the interrogation recording, but Rayes denied the motion.

Puente tells Cardenas during the 90-minute interrogation that he did shoot a 9 mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol at officers who had pursued him from downtown San Antonio, where he and Ramos were allegedly caught on tape robbing a convenience store on San Pedro Avenue.

Its bad, says Puente. This is bad.

Cardenas asks if he shot at the officers because he was afraid of being caught with drugs in their Mitsubishi Lancer.

Scared, I guess, says Puente.

How many times did you shoot? asks the 24-year veteran homicide officer.

Maybe once, replies Puente, whose attorney conceded in her opening remarks to the jury that Deckard was killed by a single shot to the forehead, a one in a million shot fired backward from the Lancer during a chase that at times reached 115 mph on Interstate 37.

Jimenez, part of a five-person team of public defenders hired by Atascosa County to defend indigent clients, hammered Cardenas about his interrogation, accusing him of jumping around from different crime locations in the questioning. She suggested that Puente was clearly under the influence of drugs some nine hours after Deckard was shot and could not intelligently waive his Miranda rights against self-incrimination.

Puente has no idea which officer youre talking about, isnt that true? Jimenez grilled Cardenas.

That was not my perception, said Cardenas. I think he knew that the officer (near Poth) was still alive, so the only officer we could be talking about would be Deckard.

Cardenas countered that Puente never asked him to stop the interview, after reading him his rights, and that Puente was well-aware he was being questioned about the death of a police officer, not simply a robbery or merely firing at some officers near Poth.

In a somewhat unusual move, Judge Rayes allowed the jury to read from a prosecution-produced transcript of the interrogation  though the defense agreed to this  yet the transcript was not admitted into evidence. Copies of it were taken from the jurors when they finished the day, and reporters were not allowed to see it.

The defense never suggested any impropriety by the judge or prosecution but clearly wanted the whole interrogation tape to be tossed. They lost.

The trial continues today in the Atascosa County Courthouse in Jourdanton, with the defense expected to begin its case by the end of the week.The woman who was fatally shot by a 36-year-old man on the balcony of their apartment near downtown has been identified.

The woman was identified Wednesday as Tania Rendon-Santiago, according to the Bexar County medical examiner's office. The man, who turned the gun on himself, has yet to be identified.A San Antonio man was arrested Wednesday after allegedly trying to solicit sex from a minor who turned out to be an undercover cop.

Jerry Saucedo, 24, was charged with online solicitation of a minor.The two missing three-year-olds allegedly abducted by their mother in San Antonio were found safe in Florida Thursday afternoon, according to police.

Kinsley and Kolby Hernandez went missing Wednesday night, triggering an Amber Alert.SAN ANTONIO - A 25-year-old man accused of chocking and stabbing a puppy because another man looked at his family was arrested Wednesday in Balcones Heights.

Guadalupe Sanchez faces several charges including terroristic threats of a family or household, cruelty to a non-livestock animal, and possession of a controlled substance less than one gram, according to court records.A man who police believed was holding his girlfriend against her will in a San Antonio apartment surrendered to authorities after a 4-hour standoff, officials said.

Officers responded to the 3900 block of Thousand Oaks Boulevard around 8 a.m. after a woman, believed to be in her early 30s, texted her family and told them her boyfriend would't let her leave the apartment. She also told them he was armed with a handgun, according to San Antonio Police Sgt. Michelle Ramos.SAN ANTONIO - An Amber Alert was issued for two 3-year-old children who authorities say were abducted, but are still in the area.

Kinsley and Kolby Hernandez were reported missing Wednesday night, according to an alert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.San Antonio Water System President and CEO Robert Puente recently took a pass on a $96,500 bonus.

Most people probably wouldnt make that choice, even though it was absolutely the right decision.

San Antonio Water System is in the midst of multiyear rate increases. These are necessary, but still painful, increases to address sewer infrastructure and the Vista Ridge water pipeline, which is crucial for water security.

The optics of awarding such a massive bonus to Puente at a time when he is asking the community to pay more for water were simply untenable.

RELATED: SAWS president and CEO declines $96,500 bonus

His base salary is $472,876.

As Puente noted at a recent SAWS meeting, when he has met with the public to discuss the need for these rate increases, questions invariably turn to his compensation.

Questions from the public are understandable.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in San Antonio was about $48,000 between 2012 and 2016.

Last August, Puente was awarded a bonus of nearly $100,000 for his 2016 performance.

Running SAWS is a demanding job, and Puente has had some major accomplishments during his 10 years at the helm. These include the Vista Ridge pipeline, completion of an inland desalination plant, overseeing a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to address sewer infrastructure concerns and developing a 50-year water plan.

But hes still a public servant, which is why public concerns about compensation have merit.

Again, this is especially so when the public is being asked to pay more.

Under Mayor Ron Nirenbergs direction, SAWS is reviewing how it evaluates and compensates its CEO. This is a welcome review, and it only makes sense to return to executive compensation once the study is complete.

RELATED: Texas Power Broker Robert Puente navigates SAWS through Texas water politics

Turning down this bonus was the right thing to do for SAWS and an important symbolic action for ratepayers. Puente deserves credit for recognizing this. But the question remains: Should a public utility reward a public servant with such a sizable bonus in the first place?Keep an eye on the confirmation of Gina Haspel, President Trumps nominee to lead the CIA, because the political blowback could ripple into Californias Senate race, specifically against Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The political arm of the American Civil Liberties Union wants Feinstein, who is facing re-election this year, to oppose Haspel forcefully. The 33-year CIA veteran was involved in the federal governments torture program, overseeing black sites in Thailand where detainees were held. Later, she supported destroying video of the torture.

Feinstein, as the former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, oversaw its six-year investigation into the program. In 2014, she spoke for an hour on the Senate floor, outlining the panels 525-page report, which found that the CIA misled policymakers about the extent and effectiveness of the torture program. Later, Feinstein blocked Haspels nomination to lead the CIAs clandestine operations.

Given her history as a champion of this issue, Faiz Shakir, the ACLUs political director, said Feinsteins initial statement on Haspels nomination should have been tougher.

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, Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday on Haspels nomination. 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.

Shakir said Feinsteins statement builds on the narrative that shes totally out of touch with California values. Shes jeopardizing her credibility on this.

Haspel is the architect of the governments torture program, Shakir said.

This woman was literally at the black sites watching torture occur and personally approving the action.

This means a lot to us, Shakir said. And Feinstein is equivocating on it.

The ACLU is ready to flex its new political muscle. The 98-year-old organization raised $93 million online in the year after Trump took office  compared with $5.5 million the year before. Shakir said the organization plans to spend $25 million nationally this year and is ready to run an educational campaign about Feinsteins viewpoints aimed at California voters if she doesnt speak out against Haspel.

Dont look for Feinstein to say much soon  she doesnt usually say how shell vote before Senate confirmation hearings begin.

 Joe Garofoli

Let the culling of the herd begin: Good news for all those California Democratic Party leaders begging their candidates to drop out of crowded congressional races: Phil Janowicz, an educator running in the Orange County district represented by retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce, dropped out Wednesday.

I undertook this race almost a year ago with a desire to serve my community, Janowicz wrote in a note to supporters. As a teacher, after watching my students and their families struggle with rising tuition and cost-of-living, I wanted to help my students in real ways that I couldnt inside the classroom.

But, Janowicz said, Royces surprise decision not to run for re-election created new complications under Californias jungle primary system, he said of the states top-two system. The prospect existed that too many Democratic candidates could shut us out entirely from the ballot in November.

Janowicz raised $322,210, but roughly half of that is a loan from himself. He had $93,366 cash on hand. Democrat Andy Thorburn has $2 million.

Im glad to see that Phil did the right thing, said Katie Merrill, a Democratic strategist who is advising Fight Back California, a political action committee focused on the seven key congressional districts, including this one, that Democrats hope to flip in November.

Still that leaves, by Merrills count, six Democrats and three Republicans running active campaigns. A poll commissioned by Fight Back California concludes that two former Republican officeholders  former Assemblywoman Young Kim of Fullerton and former state Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County)  are leading. Democrats could get shut out of a race they thought they could win.

It would be nice, Merrill said, if one of the other Democrats got out.

 Joe GarofoliThe special counsel, Robert Mueller, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Donald Trump's businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.

The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Trump's business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.

The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Trump's lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Trump's political activities. In recent weeks, Mueller's investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

Neither White House officials nor Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer representing the Trump Organization, immediately responded to requests for comment. The Trump Organization has typically complied with requests from congressional investigators for documents for their own inquiries into Russian election interference, and there was no indication the company planned to fight Mueller about it.

The Trump Organization has said that it never had real estate holdings in Russia, but witnesses recently interviewed by Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow. In 2015, a longtime business associate of Trump's emailed Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, at his Trump Organization account claiming he had ties to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and said that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Trump's presidential campaign.

Trump signed a nonbinding "letter of intent" for the project in 2015 and discussed it three times with Cohen.

Mueller could run afoul of a line the president has warned him not to cross. Though it is not clear how much of the subpoena is related to Trump's business beyond ties to Russia, Trump said in an interview with The New York Times in July that the special counsel would be crossing a "red line" if he looked into his family's finances beyond any relationship with Russia. The president declined to say how he would respond if he concluded that the special counsel had crossed that line.

A month before Trump spoke of his red line, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, threatened to quit after Trump asked him to have Mueller fired because the president believed he had conflict-of-interest issues that precluded him from running the special counsel investigation.

Mueller was appointed in May to investigate whether Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election and any other matters that may arise from the inquiry. He is also examining whether the president has tried to obstruct the investigation.

Trump's lawyers are in negotiations with Mueller's office about whether and how to allow his investigators to interview the president. Mueller's office has shared topics it wants to discuss with the president, according to two people familiar with the talks. The lawyers have advised Trump to refuse an interview but the president wants to do it, as he believes he has done nothing wrong and can easily answer investigator questions.

At the same time, Trump is considering whether to bring on a new lawyer to help represent him in the special counsel's investigation. Last week, Trump spoke with Emmet Flood, a longtime Washington lawyer who represented former President Bill Clinton during the impeachment process, about coming into the White House to deal with the inquiry.Turn onto a street in the Cottage Home neighborhood of Indianapolis, and you might think youve wandered into a hipster colony on the West Coast. A group of prefab, ultramodern builds has made a colorful splash in a landscape filled with ranch-style homes.

The latest addition to the cluster of modernitycomplete with pink door and turquoise sidingis on the market for $379,000. The home is the brainchild of Ursula David, president and founder of Indy Mod Homes.

David, who started her homebuilding company in 1993, had the foresight to purchase a group of lots in the up-and-coming downtown neighborhood during the recession of 2008.

David, who had been building traditional, large suburban homes for over a decade, wanted to change it up once the building market bounced back and was inspired by Dwell magazine.

I was like, oh my god, I love prefab homes. Im going to figure out how to do it, the 66-year-old recalled.

She approached a mobile home factory in Indiana that offered to give prefab home construction a try, and had the first home built for herself in 2012.

The house is built in a factory. Then its delivered to me in pieces on flat-bed trailers, David says.

David says unlike dealing with a construction project outside in the elements, building on a factory floor has benefits: The materials are never rained on, the workers are safer, and less trash is generated.

Kitchen with Corian counters and laminate cabinets realtor.com

Mudroom and storage lockers realtor.com

One of the 2.5 baths realtor.com

Open living space realtor.com

But due to factory space constraints, the homes are smaller by design, no more than 2,600 square feet.

I have them do as much as possible inside, she says. The prefab is delivered with interior finishes and drywall. It also comes complete with sinks, cabinets, faucets, tile, and light fixtures, all previously selected by David.

Once the home is placed on the slab, the indoor build can be completed in about three to four weeks. The factory David uses is located about three hours from Indianapolis, and the home is delivered in pieces by trailer truck.

I have a crane on site. We lift the boxes off the trailers, and set them on the foundationand voila, we have an almost completed home, David says.

It takes her crew about 45 days to wind up with a fully finished productfactoring in the addition of a foundation, siding, utilities, and landscaping.

For a Midwestern home buyer with a discerning eye, these prefabs are a welcome change. Plus, they aren't cookie-cutter designs. Each prefab in the neighborhood was custom-designed for the client, with the help of an architect.

As for the home currently on the market, David built it on spec and she's the one who picked the distinctive front door.

Ive built seven prefabs, and Im getting ready to start another one. Its worked out really great, David adds. Its pretty fun, I have to say.

The sense of fun is evident in the home for sale, apparent right at the front door. The 1,576-square-foot home has two bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The open plan includes a living and dining space, and a kitchen with sleek laminate cabinets, bar seating, and Corian counters. The kitchen and baths have tile flooring.

The rest of the house has wide-plank hardwood flooring. The exterior is cement board siding. Thoughtful details include mudroom lockers, an upstairs laundry, a master suite, and an open loft that could work as an office. Outside theres a garage with extra storage.

Shes really is a pioneer in our area, with respect to helping people understand the value of prefab, says listing agent Zoe Moore, who is also Davids daughter. The two, who have teamed up in the past, already have plans to build and sell another Indy Mod home.

It's Davids focus on every detail, from faucets to fixtures, that sets her homes apart, Moore notes.

She is one single solitary woman who puts her heart and soul into the houses she builds, oriented toward the people who are living there. No two [homes] are alike, even though the main parts are prefab, Moore adds.

We have to agree, it's completely prefabulous.

The post Homebuilder With Vibrant Vision Brings Prefab Modern to Indianapolis appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.MDC-T legislator for Bulawayo South Eddie Cross has made sensational claims that the Zanu PF-led government has abducted at least 5,000 opposition party supporters since 2000.

Cross was debating the Electoral Amendment Bill in parliament on Tuesday, where he urged the Emmerson Mnangagwa government to deliver free and fair election in the country.

In the past 17 years, I have been in the trenches in the opposition, and I can tell you  we have been beaten, killed, murdered in accidents and have had one person abducted per day since 2000.

Nearly 5,000 people of the MDC structures has been abducted, that is one person per day for 17 years, Cross said while being heckled by Zanu PF MPs.

He added: My colleagues (Zanu PF) on the other side are claiming that I am not speaking the truth. Mr. Speaker, you know me better than that.

If my colleagues want a list of those people abducted, together with their identity numbers and dates on which they were abducted and what happened to them, I can provide them.

I am prepared to provide that list to the media and it is not mythological, but the problem is because of this sort of activity which is basically on attack on democracy.

The international community sees these activities, receive the reports from us and declare the election subsequently illegitimate.

The Zanu PF led government, under then President Robert Mugabe has been under fire for visiting violence against political opponents.

2008 presidential elections

The MDC-T claims nearly 200 of its followers were killed while thousands more were forced to flee their homes during the height of state sponsored violence that followed Mugabes shock defeat to bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai during the first round of the Presidential election in 2008.

President Mnangagwa recently claimed the 2008 elections were free and fair, inviting scorn from critics who accuse him of lack of sincerity in his attempts to restore lasting stability in a country that often slides into violent conflict during elections.

Meanwhile, in his comments, Cross reserved praise for Mnangagwa for remaining steadfast when it appeared the odds were against him during the onset of Zanu PFs internal fighting when Joice Mujuru still controlled a party faction.

Cross also said he was shocked when he heard Mnangagwa insist Zimbabwe needed a free and fair election when the latter was still Mugabes deputy.

I remember in 2017, about the middle of the year, when I had a conversation with him and he said to me we have to have a free and fair election, he said.

I was shocked because I felt that he had little chance of winning a free and fair election because he is opposed by everybody; G40, Joice Mujuru, now the Mugabes, MDC and despite that, he has stuck to his guns and I respect him for that enormously.

You can see the reaction of the international community already.

The flights from Johannesburg to Harare are full. You have to book a seat on a plane, two-to-three days in advance. I understand during the first two months of this year 49,000 business visitors from overseas came to Zimbabwe.

The American Ambassador says he cannot handle the enquiries that he is receiving from the United States. I personally have been involved in the negotiation of contracts worth nearly $3 billion in the last two months.

This is a sign Mr. Speaker Sir, that the international community is responding to something. What they are responding to is the commitment by this Government to a free and fair election.

 NewZimbabwe

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsThe Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Philip Valerio Sibanda, yesterday officially handed over command of the Zimbabwe National Army to the new Commander Lieutenant-General Edzayi Chakanyuka Chimonyo at One Commando in Harare.

General Sibanda served as commander of ZNA for 13 years.

In a speech during the ceremony, General Sibanda urged Lt Gen Chimonyo to work hard as he had come at a critical period when the country had begun a new political dispensation in which people had high hopes and expectations for a better future.

These expectations will not come to fruition if the ZNA and you (Lt Gen Chimonyo) in general fail to execute your roles as mandated. I should point out that if we are not vigilant these expectations and high hopes among our people may be derailed by those who do not want to see peace and progress in our countries.

I want to urge all officers, men and women of the ZDF to be wary of the social media as it is being used as a vehicle to try to subvert us. Events of the last few months during which increased subtle attacks on the military have been noted attest to this fact. Let us remain very vigilant and adopt a motto that its not over until its over.

Officiating at the ceremony Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga, (retired) who was also the chief witness of the handover, said the ZNA was a key pillar of the countrys defence and security service whose constitutional mandate was to defend Zimbabwe, its people, its national security interests as well as its independence, sovereignty and national integrity.

He paid tribute to General Sibanda for being an illustrious leader during his tenure as ZNA commander.

I therefore call upon you to maintain the same vigour, dedication and allegiance in your new assignment as Commander ZDF. To the incoming Commander ZNA, your promotion and appointment was based on distinction and merit as you have shown great visionary leadership as a distinguished liberation fighter, decorated military commander and shrewd ambassador. As you assume a higher and more challenging assignment, I have no doubt that you take a leading role in further developing the ZNA into a reputable, competent, professional and highly disciplined force, he said.

VP Chiwenga said the ZNA should contribute towards nation building by supporting Governments socio-economic development programmes. Indeed it is your responsibility as defence forces to defend the countrys economic interest and also support civil ministries. Our defence forces are renowned and respected nationally, regionally and internationally for their professional conduct. This can be demonstrated by the number of successful operations they have undertaken such as the Mozambique Campaign, DRC Campaign which was Operation Sovereign Legitimacy and the recent Operation Restore Legacy at home among others, he said.

VP Chiwenga said the advent of the new political dispensation bestored the honours on all Zimbabweans to revive the economy by mobilising local and international investments in support of the Presidents call that Zimbabwe is open for business. As VP I am aware of the challenges you are facing in improving capabilities and requirements to develop the ZDF into the desired formidable entity. I want to assure you that my ministry is fully committed to the task of ensuring your requirements are provided while at the same time regularly reviewing conditions of service.

 I urge you all to remain firm in your endeavours in building a robust defence force that guarantees the security of our beloved motherland, Zimbabwe, he said.

Commander Lt Gen Chimonyo participated in the liberation struggle and has held a number of appointments in the ZNA between 1980 and 2008 before his transfer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was appointed ambassador to Tanzania until December 2017.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest News- The chairman of Bida local government area, Niger state, Mohamad Bagudu, has reacted to the attack on the state governor, Abubakar Bello, by angry youths

- Bagudu claimed that the attack was political, and vowed to flush out and prosecute the culprits

- He warned youths to desist from indulging in any form of political violence and thuggery

Alhaji Mohammad Bagudu, chairman, Bida local government area of Niger on Wednesday, March 14, claimed that the attack on Governor Abubakar Bello in Bida town was politically motivated.

Bagudu told the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) in Bida that the local council would do everything possible to prevent a recurrence.

Legit.ng notes that the governor was stoned by youths in Bida on March 8, when he visited the town to assess the damage caused on Bida old market by a night fire. The police has since announced the arrest of six persons suspected to have been involved in the incident.

READ ALSO: Electoral Act amendment: High Court restrains NASS form overriding Buharis veto

The chairman stressed that the local council would follow the case to logical conclusion to ensure justice is done. He warned that politics must not be a do or die affair, but should be played with decorum and responsibility.

We will not condone abnormal behaviour before our leaders; those behind the act would be flushed out and prosecuted," Bagudu said.

He urged youths in the area to shun indiscipline, adding that parents must monitor the conduct and behavior of their children.

We as responsible leaders will continue to provide the needed peaceful atmosphere for political activities and I hereby warn the youth to desist from indulging in any form of political violence and thuggery," he added.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Governor Abubakar Bello was challenged by the Action Democratic Party (ADP), to come out clean on how his government spent N481 billion.

Niger state had allegedly received N481 billion from the federal government as monthly statutory allocations, the Paris Club Refund, among others.

Alhaji Tanimu Sarki Kwamba, ADPs state chairman, threw the challenge at the partys stakeholders meeting over the weekend in Minna.

The party chairman said ADP and indeed Nigerlites were worried that despite receiving the whooping sums, the state government had not been able to provide basic infrastructure across the state; adding that the people needed to know how the monies were spent.

What is the problem with Nigeria? - on Legit.ng Street Gist:

Source: Legit.ng- Report has it that suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked Borno state

- The attack was reportedly carried out by two bombers who died in the explosion

- Eight persons were injured while no innocent death was reported

Suspected Boko Haram terrorists have reportedly launched an attack in Alikaramchi village, close to Giwa barracks in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.

According to The Cable, the incident happened on Wednesday night, March 14, hours after President Muhammadu Buhari visited the state to meet with parents of abducted Chibok girls. The president then moved to Yobe state to meet and sympathise with them over the abduction of 110 Dapchi girls.

READ ALSO: Sack of Rex Tillerson will not affect Nigeria - FG

Bamus Garba a resident in the area confirmed the attack which he said was very close to his house. He said: We heard loud explosions close to my neighbours house. I cannot confirm the casualty because we cannot go out at this time of the day."

Ali Dusuman who is a member of civilian JTF claimed the attack was carried out by two bombers who died in the attack. He also said eight persons were injured in the attack.

Dusuman said a team from the explosive ordinance department of the police has visited the area although security operatives have not confirmed the attack yet.

Meanwhile, President Buhari said his administration has shown more commitment to the rescue of the schoolgirls recently kidnapped in Dapchi, Yobe state, unlike what the previous administration of President Goodluck Jonathan did during the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

The Tribune reports that the president who made the statement on Wednesday, March 14, during his visit to Damaturu, the Yobe state capital, accused the Jonathan administration of looking away as the Chibok abductions took place.

The president said his administration is resolute in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents and assured the parents of the abducted schoolgirls that his regime will do all necessary to reunite the them with their families.

Boko Haram Kidnappings: Will Buhari bring back Dapchi Girls? | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Nigeria- Herdsmen and villagers in Plateau engaged in a clash

- While trying to restore peace in the community, two soldiers lost their lives

- The army arrested seven persons in relation to the attack

Two soldiers were reportedly killed after troops responded to a distress call in Rafiki village over clashes between villagers in Miango community and herdsmen.

In a statement by Brigadier General Texas Chukwu who is the spokesperson of the army, it was confirmed that the incident happened in Plateau state on Wednesday, March 14.

As troops responded to the distress call, it was reported that the herdsmen opened fire killing two soldiers.

Some suspects were arrested in connection with the attacks while peace was restored.

Some of the persons arrested by soldiers in Plateau. Credit Facebook, SK Usman

READ ALSO: Sack of Rex Tillerson will not affect Nigeria - FG

The army, however, said while conducting a search, 23 dead bodies were discovered at Mararaba Dare, while some weapons were recovered.

2 soldiers were killed when herdsmen opened fire on troops. Credit: Facebook, SK Usman

Read the statement below:

"Troops of 3 Division Garrison Jos Plateau State arrested 7 suspects and recovered weapons in the clash between Miango community and herdsmen at Rafiki Village on Wednesday 14 February 2018. The troops responded to distress calls to the clash reported by locals. As troops moved in to settle the dispute, the herdsmen opened fire on troops convoy. 2 soldiers paid the supreme price. 7 suspects were arrested in connection with the clashes.

"While conducting search, troops discovered 23 dead bodies at Mararaba Dare shortly before Rafiki Village and many civilians were wounded. 2 other soldiers wounded are receiving medical attention at 3 Division Military Hospital and Medical Services. They are stable.

"Weapons recovered include one Ak 47 assault rifle with 26 rounds of 7.62mm special and One locally made single barrel loaded with 15 rounds. Troops have intensified patrol within the general area to forestall further break down of law and other."

Meanwhile, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state warned that the incessant killings during herdsmen and farmers clashes can ignite war in Nigeria if not handled carefully.

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Umahi made this statement at a meeting on Tuesday, March 14, while reacting to an incident on Monday, when suspected herdsmen had attacked some farmers in Enyanwu Igwe Igbeagu community of Izzi local government.

Premium Times reports that leaders of cattle herders in the southeast and south south states, residents of the affected community, as well as all the security chiefs in the state attended the meeting.

Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng- The controversy surrounding the new election sequence is still ongoing

- There are allegations that some governors under the ruling APC are in support of the president's rejection of the National Assembly's move

- President Muhammadu Buhari had rejected the Electoral Act (Amendment) bill 2018

The national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, has alleged that eight governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are trying to influence the National Assembly not to override President Muhammadu Buharis rejection of the Electoral Act (Amendment) bill 2018.

Secondus made the allegation on Wednesday, March 14, while addressing PDP youth leaders across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who visited the partys national secretariat in Abuja.

The Rivers-born politician however failed to mention the names of any of the eight APC governors seeking to stop the reorder election sequence.

Secondus made the allegation at a PDP event in Abuja. Photo source: Twitter

READ ALSO: PDP governors meet in Gombe, talks surround Wike, 2019

His words: I watched on the television where they said government vetoed the Electoral Act because it infringed on the right of INEC to conduct elections. Have you ever heard this before?

Who is INEC? Is INEC above the law? Is it not the National Assembly that makes laws that govern INEC? Why are they afraid of the amendment? We want to assure Nigerians that the APC government cannot rig this election.

Eight governors of the APC have been constituted to begin to move from door to door of members of the National Assembly to cage them not to freely make laws for Nigeria. We reject that move and we insist that the will of Nigerians must be done. The will of Nigerians must prevail. The APC is planning to rig the elections and INEC is a parastatal of APC.

Constitutionally, the National Assembly needs a 2/3rd majority to override the president.

Meanwhile, Secondus has revealed that the PDP was coming up with generation next programme for re-positioning youths to take over leadership in 2019. He said that the programme was designed to prepare the youth to take over political leadership in the country.

According to him, with the programme, age barrier will be removed and a 25-year old that is popular and intelligent can be voted into power as governor.

He urged the youths to mobilise young people in their communities irrespective of party affiliation to rescue the country in 2019. He also charged them to rise and defend marginal unity and democracy in the country.

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PDP's Magnificent 7 for 2019 on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Three thousand five hundred security personnel have been deployed to Niger state

- The personnel are expected to ensure necessary security arrangement are in place for a hitch-free presidential visit

- Statistics show that the police deployed 2,000 of its officers while the NSCDC committed 1,500 of its personnel to Niger

The Nigeria police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have deployed over 3,500 officers to Niger state ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari's visit.

Daily Trust reports that statistics of the deployment of the two security agencies show that the police released 2,000 of its officers while the NSCDC would complement with 1,500 personnel ahead of the president's one-day working visit to the state.

The Niger state police command spokesperson, Muhammad Abubakar, told journalists on Wednesday, March 14, that state commands of Kebbi, Kaduna and Kwara would deploy officers and men to complement those of Niger to ensure a hitch-free visit.

READ ALSO: FG speaks about sack of Rex Tillerson after visit to Nigeria

Also speaking on security preparation ahead of the president's visit, the NSCDC's commandant in Niger state, Philip Ayuba, said his command has made all necessary security arrangement for a hitch-free presidential visit.

President Buhari is billed to visit Niger state on Thursday, March 15. The president is billed to commission the multi-million sugar factory constructed by Nigeria Flour Mill in Sunti, Mokwa local government area.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the president visited the Government Girls Science and Technology College, Dapchi in Yobe state where 110 girls were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists.

The president during his visit to Yobe met with stakeholders and parents of the abducted schoolgirls.

The presidency had earlier said that as part of his on-spot assessment of the conflict areas, the president will visit various states across the country.

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

These states include: Nasarawa, Yobe, Borno, Benue, Plateau among others.

Boko Haram Kidnappings: Will Buhari bring back Dapchi Girls? - Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit Newspaper- Joint Admissions Matriculation Board candidate who scored the highest in the exam has received praises from all over the country

- The young student who is from Jigawa state scored 311 in his exam

- Nigerians have called on Jigawa state governor to sponsor the brilliant students education

A young boy from Jigawa state has emerged has the student with the highest score in the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for 2018. The boy identified as Aliyu Muhammad Sani Kaugama scored 311.

The student had finished his secondary school education at the academy for the gifted and talented Bamaina School.

Kaugama has become the talk of town since he came out on top with the perfect exam score.

Jigawa-born 2018 JAMB candidate scores the highest with 311 Photo source: Rariya Facebook page

READ ALSO: Ooni of Ife net worth, palace and car

Many Nigerians have called on Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa state to sponsor the brilliant students education. The governor was asked to support Kaugamas education abroad in other to help the student reach maximum potential.

Legit.ng had come across the story after Facebook user Mansur Ahmed shared the story on Rariya Facebook page.

Read post below:

The candidate who got the highest JAMB scores comes from Jigawa

Aliyu Muhammad Sani Kaugama is the candidate with the highest JAMB scores so far this year. The brilliant student of Academy for the gifted and talented Bamaina school scored 311 in the matriculation exams that was sat last week.

There has been calls lately to the Governor Jigawa State Mohammed Badaru Abubakar to sponsor this young brilliant guy to study abroad so as to reach his maximum potential.

From Mansur Ahmed.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ News App

Nigerians express mixed feelings as JAMB reduces admission cut-off to 120 - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Nigerias rice production improves from 5.7 million metric tonnes to 17 million metric tonnes

- This is a result of the milling capacity which has increased, as eight new mills were commissioned last year

- According to Kebbi state governor, Atiku Bagudu, rice farmers in the country are happy with the effort of the government

Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state has said that in two and half years, rice production has risen from 5.7 to 17 million metric tonnes per annum, Leadership reports.

Legit.ng gathered that he made the disclosure to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa. According to the Kebbi state governor, eight new rice mills were commissioned last year which has increased rice production in the country.

READ ALSO: 2 dead as herdsmen reportedly open fire on troops; army makes arrest (photos)

He said: "He received report that today in Nigeria we are almost producing about 17 million metric tonnes of paddy per annum, up from as little as 5.7 million metric tonnes two and half years ago. The milling capacity has increased, eight new mills were commissioned last year alone with the installed milling capacity almost doubling.

The Rice Distributors particularly that of Iddo, G-Cappa and Elko market in Lagos, came to show confidence in the programme of the federal government of Mr. President as encapsulated in his statement: Lets grow what we eat, and eat what we grow.

The Distributors confirmed that Nigerian rice is better, more nutritious than imported rice and they are willing to partner so that Nigerian rice will be the dominate rice in the country and indeed we should be able to be exporting."

On rice farmers lamenting over imported rice flooding the market, he said: Yes of course. Yesterday the Economic Management Team discusses smuggling and today it was an important feature and it has been recognized.

Everyone who knows Mr. Presidents commitment to the Nigerian economy will appreciate his annoyance with smuggling and smugglers. But it is a collective responsibility and so we want all Nigerians to participate the menace in importing the commodities especially in rice.

The narrative out there is wrong. Other countries are undertaking economic warfare on us, there is no nation in the world that can produce and sell to Nigeria freshly grown rice equivalent to what is produced in Nigeria at the prices that Nigeria farmers are selling.

So, most of the prices of smuggled rice are discounted prices that reflect the age of that rice and in some aliases as identified by NAFDEC not fit for human consumption, he added.

Legit.ng previously reported that Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, the national president of Rice Farmers Association, on Wednesday, December 27, 2017, assured Nigerians that the market prices of locally produced rice will soon crash.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Goronyo told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the price a 50kg-bag of locally produced rice would plummet from N18,000 to between N6,500 and N7000 by April 2018.

He said that the price-reduction plans would be achieved under a joint programme of RIFAN and the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which would be launched in Abuja on Jan. 13, 2018.

Ebonyi state, Nigeria and West Africa's food capital - on Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit.ng- The UN Migration agency has evacuated 152 Nigerians from Libya

- The new returnees arrived via a chartered flight, in conjunction with agencies of the Nigerian government on Wednesday, March 14

- The returnees included 73 adult males and 69 females, four children and six infants

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in conjunction with agencies of the Nigerian government on Wednesday, March 14, assisted another 152 Nigerians return from Libya via a chartered flight.

There were 73 adult males and 69 adult females on board and also four children and six infants.

The medical team led by Dr. Samuel Baghuma, who also serves as the head of the Lagos sub-office, was also on hand to provide medical services to those in need.

READ ALSO: Dasukigate: Judge bashes EFCC for gross misconduct, withdraws from trial

The new batch of returnees arrived via a chartered aircraft on Wednesday, March 14. Photo credit: Facebook, IOM

One of the returning migrants Deji, a graduate of mechanical engineering, decided to leave Nigeria in 2017, in search of greener pastures, after having issues with his job and marriage.

After spending about a year in Libya, he is glad to be back home, after hearing about IOM's assistance at the Nigerian embassy. He said: "I wouldn't want a sworn enemy of mine to go through that experience."

Most of the returnees left Nigeria in search of greener pastures. Photo Credit: Facebook IOM

This is the 35th chartered flight under the EUTF-IOM joint initiative which started in April 2017.

The returnees included 73 adult males and 69 females, 4 children and 6 infants. Photo credit: Facebook, IOM

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the International Organisation for Migration on Tuesday, March 6, said that 21 migrants were missing, and had probably drowned, after two boats, a rubber dinghy and a wooden boat, set off from Libya for Italy and had to be rescued.

PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7

IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a news conference in Geneva that 132 other people on the rubber dinghy had been rescued.

Late on Monday, March 5, SOS Mediterranee said there was one pregnant woman and 14 children with no family among the survivors. The organisation said they come mostly from West Africa.

Nigerians speak on slavery in Libya - on Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit.ngPopular Nigerian international model turned entrepreneur Aisha Bello turned a year older on March 11, and celebrated her big day with prison inmates at Ikoyi prison Lagos.

The beautiful CEO and creative director of elegantebyaisha and director of Star Models Africa, went to Ikoyi prison to celebrate her great day with the inmates.

Bringing along with her gifts which she shared to the inmates as they all wined and celebrated with her.

According to Aisha, when asked why she choose to celebrate her birthday in a charitable manner, she explained that the society has many people who are free and they forget that many others are confined and can't experience that freedom.

READ ALSO: Reekado Banks reveals he has been celibate for 9 days, Nigerians react

That it is one's duty as humans to let other less privileged benefit from their happiness they have, to let them know that there can be love out there and even though they have challenges at the moment, they should never give up on love and goodness.

So that when they eventually regain their freedom, they will keep a positive attitude towards life and also understand the need to show love to others.

PAY ATTENTION: Get best news on Nigeria's #1 news app

Aisha in her modelling days, modeled for top international fashion brands at famous shows such as The New York Fashion Week, Mercedes Fashion Week and others.

She also owns one of the fastest ready to wear brand in Nigeria,and she launched her modeling agency which according to her is aimed at presenting Nigeria and Africa models to the International market.

Girl with multi-coloured eyes discovered in Nigeria - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- President Buhari has commissioned Sunti Golden Sugar Estate in Niger state

- It is located on the banks of River Niger, in Mokwa in the state

- A subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria is said to own it

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, March 15, commissioned Sunti Golden Sugar Estate in Niger state.

The dignitaries present there are the state Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, Kebbi state Governor Atiku Bagudu, chairman flour mills Nigeria John G. Coumantaros among others.

Legit.ng gathered that it located on the banks of River Niger, in Mokwa the state, the Sunti Golden Sugar Estate is owned by Sunti Golden Sugar Estates, a subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria.

President Buhari arrives in Niger to commission Sunti Golden Sugar Estate. Photo credit: Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity

READ ALSO: Stop comparing yourself to GEJ - BBOG convener tells Buhari, following Yobe visit

It was learnt that the sugar estate features 17,000 hectares of irrigable farmland and a sugar mill that process 4,500 metric tons of sugarcane per day.

The estate is expected to produce 1 million tons of sugarcane which roughly translates into100,000 metric tons of sugar yearly.

President Buhari commissions Sunti Golden Sugar Estate in Niger state. Photo credit: Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Enclosed within a 35-kilometer dyke, the production facility area is 15,100 hectares, with a cane area that features a maximum output of 10, 000 hectares. The dyke provides flood protection from the River Niger.

It was said that N1 billion was invested in the irrigation system of the farm that will ensure the efficient cultivation of sugar cane, with infrastructure that includes drain pumps, pump stations, and a power grid.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that President Buhari paid a visit to the Government Girls Science and Technology College, Dapchi in Yobe state.

Boko Haram insurgents had attacked the school on February 19, abducting 110 girls.

The president arrived Yobe state on Wednesday, March 14, as part of his efforts to carry out on-the-spot assessment of the security situation in the state.

Boko Haram Kidnappings: Will Buhari bring back Dapchi Girls? | Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit- The NERC has come up with a new metering rule

- The enforcement of the new rule which seeks to bridge the gap between metering and electricity consumption will start by April

- The electricity commission also said that power distribution companies no longer have the sole responsibility of providing meters to electricity consumers

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) will on April 3, 2018, commence the enforcement of its recently unveiled Meter Asset Provider Regulations (MAPR), 2018, a policy that seeks to bridge the widening metering gap in the electricity supply industry.

It was gathered that the countrys metering gap had increased to about 4.74 million, as power consumers welcomed the new policy, describing it as a panacea for meter unavailability, Punch reports.

The NERC said in its MAPR 2018, with Regulation No. NERC-R-112: These regulations shall come into effect on the 8th day of March 2018.

READ ALSO: Stop comparing yourself to GEJ - BBOG convener tells Buhari, following Yobe

The provisions of these regulations shall be enforced by the commission from the 3rd day of April 2018.

Legit.ng gathered that the NERC had earlier declared that power distribution companies no longer had the sole responsibility of providing meters to electricity consumers.

The commission also announced the introduction of a new regulation that brought another class of operators in the power sector called Meter Asset Providers.

The commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, NERC, Dafe Akpeneye, had explained that the MAPs would now take up the duty of providing meters to customers, among other functions.

Buttressing the objectives of the MAPR 2018, the commission stated that the main objective of the regulations was to provide standard rules to encourage the development of independent and competitive meter services in the electricity supply industry and eliminate estimated billing.

Other objectives are to attract private investments to the provision of metering services, close the metering gap through accelerated meter rollout, and enhance revenue assurance in the power sector.

On metering gap and obligations to power distribution companies, the MAPR 2018 stated that Discos were responsible for meeting their metering targets as specified by the commission from time to time.

It stated: The metering gap for all distribution licensees was reported at 4,740,275 meters as of December 31, 2017. This is projected to significantly increase upon the conclusion of the ongoing customer enumeration exercise.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Legit.ng previously reported that home owners in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state, on Wednesday, March 14, stormed the streets to protest for several hours against what they referred to as exorbitant bills from the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC).

The protesters under the aegis of Ado Ekiti Landlords and Ladies Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ALLECA) claimed that the BEDC officials were allegedly demanding N40,000 before giving them prepaid meters.

The protesters carrying placards to register their complaints were escorted by the police to prevent touts from hijacking the protest.

Can Nigeria solve its power problems? Top engineers offer solutions - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: LegitA 9-year-old boy, Akachukwu Francis Eze, recently rescued his younger brother who fell into a well. Eze explained how he jumped into a well to save his 3-year-old baby brother from drowning after his sister told him the boy fell.

Source: Legit.ng- The traditional wedding of Damilola and her would-be hubby held at the Aso Rock Villa

- The traditional rites would followed by a church wedding on Saturday, March 17

- The event held amid tight security and with journalists allegedly not allowed to officially cover it

The much talked-about wedding ceremony of Damilo, the daughter of Nigerias vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, reportedly held at the old banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja with guests filling the venue to capacity on Thursday, March 15.

Vanguard reports that the colourful high class traditional wedding had in attendance top Nigerians and leaders in various field of endeavours.

Damilo is getting married to Oluseun Bakare.

Damilola and Oluseun Bakare. Credit: State House

READ ALSO: Lawmaker lambasts colleagues for campaigning for 2019

The report said the event began with a traditional marriage at the vice presidents Aguda official residence at the villa.

It was learnt that shortly after the traditional marriage, the guests including some state governors were hosted to a reception the State House conference centre.

Damilola Osinbajo and her mum. Credit: State House

The white wedding is said to be scheduled to take place at the National Christian Centre, Abuja, on Saturday, March 17.

The report said journalists were not allowed to officially cover the event.

Security aides of the vice president on Wednesday (March 14) had sent a message to reporters in the villa informing them that they were not needed at any of the programme for the marriage ceremony.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

According to the message from the security aides, the vice president and his family had already contracted the entire publicity of the traditional wedding and the white wedding which will take place on Saturday (March 17) to a private company," the report said.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, his wife and the couple. Credit: State House

The news of their proposed wedding was broken on social media with a confirmation by Osinbajo, who wrote: With joy and praise to the Lord, Dolly and I announce the betrothal of our daughter Oludamilola Osinbajo to Oluseun Bakare.

Legit.ng earlier reported how the date for the wedding of vice president's daughter, Oluwadmilola, was set for her to be joined with her husband-to-be, Oluseun Bakare, son of billionaire business woman, Bola Shagaya.

Legit.ng also reported details about the would-be couple with more unique tales of how they met.

Many people had first thought the groom-to-be was a Muslim by faith but that wrong perception was set right when it was revealed that he is actually a worker in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the same church in which Oluwadamilola and her family worships.

How long should it take between a proposal and the actual wedding? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: LegitBy Robert Johnson, President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and Senior Fellow and Director, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website

On this day in 1968, King decried the creation of a kind of socialism for the rich and a rugged, hard individualism for the poor, and called for militant, powerful, massive nonviolent direct action to create a more just society. A half century later, how far have we come?

Fifty years ago today, March 14, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what would be his last formal speech, The Other America, at a high school outside Detroit which I would attend four years later. Twenty-one days after the speech, on April 4, King was assassinated in Memphis, where he was due to appear on behalf of the citys striking sanitation workers.

After seeing some of my fathers sailing friends come by the house and express their rage that he was allowed speak, my 11-year-old mind was sparked into curiosity. About nine months beforehand, we had heard the gunfire of the race riots in Detroit and seen the tanks, sandbags and troops. I did not understand the tension and I did not at the time understand what King conveyed in the speech, but I knew it was important and frightening. And I knew that my parents, both moderate Republicans of the Gerald Ford variety, were taken aback by the anger surrounding the decision to let King speak.

Turmoil ensued. Anti-King Protesters occupied the lawn of the high school. Audience members aggressively interrupted King during his speech. Afterward, to Jude Huetteman, who headed the organization that invited him to the high school in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, King would confide that the hecklers were among the fiercest he had encountered. All this mayhem heightened my fear and curiosity.

Looking back now and reading the text of his speech, it is clear that there is a great deal to learn from the insights King presented that night. The Other America speech painted a vision of a nation with cities divided into a kind of dualism that resonates with recent INET research from Peter Temin, and with his book based on that work, The Vanishing Middle Class.

King described deep poverty and structural unemployment. From the vantage point of white people who feared that unrest would interrupt their prosperity or the path to it, these were known as social problems. In his speech, King stressed that similar economic conditions endured by white people had caused national outrage and bore the hallowed historic marker, The Great Depression.

King challenged false consciousness and false prescriptions for the disease of otherness, which allows a dominant group to target or subjugate others deemed outsiders. King advocated militant, powerful, massive campaigns of nonviolent direct action to address these challenges. He did not see the race riots in Detroit and Newark in the summer of 1967 as mysterious, but rather as a result of the intolerable conditions that existed in society. The Kerner Commission Report, which had released two weeks before his speech, on February 29, 1968, confirmed Kings assertionsmuch to the discontent of President Lyndon Johnson. Contrary to the findings of the 1965 Moynihan Report which the President favored, the causes of violence werent private pathologies in black families, the Kerner Report found. Rather, the causes were public, political and economic: violence was caused by the combination of racism and the lack of educational and employment opportunity for black people in American cities.

Of course, in the weeks between Kings speech at Grosse Pointe and his assassination in Memphis, President Johnson would himself stun the nation by announcing that he would not seek re-election the coming fall.

All of this proved that the so-called social problems most white people wished to see as the private troubles of other people were really national, structural, economic issues plaguing the nation as a whole, affecting politics from local school boards to the U.S. presidency.

King went on the challenge the very notion of racism, which he considered a false ontological assertion of superiority: the nymph of an inferior people. In fact, his speech challenged a series of inter-locking myths. First, he objected to the idea that time would heal these wounds all by itself. Instead, King countered, such a passive reliance on time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation, he said. Second, he decried the myth that private reliance on a change of heart would eradicate racism without new, public, legislation and aggressive enforcement of those laws. It may be true that laws cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, he said.

Third, he dealt with the myth that we could overcome racism individually, with what he called the bootstrap philosophy. King described the context and history of African Americans and of slavery, and explained how support for economic development for white immigrants to the U.S. contrasted drastically with lack of the social investment in black Americans after the end of slavery. He described a government that had, in effect, created a kind of socialism for the rich and a rugged, hard individualism for the poor. And, of course, historically as well as in the late 1960s, poor blacks faced an array of racist obstacles, both legal and illegal, in addition to those poor whites faced in the United States.

Its a grim fact, indeed, that on this same day, in 2018, the 10th anniversary of the Bear Stearns bailout in 2008, Kings language reads more like contemporary news than history from a bygone era.

In his speech that night, members of the audience protested vociferously when King challenged them by describing the evils associated with the war in Vietnam alongside the failure to fight racism and poverty at home. When protesters objected, King declared, I have been working too long and hard now against segregated public accommodations to end up at this stage of my life segregating my moral concern.

This is the Martin Luther King Jr. who declared: Ultimately a genuine leader is not a succor for consensus but a mold of consensus. This is the Martin Luther King who was called An Inconvenient Hero by his friend Vincent Harding, and who in the last three years of his life saw a deeper need for change to combat the triad of militarism, materialism and racism. This is a man who refused to operate in the context of no context, and who instead engaged with history and ideas.

Reading this speech today is a good lesson to young scholars about the nature of the challenge of social science, and what is lost when we acquiesce to a cowardly approach to investigation under pressure from frightened institutions. It is a good lesson on how the wrong approach to intellectual inquiry fosters avoidance and therefore silences. This path contributes to the failures of expertise that lead to the loss of legitimacy, trust and influence for those who are asked to serve society.

What I felt listening to King address his supporters and his opponents in Detroit that night and the loss of innocence that ensued marked my life forever. It ignited a skepticism regarding what Ill call fake analysis. As I went on to university, for example, equilibrium economics felt like an assumption of a happy ending rather than analysis. Detroit, meanwhile, was really tense in those days. Riots, union-management violent conflict, and Vietnam War protests fueled unsettling cauldrons in my mind. These were formative experiences for me, and they continue to shape and challenge my vision of how society evolvesor doesnt.

What concerns me now is that, in the realm of financial reform 10 years after Bear Stearns, and in the world of racial tension 50 years after Kings assassination, we do not seem to be making much progress. In fact, as Peter Temin artfully analyzed, the black despair and rage that King described in 1968 now describes a much larger segment of society, as living conditions deteriorate for so many. I believe that the election of President Donald Trump is a direct consequence of these failings.

Today, when we create, promote, and justify otherness across racial, gendered, and ethnic lines we destroy our humanity. When we tolerate any human being treated as other, I sense that we subconsciously become more anxious. That is because we become internally aware that, some day, the notion of other will change. Each of us could become the outcast other. When we live with that subconscious fear, we all live in a haunted house. None of us should have to live in a haunted house.

Reading these wise words from King delivered at my high school 50 years ago, along with the vicious opposition he encountered among my familys neighbors, reminds me of my own history and calls to define my life purpose. I did not begin to comprehend the speech at the time. But, while I couldnt possibly have imagined how immediately lethal the dangers to Kings life were, I could feel the context, its endangered clarity, its embattled truth. Kings words and example a are a beacon of how to address the kinds of challenges we face today. King remains a guiding light. He shed light in his last years on the truth that economics is at the core of anxiety, racial animosity and the nightmare of otherness. Kings messages make it clear that to heal our society and restore a faith in the capacity of human agency, economics must go deeper. We all have to go deeper.Yves here. New York City has good tap water, to the degree that it wins taste tests.

There are many options in the environmentally responsible water carrier vein, and as the article points out, you also steer clear of or at least minimize plastic nasties getting into your system. When possible, filter your water at home if you are worried about purity and bottle it yourself. This does put the onus on you to be organized.

By Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the national advocacy organization Food & Water Watch. Originally published at Alternet

The link between fracking and the bottled water industry is one more reason to take back the tap.

The new Food & Water Watch report Take Back the Tap: The Big Business Hustle of Bottled Water details the deceit and trickery of the bottled water industry. Heres one more angle to consider: The bottled water business is closely tied to fracking.

The report reveals that the majority of bottled water is municipal tap water, a common resource captured in plastic bottles and re-sold at an astonishing markupas much as 2,000 times the price of tap, and even four times the price of gasoline. Besides being a rip-off, there is plenty more to loathe about the corporate water scam: The environmental impacts from pumping groundwater (especially in drought-prone areas), the plastic junk fouling up our waterways and oceans, and the air pollution created as petrochemical plants manufacture the materials necessary for making those plastic bottles filled with overpriced tap water.

There is a growing international awareness that plastic is a serious problem. In 2016, about 4 billion pounds of plastic were used in the bottled water business, and most of those bottles are not recycledmeaning they often end up in landfills or as litter. Theres also the matter of whether we should be putting our drinking water in those bottles in the first place: The most common packaging (polyethylene terephthalate, or PET) includes compounds like benzene, and the bottles can leach toxins like formaldehyde and acetaldehyde.

But perhaps the biggest problem is where we get all this plastic in the first place. Many of the raw materials used to create those plastic bottles come from fracking. In addition to air and water pollution, the fracking boom has delivered an abundant supply of the hydrocarbon ethane, which is used in petrochemical manufacturing to create ethylene, which is turned into plastic.

One of the global powerhouses in this industry is a company called Ineos, which needs to expand fracking in order to keep profiting from plastics. To do this, massive dragon ships carry ethane from the United States to its facilities in Europe. The company wants even more of this raw material, which is one of the big reasons that Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners is building the Mariner East 2, a dangerous pipeline that will travel across hundreds of miles of the state of Pennsylvania. Getting more ethane means Ineos can turn more of those hydrocarbons into plastic, with the accompanying industrial pollution and carbon emissions we have come to expect from a company that has amassed a horrendous environmental record.

The corporate water business is a costly scam that affects our air, water, and climate. It robs communities of a resource that is a public good and must be treated as one, and it relies heavily on dirty fossil fuels to produce and transport a product that it sells at an extravagant markup. It rakes in billions of dollars while our public tap water infrastructurethat these companies benefit fromremains in desperate need of federal funding to provide all Americans with access to clean, affordable drinking water.A Cahir company manufacturing world-class structural light-gauge steel building systems for residential, commercial and industrial developments has been announced as Tipperarys County Enterprise Award winner for 2018.

Horizon Offsite, which is based at Cahir Business Park, received a 2,500 cheque as well as its County Enterprise Award trophy and will now go on to represent Tipperary at the National Enterprise Awards, which this year celebrates its 20thanniversary, in May.

Pictured above at the presentation are - Ita Horan LEO; Tom Luddy, Horizon; Joe McGrath, Co. Council CEO; Ger Fay, Horizon; Cllr Roger Kennedy; and Rita Guinan, Head of Enterprise, LEO.

The award is high recognition for the Cahir business in a year when the Tipperary Local Enterprise Office (LEO) funded 38 businesses to the tune of just under 1m  the highest level of funding awarded across the 31 LEO networks, including in cities, in the country.

The money was well invested, with a survey revealing that Tipperary LEO funded companies increased employment levels by 262 jobs in 2017.

Speaking after receiving the award, Horizon Offsite founder Ger Fahy said that it validates the hard work of his team. We manufacture a world-class product here and the standards we deliver are down to the team we have in place. We strive to be best in class and this award reflects that. While we are a relatively new business, our team brings over 25 years experience in the off-site sector. We are building a really strong export business as well as growing our footprint in the Irish market.

Winning the award is really strong validation for us. To win it in a year when Tipperary LEO has funded more companies than any other LEO in the country says a lot about what we are doing also as the competition was considerable. LEO has been a huge support to us and I would encourage any business, particularly in the early stages, to knock on its door as we got great financial and mentoring support at a critical stage of our development. We look forward now to National Enterprise Awards in May and the work continues in the meantime.

Horizon Offsite edged Templemore based Sola Energy Solutions, which received a 1,500 cheque, into second place, while Nenagh based food producer The Scullery claimed third place and a 1,000 cheque.

Three other companies, who completed the top award shortlist, were also award winners at the event. They were fashion designer Marion Murphy Cooney, who won the Design, Creativity and Branding award; Grace Tooher, who won the award for Best Start-Up for her JamForest global music platform which enables musicians to meet, collaborate and grow; and Una Butler, founder of the Galtee Advertiser, a high Gloss, professionally designed, monthly adverting publication, featuring and promoting local businesses and services. Each of these award winners received at 500 cheque.The starting area for Clonmel's St. Patrick's Day Parade, which commences at 3pm, is Irishtown and it will parade through the town to finish in Parnell Street, outside the Town Hall.

Brendan Nyhan, president of Clonmel Rotary Club (which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year) will be the grand marshal.

The Clonmel Bianconi Twinning Committee are again organising the Morning Parade from the Town Hall at 11.30am to St. Marys Church for 12 noon Mass, which will be celebrated in Irish.

This parade will be led by Banna Chluain Meala and will include councillors, representatives of the towns clubs and organisations and visitors from three of Clonmels twin towns  Esyines, Costa Masnaga and Reading.

The day will commence with the traditional flag-raising ceremony at St. Patricks Well at 8.30am.

This event is attended by the Clonmel Borough area councillors and dignitaries from the visiting twinned towns.

With cold but dry weather forecast for the Clonmel area on Saturday, everyone is looking forward to celebrating the national holiday in style.Presenting his Annual Report today (Thursday 15 March 2018), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that in an unpredictable world, the Alliance is stepping up to keep our nations safe.

The report shows that, in 2017, European Allies and Canada increased spending on defence by almost 5% - meaning there have now been three consecutive years of growth since 2014.

Allies have also made progress on investing in new capabilities. In 2017, twenty-six Allies spent more in real terms on major equipment than the year before.

All NATO members have pledged to continue to increase defence spending in real terms. The majority have already put in place plans on how to meet the 2% guideline by 2024. And we expect others to follow, the Secretary General said.

The Report also shows that NATO Allies are contributing more to operations and missions. At the end of 2017, there were over 23,000 troops serving in NATO deployments, up from just under 18,000 in 2014, before Russias illegal annexation of Crimea and the rise of ISIS. This is an increase of around 30%, the Secretary General said.

Commenting on NATOs Resolute Support training mission in Afghanistan, the Secretary General said that with the Alliances assistance, Afghan forces had increased military pressure on the Taliban in 2017, ensuring that they did not achieve their strategic objective of capturing a provincial capital.

We strongly support an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. I commend President Ghani for his courageous leadership. His offer to the Taliban is the clearest invitation to peace yet. So I call on the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. There is an opportunity now to end the conflict, he said.

The Secretary General also addressed the recent use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom, noting that this was the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATOs foundation. All Allies agree that the attack was a clear breach of international norms and agreements, and they have called on Russia to address the UKs questions, he said.

He said that the backdrop to the attack was a reckless pattern of Russian behaviour over many years. This behaviour includes the illegal annexation of Crimea and military support to separatists in Eastern Ukraine. The military presence in Moldova and Georgia against these countries will. Meddling in Montenegro and elsewhere in the Western Balkans. Attempts to subvert democratic elections and institutions. And the military build-up from the North of Europe to the Middle East. He also warned that the blurring of the line between nuclear and conventional warfare lowers the threshold for Russias use of nuclear weapons.

Mr Stoltenberg explained that NATOs approach to Russia remains firm, defensive and proportionate and that NATO will not mirror Russia tank for tank, missile for missile or drone for drone. He also said that the Alliance would continue to seek meaningful dialogue with Russia which, while difficult, was vital to increase transparency and to reduce risk.The NATO Deputy Secretary General, the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, will visit Poland on Friday, 16 March 2018 to mark the one year anniversary of the enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup.

The Deputy Secretary General will visit the Battlegroup in Orzysz (Bemowo Piskie) together with the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Bartosz Cichocki and the Undersecretary of State for Defence, Mr. Tomasz Szatkowski. She will address the US-led Allied contingents who are partnering with Polands 15th Mechanised Brigade.

Media Advisory

18:45 Joint press conference -- Deputy Secretary General and Undersecretary of State Tomasz Szatkowski jointly meet the press at Warsaw Military Airport

Still and video images will be available on the NATO website (www.nato.int) after the event.

Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress, @NATODepspox and @jensstoltenberg).(As delivered)

Good afternoon.

Today, I am very pleased to be able to launch my Annual Report for 2017.

The Report shows that, in an unpredictable world, the Alliance is stepping up to keep our nations safe.

In 2017, we continued to invest more and better in our defence. We deployed four multinational battlegroups to the eastern of the Alliance. And strengthened our forward presence in the Black Sea region. We increased our resilience against hybrid warfare. And strengthened our cyber defences. We joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, with our AWACS planes. And began training in Iraq. We raised our cooperation with the European Union to unprecedented levels. And we welcomed Montenegro as the 29th member of the Alliance. 2017 was a busy year.And, in 2018, we will continue to do what it takes to preserve the peace.

A more uncertain security environment means NATO Allies need to invest more in defence. Develop the right capabilities. And contribute to our missions and operations. In 2014, Allies pledged to stop cuts to their defence budgets. Increase defence spending. And move towards spending 2% of their GDP on defence within a decade. Since then, we have seen three consecutive years of increased defence spending in Europe and Canada. Adding a total of 46 billion dollars.

In 2017, European Allies and Canada increased their defence expenditure by almost 5% in real terms. And you can find the specific national figures in the Report.

All NATO members have pledged to continue to increase defence spending in real terms. The majority have already put in place plans on how to meet the 2% guideline by 2024. And we expect others to follow.

Allies are investing in major new capabilities. Since 2014, we have added 18 billion dollars to spending on major equipment. In 2017, 26 Allies spent more in real terms on major equipment than in the previous year. And they are also contributing more to operations and missions. For instance, in 2017 we decided to increase contributions to our Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. And Allies have contributed thousands of troops to our increased presence in the east of the Alliance.

At the end of 2017, there were over 23,000 troops serving in NATO deployments. Up from just under 18,000 in 2014  before Russias illegal annexation of Crimea and the rise of ISIS. This is an increase of around 30%. So all Allies are stepping up: doing more, in more places,in more ways. To strengthen our deterrence and defence in response to the challenging security environment.

One of those challenges is Russias behaviour. Including in recent weeks.The United Kingdom has determined that Sergei Skripal, his daughter and a British police officer were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. The British government has also concluded that this represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom. The substance used is one of the most toxic ever developed. This is the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATOs foundation. All Allies agree that the attack was a clear breach of international norms and agreements. This is unacceptable. It has no place in a civilised world. The North Atlantic Council addressed this horrific incident yesterday. Allies expressed their solidarity with the UK. They offered their support in the conduct of the ongoing investigation. And called on Russia to address the UKs questions. NATO regards any use of chemical weapons as a threat to international peace and security. We will be briefed by the UKs National Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill later today. I am in touch with Foreign Secretary Johnson and we are meeting here at NATO on Monday. The attack in Salisbury has taken place against the backdrop of a reckless pattern of Russian behaviour. Over many years. The illegal annexation of Crimea and military support to separatists in Eastern Ukraine. The military presence in Moldova and Georgia against these countries will. Meddling in Montenegro and elsewhere in the Western Balkans. Attempts to subvert democratic elections and institutions. And the military build-up from the North of Europe to the Middle East.

Russia has been modernising its armed forces over the last decade. And investing significantly. Developing new weapons. Including with nuclear capabilities. And Russia has integrated conventional and nuclear warfare in its military doctrine and exercises. This blurring of the line between nuclear and conventional lowers the threshold for Russias use of nuclear weapons. And the blurring of the line between peace, crisis and war is destabilising and dangerous. NATOs approach remains firm, defensive, and proportionate. NATO will not mirror Russia tank for tank, missile for missile or drone for drone.

We do not want a new Cold War. And we do not want to be dragged into a new arms race. An arms race has no winners. It is expensive, it is risky, it is in nobodys interest. But let there be no doubt. NATO will defend all Allies against any threat. We will maintain strong conventional forces. As well as a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent. At the same time, we will continue to strive for effective arms control. We welcome the implementation of the new START Treaty. And we will protect the INF Treaty. And we will also continue to seek a meaningful dialogue with Russia. We had three meetings of the NATO-Russia Council in 2017. And we are working to hold another. This dialogue is difficult. But it is vital to increase transparency and to reduce risk.

NATO does not have the luxury of choosing just one challenge. That is why in 2017, we also stepped up our efforts to project stability beyond our borders and to contribute to the fight against terrorism. Our mission in Afghanistan, NATOs largest, is helping to train Afghan forces.

So that they can fight terrorism and secure their own country.

We have decided to increase the size of our Resolute Support training mission. From 13,000 to around 16,000. With our assistance, Afghan forces have increased military pressure on the Taliban. Ensuring they did not achieve their strategic objective of capturing a provincial capital in 2017. And we strongly support an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. I commend President Ghani for his courageous leadership. His offer to the Taliban is the clearest invitation to peace yet. So I call on the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

There is an opportunity  now  to end the conflict. And build a more secure and prosperous Afghanistan. An opportunity that must be seized.

In 2017, NATO became a full member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. We are working to strengthen the Iraqi Armed Forces to fight terrorism. Training almost 500 Iraqi trainers. So they can share their new skills with thousands of others. This year, we will further boost our contribution. By launching a new training mission in Iraq to build on our efforts. And by providing more support to our partners in the region. Such as Jordan and Tunisia.

Last year, we raised our strategic partnership with the European Union to unprecedented levels.

NATOs Operation Sea Guardian provided critical support to the EUs Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean. NATO and EU cyber teams exchange warnings about cyberattacks and malware in real time. And together, High Representative Federica Mogherini and I opened the European Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki.

This is the last Annual Report I will launch at this headquarters. Next week, we begin the final stage of the move to our new Headquarters across the road. A cutting-edge and environmentally-friendly building which makes a fitting home for the Alliance in the 21st century.

The world does not stand still. And neither does NATO.

And with that, Im ready to take your questions.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: OK, we'll go to the BBC in the middle. Further down, gentleman with the beard.

Question [BBC]: Thank you very much, Oana. Thank you, Secretary General. You have echoed the British Prime Minister's comments that this use of a nerve agent was an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom. There has been a lot of sympathetic and strong words backing Britain in this predicament, but what practical steps can NATO offer? What negotiations are underway? What practical measures might we see to respond to this attack against a member state on their own territory?

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: First of all, I think it's extremely important to express strong political support to the United Kingdom, sending a clear message that the United Kingdom is not alone. We stand together with them. And this is a serious attack, on individuals in the United Kingdom, but it's also a blatant and serious violation of norms and rules, which are important for the security of all of us. So therefore, the strong expression of solidarity, support, is important in itself. Britain is not alone. Second, Allies have offered practical support and we are ready to provide support, if so requested by the United Kingdom. And thirdly, we have to understand that this is happening on the backdrop of a pattern of reckless behaviour which has taken place over many years, and NATO is responding to that and the UK is part of that response. We have deployed four battlegroups to the east of the Alliance. The UK is leading one of them in Estonia. We have tripled the size of the NATO Response Force and we are starting to invest more in defence, to be able to send a clear message to Russia that we are able to defend ourselves against any threat, including hybrid, cyber and other kinds of aggression. We will continue to adapt the Alliance. We are constantly assessing what more we can do and I expect also heads of state and government to make important decisions on this when they meet here in Brussels in July.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: Wall Street Journal.

QUESTION [Wall Street Journal]: Mr Secretary General, I wanted to follow up on that, you know, how is there specific steps that NATO should consider to deter chemical weapons attacks, deter covert activity by Russia, inside Alliance territory? Is there something that can be done to bolster defences against or detection of chemical weapons attacks?

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]: We are now investing more in our defences and that gives us more resources also to develop a system to protect us against chemical attacks, and biological attacks, and chemical attacks, and we have a centre of excellence in the Czech Republic, and that centre is a tool to share experience, to share technology, and to share best practices, and also to help Allies to train how to protect themselves against chemical weapons. So, part of the adaptation of NATO is also to strengthen our ability to detect and to protect against chemical weapons. We are strengthening our intelligence cooperation, which is also in part important to detect potential chemical attacks, and we are also of course increasing the readiness of our forces, so we can quickly respond if there is any need for a military response.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: OK, Reuters, third row.

Question [Reuters]: Thank you. Secretary General, you said that this British attack is part of pattern of Russian behaviour. Would you now characterise the situation of a hybrid war against the West conducted by Russia? Thank you.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: So, we have seen the use of hybrid tactics in many different ways, which is this combination of overt and covert operations, military and non-military means of aggression. We have seen cyber-attacks and so on. So, this is something which has been going on for many years, in different ways, and very often we use the phrase "hybrid" to describe this blurred line between different means of aggression. And thats one of the reasons why NATO is responding. We responded when Russia used hybrid tactics in Crimea, we are responding when we see cyber-attacks and we are responding in many different ways. So yes, this is part this is happening on the backdrop of a series of reckless actions and thats the reason why we will continue to respond.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: At the back there, NRK.

Question [NRK]: Thank you. Secretary General, would you describe the situation now, compared to a year ago, that Russia and the NATO Allies are further apart? And if the situation is like you describe it, how can you possibly have a meaningful and constructive dialogue with Russia?

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: At least the relationship has not improved and thats the reason why we will continue to pursue our dual-track approach to Russia, which combines deterrence defence with political dialogue. And the dialogue is not easy, but thats exactly why it is important. Because when tensions are high, when there are increased risks for incidents, accidents and miscalculations, then it's even more important to have a political dialogue, because we dont want a new Cold War, we dont want a new arms race. Thats costly, it's expensive and there are no winners in an arms race. After the end of the Cold War, we worked for a strategic partnership with Russia, but then Russia decided to use force against neighbours. We saw it in Georgia, but we saw it also in Ukraine. And this is Russia's decision that they have chosen not to cooperate, but to confront. We will still strive for a better relationship with Russia. Russia is our neighbour, Russia is there to stay, but we have to combine the message of dialogue with the message of that we are predictable and strong. And thats the way we will continue and then it's up to Russia to change behaviour and to see that we all will gain if they are willing to engage in a more constructive relationship with NATO.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: TASS in the second row

Question [TASS]: Denis Dubrovin, TASS News Agency. Mr Secretary General, yesterday North Atlantic Council made a strong statement on the Salisbury case, but I wanted to clarify one point. In this statement, it was said that the nerve gas that was used in United Kingdom was developed by Russia. In fact, this nerve gas was developed by the Soviet Union over 30 years ago. So, why there is such an inconsistency in this statement? Is it made on purpose or is it just a mistake? Thank you very much.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Yesterday we were briefed and we will be updated and briefed again today by the National Security Adviser in the United Kingdom, and we were briefed both on the findings and also of the actions of the United Kingdom. And we have no reason to doubt the findings and the assessments made by the United Kingdom. We have seen before that Russia has been implicated in same kind of incidents and cases, and we know that this nerve agent has been produced in Russia and therefore we trust assessments by the United Kingdom. I cannot go into intelligence, but I can just say that I trust the assessments which have been shared with us by the United Kingdom.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: Washington Post, third row in the centre.

Question [Washington Post]: Hi, thank you. Michael Birnbaum from the Washington Post. Two questions; one, is this attack in Britain, in your view, an appropriate moment would it be appropriate for Britain to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter? And second question, on spending, President Trump of course has put tremendous importance and weight on the 2% spending goals and in the United States they have become politically linked to all sorts of things, one of his advisers was even talking about perhaps offering exemptions to the aluminium and steel tariffs, based on whether countries are meeting their NATO goals. Is that an appropriate use of these spending targets, in your view? Does it make sense to have this broader political discussion about them in the United States? Thanks.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Let me first comment on the spending and trade. It's not for me to comment on trade tariffs and trade issues as Secretary General of NATO. What I can say is that we have seen, throughout the history of NATO, that there has been differences between NATO Allies on different issues, including trade issues, but we have always been able to avoid that these differences have undermined the unity of the Alliance when it comes to the core task of NATO, and that is that we protect and defend each other. And I am absolutely certain that we will be able to do also that this time. But yes, there are some differences when it comes to trade, but at the same time I am absolutely certain that NATO will stand united against or around our core task, to defend and protect each other. On spending, I think we have to understand that European Allies and Canada are now really stepping up. After years of decline in defence spending, we have seen for the first time in many years, three consecutive years of increases. More countries will meet the 2% target. Back in 2014, when we made the pledge, it was only three countries that met the 3%... sorry, the 2% guideline. This year, we expect eight Allies to meet the 2% guideline. But perhaps as important as how many countries that will meet the 2% guideline this year, is the fact that also those countries that have yet a way to go before they reach the 2% guideline, they are also increasing significantly. For instance, Germany increased defence spending last year by around 6% in real terms, and thats really a big increase and it adds to the European defence spending in a significant way. So Germany, as many other European Allies, are now stepping up, investing more, providing more funding for military and defence purposes. Germany is also stepping up when it comes to contributions to NATO missions and operations. They have just announced they will increase their presence in Afghanistan, from around 1,000 to 1,300, adding 300 more troops. Germany has been there all the time, and I think this shows that European Allies and Canada are doing more, stepping up, contributing more to our shared security.

Then on Article 5, well there has been no request for Article 5 and it's for nations to ask for that. NATO is ready to provide support and we have expressed our political support to UK. Allies are also ready to provide support in the conduct of the investigation and we call on Russia to answer the questions which have been posed by the United Kingdom. But I think it's important that we react in a proportionate, measured and defensive way, and there has been no call for Article 5.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: ITV News, gentleman in the fourth row.

Question [ITV News]: Secretary General, Rageh Omaar, ITV News. You spoke about Allies offering practical assistance and help to the United Kingdom. Could you go into a bit more detail because the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has been quite clear that if these tit-for-tat measures continue to expand, so, for the United Kingdom not to suffer disproportionately, its Allies need to stand with the United Kingdom. How does NATO come into that standing practically side-by-side with Britain, if these tit-for-tat measures escalate?

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: This is an evolving situation and with it comes the immediate task of conducting the investigation. UK is a nation with a lot of capabilities themselves. So, so far, there has been no need, no request for any practical assistance in conducting the investigation. If there is such a request, I am absolutely certain that Allies are ready to provide support, but so far the UK has not asked for any kind of practical support to the investigation. But, as I said, the political support is important because we send a clear message that the UK is not alone. And we have to see this in the broader picture, because the attack in Salisbury happens on the backdrop of a pattern which we have seen over many years, and there NATO plays a key role in the response, on behalf of all NATO Allies. We have, for the first time in our history, deployed battlegroups to the eastern part of the Alliance: four in the Balkan countries and Poland, and also increased our presence in the Black Sea region. We have tripled the size of the NATO Response Force, we have established the High Readiness Joint Task Force, so we can quickly reinforce, and we have done a lot when it comes to strengthening our cooperation on intelligence, on cyber, but also in addressing hybrid threats. And, as I said, we are now, for the first time in many years, investing more in defence capabilities in Europe, and NATO is organising that. Thats part of the response, because that delivers the deterrence and defence, which is important also for the UK, when we see a more assertive Russia.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: OK. Gentleman in the first row here.

Question [Rai]: From Rai, Italy. Thank you. If I can ask if you are worried about the Italian election that were won actually by two parties that support more dialogue with Russia and are against the sanction? Do you believe that there will be consequence with the Alliance, of Italy?

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: So, first we have to see so, we have seen the outcome of the elections, but it's too early to say exactly what kind of government we will have. But I respect the decision by Italian voters. I think we have seen, in the history of NATO, that voters have elected different political parties, with different political leaders, with different positions and opinions about many issues. But again and again we have seen that we are able to unite and we are able to stay committed to the core task of NATO, and I am confident that Italy will be a committed NATO Ally, also with a new government, and I look forward to work with the new government in Italy.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: Kabul Times, just behind. Lady just behind you. Thank you.

Question [Kabul Times]: Thank you, Secretary. As you mention, and everybody's talking about, Russia, but I would like to ask about Afghanistan. You said that, and the report also mention it about Afghanistan and also you said they strongly support peace new peace plan in Afghanistan. I would like to ask how does NATO support peace in a failed state and a terrible arranged national unity government? Because, as we saw, the situation is always change and thousands of civilians died. How does NATO support with this failed state? Thank you.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: So, we strongly support the efforts to make progress in the efforts to have a political and peaceful solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, and we do that in different ways. Partly, we provide strong political support to the unity government, and for us this is very important that this is an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process. NATO participates, or participated, in the last meeting, in the Kabul Process, in the meeting in Kabul. We are round the table, we participate in the meetings, but this is an Afghan-led process and thats extremely important, that it continues to be an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process. We welcome that President Ghani so clearly has invited Taliban to the negotiating table without preconditions. This is the strongest ever invitation to peace talks in Afghanistan and Taliban should seize that opportunity to sit down and find a political solution. It may be that not the whole of Taliban is ready, but hopefully at least parts of the Taliban is ready to sit down, and we call on them to do so. Second, we know that there is a close link between what's going on on the battlefield and what can take place at the negotiating table. Because we have to strengthen the Afghan security forces, army and national security forces, so they can break the stalemate on the battlefield, sending a clear message to Taliban and other insurgents, that there is no way they can win on the battlefield. And thats the reason why we are increasing our military presence, with trainers in Afghanistan, to enable to the Afghan security forces to break the stalemate and to create the conditions for a political solution. And thirdly, we provide economic support and we help Afghanistan with reforms, including fighting corruption, because we think that also can help and contribute to a peaceful and political solution.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: Jane's. First row. Gentleman in the first row.

Question [Jane's Defence Weekly]: Brookes Tigner, Jane's Defence Weekly. I'd like to turn to an ostensibly boring part of your report, but which I think has strategic implications if it's not addressed, and that is expenditure on pensions and personnel. More than 15 of the Allies spend well over 50% of their defence budget on personnel and pension cost, Belgium, Greece, are up over 75%, which would suggest that these are more employment machines than military machines. My question to you I mean NATO has guidelines on defence spending as a per cent of GDP, has a guideline on defence equipment, and R&D expenditure of 20%, isnt it time now for NATO to have a guideline on pensions and on pension limit, and [inaudible] of personnel cost for each of the armies? If you want to free up money for effective capability development, it seems to me thats the only way you can do it, because otherwise spending more money each year on defence that goes into pension doesnt really serve much purpose. Thank you.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Thank you. No part of this report is boring  Including what we write about pensions because actually, we address the question of pensions in the report, meaning we describe exactly how defence expenditure is defined in this report, and thats based on a well-established, agreed formula on how to measure defence expenditure, which also of course includes salaries and pensions to soldiers. And in the long run, it's very hard to have good soldiers and good officers without paying them, and they also have to pay pensions. So, thats part of the cost of having an army.

Question: 75%?

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: No, then we also have guidelines and we have targets for how to spend the money. Meaning for instance that we have guidelines for spending 20% of defence budget on investments and technology. We have guidelines when it comes to capabilities, meaning that we have a very specific capability targets for each and every nation, and of course we expect them to deliver on those capability targets, and they have agreed and they have started to deliver. And we also have, of course, requests and guidelines for instance when it comes to deployments, being it in the battlegroups or the NATO Response Force, and so on. I dont I will not recommend that NATO should start to provide guidelines on pension systems. I was responsible for pension reform Norway and I will not recommend anyone to try to do that on a multinational basis or in NATO. But what I will say is that as long as they deliver the capabilities, as long as they deliver the contributions to NATO missions and operations, and as long as they deliver the investments on technology, or in technology, the 20% and so on, then they deliver what we expect them to. And then how much they pay in salaries and pensions, then I leave that to nations, as long as they deliver what we ask them to deliver.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: Georgian TV, second row, lady.

Question: [inaudible] Georgian TV Company. Secretary General, as you know, our citizen was killed in [inaudible] Valley and the occupated regime in Russia still refuse to hand over the body, so considering this and situation in general, how do you estimate threat from Russia to our Euro-Atlantic integration? And in this case, what can we expect from upcoming Summit in Brussels? Thank you.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: I expect upcoming Summit in Brussels to recognise Georgia for the progress Georgia is making when it comes to reforms and also to recognise the contribution, the highly valid contribution Georgia is making to NATO missions and operations, especially in Afghanistan. Then I met with the President of Georgia last week; I expressed my condolences on the loss of the life of the man that was killed and also expressed or reiterated the call on Russia to make sure that the two persons who are still abducted are released. We will continue to provide political support to Georgia and practical support to Georgia: training, capacity-building reforms, and we are impressed by the reforms that Georgia has been able to implement, including the fact that Georgia is able to engage in the dialogue with Russia on how to solve the issue related to South Abkhazia South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: OK, we had Europa Press at the back. Lady at the back.

Question [Europa Press]: Thank you, Secretary General. There is some speculation the UK might hit back at Russia, whether in an electronic warfare form or maybe cyber. Would you warn against this? I mean youve just called also for a measured response. Would this just get us into an escalating scenario? Or do you think that it firmly still needs a joint response from NATO, to make clear to Russia that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable? I mean what where are the limits of the response that we should give to this kind of very serious incident, in your view?

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: So, I welcome the very close consultation that has taken place and which continues to take place, today with the briefing of the National Security Adviser, the UK National Security Adviser, but also with the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, coming on Monday to meet with me. This just reflects the close consultation between the UK and NATO, and NATO Allies, and I welcome that. I am absolutely certain that the UK will respond and is responding in a proportionate and measured way. At the same time, I fully support that there is a need for a response, because it has to have consequences when we see actions like we have seen in Salisbury.

Oana Lungescu [NATO Spokesperson]: Thank you very much. I know there's quite a few questions left, however this concludes the launch of the Annual Report and the Secretary General will join you for the Annual Media Reception in that direction. The Annual Report you can find on your way out. Thank you.

Jens Stoltenberg [NATO Secretary General]: Thank you.On 15 March 2018, Jens Stoltenberg released his fourth annual report as NATO Secretary General.

The Report provides an overview of how NATO has become more agile and innovative in the face of a complex and evolving security environment. It includes details on how the Alliance is strengthening its deterrence and defence, and doing more to fight terrorism and project stability in its neighbourhood. It also illustrates progress that NATO has made on tackling new threats such as cyber-attacks and hybrid warfare, as well as on burden-sharing. The Annual Report includes the details of estimated 2017 national defence expenditures for all 29 NATO Allies.

Below you will find short descriptions of  as well as direct links to  the elements of the annual report.

You can also download the full annual report.

In front of the new NATO Headquarters building in Brussels stand two memorials: a section of the Berlin Wall, and a twisted girder from the wreckage of the Twin Towers in New York. Those memorials are a powerful symbol of NATO's unshakeable commitment to our collective defence, of our solidarity and resolve in the fight against terrorism, and of the unbreakable bond that ties Europe and North America. Read the Foreword in the Annual Report (PDF)

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For All Who Serve NATO's ability to preserve peace and security relies, above all, on the skill and determination of the men and women of Allied and partner countries' armed forces. In 2017, tens of thousands of Allied and partner personnel were deployed on NATO missions and operations  on land, at sea and in the air. Their willingness to serve  and the professionalism they display each day  is the single most important contribution to the safety of the citizens the Alliance exists to protect. NATO recognises the debt of gratitude it owes them for the risks they take, and the sacrifices they and their families make. They are the embodiment of the Alliance's values and of our commitment to coming to each other's aid.

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NATO's chief responsibility is to protect its citizens and nations, a task it has successfully carried out for nearly 70 years. To prevent conflict and preserve peace, the Alliance must deter and defend against any security threat, no matter its complexity or origin. In the last twelve months, NATO has continued to adapt in order to do exactly that. Read the chapter "Deterrence, Defence & Dialogue" in the Annual Report (PDF)

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The ability of the Alliance to fulfil all its tasks depends on it having the right tools and capabilities. That, in turn, means appropriate investment in defence, with all 29 Allies contributing their fair share. Read the chapter "Investing in Security" in the Annual Report (PDF)

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One of NATO's greatest strengths is its ability to adapt to the changing security environment  something it has done again and again since its creation in 1949. In 2017, the Alliance continued to modernise and innovate to meet the challenges of a more complex security environment. Read the chapter "Modernising NATO" in the Annual Report (PDF)

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NATO's chief responsibility is the security of its 29 nations. To fulfil this mission, the Alliance needs to maintain a strong defence and deterrence at home and to fight terrorism and project stability abroad. In 2017, NATO continued to work with its partners to ensure the security of the Alliance and to help promote peace and stability beyond its borders. Read the chapter "Projecting Stability: Countering Terrorism, Working with Partners" in the Annual Report (PDF)

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NATO has a responsibility to be a leading protector of women's rights. The Secretary General has stated that strengthening the role of women in the armed forces is both the right and the smart thing to do. Allies acknowledge that integrating gender perspectives throughout NATO's core tasks contributes to a more modern, ready and responsive Alliance. The Alliance is committed to promoting the role of women in peace and security and to supporting the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and related resolutions on this subject. Read the chapter "Promoting Equality: Women, Peace and Security" in the Annual Report (PDF)

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A political-military alliance of 29 countries, NATO is also an adaptable organisation, committed to being efficient, flexible and accountable. 2017 was an important year for NATO's continuing adaptation and innovation. Read the chapter "Organisation" in the Annual Report (PDF)

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Resolute Support Mission The Resolute Support Mission is a NATO-led mission to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces and institutions. The mission was launched on 1 January 2015, immediately following the stand-down of the International Security Assistance Force. Read the annex"Resolute Support Mission" in the Annual Report (PDF) Kosovo Force The NATO-led Kosovo Force's mission is to contribute to maintaining a safe and secure environment as mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. In carrying out its mission, NATO cooperates and assists the United Nations, the European Union and other international actors, as appropriate, to support the development of a stable and peaceful Kosovo. The Kosovo Force supports the development of professional, democratic and multiethnic security structures in Kosovo. This includes NATO's support for the ongoing development of the Kosovo Security Force through the provision of advice, training and capacity-building at Kosovo Security Force Brigade level and above. The Kosovo Security Force is as an all-voluntary, professional, multi-ethnic, lightlyarmed force. Its basic missions include crisis response, assistance to civilian authorities in responding to natural and other disasters, explosive ordnance disposal and civilian protection tasks. Read the annex"Kosovo Force" in the Annual Report (PDF) Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries NATO collects defence expenditure data from Allies on a regular basis and presents aggregates and subsets of this information. Each Ally's Ministry of Defence reports current and estimated future defence expenditure according to an agreed definition of defence expenditure. The amounts represent payments by a national government actually made, or to be made, during the course of the fiscal year to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or of the Alliance. NATO also makes use of up-to-date economic and demographic information available from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Read the annex"Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries" in the Annual Report (PDF)

TOP(Natural News) If you ask Brune Poirson, the discerning French consumer should know exactly how long a product is expected to last. According to a Deutsche Welle article, hes proposing for the adoption of a labeling system that will rate a product on its durability, ability to be recycled, and ecological footprint.

The Secretary of State to Frances ecology minister has suggested rating products according to ease of repair, durability, sustainability, and other factors pertaining to effective lifespan. Each label would have a QR code that potential buyers could scan with their smart phones in order to find out its score.

Poirson expects the new system to encourage responsible consumers to choose longer-lasting and recyclable products, thereby saving them money and protecting the environment at the same time. (Related: Expert creates new prototype to restore old lithium batteries to 95% of original capacity, drawing interest from major tech companies.)

This wasnt the first time a government attempted to rate products by means of their durability. Both France and Germany attempted to pass similar legislation back in 2015, but their efforts petered out because the proposed ratings systems proved to be too cumbersome.

Still, the proposal might prove popular among people who have been wondering why their appliances and electronics keeping breaking down so quickly. Theres a general suspicion that manufacturers are deliberately designing products with short lifespans that leave consumers with no choice but to buy replacements, a practice called planned obsolescence.

Survey reveals consumers rank durability second to price

Germanys Blue Angel is the oldest voluntary certification scheme for environmentally-friendly products. The European Unions Ecolabel scheme is a more recent example that has been adopted across the continent. However, neither scheme specifically covered the durability and lifespan of a product.

To that end, Alanus University in Germany researched consumer reaction to the possible introduction of a product lifetime label. They contracted an independent company to ask consumers about the factors that guided their purchases. Said agency did not describe the hypothetical label as a full guarantee. Instead, they framed it as an indication of the products predicted lifetime.

The research study found that the product lifetime label earned a 31 percent score as the biggest factor in a purchase decision. It ranked slightly behind price at 33 percent. In comparison, the already prevalent energy efficiency label received less than half the score of the product lifetime label.

According to Alanus University researcher Kathleen Jacobs, a mix of sustainable values and self-beneficial reasons (i.e. saving money) drove the preference for durability. She reported that only a few participants chose the product lifetime label based on environmental concern alone. It would be important to find out just how much money consumers are willing to shell out for the information provided by such a label, she said.

The market for a product lifetime label is bigger, because it attracts not only those who want to help the environment, said Jacobs.

According to a 2017 study by the European Economic and Social Committee, a durability label would boost the sales of suitcases, printers, and smartphones.

Legal and funding challenges

Poirsons labeling scheme would require testing a products durability. Such tests are expensive, and consumers usually end up footing the bill. For example, the E.U. recently raised the minimum lifetime required for lightbulbs. The ensuing rounds of tests raised the product cost.

Furthermore, any labeling scheme must be voluntary in nature. E.U. law forbids member nations from coming up with a required national label because it would distort the single market.

Conversely, the E.U. could be the strongest supporter of the scheme. It already enjoys successful eco-labels and energy efficiency labels, so it could adopt the labeling scheme for all member nations.

Find more news about ways to save the environment at Environ.news.

Sources include:

DW.com

ConnexionFrance.com(Natural News) There are many environmentalists around the globe who are gravely concerned about the amount of plastic being dumped in our oceans. It seems that people in general just cant be bothered to try to do something about the problem, and something that was once a useful commodity has now become a dangerous hazard.

The truth is, though, that the irresponsible dumping of plastic is just a symptom of a much greater societal problem. If one single image had to be chosen to portray modern society, it would likely be a picture of a garbage can. Quite simply, we live in a society where everything from marriage to employment is viewed as disposable.

Why should we expect people to make serious attempts to curb the dumping of trash and toxic chemicals in our oceans when something as fundamentally important as the family unit is viewed as disposable? (Related: How shaky are the foundations of society? Discover the answers at Collapse.news.)

A recent report by EcoWatch cited a study by Professor Edward Kosior, a plastics and rubber expert with the organization Nextek, which noted that around 72 percent of all plastic is not recovered or recycled, at least 8 million tons of which ends up in our oceans each year. With over 150 million tons of plastic in the oceans right now, unless drastic steps are taken there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.

Many governments and organizations have vowed to do whatever it takes to reverse the situation, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which promised to prevent, reduce and control pollution by taking the following steps:

Measures shall include, inter alia, those designed to minimise to the fullest possible extent  the release of toxic, harmful or noxious substances, especially those which are persistent, from land-based sources  [and] shall include those necessary to protect and preserve rare or fragile ecosystems as well as the habitat of depleted, threatened or endangered species and other forms of marine life.

The problem is, while these organizations may have good intentions, enforcing these measures is virtually impossible, and very little has been done by individual countries to improve the situation.

And, as already noted, this is hardly surprising in a society where nothing is viewed as permanent, sacred or worth fighting for. With good reason, we are known as the throwaway generation.

Take, for example, the once sacred institution of marriage  the core unit of our society. (Related: Total thought control  California democrats introduce bill to ban husband and wife as outdated and biased.)

The American Psychological Association (APA) reports that divorce is as common an occurrence as marriage. Nonetheless, marriage is psychologically good, healthy and necessary:

Healthy marriages are good for couples mental and physical health. They are also good for children; growing up in a happy home protects children from mental, physical, educational and social problems. However, about 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce. The divorce rate for subsequent marriages is even higher.

But what about the children who never even get to experience the security and stability of having married parents because their folks split up or never bother to get married? Parents.com notes that between the 1970s and early 2000s the number of women who were married before the birth of their first child dropped by 50 percent.

Its been a record transformation, said Dr. Jonathan Vespa, Ph.D., a demographer with the U.S. Census Bureau.

And theres no such thing as a lifelong job with a secure pension at the end for the throwaway generation. (Related: Lacking any real job skills, broke millennials are now donating blood plasma as a routine source of income.)

Monster.com reported:

This is not your fathers job market. Long gone are the company lifers from yesteryear who spent their entire careers in a single position within a single company. Today, were living in an age of job promiscuity, where regularly changing jobs is not just tolerated, but encouraged. [Emphasis added]

All things considered, in a society where nothing is sacred, and anything and anyone can be chucked away at a moments notice, the dumping of trash in our oceans is probably far from being our most serious problem.

Read Pollution.news for more coverage of pollution impacts.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

APA.org

Parents.com

Monster.comA Morgan Hill student was arrested and booked into juvenile hall on Tuesday after police received information about a threat made to the student's campus, police said Wednesday.

The Police Department and the Morgan Hill Unified School District immediately responded to the school to investigate a message located at Ann Sobrato High School that was discovered the day after it had been written, police said.

A team of officers was on site at the high school to investigate, which resulted in the identification and arrest of the student who allegedly threatened the campus.

Police are now encouraging parents to talk to their children to reinforce the severity of actions like the ones taken at Sobrato High.

"There is an increase of threats being made at schools across the nation, and all threats will be taken seriously and prosecuted no matter what the intent," police said in a statement.

Since the student is a juvenile, his identity was not released.Marin County Public Health officials confirmed Tuesday a person was hospitalized with shellfish poisoning after eating mussels harvested from Dillon Beach.

The poisoning comes just days after health officials issued a warning against harvesting potentially lethal shellfish from the waters off three county coasts, including Dillon Beach, just west of Tomales.

The person, who was not identified, was stricken with paralytic shellfish poison after eating mussels on Sunday. The victim had neurological symptoms consistent with shellfish poisoning, according to Public Health Officer Dr. Matthew Willis, who was notified of the illness Tuesday.

"The person is getting better," Willis said in a statement. "Fortunately, the clinician was aware of the elevated PSP levels in locally sport-harvested shellfish and made a timely diagnosis."

PSP is a marine toxin that causes illness through the consumption of contaminated shellfish, and cooking the shellfish does not alleviate the toxicity, officials said. Symptoms include tingling, numbness, headaches, dizziness, nausea, rapid pain, or respiratory problems.

There have been 542 reported illnesses and 39 deaths attributed to PSP in California over the past 90 years, according to state statistics, health officials said.What to Know Experts are warning people with Toys R Us gift card to use them now

There are reports that the company could be closing all of its 800 U.S. stores soon

In the past, gift card holders have not been able to reclaim money from companies who went out of business

If youve got a Toys R Us gift card, use it ASAP, bankruptcy experts warn, because there are reports the beleaguered toy giant may be shuttering all its stores.

Toys R Us will appear at a bankruptcy hearing on Thursday and it could come out the other side announcing the closure of its nearly 800 stores, according to a report in Business Insider.

On Wednesday, the company told employees it plans to sell or close all of its stores in the U.S. and that it will file liquidation papers ahead of Thursday's hearing. CNBC reported Wednesday that the company was considering a proposal that could keep roughly 200 of its U.S. stores open, but the outcome of the plan remains up in the air.

Last September, the company filed for bankruptcy and it has clearance sales underway at about 170 of its stores that it plans to close next month, according to Business Insider.

The company had hoped to make a comeback by increasing internet sales, but a dismal holiday season brought more bad news.

In the past, gift card holders have had little luck refunding unused gift card money during retail bankruptcies, according to Business Insider.

After customers filed a lawsuit against now-defunct Borders in 2011, a judge ruled that gift card holders would not be reimbursed for an estimated $210.5 million in gift cards, according to Business Insider.

Bankruptcy lawyer Corali Lopez-Castro told Business Insider it may be a matter of weeks before going-out-of-business sales start at Toys R Us stores.

Toys R Us declined comment to CNBC and Business Insider.

Sen. Chuck Schumer released a statement Wednesday, saying he's reached out to the FTC and is "urging the company to redeem outstanding gift cards for cash so they are not as worthless and unwanted as a lump of coal in a stocking."

"Toys R Us has been around forever. When I was four, that's where I went to buy toys," said Brian Laroche as he shopped with his five-year-old son in Secaucus. "Obviously he's sad that it's closing," Laroche said.

A comprehensive bill to try to combat sexual harassment passed in the Massachusetts House of Representatives Thursday.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo was not present for the vote but had very strong words in regards to a fiery debate that took place inside the House Chambers as Representative Diana DiZoglio of Methuen shared her story.

The comments of the two representatives that agreements were used by the House to cover up wrongdoing are based on irresponsible speculation. The fact that the House today enacted a provision that waives any non-disclosure or non-disparagement provision of any agreement executed prior to today directly refutes their irresponsible speculation.



DeLeo's comments are in reference to DiZoglio, who, in 2011 as an aide, was the victim of unsubstantiated rumors that she had inappropriate relations with a state representative.

Even though an investigation found she and the representative had done nothing wrong, DiZoglio claims she had to endure endless rumors about her sex life and was the target of sexual harassment.

DiZoglio was terminated - wrongfully terminated, according to Speaker DeLeo.

But DiZoglio claims she felt forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement with DeLeos office for severance pay - one of 33 his office says were signed in the State House since 2010.

While the bill to combat sexual harassment at the State House did pass, DiZoglios amendment to ban so-called non-disparagement agreements was voted down.

Rep. Diana DiZoglio of Methuen said, These silencing tactics have no place in this House, they cover up misdeeds by politicians and others and they empower perpetrators to move from one victim to the next....These are public tax dollars that are being used to silence people because they might be critical of public elected officials in this chamber.

In a statement, Speaker DeLeos office said he was deeply troubled by Rep. DiZoglios sexual harassment claims but says none of these agreements were to settle sexual harassment claims.

And one lawmaker called for his actions to be investigated by the attorney general.New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has created a School Safety Preparedness Task Force in response to the Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.

The task force consists of a diverse group of local and state officials who have been charged with creating safety protocols for New Hampshire schools.

"We've been very fortunate here in New Hampshire,"Governor Sununu said. "We haven't had any significant incidents in recent history, but we know that very well could happen.

"Someone has to take a stand," said Tara Nicholson, a parent in Concord, New Hampshire. "We have to do it now."

On the same day that students all over the country walked out of school to protest gun violence, Governor Sununu's newly formed task force held their first meeting.

Governor Sununu has charged the task force with eight proposals to research and if possible implement ranging from increasing access to mental mental health services for youth, investment in school security to strengthening background checks.

"We talked about mental health. About kids in crisis. They talked about gun reform and what that would look like," said Governor Sununu. "Anytime you want answers they're usually not within the four walls of the State House, you gotta go out and really solicit that input from the community," Said Governor Sununu.

The Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Perry Plummer is the Chairperson of the task force.

"We hope to accomplish coming out with ideas that can be implemented to make our schools safer, and make our children safer," said Plummer.

An AR-15 semi automatic style weapon was used in the Florida shooting on Feb. 14.

"We're a gun crazed society, and there's time and place for every thing but we don't need AR 15's in the hands of kids," said Roger Ballou. "One has to be proactive because the firearms are out there."

Governor Sununu said the task force is New Hampshire's way of being proactive.

The Governor has said the task force will go hand and hand with the $20 million allocated to the Public School Safety Fund meant to give grants and assistance to safety and security upgrades in New Hampshire schools.The candidates have shared the same stage more than 30 times, but Wednesday night there was a far different mood.

JB Pritzker seemed uncomfortable while Chris Kennedy and Daniel Biss were ready to strike on the WTTW-hosted gubernatorial forum.

Kennedy was critical of Pritzker's explanation after a new Chicago Tribune report disclosed Pritzker's off-shore companies, investments kept secret and untaxed.

"So there's no tax avoidance here," Pritzker said. "All the assets that are going to charity are going to charity, all the assets that are not charitable are paying--and they're paying right here in the state of Illinois."

But Kennedy was unaccepting.

"What we don't know is what Mr. Pritzker is hiding," he said.

Pritzker, who has self funded his campaign, criticized Biss's donors.

"Are you kidding me?" Biss responded. "JB Pritzker has given $63 million to his campaign fund in an effort to buy this election."

For the first time it was only the top three candidates on this stage. Kennedy took the opportunity to address Pritzker's attack ads that Kenney claims are false.

"Look at me in the eyes," Kennedy said to Pritzker--who avoided eye contact. "I want to let you know I'm not for that, please stop running those lies."

The candidates were also asked if they supported Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios -- who's in a tough re-election with voters upset over property taxes.

"I'm not revealing who I voted for or who I'm supporting in that race," Pritzker said. "Because I don't think we should be getting involved in democratic primaries--we're running one ourselves."

Clearly it was not Pritzker's best night, especially when peppered with questions by reporters after the debate on his off shore investments. He walked away without answering.

The debate winner was Chris Kennedy, but with only five days to go, the question is: will it make a difference?After a 70-year run, the end is near for Toys R Us. The iconic American company is planning to close all of its 800 stores, including eight Chicago-area locations.

The closing of the company's stores over the coming months will finalize the downfall of the chain that succumbed to heavy debt and relentless trends that undercut its business, from online shopping to mobile games.

CEO David Brandon told employees Wednesday the company's plan is to liquidate all of its U.S. stores, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The Associated Press. Toys R Us filed the paperwork for liquidation Wednesday night after first filing for bankruptcy back in September, hoping to get rid of some debt and reinvent its stores.

But that plan didn't work, and in January, the company announced the closure of 182 stores, just months before Wednesday's announcement that a full closure is imminent.

Brandon said Wednesday that Toys R Us will try to bundle its Canadian business, with about 200 stores, and find a buyer. The company's U.S. online store would still be running for the next couple of weeks in case there's a buyer for it.

It's likely to also liquidate its businesses in Australia, France, Poland, Portugal and Spain, according to the recording. It's already shuttering its business in the United Kingdom. That would leave it with stores in Canada, central Europe and Japan, where it could find buyers for those assets.

Toys R Us had about 60,000 full-time and part-time employees worldwide last year. The company hasn't reported a full profit since 2012 and a bankruptcy hearing was scheduled for Thursday.What to Know A 950-ton pedestrian bridge near FIU collapsed Thursday, killing several people and crushing cars just days after its installation.

Authorities said 6 people were killed while 10 were taken to the hospital after the collapse with one of those among the dead.

Families are advised to call FIU at 305-348-3481 for more information.

As investigators continue to search the site of a deadly collapse involving a 950-ton pedestrian bridge near Florida International University in Miami Thursday, officials say the death toll has risen.

Early Friday morning, the Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed that six people have died as a result of the collapse.

"This has turned into from a rescue to a recovery operation," Det. Alvaro Zabaleta said.



Ten others were taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center from the site of the collapse, with two being listed in critical condition when they arrived. One person died at the hospital. Officials have not confirmed if it was one of the 10 taken there or if it was someone who was brought in themselves.

"Our hearts go out to anybody that's been impacted by this. Being a dad and a grandfather  you just hope this would never happen to anybody," Gov. Rick Scott said at an evening press conference.

What caused the bridge  the main portion of which was installed just last week  to collapse has not been determined. The governor promised a concerted effort to "hold anybody accountable if anyone's done anything wrong." The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to the site to look into the cause.

But, Scott said, the most important matter for now was to pray for the people who are recovering and for the families of those who have died.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said that before the collapse, the new bridge had inspired a sense of pride within the community.

Rubio  who said he has worked as an adjunct professor at FIU for about 10 years  called the disaster "troubling and tragic."

"FIU is home," the senator said at the press conference.

The 174-foot-long bridge, scheduled to open to the public in early 2019, crossed Southwest 8th Street near 109th Avenue and was built to allow students living across the busy roadway to cross safely.

Rubio said the cables used to suspend the bridge had loosened and that the engineering firm ordered they be tightened.

"They were being tightened when it collapsed today," Rubio said.

FIU President Mark Rosenberg said stress tests were conducted earlier on the day of the collapse.

I know the test occurred today and I know, and I believe, that they did not prove to lead anyone to the conclusion that we would have this kind of result," he said.

"It is a cruel irony that the structure was built to keep FIU students safe as they walk from their residences to campus," said U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson in a statement.

President Donald Trump said he was "continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU - so tragic."

"Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected," the president tweeted.

Dr. Mark McKenney, the trauma medical director at Kendall Regional Medical Center, said that 10 people were brought to the hospital from the scene. Two patients were in critical condition, while the other eight were stable.

Eight cars had been pinned underneath the slabs of concrete, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Dave Downey said. Authorities searched the wreckage for hours looking for any additional victims.

Susie Bermudez was driving and saw the bridge collapse right in front of her.

"I was three seconds away from being under the bridge, but I looked forward. All of a sudden I saw the bridge collapse, and it started from the left side of the bridge and it really shocked me, she told NBC News.

"Theres probably like seven or eight cars under the bridge so it was very shocking to me, and Im very grateful to be alive," Bermudez said.



Jose Mejia was having coffee with city officials and police when the bridge gave way, he told MSNBC.

All of the sudden you hear a loud bang, and I looked to one of the command staff and said, Oh my God! then they looked at me and they said the bridge  I say, no, it cant be! Mejia said. And one of them runs to grab their radio and sure enough, its the bridge."

Mejia, who lives in Sweetwater, said he rushed to the scene with police where he saw numerous cars trapped under the bridge.

"There was a young gentleman in a red Honda, and unfortunately there was nothing I could do, but he stuck his hand out and, at that point, he passed away, he expired," Mejia said.

U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, whose district includes the campus, expressed sorrow over the collapse.

The University is at the heart of the entire South Florida community. Its a place where people from all over the world come to debate ideas, learn and grow. My staff, family and I are thinking of all those affected," Curbelo said in a statement.

The bridge was part of a $19.4 million project partially funded by the Department of Transportation and had been hailed in recent weeks for finishing ahead of schedule.

The university promoted the project in a press release last week after the main span of the bridge was lifted from its temporary supports and lowered into its intended permanent position. FIU tweeted that the first-of-its-kind pedestrian bridge had swung into place.

FIU is about building bridges and student safety, Rosenberg said at the time. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully.

The 30-foot-wide bridge  with the main span weighing around 950 tons  was to allow bicyclists and pedestrians to share the bridge. It was planned to illuminate at night and had a canopy to shelter those crossing.

The Munilla Construction Management company and FIGG Bridge Engineers partnered to design and build the bridge. According to FIUs website, FIGG designed Boston's Leonard P. Zakim Bridge and Florida's Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

"The MCM familys thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy," the Miami-based company said in a statement. The company said it "will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way."

We are stunned by todays tragic collapse of a pedestrian bridge that was under construction over Southwest Eighth Street in Miami," said a statement from FIGG. "In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before."

A family reunification center is located on the campus of FIU in the Student Academic Success Center Room 100. Families are advised to access the building via SW 16th Street and 107th Avenue or they can call 305-348-3481.There may finally be progress in sight for neighbors frustrated by a blighted building on Milfords Naugatuck Avenue.

A new permit has been granted for construction of a split commercial and residential building.

NBC Connecticut first investigated the building at 257 Naugatuck Avenue in October. Neighbors and nearby business owners were sick of looking at it, and expressed concerns about the roofless, boarded-up building attracting graffiti, crime, and possibly affecting their property values and overall neighborhood perception.

The property is well-known to the city. Blight complaints on record with the city's health department date back more than 10 years. The health department is responsible for the enforcement of Milfords anti-blight ordinance.

But every time its come close to accruing fines or being demolished, the property has either been sold or promises to fix its various issues have been made, according to City Health Department director Deepa Joseph.

NBC Connecticut spoke to the current owner in October. Christopher Saley is a local real estate developer who bought the property in 2013 before he became Public Works Director for the City of Milford in 2014.

At the time, he detailed plans for a split commercial and residential building.

Weve had a few hiccups with it, a few starts and faults, right now we plan on starting construction in the next month and a half, thats my goal, Saley said.

But neighbors recently contacted NBC Connecticut once again to complain that more than four months later, nothing has changed.

New records obtained from the health department show Saley explored selling the property, but that didnt work out. A blight violation extension was granted through mid-December based on a promise to either sell or develop the property. Failing that, the city would begin charging fines of $100 per day.

Saley notified the Health Department in mid-December that he was no longer pursuing sale of the property, that an application was pending for a new building permit, and construction would begin upon its approval.

Milfords Building Official, Joseph D. Griffith, confirmed to NBC Connecticut that permit was approved and issued on February 13 for the same plans Saley showed in October -- a new three story building with apartments and commercial space.

When reached for comment this week, Saley told NBC Connecticut that personal family matters also played a role in the delay.

His new timeline for the project is to break ground in the next three weeks. He hopes to have the new building framed in four months and have it open to residential and retail tenants within six to eight months.

Saley said he is hopeful the 3,000 square feet of first-floor retail space could be used as a market or butcher shop for the neighborhood and said he welcomes interested tenants.

Do you have a question or concern about an issue where you live? Contact NBC Connecticut with your story at news@nbcconnecticut.com.Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores in the U.S. are expected to close by July and Connecticut residents with gift cards or store credit are urged to use them as soon as possible.

CEO David Brandon told employees Wednesday the company's plan is to liquidate all of its U.S. stores, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The Associated Press.

The plan would impact stores across the United States, including several in Connecticut.

This is a map of Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores in Connecticut:Correction (March 15, 3:13 p.m.): A previous version of the story mistakenly said the steroids were found at the correctional officer's home. The U.S. Attorney's Office said they were found at "an individual's residence in Hamden." See the full release here.

A correctional officer with the Connecticut Department of Correction has pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office, and officials said he sold some of them to coworkers.

The Statewide Narcotics Task Force West searched a Hamden home and seized around 25,000 pills and 530 vials of anabolic steroids, according to the office of John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

When authorities went through that person's phone, they found several text messages with 33-year-old Nicholas Aurora Jr., of Hamden about the purchase and redistribution of steroids, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which revealed that Aurora was buying steroids from a supplier every two weeks, using some of them and selling some to coworkers.

Aurora waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids.

He was released on a $50,000 bond, pending sentencing. No date has been set for sentencing.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the state Department of Correction, but the department has not responded.Fort Worth high school students are planning a rally next week in support of stricter gun laws.

"We hope everyone can come," said Paschal High School junior Lucy Ariola. "We want everyone to feel they're welcome."

Ariola, 17, said she's been watching other student protests around the country and took it upon herself to help organize one in Fort Worth.

"This is my first big political activism thing," she said.

She said students want tougher gun laws and stricter background checks.

"And obviously we're saying teachers shouldn't have guns and things like that," she said. "We are the future and the adults really aren't doing anything. They weren't doing anything. And now that our voices are being heard and we are becoming more active, things are getting done and the conversation has been started."

There have been other protests in North Texas.

High school students in Plano and Southlake organized protests after the Florida high school massacre last month that left 17 dead.

But in Fort Worth, they're planning for a much larger rally.

"The response we've gotten so far is like incredible," Ariola said. "We put up the Facebook page and on the first day we had 1,000 people saying they were interested in liking the page. I think a lot of people are going to come to these marches."

Ariola said the protest will be peaceful even though they are expecting counter-protesters.

"We are working with the city and the police so everyone will be safe," she said.A North Texas man and his family fear the worst after an explosion destroyed the chemical plant where he worked Thursday morning.

Mitchell Family

Dylan Mitchell, 27, is believed to have been inside the Tri-Chem Industries Plant, located along Texas 171 in the town of Cresson about 20 miles southwest of Fort Worth, Thursday when something sparked a fire and explosion that consumed the building.

Mitchell has been missing since the fire was first reported; two of his coworkers were found and have been hospitalized with injuries.

Mitchell's brother, Austin Mitchell, spoke with NBC 5 Thursday afternoon and said his family is fearing the worst since his brother hasn't been seen since the blast was reported.

"That my brother's dead; that no one can find him. I dont blame anyone, like any of the responders, because its messy. It sucks. I feel hollow," Austin Mitchell said. "It's been this long, he's probably dead."

Austin Mitchell, whose 27-year-old brother Dillon is missing after the blast, spoke with NBC 5 Thursday and said his family was fearing the worst.

One person is missing and two people have been injured in an explosion and large fire at a chemical plant in Cresson, southwest of Fort Worth, Thursday morning, authorities say.

Two other people working at the facility were injured in the fire, including one person who was critically burned on his trunk and hands and flown about 50 miles to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. A second injured person, whose injuries were not as serious, was taken to Lake Granbury Medical Center.

NBC 5 has learned about 12 people work at the Cresson facility, which opened about a year ago. There were no other injuries reported and it's not immediately clear how many people were working at the facility Thursday.

First responders, including a number of volunteer fire departments from multiple jurisdictions, including a hazmat crew from the Fort Worth Fire Department, were called to the fire at about 9:45 a.m.

Witnesses reported hearing crackling followed by a pop and a "big kaboom" before "big fireballs" began shooting out of the building.

A North Texas man and his family fear the worst after an explosion destroyed the chemical plant where his brother worked Thursday morning. Fears of another blast amid the toxic chemicals prevented crews from battling the ensuing blaze, an official said.

Firefighters arrived to attack the fire but were then ordered to stand down over concerns about subsequent explosions and exposure to toxic fumes. The attack plan was then scrapped in favor of simply allowing the fire to burn itself out.

As the fire continued to collapse the metal building, secondary explosions were seen at about 11:15 a.m. By 1 p.m., most of the roof of the building had collapsed and the fire had burned down to only a few active areas.

Cresson Mayor/Fire Chief Bob Cornett told the Associated Press that investigators believe the fire could have started by a worker dragging his foot along the floor while chemicals were being mixed. In conversations with NBC 5, Cornett clarified the statement to say that while static electricity may have been the cause of the fire, they won't know exactly what sparked the fire and explosion until they've had time to investigate the scene after the fire is out. Cornett added that people working in the plant have special shoes designed to reduce or eliminate static discharge and that theory may not be valid.

Cornett said the earliest rescuers could begin searching for Dylan Mitchell was Friday morning, after the fire had extinguished itself and heavy excavation equipment could be brought to the site.

Jessica Gregg says her son-in-law was burned on his back and legs in an explosion at the chemical plant where he worked. She said he started at the plant just three weeks ago and that they didn't realize how dangerous the job could be.

Jessica Gregg identified the man flown to Parkland as Jason Speegle, her son-in-law, and said he started working at the facility only three weeks ago.

"We were told that this was a hazardous job when he started, but we didnt understand that it was something that could lead to this," said Gregg, through tears. "My daughter is very upset. We just need prayers. Everybody needs to be praying for them."

Kale Nicodemus, who was standing near the plant when the first explosion erupted, described hearing a noise followed by several "big fireballs" that kept shooting out of the plant.

"Things were blowing out of the roof, like metal lids on buckets. Then, the fire," said Jesse Bailey, who was working next door. "It smells like sulfur."

Witnesses to the chemical plant explosion in Cresson, Texas, March 15, 2018, said they heard crackles and pops followed by a louder boom before big fireballs started erupting from the building.

With winds from the south to the north, smoke from the fire blew toward DFW, including Fort Worth and Weatherford. The Environmental Protection Agency and other authorities are monitoring air emissions.

The Texas Center on Environmental Quality said they are assisting first responders and coordinating with Hood County, EPA responders, and Fort Worth hazmat for response actions needed to address any discharges from the site and air monitoring. The TCEQ said they'll also monitor cleanup efforts. Additionally, the State Fire Marshal's Office has been asked to investigate the cause of the fire.

The chemical plant and a nearby lumber yard were evacuated; no other evacuations reported.

Tri-Chem Industries offers commercial chemical blending services for customers in Texas, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, according to its website. Cornett told The Associated Press that Tri-Chem Industries mixes chemicals that are primarily used by the oil and gas industry to drill disposal wells. He said he doesn't know how many of the chemicals stored at the plant were hazardous, but that "what was burnt and exploded was quite toxic."[[476965643,R]]

A spokesman for the TCEQ, the state agency responsible for coordinating the cleanup, declined to produce a list of the plant's on-site chemicals, telling an AP reporter to file a public information request. In recent years, Texas leaders have made it increasingly difficult for the public to find out about the chemicals manufactured and stored at such plants.

After a fertilizer plant explosion in the city of West, Texas, killed 15 people in 2013, Greg Abbott, who was then attorney general and is now governor, ruled that state agencies could withhold information about hazardous chemicals because of "ongoing terroristic activity."

NBC 5's Kevin Cokely, Brian Roth, Cody Lillich and Don Peritz, along with the Associated Press, contributed to this report. Check back and refresh this page for the latest update. As this story is developing, elements may change.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."A former Disney cruise ship worker has been sentenced in San Diego to 15 months in prison for embezzling more than $260,000 from his employer.



Renan Dias Da Rocha Gomes, 32, was arrested by federal agents aboard the Disney Wonder on Friday, Oct. 27. The ship had just returned to San Diego following a cruise to Mexico.

As a merchandise host, Gomez illegally obtained money through VeriFone, the payment system used by the cruise line, according to a spokesperson for the Southern District of Californias Office of the U.S. Attorney.

The complaint filed accused Gomes of loading about $275,000 onto gift cards for him to later spend.

More than 200 gift cards were found in a search of his cabin aboard the Disney Wonder.



According to court records, Gomes spent approximately $35,000 of the embezzled funds taking his family on a Disney World vacation.

Gomes was also accused of using identification for another Disney employee who was not on the ship at the time as a way to cover up his crimes.

The Brazil citizen admitted to wire fraud charges as part of a plea deal. His temporary work visa has been canceled. He will be removed from the United States to Brazil after completing his prison term.

A federal court jury has awarded $33.5 million in damages to the parents of a man who was fatally shot by a Southern California sheriff's deputy in November 2015.

The jury found Wednesday that the San Bernardino County deputy unreasonably detained 29-year-old Nathanael Pickett, delayed medical aid and was negligent in use of deadly force. The jury award included $15.5 million in compensatory damages and $18 million in punitive damages.

"It's the highest verdict that I know of in the country for a police shooting wrongful death case," said attorney Dale Galipo, who represented the family.



Sheriff's officials said the verdict will likely be appealed. A year after the shooting, prosecutors announced that their investigation determined the deputy was legally justified.

"We strongly disagree with the outcome based on the evidence in this case," the department said in a statement. "Our attorneys, the Department and the County, will be discussing appealing the jurys award."

The shooting occurred outside a motel in Barstow. Security camera video shows the deputy and Pickett struggling outside the room. The county claimed Pickett assaulted Deputy Kyle Woods but plaintiffs' attorney Galipo contended the account was made up.

Attorneys for the county said in a court filing last month that Deputy Woods was patrolling when he saw Pickett looking back at him several times as he crossed a street, and then disappeared. Woods figured Pickett had jumped a fence into the motel parking lot and followed, also jumping the fence, according to the account.

Pickett gave a false name to the deputy, appeared to be under the influence and ran when Woods tried to detain him, the filing said.

A scuffle began and Pickett ended up on top, repeatedly punching the deputy, who felt he was losing consciousness, pulled his gun and told Pickett to stop or he would shoot, the filing said. The county contended Pickett grabbed the weapon and Woods fired.

Galipo used the motel security video and photos of Woods taken shortly afterward to dispute that account. Galipo said Woods had no visible injuries, video didn't show Pickett throwing punches and witnesses didn't see him grab the gun.

"It was a made-up story," Galipo said after the verdict.

Woods continues to work for the sheriff's agency.United Airlines says it's investigating after mistakenly flying a Kansas family's dog to Japan.

Kara Swindle and her two children flew from Oregon to Kansas City, Missouri, Tuesday on a United flight, KCTV reported.

They went to a cargo facility to pick up 10-year-old Irgo, a German shepherd, but were instead given a Great Dane. Swindle, of Wichita, Kansas, learned Irgo had been put on a flight to Japan, where the Great Dane was supposed to go.

Airline officials in Japan put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City. It isn't clear when the dog will arrive.

"An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations," a spokesman for United said in a statement.

"We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible. We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened," the airline's statement continued.



The news of Irgo's unplanned odyssey comes as United admits another dog died after a flight attendant forced it to travel in an overhead bin on a Houston-to-New York flight.

United called that death a "tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin."

What to Know A man paid a woman in Romania to molest her children on Skype

The 51-year-old Brooklyn man pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday

He faces 30 years in prison when sentenced

A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court on Thursday to paying a Romanian woman to molest her two young children in live video shows, prosecutors said.

David Shalam, 51, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of minors in a case that dates back three years and stretches across the Atlantic, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.

Prosecutors say that from April to December 2015, Shalam paid a woman in Romania to perform live video shows in which she molested her two children, who at the time were 6 and 8 years old.

Top Tri-State News Photos

The FBI worked with Romanian authorities to recover Skype logs between Shalam and the woman. In the logs, Shalam talked about the sex acts he wanted to see performed, when the children would be home from school, and the cost of each show, as Shalam referred to them, prosecutors said.

Shalam wired payments to the woman through a Western Union branch in Midtown, a few blocks from the retail clothing company where he worked, according to prosecutors.

Shalam faces a maximum of thirty years in prison when hes sentenced.What to Know Eighteen animals, mostly dogs, died while being transported on United planes last year, according to federal data

Alaska Airlines carried 17 percent fewer animals last year but had just two deaths

Reports filed with the government indicate that in most cases of animal death or injury last year, United took no corrective action

It is rare that an animal dies on a plane, even on United Airlines, which is under siege this week over the death of a puppy on one of its flights.

There was only one death for roughly every 4,500 animals United transported in its cargo holds last year. But the 18 animals, mostly dogs, that died while being transported on United Airlines represent three-fourths of all animal deaths on U.S. carriers, according to the Department of Transportation.

United, which promotes its pet-shipping program called PetSafe, carries more animals than any other airline, but its animal-death rate is also the highest in the industry. Alaska Airlines, which carries only 17 percent fewer animals, had just two deaths last year.

"The overwhelming majority (of deaths), according to medical experts, were due to a pre-existing medical condition or the animal wasn't properly acclimated to its crate," United spokesman Charles Hobart said.

Hobart said the airline investigates every injury or death to an animal in its care. Pets are loaded last and taken off the plane first after landing, he said.

United's PetSafe has its skeptics.

"I think United tries to make a business out of pet transport with this program, but (airline) ramp workers are not veterinarians," said Brian Kelly, CEO of The Points Guy, a travel website that first highlighted this week's incident.

Reports filed with the government indicate that in most cases of animal death or injury last year, United took no corrective action. Some animals were deemed to have died of natural causes, others from cardiac problems or gastric dilation, a condition associated with eating too much. One dog died of heat stroke, and another animal escaped while being handed back to its owner and was hit by a vehicle.

United has suffered a string of incidents that generated bad publicity in the last year, including the violent removal of a passenger from a United Express plane to make room for a crew member, and the death of a giant rabbit  its Iowa owners sued the airline, which they said cremated the animal to destroy evidence about the cause of death.

In the case of the French bulldog that died on Monday night, United said the flight attendant who ordered a passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin didn't know there was a dog inside. But the family that owned the dog, named Kokito, contradicted that, as did other passengers on Monday night's flight.

Eleven-year-old Sophia Ceballos told NBC New York that her mother told the flight attendant "'It's a dog, it's a dog,' and (the flight attendant) said we have to put it up there," in the bin.

Other passengers backed up the family's account on Twitter and Facebook.

United acknowledged Wednesday that the customer said there was a dog in the carrier. "However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin," the airline said in a statement. United declined to identify the employee.

The airline also said that next month it will begin issuing brightly colored bag tags to travelers flying with pets.



Late Wednesday, the district attorney's office in Harris County, Texas, said a criminal investigation has been launched into the dog's death aboard the Houston-to-New York flight.

The issue of pets on planes has gotten attention recently after United and Delta Air Lines announced tightened restrictions on emotional-support animals, including requiring a health form filled out by a veterinarian.

If your pet must travel, experts have several recommendations:Parole has been granted to a former member of a 1970s black radical group who fatally shot two NYPD officers nearly 50 years ago.

State prison system officials say Wednesday that the parole board this week approved 70-year-old Herman Bell's release. It was his eighth parole hearing since being imprisoned for killing officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones in 1971.

Bell and two other members of the Black Liberation Army were convicted of killing the officers after luring them to a Harlem housing complex with a bogus 911 call. Jones died instantly from a single shot. Piagentini was shot 22 times.

Bell was sentenced in 1979 to 25 years to life.

Officials say the earliest he can be released from Shawangunk Prison in Ulster County is April 17.What to Know United Airlines said an attendant didn't knowingly put a dog in an overhead bin on a flight, even though the passenger told her as much

The dog, Kokito, died at some point during the flight from Houston to New York; his owner discovered the death after landing

A passenger aboard the flight told NBC News that she heard the dog's owner mention that a dog was in the bag

A criminal investigation has been launched into a dog's death aboard a Houston-to-New York United Airlines flight after a flight attendant ordered the animal be placed in the plane's overhead bin.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, the Harris County, Texas, district attorney's office said its animal cruelty division is working with the county's animal cruelty task force to investigate the death of the 10-month-old French bulldog named Kokito that occurred on the Monday night flight.

The statement said prosecutors won't decide if criminal charges are warranted until the investigation is completed.

United Airlines says the flight attendant who ordered the passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin didn't know there was a puppy inside. However, the family and other passengers contradict the airline's account, saying the dog's barks were audible from inside the bin.

"We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier," the airline said. "However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin. As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support."



The probe comes just days after the owner's daughter, 11-year-old Sophia Ceballos, told News 4 that her mother repeatedly said there was a dog in the carrier.

"My mom was like, 'It's a dog, it's a dog,'" said Ceballos, speaking for her mother Catalina Robledo, whose native language is not English. "And (the flight attendant) said, 'You have to put it up there."

I want to help this woman and her daughter. They lost their dog because of an @united flight attendant. My heart is broken. pic.twitter.com/mjXYAhxsAq  MaggieGremminger (@MaggieGrem) March 13, 2018

The airline added that by April, it will begin issuing bright-colored bag tags to travelers flying with pets.A 7-year-old Siberian Husky who was taken from her owner's New Mexico residence five years ago and ended up in Riverside, California, will be heading home for a happy reunion with the family that had given her up for dead.

According to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, "Azula" was abducted from her Albuquerque-area property in 2013 and was located last month in a Riverside neighborhood.

Agency spokesman John Welsh said the canine was wandering aimlessly when she was picked up by a good Samaritan, who dropped her at the Western Riverside County Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley.

The 65-pound Husky, who outwardly appears to be in good health, had been microchipped, and that data was scanned by shelter employees, leading to the identification of the dog's owner -- Jezus Vigil.

"Mr. Vigil said he was thrilled when he was told his dog was alive," Welsh said. "However, he said he was amazed to learn his pet somehow ended up in the Golden State."

The man said Azula was stolen from her pen, leaving the family bereft and fearing the worst.

Shelter employees tapped a special projects fund -- not department revenue -- to which they contribute to arrange for Azula to be returned home via an airline flight Thursday out of Ontario International Airport, according to Welsh. He noted that the Vigil family "made a large donation" to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to match the employees' gift of returning the dog.

Azula was scheduled to depart Ontario about 12:45 p.m. and arrive at Albuquerque International Airport about 8:30 p.m., Welsh said.What to Know Catelina Robledo and her daughter told News 4 they were told to put their dog Kokito in an overhead compartment on a flight to NYC on Monday

Kokito died during the 4-hour, 25-minute flight; other passengers recalled seeing Robledo crying and rocking with the dead dog after landing

United has taken responsibility for the dog's death and said it is investigating why the flight attendant to put the dog in the overhead bin

When an attendant on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York City told Catelina Robledo and her daughter to put their dog in an overhead compartment because its carrier was partially blocking an aisle, they knew something was off.

"My mom was like, 'It's a dog, it's a dog,'" said Sophia Ceballos, Robledo's 11-year-old daughter. "And (the flight attendant) said, 'You have to put it up there."

Then, before Robledo -- who was also traveling with a newborn baby on the Monday flight and had paid a $200 fee to bring the French bulldog, Kokito, aboard -- could protest further, the overhead compartment was closed. It ended up being the last time they saw the dog, who Ceballos affectionately called "Little Pig," alive.

Kokito, the dog that died aboard a United Airlines Flight from Houston to New York City on Monday, plays with Catalina Robledos infant.

Ceballos was justifiably worried about putting the pup overhead, and other passengers voiced concern over what they had seen. Witness Maggie Gremminger told NBC News she remembered it as a "triggering moment where it didn't feel right."

"(Another passenger and I) looked at each other and said, 'Did they just put the dog up there?'"

Then, Robledo, Ceballos, Gremminger and others sat nervously over the 4-hour, 25-minute flight. Gremminger said she Googled whether dogs were safe in overhead compartments. Ceballos, 11, said she she heard the puppy she got for her birthday let out a few barks.

"We were really worried," Ceballos said. "He barked in the middle of the flight, and there was a lot of turbulence, so we couldn't get him."

When they landed, Robledo opened the overhead compartment and realized the dog wasn't moving. Kokito had perished in the flight; the cause of death isn't quite clear.

"She was saying, 'Kokito, Kokito wake up!'" Ceballos recalled her mother saying.

Gremminger said she saw Robledo on the floor, rocking and crying. A stranger offered to take the baby and passengers normally hurrying to grab bags and get off the plane were frozen in shock.

"You could see that she was holding her dog and it was not moving," Gremminger said.

She added, "She was just crying and, I'm sure, in disbelief and overwhelmed with guilt and confused....everything felt drained."

Gremminger stayed with the family to help, noting that everyone in the flight crew was "incredibly shocked" that a flight attendant would tell a passenger to put a dog in an overhead compartment.

"It's just so sad, that dog was so sweet," she said.

I want to help this woman and her daughter. They lost their dog because of an @united flight attendant. My heart is broken. pic.twitter.com/mjXYAhxsAq  MaggieGremminger (@MaggieGrem) March 13, 2018

United said in a statement afterward that it was taking responsibility for Kokito's death, calling it a "tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin."

The airline added that it is investigating the flight and talking to the flight attendant. The airline has refunded the tickets for Robledo and her children and refunded the $200 fee they paid to bring Kokito on board.

But Ceballos said they're not after money as she recalled how her dog enjoyed running around and doing flips in the park.

"We don't want the same thing to happen (to other pet owners)," she said. "If flight attendants tell you to put your pet (in an overhead compartment), don't do it."

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and MorePresident Donald Trump joined his counterparts in Britain, France and Germany Thursday to call for Russia to answer all questions related to the brazen poisoning of a former spy in England with a military-grade nerve agent this month.

The leaders' rare joint statement calls the attack "an assault on UK sovereignty." It comes after British Prime Minister Theresa May quickly pinned the blame on Russia, as did U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in what ultimately became one of his last public statements before being fired. Trump was slower to reach that conclusion publicly.

"This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War," the statement said. "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 also came from May, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Trump's initial response was more circumspect, with his spokeswoman pointedly avoiding naming Russia as the likely perpetrator of the attack. Tougher rhetoric came only on Wednesday evening, when White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders put out a statement saying the U.S. "stands in solidarity with its closest ally" and shares Britain's assessment that "Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack."

For U.S. allies and some congressional lawmakers, it was another befuddling example of the president appearing to soft-pedal in the face of Moscow's provocations. Some Russia watchers said the fact that the U.S. had to play catch-up to align itself with the British was glaring, particularly at a time of uncertainty over the trajectory of American foreign policy.

"It's striking the contrast between what the Brits have done and what the U.S. has not done," said Angela Stent, director of Georgetown University's Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. Stent said that while it's unlikely the U.S. would levy new sanctions on Russia over an incident on British soil, "you would still expect solidarity" from Washington.

The pressure on Trump to forcefully respond to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian agent convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter Yulia escalated Wednesday when May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and severed high-level contacts with Moscow. May also vowed both open and covert action against Russia, which denies being behind the nerve agent attack.

The White House initially said Trump agreed with May on "the need for consequences" following the attack, but did not specify whether the U.S. planned any punishment of its own. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday that Russia must cooperate with the British investigation and "account for its actions."

Sanders' statement Wednesday evening went further: "The latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes. The United States is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again."

Some congressional lawmakers had nudged Trump to bolster the U.S. response, including Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who said, "Americans ought to be leading a conversation with our NATO allies about a collective response to this act and future acts of aggression."

May's rapid response stands in stark contrast to Trump's handling of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, which is now a centerpiece of special counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling investigation. Trump has often muddied the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, declaring that while Russia interfered, others likely did as well. And he's irritated Russia hawks in Congress, including numerous Republicans, by declining to use a new law letting the U.S. slap sanctions on foreign companies or governments that do business with Russia's defense or intelligence sectors. Those powers took effect in January, but so far nobody has been punished.

This latest Russian provocation against a close U.S. partner comes at a particularly delicate moment for the Trump administration, with both allies and adversaries closely watching U.S. foreign policy after Tillerson's ouster. Though Tillerson faced initial skepticism about his posture toward Russia given his business relationships with the Kremlin, the former head of ExxonMobil emerged as a leading Russia critic in the Trump Cabinet. He repeatedly took Moscow to task for its actions in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.

"Rex Tillerson was the person that Donald Trump was relying on for Russia policy," said Andrew Weiss, who held national security positions during the Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations and now serves as vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "That's all now up for grabs."

Trump has tapped CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson at the State Department. The former Republican congressman has accepted the intelligence agencies' conclusion that Russia interfered in the election, but has downplayed the notion that the meddling was an effort to help Trump get elected.

"The Russians attempted to interfere in the United States election in 2016. They also did so before that," Pompeo told Fox News Sunday. "There's a long history of Russian efforts to influence the United States and conduct influence operations against the United States."

Pompeo also raised eyebrows earlier this year by meeting senior Russian security officials in Washington days before the Trump administration declined to impose new sanctions on Moscow over the election interference. Pompeo described the meetings as normal contacts for the heads of espionage services.

If Pompeo is confirmed by the Senate, the U.S. relationship with Russia will be among the most vexing issues he has to tackle. Tillerson lamented the state of affairs with Moscow on one of his final days as America's top diplomat, unaware he was about to hand off the problem to a new secretary of state.

"I've become extremely concerned about Russia," he said. "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."

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Lisa Mascaro, Edith M. Lederer and Greg Katz contributed to this report.Could you be fired for using medical cannabis?

Maybe. Maybe not.

A little more than one month into the Pennsylvania's new medicinal marijuana program, local officials are asking themselves  and each other  how to handle workplace drug testing.

The conundrum is especially salient for the City of Philadelphia, which employs roughly 30,000 workers, according to Councilwoman Cherelle Parker.

In an exclusive interview with NBC10, Parker revealed that she is considering legislative remedies that would shield city employees who are also medical marijuana patients.

We have the moral imperative to explore what protections, as a city, we can offer to our own, she said.

While other states with cannabis programs have addressed the problem retroactively in court, Philadelphia hopes to find a proactive solution, Parker, a Democrat who represents neighborhoods in Northwest and Northeast Philadelphia, added.

Statewide, more than 21,000 patients have registered to participate in the medical marijuana program, according to the Department of Health. More than 6,000 have been certified by a physician.



Yet Pennsylvania's current medical marijuana bill only protects employees from workplace discrimination. It states that companies cannot fire or punish someone solely on their basis of their status as a certified cannabis user.

The bill also prohibits patients from handling certain chemicals, operating high-voltage electricity and public utilities and performing any duties in heights or confined spaces.

But the statute ultimately gives employers broad discretion over regulating what types of jobs can be performed by a medical marijuana consumer. It also does not address pre-employment or workplace screening.

Ultimately, no employer is required to make any accommodations to cannabis patients, said Joshua Horn, a partner and co-chair of the cannabis law practice at Fox Rothschild.

Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level. It is considered a Schedule 1 drug with no medicinal value, according the DEA.

Because of that the commonwealth will not impose any obligation to violate federal law," Horn said.

But with 29 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the District of Columbia all operating their own pot programs, the question of how to handle workplace drug testing is becoming more critical. Like the programs themselves, each state has answered the question differently.

For example, a judge in Colorado, one of the first states to legalize adult-use recreational cannabis, ruled against a Dish Network employee who was fired after testing positive for THC. Brandon Coats, who is paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident, maintained that he only used cannabis to treat pain associated with muscle spasms. He was never impaired during work hours, according to his attorneys.

But the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that despite his responsible use, Coats was still violating federal law. The Dish Network was within its rights to fire him.

Across the country in Massachusetts, the states highest court ruled last year in favor of a patient suffering from Crohns disease who failed a drug test.

The use and possession of medically prescribed marijuana by a qualifying patient is as lawful as the use and possession of any other prescribed medication, Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants said.

In Philadelphia, the question of workplace testing has yet to be raised.

At least in court.

To Parkers point of preemption, Democratic At-Large Councilman Derek Green is working with Mayor Jim Kenneys office to create a citywide advisory board that would help create a framework for residents, employers and law enforcement officials regarding the medical marijuana program.

The problem, Green said, is the ongoing confusion about how cannabis fits into the community at large.

I will give the commonwealth credit in the way they put together their program, but we still have to do a better job of educating constituents, he said.

At least one major employer is prepared to create its own policy regarding workplace drug testing. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 98 has hired an advisor to guide the union as Pennsylvanias program expands.

For the union, arguably the most influential in Philadelphia, the goal is twofold.

We are extremely invested in the industry, spokesman Frank Keel said. Its going to mean a lot of work.

But electrical workers, who spend hours hunched over, carrying heavy equipment, and working on live electrical systems, are especially susceptible to injury. And many of those injuries come with prescriptions for opioids.

In the last 16 months, eight members of Local 98 died from opioid drug overdose. Current union policy prohibits drug use of any kind, including medical marijuana. But Keel said cannabis is already starting to change the landscape and a new policy could be instituted later this year.

If medical marijuana does have valuable pain benefits, if it is a much safer alternative for pain relief, then we are more than open to it, Keel said.Parkland High School students in the Lehigh Valley have felt a closer-than-average bond to their fellow teenagers who attend the high school in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed last month.

On a day when many thousands of students walked out of classrooms across the country to rally for stronger gun control laws and against violence in schools, those who attend the high school in South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, gathered as well.

Parkland High is the largest high school in the Lehigh Valley, with some 3,200 students.

"We are showing now that we can make change and make a difference in the world," Parkland senior Collin Duff said during a morning rally Wednesday.

Duff and his sister, Kayleigh, have already raised $10,000 by selling "Parkland for Parkland" bracelets in the community. All of the money, the siblings said, is going to families of those killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students  many not old enough to vote  at private and public, small and large area schools left classes around 10 a.m. to protest gun violence in what was expected to be the biggest national demonstration yet that has emerged following the massacre Feb. 14.

At other schools, events acknowledging the movement were held inside school. At Pennsauken High School in New Jersey, about 1,300 students signed up for a walkout of class but not the school building as 17 bells tolled for the 17 victims.

Like so many students across the country, Collin and Kayliegh Duff feel an incredible bond with fellow teens in the movement to stop the proliferation of guns and accompanying violence.

Incredibly, the Duffs have a familial connection to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High community, lending even more meaning to their "Parkland for Parkland" message.

Their cousin, Daniel, is a freshman at the Florida school.

"We were just sitting there waiting for him to walk out of the school," Collin Duff said.

Eventually, Daniel did.

Inside Parkland High on Wednesday morning, the student body held up their phones, using the lights to shine in unity.

"Seeing everyone's lights go up one-by-one then suddenly all at once, it was breathtaking," Kayleigh Duff said. She added, "We are the generation that can change the future."One day after the mother of Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill publicly asked District Attorney Larry Krasner to help free her son from jail, prosecutors answered the call.

The office is not opposed to him being out on bail, Krasner spokesman Ben Waxman told NBC10.

In a motion filed Wednesday in Common Pleas Court, prosecutors said "there is a strong likelihood of [Mill's] conviction being reversed" as a result of allegedly false testimony provided more than 10 years ago.

That questionable testimony was provided by Philadelphia police officer Reginald Graham, who was among 29 so-called corrupt cops identified by the district attorney's office.

Graham was the only government witness called at the 2007 trial, putting into question whether the court had an accurate understanding of what happened more than 10 years ago when Mill was first arrested, prosecutors said.

Last month, Mill's legal team submitted two affidavits from other Philadelphia police officers alleging that Graham repeatedly engaged in misconduct, including lying, according to court documents.

Ultimately, Mills fate rests in the hands of Judge Genece Brinkley, who has been accused having an infatuation with the rapper. She originally sentenced the rapper to time in prison plus 10 years probation.

I would like to thank the Philadelphia District Attorneys office for carefully evaluating my sons matter and not opposing the request for bail, Mills mother, Kathy Williams, said.

The fact that [his] entire conviction could be overturned is a blessing and I pray that God gives Judge Brinkley the wisdom to make the right decision and allow my son to return home to his family. I truly believe justice will prevail.

Mills attorney, Joe Tacopina, also thanked Krasners office.

We look forward to his immediate release by the court on bail in light of this development, he said in a statement.

Mill was arrested in 2007 on gun charges and sentenced to 10 years probation. In 2017, Brinkley sentenced Mill to an additional two to four years in prison for a probation violation. Since then, Mills legal team has filed a series of unsuccessful motions to release the rapper while he sits behind bars in Chester County.

Despite his legal drama, the 30-year-old has skyrocketed to national fame after one of his songs, Dreams and Nightmare, became the unofficial anthem of the Eagles road to victory.In its toughest challenge to Russia to date, the Trump administration accused Moscow on Thursday of an elaborate plot to penetrate America's electric grid, factories, water supply and even air travel through cyber hacking. The U.S. also hit targeted Russians with sanctions for alleged election meddling for the first time since President Donald Trump took office.

The list of Russians being punished includes all 13 indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, a tacit acknowledgement by the administration that at least some of Mueller's Russia-related probe has merit.

Trump has repeatedly sought to discredit Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, but the sanctions appeared to rely on the special counsel's legal conclusions in deciding who should be named. The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The named Russians  19 in all  are unlikely to have any assets in the United States that would be covered, making the move largely symbolic. But it could help inoculate the president from persistent claims he's afraid or unwilling to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin or to fight back against efforts to undermine America's democracy and domestic affairs.

"We're going to be tough on Russia until they decide to change their behavior," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. At the same time, she left open the possibility of better U.S.-Russia cooperation, arguing that "if we can work together to combat world threats on things like North Korea, then we should."

U.S. national security officials said the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies determined Russian intelligence and others were behind a broad range of cyberattacks starting a year ago. Russian hackers infiltrated the networks that run the basic services an Americans rely on each day: nuclear, water and manufacturing facilities like factories.

The officials said the hackers chose their targets methodically, obtained access to computer systems, conducted "network reconnaissance" and then attempted to cover their tracks by deleting evidence of the intrusions. The U.S. government has helped the industries expel the Russians from all systems known to have been penetrated, but additional breaches could be discovered, said the officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security information.

The officials described Russia's operation as ongoing.

The U.S. accusations and accompanying sanctions mark a stepped-up attempt by Trump's administration to show it's adequately confronting Russia over hacking, election meddling and general efforts to compromise Western democracies and infrastructure. Trump on Thursday also joined the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in blaming Moscow for the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy who was living in England.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that the sanctions show Trump can be "extremely tough" on Russia, even if he is willing to work with the adversary on "world threats on things like North Korea."

When asked if Russia was a friend or foe of the U.S., Sanders said Russia would have to make that decision.

The sanctions prompted a swift threat of retaliation from Russia's government, which said a response was already being prepared. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggested the Trump administration had timed the action to taint this weekend's presidential election in Russia, in which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win an overwhelming victory.

"It is tied to U.S. internal disorder, tied of course to our electoral calendar," Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the Russian state news agency Tass.

Altogether, 19 Russians were cited. Also sanctioned were five Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, which is accused of orchestrating a mass online disinformation campaign to affect the U.S. presidential election result.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the sanctions amid withering criticism in the U.S. accusing Trump and his administration of failing to use its congressionally mandated authority to punish Russia. The sanction targets include officials working for the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

The sanctions are the first use of the new powers that Congress passed last year to punish Moscow for interfering in the election that Trump won over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Yet Russia hawks in Congress deemed it too little, too late.

"Even more must be done," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona called the action "overdue."

And Democrats homed in on the fact that the list of Russians hit with sanctions included all of those indicted by Mueller. That shows the administration believes the investigation is legitimate, they argued.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the sanctions prove that Mueller's "investigation is not a 'witch hunt' as the president and his allies have claimed." He said, "It's more clear than ever that the president must not interfere with the special counsel's investigation in any way."

The Treasury Department said the GRU and Russia's military both interfered in the 2016 election and were "directly responsible" for the NotPetya cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe in June 2017, causing billions of dollars in damage by disrupting global shipping, trade and medicine production. Treasury said that the attack caused several U.S. hospitals to be unable to create electronic medical records for more than a week.

Among those affected were Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as "Putin's chef" and who ran the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, and 12 of the agency's employees. They were included in Mueller's indictment last month.

The Russian agency "tampered with, altered or caused a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes and institutions," specifically the 2016 U.S. presidential race, the U.S. said.After the prosecutor's opening statement, a man who was once a Camp Pendleton-based U.S. Marine changed his plea and acknowledged killing an Army reservist in a California motel in 2012 -- a brutal attack in which the victim was stabbed 44 times and shot twice.

Defendant Kevin Coset, who represented himself in court, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to murder and allegations that he used a gun and a knife to kill Alvin Bulaoro, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Prosecutors agreed to drop a special circumstance allegation, which could have sent Coset to prison for life without parole.

Coset, 27, faces up to 51 years to life in prison when he is sentenced April 20.



Bulaoro, 24, was reported missing Dec. 23, 2012. Then on Jan. 3, 2013, his body was discovered inside a sleeping bag in the backseat of his 1997 Toyota 4Runner outside a grocery store in Fallbrook, which is about 54 miles (87 kilometers) north of San Diego. Bulaoro had two gunshot wounds to the head and 44 stab wounds, and his throat was slit almost from ear-to-ear, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner.

Prosecutors said messages between Coset and Bulaoro indicated they had a sexual relationship.

Detectives said Coset purchased a "pay as you go" phone on Dec. 19 and used it to call Bulaoro and send him 29 text messages between Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, 2012, the day Bulaoro was last seen. Investigators noted that Coset was one of the last numbers Bulaoro had contacted.

Detectives also examined the sleeping bag Bulaoro was found in. They said it was a style sold on base at Camp Pendleton, and someone had used a credit card to purchase one on base in the hours before Bulaoro disappeared.

The same card was used later that day to pay for a Fallbrook motel room. It had an additional $100 charge for damages including a missing comforter and a large pool of blood. No one at the motel called authorities to report it.

Though the room had been cleaned in the weeks since the attack, detectives found Bulaoro's blood under the carpet and on the padding. It was also on the walls, ceiling and furniture, according to court documents.

Authorities arrested Coset outside his Camp Pendleton barracks on Feb. 22, 2013.

According to the arrest warrant, Bulaoro and Coset had met up in an Albertson's parking lot in Fallbrook. Detectives said surveillance video showed that the suspect parked his car got into the victim's 4Runner, and the two men drove away.



The arrest warrant also quoted the victim's brother telling investigators when Bulaoro first went missing that his brother was gay and may have been headed for a popular San Diego gay bar.



Evidence in the preliminary hearing revealed Coset had a journal, in which he allegedly wrote about the killing.

NCIS detective Jason Keller read the following excerpt from Coset's diary at a pre-trial hearing:



"Tonight I had to kill for the third time. It was a guy named Alvin Bulaoro in Fallbrook. It was definitely a him or me situation. I find no joy in killing but must survive in my fight against the evil Musgrove organization. They have been plotting against me for years now as well as entering my mind and stealing my intelligence."

Coset had previously been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. Proceedings were delayed while he was in a state hospital. He was later found to be competent and  following a psychiatric evaluation  he was granted permission to represent himself.



Bulaoro was enlisted in the Navy for four years. He worked as a human resources officer at Camp Pendleton, helping Marines with pay, benefits and housing issues.

During that time, he got his bachelor's degree. After leaving the Navy, he became a lieutenant in the Army.The County of Ventura has endorsed a plan to name a stretch of Southern Californias Highway 101 after fallen Cal Fire engineer and San Diego resident Cory Iverson.

Iverson, 32, died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries on Dec. 14, 2017, while battling the raging Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

[[466291543,C]]

At a board meeting Tuesday, County of Ventura leaders including Supervisor Steve Bennett said the board would support having the state identify an appropriate place on U.S. Route 101 to memorialize Iverson.

The county also endorsed a request to establish the Ryan Osler Memorial Highway on part of Highway 101 in honor of a fallen fire engineer in the Ventura County Fire Department (VCFD).

VCFD Chief Mark Lorenzen spoke at the meeting about how both Osler and Iverson should be remembered for their bravery and dedication.

"These are truly heroes that died in the line of duty serving their communities and protecting all that we know is good and right," Lorenzen said.

[[466291273,C]]

County of Ventura Supervisor Kelly Long agreed and said Southern California is grateful for the tireless work of all firefighters, including the fallen.

"It is unfortunate that we lost Cory Iverson and Ryan Osler, so its a great opportunity for our board to highlight what theyve done for our community," Long said at the meeting.

Iverson, a Cal Fire Engineer from Escondido, was part of a five-engine strike team with Cal Fire San Diego. The team was in an active area of the Thomas Fire in Fillmore when an accident occurred on the lines.

[[471276474,C]]

On Dec. 17, 2017, Iversons body was returned to San Diego in a procession from Ventura County that spanned several Southern California freeways. Along the route, fellow firefighters and civilians stood at overpasses saluting and paying their respects to the fallen firefighter.

An emotional memorial was held for Iverson on Dec. 23, 2017, at The Rock Church in Point Loma.

Iverson had spent much of his life working as a firefighter. He had been with Cal Fire for eight years and had also spent seven years volunteering for the Harmony Grove Fire Department.

At Iversons memorial, Cal Fire San Diego Chief Tony Metcham said Iverson was an excellent firefighter, telling those who knew and loved him, If you were going to clone a firefighter, you would clone Cory Iverson.

In 2010, Iverson won the firefighter of the year award with the Harmony Grove Fire Department, a recognition chosen by his peers. He went on to mentor incoming firefighters.

His colleagues told NBC 7 that if they were working with Iverson, they knew it was going to be a great day. He was described as driven, smart, warm and easy to talk to.

Iverson left behind his wife, Ashley, and toddler daughter. Ashley is pregnant with their second child, due in May.



[[465965503,C]]

Following Iverson's death, the Cal Fire San Diego County Firefighters Benevolent Fund set up a fund to help his family. Donations can be made online here or by mailing a check to:

Cal Fire San Diego County Firefighters Benevolent Fund

2650 Jamacha Rd., Suite #147

El Cajon, CA 92019

An online fundraising page was also created for Iverson's widow and children.

The Thomas Fire sparked on Dec. 4, 2017, in Ventura County. Fanned by unrelenting Santa Ana wind gusts, it exploded into one of the largest wildfires in California history.

In the end, Cal Fire said the Thomas Fire scorched 281,893 acres and burned more than 1,300 structures, including homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The blaze was 100 percent contained on Jan. 12, 2018.What to Know Four people, including a 1-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, were found dead in a Brooklyn home early Wednesday, officials said

All four people had been shot in the head, according to law enforcement sources

The quadruple shooting is under investigation; no motive has been established and it's not clear if it's a murder-suicide

Four relatives, including a 1-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, were found dead, shot in the head, in various rooms of a fourth-floor apartment at a huge residential complex in Brooklyn early Wednesday, authorities and law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation tell NBC 4 New York.



All of the four found shot were pronounced dead at the Riverdale Towers scene on Thatford Avenue in Brownsville after cops responded to a 911 call around 5 a.m. Another family member found the bodies and called police.

The grisly crime scene is a three-bedroom apartment. One-year-old Laylay Briggs and her father, 27-year-old Terrance Briggs, were found dead in one bedroom. Sixteen-year-old Loyd Drain III was found dead in another bedroom and 57-year-old Loyd Drain Jr. was found dead in the bathroom, authorities said. The teen killed was the stepbrother of the 27-year-old man, who was the stepson of the 57-year-old.

No one is in custody and no motive has been developed at this time, authorities said. Investigators are trying to determine whether the deaths were murder-suicide or if a suspect is on the loose, sources say. Law enforcement sources say there was no sign of forced entry to the apartment.



A gun, bullet and shell casings were recovered at the scene, which authorities described as a horror.



"In the nature of this business we deal with death and tragic scenes, but when it involves an infant it's extremely tough," Brooklyn North Assistant Chief and Commanding Officer Jeffrey Maddrey said.

Chopper 4 over the scene showed a huge police presence with several local streets blocked off. A woman was seen on a stretcher outside, holding her chest and crying; it's not clear if she's related to the four dead.



Crime scene investigators were seen carrying evidence bags and equipment in and out of the home. Cops are reviewing surveillance video from the area.

Neighbors and friends of the victims described the family as social and well known in the area.



"My heart is so numb right now. Again, numb," said Vanessa Swain, a family friend. "Something knocking on my door at 7 o'clock in the morning ... all of them gone."What started as an argument between neighbors ended with one man dead and another seriously injured.

John Gaines died after he was shot Tuesday night on the 4300 block of 7th Street SE, police said. He was 53. A second man was shot several times and was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

The men are thought to have argued and shot at each other, D.C. police chief Peter Newsham told News4.

"It appears right now that was a neighbor dispute," he said.

Sources told News4 they lived right next door to each other. It wasn't clear what sparked the conflict.

The men lived in an apartment complex on the 4300 block of 7th Street SE, near the border with Oxon Hill, Maryland. Neighbors heard gunfire after sunset Tuesday. When they looked out, they saw two men lying outside.

First responders arrived about 7:50 p.m. and found the two men. Gaines had one gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead. The second man had multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital.

Neither neighbors nor Gaines' daughter could point to any arguments or even disagreements between the men.

Gaines is being remembered as friendly and hardworking.

"He was very family-oriented," his daughter, Johnetta Gaines said. "He lived his life to the fullest."

A homicide investigation is underway. Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or send a text message to 50411. A reward of as much as $25,000 is offered.A woman facing assault charges for allegedly hitting a student in Washington, D.C., has a new teaching job in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Lacey Thornton was arrested in Nov. 2017 after a fourth grade student said Thornton grabbed her by her hair and hit her twice with an open hand at Cleveland Elementary School in Northwest.

D.C. police reviewed security footage at the school, which showed the student kicking a classroom door. Thornton could be seen coming out of the classroom, hitting the child in the back of her head, grabbing her by the neck and pushing her down a hallway, police said.

Thornton still faces one charge of simple assault.

New Hope Academy in Hyattsville has since hired Thornton and, according to a letter the private school sent to parents, she will work as a permanent substitute first grade teacher until the end of the school year.

In a letter to parents, the Principal S. Joy Morrow says in part, "...pray that this court situation can resolve itself as painlessly and favorably as possible for Ms. Thornton."



"I'm very upset because now I have to figure out what to do with my child for the last two months of school," one mother told News4. She did not want to be identified.

"I can't believe we are even entertaining this. I pay good money for my kids to go to a private school and I would think that the school would want to have some type of standard when it comes to who we allow around our children, especially since the case itself isn't closed, like, it's not finished," said another mother who also did not want to be identified.

In a statement released Friday, school officials said they've know Thornton for "many years," adding that she was forthcoming about the alleged assault.

"We believe that Ms. Thornton took action to protect herself and her students at Cleveland Elementary when confronted with a very difficult situation," the statement read.

Many of them had already endured their share of heartache. Some had been trying for years to get pregnant, suffering through multiple miscarriages. Others had undergone cancer treatments that destroyed their fertility.

Now, hundreds of these women and couples have learned that the eggs and embryos they froze for eventual use in starting or expanding a family may have been destroyed by storage tank failures March 4 at two fertility clinics in suburban Cleveland and San Francisco.

Authorities are investigating what went wrong to cause the biggest such loss in the U.S. since in vitro fertilization began nearly four decades ago. But some of these patients at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and the Pacific Fertility Clinic fear their last, best chance of having children may be gone.



___



Marlo Emch didn't grow up with a brother or sister near her age. That's why she desperately wanted another child after giving birth last April to a son conceived through in vitro fertilization.

She imagined her son having a partner to help navigate life and someone who would be there after she and her husband were gone. "It makes me sad to think he may never have a sibling close to his age," she said.

Emch and her husband, Jeremy, married in their late 30s and struggled to have a child, losing one pregnancy after three months, before turning to a fertility clinic.

"People who are able to conceive naturally have no idea of the level of despair a woman has when they can't become pregnant," she said.

Everything worked perfectly with the birth of their son, and they planned trying for just one more this spring until being told last week that their seven remaining embryos may no longer be viable.

The couple, both now 42, won't know until the embryos are thawed and tested.

"Chances are very, very low. The mother in me has to find out for sure. I almost feel like I'm going to have to grieve all over again," said Emch, who lives in Burton, Ohio.

Since receiving the devastating news, she started a Facebook support group open to the 700 affected patients from the suburban Cleveland clinic.

One woman told of how her husband has died since the couple froze their embryos. "That was her last connection to him," Emch said.



___



Before undergoing chemotherapy at age 23 for a rare cancer that affects bones and soft tissue, Elliott Ash decided to have his sperm frozen.

He hadn't even met his future wife but knew he wanted children someday.

Married five years ago, he and his wife decided in 2014 to start the process of having a child through in vitro fertilization while in their early 30s. Their son was born the next year, and two frozen embryos remained in storage at University Hospitals.

"In an instant, everything was taken away," said Amber Ash.

Doctors have told the couple the embryos did not survive the thaw.

Her first thought was about her son and his lost opportunity to have a genetic sibling.

While her husband's cancer is in remission, chemotherapy left him sterile. Creating new embryos with his sperm is no longer an option.

The Bay Village, Ohio, couple was among the first to file a lawsuit against the hospital.

"So many of us were cheated, cheated of the opportunity to start families or expand our families," said Amber Ash. "Our motive really is we want to prevent this from happening again. To prevent another family from going through this complete nightmare."



___



Cameron Michalak and his wife, Amber, spent close to eight frustrating years trying to have a baby  both naturally and through fertilization treatments.

When nothing they tried worked, their doctor advised that their best and maybe only chance for a pregnancy would be through in vitro fertilization.

Expensive and exhaustive, the process took over their lives. Family and friends in the Cleveland area raised $13,000 through a GoFundMe campaign.

There were hundreds of injections, multiple times per day for Amber. Strict schedules for the waves of drugs. Another failure on the first round. And then more shots after Amber became pregnant with a girl due in April.

"Extraordinarily invasive," said Cameron Michalak. "I wouldn't wish that on her ever again."

Now, though, it's a decision they may face again.

The couple had five frozen embryos  created by combining their eggs and sperm  that were frozen and stored in the failed tank. Now, repeating the process may be their only shot at having another child.

University Hospitals is offering to help patients with new fertility treatments.

That may still be an option for the Michalaks, who live in Vermillion, Ohio, because both are 34, but that might not be true for older patients. Others are deciding whether it's worth risking additional health complications.

"That was my first thought, all of the people who have not had a chance to have success yet," said Cameron Michalak. "All of the people who don't have the time to wait or their time is now."



___



Katie Miller has had two children using her frozen embryos and was starting treatments at Pacific Fertility Clinic so she could have a third when she was got an email saying something went wrong.

She was among 500 people who have been told their embryos were in a storage tank that had dangerously low liquid nitrogen levels. The clinic said the embryos were transferred to a new tank.

"You don't even think about what's happening in the lab. You just assume that that's really being taken care of and that's not something to worry about," Miller told KGO-TV in San Francisco.

The extent of the damage has not been disclosed.

"There really are so many questions at this point, and hopefully there will be some good news," she said. "But at the same time, there have to be people who have already received probably very devastating news."

Associated Press writer Olga Rodriguez contributed to this report.For the second day in a row, students at some Massachusetts schools staged walkouts calling for action on gun control.

On Thursday, students at Arlington High School, Beverly High School, Billerica Memorial High School, Brookline High School, Cambridge-Ringe and Latin School, Leominster High School and Quabin Regional High School walked out of classes to honor the victims killed in the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The rallies had been scheduled for Wednesday to coincide with others taking place around the country, marking one month since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but snow forced many schools to reschedule their plans.

On Wednesday's walkout, students from an estimated 100 schools across the state left classes  some of whom met at St. Paul's Church on Tremont Street in Boston before marching to the Massachusetts Statehouse carrying signs to urge lawmakers to take action.

At Brookline High on Thursday, students read the names of the 17 victims killed aloud, followed by a moment of silence.

Students nationwide are demanding elected leaders do something about the ongoing gun violence.

"They haven't done anything about it, and now it's up to us to do something about it we have a voice," said Brookline student Yama Estime.

Students plan to continue their message on March 24 at the March for Our Lives protest on the Boston Common, as well as locations across the country.

"Preventing gun violence in the United States especially in high school is an incredibly pertinent, given that we're all in high school," said Brookline High student Nick Collins.

Another round of school walkouts is also planned for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

"I think that if the students really want to make a change it needs to be repeated. every week until something is done," said Brookline High student Donovan Kirrane.With Thursday's deadly bridge collapse in Florida, officials in Massachusetts are telling residents not to worry about Bay State bridges built using the same process.

FIGG Bridge Engineers, the company that designed the 950-ton pedestrian bridge that collapsed and pinned cars underneath in Miami, also co-designed Boston's Leonard P. Zakim Bridge. Unlike the Zakim, the pedestrian bridge used a technique called "accelerated bridge construction," which has been used for dozens of other bridges in Massachusetts.

The concept involves building most of the bridge off-site before installing it in large pieces. ABC was used to build the new Commonwealth Avenue Bridge in Boston this summer. The idea is to reduce impact on traffic for travelers, such as those driving on the Massachusetts Turnpike below Commonwealth Avenue this summer.

"The accelerated bridge construction project's a financing device, most of the time  sometimes, it's an actual construction process itself, but a lot of times, it's just a financing process," Gov. Charlie Baker said.

The pedestrian bridge that collapsed in Miami was installed in just a few hours. It was scheduled to open near Florida International University's campus.

"The bridges we have in Massachusetts are constantly being inspected," Baker said. "They are being inspected under federal rules and federal standards, and they're being inspected under state standards, as well."

"We have a robust inspection program for the Zakim Bridge and are fully confident in the safety of the Zakim Bridge and all Commonwealth of Massachusetts bridges, as we follow several standards for regular inspections," the Massachusetts Department of Transportation said in a statement.



MassDOT said despite the bridges sharing a designer, the Zakim is not comprable to the bridge that collapsed.

"While the cause of the Miami pedestrian bridge is unknown, the design of this pedestrian bridge is not similar to the design of the Zakim Bridge and is unique to the project site characteristics at its location in Miami," MassDOT added.

Authorities in Florida confirm several people were killed in the bridge collapse.

Florida International University released a statement shortly after the collapse saying they are "shocked and saddened" by the tragic events and are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene.



Norwich vicar moves on from two city churches

A Norwich vicar with a passion for inclusion is moving on from the city centre churches of St Lukes and St Augustines. Keith Morris reports.

Rev David Austin will be leaving Norwich in April having accepted the post of Vicar for the parish of Holy Trinity Coldhurst and Parish of St Stephen and All Martyrs in Oldham.



David came to Norwich in June 2015 following a career in housing and health - specialising in management and care of adults with psychiatric and complex needs.



I was attracted to St Lukes as it had signed up to be an affiliate church of Inclusive Church under its previous vicar, Rev Nicholas Vesey who is now interfaith pastor in Aspen, Colorado, said David.



David has been the Inclusive Church Ambassador for Norwich/Norfolk and in this role says he has sought to remove barriers to inclusion within the Church on grounds of ethnicity, poverty, disability, mental health, gender or sexuality.



He announced to his congregations in January 2016 his intention to enter into Civil Partnership with his long-term and long-distance male partner from Ghana, who was seeking immigration to live with him in Norwich, which they did in January 2017.



Since coming to Norwich, David has worked with many faith groups in the city, including Transforming Norwich, Fishergate House of Prayer, the FGBMFI, the Congolese Fire International Pentecostal Church, the Rose Lane Bangladeshi Mosque and Norwich Interfaith Link.



David instigated a well-attended Norwich diocesan day conference on Gender and Transgender issues in October 2016 and helped organise a Christians at Pride stall at the Forum for Norwich LGBT Pride over the past three years. This was supported by a number of clergy and laity and, last year, by two bishops from the Diocese, with outreach funding provided to reach out to the 7000+ people who attend the event.



He is also chaplain to the local Gay pub in his parish, the Catherine Wheel on St Augustines Street, and is a founder member of Created - an LGBT Christian group that meets in Norwich. www.created.org.uk



David said: St Lukes is committed to supporting the homeless, elderly, vulnerable, disabled and marginalised through four well-attended and long-standing weekly social and lunch clubs as well as hosting the English Plus literacy classes for asylum seekers and refugees.



Sam Pittam-Smith, lay chair of the joint PCC of St Luke with St Augustine, said: Throughout Davids time with us inclusivity has been a core focus of his ministry. For many of us the church should be somewhere that welcomes everyone who comes, just as Jesus did.



It was great to welcome Davids partner, Godfred, into our church family. We wish David and Godfred all the best as they prepare for their move to Oldham and hope their time there will be rich in blessings for them both, and the congregations that David goes to serve.



The Chief Exec of Inclusive Church, Ruth Wilde, is speaking at St Lukes on Palm Sunday (March 25), at 10.30am, about Jesus controversial stand for the stigmatised and outsider. UPDATE - Ruth is unable to attend and there will be a dramatic reading of the Passion instead.



www.inclusive-church.org



Pictured above is Rev David Austin.







EndsWanessa Anderson, owner of W. Rhythm Fitness and Wellness, said she found her niche in Kent by offering exercise on trampolines, mindfulness courses and even workouts inspired by NASA.

Her studio, which opened three years ago on North Main Street, has grown from one room to two as both year-round residents and weekenders learn of her eclectic selection of ways to break a sweat and think differently.

Its not only fitness classes, she said. Its a program.

Repeat exercisers will find something different each day, she said. One day there could be a class on Brazilian martial arts, the next Pilates.

Lynn Carano, a client, said Anderson  has built a place of community.

The studio is unlike any place I've attended in that there is a sincere mind (and) body connection, Carano said.

Anderson, originally from Brazil, followed her husband to Kent and said she found it was a perfect place for her kind of studio.

More Information W. Rhythm Fitness and Wellness Contact: Visit https://www.wrhythmfitness.com, or call 203-788-7818 More information: Classes and private sessions available. Offerings include Barre Classes, Barre Circuit, Barre Core, Cycle Barre, Restorative Barre, Yoga Barre, Piloxing Barre, Bounce Barre, Beyond The Mat, Zumba, Total Body Strength and TRX Suspension Training. See More Collapse

She started leading fitness courses seven years ago at area gyms, but found that she wanted to provide more fitness options coupled with mindfulness options and massage therapy. She has led classes on reiki and readings as well as trapeze yoga.

She said the mix fits in with the open-mindedness of Kent residents.

The artistic community here is great because people are open to different ideas of fitness, she said.

Moreover, New York City-based weekend residents have told her how thankful they are that shes in Kent.

They have become used to having a bevy of fitness options in the city, and love that those courses are available in a town of just under 3,000 people.

The courses  are already in the fitness world, she said. I bring all this innovation here to this little town.NEW MILFORD  A proposal to allow commercial slaughterhouses on farms in town won support from hunters and farmers in a public hearing last week, but sparked worries it could pave the way for large meat-packing facilities and generate disagreeable sights, smells and sounds.

The zoning code already allows farms to slaughter their own cattle. The proposed amendment would strike language forbidding commercial slaughterhouses from the definition of farm, allowing farmers to slaughter animals from other sources.The emotional and sexual abuse that some children endure can lead them to commit crimes later in life.

But when children achieve good grades and don't skip school, the likelihood of self-reported, chronic criminal behaviors declines significantly, according to researchers at the University of Michigan and University of Washington.

This new ongoing study is one of the few in the nation to follow the same individuals over several decades to learn about how child maltreatment--described as physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as neglect--impacts development and how some are resilient.

"Child abuse is a risk factor for later antisocial behavior," said study co-author Todd Herrenkohl, the Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Child and Family at the U-M School of Social Work. "Education and academic achievement can lessen the risk of crime for all youth, including those who have been abused (encountered stress and adversity)."

In addition to crime/antisocial behavior, the researchers also investigated effects on physical and mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, intergenerational transmission of violence, and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Previous studies about child maltreatment have not distinguished youth and adult chronic offenders from non-offenders and those who perpetrate antisocial behavior in adolescence only, who are called desisters.

"Given that offending in adolescence can persist into adulthood if left unaddressed, it is important to identify and act on factors that predispose individuals to ongoing patterns of antisocial behavior," said Hyunzee Jung, the study's lead author and a U-W researcher.

Data involved 356 people from childhood (ages 18 months to 6 years) in 1976-1977, school-age (8 years) in 1980-1982, adolescent (18 years) in 1990-1992 and adulthood (36 years) in 2010.

Parent reports, self-reports--which included crime/antisocial behavior--and parent-child interactions measured various types of abuse and neglect, and responses also factored educational experiences and criminal behavior against others or property.

The abuse led to people more likely to commit crimes, but this was not the case for those who had been neglected in their early years, the study shows.

Successful school experiences kept teens from both committing crimes and having antisocial behaviors. But for youths suspended in grades 7 to 9, the chronic offending habits and antisocial behaviors continued later in life, the researchers said.

Herrenkohl said the primary prevention of child abuse is a critical first step to reducing antisocial behavior at the transition from adolescence into adulthood.

"Strategies focused on helping school professionals become aware of the impacts of child abuse and neglect are critical to building supportive environments that promote resilience and lessen risk for antisocial behavior," he said.In a study conducted in rural India, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers working in collaboration with Bal Umang Drishya Sanstha (BUDS), a nonprofit Indian organization focused on child health, have found that mobile phone reminders linked with incentives such as free talk time minutes work better than phone alerts alone to improve childhood immunization rates in poor communities.

The results of the study, which tracked more than 500 child caregivers for nearly a year, appear March 14 in the journal Pediatrics.

Over the last decade, the rate of primary immunizations in young children have significantly improved around the world, but many children remain inadequately immunized. Inadequate immunization is a prominent issue particularly in developing nations, but also in the U.S. Delayed immunization or lack of follow up can lead to disease outbreaks and potentially detrimental health risks.

"Vaccinations and booster shot schedules are designed to work optimally if given within a specific window of time, and even in resource poor areas such as rural India, an estimated 80-90 percent of households have mobile phones," says Sanjay Jain, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Those two factors, he says, made a compelling case for not only using mobile phone alerts more widely, including in poor or isolated areas in the U.S., to remind adults to get their children vaccinated, but also for figuring out the best way to maximize the value of those alerts.

The study, conducted in the Mewat region of Haryana, India, used a special software developed by Royal Datamatics, a local software company in New Delhi, to monitor 549 subjects in one village, Ghasera, where 86 percent of families make less than 25,000 Indian rupees per year, which is equivalent to $385 in the U.S. In this area, the average immunization rate for children younger than 24 months for all immunizations required for their age is 33 percent.

Creating special software and a website, the investigators used tablet computers with fingerprint scanners to access the site and log caregiver and child patient information, including vaccination and

booster shot completion. Specifically, they scanned fingerprints of the caregivers but manually recorded children's names because fingertip identification of children is less reliable. GPS technology also was used to track the locations where subjects lived and collect immunization rates for different neighborhoods. "Modern technologies can solve several common problems in the developing world and go a long way in improving global health," says Rajeev Seth, M.D., a pediatrician and the director of BUDS.

The Johns Hopkins team used the same platform to electronically deliver automated reminders to the participants' mobile phones, and those who followed up received incentives of mobile phone minutes equivalent to 30 Indian rupees (50 cents in U.S. dollars), which generally bought 30 minutes of talk time.

Over the yearlong study, the immunization rate increased from a median of 33 percent to more than 41 percent in the control group that received no mobile phone reminder, 40 percent in the group that received mobile phone reminders with no incentives, and 50 percent in the group that received both mobile phone reminders and minutes as incentives.

Jain says he and his brother, a pediatric gastroenterologist at St. Louis University, conceived the research while they were in high school. "My brother, Ajay, and I have been coding since high school and our interests in applying technology haven't really gone away over the years, so we thought we could marry our hobbies and our professions and help improve health globally," says Jain. The research was conducted in 2016 and 2017.

Jain notes that other software on the market is designed to send mobile phone reminders, but he believes theirs differs because it identifies patients through fingerprint identification, stores patient records, issues talk time incentives and uses GPS technology, making it almost tamper-proof.

"With the popularity of mobile phone devices all around the world, it has become practical in low resource settings that reminders and incentives be conveyed using these pervasive technologies," says Tiffani Lash, Ph.D., director of the point of care technologies and connected health programs at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which provided support for the study. "At the same time, the innovative incentive strategy tested by the research team demonstrates that cultural awareness and technology combined are instrumental in helping communities achieve immunization goals."

"It is quite innovative when simple incentives on devices that are used daily can impact a fundamental public health improvement," says Ibukun Akinboyo, M.D., a pediatric infectious diseases postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "The study highlights that we can leverage available resources, such as the widespread use of mobile phones, to improve vaccination coverage and hopefully decrease rates of preventable childhood infections."

Jain and his team recently received the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations award. They hope to keep improving this technology to monitor immunization coverage, as well as track the performance of the health care workers who are providing these vaccines, in order to improve coverage in entire populations.An international research consortium led by Dr Jordi Surralles, director of the Genetics Service at the Hospital de Sant Pau and professor of Genetics at the UAB, and by Dr Miquel Angel Pujana, director of the ProCURE Research Program of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO, IDIBELL), has identified a novel gene involved in this type of cancer, known as EDC4.

Researchers have demonstrated that the EDC4 gene encodes a protein which interacts with BRCA1 and plays an essential role in DNA repair through the homologous recombination mechanism. By using massive sequencing techniques with more than one thousand breast cancer patients and healthy controls, researchers observed that the frequency of EDC4 mutation carriers in patients with familial cancer is six times higher than in healthy individuals. Moreover, researchers analyzed in detail the effect of these mutations by using advanced engineering and genetic edition techniques and were able to demonstrate that the mutations are pathogenic since they impair the repair capacities of the EDC4 gene. Finally, the authors also demonstrated that cells with mutated EDC4 are highly sensitive to PARP inhibitors, and this presents an opportunity to explore possible therapeutic options for patients with these gene mutations.

Genetic Origin of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in our society. It is calculated that some 5-10% of these types of cancers are hereditary, often appearing in several members of a family at relatively young ages. The most important genes involved are BRCA1 and BRCA2, discovered in the mid-1990s. BRCA1 is a tumor suppressor gene involved in DNA repair through homologous recombination and in preserving the integrity of the genome. Breast and ovarian tumors lacking one of these two genes are more sensitive to a new-generation chemotherapy, the PARP inhibitors, which is revolutionizing drug treatments in this type of cancer. The discovery of new genes involved in these repair mechanisms is very important in order to understand the development of these tumors and delve more deeply into their therapeutic vulnerabilities.

Hereditary Cancer at Hospital de Sant Pau

Hospital de Sant Pau is a pioneering centre in Spain in the study of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in patients with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. It was also the first hospital in Spain to include genetic analyses of these genes with the aim of offering better assistance to patients and their families. Dr Teresa Ramon y Cajal coordinates the Genetic Counseling Unit of the Medical Oncology Service, directed by Dr Agusti Barnadas. Dr Adriana Lasa coordinates the Oncogenetic Unit of the hospital's Genetic Service, directed by Dr Jordi Surralles. Both hospital units work jointly since 1995 to offer diagnosis and assessment services in families with hereditary cancer, as well as clinical monitoring, prevention, early detection and highly specialized treatments for patients. The experience they have acquired throughout the years with thousands of families have allowed them to launch several translational biomedical research projects which have benefited numerous patients. Hospital de Sant Pau has gradually incorporated the latest technologies in genetic diagnostics. It currently analyses a panel of multiple cancer predisposition genes thanks to new-generation sequencing techniques. The impulse of genomic medicine at the hospital has been possible thanks to the incorporation of new massive sequencers at the Area of Clinical Genomics and the addition of new massive sequencing medical staff, including new technicians and a new bioinformatician. These improvements contribute to making Hospital de Sant Pau one of the healthcare centers in Spain with the greatest capacity for sequencing, precision diagnostics, and personalized therapeutic treatments.

Hereditary Cancer at the ICO

As a public service, the mission of the ICO's Hereditary Cancer Program is to work to reduce the impact of cancer in Catalonia through the identification of individuals and families with an increased risk of developing cancer, due to being carriers of mutations in highly penetrant cancer predisposition genes. Its range reaches over 50% of the adult population of Catalonia and includes the Genetic Counseling Unit of the ICO centers located in L'Hospitalet, Badalona and Girona. The program conducts more than 2,000 genetic studies annually to determine mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes and in other genes known to be related to breast cancer.An 84 year old was complaining of repeatedly losing his balance and falling over. He visited his primary physician in Northern Ireland from where he was referred to the emergency room. On MRI, the team of doctors found a 3-inch pocket of air in his brain. This has never been reported before in any case and thus the detailed report titled, The man that lost (part of) his mind, was published in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

The man was complaining of losing his balance and falling recurrently. Over the three days before he presented to the physicians, he was complaining of weakness of the left arm and leg. He had no other significant neurological problems with his vision, speech or hearing. There was no mental clouding or confusion or weakness of the facial muscles write the authors.

Dr. Finlay Brown, a leading author of the report and a general practitioner in Belfast was treating this man. Brown said they were suspecting some form of stroke because of the sudden appearance of the limb weakness and disturbance of balance. They then performed the scans of the brain expecting bleeding or brain damage that is caused due to stroke or blocked or bleeding brain arteries. They ended up finding a small benign tumour in the brain and an air pocket called a pneumatocele. This pocket of air was located at the patients right frontal lobe of the brain behind the frontal sinus and was situated above the cribriform plate the team writes. This cribriform plate is the plate that separates the cranial cavity (holding the brain) from the nasal cavity. It spanned over 3 inches or 9 cm.

Brown said that the team was thinking along the lines of the air pocket being a residual damage from an earlier operation or an abnormality present since birth. But none of these were corroborated by the patient.

Presence of a pneumatocele is a very rare condition say experts and it is called pneumocephalus. The air pocket presses on the frontal lobe. This leads to problems with the workings of the voluntary muscles. In this case the team found a small benign or non-cancerous tumour within the paranasal sinus of the man. This osteoma or tumour was breaking through the walls of the cranium and this was what led to the air gathering in the brain matter from the sinuses. This gathered air from the leaking sinus had caused the air pocket believe the doctors. However the air that went in could not get out due to the non-return valve like opening of the leak.

The doctors treating the patient write that the air pressure from the air pocket was responsible for the stroke in the patient. This stroke caused the weakness of the limbs and problems with walking and maintaining balance.

After diagnosis the patient was offered to be treated surgically wherein the part of the bone and tumour would be removed and the leak would be closed. Decompression to ease the air pressure would be undertaken as part of the surgery too. The patient however declined to undergo the surgery due to his age and poor health. Conservative management to prevent stroke and manage its complications was opted for.

Source: http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2017-222892.full?sid=dc43cb31-06f4-440b-8895-5087d9fe74caResearch can help to identify people with mild asthma from those with moderate or severe asthma

A team of researchers from the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre  a partnership between Leicesters Hospitals, the University of Leicester and Loughborough University - has identified biological variations in lung tissue samples that for the first time can help identify people with mild asthma from those with moderate or severe asthma.

The team led by Professors Salman Siddiqui and Peter Bradding used state-of-the-art statistical methods involving visualization approaches, to perform the largest comprehensive analysis of common pathological features in the airways of people with asthma of different severities. They also investigated the clinical features of these subtypes and whether there is any association with changes in genes and decline in lung function.

Professor Siddiqui and his team identified multiple biological micro-clusters which means that there are different combinations of active genes in each of the reported subtypes of asthma.

Professor Bradding, who is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Leicester and Consultant Respiratory Physician at Leicesters Hospitals, said:

The most exciting thing about finding these biological variations underpinning the differences between mild asthma and moderate and severe asthma is that the statistical methods if further developed could lead to the development of new, targeted treatments for subtypes of asthma, thus allowing the right asthma treatments to be matched to different patients. In this scenario, patients would benefit because they would be offered more personalized, and therefore more effective, care to manage their asthma.

Professor Siddiqui, Professor of Airway Diseases at the University of Leicester and Consultant Respiratory Physician at Leicesters Hospitals, added:

Further research is now underway to understand how to use these statistical approaches to combine complex information in asthma patients and make personalized treatment decisions.

Dr Samantha Walker, Director of Research and Policy at Asthma UK, which funded the study, said:A Ludwig Cancer Research study shows that ovarian cancer, which has proved resistant to currently available immunotherapies, could be susceptible to personalized immunotherapy. Led by Ludwig Lausanne investigator Alexandre Harari and George Coukos, director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, the study shows that ovarian tumors harbor highly reactive killer T cells--which kill infected and cancerous cells--and demonstrates how they can be identified and selectively grown for use in personalized, cell-based immunotherapies.

"Tumors whose cells tend to be highly mutated, like those of melanoma and lung cancer, are the ones that respond best to immunotherapies," says Harari. "It has long been a question whether we'd even be able to detect sufficiently mutation-reactive T cells in patients with tumors that have low mutational loads."

Harari, Coukos and their colleagues report in Nature Communications that, despite their low mutational load, epithelial ovarian tumors are infiltrated with T cells that are especially good at recognizing and killing cancer cells.

Cancer cells that have a relatively large number of mutations in their DNA express aberrant proteins--or neoantigens--that reveal the cancer to the immune system. Killer T cells recognize tiny, mutated bits of these antigens, known as neoepitopes. But neoepitopes vary wildly from patient to patient, even within the same type of cancer. This has long stymied efforts to develop generally effective therapies that target cancer antigens.

To get around this problem, researchers have been developing sophisticated methods to extract T cells from patients, select and expand those that best target a patient's cancer and reinfuse them into the patient. These approaches usually rely on T cells extracted from the bloodstream, not those already inside the tumor, which are referred to as TILs (for tumor infiltrating lymphocytes).

Experimental therapies using T cells taken from the bloodstream have not, however, worked very well against solid tumors. Further, when TILs have been used for such purposes, the proportion of what Harari calls the "juiciest" T cells--those recognizing mutations on cancer cells--tends to decline significantly when the cells are expanded in culture.

"To circumvent these problems, we developed a new methodology to identify highly reactive TILs and expand them in a manner that, rather than diluting the juiciest TILs, enriches them instead," says Harari. "This allowed us to compare the activity of TILs that target neoepitopes with their counterparts in the peripheral bloodstream."

The researchers show that killer T cells isolated from ovarian tumors using their method are much better at both recognizing neoepitopes than are those isolated from blood.

"We could even compare T cells from the two compartments targeting the exact same mutation and show that the TILs were more functional than the T cells we collected from the peripheral bloodstream," says Harari.

Notably, the researchers found that, using their methods, highly reactive TILs could be obtained from some 90% of the ovarian cancer patients whose tumor samples they examined.

"The big message," says Coukos, "is that future cell-based therapies can be envisioned for low mutational load tumors and should prioritize the use of TILs over T cells collected from peripheral blood. This novel strategy to obtain enriched TILs also offers great therapeutic opportunities."

Harari, Coukos and their colleagues will now be applying their findings to an ambitious program to develop and streamline personalized immunotherapies for cancer patients currently underway at the Lausanne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.Leicester University Community First Responders (LUCFR) providing 999 first-responder services in partnership with the East Midlands Ambulance Service

Passionate medical and allied health professional students are taking their skills to the community in a life-saving initiative they are leading in Leicester City Centre.

Leicester University Community First Responders (LUCFR) are trained student volunteers who will be responding to patients in their local community to support East Midlands Ambulance Service. They have been trained to provide potentially life-saving medical treatment to 999 emergency patients while the paramedics travel to the scene.

From the moment someone calls 999, every minute counts. Research has shown that, in the event of cardiac arrest, for every minute that passes without defibrillation a persons chances of survival can decrease by up to 10%.

With this in mind, students from the University of Leicester have set up an early intervention scheme modelled after national CFR initiatives which run throughout the UK.

A community first responder (CFR) is a volunteer who gives up their spare time to respond to 999 calls for the ambulance service, in addition to a traditional ambulance service resource being dispatched.

As community first responders are ordinary people based within the local community, they are often much closer to incidents when the initial 999 calls are made and are able to arrive within minutes to start lifesaving treatment before the ambulance crew arrive.

The scheme was started to reduce the time taken for life-saving treatment to be initiated for local people suffering from medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests, convulsions and unconsciousness.

Now, students from the University of Leicester have established their own scheme, based at the Universitys George Davies Centre and run entirely by a small and dedicated collective of students. The scheme is also entirely reliant on donations and fundraising activities undertaken by the students.

There are currently 32 students enrolled as first responders, split between two cohorts.

Operations Lead and group Secretary Kieran Duignan shared the inspiration behind setting up the group with scheme co-ordinator and President Stuart Evans.

When I came to University I applied to become a community first responder through the East Midlands Ambulance Service, Kieran explains.

At that time, and based on my address, there unfortunately wasnt a scheme for me to join. Looking for an alternative, I thought about setting one up at the University. Stuart, a good friend of mine and Critical Care Paramedic by background had separately been thinking of setting up a CFR scheme as well, and a conversation about this led to us meeting with Mandy Lowe, the Community Response Manager for EMAS in June 2017. We received the all-clear to go ahead and sought to ascertain interest from potential students.

Stuart added:

Our primary aim is to improve outcomes for patients in the local community, having experienced first-hand the vital role that CFRs play in providing early, life-saving treatment. Longer term we are hoping to support local community events alongside the ambulance service, to provide CPR and first aid training. Were really keen to improve public awareness of how to conduct CPR properly through education and engagement.

Plans are also underway for a third cohort of students - which the team hopes will encompass more students from different health-care related subjects, and potentially institutions, to increase and promote multi-disciplinary working.

All volunteers are trained to respond by the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The training has been conducted at the University of Leicester, covering topics such as basic life support, automated external defibrillation, oxygen therapy, medical emergencies and unconscious patient assessment.

Professor Richard Holland, Head of Leicester Medical School, said:

This is a fantastic initiative by our students, in particular, Kieran and Stuart. It is a real tribute to their passion to help our local community, which we really consider to be a part of our Schools ethos. I am really delighted we are one of only a handful of medical schools with its own Community First Responder team.

Ben Ryrie, County Coordinator for Community Response at East Midlands Ambulance Service, said:

Community First Responders (CFRs) are local lifesavers. By living and working within the communities they support they are often able to arrive before our ambulance crews. They provide vital support to patients during the first few minutes of their emergency to give the patient the best possible chance of survival. We have a well-established network of CFRs across the East Midlands and the students at Leicester are a fantastic addition.

The students have secured funding for a scheme car through the University of Leicester and University of Leicester Students Union, which they will be leasing over a three year period. The car will be located in a designated parking space at the George Davies Centre.

Carrie Young, Activities Officer at Leicester Students Union, said:

This scheme is a great example of how our students are proactively working to help the local community. We are so proud of the hard work they have put in to secure initial funding and we are looking forward to working with them further to continue their fundraising efforts.

The team will also be fundraising for ongoing costs such as response kits and suction units through the Santander and Crowdfunding Whats your idea campaign. Estimates for the teams equipment costs can be found here.

The team will need to raise 1000 to be matched by a further 1000 by crowdfunder. If this target is reached, there will be the opportunity to raise another 2000 by the same process.Ford Motor Co said Wednesday it is recalling 1.38 million vehicles in North America for potentially loose steering wheel bolts that could detach, in an issue linked to two accidents and one injury.

The second largest U.S. automaker said the recall covers 2014 through 2018 model year Ford Fusion cars and 2014-2018 Lincoln MKZ vehicles built at plants in Michigan and Mexico. Dealers will replace the steering wheel bolt with a longer bolt.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation in October into 841,000 Ford vehicles over concerns the steering wheels may get detached while the cars are in motion.

The auto safety agency said it was investigating 2014-2016 model Ford Fusion cars after three reports of steering wheel bolts becoming loose, including one completely detaching as a driver attempted to turn into a gas station.

Steering wheel recalls are rare but not unprecedented.

In 2011, General Motors Co recalled 2,100 Cruze cars because the steering wheel could detach. It issued a separate recall for about 150 Buick Encore SUVs in 2013 over the same issue.

Ford said on Wednesday it was also recalling nearly 6,000 2013-15 Ford Fusion cars in North America with certain engines for clutch pressure plate fracture to address the risk of fire.

The company said repeated high-energy clutch slip input, made during gear changes, could lead to premature clutch lining wear; that, in turn, reduces the mechanical properties of pressure plate material, which could spur a leak of transmission fluid and result in a fire. Ford said it was not aware of any fires, accidents or injuries associated with this issue.

Also Watch: DC Hammer First Look at Auto Expo 2018 | Cars18Hours before News18s Rising India Summit, JC2 Ventures founder and CEO John Chambers said that Indias growth story will be an example to the rest of the world and the country is growing at a rate much faster than others.

Chambers, also the former CEO of Cisco, headed the companys teams in India that brought him closer to the ground realities of the country.

Everything about the country excites me, he exclaimed, in an interaction with News18.com. The summit will be held in New Delhi on March 16 and 17.

Edited excerpts of the interview:

What is your version of a rising India?

Everything about India excites me. I headed world headquarters of Cisco in India almost 15 years ago and three years ago I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was elected. I felt that he could be one of the greatest leaders in the world, and he turned out to be one.

When you look at the future of India, you have 1.3 billion of people with the average age of 26, and its a group which is extremely hard working. Your government is working towards creating the environment for job creation and raising the standard of living at par with other world powers.

In my opinion, when you look at India over the next 10 years, the GDP will grow with good execution. Perhaps, over 10 per cent for a decade. I know that three years ago there were a lot of challenges, but now the people looking at India are way more optimistic.

What are the hurdles in a run up to Indias growth story?

There will be bumps along the way, there was and will continue to be. But if you look at the story in India and you look at the inclusive approach across all 29 states, the chief ministers and a prime minister like Modi, the problems can be easily overcome. He is among the very best in the world, a tremendous visionary genius. He wakes up every morning thinking about what can be done for the country.

He is among the very few leaders in the world who understand digitisation and interestingly India is among the three countries that are growing the fastest in their individual areas within the world and creating jobs.

I think the first thing India needs to work on, is to continue to move fast with timely changes. People naturally resist change. The strategies by Modi outline a dream about GDP growth of an extra two to three points. Digitisation will foster Indias growth. India will soon become the start-up engine for Asia. The plans to come up with smart cities in 760 villages across 29 states and territories to empower young people and innovation for the future is commendable, but the key is how do you keep the momentum going.

Also, people in India are impatient. You've got the biggest aircraft carrier in the world and expect the prime minister to be able to do something about it in a jiffy.

For example, demonetization or the goods and services tax (GST), things which were so fundamental to the future. All of those things help with modernization and development of the country as a whole. Yet all of us and certainly critics say things should happen faster.

Any business leader will tell you that it takes one to three years to implement them.

How do we bridge the gap between rural and urban development?

Inclusive growth is the key to developing any nation. I am sharing with you the same discussion that is an issue in France as well. There they have decided that you have to make it inclusive of all the people in the country. So to think about India and the venture capital being focused on just nine cities is not helping at all. So we've got to get that venture capital spread across all 29 states. It has to be a program of how do we enable that to make it easier for startups to engage with that even further.

India made the biggest move in the world in ease of doing business but we still have a way to go. Chief Ministers need to take responsibility in their states to say how we make it a start-up state. How do we make it inclusive? Similarly in a very positive way, competition needs to prop up.

What are the positives and negatives for a foreign business investor in India?

As a business investor, the startup culture which is increasingly becoming popular in the country encourages me. I have my own money invested in a few start-ups in India. With policies like Start-up India, Make in India and Digital India there are prospects of tremendous growth in the country.

India is going to be a model for growth in front of the entire world. In the last ten years India has developed from a country that used to pose many challenges to one that solves them.

However, as an investor something that makes me nervous is the pace of change. India needs to find a momentum to surge ahead under the able leadership of Prime Minister Modi.

He is the best leader there ever can be, I can bet my life on him.Mumbai: Numetal, the SPV floated by private equity arm of Russian lender VTB Bank and Rewant Ruia, a Ruia family member, has claimed that its bid for Essar Steel has "solid legal backing" and if need be, "the other shareholders will buy out Rewant's" 25 percent stake in the company.

The shareholders of the Mauritius-based Numetal, a special purpose vehicle that focuses on steel and infra space along with manufacturing, are VTB Capital, the private equity arm of the Russian state-owned VTB Bank; Russian steel and engineering major TPE.

Other promoters are Indo International, a Dubai-based steel trading firm promoted by an NRI, and the Aurora Trust in which Rewant Ruia, the son of one of the Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia, is a beneficiary and owns 25 percent in Numetal.

VTB Capital owns majority in Numetal. "If public perception is a challenge because of Rewant Ruia's minority stake in Numetal, we're ready to change that," Antoine Chemali, a senior advisor at Numetal Mauritius, told PTI here this evening.

"We've already spoken to him (Rewant Ruia) and are ready to do whatever it takes us to win the Essar Steel bid. We, the rest of the shareholders, are ready to buy out his minority stake from Numetal," he added.

But Chemali was quick to point out that Rewant does not have any say in the management of Numetal or enjoys a board representation. "He is just a minority shareholder," he said without quantifying his stake.

Numetal and ArcelorMittal are the only two bidders for the almost 10-million tonne Essar Steel assets at Hazira, which has defaulted on more than Rs 45,000 crore of bank loans from and is currently at the NCLT for bankruptcy resolution.

Numetal and ArcelorMittal have put up their bids on February 12 to the NCLT, and are battling with each other for the steel asset and are faced with questions on the eligibility of their bids.

Bids of both the companies are being evaluated by the resolution professional, risk and financial advisory Grant Thornton and law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. An Essar Group official told PTI that Rewant Ruia had resigned from the board of Essar Steel way back in 2012, and thus in no way is related to Essar Steel promoters.

It can be noted that both bidders have threatened to challenge National Company Law Tribunal and resolution professional at higher courts if their bids were rejected. This forced government to recently hint that it's amenable to make more changes to Section 29 of the IBC to redefine "connected/related parties" to exclude only original promoters who are defaulters from bidding for an asset that has gone to the bankruptcy courts.

While Numetal has claimed that ArcellorMittal is not eligible to bid as their India joint venture Uttam Galva is a defaulter and is in NCLT now, the world's largest steel major made the same allegation against Numetal because of Rewant's investment in the SPV company.

Chemali further claimed their bid for Essar Steel has solid legal backing, saying there is nothing in the law that can make their bid ineligible. "From the point of view of law, we are fully eligible to bid for Essar Steel and there is legally nothing that can disqualify us from bidding. That's what our lawyers have told us. We've a strong legal backing for our bid and we are fully compliant with all the laws and we will not do anything that's against the laws of the land," said Chemali.

He also said they have submitted a very good revival proposal which has two-pronged strategy-to streamline and maximise production at the 9.7-million tonne plant that is now running at around 60 percent.

"So, our bid involves an upfront cash payout which is the bid amount, and an offer to pump in as much working capital as needed to run the plant for our first priority is to optimise the capacity level in the shortest possible time.

"The second part of our offer is to invest more in the company for expansion because we are very optimistic about the growth story of the steel sector here," explained the head of Numetal India, Chandra Shekar Verma, who retired as the chairman of state-run steel major Sail.

"Shareholders of Numetal are well-versed in the steel sector apart from the infra and other key manufacturing areas and we are very serious that we get to own Essar Steel when the resolution process gets over by April 29," Chemali said. Comments assume importance as there are reports that government is looking at further amending IBC to distinguish between promoters of defaulting firms that don't have a managerial role, from those who also manage stressed assets.

As per media reports, the corporate affairs ministry is believed to be considering two amendments to change the definition of "connected people" as per the IBC.

As of now, a promoter or investor in a defaulting company is not eligible to participate in the auction of stressed assets referred to the NCLT.

According to the IBC, bids should be presented to the committee of creditors at least a month before the deadline which in the case of Essar Steel is April 29. And Chemali said they have not met the creditors but expressed the hope that they will be able to meet the deadline.Thiruvananthapuram: Around 50 people who were protesting against acquisition of paddy land for construction of a road in Keralas Kannur were arrested on Wednesday.

The protesters were arrested for obstructing the duty of government servants and rioting. They were later let off by the police.

On Tuesday, the All India Kisan Sabha, an affiliate of the CPIM, organised a massive protest of farmers and adivasis.

Kannurs Keezhattur area has seen protests since June last year. The stir was called off after the government assured that the concerns of the farmers will be addressed.

Suresh Keezhatoor, one of the organisers of the protest, said the road project is an environmental hazard and a proper study has not been conducted for the scheme. "It is a fact that the paddy filed will be destroyed. But apart from that the nearby hills will also be destroyed as huge amount of sand is required to level the paddy field, he said.

There were some tense moments on Wednesday when some of the protesters threatened to set themselves on fire when police and PWD officials reached the spot to inspect the land.

The protesters have set up a temporary shed in a paddy field through which the highway is likely to pass. It was alleged that on Wednesday some CPIM workers set fire to the shed. The police said a case has been registered against the CPI(M) men. Keezhattur is a Left stronghold.

Keezhatoor said that by next week the protest will start again and they are also looking at legal options to protect the paddy land and the environmentKolkata: CBI sleuths on Thursday arrested two Kolkata-based businessmen in connection with a bank fraud to the tune of Rs 515 crore. One of the two arrested men are supposedly close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Businessmen Shibaji Panja and Kaustav Ray were booked by the CBI along with their computer manufacturing firm RP Info Systems, for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by Canara Bank.

The CBI had earlier carried out searches at the residences of all the accused and their corporate office in Kolkata.

It has been alleged that the directors of the company, Shibaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, and its vice president defrauded Canara Bank and nine other consortium member banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

The other members of the bank were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the CBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

The bank in its complaint on February 26, now part of the FIR, has alleged that the company which manufactured computers with brand name Chirag had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards. These loans have become NPA, it said.

Panja has been earlier arrested by the Delhi Police over other cases of bank frauds.

RP Infosystems, too, has had a brush with law earlier as the CBI had booked it in 2015 for cheating IDBI bank, once a leader of the consortium before relinquishing the position in 2013, to the tune of Rs 180 crore.Jan-Dhan Yojana

Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the worlds largest financial inclusion programme in his maiden Independence Day speech, opening the doors of formal banking system to the poor. Today, the number of beneficiaries banked stand at 31.31 crore, with balance of over Rs 76,000 crore in their accounts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi distributes RuPay cards to beneficiaries.

GST: One Nation-One Tax

Dubbed the biggest financial sector reform after the liberalisation of the economy in 1991, the Modi government launched the Goods and Services Tax on July 1, 2017, at a special midnight session of the Parliament. The one nation, one tax, as it is also known, replaced existing multiple cascading taxes levied by the central and state governments.

The then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi launch GST in a special mid-night session of Parliament.

Ujjwala Scheme

The Ujjwala scheme has provided free LPG connections to almost 3 crore poor families till now. Under the scheme, the government aims to provide cooking gas to poor households. The scheme aims to replace cooking fuels used mostly in rural India with clean liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with Ujjwala beneficiaries.

Bullet Train

The foundation stone for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed railway project was laid on September 14 by PM Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, opening the doors for big shift in Indias transportation infrastructure.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the launch of Mumbai-Ahemdabad High Speed Rail Project.

BHIM App

In a push for digitalisation, PM Modi launched BHIM, a biometric payment system app using Aadhaar platform, and based on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to facilitate e-payments directly through bank accounts. Transaction volumes on the digital payment platform have grown 36 percent to over Rs 13,000 crore till December last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the launch of BHIM App.

MUDRA Yojana

With the MUDRA scheme, the Modi government provided financial support to budding entrepreneurs. Out of the total loans sanctioned, more than 3 crore beneficiaries have been first time entrepreneurs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the launch of MUDRA scheme.

UDAN

The UDAN scheme launched in October 2016 makes air travel more affordable and accessible to the common man. It also gave much needed boost to regional connectivity by unveiling 128 routes that connected regional areas to cities and covered 52 un-served and 13 underserved airports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off first UDAN flight.

Clean India Mission

Institutional support accompanied with mass participation has been instrumental in making Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, PM Modis pet project, a success. Four years since its launch, around 79 percent of the country has become free of open defecation, up from around 39 per cent in 2014.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lends a hand to construct a twin pit toilet.

Infra Push

In a major push for infrastructure, PM Modi unveiled the Sagarmala Project to develop Indias long coastline and inland ports as well as the Bharatmala Project to improve road connectivity in the country. The projects comes with total outlay of Rs 4 lakh crore and more than Rs 5 lakh crore respectively. Other critical infrastructural projects include the 9-km long Chenani-Nashri Tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir and the Dhola-Sadia Bridge, the country's longest river bridge, in Assam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes a walk on the newly built Dhola-Sadiya bridge, connecting Assam with Arunachal Pradesh.

Solar Alliance

To tackle climate change, PM Modi brought together the International Solar Alliance to harness solar energy for developmental needs of countries in the tropics. Launched in 2015, in the midst of Paris Climate Summit, the international venture has held its first summit in Delhi, which saw participation of 23 heads of state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron with the solar mamas at the International Solar Alliance (ISA).Hyderabad: Telengana police has identified the third militant, killed along with Esa Fazli and Syed Owais this week in south Kashmir, as a resident of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana who followed ISIS' ideology and had fled to the Valley last year to join militancy.

Three militants, including Fazli and Owais, both of whom left their B.Tech third year course to join militancy, were killed in the encounter on the intervening night of March 11 and 12, a development seen as a blow to the attempts by ISIS to gain ground in the Kashmir Valley.

After a request for identification sent by Jammu and Kashmir police, the Telengana police came out with a small press note in which it claimed that the person was identified as 26-year-old MD Toufeeq hailing from Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana.

"It is learnt that MD Toufeeq, a native of Manguru, died in an encounter with security forces on the intervening night of March 11-12 in Hakura area of Anantnag district along with two other Kashmiri militants," the statement said.

Toufeeq was radicalised into the Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of the ISIS, according to the release.

It clarified that he was not wanted in any of the criminal cases in Telangana. However, further details were being verified, it added.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) had written a letter to Telengana police citing reports in social media about the third militant hailing from that state.

While asking them to share the details, the Jammu and Kashmir police had given the name of Mohammed Taufeeq alias 'Sultan Zabul Al Hind'.New Delhi: The "painful" state of women representation in the judiciary and the absence of even a single notary was highlighted in a report submitted by a standing committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The 96th Report on Demands for Grants (2018-19) of the Ministry of Law and Justice was presented by a standing committee chaired by Bhupendra Yadav. Among various issues, the report noted the poor representation of women in the judiciary, the absence of notaries, huge pendency of cases, insufficient allocation of funds, and increasing vacancies in the position of law officers.

Since Independence, only six women judges have been appointed in the Supreme Court of India. The first of whom was in 1989. The Committee, accordingly, desires that the Bench of Higher Judiciary be reflective of the composition of society and its diversity and recommends that suitable measures be taken to include more and more women judges in both Higher and Subordinate Judiciary, reads the standing committee report.

The standing committee has now reiterated the recommendation it made in its 84th Report that the strength of women should be around 50 percent of the total strength of judges.

The report also revealed that 11 states and union territories did not have even a single notary. Notaries are perhaps the most commonly required legal service in daily life, considering their need for document verification and attestation.

The Committee is, therefore, despondent to note that nationwide more than 5000 vacancies of Notaries exist under the central government quota. The data shows that 11 States/UTs do not have a single notary appointed and in most other States/UTs also, there are huge vacancies. However, the government is not taking any proactive measures to fill them, read the report.

The committee blamed the government for not advertising the vacancies and observed that the entire process of appointment of Notaries from application stage to issue of Certificate of Practice takes an inordinate time. The standard period of appointment, from interview to selection, is a period of two to three years.

The standing committee also noted that the disproportionate allocation of budget to the Ministry of Law and Justice indicates that either the projections of the Ministry/Commission were overestimated or they have received inadequate funds.

As per the data provided, the Ministry had projected a requirement of  6550.38 crores for BE 2018-19 to the Ministry of Finance, against which an allocation of only  4386.33 crores has been approved, which is just 67% of the allocation sought from the Ministry of Finance, noted the report.

While commenting on vacancies in subordinate judiciary the committee said that among the 36% vacancy in law officers even the post of of Solicitor General of India, who is second law officer of the country and assists the Attorney General of India, is vacant.

The Committee further reported that a huge pendency of cases exists in the Subordinate Judiciary with the top five positions being taken up by Uttar Pradesh (61,61,822), Maharashtra (33,36,574), West Bengal (17,70,820), Bihar (16,58,292) and Gujarat (16,41,355).

This has been further corroborated by the vacancy of judges in High courts which the committee has pegged as very high. Currently, there are 56 vacancies in Allahabad High Court, followed by Karnataka (38), Calcutta (39), Punjab & Haryana (35), Telangana & Andhra Pradesh (30) and Bombay (24).New Delhi: Days after Iran invited China and Pakistan to participate in the development of the Chabahar port, India on Thursday said it was the prerogative of the Iranian government to choose its partners for the project.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, during a three-day visit to Islamabad, invited Pakistan and China to participate in the strategic Chabahar Port project, saying it is not aimed at "strangulating" or "encircling" anybody.

"It is the prerogative of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose its partners for the development of infrastructure facilities there," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a media briefing.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman was inaugurated four months ago, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. India has been a key partner in the development of the port which is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port, being developed with Chinese investment.

"As you are aware, India is supporting the development of Chahbahar Port as a robust and alternate access route to and for Afghanistan and Central Asia," said Kumar, adding significant progress has been made in operationlising the port. In November last year, India delivered the first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Chabahar Port.

"Shipment of wheat assistance to Afghanistan through Chahbahar is being successfully carried out since October last year. Four such shipments have been successfully delivered," said Kumar. He said India's assistance for building Chabahar-Zahedan Railway to realise the full potential of the port and to connect it to Afghanistan and Central Asia was discussed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit here last month.

"We continue to work with Iran on the full and effective operationalisation of the Chabahar Port," said Kumar. India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday finally extended the interim relief granted by the Delhi High Court to Karti Chidambaram from arrest till March 26 in the INX Media money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Earlier on March 6, the apex court had refused to grant him interim protection from arrest, saying the move will affect the trial proceedings.

However, Thursdays SC order came after the Delhi High Court extended Karti Chidambaram's protection from arrest in the ED case from March 20 to March 22.

The apex court also transferred to itself the matter pending before the High Court keeping in view that several high courts in the country have given conflicting views on interpretation of section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) which relates to ED's power to arrest an accused.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it would hear the matter on March 26 and the top court would answer the question regarding the interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA.

Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, is in jail in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI.

Karti has alleged that the ED was on a fishing and roving enquiry to malign the reputation of his father. He had contended that the ED cannot act against him until the CBI completes its probe.

A trial court on Monday sent Karti to 12-day judicial custody. He will now be lodged at Tihar Jail till March 24 and his pleas for separate cell and home-cooked food were also denied.

(With PTI inputs)There was a definite ring of irony when the news of the demise of a man whose photographs had been regularly appearing in major newspapers for the last forty years struggled to find a little footing.

Any Malayalee who grew up in the 70s and 80s could have never missed the single-column ad that appeared in the corner of newspapers that featured a stocky face and announced that his magical wares could cure diseases a child could hardly understand.

Some of us made a mental note of expressions like erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation in the ad and decided to check them once we grew up adequately. Eventually, we grew up and out of our innocence, but always ageing against the timeless and unflinching expression of that man and the format of the advertisement.

The space MS Sarkar took in newspapers may be single-column, but the journey he undertook from his homeland, Pakistan, to become Keralas first sexologist spans the entire length of our country.

Little did Syed Ali (later MS Sarkar) know that Kerala was waiting for him in the far corner of Peninsular India when he was a young lad in Jalandhar, Pakistan, in the early half of 20th century.

He fell madly in love with a girl. But Syeds grandfather, the royal physician Haji Nawab Ali Khan, could not see any fine prospects in the relationship and so he hid the girl. The repeated pleas of the boy fell on deaf ears. The charm of Jalandhar withered before his eyes, and he could not live where the air is suffused with sad and bitter memories of his girl, now vanished.

Syed left Paksitan and came down to Uttar Pradesh along with his family of eight - Syeds father, Abdul Wahid, his two wives (One Pakistani and the other Indian), and their children, including Syed. But they did not come to the new country empty-handed.

Traditional unani medicine was hugely popular during the time, and Syeds relatives being practitioners for many generations, with some of them serving royal houses, hit the right chord. Moreover, they also had a deadly combination when they tinkered unani to address sexual problems.

Syed could have settled in UP for the rest of his life and forget all about a destiny waiting for him in a south Indian state had it not been for the troubles that started fomenting on the eve of partition. At a time when religious harmony was at its worst, a Pakistani family treating sexual problems in the heart of India was not a rosy scenario.

People suspected that the physicians amped the libidinal energy of only those who belonged to his community - a grave accusation at that time. Syed was hurt, he now wanted to prove his secular spirit, and he thought he found the way. He grew out of his name, Syed Ali, and assumed a new title - Sarkar, something every layman can relate to without any fear.

The young man could have emerged out of his name, but to come out of his past was not as easy. The girl who disappeared at Jalandhar still haunted his life. The remote village in Uttar Pradesh could hardly assuage the embers smoldering inside his heart.

A view of MS Sarkar's clinic in Thiruvananthapuram. His son SK Sarkar also specializes in the same field. (Photo: Facebook)

Soon, Sarkar found himself packing up for a journey further south. It was a pilgrimage of sorts, with the physician finding patients everywhere he settled for stopovers, with the lover searching for his lost love in the many girls he married on his way down south.

Marrying could also be his protest against parental tyrannies he faced as a boy. When his quest was finally stopped by the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea, Sarkar had married 7 women and begetted 56 children. He lived out what he preached. His marital life stood erect as testimony before his customers with flaccid spirits.

Once in Kerala, he set up a clinic in Ernakulam but soon found Trivandrum, pulling him further south. He found in the capital city some solace that he lost at a faraway place in Pakistan.

In the 70s, people in Trivandrum had no idea what Sarkar was talking about. Is erectile dysfunction a disease? With a cure? Can weak libidos be re-energised with medicines? Can I be manlier? A physician who stood up to such challenges that affect many people was unheard of during the time. That hit a nerve.

Sarkar didnt know Malayalam, so they could speak to him about their sexual inadequacies only through an interlocutor. That also could have helped. They found it comfortable to open up before a man who looked into their secret lives through a strange language that didnt strip them naked.

After the initial baulking, patients began to come in large numbers. His business flourished.

The ads he regularly gave in newspapers seethed not only in one corner of the page but also in many a worried mind who now desperately wanted to meet him personally. Eventually in the laid-back city of the south, a physician from Pakistan grew to become a legend.

His son SK Sarkar, who also specializes in the field, remembered that his father had a wrestlers body in his youth. Even after 40 years of practice in the city, he did not have a single friend. Perhaps, the patients who came to see him secretly didnt want to acknowledge the relationship elsewhere.

Sarkar lived lion-like, with a confidence that bordered on arrogance. Back in those days when he roamed around his city with his many wives and children in his Mark 3 Ambassador or Contessa, he could buy half the city with the money he earned just by inspiring confidence, instilling courage and upping libidos.

Sarkar was in the grips of Azheimers for more than a decade before he died early this week. The places he saw in his long journey to Kerala from Pakistan, the problems his patients brought to him, the women he married along the way, the children he fathered, and his life in Trivandrum with his big family that hardly fit in to his Mark 3 Ambassador, all floated around like figments in his mind.

As the world moved on with new sex gurus popping up every minute in the virtual world, Sarkar lay in his bed oblivious to everything. Perhaps deep within him, an innocent boy, named Syed Ali, could have been wandering around the alleys of a town called Jalandhar in search of a girl he thought he once loved and perhaps lost.She started off as a rich, snooty High School girl with a tender heart in flossy Student of The Year and went on to play a sexually abused drug addict in dark and gritty Udta Punjab. In just a little more than five years, Alia Bhatt has become nation's sweetheart, primarily for the kind of roles she has chosen to do on the big screen. From being a prodigy of the elite Dharma Productions, Alia has also become a favourite of many off-beat directors like Abhishek Chaubey, Imtiaz Ali and Zoya Akhtar, making her one of the most sought-after talent in the industry.

She's 25, already has 2 Filmfare Awards resting on her shelf and a life anyone would envy looking at. Despite being a 'star-kid', Alia has a familiar air around her that makes her connect to the younger generation of the country. Be it her films or a glimpse of her real life through social media, Alia connects with the youth like no one other can, and thus deserves the title of 'Star for the Millennials'.

- Her Urge to Experiment

While it is a known fact Alia started her career as Shanaya, a typical Karan Johar character, not many know that she signed Imtiaz Ali's Highway much before SOTY released. At the age of 19, Alia decided to be Shanaya and Veera in the same year, working with two completely different directors who belong to different schools of thought. But she has had the maturity to experiment right from the beginning, never sticking to one particular genre only and balancing commercial and art cinema with much ease. Alia opted for typical Bollywood romance with a fun twist and an edge of reality attached, in 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Both the films ensured Alia commercial viability which is important to survive in Bollywood.

Then came 2016, the best year in Alia Bhatt's career. From playing a much real Tia in Kapoor and Sons to a gritty Bihari immigrant who is sexually assaulted for months before seeking refuge in drugs in Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab, Alia did it all. Her character in Udta was so challenging that all other actresses in the industry refused to take up. Alia did complete justice to a rural role which was completely away from her real life- a privileged girl who grew up in Mumbai in an affluent, protective household. Thus, her character of an abused Bihari immigrant struck a chord with the audience because of the genuine pain she managed to evoke. Credits to Alia to bring the gritty side of the menace so well onscreen. She got a role of her career and we found an actress who could multitask as a 'Star'.

Within a year, Alia shed her tolling character of Udta and took another refreshing role as Kaira for Gauri Shinde's slice of life film Dear Zindagi. Playing a role much closer to her own self and with people her age, the film dealt with this generation's emotional detachment and how it leads to depression and anxiety. Kaira's vulnerabilities, passion, and insecurities were adopted by Alia, making it another memorable film. Now the actress has again taken up two starkly different characters in Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy, where she plays a girl from Dharavi and a sci-fi romance Brahmastra.

Another film where Alia will be seen showing her acting chops this year is Meghna Gulzar's intense drama Raazi.

- Figuring Life Like Just Like Us

While Kiara and Tia might be the most real characters played by Alia, connected to urban youth, her real life is seems just as complicated as any of us. The 24-year-old actress is figuring out life, just like most millennials despite being one of the most sort after faces in Bollywood.

Literally!  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Dec 10, 2016 at 8:29pm PST

As her Instagram bio reads, "Moody, Floaty, Fire and Desire", Alia is every emotion. She's dreamy like any 20 something would be, loves to sleep in on days wishing to skip her work (or workout), gets awestruck whenever a phrase/line of fellow actors strikes a chord and loves to take selfies! While the world wants to swap its life with Alia, the girl herself wants to swap her life with popular model Gigi Hadid.

Go somewhere  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Oct 9, 2016 at 4:47am PDT

In an interview given to a popular magazine, Alia dwelled a little more into her personal space and revealed some quirky answers, something most of the urban millennial will relate to. From spying on Ryan Gosling to taking a selfie on Mars, even the golden girl of Bollywood has a few fetishes. It is her charm, that makes her relatable to a generation who identifies with nothing or no one.

- Devil May Care Attitude

Remember when Alia made a fool out of herself on Koffee With Karan Season 4? Well, the actress doesn't. After a big goof up on national television and becoming the joke of the country, Alia moved on with her much glorious life as people behind her kept talking about her 'dumbness' and a typical 'star-kid' attitude with no knowledge of the real world.

When rumours about her dating Sidharth Malhotra emerged she kept quiet and yet was clicked on lunch dates and parties with him. Never to deny or accept, Alia doesn't bother to feed the paparazzi anything. Although, she has her own way to get back at the rumours. When people started talking about her cold-war with Parineeti Chopra and Shraddha Kapoor, instead of giving a statement, Alia opted for a smarter move and posted pictures of herself hanging out with Chopra and promoting Shraddha's film.

NO NEED FOR THIS DEAR BUDDY!!!  haha I've totally caught the Pari-Lingo @parineetichopra #DreamTeam #girlstalk  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Aug 19, 2016 at 9:45am PDT

Her motto: staying away from controversy, her goal: keep working and let the paparazzi construct anything they wish to. She has better work to do than pay heed to negativity in her life. Isn't that we all do? *Peace Out*

A moment of quiet amidst the noise. #DreamTeam A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Aug 17, 2016 at 3:49pm PDT

- Cracking Jokes and Taking One on Her Too

Making people laugh is an art, but laughing at yourself while the world watches is a talent not everybody possesses. While, the world called her names for confusing the name of the President of India, Alia made sure that the nation had a good laugh over her goof-up. She collaborated with AIB to poke fun at herself and her general knowledge. She sportingly took jibes by journalists as she went on to promote her films and even in the latest Koffee With Karan Season, she took it all in her stride as she beat SRK in the Quiz and declared that her GK is now improving.

This sporting quality of hers just reveals how confident she is about her art and doesnt care about her image, which otherwise, industry people are so conscious about. This temperament of hers makes her a youth favourite, because for a generation which has grown up watching Lizzie McGuire, 'perfect' doesn't exist and every flaw is beautiful.

From her personality to her fashion choices everything about Alia is breezy. She is a terrific performer, an ever amused dreamer and an extremely hard-working actor, all these qualities not only make her an industry favourite but also a mass favourite. Her 'demotional' personality, millennial vibe and devil may care attitude makes her a face of this new wave of stardom that has entered the industry. Very rightly, she is the star of this generation that feeds on dreams and lives to work.Hyderabad: As the deadlock over the issue of Special Category Status continues between Telugu Desam Party and BJP-led Centre, the alliance ending announcement may just be a few hours away.

Telugu Desam Party supremo Chandrababu Naidu has called for a Politburo meeting in Amaravati on Friday, where a final call on the alliance would be taken.

In view of recent political developments, the pressure is mounting of the TDP to take the "final step" in the battle. A majority of the party MPs and MLAs have told Chandrababu Naidu that if BJP is disregarding their appeals then the alliance must end.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, while addressing his party leaders via teleconference, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hit out at the BJP for pitching others against him.

"Instead of giving what Andhra Pradesh people are rightfully asking for, the BJP is resorting to using Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against us," Naidu said.

Raising the sentiment of Telugu pride, Naidu added, "We are fighting for self-respect, the rights of Telugu people and the implementation of promises made to us. Instead of honouring them, Narendra Modi and BJP are involved in doing collusion politics."

The remarks come after Pawan Kalyan, Jana Sena party chief, made serious allegations of corruption against Chandrababu Naidu and his son, Nara Lokesh at a public meeting in Guntur on Wednesday.

"In the coming days, BJP might intensify resorting to such collusion politics," he added.

In their step-by-step fight, the Telugu Desam party was waiting for the tabling of the Finance Bill, which was their last hope. However, the Finance Bill was passed in Parliament, rejecting all the amendments raised by Andhra Pradesh.

On March 12th, the Home Ministry already conveyed to the TDP that their main demand  the Railway zone in Vizag  cannot be fulfilled. Earlier, Arun Jaitley had categorically denied granting Special Status to Andhra Pradesh and hurt the party with comments that "sentiments cannot get funds".

Naidu also raised the issue of BJPs by-election loss and the changing political equation in country. "There is a strong anti-Modi and anti-BJP feeling across the country. UP and Bihar bypoll results are an example of that. With the support of people, we will face them," Naidu told party leaders.

The CM also accused Narendra Modi of trying to repeat what he had done in Tamil Nadu. "He is using the same tactics he adopted in Tamil Nadu when he had supported the OPS faction against the EPS, by pitting Jagan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against me."

Naidu made these remarks in view of recent comments made by O Pannerselvam claiming that Narendra Modi was behind AIADMK merger.

Meanwhile, YSR Congress has decided to move a no-confidence motion on Friday. TDP will not be supporting the move but it has put to rest the TDPs fear of a possible BJP-YSRCP alliance.

In the battle of perception ahead of 2019 elections its crucial for every political party to get the optics right. Chandrababu Naidu, who is a seasoned politician, had said that he will take "the right decision, at right time".New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday walked out of the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Lok Sabha, alleging that the central government was adopting an "undemocratic" approach and bulldozing the proceedings in the House.

A meeting of the BAC to decide on the Lok Sabha's agenda for next week was held in Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's chamber on Thursday afternoon where leaders from a number of parties were present.

The Lok Sabha has been paralysed since March 5, when Parliament met after a recess, due to protest by various parties on issues like PNB scam, special status for Andhra Pradesh and Cauvery dispute. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were on Wednesday passed by the House without discussion and two other bills were also pushed on Thursday by the government.

Unhappy with the passage of bills without any discussion, Congress leader and deputy chief whip of the party in the lower house K C Venugopal on Thursday stormed out of the BAC meeting and accused the government of bypassing all democratic traditions and customs of the House.

He alleged that the government was trying to avoid discussion on the PNB scam issue.

The Government had on Wednesday passed the all-important finance bill and demands for grants without any discussion in the Lok Sabha.

He said on Thursday too the government went ahead with two bills without any discussion, although the opposition parties, including the Congress, had agreed to cooperate in passage of important legislations like The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill.

"The Government was hell bent on passing bills without any discussion, and is neither interested in amicably settling the issues in the House in a democratic manner," Venugopal said in a statement.

The Congres leader said the government is making efforts to avoid any sort of discussion on the PNB scam, and is passing all the bills without any discussion amidst the din in Lok Sabha.

Allocating time for more bills would only help the government to pass them without any discussion, he said.

Mahajan's efforts last week to end the impasse in the House came a cropper after the Opposition alleged that the government had made no effort to reach out to them to important issues.Bengaluru: Months before Assembly elections, Karnataka is bracing for a caste census which could potentially change its socio-political landscape permanently and turn state politics on its head.

The census, named Socio-Economic Survey, has been completed and its findings are in the safe custody of the government. Several groups had opposed the caste census, claiming that the state government had no right to conduct such an exercise, following which it was renamed.

The government is hesitant to make the findings public, calling it a state secret.

News18 has accessed the main findings of the survey and they have the potential to end the political hegemony of the two dominant upper castes in the state  Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

Since Independence, these two major castes have been controlling the levers of power, claiming to be the top communities in the state. The two castes have always accounted for 50% of the MP and MLA seats from the state, irrespective of the party in power. The Lingayats even want to be recognised as a separate religion, a demand backed by the Siddaramaiah government.

According to the census data seen by News18, Dalits and Muslims outnumber Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The Scheduled Castes (SCs) account for 19.5% of the total population in the state, making it the single-largest caste entity. Muslims come next, making up 16% of the population. These two groups are followed by the Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who make up 14% and 11% of the population, respectively.

Among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the Kurubas alone account for 7% of the states population. Overall, the OBCs make up 20% of Karnatakas population.

As per the data, SCs, STs, Muslims and Kurubas together form 47.5% of the total population, making it the strongest combination. Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs AHINDA (Minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) group would be the most formidable one in the state, forcing Lingayats and Vokkaligas to play second fiddle to them.

Alarmed by the findings, both the castes have joined hands to dismiss the findings as fabricated to suit the political interests of Siddaramaiah government.

Speaking to News18, national secretary of Veerashaiva-Lingayat Mahasabha HM Renuka Prasanna there said is no way they could accept the findings of the caste census. According to Justice Chinnappa Reddy Commission, our population was 69 lakh in 1980s. We formed 16.92% of the total population. The Havanur Commission claims it was 17.23%. How can our population be just 14% after 30 years? If our population has decreased, then the states total population should also have decreased proportionately. But that is not the case. We have conducted our own caste census and our population stands at 1.20 crore. We make up around 20% of the total population, he said.

Prasanna accused the Siddaramaiah government of fudging actual figures to suit its interests, daring the CM to make the findings public.

The Vokkaligas are of the same opinion. A senior Vokkaliga minister in the government told News18 that the community accounts for 16% of the population, not 11%.

A Vokkaliga bureaucrat said that if the findings are true, it can end Lingayat and Vokkaliga hegemony in the state. It is alarming. If it is true, SC, STs, Muslims and Kurubas will decide the fate of Karnataka. Our 70-year hold over the state will be weakened, he said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has refused to confirm the findings, saying nobody has the exact caste figures and that these were just rumours. I cant comment on this. Who has made it public? No one has released it. It is all pure speculation, he told News18.

Karnataka BJP president BS Yeddyurappa and JD(S) state chief HD Kumaraswamy called it yet another attempt by Siddaramaiah to divide the state on caste lines.

According to sources, the states Congress government is in a dilemma on whether to release the data. Some argue that if they make the details public, the Vokkaligas and Lingayats may join hands to take on the government, and it may even lead to socio-political unrest.

Secondly, the BJP might make the growth in Muslim population an election issue.

The caste census data will not be released before the elections. The next government may or may not release it. It is too dangerous as of now, an official said.

According to the caste census, Dalits form 19.5% of the states population, tribals 5%, Muslims 16%, Kurubas 7%, rest of the OBCs 16%, Lingayats 14%, Vokkaligas 11%, Brahmins 3%, Christians 3%, Buddhists and Jains together 2%, and the others account for 4%.

Karnatakas total population is around 6 crore. Of them, 4.90 crore are registered voters.Mumbai: Trouble is brewing within the Maharashtra unit of Bharatiya Janata Party with Dhule MLA accusing the Union Minister of State for Defence of not doing enough for the area which is also his parliamentary constituency.

BJP MLA Anil Gote made the accusation in a letter to MoS Defence Subash Bhamre.

He also raised questions about Bhamres tenure in the Defence Ministry, saying, All you have done during your tenure of four years and as MoS Defence is you have brought back the fugitive soldier Chandu.

The soldier in question is Chandu Chavan who inadvertently crossed over to the other side of the Line of Control on September 29, 2016, around the same time when the Indian Army conducted surgical strikes. He was made prisoner by Pakistan before being released back to India in January 21, 2017, as a goodwill gesture.

An inquiry was initiated by the Army against him. The Army ruled that Chavan had deserted from his post and took disciplinary action against him.

Chavan, who hails from Dhule, is posted with the 81st Armoured Regiment. Currently at home on leave, he told News18, The army would have never accepted me if I was a fugitive. This is demoralising to me, he has insulted the Army. He is an MLA, we dont expect this from him.

Accusing Gote for insulting him and the Army, he said, What use is he of, if he insults the soldiers? He should be suspended.New Delhi: Uttar Pradeshs Gorakhpur and Phulpur, and Bihars Araria became the latest casualties in BJPs bad luck at bypolls when it comes to Lok Sabha seats. Since its historic win in 2014 General Elections, the party has managed to win just four out of 23 Lok Sabha bypolls.

In contrast, the Congress has won five of these bypoll battles  more than any other party. It managed to retain the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat and wrested the others from the BJP. The saffron party has won just four, the same as the Trinamool Congress.

Of the 23 Lok Sabha seats that witnessed bypolls since 2014, 10 were previously held by the BJP. The party has not added any new seats to its kitty, but has lost six. It has managed to hold on to just four seats. Two of BJPs wins came in 2014, the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his historic mandate. The other two came in 2016.

In 2014, bypolls were held in five Lok Sabha seats. All of them were retained by the respective parties that won them in the General Elections. The BJP retained Maharashtras Beed and Gujarats Vadodara, which Modi had won and vacated in 2014. The BJD retained Kandhamal in Odisha, the Samajwadi Party retained UPs Mainpuri and the TRS managed to hold on to the seat of Medak in Andhra Pradesh.

The following year, however, saw a slight reversal of sorts, with the BJP losing Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, which it had won in 2014, to the Congress. The TRS held the Warangal seat, while the Trinamool Congress held the Bangaon seat in West Bengal.

The BJP performed better in 2016, when it retained the Lakhimpur seat in Assam and the Shahdol seat in Madhya Pradesh. It, however, failed to wrest the Trinamool strongholds of Coochbehar and Tamluk in West Bengal.

In the Tura Lok Sabha bypoll, the BJPs Meghalaya unit chose not to contest the polls and instead supported the NPP, which won the election.

Last year was again not a good one. The party lost two Lok Sabha bypolls in Punjab. In Amritsar, the Congress managed to retain the seat, while in Gudaspur, the Grand Old Party wrested a seat that the BJP had won four times. In Kerala, too, the party lost the Malappuram Lok Sabha bypoll, and in Srinagar, its ally PDP lost its seat to National Conferences Farooq Abdullah.

In 2018, of the six seats which previously had BJP MPs, four were lost in the last two months. In February, the party lost the Lok Sabha by-elections in Rajasthans Ajmer and Alwar, both of which had BJP lawmakers earlier, to the Congress. It also failed to defeat the Trinamool in West Bengals Uluberia. The losses in Gorakhpur and Phulpur on Wednesday took the number of Lok Sabha seats the BJP has ceded to six. The party also lost the Araria bypoll in Bihar to the RJD.

Other parties, however, have fared better at retaining their respective seats. The BJD, Samajwadi Party, Congress, NPP and IUML each saw one of its seat fall vacant. All five parties managed to retain them.

The TRS had two of its seats go to bypolls and held both.

The best strike rate of all, however, belonged to the Trinamool Congress. Four seats from West Bengal, all of which previously had MPs from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees party, went to polls between 2014 and 2018. The party retained all four.

Lok Sabha Bypoll Results Since 2014

2014

Beed, Maharashtra

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: BJP

Kandhamal, Odisha

Party that won originally: BJD

Party that won in bypoll: BJD

Medak, Telangana

Party that won originally: TRS

Party that won in bypoll: TRS

Vadodara, Gujarat

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: BJP

Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh

Party that won originally: SP

Party that won in bypoll: SP

2015

Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: INC

Warangal, Telangana

Party that won originally: TRS

Party that won in bypoll: TRS

Bangaon, West Bengal

Party that won originally: AITC

Party that won in bypoll: AITC

2016

Lakhimpur, Assam

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: BJP

Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: BJP

Coochbehar, West Bengal

Party that won originally: AITC

Party that won in bypoll: AITC

Tamluk, West Bengal

Party that won originally: AITC

Party that won in bypoll: AITC

Tura, Meghalaya

Party that won originally: NPP

Party that won in bypoll: NPP

2017

Amritsar, Punjab

Party that won originally: INC

Party that won in bypoll: INC

Gurdaspur, Punjab

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: INC

Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir

Party that won originally: PDP

Party that won in bypoll: NC

Malappuram, Kerala

Party that won originally: IUML

Party that won in bypoll: IUML

2018

Alwar, Rajasthan

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: INC

Ajmer, Rajasthan

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: INC

Uluberia, West Bengal

Party that won originally: AITC

Party that won in bypoll: AITC

Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: SP

Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh

Party that won originally: BJP

Party that won in bypoll: SP

Araria, Bihar

Party that won originally: RJD

Party that won in bypoll: RJDNew Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals apology to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia has not gone down well with AAPs Punjab unit.

Kejriwal on Thursday publicly apologized to former Punjab cabinet minister Majithia and submitted a copy of the written apology to the court where the latter had filed a defamation case against him.

Majithia had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal, AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashish Khaitan for linking him to Punjab's drug trade without having any evidence to back up the allegations.

AAP MLA from Kharar, Kanwar Sandhu, took to Twitter and said that the apology was a letdown to the people of Punjab. Further, he alleged that AAPs state unit was kept in the dark about the move.

Arvind kejriwal' apology to Bikram majithia in the defamation case on drugs is a let down to the people, especially the youth of punjab. We in punjab have not been taken into the loop. Our fight for punjab continues.#punjabdrugs Kanwar Sandhu (@SandhuKanwar) March 15, 2018

Defamation cases were a way of life for those who stand for the truth and he would not give up the fight, Sandhu added.

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, also expressed surprise and shock at the apology. I am appalled and stunned by the apology, he said, calling it meek surrender. He has called a press conference on Friday, vowing to continue fighting against the drug menace in the state.

Were appalled n stunned by the apology of @ArvindKejriwal tendered today,we dont hesitate to admit that we havent been consulted on this meek surrender by a leader of his stature-khaira @ZeeNews @CNNnews18 @thetribunechd @HTPunjab @PTC_Network @JagbaniOnline @dailyajitnews Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) March 15, 2018

I fail to understand the timing of Kejriwals apology when STF of Punjab has stated to the High Court today that theres substantial evidence to proceed against Bikram Majitha on the issue of drugs, he added.

In a couplet on Twitter, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas also appeared hit out at the AAP leadership and Kejriwal over the move, saying what do call a person who doesnt stay true to his word. he also retweeted both Sandhu and Khaira's reactions.

     ,       ,       ,      !  Dr Kumar Vishvas (@DrKumarVishwas) March 15, 2018

During the Punjab Assembly election campaign in 2016-17, Kejriwal had time and again attacked the Punjab government and particularly Majithia for being hand in glove with the drug mafia in Punjab.

In the apology letter dated March 15, 2018, Kejriwal has admitted that the allegations he had made against Majithia were unfounded.

Because of my allegations made against you at various political rallies, public meetings, TV programs, print, electronic and social media, you filed a defamation case against us..hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologize for the same, reads Kejriwals letter on the party letterhead.New Delhi: A representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party used Robert Vadras tribute to the late physicist Stephen Hawking to take a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Hawking passed away early on Wednesday, following which several people paid tribute to him on social media.

Vadra, who is Rahuls brother-in-law, paid tribute to physicist on Twitter.

A magnificent mind & a legendary physicist, #StephenHawking is no more. I remember reading his quote, I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these 'how' and 'why' questions. Occasionally, I find an answer. RIP pic.twitter.com/oJlSwwr9GU Robert Vadra (@irobertvadra) March 14, 2018

Following Vadras tweet, Priti Gandhi, who goes by the twitter handle Mrs Gandhi and has claimed affiliation with the BJP, used part of a quote in the tweet, I am just a child who has never grown up, to ask whether he was referring to Rahul. Tagging Vadra, she asked him whether he was trolling Rahul.

Child who has never grown up?? Are you trolling Rahul Gandhi?? https://t.co/3Ga5vS9pvw Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) March 14, 2018

Preeti is not related to Rahul. Based in Mumbai, she describes herself on Twitter as a national executive member of the BJP Mahila Morcha. She came into the limelight during Prime Ministers Narendra Modis campaign before the 2014 general elections, representing the party both on social and traditional media.New Delhi: In what is being seen as the first step towards managing political alliances ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi held a late-night meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in the national capital on Wednesday.

The two leaders are reported to have discussed firming up the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra, even as attempts to stitch a larger anti-BJP front at the national level gain momentum.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of jostling within non-NDA parties to assume leadership of the opposition front. Two former Congress partners  Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee  have had reservations about accepting Rahul's leadership of the UPA. The two regional satraps from the Congress stable have been comfortable in dealing with Sonia Gandhi instead.

Sonia, therefore, continues to lead the Congress Parliamentary Party and the UPA despite having handed over the reins of the organisation to son Rahul late last year.

Also, the Phulpur and Gorakhpur bypoll victories of the Samajwadi Party-BSP combine have confirmed one of the worst fears of the Congress  that a united opposition front minus the Congress has shown the resilience and tenacity to take on the BJP.

As preparations begin for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the opposition has tasted blood in these bypoll victories. Seeing the writing on the wall, Sonia Gandhi hosted dinner for leaders of 20 opposition parties on Tuesday night. The dinner offered an opportunity to make the point that the Congress can be the fulcrum for this opposition front.

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

But the Congress has once again shown that it lacks in political strategy and in gauging the timing.

As a Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh said, It was very silly to contest in Phulpur. We should have withdrawn our candidate.

Its in this backdrop that the Pawar-Rahul meeting assumes significance. Pawar has been open about the fact that while he could accept Sonia as the UPA chairperson, it wouldn't be possible for him to see Rahul in her place.

After BJPs win in Tripura, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, too, rued the missed opportunity by the Congress to respond to her call for an alliance to take on the BJP in West Bengal. It was a veiled attack questioning Rahuls ability to devise electoral strategy to effectively challenge the BJP.

While Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, took to Twitter to celebrate the BJP's loss in UP, a key point which cannot be overlooked is that Congress candidates lost their deposits.

As a national party, the Congress is caught in a dilemma. It cannot let the regional satraps call the shots. It has to assert its identity as it learns to work with smaller parties in states where it has lost support base over the years.Hyderabad: TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu pulled out of the NDA on Friday over the issue of special status to Andhra Pradesh. The party also gave a separate no-confidence notice against the Centre in Lok Sabha.

"We have decided to move out of NDA. The support has been removed. We gave them (BJP-led NDA) time to change their mind, but nothing happened," senior TDP leader CM Ramesh said, following which BJP said that TDP's decision was inevitable after "its mischievous propaganda" against the Centre.

In a statement, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) confirmed the move and said that TDP has decided to quit NDA, and the decision was unanimously taken by party politburo. Naidu alleged that the BJP and PM Modi are "trying to weaken regional parties".

Telugu Desam MP Thota Narasimham submitted a no-confidence notice to Lok Sabha secretary general Snehlata Srivastava against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday.

"TDP's decision to quit was inevitable after "its mischievous propaganda" against Centre. People of AP have now realised that the TDP is resorting to lies to cover up its inept & inert governance. Far from being a threat, TDP's exit is a timely opportunity for the BJP to grow in AP," BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao tweeted.

Meanwhile, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the TDP's decision and said that the "current situation warrants such action to save the country from disaster". In a tweet, the CM also requested opposition parties to work against "atrocities, economic calamity and political instability".

I appeal to all political parties in the Opposition to work closely together against atrocities, economic calamity and political instability Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) March 16, 2018

Earlier, Naidu's party had decided to support YSR Congress Party's motion against the Modi government in the Parliament. However, after a meeting of the TDP members, they decided to give a separate no-confidence motion.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister had been under pressure from YSR Congress chief Jagan Reddy, who had dared him to pull out of the alliance as both leaders engage in a game of one-upmanship on the issue of special status. Reddy had alleged that Naidu was not doing so as he was afraid of "witch-hunting" by Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

The YSR Congress Party is also set to move a no-confidence motion against the NDA government on Friday.

The TDP had returned to BJP-led NDA a month before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It had severed ties with the BJP after its debacle at the hands of Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress in 2004. Naidu had even called BJP a communal party which had drowned him with it.

The popularity of Jaganmohan Reddy and the Modi wave in urban pockets of AP forced Naidu to go for an alliance with the BJP. He had taken a huge risk and it had paid off.

But the relationship has never been the same post results. Naidu was miffed with Modi over allocation of portfolios to no special aid to Andhra Pradesh.

Realising that BJP was keeping back channel talks with the YSRCP open, Naidu decided to pull the plug. 

According to sources, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu may also call on BSP chief Mayawati and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav in a bid to forge new alliances.

Sources told News18 that TDP president Chandrababu Naidu has decided to walk out of the NDA and announcement can be made anytime. "They are also bringing no confidence separately against centre," they said.

Sources said that almost all of the partys MPs and MLAs have backed the decision as this is the only logical next step in their demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh. Party leaders are of the view that the party must take all decisions that are of the best interest for the state, they said.

TDP leaders said that Naidu is livid with the BJP playing dirty politics instead of resolving the issues faced by the people. Earlier in the day, the Andhra CM, while addressing his party leaders via teleconference, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hit out at the BJP for pitting others against him.

"Instead of giving what Andhra Pradesh people are rightfully asking for, the BJP is resorting to using Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against us," Naidu said.

Raising the sentiment of Telugu pride, Naidu added, "We are fighting for self-respect, the rights of Telugu people and the implementation of promises made to us. Instead of honouring them, Narendra Modi and BJP are involved in doing collusion politics."

The remarks come after Pawan Kalyan, Jana Sena party chief, made serious allegations of corruption against Chandrababu Naidu and his son, Nara Lokesh at a public meeting in Guntur on Wednesday. This is the final option. The CM is livid that instead of resolving issues faced by the state, the BJP is indulging in dirty politics that it played in Tamil Nadu, TDP leader Kambhampati Rammohan Rao said.

Chandrababu Naidu has also been under pressure from YSR Congress chief Jagan Reddy, who had dared him to pull out of the alliance as both leaders engage in a game of one-upmanship on the issue of special status. Reddy had alleged that Naidu was not doing so as he was afraid of "witch-hunting" by Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

The YSR Congress Party will move the no-confidence motion against the NDA government soon. With the BJP government enjoying absolute majority in Lok Sabha, the central government is under no threat of collapsing.

Party president Jaganmohan Reddy has written to all parties seeking their support on special status for Andhra Pradesh. Speaking to News18, YSRCP MP Vijay Sai Reddy said, Lok Sabha MP YV Subba Reddy will move the no-confidence motion in the House on Friday. Our party leadership is seeking support from other parties.

The YSR Congress has decided to take lead in the matter as the public is associating the issue with Telugu pride and it has become a hot election topic. On March 8, the TDP had withdrawn its two ministers from the Union Cabinet, accusing the BJP of reneging on its promises to give special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

Sources in TDP told News18 that the hasty, unjust and unscientific bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh had deeply hurt the sentiments of people in the state.

Not only the bifurcation had left deep scars on the lives of people in the state, it had made the state suffer from huge revenue deficit, lack of capital city, lack of institutions and many more. We had to build our state from scratch, the source said. He added that Naidu has been working relentlessly and is only asking the Centre to handhold the state and fulfil what is rightfully theirs.New Delhi: A humiliating rout in the chief ministers backyard of Gorakhpur and a defeat in the deputy chief ministers turf of Phulpur is the last thing BJP would have asked for after tasting success even in the unknown territories of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya just a few weeks ago. The defeat in UP by-elections put the saffron party on the mat.

On the other hand, underscoring the old adage united we stand divided we fall, the Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj party surged ahead -- together and emerging strong.

But the story from chief minister Yogi Adityanaths erstwhile parliamentary constituency of Gorakhpur and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Mauryas erstwhile parliamentary constituency of Phulpur is not only about the BJPs loss at a time when the partys electoral fortunes are at an upsurge, but also about how the Congress has been left out in the cold.

That BJP has lost a prestige battle is clear. What is also clear is that the experiments of Gorakphur and Phulpur will further encourage the SP-BSP to join hands. 2019 is not too far and the fructification of anti-BJP front, a coalition vs the BJP appears to be inevitable. However, the Congress may not be the fulcrum it wishes to be.

Instance after instance, the Grand Old Party is proving to be an unreliable partner. Even for the bypolls, the SP chose its arch-rival BSP over the Grand Old Party. A reason behind it could be the battle Apne UP ke ladke (slogan used to refer to Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi) lost after entering into an alliance ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections a year ago.

Sources in the Congress indicate that the party is now unsure about what future holds. Attempts have been made to get the opposition to rally around the Congress party. The UPA chairpersons dinner was one such attempt.

Bang in the middle of a Parliament session, which is seeing the BJP vs the rest, the message it wanted to send out was not lost on anyone. The Congress is not willing to give the space of the leader of the opposition pack. The timing of this defeat for the Congress could not have been worse.

Regional satraps, Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee, as expected have started to flex their muscles. In spite of establishing their presence at Sonia Gandhis dinner, (Mamata sending a representative) both these leaders have made no bones about how they want the anti-BJP front to look like. TMC is aggressive and leading the charge inside Parliament and have not minced their words in expressing anguish at the Congresss refusal to form an alliance in Tripura. Mamata Banerjee has dialled TRS supremo K Chandrashekhar Rao, who has given a clarion call for an Anti-BJP, Anti-Congress front.

In Maharasthra, Sharad Pawar has organized a march against the BJP that saw attendance of numerous opposition parties, including the Congress. The NCP chief is all set to host a dinner by the end of the month. Clearly, the show of opposition unity is not going to stop at Sonias dinner.

A distant third in the UP bypolls, and a string of electoral defeats in state assembly elections in the last four odd years, the Congress will need to rethink its strategy to convince smaller parties that it deserves to lead the pack.

(The author is a Special Correspondent and Anchor with CNN-News18)Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

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Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

03-15-2018 04:35 AM











Post: #1 Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

Advertisement



UK Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of using a chemical weapon on British soil, suggesting a set of measures to retaliate against Moscow. Those include the expulsion of 23 diplomats, limiting ties and freezing Russian state assets in the UK.



The British move is an unprecedentedly rude provocation, which undermines the foundations of a normal dialogue between our countries, the ministry said in a statement.



The ministry said that "the British government chose confrontation with Russia" instead of completing the investigation and using international formats including those in the framework of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW].



"Its obvious that by opting for unilateral and non-transparent methods of investigating this incident, the British authorities have once again tried to unleash an indiscriminate anti-Russian campaign, the statement read.



Moscow said that it was unacceptable and unworthy for the UK leadership to further escalate tensions in relations with Russia in pursuit of its own deplorable political aims.



Of course, our response [to the UK sanctions] is forthcoming, the Foreign Ministry concluded.



Former Russian-UK double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter remain in critical condition after being discovered slumped on a bench in Salisbury in early March. The UK authorities claim that they were poisoned with a Soviet-engineered nerve agent called Novichok.



Russia has said that its open to cooperation with the UK on the Skripal case if its carried out in accordance with international law and Moscow is treated as an equal partner in the probe. Russia has also officially requested that the UK provide all the case files regarding the incident, but was turned down.



https://www.rt.com/usa/421302-uk-hostile...ovocation/ The UKs hostile actions against Russia under the pretext of the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal are an unprecedented provocation which wont be left without a response, Russias Foreign Ministry said.UK Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of using a chemical weapon on British soil, suggesting a set of measures to retaliate against Moscow. Those include the expulsion of 23 diplomats, limiting ties and freezing Russian state assets in the UK.The British move is an unprecedentedly rude provocation, which undermines the foundations of a normal dialogue between our countries, the ministry said in a statement.The ministry said that "the British government chose confrontation with Russia" instead of completing the investigation and using international formats including those in the framework of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW]."Its obvious that by opting for unilateral and non-transparent methods of investigating this incident, the British authorities have once again tried to unleash an indiscriminate anti-Russian campaign, the statement read.Moscow said that it was unacceptable and unworthy for the UK leadership to further escalate tensions in relations with Russia in pursuit of its own deplorable political aims.Of course, our response [to the UK sanctions] is forthcoming, the Foreign Ministry concluded.Former Russian-UK double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter remain in critical condition after being discovered slumped on a bench in Salisbury in early March. The UK authorities claim that they were poisoned with a Soviet-engineered nerve agent called Novichok.Russia has said that its open to cooperation with the UK on the Skripal case if its carried out in accordance with international law and Moscow is treated as an equal partner in the probe. Russia has also officially requested that the UK provide all the case files regarding the incident, but was turned down. RiskyRob

( Lop V.I.P.)

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 04:51 AM



Posts: 8,137









Post: #2 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

This is exactly what the Russian shills on LoP were saying yesterday. Any retaliation by the UK will be considered the same as a military action.  Ascended Master (This post was last modified: 03-15-2018 04:53 AM by RiskyRob .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 05:07 AM











Post: #3 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

I hope Russia cleans clock on all these jew serving governments.



The endless blathering of Zion, their puppet governments, and bought and paid for political mouthpieces are an especially annoying stench to the thinking mind. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 05:11 AM











Post: #4 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

If Western countries would stop creating false boogymen as an excuse for starting WW3, that would be great. Thanks. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 05:26 AM











Post: #5 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

This is the problem when nations squander the last shred of credibility they had with their people. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 05:46 AM











Post: #6 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response





90's music was so futuristic in hindsight



poison and warrants90's music was so futuristic in hindsight LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 05:47 AM











Post: #7 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 05:46 AM) poison and warrants



90's music was so futuristic in hindsight





80's, dude. 80's.



80's, dude. 80's. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 06:10 AM











Post: #8 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 05:07 AM) I hope Russia cleans clock on all these jew serving governments.



The endless blathering of Zion, their puppet governments, and bought and paid for political mouthpieces are an especially annoying stench to the thinking mind.

As a 4 time Holocaust survivor, this offends me deeply. As a 4 time Holocaust survivor, this offends me deeply. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 06:56 AM











Post: #9 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 06:10 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 05:07 AM) I hope Russia cleans clock on all these jew serving governments.



The endless blathering of Zion, their puppet governments, and bought and paid for political mouthpieces are an especially annoying stench to the thinking mind.

As a 4 time Holocaust survivor, this offends me deeply.





Tell us about it Rosenblat . Tell us about it LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 07:31 AM











Post: #10 RE: Russia calls UKs hostile actions a provocation, vows response

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 06:10 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 05:07 AM) I hope Russia cleans clock on all these jew serving governments.



The endless blathering of Zion, their puppet governments, and bought and paid for political mouthpieces are an especially annoying stench to the thinking mind.

As a 4 time Holocaust survivor, this offends me deeply.

















A unit of Apple's Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron Corp has won approval from Karnataka to build a new assembly facility in the south Indian state, signalling a potential expansion of iPhone assembly work in India. The Karnataka state government has approved Wistron Infocomm Manufacturing India Pvt Ltd's application for 43 acres of land, roughly 65 km (40 miles) from the tech hub of Bengaluru, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters.

Also Read: Facebook Bans Far-Right Group Britain First For Inciting Hatred

Wistron will invest 6.8 billion Indian rupees ($105 million) to develop this land and manufacture smartphones, internet of things (IOT) products and bio-tech devices, the document said. Wistron, in its proposal to the state government, said the new plant will create about 6,000 jobs. "When discussions started, their (Wistron's) requirement was 50-100 acres," a senior government official told Reuters. "But we were not immediately able to provide all the land."

The official, who declined to be named as discussions were not public, added the state had assured Wistron of meeting the company's land requirements. The expansion of manufacturing facility could mean a widening of Apple's iPhone assembly in India as the U.S. tech giant has to pay steep duties on devices imported into the country. Analysts see India - one of the world's fastest-growing smartphone markets - as key to Apple's ambitions for a bigger global market share as smartphone sales have slowed in more mature markets.

Also Read: Acer Swift 5 Laptop Launched in India For Rs 79999

Wistron's ICT Service Management Solutions unit currently assembles Apple's low-cost iPhone SE model in Bengaluru. Wistron also does contract manufacturing work for a broad range of other electronics brands. Apple and Wistron did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has, however, signalled its long-term commitment to Wistron's Indian operations. In a report on supplier responsibility progress earlier this month it said it provides waste management training and has also introduced women's health programmes at the existing Bengaluru plant.

Boosting local assembly or manufacturing will also help Apple cut escalating labour costs in China, where its biggest contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, widely known as Foxconn, makes a bulk of iPhones and iPads. Reuters reported in January that Wistron was weeks away from finalising a land deal in Bengaluru and may soon begin assembly of another Apple model.

The new site at the Narasapura Industrial Area, is located 50 km away from the Bengaluru International Airport. The site already houses the assembly operations of a number of firms like Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, and Mahindra Aerospace.

Watch: Google Assistant Powered Home Automation | First Look at MWC 2018Facebook said on Wednesday it banned Britain First from its platform for breaking rules against inciting hatred, blacklisting a far-right group brought to global attention when U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted its anti-Islamic posts. Facebook said it had taken down Britain First's Facebook page and those of its leaders, Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, for repeatedly violating rules designed to stop the incitement of hatred against minority groups.

Also Read: UK Privacy Watchdog Ends WhatsApp Probe After Compliance Pledge

A fringe party, British First shot to the fore last November when Trump sparked outrage in Britain and a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May for retweeting British far-right anti-Islam videos. The removal of the Britain First pages comes as Facebook and other internet firms like Twitter and Google are under growing pressure to police their networks, refereeing content to prevent extremist groups spreading their messages and recruiting online.

Also Read: Blocked Broadcom Deal May Stunt Chinese Silicon Valley Investment

May has joined forces with the leaders of France and Italy to urge social media companies to do more to remove extremist content. She said on Wednesday that she welcomed the announcement by Facebook. "I hope other companies will follow," she told British lawmakers. Facebook said it was careful not to remove posts or pages just because they were controversial and some people didn't like them, but said that Britain First had gone further and broken its anti-hatred rules with its anti-Islam posts.

"We do not do this lightly, but they have repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups, which disqualifies the pages from our service," Facebook said in a blog post.

Watch: Google Assistant Powered Home Automation | First Look at MWC 2018Kabul: An Afghan man taken hostage by the Taliban made a dramatic escape by stealing a gun while his captors were praying and shooting dead seven of them and wounding 18 others, officials said on Thursday.

Awal Khan and a local police officer were kidnapped Wednesday as they were driving in the eastern province of Paktika, provincial deputy security chief Abdul Rauf Masood told AFP.

Paktika is a Taliban stronghold bordering Pakistan. The officer was killed and 36-year-old Awal taken to a Taliban compound in Gomal district where he was held for hours.

During afternoon prayers, Awal, who Masood said was handcuffed at the time, grabbed a weapon belonging to one of his captors and opened fire.

"Awal Khan sprayed bullets on all of them, killing seven and wounding 18 others," provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Rahman Ayaz told AFP.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to AFP that the group had kidnapped the two men and that Awal had opened fire on the militants, killing three of them.

Awal then fled in a pickup truck belonging to his kidnappers, Ayaz said. His brother, a local police commander, shared details of the incident with authorities.

The Taliban is often involved in kidnappings of Afghans and foreigners, sometimes holding people for years for prisoner exchanges.Chicago: A Japanese Nobel Prize-winner was hospitalized Wednesday and his wife was dead, reportedly after driving off a road in rural Illinois.

Ei-ichi Negishi, 82, a chemist teaching at Purdue University in the neighboring state of Indiana, and his wife Sumire Negishi, 80, were reported missing Monday.

Police found them early Tuesday morning about 200 miles (320 km) northeast of their home, on land belonging to the Orchard Hills Landfill operated by the company Advanced Disposal.

Police discovered Ei-ichi Negishi walking in the area, and his wife was found dead near their car.

"Both her and the vehicle were found on the landfill property," Lieutenant Brian Ketter of the Ogle County Sheriff's office told AFP. The couple had been driving to a nearby airport and became disoriented, and Ei-Ichi Negishi crashed their car into a ditch, according to WTHR television.

The TV station reported that Sumire Negishi had stayed behind while her husband left looking for help. Police would not confirm details about the incident, but did not suspect foul play.

The Rockford airport is located approximately eight miles (13 km) from where the couple was discovered. The local coroner's office said an autopsy was pending. Ei-ichi Negishi was receiving treatment at a hospital, police said.

Negishi is a Japanese national who came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to study chemistry. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1979. He, along with two other scientists, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2010 for developing a method for creating complex chemicals. The method is widely used, including for the production of pharmaceuticals.Washington: There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour with respect to its fight against terrorism, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has said.

Mattis said that there are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping the US' ongoing efforts against terrorism and have been for some time. "There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced)," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to Afghanistan, according to the transcripts released by the US Department of Defense.

"There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction," he said.

In January, the Pakistan government issued a fatwa signed by more than 1800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Mattis said that despite the apparent changes in Pakistan, he'd still like to talk to people dealing with the border issues and intelligence and their impression of the situation. "One of the reasons I want to go in is to actually talk to the people who are dealing with the border issues right now, dealing with intelligence and what they're seeing. And then go back and talk with our intelligence agencies in Washington, DC, and put together an assessment of this," Mattis said.

"There is a number of things that have been going on, but I want to talk to people here and see the reality and how they see it and go back and talk to intelligence agencies and get a full assessment of where we're at," he said.

Responding to a question on Taliban, Mattis said the US has to set the conditions where the Taliban realize they cannot win with bombs. "At that point, setting the conditions for the diplomats to sit down, and the leadership to sit down and try to get this out of the violence and into the diplomatic stance," he said.

Mattis, however, said that while the US tries to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, it will still ramp up the military pressure on it. "..you need to have that door open, even as you increase the military pressure and say this is not going to work. You know, to just be setting off bombs," he said.

The Defense Secretary said that the US needs to lead and provide the substance for the reconciliation effort. "..it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That would be a bridge too far right now to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said.

In Kabul, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussed the South Asia strategy and the US' commitment to Afghanistan.

Pentagon's chief spokesperson Dana White said that Mattis praised Ghani's recent offer to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions.

"He noted Ghani's diplomatic approach achieved a level of international support not possible with military action alone. Secretary Mattis offered his full support to the Afghan-led reconciliation process, aimed at achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan," White said.

At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks to "save the country" while offering security and incentives like passports to insurgents who take part in the negotiations.

During the meeting, Mattis emphasised that the peace offer does not eliminate the need for offensive operations against the Taliban, and noted the importance of continued Afghan National Defense and Security Forces progress on the battlefield.

"The two Afghan leaders also reinforced that the recent Taliban peace offer without preconditions was genuine, and they are ready to embrace all who are willing to reconcile," White said.New Delhi: Pakistan on Thursday said it has decided to call back its High Commissioner in India, Sohail Mahmood, for consultations after repeated incidence of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that India failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation. "Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad for consultations," he said.

Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar played down the issue and clarified that it was not an official recall. He has been called back for consultations. It is pretty normal for an ambassador to go back to his country. It is a routine thing. Indian ambassadors abroad are also called back for discussions frequently.

Kumar said that India is looking into the issues raised by Islamabad, but said that at the same time, the Indian High Commission there has also been facing issues that were raised several months ago.

We raised the issues through diplomatic channels in good faith. We would like our mission in Islamabad to function smoothly in line with Vienna convention. We have asked for resolution from Pakistan to ensure safety of Indian High Commission in Pakistan, he said.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Office had summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.

Faisal on Wednesday alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and "continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level)."

He said the Pakistan High Commission shared with the External Affairs Ministry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officers but regrettably no positive action was taken by the Indian side so far.

"The total apathy and failure of the Indian Government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so," he said.

He said that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian Government.

He claimed that in the latest incident, Indian officials stopped the car of the deputy high commissioner for 40 minutes and harassed the occupants of the vehicle.

"Pakistan will go to any limit to ensure safety of the staff of (its) high commission in India," he said.

He said India should not drag Pakistan in its electoral politics. Faisal said that Pakistan wants peace in the region and was against any arms race.Manila: For well-off people like politician Pantaleon Alvarez, getting out of a bad marriage in the Philippines is pricey but feasible -- but for the nation's poorest and most vulnerable citizens it is nearly impossible.

That's because heavily Catholic Philippines and the Vatican are the last two places on Earth where divorce is outlawed.

For the nation's 100 million people, the only exit from a union gone wrong is an embarrassing -- and labyrinthine -- process that often amounts to a luxury.

But lawmakers, including Alvarez, have launched a new legislative effort to legalise divorce which activists believe could transform the lives of impoverished women trapped in toxic marriages.

The bill has been propelled forward by Alvarez, who is speaker in the lower House of Representatives and an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte.

In an interview with AFP, he said ending his first marriage cost him a million pesos ($19,200), which is more than triple what an average family in the Philippines makes in a year.

Like thousands of Filipinos, he did it through a civil procedure called annulment, whereby a judge declares a marriage invalid, generally because the spouses had a "psychological incapacity".

It requires applicants to undergo a mental exam, testify in court and sometimes even claim they or their spouse entered the union with a disorder like narcissism.

The process can take anywhere from one to 10 years to wind through the creakingly slow and overburdened Philippine court system, costing at least $4,800.

Since 1999 lawmakers have regularly filed a bill to legalise divorce, only to see it languish in committee limbo -- until now.

For the first time ever, House of Representatives lawmakers are poised to approve the bill after backing it in preliminary votes. It would then head to the Senate where it faces opposition from conservative members.

However, the bill enjoys rare bipartisan support, a sign Alvarez says of the urgency of addressing broken marriages.

"It's a badge of stupidity because we are the only nation that does not see the problem," Alvarez, 60, told AFP.

The legislation would allow divorce and exempt poor people from legal fees, listing domestic violence, attempts to engage a spouse in prostitution and irreconcilable differences among the grounds for splitting up.

'NOT THE WILL OF GOD'

Not surprisingly, the country's powerful Catholic Church, which counts about 80 percent of Filipinos as followers, has fiercely opposed the bill.

"It is not according to the scriptures, to the will of God and it does not help," Manila bishop Broderick Pabillo told AFP.

The church fought a pitched but ultimately unsuccessful battle in 2012 to halt a law providing free contraceptives to poor couples and teaching sex education in schools.

It has also backed an existing ban on abortion and gay marriage.

Surveys show a majority of Filipinos have supported legalising divorce since 2014.

At the same time the number filing for annulments has grown steadily in the past decade, hitting over 10,000 in 2017, according to government statistics.

"Filipinos have become more open. They've been exposed to norms from other countries," said Jean Franco, political science assistant professor at the University of the Philippines.

But with Catholic clergy lobbying and protesting against the bill, its final passage is uncertain.

The country's outspoken leader Duterte, whose own marriage was annulled, has yet to wade into the debate.

Although he spoke in favour of upholding the ban during his 23 years as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he is mercurial on social issues.

A longtime critic of the church, Duterte voiced support for gay marriage in 2015, only to backtrack after securing the presidency in 2016, before endorsing it yet again last December.

He also has plenty on his plate, with international war crimes prosecutors launching a preliminary probe into his deadly war on drugs, which has also aroused the ire of the church.

'STRANGLING, SCREAMING'

Campaigners say the bill could offer a lifeline to women trapped in violent marriages.

"Divorce is a woman's issue, especially for poor women who are being abused because it could provide them an out legally," Elizabeth Angsioco, national chairwoman of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, told AFP.

For women like Melody Alan who says she has endured 14 years of abuse from an unfaithful, alcoholic husband, the ban cannot be overturned soon enough.

"He strangled me, pushed me against a wall. I was crying and screaming. I couldn't breathe," Alan, secretary-general of the Divorce Advocates of the Philippines, told AFP.

Alan, 44, said her husband agreed to accept an annulment if she paid for it -- something she could in "no way" afford while raising four kids.

In 2010 she separated from her husband, who now has two children with another woman, but they remain legally married.

"I will file for divorce to get freedom (to say) that this is who I am now," she said. "I can start anew."Washington: Republicans sounded the alarm on Wednesday after Democrats claimed victory in a Pennsylvania congressional election seen as a referendum on US President Donald Trump's performance, although the vote tally remained officially too close to call.

In an ominous sign for Trump's Republicans eight months before national midterm elections, moderate Democrat Conor Lamb led conservative Republican Rick Saccone on Wednesday by a fraction of a percentage point for the House of Representatives seat.

The earliest the election result could be certified is March 26, according to a state official, but the final tally could be unknown for weeks.

County officials are expected to begin counting provisional paper ballots late this week, and military ballots next week, officials said.

Republicans have until the results are officially certified to challenge the outcome or pursue a recount. Saccone on Wednesday afternoon sent a fundraising email to supporters saying the "campaign is far from over."

The election should have been a shoo-in for Republicans in a district that Trump won by almost 20 points in the 2016 presidential election. He campaigned for Saccone, who started the race well ahead of Lamb.

Republican Speaker Paul Ryan called the election a "wakeup call" in a meeting with Republican House members and pushed them to raise more campaign funds. He also urged them to do more to highlight tax cuts approved by the Republican-dominated Congress and signed by Trump.

Lamb led Saccone by 627 votes on Wednesday, the state's unofficial returns showed; Lamb had 49.8 percent of the vote and Saccone 49.6 percent.

With about 500 provisional, absentee and military ballots to count, according to the New York Times, Lamb's lead appeared to be safe. The vast majority of the outstanding ballots were in Allegheny County, officials told Reuters, where Lamb received over 57 percent of the vote.

Republicans have not conceded the race and were not ruling out a recount or other legal action, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee said.

House Republicans called the race unique, noting that Lamb, 33, a Marine Corps veteran, had distanced himself from his party's leaders and staked out positions to the right of many Democrats.

"I don't think youll see another candidate like Lamb," said Republican Representative Chris Collins of New York.

Representative Mike Kelly, who represents Pennsylvanias 3rd District, said Lamb was "more like a Republican."

'TRUMP BEFORE TRUMP WAS TRUMP'

The patchwork of small towns, farms and Pittsburgh suburbs that make up Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district is so Republican that Democrats did not even field candidates in the previous two House elections.

Come November, the district will cease to exist because boundaries have been redrawn. Both Lamb and Saccone were expected to run again, though in different districts.

Saccone, 60, a former Air Force counter-intelligence officer, has described himself as "Trump before Trump was Trump," and in January he led the race by more than 10 percentage points.

Trump held two events in the district during the campaign, including a rally on Saturday. Last week, he announced tariffs on imported steel that had been expected to appeal to voters in a state known for its steel industry.

The election, held to replace a Republican who resigned amid a scandal last year, was the latest forceful electoral showing for Democrats, who also won a governor's race in Virginia and scored a US Senate upset in conservative Alabama.

Lamb's strong showing could buoy Democrats nationally as they seek to win control of the House from Republicans in the November elections. Democrats see 118 Republican-held districts in play. If they flip 24 seats, they could reclaim a House majority.

Saccone's poor performance is worrying for Republicans who were sure that tax cuts they passed last year, the party's only major legislative achievement under Trump, would be a vote winner.

A Lamb win could vindicate a strategy Democrats are using in some races to enlist candidates whose positions and ideologies are well suited to the district even while conflicting in significant ways with the positions of the Democratic leadership in Washington.

Lamb advocated for gun rights and said Nancy Pelosi should be replaced as House Democratic leader, making it harder than expected for Republicans to attack some of his positions.

Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat from the Ohio Rust Belt who unsuccessfully challenged Pelosi's leadership in late 2016, said he believed Lamb's apparent victory sent a message to other candidates not to be afraid to break with party leadership.

"I hope it means that other candidates will take the lead, and run a very organic race based on the communities that they come from," Ryan told reporters.

Representative Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from a largely agricultural and blue collar district in Illinois, said Lamb was a strong candidate because he mirrored his district.

"When you have swing districts, you better make sure you've got a candidate that fits that district," Bustos said.Moscow/London: Russia will soon expel British diplomats in retaliation for Britain's decision to kick out 23 Russian envoys over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday. In London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ratcheted up the rhetoric against Russia, accusing it of glorying in the attack on Sergei Skripal, which he described as a way of scaring anyone who stood up to President Vladimir Putin.

Britain says Russia is responsible for the poisoning with a Soviet-era 'Novichok' nerve agent of Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33. They were found unconscious on March 4 in the city of Salisbury in southern England and remain critically ill in hospital. Moscow denies any involvement. The Kremlin said the British position was irresponsible and not backed up by evidence. It said Britain would not have to wait long for Russia's response.

Lavrov was quoted by the official news agency RIA as saying the accusations were unacceptable and that British diplomats would be expelled. But in a series of British media interviews early on Thursday, Johnson said the evidence of Russian guilt was "overwhelming" because only Moscow had access to the poison used and a motive for harming Sergei Skripal.

"There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we're heard from the Russians that to me betokens their fundamental guilt," he told the BBC. "They want to simultaneously deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it." Johnson said the attack was a way for Putin to send a message to anyone considering taking a stand against it that 'You do that, you are going to die'.

Targeting Russian Money

A former agent of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain before being arrested in Moscow and jailed in 2006. He was freed as part of a spy swap deal in 2010 and took refuge in Britain. At home, the British government has been under pressure from lawmakers and media to show it is getting tough on Russia, with some experts saying that despite the rhetoric the response did not go far enough to bother Putin.

Johnson defended the measures announced on Wednesday and suggested that there could be further consequences for wealthy Russians with assets in Britain. "We will go after the money and actually we are going after the money," he said, adding that the National Crime Agency and Economic Crimes Unit were investigating a wide range of individuals. He declined to give details, citing legal reasons.

"What people want to see is some of the very rich people ... whose wealth can be attributed to their relationship with Vladimir Putin, it may be that the law agencies, that the police will be able to put unexplained wealth orders on them, to bring them to justice for their acts of gross corruption," he said. Johnson also said he had been heartened by strong expressions of support from the United States and other allies -- although it remains unclear whether there will be a coordinated international response to the Novichok attack.

France, which on Wednesday had said it wanted proof of Russian involvement before deciding whether to take action against Russia, appeared to change its position on Thursday, saying it agreed with the assessment of its NATO ally Britain. "France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation (than Russian involvement) and reiterates its solidarity with its ally," President Emmanuel Macron's office said.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Wednesday that Washington believed Moscow was responsible for the attack, adding it was a crime worthy of UN Security Council action. Any effective Security Council action seems highly unlikely, however, given that Russia, like Britain and the United States, is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the body.

Russia has repeatedly said Britain was refusing to provide a sample of the nerve agent used in Salisbury. Johnson said Britain would send a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons for them to independently assess it.London: Britain, France, Germany and the United States condemned a nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter, saying there was "no plausible alternative explanation" to Moscow's involvement.

"We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal" in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, said the rare joint statement issued by the British government.

"We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russia's failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility."

Britain has linked the attack to Soviet-designed nerve agents known as Novichok, and accused Moscow of failing to explain how the poison came to be used on English soil.

"We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury," the four world powers said in their statement. "Russia should, in particular, provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon."

The Salisbury poisoning is the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War. It amounts to "a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all," the US and European leaders said.

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 aim of the nerve agents appears to have been to circumvent international conventions banning chemical weapons by developing compounds with new structures that would escape detection, experts say.Washington: The United States slapped sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five groups, including Moscow's intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 US election and malicious cyber attacks, the Treasury Department said on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs "for their destabilizing activities." Mnuchin did not give a timeframe for those sanctions, which he said would sever the individuals' access to the US financial system.

"The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure," Mnuchin said in a statement. US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign using hacking and propaganda, an effort that eventually included attempting to tilt the race in President Donald Trump's favour. Russia denies interfering in the election.

Those targeted by the new sanctions include the Russian nationals and entities charged on Feb. 16 by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller with conspiring to tamper in the election. The indictment said Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages, travelled to the United States to collect intelligence and staged political rallies while posing as Americans.

The new sanctions also include Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and six individuals working on behalf of the GRU. Thursday's action blocks all property of those targeted that is subject to US jurisdiction and prohibits American citizens from engaging in transactions with them.

Treasury said the sanctions were also meant to counter destructive cyber attacks including the NotPetya attack that cost billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the United States. The United States and Britain last month attributed that attack to the Russian military.

Russian government hackers since at least March 2016 "have also targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors," the Treasury Department statement said. A senior administration told reporters on a conference call that Russian actors infiltrated parts of the U.S. energy sector.

"We were able to identify where they were located within those business systems and remove them from those business systems," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Both Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress, which nearly unanimously passed a new sanctions bill against Russia last summer, had criticized Trump for not punishing Moscow. The Trump administration in January did not announce sanctions against Russia, for now, under the new law.

Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the new sanctions as an important step. "But more must be done," Royce said in a statement, promising that his committee would "keep pushing to counter Russian aggression." The Treasury Department said it would keep pressure on Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine and occupy the Crimea region, as well as corruption and human rights abuses.

"The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government," it said. Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia on Thursday to explain a military-grade nerve toxin attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent in England.Students from Mount Diablo High School break through a gate to leave campus during a walkout to protest gun violence on March 14, 2018, in Concord, California. Students began leaving classrooms at 10 a.m. from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area. The protests follow the shooting rampage that killed 17 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Image: AP)The Secret Life of Pets writer thinks he can get Alan Moore on board for Watchmen Pets

The Secret Life of Pets writer Brian Lynch is pitching DC's next big money maker: Watchmen Pets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. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of LunaticOutPost.Com. The owners or administration of this website can't be hold responsible for content hosted on sites that posters link to in; including, but not limited to, posts, signatures, private messages and such. This site may contain content not suitable for minors and if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately.This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/NEW MILFORD  Town residents have suggested a wide range of topics for consideration by the recently appointed charter review commission, from creating the post of town manager to expanding the role of the finance board to combining the planning and zoning commissions.

Councilman Paul Szymanski, who chairs the 12-member commission, said he hopes a revision will eliminate confusion in the charter about several important issues.

The town charter requires the document to be reviewed every five years, but it has been 12 years since the last review commission was appointed.

During a public hearing Wednesday night, one of the major topics discussed was whether New Milford should hire a town manager, and if so, whether that position should be in addition to or in place of that of the mayor. Many at Wednesdays meeting supported creating the position.

This town has grown beyond what a mayor in a two-year term is presumed to handle," said Carlos Caridad, who also served on the last charter revision commission.

Jeff Winter said an experienced, high-caliber town manager could handle ordinary administration, freeing the mayor  perhaps a part-time one  to focus on larger policy issues.

Now you have people who are really smart to run the town, while someone with experience can run the day-to-day, Winter said, adding that town managers are common in his native state of Minnesota.

Others agreed, adding that the mayors existing two-year term isnt long enough to accomplish much, given the learning curve for someone new to the job. Another suggestion was to extend the term limits to four years for the mayor and council members.

Several residents also suggested the commission look at the role of the finance board in overseeing use of capital reserves and bond proceeds, and especially in revising the budget in the event voters reject it. Town Council is at present the only body to revisit the budget after a voter rejection.

Some speakers also suggested that if voters reject either the town or school budget that only the failing budget needs to be revisited, instead of both, as is now required.

Another request was to discuss whether the charter should include language concerning special funds, including who has the authority to draw from them. The suggestion was prompted by recent arguments over the use of the landfill settlement fund.

Other topics suggested included setting rules for replacing third-party elected officials who resign mid-term. The commission will also look at the size of appointed commissions, the length of their terms and start dates.

The commission will meet on March 21, April 4, April 18, May 2 and May 16, although more dates might be added depending on the workload. Each meeting is expected to focus on one topic and include opportunities for public comment, as well as presentations from department heads or counterparts from other towns with experience in such topics.

Were looking to make it a constructive dialogue every meeting, Szymanski said, adding any other ideas can be emailed to charterrevision@newmilford.org.

Another public hearing will be scheduled once the commission completes a draft document but before it is sent to Town Council for a public hearing. The proposed charter amendment is expected to be included on the ballot in November.

The more people who get involved with the charter and have a voice, the more will be invested in the end product," Taylor said.Entrepreneurs need to live in permanent beta, Entrepreneurs editor in chief, Jason Feifer, says, quoting LinkedIns Reid Hoffman, whom we featured in a cover story for Entrepreneur magazine.

Related: Reid Hoffman: To Successfully Grow A Business, You Must 'Expect Chaos'

In this one-minute mentor video, Feifer shares how it was these words of Hoffmans that spoke to him and made him think about how everyone should be reminded of this on a daily basis. Entrepreneurs -- actually, anyone, for that matter -- should be constantly evolving and learning. Thats why possessing the mindset that we dont need to be some finished products or stuck in some certain way is incredibly important to your progress in both business and life. The way to be a success is to constantly reinvent and to constantly be OK with not being a final product, explains Feifer in the video.

Related: Want to Be Great? Embrace Embarrassment. Advice on Imperfection from Reid Hoffman, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg.

To learn more about living in permanent beta, click play.

Related:



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

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Post: #1 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

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New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo took part in a die-in protest against gun owners Wednesday in New York City.







It would have been more impressive if the governor was not surrounded by armed guards.





http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03/...ed-guards/ New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded by Armed GuardsNew York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo took part in a die-in protest against gun owners Wednesday in New York City.It would have been more impressive if the governor was not surrounded by armed guards. LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 06:39 PM











Post: #2 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

Traitor LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 06:53 PM











Post: #3 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

Goebbelist scum LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 07:01 PM











Post: #4 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

NYC has some of the strictest gun laws in the country.



What a joke LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 07:18 PM











Post: #5 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

Hitler loved to have his photo taken with children he planned to use as tools. LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 07:40 PM











Post: #6 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded





"For the love of God, would someone please ask school kids what to do about North Korea before it is too late"?







found this is the comments:"For the love of God, would someone please ask school kids what to do about North Korea before it is too late"? James

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03-15-2018 07:58 PM



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Post: #7 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded









Stay safe "Public Servant" Cuomo. Well let's face it, Governor Andrew Cuomo knows better than the kids why the American Forefathers ensured gun rights under the 2nd...Stay safe "Public Servant" Cuomo. If you ever get close to a human and human behavior

Be ready, be ready to get confused and me and my here after

There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic to human behavior

But yet so, yet so irresistible and me and my fear can

And there is no map uncertain



- Bjork Gumundsdottir OTF, Icelandic singer LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 08:11 PM











Post: #8 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

Nice touch for the Gov. to bring his armed security to a no more gun violence rally. KingBum

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03-15-2018 08:12 PM



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Post: #9 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

Can someone make it live action? Idealism is the fools shepherd and the braggarts laurels.



Its time to stop pointing fingers, finger pointing gets us nowhere...Steve.



504100 - My number when not logged in. Fluke

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03-15-2018 09:02 PM



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Post: #10 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded



Chris was DUI and then drag raced his 69 Firebird.

He crashed it into a parked Mercedes and then fled the scene.

Cuomo hid out at the family house in Hamptons.

Hampton cops showed up and gave Cuomo a free pass for DUI.



"CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was boozing at his wifes swanky magazine party in Southampton before he crashed his classic convertible into a parked SUV during a drag race, sources told The Post.



They got him away from the scene fast, a source said. Everybody heard it. It was a full-blown drag race.

We knew it was him. And then they peeled out and went to where the middle of the train station almost is, and right before that, he lost control, and ran into that Mercedes.



Cuomo dented the back of the 2014 Mercedes SUV at the corner of Elm Street and Powell Avenue, the sources said.



His wife told him to leave, according to sources. He drove home in his car, with a cracked radiator leaking fluid, they added.



Cristina stayed and spoke to cops, who later stopped by Cuomos home to question him.

https://pagesix.com/2016/06/28/chris-cuo...car-crash/ CNN Chris Cuomo drinking all day at his wife's magazine party in Hamptons.Chris was DUI and then drag raced his 69 Firebird.He crashed it into a parked Mercedes and then fled the scene.Cuomo hid out at the family house in Hamptons.Hampton cops showed up and gave Cuomo a free pass for DUI."CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was boozing at his wifes swanky magazine party in Southampton before he crashed his classic convertible into a parked SUV during a drag race, sources told The Post.They got him away from the scene fast, a source said. Everybody heard it. It was a full-blown drag race.We knew it was him. And then they peeled out and went to where the middle of the train station almost is, and right before that, he lost control, and ran into that Mercedes.Cuomo dented the back of the 2014 Mercedes SUV at the corner of Elm Street and Powell Avenue, the sources said.His wife told him to leave, according to sources. He drove home in his car, with a cracked radiator leaking fluid, they added.Cristina stayed and spoke to cops, who later stopped by Cuomos home to question him. Fluke

Ruse

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03-15-2018 09:04 PM



Posts: 809









Post: #11 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

If that was you or me, Hampton cops would have cuffed us on the spot and taken us to jail.

Rightly so.

But not if your name is Cuomo or Clinton.

Then the law does not apply. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 09:15 PM











Post: #12 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

The only thing standing between us and total domination by the occultist elites is our guns.

If they succeed in outlawing guns, America will become Syria. LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 09:23 PM











Post: #13 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

LOL They are so hypocritical He and many have gun permits and armed security. But want to take that from you. Just another agenda puppet sponsored by the regime against the right to self protection. LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 10:28 PM











Post: #14 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

So a filthy hypocrite protected by guns is telling other men that they don't need guns? Matrix

lop guest

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03-15-2018 10:49 PM











Post: #15 RE: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Takes Part in Anti-Gun Die-In Protest  Surrounded

Its just like the champagne socialists who organize the evils of "fossil fuels" meetings around the world, yet can jet set to guilt and scare people about cutting down while the evil thing that they preach against is used by them in more modest amounts then most, but that is what they left is all about, to deny the rights of others while enjoying the very things that others may not eventually have.... Advertisement

















Using a compact but powerful laser to heat arrays of ordered nanowires, CSU scientists and collaborators have demonstrated micro-scale nuclear fusion in the lab. They have achieved record-setting efficiency for the generation of neutrons  chargeless sub-atomic particles resulting from the fusion process.

Above  The target chamber (front) and ultra-high density laser (back) used in the micro-scale fusion experiments at CSU. Credit: Advanced Beam Laboratory

Laser-driven controlled fusion experiments are typically done with multi-hundred-million-dollar lasers housed in stadium-sized buildings. Such experiments are usually geared toward harnessing fusion for clean energy applications.

In contrast, Roccas team of students, research scientists and collaborators work with an ultra-fast, high-powered tabletop laser they built from scratch. They use their fast, pulsed laser to irradiate a target of invisible wires and instantly create extremely hot, dense plasmas  with conditions approaching those inside the sun. These plasmas drive fusion reactions, giving off helium and flashes of energetic neutrons.

Nature Communications  Micro-scale fusion in dense relativistic nanowire array plasmas

Irradiating nanowires

In their experiment, the team produced a record number of neutrons per unit of laser energy  about 500 times better than experiments that use conventional flat targets from the same material. Their lasers target was an array of nanowires made out of a material called deuterated polyethylene. The material is similar to the widely used polyethylene plastic, but its common hydrogen atoms are substituted by deuterium, a heavier kind of hydrogen atom.

The efforts were supported by intensive computer simulations conducted at the University of Dusseldorf (Germany), and at CSU.

Making fusion neutrons efficiently, at a small scale, could lead to advances in neutron-based imaging, and neutron probes to gain insight on the structure and properties of materials. The results also contribute to understanding interactions of ultra-intense laser light with matter.

The paper is titled Micro-scale fusion in dense relativistic nanowire array plasmas. The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and by Mission Support Test Services, LLC.

Abstract

Nuclear fusion is regularly created in spherical plasma compressions driven by multi-kilojoule pulses from the worlds largest lasers. Here we demonstrate a dense fusion environment created by irradiating arrays of deuterated nanostructures with joule-level pulses from a compact ultrafast laser. The irradiation of ordered deuterated polyethylene nanowires arrays with femtosecond pulses of relativistic intensity creates ultra-high energy density plasmas in which deuterons (D) are accelerated up to MeV energies, efficiently driving DD fusion reactions and ultrafast neutron bursts. We measure up to 2 million fusion neutrons per joule, an increase of about 500 times with respect to flat solid targets, a record yield for joule-level lasers. Moreover, in accordance with simulation predictions, we observe a rapid increase in neutron yield with laser pulse energy. The results will impact nuclear science and high energy density research and can lead to bright ultrafast quasi-monoenergetic neutron point sources for imaging and materials studies.

They realized a near-solid-density plasma regime in which deuterons from aligned nanostructures are accelerated up to MeV energies. The volumetric heating of aligned deuterated polyethylene nanowire arrays irradiated at relativistic intensity is shown to produce ultrashort neutron pulses with a ~500 times larger number of DD neutrons than a deuterated flat solid target. A total of 2 million neutrons per joule was generated, the largest DD fusion neutron yield reported to date for plasmas generated by laser pulse energies in the 1 J range. A further increase of the irradiation intensity is predicted to shift the deuteron energy distribution to significantly higher energies, which can be expected to lead into a further increase in DD fusion reactions. This volumetrically heated dense fusion environment that can be created at a high repetition rates with compact lasers is of interest for high energy density science and nuclear science. The approach can also lead to the efficient generation of ultrafast pulses of quasi-monoenergetic neutrons from a point source for time-resolved material studies, ultrafast neutron radiography, and spectroscopy, and for high-energy science applications such as neutrino detector development.Austin Bay is a contributing editor at StrategyPage.com and adjunct professor at the University of Texas in Austin. He describes the North Korea situation as denuclearization with maximum verification or war.

Trump versus North Korea, 2018 edition: The U.S. and its democratic allies, South Korea and Japan, are not demanding regime change. North Koreas vicious regime can continue to run a Stalinist gulag and starve its wretched citizens. This is a concession to China. If the North Korean gulag remains, Communist China will retain an authoritarian and semi-dependent buffer prison state between its border and South Korea.

In exchange for regime existence (Kim dynasty pay off) and the buffer gulag (China pay off), the Kim regime must get rid of its nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons manufacturing capabilities.

The pay off to South Korea, Japan and the U.S. is that North Korea can no longer threaten Seoul, Tokyo, Honolulu and San Francisco with nuclear immolation.

Ah, the deadly fine print: Assuring denuclearization will require a very intrusive, long-term, take your shorts off, take your shoes off, spread your glutes, check your hair for lice, open every cave, every bunker, every laboratory, every crevice verification regimen.

Call it maximum verification.

If North Korea balks at maximum verification, what happens next?

Trump said his administration would go hard in either direction.

That is a promise to sustain maximum pressure. War takes maximum pressure to a new level. No one should be surprised. After all, way back in 1999 Trump told Tim Russert that America had to terminate North Koreas serious threat.Russia plans to launch an unmanned mission to Mars in 2019.

Vladimir Putin says Russia is planning unmanned and later manned launches, into deep space, as part of a lunar program and for Mars exploration.

Russia also plans to launch a mission to the polar regions of the Moon.

Putin described the plans in a video interview which was posted on Russian social media site.

SpaceX Mars rocket may be ready for short sub-orbital test flights next year. Elon had previously stated his ambition was to launch cargo flights by 2022.BioLumic, creators of the first ultraviolet (UV) crop yield enhancement system, today announced the close of $5 million in Series A financing. Led by top AgTech investors Finistere Ventures and Radicle Growth acceleration fund, with Rabobanks recently launched Food and Agri Innovation Fund and existing investors from New Zealand also joining this round.

We actively invest in data-driven technology startups who are changing the paradigm for sustainable AgTech from around the globe, and BioLumic was an ideal fit for us, said Arama Kukutai, co-founder and partner, Finistere Ventures. Using UV treatments to complement traditional chemicals or biologicals, BioLumic will give farmers a new way to enhance crop yield and vigor by activating stronger plant characteristics with the power of light.

Addressing the global need for increased agricultural crop yields, BioLumic treats seedlings and seeds with its proprietary ultraviolet light systems. Its patented technology precisely applies UV light treatments that deliver long-term crop benefitsincluding improved crop consistency, increased yield and disease resistance. Already in commercial use for high-value produce crops around the globe, BioLumic has worked with large-scale produce growers and processors in California and Mexico with yield gains of up to 22 percent, and commercial trials are taking place in Spain and the United Kingdom.

Light is an extremely powerful biological tool that can safely manipulate plants without the concerns often associated with genetic modification, chemical usage, and other unnatural treatments, said BioLumic CEO Warren Bebb. BioLumic is the only company using light as an Ag treatment at the beginning of a plants life. Exposure to a short-duration treatment of UV-enriched light at a critical stage in a plants development turns on characteristics to help the seed or seedling more effectively defend itself against disease or pest attacks and more efficiently use water and nutrients from the soil for its entire lifespan.

Founded by Dr. Jason Wargent, a world-renowned photobiologist specializing in UV/plant interactions, and spun out of leading AgTech research from Massey University in New Zealand, BioLumics technology is rooted in more than a decade of research into UV photomorphogenesis, a process whereby a precise UV treatment induces plant root and leaf development and activates its secondary metabolism. BioLumics growing team of scientists and engineers are now translating Wargents scientific discoveries into commercial products that will reshape crop-growing operations around the world.

BioLumic has all of the elements necessary for long-term success in the AgTech arena a dynamic management team, novel technology and a substantial, rapidly growing market, noted Kirk Haney, CEO and managing partner, Radicle Growth. Given the multi-million acre opportunity for high-value crops and rapidly growing seed treatment market, we think BioLumic could change the Ag industrys approach to crop productivity and seed treatments by sustainably turning on stronger plant characteristics with the power of light.

Initially focused on lettuce, broccoli, strawberry and tomato seedlings, BioLumic will also use the recent funding to accelerate the research and commercialization of its seed-focused technology, expanding into row crop and vegetable seeds in years ahead as well. The investment will also be used to aggressively expand the BioLumic team in both New Zealand and its new U.S. office in California, and to intensify the global deployment of its UV technologies.

Ag players are seeking to find more sustainable ways to meet the growing global food production demands, and BioLumic is the first to take a UV approach to precision seed/seedling treatments, added Richard OGorman, director, Rabo Food and Agri Innovation Fund.We believe BioLumic has the potential to significantly enhance the value of produce for growers by enabling higher yield and greater crop uniformity  in particular in geographies where Rabo has a strong history of serving farmers.

Kukutai and Haney will join current AgBio veteran Dr. John Bedbrook on the BioLumic Board. Kukutai and Haney will focus on helping the company make connections with key industry players to expand its global reach and further its research and development efforts.

There is a video and more information on the BioLumic site

About BioLumic

BioLumic unlocks the growing power of ultraviolet light. BioLumics proprietary UV treatment systems improve performance of key plant traits with short-duration UV treatments for both seedlings and seeds that deliver long-term benefits, including improved crop consistency, increased yield and stronger disease resistance. Backed by top Ag investors, BioLumic is headquartered in New Zealand with a growing office in the United States. To learn more, visit www.biolumic.com.

About Finistere Ventures

Finistere Ventures, is a leading global agricultural technology and life sciences venture capital investor, with offices in Palo Alto, San Diego, Ireland and Israel. Its team has developed and invested in some of the most successful AgTech companies of the last 20 years. Visit Finistere.com.

About Radicle

Radicle is an acceleration fund backed by leading AgTech investors including Finistere Ventures, Bayer Crop Science, DuPont Pioneer and OurCrowd. Radicle carefully selects innovative Ag and food tech startups for investment, ensuring that powerful, disruptive technologies reach their full potential. We provide a fertile environment for visionaries in the Ag space, not just to grow but to flourish. Our proprietary platform is the only one of its kind in the agriculture industry, filling a huge void in the market by identifying the most innovative technologies and accelerating them with a range of value-creation initiatives. To learn more, visit radicle.vc.

About Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund

Launched in May 2017, Rabo F&A Innovation Fund invests venture capital in innovative companies all along the food and agriculture value chains, with particular focus on companies and sectors where the banks network and knowledge can be leveraged to help build value in the ecosystem. Visit www.rfaif.comNEW HAVEN  Yale University Properties held a ribbon cutting Wednesday to welcome Cristhian Shoe Repair to the Whitney-Audubon Retail and Arts District, according to a release.

Mayor Toni N. Harp joined the festivities at 2-B Whitney Ave., where Cristhian Shoe Repair is offering free shoe shine services until March 16, the release said.

Fasuto Guanmantari, owner of Cristhian Shoe Repair, said the business was named after his youngest son Cristhian, and it offers a full service of operations, including repairing, cleaning and restoring shoes, handbags and leather accessories, according to the release. There is rarely a pair of shoes or bag that (Guanmantari) and his team of miracle workers cannot repair or reconstruct to their customers satisfaction.

Guanmantari started to learn how to repair shoes at the age of 14 while working with his father who was in the shoe-making business back in Gualaceo, Ecuador. In 1988, at the age of 20, Fausto moved to the United States with the dream of someday opening his very own shoe repair store. He worked at Jims Shoe Repair in Manhattan, New York where he got hands on experience working on designer shoes and handbags. In 2007, he moved to Bethel, Connecticut where he opened his first shoe repair store two years later and his second location in Southbury opened in 2011.

I wanted to bring my passion and experience of 30 years of shoe repair to those who struggle with the idea of having no hope for their favorite pair of shoes or handbag to the heart of downtown New Haven, said Guanmantari, in the release. He adds, I chose the Whitney-Audubon Retail & Arts District as I love the idea of people being able to drop off their shoes on their lunch break and pick them up after work. We are easy to work with and accessible.

Cristhian Shoe Repair is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

We are delighted to have Fausto expanding his business into the Whitney-Audubon Retail & Arts District to service New Haven, said Lauren Zucker, Yale University Associate Vice President for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, in the release. Yale Universitys community investment program supports the growth of independently owned businesses, reinvigorating New Havens downtown and expanding the citys tax base.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

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How to become an Citizen in switzerland Joe Cocker

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03-15-2018 07:37 PM



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Post: #1 How to become an Citizen in switzerland

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Foreigners can get Swiss citizenship after 12 years of living in Switzerland, or less in certain situations, or opt for Swiss permanent residency.



Some foreigners find benefits in getting Swiss citizenship or Swiss permanent residency, although foreigners can live in Switzerland long-term with just a Swiss settlement permit. The Swiss passport is reputed as one of Europes most difficult passports to obtain but it does provide travelling benefits  the Swiss passport ranks fourth on the passport power index with visa-free access to 155 countries.



Different requirements apply depending on your nationality; processes are easier for European nationals while third-national citizens can apply for citizenship after a certain number of years of living continuously in Switzerland, depending on their circumstances. Foreigners typically qualify for Swiss citizenship after 12 years of residence or for permanent residence after 10 years, although there are shorter paths to becoming Swiss for those married to Swiss nationals, second generation child residents and certain people born in Switzerland.



Find out if you can apply for either Swiss citizenship or permanent residence, which option offers you the best benefits, and what you need for your Swiss citizenship application.



This comprehensive guide covers Swiss permanent residence, Swiss citizenship and getting a Swiss passport:



Swiss citizenship updates 2017



A new Swiss Citizenship Act will come into force in January 2018, which will substantially change the Swiss citizenship requirements, the most notable being that applicants must hold a settlement C permit to qualify. Residents in Switzerland who currently qualify for becoming a Swiss citizen are being advised to review whether their rights to Swiss citizenship will be revoked under the new measures, which are predicted to affect some 650,000 foreigners in Switzerland. Other reforms include unifying certain conditions across the cantons, for example, requirements to show language fluency and not accessing any social welfare benefits in the three years before applying.



In February 2017, the Swiss passed a vote to make it easier for the grandchildren of immigrants to gain nationality, approved by 60.4 percent of voters and a majority of cantons. This will affect previous laws that didn't automatically grant Swiss nationality to children born on Swiss soil. It was the fifth time this issue was put the ballot box, the first being in 1983.



https://www.expatica.com/ch/visas-and-pe...07630.html Swiss citizenship: Getting a Swiss passport or Swiss permanent residencyForeigners can get Swiss citizenship after 12 years of living in Switzerland, or less in certain situations, or opt for Swiss permanent residency.Some foreigners find benefits in getting Swiss citizenship or Swiss permanent residency, although foreigners can live in Switzerland long-term with just a Swiss settlement permit. The Swiss passport is reputed as one of Europes most difficult passports to obtain but it does provide travelling benefits  the Swiss passport ranks fourth on the passport power index with visa-free access to 155 countries.Different requirements apply depending on your nationality; processes are easier for European nationals while third-national citizens can apply for citizenship after a certain number of years of living continuously in Switzerland, depending on their circumstances. Foreigners typically qualify for Swiss citizenship after 12 years of residence or for permanent residence after 10 years, although there are shorter paths to becoming Swiss for those married to Swiss nationals, second generation child residents and certain people born in Switzerland.Find out if you can apply for either Swiss citizenship or permanent residence, which option offers you the best benefits, and what you need for your Swiss citizenship application.This comprehensive guide covers Swiss permanent residence, Swiss citizenship and getting a Swiss passport:Swiss citizenship updates 2017A new Swiss Citizenship Act will come into force in January 2018, which will substantially change the Swiss citizenship requirements, the most notable being that applicants must hold a settlement C permit to qualify. Residents in Switzerland who currently qualify for becoming a Swiss citizen are being advised to review whether their rights to Swiss citizenship will be revoked under the new measures, which are predicted to affect some 650,000 foreigners in Switzerland. Other reforms include unifying certain conditions across the cantons, for example, requirements to show language fluency and not accessing any social welfare benefits in the three years before applying.In February 2017, the Swiss passed a vote to make it easier for the grandchildren of immigrants to gain nationality, approved by 60.4 percent of voters and a majority of cantons. This will affect previous laws that didn't automatically grant Swiss nationality to children born on Swiss soil. It was the fifth time this issue was put the ballot box, the first being in 1983. LoP Guest

lop guest

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03-15-2018 07:48 PM











Post: #2 RE: How to become an Citizen in switzerland

This is null and void if you're from a middle eastern country though right? Joe Cocker

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03-15-2018 07:54 PM



Posts: 1,713









Post: #3 RE: How to become an Citizen in switzerland





The news came as a bombshell to the undocumented immigrants living in Geneva, a canton which has some 30,000 domestic employees. Almost 2,000 people attended an information meeting held by self-help organisations on 26 February. The branches of this collective have opened information offices  at a rate of six a week  to support potential applicants in compiling the necessary paperwork. According to the Support Collective for Undocumented Workers, more than 1,600 people flocked to these offices in just two weeks. Some of the applicants fail to meet the requirements, mainly because they havent spent enough time here or because of debts, says Alain Bolle, the Director of the Protestant Social Centre (CSP). About 30 % of requests meet the criteria, he added.



Applicants must prove that they are financially independent, do not receive welfare benefits and have lived in Switzerland for at least ten years (or five if they have children). The CSP estimates that a single person paying 1,500 Swiss francs for health insurance and an apartment would have to earn at least 2,500 francs.



https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=...wkDs8YBcVe How Switzerland deals with illegal immigrants  a national breakthrough Offices inundatedThe news came as a bombshell to the undocumented immigrants living in Geneva, a canton which has some 30,000 domestic employees. Almost 2,000 people attended an information meeting held by self-help organisations on 26 February. The branches of this collective have opened information offices  at a rate of six a week  to support potential applicants in compiling the necessary paperwork. According to the Support Collective for Undocumented Workers, more than 1,600 people flocked to these offices in just two weeks. Some of the applicants fail to meet the requirements, mainly because they havent spent enough time here or because of debts, says Alain Bolle, the Director of the Protestant Social Centre (CSP). About 30 % of requests meet the criteria, he added.















EAST HAVEN  Residents walked out in a huff after the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to oppose two proposed zoning changes that would have allowed a controversial age-restricted development to be built on Sperry Lane.

The commission spent an hour and a half Wednesday night debating the pros and cons of the proposed development before voting 3-2 to deny the project without prejudice, which allows the developer to reapply.

The proposed project would have included 415 age-restricted rental units within five buildings built on the site of a former Girl Scout campsite, just off Route 80, also known as Foxon Road.

The decision left a crowd of angry residents fuming and a developer perplexed.

They asked us to take the blasting off, we did. The next month, they asked us to take a building off, we did ... We did everything they asked us to do, and now they wont approve the project, said Mark DiLungo, the principal developer, who likened the proceedings to a kangaroo court.

Despite the negative outcome, the commission still described the proposed development is a good idea. Its just not there yet.

I love the project. I absolutely love it. I think it could probably be good at some point. Its not ready now, said Vice Chairman William DeMayo.

The current proposal asked the commission to change a portion of properties for the proposed development from R-5 to R-3 zoning, so all of the properties can then be changed to a Planned Elderly Facilities District. According to town zoning regulations, a PEFD can only be done in R-1, R-2, or R-3 zones.

Commission member Marlene Asid said the way the proposed development is set up, its not really elderly housing because language in the proposal requiresonly one resident renting the unit to be older than 55. She said she believes by having only one resident per unit be over 55, it will eventually lead to the proposed development becoming an apartment complex.

However, commission member Albert Carocci said he didnt believe there was any sort of sinister motive behind the wording of the language. He said his interpretation was a 55-year-old man and his 53-year-old wife could live there together, instead of waiting the two extra years for the wife to turn 55.

DiLungo added the commissions tangential discussion about children school buses was unnecessary. He said that issue would be addressed in the lease.

One of the major concerns was that the developmentwould negatively impact traffic.

Police Chief Ed Lennon wrote in a letter that was read aloud at the meeting Wednesday that Route 80 is usually congested, with frequent backups and traffic at any time. Regardless of the time of day, whenever Interstate 95 is closed or obstructed ... it is not uncommon, especially in the warmer months, to find eastbound traffic in the afternoon backed up from Totoket Road in North Branford all the way to Wheelbarrow Lane in East Haven.

However, Lennon wrote that the polices most significant concern is that the proposed entrances and exits to the development would only be controlled with a stop sign for vehicles entering Route 80 from the access driveway  the westbound approach has a curb where police have already investigated two fatal motor vehicle crashes.

Its also our responsibility to protect the people. We cannot have an increase of 30 to 40 percent of accidents there. That would be on our shoulders, DeMayo said.

During a public hearing Feb. 7, Nathan Peck, a certified traffic engineer and member of the development team, addressed some of thoseconcerns. He saidthe line of sight at the proposed entrance and exit to the development is roughly double what the state requires and notedvery few accidents happened there, according to the commissions minutes from the meeting.

Lennon added the addition of 415 units to the area could lead to an increase of 185 to 200 additional calls per service a year at that location.

The addition of 400 more residential units with this age demographic will place a substantial burden on fire protection, emergency medical services and will likely result in increase response time and even increase in calls that we cant respond to, said Fire Chief Matthew Marcarelli, who addressed his concerns in a letter to the commission.

Attorney Bernard Pellegrino, who represents the applicant The Bluffs, LLC, previously said the town assessor estimates the project will generate $1.2 million in tax revenue annually. Commission member Charles Lang said he believes $400,000 of that revenue go toward strengthening the fire and police departments infrastructure.

The state is pulling back on what theyve been giving to the cities, so to be able to just turn down a project such as this ..., he said. As far as Im concerned. this is a good project. We should not be looking at ways to stop [it]. We should be looking at ways that this can happen in our town.

Well, I will put human life over $1.2 million, DeMayo replied.NEW HAVEN  If you want to live in an apartment with a sense of history, you will soon get your chance in the Palladium Building on Orange Street.

Developers Juan Salas-Romer and Noel Petra of the NHR Group are converting the second and third floors of the five-story 19th-century building to 10 apartments with lofts.

Large explanatory graphics and period photos, put together by the New Haven Museum, will line the lobby and hallways of the 1855 building that historians presume was designed by the citys well-known early architect, Henry Austin.

The developers are keeping the three retail establishments on the first floor: G-Cafe, Devils Gear and Tikaway  as they upgrade the rest of the building.

We love them and we want them to stay. We think they are awesome, Petra said of the popular tenants.

The fourth and fifth floors will continue to serve as offices for the NHR Group.

It is truly a mixed-use building, Petra said.

The 139 Orange St. building, with its brownish-red sandstone facade, has had many uses over the years, particularly as an educational center.

It was built by the Young Mens Institute, which opened its doors in 1856 as a kind of a debating society featuring discussions on literature and history.

Later, it was the original site of the James H. Hillhouse High School, the citys first high school, Salas-Romer said.

The large windows and ceiling heights of up to 14 feet were designed to bring a lot of natural light into the classrooms, according to a history of the building.

When it was completed, it was one of the tallest buildings in the city and had unobstructed views of the citys harbor and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on East Rock.

The next incarnation occurred in 1889, when the New Haven Daily Palladium newspaper moved into the Renaissance Revival/Italinate-style building and gave it the name that stuck.

The history, posted in the lobby, said the Palladium, which was founded in 1829, backed the anti-slavery movement, as well the political platforms of the Whigs and later the Republican parties.

It credits Palladium Editor James F. Babcock with bringing Abraham Lincoln to speak in New Haven in 1860 as a presidential candidate.

Salas-Romer said a lot of business people were involved in the institute and he thought it was important to highlight the history for the newest tenants.

It is our intent that the small community we are building here will have access to those memories, Salas-Romer said.

The apartments will have a French urban industrial flair, according to the developers, who only recently became partners. Each has extensive development experience  Salas-Romer in renovating properties and Petra in construction.

He said the apartments will be a mix of historic contemporary and industrial styles, Petra said. They began announcing the project around November and hope to start leasing in April with the tenants moving in by June or July.

As the NHR Group they also have proposed building Heights on the River, a four-story housing and retail plan for East Grand Avenue on the Quinnipiac River. Marketed as a gateway to Fair Haven Heights, it is currently going through presentations to the neighborhood.NEW HAVEN  Plans for close to another 200 apartments in the Hill neighborhood have been submitted for city approval as Randy Salvatore moves quickly to bring life to what has been a sea of asphalt parking lots for decades.

His latest proposal is for two apartment complexes, each six-stories high, across the street from each other.

On the triangular parcel bordered by Congress and Washington avenues at the intersection of Lafayette Street, which is the smaller of the two parcels being developed, Salvatore plans to build 90 apartments with a 45-car parking garage under the building.

There will be 70 one-bedroom units; 15 two-bedroom units and 5 three-bedroom units. For both complexes, 30 percent of the units will be affordable under state guidelines, provided that subsidies can be secured.

The second apartment building will be located on a parcel bordered on the east by Washington Avenue, on the south by Lafayette Street and on the north by St. Anthonys Church.

This complex will house 104 residential units consisting of 85 one-bedroom units; 14 two-bedroom units and 5 three-bedroom units for a total of 194 apartments between the two complexes.

Both parcels under development are bordered by land owned by Yale University. Currently Yale uses each of them as parking lots, while they share one parking lot with the church.

Salvatore has again hired the firm of architect Kenneth Boroson to design the complexes.

His latest construction projects will feature amenity space on the first floor that will include a gymnasium and a study area with more recreational space on the second floor, both for tenant use only.

For the larger building, there will be 52 parking spaces on the site with 35 spaces in a garage under the building. The smaller building will have 15 bicycle spaces, while the larger one will accommodate 33 bicycles

The development land agreement with the city requires that a building on the slightly smaller lot not exceed 70 feet in height. The proposed building is 68 feet high, but a lobby for the elevator and primary staircase, as well as a secondary staircase to the roof deck will exceed 70 feet.

The developer will seek approval of these projections above the roof.

New street lights, sidewalks and trees are planned for both complexes.

Salvatore, who owns RMS Companies out of Stamford, has broken ground for construction of 110 other units nearby at the corner of Gold Street and Washington Avenue with 30 more approved through the conversion of the Welch Annex School on Prince Street behind St. Anthonys Church.

When he is finished, the new construction will fill almost two blocks in the Hill and change empty space to a new residential section.

Salvatore will be paying the city $1.2 million for a total of 11.5 acres, a development that is expected to eventually feature some commercial construction, and is expected to cost $100 million.

A prolific developer in New Haven as well as Fairfield County, he is also involved in projects in Hartford.

He was a partner in the restoration of the Goodwin Hotel in the capital city and has submitted plan to develop the four parcels that surround Hartfords Dunkin Donuts Park, its new minor league ballpark

The developers first project in New Haven was the Novella apartments on Chapel Street, which he recently sold, while an extended-stay hotel is also under construction on High Street.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 5 Vote(s) - 4.2 Average

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Page: 1 2 Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

03-15-2018 08:10 PM











Post: #1 Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

Advertisement

Mandatory world ban vaccination policy is in order.









Sweden has banned mandatory vaccinations, citing serious health concerns and the fact they violate a citizens constitutional rights to choose their own healthcare.



The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) rejected seven motions on May 10 that would have enshrined forced vaccinations into law, stating It would violate our [Swedish Constitution] if we introduced compulsory vaccinations, or mandatory vaccinations.





https://redice.tv/news/sweden-bans-manda...h-concerns About time. They should be banned all over the world.Mandatory world ban vaccination policy is in order.Sweden has banned mandatory vaccinations, citing serious health concerns and the fact they violate a citizens constitutional rights to choose their own healthcare.The Swedish Riksdag (parliament) rejected seven motions on May 10 that would have enshrined forced vaccinations into law, stating It would violate our [Swedish Constitution] if we introduced compulsory vaccinations, or mandatory vaccinations. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 09:32 PM











Post: #2 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

so they were already banned in Sweden Bicnarok

Resistance is futile

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 09:52 PM



Posts: 3,659









Post: #3 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 09:32 PM) so they were already banned in Sweden

So they just decided not to impose it, misleading click bait title op you wassak. So they just decided not to impose it, misleading click bait title op you wassak. (This post was last modified: 03-15-2018 09:53 PM by Bicnarok .) daersoulkeeper

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03-15-2018 10:43 PM



Posts: 2,962









Post: #4 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

sweden seems like the most free place on earth if you ask me. I hear the lineage of the pharaohs of old live there and nazi germany sprung from out of there, they are the elite of the elite of the world and in modern times treat their own better than any other nation. (This post was last modified: 03-15-2018 10:45 PM by daersoulkeeper .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-15-2018 11:24 PM











Post: #5 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

daersoulkeeper Wrote: (03-15-2018 10:43 PM) sweden seems like the most free place on earth if you ask me. I hear the lineage of the pharaohs of old live there and nazi germany sprung from out of there, they are the elite of the elite of the world and in modern times treat their own better than any other nation.

if you are Muslim. if you are Muslim. SevenThunders

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03-16-2018 12:07 AM



Posts: 3,742









Post: #6 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

daersoulkeeper Wrote: (03-15-2018 10:43 PM) sweden seems like the most free place on earth if you ask me. I hear the lineage of the pharaohs of old live there and nazi germany sprung from out of there, they are the elite of the elite of the world and in modern times treat their own better than any other nation.

Sorry you are sadly misinformed. There is no freedom of speech. (Try criticizing Muslim violence for example). There is no freedom of religion. Christians have had their children taken away from them for homeschooling. You can not own a gun to protect yourself from Muslim incursion. (Muslims however roam freely in their neighborhoods carrying machine guns and grenade launchers.) They adhere to almost every dictate from the globalist police state known as the EU.



However if you are a "progressive", you probably find the lack of freedoms to your liking. Sorry you are sadly misinformed. There is no freedom of speech. (Try criticizing Muslim violence for example). There is no freedom of religion. Christians have had their children taken away from them for homeschooling. You can not own a gun to protect yourself from Muslim incursion. (Muslims however roam freely in their neighborhoods carrying machine guns and grenade launchers.) They adhere to almost every dictate from the globalist police state known as the EU.However if you are a "progressive", you probably find the lack of freedoms to your liking. The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number,

and mighty is the army that obeys his command.

The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 02:54 AM











Post: #7 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

hee hee I misread it at first as mandatory vacations... LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 08:58 AM











Post: #8 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns





Source: yournewswire.com

Known for publishing completely fabricated articles, even with photoshopped pics like



"The full report can be accessed here."

Link:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_H...Federation

Several independent sources have described the National Health Federation as a fringe lobbying group or as a promoter of dubious and unproven medical claims and devices. The McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine defines the NHF as a "fringe medicine organization that exerts political pressure to secure 'health freedom' and 'freedom of medical choice' on behalf of alternative medicine practitioners, their families, and 'health food' consumers."[7]



The American Cancer Society, noting that the NHF is "not a medical or scientific body," recommended that "persons with cancer avoid the therapies and products promoted by the National Health Federation for the treatment of cancer."[2] Quackwatch calls NHF "an alliance of promoters and followers who engage in lobbying campaigns... and uses the words 'alternative,' and 'freedom' to suit its own purposes," adding that "NHF is antagonistic to accepted scientific methods as well as to current consumer-protection law."[3] Imagine my disappointment.Source: yournewswire.comKnown for publishing completely fabricated articles, even with photoshopped pics like http://yournewswire.com/texas-church-shooter-antifa/ "The full report can be accessed here."Link: http://www.thenhf.se/riksdagen-rostade-n...nmotioner/ Several independent sources have described the National Health Federation as a fringe lobbying group or as a promoter of dubious and unproven medical claims and devices. The McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine defines the NHF as a "fringe medicine organization that exerts political pressure to secure 'health freedom' and 'freedom of medical choice' on behalf of alternative medicine practitioners, their families, and 'health food' consumers."[7]The American Cancer Society, noting that the NHF is "not a medical or scientific body," recommended that "persons with cancer avoid the therapies and products promoted by the National Health Federation for the treatment of cancer."[2] Quackwatch calls NHF "an alliance of promoters and followers who engage in lobbying campaigns... and uses the words 'alternative,' and 'freedom' to suit its own purposes," adding that "NHF is antagonistic to accepted scientific methods as well as to current consumer-protection law."[3] LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 10:22 AM











Post: #9 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

Sweden like most of Northern Europe (Which includes the UK) don't do Mandatory Vaccinations, however Middle Europe and North Americas does..



Sweden would have been out of sync with it's neighbours if it did go down that route.. however it's not and it isn't... Agent Stoneheart

Have a nice day

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 11:11 AM



Posts: 15,460









Post: #10 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

SevenThunders Wrote: (03-16-2018 12:07 AM) daersoulkeeper Wrote: (03-15-2018 10:43 PM) sweden seems like the most free place on earth if you ask me. I hear the lineage of the pharaohs of old live there and nazi germany sprung from out of there, they are the elite of the elite of the world and in modern times treat their own better than any other nation.

Sorry you are sadly misinformed. There is no freedom of speech. (Try criticizing Muslim violence for example). There is no freedom of religion. Christians have had their children taken away from them for homeschooling. You can not own a gun to protect yourself from Muslim incursion. (Muslims however roam freely in their neighborhoods carrying machine guns and grenade launchers.) They adhere to almost every dictate from the globalist police state known as the EU.



However if you are a "progressive", you probably find the lack of freedoms to your liking.

Do you have a video of these Muslims on Swedish streets with grenade launchers?



Also they rank 9th in the world on gun ownership.



https://www.deseretnews.com/top/2519/7/S...rship.html Do you have a video of these Muslims on Swedish streets with grenade launchers?Also they rank 9th in the world on gun ownership. (This post was last modified: 03-16-2018 11:16 AM by Agent Stoneheart .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 03:44 PM











Post: #11 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

Very late... but good. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 03:52 PM











Post: #12 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

Meanwhile, amerikan greed continues to line there pockets with blood and stricter mandates to make it more difficult to opt out. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 05:06 PM











Post: #13 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 11:24 PM) daersoulkeeper Wrote: (03-15-2018 10:43 PM) sweden seems like the most free place on earth if you ask me. I hear the lineage of the pharaohs of old live there and nazi germany sprung from out of there, they are the elite of the elite of the world and in modern times treat their own better than any other nation.

if you are Muslim.

True.Most of the country is a "No go Zone" for women. True.Most of the country is a "No go Zone" for women. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 07:31 PM











Post: #14 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

If not for all the muslim and african immigrants, Sweden would seem like a paradise. KM

Registered User

User ID: 1337

03-16-2018 09:05 PM



Posts: 77









Post: #15 RE: Sweden Bans Mandatory Vaccinations Over 'Serious Heath Concerns

LoP Guest Wrote: (03-16-2018 05:06 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-15-2018 11:24 PM) if you are Muslim.

True.Most of the country is a "No go Zone" for women.

no it's not, you f*ckin retard.



also, there is a big push here for vaccinations, even though it hasn't reached "mandatory" yet. in practice though, in many ways it already is. all the 12 year old girls in the school where I work got their HPV vaccines for example. and it is planned to being given also to the boys in the near future. no it's not, you f*ckin retard.also, there is a big push here for vaccinations, even though it hasn't reached "mandatory" yet. in practice though, in many ways it already is. all the 12 year old girls in the school where I work got their HPV vaccines for example. and it is planned to being given also to the boys in the near future. Advertisement

















Edvard I. Moser Facts

 Nobel Media AB. Photo: A. Mahmoud

Edvard I. Moser

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 Born: 27 April 1962, Alesund, Norway Affiliation at the time of the award: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway Prize motivation: "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain." Prize share: 1/4

Life Edvard Moser was born in Alesund, Norway. After studying at the University of Oslo, where he met his future wife and co-recipient May-Britt Moser, he received a doctorate in neurophysiology in 1995. After stays at the University of Edinburgh and University College London, the couple moved to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Edvard Moser is a professor of neuroscience and director of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim. Edvard and May-Britt Moser have two daughters.

Work The awareness of one's location and how to find the way to other places is crucial for both humans and animals. In 2005 May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser discovered a type of cell that is important for determining position close to the hippocampus, an area located in the center of the brain. They found that when a rat passed certain points arranged in a hexagonal grid in space, nerve cells that form a kind of coordinate system for navigation were activated. They then went on to demonstrate how these different cell types cooperate.

To cite this section

MLA style: Edvard I. Moser  Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021. Tue. 21 Sep 2021. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2014/edvard-moser/facts/>Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Russia And UK Tensions Increase: Russia To Expel British Diplomats LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

03-15-2018 11:32 PM











Post: #1 Russia And UK Tensions Increase: Russia To Expel British Diplomats

Advertisement

WWIII set to kick off in May.







Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says it is unacceptable for the United Kingdom to accuse Russia of the nerve agent attack, and Russia has countered the British rhetoric quickly. In a response to the UKs expulsion of Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning of a Russian double agent and ex-spy, Moscow will expel British diplomats.



Russia says it will soon expel British diplomats in response to Theresa Mays announcement that 23 undeclared intelligence officers posing as Russian diplomats would be ejected from the UK. Ramping up tensions not seen since the Cold War, the UK and Russia are exchanging rhetoric at unprecedented levels.



Lavrov said Russia would first inform the British government first about any retaliatory actions before revealing them to the wider public.



Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on March 4th in the center of Salisbury and remain critically ill in hospital. May says tests showed a Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok was used in the attack, and that Russia was, therefore highly likely to be responsible. But not everyone agrees with Mays assessment. The Irish Times doesnt feel theres any way Vladimir Putin could be responsible for the attack.



Theresa Mays first scenario, that the Kremlin was directly involved, seems unlikely. Skripal was in the UK as part of an official spy-swap deal with Russia. The only suggestion of suspicious activities on Skripals part has been a report in the Daily Telegraph that he was close to an unnamed person in the organization run by Christopher Steele, who produced the dossier claiming Russia had compromising material on Donald Trump. The Irish Times



In comments on Thursday morning, the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson expanded on Mays statement, saying the evidence of Russian guilt was overwhelming because only Moscow had access to the poison and also a motive for harming Skripal. But there are holes in that official narrative as well:



Russia immediately needed western financial help to stop Novichok and other chemical and biological agents being exported illegally by criminal elements. Western help arrived eventually but was it too late.





http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/ru...s_03152018 Ultimatum was given for May.WWIII set to kick off in May.Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says it is unacceptable for the United Kingdom to accuse Russia of the nerve agent attack, and Russia has countered the British rhetoric quickly. In a response to the UKs expulsion of Russian diplomats over the nerve agent poisoning of a Russian double agent and ex-spy, Moscow will expel British diplomats.Russia says it will soon expel British diplomats in response to Theresa Mays announcement that 23 undeclared intelligence officers posing as Russian diplomats would be ejected from the UK. Ramping up tensions not seen since the Cold War, the UK and Russia are exchanging rhetoric at unprecedented levels.Lavrov said Russia would first inform the British government first about any retaliatory actions before revealing them to the wider public.Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on March 4th in the center of Salisbury and remain critically ill in hospital. May says tests showed a Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok was used in the attack, and that Russia was, therefore highly likely to be responsible. But not everyone agrees with Mays assessment. The Irish Times doesnt feel theres any way Vladimir Putin could be responsible for the attack.Theresa Mays first scenario, that the Kremlin was directly involved, seems unlikely. Skripal was in the UK as part of an official spy-swap deal with Russia. The only suggestion of suspicious activities on Skripals part has been a report in the Daily Telegraph that he was close to an unnamed person in the organization run by Christopher Steele, who produced the dossier claiming Russia had compromising material on Donald Trump. The Irish TimesIn comments on Thursday morning, the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson expanded on Mays statement, saying the evidence of Russian guilt was overwhelming because only Moscow had access to the poison and also a motive for harming Skripal. But there are holes in that official narrative as well:Russia immediately needed western financial help to stop Novichok and other chemical and biological agents being exported illegally by criminal elements. Western help arrived eventually but was it too late.

















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Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.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A decade after the federal government rescued the first of many faltering financial firms, the Senate voted on Wednesday to pass legislation that would relax restrictions on large parts of the banking industry, representing the most significant changes to the rules that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.

In a rare showing of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 67 to 31 to pass the bill, which is intended to help small- and medium-size banks but which critics say is a dangerous rollback of financial regulations intended to prevent another meltdown.

The legislation faces an uncertain fate going forward, as House Republicans are expected to push for a much more expansive rollback of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Senate Democrats who voted for the bill that passed on Wednesday have insisted that major changes along the lines of what the House passed last year will sink the effort but expressed hope that the legislation could herald a return to the kind of cooperation that has recently eluded Congress.

This legislative package is an example of what we can achieve by working together and shows Democrats and Republicans can break the gridlock, said Senator Joe Donnelly, Democrat of Indiana.The city was on edge, rife with racial tension and awash in conspiracies. Many patrol officers saw themselves as targets in a plot by black residents to kill them. Some New Yorkers who embraced the Black Panther Partys identity as a political and self-defense group saw the police as an instrument of governmental oppression.

For a long time, Mr. Bell asserted his innocence and, with his co-defendants, sought a new trial on the basis of uncovered evidence showing the first trial was unfair. Mr. Washington died in prison in April 2000. Mr. Bottom, also known as Jalil Abdul Muntaqim, is at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, N.Y., officials said.

In a statement condemning the decision, Commissioner James P. ONeill recalled how Mr. Bell and his co-conspirators shot Officer Piagentini 22 times, including with his own service revolver  as the dying officer pleaded for his own life.

Over the past 47 years, he has never expressed genuine remorse, Mr. ONeill said.

In a letter the parole board sent to Mr. Bell this week, however, they credited him with finally taking responsibility for your actions and expressing regret and remorse for your crimes. Noting this maturation, the board quoted back to Mr. Bell what he told panelists during their interview of him on March 3: There was nothing political about the act, as much as I thought at the time, Mr. Bell told them. It was murder and horribly wrong.

The board undertook a deep review of several factors, including Mr. Bells age, scant disciplinary history in prison and his success in compiling a sturdy network of supporters, including the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In the end, a majority of panelists found that the state had prepared Mr. Bell well for release. Though his crime represents one of the most supreme assaults against society, Mr. Bell is capable of living a law-abiding life, it wrote.

On some basic level this is what parole is for, said Michael Jacobsen, the executive director of the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance and a former commissioner of the citys Department of Correction.In his first public appearance after the corruption conviction of a former top aide, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo acknowledged he had known that the aide was using government offices while working for the governors 2014 campaign team.

The aide, Joseph Percoco, was convicted in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from executives pursuing state contracts. Prosecutors had cast Mr. Percoco as a figure of almost unmatched power, who  until the trial  flouted state ethics rules and federal laws with impunity.

As an example of that impunity, prosecutors introduced swipe card records that showed Mr. Percoco, who left state employment for eight months in 2014 to manage Mr. Cuomos re-election campaign, continuing to enter and exit the governors Manhattan office. State laws prohibit the use of taxpayer-funded resources for campaign purposes.

Mr. Cuomos public schedules indicate that he was frequently in the office at the same time. The governors office declined to comment throughout the trial. But during a question-and-answer session with reporters on Wednesday, after attending a school walkout in Manhattan, Mr. Cuomo seemed to acknowledge that he had been aware of Mr. Percocos presence.The nearly 17-year-old Afghanistan conflict, the longest war in United States history, will not end on the battlefield. It can be resolved only at the negotiating table. So, the bold offer last month from President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions is a welcome initiative. But it faces daunting obstacles.

Mr. Ghanis proposal envisions an outcome in which the Taliban would be recognized as a legitimate political party, prisoners would be released and United Nations sanctions against the group would be lifted. In exchange, the Taliban would have to recognize the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, including womens rights.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, during a surprise visit to Afghanistan this week, said there was evidence that some Taliban factions are interested in talks. The Taliban have not responded formally to Mr. Ghanis proposal, but in the past they have refused to negotiate directly with the Afghan government, which they deem an American puppet. Instead, the Taliban have insisted on direct talks with the United States that exclude the Kabul government, as a way to discredit it. The United States has long supported an Afghan-led peace process, in which Washington might play a role but would not stand in for the Afghan government.

Assuming the Taliban refuse Mr. Ghanis offer, its timely to ask: Is there an alternative to an indefinite United States military presence in Afghanistan?In a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin shrugged off questions about President Trumps incendiary tweets, personal insults and vulgar language. Mr. Mnuchin suggested that he was above riffraff talk. I think you should be focused on what the policies are, he told the shows host, Chuck Todd.

His words sounded high-minded, but they rang hollow. Mr. Mnuchin, who has milked taxpayers so that he and his wife can travel in style, might benefit from a refresher course in the axiom that character is destiny. Its an idea that has been around for a couple of thousand years, and for good reason: Its inherently true.

This brings us to Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor, who also once seemed to give that concept short shrift. I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals, he said. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the state of New York. That was on March 10, 2008, a few days before Mr. Spitzer was forced to resign as governor amid revelations that hed been a frequent patron of a prostitution ring. His hypocrisy was manifest, given how he had proclaimed himself an implacable foe of the sex trade because it exploited women. Character, meet your destiny.

This week, the 10th anniversary of his resignation, news organizations have resurrected the scandal, exploring how it rapidly unfolded and offering where-are-they-now profiles of key figures. Mr. Spitzer, now 58, has taken control of his familys real-estate business. After an unsuccessful run for city comptroller five years ago, hes not through with politics so much as politics is through with him.Since Stephen couldnt speak, he communicated through his computer. Composing a sentence was like playing a video game  the cursor would move on the screen, and he would have to capture the letter or word he wanted by pressing on a mouse with his thumb, or, in his later years, moving his cheek to activate a motion sensor in his glasses. When he was done, he would click an icon and his famous computer voice would read what he had typed out.

Stephen could compose his sentences at a rate of only about six words a minute. At first I would sit impatiently, daydreaming on and off as I waited for him to finish his composition. But then one day I was looking over his shoulder at his computer screen, where the sentence he was constructing was visible, and I started thinking about his evolving reply. By the time he had completed it, I had had several minutes to ponder the ideas he was expressing.

This was a great help. It allowed me to more profoundly consider his remarks, and it enabled my own ideas, and my reactions to his, to percolate as they never could have in an ordinary conversation.

When I argued a point of physics with Stephen, I always lost. I would scribble equations on a pad or a whiteboard, trying to sway him, but when I was done, I would find that the answer was the one he had already worked out in his head.

He was no less certain in his ideas about how to write our books, though when we disagreed on those matters, there was no right or wrong answer, only preference. And so we might argue at length  on one occasion we did so for two hours  over a single sentence.

There was an important difference between us here. Making my arguments took little effort. To oppose my ideas, Stephen had to struggle to type every letter of every word. Yet it was I, not he, who ceded points out of exhaustion. Once, during a particularly heated discussion, I waited several minutes for him to respond, and then, when his response finally came, it was a joke. Even when contemplating the cosmic, he had a keen sense of the comic.

Stephens expertise was gravitation, the weakest of the four fundamental forces of the universe. Yet Stephen himself was a strong force. When, as a student, he started his work on black holes, most scientists thought it was a dead-end field. His doctors made a similar assessment regarding his prospects in life.

Proving people wrong turned out to be his strength  and his gift to all of us.If youre a murderous dictator, this is a joyous time to be alive.

No one will make much of a fuss if your opposition leader is jailed, if an annoying journalist goes missing or if, as happened in Congo, a judge who displeases the dictatorial president suffers a home invasion in which goons rape his wife and daughter.

As President Trump replaces Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with the more hawkish Mike Pompeo, lets note something that goes far beyond personnel to the heart of the American role in the world: The U.S. has abandoned a bipartisan consensus on human rights that goes back decades.

Im back from Myanmar, where leaders are finding that this is also the optimal time to commit genocide. The army conducted a scorched-earth campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority, with soldiers throwing babies onto bonfires as they raped the mothers.

What has Trump said to condemn Myanmar for these atrocities?

Essentially nothing.

In the past, human rights was at least one thread of our foreign policy. This was pursued inconsistently, grudgingly or hypocritically, and it jostled constantly with realpolitik considerations, but in the past it was one of the factors in play.INTERNATIONAL

An article on Wednesday about a Chinese reporter whose exasperated expression went viral in China referred incorrectly to Jason Quin, the president of American Multimedia Television U.S.A. Mr. Quin is also the president of the Confucius Institute of Education, which is unrelated to the Confucius Institutes supported by the Chinese government; he is not the president of a Los Angeles Confucius Institute.

BUSINESS DAY

An article on Wednesday about a history professors critique of National Geographics coverage of race over the years misstated how many years the magazine has been publishing. The magazine began publishing 130 years ago, not 120.

SPORTS

An article on Monday about pervasive myths related to picking winners in the N.C.A.A. tournament misidentified the team that won the tournament for the first time before Florida did in 2006. It was Syracuse in 2003, not Maryland in 2002.

THE ARTS

An article on Monday about the childrens book author Andy Griffiths misstated Mr. Griffithss age. He is 56, not 57.Shuttered and $2 million in debt just seven years ago, the Harlem School of the Arts is now aiming high and hoping to become Harlems Lincoln Center. The school just took another step in that direction, announcing an intensive summer theater program in which students will be taught by professionals from the prestigious London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.

The program will take place July 23 to Aug. 3 at City Colleges Aaron Davis Hall. Roughly 20 students from the ages of 17 to 25 will receive conservatory-level training in voice, movement and acting; the students will study Shakespeare and Greek texts and stage a performance at the end of the program.

While the program is open to all applicants, six of the slots will be filled by students chosen from within the Harlem School of the Arts and City College Center for the Arts; those students will receive full tuition coverage.

This represents a potentially life-changing moment where students will be exposed to a level of training and professionalism that is a step beyond what we do here, Alfred Preisser, artistic director of the Harlem School, said in an interview.We have grown up watching more tragedies occur and continuously asking: Why? Why does this keep happening?

KAYLEE TYNER, a 16-year-old junior who walked out of class in protest of gun violence, at Columbine High School in Colorado, where 13 people were killed in 1999.But it also showed the value of picking candidates  in Mr. Saccone, 60, a social conservative who was not the natural choice for many suburban Republicans, and in Mr. Lamb, a telegenic 33-year-old former Marine.

You have to give credit, Mr. DeVanney said. He was clearly the best candidate theyve run for this district. And not only the best candidate but he executed a strong campaign.

Some residents, even those who considered themselves Trump supporters, thought that most voters on Tuesday were only considering their disapproval of the president. The candidates themselves were more or less irrelevant.

Lightweights, the both of them, said Gary Berman, 75, a retired engineer sitting in the food court of the upscale South Hills Village shopping mall. The area had changed, he said. The older people had been moving away to retire, while younger  and more liberal  people moved in.

They hate Trump, he said of the newcomers. Thats all that matters.

Other Republicans were not convinced it was so simple. They did not deny the energized antipathy toward Mr. Trump, which arguably made this campaign competitive in the first place. But in such a tight race, there are still factors the candidates control that can sway the outcome.

Samuel DeMarco, a Republican who sits on the Allegheny County Council, kept returning to what he saw as Mr. Saccones missteps  poor fund-raising, missed events, the lack of a clear vision  particularly in contrast to the adroitness of Mr. Lamb.

Mr. DeMarco saw little campaigning by Mr. Saccone on the two policy matters he could have championed  the tax plan that the Republicans passed in December and the planned steel tariffs  and instead saw a pitch that boiled down to little more than his support of Mr. Trump.WASHINGTON  The White House has created a working group to prepare for the landmark meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. But Mr. Trumps sudden ousting on Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson could delay critical elements of the planning until the Senate confirms his successor, Mike Pompeo.

Few officials expect Mr. Pompeos arrival at the State Department to derail the meeting itself, as long as the president and Mr. Kim remain committed to it. But Mr. Tillersons departure deprives the White House of the person most experienced in efforts to reach out to North Korea. As the C.I.A. director, Mr. Pompeo has focused more on the threats posed by Pyongyang.

Mr. Pompeo will not be able to establish contact with the South Korean foreign minister, let alone his North Korean counterpart, until the Senate approves his nomination  a process that officials on Capitol Hill said could take several weeks. The White House has not yet even completed the paperwork to begin that process, the officials said.

Adding to the confusion is the lack of official confirmation of a meeting from North Korea. Mr. Kims offer was relayed to Mr. Trump by two envoys from South Korea who had recently visited him in Pyongyang. But an American official said Wednesday that the United States and North Korea had still not conferred directly about the meeting through the various diplomatic channels they use.She added: With that said, our forces do operate in unstable areas and are occasionally exposed to danger from enemy forces. When such a situation occurs, our personnel are authorized to respond to threats and violence appropriately.

However, another military official familiar with the Dec. 6 firefight, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, offered a different portrayal of the events.

The official said that the Green Berets were assisting Nigerien forces on a multiday operation near Diffa, a city in southeastern Niger near the border with Nigeria. It sought to clear the potentially hostile area so that Nigerien forces could build a new outpost there. It is unclear if the small base was ever built.

The mission had attracted attention among American forces after the firefight, the official said, because it was one of the first major forays into the field in Niger since the Oct. 4 ambush.

The White House only this month approved giving combat pay to American troops deployed to Niger. Army soldiers in Niger are still not eligible for certain combat awards  including the Combat Infantry Badge and Combat Action Badge  that are highly respected and sometimes can help with promotion. The four soldiers who were killed in the Oct. 4 raid were given the awards posthumously, but those troops who have fought in Niger have not received them.

Questions about whether the American military, under the Trump administration, is seeking to obscure the expanding scope of operations in Africa were raised last week when it was revealed that the United States carried out four airstrikes in Libya between September and January that Africa Command failed to disclose at the time. The military has said it will acknowledge such missions if asked about them, even if it does not affirmatively disclose them in a news release.

The Dec. 6 firefight was the main nugget of new information in the report that the Trump administration submitted to Congress this week, and was eagerly awaited by specialists on national security issues related to counterterrorism operations.WELLINGTON, New Zealand  The police in New Zealand said on Thursday that they were looking into a claim that a man who said he once worked for Russian intelligence was poisoned in Auckland more than a decade ago.

The man, Boris Karpichkov, who said he worked for the K.G.B. before becoming a double agent and later claiming asylum in Britain, spent 15 months in New Zealand in 2006 and 2007.

Mr. Karpichkov told the British television show Good Morning Britain this week that he had powder thrown in his face by someone dressed as a common beggar on a busy street in Auckland, New Zealands largest city. He said he became ill, losing his hair and more than 65 pounds.

Image Boris Karpichkov appearing on Good Morning Britain this week. Credit... Good Morning Britain/ITV

His doctor initially told him he had the flu, Mr. Karpichkov said, and he did not report the episode to the police at the time.Damien Cave, our Australia bureau chief, shares insights on Australia, news of the world and reader feedback in this weekly newsletter. Want it by email? Sign up.

______

Earlier this week, I found myself trying to explain Nippers to my editors in Hong Kong.

Its this Aussie beach surf lifesaving thing, I said. All the kids wear these colorful beanies and go down to the beach early on Sunday, and theres swimming and running and then there are these boards and 

My description was interrupted by laughter and questions. I could tell from our video conference call that my American editors were a bit confused. And honestly, I could relate.

I still recall having no idea what this whole Nippers thing was when we first arrived in Sydney a year ago. Even when I signed up our two children, I didnt really understand what we were getting ourselves into.In a decision that could have a major impact on the case, a judge ruled Thursday that Bill Cosby will face five additional accusers at his retrial on sexual assault charges that is to begin in April.

The decision means that, in addition to Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who says Mr. Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home near Philadelphia in 2004, the jury will hear from five other women who have similar accusations against Mr. Cosby.

This puts considerable pressure on Mr. Cosby, 80, whose first trial ended in a hung jury last summer. He faced only one accuser other than Ms. Constand during that trial, Kelly Johnson, and her testimony was often hesitant.

Prosecutors had asked Judge Steven T. ONeill to admit testimony from 19 additional women for the retrial. But experts said that, even with only five permitted to testify, prosecutors will have a greater ability to convince jurors that the alleged assault on Ms. Constand, which Mr. Cosby denies, was part of a pattern of sexual misconduct that stretched over several decades.Our guide to stand-up, improv and variety shows happening this weekend and in the week ahead.

DAVID CROSS at Littlefield (March 20, 8 p.m.). The veteran actor and comedian, perhaps best known for his role as Tobias Funke on the show Arrested Development, as well as for appearances in various films, has a loose, casual style reminiscent of a friend telling you about his day. His recent shows at Union Hall have regularly sold out, so heres another chance to see him live.

877-435-9849, littlefieldnyc.com

KONDABOLU BROTHERS PODCAST RECORDING at Littlefield (March 18, 8 p.m.). The comedian Hari Kondabolu hosts a semiregular live talk show with his brother, Ashok, in which they discuss topics like gentrification, religion and racism. Recently, the network Earwolf decided to take the duos fraternal banter and make it into a podcast, an episode of which theyll be taping on Sunday night.

877-435-9849, littlefieldnyc.comOur guide to dance performances happening this weekend and in the week ahead.

JUILLIARD DANCE at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Lincoln Center (March 21-23, 7:30 p.m., through March 24). For their seasonal showcase, the wunderkinds of this prestigious school present two works from the 1970s by American dance giants and a newer work from an astute contemporary voice. Spring Dances, as the program is called, includes Twyla Tharps 1973 genre-busting gem Deuce Coupe to the music of the Beach Boys, Merce Cunninghams rigorous 1975 Sounddance to music by David Tudor, and Crystal Pites 2012 Grace Engine, which sets her forceful, fluid movement against a moody electronic score by Owen Belton.

212-799-5000, juilliard.edu/calendar

NICK MAUSS at the Whitney Museum of American Art (through May 14). In recent years, art museums have taken note of contemporary dance, curating and commissioning work for their galleries. Ballet has largely been excluded, which the visual and performance artist Nick Mauss attempts to rectify with his exhibition Transmissions. It comprises ballet scores, scenic designs and a modernist ballet conceived by Mr. Mauss, and weaves in explorations of gender, history and ballets relationship to other art forms. Pieces from the Whitneys collection and other institutions, like the New York Public Library and the Kinsey Institute, are included as well.

212-570-3600, whitney.org

NEW YORK THEATER BALLET at the 92nd Street Y (March 16, 8 p.m.; March 17, 4 and 8 p.m.). This year marks the centenary of the birth of Jerome Rabinowitz, better known as Jerome Robbins, one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century, from Broadway (Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story) to ballet. To honor his contribution to the latter, New York Theater Ballet presents a trio of some of his lesser-known, more intimate works as part of the Harkness Dance Festival. Rondo, Septet and Concertino are all from the early 1980s; the second two were part of Robbinss Four Chamber Works to music by Igor Stravinsky.

212-415-5500, 92y.orgDIAMOND MOUNTAINS: TRAVEL AND NOSTALGIA IN KOREAN ART at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through May 20). Mount Kumgang, or the Diamond Mountain, lies about 90 miles from Pyeongchangs Olympic Stadium, but its a world away: The august, multipeaked range lies in North Korea and has been impossible to visit for most of the past seven decades. Featuring stunning loans from the National Museum of Korea and other institutions in Seoul, South Korea, this melancholy beauty of a show assembles three centuries worth of paintings of the Diamond Mountain range, and explores how landscapes intermingle nostalgia, nationalism, legend and regret. The unmissable prizes here are the painstaking paintings of Jeong Seon, the 18th-century artist who is perhaps the greatest of all Korean painters. And later impressions of the mountains, including a blotchy vision from the Paris-based modernist Lee Ungno, give a deeper historical weight to very live geopolitics. (Farago)

212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

THE FACE OF DYNASTY: ROYAL CRESTS FROM WESTERN CAMEROON at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through Sept. 3). In the African wing, a show of just four commanding wooden crowns constitutes a blockbuster in its own right. These massive wooden crests  in the form of stylized human faces with vast vertical brows  served as markers of royal power among the Bamileke peoples of the Cameroonian grasslands, and the Mets recent acquisition of an 18th-century specimen is joined here by three later examples, each featuring sharply protruding cheeks, broadly smiling mouths and brows incised with involute geometric patterns. Ritual objects like these were decisive for the development of Western modernist painting, and a Cameroonian crest was even shown at MoMA in the 1930s, as a sculpture divorced from ethnography. But these crests had legal and diplomatic significance as well as aesthetic appeal, and their anonymous African creators had a political understanding of art not so far from our own. (Farago)

212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

THE JIM HENSON EXHIBITION at the Museum of the Moving Image. The rainbow connection has been established in Astoria, Queens, where this museum has opened a new permanent wing devoted to the career of Americas great puppeteer, who was born in Mississippi in 1936 and died, too young, in 1990. Henson began presenting the short TV program Sam and Friends before he was out of his teens; one of its characters, the soft-faced Kermit, was crafted from his mothers old coat and would not mature into a frog for more than a decade. The influence of early variety television, with its succession of skits and songs, runs through Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, though Henson also spent the late 1960s crafting peace-and-love documentaries and prototyping a psychedelic nightclub. Young visitors will delight in seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef; adults can dig deep into sketches and story boards and rediscover some old friends. (Farago)

718-784-0077, movingimage.us

PETER HUJAR: SPEED OF LIFE at the Morgan Library and Museum (through May 20). Its hard to say which is more surprising: that Peter Hujars photographs of underground life in New York in the 1970s and 80s have found their way to the Morgan Library and Museum, or that the classically minded institution has become unbuttoned enough to exhibit them in this heartbreaker of a show. Hujar (1934-87) lived most of his professional life in the East Village and, through studio portraits and cityscapes, captured a downtown that has since been all but erased by time, gentrification and AIDS. Although he was little known by the mainstream art world in his lifetime, this show, startlingly tender, reveals him to be one of the major American photographers of the late 20th century. (Holland Cotter)

212-685-0008, themorgan.org

THE INCOMPLETE ARAKI at the Museum of Sex (through Aug. 31). It remains a bit of a tourist trap, but the for-profit Museum of Sex is making its most serious bid yet for artistic credibility with a two-floor exhibition of Japans most prominent and controversial photographer. Nobuyoshi Araki has spent decades shooting Tokyo streetscapes, blossoming flowers and, notably, women trussed up in the baroque rope bondage technique known as kinbaku-bi, or the beauty of tight binding. Given the venue, its natural that this show concentrates on the erotic side of his art, but less lustful visitors can discover an ambitious cross section of Mr. Arakis omnivorous photography, including his lastingly moving Sentimental Journey, picturing his beloved wife, Yoko, from honeymoon to funeral. (Farago)

212-689-6337, museumofsex.comThe corner of Houston Street and the Bowery has been home to murals by some of the worlds most renowned street artists, from Keith Haring to Os Gemeos to JR. The latest titan of street art to take over the giant canvas? Banksy.

The anonymous British artists 70-foot-long mural was unveiled on Thursday, and it protests the imprisonment of the Turkish-Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan, who was sentenced last March for painting the destruction of a predominantly Kurdish town, with Turkeys flag flying over rubble.

I really feel for her. Ive painted things much more worthy of a custodial sentence, Banksy said in a statement to the New York Times.

Banksys sparse mural mostly consists of black hash marks, which visually represent jail cell bars and count the number of days that Ms. Dogan has spent in prison. (A similar array of hash marks also recently appeared in another protest art piece  Parkland 17, which counts the number of Americans killed by guns daily.) A rendering of Ms. Dogan herself peers out of one of the cells, with her left hand gripping a bar that doubles as a pencil. Free Zehra Dogan is written in the bottom right corner. She still has 18 months left to serve, and remains unaware of the mural, according to a news release.The Metropolitan Museum of Arts new show, Thomas Coles Journey: Atlantic Crossings is gorgeous, politically right for right now, and a lesson in the mutability of art history.

In the 1960s, pioneering scholarship in American art confirmed that Cole (1801-1848) was the nations first major landscape artist and progenitor of what would be called (though not by him) the Hudson River School. The fact that he was born in England and spent formative time in Europe was noted, without being particularly noticed. The focus was on his identity as a Yankee romantic, the poetic advocate and spiritual protector of a New World Eden beset by industrial encroachments, with forests being mowed down for gain and railroads slicing the land.Painters often find their styles by setting narrow limits on their work. But things usually get really interesting when they start working against their own rules. Sarah Crowner, known over the last decade for stitching together cutout shapes of plain or painted canvas to form rectilinear abstract paintings, is sticking to first principles. Yet shes messing with them so vigorously that Weeds, her fifth solo gallery show in New York, has the feeling of a breakthrough.

Ms. Crowner has complicated her compositions, strewing them with tipsy curves, ellipses and parts of circles suggestive of orange sections. Her arrangements borrow from the history of abstraction without accruing too great a debt. Matisses cutouts and Ellsworth Kellys signature curves, which were often kissing, or stacked like those in the letter B, are repeatedly folded into the flux.FAMILY FILMS: TRANSFORMATIONS at the Celeste Bartos Theater, Museum of Modern Art (March 17, noon-1 p.m.). Death and taxes arent the worlds only certainties; change is just as inevitable, and these animated shorts celebrate it. Consisting of three American projects and one dialogue-free Russian work, they focus mostly on inner transformations. In Gene Deitchs The Three Robbers, the thieves discover that stealing a childs heart is more fulfilling than grabbing gold. The title character of Pishto Goes Away, by Sonya Kendel, leaves his home in disgust, only to return in joy. The heroine of Tyler J. Kupferers The Girl and the Fox comes to see a marauding animal in a new light, while The Mantis Parable, by Josh Staub, teaches a gentle lesson in compassion. Part of a free monthly series, the films will be followed by discussions and recommendations for museum activities. Together, they make up a program that young visitors may find transformative, too.

212-708-9805, moma.org/families

FAMILY PLAY DAY at Brooklyn Historical Society, Dumbo (March 17, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.). The Brooklyn Historical Society has more than a new exhibition to celebrate; it has a whole new site, too. Children can visit both on this occasion, which heralds the opening of Waterfront, a show whose title also describes its location. Inside Empire Stores, a converted 19th-century warehouse complex in Brooklyn Bridge Park, this new museum branch and its inaugural display explore the boroughs shoreline history. Among its many activities, Waterfront invites children to build a city from magnets; dress up like the female Brooklyn Navy Yard welders from World War II; touch and smell goods from the mercantile trade; and, using technology, make brief films in which they insert themselves into historical scenes. Registration is recommended.

929-258-3699, brooklynhistory.org/dumbo

MATZAPALOOZA! REIMAGINING PASSOVER at the Museum at Eldridge Street (March 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.). Seder, the name of the traditional Passover meal, means order, but sometimes a little disorder can be just as satisfying. Presented by the museum and the Workmens Circle, a progressive Jewish organization, this annual event adds contemporary flourishes to the ancient Passover holiday. Children can make crafts, like a cup for Elijah and a tambourine for Miriam  both biblical invitees to many modern Seders  and will even meet Moses himself, portrayed by an actor. The day will include a scavenger hunt, holiday foods and social justice projects devoted to Passovers theme: freedom.

212-219-0302, circle.org

SHENANIGANS: IRISH CELEBRATION! at the Actors Temple Theater (March 17, 3:30 p.m.; March 18, 10:30 a.m.). Many New Yorkers are all too familiar with St. Patricks Day shenanigans. The deeds being honored at this theater, however, involve neither rowdy crowds nor alcohol. Written by Brian Barrentine, the creator of Funikijam World Music, an organization presenting world-music classes and programs for children, Shenanigans offers Irish songs and stories for theatergoers 10 and younger. The tunes helpfully explain not only the meaning of the shows title but also elements of Irish folklore like leprechauns, banshees and rainbows. Mr. Barrentine stars, along with his Agents of Jam and guest performers from the Aherne Sheehan School of Irish Dance.

347-913-5267, funikijam.comIt probably didnt help Grant Woods artistic development that he became an overnight sensation in October 1930, when his painting American Gothic, an ode to the Midwestern farming life, went on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, electrifying both press and public. Thats the takeaway at least from Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables at the Whitney Museum of American Art. This scattered retrospective reveals an artist who took few risks or became self-knowing enough to reach maturity, who was easily distracted from and too conservative in his painting. Greatness remained beyond his reach and some of his paintings and drawings are truly awful, steeped in pious nostalgia and American nativism.

Despite its deafening popularity, American Gothic is among Woods worst efforts. This fastidious portrayal of a wizened farmer and his deflated-looking female companion (wife or daughter?) standing before a white board and batten house with a Gothic-style, second-story window, was hailed as a truly, purely American art. It quickly placed Wood, with the painters Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry, at the forefront of the retrograde phenomenon of Regionalism.

There was some debate about whether the portraits were satirical or sincere. Wood acceded to both at different times. (They look like comedians on Hee Haw, who have finished their lines and are waiting for their laughs.) The three spinsterish, ghostlike women in his Daughters of Revolution, from 1932, were more vehemently criticized as satirical, especially by the Daughters of the American Revolution, but with an all-female cast, those claims stuck more readily.There are so many dealers in one place. In terms of the decorative arts, theres nothing comparable, said Gloria Groom, chairwoman of European painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. She said she was one of six members of the museums staff visiting the fair, which this year featured 275 exhibitors.

Image A wax model of a statue by Bartolomeo Ammannati was snapped up for the Rijksmuseum by a keen-eyed curator. Credit... Todd White

Such is the quantity and quality of the pieces on show in Maastricht that curators  and, equally important, groups of private patrons  from institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles make the pilgrimage from the United States every year.

But this year, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam beat the Americans to a star museum piece. The London dealer Benjamin Proust was offering on consignment the original wax model for The Genius of the Medici, a bronze fountain sculpture now in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy. Dating from the 1550s, the statue, showing a young boy seated on a pedestal and raising an orb, was identified as a work by the Florentine sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati. The wax model, owned by a private European collector, was included in an exhibition on Ammannati at the Bargello museum in Florence in 2011.

Frits Scholten, senior curator of sculpture at the Rijksmuseum, spotted the sculpture. He was given first refusal at a museum discount price of 700,000 euros, or about $866,000, and fast-tracked the Dutch institutions purchase, according to Mr. Proust.

Mr. Proust said he had deliberately avoided marketing his star piece before the fair opened. Everyone should be surprised, he said. If I send out stuff before the fair, why should they come?Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.

Blood in the Water

Samantha Bee reveled in the Democratic candidate Conor Lambs upset victory in a special House election in Pennsylvania. Bee said that she hopes the Democratic leadership will take the win to heart and run candidates in other red districts next year.PARIS  French and British theater-makers may be just a hop across the English Channel from each other, but in some ways, they live in different worlds. France has long leaned toward the kind of director-led, concept-driven stage fare that many in Britain, raised on the importance of text and naturalistic acting, find vexing.

Yet a few British directors have made the jump to Paris and gained a following there, most prominent among them Peter Brook and Declan Donnellan. Both debuted new productions in the French capital this month ahead of international tours; both have found ways to bridge the cultural gap, with work that combines storytelling and a strong directorial voice.

Mr. Brook returned to a theater he has long been associated with, the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord, to present The Prisoner, a philosophical tale about punishment and redemption. While the 92-year-old director is beloved in Britain, where he started his career in the 1940s, he has now resided in France for nearly 50 years.

In 1974, he discovered the Bouffes du Nord, a dilapidated 19th-century music hall in a less-than-upscale area, which had been closed as a safety measure in 1952. Mr. Brook oversaw its renovation with his theater company, the International Centre for Theatre Research. They preserved its threadbare charm, and while Mr. Brook handed over the reins of his artistic home to Olivier Mantei and Olivier Poubelle in 2008, he has continued to show new work there.Soon after he turned 13, the art dealer Sean Kelly picked up a copy of James Joyces Ulysses and was struck  among other things  by sharing a birthday with the day the book is set: Bloomsday, June 16.

It was a book that was very resonant for me, the British-born Mr. Kelly said in a telephone interview. Ive read it many times since.

So began Mr. Kellys love affair with Joyce, one he has shared with his wife, Mary Kelly, for more than 25 years, during which they have amassed one of the foremost private collections of works by the Irish author. Now, they are donating it all to the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.The House passed its own measure to overhaul Dodd-Frank last year, but it was declared dead on arrival in the Senate. Mr. Hensarling, who is retiring next year, said components of that bill must be incorporated in a final package. He cited measures that would make it easier for start-ups to give presentations about their businesses without violating Securities and Exchange Commission rules and that would expand the types of investors who could participate in private corporate fund-raising.

Mr. Hensarling said he expected to gather Republicans and Democrats from both chambers to chart a path forward. He said Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, had promised not to hold a vote on the Senate bill in its current form.

While the banking world welcomed the passage of the Senate bill, they hope the House will take the legislation further in the industrys direction.

The challenge is that if House Republicans insist on a much more aggressive regulatory rollback, it probably wont be acceptable to moderate Democrats in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed for passage.

Analysts at the financial services firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods gave the banking bill an 80 percent chance of being passed eventually, although House Republicans could still scuttle it if they overreach.

It would be the greatest irony if House Republicans wind up killing the bill and doing what Senator Elizabeth Warren could not, the analysts wrote in a note to clients.

Ms. Warren, an opponent of loosening bank rules, has publicly criticized her Democratic colleagues who supported the Senate legislation. Liberal interest groups, such as the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, are planning to unveil online advertisements in the coming days accusing senators who supported the legislation of voting with Wall Street and against working families.PARIS  Europe is pushing for more stringent vetting of foreign investments, with an eye on Beijing. Australia has been blocking bids by Chinese buyers for strategic assets. And in Canada, a Chinese takeover of a major contractor faces a national security test.

As China looks to spread its wealth and influence, the United States is not the only country seeking to shield its industries under the guise of national security. Governments around the world, and especially in Europe, are increasingly inclined to use such concerns as a litmus test for Chinese investments to protect their competitive edge.

Its a mixture of political posturing, national pride and outright paranoia. But China presents a difficult policy puzzle. Countries must balance safeguarding their strategic industries and preventing the loss of sensitive technologies, while still courting Chinese investors and improving trade with Beijing.

Theres a general impression that China is rising on all fronts, and the question is how to deal with that, said Philippe Le Corre, a China specialist and senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Most countries dont know how to react.Some of Mr. Kudlows economic predictions that did not bear out.

Mr. Kudlow has prognosticated on many economic and political issues, often in a way that mirrors his future boss. His predictions, which will soon carry new weight as the presidents top economic adviser, have not always been on the mark.

Our colleagues Deborah Solomon and Kitty Bennett take a look at some of Mr. Kudlows not-so-on-the-money calls. Here are a few of the ones they found:

In 2005

All the bond bears have been dead wrong in predicting sky-high mortgage rates. So have all the bubbleheads who expect housing-price crashes in Las Vegas or Naples, Fla., to bring down the consumer, the rest of the economy and the entire stock market.

(Well, we all know what happened. By 2008, home prices were in a free-fall, threatening to plunge the financial system and the economy into the abyss.)

In 1993

Theres no question that President Clintons across-the-board tax increases on labor, capital and energy will throw a wet blanket over the recovery and depress the economys long-run potential to grow.

(The period between 1990 and 1999 was the longest bull market in history. The S&P 500 more than tripled during that time.)

In 2015

Given the recent rise of presidential candidate Donald Trump, we should all be thankful that stocks havent plunged. Trumps agenda of trade protectionism, dollar devaluation, and immigrant deportation is completely anti-growth. Its like Fortress America in an economy that is completely globalized and where the U.S. must compete in the worldwide race for capital and labor. Trumps policies dont fit.

(President Trump was elected and the stock market has only climbed. )

The politics flyaround

 How Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone became a close adviser to President Trump on China  but lost the tariff battle. (WaPo)

 After Rex Tillersons firing, Washington is wondering if H.R. McMaster, John Kelly or Jeff Sessions might go next. And allies are hoping that the cabinet reshuffle will clarify American foreign policy.

 Moving from the C suite to Washington is tougher than it looks. (WSJ)

 The Democrat Conor Lamb narrowly won a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania, an area that Mr. Trump carried handily in 2016. (NYT)

 The administration is considering Randy Quarles, the Feds vice chairman for supervision, as the next head of the Financial Stability Board, unnamed sources say. (FT)Unilever employs about 7,300 people in Britain and 3,100 in the Netherlands; none are expected to be affected by the structural change. The company also said it would continue to spend 1 billion pounds, or about $1.4 billion, a year in Britain, including on research and development.

Despite the companys insistence that it would keep its presence in the British capital, Rajesh Agrawal, the London deputy mayor for business, said the decision was clearly disappointing news for the city.

It brings into sharp focus the need for the government to secure a Brexit deal that secures London as Europes leading business center, Mr. Agrawal added.

Unilevers two headquarters mirrored its legal structure, in which the company maintained separate stock listings and corporate entities in both countries after its formation by the combination of the British soap maker Lever Brothers and the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie in 1930.

Each of the two operating companies technically has its own board, but the boards are made up of the same directors and senior management.

While unusual, the structure has been used by some of the largest companies with ties to both Britain and the Netherlands. The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell maintained a similar system until 2005, and RELX Group, the business information company that owns LexisNexis Legal and was formerly known as Reed Elsevier, dropped its dual structure this year.

As consumers have shied away from traditional brands in favor of products from smaller companies with more natural and organic ingredients, Unilever has tried to keep pace by buying companies like Schmidts Naturals, Sundial Brands and Dollar Shave Club in recent years.Home prices in 20 metropolitan areas across the country dropped at a record rate of 18 percent in October 2008 from a year earlier as the fallout from the financial collapse reverberated through the housing market. The housing market has still not recovered completely or evenly and prices in many cities are still below their pre-recession peak.

Housing bubble aftermath

Whats even more incredible is Team Obamas stubborn refusal to have any faith in the free market. In some of the hardest hit areas of the country, markets are already solving the housing problem. If the government really wants to help, instead of bailing out irresponsible mortgage holders, it should support new and younger families who want to buy starter homes and begin to climb the ladder of prosperity. All this is free-market economics 101. And I say, let free-markets work.  February, 2009

Analysis: The Obama administrations plan to help homeowners included a litany of programs, including reducing the debt that distressed borrowers owed. The success of these programs was mixed but recent studies show that they did, in fact, help millions of people stay in their homes.

Mr. Kudlows claim that the markets were already solving the housing problem was not accurate, given that the housing market still has not recovered in many areas, including those hardest hit.

In 2009, banks were  and in many cases remain  incredibly reluctant to make loans to all but the highest-quality borrowers. That does not generally include new and younger families, who have little credit history and are considered riskier than those with a track record of on-time payments. Without the government assisting borrowers who were in danger of foreclosure, the economic fallout from the crisis would have been even deeper, more severe and longer-lasting.

Before the Great Recession

At home in the U.S., there are still housing-slump worries and concerns about an inventory correction in autos and factories. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan this week even predicted a recession, naming the budget deficit as the cause. Huh? The deficit is evaporating as record tax revenues are being generated by a solid economy, itself a function of the low marginal tax rates put in place by President Bush.  March, 2007

Analysis: That solid economy was not so solid after all and Mr. Greenspans prediction of a recession came true. By December 2007, the United States was officially in the Great Recession. The budget deficit did not evaporate but ballooned and continues to grow today, with the nation approaching a $1 trillion annual deficit.A car wends its way through a line of taxis in the Las Vegas rain, carefully steering around a tangle of sedans vying for passengers. As the black Lincoln MKZ gets closer, the steering wheel saws back and forth, but theres no one in the front seat. In fact, theres no one in the car at all.

Its disquieting to be picked up by an empty car, and its something of a milestone: Inside most autonomous research vehicles cruising public streets, theres a minder to keep a watchful eye and take control should things go awry. But with the MKZ, there was no human custodian. At least not one within view.

Hundreds of miles away, Ben Shukman, a software engineer for Phantom Auto, was sitting in front of a phalanx of video screens in Mountain View, Calif. Using a live, two-way video connection along with the kind of steering wheel and pedals usually reserved for video games, he was driving the MKZ.

While major technology and car companies are teaching cars to drive themselves, Phantom Auto is working on remote control systems, often referred to as teleoperation, that many see as a necessary safety feature for the autonomous cars of the future. And that future is closer than you might think: California will allow companies to test autonomous vehicles without a safety driver  as long as the car can be operated remotely  starting next month.If Qualcomm and Apple can just bury the hatchet, Mr. Dodson reasons, Qualcomms revenues would soar, and its stock price would climb well past Broadcoms offering price of $79 a share. By Mr. Dodsons reckoning, once Apple resumes paying Qualcomm, the chip maker will be worth at least $84 a share, which is why Broadcoms offer didnt really engage my attention, he said.

That, however, is a big if, given the intractable positions both sides have staked out.

At the heart of the dispute is the way Qualcomm calculates the licensing fee it charges customers, which is a percentage of the cost of the net selling price of the entire handset  and not the price of the chip. That means that Apple, a high-cost producer whose iPhone X sells for as much as $1,000, has paid much higher licensing fees than low-cost competitors using exactly the same chip set.

Apple has called the arrangement an extortion scheme. It infuriates Apple that Qualcomm has, in effect, been subsidizing its low-cost competitors, including the very Chinese companies that Mr. Trump says he is so concerned about.

Qualcomm has countered that its intellectual property makes many of the iPhones distinctive features possible, features that low-cost competitors havent replicated, and therefore Qualcomm deserves a percentage of the cost of the entire device.

Mr. Dodson made little immediate headway when he met with a delegation of top Qualcomm officials late last month and pressed his case for a settlement with Apple. The officials, including the chief executive, Steve Mollenkopf, and Paul Jacobs, a Qualcomm founder and, until recently, executive chairman, visited Mr. Dodson in San Francisco to make their case against the Broadcom bid.

In Mr. Dodsons account of the meeting, he urged the Qualcomm executives to settle with Apple rather than risk alienating it as a customer over the long term. But Qualcomm officials said that Apple was demanding more than they were prepared to give and that, on an engineering level, relations with Apple remained good. They assured him that eventually they would reach a settlement, revenues would normalize and Qualcomm stock would respond.MELBOURNE, Australia  Perhaps it is the hunter-gatherer locked deep in our DNA that makes the discovery of hidden things so very gratifying. That instinct to search for buried treasure makes Melbourne an especially fun place to live and eat  the citys charming laneways are famous for hiding all manner of culinary riches.

One such laneway, McIlwraith Place, had its potential for charm thwarted in 1964 when a concrete parking garage was built right on top of it. Technically, the lane is still traversable; you just have to drive or walk through the parking deck. But, unlike Melbournes other laneways, it is not the type of place youd expect to find something delicious to eat. Which is part of what makes Soi 38 so delightful.

Nestled in the middle of the ground floor of the parking garage, right next to the elevators, Soi 38 is a colorful nook of a restaurant, serving bowls of Thai noodles for $10 a pop at lunchtime only, six days a week.

If you ask anyone abut Thai food in Australia, the conversation will probably focus on Sydney, which has a larger Thai population and a thriving Thai restaurant scene. Melbourne has plenty of Thai restaurants, but theyre less likely to be regionally specific and more likely to cater to Western palates. It was this lack of specificity in Melbourne that helped create Soi 38.Did you take part in the national school walkouts to protest gun violence on March 14?

If so, why did you decide to join, and what was the experience like? If not, why did you decide to opt out?

Have you ever taken part in any other kind of political activism? Do you think that in general it is good for teenagers to participate this way? Why or why not?

In National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across the U.S., Alan Blinder and Julie Turkewitz write:

Thousands of students, emboldened by a growing protest movement over gun violence, stood up in their classrooms on Wednesday and walked out of their schools in a nationwide demonstration, one month after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida. The 17-minute protests unfolding at hundreds of schools are intended to pressure Congress to approve gun control legislation after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and come 10 days before major protests in Washington and elsewhere.  The demonstrations unfolded in different ways from city to city and school to school. In some places, demonstrators chanted and held signs. At other schools, students stood in silence. In Atlanta, some students took a knee. Thousands of students around New York, many backed by permission slips from their parents, walked out of their schools and converged on central locations  Columbus Circle, Battery Park, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Lincoln Center.  In Washington, thousands left their classrooms in the city and its suburbs and marched to the Capitol steps, their high-pitched voices battling against the stiff wind: Hey-hey, ho-ho, the N.R.A. has got to go! One sign said: Fix This, Before I Text My Mom from Under A Desk.

Another article published on the same day, this one from the Well section, explains Why Demonstrating Is Good for Kids. In it, Lisa Damour writes:

Participating in political activism may be good for our teenagers, according to a new research report. The study, published in January in the journal Child Development, found that late adolescents and young adults who voted, volunteered or engaged in activism ultimately went further in school and had higher incomes than those who did not mobilize for political or social change. By tracking nearly 10,000 young people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial and economic backgrounds, researchers from Wake Forest School of Medicine, Fordham University and the University of Massachusetts measured the long-term implications of youth political and social engagement. Remarkably, they found that civic activity linked to better academic and financial outcomes regardless of early school performance and parental education levels, two factors that usually drive later success. Of course, correlation does not prove causation, but the study makes a case for the benefits of civic engagement. In light of the findings, Parissa Ballard, the studys lead author and an assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, said that having meaningful opportunities to volunteer or be involved in activism may change how young people think about themselves or their possibilities for the future.

Students: Read both articles, then tell us 

 What is your reaction to the national school walkouts to protest gun violence? What comes to mind as you read about and see photos and videos from students protesting around the country?

 What is your opinion of the message that students were trying to send with these walkouts? Do you think this protest will be effective in addressing the issue of gun violence in the United States?

 How do you think teachers and administrators should respond to student protests, whether over this issue or any other? Do you think times like this, when large numbers of young people are reacting to an issue in the news, should be treated in school as teachable moments? If so, how?

 In general, how do you feel about teenagers participating in political activism? Do you agree with the article above that says it may be good for you? Why or why not?

 What have your own experiences with political activism, however you define it, been like? If you are not politically active, how do you feel about articles like these that exhort you to vote, volunteer or take other kinds of actions? Why?

Related: Our lesson plan, The Power to Change the World: A Teaching Unit on Student Activism in History and Today



What did you know about him already? What was new information, and what more do you want to know?

Now, read the first 23 short paragraphs of the obituary, Stephen Hawking Dies at 76; His Mind Roamed the Cosmos. Stop reading when you reach the paragraph that begins: Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on Jan. 8, 1942  300 years to the day, he liked to point out, after the death of Galileo, who had begun the study of gravity.



Then, answer the following questions:

1. What details does the first paragraph give about Dr. Hawking, and why was he considered an emblem of human determination and curiosity?Meryl Meisler arrived in New York in 1975, when she was on the cusp of turning 24 and the city was on the brink of bankruptcy. Times Square had yet to be tamed, streets were dirty and all the federal government could do when asked for help was to tell the city  in the memorable formation of The New York Daily News  Drop dead.

Ms. Meisler loved it.

I felt like I belonged, she said. I wasnt sure what I wanted to do, even though I had a teaching degree. Maybe because the city itself was out of joint. I had just come out as a lesbian, but I felt like I belonged here. I felt safe.Our guide to film series and special screenings happening this weekend and in the week ahead. Plus, a Times Talks event. All our movie reviews are at nytimes.com/reviews/movies.

MICHEL PICCOLI at Film Forum (March 16-22). Its a tad cute to ascribe symmetry to the career of the French star Michel Piccoli, but one can draw a line from his work in Contempt (on Saturday)  the 1964 Jean-Luc Godard masterpiece in which he plays a screenwriter whose marriage disintegrates during a production of The Odyssey  to Im Going Home (on Thursday), Manoel de Oliveiras 2002 portrait of a grieving theater actor near the end of his life, vexed after being abruptly cast in a film production of James Joyces Ulysses. Film Forums retrospective goes heavy on marquee directors: It features Mr. Piccolis collaborations with Luis Bunuel (Diary of a Chambermaid, showing on Tuesday), Jacques Demy (Une Chambre en Ville, on Sunday, and The Young Girls of Rochefort, on Sunday and Tuesday) and Marco Ferreri (Dillinger Is Dead, on Wednesday and March 23, and La Grande Bouffe, from Saturday to Monday and on Thursday), plus another chance to catch the recent revival of Jacques Rivettes great La Belle Noiseuse (on Monday).

212-727-8110, filmforum.orgThe films writer and director, Amber Sealey, hews close to Lexi, but the camera rarely takes up Lexis perspective, preferring to observe her behavior rather than trying to see through her eyes. A result of this visual flatness is that some sequences drag with cliches, as the camera dithers on hackneyed images like Lexi flushing her wedding ring down the motel sink.

But in the scenes that break with banality, there is a zing not only of originality, but of daring. The films most memorable sequence is a sex scene in which Lexi acts out a prostitution fantasy, inviting a man to her room only to be shocked when her conquest brings a friend without asking for her permission. As Lexi maneuvers the two men, seeking ways to regain the control that was taken from her, Ms. Sealey navigates power through nudity, physically and psychologically exposing her male subjects while allowing her female protagonist to remain an enigma. In a film of mostly mixed merits, such mysterious highs sustain the mundane lows.The trips, she said, are chances to teach and to learn from others, yet always with a broader political goal shaped by national politics: to push the national agenda so that we cannot lose ground, which I feel like were doing every day.

Ms. McCray wears many hats, but she has only one formal city job: chairwoman of the Mayors Fund to Advance New York City, a government-controlled nonprofit that raises money to support city programs. Her other jobs, described by City Hall as informal or advisory, include leading the ThriveNYC effort, acting as a chairwoman of both the Commission on Gender Equity and the NYC Domestic Violence Task Force, heading up the Gracie Mansion Conservancy and acting as a member of the NYC Childrens Cabinet.

Ms. McCray resisted the characterization of her multiple roles as informal, although she is not paid for any of them. Im highly scheduled, she said. I work hard.

That is also a notion that her husband has pressed recently, insisting that Ms. McCray should be paid for her work, and bristling at the anti-nepotism laws and rules that prevent her from drawing a salary or holding an official position with the city.

Ask the people who wrote the laws; I dont understand it, Mr. de Blasio said. She works full time. It makes no sense to me. But thats the reality.City workers assigned to help homeless students are desperately overwhelmed, leaving many of those children, among the most vulnerable in the public school system, to miss enormous amounts of school and fall far behind their classmates, two reports say.

Mayor Bill de Blasios administration has been scrambling for years to stanch the cascade of families falling into homelessness, a wave that has become a crisis for the city, his administration and, most of all, the tens of thousands of people with no place to live. The two reports, scheduled to be released on Thursday, highlight how far the city has to go in addressing their needs.

One is an audit by Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, which examines how the education department deals with the most basic building block of a childs education: making sure they come to school in the first place.

I do a lot of audits, but this one cuts at the heart, Mr. Stringer said. In violation of the Department of Educations regulations, I can say theyre doing almost nothing to follow up with the parents when homeless students are absent. Days go by, students are absent, and theres no word from D.O.E.It is one of the maddening paradoxes of New York Citys recent political history that Mayor Bill de Blasio came to power with a righteous rage to ban horse-carriages in Central Park (a prohibition he ultimately failed to enact), but he has shown no fury  or any real sign of displeasure  over a much more dangerous and environmentally damaging means of vehicular tourism, sightseeing by helicopter.

The risks of the practice were clarified again on Sunday, when a chartered helicopter crashed into the East River, killing all five passengers onboard. To facilitate in-flight photography, the helicopter doors were removed, and the four men and one woman on board were strapped so tightly into their seats that they were given knives to extricate themselves in the event of an accident. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration finally put a stop to open-door helicopter flights. That they had been allowing passengers access to sharp objects in aircraft flying around the perimeter of major cities, when mothers of toddlers are still removing their Uggs at the airport, remains its own enduring mystery.

It has been decades now since advocates for a quieter and less polluted city have railed against the helicopter industry, which came into tragic disfavor most dramatically in 1977, when a rotor blade broke off a helicopter that had been ferrying people to Kennedy Airport from the roof of the Pan Am building in Manhattan, killing five people, one of them a woman walking down Madison Avenue. After a crash in the East River in 2011, various politicians and members of City Council called for a ban on tourist helicopters, pointing out that since 1983 there had been 28 crashes in New York with at least 19 fatalities. The ban never materialized. Instead, two years ago, the city moved to reduce the number of tourist helicopter flights around Manhattan by half  to 30,000 per year.

Thats more than 80 flights every day  an astonishingly high number given that the mayor has mythologized himself as a national leader in climate change. Earlier this year, he announced that city pension funds would divest from companies profiting from the fossil-fuel business and that the city would sue five oil companies for reparations, essentially, connected to the damage fossil-fuels have inflicted on the citys ecosystem. It is as if a class-action suit were filed against Shake Shack for causing obesity while the plaintiffs were quietly deep frying slices of apple pie every morning at home for breakfast. The Airbus AS350, one of the most popular tourist helicopters  it was the model involved in Sundays crash  produces 43 times the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per hour than the average car.Joaquin Avila, a lawyer and civil rights advocate who helped level barriers that kept Hispanic-Americans from voting, getting jobs and going to school, died on March 9 at his home in Shoreline, Wash., near Seattle. He was 69.

The cause was complications of colon and liver cancer, his son Joaquin said.

Mr. Avila, a Yale- and Harvard-educated son of Mexican immigrants, was president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in the mid-1980s and later director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law, where he was an assistant professor.

Both groups counseled victims of discrimination and filed litigation to defend their civil rights.

He also helped frame amendments that in 1982 fortified the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act, and he drafted a vanguard 2001 California law that provided even greater protection against discrimination at the polls.

Mr. Avila litigated dozens of cases  twice before the United States Supreme Court  that challenged city councils, school and judicial districts, and other local jurisdictions that had tried to dilute the votes of racial and ethnic minorities by annexing white suburbs or electing their members at large instead of by district.Serving in that watchdog role from 2005 to 2017 at PBS, Mr. Getler understood firsthand the pressures journalists face. When he was a reporter for The Post, his coverage of the Vietnam War and its impact  at a time when the Nixon administration was illegally spying on suspected dissidents in the United States  prompted the Central Intelligence Agency to tap his telephone in 1971, according to government documents.

Mr. Getler was also the Post editor who in 1995 received a 56-page single-spaced typed manifesto from the man, known as the Unabomber, who was responsible for a string of bombings. It arrived on the same day that The New York Times received a copy. The author of the document, titled Industrial Society and Its Future, vowed to refrain from further violence if the newspapers published it. They did, and nearly seven months later Theodore J. Kaczynski was arrested and identified as the bomber.

As an ombudsman, Mr. Getler could be critical of his colleagues. He repeatedly complained that reporters and editors had failed to fully explore and challenge the governments rationale for going to war against Iraq in 2003.

Almost everything we were told before the war, other than that Saddam Hussein is bad, has turned out, so far, not to be the case, he wrote in The Post in 2004.

The next year he wrote, I cannot think of a story in the past 40 years that offers more warning signs for journalism and for the role of the press in our democracy.To the Editor:

Re Britain Expels 23 Russians. Thats the Easy Part (front page, March 15):

The rapid endorsement by its European and North American allies of Britains assessment and retaliatory actions in relation to the Salisbury nerve agent attack is to be welcomed. However, we have yet to see exactly what actions will be taken by France, Germany, the United States and Canada in response to the attack.

A number of key European Union countries are dependent on Russian gas and may be reluctant to provoke Vladimir Putin beyond words.

Many are warning that Britains actions alone, or even in concert with others, will have no impact on Mr. Putins international misbehavior and will only serve to increase tensions and build his domestic support.

Then there are others, myself included, who ask, What if we had done nothing? Wed effectively be saying to a bully, Come on in and use the U.K. as your playground  well turn a blind eye. Game over.This video Op-Ed is by Wuilly Arteaga, 24, now famous for playing his violin in the middle of Venezuelas deadly protests last year against President Nicolas Maduro. Once homeless, Mr. Arteaga taught himself to play the violin by watching videos online and later joined Venezuelas renowned music education program, El Sistema.

After being jailed and tortured for his role in the protests, he left the country and found safety in New York City. He is part of the exodus that has created one of the biggest migration crises in Latin American history. According to the United Nations, the number of Venezuelan nationals seeking asylum worldwide has increased by 2,000 percent since 2014. As the crisis deepens, Mr. Arteaga implores the world to help.  By the EditorsAfter a weeklong blackout, the Sri Lankan government lifted its nationwide ban on social media on Thursday. Facebook and several other platforms had been shut down after days of violence targeting Muslims in the Kandy district, a popular destination for tourists and pilgrims. The violence began after a Sinhalese Buddhist truck driver was killed in a road-rage incident. Buddhist chauvinist groups flocked to the area, and their visits were followed by looting, arson, and attacks on mosques and on businesses operated by Muslims.

Anti-Muslim propaganda is pervasive in all types of media in Sinhala, the language of Sri Lankas majority Buddhist population. But some pieces of disinformation  like false accounts of Buddhist monks being attacked  spread on social media and were perceived as especially dangerous. So the Sri Lankan government imposed the ban on Facebook, WhatsApp and several other services as a temporary security measure.

It remained in effect until Facebook officials traveled to Sri Lanka to make a personal plea to lift it. The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, agreed to end the ban, saying Facebook pledged to work with the government to prevent hate speech and misuse of the platform. Critics immediately pointed out that the company has not offered any specific measures to fix Facebook.

The government is claiming a victory, but blanket social media bans are not a solution to the problem of hate speech. They set a bad precedent for freedom of expression and undermine efforts to spread messages of reconciliation.If Mark Zuckerberg and a janitor who works at Facebooks headquarters each received a speeding ticket while driving home from work, theyd each owe the government the same amount of money. Mr. Zuckerberg wouldnt bat an eye.

The janitor is another story.

For people living on the economic margins, even minor offenses can impose crushing financial obligations, trapping them in a cycle of debt and incarceration for nonpayment. In Ferguson, Mo., for example, a single $151 parking violation sent a black woman struggling with homelessness into a seven-year odyssey of court appearances, arrest warrants and jail time connected to her inability to pay.

Across America, one-size-fits-all fines are the norm, which I demonstrate in an article for the University of Chicago Law Review. Where judges do have wiggle room to choose the size of a fine, mandatory minimums and maximums often tie their hands. Some states even prohibit consideration of a persons income. And when courts are allowed to take finances into account, they frequently fail to do so.

Other places have saner methods. Finland and Argentina, for example, have tailored fines to income for almost 100 years. The most common model, the day fine, scales sanctions to a persons daily wage. A small offense like littering might cost a fraction of a days pay. A serious crime might swallow a months paycheck. Everyone pays the same proportion of their income.To the Editor:

Re Thousands Walk Out of Class, Urging Action on Gun Control (front page, March 15):

I am filled with hope. I cheer you, our children, as you shame us into addressing the increasing gun violence that is taking your lives. Stay strong.

In 1980 one mother got MADD. She could make sense of the death of her child only by fighting to stop drunken driving. In a few years it became unacceptable to drive drunk.

Your voices will make a difference. Students from one school, then from one state and on Wednesday from across the country stood up and demanded action. Your voices, and soon your votes, will give members of Congress the support they need to act for the benefit of their constituents rather than for the benefit of their gun lobby donors.

You, the youth of America, are fighting for your lives. Fight now with your voices and soon with your votes, in every election, local and national. We, your hapless elders, can only stand in awe and support you as you achieve what we cannot.To that end, Mr. Faas searched out the best freelance photographers, like Catherine Leroy, to supplement the output of A.P. staff photographers. He would hand out cameras to both local and foreign stringers, who became soldiers in Faass Army. David Burnett, a young American photographer who arrived toward the end of the war, noted that Mr. Faas would often buy pictures from young freelancers, even when he didnt need them, knowing that it would permit someone to keep working and, more important, if they scored a major photographic coup, The A.P. would be the first place they would come.

Mr. Faas had a tough job: He both managed the bureaus photographers and worked as a photographer himself. Among his charges were the battle-hardened Eddie Adams, who had been a Marine photographer during the Korean War, and Nick Ut, who was hired by Mr. Faas in 1966, aged 16, the year after his brother, Huynh Thanh My, who was also an A.P. photographer, was killed in action.

Mr. Ut, who was one of 11 siblings, started in the bureau as a darkroom assistant. He was not only our boss, he said of Mr. Faas, he was also our friend and protector. Mr. Faas never played favorites, and gave Mr. Ut the same chances he gave to foreign photographers: Once Horst saw that I had talent, he said he could not stop me from being a photographer and he sent me out to cover the war.

Image Nick Ut working in the darkroom of The A.P. bureau in Saigon in 1966. Credit... Associated Press

That faith was rewarded in June 1972 as a huge battle was unfolding west of Saigon, near the village of Trang Bang. Mr. Faas, who was back in Vietnam at the time, and Mr. Arnett had planned to team with Mr. Ut, but Mr. Faas was experiencing severe pain from his wounds during the night and decided not to go, and Mr. Arnett decided to stay in Saigon as well. So Mr. Ut went alone.

Several hours later, Mr. Faas and Mr. Arnett were having lunch when they were urgently summoned to the bureau to look at the eight rolls of Tri-X film that Mr. Ut had shot. Among them was an image of a naked 9-year-old girl, Kim Phuc, screaming in pain from napalm burns. The editor on duty that day had thought it was too explicit to send out on the wires But Mr. Faas decided otherwise.This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday.

Almost everyone who lives or works in a big city knows the feeling: Youre sitting inside a quiet subway car when the doors open and a throng of children  often on a class trip  boards the train. Your quiet car is suddenly loud and packed with people jostling for space. Sometimes, its worth moving to another car.

On my morning commute yesterday, one of these throngs entered my subway car, but this time I didnt mind at all. The teenagers  a mix of black, white, Latino and Asian  were in a buoyant mood. Many were carrying signs. They were headed to a gun protest outside the White House.

At times yesterday, the protesting students seemed to be everywhere  on social media, on television, in communities. And they offered a needed jolt of inspiration in a dark political time. David Axelrod, the political strategist, has said that todays central political battle is cynicism versus idealism, and its clear which side the students are on.Theres no mystery about the Republican agenda. For at least the past 40 years, the G.O.P.s central policy goal has been upward redistribution of income: lower taxes for the wealthy, big cuts in programs that help the poor and the middle class. Weve seen that agenda at work in the policies of every Republican president from Reagan to Trump, every budget proposal from party stars like Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House.

This policy agenda is, however, deeply unpopular. Only small minorities of voters favor tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations; even smaller minorities favor cuts in major social programs. So how does the G.O.P. stay politically competitive? The answer is that the party has mastered the tactics of bait and switch: pretending to stand for one thing, then doing something quite different in office.

But if special elections in the Trump era are any indication, voters are wising up. Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate in a deep-red Pennsylvania congressional district that Trump won by almost 20 points, tried not one, not two, but three different bait-and-switch strategies. And on Tuesday he still seems to have suffered a hair-thin defeat.

At first, Republicans tried to sell their candidate by touting the 2017 tax cuts, which they portrayed as a boon to the middle class. This was classic Bush-era strategy: The Trump tax cuts, like the Bush tax cuts, did indeed offer some temporary relief to middle-class families, although they offered far more to the wealthy.That requires a constitutional judgment. Answering strictly legal questions in a potential trial does not resolve the issue of the presidents accountability under the Constitution. Congresss inquiry can and should be informed by an unfettered special counsel investigation, but it cannot depend on it.

Furthermore, narrowing impeachable offenses to include only violations of law may lead to a constitutional dead end. In opinions issued in 1973 and 2000, the Department of Justices Office of Legal Counsel has taken the position that a sitting president cannot be indicted while in office. If Mr. Mueller concludes that the president engaged in criminal conduct but follows O.L.C. opinions in declining to indict him, the presidents legal responsibility will not be adjudicated as long as he occupies the White House. On what basis would Congress then proceed to oust him from office under the legalistic conception of the impeachment power?

Many people assume that the special counsel will report to Congress on the evidence against the president. But the special counsel regulations, unlike the now defunct independent counsel statute, do not clearly mandate or authorize any such report from either the counsel or the deputy attorney general. Congress may be more likely to learn about Mr. Muellers work from publicly filed indictments and plea agreements.

And Congress cannot rely on the Mueller record alone. Even if Congress made impeachment a legal rather than political process, a president will be quick to argue that he is entitled to a fair adjudication of any criminal charge.

Moreover, the timetables for the two processes are not the same. Congress cannot responsibly defer its task for as long as it may take for lawyers to clash and courts to rule.

A Congress that was serious about meeting its responsibility would neither shirk nor rush a judgment about a presidents impeachable offenses. The House would structure an investigative and deliberative process that it would explain in clear terms to the public. As in 1974 in the Nixon impeachment process, the House Judiciary Committee would review and publish the best constitutional learning on what presidential misconduct rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. It would proceed in the same spirit as its predecessor did when the 1974 committee said that what is said here does not reflect any prejudgment of the allegations but is intended to be a review of the precedents and available interpretive materials, seeking general principles to guide the committee. The Committee would then move to the investigative phase.Jones and Sun contend that in many respects, Trump is reminiscent of Richard M. Nixon:

Nixon, like Trump, accused the media of being out to get him and predicted that the press would mischaracterize his public support or the reception he received. He believed the liberal media to be biased against him personally, maintaining that he had entered the presidency with less support from the major publications and TV networks than any president in history and that their whole objective in life is to bring us down.

Unlike Trump, however, Nixon (like the countrys founders)

routinely reaffirmed to both the press and the public that he conceived of the press as central to democracy. Indeed, in his first speech to the public regarding the Watergate scandal, Nixon acknowledged that the system that brought the facts to light and that will bring those guilty to justice was a system that included a vigorous free press.

Trump stands out, according to Jones and Sun, in that his administration

has passed a threshold not approached by previous administrations in their tensions with the media. Trump is signaling  through his terminology, through his delegitimizing actions, and through his anticipatory undercutting  that the press is literally the enemy, to be distrusted, ignored, and excluded.

In response to my email, Jones replied that war has been declared, whether they (the media) like it or not. She noted that the instincts of the press

motivate it to want to call out the changing norms that it sees around it, and to defend the role of important democratic institutions when they are attacked. But when the press is itself one of those institutions, it finds itself a part of the story in ways that it is unaccustomed to being, and it has to weigh the potential loss of credibility that might come with an aggressive self-defense.

I asked Jonathan Ladd, a professor of public policy and government at Georgetown, what strategies he thought the media should adopt to counter negative portrayals by conservatives.

The best way for the press to react to Trumps undemocratic behavior is to continue trying to do their jobs the best they can, Ladd wrote. The press is not perfect, but Trumps bad behavior doesnt change what they need to do.

Ladd specifically warned against reacting to Trump by becoming more crusadingly anti-Trump.

Trump has successfully put the mainstream media in a difficult position, according to Geoffrey Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago:

If the media directly address the accusations of fake news, they ironically run the risk of dignifying the accusations. But if they ignore the accusations, they miss the opportunity to prove their professionalism to those who have grown skeptical.

In the long term, Stone suggested, we could begin to remedy this problem if we improved civic education and encouraged a stronger defense of the media by politicians, especially Republicans  a prospect about which he is not optimistic.

Of the media itself, however, Stone wrote:

I dont know that theres really much they can do to defend themselves. Those who trust them will continue to trust them. Those who distrust them are unlikely to be brought around by anything they themselves are likely to say.

Trumps disdain for the First Amendment is an integral part of a much longer series of developments in which both parties have demonstrated a willingness to defy democratic norms, although the Republican Party has been in the forefront.

In Asymmetric Constitutional Hardball, Joseph Fishkin and David E. Pozen, law professors at the University of Texas and Columbia, write:

For a quarter of a century, Republican officials have been more willing than Democratic officials to play constitutional hardball  not only or primarily on judicial nominations but across a range of spheres. Democrats have also availed themselves of hardball throughout this period, but not with the same frequency or intensity.

Fishkin and Pozen cite the work of Mark Tushnet, a professor at Harvard Law School, to define constitutional hardball as political claims and practices

that are without much question within the bounds of existing constitutional doctrine and practice but that are nonetheless in some tension with existing pre-constitutional understandings. Constitutional hardball tactics are viewed by the other side as provocative and unfair because they flout the goes without saying assumptions that underpin working systems of constitutional government. Such tactics do not generally flout binding legal norms. But that only heightens the sense of foul play insofar as it insulates acts of hardball from judicial review.

Republicans on the far right, in particular, Fishkin and Pozen write, have been willing to engage in constitutional hardball because they are drawn to narratives of debasement and restoration, which suggest

that something has gone fundamentally awry in the republic, on the order of an existential crisis, and that unpatriotic liberals have allowed or caused it to happen.

The severity of the liberal threat, in the eyes of these conservatives, justifies extreme steps to restore what they see as a besieged moral order.

In an email, Fishkin wrote:

As with so many things about President Trump, it strikes me that he didnt start the fire. He got into office because it was already burning and now hes pouring on gasoline.

In Fishkins view, Trump will do all he can to make the conflict between his party and the press sharper and more intense, in the same way that he depends on and aims to intensify partisan polarization.Our correspondent Dan Bilefsky, a native of Montreal, has embarked on a road trip around Quebec to rediscover the province after several decades away.

Our Canadian readers have already given Dan an abundance of great ideas for what to do, whom to meet and what music to listen to. He has indulged himself at Martin Picards temple of excess Cabane a Sucre au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, met with the Indigenous chef Cezin Nottaway on the Kitigan Zibi Algonquin reserve and is today going ice fishing in Maniwaki.

As Dan explores, were hoping to hear from more young people in Quebec. Tell us about living there  what you do for fun that is uniquely Quebecois, your biggest challenges, your hopes for the provinces future.The recent killings in Canada of two Indigenous people have led to some national soul-searching about whether the country gives justice to Indigenous people. On Wednesday night, our Canada correspondent, Dan Bilefsky, met with Cezin Nottaway, an Algonquin chef and businesswoman, on the Indigenous reserve of Kitigan Zibi, to talk about the current social and political landscape surrounding Canadas Indigenous community.

They chatted with Race/NYT hosts John Eligon and Rachel Swarns on their weekly Facebook Live show.

Dan is on a road trip in Quebec, using our readers suggestions to guide him.For years, sky gazers in Canada have been training their camera lenses on a wispy strand of purple light running across the country from east to west, sometimes flanked by neon green fingers that appear to wave.

It looks like a piece of the aurora borealis, or the northern lights: blushes of pink or green that illuminate the night sky at high latitudes, caused by solar particles interacting with the earths magnetic field.

But this strip of light is different. It has always appeared farther south, beyond the bounds of normal aurora sightings.

Amateur aurora watchers have taken hundreds of photographs of this adjacent phenomenon, often drawing out its fluorescent colors with long exposures or photo editing. They called it Steve, as a sort of place-holder until a more formal name could be found.Welcome to the Smarter Living newsletter. The editor, Tim Herrera, emails readers with tips and advice for living a better, more fulfilling life. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

When was the last time you just sat around and played? You know, turned your phone on Do Not Disturb mode and goofed around for an hour or two like when you were a kid?

If you cant remember, its time to relive the old days.

Researchers have found that playtime for grown-ups can increase productivity at work, serve as a therapeutic outlet and enhance your overall well-being. Further, playing can even counteract the effects of stress, decreasing inflammation and possibly improving vascular health.

Though it sounds kind of silly, all play really means is engaging in an activity you find pleasure in, something that is deliberately unserious that allows you to disengage from the stress of real life for a while.A few years ago, I installed a web browser extension that swapped out the word millennial any time it appeared on a website in my Chrome browser. In its place? The ridiculous phrase, Snake People.

Why? Well, why not.

The word millennial was being used to describe many different kinds of millennials in many different millennial think pieces. Once I installed the extension, any tendentiously oversaturated sentence would be transformed into something absurdly sublime.

The creator of the extension, a designer named Eric Bailey, eventually added other preposterous text-swapping constructions to his software. And so my web browsing experience was peppered not only with mentions of Snake People, but also Zoloms Children (for the emerging Generation Z) and the Time of Shedding and Cold Rocks. (for the Great Recession).Its midday at the Royal Opera House in London and some 12 ballet dancers are rehearsing. The auditorium is dark, the stage is lit and the renowned choreographer Christopher Wheeldon is in the circle, watching with a critical eye as the troupe performs a scene from Corybantic Games, a new ballet dedicated to the late American composer Leonard Bernstein. Hes directing over a loudspeaker. Can we lengthen those extensions? he says. And orchestra, we need to speed up the tempo a bit.

Sitting in the stalls, dressed in his signature head-to-toe gray with round spectacles, is the British-Canadian designer Erdem Moralioglu. He created the productions costumes  Moralioglus friend, the ballerina Lauren Cuthbertson, introduced the designer to Wheeldon  and hes here to see how the garments move onstage. "We only have a few tutus, he notes, the rest of them are still being made.

Its been a whirlwind few weeks for Moralioglu, whose namesake label Erdem, founded in 2005, is renowned for its exquisite evening dresses and decadent craftsmanship. He has just returned from presenting his fall/winter 2018 collection to buyers in Paris, and only two weeks ago, he staged his London Fashion Week show at the National Portrait Gallery. This week has been tied up with fittings for the ballet  a five-month project for which he is costuming 24 ballet dancers, including men for the very first time.

Backstage, Moralioglu asks dancers how the costumes feel. The long strands of ribbons need to be sewn down, he decides. I wanted the ribbons to look like armor  a contrast to this idea of undressing I was exploring, he says. Its about flesh, and youth, and life. The costumes (translucent tutus with white bra tops and briefs) are intimate and ethereal  a blend of 1950s classicism with ancient Greece: Serenade, one of Bernsteins most famous orchestral works, was inspired by Platos Symposium. We also need to fit those body stockings, the designer says of the mens costumes. We need to see the ripples of the muscles. They need to be tight, tight, tight.I CANT QUITE deal with it, says Marc Camille Chaimowicz, in considerable understatement, on moving from the London apartment he has spent the past 38 years living and making his art in. The flat is on the top floor of Hayes Court, a 19th-century red brick building in Camberwell, South London, an area long known for having successive waves of artists such as Frank Auerbach and Griselda Pollock. We are sitting in the kitchen, which is filled with appliances from when he first moved in: the 1970s. That was also the era in which Chaimowicz, who is about to have his first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., at the Jewish Museum in New York, began creating his distinct body of cross-disciplinary work, which explores ideas of domestic life through fully realized life-size room installations that he fills with furniture, ceramics, collages, wallpaper, textiles and sculptures, many of which are his own design.

The influence of Chaimowiczs work is hard to pinpoint, but everyone familiar with his art agrees that it is substantial. Is it his imagined rooms, so evocatively furnished as to suggest a story? Or his classic drawings, suggestive of abstracted body parts or fractured parentheses that appear on everything from wallpaper to murals to fabric? His persistently joyous sense of color? Most likely, its Chaimowiczs anarchic lack of distinction between public art and private life that makes him a pioneer and also an enigma. Its not that hes being directly copied by other artists, says the British contemporary-art writer Louisa Buck. But more that Chaimowicz has made a broad swath of practice permissible. In the post-Pop world of his early career, the idea of calling a lampshade a work of art was sacrilegious; colors such as pastel pink or eau de nil  signature Chaimowicz hues  were anathema. Now, the hierarchies between art and ornament have dissolved, and Chaimowicz has emerged, in Bucks estimation, as a presiding force over a growing group of artists who are unashamedly playing with decor and environments, Karen Kilimnik and Lucy McKenzie among them. His 2016 show at the Serpentine Gallery in London encapsulated both the singularity of the artists aesthetic and the diversity of his vision: three rooms, each appointed with his colorful retro-futuristic furniture, dreamlike illustrated wallpapers and abstract sculptures made from repurposed items such as vases or jugs or chairs. Chaimowicz has suddenly become an urgent artist in the age of the internet, as boundaries become more porous, says the Serpentines artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist. Kelly Taxter, curator of the Jewish Museum show, suggests hes particularly interesting now because the work is in one sense very esoteric and abstract, but its also totally approachable. Everyone recognizes a chair and understands wallpaper. So theres an immediate understanding of his art, coupled with the layers of poetry behind it.

All of these layers  the everyday and the intellectual, the romantic and the rigorous, the domestic and the dramatic  are present in both the home he is leaving behind and his new one, located just over a mile away in Vauxhall, in a 12-sided free-standing brick-and-concrete building commissioned by Cabinet, the London gallery that represents Chaimowicz as well as Ed Atkins and Lucie Stahl. Designed by the British firm Trevor Horne Architects in collaboration with Cabinets artists, the structures three lowermost floors serve as the gallerys showspace; above are two floors of residential apartments, including Chaimowiczs. Hes contributed to the buildings facade, designing its large, jaggedly geometric windows, set in natural oak frames, an indication of Chaimowiczs innate inclination to live among his art pieces. Unsurprisingly, the interiors of both the Hayes Court and Cabinet flats keenly resemble his work. Each is constructed almost entirely from his imagination, from the lamps to the drapes to the wallpaper. As more than one curator who has worked with Chaimowicz has pointed out, his installations are Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, and in Taxters view they align the interior of the home with the psychological and interior life of the artist.Not only is it an attack on the private sector, which is being touted to help promote growth in the Saudi economy, but it is also focused on the petrochemical sector, which is a core part of the Saudi economy, said Amy Myers Jaffe, an expert on Middle East energy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Saudi Arabia has cut oil exports in recent years to support global oil prices, a strategy central to its efforts to make a potential public offering of shares of government-controlled Saudi Aramco more attractive to international investors. The kingdom has tried to compensate for its lost revenue by expanding its petrochemical and refining industry.

Some technical details of the attack in August have been previously reported, but this is the first time the earlier attacks on Tasnee and other Saudi petrochemical companies have been reported.

Security analysts at Mandiant, a division of the security firm FireEye, are still investigating what happened in August, with the help of several companies in the United States that investigate cyberattacks on industrial control systems.

A team at Schneider Electric, which made the industrial systems that were targeted, called Triconex safety controllers, is also looking into the attack, the people who spoke to The Times said. So are the National Security Agency, the F.B.I., the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has been supporting research into forensic tools designed to assist hacking investigations.

All of the investigators believe the attack was most likely intended to cause an explosion that would have killed people. In the last few years, explosions at petrochemical plants in China and Mexico  though not triggered by hackers  have killed several employees, injured hundreds and forced evacuations of surrounding communities.

What worries investigators and intelligence analysts the most is that the attackers compromised Schneiders Triconex controllers, which keep equipment operating safely by performing tasks like regulating voltage, pressure and temperatures. Those controllers are used in about 18,000 plants around the world, including nuclear and water treatment facilities, oil and gas refineries, and chemical plants.Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages  and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater.

Previews and Openings

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD at Studio 54 (previews start on March 22; opens on April 11). Broadway becomes a place thats not in silence and not in sound when the director Kenny Leon revives Mark Medoffs 1979 play about the relationship between a deaf custodian and a hearing teacher. Lauren Ridloff, a longtime educator now making her Broadway debut, plays Sarah, with Joshua Jackson as her lover, James.

212-239-6200, childrenofalessergodbroadway.com

DIDO OF IDAHO at Ensemble Studio Theater (in previews; opens on March 22). E.S.T.s Youngblood, one of the citys balmiest incubators of new talent, produces Abby Rosebrocks new play. When Aeneas deserted Dido, it didnt go especially well for Carthage, so what will happen if Nora, a musicologist, convinces her lover to leave his wife? Mikhaela Mahony directs.

www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org

FEEDING THE DRAGON at the Cherry Lane Theater (previews start on March 21; opens on April 3). The actress Sharon Washingtons childhood was not exactly a fairy tale, but through the words of fairy tales, she understood life with her parents and grandmother in an apartment above a New York Public Library branch. Primary Stages presents Ms. Washington in this autobiographical solo show about books and burning.

866-811-4111, primarystages.orgBritish TV host, model and fashion designer Alexa Chung has made a career out of her dynamic sense of style. Shes currently creative director of her eponymous fashion label , alexachung.

Ms. Chung lived in New York for seven years before moving back to England in 2016 to start her business. Shes a frequent traveler and Paris is one of her favorite places. She has an affinity for one hotel there. A year ago, I went to stay in Le Bristol. Theres this particular attic room and it has a straight shot to the Eiffel Tower, and its so beautiful and cottage-y and gorgeous, and when youre in there, it just doesnt look real. Like, if it was in a movie, youd be like, Thats a bit much. About two years ago, Id lost my favorite shirt and I would always go on about it  but I opened the cupboard this stay, and theyd kept my shirt from two years ago, waiting for me to revisit. I thought, that was great service. So, Le Bristol, hats off, youll always be my favorite hotel. That, and they have a pet cat.

She calls Tokyo the best place ever. Its such a strange cultural shock when you get there, because everything looks so different. I always have regrets whenever I go there because you walk into a shop and its like being inundated with so much strangeness, but you cant pick out a single item to buy. And then when you get home youre like, even if I had just bought that weird fried egg magnet, that would have been cool to have with me now.Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.)

The proposal was a 49-unit homeless housing complex on a vacant corner in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. But it ran into a wall of neighborhood opposition  and was blocked by Jose Huizar, the city councilman who represents the area.

For over a year, the Boyle Heights project loomed as a dispiriting reminder of the challenges of building housing for the homeless  no matter that California is in the midst of a housing crisis and Los Angeles voters last year agreed to spend $1.2 billion on homeless housing construction.

But this week, Mr. Huizar dropped his opposition. For anyone concerned with the crisis, this seems a moment worth examining.

Mr. Huizar said he changed his mind after the nonprofit agency building the project agreed to include a child-care center, increase security and conduct an environmental impact study, since the land has a dormant oil well on it. Mr. Huizar said his initial mistrust of the agency, A Community of Friends, was resolved after the two sides met and the agency agreed to those alterations.We are harming millions of people because of allegiance to a model of innovation that constrains delivering that innovation, said Peter Bach, a drug pricing expert who directs the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. That model  the central dogma of pharmaceutical development  is broken.

As people with private insurance gained access to hepatitis C treatment, it became less defensible to withhold it from prisoners. Florida had treated just 13 inmates when the federal court intervened. More than 5,000 inmates there have been diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C, but the corrections department does not conduct proactive screening, so officials concede there are likely closer to 20,000.

The Florida Legislature has allocated $36 million to fund treatment through June 30, 2019, in a budget bill that awaits the governors signature. State Senator Jeff Brandes, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice, believes that amount will be sufficient to satisfy the courts order to treat the sickest inmates, but it will leave thousands of others infected.

You kind of feel like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, he said.

Left untreated, prisoners will suffer irreparable liver damage and may transmit the infection to others. While state prisons that withhold drugs may protect their own budgets, the cost will likely still fall on taxpayers once the prisoners are released and seek care through Medicaid or other avenues, said Dr. Harish Moorjani, an infectious disease specialist who oversees care for prisoners in New York State.

You may take a short-term view, whether you are a governor or a state legislature or whatever budget authority you are, but there is a price to be paid for that, Dr. Moorjani said.

New York has taken a longer view, approving 2,009 inmates for treatment between 2014 and 2017 at a cost of about $140 million.

Some states have tried to obtain drugs at lower prices by banding together for greater bargaining power and by enrolling prisoners as patients in hospitals that already get discounted drugs. These tactics have moderately reduced prices, but corrections officials say they would need to be vastly cheaper to even consider treating all eligible prisoners.A sister of Dylann Roof, the man who massacred nine black churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015, was arrested on Wednesday for bringing a knife, pepper spray and marijuana to her high school, the authorities said.

Morgan Roof, 18, was arrested on drugs and weapons charges at her high school, A.C. Flora, in Columbia, S.C., and taken to a detention center, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in a statement.

Sheriff Lott said that a school resource officer was informed by an administrator that Ms. Roof had the weapons and drugs. Roof had also made a social media post on Snapchat which caused alarm to the student body, Sheriff Lott said. No students were harmed, he said.The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of engineering a series of cyberattacks that targeted American and European nuclear power plants and water and electric systems, and could have sabotaged or shut power plants off at will.

United States officials and private security firms saw the attacks as a signal by Moscow that it could disrupt the Wests critical facilities in the event of a conflict.

They said the strikes accelerated in late 2015, at the same time the Russian interference in the American election was underway. The attackers had compromised some operators in North America and Europe by spring 2017, after President Trump was inaugurated.

In the following months, according to a Department of Homeland Security report issued on Thursday, Russian hackers made their way to machines with access to critical control systems at power plants that were not identified. The hackers never went so far as to sabotage or shut down the computer systems that guide the operations of the plants.Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a line the president has warned him not to cross. Though it is not clear how much of the subpoena is related to Mr. Trumps business outside ties to Russia, Mr. Trump said in an interview with The New York Times in July that the special counsel would be crossing a red line if he looked into his familys finances beyond any relationship with Russia. The president declined to say how he would respond if he concluded that the special counsel had crossed that line.

Mr. Trump campaigned as a businessman whose deal-making prowess would translate directly into reforming Washington. The argument helped propel him to the White House, but the Trump Organization has been a magnet for criticism from Democrats, ethics watchdogs and some Republicans, who expressed concern that he remained vulnerable to conflicts of interest because he did not separate from the company.

Before Mr. Trump was sworn in, he pledged that he would stay uninvolved in his businesses while in office but insisted it would be too punitive for his business partners for him to divest from the company altogether.

Among the Trump Organizations holdings are golf clubs, hotels and licensing agreements for the use of the Trump name on properties and other products. While its holdings are complex, the company has always been run like a small, family-owned business; Mr. Trump brought in his three eldest children to help run the enterprise.

The Trump Organization is not publicly held, making it difficult to determine where it receives its money and invests it. The company has said that it never had real estate holdings in Russia, but witnesses recently interviewed by Mr. Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow.

In 2015, a longtime business associate of Mr. Trumps, Felix Sater, emailed Mr. Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen, at his Trump Organization account claiming he had ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Mr. Trumps presidential campaign. Mr. Trump signed a nonbinding letter of intent for the project in 2015 and discussed it at least three times with Mr. Cohen.

A revealing comment about Russia by Eric Trump, the presidents middle son, also drew scrutiny when it emerged last year. James Dodson, a longtime golf writer from North Carolina, said offhand in a radio interview that Eric Trump, who oversees the golf courses for the Trump Organization, told him in 2013 that the Trumps relied on Russian investors to back their golf clubs. Eric Trump has denied those remarks.WASHINGTON  President Trump repeated on Thursday his false assertion that the United States runs a trade deficit with Canada, the morning after privately telling Republican donors that he had deliberately insisted on that claim in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada without knowing whether it was true.

Mr. Trumps private admission to having a loose grasp of the facts and his public refusal to back down from the incorrect statement  the United States has an overall surplus in trade with Canada  were vivid illustrations of the presidents cavalier attitude about the truth, and a reminder of how that approach has taken hold at the White House.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump had chosen his figures selectively in the conversation with Mr. Trudeau and in a subsequent Twitter post that repeated the claim. The president was referring only to the trade of goods, Ms. Sanders said, which ignores the larger trade surplus in services the United States exports to Canada.

And in a briefing with reporters, she acknowledged that Mr. Trump had fabricated an anecdote he told the donors about unfair trading practices  Japanese officials, he claimed, conduct a test on American cars by dropping a bowling ball on their hoods from 20 feet high, and those that dent are barred from being imported.Those attacks have been known to the American government for more than a year, but kept highly classified. Symantec Corporation, which markets systems that detect and combat malware, issued a report about Dragonfly in October, but stopped short of naming the Russians.

Among the targets was the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, which runs a nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kan., according to security responders and a joint report issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. last June.

Those attacks suggest Russian state-sponsored hackers have been mapping out Western industrial, power and nuclear facilities, perhaps in preparation for eventual sabotage. There is no evidence that Russian hackers were able to jump from the operators corporate networks into the production networks that control plant operations, but forensic investigators and government officials believe the attacks were designed to look for ways to make that jump.

The joint statement responding to the March 4 poisoning attack in Salisbury, England, came a day after Mrs. May expelled 23 Russian diplomats and announced other measures in retaliation. Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian spy, and his daughter, Yulia, were left in a coma because of the attack, which British investigators attributed to Novichok, a potent nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s.

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, the statement by the four allies said. It is an assault on the United Kingdoms 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.

Although it did not include concrete steps in response, the joint statement was a notable display of unanimity among countries that have taken varying stances toward Russia in recent months. Mrs. May has sought in recent days to marshal criticism of Russia, submitting statements to international organizations like the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Russia has denied responsibility for the attack. Neither Russia nor the Soviet Union has ever pursued any programs to develop chemical warfare agent called Novichok, Mr. Ryabkov said. The allegations that such a program existed have been spread by people who were earlier transferred to the West and who actually emigrated not without Western governments assistance.Mr. Kelly himself is also on thin ice, according to officials in the White House. He is said to have angered the president by privately saying no to the boss too often.

Mr. Trump grew frustrated with Mr. Kelly, in part for stalling on the presidents desire for tariffs. The president finally forced the issue a few weeks ago, announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum, which prompted Gary D. Cohn, his top economic adviser, who had opposed the policy, to announce his resignation.

In recent days, Mr. Kelly has sought to repair his standing with the president by moving more aggressively to address issues that have festered, including staffing concerns at the White House and cabinet secretaries with political liabilities.

Several high-level people in the administration are at risk.

Mr. Carson and David J. Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs, have both embarrassed the president by generating scandalous headlines. Mr. Carson could be cut over an eye-popping $31,000 dining set, and Mr. Shulkin might be replaced over a 10-day, $122,000 European trip with his wife.

And then there is Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose original sin  the decision to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia investigation  made him the regular target of presidential ire. The attorney general has threatened to resign at least once, but has more recently indicated his determination to resist Mr. Trumps obvious desire for him to leave his post at the Justice Department.

Mr. Trump could act as early as Friday to remove one or more of them, though the president is known to enjoy keeping people off kilter.

In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Trump assailed predictions of further staff shake-ups by saying such reports were a very exaggerated and false story. But he hinted that his choices for a cabinet might have been different had he known then what he knows now.HOUSTON  It is often called Texas show me your papers law, but few papers are actually being shown in some of the states biggest cities.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday largely upheld the Texas immigration law known as Senate Bill 4, which bans so-called sanctuary cities in the state. Among other provisions, the bill allows police officers to question the immigration status of anyone they arrest or detain, including during routine traffic stops.

But months after portions of the law went into effect in September, prompting legal battles and fierce debates about whether it could lead to widespread racial profiling, officers in some Texas cities appear to be asking about immigration status only in very rare cases. And even after the courts ruling this week, officials in those cities are not planning to make them change.

From an operational standpoint, from a policy standpoint, it will have no impact, Chief Art Acevedo of the Houston Police Department said of the law. The problem is the perception problem that it creates, that local police officers are going to be more interested in immigration enforcement of people who dont bother anybody.A gunman opened fire at a hospital in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday night, killing an employee and critically injuring another before turning the gun on himself, the police said.

Officers responded to calls of an active shooter just before 7 p.m. at UAB Hospital-Highlands and found two men with gunshot wounds and another man who had shot and killed himself, the authorities said. One victim was treated at that hospital, while the other was taken to the University of Alabama at Birminghams main hospital about a mile away, the police said.

One of the victims was pronounced dead about 10 p.m. That mans name was not immediately released, but a university official said he worked in the UAB Hospital system. It is with a heavy heart that we announce to you this evening the passing of one of our colleagues, the university official, Anthony Patterson, wrote in an email to hospital employees late Wednesday.Fallout from the death of a French bulldog named Kokito continued for United Airlines on Thursday, as the airline explained how the dog had come to die in an overhead compartment and two United States senators introduced a bill to stop such a thing from ever happening again.

Uniteds admission followed an uproar over the Monday death of Kokito, who was placed in the overhead bin shortly before a flight left Houston for New York.

Maggie Schmerin, a spokeswoman for United, said that the airline had spoken to the family, the flight crew and passengers who had been seated nearby. The flight attendant who placed the carrier in the overhead bin said she had not heard the owner tell her that the dog was in the carrier, Ms. Schmerin said. A witness and the owner said the dog had been barking before takeoff.

As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident, Ms. Schmerin said. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support.RIO DE JANEIRO  On the eve of her killing on a downtown street on Wednesday night, a Rio de Janeiro councilwoman suggested that the death of a young man earlier in the week had been the latest act of police brutality.

How many more must die for this war to end? Councilwoman Marielle Franco wrote on Twitter.

The death of the young man, Matheus Melo, 23, received modest news coverage. He was, after all, a poor black man in a city where scores of poor black men are killed each year. Many die at the hands of the police, without much, if any, consequence.

Ms. Francos killing shattered the cavalier attitude that prevails in much of this megacity in the face of rising violence.

Shortly after 9 p.m. as the councilwoman was heading home from a meeting about empowering black women, assailants sprayed her car with bullets. They killed the 38-year-old rising political star and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes.BEIJING  Most nights, a mixed crowd of young Chinese and foreigners, many of them students, cram the sidewalks along Caijing Dong Street, drinking alcohol and snacking on street food to the sound of thumping music as they course from one club to the next. Recently, though, there has been a more subdued vibe.

The international atmosphere along this strip, known as Wudaokou and located in the heart of Beijings university district, has fallen afoul of political sensibilities. At least two bars say they have been told by the local police not to let in more than 10 foreigners at a time until March 22, after the end of the annual session of the National Peoples Congress, Chinas rubber-stamp Parliament.

There are concerns that the ban could signal a coming crackdown. A broader campaign by officials in Beijing to clean up the city is already underway. So far, the effort has targeted the old alleyways called hutongs, as well as crowded, slum-like migrant neighborhoods, leading some to say it is fundamentally changing the face of the capital.

The latest warning has raised fears that Wudaokou, known for its bars and boisterous night life, is next. On a recent Saturday night, the street was far more hushed than usual. Many foreigners, who make up a large part of the clientele here, had evidently decided to go elsewhere.HONG KONG  North Koreas foreign minister flew to Sweden on Thursday, amid speculation that the country could be used as a venue for hammering out details of the planned talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, or could be the site of the talks themselves.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was seen at Beijings international airport on Thursday, South Koreas Yonhap news agency reported, following earlier reports that he might go to Sweden. Hours later, the Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed that Mr. Ri would indeed be visiting the country for talks on Thursday and Friday.

Sweden has long played an intermediary role between the United States and North Korea, which do not have diplomatic relations. With the United States lacking an embassy in North Korea, Sweden is the so-called protecting power that provides consular services for Americans, including meeting with citizens who are imprisoned there.

Sweden has also been the site of talks between North Korean officials and experts from the United States, South Korea and elsewhere.HONG KONG  A top Australian official said this week that white farmers from South Africa should be granted emergency visas, saying they needed protection in a civilized country amid a debate over redistribution of their lands to black citizens.

On Thursday, South Africas Foreign Ministry fired back, characterizing the remarks made by Peter Dutton, Australias home affairs minister, as regrettable. White farmers are not at risk, the ministry said.

There is no reason for any government anywhere in the world to suspect that any South African is in danger from their own democratically elected government, Ndivhuwo Mabaya, a spokesman for South Africas Foreign Ministry, said in a statement. That threat simply does not exist.

South Africas governing party, the African National Congress, has proposed a constitutional amendment to expropriate land without paying the landowners. The majority of South African farmland remains under white ownership more than 25 years after apartheid ended.OTTAWA  First were the tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber. Then came a trade action over a Canadian jetliner, and duties on newsprint. Most recently the United States and Canada battled over potentially crippling duties on steel and aluminum that President Trump introduced last week.

And all along the two countries have been fighting over renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Now comes the latest slight to Canada from its closest ally and nearest neighbor: a report by The Washington Post on Thursday that Mr. Trump boasted at a private fund-raising event that he made up an assertion that the United States had a trade deficit with Canada during a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trade with the United States is a critical part of Canadas export-dependent economy, and the actions and statements from the Trump administration concerning the two countries economic relationship have provoked equal parts anxiety, puzzlement and anger within Canada.LONDON  While Prime Minister Theresa May has united her warring Conservative Party by denouncing Russia over the poisoning of a former spy, things have not gone so smoothly for the opposition Labour Party. Among Labour lawmakers, familiar wounds have reopened over the more ambivalent stance of its left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Twice in Parliament this week, Mr. Corbyn, whose political views were forged in his leftist activism in the 1980s, has eschewed the supportive, cheerleading role that opposition leaders traditionally play to the prime minister when Britain is in conflict with a foreign power. At times, in his reluctance to criticize Moscow, he sounded like his ideological opposite, President Trump.

While he condemned the attack in Salisbury, England, as an appalling act of violence, Mr. Corbyn has claimed that the Conservatives took donations from wealthy Russians, and he has highlighted cuts to the British Foreign Office and called for the Russian authorities to be held to account on the basis of the evidence.

On Thursday, in an article in The Guardian, Mr. Corbyn added that criticism of Russia should not mean acceptance of a new cold war of escalating arms spending, proxy conflicts across the globe and a McCarthyite intolerance of dissent.Smooth, complex, soft, salty and strong  yet delicate, luscious and elegant.

Those are just a few of the adjectives used to describe Westvleteren beer, which is often hailed by aficionados as one of the best in the world.

Part of the mystique rested in its exclusivity. For more than 170 years, the beer has been produced and distributed solely by the Trappist monks of St. Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren, a village in western Belgium.

But that changed last week when a branch of Jan Linders, a Dutch supermarket chain, sold more than 7,000 bottles without the monks permission, and at 10 euros each, several times higher than the original price.

The supermarket said it had obtained the beer through a number of links, according to Gineke Wilms, its marketing manager, in comments cited by a Dutch daily.BRATISLAVA, Slovakia  The prime minister of Slovakia resigned on Thursday following mass demonstrations over the murder of a journalist who was uncovering government corruption. But officials said there would not be new elections and the ruling party would remain in power.

With anger still intense over the murders of the journalist, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, and the way the government has responded, it is not clear that the prime ministers resignation will end the crisis. Many of the demonstrators who have taken to the streets in the largest numbers since the Velvet Revolution of 1989 have demanded the fall of the government and a new round of elections.

Leaders of the protests released a statement saying that leaders of the parties in the governing coalition had humiliated and misled the whole public with their decision. They plan to hold protests in more than 30 cities on Friday.RIJEKA, Croatia  The prime minister of Slovenia, who surged to power as a political novice in 2014 on promises of an economic recovery, has resigned after the countrys highest court stalled an infrastructure project that was a crucial part of his agenda.

Hours after the ruling on Wednesday, the prime minister, Miro Cerar, announced that he would step down, and he made it official on Thursday in a note to the parliament. He said the decision by the Supreme Court of Slovenia was a fresh blow to the center-left governments flagship development plan, blaming those who want to halt Slovenias economic growth at any cost.

I do not want to be part of that story, Mr. Cerar said.

With a history that parallels Emmanuel Macrons sudden rise in France, Mr. Cerar, 54, led his hastily assembled party  now known as the Modern Center Party  to success in the 2014 elections. His party won the largest share of seats, and formed a coalition government with two smaller parties, the Democratic Party of Pensioners and the Social Democrats.

He campaigned on promises to return decency to politics and to curb an economic downturn that had hit hard in Slovenia, a member of the European Union with a population of about two million.BEIRUT, Lebanon  Thousands of exhausted civilians streamed out of the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta on Thursday, the largest single-day exodus from the embattled region since the start of a punishing government offensive last month.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain and tracks the conflict though a network of contacts, said that as many as 20,000 people had fled the region for government-held areas.Waves are beginning to reach statues and platforms built by an ancient civilization.

HANGA ROA, Easter Island  The human bones lay baking in the sun. It wasnt the first time Hetereki Huke had stumbled upon an open grave like this one.

For years, the swelling waves had broken open platform after platform containing ancient remains. Inside the tombs were old obsidian spearheads, pieces of cremated bone and, sometimes, parts of the haunting statues that have made this island famous.

But this time was different for Mr. Huke. The crumbling site was where generations of his own ancestors had been buried.

Those bones were related to my family, said Mr. Huke, an architect, recalling that day last year.

Centuries ago, Easter Islands civilization collapsed, but the statues left behind here are a reminder of how powerful it must have been. And now, many of the remains of that civilization may be erased, the United Nations warns, by the rising sea levels rapidly eroding Easter Islands coasts.

The island is about 15 miles across at its widest. Ringing it are scores of moai statues and their platforms, called ahu.Dots show locations of ahu and moai. Archaeologists believe the moai represent the ancestors of the islanders. Polynesians discovered the island 1,000 years ago. It is one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth. Now it is part of Chile, 2,200 miles away across the Pacific.

Many of the moai statues and nearly all of the ahu, the platforms that in many cases also serve as tombs for the dead, ring the island. With some climate models predicting that sea levels will rise by five to six feet by 2100, residents and scientists fear that storms and waves now pose a threat like never before.

You feel an impotency in this, to not be able to protect the bones of your own ancestors, said Camilo Rapu, the head of Mau Henua, the indigenous organization that controls Rapa Nui National Park, which covers most of the island, and its archaeological sites. It hurts immensely.

Ahu Akahanga

Similar fates are faced by islanders throughout the Pacific Ocean and along its margins, in places like the tiny Marshall Islands that are disappearing under the sea and the sinking megacity of Jakarta, where streets become rivers after storms hit. Kiribati, a republic of coral atolls north of Fiji, may be uninhabitable in a generation. Their residents may become refugees.

On Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name of this island, much of which has been recognized as a Unesco world heritage site, both the future and the past are threatened.

The islands economy hangs in the balance. The archaeological sites are the backbone of the main industry: tourism. Last year, this island with only 6,000 residents attracted more than 100,000 visitors. Easter Islands hotels, restaurants and tour businesses take in more than $70 million every year.

Ahu Tongariki

Tourists usually begin their days in Tongariki, where they gather to watch the sunrise from behind a line of monoliths facing inland. Groups split off to Anakena, the islands one sandy beach, or to the ancient platforms at Akahanga, a sprawling site of former villages on the shore where, tradition holds, the islands mythical founder, Hotu Matua, is buried in a stone grave.

Yet all three sites now stand to be eroded by rising waters, scientists say.

We dont want people seeing these places through old photos, Mr. Rapu said.

Ahu Akahanga This moai statue, toppled years ago, faces many dangers. Residents surrounded it with stones to protect it from tourists. But the sea is the larger threat. The statue lies only yards from a sea cliff that is rapidly eroding.

Archaeologists fear the rising waves could erase clues to one of the greatest mysteries of the island: What caused the collapse of the civilization that built the stone statues?

Perhaps a thousand years ago, Polynesians discovered this island in the middle of a vast, empty sea. They created a civilization that constructed more than 1,100 moai statues, many of which were raised miles from their quarries using methods that still captivate scientists.

Less mysterious is what happened next. As the population grew, the island went from forested to barren. Europeans arrived with new diseases.

The islands vast quarry at Rano Raraku was deserted, with dozens of moai left unfinished and abandoned. By the 1870s, the population was just over a hundred, down from thousands at its peak.

Archaeologists hotly debate whether it was resource depletion, disease, civil war, or perhaps rats that came with the islanders and ravaged forests, that was ultimately to blame. And the clues may lie inside the funeral platforms, which hold some of the few remains that can be dated to establish a timeline.

Those remains could add more data to show its not a simple or straightforward answer to what happened, said Jane Downes, a professor of archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, who has spent many summers in Easter Island working to document the damage.

The highway circuit that runs much of the triangular island shows a landscape that is changing.

Ovahe

The damage has been swift on Ovahe Beach, near where Mr. Huke came across bones in the sun. For generations, there had been a sandy beach here that was popular with tourists and locals. Nearby, a number of unmarked burial sites were covered with stones.

Now the waves have carried off almost all of the sand, leaving jagged volcanic stone. The burial sites have been damaged and its not clear how long they will survive the waves.

I once swam in Ovahe and the sand seemed to go on for miles, said Pedro Pablo Edmunds, the Hanga Roa mayor, in his office as he flipped through a coffee-table book with images of the beach. Now, its all stone.

Two years ago officials buried a time capsule, to be opened by islanders in 2066, near the town hall. Among the items inside were pictures of Ovahe Beach before it lost all of its sand.

They will dig it up in 50 years and see us standing there, where there is no beach, Mr. Edmunds said.

At a site called Ura Uranga Te Mahina on the islands southern coast, park officials were alarmed last year when blocks of a stone wall perched about 10 feet above a rocky coast collapsed after being battered by waves.

Ahu Runga Va'e

Now, all of this will fall next, said Rafael Rapu Rapu, the chief archaeologist of Mau Henua, pointing to a map showing the platforms behind the collapsed wall.

Mr. Rapu has used a nearby site, called Runga Vae, to experiment with measures to mitigate the damage. Using part of a $400,000 grant from the Japanese government, officials built a sea wall for protection against the waves. But it remains unclear whether the wall will be enough to stop the erosion, or if the island leaders will have to consider moving platforms and statues away from the coast in order to save them.

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Other vulnerable areas present an even tougher challenge to conservationists. One of them is the volcanic crater at Orongo, the center of the civilizations activity around 1600, the last years before European contact. Island residents gathered for an annual swimming competition in which young men raced through open water to a nearby island, Motu Nui, to fetch bird eggs. The winner determined which clan would rule the island for the following year.

The stories of those races are told in a half-dozen large petroglyphs carved in stone perched over the edge of the caldera, vulnerable to storms and gravity.

Orongo The petroglyphs portray the competitors as they race for the birds eggs. But the position of the rocks on the rapidly eroding cliff has put them in danger. A major landslide hit the area in 2007.

Park officials say they are exploring the possibility of anchoring the carvings onto more stable stone, or even moving them into a museum.

Can we take them somewhere else? said Mr. Rapu, the archaeologist. Yes, but you lose their context, you lose their history when doing that.

Mr. Rapu, who grew up on the island, said he regretted the environmental changes that had befallen the area. Few birds nest on Motu Nui anymore, he said, a consequence of what he suspects is changing weather patterns. He looked over the water and recalled his fathers stories of big migrations that used to arrive at the island regularly, much like they did during the days of the competitions.

He would tell me you could see dark clouds of them and you could hear the birds everywhere, he said, walking back from the crater.

Sebastian Paoa, the head of planning at Mau Henua, said he was sure that, ultimately, the islands inhabitants would find their way through the challenge of the rising sea levels just as they had survived the collapse in ancient times.

They knew their environment was coming apart, but that didnt stop them from persisting here, he said. Its the same with climate change today.

Hanga Roa

Mr. Huke, the architect, said he feels the same way.

Finding the bones of his ancestors on the beach wasnt cause for despair, he said, but a call to action. In recent months, hes been gathering information for a climate change assessment to be presented to officials tallying everything from erosion to the groundwater supply.

Islands like us are always the first to face climate change, he said. We have been here 1,000 years. We have gotten through things like this. The world isnt ending. And believe me, weve suffered through an ecological disaster before.The smoke-filled streets of Dari Ekh, an unplanned ger district in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, as homes burned coal on a February evening.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia  Mongolians have long relied on folklore to explain how miserably cold their winters are.

Russia Ulan Bator Mongolia China

During the first of nine phases of winter  each composed of nine days, starting on Dec. 22  it is said that vodka made from milk freezes. During the third set of nine days, when temperatures can hit minus 40 degrees in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, the tail of a 3-year-old ox is said to fall off. Around the sixth set of nine days, which falls in the middle of February, roads are expected to re-emerge from underneath the ice and snow.

But for the nearly 1.5 million residents of the capital, Ulan Bator, the misery of winter is now defined almost singularly by the smoke rising out of the citys chimneys. Since 2016, in addition to being the worlds coldest capital city, it has also had the distinction of being the one with the highest recorded levels of air pollution, surpassing notoriously polluted megacities like Beijing and New Delhi.

According to local government figures, around 80 percent of Ulan Bators air pollution is produced by just over half the population, living in the so-called ger districts in the north of the city, named for the traditional nomadic dwelling central to Mongolians herding lifestyle.

Preparing for an ice archery competition on the frozen Tuul River, which runs through Ulan Bator.

Residents walking through a northern Ulan Bator district on a polluted February morning.

Orlom Namjildorj used a coal stove to make Mongolian milk tea for her husband, Byambatseren Usukhbayar, in the familys ger, or yurt.

The ger, or yurt, is a circular tent comprising a single room, with a familys bedding and furniture arrayed around the device that makes its simple architecture survivable in such a harsh climate: a stove. The ger can be packed onto a truck and set up within a few hours.

In recent years, the predominantly lower- to middle-income migrant workers who reside in these unplanned districts have been burning over a million tons of raw coal per year.

With little work available in Mongolias smaller cities, hundreds of thousands have left behind the nomadic herding lifestyle in the hope of finding opportunities in the mineral boomtown that Ulan Bator has become. And they have settled in the ger districts, which have sprung up because of a lack of clarity about land ownership.

During the Communist era, land belonged to the state, but starting in 1991, land was defined as belonging to the citizens of Mongolia, leading to confusion as newcomers to the city claimed land and demanded ownership of it.

In recent years, the predominantly lower- to middle-income migrant workers who reside in these unplanned districts have been burning over a million tons of raw coal per year. The heaviest use is during the winter when staying warm is a matter of survival as temperatures remain well below freezing for weeks at a time. Those who cant afford coal often burn garbage, adding plastics and other pollutants into the soupy mix.

Coal smoke rose from a schools coal boiler on the outskirts of Ulan Bator as two girls walked home after class last month.

As families huddle indoors, burning coal around the clock, sections of the city see their levels of fine particulate matter, a pollutant, soar into the thousands. On Jan. 30, one station in Ulan Bator recorded a reading of 3,320 micrograms per cubic meter  133 times what the World Health Organization considers safe, and more than six times what it considers hazardous.

In January, Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh announced that the transportation and use of raw coal in Ulan Bator would be banned starting in April 2019 as part of an effort to improve the citys air quality.

Meantime, the government has been trying with its limited resources to put a dent in the problem. Subsidies have been offered to families for stoves that produce less pollution, and since January 2017, electricity in many of the citys highest-polluting districts was made free at night, when pollution levels are at their most severe.

Sellers of raw coal negotiating prices with passing customers at the Shar Khad market.

A miner ducked into a warm ger at the Nalaikh mines on the outskirts of Ulan Bator.

A horse resting after training for traditional races on the outskirts of Ulan Bator.

But the cost of electric heaters that can adequately heat a thinly insulated home in the cold of winter is far out of reach for many in the ger districts. Nonsubsidized electricity is more expensive than coal, and far less plentiful.

The planned ban on coal has raised eyebrows among miners and sellers who extract and transport truckloads of the freshly extracted fuel from the citys Nalaikh area, which provides 75 percent of the coal burned in the ger districts.

Many are skeptical that Mongolias government will be able to enforce the ban.

Its a fairy tale, said Khangai Unurkhaan, 25, who sells raw coal by the truckload at the Shar Khad market near the city center.

An entire flatbed of a small truck  weighing 1.3 tons  is enough to last a single family roughly one month during the coldest four months of winter.

There are thousands of families who mine, sell and burn coal in order to live, added Mr. Unurkhaan, who had barely given his name before he was off to deliver to a clients home his 1.3-ton load of coal, which at $65 to $75, depending on the quality of coal, lasts a family about one month, according to official estimates.

Abandoned open pits of the former Soviet-operated coal mine at Nalaikh. The surrounding hills are green with grass during the warmer months.

But residents agree that something has to be done, particularly to protect the youngest and the elderly, who are most at risk because of the pollution.

Already, the pediatric wards of hospitals have banks of nebulizers to treat the large variety of respiratory infections and viruses that become both chronic and dangerous during the winter months.

Because of the pollution, a simple flu becomes a pneumonia or bronchitis very easily, said Dr. Soyol-Erdene Jadambaa, an immunologist at the Batchingun allergy and immunology childrens hospital, a private clinic. It requires long-term treatment.

Pneumonia killed up to 435 children under the age of 5 in Ulan Bator in 2015, according to Unicef.

Temuulen Ganzorig, 5, prepared to inhale medication through a nebulizer as part of his treatment for the flu at the Batchingun clinic.

Ulan Bators rising skyline, framed by a Soviet-era monument to the modern Mongolian states founding.

Sorting coal at the Nalaikh mines.

We need a completely new city, said Batmend Shirgal, who was raised in Ulan Bator and is now an engineer at one of the citys power plants, as his 2-year-old daughter helped her younger brother hold a nebulizer to his small face at the Seven Dwarfs Pediatric Clinic near Ulan Bators airport.

The family had lived year-round in a planned part of the city with municipal heating until last year, when both children suffered severe cases of pneumonia and were hospitalized. This winter, the family decamped to Nalaikh, 24 miles outside the city, where the air is cleaner despite the areas being the primary source of Ulan Bators coal.

If you take coal out of the ger, people will burn anything, Mr. Shirgal said. The tires on their cars, their neighbors fences. Its hard to survive in minus 30 degrees.Alter Ego, the luxury Italian haircare brand distributed by local business man Paul Farrell from Kreative Salon Supplies has announced that popular blogger Lisa McGowan from Lisas Lust List is the new ambassador for the brand.

Lisa McGowan is the number one Irish Social Media Influencer for the 35 plus demographic in Ireland. She has built a strong reputation for fashion and lifestyle with an online following of 175,000. Her honestly and down to earth approach has won over the hearts of many of her followers.

MORE TO READ: Offaly man through to final of prestigious Mr British Isles Model Competition

Speaking about the partnership, Paul Farrell, distributor for Alter Ego in Ireland said, We are delighted to have Lisa represent our Alter Ego brand as we believe she represents the same qualities in terms of style, elegance and a natural approach. Lisa was an obvious fit for our Italian haircare brand which has earned a reputation for innovation and product excellence in the hairdressing industry. We are looking forward to working with Lisa in 2018.

The salon exclusive, haircare range caters for all hair and scalp types with specific products designed for thick frizzy hair, thinning hair/hair loss or irritated scalp to name a few.

Now in her mid forties, Lisa McGowan started her online blog back in 2015 when she won the Keanes Jewellers Ladies Day at Limerick racecourse and Best Dressed Lady at the Galway Races the following year and almost immediately her online profile started to grow to a massive 175,000 followers on her Facebook page today.

The blogger has always had a love affair with fashion and has never let age hold her back. She believes in investing in quality, high end clothes and accessories that will last the test of time and now works with Irelands top boutiques catering for the 35+ demographic.Two men were sentenced to six and five years in jail respectively at Naas Circuit Court this morning in connection with a large drugs seizure of over 227,000 in Rathangan last year.

Ronan Bagnall (24), with an address at Newtown, Nurney, and Ian Smyth (31), of 29 Beechgrove, Rathangan were found in possession of 227,900 worth of cannabis herb on May 10 2017 at 29 Beechgrove, Rathangan.

Mr. Bagnall recieved a six year custodial sentence, with the last two suspended, while Mr. Smyth received a five year custodial sentence with the last two suspended.

Both men were remanded in custody on January 29 last.

Garda Lisa Boshell gave evidence to the court today that the arrests were made as part of an intelligence led operation.

Surveillance was conducted at the address of 29 Beechgrove Rathangan, and on Wednesday May 10 2017, a warrant was executed to seach the premises at approximately 3pm. A sniffer dog was also used.

Gardai found Ronan Bagnall asleep on the couch, while Ian Smyth was asleep in a downstairs bedroom. A small amount of drugs were found on the bed that Ian Smyth was sleeping on.

A further search found three boxes of drugs in the attic of the house.

Both men were arrested at approximately 3:25pm, and both gave admissions when interviewed that evening in Kildare Garda Station.

Ronan Bagnall told gardai that he was minding the drugs for a lad from Dublin.

He said he was minding the drugs to make quick money to buy a new car, and said he was getting 2,000. It was also heard that Mr. Bagnall had significant debt as a result of his drug dependency, and was storing the drugs to pay off debts. He also admitted to gardai that he had a drug addiction.

The court heard that the drugs were delivered to the house in a van in six boxes, to which Mr. Bagnall said he nearly had a heard attack when he saw the amount of drugs.

Mr. Bagnall and Mr. Smyth proceeded to load the drugs into three boxes, and stored them in the attic.

The court heard that Ian Smyths mother owned the house, and Mr. Smyth was the sole occupant before Mr. Bagnall asked to stay.

Mr. Bagnall had three previous convictions relating to road traffic matters, while Mr. Smyth had four relating to theft and drugs matters.

Barrister for Mr. Bagnall, Rad OHanlon, said the defendant appears to come from a good family, has shown intent to come off drugs, and also has no link to drugs in his previous convictions.

Mr. OHanlon asked the court to take into consideration that Ronan Bagnall is in a relationship, and expecting a child shortly, which is a potential attitude change in his life.

The court heard that Mr. Smyth had become friendly with the co-accused through drugs.

Barrister for Mr. Smyth Damien Colgan said he had kicked his heroine addiction around Christmas until he met the co-accused. He added that Mr. Smyth allowed this man to bring drugs into the home.

Mr. Colgan said Mr. Smyth had qualified as a brick layer but hadnt done his junior certificate because he left school at an early age, so has no paperwork to prove it. He added that a previous employer has indicated that there would be a job there for him when he is released.

The court heard that he has drifted in and out of drugs from a young age, however was drug free when he moved to Wales in 2015 for a short period.

Mr. Colgan added that Mr. Smyth has attended ARAS in Newbridge, to help his drug addiction, and is currently clean from drugs. He said Mr. Smtyhs mother, who was present in court, is preparing to offer him accommodation when he is released.

He asked to judge to take into consideration that Mr. Smyth answered all garda questions put to him, and his plea was forthcoming.

Mr. OHanlon said Mr. Bagnall has been drug free since going into custody, and has showed a willingness to stay off them. He has attended the Fr. Peter McVerry trust to deal with his drug addiction.

However, Mr. Colgan asked Judge Michael OShea to distinguish from the two men, as he said Mr. Bagnall took advantage of the friendship to use Mr. Smyths house to store the drugs.

Judge Michael OShea said he took mitigating and personal factors into account when handing down the sentences.

Judge OShea said Mr. Bagnall was well aware of what he was getting involved with, was getting a personal financial gain out of it, and noted that he was concerned for his own safety with the third party he was involved with. He said the offence was of a serious nature, and that it was Mr. Bagnall who was in contact with the third party.

However he took into account personal circumstances including the fact that he is expecting a child in the near future, his attendance at IT Carlow for a short period and the Kildare Wicklow Education Training Board where he received distinctions in two modules.

The judge also took into account that he suffers from an anxiety disorder, pleaded guilty to the offence, was co-operative at all times with the garda investigation, gave a full admission, and expressed remorse.

In relation to Mr. Smyth, Judge OShea said his offence was on the slightly lesser level than Mr. Bagnall. He said he had a chronic drug addiction, and allowed the drugs to be stored and assisted in the placing of the drugs. He also said Mr. Smyth was getting a modest amount of money for storing them.

However he added that Mr. Smyth was fully co-operative in the investigation, made a full admission, expressed remorse, attended the prison psychology service and ARAS Newbridge, and is taking positive steps to kick his chronic addiction.The latest Weather Forecast from Met Eireann is certainly predicting a cold day for St Patrick's Day but there is no sign, as of now anyway in the forecast, of another Beast from the East hitting Ireland.

Met Eireann is forecasting a cold and breezy St Patricks Day, with a significant wind chill due to fresh and gusty easterly winds. Afternoon temperatures will be just 1 to 3 degrees in eastern half of the country and around 4 to 7 degrees further west. Most places will be dry, but a few showers are likely, with the odd wintry flurry. Cold and frosty overnight, with clear spells and some sleet and snow showers. The wintry showers will mainly affect eastern parts of Leinster, with just the odd flurry elsewhere. But amounts should be small. Lowest temperatures -1 to -4 degrees Celsius, with some widespread sharp frost and icy surfaces.

Cold and breezy on Sunday too, with afternoon highs of just 2 to 4 degrees. Easterly winds will be moderate to fresh and gusty, so feeling even colder. Some sleet or snow showers will occur at times, mainly in eastern areas, but most should be light though on high ground in eastern coastal counties, some will be heavy. A few flurries are likely elsewhere. Lowest temperatures -2 to -5 degrees with a widespread severe frost and icy roads.

Meanwhile two Weather Warnings remain in place today (Wednesday) READ MORE HEREBJP has lost 5 Lok Sabha seats in past 6 months

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had won 282 seats in the 2014 General Elections, now has 273 MP s in the Lok Sabha, which is just one more than the majority mark. In the past six months, the BJP has lost by polls in Gurdaspur (Punjab), Ajmer and Alwar (Rajasthan) and Phulpur and Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh).

This is worrisome for the BJP especially with Lok Sabha elections slated to be held next year. The BJP, on its part, tried to play down its defeat saying that people tend to vote on local factors in these elections as their results have no bearing on the stability of either the central or state governments. But, the for sure knows that they are facing an uphill with the opposition now having smelled the blood.

The BJP had got its first jolt in November 2015 when it lost Ratlam in the by-election. It had lost the seat to Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria. The party got the second shock in Punjab where the Congress leader Sunil Jakhar defeated its candidate by a huge margin in Gurdaspur. Earlier this year, BJP lost Alwar and Ajmer seats in Rajasthan. While the Congress was widely expected to win in Alwar, Ajmer was thought to be a close contest with a slight edge to the BJP.

The UP by-elections have underscored the BJP's vulnerability in Uttar Pradesh, where together with allies it had won 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. The Samajwadi Party had won five seats and BSP had failed to even open its account.

[UP by-elections: Parties realise only way to challenge BJP is to unite]

After yesterday's defeat of the BJP, a notion is now making rounds that astute regional alliances are the way forward to stop the BJP juggernaut. Even some party MPs from the state said an alliance between the SP and the BSP in the next Lok Sabha elections will pose a very serious challenge.

Ahead of the elections, a lot was spoken about this alliance between the BSP and SP. The understanding between the traditional rivals, SP-BSP appears to have done a world of good. Any win over the BJP these days is considered to be a morale booster for the opposition parties.

OneIndia NewsBusinessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men

CBI arrests Shivaji Panja, Kaustav Ray in Kolkata bank fraud case

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Officials of The Banking Security and Fraud Cell of CBI on Thursday arrested two Kolkata-based businessmen on a complaint filed by Canara bank. Two directors of RP Infosystems Shibaji Panja and Kaustuv Ray were arrested here today, CBI said.

On March 10, Kaustav Roy was interrogated by CBI at Salt Lake CGO complex in connection with 515 crore bank fraud case.

Earlier, other two directors of the organisation, Shivaji Panja and Vinay Basna has been interrogated by the CBI.

State-run Canara Bank had on February 27 lodged a complaint with the investigation agency alleging that the directors of the company -- Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna -- and its Vice President (Finance) Debnath Pal cheated the Banglaore-based lender and nine other consortium member banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

Besides Canara Bank, the consortium includes State Bank of India, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Federal Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.

The RP Info Systems, based in Lalbazar Street in Kolkata, is into manufacturing and trading of desktops and laptops under the brand 'Chirag' and servicing computers, networking, integration and other hardware related products in different parts of the country.

According to the complaint filed by Canara Bank, the company had availed bank finance/funds by submitting "fabricated debtors/receivables/inflated stock statements".

The FIR said the fraud was "committed through the borrowal accounts of M/s RP Info Systems Ltd in criminal conspiracy with unknown bank officials" of the consortium. The Letters of Credit (LC) opened by different banks of the consortium on the applications of the firm "started devolving from 2012 onwards due to non-maintenance of funds".

OneIndia NewsCBSE Class 10th Results 2021: Board likely to declare results soon; here's how to check your roll number

CBSE board refutes Class 12th Accountancy paper leak, says will approach police against 'fake' news

India

oi-Madhuri

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) which is conducting Class 10 and 12 examinations, on Thursday, confirmed that class 12th Accountancy paper has not been leaked which.

Confirming that Class XII Accountancy paper has not been leaked, Board said there has been no leakage of the question paper. All the seals have been found intact at all the exam centres.

''During process of exam, however, at local level some miscreants have tried to play mischief by circulating messages through whatsapp and social media to disturb sanctity of examinations. CBSE has decided to take strict action against such activities. FIR is being lodged,'' said CBSE.

Earlier it was reported that CBSE official source said that board's top panel is conducting a meeting over the same.

Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE.

Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to negligence of CBSE.  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) March 15, 2018

Deputy Delhi chief minister Manish Sisodia taking to Twitter said,''Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate & lodge a complaint. Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to the negligence of CBSE.''

Purported copies of the paper were also doing the rounds on WhatsApp on Thursday morning. The same set of paper was received by the minister and was cross-checked.

CBSE is trying to find out whether the paper was leaked or it's a case of cheating. "It is impossible for a student to leak a board paper without being in connivance with some insider as Board papers are kept with utmost security and top officials and teachers are only aware about it," a source in the Central Board of Secondary Education said.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), held the board exam for Accountancy on Thursday, March 15, 2018.

For Commerce stream students, this will be the second paper after Business Studies, which was conducted on March 9.

Earlier, the CBSE on Wednesday had directed examination centres to ensure safe delivery of answer books to its headquarters after an official of a private school in the national capital was found carrying answer sheets of Class XII chemistry exam in Delhi Metro.

The board, however, clarified that secrecy of the answer books in the particular case has not been compromised with and the sanctity of examination has been maintained.

"The board has issued detailed guidelines to centre superintendents, which includes safe delivery of answer books. They have been asked to personally ensure that such instances are not repeated," a senior official of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said.

OneIndia NewsElection message for BJP, Congress, others from Karnataka children: Ignore us at your own peril

India

oi-Maitreyee

Bengaluru, March 15: Politics, they say, is not child's play. But the children of Karnataka seem to think otherwise, albeit for a good reason. As politicians are busy campaigning ahead of the all-important Karnataka Assembly elections, which are likely to take place between the last week of April and the first week of May, children of the state have prepared a list of demands to be presented to all the major political parties. The youngsters of Karnataka want the political parties--the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and others--to include children-related issues in their respective manifestos for the upcoming elections.

In order to ensure that political parties don't ignore them just because they are not a part of the "vote bank", a group of 30 children along with child rights activists will visit the offices of various political parties in Bengaluru on Saturday (March 17). During their visit to the offices, the children will distribute a "special booklet"--Makkala Hakku Parnalikey (Child Rights Manifesto)--to politicians where they have clearly mentioned about the children-related issues which are needed to be included in various party manifestos. Some of the main demands of the children are right to life, right to protection, right to development and right to participation.

Moved by the young minds' intellect and determination to put forward their demands to the politicians, a group of 15 Bengaluru autorickshaw drivers will also join the children and activists during their visits to the offices of political parties. The booklet has been brought out by the Karnataka Child Rights Observatory (KCRO), a network of NGOs working for children across the state. Before coming up with the booklet, the KCRO conducted two-month-long consultation programmes with 30 NGOs and hundreds of children in the 30 districts of the state.

"On Saturday, we are meeting the members of manifesto committee of all the four political parties. The children will give them the booklet where all their issues, rights and demands have been highlighted," Nagasimha G Rao, director of Child Rights Trust (CRT), an NGO, told OneIndia. "We are thankful to the autorickshaw drivers who have come forward to provide us a helping hand by ferrying the children and activists to the various party offices," Rao added. Since it is exam season, thus only 30 children are going to meet the politicians and raise their demands.

Nagarathna, a former child labour rescued by Sparsha Trust, a Bengaluru-based NGO, told OneIndia that political parties are mostly unaware about children-related issues. "Political parties hardly talk about disability, infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate. We want them to make children their priority. We have many issues, right from child labour, education and child marriage, among others, and we want politicians to promise that they will sincerely address the problems," added the 17-year-old, who is studying in class ten.

Over the years, because of constant campaigning by NGOs working for children in the state, political parties have been forced to include issues like education and child labour in their manifestos in the past. "Political parties are good at lip service. Till date, hardly any ruling party has given proper attention to poor and underprivileged children of the state. Our campaign is to make Karnataka a model state for children," said another child rights activist on condition of anonymity.

According to child rights activists, Karnataka has more than 100,000 (one lakh) out-of-school children. However, government officials differ and maintain that only 14,000 children are presently not going to school. Activists allege that the child protection policy has never been implemented in the state. "It is only in paper. Officials and teachers are not well-versed in the policies meant for children," said the activist.

"Like in the case of attendance authority, formed under the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), to keep a tab on school dropouts and bring them back to schools. However, the attendance authority is hardly functioning," he added.

In its first budget, the incumbent Congress government had allocated Rs 1,000-crore for education. Out of which, 60 per cent was used to pay salary for the teachers. "Go to any village or small town in Karnataka, schools are in shambles. The government has done nothing for children," alleged another activist.

One front where the Siddaramaiah government has fared well is the fight against malnourishment among children. A strong monitoring system by the Anganwadis, rural mother and child care centres, has brought down malnourishment in the state, claim officials. According to the Karnataka Health department, from 5,264 reported cases of malnourishment in 2014-2015, the numbers have come down to 1,791 in 2017-2018 (till August).

Manohar, another student who will be visiting offices of political parties on Saturday, stressed that unless and until politicians were not ready to hear them (children), problems could never be solved.

When asked if he is not too young to discuss such big topics with politicians, a confident Manohar replied that he might be a child, but not illiterate. "Political parties can't ignore us and our issues. If they do so, it will be at their own peril," added Manohar, as other children, mostly teenagers, from the group visiting party offices cheered the 'young leader'.

OneIndia NewsINX Media: 'Karti cannot be arrested by ED till March 22', says Delhi HC

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Karti Chidambaram has been granted protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate till March 22. The order was passed by the Delhi High Court.

Earlier the court had halted his arrest till March 20. Following this Karti, an accused in the INX Media case had filed another application seeking extension for another two days. The interim relief was granted and the matter will be taken up next on March 22.

Karti who was arrested by the CBI had moved the Delhi High Court. In his plea he said that he apprehended an arrest by the ED. In his interim prayer he had sought protection from arrest.

Karti was last week remanded in judicial custody by a special CBI court. The court will on the next date of hearing take up his bail plea.

OneIndia NewsDon't do or say anything that could damage India's image: Naidu to Rajya Sabha members

Must debate bank frauds issue in Parliament: Naidu

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Mar 15: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said Parliament should function to debate on the larger issue of frauds, damage they cause to the country's image and doubts created over banking system. His comment comes at a time when the opposition and government are differing over contours of debate on the biggest bank fraud.

The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have witnessed repeated adjournments during the second half of the Budget session that began on March 5, with opposition parties stalling proceedings over issues, including Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud. The opposition wants a debate on the issue under rules that would require voting on a resolution, the government is pressing for a short duration discussion without any voting.

Speaking at realtors' body CREDAI annual conclave, Naidu, who is also the presiding offer of Rajya Sabha, said he has agreed for a debate on the PNB fraud and other issues but "unfortunately" discussion is not happening.

"Irony is members (MPs) want discussion, government want discussion and chair wants discussion but discussion is not taking place," he said.

Both houses of Parliament were paralysed for the ninth consecutive day today with no business except for the legislations government pushed through in the din being transacted.

"Two three instances of Nirav Modi, (Mehul) Choksi and Vijay Mallya...but they are damaging the image of the country and they are damaging the image of the system. People are questioning entire banking system. Is there a structural failure, is there a collusion of people at different levels. If it is so, then why no action is taken," Naidu said.

He said there is no use in finding fault in whose regime the frauds took place.

"I hope that Parliament function and then there is a meaningful and constructive debate. Where does the fault lies," Naidu said.

"The issue is not this regime or that regime. The issue is of people losing confidence in the banking system. This is the larger issue. Who is accountable? What assurance they are giving to depositors. These are the larger issues that should be taken," Naidu said.

India's second largest lender Punjab National Bank has been hit by a fraud of about Rs 13,000 crore wherein billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Choksi allegedly used fraudulent letters of undertaking to obtain credit from overseas branches of Indian banks.

Naidu cautioned CREDAI not to allow black sheep and have a self code of conduct to keep defaulters and violators out of its organisation.

The law alone will not help in dealing with this disease as there are legal ways to fight cases for years together, he said, adding that the best way is voluntary code of conduct and whoever violates the norms, such black sheep and fly by night operators should be kept at distance. This will enhance CREDAI's credibility and acceptability, Naidu said. "This is the need of hour in real estate sector."

PTIRamping up domestic vaccine production, not right to speak of outside supply now: MEA

Pakistan calls back its envoy; India calls it a routine process

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Pakistan on Thursday called back its High Commissioner to India Sohail Mehmood to discuss alleged incidents of harassments of its diplomats by Indian authorities. However, India downplayed the incident and called the development a routine.

Raveesh Kumar, Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, India, in a press conference said, "We take note of their concerns. We are looking into these issues. We will not specify the issues taken up in front of the media. We do not wish to respond to this through media but through established diplomatic channels. Our issues haven't been resolved in Islamabad."

Reacting to the development, the Indian government has said that calling back envoys for consultations is a routine process and there is nothing unusual in this. He also said that India respects the Vienna Convention of 1961 and Pakistan must do the same.

Pakistan on Tuesday summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.

In his weekly press briefing, Muhammad Faisal alleged that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

"As Indian government did not take any steps to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, the Pakistani government has also lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy high commissioner as well as India's External Affairs Ministry," stated the Spokesperson.

OneIndia NewsPNB detects another fraud in Mumbai

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Another fraud has been detected at the Mumbai branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB). This was revealed in a complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The PNB is already reeling under a Rs 12,000 crore fraud case involving Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi. The new alleged fraud is to the tune of Rs 9.1 crore. It involves a little-known company called Chandri Paper and Allied Products Pvt Ltd. These details were made available in a CBI complaint that was posted on its website.

OneIndia NewsPNB fraud: ED seeks Interpol notice against Modi, Choksi

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Enforcement Directorate has moved the Interpol for the issuance of a red corner notice against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the two prime accused in the PNB scam.

The notice was sought on the basis of a court order that had issued non-bailable warrants against Modi and Choksi in a money laundering case. The ED sent the request to the CBI which is the nodal agency for the Interpol in India. This would now be taken up with the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France.

The duo accused in the Rs 12,000 crore PNB fraud case are abroad and have refused to join the investigation. The red-corner notice will help the agencies locate the duo. This would also pave the way for an extradition process apart from restricting their movements.

Recently a court in Mumbai issued non-bailable warrants against Choksi and Modi under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The agencies informed the court that despite repeated summons, the duo has refused to join the probe. The court had also allowed the agencies to issue Letters Rogatory (LRs) to six countries - Malaysia, Armenia, France, China, Japan, Russia and Belgium 1 for obtaining information about the overseas business of the duo.

OneIndia NewsIn touch with all concerned: India on reports of kidnapping of Indian national in Kabul

AUKUS neither relevant to Quad nor will impact on its functioning: India's first reaction

Prerogative of Iran: India on Invite to China, Pakistan for Chabahar Port Partnership

India

oi-PTI

Days after Iran invited China and Pakistan to participate in the development of the Chabahar port, India on Thursday said it was the prerogative of the Iranian government to choose its partners for the project.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, during a three-day visit to Islamabad, invited Pakistan and China to participate in the strategic Chabahar Port project, saying it is not aimed at "strangulating" or "encircling" anybody.

"It is the prerogative of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose its partners for the development of infrastructure facilities there," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a media briefing.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman was inaugurated four months ago, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. India has been a key partner in the development of the port which is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port, being developed with Chinese investment.

"As you are aware, India is supporting the development of Chahbahar Port as a robust and alternate access route to and for Afghanistan and Central Asia," said Kumar, adding significant progress has been made in operationlising the port. In November last year, India delivered the first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Chabahar Port.

"Shipment of wheat assistance to Afghanistan through Chahbahar is being successfully carried out since October last year. Four such shipments have been successfully delivered," said Kumar. He said India's assistance for building Chabahar-Zahedan Railway to realise the full potential of the port and to connect it to Afghanistan and Central Asia was discussed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit here last month.

"We continue to work with Iran on the full and effective operationalisation of the Chabahar Port," said Kumar. India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port.

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, March 15, 2018, 22:35 [IST]Popes on a pulpit: SC jibe at TV jounalists in Jay Shah defamation case

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Supreme Court has stayed the trial against journalists in the Jay Shah defamation case. The court directed the trial court not to proceed against the journalists till April 12.

The journalists had challenged the verdict of the Gujarat High Court which had refused to stay or quash proceedings in the defamation case.

During the hearing, Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra came down heavily on journalists who write what they think against anyone without basing it on facts.

The court asked if anyone can reproduce something in the official domain and adding something defamatory to it? Are innuendos in the realm of defence or realm of freedom? Whether the Founding Editors are liable to be charged with defamation, the court also sought to know.

The SC had some particularly harsh words for the television media. They must be more responsible. We do not want to name the channels, but some people think they are popes sitting on a pulpit and can pass judgments or deliver a sermon. That is not journalism, the court also said.

Appearing for the journalists, senior counsel, Kapil Sibal said that if a journalist asks how an Rs 18 lakh turnover turned into 80 core and he has to face prosecution, then it is the end of journalism.

Neeraj Kishan Kaul appearing for Jay Shah said freedom of speech for journalists do not give them the licence to selectively quote figures, lace it with innuendo to target a person because he is related to a political figure.

The challenge in the SC came after the Gujarat High Court rejected petitions filed by The Wire seeking to quash of a criminal defamation case lodged against it by Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah.

The court held that there is a prima facie case against Wire's reporter and editors. The court held that "the most disturbing part of the article", which can be "prima facie termed as defamatory", is linking the rise in Jay's firm's turnover with the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

OneIndia NewsTDP set to exit NDA, extends support to YSR Congress's no-confidence motion

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The Telugu Desam Party is all set to break its alliance with the BJP and could exit the NDA as early as Friday. The party has also decided to support the YSR Congress Party's no-confidence motion in Parliament tomorrow.

As voices demanding Special Status to Andhra Pradesh grows louder, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has decided to move a no-confidence motion against the NDA government at the Centre.

While Party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to all parties seeking their support in seeking special status for Andhra Pradesh, the ruling TDP is learned to have extended their support to YSRCP in this regard. An official confirmation is awaited.

TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has called a politburo meeting Friday to take a final call on the issue of exiting from the NDA.

According to the reports a majority of the members including MPs, MLAs and senior leaders have already told Naidu to quit NDA.

Naidu, who is at logger heads with the Centre over the demand for special status for state said that Prime Minister Modi is trying to repeat in Andhra Pradesh what he has done in Tamil Nadu.

In a teleconference with his MPs, Naidu accused the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using YSR Congress Party and actor K Pavan Kalyan's Jena Sena Party to target him and the TDP.

Naidu told the MPs that Modi was applying the same strategy that was used in Tamil Nadu where BJP supported OPS faction against EPS in the AIADMK.

Naidu said that instead of addressing the issues raised by the state such as allocating special funds, bridging revenue gap or special category status as promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, PM Modi was using the Tamil Nadu template to pit YSRCP and Jena Sena against TDP.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, March 15, 2018, 17:48 [IST]The radicalisation of South India: Why this part of the country is a ticking terror time bomb

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

You name any terrorist outfit in India and there will be a southern link that would crop up. While groups such as the Indian Mujahideen, Islamic State, Students Islamic Movement of India have their routes in India, a new worry is the spotting of jihadis fighting the Kashmir battle.

In recent times there have been two instances where terrorists from South India have joined the battle in Kashmir. The first instance of a jihadi joining the Kashmir battle was reported from Kerala. Shakeel Mohammad, a resident of Kovalam in Kerala was killed in an encounter at Lolab in North Kashmir.

The second such incident to be reported was from South Kashmir. The terrorist killed was Mohammad Taufeeq, a resident of Hyderabad killed in an encounter in Kashmir on March 13. The revelation was made by the

Ansar Ghazwatul Hind on its mouthpiece Al-Nasr and now the J&K police have written to their counterparts in Telangana seeking more details.

The radicalisation of South India:

In South India, there are a host of terror organisations. While some have links in South the others operate exclusively in this part of the country. For instance, the Indian Mujahideen was born out of the SIMI which was focused on North. However, the outfit held crucial meetings in Kerala which signalled the launch of the outfit. The case came to be known as Wagamon camp.

It is no secret that the founding fathers of the Indian Mujahideen are from South India. Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal and Yasin Bhatkal all hail from Bhatkal, a coastal town in Karnataka.

The several dossiers that the Intelligence Bureau has prepared go on to show that the southern units of these outfits are extremely radicalised. The problem is that the issues raised by them gain traction with much ease and hence the birth of several outfits have taken place in South, the IB also says.

Take for instance the outfit known as the Base Movement. It is an off-shoot of the Al-Qaeda and has its roots in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The combination of terror groups in South comprises both underground and overground operatives. There are groups such as the Al-Ummah which operate openly and focus largely on political hits. The blast at Coimbatore or the one outside the BJP office in Karnataka in 2013 all bore the signature of the Al-Ummah as the attacks were political in nature.

The other problem in South are groups such as the PFI or the SDPI. Both outfits have not been banned, but several of their overground workers have had links with the SIMI. The NIA in fact states on several occasions these links and how the PFI helped organise camps. The chopping of a Professor's hand by operatives of the PFI also goes on to show the extent of radicalisation.

The birth of the ISIS:

What is most ironic is that the first case relating to the Islamic State was also reported from South India. It was Haja Fakkruddin, a resident of Tamil Nadu who set the stage for operatives to join the ISIS. A recent charge sheet by the NIA details how Haja held meetings and lured many into joining the outfit.

The spill out of this was felt in Maharashtra, where four persons left India for Syria to join the outfit. However, the biggest case relating to the ISIS was again reported from South India. Nearly 23 persons had gone missing from Kerala and investigations showed that they had joined the ISIS in Afghanistan. The Afghan wing of the ISIS has been heavily recruiting Indians and the target has always been South and Kerala in particular. It was found that it is easier to target youth from Kerala due to the high levels of radicalisation and hence this has been a preferred destination.

ISI and smuggling:

To add to the problem of radicalisation is a problematic smuggling route. The ISI has had ambitions in South India. It made an attempt to set up a big module in South through its high commission in Colombo. It was the consular officer, Amir Zubair Siddiqui who hatched the plan.

The ISI had sensed that South could be a potential hub and what aided its operation was a dedicated smuggling route. This is a route that connects Tamil Nadu and Kerala via Sri Lanka. Since ages, this route has been used for all sorts of activities such as smuggling of cannabis, cigarettes, gold and now arms.

The Colombo module of the ISI had sought to use the same route to launch terror in South India. While that plan was busted with the arrest Zaheed Hussain, a Sri Lankan Muslim, the agencies warn that it is not something that we could ever sleep over.

OneIndia NewsUP by-polls: In defeat, the BJP has a message from the non-Yadav OBCs

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The loss at Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Araria is a blow for the BJP, considering that it is ruling in both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, who was the indisputable king of Gorakhpur said that it was over-confidence that led to the defeat.

In 2017, when the BJP won big in UP, it had fielded over third candidates from the non-Yadav OBC communities. There was a clear political mobilisation of these votes and in turn, it went on to help the BJP.

In the case of Bihar, the BJP was beaten in 2015 by a Nitish-Lalu alliance. Last year the BJP and Nitish came together and reached out to the non-Yadav community.

However, in the by-elections for which the results were announced on Wednesday, these combinations did not seem to work out for the BJP. Praveen Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Patel who won from Gorakhpur and Phulpur respectively are from the non-Yadav OBC communities.

UP by-elections: What went wrong for the BJP

Another interesting fact is that the both the SP and BJP candidate from Phulpur are Kurmis. The voter, however, chose the SP's candidate despite both belonging to the same group.

In Gorakhpur, the members of the Nishad community backed the SP candidate who also is from the same community. The Nishads have always backed the BJP in the past. Analysts would say that this is for the first time in Gorakhpur a representative of the Gorakhnath Mutt was not a BJP candidate. Nishads, the OBC community have been the traditional supporters of Adityanath. The fact that he was not the candidate could have also swung the votes in favour of the SP.

The other key factor is that the SP had the help of the BSP. The Dalit support base of the BSP also played a major role in the elections. This could be a bigger worry for the BJP in the 2019 elections. If this factor has played a role in Yogi's background, then it could have a bigger bearing on the other candidates who are not as strong.

With the opposition set to play the same game as fielding non-Yadav candidates, the BJP would look for course correction to consolidate these votes. This is clearly an indicator for the BJP that these votes cannot be taken for granted and ahead of 2019, the party would have a lot of work to do.

OneIndia NewsWhy 2018 was a year of exits in the banking sector

Will drink poison to clean the system: RBI Governor, Urjit Patel

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The RBI like the 'Neelakantha' will consume poison, face brickbats, but will persist with endeavour to become better with each trial, the Central bank's Governor Urjit Patel has said.

Breaking his silence over the Rs 12,967 crore scam at PNB, he said: "I have chosen to speak today to convey that we at the Reserve Bank of India also feel the anger, hurt and pain at the banking sector frauds and irregularities."

Delivering a lecture at the Gujarat National Law University here, he said: "In plain simple English, these practices amount to a looting of our country's future by some in the business community, in cahoots with some lenders."

Patel said RBI has in place asset quality review of banks and "we are doing all we can to break this unholy nexus".

Invoking mythology, he said RBI has undertaken the cleaning up of the country's credit culture as the Mandara mount or the churning rod in the Amrit Manthan or the Samudra Manthan of the modern day Indian economy.

Until the churn is complete and the nectar of stability safely secured for the country's future, someone must consume the poison that emanates along the way, he said.

"If we need to face the brickbats and be the Neelakantha consuming this poison, we will do so as our duty; we will persist with our endeavours and get better with each trial and tribulation along the way," the Governor said.

He also wished that more promoters and banks, individually - or collectively through their industry bodies, would reconsider being on the side of "Devas rather than Asuras in this Amrit Manthan".

He made a pitch for "making banking regulatory powers neutral to bank ownership and leveling the playing field between public sector and private sector banks".

Observing that there has been a tendency in the pronouncements post revelation of the fraud that RBI supervision team should have caught it, Patel said no banking regulator can catch or prevent all frauds.

"While that can always be said ex-post with any fraud, it is simply infeasible for a banking regulator to be in every nook and corner of banking activity to rule out frauds by 'being there'," he said.

Referring to PNB, Patel said the RBI had identified, based on cyber risk considerations, the exact source of operational hazard - through which "we understand" now the fraud had been perpetrated.

In particular, he said the RBI had issued precise instructions via three circulars in 2016 to enable banks to eliminate the hazard.

"It turns out ex-post the bank had simply not done so. Clearly, the internal processes at the bank failed in allowing the operational hazard to remain in place in spite of clear instructions to close it," he said.

Patel said the RBI will undertake actions against the bank that it is empowered to but this set is limited under its Banking Regulation Act powers over PSBs.

Noting that "success has many fathers; failures none", the Governor said there has been the usual blame game, passing the buck, and a tonne of honking, mostly short-term and knee-jerk reactions.

"These appear to have prevented the participants in this cacophony from deep reflection and soul searching that can help solve fundamental issues that are the root cause of such frauds and related irregularities in the banking sector," he said.

Patel also flagged the issue of rising bad loans (NPA) saying that the problems need immediate attention.

"Its magnitude is larger than Rs 8.5 lakh crores of stressed assets on bank balance sheets and its significance stems from several practices in promoter-bank credit relationship that need immediate attention,".

The RBI has been clamping down on the failure to recognise asset quality as non-performing as per its norms by requiring that banks, whose "divergence" exceeds by 15 per cent of the true non-performing assets (NPAs) as per the norms, disclose the divergence.

This should restore some market discipline against such practices, especially in the case of private sector banks, Patel said.

OneIndia NewsUnder pandemic cloud, Nobel Prize 2020 ceremony to be held online this year

Nobel-winning professor's wife found dead at landfill in Illinois

International

pti-PTI

Rockford, March 15: Japanese Nobel Prize-winning chemistry professor's wife was found dead at a landfill hours after the couple was reported missing in Indiana. Authorities in northern Illinois are investigating the matter.

The Ogle County Sheriff's Office says in a news release that deputies found 80-year-old Sumire Negishi's body and the couple's car Tuesday at Orchard Hills Landfill outside Rockford shortly after they found 82-year-old Ei-ichi Negishi walking nearby.

The sheriff's department says foul play is not suspected, but wouldn't discuss autopsy results. The release says the husband is hospitalized.

The couple was reported missing Monday from their home about 200 miles (320 kilometers) away in West Lafayette, Indiana, where Ei-ichi is a Purdue University chemistry professor. The Japanese scientist won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010.

PTIPIA flight lands in Kabul, becomes first commercial airline to do so since Taliban takeover

On Afghanistan, Pak has to line up on broad majority of international community: Blinken

Pakistan High Commissioner to India called back over charges of harassment of diplomats

International

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Pakistan High Commissioner to India Sohail Mehmood has been called back for a meeting to discuss alleged cases of harassment of diplomats in New Delhi. Pakistan foreign office spokesperson made the announcement today.

Dr. Muhammad Faisal, Spokesperson, MOFA, said, "Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood would be visiting Islamabad shortly for consultations on matters relating to Pakistan-India relations.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday alleged that the officers, staff and more regrettably the families and children of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi continue to face intense harassment, intimidation and outright violence from the Indian state agencies. These have escalated exponentially in the last few days"

"This deliberate bullying is not confined to a single isolated event but continues unabated in a series of incidents, especially targeting the children of our officers and staff. Some of these events are, " stated the foreign ministry.

Sohail Mahmood succeeded Abdul Basit who bid adieu to the country after serving as envoy in New Delhi for four years. He was appointed as the High Commissioner to India in 2014.

Sohail Mahmood joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1985, as per PTI. His first posting abroad was in Pakistan Embassy Ankara where he served as the Second Secretary from 1991-1994.

Being a career diplomate, Sohail Mahmood reportedly has a wide experience in the diplomatic service. He has served in various Pakistan missions abroad including Washington and New York.

(With agency inputs)Trump says India has just been devastated by COVID-19

Collapse of Kabul will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history: Donald Trump

Was Biden handcuffed by Trump's Taliban deal in Doha?

Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden

Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump

US imposes sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in American election

International

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in American election, including 13 indicted by Mueller.

The US Treasury announced the names of the Russians whose assets were being frozen and whom Americans were prevented from doing business with.

Among the names, were the 13 individuals indicted by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller for "conspiracy to defraud the United States".

The Trump administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in the US election, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, said Treasury Secretary Steven T Mnuchin.

"These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia," Mnuchin said.

"Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions, informed by our intelligence community, to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilising activities by severing their access to the US financial system," he said.

The move comes as the United states joined European leaders Thursday in blaming Russia for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England.

In a rare joint statement, President Donald Trump, President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Theresa May say "there is no plausible alternative explanation" to Russian responsibility in the March 4 attack in England.

Britain has expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Moscow over the incident.

OneIndia NewsMalta Prepares to Replace Existing Gaming Legislation with New Gambling Bill

Published March 15, 2018 by Florin P

The Maltese parliament will vote on a new Gambling Bill aimed at creating a better regulatory framework for the gambling industry.

The Maltese parliament will soon be presented with a motion concerning a new Gambling Bill aimed at replacing existing legislation. It was proposed by the parliamentary secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy & Innovation Silvio Schembri. The bill is comprehensive and includes additional pieces of legislation, as well as technical guidelines suggested by the Malta Gaming Authority.

The goal is to create a unitary law that would better regulate the gaming industry, while keeping it fun, responsible and transparent. Malta is regarded as a well regulated gambling environment and a preferred destination for industry leaders. The new bill will bring sweeping changes and will reduce the number of licenses to just two: a Business-to-Consumer license and a Business-to-Business license.

A Boost for the Malta Gaming Authority

If the new Gambling Bill is signed into law, it will expand the powers of the MGA. The gaming authority will be more effective in dealing with the threats of money laundering and terrorism funding. Existing player protection frameworks will also be strengthened, with the players funds to be well segregated. Consumers will be better protected as a result Malta Gaming Authoritys powers being boosted.

Joseph Cuschieri, executive chairman of the MGA was quick to acknowledge the importance of the new bill and highlight its advantages. He said that many of the regulatory gaps will be closed, therefore consumers will enjoy a superior level of protection. The gaming industry is also expected to benefit from these changes and Silvio Schembri foresees a 4% growth.

B2B Licensees Exempted from Gaming Tax

The new law would compel bookmakers to do their best to identify suspicious betting patterns and report them to the MGA. On the flipside of these new obligations, B2B licensees will benefit from gaming tax exceptions, which should boost their profit margins.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.

Of the 47 women nominated outside the two actress categories, only four won Oscars. Of the 151 non-actor male nominees, 32 were winners. Greta Gerwig was nominated along with four males for Best Director, but predictably did not win. Since 1929 only 5 women have been nominated for Best Director, and only one (Kathryn Bigelow) has won.

Jennifer Lawrence is a prominent voice in the #MeToo and Time's Up campaigns against the sexual harassment and gender inequality rampant in Hollywood. The specter hanging over the Oscars also shrouded a recent viral controversy over Lawrence's appearance in the above photo promoting the film Red Sparrow (in which she has a starring role as a seductive killer).

The males on either side of her (the director and three of her co-stars) are dressed appropriately for the cold London weather, while she wears only a scanty dress. Many people saw this as an example of sexism because Lawrence had to expose her body while the males got to bundle up. Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the The New Statesman, tweeted: "True equality means either Jennifer Lawrence getting a coat, or Jeremy Irons having to pose for a photocall in assless chaps."

Jennifer Lawrence angrily rejected the criticisms: "This is sexist, this is ridiculous, this is not feminism. Over-reacting about everything someone says or does, creating controversy over silly innocuous things such as what I choose to wear or not wear, is not moving us forward. It's creating silly distractions from real issues. Get a grip people. Everything you see me wear is my choice. And if I want to be cold THATS MY CHOICE TOO!" She is telling the world she can damn well wear whatever she pleases, and spare her this condescending political correctness!

But the issue raised by the photo is deeper and more difficult than just preferring men's comfort over that of women in a cold-weather photo shoot. Sam Smethers is Chief Executive of The Fawcett Society, one of the leading women's rights' organizations working on gender equality in the UK. Her comment on the photo goes to the heart of the problem: "This image sums up what is wrong with the film industry and with wider society. It objectifies rather than respects her for the outstanding actor she is. We truly have a long way to go."

What's "wrong with the film industry and with wider society" is that they are profoundly and pervasively patriarchal. Patriarchy is the social and political dominance of males, especially older males. Its etymology goes back to the Greek noun for father (pater) and verb for rule (archein).

In patriarchal sexuality the male is the subject, the initiator and controlling agent, whereas the female is the relatively passive object of male desire and pursuit. When Smethers complains that the photo of Lawrence "objectifies rather than respects her," she means that it presents Lawrence not as an autonomous person but rather as an object of male sexual desire, a means for voyeuristic gratification.

The notion of respect here is central to justice and morality--it's the recognition of an equal intrinsic worth that attaches to persons as such. A thing or object, by contrast, has only a derivative value insofar as it is a means to satisfy someone's desire. The most central moral principle is to respect persons, oneself and others. No one wants to be used--to be treated merely as a means or object or thing.

Patriarchy is essentially unjust and immoral because it refuses to respect men and women equally. It subordinates one kind of person to another (like racism). Yet it is deeply rooted in our culture (as in most cultures present and past). We are one nation under God the Father and President Groper.

Patriarchy does more than promote discriminatory behavior by men toward women. It also shapes the way they see the world and each other. Laura Mulvey, in her brilliant 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," explained what she called "the male gaze" in film:

In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.

As Jessica P. Ogilvie reported recently, actresses (especially at the start of their careers) often get a brutal lesson in the power of the male gaze. They "are frequently pressured to perform nude or nearly nude scenes, experiencing everything from subtle coercion to threats and verbal abuse at the hands of directors or producers" (Washington Post 3/8/18).

There is a hard dilemma in Jennifer Lawrence's reply to her critics. Yes, how she dresses is her choice, and she can take pride in her exceptional beauty by wearing a revealing gown. Presumably most of the women parading down the red carpet on Oscars night would say the same.

But this striking display and teasing glimpses of female body parts is more than understandable pride. It is also a presentation of self as object, a glorying in patriarchal values. It stands in problematic juxtaposition with demands to be treated equally with and by males.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 Alon Ben-Meir Website



(Image by Artwork by Michael Anderson and Sam Ben-Meir) Details DMCA



This is part 1 of a two-part article

The recent violation of Israel's air space by an Iranian drone and Israel's retaliation against Syrian and Iranian targets prompted many observers to suggest that the growing regional tension resulting from such incidents may precipitate a war between Israel and Iran/Hezbollah, and perhaps inadvertently with Syria as well. I disagree with this prognosis. I maintain that none of the players involved want to engage in a war that will inflict tremendous destruction and casualties without realizing any sustainable long-term gains. This, however, does not preclude an accidental war resulting from an unintended incident or miscalculation.

Regardless of each player's mutual public acrimony and threats, their strategic interests are best served by avoiding war. The question then becomes: what kind of precautionary measures should be taken by all the players involved, especially Russia in cooperation with the US, to prevent such an ominous development?

Iran's overall strategic interest is to become the region's hegemon, and it is determined to realize its objective by first securing a contiguous landmass from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, where Syria is a critical linchpin, and create a united front to threaten Israel. To protect its base and influence in Syria, Iran was quick to exploit the civil war by providing Assad with hundreds of millions of dollars, thousands of well-trained combatants, and military equipment to help him defeat the rebels and ISIS. Having suffered upward of 500 Iranian casualties, Iran became even more determined to reap the fruits of its efforts by pursuing the establishment of a permanent military presence in the country.

Iran's second objective is to maintain a state of constant threat against its staunchest enemy -- Israel -- by seeking to establish a military presence in close proximity to the Israeli borders. Iran uses Israel as a rallying cry to attract violent extremists to support its proxy wars and further its regional agenda. Thus, by keeping up its public assault against Israel, Iran hopes to maintain animosity toward and heighten concerns over the "Israeli menace" against the Muslim world.

In addition, Iran continues to beef up Hezbollah's arsenals in Lebanon; first, because it wants to secure its foothold in Lebanon. Second, because it wants to open up three strategic fronts -- in Syria, Lebanon, and potentially Gaza by way of Hamas -- from which it can intimidate Israel and test its resolve, and create new controlled tensions, as it has recently done by flying a drone over Israeli skies, which was quickly shot down by Israel.

That said, notwithstanding its bravado, Tehran does not want to challenge Israel militarily, knowing that open hostilities now, and even in the foreseeable future, could provoke a massive Israeli retaliation that goes far beyond the reprisal following Iran's incursion into Israeli air space, with the potential to inflict a humiliating defeat.

Finally, Iran wants to preserve the Iran deal and would not want to give Trump reasons to nullify it. That said, even though Trump may still withdraw from the deal, Iran wants to remain in good graces with the other five signatories to the deal to prevent the resumption of the sanctions, especially at a time when the Iranian public is restive and is demanding improved economic conditions and greater social freedoms.

To prevent any miscalculation that could lead to a catastrophic war with Israel, Iran should rather acquiesce and refrain from establishing military bases near the Israeli borders and build them farther north in Syria. In so doing, Iran would also aid in preventing any serious threat to Assad's grip on power, on whose behest Tehran is justifying its continuing presence in the country, which, in any case, assumes top priority in its scheme of regional hegemony.

Tehran will be wise to rein in Hezbollah and prevent it from provoking Israel, since any conflagration between Israel and Hezbollah could destroy much of its infrastructure and rocket stockpile. After all, Iran is more interested in maintaining the threat against Israel from the Lebanese front, which serves its long-term strategic interest by solidifying its foothold in Lebanon only through maintaining a strong Hezbollah.

Hezbollah joined with the Syrian military to combat the rebels throughout the ongoing civil war. Even though much of its fighting force is battle-hardened, Hezbollah is now under increasing pressure to focus on restoring some normalcy to the larger Shiite community in Lebanon, while regrouping in the process. Hezbollah has sustained nearly 1,300 casualties, and Lebanon itself has suffered greatly from Syria's civil war and is still paying a heavy toll in its effort to accommodate over one million Syrian refugees.

Hezbollah, with the full support of Iran, will maintain its threatening posture toward Israel by continuing its efforts to increase its stockpile of weapons, but it will not challenge Israel militarily. Hezbollah knows that Israel's threshold for casualties is very low, and the death of 40-50 Israelis from Hezbollah's rocket fire will provoke overwhelming retaliatory strikes that could inflict thousands of Lebanese casualties, which Hezbollah wants to prevent. In any event, Hezbollah will not initiate any hostilities against Israel without Tehran's approval because such a move ill-serves Iran's strategic regional ambitions.

Under any circumstances, Israel will continue to attack convoys carrying weapons from Iran to Hezbollah, and will also target any weapons manufacturing facilities on Lebanese soil. This, of course, carries certain risks of escalating hostilities. But since Hezbollah and Iran want to avoid a war, they will address such Israeli attacks in the same manner they have addressed previous ones -- by saying little and doing even less. This, however, does not suggest that Israel has a free hand to do what it pleases. Israeli strikes will be measured against the backdrop of the overall environment, which is constrained by Israel's own desire to avoid an open-ended war as long as it is not existentially threatened.

The Assad regime: Since he rose to power in 2000, Syria's President Assad has never contemplated waging a war against Israel. Like his father, he has fully adhered to the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel. In fact, throughout his reign, Assad has made several peace overtures toward Israel, believing that Syria's future stability and prosperity depends on peace with Israel, or at a minimum maintaining the absence of hostilities.

Next Page 1 | 2

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False Flag flies in Salisbury

(Image by Unknown) Details DMCA



High among the great British contributions to world civilisation", observed the late John Mortimer, are "the plays of William Shakespeare, the full breakfast, the herbaceous border and the presumption of innocence." It is an embarrassment and an affront to all in the UK who hold such values dear that in recent decades the British Government and its media appears to have abandoned this precept.

On the basis that the USSR produced a new type of chemical nerve agent in the 1970s in Uzbekistan, which was subsequently inherited by the US in the 1990s, Russia stands accused of a heinous act committed on British soil in the cathedral city of Salisbury. The murder of a man of dubious status (whose background and connections is largely shrouded in mystery) and his daughter, has rightly shocked most British people. However, the instantaneous and peremptory assignation of guilt to Russia - and the accompanying threats made by the British Government - are completely unacceptable to anyone who values due process and the proper discourse of law in international affairs.

In spite of the fact that Russia has offered to help the British with the investigation, has requested samples of the chemical agent so as to trace its origins etc, they have been vilified as brutal assassins and the UK media has turned into little more than a servile xenophobic organ of State manipulation. Putin has said that the UK should assemble its evidence and then discuss with Russia. It seems a reasonable request - it has been ignored. President Macron of France has also requested that the British provide evidence - but the UK has provided none. Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition has also requested evidence: it seems a reasonable thing to ask before anyone starts pointing fingers at anyone else. He has been met with howls of fury by those who think it is enough for the UK Prime Minister to declare a matter as fact for it to be considered as fact - it is not. So soon after the catastrophies of Iraq (WMDs), Libya and Syria we are entitled to take our starting position as one of "innocent until proven guilty" at the very least. It is a fine institution which many in Britain appear to have forgotten. Given that the Government in the UK has shown such casual disregard for truth and for human life in pursuit of dubious foreign policy objectives in recent years, it is a duty and a virtue for us to question them closely and to treat all they say with utmost scepticism. There must be due process in justice for it to have authority and legitimacy and the international community would be wise to give little succour or regard to hot-headed UK foreign policy objectives thinly disguised as moral outrage: above all, they should demand that the UK produce evidence of any claims which can be subjected to independent scrutiny.

(Article changed on March 15, 2018 at 15:14)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



Theresa May, Prime Minister, United Kingdom

(Image by flickr.com) Details DMCA



Russians are having a difficult time comprehending their Western enemy or even understanding that Russia has an enemy that seeks the destruction of Russia.

Has it occured to Russia that it is very strange that the UK, a country of no military significance, a country that could be completely destroyed forever in a few minutes by Russia, would concoct false charges against the Russian government, announce these charges publicly without providing any evidence whatsoever, bring the unsupported charges to the UN, issue an ultimatum to Russia, dispel Russian diplomats and seize Russian assets on the basis of mere allegations, all the while refusing any evidence and any cooperation with Russia, as required by law, in the investigation of the charges?

Russians, both government, media and youth brainwashed by American propaganda and the Washington-funded NGOS that the Russian government permits to operate against itself in Russia, seem to think that the many accusations and threats issued against Russia are some kind of mistake that can be rectified by recourse to evidence and law. Apparently, after all these years the Russians still do not understand that Washington and its vassals have no interest whatsoever in facts or law.

At the UN, the Russian ambassador, in response to the evidence-free accusation by the UK prime minister that the Russian government had used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to kill two people on an English park bench, went through all the legal reasons, including the requirement of collaboration with Russia in examining the evidence, to establish that the UK accusation was in violation of law and unsupported by any evidence.

Why do the Russians think the British government cares a hoot about law or evidence? Are the Russians really this brainwashed about the West?

The British government of Tony Blair cooperated with the George W. Bush regime in propagating the lie that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction." This lie was used to invade and to destroy Iraq and to leave the country 15 years later in chaos.

The British government also supported the lies about Gaddafi in Libya and participated in overthrowing the Libyan government. The British government also supported the lie that Iran had a nuclear weapons program. There was never any evidence, but evidence was of no interest. An agenda was in motion, and the agenda was independent of evidence.

Although the British Parliament voted down British participation in Obama's planned invasion of Syria, the current British government supports the lie that Assad is using chemical weapons "against his own people."

By now one would think that Russians, both government, media, and public, would understand that all the West is capable of is to lie. The purpose of the lies is to demonize Russia and to set up Russia for military attack.

But somehow Russians can't get the message. Russians think it is all some kind of mistake that facts and legal processes and diplomacy can clear up. "Please just listen to us, we can clear up all the misconceptions!" As if the West cares. Washington wants "the misconceptions." That is why Washington creates them.

The inability of Russians to understand the West, which Russia stupidly wants to join, is the reason that World War 3 is near at hand.

What if, instead of reciting the legal process and the law governing it that the UK PM refused to follow before publicly accusing Russia without the presentation of any evidence, the Russian UN Ambassador had simply said: "If the UK exists tomorrow, it will be due entirely to the forbearance of the Russian government."

By relying on law, about which no Western country gives a hoot, the Russian UN ambassador permitted Washington's French puppet and other of Washington's European puppet states to say that they supported the British charges against Russia despite the absence of evidence. Perhaps the Russians noticed that none of those European governments required any evidence that Russia was responsible. All that was required was the accusation.

In the exceptional, indispensable Western World ruled by Washington, accusation alone is proof of Russian mendacity. When British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn asked PM May if she actually had any real evidence that Russia had tried to kill the former British double-agent, Corbyn was shouted down not only by the corrupt Conservatives but also by members of the Labour Party that he heads. How much more evidence does Russia need that facts are not important to the West?

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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"There's no dispute that we now live in a hyper-connected, globalized world--but plenty of argument over the type of globalization that's best for our collective future. In this timely work, Rob Kall makes a persuasive case for 'trickle-up' globalization from below and that the truest, best, and most long-lasting fundamental change always comes from the bottom up. Read this bookthen act on it!"



Rory O'Connor, award-winning filmmaker and author of Friends, Followers, and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional MediaQuicklink Not Found

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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

Stephen Lendman agrees that the murderous criminals in Washington are driving humanity to extinction.

Because of the control over explanations that people in the Western world receive, most are unaware of the mounting danger.

In the past few days extreme and serious threats have been issued against Russia and Syria by Washington and London. It seems that finally the Russians have had enough. The Russian Foreign Ministry informed the crazed UK prime Minister May that "one does not give 24 hours notice to a nuclear power."

The Russian Foreign Ministry went on to state that the so-called "Skripal poisoning" is "a colossal international provocation" and "another crooked attempt by the UK authorities to discredit Russia."

Powerful Russia put impotent Britain on notice: "Any threat to take 'punitive' measures against Russia will meet with a response. The British side should be aware of that."

As for Washington's threat to strike Syrian army forces, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said if such a strike occurs, "the consequences will be very serious."

It could be the case that Washington, concerned about its deteriorating military capability vis-a-vis Russia, has decided to attack before the new Russian weapons are fully deployed, and that the purpose of the threats based on orchestrated false charges are to prepare the Western peoples for war.

During the 25 years I spent in Washington, there was still some intelligence and some integrity in the US government. Today neither intelligence nor integrity exists in Washington. You can with confidence expect the worst.

See also this.Breast Implants Market - Regional Outlook and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2534

https://www.tmrresearch.com/breast-implants-market

Global Breast Implants Market: OverviewWomen in particular possess a heightened conscience about their appearance and looks. A growing number of women are employing various methods to enhance their physical appearance. Breast implantation is one of the trends that has been increasingly popular among women. Breast implantation surgery has seen tremendous change on account of the technological advancements in the cosmetic surgery field. Most women have a high preference for enhancing their esthetic appeal. This in turn is fueling the demand for breast implants worldwide. As per the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, breast enhancement is one of the top five cosmetic procedures which is conducted in the U.S. The number of women undergoing breast implants is staggering in the U.S.The growing incidence of breast cancer is one of the key factors boosting the global breast implants market. In many severe cases of breast cancer, there is a need for removal of the entire organ. Reconstruction is thus required, which involves the re-building of the removed organ. This is anticipated to boost the global breast implants market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Breast Implants Market: Key TrendsOn the basis of shape, round-shaped implants contributed toward the largest revenue share in 2016. Due to the round shape, they are ideal for breast augmentation. These devices tend to look like a compressed sphere. Hence, these products generated huge demand, thereby supporting the growth of the market. On the basis of shape, the round shaped implants segment is leading in the market as they eliminate any problem arising at the time of implant rotation. However, anatomical shaped breast implants segment are expected to grow significantly during the forecast period on account of their natural shape. Most women want naturally shaped breasts and thus, the segment will witness potential growth during the years to come.Request TOC of the Report @Global Breast Implants Market: Market PotentialThe implant procedural cost is reducing and this is fueling the growth prospects of the breast implants market across the U.K and Spain. The growing competition among plastic surgeon coupled with the increase in the number of cosmetic surgery clinics are expected to create growth opportunities for the breast implants market. The growing number of qualified plastic surgeons is expected to increase in the years to come and this is further expected to boost the global breast implants market. A large number of plastic surgeons in the U.S. and Europe, are reducing their labor fees so as to get more patients and survive in the competitive breast implants market. This will increase the affordability for patients and encourage them towards implanting breasts.Global Breast Implants Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, North America is leading in the market on account of the rising prevalence of breast cancer in the region and a higher spending towards healthcare. Europe is also contributing significantly in the market on account of the growing awareness among the people in the region and a large number of cosmetology clinics in the region. Additionally, Asia Pacific is also likely to witness a growth in the market on account of the rising disposable income of the people in the developing nations. Medical tourism will drive the market in the region. Asia Pacific is expected to offer opportunities by offering low cost treatments.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Breast Implants Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players operating in the global breast implants market are: Arion Laboratories, Allergan, Silimed, Mentor Worldwide, Establishment Labs, GC Aesthetics, Groupe Sebbin, Guangzhou Wanhe Plastic Materials, Sientra, Hans Biomed, Ideal Implant, Cereplas, and Polytech Health & Aesthetics.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Consumer Skin Care Devices Market Analysis, Growth, Share, Industry Trends, Supply Demand, Forecast and Sales to 2023

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The Global Consumer Skin Care Devices market size will be XX million (USD) in 2023, from the XX million (USD) in 2017, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of XX% from between 2017 and 2023.This report studies the global Consumer Skin Care Devices market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top 5 Consumer Skin Care Devices players in each region, with sales, price, revenue and market share from 2013 to 2018, the top players includingPanasonicPhilipsHitachiBraunYA-MANL'Oreal (Clarisonic)ConairNuFaceKingdomTriaRemingtonSilknKuronFOREOLightStimBaby QuasarRequest a Sample Report @Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales, revenue, market share of top players in these regions, from 2013 to 2018 (forecast), likeNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Korea)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia etc.South America (Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina)Middle East and Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Saudi Arabia)Split by Product Types, with sales, revenue, price, market share of each type, can be divided intoCleansing BrushSteamerAnti-aging DeviceAcne Care DeviceHair Removal Devices (Epilator)Hair Removal Devices (IPL, Laser)Split by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Consumer Skin Care Devices in each application, can be divided intoOn-lineOff-lineTable of Contents2018 Top 5 Consumer Skin Care Devices Players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa1 Consumer Skin Care Devices Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Consumer Skin Care Devices1.2 Consumer Skin Care Devices Segment by Types1.2.1 Global Sales Market Share of Consumer Skin Care Devices by Types in 20171.2.2 Cleansing Brush1.2.2.1 Major Players of Cleansing Brush1.2.3 Steamer1.2.3.1 Major Players of Steamer1.2.4 Anti-aging Device1.2.4.1 Major Players of Anti-aging Device1.2.5 Acne Care Device1.2.5.1 Major Players of Acne Care Device1.2.6 Hair Removal Devices (Epilator)1.2.6.1 Major Players of Hair Removal Devices (Epilator)1.2.7 Hair Removal Devices (IPL, Laser)1.2.7.1 Major Players of Hair Removal Devices (IPL, Laser)1.3 Consumer Skin Care Devices Segment by Applications1.3.1 Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share by Applications in 20171.3.2 On-line1.3.3 Off-line1.4 Consumer Skin Care Devices Market by Regions1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.1.1 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.2 Asia-Pacific Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.2.1 Asia-Pacific Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.3.1 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.4.1 South America Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.5 Middle East and Africa Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.5.1 Middle East and Africa Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Consumer Skin Care Devices (2013-2023)2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Players2.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Players in 2016 and 20172.1.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Players in 2016 and 20172.1.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share (%) by Players in 2016 and 20172.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share by Players in 2016 and 20172.2.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue by Players in 2016 and 20172.2.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue Market Share (%) by Players in 2016 and 20172.3 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Average Price by Players in 2016 and 20172.4 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types by Players2.4.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales Area by Players2.4.2 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Product Types2.5 Consumer Skin Care Devices Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Consumer Skin Care Devices Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Consumer Skin Care Devices Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Players2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue (Value) by Regions, Type and Application (2013-2018)3.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)3.1.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)3.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)3.2.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.2.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.2.3 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Price by Type (2013-2018)3.3 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)3.3.1 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Application (2013-2018)3.3.2 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share by Application (2013-2018)3.4 Global Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 North America Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue and Price4.1 North America Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20174.1.1 North America Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share in 2016 and 20174.1.2 North America Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20174.2 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)4.2.1 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.1.1 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Type (2013-2018)4.2.1.2 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.2 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.2.1 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue by Type (2013-2018)4.2.2.2 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.3 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Price by Type (2013-2018)4.3 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4.3.1 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Application (2013-2018)4.3.2 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4.4 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Country (US, Canada and Mexico) (2013-2018)4.4.1 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Country (2013-2018)4.4.2 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share by Country (2013-2018)4.5 North America Consumer Skin Care Devices Import & Export (2013-2018)5 Europe Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue and Price5.1 Europe Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20175.1.1 Europe Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share in 2016 and 20175.1.2 Europe Top 5 Players Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20175.2 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)5.2.1 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.1.1 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Type (2013-2018)5.2.1.2 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.2 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.2.1 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue by Type (2013-2018)5.2.2.2 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Revenue Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.3 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Price by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5.3.1 Europe Consumer Skin Care Devices Sales by Application (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Integrated Passive Device Market: Size, Share, Innovation Trends, Demand and Growth With Industry Insights by Base, Functional Blocks, Type and Application Forecast to 2023

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The global integrated passive device market is expected to register high growth during the forecast period, with the market projected to reach from $901.5 million in 2016 to $1,572.3 million by 2023, witnessing a CAGR of 8.4% during 2017-2023.Get a free sample of this research report:ntegrated passive devices are widely used for applications such as digital and mixed signals, LED lighting, RF applications and ESD/EMI protection. Of them, the digital and mixed signal applications led the market in 2016, and is expected to remain the largest market during the forecast period as well, majorly on account of the increased electrical performance requirements. Moreover, integrated passive devices offer miniaturization, cost reduction and added functionality benefits that are likely to create positive outlook for this market.Baluns are expected to contribute the largest revenue to the global IPD market throughout the forecast period. Anticipated supremacy of the baluns segment can be attributed to their extensive utilization in almost all applications, where these devices are being used. Additionally, more number of balun units are required in a single circuit, as compared to the other functional blocks, owing to which the market for baluns is likely to witness a notable growth in the coming years.Among functional blocks, market for harmonic filters is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. Rising demand for power quality, increasing adoption of variable frequencies by the end-users, growing demand from IT and data centers, increasing government regulations, and growing awareness regarding the potential damage from harmonic distortion are some of the major factors driving the market for harmonic filters globally. These filters help to overcome certain limitations associated with conventional filters, such as higher utility cost and less power factor, due to which harmonic filters are likely to substitute conventional equipment in near future.Explore report at:Among regions, Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) are expected to contribute the highest revenue to the global integrated passive device market during the forecast period. Existence of fabrication and IPD manufacturers are the major factors responsible for the growth of IPD market in Europe. In EMEA, the European countries contribute the largest to the rapidly growing IPD market. The growth in Europe can be attributed to the surge in demand for IPD products, as it has been an early adopter of new technologies.Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to register the highest growth in the global integrated passive devices market during the forecast period. Growth of the IPD market in APAC is largely driven by rapid growth in emerging economies such as China, South Korea, Taiwan and India. Furthermore, presence of these countries offer profit-making imperatives for the IPD market owing to the rapid advancements in the telecommunication, infrastructure and consumer electronics in Asia-Pacific.Make enquiry before buying the report:The major players operating in this market include On Semiconductor, Stats ChipPAC, STMicroelectronics, Murata-IPDiA, Johanson Technology, Onchip Devices, AFSC and Infineon.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:Airway Management Devices Market -Robust pace of Industry during 2017 - 2025

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Global Airway Management Devices Market: OverviewThe global airway management devices are medical devices used for patients have obstructed airways or are at the risk of being obstructed. These devices find applications in a variety of clinical settings such as emergency and pre-hospital settings, operating rooms, and out-of-hospital care. Over the past few years, they have gained wide application in managing supraglottic airways and in endotracheal intubation. The proper use of airway management devices is necessary in various preoperative settings to ventilate patient and significantly improve post-operative outcomes, especially in critical care settings.The increasing prevalence of respiratory diseases and growing number of patients with difficult airways in emergency departments is continuously boosting the evolution of the market. Medical device manufacturers are developing devices that need least expertise to operate, improves the rate of successful intubation, and are designed innovatively.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Airway Management Devices Market: Key TrendsThe rising prevalence of various types of respiratory diseases, particularly Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and associated morbidity and mortality worldwide is a key factor driving the airway management devices market. A growing number of patients undergoing anesthesia before surgical procedures need continued ventilation, stimulating the uptake of airway management devices.Constant advances in endotracheal intubation in clinical practice has boosted the airway management devices market. The growing number of cases of children suffering with various lung diseases has propelled the demand for airway management devices. Increasing awareness related to the need for airway ventilation in preoperative settings and the advent of devices with enhanced success rate in emergency care are expected to open up exciting opportunities for market players.Request TOC of the Report @Global Airway Management Devices Market: Market PotentialRoyal Philips, a major Dutch company delivering healthcare technology solutions, announced in May 23, 2017 that it has inked a deal with RespirTech, which will help the company to consolidate its presence in respiratory care. The Minnesota-based company provides airway management devices for patients suffering from chronic respiratory conditions, such as COPD, cystic fibrosis, and bronchiectasis. The portfolio sold to Philips shall include a clinical support program aimed at providing respiratory care for patients at home settings. Further, the company said this will further add to its other service plans for respiratory care. One of the key offerings of RespirTech is inCourage Airway Clearance Therapy, a vest device to help patients in respiration at home. The vest therapy can be successfully applied in clearing airways for a wide range of respiratory conditions and neuromuscular diseases. The solution is helpful to patients whose abilities to cough are severely compromised and further help them avoid serious respiratory complications. RespirTech also produces ClearChest, a single patient-use comfort vest and bands intended for hospital settings. The contract will enable Royal Philips to make airway management easier and more effective for patients at home settings and will help in treating respiratory conditions. Such strategic mergers bode well for the airway management devices market as these will be helpful in improving patient outcomes.Global Airway Management Devices Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, North America is one of the major markets for airway management devices. The growth in the regional market is driven by substantial governmental initiatives and stricter implementation of clinical guidelines by healthcare organizations for proper ventilation and management of airways of patients. The growing prevalence of various respiratory conditions indicating blocked airways and constant device innovations by medical device manufacturers to improve clinical guidelines are expected to fuel this regional market. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is expected to offer lucrative avenues to market players. The impressive growth of the regional market is attributed to the emergence of countries, such as China and India, acting as cheap manufacturing hubs and intensive R&D funding across the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Airway Management Devices Market: Competitive AnalysisSeveral companies are opting for strategic collaborations and investing into product development activities. Leading players are developing innovative products and making mergers and acquisitions to gain a competitive edge over others. Major players vying for a significant share in the airway management devices market are Medline Industries, Smiths Medical, Ambu A/S, Teleflex Incorporated, Mercury Medical, Intersurgical, and Medtronic.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Disposable Lead Wires Market is Extremely Price Sensitive by 2025

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Global Disposable Lead Wires Market: SnapshotThe number of hospital acquired infections is directly proportional to the high morbidity and mortality rates. These infections are caused due to antibacterial-resistant microorganisms and directly impact the hospital economics. The expense for hospital acquired diseases and infection heightened after 2008 when Medicare no longer provided reimbursement for these diseases. Thus, in or to prevent or eliminate these cross-contamination infections, three potential methods are generally applied, one of which is eliminating the route that will enable the infection to get transferred from one patient to another. As electrocardiography wires are not 100% of the time disinfected, they are the possible contributors to the growth of the type of resistant bacteria causing infections. The several pathways that are presented by reusable wires containing resistant bacteria for cross-contamination by resistant bacteria highly triggers the threat of hospital-acquired infections when these types of wires are used and reused.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The employment of disposable lead wires helps in eliminating the risk of infection via these pathways. The adoption of these disposable lead wires also is as an aide for the complete infection control program and can further help in decreasing the rate of infections in acute medical and health care facilities.Global Disposable Lead Wires Market: Trends and ProspectsThe global market for disposable lead wires is expected to witness a stable growth over the coming years owing to the rising occurrence rate of cardiovascular diseases. This factor is expected to trigger the use of ECG equipment and related accessories, thus propelling the demand for ECG lead wires in the coming years. Additionally, the usage of reusable lead wires on patients is the key reason behind the growing occurrence of blood stream infection and are the principal source for the spreading of antibiotic resistant bacteria among patients. The ever rising global geriatric population is anticipated to help in widening the consumer base of the global disposable lead wires market by pushing the frequency of cardiovascular diseases. This factor, in return is expected to propel the sales of patient monitoring devices such as disposable lead wires over the forecast period. One of the primary drivers of growth of the market is rise in healthcare associated infections across the globe.Request TOC of the Report @According to a recent study published by SunTech Medical Inc, each year over 2 million suffer from hospital acquired infections alone in the U.S. and the number is likely to rise in the coming years. These factors are thus expected to contribute towards the evolution of this market over the forecast period.Global Disposable Lead Wires Market: Market PotentialIn order to stay competitive in the market and secure a strong and stable positions, many market leaders are entering into strategic alliances or are merging with other leading companies. For instance, Welch Allyn was acquired by Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. in September 2015 for approximately US$2.05 mn. This acquisition enabled Hill-Rom Holdings to decrease the cost of healthcare for consumers and present patient care services with far more efficiency.Global Disposable Lead Wires Market: Regional OutlookRegion-wise, North America is expected to hold a strong position in the global disposable lead wires in the coming years owing to rising mortality rates which is the result of heart disorders among people in the region. The growing expenditure on healthcare in the U.S. and the presence of local players is also expected to aid the growth of the global disposable lead wires market in the coming years.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Disposable Lead Wires Market: Vendor LandscapeThe nature of the global disposable lead wires market is extremely price sensitive and the competition among the players is intense. The companies are constantly focusing on producing low priced products and implement better pricing strategies.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Genome Editing Market -Vast Research Of Industry Foreseen by 2025

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Global Genome Editing Market: OverviewAlso known as genome editing with engineered nucleases (GEEN), genome editing is a method of altering DNA within a cell in a safe manner. The technique is also used for removing, adding, or modifying DNA in the genome. By thus editing the genome, it is possible to change the primary characteristic features of an organism or a cell.The global genome editing market can be segmented on the basis of delivery method, technology, application, and geography. By technology, the global genome editing market can be segmented into Flp-In, CRISPR, PiggyBac, and ZFN. Based on delivery method, in vivo and ex vivo can be the two broad segments of the global genome editing market. By application, the global genome editing market can be categorized into medicine, academic research, and biotechnology.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Genome Editing Market: Key TrendsSince genome editing is gaining rising adoption in the domain of scientific research for attaining a better understanding of biological aspects of organisms and how they work, the global genome editing market is likely to promise considerable growth over the forthcoming years. More importantly, genome editing is being used by medical technologies, where it can be used for modifying human blood cells which can then be placed back in the body for treating conditions such as AIDS and leukemia. The technology can also be potentially utilized to combat infections such as MRSA as well as simple genetic disorders including hemophilia and muscular dystrophy.Global Genome Editing Market: Market PotentialAs more easy-to-use and flexible genome technologies are being developed, greater potential of genome editing is being recognized across bioprocessing and treatment modalities. For instance, in May 2017, MilliporeSigma announced that it successfully developed a novel genome editing tool which can make the CRISPR system more productive, specific, and flexible. The researchers thus have a more number of experimental options along with faster results.All this can lead to a growing rate of drug development, enabling access to more advanced therapies. Proxy-CRISPR, the new technique, makes access to earlier inaccessible aspects of the genome possible. As most of the existing CRISPR systems cannot manage without re-engineering of human cells, the new method is expected to gain more popularity by virtue of the elimination of the need for re-engineering, simplifying the procedures.Request TOC of the Report @Several other market players are focusing on clinical studies with a view to produce effective treatments for different health conditions. For example, another major genome editing firm, Editas Medicine, Inc. announced the results of its pre-clinical study displaying the success of the CEP290 gene present in the retina of primates in the same month. With the positive results of the study, the companys belief in the vast potential of its candidate in the treatment of a genetically inherited retinal degenerative disease, Leber congenital amaurosis type 10, affecting childrens eyesight has been reinforced.Global Genome Editing Market: Regional OutlookBy geography, the global genome editing market can be segmented into Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and North America. North America registered the highest growth in the past, and has been claiming the largest portion of the global genome editing market presently. The extraordinary growth of this region can be attributed to greater adoption of cutting edge technologies across several research organizations. The U.S., being the hub of research activities, is expected to emerge as the leading contributor. Asia Pacific is also likely to witness tremendous demand for genome editing over the forthcoming period, assisting the expansion of the global genome editing market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Genome Editing Market: Competitive AnalysisCRISPR THERAPEUTICS, Caribou Biosciences, Inc., Sigma Aldrich Corporation, Sangamo, Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., Editas Medicine, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., and Recombinetics, Inc are some of the key firms operating in the global genome editing 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Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) Market - Predicted Analysis and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Global Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) Market: OverviewOn account of the increasing care toward patient safety, the demand for intraoperative neuromonitoring has continued to rise at a steady pace. The burden of healthcare costs on patients and their desire to avoid readmission have upped the adoption of intraoperative neuromonitoring around the world. Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) uses electrophysiological techniques such as electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), and evoked potentials to effectively monitor the integrity of neural structures such as spinal cords, nerves, and certain parts of brain. IONM is mostly conducted to provide functional guidance to surgeons besides reducing risk to patients suffering from iatrogenic damage.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) Market: Key TrendsAs per findings of the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 80% of disorders leading to disabling conditions are neurological. Intraoperative monitoring has thus become imperative in neurosurgery as it offers early warning with regards to sensory & motor functions during a surgery. It has therefore enabled surgeons yield better results by eliminating post-operative neurophysiological deficits. Safer surgery consequently results in reduced risk and intervention time. On account of these benefits the demand for intraoperative neuromonitoring has surged exponentially across the healthcare sector.This, coupled with, favorable reimbursement scenario especially in developed nations is augmenting market prospects for the future. Also the market players are focusing on strategic collaborations to expand their footprint and offer innovations. These calculated steps witnessed in the global intraoperative neuromonitoring market will act in favor of its growth in the coming years.Global Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) Market: Market PotentialRecently, SpecialtyCare renowned as a leading provider of surgical services, perfusion, and intraoperative neuromonitoring acquired Sentient, a prominent IONM provider in October 2016. With this transaction SpecialtyCare was able expand their leadership as one of the most comprehensive providers of patient-centered outsourced IONM services to hospitals, surgeons, health systems, and surgery centers.Request TOC of the Report @Following the acquisition, SpecialtyCare has increased the overall number of intraoperative neuromonitoring associates to support cases in the U.S., which is also its existing market, besides expanding coverage across the Atlantic States. Such mergers and acquisitions will have a positive impact on the market in letting it expand its distribution network across markets yet to be explored. Leading players in the global intraoperative neuromonitoring market are also looking to extend strategic collaboration with counterparts across emerging nations to expand their overall footprint.Global Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) Market: Regional OutlookRegionally, opportunities witnessed by the intraoperative neuromonitoring market in North America are highly lucrative. Besides this, considerable growth potential exists for the market in Europe as well. Considering improving reimbursement scenario across North America and Europe, these regions are expected to remain at the global markets fore also in the coming years. Besides this, a majority of developed countries have clearly defined procedure and codes for patients and insurance companies, which have made reimbursement processes easier and more convenient. Such well-defined guidelines has resulted in better outcome, thus benefiting hospitals and patients alike and accelerating the pace of gains for intraoperative neuromonitoring market in turn.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @A large number of neurological centers in the U.S. are recommending the use of intraoperative neuromonitoring in order to bridge the manpower gap and cater to the rising demand. Hospitals are encouraging physicians besides the doctorate-level IONM providers to get trained and certified from institutions such as the American Board of Nuclear Medicine. With the healthcare system making an effort to encourage the use of IONM, its demand is expected to surge further in the coming years. In addition, the market is expected to witness rising opportunities in Asia Pacific in the near future.Global Intraoperative Neuromonitoring (IONM) Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the most prominent enterprises operating in the global intraoperative neuromonitoring market are Biotronic NeuroNetwork, Natus Medical Incorporated, SpecialtyCare, NeuroMonitoring Technologies, LLC, Accurate Monitoring, Medtronic, Sentient Medical Systems, and NuVasive Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGlobal GABA Receptor Agonist Drug Market, Dosage, Price and Clinical Pipeline Outlook 2024

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Download SampleFor Report Sample Contact: neeraj@kuickresearch.comReport Weblink:Table of Contents1. Prologue to (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) GABA1.1 Gamma - Amino Butyric Acid (GABA) andndash; Chief Inhibitory Neurotransmitter of the Central Nervous System1.2 GABA Receptors and Their Importance1.3 GABA Receptor - Role and its Working Mechanism2. Major Classes of GABA Receptor Therapeutics2.1 GABA Receptor Agonist (Activators)2.2 GABA Receptor Antagonist (Inhibitors)3. GABA Receptor Market Segmentation by Type3.1 GABAA3.2 GABAB4. Global GABA Drugs Market Analysis by Dosage and Price4.1 Gabapentin (Gralise, Neurontin, Gabarone, Fanatrex)4.1.1 Horizant (Gabapentin Enacarbil)4.1.2 Regnite (Gabapentin Enacarbil,Japan)4.1.3 Solzira (Gabapentin Enacbril)4.1.4 Gralise (Gabapentin Enacbril)4.2 Zolpidem4.2.1 Ambien and Ambien CR ( Zolpidem Tartrate)4.2.2 Edluar4.2.3 Intermezzo4.2.1 Zolpimist4.3 Other Marketed GABA Receptor Therapeutics andndash; Dosage and Price Analysis4.3.1 Diastat AcuDial (Diazepam)4.3.2 Campral EC (Acamprosate)4.3.3 Stiripentol (Diacomit)4.3.4 Gamibetal (GABOB)4.3.5 Loreclezole4.3.6 Lunesta(Eszopiclone)4.3.7 Piacmilon4.3.8 Onfi(Clobazam)4.3.9 Gabrene (Progabide)4.3.10 Diprivan (Propofol)4.3.11 Regtect4.3.12 Sonata Oral (Zaleplon, Starnoc, Andate)4.3.13 Topamax Migraine5. Promising GABA Receptor Agonist Therapeutics5.1 Bamaluzole5.2 Phenibut5.3 Baclofen5.4 Gaboxadol5.5 Klonopin (clonazepam)5.6 Tiagbine5.7 GABA as Food Supplement6. Global - Trends and Market Dynamics of GABA Receptor Agonist6.1 Entry of Promising Therapeutics into the GABA Market Segment6.2 Increasing Opportunities in Psychological Disorders Market7. GABA Receptor Agonist Market Analysis by Indication7.1 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)7.2 Psychiatric Disorders and Depression7.3 Alzheimer7.4 Epilepsy and Seizure7.5 Anxiety and Sleep Disorders7.6 Obesity and Alcoholism8. GABA Receptor Market Analysis by Region8.1 US8.2 Europe8.3 Asia Pacific8.4 Rest of the World9. GABA Receptor Agonist Market Driving Parameters9.1 Increasing Prevalence of GABA Related Disorders9.2 Increase in Research and Development9.3 Presence of Robust Clinical Pipeline10. GABA Receptor Agonist Market Challenges10.1 Scientific and Technical Limitations10.2 Limited Research in GABA Therapeutics Segment and Cost Factor10.3 Lack of Awareness and Low Market Penetration of GABA Receptor Agonist10.4 Unregulated Market and Stringent FDA Regulations11. Global GABA Receptor Agonist Market Future Forecast12. Global GABA Receptor Agonists Clinical Pipeline by Company, Indication and Phase12.1 Global GABA Receptor Agonists Pipeline Overview12.2 Unknown12.3 Research12.4 Preclinical12.5 Clinical12.6 Phase-I12.7 Phase-II12.8 Phase-III12.9 Preregistration13. Marketed GABA Receptor Agonists Clinical Insight by Company and Indication14. Competitive Analysis14.1 Advicenne14.2 AstraZeneca14.3 Athena Drug Delivery Solutions14.4 Biocodex14.5 Elan Corporation14.6 Eli Lilly and Company14.7 H.LundBeck, Merck and Co14.8 GlaxoSmithKline14.9 NovaDel Pharma14.10 Novartis14.11 OVATION Pharmaceuticals14.12 Osmotica Pharmaceutical14.13 Pfizer14.14 sanofi-aventis14.15 VIVUS14.16 XenoPortFigure 1-1: GABA - Most Abundant NeurotransmitterFigure 1-2: Features of GABA ReceptorsFigure 1-3: GABA Receptor Activation and FunctionFigure 2-1: Potential Therapeutic Role of GABAFigure 3-1: Structure of GABAAFigure 4-1: Gabapentin (Neurontin) - Dosage Analysis (mg)Figure 4-2: Gabapentin (Neurontin) - Price Analysis (US$), 2018Figure 4-3: Horizant - Dosage Analysis by Indication (mg/day)Figure 4-4: Horizant- Price Analysis for 300mg and 600mg Pack(US$), 2018Figure 4-5: Regnite - Price Analysis by Region (US$), 2018Figure 4-6: Ambien - Maximum Permissible Dosage by Gender (mg)Figure 4-7: Price Analysis -Ambien CR Oral Tablet (US$/30 Tablet Pack), 2018Figure 4-8: Intermezzo - Dosage Analysis (mg)Figure 4-9: Zolpidem - Price Analysis by Product, 2018Figure 4-10: Diazepam Rectal Gel - Dosage Analysis by Age (mg/kg)Figure 4-11: Diazepalm - Price Analysis by Product, 2018Figure 4-12: Dosage Analysis - Acamprosate Tablets per day by WeightFigure 4-13: GABOB- Maximum Recommended Dosage in Children by Condition (mg/Day)Figure 4-14: GABOB - Maximum Recommended Dosage in Adults by Condition (mg/Day)Figure 4-15: Propofol- Price Analysis (US$/ml), 2018Figure 4-16: Global - Propofol Sales Analysis (US$ Million), 2013Figure 4-17: Sonata Oral - Price Analysis (US$), 2018Figure 4-18: Topomax - Monotherapy Dosage Analysis for patients andgt;10 years (mg)Figure 4-19: Topamax - Monotherapy Dosage (mg) Analysis for Patients andlt; 10 years by Weight (kg)Figure 4-20: Topamax - Price Analysis for 15 Tablet pack (mg), 2018Figure 5-1: Global - Propofol Sales Forecast (US$ Billion), 2015-2024Figure 5-2: Baclofen - Price Analysis (US$/mg), 2018Figure 5-3: Baclofen - Intrathecal Solution Price Analysis (US$/ml), 2018Figure 5-4: Global - Baclofen Sales Estimates (US$ Million), 2015 -2024Figure 5-5: Tiagbine - Dosage Analysis by Indication (mg)Figure 7-1: GABA Market Segmentation by IndicationFigure 7-2: Global - ADHD Prevalence by Region (%), 2016Figure 7-3: Global - Prevalence of GABA Related Disorders (%), 2017Figure 7-4: Global - Alzheimer Prevalence Forecast (Million) 2016-2050Figure 7-5: Global- Number of Patients Diagnosed by Epilepsy (Million), 2016Figure 7-6: Sleep Disorders Prevalence by Region (%), 2016Figure 7-7: Global - Estimated Annual Cost of Sleep Disorder (US$ Million), 2016Figure 8-1: US- ADHD Prevalence by Age (%), 2018Figure 8-2: US-ADHD Prevalence by Gender (%), 2018Figure 8-3: US- ADHD Prevalence by Race (%), 2018Figure 8-4: US andndash;People Diagnosed with GABA Related Disorders (Million), 2012-2016Figure 8-5: Europe - Alzheimers Prevalence by Age (%), 2014-2016Figure 8-6: Asia - Prevalence of ADHD among Children by Region (%), 2012-2016Figure 8-7: Asia Pacific andndash; GABA Related Sleep Disorder Prevalence (%), 2015-2016Figure 9-1: Driving Factors of GABA Agonist MarketFigure 9-2: Current Psychiatric Drug Pipeline, 2018Figure 10-1:GABA Receptor Agonist Market ChallengesFigure 12-1: Global - GABA Receptor Agonists Clinical Pipeline (%), 2018 till 2024Figure 12-2: Global - GABA Receptor Agonists Clinical Pipeline (Number), 2018 till 2024Figure 12-3: Global - GABA Receptor Agonists Clinical Pipeline (%),2018 till 2024Figure 12-4: Global - GABA Receptor Agonists Clinical Pipeline (Number), 2018 till 2024Kuick Research is a market research and analytics company that provides targeted information for critical decisions at business, product and service levels. We are quick, predictive and known by the recommendations we have made in the past. Our result-oriented research methodology offers understanding of multiple issues in a short period of time and gives us the capability to keep you full with loads of practical ideas. By translating research answers into strategic insight and direction, we not only rate the success potential of your products and/or services, but also help you identify the opportunities for growth in new demographies and find ways to beat competition.Neeraj Chawlaneeraj@kuickresearch.comKuicK ResearchL29 - L34, First FloorBlock L,Connaught PlaceNew Delhi-110001+91-11-47067990Medical Device Outsourcing Market - Aggressive Competition during 2017 - 2025

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Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market: OverviewThe rapidly growing global population and subsequently increasing healthcare needs are working in favor of the global medical device outsourcing market. On the basis of services, the market can be segmented into product design and development services, product testing services, regulatory consulting services, product implementation services, product upgrade services, manufacturing services, and product maintenance services. Based on therapeutics, the global market can be divided into diagnostic imaging, cardiology, IVD, orthopedic, ophthalmic, drug delivery, dental, general and plastic surgery, and endoscopy.Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market: Key TrendsThe spiraling demand for advanced medical devices is paving way for the increased complexities in product engineering. This is prompting medical device manufacturers to outsource the process, which is providing a significant boost to the global medical device outsourcing market. Moreover, outsourcing helps in reducing the overall cost of manufacturing, which is encouraging manufacturers to subcontract activities such as assembling, packaging, and others.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The expanding base of geriatric population and stringent regulations pertaining to the manufacturing of medical devices are also allowing the global market to gain traction. Besides this, the lack of robust in-house manufacturing infrastructure is driving the trend of outsourcing among small and mid-size companies.Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market: Market PotentialWith the snowballing demand for cheap yet effective and advanced medical devices, a large number of OEMs are willing to work with contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs). As a result, partnerships and acquisitions have emerged as a common trend in the global medical device outsourcing market, which is also providing a tremendous momentum to the market. For instance, in October 2015, Greatbatch Inc. acquired Lake Region Medical, in a deal worth US$1.73 bn. According to industrial experts, the deal paved way for one of the most prominent outsourcing facilities for medical technology. Similarly, in June 2016, Phillips-Medisize acquired Medicom Innovation Partner. The latter specializes in the development and production of connected health and drug delivery devices. The increasing number of startups in the field of medical devices is also estimated to augment the global medical device outsourcing market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market: Geographical SegmentationOn the basis of geography, the report classifies the global medical device outsourcing market into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America and Asia Pacific will collectively account for a substantial chunk in the revenue pie of the market throughout the forecast period. In Asia Pacific, the rising disposable income of the populace, improving healthcare infrastructure, and growing incidence of lifestyle-related disorders are fuelling the market. In North America, the growth of the market can be attributed to the presence of advanced manufacturing facilities for complex, reliable, and high-end medical devices. The U.S. and Canada will be major revenue contributors to the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Medical Device Outsourcing Market: Competitive LandscapeWith the burgeoning demand for medical devices around the world, the market is likely to tread along a healthy growth track. The immense potential of the global medical device outsourcing market is attracting new players to foray into the marketplace. This is likely to intensify the competition in the market in the coming years. Established players are focusing on strategic collaborations and mergers to expand their product portfolio and sustain the aggressive competition in the market. Some of the prominent companies operating in the global medical devices outsourcing market are Shandong Weigao Co. Ltd., Kinetics Climax Inc., Daiichi Jitsugyo Co. Ltd., Infinity Plastics Group, GE Healthcare, Sterigenics International Inc., Mitutoyo Corp., Cirtec Medical, Omnica Corp., and Micro Systems Engineering GmbH.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Mini Elliptical Trainer Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends, Opportunities and Forecast 2018 To 2022

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Mini Elliptical Trainer Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2022 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).The report firstly introduced the Mini Elliptical Trainer 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.Browse full Report with Toc:The report includes six parts, dealing with:basic information;the Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Market;the North American Mini Elliptical Trainer Market;the European Mini Elliptical Trainer Market;market entry and investment feasibility;the report conclusion.Part I Mini Elliptical Trainer Industry OverviewChapter One Mini Elliptical Trainer Industry Overview1.1 Mini Elliptical Trainer Definition1.2 Mini Elliptical Trainer Classification Analysis1.2.1 Mini Elliptical Trainer Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Mini Elliptical Trainer Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Mini Elliptical Trainer Application Analysis1.3.1 Mini Elliptical Trainer Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Mini Elliptical Trainer Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Mini Elliptical Trainer Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Mini Elliptical Trainer Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Mini Elliptical Trainer Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Mini Elliptical Trainer Product Market Development Overview1.6 Mini Elliptical Trainer Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Mini Elliptical Trainer Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Mini Elliptical Trainer Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Mini Elliptical Trainer Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Mini Elliptical Trainer Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Mini Elliptical Trainer Global Market Development Trend AnalysisChapter Two Mini Elliptical Trainer Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand Analysis2.2.3 Down Stream Market Trend AnalysisPart II Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Market Analysis3.1 Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Product Development History3.2 Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Competitive Landscape Analysis3.3 Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Market Development TrendChapter Four 2013-2018 Asia Mini Elliptical Trainer Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast4.1 2013-2018 Mini Elliptical Trainer Capacity Production Overview4.2 2013-2018 Mini Elliptical Trainer Production Market Share Analysis4.3 2013-2018 Mini Elliptical Trainer Demand Overview4.4 2013-2018 Mini Elliptical Trainer Supply Demand and Shortage4.5 2013-2018 Mini Elliptical Trainer Import Export Consumption4.6 2013-2018 Mini Elliptical Trainer Cost Price Production Value Gross MarginDownload Free Sample:Browse full Report with Toc:About UsAcute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements. We provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade our collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Our database consists of 200,000+ market research reports with detailed & minute market research.Contact usName: Chris PaulDesignation: Global Sales ManagerAddress: 105 N 1st ST #429, SAN JOSE, CA 95103, United StatesEmail:- sales@acutemarketreports.comToll Free (US/CANADA): +1-855-455-8662Website: -Mission Education Team of Noida Placed Dropbox At Three Branches Of The Company VIRTUAL EMPLOYEE PRIVATE LIMITED

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Mission Education Team of Noida collaborated with Virtual Employee Private Limited and placed three dropbox in order to collect stationery items from their employees at their various branches that are located in Noida.The HR team of the company was extremely supportive and enthusiastic. They made a small documentary on Mission Education wherein they interviewed the team members and asked them few questions about the mission.After that, The team members enlightened the employees about mission education, its objective and how they can extend their support in making this mission a huge success.They believe that little things can make a big difference and while a pencil might not mean anything to us but it surely means the world to the little kids who cannot afford it.Click here to see picture at Event:About Mission Education:Mission Education an initiative by MANAV UTTHATN SEWA SAMITI (Regd.) inspired by Shri Satpal ji Maharaj was started in 2014 in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius and many other Schools. In India, Mission Education volunteer team approached 1300+ Schools which helped out more than 3 Lacs under privileged Students. Mission Education is the mission where they aim to bridge the gap between the privileged and Underprivileged by placing drop boxes in Various schools and companies where students and employees are privileged and asking them to donate Stationery items like notebook, pen, pencil etc that might help other students who cannot afford these items to pursue their education further and than then donating these items in underprivileged schools. This way a lot of people can support by donating smaller items without taking much burden on themselves.Mission Education Blog:Watch Mission Education Documentary:Visit usMANAV UTTHAN SEWA SAMITINo. 2/12, East Punjabi Bagh,Delhi, 110026Phone: 011 2831 4206Email: missioneducation@manavdharam.orgWebsite:FaceBook:YouTube:Global Rehabilitation Equipment Market: Europe to Remain Dominant Regional Market Through 2022

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has made another addition to its existing reports database  a comprehensive report on the global rehabilitation equipment market. This report is an elaborate study on the global market for rehabilitation equipment and presents revenue forecasts for the period 2017 to 2022. The report highlights the drivers, challenges, and trends that are likely to impact revenue growth of the global rehabilitation equipment market over the period of study. The report begins with a comprehensive executive summary followed by the market definition, introduction, and taxonomy. The report presents a detailed forecast of the global rehabilitation equipment market, including market revenue and CAGR for the historical period 2012 to 2016 as well as the market values and CAGR for the forecast period 2017 to 2022. The pricing structure and cost structure of the global rehabilitation equipment market is also analyzed in detail in this report.Free Sample Copy of Report @Global Rehabilitation Equipment Market: SegmentationThe report on the global rehabilitation equipment market segments the global market based on end user, product type, region, and application. By product type, the market is segmented as Body Support Devices, Exercise Equipment, Mobility Equipment, and Daily Living Aids. By end user, the market segments include Physiotherapy Centers, Home Care Settings, Rehabilitation Centers, and Hospitals & Clinics. In terms of application, the segments are Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy. The different regions assessed in this report include MEA, APEJ, Japan, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The report provides detailed forecasts for all the market segments and captures key metrics such as CAGR, Y-o-Y growth, market share, and market attractiveness index.Research MethodologyA proven and tested research methodology is adopted to arrive at the revenue estimations of the global rehabilitation equipment market. In-depth secondary research is used to obtain the global market size and identify key players in the market. This data is ratified through extensive interviews with key stakeholders in the global rehabilitation equipment market and the final data gathered from multiple sources is validated and scrutinized using advanced tools to obtain qualitative and quantitative insights on the global rehabilitation equipment market.Competition ProfilingOne of the important chapters in the report features details on the competition existing in the global rehabilitation equipment market. This section is intended to provide readers with a 3600 view of the key player ecosystem of the global market for rehabilitation equipment and enables investors and key stakeholders to acquire an understanding of the level of competition currently prevalent in the global rehabilitation equipment market. The report also includes profiles of some of the top players functioning in the global market.Browse Full Global Rehabilitation Equipment market Report with TOC :Company profiles includes important information such as an overview of the business of the company, information on the product offerings, key financial details, and other important developments pertaining to the companies taking place in the global market for rehabilitation equipment. All this information is presented in a structured and easy-to-read manner. This section also features a SWOT analysis of the profiled companies, giving information about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats pertaining to the companies. Some of the key players featured in the report are GF Health Products, Inc., Caremax Rehabilitation Equipment Co. Ltd., Roma Medical Aids Ltd., Roscoe Medical, Drive Devilbiss Healthcare, Dynatronics Corporation, Medline Industries, Inc., and Invacare Corporation.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  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:The U.S. RFID Tags Market is expected to reach US$1,672.5 mn betwwen 2017-2025, Expert's Review

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Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are the electronic tags that functions on the principle of radio waves. RFID tags are primarily used to monitor and track objects using RFID reader. The information recorded by RFID tag can be read by scanning devices through RFID technology. RFID tags market report provides analysis for the period 2015-2025, wherein the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period and 2016 is the base year. The report covers all the major trends and technologies playing influential role in the RFID tags markets growth over the forecast period. The study provides a complete perspective on the U.S RFID tags market in terms of revenue (in US$ Mn and Mn Units). The market overview of the report demonstrates the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of RFID tags market in the U.S. along with the key indicators and trends. The report also provides a market attractive analysis for every segment in order to provide in-depth understanding of the overall scenario of RFID tags market in the U.S.Click to get Sample PDF:Global RFID Market: SegmentationThe U.S. RFID tags market is segmented on the basis of type, product type and end-use industry. The type segment includes active and passive RFID tags. The basis of differentiation of active and passive RFID tags is power source. Active RFID tags are battery powered, whereas, passive RFID tags do not have an internal power source. On the basis of product type, RFID tags market is segmented into healthcare tags, commercial tags, correctional tags and others. Healthcare tags are used to track medicines, patient management, and medical staff management among others. With increasing requirement for inventory management, commercial tags are expected to view an increase in demand during the forecast period. The tags used to monitor inmates, security control and access management are generally termed as correctional tags. The factors that impact adoption of healthcare tags, commercial tags and correctional tags are identified in the report. On the basis of end-use industry, the RFID tags market is segmented as healthcare, retail, automotive, logistics and transportation, surveillance and security and others (consisting of sports, wildlife, livestock and IT).Global RFID Market: Competitive LandscapeFurthermore, the report analyzes the impact, market trends and opportunities of the U.S. RFID tags market for the forecast period 2017-2025. The report also covers the RFID tags segment trends in the U.S, market opportunities, strategies adopted by market players that are leading to the growth in adoption of RFID tags. Reasons for the growth and adoption of various segments are also included in the report. The RFID tags market report also covers the market share analysis of the key players engaged in RFID tags market of the U.S. The essential information pertaining to segment growth, segment trends are also analyzed in the report. Furthermore, the segment analysis explains the factors which are currently affecting the RFID tags market in the U.S. This report also provides the ecosystem analysis for the RFID tags market which explains the participants of the value chain. The RFID tags market in the U.S. is viewing aggressive competition. In addition to this major mergers, acquisitions and partnerships by market players are highlighted in the U.S. RFID tags market report.View Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:Major business strategies adopted by key players, SWOT analysis, business overview and product offerings have also been identified in the research report. The key highlight of the report, includes revenue and volume of key market players on the basis of active and passive segment in terms of U.S$ Mn and thousand units. The prominent service providers engaged in the U.S. RFID Tags market include AMS AG, Atmel Corporation, Impinj Inc., Alien Technology, Confidex LTD., HID USA Corporation, Invengo Information Technology Co., Ltd., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Omni- ID Ltd. and RF Code Inc.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:Water Based Lubricants Largest Segment in Global Automotive Die Casting Lubricants Market

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A new report on the automotive die casting lubricants market has been included by Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) in its existing publications database. This report presents important market data for the historical period 2012 to 2016 and a comprehensive revenue estimation for the forecast period 2017 to 2025. One of the key objectives of this publication is to inform readers about the current opportunities trending the automotive die casting lubricants market. The study also highlights the drivers, trends, and restraints anticipated to influence revenue growth of the market for automotive die casting lubricants over the period of forecast. This report presents a detailed forecast of the automotive die casting lubricants market by market size, market volume projections, year-on-year growth, absolute $ opportunity, and incremental $ opportunity. Information is also provided on the value chain of the automotive die casting lubricants market.Free Sample Copy of Report @Market SegmentationTo clearly understand different aspects of the automotive die casting lubricants market, this study splits the global market into different segments on the basis of die casting metal type, lubricant type, application, and region. Segments based on application include plunger lubricant and die lubricant. By lubricant type, the segmentation includes solvent based, water based, and other lubricant types. By die casting metal type, the market is categorized into zinc, magnesium, aluminum, and other metals. The different regional markets for automotive die casting lubricants tracked in this report are Europe, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and North America. The study presents detailed forecasts for each market segment, which includes historical and current market size and volume analysis, key market findings, and a market attractiveness analysis.One of the highlights of this study is a dedicated chapter for each of the regional automotive die casting lubricants markets. These chapters present the regional findings, regional market forces impacting revenue growth, historical and current market size and volume projections by region, an impact analysis of the regional market restraints and drivers, regional market attractiveness analysis, and a market presence intensity mapping.Research MethodologyTo arrive at the revenue estimations of the automotive die casting lubricants market, the study considers 2016 as the base year and estimates market numbers for 2017, with a detailed forecast made for the period 2018 to 2025. A study of the historical market trends for the period 2012 to 2016 enables a thorough understanding of the automotive die casting lubricants market across the globe. Weighted average prices of die casting lubricants across important geographies are considered to deduce the global market revenue size; while consumption data of die casting lubricants is used to arrive at the global market volume size. In-depth secondary research is leveraged to acquire pertinent global and regional market numbers of automotive die casting lubricants. Extensive primary research is used to validate these numbers. The final data metrics is a compilation of primary and secondary research data along with an independent analysis of the automotive die casting lubricants market.Browse Full Global Automotive Die Casting Lubricants market Report with TOC :Competition TrackingThis study tracks the level of competition prevalent in automotive die casting lubricants market. A separate section is devoted to studying the competitive ecosystem of the worldwide market with information on the current market structure and market share held by companies present in automotive die casting lubricants market globally. This report also profiles some of the leading market players and provides information on company overview, key financial statistics, growth strategies, and recent developments in the market. The following companies are featured in this report  Aoki Science Institute Co., Ltd., Lubgraf, CHEMTOOL INCORPORATED, A.Cesana S.r.l., Acme Refining LLC, Sunrise Cemtech Pvt. Ltd, Marbo Italia spa, Lafrance Manufacturing, Falcon Industrial Inc., J&S Chemical Corporation, Sunocs L.L.C, Hardcastle Petrofer Pvt. Ltd., CONDAT Group, Ultraseal India Pvt. Ltd., Geiger + Co. Schmierstoff-Chemie GmbH, Houghton International Inc., The Hill and Griffith Company, Moresco Corp, Quaker Chemical Corporation, Chem-Trend L.P., and Henkel AG & Co. Kraal.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  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Transfer Case Market: 2018 Global Industry Size, Share, Key Company Growth Factors, and Trends Forecast to 2023

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Transfer Case Market Size, Share, Trends Analysis Research Report 2018 expands comprehensive information on Global Transfer Case Market by Drive Type (Chain, Gear Driven), Type (AWD, 4WD), by vehicle type (Passenger Vehicle, Construction Equipment and Commercial Vehicle) and by Region - Forecast till 2023Transfer Case Market Companies Analyzed in report are: CARDONE, BorgWarner, Dorman, Magna International, Powertrain Industries, UNIVANCE, American Axle & Manufacturing, GKN and ZF Friedrichshafen. Transfer Case Market appears to be competitive with the presence of several large and small players operating in the Transfer Case Market. These Key players compete based upon pricing, quality, Technology and reputation. The global market for transfer case has been witnessing significant growth in recent times. The growing production of vehicles across the globe can be attributed as a key driver for the market.Request Sample Report @Transfer Case Market Highlights: Rapidly rising demand for high fuel efficiency among the customers and stringent government regulations governing the automotive industry, growing implementation of environmental regulations and increasing adoption of advanced automotive technologies such as gasoline direct injection and automatic transmission also contribute towards the high growth rate of the transfer case market. With almost every major manufacturer adopting advanced technologies in order to keep pace with the leading manufacturers in the automotive industry, the market for transfer case is poised for rapid growth during the forecast period. In addition, stringent regulatory norms, especially in Europe, has fueled the growth of the market.Manufacturers of transfer cases are competing to develop fuel efficient systems without compromising on the performance of the vehicle. That being said, the increased investment in the automotive industry across the globe provides a positive outlook to various manufacturers operating in the automotive industry. Additionally, increased sales of hybrid segment vehicles equipped with AWD, and recent penetration of AWD in premium sedans are expected to fuel the transfer case market. The stringent emission norms are also driving the market for transfer case market.Geographic Analysis: The market for transfer case systems is expected to grow with an increase in demand for automobile, majorly in the United States and the European region. There is an immense demand of commercial vehicles in United States. With the increasing demand of commercial vehicles, there is an increase in the demand for transfer case systems market. Major demand for fuel efficient vehicles in this region coupled with heavy investment for the technological development is expected to drive the demand in the transfer case market in this region. The growth of the European region is also driven by the presence of major auto manufacturers which are mainly focusing on meeting the increasing demand for passenger as well as commercial vehicles. Owing to all these factors, the growth of the regions is expected to grow at a rapid pace.Due to the presence of countries such as China and India among others, the dominance of APAC becomes evident in the global transfer case market. Aggressive growth in the Asian automotive market is expected to boost the demand in the transfer case market in this region. The market has been experiencing rapid growth in the last two years owing to the rising sales of passenger cars, emerging economies, shifting of global players and technological advancements are giving a much needed thrust to the transfer case systems market. Rampant rise in vehicle production in the Asia Pacific region is also expected to be the major contributor towards the growth of the Transfer Case market.Target Audience of Report: This report mainly focuses on Semi-Trailer manufacturers, Distributer & Supplier companies, and end Users. Investment bankers and consultants with end user for Transfer Case Market also analyzed. And finally Government and Independent Regulatory Authorities involved with Global Transfer Case Market are studied in this report. The report for Global Transfer Case 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 Browse Full Report on Transfer Case Market @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 Laser Therapy Devices Market: North America to Remain the Leading Regional Market Throughout the Period of Forecast

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a first-hand publication to its extensive research database on the global laser therapy devices market. The report starts with the introduction and an executive summary. In the executive summary section, the report provides a comprehensive summary of the worldwide market for laser therapy devices. The report also includes the historical data of 2012 to 2016, enabling the reader to understand the erstwhile market status of laser therapy devices. The global market revenue share and size along with the CAGR is also presented in the report. In the introduction section, the global market for laser therapy devices is clearly defined. Another major section of the report comprises the market dynamics of the global market for laser therapy devices.Free Sample Copy of Report @The following section of the report comprises information on the basis of pricing analysis and cost structure analysis of the laser therapy devices market globally. Furthermore, the research publication gives an analysis of the key players market share. The worldwide market for laser therapy devices is analyzed in detail and the market dynamics of the laser therapy devices market has been highlighted systematically in this report. The report also includes the key trends, opportunities and drivers to provide clarity on the current and future scope of this market.Global Laser Therapy Devices Market: Segmental Forecast & Regional Revenue EstimationsThe report segments the global market for laser therapy devices on the basis of region, device type, end user and application. The report also includes year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth structure, revenue comparison and market share comparison of the different segments. On the basis of device type, the report bifurcates the worldwide market for laser therapy devices into solid-state laser, gas laser, liquid laser, and semiconductor laser Based on end use, the global market for laser therapy devices is categorized into ambulatory surgical centers, specialized clinics, hospitals and other end users On the basis of application type, the worldwide market for laser therapy devices is divided into cardiovascular, urology, gynecology, dermatology, ophthalmology, dentistry, and others Based on region, the worldwide market for laser therapy devices includes a study of the MEA, APEJ, Japan, Europe, Latin America, and North America regional markets.Global Laser Therapy Devices Market: Competition LandscapeThe last portion of the report comprises the competition landscape of the global laser therapy devices market, in which the top players are profiled in detail. The report also includes a SWOT analysis of the specific companies to enable a study of opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses of the companies functioning in the worldwide market for laser therapy devices. The research publication presents relevant information pertaining to the vendor landscape of the worldwide market for laser therapy devices as well as strategies adopted by market leaders to remain dominant in this competitive market. Some of the companies featured in this report include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Danaher Corporation, Fotona d.d., Alma Lasers, Ltd., Hologic Inc., Biolitec AG, Coherent, Inc., Lumenis Ltd., IPG Photonics Corporation, and Boston Scientific Corporation.Browse Full Global Laser Therapy Devices market Report with TOC :Global Laser Therapy Devices Market: Methodology of ResearchThis research publication is supported by an extensive research methodology that incorporates exhaustive primary and secondary research to achieve in-depth insights on the global laser therapy devices market.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  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559 (US- Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Gas Insulated Switchgear Market Outlook | Top Market Players are ABB Ltd., Siemens AG, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, General Electric, Hitachi Ltd.

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Market OverviewThe Global Gas Insulated Switchgear Market has witnessed a remarkable growth in the past few years and it has been anticipated that the market will grow at the rapid pace during the forecast period. Electricity is a green source of power, which has gained a significant importance in the modern life. Most of the home appliances, industrial machineries, trains and many other systems rely on electrical supply. Certainly, electricity is a boon to the modern life, however, it can turn into a threat if not handled properly. In a distribution system, all possible measures have to be taken in order to ensure minimum power loss and maximum safety. For this, switchgears are used for switching and protecting devices such as switches, fuses, circuit breakers and relays. The main purpose of switchgears is to ensure safety of the distribution system by disconnecting in case of any short-circuit. As per the study conducted by Market Research Future, the Global Market for Gas Insulated Switchgear is likely to grow at the CAGR of around 9%.Power industry is one of the major revenue generating industries which has pushed the market for innovative and eco-friendly energy generation activities, where, gas insulated switchgear market is one of them. In other words, the growth in the power industry will create a positive impact on the market for global gas insulated switchgear. The switchgear has become the backbone of electric transmission lines spread across the country and in cross border distribution.Get Sample of Report @Gas insulated switchgear Global Market - Competitive AnalysisThe global market for gas insulated switchgear seems to be highly competitive. To maintain the market position and to drive the market growth, various dynamic and diversified international manufacturers, domestic product developers and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. Market leaders are innovating continuously and increasingly seeking market expansion through various strategic mergers and acquisitions, product development through innovation approach, increasing investments in research and development and cost-effective product portfolio. Major players are investing on internal R&D and, most of all, in acquiring other firms.Prominent PlayersABB Ltd., Siemens AG, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, General Electric, Hitachi Ltd., Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Fuji Electric Co. Ltd., Toshiba International Corporation, Nissin Electric Co. Ltd., Crompton Greaves Limited, Hyosung Corporation, Chint Electric Co. Ltd. and Larsen & Toubro are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Gas Insulated Switchgear Market.Latest Industry Updates:In November, 2016  Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, announced the release of its 145 kV Gas-Insulated Switchgear (GIS) conforming to the IEC Standard.In October, 2016  GE (NYSE: GE) achieved another milestone in its Make in India journey with the commencement of dedicated 765kV Gas Insulated Substation (GIS) manufacturing line at its high voltage transmission equipment manufacturing facility at Padappai in Chennai, India.In Feb, 2016  ABB won an order from SP PowerGrid to supply four 66 kilovolt (kV) gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substations for the city-state of Singapore. The project is part of SP PowerGrids continuous efforts to strengthen the efficiency and reliability of its transmission and distribution networks and to meet the growing demand for power in Singapores industrial, commercial and residential sectors.Get Complete Report @Distribution utilities dominate the application segmentOn the basis of applications, the global air insulated switchgear market is segmented as distribution utilities, oil & gas, infrastructure & transportation, and others. Distribution utilities dominate the application segment of the global air insulated switchgear market. To meet the growing power demand, investments in the power sector are increasing, which ultimately drives the demand of air insulated switchgear market. The increasing focus on renewable power generation are also fueling the demand of air insulated switchgear market. The air insulated switchgear is increasingly being applied in the infrastructure & transportation sector. Rapid growth in infrastructure, and minimization of CO2 emission by relying on electric traction for railway and metro transportation system also increase the demand of air insulated switchgear.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comInhalation Anesthesia Market trends research and projections for 2017-2024

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The surging prevalence of heart & respiratory ailments & surgical procedures, incidentally, is a major driving force for inhalation anesthesia market. In recent times, the occurrence rate of road accidents has soared to an indefinite extent, necessitating the requirement of critical care during surgical procedures, and by extension, leading to the generation of a profitable avenue for inhalation anesthesia industry. According to the ASIRT (Association for Safe International Road Travel), close to 20 million to 50 million people are disabled or injured from road accidents on an annual basis. The U.S. alone holds a record of around 2.35 million of its populace being injured from roadside fatalities. In fact, a reliable forecast claims that road traffic injuries are likely to emerge as the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. Set amidst a milieu as critical as this, inhalation anesthesia market size may, in all probability, chart out a profitable growth map in the ensuing years, given that accident injuries demand the deployment of low cost anesthesia during surgical treatment.The ever-increasing competition in the healthcare space has led to inhalation anesthesia market players vying with one another to strengthen their presence across this business sphere. Considering the critical significance of the product in question, it goes without saying that product differentiation has emerged as the go-to growth tactic for the players partaking in inhalation anesthesia industry share. For instance, Galen US Inc., had recently declared its takeover of the exclusive rights to ADASUVE - basically an orally inhaled form of antipsychotic loxapine, from the California-based Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Reportedly, the ADASUVE inhalation powder is the first orally inhaled medication that the FDA has granted approval to, for schizophrenia and bipolar I afflicted patients. The only one of its kind, ADASUVE is likely to brew a revolution in inhalation anesthesia market. The launch of this innovative product has typically challenged the big shots of the inhalation anesthesia industry, prompting them to come up with a unique product portfolio that would challenge the likes of ADASUVE.Request sample copy @Myriad geographies across the globe have been witnessing a substantial rise in their geriatric population in the recent years, which has been touted to be a major driver of inhalation anesthesia market. In the United States alone, the population above 65 has been projected to cross the 98 million benchmark by 2060, while the share of this 65-and-above group in the overall population is expected to rise to almost 24%. As per the United Nations, the global geriatric population has been accelerating at a rapid pace. Forecasts claim that by 2030: The elderly populace will cover more than 17% of the overall population across Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. Older people are anticipated to account for more than 25% of the European and North American populace. The geriatric crowd is expected to hold more than 20% of the overall population in the Oceania and more than 6% of the African populace.With the robust escalation in the elderly population across the globe, the prevalence of respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD), cataract surgeries, cardiovascular disorders, and neurological diseases has increased on an exponential basis. In consequence, this has created the demand for innovative anesthesia products that would need to be deployed in critical surgical procedures. The extensive utilization of these devices in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers is thus, certain to augment inhalation anesthesia market. As per estimates, inhalation anesthesia industry size, driven by the rapidly growing geriatric populace prone to numerous disorders, will accumulate a valuation of close to USD 1.6 billion by 2024.Make Inquiry about this report @The United States is one of most remunerative avenues for the growth of inhalation anesthesia market. In 2016 in fact, analysts claim the United States to have accounted for the largest regional share of inhalation anesthesia industry, with a valuation of USD 488 million. This predominance can be attributed to a plethora of factors, such as the excellent healthcare infrastructure, increased medical care spending, and most importantly, the rising prevalence of COPD and plastic surgeries. As per the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), close to 16 million minimally-invasive and surgical cosmetic procedures were performed in the U.S. alone, in 2015. Since the last 1.5 decades, it has been reported that plastic surgeries have observed a mammoth rise of 115% in the country. Driven by the robust prevalence of cosmetic procedures in the region, aided by the fact that the country houses organizations that maintain standards in anesthesiology, U.S. inhalation anesthesia industry share is likely to observe an appreciable growth rate over 2017-2024.Inherently characterized by product differentiation strategies, the competitive hierarchy of inhalation anesthesia market is inclusive of Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC, Lunan Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories, The Piramal Group, and Baxter International Incorporation  acclaimed biggies that have been striving to come up with a range of highly innovative products. In order to increase the commercialization scope of inhalation anesthesia market, these companies have been adopting one-of-a-kind as well as run-of-the-mill growth strategies that commendably help in augmenting the revenue graph of this business sphere. Propelled by the launch of innovative technologically advanced products, increased healthcare expenditure, and the adoption of value-based medical care models, inhalation anesthesia industry outlook is set to witness a dynamic transformation in the years to come.Report ContentChapter 1. Methodology1.1. Methodology1.1.1. Initial data exploration1.1.2. Statistical modeling and forecast1.1.3. Industry insights and validation1.1.4. Market definition1.1.5. Market definition and forecast assumptions1.2. Data Sources1.2.1. Primary1.2.2. SecondaryChapter 2. Executive Summary2.1. Inhalation anesthesia industry 3600 synopsis, 2013 - 20242.1.1. Business trends2.1.2. Product trends2.1.3. Application trends2.1.4. Regional trendsChapter 3. Inhalation Anesthesia Industry Insights3.1. Industry segmentation3.2. Industry landscape, 2013  20243.3. Industry impact forces3.3.1. Growth drivers3.3.1.1. Increasing incidence of chronic diseases CVS, respiratory, cancer3.3.1.2. Growing geriatric population3.3.1.3. Increased number of surgeries performed in ambulatory surgical centers3.3.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges3.3.2.1. Adverse effects of anesthesia3.4. Growth potential analysis3.4.1. By Product3.4.2. By Application3.5. Regulatory landscape3.5.1. U.S3.5.2. Europe3.6. Reimbursement scenario3.6.1. U.S3.6.2. Europe3.7. Porters analysis3.8. Company market share analysis, 20163.8.1. Strategy dashboard3.9. PESTEL analysisChapter 4. Inhalation Anesthesia Market, By Product4.1. Global inhalation anesthesia market share by product, 2016 & 20244.2. Sevoflurane4.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)4.3. Desflurane4.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)4.4. Isoflurane4.4.1. Market estimates and forecast, by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)Chapter 5. Inhalation Anesthesia Market, By Application5.1. Global inhalation anesthesia market share by application, 2016 & 20245.2. Induction5.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)5.3. Maintenance5.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, by region, 2013 - 2024 (USD Million)Chapter 6. Inhalation Anesthesia Market, By Region6.1. Inhalation anesthesia market share by region, 2016 & 20246.2. North America6.2.1. Market estimates and forecast, by country, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.2.2. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.2.3. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.2.4. U.S.6.2.4.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.2.4.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.2.5. Canada6.2.5.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.2.5.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3. Europe6.3.1. Market estimates and forecast, by country, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.2. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.3. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.4. Germany6.3.4.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.4.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.5. UK6.3.5.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.5.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.6. France6.3.6.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.6.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.7. Spain6.3.7.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.7.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.8. Italy6.3.8.1. Market estimates and forecast, by product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)6.3.8.2. Market estimates and forecast, by application, 2013  2024 (USD Million)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:The market for AC Power Sources is evolving fast, and could soon present your largest opportunity. Here's how to make the most of it

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The research report on Global AC Power Sources market offers a clear understanding of the market, focusing on the key growth factors and potential opportunities. The product specifications, major geographical segments, and competitive analysis of the Global AC Power Sources market have also been discussed in detail in the research report. It presents future projections of the AC Power Sources market on a Global as well as on regional level. The research study further presents the past performance of the Global AC Power Sources market, coupled with the statistics from 2018 to 2023 on the basis of volume and revenue.The research report comprises key growth drivers and barriers of the Global AC Power Sources market, including their impact on production and demand in the next few years. In addition, the study includes a detailed analysis of the potential opportunities in the Global AC Power Sources market. It further includes the market attractiveness analysis, in which the product segments are studied based on growth rate, market size, and general attractiveness. A Porters five forces model analysis has also been provided in the report to determine the competitive scenario of the Global AC Power Sources market. In addition, a detailed value chain analysis has been included to present a comprehensive view of the market.Key vendors profiled in the report:Chroma Systems Solutions (US), Keysight Technologies (US), B&K Precision Corporation (US), AMETEK Programmable Power (US), Pacific Power Source (US), Matsusada Precision Inc (US), Kikusui Electronics Corporation (JP), Behlman Electronics Inc (US), Preen (AC Power Corp.) (CN), AINUO Instrument (CN), Shanghai Jingtong Regulator Co., Ltd (CN), Munk GmbH (DE)Get Sample Copy of this report:The report assesses the industrial chain helping the Global AC Power Sources Market research report in intricate detail and offers precise data about the features such as production capacity, efficiency in the utilization of the available production capacity, manufacturing chain, demand and supply dynamics, and industry policies affecting the global market.With a view to maintaining the competition in the AC Power Sources market, you may find players taking to the adoption of go-to business strategies such as new product launch. This way, players could also fulfill the growing demands in the market. Any company would want to look into some of the most crucial factors that help a new product launch to become successful, viz. promotional and communicational activities, competition, and a deeper understanding of market requirements.To get more information, Ask for Sample PDF illustration with TOC, Tables, Figures and Charts @Table Of Content:Chapter 1 AC Power Sources 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 AnalysisEarly buyers will receive up to 40% Discount on this reportAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.QYReportsJones JohnSales Manager+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comRolustech Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

SAN FRANCISCO, USA  Rolustech reaches an exciting milestone as it turns ten this year. Founded in 2008, Rolustech is a Professional IT Services firm which specializes in CRM, mobile, web and product development.Starting off with two founding members, Hussain Nasir and Shahrukh Riaz, Rolustech has evolved into a team of more than 100 members including seasoned project managers, certified developers, quality assurance engineers, software engineers, technical architects, business analysts and Front-end Designers. Rolustech is an official SugarCRM and Salesforce Partner firm with offices in US, UK and Pakistan and renders its services to a global clientele.In order to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Rolustech hosted a dinner in January this year. It featured a special presentation commemorating the companys decade long journey and unveiling its plans for the future. At the event Omair Ali, Business Development Manager at Rolustech, announced that the Rolustech had experienced significant growth and team size had increased by 30% compared to last year. He also shed light on the companys plans to set up an office in Munich to keep up with their global client base.The Rolustech team has been hard at work and clocked in over a staggering 1 million hours, successfully completing more than 600 projects for clients from 30 different countries. They have developed over 40 unique products including various integrations and Plugins for Sugar, Salesforce, SuiteCRM and X2CRM and follows upgrade-safe coding procedures in adherence to ISO 270001.Imad Ali reflecting on his time with the company said, Rolustech marked the beginning of my professional life. I started off as a Junior Software Engineer and worked my way up to Associate Project Manager. Rolustech offers a friendly working environment with equal growth opportunities for everyone. There is a strong sense of community among the employees and they are genuinely committed to each others success. These are just a few of the things that make Rolustech a desirable place to work.Rolustech had the honor of receiving the Sugar Competency Award at SugarCon 2016. It has also garnered acclaim for its innovative integrations and plugins. RT GSync was selected as the Sugar App of the Month for being an innovative solution to a complex business problem and RT SalesMap won the X-Ray Vision category award at SugarCon 2017.A decade represents a significant milestone to be achieved for any company. Rolustech attributes their amazing success to the efforts of their employees and the trust of their clients and with their continued support, another prosperous decade is all but certain.Rolustech is an official SugarCRM and Salesforce Partner firm with offices in the UK, USA and Pakistan. Our team of over 100 experienced resources has rendered services to more than 500 satisfied clients globally. We use lean and agile development methodologies to build optimal CRM systems for our valued clients including SugarCRM Partners, Salesforce Partners and Enterprise Customers. Our team helps businesses with CRM Customization, Integration, Deployment, Maintenance and Support.Rolustech795 Folsom Street, San Francisco,CA 94103, USA+1 310 492 5564New Research Study Offers Incisive Insights on Refined Petroleum Products Market From 2017 till 2022

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A new research report on refined petroleum products market at a global level has been included in the extensive research library of Market Research Hub (MRH). This research report includes insights on various trends, developments and factors driving growth of the global refined petroleum products market and provides forecast analysis for a period of five years, starting from 2017 till 2022. This research report offers highly accurate data and statistics along with key acumen on all the aspects inked with refined petroleum products that can give a broad spectrum of ideas to the reader that can support him/her in slating key decisions and implementing strategies in the future. The research report assists the reader from the conceptualization stage till the commercialization stage by giving a brief gist of all the factors involved in the global market.Click here for Free Sample Report@Market Report OutlookThe research report starts with the market introduction followed by executive summary. The following chapter covers market segmentation and analysis of the global market. The research study focuses on the vital regions in the globe, thus increasing the scope of the research. The research report offers actual market data analysis based on current market scenario along with future market scenario on refined petroleum products. The research report includes historic data analysis for the period 2011-2017 and forecasts till 2022. This increases the credibility of the research report, especially for marketing executives, industry executives, product and sales managers, analysts, consultants and several other industry experts who are involved in the market statistics and industry data. Moreover, the research report presents data and statistical analysis in an orderly fashion making it user friendly to access as well as interpret. The research study includes data pertaining to the demand and supply analysis of refined petroleum products, the production in terms of volume of refined petroleum products, market size of refined petroleum products market with respect to various product types as well as market shares of various product type segments of the market for the period for 2011 till 2022.Product Segments AnalyzedVarious product types of refined petroleum products are analyzed. To name a few, analysis on products such as liquefied propane, liquefied butane, liquefied ethylene, butadiene and propylene, paraffin wax, calcined petroleum coke, petroleum jelly, petroleum bitumen and mineral waxes is included in this research report.Browse Full Report with TOC@The Research Report Covers Intelligence of the Market Across Various CountriesThe scenario of refined petroleum products is analyzed across various countries in the globe. Countries such as Australia, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, China, Chile, Cyprus, Colombia, Estonia, Ecuador, France, Finland, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Greece, Indonesia, India, Italy, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Jordan, Lithuania, Latvia, Malaysia, Macedonia, Mexico, Morocco, Moldova, Pakistan, Oman, Philippines, Peru, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovenia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Trinidad, Tanzania, Ukraine, United states and United Kingdom are analyzed and covered in this analytical research report.Reasons to Invest in this StudyThe research report on refined petroleum products market at a global level offers actionable intelligence across various regions in the globe long with incisive insights on various product types, displaying their production scenario, supply and demand data, as well as market shares across regions. Moreover, various developments and trends in the industry have been tracked and included in this research report. With this research intelligence, various marketing strategies, expansion plans, business strategies, opportunities, prospects and major revenue pockets can be identified that can assist the reader in gaining edge in the changing dynamics of the refined petroleum products market.Enquire about this Report@About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports of different sector like chemicals industry reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of industry reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.90 state stContact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:Read Industry News at - https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/reetBio-Polyethylene Terephthalate for Packaging Market Global Industry Analysis and Forecast Till 2017 - 2027

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Barrier films are playing a vital role in increasing the shelf life of the product. Bio-polyethylene terephthalate films are gaining traction especially in food packaging market as these films being made from bio based products does not have negative effects on coming in contact with consumable items over a period of time. Bio-polyethylene terephthalate films are manufactured using sugarcane plants and other food waste which reduces its manufacturing cost and makes it attractive for manufacturers in many end user segment. Food packaging is the major end use for bio-polyethylene terephthalate films. These films are commonly used in the format of lids, pouches and other flexible packaging formats. High printability of bio-polyethylene terephthalate films allow manufacturers to communicate with the end user about company and product. Commonly digital and flexographic printing technology is used for printing of these films. Ability of bio-polyethylene terephthalate films to increase the shelf life of the packed product is attracting manufacturers across the domains for the use of bio-polyethylene terephthalate films.Bio-Polyethylene Terephthalate for Packaging Market: Market DynamicsThe demand for flexible packaging is increasing rapidly and world flexible packaging market is estimated to be US$ 238 Bn and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5.5 % during the forecast period. Use of flexible packaging reduces the carbon foot print of the company as it requires less input of raw material in comparison to the rational grid and offers an amicable format for supplying of goods at a by reducing the weight of the packaging. On the backdrop of technological advantages over traditional rigid packaging in providing barrier against the moisture and oxygen the use of bio-polyethylene terephthalate films is increasing. Apart from the resistance against moisture and oxygen use of bio-polyethylene terephthalate also enable manufacturers to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the dependency of on fossil fuels. Bio-polyethylene terephthalate films are competent against plastic based films in mechanical properties, barrier properties, saleability, process ability and optical performance. The use of high renewable content for manufacturing of bio-polyethylene terephthalate films is the key driver for bio-polyethylene terephthalate film market. Increasing preference of regulatory authorities for bio based products may provide new opportunities for bio-polyethylene terephthalate film manufacturers across the globe. Increasing consumer inclination towards the bio based products is another factor supporting the growth in bio-polyethylene terephthalate films market. However, for increasing the use of bio-polyethylene terephthalate film at a larger scale needs the implementation of strong supply chain network across the globe to overcome the attractiveness of petroleum based resins.Request Report Sample@Bio-Polyethylene Terephthalate for Packaging Market: Market SegmentationBio-polyethylene terephthalate for packaging market is segmented by packaging format type, and by end use industryBased on the packaging format type, bio-polyethylene terephthalate for packaging market is segmented into:LaminationsLidsPouchesBagsOthersBased on the end use industry, bio-polyethylene terephthalate for packaging market is segmented into:FoodChemicalPharmaceuticalsOthersBio-Polyethylene Terephthalate for Packaging Market - Regional Outlook:Regionally global bio-polyethylene terephthalate for packaging market is segmented intoNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanVisit For TOC@Being the worlds production hub, APEJ region is expected to dominate the world global bio-polyethylene terephthalate film market. North America is expected to follow the APEJ region in bio-polyethylene terephthalate film market as the region accounts for the worlds highest imports and second largest exports of goods. Bio-polyethylene terephthalate film market is expected to expand at a moderate pace in Western and Eastern Europe due to the lifestyle of the consumers in the region. Latin America and MEA region are expected to be the small but rapidly growing regions for bio-polyethylene terephthalate film market. Japan is expected to contribute a significant share in bio-polyethylene terephthalate films market.Bio-Polyethylene Terephthalate for Packaging Market - Key Players:Some major players of the bio-polyethylene terephthalate film for packaging market are SCG Chemicals Co., Ltd., TEIJIN LIMITED., TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC., M&G Chemicals, oyota Tsusho,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:Pressure Pumping Market Overview, Top Key Players and Growth Analysis by Forecast to 2027

Pressure Pumping Market

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Market OverviewSignificant depletion of matured oil fields has forced Oil companies to shift their focus towards drilling activities. Pressure pumping being an essential part of pumping oil from matured oil fields and increased drilling activities to pump oil from unconventional onshore fields is leading to a significant increase in the demand in the pressure pumping market. With the further depletion of oil fields the market for pressure pumping is going to witness further growth due to increasing complexity of pumping oil from shallow oil fields.Pressure pumping is a propagation of fractures through layers of rock using pressurized fracturing fluid and pumping the cement into the well bore to complete it. It is primarily used to extract resources from low permeability reservoirs such as shale gas, and unconventional liquids, which are difficult to recover through regular drilling procedures.According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Pressure Pumping is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The global Pressure Pumping market is forecasted to demonstrate an exponential growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a whooping, CAGR during the estimated period (2017  2023).Get Sample of Report @Global Pressure Pumping Market - Competitive AnalysisGlobal Pressure Pumping Market appears to be highly fragmented and competitive owning to the presence of numerous large and medium players active in regional market. The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, Acquisition and expansion. Strategic partnerships between Key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position.Prominent PlayersWeatherford International, China Oilfield Services Ltd., Halliburton Company, Saipem S.p.A., Schlumberger Limited, Baker Hughes and Superior Energy Services among other are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Pressure Pumping Market.Industry NewsIn January 2016, Trican Well Service Ltd announce that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Keane Group, a privately-held, U.S. based well completion services company for the sale of Trican's United States pressure pumping business. The agreed purchase price for the disposition is USD 200 million, or CDN 285 million.In March 2017, Trican and Canyon to combine to create premier canadian pressure pumping companyRegional AnalysisNorth America dominates the Pressure Pumping market. The U.S. accounts for the largest market share in the North American region. The advancements in unconventional drilling technologies, which have attracted capital for oil and gas drilling projects. Additionally, vast hydrocarbon resources in the U.S. Shale basins and continuous offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico region, are driving the demand of the market.Request for Table of Content @Asia Pacific and Europe are the other major market for the Pressure Pumping. Increasing demand for energy due to urbanization & industrialization from the countries such as India, China, and Indonesia among others driving the demand of the market in Asia Pacific region. The Europe Pressure Pumping market is expected to be dominated by countries such as U.K, Norway and Russia. New discovery of oil has been found in the Laptev Sea offshore Northern Russia and several drilling projects have been approved in the Russian Arctic sea region closer to the North Pole are the factors driving the market in the region. It is expected to contribute significantly during the forecast period.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comThermal inkjet printer Market Expected to Expand at a Steady CAGR through 2017 - 2027

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The rise of global brands and consumerism has led to a boom in the printing industry. Printing is now being led a special focus by the manufacturers in order to stay competitive in the market. Thermal inkjet printing specifically propels tiny droplets of ink on the paper to create high-resolution documents or images. Moreover, thermal inkjet printers can be used for printing on multiple surfaces, including glass, textiles and synthetic building materials. This further aids to the demand of the thermal inkjet printers in the global market. Also, thermal inkjet printers bear inherent flexibility, are reliable and moreover, they are affordable for printing on small batch orders, thus serving the printing purpose for small scale manufacturers too.Thermal inkjet printers market: DynamicsThe rise of the modern retail formats is propelling the need of printing which is further driving the need of the global thermal inkjet printers market. Global thermal inkjet printers market is driven by its cost-effective features and high-resolution printing process. With the high demand for the packaged food products, packaging manufacturers are emphasizing more on the printing techniques for high end branding and merchandising appeal. Moreover, due to high on the shelf competition, packaging manufacturers are upgrading their packaging styles, and are focusing on eye-catching designs and graphics. Thus, thermal inkjet printers find their application for printing of packaged food products. Thermal inkjet printers can easily print alphanumeric codes, serial no, barcodes on porous and nonporous which further widens its printing application. One of the major restraining factor for the growth of the thermal inkjet printers market is the incompatibility of the thermal inkjet printers with different inks. Thermal inkjet printer requires the aqueous solution of inks that can vaporize at 300 degrees. Therefore, thermally inkjet printers have to be specially designed to bear high temperature and form a perfect droplet of ink for printing.Request Report Sample@Thermal inkjet printers market: SegmentationThe global market for thermal inkjet printer is segmented on the basis of product type, packaging type and end use industryOn the basis of product type thermal inkjet printers are segmented into:Roof shooter thermal inkjet printersSide shooter thermal inkjet printersOn the basis of packaging type, thermal inkjet printer market is segmented intoLabelsCorrugated boxesFolding cartoonsBags & PouchesOn the basis of end use thermal inkjet printers are segmented into:Food & beverage industryDairy productsPharmaceuticalsHouseholdCosmetics and personal careVisit For TOC@Thermal inkjet printers market: Regional overviewGlobal thermal inkjet printers market is segmented into seven regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan. In North America region, there is a high dependency of consumers on packaged food product. Therefore, manufacturers operating in the region are more focused on the printing and packaging which is propelling the growth of the thermal inkjet printers market in the region. In Asia Pacific region manufacturers are looking towards cheaper printing solution, due to the high initial cost of thermal inkjet printers they are less preferred printers. China is most massive regarding consumption of printers. As the region has high production rate, and there is a requirement for packaging material, and printers, therefore, shows great opportunities for thermal inkjet printers market to grow in this region. MEA and Latin America are expected to exhibit sluggish growth over the forecast period.Thermal inkjet printers market: Key playersSome of the key players of thermal inkjet printers market are Videojet Technologies, Inc., Microboards Technology, HP Development Company, L.P, and Classic Industries.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:Frozen Food Packaging Market Expected to Behold a CAGR of 4.9% through 2017 - 2022

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Growing preference for fresh food products is projected to rev up demand for the frozen food packages in the food and beverages industry. In addition, increasing demand to deliver frozen desserts products is projected to impact growth of the global market of frozen food packaging positively. According to Future Market Insights, the global market of frozen food products is projected to reflect a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period, 2017-2022.Factors Fuelling the Global Market GrowthGrowth of the global frozen food packaging market is mainly bound to various micro-economic and macro-economic factors. Demand for the frozen food packages will continue to increase attributed to surge in the food delivery system. In an attempt to attract customers, manufacturers in the food and beverages industry are increasingly offering frozen food products through the online portals. Moreover, surge in demand for frozen dessert products among customers has further contributed towards growth of the global frozen food packaging market. With the growing need to protect the food products from exposure to extreme weather conditions and moisture, manufacturers are implementing enhanced packaging solutions such as temperature controlled and tamper-proof packaging. Bound to these factors, sales of the frozen food packages in the food and beverages industry is projected to witness robust growth throughout the forecast period.Packages for frozen food products also remain concentrated among the suppliers of the frozen food products. Manufacturers in the food and beverage industry witness significant demand for frozen food products as they have a fresh flavor and can be preserved for comparatively long time. Suppliers of prefer opting for frozen food product packages in order to protect the product from moisture and unprecedented climate conditions. These factors are projected to fuel demand for the frozen food packages in the food and beverage industry positively.Request Report Sample@On the other hand, high quantity of sodium in various frozen food products has led to a drop in the sales of the frozen food products, which has in turn led to a drop in demand for the frozen food packages. In addition, increasing prices of the frozen food products add to the overall cost price of the product, which is projected to witness drop in demand for the frozen food packages. These factors are projected to inhibit growth of the global market of frozen food throughout the forecast period.Plastic Materials to Witness Robust DemandWith the increasing demand for tamper-proof packaging, manufacturer prefer using plastic materials for frozen food product packaging. By packaging material, the plastic segment is projected to represent relatively high revenue growth, reflecting more than US$ 7,000 Mn by 2022-end. On the other hand, the paper & paperboard segment is expected record a relatively high CAGR through 2022. Based on the packaging type, the bags & pouches segment is projected to register a robust CAGR, recording more than US$ 2,000 Mn by 2017-end. During the forecast period, the frozen specialties application type segment is expected will reflect a healthy CAGR. On the other hand, the meat, poultry & seafood segment is projected to account for more than US$ 3,000 Mn by 2022-end. Europe will continue to remain a leading market for the frozen food packages globally.Request Report Methodology@Market PlayersMajor player in the global market of frozen food packages are Ball Corporation, Amor Ltd., Crown Holding Inc., Bemis Company Inc., Pactiv LLC., International Paper Company, Sonoco Products Company, Sealed Air Corporation, Printpack Inc., Berry Global Group Inc. and Huhtamaki Oyj.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 Snacks Market Report 2017 to 2022: Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Demand, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022

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A fresh study, covering Snacks 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 .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 Snacks Market.Request For Sample Report @Snack is the portion of food, usually smaller than regular meals. Snacks come in various forms such as processed foods, and packaged snack foods. Snack foods are designed specifically to be satisfying, quick, and portable. Processed snacks are designed for being less perishable, and more durable. With widely spread convenience stores across the globe, the business for packaged snack food has is witnessing a significant rise.In the current world, consumers are more concerned about their snacking habits. Earlier, snacks were considered to be stop-gap food between meals. At present, they are being consumed with meals across many developed economies. This has led to a higher adoption of healthy snacking products such as extruded snacks, on the back of their metabolic benefits. In addition, the fast-paced lifestyle of people is driving adoption of packaged food such as bakery, and confectionary products. The global market for snacks is highly fragmented the presence of myriad large as well as small vendors competing to increase their market presence by leveraging their sales, based on promotion, service, innovation, and quality. These factors will augment growth of the market in the near future. However, savory and sweet snacks do not contribute to health and wellness trends. Moreover, the snacks are usually more expensive as compared to their standard counterparts. These might act as restraining factors for market growth. The global snacks market led by North America at its helm is poised to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period. The global snacks market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% through 2022.Biscuits Larger than Bars and Fruit Segment in Global Snacks MarketWith a revenue share of more than 50% by product type, biscuits represent the most attractive segment in the snacks market. This segment is anticipated to grow to almost US$ 48 billion by the end of the forecast period with North America contributing 1/3rd revenue share. The fast-paced lifestyle of consumers in North America makes biscuits particularly appealing in the snacks market. The second most lucrative segment in the snacks market is snack bars that comprise a quarter of the revenue. While North America is the largest region for snacks, the CAGR of Japan and Europe is in high single-digits.Wheat Occupies a Large Chunk of the Global Snacks MarketThe wheat segment consists of roughly half the revenue share by source segment in the snacks market for 2017 on account of its nutritive value and diverse application in a variety of foodstuffs. While North America is the largest region by absolute value, a higher CAGR of 6.5% for the period from 2017 to 2022 is projected in the fast-growing APEJ region which companies involved in the snacks market would be recommended to take note of. The oats segment of the snacks market could be a potential prospect of just under US$ 16 billion in 2017 and North America alone should near a value of US$ 4.7 billion in the same year.Browse Full Report with TOC @Table Of ContentChapter 1. Global Snacks Market - Executive Summary. 12Chapter 2. Global Snacks Market Overview. 142.1. Introduction. 142.1.1. Global Snacks Market Taxonomy. 142.1.2. Global Snacks Market Definition. 142.2. Global Snacks Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-2022. 152.2.1. Global Snacks Market Y-o-Y Growth. 152.3. Global Snacks Market Dynamics. 152.3.1. Drivers. 152.3.2. Restraints. 152.3.3. Trends. 162.4. Supply Chain. 162.5. Epidemiology. 162.6. List of Distributors. 162.7. Average Pricing Analysis. 162.8. Regulations. 162.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region. 17Chapter 3. Global Snacks Market Analysis and Forecast By Product Type. 183.1. Global Snacks Market Size and Forecast By Product Type, 2012-2022. 183.1.1. Fruit Snacks Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 183.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 183.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 193.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 203.1.2. Bars Snacks Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 213.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 213.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 223.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 233.1.3. Biscuits Snacks Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 243.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 243.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 253.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 26Continue@@Check Discount @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized Food & Beverages 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:Evironment Of Information Technology Company

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Companies are trying hard to figure out what type of work environment they should provide to their employees, and yes this is an inflexible task to evaluate. IT company wants full results and yet so confused about what environment should be better to help employees yield their full efforts. It is dubious that if they will provide the free or friendly environment they will not focus on work or become too lazy. The second they contemplate this point, the company takes adverse reaction and keeps an eye like a hawk and takes away their freedom. Well, this practice is so wrong.Here are some tips that may help you in creating the affable environment.What employee wants is a pulsating place to work with dedication and motivation. Companies should provide some recreational activities where staff can be relaxed and have some mind refreshing moments. Employees should be provided with quality food because yes food is something that everyone starves for. Furthermore, female staff should be provided with boons of women empowerment.Another momentous factor is bonding between the boss and workers or maybe co-workers must be friendly like they are comfortable enough to sit on one table and discuss possibilities to cope up with problems or discuss new ideas for the project. This is a veritable secret behind every successful business or project.Employees should be rewarded and appreciated by C suites. Companies must welcome new talents and provide them with the freedom of speech. Moreover, indoor games, music or reading books must be added to the list as they are sturdy for protean surroundings for IT company employees.Providing benefits and free environment to employees produce the best workspace. Therefore, employees become ecstatic with inspiration to work. What else a company wants when it will get inclined positive outcomes on their result sheet. It will be fair enough to say happy employees will take you highWith several years of experience in IT services, we develop custom software such as web applications and online shop systems. We distinguish ourselves through flexible, innovative and cost-effective processes and we would be happy if you work with usLINK:Max-Planck-Strae 5,85716 UnterschleiheimNeuromodulation Market 2018 | Top key Players - Boston Scientific Corporation, Medtronic, Accellent

Neuromodulation Market

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Neuromodulation is a technology that acts directly upon the nerves, thereby, causing alterations in the nerve activity. This is achieved by delivering electrical or pharmaceutical agents directly onto the target area. There is a plethora of neuromodulation applications, which includes deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatment for Parkinson's disease, sacral nerve stimulation for pelvic disorders and incontinence, and spinal cord stimulation for ischemic disorders. Increasing prevalence of neurological disorders like Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases, and growing geriatric population are the major drivers for the market growth during the forecast period. According to the Alzheimer's Association in 2017, 5.5 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease and about 5.3 million of this patient population age is 65 years or more. Moreover, according to the World Health Organization, the number of people who age 65 or older is projected to grow from 524 million in 2010 to approximately 1.5 billion by 2050. Moreover, it was estimated that most of the increase in the geriatric population will be witnessed in the developing countries. Additionally, increasing awareness of about neurological disorders will fuel the market growth during the forecast period. However, high cost of the treatment procedures followed by the stringent government policies and low per capita healthcare expenditures in the middle and low income countries may restrain the market growth.The Global Neuromodulation Devices Market is growing with a sound pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global neuromodulation devices market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a sound growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2027).Key Players for Neuromodulation Devices Market:Medtronic (Ireland), Accellent (U.S), St. Jude Medical, Inc. (U.S.), Synapse Biomedical Inc. (U.S.), Nevro Corp (U.S.), DynaMD, Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), NeuroSigma, Inc.(U.S.), NeuroPace, Inc. (U.S.), Neuronetics, Inc. (U.S.), Soterix Medical Inc. (U.S), and BioControl Medical (Israel) are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Neuromodulation Devices Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Neuromodulation Devices Market - Competitive AnalysisCharacterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global neuromodulation devices market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. International players are expanding their footprint in the developing economy, making it difficult for regional vendors to compete with them, especially in terms of features such as product portfolios, quality, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. The intense competition prevalent in the market dictates the consolidation among marketers.Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position.Medtronic is one of the significant players of the global neuromodulation devices market. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Ireland. Medtronics annual sale in 2015 was USD 20,261 million and reached USD 28,833 million in 2016. Such significant increase in the sales lead to a huge investment in the R&D. In 2016, the company invested 7.7% of its total revenue into the research and development processes.Try Sample Report Here @In October 2016, Medtronic got an approval for its suite of cardiac rhythm and heart failure devices. This advancement gave patients- Medtronic SureScan MR-conditional pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillators (CRT-Ds). This helped Medtronic to strengthen its position in the market.In September 2016, Boston Scientific and EndoChoice Holdings, Inc. announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Boston Scientific had agreed to acquire EndoChoice. Upon completion of the transaction, EndoChoice became part of the Boston Scientific endoscopy business.Segments:Global neuromodulation devices market has been segmented on the basis of agents which comprises of electrical, optical and chemical signals others. On the basis of devices include spinal cord stimulation devices, deep brain stimulation devices (DBS), sacral nerve stimulation devices, Vagus nerve stimulation devices and Gastric electric stimulation devices.Global Neuromodulation Devices Market - Regional AnalysisOn the regional backgrounds the Americas leads the global neuromodulation devices market owing to a well-developed healthcare sector, huge patient population and presence of the developed technologies like U.S. and Canada which have technological backgrounds and rising healthcare expenditure for facilitating the market growth. Europe is second in the market due to huge patient population, rising government support and increasing awareness about the disease. The Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing region due to the developing economies like India and China which have a developing healthcare sector. On the other hand, the Middle East and Africa have the least market share, especially in the African region due to the presence of poor economies and stringent government within the African region. The Middle East region holds the market within this region due to huge healthcare expenditures.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Global Patient Positioning Market Analysis, Demand, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2022

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A fresh study, covering Patient Positioning 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 Healthcare. 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 Patient Positioning Market.Request For Sample Report @Patient positioning can be defined as methods in which patients are positioned on beds during medical operations. Appropriate ventilation, anesthesia management, physiologic safety of patients, optimal exposure to surgical site, and maintaining the patients dignity by controlling undue exposure of body parts are observed as the key fundamentals of patient positioning.Surgical Tables Have the Largest Revenue Share ContributionThe surgical tables segment accounted for 27% revenue share in the patient positioning systems market in the year 2017 which was higher than the 19% revenue share of tables segment. The surgical tables segment is poised to grow to almost half a billion by the end of 2022.Lesser Opportunity in Radiolucent Imaging and Examination TablesRadiolucent imaging is estimated to be a little over US$ 360 million by end 2022 and is on track to witness a steady CAGR of over 6%. North America accounts for approx. 40% of the radiolucent segment, and it is highly likely to retain this share for the rest of the study period. With respect to examination tables, a market opportunity of under US$ 200 million in 2017 might not seem very attractive initially but a CAGR of 5.2% for the five year period could be enough to sway major players to focus on this segment in the patient positioning systems market. The companies would be recommended to target Europe owing to the potential of emerging opportunities during the forecast period.Accessories and 'Other' Patient Positioning Systems Niche SegmentsWith a revenue share of 12% and 7.7% in Accessories and Other patient positioning systems respectively, the two are undoubtedly niche segments in the patient positioning systems market. However, it would be unwise to ignore them entirely and manufacturers could focus on targeting North America in both cases as the region can present a significantly large market opportunity. The combined market value of the two segments in North America in the year 2017 could easily exceed US$ 100 million which manufacturers should take cognizance of while devising their investment plans. In both cases, North America alone accounts for roughly 2/5th of the patient positioning systems market.Ambulatory Surgical and Global Diagnostic Centres Remain LucrativeThe market opportunity that exists in the ambulatory surgical centres and global diagnostic centres is quite similar. Ambulatory surgical centres were worth just over US$ 330 million in 2017 and may grow with a CAGR of 7.3% from 2017-2022. On the other hand, global diagnostic centres may near a value of half a billion dollars by the end of the forecast period which would be equal to a revenue share of 27%. Europe and North America dominate the global diagnostics centre segment of the patient positioning systems market as they comprise more than half the market opportunity.Browse Full Report with TOC @Table Of ContentChapter 1. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market - Executive Summary. 27Chapter 2. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Overview. 292.1. Introduction. 292.1.1. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Taxonomy. 292.1.2. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Definition. 292.2. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-2022. 302.2.1. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Y-o-Y Growth. 302.3. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Dynamics. 302.3.1. Drivers. 302.3.2. Restraints. 312.3.3. Trends. 312.4. Supply Chain. 312.5. Cost Structure. 312.6. Pricing Analysis. 312.7. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis. 322.8. List of Distributors. 322.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region. 32Chapter 3. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Analysis and Forecast By By Product. 333.1. Global Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast By By Product, 2012-2022. 333.1.1. Tables Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 333.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 333.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 353.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 353.1.2. Surgical Tables Patient Positioning Systems Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 363.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 363.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 383.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 38Continue@@Check Discount @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized Healthcare 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:A positive month for Germanys True Fleet Market, an even better one for SUV

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The promising start for the German passenger car market continues. Following an impressive +11.6% in January, this February scored some further encouragement with a +7.4% when compared to February 2017. The performance of the different market channels indicates a healthy development: While the volume of rental cars and self-registrations on dealerships and car manufacturers dropped by -1.4% the positive growth from both Private (+21.3%) and True Fleets (+4.8%) channels grew significantly.Brand performanceDespite the good overall result for the fleet market the picture was pretty mixed on brand level. While the top four brands (Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes and BMW) as well as Ford in sixth position all suffered declining volumes over last Februarys results, some makes really shone out. Skoda (5th) and Opel (7th) increased their volume by 22.7% and 26.0% respectively, Renault (8th) even by 32.4%.The growth for Skoda was mainly fuelled by the two SUV models Karoq and Kodiaq, though the Octavia had a very good month as well with a +13.7%. Within Opel we saw a whole squad of successful models with Adam (+76.8%), Astra (+9.7%), Insignia (+132.1%) and Vivaro (+17.5%) posting notable growth and additional volume was of course generated by the SUVs Mokka X, Crossland X and Grandland X. The brand from Russelsheim achieved its best market share since January 2013 making up 6.4% of the True Fleet Market for February.Outside the top 10, Volvo and Citroen should definitely be mentioned. With close to 1,200 new car registrations Volvo in 11th place increased their volume by a remarkable +55.6% and overtook both Nissan and Peugeot in the ranking. Now with the 2018 car of the year, the all-new XC40, entering the market we can certainly expect further growth from the Swedish manufacturer.At Citroen (+51.3% and rank number 15) around 90% of the growth was generated by the new C3 and C3 Aircross respectively. This pushed Citroens market share to 1.2% which was the best result in five years (February 2013).Fuel type performanceThe comparison with February 2017 clearly shows a heavy decline for Diesel with its share dropping from 69.7% to 60.4% in True Fleet. But obviously the steady downtrend trend from the second half of 2017 seems has come to an (temporary) end as the Diesel share rose in January and February 2018.However, you might need to go back even further to find a February with a comparably low diesel share as in 2018. The reason is that 2009 still had a decent number of private diesel registrations but these were outnumbered by the flood of cheap petrol cars that came in from a scrappage scheme.Vehicle segment performanceAnalysing the performance of the vehicle segments two groups are especially remarkable in terms of volume growth. The Mini Car segment rose by amazing 30.0% over February 2017 and the Volkswagen up! and Smart ForTwo in first and second position were not the only ones to show very good performances. The Fiat 500, Opel Adam and big brother of Smart ForTwo, the ForFour also showed excellent growth rates.Meanwhile, the success story of the SUV segment continues. Despite the fact that the previous year was already very strong, 15 out of the top 20 SUV models showed a higher volume when compared to February last year. While an overall surplus of 19.5% almost seems to be normal for SUV, in fact the share in February was the highest ever with 25.4%. The Volkswagen Tiguan defended its lead over the Mercedes GLC while the Skoda Kodiaq jumped from 5th into 3rd, its first time ever in this position. A huge amount of models have also just entered the market place and although currently positioned a bit further down the rankings these models listed will certainly contribute to the ongoing SUV boom in the near future: Hyundai Kona, Jaguar E-Pace, Kia Stonic, Seat Arona, Skoda Karoq, Volkswagen T-Roc, Volvo XC40 (to name just a few).(666 words; 3,912 characters)Publication by indication of source (DATAFORCE) onlyDATAFORCE  Focus on FleetsDataforce is the leading provider of fleet market data and automotive intelligence solutions in Europe. In addition, the company also provides detailed information on sales opportunities for the automotive industry, together with a wide portfolio of information based on primary market research and consulting services. The company is based in Frankfurt, Germany.Michael GergenDataforce Verlagsgesellschaft fur Business Informationen mbHHamburger Allee 1460486 Frankfurt am MainGermanyPhone: +49 69 95930-231Fax: +49 69 95930-333Email: michael.gergen@dataforce.deMedical Tourism Market Estimated to Expand at a Robust CAGR over 2020

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Medical tourism is one of the most dynamically growing industries today. Considered to be the direct impact of globalisation of healthcare, medical tourism certainly exhibits strong growth potential globally. However, based on FMIs research, the market of medical tourism is expected to concentrate within most of the emerging economies of the world.As developing nations are increasingly heading toward technological advancement and quality services in the medical and healthcare sector, the global medical tourism market is anticipated to witness robust growth over 2014-2020, predominantly in Asian countries.The top treatments people travel abroad for, include cancer therapy, cardiovascular surgeries, orthopaedic treatments, dentistry, cosmetic surgeries, reproductive treatments, weight loss therapies, health screenings, and medical tests and scans. In severe cases, a sizeable patient population also seeks second opinion from specialist doctors out of their countries.A sample of this report is available upon request @Key DriversHigh treatment costs and lengthy waiting times for medical procedures, being the two major factors in driving medical tourism, are also supported by easier and cheaper international travel. While the U.K.s population prefers to travel abroad for bypassing long waits, patients from the U.S. travel outside for availing of treatments at cheaper costs.Medical excellence along with international accreditation are the key factors fuelling a majority of international patient flow, eventually boosting international medical tourism. Currently, over 600 medical departments and hospitals all over the globe are accredited by the U.S. Joint Commission International (JCI). The number of accredited facilities is projected to increase almost by 20% each year. This is another important driver associated with the market growth.Developing countries, with ever-evolving innovation and demonstrable achievements in medical research are estimated to accelerate the approaching medical tourist flow over the forecast period. Growing healthcare investments by various government and private sectors are also anticipated to further bolster the market growth.Key RestraintsHowever, medical tourists are highly prone to a wide variety of health risks after they return. The conditions may include TB, paratyphoid, amoebic dysentery, deep vein thrombosis, and more; usually caused due to poor post-operative care and inadequate rest. This could affect the market to some extent.Stringent documentation processes, issues related to visa approval, and limited insurance coverage are reportedly some of the most deterring factors for the global market.Global Medical Tourism Market: SegmentationFMIs research on the global medical tourism market offers a six-year forecast, segmenting the market on the basis of type of medical treatment and geography.On the basis of the type of treatment, the market is segmented into cosmetic treatment, cardiovascular treatment, fertility treatment, dental treatment, orthopaedic treatment, and other general treatments.On the basis of geography, the market is segmented into Asia pacific, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, and South America.Regional OutlookSome of the prominent medical tourism centres across the globe include Thailand, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Israel, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Canada, and the U.S. According to Patients Beyond Borders, the global medical tourism market is currently growing at an impressive rate between 15% and 25%, and the flow of patients seeking cross-border treatment options will be the highest in Mexico. South and Southeast Asia are expected to dominate the global market in the near future.Based on MTAs recently released Medical Tourism Index, there are 41 countries participating in the global medical tourism market. While India broadly secures #1, Israel ranks #1 in the quality of services and facilities.India is renowned for specialist cardiac surgeries, while Singapore is a popular medical tourism destination owing to the expertise in complicated surgical procedures. Thailand has been a popular destination for medical tourism and millions of patients have travelled to Thailand since 2006. It is also the top cosmetic surgery centre globally.Malaysia offers state-of-the-art medical infrastructure and treatments by highly skilled medical professionals, making it another sought after centre among medical tourists. With economically affordable treatment options and favourable government initiatives, Malaysia is anticipated to acquire one of the top market positions in the global medical tourism market, during the forecast period.Key Players: Global Medical Tourism MarketSome of the top key players in the medical tourism industry include Asian Heart Institute (India), Apollo Hospitals (India), Prince Court Medical Centre (Malaysia), Gleneagles Hospital (Singapore), Min-Sheng General Hospital (Taiwan), Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital (Bangkok), Raffles Medical Group (Singapore), Clemenceau Medical Centre (Lebanon), Bangkok Hospital (Thailand), Bumrungrad International Hospital (Thailand), Fortis Healthcare Ltd. (India), Wooridul Spine Hospital (Korea), KPJ Healthcare Berhad (Malaysia), Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey), and Asklepios Klinik Barmbek (Germany).To view TOC of this report is available upon request @While these players rank amongst they compete on the basis of exceptional service quality, optimum patient comfort, and relatively reasonable costs for various treatments. Several facilities are also undergoing mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and joint ventures for delivering enhanced medical care, thereby strengthening their market positions. A few prominent examples of highly productive collaborations include the collaboration between Bumrungrad International Hospital (Bangkok) and IBM Watson for better cancer care, and the collaboration of Anadolu Medical Centre (Turkey) with Johns Hopkins Medicine (U.S.).About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Latest Report on: Ethyl Alcohol Market Report 2018-2025 Lyondell Basell, Sabic, Sasol

Ethyl Alcohol Market Trends 2018

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A market study "Global Ethyl Alcohol Market" examines the performance of the Ethyl Alcohol market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Ethyl Alcohol market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Ethyl Alcohol market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Ethyl Alcohol Market 2018 report includes Ethyl Alcohol market Revenue, market Share, Ethyl Alcohol industry volume, market Trends, Ethyl Alcohol Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Ethyl Alcohol Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Ethyl Alcohol Market 2018 :1. Archer Daniels Midland2. Lyondell Basell3. British Petroleum4. Sabic5. Sasol6. Ineos7. Valero8. Andersons Ethanol Group9. Abengoa Bioenergy10. Pannonia Ethanol11. Heineken12. Stake Technology13. United Breweries14. Kirin15. VeraSun Renewable Energy16. Alternative Energy SourcesEthyl Alcohol Market : By ApplicationFood & BeveragePharmaceuticalsEnergyEthyl Alcohol Market : By TypeFood GradeIndustrial GradePharmaceutical GradeFirstly, the report covers the top Ethyl Alcohol manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Ethyl Alcohol report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Ethyl Alcohol industry, Ethyl Alcohol industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Ethyl Alcohol Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Ethyl Alcohol 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 Ethyl Alcohol market revenue worldwide.Finally, Ethyl Alcohol 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 Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comBurn care Market Size, Strategies, Analysis, Industry Share and Forecast with Upcoming Trends 2018

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Burn care Market - Growth, Future Prospects and Competitive Analysis, 2017 - 2025 the global Burn care market was valued at US$ 1.64 Bn in 2016, and is expected to reach US$ 2.87 Bn by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2017 to 2025.Browse Here For Full Report:Market InsightsAccording to world health organization (WHO), approximately 265,000 deaths every year are caused by burns, generally occurring in low and middle income countries. Rising incidence of burn, availability of advance treatment, rising number of emergency centers and government initiatives to develop the strategies for improving care are prime factors driving the growth of burn care market globally. For the purpose of study, burn care market is segmented on the basis of product type such as advanced burn care products, biologics and traditional burn care products. Among the considered segments advanced burn care products held largest market share due to factors such as it offers minimize irritation, lower the risk of infection in the wound, more effective, simple to apply, require minimal maintenance and more comfort these which are primarily assisting growth of advanced burn care products market globally. Depending on severity burn care market is categorized as minor burns, partial-thickness burns and full-thickness burns. In the base year 2016, full-thickness burns or third-degree burns held largest market share because full-thickness burns generally require long term care as it destroy epidermis, dermis and may go into the subcutaneous tissue, furthermore it may require surgical treatments and intravenous antibiotics to prevent infection these factors fueling the growth of full-thickness burns market globally.Currently, North America is dominating the burn care market because higher preference for advance burn care treatment, more concern for aesthetic appearance, favorable reimbursement policies by the government, higher cost of therapy and technological advancement are primarily driving the market growth in North America.Market Competition Assessment:The Burn care market is observed to be highly competitive and comprises large number of players. However, the market is currently dominated by few players such as 3M Company, Acelity L.P. Inc., Coloplast A/S, ConvaTec Inc., Derma Sciences, Inc., Hollister, Inc., Medtronic Plc., Molnlycke Health Care, Smith & Nephew PLC., Smith & Nephew plc. and other.Key Market Movements:- Factors such as increase in incidence of burn, rising awareness regarding treatment options, increasing number of emergency centers and burn units, advancement in treatments options such as reconstructive surgery and skin graft and increased healthcare expenditure are primarily driving the market growth globally.- Due to the high number of unmet needs, vendors in the market are focusing on innovation and technological advances in treatment, this would further influence the growth of burn care market during forecast period.- However, higher cost of advance treatment and surgery, stringent regulatory requirements and lack of reimbursement in some countries are negatively impacting the growth of burn care market.Browse Here For Full Report:Request Sample:Browse Here For Full Report:About Us:Acute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements. We provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade our collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Our database consists of 200,000+ market research reports with detailed & minute market research.Web-Contact Us:Acute Market Reports105 N 1st ST #429SAN JOSECA 95103United StatesDental Biomaterials Key Players - 3-D Matrix Ltd, Aleo BME Inc, and Collagen Matrix Inc Market Analysis & Forecast 2018 to 2021

Dental Biomaterials

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Dental BiomaterialsOverviewMedical Devices sector report, Dental Biomaterials - Medical Devices Pipeline Assessment, 2018" provides an overview of Dental Biomaterials currently in pipeline stage.The report provides comprehensive information on the pipeline products with comparative analysis of the products at various stages of development. The report reviews major players involved in the pipeline product development. It also provides information about clinical trials in progress, which includes trial phase, trial status, trial start and end dates, and, the number of trials for the key Dental Biomaterials pipeline products.Click here for sample report @Top Companies mentioned3-D Matrix LtdAleo BME IncCollagen Matrix IncPolyPid LtdREGENECURE LtdDental Biomaterials Industry Major OutlookExtensive coverage of the Dental Biomaterials under developmentThe report reviews details of major pipeline products which includes, product description, licensing and collaboration details and other developmental activitiesThe report reviews the major players involved in the development of Dental Biomaterials and list all their pipeline projectsThe coverage of pipeline products based on various stages of development ranging from Early Development to Approved / Issued stageThe report provides key clinical trial data of ongoing trials specific to pipeline productsRecent developments in the segment / industryIdentify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantageIdentify and understand important and diverse types of Dental Biomaterials under developmentDental Biomaterials - Competitive AnalysisKey players are making innovative developments in Dental Biomaterials 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The Future of United Kingdom Pet Products Markets to 2025

Pet Products

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Latest Report Available at Orbis research Pet Products Market provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics and a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining industry growth.Request sample copy of this report @United Kingdom Pet Products of USD XX million in 2017 is expected to increase to USD XX million by 2022, at a CAGR of XX%. Driven by surge in market conditions and technological advancements, the Pet Products has witnessed strong growth in terms of sales.The countrys Electronic communication industry has strong growth potential across the market. In terms of Strong investment opportunities /Strong and product sales, the sector is offering strong growth prospect for both domestic and international companies.Evolving Strong Market Trends /StrongNew market trends continue to emerge in United Kingdom Pet Products, in particular, driven by improving economic conditions. Foray of new companies coupled with technological advancements continue to shape new market dynamics.Strong Market Segmentation /StrongThe Pet Products is further segmented by type and in addition to overall Strong market forecast /Strong , the report provides forecasts for Pet Products by type. Further, the growth and industry conditions in the United Kingdom market are assessed in comparison to regional Pet Productss.Report ScopeMarket overview for United Kingdom Pet Products along with regional comparison and Strong competitive analysis /StrongStrong Current status /Strong of the market together with detailed analysis on drivers and challengesIdentification of factors fundamental for growth in the industry, potential opportunities /em along with trends shaping the future of global and regional Pet ProductssStrong Supply opportunities /Strong including tenders available for bidding in United Kingdom Pet ProductssegmentBrowse Complete Report @Trade value, import and export values /em and quantities of Pet Products sectorIn depth analysis of companies present in Pet Products along with their Strong strategies /Strong and company SWOT profilesAnalysis and forecasts of both macro and micro factors /em set to impact the existing players in Pet ProductsInsights into recent industry developments and their impact on companies operating and planning to enter United Kingdom Pet ProductsSome points From TOC:1 Table of Contents1.1 List of Tables1.2 List of Figures2 United Kingdom Pet Products Market Overview, 20182.1 Introduction to United Kingdom Pet Products Market2.2 Industry Snapshot, 20183 United Kingdom Pet Products Strategic Analysis Review, 2018- 20253.1 Key Trends Shaping the Future of United Kingdom Pet Products Industry3.2 Industry Drivers3.3 Challenges Facing Pet Products CompaniesPurchase a copy of Pet Products Market visit @For more information contact sales@orbisresearch.com4 United Kingdom Pet Products- Market SWOT Analysis4.1 Key Strengths4.2 Major Weaknesses4.3 Potential Opportunities4.4 Key Threats5 United KingdomPet Products Market Value Forecast, 2017- 20255.1 United Kingdom Market Outlook, $ billion, 2017- 20255.2 United Kingdom Pet Products Market by Type, 2017- 20256 Global Pet Products market Analysis6.1 Major Micro and Macro factors shaping global Pet Products marketsFor any enquires before buying, connect with us @ enquiry@orbisresearch.comAbout 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; +9164101019Follow Us on LinkedIn:Follow us on Twitter:Like us on Facebook:Latest Report on: Tubeless Tyre Market Report 2018-2025 Bridgestone, Continental AG, Michelin

Tubeless Tyre Market Growth 2018

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A market study "Global Tubeless Tyre Market" examines the performance of the Tubeless Tyre market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Tubeless Tyre market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Tubeless Tyre market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Tubeless Tyre Market 2018 report includes Tubeless Tyre market Revenue, market Share, Tubeless Tyre industry volume, market Trends, Tubeless Tyre Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Tubeless Tyre Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Tubeless Tyre Market 2018 :1. Bridgestone Corporation2. The Goodyear Tyre and Rubber3. Continental AG4. Michelin5. Pirelli Tyre6. Sumitomo Rubber Industries7. Hankook Tire8. Toyo Tire and Rubber9. Yokohama Tire10. CEAT, LtdTubeless Tyre Market : By ApplicationPassenger VehiclesCommercial VehiclesTubeless Tyre Market : By TypeBy Tyre SegmentRadial Tubeless TyreBias Tubeless TyreBy Rim Size13-15 inch16-18 inch19-21 inch22-26 inchFirstly, the report covers the top Tubeless Tyre manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Tubeless Tyre report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Tubeless Tyre industry, Tubeless Tyre industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Tubeless Tyre Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Tubeless Tyre 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 Tubeless Tyre market revenue worldwide.Finally, Tubeless Tyre 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 Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comGlobal Sunflower Seeds Market 2018-KENKKO, CONAGRA FOODS, DuPont, Limagrain UK, GIANT Snacks, Martin US

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Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Global Sunflower Seeds Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Global Sunflower Seeds 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 Sunflower Seeds industry, and estimates the future trend of Global Sunflower Seeds market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Global Sunflower Seeds Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportKENKKOCONAGRA FOODSDuPontLimagrain UKGIANT SnacksMartin USCHSSakata Seed AmericaAmericanMeadowsIkeMahyco SeedsNuseedThe market research report explores the Global Sunflower Seeds market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Global Sunflower Seeds 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 Global Sunflower Seeds market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Global Sunflower Seeds. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Global Sunflower Seeds 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 Global Sunflower Seeds is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Global Sunflower Seeds market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Global Sunflower Seeds market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The Global Sunflower Seeds market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Global Sunflower Seeds production volume, data pertaining to demand and Global Sunflower Seeds supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Global Sunflower Seeds 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 Global Sunflower Seeds 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 -Latest Report on: Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market Report 2018-2025 Hyuandi Mobis, Robert Bosch

Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market Growth 2018

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A market study "Global Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market" examines the performance of the Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market 2018 report includes Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems market Revenue, market Share, Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems industry volume, market Trends, Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market 2018 :1. ZF Friedrichshafen2. Mitbushi Electric Corporation3. Hyuandi Mobis4. Robert Bosch5. Showa Corporation6. JTEKT Corporation7. NSK Ltd8. ThyssenKrupp AG9. China Automotive Systems10. Mando CorporationCommercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market : By ApplicationLight Commercial VehiclesMedium Commercial VehiclesHeavy Commercial VehiclesCommercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market : By TypeElectronic Power SteeringHydraulic Power SteeringElectro-hydraulic Power SteeringFirstly, the report covers the top Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems industry, Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems 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 Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems market revenue worldwide.Finally, Commercial Vehicle Steering Systems 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 Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comInfusion Pumps Market : Future Demand, Market Analysis & Outlook to 2025

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Global Infusion Pumps Market: SnapshotInfusion pumps are devices that permeate nutrients, fluids, or medications into the circulatory system of a patients body. In general, it is used intravenously in most of the cases. However, epidural, subcutaneous, and arterial infusions are also being used in quite a few cases. The credit of the infusion pumps go to the way these pumps can administer fluids. It is not all feasible and expensive for a trained nurse to administer medication, nutrients, or fluids into a patients body in a way that infusion pump does.For instance, infusion pumps can infuse as little as 0.1 mL per hour injection or injection with repeated boluses or an injection per minute as per the requests made by the patient. It can give injections up to a maximum number of times per hour, for instance, in cases of patient controlled analgesia and it can also vary the fluids as and when required by the patients. Infusion pumps are capable of creating immense pressure but at the same time they are able to control pressure as well. These pumps are used to inject regulated amount of fluids just beneath the skin or subcutaneously as it is commonly known as. Epidural is another method that is used by infusion pumps to inject fluids just in the surface of the central nervous system, for this method is implemented while administering local anesthesia to pregnant woman during childbirth.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Infusion Pumps Market: OverviewAn infusion pump is a medical device designed to deliver fluids or drugs into a patients body in an administered and controlled manner; fluids may include nutrients or different types of medications such as insulin, hormones, pain relievers, antibiotics, and chemotherapy drugs. The devices can be powered mechanically or electrically and can be used in a variety of clinical settings.The market has evolved rapidly driven by a steady demand for different types of infusion pumpsstationary and ambulatory infusion pumpsfor the management of a wide range of ailments that include cancer, diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, neurological disorders, and AIDS. Over the past few years, the infusion pumps market has witnessed growing popularity of various specialized types such as enteral feeding pumps, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pump, and insulin pumps among patients. Manufacturers of medical devices are constantly making efforts to increase the reliability and safety of infusion pumps and to reduce medication errors delivered by intravenous infusion.Request TOC of the Report @Infusion Pumps Market: TrendsThe infusion pumps market is primarily driven by the increasing incidence of various chronic diseases, the management of which requires safe and controlled administration of medications and drugs. In addition, the increasing number of surgeries performed in developed and developing regions and a rise in geriatric population are expected to fuel the market. The increasing inclination toward the adoption of alternative therapies for the treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis, congestive pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic pain has stimulated the demand for infusion pumps. For instance, the adoption of intrathecal drug delivery is emerging as a viable option for the treatment of patients suffering from chronic and intractable pain or severe spasticity.Coupled with this, constant automation and technological advancements in infusion devices and accessories have led to the availability of smart infusion pumps with ergonomic design, enhanced operation, user-friendly interfaces, and portability, thereby propelling the market.Infusion Pumps Market: Market PotentialThe increased adoption of insulin pumps for the self-management of diabetes across home settings and the adoption of implantable infusion systems for neurological diseases are developments expected to expand the potential of the infusion pumps market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Flowonix Medical Inc., a pioneer in drug delivery systems company based in New Jersey, and Cerebral Therapeutics, a company based in Colorado, have announced the worlds first clinical trial administering medication directly into the brain of patients suffering from refractory epilepsy. The two companies jointly developed Prometra II Programmable Pump, an implantable infusion pump, to be used with an intrathecal catheter for the affected patients in the Australian Direct Drug Administration for Refractory Epilepsy (ADDRESS) clinical trial conducted at St. Vincent's Hospital, Australia. The wide ranging clinical study will enable the companies to assess the efficacy of micro-infusion therapy featuring the intracerebroventricular (ICV) delivery of the drugvalproate sodiumamong patients with intractable epilepsy.The study, believes the participants will have profound ramifications in the potential of implantable infusion therapies for the treatment of drug-resistant uncontrollable epilepsy and is expected to benefit the healthcare community at large. Although the Prometra II Pump is not yet approved for the ICV administration of valproate in the U.S. and Australia, the clinical study opens up promising options.Infusion Pumps Market: Regional OutlookAmong major regions, North America is a prominent market for infusion pumps and is expected to exhibit impressive growth along the forecast period. The significant growth in the regional market is attributable to the rising penetration of high-end pumps, soaring adoption of ambulatory pumps for managing chronic diseases, and the presence of a robust healthcare infrastructure. In addition, the increased integration of infusion therapy in healthcare IT infrastructure has propelled the regional market.The Asia Pacific market is anticipated to witness substantial growth along the forecast period. A rapid rise in geriatric population, increasing accessibility of healthcare facilities, advances in health insurance sector, and a rise in chronic diseases are the factors fuelling the regional market.Infusion Pumps Market: Competitive AnalysisSeveral companies are offering technologically advanced infusion therapies, including implantable, wearable, and automated infusion pumps, to help the management of a wide range of chronic diseases. Major players operating in the infusion pumps market include B. Braun Melsungen AG, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Pfizer Inc., Medtronic, Terumo Corporation, and Roche Diagnostics.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comCamphene Global Market Forecast to 2023 : Top Manufacturers By Sales, Revenue, Market Share

Global Camphene Market Forecast to 2023

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ResearchByMarkets.com - Industry Press Release, "Global Camphene Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023", 100 Pages, 12 Companies Profiled and 6 Key Global Market Regions Analyzed.This report sheds light on the Camphene in Global Market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Major Key Players:CABB GmbHCamphor & Allied ProductsMangalam Organics LimitedSaptagir CamphorKanchi Karpooram LimitedOrgsintez OJSCHimachal Terepene Products Private Limited (HTPPL)Fujian Green PineFoshan SanshuiSuzhou Youhe Science and TechnologyDongping Flavor & FragrancesSky Dragon Fine-ChemMore Information:Regional Analysis: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)Analysis by Type:Super Grade CampheneFirst Grade CampheneSecond Grade CampheneAnalysis by Applications:Flavor & FragranceSynthetic MaterialPesticideOtherInquire more about this report:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Camphene market.Chapter 1, to describe Camphene Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Camphene, with sales, revenue, and price of Camphene, 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 Camphene, 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, Camphene market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Camphene sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Contact:ResearchByMarketsMs. Lia Seth | Client Relations Managerenquiry@researchbymarkets.comResearch By Markets is an online Market Research Report Repository.Our repository contains reports segmented by Geography and Industry. We cover all major Industry Verticals - Information Technology, Semiconductor, Electronics, Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, BioTechnology, Energy & Power, Banking and many more.Research By Markets3, Nagar Road,Pune 411 014, Maharashtra, Indiaenquiry@researchbymarkets.com+1-800-416-3124Global Pain Management Devices Market Research and Forecast 2018-2023

https://www.omrglobal.com/industry-reports/pain-management-devices-market/

Global Pain Management Devices Market, Size, Share, Market Intelligence, Company Profiles, Market Trends, Strategy, Analysis, Forecast 2018-2023PAIN MANAGEMENT DEVICES MARKET INSIGHTS:The Pain Management Devices Market growth of the market is attribute to the growing prevalence of the chronic medical conditions across the globe and increasing geriatric population worldwide. Furthermore, development of the technologically advanced pain management devices, supportive reimbursement policies and stringent government regulations to limit opioid pain killer prescriptions are also some of the major factors that are estimated to have significant impact on the growth of the market.Growing geriatric population and high prevalence of related issue is a major growth factor for the market. According to WHO, in the year 2015, the elderly (65+) population across the globe was estimated to be around 900 million, up from 524 million in the year 2010. It is further estimated to reach 1.5 billion by the year 2050. Aging is major factor in pain related issues specially in cases of common occurring age-related ailments. Arthritis, osteoporosis, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are some of the most common ailments in elderly.However, there are certain factors that are hampering the market growth. Presence of the alternative therapies and medications for pain management, high cost of pain management devices and lack of awareness are the major constraints in the growth of the market. Apart from these restraints, increasing prevalence of the neuropathic pain and strong product pipeline for pain management devices are estimated to develop myriad growth opportunities for the growth of the market.The full report of Pain Management Devices Market is available at:The Global Pain Management Devices Market is analyzed on the basis of the geographical regions that are contributing significantly towards the growth of the market. North America is estimated to account for major share in the global market owing to the well-developed healthcare infrastructure and supportive government policies such as Precision Medicines and Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, presence of favorable reimbursement policies also estimated to drive the growth of the market in the region. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing region during the forecast period owing to the rapidly growing healthcare infrastructure in the emerging economies such as India and China and increasing disposable incomes are estimated to be the major factors that are driving the growth of the market.Some of the prominent vendors of the pain management devices market are B Braun Melsungen AG, Baxter International Inc., Becton Dickinson and Company, Bio Medical Research Ltd., Boston Scientific Corporation, Codman and Shurtleff Inc., DJO Global LLC, Halyard Health Inc., Hospira Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Medtronic PLC, Neurotech NA Inc., Nevro Corporation, Pain Management Technologies Inc., Smiths Medical, St. Jude Medical Inc. and Stryker Corporation.Market SegmentationGlobal Pain Management Devices Market by ApplicationsGlobal Pain Management Devices Market by TypesTHE REPORT COVER:Comprehensive research methodology of Global Pain Management Devices Market.This report also includes detailed and extensive market overview with Analyst insights & key market trends.Exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations.Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the Global Pain Management Devices Market.Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global Pain Management Devices Market.Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues.Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.For More updated Follow: LinkedInOrion Market Research (OMR) is an Indian research company known for its crisp and concise reports.The company is equipped with an experienced team and young brigade of analysts. The company provides quality syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiling, consulting and other research-based services. OMR provide global and regional market reports of various domains such as healthcare, energy, IT, chemicals, and automobiles. The company provides a 360-degree view of the market with parametric analysis, key market insights, key findings, statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, extensive segmentation, key trends, strategic recommendations and detailed company profiles.Orion Market Research Pvt Ltd116, Shagun ArcadeVijay Nagar SquareIndore, Madhya Pradesh  India- 452010Email: info@omrglobal.com, support@omrglobal.comIndia: +91-780-304-0404Global: +1-646-755-7667Payment Card Market Trends and Opportunities by types and Application in Grooming Regions; Edition 2018-2025

ReportsWeb

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Global Payment Card Market Professional Survey Report 2018Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as bank, to a client that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the client's own bank account, or through a credit account and make payments by electronic funds transfer and access automated teller machines (ATMs). Such cards are known by a variety of names including bank cards, ATM cards, MAC (money access cards), client cards, key cards or cash cards.There are a number of types of payment cards, the most common ones being credit cards and debit cards. Most commonly, a payment card is electronically linked to an account or accounts belonging to the cardholder. These accounts may be deposit accounts or loan or credit accounts, and the card is a means of authenticating the cardholder. However, stored-value cards store money on the card itself and are not necessarily linked to an account at a financial institution.Get sample copy of this report:Top Manufacturers: MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Banco Itau, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of Brazil, Bank of East Asia, Chase Commercial Banking, Diner's Club, Hang Seng Bank, Hyundai, JP Morgan, SimplyCash, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, WEX Inc., Woori BankMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaMarket Segment by Type, coversContactless Payment CardContact Payment CardDual Interface Payment CardMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoEnterprise UseIndividual UseGet Discount of this report:It can also be a smart card that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date or CVVC (CVV) or with a magnetic strip on the back enabling various machines to read and access information.Depending on the issuing bank and the preferences of the client, this may allow the card to be used as an ATM card, enabling transactions at automatic teller machines; or as debit card, linked to the client's bank account and able to be used for making purchases at the point of sale; or as a credit card attached to a revolving credit line supplied by the bank.Most payment cards, such as debit and credit cards can also function as ATM cards, although ATM-only cards are also available. Charge and proprietary cards cannot be used as ATM cards. The use of a credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM is treated differently to a POS transaction, usually attracting interest charges from the date of the cash withdrawal. Interbank networks allow the use of ATM cards at ATMs of private operators and financial institutions other than those of the institution that issued the cards.All ATM machines, at a minimum, will permit cash withdrawals of customers of the machine's owner (if a bank-operated machine) and for cards that are affiliated with any ATM network the machine is also affiliated. They will report the amount of the withdrawal and any fees charged by the machine on the receipt. Most banks and credit unions will permit routine account-related banking transactions at the bank's own ATM, including deposits, checking the balance of an account, and transferring money between accounts. Some may provide additional services, such as selling postage stamps.Table of Content:Global Payment Card Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Payment Card2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Payment Card3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Payment Card4 Global Payment Card Overall Market Overview5 Payment Card Regional Market Analysis6 Global 2012-2017E Payment Card Segment Market Analysis (by Type)7 Global 2012-2017E Payment Card Segment Market Analysis (by Application)8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Payment Card8.1 MasterCard8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 MasterCard 2016 Payment Card Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 MasterCard 2016 Payment Card Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Visa8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Visa 2016 Payment Card Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Visa 2016 Payment Card Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 American Express8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 American Express 2016 Payment Card Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 American Express 2016 Payment Card Business Region Distribution Analysis9 Development Trend of Analysis of Payment Card Market10 Payment Card Marketing Type Analysis11 Consumers Analysis of Payment CardComplete Report:Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comCompany Name: ReportsWebWebsite: Reportsweb.comPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Small Scale LNG Terminals Market : Trends, Growth and Forecasts to 2025

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Global Small-scale Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminals Market: SnapshotSmall-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals is a nascent industry that is proving both profitable and scalable. It serves to meet the ever-soaring demand for fuel by the trucking and shipping industries and is also a viable alternative to highly polluting fossil fuel that still powers most vehicles.Despite large-scale LNG terminals constructed worldwide, the demand for small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals is rising on account of the demand from remote places that also use LNG to generate power off-grid for residential and industrial needs. This has led to a growing thrust on miniaturizing LNG infrastructure. Technology has made it possible to design state-of-the-art small-scale LNG terminals and this is gradually serving to up competition in the market.Relatively less entry-level challenges as compared to large LNG projects have opened up avenues for development of creative and new technologies and have increased the number of new entrants in the market over the years. Apart from that, regulatory pressures forcing heavy-duty vehicles to adopt greener fuels is also stoking market growth.Request Sample Copy of the Report @From a geographical standpoint, North America and Europe are key markets for small scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on account of the stringent regulations pertaining to environmental preservation in the region. Norway in Europe is said to have a very developed small scale liquefied natural gas infrastructure.In order to become more viable operation-wise, incumbent players in the global market for small-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are envisaging various business models. They are also expected to take the organic route of mergers and acquisitions in order to gain access to technological and other resources.Global Small Scale LNG Terminals Market: OverviewThe clean burning nature of natural is driving initiatives encouraging its increased usage across a number of industrial applications and across the transportation industry. The transportation industry, which largely relies on petrochemicals-based fuels with high emission levels to power engines, making it one of the most significant contributor to the rising levels of air pollution across the globe.Request TOC of the Report @In a bid to lower down the levels of environment-degrading emissions and pollutants, government bodies are increasing their participation in initiatives aimed at the increased the usage of natural gas and are focusing on the development of LNG infrastructure at a rapid pace. These initiatives are expected to pace up the rate of deployment and development of LNG terminal infrastructures. Although large LNG terminals have been conventionally the more preferred type of LNG supply centers, the rising demand for LNG from remote-located consumers is rapidly making small-scale LNG terminals the norm for the supply of natural gas across small geographies.Global Small Scale LNG Terminals Market: Trends and OpportunitiesOver the past few years, the global commoditization of LNG has led to a significant rise in the number of new applications and market of LNG. Technological solutions enabling small scale LNG terminals have become mature and modularization, standardization, and the rate of competitiveness have increased.Relatively lower entry-level challenges as compared to large LNG projects have opened up vast stores of opportunity for the rapid development of creative and new technologies and have increased the number of new entrants in the market over the years. The increased adoption of LNG as a fuel in the automotive industry, especially for powering heavy-duty vehicles, is also a key factor to have increased the adoption of small-scale LNG terminals across several regional markets.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Small Scale LNG Terminals Market: Regional OverviewFrom a regional perspective, the small scale LNG terminals market is highly attractive across environment-conscious regions such as North America and Europe. Strict regulations in the marine sector have increased the scope of usage of LNG as a bunker fuel in Europe, stimulating the development of strategically located small scale terminals. In the next few years also, North America and Europe will continue to contribute significantly to the global small-scale LNG terminals market in terms of new installations and capacity expansions.Asia Pacific is also a highly promising market owing to its mammoth transportation industry. In China, several efforts in place to educate masses about the need to switch to clean fuels to lower down the levels of air pollution in cities, easy availability of natural gas, and substantial price difference between diesel and natural gas are driving the increased deployment of small scale LNG terminals.Global Small Scale LNG Terminals Market: Market PotentialThe field of LNG bunkering is increasingly becoming one of the key end-use segments of the global small scale LNG terminals market and companies operating in the field are registering large-scale expansion of operations and capacities at a rapid pace. In a recent development, the privately-owned company LNG Gorskaya has received funding worth $20.04 mn, which the company will use to develop its LNG bunkering plants in Estonia. With further funding, the company is planning to finance its LNG bunkering centers in Finland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden, establishing a series of small-scale terminals to be able to provide LNG to ships at around 320 km from its LNG bunkering stations.Global Small Scale LNG Terminals Market: Competitive LandscapeThe highly competitive vendor landscape of the global small scale LNG terminals market is expected to witness the introduction of several new business models in the next few years. The market is expected to witness a rise in mergers and acquisitions as companies focus on leveraging their project management competence and technological expertise to stay ahead of competition.Some of the leading companies operating in the global small scale LNG terminals market are Nippon Gas Co., Ltd., EcoElectrica Inc., Plum Energy, LLC, Linde AG, Santos Ltd, PT Donggi Senoro LNG, Prometheus Energy Company, Emirates Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) LLC, Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), and Skangass AS.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGrowing demand in Scotch Whisky Industry Market Forecast 2018-2023

Scotch Whisky Industry Market

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HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Scotch Whisky market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Scotch Whisky market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Application 1, Application 2 & Application 3], products type [Type 1, Type 2 & Type 3] and various important geographies like North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Scotch Whisky market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers. The in-depth information by segments of Scotch Whisky market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Scotch Whisky Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Scotch Whisky Market, some of them listed here are company 1, company 2, company 3, company 4, company 5, company 6, company 7, company 8 & company 9. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Scotch Whisky (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Type 1, Type 2 & Type 3. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Application 1, Application 2 & Application 3 with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Scotch Whisky in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Following would be the Chapters to display the Global Scotch Whisky market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Scotch Whisky, Applications of Scotch Whisky, 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 Scotch Whisky, Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, 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 North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific etc, Scotch Whisky Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Scotch Whisky Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Scotch Whisky;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Type 1, Type 2 & Type 3], Market Trend by Application [Application 1, Application 2 & Application 3];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Scotch Whisky;Chapter 12,13, 14 and 15, to describe Scotch Whisky sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Enquire for customization in Report @What this Research Study Offers:Global Scotch Whisky Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy 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 six-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Fiber Optic Sensor Market 2018 by Global Key Players: ABB, Yokogawa Electric, OmniSens, Deltex Medical Group, Finisar, AP Sensing, Sumitomo Electric Industries, AFL Group, Luna Innovations Incorporated

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Market Research Future published a research report on Fiber Optic Sensor Market Research Report- Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Market Scenario:The fiber optic sensor consist of fiber optic cable connected to a remote sensor or an amplifier and has the ability to convert light energy into electrical signal. It is used to sense temperature, pressure, rotation, vibrations, and concentration of chemical species. The fiber optic sensor have various applications in the field of remote sensing as it reduces electrical power and is small in size thereby can be easily fit in small areas. It is bad conductor of electricity and possess immune characteristics for electromagnetic interference thereby can be used in places which is having high voltage electricity or any flammable material. Further, the major advantages of fiber optic sensor over conventional sensors are: ideal for microwave, and harsh & hostile environment, can monitor wide range of physical & chemical parameters and consist of thin, low-less glass wire having higher refractive index than its surrounding region which allows light to propagate through single or multimode fiber.Get Sample of Report @The high demand of fiber optic sensors in Oil & gas and construction industry are the major growth drivers of fiber optic sensor market during 2016-2022. Fiber optic sensor has high tolerance capacity and well suited for extreme temperature conditions thereby propelling its market growth in industrial as well as in energy & power sector. Also, growing deployment of fiber optic sensors in smart buildings, defense service operations, and in medical sector is expected to drive the market growth in the upcoming future. However, high installation cost and high sensing capability might hamper the growth of fiber optic sensor market during forecast period 2016-2022.Globally the Fiber Optic Sensor Market is expected to grow at the rate of more than ~11% from 2016 to 2022.Segments for Fiber Optic Sensor Market:Global Fiber Optic Sensor Market can be segmented as follows: Segmentation by Type: Intrinsic and extrinsic fiber optic sensors. Segmentation by Component: Transmitters, receivers, optical amplifiers, fiber optic cable and others. Segmentation by End-Users: Defense, energy & power, medical, transportation, industrial and others.Regional Analysis:Geographically, North America is expected to dominate the fiber optic sensor market during the forecast period 2016-2022 followed by Europe. The North America market further classified into its major countries U.S., Canada and Mexico. The companies in the region is focusing in increasing their production and improving their distribution network. Also, increasing demand of handheld devices in smart control system of factory automation is expected to propel the market growth of fiber optic sensor in the region. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market in fiber optic sensor market due to growing demand of fiber optic sensors in oil& gas and construction industry in the region. Also, rising need of handheld devices and electronic systems is expected to fuel the growth of fiber optic sensor market in the region by the end of 2022.Key PlayersSome of the major players in Global Fiber Optic Sensor Market includes ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan), OmniSens S.A. (Switzerland), Deltex Medical Group PLC (UK), Finisar Corporation (U.S.), AP Sensing GmbH (Germany), Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (Japan), AFL Group (U.S.), Luna Innovations Incorporated (U.S.), and, others.Study Objectives of Fiber Optic Sensor Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Fiber Optic Sensor market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the Fiber Optic Sensor market based porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment on the basis of type, application, end -users and region. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Fiber Optic Sensor.Get complete Report @Target Audience: Device manufacturers Component manufacturers and suppliers Maintenance and service providers Technology investors Suppliers & distributors Research & consultancy End-usersAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comUrgent Care Centers Market : Develop Market-Entry and Market Expansion Strategies 2025

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Global Urgent Care Center Market: SnapshotUrgent care center is a type of walk-in clinic that offers ambulatory care in a dedicated medical facility outside of a conventional emergency room (ER). They are mainly used for treating illnesses or injuries that need immediate care, but do not warrant a visit to the ER. They are affordable, quick, and provide quality services.Besides treating trauma and injury, urgent care centers also provide screening and monitoring, routine vaccinations, and occupational medicine. Serving to drive demand for urgent care centers is the burgeoning geriatric population, increasing occurrence of chronic diseases that require time to time monitoring and laboratory tests, and substantial money allotted by government and private bodies in urgent care centers.Another reason driving the popularity of urgent care centers are quick services and appointment flexibility  something which is non-existent in large corporate hospitals. Posing a challenge to the market, on the downside, is the dearth of qualified healthcare providers and the increasing upfront capital required to set up urgent care centers.Request Sample Copy of the Report @From a geographical perspective, Europe and North America currently lead the urgent care centers. The market in North America is primarily powered by the U.S., which has maximum number of urgent care centers. Besides, the increasing preference for urgent care centers for non-emergency health issues mainly due to its affordability and easy, hassle-free services has also led to their swift uptake in the region. Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as another key market in the years ahead on the back of nations of China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia, and New Zealand which have a sizeable chunk of elderly population.Global Urgent Care Centers Market: OverviewUrgent care centers refer to a variety of walk-in or no appointment healthcare centers designed to provide cost-effective, quick, and high-quality services to the general public. Urgent care centers serve patients with injuries or illnesses that are not life-threatening but are beyond the scope of primary care services. Majority of urgent care centers provide healthcare services for issues such as trauma and injury, routine vaccinations, screening and monitoring, moderate illnesses, and occupational medicine. The rising geriatric population and the heightened demand for cost-effective healthcare services have led to a significant rise in demand for urgent care centers across the globe of late.Request TOC of the Report @Global Urgent Care Centers Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe mounting global population of geriatrics, a vast rise in chronic diseases requiring timely monitoring and laboratory tests, and increased investment from government and private bodies in urgent care centers some of the key factors driving the global market for urgent care centers. The increased consumer preference to urgent care centers over big corporate hospitals owing to benefits such as quick services and appointment flexibility of the former has also fueled the demand for urgent care centers globally. The market is, however, negatively impacted owing to the lack of qualified healthcare providers and the rising costs of establishing urgent care centers.Global Urgent Care Centers Market: Market PotentialThe increased popularity of urgent care centers among patients is compelling many hospitals to extent their services through this healthcare model. In the U.S., which had 7,357 urgent care centers in 2016, according to the Urgent Care Association of America, hospitals such as St. Luke's University Health Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network have established several walk-in centers solely around the Lehigh Valley region. St. Luke's has seven such walk-in care centers and the Lehigh Valley Health Network has around 12 in and around the region. Many other corporate hospital chains have already established or are planning to extend their services in the urgent care sector.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Urgent Care Centers Market: Regional OverviewFrom a geographical perspective, the urgent care centers market has been examined in the report for regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. Of these, regions with prominent developed economies such as North America and Europe are presently the leading contributors to the global urgent care centers market. Owing to the rising numbers of urgent care centers in the U.S., the North America market is expected to retain dominance over the next few years as well. The high rate of preference to urgent care centers for non-emergency health-related conditions and the increased demand for cost-effective healthcare services also contribute to the healthy growth prospects of the urgent care centers market in North America.In the next few years, the market for urgent care centers in the Asia Pacific region is also expected to gain momentum. Countries such as India, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand in the region have been observed to have immense potential for the growth of the urgent care model, chiefly owing to a population that is cost-conscious and is rapidly ageing.Global Urgent Care Centers Market: Competitive DynamicsThe vendor landscape for the global urgent care centers market is largely fragmented and small vendors such as physician groups and private physician offices accounting for a significant share in total number of urgent care centers located across the globe. Some of the leading vendors operating in the market are CareSpot Express Healthcare LLC, MD Now, MinuteClinic LLC, FastMed Urgent Care, AFC/Doctors Express, MedExpress, U.S., NextCare Urgent Care, Concentra Inc., Patient First, and HealthWorks Inc.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comAerospace & Defense BRIC Market by Share,Growth,Trends & Forecast 2017 to 2021

Aerospace & Defense BRIC

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Aerospace & Defense BRICOverviewThe BRIC Chemicals industry profile provides top-line qualitative and quantitative summary information including: market size (value 2013-17, and forecast to 2022). 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 @Aerospace & Defense BRIC Industry Major Outlook- Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China (BRIC) are the emerging and fast growing countries within the aerospace & defense industry and had a total market value of $1,58,452.0 million in 2016. Russia was the fastest growing country with a CAGR of 11.5% over the 2012-16 period.- Within the aerospace & defense industry, China is the leading country among the BRIC nations with market revenues of $97,761.1 million in 2016. This was followed by India, Russia and Brazil with a value of $27,493.9, $24,037.1, and $9,159.9 million, respectively.- China is expected to lead the aerospace & defense industry in the BRIC nations with a value of $1,68,479.5 million in 2021, followed by India, Russia, Brazil with expected values of $48,048.5, $34,893.3 and $10,820.2 million, respectively.Aerospace & Defense BRIC Industry Scope- Save time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the size, growth, major segments, and leading players in the BRIC chemicals market- Use the Five Forces analysis to determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of the BRIC chemicals market- Leading company profiles reveal details of key chemicals market players BRIC operations and financial performance- Add weight to presentations and pitches by understanding the future growth prospects of the BRIC chemicals market with five year forecasts- Compares data from Brazil, Russia, India, and China, alongside individual chapters on each countryAerospace & Defense BRIC - Competitive AnalysisKey players are making innovative developments in Aerospace & Defense BRIC 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Latest Report on: Engine Lubricants Market Report 2018-2025 Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP

Engine Lubricants Market Growth 2018

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A market study "Global Engine Lubricants Market" examines the performance of the Engine Lubricants market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Engine Lubricants market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Engine Lubricants market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Engine Lubricants Market 2018 report includes Engine Lubricants market Revenue, market Share, Engine Lubricants industry volume, market Trends, Engine Lubricants Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Engine Lubricants Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Engine Lubricants Market 2018 :1. Shell2. Exxon Mobil3. BP4. Total Lubricants5. Axel Christiernsson6. Chevron7. FUCHS8. LUKOIL9. SKF10. JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation11. Petro-Canada12. Indian Oil Corporation13. Quaker Chemical14. Southwestern Petroleum Corporation15. Kluber16. Dow Corning17. Sinopec18. CNPC19. CNOOCEngine Lubricants Market : By ApplicationAutomotiveIndustrialEngine Lubricants Market : By TypeSingle-gradeMulti-gradeFirstly, the report covers the top Engine Lubricants manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Engine Lubricants report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Engine Lubricants industry, Engine Lubricants industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Engine Lubricants Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Engine Lubricants 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 Engine Lubricants market revenue worldwide.Finally, Engine Lubricants 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 Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comGlobal Nicotine Gum Market 2018-Novartis, Perrigo Company, Pfizer, Fertin Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline

Global Nicotine Gum Market

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www.apexmarketreports.com

Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Global Nicotine Gum Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Global Nicotine Gum 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 Nicotine Gum industry, and estimates the future trend of Global Nicotine Gum market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Global Nicotine Gum Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportNovartisPerrigo CompanyPfizerFertin PharmaGlaxoSmithKlineRevolymerJohnson & JohnsonCambrex CorporationThe market research report explores the Global Nicotine Gum market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Global Nicotine Gum 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 Global Nicotine Gum market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Global Nicotine Gum. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Global Nicotine Gum 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 Global Nicotine Gum is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Global Nicotine Gum market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Global Nicotine Gum market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The Global Nicotine Gum market 2018 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Global Nicotine Gum production volume, data pertaining to demand and Global Nicotine Gum supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Global Nicotine Gum 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 Global Nicotine Gum 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 -Embedded Hypervisor Software Market 2018 Global Leaders: Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Mentor Graphics, Blackberry, SYSGO AG, Sierraware, Citrix Systems, Red Hat

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https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/embedded-hypervisor-software-market-4067

Market Research Future published a research report on Embedded Hypervisor Software Market Research Report - Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market HighlightsAn embedded hypervisor is a type of virtual machine, which can support the necessities of embedded systems. Embedded systems consist of two components, one of which, real-time component is critical to performing specific tasks in a particular period of time while non-real time component, helps process real time information, manage and configure data. An embedded hypervisor is a hypervisor that is programmed through a processor or a computer.The different type of virtualized hypervisor which is installed, programmed or embedded in a computing device or system is an embedded hypervisor software. Also, embedded hypervisor software is delivered as a component of a server or device. Since, the last few decades embedded hypervisor software is been used in the computers. Recently, there has been increase in demand for multi core embedded system hypervisors.Get Sample of Report @The global embedded hypervisor software market is highly competitive. Various established international brands, domestic brands and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. The key players are nonstop increasingly seeking market expansion through various strategic mergers and acquisitions, innovation, increasing investments in research and development and cost-effective product portfolio. The embedded hypervisor software market is highly competitive due to the presence of several large vendors. The competition among the vendors will intensify due to the increase in product extensions and various above mentioned factors. The players in the embedded hypervisor software market compete on the basis of the factors such as technology, features, design and compatibility. The vendors or the manufacturers are continuously coming up with new ideas and technologies to gain competitive advantage over their competitors.The global Embedded Hypervisor Technology Market is expected to grow at USD 2,887.21 million by the end of year 2023 with 6.46% CAGR during forecast period 2017-2023.Segments:The Global Embedded software market has been segmented on the basis of programming languages and applications. Programming language consists of C, C++, Assembly Language, Java, .Net and others. The applications can be segmented as Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Automotive and Radio & Satellite Devices among others.Key PlayersThe key players in the global embedded hypervisor software market include- Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Mentor Graphics Corporation (U.S.), Blackberry (Canada), SYSGO AG (Germany), Sierraware LLC (U.S.), Citrix Systems, Inc (U.S.) and Red Hat, Inc (U.S.) among others.Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of embedded software market is being studied for regions such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and rest of the world. North America is leading the market of embedded software. Growth in the Internet of things (IOT) in nations such as US and Canada are supporting the embedded software market. Europe has countries like Germany, France, and Italy which are under umbrella of developed countries and have huge consumption rate for embedded software in consumer electronics. The growth of information and communication technology in the automotive sector is also expected to drive the growth of embedded software market in Europe region. Asia-Pacific has emerged as fastest growing market for the embedded software market. As most of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region are under developing phase such as China and India, demand for the electronic products are rising which is leading the growth of this region for embedded software.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Device manufacturers Network Operators Distributors Suppliers Research firms Software Developers Commercial Banks Vendors Semiconductor Manufacturers End-user sectors Technology InvestorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.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.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 membersMedia Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comVenipuncture Procedure Analysis Market : Share, Trends, Opportunities & Forecast 2025

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Global Venipuncture Procedure Analysis Market: SnapshotThe significant rise in the prevalent of chronic diseases across the world, including the increasing incidence of cardiovascular diseases, which need early detection, is influencing the global market for venipuncture procedure analysis significantly. The continual increase in the geriatric population is also boosting this market substantially across the world. With the technological advancement in devices utilized for collecting blood, especially vacuum venipuncture equipment, the accuracy of the result gained by the analysis of the sample is likely to add to the polarity of venipuncture procedure analysis solutions in the years to come, reflecting greatly to the global market. However, the dearth of essential skills among medical professionals for handling venipuncture procedure accurately may affect the growth of the market adversely over the next few years.In a number of cases, when clinicians were proficient in this procedure, accuracy of the results have been compromised. However, the rising focus of healthcare providers over various pre-analytical activities, regarding the collection of blood samples and its handling, is likely to improve the efficacy of the process in the near future, leading to immense growth of this market. North America, thanks to the advent of the U.S. as the key domestic market for venipuncture procedure analysis, is likely to acquire the leading position among all the regional markets over the forthcoming years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Venipuncture Procedure Analysis Market: OverviewVenipuncture is the medical procedure of drawing blood from veins in humans and animals, mainly for diagnostic purposes such as blood sampling of the blood components. Venipuncture procedures are also used to administer intravenous therapies. The procedure is performed by various clinicians including medical practitioners, medical laboratory scientists, paramedics, dialysis technicians, phlebotomists, and nursing staff. Venipuncture procedures are majorly performed with the help of evacuated or vacuum tubes that mainly includes needles and syringes.The venipuncture procedure has emerged as a vital tool in the hands of clinicians that help in the invasive diagnosis of various diseases. In the recent years, the procedure has gained popularity in the healthcare industry driven by several diagnostic purposes: monitoring levels of blood components, administering therapeutic treatments, chemotherapy, or nutrition; and removing some portion of blood to get rid of excess RBC.Request TOC of the Report @Global Venipuncture Procedure Analysis Market: TrendsThe global venipuncture procedure analysis market is majorly driven by increasing incidence of various chronic diseases, prevalence of cardiovascular diseases that require early diagnosis, and rising geriatric population. Technological advancement in the devices used for collecting blood, such as vacuum venipuncture equipment, has led to the accuracy of the sample analysis. However, lack of essential skills of medical professionals using the venipuncture process has largely affected the growth of the market. In many cases, the instances of the clinicians not being proficient in the process, has impeded the accuracy of the results.However, increasing focus of healthcare providers regarding various pre-analytical activities, pertaining to blood sample collection and its handling, has increased the efficacy of the process, boosting the uptake.Global Venipuncture Procedure Analysis Market: Market PotentialRecently, CorVascular, a Minneapolis-based leading supplier of advanced peripheral vascular diagnostic solutions, recently announced that it has entered into an agreement with Novarix Inc., a medical device company that develops innovative solutions in Intravenous (IV) therapy. Under the terms of the distribution agreement, CorVascular, will be the exclusive marketer of IV-eye, which is developed and manufactured by the medical device company in the UK. The device is a near infrared (NIR) vein imaging device that will assist clinicians in finding effective peripheral veins for performing venipuncture. Under the agreement, CorVascular has the task of making the device available to all resellers present across various healthcare segments in the U.S. The agreement is significant as this will increase the access of cost-effective imaging device for identifying the correct veins for the process of cannulation and venipuncture.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Repeated failed attempts by medical practitioners to gain IV access in a large number of patients has resulted in prolonging the treatment and even can lead to significant delayto the tune of 16 to 30 minutes, estimates healthcare expertsin the administration of therapies, including medications. This has also contributed to poor patient experience with venipuncture, greatly impeding the uptake of the procedure. Furthermore, technological advancements and the measures taken by doctors to increase the safety of the procedure is expected to expand the market potential.Global Venipuncture Procedure Analysis Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the U.S. is a prominent market for venipuncture procedures and is expected to register impressive growth along the forecast period. The growth in the regional market is attributed to constant technological advancements leading to innovative products. These solutions have significantly increased the safety and efficacy of the procedure. In addition, the efforts taken by healthcare providers to train clinicians performing the procedure are expected to fuel the regional market in the coming years.The U.K. is another market showcasing lucrative avenues for the manufacturers of venipuncture equipment. A substantial demand is expected to be stimulated by advancement in evacuated tube systems which are extensively used in the venipuncture procedure. The market has witnessed significant demand for venipuncture procedure analysis in Germany and several Nordic countries.Global Venipuncture Procedure Analysis Market: Competitive AnalysisLeading players are making innovative product launches and consolidating their distribution networks to strengthen their market shares in various regions. Companies eyeing a sustained share in the venipuncture procedure analysis market include Translite LLC., Adam,Rouilly Limited, Kyoto Kagaku, Smiths Medical, and Sunphoria Co., Ltd, and CorVascular Diagnostics, LLC.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comFacial Recognition Market 2018  2022 Global Key Players by: Safran SA, NEC Corporation, Cognitec Systems, Aware Inc, FaceFirst

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1250

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/facial-recognition-market-1250

Market Overview:The growing criminal attacks on public places such as airports, bus & railway station, multiplexes, and others has demanded for more secure safety solutions by people. Facial recognition is one of those highly secured safety solutions which is capable of identifying these critical social issues and can deliver the desired results. One of the popular facial recognition system installed at airport is SmartGate, an automated border processing system which permits self-processing passport check on the airport. Recently, on January 2017, Austrlian government has announced its goal to implement 90% automated biometric recognition system which consist of facial, Iris, and fingerprint checks, on their international airports to reduce human involvement by the end of 2020. At Paris airports, the face recognition software is been in the testing process these days in order to speed up the immigration process. After the terrorist attack occurred in 2015 and 2016, the country want to record every passenger detail passing the border control.The growing interest of government in implementing Facial Recognition Market technology to reduce crime is developing interest in market players to invest in the technology and upgrade it for future thereby is expected to drive the facial recognition market globally.Government is the largest end-user of facial recognition globally due to growing need of surveillance in their respective region thereby reached USD 0.98 billion market value in 2016 and is expected to exhibit USD 3.37 billion market value by 2022 with 22.91 % CAGR. BFSI is second largest end-user of facial recognition as growing criminal activities, frauds, theft, and bank robberies is demanding high-end security solutions to be implemented in their respective premises. Retail industry on the other hand, is expected to be the fastest growing market with 23.86% CAGR during forecast period 2016-2022.The global facial recognition market had been valued at USD 3.04 billion in the year 2016, which is expected to reach USD 8.93 billion by the end of the forecast period growing at 19.68% CAGR.Major Key Players: Safran SA (France), NEC Corporation (Japan), Cognitec Systems (Germany), Aware Inc. (U.S), Daon Inc. (U.S.), Gemalto (Netherlands) FaceFirst Inc. (U.S.), Ayonix Corporation (Japan), Key Lemon Ltd. (Switzerland), Face++ (China)Request a Sample Report @Facial Recognition Global Market Competitive Analysis:IBM Corporation is the leading market player in Facial Recognition market and has occupied highest market share globally in 2016. They offer i2 facial recognition software kit for intelligent video analytics application. Recently the company has partnered with Rice University to develop elder care robots that can assist seniors which stay alone. These robots would have many features like sensors, cameras that would read facial expressions, sensors to capture vital signs, and Watson-powered speech recognition to know when to call for help.Safran S.A., NEC Corporation, Gemalto NV, and 3M Company are some other growing companies which are fuelling the growth of Facial Recognition in coming years.Facial Recognition Global Market Regional Analysis:The global facial recognition market is estimated to grow at a promising rate in upcoming years. North America is dominating the market followed by Europe. Law enforcement agencies of U.S. and Canada are early adopter of facial recognition technology to control the increasing crime rate in the country. Mexico government has also implemented this technology to reduce fraud at elections and to control the criminal activities in the country.Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region which is estimated to show high growth during forecast period. China is dominating the market in Asia-Pacific. In China, government and private companies has deployed facial recognition technology for various purposes such as public safety, fraud prevention, and reducing crime rate. In India also, Government and NGOs are promoting facial recognition technology based biometrics service. However, lack of technical awareness about facial biometrics process and benefits is the major reason behind slow growth in the country.Industry News:December 2017  Intel Corporation in collaboration with Foxconn introduced use cases for 5G based edge computing facial recognition technology to serve emerging requirement of safety in application areas such as payments, retailing, and residential & business security. This technology allows consumer to make transactions within 0.03 seconds of payment process.December 2017  Vision Labs announced a strategic partnership with BS/2, a Lithuanian banking technology company, to develop an interbank services for contactless identification using facial recognition technology. This solution is expected to capture user data including gender, age, and emotional response with video stream analysis.November 2017  OnePlus, an emerging smartphone company, launched its new product named OnePlus 5T featuring facial recognition technology for device unlock.February-2017 Apple Buys Face Biometrics Company RealFace, an Israel based facial recognition company. With this acquisition, Apple is looking to introduce password based login on its iPhone with facial biometric solution.Facial Recognition Global Market- Segmentation:The Facial Recognition Market can be classified into 5 key segments as follows:Browse Full Report Details @Segmentation by Technology: 3D Facial Recognition, 2D Facial Recognition, Thermal Imaging, and Skin Texture AnalysisSegmentation by Services: Consulting and cloud basedSegmentation by Component: Hardware and SoftwareSegmentation by End-User: Government, BFSI, Commercial, Retail, Automotive, Education, Healthcare and others.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comBone Densitometers Market to reach a market size of $45 million by 2023

https://kbvresearch.com/bone-densitometers-market/

According to a new report Global Bone Densitometers Market, published by KBV research, the Bone Densitometers Market Size was valued at $35 million in 2016, and is estimated to reach $45 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 3.8% during the forecast periodThe North America market dominated the Global Bone Densitometers Market by Region in 2016, and would continue to be a dominant market till 2023, growing at a CAGR of 3 % during the forecast period. The Asia Pacific market is expected to witness a CAGR of 5.4% during (2017  2023).The Central Scan market dominated the Global Bone Densitometers Market by Application in 2016, and would continue to be a dominant market till 2023. Based on technology, The DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) market dominated the Global Bone Densitometers Market by Technology in 2016, and would continue to be a dominant market till 2023, growing at a CAGR of 3.2 % during the forecast period.The Hospitals market dominated the North America Bone Densitometers Market by End User in 2016, and would continue to be a dominant market till 2023 The Other End Users market is expected to witness a CAGR of 4.4% during (2017  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 Bone Densitometers Market have been discussed in the report with the elaborated company profiles are CompuMed, Inc., BeamMed Ltd., Hologic, Inc., GE Healthcare, Lone Oak Medical Technologies LLC, Osteometer MediTech, Inc., CooperSurgical, Inc, Demetech AB, DMS Imaging, and Swissray International Inc.Global Bone Densitometers Market Size SegmentationBy ApplicationCentral ScanPeripheral ScanBy TechnologyDEXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry)UltrasoundOtherBy End UserHospitalsClinicsOther End UserBy GeographyNorth America Bone Densitometers Market SizeUS Bone Densitometers Market SizeCanada Bone Densitometers Market SizeMexico Bone Densitometers Market SizeOther NA Country Bone Densitometers Market SizeEurope Bone Densitometers MarketGermany Bone Densitometers MarketUK Bone Densitometers MarketFrance Bone Densitometers MarketRussia Bone Densitometers MarketSpain Bone Densitometers MarketItaly Bone Densitometers MarketOther EU Country Bone Densitometers MarketAsia Pacific Bone Densitometers MarketChina Bone Densitometers MarketJapan Bone Densitometers MarketIndia Bone Densitometers MarketSouth Korea Bone Densitometers MarketSingapore Bone Densitometers MarketMalaysia Bone Densitometers MarketOther APAC Country Bone Densitometers MarketLatin America, Middle East and Africa (LAMEA) Bone Densitometers MarketBrazil Bone Densitometers MarketArgentina Bone Densitometers MarketUAE Bone Densitometers MarketSaudi Arabia Bone Densitometers MarketSouth Africa Bone Densitometers MarketNigeria Bone Densitometers MarketOther LAMEA Country Bone Densitometers MarketCompanies ProfiledCompuMed, Inc.BeamMed Ltd.Hologic, Inc.GE HealthcareLone Oak Medical Technologies LLCOsteometer MediTech, Inc.CooperSurgical, Inc,Demetech ABDMS ImagingSwissray International Inc.Unique Offerings from KBV ResearchExhaustive coverage of Global Bone Densitometers Market SizeHighest number of market tables and figuresSubscription based model availableGuaranteed best priceAssured post sales research support with 10% customization freeRelated Reports:North America Bone Densitometers Market (2017-2023)Europe Bone Densitometers Market (2017-2023)Asia Pacific Bone Densitometers Market (2017-2023)LAMEA Bone Densitometers 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Biomarkers Market : Share and Forecasts Research Report 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1823

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1823

https://www.tmrresearch.com/biomarkers-market

Global Biomarkers Market: SnapshotThe global biomarkers market is witnessing a tremendous rise in its valuation, thanks to the increase in diagnostic applications of biomarkers. The augmenting investments for research and development activities in the pharma and biotech companies, rising number of CROs, and the low cost associated with the clinical trials in emerging economies are also boosting this market.Going forward, the high prevalence rate of cancer and novel initiatives for biomarker research are likely to propel this market in the years to come. On the flip side, heightened need for capital investments and the low cost-benefit ratio, various technical issues associated with collecting samples and their storage, and the poorly suited regulatory and reimbursement systems are likely to act as restraining factors to the growth of this market over the next few years.Hitherto, North America, with massive share, has been leading the global market for biomarkers. With technological advancements and the increasing focus on research and development activities, this regional market is likely to remain on the top over the forthcoming years. Asia Pacific, among other regional markets, is expected to witness high growth in the years to come, thanks to the presence of ample raw materials.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Biomarkers Market: OverviewA biomarker is considered as a biological gene or molecule which is being used extensively across the globe in order to evaluate accurate pharmacologic responses, biological procedures, and pathogenic procedures. In addition, biomarkers are used to check bodys response to a specific treatment for a condition or disease. This helps the medical professionals in making effective clinical decisions, which will further assist in diagnosing the health of patients. According to the research study, the global biomarkers market is predicted to register a progressive growth rate throughout the forecast period.Global Biomarkers Market: Key TrendsIn the last few years, there has been a significant research on biomarkers, owing to which the application areas are likely to expand. This is estimated to benefit the global biomarkers market in the coming years. The use of biomarkers for effective therapeutics for cancer is likely to generate potential growth opportunities. In addition, the key players in the market are emphasizing on developing economies across the globe in order to create a niche and expand their presence in the next few years.Request TOC of the Report @Global Biomarkers Market: Market PotentialThe approval for the use of biomarkers by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a surrogate end-points in the treatment development process is one of the major factors is projected to fuel the growth of the global biomarkers market in the next few years. In addition, the key players are focusing on new product development is anticipated generate potential opportunities for key players operating in the global biomarkers market in the next few years. On the other hand, the high cost of sample collection, tests, and storage is one of the key challenges being faced by the leading players in the global biomarkers market. This is expected to hamper the growth of the market in the next few years.Global Biomarkers Market: Regional OutlookAmong the key regional segments, in 2016, the North America market for biomarkers led the global market with a massive share. As per the research study, this segment is estimated to remain in the leading position throughout the forecast period. The robust growth of this region can be attributed to technological developments and the rising focus on research and development activities. The rising demand for biomarkers from diverse industrial sectors is estimated to accelerate the growth of the North America market in the next few years.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@On the other hand, Asia Pacific is projected to exhibit a progressive growth rate throughout the forecast period. The growing use of biomarkers for several diagnostic purposes, the rising incidence of chronic diseases, and the rising rate of outsourcing of pharmaceutical research and development activities are projected to supplement the growth of the Asia Pacific biomarkers market in the next few years.Global Biomarkers Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the prominent players operating in the biomarkers market across the globe are Qiagen N.V., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC., EKF Diagnostics Holdings, Inc., Enzo Biochem, Inc., Merck Millipore, Biosims Technologies Sas, Cisbio Bioassays, Signosis, Inc., and Perkinelmer, Inc. A significant rise in the number of players projected to enter the market is estimated to strengthen the competitive landscape of the global biomarkers market in the next few years.Furthermore, the growing focus of key players on innovations and technological developments is likely to encourage the growth of the global biomarkers market in the next few years. In addition, the expansion of the product portfolio is estimated to accelerate the growth of the market and benefit the prominent players operating in the global market.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comManaged DNS Services Market 2018 Global Key Players: VeriSign Inc, Dyn Inc, Neustar, ultra DNS by Forecast to 2027

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/883

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/managed-dns-services-market-883

Managed DNS Services Market Overview:The major growth driver of Managed DNS Services Market includes growing e-businesses which also developing need for largest domain name registry, rising competition in enterprise market and growing DNS infrastructure in the organizations to improve performance and streamline management among others.DNS is a distributed, coherent, reliable, autonomous, hierarchical database, the first and only one of its kind. The Domain Name System (DNS) translates Internet domain and host names to IP addresses and vice versa. On the Internet, DNS automatically converts between the names we type in our Web browser address bar to the IP addresses of Web servers hosting those sites. Larger corporations also use DNS to manage their own company intranet. Home networks use DNS when accessing the Internet but do not use it for managing the names of home computers.Managed DNS Services Market is so widely used and is typically the first point of contact between a user and an application, it can be utilized to extend the plane of control far beyond the confines of the data center  where legacy appliances tend to dominate  to the extreme edge of the Internet. Developers are now managing failover, disaster recovery, load-shedding, load-balancing, and traffic management functions at points much closer to the end user. By doing so, they are improving performance while creating a new orchestration layer far away from the core application itself, thereby boosting resiliency.Request a Sample @Major Key Players:VeriSign Inc(U.S.), Dyn Inc (U.S.), Neustar (U.S.), ultraDNS (U.S.), Akamai (U.S.), Cloud flare (U.S.), DNS made easy (U.S.), Easy DNS (U.S.), AWS route 53 (U.S.), and Cotendo Advanced DNS (U.S.) are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Mobile Security Market.Global Managed DNS Services Market Regional Analysis:North-America is dominating the Global managed DNS services market and is expected to dominate the market from 2017 to 2027 because this region accounts for the major chunk of the DDI solutions and services market, and the region is considered to be one of the most advanced regions with regards to the technology adoption and infrastructure. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market for managed DNS services currently, followed by North America.Furthermore, Asia Pacific is probable to grow at a significant rate owing to the proliferation of mobile devices, high density of population and internet usage in the region is expected to contribute to the growth of industry. The growth adoption of 4G and upcoming 5G networks solution is estimated to increase the average internet connection speeds owing to achieve effective IPAM solutions to manage the various IP address pools. This is expected to increase the demand of DDI (DNS, DHCP and IP address management) Market during the forecast period from 2017- 2027.Industry News:December, 2017 - RedLegg, a global partner for managed and cyber security services, announces new partnerships with Value Added Resellers. RedLegg provides a Channel Partner Program with comprehensive advisory solutions for real-world data protection and security challenges. The partnership with VARs and RedLegg will enable VARs to add additional security services to their already comprehensive full-service technology companiesDecember, 2017 - Advanced Technology Services, Inc. (ATS), a leading global manufacturing services and IT solutions provider, acquired Innovative Technology Solutions, LLC (ITS), an IT managed services and technology consulting company. The two companies will continue to operate independently with their current workforces and brands, but the acquisition creates new opportunities for both.Global Managed DNS Services Market Competitive Analysis:The Market of managed DNS services appears to be highly competitive. To maintain their market position and to drive the market growth, various dynamic and diversified international organizations, domestic organizations and as well as new entrants form a competitive landscape. Market leaders are innovating continuously and increasingly seeking market expansion through various strategic mergers and acquisitions, innovation, increasing investments in research and development and cost-effective product portfolio. Major players are investing on internal R&D and, most of all, in acquiring other firms.Browse Full Report Details @Global Managed DNS Services Market Segmentation:The managed DNS services market can be segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Type: Recursive DNS and Authoritative DNSSegmentation by Server Provider: Comprises enterprise service provider, self service providerSegmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMilitary Satellite Market 2018 to 2021 by Global Technology Provider: SpaceX , Boeing, Israel Aerospace Industries, Raytheon, Thales, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, GE Aviation and ViaSat

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1253

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/military-satellite-market

Market Highlights:Satellite is an artificial object placed manually into orbit to serve various purposes. The functions could be navigation, weather information, civilian and earth observation, and research. The military satellites are used for conventional missions such as intelligence gathering, navigation, and military communications. These are computer-controlled systems that can perform tasks such as thermal control, telemetry, power generation, attitude control, and orbit control. Such data is used for several applications such as agriculture, water resources, urban development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, border and maritime security, drought and flood forecasting, ocean resources and disaster management. By 2012, 6,600 satellites had been launched, of which 1,000 were operational.Request a Sample Report @In addition, the UAVs are the next-generation airborne ISR platforms that will be adopted by defense authorities globally. These drones are used in force multipliers, ISR platforms, target recognition, damage assessment, and electronic warfare. They are also equipped with light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (LASER) and global positioning system (GPS), which aid in ISR missions. Defense authorities around the world are investing in the development and procurement of UAVs to reduce the troop casualties and capital expenditure, and to replace some older and obsolete manned aircraft. In 2014, more than 10,000 different UAVs were in service in the global market.Major Key PlayersSome of the key players in the Military Satellite market are Boeing, Israel Aerospace Industries, Raytheon, Thales, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, GE Aviation, SpaceX and ViaSat.Global Military Satellite Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% during 2016-2021.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:March 18, 2017 - Boeings ninth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite launched into orbit today and will provide the United States and six allied nations with increased communications capabilities to prevent, protect against and respond to attacks. The WGS-9 satellite was funded through an agreement between the United States and Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and New Zealand, and will also serve Australia (which funded the WGS-6 satellite). Each partner country gains access to the capabilities provided by the full WGS system, which include flexible and secure communication transmissions in the X- and Ka-band frequencies.May 28, 2017:- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), IAI's Space division handed over the Vens satellite to the Israeli Space Agency in the Ministry of Science and its partner, the French National Center of Space Studies (CNES). The satellite will now be merged with Arianespace launcher and prepare for the launch that will take place this summer in French Guiana.December 21, 2016:- The U.S. Air Force has awarded Raytheon Company a USD 37 million contract to demonstrate new satellite communications technology that will continuously link tactical users with military leaders in contested environments.Browse Full Report @Regional AnalysisIt is expected that the market will be dominated by North America, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. Europe and North America are expected to be the fastest-growing markets for military satellites with a major share of expenses by the US, Russia, France, and Italy.The growing economy and increasing territorial disputes between Russia and the US, China and Vietnam, India and Pakistan, and North Korea and South Korea is expected to result in an increased adoption of advanced systems and technologies to strengthen their warfare capabilities. Also, due to the growing unrest situation in the Middle East and African countries (such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria), there has been significant growth in their defense budgets.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Connected Logistics Market Research Report by Key Players Analysis 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1829

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1829

https://www.tmrresearch.com/connected-logistics-market

Global Connected Logistics Market: SnapshotAccording to the analysts of this fresh business intelligence study, the global connected logistics market is primed for a prosperous future, primarily due to the lack of proper temperature management at most of the storage facilities. Temperature-sensitive products, particularly from the food and beverage sector, require assurance regarding the protection of their products from getting spoiled or wasted. To overcome these issues, connected logistics has emerged as a formidable solution for various organizations, preserving against fluctuations in climate changes as the product is transported from the manufacturing unit to the consumers. For instance, software such as logistic tracking systems and advanced vehicle control systems can relay information pertaining to the real-time position of the vehicle.The emerging concept of Internet of Things (IoT) that has the ability to connect devices and make transfer of information an efficient process, is expected to prove to be a boon for the global connected logistics market. In addition to that, growing number of high-end vehicles across the world and ubiquity of smartphones is also in accordance to the connected logistics market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The global connected logistics market is also gaining traction from decreasing cost of sensors, which are now sophisticated enough to detect even minute changes. In addition to that, persistent need of various vendors to decrease costs by the means of efficient operation network is expected to reflect positively over the market during the forecast period. On the other hand, the lack of a uniform standards of governance of logistic activities, strong need to improve security in various emerging economies, lack of data interoperability and management, and safety concerns are a few challenges the connected logistics market will have to overcome to attain maximum profit.Global Connected Logistics Market: OverviewConnected logistics is a rewarding discipline of the logistics and warehouse domain that incorporates effective services and solutions for organizations to track their supply chain activities and ecosystem in real time. There are a number of software solutions included in connected logistics, viz. streaming analytics, data management, network management, security, warehouse IoT, and asset management. However, connected logistics is also offered based on vertical, transportation mode, service, and platform.Rising government initiatives and augmented implementation of IoT and connected devices are deemed to be the prime reasons that organizations are increasingly demanding connected logistics and automated logistics systems. Inflating globalization aggravating the need for leading-edge logistics and transportation infrastructure is also regarded as a vital factor spurring the demand in the global connected logistics market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Connected Logistics Market: Key TrendsWith a view to satisfy the need to blunt concerns relating to security and as a result of a high adoption IoT logistics solutions, a growing trend of consumers taking to security solutions is forecasted to show prominence in the world connected logistics market. End users are expected to be allured by the benefit of taking charge of different tasks in the supply chain ecosystem. Warehouse and logistics players could particularly be using connected logistics services and solutions for real-time and proactive monitoring of supply chain activities.The growth in the global connected logistics market could feel a setback due to security and privacy issues and sparse availability of standardized skills. Nevertheless, connected logistics is proving to be an indispensable and efficient action plan for businesses by consuming minimum resources and allowing optimum production. Across various countries of the world, connected logistics and devices have earned acceptance amongst logistics companies on account of their crucial advantages.Global Connected Logistics Market: Market PotentialHuawei Technologies and Deutsche Post DHL Group are looking to tap into the power of IoT for innovative ways to create connected logistics solutions to benefit the supply chain of their customers. The Chinese and German firms will jointly work to offer a broad scale of supply chain solutions for end users making use of industrial-grade IoT infrastructure and hardware. With the help of economical networked devices and sensors, this collaboration is envisioned to dig deep into the high-income IoT market. This will aid end users to optimize and monitor their supply chain in an efficient manner.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Connected Logistics Market: Regional OutlookDeveloping regions around the globe are prognosticated to make progress at a commanding pace, owing to the soaring adoption of connected logistics solutions and services. However, developed regions such as North America followed by Europe are projected to raise their flags high in the international connected logistics market. Connected logistics is an acceptable and important business strategy as it allows real-time monitoring and tracking of a supply chain. Standing in a strong financial position, North America countries such as Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. are envisaged to significantly invest in supreme quality and innovative connected logistics technologies. The region is foreseen to benefit from the seamless adoption of IoT stimulated by technological developments.Global Connected Logistics Market: Competitive LandscapeTop vendors such as SAP SE, Intel Corporation, IBM Corporation, Eurotech S.P.A., and AT&T, Inc. are foretold to showcase dominance in the international connected logistics market. Since North America holds a larger consumer base in the world, companies operating therein enjoy a heavy connected logistics investment which gives way to low regulatory burdens and highly skilled labor force to facilitate the flow of goods.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGlobal TIC For Consumer Products Market 2018 Key Players: TUV-SUD, Intertek Group plc, Contract Laboratory, UKAS, AI, Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre.

TIC For Consumer Products Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2296497-global-testing-inspection-and-certification-tic-for-consumer-products-market-size

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2296497-global-testing-inspection-and-certification-tic-for-consumer-products-market-size

TIC For Consumer Products Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds TIC For Consumer Products Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies the global Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products market, analyzes and researches the Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeTUV-SUDIntertek Group plcContract LaboratoryUKASAIHong Kong Standards and Testing CentreSGSChemical Inspection and Regulation Service LimitedTuV RheinlandULMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products can be split intoFeather and Down TestingPerformance TestingFlammability TestingThermal and Water Vapor Resistance TestingOtherMarket segment by Application, Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products can be split intoElectronic ApplianceAutomotiveApparelFurnitureFootwearIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Report @Table of ContentGlobal Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products1.1 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Overview1.1.1 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market by Type1.3.1 Feather and Down Testing1.3.2 Performance Testing1.3.3 Flammability Testing1.3.4 Thermal and Water Vapor Resistance Testing1.3.5 Other1.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Electronic Appliance1.4.2 Automotive1.4.3 Apparel1.4.4 Furniture1.4.5 Footwear2 Global Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)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 TUV-SUD3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Intertek Group plc3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Contract Laboratory3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 UKAS3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 AI3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 SGS3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service Limited3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 TuV Rheinland3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 UL3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments4 Global Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer Products in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Testing, Inspection, And Certification TIC For Consumer ProductsContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +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:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market is expected to grow at an approximate CAGR of 7.8% | Top key Players - Pfizer, Inc., Aurobindo Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb and many

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Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) is a biologically active pharmaceutical drug. API can be obtain by synthetic process or from natural sources. The global Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market is driven by increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, rising cancer population and adoption of the biologic and natural therapy by the people. According to WHO, approximately 14 million new cases was registered in 2012 and is expected to rise to almost 19 million by 2024. The number is increasing continuously due to increasing consumption of alcohol, poor lifestyle. Beside this technological development, increasing demand for the new and better treatment and increasing aging population are some other factors driving the growth of the market. Increasing demand for the generic drugs in developing countries like India and China has increased the demand development of new active ingredients. This two countries account nearly 80% of total generic drug sale. Stringent regulatory requirements and lack of awareness in majority of people may restrains the growth of the market.Global active pharmaceutical ingredients market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% during forecasted period.Key Players for global active pharmaceutical ingredients marketTeva Pharmaceutical Industries (Israel), Cipla (India), Dr. Reddys Laboratories (India), Novartis International AG (Switzerland), Sanofi (France), Pfizer, Inc. (US), Eli Lilly and Company (US), Aurobindo Pharma (US), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (India), Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany), Bristol-Myers Squibb (US), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (UK), Merck & Co., Inc. (US), AbbVie Inc. (US).Try Sample Report Here @Regional AnalysisOn regional basis, global active pharmaceutical ingredients market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. America commands the largest market, majorly due to increasing prevalence of different chronic diseases and rise in the number of cancer patients. According to national cancer institute, in 2016 723,350 new cancer cases was registered in America. North America contribute a major share in America market. Besides increasing prevalence of cancer, well developed healthcare sector, increasing healthcare expenditure and adoption of biologic drugs by peoples has contributed in the growth of the market in this region.Europe accounts the second largest market for active pharmaceutical ingredients which is followed by Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific region is expecting a fastest growth for active pharmaceutical ingredients market during forecast period from 2017-2023. Rapidly growing economies and rising awareness about the people is the major factor for the growth of the market. The majority of NSAIDs and antibiotic drugs are manufacture in India and China. Lower labor cost and availability of abundant raw materials in these countries are the key factor for the growth of API market in India and China. In addition to this, regulatory support and government encouragement to establish API manufacturing plants by favorable taxes are helping the active pharmaceutical ingredients market in Asia Pacific.Table of Contents1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope of Study1.3 Research Objective1.4 Assumptions & Limitations1.5 Market Structure:2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Challenges3.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4 Market Factor AnalysisContGet 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Position Tracking System Market 2018 Top Key Players: GPATS, Position Tracking Systems, Kongsberg Maritime, Advanced Realtime Tracking, Rilapp Technologies

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Market Highlights:The global position tracking system market is projected to witness a rapid growth during the forecast period owing to increasing emergence of cloud-based technologies and increasing adoption of artificial intelligence. Moreover, increasing demand for position tracking system solutions across various industry verticals such as retail, manufacturing, healthcare, energy and utilities, government and others is responsible for driving the growth of position tracking system market.The global position tracking system market by geography is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The North America market is expected to witness a significant growth and hold the largest share of the global market during the forecast period. The U.S and Canada are anticipated to drive the growth of the position tracking system market in North America region owing to the presence of a large number of established key players such as GPATS and Position Tracking Systems Market in this region. Due to the sustainable and well-established economies in the region, the market is likely to show immense growth in the coming future. Additionally, North America also has a well-established infrastructure, which allows a higher penetration of devices and ultimately provides better connectivity.The growth of the market is also attributed to increasing focus on business organizations towards maintaining security and growing adoption of global positioning services by the automotive sector. In the global position tracking system market, Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness a relatively faster adoption at the highest CAGR during the forecast period as compared to other regions owing to increasing implementation of global positioning systems and internet tracking in order to ensure better connectivity and improved safety across different countries in the region.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: GPATS (U.S.) Position Tracking Systems (U.S.) Kongsberg Maritime (Norway) Advanced Realtime Tracking (Germany) Inmotio (Amsterdam) Rilapp Technologies (India) Trinetra Technologies (India) Axestrack (U.S.) Cisco Ssytems, Inc (U.S.)Position Tracking System Market Segmentation:The global position tracking system market is segmented on the basis of the component, connectivity, technology, type, and application. However, the component segment is classified into hardware and software.The hardware segment is further classified into the display, sensors, battery, capacitors, resistors, and diodes. Increasing demand for various sensors across different automotive applications is boosting the growth of position tracking system market. Growing demand for improved communication technologies and increased safety are major factors driving the market growth.Market Research Analysis:North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Europe market is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The market in North America is witnessing a rapid growth due to technological advancements and increasing demand for outdoor as well as indoor position tracking system across different industry verticals in this region. The U.S. holds the majority of market share both in terms of revenue as well as owing to the extensive use of global positioning systems across different applications.Regional Analysis:The global position tracking system market is studied in Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas the Asia Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.The growth of the market in North America is attributed to technological advancements and increased adoption of indoor as well as outdoor position tracking system applications across various industry verticals.Access Report Details @Intended Audience: Technology Investors Research/Consultancy Firms Government Bodies Position Tracking System Solution Vendors Position Tracking System Providers Information Technology Developers Third-Party Vendors Internet Service Providers Technology Providers System IntegratorsTable of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Scope of the Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope of The Study2.2.1 Research Objectives2.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations2.3 Markets Structure3 Market Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Secondary Research3.3 Primary Research3.4 Forecast ModelContinued..List of TablesTable 1 Global Position Tracking System Market: By Region, 2017-2023Table 2 North America Position Tracking System Market: By Country, 2017-2023Table 3 Europe Position Tracking System Market: By Country, 2017-2023Continued..List of FiguresFigure 1 Global Position Tracking System Market SegmentationFigure 2 Forecast MethodologyFigure 3 Five Forces Analysis Of Global Position Tracking System MarketContinued..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 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Electro-Optic Modulator (EOM) Market Key Players: GLEAM Optics, QUBIG GmbH by Forecast to 2023

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Market Highlights:Electro optic modulator (EOM) is an optical device in which a signal controlled element exhibiting the electro optic effect is used to modulate the beam of light. The modulation can be imposed on phase, frequency, amplitude or polarization of the beam. High end electronic devices are one of the major application areas of electro-optic modulators. Modulating the power of a laser beam as well as frequency stabilization of laser are some of the major applications of electro-optic modulators market.Gooch & Housego PLC (U.K) a global leader in photonics technology launched visible wavelength fiber coupled Acousto  Optic Modulator for using in pulsed fiber laser amplifier systems, giving optimum performance in a range of demanding applications including material processing and sensing.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: Thorlabs Inc (U.S.) Conoptics Inc (U.S.) QUBIG GmbH (Germany) GLEAM Optics (Canada) Inrad Optics Inc (U.S.) Newport Corporation (U.S.) Photon LaserOptik GmbH (Germany) Gooch & Housego PLC (U.K) APE Angewandte Physik und Elektronik GmbH (Germany) Brimrose Corporation of America (U.S.)Regional Analysis:The competitive landscape of the Electro-Optic Modulator Market is formed by some of the major players and many of the new entrants in the market. The leaders are focusing on innovation in the technology and investment in research and development. The electro-optic modulator are used in many application areas such as space & defense, instrumental & industrial systems, optical telecommunications, fiber optic sensors, and many more. The segmentation is also divided on the basis of region under North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the world. The North America leads the market for electro-optical modulator market. America has adapted the changes in the field of telecommunication and space & defense through these modulators. Modern communication networks require high performance and scalable electro-optic modulators that convert electrical signals to optical signals at high speed. Existing lithium niobate modulators have excellent performance but are bulky and expensive to scale up. To overcome this problem many of the major companies started developing scalable and high-performance nano photonic electro-optic modulators made of single-crystalline lithium niobate mirroring resonators and micro-Mach-Zehnder interferometers.Thorlabs Inc. a market leader in American market launched Exulus reflective two dimensional spatial light modulator based on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) technology. The Exulus provides high-resolution, high-speed phase modulation with minimal fluctuations, making it ideal for use in a wide range of applications such as optical trapping, beam steering and shaping, femtosecond pulse shaping, adaptive optics, display and imaging, and holography.Europe follows America in the market for electro-optical modulators. QUBIG (Germany) a key market player in electro-optic modulator introduced GHz electro optic modulator that has a custom frequency from 1GHz to 4GHz with a variable bandwidth. The electro optic modulator features a large aperture for easy alignment and is optimized for free-space lasers. It is available with a number of options such as temperature control, tunable resonance frequency, fiber coupling, double resonance, and Brewster angles. This can be used for frequency shifting and two tone frequency modulation spectroscopy.China leads the electro-optic modulator market in Asia followed by India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan among others. Rapid industrialization is one of the major push factors of the electro-optic modulators market. Expanding business by opening new sales offices in different geographic locations is one of the major business strategies adopted by the leading players. Focusing on the sales and distribution channels along with increasing the product offering keeping in mind the customers demand are some of the other strategies adopted by the companies.By Type: Polarization Modulators Amplitude Modulators Phase Modulators Analog Modulators Liquid Crystal Modulators Travelling wave Modulators Thermally compensated ModulatorsBy Application: Fiber Optic Sensors Space and Defense Optical Telecommunications Instruments and Industrial SystemsBy Region: North America Europe Asia pacific Rest of the worldAccess Report Details @Intended Audience: Manufacturers Telecommunication Sector Testing Military Personnel Space ScientistsTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Global Electro Optic Modulators2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size EstimationContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Global Electro Optic Modulators Market, By TypeTable 2 Global Electro Optic Modulators Market, By ApplicationTable 3 Global Electro Optic Modulators Market, By RegionContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Research DeploymentFigure 2 Global Electro Optic Modulators Market, By Type (%)Figure 3 Global Electro Optic Modulators Market, By Application (%)ContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our clients 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 Solutions, 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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSurgical Instrument Tracking System Market is expect a constant growth of Healthy CAGR | Top key Players - Merck KGaA (Germany), bioMerieux SA (France), SGS SA (Switzerland), Sartorius AG (Germany) | Forecast to 2027

Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market

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The Global Surgical Instrument Tracking System (IGRT) Market is growing exponentially owing to the the impact of the UDI regulation and rising need for inventory management are the major factor driving the Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market. The global surgical instrument tracking system market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% during the forecasted period.Furthermore, the increasing adoption of instrument and medical devices tracking products by private and public hospitals is considered as a major factor contributing to the growing market. The major challenges such as vast inventory management and tracing of instruments and medical devices during the work cycle, such as during surgery, post-surgery, and sterilization procedures are faced by the hospitals. Thus, the need of tracking systems for medical devices and instrument is growing at an exponential rate, which is anticipated to propel the growth of the market segment.Barcode technology is the most commonly type of tracking technology used and adoption in medical devices industry. This technology is the key element that contributes to its high revenue share. In addition, the low installation cost has resulted in its growing applications in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centres. In a report published by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information states that the retained surgical objects has a fatality rate of approximately 2%. Hence the need for advanced technologies such as RFID and 2D barcodes, to track the instruments used in operation theatre is growing all these factors are expected to boost growth.The surgical instrument tracking devices is very effective and helpful tool for healthcare professional to access any instrument or device and is considered as a time saving tools all these factor is responsible for the growth of surgical instrument tracking system market. According to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), annual death of approx. 90,000 in the U.S. is due to hospital-acquired infections. Thus, in order to prevent contaminated instruments from causing the infection and for better inventory management, use of tracking is expected to grow at high rate in the near future.Segments:Global Surgical instrument tracking system market has been segmented on the basis of types which include electronic tracking, barcode tracking, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and others. On the basis of end users which consists of hospitals, clinics, research facilities, laboratories and others. On the basis of component which consists of software, services and others.Global Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market - Regional AnalysisAccording to regions, the global Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market is dominated by North America. USA held the largest market share for the global surgical instrument tracking systems market in the year 2016. Availability of advanced products and highly developed healthcare infrastructure is anticipated to drive the demand for instruments and medical device tracking products in North America during the forecast period. The UDI regulations by FDA are a major factor influencing the adoption of tracking systems in North America.Try Sample Report Here @Europe is expected to uphold the second dominant position during the forecast period. The factor contributing for its growth includes the rising medical tourism and increasing healthcare sector privatization in this region. The major factors for this includes, constantly expanding population base along with the cost advantage, the emergence of high-quality and better healthcare infrastructure and institutions in these countries and growing private funds and government initiatives in the region.Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at highest rate during the forecast period due to untapped opportunities in this region. Healthcare industry is rapidly shifting to APAC from other regions such as Americas and Europe. In addition, increasing geriatric population coupled with rapidly evolving healthcare infrastructure in the Asian countries, such as China and India, propels the market.Surging healthcare costs, high health expenditure, huge population for better health management, chronic diseases account for 90% of overall deaths. Middle East region currently acquires the lowest market share. Moreover, Countries in the Middle East, and North African Regions offer potential export opportunities for the local producers which has the potential to drive the growth of this market in this region in future.Global Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market - Company AnalysisThe surgical instrument tracking systems market is considered to be highly fragmented and is based on clinical results of product and their novel product launches. Thus, the major players have employed various strategies such as agreements, acquisitions, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, clinical trials, new product launches, partnerships, and joint ventures to increase their footprints in this market.Technological advancement in software is a key factor driving the adoption of tracking software for inventory and surgical instruments management. For instance, IMPRESS instrument management software delivers information on serialized surgical instruments, assisting in inventory management and providing ongoing support through continuous assistance through phone.Key Players for Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market:Braun Melsungen AG, BD, Censis Technologies, Inc., Xerafy, Haldor Advanced Technologies, Microsystems, Inc., Applied Logic, Inc., Infor, Intelligent InSites, Key Surgical, Mobile Aspects Inc., STANLEY Healthcare, TGX Medical Systems, Vizbee RFID Solutions, Roboz Surgical Instrument Co., JJ International Instruments, GEISTER MEDIZINTECHNIK GmbH, ESI, Millennium Surgical Corp and Katalyst Surgical, LLC and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Surgical Instrument Tracking System Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Industry UpdatesMarch, 2015 The Tag Factory and Xerafy had announced a licensing agreement for Xerafys RFID ceramic tag technology. As per the agreement, The Tag Factory will be manufacturing and marketing ceramic RFID tags using the RFID ceramic tag technology.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Set-Top Box Market Key Players by 2023: Huawei Technologies, Apple Inc., Google Inc., Samsung Group, Arris International Plc.

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Market Scenario:The companies such as Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (China), Apple Inc. (U.S), Google Inc. (U.S), Samsung Group (South Korea), Arris International Plc. (U.S), EchoStar Corporation (U.S), are the leading providers of set-top box in the market. The adoption of hybrid boxes is boosting the market growth due the increasing demand of over-the-top content services. In 2017, Facebook Inc. is creating an app for television Set-Top Boxes Market, including Apple Inc's Apple TV.Digital terrestrial television is considered to gain demand in market due to increasing use of Wi-Fi which allows connectivity through web. The IP transmission recording features and higher storage specifications are driving the market growth of set top box in the market. The factors that boost the growth market are the increasing adoption of digital terrestrial television broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting, and CATV broadcasting which is driving the market growth in the forecast years. In 2017, Dish TV launches new generation cardless HD set-top which is portable and cost effective.The global set-top box market are bifurcated on the basis of types, content resolutions, application, and region. The types are segmented into cable, satellite, digital terrestrial television, internet protocol, over-the-top content and others. The applicationare segmented into secure digital (SD), high definition (HD), 4K and others. The end users are segmented residential use, commercial use and others. The region includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world.The regional analysis of set-top box market is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is one of the leading region across the world in terms of market share in set-top box market due to increasing demand of hybrid set-top box which is propelling the market growth. The set-top box market in Europe region is expected to witness rapid growth in the forthcoming period. Whereas, Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and India is an emerging market for set-top box market and expected to be the highest CAGR in the coming years.The global set-top box market is expected to grow at USD 31.67 Billion by 2023, at 6% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Get Sample Report @Key Players:Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (China),Apple Inc. (U.S),Google Inc. (U.S),Samsung Group (South Korea),Arris International Plc. (U.S),EchoStar Corporation (U.S),Humax (U.K),Sagemcom (France),Technicolor SA (France),Skyworth Digital (China)Segments:The global set-top box market has been segmented on the basis of types, content resolutions application, and region.Global Set-top box Market By Type: Cable Satellite Digital Terrestrial Television Internet Protocol Over-The-Top Content (OTT) OthersGlobal Set-top box Market By Content Resolutions: Secure Digital (SD) High Definition (HD) 4K OthersGlobal Set-top box Market By Application: Residential Use Commercial UseGlobal Set-top box Market By Regions: North America Europe APAC Rest Of The WorldIntended Audience Set-top box companies Set-top box providers Professional service providers Research and development companies Market research and consulting firms Solution providers Technology standards organizations Technology investors System IntegratorsAccess Report Details @TABLE OF CONTENTS1 MARKET INTRODUCTION1.1 INTRODUCTION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.3 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH TYPE2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH2.4 FORECAST MODEL2.4.1 MARKET DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS & FORECAST2.4.2 MARKET SIZE ESTIMATION3 MARKET DYNAMICS3.1 INTRODUCTION3.2 MARKET DRIVERS3.3 MARKET CHALLENGES3.4 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES3.5 MARKET RESTRAINTSContinue...LIST OF TABLESTABLE 1 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY TYPETABLE 2 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY CONTENT RESOLUTIONSTABLE 3 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY APPLICATIONTABLE 4 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY REGIONContinue...LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 RESEARCH TYPEFIGURE 2 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY TYPE (%)FIGURE 3 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY CONTENT RESOLUTIONS (%)FIGURE 4 SET-TOP BOX MARKET, BY APPLICATION (%)Continue...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 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 Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +91 841 198 5042Mail: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAdvanced Authentication Market 2018  2023 Top Key Players: IBM Corporation, CA Technologies, CSC BSS, Versasec AB, Atos Corporation

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Market Highlights:In todays digital world, most of the transactions are being made online. Data security is a major concern for enterprises, government organizations, and individuals. Hackers are finding new ways to steal sensitive information from enterprises and daily users by developing new viruses. These factors are driving organizations to install advanced authentication solutions, which help in convenient and secure access to information. Advanced authentication adds an additional layer of security to standard username and password authentication method. Nowadays, cyber-criminal activities are increasing such as hacking of identity badges, and numeric pins, resulted in developing authentication techniques such as OTP (one-time password) authentication, phone-based authentication, and biometrics. These factors resulted to boost the growth of the global advanced authentication market.On August 08, 2017 WatchGuard, a leading provider of UTM (Unified Threat Management) & firewall hardware acquired Datablink Company, a leading provider of advanced authentication solutions. This acquisition extends WatchGuards security portfolio beyond network & wireless security, enabling the company to deliver advanced authentication to small & midsize businesses (SMB) and distributed enterprises.The increasing security threats these days and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy are the major factors that are driving the global advanced authentication market. Supportive government regulations and the ever-expanding usage of advanced authentication across different industry verticals are some other factors responsible for the rising demand for this particular market.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: CA Technologies (U.S.) IBM Corporation (U.S.) HP ESSN (U.S.) CSC BSS (India) Oracle Corporation (U.S.) MasterCard Inc. (U.S.) Atos Corporation (France) Versasec AB (Sweden) Gemalto (the Netherlands) Datacard Group (U.S.)Regional Analysis:The global market is segmented on the basis of region into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the world. North America leads the global advanced authentication market owing to concentration of leading players in this region.In February 2017, Leadership Compass report from KuppingerCole, a leading analyst firm for identity and access management, named CA Technologies a Leader in adaptive authentication. EGNYTE (U.S.) an American software company, which provides software for enterprise file synchronization and sharing, is offering advanced authentication bundle that provides users EGNYTE account with additional control and security over user login and password management. These optional features help companies adhere to a higher standard of business regulations and compliance.Europe holds the second position in the global Advanced Authentication Market. In 2016, Gemalto (the Netherlands), an international digital security company, launched the Gemalto Assurance Hub, which is a revolutionary approach to fraud prevention in online banking. Powered by machine learning, Gemalto Assurance Hub analyses the profile and the behavior of customers in real time. The platform only activates additional authentication measures when required, providing a smooth user experience. Atos Corporation (France), a leading digital transformation company, is planning to launch a new ultra-secure authentication method in its Evidian Enterprise SSO solution. It now uses the Nymi Band, an authentication wristband based on a person's heartbeat, to enable Always-On-Authentication. In partnership with Nymi, the leader in wearable authentication devices and creator of the Nymi Band, Atos is now offering users a new way to securely access their data and critical applications via multi-factor authentication.Since Asia Pacific is at a growing stage and moving towards digitalization, many of the market players like Mastercard, CA Technologies and others are expanding their operations in the Asian region.Segmentation:The global advanced authentication market is segmented into solution, product, deployment, and end-users. The product segment is sub-segmented into software, hardware, and services. The hardware covers a wide range of hardware tokens, biometrics, smart cards, and others. The hardware token sometimes referred as security token. It is a physical device given to an authorized user of computer services to ease authentication. The hardware token is used in addition to or in place of a password to prove that the customer is genuine.The token acts as an electronic key to access payment services. The biometrics is an authentication method that uses fingerprint, facial scans, and IRIS, or voice recognition technology to identify users. It is most often used as a form of authentication in a broader two-factor or multifactor authentication system since most biometric implementations also require employees to enter user IDs and passwords. Biometrics can be used for both physical access to corporate buildings and internal access to enterprise computers and systems.By Solution: Single Factor Authentication Multi-Factor AuthenticationBy Deployment: On-Premise CloudBy Product: Hardware- Biometrics- Smart cards- Hardware Tokens- Mobile Smart Credentials Software ServicesBy Industries: BFSI Government Retail Engineering & UtilitiesBy Region: North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the worldAccess Report Details @Intended Audience: Software Developers Testing Cloud Providers Banks Database Solutions IT EnablersTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Global Advanced Authentication2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size EstimationContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By SolutionTable 2 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By DeploymentTable 3 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By ProductContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Research DeploymentFigure 2 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By Solution (%)Figure 3 Global Advanced Authentication Market, By Deployment (%)ContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our clients 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 Solutions, 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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comCommercial Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Market Size | Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies | set to grow substantially during the forecast timeframe

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Market Highlights:Aircraft are either powered by piston engine or gas turbine engines. Gas turbine engines are further classified as turbojet, turboprop and turbofan engine. The commercial aircraft are mostly powered by turbojet or turbofan engines. Turbojets are mainly used for small transport aircraft. Turbofan engines are more efficient than turboprops and are found in many modern commercial aircraft.Aircraft gas turbine engines are the most widely used propulsion system in the aviation industry. There are different types of turbine engines, each of which have their own requirement for maintenance and overhaul. The following are the types of commercial aircraft gas turbine engines:Turbojet:In turbojet engines, the air passes from the front of the engine and enters the combustion chamber. The fuel inlet and igniter is located in this section. The turbine is then driven by the exhaust air, which finally exhausts at a high speed from the rear of the engine This produces the reaction that pushes the aircraft forward. Turbojet is the simplest form of all aircraft turbine engines and consists of four sections: Compressor, Combustion, Chamber Turbine and Section Exhaust.Request a Sample Report @Turboprop:Turboprop is mainly useful for lower speed applications. In this type of engine, the energy exhaust is used to drive the propeller, after reducing the air speed through a gearbox. Turboprop engines provide a greater fuel efficiency and performance, at slower airspeeds. Thus, it is mainly used for small transport aircraft. However, the propellers are less efficient as the aircraft speed increases. The same type of engine used to power the rotor in a helicopter (instead of a propeller) is called a turbo shaft engine.Turbofan:In turbofan engine, a part of the air is exhausted without passing it through the core, which produces additional thrust. These engines are also called 'bypass jets' and are more efficient than turboprops. Turbofans are the modern version of an aircraft turbine engine and are found on high-speed transport and fighter aircrafts.The Leading Market Players in the global Commercial Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Market primarily include CFM International, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney Division, Rolls-Royce, Avio Aero, Engine Alliance, International Aero Engines, MTU Aero Engines, NPO Saturn, Power Jet, Snecma, and Williams International.As per the MRFR analysis, Commercial Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Market in APAC region will continue its dominance in the forecast period valuing in billions of USD with a CAGR of 8%. EMEA will grow at a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:June 2017:- Rolls-Royce won a major order from Ethiopian Airlines, to provide Trent XWB engines, for ten new Airbus A350-900 aircraft, with TotalCare service support. In addition, the order included TotalCare for 14 of the aircraft already in service or on order. In total, the deal was valued at USD 1.5 million.May 2017:- GE Aviation Wales was awarded a contract worth USD 25.8 million. Its plant in Nantgarw repairs and overhauls GEs range of turbofan jet engines and under this contract the plant would provide maintenance and repair services for the GE9X engines.November 2016 - Pratt and Whitney won a contract worth USD93 million, for the sustainment of the US Air Forces F119 engine. The F119-PW-100 turbofan engines power the US Air Forces F-22 Raptor.Commercial Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Market  SegmentsFor the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; the commercial aircraft gas turbine engine market is segmented in to two key dynamics:Segmentation by Engine Type: Turbojet, Turbofan, and Turboprop.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions Americas, Europe, APAC and Middle East and Africa.Browse Full Report @Commercial Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Market  Regional AnalysisChina, India, Japan, and Singapore are some of the emerging aviation markets in the APAC region. The aircraft gas turbine engine market is expected to grow in the future because of increased aircraft demand, aviation MRO activities and aircraft parts production capability in the region. The APAC region is expected to have the highest growth in the global commercial aircraft gas turbine engine market compared to other regions (EMEA and Americas) for the period 2014-2019.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Engine Flush Market to Incur High Value Growth at 3.5% CAGR During 2017-2026

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Advancements in fuel consumption technologies has necessitated the need for using oils or lubricants to flush out the dirt collected in combustion engines. Diesel and gasoline continues to be adulterated across the globe, and the demand for such lubricants  known as engine flush  continues to gain traction. Vehicle owners are servicing their automobiles with proper use of engine flush products. The role of these oils in improving the performance of the engine, extending vehicle life, and lowering the overall carbon footprint of combustion engines continues to extend their use in the automotive sector. Future Market Insights recent study on the global engine flush market projects that the demand for engine flush will gain moderate traction in the foreseeable years.Key findings from the report reveal that the global engine flush market will expand at an estimated 3.5% CAGR in terms of volume over the forecast period, 2017-2026. The report also projects that by the end of 2026, engine flush worth nearly US$ 1.87 Bn will be sold across the globe. Fluctuating oil prices and transformations in the designs of combustion engines for the future automotive industry are observed as the key deterrents for growth of the global engine flush market.A sample of this report is available upon request @Semi-synthetic Oils to Register Highest Value CAGR during 2017-2026Flushing out the sludge from combustion chambers and other key components of engines requires the use of advanced engine oils. Fully-synthetic oils have been widely used as engine flush by vehicle owners, however, high cost of production has curbed their penetration in the global engine flush manufacturing landscape. Improved viscosity indexes offered by semi-synthetic oils are supplanting the adoption of fully-synthetic oils. In addition, the extended lubricant life of semi-synthetic oils is also expected to drive their use as engine flush in the foreseeable future. The report estimates that by the end of 2026, around 47.6% of engine flush sold in the global market will be made of semi-synthetic oils. The report further estimates that sales of fully-synthetic oils will bring in nearly US$ 750 Mn in the global engine flush market by the end of 2026.Majority of engine flush produced across the globe will be used in the automotive industry. Petrol and diesel engines, that account 100% consumption of the overall engine flush produced in the world, will showcase a 40:60 split respectively, in terms of global market value share percentage throughout the forecast period. While engine flush will be predominantly used in the automotive industry, the report projects a growing end-use of engine flush in servicing of industrial equipment. Over the forecast period, the end-use of engine flush in industrial equipment servicing will register a global value CAGR of 4.3%.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @North America to Represent Largest Market for Engine Flush through 2026Highest share of engine flush produced in the world will be used by consumers in the US and Canada. In 2017, North Americas engine flush market surpassed a valuation of US$ 360 Mn, representing the largest market ahead of Europe and the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region. Several players in the global engine flush market are focusing on increasing their exports to North America. Companies namely, BULLSONE Co. Ltd., 3M Company, BARDAHL Manufacturing Corporation, Penrite Oil Company, International Lubricants, Inc., Valvoline Inc., LIQUI MOLY GmbH, Tec4 Lubricants, Berner Group, LUBRITA EUROPE B.V., Petra Oil, and AMSOIL INC. are observed as the leading producers of engine flush in the global landscape. The report further estimates that the APEJ engine flush market will remain attractive for global players in terms of production through 2026.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:Small UAV Market Size 2018 to 2021 by Global Key Players: AeroVironment, Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., SAAB, Thales, Lockheed Martin, Aeronautics Limited, and Northrop Grumman

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Market Highlights:The global small UAV market is expected to reach billion by 2021, to grow at a CAGR of around 7%. Small UAVs can mainly be classified as mini-UAV and micro-UAV. They are small enough to be carried and operated by a single person. During military operations, they can be launched as a portable air-defense system by infantrymen. The development of small UAVs mainly began in 1997, with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA's) multi-year USD 35 million project to develop micro air vehicles (MAVs).Mini-UAVs, are larger than micro-UAVs but still compact, are used for military as well as civil-commercial applications. Bayraktar mini-UAV and Imperial Eagle are few of the examples of mini-UAVs mainly used for military applications. For commercial applications, mini-UAVs such as DJI Phantom have become quite popular.Request a Sample Report @The cost effectiveness and ease to acquire and operate these small UAVs in comparison to manned aircraft (and other larger UAVs) have led to the increase in demand from multiple segments such as military, industries, agriculture, and real estate. As of 2015, small UAVs are still largely being used by military in conflict regions throughout the world. However, the market growth rate for civil-commercial segment is much higher.Major Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global small UAV market primarily include AeroVironment, Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., SAAB, Thales, Lockheed Martin, Aeronautics Limited, and Northrop GrummanThe global Small UAV Market is expected to reach billion by 2021, to grow at a CAGR of around 7%.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:September 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.June 1, 2017 - Aero Vironment announced the selection of the Wasp AE small unmanned aircraft system by the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The ADF Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract calls for the delivery of Wasp AE systems over a three-year period, as well as training and logistics support for up to ten years, for a total AeroVironment contract value of up to USD 36.5 million.January 13, 2016:- Saab will deliver three UAV systems to the Swedish Police. Each system comprises air vehicles equipped with day/night sensors and a ground station, plus spare parts, consumables, documentation, training and technical support. The contract will be in effect from 2016 to 2018.September 16, 2015:- Thaless new modular Watchkeeper X system reflects a growing need for high-end military-standard Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability to wider markets. This modular Unmanned Aircraft System offers a range of options that can be adapted to specific operational resquirements. The versatile system is ideal for providing high-performance ISTAR over a wide range of air, land and maritime scenarios but can now also provide covert, rapid reaction to threats if required. Thales aims to deliver Watchkeeper X through collaboration with local industries and partnerships. This unique approach to unmanned aircrafts systems means that Thales can help to build a truly sovereign capability for our customersCompetitive AnalysisThe global Small UAV market is characterized by the presence of many global, regional, and local vendors. The market is highly competitive with all the players competing to gain the maximum market share. Intense competition, rapid advances in technology, frequent changes in government policies, and environmental regulations are key factors that confront the market growth. In addition, in-house manufacturing capabilities, global footprint network, product offerings, R&D investments, and a strong client base have become the key areas to have the edge over the competitors.The vendors compete based on cost, product quality, reliability, and aftermarket service. It is crucial for the vendors to provide advanced and high-quality helicopters in order to survive and succeed in an intensely competitive market environment.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Digital Music Content Industry: Share, Trend, Segmentation and Growth, Future Prospects & Competitive Analysis, Forecast to 2020

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Publisher's market research analyst predicts the global digital music content market to grow at a CAGR of around 9% by 2020. The digital music content market is undergoing a gradual replacement of digital music records and CDs by several alternatives such as portable storage devices like iPods, multimedia players, and cloud-storage services. People prefer listening to music through cloud music that allows them to store, stream, download, and share the content. Cloud computing has become a crucial component in the market as it offers legal access to online music, even from the remote servers. Services like iTunes Match have gained huge popularity in the market and have accelerated the frequency of music downloads. In addition, the market is also gaining tremendous support from the social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, which help artists to create content that their fans demand and help in more active participation from the audience side. Such developments will positively impact the growth of this market during the forecast period.EMEA will be the fastest-growing region in the digital music content market and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of more than 14% by 2020. European countries such as the UK, Germany, and Sweden are the major revenue-contributing nations in the region. The primary reason for this regions growth will be the strong music development in Africa. Africas digital music content and downloading scenario are witnessing high competition from domestic players like iROKING, Spinlet, and Simfy which are trying to establish themselves in the global market, will further accelerate growth in the overall region during the forecast period.FREE | Sample Copy is Available at:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global digital music content market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the digital music content market by different regions.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEALeading vendors in the market are AppleDeezerGoogleiHeartMediaPandoraSpotifyOther prominent vendors in the digital music content market include CBS, Clear Channel Radio, Gaana.com, Grooveshark, Guvera, Hungama MyPlay, JB Hi-Fi Pty, Line, Mixcloud, News, RadioTime, Rara, Rhapsody, Saavn, and SoundCloud.Inquire before Buying at:Market driver- Initiatives to curb piracy- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Value gap due to exemption from safe harbor rules- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Replacement of digital music records- For a full, detailed list, view our reportComplete Report is Available at:Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout Us:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township, Amanora Chambers, East Block, Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Mask Alignment Lithography Market - Upsurge in Sales of Consumer Electronic Devices and Microelectronics is Expected to Fuel the Global Market

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A photomask is a solid plate with transparencies or holes that let light to pass from one side to the other in a predefined pattern. The photomask perform the function of blocking the light in specific areas. Lithographic photomasks are usually translucent fused silica planks covered with a defined pattern with a metal-absorbing film. Usually, photomasks are used at wavelengths of 193 nm, 248 nm and 365 nm.Download the Brochure @Photomasks are also industrialized for various forms of energy such as 13.5 nm (EUV), 157 nm, electrons, ions and X-ray; but these radiations need entirely new constituents meant for substrate and the mask film. Mask alignments are done by using a mask aligner machine.Brows the Report @Sustainable growth in the global semiconductor market is acting as a key driver for the growth of the overall mask alignment lithography market. The upsurge in sales of consumer electronic devices and microelectronics is expected to fuel the global market. As the demand for semiconductor devices are increasing, so is the need for better speed and advanced integration methods.Download TOC @To be relevant in the market, the vendors operating in the semiconductor production equipment market are speeding up their development efforts. In lithography, the advancement of the future mask alignment lithography systems are in progress. Suggestions are also being made for processes that utilizes ArF (Argon fluoride) exposure systems to develop various semiconductor materials to support further miniaturization.About TMRTransparency 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.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Commercial Aircraft Windows and Windshields Market 2016-2020

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https://www.technavio.com/report/global-aerospace-components-global-commercial-aircraft-windows-and-windshields-market-2016

Aircraft manufacturers and parts' vendors are focusing towards developing innovative cabin interior, seats, and cabin windows to improve passenger comfort. These vendors are increasingly accommodating changes in aircraft windows such as temperature and lighting regulation, and providing a better view and aesthetic appeal of the cabin interior in the existing and new fleet of aircraft. Manufacturers are using the smart glass technology for windows to reduce costs of lighting, air conditioning, and heating, besides blocking the UV light. Moreover, these glasses influence fuel efficiency depicting low carbon emissivity and hence are largely incorporated in aircrafts. One of the major driving forces fueling the growth of the global commercial aircraft windows and windshield market is the increasing demand for energy efficiency. New technological advancements regarding structural design in the commercial aviation space are likely to create further growth opportunities in this market in the coming years. Technavios market research analyst predicts the global commercial aircraft windows and windshield market to grow at a moderate CAGR of more than 3% during the forecast period.Windows in aircraft passenger cabins are smaller in size to maximize the areas of the hull between them and to increase the mechanical strength of the airframe. From a technical point of view, an aircraft fuselage would be much stronger if it could completely remove cut-outs for windows and windshields. In the 1970s, there were incidents in several De Havilland Comets (UK-built commercial jet aircraft), where large windows caused issues with integrating the windows to the aircraft. Furthermore, commercial jet airliners are pressurized, which creates a strain on the hull. There are also chances of metal fatigue in the areas between windows which, in extreme cases, can lead to failure of the metal. Due to this, cargo aircraft fuselage designs are mostly windowless.FREE | Sample Copy is Available at:Competitive landscape and key vendorsThe global commercial aircraft windows and windshields market is extremely competitive where the players compete in terms of product quality, cost, reliability, and market share. To sustain themselves in the intensely competitive scenario, it is important for these vendors to offer cost-effective and high-quality commercial aircraft windows and windshields equipped with latest technology and materials. GKN Aerospace and PPG Industries are the two leading vendors in the market that manufacture aircraft windows and windshields and focus mainly on the development of lightweight materials and improvement in design. These companies also provide a comprehensive aftermarket support operation through company-based solutions or other selected distribution partners across the world.Leading vendors in the market are -GentexGKN AerospacePPG IndustriesLee AerospaceSaint-Gobain SullyOther prominent vendors in the commercial aircraft windows and windshield market include AIP Aerospace, AJW Aviation, Nordam Group, TBM Glass, and Triumph Group.Inquire before Buying at:Market driver-Growing demand for eco-friendly aircraft and components-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge-Damages caused by bird strikes-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend-Emergence of adjustable tint airplane windows-For a full, detailed list, view our reportComplete Report is Available at:Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout Us:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township, Amanora Chambers, East Block, Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Cloud Object Storage Market 2018 Leading Growth Drivers, Emerging Audience, Segments, Sales, Profits & Analysis

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Market Highlights:The Cloud Object Storage Market is segmented on the basis of service, organization size, cloud deployment and end-user. By cloud deployment it consists of public, private and hybrid. Cloud solution accounts for highest market share as it helps enterprises by minimizing cost associated with the IT infrastructure. Cloud solution enable enterprise to focus on core business competencies. It provides enterprises with data protection and security, efficiently manage storage and privacy issues, offers data integrity and provides information related to governance and make enterprise legally prepared.The cloud object storage market is growing rapidly over 14% of CAGR and is expected to reach at USD 6 billion by the end of forecast period.The major growth driver of cloud object storage market includes growing demand for technologically upgraded services, growing expansion of professional and managed services and increasing awareness about cost-effective cloud services among others.IBM Corporation a prominent player in Cloud Object Storage Market offers widest and most flexible ranges of object storage solutions in the industry. It enable enterprises by allowing them to select the deployment option that meets their needs, including public, dedicated and hybrid cloud or on-premises solutions. Hewlett-Packard Enterprises a major player in cloud storage market has designed cloud object storage technology for ultra-high durability of the data that is available for immediate retrieval. Every object is copied three times and stored in physically separate availability zones. HP Cloud Object Storage is powered by Open Stack technology and runs on high-performance HP servers.North America region is the leading player in the cloud object storage market owing to the presence of major market players in the region. The cloud based services is adopted by both small and medium enterprises. The factors contributing towards the growth of cloud services in the region is the increasing data volumes from various vertical and technologies such as cloud computing, big data analytics and internet of things boosting the cloud object storage market. Asia-Pacific region to grow significantly in the cloud object storage market by the forecast period. Apart from it the rising adoption of it services and big data analysis is also driving the market.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: Dell EMC (U.S.) International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.) Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (U.S.) Caringo Inc. (U.S.) Hitachi Data Systems (U.S.) Datadirect Networks (U.S.) Netapp, Inc. (U.S.) International Data Corporation (U.S.) Microsoft Corporation (U.S.) Google (U.S.)Cloud Object Storage Market Segmentation:Cloud solution accounts for highest market share as it helps enterprises by minimizing cost associated with the IT infrastructure. Cloud solution enable enterprise to focus on core business competencies.It provides enterprises with data protection and security, efficiently manage storage and privacy issues, offers data integrity and provides information related to governance and make enterprise legally prepared.Market Regional Analysis:Regional analysis for Cloud Object Storage Market is studied in different geographic regions as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World. North America region is mainly dominating the market due to adoption of advanced marketing techniques in enhancing business and increase adoption of analytics by organization in cloud marketing platform. North America region is one of the prominent player in the market due to advanced technological implementation in numerous vertical. European region is also gaining growth owing to growing demand from citizens and huge investment by enterprise in cloud object storage market.Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing player in the cloud object storage market owing to advanced technological development from countries such as China and India is boosting the market growth. Increasing urbanization, business expansion, industrial developments and growing educational sector is driving the growth of cloud Object Storage market in the region. Growing economies such as India, Japan, and China accounted for the largest market share due to growing IT network in this region. The region consists of many small and medium size enterprise that is contributing towards the growth of market from the region.Intended Audience Investors and consultants System Integrators Government Organizations Research/Consultancy firms Technology solution providersBrowse Full Report Details @Table of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Type2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size EstimationContinued.List of TablesTable 1 Cloud Object Storage Market, By ServiceTable 2 Cloud Object Storage Market, By Organization SizeTable 3 Cloud Object Storage Market, By Cloud DeploymentContinued.List of FiguresFigure 1 Research TypeFigure 2 Cloud Object Storage Market: By Service (%)Figure 3 Cloud Object Storage Market: By Organization Size (%)Continued.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comExclusive Market Study Estimates that Global X-by-Wire Market will Grow at 13.8% CAGR During 2017-2027

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According to a new report published by Future Market Insights titled X-by-Wire Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012  2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017  2027), the global x-by-wire is in the growing stage and is expected to show potential growth signs by the end of 2027. The demand for x-by-wire systems is increasing with every passing day as their installation is increasing in the military vehicles as well as construction equipment. Automotive companies are also focusing on installing x-by-wire systems in economy cars as well. Electric and hybrid vehicles manufacturers, on the other hand, are looking forward to adopt brake-by-wire in the vehicles, thus making it a feasible option for the consumers. The global x-by-wire market is expected to witness a volume CAGR of 13.8% and is likely to reach a volume of over 395,000 000 units by the end of 2027.A sample of this report is available upon request @Rising Demand for Automotive Components to Trigger Adoption of X-by-WireThe global automotive components market is expected to rise at a healthy rate over the forecast period owing to the substantial rise in the global demand for light vehicles. As a result of this, the sales of x-by-wire is expected to increase by almost 40%. Furthermore, the sales are supported by the stable demand arising from Asia Pacific and Europe. The sales are likely to constant in developing regions but slower growth is likely to be witnessed in emerging markets, especially China. Along with the luxury and premium vehicles sector; mid-sized and economical cars are also featuring advanced systems in their vehicle models in order to remain competitive in the market. These factors are expected to fuel growth of the x-by-wire technologies such as throttle-by-wire, shift-by-wire and brake-by-wire. The global automotive production rate is expected to have a high impact on the x-by wire market. The passenger cars sector, in particular, is anticipated to witness high growth over the forecast period. It has been projected that there will be a rather sound automotive production rate in developed economies such as Europe and the U.S. with the key emphasis being on sedan and luxury car sectors owing to changing consumer preference and lifestyle.Asia Pacific Excluding Japan to Emerge as a Leading Region in Terms of Number of DeploymentsThe market for x-by-wire in APAC is expected to witness a volume CAGR of 16.3% from 2017 and 2027 owing to the high penetration of automotive in the region. China is on the forefront at present and is expected to stay the same by the end of the forecast period. In spite of an unstable economy in the last couple of years, the automotive industry has performed quite well, thus increasing the sales of automotive, both passenger and commercial in the region. In addition, the production of automotive is anticipated to be comparatively high in the developing regions as compared to the developed ones. Factors such as shifting customer preferences towards luxury vehicles, developing infrastructure, as well as rising disposable income of consumers in the region are likely to support the automotive industry in the region, thus supplementing the sales of x-by-wire in return.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Partnerships to be the Core Strategy of Key Market PlayersStrategic partnerships of auto component manufacturers with technology providers is likely to be the core focus of companies. The companies operating in the x-by-wire market are Continental AG, Kongsberg Automotive, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, SKF AB, Denso Corporation, and Ficosa International SA, among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT: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:Designing Your Dream Home Office  Home Designs Sydney

http://www.aspectdesigns.com.au/

Nowadays, the popularity of home offices is growing because of the increasing number of people who are working remotely and flexible. Mums and dads who are trying to make a balance between their family and career are those who most often dare to create a home office. Home designs Sydney points out  few things you should consider when designing your dream home office.If you are planning to spend a lot of time in your home office, it is clever to establish it in a larger room. But what if you don't have so much available space in your home? Then you have to place your office in the hallway or under the stairs. Maybe it is smart to place it away from the noise of other rooms. If you are facing this problem  install sound proof walls or door.Measuring your workspace is important if you are going to shop some office furniture. You should choose the right size for your office desk. If you choose a very small small desk it can be uncomfortable to work. Or choosing a very big desk will mean smaller space for everything else. Do you want a sit-down or a stand-up desk? A modern or a traditional desk? When you choose the perfect desk type and size you can determine where to put it.Your home office has to have a comfortable and supportive office chair. So many people are choosing a style over the functionality of a chair. This is wrong because your back can suffer due to the longer sitting. It is important to invest more in a chair that best suits to your needs.When it comes to painting your walls you don't have to use a complicated colour palette. Improve your mood by picking your favourite colour and use a lighter and softer tint of it. Then hang a few personal photographs on the wall. Motivational quote or beautiful wallpaper can boost your creativity and productivity.Natural lighting is essential in any room. Let as much natural daylight as possible. If you cannot reach for natural light  invest in a quality desk lamp. Good lightening depends on the orientation of your house and the window placement and size. To control the level of light when sunny days are here, you can use window coverings. Having fresh air coming in your office space is important if you want to clear your mind. Opening the window at least once a day is always a good idea. Also, having plants in your office will bring calming and peaceful feeling.Choosing the right size of your desk and the most comfortable chair, deciding which colour to use and how to get a natural light into your office are important things to consider before designing your dream home office. If you cannot decide by yourself, a home designs Sydney can help you to improve your home space.We are artists in soul, engineers by trade. We are designing luxury homes in Sydney employing a multidisciplinary approach, and setting the standard for others to follow for 30 years. Aspect designs is the leader in providing prestige home design solutions in the Sydney area. Our designs are intended for people who want to make a statement in a subtle way, which is usually the lasing way. We are going through the endeavor of creating the unique design with the client in order to create the most appropriate design that reflects the clients self-expression. Our vision and mission is to develop a one stop shop for satisfying all of our clients needs regardless of them being an interior design, state of the art fun and relaxation corner, expressive exterior design or a breathtaking landscaping. The continued recognition received from both clients and industry piers demonstrates an appreciation of our philosophy. For 35 years Aspect has had a professional hands on approach which has helped our clients express their individuality and style and won a plethora of major awards and commendations for innovative home designs Sydney , quality workmanship, interiors and landscaping.Aspect designsmichael@aspectdesigns.com.au97 Cecil Avenue, Castle Hill NSW 21540418 460 71442Gears Now a Google Android Enterprise Recommended EMM Partner

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42Gears Mobility Systems, the fastest growing Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) provider joins Google's Android Enterprise Recommended Program.Android Enterprise Recommended Program makes it simple for businesses to confidently select, deploy and manage Android devices and services that meet elevated enterprise requirements validated by Google.Google designed the program to simplify and shorten the selection process of EMM vendors so that enterprises can start with a list of approved devices and services. This program allows enterprises to choose from a curated list of verified devices and services that meet elevated enterprise requirements from partners trained and supported by Google.Android Enterprise Recommended Program aims to provide consistent deployment, management and user features that make it easier to deploy, scale and support Android thereby reducing cost and support effort. Android Enterprise Recommended Program features Google approved EMM vendors that offer solutions to manage corporate-liable, BYOD and dedicated devices from a single console.Prakash Gupta, Co-founder and CTO of 42Gears said, We are very excited to be part of the program. This is a culmination of a stringent validation process by Google. The program enables us to provide a consistent experience to our customers as per Google Standards. 42Gears is constantly working towards enriching the EMM platform with features and standards that reduce overall deployment and support efforts for organizations. We will continue to ensure that our Android solutions are compliant with the guidelines laid down by Google.About 42Gears42Gears Mobility Systems provides SaaS and On-premise UEM solution. It offers enterprise-ready products to help companies secure, monitor and manage enterprise mobile devices, desktops, IoT devices and more. More than 7,000 customers across 100+ countries use 42Gears for managing BYOD and Company-Owned Devices. 42Gears products are used in verticals like Healthcare, Manufacturing, Logistics, Education and Retail. For more information, please visitAbout Android Enterprise RecommendedAndroid Enterprise Recommended makes it simple for businesses to confidently select, deploy and manage Android devices and services that meet elevated enterprise requirements validated by Google.Manisha SinghManisha.singh@42gears.com42Gears Mobility SystemsFirst Floor,Nishvi Towers, Near NIFT College, 16th Cross, 27th Main, Bangalore, India -560102Wound Debridement Products Market at Grow Healthy CAGR till 2023 | Top Key Players are ArthoCare Corporation, Advanced Medical Solutions Group, Smith & Nephew Plc, and MediWound Ltd

Wound Debridement Products Market

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The global wound debridement products market is anticipated to grow at a single digit CAGR during the forecast period. Wound debridement is a process to eliminate foreign invaders, dead tissues, and toxic substances from human wounds. Wound debridement products aid in lowering poisonous materials that prevent wounds from getting healed. Growing aged population & serious wounds propel the market.Moreover; widening product usage, chronic illnesses, & patient-base drive the industry. Cost-efficiency of wound products and demand for advanced medical facilities also contribute to industry growth. On the contrary, financial recession across some parts of the globe hampers the market. Awareness regarding injured tissues has urged patients to take debridement steps. The said factor has boosted industry revenues.Manufacturers are developing a wide range of products, like scalpels and pads to treat minor wounds. Innovative plans are underway to entice customers into knowing more about these products. The worldwide industry is segmented into products, end-users, and geographies.Sample report available atSegment Insights:The products market will occupy more shares due to high adoption in homecare and hospitals. End-users include cardiac centers, multi-specialty clinics, hospitals, specialized clinics, nursing units, and ambulatory surgical wards. Hospitals are the biggest end-user and likely to capture the maximum shares by 2023. Specialized clinics and ambulatory surgical wards should observe more than average growth in the forecast period.For businessmen and those investing in the market, hospitals are appealing & a bright opportunity. Regionally, the wound debridement market is split into Asia Pacific, Europe, Americas, and the Middle East and Africa. Americas, chased by Europe, accounts for the largest shares owing to higher advancements & medical expenditures. Apart from these factors, its burgeoning diabetics & geriatric base propel Americas.Asia Pacific is reported to display huge growth in the coming years. Its growth would be attributed to the use of innovative products and need for improved medical technologies. Regional patient-base and expanding medical infrastructure can also contribute to its high CAGR. Moreover, expanding economies & demographics across emerging nations, like China and India are predicted to drive Asia Pacific.Surge in the need for wound bed preparation and awareness on timely wound care advantages may provide novel prospects to the global market. In addition, the popularity of home-wound management and advancements in various technologies can broaden the scope of this industry. Mergers & acquisitions, need for lesser hospital stays, products innovations, and partnerships are some of the key trends that are being noticed.Key Players:participants operating with the global wound debridement products industry are ArthoCare Corporation, Advanced Medical Solutions Group, Smith & Nephew Plc, and MediWound Ltd. The conventional market could register a decent absolute dollar prospect over the forecast period. The said fact will be ascribed to India and Africas huge population choosing conventional products due to their cost-efficiency.Access Complete Report atCutting-Edge Products and Players:With depressing wound mortality news doing the rounds, researchers have been emphasizing the creation of smarter wound care products. These products intend to contain the infections and treat injuries. Axio Biosolutions, a Bangalore-based Indian company is busy creating a new emergency wound hemostat. Lately, the firm also launched a dressing, namely Axiostat. It is gaining recognition in the defense forces and civil hospitals for combating traumatic bleeding.A leading UK wound management firm recently got an FDA approval for its innovative wound dressing, KerraCel AG3+. Another US based company, Organogenesis developed a product, PuraPly. It adopts antimicrobial PHMB and collagen as a protection that coupled with biofilm debridement prevents microbial growth and brings about quick recovery. As described, the global wound debridement products market is competitive, with numerous participants endeavoring to do better.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Border Security Market by Global Leaders: DRS Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Elbit Systems, Embraer Defense & Security, FLIR Systems, General Atomics Systems, General Dynamics

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Market Overview:A sharp rise in terrorism globally has put the focus back on protection of the national boundaries on the state radars. The issue of border protection was minor especially in the European Continent until a few years back. The Schengen agreement allowed free movement in the amongst the members of the European Union, which had allowed for less investment in the border protection measures. Russia controlled overwhelming majority of the market. But the rise of ISIS and the incessant inflow of refugees has forced the members of the European Union to strengthen their border security apparatus.Border Security Market is highly competitive, and vendors compete on the basis of cost, composite material quality, reliability, and market share. To survive and succeed in such an intensely competitive environment, it is crucial for vendors to optimize their product development process to provide cost-effective and high-quality materials and parts.The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, Acquisition and expansion. Strategic partnerships between Key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position.Request a Sample Report and Detailed TOC @Major Key PlayersAirbus group,Boeing,Cobham,DRS Technologies,Northrop Grumman,Elbit Systems,Embraer Defense & Security,FLIR Systems,General Atomics Systems,General DynamicsGlobal Border Security Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% during 2016-2021. The key factors driving the growth are demand for mobile warfare systems, driverless cargo inspection systems, demand for persistent ISR, and demand for aerostat and blimps.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:September 12, 2017 - Airbus Tetra technology is integral part of the next generationAirbus_Modem2.jpg electronic verification system to transmit data and information of vessel locations off the coast. Airbus provides its latest Tetra modem TW1m to the telecom company Atlas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It will be used to integrate confidential data, such as GPS positioning and text messages into the Atlas vessel identification system which is run by a government agency.September 12, 2017 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded Elbit Systems of America, LLC, a contract to provide an in-fill radar system and tower. The amount of the award is not material to Elbit Systems Ltd, the parent company of Elbit Systems of America. The work is being performed in Texas. This program is another example of Elbit Systems of America delivering solutions supporting CBP's mission to protect U.S. borders.July 6, 2017 - Airbus Defence and Space has expanded its WorldDEM portfolio with the launch of WorldDEM4Ortho. Tailored for orthorectification of high and very high resolution optical and radar satellite data, WorldDEM4Ortho will enable corrections of all distortions induced by the topographical variations of the Earths surface and satellite orientation when acquiring an image. Covering the Earths entire land surface, WorldDEM4Ortho is the most consistent and accurate elevation model for orthorectification on a global scale.Get a Complete Report @Target Audience Government/Military Agency Border Security Products OEMs Component Suppliers Potential Investors Key executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerAbout 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Ion Beam Technology Market Size in Global Industry : Trends, Analysis, Growth and Status 2018

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https://www.researchmoz.us/ion-beam-technology-market-global-industry-analysis-trend-size-share-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html/toc

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Albany, NY, 15th March : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Ion Beam Technology Market - Global Industry Analysis, Trend, Size, Share and Forecast 2017 - 2025" globally.Application of ion beam was rarely found outside the microelectronics industry, up to about a decade ago. However, currently, the ion beam systems are being commonly found in a broad range of applications in the medical science laboratories.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Ion beam microscopy is being used in a wide range of material science applications, including specimen preparation and in the generation of 3D visualization. Moreover, the ion beam systems are also used in the field of material science for circuit editing, microstructural analysis and prototype nanomachining. In addition, ion beam technology are also used in order to prepare non-biological specimens of transmission electron microscopes (TEM). Ion beam method increases the locational precision of the TEM specimens, as well as significantly reduce the time required for the preparation of the specimens. The current generation of ion beam instruments are also used for the specimen preparation of atom probe tomography (APT).Furthermore, ion beam based systems are also being used for generating 3D images. Conventionally, dual beam focused ion beams (FIB) are used for 3D tomography studies. FIB systems are preferred in this area because these systems require very little or no specimen preparation and are applicable readily to a wide range of materials in 3D tomography. Thus, increasing application of Ion beam systems in material science is one of the most important factor anticipated to trigger the market growth of ion beam technology during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025.Global Ion Beam Technology Market: SegmentationIn order to prove a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the market, the global ion beam technology market has been segmented on the basis of technology and application. Depending on various technology of ion beam used in semiconductor manufacturing process, the market has been classified into ion beam etching system and ion beam deposition system. Ion beam trimming has been included within the research scope of ion beam etching system as ion beam trimming helps in localized trimming only.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @In addition, various application in which ion beam technology are majorly utilized such as frequency trimming of BAW (Bulk Acoustic Wave) filter, surface trimming of SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) filter, thickness and pole width correction of thin film recording head and coating of dielectric film is also covered within the scope of the report. Moreover, information related to current market synopsis along with future anticipated growth trend of all the above mentioned segment across various regions including Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle-East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America is also highlighted in this report.Global Ion Beam Technology Market: Scope of the ReportThe major players operating in the ion beam technology market have been profiled competitively across various geographical regions globally. In addition, the leading strategies adopted by the key players to maintain their dominating position in the market, capital expenditure trend and SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis is also provided to give a detailed idea of the competitive landscape. Further, market attractiveness analysis in respect of product type is also furnished in this report in for providing in-depth perspective of the market.The report also provides assessment of different drivers that is impacting the global market, along with the restraints and opportunities that are anticipated to affect the demand of ion beam equipment in the coming years. For each segment (such as product type and application), market dynamics analysis has also been provided in this report. All these factors helps in determining different trends that has been impacting the overall market growth. Moreover, after taking into consideration all this factors, an extensive analysis of the region wise growth parameters of ion beam technology market along with the overall assessment during the forecast period of 2017 - 2025 has been also been furnished within this report. Furthermore, the report includes capital expenditure trend of various SAW and BAW manufacturers for purchasing ion beam equipment in order to give a complete idea of the future anticipated demand of ion beam for RF equipment manufacturing process.Some of the major players operating in the ion beam technology market includes Veeco Instruments Inc. (New York), Scia Systems GmbH (Germany), Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Japan) and Canon Anelva Corporation (Japan) among others.The ion beam technology market has been segmented as follows:Global Ion Beam technology Market, by TechnologyIon Beam etching SystemIon Beam Deposition SystemGlobal Ion Beam Technology Market, by ApplicationFrequency Trimming of Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) FilterSurface Trimming of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) FilterThickness and Pole Width Correction of Thin Film Recording HeadCoating of Dielectric FilmGlobal Ion Beam Technology Market, by GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.MexicoCanadaEuropeU.KGermanyEastern Europe including RussiaItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaTaiwanKoreaRest of Asia PacificMiddle East and AfricaUnited Arab EmiratesIsraelBrowse Report @Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA)Latin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :Remote Sensing Satellite Market 2018 to 2021 by Global Leaders: Airbus Defence and Space, Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Mitsubishi Electric, Thales Alenia Space, Boeing

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https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/remote-sensing-satellite-market-1659

Remote Sensing Satellite Market OverviewThe remote sensing satellite market is developing at an incremental pace. Market Research Future, a firm which specializes in market reports related to the Aerospace sector among others, published in its recent report on Remote Sensing Satellite Market Research Report  Global Forecast 2016-2021, that the sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% owing to the increasing level of investments in the forecast period.Due to the ability of remote sensing satellites to aggregate data following its monitoring, observing activities for large expanses of geographical areas, it has become widely popular. Its diverse uses in the fields of agriculture to detect the soil moisture content is instrumental for forecasting crop growth cycles which have increased the scope and thereby the demand as well from this sector. The sector also draws its demand from emergency rescue operators, biologists, surveillance agencies and navigation experts etc. to name a few. It is has also discovered positive demand trends from the defense sector due to its innumerable advantages. The pressure points for market growth of this sector are the technological complexities of sensors used in these satellites.Request a Sample Report @Remote Sensing Satellite Market - Competitive AnalysisWith the entry of new industry players in the remote sensing satellite segment, a trend of solid, volume-driven growth has been observed in the market with the addition of new and advanced products. Companies are aiming to capture & solidify their share of the market segment, by competing and experimenting with various advantage points. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies.Some of the key players in the global remote sensing satellite market are Airbus Defence and Space, Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Mitsubishi Electric, Thales Alenia Space, Boeing, CASC, ISS Reshetnev, Orbital ATK, and Telespazio.Latest Industry News:Dec 2017 China recently successfully launched remote sensing satellites to conduct electromagnetic environmental probes. It was the 260th mission of the Long March rocket family. The satellites were launched on a Long March-2C carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite launch center in the southwest Sichuan province. The launch is part of the third batch of the Yaogan-30 project, which will conduct electromagnetic environmental surveys among other experiments, further boosting the country's competitiveness in space science.Dec 2017 China will make more efforts in space remote sensing development in 2018 and prepare for the launch of Gaofen-7 high-resolution remote sensing satellite. The goal of the Gaofen series is to provide all-weather, 24-hour services covering the entire globe. China will also promote the research and development of Ziyuan III 03 and 04 satellites in the New Year. Citing a national plan on civil space infrastructure (2015-2025), scientists said that seven cartographic satellites including Gaofen-7 will be used in updating maps, resource investigation, urban and rural planning, environmental protection and early warning of disasters. China will improve its ability to deal with emergencies through surveying and mapping in three years, according to the NASMG. In 2018, the NASMG will conduct basic, specific and city geo information survey and issue an annual report.Dec 2017 Indian space agency, ISRO will launch its latest remote sensing satellite of the Cartosat-2 series, along with 28 foreign satellites in the first week of January. The launch of Cartosat-2 by the PSLV C40 rocket is a follow-on mission of the Cartosat-2 series with the primary objective of providing high-resolution scene-specific spot imageries. The satellite, which carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras, is capable of delivering high-resolution data. The series of satellite launches scheduled next year is in line with the space agencys aim to double the number of launches from eight to 10 to 18-20 annually.Get a Complete Report @Remote Sensing Satellite Market  SegmentsThe remote sensing satellite market has been segmented on the basis of system and region.On The Basis Of System: SATCOM, Radar, Electro Optic and InfraredOn The Basis Of Region: Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa.Remote Sensing Satellite Market - Regional AnalysisThe remote sensing satellite market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (RoW). As per the MRFR analysis, the EMEA region will continue its dominance in the forecast period to achieve billion dollar growth, to grow at a CAGR of around 5%. Whereas, APAC will grow at a CAGR of 7% respectively during the forecast period.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comOrganic Personal Care Products Market Trends, Growth Opportunity, Professional Survey Report 2018

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This report studies Organic Personal Care Products 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.The use of natural, organic, and ethical labels has significantly increased in the organic personal care products market, impacting it favorably on the global front. After exhibiting considerable growth in the food and beverages industry, the practice of manufacturing organic products have penetrated into the personal care industry. Several nations around the world have introduced policies and guidelines encouraging the production of organic personal care products, thus providing considerable impetus to their market.Changing lifestyle, the rising awareness, and availability of a wide range of products are key factors contributing to the markets growth. CAGR exhibited by the market through the course of the forecast period is expected to remain robust as concerns such as hair fall and skincare become widespread. While the demand for organic personal care product is expected to remain high worldwide, the opportunities witnessed across emerging economies is slated to be more lucrative.Get the sample copy of report:The report provides a comprehensive overview of the global organic personal care products market. It conducts Porters five forces to gauge the growth drivers and market restraints influencing the market. The analysis also provides insights into the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat from substitutes and new entrants, and degree of competition. SWOT analysis is also conducted to study the key companies and strategies adopted by them.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market,with production,price,revenue and market share for each manufacturer,coveringAveda CorporationThe Body Shop InternationalBurt's BeesEstee LauderThe Hain Celestial GroupAubrey OrganicsBare EscentualsArbonne InternationalCloroxColgate-PalmoliveGabriel CosmeticsGiovanni CosmeticsIredale Mineral CosmeticsKiehl'sNatura CosmeticosOn the basis of product,this report displays the production,revenue,price,market share and growth rate of each type,primarily split intoSkin CareHair CareOral CareCosmeticsOtherBy Application,the market can be split intoMenWomenBy Regions,this report covers (we can add the regions/countries as you want)North AmericaChinaEuropeSoutheast AsiaJapanIndiaRequest for complete TOC of report:Table of ContentsGlobal Organic Personal Care Products Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Organic Personal Care Products1.1 Definition and Specifications of Organic Personal Care Products1.1.1 Definition of Organic Personal Care Products1.1.2 Specifications of Organic Personal Care Products1.2 Classification of Organic Personal Care Products1.2.1 Skin Care1.2.2 Hair Care1.2.3 Oral Care1.2.4 Cosmetics1.2.5 Other1.3 Applications of Organic Personal Care Products1.3.1 Men1.3.2 Women1.3.3 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 Organic Personal Care Products2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Organic Personal Care Products2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Organic Personal Care Products2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Organic Personal Care Products3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Organic Personal Care Products3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Organic Personal Care Products Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Organic Personal Care Products Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Organic Personal Care Products Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Organic Personal Care Products Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Organic Personal Care Products Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Organic Personal Care Products Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Organic Personal Care Products Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Organic Personal Care Products Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Organic Personal Care Products Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Organic Personal Care Products Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Local Supply,Import,Export,Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Market Share Analysis5.2 China Organic Personal Care Products Market Analysis5.2.1 China Organic Personal Care Products Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Local Supply,Import,Export,Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Organic Personal Care Products Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Organic Personal Care Products Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Local Supply,Import,Export,Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Organic Personal Care Products Market Analysis5.4.1 Southeast Asia Organic Personal Care Products Market Overview5.4.2 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Local Supply,Import,Export,Local Consumption Analysis5.4.3 Southeast Asia 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis5.4.4 Southeast Asia 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Market Share Analysis5.5 Japan Organic Personal Care Products Market Analysis5.5.1 Japan Organic Personal Care Products Market Overview5.5.2 Japan 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Local Supply,Import,Export,Local Consumption Analysis5.5.3 Japan 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis5.5.4 Japan 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Market Share Analysis5.6 India Organic Personal Care Products Market Analysis5.6.1 India Organic Personal Care Products Market Overview5.6.2 India 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Local Supply,Import,Export,Local Consumption Analysis5.6.3 India 2012-2017E Organic Personal Care Products Sales Price Analysis5.6.4 India 2016 Organic Personal Care Products Market Share AnalysisMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports, supporting clients market intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market profiles in its repository. We also offer consulting support for custom market research needs.Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that our customers always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, Marketresearchreports.biz has built a veritable reputation for fulfilling the most exacting market research needs.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizAfrica Automotive Parts Aluminium & Magnesium Die Casting Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

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The Africa Automotive Parts Aluminium & Magnesium Die-Casting report provides an in-depth analysis of the various market segments and its sub-segments.Product types Covered: Pressure die casting Semi-solid die casting Squeeze die casting Vacuum die castingApplications Covered: Body assemblies Engine Parts Transmission parts OthersThe report focuses on current and upcoming market trends such as Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, and Challenges, technological advancements, Porters Five Forces analysis to assess the intensity of competition in the market. The market values are presented in the form of tables and graphs for better interpretation.For More, Please Visit:Market Size EstimationsThe market assessment is made by the core industry experts using our 360 research approach. The data is derived from the most reliable, authenticated data sources and is validated by the industry experts (Primary Research). Both top down and bottom up analysis are implemented to enhance the accuracy of the market figures. The market projections are calculated for the next 8 years using the actual market numbers of previous year as the base year.Company ProfilingThis section provides the overview of the key players that are leading in the industry, covering their business operations, financials, list of products & services, SWOT analysis, major developments such as mergers & acquisitions, agreements, partnerships, joint ventures, new product launch, expansions etc.Report Highlights:- Market share assessments for all the mentioned market segments and sub-segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 8 years for all the given segments- 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 advancementsFor More, Please Visit:We offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USACoreValue is a Gold Sponsor at Salesforce World Tour in Amsterdam

We are pleased to announce that CoreValue is participating in Salesforce World Tour Amsterdam on April 12, 2018.As a registered Salesforce partner, we are joining the worlds leading enterprise cloud provider as part of its community of partners and customers creating a unique environment of innovation, inspiration and learning within every area of our lives.Salesforce World Tour Amsterdam is a perfect opportunity to learn the latest in customer experience directly from recognized industry authorities; attend over 30 innovative expert-led sessions; and connect with other Salesforce professionals.The event presents the best outlook on future enterprise software, including Artificial Intelligence, cloud, mobile technologies and IoT to transform businesses and help them better understand their customers.If you are attending Salesforce World Tour Amsterdam, we would be delighted to spend some time with you to discuss how technology solutions like Lightning, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Mobile, etc. can help you transform your customer engagements.Feel free to stop by our booth in the Amsterdam RAI and speak with our experienced professionals. Moreover, you will have a chance to win a 10-hour FREE consultation package with our top Salesforce team members.CoreValue Services is a US-based software and technology company that delivers cloud and mobile solutions for the Pharmatech, Healthcare, and Financial Sectors to help businesses achieve better agility.CoreValue Services18 Overlook Ave, Suite 9Rochelle Park, NJ 07662908-312-4070info@corevalue.netGlobal Large Format Ceramic Panel Market by Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin Analysis with Forecasts to 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Large Format Ceramic Panel Market: Analysis By Type of Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Wall Cladding, Countertop), By Thickness (3mm & below, 5-9 mm, 9.1-12 mm, 20 mm & Above), By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2014-2022)" to its huge collection of research reports.A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Volume and Value; By Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Cladding and Countertops), By Thickness (3mm &below,5 to 9mm, 9.1 to12mm and 12mm & above ), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, G.C.C and ROW) and By Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE).Large format ceramic panel also known as extra-large size ceramic tile is a new craftily designed product segment in ceramic tile market. On the grounds of continuous dynamic innovations and developments of manufacturing process in ceramic tile industry, additionally with the change in incremental demand of seamless ceramic tiles gave birth to the Large Format ceramic panels.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @On account of perfect flatness, extremely low weight and excellent physical and mechanical properties, Large Format ceramic panels are widely used in architecture and interior design. These versatile solutions are becoming increasingly popular both for traditional applications and for uses that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. This success is a result of recent technological advances in the manufacturing and decoration processes, which allow excellent technical performance to be combined with a modern, sophisticated design.Availability of ceramic panels in wide range of dimensions from 100cm*300cm to 160cm*480cm of length and breadth respectively with thickness from 3mm to 30mm facilitates the growth of ceramic panels in different applicability.According to Azoth Analytics research report, Global Large Format Ceramic Panel Market: Analysis By Type of Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Wall Cladding, Countertop), By Thickness (3mm & below, 5-9 mm, 9.1-12 mm, 20 mm & Above), By Region, By Country: Opportunities and Forecast (2014-2022), global Large Format Ceramic Panel market is projected to display a good growth of over 15.68% by volume and 10.69% CAGR by value during 2017  2025, chiefly driven by advancement in construction sector, strong established distribution channel, innovation and technological development in manufacturing process and inclination of consumer behaviour towards Large Format seamless ceramic tiles due to its unique features.Make an Enquiry about TOC @During year 2017-2025, demand growth for large format ceramic panel market is expected to exhibit the maximum advancement, owing to high applicability in varied end-user applications. Large format ceramic panels are increasingly being used in floorings, interior and exterior walls and countertops in several high-end commercial and residential buildings. Among the regions, Europe accounts for the largest regional share of around 65%, in the total market in 2016, and is predicted to advance at a significant rate, owing to the soaring growth in construction sectors, economic development and changing consumer preference.The report titled, Global Large Format Ceramic Panel: By volume and value, Analysis By Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Cladding and Countertops), By Thickness (3mm &below,5 to 9mm, 9.1 to12mm and 12mm & above), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, G.C.C, ROW) , By Country ; (2014-2022) has covered and analysed the potential of Global Large Format Ceramic Panel Market and provides statistics and information on market size, shares and growth factors.The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global large format ceramic panel market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Scope of the ReportGlobal Market (Actual Period: 2014-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2025)Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Volume and ValueLarge Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Cladding and Countertops)Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Thickness (3mm &below,5 to 9mm, 9.1 to12mm and 12mm & above).Regional Markets  North America, Europe, APAC, G.C.C, RoW (Actual Period: 2014-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2025)Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Volume and ValueLarge Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Cladding and Countertops)Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Thickness (3mm &below,5 to 9mm, 9.1 to12mm and 12mm & above).Country Analysis - U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE - (Actual Period: 2014-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2025)Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Volume and ValueLarge Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Application (Flooring, Interior Wall, Exterior Cladding and Countertops)Large Format Ceramic Panel Market- By Thickness (3mm &below,5 to 9mm, 9.1 to12mm and 12mm & above).Other Report HighlightsMarket Dynamics  Trends, Drivers, ChallengesAbout 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 @PDM University, Haryana announces admissions in various UG and PG courses for 2018

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PDM University based in the National Capital Region (NCR) at Bahadurgarh, Haryana announced the admission program for the session 2018-19. Applications for more than 125 Undergraduate and Post Graduate Programs which include Engineering, Agriculture, Management, Humanities, Social Sciences, Pharmacy, Commerce and many others have invited by the university.Mr. Chitresh Lather, CEO, PDM University, interacting with the media on Thursday, March 1, said, 1st day of March has always been special for us, given the birth anniversary of Late. Sh. Prabhu Dayal Ji, whose blessings have been driving the PDM Group for the last 23 years. PDM University is run by Prabhu Dayal Memorial Religious & Educational Association, which was established in the fond memory of Late. Sh. Prabhu Dayal Ji in the year 1995.Highlighting the recently introduced courses Mr. Lather said, This year we are introducing some new courses namely Diploma in Pharmacy, B.Sc. (Hons.) in Horticulture and Bachelors & Masters in Physiotherapy. On admissions at PDM University, he added, We have seen an upward swing in the number of applications and intake with every passing year particularly in the areas of Life Sciences, Pharmacy, and Dental Sciences and hope to further enhance our strong areas and strengthen our less stronger areas.Talking about the commitments of the university towards the society, he added, The university is endlessly evolving to meet the challenges and innovation of the future while maintaining a tradition of excellence, accessibility and community partnership. We are focusing a big time on strengthening our ties with the industry to provide windows that will allow students to make the best practical use of abilities they have developed at the university.The university is also providing specialized courses in association with IBM, such as B.Tech in Big Data Analytics, B.Tech in Cloud Computing as well as BBA in association with IBM. Almost 90% of the courses offered at PDM University follow Choice Based Credit system.Admission process: Students can start the application process online on the University website. Applicants will be shortlisted based on the respective tests conducted at the national level, scores achieved in the Class 12 examination and a personal interview.Dates: The Last date of receiving applications is yet to be announced and will be displayed soon on the university website. The university admissions usually close by August 15.Further details can be accessed from the university websiteThe PDM University has been established by the Haryana State Legislature under the Haryana Private Universities Act No. 32 of 2006, as amended by the Haryana Private Universities (Amendment), Act, 2015 (Haryana Act No.1 of 2016) and notified in the Haryana Govt. Gazette (Extra) Notification No. Leg.2/2016, dated 14th January, 2016.PDM Religious & Educational Association [PDMREA]Sector:3A, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, INDIA  124507U.S. Lighting Products Market - Industry Share, Sales, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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U.S. Lighting Products Market: OverviewThe U.S. lighting products market report provides analysis for the period 20142024, wherein the period from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast and 2015 is the base year. The report highlights the major trends and developments playing influential role in the U.S. lighting product markets growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the driver, restraint, and opportunity expected to impact markets growth during the said period. The study provides a complete perspective on the U.S. lighting product markets evolution throughout the mentioned forecast period in terms of revenue and volume (in US$ Bn and Bn Units).This report provides all the essential information required to understand the key developments in in the U.S., growth trend of each segment and companies strategies to efficiently compete in the market. Also, the report provides insights related to volume of lighting fixtures and bulbs sold in the U.S. (in Bn units) and the estimated volume of the lighting products in the forecast period. Furthermore, Porters Five Forces analysis explains the factors which are currently affecting the lighting product market This report also provides the value chain analysis for the lighting product market which explains the participants of the value chain and the shift in how these interact with changing dynamism.Get the sample copy of report:U.S. Lighting Products Market: Scope of the ReportThe market overview section of the report demonstrates the market dynamics such as the driver, restraint, and opportunity that influence the current nature and future status of this market, key indicators and trends. An attractiveness analysis has also been provided for every segment in the report, in order to give a thorough understanding of the overall scenario for the U.S. lighting product market. Moreover, the report provides an overview of the various strategies adopted by key players present in the market. Key market indicators included in the report provide significance of the factors which are capable of changing the market scenario. These indicators are expected to define the market growth during the forecast period.U.S. Lighting Product Market: Key SegmentsThe report segments the market on the basis of standalone type that includes LED Tubes & Bulbs, T8 LED tubes & bulbs and Others (Incandescent, High Intensity Discharge). The market is also segmented on the basis of lighting fixture to include ceiling fixtures, recessed lighting fixture, strip light fixture and others (chandeliers, pendants, etc.). The application of these lighting products are considered in various areas such as residential, commercial, industrial and outdoor. The outdoor application of lighting includes garage parking, landscape and streetlight. The report provides in-depth segment analysis of the U.S. market, thereby providing valuable insights at the macro as well as micro levels.Request for TOC of this report:U.S. Lighting Product Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also highlights the competitive landscape of the U.S. product lighting market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their presence in the U.S. and recent key developments initiated by them in lighting product market. The comprehensive lighting product market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting the U.S. lighting product market growth.The Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Wal-Mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sam's Club, Costco, Menards are some of the major players operating within the U.S. lighting product market profiled in this study. Details such as financials, SWOT analysis, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players have been duly provided as part of the company profiling.The U.S. Lighting Product MarketBy ProductBy Standalone TypeLED Tubes & BulbsT8 LED tubes & bulbsOthers(Incandescent, High Intensity Discharge)By Lighting FixtureCeiling FixturesRecessed Lighting FixtureStrip Light FixtureOthers (Chandeliers, Pendants, etc.)By ApplicationResidential LightingTable LampFloor LampDesk LampOthersCommercial LightingIndustrial LightingOutdoor Lighting (Street Lights, Parking Garage, Landscape, etc.)By RetailersThe Home DepotLowesTargetWal-MartBed Bath & BeyondSam's ClubCostcoMenardsGet more information on this report:MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports, supporting clients market intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market profiles in its repository. We also offer consulting support for custom market research needs.Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that our customers always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, Marketresearchreports.biz has built a veritable reputation for fulfilling the most exacting market research needs.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizAutomated Fingerprint Identification System Market: An Insight On the Important Factors and Trends Influencing the Market

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Automated fingerprint identification system is used to obtain, secure, and analyze fingerprints. Traditionally, this system has been utilized primarily in law enforcement units. The system is employed largely to detect criminals. Automated fingerprint identification system is used to match fingerprints of a suspect with the database. This procedure is helpful in analyzing a criminal case. However, of late, the usage of this system has been increasing in various commercial entities owing to the rising emphasis on security.Automated fingerprint identification system is used for biometric identification, which is further used for authentication purposes. Demand for online transactions has been increasing with the advent of Internet. This raises the need for automated fingerprint identification system. Automated fingerprint identification system solution and mobile payment solution is expected to propel the automated fingerprint identification system market during the forecast period.Get Report DetailsDemand for integrated automated fingerprint identification system has been increasing owing to the rise in cyber threats at national and international level. This, in turn, is anticipated to boost the market during the forecast period. However, this system suffers from performance deficiency.It provides inaccurate fingerprints due to mechanical and other types of faults. This is estimated to hamper the market during the forecast period. Threat of intrusion of privacy is expected to create hindrances towards the growth of the market over the forecast period. Large number of substitutes such as face recognition system are available in the market. Growing demand for alternative biometric system is projected to adversely affect the automated fingerprint identification system market during the forecast period.Get brochure for latest technological advancementsIncreasing trend of digitization and transformation from manual process to digital process are fueling the automated fingerprint identification system market. Growing trend of increasing use of digital database management systems is expected to create further growth opportunities and fuel the growth of the market during the forecast period.Based on hardware component, the automated fingerprint identification system market can be segmented into displays, fingerprint input modules, microcontrollers, and others. The fingerprint input modules segment is expected to acquire a major portion of the market during the forecast period. The segment is expected to retain its dominance during the forecast period. Fingerprint input modules are capable of scanning the entire palm. This also offers the facility to scan a single finger. Demand for fingerprint input modules is likely to rise significantly during the forecast period due to its ease of application.For Detail Analysis Get Table Of ContentBased on application, the automated fingerprint identification system market can be divided into financial institutions, governments, investment communities, system integrators, semiconductor foundries, analysts and strategic business planners, biometric product manufacturers, and software vendors. Governments, bank and financial institutions held significant share of the market owing to the rising demand for e-governance and increase in security concerns in banking activities.This type of devices has been increasingly used in law enforcement agencies as there is requirement for matching fingerprints with criminal database. The automated fingerprint identification system technology is easily available to a large number of mobile users owing to the rising user base of cellular phones. This is expected to augment the automated fingerprint identification system market during the forecast period.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:Programmable Logic Devices Market: An Array of Graphics and Analysis of Major Industry Segments

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Programmable logic devices are semiconductor logic blocks which have applications for developing reconfigurable circuits. Programmable logic devices has the capability to be reprogrammed multiple times, which in turn benefits the end-users at the time of producing new advanced circuitry on a trial and error basis.Reprogramming is possible for the programmable logic devices as a result of these devices being primarily dependent on re-writeable memory technology through which a better flexibility is provided by changing the design along with making this process of reprogramming easier. Programmable logic devices market has been segmented into by type which includes programmable array logic (PAL), mixed signal programmable logic devices or complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).Obtain Report DetailsThe market is also segmented on the basis of end use industry which includes consumer electronics, avionics, aerospace and defense, information technology, automotive and telecommunication among others. The market has been segmented geographically into Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, South America and Middle East and Africa.Increasing demand for reducing power consumption electronic devices are one of the prime driving factors the programmable logic devices market globally. The increasing advancement in the field of electronic devices and increasing concern towards the miniaturization devices is fueling the demand for programmable logic devices market.Brochure With Latest Advancements and ApplicationThe growing application of programmable logic devices in the avionics, networking, defense and automotive industry is also contributing in the positive development of the market. Moreover, programmable logic devices have applications in the distributed monetary systems which are another major driving factor for the market. Data computing is another prime end use of application of the programmable logic device market.Increasing application of programmable logic devices across the consumer electronics industry is also anticipated to boost the growth of the market over the forecast period. Introduction of advanced 3D technologies along with lack of standardized verification techniques are some of the restraining factors market globally. Increasing adaptation of programmable logic devices in the research equipment are one of the major opportunities for the market.For Detail Analysis Get Table Of ContentIn 2016, North America is leading the market for programmable logic devices in terms of revenue, followed by Asia Pacific and Europe. The U.S. is dominating the market across North America. China, Japan, India, Taiwan are some of the prime countries are contributing in the positive development of the market across Asia Pacific.Increasing number of semiconductor and electronics manufacturing hubs is one of the prime drivers for the market across Asia Pacific. The U.K., Germany, France and Italy are holding prominent position across Europe. Increasing adoption of programmable logic devices across consumer electronics and telecommunication industry is also contributing in the growth of the market across Brazil, Argentina, and U.A.E, South Africa across South America and Middle East and Africa.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:Imaging Photometers Market: Present Scenario and the Growth Prospects with Forecast 2025

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Imaging photometers refer to instruments that measure the luminous intensity of a light source, by comparing it with the standard source. This comparison could be done with a photoelectric cell (Pritchard photometer), or with the human eye (SEI exposure photometers or Lummer Brodhun). In flicker photometer, the visual photometer observer sees a field illuminated alternately with two sources which are to be compared.Once the flicker sensation disappears, the intensity of the test source could be concluded by reading the reference standard source with which it is compared. To determine the difference, frequency of alteration at a point which is below critical fusion frequency, but for the determination of distinction in the color or color difference, the frequency of alteration is chosen at a point which is above the critical fusion frequency.Obtain Report DetailsIn other words, imaging photometers refer to instruments which find application in measurement of light intensity and understanding optical properties of surface and solutions. The imaging photometer finds application in detection of photomultipliers or photodiodes and photo resistors. The photometer measures light following the passage of light through monochromatic or filter fir the determination at defined wavelengths for analyzing the spectral distribution of light.Imaging photometers find application in photography to determine the correct exposure for the photograph. Modern cameras with latest technology have built in imaging photometers. Advanced imaging photometers with latest technology are capable of measuring light intensity at different positions of the image or picture. Further, the imaging photometers use a wide range of algorithms for the determination of the most appropriate exposure in the final picture. Traditionally, a photometer used to be separate from the body of the camera.Get an exclusive brochure of this reportThe demand for imaging photometers is ever increasing with the increase in application of imaging photometers for high-speed recording quantity which has spatial resolutions which attract increasing interest. Key factors that have led to the increasing preference toward imaging photometers include widespread image processing of software which automates the method analysis.Moreover, the application of imaging photometers saves substantial time with simultaneous capture of considerable number of measurements for small images. Imaging photometers are utilized to measure color distribution and luminance of switches, panel graphics, and instrument clusters for vehicles.Obtain Table of ContentIn terms of type, the imaging photometers market can be segmented into interline transfer CCD, full frame CCD, and others. The transfer CCD segment leads the market in terms of revenue share. In terms of application, the imaging photometers market can be segmented into light measurement, display test, surface inspection, automotive solutions, keyboard inspection, and others. The light measurement segment in the imaging photometers market segmented by application led the market in terms of revenue share. The display test segment is estimated to expand rapidly in the near future.In terms of geography, the global imaging photometers market can be segmented into Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East &Africa. Europe led the imaging photometers market in terms of revenue share. North America followed Europe in the imaging photometers market in terms of revenue share. Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand rapidly in the near future.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:Analysis and Insights on Managing Skin Conditions- China- February 2018

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Market Research Hub (MRH) has included a new research report in its rich online repository titled Managing Skin Conditions- China- February 2018. This research report reveals the outlook of the management of the skin conditions by the Chinese consumers in an in-depth analysis. The managing skin conditions- China- February 2018 report also reveals information about the various brands operating in this sector.Request for Free Sample Report-According to this report, Chinese consumers dont pay much heed to the minor skin conditions affecting them. The report reveals that majority of the consumers in the Chinese market dont use any type of specialized products or consume medicines to tackle minor skin issues. Hence, in order to broaden their market and coax more number of consumers to use their products, companies manufacturing cosmeceuticals need to focus on promoting preventive usage by opting for an all-inclusive approach for getting and maintaining a healthy skin. Also, the consumers need to focus on their lifestyle and eliminate stress and a lack of sleep from their schedules. Stress and a lack of sleep are the major promoting factors for skin problems.Inclusions of the ReportThe report starts with an overview of the sector and also gives an executive summary where all the important aspects covered in this report have been mentioned in a nutshell. In the beginning of this report, information is given about the Chinese consumers and the skin problems that are faced by them. As per the report, pore issues are the reason for most of the skin problems faced by the Chinese consumers. The report gives information on skin conditions experienced in the last six months, November 2017. The report also gives information on cause of skin conditions, November 2017. Also, as per the report, cosmeceuticals have not been specifically made to contain skin problems. The report gives information on treatments used to improve skin conditions in the last six months, females, November 2017.Browse Full Report with TOC-The report also gives information on some of the important companies that are functioning in the skin care sector in the Chinese market. In addition, the report states that such type of cosmeceuticals should be free from undesired chemical substances and this is an important priority. The report gives information on the attitudes towards chemical ingredients in skincare, November 2017. Also, the report states the fact that skin care solutions that are in sync with the lifestyles of the consumers are in much demand in the market. The report also gives information on the market drivers that are operating in the skin conditions sector in the Chinese market.As per the report, this sector is benefitted by the growth of the entire beauty market in China. Also, as per the report, there is a growing diversity in the product offerings in this sector. The report gives information on new launches of Spanish cosmeceutical brands, China, 2017-18. This report also gives information about the key players that are operating in this highly competitive market. As per the report, the French brands are soothing the sensitive skin with the help of thermal water and Japanese brands are associated with whitening benefits. As per the information provided in this report, the American brands are associated with powerful solutions with the help of active ingredient and German brands dish out affordable options in the mass market.Enquire about this Report -About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email : press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :Read Industry News at -Fluid Warmer Devices Market is Anticipated to Exhibit a Healthy Growth of CAGR 5.5% by 2026

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Fluid warmer devices, also called blood warmer devices are used to treat hypothermia. These devices are used in various healthcare facilities such as hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and home care. The global fluid warmer devices market growth is largely influenced by the adoption rate of these devices across these facilities. The increasing prevalence of hypothermia is the main aspect driving the markets growth. Likelihood of hypothermia in geriatric population and infants is high. The increasing geriatric population across the globe is expected to drive the use of fluid warmer devices, which in turn is anticipated to boost the growth of the global market for these devices. Also, the demand for fluid warmer devices is high in cold regions.A comprehensive market research report titled Fluid Warmer Devices: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2026) by Persistence Market Research unveils several facets of the global market that have an impact on the global markets growth. The reader can gain directions to achieve stability in the changing market dynamics and can aim for future market expansions. According to the analysis include in this extensive research report, the global fluid warmer devices market is estimated to reach a significant valuation by the end of the year of assessment and is projected to grow at a high value CAGR of 5.5% throughout the period of assessment (2017-2026).Report Overview @Key Segmental Highlights of the Global Fluid Warmer Devices MarketThe global fluid warmer devices market is segmented on the basis of product type, application, end user and region.With respect to product type, the warming devices are extensively used for fluid or blood warming. The increasing adoption rate of warming devices can be attributed to better end results, due to which the warming devices segment is expected to be the largest with a high market value during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is projected to grow at the fastest rate throughout the period of forecast, 2017-2026. Disposable accessories segment is the second largest contributing significantly to the growth of the global fluid warmer devices market in the coming years.In the application category, the surgery segment is expected to grow at a significant pace during the assessment period. The use of fluid warmer devices during surgery is expected to grow in the coming years. The surgery application segment is estimated to reach a high market value of over US$ 55 Mn by 2026 end, thus dominating the global market. The adoption of fluid warmer devices for new born care and home care is also expected to grow in the years to follow.Request for Table of Contents @By end user, the use of fluid warmer devices has been observed largely in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Hospitals as an end user are highly lucrative for the growth of fluid warmer devices market across the globe. The hospitals segment is expected to lead the global market and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. In addition, the ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) segment is projected to grow at the highest pace during the forecast period.In the region category, North America and Europe, both are expected to highly contribute to the global markets growth. Of these, North America is most attractive region for fluid warmer devices, followed by Europe. On the other hand, the fluid warmer devices market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is projected to grow at a relatively higher pace in the coming years, followed by Europe. APEJ is expected to present potential growth opportunities for the adoption of fluid warmer devices.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The research report on fluid warmer devices covers analysis on key players such as 3M Company, General Electric Company, Smiths Group Plc., Stryker Corporation, Geratherm Medical AG, Belmont Instrument Corporation, Biegler GmbH, Barkey GmbH & Co. KG, Stihler Electronic GmbH and EMIT CORPORATION.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comHospital Asset Management Market: Growth and Sales Forecast 2016 - 2023

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In hospitals, the key assets include people, devices, and medication. However, the management of thousands of expensive mobile equipment is labor-intensive and challenging. Asset management is thus of prime importance across hospitals owing to its significant impact on staff productivity, assets performance, operations, and lifestyle costs. Asset tracking is a potential area of improvement for hospitals that can be achieved with quantitative results. With the help of asset management solutions, hospitals are able to improve service quality while reducing managing costs and risk of non-compliance.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:Hospital asset management solutions are equipped with various technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID), infrared, ultrasound, and Wi-Fi based real-time location systems (RTLS). The RFID technology is extensively used across the pharmaceutical sector where manufacturers and distributors are able to precisely track drug products through the supply chain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduced guidelines for the implementation of RFID technology in November 2004 to ensure the safety and security of drug supply across the health care industry. For staff management and to provide better service to patients, RTLS is widely used for nurse call automation and real-time locating of patients. RTLS tags are also implemented to monitor, track, and manage strategic assets such as ventilators for critical care, cardiac monitoring devices, machinery for ultrasound diagnostics, and others.The increasing number of complex equipment in modern-day hospitals, along with the growing incidences of drug counterfeiting and supply chain issues have boosted the demand for hospital asset management solutions. The declining cost of hardware utilized in various systems such as RTLS and their extensive usage across the health care industry have also augmented the growth of the global hospital asset management market. However, initial investment requirements, operational and technical issues, and privacy and ethical concerns will hamper the growth of the global hospital asset management market. Various initiatives taken by government institutions to decrease operational costs at government-run hospitals are expected to define the future outlook of the global hospital asset management market. Hospital asset management includes staff management, patient management, temperature and humidity monitoring, and equipment management. With the growing demand to manage vast supplies of medical equipment across hospitals, equipment management has emerged as one of the largest application segments in the global hospital asset management market.Request for Sample Copy of Report:The global hospital asset management market has been segmented into four key regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. In North America, the robust health care infrastructure has propelled the demand for hospital asset management solutions. North America and Europe are the leading regions in the global hospital asset management market. Various government initiatives to boost the health care industry and rising demand for efficient supply chain management in Asia Pacific will fuel the demand for hospital asset management software in the region in the coming years. India and China will significantly contribute toward the growth of the market in the region owing to the standardization of RFID technology through various government initiatives.Some of the prominent players in the global hospital asset management market are GE Healthcare, IBM Corporation, Tyco International Ltd., AeroScout Inc., Vizbee RFID Systems Ltd., Infor, Awarepoint Corporation, Motorola Solutions Inc., Trimble Navigation Ltd., Ekahau Inc., Siemens Healthcare, Versus Technology Inc., Sonitor Technologies Inc., and Zebra Technologies Corporation.Request For Discount On This Report:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.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.Contact US:Transparency Market Research,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY  12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Asia Pacific to Dominate the Global Dimethyl Carbonate Market During the Assessment Period 2017  2025

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Market Research Hub (MRH) has included a new research report in its online database titled Global Dimethyl Carbonate Market. This research report gives the report readers a deep insight about the global dimethyl carbonate marketand presents the state of the dimethyl carbonate market in various important regional markets of the world along with information on the market dynamics impacting the growth of this market.Dimethyl carbonate is a type of carbon-based compound that possesses the properties of being flammable, colorless and transparent. It is treated as a carbon ester. This environmentally friendly compound is used for the up gradation of renewables such as triglycerides, glycerol, fatty acids and platform molecules that are derived from sugar. Dimethyl carbonate has been given a certificate of VOC exemption and is classified as a safe, non-toxic and an environment friendly organic chemical. It is used as an intermediate in the manufacturing process of polycarbonates. This type of polycarbonate plastics possess high dielectric strength, high impact resistance and optical transparency. Dimethyl carbonate is also used to manufacture intermediate chemicals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals.Request for Free Sample Report-Overview of the MarketAsia Pacific region is forecasted to dominate the global dimethyl carbonate market in both value and volume terms. Also, dimethyl carbonate market in the Asia Pacific will experience a significant CAGR as compared with other regions. China being a manufacturing center, it possesses various pharmaceutical, chemical processing factories, polycarbonate and pesticide industries in which there is a high demand for dimethyl carbonate. Hence, a large number of manufacturers of this organic compound are present in China. China also exports significant amounts of dimethyl carbonate to both developed and upcoming economies.As far as application is concerned, the polycarbonate segment was dominant and held a major share of the market in the year 2016. Dimethyl carbonate is majorly used as an additive in gasoline with high content of oxygen. This chemical is also used in paints and coatings and utilized in the personal care sectors. The solvents containing dimethyl carbonate are the best electrolyte systems, and are thus used in lithium ion batteries as it is chemically stable. In order to lower the volatility of price of dimethyl carbonate, the manufacturers of this organic compound have established long-term supply agreements with important supplies so that they can get raw materials at a fixed price.Browse Full Report with TOC-Report ScopeThis report provides comprehensive information regarding both the regional and global dimethyl carbonate markets. The forecast has been provided both volume wise (Tons) and also value wise (US$ Mn) and the forecast period is from 2016 to 2025. This report also covers in detail the study of various market dynamics that are impacting the growth of the global dimethyl carbonate market along with its opportunity analysis.A valuable section of the report contains the Porters Five Forces analysis and the value chain analysis for the dimethyl carbonate market. The Porters model has been included in this report to get a complete understanding of the competition landscape of this market. In addition, the market attractiveness analysis is also given, which analyzes the different product types and applications on the basis of their growth potential and revenue generation potential. Also, this report contains information on the various companies manufacturing dimethyl carbonate and the type of technology which they use in the manufacturing of this organic compound.Enquire about this Report -About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email : press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :Read Industry News at -Optical Waveguide Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast upto 2027

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Optical interconnect is a mode of communication through optical cables. It is used to transform the signals from electrical to optical with less frequency dependent loss and high bandwidth. Optical interconnect can be categories into two main types namely optical fiber, and the optical waveguide.The optical waveguide is an element that interconnects various devices of optical integrated circuits. However, the optical wave travels in the waveguide in different optical modes that help in solving the data traffic congestion with low power consumption. The optical waveguide can also aid in handling the significant amount of data generation from data center along with cloud computing with high bandwidth.Obtain Report DetailsThe optical waveguide has unique features such as biocompatible, enables distributed sensing, high bandwidth, resistant to electromagnetic noise such as motors, radios, and operates at high speed.Optical waveguide market is witnessing maximum growth owing to expanding in the adoption of electronic devices, data traffic coupled with a handling of the significant amount of data generation by the data center, and cloud computing with high speed.Moreover, rising internet connectivity, demand for bandwidth, and low power consumption are some of the factors that can boost the demand for optical waveguide over the forecast period. However, high installation cost optical waveguide for data communication areas such as data centers, and slow introduction of various optical waveguide related technologies may hamper the growth of optical waveguide market in near future.Brochure With Latest Advancements and ApplicationOptical waveguide 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 its use in various applications such as photonic integrated circuits, digital processor chips, circuit boards, and optical fibers are some of the factors that can accelerate the market revenue growth of optical waveguide during the forecast period.Depending on the geographic region, optical waveguide market is divided into seven key regions: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the optical waveguide market followed by Europe, and Japan owing to high internet penetration, the establishment of key players in the field of the internet such as Google, and Facebook.Get Table of Content for detail analysisAsia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa hold huge potential and shows substantial growth in terms of expanding the use of electronic devices, rising innovative technologies, consumer awareness, and expanding telecommunication sector are some of the factors which strengthen the growth of optical waveguide market throughout the forecast period.Some players of optical waveguide market are Sumitomo Bakelite Co. Ltd., Waveguide Optical Technologies, DigiLens, Inc., Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd., Corning Incorporated, LEONI Fiber Optics, Inc., Prysmian SpA, Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable Co. Ltd., Sterlite Technologies Limited, Fujikura Limited, and 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:Automated Fingerprint Identification Market Research Report by Key Players Analysis 2023

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Automated fingerprint identification is a procedure which looks at an unidentified finger impression against perceived fingerprints put away in a database. These frameworks are identified with regular participation and get to control frameworks aside from that they present real finger impression distinguishing proof. Moreover, these systems permit extensive variety of assignments, for instance, handling, altering, looking, recovering, and putting away of fingerprint pictures. Automated fingerprint identification systems are frequently utilized by law implementation offices for criminal distinguishing proof, validation, individual historical verification, and as a measure against fraud prevention. Moreover, currently automated identification systems are utilized by government, and private ventures for security and recognizable proof reason. These frameworks are utilized as a part of different applications, such as public safety, e passports, national identity cards, latent print machine, voter registration, and border control.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:Automated fingerprint identification has increased huge consideration over the globe owing to the rising concerns related to security and unlawful exercises. The need for viable examination and simple suspect identification has expanded the ease to tackle crimes. Likewise, the automation in criminal identification systems and storage of data is expanding because of drowsy traditional criminal identification proof process. Moreover, the progressions in advanced hardware innovation and expanding demand for fast fingerprint identification are relied upon to drive the market for automated fingerprint identification. In any case, the dependability and precision of fingerprint identification is a worry in the process of criminal identification.Automated fingerprint identification is a process which compares an unidentified fingerprint against recognized fingerprints stored in a database. These systems are related to conventional attendance and access control systems except that they offer real time fingerprint identification. In addition, these systems allow wide range of tasks such as processing, editing, searching, retrieving, and storing of fingerprint images. Automated fingerprint identification systems are often used by law enforcement agencies for criminal identification, authentication, person background check, and fraud prevention measure. Furthermore, at present automated identification systems are used by government, and private enterprises for security and identification purpose. These systems are used in various applications such as border control, voter registration, latent print matching, national identity cards, e passports, and public safety.Request for Sample Copy of Report:Automated fingerprint identification has gained significant attention across the globe, due to rising security concerns and unlawful activities. The necessity for effective investigation and easy suspect identification has increased to solve crime. In addition, the demand for automation in criminal identification system and storage of information is increasing due to sluggish conventional criminal identification process. Furthermore, the advancements in digital electronics technology, and increasing demand for faster fingerprint identification are expected to drive the automated fingerprint identification market. However, the reliability, and accuracy of fingerprint identification is a major concern in the criminal identification process. In addition, technical failures in the integration of hardware such as fingerprint scanner, and defects in software algorithm for fingerprint comparison are the key challenges restraining this market. Furthermore, with increasing development in identification technologies such as palm recognition, and facial recognition are expected to restraint the adoption of automated fingerprint identification market. The rising adoption of automated fingerprint identification by government, and private enterprises in civil identification projects provide opportunity for automated fingerprint identification market. Further, developments in cloud based automated fingerprint identification systems offer additional growth opportunities. For instance, the M2SYS Technology has introduced cloud based identification system to increase the scalability, and reduce hardware cost related to automated fingerprint identification systems.The rapid development in digital electronics technology, and software systems has compelled many companies to introduce improved automated fingerprint identification systems. The key companies operating in this market include Fujitsu Limited, Suprema, Inc., 3M Cogent, Inc., Papillon Systems, M2SYS Technology, NEC Corporation, Morpho Detection LLC, Cross Match Holdings, Inc., 4G Identity Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Identification International, Inc., Sonda Technologies, Biometrics4All, Inc., HID Global Corporation/ASSA ABLOY AB., AFIX Technologies, Inc., and MOSA Technology Solutions, Inc.Request For Discount On This Report:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.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.Contact US:Transparency Market Research,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY  12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:3D Laser Scanner Market: Industry Insights, Trends and Forecast upto 2025

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A 3D laser scanner is used in carrying out the process of 3D laser scanning. 3D laser scanning is a non-contact and non-destructive type of technology which is used to digitally capture the shape of physical objects using laser light. 3D laser scanners create point clouds of the data which is obtained from the surface of the object being scanned.The 3D scanning method helps to scan the exact size and shape of an object into the computer in the form of a digital 3-dimensional representation. 3D laser scanners are capable of measuring fine details and they capture free-form shapes. A 3D laser scanner generates highly accurate point clouds. The 3D laser scanning process is used mostly for measurement and inspection of contoured surfaces and complex geometries.Obtain ReportDemand for 3D design and presentation has been a key factor driving the demand for 3D laser scanners. Demand for 3D laser scanners in the plant industry is high since this industry is shifting toward large scale usage of 3D designs. The application of 3D scanning is huge in civil and architecture sectors. The oil & gas industry is the largest potential end-user of 3D scanners for surveying large pipelines.Benefits offered by 3D scanning over the conventional surveying method is crucial in driving the demand for 3D scanners across various industries. Accuracy and ease of operation are two most vital benefits offered by 3D laser scanning as compared to the conventional methods of surveying and scanning. Demand for 3D scanners is expected to soar in future.Obtain Table of ContentThis is attributed to the rapid adoption of 3D scanners in the automotive, civil, and oil & gas industry. Companies in the 3D scanners market compete to expand their market presence in domestic and international markets. 3D scanner manufacturers focus on developing new products and also on enhancing the existing product range of the company.The 3D laser scanner market is segmented on the basis of offering, type, range, product, application, end-user, and region. In terms of offering, the 3D laser scanner market is segmented as hardware, software, and aftermarket services. On the basis of type, the market is segmented into laser 3D scanners and structured light 3D scanners.Obtain BrochureThe 3D laser scanner market on the basis of range is segmented as short range, medium range, and long range. On the basis of product, the market is segmented into tripod mounted, fixed CMM based, portable CMM based, and desktop. The fixed CMM based 3D laser scanners are further segmented as bridge CMM based, gantry CMM based, and horizontal arm CMM based.The portable CMM based 3D laser scanners are further classified as articulated arm CMM and handheld. Based on geography, the 3D laser scanner market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America. The report also provides country level analysis for each of the segments. The U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy, France, U.K., China, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Brazil, and Argentina are the countries included in the market study of 3D laser scanners.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:In-store Health Clinics Market Competitive Landscape Analysis with Forecast by 2024

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In-store health clinics are a category of walk-in clinics, which are located in supermarkets, retail stores and pharmacies. These health clinics provide medical care to patients with minor uncomplicated illnesses (e.g. cold, fever and others) and provide preventive medical care services (e.g. immunization, diagnostics and others). Geographically, North America followed by Europe accounts for the largest market share of in-store health clinics owing to the high awareness and adoption rate for retail clinics. Moreover, high incidence of urinary tract infection in women has further propelled the popularity of in-store health clinics.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:Various research articles suggest that, each year in the U.S. more 1 million women are admitted to hospital due to urinary tract infections and associated complications. This huge base of population seeking medical care is driving the growth of in-store health clinics in the overall North American region. Moreover, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2012, approximately 18 million adults in the U.S. were suffering from asthma. Thus, this high incidence of asthma has driven the demand for in-store retail clinics. However, other regions such as South East Asia, Latin America and Middle East are expected to be the potential markets in the near future. Due to the rising disposable income among population and high adoption rate for retail clinics, these regions are expected to be a potential market in the near future.The global in-store health clinics are experiencing admirable growth due to the increasing patient preference for convenient healthcare facility with multiple services. The major factors contributing to the growth of the in-store health clinics market are increasing incidence rate of communicable diseases and increasing shortage of primary care physicians.Request for Sample Copy of Report:At present, retail health clinics or in-store health clinics are most suitable for people with simple and acute health conditions such as a urinary tract infection or respiratory complications. Women suffering from urinary tract infection mostly prefer retail health clinics due to their willingness to maintain confidentiality of their disease condition. Moreover, to diminish their cost of transportation and hospital related healthcare expenses patients mostly prefer to visit in-store health clinics rather than hospitals or nursing homes.This growing adoption rate for affordable and convenient in-store health clinics is alternatively boosting the growth of in-store health clinics globally. Moreover, nowadays in-store health clinics are also managing chronic medical conditions such as high cholesterol, hypertension and asthma. For instance, Take Care Clinics (Walgreens) are providing medical services to patients with various aforementioned chronic medical conditions. However, many patients still question the quality of care that is being provided by in-store health clinics and they just prefer to get primary medical care from a primary care physician; alternatively, which can impede the overall growth of the global in-store health clinics market. The global in-store health clinics market is a highly fragmented market due to the involvement of many established and emerging players. The major players involved with the operations of in-store health clinics are AFC Doctors Express, Concentra, Inc., Doctors Care, FastMed Urgent Care, MinuteClinic (CVS), NEXtCARE, Physicians Urgent Care, Target Brands, Inc., The Little Clinic, U.S. HealthWorks, Inc., Urgent Care MSO, LLC, Walgreen Co.Request For Discount On This Report:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.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.Contact US:Transparency Market Research,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY  12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Spyware tracking under the radar

Spire, Spirethoughts, Spyware, Tracking, Radar, Data security, Privacy, Growth, Software

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The U.S. has seen a massive growth in sales of off-the-shelf software to trace an individuals every move based on the microwaves emitted by their mobile phones. This opens the door to privacy and personal data security issues.The fear of being watched has been expressed by 80% of Americans. The growth in consumer spyware looks set to continue over the next year and it is unclear how it can be controlled.A bill has been introduced in the US Congress requiring a warrant to track mobiles phones.Should a global legal framework be introduced to track consumer spyware?For more information, please visit our newsroom section here:Spire Research and Consulting was established in 2000 to address a gap in the research and consulting industry in global emerging markets. Unlike most agencies that focus on traditional consumer research, our founders saw a profound need for holistic research projects.Unit 501-502, DLF City Court,DLF Phase III, Sector 24, Gurugram  122002, IndiaTelephone: (91) 124 421 6144E-mail: india.info@spireresearch.comNetwork Forensics Market to Surpass US$ 1,874.4 Mn by 2025

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The global market for network forensics is witnessing rapid growth due to increasing sophistication in cybercrimes and increasing digitalization of information. However, the lack of skilled investigators may restrain market revenue growth during the forecast period.According to a new report published by Persistence Market Research titled Network Forensics Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025), high revenue growth in the market was witnessed due to the rising number of DDos attacks and cybercrimes reported during the historical forecast period 2012 to 2016. Revenue from the global network forensics market is forecasted to increase from US$ 512.3 Mn in 2017 to US$ 1,874.4 Mn by 2025 end, representing a CAGR of 17.6% from 2017 to 2025. This increasing revenue growth is attributed to the increasing adoption of IoT and connected devices and virtualization of servers.Report Overview @Global Network Forensics Market: TrendsPopularity of cloud-based forensicsDemand for managed security servicesIncreasing digitalization of informationRapid advancements in technologies, the adoption of IoT, connected devices, and smartphone penetrationNetwork forensics providers are adopting the trend of entering into strategic partnerships, mergers, and/or acquisitions in the global marketGlobal Network Forensics Market: Forecast by ComponentOn the basis of component, the global network forensics market is segmented into software and services. Services segment is further sub-segmented into consulting and support & maintenance. In terms of value, the consulting segment is expected to increase at a relatively higher CAGR during the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @Global Network Forensics Market: Forecast by VerticalOn the basis of vertical, the global network forensics market is segmented into Government, BFSI, Education, Energy & Utility, Healthcare, IT & Telecom, Retail and Others. In terms of value, the government segment is anticipated to increase at a high CAGR during the forecast period and register high Y-o-Y growth rates. In terms of value, this segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 21.7% during the forecast period.Global Network Forensics Market: Forecast by DeploymentOn the basis of deployment, the global network forensics market is segmented into On-premises and Software-as-a-Service. In terms of value, the on-premises segment is projected to be the most attractive in the global network forensics market during the forecast period. In 2017, the on-premises segment was valued at US$ 361.6 Mn and is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue throughout the period of forecast.Global Network Forensics Market: Forecast by RegionIn terms of value, the APAC network forensics market is anticipated to increase at a high CAGR during the forecast period. The Asia Pacific regional market is expected to increase 4.8X between 2017 and 2025. However, in terms of revenue share, the North America network forensics market leads the global market with 33.4% value share estimated in 2017. In 2017, the North America regional market was valued at US$ 150.6 Mn and is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue through 2025.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Global Network Forensics Market: Key PlayersIBM Corporation, Symantec Corporation, RSA Security LLC, NIKSUN Incorporated, FireEye, Inc., PacketSled, Inc., Riverbed Technology, Savvius, Inc., NETSCOUT, LogRhythm, Inc., Cisco System Inc., Corero Network Security, Inc., VIAVI Solutions Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Packet Forensics, LLC and Network Critical Solutions Limited are some of the top companies in the global network forensics market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comFiber Laser Oscillators Market: Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Market Via In-Depth Qualitative Insights

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Fiber laser oscillators are the type of electronic oscillators that use crystal to select the particular frequency so that the inverse piezoelectric effect is obtained. It uses the vibrating crystal so that the mechanical resonance is used from it, having piezoelectric properties so that an electric signal of high precise frequency is obtained. The frequency so obtained is also used in keeping track of time, to stabilize frequencies for receivers and radio transmitters.A similar crystal called quartz crystal can also be used to obtain frequencies from kilohertz to few megahertz. These crystals are used for devices such as radios, computers, clocks, cell phones and wrist watches. Quartz crystal can also be found in measurement and test equipment such as oscilloscopes, signal generators, and counters. Temperature compensated oscillator is the dominating equipment in the market finding its use in the networking and telecom industry. The oven controlled oscillator is also expected to rise in the forecast period due to its general lucrative circuitry.Obtain Report DetailsThe factor driving the growth of fiber laser oscillators market is the requirement of lasers in the telecommunication industry with a high stability. In the telecommunication industry, also there is a need for components with cost efficiency and low power consumption which can be achieved by intensive activities of R&D in the fiber laser oscillators market. For telecommunication applications, the best-suited crystal oscillator is the oven controlled crystal oscillator having high stability in the frequency.In addition, the fiber laser oscillators market is being driven by the rising demand in the vehicles having infotainment system, automotive industry having automatic driver assist system (ADASs) and portable electronic devices. The wide range of applications in the fiber laser oscillators market includes IT industry, telecommunication industry, transport and automotive industry, defense, and aerospace industry and the electronics industry.Obtain Table of ContentThe increased use of smartphones and various other such devices has increased the demand for fiber laser oscillators market. The demand for equipment in the healthcare industry is another factor driving the growth of fiber laser oscillators market. The growing developments and research in the 4G and LTE networks are the trending growth of the equipment such as laser fiber oscillators market.The fiber laser oscillators market can be segmented on the basis of geography into seven main regions as North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, APAC, Japan, Western Europe and MEA. The North America is the major player in the market driving the growth due to the advancement in technology and being a developed region the rise in usage of electronics components is observed.Obtain BrochureThe APEJ is expected to rise in the forecast period due to the manufacturers shifting their market to the countries like India and China where development is on the rise. The Europe and Japan are also expected to have the small rise in the forecast period. The Latin America is also a driving region in the market being the region with the major companies.The fiber laser oscillators market in the surface mount type has the largest share in the market. The growth of the segment is being driven by the low cost in production and higher density of its components. In 2016 the crystal segment accounted for the largest share in the laser fiber oscillators market. The consumer electronics and medical equipment in the application type are the industries with the highest opportunity in the laser fiber oscillators market. The evolution of MEMS crystal oscillator is the new development and the further growth driver for the laser fiber oscillators market in the future.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:Industrial Racking System Market Competitive Landscape by 2025

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Warehousing of industrial output has generated the need for material handling equipment, and industrial racking systems offer a solution for this requirement. From aerospace to construction, all industries require well maintained storage systems for proper preservation of their product line, which is the main factor spurring growth of the industrial racking system market. The industrial racking system offers optimum techniques for storage in different forms, such as pallet racks, light duty and heavy duty racks, shelving racks and others. Conventional storage racks have insecure working conditions, due to which the racking system evolved with new technologies, including satellite pallet racking, auto-shuttle racking and gravity flow pallet racking.Request to Sample of Report-Mobilized pallet racks have helped organizations eliminate or reduce building construction costs, building expansions, auxiliary warehouses and lessened ongoing operational costs by capitalizing the use of their storage floor space. The industrial racking system makes warehouse design and product flow optimization flexible with low initial investment. Furthermore, there is rising demand from industries to provide storage facilities for their goods and bonded warehousing is an added new field, which is now increasingly being made available to these organizations. Specialized fumigation service is another offshoot of the warehousing business, which boosts the demand for industrial racking systems.Global Industrial Racking System Market: DynamicsDrivers:Growth of industrial racking systems can be attributed to their ability to maximize storage space and safety. Pallet racking provides accessibility for each pallet and this is perfect for gaining supply chain efficiency. In industrial racking systems, optimal storage design becomes a wooing factor for market growth. Qualities, such as storage density, low maintenance and others, achieve greater market hype for the industrial racking system market.Restraints:Industrial racking systems are not designed to withstand seismic activities, such as earthquake, tsunami, and flood. Moreover, goods stored in an industrial raking system should be restrained to prevent them from creeping and falling from the racking system. The aforementioned natural disasters make racking systems unsuitable for storage purpose. These are factors hindering growth of the industrial racking system market.The industrial racking system market can be segmented on the basis of application, design and carrying capacity.,,On the basis of design, the industrial racking system market can be segmented as:,, Open frame rack, Rack enclosures, Wall-mount racks, Pallet racks, Cantilever racking system, 2 tier storage system, 3 tier storage system, Multi ties storage system, Shelving racks, Pigeon hole rack, Fifo racks, Slotted panel racks, Section panel racks,,On the basis of carrying capacity, the industrial racking system market can be segmented as:,, Heavy duty racks, Medium duty racks, Light duty racks,,On the basis of application, the industrial racking system market can be segmented as:,, Agriculture, Construction, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Textile, Trade, FoodThe Europe market is expected to dominate the global industrial racking system market, owing to the high adoption of automation in the automotive industry in countries, such as Germany, France and others. The Asia pacific region is anticipated to grow due to a rise in the number of manufacturing facilities in some countries, such as India and China. India is predominantly an agricultural economy and agriculture commodities need warehousing for storage purpose, in turn necessitating industrial racking systems. North America, followed by Asia Pacific, is expected to exhibit significant growth due to the elevated demand for safety handling equipment and growing construction industry in the U.S. market. Consequently, the Latin America market is expected to show steady growth in the industrial racking system market over the forecast period. Demand from the Middle East and Africa region for material handling equipment is slated to be sluggish, due to steady industrialization in e-commerce, food and packaging, pharmaceutical and chemical industries.Request Report for TOC @Global Industrial Racking System Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the industrial racking system market are:KardexDaifuku Co., LtdVelca Racking Systems Pvt. Ltd.Toyota forkliftsSSI SchaeferUniversal Storage Systems (SA) (Pty) LtdSteel kingBulldog rackRacks Industries LimitedNorth American SteelArpac Storage Systems CorporationConstructor GroupHannibal IndustriesRedirackCWH Storage System SDN BHDFoothills SystemsAbout 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:Gas Detection Equipment Market Value to reach US$5.6 bn by 2024 Registering a 5.6% CAGR

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Titled Gas Detection Equipment Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024, the report sheds light on more factors that could enhance growth in the near future.The global gas detection equipment market has been expanding at a steady pace over the past few years and is likely to exhibit a stable growth rate through the forecast period.Stringent government legislations regarding the safety of workers and property and the rising gas exploration activities around the world are the prominent factors supporting the growth of the gas detection equipment market. The soaring demand for energy has also accelerated the market growth as an increasing number customers worldwide have shown a preference for gas-powered equipment. However, the rising level of competition in the market is resulting in a decreased profit margin, thereby decreasing investments in this market. This factor acts as a major hindrance to the growth of the gas detection equipment market.The global gas detection market is poised to expand from a value of US$3.4 bn in 2015 to reach US$5.6 bn by 2024, registering a 5.6% CAGR therein.Get the sample copy of report :Gas Detection Equipment Market: Scope and MethodologyThis report on the global gas detection equipment market provides analysis both in terms of value and shipment for the period from 2014 to 2024, wherein 2015 is the base year and the years from 2016 to 2024 represent the forecast period. Data for 2014 has been included as historical information. The report covers all the prevalent trends and technologies playing a major role in the growth of the gas detection equipment market over the forecast period from 2016 to 2024. It also highlights the various drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the markets growth during the said period. The study provides a holistic perspective on market growth throughout the forecast period in terms of revenue and volume estimates (in US$ Mn and Million Units) across different geographies, which include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America.Gas Detection Equipment Market: Trends and OpportunitiesIn majority of the industries worldwide, the key aspect in any type of safety plan for reducing risks to workers as well as plant is the use of warning devices particularly gas detectors. These devices help in providing additional time during which remedial or protective action can be taken. They are also used as a total, combined safety and monitoring system which further includes various other safety aspects such as fire detection and emergency shutdown. North America dominates the overall gas detection equipment market globally, due to the presence of highly mature industrial segments in this region and high awareness for worker safety. In Asia Pacific, rising awareness and growing implications/government regulations have led to the increasing demand for gas safety equipment across industries. Furthermore, the oil & gas rich economies in the Middle East are also witnessing significant adoption of portable gas detectors since the portability facilitates easy usage in underground applications.Gas Detection Equipment Market: SegmentationThis research report provides in-depth analysis of the global gas detection equipment market on the basis of product type, type of gas detection technology, type of gas, end-use industry and sensor technology. The gas detection equipment market based on product type includes fixed gas detector and portable gas detector. On the basis of type of gas detection technology, the market is segmented into single gas and multi gas. On the basis of type of gas, the market is segmented into combustible, toxic, oxygen, and dedicated. On the basis of end-use industry, the market is segmented into oil and gas, mining, industrial, building, automation and others. By sensor technology, the gas detection equipment market is classified into electrochemical, infrared, metal oxide, catalytic, zirconia, and others.In terms of geographical regions, the report segments the global gas detection equipment market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America; the regions are analyzed in terms of revenue generation and shipment. The report provides cross-sectional analysis of the global gas detection equipment market in terms of market estimates and forecasts for all segments across different geographic regions.Request for TOC of this report :Gas Detection Equipment Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also includes competitive profiling of major players engaged in the manufacturing of gas detection equipment. The major business strategies adopted by these players, their market positioning, and their recent developments have also been identified in the research report. This report also provides market positioning analysis of the major players in the gas detection equipment market based on their 2015 revenues. Some of the major players profiled in the report include Riken Keiki Co. Ltd., Industrial Scientific Corporation, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Mine Safety Appliances, Siemens AG, Trolex Ltd., Honeywell Analytics, RAE Systems Inc., Sensidyne, LP, GE Measurement & Control Solutions, ESP Safety Inc., Schauenburg International GmbH and Sensor Electronic.The global market for gas detection equipment market has been segmented as follows.Gas Detection Equipment Market: By Product TypePortable Gas DetectorFixed Gas DetectorGas Detection Equipment Market: By Type of Gas Detection TechnologySingle GasMulti GasGas Detection Equipment Market: By Type of GasCombustibleToxicOxygenDedicatedGas Detection Equipment Market: By End-use IndustryOil and GasMiningIndustrialBuilding AutomationOthersGas Detection Equipment Market: By Sensor TechnologyElectromechanicalInfraredMetal OxideCatalyticZirconiaOthersGas Detection Equipment Market: By RegionNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaEuropeThe UKGermanyFranceSpainItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaSouth KoreaRest of APACMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaUAESouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilRest of South AmericaGet more information on this market:MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports, supporting clients market intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market profiles in its repository. We also offer consulting support for custom market research needs.Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that our customers always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, Marketresearchreports.biz has built a veritable reputation for fulfilling the most exacting market research needs.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizPAT Testing Equipment Market: Rapid Rise in Industrialization Plays Key Role in Market Development

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Portable appliance testing (PAT) equipments are electrical safety testing devices that examines any appliance in which plug is fitted. Portable appliance testing is a term used to describe the examination of electrical equipment and appliances to make sure that they are safe to use and the idea behind it is to ensure that the electrical safety parameters i.e earth continuity/insulation resistance that were embedded by the product manufacturer have not been compromised while the equipment is in service.Request Report for TOC @Portable appliance is any electrical item of an equipment with a plug and normally moved around or can be moved and is connected to the mains supply such as power tools, vacuum cleaners, kitchen appliances, heaters, photocopiers, computers, etc.Nowadays, testing any electrical devices before it is being dispatched from any manufacturing industry or work starts on it at any calibration industry, has become very important.Portable appliance testing equipment or PAT especially designed to execute many mandatory electrical tests reliably, easily and quickly while maintaining stern conformance to guidelines and specifications required by authorities around the world.Adopting PAT to execute equipment testing regularly in places such as calibration facilities or manufacturing plants helps to find potential problematic spots in manufacture, repair of equipment and design; greatly decreases the possibility of buying or using products that are dangerous; and upgrades the trait of the device manufactured by companies which aims to maintain a trusted and respected brand name in the market.PAT equipment are valuable because they easily help companies save time and money by determining if a piece of equipment is faulty before turning it on.PAT tests are supposed to be applied to all sorts of electrical equipment, such as fridges, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. These can hardly be described as portable as suggested in the main definition. Respectfully suggest that the entry be renamed to Portable Appliance Tester, and the definition amended to reflect that the item in question is a portable tester used for testing a large range of electrical equipment, some of which are portable, but could also be fixed, moveable, and hand-held, among others.PAT Testing Equipment Market: DynamicsIncreased indispensability of Electronics in todays life with steady advancement of technology and need of their proper functionality is driving the market of PAT testing equipment. PAT test is also popular as Business in a Box.PAT tests are regularly required by some equipments or at least once before they are being dispatched hence with growing market of electrical industry sale of PAT Equipments will grow parallel. However, due to discrepancy in power supply and related voltage and current flow fluctuations can affect the performance of the appliance. To address this issue, PAT equipment finds its profound use in end applications.Class 1 appliances (i.e. Freezers, Washing machines, microwaves) need Earth bond and Insulation testing. Class 2 appliances (DVD players, Television, Power tools etc.) need Insulation testing. Similarly, IT equipment such as Visual Display units, scanners and printers demand for PAT tests. Since, Insulation testing and earth bond testing are performed by PAT test equipment, hence helping in market growth of PAT testing equipment.However, nowadays, most of the electronic equipment are energy efficient and need less maintenance service hence effecting the market of PAT testing equipment to some extent. Moreover, the durability of PAT testing equipment would enable low sales and product movement for the said market. Downloadable PAT testers also known as Professional tester is the trending PAT tester as it can perform a whole range of tests using automated procedures and allow the logging/download of comprehensive PAT testing data.Segmentation of Portable Appliance Testing equipment by function:,, Fail/Pass PAT Testing, Earth bond Testing, Insulation Testing, Battery Powered Testing, Leakage/load Testing,,Segmentation of Portable Appliance Testing equipment by application:,, Industrial Equipment, Home Appliances, Automotive, OtherAsia Pacific is expected to hold a prominent market owing considerable end user market size. Portable appliance testing is also preferred in Europe because of mandatory rules and regulation for electrical safety purpose leading to continuous sales demand of appliance testing thus incorporating Pat testing equipment. In Ireland, United Kingdom and Australia, electrical appliances are checked on regular bases contributing to PAT equipment market growth.Request to Sample of Report-PAT Testing Equipment Market: Key PlayersMeggerSeawardFlukeYokogawa Electric CorporationKeysight Technologies, Inc.Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KGViavi SolutionsAdvantest CorporationGOSSEN METRAWATTBenningKyoritsuMartindale ElectricAbout 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:3D Radar Market Show Exponential Growth by 2025

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3D Radar is an integral part of any defense inventory and this technology is used for detecting & tracking the insights and information. The 3D Radar provides a complete subsurface detection system which is utilizing a combination of COTS (commercial off the shelf) GPR components and custom software to accomplish robust metallic and non-metallic object detection performance. The 3D Radar determine the elevation, range and velocity of the object. These radar have some features such as automatic detection of airborne targets and operate 24/7 under all weather conditions, among others. These radar are utilized in some applications such as gap filler to main air defense radar system, for protection of sensitive sites and for local air defense C3 system, among others.Request Report for TOC @3D Radar Market: DynamicsThe market of 3D Radar is anticipated to grow, owing to increasing use of modern warfare techniques by the defense system. Increasing deployment of the ballistic missiles and various defense system are the factor that boost the growth of 3D Radar market in the upcoming years. Increasing number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is one of the prominent driver that accelerate the growth of 3D Radar market.Moreover, UAVs are operated by radio signals and nowadays these UAVs are used for detecting of moving objects such as tanks, chopper and aircrafts with the help of 3D radar. This has resulted in the procurement of UAVs for military operations, which in turn, propel the demand of 3D radar in the said market. Rapid technological development has led to the replacement of the conventional radar system with 3D radar system which in turn increases the demand of 3D radar in the market. The manufacturers are making efforts to develop specialized airborne 3D radar for airborne applications that enables easy data collection of fast changing terrain such as snow slopes and active volcanoes. This factor is another important driver for the 3D radar market.High installation cost and skilled expertise is required for operating and maintaining the system are some challenges that can hinder the growth of 3D radar market in the forecast period.In current scenario, airborne 3D radar is deployed in both military and civil aircrafts that is utilized for the purpose of detecting another aircraft without requiring visual contact during condition of reduced visibility. This factor will become the driver for the said market in the future.,,The global 3D Radar Market can be segmented on the basis of frequency band, frequency range, filter type and application.,,On the basis of frequency band, it can be segmented as:,, C/S/X band, E/F band, L band, Others,,On the basis of frequency range, it can be segmented as:,, Short range ( up to 75 Km), Medium range ( 75  150 Km), Long range ( more than 150 Km),,On the basis of application, it can be segmented as:,, Airborne, Naval, Ground surfaceThe Global 3D Radar Market can be segmented into five geographical regions such as North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. The 3D Radar Market in North America region is expected to grow with healthy pace, owing to increase demand for different types of radar that are utilized in surveillance activities. Additionally, the defense force of U.S adapted the advance 3D radar which in turn, boosted the growth of the market in the region. The countries in Asia Pacific are progressively increasing their defense budget for the safety & security and also replacing the legacy radar system with 3D radar. This factor in turn contribute a significant growth for 3D radar market in the upcoming years. Moreover, Commercial aircraft carriers also uses this technology for enhance the security and for weather forecast. Europe and other regions are also projected to grow with moderate rate in the upcoming years.Request to Sample of Report-3D Radar Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global 3D Radar Market, identified across the value chain include:Airbus Defense and SpaceASELSAN A.S.BAE Systems PlcELTA Systems LtdHarris CorporationHoneywell International Inc.Leonardo S.p.ANorthrop Grumman CorporationRaytheon CompanyRheinmetall AGSAAB GroupThales GroupAbout 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:Commercial Dryers Market Analysis, Trends and Future Outlook, Size, Strategies and Forecasts to 2025

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Commercial dryers are designed to remove the water content from the fabric on the expense of energy utilization. Commercial dryers work on basic scientific principle of centrifugal force. In the past years, commercial dryers market was mainly concentrated in European countries. With the growing utility of commercial dryers in the places such as hotels, motels, public institution, hospitals and schools, the market expanded in a significant manner and expected to grow in the coming period.Request Report for TOC @Encouraging growth in the travel & hospitality industry is expected to trigger the commercial dryers market. Continued growth will likely to be sustained by the population expansion across the globe. Subsequently, propels the demand growth for the utilization of commercial dryers in the urban localities. Additionally, commercial dryers are sold on the basis of the specification by drum volume and dryer weight capacity. In the U.S., large capacity tumble commercial dryers are mainly gas fired.With the growing awareness about the energy conservation, the manufacturers are under immense pressure to reduce the environmental impacts. Commercial dryers have to deal with a lot of fabrics in a wide range of varieties. Hence, the energy utilization by commercial dryers is much higher than residential dryers. Progressively, these commercial dryers areGlobal Commercial Dryers Market: Market DynamicsCommercial dryers market is foreseen to witness substantial growth rate in the foreseeable future. The booming travel market will likely to reinforce additional demands on hospitality services and consequently, large-scale demand for laundry. The rise of laundry startups is likely to boost the demands for commercial dryers. The global commercial dryers market is set to post moderate growth in the coming years mainly driven by increasing demand for hospitality services, consumer laundry services and the advent of online on-demand laundry services. The positive outlook for travel and tourism coupled with an upsurge in outbound travel growth is anticipated to fuel the commercial dryers market.Some countries lack the basic infrastructure required for the installations of commercial dryers. There are enormous opportunities for the need of developing infrastructure in order to deploy commercial dryers. Small dry-cleaning units are in operation that hampers the growth of central laundry services. Consequently, decelerate the global commercial dryers market. Presence of unorganized sector and conventional washers in the countries such as India hampers the demand growth of commercial dryers market.Manufacturers are striving to develop energy efficient commercial dryers in order to comply environmental friendly concerns. Commercial dryers market is rapidly moving towards sophisticated and environment-friendly technologies. In the forthcoming years, increased use of wireless connectivity and IOT is likely to be incorporated in the commercial dryers.Global commercial dryers market can be segmented on the basis of design type, product type, sales channel and regions,,On the basis of portability, global commercial dryers market can be segmented as,, Stationary, Portable,,On the basis of fuel type, global commercial dryers market can be segmented as,, Electric Commercial Dryer, Gas Commercial Dryer,,On the basis of application, global commercial dryers market can be segmented as,, Coin-operated Laundromats (COLs), On-Premise Laundromats (OPLs), Multi-family Laundromats (MFLs)New mega projects are currently in the pipeline in the U.S. that in turn push the North America commercial dryers market in the coming years. Moreover, a prolific tourism industry in the Middle East will lead to an increasing demand for the commercial dryers in hotels. Subsequently, this factor will likely to aid in the growth of commercial dryers market. With an additional 20,000 new hotel rooms are likely to be added to the existing dwelling spaces in Dubai based hotels. The Expo 2020 is anticipated to trigger the laundry sector and thus, elevated demand growth for the commercial dryers market. The commercial dryers have tremendous potential to grow in Asia Pacific region owing to increase in per capita income of the people. This allows them to spend on laundry services. In Europe, the demand for the commercial dryers is expected to remain stable owing to weaker demand from the public institutions and hotels.Request to Sample of Report-Global Commercial Dryers Market: Key ParticipantsExample of some of the market participants in the global commercial dryers market discerned across the value chain includeAlliance Laundry Systems LLCWhirlpool CorporationAmerican Dryer Corporation (acquired by Whirlpool Corporation)AB ElectroluxGeneral Electric CompanyFagor IndustrialLG ElectronicsDexter Apache Holdings, Inc., (Dexter Laundry)Continental Girbau Inc.Jinan Oasis Dry Cleaning And Laundry Equipment Co., LtdMiele & Cie. KGRamsons IndiaIFB Industries LtdTosei CorporationAqualogicStefab India LimitedA. Braun, Inc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Risk Analytics Market Forecast 2018-2023: Oracle Corporation, Verisk Analytics, Risk Edge Solutions, Misys

Risk Analytics Market 2018

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QY Market Research added latest industry research report "2018-2022 Global Risk Analytics Market Outlook" focuses on Industry News, Size, Share, Growth Rate, Strategies, Market Position, Trends Across The World.This report on the Global Risk Analytics Market 2018 is very useful and it covers all the aspects which are highly important in deciding the future of this industry. This report is an accurate research of the Global Risk Analytics industry which features the latest technological enhancements, new opening, modern industrial issues and advancements, future policy alterations and all basic and important information about the market.For an exclusive sample of this report, Fill the form @The report is very much made with charts, graphs, and practical figures which show the status of the particular Risk Analytics industry on the global and regional stage. The execution and features of the market are assessed in view of the quantitative and qualitative technique to give a clear picture of the present and future forecast trend.The report covered by QY Market Research gives data that is assembled from various basic and discretionary resources. The information accumulated was endorsed from the business agent which makes the record a profitable for supervisors, analysts, industry experts and other to get access and self-dissected the research which supports to understand market challenges, applications, details, specifications and changing the structure of the Global Risk Analytics Market.For the discount on this report, Visit @The top manufacturers in the global market, including1. SAP SE (Germany)2. IBM Corporation (US)3. Moody's Analytics, Inc. (US)4. SAS Institute Inc. (US)5. Oracle Corporation (US)6. Verisk Analytics, Inc. (US)7. Risk Edge Solutions (India)8. Misys (UK)9. Fidelity National Information (US)10. AxiomSL (US)11. Gurucul (US)12. Provenir (US)Market Segmented By Regions: United States, Europe, India, China, Japan, South Korea & Taiwan.The Global Risk Analytics Market report gives an intensive appraisal of the market involving market drivers, challenges, deployment models, standardization, openings, administrative landscape, administrator case research, future guide, value chain, and environment player profiles. Moreover, Reports help to recognize the dependable capability of the providers and sellers. The report is additionally valuable for the governments, producers, commercials, private & industrial customers and different partners to propose their market-driven methodologies in the extent of the evaluated and continuing trends in the market.What will essential viewpoints regarding the market be enveloped in this report? Attributes of Risk Analytics Market including development factors, restricting factors, new upcoming opportunities, the innovative developments, and Rising segments of the market. Numerous patterns such as globalization, innovation development, over-limit in created markets, market fragmentation control & ecological concerns, and product multiplication are shrouded in Worldwide Risk Analytics Market report. Numerous perspectives such as production capacity, demand, product value, material parameters and details, supply chain and logistics, profit and loss, and the development factor are extensively examined in the Global Risk Analytics Market report. The analytical instruments such as investment return analysis, SWOT analysis, and feasibility study are used to analyze the key global market players development in the Global Risk Analytics Market industry. The report has data of Global Risk Analytics Market that includes countless associations, firms, merchants, producer and can convey detail outline of the general key players who hold significant count regarding income, sales, end-user demands, variable market changes, controlling components, administrative consistency through their dependable administrations, products, and post-sale procedure.About Us:Worldwide Business is a trusted brand in the research industry with a capability of commissioning complex projects within a short span of time with high level of accuracy. At Worldwide Business, we believe in building long-term relations with our clients. Our services cover a broad spectrum of industries including Energy, Chemicals and Materials, Automotive, Software and Aerospace.Contact Us:Worldwide BusinessDeerfield Beach, FloridaUnited StatesEnterprise Content Management (ECM) Market 2018-2023: Key Players - Alfresco Software, Hyland Software Inc., Lexmark International Inc., Newgen Software Technologies Ltd, Xerox Corporation

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Market HighlightsOn the basis of regional analysis the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. North America region is generating highest market share in the enterprise content management market owing to better network infrastructure, digitization and higher technology implementation. Digitization in North America is mainly due to the invention of advanced technology and economies benefitting from it. North America region is leading due to presence of major players from the region in the enterprise content management market. The implementation of enterprise content management solution by both small and medium enterprises is increasing rapidly, especially one into retail sector. The enterprise content management is gaining demand as organization seek to improve their business growth by shifting from on-premise to cloud based. The initial low cost, saving amount spent on infrastructure, automatic software upgrading and seamless integration is driving the market of cloud based enterprise content management market.Get Sample Report @Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 30 market data tables and figures spread over 100 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on The Enterprise Content Management Market Research Report -Forecast to 2023.The Enterprise Content Management Market is expected to grow at approximately USD 80 Billion by 2023, at 17% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023Enterprise Content Management Market SegmentationThe Enterprise Content Management Market has been segmented on the basis of solution, deployment, organization size and vertical. The cloud based enterprise content management solution provides search filters in terms of website traffic, most popular site and measure campaign performance. The study indicates that growing demand of digitally stored data and cloud computing is driving the on-premise deployment service.The prominent players in the enterprise content management market are- Dell EMC Corporation (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Opentext Corporation (Canada), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Alfresco Software (U.K.), Hyland Software Inc. (U.S.), Lexmark International, Inc. (U.S.), Newgen Software Technologies Ltd (India), Xerox Corporation (U.S.), among others.Key Players:The prominent players in the enterprise content management market are- Dell EMC Corporation (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Opentext Corporation (Canada), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Alfresco Software (U.K.), Hyland Software Inc. (U.S.), Lexmark International, Inc. (U.S.), Newgen Software Technologies Ltd (India), Xerox Corporation (U.S.), among others.Get Report Details @Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of enterprise content management market is being studied for region such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is one of the leading player in the content analytics market owing to presence of major market players in the region. The increase in utilization of enterprise content management software is various industrial vertical that includes retail, BFSI, IT & telecommunication and retail is boosting the market in the region. Asia-Pacific region is expected to have fastest growth in the market due to digitization and increasing IT infrastructure is fueling the market in the region.Intended Audience Investors and consultants System Integrators Government Organizations Research/Consultancy firms Technology solution providers IT Solution ProvidersAbout 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.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 membersContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSoftware Defined Networking Market Size, Trends, Growth, Analysis and Forecast Report for Global Industry

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Software Defined Networking (SDN) solution enabled enterprises to initiate application implementation and delivery in order to reduce their IT expense by executing policy empowered work-process automation. The Software Defined Networking technology also qualifies cloud architecture by providing on-demand, automated delivery and mobility. Moreover the technology is capable of improvising the benefits of rising resource flexibility, virtualization of data centers and plummeted infrastructure cost & overhead. Europe is the second largest adopter of software defined networking solutions after North America, while APAC with growing numbers of various organizations and increasing technological trends lags behind the above two regions. Global software defined networking market is expected to grow from US$ 1.62 billion in 2015 to US$ 23.95 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 31.2% between 2015 and 2025.FREE |Request Sample Copy is Available atThe report focuses on an in-depth segmentation of this market based by solutions, end-user and industry verticals. The geographic segmentation of the report covers five major regions including; North Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The regional market has been further bifurcated by respective countries. By end-user vertical telecom & IT sector accounted for the largest share of the software defined networking market in 2015. APAC is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Global Software Defined Networking Market Players:- Cisco Systems Inc.- IBM Corporation- Hewlett Packard Enterprise- VMware- Juniper Networks- Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.- Cumulus Networks- NEC Inc.- Brocade Communication System- Broadcom Ltd.The report aims to provide an overview of global software defined networking market with detailed market segmentation. Also, it analyzes the current software defined networking market scenario and forecasts the market till 2025. The report covers market dynamics effecting 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. The report also includes the detailed company profiles of the key players in the market along with their market strategies. The report also provide PEST analysis and SWOT analysis for all company profiled in the report.North America is one of the prominent regions in software defined networking market which will contribute highest revenue globally due to technological developments and considerable implementation of software defined networking technology in different application segment. Rapidly growing economies in Asia-Pacific (APAC) with significant growth in IT sector will pave the path for increasing adoption and propel the market for software defined networking. The region is expected to lead the market with highest CAGR during the forecast period. Some of the key players of software defined networking market include Cisco, Inc., Huawei, Inc., IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juniper Networks, VMware Inc., Cumulus Networks, NEC Inc., Broadcom Ltd. and Brocade communication systems among others.Complete Report is AvailableThe report aims to provide an overview of global software defined networking market with detailed market segmentation. Also, it analyzes the current software defined networking market scenario and forecasts the market till 2025. The report covers market dynamics effecting 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. The report also includes the detailed company profiles of the key players in the market along with their market strategies. The report also provide PEST analysis and SWOT analysis for all company profiled in the report.North America is one of the prominent regions in software defined networking market which will contribute highest revenue globally due to technological developments and considerable implementation of software defined networking technology in different application segment. Rapidly growing economies in Asia-Pacific (APAC) with significant growth in IT sector will pave the path for increasing adoption and propel the market for software defined networking. The region is expected to lead the market with highest CAGR during the forecast period.About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comSpecialty Frozen Bakery Market 2018  2022 Global Key Players: Flowers Foods, Harry Brot GmbH, Lantmannen Unibake International, Csm Bakery Solutions Llc

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Market Overview:Global Specialty Frozen Bakery Market is projected to grow at the CAGR of 3.05%. The advancement in technology has a major impact on the growth of Specialty Frozen Bakery as a frozen bakery segment. Sale of Specialty Frozen Bakery amongst the population of consumers in the developed countries is experiencing a surge based on the good shelf life of the products and prolonged storage property. Specialty Frozen Bakery provide customized frozen bakery goods based on demand from the consumers side. This is supporting the increase in its market value globally.Changing lifestyle and shift in consumption pattern of the consumers has influenced the growth of Specialty Frozen Bakery market. The higher demand for on-the-go frozen food products is driving the market for Specialty Frozen Bakery. Mainly, increasing disposable income in the developed countries is having a positive impact on the growth of specialty frozen bakery market share. Key Players from Europe are following strategies of merger and acquisition of small players, also they have planned strategic expansion to spread their business in various other regions due to high demand of the product. Germany and France are amongst the major key players exporting Specialty Frozen Bakery to various countries.Get a Sample Report @Major Key Players:This report includes a study of strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, product launches by the major Specialty Frozen Bakery market players. It further includes product portfolios, developments of leading major players which includes Flowers Foods (U.S.) Harry Brot GmbH (Germany) Lantmannen Unibake International (Denmark) Vandemoortele (Belgium) Aryzta (Swirtzerland) Csm Bakery Solutions Llc (U.S.) Bimbo Bakeries (U.S.) Rich Products Corporation (U.S.)Regional Analysis:The Global Specialty Frozen Bakery Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the world (ROW). North America region has the major market share followed by Europe. However, based on the improving economic conditions amongst various countries of Asia-Pacific region, the consumption of Specialty Frozen Bakery is anticipated to experience a surge. Germany is the major exporters of Specialty Frozen Bakery and exports to France, Italy, Spain, U.K., Netherlands and Austria. In addition, U.K., U.S., France, Germany and Canada are considered the major importers of specialty frozen bakery product.The Global Specialty Frozen Bakery Market is segmented on the basis of type, flavor, customer-type, distribution channel and region. Based on the type the Sweet baked goods & morning goods segment is found to be escalating at a high CAGR. Amongst the various distribution channels, quick service restaurants is calculated to hold a major share. The industrial demand of specialty frozen bakery is found to be having a positive growth based on the higher demands from the manufacturers side.Regional and State wise Analysis of Global Specialty Frozen Bakery market Development and Demand Forecast to 2022 MarketThe reports also cover country level analysis:North America U.S. Canada MexicoEurope Germany France Belgium ItalyAccess Report Details @Asia Pacific China India Japan Malaysia Rest of APACRest of World Turkey Saudi Arabia Brazil South AfricaAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSet Top Box Market: Increasing Demand for Digital TV & Smart TV Anticipated to Fuel Revenue Growth in APEJ Regional Market

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A latest research report titled as Set Top Box Market: 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 contentsClick here For Free Sample Report @The global set-top box market is estimated to be valued at US$ 22,269 Mn in 2017 and is projected to reach US$ 46,091 Mn by 2027 end. Sales revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period (20172027).Increasing demand for TVs from rural areas boosting the set-top box market in the APEJ regionDue to increase in penetration of television and TV services within rural areas as well as urban areas, the set-top box market will receive a boost all across the APEJ region. Disposable incomes are on a rise in developing economies  especially in India and China  and this is helping the set-top box market turnover to grow. In the Asia Pacific region, consumers are more aware about the features, quality and pricing of the set-top box, helping the market achieve greater growth and acceptability.Increasing demand for IPTV STBs is fuelling the market for set-top boxes in North AmericaIncreasing demand of 4K TVs is expected to provide support to the growth of the set-top box market in North America. It has been observed that the demand for IPTV based services has increased by 12% and operators are viewing IP-based services as an opportunity to differentiate their products. IP transmission recording features and higher storage specifications are anticipated to support steady revenue growth of the North America set-top box market.Domestic production and low-cost products hampering the market growth in APEJIn the Asia Pacific region, domestic production of set-top boxes by local companies is leading to an increase in price competition with global set-top box manufacturers. Emerging companies are acting as competitors to the established players in the market, thus making the smooth operation of this market difficult.Focus on HD videos and powerful interfaces with technology a growing trend in the global set-top box marketIt has been observed that set-top box vendors are focussed on supporting devices that enable seamless rendering of high-quality video on a powerful user interface and set-top box vendors have started manufacturing operation systems and app based set-top boxes. The global market is moving towards the 4K android customised set-top box and smart set-top boxes. It has been observed that in the past few years, set-top box manufacturers have shipped a large number of 4K set-top boxes in the APEJ region, and consumers are more aware about the technology and features of set-top boxes in this region.Browse Full Report with TCO @Flexible policies and government support encouraging the use of set-top boxes in the APEJ regional marketIn November 2015, the Chinese government banned 81 third party apps that allow users to turn television sets into internet streaming devices. The Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television proposed a rule for governing set-top boxes. In China and India respectively, governments have taken initiatives to focus on high definition pictures, towards HD channels and decline in TV prices. This has led to the growth of the set-top box market in the APEJ region. Manufacturers in this region have also utilised e-commerce retailers such as Alibaba, Ali Express, Amazon, Flipkart etc., and this has propelled the growth of this market.Global Set-Top Box Market Attractiveness by Region, 20172027In terms of value, the North America set-top box market is projected to be the most attractive regional market in the global set-top box market during the forecast periodHowever, the APEJ market is also poised to register high Y-o-Y growth rates throughout the forecast period. In terms of value, APEJ is anticipated to register a CAGR of 6% during the forecast periodIn 2016, the APEJ market was valued at US$ 6,067.4 Mn and is expected to witness sustained growth in terms of revenue throughout the forecast periodEnquire 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:Radiator Hose Market Outlook to 2022 Emerging Trends: Tokyo Rub, Hutchinson, Motorcraft, Meyle, Toyoda Gosei, Mishimoto, Goodyear

Radiator Hose Market, Radiator Hose Market Study, Radiator Hose Market Size, Radiator Hose Market Segmentation, Radiator Hose Mark

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MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Global Radiator Hose Market 2017  2022 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 Enhance data and table & figures in it.The major players in global market, includingGates, Dayco, Continental, Tokyo Rub, Hutchinson, Motorcraft, Meyle, Toyoda Gosei, Mishimoto, Goodyear, MacKay, Auto 7, ACDelco, APA/URO Parts, Omix-ADA, SpectreGet Sample Copy of this Report:Radiator Hose Market report presents a detailed analysis of the industry by size, growth rate, key players, regions, product types & applications. Radiator Hose Market report evaluates key factors that affected market growth and with the help of previous figures, this report elaborates current scenario and forecast of Radiator Hose industry to 2022.Radiator Hose 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.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 six-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 segmentsScope of Report:Global Radiator Hose market report classifies this industry extensively in terms of the regional landscape. Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers: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 Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversUSA, Europe, Japan, China, India, South East AsiaGlobal Radiator Hose Market: Product Segment AnalysisMolded Type, Flexible TypeGlobal Radiator Hose Market: Application Segment AnalysisCommercial vehicles, Passenger vehiclesTable of ContentChapter 1 About the Radiator Hose Industry1.1 Industry Definition and Types1.1.1 Molded Type1.1.2 Flexible Type1.2 Main Market Activities1.3 Similar Industries1.4 Industry at a GlanceChapter 2 World Market Competition Landscape2.1 Radiator Hose Markets by Regions2.1.1 USAMarket Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate 2012-2022Sales and Growth Rate 2012-2022Major Players Revenue (M USD) in 20172.1.2 EuropeMarket Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate 2012-2022Sales and Growth Rate 2012-2022Major Players Revenue (M USD) in 2017Chapter 3 World Radiator Hose Market share3.1 Major Production Market share by Players3.2 Major Revenue (M USD) Market share by Players3.3 Major Production Market share by Regions in 2017, Through 20223.4 Major Revenue (M USD) Market share By Regions in 2017, Through 2022Chapter 4 Supply Chain Analysis4.1 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 AnalysisChapter 5 Company Profiles5.1 Gates5.1.1 Company Details (Foundation Year, Employee Strength and etc)5.1.2 Product Information (Picture, Specifications and Applications)5.1.3 Revenue (M USD), Price and Operating Profits5.2 Dayco5.2.1 Company Details (Foundation Year, Employee Strength and etc)5.2.2 Product Information (Picture, Specifications and Applications)5.2.3 Revenue (M USD), Price and Operating ProfitsFor More Tactical Information:Related ReportWet Etching Equipment Market Report 2018In this report, the Asia-Pacific Wet Etching Equipment 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 split AsiaMore Reports: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.comCounter IED System Market Outlook to 2025 by Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., Defence Land Systems India (DLSI), Lockheed Martin

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Counter IED System is used for detecting explosives and explosive components by using improvised explosive devices (IEDs). These devices are being triggered from safest distance by operator via remote control such as wrist watch and mobile phones. The major factor for driving counter IED system market is due to the growth in terrorist activities across the world and technological innovation in IED detection systems. Furthermore, the increasing demand for unmanned systems like driverless trucks and lighter robots, and demand for counter-IED equipment for homeland security will also boost the market.The factor acting as a restraint to the growth of market for counter IED is the high cost of the research and development which in turn increases the price of final product, may hamper the counter IED system market. However, the increasing demand of these system mainly in developing countries will create new opportunities in the market of counter IED system in the forecast period.FREE | Request Sample is Available atThe Global Counter IED System Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the counter IED system industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global counter IED system market with detailed market segmentation by deployment type, systems, end users, and geography. The global counter IED system market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global counter IED system market based on deployment type, systems, and end users. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall counter IED system market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Complete Report is Available atList of Companies1. Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.2. Defence Land Systems India (DLSI)3. Lockheed Martin4. Northrop Grumman Corporation5. Thales Group6. Boeing Defense7. iRobot Corporation8. Netline Communications Technologies9. Rheinmetall Defense10. Harris CorporationContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Radiofrequency Ablation Devices for Pain Management Market is Anticipated to Register 13.0% CAGR through 2024

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Radiofrequency Ablation Devices for Pain Management Market: SnapshotIncreased awareness about non-invasive method of ablation for pain management has increased the global acceptance of radiofrequency (RF) ablation devices for a variety of pain indications over other treatment options in the past few years. High availability of numerous product varieties, easy access, increased awareness, cost-effectiveness, and quick relief provide RF ablation devices a cutting edge over other treatment options. In developed economies, radiofrequency ablation procedures have emerged as the most adopted pain management techniques lately. In developing economies as well, the adoption of these procedure is increasing at a rapid pace.Get Sample of Report @Disposable RF Ablation Devices to Continue Enjoying Widespread AdoptionBased on product type, the market has been examined for RF generators, reusable products, and disposable products. Of these, the segment of disposable products, comprising radiofrequency ablation devices such as electrodes and probes, accounted for over 40% of the global market in 2015. Several hospitals perform multiple RF procedures in a single day due to increasing patient pool of chronic diseases and the widening awareness about available procedures. Therefore, it is more convenient to use disposable devices than re-sterilizing devices in between procedures.The segment of RF generators ranked second in line to the segment of disposable products in terms of revenue contribution to the global radiofrequency ablation devices for pain management market in 2015. Development of novel and technologically advanced product varieties is a major driver of the segment. Easy availability of products that enable smooth and fast procedure for both physicians and patients and rising incidence of diseases associated with chronic pain are expected to fuel the growth of the RF generators segment in the next few years.Get Brochure of Report @Emerging Economies to Lead to Promising ReturnsThe North America radiofrequency ablation devices for pain management market presently holds the top position in the global market, commanding a share of over 42% of the global market in 2015. High prevalence of chronic pain conditions in the U.S. and increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures are attributed to the growth of market in the region. Moreover, increasing number of deaths associated with opioid-related overdose are also prompting the usage of alternative therapies. Early availability of advanced technologies and higher penetration of health care services across the region will help North America retain its dominance in the near future as well.The region is, however, expected to lose promise to emerging economies across regional markets such as Latin America and Asia Pacific over the forecast period. Asia Pacific presently holds a small share of the market; however, the region has significant growth potential owing to high population, rising prevalence of chronic diseases, and rising awareness about available products among consumers. Improvement in health care reforms in select countries in Asia Pacific, such as China, India, and Indonesia, has also enabled access to novel health care solutions, which has increased life expectancy of the population.Enquiry for discount on this report According to a report by the United Nations, geriatric population is expected to account for 40% of the total population of Japan by 2060. In addition, Singapore is aging rapidly, and hence prevalence of chronic pain conditions is expected to significantly rise in the region as there exists strong relationship between old age and pain. As such, countries in Asia with high geriatric population are likely to trigger the growth of radiofrequency procedures for pain management in the next few years. Countries in Latin America will lead to promising returns due to rising investment in healthcare and increasing prevalence of chronic pain conditions.In the largely consolidated global market for radiofrequency ablation devices for pain management, few notable large and small vendors dominate. Some of these are Diros Technology, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and Halyard Health, InReport 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:MOFLON is offering Rotary Slip Rings Online

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MOFLON provides an extensive array of top-tier slip rings designed to accommodate the needs of various industries and applications. Theyve been in operation for over three decades and have contributed to the improvement of several sectors in the robotics, aerospace dynamics, military applications, packaging activities and medical equipment fields. MOFLON has grown to become the leading provider of different slip rings in the market and has boosted its reputation by solely supplying quality products that fit the requirements of their consumers. Their flexibility has enabled them to serve the diverse needs of their clients, developing a range of new products in the process.Speaking of their slip rings, the Productions Manager added, To ensure our slip rings meet international standards we make them using high-quality materials like silver rings, gold contact, stainless steel, aluminum alloy, silver and graphite brushes. These materials enable us to build steady slip rings able to operate flawlessly in the most demanding conditions. Our production line includes series for the wind turbine, high frequency, fiber optic rotary joint, capsule, and pneumatic, hydraulic & electric slip rings. This slip ring series are available in over 10,000 models with mounting options that include end-of-shaft, inside-the-shaft, and over the shaft for different devices.The function of slip rings is to allow the transmission of electrical signals and power from a stationary structure to one thats rotating. Slip rings are electromechanical devices and can be used in electromechanical units that needs rotation while transmitting signals or power. They work by enhancing mechanical performance, eliminating damage-prone wires that dangle from movable joints and simplifying the systems operation.On what differentiates them, the Head of Development stated, We have created over 10,000 rotary joints and slip ring drawings over the years, ensuring that we can meet the needs of any industry connected to our services. Our flexibility has allowed us to offer our customers a variety of mounting options including end-of-shaft, inside-the-shaft and over-the-shaft alternatives just to name a few. Only materials of the highest quality are implemented in their production and a customer can choose from wide-ranging choices such as solid coin silver rings, silver brushes and graphite, gold to gold contact, aluminum alloys and stainless steel depending on their particular requirements.Consumers looking for rotary slip ring online can enjoy a variety of benefits from purchasing this item from the company. Some of these advantages include an 18-month warranty on standard version slip rings or a 3-year warranty on high-quality alternatives. The company also offers an 8-month warranty on all repaired products as a show of faith in their capabilities. Buyers can also enjoy high-level customer service from their dedicated staff which is devoted to enhancing the overall satisfaction of a clients experience while dealing with the organization.MOFLON is a top manufacturer and supplier of high-quality slip rings and rotary joints that are affordable. The products are customizable according to the buyers' specific parameters.Company Name: MOFLONAddress: Building 21, Beifangyongfa Industrial ParkXinheRoad, ShaJing, Shenzhen 518104Telephone Number: 0755-331-967-87Email: sales@moflon.comWebsite:Porcine Vaccine Market will Exhibit a Steady 6.6% CAGR through 2024

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North America Porcine Vaccine Market: SnapshotFor several decades, vaccination has remained one of the most important interventions for disease prevention among humans and animals. In veterinary medicine, vaccination has proven to be a boon for animal health. Diseases such as diarrhoea, swine influenza, porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRSV), porcine circovirus associated disease (PCVAD), have been greatly reduced from spreading endemic in several cases. Some diseases such as foot and mouth disease and cholera high fever in swines have been significantly eliminated in North America with the help of vaccination.The market for porcine vaccine in the region is expected to exhibit healthy growth in the next few years as well. The rising demand for meat and gelatin and concerns regarding the rising pace of occurrence of zoonotic diseases will be the key factors driving the market in the near future. Transparency Market Research estimates that the North America porcine vaccine market will expand at a 5.3% CAGR from 2016 to 2024. As a result, the market, which valued at US$540.9 mn in 2015, will rise to US$926.2 mn by 2024.Get Sample of Report @Inactivated Vaccines to Remain Most PreferredIn terms of the technology used to develop vaccines, the North America porcine vaccines market has been segmented into inactivated vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, recombinant vaccines, toxoid vaccines, DNA vaccines, and conjugate vaccines. Of these, the segment of inactivated vaccines dominated the market in 2015 and is expected to account for a 53.3% of the North America veterinary vaccine market in 2016. The segment is also expected to exhibit the most promising growth in the near future, expanding at a 6.7% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024.The segment of live attenuated vaccines will exhibit a strong 5.9% CAGR over the said period. Rise in the number of swine farms, rising prevalence of zoonotic disease, and increase in investments by key players are likely to drive the live attenuated vaccine segment. The DNA vaccine segment is projected to emerge as a high-growth segment owing to rise in demand and increase in R&D investments. DNA vaccines have shown excellent results in granting strong immunity against homologous infections and have a good score in terms of approval from regulatory bodies in the region. As a result, the demand for these vaccines is expected to rise at a healthy pace in the region over the forecast period.Get Brochure of Report @U.S. Market to Continue to Account for Dominant Chunk in SalesThe North America porcine vaccine market has been examined for two countries in the region: the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. market for porcine vaccines accounted for a larger 63% share in the North America market in 2015. The U.S. porcine vaccine market is expected to exhibit the most lucrative 6.6% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. Factors such as well-established infrastructure in immunological research, high concentration of key players, highly organized farming structure, increased demand for animal protein, and rising expenditure on animal health by farm owners are attributed to the dominant share of the country in the North America market.Enquiry for discount on this report The market in Canada is also anticipated to expand at a healthy, but comparatively lower CAGR of 5.8% from 2016 to 2024. Factors such as the rising prevalence of PRRS virus and PCV2 among herds and rising focus of key players on R&D activities for the development of effective vaccines will contribute to the growth prospects of the Canada porcine vaccines market in the near future. Moreover, export and import permits among contract manufacturers or distributer firms and low estimated cost of products are also expected to make the porcine vaccine market more popular in Canada.Some of the key players in the market are Bayer AG., Bimeda Animal Health, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Ceva Sante Animale, Merck & Co., Inc., Merial (Sanofi), Vetoquinol, Zoetis, Inc., Elanco (Eli Lilly and Company).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:Man Portable Anti-Armor Weapons Market 2025 Outlook by Rocket Propelled Grenades, Rising Defense Budgets and Future Challenges

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Man portable anti-armor weapons refers to the military weapons such as missiles, rifles and grenades those are shoulder fired weapons. These anti-armor weapons are easily carried by the soldiers from place to place in order to destroy the enemy main battle tanks, aircrafts or armored vehicles. These weapons are highly effective in destroying the intended targets whether static or moving.The major factor which helps to boost up the market for man portable anti-armor weapons market include development of lightweight and highly effective anti-armor weapons whereas this market is affected by the malfunction of the rocket and missile launchers which may act as a restraining factor in its growth. Innovations in the existing technologies will add new opportunities for this market in the coming years.Request Sample is Available atThe Global Man Portable Anti-Armor Weapons Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the man portable anti-armor weapons industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global man portable anti-armor weapons market with detailed market segmentation by type, modes, technology and geography. The global man portable anti-armor weapons market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global man portable anti-armor weapons market based on type, modes and technology. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall man portable anti-armor weapons market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global man portable anti-armor weapons market based on type, modes and technology. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall man portable anti-armor weapons market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Besides this, the report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive Porters Five Forces analysis.Also, key man portable anti-armor weapons market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years. Some of the key players influencing the market are Lockheed Martin Corporation., Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Thales Group, Raytheon Company., General Dynamics Corporation, BAE Systems Plc, Saab AB, Nammo AS, MBDA Missile Systems and KONSTRUKTORSKOYE BYUR MASHYNOSTROYENIYA (KBM).Complete Report is Available atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Hospital Acquired Infection Treatment Market will Exhibit a Steady 2.7% CAGR through 2024

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Hospital Acquired Infection Treatment Market: SnapshotThe top most factor causing the growth of the hospital acquired infection market is the growing geriatric population across the globe. The geriatric population base is more prone to infections owing to their low physical immunity. Infections, especially nosocomial ones are becoming increasingly common among the elderly. The low level of hygiene maintained by hospitals, poor infrastructure management, and poor sterilizing techniques used at healthcare institutions are resulting in a high number of hospital acquired infection cases. This environment bodes well for the hospital acquired infection market and thus, the market is flourishing. According to the expert panel of analysts at Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global hospital acquired infection market is expected to rise from US$28.99 bn in 2015 to US$36.61 bn by 2024. The market is expected to display a modest CAGR of 2.7% between 2016 and 2024Get Sample of Report @Developing Nations in Asia Pacific to be Lucrative Markets for Hospital Acquired Infection Treatment ServicesOwing to low funding from government and other bodies, hospitals in developing nations are victims to poor hygiene and mismanagement. Cases of hospital acquired infections are high in these countries and this is expected to boost the global market. It is thus unsurprising that emerging economies in Asia Pacific are expanding in terms of fastest growth in the hospital acquired infection market. This has compelled several players operating in the hospital acquired infection market to shift their base and provide their services to these nations. This trend is expected to result in the geographical expansion of players operating in the global hospital acquired infection market and also result in the growth of the market.Get Brochure of Report @Urinary Tract Infections Segment to Lead During Forecast PeriodOn the basis of common infection type, the global hospital acquired infection treatment market can be segmented into hospital-acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections, surgical site infections, and others. Of these, the urinary tract infections segment led in the market in 2015. The urinary tract infections segment is also anticipated to expand at the fastest CAGR from 2016 to 2024 Top of FormBy treatment, the market is segmented into antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and other treatments. Of these, the antibacterial drugs segment led in 2015. The segment is also expected to witness the fastest growth during the period from2016 to 2024.Enquiry for discount on this report Growing Rate of Treatment Failure to Threaten Hospital Acquired Infection Treatment MarketOne of the key restraints posing a threat to the global hospital acquired infection treatment market is the growing rate of treatment failure owing to the presence of an increasing number of multi-drug resistant bacteria. The frequent rate of survival for bacteria increases after being exposed to drugs that are designed to eliminate them, giving them the power to resist against them. This is posing a major challenge for the industry as hospitals are looking for alternate treatments such as other forms of drug treatments. The number of patients suffering from multi-drug resistant bacteria is increasing and can prove to be a major cause of concern for the industry.In terms of opportunities however, the focus on untapped markets for patients from lower and middle class incomes will prove to be beneficial. New players can aim to target emerging nations and flourish in the hospital acquired infection treatment industry. Also, key players in the market are having multiple drugs in their pipeline. The approval of these drugs may create growth opportunities in the market.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:Offshore Mooring Systems Market research report with growth, latest trends & forecasts till 2025

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The Insight Partners has announced the addition of the Offshore Mooring Systems Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Type, Anchorage, Application and Depthreport to their offering.Devices that helps the anchorage of the floating vessels or ships and platforms across all kind of water depths is known as offshore mooring system. A mooring line or an anchor attach the ship to the sea floor and it is important and critical for subsea production facilities. Wires, synthetic fiber ropes and chains or all the three together are used to make mooring lines. The global offshore mooring system is used in oil rigs, for extraction of oil from sea and transferring the oil onto ships. An offshore mooring system is also used in oil wells to extract crude oil.The material type used in a particular mooring system is determined by environmental factors like currents, waves and wind. The rapid growth in energy industry and oil & gas will help in the rise of the overall global offshore mooring market. The increasing energy demand worldwide and increasing focus on clean electricity is expected to actuate the global market for offshore mooring system. Also, with the increase in per capita consumption of energy due to rising population will help to drive the market for offshore mooring system. Lack of technical knowledge, high investments and crude environment conditions under the sea will affect the market growth, however with the advancements in the technology, safety measures and training, the market is expected to grow at a decent pace.Request Sample Copy is Available atThe offshore mooring system is segmented on the basis of type into taut leg system, single point mooring, spread mooring, semi-taut leg system and dynamic positioning mooring. The offshore mooring system is further bifurcated on the basis of anchorage includes vertical load anchors, suction anchors and drag embedment anchors. The market is also divided by application into SPAR, floating production storage & offloading (FPSO), tension leg, floating liquefied natural Gas (FLNG) and semi-submersible platforms. On the basis of depth the offshore mooring market can be segmented by shallow (1000 m). The global offshore mooring market is also bifurcated on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa.Offshore mooring systems consist of anchors, shackles, hooks, risers, connectors, buoys and synthetic ropes. Research organizations and different companies are taking initiatives that contributes the development of the offshore mooring systems for precise operations. The integration of mooring systems with information technology and automation is driving the growth of the market by facilitating better precision of the operations, maximizing safety measures, reducing human efforts and data collection. Development of vessels such as FLNG, production, FPSO, drilling, storage, (FDPSO).and floating has boost the growth in the market for offshore mooring.Inquiry before Buying atPositive growth events for the industry can be seen due to newly explored oil reserves in South China Sea, Brazil, Arctic region and North Sea. Many players from Japan, Australia and China are introducing themselves in the market with improved mooring systems solutions. The demand for drilling activities and subsea exploration are increasing with the rise in energy demand. Due to increase in the investments in deep, shallow and ultra-deep water research by the new companies, Europe market is growing. Decent growth can be seen in the Asia Pacific market for offshore mooring. Due the availability of crude oil wells in the Middle East, the market is expected to grow as well. Subsea activity can benefit the growth of the market in South America. The global offshore mooring market is dominated by North America and Europe majorly. Though, the key facilities of offshore production are located in the South America, Africa and Middle East but new projects are initiated in the Asia Pacific.Some of the key players operating in the global offshore mooring market are Offspring International, Mampaey Offshore Industries B.V., Lamprell Energy Ltd., Advanced Production and Loading, Balltec Limited, HR Services & Equipment Inc., ScanaIndustrier ASA, MODEC Inc., De Haan Mussel Kanaal B.V., Rigzone Mooring Systems, Delmar Systems Inc., Balmoral Group, BW Offshore Ltd, Single Point Mooring Systems, BW Offshore Ltd and Blue Water Energy Services among others.]Complete Report is Available atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Hydraulic Pumps Market Detailed Analysis by Type, Technology, and Application, Global Forecasts to 2025

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The Insight Partners added Hydraulic Pumps Market to 2025  Global Analysis and Forecasts to its research database.Hydraulic pumps are mechanical devices which helps to convert the mechanical power into hydraulic power. It generates strong flow to overcome the pressure which is induced by the load. When a hydraulic pump operates, it creates a vacuum at the pump inlet, which forces liquid from the reservoir into the inlet line to the pump and by mechanical action delivers this liquid to the pump outlet and forces it into the hydraulic system.Increase in construction activities, rising sales of automobiles and increasing application in the mining industry are the major key drivers enhancing the growth of the hydraulic pumps whereas high cost of manufacturing is one of the restraining factor hindering its market. Demand for the production of renewable energy especially through upgrading the existing hydraulic equipment is the future trend for its long term growth.Request a Sample Report atThe Global Hydraulic Pumps Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the hydraulic pumps industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global hydraulic pumps market with detailed market segmentation by product type, application and geography. The global hydraulic pumps market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global hydraulic pumps market based on product type and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall hydraulic pumps market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 15 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the regionCompanies Mentioned1. Actuant Corp.2. Atos SPA3. Avic Liyuan Hydraulic Co., Ltd.4. Bailey International, LLC5. Beijing Huade Hydraulic Industrial Group Co., Ltd.6. Beiler Hydraulics7. Bosch Rexroth AG8. Bondioli & Pavesi S.P.A.9. Bucher Hydraulics GmbH10. Casappa S.P.A.Besides this, the report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions.Also, key hydraulic pumps market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years. Some of the key players influencing the market are Actuant Corp., Atos SPA, Avic Liyuan Hydraulic Co. Ltd., Bailey International, LLC, Beijing Huade Hydraulic Industrial Group Co. Ltd., Beiler Hydraulics, Bosch Rexroth AG, Bondioli & Pavesi S.P.A., Bucher Hydraulics GmbH and Casappa S.P.A.Inquire Before Buying atKey Questions Answered In This Report What will the market size be in 2025 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Key Insight of Hydraulic Pumps Market- Historical and Future Market- Supply and Demand- Price and Cost- Drivers and Challenges- Key Vendors- Market Strategies- Industry Value Chain- RegionsView Complete Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Air-Cooled Turbogenerators Market 2018 Global Industry Analysis, Size and Forecast Report

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Market Study Report adds Global Air-Cooled Turbogenerators Market By Manufacturers, Countries, Type And Application, Forecast To 2023 report to its research database. The report spread across 109 pages with table and figures in it.A turbo generator is the combination of a turbine directly connected to an electric generator for the generation of electric power. Large steam-powered turbo generators provide the majority of the world's electricity and are also used by steam-powered turbo-electric ships.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Air-Cooled Turbogenerators market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request a sample copy of Air-Cooled Turbogenerators Market Research Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers GE, Siemens, ANDRITZ, Ansaldo Energia, Brush, Shanghai Electric, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Toshiba, Harbin Electric, Bzd, WEG, Power-M, BHEL, Fuji Electric.An inherent sub-vertical of the Manufacturing and Construction industry space, Air-Cooled Turbogenerators 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)More Report At:More Report At:Market Segment by Type, covers 2-pole air-cooled generators4-pole air-cooled generatorsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Gas Turbine Power PlantSteam Turbine Power PlantOthersEnquire For Discount on Air-Cooled Turbogenerators Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Air-Cooled Turbogenerators market.Chapter 1, to describe Air-Cooled Turbogenerators Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Air-Cooled Turbogenerators, with sales, revenue, and price of Air-Cooled Turbogenerators, 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 Air-Cooled Turbogenerators, 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, Air-Cooled Turbogenerators market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Air-Cooled Turbogenerators sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Global Ballast Water Treatment Systems Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023Ballast Water Treatment System is a device of processing ballast water that discharged directly into the sea. Ballast Water Treatment System mainly consists of ballast pumps, ballast water pipelinesCentralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Connect with us: Google+ | LinkedIn | TwitterLight Emitting Diode (LED) Market by Technology, Product Type, Application and Installation Report 2018-2025

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LED lights are based on semiconductor modules and release less discharged heat as compared to fluorescent and incandescent products. LED lights are utilized across numerous end-user industries such as commercial, industrial, outdoor, and architectural. Profile ration of LED in applications such as traditional lightings has given a solid thrust to the lightings market. LED is anticipated to surpass the conventional compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) and cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) lighting market as it delivers high level of illumination, long life, high reliability, and high efficiency. In addition, LED lighting is a cost effective solution over conventional lighting applications such as CFL and CCFL.The global LED market is segmented by technology, namely: traditional LED, high brightness LED, organic LED, polymer LED, and ultra violet LED. The global LED market is further segmented by applications, into automotive, general lighting, display screen, backlight sources, forensic &research, and government. Furthermore, the global LED market is also segmented on the basis of product types into low power product and high power product. Lastly, the global LED market is also segmented by installation type as new installation and retrofitRequest Sample Copy is Available atThe initial capex required for LED lighting is huge and this is restricting its initial acceptance. However, considering the longer lifetime of LEDs, the overall cost of the same is low when matched to CFLs. Incandescent lamps utilize extra energy than LED lamps; therefore, numerous governments have introduced laws to restrict their use. Moreover, non-commercial LED market drivers include actions implemented to back usage of LED lighting systems at the legislative level, and improvement of standards and regulations for running energy-saving lighting systems at the individual organization stages. LED lighting is environment friendly, as it does not produce toxic gases. For instance, fluorescent lights emit toxic bi-products like carcinogenic, which cause cancer, whereas incandescent lamps emit huge volumes of carbon dioxide. However, LED lighting overcomes these shortcomings with better reliability and better illumination.Inquiry before Buying atIt is expected that the consumers will gain awareness regarding the aids of longer life of LED and ultimately would lead to a widespread adoption of LED lighting during the forecast period. Declining prices of LED lamps, growing display backlighting applications, longer life span and high efficacy of LED lamps are key factors propelling the global LED market. LED lighting offers enormous prospects to save energy intake across residential, outdoor and architectural applications. Additionally, outdoor LED lighting is further gaining popularity for usage in tunnels, traffic lights, roadways, parking lots and garages. Residential applications for LED lighting consists of lighting in kitchens, dining rooms, hallways, and bathrooms.Cree, Inc., Epistar Corp., Nichia Corporation, OSRAM Light AG, Siemens AG, Koninklijke Philips N.V., and Lumileds Lighting are the chief LEDmarket players globally. Other prominent vendors of this market include General Electric, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Bridgelux, Inc., SemiLEDS Corporation, Seoul Semiconductors Co., Ltd., and Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. Both, Siemens and Phillips, have bifurcated their lighting work from their core business to enable faster response to market dynamics and to achieve greater revenues. In addition, General Electric has taken steps to initiate manufacturing its own LED circuit panels, which could prove to be an effective strategy for their lighting business in the future.Some of the key playersCree, Inc.Epistar Corp.Nichia CorporationOSRAM Light AGSiemens AG.Koninklijke Philips N.V.Lumileds LightingGeneral ElectricSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.Bridgelux, Inc.SemiLEDS CorporationSeoul Semiconductors Co., Ltd.Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.Complete Report is Available atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Global Portable Printer Market-Global Trends, Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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Market DynamicsIncreasing popularity of on-the-go printing and rapidly expanding mobile workforce are among the chief factors driving the portable printer market growth. Moreover, increasing popularity and requirement of mobile workforce to enhance the business productivity, streamline workflows, reduce downtimes at the selling point, and provide better consumer experience through their field services will present significant growth opportunities over the forecast period.For instance, retail industry, logistics, and other such business segments experience critical requirement for these printing devices as most jobs require on the spot transactions, receipt generation, tokens, shipment tracking, and shelf edge labelling for efficient inventory management. Thermal printing is an inkless means of producing hard copies. These are featured with optimum printing speeds, low print & maintenance costs, and are available in multiple compact models. Owing to the above mentioned advantages, it is expected to remain the largest technology segment.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @*The Sample consists of Table of Content, Research framework of the actual report & research methodology adopted for it.Market TaxonomyThis report segments the global portable printer market on the basis of technology, output type, and end-use industry. On the basis of technology, the global portable printer market is classified into thermal, inkjet, and impact printer. Output type of portable printer include barcode, labels & ticketing, receipts, and documents & others. Portable printer market end-use industry segment includes retail, transportation & logistics, hospitality, manufacturing, and others.Key features of the study:This report provides an in-depth analysis of portable printer market and provides market size (US$ Million) and Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR %) for the forecast period (2017  2025), considering 2016 as the base yearIt elucidates potential revenue opportunity across different segments and explains attractive investment proposition matrix for this marketThis study also provides key insights about market drivers, restraints, opportunities, new product launches or approval, regional outlook, and competitive strategy adopted by the leading playersIt profiles leading players in the global portable printer market based on the following parameters  company overview, financial performance, product portfolio, geographical presence, distribution strategies, key developments and strategies, and future plansKey companies covered as a part of this study include Bixolon, Brother International Corporation, Canon Inc., Fujitsu Isotec Limited, Honeywell International Inc., Oki Printing Solutions, Seiko Epson Corporation, Star Micronics Co., Ltd., Toshiba Tec Corporation, and Zebra Technologies Corporation.Insights from this report would allow marketers and the management authorities of the companies to make informed decision regarding their future product launch, technology up-gradation, market expansion and marketing tacticsThe global portable printer market report caters to various stakeholders in this industry including investors, suppliers, 3D printing device manufacturers, distributors, new entrants, and financial analystsStakeholders would have ease in decision making through the various strategy matrices used in analyzing the portable printer marketFor More InformationAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Oral Care Market Research, By Product, Region, Global Industry Analysis, Technology and Forecast 2023

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According to Research for Markets, the Global Oral Care Market is valued at $40.63 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $63.48 billion by 2023 growing at a CAGR of 6.6% from 2016 to 2023. Growing awareness on oral hygiene is one of the key factors driving the market growth. Rising incidences of dental caries and other periodontal diseases, technical advancements in oral care products are other factors favouring the market growth. However, the competitive pricing pressures faced by prominent players are expected to restrain the growth of this market.Looking For More Information on This Market? Get Free Sample Report @By product, toothbrushes and accessories segment is anticipated to command the market share during the forecast period owing to growing innovation in toothbrushes and rising adoption of technologically advanced toothbrushes. In addition, tooth paste segment expected to grow faster during the forecast period. Europe region commanded the largest share in oral care market mainly attributed to growing incidence of dental caries, rising disposable incomes in emerging countries. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period contributes to the large population.Some of the key players in the market include Colgate-Palmolive, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble Company, Unilever, Anchor Group, Church & Dwight, Dabur India Ltd., Dr. Fresh, Himalaya, Henkel KgaA, Lion Corporation, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., Supersmile, Young Innovations, Inc.Product Types Covered: Toothbrushes and Accessories Toothpastes Dental Accessories/Ancillaries Denture Products Mouthwashes/Rinses Dental Prosthesis Cleaning Solutions Abutments Other Cleaning Solutions Oral Imaging Dental Biomaterials Endodontics Orthodontics Lab equipments Tongue Scrapers CleanersDistribution channel Covered: Retail Pharmacies Dental Dispensaries Online Distribution Consumer StoresRegions Covered: North America Europe Asia Pacific South America 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 advancementsFor Instant Discount on This Report for Limited Time Period @Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints4 Porters Five Force Analysis4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers4.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.3 Threat of substitutes5 Global Oral Care Market, By Product5.1 Introduction5.2 Toothbrushes and Accessories5.3 Toothpastes6 Global Oral Care Market, By Distribution Channel6.1 Introduction6.2 Retail Pharmacies6.3 Dental Dispensaries7 Global Oral Care Market, By Geography7.1 Introduction7.2 North America7.3 Europe7.4 Asia Pacific7.5 South America7.6 Middle East & Africa8 Key Developments8.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures8.2 Acquisitions & Mergers8.3 New Product Launch9 Company Profiling9.1 Colgate-Palmolive9.2 GlaxoSmithKline9.3 Johnson & Johnson9.4 Procter & Gamble Company9.5 Unilever9.6 Anchor Group9.7 Church & Dwight9.8 Dabur India Ltd.9.9 Dr. Fresh9.10 HimalayaKnow more about our Knowledge Store @About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Our purpose is to serve you, the most customized in-depth Market access data. Our plethora of titles made us one of the most searched market research library across the globe. We work with the most esteemed Publishers around the globe who caters vast industries. We are quick and fragile, when it comes to your various queries, and we ensure our team caters your needs to the best of our abilities, we promise to stay by your side for both pre and post sales servicing, as we believe in long everlasting symbiotic relationship.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comHealthcare IT Consulting Market Analysis, Demand, Technology, Global Industry Research and Forecast 2023

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According to Research for Markets, the Global Healthcare IT Consulting Market is accounted for $15.69 billion in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% to reach $56.9 billion by 2023. The market is driven by rapid growth in digitization of healthcare, rapidly changing HCIT landscape, government support for healthcare IT solutions, growing HCIT expenditure, growing venture capital investments in health IT, and the need for data security are driving the growth of this market. However, concerns regarding data confidentiality will hamper market growth. Furthermore, cloud consulting, increasing consolidation in the healthcare industry, opportunities in small rural hospitals and need for healthcare IT consultants in emerging economies is providing lot of opportunities.Looking For More Information on This Market? Get Free Sample Report @Healthcare 2.0 is a new wave focused on improving clinical efficiency, quality of care, affordability, and fee-for-value. Healthcare IT exceeds expectations in the healthcare IT consulting / staffing field. A healthcare data analytics platform can be defined as a single, interoperable system that uses retrospective data to produce business intelligence reports that quantify enterprise-level financial and operational performance, as well as, disparate clinical data to enable predictive, real-time reporting of patient outcomes against every episode of care delivered. For example, some health systems might utilize advanced enterprise data processing architecture to derive patient-specific insights for every episode of care, whereas others still rely on basic reporting capabilities of legacy Business Intelligence (BI) tools.Use cases in the healthcare industry encompass monitoring a patients health progress while in the hospital. Implementation of many healthcare regulations in the hospitals like Obamacare has showed an increase in the Healthcare Business Process Management market. Integrating all the data requires concentrated efforts and healthcare expertise to pool data in order to improve the expected outcomes. Healthcare has a low tolerance to errors because all the diagnosis is dependent on the right, nay accurate, data.Healthcare organizations are embracing program and portfolio management to address enterprise-level needs. Projects in the healthcare sector can be large or small and involve one person or thousands of people. Most healthcare projects are done to help people prevent, improve, or deal with a health concern. The government is often the sponsor or reason for a healthcare project or it creates laws or standards that must be followed in private healthcare projects. Hospital and physician integration is accelerating, and organizations must use standardized clinical and business models. Enterprise project portfolio management is a way for healthcare networks to manage and evaluate a large number of projects by grouping them into strategic portfolios.North America is projected to dominate the market, followed by Europe. The growth is attributed to government initiatives to enhance adoption of Healthcare solutions, increasing government expenditure, stringent legislative requirements and accreditations required for healthcare IT solutions. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to the government initiatives to establish standards, regulations, and infrastructure to promote HCIT.The key players in global Healthcare IT Consulting market are ALLSCRIPTS HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS, INC., Cerner Corporation, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Epic Systems Corporation, General electric (GE) company, IBM Corporation, Infor, Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., McKesson Corporation, NTT DATA Corporation, Oracle Corporation and Siemens Healthineers (a division of Siemens Ag).End Users Covered: Healthcare Payerso Public Payerso Private Payers Healthcare Providerso Ambulatory Care Centerso Diagnostic and Imaging Centerso Home Healthcare Agencies, Nursing Homes, and Assisted Living Facilitieso Hospitals, Physician Groups, and Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNS)o Other Healthcare Providers Other End UsersTypes Covered: Regulatory Compliance Production Go-Live/Post Go-Live Support Healthcare/Medical System Security Set-Up and Risk Assessment Healthcare Enterprise Reporting and Data Analytics Healthcare Business Process Management Healthcare Application Analysis, Design and Development HCIT Strategy and Project/Program Management HCIT Integration and Migration HCIT Change Management Other Consulting ServicesRegions Covered: North America Europe Asia Pacific South America 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 advancementsFor Instant Discount on This Report for Limited Time Period @Table of Content1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints4 Porters Five Force Analysis4.1 Bargaining power of suppliers4.2 Bargaining power of buyers4.3 Threat of substitutes5 Global Healthcare IT Consulting Market, By End User5.1 Introduction5.2 Healthcare Payers5.3 Healthcare Providers6 Global Healthcare IT Consulting Market, By Type6.1 Introduction6.2 Regulatory Compliance6.3 Production Go-Live/Post Go-Live Support7 Global Healthcare IT Consulting Market, By Geography7.1 Introduction7.2 North America7.3 Europe7.4 Asia Pacific7.5 South America7.6 Middle East & Africa8 Key Developments8.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures8.2 Acquisitions & Mergers8.3 New Product Launch9 Company Profiling9.1 ALLSCRIPTS HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS, INC.9.2 Cerner Corporation9.3 Cognizant Technology Solutions9.4 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited9.5 Epic Systems Corporation9.6 General electric (GE) company9.7 IBM Corporation9.8 Infor, Inc.9.9 Koninklijke Philips N.V.9.10 McKesson CorporationKnow more about our Knowledge Store @About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Our purpose is to serve you, the most customized in-depth Market access data. Our plethora of titles made us one of the most searched market research library across the globe. We work with the most esteemed Publishers around the globe who caters vast industries. We are quick and fragile, when it comes to your various queries, and we ensure our team caters your needs to the best of our abilities, we promise to stay by your side for both pre and post sales servicing, as we believe in long everlasting symbiotic relationship.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comGlobal High-flow Nasal Cannula Market Analysis, Size, Demand, and Growth Opportunities till 2025

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New research report offers a comprehensive analysis of the High-flow Nasal Cannula Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025. The 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 High-flow Nasal Cannula Market: SnapshotSome of the prominent participants in the global high flow nasal cannula market are Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited, ResMed, Inc., Teijin Pharma Limited, Becton, Dickinson and Company, MEK-ICS CO., LTD., Teleflex Incorporated, Smiths Medical, Vapotherm, Inc., Flexicare Medical Limited, Salter Labs, Hamilton Medical, TNI medical AG, and Great Group Medical Co., Ltd. Of them, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited emerged as the market leader in 2016.Numerous factors are driving growth in the global high flow nasal cannula market. At the forefront is the ever-increasing number of respiratory disorders. Besides, soaring popularity and uptake of heated humidified high-flow nasal cannulas and increasing investments in research and development programs by companies to come up with better products leveraging more sophisticated technologies is also positively impacting sales. A noticeable trend in the market is the focus of local players on cost-effective products.A study by Transparency Market Research, predicts the global nasal cannula market to rise at a 11.8% CAGR from 2017 to 2025 to become worth US$9.08 bn by 2025 from US$3.42 bn 2016.Continued Innovations Propel Active Humidifiers Component to ForeThe global high-flow nasal cannula market can be segmented based on different parameters. Depending upon component, for example, the market can be divided into air/oxygen blender, nasal cannulas, active humidifier, single heated tube, and other consumables. Of them, the segment of active humidifier held maximum share in the market in 2016 and it was trailed by the segment of air/oxygen blender. In the near future too, active humidifiers will continue to retain their dominant market share on the back of continued innovations in humidifiers by manufacturers and health care solution providers in order to up their efficacy.Application-wise, the key segments of the global high-flow nasal cannula market are acute respiratory failure, acute heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), carbon monoxide toxicity, sleep apnea, bronchiectasis, etc. The acute respiratory failure segment, of them, held a major share in the market in 2016. It was followed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease segment. This is because of the rampant acute respiratory failure in newborns, children, and adults.Browse Full Report with TOC @Ambulatory care centers, long-term care centers, hospitals, etc. are some of the main end-users in the global high-flow nasal cannula market.Helpful Healthcare and Reimbursement Policies Make North America Market DominantFrom a geographical perspective, currently North America holds a dominant share in the global high-flow nasal cannula market mainly because of the substantial increase in the number of people afflicted with respiratory diseases. Affordability, awareness and helpful healthcare and reimbursement policies are also benefitting the market majorly. By registering an 11.2% CAGR between 2017 and 2025, the market in the region is predicted to grow its dominant share further. The TMR report expects the market to rake in a revenue of US$3.91 bn by 2025.Europe follows North America in the second position in the global high-flow nasal cannula market. The region is projected to rise at a CAGR of 11.7% from 2017 to 2025 to pull in a revenue of US$2.08 by 2025. In terms of growth rate, on the other hand, Asia Pacific is expected to surpass all other regions by clocking a CAGR of 12.9% in the forecast period. The high-flow cannula market in Asia Pacific is expected to rise on the back of favorable demographics, improved health care policies, and the fast-paced economic growth in the region.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:Herbal Tea Market By Product, Application, Growth, Demand, Manufacturer, Sales and Segmentation 2024

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A recent report published by Infinium Global Research on herbal tea market provides in depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in global as well as regional herbal tea market. The study also highlights the impact of drivers, restraints and macro indicators on the global and regional herbal tea market over the short term as well as long term. The report is a comprehensive presentation of trends, forecast and dollar values of global herbal tea market. According to report the global herbal tea market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% over the forecast period of 2018-2024.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segment CoveredThe report on global herbal tea market covers segments such as, type, packaging type and form. On the basis of type the global herbal tea market is categorized into black tea, green tea and yellow tea. Black tea is grown and processed all over the world in varying geographies and climates. Green tea is the healthiest beverage on the planet. Green tea is more than just liquid. Tea is rich in polyphenols that have effects like reducing inflammation and helping to fight cancer. On the basis of packaging type the global herbal tea market is categorized into carton packs, herbal tea bags, herbal tea paper pouches and loose tea. On the basis of form the global herbal tea market is categorized into instant premixes, liquid and powdered RTD and syrups.Geographic CoverageThe report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2016-2024. The countries covered in the North America region include the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; while Asia-Pacific includes China, Japan, India, South Korea, Malaysia, and among others. Moreover, Germany, U.K., France, Spain, and Rest of Europe are included in the European region. The U.S. drives the growth in the North America region as it is the largest market in the region. The Asia-pacific region offers a substantial potential for the market growth owing to rapid growth in markets such as India and China. The APAC region is projected to experience a growth at a CAGR of x.x% over the period of 2018-2024. Three of the largest producers of black tea today are India, Sri Lanka and Africa. In fact, half of the worlds tea production comes from India. Some of the most popular styles of black tea coming out of these top-producing countries include Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon, and Kenyan.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global herbal tea market such as, Associated British Foods (ABF), Adagio Teas, Dilmah Tea, Tata Global Beverages (TGB), Nestea, Unilever, Global Herbitech, Green Earth Products Pvt Ltd, Buddhas Herbs and Martin Bauer Group.For More Enquiry on This Report:Report Highlights:The report provides deep insights on demand forecasts, market trends and micro and macro indicators. In addition, this report provides insights on the factors that are driving and restraining the global herbal tea market. Moreover, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis given in the report brings an insight on the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider. The report provides insights into the market using analytical tools such as Porter's five forces analysis and DRO analysis of herbal tea market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2018-2024. We also have highlighted future trends in the herbal tea market that will impact the demand during the forecast period. Moreover, the competitive analysis given in each regional market brings an insight on the market share of the leading players. This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the herbal tea market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.About UsInfinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact UsInfinium Global Research,Toll Free:U.S. + Canada: 1-800-638-0796,Website :Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comGlobal Permanent Magnet Contactors Market Outlook 2018- ABB, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, ETI Group

Permanent Magnet Contactors Market

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The Report presents a Global and primitive study of Permanent Magnet Contactors Market with subjective aspects which provides key business insights. This report studies Global market, especially in North America, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2013 to 2018.Learn details of the Trends, Size, Sales, Production, Revenue and 2025 Forecasts Analysis.QY Research groups can be relied upon for the most updated and in depth information of the title Global Permanent Magnet Contactors Market this is estimated by experts to develop at the most elevated CAGR amid the estimate time frame 2018-2025. The report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Permanent Magnet Contactors Market analysis is provided for the international Market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions' development status.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, coveringABBSchneider ElectricMitsubishi ElectricETI GroupSiemensRockwellEatonJoslyn ClarkToshibaZez SilkoOn the basis of product, primarily split intoAC ContactorDC ContactorBy Application, the market can be split intoPower SwitchingMotor ApplicationOtherFor a detailed sight of the report find the sample of the Global Permanent Magnet Contactors Market here:We at QY Research Groups provide the most upgraded and beneficial data to enhance your knowledge about the ongoing trends in the market, drivers, restraints and leading players in the market.Table of Contents -1 Industry Overview of Permanent Magnet Contactors1.1 Definition and Specifications of Permanent Magnet Contactors1.1.1 Definition of Permanent Magnet Contactors1.1.2 Specifications of Permanent Magnet Contactors1.2 Classification of Permanent Magnet Contactors1.2.1 AC Contactor1.2.2 DC Contactor1.3 Applications of Permanent Magnet Contactors1.3.1 Power Switching1.3.2 Motor Application1.3.3 Other8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Permanent Magnet Contactors8.1 ABB8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.2.1 Product A8.1.2.2 Product B8.1.3 ABB 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 ABB 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Schneider Electric8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.2.1 Product A8.2.2.2 Product B8.2.3 Schneider Electric 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Schneider Electric 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.3 Mitsubishi Electric8.3.1 Company Profile8.3.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.3.2.1 Product A8.3.2.2 Product B8.3.3 Mitsubishi Electric 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.3.4 Mitsubishi Electric 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.4 ETI Group8.4.1 Company Profile8.4.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.4.2.1 Product A8.4.2.2 Product B8.4.3 ETI Group 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.4.4 ETI Group 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.5 Siemens8.5.1 Company Profile8.5.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.5.2.1 Product A8.5.2.2 Product B8.5.3 Siemens 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.5.4 Siemens 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.6 Rockwell8.6.1 Company Profile8.6.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.6.2.1 Product A8.6.2.2 Product B8.6.3 Rockwell 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.6.4 Rockwell 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.7 Eaton8.7.1 Company Profile8.7.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.7.2.1 Product A8.7.2.2 Product B8.7.3 Eaton 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.7.4 Eaton 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.8 Joslyn Clark8.8.1 Company Profile8.8.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.8.2.1 Product A8.8.2.2 Product B8.8.3 Joslyn Clark 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.8.4 Joslyn Clark 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.9 Toshiba8.9.1 Company Profile8.9.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.9.2.1 Product A8.9.2.2 Product B8.9.3 Toshiba 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.9.4 Toshiba 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution Analysis8.10 Zez Silko8.10.1 Company Profile8.10.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.10.2.1 Product A8.10.2.2 Product B8.10.3 Zez Silko 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.10.4 Zez Silko 2017 Permanent Magnet Contactors Business Region Distribution AnalysisBrowse Full report with TOC 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-Satellite Payload Market - NextGen Technological Advancements, Professional Survey and Future Industry Trends 2024

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A recent report published by Infinium Global Research on satellite payload market provides in depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in global as well as regional markets of satellite payload market. The study also highlights the impact of drivers, restraints and macro indicators on the global and regional markets of satellite payload over the short term as well as long term. The report is a comprehensive presentation of trends, forecast and dollar values of global satellite payload market. According to report the global satellite payload market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% over the forecast period of 2018 - 2024.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Segment CoveredThe report on global satellite payload market covers segments such as type, orbit, application and end-use. On the basis of type the global satellite payload market is categorized into navigation, communication, imaging and others. On the basis of orbit the global satellite payload market is categorized into low earth orbit, medium earth orbit and geostationary earth orbit. On the basis of application the global satellite payload market is categorized into surveillance, communication and navigation, remote sensing and others. On the basis of end-use the global satellite payload market is categorized into military, commercial and civil.Geographic CoverageThe report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2016 - 2024. The countries covered in the North America region include the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; while Asia-Pacific includes China, Japan, India, South Korea, Malaysia, and among others. Moreover, Germany, U.K., France, Spain, and Rest of Europe are included in the European region. The U.S. drives the growth in the North America region as it is the largest market in the region. The Asia-pacific region offers a substantial potential for the market growth owing to rapid growth in markets such as India and China. The APAC region is projected to experience a growth at a CAGR of x.x% over the period of 2018 - 2024.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global satellite payload market such as MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, Honeywell International Inc, Thales Group, Raytheon Company, Airbus Group, Viasat, Inc, The Boeing Company, Harris Corporation, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation and Lockheed Martin Corporation.For More Enquiry on This Report:Report Highlights:The report provides deep insights on demand forecasts, market trends and micro and macro indicators. In addition, this report provides insights on the factors that are driving and restraining the global satellite payload market. Moreover, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis given in the report brings an insight on the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider. The report provides insights into the market using analytical tools such as Porter's five forces analysis and DRO analysis of satellite payload market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2018 to 2024. We also have highlighted future trends in the satellite payload market that will impact the demand during the forecast period. Moreover, the competitive analysis given in each regional market brings an insight on the market share of the leading players. This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the satellite payload market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.About UsInfinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact UsInfinium Global Research,Toll Free:U.S. + Canada: 1-800-638-0796,Website :Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comAnthracite Market Growth Research Analysis Powered on Siberian Anthracite,Deutsche Steinkohle AG,Anthracite UK,Celtic Energy,Sadovaya Group

Anthracite Market, Anthracite Market Study, Anthracite Market Size, Anthracite Market Segmentation, Anthracite Market Growth

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MarketStudyReport.com Adds New Global Anthracite Market 2017  2022 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 Enhance data and table & figures in it.The major players in global market, includingSiberian AnthraciteDeutsche Steinkohle AGAnthracite UKCeltic EnergySadovaya GroupVostokCoalDTEKGet Sample Copy of this Report:Major Study On:Anthracite differs from ordinary bituminous coal by its greater hardness on the Mohs scale, its higher relative density of 1.31.4, and luster, which is often semi-metallic with a mildly brown reflection. It contains a high percentage of fixed carbon and a low percentage of volatile matter. It is also free from included soft or fibrous notches and does not soil the fingers when rubbed. Anthracitization is the transformation of bituminous coal into anthracite.Anthracite 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.Scope of Report:Global Anthracite market report classifies this industry extensively in terms of the regional landscape. Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers: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 Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversUSA, Europe, Japan, China, India, South East AsiaGlobal Anthracite Market: Product Segment AnalysisLump anthraciteAnthracite finesGlobal Anthracite Market: Application Segment AnalysisElectricity IndustryChemical IndustryCement IndustrySteel IndustryOthersTable of ContentChapter 1 About the Anthracite Industry1.1 Industry Definition1.1.1 Types of Anthracite industry1.2.1.1 Lump anthracite1.2.1.2 Anthracite fines1.2 Main Market Activities1.3 Similar Industries1.4 Industry at a GlanceChapter 2 World Market Competition Landscape2.1 Anthracite Markets by regions2.1.1 USAMarket Revenue 2012-2017Market overviewMajor players Revenue in 20172.1.2 EuropeMarket Revenue 2012-2017Chapter 3 World Anthracite 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 Proces Analysis4.4 Production Cost Structure Benchmarks4.5 End users Market AnalysisChapter 5 Company Profiles1 Company Details (Foundation Year, Employee Strength and etc)2 Product Information (Picture, Specifications and Applications)3 Revenue, Price and Operating ProfitsFor More Tactical Information: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 six-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 segmentsRelated ReportWet Etching Equipment Market Report 2018In this report, the Asia-Pacific Wet Etching Equipment 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 split AsiaMore Reports: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.comGlobal Duplex Stainless Steel Market Analysis by Overview, Factors, Applications and Competition by 2018-2023

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Market Research Explore recently announces that, research report Global Duplex Stainless Steel Market 2018 analyses the crucial factors of the Duplex Stainless Steel market based on present industry situations, market demands, business strategies adopted by Duplex Stainless Steel market players and their growth scenario. This report isolates the Duplex Stainless Steel market based on the key Vendors, Type and Applications.Access Free Sample Copy of Research Report Here:Most Leading Key Players are :Sandvik Materials Technology, Tata Steel, Arcelormittal S.A., Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corporation, Posco Group, Posco Group, Acerinox S.A., Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Daido Steel Co. Ltd., Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co. Ltd., AK Steel Holding Corporation, Thyssenkrupp AG, Voestalpine AG, Carpenter Technology Corporation, Sandmeyer Steel Company, Rolled Alloys Inc., Valbruna Stainless Inc., Cogne Acciai Speciali Spa, H. Butting GmbH & Co. Kg, Foroni S.P.A., Erasteel, Taiyuan Iron and Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (Tisco), Ambica Steels, Sanyo Special Steel Co. Ltd., Penn Stainless Products, Titan Metal FabricatorsIndustry Chain:Raw MaterialsCostTechnologyConsumer PreferenceIndustry Overall:HistoryDevelopment & TrendMarket CompetitionTrade OverviewPolicyInvestment Analysis:Market FeaturesInvestment OpportunityInvestment CalculationThe Duplex Stainless Steel report provides the industry environment covering Duplex Stainless Steel policy, Duplex Stainless Steel economics, Duplex Stainless Steel sociology and Duplex Stainless Steel technology. Furthermore, the opportunities and the threats to the development of Duplex Stainless Steel market are also covered at depth in this research document.Initially, the Duplex Stainless Steel manufacturing analysis of the major industry players based on their company profiles, annual revenue, demand, sales margin, growth aspects is also covered in this report, which will help other Duplex Stainless Steel market players in driving business insights.Acquire Full Copy of Research Report Here:Key Highlights Of The Duplex Stainless Steel Market :1. The fundamental details related to Duplex Stainless Steel industry like the product definition, product segmentation, price, variety of applications, demand and supply statistics are covered in this report.2. The comprehensive study of Duplex Stainless Steel market based on development opportunities, growth limiting factors and feasibility of investment will forecast the market growth.3. The study of emerging Duplex Stainless Steel market segments and the existing market segments will help the readers in planning the business strategies.Finally, the report Global Duplex Stainless Steel Market 2018 describes Duplex Stainless Steel industry expansion game plan, the Duplex Stainless Steel industry knowledge supply, appendix, analysis findings and the conclusion.About Us:MARKET RESEARCH EXPLORE is a huge market research platform which provides market intelligence reports and consulting services. It includes latest industrial reports by reputed publishers. MRE covers public and private industries such as chemicals & materials, technology, food & beverages, consumer goods, electronics, pharmaceutical, healthcare and others. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and we daily update our database to provide updated reports to our clients. MRE continuously track emerging trends and events to fulfill clients needs.Contact Us :Steel EnidSales ManagerChicago, IL United StateEmail @: sales@marketresearchexplore.comRoad Marking Materials : Growth US$5.66 bn by 2024 with CAGR of 5.5% | Top Players - The Sherwin-Williams Company, Geveko Markings, Aximum S.A. and Other

Road Marking Materials

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Press Release - 15 Mar 2018Global Research and Development News --. .Report Description-' ' Global Road Marking Materials Market: OverviewRoad marking materials provide visible signs on streets, motorways, curbs, berms, driveways, parking areas, sidewalks, and airfields. They are typically classified into two types: performance-based and paint-based markings. Performance-based markings are further divided into the following categories: thermoplastics and cold plastics. Paint-based markings include solvent-based, water-based, epoxy, and polyurethane-based paints. Paint-based markings are estimated to be a key segment of the global road marking materials market during the forecast period. The growing demand for water-based paints is expected to propel the road marking materials market over the forecast period.. . Get Sample Report' 'The report provides in-depth analysis and forecast of the road marking materials market on the global as well as regional level. The report includes forecast for the period from 2016 to 2024 in terms of volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). Quantitative data has been derived through extensive secondary research of the global road marking materials market.Secondary sources typically include company websites, relevant magazines, government documents, and press releases. The top-down approach has been adopted to derive the regional numbers from global revenue and volume figures. Furthermore, the bottom-up approach has been employed to derive data for various type and application sectors based on demand for road marking materials in each geographical segment. A combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches helps in validation of the quantitative data of the market. The data was further validated with the help of primary research with industry experts to ensure accuracy of derived numbers. Global Road Marking Materials Market: Scope of the ReportDetailed analysis of various factors driving the global road marking materials market has been included for astute decision making. Impact of these drivers during the forecast period has been included with data to substantiate research findings. Furthermore, factors restraining market growth have been included for better understanding of the market. Impact of these restraints has been analyzed over the forecast period. The report also comprises various opportunities available for market growth over the next eight years. Opportunities entail untapped or recently explored factors that are anticipated to drive the road marking materials market during the forecast period.The report includes value chain analysis to help understand the industry thoroughly. Value chain analysis comprises detailed evaluation of the roles of various entities involved in the road marking materials industry, from raw material suppliers to end-users. Various processes employed in the manufacture of road marking materials have been included in the value chain analysis. Porters Five Forces model has been included to determine the degree of competition in the market during the forecast period. Furthermore, market attractiveness analysis has been conducted to analyze application segments that are expected to be lucrative during the forecast period. This is based on various factors such as market size, growth rate, profitability, raw material procurement, and competition in each application segment. Global Road Marking Materials Market: SegmentationBased on type, the road marking materials market has been segmented into paint based marking and performance based marking. Based on application, the road marking materials market has been segmented into road marking, factory marking, airport marking, car park marking and others. The report comprises detailed analysis of all the segments in the regional and global markets and forecast based on current and future trends in the industry in terms of volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). In terms of region, the market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Demand for road marking materials in each technology type has been analyzed and forecast for a period of eight years.The report also comprises profiles of leading companies in the road marking materials market. These include The Sherwin-Williams Company, Geveko Markings, Aximum S.A., Kelly Bros Erinline, Swarco Limburger Lackfabrik GmbH, and Ozark Materials LLC. Various attributes of these companies such as company overview, business strategies, and recent developments form the core of the company profiles section.This report segments the global road marking materials market as follows: Road Marking Materials Market  Type AnalysisPerformance-based MarkingsPaint-based Markings Road Marking Materials Market  Application AnalysisAirport MarkingRoad MarkingFactory MarkingCar Park MarkingOthers Road Marking Materials Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeFranceU.K.GermanySpainItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapan & KoreaASEANRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa (MEA)GCCSouth AfricaRest of MEA. . More Clear Details get Table of Contents..Table of Content1. Preface1.1. Report Scope & Market Segmentation1.2. Research Highlights2. Assumptions and Research Methodology2.1. Research Methodology3. Executive Summary4. Market Overview4.1. Introduction4.2. Market Indicators4.3. Market Dynamics4.4. Drivers4.5. Restraints4.6. Opportunity Analysis4.7. Porters Analysis4.8. Value Chain Analysis5. Global Road Marking Materials Market Analysis and Forecast, by Type5.1. Key Findings5.2. Introduction5.3. Global Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Type5.4. Global Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Type5.5. Global Road Marking Materials Market Analysis, by Type5.6. Type Comparison Matrix5.7. Global Road Marking Materials Market Attractiveness Analysis, by Type6. Global Road Marking Materials Market Analysis and Forecast, by Application6.1. Key Findings6.2. Introduction6.3. Global Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Application6.4. Global Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Application6.5. Global Road Marking Materials Market Analysis, by Application6.6. Global Road Marking Materials Market Attractiveness Analysis, by Application7. Global Road Marking Materials Market Analysis, by Region7.1. Global Growth Scenario7.2. Global Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Region7.3. Global Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Region7.4. Global Road Marking Materials Market Attractiveness Analysis, by Region7.5. Market Trends8. North America Road Marking Materials Market Analysis8.1. Key Findings8.2. North America Road Marking Materials Market Overview8.3. North America Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Product Type8.4. North America Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Product Type8.5. North America Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Application8.6. North America Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Application8.7. North America Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Country8.8. North America Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Country8.8.1. U.S8.8.2. Canada8.9. North America Road Marking Materials Market Analysis, by Country8.10. North America Road Marking Materials Market Attractiveness Analysis9. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Analysis9.1. Key Findings9.2. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Overview9.3. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Product Type9.4. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Product Type9.5. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Application9.6. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Application9.7. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Country / Sub-region9.8. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Country / Sub-region9.8.1. China9.8.2. India9.8.3. Japan9.8.4. ASEAN9.8.5. Rest of Asia Pacific9.9. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Analysis, by Country / Sub-region9.10. Asia Pacific Road Marking Materials Market Attractiveness Analysis10. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Analysis10.1. Key Findings10.2. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Overview10.3. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Product Type10.4. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Product Type10.5. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Application10.6. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Application10.7. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Volume Share Analysis, by Country / Sub-region10.8. Europe Road Marking Materials Market Forecast, by Country / Sub-region10.8.1. U.K.10.8.2. Germany10.8.3. France10.8.4. Spain10.8.5. Italy10.8.6. Rest of EuropeResearchMoz 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Vascular Access Catheters Market to Register a CAGR of 5.5% During the Forecast Period 2017 To 2027

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With healthy CAGR of 5.5%, the global vascular access catheters market is likely to grow with an impressive growth rate during the projected period. The primary reasons for this remarkable growth is shift towards value-based healthcare model, increasing global healthcare spending and global manufacturers focus on emerging market. According to the new report Vascular Access Catheters Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012  2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017  2027) that is published by Future Market Insights, global vascular access catheters market to grow from US$ 2,365.3 Mn in 2017 to US$ 4,042.8 Mn by 2027 end. This represents CAGR of 5.5% over the projected period of 10-years. The global vascular access catheters market for represents absolute $ opportunity of US$ 118.9 Mn in 2018 over 2017 and incremental opportunity of US$ 1,677.5 Mn between 2017 and 2027.Request Report Sample@Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: DriversIncreased precision of PICC and CVC placement with tip location devicesImproved Reimbursement policiesPreference by surgeons, anaesthesiologists & interventional radiologistsIncreasing number of diseases with PICC applicationDistribution and collaboration agreement to increase product reachIntroduction of Innovative productsProduct availability through appointing distributorsIncreasing forward integrationIntroduction of new PICC having anti-thrombogenic propertyRadiopaque catheter material or markingGlobal Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by ProductOn the basis of product type, the global vascular access catheters market is segmented into CVC Catheters, Implantable Port, Dialysis Catheters and PICC Catheters. CVC catheters dominated the global market in 2016, and is expected to continue to do so. Also, increasing approvals for new products in the hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis segment would further increase the adoption.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by End UseBy end use the global market for vascular access catheters market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centres and specialty clinics and others. Hospital is expected to be the most lucrative among all end users of vascular access catheters products, with attractiveness index of 2.7, while specialty clinics and others are expected to be the least attractive end users of vascular access catheters, with market share index of 0.8.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by DesignDesign segment consists of single lumen, double lumen, and multiple lumen. Double Lumen, dominated the vascular access catheters market in revenue terms in 2016, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. Double lumen catheters is expected to be the most lucrative among property segment, with attractiveness index of 2.1.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by PropertyThe property segment of the global vascular access catheters market includes antimicrobial catheter and non-anti-microbial catheter. Non Anti-microbial catheter, dominated the vascular access catheters market in revenue terms in 2016, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. Non Anti-microbial Catheter is expected to be the most lucrative among Property segment, with attractiveness index of 1.5.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by RegionThis report has covered seven regions namely, North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, APEJ, Japan and MEA. North America vascular access catheters market accounted for largest revenue share of 44.6% in 2016. Western Europe is expected to experience highest CAGR of 5.8% over 20172027, primarily due to increase in chronic kidney dialysis & cancer. Also rising healthcare reach in untapped markets may spur revenue growth during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the global vascular access catheters market are Angio Dynamics, C.R. Bard, Teleflex Incorporated, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Kimal Healthcare, Comed B.V., Medtronic Plc, Smiths Medical, Vygon (UK) Ltd, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Argon Medical Devices, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Cook Medical Incorporated and Fresenius Kabi AG.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Market is Growing exponentially and Its Fueled By Various Trends

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Proliferating businesses of frozen food and chilled products, substantial advancements in the refrigeration systems, and increasing number allowances and rebates for highly efficient practices and methods are creating a conducive environment for growth of the commercial refrigeration equipment market. Initiatives undertaken by government bodies to support the usage of environmentally friendly refrigerants for controlling emission of harmful hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), in EU and U.S. have led to positive impact on the market. Increasing women in the workforce, specifically in the Asia Pacific region is expected to fuel demand for ready-to-eat food, primarily owing to the lack of the time for performing household activities. However, long product lifecycles and intensive competition among manufacturers have led to significant decrease in the overall profit margins of industry participants.Market TaxonomyThis report segments the global commercial refrigeration equipment market on the basis of product type, application, and geography. On the basis of product type, the commercial refrigeration equipment market is segmented into transportation (shipping container, trailer, truck), refrigerator & freezer (walk-in, reach in, chest), beverage refrigeration (drinking fountain, soda fountain, beverage dispensing, beer dispensing), refrigerated display cases (wine cases, other beverage cases), ice machines, and refrigerated wending machines. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into food & beverage production, food & beverage retail, food & beverage distribution, and food service. For comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, the global commercial refrigeration equipment market is analyzed across key geographical regions namely, Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. Each of these regions is analyzed on basis of market findings across major countries in these regions for a macro-level understanding of the market.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @*The Sample consists of Table of Content, Research framework of the actual report & research methodology adopted for it.Key features of the study:This report provides in-depth analysis of the commercial refrigeration equipment market with respect to its product type, applications, market size (US$ Million), and Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR (%)) for the forecast period: 2017  2025, considering 2016 as the base yearIt elucidates potential revenue opportunities across different segments and explains attractive investment proposition matrix for this marketThis study also provides key insights about market drivers, restraints, opportunities, new product launches or approval, regional outlook, and competitive strategy adopted by the leading playersIt profiles leading players in the global commercial refrigeration equipment market based on the following parameters  company overview, financial performance, product portfolio, geographical presence, distribution strategies, key developments and strategies, and future plansKey companies covered as a part of this study include United Technologies Corporation, Ingersoll-Rand plc, Johnson Controls Incorporated, Daikin Industries Limited, Dover Corporation, Hussmann Corporation, AHT Cooling Systems GmbH, Ali SpA, Illinois Tool Works Incorporated, Emerson Electric Company, Leer Incorporated, True Manufacturing Company Incorporated, and Whirlpool CorporationInsights from this report would allow marketers and management authorities of companies to make informed decision with respect to their future product launch, end use industry upgrades, market expansion, and marketing tacticsThe global commercial refrigeration equipment market report caters to various stakeholders in this industry, including investors, product manufacturers, distributors and suppliers for commercial refrigeration equipment market, research and consulting firms, new entrants, and financial analystsVarious strategy matrices used in analyzing the commercial refrigeration equipment market would provide stakeholders vital inputs to make strategic decisions accordinglyFor More InformationAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Award Winning Author Of Children's Books, Dr Nicole, Announces Latest Book In Felix And Booboo Series, 'Amy Has A Rash: Chickenpox'

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Multi-award-winning children's book author Dr. Nicole has announced the release of a new book in the Felix and Booboo Series, 'Amy Has A Rash: Chickenpox'. The new book is one of a series of eight books that address medical issues and make them understandable for young children. The goal is to increase the child's understanding of her body and to help eliminate fear of diseases and medical procedures. This series is also available in French (Felix et Boubou) in paperback, Kindle and PDF versions.In this highly engaging story, Felix runs to Amy with his magical doctor suitcase bag. Amys body is covered with red pimples. Booboo tells her that she has chickenpox. Felix and all the magical instruments, except View, had already caught this disease. Amy and View will have to be brave against the virus. Readers of any age will know all the secrets of chickenpox."My true intentions regarding writing this series are to inspire children to read, to set their imaginations free and to encourage good decision making regarding health, safety and critical thinking," Dr. Nicole stated. "Writing childrens books is a way for me to give back and be a positive resource to the community. It is a way that I can positively express myself while having some fun and at the same time be a positive role model for both children and caregivers. Children who have chickenpox ask many questions. It inspired me to write a book on this medical topic in my Felix and Booboo series."In addition to chickenpox, other subjects covered in the series include gastroenteritis, vaccinations, head lice, allergies, the human body, otitis and broken bones. All of the books in the series can be used by educators and medical professionals to help kids understand that these types of conditions are normal and are not to be feared or avoided.In the traditions of Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss, Dr. Nicole breathes life into inanimate objects and wildly entertaining characters that engage children in powerful ways. Through the parent/child interaction, her works develop a love for reading while helping children develop the most important skill of all - critical thinking. If a child can master the art of critical thinking, nearly everything else falls into place.Dr. Nicoles books have won numerous international awards. A full listing of the awards can be found on her website.Cover'Amy Has A Rash: Chickenpox' has received Readers Favorite 5 stars. Vernita Naylor, a reviewer for Readers' Favorite stated, "This beautifully illustrated children's book is part of the Felix and Booboo Series. I enjoyed it so much because it allowed Dr. Audet to connect with children in an educational yet playful way. Children have a lot of questions and the books in the Felix and Booboo Series have the answers. To keep your child engaged in learning, Dr. Audet has posed questions for your child to help gauge their understanding of the subject, while giving advice to parents as well. Look at this book as your visit to the doctor where Dr. Audet adds that special touch to your childs needs. Do yourself and your child a favor by not only picking up this book, but the others within the series as well."Dr. Nicole also received recognition as one of Quebec's Top 10 Women by the Maman Dion Foundation. The Maman Dion foundation was founded by Therese Tanguay-Dion, known as Maman Dion, a television personality and the Celine Dions mother. The Maman Dion Foundation is an educational foundation that provides support to underprivileged children in the form of clothing, eyewear and school supplies.Dr. Nicole has sold over 150,000 books in her career. She is highly regarded for her work with childrens books and a health guide for families. Her goals are to create in children a love for reading and to create interaction and engagement.No-charge copies of any of her books are available for University teachers, journalists and members of the media who provide email, website, mail address and phone number.Dr. Nicole is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below. Journalists who wish to receive a copy of the books for review or might wish to schedule an interview can email info@drnicolebook.com. All of her English and bilingual works are available on Amazon, AuthorHouse, and other quality book retailers. Free coloring pages are available upon request by sending an email to the author. More information is available at her website.Dr. Nicole Audet holds a Master degree in medical education. She is a professional writer and an engaging speaker. She has worked in Clinical Practice (emergency, family doctor office, University of Montreal affiliated teacher and Lecturer in the Department of Pediatrics of McGill University). She has been the Editor in Chief of the French medical magazine 'Le Medecin du Quebec'. She has presented at many international, national and provincial medical congresses and has managed medical teaching clinics, medical magazines and medical research in computer science. Her books have received many international and national awards.PO Box 1613Shallotte, NC 28459Air Cushion Machine Market Shares, Strategies and Forecast Worldwide, 2017 to 2027

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Protection of packaged items from the external environment is the main function of packaging. Products are packed in different layers of primary and secondary packaging, all serving the basic purpose of protection of goods. Despite all the measures, goods in transit possess a threat of getting damaged and to overcome this restraint packaging manufacturer have innovated a new solution, by providing air cushioning to the packaged products. These air cushions are produced by sealing air between the layers of a plastic films using air cushion machines. Air cushion machine forms air pockets in the film by sealing air thus producing products such as bubble wraps and air pillows. Air pillows are then used between primary and secondary packaging for locking of the product movement during the transit.Air Cushion Machine Market: Market DynamicsIncreasing technological advancements in packaging industry have inflated the market size for the same over the last decade. The packaging industry has been estimated at US$ 827 Bn in 2017 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.2% over the forecast period. The key driver boosting the growth in air cushion machine market is increased demand for air cushions on the backdrop of its ability to protect the packed products. Manufacturers of various end-use industries are focusing on strengthening their supply chain network, and protective packaging is playing an important role in the process hence increasing the demand for air cushions and positively influencing the growth in air cushion machine market. Being lightweight and compatible with production processes are some other factors boosting the growth in air cushion machine market. Increasing penetration of e-retail formats especially in APEJ region is further strengthening the growth in air cushion machine market. Despite extremely efficient is protecting goods the demand for air cushions may fall in future due to the use plastic films in the production process as most of the countries are making norms for reducing plastic waste which can significantly hamper the growth in air cushion machine market. Increasing use of substitutes of air cushions such as molded fiber trays and foam is further reducing the use of air cushions and limiting the growth in air cushion machine market.Request Report Sample@Air Cushion Machine Market: Market SegmentationAir cushion machine market is segmented Speed and end use industry.Based on the speed (Cushions per minute), air cushion machine market is segmented into:100Based on the end use industry, air cushion machine market is segmented into:Electrical & Electronic IndustryE-retail IndustryShipping & Logistics IndustryConsumer Goods IndustryOthersAir Cushion Machine Market - Regional Outlook:Regionally global air cushion machine market is segmented intoNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanAsia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is expected to dominate the air cushion machine market as the region has a very high concentration of manufacturing industries. North America is the highest importer and exporter of goods is expected to follow the APEJ region in air cushion machine market. Air cushion machine market in Western and Eastern Europe region is expected to grow moderately over the forecast period. Latin America and Japan region are expected to contribute small but rapidly growing region in air cushion machine market. The Middle East and Africa Region are expected to expand sluggishly in air cushion machine market.Visit For TOC@Air Cushion Machine Market - Key Players:Some major players of the air cushion machine market are Compak, AirWave Packaging LLC, Hangzhou Bing Jia Technology Co., Ltd., Zhuhai E-One Science And Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Dinglisheng Technology Co., Ltd., Jie Siming Precision Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou Gashili Machinery Co., Ltd., Airfil Protective Packaging Ltd, Daily Sealing System Co., Ltd., Kite Packaging Ltd, Ultipac.co.uk., FP International (UK) Ltd, Green Light Packaging Ltd, CLINGFOIL LIMITED, Direct Packaging Solutions, Zhengzhou Shaolin Mechanical & Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd. and Storopack Hans Reichenecker GmbHAbout Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.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:New Trends of Freezer Paper Market with Worldwide Industry Analysis to 2027

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Many attributes of food industry is dependent on packaging industry. Efficient packaging enables manufacturers to extend the shelf life of the food items and improves the handling of the food items thus benefiting both retailers and food service industry. Freezer paper is one such solution innovated by packaging manufacturers which provide efficient storage of the food applications. Freezer paper is a thick paper waxed from one side. Manufacturers use the other side of the freezer paper for advertisement and labeling purpose. Meat products are packed against the waxed side of the freezer paper and labeling or printing on other side of the freezer paper increases the visibility of the company helping in building of brand image. The waxed side of the paper does not allow juices of the meat to seep through or moisture to penetrate inside the packaging. Freezer paper also provides strength to the packaged product through its thickness enabling storage of the meat products. Most of the freezer paper are microwavable and are available in the form of rolls and sheets for various sizes for both bleached and unbleached product format.Freezer Paper Market: Market DynamicsWith the expanding attributes of packaging, the role of packaging is also increasing. Now world flexible packaging market is estimated to be US$ 238 Bn and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5.5% during the forecast period. The extensive use of freezer paper for storage of meat products is the key driver for freezer paper market. The ability of freezer paper providing strength to the packaged products is another factor supporting the growth in the freezer paper market. Apart from packaging capabilities, the use of freezer paper also provides smooth printing areas for packaging manufacturers hence increasing the attractiveness for freezer paper market. Being a biodegradable product the demand for freezer paper is set to increase during the forecast period creating significant opportunities for freezer paper market. However, the presence of meat packaging formats such as vacuum skin packaging may hamper the growth in freezer paper market. The low cost of raw material, light in weight, simple process for production and ease in usage may add advantage and provide an edge for freezer paper over its substitutes and support the growth in freezer paper market. Most of the manufacturers are using bleached freezer paper so as to increase the attractiveness of the packaged items.Request Report Sample@Freezer Paper Market: Market SegmentationBased on the product type, freezer paper market is segmented intoBleached Freezer paperUnbleached Freezer paperBased on the application, freezer paper market is segmented intoMeatSeafoodPoultryBakery ProductsOther Food ApplicationFreezer Paper Market - Regional Outlook:Regionally global freezer paper market is segmented intoNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEastern EuropeWestern EuropeAsia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)Middle East & Africa (MEA)JapanNorth America is expected to account for the largest share in consumption of freezer paper market due to the large consumption of meat products. Western and Eastern Europe regions are expected to account for the significant share in freezer paper market due to the lifestyle of the consumers in the region. The demand for freezer paper is expected to increase in Latin America and Middle East & Africa Market. Asia Pacific excluding Japan region is expected to grow moderately during the forecast period in freezer paper market. Growth in freezer paper market is expected to grow rapidly in Japan region.Visit For TOC@Freezer Paper Market - Key Players:Some major players of the freezer paper market are Reynolds Consumer Products, Komar Alliance, LLC., Intercon Paper, Mansfield Paper Co., Inc., Guangzhou Jieshen Paper Limited Company, Hangzhou Hongchang Paper Products Co., Ltd., Shandong Zhongrong Paper Products Co., Ltd., Zhuji Fred Packaging Co., Limited, Zhejiang Heyi Tianze Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., Xu Xiamen Kolysen Packaging Integration Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Jieshen Paper Limited Company, Shandong Zhongchan Paper Co., Ltd., PFM Screen Trading Co., Ltd. And Cheever Specialty Paper & Film.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Overview: Projected to Grow to Nearly US$ 1.1 Bn in 2022

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A fresh study, covering Prostate Cancer Diagnostics 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 Healthcare 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 Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market.Request For Sample Report-PCA3 and PSA Test Segment Vital in the Prostate Cancer Diagnostics MarketThe PCA3 and PSA test segments can be considered the most important in the prostate cancer diagnostics market as they both represent the highest potential in terms of market opportunity. The PSA segment is anticipated to be worth just over US$ 270 million in 2017 and it should grow at a healthy CAGR during the period 2017-2022. On the other hand, the PCA3 segment is poised to grow to nearly US$ 284 million by the end of the forecast period.North America is the largest region for both segments and accounts for nearly 2/5th of the prostate cancer diagnostics market. The regions large geriatric population and high prevalence of cancer mean that demand for prostate cancer diagnostics will continue to remain strong during the forecast period.Smaller Share of CTCThe CTC segment holds revenue share in the global prostate cancer diagnostics market. This segment is projected to reach US$ 141 million by the end of 2022.The immunohistochemistry segment is projected to witness a CAGR of 4.5% for the five-year study period. While North America may be the largest regional contributor, key stakeholders could also focus on Europe as it holds a revenue share of more than 30% throughout the period.Focus on Hospital Labs and Research InstitutesThe hospital associated labs segment is assessed to grow significantly during the forecast period. It would make sense for companies to focus on cancer research institutes as collaboration can help in the development of innovative solutions. In this case, companies could think of targeting the APEJ region as it has the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The region spends much less on healthcare as a percentage of GDP than the developed world but strong economic growth will all but ensure that it becomes ever-more important to regional governments in future.Browse Full Report With TOC-Table of ContentChapter 1. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market - Executive Summary. 11Chapter 2. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Overview. 132.1. Introduction. 132.1.1. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Taxonomy. 132.1.2. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Definition. 132.2. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-2022. 142.2.1. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Y-o-Y Growth. 142.3. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Dynamics. 142.3.1. Drivers. 142.3.2. Restraints. 142.3.3. Trends. 152.4. Supply Chain. 152.5. Epidemiology. 152.6. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By Region. 15Chapter 3. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Analysis and Forecast By Test Type. 163.1. Global Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size and Forecast By Test Type, 2012-2022. 163.1.1. PSA Tests Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 163.1.1.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 163.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 183.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 183.1.2. CTC Tests Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 193.1.2.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 193.1.2.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 213.1.2.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 213.1.3. Immunohistochemistry Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 223.1.3.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 223.1.3.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 243.1.3.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 243.1.4. PCA3 test Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 253.1.4.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 253.1.4.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 273.1.4.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 273.1.5. Others Prostate Cancer Diagnostics Market Size and Forecast, 2012-2022. 283.1.5.1. Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region. 283.1.5.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region. 303.1.5.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region. 30Continue..Request 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:AI Market in Agriculture : Applications, Technology Trends, Growth Drivers and Challenges

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AI market in agriculture is expected to attain a size of $465.6 million. The market is expected to witness high growth due to high penetration of internet of things (IoT) in agriculture industry and increasing number of IoT device installations in agriculture. The decreasing price of sensors and increasing adoption of cattle facial recognition are facilitating the market growth. Increasing government support for the development of new farming techniques, and surge in global awareness regarding the benefits of AI in agriculture over the years, are expected to boost the growth of the AI market in agriculture during the forecast period.Explore Full Report Description at:Geographically, North America is the largest region in the AI market in agriculture with the U.S. alone contributing more than 30% of the revenue to the global market in 2016. The country is also expected to lead the global market during the forecast period. Speech recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and animal facial recognition are some of the applications on which the companies in the U.S. AI industry are focusing. The U.K., Germany, and France are the major markets in Europe; while in Asia-Pacific, Japan, India, China, and South Korea are the key markets.Download Free Report Sample At:IBM and Robert Bosch GmbH are the top companies operating in the AI market in agriculture. The other key players in the industry include Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Climate Corporation, and Microsoft Inc.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:Naphthalene derivatives Market : Challenges and Opportunities Report 2016 - 2024

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The basic necessity for synthesis of naphthalene derivatives is a naphthalene compound, which could is a suitable precursor for obtaining naphthalene-based derivatives. Naphthalene derivatives are synthesized in two steps viz. ring closure by cyclization reaction, followed by aromatization. However, a number of modifications can be tried to synthesize different types of naphthalene derivatives.1, 6-Dihydroxynaphthalene, 1-Methylnaphthalene, 1-Naphthol, and 2-Naphthol are some examples of naphthalene derivatives. Several kinds of naphthalene derivatives are available in the market.Naphthalene derivatives are available in two basic forms: liquid and solid. The nature of application decides which form of derivative is to be used. The powdered form is used on a larger scale than the liquid form.Derivatives of naphthalene are available in different types such as alkyl; naphthalene sulfonates, naphthalene sulfonic acid, naphthalene formaldehyde condensates (SNF), and naphthols.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @Naphthalene Derivatives Market: Market TrendsNaphthalene derivatives have a wide range of application. They are used as chemical intermediates in industries such as textile, pharmaceuticals, rubber, photography, agrochemicals, detergents, and construction. In the textile sector, naphthalene derivatives are significant in the process of dyeing. Some naphthalene derivatives have insecticidal properties, which make them useful compounds in the agriculture sector. Naphthalene derivatives can function as plasticizers or dispensers and are used in the manufacture of good-quality concrete and plasterboards (i.e. drywall or wallboard).Another major application of naphthalene derivatives is the industrial synthesis of phthalic anhydride, which is a chemical intermediate in the synthesis of plastics from vinyl chloride. Phthalic anhydride is also used as a dye.Speedy growth of the textile industry is expected to drive the market for naphthalene derivatives during the forecast period. Construction is considered to be one of the speedily growing end-use application segments of the market for naphthalene derivatives.The rise in standards of living, constant urbanization, and increased R&D activities are expected to be major driving factors for the market for naphthalene derivatives in the near future.However, fluctuations in prices of crude oil and high level of toxicity associated with the use of naphthalene derivatives may prove to be a major restraint for growth of the market for naphthalene derivatives.Naphthalene Derivatives Market: Region-wise OutlookThe market for naphthalene derivatives in Asia Pacific is expected to witness speedy growth both in terms of volume and value. Various factors including presence of emerging economies such as China in the region, increasing investments by foreign countries, and high demand from textile and construction industries are anticipated to drive the naphthalene derivatives market in Asia Pacific during the forecast period.The naphthalene derivatives market in North America and Europe is expected to experience a moderate rate of growth, due to rules and regulations associated with the use of naphthalene derivatives. Also, the market for phthalic anhydride in these region is expected to experience a higher growth rate as compared to the market for naphthalene derivatives.The market in Latin America and Middle East & Africa is anticipated to witness a sluggish growth rate during the forecast period, owing to less number of end-user industries in these regions.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @Naphthalene Derivatives Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players operating in the market for naphthalene derivatives include Clariant, Koppers Inc., BASF SE, Arkema Group, RUTGERS N.V., Evonik Industries AG, King Industries Inc., KAO Corporation, and Huntsman International LLC.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:Irrigation Liners Market, 2017-2027 by Segmentation Based on Product, Application and Region

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Water shortage over the years has forced the manufacturers to innovative and develop effective lining solutions. Irrigation liners are also known as geomembranes (synthetic materials used to control the flow of fluids or gases) are used to prevent seepage during the conveyance of water through man-made ditches and canals. With increased awareness among consumers of pollution control, the need to protect water resources has evolved over the years, especially in the irrigation sector. Also, certain aquatic life can also be sensitive to their environment and require special liner considerations. Irrigation liners are mainly in demand due to burgeoning water shortage and increase in awareness to reduce water loss from canals through seepage. Irrigation liners offers economical solutions than lining the canal with concrete. Irrigation liners has resistance to ultra-violet rays (UV). Moreover, irrigation liners helps in retaining containments such as mixed fertilizers or pesticide runoff. Irrigation liners offers efficient solution such as ease of installation, durability, and resistance. Irrigation liners helps in cost reduction as it provides flexible lining solution due to ease of use.Irrigation Liners: Market DynamicsIncreasing global warming and decreasing water table has led towards increasing demand for effective lining solution to prevent the water seepage through canals or tube wells. Irrigation liners offers economical lining solutions to consumers seeking for cost reduction. Irrigation liners reduces the water loss through seepage as it has barrier properties. Also, it provides an economical solution as compared to concrete lining. Irrigation liners reduces the installation cost. Irrigation liners prevents the water from getting contaminated from outside forces such as from chemicals and fertilizers presents in ground thus, driving the market share of irrigation liners. Irrigation liners have an extended shelf life and are puncture resistant in respect to concrete, where water seepage can occur through minute holes making irrigational liners the preferred lining solution. Irrigation liners are flexible in nature thus, reducing the storage as well as transportation cost. Irrigation liners reduces the labor cost as irrigation liners are light in weight resulting in propelled demand of irrigation liners. Furthermore, irrigation liners helps in material reduction, thus, reducing the carbon footprint.Request Report Sample@Despite the favorable condition for the growth of irrigational liners, there are some factors that hinders the market growth such as poor installation of irrigation liner such as poor anchoring of the liner, inadequate stretching of liners during installation. Also, cattle hooving can puncture the irrigation liners.Irrigation Liners: Market SegmentationIrrigation liners market is segmented on the basis of material type, thickness and, application.On the basis of material type, irrigation liners is segmented intoPVCPolypropylene (PP)Polyethylene (PE)HDPELDPEPETPolyurethane (PU)OthersOn the basis of thickness, irrigation liner is segmented intoLess than 10 mm10-30 mm30-60 mmAbove 60 mmOn the basis of application, irrigation liners is segmented intoHorticultureFloriculturePiscicultureOthersIrrigation Liners: Regional OutlookIrrigation liners market has been segmented on the basis of the region into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. North America region is expected to account for largest market share during the forecast period owing to growing irrigation sector with innovative technology and reduction in water level. APEJ region is expected to exhibit the fastest growth during the next decade due to growing economy with majority of the rural population. MEA region is expected to register significant growth rate during the forecast period due to government initiatives for improvement in irrigation technologies.Visit For TOC@Irrigation Liners: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the field of irrigation liners market are Penda Corporation, AccuGeo Liner, Inc., Btl Liners, Western Ag Enterprises, Inc., Raven Industries, Inc. among others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global LED Lighting Market-Insights, Size, Share, Opportunity Analysis, and Industry Forecast till 2025

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Asia Pacific accounted for the largest market share Asia Pacific held the largest share of the LED lighting market in 2016, and the market in Europe is projected to emerge as the second largest market by 2025. The relatively high standard of living and high disposable income among the populace in Europe, increases their inclination towards investments in smart homes with innovative LED lighting systems. Thus, augmenting growth of the LED lighting market in the region. Asia Pacific is growing at high pace due to rampant infrastructural renovation in emerging economies such as China and India. Major players operating in the global LED light market include Philips Lighting Holding B.V., Osram Licht AG, GE Lighting, LG Innotek, Cree, Inc., Cooper Industries, Inc., Seoul Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, and Lightning Optoelectronic.According to the report, one of the major drivers for LED Lighting market include growing LED adoption in automotive industry, increasing demand for energy efficient lighting systems, technology innovation and performance improvements. LED Lights demand in Automotive industry is boosting due to advancement in head lighting, dynamic beam functionality, laser head lighting, front and rear lighting signature design, ADAS and autonomous driving and other technology. It is forecasted that by 2025 over 75% of global cars have modern and smart LED lighting systems.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @*The Sample consists of Table of Content, Research framework of the actual report & research methodology adopted for it.Market TaxonomyThis report segments the global LED Lighting market on the basis of product type, by service type, by end-user industries, by applications and by region. On the basis of product type, the global LED Lighting market is classified into five types which includes LED Bulbs, Bare LED Tubes, LED Fixtures, LED Down lights and Others. Service type of LED Lighting include Consulting Services, Installation Services and Maintenance & Support. End-user segment includes Residential, Commercial and Industrial. Applications of LED Lighting System includes Outdoor, Indoor, Backlighting, Automotive and Others. On the basis of region, LED Lighting market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East.Key features of the study:This report provides an in-depth analysis of LED Lighting market and provides market size (US$ Million) and Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR %) for the forecast period (2017  2025), considering 2016 as the base yearIt elucidates potential revenue opportunity across different segments and explains attractive investment proposition matrix for this marketThis study also provides key insights about market drivers, restraints, opportunities, new product launches or approval, regional outlook, and competitive strategy adopted by the leading playersIt profiles leading players in the global LED Lighting market based on the following parameters  regulatory landscape, company overview, financial performance, product portfolio, geographical presence, distribution strategies, key developments and strategies, and future plans.Key companies covered as a part of this study include Philips Lighting Holding B.V., General Electric Company, Osram Licht AG,GE Lighting, LG Innotek, Cree, Inc., Cooper Industries, Inc., Virtual Extension, Dialight PLC, Zumtobel Group AG, Samsung Electronics, Sharp Corporation and Seoul Semiconductor.Insights from this report would allow marketers and the management authorities of the companies to make informed decision regarding their future product launch, technology up-gradation, market expansion and marketing tacticsThe global LED Lighting market report caters to various stakeholders in this industry including investors, suppliers, distributors, new entrants, and financial analystsStakeholders would have ease in decision making through the various strategy matrices used in analyzing the LED Lighting market.For More InformationAbout Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Air Filters Market for Food & Beverages : Competitive Intelligence and Tracking Report 2016 - 2024

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Consumer protection is one of the major concerns in the food processing industry. Food contamination can adversely affect human health. It can also result in loss of consumer loyalty and damage to product brands. In order to avoid these pitfalls, companies operating in the food and beverages industry introduce custom designed air filters to maintain sterile environment during the processing of food and beverages.Airborne bacteria is a serious concern in food processing. Large number of bacteria can pass through air handling systems every hour in open plant applications. HVAC systems mounted on rooftops require proper filter design, which may include a pre-filter bank for course dust contaminates, followed by higher filtration or HEPA filtration. Maintenance of these systems is essential for open plant air processing.In closed system applications, processing and dispensing of food and/or beverages occurs in a closed work cell. Maintenance of temperature, humidity, and air filtration is an essential requirement for closed system environment. A series of HEPA filters is used for such processes.There exists the need for custom-designed air filters for usage in food processing facilities across the globe.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @Air Filters for Food and Beverages Market TrendsAir filters are used to eliminate contamination during the production stage in the food and beverages industry. Some specialized filters (e.g. high-performance HEPA filters) help remove germs and viruses. This makes the air sterile. Food air filters lower moisture and improve efficiency of various processes.Rise in demand for air filters coupled with increase in stringent regulations emphasizing hygiene in the food industry are prompting filter manufacturers to design efficient filter systems. Reducing the level of micro-organisms and subsequently improving the air quality in production processes are the major challenges facing manufacturers of air filters in the food and beverages market. This is also expected to be one of the key drivers of air filters in the food and beverages market.Implementation of enhanced filtration methods is mandatory for producers of food and beverages due to the rise in health concerns and enactment of stringent government regulations on food safety. The need to lower energy consumption across several industrial applications is increasing. This is anticipated to boost the demand for effective food and beverage air filtration systems.Decrease in resources of raw materials and natural depositories, and increase in concerns about environmental health hazards are the primary factors estimated to propel the market.Air Filters for Food and Beverages Market SegmentationBased on product, the market can be segmented into dust collector, mist collector, cartridge collector, HEPA filter, and baghouse filter. Based on application, the market can be divided into dairy, bottled water, food & ingredients, and others.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @Air Filters for Food and Beverages Market: Region-wise OutlookNorth America is projected to remain the major revenue generating region of the market in the near future. Increase in awareness about nutritious and organic food is also driving the market. Companies are focusing on providing enhanced quality food products that adhere to governmental regulations on food safety.Air Filters for Food and Beverages Market: Key PlayersKey players operating in the air filters in food and beverages market include Parker Domnick Hunter, Donaldson Company Inc., Pall Corporation, APC Filtration Inc., and Camfil Group.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:Impact of Existing and Emerging Pallet Collar Market Trends And Forecast 2017-2027

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Pallets collars are used for packaging, storing, displaying and transporting products. They provide safer transporting of bottles, cans, fruits and vegetables. Pallet collars are foldable in nature and can be folded up in order to eliminate the extra space when they are not being used. Pallet collar provides light weight packaging solution for exporting bulky products. Pallets collar can bear high loads, without being collapsed, due to the weight of the packing product. High tensile strength of the pallet collar makes them applicable to bear top load during the shipping of the products. Pallet collar are recyclable in nature, thus providing sustainable packaging solutions. They are resistant to UV radiations as well as to moisture. Therefore, they are widely used for transporting goods through water bodies. Different sizes, height and width makes them convenient packaging solution, applicable to be used as a secondary packaging product.Global pallet collar market: DynamicsGlobal pallet collar market is majorly driven by the food & beverage industry. High demand for pallet collar for shipping of fruits and vegetables, plastics bottles, cans and packed food products drives pallet collar market. Pallet collars provides hygienic solution, and requires less maintenance, thus they are used for pharmaceuticals industry. Rising demand of pallet collars for construction industry, automotive industry shows great opportunities for pallet collar market. Pallet collars provides cost effective solution by reducing the space required for storage of material as volume is reduced when they are used empty. Pallet collars are light weight in nature thus eliminates extra weight included due to packaging of product, this is the driving factor for pallet collar market. Packaging manufacturers are looking towards sustainable solution, they are preferring biodegradable packaging products. Therefore, wooden pallet collars which are environmental friendly are mostly preferred over other packaging solutions like barrels, crates, boxes, drums etc. New trends arriving from the retailers end, in pallet collar market is that they are using pallet collars on rents for packaging products. One of the threats of pallet collar market is circular economy package by European commission that mainly focuses on waste management issues. Pallet collar market is negatively impacted by this law.Request Report Sample@Global pallet collar market: SegmentationGlobal pallet collar market is segmented on the basis of material type, application type and end use.On the basis of material type, pallet collar market is segmented as:Plastic pallet collarPolypropylenePolyethyleneHigh density polyethylene (HDPE)Low density polyethylene (LDPE)Wooden pallet collarMetal pallet collarOthersOn the basis of applications type, pallet collar market is segmented as:Plastic bottlesCansTraysFruits and vegetablesOthersOn the basis of end use, pallet collar market is segmented as:Food & beverage industryPharmaceuticals industryAgriculture industryConstructions industryAutomotive industryOthersGlobal pallet collar market: Regional OverviewGlobal pallet collar market is segmented into seven regions including North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan. In the North American region, the trend is to go for technologically advanced packaging solutions. Due to high demand for packaged food products in the region, there is a need for safe transportation. Therefore, pallet collars enjoy high preference. Manufacturers in the Asia Pacific region emphasize on optimized packaging cost. Since pallet collars are one of the most cost effective solutions available in the market, the APEJ pallet collars market is expected to face sizeable demand, over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Global pallet collar market: Key PlayersSome of the key players of global pallet collar market are DUROtherm Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH, LOSCAM, Pallet Market Inc., H G Timber Ltd, Hangzhou Guoli packing co., ltd., and llmre AS.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.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:Television Broadcasting Market - Advertising Leads To Significant Revenue Generation

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Television broadcasters are into TV broadcasting business since the inception of TV. TV industry has seen a significant transformation with the emergence of digital broadcasting and the Internet. With developing digital ecosystem worldwide, and improving penetration of Internet, online TV viewing has been increased in past decade. Although, traditional pay TV still dominates the TV broadcasting market. The transformation from analog to digital transmission is one of the prime factors fuelling the growth of television broadcasting market.Browse The Report:TV broadcasting market is segmented on the basis of content delivery method and revenue channel. On the basis of content delivery method, television broadcasting market is segmented as analog, cable, DTT, IPTV and satellite. Analog transmission technique is the conventional broadcasting method, which uses analog audio/video signals for delivery of content. Cable TV and satellite TV are the modern day content delivery techniques, which came into effect post international telecommunication union (ITU) digitization guidelines. In terms of revenue channel, TV broadcasting market is further classified as subscription fees, advertising, public revenue and others (video-on-demand (VOD), e-learning, games, internet, etc.). Revenue generated from advertisement is likely to be the key factor in development of TV broadcasting industry.Download PDF Sample for this Research Report @To gain competitive edge, businesses from all the major segments viz. telecommunication, automotive, consumer goods often choose TV as the primary platform for marketing their products. This advertising leads to significant revenue generation and is one of the major growth driver for television broadcast industry. Further, increasing consumer base, owing to transformation from analog to digital signals is anticipated to propel the growth of TV broadcasting market. Alongside this, improving quality of media content such as introduction of 4K/UHD and full HD signals on TV platform and widening adoption of HD content is likely to fuel the growth television broadcasting market in near term. Moreover, additional TV services such as VoD, e-learning and online games, through TV is expected to complement the growth of television broadcasting market throughout the forecast period.Ask for a Special Discount on this Report @However, shifting consumer preferences on TV viewing and rising delivery content through internet and smartphone applications is estimated to limit the growth of television broadcasting market. With world going through digital switchover, large consumer base still remain untapped with latest TV services such as VoD, e-learning etc., which offer huge market opportunities for the players involved in TV broadcasting market.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:Thermoplastic Elastomers Industry Research Report 2018: Global Market Trends, Growth, Top Company Profiles, Table of Contents, Forecast by 2024

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Global Thermoplastic Elastomers Market is expected to reach 7,505.08 tonnes by 2024 from 5,100.00 tonnes in 2016, at a CAGR of 5.1% 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. Styrene-isoprene-styrene market with highest market share has the largest market segment in thermoplastic elastomers market.Request For Free Sample Report @Major Players:Some of the major players operating in this market are - BASF SE, The Dow Chemical Company, LyondellBasell Industries, Arkema Sa, Evonik Industries AG, Covestro AG, China Petrochemical Corporation, Huntsman International Llc., Tosoh Corporation, Kraton Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, TSRC, Polyone, LCY Group, Celanese Corporation, LG Chem, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Teknor Apex, The Lubrizol Corporation among others.Report Segmentation:Global Thermoplastic Elastomers Market By Product Type (Styrenic Block Copolymer (SBC), Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), Thermoplastic Polyolefins (TPO), Thermoplastic Vulcanizates (TPV), Copolyester Ether Elastomers (COPE), Polyether Block Amide Elastomers (PEBA), polyether-ester elastomer (TPEE), By Application (Automotive Building & Construction, Footwear, Adhesives, Sealants & Coatings, Wires & Cables, Medical, Advanced Materials), By Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa).Inquiry Before Buying @Key Drivers:Some of the major factors driving the market for thermoplastic elastomers market are thermoplastic elastomers substituting thermosets, increasing application from the HVAC/automotive industry. These factors increase the demand for thermoplastic elastomers products. Growth in end-use industries is the other factors driving the growth of the thermoplastic elastomers market.THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS SUBSTITUTING THERMOSETSThermoplastic elastomers (TPE) are acting as the substitute for the thermosets because of the many advantage. The TPE have varies unique properties which thermosets do not have like TPE are recyclable and more environmentally friendly, have shorter processing time and lower production costs, simpler processing, greater design flexibility, broader range of physical properties, tighter control of product quality which increase the consistency of the end product. Due to these enormous properties of the TPE they are now widely accepted and are used in various industries such as automotive, footwear, weir and insulation, medical, construction and many others.INCREASING APPLICATION FROM THE HVAC/AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRYThe demand of thermoplastic elastomers is increasing in the automotive and HVAC industry, which is driving the demand for TPE. Earlier the thermosets rubber is used in these applications but with the development and need of lightweight rubber material the demand for the TPE is increased in the automotive industry. The TPE exhibits some unique properties which thermosets rubber does not have like lightweight, more hardness than thermosets which is making the TPE more suitable for the use in automotive market. The demand for the TPE in automotive industry is around 45% of total production because it gives the automobile light weight and thus provides the fuel efficiency and more comfortable experience for the consumers.Read more about the Global Thermoplastic Elastomers Market Report @Key Topics Mentioned:1. INTRODUCTION1.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY1.2. MARKET DEFINITION1.3. OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS MARKET1.4. CURRENCY AND PRICING1.5. LIMITATION1.6. 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 SOURCES2.8. ASSUMPTIONS3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY4. PREMIUM INSIGHTS5. MARKET OVERVIEW5.1. DRIVERS5.1.1. THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS SUBSTITUTING THERMOSETS5.1.2. INCREASING APPLICATION FROM THE HVAC/AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY5.1.3. GROWTH IN END-USE INDUSTRIES5.2. RESTRAINTS5.2.1. UNSTABLE RAW MATERIAL PRICES5.3. OPPORTUNITIES5.3.1. INCREASING APPLICATIONS IN THE MEDICAL INDUSTRY5.3.2. GROWING DEMAND FOR BIO-BASED THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS5.4. CHALLENGES5.4.1. TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS OF THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS6. GLOBAL THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS MARKET, BY PRODUCT TYPE6.1. OVERVIEW6.2. STYRENIC BLOCK COPOLYMER6.3. THERMOPLASTIC POLYURETHANE6.4. THERMOPLASTIC POLYOLEFINS6.5. THERMOPLASTIC VULCANIZATES6.6. COPOLYESTER ETHER ELASTOMERS6.7. POLYETHER BLOCK AMIDE ELASTOMERS6.8. POLYETHER ESTER ELASTOMERS6.9. OTHERS7. GLOBAL SURGICAL SUTURES MARKET, BY APPLICATION7.1. OVERVIEW7.2. AUTOMOTIVE7.3. BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION7.4. FOOTWEAR7.5. ADHESIVES, SEALANTS & COATINGS7.6. WIRES & CABLES7.7. MEDICAL7.8. ADVANCED MATERIALS7.9. OTHERS8. GLOBAL THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMERS MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY8.1. OVERVIEW8.2. NORTH AMERICA8.2.1. U.S.8.2.2. CANADA8.2.3. MEXICO8.3. EUROPE8.3.1. GERMANY8.3.2. FRANCE8.3.3. U.K.8.3.4. ITALY8.3.5. SPAIN8.3.6. SWITZERLAND8.3.7. NETHERLANDS8.3.8. BELGIUM8.3.9. TURKEY8.3.10. RUSSIA8.3.11. REST OF EUROPE8.4. ASIA-PACIFIC8.4.1. CHINA8.4.2. JAPAN8.4.3. INDIA8.4.4. SOUTH KOREA8.4.5. INDONESIA8.4.6. MALAYSIA8.4.7. TAIWAN8.4.8. AUSTRALIA8.4.9. SINGAPORE8.4.10. REST OF ASIA-PACIFIC8.5. SOUTH AMERICA8.5.1. BRAZIL8.5.2. REST OF SOUTH AMERICA8.6. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA8.6.1. SOUTH AFRICA8.6.2. REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA9. GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE INTERIOR MATERIALS MARKET, COMPANY LANDSCAPE9.1. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: GLOBAL9.2. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: NORTH AMERICA9.3. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: EUROPE9.4. COMPANY SHARE ANALYSIS: ASIA-PACIFIC10. COMPANY PROFILE10.1. ARKEMA SA10.1.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.1.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.1.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.1.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.2. BASF SE10.2.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.2.2. BASF SE:REVENUE ANALYSIS10.2.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.2.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.3. THE DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY10.3.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.3.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.3.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.3.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.4. EVONIK INDUSTRIES AG10.4.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.4.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.4.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.4.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.5. COVESTRO AG10.5.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.5.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.5.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.5.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.6. CHINA PETROCHEMICAL CORPORATION10.6.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.6.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.6.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.6.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.7. HUNTSMAN INTERNATIONAL LLC.10.7.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.7.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.7.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.7.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.8. TOSOH CORPORATION10.8.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.8.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.8.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.8.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.9. LYONDELLBASELL INDUSTRIES HOLDINGS B.V.10.9.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.9.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.9.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.9.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.10. KRATON CORPORATION10.10.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.10.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.10.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.10.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.11. EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION10.11.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.11.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.11.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.11.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.12. TSRC10.12.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.12.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.12.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.12.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.13. POLYONE10.13.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.13.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.13.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.13.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.14. LCY GROUP10.14.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.14.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.14.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.14.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.15. CELANESE CORPORATION10.15.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.15.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.15.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.15.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.16. LG CHEM10.16.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.16.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.16.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.16.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.17. ASAHI KASEI CORPORATION10.17.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.17.2. REVENUE ANALYSIS10.17.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.17.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.18. TEKNOR APEX10.18.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.18.2. COMPANY SNAPSHOT10.18.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.18.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS10.19. THE LUBRIZOL CORPORATION10.19.1. COMPANY OVERVIEW10.19.2. COMPANY SNAPSHOT10.19.3. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO10.19.4. RECENT DEVELOPMENTSRelated ReportGlobal Fumed Silica Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Fumed Silica Market, By Type (Hydrophilic, Hydrophobic); Application (Paints & Coatings, Adhesives & Sealants, Pharmaceuticals, UPR, Gel batteries, Lighting, others) By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comThermal Barrier Coatings Market is expected to reach US$22.4 bn by 2024

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Several players in the global thermal barrier coatings market are engaging in long-term contracts and continual research and development activities to sustain in this highly competitive arena, observes Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a new study. To put this in perspective, A &A Company Inc. in one of the suppliers of ceramic coatings for valve balls to the U.S. Navy. Some other prominent companies operating in the market are H.C. Starck Inc., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Praxair Surface Technologies Inc., ASB Industries Inc., Metallisation Ltd., Flame Spray Coating Co., Metallizing Equipment Co. Pvt. Ltd., Thermion Inc., and The Fisher-Barton Group.Request Sample Report @The global market for thermal barrier coatings had a valuation of US$12.4 bn in 2015 and is anticipated to cross the mark of US$22 bn by 2024, expanding at a 6.6% CAGR between 2016 and 2024.North America to Remain Leader in Revenue Generation through 2024On the basis of product, the metal segment will post a steady CAGR during the review period due to the better protection they offer from oxidation, corrosion, and chemicals. As per the findings of the report, the segment is expected to hold a share of 38.8% of the overall market by 2024.Geographically, North America will continue to dominate the market until 2024, accounting for 26.7% of the overall market revenue. Technological advancements and high sales of automobiles are fuelling the demand for thermal barrier coatings in the region. Asia Pacific is estimated to offer tremendous lucrative opportunities over the forecast period, thanks to the expansion of the automotive and industrial sectors.Expansion of Automotive Sector in Developing Countries to Augment MarketThermal barrier coatings are extensively used for their ability to curtail the heat that turbines generate in order to enhance their performance and output, says a TMR analyst. The increasing deployment of gas turbines in various industries such as stationary power plants, aerospace, and automotive is providing an upthrust to the market. Besides this, the development of advanced technologies such as electron beam physical vapor deposition and high-velocity oxy-fuel technique is also working in favor of the global thermal barrier coatings market.Read Report Overview @The development of the automotive industry plays an important role in the determining the progress of the global thermal barrier coatings market. In automobiles, these coatings are responsible for maintaining the temperatures of internal and external parts at an optimum to ensure superior performance of the engine. Hence, the booming automotive industry in emerging regions is allowing the market to gain significant traction as these regions are witnessing high production and consumption of automobiles.High Prices of Coatings Due to Manufacturing Technology to Hamper Growth ProspectsAmong all the types of coatings, the high-performance ceramic coatings are considered to be the superior one. Though the raw materials needed for the production of these coatings are cheaper, the technology adopted for their production renders their price high. Thus, the high prices of technology implemented for making high-performance ceramic coatings are keeping the global thermal barrier coatings market from realizing full potential. Nevertheless, continual enhancements in technologies used are likely to create lucrative opportunities for the market.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.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:Surfactants Market is expected to be worth US$6.3 bn by 2024

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The Asia Pacific surfactants market is highly fragmented due to the presence of several players with small shares. An assessment of the competitive landscape by Transparency Market Research states that the entry for new players is relatively difficult. To remain ahead of the competition key players are expected to focus on product innovation. Development of bio-based surfactants also remains underway as several manufacturers are noticing the demand for safer raw materials for personal care products. Some of the leading players in the market are The Dow Chemical Company, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Akzo Nobel N.V., and Galaxy Surfactants Limited.Request Sample Report @According to the research report, the Asia Pacific surfactants market is expected to be worth US$6.3 bn by the end of 2024 as compared to US$4.1 bn in 2015. Between the forecast years of 2016 and 2024, the global surfactants market expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.0%.China Emerges as Leading Nation in Asia Pacific Surfactants MarketOn the basis of product, the global surfactants market is segmented into cationic, non ionic, anionic, and amphoteric. Of these, non ionic surfactants segment is expected to show remarkable progress in the coming years. By the end of 2024, the non ionic surfactants segment is expected to acquire a share of 34.2% in the overall market. The rising application of these surfactants in sectors such as oilfield chemicals, chemicals, textiles, and agrochemicals are expected is expected to drive the growth in the coming years.The Asia Pacific surfactants market is segmented into countries such as China, Thailand, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, and Rest of APAC. Of these, China dominated the overall market in 2015. The country is expected to retain its stance in the coming years as it is slated to acquire a share of 39.4% in the Asia Pacific surfactants market by the end of 2024.Rising Awareness about Beauty Products in Asia Pacific Boosts Regional MarketThe Asia Pacific surfactants market has been witnessing a rise since couple of years due to their increasing adoption in a wide range of personal care products. The diversity of personal care industry has offered the surfactants market several lucrative opportunities for growth. Increasing number of mouth wash, toothpaste, and hair care brands have been making significant usage of surfactants in their products. Furthermore, growing sales of bathing and shaving products are also expected to augment the demand for surfactants across Asia Pacific. Non-iconic, amphoteric, and cationic are the three types of surfactants that will be predominantly used in the near future.Read Report Overview @The increasing awareness about beauty, aesthetics, and hygiene are also expected to drive the growth of the Asia Pacific surfactants market in the near future. The changing lifestyles, increasing disposable incomes, and shifting perceptions toward improving the standard of living are also expected to have a positive impact on the trajectory of the Asia Pacific surfactants market during the forecast period.Side-effects of Chemically-obtained Surfactants to Restrain Market GrowthDespite the soaring demand for beauty products, the Asia Pacific surfactants market is being restrained by the growing concerns amongst consumers about the usage of synthetic raw materials and oleo-chemicals in cosmetics. Surfactants manufactured using synthetic sources can lead to side-effects such as irritation to the skin and eye, damage beyond repair, and neurotoxicity amongst others. The introduction of organic products and worries about irreparable damage to the skin due to the use of surfactants are expected to hamper the growth of the Asia Pacific surfactants market.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.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:Global Data Recovery Software Market 2018: Kroll Ontrack, FINALDATA, DiskGenius

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Data Recovery Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global market for Data Recovery Software procures data and other relevant information from myriad dependable sources, and applies various methodologies to analyze and map it. It then groups the data into digestible chunks so that they offer crucial market information. The entire process entails both primary and secondary research methodology.The sourced information is also used to draw growth forecasts of the global market for Data Recovery Software. It helps to understand the various factors providing tailwinds and headwinds to the markets trajectory and the macro-fundamentals likely to impact in the near future.Request for Sample Copy of this Study @Another key area, where the report proves to be a valuable source of information is in the understanding the competitive dynamics for the global market for Data Recovery Software. Using analytical tools, viz. Porters Five Forces and SWOT Analysis, it evaluates the opportunities and pitfalls players might encounter in the market for Data Recovery Software. It also enables it to draw insights on strengths and weaknesses of prominent market participants.For the purpose of study, the global market for Data Recovery Software has been segmented depending upon different parameters in the research study. A comparative analysis of the different segments grouped under one head is presented to that stakeholders can tap into the market right. The research and development landscape too has been studied to understand the scope in the global market for Data Recovery Software.Table of ContentsGlobal Data Recovery Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Data Recovery Software1.1 Data Recovery Software Market Overview1.1.1 Data Recovery Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Data Recovery Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Data Recovery Software Market by Type1.3.1 Windows1.3.2 Linux1.3.3 OS X1.4 Data Recovery Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Commercial1.4.2 PersonalAccess the Report and full TOC @2 Global Data Recovery Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Data Recovery Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Kroll Ontrack3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Data Recovery Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments4 Global Data Recovery Software Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States Data Recovery Software Development Status and Outlook6 EU Data Recovery Software Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Data Recovery Software Development Status and Outlook8 China Data Recovery Software Development Status and Outlook9 India Data Recovery Software Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Data Recovery Software Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 Data Recovery Software Market Dynamics12.1 Data Recovery Software Market Opportunities12.2 Data Recovery Software Challenge and Risk12.2.1 Competition from Opponents12.2.2 Downside Risks of Economy12.3 Data Recovery Software Market Constraints and Threat12.3.1 Threat from Substitute12.3.2 Government Policy12.3.3 Technology Risks12.4 Data Recovery Software Market Driving Force12.4.1 Growing Demand from Emerging Markets12.4.2 Potential ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Data Recovery Software Market Size (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2018)Table Global Data Recovery Software Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Global Data Recovery Software Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)Figure United States Data Recovery Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure EU Data Recovery Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Japan Data Recovery Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure China Data Recovery Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure India Data Recovery Software 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Warm Air Heaters Market - Global Industry Analysis And Forecast For 2018

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This report offers a comprehensive analysis of the global warm air heaters market with regards to the historic, current and future size of the industry. Warm air heaters have replaced traditional water heating systems in the industrial sector and are also gaining popularity in home heating applications owing to their energy saving abilities.The report explores the emergence of the warm air heaters in numerous applications and the development of the segment over recent years. Segmenting the overall market on the basis of end-use application, product type and geography, the report provides a detailed picture of the market and the factors that influence its growth. It identifies key players and highlights the scope of each with respect to sales figures, product innovations, R&D activities, market share, growth prospects and challenges facing the company.Download Brochure For Recent Industry Insight@OverviewThe overall market for warm air heaters has been segmented on the basis of type and end-use application. The various types of warm air heaters include forced air heaters, radiant heaters, indirect fired heaters, convection heaters, electric forced air heaters, and direct fired heaters. The air heaters are used in multiple sectors such as power generation, portable buildings, industrial, process, and tunnels.The air conditioning systems and warm air heaters market was estimated to be worth USD 10.8 billion in 2009 which grew to USD 24.5 billion in 2010 reporting a total profit of 28.64%. Since warm air heaters are most popular in residential and commercial areas, the market for warm air heaters is largely dependent on the level of construction activity in those sectors. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in residential and nonresidential buildings which has boosted the market. The use of heaters for residential purposes also relies on weather conditions and fluctuations in climate largely influence the industry. Many countries in the U.S. and regions across Europe have been experiencing severe cold weather and sales have lifted by a great margin.In the U.S., there has been increasing demand for warm air heaters from Texas, Florida and California. Florida generated nearly 22% of the total revenue by the U.S. in 2010. There has been a steady demand from households in urban China as product innovations have crept into the market. Appliances offering moisturizing and waterproof features are gaining popularity in the high-tier cities.Warm air heating systems are also used in numerous industrial applications and the segment is expected to grow rapidly.Companies mentioned in the market research reportThe competitive landscape of the global warm air heaters markets is dominated by key players such as Reznor UK, AmbiRad Limited, Kroll UK Ltd., Dantherm A/S, and Winterwarm BV. The research report has an extensive section on company profiles, market share, business strategies adopted by each and growth prospects.This market research report analyzes the following geographies:North AmericaAsia PacificEuropeRest of the WorldGet Toc Of Research Report@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In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market 2018 Global Industry Analysis, Clinical Technology, New Innovation, Gross Margin & Revenue

In-Vitro Toxicology Testing

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SummaryOrbis Research released a new research report of 150 pages on title Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market 2018-2025, by Players, Types and Applications with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies.Get a PDF Sample of In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market report @:The Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing market was valued at USD xx million in 2017 and is forecasted to reach USD xx million by 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during the forecast period (2018-2025).The market growth is driven by several factors such as rising demand for in-vitro tests over the in-vivo tests, growing awareness about the toxicity testing studies and technological advancements. However, the market is affected by the scarcity of in-vitro models to detect immunostimulation and lack of predictive ability of in vitro testing over in vivo testing.The Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing market is segmented by Product and Services into Assays, Reagents and Labware, and Services. By Method, the market is segmented into Cellular Assays, In Silico Methods, Biochemical Assays, and Ex Vivo Models. By Technology, the market is segmented into Molecular Imaging Technologies, High-Throughput Technologies, Cell Culture Technology, and Omics Technologies. Based on Industry, it is further segmented into Diagnostics, Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics and Household Products, Chemical, and Food Industry.Among the recent technologies of in-vitro Toxicology Testing, toxicogenomics is a major technology which is used to make changes in gene expression for the toxic exposure and ability to predict toxicity pathways.Geographically, the market is segmented into North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW. North America dominates the global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing market where the US is accounted for the largest share and China is projected to grow during the forecast period. The factors contributing to the growth of the market in this region include increasing the number of CROs (Contract Research Organizations) and growing R&D investments in the biopharmaceuticals market. Increasing international pressure to ban animal testing on Chinese cosmetics industry is also contributing to the growth of the in-vitro toxicology testing market.Browse The Full Report With TOC@:The major players of global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing market include SGS S.A., Covance, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Qiagen N.V., GE Healthcare, Eurofins Scientific Se, Merck KGaA, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc, Charles River Laboratories International, Inc., and Catalent Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific is dominating the global Invitro toxicology testing market holding the largest market share in 2016. The major brands of the company are Invitrogen and Gibco offering over 110 toxicology assays kits and supplementary products for the toxicology testing. In 2016, Thermo Fisher Scientific acquired Affymetrix to expand their product offerings in clinical and applied markets.The report covers the factors impacting the market, Porter 5 Forces, Market Share Analysis, Price trend analysis, Product Benchmarking, and company profiles.Why purchase the report?Visualize the composition of the Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing market across each indication, in terms of type and applications, highlighting the key commercial assets and players.Identify commercial opportunities in Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing by analyzing trends and co-development deals.Excel data sheet with thousands of data points of the Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing market  level 4/5 segmentationPDF report with the most relevant analysis cogently put together after exhaustive qualitative interviews and in-depth market studyProduct mapping in excel for the key Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing products of all major market playersGot any Query? Feel free to ask us @:Some Points From TOC:Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope1.1 Research methodology1.2 Scope of the ReportChapter 2 Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market Trends2.1 Key Trends & DevelopmentsChapter 3 Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market  Industry Analysis3.1 Industry Impact Factors (Drivers & Restraints)3.2 Competitive Intensity- Porter 5 Forces3.3 Regulatory AnalysisChapter 4 Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market- Product Analysis4.1. In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market  By Product and Services4.1.1 Assays4.1.1.1. Enzyme Toxicity Assays4.1.1.2. Bacterial Toxicity Assays4.1.1.3. Tissue Culture Assays4.1.1.4. Receptor-Binding Assays4.1.1.5. Cell-Based Elisa and Western Blots4.1.1.6. Others4.1.2 Reagents and Labware4.1.3 Services4.2. In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market  By Method4.2.1 Cellular Assays4.2.2 In Silico Methods4.2.3 Biochemical Assays4.2.4 Ex Vivo Models4.3 In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market  By Technology4.3.1 Molecular Imaging Technologies4.3.2 High-Throughput Technologies4.3.3 Cell Culture Technology4.3.4 Omics TechnologiesChapter 5 Global In-Vitro Toxicology Testing Market- Geographical Analysis5.1. Asia Pacific5.1.1. China5.1.2. Japan5.1.3. India5.1.4. Australia5.1.5. Rest of Asia Pacific5.2. Europe5.2.1. Germany5.2.2. France5.2.3. The UK5.2.4. Italy5.2.5. Spain5.2.6. Rest of Europe5.3. North America5.3.1. The USA5.3.2. CanadaContinuedPlace a Purchase Order for this Report at: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.Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas  75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +9164101019Follow Us on LinkedIn:Green-Roof Market Research Analysis by Experts : Optigreen, TAJIMA, Soprema, Tremco, Sempergreen, Onduline, ZinCo

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Green-Roof Market Professional Survey Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Green-Roof market is carefully assessed in this report which holds the primary objective of informing its readers about rewarding business prospects and advancements in the industry. Besides studying lucrative opportunities available in the market, the analysts shed light on value forecasts, market restraints, growth factors, and trends. The report offers an accurate outlook of the market for the mentioned forecast period. It notes the degree to which a growth factor could be impacting the market and discusses about important trends making a contribution to market growth. On the whole, players are expected to find this report as a perfect instructional study assisting them to plan effective strategies.Download Free exclusive Sample of this report:Both current and future scenarios of the global Green-Roof market are analyzed in the report to help readers gain sound understanding on how to deal with challenges and secure a decent growth in the coming years. The market is segmented based on different categories, where each segment is examined for growth opportunities and analyzed with the help of statistical data. It is also analyzed based on regional segmentation to help players know about the markets progress in different parts of the world. By calculating estimated shares of all of the segments studied, the report attempts to provide their near-accurate standings amongst each other.Furthermore, the report incorporates profiles of key companies operating in the global Green-Roof market. There could be different sections of a company profile, including recent developments, business strategies, and financial and company overviews. In order to validate the reports analysis and data, the researchers conduct ongoing interviews with industry experts. Besides face-to-face interviews, the primary research could involve telephonic and email interactions. Secondary research may typically include collecting information and data from government reports, statistical databases, and documents, regulatory and patent databases, internal and external proprietary databases, investor presentations, and financial and annual reports.Table of ContentsGlobal Green-Roof Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Green-Roof1.1 Definition and Specifications of Green-Roof1.1.1 Definition of Green-Roof1.1.2 Specifications of Green-Roof1.2 Classification of Green-Roof1.2.1 Extensive Green-Roof1.2.2 Semi-intensive Green-Roof1.2.3 Intensive Green-Roof1.3 Applications of Green-Roof1.3.1 Residential Buildings1.3.2 Commercial Buildings1.3.3 Industrial Buildings1.3.4 OthersRead Complete Table of Content @2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Green-Roof2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Green-Roof2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Green-Roof2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Green-Roof3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Green-Roof3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Green-Roof Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Green-Roof Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Green-Roof Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Green-Roof Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Green-Roof Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Green-Roof Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Green-Roof Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Green-Roof Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Green-Roof Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Green-Roof Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Green-Roof Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Green-RoofTable Product Specifications of Green-RoofTable Classification of Green-RoofFigure Global Production Market Share of Green-Roof by Type in 2016Figure Extensive Green-Roof PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Extensive Green-RoofFigure Semi-intensive Green-Roof PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Semi-intensive Green-RoofFigure Intensive Green-Roof PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Intensive Green-RoofTable Applications of Green-RoofEnquiry 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Castor Oil and Derivatives Market : Key Growth Factors and Forecast 2016 - 2024

Castor Oil and Derivatives Market

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Castor oil and its derivatives are well known for its medicinal benefits. Castor oil is obtained from castor seeds (Ricinus communis). It is a trigyceride and comprises fatty acids, 90% of which is ricinoleic acid. It appears as a pale yellow liquid with a thick and sticky sensation. It has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which makes it useful for therapeutic applications. Castor oil has a consistent viscosity and thus it doesnt freeze at lower temperatures. This property makes it an ideal substitute for synthetic lubricants in commercial manufacturing processes. Castor oil and its derivatives have several applications such as food additive and flavorants, mold inhibitor, and cosmetic ingredient. Castor oil is also synthesized to produce bio-diesel.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @There are several derivatives of castor oil such as castor wax, castor meal, sulfonated castor oil, and dehydrated castor oil that has wide application in various industrial processes. Burgeoning use of castor oil and its derivatives in production of bio-diesel is driving the global castor oil and its derivatives market. Lubricant is one of the major application segments of castor oil and its derivatives. Castor oil is obtained from natural sources and thus there is a trend towards bio-based lubricants over synthetic. Hence, castor oil and its derivatives is expected to find large application in lubricant industry. Increasing demand for castor oil in the manufacture of polyamide 11 (Nylon 11) is another key application of castor oil and its derivatives. As the demand for high quality engineered plastics and durable protective coatings are increasing, the consumption of castor oil and its derivative is expected to rise significantly in the next few years.However, castor oil and its derivatives have been reported for several allergic reactions and contact dermatitis in case of prolonged exposure. The seeds and leaves of the plant contain the alkaloid ricinine and the toxic protein ricin. Internal ingestion of castor oil and its derivatives may result in diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, cramping or abdominal pain. Thus, such factors are restraining growth of castor oil and its derivatives market globally. Growing demand for sustainable and biodegradable products is leading to industry shift towards reducing reliance on petrochemical derivatives. Thus, castor oil and its derivatives are anticipated to find promising potential in various application industries such as resins and polymer, coatings, etc. Moreover, castor oil has natural emollient properties and hence it is largely used in cosmetic products. Significant development and research in the castor oil and derivatives market is expected to provide opportunity for growth in the near future. Castor oil and its derivatives are largely accepted in organic farming over synthetic chemicals in many regions. Thus, it has substantial role as a bio-based pesticide in organic farming.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @The global castor oil and its derivatives market is anticipated to grow at a substantial rate in the foreseeable future. India is expected to drive the demand for castor oil and its derivatives in the South Asian region. India is the largest producer of castor seeds producing about 65% of global production. More than 80% of castor oil is processed in the producing countries. Germany, France and Italy have processing plants and France is the largest importer of castor oil in the European Union. Demand for natural flavoring in food and beverage is expected to raise demand for castor oil and its derivatives in developed countries such as the U.S, and hence North America is expected to increase its capacity for castor oil production in the next few yearsThe castor oil and its derivatives market has several players which are involved in the supply, distribution and marketing of castor oil and its derivatives. Some of them include Itoh Oil Chemicals Co., Ltd, Thai Castor Oil Industries Co. Ltd., Jayant Agro-Organics Limited, Rpk Agrotech Exports Private Limited, and Kanak Castor Products Pvt. 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. 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:Ferric Chloride Hexahydrate Market Shares And Strategies Of Key Players 2016 - 2024

Ferric Chloride Hexahydrate Market

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Ferric chloride hexahydrate consists of trans-cationic complexes and chloride anions [Fe (H2O)4 Cl2]+, with the remaining two H2O molecules embedded within the monoclinic crystal structure. Ferric chloride hexahydrate contains not less than 98.0 percent and not more than 102.0 per cent of FeCl36(H2O). It is yellow or brown in color and is available in the form of solid powder or lumps. Ferric chloride hexahydrate is readily soluble in water and highly soluble in acetone and ethanol. Its molecular formula is FeCl36(H2O). Ferric chloride hexahydrate is also known as iron/ferric (III) chloride hexahydrate, ferric chloride hexa, ferric chloride Gr, iron trichloride hexahydrate, or ferric chloride 6H2O. It is readily soluble in water and is hygroscopic is nature. The salt is stable under normal conditions, but it cannot withstand strong oxidizing agents. Ferric chloride hexahydrate has the ability to form mixture with potassium and sodium. This mixture can be explosive. It is potentially toxic, highly corrosive, and hazardous in case of skin contact, eye contact, or ingestion.Browse Research Report With Complete TOC @Ferric chloride hexahydrate is well known for its usage in sewage treatment. It helps in purification of water and thus plays a vital role in drinking water production. Printed circuit boards can be prepared with the help of ferric chloride hexahydrate. The salt is employed in brown patinas (copper, brass, or bronze). It is an oxidizing agent, a clinical reagent, and one of the highly preferred etching agents for engraving and photography. Ferric chloride hexahydrate can be used as a mordant in dyeing and printing of textiles. It helps in preparation of a variety of organically templated iron phosphates, due to its rich crystal chemistry and the ability to absorb large molecules in its micropores.The global ferric chloride hexahydrate market is expected to expand at a moderate CAGR from 2016 to 2024. A major driver for the market is the risen number of strict legislations regarding wastewater treatment in industrial and domestic sectors. Use of ferric chloride hexahydrate for treatment of wastewater is primarily dependent on location to source, as transportation costs can be a major portion of the delivered cost. This can act as a factor restraining the growth of the global ferric chloride hexahydrate market.Request a PDF Brochure with Research Report Analysis @Western Europe is one of the major consumers of ferric chloride hexahydrate. This is attributable to the increasing consumption of the salt in countries such as the U.K., France, and Belgium as well as Mediterranean countries, as they are linked to EU norms for phosphorus removal. The ferric chloride hexahydrate market in Asia Pacific is projected to expand in the next six years. This is due to the rising demand for ferric chloride hexahydrate from China and Japan. China is the leading consumer of ferric chloride hexahydrate for wastewater treatment. Production of Chinese printed circuit boards is also rising, as major producers of printed circuit boards are shifting toward China.Some of the major companies operating in the global ferric chloride hexahydrate market are Brenntag UK & Ireland, Chemical Company of Malaysia Bhd., Kemira, PVS Chemicals Inc., BPS Products Pvt. Ltd., Cochin Minerals & Rutile Limited, Huizhou 3R Environmental Chemical Co., Ltd., and E&C Chemicals Inc.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:Chocolate Market will grow from USD 82493.3 Million in 2017 to USD 111055.3 Million by 2023

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Publisher projects that the Chocolate market size will grow from USD 82493.3 Million in 2017 to USD 111055.3 Million by 2023, at an estimated CAGR of 5.08%. The base year considered for the study is 2017, and the market size is projected from 2018 to 2023.The chocolate market has been growing at a fast pace. The strong demand from North America is fuelling the chocolate market in the region. The market for these ingredients is growing in developing economies such as China and India.The huge demand for chocolate in confectionery and food & beverage industries drives the market. The promising health benefits of chocolate in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics provides enough evidence to encourage manufacturers to consider using such ingredients. Asia-Pacific is increasingly becoming an attractive market for chocolate manufacturers.Complete Report is Available@By Market Players:Archer Daniels Midland,Barry Callebaut,Blommer Chocolate ,Cargill Incorporated,Cemoi,Cocoa Processing Company Ltd.,Mars Inc.,Meiji Holdings Co. Ltd.,Nestle S.A.,Olam International Limited,Puratos Group,By ProductMilk Chocolate,Dark Chocolate,White Chocolate, ,By PackagingMolded, BoxedInquiry for Report@The prime objective of this report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facing. Deep researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the report. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the market in depth. The data and the information regarding the market are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the industry experts. The facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations. This enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much better.Points Covered in The Report:The points that are discussed within the report are the major market players that are involved in the market such as manufacturers, raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, end users, traders, distributors and etc.The complete profile of the companies is mentioned. And the capacity, production, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, sales volume, sales revenue, consumption, growth rate, import, export, supply, future strategies, and the technological developments that they are making are also included within the report. The historical data from 2012 to 2017 and forecast data from 2018 to 2023.The growth factors of the market is discussed in detail wherein the different end users of the market are explained in detail.Data and information by manufacturer, by region, by type, by application and etc, and custom research can be added according to specific requirements.Buy Report@The report contains the SWOT analysis of the market. Finally, the report contains the conclusion part where the opinions of the industrial experts are included.About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comOil Water Separator Market Analysis, Segments, Growth and Value Chain -2025

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Oil Water Separator: Market OverviewWaste water effluents from refineries, chemical/petrochemical plants, and gas processing plants have high amount of oils and suspended solids. The oil water separator is a device which is designed to separate these effluents from the wastewater. The American Petroleum Institute (API) maintains the standards and designs of these separators. The first API separator was installed in 1933 at the Atlantic Refining Company (ARCO) refinery in Philadelphia, U.S. almost all the refineries worldwide install API separators that act as a key stage of the oily wastewater treatment plants. Oil and water separators are also used in electrical substations. The transformers found in substations employ a large amount of oil for cooling purposes. Channels are constructed adjacent to the enclosed substations to catch any leaked oil and also rainwater is trapped. Therefore, oil and water separators provide a faster and easier cleaning of an oil leak.View Report Preview:The oil water separator also treats wastewater to a certain standard, wherein its discharge is considered safe into an approved discharge point (sewer). Oil water separators are typically the first stage of any wastewater treatment system. However, in some cases, an oil water separator can be used as effective completion of pipeline treatment equipment. Oils, grease, and other hydrocarbons are removed and non-hazardous water is left, which can be disposed off safely in the drainage. The ability of oil water separators make it possible for sensitive downstream equipment to perform as designed. The separators reduce overall operating cost and improve system maintenance.Oil Water Separator Market: Dynamics and TrendsThe oil water separator becomes a necessity to be utilized in cases where water is produced as a part of operation, discharge of this produced water is to be done into public, and where water authority compliance is to be achieved for the discharge. The type of wastewater being produced decides the exact type of oil water separator that has to be utilized.The trends utilized in the oil water separator market is the removal of oil, grease, and other hydrocarbons by coalescing methods, which force oil droplets to be impinged on the surface area. Gravity-based separators operate by putting fluid velocity and its corresponding pressure in control. The latest technique of hydro cyclone applies extreme centrifugal forces, which separate the water and oil droplets. The technology related to building of pressure-rated separators can be configured for complex operations. These operations are separation of gas from a myriad of immiscible liquids and suspended solids with same or different specific gravities.Oil Water Separator Market SegmentationIn terms of type, the oil water separator market can be segmented into API series-based separators, enhanced gravity-based separators, and pressure-rated separators. In terms of application, the oil water separator market can be segmented into oil and gas, chemical processing plants, wastewater treatment, electrical substations, transportation, and others. In terms of region, the global oil water separator market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.Oil Water Separator Market: Key PlayersKey players operating in the global oil water separator market include Schlumberger Ltd., Al Kaafah LLC, HydroFlo Tech LLC, and Andritz AG.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:LNG Fueling Station Market Size to Expand Significantly by the End of 2025

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Demand for clean fuel vehicles running on natural gas is gaining momentum due to the rise in concern about environment protection. Governments across the world are promoting the usage of natural gas vehicles owing to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, compressed natural gas (CNG) is the primarily used form of natural gas in vehicles worldwide. This gas is compressed at high pressures of about 200 bars and is then dispensed into the CNG tanks of vehicles. CNG is used largely in light duty vehicles, cars, and buses. It is generally not used for heavy duty transport vehicles. About 5 liters of CNG is equivalent to 1 liter of diesel. This makes it useless for long distance heavy duty trucks owing to the high volume and the weight of CNG. This paves the way for liquefied natural gas (LNG) for usage in vehicles.View Report Preview:LNG is natural gas that has been liquefied at a temperature of -161 C. Its volume is about 1/600 times that of natural gas. LNG as transportation fuel would decrease cost and carbon emission when compared to its crude oil alternatives. LNG fueling stations are gradually gaining popularity as they possess higher energy density than CNG, higher volume of natural gas, and their storage requires highly insulated tank owing to low temperatures. Hence, LNG is suited for long distance heavy duty vehicles. Since LNG as a fuel are best suited for heavy-duty vehicles hence while developing LNG fueling stations special care must be taken for accommodation of these vehicles.In terms of type of station, the LNG fueling station market can be bifurcated into permanent station and mobile station. Permanent stations are akin to any other fuel stations where dispensers are fixed and firmly attached to the ground and LNG is stored in storage tanks. It is dispensed into the vehicles through fuel dispensers. Under the mobile station type, an LNG tanker with a side mounted LNG dispenser attached to it is utilized. This type of fueling station can serve various small fleet of vehicles and can also be used for emergency refueling of vehicle.Based on application, the LNG fueling station market can be classified into vehicles and ship. The vehicles application segment consists of automobiles running on LNG. These are primarily heavy duty vehicles and other vehicles utilizing LNG as fuel source. The ship application segment comprises ships and barges running on LNG.In terms of region, the LNG fueling station market can be divided into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is expected to lead the market during the forecast period, followed by North America. This dominance in the market by Asia Pacific is primarily due to the large number of LNG fuel stations in China. The LNG fueling station market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a significant pace during the forecast period due to the increase in demand for natural gas as a cleaner alternative for other fossil fuels and rise in number of heavy duty vehicles in the region.Key companies operating in the LNG fueling station market include Cryostar, Clean Energy Fuels, ENN Energy Holding, Kunlun Energy Company Limited, FortisBC, ENGIE, Sinopec, CNOOC, and Natural Gas Vehicles for America.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:Non-woven Adhesives Market share will expand till 2025

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Non-woven Adhesives Market: OverviewNon-woven adhesives are widely used in disposable hygiene products. They are thermoplastic adhesives comprising base polymer, plasticizers, antioxidants, diluents, additives, and tackifiers. Demand for these products is high due to their beneficial properties such as optimum performance, easy usage, high elasticity, and safety in various applications. Non-woven adhesives are commonly employed in applications such as feminine hygiene, baby care, and adult care.View Report Preview:Non-woven adhesives are available in various types such as amorphous poly-alpha olefins, ethylene vinyl acetate, and styrenic block copolymers. Other types comprise polyester, polyamide, and polyurethane. They are also used in industrial applications due to their properties such as lack of odor, high elasticity, excellent processibility, high cohesion strength, and softness.Non-woven Adhesives Market: TrendsAmong the types of non-woven adhesive, the demand for poly-alpha olefins is expected to be comparatively high during the forecast period, as it is more resistant to solvents and acids. It is also cost effective compared to other adhesives. The usage of non-woven adhesives is expected to increase substantially in medical products, owing to the rapid advancements in the healthcare sector, which is largely dependent on product developments and innovations.Demand for high performance non-woven adhesives has been rising of late due to the increase in usage of disposable hygiene products such as baby diapers, training pants, and feminine sanitary products. Non-woven adhesives form a major part of the products available in the hygiene market. The hygiene industry is primarily driven by the various innovations in products. Products with characteristics such as improved absorption, less waste, thinner cores, and proper and comfortable fit are being preferred. Non-woven adhesives meet these criteria.Advancement in medical procedures and health care related practices is expected to drive the market for non-woven adhesives in the next few years. Rise in aging population is also anticipated to be a major factor driving the inclusion of non-woven adhesives in various adult care products such as adult diapers. With increasing awareness related to the use of safe and hygienic products, the market for non-woven adhesives is estimated to expand further during the forecast period.Intense competition in the market may prove to be hamper new entrants in the non-woven adhesives market. The risk associated with the volatility in the prices of raw materials is also projected to adversely affect the market.Non-woven Adhesives Market: Region-wise OutlookOf late, the demand for non-woven adhesives has been rising in Asia Pacific. This increase in demand can be ascribed to the rise in awareness related to the benefits associated with its usage in products such as feminine care and baby care products such as diapers in countries such as Japan, China, and India. Following Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America are anticipated to register substantial growth in the non-woven adhesives market in the near future. Countries such as the UAE, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico are adopting better and hygienic health care practices. This is likely to be a key factor driving the development of the market in these regions.The non-woven adhesives market in North America and Europe is anticipated to witness significant growth over the next few years. Rise in demand for non-woven adhesives in North America can be ascribed to the increase in demand in countries such as the U.S. due to the awareness related to implementation of better hygienic practices. Increase in demand for hygiene products such as baby diapers and feminine sanitary products in countries in Europe such as Germany and France is anticipated to augment the non-woven adhesives market in the region in the near future.Non-woven Adhesives Market: Key PlayersPlayers operating in the non-woven adhesives market include HB Fuller, Henkel Corporation, Palmetto Adhesives, Kraton Corporation, Beardow Adams, and The Dow Chemical Company.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:Food-grade Alcohol Market trends estimates high demand by 2025

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Food-grade AlcoholAlcohol, also known as ethanol, is a versatile product with applications ranging from food and pharmaceutical to industrial solvents. The food industry is a key user of alcohol. Alcohol is employed in the manufacturing of vinegar, flavours & extracts, candy glazes, food dyes, yeast, animal-feed supplements, and various food sprays. Commonly, a major difference between productions of fuel-grade ethanol and food-grade ethanol is the addition of a small amount of solvent or gasoline to the fuel-grade ethanol in order to make it undrinkable. The process of alcohol production does not necessarily employ food-grade equipment. The remaining process for alcohol production is mostly similar. There are three types of food grade alcohol: Industrial-grade ethanol, either fermentation or synthetic origin, which has most of the impurities removed, FCC (food chemical codex)-grade ethanol, which includes heavy metal specification limits and GNS (grain neutral spirits, highly pure-grade ethanol, which is used in beverages).View Report Preview:Food-grade Alcohol Market: Drivers and RestraintsRising population and rapid urbanization facilitated the need for quality food products. Moreover, food grade alcohol is utilized for food preservation. These factors are estimated to drive the food grade alcohol market during the forecast period. However, stringent government regulations regarding the quality of food grade alcohol are anticipated to restrain the market to some extent in the near future. Alcohol-flavored food products are likely to provide lucrative opportunities for food grade alcohol in the near future.Food-grade Alcohol Market: SegmentationIn terms of source, the food grade alcohol market can be segmented into:Grain-basedMolasses-basedOthers (synthetic, etc.)Food grade alcohol is often molasses-based with a minimum of 94% to 99.99% volume/volume ratio. Food grade ethanol is commonly manufactured by using traditional methods, which include milling, fermentation, and distillation. In dry milling process, grains such as corn are crushed, mixed with enzymes and water, and heated. The liquid starch mash is further enzymatically treated in order to produce sugar. The produced sugars are fermented with the usage of yeast to yield carbon dioxide and ethanol. After the complete fermentation of the mash, it is distilled and further concentrated to produce ethanol. However, in wet milling, a similar process is employed, excluding the step where the grain is first immersed in dilute acid and water to enable separation of the grain into its components. Ethanol is required as a separating agent, cleaning agent, and also as a direct raw material in numerous food applications. Food grade alcohol serves as a natural preservative, not only in the production of food products but also in food packaging due to its unique characteristics.Food-grade Alcohol Market: Region-wise outlookIn the U.S., nearly 92% of alcohol consumed in a year is utilized for fuel applications, approximately 4% is consumed by food and beverage applications, with the remaining 4% as industrial chemicals and solvents. Asia Pacific held a majority share of the global food grade alcohol market in 2016 due to increasing demand from the food & beverage industry in the region. China and India are anticipated to considerably contribute to the development of the Asia Pacific food grade alcohol market. The food-grade alcohol markets in Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa are estimated to expand at a sluggish rate during the forecast period.Food-grade Alcohol Market: Key PlayersKey players operating in the global food grade alcohol market include:Archer Daniels MidlandWilmar InternationalMGP IngredientsCargillRequest 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:Healthcare Analytics Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023

Healthcare Analytics Market

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Healthcare analytics market report gives comprehensive outlook on Healthcare Analytics across the globe with special emphasis on key regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). This report on healthcare analytics market gives historical, current, and future market sizes (US$ Mn) of type, application, component, end-use and geographic regions. This report studies healthcare analytics market dynamics elaborately to identify the current trends & drivers, future opportunities and possible challenges to the key stakeholders operating in the market. In addition, the market report includes regulatory scenario, and competition analysis with vividly illustrated the competition dashboard to assess the market competition. Moreover, PBI analyzed healthcare analytics market to better equip clients with possible investment opportunities across the regions (Regional Investment Hot-Spots) and market unmet needs (Product Opportunities). Key stakeholders of the healthcare analytics market report include suppliers, manufacturers, marketers, policy makers engaged in manufacturing and supply of healthcare analytics.A sample of this report is available upon request @Healthcare Analytics Market:The healthcare analytics market estimated to be valued over US$ 14,000 Mn in 2016 and expanding at a growth rate of 26 %, and projected to reach US$ XX Mn by 2023.Dramatic change in healthcare industry has expected to fuel the healthcare analytics market.Healthcare industry is adopting innovative technologies from the past decade. The advanced analytics can play a vital role in healthcare systems and provide insights to manage business proactively and efficiently. Moreover, analytics enables predict patients future health needs, which is more useful for provider and payer. Hence, most of the healthcare organizations are inclining towards healthcare analytics. For instance, electronic health records (EHR) provides patient data like history, prescriptions, personal details like contact number, email address, diagnostic test results, physicians comments etc.Gradual increase in healthcare expenditure is expected to witness robust growth in healthcare analytics market.Healthcare expenditure is prime factor, which drives the healthcare analytics market. Rise in healthcare expenditure, effective hospital management strongly correlates with quality of care. Healthcare analytics able to provide insights to reduce costs, identify at-risk populations, minimize inefficiencies, and predict future healthcare needs and diagnostic tests.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @North America has expected to account for major revenue share of global healthcare analytics marketU.S. healthcare analytics market is expected to expand at significant CAGR over the forecast period owing to rise in healthcare expenditure, adoption of sophisticate technologies have expected to propel the market. The healthcare services come with a price, organizations are incentivized to seek volume business over the value business. The above model enables enhance readmissions, repeat visits, and other inefficiencies that increase cost. Analytics used to implement payment process depends on performance rather than volume, the provider would be paid for value, depends on outcomes. Data driven models have been using to identify disease risk factors. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Acts (HIPAA), permits the disclosure of confidential information regarding health for research without authorization of patient. Lack of skilled resources, limited healthcare infrastructure in developing countries, data confidentiality is the major challenges of the healthcare analytics market.Need more information about this report @Competition AssessmentKey players profiles in the global healthcare analytics market include: Allscripts Health Solutions (U.S.) Cerner Corporation (U.S.) BM Corporation (U.S.) Health Catalyst (U.S.). HP Development Company, L.P.(U.S.) Inovalon (U.S.) McKesson Corporation (U.S.) Mede Analytics, Inc. (U.S.) Oracle Corporation (U.S.) Optum, Inc. (U.S.) Verisk Analytics (U.S.) SAS Institute, Inc. (U.S.)Market players are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to improve their market position in Healthcare Analytics market. In 2016 March, Advera Health Analytics, a healthcare informatics company, launched Evidex, a web based platform with structured real world drug evidence which combines annotated data from curated clinical trial results. In 2012, AAIPharma Services Corp pharmaceutical product development services provider acquired Celsis Analytical Services, a unit of Celsis International Ltd. In 2012, IMS Health (QuintilesIMS) acquired PharmaDeals Ltd., online information provider of licensing, mergers & acquisitions and business transactions about pharmaceutical industry globally.Email: sales@precisionbusinessinsights.comToll Free(US): +1-866-598-1553Key Findings of the Report: Healthcare analytics market is expanding at XX% CAGR over 2017 to 2023 to reach market value of US$ XX Mn by 2023 Based on type, predictive analytics market is expanding at highest CAGR over the forecast period. Based on region type, North America is expected to account for major market share. Hospitals are prime channel for surgical instruments systems distribution across the globe Players focusing on expanding geographic presence to garner market opportunities in developing economiesKey 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 marketGet 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 @E-Waste Market - Increasing Amount of E-Waste Worldwide and Concerns for its Management

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Globally, the e-waste accounts for more than 40 million tons each year, which comprise of huge masses of computers, refrigerators, air conditioners, refrigerators, and other electric and electronic devices. The United States and European Union are the highest producers of e-waste per person around the world although developing nations, such as China are witnessing a very high growth in their e-waste amount. In 2014, only about 15.5% of the total e-waste amount was recycled with using environmentally safe and efficient methods.Free PDF Sample for Latest Advancements and Application @Several countries are focusing on promoting the management of e-waste for instance, Ghana in Africa is an important center for electronic waste receiving, recovering, reusing and disposing. The capital of Ghana, Accra hosts a prospering market place for second-hand electronic goods. It comprises of an extensive channel of repair shops, and wide array of activities devoted to extract the full potential of e-waste.With the rising affordability of people and advancements in technology, the electronic goods become obsolete in a short span of time, resulting in increasing the amount of e-waste. For example, Smartphone manufacturing companies introduce several new models every year with new and enhanced features turning the old models out of fashion.Obtain Report Details @India has one of the fastest growing smartphone market with about 27 million smartphones shipped during the second quarter of 2016. Although, the country has a higher lifespan of smartphones as compared to countries in the West. In 2015, India had produced around 1.5 tons of e-waste, out of which 90% was managed by using methods that were not environment safe and could harm human health. Thus, to manage this the Indian government announced Electronic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. Furthermore, the European countries e-waste management is regulated through the WEEE Directive and its national transpositions in different member countries.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Food Preservatives Market: Global Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023

Food Preservatives Market

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Global Food Preservatives Market: Food preservation is one of the oldest technologies to prevent the food from deterioration. There are several ways to preserve food such as boiling, pasteurizing, freezing, pickling and dehydrating. In conventional methods, sugar, salt and mineral salts are used as preservatives to preserve food. Preservatives play a vital role in sea food, poultry and meat industry. Addition of preservatives to the food enables eradicate the growth of microorganisms and prevents the food from decomposing and provides long shelf life.Dramatic changes in lifestyle of people, changing trend towards consumption of processed food and canned food, inclination towards ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook food expected to trigger demand for preservatives across the globe. Rapid increase in demand for alcohol beverage products such as beer, wine are expected accelerates the significance of preservatives. However, surge in the awareness about the adverse effects of preservatives and stringent government regulations pertaining to the preservatives are few challenges expected to restrain the food preservatives market. For instance, Russia has banned benzoate group of preservatives due to adverse effects like asthma, skin allergies, and brain damage. In June 2016, Indian Governments Food safety and standards authority of India banned the usage of potassium bromate and potassium cyclamates in food and in May 2015, National food safety standards for food additive use was introduced in China by National and Family Planning Committee of China.A sample of this report is available upon request @The Food Preservatives Market is classified on the basis of function, type, source, application, form and geographical regions.Based on function, Global Food Preservatives Market is segmented as Antimicrobials Anti-oxidants Chelating agentsBased on type, Global Food Preservatives Market is segmented as Benzoates Sorbates Nitrates Sulphites Vitamin E&C Polyphosphates Disodium EDTA OthersBased on Source, Global Food Preservatives Market is segmented as Chemicals Micro organisms PlantsBased on application, Global Food Preservatives Market is segmented as Bakery Beverages Oils and fats Dairy products Seafood, poultry and meat industry Snacks Confectionery OthersTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market players are focused on the developments of natural preservative due to the growing preference for the natural preservatives. For instance, Carbionspurac Company has a wide range of natural preservative products line such as Verdad powder N6, N8 and N9. Moreover, huge support from the governments is expected to witness growth in the market for food preservatives. For example, in 2015 July, Indian Government setup a 13 mega food parks in various states Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh etc. to promote the benefits of food and the additives used in them.Need more information about this report @Geographically Food Preservatives Market is segmented as Latin America, North America, Asia- Pacific, The Middle East & Africa and Europe. North America accounts for significant market share in food preservatives market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific, owing to the rise in demand for the natural preservatives, high consumption of meat and poultry products. In Europe, growing health concerns and high consumption of bakery products and processed food are expected to accelerate the market growth for food preservatives owing to high demand for the convenience food, changing in the life style in developing countries, presence of large number of untapped markets are propelling the market growth for the food preservatives in Asia Pacific region.Some of the players in Food Preservatives Market are Danisco A/S (Denmark), Akzo Nobel N.V. (Netherlands), Cargill, Incorporated (U.S.), DSM (Netherlands). Univar Inc. (U.S.), Tate & Lyle (U.K.), Brenntag Solutions Group, Inc. (Germany), Kemin Industries, Inc. (U.S.), Hawkins Watts Limited (New Zealand) and Galactic (Belgium) to name some 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 @Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping the Healthcare Sector- For the Better

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There is no doubt that artificial intelligence has unbelievable prospective in the coming years. Artificial Intelligence is expected to transform our life in every prospect during the near future, including medicine. The new technology could facilitate medical professionals in finding appropriate methods for each patient by redesigning their treatment plans. This would help physicians and nurses to focus on their actual work by assisting repetitive and monotonous jobs.PDF Sample For Latest Advancement:Certain entrepreneurs have already understood the gigantic transformative and financial prospective delivered by medical Artificial Intelligence. The market for Artificial Intelligence in healthcare is bolstering, thus start-ups in this field are blooming out from nowhere. In this era of Big Data, patient data is highly valuable. Some tech giants including, IBM and Google have already appeared in the area of patient data mining, which signifies the worth of it.Companies are continuously focusing on new developments in the Artificial Intelligence healthcare for instance, Artificial Intelligence branch of Google recently introduced a project, Google Deepmind Health for mining medical record to offer faster and efficient healthcare services. Also, another arm of Google, Verily is working on its initiative for genetic data-collecting.Obtain Report Details @Furthermore, IBM Watson, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic Learner College of Medicine introduced WatsonPaths Project that comprises of two cognitive computing technologies that Artificial Intelligence algorithm can utilize. This can enable medical professionals make precise and faster decisions and to discard new insights from EMR. Also, several start-ups are working on developing new platforms in Artificial Intelligence healthcare such as Careskore, Oncora Medical, and Sentrian, CloudMedX Health among others. Apart from the above mentioned applications, Artificial Intelligence healthcare can be used in digital consultation, drug creation, patient monitoring through virtual nurses, and precision medicine among others.View Press Release -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Asia Pacific Copper Oxychloride Market to experience a high growth in the coming years

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The market for copper oxychloride 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 improving consumer food habits, resulting in escalating fruits & vegetables demand, along with rapidly decreasing arable land due to robust industrialization, mainly in China and India.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Increasing usage of fungicide for crop protection in Asia Pacific coupled with rising demand for food is likely to boost the demand of copper oxychloride in the near future. China accounts for the major of demand for copper oxychloride in Asia Pacific. Developed regions such as Europe and North America are expected to hold the second and third largest share of the global market, despite the sluggish economic growth. Rapid expansion in population has raised food security concerns. Underdeveloped and developing countries still lack proper infrastructure for storage and distribution of food grains. Significant increase in yield is possible through the usage of agrochemicals such as fungicides. Thus, the fungicide market is anticipated to expand at a rapid pace.Additionally, Moderate integration level exists in the copper oxychloride market. Companies such as Isagro S.p.A. and IQV do not produce raw materials and depend on supply agreements with raw material manufacturers. Also, large number of medium scale manufacturers are based in Asia Pacific, particularly in China and India, which makes these countries account for the largest share of the copper oxychloride market in Asia Pacific in terms of demand.Obtain Report Details @Manufacturers are highly on expanding their market share in the Asia Pacific region attributed to the growing demand for copper oxychloride by the food & beverages industry. Some of the major players in the operating in the copper oxychloride market include Isagro S.p.A., IQV, Biota Agro Solutions Private Limited, Albaugh, LLC., Killicks Pharma, Spiess-Urania, Manica S.p.A., Syngenta, Greenriver Industry Co., Ltd. and Vimal Crop Care Pvt. Ltd. among others.View Press Release -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Europe Dominate the Dental Chair Market and is Expected to Maintain its Dominance Throughout the Forecast Period

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The market for dental chair in Europe region is witnessing a high growth and is anticipated to dominate the market share in terms of revenues for the forecast period. The increasing patient pool suffering from teeth related disorders is expected to boost the Europe market for dental chair in the near future. This regional market is also expected to gain from the rising number of laboratories. Factors such as remarkable increase in the oral disease prevalence is considered to have a large impact on the dental equipment demand, among which dental chair are vital.Europe is analyzed to be the largest regional market for dental chairs equipment. Owing to the rise in patient pool suffering from teeth pertaining disorders is anticipated to fuel the European market for dental chair in the future period. Also, owing to the presence of large number of laboratories, his regional market is expected to gain in the future.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @North America commands the second largest share in the global dental chair market owing to the presence of advanced medical and healthcare infrastructure. Also, there is presence of numerous established suppliers of dental chairs in this region. The Asia Pacific regional market excluding Japan is expected to gain a significant share over the future period. The rising awareness among consumers about oral health as well as steady up gradation in healthcare infrastructure is anticipated to drive the APAC market for dental chair in the future years.Obtain Report Details @Manufacturers are highly on expanding their market share in the Asia Pacific region attributed to the growing demand for dental chair market with increasing healthcare spending. Some of the major players in the operating in the acidity regulators market include DentalEZ Inc., Dentsply Sirona Inc., Danaher, A dec Inc., Technodent, Dexta Corp., Dome Inc., Planmeca Oy, Midmark Corp., and Forest Dental among others.View Press Release -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North America to Demonstrate Strong Rise in Digital Health Market

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The market for digital health in North America region is witnessing a high growth and is anticipated to dominate the market share in terms of revenues for the forecast period. The adoption of digital health solutions is high in the Americas, especially in the US, due to the increase in healthcare costs and investments by government and private organizations. The US is the largest market for medical sensors as the region has advanced infrastructure to support sensing technologies, and there is an increased adoption of wearable sensors by consumers in the region.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @North America, has been dominating the global market. Various factors, such as the prescience of a large pool of players and increasing collaboration between them are instrumental behind the significant growth of this regional market. With the high demand from Germany and the U.K., the Europe market for digital health is expected to continue on the leading position over the next few years. Going forward, Asia Pacific is likely to offer lucrative opportunities for the growth of the global market for digital health in the near future.The market for digital health is gaining remarkable momentum across the world, thanks to the surge in the prevalence of diabetes and various other chronic diseases. With the increasing number of government initiatives and the rising uptake of information technology in the area of medical and healthcare, the market is anticipated to witness significant growth over the next few years.Obtain Report Details @The digital health market is witnessing a significant number of mergers and acquisitions, and this is expected to intensify the competition in the market. Vendors are using technology to provide cost effective solutions. The major companies that provide Digital Health include Cisco Systems Inc, Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Siemens Healthineers, McKesson Corp., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., Cerner Corp., Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Epic Systems Corp., Truven Health Analytics, Qualcomm Inc are some of the key players in this market.View Press Release -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North America accounted for the largest share of the Digital Radio Frequency Memory Market market

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The market for digital radio frequency memory in North America region is witnessing a high growth and is anticipated to dominate the market share in terms of revenues for the forecast period. Advancements in military technology have led to the development of superior air defense systems. These systems have posed a serious challenge for airborne units operating in enemy airspace leading to severe damage, attrition of units, and loss of personnel. Electronic warfare technologies are focused on reducing the instances of detection by enemy radars and providing the necessary time to evade them.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @DRFM-based electronic warfare systems are installed in various defense platforms, such as ground-based military units, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), and navy ships. The growth of the airborne electronic warfare systems and the upgrade of older air platforms are significant factors driving the demand for DRFM-based jammers. Other applications of DRFM-based jammers include Radar Environment Simulation (RES) testing. The RES testing procedure involves evaluation of radar systems in an anechoic environment during their designing phase. The shortcomings of radar systems are eliminated by incorporating design changes during radar development.Reduction in defense expenditure in developed nations and ban on the usage of jammers for civilian application are some of the key factors restraining the growth of the Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) market during the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @Manufacturers are highly on expanding their market share in the Asia Pacific region attributed to the growing demand for acidity regulators by the food & beverages industry. These regulators are used in sauces, condiments, bakery products, beverages, dressings etc. Some of the major players in the operating in the acidity regulators market include Cargill, Incorporated, Tate & Lyle Plc, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, Ajinomoto Co., Inc., Roquette Freres S.A., Ingredion Incorporated, Purac Biochem B.V., Univar, The NutraSweet Company and Cumberland Packing among others.View Press Release -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Antimicrobial resistance research, funding and incentives  get updates at SMi event in London

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SMi reports: Antimicrobial resistance was predicted by Alexander Fleming in his Nobel lecture (1945). Since that warning, measures have been taken in acknowledgement of the threat of AMR, but tackling this issue is still an ongoing battle. On the global scale WHO has been the most instrumental body to take action. SMi Group is proud to be part of the fight with the Superbugs & Superdrugs Conference. Now in its 20th year, the event has firmly become established as the industry's premier platform for updates on antimicrobial resistance research, funding and incentives.Conference is taking place in London on 19 - 20 March. To join and be a part of the global force head on to Superbugs & Superdrugs website to book your attendancePROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS:Analyse the current status of antimicrobial resistance with industry led insight into current strategies to tackle AMR Jean-Pierre Paccaud, Director of Business Development at GARDP, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) - Day 1, 9:15 Steve Holden, Medical Adviser, MSD - Day 1, 10:35Hear exclusive case studies from a selection of pharmaceutical companies on clinical progress Conrad Lichtenstein, CSO, Nemesis bioscience - Day 1, 12:15 David Brown, Managing Director and Founder, Alchemy Biomedical Consulting - Day 1, 12:55 Learn about regulatory pathways for the registration of new antimicrobial agents: Mair Powell, Senior clinical assessor, MHRA - Day 2, 9:50Evaluate the latest incentives and funding solutions to spur drug discovery: Mark Albrecht, Health Scientist, HHS/ASPR/BARDA - Day 1, 9:55 Adrian Towse, Director, Office of Health Economics - Day 2, 10:30Explore the latest novel alternatives to antibiotics currently in development: Cara Cassino, Chief Medical Officer, ContraFect - Day 2, 15:10 Stephen Barat, Head of Pre-Clinical and Early Clinical Development, SCYNEXIS Inc - Day 2, 16:20 Ian Henderson , Professor of Microbial Biology, University Of Birmingham - Day 2, 17:00View the programme, speaker line-up, and book to attend atSuperbugs & Superdrugs Team look forward to welcoming you next week to what is shaping up to be another successful show!Contact:+44 (0)20 7827 6000events@smi-online.co.ukSTAY CONNECTEDLinkedIn  search 'SMi Pharma'Twitter - @SMIpharm #smibugs-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Superbugs & Superdrugs Conference | 19 - 20 March 2018 | London, UK-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------About SMi Group: Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the worlds most forward thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network.1 Westminster Bridge RoadLiDAR for Automotive: Global Market by Top Manufacturers with Production-Delphi Automotive PLC, Continental AG, ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Infineon Technologies AG, Velodyne LiDAR and Others

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LiDAR for Automotive Market Analysis to 2023 is a specialized and in-depth study of the LiDAR for Automotive industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global LiDAR for Automotive market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global LiDAR for Automotive market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the LiDAR for Automotive players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Publisher projects that the LiDAR for Automotive market size will grow from USD 102.21 Billion in 2017 to USD 454.2 Million by 2023, at an estimated CAGR of 28.22%. The base year considered for the study is 2017, and the market size is projected from 2018 to 2023.Factors such as the Technological superiority of LiDAR in automotive application, and an increase in government regulations for vehicle safety is driving the LiDAR sensor market for automotive.Request a Sample Report atLiDAR for Automotive Market Players:Delphi Automotive PLCContinental AGZF Friedrichshafen AGInfineon Technologies AGVelodyne LiDAR IncTexas Instruments IncorporatedFirst Sensor AGBy Product Type:2D, 3DBy Application:Semi-Autonomous, AutonomousThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global LiDAR for Automotive market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2023 for overall LiDAR for Automotive market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire before Buying atAlso, key LiDAR for Automotive market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the LiDAR for Automotive 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.Inquire for Discount atContact Us:Call: +91-20-67278686Email: info@reportsweb.comReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Europe OLED Panel Market Trends, Opportunities and Future Scenario Forecast By 2024

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Summary of the Report:Europe OLED Panel Market study by Envision Inteligence discusses in detail about diverse market dynamics influencing the market and covers the leading market players and competitive highlights.The report "Europe OLED Panel Market," provides the detail description of market segmentation, applications, growth, size, and outlook.An Organic Light-emitting diode is a light-emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. An OLED display can be driven with a passive matrix (PMOLED) or active matrix (AMOLED). OLED is used to create device displays in devices such as televisions, computer monitors, mobile phones and so on. This makes the display ideal for gaming as well as for animation videos which contain a large volume of colors changing in seconds.The Key parameters prompting the flexible display market growth include an increase in demand for large size display panels for TVs, increasing demand for automotive and digital signage, implementation of OLED displays in smartphones. Nowadays government organizations are also funding a lot of money in order to carry out research on Organic Light Emitting Diodes. Organic-light emitting diodes, on the other hand, will operate as light source and color array simultaneously.Reasons To Buy This Report:This report contains the in-depth analysis on the market and the estimations are done using volume and value data are further validated on three approaches including bottom-up, top-down and from top companies revenues to conclude the market estimations precisely and accurately considering all the parameters and market dynamics.Download Free Sample Brochure atKey pointers in the report include:Competitive landscape & market analysis is included in the report to understand the key companies position and Porter's Analysis & PESTLE analysis to perform to analyze the impact of drivers, restraints, challenges, and constraints on the market during the next five years.Team of analysts has analyzed and listed out the key drivers, constraints, challenges and emerging opportunities in all the industry verticals which will specify the emerging scope of the market in end-user industries.Industry value chain analysis is provided in the report to identify the key stakeholders and prominent players at each stage of the company along with the value addition at each stage of the value chain.Complete analysis including global and regional trends, technological developments, and new product innovations are included in the report specific to each and every segment of the market.A complete 360-degree analysis is provided in the report on key companies product portfolio, business portfolio, developmental strategies, and key developments from the companies in the historical period.Advanced customizations on countries, specific applications in end-user industries, product based customizations will be provided based on the request.All the collected data is further validated and verified using surveys, interviews, and interactions with industrial experts.Europe OLED Panel Market Top Players SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD AU OPTRONICS LG ELECTRONICS SHARP CORPORATION BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD PANASONIC CORPORATIONRelated Reports:Europe Electrical Enclosure Market:North America Crystal Oscillator Market:About usEnvision Inteligence is the Main Supplier of Market Analysis Reviews, Customized Consulting Companies, Information Analytics and Trade Evaluation. Our purpose is to offer the correct data required by the stakeholder on the proper level of time, in a format which assists an clever and knowledgeable resolution making course of!Contact us:Sales@envisioninteligence.comcontact@envisioninteligence.comCall: +1 408-963-0099MIG-236, D.No:- 39-33-75/3,MadhavadharaVuda Layout,Visakhapatnam- 530007Web:Asia Pacific Baby Drinks Market to Dominate the Market with China Being the Lucrative Market

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The market for baby drinks 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 increasing awareness and concern among the population regarding nutrition, health and food safety is also propelling the baby drinks market.The rollback of the one child policy by the Chinese Government has led to increase in infant population, which would boost the consumption of baby drinks. Large size, high purchasing power, and increased consumption of baby drinks are expected to boost the market growth in China. High nourishment content in child drinks combined with the inclination of specialists for infant drinks is expected to support the development of this market in the significant nations of Asia Pacific including Japan, India, China and Australia among others over the forecast period. Moreover, increase in disposable income, busy lifestyle, and rise in standard of living in these regions have boosted the market growth.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Additionally, the market growth is also anticipated to be emphasized with manufacturers determined to enhance these products or adding them in their already existing products with an aim to increase its customer base. Customers fundamentally lean toward newborn child equation because of ascend in the quantity of working ladies and changes in way of life. Additionally, infant formula is thought to be the sole wellspring of nourishment for babies.Manufacturers are highly on expanding their market share in the Asia Pacific region attributed to the growing demand for baby drinks market in this region. Some of the major players operating in the baby drinks market include Heinz and Hain Celestial Group, Nestle S.A., Mead Johnson Nutrition Company, LLC., Abbott Laboratories, Beingmate Group Co. Ltd., Danone, Campbell Soup Company, HiPP GmbH & Co., D. Signstore and Arla Foods among others.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Asia Pacific Carbon Black Market to Hold the Largest Market Share in Global Carbon Black Market

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The market for carbon black 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. Asia Pacific manufactures the cheapest carbon black which is resulting in shutting down of carbon black business by many companies in North America and Europe. Many are shifting their production facilities to Asia Pacific to minimize production cost and remain competitive in the market. Globally, China is the largest manufacturer and supplier of carbon black at present.Carbon black is a pure form carbon majorly used as reinforcement filler in the rubber goods, tire, plastics and other products manufacturing industries. Robust growth in the automotive sector and expansion of vehicle manufacturing facilities has increased demand for tire products. Growing demand for tires in automotive industries is anticipated to further drive leading tire companies to expand their production bases and boost sales of carbon black in India in the coming years.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Additionally, companies are investing in expansions of their production capacities to increase their market share and cater to the increasing demand for carbon black. For example, Thai Carbon Black Public Company Limited proposed to establish a greenfield carbon black production plant, Columbian Chemicals (Jining), in China. The plant will be constructed in two phases, phase 1 with a capacity of 120,000 ton per year and phase 2 with an incremental capacity of 120,000 tons. This expansion will enable the company to serve its customers in China.Obtain Report Details @Some of the major players operating in the carbon black market with most significant developments and holding significant market share include China Synthetic Rubber Corporation, Jiangxi Black Cat Carbon Black Co., Ltd., Orion Engineered Carbons, Cabot Corporation, Birla Carbon, and Philips Carbon Black among others. These players are focusing in expanding their operation across the globe in order to increase their profit margin and expand their customer reach.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Tire Pressure Monitoring System OEM Installations to reach 77.4% in China and ROW Markets

Global and China Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) Industry Report, 2017-2021

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ResearchByMarkets / Press Release / Automotive, "Global and China Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) Industry Report, 2017-2021" 165 Pages, 42 Companies Profiled.Global TPMS OEM market size was about 47.62 million sets with an installation rate of 50.1% in 2016. The figures for 2021 are expected to reach 81.27 million sets and 77.4%TOC and List of Tables & Figures:Key Highlights of this report:Global TPMS industry (development environment, status quo, market size/structure, competitive landscape, development in major countries/regions).TPMS industry in China (development environment, status quo of technology/development, market demand, market penetration, market structure, competitive landscape, summary).8 foreign, 25 Chinese mainland, 6 Taiwanese TPMS vendors and 5 TPMS sensor chip companies.Key Players Profiled:SchraderContinentalZF TRW (Former TRW Automotive)PressureProOmronPacific IndustrialDensoKysonix Inc.Shanghai Baolong Automotive CorporationHamaton Automotive Technology Co., Ltd.Shenzhen Hangsheng Electronics Co., Ltd.Steelmate Co., Ltd.Shanghai Topsystm Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.Shenzhen Autotech Co., Ltd.Sate Auto Electronic Co., LtdDIAS Automotive Electronic Systems Co., Ltd.Nanjing Top Sun Technology Co., Ltd.Beijing Sincode Science & Technology Co., Ltd.Shenzhen Autel Technology Co., Ltd.Ningbo Fuerda Smartech Co., LtdChina Auto Electronics Group Limited (THB Group)Huizhou Foryou General Electronics Co., Ltd.Yangzhou Kooan Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.VICTON Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.Jiangsu Yunyi Electric Co., LtdShanghai Aero-Care Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.Shenzhen Shenyongtong Industrial Co., Ltd.Anhui Zhonghong Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.Dongguan Saftire Automotive Safety Technology Co., Ltd.LeTu Electronics Co., Ltd.Guangdong LFF Technology Co., Ltd.Shenzhen Careud Security Equipment Company LimitedOrange ElectronicCub Elecparts IncTungThih ElectronicMobiletronLuhai Holding Corp.E-Lead ElectronicGEInfineonNXPGuangdong Hiway Integrated Circuit Technology Co., Ltd.Request Sample Pages for this report:As people have become more aware of driving safety and countries like the United States, EU, South Korea and China (Taiwan, Mainland) introduced mandatory standards on TPMS in recent years, global TPMS market, primarily OEM, has grown steadily. Global TPMS OEM market size was about 47.62 million sets with an installation rate of 50.1% in 2016. The figures for 2021 are expected to reach 81.27 million sets and 77.4%.As mandatory European laws and regulations are implemented, Europe has surpassed the United States as the region with the largest demand worldwide, while China becomes the world's third largest TPMS market after Europe and the United States by virtue of its enormous automobile market. The three regions seize a market share of 37.1%, 25.4% and 16.1%, respectively.Inquire more about this report:According to the requirements of China's mandatory TPMS standard, for M1 auto models, all new certified vehicle must carry TPMS in the Chinese market by 2019 and all vehicles being produced must be compulsorily installed with TPMS in 2020, therefore China will overtake Europe to be the world's largest TPMS market by 2020. Despite a late starter, China has seen gradual increase in the penetration of TPMS and substantial growth in TPMS market for consumers are more demanding on car safety performance. The installation rate of TPMS was about 27.3% and the TPMS OEM market 7.68 million sets or so in 2016.Theoretical demand was 24.42 million sets in the Chinese TPMS OEM market in 2016 based on the country's output of 24.42 million passenger cars, indicating a huge gap but also broad prospects for development. Propelled by the country's mandatory TPMS standard, the installation rate in the Chinese TPMS OEM market will grow rapidly over the next couple of years, hitting an estimated 74.2% in 2021 on a market size of 23.22 million sets in 2021.Global TPMS OEM market now is primarily dominated by Schrader, Continental, Pacific, ZF TRW and HUF, the five players holding a combined global market share of nearly 90% by virtue of technological superiority. Schrader, an undisputed bellwether, took an about 54.8% market share worldwide in 2017.Although there are more than 100 local TPMS enterprises in China, only a dozen ones including Topsystm, Sate Auto Electronic, Shanghai Baolong Automotive and Hamaton Automotive Technology are capable of bulk supply.For now, the TPMS on JV-branded cars is supplied by multi-national companies represented by Schrader, while local Chinese players gain an upper hand in supply of TPMS on homegrown car brands. However, as Chinese enterprises continue to improve their technologies, the typical company Shanghai Baolong Automotive and some other peers have begun providing TPMS for JV auto brands.Contact:ResearchByMarketsMs. Lia Seth | Client Relations Managerenquiry@researchbymarkets.comResearch By Markets is an online Market Research Report Repository.Our repository contains reports segmented by Geography and Industry. We cover all major Industry Verticals - Information Technology, Semiconductor, Electronics, Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, BioTechnology, Energy & Power, Banking and many more.Research By Markets3, Nagar Road,Pune 411 014, Maharashtra, Indiaenquiry@researchbymarkets.com+1-800-416-3124Global Student Information Systems (SIS) Market: Recent Study Including Growth Factors, Applications, Regional Analysis, Forecasts 2022

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Student information systems will assist schools to manage learning and non-learning activities on infrastructure, content, faculty, and lecture delivery efficiently. The implementation of these software programs also simplifies the management of external activities such as the purchase of e-learning content and other resources as per their budgetary constraints.This report gives an in-depth research about the overall state of Student Information Systems (SIS) market and projects an overview of its growth market. It also gives the crucial elements of the market and across major global regions in detail. Number on primary and secondary research has been carried out in order to collect required data for completing this particular report. Sever industry based analytical techniques has been narrowed down for a better understanding of this market.Get Sample copy of this Report @:Key Players Profiled in this Report: Campus Management, Eduware, Ellucian Company, ESchoolPLUS (FIS), OpenSIS, PCR Educator, Rediker Software, Focus School Software, Eagle Software, Foradian Technologies, Illuminate Education, Jenzabar, Oracle, Workday, Skyward, Unit4, EdBoardThe report is characterized by numerous parts dealing with diverse aspects of the Student Information Systems (SIS) market. This research report inspects the present situation and development scenario of the market around the globe during the forecasting horizon. To ascertain the market size, the report analyzes the revenue generated in the market worldwide together with representing the segmentation of the key players.Get 20% Discount on this Report @:The Global Student Information Systems (SIS) Market is gaining pace and businesses have started understanding the benefits of analytics in the present day highly dynamic business environment. The market has witnessed several important developments over the past few years, with mounting volumes of business data and the shift from traditional data analysis platforms to self-service business analytics being some of the most prominent ones.The best thing about this measurable surveying report is that the significance and presentation of this market have been described. Moreover, several market essential experts and purchasing criteria have been upheld in the report. Accordingly, this measurable reviewing report is an incredible breath for sorting out new speculation endeavors, arranging how to deal with the market patterns and so on of the Student Information Systems (SIS) Market.Enquiry before Buying @:For a stronger and more stable business outlook, the report on the global Student Information Systems (SIS) market carries key projections that can be practically studied. The report highlights major technological developments and changing trends adopted by key companies over a period of time. To achieve this, the research segments and sub-segments this market by using many criteria. The growth predictions for each of these segments are included in this market report.Table of ContentsGlobal Student Information Systems (SIS) Market Research ReportChapter 1 Student Information Systems (SIS) 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 Student Information Systems (SIS) Market ForecastAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr,Houston, TX, Pin  77064,+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com,Goose Creek, SC (29445)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.Jenna Wallenbeck of Calvary Baptist Academy and Claire Newman of H.H. Dow High School competed recently in the day-long Michigan Poetry Out Loud state competition in Lansing. Wallenbeck and Newman are Poetry Out Loud school champions for their respective school.

The state competition featured 39 student competitors reciting poetry.

"The students' recitations are absolutely phenomenal," said Shelly Kasprzycki, Michigan Humanities Council president and CEO. "This takes poise, intelligence and a real fire in your belly to compete at the state level. ... We are so proud of each one of the students that participated in Poetry Out Loud this year."

Grace Garver from Petoskey High School took top honors, reciting "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus in her final round. First runner-up was Jaxon Anderson of Pentwater Public Schools, second runner-up was Avery Fessenden of Leland Public Schools, and third runner-up was India Pruette of Saline High School.

As state champion, Garver will represent Michigan at the national competition April 23-25.

Poetry Out Loud, a national high school recitation competition, encourages youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance, while also mastering public speaking skills, building self-confidence and learning about literary heritage. The program has engaged more than 78,000 students since the Michigan Humanities Council and Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs began hosting it in 2005.

The program is open to all high schools, including home-school groups. Registration for the next program will open this fall. If teachers or parents would like to learn more about this program, visit www.michiganhumanities.org or call 517-372-7770.The Great Lakes Bay Job Fair offers an opportunity Tuesday to meet with employers who are hiring.

The free event is from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesday at Delta College's Pioneer Gymnasium. Prospective applicants are advised to make sure their resume is up to date and error free and start preparing questions to ask company representatives at the fair.The Slovakian government is on the brink. Last Friday tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets in Bratislava to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico in the wake of the recent execution-style murder of an investigative journalist. Thousands of people showed up in solidarity in cities across the country, as well as in major European cities. The crisis, which expanded into a corruption scandal that has already claimed the resignations of two government ministers, threatens to destabilize the national government and has given renewed urgency to questions about the overall health of the European Union.

That said, the protestersled by activist groups and backed by students, celebrities, and journalistshave in a short time prompted substantive change: A major shake-up and snap election now seem all but certain, and the future for Fico, who has led the government for ten of the last twelve years, is in serious doubt. More marches are planned to maintain pressure. The story also gives us a good look at how coalition governments function, or dont. Heres a breakdown.

On Feb. 25, investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiance, Martina Kusnirova, were found shot to death in their home. The 27-year-old Kuciak had been pursuing a corruption case in which Slovakian government employees were cooperating with organized criminals to steal money from the European Union. In his final story, which was published posthumously and unfinished, Kuciak connected members of the Ndrangheta Italian criminal syndicate to several senior officials, including advisers close to Fico. Those senior officials included Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak, who was, coincidentally, also overseeing the investigation into Kuciaks murder. Kalinak stepped down Monday in the wake of the protests and calls for his resignation from within the government itself, including from Fico, who cited his obvious conflict of interest.

I think to fulfill my mandate I have to do everything to preserve stability in Slovakia, Kalinak said. For this reason I have decided to resign as deputy prime minister and interior minister. How selfless.

As for the murders, Slovakian police have confirmed that Kuciak was most likely killed because of his corruption investigation, which centered on a mafioso-government scheme to steal money from the European Union. Police arrested seven members of the Ndrangheta syndicate in raids after the murders, but they released all seven of themget thison the day of Kuciaks funeral. The police said theyd uncovered no hard evidence connecting the detained to the murder, and after 48 hours were legally obligated to let them go. After that, E.U. officials began to demand Slovakian police turn the investigation over to Europe.

No government officials have been implicated in the murder, and none have been definitively connected to the scandal. Fico has gone to theatrical lengths to assert his innocence, holding press conferences about the investigation on an near-daily basis and at one point laying one million Euros on a table as bounty for the murderers. Still, protesters and members of the opposition say the only way that Kuciak and his work will get a fair shake is if the ruling party is removed. Their government, they say, has lost their faith. Theyve got a pretty good point.

The crisis is moving fast. Kalinaks resignation signals serious trouble ahead for Fico, a Social Democrat who has as the head of the center-left Smer party led the Slovakian government for ten of the last twelve years. Protesters Friday chanted Enough of Fico and jangled keys in the air, a reference to to the 1989 anti-communist rallies, and in the political realm, the Most-Hid party, one of the three that comprise Ficos delicate governing coalition, said Monday that, even considering Kalinaks resignation, theyd leave the coalition if the government didnt hold a snap election. If Most-Hid does leave, it would cost Fico his governing majority. Slovakian President Andrej Kiska, a political rival who beat Fico in the 2014 Presidential election, also said the country needed either a major shake-up or new elections to restore confidence in the government.

The negotiations have pushed the Slovakian government to the edge of collapse. Most-Hids threat to leave is a major gambit, but theyve got the voice of the people behind them, and a new, snap election seems increasingly likely. Can Fico and his slim majority survive it?

Maybe not, but theres a chance. Fico could tap the populist wave sweeping Europe, and fortunately for him, he has (for now) the support of a far-right nationalist party which, weirdly, is part of his center-left coalition. If he can hold on to their support, its possible he could still lead a minority government.

Economic nationalism (or what I like to call racism) has surged in Europe, yielding the biggest political dividends in Austria, Hungary, and Poland, but also making advances in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. Of course, Brexit was the biggest seismic event. For many people driving this movement, the E.U. is a favorite target: They want to do things their way, the way theyve always done them. Its possible that Fico could step back from the E.U. and consolidate Slovakias extreme populist vote.

Hes already signaled something of an overture to the right wing. For one, he claimed President Kiska is taking part in the opposition, an accusation that further fractures the political landscape: unlike in the U.S., in a parliamentary system the office of President is supposed to be largely ceremonial and apolitical. Fico also blamed Fridays major protests on, hilariously, George Soros.

(The Prime Minister of Hungary, whacked-out right-wing authoritarian Viktor Orban, has also accused Soros of meddling in his countrys politics. And probably so have a few whacked-out right-wing authoritarian Americans reading this article.)

So thats all a little strange. After all, Fico is a leftist, a member of the Communist Party until the fall of the regime in 1989, at which point he wisely switched parties, though he carried over certain of his left-wing allegiances. And in his tenure at the head of the government Fico has nudged the formerly ostracized nation closer to mainstream E.U. politics, including offering support to Emmanuel Macron in the French elections last year.

But as we saw in the U.S. with some Bernie-Trump voters, the political spectrum isnt a straight left-right line. Fico might indeed be able to square this circle by taking an extreme step in the direction of economic nationalism. He might be able to secure the necessary street cred, too, if the nationalist party, wanting to cling to their current seat of power, sticks with him.

Currently, a new election seems inevitable, and it also seems the Slovakian people have had enough of their government. To me it seems pretty likely theyll throw Fico et al out. But after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other major events such as Occupy Wall Street, the election of Donald Trump, and the impotent and incompetent efforts to dismantle Obamacare, we should have learned by now a simple lesson: Its easy to get a lot of people to agree to destroy something, but its hard to get a lot of people to agree on what to create in its place. Granted, Slovakia isnt France, and some sort of revolution or populist takeover there wont directly and immediately change the course of the European Union. But it might be another gust of wind. It depends on whether and how Fico tries to stay in power, and, if and when the ruling coalition changes, what will replace it.

All that said, more power to you, Slovakia. First do the right thing.Sea lamprey control planned for Lake Huron tributaries

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel will apply lampricides to the Elliot Creek and Little Black River systems in Cheboygan County to kill sea lamprey larvae burrowed in the stream bottom.584 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Yesterday, British Prime Minister Teresa May made clear that the nation of Russia was highly likely responsible, according to their evidence, for the poisoning of a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. She made clear  before the House of Commons  that the substance either came directly from Russia or was distributed to another actor by Russia, in order to administer the poison. Either way, the Prime Ministers conclusion was that Russia was most likely responsible.

It has been also reported that Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when questioned extensively about this issue by the press during yesterdays briefing, specifically about Trumps feelings about Russia engaging in a chemical warfare of sorts, at most, provided affirmation that the United States stands by its ally (Great Britain) but refused to acknowledge the role Russia played in the poisoning. The most negative thing Sanders seemed able to muster was how the event was an outrage, but avoided pointing the finger at Russia. As a reader and American citizen we all need to be asking one question: Why? Under any other Administration the reaction would have been swift, decisive and declarative.

Rex Tillerson, now former Secretary of State, and about number 51 to leave the revolving door of the Trump Administration, who also learned of his termination via Tweet this morning, made a statement about that particular incident of poisoning on his flight back from Nigeria yesterday while opining about the incident. Reported by the Washington Post, the following was stated:

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cast the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain as part of a certain unleashing of activity by Russia that the United States is struggling to understand. He warned that the poisoning would certainly trigger a response.

Tillerson went further and stated: 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, Tillerson told reporters as he flew from Nigeria to Washington. It is only in the hands of a very, very limited number of parties. Indeed.

According to the Prime Minister of Britain, the nerve agent Novichock,  used against ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, was developed by the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War.

This morning, Tillerson was fired, and furthermore, The Post is reporting that nobody was more surprised than Rex Tillerson.

So please tell me: Why does this President or anyone in his Administration have such difficulty saying anything negative about Russia, its President, or what takes place at the hands of Russians? Why no sanctions? Not a word, it seems, on any single negative development in Russia. Even Vice-President, Mike Pence has marginalized the impact of the Russians meddling in our electoral process. Pence went so far as to argue in an interview with Mike Allen, from Axios, the following:

The first thing we all agree on is that irrespective of efforts that were made in 2016 by foreign powers, it is the universal conclusion of our intelligence communities that none of those efforts had any effect on the outcome of the 2016 election.

And yet, those who support this President with unfettered loyalty wonder aloud, what the big deal is should it be proven that Russia, did in fact, interfere with the election and Trump campaign officials assisted? It appears these individuals neglect to realize that if Russia tampered  as it is believed  with our election assisting Donald Trump to becoming President, a debt will need to be paid back to them by the President. Could this lame reaction by the President and his administration regarding what is arguably an act of terror on one of our strongest allies be one such example? Why the difficulty? Why the delay? Even Trumps comment on the incident, made today, reflects a cognitive dissonance of sorts when he opined on the matter earlier today by saying:

Washington will condemn Moscow if it agrees with Britains findings, adding that he would discuss the incident with May (Emphasis mine).

If it agrees? With both intelligence apparatuses being considered near equals, what would it take to convince Trump, especially should our intelligence community agree, that Britains findings were realistic? Further, what if the intelligence communities agree, but Trump refuses to acknowledge those findings?

Yet, Congressional Republicans have shut down the committee tasked with investigating Russian interference with our election and whether the Trump campaign worked with them during the 2016 cycle, repeating the oft stated words of Trump: No collusion. In effect, this Committee has broken with their own intelligence communitys assessment. But wait: That was not this Committees reason for being established, was it? No. It surely was not! It was established to get to the bottom of exactly what took place during the 2016 election and how Russia interfered in our election, preventing it from taking place again.

Recently, the head of the NSA again reiterated how this operation of infiltration into our electoral process is ongoing. Also, the State Department was provided resources to counter this effort and to date, not one single penny has been spent. Worse? Mr. Trump has not issued one single directive to take steps to prevent Russian interference into our election process. Not one.

So, to those asking what the big deal is should Russia have done what all intelligence communities believe they did; interfere with our election, and now, poisoned a man in one of our allies lands, it may be time for them to re-evaluate. How will these individuals respond should a poisoning occur here in the United States? Trump may continue firing those who differ with his assessment of Russia, and the committee can disband from finding out the truth, but in the end voters will decide on whether all these moving parts are just one big coincidence. Robert Mueller on the other hand, will decide whether laws have been violated, and that is why this all matters.352 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

By Jeff Mason and James Oliphant

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  Almost 14 months into Donald Trumps turbulent White House tenure, loyalists are in, dissenters are out and the president himself is acting on his own instincts more swiftly than ever to make decisions on policies from trade to North Korea.

People close to Trump said his firing on Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the latest sign of the Republican presidents growing impatience with his initial set of hand-picked advisers who he viewed as slow-walking his favored policies.

Trump will still encourage disagreement within his inner circle, these people said, but once he makes a decision, he wants it carried out swiftly.

To this day, I think that a healthy ideological diversity prevails in the White House, but what has changed is that he is no longer willing to allow people to slow roll or stonewall his agenda, said Andrew Surabian, a former White House strategist under Trump. He wants people executing and getting things done.

Trump expects to have a vigorous internal debate and then have everyone be on the same page with the final decision, said a former Trump campaign official with knowledge of the White Houses thinking, speaking on condition of anonymity.

As Trump himself said last week, I like conflict.

After fending off entreaties to hold back, Trump last week formally announced global tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to the dismay of allies. His top economic adviser Gary Cohn, who disagreed with him on trade and other issues, resigned.

Later in the week, during a meeting with South Koreas national security adviser, Trump agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, despite months earlier having threatened to totally destroy his country if necessary.

Tillerson, who has advocated a more moderate and diplomatic approach to U.S. foreign policy, was out days later, replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a Trump loyalist. Trump announced the change on Twitter.

He is looking for people who are in broad agreement with what he wants to do and who are willing to accept that hes the team leader, said Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, an informal Trump adviser.

Trump hinted on Tuesday that he was moving toward having the team he desired after a year of frustration with people like Tillerson and an up-and-down relationship with Cohn.

THE CABINET HE WANTS

Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want, Trump told reporters at the White House shortly after announcing his new choice for top diplomat. With Mike, weve had a very good chemistry from the very beginning.

Longtime associates of the president said Trumps moves were consistent with his businessman past and would send a message to aides who have not accepted his style and convictions.

People who thought they could change him are finding out what we found out on the campaign a long time ago: You cant. You can make him better but 180-degree changes in opinion are unlikely, said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign strategist. If you think its your mission to just talk him out of it, its mission impossible.

Trumps critics accused him of running his White House the same way he ran his former reality television show, The Apprentice.

Firing a Secretary of State by Twitter may make for great drama and instant TV ratings, but this, and countless other instances like this, produce undiluted instability that damages the nation and the office of the presidency at just about every level, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said in a statement.

More changes are coming. Trump has yet to announce a successor to Cohn. Gingrich said he expected the president to hire someone more compatible than the former Goldman Sachs executive. Trump signaled on Tuesday that conservative commentator Larry Kudlow is the front-runner for the post.

The changes, and Trumps comments about staff shakeups, also raise the possibility of more senior staff departures, such as Chief of Staff John Kelly or national security adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom have had run-ins with the boss.

(additional reporting by John Walcott and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Caren Bohan and Will Dunham)841 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Clearly having learned no lesson from Conor Lambs (D-PA) stunning victory on Tuesday, the delusional White House is now claiming the upset win is actually good news for the president.

According to the administration, Donald Trump is the reason the race was essentially a tie instead of a runaway victory for the Democrat. They also said Lambs success was due to the fact that he embraced the presidents policies.

The presidents engagement in the race turned what was a deficit for the Republican candidate to what is essentially a tie, said Raj Shah, Trumps deputy press secretary, according to The Hill.

Also the Democrat in the race really embraced the presidents policies and his vision whereas he didnt really embrace Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, he added.

In no universe is Conor Lambs victory good news for Trump and Republicans

As has been widely reported, Pennsylvanias 18th congressional district went for Trump by nearly 20 points in 2016. Contrary to what the presidents deputy press secretary spewed on Wednesday, a year of Trumps presidency turned that advantage upside down.

Whats worse news for the White House and its Republican allies in Congress is that, all across the country, there are GOP lawmakers defending their seats in districts far less conservative than the one Lamb was able to win on Tuesday. In other words, if Democrats can win in Pennsylvanias 18th district, they can win in a lot of places Republicans thought they had in the bag.

The American people are sick of watching spineless Republican lawmakers sit on their hands as the Trump dumpster fire continues to burn. They want a Congress that will hold this corrupt and incompetent president accountable.

Conor Lambs victory on Tuesday was not an isolated incident. Its the continuation of what is a building blue wave that has the potential to hand Congress  especially the House of Representatives  back to the Democrats.An estimated hundreds of thousands of students in 3,100 are walking out of classrooms on Wednesday to demand gun control.

Video:

An estimated hundreds of thousands of students have walked out of classrooms to call for gun control. #NationalWalkoutDay https://t.co/mYszWFvaNm pic.twitter.com/VdzYfssHCo  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 14, 2018

How many students walked out?

MSNBCs Stephanie Ruhle said the number of students walking out could be in the hundreds of thousands:

Ruhle said, Right now, students from more than 3,100 schools across the country are walking out of their classrooms, demanding to know why the adults in Washington are not doing more to strengthen gun laws in this country. The walkouts have begun at 10:00 local time and theyre going for 17 minutes, one minute each for the 17 people killed at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school on Valentines day. The pits you are looking at are from Washington, D.C. Where students have been marching from the white house to capitol hill, demanding lawmakers put stricter gun laws into place, including banning assault weapons and expanding background checks. These pictures are from Chicago, where four schools are marching together. The event kicked off just a few moments ago. Here right now, a live picture from St. Paul, Minnesota, a long way from parkland, Texas but a crisis thats affecting every student, every school across this country, where students there just began their walkout. These live pictures are from Chesterfield, Missouri. Check out the kids streaming out of that school at this very moment. Its happening here in New York City as well. Ive got an 11-year-old walking out, and weve got reporters fanned out across the country covering the protests which could end up being hundreds of thousands of students. There are some schools who arent allowing it. There may be students who want to the walk, and theyre not allowed.

Any school that is not allowing the walkout is teaching students the wrong lesson. Schools should be about teaching students about civic engagement, and being a good citizen. Schools that dont allow students to protest are not teaching students about the value of freedom, and the right to peaceful protest.

The movement for gun control is not going away. These students arent going to forget about Stoneman Douglas and move on because it is only a matter of time before there will be another record-setting mass shooting. Maybe it will be at a school? Maybe it will be at a concert or a church, but the outcome will be the same. Innocent people will die, which is why these students are standing up and demanding that lawmakers do something to make it more difficult for mass murderers to kill so many people.

Watch live coverage of the protests here.

Gallery images of the walkout, click to enlarge:728 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Only in a military dictatorship will you find a leader crazy enough to spend money on building monuments to his favorite inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). But that is exactly what is going on in North Korea. Dictator Kim Jong Un has decided that the country needs to spend money on these monuments (even though his people are starving) because the recent tests of ICBMs have shown the world how great and powerful he is.

Many news agencies have reported on these monuments and they make clear that the ICBMs, which prove to the world that North Korea can reach the United States with nuclear weapons, are the dictators proudest accomplishment. (Of course he doesnt have any other accomplishments to brag about.)

The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California published on Saturday photographs taken by satellites showing a monument being built at the site of the Hwasong-15 ICBM launch in November of last year. The existence of the monuments was also being reported by Sputnik News and The Diplomat, a journal of Asia diplomacy.

At the same time these monuments are being built, Donald Trump is bragging about his great diplomatic achievement of becoming (maybe) the first sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korean supreme leader. Trump and his supporters have attributed his great achievement to what is called Trumps maximum pressure campaign on North Korea. They are crowing about how Trumps tough talk has worked to bring the North Korean leader to his knees in submission.

Kim, however, has also been gloating about HIS historically unprecedented success on the world stage. Kim thinks he has bragging rights because:

His ICBM missiles have surprised everyone with their range, He has developed more substantial nuclear weapons than any other North Korean leader, and He has gotten a U.S. president to agree to a summit meeting, which has never been done before.

The anti-ballistic missile program is his proudest achievement yet. But just last week rival South Korea claimed that Kim would be willing to give up his ICBMs in exchange for peace. It was South Korea who announced that Kim wanted to talk in person with Trump about the terms of an historical peace agreement between the two countries.

Which is a probably a total joke. North Koreas dream has always been to be recognized and respected as a world power, so why would they give up their missiles? Donald Trump has played right into Kim Jong Uns hands. Because Trump agreed to meet with him this allows Kim to claim victory, which only increases his stature at home and in the world community.

Its not clear what Trump or the U.S. will get out of a North Korea meeting because Kim has made no concessions and has not agreed to stop testing ICBM missiles or nuclear weapons. The building of the monuments to the ICBM missiles proves that Kim has no intentions of getting rid of these missiles. They are his crowning glory. If he intended to get rid of the missiles, why would he build monuments to them?

Clearly Kim has outsmarted Trump because the U.S. President thinks that he will be able to negotiate one of his famous deals to make him look good. But of course everybody knows that Trump is not a great negotiator and whatever the outcome of his talks with North Korea (if they ever happen) we can be sure it will not be a good thing for the United States.As Donald Trump tries to distance himself from adult film star Stormy Daniels, more connections continue to materialize. A Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday claims that a top lawyer with Trumps company was directly involved in keeping Daniels quiet before the 2016 election.

According to the report, Documents marked HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL PROCEEDING for the first time tie President Donald Trumps flagship holding company to the continuing effort to silence a former adult-film actress who says she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

More from the report:

A Trump Organization lawyer, Jill A. Martin, is listed as counsel in an arbitration demand for Essential Consultants LLC, a Delaware company formed by Mr. Trumps personal lawyer and used to pay $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford in exchange for her silence, according to Feb. 22 arbitration documents filed in Orange County, Calif.  The White House and Mr. Cohen repeatedly have sought to distance the president from the porn-star pact and payment. Mr. Cohen, who was employed by the Trump Organization when he brokered the deal with Ms. Clifford shortly before the 2016 national election, has maintained that he was acting on his own and has called it a private transaction. Soon after Mr. Trumps electoral victory, Mr. Cohen left the company to establish his own legal practice.

Not surprisingly, Trump organization lawyer Jill Martin denied any wrongdoing and told the Wall Street Journal that she facilitated the filing in her individual capacity until a New York-based lawyer gained approval to practice in California.

She added: The company has had no involvement in the matter.

The Stormy Daniels denials sound a lot like the White Houses Russia defense

The Wall Street Journal development that a top Trump lawyer was involved in silencing the porn star follows a recent report that the presidents personal lawyer used his Trump Organization email to set up the payment that kept her quiet  despite his claims that his dealings with Daniels were totally removed from Trump and his company.

The Trump White House continues to say that none of the allegations surrounding the president and Stormy Daniels are true, but the evidence seems to increasingly point in the opposite direction.

This same pattern  repeated denials before we discover that they are lying  has played out frequently in the Russia scandal, particularly when it comes to the many secret contacts made between Trump campaign officials and Russian actors.

It appears that the more the Trump administration denies wrongdoing, the more likely it is that they are guilty.621 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rachel Maddow slammed Donald Trump on Wednesday for remaining silent even as the rest of the world appears to be mobilizing to stand up to Russias recent chemical attack in the United Kingdom.

The MSNBC host said the recent events overseas combined with the ongoing special counsel investigation into Trumps Russia ties is like a spy movie with another spy movie embedded inside of it.

Video:

Rachel Maddow In Disbelief As Trump Remains Silent After Russia Wages Chemical Warfare #Maddow pic.twitter.com/ECVpIrplm7  PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 15, 2018

Maddow explained the bizarre situation:

So there appears to have been an attempted assassination by chemical warfare on British soil. The British government is attributing that attack to the Russian government. The UN Security Council is taking up the matter. The UK government is addressing the matter. The U.S. Government is sort of starting to address the matter. But we are in this bizarre situation where our own presidents silence and mealy-mouthed hemming and hawing on this subject is in the foreground, while his own secret dealings with the Russian government are starting to unfold and starting to be exposed by a congressional investigation that his Republican allies are trying to shut down. This is, I mean, weve been watching this at one level or another over the course of the past year and a half, right, but right now with this crisis and attempted assassination in Britain  a police officer still hospitalized for having gone into the house of these people who apparently were targeted in this attack. Two people still fighting for their lives in critical condition trying to fend off the effects of the Russian military nerve agent. Now, in the face of this crisis, what were watching here from our perspective as Americans  its like a spy movie with another spy movie embedded inside of it.

Trumps Russia silence speaks volumes

As Maddow said on Wednesday, it seems like everybody  from UK Prime Minister Theresa May to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley  have condemned Russia for its nerve agent attack in Britain. As the Financial Times noted, Prime Minister May quickly moved to expel 23 Russian diplomats who are undeclared spies and suspend all high-level contact with Moscow.

Rex Tillerson also harshly condemned Russia for the attack on Monday, saying that he is outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior. Instead of personally echoing the sentiments of his Secretary of State, Trump wasted no time in firing him via Twitter.

Its important to note that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has issued a statement condemning the reckless Russian attack, but Trump  who rarely finds a topic he is reluctant to ramble loudly about  has remained personally silent.

As Robert Muellers special counsel investigation continues to look into Trumps dealings with Moscow, its likely only a matter of time before we find out why the only subject this president seems unwilling to talk about is Russia.544 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

An exit poll released by Public Policy Polling (PPP) on Wednesday found that healthcare was the single most important issue for voters in Tuesdays special election in Pennsylvania. This is without question excellent news for Democrats getting ready for the critical midterm elections in November.

According a press release issued by PPP:

Public Policy Polling conducted a telephone exit poll election survey of voters who cast ballots in Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional District special election yesterday. Voters who voted in the contest were asked about the role of health care in their decision. The exit poll shows that health care was a top priority issue to voters in this district and that voters believed Democrat Conor Lambs views were more in step with theirs.

Other findings from the poll include:

For 52 percent of voters, health care was ranked as a top issue when deciding who to vote for.

Only 19 percent of voters said healthcare it wasnt at all important to them in deciding who to vote for.

Healthcare voters favored Democrat Conor Lamb over his opponent Republican Rick Saccone 64-36 percent, according to the poll. (Healthcare voters said healthcare was the most important issue to them.

A majority of voters said Lamb was more in step with their opinions on healthcare issues than Saccone.

The poll also found that 53 percent disapprove of Republican efforts to repeal ObamaCare, while just 39 percent approve.

Its crystal clear health care is a top issue for voters, said Brad Woodhouse, campaign director of Protect Our Care, a pro-ObamaCare group. If Republicans cant win on the issue of health care in a district Trump won by 20 points in 2016, where can they? Its time to move on from their repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Many observers think healthcare was the deciding issue that caused Lamb to win in a very close race. Democrats also think this is the issue that will allow them to take back control of Congress in November. (Or at least take back the U.S. House of Representatives.)

One thing Lamb did NOT do was support single payer healthcare or Medicare for All. He did run many ads promising to protect Medicare and health care coverage, however, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare.

In some of his advertising Lamb specifically mentioned the GOP attacks on the ACA: Republicans in Congress spent the past year trying to take health insurance away from people with no plan to replace it. Now, costs are likely to go up for many of us, especially those with preexisting conditions. That is unacceptable, and its a failure of leadership.

Surveys have shown that the healthcare cost issue and the preexisting condition issue are extremely important to the average middle class voter. So it appears that focusing on healthcare played an important role in giving Lamb his upset victory in a very Republican area of the country.

A lesson from Tuesday is that campaigning against Obamacare is the wrong strategy for Republicans, even though that is what they want to do. Recent polls have shown the ACA to be more popular right now than it has ever been. A Kaiser Foundation Poll released March 1 found that 54% of respondents said they view the controversial healthcare law favorably. This is the highest favorability rating for Obamacare in eight years. Clearly Republicans efforts to repeal Obamacare hurt them with voters, even in red districts that voted for Trump in 2016. The question now is whether they will change their positions on healthcare or go down to defeat in November.193 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

By Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  The United States slapped sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five groups, including Moscows intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and malicious cyber attacks, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs for their destabilizing activities. Mnuchin did not give a time frame for those sanctions, which he said would sever the individuals access to the U.S. financial system.

The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, Mnuchin said in a statement.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign using hacking and propaganda, an effort that eventually included attempting to tilt the race in President Donald Trumps favor. Russia denies interfering in the election.

Those targeted by the new sanctions include the Russian nationals and entities charged on Feb. 16 by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller with conspiring to tamper in the election. The indictment said Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages, traveled to the United States to collect intelligence and staged political rallies while posing as Americans.

The new sanctions also include Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and six individuals working on behalf of the GRU.

Thursdays action blocks all property of those targeted that is subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits American citizens from engaging in transactions with them.

Treasury said the sanctions were also meant to counter destructive cyber attacks including the NotPetya attack that cost billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the United States. The United States and Britain last month attributed that attack to the Russian military.

Russian government hackers since at least March 2016 have also targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors, the Treasury Department statement said.

A senior administration told reporters on a conference call that Russian actors infiltrated parts of the U.S. energy sector.

We were able to identify where they were located within those business systems and remove them from those business systems, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, which nearly unanimously passed a new sanctions bill against Russia last summer, had criticized Trump for not punishing Moscow. The Trump administration in January did not announce sanctions against Russia, for now, under the new law.

Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the new sanctions as an important step. But more must be done, Royce said in a statement, promising that his committee would keep pushing to counter Russian aggression.

The Treasury Department said it would keep pressure on Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine and occupy the Crimea region, as well as corruption and human rights abuses.

The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government, it said.

Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia on Thursday to explain a military-grade nerve toxin attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent in England.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham)The documentary Putin was released on March 11, a week before the presidential elections in Russia. In the two-part film, over four hours in length, the Russian leader highlights what he views as his achievements during his 18 years in power and attempts to justify decisions he made that were widely criticized as wrong.

While Putin, the documentary, concedes very few errors, it lists many achievements, including the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014, which is portrayed as the biggest diamond in the Russian leaders crown of successes.

During the opening two minutes of the four-hour documentary, its author, presidential campaign press secretary Andrey Kondrashov asks Putin: Are there any circumstances under which you would be ready to give away Crimea and Sevastopol?

Putin responded: What, have you lost your mind?! There are no such circumstances and there never will be!

In December 2017, Putin cited the Soviet governments decision in 1954 to hand Crimea over to Ukraine, which he said was illegal.

The claim is false, and was debunked by none other than Putin himself in a 2008 interview with the German broadcaster ARD. The question about Russia having any such goals seems to me has a provocative meaning, Putin said when the host asked whether Russia had plans to invade Ukraine and take Crimea. Crimea is absolutely not a disputed territory.

The Kursk: Putins First Lie

In the documentary, Putin addresses the the sinking of the submarine Kursk in 2000, without admittingany mistake in his reaction, or lack of it. Putin maintained a low profile for ten days as the 118 marines on board slowly suffocated. During that same time, the Kremlin rejected all offers from foreign actors to help rescue the crew.

In the March 11 documentary, Putin blames the disaster on his then military advisers.

But Boris Kuznetsov, a prominent Moscow lawyer, said the Kursk tragedy was a turning point for modern Russia and Putin's "first lie."

Crimea and the Presidential Election

On March 14, Putin visited Crimea, where he inspected the construction of a bridge that will connect the peninsula with the Russian mainland.

Putin also attended a mass rally celebrating the fourth anniversary of Crimeas annexation. Along with that rally, there was a free concert -- part of a Russian government-funded project called Crimean Spring during the final two months before the presidential elections. As part of Crimean Spring, performances have been staged in cities across Russia and advertised with patriotic posters.

The project is not formally part of Vladimir Putins campaign.

It is not an electoral event, its a rally that is not connected with the presidential elections," Putins press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on March 14.

Addressing the crowd in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Putin said: You have restored historical justice, which was violated back in the Soviet period, when Crimea and Sevastopol were illegally, even under Soviet law, torn away from the Russian Federation.

The Gallup polling agency found in July 2014 that Putins popularity had reached its highest level in years, likely propelled by a groundswell of national pride with the annexation of Crimea in March on the heels of the Sochi Olympic Games in February.

In May 2017, Russias parliament moved the date of presidential election from traditional first Sunday of the month to March 18, the day in 2014 an agreement was signed in the Kremlin formalizing Crimeas absorption in the Russian Federation.

Crimea was omnipresent in Putins vocabulary during the four years after the annexation, and Polygraph.info fact-checked some of the Russian presidents statements in that regard. During a visit to Crimea in October 2016, he reiterated his position that it had become part of Russia thanks to the active stand taken by engaged people who had decided for themselves in a referendum. Polygraph.info rated Putins claim false.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.The North Charleston Performing Arts Center rivals the Charleston Music Hall as an ideal seated venue in town for touring bands. The PAC, though, can hold more people, and thus the lineups there are often the ones that can sell upwards of 2,000 tickets, while the Hall is capped at under 1,000.

The latest PAC announcements are definitely ones that will be selling out. We're giving you the scoop now so you can snag tickets right when they are available to the general public.

David Byrne

Sign up for the Charleston Hot Sheet Get a weekly list of tips on pop-ups, last minute tickets and little-known experiences hand-selected by our newsroom in your inbox each Thursday. Email

Sign Up!

Known for his time as lead vocalist and guitarist with avant-garde rock group The Talking Heads, David Byrne has since pursued a solo career. This year, the Scottish-American is embarking on a tour to support his brand new March disc "American Utopia."

He'll play at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center on September 23, and it's your "Once in a Lifetime" chance to see him live. Eclectic ensemble Tune-Yards will be opening.

As part of the new album, Byrne released a video where his song "Everybody's Coming to My House" was performed by Detroit School of Arts Vocal Jazz Ensemble students. It changed his perspective on the track and serves as a reminder that music is interpretive and adaptable.

Byrne said, When I saw what the DSA students did with my song, it completely changed the way I thought of it. In fact, it changed the meaning of the songI realized it was about inclusion, welcoming, and not being alone. Its a more generous interpretation of the song than what I do with my voice. We ARE all in the same houseif we want to be. Just goes to show how a song can change (radically!) depending on who is singing it.

See the "Psycho Killer" as he's "Burning Down the House" by snagging $54-$144 tickets in time. They go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at the North Charleston Coliseum Advance Ticket Office, online at Ticketmaster.com or charge-by-phone at 1-800-745-3000. Discover more here.

The Revivalists

"It Was a Sin" if you didn't see The Revivalists play at the Music Farm back in 2016 when they were in town. If you missed them then, you can redeem yourself by getting tickets to see the seven-piece soulful rock band this June.

This time, they'll be headed to the Performing Arts Center in North Charleston on June 16.

Though they haven't released an album since 2015's "Men Amongst Mountains," The Revivalists are still thriving off their rich sound and catchy hits, like "Wish I Knew You," which has racked up over 29 million views on YouTube.

Tickets to the June show will cost between $34-$124 and go on sale at 10 a.m. You can find them at Ticketmaster.com, LiveNation.com, via the Live Nation app or by calling at 1-800-745-3000. For more information, go here.Settling into its new downtown digs, local telecommunications provider DOCOMO PACIFIC began a new chapter on Thursday, officially opening the doors to its new headquarters in the former Ben Franklin building in Tamuning.

"Many friends, including most of us at DOCOMO PACIFIC, have fond memories of the Ben Franklin building and Guam's first escalators," said Jonathan Kriegel, president and CEO. "We are excited to call this special place our new home."

Sitting vacant for nearly two decades, the landmark location was last open for business in 1999. In June 2016, DOCOMO PACIFIC signed a lease agreement with the property's landlord, MV Pangilinan Enterprises, and prepared to move into the five-story building.

Renovations cost an estimated $10.5 million and began in October 2016. The majority of the project finished late last year with the last few months spent sprucing up the interior. Administrative offices and the flagship store relocated to the refurbished building in December 2017.

Moving into the modern era

Inside the renewed space, DOCOMO PACIFIC occupies 48,000 square feet of the 60,000-square-foot property. The business operates from the first four floors of the building. The fifth floor remains open for lease.

The beloved escalators that were part of the original layout have been replaced by two elevators. In addition, the more than 40-year-old building, originally designed without windows, now has more than 40.

The fresh configuration, featuring an open-office concept, includes a flagship store, Java Hut Cafe, call center, executive suites, 14 meeting rooms, six quiet rooms, three training rooms, two break rooms, one lounge and houses several departments. The parking lot boasts 300 parking spaces and solar-panel lighting.

Each meeting room is equipped with the latest technology, including Promethean interactive displays, Samsung smart televisions, video conferencing tech and a content management broadcasting software.

'Culture and personality'

"Our new headquarters reflects our culture and personality," Kriegel said. "It inspires creativity and encourages collaboration. It is truly a place where we can be 'Better Together.'"

The company's former corporate office has been vacated and returned to Century Plaza. DOCOMO PACIFIC has a total of eight retail stores on Guam, two on Saipan, one on Tinian and one on Rota.PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 12:18:02

COVINGTON, KENTUCKY, March 15, 2018 - Ashland's remarkable brand transformation following its final separation from Valvoline Inc. last year ranks among the most successful rebranding campaigns in the U.S., earning the global specialty chemicals company recognition in the 2018 REBRAND 100 Global Awards.

REBRAND(TM) is a leading global resource for case studies on effective brand transformations: the repositioning, revitalizing and redesign of existing brand assets to meet business goals. Once a year, a new panel of international business, marketing and design executives is selected to jury the competition, with the goal of showcasing the most effective brand transformations.

Five companies were recognized with "Best of" awards by REBRAND. Another 45 firms - including Ashland - were honored with awards of "distinction." The remaining 50 received "merit" awards.

"The most compelling entries used storytelling, in various forms, that was relatable, thought-provoking and emotional. Winning rebrands transcend 'telling' to 'showing' us brand value and why we should care," said 2018 juror, June M. Archer, C-suite business leader and brand builder.

"Ashland has a 'blueprint for the future' which is our pathway for creating the leading premier specialty chemicals company in the world," said Bill Wulfsohn, Ashland chairman and chief executive officer. "Our foundation includes safe, compliant and responsible operations, a winning strategy and a high-performance organization. Our winning strategy has two core components: aligning the organization around a clear sense of purpose and implementing a winning competitive strategy."

"Ashland's new brand identity projects our global organization's passion and tenacity for developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems in applied chemistry, always pushing the boundaries of what's possible and advancing the competitiveness of our customers across diverse industries," he said.

Added Carolmarie Brown, director of global marketing and business communications at Ashland: "Our ambitious re-branding signaled the realization of a clear corporate vision, organizational transformation, and separation from Valvoline. It inspired us to think, speak and act as one organization, significantly improving our competitiveness, and it has proven to be a powerful tool in increasing the value of our offer and enterprise."

Axel Lober, a 2018 awards juror and head of Branding and Strategic Projects, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, noted, "In a rapidly changing business environment, cultural change is pivotal for companies to succeed. Strong brands can support or even drive this change - which turns a rebrand into a much larger opportunity than a simple refresh of colors."

To learn more about REBRAND's award of distinction for Ashland, please visit https://rebrand.com/distinction-ashland/ and www.ashland.com/rebrand.

About Ashland

Ashland Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a premier global specialty chemicals company serving customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care and pharmaceutical. At Ashland, we are approximately 6,500 passionate, tenacious solvers - from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators - who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com to learn more.

About REBRAND(TM) and the REBRAND 100 Global Awards

REBRAND is the world's leading platform for brand transformation insights, case examples, programs, and expertise. Celebrating 12+ years of excellence, its renowned REBRAND 100 Global Awards is the most prestigious, juried recognition for repositioned brands, having reached participation from over 61 countries in 40+ industries. Featured in such media as The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg News, articles and books, the results have generated an unrivaled global library of transformed brands for business reference and research.

C-ASH

(TM) Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Media Relations:

Gary Rhodes

+1 (859) 815-3047

glrhodes@ashland.com

Investor Relations:

Seth A. Mrozek

+1 (859) 815-3527

samrozek@ashland.com





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: Ashland Inc. via Globenewswire

Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market: Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023

Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 12:29:02

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Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market: By Type (Variable Bypass Vaporisers (Plenum Vaporisers, Plenum Vaporisers With Electric Control), Measured Flow Vaporisers (Desflurane Vaporiser, Direct Injection of Volatile Anaesthetic Vaporisers (DIVA), By Model (Portable, Desk), By Chemical (Enflurane, Sevoflurane, Halothane) By End-user (Hospital, Mobile clinics, Ambulatory surgical centres, Clinics) Country (Japan, China, India, Australia & New Zealand, ASEAN (Includes Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Others)  Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012 to 2016 and Forecast 2017 to 2023Market Outline: Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators MarketAnaesthetic gas evaporators are attached to anaesthesia machines, which enables deliver appropriate concentration of volatile anaesthetic agents to patient. Anaesthesia is a temporary loss of sensation or awareness of a person which may include amnesia, analgesia and unconsciousness which is administered to patient during surgical or medical procedures.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Dynamics: Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators MarketEmerging countries in Asia Pacific are focused on improve the healthcare infrastructure. Adoption of cutting edge healthcare facilities coupled with affordability is expected to attract the patients for medical tourism. Increased patient inflow for developing countries, rising surgeries are expected witness the growth of Asia Pacific anaesthesia gas evaporators market. Furthermore, increase in number of geriatric population is vital driving factor of the Asia Pacific anaesthesia gas evaporators market.Country Analysis: Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators MarketAsia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market is segmented as Japan, China, India, Australia & New Zealand, ASEAN (Includes Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Others), South Korea, and Rest of Asia-Pacific. Asia Pacific anaesthesia gas evaporators market is anticipated to have a rapid growth due to increase in population, rise in disposable income, rising awareness among people, increase in number of surgeries. As per The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery it is estimated that 954/100,000 in India, 2910/100,000 in China, 14,833/100,000 in Japan, people have undergone surgeries every year.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators MarketThe Asia Pacific anaesthesia gas evaporators market is classified on the basis of model, type, chemical, end user and geographical regions.Based on model, Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market is segmented as Portable DeskBased on the type, Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market is segmented as Variable Bypass Vaporiserso Plenum Vaporiserso Plenum Vaporisers With Electric Control Measured Flow Vaporiserso Desflurane Vaporisero Direct Injection of Volatile Anaesthetic Vaporisers (DIVA)Need more information about this report @Based on the chemical, Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market is segmented as Enflurane Sevoflurane HalothaneBased on the End User, Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators Market is segmented as Hospital Mobile Clinics Ambulatory Surgical Centres ClinicsMarket participants: Asia Pacific Anaesthesia Gas Evaporators MarketSome of the players in anaesthesia gas evaporators market NorVap Medical (UK) Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA Siriusmed (Germany) Beijing Vanbonmed Co., Ltd. (China) OES Medical (UK) Penlon Limited (UK) Spacelabs Healthcare (U.S.)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.Email: sales@ precisionbusinessinsights.com Toll Free (US): +1-866-598-1553PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 08:05:14

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Canada Zinc Metals Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture:CZX). has issued a press release with the following headline:Canada Zinc Metals Engages JDS for Preliminary Economic Assessment for Akie ProjectTo 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 Canada Zinc Metals 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/Canada Zinc Metals Corp.Source: Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture: CZX, ISIN: A0RAQJ, WKN: CA1353061080)Date: March 15, 2018Time: 3:05 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Canada Zinc Metals 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: 2018-03-15 20:30:03

Upstate New York becomes Bitcoin mining hub with cheap hydro energy fuelling 21st Century Gold-Rush

Cryptocurrency Mining Turns Green with Ormeus Coin

Ormeus Coin

Journalists Contact:

Tim Forde, 00-44-7881292043

www.ormeuscoin.com

Virtual Currency Ormeus Coin is using renewable energy from a hydro dam near the Niagara Falls on the American/Canadian border to power a new multi-million-dollar industrial crypto mining operation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201803150063

Ormeus has joined forces with local authorities and the Moses-Saunders Power Dam  a colossal hydro project that stretches over the St. Lawrence River Valley for more than 30 miles.

The dam has 32 turbine-generators divided equally by the international border with 1,045 megawatts operated on the Canadian side and 912 megawatts being run from Massena, upstate New York.

The extensive USD$250 Million Ormeus Coin mining farms in the Midwest and New York take advantage of a variety of technologies, including artificial intelligence and custom-built algorithms which help the data centers run at maximum efficiency  thereby increasing profits to almost USD$7 Million per month.

However, it is cheap energy from the hydro dam that gives Ormeus the ultimate mining edge with some of the lowest electricity rates in North America and extremely low or free energy distribution costs.

The dam offers low-cost power under a statutorily authorized program called Preservation Power, which protects and promotes jobs in the upstate New York area of Massena, a spokesperson for Ormeus Coin said.

The legislation allows proceeds from sales of certain hydropower blocks to be used for economic development in the St. Lawrence County area.

Ormeus Coin is currently adding jobs to the area as promised with one of our new mining facilities close by, said Ormeus Coins spokesperson.

Cryptocurrency miners are following the Ormeus Coin lead and moving their facilities to the St. Lawrence County area of upstate New York, which is now being described as the Silicon Valley of Crypto Mining.

Ormeus executed a lease for a 15,000 square-foot mining center in the northern New York area last August and the operation is already making gains as Bitcoin stabilizes around the USD$10,000 mark.

Ormeus Coin is expected to release its new cryptocurrency wallet shortly, and further announcements regarding the coin being added to large crypto exchanges are imminent.

For more information on Ormeus Coin, the public can visit www.ormeuscoin.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201803150063

Sealing the deal! Ormeus Coin expands with cost effective power from Hydro Dam on American/Canadian borderPR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 19:19:01

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Paris Stock Exchange : XHFT

Decisions by Nordea's AGM 2018

Today's Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Nordea Bank AB (publ) approved the income statement and balance sheet for 2017 and decided on a dividend of 0.68 euro per share with 19 March 2018 as the record date for dividend. The Board of Directors and the President and Group CEO were discharged from liability for the year 2017. Nigel Hinshelwood and Torbjorn Magnusson were elected new board members. The AGM approved the merger plan with Nordea Holding Abp, which is one of the conditions for the execution of the merger between the companies, whereby the domicile of the parent company will be transferred to Helsinki.

Election of board members

Bjorn Wahlroos, Pernille Erenbjerg, Robin Lawter, Lars G Nordstrom, Sarah Russell, Silvija Seres, Birger Steen and Maria Varsellona were re-elected board members and Nigel Hinshelwood and Torbjorn Magnusson were elected new board members for the period until the next AGM. Bjorn Wahlroos was re-elected chairman of the Board of Directors.

At the subsequent statutory board meeting Lars G Nordstrom was elected deputy chairman of the Board of Directors, and it was announced that the following persons are employee representatives: Kari Ahola, Dorrit Groth Brandt, Gerhard Olsson (deputy) and Hans Christian Riise.

Election of auditor

Ohrlings PricewaterhouseCoopers AB was re-elected auditor for the period until the next AGM.

Remuneration

The AGM resolved unchanged remuneration to the board members amounting to 294,600 euro for the chairman, 141,300 euro for the deputy chairman and 91,950 euro for the other members. In addition, remuneration will be paid for board committee work on the operations and compliance committee, the audit committee and the risk committee amounting to 48,650 euro for the committee chairman and 29,600 euro for the other members and for board committee work on the remuneration committee amounting to 36,050 euro for the committee chairman and 25,750 euro for the other members. Remuneration is not paid to members who are employees of the Nordea Group.

Fees to the auditor will be payable according to approved invoice.

Establishment of nomination committee

The AGM decided to establish a nomination committee that will present proposals to the next AGM concerning board members, chairman of the Board of Directors and auditor, as well as remuneration to these. The nomination committee will consist of the chairman of the Board of Directors and four other members who are appointed by the four largest shareholders in Nordea in terms of voting rights at 30 September 2018.

Issue of convertible instruments

The Board of Directors was authorised, for the period until the next AGM, to decide on issue of convertible instruments in Nordea. The authorisation means that the share capital may be increased by a maximum of 10 per cent of the share capital. The issue of convertible instruments by virtue of the authorisation may take place with or without preferential rights for existing shareholders and will be done on market conditions. The purpose of the authorisation is to facilitate a flexible and efficient adjustment of Nordea's capital structure to the capital requirements.

Acquisition of own shares in securities operations

The AGM decided that Nordea may purchase own shares on an ongoing basis in order to facilitate its securities operations. The holding of such shares must not at any time exceed the lower of either 0.1 per cent of the total number of shares in Nordea or 10 per cent of Nordea's excess common equity tier 1 capital.

Guidelines for remuneration to executive officers

The AGM decided on guidelines for remuneration to executive officers (the CEO, the Deputy CEO and other members of Group Executive Management). Nordea will maintain remuneration levels and other employment conditions needed to recruit and retain executive officers with competence and capacity to carry out the strategy and reach the targets set so that Nordea can become a great European bank.

Annual remuneration consists of fixed salary and variable salary. Variable salary to the executive officers will be offered as an Executive Incentive Programme 2018 (GEM EIP 2018) with predetermined targets on group, business area/group function and individual level. The effect on the long-term result is to be considered when determining the targets. The outcome from GEM EIP 2018 will be based on the Board of Directors' assessment of the outcome of the predetermined targets. The outcome from GEM EIP 2018 will be paid over a five-year period in cash and be subject to forfeiture clauses, total shareholder return (TSR) indexation (excluding dividend during the deferral period) and retention in compliance with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's regulations on remuneration systems, taking account of domestic rules and practices where relevant. GEM EIP 2018 has a one-year performance period and the outcome must not exceed the fixed salary. The executive officers have been offered similar programmes since 2013.

Approval of the merger plan between Nordea Bank AB (publ) and Nordea Holding Abp

The AGM approved the merger plan between Nordea and Nordea Holding Abp, which is one of the conditions for the execution of the merger between the companies, whereby the domicile of the parent company will be transferred to Helsinki. The other conditions for the completion of the merger are expected to be met at the latest by the planned date of the merger, 1 October 2018.

The decisions made by the AGM are valid until the Finnish Patent and Registration Office has registered the merger, at which point Nordea Bank AB (publ) will be dissolved. Decisions corresponding to the decisions that were made by today's AGM and which are intended to be valid until the next AGM will therefore also be made in Nordea Holding Abp ahead of the merger to the extent that such decisions can be made under Finnish law. In this way, business continuity and sound corporate governance will be ensured until the AGM 2019.

For further information:

Claes Eliasson, Acting Head of Group External Communications, +46 72 141 67 12

Rodney Alfven, Head of Investor Relations, +46 72 235 05 15

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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: Nordea Bank AB (publ) via Globenewswire

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 07:25:13

Press Information

Francesca Jewellery

Shop 212 70 Murray Street Hobart TAS 7000 Australia



Francesca Jewellery



0487 893 650

email

https://www.francesca.com.au/



Published by

Cam Wilkes

006499503888

e-mail

' ' . c2c_truncate_link("www.pureseo.co.nz", "0", "", ".") . ''







# 321 Words

Shop 212 70 Murray Street Hobart TAS 7000 Australia0487 893 650Cam Wilkes006499503888

Francesca Collections March Awareness bracelet donates $20 from every sale to Endometriosis Australia. A common condition, endometriosis affects approximately 1 in 10 women and is known to cause extreme period pain and infertility. The company partners with a charity each month to create an Awareness Bracelet.The vibrant yellow dyed jade bracelet consists of 6mm beads threaded onto industrial strength elastic finished with sterling silver findings. The gorgeous bracelet is sure to brighten up any Francesca stack. It can be mixed with the orange jade teamed up with Francesca Create charms.All Francesca bracelets are hand-beaded in Tasmania by their Franc team. For customers who would like a custom size, they can leave a note at checkout online. Francesca uses natural stones making every bracelet unique. Gift wrapping is available for all products and selectable from the shopping cart.Endometriosis Australia endeavours to increase recognition of endometriosis, provide endometriosis education programs, and help fund endometriosis research. Francesca is the fun, fashion-forward jewellery label by young Australian designers and sisters, Hannah and Rachel Vasicek.Francesca aims to create a brand with a conscience, one that focusses on the bigger things in life. Giving back to the community is a huge priority and every month Francesca fundraises for a charity through their exquisite Awareness Bracelet. It is designed in the colour of their cause. Through I=Change social platform and their efforts with Be Her Freedom for victims of human trafficking Francesca is on its way to be an internationally recognised brand that fights for womens rights.For designer jewellery online, gold diamond rings, gold jewellery, diamond pendant necklace, wedding earrings and more, visit https://www.francesca.com.au/ Francesca Jewellery is based in Hobart with founder Hannah Vasicek realising her dream of designing and creating her own range of jewellery. Francesca opened a flagship store in Melbourne in August 2016 and continues to grow through the online store and an increasing band of loyal customers.Southern Blotting Market: Market Intelligence, Product Matrix, Industry Insights, and Forecast 2017-2023

Southern Blotting Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 11:53:59

Press Information

Precision Business Insights

Kemp House,



152  160 City Road,



London EC1V 2NX



Satya

Lead Marketing

+1-866-598-1553

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# 652 Words

Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXLead Marketing+1-866-598-1553

Market Outline: Southern Blotting MarketSouthern blotting is a technique in molecular biology which is used to identify specific sequence of DNA in given samples. This technique was invented by Edward Southern. This techniques combines subsequent fragment detection by probe hybridization and transfer of electrophoresis separated DNA fragments to a filler membrane. Southern blotting technique is used in various areas like diagnostic studies, forensic and gene mapping.Market Dynamics: Southern Blotting MarketRise in demand for use of southern blotting technique, growing advancements in drug discovery and development are the major factors expected to drive the southern blotting technique globally. Furthermore, increase developments in genetics field coupled with increase in prevalence of various chronic diseases expected to propel the growth of southern blotting market. On the non-availability of the test in many developing countries, high cost associated with technique, unfavourable government support are restraining the growth of the southern blotting market.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Southern Blotting MarketThe Southern Blotting Market is classified on the basis of product type, application, end user and regions.Based on product type, market is segmented as Consumables InstrumentsBased on application, market is segmented as Forensic Agriculture Diagnosis Sex Determination Genetic Fingerprinting OthersBased on End User, Market is segmented as Pharmaceutical Companies Biotechnology Companies Forensic Labs OthersBased on Region, Market is segmented as North America Latin America Europe Asia Pacific The Middle East and AfricaTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Summary: Southern Blotting MarketThe significant increase in prevalence of rare diseases, increased adoption of southern blotting technique is expected to create demand for southern blotting. According to National Organization of Rare Diseases, it is estimated that there are 7000 rare genetic diseases prevalent globally and 11% of total U.S. population is suffering with rare disorders. Major players focused on various growth strategies like high investments on research and development activities, adoption of advanced technologies, mergers and acquisitions.Regional Analysis: Southern Blotting MarketGeographically Southern Blotting Market is segmented as Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and The Middle East and Africa. North America is expected to dominate the market for southern blotting owing to increase in prevalence of HIV-1, rise in production of genetically modified crops, huge government funding. Europe holds the second position in southern blotting market owing to high adoption of technological advancements, high R&D expenditure. Asia Pacific is expected to show a significant growth rate owing to the high incidence of HIV infections, geographical expansions by major biotech and pharma companies in APAC region, increase in healthcare expenditure, rise in awareness and disposable income.Competition Assessment: Southern Blotting MarketSome of the players in southern blotting market are Applied Biosystems (U.S.) Cleaver Scientific Ltd. (UK) Agilent Technologies (U.S.) PerkinElmer Inc. (U.S.) Bio-Rad Laboratories (U.S.) Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S.) Pall Life Science Laboratories (U.S.)Need more information about this report @Key Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012 to 2016) and forecast (2017 to 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 marketGet access to full summary @PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 13:03:01

TORONTO, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just Energy Group Inc. ("Just Energy") (TSX:JE) (NYSE:JE), announced today that it has received TSX approval to initiate a normal course issuer bid ("NCIBs") for (i) its 6.75 % convertible unsecured senior subordinated debentures due December 31, 2021 (the "Debentures") (TSX:JE.DB.C); and renewal of its NCIB for common shares (the "Common Shares") (TSX:JE) (NYSE:JE) expiring March 16, 2018.

All Debentures and all Common Shares purchased under each of the above referenced NCIBs will be cancelled. The following table indicates the principal amount of the Debentures and number of Common Shares that were outstanding at close of trading February 28, 2018 and that may be purchased during the year starting March 19, 2018 and ending March 15, 2019.

Under each NCIB, Just Energy may purchase Debentures and Common Shares representing 10% of the outstanding public float at the close of business February 28, 2018, up to the following limits:

Outstanding - Close of Trading -

February 28, 2018



Limit on Purchases

Between March 19, 2018 to March 15, 2019

(Principal Amount)



Total Limit (1) Daily Limit (2) (3) (a) $6.75% $160,000,000 Debentures



$16,000,000 $38,565 (b) 148,346,420 Common Shares 9,733,847 115,449

Notes:

Represents 10% of the public float at February 28, 2018. The average daily trading volume ("ADTV") for the 6.75% Debentures was $154,260 at February 28, 2018. The ADTV for the Common Shares was 461,797 at February 28, 2018.

In addition to providing shareholder liquidity, Just Energy believes that its Common Shares trade in a price range which does not adequately reflect the value of such Common Shares in relation to Just Energy's business and its current annual $0.50 dividend per Common Share, and accordingly, Just Energy's future business prospects. As a result, depending upon future price movements and other factors, Just Energy believes that Just Energy's Common Shares represent an attractive investment. In addition to providing Debenture holder liquidity, Just Energy believes that the Debentures may trade in a price range which does not adequately reflect the value of such Debentures in relation to Just Energy's business, and accordingly Just Energy's future business prospects. As a result, depending upon future price movements and other factors, Just Energy believes that Just Energy's Debentures represent an attractive investment and will enable Just Energy to continue to deleverage its balance sheet.

Just Energy intends to commence each of the NCIBs on March 19, 2018. Each of the NCIBs will expire on March 15, 2019 or such earlier date as Just Energy completes its purchases pursuant to each NCIB. All purchases made under each NCIB will be made through the facilities of the TSX, the New York Stock Exchange (only in respect of the Common Shares) or alternative trading systems, if eligible, in accordance with the rules of the TSX and applicable securities laws, at market prices prevailing at the time of purchase (plus brokerage fees). The actual amount of Debentures and Common Shares that may be purchased under each NCIB is subject to, and cannot exceed the limits referred to above. The timing of such purchases will be determined by Just Energy.

Pursuant to a previous notice of intention to conduct a normal course issuer bid, under which Just Energy sought and received approval from the TSX to purchase up to 9,655,649 Common Shares for the period from March 17, 2017 to March 16, 2018, Just Energy purchased, as of March 14, 2017, 1,667,827 Common Shares on the open market at an average purchase price of $7.10 per Common Share.

About Just Energy Group Inc.

Established in 1997, Just Energy is a leading retail energy provider specializing in electricity and natural gas commodities, energy efficiency solutions, and renewable energy options. With offices located across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and Japan, Just Energy serves approximately 1.5 million residential and commercial customers providing homes and businesses with a broad range of energy solutions that deliver comfort, convenience and control. Just Energy Group Inc. is the parent company of Amigo Energy, Green Star Energy, Hudson Energy, Tara Energy and terrapass. Visit justenergygroup.com to learn more. Also, find us on Facebook follow us on Twitter.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause purchases under the NCIBs to not occur or occur at a slower rate. These risks include, but are not limited to general economic and market conditions, levels of customer natural gas and electricity consumption, rates of customer additions and renewals, rates of customer attrition, fluctuations in natural gas and electricity prices, changes in regulatory regimes, results of litigation and decisions by regulatory authorities, competition and dependence on certain suppliers. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect Just Energy's operations, financial results or dividend levels are included in Just Energy's annual information form and other reports on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities which can be accessed through the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com, on the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov or through Just Energy's website at www.justenergygroup.com.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the New York Stock Exchange has approved nor disapproved of the information contained herein.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:



Patrick McCullough

Chief Financial Officer

Phone: (713) 933-0895

pmccullough@justenergy.com

or

Michael Cummings

Investor Relations

Phone: (617) 461-1101

michael.cummings@alpha-ir.com

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: JUST ENERGY GROUP INC. via Globenewswire

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 20:32:01

M. Holland promotes Tracy Coifman to Business Development Manager, Latin America building on the companys commitment to the region

M. Holland Company Announces Tracy Coifman as Business Development Manager, Latin America

INK (for M. Holland)

Caitlin New, 512-382-8990

mholland@ink-co.com

M. Holland Company, a leading distributor of thermoplastic resin, announces the promotion of Tracy Coifman to Business Development Manager, Latin America. Coifmans promotion complements the companys Latin American expansion strategy and commitment to meeting the needs of its suppliers and clients in the region.

In his role as Business Development Manager, Latin America, Coifman will work directly with suppliers, clients, and agents to better determine and fulfill their business needs. Coifman will also work alongside M. Hollands corporate Business Development Group, compromised of six key market managers, to develop strategies that facilitate a more integrated approach to international business.

Latin America presents a high-growth opportunity and is a continued priority for M. Holland, said Xavier Lebrija, M. Hollands Director General, Latin America. We have the utmost confidence in Tracys ability to use his extensive supply chain and market expertise to help M. Holland grow our business in the region. We are looking forward to his continued success at the company.

Coifman was previously M. Hollands Puerto Rico Commercial Manager, where he had sales responsibility for the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America. Coifman was President of Tril Export Company and Able International when M. Holland acquired the businesses in 2016. Over the course of his career, he has held leadership, operational, and sales roles at several companies, including Rockwell Automation and Chevron.

Coifman holds a Bachelor of Science, Industrial Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Master of Business Administration, International Business from the London Business School.

ABOUT M. HOLLAND

M. Holland is a leading international distributor of thermoplastic resins, providing suppliers the most strategic channels to market, offering innovative sourcing and supply chain solutions to our clients, and helping people lead rewarding careers. Since 1950, a deep commitment to personal relationships has formed the core of the companys heritage, its culture, and its vision. Headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, M. Holland sells in excess of 1.4 billion pounds of resin to more than 4,000 customers annually. To learn more, visit www.mholland.com. Follow M. Holland on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201803150063

@MHollandLATAM asciende a Tracy Coifman a la gerencia de desarrollo de negocios para Latinoamerica.PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 13:04:02

AUSTIN, Texas, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mitratech, the leading provider of legal, compliance and risk management software announced today that it reached a partnership agreement with Union Systems Limited (USL), a leading information technology company specializing in the marketing and implementation of software solutions for banks and financial institutions across Africa.

USL will market and implement Mitratech's DataStoreDSX Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software solution, which for over 20 years has been the industry standard ECM solution for banks in Africa with clients in every sub-Saharan country. This alliance strengthens both USL and Mitratech's position as the leading source of information governance and content management technology on a continent home to six of the world's ten fastest growing economies. With the increased ability to store, view, archive and distribute huge volumes of data regularly, DataStoreDSX helps banks comply with regulations including those frequently updated by Central Banks and various international regulatory bodies.

"We have been supporting software at African banks for many years and we work with leading banks in different countries, so it is crucial for USL to engage with partners who can guarantee quality and bring a high level of expertise to our customers," said Aonghus Geraghty, President and Chief Sales Officer at Union Systems Limited. "Digital technologies are characterized by large network effects, large fixed costs and close to zero marginal cost. At USL, we feel that these are key points for banks planning to be the big winners in the African market. Through our partnership with Mitratech, we will be able to help such ambitious banks fully automate their document handling across the entire bank, helping maintain regulatory compliance, reduce costs and improve customer service."

Over 25 banks, including the biggest bank in Africa and the most profitable bank in the continent's largest market, count on Mitratech to help them meet the increasing demand for customization, communications and access to customer information. DataStoreDSX supports key enterprise processes and delivers end-to-end control of all content across an organization, including scanned documents, text files, images, word documents, emails, print streams, spreadsheets and more. By providing a single source digital repository for structured and unstructured corporate information, DataStoreDSX integrates seamlessly with line of business applications to help manage information at an enterprise level and support an organization's immediate and future regulatory, legal, risk and operational requirements.

"We are very excited to welcome Union Systems Limited to our partner network," added Connor Blake, Director of Alliances & Partnerships for Mitratech. "The combination of our DataStoreDSX document management solution, coupled with USL's expertise and long-term relationships with African banks, can only help further establish DataStoreDSX as the de facto standard for Enterprise Content Management in the region. It delivers outstanding results by adapting to constantly changing operating conditions, regulations and competition."

For more information on Mitratech, visit www.mitratech.com. For more information on Union Systems Limited, visit www.unionsystems.com.

About Union Systems Limited

Union Systems Limited (USL) is an Information Technology Company focused on the support of advanced software for leading banks and financial institutions across Africa. With headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, the company has a deep understanding of the African markets. Since the company was formed in 1993, USL has developed partnerships with international blue chip organisations including IBM, Oracle, Finastra, FircoSoft, 01 Systems and Mitratech. To learn more, visit www.unionsystems.com

About Mitratech

Mitratech is a market-leading provider of legal, compliance and risk software solutions for more than 1,200 organizations of all sizes across the globe, representing almost 40 percent of the Fortune 500, and over 500,000 users in over 160 countries. Mitratech's portfolio of enterprise legal and risk management software includes: legal matter management, spend management, eBilling, legal hold, contracts management, risk management, policy management, audit management and health & safety management. To learn more, visit www.mitratech.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Ellen Mason, Mitratech, ellen.mason@mitratech.com, +1.512.646.8802

Ngozi Ilondu, Union Systems Limited, ngozi.ilondu@unionsystems.com, +234.803.894.9461

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: Mitratech via Globenewswire

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 11:41:01

Morrow Sodali Announces Appointment of Cynthia Alers as Director and Head of UK

Morrow Sodali

Velia Senatore

Email: v.senatore@morrowsodali.com

Phone: +39 344 3464 051

Morrow Sodali today announced that Cynthia Alers has joined the firm as Director and Head of UK.

Mrs. Alers appointment further consolidates the wealth of experience of Morrow Sodalis UK team which covers all services - ranging from corporate governance to fixed income advisory, to investor relationship management, and M&A and contested situations - thus allowing the firm to increasingly focus on offering insightful advice, high-quality service and customized solutions to its clients governance and ownership challenges.

Her responsibilities will include strategic advice to Morrow Sodalis clients engaged in corporate actions and to liaise with financial advisors, legal counsel, and other advisors involved in a variety of UK and cross-border transactions.

Mrs. Alers has held senior roles with JP Morgan as Head of Investor Relations Services and with global companies such as Sage Group, CSR and Rotork as Director of Investor Relations and Strategy. She has managed numerous M&A transactions, capital-raisings, IPOs and new listings, and serves on the Policy and Regulation Committee of the Investor Relations Society. She has also held several Board directorships with Port of Dover where she was also Chair of the Audit Committee, and Orwell Housing where she is currently Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee.

Cynthia brings to Morrow Sodali a wide range of experience in corporate and banking roles and will further develop and enhance our consultancy services in investor engagement, corporate governance, proxy solicitation strategy, AGM services and fixed income. She brings a deep knowledge of investor relations and capital markets and will help us consolidate our UK business, commented Alvise Recchi, CEO of Morrow Sodali.

Cynthia Alers said: I am very excited to be joining Morrow Sodali as Head of the UK market. Investor engagement, stewardship and corporate governance are increasingly driving investor behaviours and corporate valuations. I look forward to working with our global office to develop the UK consultancy services for both advisers and corporates.

About Morrow Sodali

Morrow Sodali is the leading global consultancy providing comprehensive governance and shareholder services to corporate clients around the world. We provide companies and their board of directors with strategic advice and services in corporate governance, capital markets intelligence, shareholder communication and engagement, proxy solicitation, activism, and related ownership issues.

With headquarters in New York and London and local offices and partners in ten countries, Morrow Sodali serves more than 700 corporate clients in 40 countries, including many of the worlds largest multinational corporations. In addition to listed and private companies, its clients include mutual funds, stock exchanges, membership associations, and activist investors.

For further information about Morrow Sodali, please visit www.morrowsodali.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201803150055PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 20:35:16

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Mountain Lake Minerals Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Wolfville, Nova Scotia (FSCWire) - Mountain Lake Minerals Inc. (CSE:MLK). has issued a press release with the following headline:Mountain Lake Announces Private PlacementTo 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 Mountain Lake Minerals 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/Mountain Lake Minerals Inc.Source: Mountain Lake Minerals Inc. (CSE: MLK)Date: March 15, 2018Time: 3:35 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Mountain Lake Minerals 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: 2018-03-15 12:19:02

Consolidated revenues  1,288.1 million, +11.6%.

EBITDA (1)  454.7 million, +22.5%

Operating income  406.5 million, +24.1%.

Net income  288.8 million, +21.6%.

Net financial position (2) : net debt of  381.8 million.

Dividend for 2017  0.85 per share, of which  0.42 already paid.

Annual Meeting of Shareholders convened for 18 April 2018, the sole convocation date.

Milan, 15 March 2018 - Recordati's Board of Directors approved the consolidated financial statements for the year 2017 as well as Recordati S.p.A.'s accounts and the corporate governance and ownership report as required by art. 123bis of the Consolidated Law on Financial Intermediation. The financial statements at and for the year ended 31 December 2017 and the aforesaid report will be available as from today 15 March 2018 at the company's head office and published on the company's website www.recordati.com and can also be viewed on the authorized storage system 1Info (www.1Info.it). The reports issued by the independent and by the statutory Auditors will be made available, within the terms of the law, in the same manner. The Board of Directors also approved the consolidated non financial information disclosure pursuant to Legislative Decree n. 254 dated 30 December 2016 which will be made available in the same manner.

Financial highlights

Consolidated revenues in 2017 are  1,288.1 million, up by 11.6% compared to the preceding year. International sales grow by 12.4%.



EBITDA (1) , at 35.3% of sales, is  454.7 million, an increase of 22.5% over the preceding year.



Operating income , at 31.6% of sales, is  406.5 million, an increase of 24.1%.



Net income, at 22.4% of sales, is  288.8 million, an increase of 21.6% over 2016.



Net financial position (2) at 31 December 2017 shows a net debt of  381.8 million compared to net debt of  198.8 million at 31 December 2016. During the period dividends were distributed, the acquisition of the marketing rights to the metoprolol based products from AstraZeneca was concluded and three Bayer Consumer Health products were acquired for an overall disbursement of  456.5 million.

(1) Operating income before depreciation, amortization and write down of both tangible and intangible assets.

(2) Cash and short-term financial investments less bank overdrafts and medium/long-term loans which include the measurement at fair value of hedging derivatives.

Business development news

In January the European Union Commission granted the European marketing authorization for its orphan medicinal product Cystadrops 3.8mg/mL. Cystadrops is the first eye-drop solution containing cysteamine hydrochloride approved in the European Union for "the treatment of corneal cystine crystal deposits in adults and children from 2 years of age with cystinosis". The European Commission had granted Cystadrops orphan drug designation in November 2008. Cystadrops eye-drop solution was developed specifically for cystinosis patients by Orphan Europe (Recordati group). Cystinosis is a rare congenital lysosomal storage disorder recognized as a severe life threatening condition. Cystinosis benefits from systemic treatment with cysteamine orally administered. However, oral cysteamine does not adequately address ocular cystinosis because of the non-vascularization of cornea. Without a proper, continued, local eye treatment, cystine crystals accumulate in the cornea, leading to severe consequences and possibly to blindness in the long term.

In February an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement covering the know-how developed by the Meyer Hospital in Florence (Italy) for the development of a treatment for pre-term babies affected by retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) was signed. The treatment is currently being investigated in a phase II clinical trial by the Meyer Hospital, while Recordati will complete the clinical development and the regulatory steps necessary to obtain the marketing approval for the drug. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing about 1.25 kg or less that are born before 31 weeks of gestation. Furthermore, within the deal, Recordati shall support other Meyer projects in the rare disease area over a period of three years based on a mutually agreed plan.

In May Recordati signed an agreement with AstraZeneca for the acquisition of the rights to Seloken/Seloken ZOK (metoprolol succinate) and associated Logimax fixed dose combination (metoprolol succinate and felodipine) treatments in Europe. The transaction was successfully concluded on 30 June (on 10 July for part of the transaction related to Romania). The consideration for the acquisition of the assets is of $ 300 million ( 267 million). In addition, royalties for the use of the existing product brands will be due to AstraZeneca for an agreed period. Metoprolol succinate is a beta-blocker mainly indicated for the control of a range of conditions including hypertension, angina pectoris, disturbances of cardiac rhythm, maintenance treatment after myocardial infarction, and functional heart disorders with palpitations. It is a widely used drug in all European countries which will enable us to reinforce our product portfolios in a number of our European subsidiaries, in particular in Poland, France and Germany. Furthermore, existing sales of the metoprolol brands will provide the base to enter new markets and thus complete our European geographical footprint.

In June Recordati signed an exclusive license agreement with MimeTech, an Italian development stage company founded by scientists from the University in Florence, for the development and subsequent commercialization on a global basis of a low molecular weight peptidomimetic of human nerve growth factor (NGF) for the treatment of neurotrophic keratitis, which already received an Orphan Drug Designation in the EU. Additional indications linked to NGF defects are also contemplated in the scope of the partnership. Neurotrophic keratitis is a rare degenerative corneal disease which in its more severe forms affects less than one person out of 10,000 worldwide, and is initiated by an impairment of trigeminal nerve. Impairment or loss of corneal sensory innervation is responsible for corneal epithelial defects, ulcer, and perforation.

During July Gedeon Richter Plc. was granted marketing authorization from the European Commission for Reagila (cariprazine), a novel antipsychotic for the treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients, valid for all European Union Member States. In August 2016 Richter and Recordati had signed an exclusive license agreement to commercialize cariprazine in Western Europe, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey.

During December three Bayer Consumer Health brands for the French market, Transipeg, TransipegLib and Colopeg, were acquired. Transipeg and TransipegLib are macrogol based laxatives for the treatment of symptomatic constipation in adults and Colopeg is a large volume bowel cleanser indicated in preparation for endoscopic exploration. The 2016 net sales of the products in France amount to around  10 million. The acquisition of Transipeg, TransipegLib and Colopeg which are well-known brands in France, is in line with our strategy to reinforce our product portfolio in this market in the area of gastroenterology.

Business outlook

On 8 February 2018 the company announced its financial targets for 2018. The objective is to to achieve sales ranging from  1,350 million to  1,370 million, EBITDA of between  490 and  500 million, EBIT of between  430 and 440 million and net income of between  310 and 315 million. Group consolidated sales during the first two months of 2018 are in line with our expectations.

Dividend

Based on the results obtained, the Board of Directors of the parent company will propose to the shareholders a dividend of  0.43 per share, in full balance of the interim 2017 dividend of  0.42, to be paid to all shares outstanding at ex-dividend date, excluding those in treasury stock, as from 25 April 2018 (record date 24 April 2018), with ex-dividend on 23 April 2017 (against presentation of coupon no. 21). The full 2017 dividend is therefore of  0.85 per share ( 0.70 per share in 2016).

Further Board resolutions to be submitted to the Shareholders Meeting

The Board of Directors approved the following further deliberation proposals to be submitted to the Annual Shareholders Meeting:

renewal of the authorization to buy back and dispose of Recordati shares until the Annual Shareholders' Meeting which will approve the 2018 financial statements;

examination of the Remuneration Policy pursuant to article 123 ter of Legislative Decree 58/1998;

adoption of a new Stock Option Plan (2018-2022) pursuant to article 114bis of Legislative Decree 58/1998.

The objective of the proposal to renew the authorization to buy back and dispose of Recordati shares until the Annual Shareholders' Meeting which will approve the 2018 financial statements is, as in previous years, to grant the Board the possibility: of using shares for equity acquisitions or as consideration for strategic agreements; of allowing the company to invest in its own shares; and of constituting a stock of own shares to service current and future stock option plans. The company would be allowed to purchase up to 10,000,000 Recordati existing ordinary (common) shares, which includes those shares held in Treasury stock at any given time, for a maximum cash outlay of  300,000,000. The purchase price must be at least equal to the shares' nominal value ( 0.125) and must not exceed the average official Stock Exchange price recorded over the 5 trading days prior to the transaction, plus 5%. Possible purchases will be made on regulated markets and must comply with article 132 of Legislative Decree 58/1998 and with article 144-bis, paragraph 1.b) of the Issuers' Regulations as approved by CONSOB's resolution 11971/1999 and with market practice allowed and recognized by CONSOB. At 14 March 2018 the company has 4,873,604 shares in Treasury stock which amounts to 2.33% of the current share capital.

The Board of Directors also approved the Remuneration Report pursuant to article 123ter of the Legislative Decree 58/98, the first part of which is the Remuneration Policy to be submitted to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting. The Remuneration Report will be made available to the public within the terms of the law. The Shareholders' Meeting will also be called upon to approve the adoption of a new Stock Option Plan pursuant to article 114bis of Legislative Decree 58/1998 called the "2018-2022 Stock Option Plan".

Call to an Annual Shareholders' Meeting

The Board of Directors resolved to convene the Annual Shareholders' Meeting to be held at the company's offices on 18 April 2018 at 10.00 am, the sole convocation date, with the following agenda:

Annual Meeting

Board of Directors' Review of Operations; Report of the Board of Statutory Auditors; Financial Statements as at and for the financial year ended 31st December 2017; relative and consequent resolutions. Remuneration policies in accordance with article 123-ter of Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24th February 1998; relative and consequent resolutions. Proposal to approve the 2018-2022 Stock Option Plan; relative and consequent resolutions in accordance with Art. 114bis of Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February of 1998. Proposal to authorise the purchase and utilisation of treasury stock; relative and consequent resolutions.

The entire notice of call of an Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting is made publicly available as of today on the company's website www.recordati.com and can also be viewed on the authorized storage system 1Info (www.1Info.it). Within the terms prescribed by current laws and regulations the Directors' reports on the points of the Shareholders' Meeting agenda and any other documents relative to the Shareholders' Meeting agenda will be made available on the company website, at the company's offices and on the authorized storage system 1Info (www.1Info.it).

Recordati, established in 1926, is an international pharmaceutical group, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (Reuters RECI.MI, Bloomberg REC IM, ISIN IT 0003828271), with a total staff of more than 4,100, dedicated to the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Recordati has operations in the main European countries, in Russia, other Central and Eastern European countries, Turkey, North Africa, the United States of America, Canada, Mexico and in some South American countries. An efficient field force of medical representatives promotes a wide range of innovative pharmaceuticals, both proprietary and under license, in a number of therapeutic areas including a specialized business dedicated to treatments for rare diseases. Recordati is a partner of choice for new product licenses for its territories. Recordati is committed to the research and development of new specialties with a focus on treatments for rare diseases. Consolidated revenue for 2017 was  1,288.1 million, operating income was  406.5 million and net income was  288.8 million.

For further information:

Recordati website: www.recordati.com

Investor Relations Media Relations

Marianne Tatschke Studio Noris Morano

(39)0248787393 (39)0276004736, (39)0276004745

e-mail: investorelations@recordati.it e-mail: norismorano@studionorismorano.com



Statements contained in this release, other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements are based on currently available information, on current best estimates, and on assumptions believed to be reasonable. This information, these estimates and assumptions may prove to be incomplete or erroneous, and involve numerous risks and uncertainties, beyond the Company's control. Hence, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All mentions and descriptions of Recordati products are intended solely as information on the general nature of the company's activities and are not intended to indicate the advisability of administering any product in any particular instance.

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: RECORDATI via Globenewswire

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 13:05:01

LONDON, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RFA (Richard Fleischman & Associates), a next-gen managed IT services provider for the financial industry, recently named Richard Muckle as RFA's Head of Client Development for its EMEA Headquarter.

In his role, Richard will manage and guide RFA's European markets alongside RFA's growing EMEA team. Richard will advise and provide support for clients to ensure they are able to implement their vision and realize intended outcomes.

"Richard is an accomplished professional with vast experience in this market - he knows the right touch for our customers and how best to help them secure their organizations and help them scale as they grow," said RFA EMEA Managing Director, George Ralph.

Richard has over 25 years of experience in the financial sector, covering the UK, Europe, Asia, New York and the Cayman Islands. Prior to this role, Richard was global COO for a family office covering London, Luxembourg and New York with AUM in excess of EUR 1 billion. Richard has also held various C-level positions over the last 17 years, of which the majority were start-up funds as well as working in the fin-tech space as an advisor.

Richard has worked in the investment banking sector at Lehman Brothers as a senior analyst in its Fixed Income/derivatives prime brokerage team as well as running the exotic derivatives middle office at Greenwich NatWest. He also has had experience working in hedge fund administration and business consulting for asset managers.

About RFA (Richard Fleischman & Associates)

RFA is the trusted technology partner to over 600 clients globally for nearly thirty years. Offering a full range of technology solutions with global data center operations, RFA serves the IT and Technology needs across the whole of the financial sector. RFA has the expertise to meet the industry-specific needs of our clients with a proven customer service model, whether it's on-site or cloud-based solutions, telephony, data systems, fully-managed IT, or project management. RFA is headquartered in New York City with operations in Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, and EMEA HQ in London.

Contact:

Thuy Huynh

Marketing

thuynh@rfa.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/70e257bc-7162-424a-a9da-c8f7c34f6cb6

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: RFA via Globenewswire

Tomato Seeds Market report categorizes the report by Product Type, Farming, Application and Geography. It provides information about - Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

Tomato Seeds Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 08:25:04

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

Coherent Market Insights





1001 4th Ave,





#3200





Seattle, WA 98154



Mr. Shah

CEO

+1-206-701-6702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/tomato-seeds-market-1229





# 667 Words

Coherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154CEO+1-206-701-6702

Tomato is cultivated in temperate climates and greenhouses. They are used in various cuisines and have significant demand from the food industry. Increasing demand for various hybrid seeds due to its advantages such as fruit firmness, early maturity, high yield, and flavor is propelling the growth of tomato seeds market. Development of new varieties such as grape tomatoes are also fueling the growth of this market. Also, increasing awareness regarding health benefits of tomatoes such as reduction in risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and others has augmented the demand for tomatoes, which in turn is propelling the growth of tomato seeds market. Furthermore, increasing demand for tomatoes by the food processing industry for the production of paste, juice, sauce, ketchup, and others is driving the growth of tomato seeds market. However, perishable nature of tomato seeds and high initial investments are some of the barriers for tomato seeds market.Get More Deatils: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/tomato-seeds-market-1229 Tomato Seeds -Market Taxonomy:On the basis of product type, tomato seeds market is segmented into:Hybrid Tomato SeedsOpen Pollinated Tomato SeedsHeirloom Tomato SeedsOn the basis of farming, tomato seeds market is segmented into:FarmlandGreenhousesOthersDifferent hybrid, open pollinated, and heirloom tomato seeds are available for different varieties of tomatoes such as cherry tomato, roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and others.Tomato Seeds -Market OutlookNorth America region is the largest tomato seeds market due to the lucrative demand for tomatoes from the fresh and processed food industry. According to the Vegetables and Pulses Yearbook, 2017, U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.DA), total production of tomatoes in the U.S. was 3,129.4 million pounds in 2016. The per capita utilization of tomatoes for processing was 56 pounds per person in 2015, which increased to 61.2 in 2016. Also, per capita utilization of fresh tomatoes was 20.5 pounds per person in 2015, which increased to 21.3 pounds per person in 2016. Furthermore, the U.S. has significant demand for canned tomatoes, which in turn is driving the growth of tomato seeds market. For instance, per capita use of tomatoes for canning in 2015 was 56.3 pounds, which increased to 61.2 pounds.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in tomato seeds market with China being the largest producer of tomatoes, followed by India. Tomatoes have significant demand from the food processing industry in this region. According to the report published by Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GMBH (GIZ) in 2016, demand for the tomato processed food in India is annually increasing by 30, owing to increasing demand for ketchup, pasta sauce, ready-to-eat products, gravies and bulk supplies to fast food restaurants, hotel chains, and retail food chain. According to the survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India in June 2016, the demand for tomato puree and ketchup has surged by 40% due to surging prices of fresh tomato and trend towards easy-to-cook meals. This growth in tomato processing industry is driving the growth of tomato seeds market.Demand for tomato seeds is significantly increasing in Europe due to increasing demand for tomatoes by food industry. According to European Commission, approximately 17.9 million tons of tomatoes were produced in European Union in 2016. Italy and Spain were the major contributors and produced two third of the total tomato production in EU.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1229 *The Sample consists of Table of Content, Research framework of the actual report & research methodology adopted for it.The companies operating in the tomato seeds market are adopting various growth strategies such as new product development, merger and acquisition, and partnerships for business expansion. For instances, in 2017, Monsanto Company launched Seminis tomato hybrid seeds. In 2016, Advanta Limited announced partnership with A&M AgriLife Research for the development of seed technology for cash crops such as tomato.Key players operating in the tomato seeds market include Monsanto Company, Bayer AG, Syngenta AG, Takii & Co. Ltd., Group Limagrain, Advanta Limited, Rijk Zwaan Zaadteelt en Zaadhandel B.V., VoloAgri Group, Sakata Seed Corporation, and Mahindra Agri Solution Limited.PR-Inside.com: 2018-03-15 13:06:01

Yale Announces MBA Scholarships for African Students Aiming to Make an Impact

For Yale School of Management:

Nathan Williams, 203-432-7817

nathan.williams@yale.edu

Speaking at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 15, Yale University President Peter Salovey announced an expanded opportunity for emerging leaders in Africa to pursue an MBA education at Yale. The Yale School of Management will dedicate two scholarships in its full-time MBA program for students from the continent who intend to return and contribute to economic growth in their nations and communities.

This initiative is part of a broad commitment across the university to build on our longstanding relationships in Africa, said President Salovey. Yale, our partner institutions, and even the world benefit immensely from our collaborations with people and organizations on the continent.

The Yale-Africa Impact Scholarships will be awarded based on merit to the candidates most likely to advance Yale SOMs mission to educate leaders for business and society. The scholarships will provide funding for at least half of the tuition for the full-time MBA program (approximately $70,000$140,000 USD over two years). Within two years of graduation from Yale, Impact Scholars are expected to return to Africa to work for at least two years in a professional role that contributes to the continents development.

To be considered, prospective students from Africa must apply and be admitted to Yale SOMs full-time MBA program. Once admitted, scholarship decisions will be decided based on the competitiveness of the applicants. No additional application is needed. These scholarships will be in addition to the schools existing partnership with the Harambe Entrepreneurship Alliance, which provides a full-tuition scholarship to one outstanding African entrepreneur.

Were excited to strengthen our ties with the continent of Africa, said Acting Dean Anjani Jain. "Yale SOMs mission-driven approach to leadership, as well as our global reach and close bonds with our home university, make this program the ideal launching pad for young professionals who want to create economic value and new opportunities for those around them."

The schools increased commitment to Africa builds on its existing connections to the continent. Thirty-two students from Africa are currently enrolled in the Yale SOMs various degree programs, and the schools Africa Business Club serves as an hub for students with connections to Africa.

A number of academic pursuits regularly bring Yale SOM students to different regions in Africa. Through a 2018 course, called "Design as Utility," students researched the water shortage in Cape Town, South Africa, and traveled to Cape Town this week to work with local organizations working on solutions to the crisis. First year students have traveled to a number of countries in Africa through the International Experience course since its inception in 2007, including Egypt, Ghana, Namibia, and, most recently, South Africa, where students traveled this week to study sustainable growth. Through the Global Social Entrepreneurship course, teams of Yale students have worked closely with nonprofit organizations in Ghana and South Africa in recent years.

Yale SOM students also benefit from connections to four peer business schools in Africa through the Global Network for Advanced Management. The Global Network serves as a platform for innovative business education program, including the popular Global Network Week, through which students take a week-long course at another member school. The African member schools are Lagos Business School in Nigeria, Strathmore Business School in Kenya, University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business in South Africa, and the University of Ghana Business School.

More than 40 Yale SOM alumni currently live and work in Africa, and alumni chapters bring together graduates in Ghana and Nigeria. Prominent alumni whose work has had a meaningful impact in Africa include Ken Ofori-Atta 88, Minister of Finance in Ghana, and Donald Gips 89, former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa.

The university-wide Yale Africa Initiative promotes African scholarship, contemporary discourse, and research at Yale and in Africa; strengthens Yales relationships with African institutions; increases career opportunities for Yale students across Africa; and attracts the best and the brightest African students to Yale.

About Yale School of Management

The mission of the Yale School of Management is to educate leaders for business and society. The schools students, faculty, and alumni are committed to understanding the complex forces transforming global markets and using that understanding to build organizationsin the for-profit, nonprofit, entrepreneurial, and government sectorsthat contribute lasting value to society.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201803150052ADVERTISEMENT

A set of new guiding principles for the operation of E-commerce platforms have been laid out by the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to protect e-commerce consumers as well as enhance consumer confidence.

The five guiding principles were disclosed to reporters at a press briefing after a meeting CPC had with representatives of some e-commerce platforms as well as retail outlets on Thursday in Abuja.

The meeting was held in commemoration of the World Consumer Rights Day (the 15th of March, 2018) themed Making the Digital Marketplaces Fairer.

According to a report of the meeting, the focus was not just on the current consumer experience in the online shopping marketplace, but also on protecting the legitimacy and responsibility of online marketing companies and their brands.

On consumers distrust of e-commerce platforms, the report showed that both parties (CPC and the executives of the E-commerce platforms) agreed that only a robust, ethical and well regulated industry can promote consumer confidence and eliminate distrust, prevent fraud and market entry by those who seek to exploit and defraud.

On the challenges of the e-commerce platforms, the report highlighted technological disruption and innovation as vital catalysts for economic expansion, commercial penetration and shared prosperity.

The guiding principles include:

1. Online marketers recognise that a dedicated customer service apparatus, which is an indispensable corollary of e-commerce, is required to ensure engagement and a complaint resolution process which is not burdensome to the customer.

2. Online market platforms recognise the importance of full, frank and complete disclosures of any terms, conditions, exceptions or restrictions on products marketed on their platforms.

3. Online marketers also recognise the need to promote consumer confidence and eliminate distrust. Advertisement of products should be truthful, transparent and factual, including current/future availability, specifications, merchantable conditions, quality and relevant warranty information.

4. Online market platforms recognise that timely delivery is a material and vital term of the contract/ agreement between platforms and their customers. As such, timely delivery including reasonable and fair return windows, prompt and efficient refunds and respect for cancellations in accordance with prevailing policy, are a matter of contractual obligations.

5. Online marketers recognise and respect the privacy of consumers and the need to protect such privacy by securing and only disclosing consumer data/personal information by operation of law or in accordance with consumer preferences.

Regarding the implementation of the principles, the Director General of CPC, Babatunde Irukera, said before the end of the second quarter this year we will have a process in place.

Both the CPC and the representatives of the E-Commerce platforms also agreed to commit to a broad-based engagement to further promote and develop the aforementioned principles, business guidance and regulatory framework as soon as possible.

Distrust on the part of consumers is a major factor that has affected the growth of E-commerce in Nigeria as complaints of deceptive visuals as well as delivery failures are common,

E-commerce in Nigeria is at its larval stage when compared to the state of the industry in America and Europe.

The industry has grown to an extent where it can no longer be ignored, therefore creating the need to be regulated.ADVERTISEMENT

The African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) said it was launching a $1 billion financing programme with the Export Credit Insurance Corporation (ECIC) of South Africa to promote trade expansion and investments in Africa.

A statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday said a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two partners in Cairo, Egypt on Monday to launch the programme.

Under the terms of the MOU, AFREXIMBANK and ECIC would jointly implement a South Africa-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme (SATIPP) aimed at expanding trade and investment in the continent.

SATIPP will involve the two institutions working together on identification, preparation and appraisal of trade transactions and projects; exploration of co-financing and risk-sharing opportunities, and knowledge-sharing work, with particular emphasis on intra-African trade matters, through technical cooperation, staff exchange, research and joint events, the statement said.

South Africa joined AFREXIMBANK as shareholder in November 2017, while ECIC was named as its designated investor, the statement added.

By virtue of the countrys status as shareholder, AFREXIMBANK President, Benedict Oramah, said South Africa would be eligible to access the Banks trade promotion programmes and financial services.

Mr. Oramah said on Monday at the agreement signing ceremony that in line with Banks investment strategy, entitled: Impact 2021: Africa Transformed, intra-African trade, industrialisation and export manufacturing were priority.

We decided to develop this joint programme to provide a platform for the realisation of our strategic objectives, while also aligning with South Africas strategic goal of expanding trade with the rest of Africa, Mr. Oramah said.

He said in addition to being Africas most industrialised country and a regional manufacturing hub, with one of the largest and most diversified economies in the continent, South Africa also accounted for 24.5 per cent of exports and 15.4 per cent of imports under intra-African trade.

The joint initiative, Mr. Oramah pointed out, would support businesses through capacity building and market information initiatives; help small and medium-sized entrepreneurs join regional supply chains; and provide advisory services

He added that it would also guarantee to South African investors seeking trade and investment opportunities in AFREXIMBANK African member states, including Nigeria, which has the largest market in the continent.

Chief Executive Officer of ECIC, Kutoane Kutoane, said joining AFREXIMBANK as a shareholder had made it possible for South Africa to widen its access to other African markets.

Beyond ECICs mandate to increase the volumes of South African exports, Mr. Kutoane said the institution was committed to contributing to the Africas industrialisation in an inclusive manner.

We realise that one of the best ways to enhance our capabilities to export as a country is by intensifying mutually beneficial trade with the rest of the continent, Mr. Kutoane said.

Managing Director of AFREXIMBANKs Intra-African Trade Initiative, Kanayo Awani, said SATIPP offered numerous opportunities to South-Africa-based entrepreneurs expanding to the rest of Africa, including trade and project financing, guarantees, twinning/business matchmaking services, export logistics facilitation, capacity-building, and trade information and advisory services.

Implementation of the MOU, he said, would involve technical teams from the two institutions collaborating in the identification of trade transactions and projects eligible for financing.COTABATO CITYThe Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has approved 50 more hectares of corporate banana farms expansion worth P290 million in Maguindanao, the Regional Board of Investments said Wednesday. Lawyer Ishak Mastura, RBOI chairman and managing executive, said the board approved the capital investment on Cavendish banana by an all-Filipino firm owned and managed by the Ekasalam AgriVentures in Kauran, Ampatuan, Maguindanao. The company has established potential access to the international market, particularly Bahrain and other Middle East countries. Mastura said the project reaffirms that Maguindanao Province remains the top investment hub of the ARMM in terms of agriculture. Last year, the agency registered non-agriculture projects. But this time, the ARMM is back to agricultural investments, as indicated by the applications submitted to RBOI. Most of the investments now in the pipeline are agriculture based, he said. As part of ARMM fiscal incentives on long-term land investments, the regional government also granted income tax holidays to Ekasalam Agri-Ventures for six years, in addition to other incentives provided by the government upon the start of its commercial operations.The company will initially develop a 50-hectare Cavendish banana plantation and will later expand to a total of 250 hectares. The initial operation is expected to generate 265 jobs for local residents. In a statement, ARMM Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman described the Ekasalam project as a breakthrough in that most investors in the ARMM are not from the region. But now we have pure locals who are bold enough to establish a multi-million project, Hataman said. The banana fruit is very important to Filipinos not just because of its food nutritive value, but also it is a source of income, and is generating employment, aside from being a top export product, he added. According to the Bureau of Agriculture and Statistics, the current level of RBOI registration for agriculture-based banana production is placing ARMM on the map of the top banana-producing provinces of Mindanao, Hataman said.ADVERTISEMENT

Ethiopia said on Thursday that unrest in Moyale area, southern Ethiopia, in recent days had displaced 39,825 people.

Speaking to the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Aligaz Gebre, a colonel and Head of the 41st Division of Ethiopian Army, said rumours of war was largely responsible for the displacement.

Mr. Gebres comment came after a botched military operation to sniff out rebels in Moyale city on March 10 left nine civilians dead and 12 injured.

The deadly shooting and the ensuing panic has already forced more than 8,000 people to flee to neighbouring Kenya.

Ethiopias Command Secretariat on Sunday said four soldiers, including a colonel, had been disarmed and put under arrest pending investigation.

Moyale that is near Kenyan border is in Oromia regional state which has been in a state of unrest since late 2015 that has left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

The unrest has forced the Ethiopian government to impose a six-month martial law starting February 16, saying it was to protect the countrys constitution, citizens and their property from dangers that would arise from the violent demonstrations.

The current martial law period is the second the East African country has imposed since the second half of 2016.

Ethiopia had witnessed a 10-month long state of emergency period since October 2016.

(Xinhua/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Nepal on Thursday banned from the roads vehicles older than 20 years across the country in a bid to control worsening air quality and to ease traffic congestion, officials said.

The government decision, which followed a similar campaign in the capital Kathmandu a year ago, has forced more than 5,000 ageing vehicles, including buses and trucks off the road.

But an organisation representing transport businessmen criticized the government move.

We were not consulted before the authorities took the decision. They dont have any plan on what to do with the vehicles, said Dharma Rimal, an official at the Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs.

Vehicles older than 20 years still ply the rural roads. I dont think it will be fully implemented, he told dpa.

In a notice published in newspapers on Thursday, the Department of Transport Management said if such vehicles were found plying the roads, officials will seize them.

Authorities have also banned cars from core parts of Kathmandu to reduce congestion.

The global Environmental Performance Index released earlier this year ranked Nepals air quality as one of the worst in the world. (dpa/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Saudi Arabia will develop a nuclear bomb if Iran does so, the kingdoms 32-year-old crown prince said in a preview of a television interview released on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible, Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in an interview that will air on Sunday.

NAN reports that in 2012, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, warned senior Nato military officials we cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we dont. Its as simple as that, the official said.

If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, that will be unacceptable to us and we will have to follow suit.

Officials in Riyadh said that Saudi Arabia would reluctantly push ahead with its own civilian nuclear programme.

Peaceful use of nuclear power, Turki said, was the right of all nations.

Turki was speaking earlier this month at an unpublicised meeting at RAF Molesworth, the airbase in Cambridgeshire used by Nato as a centre for gathering and collating intelligence on the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

According to a transcript of his speech obtained by the Guardian, Turki told his audience that Iran was a paper tiger with steel claws that was meddling and destabilising across the region.

Iran  is very sensitive about other countries meddling in its affairs. But it should treat others like it expects to be treated. The kingdom expects Iran to practise what it preaches, Turki said.

Turki holds no official post in Saudi Arabia but is seen as an ambassador at large for the kingdom and a potential future foreign minister,

Saudi Arabian diplomats and officials have launched a serious campaign in recent weeks to rally global and regional powers against Iran, fearful that their countrys larger but poorer regional rival is exploiting the Arab Spring to gain influence in the region and within the kingdom itself.

Turki had also accused Iran of interfering in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and in the Gulf state of Bahrain, where Saudi troops were deployed this year as part of a Gulf Co-operation Council force following widespread protests from those calling for greater democratic rights.

Though there has previously been little public comment from Riyadh on developments in Syria, Turki told his audience at Molesworth that President Bashar al-Assad will cling to power till the last Syrian is killed.

Syria presents a dilemma for Saudi policymakers: although they would prefer not to see popular protest unseat another regime in the region, they view the Damascus regime, which is dominated by members of Syrias Shia minority, as a proxy for Iran.

Iran and the U.S. remain in dispute over its nuclear programme. (Reuters/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The U.S. slapped sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five groups, including Moscows intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and malicious cyberattacks, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs for their destabilising activities.

Mr. Mnuchin did not give a time frame for those sanctions, which he said would sever the individuals access to the U.S. financial system.

The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, Mr. Mnuchin said in a statement.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign using hacking and propaganda, an effort that eventually included attempting to tilt the race in President Donald Trumps favour.

Russia denies interfering in the election.

U.S. Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, on February 16 brought charges against 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies, accusing them of participating in a criminal and espionage conspiracy to tamper in the 2016 campaign.

The indictment said Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages, traveled to the U.S. to collect intelligence and staged political rallies while posing as Americans.

Those targeted by the new sanctions include the Russian nationals and entities charged by Mueller.

The new sanctions also include Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and six individuals working on behalf of the GRU.

(Reuters/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

A total of 12,981 local and foreign journalists from 2,416 media outlets will cover the Russian presidential election schedule for Sunday, the Russian Central Election Commissions (CEC) data showed.

However, 5,560 journalists from television stations and 117 journalists from Internet media will also participate, according to the CEC Information Centre.

It noted that a total of 367 journalists from 80 foreign media would also be following the election.

In another development, the Chairwoman of the CEC, Ella Pamfilova, said the state automated system election to be used for the election was fully protected against any form of hacking.

She said the states automated system election is not connected to the Internet and does not allow for any external administration, including from the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC).

It is independent of the CEC, we cannot be administrators  It is so well-protected that it is hack-proof. It is independent, does not depend on global network, besides, it is independent from being managed by anybody else.

Mrs. Pamfilova noted that a special department, the Federal Informatisation Centre, was responsible for the technical issues related to the election.

The automated system enables the compilation of list of voters, checks the money flow in candidates accounts, designs ballot layouts, adds and process the information about the results of the vote.

The March 18 Russian presidential election has eight candidates, including Sergey Baburin from the All-Peoples Union party; Pavel Grudinin from Communist Party, incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin and Civil Initiative party candidate, Ksenia Sobchak.

Others are Communists of Russia party Chairman, Maxim Suraykin; Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs Rights, Boris Titov; co-founder of Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, and Head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

(Sputnik/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The Nigerian Army says its troops on Wednesday discovered 23 dead bodies in a village in Plateau State.

The army said the 3 Division Garrison in Plateau discovered the bodies.

The army said two soldiers from the division were also killed in the state.

There have been several cases of mass killings in the state due to clashes between herdsmen and local communities.

The spokesperson of the army, Texas Chukwu, said in a statement issued on Wednesday night, While conducting search, troops discovered 23 dead bodies at Mararaba Dare shortly before Rafiki Village.

Mr. Chukwu, a brigadier general, said the troops responded to a distress call about a clash between Miango community and herdsmen at Rafiki village.

The two soldiers were killed by herdsmen who opened fire on the troops convoy, Mr. Chukwu said. He said two other soldiers wounded in the attack have been taken to a military hospital.

The army said seven suspects have been arrested and weapons, including one AK 47 assault rifle, recovered from the incident.

The killings in Plateau state have continued, despite the curfew imposed on some communities by the state government.

President Muhammadu Buhari had visited the state recently to assess the situation and personally condole with communities ravaged by incessant killings.The National Judicial Council has recommended the compulsory retirement of two judges.

The two judges recommended for dismissal are Theresa Uzokwe, Chief Judge of Abia State and Obisike Oji of Abia State High Court.

The council said it recommended Ms. Uzokwes sack following the recommendation of two panels that investigated allegations against her.

According to a statement by its spokesperson, Soji Oye, the NJC also issued stern warnings to Justices S. E Aladetoyinbo and Olusola Ajibike Williams of FCT and Lagos High Courts.

The council also set up a committee to investigate a Supreme Court Justice and two (2) State Chief Judges.

Read Mr. Oyes full statement below

PRESS RELEASE

14th March, 2018

 NJC recommends the compulsory retirement of Hon. Mr. Justice Theresa Uzokwe, Chief Judge Abia State and Hon. Justice Obisike Oji of Abia State High Court.

 Issues stern warnings to Justices S. E Aladetoyinbo and Olusola Ajibike Williams of FCT and Lagos High Courts.

 Sets up Committee to investigate a Supreme Court Justice and two (2) State Chief Judges.

 Appoints sixty (60) Judicial Officers for twenty-four (24) States.

The National Judicial Council under the Chairmanship of the Honourable Mr. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, GCON, at its 85th Meeting which was held on the 14th of March, 2018, recommended the compulsory retirement of Hon. Mr Justice Theresa Uzokwe, Chief Judge, and Hon. Mr. Justice Obisike Oji of Abia State High Court of Justice, to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State. The Council also issued stern warnings to Justices S. E. Aladetoyinbo and Olusola Ajibike Williams of the FCT and Lagos State High Courts.

2. Hon. Mr Justice Theresa Uzokwe was recommended for compulsory retirement following the findings of two investigative committees set up by the Council. The committees investigated petitions against her by Umeh Kalu, SAN, Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice of Abia State, alleging illegal constitution and working with a parallel Judicial Service Commission instead of the one constituted by the State Governor and confirmed by the House of Assembly.

Hon. Mr Justice Uzokwe was also found to have misconducted himself in Suit No. HU/131/2005, wherein he delivered judgement in the sum of N825, 000 (Eight Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Naira) only in favour of a Litigant, but subsequently signed a garnishee order of N109, 612, 500 (One Hundred and Nine Million, Six Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Five Hundred Naira) only.

3. Hon. Mr Justice Obisike Oji was earlier queried by the Council for allowing himself to be sworn-in as acting Chief Judge, and thereby colluding in, and aiding an unconstitutional process. His reply was unsatisfactory and the Council recommended his compulsory retirement.

4. The NJC reprimanded, seriously warned and placed on the Watch List Hon Justice S. E. Aladetoyinbo of the FCT High Court for impropriety in a case between U.L.O. Consultants Ltd v BIL Construction Nigeria Ltd, sequel to a petition by one Uche Luke Okpuno. Council would have sanctioned the Judge more severely but had to take into account the fact that aspects of the case are appealable.

5. Council also seriously warned Hon Justice Olusola Ajibike Williams of the Lagos State High Court for grave errors of judgment in her level of involvement in a family business. Council found that the Judge, as a judicial officer, should have been more circumspect and conscious of her office. Councils sanction was as a result of a petition by Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams, SAN.

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6. Council at the Meeting also considered various petitions written against thirty-one (31) Judicial Officers and resolved to empanel three (3) Investigative Committees against one Justice of Supreme Court and two (2) State Chief Judges.

7. Petitions against various Justices were dismissed either for lack of merit, lack of evidence of misconduct, being sub judice or that the subject of such petitions were matters for appeal. The dismissed petitions were against Hon. Mr. Justices Abdu Aboki, Theresa Abadua and Ahmed Belgore all of the Court of Appeal; Hon. Mr. Justices J. T. Tsoho, Ayo Emmanuel, Sabiu Yahusa, Zainab B. Abubakar, B. O. Quadri of the Federal High Court; Hon. Mr. Justices A. N. Ubaka and B. B. Kanyip of National Industrial Court; Hon. Mr. Justices Bello Kawu, S. C. Orji, A. N. Talba of the FCT High Court; Hon. Mr. Justice K. C. Nwankpa of High Court Abia State; Hon. Mr. Justice D. A. Onyefulu of High Court Anambra State; Hon. Mr. Justice W. I. A. Effiong High Court Akwa-Ibom State; A. M. Ikpambese, High Court Benue State; Hon. Mr. Justice G. E. Gbemre, High Court Delta State; Hon. Mr. Justice A. O. Onovo, High Court Enugu State; Hon. Mr. Justice Idi Apollos, High Court Gombe State; Hon. Mr. Justice G. O. Ogunsanya, High Court Ogun State; Hon. Mr. Justice A. B. Abdulkarim, High Court Osun State; Hon. Mr. Justice K. A. Ojiako, High Court Imo State and Hon. Mr Justices A. M. Lawal, L. A. Okunnu and L. B. Lawal Akapo, High Court Lagos State.

Council decided to advise Hon. Mr. Justice J. E. Ikede of Delta State High Court and Hon. Mr. Justice Yusuf Halilu of FCT High Court to be more careful in the course of their judicial duties.

8. Council decided to refer a petition by Prince Adesina Okuneye against Hon. Mr. Justice Mwada Balami of the FCT High Court to the Police to investigate the allegation of N5, 000,000 (Five Million Naira) bribe to the Judge for granting bail to an accused person. Council decided that the petition should be put in abeyance until the outcome of the investigation by the Police.

9. Council at the Meeting also recommended sixty (60) Judicial Officers to Governors of twenty-four (24) for appointment as High Court Judges, Sharia Court Kadis and Customary Court of Appeal Judges.Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja has lambasted the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) display of gross misconduct in the prosecution of an alleged N3.1 billion corruption case by the anti-graft agency.

The judge, who accused the EFCC of frustrating proceedings in the trial and attempting to take over control of court, withdrew from the EFCC case and returned its file to the Chief Judge of the Court, Abdul Kafarati, for re-assignment to another court.

The trial involving a serving colonel in the Nigerian Army, Nicholas Ashinze, and five others ran into storm during the cross examination of an EFCC operative, Hassan Sheidu.

The counsel to the army officer, Ernest Nwoye, had asked the EFCC operative who conducted investigation into the case to confirm to the court, if the name of Nicholas Ashinze appeared in any of the transactions relating to the N3.1 billion water project contract and which he answered negatively.

Mr. Nwoye also asked the EFCC witness to confirm to the court whether the contract was initiated by the office of the National Security Adviser where the army officer served or the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and which he answered in favour of the latter.

Trouble began when another question on whether the NSA office was responsible for payment of the contract and whether the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which effected payment ever declared the water contract illegal or fraudulent and which he answered in the negative.

Mr. Nwoye then asked the EFCC witness to tell the court why the name of Nicholas Ashinze was put on the charge sheet.

The counsel to EFCC, Ofem Uket, became uncomfortable with the cross examination and began interjecting into the proceedings persistently.

Efforts by the judge and other lawyers that the cross examination be allowed unhindered were rebuffed as the counsel objected to virtually all the questions put to his witness.

In the face off that ensued, Justice Kolawole attempted to call EFCC to order but the effort yielded no fruitful result while other lawyers expressed bitterness on the issue.

The interjection got to the climax when the counsel openly challenged the court records which were severally read out to him by judge to assuage his feelings.

However, when all effort to call the counsel to order to stop the interjection were rebuffed, Justice Kolawole informed the counsel to conduct himself in manners expected of a legal practitioner which still yielded no fruitful result.

At a point, the judge said he could no longer condone the conduct of EFCC in the trial and announced his withdrawal from the case.

Justice Kolawole accused the anti-graft agency of frustrating his court and desperately seeking to take over control of the court from him against the normal practice.

He said that it was the duty of the court to allow a witness in a criminal trial to be cross examined with questions contemplated by law adding that the display of apprehension by EFCC was unjust and un-called for.

The judge while lambasting the EFCC for taking the court, laws and the best practice for granted counseled the commission to always put its house in order before rushing to court for trial adding that justice was not for a particular side.

He therefore opted out of the case and returned the file to the chief judge for re-assignment to another judge.

Justice Kolawole had on March 21, 2017 stopped the trial of the defendants in the case when the EFCC in a press statement quoted the court proceedings wrongly with claims that the defendants were indicted for N36 billion contract fraud and put on trial before the court.

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The press statement which was widely published in the newspapers drew the anger of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Paul Erokoro, who insisted that the EFCC statement was capable of misleading the general public.

The senior lawyer drew the attention of the court to the 13 court charge against the defendants involving N3.1 billion and not N36 billion; and demanded that the court call the EFCC to order in the media trial of the defendants.

The EFCC counsel, Ofem Uket, had denied granting a press interview but, however, admitted that the offending press statement emanated from the media unit of EFCC.

In his ruling then, Justice Kolawole condemned the EFCC for conducting two trial for the defendants in the media and his court.

The judge said that it was wrong of the EFCC to have claimed that the defendants were indicted for N36 billion alleged fraud when such a bogus figure was not contained in the charge adding that such press statement will prejudice fair trial of the defendants.

The trial, however, resumed when the offending newspaper publications were retracted by the EFCC and apologies tendered to the court.

Other defendants in the case are Sadiq Mohammed, a foreigner A.C Wolfang and a lawyer Mr. Edidion Edidion.A former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has said President Muhammadu Buharis claims in Damaturu, Yobe, that he handled the recent abduction of 110 Dapchi schoolgirls much better than Mr. Jonathan treated a similar incident in Chibok in 2014 is false.

Reno Omokri in a statement on Thursday rather defended his former boss saying it was Mr. Jonathan who treated the abduction with dispatch while Mr. Buhari chose to look the other way.

President Buhari, while speaking in Damaturu where he went to sympathise with the parents of the Dapchi schoolgirls had used the occasion to take a swipe at his predecessor, who had also been criticised in the past for the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls, although many have been reunited with their families.

Mr. Buhari is currently touring states ruptured by bloodletting in recent months after he had been criticised for not doing so. He has already visited Benue and Plateau states and is expected to visit few others.

Mr. Buhari in Damaturu had said: The Federal Governments response to the unfortunate abduction of the school girls is a clear departure from the insensitivity of the past administration which looked the other way while the Chibok girls were taken away in 2014 and held in captivity for over three years.

Due to our commitment, over 100 Chibok girls have been rescued and reunited with their families, sent back to school and empowered with requisite skills.

However, Mr. Omokri said it beats his imagination why a President who is close to 80 years of age will continue to lie like a child.

Below is Mr. Omokris statement defending Mr. Jonathan and flaying Mr. Buharis comments in Damaturu:

When the Chibok Girls were kidnapped, the Jonathan administration did not look the other way as President Buhari claims and historical records prove this. The Chibok Girls were kidnapped on April 14, 2014. Exactly three days later, on April 17, 2014, then President Goodluck Jonathan called an emergency National Security Council meeting at Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Is this the act of an administration or a President that looks away?

Now more than two weeks after the Dapchi Girls were kidnapped, has President Buhari held a National Security Council meeting to address the situation? No, he has not. As a matter of fact, to prove to Nigerians how inept he is, the President canceled the Federal Executive Council meeting that was to hold after the Dapchi Girls were kidnapped because of a conference he had to attend.

Between a President who calls an emergency meeting after Chibok and a President who canceled an important meeting so he could attend an economic conference, who can be described as looking the other way?

Which serious leader cancels the most important meeting in his nation at a time when Kaduna is facing ethnic and religious killings, Zamfara is facing mass killings by bandits, Benue, Plateau, Adamawa and Taraba are facing an onslaught from Fulani herdsmen and 110 girls were kidnapped in Dapchi?

When Yusuf Buhari had an accident, President Buhari canceled all his engagements and headed straight to the hospital. When the Dapchi Girls were kidnapped, the same President Buhari carried on as usual and went to Kano to go and dance and socialise at a Society Wedding!

After the Jonathan administration held an emergency National Security Council meeting on April 17, 2014, the Nigerian Army and Air force began searching for the Chibok girls with sorties being flown in search of the girls.

Let me remind Nigerians that one of the people who undermined the then administrations anti-terror war was Muhammadu Buhari who on June 3, 2013 said the military offensive against Boko Haram is anti-North. I urge Nigerians to Google this direct quote to know their President better.

And again, the President lied when he said his administration rescued 100 Chibok Girls. The Chibok Girls were not rescued. As a matter of fact, they were released by Boko Haram after the alleged payment of huge ransoms and freedom of captured Boko Haram commanders by the Buhari administration.

Only two weeks ago, Shuaibu Moni, one of the Boko Haram commanders released by the Buhari administration went back to Sambisa Forest and released a video threatening Nigeria.

Who knows whether it was moneys allegedly paid as ransom to Boko Haram or individuals freed by the government that were used to facilitate the kidnap of the Dapchi Girls and the recent killings of United Nations staff in Rann.

Again, three weeks ago, Chief Mike Okiro, the head of the Police Service Commission, revealed that under President Muhammadu Buhari, 150,000 police men are guarding big men instead of performing core police duties.

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President Buharis son, Yusuf, alone had more guards guarding him than the guards attached to Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi at the time of the kidnapping, yet the President has the guts to say he handled Daochi better than Jonathan handled Chibok. A serious President, knowing how vulnerable the Northeast is would have sent these 150,000 policemen to guard schools in the Northeast rather than send them out to guard APC big shots all over the country.

Finally, can President Buhari, who claims to have defeated Boko Haram, tell the world how many people are killed Daily by Boko Haram under his regime as compared to the previous regime?

In the first ten weeks of 2018, Boko Haram killed 519 people in the Northeast. Only a patently dishonest leader can claim to have defeated Boko Haram with such numbers.

Mr. Buharis tour is already receiving more knocks than commendations.

In Makurdi, the president was derided by many when he said he was unaware, three months after, that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, failed to obey his directive to relocate to Benue to contain the perennial conflicts between herdsmen and farmers.

While many have called for the sack of Mr. Idris, the controversial cop was reportedly summoned by the president to give an update in the raging crisis in Benue state while presidential sources say the president would act on the matter when he has all the details.ADVERTISEMENT

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC , Lagos Zonal office, on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 secured the conviction and sentencing of one Paul Onwughalu, a former Head of Operations, Union Bank Plc, Head Office, Marina, Lagos, before Justice S.S. Ogunsanya of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Igbosere.

The convict had been arraigned on February 24, 2014 on a four-count charge bordering on failure to conduct due diligence in financial transactions.

One of the counts reads:  That you, Paul Onwughalu, on or about the 9th of January, 2013, at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division, whilst being an employee of Union Bank Plc, failed to exercise due diligence in relation to the conduct of financial transactions with one DanKawu Bureau De Change by confirming and authorizing payment of the sum of 450,000,000 (Four Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) fraudulently transferred by hacking into Union Bank database (flexcube) and transferring the said sum to Union Bank Plc account of one DanKawu Bureau De Change domiciled in Union Bank, Head Office Branch, Marina, Lagos and thereby facilitated the crediting and withdrawal of the said sum by one DanKawu Bureau De Change to various accounts in Ecobank, Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa and Dankawu Bureau De Change. 

The accused had pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him, thereby setting the stage for his full trial.

In the course of the trial, the prosecution counsel, Fadeke Giwa, had presented a number of witnesses and tendered various documents that were admitted in evidence by the court.

The counsel to the convict, O. Fagbemi, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing his client.

Delivering her judgement, Justice Ogunsanya found the accused guilty and sentenced him to three years imprisonment on each count.It is apparent that the ICC is being utilized as a political tool against the Philippines.

President Rodrigo Duterte, announcing the countrys withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he was pulling the Philippines out of the treaty underpinning the International Criminal Court, which is examining his deadly war on drugs.I... declare and give notice... that the Philippines is withdrawing its ratification of the Rome Statute effective immediately, Duterte said in a statement. The Hague-based ICC announced last month it was launching a preliminary examination of Dutertes bloody anti-drug crackdown that has drawn international concern. Police say they have killed nearly 4,000 drug suspects as part of the campaign, while rights groups claim the toll is around three times the numbers given by authorities. Duterte, who is accused of stoking the killings with inflammatory statements, has taken issue over the Philippines becoming the first Southeast Asian nation put under a preliminary examination by the ICC prosecutor. Opened in 2002, the ICC is the worlds only permanent war crimes court and aims to prosecute the worst abuses when national courts are unable or unwilling. The Philippines, under previous President Benigno Aquino III, ratified in 2011 the Rome Statute which underpins the ICC, giving the tribunal authority to investigate crimes on its soil. Withdrawing the countrys ratification of the treaty would mean the ICC would no longer have jurisdiction over the Philippines. On Wednesday Duterte, a former lawyer, attacked the ICCs preliminary examination into his anti-narcotics campaign saying it was unduly and maliciously created. It is apparent that the ICC is being utilized as a political tool against the Philippines, he said. In his statement, Duterte cited baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on his person as well as his administration. The acts allegedly committed by me are neither genocide nor war crimes. The deaths occurring in the process of legitimate police operations lacked the intent to kill, he added. But even as early as Oct. 13, 2016, when Duterte had only been in office less than four months, the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that she was deeply concerned over reports of extra-judicial killings of over 3,000 alleged drug users and pushers. Adding pressure on Manila, in February, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva raised the countrys human rights record with Iceland Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson calling on the Philippines to accept the visit of a UN special rapporteur.Philippine officials had initially said in February that the country was ready to cooperate but asked for fairness. Dutertes spokesman Harry Roque also said they would refuse a visit by one such rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who had previously been pressing to investigate the killings. But Roque has also said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the case because the tribunal was intended as a court of last resort and the Philippine courts were fully functioning. The Philippines is among the 124 countries that are members of the United Nations-backed ICC, the worlds only permanent war crimes court. The permanent international court can prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. In a strongly worded statement, President Duterte said that there appears to be a concerted effort on the part of the UN special rapporteurs to paint him as a ruthless and heartless violator of human rights who allegedly caused thousands of extrajudicial killings. The President accused the ICC of prematurely making a public pronouncement of a preliminary examination, which effectively created the impression that he is to be charged for serious crimes falling under its jurisdiction. The attempt to place me under the jurisdiction of the ICC is brazen display of ignorance of the law. The ICC has no jurisdiction nor will it acquire jurisdiction over my person. The ICC has no jurisdiction nor will it acquire jurisdiction over my person, Duterte said. Duterte, a former prosecutor, said that Rome Statutes contention that he can be charged under international law is not effective nor enforceable in the Philippines. Under our law, particularly the New Civil Code, a law shall become effective only upon its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation. Devoid of the legal required publication, the Rome Statute is ineffective and unenforceable, the President said. The President also slammed UN special rapporteur Callamard and UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein for being biased. He said that when the Philippine government made itself a signatory to the Rome Statute, it was on the assumption that the internationally accepted principles of justice in relation to the Philippines constitutional requirement on due process would be upheld.ADVERTISEMENT

A 71-year-old farmer, Sunday Fakorede, who allegedly obtained N80,000 under false pretenses, on Thursday appeared before an Ikeja Magistrates Court.

Mr. Fakorede, who resides at Agboyi Road, Ketu, on the outskirts of Lagos, is facing a charge of fraud.

The accused allegedly committed the offence on February 19 at 11.45 p.m. at Ojodu Berger area of Lagos, Police Prosecutor Edet Okoi told the court.

Mr. Okoi said the accused collected the money from the complainant, Adedokun Adelowo, with a promise that he would help him settle his court case.

The accused said the money will be used to `facilitate a letter that would help the withdrawal of the case from court, a representation he knew was false.

Fakorede diverted the money to personal use and absconded, but was later apprehended and handed over to the police for questioning, he said.

The accused pleaded innocence of the offence.

The offence contravened Section 323 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the accused may be sentenced to seven years imprisonment on conviction.

In her ruling, the Chief Magistrate, O.A. Layinka, granted the accused bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum.

She said the sureties, who should be gainfully employed, should own landed property within the courts jurisdiction.

In addition, the sureties should provide evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

Ms. Lainka adjourned the case until April 16 for mention.ADVERTISEMENT

The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday expressed satisfaction with the successes recorded so far by the Nigerian military in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east.

The outgoing Ambassador of the DPRK, Jong Yong Chol, commended the Federal Governments efforts in Abuja during a farewell visit to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.

Representing the Government of the DPRK, I will like to extend the warm congratulations about the successes you have recorded in the struggle against Boko Haram.

Also, in the efforts by the Nigerian Government, people and Army in the fight against the insurgents. I will like to extend our support on this, Chol said.

The envoy thanked the Federal Government for consolidating and developing friendly and cooperative relations especially in politics, economic and culture between North Korea and Nigeria.

He said the DPRK -Nigeria relations began in 1976 and pledged to continue to do everything possible to ensure that the relations between the two countries was further strengthened as he is leaving Nigeria.

Chol said both Nigeria and North Korea had special relations because the two countries had good cooperation in the international arena, most importantly, in the UN.

The ambassador called on the Federal Government to take full concern of the development of the future relations of the two countries.

This, according to him was a demonstration of strong relation between the two countries.

He extended the support of the DPRK to Nigeria in its role in the formation of the United Nations systems and wished Nigeria a permanent seat in the UN Security Council in the near future.

He said he was convinced that the Nigerian Government and people, would continue to support the efforts of the Korean people for the improvement of the North-South relations.

Mr. Onyeama said Nigeria was glad that North Korea would do everything possible to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

He commended Chol for his efforts in promoting relations between Nigeria and North Korea.

The minister said that Nigeria looked forward to maintaining good relations with North Korea.

I think it is very important that on your side, you will do everything possible to support any process that will lead to lessening of tension and that there is peace on the Korean Peninsula, he said.ADVERTISEMENT

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of attempting to score cheap political points with the abduction of school girls in Dapchi, Yobe State last month.

The party described as iniquitous the statement by the president in which he compared the response of his government to the abduction to that of former President Goodluck Jonathan to the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Thursday, the PDP said it was shocked that Mr. Buhari made the statement right before grief-stricken parents of the girls.

The president on Wednesday in Yobe State, said his administrations prompt response to the abduction of the 110 students of Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, was far from the insensitivity of the past administration to the abduction of 276 Chibok girls by Boko Haram in 2014.

The PDP said the Presidents comparison incident s appeared to be pregnant with meaning, especially in the face of pervading speculations and conspiracy theorems that trailed the Dapchi abduction and its associated conflicting reports.

It said the comments by the President as well as his aloofness to the people in the troubled states confirmed that the belated visits were mere afterthoughts orchestrated for political reasons and not out of any genuine concern for the victims.

When the President went to Taraba, he made a morbid comparison of more people being killed in one state than the other, as if human life is valued in figures. This time, he went on an ill-conceived political ego venture and self-praise with the abduction of our Dapchi daughters.

The PDP agrees no less with Nigerians that this development is worrisome. This is particularly so given the sequence of events that trailed the incident.

Nigerians can recall how the Presidency deployed a team of officials led by the Minister of Information and Culture to Yobe state, ostensibly for a media stunt. What followed was the release of a false rescue report by yet to be ascertained individuals or agency and statements by sponsored groups praising the Presidency for illusionary swift rescue operations while the abductors were fleeing deeper into unknown recesses.

Nigerians need to know; is there a heinous script in which our innocent daughters in Dapchi have become pawns? Who is behind the initial false rescue report and what point was it meant to serve? Was it designed to promote a political stunt? Moreover, why has the Presidency not taken critical steps to unravel the mystery behind the report and those who scripted it?

These are some of the reasons we urged the National Assembly to institute an independent inquest into the Dapchi abduction and make its findings public.

Furthermore, we still wonder why the parents of the Dapchi girls were not allowed enough opportunity to have direct interaction with the President during the visit to Yobe State.

Was it to bar them from taking the President to task on issues surrounding the abduction, including the alleged removal of troops before the attack as well as speculations and allegations of conspiracy theorems which have been promoted by conflicting reports and disagreements among government agencies and officials on the ugly incident?

The PDP holds that issues of security and well-being of our people must not be reduced to political drama for any reason and under any guise whatsoever. Such is completely evil, iniquitous and unpardonable.

We therefore charge Mr. President to stop every action in this direction as such is portraying our nation as inhumane, callous and coldhearted.

Finally, we charge the Presidency and the APC to understand that profane gimmicks cannot help their doomed re-election bid as Nigerians have seen through their lies and propaganda and are now rallying with the repositioned platform of the PDP to rescue our dear nation from the painful misrule of the APC.Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday adjourned ruling to decide whether or not to grant the application by the embattled former spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh, to travel abroad for medical treatment.

Mr. Metuh is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, sitting in Maitama, Abuja, for allegedly receiving N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, in 2014 to run advocacy campaign for former President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 general elections.

Mr. Metuhs counsel, Emeka Etiaba, had on March 14, through an application dated and filed on February 23, sought leave of the court for the release of Metuhs international passport to enable him travel abroad on health grounds.

The counsel to the EFCC, Silvanus Tahir, had opposed the application on the ground that similar applications have been made before and the court rejected it.

According to Tahir, No circumstance has changed to make this application different from the previous ones. The only thing that has changed is the timing of the application; it is still the same ill health.

After joining issues, the judge adjourned to today for the parties to address the court on points of law.

At the resumed sitting, Mr. Etiaba referred to paragraph 8 of the counter affidavit as incompetent and faulted some other paragraphs, insisting that the deponent did not disclose his source of information.

His words: Our complaint against the paragraph goes to the substance of the depositions and not to the form as the prosecutor posited.

What it all means is that Section 113 of the Evidence Act cannot be held to the complainant.

Those paragraphs must be discountenanced on the second point that Exhibit 3 is a documentary hear-say and that it stands on nothing.

Mr. Etiaba also told the court that the Exhibit 3 disclosed one Dr. Raymond Onwuelo as the one who made the reference stressing that the materials employed by the maker of Exhibit 3 were disclosed as neurosurgical report from Nigeria.

He further argued that it was wrong for the prosecution to say that Exhibit 3 stands on nothing and that it is a documentary hear-say.

The learned silk referred the court to the case of Buhari versus Obasanjo 2015, 13 Nigeria Weekly Law Report, Part 941, page 317 and submitted the exhibit 3 does not qualify as a documentary hear-say.

He also told the court that the prosecution was invited by Metuh to come up with its medical team, to ascertain whether there is falsehood in the materials presented before the court.

He submitted that having failed to produce medical team to ascertain the health condition of the first defendant (Metuh), the prosecution should be stopped from raising issues relating to whether the first defendant is ill or not.

Tochuckwu Onwugbufor, counsel to the second defendant (Destra Investment Limited), also aligned himself with the arguments and submission of Mr. Etiaba

Responding, Mr. Tahir vehemently disagreed with the arguments canvassed by the defence, using literal example to drive home his point.

Let us put it in this context. In oral hearsay evidence, Mr. A tells somebody what Mr. C told him and the original person is not called to say by himself what he knows; that is oral hearsay, Mr. Tahir said.

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He continued by telling the court that with respect to Exhibit 3, the author of document referred to two reports: One issued in January 2017 and the other, on January 30, 2018 by one Dr. Raymond Onwuelo.

According to him, what Exhibit 3 was referring to was a documentary hearsay. Them-say, them-say. What are they saying? Mr. Tahir queried.

He urged the court to hold that Exhibit 3 was a documentary hearsay.

After listening to arguments of both counsels, Justice Abang asked parties to submit all authorities cited to the court before the close of work today or before noon on Friday.

The judge added that upon the receipt of the authorities, the court will determine the date for ruling on the application.President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigerias economy has made considerable progress on its journey out of recession.

The president said this on Thursday while commissioning a sugarcane farm in Mokwa, Niger State.

The farm, owned by Sunti Golden Sugar Estates (SGSE) Limited, a subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, plans to produce one million tonnes of sugarcane, or 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar yearly at full capacity.

Mr. Buhari said the project is a clear demonstration that the policies of his administration on economic diversification are on the right path.

This project could not have come at a better time. As Nigeria makes her journey out of recession and the economy continues to show considerable progress, we are reminded of one of the cardinal objectives of this administration, which is to look inwards as we focus on our natural endowments in agriculture and other non-oil sectors for inclusive growth and development.

The level of work and magnitude of investment that we are witnessing here today is a clear demonstration that our policies on economic diversification are on the right path, he said.

Praising the efforts of the owners, the president said the project will reposition Nigeria as a leading player in the global food market.

I trust that you will agree with me that Flour Mills of Nigeria, has an unmistakable footprint in the history of our Nation. Since her establishment in 1960, Flour Mills and their Golden Penny food brand have become household names, bringing good food and nourishment to millions of Nigerian families.

For over 57 years, the company has repeatedly shown her unwavering commitment to doing business in Nigeria and contributing to the socio-economic development of our dear country.

The Sunti Golden Sugar Estate as I am told was built at a cost of over fifty billion naira, making it one of the largest Agro-allied investments in Nigeria, today, with a capacity to produce 100,000 metric tons of sugar annually.

While we have had some challenges in the implementation of the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) in the past, I believe that our vision of attaining self-sufficiency in sugar in Nigeria is well within sight with the kind of investment that has been made here.

I am told that the Estate will engage up to 10,000 people directly once developed, including a network of over 3,000 small-scale out growers of Sugarcane. This to my mind is central to this administrations determination to create jobs and gainfully engage our people.

I am happy to mention also, that projects like the Sunti Sugar Estate are in tandem with the vision and objectives that we set out to achieve when this administration instituted the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

While, our focus is steadfast on delivering on our policy goals of tackling corruption, improving security and rebuilding the economy; more than ever, Government will work in close partnership with businesses to strengthen investments in Agriculture, Power, Manufacturing, Solid Minerals, and the Service sectors.

Speaking on the location, he said the Niger River Basin has played an essential role in the lives of the people

The sugar estate is located on the banks of River Niger, in Mokwa, Niger State.

It reportedly has 17, 000 hectares of irrigable farmland and a sugar mill that process 4,500 metric tons of sugarcane per day, considered as the companys biggest agricultural investment in Nigeria.

It is worth mentioning at this point that the location of the Sunti Sugar Estates on the banks of the River Niger is as notable as it is commendable. The enormous economic possibilities inherent here have perhaps been overlooked for far too long. It is indeed on record that the Niger River Basin has played an essential role in the lives of the people who have had to depend on it for sustenance.

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To ensure that we do not lose momentum in our strategic roadmap of developing the Sugar sub-sector, and achieving the target of attaining self-sufficiency in Sugar, it is perhaps time to revive also our sugar industries of old  this of course brings to mind the once flourishing sugar industry in Bacita, Kwara state which was established in 1964.

This administration will welcome the opportunity to work with investors like Flour Mills to restore the glory of what was once a reputable industrial hub for sugar and pride for Nigeria.

At this juncture, I would like to assure Nigerians, that this administration is fully committed to the transformation and diversification of the economy. We will continue to support businesses by creating an enabling business environment.

As you would recall, I inaugurated the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) in July 2016, to spearhead business climate reforms and improve the general business environment in Nigeria.

During my presentation of the 2018 budget to the National Assembly, I mentioned that one of the targets we set out for gauging our progress in creating an enabling environment for business was to achieve a positive movement in the World Ease of Doing Business Index.

I am delighted to mention that, a recently released World Bank business ranking report announced that Nigeria had moved 24 places to 145th position in 2017, and for the first time recognized as one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world; a clear indication that we are making remarkable progress in this regard.

In May 2017, this administration institutionalized an executive order #1 on the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment as part of reforms to encourage private sector participation and attracting new investments. The order contained measures that ease the process of business registration, approval of permits, granting visas and streamlining port operations.

Assuring Nigerians that his governement will remain focus to improve key infrastructure,he called on other businesses and investors to take a cue from the project.

I wish to assure Nigerians, that this government will continue to focus on the improvement of critical infrastructure, like roads, construction of rails and power generation across the country. Furthermore, we have also developed Road Trust Fund (RTF) that empowers private investors to contribute to the development of roads of significant national importance.

We expect that the company would seize this opportunity to further develop the Sunti-Mokwa Road to support the CSR efforts it has already undertaken in rebuilding the critical Apapa-Wharf Road in conjunction with other private and public-sector stakeholders.

The world over, Sugar has been identified as a key commodity that is critical to national food security. Other than the development of local content, an investment of this size in the sugar value chain will not only stern the tide of importation of sugar and save foreign exchange, but enhance rural industrialization, create wealth and alleviate poverty. For this, I must commend Flour Mills of Nigeria Your mantra, Feeding the Nation, Everyday,is truly an inspiration to us all.

The Chairman of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, John Coumantaros, also said that the commissioning of the companys N50bn Sunti Golden Sugar Investment by the President underscored the companys commitment to backward integration.

Speaking after the commissioning of the Sugar Mill, Mr. Coumantaros said the N50bn Sunti Golden Sugar Investment was in line with the Federal Governments Nigerian Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), with an ambitious backward integration programme aimed at setting Nigeria on the path of self-sufficiency in sugar production.

Also present at the event were governors of Niger State and Kebbi states, Sani Bello and Abubakar Bagudu respectively; Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emeifele, the MD of the Bank of Industry, Rasheed Olaoluwa, captains of Industry and others.Global food agencies have warned against impending food shortage that could affect 3.8 million people in 16 northern states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The agencies, which include UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), listed the 16 states as Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Jigawa, Plateau, Niger, Kebbi, Katsina, Kaduna, Taraba, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, Yobe, Borno and Adamawa.

The agencies issued the warning on Thursday in Abuja at a meeting for the presentation of the results of the March 2018 Cadre Harmonise (CH) analysis of food and security situation in Nigeria.

The CH report said that judging from the current situation in the 16 states and FCT, more than 3.8 million people might face acute food shortage if tangible efforts were not made to address the situation between June and August, the next lean period.

More than 10 million people were analysed and over 3.8 million people need urgent attention of food, while it was projected that 5.8 million people would face extreme food and nutrition deficits.

Most of the analysed households have food stocks that may last only few months before the lean period of June to March and they need urgent attention for the situation not to get out of hand, it said.

The report said that the analysis was based on four conceptual frameworks, which included food security, nutrition, livelihoods and mortalities.

It noted that the results of the analysis indicated that three local government areas (LGAs) in Adamawa, including Michika and Madagali LGAs, and another three LGAs in Borno were currently experiencing severe food crisis.

The report said that food availability was extremely limited in the areas because there had been no food production in the areas in the last three years.

It said that household and market food stocks had been depleted in the affected areas, while the residents had no access to markets.

It said that the development was as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency and the persistent farmers-herdsmen clashes in the region.

Four local government areas in Yobe, two in Zamfara, two in Gombe and the central area of Kaduna may go into food crisis if the situation is not properly handled.

Besides, one local government area in Katsina State is under food pressure and two more local government areas are likely to be under food pressure, going by projection, it said.

It, however, noted that the food security in Benue was not under pressure in spite of the persistent clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the state.

The report said that at present, Kano, Kebbi, Bauchi states and part of Gombe State were not experiencing food crisis but it warned that the present situation was not enough to conclude that the states were crisis-free.

It said that the analysis in Plateau and Niger as well as FCT was inconclusive because there were no adequate data to work with.

It noted that after studying those people affected by food insecurity, one of the recommendations aimed at addressing the situation was to strengthen their access to food.

Speaking, Myrta Kaulard, WFP Country Representative, commended the results of the analysis after comparing them with the 2017 results.

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It is estimated then that 5.7 million people would be very food insecure and there was big global food security support; by October 2017, the number was halved to 2.5 million people.

This is an incredible result and it is unique in terms of engagement by the stakeholders.

The estimate is that by June to July 2018, 3.7 million people will be food secure. It looks good but the main message is that food assistance is very important as it would improve the situation; therefore, all the stakeholders must continue their engagement, she said.

Kaulard said that WFP would sustain its programmes until the affected people became self-sufficient in food production, while having hitch-free access to seeds and helping themselves to survive and get out of food assistance.

Suffyan Koroma, the FAO Country Representative in Nigeria, said that CH was the current regional framework for consensual analysis of acute food insecurity situations.

He said that it was aimed at applying the results of food insecurity analysis to prevent food crisis by identifying affected areas and populations, while proffering appropriate measures to improve their food and nutrition security and livelihoods.

Mr. Koroma said that the results of the analysis, which identified food and nutrition insecure areas within the 16 states and the FCT, were arrived at after analysing the food and nutrition security outcome indicators and their relevant contributing factors.

He said that the results of the CH analysis indicated that a proportion of the population had drifted from the higher CH phases (4 to 5) of food insecurity to lower phases (1 to 3).

(NAN)The non-teaching staff of Nigerian universities have provided reasons for suspending their strike for five weeks.

The staff, members of three unions, NASU, SSANU, and NAAT, announced the suspension of the three-month and 10 days old strike on Wednesday.

Sam Ugwoke, the national president of the Joint Action Committee of the three unions, announced the suspension at a media briefing in Abuja.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the federal government said it will look for N8 billion within five weeks to pay the striking workers on Monday.

Mr. Ugwoke enjoined the government to ensure compliance with agreements reached with the unions.

According to Mr. Ugwoke, the federal government said the demands will be implemented within five weeks after which all stakeholders will reconverge at the ministry.

Machinery has been put in place for all our demands, money should be in the account of our members by then and the presidency should have replied and given directive for the visitation panel to the university on corruption issue within the five weeks, he said.

The union also issued a detailed statement explaining why it agreed to a ceasefire, and what will be done by it after one month.

Read the full statement below:

Our dear colleagues and friends from the media, you will recall that the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of NAAT, NASU and SSANU embarked on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike action on Monday, 4th December 2017.

You will also recall that the strike action was embarked upon following our demands for the full and proper implementation of our 2009 Agreements with the federal government as well as the various Memoranda of Terms of Settlements.

The specific issues are:

The reinstatement of our members in the University Staff Schools, who were removed from the budgets of the universities based on an obnoxious budget call circular from the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission in gross contravention of the 2009 Agreement with the Federal Government.

Following this circular, we had made series of protests, leading to taking the matter to the National Industrial Court for adjudication, where it was ruled in our favour that the federal government must continue to bear the full capital and recurrent costs of the university staff schools.

The issue of payment of Earned Allowances where a sum of N23 villion released by the federal government in September 2017, was skewed in favour of a sister union by some government officials thereby leaving 11 per cent of the said sum to the non teaching unions/ staff.

This untoward act of the government abdicating its duties and responsibilities to one union, has far reaching effects than just the money concerned, but on the good governance and administration of the universities because every procedure and established protocol for disbursements of such monies were jettisoned to make way for the anomalous payment. It also has implications on the anticorruption war of the present government.

The issue of shortfalls in salary payments where our members have been receiving fractions of their salaries for upward of a year now.

The issue of career progression for Technologists to CONTISS 14 and 15, in line with the agreement reached with NAAT.

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Usurpation of non teaching career positions by academic staff. Corruption in the university system; among others.

Our friends from the press, we need not remind you that before this present strike action, two different Memoranda of Understanding had been reached with the Federal Government through the Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment, the last being the one signed on Wednesday, 20th September, 2017.

We waited patiently for the consummation of the Memoranda of Understanding to no avail. Clearly observing that a segment of the university system was being favoured to our detriment, we were forced to resume our suspended strike on 4th of December, 2017.

A sad statement of the governments shoddy response to industrial conflicts and labour issues generally, manifested, as it was only after two weeks of the strike action and having given a clear two weeks notice to resume strike, (making a month), before government decided to honor us with a meeting, precisely on December 19, 2018.

At the meeting of 19th December, 2017, the government through the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, accepted responsibility for the sloppy and inequitable payment of Earned Allowances and assured that all efforts were in gear to ensure that monies were mopped up from various sources so that we were paid our fair due of the Earned Allowances.

A reviewed call Budget Circular supposedly withdrawing the earlier Circular from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission was also presented though we wish to clearly state that the new circular gave even more obnoxious and repulsive directives to the Vice-Chancellors, worse than the earlier one that was in contest. The meeting ended with an understanding that they would reach back to us as soon as something was on offer for our members.

After that meeting, there was no follow-up by Government until we were invited on Thursday, February 1st, 2018, by the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education and Services. Continuing the litany of sad statements to Labour related issues, the meeting which was supposed to be a tripartite engagement between the Unions, the House of Representatives Committee as mediator and the Federal Ministry of Education, had no representative of the Ministry in attendance.

This was despite assurances by the House Committee Chairman that the Honorable Minister was duly served the notice of meeting, which was also acknowledged. Despite the absence of the Ministry representatives, the JAC of NAAT, NASU and SSANU made presentation.

We were unable to go forward on account of the absence of the Honorable Minister of Education or his representative at the meeting and it was agreed that the House Committee would reconvene possibly two weeks from that day.

We were however invited the following day, Friday, February 2nd, 2018, to a meeting with the Honorable Minister of Education where it became clearer to us that our matter was not receiving any serious attention. We left that meeting with an understanding that Government was not yet prepared for the resolution of the matter.

On account of the meetings, we reached out to our various branches for feedback on the way forward, and the consensus was that the strike should not be suspended and we should proceed with the industrial action till when our demands are met. This we communicated to the Honorable Minister of Education.

There was a lull in negotiations until our meetings with the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education and Services along with the Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity which held on Monday, 5th March 2018.

Thankfully this time, we had the Ministry of Education represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, along with the Executive Secretaries of the National Universities Commission and TETFUND. Also in attendance was the Registrar of JAMB.

Following lengthy deliberations, the government side explained that all efforts were being made to get monies from the appropriate quarters to pay our Earned Allowances which we had earlier been cheated. They also said they were trying their best to ensure that all other issues were resolved.

The House Committees, having considered the matter, pleaded that both parties should do all in their best to ensure the matter was resolved.

Similar scenario played out at a meeting the next day, 6th March, facilitated by the Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment.

Not to be seen as too rigid, the national leadership invited the branch leaderships, who are our eyes and ears at the grassroots to a joint meeting on Wednesday, 7th March 2018 and the conclusion was that having come this far, it would not augur well to suspend the strike on the strength of verbal promises of action with nothing to show for it.

It was the belief of our members that the Ministry of Education was given all the trust and confidence when the MOU of 20th September 2017 was signed and it would be unwise to have confidence in the same individuals when there is nothing tangible on ground except verbal assurances.

The joint meeting equally approved a protest rally held the next day, 8th March 2018 on the streets of Abuja. Immediately after the protest, we attended another meeting with the Honorable Minister of Labor and Employment where this time around, the Government side was ready to commit itself in writing to meeting some of our demands within a specific time frame.

To be specific, the understanding that was reached, gave a five week period for the implementation on payment of a fraction of the arrears owed on Earned Allowances to our members and also report progress made in respect of CONTISS 14 and 15 for Technologists.

Similarly, the issue of Staff Schools is to be taken up by the Federal Ministry of Education with the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, to ensure that they comply properly with the National Industrial Court ruling, while the follow up on Visitation Panels to Universities shall also be reported in five weeks time.

Given the fact that the government side had now developed the courage to commit itself in writing via yet another MOU, we resolved to revert to our various organs and give a feedback to the world today.

Many of our members have asked us how many MOUs we will sign with government. They have asked us to justify why we are signing yet another MOU rather than insisting that the strike continues till our demands are met.

As leaders, we are also worried and concerned, but we have resolved that though government keeps repeating the wrong things, we will not give up on government and will continue to insist that the rights of our members are given to them and agreements entered into by government with our unions are duly respected and honoured.

As Nigerians, we keep expressing our concerns over the penchant of government to rush to sign agreements and developing cold feet to implementing them.

The problem with our labour firmament is not so much about lack of agreements but the actualisation of these agreements. Our conviction is in the dictum Pacta sum servanda- agreements entered into must be honored.

This strike, like all others before it, was avoidable and would have been averted if government had been honorable with the Non Teaching Staff Unions in the Universities. Unfortunately, it was foisted on us by the insensitivity, double standards and the divide and rule approach of allocating resources which were meant for all university workers to a segment.

We are not unaware of the effect of the strike on Nigerians but being left with no choice and having exhausted all avenues to make government see reason, we had to proceed.

Sadly, we are as much the victims of the strike as other Nigerians. Unlike many public officers and political office holders, our children do not school abroad and it is our livelihoods that sustain them through school.

You can only imagine the threat to their existence when our sources of livelihood are being threatened. The strike action became the last resort to wade off this threat to our livelihoods.

Talking about threats, we use this opportunity to bring to the attention of the public, the back handed and evil tactics of some Vice-Chancellors and Managements to undermine the legitimate strike action embarked upon by the Unions in line with the Labour Laws of the country.

Members of our Unions in quite a number of universities were blackmailed, intimidated, harassed and coerced, all with a view to ensure that the strike is broken. For example, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Lagos, where our Executives and prominent individuals were arrested by the Nigeria Police and detained for hours, ostensibly on the directives of the Vice- Chancellors.

At Federal University of Technology Akure, a certain Professor led a pack of lecturers to violently attack our members and broke into the Physics store in the Department of Physics.

This use of force, violent language and weapons by these so called academics, we find very unbecoming and objectionable. Our members at some other universities were harassed, threatened and even attacked either by the Nigeria Police, overzealous members of ASUU and in some cases, students, sometimes at the instigation of the Vice-Chancellors and Managements of the Universities.

It is indeed shameful to note that the Nigeria Police has turned itself into an enemy of the people they should protect as they have become willing tools for the harassment and victimization of innocent and hapless Nigerians protesting for their legitimate rights as protected by the law. If they thought our strike was illegitimate, with the signing of an MOU with Government and the understanding reached, it is obvious that we had a legitimate strike and all the harassments were needless.

Vice-Chancellors should be fathers of all unions and not side one union against the other three. When one union goes on strike, it is considered their right and Managements give them cooperation but when the non teaching staff unions go on strike, it is considered an anomaly and no effort is spared to break the strike.

We believe that some Vice- Chancellors need to check themselves as their actions not only stir up controversies, they also promote avoidable industrial disputes.

In the belief that government through its representatives, would be honorable this time around, and based on extensive consultations with our various organs, we hereby announce the suspension of the strike action embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of NAAT, NASU and SSANU with effect from today, Wednesday, 14th March 2018.

We have therefore directed our members to resume work tomorrow, Thursday, 15th March 2018.

We however wish to state, that the strike is only suspended and we shall not hesitate to resume the strike if government reneges on the agreements reached or delays in any aspects.

We are resuming with one eye closed. We trusted government before and they failed, this time around, if they fail, the outcome and reaction will be grievous to the system.

In the meantime, we appeal to our members to be more dutiful and conscientious at their duty posts and show more commitment towards covering the lost ground occasioned by the strike.

On this note, we wish to thank the Honorable Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator (Dr.) Chris Ngige for facilitating the conciliation, though we do not hesitate to say that it could have been earlier and without the threats of no work no pay as reported in the media.

We wish to commend and appreciate the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education and Services ably led by Honorable Aminu Suleiman, for the seriousness with which they took up this matter and the painstaking efforts of all members of the House Committee. This appreciation also goes to the House Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, and by extension, Honorable Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Honorable Yakubu Dogara for the directives he gave the Committees in respect of our matter.

We cannot but appreciate the leader of the labour movement in Nigeria, Comrade Ayuba Wabba for his support and guidance throughout the struggle. We appreciate all Nigerians, especially the students for the sacrifices they made and the pains they endured during the strike action. Specially noted is the role of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and all other groups, especially stakeholders in the educational sector.

We express our deepest appreciation to the NEC members and branch members of the three unions, NAAT, NASU and SSANU. Their loyalty to the cause and compliance with directives are greatly appreciated. The struggle is not yet over. While we hope that we do not have to resort back to strike, it may become inevitable if government reneges again and we know that our members are not only vigilant but on standby and ready if need be.

To our great partners and allies from the media, we thank you for your efforts and time. We appreciate your role and know your commitment to ensuring that Nigeria becomes a better country for us all. We are also driven by that commitment and we know that one day, Nigeria will be a better place.ADVERTISEMENT

A senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia-PDP), has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for constantly denying responsibility when things go wrong.

The senator said Mr. Buhari is always in the habit of saying, I dont know.

Mr. Abaribe said this while contributing to a motion on the recent violence killings in Kogi state by suspected herdsmen.

Atai Aidoko Ali (Kogi-APC) had raised a motion on the activities of armed bandits who he referred to as Fulani herdsmen.

He said the herdsmen killed 32 people in two local government areas of the state on Wednesday.

Mr. Abaribe, in his reaction, said President Buhari by his attitude had not shown readiness to curb insecurity across the country.

I agree with the senate leader who said this is a moment where we have to work with the executive. The only thing I dont agree with is, this executive that you want us to work with, have they accepted that they are the people that have responsibility?

We have a president that will say I dont know my IG didnt even follow my order. A president that says I didnt even know when this happened. Every little thing he doesnt know.

Mr. Abaribe was cut short by the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, who invoked Order 53 (4) to call his colleague to order.

He asked Mr. Abaribe to confine his observation to the subject matter and not digress.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe

Resuming his contribution, Mr. Abaribe continued his attack on the president.

He said that security operatives were incapacitated because the Commander-in-chief is always not knowing.

Im keeping my contribution to security and the Commander-in-chief of Nigeria is in charge of security and when the Commander-in-chief says I dont know what happened, then we have to worry whether this our security is actually in the right hands.

Let us bring to the fore another aspect which the senate leader mentioned. He said that the security forces are overstretched, we agree but distinguished senator Marafa has told us here that information was given in the Zamfara case to the same security people and the governor was dancing Arabango somewhere else and left the security. Is that not what you said? So, it is not a question of not having enough people, it is a question of not acting on intelligence and information that you have. And of course I cant blame them for not acting because the President says I dont know.

How will you act on what you dont know? Mr. President, let us beg this president; please take responsibility for one thing. Its not everything that you dont know so that we will be safe in Nigeria.Board members appointed into three federal agencies under the control of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo are to be inaugurated on Tuesday, March 20.

The agencies are National Boundary Commission, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies and Border Communities Development Agencies.

Their boards, having 57 members in total, were among those recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

A statement by Olusegun Adekunle, Permanent Secretary (General Services Office) in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said the inauguration of the board will hold at 3PM at OSGFs Conference Hall, Abuja.

All appointees are expected to present their curriculum vitae and valid means of identification. Further vital information will be transmitted to appointees at the time of documentation, Mr. Adekunle said.

BELOW IS PRESS STATEMENT ANNOUNCING MEMBERSHIP OF THE BOARDS.

INAUGURATION OF BOARDS OF AGENCIES UNDER THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT ON 20TH MARCH, 2018

Recently, Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria appointed Chairmen and Members of Boards of Federal Government Agencies.

2. Accordingly, the Chairmen and Board Members of Agencies under the Office of the Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, are scheduled to be inaugurated as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 20th March 2018

Venue: OSGFs Conference Hall, Ground Floor, Shehu Shagari Complex,

Three Arms Zone, Abuja.

Time: 3.00 pm.

3. Prior to inauguration, Chairmen and Members will be documented at the Conference Hall, Ground Floor, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), Shehu Shagari Complex, between the hours of 10.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. on Monday, 19th March, 2018. All appointees are expected to present their curriculum vitae and valid means of identification. Further vital information will be transmitted to appointees at the time of documentation.

4. The names of Chairmen and Members of Boards as statutorily provided, and as approved by Mr. President to be inaugurated, are as follows:

i. NATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION

S/N NAME POSITION ZONE/STATE 1 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE VICE-PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN 2 APPOINTMENT UGOCHI NNANNA KALU MEMBER ABIA (SE) 3 APPOINTMENT YAKUBU TSALA MEMBER ADAMAWA (NE) 4 APPOINTMENT HON. MOHD B. LIKINGO MEMBER SOKOTO (NW) 5 APPOINTMENT OBONG RITA AKPAN MEMBER AKWA IBOM (SS) 6 APPOINTMENT BARR. BAYO OLORUNWO MEMBER OGUN (SW) 7 APPOINTMENT BARR. MOHD LIMAN MEMBER NIGER (NC) 8 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Hon. Attorney General of the Federation & Minister of Justice MEMBER 9 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Defence MEMBER 10 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Police Affairs (now under Interior) MEMBER 11 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Foreign Affairs MEMBER 12 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Internal Affairs (now Interior) MEMBER 13 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Works MEMBER 14 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Cooperation & Integration in Africa (now under Foreign Affairs) MEMBER 15 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Economic Planning (now Minister of Budget & National Planning) MEMBER 16 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Petroleum Resources MEMBER 17 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE National Security Adviser MEMBER 18 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Inspector-General of Police MEMBER 19 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Director-General of the Commission SECRETARY

ii. NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR POLICY AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

S/N MODE NAME POSITION ZONE/STATE 1 APPOINTMENT CHIEF IGNATIUS LONGJAN CHAIRMAN PLATEAU (NC) 2 APPOINTMENT HON. ABDULLAI MATORI MEMBER BAUCHI (NE) 3 APPOINTMENT DR. CHIDIA MADUEKWE MEMBER ABIA (SE) 4 APPOINTMENT DR. FEMI MAJEKODUNMI MEMBER OGUN (SW) 5 APPOINTMENT IBRAHIM KABIR MASARI MEMBER KATSINA (NW) 6 APPOINTMENT SEN. UCHE EKWUNIFE MEMBER ANAMBRA (SE) 7 APPOINTMENT HON. TEMI HARRIMAN MEMBER DELTA (SS) 8 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Chief of Defence Staff or other senior member of the armed forces MEMBER 9 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Science & Technology MEMBER 10 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Director-General of the Institute MEMBER

iii. BORDER COMMUNITIES DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

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S/N NAME POSITION ZONE/STATE 1 APPOINTMENT VICE PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN 2 APPOINTMENT AFAM OGENE MEMBER ANAMBRA (SE) 3 APPOINTMENT HON. SAHHED SALAWE MEMBER LAGOS (SW) 4 APPOINTMENT LEONELA J. OMO MEMBER BAYELSA (SS) 5 APPOINTMENT RABIU GWARZO MEMBER KANO (NW) 6 APPOINTMENT HAJIA DUMBA D. MIKAILA MEMBER ADAMAWA(NE) 7 APPOINTMENT IDRIS SANI BUKO MEMBER KWARA(NC) 8 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Hon. Attorney General of the Federation MEMBER 9 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Foreign Affairs MEMBER 10 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Works & Housing (now Power, Works & Housing) MEMBER 11 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Internal Affairs (now Interior) MEMBER 12 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Finance MEMBER 13 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Defence MEMBER 14 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Water Resources MEMBER 15 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Health MEMBER 16 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Education MEMBER 17 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Power & Steel( now Minister of Mines and Steel Development) MEMBER 18 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Science & Technology MEMBER 19 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Environment MEMBER 20 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister of Agric. & Rural Development MEMBER 21 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Minister Police Affairs (now under Interior) MEMBER 22 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Inspector General of Police MEMBER 23 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Chief Economic Adviser, National Planning Commission (now Minister of Budget & National Planning) MEMBER 24 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Director-General, National Boundary Commission MEMBER 25 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Director-General, National Intelligence Agency MEMBER 26 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Permanent Secretary, State and Local Government Affairs Office (now Permanent Secretary, Political And Economic Affairs, OSGF) MEMBER 27 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Surveyor-General of the Federation MEMBER 28 BY VIRTUE OF OFFICE Executive Secretary of the Agency MEMBER/ SECRETARY

Olusegun A. Adekunle Esq.

Permanent Secretary (General Services Office)

Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.ADVERTISEMENT

The District Head of Mayo Selbe in Gashaka Local Government Area of Taraba, Jauro Hammangabdo, has over powered a group of kidnappers who attempted to abduct him, killing two and injuring about three of them.

Mr. Hammangabdo confronted the kidnappers who invaded his palace on Wednesday night.

The kidnappers who were about nine in number gained access to the traditional rulers palace and went into his bedroom, but the district head resisted the attempt to abduct him and engaged them in a fight.

It was gathered that the monarch used a sharp sword during the fight and killed two of the kidnappers and the rest took to their heels leaving some of their guns behind.

The Deputy Governor of the state, Haruna Manu, who visited the area and sympathised with Lamdo of Gashaka, Zubairu Hammangabdo, who is a brother of the district head, and commended the courage of the traditional ruler.

He said cases of kidnapping had become a source of concern to the government and people of the state.

The Chairman of the Local Government, Mohammed Gayam, who also confirmed the incident to NAN, said that Mr. Hammangabdo had sustained deep cut in his head and hands and was admitted at the Military Hospital of the 20 Battalion in Serti, headquarters of the local government.

Mr. Gayam said he had visited the injured district head and that he was responding to treatment.

He said the two kidnappers that were killed by the royal father were identified through their identity cards, adding that they were members of the kidnapping gang terrorising the area disguising as members of a vigilance group.

He said in the past few weeks about 17 persons were abducted in the area and about three of them were killed by the kidnappers following failure of their relations to pay the ransom.

The chairman said kidnappers and other criminals had turned the surrounding forest in the area to their den, terrorising natives even in broad daylight.

(NAN)JAKARTAIndonesia is battling a wave of fake news and online hate speech ahead of presidential elections in 2019, as a string of arrests underscore fears it could crack open social and religious fault lines in the worlds largest Muslim-majority country. The pluralist nations reputation as a bastion of tolerance has been tested in recent months, as conservative groups exploit social media to spread lies and target minorities. Police have cracked down, rounding up members of the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA), a cluster of loosely connected groups accused of using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to attack the government and stoke religious extremism. Two of the groups most high-profile falsehoods were claims that dozens of Islamic clerics had been assaulted by leftists and that Indonesias outlawed communist party was on the rise, according to police. Communismand its hallmark atheist beliefsremains a taboo subject in Indonesia, where the bloody purges under the Suharto dictatorship in the mid-1960s killed half a million suspected leftists. Gatot Eddy Pramono, the National Polices head of social affairs, has said the group wants to destabilise government and create social conflict. Although the Southeast Asian nation has seen Internet hoaxes beforeincluding smear campaigns against President Joko Widodo during the 2014 presidential electionsthe recent clampdown reflects authorities mounting unease about their possible impact on election campaigning. Indonesia will hold simultaneous regional elections in June, ahead of a presidential ballot in 2019. Last month, the communications ministry announced it was deploying new software to identify fake news websites, while Widodowho has battled false Internet claims that he is a communistinaugurated a new cyber security agency in January. Indonesias problem with internet hoaxes and misinformation campaigns reached fever pitch in the lead up to elections in Jakarta in late 2016 and early 2017, with incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, nicknamed Ahok, bearing the brunt of it. Ahokthe citys first Christian and ethnically Chinese leaderwas lambasted by Islamic hardliners after an edited video appeared to show him insulting the Koran. The allegations drew hundreds of thousands of conservative Muslims onto the streets of Jakarta in major protests, and led to the once-popular Ahokan ally of Widodobeing jailed for blasphemy after losing the election to a Muslim challenger. The Muslim Cyber Army played a pivotal role in disseminating content attacking Ahok and non-Muslims. MCA was organizing and agitating with this case, said Savic Ali, director of the media department at Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesias largest moderate Muslim organization.There was a clear sentiment about religion in many of its accounts. The group has at least four ideologically driven clusters that spread inflammatory material with the help of botssoftware programs that run repetitive tasksor by hacking into opponents online accounts, said Damar Juniarto, Indonesia coordinator for digital rights group SAFENET. One cluster pushed radical Islam and the establishment of a caliphate, while others supported conservative political and military figures opposed to Widodo. They pose a threat to the national election in 2019, Juniarto said. What they want to do now, in 2018, is copy what happened in Jakarta in other parts of the country. Police have pledged to be on high alert for hoaxes, but they have their work cut out. Some 130 million Indonesiansabout half the populationspend an average of nearly three-and-a-half hours a day on social media, one of the highest rates in the world, according to data from London-based creative agency We Are Social and social media management platform Hootsuite. The country was also late to introduce digital literacy programs, experts say. Many Indonesian people maybe think that every article and video on the internet is right, Ali said. They dont know it is false. Indonesia has long been praised for its moderate, inclusive brand of Islam, and it officially guarantees freedom of worship for six religions. But minoritiesincluding Non-Muslims and LGBT peoplehave been increasingly targeted in recent years and fake news is adding fuel to the fire, SAFENETs Juniarto said. This can easily become real segregation and conflict if nobody does anything about it, he added.ADVERTISEMENT

The police in Borno on Thursday issued an alert warning residents of an impending attack by Boko Haram using vehicles loaded with explosives.

The police said should the planned attack succeed, it may result in heavy casualty as the insurgents are suspected to be targeting strategic locations of the city that are densely populated.

There are about four million people currently residing in Maiduguri due to the displacement of most surrounding communities by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.

The Borno State Police Command in a statement signed by Ahmed Bello, an assistant commissioner of police, said the forewarned attack could take place in different parts of the city; therefore the security organs in the state have been mobilised to strategic locations to avert its possible occurrence.

The Borno state police command in collaboration with Operation Lafiya Dole high command wishes to draw the attention of the general public that information at the disposal of the theatre command reveals that dislodged and rampaging Boko Haram terrorists have concluded arrangements to attack parts of Maiduguri metropolis notably, populated/crowed areas to maximize casualty through the use of vehicles fully primed with IEDs.

Consequently, security forces have adequately deployed resources to counter and frustrate this evil plan of the heartless terrorists.

The command therefore, wishes to call upon Borno people and the public at large to promptly alert security personnel of any suspected person(s), suspicious movement, vehicles, objects, etc for prompt action. Be rest assured that such information and informants would be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Finally, with the renewed commitment of the theatre command leadership and all security agencies the general public is once again reassured of the determination of security forces to protect lives and property.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that an emergency meeting of the state security council was held on Thursday at the Government House, before the alert was issued by the police.Residents have expressed frustrations over the shutting down of their health facility in Bangai, a community in Plateau State, following an attack by suspected herdsmen.

The community of about 1,500 households, almost two hour drive from Jos, the state capital, and located in Riyom Local Government Area, is one of many villages under repeated attacks by herdsmen.

The village head, Yakubu Bwede, said the residents no longer have access to healthcare facility after the local government shut down their only health centre in 2012 following an attack.

The PHC has been under lock since 2012, after some herdsmen attacked us and killed some villagers. All the health workers left and till now, we are yet to see them. The key is with the caretaker of the facility. She resides in this community but she cannot open it, until the (LG) chairman asks her to do so.

We have written several letters to the chairman, pleading with him to open the facility and send health workers back to us. We are yet to get a response from him, he said.

A class teacher at LEA Primary School, Bangai, Dalyop Wang, said the lack of a health facility has led to many deaths in the community that might have been prevented if the health centre was functional.

The small building over there is the only health centre we have in Bangai. Yet, it has been locked for the past five years. People from this community go as far as Makiria or Riyom Local government secretariat, which is over an hour drive from here, for health care.

The village head has complained to the chairman several times but he is yet to open it, he said.

He said before it was shut, the facility was well-equipped and served members of the community well.

A resident of the community, Danlami Choji, however, said there is an annex of the facility where people still go for health services.

The issue is that, due to the crisis in the state, people moved away from this vicinity. So the caretakers house is now used for a health facility. So people go to her house to receive minor treatment because she lacks equipment and drugs to actually treat any major sickness or diseases. So most times, members of the community still have to go as far as Riyom to get treatment.

People walk for more than two hours before they get to the hospital at Riyom, he said.

According to another resident, Gloria Gyang, a mother of two, We have lost friends and family, we also lost our health centre. Before the attack, the place was functioning well and we were living happily.

We now take our kids to the caretakers house for treatment. And in a situation where she cannot handle it, she tells us to go to Riyom hospital.

She takes delivery of pregnant women. She is a nice woman and most times, her services are free of charge. I just left her compound now but she is not at home. I heard she went to town to get drugs for her patient, she said

Following renewed attacks and killings in the state in the last two weeks, the state government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew.

However, despite the curfew, some deaths were still recorded in fresh clashes on Wednesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari visited the state last week to assess the situation and condole with communities ravaged by the clashes between herders and farmers.

ADVERTISEMENTPresident Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated N50 billion Golden Sugar Estate in Sunti, Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State.

The project is a subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria, a backward integration programme with 17, 000 hectares of land to refine sugar locally.

Mr. Buhari described the project as timely, in view of the appreciable growth of the nations economy after it exited recession.

He explained that the sugar refinery was a clear demonstration that policies of the present administration on economy diversification were on the right track.

I want to commend the company for expanding the business and creating more jobs for our youths.

The project built at N50 billion makes it one of the major agro-allied investments in Nigeria, he said.

The President said that the project would improve the lives of indigenes of the area and called on other investors to key into similar investments for the progress of the country.

He reaffirmed commitment of the present administration to the diversification of the nations economy, saying that his government would continue to support investors by providing enabling business environment.

Mr. Buhari assured that his administration would continue to focus on the improvement of security and critical infrastructure development such as construction of roads, rail lines and power generation.

The president appealed to the management of the company to develop the Sunti/road as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Earlier, John Coumantaros, the Chairman, Flour Mills of Nigeria, said that the company would produce 100,000 metric tons of sugar per annum, as well as give direct employment to 10,000 people in addition to network of 3,000 small scale industries.

He said that the management of the company had installed the latest technology in the cane milling and processing with an expandable capacity of 4,500 tons per day.

Mr. Coumantaros said that out of the 17,000 hectares of plantation, 3,000 had been cultivated and ready for harvesting.

He also commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the host community for creating an enabling environment for the company to operate.

Also speaking, Governor Abubakar Bello said that the company would create jobs and uplift the economy of the state and the country to greater heights.

He said that the state government had set aside 2,000 hectares of land for mechanised farming in Tegina, Kuta, Nasko and Bida under its agricultural development scheme to boost food production.

Mr. Bello said that the project would be upgraded to train youths in modern farming techniques, beside the resuscitation of irrigation schemes and rehabilitation of 15 agricultural equipment centres across the state.

According to him, the state government is also supporting farmers to boost agriculture production by ensuring timely supply of fertilizer and farm implements among other inputs.

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Mr. Bello also appealed to the federal government to ensure completion of Minna -Suleja road, Tegina-Kontagora-Rijau and Mokwa-Jebba to make the state attractive to more investors.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

A political ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, Haruna Saeed, has dumped Nigerias ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr. Saeed was the governorship candidate of Mr. Buharis Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Kaduna in the 2011 elections.

The CPC is one of the parties that merged to form the APC.

At a press conference on Thursday in Kaduna, Mr. Saeed said he was leaving the APC because of the leadership crisis in the party in Kaduna.

The APC in Kaduna is split into separate factions with the faction loyal to Governor Nasir El-Rufai recognised by the national leadership of the party.

Mr. Saeed, popularly called Haruna AG, said despite being a stakeholder in the state, he was never regarded or consulted on how to run the party.

I Haruna Yunusa Saeed today 15 March, 2018 decided to withdraw my membership of All Progressive Congress, due to leadership crisis in the state, he said.

He said he has submitted his withdrawal letter to his Kajuru ward chairman and the party chairman in his local government area.

Haruna Saeed. [Photo credit: The Paradigm]

Details laterADVERTISEMENT

The Kano State Government and the police have dispelled rumours making the rounds especially on social media of an impending attack by Boko Haram insurgents on schools.

A statement signed by the commissioner for information, youth and culture, Muhammad Garba, says the rumours, which are being peddled by unpatriotic and heartless people, are baseless, unfounded and therefore should be discarded.

The statement advised the public, especially parents, guardians and care-givers to remain calm and allow their wards to remain in school until the completion of examinations.

It also gave the assurance that adequate security measures have been put in place to ensure the protection of life and property of citizens including schools in the state.

Similarly, the Kano State Police Command called on parents and people of Kano to disregard the rumours.

Addressing journalists on Thursday, the commands Public Relations Officer, Magaji Majia, said the information is untrue and orchestrated by mischief makers to cause pandemonium.

The command has a consultative security committee comprising principals of all secondary schools and parents in the state which sits periodically to highlight security situation in the schools, and evolve advance proactive measures of maintaining the safety and security of life and property especially in and around our schools.

We therefore call on parents, stakeholders and all good people of the state to disregard the rumour as the command is working tirelessly to provide maximum security in all the schools and the state in general, Mr. Majia said.

An unsubstantiated message had gone viral in Kano that the state government had issued instruction to parents to go and pick their children from school due to a security alert.ADVERTISEMENT

The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday assented to the Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Law No.8 of 2018.

Mr. Wike also assented to two amended laws which prescribed stiffer penalties for cultism and kidnapping.

He said the new laws, which were passed by the Rivers State House of Assembly, would enhance security in the state.

The governor, according to a Government House press statement, said the Neighbourhood Watch Safety Corps will support existing security agencies with intelligence and information for them to effectively fight crime and make the state safer.

He said security agencies in the state will profile all the operatives of the new outfit.

The governor likened the corps to a similar one which exists in Lagos State and debunked claims by the opposition that the state government was planning to use the outfit to arm youths.

If your hands are clean, you have nothing to fear about the three laws that I have given assent to, Mr. Wike said.

By tomorrow, I will appoint the person that will head the Neighbourhood Watch Safety Corps.

All criminals will face the full weight of the law. We will fight crime and ensure that the state is safe for investors.

If you are a cultist and you are caught, it is life imprisonment. If you are a cultist and you kill during cult activities, you will face the death penalty.

If you are convicted of kidnapping and the Supreme Court affirms your conviction, I will sign the death warrant without looking back, the governor said.

Osinakachukwu Ideozu, the senator representing Rivers West Senatorial District, commended the governor for assenting to the laws.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the police spokesperson in the state, Nnamdi Omoni, he said the police were unaware of the law establishing the Neighbourhood Watch Safety Corps.

Rivers is among the states in Nigeria that have recorded several deaths due to cult-related violence and killings.

Seventeen people, mainly Christian worshippers returning from church, were gruesomely shot dead by cultists in Omoku community in the state on New Years Day.

President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to visit the state to assess the situation and condole with the people.The Lagos State Government on Thursday announced a major reduction in the new rates payable by property owners under the Lagos State Land Use Charge (LUC) Law.

The government also waived the penalty for late payments across board, the states Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Ashade, said.

Mr. Ashade who disclosed this while addressing a press briefing at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa on the outcome of dialogue with stakeholders, said the rates payable on commercial properties have been reduced by 50 per cent in response to the demands of the people.

The commissioner said the government took the decision following extensive deliberations with stakeholders on the new rates.

He said the government has also reduced the charges for owner-occupier with third party including industries and manufacturing concerns by 25 per cent, while tax credits has been given for LUC charges already paid in addition to introduction of instalment payment system.

The governments decision came after pressure from individuals, pressure groups and civil society organisations (CSOs).

On Tuesday, lawyers from the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) protested the new law after giving Mr. Ambode a five-day ultimatum to reverse the law.

On Thursday, Mr. Ashade said the decision to reduce the rates was taken at the weekly council meeting held on Wednesday and chaired by the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.

The Lagos State Government, in its desire to build world class infrastructure and improve the well-being of its citizens reviewed the Land Use Charges payable by all property owners. This exercise was received with mixed feelings by various interest groups who expressed serious concerns, he said.

In line with this administrations tradition of inclusive governance and civic engagement, and as a government that is committed to the welfare of its citizens and understands the importance of continuously engaging the populace, we undertook extensive dialogue with various stakeholders on the Land Use Charge (LUC) revised Law and its implementation.

Consequently, we received a wide range of responses from our dialogue with various stakeholders on the amended LUC Law 2018.

The stakeholders included the Organised Private Sector, Nigeria Bar Association, Real estate investors & developers, Landlord & Resident Associations, Community Development Associations, Civil Society Organisations, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI), Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors & Valuers and several other professional groups.

Giving a breakdown of the reduction, Mr. Ashade said for commercial property owners who were mostly affected by the amended law, a property valued at N20 million for instance which was earlier billed N91,200 will now pay N45,600 per annum as a result of the 50 per cent discount, while property occupied by owner, third party and property used for industrial and manufacturing purposes will now pay N23,040 per annum on a property valued at N20 million as against the earlier N30,720 based on the 25 per cent discount.

On owner-occupied property, the commissioner explained that for a property valued at N20 million, only N7,752 will now be paid per annum as against N9,120 earlier demanded based on 15 per cent discount.

He said, Other rates and reliefs, apart from the ones stated above, will remain unchanged and will be implemented as stipulated by the Law.

These include 40 per cent general relief, 10 per cent for 70 years and above, 10 per cent for properties owned by persons living with disability and 10 per cent for properties that are 25 years old and so on and so forth. Owners of property across all categories will now be allowed to make payments by instalments. This will help to reduce the burden of taxation on our citizens.

We appreciate and commend property owners of all categories who have performed their civic duties faithfully by paying the LUC. Consequently, as a result of these new measures, those who have paid the original amount will be awarded tax credits to the extent of the excess amount paid and carried forward to next year.

He added that in a bid to create a framework to empower property owners with self-assessment, the executive would forward a regulation to the House of Assembly for review of applicable rates and regime of reliefs on categories of properties pursuant to LUC Law.

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The commissioner said the reduction would be implemented immediately as there were provisions within the LUC law which empowered the government to carry out necessary adjustment to cushion the effect of implementation.

In his reaction, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, said under the amended law, there is provision for establishment of five tribunals out of which one has been created in Ikeja and now operational, while the remaining four would be established in other administrative divisions of the State in Epe, Badagry, Ikorodu and Lagos Island.

He said the law also makes provision for aggrieved tax payers to ventilate their grievances within 45 days through a mediation process, adding that so far over 80 cases have been resolved through mediation.

Breaking News: Lagos State Government has reduced Land Use Charge details later  The Lagos State Govt (@followlasg) March 15, 2018ADVERTISEMENT

Several residents at the Olusosun area in Lagos on Thursday expressed worries over yesterdays fire incident at the dumpsite.

Although the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, according to the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, residents told PREMIUM TIMES it has been a frequent occurrence.

But the extent of that of yesterday is frightening, said a resident who preferred not to be named.

Although the fire has been put out, the smoke is still so hot and thick that if this sun continues shining like this, the fire might start again.

The fire outbreak at the Olusosun dumpsite, which is situated near the old Lagos Toll Gate, began on Wednesday evening with a cloud of thick smoke billowing into the sky.

The incident led to traffic gridlock along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Ikorodu Road, and Oregun Road among others.

At least, six buses parked in the nearby garage of the transport firm, LAGBUS, were burnt in the inferno.

An official of LAGBUS told PREMIUM TIMES that a fire-fighting truck had to be stationed in the garage to prevent the fire from spreading to other buses.

In a statement issued on Wednesday night, the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, an arm of the states Ministry of Environment, said the major aim of the government had been to shut down the unsanitary dumpsite at Olusosun.

The government is well aware of the risk having such a massive, unsafe, and unsanitary landfill close to residential areas.

This is why under the CLI, three engineered landfills in Epe and Ikorodu have been concessioned for construction and maintenance.

We expect for the first new one, operated by Visionscape to be fully operational by early 2019 although it is already being used as a viable alternative to these dumpsites.

Olusosun fire Olusosun fire

When PREMIUM TIMES visited the Olusosun area on Thursday, several passers-by wore nose guards as they went about their businesses.

Olusosun fire Olusosun fire Olusosun fire

Before its planned closure by the state government, the Olusosun dumpsite was regarded as one of the largest landfills in Africa, accommodating thousands of tons of solid waste daily.

Olusosun fire Olusosun fire

Situated in the northern part of Lagos and receiving about 40 per cent of the entire Lagos waste, the Olusosun dumpsite had been active since November 19, 1992, according to the Lagos Waste Management Authority.

Olusosun fire Olusosun fireHoly Week is just around the bend and drivers are preparing their cars for a long ride on possibly congested and sun scorched roads. But with Caltex Ka-Road Trip, motorists can expect assistance along key highways in the country from Holy Wednesday (March 28) to Easter Sunday (April 1). Groups of friends and families have exciting surprises waiting for them such as free product samples and goodies after fueling up at Caltex SLEX Northbound and SLEX Southbound. Motorists can also try their luck in the Liter Lottery promo that will be happening at specific timesduring the long weekend to get P10/liter fuel discount. Caltex, marketed by Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), will ensure that drivers have safe andworry-free journeys with free vehicle check-ups. On-duty mechanics will be ready to aid automotive concerns during travels. Free emergency assistance will also be on-standby.

Toyota vehicle owners will also receive added care and assistance on selected Caltex stationsin Ilocos Sur, Quezon, Cebu and Davao.The Caltex Ka-Roadtrip motorist assistance program has been going on for several years nowproviding help to motorists in-need of assistance during major holidays in the country like theLenten and Undas seasons. Families can rest easy when they fuel up with Caltex to enjoy the cleaning power of Techronthat maximizes power to lighten your cars load. With Caltex, travelers can focus on what reallymatters which are the people in the car and the memories brought by the journey. Motorists can find the nearest Caltex station using the Caltex Locator app, available on bothGoogle Play and App Store. Find out more about Caltex at http://caltex.com/ph. The Caltex Liter Lottery promo for the Holy Week will run from March 28  April 1 at the certain stations and time.Posted Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:45 am

Three prominent faces associated with Southern Missouri Bank of Marshfield (now transitioning to Southern Bank) will now be part of the Bank of Bolivar.

Chris Owens, previously president of SoMo Bank, has joined Bank of Bolivar as a senior vice president in the banks headquarters in Bolivar, where he plans to relocate.

Chan Crooker and Melissa Smith have each accepted positions as vice presidents in Bank of Bolivars branch at Fair Grove.

We are very fortunate that these respected and experienced bankers have chosen to join Bank of Bolivar at this time. Each of these individuals fits very well into the personal, community bank culture that we have worked so hard to develop. At the same time, they bring with them new perspectives and new opportunities that will allow us to be an even better bank in the future, said Brad Gregory, president and CEO of Bank of Bolivar.RICHMOND, Va., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey* from travel insurance provider Allianz Global Assistance, reveals that a majority of Americans (55.5 percent) do not feel cruise ships are equipped to handle serious medical emergencies. This is a significant change (15% difference) from last year's results, which found 60 percent (59.2 percent) of Americans believed cruise ships could handle medical emergencies. The survey was conducted during the height of Wave Season, which is a three-month period from January to March, when cruise lines and travel agents book a large number of cruise cabins.

When asked for their estimate of the cost of an air ambulance evacuation to the U.S. from Mexico or the Caribbean, a quarter of respondents (25.7%) drastically underestimated the cost at $0 to $10,000. Another quarter of respondents correctly estimated cost as coming in between $10,001 and $20,000.

"While cruising has become an increasingly popular vacation choice among Americans, consumers are wary of cruise lines' ability to care for them during a medical emergency," said Daniel Durazo, director of communications for Allianz Global Assistance USA. "Our wave season survey shows that cruisers have become more sophisticated and understand that most ships will disembark seriously ill or injured passengers in the closest port, regardless of whether the closest medical facilities can provide an appropriate level of care. Smart cruisers are covering themselves with travel insurance in the event that they must be medically evacuated to a facility that is properly equipped to treat them."

Among other findings, 38% of consumers surveyed thought that travel insurance is more important when booking a cruise than it is for other types of travel.

The survey also found that more than two-thirds of respondents (68.2 percent) would prefer to spend all or most of their time exploring their destination instead of staying aboard the cruise ship, a slight increase from last year (65.6 percent). However, safety concerns with the destination were still the top reason (35.7 percent) cruisers would be hesitant to disembark at port. Other reasons include disinterest in the destination (18.4 percent), fear of not getting back on the ship in time (14.1 percent), previously having visited the destination (11.4 percent), taking advantage of the all-inclusive food and drinks on board (9.7 percent), not having pre-booked an off-board activity (7 percent) and lack of Internet/mobile connectivity (3.7 percent).

Allianz's wave season survey also analyzed trends such as themed cruises, finding that more than a quarter of respondents (31.5 percent) were not interested in food, pop culture or music-themed cruises. Fewer respondents are interested in adventure or expedition cruises to places like Alaska over sunny, beach destinations compared to last year (43.8 percent, down from 48.9 percent).

Almost three quarters (74.2 percent) of those surveyed expressed interest in river cruises over ocean cruises thanks to more scenic routes (21.5 percent), lack of waves (13.5 percent), easier disembarking (13.4 percent), smaller ship sizes (12.2 percent), shore excursions being included in the price (9.8 percent), and socializing opportunities (3.8 percent). Only 25.8 percent shared that despite the unique attributes of a river cruise, they would still prefer ocean cruising.

Allianz Global Assistance offers travel insurance** through most major U.S. airlines, leading travel agents, online travel agencies, other travel suppliers and directly to consumers. For more information on Allianz Global Assistance and the policies offered for travelers, please visit: http://www.allianztravelinsurance.com.

*Methodology: This 10-question survey was administered to the U.S. internet population from February 23, 2018 through February 25, 2018, receiving 1,554 responses. The methodology is explained here and a snapshot of survey findings are listed below:

1. If you were to get sick on a cruise, do you think the cruise line would be equipped to handle serious medical emergencies?

44.5% - Yes, I think cruise lines are equipped

55.5% - No, I don't think cruise lines are equipped

2. If a cruise were to disembark you in Mexico or the Caribbean due to a serious medical issue, what do you think it would cost you to be flown to the U.S. via an air ambulance?

25.7% - $0 - $10,000

26.1% - $10,001 - $20,000

17.1% - $20,001 - $30,000

9.0% - $30,001 - $40,000

4.8% - $40,001 - $50,000

17.3% - $50,001 or higher

3. Do you think it's more or less important to purchase travel insurance before a cruise versus any other type of trip?

38.8% - I think it's more important

14.0% - I think it's less important

47.2% - I think the importance is equal

4. If you were to take a cruise anywhere, to what extent would you prefer to stay on the ship versus get off the ship to explore the destinations?

5.5% - Entire time on the ship

26.4% - Majority on ship with some destination time

37.7% - Majority in destination with some ship time

30.5% - Entire time exploring the destination

5. When taking a cruise, what would be your main reason for not wanting to disembark at the ports to explore the destinations?

35.7%- Safety concerns with the destination

18.4% - Disinterest in the destination

14.1% - Fear of not getting back to the ship on time

11.4% - Having visited the destination previously

9.7% - Inclusive food/drinks on the ship

7.0% - Not having pre-booked an off-board activity

3.7% - Lack of internet/mobile connectivity

6. Would you be more or less interested in taking a cruise if it was themed (ex: music cruises, foodie cruises, pop culture cruises like Black Panther/La La Land/Jurassic Park)?

16.4% - More interested

31.5% - Less interested

52.1% - Unchanged

7. What attribute of a river cruise would make you prefer to take a river cruise over an ocean cruise?

21.5% - It's more scenic/You can see the shore line

13.5% - No waves

13.4% - Easier to disembark/On land every day

12.2% - Smaller ships

9.8% - Shore excursions included in the price

3.8% - More socializing opportunities

25.8% - None, I prefer ocean cruising

8. Would you be more interested in taking an adventure or expedition cruise to destinations like Alaska versus sunny beach destinations like the Caribbean?

43.8% - More interested in adventure or expedition

56.2% - More interested in sunny beach

9. If you were to take a cruise, how many days in advance would you plan to arrive in the departure city of your cruise?

20.7% - 0, I'd arrive the same day

40.2% - 1

15.2% - 2

7.4% - 3

3.5% - 4

2.3% - 5

10.6% - 6 or more

Allianz Global Assistance USA

Allianz Global Assistance USA (AGA Service Company) is a leading consumer specialty insurance and assistance company. We provide insurance to 35 million customers annually and are best known for our Allianz Travel Insurance plans. In addition to travel insurance, Allianz Global Assistance USA offers tuition insurance, event ticket protection, registration protection for endurance events and unique travel assistance services such as international medical assistance and concierge services. The company also serves as an outsource provider for in-bound call center services and claims administration for property and casualty insurers and credit card companies.

To learn more about Allianz Travel Insurance, please visit allianztravelinsurance.com or Like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/AllianzTravelInsuranceUS.

**Terms, conditions, and exclusions apply to all plans. Plans are available only to U.S. residents. Not all plans are available in all jurisdictions. For a complete description of the coverage and benefit limits offered under your plan, carefully review your plan's Letter of Confirmation/Declarations and Certificate of Insurance/Policy. Insurance coverage is underwritten by BCS Insurance Company (OH, Administrative Office: Oakbrook Terrace, IL), rated "A-" (Excellent) by A.M. Best Co., under BCS Form No. 52.201 series or 52.401 series, or Jefferson Insurance Company (NY, Administrative Office: Richmond, VA), rated "A+" (Superior) by A.M. Best Co., under Jefferson Form No. 101-C series or 101-P series, or Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and Affiliated Companies (One Nationwide Plaza, Columbus, OH 43215-2200), under Form Nos. SRTC 2000 and NSHTC 2500, each rated "A+" (Superior) by A.M. Best Co., depending on state of residence. Allianz Global Assistance and Allianz Travel Insurance are marks of AGA Service Company or its affiliates. AGA Service Company is the licensed producer and administrator of these plans and an affiliate of Jefferson Insurance Company. The insured shall not receive any special benefit or advantage due to the affiliation between AGA Service Company and Jefferson Insurance Company. Non-insurance benefits/products are provided and serviced by AGA Service Company.

SOURCE Allianz Global Assistance USA

Related Links

http://www.allianztravelinsurance.com

ROHNERT PARK, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News just released a top 10 list of American colleges and universities whose graduating students have the biggest average student debt balances. The highest average debt balance is from Fairleigh Dickinson University, located in New Jersey, with graduating students in 2016 owing an average of $53,702. Students with federal student loans and high student loan balances might benefit from exploring their repayment options. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company that aligns student loan borrowers with federal programs that potentially lower their payments, encourages college graduates with high balances to consider all their repayment choices.

"Borrowers having such high balances coming out of undergrad are unusual, but they're not shocking when you know how much college truly costs," said Tom Knickerbocker, executive vice president of Ameritech Financial. "Despite high balances, however, students with federal loans will have several different options when they enter repayment."

The options include income-driven repayment plans (IDRs), which are often helpful to borrowers with larger balances whose incomes are low relative to their debt. IDRs calculate a monthly payment for borrowers based on not just income, but also family size. However, borrowers are not automatically enrolled in these plans. IDRs require an application and a yearly recertification to remain in the plan.

Ameritech Financial is a private, independent company which assists borrowers in applying for and recertifying enrollment in IDRs. Ameritech helps borrowers make sense of available repayment plans, prepares paperwork related to applications on their behalf for their approval and monitors their repayment plan timelines to make sure no recertification deadlines are missed.

Most of the colleges in the top 10 list are private, non-profit, moderately selective colleges in the Northeast. Two of the colleges, Maine Maritime Academy and Mayville State University in North Dakota, are public institutions. It's hard to tell why these specific colleges have students graduating with so much debt. Private colleges and universities may have very high tuition fees, but they are also likely to discount tuition to attract more students. On the other hand, public universities may have lower tuition to begin with, but budget cuts may eat into grant aid offerings to incoming students.

"Many borrowers will likely need help with repayment for many of the same reasons they needed loans to attend school," said Knickerbocker. "Which is completely understandable, given how expensive college can be. It's important that borrowers know that options are available to make repayment easier and Ameritech Financial is a resource which borrowers can tap into."

About Ameritech Financial

Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education.

Ameritech Financial is a member of the Association for Student Loan Relief (AFSLR), and each representative on the phone has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA).

Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional customer service.

Contact

To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact:

Ameritech Financial

5789 State Farm Drive #265

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

1-800-792-8621

[email protected]

Related Links

Ameritech Financial home page

SOURCE Ameritech FinancialROHNERT PARK, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial stress seems to be a constant in life these days. For many, financial stress may stem from student loans or other debt. However, that stress starts before student loan repayment begins. While college studies are underway, about 70 percent of students are stressed about their finances, including student debt, according to a study. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company specializing in the federal student loan repayment plans offered by the Department of Education, suggests that college may be a good time to develop good financial habits and federal repayment plans may help ease financial stress after graduation.

College may be the first time that students have to manage their own finances, so it's understandable that they feel stress. Budgeting may be necessary to avoid running out of money before the end of the semester, especially when students must live off of limited funds from financial aid and, for some, part-time work. However, tracking expenses may be a difficult habit to develop, and many students may rely on credit cards when funds get low. In fact, in 2014, students charged an average of $2,150 for education costs to their credit accounts.

"Americans are not strangers to financial stress," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. "There are ways to deal with financial stress, including budgeting or having a debt payoff plan, and it's best to develop those habits early. College may be a hectic time with coursework and exams and such, but if students can learn good financial habits, they'll be better off in the future."

One major stressor before graduation may stem from uncertainties about student loan repayment. While it's possible to look up current student loan balance totals and use calculators to estimate monthly payment amounts, it's more difficult to predict future income and forecast whether it will be enough to make those payments.

The study found that a quarter of students expected to graduate with between $30,000 and $50,000 of debt, but one-fifth of students expect to have more than $50,000. That can be hard to pay on an entry level salary, especially when living expenses and other debt is factored into the budget.

When federal student loans contribute to financial stress, Ameritech Financial recommends taking a look at federal repayment plans. Income-driven repayment plans (IDRs) calculate payments as a percentage of discretionary income, which factors in family size, so they are intended to better accommodate one's actual income. Any reduction in payments resulting from IDR enrollment can help borrowers' whole financial situation by potentially allowing them to allocate extra funds to other parts of their budgets.

"No one should feel financially stressed on a daily basis," said Knickerbocker. "But student loans, on top of all other financial obligations, can inspire continuous stress like that. At Ameritech Financial, we hope to relieve that stress by helping student loan borrowers apply for IDRs that can possibly lower payments and hopefully improve financial situations."

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

BOSTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the world's largest publicly traded companies, Alphabet (parent of the Google search engine) is finally taking steps to close its gender pay gap. Arjuna Capital and gender pay co-filers, Proxy Impact and Baldwin Brothers, Inc., today applauded Google's disclosure of new wage data showing a 0 (zero) percent statistically significant gender pay gap for 89 percent of its employees worldwide. The announcement expresses a public commitment previously unseen from Google to eliminate gender pay disparity within it ranks. While acknowledging the importance of this step, Arjuna Capital and Proxy Impact will not withdraw its shareholder proposal at Google.

In 2016, seven of nine top US tech companies responded to shareholder pressure from Arjuna Capital, disclosing their gender pay gaps and making major progress on pay equity. But Alphabet/Google  was one of two holdouts, and has been largely inflexible on the issue.

The new salary data and Google's willingness to disclose the information publicly represents a sea change at the company, which the U.S. Department of Labor cited for "extreme" and "systemic" gender pay equity disparities in 2017. Still, shareholder activists leading gender pay engagements find the analysis incomplete. Specifically, the gender pay gap findings are limited to job categories with 30 or more employees, at least five men, and at least five women. In addition, the data only extends to VP level because employees above that pay grade do not fit the criteria. Therefore, Google's gender pay gap analysis leaves 11 percent of employees out.

Google's public announcement regarding its new gender pay analysis is available at: https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/googles-commitment-to-fair-and-equitable-pay-2018/.

Natasha Lamb, managing partner, lead filer of gender pay resolutions, Arjuna Capital, said: "Today's announcement represents a serious first step toward ensuring gender pay equity at Google. Still, we find ourselves uncomfortable with its lack of breadth. Make no mistake: We are eager to withdraw our shareholder proposal at Google, but are concerned that 11 percent of Google employees are left out of the analysis published today. We think there is room for improvement and can't give a rubber stamp to an incomplete analysis. For instance, disclosure of the company's median wage gap, like that being disclosed for Google's UK operations by April, would give shareholders a more complete understanding of the issue. That said, Google's announcement is progress in the right direction."

In an open letter to Eric Schmidt in September 2017 (http://bit.ly/ArjunaGoogle), Lamb expressed concerns regarding the company's management of gender pay equity. In the wake of an employee-led salary data leak and DOJ investigation, Lamb noted the company relied on platitudes such as there is no gap, followed by a semi-transparent accounting of gender pay. And while last year Google claimed women make 99.7 cents for every dollar a man makes, the analysis did not cover 100% of the employee base. Even today's analysis excludes 11 percent of workers and C-suite managers/owners.

Michael Passoff, CEO, Proxy Impact and Google resolution co-filer said: "Google's massive size and influence doesn't make it invulnerable to shareholder pressure. That's why it's important that we don't walk away until we have the same commitments that other companies have taken to fully address gender pay equity."

Google is poised to become the eighth of ten major U.S. tech companies targeted by shareholders since 2016 to move on gender pay. Arjuna Capital led the successful campaign, which pressured seven tech companies -- eBay, Intel, Apple, Amazon, Expedia, Microsoft and Adobe -- to upgrade their standards and transparency on gender pay disparity in the workplace. Facebook remains a holdout.

More recently, since January 15, 2018, Arjuna Capital led a similar campaign on Wall Street to influence seven top banks and credit card companies to close their gender pay gaps: Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, JP Morgan, MasterCard and American Express.

Arjuna Capital's gender pay shareholder proposal at Google is available at: https://arjuna-capital.sharefile.com/share/view/s1af364455f943a58.

Arjuna Capital is an investment firm focused on sustainable and impact investing.

www.Arjuna-Capital.com.

SOURCE Arjuna Capital

Related Links

http://www.arjuna-capital.com/

Posted Thursday, March 15, 2018 6:00 am

I would say that March has come in sort of like a lion, so I am hoping it will go out like a lamb, since the month is nearly half over. Countless friends and neighbors are suffering from chest congestion and sinus problems, and I do wish them a speedy recovery.

The Baptist Women asked the Helping Hand Club to their quarterly luncheon, which was held March 8. Those attending from the club were Barbara Medlock, Kathryn Langdon, Patsy Boyd, Mary Stillwell, Bertha Terry, Wanda Deckard, Betty Stokes and Leona Medlock. I heard the food was delicious. Charlene Paulette played her guitar and sang, Barbara Hartin sang and Lola Day played the piano. It is always fun when the audience is asked to sing along to well-known songs.

Leona picked up Marjorie Welch and headed for the Morgan store on Saturday. While returning on Wildwood Road, they saw several energetic bicyclists. They all had a little scare when a small car came racing up behind the group and decided to pass everyone on a hill with a curve at the top. Thankfully, there were no oncoming vehicles, so all was well. Frequently, there is farm equipment on that road and I am sure that is what flashed through Leonas mind when that car passed. It left Leona upset the better part of the day.

She did proceed to pick up Bertha Terry, so the three of them could have lunch at the Morgan Store.

Matt Corle provided the special music at Eureka Methodist this morning and Scott Kerber provided the music for Immanuel.

Jay Medlock and Justin Burns will be graduating from the Drury Police Academy. Congratulations to both of them. We wish them a long and safe career in law enforcement. There will be a celebration at Heritage Baptist Church in Lebanon at 6 p.m. Friday, March 16. Friends and family are invited to attend.

We are all happy to know that Barb Medlock has her new eyeglasses. She looks good and we hope there will be no more crash events for her.

Birthdays this past week were Mary Stillwell, Twyla Kennemer, Gracie Perryman,Brady Mepham and Sam Medlock. This week, Olive Mace, Midge Llewellyn and Ann Medlock will celebrate birthdays.

If you would like to join a Bible study, Bob and Pam Doing are hosting an Irish potluck dinner followed by a Bible study at 6 p.m. Sunday evening, March 18. The Helping Hand Club will be quilting and tacking from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays. Many churches offer a midweek Lenten service.

Have a blessed week and enjoy your St. Patricks Day.DUBAI, UAE, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Dubai Court confirms defamation and violation of media practice

Arton Advisors, part of the Arton Capital group of companies, global leaders specializing in investor programmes for residency and citizenship, is planning to file for compensation as a next step in its case against the Investment Migration Council (IMC). In June of last year, Arton Advisors FZE filed a Court case with reference no. 521/2017 against a highly defamatory report, instigated by the Investment Migration Council (IMC), which contained many inaccuracies resulted in significant reputational damage to Arton Advisors.

The Dubai Court expert confirmed on March 13 all the defamatory materials mentioned in IMC's report and considered such action adversely affects the reputation of Arton Advisors. The case no.521/2017 is now concluded.

The Court media expert agreed the report was defamatory under Dubai law. Based on the findings, Arton Advisors, as part of the Arton Capital group of companies, reserves the right to pursue anybody that promoted, or funded this report, in the criminal courts of Dubai.

The case centres on the publication of the report "In Whose Interest - Shadows Over the Hungarian Residency Bond Program", which was sponsored and publicised by the IMC. At the time IMC had a representative office in Dubai run by Citizenship Invest.

Despite repeated warnings from Arton Advisors' lawyers, the IMC continued to promote the report and even proceeded with discussing it in a special session at its annual meeting in Geneva in 5-7 June 2017. The IMC also promoted the report at a press conference in Budapest, Hungary on March 16 2017, and through numerous articles which were published in the aftermath.

Arton Advisors' rights have been reserved as it presses forward with pursuing damages against those involved in the publication of the report.

About Arton: Arton Advisors is part of the Arton groups of companies, which empower individuals and families to become global citizens by investing in alternative residency and citizenship around the world. This is accomplished through a bespoke service experience, which simplifies complexity and is supported and sustained by long-term relationships.

As a global financial advisory firm specializing in investor programmes for residence and citizenship, the company plays a critical role in empowering governments, consultants, legal and financial professionals, and investors to meet their goals efficiently, effectively and responsibly.

CONTACT INFORMATION

MEDIA CONTACT ARTON ADVISORS:

Rupert Wright

Ashbright

Tel: +44-7557-371908

[email protected]



SOURCE Arton CapitalDALLAS, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ashford Hospitality Prime, Inc. (NYSE: AHP) ("Ashford Prime" or the "Company") today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.16 per diluted share for the Company's common stock for the first quarter ending March 31, 2018. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $0.64 per share, is payable on April 16, 2018, to shareholders of record as of March 30, 2018.

The Board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.3438 per diluted share for the Company's 5.5% Series B Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock for the first quarter ending March 31, 2018. The dividend, which equates to an annual rate of $1.375 per share, is payable on April 16, 2018, to shareholders of record as of March 30, 2018.

Ashford Hospitality Prime is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing in luxury hotels and resorts.

Ashford has created an Ashford App for the hospitality REIT investor community. The Ashford App is available for free download at Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store by searching "Ashford."

Certain statements and assumptions in this press release contain or are based upon "forward-looking" information and are being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements about the implied share price for the Company's common stock. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. When we use the words "will likely result," "may," "anticipate," "estimate," "should," "expect," "believe," "intend," or similar expressions, we intend to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside Ashford Prime's control.

The forward-looking statements included in this press release are only made as of the date of this press release. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We are not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, changes in expectations or otherwise.

SOURCE Ashford Hospitality Prime, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.ahpreit.com

PHILLIPSBURG, N.J., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Navigating a workers' compensation claim can be frustrating for injured workers and their families, but veteran attorney Lisa Pezzano Mickey (http://www.pmblawfirm.com/) is committed to de-mystifying the process and helping workers receive the compensation they deserve. She explores the process in exhaustive detail  but without dense legal jargon  in her new book, "Employee's Guide to New Jersey Workers' Compensation Law: Protect Your Rights When Injured at Work."

"Knowledge is power," explains Pezzano Mickey. "If you are injured at work, you must arm yourself with the information you need to avoid being taken advantage of by the workers' compensation insurance carrier."

"Employee's Guide to New Jersey Workers' Compensation Law" opens with an overview of the workers' compensation system in New Jersey. Additional chapters provide further detail on topics such as medical treatment by workers' compensation physicians, temporary disability benefits, as well as the interplay between unemployment insurance and workers' compensation. Throughout the book, Pezzano Mickey carefully lays out the facts and suggests actionable steps people can take, along with the reasoning behind those steps.

"As someone who grew up in a blue-collar family," adds Pezzano Mickey, "I have immense respect for the workers whose sacrifices helped to make this country successful. That's why I'm committed to helping workers earn their rightful compensation after a workplace injury."

While a book is not a substitute for legal representation, Pezzano Mickey believes that understanding the workers' compensation system in greater detail can result in greater clarity and less stress for injured workers. "Employee's Guide to New Jersey Workers' Compensation Law" is published by Speakeasy Publications.

About the Author

Lisa Pezzano Mickey was born and raised on Long Island, New York. In 1988, she graduated from Villanova University and thereafter received her law degree, with honors, from George Washington Law School in 1991. She first began practicing law for a non-profit organization in Newark, New Jersey. She thereafter became the senior associate in a prominent Central New Jersey law firm, where she represented several different insurance carriers in the defense of workers' compensation claims. In 2001, she opened her own practice in Central New Jersey, until founding the partnership of Pezzano Mickey & Bornstein in 2012.

Contact:

Lisa Pezzano Mickey, Esq.

908-454-0200

[email protected]

SOURCE Pezzano Mickey & BornsteinWINSTON-SALEM, N.C., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BB&T today announced Christian Corts has been named president for its Tennessee Region. Corts most recently served as the regional corporate banking manager for South Carolina in Greenville, S.C. He replaces Mike Willett who is relocating to Winston-Salem where he will join the tax exempt lending area within Community Banking Administration. The changes are effective immediately.

"Christian brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to a region that continues to have significant growth opportunities for us," said David Weaver, president, BB&T Community Banking. "His leadership skills and diverse lending background will be a tremendous asset to the region. Christian is well-suited to move into this important leadership role."

Corts, 32, has more than 10 years of banking experience. He joined BB&T through its Leadership Development Program in 2008. From 2009 to 2011, Corts was an asset-based lending client administration services manager in Winston-Salem, N.C. He relocated to Houston in 2011 where he served as an asset-based lending commercial finance specialist (2011-2013), regional corporate banker and regional corporate banking manager (2013-2016). In 2016, he was named the South Carolina Corporate Banking manager.

A native of Greenville, S.C., Corts received his bachelor's degree in finance from Samford University. He is as a board member for The Children's Museum of the Upstate; a trustee of South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities; and a graduate of Leadership South Carolina. He has served as a trustee of the Houston Grand Opera and as a banking advisory board member of the University of Houston, Bauer School of Business.

"I am truly excited about this new challenge and the opportunity to work with our exceptional regional team and clients," Corts said. "Tennessee has great growth potential, and I am eager to build on the momentum this team has established."

Willett, 57, has more than 33 years of financial services experience. Willett has been with BB&T since 1989. He has served as business services officer in Sanford, N.C.; city executive in Siler City and Wadesboro, N.C.; regional retail banking manager in the Western Region (N.C.); and city/area executive in Asheville, N.C. Willett was first named president for the Western in 2004 and then named regional president of Tennessee in 2013.

"Mike has done a terrific job in a number of different roles for BB&T," Weaver said. "His knowledge and experience will provide an immediate asset to a very important growth area in Community Banking."

Willett earned his bachelor's degree from Elon College and his MBA from Campbell. He is a native of Asheboro, N.C., and very active in the community serving on a number of various boards.

"The time I've spent with BB&T in the regions has been some of the most rewarding of my career," Willett said. "I've had the honor to work with great clients and great banking teams, and I look forward to this new challenge."

BB&T operates 48 financial centers in Tennessee and divides its footprint into community bank regions  each with its own president  to keep decisions local and close to the customer.

About BB&T

BB&T is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the U.S. with $221.6 billion in assets and market capitalization of $38.9 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017. Building on a long tradition of excellence in community banking, BB&T offers a wide range of financial services including retail and commercial banking, investments, insurance, wealth management, asset management, mortgage, corporate banking, capital markets and specialized lending. Based in Winston-Salem, N.C., BB&T operates over 2,000 financial centers in 15 states and Washington, D.C. A Fortune 500 company, BB&T is consistently recognized for outstanding client service by Greenwich Associates for small business and middle market banking. More information about BB&T and its full line of products and services is available at BBT.com.

SOURCE BB&TDALLAS, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Prospera Financial Services, Inc. (Prospera) is pleased to announce the affiliation of Troy Hartman of Hartman Investment Group. Hartman brings with him nearly $70 million in AUM. Prospera, a privately held company, is a Texas-based financial firm founded in 1982 as a full-service, boutique broker-dealer and support organization for successful independent financial professionals across the country.

Troy Hartman has over 20 years of experience in the financial industry coupled with a bachelor's degree in both organizational leadership and business. He began his career at Edward Jones in 1997, and made the decision to go independent in 2017. Troy and his team are based out of Kendallville, Indiana and together, they bring over 50 years of financial experience to the firm. As an organization, the primary goal of Hartman Investment Group is to connect clients with the right financial tools while continuously offering unparalleled service.

"By partnering with a firm like Prospera, I know that I am valued as an advisor, which means I have the best opportunity to support the goals of my clients." - Troy Hartman

About Prospera Financial Services

Founded in 1982, Prospera Financial Services, Member FINRA/SIPC and a registered investment advisory, offers the flexibility and resources only found at some of the nation's largest broker-dealers. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Prospera was named Broker-Dealer of the Year by Investment Advisor Magazine in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015. The firm supports independent financial advisors nationwide. For more information about Prospera, visit http://www.joinprospera.com/.

Media Contact:

Tarah Mattia Carlow

Senior Vice President, Marketing and Advisor Loyalty

Prospera Financial Services, Inc.

(972) 581-3015

[email protected]

www.joinprospera.com

SOURCE Prospera Financial Services

Related Links

http://www.joinprospera.com

Breather's integration with Concur Expense is now available in the SAP Concur App Center

NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Breather, a world leader in providing flexible private meeting rooms and workspace, today announced its integration with Concur Expense from SAP Concur, the world's leading provider of travel, expense, and invoice management solutions.

Available now in the SAP Concur App Center, the Breather app allows customers to automatically expense meetings booked at any of Breather's spaces worldwide, and works together with Breather's administrative tools to provide visibility and control over meeting spend across the entire organization.

"While small meetings make up 7080% of all meetings, most businesses don't have a clear method of managingor even recordingthat spend," said Derek Baynton, head of partnerships for Breather. "Working with SAP Concur allows us to deliver that clarity, and greatly simplify the process of sourcing space for meeting professionals and travel management teams."

Breather lets meeting planners see real-time pricing and availability, and instantly reserve meeting space through Breather's website and mobile applications. Spaces come fully equipped with WiFi, whiteboards, wall-mounted displays, lounge areas, and more, creating a comfortable and productive environment for individuals, teams, and groups of up to 50 people.

Breather continues to expand its spend management tools designed to create a simple, frictionless experience for planners, procurement teams, and guests alike. The integration with Concur Expense brings that simplicity to customers by automatically tracking and expensing any meeting booked with Breather business-wide.

Breather is now available in the SAP Concur App Center. For more information on how Breather integrates with Concur Expense, visit https://www.concur.com/app-center/listings/5a77a97e1e5eac1200dec574

Launched in 2013, the SAP Concur App Center aims to make it easy for travelers to find and connect to apps that integrate with solutions from SAP Concur and provide additional value for individuals and businesses. With more than 160 pre-built integrations and popular connections, the SAP Concur App Center extends the value of SAP Concur solutions by helping customers implement them rapidly, gain insight into spend, simplify expense reporting, and deliver the perfect trip.

About Breather

Breather is the leading provider of private meeting rooms and workspaces worldwide, giving businesses access to thoughtfully-designed space on truly flexible terms. With hundreds of spaces available across 10 cities including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London, Breather makes it easy to find space for quick meetings and full-day offsites, or longer-term solutions for your entire office. Learn more and explore spaces at Breather.com.

SAP, Concur and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Breather

Related Links

https://breather.com

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654912/John_Mappin_President_Trump.jpg )



The owner of Camelot Castle TV Network, political commentator and entrepreneur John Mappin, offers his thoughts on the situation.

John Mappin suggests for the leaders to arrange a meeting in Kazakhstan, as its President Nursultan Nazarbayev is known to be a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament. In addition to that, Kazakhstan has excellent relations with both countries, as well as a strategic geographic location with Astana sitting at the epicentre of Eurasia and the CIS.

"Astana would in many ways be the perfect selection of location both due to its safety, its geographical location, its summit facilities, and, perhaps most interestingly, its President's position on nuclear weapons and disarmament," said Mr. Mappin, who became the third British subject to meet with US President Trump and the First Lady Melania.

During the initial conversations with his friends in diplomatic circles the idea was warmly welcomed by both sides: "Few people in the west know that President Nazarbayev is somewhat of a pioneer on the subject of denuclearisation. Early in his presidency in 1991 Nazarbayev removed all nuclear weapons from his nation shortly after its founding and has been a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament ever since."

Mr Mappin and his wife Irina have been fortunate to have excellent relationship with the leadership of Kazakhstan, as well as being keen supporters of Donald Trump since he announced his run for the US Presidency.

"As media owners in the UK, internationally and in Kazakhstan, where we also own newspapers, we see this as an entirely logical solution to the problem of where to hold this historic meeting and we are delighted that the initial response has been so warm."

The entrepreneur pointed out that Astana also has the most wonderful diplomatic facilities, adding that his family helped with the city's media centre construction: "Nazarbayev's presidential palace is completely appropriate for such a meeting and the capital hosts a state of the art media centre that would rival most Hollywood studios."

"President Nazarbayev is an extremely experienced and wise leader, in fact our family owes the President a debt of honour as he once saved the life of one of our journalists who was captured in a war zone. President Nazarbayev took time to personally intervene and secured the freedom of the journalist."

President Nazarbayev met with President Trump on January 16th this year and the meeting went exceptionally well . A US president has never visited Astana to date, so his arrival there would certainly be seen as an honour and a blessing to Kazakhstan.

"Diplomatically Astana is always supportive of any peace idea that could lead to non-proliferation and global disarmament process. As a country that gave up its full nuclear potential in 1991, it is the ideal place to host such meetings," said Mr Mappin, who is currently in Florida, liaising with his US counterparts and friends.

John Mappin's BBC Radio 5 Live interview on the potential meeting between President Trump and President Kim is available here: https://vimeo.com/259598491

About Camelot Castle TV Network

Camelot Castle TV Network is part of Camelot Castle in Cornwall. Camelot Castle is the headquarters for several international media companies. The channel is the brainchild of British Entrepreneur and Media Mogul, John Mappin and his wife Irina who are the current owners of the historic castle based in Tintagel, Cornwall, England. The company is founded in 1999 and currently has three active partners, which John Mappin is part of.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/04/prweb13328923.htm

Contact information:

John Mappin

CAMELOT CASTLE TV Network

+44-777-067-1650



SOURCE CAMELOT CASTLEIn a healthy person, you might see 10 to 20 of these DNA repeats, Haney said. But in ALS, they expand to hundreds or even thousands of repeated segments, and thats the template for the production of these toxic proteins.

Gitler and Bassik set out to answer two basic questions: How do the toxic proteins snuff out otherwise healthy neurons? And are there other genes that inherently protect against  or conversely, exacerbate  the effects of the toxic proteins in the brain?

Rather than separately interrogate every gene in the human repository, the researchers used a tactic called genomewide screening, which harnesses CRISPR-Cas9 to alter the function of every single human gene simultaneously. In this case, they used the technology to produce gene knockouts, targeting genes with a kind of molecular scissors that makes precise cuts, leaving them unable to carry out normal function.

The gene knockouts, Kramer explained, help the researchers spot genes that either enhance toxicity or prevent it: If you identify a gene and knock it out, and the ALS protein repeats are no longer toxic, then you know that the absence of that gene actually protects the neuron against degeneration. And perhaps more importantly, it may be a potential drug target.

Tmx2: A sentinel of cell death

After systematically knocking out every gene in the human genome and measuring the toxicity of the ALS proteins in cells, the researchers found that about 200 genes, when knocked out, either helped to protect the cell from the toxic proteins or made it more vulnerable to them. To zero in on a smaller set of genes, Haney and Kramer followed up with two subsequent knockout screens in primary mouse neurons.

They found a handful of knockouts that were particularly potent protectors. One, for example, helped block off critical entrances through which the toxic ALS proteins infiltrate the cell and corrupt it. But there was another knockout in particular that caught the groups attention for its mysterious ability to ward off neural death. The gene normally codes for a protein called Tmx2, which is found in a part of the cell called the endoplasmic reticulum. But when depleted in mouse neurons in a dish, the cells survived nearly 100 percent of the time  quite a jump, considering that the survival rate for normal neurons was 10 percent.

We could imagine that Tmx2 might make good drug target candidate, Haney said. If you have a small molecule that could somehow impede the function of Tmx2, there might be a therapeutic window there.

Right now, Tmx2s role in the endoplasmic reticulum isnt completely clear. But its thought to be involved in the response to various environmental stressors, particularly those that trigger cell death. According to the studys findings, it may be a modulator of other genes that set off the cell-death process.

Were still in early phases, but I think figuring out exactly what Tmx2 normally does in a cell is a good place to start  that would hint at what functions are disturbed when these toxic species kill the cell, and it could point to what pathways we should look into, Kramer said.

More broadly, CRISPR screens like the one in this study have been used to investigate a range of disease pathways. But the team said this is the first time, to their knowledge, that a genomewide human CRISPR knockout screen has been used to discover clues about a neurodegenerative disorder. Gitler and Bassik are currently teaming up to use this same approach to understand additional causes of ALS and even other neurological diseases  Huntingtons, Parkinsons and Alzheimers  that involve toxic proteins. I think its a really exciting application for CRISPR screens, and this is just the beginning, Bassik said.

Other Stanford authors of the study are graduate students David Morgens, Gregor Bieri and Kimberly Tsui; former postdoctoral scholar Ana Jovicic, PhD; research associate Julien Couthouis, PhD; research technicians Amy Li and James Ousey; research assistant Rosanna Ma; postdoctoral scholar Nicholas Hertz, PhD; and, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD, professor of biology and president of Stanford University.

Gitler and Bassik are both members of Stanford Bio-X and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute. Bassik is also a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute and Stanford ChEM-H.

Researchers at the University of Southern California also contributed to this work.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants R35NS097263, DP2HD084069 and R01NS097850), the Genome Research Institute, the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins, Target ALS, the Stanford Brain Rejuvenation Project of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and U.S. Department of Defense.

Stanfords Department of Genetics also supported the work.BOSTON and WESTCHESTER, Ill., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cengage, an education and technology company, and Follett Corporation today announced an extensive partnership to distribute, market and promote Cengage Unlimited, making this innovative subscription service available at all of Follett's more than 1,200 campus locations and online, beginning this fall.

Cengage Unlimited is the first-of-its-kind subscription that gives students access to all the company's digital higher education materialsmore than 22,000 products across 70 disciplines and more than 675 coursesfor $119.99 a semester, no matter how many Cengage materials they use. Students using the digital platforms also have the option of free print rentals, paying only a $7.99 shipping fee.

"Cengage Unlimited offers students complete access to quality learning materials at an affordable price point. For one price, students can use all our products via a subscription service, which is a familiar, attractive delivery method for today's students," said Todd Markson, Chief Strategy Officer, Cengage. "Working with Follett, we are confident that many more students will improve their chances of learning success."

"We're thrilled to partner with Cengage to increase access to affordable course materials for students across our network of campus stores," said Jennifer Hatton, Senior Vice President of Retail Operations and Course Materials, Follett Higher Education. "As our campus partners come under increasing pressure to affordably deliver educational outcomes, it's imperative that Follett be there to help. One of the ways we plan to assist with this challenge is by offering Cengage Unlimited."

Over the past year, Cengage and Follett have developed a digital integration which seamlessly delivers Cengage digital products both online and in-store. Cengage materials are available at all Follett campus locations, both for standalone sale and through Follett's includED program, to ensure students and faculty have access to everything they need on day-one of a course.

This partnership is another significant step forward in Cengage's pursuit of making Cengage Unlimited, and its unprecedented and affordable access to all the company's course materials, available to all students, wherever they are. This follows other recent Cengage Unlimited partnership announcements, highlighting the strong momentum, clear value proposition and customer demand.

For more information, visit www.Cengage.com/unlimited.

About Cengage

Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. As the largest US-based provider of teaching and learning materials for higher ed, we offer valuable options at affordable price points. Our industry-leading initiatives include Cengage Unlimited, the first-of-its-kind all-access digital subscription service. We embrace innovation to create learning experiences that build confidence and momentum toward the future students want. Headquartered in Boston, Cengage also serves K-12, library and workforce training markets around the world. Visit us at www.cengage.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

About Follett

As a leading provider of education technology, services and physical and digital content, Follett works with 80,000 schools and operates more than 1,200 local campus stores and 1,600 virtual stores across North America. With the 2016 acquisition of Baker & Taylor, LLC, Follett's reach also extends into the public library and global retail markets. For more information, visit www.follett.com.

Media Contacts:

Lindsay Stanley, Cengage

203-965-8634, [email protected]

Tom Kline, Follett

708-200-8610, [email protected]

SOURCE Cengage

Related Links

https://www.cengage.com

FARGO, North Dakota, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Center Point Clinical Services, creator of the world's first Siteless CRO platform, has named Gerald E. Finken the company's new CEO. Mr. Finken is also the company's founder and chairman of the board.

Under Mr. Finken's stewardship, Center Point has moved its headquarters to Fargo, ND and is enhancing its Siteless CRO model for the pharmaceutical industry. The company is also launching a new 'specialty' Clinical Trial Research Pharmacist (CTRP) program.

Mr. Finken said, "We have relocated to North Dakota as this state is nationally recognized as one of the most progressive in the US when it comes to the practice of pharmacy. We believe this is the perfect place for our headquarters as we continue to introduce new programs and services intended to modernize the pharmacy industry."

Center Point is well-known for introducing industry disruptive services like the CTRP, the first Siteless CRO and associated KOL industry recommendations. The company is continuing on this path by enhancing its Siteless CRO model, with the establishment of the largest national pharmacy, without offices or inventory. Center Point's pharmacy will provide a holistic, patient-connected service empowering pharmacists to fully engage with patients. It will focus on the cognitive services of the practice of pharmacy and, together with its online partners, provide cutting edge services including CTRP, Siteless CRO and supply chain logistics of medications, devices and supplements.

Mr. Finken continued, "We take our responsibility very seriously understanding that pharmacists are the only experts at dispensing and counseling of medications. Center Point's pharmacists will continue to support medication compliance and adherence in both clinical and commercial settings, by making sure the patient has 24/7 access to the professional expertise of the pharmacist to verify that they received the right drug, in the right dose and for the right reason and situation."

Mr. Finken concluded, "We are also pleased to introduce today Center Point's specialty CTPR program. Moving forward, our esteemed CTRPs will be comprised of specialists in clinical research, commercial prescriptions, over the counter (supplements) and exercise. All aspects of the patient's health experience will be covered. This improved model will help better service our clinical trial partners by returning to the trusted patient centricity model that the practice of pharmacy was founded upon and providing the most comprehensive and thoughtful data that includes not only the tangible but also the nontangible, including the patient's emotional aspects."

Mr. Finken has more than three decades of clinical research experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. In 1997, he founded a clinical supplies service company, Clinical Supplies Management, Inc. (CSM), well known for launching several disruptive clinical industry research services including On-Demand Packaging and Labeling. Prior to founding CSM, Mr. Finken worked as an independent consultant and held key managerial positions at Bristol-Meyers Squibb.

About Center Point Clinical Services

Center Point Clinical Services LLC is a specialty, siteless, technology contract research organization (CRO) that helps pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies successfully reach their regulatory and commercialization goals in less time and at a lower cost than competitors. The company's evolutionary Siteless CRO model helps to recruit patients faster, identify and address patient issues in real-time and complete trials within time and cost projections. The company offers two premier signature services. The first is the Clinical Trial Research Pharmacist (CTRP) program, which uses only licensed, specially trained pharmacists to communicate with patients. Center Point is the only CRO to offer such a unique and effective service. CTRP has repeatedly demonstrated improved patient retention, medication compliance and overall outcomes in clinical trials. The second service includes a series of practical solutions intended to support virtual-focused trials, including patient recruitment, telehealth, and supporting technology.

For more information please visit www.centerpointclinicalservices.com

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook

Press Contact:

Marjie Hadad

CEO

MH Communications

+1-844-287-2877 Ext 9

[email protected]

SOURCE Center Point Clinical Services

Related Links

http://www.centerpointclinicalservices.com

A significant reform is taking place in China's political structure. In the next few days, a completely new state organ, called the National Supervisory Commission, is expected to be established, with its chief elected and senior officials appointed at the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress. The commission will serve as an anti-corruption organ, with a position equal to the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. That is to say, China's state institutional system will be reinforced with the addition of the National Supervisory Commission to the existing triad of the abovementioned political bodies.

What specific responsibilities will the newly established commission undertake in the future? In brief, its duties will include supervising, investigating and dealing with government employees' violations of law and discipline, such as embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power. Following the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a nationwide anti-corruption campaign was launched with powerful force. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China has since played a critical role in this regard, particularly in overseeing and disciplining Party members and government officials. However, not all those who exercise public power are Party members or civil servants.

The newly established supervisory commission will share offices and other resources with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and supervise the exercise of public power by all government employees. Notably, the commission will operate at multiple levels, with branches starting from the national level all the way down to the county level. This means no area will be missed by the supervisory network.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the government has never ceased to explore ways to monitor the use of power and to combat corruption. In the initial years, a series of forceful campaigns were launched to fight corruption and curb lavish lifestyles, creating a strong deterrent for corrupt officials. However, after the country introduced the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, profound changes have taken place in the country's economy and society, with the pattern of interests in society growing increasingly complicated. Today, it has become impossible to curb corruption by campaigns alone. So in an attempt to solve the problem, China has directed its energy into institutional improvement.

Corruption remains a serious problem in all countries. The solution rests not in rule by a single-party or multi-party system, but in effective control over the exercise of power. The establishment of the commission makes the supervisory organ independent from the legislative, judicial and administrative bodies, a choice made on the basis of past attempts, and unique among the practices of other countries. What changes the commission will bring about in the governance of the country is worth looking forward to.

China Mosaic

http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm

China's political reform: the establishment of the National Supervisory Commission

http://www.china.org.cn/video/2018-03/15/content_50710498.htm

About China.org.cn

Founded in 2000, China Internet Information Center (China.org.cn/China.com.cn) is a key state news website under the auspices of the State Council Information Office, and is managed by China International Publishing Group. We provide round-the-clock news service in ten languages. With users from more than 200 countries and regions, we have become China's leading multi-lingual news outlet introducing the country to the outside world.



We are one of the country's authoritative outlets for government press releases and are authorized to cover various major events. "Live Webcast" is our online webcasting service to present State Council Information Office press conferences in both Chinese and English languages. We are reputed for timely and accurate delivery of news and information, and wide interactions with audiences. In addition, we are authorized to publish and live broadcast major events and press conferences of ministries, local government agencies and institutions as well as enterprises.



In the era of mobile internet, we endeavor to create an array of products for mobile devices headed by the multilingual WAP platform and the mobile APP. We also use Chinese and international social media to publish information for different user groups.



In the future, CIIC will continue to offer authoritative information about China, tell China's stories, voice China's opinions, and introduce a vivid, panoramic and multicultural China to the world through multi-language, multi-media and multi-platforms.



SOURCE China.org.cnMILWAUKEE, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cimbria Capital, a private equity firm conducting growth capital and early stage buyout investments in the agriculture and water sectors in North America and Europe, today announced the opening of a new office at The Water Council located in the Global Water Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Launched in 2013, the Global Water Center is a 98,000 sq. ft. LEED-certified building that is considered the world's only state-of-the art water business and research facility. The Water Council is a world-leading water hub that drives economic, technology and talent development to support the global water industry. The Water Council convenes international water leaders and supports more than 180 members from small and mid-sized businesses and large corporations.

Cimbria Capital & The Water Council

"We are very excited to expand Cimbria's influence in private equity with our new office with The Water Council," said Brian V. Iversen, managing partner of Cimbria Capital. "We look forward to contributing our transatlantic finance capabilities and management expertise to the talented network of water investors, companies, and professionals utilizing The Water Council as a designated cluster of collaboration."

"We are extremely grateful that Cimbria Capital has selected the Global Water Center and Milwaukee as the location where they see great opportunities to find promising water technology businesses to add to their investment portfolio," stated Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of The Water Council. "Coupled with a solid team of private equity professionals, what especially resonated with us is Cimbria's unique long-term vision for their investments, which will serve as another magnet when we are speaking with companies about Milwaukee's advantage as a water technology hub."

Wisconsin and Milwaukee, the Freshwater Capital of the World, have together coalesced over 200 international water companies and a dedicated network of water experts. As global water scarcity mounts due to evolving economies and demographics, water companies are anticipated to be in exceptional demand by industrial companies and governments seeking solutions to water security. Wisconsin's high concentration of water innovators therefore provides unique value to investment firms seeking to leverage quality deal flow and partnership opportunities in the sector.

"It is an honor to open Cimbria's second office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and contribute to the region's water-focused investment and innovation," said Noah Sabich, director of Cimbria Capital. "With world demand for clean water growing exponentially, Cimbria looks forward to financing and scaling companies like those in Wisconsin that both address our water challenges and reward investors with outsized gains."

About Cimbria Capital: Cimbria Capital is a private equity investment firm based in Houston, Texas and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm conducts growth capital and early stage buyout investments focused on the agribusiness and water sectors in North America and Northern Europe. Cimbria's mission is to generate superior returns for investors by capitalizing and scaling businesses solving some of the world's most important challenges.

About The Water Council: Headquartered in the Global Water Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next to the world's largest freshwater system, The Water Council (TWC) is a non-profit organization that drives economic, technology and talent development to support the global water industry. As the leading U.S. cluster, and one of the most powerful water technology hubs in the world, the organization convenes global water leaders and supports more than 180 members from small and mid-sized businesses and large global corporations to engineers, entrepreneurs, utilities, government agencies, academia and non-profits, with valuable services, programming and networking opportunities. Established as a 501(c)(3) in 2009, the driving force behind The Water Council's success is the vibrant spirit of collaboration between public, private and academic sectors with a strong, shared commitment to finding innovative solutions to critical global water challenges.

About The Global Water Center: Opened in 2013, the Global Water Center (GWC) is a 98,000 sq. ft. (9,104 m2) facility located in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin housing water-centric research, office and collaboration facilities for universities, existing water-related companies and new, emerging water technology companies. With over 45 tenant organizations, the GWC continues to be a magnet for U.S. and foreign dignitaries, global water technology businesses, economic development organizations and students from all levels. The development of the GWC was an important milestone as it established a highly visible headquarter base for The Water Council and a landing pad for organizations to participate in the leading U.S. water technology hub.

For more information on Cimbria Capital and The Water Council, please visit www.cimbriacapital.com, www.thewatercouncil.com or contact Noah Sabich at [email protected].

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SOURCE Cimbria Capital; The Water CouncilPHILADELPHIA, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Data company Clarivate Analytics has announced the appointment of Caroline Birkle as the General Manager of their leading research information management system, Converis. Converis supports universities, research institutions and funding agencies in collecting and managing data across the research life cycle. Birkle will join Converis on April 16th 2018, based in Karlsruhe, Germany and will manage an international team across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.

Converis is part of Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation and is part of the Scientific and Academic Research Group alongside industry leaders like Web of Science. Built with the research community in mind, Converis is used by faculty, librarians and research managers globally to showcase the outputs and impact of research. Converis offers seamless integration with data, platform and products from Clarivate Analytics, such as Web of Science, InCites and Derwent Innovation Index, as well as a number of third-party products.

Birkle will join Clarivate Analytics from Thieme Chemistry in Germany, where she is Managing Director and has overall P&L responsibility for global electronic publications, leading an international team including editorial, production and software development. Previously, Birkle held publishing positions with the Royal Society of Chemistry and Thomson Reuters before moving to Holtzbrinck Publishers, where, as Vice President, she led Business Intelligence for STM (including Nature and Macmillan Science & Education) and coordinated the integration of Macmillan and Springer Nature, pre- and post-merger.

Caroline Birkle incoming General Manager, Converis said:

"The research landscape is changing at an unprecedented rate, with technological opportunities creating a pace within the research life cycle that is exhilarating and challenging. The opportunity to join Converis and work together with research offices globally, creating meaningful solutions that address industry needs, is one I am really looking forward to. I am proud to be joining this highly skilled and entrepreneurial team working within one of the industry's most exciting and dynamic business groups."

Annette Thomas, CEO Scientific and Academic Research Group, Clarivate Analytics said:

"I am delighted to welcome Caroline to our growing team; with her deep understanding of the research market, commercial and strategic acumen, as well operational and transformational experience, she is ideally suited to lead Converis during its next phase of growth and expansion. Converis currently supports a wide variety of customers in more than 20 countries and it's our intention to significantly evolve and strengthen its position in the market by integrating more data and by providing a more streamlined product offering. Caroline's experience will benefit us tremendously as we expand, and accelerate innovation and growth."

About Converis

Converis is a world-leading research information management system that supports the complete research lifecycle to manage complex research teams and projects in a unified flow. Converis benefits key stakeholders along the research lifecycle, including administrators and research managers (e.g. Research Office, Library and Graduate School), researchers, graduate students, and different organizational units. Converis is part of Clarivate Analytics and for more information, please visit https://clarivate.com/products/converis/.

About Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.

SOURCE Clarivate Analytics

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DURHAM, N.C. and PHILADELPHIA, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Life sciences consulting leader Clarkston Consulting today announced the latest recipient of the Clarkston Scholars Program scholarship. The Clarkston Scholars Program was established in 2010 to recognize highly driven students who excel in the classroom, have a focused interest and passion for life sciences, and intend to enter the industry upon graduation.

Noah Lee, a Computational Biology major at Carnegie Mellon University, has been selected as the recipient of this year's scholarship. Lee, a sophomore from Sugar Land, TX, stated "I'm thrilled and so grateful for this honor. The opportunities this scholarship will bring go beyond simply easing financial burden  this will help me navigate and understand more about the industry in a valuable way."

Clarkston Consulting's life sciences industry lead and partner Janel Firestein on selecting Lee, "The industry is in the midst of an almost complete metamorphosis. The way we develop and bring therapies to market is changing. We're tapping into new skills, new technologies, and new ways of thinking so the future of the industry will require a new kind of talent."

Firestein continued, "A future employee like Noah is exactly what the industry requires, he already sees how the relationship between pharma and the public has changed and appreciates what that means for the future. From a research perspective, he recognizes the need for an interdisciplinary, cross-functional approach to innovation. Noah has a bright future and we're all excited to see the amazing contributions he'll make to the industry."

"We are proud to continue our support of the Clarkston Scholars program and honored to see it granted to a deserving scholar in front of more than 1,200 industry leaders at our annual dinner," said Christopher P. Molineaux, President and CEO, Life Sciences Pennsylvania. "This scholarship is a truly meaningful way to encourage and develop future leaders in the life sciences industry."

In his studies, Lee leverages courses in biology, computer sciences, and mathematics to develop innovative and method-driven approaches to complex biology problems. Lee was selected from a recording-breaking number of applicants of university students attending a four-year institution in the state of Pennsylvania.

In addition to the $10,000 scholarship, he will receive exposure to the life sciences industry through mentoring with Clarkston Consulting and participation in Life Sciences Pennsylvania events over the next two years. Lee was honored at the Life Sciences Pennsylvania Annual Dinner and Awards Celebration on March 14, 2018.

ABOUT LIFE SCIENCES PENNSYLVANIA

Life Sciences Pennsylvania (formerly Pennsylvania Bio) was founded in 1989 by two Penn State researchers. Today it has grown to represent the entire life sciences industry  biotech, medical device, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical companies; investment organizations; research institutions; digital health companies and the myriad service industries that support the life sciences in Pennsylvania. Life Sciences Pennsylvania's mission is to ensure Pennsylvania is the United States hub for the life sciences by creating a business and public policy environment which fosters life sciences growth and success.

ABOUT CLARKSTON CONSULTING

Businesses across the life sciences industry partner with Clarkston Consulting to address challenges stemming from mergers and acquisitions, margin pressures, evolving technological and data capabilities, new regulations, and shifting patient expectations. Our people combine industry and technical expertise to deliver solutions to your most difficult problems. At Clarkston, your purpose is our purpose. Clarkstonconsulting.com

SOURCE Clarkston Consulting

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Independent analyst report highlights company's solution portfolio, acquisitions, aero-engine expertise, innovation and patent credentials, and client quality as key differentiators

HYDERABAD, India, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyient, a global provider of engineering, manufacturing, geospatial, networks, digital solutions, and operations management services to global industry leaders, has been positioned in the Winner's Circle of the HfS Blueprint Report for Aerospace Engineering Services 2017. The report by HfS Research, a leading analyst firm, is the first time the HfS Blueprint methodology has been applied to the aerospace and defense (A&D) engineering services marketplace.

The Aerospace Engineering Services Blueprint recognized Cyient's cross-segment expertise and strong focus on mechanical and electronics disciplines. It acknowledged the company's end-to-end service portfolio, focus on capability augmentation through acquisitions, and their expertise throughout the aerospace engine lifecycle. The Blueprint cited the company for its strong credentials in innovation, including its high number of patents, highlighted that Cyient is among leaders in "high-end design," and noted the significant number of clients among the top 100 A&D companies.

Commenting on the achievement, Anand Parameswaram, Senior Vice President for Aerospace & Defense, Cyient, said, "This recognition validates Cyient's deep domain capabilities, commitment to delivering innovative engineering solutions, and our strong presence in the industry. As the commercial aerospace market focus shifts toward manufacturing, aftermarket services, and avionics, we expect our robust client relationships, partnership ecosystem, and strategic acquisitions to become key drivers of growth. It is encouraging to see HfS recognizing us for our collaborative relationships with clients and our innovative approach to the market."

Pareekh Jain, Senior Vice President, HfS Research, and the lead analyst for A&D Engineering Blueprint said, "Cyient was built based on its capabilities in the aerospace sector with a focus on support for the most complex aircraft engines in operation. It is remarkable how the company has diversified and developed the requisite domain depth in other portfolios as well. They are among leaders in innovation and digital solutions in the A&D sector and continue to make investments in developing capabilities centered around high-value, complex solutions. The company's client-centric value proposition is strengthened by the acquisitions it has made in the areas of testing and certification, MRO, and manufacturing over the last few years. Cyient has become a global player in A&D solutions by serving as a trusted partner to the largest OEMs in the sector by providing integrated design, build, and maintain capabilities."

About Cyient:

Cyient (Estd: 1991, NSE: CYIENT) provides engineering, manufacturing, geospatial, networks, and operations management services to global industry leaders. Cyient leverages the power of digital technology and advanced analytics capabilities, along with domain knowledge and technical expertise, to solve complex business problems. As a Design, Build, and Maintain partner, Cyient takes solution ownership across the value chain to help clients focus on their core, innovate, and stay ahead of the curve.

Relationships form the core of how Cyient works. With over 14,000 employees in 21 countries, Cyient partners with clients to operate as part of their extended team, in ways that best suit their organization's culture and requirements. Cyient's industry focus includes aerospace and defense, medical, telecommunications, rail transportation, semiconductor, utilities, industrial, energy and natural resources.

For more information, please visit www.cyient.com. For media queries, write to [email protected].

Follow news about the company at @Cyient.

About HfS Research:

HfS Research is The Services Research Companythe leading analyst authority and global community for business operations and IT services. The firm helps organizations validate and improve their global operations with world-class research, benchmarking and peer networking. HfS Research was named "Independent Analyst Firm of the Year for 2016" by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations which voted on 170 other leading analysts. HfS Chief Analyst, Phil Fersht, was named Analyst of the Year in 2016 for the third time.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Thom Erbe

Director of Digital Marketing

HfS Research

[email protected]

SOURCE Cyient

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MAUMEE, Ohio, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dana Incorporated (NYSE: DAN) will host an investor forum in New York on Monday, March 19, to discuss its proposed combination with GKN Driveline. Beginning at 7:30 a.m. EDT, Dana President and Chief Executive Officer James Kamsickas and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Collins will give a brief presentation followed by a question and answer session.

The event will be hosted by Guggenheim Partners. For more information and to register for the event, buy-side institutional investors should email [email protected].

Important Information for Investors and Stockholders

This release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. In connection with the proposed transactions between Dana and GKN plc, an entity to be formed for the proposed transaction ("SpinCo") will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") a registration statement containing a proxy statement/prospectus, which will constitute a preliminary prospectus of SpinCo and a preliminary proxy statement of Dana, and Dana will file with the SEC a definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A. The materials to be filed by Dana and SpinCo will be made available to Dana's investors and stockholders at no expense to them and, once available, copies may be obtained free of charge on Dana's website at www.dana.com. In addition, all of those materials will be available at no charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Investors and stockholders of Dana are urged to read the registration statement, the proxy statement and other relevant materials when they become available before making any voting or investment decision with respect to the proposed transactions because they contain important information about the proposed transactions and the parties to the proposed transactions.

Dana and its directors, executive officers and other members of its management and employees may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies of Dana stockholders in connection with the proposed transactions. Investors and stockholders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of certain of Dana's executive officers and directors in the solicitation by reading Dana's preliminary proxy statement for its 2018 annual meeting of stockholders, Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, and proxy statement and other relevant materials which will be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transactions when they become available. Information concerning the interests of Dana's participants in the solicitation, which may, in some cases, be different than those of Dana's stockholders generally, will be set forth in the proxy statement relating to the proposed transactions when it becomes available.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements and projections contained in this release are, by their nature, forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about the potential benefits of the proposed transactions; the prospective performance and outlook of the combined company's business, performance and opportunities, including the ability of the parties to complete the proposed transactions and the expected timing of completion of the proposed transactions; as well as any assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Such risks and uncertainties, include, without limitation, risks related to Dana's ability to complete the proposed transactions on the proposed terms and schedule, including obtaining shareholder and regulatory approvals; unforeseen liabilities; future capital expenditures; risks associated with business combination transactions, such as the risk that the businesses will not be integrated successfully, that such integration may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected or that the expected benefits of the proposed transactions will not occur; risks related to future opportunities and plans for the combined company, including uncertainty of the expected financial performance and results of the combined company following completion of the proposed transactions; disruption from the proposed transactions, making it more difficult to conduct business as usual or maintain relationships with customers, employers or suppliers; and the possibility that if the combined company does not achieve the perceived benefits of the proposed transactions as rapidly or to the extent anticipated by financial analysts or investors, the market price of the combined company's shares could decline, as well as other risks related to Dana's business. Dana's Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss important risk factors that could affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. Dana does not undertake any obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.

About Dana Incorporated

Dana is a world leader in highly engineered solutions for improving the efficiency, performance, and sustainability of powered vehicles and machinery. Dana supports the passenger vehicle, commercial truck, and off-highway markets, as well as industrial and stationary equipment applications. Founded in 1904, Dana employs more than 30,000 people in 33 countries on six continents who are committed to delivering long-term value to customers. Based in Maumee, Ohio, USA, the company reported sales of $7.2 billion in 2017. Dana is ranked among the Drucker Institute's listing of the 250 most effectively managed companies. For more information, please visit dana.com.

SOURCE Dana Incorporated

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CAMBRIDGE, Minn., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New Dickey's Barbecue Pit franchisee, Scott Frayn plans to open his first Dickey's Barbecue Pit location to Cambridge, MN in Spring 2018.

"At Dickey's Barbecue Pit, we pride ourselves on serving each and every guest authentic, Texas-style barbecue," says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. "With new franchisees such as Scott that truly love the brand, we can continue our growth and more importantly continue serving our guests delicious barbecue."

New to the restaurant industry, Scott looks forward to embarking on this adventure in the restaurant industry with the support of Dickey's Barbecue Pit. Scott recently purchased a gas station in Cambridge that housed space for a restaurant concept. After doing extensive research and speaking with the Dickey's team, Scott knew that it would be a perfect fit.

"I love Dickey's product, the atmosphere of each location and Dickey's commitment to their community," says Scott. "I look forward to opening my first Dickey's Barbecue Pit location and serving the people in my community Dickey's slow-smoked barbecue."

Find your nearest Dickey's location here.

About Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the nation's largest barbecue chain was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey. Today, all meats are still slow smoked on-site in each restaurant. The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers several slow-smoked meats and home style sides with 'No B.S. (Bad Stuff)' included. The fast-casual concept has expanded to more than 550 locations in 45 states. In 2016, Dickey's won first place on Fast Casual's "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" list and in 2017 again won a top 10 on the list. Dickey's Barbecue Pit has also been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine, Franchise Times, and Nation's Restaurant News. For more information, visit www.dickeys.com.

Media Contacts:

Callie Head

[email protected]

Ashley Richardson

[email protected]

SOURCE Dickey's Barbecue

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The UN aid chief has warned against the spiralling humanitarian needs in DR Congo and urged the international community to help meet these needs as fighting in the country forced 4.5 million people to flee their homes over the past year and left more than 13 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, who has just wrapped up a visit to DRC has called on the international community to urgently address the crisis.

We heard their heart-wrenching stories, their descriptions of what they need, but also their hopes and their stories of resilience and courage in the face of unimaginable challenges, said Mark Lowcock, who was accompanied by Mrs Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.

With humanitarian needs having doubled since last year, more than 4.6 million Congolese children are acutely malnourished, including 2.2 million severely acute cases. Moreover, epidemics are spreading  counting the worst outbreak of cholera in 15 years.

What we know is happening in many parts of the country, doesnt need to persist if we work together, Lowcock added. Every vulnerable Congolese family deserves all our support to rebuild their lives.

Mr. Lowcock and Ms. Kaag Tuesday travelled to Kalemie in the south-eastern province of Tanganyika where they visited the Katanika displacement site and spoke with some of the over 13,000 people who live there, having fled ethnic violence.

They also travelled to the Kalunga displacement site, which, since November 2016, has received nearly 3,500 displaced families. Humanitarian partners there have established education; water and sanitation; and agricultural to help meet the needs of displaced people.

On Monday, Mr. Lowcock and Ms. Kaag met with Jose Makila Sumanda, acting Prime Minister, and Bernard Biando Sango, Minister of Solidarity and Humanitarian Action and discussed the impact of insecurity on aid operations.

The Government representatives said they would facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations and reduce tariffs for humanitarian imports, including medicines and food.

Humanitarian partners require nearly $1.7 billion this year to address humanitarian needs in the country, including for 4.5 million internally displaced people.

Geneva will host next April 13 the first-ever DRC humanitarian donor conference. The conference is co-sponsored by the European Commission, the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates."Our ultimate goal was to control our brand including how we supply the product to our consumers and how we continue to support our community," said Keith Vrana. Consolidated Mills is very active in their community, with their involvement in the local Chamber of Commerce to their support of local charities like Cy-Hope in which they donated 100 cases of their Alamo Red salsa to raise over $12,000 for Cy-Hope's Backpack program that allows underprivileged kids to take food home each weekend to help feed their family. "We had our own recipe and we knew it was good because the feedback was so positive."

In addition to launching their Alamo Red Foods.com website, in which consumers can order their family of products, Consolidated Mills has partnered with its local school district, and has launched an additional website to promote "buying local". Parents can go to this website select the school, or school's organization that they associate with, and then order a custom case of salsa. Consolidated Mills will donate $5.00 per case to the school or organization that the customer has chosen. There are three salsa SKUs: Medium Heat Fire Roasted Salsa, Hot Heat Fire Roasted Salsa and Black Bean, and Corn Fire Roasted Salsa.

Ecommerce-friendly Solution

To provide a better ecommerce solution to the standard glass jar, Consolidated Mills needed a more durable and lighter alternative. "After seeing a sample of the new Apex jar, I knew this would be a game changer for the ecommerce industry," explained Keith. At this point, David Parker, packaging consultant and the TricorBraun team, were asked to step in to facilitate the process for commercialization. Parker says, "We understood this would be a first for Consolidated Mills and for the category. We were so pleased to be part of this and confident that we could help put a process in place without adjusting their lines."

TricorBraun partnered with Consolidated Mills and the manufacturer of the Apex jar, to trial a hot fill PET (polyethylene terephthalate) jar. According to Vrana, "TricorBraun was instrumental in helping us realize our objective." Consolidated Mills wanted to be able to fill the PET jars with their current equipment line used to fill glass jars. "We wouldn't have done this if a large financial investment was needed to change the set up and the equipment," explains Vrana.

The main goal of the trial was to set up the production line in the same way that it would have been for the glass container to properly cap, using a steam injected capper, and label the new PET jar. Technicians were on hand from the enclosure and capper manufacturer to help fine tune the cap application. "Because we do not have a cooling tunnel, we allow the jars to naturally cool in the shipper box after being filled and labeled so our main concern was how the labels would react to the PET material. We did see some problems initially, but our label supplier recommended a new material that corrected the issue," explains Vrana.

PET versus Glass

The advantages of PET versus glass are numerous. "Using the PET jars greatly reduces the decibel levels during production, and we don't have to worry about broken glass shutting down the line. Our cases weigh three pounds less now, reducing our freight cost, and because we are now shipping plastic containers, we are able to eliminate the extra packaging costs needed for ecommerce," according to Vrana. "Our goal is to get all of our salsas plus our other Alamo Red products, Blood Mary mixes and barbeque sauces, into hot fill PET jars," explains Vrana. He goes on, "We will also encourage our private label customers to switch to PET as well."

Vrana describes working with TricorBraun this way, "Every time we discuss a project or idea with TricorBraun, both Scott and I feel that they are truly engaged in what we are trying to accomplish. David and the rest of the TricorBraun team understand where we wanted to go, and offered ideas to help us achieve our mutual goals. We're poised for growth and TricorBraun is helping us get there." According to Parker, "We're thrilled to be helping Consolidated Mills with this ecommerce-friendly project launchnow consumers accustomed to the quality look and feel of a glass jar with a metal lug closure will enjoy the same quality experience with a lightweight, shatter-proof PET jar. It's a win-win."

About Consolidated Mills

Consolidated Mills, Inc. is a Houston, TX based food contract packaging company that specializes in dry blending, processed foods, and flavor concentrates. Since 1962, Consolidated Mills has offered custom blending and packaging solutions for spices, salsas and sauces, flavor concentrates, and non-alcoholic cocktail mixers. Alamo Red is a Consolidated Mills brand that features Texas Crafted recipes for Fire Roasted Salsas, Bloody Mary Mixes, Spice Blends, BBQ Sauces, and Margarita Mixes. Alamo Red can be found in Spec's Liquor locations around Texas, as well as on the web at www.alamoredfoods.com. For more information about Consolidated Mills, Inc. and contract packaging needs, please see our website and www.consolidatedmills.com or contact Keith Vrana at 713-896-4196 or at [email protected].

About TricorBraun Design & Engineering Group

TricorBraun Design & Engineering Group is a business unit of TricorBraun, one of North America's leading providers of rigid packaging. Our team's primary mission is to design, engineer and manage the development, production and commercialization of custom packaging solutions for personal care, cosmetics, healthcare, food and beverage, industrial household chemical and animal health products. It is supported by TricorBraun's more than 40 offices globally, holding one of the largest inventories of rigid packaging components worldwide. For more information about TricorBraun Design & Engineering Group, contact Charmaine Laine, Marketing Communications Manager, at [email protected] or 630-645-1208.

SOURCE TricorBraun Design & Engineering Group"We're building on our previous efforts to help the Marine Corps take another step in their plan to broadly field advanced SUGVs capable of meeting a range of threats in multiple environments," said Endeavor CEO Sean Bielat. "Every one of our rugged, combat-tested robots places one more Marine, one more squad of Marines, in a safe position to deal with battlefield threats.

"Endeavor is relentlessly focused on developing, sustaining and advancing life-saving robot technologies. We're proud to be a dedicated partner to the Marines," Bielat added.

The latest SUGVs being delivered to the Marine Corps come equipped with Endeavor Robotics' advanced uPoint Multi-Robot Control System. uPoint sharply reduces operator training time by leveraging interoperable technology and familiar tablet-based user-interfaces. Through the integration of mesh networking radios and uPoint controllers, Marines can now control and observe multiple SUGV robot assets simultaneously to far greater ranges than ever before.

More than 1,300 SUGV robots have been fielded worldwide to domestic and international defense forces, law enforcement, and industrial clients. Since 2009, Endeavor's ever-evolving SUGV has offered warfighters a rugged, back-packable, easily deployable robot that weighs less than 30 pounds. SUGVs operate in all environments, climb and descend stairs, and can be fitted with multiple sensors and accessories for added capabilities.

The Endeavor Robotics uPoint Multi-Robot Control System consists of an Android-based, rugged, tablet controller and the Persistent Systems, LLC, MPU5 Radio network. uPoint and the MPU5 Radio network have been integrated across Endeavor's family of man-transportable robot solutions, including FirstLook, SUGV, and PackBot.

About Federal Resources

Based in Stevensville, MD, Federal Resources is a leading provider of quality products and mission-critical solutions that support the U.S. Military, Federal Government, State/Local Responders, and International Markets. For more than five years, Federal Resources and Endeavor Robotics have worked together to provide the best technology and equipment to warfighters worldwide.

About Endeavor Robotics

Based in Chelmsford, Mass., Endeavor Robotics is the world's largest supplier of tactical unmanned ground vehicles, delivering more than 6,000 robots to customers in over 40 countries. Every day Endeavor products operate in areas of conflict, assist law enforcement agencies, and respond to natural disasters to protect lives. Endeavor Robotics is 100% based in the United States, including R&D, manufacturing, staffing and ownership. For more, visit us at EndeavorRobotics.com, or on Twitter at @EndeavorRobotic.

Endeavor Robotics is growing. To see a list of job opportunities visit: www.endeavorrobotics.hirecentric.com/jobsearch/

Media Contact:

Joe Ailinger, Jr.

+1-978-769-9339

[email protected]

SOURCE Endeavor Robotics

Related Links

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"America faces serious issues: an educational system that is failing our children at a time when global competition is the new way of life; school safety that is not adequately addressed; access to affordable health insurance and prescription medicines; stalled passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and hardly anyone demanding 'equal pay for equal results;' a nation whose morals and values have declined, and an endless blame game that has consumed Washington," says Townsend.

"I believe in transparency on the issues. To that end, www.TownsendForNevada.com outlines in detail solutions to major initiatives that I call '12 Big Ideas for Nevada,' including a comprehensive plan to improve education; to dramatically improve school safety; to fully fund and increase Social Security benefits for the next 80 years; to significantly support women's issues; an end to homelessness as it exists today. In addition, topics of importance are addressed, including: jobs and the economy, affordable healthcare, support for our military and veterans; the 2nd Amendment; reducing taxes for workers, growth initiatives for Nevada that supplement our service job base, and Nevada's future, including a call for the Federal government to return 15 million acres of land to be owned and managed by the State of Nevada."

"As an example, to improve school safety, we must identify and treat those requiring behavioral health interventions. We must solve the opiate and anti-psychotic drug problem and the role prescription drugs have on children's behavior. 50 million students spend the majority of their time in school and they should be given the same type of security our judges, airports, Federal buildings, and Members of Congress enjoy."

"My message is simple: fiscal conservatism combined with socially compassionate programs to free people from government overreach yet ensure the social support programs and safety net are in place for those in need. It was a message of accountability and fresh ideas to the problems plaguing America. To properly serve the American People, we need to elect innovative thinkers and creative problem solvers, not more attorneys and career politicians."

On July 1, 1854, Abraham Lincoln said, "The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities." It is my intention to take this approach with me to Washington, focusing intently on fixing the many issues in government and giving Nevadans a better shot at achieving their own American Dream."

[email protected]

www.TownsendForNevada.com

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Townsend

Paid for by The Townsend Campaign.

SOURCE The Townsend Campaign

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NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Has your friend ever told you they were going to the bathroom only to never return? Did you and your girlfriends leave one bar to go to another and end up with one less friend than you started with? Have you ever been out and your friend left without saying goodbye?

If so, chances are you may have been the victim of an Irish Goodbye, when a person discreetly leaves a bar, party, or dinner without telling anyone. But you're not alone and it's likely you may not be the only one this St. Patrick's Day with friends that leave without saying anything at all.

Lyft recently surveyed one-thousand people and uncovered that Irish Goodbyes are more common than previously thought  so much so that three out of four people have at least one friend that is notorious for frequent Irish Goodbyes. What's more is that if you are celebrating with your best guy friends, they are more likely to unexpectedly leave you at a bar compared to your girl friends. And while it could definitely be a sign of an Irish Goodbye if your friend opens up their Lyft app but hasn't yet said their goodbye to the group (22 percent of millennials are likely to hop in a rideshare as they make their getaway), Lyft uncovered a few sure fire covers prone to be used by those who leave without saying goodbye.

Five Signs That Your Friend Has Given You The Irish Goodbye

After dancing to your favorite song you look around but your friend is nowhere to be found

Once you make it to your third bar of the night you realize that your group is missing a few people

Your friend says they have to take a call, only to step outside and never return

A bathroom run almost always ends up in texting "Girl, where did you go?!"

Your friend leaves to close out their tab at the last bar leaving you feeling ghosted

However, it's not just our friends that have mastered the art of Irish Goodbyes. While many people have at least one friend that's infamous for leaving without saying goodbye, more than 2 in 5 people, including half of Millennials, frequently leave a bar or social gathering without saying goodbye to anyone. In case you plan on being one of the offenders, here's how you can you make your escape this St. Patrick's Day.

Make The Perfect Irish Goodbye With These Five Tips

Don't leave your Irish Goodbye up for chance. Schedule your ride like the thousands of people who did it last St. Patrick's Day

Sneaking out of the bar with a few of your closest friends? Make sure they pay their fair share

Based on Lyft data, leaving at either 8:00 pm or 11:00 pm increases your chances for a quick exit

or increases your chances for a quick exit On the flip side, avoid leaving at 7:00 pm or 10:00 pm to reduce your chances of being caught

or to reduce your chances of being caught The best Irish Goodbye ends with a late night bite, stop at your favorite bodega or take out spot before heading home

Whether you are the one making the Irish Goodbye, or the victim of it, everyone needs a good place to start the night. Check out this list of top spots to eat and drink before deciding how you want to say goodbye this St. Patrick's Day.

Methodology

The Lyft Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com) among 1,000 U.S. St. Patrick's Day celebrants ages 21+, defined as those who plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day 2018 at a bar or restaurant. The survey was conducted between March 6 and March 9, 2018, using an email invitation and an online survey.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

About Lyft

Lyft was founded in June 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer to improve people's lives with the world's best transportation. Lyft is the fastest growing rideshare company in the U.S. and is available to 95 percent of the US population and Toronto, Canada. Lyft is preferred by drivers and passengers for its safe and friendly experience, and its commitment to effecting positive change for the future of our cities.

Media Contact

Lyft

[email protected]

Sunshine Sachs

[email protected]

SOURCE Lyft

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WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former President of the Republic of Malawi Joyce Banda will speak at the 2018 NAFSA Annual Conference & Expo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As an activist, entrepreneur, politician and philanthropist, Banda works to champion for the rights of women, children, the physically challenged and other marginalized groups in Malawi and throughout the world. She will address the conference on Thursday, May 31.

Banda served as president of Malawi from 2012 to 2014, making her the first-ever female president of Malawi and the second-ever female president in Africa. In 2014, Forbes named her the 40th most powerful woman in the world and the most powerful woman in Africa. An advocate for women and girls' civil rights and empowerment, Banda founded the Joyce Banda Foundation International, which guides initiatives that include helping women become financially independent through business training to supporting schools and care centers for orphans.

"Our international community relies on strong global leaders to ensure education and cross-cultural competency can thrive and progress around the world," stated Esther D. Brimmer, NAFSA Executive Director and CEO. "As the first female president of Malawi and a fierce advocate for educational empowerment, Joyce Banda will provide a meaningful and vital perspective to the conference."

Banda is the recipient of multiple international awards including the Hunger Project Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger that she shared with President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique in 1997. She was also key in the founding of several organizations including the African Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (AFWE), the Council for the Economic Empowerment of Women in Africa (CEEWA) and the American & African Business Women's Alliance (AABWA), in which she served as First President. Banda recently was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Woodrow Wilson Center. In 2016, she joined the United Nations Foundation Council of Women World Leaders.

The plenary session featuring Joyce Banda is sponsored by Drexel University. Learn more about all the plenary speakers at www.nafsa.org/ac18plenaries.

About the NAFSA Conference

NAFSA's 70th Annual Conference & Expo is the world's largest gathering of professionals in international education with an expected 10,000 attendees from more than 100 countries. The conference offers a wide array of learning and networking opportunities for international educators, and features more than 200 sessions and workshops focusing on the most crucial topics in international education and exchange and global learning.

A major highlight of the conference is the International Education Expo Hall, which features more than 400 exhibitors representing hundreds of organizations from around the world, including colleges and universities; study abroad and intensive-English programs; embassies and government agencies; and more. The conference theme for 2018 is "Diverse Voices, Shared Commitment." It will be held in Philadelphia, May 29June 1, 2018.

Learn more at www.nafsa.org/philadelphia.

Sample Tweet: First female president of Malawi @DrJoyceBanda to speak at #NAFSA2018, world's largest #IntlEd conference www.nafsa.org/philadelphia

About NAFSA: With more than 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world's largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education. Visit us at www.nafsa.org/press. To learn more about our advocacy efforts on behalf of international education, visit www.ConnectingOurWorld.org and @ConnectOurWorld on Twitter. Resources to guide our members on these issues can be found at www.nafsa.org/reginfo.

SOURCE NAFSA: Association of International Educators

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GHENT, Belgium, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Fortino Capital leads a 2.8 million euros ($3.5 million USD) round in the Ghent headquartered company PieSync through its venture fund. Fortino Capital led the round with participation from existing investors including Ark Angels Activator Fund , PMV and Dirk Vermunicht .The PieSync intelligent synchronization platform is an integrated software-as-a-service cloud application to manage contact information. It provides two-way real time synchronization of contact data between the various cloud applications used.

Today, both multinationals and SMEs use a combination of various (often specialized) cloud applications. One of the biggest challenges for companies is to integrate these applications and manage their data as simply and affordably as possible. Most integration applications only "push" data one way, from one application to the other. PieSync ensures that businesses always have access to their most recent contact data, across every application.

Duco Sickinghe, Managing Partner at Fortino Capital: "PieSync fills the gap in the market for two-way real time synchronization of contact data in a simple and affordable way. The platform now works successfully with more than 100 different applications, with new ones being added every week. We want our investment to support that continued growth." The investment of 2.8 million euros is aimed at helping PieSync expand commercially, through increased growth in sales and marketing and by strengthening its management team.

PieSync currently synchronizes more than 100 different SaaS applications including Google Contacts, Hubspot, Marketo, Salesforce, Teamleader and specialized applications such as accounting programs. The platform automatically detects possible conflicts in contact data and matches and duplicates data in a clever way. Hence, integrating PieSync in an application landscape eliminates the data gaps between sales, marketing and customer services, and allows more efficient and productive cross-department data management.

"We're focused on becoming the best solution to help organizations of all sizes to intelligently connect cloud-based business apps without complexity," said Ewout Meyns, Founder and CEO of PieSync. "The partnership with Fortino Capital is an important step forward in executing our vision to become the fastest growing two-way intelligent data synchronization platform for organizations that want to power their business by integrating their cloud apps. "

PieSync was founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs Ewout Meyns and Mattias Putman in Ghent. Since then, it has grown into a world-renowned player in SaaS. Fifty percent of its customers are American companies.

About Fortino Capital Partners

The investment firm Fortino Capital was founded in 2013 and is managed by Duco Sickinghe, Renaat Berckmoes and Matthias Vandepitte. Fortino Capital uses its first venture fund to invest in start-ups with a focus on technology, e-commerce and digital transformation. A second investment fund, Fortino Capital II Growth, was launched at the end of 2017. This 200 million euro fund aims at investing in scale-ups and growth businesses in Benelux. Fortino is using this second fund to extend its investments to larger and more traditional businesses willing to accelerate growth through digitization. Fortino Capital reinforces capital, as well as providing expertise and experience in terms of innovation, strategy and growth. Fortino Capital's investment portfolio includes Bloomon, Teamleader, Aproplan, TrendMiner and MobileXpense, among others.

Website:www.fortino.be



About PieSync

PieSync is the fastest growing two-way intelligent data synchronization platform for organizations that want to power their business by integrating their cloud apps. PieSync improves sales, marketing and service performance by easily and affordably connecting contact data without complexity across SaaS-based ecosystems and applications to guarantee relevance and reliability, every time. PieSync connects over 100 applications with new ones added every week and supports customers with greater than 20 employees across many industries. The company was founded in 2014 with the active support of start-up accelerator imec and in 2016 received 1.5 million Euro ($1.6 million USD) in funding from current investors Ark Angels Activator Fundand PMV. PieSync is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium and actively hiring new talent to join their growing team.

Website:www.piesync.com



SOURCE PieSyncSHERMAN OAKS, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Help Group will be hosting its 8th Annual Special Needs Resource Fair on Sunday, April 8, 2018, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sherman Oaks campus. The free event, which attracts more than 400 people each year, is an opportunity for parents and professionals to connect with the resources available for the special needs community, including children with autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, developmental delays, and emotional challenges.

A diverse mix of exhibitors will be on hand to provide information and answer questions about services geared toward children, young people, and adults, as well as their parents and families. There will be representatives from support groups, medical and therapeutic services, educational supports, financial and estate planning, advocacy services, respite services, recreational and camping programs, vocational and residential programs, and more.

The event will feature opportunities for children and families to interact with therapy dogs from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs; visit with animals from Special Spirit, Inc. Therapeutic Riding Center; and play with friends on the open Hasbro playground. There will also be food and snacks available for purchase.

Proceeds will be directed to the Kids Like Me camps, offered during the summer, winter and spring at The Help Group's Sherman Oaks and Culver City locations. Camp programs are developed by a multidisciplinary team to address unique strengths and abilities, foster social skills, and cultivate friendships. They are led by highly trained therapists and counselors from The Help Group, and campers are assessed and matched with the right program to ensure the best possible camp experience for everyone.

The Special Needs Resource Fair will take place at 13164 Burbank Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91401. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact Tracy Peters at 310-751-1486 or [email protected] for more information.

About Kids Like Me

The Kids Like Me program, located in the Los Angeles area, is designed especially for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and other special needs. They offer after school enrichment classes, camps, and weekend social events.

www.kidslikemela.org

www.facebook.com/kidslikeme

About The Help Group

Founded in 1975, The Help Group is the largest, most innovative and comprehensive nonprofit of its kind in the United States serving children, adolescents and young adults with special needs related to autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, developmental delays, abuse and emotional challenges.

www.thehelpgroup.org

SOURCE The Help Group

Related Links

http://www.thehelpgroup.org

CHICAGO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gladson, a portfolio company of The Wicks Group ("Wicks"), announced today that it has acquired both FSEnet+, a leading product data management and syndication provider, and Webcollage, the leading cloud-based platform for manufacturers to manage and publish rich product information across a vast network of retailer sites globally. Combined with Gladson's industry-leading digital content hub of consumer goods product information and images, the three companies together offer a powerful end-to-end product content management experience. The acquisitions will enable brands and retailers to drive efficiency in their supply chain, space management and eCommerce operations to increase conversions and optimize digital and in-store experiences. The terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

"Our clients are struggling working with multiple providers of product information and digital assets due to inconsistent formats, and ever changing product labeling and packaging. Retailers and other data recipients need complete and consistent data to power their eCommerce websites and to optimize their shelf management process. We have listened to our clients and made great strides in bringing best-in-class solutions together to help solve this challenge in the industry," said Gladson CEO Paul Salay.

By combining the FSEnet+ product data management engine with the Webcollage platform, Content Publisher, fueled by the largest independently verified hub of digital product content, we have taken significant steps to enable a more efficient transfer of information between supply and demand. The desire for a single source where brands and retailers can truly collaborate with each other is now a reality."

"We are thrilled to welcome FSEnet+ and Webcollage to the Gladson family," said Thomas Kearney, Principal at Wicks. "The addition of these two great companies to the Gladson platform helps achieve our objective of building a leading information business for brands and retailers in our target markets."

Gladson is now uniquely positioned in the industry to deliver a seamless shopper content experience, with the largest brand and retailer network, the highest quality and most complete data across multiple industries (from apparel, durable goods and automotive to consumer product goods, and food and beverage), delivered in accordance with client and industry-defined standards, via a leading cloud-based content platform. Plus, clients will continue to receive exceptional service from an unmatched client team in the industry.

"With FSEnet+ joining Gladson, it underscores an important opportunity at this critical time to accelerate product management services across in the industries and markets that we serve," said FSEnet+ President & CEO Kirby McBride. "We've found the right partner to not only execute our global vision, but to broaden the solution set for all Customers bringing obvious and incremental value."

"For almost 20 years, Webcollage has defined the category of rich media content creation and syndication," said John Federman, Webcollage CEO. "Both manufacturers and suppliers have been piecing together disparate solutions for years, and time and again our solutions have combined with those of Gladson to the delight of our clients and partners. We're thrilled to share Gladson's vision of becoming a single source provider for this marketplace and look forward to being a part of the Gladson group's evolution."

"Gladson's mission continues to provide our clients with the best verified and accessible content. Gladson remains committed to focusing its investments in technology and innovation to address their needs," said Paul Salay.

Wicks and Gladson were advised by Winston & Strawn LLP on the transactions.

About Gladson Group Holdings

Gladson's digital asset management and product information management solutions enable the most efficient and accurate transfer of information across the brand and retailer ecosystem on the market today. Clients are able to increase in-store and eCommerce sales with Gladson's detailed and verified product information that helps shoppers in their buying decisions, while its store optimization services enable attractive and effective store and shelf layouts to facilitate the path to purchase.

Gladson's enterprise-ready digital content feeds eCommerce, space planning, category management, store optimization, marketing, advertising, supply chain, market research, mobile applications, master data management and other critical business processes and systems. For more information, visit www.gladson.com.

About FSEnet+ (FSE Inc.)

FSEnet+ is a leading provider of product data management services and is certified as a GS1 GDSN data pool. FSEnet+ addresses supply chain, eCommerce and regulatory needs through our global network and provide solutions and services that ensure "perfect data in every system." FSEnet+ is headquartered in Boston, with offices in Paris, Warsaw, Sao Paulo and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.fsenet.com.

About Webcollage

Webcollage is the leading cloud-based platform for the publishing of rich product content and syndication across retail sites globally. Built in an environment rich in strategic thinking and innovation, the Webcollage platform serves more than 1,000 of the world's most demanding brands, providing the tools they need to deliver consistent content to power online sales conversions and improve the customer experience. The Webcollage global network includes more than 600 top retailers across dozens of countries. Webcollage is headquartered in New York City with offices in the U.S. and Europe. More information: www.webcollage.com.

About The Wicks Group

The Wicks Group (http://www.wicksgroup.com) is a private investment firm based in New York City that invests in lower-middle-market companies operating in selected segments of the information, education, and media industries principally in the United States and Canada. Since its founding in 1989, Wicks has invested over $1 billion of capital in more than 30 platform companies and approximately 100 add-on acquisitions. The firm has applied a consistent investment strategy since its founding, partnering with high-quality, experienced management teams to build businesses organically and through acquisitions.

SOURCE Gladson

Related Links

http://www.gladson.com

What is needed for life?

Water is what we need to see. While this elixir of life has been found in the atmospheres of hot Jupiter planets orbiting distant stars, nothing has yet been found in the key Goldilocks zone.

But weve barely begun to look.

For liquid water to be present, a planet cannot be too close or too far from its star. Too close, the water boils away. Too far and it freezes (unless there is some pretty serious tectonic activity going on).

The very fact water has been found in exoplanet supergiants reveals it may be more common than anticipated. But isolating the light from Earth-sized planets from that of their stars has not yet been achieved. Once it has, then well be able to begin the search for the fingerprints of water and life in earnest.

So its planets in the Goldilocks Zone well have to look for.



Finding them is not turning out to be a problem: We have 21 Earth 2.0 candidates so far.

But the full extent of their similarity to our home has not yet been established.

More data is needed yet to plug into the Earth Similarity Index, an equation designed to assess a planets suitability for life. It predicts (on a scale from zero to one with zero meaning no similarity and one being identical to Earth) how Earth-like a planet is based on its surface temperature, escape velocity, mean radius and bulk density.

Planets with an Earth Similar index from 0.8  1 are considered capable of hosting life similar to that found on our planet. In the equation Mars scores in the range of 0.6  0.8, showing it is too low to support life. Only seven  as yet unconfirmed worlds  fit this spectrum.

But the formula only calculates life like our own. Alien life may in fact be capable of living in a much broader range of conditions  such as an enormous world.

Certainly life as we know it is still possible in a super-Terran world, as the surface gravity doesn't change as much as you might imagine, Dr Duffy said. For example a super-Terran world may have ten times the mass of Earth and twice the diameter  so the gravity on its surface is only a few times that of ours. Any land-based life in this case may not grow as tall as on Earth, but would likely be stronger. But this world can hold onto more of its atmosphere than Earth, which might create a runaway greenhouse effects and preventing life from forming.

Here are some of the key influences:

Size and density: Big, heavy planets could contain life. But it gets tougher to live as gravity increases. And as a planets mass increases  so does the weight of its gravity and atmosphere. So some scientists have resolved to ignore any Goldilocks planet weighing in at more than twice our size.

Atmosphere: The Earth 2.0 candidates could have noxious greenhouse-gas atmospheres like Venus. They could be cold, dead worlds like Mars. We dont know. Yet. What we do know is we need to find methane as potential evidence of life. We need to find water as evidence of potential habitability. Testing these atmospheres for such signs is the next phase of NASAs 30-year exoplanet search plan.

But many astronomers say the search for Earth-like life is a mistake. It's possible that Earth may not represent a typical habitable world.

The Hunt is on

A recent study has a new definition of the ideal planet: Superhabitable

Superhabitable would be a world two to three times bigger than Earth, somewhat older and orbiting stars smaller than our Sun. Water would ideally be scattered over the surface, not in deep oceans. What is vital, however, is the magnetic field to protect life from cosmic radiation. Inside their atmospheres, somewhat denser than our own, could be life  but not as we know it.

Even searching yellow Sun-like stars may be wrong. It seems red dwarfs have the greatest chance of generating planets in ideal orbits. Perhaps were the odd-ones out.



What would life be like?

Weird.

Whatever form it takes, life out there will likely be very different to that here.

Research from Caltech argues that the best place to find a habitable planet is around red dwarf stars. Life there would spawn under dim-red skies. Photosynthesis  if it exists  would be somewhat different. Plants could be black instead of green to catch as much light as possible.

Red dwarf stars are small. So, for a world to be heated to Earth-like temperatures it would have to sit close to its star. The catch? When a planet gets so close it becomes tidally locked: One side would perpetually face the star  basking in its heat  while the other is fated to become a frozen waste.

Life would literally be on the edge, shifting in and out of the shadows to hunt and shelter. Intense winds would blast the heat from the sunny side to the night side, extending the band of life a little further.

But radiation will be the big unknown factor. Is the planets magnetic field strong or weak? Is the star active? This applies to all worlds, whether they orbit a red, blue or yellow star.



What about alien civilisations?

Thats a different ballgame.

Dr Duffy said: To identify intelligent life is much harder, but if they have TV / radio signals our new radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array will allow us to listen if they're close enough. 

Those leading the hunt for extra-terrestrial civilisations want to continue what we are have been doing for the past 40 years  just on a much larger scale with much more sensitive equipment and software: Point big radio dishes at the sky in the hope of picking up an unnatural signal.

But finding ideal worlds first could help narrow the search.



What if we find life?

It would be Earth-shattering.

Discovering life could change the world overnight. Our sense of self will shift. Our place in the cosmos will have been redefined.

We would not be alone.

 Personally I can't imagine how huge this impact on the world would be, Dr Duffy said, but I for one would certainly be relieved that the burden of ensuring the ongoing existence of life in a hostile universe is no longer humanity's alone to bear.

Finding alien intelligence would ramp things up even further.

Even though we would not be able to talk with aliens, a lot of debate is likely to be generated about everything from religion through to space-based defence systems.

Hysteria and paranoia would be a risk. But it could also inspire a new wave of space exploration and a desire to travel interstellar distances.

Chances are, according to some astronomers, well personally experience whatever reaction it will be within the next 30 years.



To identify intelligent life is much harder

But the questions are enormous.

This is the biggest unknown of the famous Drake's equation, Dr Duffy said. What does it mean to find life without intelligence?.

Is it simply that intelligence such as we possess is incredibly rare? Perhaps we can't recognise other (alien) examples of intelligence? Or more terrifyingly, that soon after a civilisation gains the ability to communicate through radio signals, it also gains the ability to destroy itself through, for example, nuclear weapons? In the search for alien life we must ask these questions of ourselves as - so far as we know - ours is the only example of intelligent, communicating, life..

STOCKTON, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Guardian Alliance Technologies Inc., developers of the award-winning Guardian background investigations software system, has announced the launch of "Guardian Alliance Investigations," further expanding its product and service offerings. Guardian Alliance Investigations recruits former law enforcement and firefighter personnel to conduct world-class, public safety background investigations in accordance with P.O.S.T. requirements utilizing the Guardian software system. The addition of Guardian Alliance Investigations makes Guardian Alliance Technologies Inc. a centralized hub for public safety organizations in need of California P.O.S.T.-mandated background investigations.

According to Guardian's President, Justin Biedinger, "The Guardian software system dramatically improves the background investigation process required during the hiring of law enforcement personnel; and with the addition of the investigations division, client agencies can now assign investigations to internal investigators or to a Guardian investigator depending upon their workload and needs."

Guardian Alliance Investigations is led by Director of Investigations Steven D. Ward, an 11-year public safety background investigator and licensed private investigator since 1986. Biedinger states, "Mr. Ward's years of specialized experience in the investigative space, attention to detail and organizational capabilities make him perfectly suited for the role."

Prior to joining Guardian, Steven D. Ward built a successful public safety investigations agency in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara counties. In addition to being an expert in public safety investigations, Steven has a Computer Forensics Certification through California State University, Fullerton. Ward's extensive private investigation experience is a natural fit with the Guardian Alliance team out of Stockton, California.

Guardian Alliance Investigations offers investigative services to public service institutions throughout the state of California, with regional investigators working to build relationships with clients and to understand each department's culture. Ward says, "Each department has its own culture. We will understand that culture and aim to vet and place personnel in positions of high trust who understand and can nurture, compliment and preserve those relationships." Currently, Guardian's software is available to any public service institution in the country and the company will eventually offer investigation services nationwide.

The law enforcement industry suffers greatly from the absence of a centralized investigation resource. Guardian believes their software system, in conjunction with Guardian Alliance Investigations, fills a vital void for all phases of the applicant-screening process. For law enforcement agencies that are using Guardian's software, whenever a thorough investigation is required for an applicant, a supervisor can now set up a new applicant and then assign that investigation to an internal investigator or to an investigator at Guardian Alliance Investigations while enjoying no disruption to their ability to monitor the work being done. This is completely unique to Guardian's offering and not available anywhere else in the industry.

Steven Ward sees the Guardian brand being instrumental to the future of the public safety background industry. "Guardian will revolutionize the way public safety backgrounds are assigned, worked and reported," Ward said. When asked what the biggest challenges are with the investigations process, Ward admitted: "There is no sharing of information about an applicant between agencies. One agency may not even be aware that an applicant has failed the background investigation for another agency. This has to stop, and for agencies using the Guardian system, it does." Ward further revealed: "Since there are 17 separate areas that background investigators are checking for each applicant, the sharing of information between agencies becomes essential to the integrity of the investigative process." With Guardian's two divisions operating as an industry resource for all aspects of the investigative process, the company believes it can shorten a typical, 60-day investigation cycle down to just four weeks - saving time and valuable resources that agencies can re-allocate for other, essential uses. Ward said, "Since multiple agencies are often competing for the same personnel, it's a race to get the applicant vetted timely, so they can be offered a conditional offer of employment. Guardian will help them win that race."

Utilizing its turnkey, cloud-based software-solution, Guardian enables many processes to be automated, allowing for the immediate sharing of an applicant's progress between the supervisor and the investigators. This keeps the integrity of the investigative process safely secured. Ward also envisions Guardian as becoming pivotal in raising the bar of excellence among background investigators everywhere. The technology and tools that Guardian offers create a standardized and customizable format which investigators can quickly implement to ensure the background investigations they perform meet all the state and department criteria and meet the highest standards for thoroughness and completeness.

This standardized checklist also holds investigators accountable, ensuring consistency, quality and accuracy as they perform their investigative work. With so much weighing on the vetting, hiring, training and eventual placement of qualified law enforcement personnel, it is essential that background investigations be done professionally, thoroughly and in an expert manner. Guardian created its software solution to expedite and organize this process, ultimately lending to better hiring processes and greater public safety. The Guardian software and investigative solution also help minimize the backlog of background investigations being performed by agencies that already have over-extended resources.

While Guardian hopes to cut down on the extensive time required for the investigative process, their objective is to continue raising the standard of a thoroughly conducted investigation. As the company seeks to upgrade the outdated processes that exist within the public safety background process, it pledges to work steadfastly to maintain the integrity and raise the standards of the industry.

Media Contact Information

Ryan Layne

Guardian Alliance Technologies, Inc

[email protected]

800.573.5950 Ext. 136

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SOURCE Guardian Alliance Technologies"We are thrilled to announce this strategy to deliver exceptional clinical expertise and to demonstrate a new model of high-quality, evidenced-based care,'' said Robert C. Garrett, Co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. "It continues our commitment to fully integrate behavioral health into our network for the benefit of our patients.''

The letter of intent starts the process to create a seamless system featuring 24-hour access to care ranging from outpatient, to urgent care, residential and inpatient care for mental health and addiction needs for adolescents and adults. A multi-disciplinary team of experts including primary care physicians, psychiatrists, and advanced practice nurses would closely coordinate all needs  addiction treatment, routine care, mental health issues - to provide optimal treatment.

"This plan will create exceptional, comprehensive care at a time of great need for expanded, enhanced, and innovative behavioral health services,'' said Donald J. Parker, president and CEO of Carrier Clinic.

In 2016, half of the increase in emergency room visits in New Jersey were related to patients' behavioral health issues. The state is facing an opioid epidemic that claimed more than 2,200 lives in 2016, a record high and 40 percent increase from the previous year. The joining of Hackensack Meridian Health and Carrier Clinic would also provide greater access and choice to New Jersey residents who often seek treatment out of state, away from their family and support network.

"The opioid crisis is unprecedented in its scope and intensity and this partnership would enhance our efforts to be part of the solution,'' said John K. Lloyd, Co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. "It would also deliver a team-based care approach to behavioral health patients who too often received fragmented care which doesn't yield the best outcomes.''

Edison-based Hackensack Meridian Health has 16 hospitals and more than 450 patient care locations and physician offices in eight counties. The network reaches two-thirds of the state population. It includes four hospitals ranked among the top 10 in New Jersey, including the No. 1 ranked Hackensack University Medical Center, according to U.S. News World & Report.

Hackensack Meridian Health has made major strides to advance behavioral health care in New Jersey. The network is adding 37 inpatient beds to its 150-bed capacity and maintains robust psychiatric outpatient services. Additionally, the network is starting two new psychiatry residency programs in July with 10 physicians kicking off the four-year program. A child psychiatry fellowship program is slated to start in 2020.

Carrier Clinic's home in Belle Mead is a 100-acre rural campus which provides short-term, acute care hospitalization for psychiatric illness and substance abuse for adolescents 12-18, and treatment for adults 18 and older. Carrier Clinic's campus includes a licensed 281-bed capacity hospital; the Blake Recovery Center, a licensed 40-bed inpatient and outpatient detox and recovery facility; East Mountain Youth Lodge, which can house up to 91 residents ages 13-18; and East Mountain School, a fully-accredited school for 120 7th-12th graders affected by behavioral and psychiatric disorders. Carrier Clinic has nearly 1,000 employees, including 26 members of the medical staff.

Carrier Clinic also has a nationally recognized electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) program, which is used to treat severe major depression or bipolar disorder that does not respond to other treatment. Last month, Carrier Clinic received the Outstanding Provider Award from the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies.

Additionally, with the opening this year of the Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in North Jersey, patients would have access to nationally recognized experts in psychiatry, behavioral health, integrative medicine and addictions medicine who are on the faculty of the medical school.

The letter of intent begins a process of due diligence and crafting a definitive agreement.

The combination of Carrier Clinic's behavioral health system together with Hackensack Meridian Health and the Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine would be a first in New Jersey. It also aligns the plan with national leaders in behavioral health which operate medical schools, hospital networks and psychiatric facilities. They include: Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital; the Menninger Clinic and Baylor University Department of Psychiatry as well as Columbia University/Cornell University NYP and New York-Presbyterian Westchester Division, all part of New York-Presbyterian.

About Carrier Clinic

Carrier Clinic, an independent, nonprofit behavioral health care system located in Belle Mead, NJ, specializes in psychiatric and addiction treatment. Carrier Clinic's system includes an inpatient psychiatric hospital, a detoxification and rehabilitation center, an adolescent residential facility, and a fully-accredited middle and high school for students classified as emotionally disturbed. For more information about Carrier Clinic, visit CarrierClinic.org.

About Hackensack Meridian Health

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care. Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 16 hospitals, including three academic medical centers, two children's hospitals and nine community hospitals, two rehabilitation hospitals, more than 450 patient care sites and physician offices. Hackensack Meridian Health has 33,000 team members, more than 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The Network's notable distinctions include having one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more consecutive years, four hospitals ranked among the top 10 in New Jersey, including Hackensack University Medical Center, the No. 1 hospital, Jersey Shore University Medical Center at No. 4 and Ocean and Riverview Medical Centers tied at No. 8., as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, a six-time recipient of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For," one of the "20 Best Workplaces in Health Care" in the nation, and the number one "Best Place to Work for Women." Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

SOURCE Hackensack Meridian Health; Carrier Clinic

Related Links

http://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/

SARANAC, Mich., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Herbruck's Poultry Ranch, the largest egg producer in Michigan, is proud to accept a 2018 U.S. Poultry & Egg Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award. The Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award recognizes exemplary environmental stewardship by family farmers engaged in poultry and egg production.

Herbruck's Poultry Ranch 2018 Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award

For decades, the Herbruck family of Michigan has produced and supplied farm-fresh eggs to major retailers and food service outlets, striving to deliver the most nutritious and high-quality product possible. The Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award recognizes the fourth-generation family-owned farm for its exemplary dedication towards environmental stewardship, due to the farm's environmental management techniques, including those unique to the Herbruck family's operations.

"Environmental responsibility is a core value of Herbruck's Poultry Ranch and stands at the heart of our business. We are truly honored to receive such a prestigious recognition from U.S. Poultry & Egg," said Greg Herbruck, president of Herbruck's Poultry Ranch. "From litter management to water conservation and beyond, many aspects of what we do are leading the poultry industry. It took a team effort to earn this recognition and we are immensely proud of this accomplishment."

Herbruck's Poultry Ranch has long been known in the U.S. egg industry as an innovative family farm, and this award highlights just a few of the practices Herbruck's uses to ensure a responsible environmental footprint. Herbruck's developed a technology that processes hen litter into organic fertilizer, on-site  a technique that isn't used anywhere else in the nation. This process drastically reduces odors and provides a nutrient-rich fertilizer for local farmers. Herbruck's also uses energy efficient equipment and methods at all facilities to reduce energy use. To ensure the farm is a good neighbor and strong steward of the air, land and water, Herbruck's strives to maintain strong partnerships with local and state officials and first responders.

In 1992, Herbruck's Poultry Ranch became a franchisee and distributor of Eggland's Best. Herbruck's produces all varieties of EB eggs, including classic, cage free, and organic. "At Eggland's Best, we are committed to producing the best egg possible for our consumers and their families. We ensure that we only work with the best producers in the U.S.," said Charlie Lanktree, President and CEO of Eggland's Best. "It's no surprise that the Herbruck family farm has received this highly prestigious award since their entire organization is committed to innovation and quality."

For more information on Herbruck's Poultry Ranch, visit www.herbrucks.com. For more information on Eggland's Best eggs, visit www.egglandsbest.com.

About Herbruck's Poultry Ranch

For decades, the Herbruck family of Michigan has been supplying farm-fresh eggs to major retailers and food service outlets. Today's business was founded by Harry and Marilyn Herbruck in Ionia County in 1958, and its roots stretch back to the late 1920s, when Harry Herbruck Sr. began an egg delivery company in another part of the state. The fourth-generation family farm employs more than 800 local Michigan workers. For more information, visit: www.herbrucks.com.

SOURCE Herbruck's Poultry Ranch

Related Links

http://www.herbrucks.com

CHICAGO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading global insurance brokerage, released the results of its third annual employee benefits study, Employee Benefits Barometer 2018: New Research Reveals the Business Value of Strategic Benefits Planning, which examines the complexities of managing benefits and the value of multi-year planning to better position human resources as business strategists to the executive suite.

This year's study of more than 300 employee benefits professionals from organizations with 50 to 1,000 employees, found that managing benefit costs remains employers' top benefit priority with 66% of respondents ranking it as a key 2018 concern. Additionally, respondents cited that the most effective cost-cutting strategies in 2017 included high deductible health plans, multiple plan options and telemedicine benefits.

However, while two-thirds of respondents say one of their 2018 goals is to better manage health benefits costs, 49% do not plan to implement any new cost management programs in the next 12 to 18 months. What's more, 54% believe they have done all they can reasonably do to control rising medical costs.

"With managing benefit costs ranking as the top priority, HR leaders need to surround themselves with advisors who can present more tailored insurance solutions that help reduce costs," said Mike Barone, President of Hub International's Employee Benefits practice. "There are many viable cost management benefit strategies for companies to explore but many are unaware of their options. Or worse, they don't have an advisor who can help them adapt solutions such as pharmacy benefits management carve outs, narrow networks, and reference-based pricing for their employee population and organizational needs."

Additional key insights from the study include the following.

HR executives still aren't embracing multi-year benefits planning : 66% of respondents say they spend less than a year developing their annual benefit plan changes making it difficult to plan cost cutting strategies that have a long-term impact.

66% of respondents say they spend less than a year developing their annual benefit plan changes making it difficult to plan cost cutting strategies that have a long-term impact. Few prioritize addressing the diverse benefit needs of a multi-generational workforce: Even though millennials are playing an increasingly important role in the workforce, just 20% of respondents identified this objective as a top priority, down from 28% last year.

Even though millennials are playing an increasingly important role in the workforce, just 20% of respondents identified this objective as a top priority, down from 28% last year. Technology investments face C-suite skepticism: 46% say technology upgrades would reduce their workload, but 34% report challenges convincing CEOs and CFOs to make such investments.

46% say technology upgrades would reduce their workload, but 34% report challenges convincing CEOs and CFOs to make such investments. Wellness can provide a morale boost: 51% say improved employee morale was the biggest benefit of newly implemented wellness programs followed by employee stress reduction and employee productivity at 32%.

Download the Employee Benefits Barometer 2018: New Research Reveals the Business Value of Strategic Benefits Planning to learn more.

About Hub International

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Hub International Limited (HUB) is a leading full-service global insurance broker providing property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services. From offices located throughout North America, HUB's vast network of specialists provides peace of mind on what matters most by protecting clients through unrelenting advocacy and tailored insurance solutions. For more information, please visit hubinternational.com.

CONTACT:

Media: Marni Gordon

Phone: 312-279-4601

[email protected]

SOURCE Hub International Limited

Related Links

http://www.hubinternational.com

PLACERVILLE, CA, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - iMD Companies, Inc. (OTC: ICBU) Board of Directors announced today that the company is in negotiations to acquire valuable mining claims, which have gold and precious metal findings that can be extracted and mined. The company is looking at several targets to acquire that fit within the business space of the company's operations. It is estimated that these claims have recoverable Gold and Precious Metal assets in the amount of 500 million to 1 billion dollars. The company is currently doing its due diligence on the claims to make sure everything is in order. Once claims are acquired the company will have a 43-101 report prepared on the claims. This will give the company and its shareholders an accurate report on the mineral resources and the economic value of the claims.

The mining claims have the precious metal family of Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium as well as other metals. The company believes that the current mining operations that it already owns as well as others that it will be closing on soon have the expertise to mine the claims and extract the precious metals. The company will complete a definitive agreement after due diligence process and will announce further developments as they are completed.

About iMD Companies, Inc. www.imdcompaniesinc.com

IMD Companies, Inc., (ICBU) is a Florida corporation, engaged in the manufacturing, extraction and distribution in mining and asset accumulation of revenue producing companies. The company is positioned to be a holding company for acquisitions in the mining industries. The company and the principals of the management team have extensive backgrounds in finance, manufacturing, marketing and distribution. ICBU's goal is to create and increase shareholder value by tactically growing our business while strategically seeking to acquire new business and create other business alliances, which generate increased revenues and earnings.

Safe Harbor Statement:

Certain statements made in this press release constitute forward-looking statements that are based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and the company does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements.

SOURCE IMD Companies, Inc.BOSTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Indigo Ag, Inc., a company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet, announces today the appointment of Ann Simonds, experienced consumer goods professional and former Chief Marketing Officer of General Mills, to its Board of Directors. With her deep expertise in marketing management, customer insight, consumer products, and integrated marketing, Simonds will strengthen the company's commercial growth and brand recognition. Coupled with her marketing expertise, Simonds has broad operating experience in wheat, cocoa, and sugar from her roles as President of Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Immaculate Baking.

"What drew me to Indigo was the team's desire to connect agricultural practices with consumer preferences," said Simonds. "I see significant potential in the company's model, dedicated to cultivating that connection. I look forward to helping Indigo establish the next frontier in the farm-to-table movement."

During her twenty-year career at General Mills, Ann Simonds served as President of Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, and Immaculate Baking, andmost recentlyas CMO. In this role, Simonds led the company's marketing function and marketing services organization, Gcom. Her leadership directly enabled philanthropic milestones, including the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories literacy program, the Stirring Up Wishes campaign for the Make a Wish Foundation, and Bake the Change, a Betty Crocker program that inspires people to make a difference in the world through baking. She also supervised General Mills community initiatives, including the United Way campaign and the Women's Forum. Simonds was closely involved with Partners in Food Solutions, an initiative started by General Mills to strengthen food security, improve nutrition, and increase economic development across Africa by expanding and increasing the competitiveness of the food processing sector. Before joining General Mills, Simonds spent five years in product management at Johnson & Johnson. She received her MBA at Harvard Business School. Currently, Simonds serves on the board of The Brand Lab and as the Chairman of the Board at the Hennepin Theater Trust.

"Ann brings extensive marketing and branding experience to our board," said Robert Berendes, Indigo's Chairman of the Board. "Her knowledge of both food and consumer goods will be invaluable as we drive towards our goal of creating a marketplace that responds to consumer demands for healthy, sustainable, and traceable food."

Along with Berendes, Simonds joins industry leaders David Perry, John Gehring, Peter Innes, Mehmood Khan, and Ignacio Martinez on Indigo's Board of Directors.

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 Lauren Ashbrook [email protected] + 1 (857) 443-9416 Kwittken for Indigo Margaret Manning [email protected] + 1 (646) 747-9390

SOURCE Indigo Ag, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.indigoag.com

FELTON, California, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Global ion-exchange resin market gains significance in the recent years and is also expected to continue enhancing in the forecast period. Generally, ion exchange resins are polymers that offer ability to exchange particular ions surrounded by the polymer with ions in a solution passed through them. This nature is also observed in several natural systems such as living cells and soils. Therefore, the use of synthetic resins is not confined only to water purification, but also in several other applications that include splitting out some elements. These exchanges happen without physical alteration to the ion exchange material. Ion exchangers are insoluble acids or bases having salts which are also insoluble and this enables them to exchange positive or negatively charged ions. Natural substances such as cellulose, proteins, living cells and soil particles display ion exchange properties that play a crucial role in functioning. Technically, resins are prepared as spherical beads ranging from 0.5 to 1mm in diameter. These elements appear solid under microscopic inspection.

On the contrary, the molecular structure is relatively open which means that a solution is passed down a resin bed that can flow through the cross-linked polymer that can bring it into closer contact with ion exchange sites. Therefore, globally the market is projected to reach at a higher CAGR in the forecast period since factors such as urbanization and increasing prosperity in APAC regions and rising demand for nuclear energy. Ion-exchange resin market is driven by factors such as water softening and demineralizing applications in water treatment, nuclear and chemical plants. Additionally, R&D departments of various companies conduct research on the rising number of applications of ion exchange resin market.

Browse 119 page research report with TOC on "Global Ion-exchange Resin Market" at: https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/ion-exchange-resin-market

Ion-exchange resin industry is segmented into cationic resins, anionic resins, chelation resins and adsorbent resins. Chelation resins and adsorbent resins are expected to rise at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Cationic resins are expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. Based on end-use industry, the ion-exchange resin market is segmented into water treatment, power, food & beverages, pharmaceutical and chemicals. Power segment constituted a significant position in the market during the forecast period. Pharmaceutical segment is anticipated to rise at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.

Ion-exchange resin industry geographically spans North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle-East & Africa. APAC regions such as India, China and South Korea are the fertile markets contributing to the growth of ion-exchange resin market. The ion-exchange resin market in North America and Europe is anticipated to grow at a sluggish CAGR in the forecast period. The key players in the ion-exchange resin industry include The Dow Chemical Company, BASF SE, Purolite Inc, Evoqua Water Technologies LLC, Lanxess AG, Ion Exchange Ltd, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Finex Oy, Lanxess, and Thermax Limited.

Browse reports of similar category available with Million Insights:

Global Ion-exchange Resin Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022)

 North America

 Europe

 China

 Japan

 Southeast Asia

 India

Global Ion-exchange Resin Key Players Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022)

 Dow Chemical

 Lanxess

 Purolite

 Mitsubishi Chemical

 ResinTech

 Ion Exchange

Global Ion-exchange Resin Product Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022)

 Cation Exchange Resin

 Anion Exchange Resin

Global Ion-exchange Resin Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Billion, 2012 - 2022)

 Water treatment

 Food industry

 Production of High Purity Water

 Other

About Million Insights:

Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying, is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive.

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SOURCE Million InsightsNEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading multi-label bridal house, JLM Couture Inc. filed a civil lawsuit (Civil Action no. 18CV 1655) in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York against 90 sellers of counterfeit wedding dresses. The Court recently granted JLM's request for a temporary restraining order against such counterfeit sellers, which requires that the sellers' storefronts and financial accounts be frozen.

Customers and authorized retailers alerted JLM about third-party sellers pawning off counterfeit dresses on online marketplace websites. The company notes that approximately 70 of the counterfeit dresses were knockoff versions of dresses from the Hayley Paige division of JLM Couture, including the Blush by Hayley Paige and Jim Hjelm collections, as well as the Tara Keely and Alvina Valenta collections, all under JLM Couture.

Joseph L. Murphy, president and CEO of JLM Couture said, "We are encouraged that our legal efforts, along with the vigilance of our retailers, both domestically and internationally, has led to the exposure and disruption of this theft." He said, "JLM will continue to invest in protecting its brands against counterfeiters."

To validate authenticity of a JLM product or report counterfeits, JLM Couture encourages all brides and retailers to email [email protected] or call customer support at 1-800-924-6475. To verify whether a website is an authorized retailer, please contact 1-800-686-7880.

About JLM Couture

JLM Couture, Inc. is a multi-label bridal house engaged in the design, manufacture, and distribution of bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses. The company's bridal gown collections are Allison Webb, Hayley Paige, Blush by Hayley Paige, Lazaro, Tara Keely, Ti Adora by Allison Webb, La Petite Hayley Paige as well as Hayley Paige Occasions. JLM is traded over the counter.

SOURCE JLM Couture, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.jlmcouture.com

PORT VILA, Vanuatu, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Juno Markets is proud to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website and the addition a new trading tool for clients, Juno's Real Time Forex Signals.

The new website is the first step taken by the company to shift its image beyond Asia where it has established a strong footprint over the past 3 years and create a more global reach. The website aims to portray a more personal look and feel with actual photos taken its offices and portraying key members at work. "We have always prided ourselves on the personal level of service we provide our clients and we wanted to create a website that reflects this," says Juno's Marketing Manager, Jun Qiu. "At the same time, our goal was to deliver an easy to navigate site with the same client functions and accessibility available on a mobile phone as on desktop."

In continuing to expand globally, clients can expect to see additional languages being supported through the expansion of new offices and key partnerships. "We have always believed in being local, and that means providing customer service in languages and local payment methods that our clients are used to," says Arthur Le, CEO of Juno Markets. "We will only expand to countries when we are confident that our clients can receive the service they expect."

"In addition to the new website, Juno Markets has partnered with leading technical analysis provider, Recognia, to deliver its clients with free Real Time Forex Signals. All clients of Juno Markets will have access to live intraday trade ideas based on proven pattern recognition systems. Users gain access to easy to read, unbiased trade ideas based on technical patterns. "We have always believed the key to keeping clients happy and trading is by providing them with additional tools and resources that assist them with their own ideas," added Mr. Le. "We believe these signals, along with our daily technical newsletter, will be of tremendous value for our clients." To access the Real Time Forex Signals, clients simply need to have a live account and login to their Trader's Room.

About Juno Markets

Juno Markets is a leading online forex and CFDs trading service provider. Starting in Asia Pacific, the firm was established by industry veterans who believe in bringing an exceptional trading experience to traders through use of the latest technology and localized support and services. Juno Markets aims to become the premier broker for both clients and IBs through low cost spreads, reliable execution, and unique trading resources. For more information on the Company, its products and services, please visit here.

Media contact:

Jun Qiu

[email protected]

+852 36185857

SOURCE Juno Markets

Related Links

https://www.junomarkets.com

The Weekapaug Inn hosts a full day of British-inspired events to celebrate the marriage of Prince Harry of Wales KCVO, and American actress and humanitarian Meghan Markle. The Weekapaug Inn and its British born Innkeeper, Simon Piers Dewar, look forward to offering a unique and memorable experience for royal watchers of all stripes, complete with British pomp and circumstance and an elegant and festive setting.

Live Wedding Viewing and Exquisite British Breakfast:

Guests are cordially invited to wear their most regal attire to watch a live stream of the wedding unfold, View the magical event while feasting on a traditional English breakfast including Lincolnshire sausage and Back bacon. Toast to the happy couple with a glass of Bucks Fizz, a classic British champagne cocktail. Breakfast begins at $65 per person, plus tax & gratuity. Seatings in The Restaurant begin at 6 am , in time to watch the event live at 7 am ET ( 11 am in the UK). Wake up calls available for in-house guests upon request.

A Royal Tea "Par-tea:"

Nothing says "royal" quite like an afternoon of authentic Afternoon tea. Highlights of the day will be shown on screen, while guests enjoy tea, tea sandwiches, savory scones with clotted cream and jam, "Fat Rascals" (a Yorkshire classic), custard tarts, and traditional wedding cake and cheddar cheese. Champagne will be available for purchase by the glass or bottle. As a special gift, Weekapaug Inn will give each attendee a traditional (individual) English fruit wedding cake with marzipan and Royal icing. Afternoon tea begins at $24 per person, plus tax & gratuity. Seatings in The SeaRoom and lobby from 3:30  5:00 pm .

Let Them Eat Cake  A Royal Evening Dinner

In the third and final event of the day, the Weekapaug Inn will host The Royal Evening Dinner. The dinner will feature the traditional English "Wedding Breakfast," a dinner given in honor of the bride and groom at the wedding reception. Menu will include traditional favorites such as beef wellington and Eton Mess , consisting of a mixture of strawberries, broken meringue, and whipped heavy cream. Dinner begins at $24 per person, plus tax & gratuity. Seatings in The Restaurant from 6:00  9:00 pm .

Book a Royal Stay at the Weekapaug Inn

Guests who wish to participate in all celebrations have the opportunity to stay at the Weekapaug Inn for the weekend. Travelers are encouraged to avoid early morning or late evening travel and enjoy the full lineup of weekend celebrations, while also experiencing thoughtful amenities and world-class hospitality provided by the Inn. Reservations can be made by calling 855-679-2995.

"As a former British army major, and an alumni of Sandhurst, the prestigious Royal Military Academy where both Prince Harry and William attended, it brings me great pleasure to offer these Royal celebration moments to our guests," said Dewar, Innkeeper and General Manager of Weekapaug Inn. "Weekapaug Inn will be 'the place' to watch the Royal Wedding proceedings, complete with traditional English food, flare and many quintessential British customs."

Throughout the day, Weekapaug Inn bell valet staff will be outfitted in the traditional red tunic and tall black bearskin headpiece of the castle guards, and Major Dewar will don the traditional English Morning Suit. Guests are encouraged to dress for the occasion in wedding attire and/or traditional British attire and hats.

In addition to indoor events, Naturalist (aka Captain) Mark Bullinger, who oversees the Inn's watercraft, will offer cruises on the pond aboard the hotel's classic launch. "We will have her dressed to the nines in British bunting, and for the day we will dub her the HMS Quonnie Queen," says Bullinger. "Being on the coast of New England, the Inn will be an ideal locale to feel connected to the British Isles."

All events are open to the public as well as hotel guests. See this YouTube segment for an overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8UHoPnlf5A. #RoyalWedding details are available at WeekapaugInnEvents.com or by calling (877) 258-0324. Visit Weekapaug Inn on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates.

About Weekapaug Inn

Weekapaug Inn is one of New England's best resorts and is a member of Relais & Chateaux, a group of leading properties around the world. Originally built in 1899 and reopened in 2012, the Inn is located in the scenic community of Weekapaug, Rhode Island. Guests enjoy sweeping views of Quonochontaug Pond and the Atlantic Ocean from the Inn's 31 guest rooms, including four two-bedroom Signature Suites. Amenities include farm-to-table fine and casual dining, a fitness center and outdoor pool, indoor and outdoor boutique event and meeting space, boating and access to a private community beach. The property's dedicated on-staff Naturalist helps guests discover and engage with the flora and fauna of their surroundings, via guided beach walks, boating excursions, biking, bird watching, stargazing, and more. As part of the Ocean House Management Collection, guests can enjoy the amenities and activities of both Weekapaug and the fifteen-star Ocean House, making the Weekapaug Inn ideal for business retreats, family vacations and weekend escapes. For more information, visit www.weekapauginn.com.

SOURCE Ocean House Management CollectionWALTHAM, Mass., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lionbridge Technologies, Inc., the world's most trusted translation and digital communications company, today announced its support of the Rising Star Scholarship at the Globalization and Localization Association's (GALA) Language of Business Conference being held March 13 to 16, 2018, which awards two translation students with free registration to GALA's 2018 Language of Business Conference in Boston, MA, and a travel stipend to attend.

GALA's 10th Annual Language of Business Conference connects translation and localization industry professionals from around the globe who represent diverse companies, sectors and specialties. Recipients of the Rising Star Scholarship will be honored during the conference at a ceremony on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. ET. In addition to the scholarship and event ceremony, Lionbridge will also welcome both award recipients to the company headquarters in Waltham, MA, for a tour and face-to-face meetings with the team to allow them to experience a "day-in-the-life" of a translation professional.

The selected recipients of the Rising Star Scholarships include Laura Linares from University College Cork in Ireland and Ana Lucia Lopez Mendoza from Universidad Intercontinental in Mexico. Both Linares and Lopez submitted thoughtful essays in response to a prompt around the impact of new media, such as video localization and eLearning, on translation tasks and methods.

"The translation community is key to Lionbrige as together we serve as the bridge between people, brands and information and provides an invaluable service to both organizations around the world," said Tracey Feick, VP, Global Operations and Shared Services at Lionbridge. "Lionbridge is committed to supporting the translation community in nurturing the talented professionals with whom we work today and into the future. University translation programs help to shape the future professionals we partner with to delight our clients at every interaction and we are honored to support emerging stars alongside GALA."

"The translator community is the very heart of our brand and business and both Rising Star Scholarship recipients exemplify what we value in our translation partners," said Ana Sanchez, Director of World Wide Vendor Management, Americas, at Lionbridge. "The recipients of this distinguished accolade provided thoughtful commentary on the future of translation and localization that exhibited an awareness of the unique relationship between the rapid pace of technology and its impact on both the spoken and written word. We are thrilled to help recognize these two emerging talents within the translation community."

"We are honored to have Lionbridge's support as the 2018 Rising Star sponsors," said Laura Brandon, Executive Director, GALA. "The Rising Star Scholarship was created to encourage students from localization, translation, and interpretation programs with a full registration to attend GALA's annual conference. Lionbridge's support is helping to provide an opportunity for future localization professionals to learn more about the language industry, current trends and concerns, and meet localization professionals."

About Lionbridge

Lionbridge enables more than 4,500 of the world's leading brands to increase global market share and drive deep engagement with their customers and communities. Our innovative cloud technology platforms and our global crowd of more than 400,000 professional cloud workers, provide detail-critical business processes, including translation, online marketing, global content management and application testing solutions, which ensure global brand consistency, local relevancy and technical usability across all touch points of the customer lifecycle. Based in Waltham, Mass., Lionbridge maintains solution centres in 27 countries. To learn more, visit www.lionbridge.com.

Media Contact:

Lauren Palazzo

Text100

[email protected]

+1-617-399-4909

SOURCE Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lionbridge.com

NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- "Little x Little," a global movement led by Generation Z to fix the future, officially launched today, setting an audacious goal of inspiring 2 billion acts of good by 2030 in support of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. To kick-start the campaign, a global roster of influencers will share their stories, content and actions on YouTube and other social platforms, including Yara Shahidi, Adebola Williams, Gemma Stafford, Marissa Rachel, Khushi Maheshwari, Roxy Rocks, Jessica Dante and Jillian Mercado, issuing a call to action empowering young people everywhere to save the world, little by little. At launch, their voices will be amplified by creators in the U.S., U.K., India and Nigeria as the movement goes global. View the "Little x Little anthem video.

An estimated 70% of Gen Z (15-24) believe they can make a difference through the choices they make and the actions they take.1 Wielding the power of social and digital platforms, "Little x Little" provides a platform to show the substantial impact of their actions against the global goals that have the power to end poverty, fight inequality, stop climate change and much more.

"Little x Little is unleashing the strength and number of 2 billion young people to save the world," said model, activist and face of the campaign's anthem video, Jillian Mercado. "Every day, young people are already pitching in and providing solutions to the world's biggest problems but they just don't know it. This initiative connects these many disparate acts into one massive movement for good and I think we're all going to be amazed by the wave of change we will create from doing the little things, over and over again."

In just two weeks since its launch on YouTube, the "Little x Little" anthem video has already garnered more than 15 million views and inspired creators worldwide to share their actions using #LittlexLittle. In a video also shared on YouTube, Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, also made a direct call to action supporting "Little x Little." View here.

"As the most connected generation ever, Gen Z are not bystanders to the big challenges the world faces today and "Little x Little" helps frame the global goals in a way that can be localized, personalized, and most importantly, realized," said Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Youth Envoy. "Gen Z represent a global generation of influencers, innovators and independent thinkers and if everyone gave just a micro moment or more, we could create a massive movement."

The movement is open to everyone:

Find the goals that support the causes you care about. Take action. Do something  take a picture, make a video, draw a poster  whatever your heart desires. Get creative. Share it. Tag it #LittlexLittle. Do it over, again and again.

This is just the first phase of the "Little x Little" initiative. Building on UN, Common Ground and Google assets, the campaign will engage third-party brands, academia and community partners to further localize and activate Little by Little actions across the globe.

The campaign has been developed by a coalition of agencies from across all Common Ground members in partnership with Google. PR for the campaign launch is being managed by Ogilvy.

To learn more about the global goals and see how young people everywhere are making a big difference with little acts, please visit: www.littlexlittle.com

About Little x Little

Rooted in the truth that exponential change can be made possible by little acts, "Little x Little" is a global movement led by Generation Z  history's largest generation of young people  to fix the future. Taking a bite-sized approach to solving the world's biggest problems, "Little x Little" aims to inspire 2 billion acts of good by 2030 in support of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations and world leaders in January 2016 to end poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change. Building a better world will require everyone's efforts  not the big, grand, impossible things past generations have done but the little things, over and over again. "Little x Little" is under the banner of Common Ground  the initiative by the world's six largest advertising groups to support the global goals. Common Ground's six founding members, Dentsu, Havas, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP alongside Wieden + Kennedy  with the financial, creative and logistical support of Google  came together under the banner 'The Common Futures Project' to conceptualize "Little x Little." Learn more about the global goals and see how young people everywhere are making a big difference with little acts at www.littlexlittle.com

About the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development:

In September 2015, UN Member States unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, focused on the three interconnected elements of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. With 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, the Agenda is universal, integrated and transformative and aims to spur actions that will end poverty, reduce inequality and tackle climate change between now and 2030. www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment

Media Contact:

Jennifer Risi

Ogilvy

[email protected]

+1 646-240-6297

1 Sources: *2017 Global Download on Centennials, Kantar Futures, October 30, 201; **Defy Media Acumen Survey, March 2017

SOURCE OgilvySPOKANE, Wash., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aspiring chefs and restaurateurs from Newport High School found vindication this year as they swept both the culinary and management competitions at the ProStart Invitational on March 10 in Spokane, Wash., hosted by The Washington Hospitality Association Education Foundation.

Newport high's teams did not place in the 2017 ProStart competition, but this year they're both headed to Providence, Rhode Island, for the national contest.

The Newport culinary team won with a crispy soft-shell crab appetizer, a Takamori chicken and pork ramen main course, and a molten lava cake with black tea ice cream, brown butter, a sesame tuile and Brule oranges for dessert.

The school's management team came up with a winning plan to open a ramen house.

ProStart is a nationwide, two-year high school program that unites the classroom and industry to develop the best and brightest talent into tomorrow's restaurant and foodservice leaders. In Washington state, the program serves more than 1,500 students per year. After completing the program, students receive a certificate of achievement they can present to potential employers when they enter the labor force.

"ProStart students provide a solution for the labor shortage many restaurateurs are experiencing as unemployment remains below 4 percent in King County," said Bob Cramer, general manager of Daniel's Broiler in Bellevue, Wash., and board member of the Washington Hospitality Association Education Foundation.

Through the ProStart program, high school students learn about the culinary arts: flavor profiles, presentation, storage practices, nutrition, business math and the importance of workplace and food safety.

"These students work hard to hone their skills and learn about our industry," Cramer said. "They come out of the program with experience that makes them not only immediately employable but also poised to climb the ranks in the hospitality industry."

The winners at the 2018 Washington state competition are:

Culinary:

Newport High School ( Bellevue, Wash. ), first place

), first place Kentlake High School ( Kent, Wash. ), second place

), second place Bonney Lake High School ( Bonney Lake, Wash. ), third place

Management:

Newport High School, first place

Bonney Lake High School, second place

Ferris High School ( Spokane, Wash. ), third place

Educator of Excellence:

Kahale Ahina, Bonney Lake

Mentor of Excellence:

Dan Corekin, Bonney Lake

Student of Excellence:

Derek Tran, Rogers High School (Spokane, Wash.)

Derek Tran said the training he is getting from ProStart is teaching him what he needs to know about being a chef. He took some time out after cooking to talk with us about his future.

For more information, visit the Washington Hospitality Association website

About the Washington Hospitality Association

The Washington Hospitality Association is a member-based organization that works at the state and local levels to find proactive solutions to the challenging issues facing the industry and its workforce. It provides its members with programs, services and the information they need to deliver great local experiences, ensure the success of their employees and help their communities thrive. The Washington Hospitality Association became one of the state's largest trade associations in 2016 when the Washington Restaurant Association and Washington Lodging Association joined forces in a combined association.

About Washington's Hospitality Industry

Hospitality is the industry that serves. It represents the largest group of private employers in the state, and the jobs the industry provides are the backbone of the state's economy. Local restaurants and hotels employ more than 280,000 Washingtonians and each year, the hospitality industry generates more than $1.1 billion in state sales and Business & Occupation taxes.

MEDIA CONTACT: Lisa Leinberger, Local Communications Manager, 509-475-2162, [email protected]

SOURCE Washington Hospitality AssociationSTAINES-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK), a leading specialty pharmaceutical company, announced today it has been recognized as a Frost & Sullivan Manufacturing Leadership Award winner for its outstanding achievement in three categories  Operational Excellence Leadership, Supply Chain Leadership and Sustainability Leadership.

The company's Hobart, N.Y., manufacturing site earned all three awards through its highly successful implementation of key two-year initiatives designed to enhance multiple aspects of its manufacturing operations. These projects included:

Operational Excellence: The management team set the goal to become the agile supplier of choice while engaging employees in a culture focused on serving customers through sustainable delivery of high quality products. They developed a forward-looking strategy, identifying areas for improvement and taking strong actions to ensure the established objectives were met.

The management team set the goal to become the agile supplier of choice while engaging employees in a culture focused on serving customers through sustainable delivery of high quality products. They developed a forward-looking strategy, identifying areas for improvement and taking strong actions to ensure the established objectives were met. Supply Chain: Working collaboratively across the plant, as well as with commercial and other support functions, and benefiting from operational changes, the team implemented process modifications in inventory forecasting and scheduling. These resulted in value-added customer service and more effective cost management.

Working collaboratively across the plant, as well as with commercial and other support functions, and benefiting from operational changes, the team implemented process modifications in inventory forecasting and scheduling. These resulted in value-added customer service and more effective cost management. Sustainability: The Hobart leadership team manages sustainability through a site-wide governance process to ensure they are thoroughly embracing manufacturing processes that are non-polluting, conserve energy and natural resources, and are economically sound and safe for employees, communities, and consumers.

"We are very pleased our Hobart site has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council for manufacturing excellence in not just one but three categories," said Dr. Frank Scholz, Executive Vice President, Global Operations and President, Specialty Generics for Mallinckrodt. "The team has worked hard these past few years to enhance processes and outcomes at the site, and we are proud of the employees' efforts to ensure we are a supplier of choice when it comes to these important products."

Mallinckrodt will be recognized at the 14th Annual Manufacturing Leadership Awards Gala, which is to be held on the last day of the Manufacturing Leadership Summit, June 11-13, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, Calif.

About Mallinckrodt

Mallinckrodt is a global business that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. Areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; analgesics and gastrointestinal products. The company's core strengths include the acquisition and management of highly regulated raw materials and specialized chemistry, formulation and manufacturing capabilities. The company's Specialty Brands segment includes branded medicines and its Specialty Generics segment includes specialty generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and external manufacturing. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com.

Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website.

About the Frost & Sullivan Manufacturing Leadership Awards

The Manufacturing Leadership Awards, now in their 14th year, honor manufacturing companies and individual manufacturing leaders that are shaping the future of global manufacturing. Winning projects and individual manufacturing leaders have demonstrated achievement in one of a wide range of categories, and are chosen by a panel of expert judges for results that have delivered clear and compelling value, return on investment, and other tangible outcomes. There will be several winners in each category, including one High Achiever's Award in each category, as well as a 2018 Manufacturer of the Year for both small and large enterprises. Also unveiled at the Gala will be the ML Awards Manufacturing Leader of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award winners.

The theme for the 14th Annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit is "Accelerating the Transformation to Manufacturing 4.0." The event enables senior-level executives in all aspects of manufacturing an opportunity to network with and learn from the best minds in the industry.

For more information on the Manufacturing Leadership Awards or the Manufacturing Leadership Summit, please go to www.mlsummit.com.

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.

Frost & Sullivan's "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.

The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to their clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.

provides support to their clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation. The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes their 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as their global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, Frost & Sullivan has been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. http://www.frost.com.

CONTACTS

Investor Relations

Daniel J. Speciale, CPA

Investor Relations and Strategy Officer

314-654-3638

[email protected]

Media

Rhonda Sciarra

Senior Communications Manager

314-654-8618

[email protected]

Meredith Fischer

Chief Public Affairs Officer

314-654-3318

[email protected]

SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc

Related Links

http://www.mallinckrodt.com

KELOWNA, BC, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Marapharm Ventures Inc. (CSE: MDM) (OTXQX: MRPHF) (FSE: 2M0) ("Marapharm" or the "Company") announces that the final plans for the Company's first cultivation facility in Desert Hot Springs, California are complete and ready for submission to the City.

The Company engaged MSA Consulting Inc. (www.msaconsultinginc.com) a premier Civil Engineering, Planning and Surveying firm. They collaborated with our Director of Operations to design and execute the fully engineered architectural plans, in preparation for the final Local Planning Department approval. This will allow the Company to "break ground" in early August 2018.

The project is approved with a Conditional Use Permit for cannabis cultivation, processing and extraction. The first floor will include 9,175 sq.ft. of indoor grow, 2,036 sq.ft of processing/extraction and 1,391 sq.ft. of office space. The second floor with include 12,782 sq.ft of indoor grow. The total cultivation space of this facility is 21, 957 sq.ft.

Marapharm will use "rolling greenhouse tables" to eliminate the need for dedicated aisles. This will allow us to maximize our canopy space and produce approximately 9,000 pounds of flower annually, plus ancillary products from the processing facility.

The 720 High-intensity discharge lights (HID) will be supplied by Solis Tek Digital Lighting www.solis-tek.com, an industry leader focused on the research, design, development and manufacturing of advanced & efficient lighting products.

We have selected PRIVA to provide irrigation and disinfection systems to be installed in both our Washington and California facilities. PRIVA, is based in Holland and is the world leader in Horticultural design, automation and control. It will deliver an irrigation and disinfection system that allows for automation of nutrient delivery and a 98% capture of all water in the facility for re-use, including irrigation run-off and condensate water from all HVAC equipment.

ABOUT MARAPHARM VENTURES INC.

www.marapharm.com

Marapharm is a publicly traded company investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, since 2014. Marapharm has rapidly expanded to include having cultivation, production and dispensary locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California, and are seeking expansion opportunities worldwide.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/marapharm

Twitter: twitter.com/marapharm

Web Program: marapharm.tv

STOCK EXCHANGES:

Marapharm trades in Canada, ticker symbol MDM on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol MRPHF on the OTCQB, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2Mo on the FSE. Marapharm also trades on other recognized platforms in Europe including Stuttgart, Tradegate, L & S, Quotnx, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Berlin.

Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT:

Canadian listings (CSE) will remain in good standing as long as they provide the disclosure that is rightly required by regulators and complying with applicable licensing requirements and the regulatory framework enacted by the applicable state in which they operate.

Marapharm owns marijuana licenses in California and Nevada. Marijuana is legal in each state however marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and the approach to enforcement of US federal law against marijuana is subject to change. Shareholders and investors need to be aware that adverse enforcement actions could affect their investments and that Marapharm's ability to access private and public capital could be affected and or could not be available to support continuing operations. Marapharm's business is conducted in a manner consistent with state law and is in compliance with licensing requirements.

Copies of licenses are posted on Marapharm's website. Marapharm has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US.

FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward- looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward- looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.

Related Links

www.marapharm.com

Georgia About to Adopt the Resolution on Tatunashvilis Case

By Vladimer Napetvaridze

Chairman of the Faction "Georgian Dream" Mamuka Mdinaradze talked about details of elaboration of resolution on Archil Tatunashvili's case. According to him, to achieve an agreement between all parties involved in the discussion, the consultation on the draft of resolution continues:"We continue consultations, as you know, these consultations were intensive during the last days. It includes technical and legal details that require solution and response. Therefore, it may take several days to absorb the final version. The resolution will be strict, and it will reflect the practical approach of the Georgian government and the Parliament, in regard to the de-occupation tasks stated Mdinaradze.Another representative of the majority, Gia Volski, expressed his doubts about the possibility of achieving the agreement to the text of the resolution between the government and the opposition: The text should express our position and it should be result-oriented. This resolution must express a position not only on this specific topic. Thus, we are still trying to agree on the text of the resolution, but I am skeptical of this issue",- stated Volski.The MP also emphasized the international importance of the resolution and noted that Russia's aggressive politics towards Georgia is caused by global geopolitical processes and therefore all steps taken by Georgia should be cautious and reasonable: "The reality is that we are in rather tense and explosive situation, and this situation in Georgia is the part of an ongoing international political controversy. We should evaluate it and define the reasonable approach. I think the government has the right position and the strategy on the issue,"stated Volski.The resolution is following: a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or another group. Once a group makes a decision, they can pass formal expression with a resolution. Due to the international importance of Tatunashvili's case, any action which will be taken by the Georgian government in regard to this issue will attract a particular attention. Consequently, the resolution, which will be adopted in a few days by the Georgian government, will have great importance as it will be an official document, in which will be shown Georgia's position on such issues as occupation problem, the role of Russia in this process, attitude to breakaway government of Tskhinvali, etc.In the process of adopting such a crucial document ofinternational importance, government and opposition need to achieve consensus on the text of the resolution, in order to show to the international community that the country has a common position on such principle issues such as the one of occupied territories.Resolutions adopted by the Parliament of Georgia are the documents expressing the country's foreign policy:Resolution of the Parliament of Georgia on the Foreign Policy of Georgia- the document, in which Georgias European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations are expressed.2016 - Resolution about addressing the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Council and the Office of the Foreign Relations of the European Union - Document expressing the gratitude of Georgia, for EU support.2016 - Resolution on "release of ex-member of Ukrainian Rada- Nadia Savchenko's from unlawful imprisonment - document condemning Russia for imprisonment of the Ukrainian citizen;2014 -The Resolution of the Parliament on Situation in Ukraine- supporting the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine.LOS ANGELES, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Marley Kitchen and Chef'd, America's first and only online meal kit marketplace, today announced a collaboration that gives consumers the opportunity to create family favorite recipes of the Marley's right at home. Through this co-branded initiative, consumers are able to browse and order from a collection of fresh, Caribbean-inspired recipes created by four members of the beloved family  Rita, Cedella, Ziggy, and Rohan. Through its flexible fulfillment and delivery capabilities, Chef'd will provide customers with the recipes and pre-portioned, fresh and ready-to-cook ingredients within 24-48 hours of their order.

"We grew up celebrating and paying homage to our family's Jamaican roots  both through music and through food," said Ziggy Marley, Grammy Award-winning musician, cookbook author and eldest son of Bob and Rita Marley. "This collection of recipes gives everyone the chance to enjoy the bright, delicious flavors of our culture that nourish both the body and the soul."

Available now with additional meals launching throughout the year, the Marley Kitchen recipes offered through www.Chef'd.com emphasize whole ingredients and bold island flavors, including:

Rita Marley's recipes feature plant-based dishes for holistic clean living

recipes feature plant-based dishes for holistic clean living Pumpkin Chili



Kale Bake



Mango Granola

Cedella's recipes inspired by her cookbook, Cooking with Herb: 75 Recipes for the Marley Natural Lifestyle ( Avery Books ), celebrate the Marley natural lifestyle, and are 100 percent vegetarian

( ), celebrate the Marley natural lifestyle, and are 100 percent vegetarian Callaloo and Smoky Gouda Fried Dumpling



Jerk Tofu Tacos with Black Bean Mango Salsa



Guava Cream Cheese Stuffed Banana Muffins

Ziggy's recipes, inspired by Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook (Akashic Books), are designed to nourish and are predominantly vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free

(Akashic Books), are designed to nourish and are predominantly vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free Brown Rice and Salmon Bowl



Roasted Yam Tart with Summer Quinoa Salad



Coconut Dream Fish with Jamaican Rice and Peas

Rohan's recipes, inspired by The Marley Coffee Cookbook: One Love , Many Coffees & 100 Recipes (Quarry Books) , feature a coffee spice blend from Marley Coffee

(Quarry Books) feature a coffee spice blend from Marley Coffee Coconut-Almond-Crusted French Toast with Coffee and Rum Whipped Cream



Lentil and White Bean Burgers flavored with Marley Coffee Spice Blend and Roasted Root Vegetables



Coconut Curry Root Vegetable Stew with a Coffee Broth

"At Chef'd, we are committed to providing consumers with high-quality, distinctively delicious meal experiences created with fresh, whole ingredients," said Kyle Ransford, founder and CEO of Chef'd. "Marley Kitchen embodies that wholesome, natural way of eating, and we look forward to giving Marley fans a convenient way to experience the flavors of the family's vibrant, storied heritage without even having to leave home."

Since launching in 2015, Chef'd is widely regarded as having revolutionized the meal kit category through the company's level of choice, re-ordering flexibility, and cost savings. Chef'd offers customers the unique ability to shop from a selection of more than 1,600 meals at any time without the hassle of membership or subscription fees. The company, which has partnered with established chefs, notable culinary personalities and trusted organizations, further sets itself apart through the ability to fulfill fresh ingredients direct to consumers on a national basis for major brands and offers its meal solutions both via ecommerce and at retail locations nationwide.

About Chef'd

Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Chef'd is an e-commerce meal marketplace that partners with celebrated chefs, media outlets and culinary influencers to offer thousands of meal solutions that make it easy for anyone to cook high-quality meals at home. Launched in late April 2015, Chef'd was created to help consumers rethink the home-cooked meal by offering fresh, pre-portioned ingredients that aim to eliminate food waste and in turn cut consumer grocery costs, all without the hassle of subscription or membership fees. This allows consumers to personalize their orders and reorder their favorites whenever they want. Follow on Twitter @get_chefd and Instagram @Chefd.

About Marley Kitchen

The Marley brand honors the timeless values of Bob Marley by uniting people around the world under the banner of One Love. Through Marley Kitchen we seek to share the soul and spirit of the Caribbean  a melting pot of cultures, ethnicities, and flavors.

SOURCE ChefdBOISE, Idaho, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ClickBank, a global internet retailer and one of Idaho's largest privately-owned technology companies, announced the appointment of Megan Mann as Director, General Manager of ClickBank University. Mann, ClickBank's former Director of Marketing, brings an extensive background of online marketing, business development, sales, and customer service expertise to the program.

"Megan has been instrumental to the success of ClickBank University since it launched in 2014," said Kevin Strawbridge, CEO of ClickBank. "Her years of experience at ClickBank combined with her comprehensive knowledge of the ClickBank University program and its member's needs is going to result in empowering new and current members to reach their goals while expanding the courses' worldwide reach. In addition, we enjoy the opportunity to promote another woman leader to the senior leadership team within ClickBank to truly reflect the balance and diversity of our company."

As the General Manager, Mann continues ClickBank's partnership with instructors Justin Atlan, Adam Horwitz and team to consistently fill the online course and other content channels with dependable, reliable and trustworthy business building strategies. With the help of team member Milana Kalimullova, Mann, Atlan, and Horwitz recently released ClickBank University TV, a YouTube Channel focused on bringing free ClickBank University content to the masses.

"I am beyond honored to be the General Manager of ClickBank University," said Mann. "I am extremely passionate about helping people build sustainable online businesses while finding financial freedom. ClickBank University has worked with over 70,000 members and with the partnership forged with Justin Atlan and Adam Horwitz, we will see membership numbers rapidly increase with the implementation of new strategic initiatives."

Megan joined ClickBank in 2007 and holds an MBA from Boise State University. During her tenure at ClickBank, she has been an integral member of the Operations and Marketing teams. In her prior role as the Director of Marketing, Megan oversaw the ClickBank brand, planned all business development events, and created engaging marketing programs and campaigns. Megan and partners' vision to create ClickBank's first online training course for online entrepreneurs was born in 2014 as ClickBank University.

About ClickBank

Founded in 1998, ClickBank has established itself as a top global internet retailer powered by one of the world's leading performance marketing platforms for both digital and physical products. The ClickBank platform meets at the intersection of e-commerce, fintech and adtech, enabling entrepreneurs to drive consumer traffic and sales through a commissioned marketer network.

With over 200 million customers, six million platform users and distribution in 190 countries, ClickBank's powerful e-commerce and mobile ecosystem provides entrepreneurs with an easy to use, secure online marketplace to help them sell their products and services.

To learn more, visit www.clickbank.com.

SOURCE ClickBank

Related Links

http://www.clickbank.com

DALTON, Ga., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MFG Chemical, a specialty chemical manufacturer of polymers, surfactants and esters, announced today that it has acquired Gulf Bayport Chemicals LP ("GBC" or the "Company"). Headquartered in Houston, TX, with plant operations in Pasadena, TX, GBC is a manufacturer of maleic anhydride derivatives and provides a variety of contract manufacturing, warehouse and transportation services for a range of industrial end markets.

"The acquisition of GBC expands MFG's geographic footprint into the Gulf Coast, demonstrating commitment to our customers in the region," said Keith Arnold, CEO of MFG Chemical. "We are excited for this acquisition and the growth opportunities it will provide to MFG in the future."

The addition of GBC brings a world-class chemical facility in an ideal location in the Houston ship channel area. The site benefits from direct rail access and an extensive utility infrastructure, providing MFG the opportunity to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity.

"GBC has developed a great reputation as a producer of maleic anhydride-based chemicals for customers in various end markets," said CEO of GBC, John Nowlan. "We believe that our capabilities and customer and supplier relationships will complement MFG's strong position in the specialty chemicals market."

About Gulf Bayport Chemicals LP

Headquartered in Houston, TX, with plant operations in Pasadena, TX, Gulf Bayport Chemicals LP is a specialty chemical manufacturer of maleic anhydride derivatives for the epoxy curing, food starch additives, consumer goods, paper, and oilfield industries. In addition, GBC provides a variety of contract manufacturing, warehouse and transportation services for third parties.

About MFG Chemical

Founded in 1981 and based in Dalton, GA, MFG is a specialty chemical manufacturer of polymers, surfactants and esters used in various applications in the oil field, water treatment, mining, coatings, agricultural and other industrial markets. In June 2017, MFG was acquired by Platte River Equity, a Denver-based private equity firm focused on investments in lower middle market companies across various industrial sectors.

About Platte River Equity

Based in Denver, Colorado, Platte River Equity is a private equity firm focused on equity investments from $20 million to $100 million in lower middle market operating companies with enterprise values generally between $40 million and $250 million. The firm invests in sectors where it has deep operating and investing experience, including aerospace & transportation; energy & power; agriculture & chemicals; and metals & minerals. Platte River has raised funds with committed capital in excess of $1.3 billion.

About SOCMA

The Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA) is part of a $300 billion industry that's fueling the U.S. economy. Our members play an indispensable role in the global chemical supply chain, providing specialty chemicals to companies in markets ranging from aerospace and electronics to pharmaceuticals and agriculture. For more information on becoming a part of this growing and innovative association, visit www.socma.com.

Contact: Daniel Sanchez

MFG Chemical, LLC

Phone (706) 226-4114

Fax (706) 275-6044

[email protected]

SOURCE MFG Chemical, LLCKELOWNA, British Columbia and TORONTO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Wellness partners CoreHealth Technologies and MindQ announce the launch of a new Mental Health Toolkit to help employers better support employees with their overall mental well-being.

Current wellness screenings provide highly simplistic assessments of mental health and well-being. They don't delve deep enough into understanding the overall mental well-being or identify areas for improvement through education. MindQ evaluates the broad spectrum of mental well-being and is designed to improve mental well-being for an entire employee population.

This new toolkit will help employers improve the statistic reported by the American Psychological Association that 56 percent of employees don't feel employers are providing adequate resources for mental well-being.

The Workplace Mental Health Toolkit includes three components:

Mental Health Assessment: MindQ's clinically-validated mental health and well-being assessment measures participants across the entire mental well-being continuum and provides insights into areas for self-care and improvement. This assessment is validated by Multi-Health Systems (MHS), a leading global publisher of scientifically validated assessments in clinical, education, talent management, and public safety settings with 30 years of experience. Mental Health Challenges and Activities: MindQ's well-being activities are month-long programs with flexible deployment options and gamification strategies, all rooted in positive psychology and tailored to meet the needs of an entire employee population. The activities teach employees how optimism, compassion, and gratitude positively influence mental resilience, overall health, performance, and relationships. These challenges were developed on CoreHealth's wellness technology. Behavior Change Solution: An optional behavior change solution provided by NCQA-certified Pro-Change is also available and addresses four behaviors that promote optimal health and well-being, including debt diet, stress management, responsible drinking and depression prevention.

"As a leading publisher of scientifically validated assessments, it surprised us how under-addressed mental health was in the wellness space. We launched the MindQ mental health assessment and well-being activities to provide resources for wellness providers to better serve their clients," says Hazel Wheldon, the President and COO of Multi-Health Systems. "Being able to integrate those resources seamlessly into the CoreHealth platform has been an amazing opportunity for us to help millions of users better understand and address their mental well-being."

All three components are available via CoreHealth Technologies, an all-in-one corporate wellness platform trusted by leading wellness providers to power and deliver wellness programs to their clients. The platform is white-labeled and can be tailored to each client's brand, is available in multiple languages, complies with the strictest privacy and security guidelines and has a network of third-party, best-in-class wellness partners that seamlessly 'plug-in' to the platform.

"MindQ has provided their mental health assessment on our technology for some time now; however, they quickly recognized employers were seeking additional resources to support employees. They approached us about their vision to provide employees with meaningful challenges that can help them obtain the tools they need to improve mental resilience," says Anne Marie Kirby, the Founder and CEO of CoreHealth Technologies. "Since developing challenges on our platform is a fundamental component of our technology, we were excited to work together to turn their vision into reality."

About MindQ:

MindQ evolved in MHS, Inc.'s innovation hub. With over 30 years of experience developing assessments, more than 150 employees, 25 percent of annual revenue committed to R&D, and assessments available in over 50 languages and 75 countries, MHS is an industry-leading voice in developing scientifically validated assessments. For more information, visit the MindQ website.

MindQ Media Contact: [email protected]

About CoreHealth Technologies:

CoreHealth Technologies Inc. is the leading corporate wellness platform trusted by more than 1000 organizations, ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises. At CoreHealth, we believe that developing the best employee wellness programs is all about giving wellness companies the right code, design and access to the latest innovations. With the most customization, integrations and reliability of any software in its class, CoreHealth's powerful platform lets users focus on growing great companies. For more information, visit the CoreHealth website.

CoreHealth Media Contact:

CoreHealth Technologies

Anne Marie Kirby, CEO & Founder

[email protected]

1-866-396-2673, ext. 101

Related Links

Mental Health Toolkit

MindQ Mental Health Assessment

Related Video

https://vimeo.com/220484822

SOURCE CoreHealth Technologies

Related Links

https://corehealth.global/

"The grand challenge of our era is to use digital technologies to create not only prosperity, but shared prosperity," says Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. "We can only address this Challenge by relying on the innovative genius of entrepreneurs from the global community."

The MIT IIC was launched two years ago to recognize and celebrate organizations around the world that are using technology to solve a grand challenge of our time  to create not only prosperity, but shared prosperity by reinventing the future of work in the digital era. This year, the IIC has expanded to a global tournament model, collaborating with partners in five regions -- North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The North America region is defined by Canada and the United States.

Regional Judges will select 12 regional IIC winners to receive monetary prizes, recognition, and promotion at the IIC North America Celebration held in Detroit, Michigan this September. (Four Regional Champions will each win $20,000, and eight Finalists will each win $5,000.) Following this high-profile event, four North America Regional Winners will be selected to advance to the IIC Global Grand Prize Tournament & Celebration hosted at MIT in Cambridge, MA in October 2018. One million dollars in prize money will be awarded to four Global Grand Prize Winners, selected from Regional Winners from around the world.

"The Inclusive Innovation Challenge lies at the heart of our foundation's mission, helping catalyze innovative solutions that improve the quality of life and future of work for the communities we serve," said Lavea Brachman, vice president of programs, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. "We are thrilled to further support the IIC by hosting the North America regional challenge event in Detroit, a city and community at the forefront of innovation and inclusive innovative solutions."

In the first two years, over 1,500 inclusive innovation organizations responded to the IIC, illustrating the momentum of the growing global future of work movement. Over 230 Core Judges have reviewed applications and more than $2 million has been awarded to entrepreneurs and innovators who are demonstrating different ways to put powerful new technologies to work to improve people's economic opportunity. For-profit and nonprofit organizations of any size, age, or type and from any nation are encouraged to apply.

The IIC is funded with support from Google.org; ISN; The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation; Merck KGaA; Joseph Eastin; Via Varejo; and Gustavo Pierini.

Join the Movement

The MIT IIC is dedicated to the promotion of sustainable, scalable global inclusive innovation. We invite you to join us by supporting inclusive innovators and their equitable solutions to reinventing the future of work for all humans, not just an elite few.

Learn more at MITinclusiveinnovation.com

To support the IIC, contact us at [email protected]

@MIT_IIC

The MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) explores how people and businesses will work, interact, and prosper in an era of profound digital transformation. ide.mit.edu @MIT_IDE

The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation is a grantmaking organization dedicated primarily to sustained investment in the quality of life of the people of Southeast Michigan and Western New York. The two areas reflect Ralph C. Wilson, Jr.'s devotion to his hometown of Detroit and greater Buffalo, home of his Buffalo Bills franchise. Prior to his passing in 2014, Mr. Wilson requested that a significant share of his estate be used to continue a life-long generosity of spirit by funding the Foundation that bears his name. The Foundation has a grantmaking capacity of $1.2 billion over a 20-year period, which expires January 8, 2035. This structure is consistent with Mr. Wilson's desire for the Foundation's impact to be immediate, substantial, measurable and overseen by those who knew him best. For more information visit www.rcwjrf.org.

SOURCE MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

Related Links

http://ide.mit.edu

PITTSBURGH, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Federated Investors, Inc. today announced that monthly fund composition and performance data for Federated Premier Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: FMN) as of Feb. 28, 2018, is now available in the Products section of FederatedInvestors.com. To order hard copies of this data or to be placed on a mailing list, call 800-245-0242 x5587538, email [email protected] or write to Federated Investors, 1001 Liberty Avenue, Floor 23, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) is one of the largest investment managers in the United States, managing $397.6 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2017. With 108 funds and a variety of separately managed account options, Federated provides comprehensive investment management to more than 8,500 institutions and intermediaries including corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks and broker/dealers. For more information, visit FederatedInvestors.com.

###

SOURCE Federated Investors, Inc.

Related Links

http://FederatedInvestors.com

ORLANDO, Fla., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Led by millennials, some 88 million Americans plan to take family vacations this year. According to the latest research from AAA Travel, 44 percent of millennials are planning a family getaway, more than members of Generation X (39 percent) or baby boomers (32 percent).

"Just like generations before them, millennials see a family vacation as one of the best ways to create memories and reconnect with loved ones," said Bill Sutherland, AAA senior vice president of Travel and Publishing. "No matter their age, families are going on not just one, but multiple vacations throughout the year to revisit favorite destinations and experience new places."

As travelers seek new sights, AAA expects family trips abroad to be a hot trend in 2018. Of families who will take a trip this year, 35 percent plan to visit an international destination  a 9 percentage point increase from just two years ago. Based on advance travel bookings, AAA predicts the top five most likely international destinations for families will be:

Cancun, Mexico Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Montego Bay, Jamaica Rome, Italy Dublin, Ireland

"We've seen increased demand for international travel overall, and that trend is now starting to appeal to families," continued Sutherland.

For families staying stateside, expensive gas prices  the highest prices seen since 2014  are not stopping vacation planners from packing up their cars for a road trip. They remain the most popular option for family vacations, with nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of those planning a trip expected to hit the roads.

Additional AAA family travel highlights for 2018:

Families are taking more trips per year. One in four (27 percent) traveling families is planning to take three or more family vacations in the next 12 months, 12 percentage points more than in 2016.

One in four (27 percent) traveling families is planning to take three or more family vacations in the next 12 months, 12 percentage points more than in 2016. Family travelers are looking for new experiences. Three-quarters (73 percent) of families that are planning a vacation this year are seeking a destination they have not previously visited.

Three-quarters (73 percent) of families that are planning a vacation this year are seeking a destination they have not previously visited. Families are seeking R&R. When looking for these new experiences, families are choosing destinations with attractions such as beaches and mountains (61 percent), opportunities for sightseeing (59 percent) and relaxation (56 percent).

AAA's travel experts recommend that families plan their trips with AAA's Diamonds in mind. AAA's professional inspectors assess nearly 59,000 hotels and restaurants across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean to assign AAA Diamond Ratings. Every AAA Inspected & Approved hotel and restaurant is acceptable for the type of experience it provides. Ratings, from One to Five Diamonds, help travelers find the level of services, facilities and amenities they're looking for on their vacation. Travelers can find Diamond Rated establishments in the AAA Mobile app, AAA Travel Guides and TripTik Travel Planner.

To help families even further, AAA's inspectors have identified some of their favorite family-friendly hotels for 2018. To learn more and begin planning a trip, visit AAA.com/TravelTips.

AAA's family travel research is the result of a telephone survey (landline and cell phone) consisting of 1,005 adults living in the continental United States. Interviewing for this survey was conducted January 26-28, 2018. This study has an average statistical error of 7 percent at the 95 percent confidence level for all U.S. adults.

As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 58 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. Motorists can map a route, identify gas prices, find discounts, book a hotel and access AAA roadside assistance with the AAA Mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Learn more at AAA.com/mobile. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at AAA.com.

SOURCE AAA

Related Links

http://www.aaa.com

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the National Council of Churches (NCC) announced plans to hold a rally to end racism on the National Mall on April 4. The A.C.T. to End Racism Rally is the starting point of a multi-year effort, launched by NCC, to remove racism from the nation's social fabric and bring the country together.

In remembrance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who inspired and challenged America to confront and put an end to racism, the rally will take place on the day the nation marks 50 years since his assassination. "We have for too long lived under the scourge of racism in our society. To begin the process of healing our nation, we as Christians must join with people of all faiths in holding ourselves accountable for our complicity, and commit to righting the wrongs," said Jim Winkler, president of NCC.

NCC and its coalition of over 50 partners recognize that the faith community and those of moral conscience have a specific responsibility to address and eliminate racism, but also unique gifts that enable them to do so. "As we look at our society today, it is painfully evident that the soul of our nation needs healing. We must not only pray, but take concrete action to realize and achieve racial and social justice, and we cannot possibly put an end to racism unless we commit to change at all levels  including within the faith community," said Bishop W. Darin Moore, chair of the Governing Board for NCC.

"Christian churches, present in every town and community across the country, are both part of the problem and the solution. NCC and our partners are committed to addressing the systemic evil that many Christians and church institutions have yet to fully acknowledge," said Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, Director of the Truth and Racial Justice Initiative for NCC.

Buses will bring rally-goers from across the country for the three-day event that will see thousands convene on the National Mall. Special guests at the rally include Grammy Award-winning artist Yolanda Adams, Marvin Sapp, Bishop Vashti McKenzie, DeRay Mckesson, Y'Anna Crawley, Grammy Award-winning artist Rev. Julian DeShazier (J.Kwest), Dr. Jennifer Harvey, Dr. Jim Wallis, Lou Gossett, Jr., Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Dr. Raphael Warnock, Naeem Baig, and Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Additional names will be announced in the coming weeks.

The schedule of events is as follows:

April 3 : 6:00 p.m. ET : Orthodox Christian Bridegroom Service of Holy Tuesday;

8:00 p.m. ET : Then and Now: An Ecumenical Gathering to End Racism

: Orthodox Christian Bridegroom Service of Holy Tuesday; : Then and Now: An Ecumenical Gathering to End Racism April 4 : Silent March (starting near the MLK Jr. Memorial), Interfaith Service, and A.C.T. to End Racism Rally on the National Mall, 7:00 a.m.  3:30 p.m. ET

Silent March (starting near the MLK Jr. Memorial), Interfaith Service, and A.C.T. to End Racism Rally on the National Mall,  April 5 : National Day of Advocacy & Action

The rally is open to all people of faith and moral conscience. To learn more about the rally, visit: www.rally2endracism.org.

About the National Council of Churches

The National Council of Churches is the nation's largest ecumenical body and includes more than 45 million members. Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 38 member communions form a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches.

SOURCE National Council of ChurchesNEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager, announced that ten of the firm's wealth advisors were named among Barron's "Top 1,200 Financial Advisors" for 2018. The annual state-by-state list includes three of the firm's wealth advisors ranked among the top ten in their state: Rick Szelc of Texas, Brian Hahn of Illinois, and Seth Finkel of New York.

Also on this year's Barron's Top 1200 list were the following Neuberger Berman advisors, all repeat winners: Tripp Taylor (California) and Peter Arbes, Virginia Guy, Holly Newman Kroft, William Peterson (New York). Making their debut on the Top 1200 were Lisa Reed, ranked #90 in California, and Stephanie Stiefel, ranked #14 in New York.

Mr. Szelc, a Dallas-based managing director at Neuberger Berman who advises on $1.9 billion for clients, was ranked #1 in the state of Texas for the third year in a row. Having joined Neuberger Berman in 2000, Mr. Szelc works closely with high-net-worth clients to create bespoke investment strategies. A member of the Barron's "Top 100 Financial Advisors" in America, Mr. Szelc applies his investment banking background and global perspective to help guide his clients through shifting investment landscapes. He is a graduate of Lawrence Technological University and holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mr. Hahn was ranked in the top 10 in Illinois by Barron's for the second year in a row, this time at #8. Mr. Hahn advises on $1.7 billion in client assets. A managing director of Neuberger Berman, he joined the firm in 1995 as a Chicago-based wealth advisor. Mr. Hahn and his team specialize in the design and implementation of comprehensive wealth management solutions for private clients. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from Kansas State University and a Master's in International Business from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, which he attended as a Rotary International Scholar.

The New York-based Mr. Finkel, a managing director at Neuberger Berman, jumped four spots from #10 to #6. He heads a wealth advisory team with $3.1 billion in client assets. Mr. Finkel has been with Neuberger Berman since 1990 and focuses on high-net-worth individuals, closely held businesses, fiduciaries, and not-for-profit organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Lehigh University, a JD from Fordham University School of Law, and an LLM in Tax from the New York University School of Law. He is included on the Barron's 2017 "Top 100 Financial Advisors" in America.

"We are exceptionally proud to have ten of our wealth advisors ranked among the top 1,200 this year," said Kenneth Rende, Head of Wealth Management at Neuberger Berman. "These advisors represent a group of financial professionals who are dedicated and committed to serving the diverse and specific needs of their individual clients. This recognition is well-deserved, and we look forward to partnering with these elite professionals as they continue to progress in their careers." Barron's used a number of factors to determine the state-by-state rankings including: assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, regulatory record, quality of practice and philanthropic work.

About Neuberger Berman

Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategiesincluding equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity and hedge fundson behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 20 countries, Neuberger Berman's team is approximately 1,900 professionals. For five consecutive years, the company has been named to Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). Tenured, stable and long-term in focus, the firm fosters an investment culture of fundamental research and independent thinking. It manages $295 billion in client assets as of December 31, 2017. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.

Information Regarding Barron's Rankings

Barron's rankings are based on a proprietary formula that has three major components: assets managed, revenues produced and quality of practice. Investment returns are not a component of rankings as returns are dictated largely by the risk tolerances of clients. Third-party accolades referenced do not reflect the experiences of any Neuberger Berman client and readers should not view such information as representative of any particular client's experience or assume that they will have a similar investment experience as any previous or existing client. Third-party accolades are not indicative of the past or future performance of any Neuberger Berman product or service.

All information is as of December 31, 2017 unless otherwise indicated and is subject to change without notice. Firm data, including employee and assets under management figures, reflects collective data for the various affiliated investment advisers that are subsidiaries of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. Firm history/timeline includes the history of all firm subsidiaries, including predecessor entities and acquisitions.

This material is being issued on a limited basis through various global subsidiaries and affiliates of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. Please visit www.nb.com/disclosure-global-communications for the specific entities and jurisdictional limitations and restrictions.

The "Neuberger Berman" name and logo are registered service marks of Neuberger Berman Group LLC.

 2018 Neuberger Berman Group LLC.

All rights reserved.

Media Contact: Alex Samuelson, 212 476 5392, [email protected]

SOURCE Neuberger Berman

Related Links

http://www.nb.com

ELKTON, Md., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Appointments are now available at the new Aspen Dental-branded practice at 722 E Pulaski Highway scheduled to open on Thursday, March 22.

Office hours will be Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as select Saturdays. Walk-in and emergency patients are welcome.

The new dental office is led by Dr. Shekhar Gupta who received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from New York University. Dr. Gupta and his team will provide dental services ranging from dentures and preventive care, to general dentistry and restoration.

The new Aspen Dental office offers patient-friendly programs and services, including:

Personalized treatment and friendly service. Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind.

Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind. Affordable dental care. The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those without insurance. Patients will have peace of mind with detailed treatment cost estimates and a variety of financing options.

The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those without insurance. Patients will have peace of mind with detailed treatment cost estimates and a variety of financing options. On-site denture lab and Denture Money Back Guarantee. The practice's on-site denture lab facilitates quick turnaround of custom-crafted dentures, repairs (on all dentures  not just those purchases at Aspen Dental), relines or adjustments. If patients are dissatisfied with their dentures  the practice will refund the cost of the dentures when patients return them within 90 days.

To make an appointment, patients can go to www.aspendental.com and click on Schedule a New Patient Appointment; or call (410) 202-0198 or 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633).

About Aspen Dental Offices

Aspen Dental-branded practices are committed to breaking down the barriers to better dental care, better smiles and better lives by making dentistry easier for patients. With more than 660 offices in 36 states, Aspen Dental practices provide a wide range of general dentistry and denture-related services and offer patient-friendly programs and services, including convenient locations, onsite labs and extended hours. Together, Aspen Dental practices cared for more than 1.7 million patients in 2017.

About Aspen Dental Management, Inc.

With an innovative model that takes care of non-clinical business and administrative services so that providers are free to focus on patient care, the team at ADMI is driven by one overarching purpose: To care for the people who care for the patients. ADMI makes it easier for clinicians to have the careers they've always dreamed of, delivering care to their patients with the support of a team of experienced business professionals who are committed to making their practices a success. Support provided by ADMI includes services and recommendations related to finding the right locations, leasing, acquiring equipment, accounting and marketing.

SOURCE Aspen Dental

Related Links

http://www.aspendental.com

LAKE CHARLES, La., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Appointments are now available at the new Aspen Dental-branded practice in Suite 100 at 3411 Nelson Road scheduled to open on Thursday, March 22.

Office hours will be Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as select Saturdays. Walk-in and emergency patients are welcome.

The new dental office is led by Dr. Collin Miller, a Morehouse Parish native. Dr. Miller is a graduate of Bastrop High School and attended Louisiana State University where he completed his undergraduate studies and earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. In addition to leading the Lake Charles office, Dr. Miller stays involved in the community as part of the Louisiana Dental Association, the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Dental Association and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

"It means a lot to me that I am able to serve a community in an area near where I grew up," Dr. Miller said. "Our area struggles with a shortage of local dental professionals and my team and I are committed to making sure local Louisiana residents have greater access to affordable oral care and education."

Dr. Miller and his team will provide patient-friendly programs and services, including:

Personalized treatment and friendly service. Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind.

Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind. Affordable dental care. The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those without insurance. Patients will have peace of mind with detailed treatment cost estimates and a variety of financing options.

The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those without insurance. Patients will have peace of mind with detailed treatment cost estimates and a variety of financing options. On-site denture lab and Denture Money Back Guarantee. The practice's on-site denture lab facilitates quick turnaround of custom-crafted dentures, repairs (on all dentures  not just those purchases at Aspen Dental), relines or adjustments. If patients are dissatisfied with their dentures  the practice will refund the cost of the dentures when patients return them within 90 days.

To make an appointment, patients can go to www.aspendental.com and click on Schedule a New Patient Appointment; or call (337) 602-9733 or 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633).

About Aspen Dental Offices

Aspen Dental-branded practices are committed to breaking down the barriers to better dental care, better smiles and better lives by making dentistry easier for patients. With more than 660 offices in 36 states, Aspen Dental practices provide a wide range of general dentistry and denture-related services and offer patient-friendly programs and services, including convenient locations, onsite labs and extended hours. Together, Aspen Dental practices cared for more than 1.7 million patients in 2017.

About Aspen Dental Management, Inc.

With an innovative model that takes care of non-clinical business and administrative services so that providers are free to focus on patient care, the team at ADMI is driven by one overarching purpose: To care for the people who care for the patients. ADMI makes it easier for clinicians to have the careers they've always dreamed of, delivering care to their patients with the support of a team of experienced business professionals who are committed to making their practices a success. Support provided by ADMI includes services and recommendations related to finding the right locations, leasing, acquiring equipment, accounting and marketing.

SOURCE Aspen Dental

Related Links

http://www.aspendental.com

LOCKPORT, Ill., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Appointments are now available at the new Aspen Dental-branded practice at 16473 W. 159th St. scheduled to open on Thursday, March 22.

Office hours will be Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as select Saturdays. Walk-in and emergency patients are welcome.

The new dental office is led by Dr. Mary Grant who received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of Alabama. Dr. Grant and her team will provide dental services ranging from dentures and preventive care, to general dentistry and restoration.

The new Aspen Dental office offers patient-friendly programs and services, including:

Personalized treatment and friendly service. Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind.

Affordable dental care. The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers $19 new-patient exams and X-rays to those without insurance. Patients will have peace of mind with detailed treatment cost estimates and a variety of financing options.

On-site denture lab and Denture Money Back Guarantee. The practice's on-site denture lab facilitates quick turnaround of custom-crafted dentures, repairs (on all dentures  not just those purchases at Aspen Dental), relines or adjustments. If patients are dissatisfied with their dentures  the practice will refund the cost of the dentures when patients return them within 90 days.

To make an appointment, patients can go to www.aspendental.com and click on Schedule a New Patient Appointment; or call (815) 221-4200 or 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633).

About Aspen Dental Offices

Aspen Dental-branded practices are committed to breaking down the barriers to better dental care, better smiles and better lives by making dentistry easier for patients. With more than 660 offices in 36 states, Aspen Dental practices provide a wide range of general dentistry and denture-related services and offer patient-friendly programs and services, including convenient locations, onsite labs and extended hours. Together, Aspen Dental practices cared for more than 1.7 million patients in 2017.

About Aspen Dental Management, Inc.

With an innovative model that takes care of non-clinical business and administrative services so that providers are free to focus on patient care, the team at ADMI is driven by one overarching purpose: To care for the people who care for the patients. ADMI makes it easier for clinicians to have the careers they've always dreamed of, delivering care to their patients with the support of a team of experienced business professionals who are committed to making their practices a success. Support provided by ADMI includes services and recommendations related to finding the right locations, leasing, acquiring equipment, accounting and marketing.

SOURCE Aspen Dental

Related Links

http://www.aspendental.com

ORLANDO, Fla., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FloridaRentals.com today announced the launch of its Florida-only vacation rental platform designed to give both renters and property owners the most streamlined, cost-effective way to connect. The site was created by Tom Gilmore, who founded VacationHomeRentals.com in 2004 and oversaw operations until its purchase by TripAdvisor in 2014.

"The vacation rental market has become more saturated and corporatized, making the process more complicated and expensive for users," said Gilmore, CEO of FloridaRentals.com. "And, many rental sites have literally hundreds of thousands of property listings, which can be overwhelming for renters and owners deal with the little fish/big pond effect. It became evident that it was time for a back-to-basics approach."

Unlike large rental sites, with FloridaRentals.com renters pay no fees, owners pay low annual flat fees and the parties can communicate directly. Because the site is subscription listings-based and not a 'bookings' model, owners' money isn't held, renter contact information is shared, and it doesn't set cancellation policies or charge booking and commission fees.

"FloridaRentals.com is a winner. It's the easiest platform to list and maintain your information, the price is incredibly reasonable and it's popular, I've had 100 inquiries and secured 8 bookings, with several pending, during the six months I've been on  nearly triple what I've done on the others," commented Kissimmee property owner John Beck. "Tom Gilmore's timing couldn't be better; the online rental market is in disarray with ongoing policy changes and ever-increasing fees for users."

Hyper-focused on Florida, the largest market for vacation rentals in the U.S., FloridaRentals.com already features more than 2,000 properties from 1,400 owners for the popular year-round travel destination, from the Panhandle to Disney to Miami and the islands. The site is experiencing growth at a rate of 30 percent per month, and the top five percent of the site's current owners expect to surpass $50K in earnings this year.

Gilmore's interest in vacation rentals began as a young man while summering at his family's camp in Maine, where he helped market their cabins to vacationers. After years as a Wall Street banker, Tom went back to his roots in founding VacationHomeRentals.com.

About FloridaRentals.com

FloridaRentals.com is the fastest-growing Florida-only vacation rental platform designed to give both renters and property owners the most streamlined, cost-effective way to connect. Offering rentals from the Panhandle to Disney to Miami and the Keys, renters pay no fees, owners pay low annual flat fees and handle their own financial transactions, and the parties can communicate directly. FloridaRentals.com was founded in 2017 by Tom Gilmore, the creator of VacationHomeRentals.com, which was bought by TripAdvisor in 2014.

SOURCE FloridaRentals.com

Related Links

http://www.floridarentals.com

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New Jersey Health Foundation (NJHF) has awarded more than $1 million in its latest funding cycle to advance health-related research in New Jersey, announced President James M. Golubieski.

In a competitive call for applications that garnered 175 submissions, NJHF selected 29 applications to fund, each of which will receive up to $35,000 to advance projects that demonstrate exciting potential.

"New Jersey Health Foundation has historically awarded more than $57 million in research grants to promote inventive science projects being conducted within our state," explained George F. Heinrich, M.D., vice chair and CEO. "We are proud to support this round of outstanding early stage projects that may have the potential to lead to important medical breakthroughs."

Funding was available to faculty and staff at organizations affiliated with NJHF Kessler Foundation, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Rowan University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Stevens Institute of Technology.

Awards were given to researchers targeting a variety of health-related areas including detecting skin diseases; exploring antibiotics and the flu; advancing cancer treatments; expanding diagnostic tools in cochlear implants; improving drug development and delivery; investigating tools to detect mental health disorders; assessing Parkinson's disease; addressing the opioid crisis in New Jersey; studying folate levels and autism spectrum risks, and improving gait training after stroke.

Grants were awarded to recipients from these organizations throughout the state:

North Jersey: Kessler Foundation; New Jersey Institute of Technology; Rutgers New Jersey Medical School; Stevens Institute of Technology; The Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Central Jersey: Princeton University; Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey; Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science; Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy; Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy & Aging Research; Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences; Rutgers School of Communication and Information

South Jersey: Cooper Medical School at Rowan University; Rowan College of Engineering, Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine; Rowan College of Science and Mathematics; Rutgers University-Camden

New Jersey Health Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit corporation that supports health-related research and education programs through its Research and Innovation Grants Programs. Its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, makes private equity investments to participate in establishing and managing health-related start-up companies in New Jersey headed toward commercialization.

SOURCE New Jersey Health Foundation

Related Links

http://www.njhf.org

CARSON CITY, Nev., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Partzilla.com, a leading online retailer of ATV, motorcycle, side-by-side and snowmobile parts, is pleased to announce the opening of a brand new West Coast distribution facility that will serve more of the country with 1-2 day delivery on thousands of OEM and aftermarket powersports parts.

New West Coast Shipping Hub

The new Carson City, NV distribution center is currently stocked with more than 100,000 unique OEM parts from Yamaha, Honda, Can-AM, Polaris, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Sea-Doo, and Ski-Doo, as well as aftermarket parts for ATVs, UTVs, motorcycles, scooters, and snowmobiles. That's 100,000-plus unique parts with unique SKUs ready to be shipped out.

The West Coast facility will augment Partzilla's state-of-the-art East Coast distribution center in Albany, GA. Combined, these two facilities, along with a network of powersports dealers nationwide, will form a massive distribution powerhouse that will serve the majority of the country with one- and two-day shipping on Partzilla's stock of aftermarket and OEM parts. This balanced North American footprint will position Partzilla.com to provide customers with the best possible shipping times along with the best possible prices on the brand's expansive powersports inventory.

With the launch of the new DC, Partzilla.com shoppers will now be given the option to enter their zip code to get the most accurate geo-specific part stock information right from OEM component pages. Using this custom geo-technology, customers can shop with confidence knowing the stock availability they see listed on the website directly pertains to the parts that are in stock at the facility nearest them.

Partzilla.com Expanded Inventory: https://www.partzilla.com

About Partzilla.com

With over three million orders shipped, Partzilla.com has established itself as a global leader in the sale of OEM and aftermarket parts for ATVs, UTVs, motorcycles, scooters, and watercraft. For over a decade, Partzilla has been hustling to help you find the right upgrade, fit, or fix. We are a premier OEM parts dealer and distributor, we work hard, we play hard, and we are proud to be unmatched in our dedication to customer service.

Media Contact: Chelsea Brooks

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 229.299.9559 ext. 464

SOURCE Partzilla.com

Related Links

https://www.partzilla.com

The new Images of Empowerment collection titled Raising Her Voice, by Verbatim Agency award-winning photojournalists Paula Bronstein and Nina Robinson, is available free of charge to non-commercial users. The organizations and individuals photographed are at the nexus of quality reproductive health information and services including family planning, contraceptive choices, safe abortion care, and sexual health education for women and youth, empowering local women and girls to raise their voices about issues that affect them.

The new India and U.S. collection was funded by the Packard Foundation and builds upon the Images of Empowerment photo resource launched by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Getty Images in 2015. The previous collection focused on nine countries in Africa, Asia, and South America and provided positive images of the ways women work and support their families and communities there.

"It is inspiring to hear the stories of these young women and to see them in action by way of the Raising Her Voice collection," said Christopher Cox, Director of Youth Programs for Teen Health Mississippi. "These young women are meeting face-to-face with their legislators to advocate for high-quality comprehensive sex education for all young people. It is time for today's youth to amplify their voices on issues that directly affect them to ensure our policymakers are representing their interests."

"We are committed to ensuring that women and girls have access to quality reproductive health information and services so they can make decisions about their bodies and their lives," said Tamara Kreinin, Director of Population and Reproductive Health at the Packard Foundation. "These are images of strong, real women and girls, who are challenging society's perception of them and their abilities. These photos show the world that women and girls from India to the U.S. are defining their own destiny, empowered to make choices that are best for them."

"The potential of imagery to provoke conversation and drive change is unquestionable," said Aidan Sullivan, CEO, Verbatim. "We're excited to be involved in this partnership to create a collection that aims to provide a positive visual narrative of women and girls in these communities and effect real change."

In addition to the full image sets, the Packard Foundation published a photo essayRaising Her Voice, published on March 8, 2018 in honor of International Women's Daythat features the images and perspectives from photojournalists Nina Robinson and Paula Bronstein on their respective experiences in the southern United States and Bihar, India.

To view and download the new Images of Empowerment photos, available under Creative Commons licensing: visit www.imagesofempowerment.org/Bihar for images from the Bihar region of India; visit www.imagesofempowerment.org/UnitedStates for images from Louisiana and Mississippi in the southern United States. To read the photo essay, Raising Her Voice, visit www.packard.org/2018/03/raising-her-voice .

About the David and Lucile Packard Foundation: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private family foundation created in 1964 by David Packard (19121996), cofounder of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and Lucile Salter Packard (19141987). The Foundation provides grants to organizations in the following program areas: Conservation and Science; Population and Reproductive Health; Children, Families, and Communities; and Local Grantmaking. Learn more at www.packard.org.

About Paula Bronstein (Images of Empowerment: Bihar, India): Paula Bronstein is an American photojournalist with more than three decades of experience. Her many nominations and awards span decades and represent only a small space in what is simply a lifetime of phenomenal frontline news and documentary photography across the globe. She sits alongside the most important female photojournalists as a multiple nominee and award winner of international contests including The Pulitzer, Pictures of The Year International, and The National Press Photographer's Association. She has judged some of the most important international photography contests, and exhibited extensively. Learn more at: http://www.paulaphoto.com/.

About Nina Robinson (Images of Empowerment: the southern United States): Nina Robinson is a documentary photographer and educator based in Arkansas and New York. Her work is a mixture of past experiences, bridging documentary, personal, and fine art. She began her photography career shooting for The Reporter in Vacaville, CA. Going freelance, she had the freedom to pursue her interest in visual storytelling and portraiture, often photographing musicians and music groups. Her current work has a strong focus on underrepresented communities, aiming to break the visual prejudices of race, class, age, and gender. Her clients include, Netflix, New York Times, National Geographic, A+E Networks, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, Manhattan Magazine, Backstage Magazine, Novo Foundation, American Photo, TIME Lightbox, Lens Culture, and Wall Street Journal. In 2017 she won the annual Getty Images Instagram Grant for her project 'An Arkansas Family Album' that focused on an intimate exploration of loss, love and tradition in a rural black Southern community. Learn more at: www.ninarobinsonphotography.com.

About Getty Images

Getty Images has long been the undisputed world leader in visual communication, with customers in nearly every country in the world. Visit Getty images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is revolutionizing the role of images in communications of business, and enabling ground breaking and creative ideas to become a reality. Find Getty Images on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Tumblr, or download the Getty Images app where you can explore, save and share the world's best imagery.

About The Verbatim Agency

The Verbatim Agency is a creative content resource that amplifies Social Impact Initiative communications - offering master visual storytelling through the world renowned, award-winning photojournalists we represent combined with a commercial assignments agency with a global network of over 700 photographers and filmmakers. We partner with brands, advertising agencies and organizations to craft powerful, journalistically-driven visual narratives around social responsibility, philanthropic and cause-related initiatives. Our award-winning documentary filmmakers and photojournalists have the credibility and real-world experience to tackle sensitive, complex social issues. The results are authentic, transformative visual stories that engage, unite and have the power to change minds. To find out more about The Verbatim Agency, visit the website at www.theverbatimagency.com.

SOURCE The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Related Links

http://www.packard.org

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Findings from a new groundwater quality investigation, released by Mammoth Community Water District, confirm that Ormat Technologies' existing geothermal operation and proposed expansion project  known as Casa Diablo IV (CD-IV)  present an unnecessary, existential threat to the Mammoth Lakes community's main and most reliable public water supply.

"We are charged with protecting our region's precious water supply and have repeatedly asked Ormat to partner with us to ensure our water supply is not impacted by Ormat's geothermal pumping," said Pat Hayes, General Manager of Mammoth Community Water District (MCWD). "Despite sound science and expert recommendations, Ormat continues to place the community's groundwater at unnecessary risk. If the company were truly committed to clean energy and sustainable practices, it would implement the necessary safeguards to preserve and protect our community's groundwater."

MCWD commissioned Wildermuth Environmental, Inc., a respected, highly-specialized water resources consulting firm, to analyze groundwater monitoring data collected by the experts at the United States Geological Survey  the sole science agency for the U.S. Department of the Interior. Wildermuth's scientific analysis and conclusions demonstrate clear evidence that geothermal fluids are present in Mammoth's groundwater basin, confirming:

Fractured rock allows water, heat and other elements to travel between Mammoth's groundwater basin and Ormat's geothermal reservoir. The conclusion of no impacts to Mammoth's groundwater basin in the environmental review of Ormat's geothermal expansion project was based on a fundamentally flawed assumption that an impermeable barrier prevents Ormat's geothermal reservoir from mixing with the Mammoth community's groundwater.

The connection between Mammoth's groundwater and Ormat's geothermal reservoir places the community's drinking water at risk of contamination or depletion, and the threat is imminent. Ormat's CD-IV project will expand geothermal pumping closer to Mammoth's groundwater wells, placing new stresses on the region's complex, interconnected hydrologic system. Without necessary safeguards, increased geothermal pumping from Ormat's CD-IV project could cause:

Irreversible groundwater contamination  Continued geothermal intrusion could cause significant harm to water quality  even if geothermal pumping is stopped. In particular, once arsenic levels reach a certain threshold, MCWD's existing arsenic removal treatment technologies cannot achieve potable drinking water standards.

 Continued geothermal intrusion could cause significant harm to water quality  even if geothermal pumping is stopped. In particular, once arsenic levels reach a certain threshold, MCWD's existing arsenic removal treatment technologies cannot achieve potable drinking water standards. Depletion of the community water supply  Mammoth's groundwater could leak into the underlying geothermal reservoir as a result of changes in pressure.

Robust safeguards are needed to protect the water supply. Even a small loss of supplies could be cumulatively catastrophic, forcing the Mammoth community to find an alternative water supply  an expensive and uncertain process, requiring years of planning and environmental review. However, the potentially devastating impacts of Ormat's geothermal pumping are preventable. MCWD does not oppose Ormat's geothermal project, but the District is calling on Ormat and regulators to do their part to protect the community's water supply through three simple steps:

Be responsible  don't put our groundwater at unnecessary risk. Install the necessary monitoring well to collect important data regarding the extent of the threat and ensure an early warning system to avoid potential groundwater degradation. Be a partner in protecting our water supply. Share timely, complete and transparent well monitoring and geothermal operations data with MCWD, federal and state regulators, community members, and elected officials. Establish a plan with checks and balances. Adopt and enforce an adequate Groundwater Monitoring and Response Plan that clearly defines monitoring thresholds and requires, if necessary, feasible actions for providing an alternative water supply for Mammoth Lakes .

"Mammoth's tourism industry is the economic heart of our region. My colleagues and I serve the families, employees and business owners, large and small, who are keeping the beat  and we simply cannot allow Ormat to leave them high and dry," said Mammoth Community Water District Board President Thomas Smith. "While I am a strong supporter of bringing clean energy to our state, energy cannot be considered clean if it comes at of the cost of clean water supplies that serve our communities."

Ormat is being consciously negligent with Mammoth's drinking water. The foreign-owned, publicly-traded geothermal giant is the largest company of its kind in the world with a current market value of $3.25 billion. It has the financial wherewithal to invest in adequate safeguards to protect Mammoth's water supply, but has repeatedly refused to do so. It's unclear why Ormat is choosing to put Mammoth's precious groundwater supply at risk, when solutions are readily available to protect the water and community.

The new data analyzed in the Wildermuth report provides clear evidence of a connection between Mammoth's groundwater and Ormat's geothermal reservoir, disproving the fundamental assumption of complete separation used as the basis for the project's environmental review and conclusions  an assumption made by Ormat without using transparent, scientific evidence. Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District needs to reopen the environmental review process  the people of Mammoth Lakes deserve a substantive, thorough review of the project's potentially significant impacts on Mammoth's water supply  before it's too late.

"There is a right way and a wrong way to develop clean energy sources. When projects pose a significant negative impact to our environment, the California Environmental Quality Act requires those impacts must be disclosed and mitigated where feasible. The solution is simple  if Ormat is unwilling to voluntarily do the right thing, then our regulators and elected leaders must step up to the plate," added Hayes.

For more information and to read the full report, please visit: http://www.mcwd.dst.ca.us/assets/groundwaterwei2018.pdf

SOURCE Mammoth Community Water DistrictLONDON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation plc (NYSE: NE) today announced that its report of drilling rig status and contract information has been updated as of March 15, 2018. The report, titled "Fleet Status Report," can be found on the Company's Website www.noblecorp.com, under the "Investor Relations" section of the Website.

About Noble Corporation plc

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 28 offshore drilling units, consisting of 14 drillships and semisubmersibles and 14 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Noble is a public limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 08354954 and registered office at Devonshire House, 1 Mayfair Place, London, W1J 8AJ England. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com.

SOURCE Noble Corporation

Related Links

http://www.noblecorp.com

TORONTO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Norbord Inc. (TSX andNYSE: OSB) announced today that a shortage of wood will cause it to temporarily suspend production at its oriented strand board (OSB) mill in 100 Mile House, British Columbia. Norbord currently expects the suspension to commence on or about May 14, 2018 and to continue for approximately one month.

The significant wildfires that the province of British Columbia experienced in the summer of 2017 seriously damaged logging areas surrounding the 100 Mile House mill. Further, the severe weather conditions this winter have limited loggers' ability to access the forests during the months when the mill typically builds its annual log inventory. Combined, these extraordinary circumstances have impacted Norbord's ability to secure a sufficient wood supply to operate the mill on a continuous basis during this one-month period.

Norbord will continue to supply its customers with production from its other OSB mills and the 100 Mile House mill will continue to receive log deliveries during this period. The Company currently estimates that the curtailment will negatively impact its second quarter 2018 financial results by approximately US$5 million.

The 100 Mile House mill has a stated annual production capacity of 440 million square feet (3/8-inch basis).

Norbord Profile

Norbord Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of wood-based panels and the world's largest producer of oriented strand board (OSB). In addition to OSB, Norbord manufactures particleboard, medium density fibreboard and related value-added products. Norbord has assets of approximately $2.1 billion and employs approximately 2,750 people at 17 plant locations in the United States, Canada and Europe. Norbord is a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "OSB".

This news release contains forward-looking statements, as defined by applicable securities legislation, including statements related to our strategy, projects, plans, future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "set up," "on track," "expect," "estimate," "forecast," "target," "outlook," "schedule," "represent," "continue," "intend," "should," "would," "could," "will," "can," "might," "may," and other expressions which are predictions of or indicate future events, trends or prospects and which do not relate to historical matters identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Norbord to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Although Norbord believes it has a reasonable basis for making these forward-looking statements, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking information. By its nature, forward-looking information involves numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, which contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts and other forward-looking statements will not occur. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated or implied by forward-looking statements include: assumptions in connection with the economic and financial conditions in the US, Europe, Canada and globally; risks inherent to product concentration and cyclicality; effects of competition and product pricing pressures; risks inherent to customer dependence; effects of variations in the price and availability of manufacturing inputs, including continued access to fibre resources at competitive prices; availability of rail services and port facilities; various events that could disrupt operations, including natural or catastrophic events and ongoing relations with employees; impact of changes to, or non-compliance with, environmental regulations; impact of any product liability claims in excess of insurance coverage; risks inherent to a capital intensive industry; impact of future outcomes of tax exposures; potential future changes in tax laws; effects of currency exposures and exchange rate fluctuations; future operating costs, availability of financing, impact of future cross-border trade rulings or agreements; ability to implement new or upgraded information technology infrastructure; impact of information technology service disruptions or failures; and other risks and factors described from time to time in filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

Except as required by applicable law, Norbord does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by, or on behalf of, the Company, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, or to publicly update or revise the above list of factors affecting this information. See the "Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information" statement in the February 1, 2018 Annual Information Form and the cautionary statement contained in the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of the 2017 Management's Discussion and Analysis dated February 1, 2018.

SOURCE Norbord Inc.

Related Links

http://www.norbord.com

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alight Mortgage Solutions, a subsidiary of Alight, Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based applications for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and scenario analysis, today announced that Norcom Mortgage has selected the Alight Mortgage Lending platform. Alight Mortgage Lending provides mortgage banking executives and their teams visibility into the financial and operational impact of decisions, before they are made.

Mortgage industry veteran Phil DeFronzo is CEO and founder of Norcom Mortgage. He also serves on the Mortgage Bankers Association's Board of Directors and as Chairman of the Residential Board of Governors. "We're a multi-channel operation," DeFronzo said, "and Alight will help us determine the best allocation of capital across our different channels to optimize profitability, maximize our return on capital and improve performance."

Alight integrates directly with mortgage industry datageneral ledger, loan origination system, payroll, capital markets system, servicing system, among othersand pulls financial and operational data so that management teams can understand what drove historical performance and run forward-looking, what-if scenarios to see how operational changes or changing market conditions will affect financial outcomes. Armed with financial and operational information, management can make well-informed decisionsquickly.

"With Alight, we'll be able to quickly and easily identify sources of variance from budget or expected performance and take immediate corrective action," said Dan Humphrey, Norcom's CFO. "Alight will also shorten the amount of time we spend on routine budgeting and forecasting," he added.

"One thing absolutely critical for any mortgage lender is visibility into the potential financial and operational outcomes of the multitude of decisions they need to make on a daily basis," said Michael McFadden, Group Head of Alight Mortgage, "and our application gives them that visibility.

"We are delighted that Norcom Mortgage has selected Alight as a partner to work toward meeting and exceeding their financial and operational goals for 2018 and beyond," McFadden concluded.

About Alight, Inc.

Alight, Inc. is the leading provider of industry-specific, cloud-based applications that give customers the power to see the financial impact of every decision, before they make it. Alight works with companies in mortgage lending, mining and other industries. For more information: alightinc.com.

About Norcom

Founded in Avon, Connecticut, in 1989, Norcom is a fast-growing generational lender serving families throughout the United States. The Norcom family offers customers a wide range of mortgage programs that fit their needs and superior customer service while placing an emphasis on speed, flexibility and low rates. The company gives back to the communities it serves through its outreach division, Norcom Cares. For more information: norcommortgage.com.

SOURCE Alight, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.alightinc.com

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced that NYDJa leading denim and apparel brand for womenhas selected Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud to grow its direct-to-consumer online channels and deliver personalized, connected shopping journeys.

Prior to Salesforce, NYDJ used point solutions for ecommerce and marketing that siloed customer data and lacked the analytics needed to improve engagement across every touchpoint. In an industry where creating exceptional customer experiences is essential to building brand loyalty, retailers like NYDJ need a platform that unifies customer data across the entire shopping journey, including web, mobile, social and in-store, and provides a single, actionable view of each shopper.

With Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud, NYDJ now has a single, intelligent platform that can help turn consumers into high-value customers. With Commerce Cloud, NYDJ shoppers will see unique content, campaigns, offers and recommendations based on information such as browsing history, past purchases and whether they are shopping on the web, smartphone or social media. And with Marketing Cloud, NYDJ will be able to deliver the right messages at the right time to shoppers via their preferred communication channels. For example, if a customer shopping on NYDJ.com adds items to their shopping cart but does not complete their purchase, a follow-up message could be sent automatically that reminds or even incentivizes them to complete their purchase.

"The pace of change in our industry is staggering, and our commitment to creating the best product and experience for our customers ensures a bright future for NYDJ," said Lisa Collier, president and chief executive officer, NYDJ. "We look forward to further streamlining our commerce and marketing with Salesforce to build experiences that create life-long customers."

"As retailers like NYDJ grow their digital engagement, it is essential that they unify the customer experience across all points of marketing and commerce," said Shelley Bransten, SVP, retail industry solutions at Salesforce. "NYDJ is taking a big step to foster growth and build smarter, more personalized and faster experiences for their shoppers."

About NYDJ

Founded in 2003 in Los Angeles as Not Your Daughter's Jeans, NYDJ is a denim and apparel brand designed to make women feel fabulous, confident, sexy, and amazing. Believing that "Fit is Everything," NYDJ is renowned for pioneering fit technology in denim and an inclusive size range that spans petite, plus, tall, and maternity so every woman can enjoy comfortable, flattering jeans that feel like they were made just for her. Every pair of NYDJ jeans and pants feature exclusive Lift Tuck Technology that slims in the front and lifts in the back, contouring curves so that customers look, feel, and buy one size smaller. With a cult following and a transformative fit, NYDJ is a brand that values customer intimacy, innovation and community. Now with an assortment that includes tops, pants and other apparel, NYDJ is sold in better department stores and over 7,000 global points of retail distribution. For more information, visit NYDJ.com.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, the global CRM leader, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: http://www.salesforce.com.

SOURCE Salesforce

Related Links

http://www.salesforce.com

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will host two workshops at the Holiday Inn Fort Walton Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., April 24-25, for directors of national community banks and federal savings associations supervised by the OCC.

The Risk Governance workshop on April 24 combines lectures, discussion, and exercises to provide practical information for directors to effectively measure and manage risks. The workshop also focuses on the OCC's approach to risk-based supervision and major risks in the financial industry.

The Credit Risk workshop on April 25 focuses on credit risk within the loan portfolio, such as identifying trends and recognizing problems. The workshop also covers the roles of the board and management, how to stay informed of changes in credit risk, and how to effect change.

The workshop fee is $99 and open to directors of national community banks and federal savings associations supervised by the OCC. Participants receive course materials, and assorted supervisory publications. The workshop is limited to the first 35 registrants.

The workshops are taught by experienced OCC staff and are two of the 25 offered nationwide to enhance and expand the skills of national community bank and federal savings association directors. To register for this workshop, visit www.occ.gov/occworkshops.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") charters and oversees a nationwide system of national banks and federal savings associations and assures that these banking institutions are safe and sound, competitive, and capable of serving the banking needs of their customers in the best possible manner. OCC press releases and other information are available at http://www.occ.gov. To receive OCC press releases and issuances by e-mail, subscribe at http://www.occ.gov/subscribe/occ-email-list-service.html.

SOURCE Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Related Links

http://www.occ.gov

Online tutoring has become commonplace in China. Around 200 million primary and middle school students in China face increasing pressure, as space in the country's best schools and universities is limited. Parents have paid increasing attention to their children's education due to significantly improved living standards and they are willing to pay more for high-quality education services. In addition, the fast growth of internet technologies has helped online educators solve the distance problem and provide a unique edge by giving students anywhere access to experienced tutors. Online education has drawn the attention of both students and their parents.

Zhangmen is a platform created in response to the wide adoption of online education. In 2014, Zhang Yi left Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and declined a full-time job offer from McKinsey & Company to set up Zhangmen by moving its burgeoning offline education operation online. With Zhangmen, primary and middle school students from 8 to 18 years of age can select top teachers for personalized, one-on-one tutoring sessions.

Zhangmen was created as a platform with a focus on making access to educational resources convenient and easy for students. The platform, by making use of internet live streaming technologies, enables students to select top teachers who are graduates of China's first-class universities, among them, Tsinghua, Peking, Zhejiang, Fudan and Shanghai Jiao Tong, for personalized, one-on-one tutoring sessions. Zhangmen provides each student with a program of one-on-one tutoring sessions by different professional teachers which includes taking the student through every step in the service chain, from trialing the class, to course selection, completing the course, taking the required tests and providing feedback once the course is completed.

By combining live streaming and experienced teachers with one-on-one tutoring, Zhangmen has gained increasing popularity among students and parents. Data released by Zhangmen shows that the platform currently has 40,000 tutors and 3 million registered students across over 600 cities in China following more than three years of development. Turnover jumped from 100 million yuan in 2016 to 1 billion yuan in 2017, representing a 70 per cent share of China's online K12 one-on-one tutoring market. Zhangmen CEO Zhang Yi was included in Forbes' China's 30 Under 30 list in July 2017.

Favorable government policies and positive market feedback are expected to further boost growth of online education

Zhangmen's fast growth provides a snapshot of China's booming online education market. Online education service providers are further encouraged by positive government support and market feedback.

In January 2017, China's State Council issued the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Education, as part of efforts to facilitate the development of internet education, in a move to improve access to education across the country as well as to make access more equal for all. On September 1, 2017, new regulations on the implementation of the Non-State Education Promotion Law formally took effect, stipulating that non-governmental educational institutions will enjoy equal rights with schools funded by the government. In addition to providing a clear definition of the legal status of educational institutions in China, the government has demonstrated its commitment to promoting education via internet technologies.

Favorable government policies have stimulated a positive market response. Given the prevalence of the internet in China, commercialization and digitalization of education resources are not an unreachable goal. The advantages of online education have been expanding, as online education has solved the distance problem, greatly improving fairness in terms of access to educational resources.

A white paper covering the 2017 online education market in China released by mobile internet industry consultancy iiMedia Research shows that China's online education market is estimated to have reached 281 billion yuan in 2017 and expected to further grow to 348 billion yuan this year.

Investors are more willing to invest in top education teams, yet, this time around, they are being more selective in where they are placing their bets

The huge potential of China's online education market has attracted the attention of the many "money hunters". Following the initial flood of capital into the education sector in 2015, the sector again witnessed an explosive jump in the amount of capital infusion during 2017.

According to publicly available data released by Beijing-based education sector-focused new media agency Jingmeiti covering the period up to December 31, 2017, China's first-tier educational market witnessed 412 financing activities in 2017, raising, in the aggregate, 28.286 billion yuan (approx US$4.47 billion), with the majority of the funding focused on K12 programs. Among the top 10 online education institutions in terms of the amount of financing received, nearly half went to K12 online education (including the teaching of English to children of all ages).

At variance with the "undisciplined" initial influx of capital in 2015, investors are now much more selective when placing their bet on the education sector. They focus not only on the dividend, but on the brand strength and team capabilities of the targeted institutions. However, there are few companies that can provide the industry and users with value, resulting in capital flowing to the top teams in every segment. The advantages of the leading players may become even more evident during 2018.

Zhangmen is a high-quality choice for investors. The platform announced successful completion of the D round of financing on January 9, 2018, raising US$120 million from Warburg Pincus and Genesis Capital. The amount represents K12's largest single round of financing in the online one-on-one education sector to date, but also its first capital infusion from a dollar-denominated fund focused on the sector.

In early 2018, with annual turnover having surpassed the one billion-yuan mark (approx. US$158 million) coupled with the injection of US$120 million, Zhangmen successfully entered the 2017 China Internet "Unicorn Club" pantheon. This is a good start, yet Mr. Zhang does not plan to spend even a second sitting on his laurels. He said, "It is inevitable, rather than accidental, that China's online education sector is headed for new heights. The internet, a vehicle that has ushered in a new level of productivity, is changing all aspects of life, including education. Online education is not only popular in China, the model can and will be rapidly expanded into other countries worldwide."

About Zhangmen

Zhangmen, the leading one-on-one education brand for primary and middle school students in China, focuses on offering customized one-on-one tutoring for children between 8 and 18 years of age. The platform now has 40,000 teachers, 100,000 units of proprietary teaching materials and a library comprising 7 million exercise problems. Its 3 million registered students come from over 600 cities nationwide. Revenues topped one billion yuan in 2017.

Founded in Shanghai by Zhang Yi, Zhangmen grew out of the "elite club" jointly founded by top performing graduates from Tsinghua, Peking, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Zhejiang and Fudan universities. With the aim of meeting the demand from a growing number of students and their parents for high-quality, personalized education, the brand undertook the transition to online education services in 2014.

Between 2014 and 2017, Zhangmen completed six rounds of financing, raising capital to the tune of several hundred million yuan from Qingsong Fund, ShunWei Capital, Fortune Venture Capital, Huasheng Capital, Star VC, Warburg Pincus and Genesis Capital.

In July 2017, Zhangmen raised additional capital from the leading venture capital firm SarVC, jointly invested by Ren Quan, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Ziyi and Huang Bo, during its C+-round of financing. In December, the firm completed the D round of financing, raising US$120 million from Warburg Pincus and Genesis Capital.

In July 2017, Mr. Zhang, the Zhangmen CEO, entered the Forbes 30 under 30 China List. In early 2018, with annual turnover exceeding 1 billion yuan and the large capital injection of US$120 million, Zhangmen became a member of the 2017 China Internet "Unicorn Club".

SOURCE Zhangmen"I am thrilled to welcome Ben to the Ontario Teachers'. I am sure that he will make an immediate contribution to our activities, given his long track record as an impactful investor and supportive collaborator with the investment partners that we work with in the Asia-Pacific region," said Jo Taylor, Senior Managing Director International at Ontario Teachers'. "Ben's in-depth knowledge of the region will serve us well as we look to grow our investments in Asia-Pacific, and support our portfolio of international companies looking to expand their footprint and capabilities in that region."

Mr. Chan joins from Khazanah Nasional Berhad, where he was Co-Head of Investments and led their investment activities in China. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales and has over 28 years of international investing experience in public and private equities, investment banking and accounting.

About Ontario Teachers'

Ontario Teachers' is Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with C$180.5 billion in net assets at June 30, 2017. The defined-benefit plan, which is fully funded, invests and administers the pensions of the province of Ontario's 318,000 active and retired teachers. It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an annualized rate of return of 10.1% since the plan's founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Ontario Teachers' opened its Asia-Pacific regional office in Hong Kong in 2013, reflecting the global nature of the business and the growing importance of the region to the future of the fund. It also has an office in London which invests in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, which was opened in 2007. otpp.com

SOURCE Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Related Links

http://www.otpp.com

NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Operative, the leader in advertising business management, announced today that the company has hired Andrew Lazarus as Chief Financial Officer. Lazarus brings more than 20 years of experience as a CFO for successful, high-growth software companies. Lazarus will be responsible for all financial activities of the global organization, which sells business management technology to the largest media companies in the world. He will join the executive team, and will work closely with the board and Francisco Partners to help the company deliver the next generation of open, configurable ad management solutions.

"Andy brings a wealth of experience growing SaaS companies that offer flexible, open software to large clients. He will focus on financial growth, investment and operational excellence as Operative continues to grow and help media companies configure their next generation advertising sales technology stack much like apps in an app store," said Lorne Brown, CEO at Operative. "We're excited to have Andy lead a financial strategy that will be scalable and profitable as our clients partner with Operative to deliver 'Premium as a Platform.'"

Throughout his career as a CFO, Andrew Lazarus has helped technology companies achieve significant growth. Lazarus has deep experience scaling global infrastructure, leveraging intellectual property, generating profitable growth and maximizing shareholder value through organic growth, investment and M&A. Before joining Operative, Lazarus was the Finance Director at BAE Systems - Applied Intelligence, a leading provider of cybersecurity and and enterprise fraud prevention software. At BAE, Lazarus help to lead the system and work process integration of several international business units while helping the company to adopt SaaS best practices. Previously, Lazarus served as the CFO at Silver Sky and Genesys. Earlier, he worked in investment banking, acting as lead underwriter of public and private equity and debt offerings and advisor to M&A activities. Lazarus has a BS in Accounting & Finance from Babson College and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

The world's largest media companies are partnering with Operative to create media marketplaces using flexible technology that can scale across channels including digital direct, programmatic, linear TV and Advanced TV. Clients including Comcast, NBCU, The Washington Post and BuzzFeed rely on Operative as they focus on delivering efficiency and multichannel profitability during extreme upheaval in the market. Operative's suite of products is the foundation that empowers media companies to create best-in-class media sales for advertisers and to grow their business.

"Operative is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the shift to advanced TV and converged media buying and selling as they continue to grow their relationship with the world's largest media companies," said Andy Lazarus, CFO at Operative. "I'm excited to work with such a dedicated and knowledgeable team as we take a leadership role in next-generation advertising technology."

About Operative

Operative delivers management solutions for premium media companies. The company is the partner of choice for over 300 of the world's top media brands, including NBCU, CBS, ABC, AT&T, STARZ, Star India, Seven Australia and Sky. No other software company brings a comparable depth of experience to create truly innovative, scalable software that performs across all platforms, revenue models, and business units. Operative has employees in 12 offices around the world and processes more than $40 billion in premium linear and digital advertising revenue. For more information, visit www.operative.com

SOURCE Operative

Related Links

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NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Perimeter Agency, New York's premiere Private Investigation Agency, is expanding its regional presence by joining forces with Three Star Investigations founders Joseph Ponzi and George Terra, N.Y.C based private investigators specializing in fraud, corruption, and surveillance. This joining of forces brings together over 90 years of multidisciplinary law enforcement and investigative expertise and experience under one agency.

Collectively, Joseph Ponzi and George Terra have more than 70 years of law enforcement and investigation experience. Before going into business for themselves, Ponzi and Terra held executive level positions with the Kings County District Attorney's office in Brooklyn, NY.

"The collective talents that are being united under Perimeter Agency will allow us to deliver the high-level service that our clients expect, while broadening our staff capacity and investment in innovative technologies resulting in a wider and more effective range of services," said Joseph Ponzi, who now serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Perimeter Agency.

Joseph Ponzi, former Chief Investigator of the Kings County District Attorney's Office, spent 36 years on the job. As Chief Investigator in one of the largest Prosecutor's office in the country, he commanded a squad of over 100 Detectives and personally worked on some of New York's most notorious cases, including the indictment and successful prosecution of two corrupt sitting state supreme court judges and the so-called "Mafia Cops."

"We are delighted to join with Perimeter Agency. We can now leverage our success by joining forces with one of New York's top private investigation agencies and use our skills and experience to enhance that relationship and expand our regional footprint," said George Terra, Perimeter Agency's new Chief Investigator.

Terra spent 20 years with the NYCPD during which time he spent 5 years with an FBI Task Force. Upon his retirement he was recruited as a Supervising Detective Investigator for the Kings County District Attorney's Office where he rose to the rank of Assistant Chief Investigator responsible for their Criminal Investigations Division. He has over 45 years of extensive law enforcement experience investigating and supervising cases involving weapons and narcotics trafficking, financial crimes including mortgage and insurance fraud, human trafficking, child exploitation, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security fraud, trademark and intellectual property crimes, identity theft, political corruption and organized crime matters.

Featured on A&E, National Geographic and I-Discovery, both Joseph and George have gained considerable acclaim and respect for investigating and building cases that exposed corruption and misconduct in the judiciary system and helped disrupt and dismantle organized crime syndicates throughout the NYC area.

"Our new executive team will allow us to serve our clients with extensive investigative experience and leadership to our extraordinary talent pool and resources," said Vincent Guastamacchia, founder of Perimeter Agency. "This union strengthens our regional presence with a team of professionals who are perfectly-aligned with Perimeter Agency's vision and mission."

For more information about Perimeter Agency Security & Investigation LLC, visit www.perimeteragency.com.

CONTACT:

Vincent Guastamacchia

Perimeter Security & Investigation LLC

244 Fifth Avenue, Suite V271

New York, N.Y. 10001

Phone: (212) 779-1565

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Perimeter Security & Investigations, LLCPLYMOUTH, Mich., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Plastipak Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") announced today that it will file its Form 10-Q Equivalent Report for its fiscal quarter ended February 3, 2018 electronically with Wells Fargo National Bank, as Trustee for the holders of its 6.250% Senior Notes due 2025 (the "Senior Notes"), by the close of business on Tuesday, March 20, 2018. The Company is not required by the Indenture for the Senior Notes to file annual, quarterly or periodic reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and therefore does not plan to file these reports with the SEC.

Holders, authorized prospective holders and securities analysts may obtain a copy of the Company's Form 10-Q Equivalent Report by contacting Investor Relations at (734) 455-3600 or by emailing [email protected].

The Company will host an investor teleconference call for holders, authorized prospective holders and securities analysts on March 22, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. ET. Details for the call are available to holders, authorized prospective holders and securities analysts by contacting Investor Relations.

Qualified bondholders and lenders may obtain copies of the Form 10-Q Equivalent Report and details of the investor teleconference call by logging on to the secure bondholder section of the Company's website (www.plastipak.com).

SOURCE Plastipak Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.plastipak.com

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, is launching regional workshops to provide reporters with the tools and data they need to examine the use and misuse of county jails.

Thanks to support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, accepted applicants will attend one of Poynter's two-day workshops for free, including most meals and hotel costs. Attendees will focus on how local jails concern community members, from the taxpayer to the incarcerated.

To apply for a spot in A Journalist's Guide to Covering Jails workshop, go to https://www.poynter.org/training-events/journalists-guide-covering-jails-0.

This training will take place in four U.S. communities with unique criminal justice issues: New York, Utah, Ohio and Oklahoma. New York is grappling with the realization that while incarceration in New York City has dropped by more than half, facilities around the state have grown dramatically. Oklahoma City's Chamber of Commerce got involved with reform to combat the strain that overflowing local jails had on taxes.

These examples reflect larger trends. Local jails are often overused and ineffective, with disproportionate impacts on rural, low-income and other disempowered people.

"What do these facts tell us about our communities and how democracy is functioning?" asked Patrick Griffin, Senior Criminal Justice Program Officer at the MacArthur Foundation. "Who is in jail? Why? To make our communities better, we need journalists who can shed light on these stories."

As newsrooms have shrunk, journalists have less time for the traditional reporting that took them to jails and police stations every day in search of stories. The strain is amplified in smaller newsrooms.

"At Poynter, helping save and reinvent local news is central to our mission," said Poynter Vice President Kelly McBride. "This teaching will surface the sources and resources that will make telling the crucial stories about county jails accessible to even the smallest newsrooms."

Poynter is partnering with the Vera Institute of Justice, a leading resource for data and analysis of incarceration in America, and The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization devoted to covering criminal justice. Both organizations will help sharpen reporters' skills covering criminal justice broadly and identify stories specific to their communities.

The workshops will be led by Al Tompkins, Poynter's Senior Faculty for Broadcast and Online, in the following locations:

New York City , New York : March 27-28, 2018 (workshop full)

, : (workshop full) Salt Lake City, Utah : April 11-12, 2018 / (workshop full)

: / (workshop full) Columbus, Ohio : June 21-22, 2018 / Apply by: May 21

: / Apply by: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma : August 1-2, 2018 / Apply by: July 2

About The Poynter Institute

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., and at conferences and organizational sites around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, www.newsu.org, offers the world's largest online journalism curriculum in 7 languages, with more than 400 interactive courses and registered users in more than 200 countries. The Institute's website, www.poynter.org, produces 24-hour coverage of news about media, ethics, technology, the business of news and the trends that currently define and redefine journalism news reporting. The world's top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcast producers, and to build public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and protected discourse that serves democracy and the public good.

Contact: Tina Dyakon

Director of Advertising and Marketing

The Poynter Institute

[email protected]

727-553-4343

SOURCE The Poynter Institute

Related Links

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WINTER PARK, Fla., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruth's Chris Steak House will celebrate the Pinot Noir grape at its upcoming Ruth's TasteMaker Dinner on April 5. The second in a series of six exclusive dining experiences hosted at select locations nationwide, this dinner will highlight selections from acclaimed winemaker Joe Wagner, including the award-winning Belle Glos. Wagner learned the ropes from his father Chuck, co-founder of Caymus Vineyards, and those lessons translated into his bold approach in making Pinot Noir. As the founder of Belle Glos, Meiomi, Elouan and Boen, his winemaking style is credited with redefining coastal California Pinot Noir and helping increase its popularity.

"It's my strong belief that Pinot Noir is the best food-pairing wine out there," said Wagner, owner and winemaker of Copper Cane Wine and Provisions. "Its acidity enlivens the palate and excites your taste buds to take another bite and another sip. I'm excited for guests to experience the depth and variety of ways Pinot Noir grapes can be used to create interesting and nuanced wines beyond what they may have previously encountered."

The first course of the dinner will feature seared ahi tuna with Szechuan pepper sauce balanced with a glass of Belle Glos' "Oeil de Perdrix", a crisp and citrusy rose made from Pinot Noir. For the second course, guests will relish a savory parmesan soup topped with bacon and chives and paired with Boen's Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. Roasted chicken with a tart and fruity pomegranate glaze will take center stage for course three alongside a glass of Belle Glos' highly-rated "Clark and Telephone Vineyard" Pinot Noir, renowned for its refreshing acidity, velvety tannins and hint of toffee flavor. For the main course, guests will savor Ruth's signature Filet Mignon atop a wild mushroom and burrata bruschetta and accompanied by spring risotto, roasted vegetable napoleon and Elouan's "Reserve" Pinot Noir from the Rogue Valley in southern Oregon. The evening will be capped off with a refreshing dessert pairing of yuzu panna cotta with citrus meringue, coconut cream and gelato served with Steorra's Brut Sparkling blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varietals.

"It's really been enjoyable to develop the menu for this dinner," said Abdiel Aleman, Vice President of Culinary Development. "Joe Wagner's wines are known for being bold and rule-breaking, and so it allowed us the opportunity to be playful with the dishes we developed and create robust flavor combinations."

Ruth's TasteMaker Dinners bring together some of the most iconic and up-and-coming winemakers in the industry for a specially-curated night of great food, storytelling and making memories around Ruth's signature 500-degree, sizzling plates. Seating for each dinner is limited so guests are encouraged to plan ahead. Below is the complete schedule for upcoming dinners and wineries that will be featured in the 2018 series:

May 3 Freemark Abbey June 21 Caymus Vineyards August 23 Veuve Clicquot October 18 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

For reservations and more information about Ruth's TasteMaker Dinner series, please visit www.ruthschris.com.

ABOUT RUTH'S CHRIS STEAKHOUSE

Ruth's Chris Steak House was founded by Ruth Fertel 50 years ago in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ruth had a recipe for everything  from how to prepare her signature sizzling steaks to how to treat her guests. This timeless formula is a testament to how one neighborhood eatery has become the largest collection of upscale steak houses in the world, with more than 150 restaurant locations around the globe. Ruth's Chris remains true to its heritage, helping guests make their best memories on 500-degree sizzling plates. Ruth's Chris Steak House. This is how it's done.

SOURCE Ruth's Chris Steak House

Related Links

http://www.ruthschris.com

The News in Brief

(Prepared by Mariam Chanishvili)



European Parliament Member Says Georgia-EU Visa Deal May Face Threats



The Member of European Parliament (MEP) Petras Austrevicius has stated that the visa liberalization suspension mechanism can be enacted to Georgia if the number of people illegally staying in Europe increases.



The first half of 2017 shows no dramatic increase of Georgian asylum seekers in the EUs Schengen Zone , Petras Austrevicius told the Georgian Kviris Palitra newspaper.



The lawmaker stressed that the number of Georgians who stay illegally in the EU countries does not exceed 5%. .



But there is also the so-called tolerance limit, and if the statements about the crimes committed by Georgians become more frequent, we will have to take measures, Austrevicius stated.



He said that such a decision would affect Georgia and its law-abiding population. He hoped that the activation of the suspension mechanism against Georgia will not be necessary.



Georgia signed the visa free agreement with the EU in March 2017, which enables Georgian citizens stay in the Schengen Zone for 90 days in any 180-day period.







20 Opposition Parties Send Joint Lawsuit to European Court



The joint lawsuit by 20 different opposition parties about the falsification of the results of the 2017 municipal elections was signed to be sent to European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.



A member of the political council of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia, Giorgi Akhvlediani stated that this is an unprecedented case that 20 political parties "have managed to unite against Ivanishvilis [founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party]cruelty."



Parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition parties will sign a joint lawsuit, which will be sent to Strasbourg. The lawsuit concerns the total falsification of 2017 municipal elections, stated Akhvlediani.



He noted that there were many falsified electoral protocols, making an in influence on the elections results.



SAN JOSE, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global automotive and industrial supplier, Schaeffler, today announced the opening of a new Silicon Valley location. The facility, located at 1735 Technology Drive, Ste. 175, in San Jose, Calif., establishes Schaeffler's foothold in this leading tech region.

Philip George, director, region innovation for Schaeffer, will lead the new office. In his new role, George will lead the local team in fostering new relationships with local disruptors, start-up companies and potential technology partners that will further facilitate Schaeffler's advanced automotive and industrial product developments. The team will also work to define and develop new tools and methods that will further enable the company to quickly advance new technology solutions.

"Only those with a precise understanding of their customers' requirements can offer tailored solutions," said George. "With its close proximity to tech-driven companies and start-ups, our new Silicon Valley facility enables us to not only stay current with transformational technology trends created in this region, but to become an active partner to the companies driving these trends."

As Schaeffer establishes its presence in the region, the company strives to further evolve its digital agenda, which is working to actively tackle and help shape issues of the future, such as Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, big data, cloud analytics and new business models.

"We're prepared to engage in the forward-thinking efforts needed to provide our customers and partners with innovative and comprehensive system solutions for tomorrow's automotive and industrial needs," said George.

"As technologies and innovative breakthroughs continue to develop at a rapid pace and change the world's mobility culture, our move to Silicon Valley will further strengthen our strategy 'Mobility for tomorrow,'" said Prof. Peter Gutzmer, deputy CEO and chief technology officer at Schaeffler. "The development of new opportunities and technologies in this region will further enable us to come up with innovative solutions in order to be a preferred technology partner to our customers, today and in the future."

About Schaeffler

The Schaeffler Group is a global automotive and industrial supplier. Top quality, outstanding technology, and exceptionally innovative spirit form the basis for the continued success of the company. By delivering high-precision components and systems in engine, transmission, and chassis applications, as well as rolling and plain bearing solutions for a large number of industrial applications, the Schaeffler Group is already shaping "Mobility for tomorrow" to a significant degree. The technology company generated sales of approximately EUR 14 billion in 2017. With more than 90,000 employees, Schaeffler is one of the world's largest family companies and, with approximately 170 locations in over 50 countries, has a worldwide network of manufacturing locations, research and development facilities, and sales companies.

Schaeffler is a recognized development partner for global automakers and suppliers. To serve the North American automotive market, Schaeffler operates development centers in: Troy, Mich.; Fort Mill, S.C.; Wooster, Ohio; and Puebla, Mexico. The company's 600 North American engineers and technicians, who are supported by a team of more than 6,700 global R&D engineers, drive development in the region by utilizing state-of-the-art test and measurement equipment, computational tools and CAD systems. Schaeffler Automotive has headquarters in Fort Mill and manufacturing facilities in: South Carolina; Missouri; Ohio; Ontario, Canada; Puebla and Irapuato, Mexico. For more information, please visit www.schaeffler.us.

Follow us on Twitter @schaefflergroup to get all of our latest press releases and news.

Schaeffler Twitter Facebook YouTube

SOURCE Schaeffler

Related Links

http://www.schaeffler.us

Service quality affects whether a customer will recommend using a dealer for service or sales, as well as their loyalty intentions toward a particular brand or model. Scores in the service quality measure improve 39 points to 821 (on a 1,000-point scale) since the study was redesigned in 2015. Other measures in the study showing year-over-year improvement include service advisor (+12 points); service facility (+11); service initiation (+10); and vehicle pick-up (+10).

A new metric, Net Promoter Score (NPS)1, which measures customer loyalty and predicts business growth, is included in the 2018 study to further show service satisfaction's role in whether a customer will recommend a brand or tell others to avoid it.

"There's a strong link between a brand's CSI score and its Net Promoter Score," said Chris Sutton, Vice President, U.S. Automotive Retail Practice at J.D. Power. "When a customer is happy with the service a dealer provides them, they're more likely to tell their friends and family members about it. This experience creates promoters for the vehicle brand who are more likely to return to a dealer for repairs and common services like oil changes and replacement of batteries, brakes and tires. Increasing the number of brand advocates is the pathway to growth for dealers looking to generate repeat business and bring in new business based on positive word of mouth.

"It's also good news for manufacturers because satisfied customers tend to stay with a brand and bring others with them," Sutton added. "Anything less opens the door for customers to shop elsewhere."

Following are some of the study's key findings:

Customers prefer online service scheduling capability: Using the internet to schedule service has increased among all generations, but Gen Y 2 customers have adopted internet scheduling at a much faster rate than older customers. Nearly one-fourth (24%) of Gen Y customers schedule their service via the internet, compared with 10% of Pre-Boomers. As Gen Y customers contribute to a larger portion of the vehicle-buying marketplace, it is imperative for dealers to offer effective online scheduling tools to serve this group and let them know these tools are available.

Using the internet to schedule service has increased among all generations, but Gen Y customers have adopted internet scheduling at a much faster rate than older customers. Nearly one-fourth (24%) of Gen Y customers schedule their service via the internet, compared with 10% of Pre-Boomers. As Gen Y customers contribute to a larger portion of the vehicle-buying marketplace, it is imperative for dealers to offer effective online scheduling tools to serve this group and let them know these tools are available. White glove valet service improves loyalty among premium brand customers: Catering to luxury customers with home or office vehicle pick-up and delivery services has a notable effect on intended loyalty to return for future services, with 68% of these customers saying they "definitely will" return to their dealership. Overall scores among those who have their vehicle picked up is 27 points higher than among those who drop their vehicle off at the dealership (889 vs. 862, respectively).

Catering to luxury customers with home or office vehicle pick-up and delivery services has a notable effect on intended loyalty to return for future services, with 68% of these customers saying they "definitely will" return to their dealership. Overall scores among those who have their vehicle picked up is 27 points higher than among those who drop their vehicle off at the dealership (889 vs. 862, respectively). Promotions, coupons and word of mouth attract young customers: The most common reasons customers choose their dealer for service include prior experience and convenience of location, but younger customers are more likely to rely on recommendations from friends or relatives (9% of Gen Y select a dealer based on recommendations, compared with 5% of Boomers). That is why the Net Promoter Score measurement has gained interest.

Highest-Ranked Brands

Infiniti ranks highest in satisfaction with dealer service among luxury brands for the first time since 2003, with a score of 876. Ranking second in the luxury segment is Porsche (874). Audi, Cadillac and Lexus rank third in a tie (871).

Buick ranks highest in satisfaction for dealer service among mass market brands for a second consecutive year, with a score of 850. Chevrolet and MINI rank second in a tie (849), followed by GMC (843) and Volkswagen (828).

The 2018 U.S. CSI Study is based on responses from 74,021 owners and lessees of 2015 to 2017 model-year vehicles. The study was fielded in October-December 2017.

For more information about the 2018 U.S. Customer Service Index Study, visit http://www.jdpower.com/resource/us-customer-service-index-study.

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2018031.

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. These capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Established in 1968, J.D. Power is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices serving North/South America, Asia Pacific and Europe. J.D. Power is a portfolio company of XIO Group, a global alternative investments and private equity firm headquartered in London, and is led by its four founders: Athene Li, Joseph Pacini, Murphy Qiao and Carsten Geyer.

Media Relations Contacts

Geno Effler; Costa Mesa, Calif.; 714-621-6224; [email protected]

Shane Smith; East Coast; 424-903-3665; [email protected]

About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules www.jdpower.com/about-us/press-release-info



1 Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

2 J.D. Power defines the generations as Pre-Boomers (born before 1946); Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); and Gen Y (1977-1994).

SOURCE J.D. Power

Related Links

http://www.jdpower.com

The bold "Always Sleep Inn Style" ad campaign from last year highlighted the brand's timeless appeal to both guests and owners, commitment to low costs, and proven leadership in the segment  making it the smart investment in midscale new construction.

"Our strategy for the Sleep Inn brand is working, and developers certainly have noticed. Demand continues to increase for the brand because of the high-performing, long-term investment opportunity it offers owners," said Brian Quinn, head of development, new construction brands, Choice Hotels. "With the lowest new construction build costs in the segment, and a lasting prototype that guests love, the Sleep Inn brand has affirmed its leadership in the highly sought-after midscale market, and is an attractive option for developers throughout the country."

The Sleep Inn prototype was designed to appeal to tastes and behaviors of guests of today and tomorrow. It features an efficient footprint with timeless, nature-inspired aesthetics throughout every guest touch point, as well as the amenities guests need to feel well-rested.

"Guests appreciate the simply stylish design of the Sleep Inn brand, featuring warm colors, black-and-white artwork, and accents rooted in nature," said Anne Smith, vice president, brand management and design, Choice Hotels. "Plus, they like the innovative touches like the streamlined closets and style that don't sacrifice function. We're thrilled about the continued interest from developers, and look forward to more consumers discovering our Designed to Dream experience in new markets."

For more information on Sleep Inn hotel development opportunities, please visit https://choicehotelsdevelopment.com/sleepinn/.

Sleep Inn Dream Better Here

Every Sleep Inn hotel offers a simply stylish stay that's designed to help guests Dream Better Here. You'll find fresh, nature-inspired design elements that are modern but timeless, that create a relaxed and serene environment. An all-new construction brand, every Sleep Inn hotel is built with a specific vision in mind -- to be a sanctuary for travelers as well as an efficient property to build, operate, and maintain. Franchised by global lodging leader Choice Hotels, Sleep Inn properties boast strong product consistency and an established presence in the midscale hotel segment with over 500 Sleep Inn properties open and under development across North America. All Sleep Inn hotels include free Wi-Fi, a complimentary Morning Medley breakfast buffet with plenty of hot and cold options, swimming pool and/or fitness center. For more information, visit www.choicehotels.com/Sleep-Inn.

About Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the world's largest hotel companies. With over 6,800 hotels franchised in more than 40 countries and territories, Choice Hotels International represents more than 500,000 rooms around the globe, and as of February 1, 2018, more than 1,000 hotels were in its development pipeline. Our company's Ascend Hotel Collection, Cambria Hotels, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn, Quality, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, WoodSpring Suites, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, and Vacation Rentals by Choice Hotels brands provide a spectrum of lodging choices to meet guests' needs. With more than 35 million members, our Choice Privileges rewards program enhances every trip a guest takes, with benefits ranging from every day rewards to exceptional experiences, starting right when they join. All hotels and vacation rentals are independently owned and operated. Visit us at www.choicehotels.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Statement

This communication includes "forward-looking statements" about future events, including anticipated hotel openings. Such statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including construction delays, availability and cost of financing and the other "Risk Factors" described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, any of which could cause actual results to be materially different from our expectations.

Addendum

This is not an offering. No offer or sale of a franchise will be made except by a Franchise Disclosure Document first filed and registered with applicable state authorities. A copy of the Franchise Disclosure Document can be obtained through contacting Choice Hotels International at 1 Choice Hotels Circle, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20850, [email protected].

 2018 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.choicehotels.com

WESTLAKE, Texas and MAJADAHONDA, Spain, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Solera Holdings, Inc. ("Solera"), a global leader in intelligent data and Software as a Service ("SaaS") for automotive, home and personal digital identity management, and MAPFRE S.A. ("MAPFRE"), a premier global insurer with presence on five continents, today announced that their existing joint venture, Solera Technology Centre GmbH ("STC"), has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CESVI (Center for Experimentation and Road Safety) Brasil. The acquisition is subject to closing conditions, including approval by the Brasilian competition regulatory authority.

CESVI Brasil is a leading automotive research and experimentation center in Brasil, focused on providing insight, safety guidelines and transparency, including training for vehicle repair facilities and their technicians, insurers, original equipment manufacturers, and governmental entities.

Founded in 2011, STC was created to leverage Solera's and MAPFRE's ability and desire to make testing and training available to all participants in the automotive repair industry. STC's mission is to modernize the automotive repair and insurance ecosystems of evolving and emerging countries throughout the world with intelligent data, predictive software, and technology-focused education. This allows for hands-on training in centers of excellence, which are key components to help create safer repairs, economic growth and sustainability for those who have chosen the trade of repairing one of life's most important assets.

"The opportunity for us to acquire and invest in CESVI Brasil and its great team is part of STCs global strategy to enable the markets with not only intelligent data, but to also help further research to enable transparent decision making throughout the vehicle lifecycle," said Tony Aquila, Solera's founder, Chairman and CEO. "As vehicle complexity increases, STC will invest to be at the forefront of the market to partner with those that we serve and their customers across the vehicle repair industry."

STC already manages CESVI's operation in China, which was inaugurated in 2015, and is serving to reinforce its presence in the growing Chinese automobile market, which is on track to become the largest in the world.

About MAPFRE

MAPFRE is a global insurer with presence on five continents. Mapfre is the largest Spanish insurer in the world, the main multinational insurer in the Latin American market and is among the Top 5 in Non-Life insurer in Europe by volume of premiums. MAPFRE employs more than 36,000 employees and in 2017 MAPFRE's revenues totaled almost 28 billion euros, with net earnings of 701 million euros. For more information, please visit https://noticias.mapfre.com/en/

About Solera

Founded and continuously led by inventor and entrepreneur Tony Aquila, Solera is a global leader in digital technologies that manage and protect life's most important assets: our cars, homes and identities. Today, Solera processes over 300 million digital transactions annually for approximately 235,000 partners and customers in nearly 90 countries. For more information, please visit solera.com.

Cautions About Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about: the benefits of the acquisition of CESVI Brasil (the "Acquisition"), including but not limited to, STC's global strategy to leverage data, software to further research and enable transparent decision making throughout the vehicle lifecycle; and the benefits and value of products and services to Solera's, STC's and CESVI Brasil's customers. These statements are based on Solera's current expectations, estimates and assumptions and are subject to many risks, uncertainties and unknown future events that could cause actual results to differ materially. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in this press release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in transactions of this nature, Solera's business, STC's business and CESVI Brasil's business, including, without limitation: the Acquisition may not be completed; the failure to realize the expected benefits of the Acquisition; risks associated with and possible negative consequences of acquisitions, investments, joint ventures (including STC) and similar transactions; successfully integrating CESVI Brasil's solutions with or into STC or Solera group offerings; continued adoption of CESVI Brasil's, STC's and the Solera group's products and services; effects of competition on product and service pricing and STC's, CESVI Brasil's and Solera's business; Solera's ability to obtain additional financing as necessary to support its business or operations; and rapid technology changes in CESVI Brasil's, STC's and Solera's industry. Solera is under no obligation to (and specifically disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Solera Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.solera.com

DALLAS, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) Employees were awarded $543 million today in ProfitSharing. The 2017 award equals approximately 11.3 percent of each eligible Employee's eligible compensationthe equivalent of more than five weeks' pay.

This $543 million contributionnearly $1.5 million a dayis the third-largest total dollar amount Southwest Airlines has ever allocated to ProfitSharing. Southwest ProfitSharing contributions have totaled more than $4.5 billion over 44 consecutive years, and more than $2 billion for the past four years alone (2014-2017).

The Company paid part of the ProfitSharing award to the retirement plan and part in cash. Most eligible Employees received 10 percent of eligible compensation as a contribution to the ProfitSharing Plan, and the remainderapproximately 1.3 percentin cash. Pilots received the entire ProfitSharing award as a contribution to their retirement plan accounts as specified in their collective bargaining agreement.

When combined with contributions of $476 million to its 401(k) plans, this ProfitSharing award represents a total investment of more than $1 billion in Southwest Employees in 2017. This is in addition to the $1,000 tax reform bonus already paid to each eligible Employee in January 2018, on top of base salaries.

Southwest was the first in the airline industry to offer a ProfitSharing Plan. Through the ProfitSharing Plan, Southwest Employees currently own more than 4 percent of the Company's outstanding shares.

ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

In its 47th year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) continues to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary Customer Service delivered by more than 56,000 Employees to a Customer base topping 120 million passengers annually, in recent years. Southwest became the nation's largest domestic air carrier in 2003 and maintains that ranking based on the U.S. Department of Transportation's most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded. During peak travel seasons, Southwest operates more than 4,000 weekday departures among a network of 100 destinations in the United States and 10 additional countries. Southwest has announced its intention to sell tickets in 2018 for service to Hawaii, subject to requisite governmental approvals.

Southwest coined Transfarency to describe its purposed philosophy of treating Customers honestly and fairly, and low fares actually staying low. Southwest is the only major U.S. airline to offer bags fly free to everyone (first and second checked pieces of luggage, size and weight limits apply, some carriers offer free checked bags on select routes or in qualified circumstances), and there are no change fees, though fare differences might apply.

As launch customer of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in North America, the Company operates the largest fleet in the world of Boeing aircraft, all of which are equipped with satellite-based WiFi. Customers who connect to the WiFi network may use their personal devices to view on-demand movies and television shows, as well as nearly 20 channels of free, live TV.

With a bold new look first unveiled in 2014, Southwest is progressing through a multi-year refresh of its fleet to showcase the carrier's Heart: a new logo, aircraft livery, interior design featuring new seats, Employee-designed uniforms, and an updated airport experience, all of which showcase a dedication of Southwest Employees to connect Customers with what's important in their lives.

From its first flights on June 18, 1971, Southwest Airlines launched an era of unprecedented affordability in air travel described by the U.S. Department of Transportation as "The Southwest Effect," a lowering of fares and increase in passenger traffic wherever the carrier serves. With 45 consecutive years of profitability, Southwest is one of the most honored airlines in the world, known for a triple bottom line approach that contributes to the carrier's performance and productivity, the importance of its People and the communities they serve, and an overall commitment to efficiency and the planet.

Book Southwest Airlines' low fares online at Southwest Airlines or by phone at 800-I-FLY-SWA.

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Related Links

http://www.southwest.com

MADISON, Wis., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CUNA Mutual Group continued its record-setting pace in 2017, producing outstanding financial results while delivering innovative, next-generation solutions to help credit unions thrive and people achieve financial security.

Total revenue rose to $3.54 billion, an increase of 8.3 percent over 2016. Net income increased to $303 million, compared to $223 million in 2016. Consolidated GAAP surplus ended the year at $3.37 billion, an increase of 14.3 percent year-over-year. Assets reached a record high at $20.6 billion, up from $18.5 billion the previous year, driven by solid operating and investment performance.

"We are a vibrant and growing company. Our strong business results illustrate our stability as we bring transformation and advancement to an ever-changing financial services marketplace," said Robert N. Trunzo, CUNA Mutual Group president and CEO. "As a leader in our industry, we are evolving and driving our innovation strategy forward to strengthen all aspects of our business  data analytics, technology, our workforce, new products and the customer experience. I'm proud to say that CUNA Mutual Group is disrupting the traditional financial services industry and building for the future."

Over the last year, the company launched CUNA Mutual AdvantEdge Analytics, LLC, a comprehensive data and analytics business that helps credit unions gain better insights to improve the member experience. The company and its subsidiaries, including CMFG Ventures, LLC, also invested in four additional fintech and insurtech startup companies, totaling 11 investments and $65 million in capital.

The company surpassed $6 billion in assets under management (AUM) for annuity products in 2017 and saw annuity sales grow 7 percent year-over-year through CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc., the company's broker/dealer, and financial advisor network. TruStage, CUNA Mutual Group's consumer brand, also became one of the first companies to bring two entirely online life insurance products to market, making it easier for families to protect their loved ones. In less than a year, the TruStage simplified-issue term life insurance product exceeded $1 billion in issued coverage.

Thomas J. Merfeld, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said, "Our financial strength and record balance sheet allow us to invest in new capabilities to serve our customers and continue to stay true to our purpose of helping people secure their financial futures."

During a devastating year of weather-related disasters including hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes that shook the lives of thousands, CUNA Mutual Group delivered on its promises to credit unions and its policyholders. The company not only paid claims, but led efforts through its disaster response teams who were on the ground, knocking on doors, and ensuring the well-being of policyholders. In addition, the CUNA Mutual Group Foundation, Inc., the company's charitable entity, along with CUNA Mutual Group's employees, donated a total of $400,000 to the National Credit Union Foundation's CUAid disaster relief fund, which gives 100 percent of its donations to credit unions, their employees and their members to recover from major disasters.

CUNA Mutual Group also paid $1.33 billion in benefits to policyholders and their beneficiaries, and continued its vigorous investment in the credit union system by contributing $27 million to support credit union leagues, organizations and industry efforts.

A.M. Best Company recently announced it upgraded CUNA Mutual Group's key insurance companies' Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings to "a+" from "a" and affirmed the Financial Strength Ratings of A (Excellent) with a stable outlook. The ratings agency also upgraded the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of CUNA Mutual Financial Group, Inc., the intermediate holding company within the group, to "bbb+" from "bbb." The ratings reflect CUNA Mutual Group's consistently strong operating results, strong balance sheet and position as a leading provider of life and annuity products within the credit union marketplace.

For more information, see the company's 2017 Annual Report.

About CUNA Mutual Group:

CUNA Mutual Group is a financially strong insurance and investment company. For generations, we've partnered with credit union leaders to protect and grow their businesses, and help people plan, protect and invest for their future. CUNA Mutual Group offers commercial and personal insurance products; lending and payment security solutions; and retirement, investment and marketing services. Additional information about the company can be found at www.cunamutual.com .

CUNA Mutual Group is the marketing name for CUNA Mutual Holding Company, a mutual insurance holding company, its subsidiaries and affiliates. TruStage Insurance products and programs are made available through TruStage Insurance Agency, LLC and issued by CMFG Life Insurance Company and other leading insurance companies.

CORP-2022713.1-0218-0320

 2018 CUNA Mutual Group, All Rights Reserved

SOURCE CUNA Mutual Group

Related Links

https://www.cunamutual.com

LONDON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CleanEquity Monaco 2018, the forum for emerging sustainable technology companies, hosted by Innovator Capital and the Monaco Economic Board, closed on Friday, 9th March with the Awards Ceremony in the presence of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.

An independent panel of judges, chaired by His Serene Highness, selected Superdielectrics as the winner of the award for Excellence in the Field of Environmental Technology Research.

Mungo Park, Chairman of Innovator Capital commented: "Science fiction becomes science fact once again. Congratulations to Superdielectrics for pushing the envelope on supercapacitor performance."

About Superdielectrics Ltd

Superdielectrics is a material research company that has discovered, filed patents and is commercialising a highly significant scientific breakthrough in supercapacitor electrolyte materials and electrical energy storage. The University of Bristol estimates that these newly discovered materials have dielectric property values which are 1,000-10,000 times greater than conventional electrolyte solutions. This breakthrough offers the prospect of a new energy storage technology that is superior to existing battery technology.

Jim Heathcote, CEO of Superdielectrics said: "It is a great honour to receive this award on behalf of Superdielectrics and the scientific teams from Surrey and Bristol Universities whose diligent work has achieved such an important breakthrough. I believe that the CleanEquity Monaco awards are the equivalent to the Oscars for the environmental and scientific community. They have an important role in encouraging and supporting small companies with big dreams.

I would also like to pay tribute to the vision of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco and Mungo Park for creating this important annual event more than 10 years ago. They identified that further scientific advances are necessary to achieve a clean and sustainable future for mankind and have created a forum for the most creative young companies to showcase their technology to the world."

CleanEquity thanks, in particular: Prince Albert II of Monaco's Foundation, Cohesion Investments, Covington & Burling, Cision, Cranfield University, easyGroup, Hobbs & Towne, the Monaco Economic Board, Parkview, Shell Foundation and STRATIS Impact.

CleanEquity Monaco will be returning to the Principality of Monaco in March 2019.

Follow us on twitter to keep up to date: @CleanEquity.

SOURCE Innovator Capital

Related Links

http://www.innovator-capital.com

Thanks to recent advances in genetics, immunology, and improved targeted therapies, researchers are beginning to win their long fight against the many forms of the disease. Experts gathered at the Boston Cancer Summit last week pointed to these advanced tools as one of the most encouraging developments in cancer research in decades.

"Even five years ago, we observed that companies developing and licensing new cancer drugs, seemed to be seeing extension of life by perhaps 3-6 months," said Dr. Gary Nabel, Chief Scientific Officer of Sanofi, which sponsored the event. "But the new immunotherapies, when a patient responds to the therapy, appear to be promising."

Scaling Mt. Everest for Research

The Summit was the brainchild of veteran journalist Luke Timmerman, who has covered cancer research for almost 15 years. To call greater attention to these new technologies  and encourage increased investment in research  Timmerman is taking his passion on the topic to new heights  literally to the highest place on Earth. He plans to join a team of climbers ascending the summit of Mt. Everest at the end of March to raise funds to support the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in his hometown of Seattle.

Timmerman's fundraising site notes that he has been writing about cancer research for 15 years, and climbing mountains "almost that long." With research "at a moment of tremendous possibility," he hopes to propel awareness and further investment into the cause. His enthusiasm, and the potential of the science, also led Sanofi become an early sponsor.

"We chose to sponsor the Summit not only to support Luke's quest, but to bring together some of the leading scientists, investors and experts in the field to share information and our enthusiasm about the great progress that is being made every day," Nabel said.

"Over the past ten years or so, our understanding of the molecular biology of tumor cells, and how to manipulate the immune system to focus it in a selective way against tumors, has come a long way," said Dr. Joanne Jenkins Lager, Sanofi's Head of Development for Oncology. "We finally have the tools where we can begin to develop selective and effective therapies in clinic."

Scientific Advancements Spur Investment

The potential for applying these tools to research has created excitement among investors as well, particularly when it comes to developing treatments for cancers that today remain untreatable. Both biopharma companies and venture investors are significantly increasing their funding for R&D into new cancer treatments.

"I am optimistic about the future and about our oncology pipeline," said Lager. "We have a lot of exciting new things in research and development that weren't being studied for patients just five years ago."

Streamlining Clinical Trials

Because cancer remains such a killer, R&D scientists are "in a hurry" to identify and test promising new therapies. To help reduce the potential time between discovery and patient, Sanofi is looking for ways to make the clinical trial process more efficient. That includes things like streamlining data collection and finding ways to make it easier for more patients to participate in trials.

"We want to design efficient protocols, and really think through what we need and what we don't," Lager said. "We want to make sure we're not putting too many restrictions on patients to participate, while maintaining our focus on safety, and that we're collecting the data we want and need, but not necessarily every piece that we can."

As Timmerman prepares for his climb, researchers head back to their labs to continue their trek toward new and more effective cancer treatments.

"Our goals in oncology and immuno-oncology are simple," Nabel said. "Accelerate the launch of new treatments, and make decisions in our early R&D portfolio designed to give patients even better treatments to defeat incurable cancers."

Media Contact: Anna Robinson, [email protected]

SOURCE SanofiIt is the first time that the Dubai-headquartered agency has won the title, taking home Grand Prix awards in Creative Effectiveness, Direct, Innovation, Interactive, Mobile, PR, Promo & Activation and Radio for clients such as Nissan, McDonald's, Henkel and Louvre Abu Dhabi. It is also TBWA\Worldwide's first time awarded Dubai Lynx Network of the Year.

"I am extraordinarily proud of our people and clients who contributed to this outstanding performance at Dubai Lynx," said Troy Ruhanen, President and CEO, TBWA Worldwide. "TBWA\Raad is an agency at the top of its game, but what I found most satisfying were the notes I received from our clients who celebrated the result equally. Brilliant collaboration across a region that comes to innovate and astound. Congratulations to everyone."

"TBWA\Raad has created fresh, culturally relevant work and is pioneering the way for some of our biggest brands to join impactful, cultural conversations," added Chris Garbutt, Chief Creative Officer, TBWA Worldwide.

"Congratulations to our entire Middle Eastern TBWA team. The Nissan work is making strides in gender equality and has placed it in a Category of One."

Two of the evening's biggest winners were '#SheDrives' for Nissan Saudi Arabia, which sought to empower women and effect change in attitude and behavior from men in Saudi Arabia following the decision to allow women to drive  winning the Interactive Grand Prix, and the first-ever radio-guided ' Highway Gallery' for the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The latter saw special FM transmitters powered by solar panels intercept drivers' car radios, triggering the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum audio guide when they approached any of 10 masterpieces placed along Abu Dhabi's highways. 'Highway Gallery' was the Innovation Grand Prix.

Also winning big was McDonald's' ' Promoticon ,' which redefined delivery apps by turning the McDelivery app icon into a promotional medium, awarded the Direct Grand Prix.

"I am extremely proud of the team, which has consistently produced great work that is both disruptive and innovative," said Reda Raad, CEO of TBWA\Raad. "These wins are confirmation that we are providing our clients with a truly competitive edge, producing real work for real brands that is at the cutting edge of creativity. We've created something to be proud of at TBWA\Raad, which is a creative culture capable of consistently producing exceptional work. I would like to thank all of the people and clients who have helped to make this possible."

TBWA\Raad Chief Creative Officer Walid Kanaan added: "It was magnificent to see clients and agency standing together proudly on stage. This is as real as it gets, one team of creative believers, who share the same passion, the same vision, and the same glory."

Earlier in the year TBWA\Raad was named one of the top 10 'Bravest and Best Agencies on the Planet' by Contagious magazine.

About Dubai Lynx

Dubai Lynx ( https://www.dubailynx.com/ ) celebrates the brilliant creativity that comes from the MENA region. It's a four-day event that brings together top creatives, the world's best brands, fledgling start-ups and everyone in between to learn, network and celebrate creative excellence in communications. As sister festival to the globally renowned Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, Dubai Lynx is part of a highly influential network. Our premium global standards mean we are respected as the most credible awards and festival in the creative sphere in the region.

About TBWA Worldwide

TBWA Worldwide ( http://www.tbwa.com ) is a top-ten ranked global advertising agency collective that uses Disruption methodologies to develop business-changing ideas for brands. TBWA has 11,300 employees across 305 offices in 98 countries and also includes brands such as Auditoire, Digital Arts Network (DAN), eg+ worldwide, The Integer Group, TBWA\Media Arts Lab and TBWA\WorldHealth. TBWA's global clients include adidas, Apple, Gatorade, Henkel, Hilton Hotels, McDonald's, Michelin, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Airlines, and Sotheby's. Follow TBWA on Twitter , Instagram , LinkedIn and like us on Facebook .

About Omnicom Group Inc.

Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

SOURCE TBWA Worldwide

Related Links

http://tbwaraad.com

CHICAGO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On a mission to advance student success and community impact through its partner colleges and universities, TCS Education System recently helped The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law (COL) launch the first accredited hybrid JD program in California. The program was made possible through seed funding and support by TCS Education System.

"Substantial support by TCS for the development of this new program has afforded The Colleges of Law a clear differential advantage in the legal education landscape," says COL Board Chair Marilyn Anticouni. "The depth and breadth of professional support offered through affiliation with TCS propelled the program's successful development through accreditor approval, making COL the first law school in California to offer an accredited hybrid J.D."

Developed in the course of a TCS grant-funded "Hack the J.D." weekend at COL's Santa Barbara campus, the program was approved in October by COL's state accreditor the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California, and earned final approval by regional accreditor the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) in February. The program will be delivered 70 percent online and 30 percent on-campus, with an integrated 84-unit curriculum that can be completed in either 32 months or 40 months, at less than half the cost of traditional programs offered by American Bar Association (ABA) accredited law schools.

With ongoing TCS Education System support, the COL Hybrid J.D. program will launch in Fall 2018, and is currently accepting applications for its inaugural class. For more information about the program, visit www.collegesoflaw.edu/hybrid-juris-doctor/ or call 805-765-9719.

About TCS Education System

TCS Education System (TCS) is a nonprofit system of colleges that was launched in 2009 to advance student success and community impact. Currently, the System spans five colleges, campus locations across 12 cities and a community of more than 30 global academic partners to fulfill the aspirations of approximately 7,000 students. The TCS model provides its colleges with the scale of resources necessary to succeed, including admissions and enrollment services, finance and accounting, information and learning technology, marketing, strategic initiatives, compliance and legal services, human resources, and global engagement among other areas of professional expertise. The System was founded on the belief that by sharing administrative resources and allowing colleges to concentrate on providing students with quality, social change-focused education, we can give each member of our community the power to change the world. TCS colleges include The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Pacific Oaks College & Children's School, The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law, Dallas Nursing Institute, and Saybrook University. To learn more, watch our System video and explore our community at www.tcsedsystem.edu

SOURCE TCS Education System

Related Links

http://www.tcsedsystem.edu

NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05356629





The acetaldehyde market is estimated at USD 1.33 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 1.80 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 6.24% between 2017 and 2022. Acetaldehyde, also known as ethanal, is an aldehyde used as a starting material in the production of pyridines, ethyl acetate, n-butyl alcohol, and other chemical compounds. Pure acetaldehyde is a colorless, flammable liquid, miscible with water, with a pungent and fruity odor. Acetaldehyde is synthesized naturally and is also produced synthetically on a large scale for various commercial applications and as an important chemical intermediate. The demand for acetaldehyde is growing in emerging economies, such as India, China, and Brazil. Acetaldehyde is mainly used as an intermediate for the synthesis of other chemicals. The major derivatives of acetaldehyde are pentaerythritol, which is used in the manufacture of synthetic resins for the paint industry; and pyridines which are used as solvents in the production of rubber and dyes.



Water treatment segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in the acetaldehyde market

Based on application, the water treatment segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2022. Acetaldehyde plays a vital role in wastewater treatment owing to its disinfectant properties. Acetaldehyde is used for the treatment of wastewater from various industries and manufacturing plants. The demand for acetaldehyde from the water treatment application is gaining momentum due to rising environmental impact, such as degradation of freshwater bodies and aquatic life by untreated wastewater, increasing population, and concerns about pollution.



Rising demand for acetaldehyde in the Asia Pacific is driving the acetaldehyde market

The acetaldehyde market in the Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, which can be attributed to the easy availability of raw materials used for the manufacture of acetaldehyde. The Asia Pacific is a strategic location for acetaldehyde manufacturers, as an overall slowdown in the global economic scenario has encouraged many established manufacturers to expand their manufacturing facilities in this region and, thus, increase their sales. The growth of the Asia Pacific market is expected to be primarily driven by China, India, and Japan. Key manufacturers of acetaldehyde are focusing on expanding their bases in the Asia Pacific region to increase their market shares and enhance profit margins.



The breakdown of primary interviews is given below.

 By Company Type: Tier 1 - 46%, Tier 2 - 31%, and Tier 3 - 23%

 By Designation: C-Level Executives - 54%, Directors - 31%, and Others - 15%

 By Region: North America - 23%, Europe - 31%, Asia Pacific - 38%, South America  5%, and Middle East & Africa  3%



The report provides company profiles and details of competitive strategies adopted by key market players, such as Celanese (US), Eastman (US), Merck KGaA (Germany), Sumitomo (Japan), Sekab (Sweden), Showa Denko (Japan), Jubilant Life Sciences (India), Lonza (Switzerland), LCY Chemical (Taiwan), and Ashok Alco-chem (India).



Research Coverage

The acetaldehyde market has been segmented on the basis of process, derivative, application, and region. The report covers the acetaldehyde market, in terms of value and volume, and forecasts its market size till 2022. It also provides company profiles and details of competitive strategies adopted by key players operating in the acetaldehyde market.



Reasons to Buy the Report



The report will help market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways:

1. The report segments the acetaldehyde market comprehensively and provides the closest approximations of the revenues for the overall market and the subsegments across different verticals and regions.



2. The report helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provides information on key market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.



3. The report helps stakeholders understand their competitors and gain additional insights into the business. The competitive landscape section includes expansions, new product launches, partnerships & collaborations, and mergers & acquisitions.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05356629



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Contact Clare: [email protected]

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SOURCE Reportlinker

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NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05356635





The drilling tool market is projected to reach USD 8.61 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.75%, from 2017 to 2022. Increasing drilling activities and the development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources along with growing energy demand in Asia Pacific are driving the drilling tools market. High maintenance costs and transition time along with an increasing focus on renewable energy sources act as restraints for the market.



The drilling tubulars sub-segment of the drilling tools market, by type, is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2017 to 2022.

The drilling tubulars market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growth of the market can be attributed to the increasing drilled footage and development of deepwater oil & gas blocks in countries such as Brazil and Mexico.



Asia Pacific: The second-largest drilling tools market.

Asia Pacific is projected to dominate the global drilling tool market during the forecast period due to the increase in drilling activities in China. The country is the largest market in Asia Pacific and is focused on developing its shale gas resources to increase its oil & gas production. The other key markets in Asia Pacific are India, Australia, and Indonesia. Australia aims to be the largest LNG exporting country by 2020 by increasing its gas production.



Breakdown of Primaries



In-depth interviews have been conducted with various key industry participants, subject-matter experts, C-level executives of key market players, and industry consultants, among other experts, to obtain and verify critical qualitative and quantitative information, as well as to assess future market prospects. The distribution of primary interviews is as follows:

 By Company Type: Tier 1- 36%, Tier 2- 40%, Tier 3- 24%

 By Designation: C-Level- 25%, Manager Level- 35%, Others- 40%

 By Region: North America- 25%, Asia Pacific- 20%, South America- 10%, Europe- 15%, Middle East & Africa- 30%



Note: The tiers of the companies have been defined on the basis of their total revenue; as of 2016: Tier 1 = >USD 1 billion, Tier 2 = USD 500 million to USD 1 billion, and Tier 3 =

The leading players in the drilling tools market include Schlumberger (US), Baker Hughes (US), Halliburton (US), Weatherford (Switzerland), and National Oilwell Varco (US).



Research Coverage

The report provides a picture of the drilling tools market across the oil & gas industry and different regions. It aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of the market across different segments such as type, application, and region. Furthermore, the report includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies.

For the purpose of this report, the market has been segmented on the basis of type, application, and region, with a focus on industry analysis (industry trends), market ranking analysis of the top players, supply chain analysis, and company profiles, which together comprise the basic views on the competitive landscape, emerging and high-growth segments of the drilling tools market, high-growth regions, and market drivers, restraints, and opportunities.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

 Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research and development activities, and new product launches in the drilling tools market

 Market Development: Comprehensive information about the lucrative emerging markets; the report analyzes the markets for drilling tools across regions

 Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped regions, recent developments, and investments in the global drilling tools market



Why Buy this Report?

 The report identifies and addresses key solution operators for drilling tools, which would help solution providers review the growth in the demand for services.

 The report helps solution providers understand the pulse of the market and provides insights into drivers, restraints, and challenges.

 The report will help key players understand the strategies of their competitors better, and will help in making strategic decisions.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05356635



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Contact Clare: [email protected]

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SOURCE Reportlinker

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"This is the first book in a series of Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot like novels set in ancient China and there are a lot of mysteries that you are anticipating her to solve."

BEIJING, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, an ancient suspense novel entitled The Golden Hairpin was introduced by Amazon and published on Goodreads, the world's largest online reading community owned by Amazon. This novel, themed by the collision of Chinese ancient history, revenge & murder and female detective, has sparked a heated discussion among readers since it showed up in stores and has been praised as an Ancient Chinese-version of Sherlock Holmes.

The Golden Hairpin is written by Ceceqinghan, a well-known Chinese romantic fiction writer. The book series consists of four books, among which, the first one has been introduced by Amazon. The story is mainly about Huang Zixia, a famous female detective in the late Tang Dynasty of China who experienced family upheaval, was framed up as the murderer for killing her entire family and was listed as wanted. While fleeing alone to the capital to redress the injustice, she encountered Lord Li Shubai, who promised to help her thoroughly investigate the murder case. In exchange, Huang Zixia was asked to disguise herself as a man and lurked around Li Shubai to investigate his suspicious fiancee. From then on, the two ran across a series of bizarre and unresolved cases, behind which the truth was enough to overturn the entire Tang Dynasty.

Different from Sherlock Holmes, who wears a top hat with a tobacco pipe in his mouth, Huang Zixia was usually low-key in the image of men while detecting cases in order to avoid revealing her identity. This seems to be an artful commonality with Hua Mulan, another ancient Chinese figure familiar to Chinese culture, while her detective partner - the sagacious and sober doctor John H. Watson, turned into Lord Li Shubai, a cold-hearted man with noble status. The two took advantage of each other, and then were attracted to each other, gradually growing sincere feelings.

The books of The Golden Hairpin, as a suspense series, seem to be independent of each other but conceal secrets, so all the stories can be connected once clues have been found. The first story tells the first encounter between the hero and heroine as well as the mysteries around them, which is only the tip of the iceberg for the entire stories. In the sequels, with the investigation going deep, various unresolved cases come one after another. The books of the series, A Sudden Clap of Thunder in Heaven, Dead Body hidden under Red Candle and Cannibal Red Fish, are thrilling in plots and full of unexpected turns.

According to the existing comments on the Goodreads website, this female detective novel is favorably impressed in the hearts of readers. As reader Joy thinks: "The Golden Hairpin is going to be adapted into a China produced drama, which is how it initially attracted my attention." Reader Kira believes: "A strong start to what appears to be an excellent series with a female Sherlock Holmes-esque heroine, plucky, determined, and cunning while maintaining a strict sense of self and without sacrificing her femininity."

Some readers also express their interest in the ancient Chinese history and culture described in the book and think it is a worth-reading book, leaving out the confusion at the beginning of the translated book title. "There is a good storyline and plot backed with solid mystery element all through the book. I look forward to the sequel," said Pratibha.

Actually, it is not surprising that Amazon takes a fancy to The Golden Hairpin, which is also well-received in China. As the best-selling book with 800,000 copies sold, it is highly recommended by major reading platforms and offline bookstores. After its comic book adaptation was put online, it had gained great attention as evidenced by online total popularity value of 2.46 billion. Its movie and television copyrights have been successfully exported to Thailand, Vietnam and other countries. Ceceqinghan, the writer, has also won more than 120,000 fans on social media. Above all, women detective novels, especially high-quality suspense novels against historical and cultural backgrounds, are currently rare in the publishing industry across the world.

This is probably attributed to the unique vision of Cat Century Media Co.,Ltd., the producer of The Golden Hairpin. Cat Century Media Co.,Ltd., a famous Chinese content provider, and an outstanding performer in leading writer agency, owns the copyrights of hundreds of novels. Suspense reasoning works like The Golden Hairpin are the focus of its product lines. There are many such works, such as Jinsha, based on the unearthed cultural relics from Jinsha site, the famous historical and cultural heritage in southwestern China, and Zerg:The Call to Minds, the Global Chinese Sci-Fi Nebula Award-winning work, telling the story of alien Zerg's invasion into the earth, etc.

SOURCE Cat Century Media Co., LtdLAS VEGAS, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Coming May 4th, the Italian American Club of Las Vegas will host a tribute to its most illustrious member: Frank Sinatra. And who better to bring the essence of Ol' Blue Eyes back to that legendary stage but the exceptional Dave Halston. Critics have raved about Halston's tribute to the iconic Sinatra, calling it "stunning" and "spot-on". Halston creates a brilliant interpretation of the beloved Chairman of the Board.

Halston has impressed more than a few Sinatra fans. After seeing Dave perform, Frank's widow, Barbara Sinatra, called his performance "Wonderful!". Like Sinatra, Dave's natural charm and charisma is genuine while sporting a familiar swagger and delivering that smooth ribbon of sound. Halston does something few performers are capable of doing  a tribute to "Frank" that is patently authentic!

Dave Halston comes to Las Vegas with an impressive list of achievements. When he performed for Mrs. Sinatra, she was brought to tears and by his rendition of "My Way", Frank's signature song. He has also entertained Jeanne Martin (Mrs. Dean Martin), recording artist Michael Feinstein, recording artist Steve Tyrell and Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton.

Other performances include a vast array of theatres, performing arts centers, casinos and private events nationwide.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/31nPYhbgquY?rel=0

THE ITALIAN AMERICAN CLUB

Frank Sinatra was not only a lifetime member of this iconic Las Vegas stalwart, he routinely performed there with Dean Martin and Perry Como often joining him onstage. For more than five decades, the venerable social club and restaurant on Sahara Avenue has endured since its founding in 1961.

The Italian American Club still thrives even in the face of the changing landscape in the Las Vegas club scene. According to club president Angelo Cassaro, "Sinatra would be thrilled to death with one of the most impressive restaurant revivals in Las Vegas. Part of his roots was laying the foundation of this club over 50 years ago."

Over the years, many of Las Vegas' biggest names dropped in as members or supporters: Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Joe DiMaggio, Oscar Goodman, Jerry Lewis, Vic Damone and Jimmy Durante to name a few.

Dave Halston will appear with his "Little Big Band" on Friday, May 4th. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at http://www.iacvegas.com The show is a production of Tribute Masters, LLC.

Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12696786

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Tribute Masters, LLC

Related Links

http://tributemasters.com

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654818/Total_One.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654819/Total_One_Apps.jpg )



"Total One completely transforms customer experience. Weeks-long projects, dependencies on external specialists are a thing of the past. By using our platform customers save up to 40% of their IT infrastructure budget," explains Doris Haenggi-Tauber, Vice President for Alliances and Partner Management at Total One.

Immediate use of latest technologies

Total One customers can choose from the 100 most popular Microsoft business products and services - such as Microsoft 365, Office 365, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, Active Directory, Citrix, WiFi, VPN, Exchange Server, Skype for Business, certificate services and Azure - with which they set up and operate an individual Cloud. Customers decide for themselves whether the IT solution is automatically provisioned to Microsoft Azure, on-premise, hybrid or hosted. Haenggi-Tauber: "We give the customer maximum flexibility and transparency with our pay-per-use model. This eliminates costly investments for the customer."

Use cases for Total One

Total One helps SME customers to accelerate their IT infrastructure projects in technology refresh and lifecycle, modern workplace, integration of new technologies as well as migration, consolidation and business growth.

Launch of Love IT, the Total One social media campaign

In addition to the classic sales channels, Total One informs customers and all those interested in the latest IT solutions through various social media channels - such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter - introducing the slogan "Love IT". Soon, YouTube videos will demonstrate how fast and convenient IT becomes when using Total One.

About Total One

Total One was founded in 2017 as a private company in Cork, Ireland. The responsible management team has more than 20 years of international experience in the fields of IT infrastructure, service management, process management, IT automation, corporate consulting and partner business.

Printable images for editorial publication are available at https://www.total.one/en/press/

Press contact

Doris Haenggi-Tauber

Vice President for Alliances and Partner Management

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel.: +353-21-206-62-18

Cell: +41-79-529-14-72

https://www.linkedin.com/in/doris-haenggi/

http://www.total.one

SOURCE Total One Apps Ltd.WAREHAM, Mass., March 14, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 150 registered nurses who work at Tobey Hospital, and who are unionized with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, received welcome news last week in the form of a ratified contract and a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) settlement that put closure to a contract fight that has been ongoing since April of 2015.

The new two-year contract and NLRB settlement agreement, although separate, were packaged together as a part of a single ratification vote that happened on March 8. The nurses overwhelmingly voted in favor of ratifying the contract/agreement. It results in overdue wage increases for all RNs, as well as payments of as much as $10,000 by Southcoast to affected nurses who are part of the NLRB settlement.

The History

Last week's ratification vote brought to an end a three-year battle that began on April 15, 2015. On that day, managers at Southcoast Hospitals Group, the owner and operator of Tobey Hospital, declared impasse after only eight bargaining sessions with the nurses for a successor contract. With that declaration, management then unilaterally and illegally implemented numerous changes to the contract that resulted in significant wage and benefit losses for the nurses. Those changes included freezing wages, eliminating holidays, and cutting contributions to nurses' 403b plans. It also meant that the nurses were unable to continue negotiating their successor contract with management, leaving other important issues to languish indefinitely.

The MNA, on behalf of the Tobey nurses, immediately filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB stating that Southcoast Hospitals Group had illegally declared impasse and thus had also illegally implemented said changes to the contract.

On July 31 of 2015 the NLRB's general counsel, in support of the nurses, issued a complaint against Southcoast saying that the hospital group had in fact violated the National Labor Relations Act. But on August 12, 2015 the hospital filed a response with the NLRB denying the complaint. And so began a long process by Southcoast that left nurses without the fair compensation and benefits owed to them for nearly three years.

This process included a trial that was heard by an NLRB administrative law judge in Providence, RI during the weeks of Oct. 27 to 29 and Nov. 18 and 19, 2015, at which point extensive evidence was presented by the MNA, and numerous RNs and union leaders took to the witness stand. In March of 2016, the NLRB ruled entirely in favor of the nurses.

The hospital  in a letter to the nurses dated March 16, 2016, from David DeJesus, Southcoast's senior vice president of human resources  announced it would continue with the appeals process. But soon after the hospital agreed to explore a settlement with the Tobey nurses, the results of which were voted on and ratified last week (March 8, 2018).

Highlights of the ratified NLRB settlement include:

Back payment for two missed holidays in years 2015, 2016, and 2017. The top reimbursement for a nurse in this category is $1,506.55

Back payment for missed 403b contributions. The top reimbursement for a nurse in this category is $6,383.61 .

contributions. The top reimbursement for a nurse in this category is . Back payment for missed step earnings. The top reimbursement for a nurse in this category is $8,810.79 .

. For nurses who were eligible for payments in all three categories the top reimbursement came in at $10,973.52 .

Nurses are expected to receive the checks specific to the NLRB settlement in approximately 21 days. In addition, the new two-year contract is now in effect and the nurses are eligible for all of benefits and protections contained within it.

Next Steps

With such a significant win under their belts, the unionized Tobey nurses are already looking ahead to the start of the next contract talks, which will likely begin in the late spring/early summer of 2019.

"Fighting this fight, although long and tedious, and having it end with such a significant win has brought even more solidarity to our union," said Maddie Jezierski, RN and union chairperson. "Our plan now is to dig deep into the hospital's financial data. It's the best way we can prep for the next contract."

The nurses decided this was an essential next step after Mr. DeJesus, in the previously mentioned 2016 letter, told the nurses that, "What was imposed in the impasse were items necessary to deal with a $30 million loss in the prior year."

"That claim of a $30 million loss was certainly not brought on by Tobey's nurses," added Jezierski. "So we will be assessing the hospital's financial data  everything from the compensation packages for Southcoast's executives, to how Southcoast has been reimbursing its affiliated doctors and medical groups. We'll have an in depth understanding of all that long before our next contract talks."

_____________________________________________

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United is the largest professional health care organization and the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. The MNA is a founding member of National Nurses United, the largest national nurses' union in the United States with more than 170,000 members from coast to coast.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

http://www.massnurses.org

The Gullwing is the fifth from last example ever produced, and as such carries the most desirable late-production features. When the car's second owner, Arthur L.W. Truea well-known West Coast sportsmanpassed away in 1967, his family donated several of his automobiles to the Henry Ford Museum. The Museum decided the Gullwing was outside their needs, and it was soon sold to the current proprietor, a resident of Jackson, Michigan.

While the owner enjoyed his 300 SL, he lacked a place to maintain it, and so for the last four decades it has been on display at the ACD Automobile Museum in Auburn, Indiana. The Gullwing has survived in exceptionally original condition, retaining much of its factory paint and its original leather interior. Amazingly, all 36,375 miles currently recorded were added prior to 1968.

The current owner has generously chosen to donate 100 percent of hammer proceeds from the sale to the Jackson, Michigan YMCA, as a gift towards the construction of a state-of-the-art new building for the community organization.

The Gullwing joins an alloy-block, 36,600-mile 1962 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster in Fort Lauderdale, also offered from four decades of ownership by a Michigan enthusiast.

Celebrated as South Florida's premier collector car auction, the 16th annual Fort Lauderdale sale will feature 350 quality collector cars and a selection of memorabilia at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center. For complete event details, as well as the digital preview catalogue, visit www.rmsothebys.com or call RM Auctions at +1 519 352 4575.

About RM Sotheby's Group

RM Sotheby's is the world's largest auction house for investment-quality automobiles. RM's vertically integrated range of services, from private treaty sales and auctions (including both RM Sotheby's and RM Auctions events) to estate planning and financial services, coupled with an expert team of car specialists and an international footprint, provide an unsurpassed level of service to the global collector car market.

SOURCE RM Sotheby's

Related Links

http://www.rmsothebys.com

WURZBURG, Germany, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Vasopharm GmbH, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has recruited half of the 220 patients in the ongoing, pivotal European NOSTRA III (NO Synthase in TRAumatic Brain Injury) clinical trial. This milestone triggers an interim review by the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) in line with the agreed study protocol. Allowing for the six month extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (eGOS) evaluation for the 110th eligible patient recruited, the company expect feedback from the DMC in Q4 2018.

NOSTRA III is designed to assess the efficacy and safety of Ronopterin (VAS203) for the treatment of moderately to severely injured closed head traumatic brain (TBI) injury patients, for which there is no existing drug treatment. Traumatic Brain Injury is the leading cause of death and disability among young adults in the developed world. Annually, within the US alone, head trauma is the cause of about two million emergency room visits, roughly 475,000 hospital admissions, nearly 52,000 deaths and approximately 80,000 cases of severe long-term disability (e.g. functional and cognitive disorders, learning disabilities). Direct costs attributed to the treatment of TBI exceed $10bn p.a. in the US alone.

NOSTRA III is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The study will enroll 220 patients who have suffered a moderate to severe TBI resulting in hospitalisation and who have received an intra-cranial pressure probe. Currently, 35 European neuro-trauma centres in Germany, Austria, France, UK and Spain are participating. The primary endpoint is the eGOS evaluated at six months after the injury. Secondary efficacy assessments include Quality of Life (QOLIBRI) as well as Therapy Intensity Level (TIL) over 14 days after brain injury. NOSTRA III is a registration trial which seeks to validate the data from the highly significant NOSTRA II trial.[*] The study aims to confirm the data from a Phase II trial in which VAS203 has shown a (2 point) improvement in the extended Glasgow Outcomes Score.

Christian Wandersee, Chief Executive Officer of Vasopharm, commented: "We are delighted to have reached such a significant milestone in the development of Ronopterin for the treatment for moderate to severe TBI. If NOSTRA III confirms the highly significant data seen in our NOSTRA II trial, we believe we can offer patients and physicians a therapeutic option to ameliorate the devastating and life-long consequences of TBI, where no such option currently exists."

In addition, Vasopharm announces the successful completion of a Phase Ic trial characterising Ronopterins pharmacology in the kidney. This study was conducted in support of the ongoing (NOSTRA III) trial in moderate to severe TBI. Ronopterin is a selective iNOS inhibitor and the kidney is the only organ in which this enzyme plays a constitutive role. The kidney is therefore the most sensitive barometer of undesirable side effects of the drug. The study enrolled 16 healthy male volunteers in a single centre, double-blind, randomised, placebo controlled, cross-over study. Ronopterin was infused over 6 hours with a 4-fold higher infusion rate than that being used in the on-going NOSTRA III trial. There were no drug related adverse events and the safety profile of Ronopterin as examined in this study was excellent. These data indicated no clinically relevant systemic effects following treatment with Ronopterin, in particular tubular function was not affected.

Ronopterin is administered by venous infusion over 48 hours post trauma. Prior to commencing clinical studies the company undertook an extensive formulation program which resulted in a drug formulation that is a highly stable lyophilised powder, easily re-constituted to an isotonic, pH neutral solution for infusion. The company is pleased to announce the granting of worldwide patent protection for several key steps in the synthesis and formulation of Ronopterin.

About Vasopharm GmbH:

Vasopharm is a drug development company focused on small molecule therapeutics for treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Vasopharm's lead drug candidate VAS203 (Ronopterin) is currently in the Phase III NOSTRA trial assessing efficacy and safety of VAS203 for the treatment of moderately to severely injured closed head traumatic brain injury patients.

Current approaches to the treatment of acute TBI focus on short term patient mortality and have no significant impact on reducing long-term physical and cognitive deficits. VAS203 avoids unwanted side effects, combined with unprecedented clinical efficacy. The European regulator, EMEA has granted the drug orphan drug designation for moderate to severe brain injury.

Vasopharm was founded in July 1998 as a spin-off from the University of Wurzburg Medical School by Harald Schmidt, MD, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Ulrich Walter, MD, Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry. To date, the company has raised Euros 42 million to date through several financing rounds from various Family Investment Offices and Venture Investors including: Bayern Kapital, EF Investments, Fort Rock Capital, Future Capital, Hanseatic Asset Management, Heidelberg Capital Private Equity, KFW and Ringtons Holdings.

See www.vasopharm.com for further details.

About Traumatic Brain Injury:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. Every year, over 1,600,000 patients sustain a traumatic brain injury in the EU, and 70,000 of these die, with a further 100,000 being left disabled. Significantly, 75% of the victims are children and young adults, and TBI is the leading cause of disability in people under 40 years of age. Traumatic brain injury results in more lost working years than cancers, stroke and HIV/AIDS together. On a global scale, the number of life years lost due to traumatic brain injury is four times that of diabetes-related loss. Recent statistics show a steep increase in the incidence of TBIs, with an increase of 21% over the last five years - threefold greater than the rate of increase in population, at an annual cost of over Euros 100 billion. Despite this, TBI has been seriously under-represented in medical R&D efforts compared to many other, less significant health problems.[1]

About VAS203:

VAS203 is an analogue of the natural co-factor tetrahydrobiopterin, which is involved in the generation of nitric oxide by the Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS) family of enzymes. The mechanism of action of VAS203 is believed to confer selective down regulation of inducible NOS (iNOS) without significantly inhibiting the function of other NOS enzymes. It is believed that iNOS has a significant involvement in the cascade of damaging sequellae following a traumatic brain injury. Technical: VAS203 is (4-amino-(6R,S)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-biopterin dihydrochloride dihydrate) a structural analogue of (6R)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-biopterin, the natural endogenous cofactor of NOS and phenylalanine hydroxylase.

For further information, please contact:

Mary Clark, Hollie Vile

Optimum Strategic Communications

[email protected]



[*]Journal of Neurotrauma 31:1599-1606 (October1 2014).

[1] www.tbicare.eu

SOURCE VasopharmCHARLOTTE, N.C., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Viking Mergers & Acquisitions, a business brokerage firm representing middle market business owners in the South East, has successfully completed the sale of Carolina Precision Fibers, a green industry recycled materials manufacturing business located in Ronda, North Carolina that specializes in cellulose installation, hydroseeding mulch and industrial fibers for asphalt roads. Carolina Precision Fibers was founded by Fred Vincelli, an entrepreneur with a passion for the well-being of the environment. After 17 years of owning, developing and expanding CPF, Vincelli decided that it was time to sell the business to a new owner.

Vincelli hired Viking Mergers & Acquisitions and worked with Senior Advisor Greg White to facilitate the sale and guide him through the entire acquisition. White knew that CPF was a profitable business and that it would not be difficult to find a successor. "I quickly realized that CPF was a very special and unique business and that the owner was a very intelligent individual. I knew instantly that the business would generate a lot of activity," says White. After 8 months of working together in finding the ideal buyer for the business, White and Vincelli completed the transaction.

"Greg White is one of the most organized, dedicated and hard-working professionals that I have ever worked with, and he was there to guide me through the entire process," says Vincelli. After closing the deal and passing the business on to the new buyer, Vincelli is enthusiastic about seeing the business grow and prosper under new ownership. He plans to travel, spend time with his family and give back to the community by participating in volunteer opportunities.

About Viking Mergers & Acquisitions

Viking Mergers & Acquisitions was founded in 1996 by father-son team, Brad and Jay Offerdahl. For 21 years, Viking Mergers & Acquisitions has strived to provide customized exit strategies and M&A representation to family owned, small and middle market business owners of the Southeast. Having closed over 500 successful business sale transactions, Viking boasts a closing rate of nearly 3x the national average and is proud to be among the top 2% of M&A brokers in the nation. Their intermediaries have hundreds of years of collective experience in business transactions and nearly 75% have owned a business of their own.

To learn more about Viking Mergers & Acquisitions, please contact their office today at (704) 676-0940, or visit their website to see active business listings or request a valuation for your business.

Media contact:

Elizabeth McCarty

[email protected]

(704) 676 0940

SOURCE Viking Mergers & AcquisitionsBERKELEY, Calif., March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Wild Earth, Inc., a biotech startup, announced today it is using cultured proteins to develop clean, high-quality pet foods for the $30 billion pet food market.

Much like biotech companies creating cultured meats for human consumption, Wild Earth will produce pet foods that are healthier, more environmentally friendly, and more humane than conventional products.

The company's first cultured protein product is made from human-grade Koji, a fungi already enjoyed by billions of people around the world that is eco-friendly and renewably sourced. Wild Earth can create a range of proteins and carbohydrates, with varied textures and flavors. All products and ingredients are sourced, formulated, and made in the U.S. and the company is headquartered in Berkeley, California.

"Wild Earth will be the first to bring cultured protein and cultured meat products for dogs and cats to market, that are nutritious, humane, and without the devastating ecological impact of factory farming," said Wild Earth CEO Ryan Bethencourt. "Using biotechnology gives us the ability to scale and to get a product to market safely, quickly and affordably."

Wild Earth is committed to providing the safest pet foods available. Recent recalls have raised concerns over contaminated trusted pet food brands. By using cultured proteins, Wild Earth will avoid risks associated with traditional animal-based proteins.

An estimated 25-30 percent of meat's environmental impact in the U.S. is attributed to pet food, but Wild Earth can produce at scale at a fraction of the environmental cost.

"Wild Earth has found a novel way to deliver protein and will have a great nutritional profile, to meet the same requirements as meat-based pet foods," said Wild Earth chief veterinary officer Dr. Ernie Ward. "Pet lovers want healthy, humane, and environmentally friendly choices, and Wild Earth formulas will deliver nutrition without affecting the planet."

Wild Earth products will be tested via a protocol approved by the Association of American Feed Control Officials and PETA, conducted by volunteers and animals living in homes, as opposed to caged laboratory animals as in conventional pet foods. These humane, non-invasive, cage-free clinical trials test for qualities such as palatability, preference, digestibility studies, and stool quality. In addition to approvals by PETA and AAFCO, this type of trial is gaining favor in the scientific community because it delivers real-world results.

About Wild Earth

Wild Earth is a biotech startup developing clean high-protein pet foods that are healthier, better for the environment, and more humane than conventional products. Wild Earth is developing koji-based protein, followed by cultured meat derived humanely from animal cells. All products and ingredients are sourced, formulated, and made in the United States. Wild Earth is built by pioneers in cellular agriculture led by chief science officer Ron Shigeta, PhD, an experienced business team led by chief executive officer Ryan Bethencourt of biotech accelerator IndieBio, and Dr. Ernie Ward, known as "America's Pet Advocate." Investors include VegInvest, Stray Dog Capital, Felicis Ventures, Blue Horizon, Babel Ventures, EverHope Capital, Macro Ventures, and Aera VC. The company is headquartered in Berkeley, Calif. For more information visit www.wildearthpets.com.

SOURCE Wild Earth, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.wildearthpets.com

STAMFORD, Conn. and LUCCA, Italy, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Award based exclusively on customer input and satisfaction; consolidation and close, forecasting, and financial reporting and compliance recognized as particular strengths.

CCH Tagetik, part of Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting and a leader in global performance management software solutions, today announced that it has received a Top Rated Award in the corporate performance management category from TrustRadius, a review site for enterprise business technology.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/492891/Tagetik_Logo.jpg )



The award was based on customer reviews submitted by CCH Tagetik clients as of January 26, 2018. Solutions within the corporate performance category receive feature scores for budgeting, planning, and forecasting; consolidation and close; financial reporting and compliance; analytics; and integration. Customers also have the opportunity to rate solutions for overall usability, implementation, support, likelihood to recommend, and likelihood to renew.

"CCH Tagetik earned a Top Rated Award for corporate performance management based directly on feedback from customers," said Megan Headley, TrustRadius research director. "Reviewers particularly praise its strong financial consolidation, close, and forecasting capabilities. The product also offers excellent financial reporting and compliance." According to Headley, the TrustRadius awards are unique in that they are an unbiased reflection of customer sentiment, based solely on user satisfaction scores. They are not influenced by analyst opinion or the vendor's company size, popularity, site traffic, or status as a TrustRadius customer.

"Our customers have always been our strongest advocates," said Manuel Vellutini, Executive Vice President, Commercial for CCH Tagetik. "We're very pleased to receive this award, and we're grateful for the strong customers relationship we've developed all over the world. The ongoing input and suggestions we receive from our clients keep us ahead of the market and ready to meet the rapidly changing needs of finance."

For more information on the Top Rated Award for corporate performance management, see the TrustRadius blog post, Announcing the Top Rated Corporate Performance Software for 2018. For information on CCH Tagetik's corporate performance solution, visit www.tagetik.com .

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in professional information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting is a leading provider of software solutions and local expertise that helps tax, accounting and audit professionals research and navigate complex regulations, comply with legislation, manage their businesses and advise clients with speed, accuracy and efficiency. CCH Tagetik , a part of the Tax and Accounting division, provides solutions to CFOs for Corporate Performance Management.

For more information about our solutions and organization, visit www.wolterskluwer.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Media Contacts:

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SOURCE CCH TagetikSAN ANTONIO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) will open its doors in San Antonio for a special luncheon in honor of "Big Give" day. This yearly fundraising event gives San Antonio residents a chance to support their favorite charities. Attendees will be able to see the San Antonio office up close, meet staff, and hear from Army veteran Deven Schei about how WWP empowered him during his recovery.

"The communities where our warriors live and work have a significant role in their recoveries," said Gary Corless, WWP chief development officer. "Members of the community interact daily with the injured service members we serve, and they see the need is great and growing. That perspective gives them a chance to understand some of the challenges warriors face when returning to civilian life, but also where they can support those Wounded Warrior Project serves. Events like Big Give San Antonio make a significant difference. We're extremely grateful for the past generosity of the San Antonio community and are excited about this year's event."

From 12:00 am until 11:59 pm on March 22, supporters can visit www.thebiggivesa.org/organizations/wounded-warrior-project-inc to donate to WWP. Their generosity will make it possible for wounded warriors to take part in connection opportunities and benefit from program resources at no cost to them. Results from the 2017 WWP Annual Warrior Survey illustrate the importance of connection at WWP outreach events. To learn more, visit https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/survey.

WWP also connects warriors through services focused on mental and physical health and wellness, financial wellness, independence, government relations, and community relations and partnerships. To see these empowering programs in action, visit http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org.

About Wounded Warrior Project

Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) connects, serves, and empowers wounded warriors. Read more at http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/about-us.

SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project

Related Links

https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

@alextdaugherty

Are Miami Democrats snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

Its been nearly 17 months after the 2016 election and a day after Republicans appear to have lost a Pennsylvania U.S. House seat in a district Donald Trump won by 20 percentage points  and Democrats have yet to put up a serious challenger for a Miami-area seat Trump won by less than two percentage points.

Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balarts only Democratic opponent doesnt have enough money on hand to host one catered fundraising dinner. And yet, a few miles away, seven Democratic candidates are raising serious cash in an effort to replace retiring Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Diaz-Balarts Hialeah-based seat was, and still is, the most Republican-leaning congressional seat in Miami-Dade County. But a Democratic wave in 2018 could put Diaz-Balarts seat in play if the party can find a credible candidate, making it possible for Democrats to win all three Republican-held seats in South Florida.

It is more challenging because we havent had a strong challenger since 2007, said Miami-Dade Democratic Party chairman Juan Cuba. If any community leaders are thinking about running... this is going to be the year to do it.

There are 10 other Republican-held districts around the country Republican-leaning as Diaz-Balarts district. Nine of those 10 districts have at least one  and in one case as many as seven  Democrats running who have raised at least $100,000 so far.

Members of Congress dont have to live in their district, which means anyone who lives in Florida can challenge Diaz-Balart. Cuba said one reason why so many Democrats are staying to run in Ros-Lehtinens district is because they live there, making it harder to mount a credible candidacy in places like Hialeah and Doral within Diaz-Balarts district.

Ian Russell, who served as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees political director during the 2016 cycle, said the lack of a credible candidate to challenge Diaz-Balart at this point in the election cycle is a hole in the national map, though there is still time to mount a credible challenge thanks to Floridas late filing deadlines and primary elections. He noted that current Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Orlando, announced her bid against former Republican Rep. John Mica at the last second in 2016, and ultimately won the race.

At the DCCC we got Stephanie Murphy to file on the day of the filing deadline, Russell said. Im sure the DCCC and Democratic groups are recruiting somebody strong [in Diaz-Balarts district] if not its a massive missed opportunity.

Read more here.Port Macquarie in New South Wales is set to be the busiest weekend auction suburb, according to CoreLogic.

The suburb nearly 400 kilometres has 25 dwellings set to go under the hammer.

It's followed by a busy Melbourne, where Richmond has 23 scheduled auctions and Camberwell 22.

Melbourne will be the busiest state capital with over 1,500 auctions slated.

The Victorian capital is set to see a significant increase in activity this week after last week saw volumes fall across the city. There are expected to be over the 450 more auctions last week.

Auction activity is set to increase this week across the combined capital cities, with 2,832 properties scheduled to go to auction, up from last weeks final result of 1,764 auctions held.A quick look at half a dozen of the more interesting housing finance slides for January 2018.

Total housing finance increased by +0.7% in seasonally adjusted terms to $33 billion, but was pretty flat in trend terms, with investor loans continuing to decline and owner-occupier lending growing at +7% per annum to fill the breach.

Click here to enlarge.

January is generally a quiet month due to summer holidays, but first homebuyers continue to be drawn into the market by concessions, now accounting for a market share of 18% in the month.

Click here to enlarge.

While first homebuyers are on average struggling to increase their loan sizes due to serviceability caps and stress-testing at above 7% mortgage rates, established owners have been able to use more leverage.

Click here to enlarge.

That's especially true in Victoria where the average loan size for non-first homebuyers hit a record high.

Click here to enlarge.

Surge of completions

A number of indicators have suggested that the Sydney market saw a huge number of dwelling completions in or around the final quarter of 2017, as construction activity now drops back from record highs and a spike in vacancy rates is observed.

The number of finance commitments for new dwellings is coming down off four-decade highs.

Click here to enlarge.

New South Wales has seen more new dwellings financed by homebuyers than ever before over a 12-month stretch, underscoring the point.

Click here to enlarge.Moving into content production, Atresmedia Studios has announced its first project has been secured for Telefonicas Movistar+.





During the official launch of its global production unit , the media company revealed a deal with the Spanish pay-TV player to produce the fiction series El Embarcadero.Together with Vancouver Media, producer of the global hit La Casa de Papel , Atresmedia Studios will contribute to extend Movistar+s growing catalogue of original Spanish series.Atresmedia Studios is the consequence of a strategy that has been deployed over recent years and has placed content at the core of our business, said Silvio Gonzalez, CEO, Atresmedia . The strategy has driven an increasing number of international operators to be aware of our products and brands.Through the new production unit, the company will develop formats for its own free-to-air and pay-TV channels in Spain and the Americas as well as tailored projects for other operators and distribution windows, such as over-the-top (OTT) players.Atresmedia Studios will invest in projects to be specifically developed for each operator. As with any other studio, it will also fund, support and exploit other projects, said Ignacio Corrales, general manager, Atresmedia Studios.Geopolitics is always at play within international relations, but none more so than the current role the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has in South Asia. Sir Halford Mackinder explained the Heartland Theory in The Geographical Pivot of History in 1904. Whichever nation controlled Eastern Europe would control the Heartland (the core of Eurasia); subsequently this nation would then control the World Island (all of Europe and Asia); and finally, would dominate the world. Alfred Thayer Mahans view was focused upon the oceans. Simply, whoever conquered the seas would control the world. Both have proven true throughout history, but not at the same time with the same nation. The partnership of Mackinder and Mahans theories are found within the PRCs One Belt One Road (OBOR) project.

The OBOR is the worlds largest economic endeavor potentially involving 60 nations and more than 4.4 billion people. It was first mentioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. He figuratively discussed it in his 2015 statement at the UN. A major component of this speech was his claim of win-win situations all over the world. This new silk road would open unfettered pathways to Europe, Africa, and ultimately Latin America. According to Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the OBOR will include promotion of enhanced policy coordination across the Asian continent, financial integration, trade liberalization, and people-to-people connectivity. This project is not without its political implications for South Asia as well. If China is successful in its goals, they will prove both geopolitical theories as symbiotic, and become the new superpower.

India and China have been significant rivals in South Asia for centuries, whether in politics, economics, militarily, or religion. The U.S. has bolstered the former, being the worlds largest democracy, and has aided in its development and transformation into an economic center and regional influencer. On the other hand, the PRC is clearly Asias economic powerhouse with tremendous ambition to Sinicize. Lately, it seems Chinas authority has transcended that of India, as seen in Pakistan, Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

The One Belt: Chinas Heartland

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a venture that will benefit Pakistan tremendously as it struggles with an increasingly younger generation, limited social opportunities, and greater radicalization. The CPEC website outlines these projects. The PRC financed four railways: the Karachi Circular completed in May 2017, the Greater Peshawar Region and Orange Line in Lahore are under construction and Quetta is in the feasibility process. In addition to rail, China funded three roads and one canal projects. In Punjab Province, iron mining and steel processing plans are well underway. The heart of Deng Xiaopings socialism with Chinese characteristics was Special Economic Zones (SEZs). China is in various stages in developing nine of these within Pakistani urban areas. They will be connected to rail, road, waterways, as well as airports. The SEZs involve a multitude of industries including produce, textiles, pharmaceuticals, appliances, and agricultural machinery. Chinese SEZs boosted its economy and will do the same for Pakistan. In retaliation for a January tweet by President Trump, the Pakistani Central Bank declared it officially adopted the Yuan, only strengthening a solid trade between the two nations. These numerous economic outcomes are obviously necessary for a growing younger generation. Nevertheless, they also need educational and social opportunities. Knowing this, the PRC is funding a university, a business school, and various opportunities for the two countries to exchange cultures. With less poverty and greater prospects, perhaps fewer men will turn to radicalization. The safety of thousands of Chinese nationals living and working in Pakistan is also of concern to Beijing. The PRC has already pressured Pakistan to do more to counter terrorism. The CPEC is clearly a win-win economically, socially and politically.

Nepal has been a geopolitical pawn of two powerful Asian nations. Today is no different, although they are leaning closer to China than India. The recent election of Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli proves this stronger relationship. According to a South China Post article, Nepals new communist prime minister will restart a Chinese-led $2.5 billion (U.S.) hydropower project that was pulled by the previous government considered friendly towards India, and wants to increase infrastructure connectivity with Beijing to ease the countrys reliance on New Delhi. Previously Nepali internet access came from Indian companies. In January that changed with China Telecom Global taking the lead. In addition, Beijing will help build the first railway, over the Himalayas into China, not down the valley into India. Beijing is also trying to reduce Nepals dependence on India for trade. When a 2015 Indian blockade of Nepali roads ensued, they looked to China for help. Although China could not provide all the nations fuel needs, it opened significant talks between the two. In a landmark decision, Nepal will now have ocean access via the Chinese port city, Tianjin, not just ports in India. This allows for greater third-party trade, especially with those nations restricted by trade in India. Interestingly, these infrastructure projects come at the same time the PRC has encouraged the two Nepali communist parties to merge and become stronger. Again, both nations appear to enjoy win-win scenarios in economics and politics.

The One Road: Chinas Maritime Influence

The transformation of Chinese influence in the Maldives has been interesting. Male only recently acquired a Chinese embassy in 2011. Since then, Chinese presence has been powerful. Gateway House of India explained the PRC has more than 20 government and privately-sponsored projects ranging from big infrastructure (airport, bridge), housing, hotels and urban infrastructure. The three greatest is estimated at over $1.5B, putting the islands into even greater debt. The most significant economic opportunity in the Maldives is tourism, and China sends the most vacationers. Strategically, Beijing is now closer than ever. As the political crisis in the Maldives unfolds, both China and India are vying for power and influence. According to The Maritime Executive, Chinese warships entered the Indian Ocean on February 20the same day President Yameen extended another 30-day state of emergency. The chaos involved, whether it is Yameens directive to revert to the former one-party system or Indias claim that warships did not arrive, has given Beijing more authority. In this volatile environment, it is too early to tell who will benefit from these win-win policies.

Solely because of size, Sri Lanka is the stronger of the two island nations when it comes to Indian Ocean shipping. Knowing this, Beijing invested billions into various infrastructure projects. The Diplomat reported, Chinese funds have been channeled into roads, airports, and seaports, the two highest profile initiatives being the Hambantota Port Development and the Colombo Port Project. In December, the PRC was granted a 99-year lease for Hambantota. Some analysts predict it may become a naval base, while others speculate it is purely for trade. Chinese presence is also noted in telecommunications. Anti-Chinese protests ensued as unions were unhappy with the lease. Huawei, Chinas largest cellular phone manufacturer, is the second largest producer in Sri Lanka. Like the Maldives, a Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2017. Reduced tariffs will allow a greater flow of Chinese products. Despite the union clashes, it seems there will also be win-win situations for Sino-Sri Lankan relations.

Conclusion

Are communist ideals winning over democratic principles? Does Indias Modi have fences to mend? The Hambantota protests were the first against Chinese investment; will this become a norm? Should the U.S. do more to protect Indian, and hence democratic interests in the region? When the U.S. pulled out of the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), did the geopolitics of Mackinder and Mahan aid in Chinas ambition to become a new superpower? Time will only tell.

Jennifer Loy holds a M.S. in International Relations with a concentration on East Asian Regional Affairs, and is based in Boston.

This article was first published by Nepal Matters for America.Last week, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on U.S. military operations in Africa, approximately five months after four U.S. special operators were killed in western Niger in an ambush by a large group of militants affiliated with the Islamic State. Preliminary findings from military investigators suggest that poor intelligence and excessive operational discretion for field commanders will be cited as the primary reasons for the incident.

The three questions administration officials and U.S. lawmakers should examine, however, are far more elemental to how much heavy equipment the soldiers had or whether their vehicles were hardened enough. First, should the U.S. military have been put into the position of accompanying Nigers troops in hostile, desert-terrain in search of a local terrorist leader in the first place. Second, is the threat posed by terrorist groups on the African continent commensurate with the manpower the U.S. has deployed? And third, should Washington treat all terrorist organizations, regardless of capability or risk to U.S. security, equally?

The answer to all three questions is no. While the African continent is certainly a troubled, violent territory with porous borders and corrupt governments, the terrorists in Africa have largely local aims and should therefore largely be left for local African armies and intelligence services to handle.

Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the Commander of U.S. Africa Command, described Africa-based terrorist groups as an increasingly perilous security issue for ever greater sections of the continent. Violent extremist organizations are a huge challenge to African nations, Waldhauser told the Armed Services Committee. In the very next breath, the General assessed that [A]t the present time, [the terror networks] really do not have the capability to conduct operations, for example, in the United States.

This last point cannot be overstated enough, for it exposes the widening imbalance between the actual terrorist threat in Africa to the United States and the significant amount of resources the U.S. has spent on security in Africa over the last two presidential administrations.

Instead of concentrating counterterrorism resources on groups with transnational ambitions, Washington has taken a wholly indiscriminate approach, lumping all extremist organizations in Africaand globallyas if each one poses an equal threat to the U.S. homeland even though they admit that is not at all the case.

With perhaps the exception of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, best known for capturing western tourists to generate revenue, Africas terrorist groups have shown themselves to be concerned mainly with local goals in the specific countries they operate in. Despite the wanton violence al Shabaab has perpetrated against thousands of Somalis in over a decade of existence, the groups objectives center on expelling the U.N. and Western-supported Somali government in Mogadishu and replacing it with an Islamic emirate. While the Shabaab has conducted terrorist attacks in Kenya and Uganda before, these operations were mainly revenge-oriented, designed to punish two countries who have deployed troops to Somalia to shore up the legitimate government.

Boko Haram is a vicious groupin 2015 and 2016, over 6,700 Nigerians were killed in terrorist attacksbut it has exhibited no such intention towards the United States or Americans in general. Boko Harams presence in other Western African nations is based more on the reality of its fighters being pummeled by the Nigerian military rather than an unstoppable terrorist menace swallowing the region in a terrorist blitzkrieg. At present, the only way Boko Haram could kill a U.S. soldier is if the Trump administration deployed American servicemembers into the conflict zone, something that no serious counterterrorism official in Washington is advocating.

The point here is not to excuse the depravity and evil these groups represent or hint in any way that they do not contribute to the violence, poverty, and human rights abuses in Africa as a whole. Nor does that mean the U.S. should do nothing to change the situation. We have important economic and diplomatic means at our disposal. However, the U.S. military should be reserved for direct threats to U.S. security and prosperity.

Not all terrorist organizations in Africa or indeed around the world are fed by a thirst to attack the United States or kill untold Americans on American soil. A predominant number of them are motivated by local grievances and have local objectives in mind.

Africa, it should be noted, is not the backwater it used to be. The continent has immense economic potential. The World Bank reported that Africas GDP nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017 after several years of anemic growth, even as the number of Africans living in poverty has increased. If current trends continue, Africas booming population growth over the next three decades will translate into more young men entering the workforce without a stable job, a prime recruiting target for jihadist groups seeking manpower.

Not every group of extremists, in other words, has the same transnational ambitions as Osama bin Laden did before the 9/11 attacks. And not all bad guys who call themselves al Qaeda or ISISoften despite zero operational connection with eithermerit the sacrificing of U.S. blood and treasure.

If any nation needs to become more involved in Africas counterterrorism efforts, it is the likes of Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the U.K. - all of which will continue to be seen by Africans as seeking greater economic opportunity as the ultimate destination. The European Union can, and indeed, should follow Frances footsteps and invest more in and partner with African security institutions to ensure the terrorism problem does not spread and become more of a security crisis for Europe. Such an effort would be good for the Africans who need assistance, good for the Europeans who have a national security interest in containing terrorism across the Mediterranean, and good for Washingtons correct policy of promoting fairer burden sharing within the U.S.-European alliance.

Like all agencies of the federal government, the U.S. counterterrorism community does not have a money-tree planted in the premises. It is far more appropriate to use the taxpayer-provided resources Americas counterterrorism agencies do have on targeting terrorists who demonstrate a clear and present danger to the U.S. homeland, American interests, and the American people. Right now, as evidenced by the terrorists own actions, the troubled continent of Africa is not one of those places.

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities.The United States air campaign in Yemen has shown no signs of slowing down. U.S. forces conducted 12 airstrikes against terrorist groups in Yemen over the last month that were not publicly announced, FDDs Long War Journal has learned.

Maj. Josh T. Jacques at US Central Command Communication Integration said yesterday in an email that U.S. forces have conducted twenty-two (22) strikes against AQAP and ISIS-Y terrorists in Yemen 2018. The US had conducted 10 counterterrorism strikes in Yemen when CENTCOM last issued a press release updating figures in early in February.

The latest data put this years number of strikes on-pace to fall just short of last years record surge. In 2017, the United States conducted a record 131 strikes in Yemen.

Major Jacques did not comment on the distribution of strikes between the two groups. The US begantargeting the Islamic State in Yemen in Oct. 2017, which accounted for six of the 131 strikes that year. Since the beginning of 2017, the US military has released very few details about US strikes against AQAP in Yemen. Of the 125 strikes against AQAP in Yemen in 2017, CENTCOM only provided details on seven, all of which involved high value targets.

Despite an intensified air campaign by the US military, terrorist groups in Yemen continue to demonstrate their ability to conduct complex attacks, notably against the temporary capital of Aden. Yesterday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing of a military headquarters in Aden. It conducted similar complex attacks in Feb. 2018 and Nov. 2017.

Additionally, AQAP continues to control territory in remote areas in southern Yemen and uses these bases to launch attacks against the Yemeni government as well as plot attacks against the West. In mid-December 2017, the US killed Miqdad al Sanaani, who was described as an external operations facilitator, in an airstrike in Bayda governate.

Congressional leaders have increasingly scrutinized US military assistance to the Saudi-led coalition operating against the Iran-supported Houthi insurgency, a separate line of effort from the long-standing counterterrorism mission. AQAP and the Islamic State has thrived as the Yemeni government has battled the Houthis for control of the country.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Alexandra Gutowski is a military affairs analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

This article appeared originally at FDD's Long War Journal.President Trump thinks arming school staff and teachers deter threats. Surprise, media fact checkers from The New York Times to FactCheck.org accuse him of false and misleading claims to inaccurate facts. The FactCheck.org analysis has been carried on hundreds of news site. Yet, any serious look at the data shows that Mr. Trumps arguments are more clearly grounded in facts and a deeper understanding of these attacks than the fact checkers would dare let their readers know.In this series of articles running from mid-March to July, RealClearPolitics and RealClearDefense take an in-depth look at the intersection of cybersecurity, technology, and warfare in the 21st century.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Leon Panetta was testifying to a House committee about the health of Earths oceans when he was handed a note informing him about the attack on the World Trade Center. The session ended abruptly as people instinctively scrambled for safety, not knowing that passengers on United Airlines flight 93 were taking brave actions that may have saved the U.S. Capitol from becoming a second Ground Zero.

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Panettas stints as CIA director and secretary of defense were in the future, but he was a prominent former California congressman whod served as budget director in Bill Clintons administration and as White House chief of staff. Still, he was grounded, along with everyone else in the aftermath of 9/11. So he rented a car and headed to California. As he drove, Panetta gradually grew heartened. He marveled at the God Bless America! signs he saw in the Midwest and at how the country seemed to be pulling together. By the time he reached his seaside hometown of Monterey, Panetta  a naturally sunny person  had begun to feel hopeful again.

Hes less optimistic today. Partly, his concern is a function of his tenure at the Pentagon and the CIA. In those years, a fear took root, and subsequent events have only made it more acute. He is asked what keeps him awake at night:

Ive always worried about the battlefield of the future, which is cyberwar, he replied. Just as we used to worry about terrorists getting hold of a nuclear weapon, I worry about our enemies gaining access to a cyberweapon that does as much damage as was done on 9/11.

Panetta was in charge at the Pentagon in August 2012 when word filtered out of Saudi Arabia that malware had halted operations at Aramco Oil Co. Before it was contained, 30,000 computers had been destroyed. Files disappeared, the stored data on them wiped out, replaced by the image of a burning U.S. flag. It became clear that this was Irans handiwork. The virus remained hidden, reappearing again in Saudi Arabia -- and again doing extensive damage --in 2016.

It isnt beyond possibility that a Pearl Harbor-type attack can be launched against us from a laptop. Leon Panetta

Neither blood nor oil was spilled in those attacks, but escalation seems the obvious next step. We live in a world where you dont need to send B-1 bombers or land troops on the soil of another country to attack them, Panetta told me this week. Using that same kind of virus, you can take down the computers that support our electric grid, government systems, transportation systems, financial institutions. It isnt beyond possibility that a Pearl Harbor-type attack can be launched against us from a laptop.

Much Worse Than You Think

The first computer hacker, as the term is presently understood, was a Seattle high school student named David Lightman. He started out with small stuff, such as changing the biology grade of a girl he was trying to impress, before graduating to bigger targets  much bigger: David hacked his way into the Department of Defense computer, accessing the nuclear launch codes at NORAD. He nearly started World War III.

Fortunately, David Lightman was a fictional person. He was the lead character, played by Matthew Broderick, in WarGames, a riveting 1983 Hollywood thriller with a bracing antiwar message. Among those who watched it was President Reagan, who screened it at Camp David in early June. Reagan liked the film very much and couldnt get it out of his head. Four days later, he put the question to Gen. John Vessey Jr., chairman of the joint chiefs: Could something like this really happen?

Screenwriters Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, had done their research and already knew the answer, even if neither the president nor his top military adviser did. Yes, it certainly could happen, theyd been assured by Rand Corp. computer scientist Willis Ware. As recounted in Fred Kaplans book Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, Ware told them that the only network computer that is truly secure is one no one could use. Soon, Jack Vessey was relaying similar sentiments to Ronald Reagan. Mr. President, he said, the problem is much worse than you think.

A succession of U.S. presidents have been told the same thing. So have members of Congress, the nations military brass, captains of industry, educators, bankers, and assorted thought leaders. Yet the list of huge hacks and other digital attacks grows, each breach seemingly more alarming than the last. It is a litany of failure.

The first deliberately planted computer malware was the Morris worm, unleashed by a hacker who said he wanted to gauge the size of the fledgling Internet (then called ARPANET). In 1994, Russian hackers -- some experts were still using the MIT-preferred term crackers -- siphoned $10 million from Citibank. In March 1997, a teenaged Croatian hacker younger than David Lightman penetrated the computer system of a U.S. Air Force Base on Guam. In 1999, a malware dubbed Melissa by its originator was transmitted through email. Dubbed a virus, it was more properly understood to be a worm. And the worm was only beginning to turn. It infected some 20 percent of the worlds computers.

Conficker, a worm that infiltrated 15 million computers in 2008, turns computers into zombies, deactivates anti-virus programs, and siphons away credit card numbers and the like. It is still infecting an average of 1 million computers a year. Over time, cyber thieves seemingly embarked on a grim competition: The files of Ashley Madison, a website facilitating extramarital affairs, were taken, compromising the privacy of 37 million users; the credit card information of 50 million Home Depot customers was swiped; the medical records of nearly 79 million patients were accessed when the giant health-care insurer Anthem Inc. was hacked; at J.P. Morgan, hackers broke into 76 million personal accounts and 7 million business accounts; cyber thieves obtained the financial information of all 145 million eBay users in 2014; at LinkedIn, 164 million accounts were stolen.

This is only a partial list -- a tiny fraction of the U.S. companies that have been hacked. So, too, were many of the governments most sensitive agencies, including the State Department, and Washington, D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department.

Redwood City, Calif.-based cybersecurity expert Oren J. Falkowitz says that the personal information of nearly every American has been breached at some point, many of them more than once. Before launching his own cybersecurity firm, Area 1 Security, Falkowitz spent a decade at the National Security Agency. He gets impatient with those who warn that disaster is just around the corner. He says the crisis is already here.

The question is: Will we take the necessary actions to get ahead of the next attacks? cybersecurity expert Oren J. Falkowitz

How could it get much worse? he asks. The question is: Will we take the necessary actions to get ahead of the next attacks? Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been siphoned from the economy. The intellectual property of every big company has been accessed and shipped overseas, much of it to China. Our government agencies, including the Department of Defense, State Department, OPM have been breached. The outcomes of our elections have been influenced.

Defending ourselves requires knowing who is doing these things and how they are doing them. Falkowitz estimates that 95 percent of cyberattacks begin through phishing -- sending innocent-looking emails, texts, or phone messages that induce users to give up personal information, including computer passwords that get the thieves not only into the innards of peoples lives, but their entire company as well.

Who is doing it is often harder to determine. Culprits like the kids in WarGames have given way to much more sophisticated and sinister players. This evolution can be viewed through a single name, Guccifer. That was the online handle of Romanian hacker Marcel Lazar. A digital enthusiast in his 40s with no formal computer science training, Lazar was frustrated by his inability to get a job. He began obsessively wading through the Internet -- his lawyer called his hacking activity an addiction -- but whatever its called, it landed him inside Hillary Clintons email exchanges  and, eventually, in federal prison.

The extent of the harm caused by defendants conduct is incalculable, federal prosecutors told the sentencing judge. In hindsight, those prosecutors were clueless. Incalculable is a better description of what Guccifer 2.0 did. Thats the handle of a crew of hackers that breached the Democratic National Committee email system and gave it all to WikiLeaks. U.S. intelligence officials have fingered Guccifer 2.0 as a Russian government operation, something WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied, but whoever stole them, the publication of those emails cost DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz her job, infuriated supporters of Bernie Sanders, distracted Hillary Clinton, emboldened Donald Trump -- and may have played a role in the outcome of the 2016 election.

The theft of those documents coincided with an organized Russian effort to undermine Americans faith in their own elections. That initiative was executed by Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, the St. Petersburg troll farms owned by an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russias intelligence services are also considered active hackers, along with murky operators such as Rasputin, a Russian-speaking hacker who infiltrated the Federal Election Commission in the autumn of 2016 and subsequently broke into five dozen universities and U.S. government agencies.

When choosing their targets, foreign hackers make little distinction between government, private business, charities, or even individuals. Similarly, its hard to categorize the perpetrators. Organizations such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous have political motivations, even if their agenda isnt clearly defined. Some criminals or gangs use various schemes, such as the notorious Nigerian Internet scam and its many permutations with the sole aim of stealing money. But the overlapping objectives of scammers who hail from regimes hostile to democracy make it difficult to draw fine lines between cybertheft and cyberwarfare.

The North Koreans hackers who busted into the personnel files of Sony Pictures and distributed them online called themselves Guardians of Peace. A more accurate description would have been Guardians of Kim Jong-un, who was clearly not amused by The Interview, the Seth Rogen spoof distributed by Sony depicting the assassination of the potentate of Pyongyang. Normally, North Koreas army of hackers, many of whom are sent abroad to commit their crimes, are busy conducting digital scams that net North Korea hard-to-obtain currency. But they made an exception for Sony.

Likewise, the Chinese are most responsible for stealing proprietary U.S. corporate secrets, an activity that simultaneously helps Chinas economy while weakening the U.S. politically.

This clinic didnt do anything wrong except annoy us. medical facilities hacker The Dark Overlord

One group that has not been successfully identified, let alone stopped, has perfected a kind of digital hostage-taking that feels to its victims more akin to Mexico-style kidnapping than computer hacking. Calling itself The Dark Overlord, this group specializes in stealing patient records from U.S. medical facilities while freezing the computer capabilities of the hospital or clinic. The data is sold on the black market, or just pushed out on the Internet, sometimes for spite. When they released more than 142,000 patient records of the Tampa Bay Surgery Center, the hackers explained via Twitter, This clinic didnt do anything wrong except annoy us.

Likely, that wasnt the whole story. Groups such as The Dark Overlord are responsible for a new word in the English language: ransomware. And no entity seems too small or too innocent to be caught in its clutches. On Jan. 11, 2017, the directors of Little Red Door, an Indiana nonprofit that provides hospice care and support services to impoverished cancer victims, met for a board meeting. Suddenly, the charity received a ransomware threat from The Dark Overlord. Its hackers had implanted software code that corrupted the hard drives of the facilitys eight computers. When the clinic responded to the threats by saying it ran on a meager budget and that paying ransom would impede its ability to do things like provide gas money for needy cancer patients to make doctors appointments, the hackers were unmoved. They demanded $43,000 in bitcoin, which the clinic couldnt, and wouldnt, pay.

Recent gambits by the group have been more threatening, and more sinister. They include freezing the computer systems of small-town U.S. school districts  and threatening to kill students. The country is under siege right now, Dr. Jay L. Rosen, CEO of the Tampa clinic, told the Miami Herald. Its a horrible situation.

Counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who served in the administrations of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has a more succinct description. This, he has warned for years, is war.

From Bows and Arrows to Mushroom Clouds

John Arquilla is a political scientist, not a computer scientist  a self-described bombs and bullets guy -- who knew little about cyber until he was assigned by the Rand Corp. to be a consultant to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during Operation Desert Storm. It became very apparent to me, he said later, that our biggest advantage came from what we knew and what our opponent didnt.

In 1993, Arquilla and fellow Rand analyst David Ronfeldt co-authored a prescient article with a new phrase: Cyberwar Is Coming!

Even 25 years ago, the insight that victory on the battlefield usually goes to the side with the best technology was not new. Although Shakespeare made Henry V famous -- and the young kings St. Crispins Day Speech at Agincourt has inspired bands of brother warriors for centuries -- more tangible factors were at work in 1415 when a smaller invading British force annihilated a larger army of French defenders. These included the heavy armor that weighed down French horsemen, a muddy battlefield, and the tight formation of French cavalry. The invaders most important asset, however, probably was the English longbow, a lethal weapon employed by well-trained, battle-tested archers. The result was the wholesale slaughter of Frances nobility.

Five-and-a-half centuries later, Britain and France were on the same side -- along with the United States -- in a world war eventually decided by advanced weaponry. In some ways, with his stirring wartime oratory, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the King Henry of his time. Yet, in seven speeches during World War II, FDR singled out U.S. technical capabilities -- American ingenuity, he called it -- as the real key to winning the war.

"We cannot afford to fight the war of today or tomorrow with the weapons of yesterday. President Franklin Roosevelt

We have constant need for new types of weapons, for we cannot afford to fight the war of today or tomorrow with the weapons of yesterday, Roosevelt said on Jan. 6, 1945. Almost every month finds some new development in electronics which must be put into production in order to maintain our technical superiority  and save lives.

By then, FDRs fellow Americans knew all about the P-51 Mustang, Lockheeds P-38 Lightning (the first twin-engine fighter) and the Grumman F6F-Hellcat with its amazing 19-1 kill ratio. What Americans didnt know was that in New Mexico, an array of scientists were developing a doomsday weapon that would not only end the war in the Pacific, but change the very calculations of armed conflict.

The successful detonation of the bomb took place at a remote test site that Robert J. Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos laboratory, had named Trinity. Fittingly, it was located at the end of a road called Jornada del Muerto -- Route of the Dead Man. Later, Oppenheimer would write that what came to him as he saw the flash of light and the mushroom cloud hed helped create were words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Its possible those lines did occur to him: One of the subjects he studied at Harvard was Hindu thought. But that day, according to others who were there (including his own brother), what Oppenheimer said was: It works.

The (Cyber) Shots Heard Round the World

If Ronald Reagan worried that technology could help accidentally start a nuclear war, succeeding presidents and U.S. allies -- one in particular -- have employed cyber measures as a way of preventing such a conflagration.

In 2006 and 2007, Israeli and American cyberwarriors began developing malware designed to damage Irans nuclear program. Approved by the Bush administration, the worm dubbed Stuxnet was somehow introduced by the CIA and Israeli intelligence into the computer systems at Irans Natanz nuclear facility. Two iterations of Stuxnet -- the second approved by the Obama administration -- took years to do their work, which was to make centrifuges spin too fast until they destroyed themselves.

But was Stuxnet really the first example of cyberwar?

A few minutes before midnight on Sept. 5, 2007, eight Israeli fighter jets -- four F-15s and four F-16s -- took off from Israeli Air Force bases. Their target was a secret complex called Al Kibar in the Syrian desert. There, North Korean workers were helping the Assad regime build a plutonium nuclear reactor, for which the only practical use was to produce an atomic bomb.

This project put both countries, Syria and North Korea, in violation of various treaties and agreements. It also scared the hell out of officials in Washington and Tel Aviv. But as Defense Secretary Robert Gates quipped to George W. Bush, only half in jest, Every administration gets one preemptive war against a Muslim country. If Assads attempts to acquire an atomic weapon were to be thwarted, Israel was going to have to do it alone.

The Israeli mission that night went off perfectly. But a strange thing happened that night: Syrias vaunted air defense system, purchased from Russia, never alerted anyone to the presence of those noisy F-15s and F-16s. Syria didnt know what had happened until Al Kibar was destroyed. Richard Clarke, the former White House National Security Adviser, begins his 2010 book, Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About, with a riveting account of this event.

If the Syrians were caught by surprise -- and Kremlin officials who received angry phone calls from Damascus the next day were nonplused -- cyber experts around the world were not. This was how war would be fought in the Information Age, Clarke wrote.

But not the only way. Four months earlier, Russia had launched its own cyberattack, using a different method, against neighboring Estonia. The small Baltic nation hadnt done anything as brazen as start a nuclear program. It had merely moved a statue of a World War II Red Army soldier to a less conspicuous location. Yet the Russian response was a major cyberattack that lasted weeks. Email systems and online services of Estonian media outlets, banks, and government offices were overwhelmed by massive waves of spam and other Internet traffic. Newspapers and television stations were essentially disabled, banks couldnt make financial transactions, and government officials couldnt communicate.

The Kremlin would use similar tactics the following year in neighboring Georgia, which it invaded, and later in Ukraine. By the time Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear were unleashed against the United States in 2015 and 2016, the Russians had benefited from nearly a decade of practice.

"This is the new battle space, and the U.S. is losing. We are way behind. Arizona State University professor Joel Garreau

Those who have examined these tactics believe its too myopic to frame the Russian cyberattacks as solely -- or even primarily -- an effort to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton. To Arizona State University professor Joel Garreau, the cyber crimes and online propaganda fed to the world by Russia and other nefarious actors, including ISIS, constitute not only an attack on democracy but an attack on the foundations that make democracy possible: namely, reasoned debate, even reason itself. Its an attack, Garreau believes, on the Enlightenment. This is the new battle space, and the U.S. is losing, he said. We are way behind.

To try and alter that equation, Garreau and ASU engineering professor Braden Allenby launched ASUs Weaponized Narrative Initiative, a project that tries to show Americans the gravity of the threat and figure out what we can do about it.

America, like most great empires, was born of the storms, mountains, and challenges of its frontiers, Allenby told me this week. Today, however, cyber is our frontier: It teems with its own dragons, and whether they will incinerate us, or whether we can slay them and continue to prosper, has yet to become clear.

How do we combat the array of cyberthreats? Leon Panetta repeats the question I ask him, and pauses for a moment before answering. The Russians have given us a wake-up call, he says. Whether we listen to that call will determine whether we have a future in the 21st century.

Carl M. Cannon is the Washington Bureau Chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.

WASHINGTON (AP)  How did George Nader  Lebanese-American businessman, globe-trotting fixer, convicted child molester  get caught up in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation?

The answer, it seems, can be found in the shadows, where Nader has long operated.

His long history included intrepid back-channel mediation between Israel and Arab countries  and a 15-year-old pedophilia conviction in Europe that has not been previously reported. But Mueller, in his investigation of President Donald Trump, his campaign and possible wrongdoing connected to Russia, is focused on Naders role in two high-level get-togethers after the presidential election, according to three people familiar with the case.

Nader was caught in Muellers web a few days before the anniversary of Trumps inauguration. He was transiting through Dulles International Airport outside Washington, on his way to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort, when his plans changed  abruptly and involuntarily.

Muellers investigators stopped him, people familiar with the case said. His electronics were seized and he was then allowed to go see his lawyer. Nader later agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigation, said the people with knowledge of the case as it pertains to Nader. They werent authorized to speak publicly on the case and demanded anonymity.

Nader is little known to the public, a man who has led a shadowy existence as a go-between across numerous Middle East capitals and who gave testimony to Muellers Washington grand jury earlier this month.

Nader joined a meeting at New Yorks Trump Tower in December 2016 that brought together presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief strategist Steve Bannon  fired by Trump last August  and Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates.

A second meeting occurred a month later in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles and involved Nader, bin Zayed, former Blackwater boss Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to President Vladimir Putin.

Naders record of sexual abuse in Prague appears unrelated to his role in Muellers probe in the United States; it is unclear whether Muellers investigators knew about it. One of Naders lawyers, Sandeep Savla, suggested that information about his record was being leaked to stop him from cooperating.

This is nothing more than an orchestrated, disgusting scheme by those who are trying to intimidate Mr. Nader into silence. It wont work, he said. Mr. Nader will continue to answer truthfully questions put to him by the special counsel.

Kathy Ruemmler, who previously served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, is among the lawyers representing Nader. She declined to answer questions about her client.

A George Nader was convicted by Pragues Municipal Court of 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in May 2003, court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said the crimes occurred between 1999 and 2002. She said Nader served time in a Prague prison, though it isnt clear how much. He was then ordered expelled.

Puci said Nader was convicted of moral corruption of minors, sexual abuse and impairing morals, after abusing underage boys.

In one case, Nader requested oral sex from a 14-year-old boy in a room at the Hilton Hotel in Prague, Puci said. After the boy refused, Nader masturbated in front of him and paid him 2,000 koruna  worth about $100 today, she said.

The verdict cites other examples of Nader providing money, jewelry, cellphones, clothes and accommodation for sexual services. The AP was able to see a copy of the verdict, which gives Naders birthdate as May 15, 1959. Nader was separately accused in Washington, D.C., of child pornography infractions in 1985, but those charges were later dropped. A criminal docket sheet obtained by the AP shows the same birthdate for Nader.

Two people with knowledge of the case confirmed it involved the same Nader now cooperating with Mueller.

Many of Naders former contacts and onetime friends have noted in recent weeks how they lost touch with him in the early 2000s.

Nader had worked in recent times as an adviser to bin Zayed, one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, according to people who know Nader. The questioning of Nader in the Mueller probe suggests possible interest in UAE relations with Trumps transition team or his administration.

Naders connections with Trump confidants include Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser who co-hosted a Tuesday night event attended by the president in Beverly Hills, California.

Earlier this month, several media organizations, including the AP, obtained emails belonging to Broidy, a California-based venture capitalist and the Republican National Committees deputy finance chairman. They show Broidy emailing Nader with a summary of Broidys talks with Kushner and Trump in the White House in October 2017, touching on matters including the UAEs bitter dispute with fellow Persian Gulf country Qatar.

Broidy accused Qatar of hacking his emails. The Qataris denied the charge.

Your governments actions against U.S. citizens will jeopardize your nations relationship with the United States, Broidy wrote in a public letter to Qatars U.S. ambassador.

In response, the Qatari government called Broidys baseless accusations a diversionary tactic.

___

Janicek reported from Prague. Associated Press writers Desmond Butler, Tom LoBianco and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  With a rare opportunity to run for either of two U.S. Senate seats, an insurgent Mississippi Republican switched targets Wednesday.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel, who earlier filed to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, announced Wednesday that hell run for Sen. Thad Cochrans seat after the elder senator announced hes retiring April 1.

The move smooths Wickers path to re-election, turning the focus to Cochrans seat and who Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant will appoint to fill it until a Nov. 6 nonpartisan election for the remaining two years on the term.

Bryant quickly made it clear that it wouldnt be McDaniel, flicking away the aspirants call for the party to rally behind him.

This opportunistic behavior is a sad commentary for a young man who once had great potential, Bryant said in a statement.

McDaniel has already sought Cochrans seat once, challenging the decades-long fixture of Mississippi politics in a 2014 primary that sharply split the states dominant party. The Republican from south Mississippis Ellisville suggested this time should be different, saying Republicans should rally around him and avoid a nasty primary that might give Democrats another Senate seat as the GOP seeks to hold its narrow majority.

If we unite the party now and consolidate our resources, we can guarantee Donald Trump will have a fighter who will stand with him, McDaniel said in a statement, only hours after he told The Associated Press that he hadnt decided on a switch.

Some Republican leaders fear tea party favorite McDaniel could lose to a Democrat in the same way that Roy Moore lost to Doug Jones in Alabama last year. Bryant is under pressure to appoint someone who can beat McDaniel and keep the GOPs historical lock on the seat. Many speculate that Bryant might appoint Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves or Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, both Republicans. Bryant has ruled out appointing himself, despite entreaties from some in Washington.

His motivation may be finding someone who can beat McDaniel decisively, said Millsaps College Professor Nathan Shrader. The political scientist said he wasnt surprised by McDaniels switch, saying polling data showed strong support for Wicker among Mississippi voters.

McDaniel, though, is also aiming to take down another target: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He outlined an anti-establishment appeal, telling The Associated Press Wednesday that hes focused on making sure Mitch McConnell is not selecting our next senator. McDaniel has said he wants to depose McConnell from his leadership role.

Theres already a Democrat eyeing the race. Mike Espy, President Bill Clintons first agriculture secretary, says he has a strong intention to run for the seat Cochran is leaving. In 1986 he became the first African-American since Reconstruction to win a congressional seat in Mississippi.

If no one wins a majority in the Nov. 6 vote, the top two finishers would meet in a runoff just before Thanksgiving

McDaniels switch also gives him more time to campaign and raise money. State Republican Party spokeswoman Jennifer Dunagin said McDaniel hadnt yet officially removed his name from the primary ballot. Wicker said that until that happened, his campaign will continue as planned. Wicker is already attacking McDaniel on television saying hes not supportive enough of President Trump.

Meanwhile, Wicker still faces a little-known Republican challenger, plus six Democrats, including state House Minority Leader David Baria of Bay St. Louis, State Rep. Omeria Scott of Laurel, and Howard Sherman of Meridian, whos married to Mississippi-born actress Sela Ward.

Republican intraparty tensions date to the 2014 primary, when McDaniel narrowly missed defeating Cochran in a three-way race. Forced into a runoff, Cochran called on longstanding ties to the African American community by successfully courting black voters who traditionally support Democrats to vote for him in the runoff

McDaniel supporters cried foul, but Mississippi voters dont register by party. The only people restricted from voting in a Republican runoff are those who voted in the Democratic primary for the same office. McDaniel unsuccessfully challenged his runoff loss, saying Cochran had improperly sought support from voters who never intended to support the eventual Republican nominee.

Tea Party leader Laura VanOverschelde told reporters Wednesday that 2014 primary was stolen and argued that Bryant would do long-delayed justice by appointing McDaniel.

It would bring great healing to the Republican Party, she said.

But even before McDaniel made the switch, Bryant was downplaying the push to appoint McDaniel.

Gov. Bryant will announce the U.S. Senate appointment once he decides who that will be, spokesman Clay Chandler said. That decision has not been made. But he will not be affected by any political group or dynamic.With plans to continue operating while wiping out $10 billion in debt, iHeartMedia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with its iHeartRadio subsidiary operating nine radio stations in Connecticut including two affiliates of Bristol-based ESPN.

From corporate offices in New York City and San Antonio under CEO Bob Pittman, iHeartMedia operates nearly 850 radio stations, with private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners having held a controlling stake in the company since 2008. As part of its bankruptcy plan, iHeartMedia would spin off its billboard subsidiary Clear Channel Outdoor as an independent company.

This was one of the last of those big (leveraged buyouts) done before the crash in 2008, Pittman said in a Vanity Fair interview posted in October on the YouTube channel of Cheddar. The business itself is in great shape  it just has a lot of leverage on it.

In Connecticut, iHeartRadio lists two FM stations in the New Haven area in KC101 and 100.9 The Beat, and two AM stations in 960 WELI and ESPN Radio 1300.

On the FM dial in the Hartford area, iHeartRadio has Country 92.5, Kiss 95.7, 97.9 ESPN and The River 105.9; and on AM, News Radio 1410 WPOP.

The companys New York City stations include WOR 710, which extends its signal into southwestern Connecticut and which carries New York Mets game broadcasts. The stations will stay on the air despite the bankruptcy.

IHeartMedia filed for protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas with the company carrying $20 billion in total debt and employing 19,500 people at last report. As of September, iHeartMedia reported an accumulated deficit of $13.5 billion, with the company tracing its history to 1972.

In the third quarter, iHeartMedia reported a 2 percent decline in revenue to $1.5 billion, with the company losing $248 million for the period, heading into the final months of 2017 with $286 million in cash and equivalents on the books.

The largest unsecured creditor of iHeartMedia is the New York City-based lender Law Debenture, owed $1.9 billion, followed by BNY Mellon owed $487 million.

Next up among unsecured creditors is Nielsen, which has corporate offices in Wilton and New York City, owed nearly $21 million. Ranking sixth on the unsecured creditor list is Stamford-based Icon International, owed $6.9 million, with the Omnicom subsidiary providing bartering services for companies looking to trade items at a better value than they could get in an outright sale.

It was the second bankruptcy filing of a major radio operator the past several months, after Cumulus Media declared Chapter 11 in December, with Cumulus running WEBE 108 in southwestern Connecticut. Earlier this week, an executive with Greenwich-based Townsquare Media expressed interest in acquiring Cumulus or iHeart stations in any bankruptcy auction should one occur.Cambodian villagers evicted from their land last week amid scenes of violence and reported shooting deaths appealed on Thursday for government help in securing new farmland and building new homes.



More than a hundred gathered on Thursday at Py Thnou commune in Kratie provinces Snuol district to ask authorities to provide them with shelter and food following the destruction of their homes by police and plantation workers claiming their land, sources said.



We are scared, frustrated, and desperate, one villager told RFAs Khmer Service on Thursday.



Over four hundred families now need land to build new homes, as well as land for farming, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



We would like the authorities to help us as soon as possible, he said.



Many of those driven from their land are now without the basic necessities of life, with some staying at other villagers homes or in Buddhist temples, he added.



Shooting deaths reported



On March 8, security forces in Kratie opened fire on more than 400 commune residents blocking National Road 76A to protest the destruction of their homes amid a long-running land dispute with the Memot Rubber Plantation.



The demolition came a day after Kratie provincial authorities met with the villagers in a bid to resolve the dispute with Memot, which had leased the land around the same time that residents settled in the area, but were unable to come to an agreement, she said.



Speaking to RFA, one villager reported that some of the protesting villagers had been shot dead and others injured, but later recanted after being taken into custody and threatened by police, who sources say have also warned villagers not to speak to the media.



Cambodian human rights groups have so far confirmed only that two villagers were seriously injured, with another less seriously hurt.



Authorities should not let the villagers removed from their land now suffer for lack of shelter, Soeng Sen Karona, a senior investigator for the rights group Adhoc, told RFA in an interview on Thursday.



The government needs to send a working group to meet with the affected villagers and find out what they need, he said. They have to find ways to help them now.



Abandoning them like this makes it harder for them to survive, he said.



Land disputes



The seizure of land for developmentoften without due process or fair compensation for displaced residentshas been a major cause of protest in Cambodia and other authoritarian Asian countries, including China and Myanmar.



Rural villagers and urban dwellers alike have been mired in conflicts that the U.N.s special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia has warned could threaten the countrys stability.



Cambodias land issues date from the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime, which forced large-scale evacuations and relocations, followed by a period of mass confusion over land rights and the formation of squatter communities when the refugees returned in the 1990s after a decade of civil war.



In 2012, hundreds of armed police violently evicted residents of Kraties Pro Ma village involved in a long-running land dispute with Russian rubber company Casotim. During the clash, authorities fired on the villagers, killing a 14-year-old girl.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Richard Finney.Cambodias Prime Minister Hun Sen kicked off a trip to Australia Thursday to attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Sydney, amid protests over his governments crackdown on the opposition in the lead up to general elections in July.



Hun Sen will be busy attending meetings at the March 17-18 ASEAN special summit on issues as diverse as counter-terrorism, trade liberalization and tensions in the South China Sea, but he will also have to contend with hundreds of Cambodian-Australians who have vowed to burn effigies of Southeast Asias longest-serving head of state as part of protests during his visit.



He recently dared them to do so, saying he would follow you all the way to your doorstep and beat you right there, suggesting it was entirely within his right to use violence against you.



Ek Savathey, who plans to join demonstrations, told RFAs Khmer Service on Thursday that Hun Sen, his family, and members of his government are not welcome in Australia.



They have ruled the country with records of human rights abuses, and have mistreated many Cambodians, all while abusing their power and using the courts as political tools to benefit themselves, he said.



It is not routine for us to burn effigies, but Hun Sens remarks have angered the protesters. He has challenged us to do so, but he made a huge mistake by threatening us with violence, he added.



Hun Sen has underestimated the Cambodian overseas community.



Several members of Australias parliament have condemned Hun Sens remarks and vowed to stand behind the Cambodian community in their country and its right to peaceful protest.



In recent months, Hun Sens government has arrested the head of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) on charges of treason, engineered the dissolution of the CNRP for its role in an alleged plot to take over the country, and forced the closure of media groups and NGOs who have been critical of his leadership.



The crackdown has led to widespread doubts over the legitimacy of a general election in the country, planned for July 29.



On Wednesday, New York-based Human Rights Watchs Australia director Elaine Pearson urged Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to call out ASEAN leaders such as Hun Sen, who she said are under no illusions about their own rights records and are awarded an unexpected bonus when countries such as Australia give them a free pass.



Australias failure to publicly raise human rights concerns at the summit would not only provide a propaganda coup to ASEANs most abusive leaders, it would embolden all the regions leaders contemplating major crackdowns, jailing journalists, or dismantling democratic institutions, she said.



Robust engagement on good governance, democracy, and human rights does not mean lecturing others, but instead discussing serious human rights issues that are critical to ASEAN governments and people.



The Australian Associated Press quoted Australias former foreign minister Gareth Evans, who helped develop a peace plan for Cambodia in the early 1990s following the turmoil of the Khmer Rouge era, as criticizing Australias weak response to the ongoing crackdown in Cambodia.



It's time for Cambodias political leaders to be named, shamed, investigated and sanctioned by the international community, he said.



Hun Sen has suggested that Australia should thank him for agreeing to attend the summit, which he said would be meaningless without him, and warned that he could veto any joint communique issued at the end of the ASEAN gathering.



UN Rapporteur



The prime ministers departure for Australia came as U.N. Special Rapporteur Rhona Smith wrapped up a 10-day visit to Cambodia on Wednesday, raising concerns about restrictions on freedom of expression and warning that peace, stability and development should not come at the expense of human rights.



Cambodia is at an important crossroads and must embrace human rights as they are indispensable in sustaining hard-earned peace and development, she said in a written statement accompanying her official report.



The right to political participation and freedom of expression are of particular importance during electoral processes, and the authorities have a responsibility to ensure that individuals, political parties and the media can operate without being threatened or sanctioned.



On Thursday, Cambodias Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed Smiths concerns in a statement, stressing that the countrys government is accountable for peace, stability and development  [which] are the pre-requisites for the promotion of human rights.



The statement said that Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told Smith during a recent meeting that the situation in Cambodia remains calm after the dissolution of the CNRP, demonstrating that Cambodians understand and accept the governments actions against the attempts by foreign countries to interfere in the internal affairs of Cambodia.



Cambodians want peace, stability and development ... [not] change through a color revolution, it quoted him as saying.



According to Prak Sokhonn, he and Smith are divided on the context of human rights and will need to hold further discussions before they can come to any agreement.



But Cambodian political analyst Meas Ny, who also met with Smith, suggested Prak Sokhonn is out of touch with what Cambodians want and said that the public is simply too afraid to publicly express their dissatisfaction over the governments crackdown on the CNRP, media and NGOs.



Even though people are fearful of protesting, they still frequently talk amongst themselves about the current situation, he said.



I think CNRP support is still strong. [The people] are assessing the situation and waiting to see what they should do next. Even though they appear calm, its similar to how water is still on the surface, while below there is movement.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.Chinese police officers detain petitioners next to Tiananmen Square ahead of the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing, March 3, 2018.

An elderly man has been hospitalized in the Chinese capital after a suicide attempt outside the gates of the State Council complaints department after his petitioning yielded no results, eyewitnesses said on Thursday.

"It was just past 2 p.m. on Mar. 14, while I was at the State Council petitions bureau," Lu Dongli, a petitioner from the northern province of Shaanxi, told RFA. "I saw an older man of about 60 who had just come out after filing his petition at the State Council."

"He felt that his petition had been in vain, and so he went to the public toilets next door in a state of despair, and slit his wrists with a knife," Lu said. "He was found lying on the ground opposite, outside the north gate of the [ruling] Chinese Communist Party Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's petitions reception area."

Lu said the man was soon surrounded by police and security personnel. Photos and video of the scene showed a person in a white coat bending down to look at a man on the ground outside a large grey gate, surrounded by officers in uniform.

"They called an ambulance, and when the doctor arrived, they took him away to the hospital," she said. "He was an old guy."

The suicide attempt came as stepped up nationwide security measures targeting people pursuing complaints and long-running grievances, intercepting petitioners en route to the capital, and sending those who arrive there back home, for the duration of the annual parliamentary session of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Thousands of petitioners typically gather outside the complaints department of the State Council, China's cabinet, in the hope of airing their grievances through official channels. But local governments deploy "interceptors" to take people back home, where they often face some form of retaliation from local officials.

A petitioner from the northeastern city of Shenyang, who gave only her surname, Liu, said the man had acted out of a despair that is well-known to all who lodge complaints with the government, which petitioners say detains them, escorts them home, and beats and harasses them and their loved ones if they won't drop their complaints.

"Why did he slash his wrists? Because life is untenable for petitioners," Liu told RFA. "The interceptors from different localities are out in force, and he never would have evaded them if he hadn't anyway."

"He would have been kidnapped and taken to a detention center by the interceptors," she said. "Before, when they detained someone, they would issue a notification of detention, but now they basically pay no attention to the law whatsoever, and detain people illegally."

They are vicious

Many petitioners have been prevented, sometimes with violence, from getting as far as Beijing in the first place, according to the rights website Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch.

Liu Chunbao, a rights activist from the northeastern province of Liaoning, said he was beaten up by police and detained during the NPC-related crackdown, as he tried to visit his elderly parents.

Beijing-based rights activist Ji Xinhua said violence is becoming more and more common in Chinese law enforcement, as the administration of President Xi Jinping seeks to ensure that nobody criticizes the ruling party in any way.

"They have gone down a road from which it is hard to return now that they have been acting like thugs for so long; they are really vicious," Ji told RFA. "Under this system, little can change, and there are no restraints on them, and things will likely stay this way in the long term."

On the opening day of the NPC annual session in 2014, a woman set fire to herself in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, although the evidence was quickly expunged from the scene, eyewitnesses told RFA at the time.

And in October 2011, a man from the central province of Hubei self-immolated on Jinshui Bridge outside the Tiananmen gate.

The number of ordinary Chinese traveling to Beijing to pursue grievances against the government typically swells ahead of key political events, as petitioners hope their cases will get a more sympathetic hearing.

Reported by Qiao Long and Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Following a protest campaign against indefinite rule by Chinese president Xi Jinping across university campuses outside China, a group of activists took their protest to the streets of California this week.



Holding banners and chanting "Oppose dictatorship!", a group of ethnic Chinese residents of the city converged on the California State Legislature in Sacramento.



"Long live freedom and democracy!" they chanted. "Mobilize nationally for a constitutional government!"



Some held posters of Xi similar to those produced by a "Not My President" social media campaign that have sprung up on campuses across the world in recent days.



Wu Pinghui, a former student leader of 1989 pro-democracy protests in the central city of Wuhan, said the protest was aimed at "opposing dictatorship" in China, after the country's rubber-stamp parliament gave the green light to the removal of presidential term-limits last week.



"We are demonstrating outside the California State Legislature building, because lawmakers in the United States have passed so many laws that are progressive for humanity," Wu said. "But in Chinese territory, history is regressing into the past."



"We call on all Chinese people of conscience, who want freedom and equality, not to remain silent," he said. "We should speak out together, to put huge pressure on this tiny minority of robber barons."



Wu hit out at the NPC's approval of Xi's constitutional amendments on Sunday, with just two opposing votes out of nearly 3,000.



"They will go down in history with shame because they approved this," he said.



Little support for Xi



Fellow protester Tong Mu, of the rights group Humanitarian China, said that while dissent has been tightly suppressed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party domestically, Xi's move has very little support in the Chinese diaspora.



"Pretty much all of them, whether they are part of the government or outside the government, know very well what is happening; it's just a question of whether they dare to speak out or not," Tong told RFA.

"Outside China, we can speak out, because they can't shut us up."



He said the removal this week of a Chinese journalist from the NPC press corps after she rolled her eyes at a pro-government journalist's question has become a symbol of just how careful people have to be in their criticism, direct or implied, of the government.



"This isn't going to go any better than it did under [late Romanian dictator] Nicolae Ceausescu," Tong said. "There are plenty of people among the ruling elite in China who have had enough of [Xi], and the future is too worrying to contemplate."



"There will be no going back for [Xi] now, not now that he has taken this step."



Protester Cai Zhenxiang, who hails from the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, said the rest of the world is heading in a more democratic direction, with only China heading in the other direction.



"It really is a tragedy," Cai said. "Perhaps people back home can't see it yet, but they should wake up. They shouldn't stay asleep any longer."



And Sacramento resident Liu Lina, who moved to the city from Shanghai, said things are about to get far worse for ordinary Chinese people back home.



"I keep praying to God ... that there will be a sudden awakening, and a turning back towards humanity," she said. "But it's very unclear whether there is any hope of that happening."



Online campaign



On Twitter, which is blocked for users behind the complex system of filters, blocks, and human censorship known collectively as the Great Firewall, a student-focused campaign group has been using the hashtag #IDontAgree to campaign against the constitutional amendments on campuses in the U.S., Australia, and other countries.



"Xi Jinping's unrestricted presidency needs to be ended now," the campaign's Twitter account profile reads, adding the hashtag #NotMyPresident and calling on students to make protest posters and display them wherever they are studying.



Photographs posted to the account showed posters bearing similar wording displayed on campuses all around the world, including Monash in Australia, Leiden in the Netherlands, University of California at Irvine in the U.S., and St. Andrews in Scotland.



But the account said many Chinese nationals studying overseas run the risk of political reprisals if they take part.



"We put up our posters ... at night. We suggest other interested students wear a mask while participating on their campuses," the campaign account tweeted on Mar. 8. "These are U.S. colleges. Ever thought of why we would do that?"



According to Chinese activists on overseas campuses, China's state security police are recruiting agents, some of them as long-term "moles," from among the more than half a million students studying overseas.



Chinese police are particularly keen to infiltrate overseas Chinese dissident groups, such as those fighting for democracy in their home country, or among emigre ethnic minority Tibetans and Uyghurs, according to Georgia University student and activist Sulaiman Gu, who made a recording of one attempt to recruit him by the secret police in January.



Reported by C.K. for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Lawyer Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, who represents Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong, speaks to reporters outside the Shah Alam High Court in Malaysia, March 14, 2018.

The lawyer for a Vietnamese woman accused of killing the North Korean leaders estranged half-brother last year accused Malaysian authorities of prejudice toward his client, while questioning the prosecutions star witness on Wednesday.

Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, who represents suspect Doan Thi Huong, said he received a letter from the Malaysian attorney general dated Dec. 4, 2017, declining his request to assist the defense in bringing a witness from Vietnam to appear at the Shah Alam High Court.

Doan is standing trial with Siti Aisyah of Indonesia on charges that they murdered Kim Jong Nam in a chemical attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport on Feb. 17, 2017. Both could face the death penalty if convicted.

Sitis attorney, Gooi Soon Seng, had finished his questioning of lead police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz earlier in the day. Before wrapping up, Gooi took his own shot at the governments case against his client by alleging that CCTV footage presented during the prosecution phase was edited to hurt the defendants.

Request declined

Hisyam had asked the attorney generals office in November for assistance in convincing Vietnamese citizen Nguyen Vich Thuy to travel to Malaysia to testify about her role in introducing Doan to a North Korean man who allegedly duped her into participating in the killing.

Its unfortunate that the AG declined to exercise his power to do this and in doing that deprived us of having the opportunity for police to go to Vietnam and investigate, said Salim Bashir, another attorney representing Doan.

Hisyam told the court that Nguyens testimony was crucial because she introduced Doan to Ri Ji Hyon (alias Mr. Y), one of four North Korean men who fled Kuala Lumpur hours after the murder, according to testimony from Wan Azirul.

Hisyam also criticized Wan Azirul for failing to take the necessary steps to get Nguyens statements.

In doing an investigation you are supposed to look for the truth, but your investigation is only focused on the CCTV footage, Hisyam said. There truth is there (in Vietnam) but no one in Malaysia is interested.

Nguyen, according to Hisyam, turned down efforts by Vietnamese police and defense lawyers to travel to Malaysia to testify for Doan, citing her responsibility in running her bar with her husband and taking care of her young child.

Affidavits introduced

The defense attorney presented two declarations made by Nguyen at the Malaysian embassy in Hanoi outlining her involvement with the incident.

In one affidavit, Nguyen who worked with Doan at a bar in Hanoi until 2016, said she suggested her co-worker to Ri Ji Hyon when he came to her bar two months before the murder. The man who identified himself as Lee spoke fluent Vietnamese and said he was a child of Vietnamese and Korean parents.

He said he was working for a South Korean production company looking for candidates to participate in prank videos for YouTube.

Nguyen herself was offered the role and declined because she had to take care of her small child, Hisyam said, adding that Nguyen then reached out to Doan.

The affidavit corroborates Doans statement to the Malaysian police that she was an actress who was in Malaysia to do prank videos, the defense argued.

Nguyen also said Ri Ji Hyon told Doan that the pranks would be done at airports and involve pouring water on peoples heads. The job required flying to cities in the region, including Kuala Lumpur.

Nguyens affidavit and Doans statement to police are consistent with Sitis statement that she believed she was participating in a prank show.

Before finishing his questioning of Wan Azirul, Gooi slammed Malaysian investigators for not allowing him to meet with Siti during her 14-day remand and for releasing portions of the video linked to the attack on the estranged brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

I put it to you that your failure to copy all the footage from the CCTV server from the KLIA airport compromised the defense of Siti, Gooi told Wan Azirul.

He added that police failed to investigate crucial evidence such as Sitis jeans and glasses that were not sent for lab tests.

Even the chemistry department tests showed that Sitis finger nail cuttings, nail swabs and blood had no traces of VX, the attorney said, referring to an internationally banned nerve agent used in the attack.

Gooi said he might have more questions for Wan Azriul after Doans lawyers finished their cross examination.

State Department statement

During the court session, Hisyam and Gooi asked Judge Azmi Ariffin to allow a statement by the U.S. State Department confirming that the North Korea government used VX to kill Kim. It was the first official statement from the U.S. government linking North Korean government directly to his death.

The United States strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons to conduct an assassination, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in the statement dated March 6.

Azmi said he would decide at some point in the trial whether to admit the statement.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.Salim Bashir, a lawyer representing Vietnamese defendant Doan Thi Huong, shows images of her at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, during a break in her trial in Shah Alam, Malaysia, March 14, 2018.

Attorneys for a Vietnamese woman standing trial for the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia tried Thursday to portray the lead investigator as not doing a thorough job, as the defense pressed forward its efforts to spare two defendants from the death penalty.

Under cross-examination by attorney Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz acknowledged that he did not check Doan Thi Huongs statement about staying at five different hotels in Malaysia prior to Kims death in February 2017.

Doan is standing trial at the Shah Alam High Court with Indonesian Siti Aisyah on charges of murdering Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport.

Reading from Doans 11-page statement as he questioned Wan Azirul, Hisyam told the court that Doan stayed at Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, 2017, and at Pearl International Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6, 2017. Neither of those stays was investigated by police, Hisyam said.

Doans defense team, which began questioning Wan Azirul on Wednesday afternoon, tried to present still photos from CCTV footage and photocopies of hotel guest registrations, but Judge Azmi Ariffin ruled that such evidence should be presented by prosecutors in original form.

Wan Azirul told the court that he chose not to investigate the hotels because he believed Doan was lying, although he did not specify which part of her statement was false.

Speaking to reporters following the court session, Hisyam said the lead investigator was not in any position to accuse his client of lying.

Its an open allegation. Its very easy to openly allege that so-and-so lied, Hisyam said. One must appreciate that at the time Doan was making her statement, she purely relied on her memory and nothing else, and dates are easy for one not to remember exactly.

At the time, she had to recall facts from memory, because police had confiscated her passport, mobile phone and travel documents, but evidence obtained from hotels appeared to show she had been truthful, he said.

Supporting documents given to us by various hotels is to show that weight must be given to the statements of Doan supported by independent evidence  that are not investigated by the investigating officer, primarily on the grounds that he is not interested, Hisyam said.

The trial is to reconvene on March 20.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.Chinese businessmen put out of work in North Korea because of tightened international sanctions against Pyongyang are eyeing a return to normal trade as talk builds of possible talks between national leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, sources in the region say.



The decision to hold talks with Kim was announced by the White House on March 8 after South Korean officials briefed Trump on their recent visit to Pyongyang, where the North Korean leader expressed a willingness to discuss nuclear disarmament with the U.S. and said he would suspend all nuclear and missile tests during the dialogue.



Though trade between North Korea and China remains restricted, Chinese traders who had moved away from cities on the border due to falling business have begun to explore their options to return, a source in Dandong, a Chinese port city across the Yalu River (aka Aprok River in NK) from North Korea, told RFAs Korean Service this week.



Some of the Chinese traders are getting ready to come back because of the news coverage regarding possible South-North Korea summit meetings and the [proposed] U.S.-North Korea summit, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Twenty-nine story twin towers near the Yalu Rivers railway bridge that used to be fully occupied by Chinese traders when business was good are now two-thirds empty, but firms are starting to ask again about leasing building space, he said.



One landlord surnamed Chang, who owns an office space of approximately 2,691 square feet in one of the two buildings, told RFA that his space has been vacant for three years. But I recently received a phone call asking about its availability, he said.



Now I think that Ill be able to find a tenant for this space which has been empty for such a long time.



Raised hopes



Speaking separately, another source in Dandong said that South Korean television broadcasts viewed in China are raising hopes that sanctions may soon be ended as international tensions over North Koreas illicit nuclear and missile tests are relaxed.



I often watch South Korean television news whenever I have a chance, and many traders expect to hear good news in the first half of this year, as South Korean media are saying that North Koreas nuclear situation is expected to be resolved, RFAs source said, also speaking on condition he not be named.



Others watching the situation have fewer hopes for renewed trade, though, a former businessman trading with North Korea said, noting the deep distrust with which the U.S. and South Korea view Pyongyang.



North Korea is an abnormal country. No one can predict their next step, and I cant believe that the North will give up its nuclear program, the source said.



Though South Korean media are now delivering hopeful messages, North Korean authorities and media are saying nothing about denuclearization, he said.



I have never met any North Korean who thinks that North Koreas leaders would be willing to give up the nuclear weapons they have already developed, he said.



Reported by Joonho Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Richard Finney.A municipal worker sweeps a pathway near the Mekong River in Laos's capital Vientiane in a Dec. 12, 2013 photo.

Corruption in Laos, thought last year to be coming under control, grew worse in 2017 despite widely publicized government efforts to rein in profiteering officials and financial waste, sources in the country say.

In a report released on Feb. 21, 2018, corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked Laos 135th out of 180 countries surveyed last year, dropping 12 places from 123rd place in a survey done the year before.

Corruption still pervades all sectors of life in the one-party communist state, from illegal logging to deliberate cost overruns on construction projects to the paying of bribes to obtain government services in day-to-day life, sources say.

Corruption is everywhere, it has become a tradition, a resident of the capital Vientiane told RFAs Lao Service.

For example, if you apply for any service, you have to attach a white envelope including tea money of about [U.S. $7]. Otherwise, you will experience a long wait, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Corruption has grown worse because peoples salaries are too low. No one can live on them, a resident of one of the countrys southern provinces told RFA. At the same time, people want to show off their luxury lifestyles, and especially their cars and houses.

Police officers in the countrys northeastern Xieng Khouang province regularly demand bribes because their pay is so low, the source added.

Millions lost

Speaking to RFA late last year, a senior Lao government official said that the countrys government had lost U.S. $50 million to corruption in 2017, three times more than it had the year before.

There is more corruption now because the government inspects and cracks down only on the small fish, never on the big fish, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

And though the governor of southeastern Laoss Attapeu province was removed from his post in November because of involvement in illegal logging, and the governor of the countrys northeastern Xieng Khouang province was dismissed amid similar charges in February, corruption persists at official levels, sources say.

Fraud occurs in development projects in which dishonest officials embezzle state funds and assets, including money for schools and health services across the country, an inspector in Laoss State Audit Authority told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Last year, over a trillion kip (about U.S. $44.8 million) was lost last year in development projects through the violation of laws and financial disciplines by government bodies and the private sector, according to a March 15, 2018, report by the online edition of the Vientiane Times.

Construction in Laoss construction industry is getting worse, Bounthong Chitmany, deputy prime minister and head of the Lao National Anti-Corruption Agency, told the countrys parliament, the National Assembly, in a meeting in October.

For example, the real cost of building a one-kilometer length of road is only [U.S.] $400,000, but the government ends up paying $1.7 million. Thus, $1.3 million is lost, he said.

The loss to corruption is massive, Valy Vetsavong, a representative to the Lao National Assembly from the capital Vientiane, told a meeting in the parliament in November.

Officials, businesses, and investors are all accomplices, she said. These people are bad.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.A landmine explosion along Bangladeshs southeastern border killed a Buddhist tribesman and injured five members of his family Thursday as they tried to sneak into Myanmar, officials said.

Col. Iqbal Hossain, a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) sector commander, identified the victim as Pawai Mro, 45, a resident of Bandarban, a district in the southeast where many members of local hill tribes practice Buddhism. It is a minority religion in Bangladesh but the dominant one in neighboring Myanmar.

We, with the help of the BGB, rescued the injured family members of Pawai Mro. They have been undergoing treatment at a local army camp, Hossain told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. They were trying to cross into Myanmar.

Pawai is one of 12 people who have been killed in landmine explosions along the border since early September, Bangladeshi officials said. The mines were placed in an apparent bid to stop Rohingya people from returning to Myanmar, they said.

The dozen killed by landmine blasts were five Bangladeshis and seven Rohingya, said Aslam Hossain, the deputy commissioner of Bandarban.

International law prohibits planting landmines along the border, he told BenarNews.

Former Bangladesh Ambassador to Myanmar Anup Kumar Chakma, who is Buddhist, told BenarNews that a cross-border syndicate of human traffickers had emerged along the border following a massive Rohingya exodus from Myanmars Rakhine state.

Close to 700,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh since late August 2017 as they fled a brutal crackdown by Myanmars military that followed attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group.

The syndicate had lured poor and illiterate Buddhists with the promise of a better future in Myanmar, Chakma said.

The Buddhists in Bangladesh have not been facing [violence], they have been in peace. But their escape is a matter of concern for us. This issue will further strain the bilateral relations with Myanmar, Chakma said.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Asaduzzaman Chowdhury, BGB battalion commander in Teknaf, a local sub-district, told BenarNews that his forces and Myanmars Border Guard Police launched a joint patrol Tuesday along the Naaf River, which divides the two countries.

He said the patrol aimed to stop drug smuggling, human trafficking and illegal movement of people from both sides.

Currently, we cannot do it regularly. It will go on at intervals. We may start another joint patrol on Friday, he said.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.Myanmar activists protest against what they say are repressive proposed amendments to the country's Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law, in Yangon, March 5, 2018.

Eighty representatives in Myanmars lower house of parliament have registered to discuss controversial proposed amendments to the countrys public assembly law, which rights groups oppose for their ambiguous language and additional restrictions on peaceful demonstrations in the emerging democracy.

The Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, which was enacted in 2010 and took effect the following year under a military-backed government, allows public demonstrations only if organizers first obtain permission from local authorities, though it does not specify a time period. Those who violate the law are subject to three to six months in prison and a 30,000-kyat (U.S. $22) fine.

The proposed changes include clauses mandating jail terms for those who encourage others to participate in protests that could endanger Myanmars security and public morality, a requirement that protest organizers inform local authorities 48 hours in advance of a demonstration, and a stipulation that organizers provide funding details and identify the individual or organization financing their activities.

The amendments also allow police to break up a protest if they believe it violates laws on national security, rule of law, public order, or public morality, and establish a three-month jail term and an unlimited fine for those who provide financial or other support to demonstrators.

Another proposed amendment waives the 15-day time period during which police can bring charges against offenders under the law.

The amendments, put forth by the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), were passed by the upper house of parliament on March 7, despite 21 lawmakers from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) voting with some parliamentarians from the military and other parties against the changes.

Eighty of the lower houses 440 lawmakers, including 60 military members of parliament, have registered to discuss the amendments  the largest number of army officers ever who have signed up to debate an issue, said Tin Htway, a legislator who represents Waw township in south-central Myanmars Bago region.

Lawmakers from the NLD, USDP, and ethnic Rakhine parties will also discuss the proposed changes, he said.

But under lower house rules, lawmakers who register to debate a bill are not automatically guaranteed participation.

The amendments come at a time when rights groups have accused the Myanmar government of backpedaling on freedom of expression and peaceful protest by using the law to jail activists.

Nevertheless, some NLD politicians and MPs say the changes are necessary to stop people from trying to undermine the government by funding protests.

We understand people have freedom of expression under the democratic government, but we dont think it is a good idea to attack and confront government for everything, said NLD spokesman Monywa Aung Shin.

What I think is that the NLD government is considering approving this bill to control this situation, he said. Although democracy allows freedom of expression, freedom should be attached to responsibility and accountability. There is a thin line between democracy and anarchy.

A portrait of Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi is seen as activists demonstrate against what they say are repressive proposed amendments to the country's Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law, in Yangon, March 5, 2018. Credit: AFP USDP pushes back

The USDP criticized the ruling partys handling of the proposed legislation on Thursday during a press conference at its headquarters in the capital Naypyidaw.

USDP spokesman Nandar Hla Myint said parliament should approve proposals based on whatever is in the best interest of the Myanmar people and not take a partisan approach to them.

The USDP submitted many good proposals last year that were in the interest of the people; some were rejected, some were just noted, and some were not discussed until the parliamentary session was about to end. Frankly, this deviates from the standard political norm.

The NLD won a landslide victory against the USDP in November 2015 elections that brought to power the current civilian government of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Htin Kyaw.

Piake Htway, a member of the USDPs central executive committee, said the NLD government should focus on resolving more pressing issues affecting the nation.

We have many problems in our country, such as the Rakhine issue, poverty, increasing crime, international pressure, and a lack of rule of law, he said, in a reference to an outbreak of violence in western Myanmar's Rakhine state that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

Twenty-nine political parties have requested that President Htin Kyaw meet with us because we would like to discuss these problems with him, but we havent had any response yet, he said.



APHR weighs in

Several civil society organizations and NLD parliamentarians oppose the amendments to the law, arguing that they are too restrictive and were pursued without significant public consultation.

In recent years, rights groups have called for changes that would better protect rights to peaceful assembly and free expression and eliminate criminal penalties and vague restrictions on speech contrary to international standards.

On Monday, Jakarta, Indonesia-based ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) urged the lower house of Myanmar's parliament to reject the current proposed revisions to the peaceful assembly law.

The group of lawmakers from across Southeast Asia said the proposed changes would place additional burdensome restrictions on the right to free assembly and expression as Myanmar transitions to democracy.

If passed, the amendments would not only stifle freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but would also mark a significant shrinking of democratic space in Myanmar, said Philippine Congressman Teddy Baguilat, an APHR board member.

Its especially sad to see such moves made under Myanmars first democratically elected government in decades, he said. We had hoped to see a widening of space for civic freedoms, but instead the country appears to be backsliding.

About 500 farmers, workers, and political activists marched in Yangon on March 5 to oppose the proposed amendments, arguing that they will limit free speech in the emerging democracy.

During the same time, nearly 200 Myanmar civil society organizations signed a petition against the proposed changes.

Instead of strengthening the legal framework, these proposed changes simply make a bad law worse, Baguilat said. Many are ambiguously defined and significantly widen opportunities for the authorities to further criminalize peaceful protesters under a law, which had already been used numerous times against students, farmers, and journalists.

Myanmar's parliament passed other amendments to the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law in 2014 and 2016.

Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt, Khin Khin Ei, and Htet Arkar for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.A teenage Uyghur boy detained for traveling overseas has died of unknown causes at a political re-education camp in Kashgar (in Chinese, Kashi) prefecture, in northwest Chinas Xinjiang region, according to local authorities.



Police officers delivered the body of 17-year-old Yaqupjan Naman to his family in Yekshenbe Bazar township, in Kashgars Yopurgha (Yuepuhu) county, after the young man died last week, a source recently told RFAs Uyghur Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Namans father, a locksmith named Naman Qari, was not provided with the cause of his sons death and was forced to bury his body under police supervision, the source added.



In early 2016, at the age of 15, Naman visited Turkey as a tourist with his friends against his fathers wishes. Qari travelled to Turkey days later to bring him home, in a bid to avoid attracting any attention from authorities in Xinjiang, who view such trips overseas as suspicious and a sign of religious extremism.



Despite his quick return to China, police placed Naman on a blacklist and arrested him soon afterwards, sending him to one of the many re-education camps throughout Xinjiang where authorities detain Uyghurs accused of harbouring strong religious beliefs and politically incorrect thoughts.



Family members who ask for the whereabouts of detained loved ones and other members of the community who inquire about those who have been sent for re-education also face arrest for harboring incorrect ideology, as part of a bid by local authorities to prevent information about the camps from reaching the outside world.



A local ruling Chinese Communist Party cadre that answered a call to the Bayawat township police station said he wasnt aware of the case and handed the phone to an officer, who hung up when asked which village Namans family lives in.



When RFA called back, another officer who answered the phone said we dont know, when asked what the cause of Namans death was, and referred further questions to the chief of the central Public Security Bureau.



But an officer at the Chenren township police station confirmed in a phone call that the name of the 17-year-old who died in detention at a re-education camp was named Yaqupjan  [from] No. 12 Village in Yekshenbe Bazar.



The officer, who also declined to provide his name, said the policeman in charge of Namans case in No. 12 Village is named Muradil, adding that the young man had died approximately 10 days ago, without providing further details.



When asked how many people had died in re-education camps in the last month, the officer said he did not know.



Camp conditions



Since April last year, ethnic Uyghurs have been detained in re-education camps throughout Xinjiang, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.



In January, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) said it had learned of the death of prominent Uyghur Islamic scholar Muhammad Salih Hajim in Chinese police custody, some 40 days after he was detained in the Xinjiang regional capital Urumqi along with other relatives, though it was unclear if he was being held in a prison or a re-education camp at the time.



Earlier that month, sources told RFA that amid a campaign of arrests that had led to serious overcrowding in re-education camps, authorities in Xinjiang were neglecting the health of Uyghur inmates, causing them to develop medical conditions.



Since Xinjiang party chief Chen was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called two-faced Uyghur officialsa term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of disloyalty.



China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.



While China blames some Uyghurs for "terrorist" attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.



Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte waves to Vietnamese fishermen aboard three fishing boats during a symbolic send-off at Sual wharf in the northern province of Pangasinan, Nov. 2, 2016.

Philippine authorities arrested 14 Vietnamese fishermen on suspicion of poaching, police said Thursday, a few weeks after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his navy to shoot foreign ships extracting natural resources from the countrys exclusive maritime territory.

The fishermen were caught Wednesday aboard two vessels off the waters of Paluan, in the central province of Occidental Mindoro, Superintendent Imelda Tolentino, the regional police spokeswoman, told reporters.

The detained fishermen were undergoing a thorough interrogation, Tolentino said.

Joint personnel of Paluan police were conducting seaborne patrol operation, which resulted in the arrest of the suspects on board two fishing vessels while in the act of poaching in territorial waters of Paluan, she said.

Imelda said the foreigners were detained at the police station in the nearby town of Mamburao and their fishing boats were towed to a municipal port.

Their arrests came after President Duterte last month called on the navy to open fire at foreign ships suspected of poaching or extracting natural resources from the nations exclusive waters.

If you get something there from the economic zone, I will order the navy to fire, Duterte had said.

Duterte was referring to the countrys 370-km (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone, where coastal states are granted special rights to exploit natural resources under a 1982 U.N. treaty.

He made the comments after his government came under severe criticism from nationalist groups for allowing a Chinese research vessel to explore Philippine Rise, also called Benham Rise, in the Pacific coast to the countrys east.

The United Nations has recognized the 13-hectare undersea feature as a territory of the Philippines, which has competing claims with China and several Southeast Asian countries over the South China Sea off the western side of the archipelago.

While China has not officially laid claims to the vast and mineral-rich region, it has assigned Chinese names to same features, spurring Filipino groups and several politicians to launch protests.

In November last year, Duterte released five Vietnamese fishermen who were arrested two months earlier on suspicion of poaching off the northern Philippine coast. They were turned over to the Vietnamese ambassador, and Duterte had apologized for detaining them.

It was the second time for Duterte to appear in a send-off ceremony for Vietnamese fishermen.

In November 2016, the Philippine government also freed 17 Vietnamese fishermen who had spent two months in jail after Coast Guard officials detained them on charges of poaching.

Six nations  the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, China, Malaysia and Taiwan  have territorial claims in the South China Sea, a potentially mineral-rich region that straddles vital commercial and fishing lanes.

Fishermen from claimant nations have often been arrested for straying too close to each others shores, fueling tensions and complicating the territorial conflict.

In September last year, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano extended the Philippines condolences to his Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Bin Minh, during an informal meeting in New York, for the deaths of two Vietnamese fishermen who were gunned down after a local navy ship fired warning shots during a sea chase.

A Philippine police report said the deaths occurred after a joint patrol from the coast guard and the navy saw six Vietnamese fishing vessels about 34 miles off the coast of Cape Bolinao in northern Pangasinan province. One of the fishing vessels immediately turned off its lights and sped off, triggering a chase and prompting the local authorities to fire warning shots, the police report said.

Despite numerous and repeated orders through marine-band radio and megaphone to stop fleeing, the Vietnamese vessel initiated a dangerous maneuver and subsequently rammed the Philippine Navy patrol boat in an attempt to escape, the report said.

When the Philippine ship caught up with the Vietnamese boat, Philippine sailors saw two dead bodies lying on its deck, it said, adding that the two bore gunshot wounds to the head and body, although no contraband were seen inside the Vietnamese vessel, which had seven crewmen.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.Amnesty International has accused Russia of mounting a "fierce crackdown" on political activists ahead of this week's presidential election, systematically violating their rights through "arbitrary" arrests and detentions.

The London-based rights group said on March 15 that Russian authorities are using a draconian law on public assemblies to "deliberately" target activists calling for an election boycott. In addition, many prominent opposition voices have been arbitrarily detained and charged with politically motivated offenses.

"The Kremlins agenda is crystal clear -- the loudest protesters and vote-boycotters must be cleared from the cities' streets during the final stages of the presidential campaign," Denis Krivosheev, deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

"While various methods are used, the authorities usually turn to their favorite one: arbitrarily throwing dissenters behind bars."

Eight candidates are on the ballot in the March 18 presidential vote, but incumbent Vladimir Putin -- who has been president or prime minister of Russia since 1999 -- appears certain to win another six-year term as president.

Opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who was barred from the ballot because of a criminal conviction he and his supporters say was engineered by the Kremlin, has been urging Russians to boycott an election he has denounced as undemocratic and a "reappointment" of Putin.

'Crude' Intimidation Tactics

Navalnys campaign chief, Leonid Volkov, was detained in a Moscow airport on his way to the city of Ufa on February 22.

The same day he was sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention for allegedly organizing an "unauthorized gathering," a reference to January 28 "voters' strike" rallies held in more than 100 cities across the country in support of an election boycott.

That came after Denis Mikhailov, the coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in St. Petersburg, was detained on January 31 for 30 days after the "voters' strike" event in that city.

He was initially held for calling for "an unauthorized gathering," but was released on March 2 before being rearrested the same day, this time for "participating" in the Saint Petersburg event. He was sentenced to another 25 days in prison.

"Denis Mikhailov was not only arbitrarily deprived of his liberty, but deprived twice over. This repeated violation epitomizes the increasingly hostile situation peaceful protesters are facing ahead of the election," Krivosheev said.

At least two more prominent activists -- Andrei Pivovarov, the local leader of the Open Russia NGO, and Artyom Goncharenko, a member of another opposition movement, Vesna (Spring) -- suffered similar attacks on their freedom, Amnesty said.

"This election campaign has been marred by widespread attacks against President Putins critics, and reprisals aimed at intimidating opposition activists into silence are becoming cruder as polling day approaches," Krivosheev said.

"All protesters and political activists arrested solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression must be immediately and unconditionally released," he said.

Allies have expressed support for Britain after it announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the poisoning of a former spy with a military-grade nerve agent, but offered no quick response to the incident.

The White House issued a statement late on March 14 saying that "the United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally...and shares the United Kingdom's assessment that Russia is responsible for the attack" on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury.

The White House called the diplomatic expulsion a "just response" for Russia's "latest action," which it said "fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes."

The White House said it was "working together" with allies "to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again," but proposed no immediate response.

France had a similar reaction, expressing support and concern on Britain's behalf, but promising only to "coordinate our response...in coming hours." A statement from French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian late on March 14 did not mention Russia.

British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier in the day announced the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats in 30 years, the suspension of planned high-level contacts with Russia, and a boycott by government officials and royal family members of the soccer World Cup that Russia is hosting in June and July.

There is no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder" of Sergei Skripal, 66, and Yulia Skripal, 33, "and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury," May said.

Condemning the "unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom May said Britain would "freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property" of its citizens or residents.

Russia exchanged verbal blows with Britain and its allies at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which Britain's UN ambassador, Jonathan Allen, said he called in an effort to hold Russia accountable for the poisoning incident.

Allen accused Russia of being in violation of the UN's chemical weapons convention for not declaring that it had developed the weapons-grade nerve agent known as Novichok, which he said was used to poison the Skripals.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya denied the allegation and accused Britain of creating a "hysterical atmosphere" over the poisonings.

Nebenzya said Britain has refused to provide Russia with the evidence it says it has that Novichok was used.

'Contempt And Defiance'

Russia and China together co-sponsored a resolution they put before the UN council calling for an international investigation of the incident, but it was batted down by Britain and the United States.

The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said the Salisbury incident was "part of an alarming increase in the use of chemical weapons" recently, including reports of their being used in Syria.

"A growing concern in all of this dangerous and destabilizing activity is Russia," she said, calling on Russia to turn over all information related to its development of Novichok to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

"We take no pleasure in having to constantly criticize Russia, but we need Russia to stop giving us so many reasons to do so," Haley said.

U.S. would stop complaining about Russia "if the Russian government stopped using chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies, and if the Russian government stopped helping its Syrian allies to use chemical weapons to kill Syrian children," Haley said.

"The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable, she said.

Earlier in the day, May told Parliament that Russia had provided no credible explanation for the incident and "treated the use of a military grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance."

May had given Moscow a deadline of midnight on March 13 to explain how the rare nerve agent made its way to England.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping mall in Salisbury on March 4. They remain hospitalized and in critical condition, along with a British police officer who attended to them at the scene.

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, commonly known as MI6.

He was one of four Russian prisoners released in 2010 in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents detained in the United States. He later became a British citizen, British authorities said.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, Sky News, and dpa

BRUSSELS -- The European Union is unlikely to introduce new sanctions against Russia after the nerve-toxin poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England 11 days ago, people familiar with the matter have told RFE/RL.

Leaders will likely include language in the closing statement of an upcoming EU meeting expressing solidarity with Britain, but no one has so far pushed for the idea of further sanctions against Moscow, according to officials who did not want to be identified because they are not authorized to speak on the matter.

The comments came on March 15, as tensions rose between the West and Moscow over allegations that Russian responsibility is the "only plausible explanation" for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

The leaders of France, Germany, the United States, and Britain said in a joint statement on March 15 that they abhor the attack and called it an assault on British sovereignty and "a breach of international law."

Britain on March 14 said it would expel 23 Russian diplomats and halt high-level contacts as part of a package of measures against Moscow in response to the incident.

Russia denies any involvement and has vowed a swift response to what it called Britain's "destructive" moves.

The comments come ahead of several high-level meetings scheduled in the next several days, including the EU meeting on March 22 that will likely express support for Britain in its joint declaration.

European Council President Donald Tusk has said that the Salisbury incident demonstrated the need for "transatlantic unity."

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to brief his EU counterparts at a March 19 meeting of the blocs Foreign Affairs Council.

The EU imposed a series of sanctions against Russia, targeting its energy and banking sectors, in 2014 after the annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and Moscow's support for separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Renewal of those sanctions is expected to be discussed when EU leaders meet in Brussels at the end of June.

The EU recently extended for six months asset freezes and visa bans on 150 separatists and Russian officials as well as 38 entities, such as separatist battalions and companies in Crimea that Brussels says are responsible for the destabilization of Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain critically ill after being found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on March 4. A British police officer who first responded to the incident was also hospitalized in serious condition and at least 21 other people were treated for exposure to the substance.Tens of thousands of supporters of Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban marched on March 15 to back his bid for a third term in office in April 8 elections.

They were joined by thousands of supporters of Poland's ruling conservative PiS party, which, like Orban's Fidesz party, is at odds with the European Union over migration and moves to tighten controls over courts and media.

Organizers had brought the Poles, as well as Hungarians from the countryside, into the capital in fleets of buses for the march that coincided with Hungary's national holiday commemorating its 1848 revolution.

Orban and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki lead conservative governments under fire from Brussels over their refusal to take in migrants under a quota system.

Orban's stance has helped shore up support for Fidesz among voters, but it has drawn accusations of racism from the United Nations' human rights chief.

Fidesz, in power since 2010, suffered an unexpected defeat at a recent municipal by-election.

Supporters of both parties walked across a bridge spanning the Danube River in Budapest carrying banners with the slogans "Hungary protects Europe" and "We are with you, Viktor."

Orban told the rally that enemies "want to take our country away from us."

He repeated his key campaign slogans, attacking international NGOs and U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros -- whom he accuses of meddling in Hungarian politics -- as well as his vehement opposition to immigration.

"They want others to live in this country," he told the crowd, presenting himself as the defender of "millions with national feeling" against the "globalist elite."

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpaIran has signed a $742 million deal with Russian state-owned energy firm Zarubezhneft to boost production at two oil fields in the country's west.

Zarubezhneft and Dana Energy, a private Iranian company, will jointly develop the Aban and Paydar fields in Ilam province near the Iraqi border, to boost production from 36,000 to 48,000 barrels of oil per day.

Zarubezhneft will provide 80 percent of the financing for the project, while Dana will cover the rest.

"Increasing the production from these two fields will bring some $4 billion dollars to Iran" over the coming years, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh said at a signing ceremony in Tehran on March 14.

National Iranian Oil Company head Ali Kardor said it was the country's first such deal with a Russian firm.

"On the political front, relations with Russia are at the highest level, but in the economic sphere, they have not yet reached" the same level, he said.

Iran and Russia have strengthened their relations in recent years. Russian oil firms, hit by sanctions from the West over Moscow's aggression in Ukraine, have sought to garner business from Iran.

The deal comes as a U.S. threat to withdraw from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers has prompted caution among Western oil firms seeking to do business with Iran.

The deal with Zarubezhneft was Tehran's second deal with a foreign energy firm since the accord was signed.

The first deal was clinched in July, when a consortium headed by France's Total defied pressure from Washington and signed a $4.8 billion agreement with Tehran.

The nuclear deal imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief. However, some U.S. sanctions remain on Iran, including those barring Tehran from using the U.S. dollar in business deals.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump's dismissal of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shows that he intends to pull the United States out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, the Iranian deputy foreign minister has said.

"The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind -- or at least it was one of the reasons," Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by state news agency ISNA on March 14.

Trump announced Tillerson's departure in a tweet on March 13, saying he would be replaced by CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who takes a tougher stance against Iran than Tillerson.

Trump has repeatedly criticized the 2015 nuclear deal, which requires Iran to curb nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, and he cited differences with Tillerson over the deal as a reason for dismissing him.

"We got along, actually, quite well, but we disagreed on things," Trump said. "Look at the Iran deal. I think it's terrible. I guess he felt 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."

Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the agreement unless European allies agree by May 12 to fix what he called "flaws" in the deal and impose tough new restrictions aimed at curbing Iran's ballistic missile development and intervention in regional conflicts.

"If the U.S. quits the nuclear deal, we will also quit it," Araghchi said on March 14, according to ISNA. "We have told the Europeans that if they can't keep the U.S. in the deal, Iran will also leave it."

Tillerson had been leading efforts by the Trump administration to work out a side agreement with France, Britain, and Germany that would enable the United States to stay in the nuclear deal.

It is not known whether Pompeo will continue those efforts. But his hard-line stance against Iran emerged on March 14 as a potential obstacle for his nomination in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm him to the top diplomatic post.

Senator Rand Paul announced that he would "do everything I can" to block Pompeo's nomination as well as Trump's nomination of Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo at the CIA, saying they both support "regime change" in Iran that likely would lead to a military conflict.

Paul's opposition could prevent Pompeo's nomination from being approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, if every Democrat on the committee votes against it. Republicans hold only a one-vote majority on the panel.

Some newspapers in Iran on March 14 expressed concern about the prospect of Pompeo becoming U.S. secretary of state.

Iran's Javan daily, which is believed to be close to the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said that replacing Tillerson with Pompeo signaled the end of the nuclear deal.

"For quitting the deal, his dumping was necessary," Javan said.

That assessment was echoed by Ali Khorram, a former Iranian envoy to the United Nations, in the pro-reform daily Arman.

"Pompeo is very interested in waging a war similar to the Iraq war by citing international regulations," Khorram wrote. "European powers will play a role in balancing his desire."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan has imposed house arrest on a woman who is suspected of giving financial backing to an opposition political movement established by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive critic of President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

The court ordered house arrest for Aqmaral Tobylova, a resident of Almaty, on March 15. Relatives said that Tobylova, 28, is pregnant.

Tobylova was detained on March 13, the day a separate court ruled that Ablyazov's Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) is an extremist group, saying it "propagates the forcible change of Kazakhstans constitutional order."

Officials have not disclosed details about the allegations against Tobylova.

A senior prosecutor, Erlan Abaev, told journalists at the time 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.



A coalition of 29 press freedom organizations from around the world has called on Kyrgyz authorities to drop defamation lawsuits and to end the practice of using "harsh penalties" to punish critical media outlets and reporters.

"While Kyrgyzstan has generally been a rare positive example in a region where autocracy has been the rule, recent developments threaten to send the country down a similarly repressive path, said the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), PEN International, and other media watchdogs in a joint letter posted on March 13 on the website of IFEX, a network of organizations working to promote and defend freedom of expression and information worldwide.

The 29 media watchdogs said they were "alarmed at the use of defamation lawsuits to levy disproportionate fines, travel bans and other harsh penalties against journalists and media outlets accused of insulting the president."

The alliance urged lawmakers to amend the current Law On Guarantees for the Activity of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, which CPJ said in a separate statement serves as the basis "of defamation cases filed against journalists."

The alliance also called on the Kyrgyz parliament to reject proposed amendments to the Civil Code, saying it "could create further justification for punishing journalists and others on broad and legally ambiguous grounds for exercising their right to free expression.

The letter cited the case of the now-defunct independent news website Zanoza.kg and its founders, who were found guilty of insulting the then-President Almazbek Atambaev and fined 27 million som ($338,000) in 2017.

"The attendant proceedings were marred by significant procedural irregularities, circumvention of the pretrial dispute mechanism, and infringement of the defendants' rights to an adversarial defense," the letter read.

It said that "such harassment of journalists and the media has continued into 2018."

Freelance journalist Elnura Alkanova was charged in February with seeking and disclosing confidential commercial information following the publication late last year of an investigative report about the sale of government property in the capital, Bishkek.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has refused for a second time to sign legislation passed by the parliament to expand the official use of the Albanian language, in a move that could set off a renewed political crisis in the small Balkan nation.

The parliament was forced to approve the legislation for a second time on March 14, in the face of protests both inside and outside the building, because Ivanov refused to sign the bill in January.

"The constitution and my conscience do not permit me to sign a decree approving such a law," Ivanov, a close ally of the conservative opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, said in a video distributed after the parliamentary vote late on March 14.

"The law on languages is unjust and repressive, and it favors only one language," he said. "A law that had no debate on amendments...cannot be considered an expression of democracy."

The bill was approved with 64 out of 120 parliament members voting for it, after the parliamentary speaker rejected a motion for debate on amendments by the opposition.

Lawmakers from the opposition party offered 35,000 amendments to block the bill and staged protests, warning that the measure would put the Balkan country's national unity in jeopardy.

Parliamentary speaker Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian, dismissed the amendments and ordered the vote to proceed.

At one point, former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the VMRO, and other opposition lawmakers tried to prevent Xhaferi from speaking by pulling away his microphone. Eventually, with the help of security guards, the voting procedure went ahead.

Outside the parliament building, several hundred protesters demonstrated against the measure without incident.

The tumult inside parliament during the vote came nearly a year after opposition nationalists stormed the building and assaulted Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in a protest against the election of Xhaferi as speaker.

Ivanov had been expected to sign the measure after the second vote of approval in parliament. It was unclear whether the bill would take effect without Ivanov's signature.

His refusal to sign could plunge Macedonia back into political turmoil. The small Balkan nation has experienced several political crises in the past three years.

The language measure carries out a critical pledge made by the ruling Social Democrats to win the support of ethnic Albanian parties for a new coalition government last year.

Ethnic Albanians make up around a quarter of Macedonia's two million people. Under the legislation, Macedonian would continue to be the primary official language.

But Albanian, which has until now been an official language only in areas where the minority makes up at least 20 percent of the population, would be used more widely under the legislation.

The measure would boost the use of Albanian at a national level, including in administrative, health, judicial, police, and other official matters. It could also be used in parliament by the ethnic Albanians' elected representatives.

Ethnic Albanian rebels waged an insurgency against Macedonian authorities in 2001. More than 100 people were killed in the insurgency, which ended with an agreement providing greater rights for the minority.

With reporting by By RFE/RL's Balkan Service, AP, Reuters, and AFP

CORRECTION: This article has been amended to correct the number of amendments to the language bill proposed by opposition lawmakers.

U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman asked a judge on March 14 to dismiss criminal charges he faces related to his foreign lobbying work on behalf of Ukraine's former pro-Russia president.

In a series of motions, attorneys for Paul Manafort attacked the case brought against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying Mueller exceeded his authority in prosecuting Manafort on criminal charges that date back more than a decade.

Manafort, 68, is accused of money laundering, tax fraud, and banking fraud connected to work he and his partner Richard Gates did for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's government from 2006 to 2014, when Yanukovych was ousted by pro-European Maidan street protests and fled to Russia.

Manafort's motion to dismiss was his first volley in a criminal case that exposes him to the possibility of several years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Manafort's lawyers argue that Mueller shouldn't be allowed to prosecute him since the allegations in the indictment predate the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller was appointed primarily to investigate connections between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign, but the U.S. special counsel law allows him to prosecute any crime uncovered by his investigation.

"It is a blank check the special counsel has cashed, repeatedly," Manafort's lawyers said.

The case against Manafort does "not focus in the slightest on alleged coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, or even Mr. Manafort's brief involvement in the campaign," they said.

Instead, the indictments are focused on foreign consulting work for Yanukovych that ended in 2014 and on years-old bank accounts and tax filings, they said.

Lawyers for the Justice Department have argued that Mueller is well within his authority.

Motions to dismiss are commonly filed in U.S. criminal cases but are rarely granted by the courts.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

BRUSSELS -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the West is not looking to start a new Cold War or an arms race with Russia, but he reiterated that the military alliance will defend all allies against any threat.

We do not want a new Cold War, Stoltenberg told reporters as he presented NATO's annual report on March 15. And we do not want to be dragged into a new arms race.... It is expensive, it is risky, it is in nobodys interest.

"But let there be no doubt. NATO will defend all allies against any threat, he added.

His comments come as tensions between the West and Russia surge to new heights in the face of allegations that Moscow was behind a nerve-agent attack against a former Russian intelligence officer and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury.

Britain says the chemical used in the attempted murder was identified as part of a group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military known as Novichok.

The leaders of France, Germany, the United States, and Britain on March 15 issued a statement saying that Russian responsibility is the "only plausible explanation" for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The statement called the attack an assault on British sovereignty and "a breach of international law."

The NATO chief said alliance officials had been briefed by British national security leaders and we have no reason to doubt the findings and the assessment made by the United Kingdom.

Stoltenberg said that Britain could count on "NATOs solidarity, although he added that the country has not sought to activate NATOs mutual-defense clause, Article 5, which requires all members to come to the aid of any other member under attack.

All allies agree that the attack was a clear breach of international norms and agreements. This is unacceptable. It has no place in a civilized world," he said.

He added that the North Atlantic Council addressed this horrific incident and that the allies called on Russia to answer Britains questions.

Stoltenberg said the Salisbury attack has taken place against the backdrop of a reckless pattern" of Russian behavior, citing "the illegal annexation of Crimea and military support to separatists in eastern Ukraine and the Russian military presence in Moldova and Georgia against these countries will.

He also referred to meddling in Montenegro and elsewhere in the Western Balkans and attempts to subvert democratic elections and institutions.

The NATO chief also spoke of Moscows general military buildup from the north of Europe to the Middle East."

Russia has been modernizing its armed forces over the last decade...developing new weapons, including with nuclear capabilities, he said.

Stoltenberg said NATO will continue to develop strong defensive capabilities, even as it presses for global arms control.

We will maintain strong conventional forces, as well as a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent. At the same time, we will continue to strive for effective arms control, he said.

Meanwhile, Stoltenberg said he expects that the NATO summit scheduled for July will recognize Georgia for the progress it has made with its reform efforts and for its contributions to NATO operations, particularly in Afghanistan.

At a 2008 summit in Bucharest, NATO agreed that Georgia and Ukraine will both eventually become NATO members but no firm date has been set, although the membership perspective for the two countries has been reconfirmed at every summit ever since.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak in BrusselsPakistan's Foreign Ministry says it has called its top diplomat in India back home for consultations after reports of harassment of Pakistani diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Ministry spokesman Muhammad Faisal said on March 15 that the decision was made after Pakistani officials and their families in New Delhi reported maltreatment, such as being chased by motorcyclists who wanted to photograph them.

Islamabad also summoned an Indian diplomat in Pakistan in protest. India hasn't commented on the allegations.

Faisal said on March 15 that Pakistan's high commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, is expected to return this week.

Nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan often accuse each other's diplomatic staff of spying.

They also often trade fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety.

Based on reporting by AP and dawn.comAll things supposedly being equal, one candidate has been more equal than others in the run-up to Russia's presidential election.

Only the incumbent, Vladimir Putin, starred in flattering documentaries backed by state television ahead of the March 18 ballot. His billboards received police protection after incidents of vandalism, according to witnesses and media reports. And he secured two hours of exclusive face time before a nationwide TV audience just weeks before the poll while his opponents bickered in debates that one candidate called a "circus."

These are just some of the benefits Putin has enjoyed throughout the campaign thanks to what are known as "administrative resources" -- a broad range of bureaucratic levers that can be pulled to help ensure a desired electoral outcome for authorities.

He was also able to stage a star-studded campaign rally at Moscow's main stadium amid reports that some in the overflowing crowd were pressured or paid to attend.

With Putin set to win in a landslide, Russian officials have spoken out against abuses of administrative resources during the campaign. But they have largely shrugged off complaints over what Putin's critics and political opponents call the unfair backing he receives from the state machine.

After Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted a recent endorsement of Putin on his personal website, a Central Election Commission (CEC) member said the move may have violated election laws barring public servants from using their official position for campaigning -- but added that "it won't impact the outcome of the election."

The exploitation of administrative resources is such an entrenched feature of Russian elections that it is difficult to suddenly halt, according to Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst with R.Politik, a Paris-based think tank.

"The Kremlin has tried to persuade the regional governments not to abuse administrative resources, but it doesn't really work because of the inertia of the system," she told RFE/RL.

Puff Pieces And Billboard Guards

Guidelines of the election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe -- of which Russia is a member -- state that "while there is a natural and unavoidable incumbency advantage, legislation must be careful to not perpetuate or enhance such advantages."

"Incumbent candidates and parties must not use state funds or resources (i.e., materials, work contracts, transportation, employees, etc.) to their own advantage," the guidelines say.

Yet Putin appears to have taken full advantage of his perch atop Russia's political food chain.

This month, two admiring documentaries about Putin -- each backed by state-run Rossiya-1 television and running more than 90 minutes long -- were released online to much fanfare in the national media.

Communist Party media monitors found that state media had actively advertised one of these films -- published online by its author, state television host Vladimir Solovyov. But Russian elections chief Ella Pamfilova said neither that film nor the second -- by Putin's campaign chief -- released online violated campaign laws.

"We don't regulate the Internet," Pamfilova said.

Two liberal candidates on the ballot -- Grigory Yavlinsky and Ksenia Sobchak -- also complained that Putin's saber-rattling, two-hour, state-of-the-nation speech this month constituted a free campaign ad. Pamfilova dismissed their grievances about the address, which according to the Russian Constitution must be delivered annually, saying it was merely part of Putin's duties.

Putin did not deliver the annual address, which is traditionally held in December, last year. Instead, he gave it just weeks before the election.

Several allegations have also emerged that students in Moscow and beyond are being encouraged or pressured to vote for Putin. Students and staff at an electromechanical college in the central Russian city of Cheboksary late last month were reportedly gathered into an auditorium for a lecture endorsing Putin.

Meanwhile, police officers have reportedly been dispatched to guard Putin's billboards against vandalism. One police sergeant in the city of Kemerovo told RFE/RL that his unit was assigned such a task in order to protect the billboards from the "protest-oriented population."

'Clean' Election?

The independent election monitor Golos has flagged more than 600 reports of alleged election violations involving administrative resources in this campaign so far.

"Authorities have in their possession budgetary and organizational resources that the public has entrusted them with, and these resources should not be used to benefit particular political actors," Golos co-chair Grigory Melkonyants told RFE/RL.

In several TV segments flagged by Golos, regional officials or activists were shown heaping praise on Putin without their links to the ruling United Russia party or other pro-Kremlin movements being disclosed to viewers, an RFE/RL analysis found.

One twist in this election season is that senior Russian officials have gone out of their way to criticize the misuse of administrative resources, particularly in the country's sprawling regions, in what is seen as a bid to ensure a "clean" victory for Putin.

With the Kremlin and its surrogates pushing to boost turnout in order to demonstrate Putin's broad mandate, much of the alleged abuse of administrative resources involves reported pressure on students, bureaucrats, and employees simply to go to the polls -- regardless of how they plan to vote.

Andrei Turchak, a top official in Putin's ruling United Russia party, reportedly upbraided regional party officials in February for "using administrative resources" in their efforts to boost turnout.

Meanwhile, even Putin's spokesman apologized after Pamfilova reprimanded him for making public remarks that she called "obvious" campaigning for his boss.

Konstantin Kostin, an adviser to Putin's first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, told the Interfax news agency last month that "all of the signals being sent by the Kremlin and law enforcement authorities are aimed precisely at the absolute elimination of administrative resources where political preferences and campaigning for candidates are concerned."

Stanovaya said such attempts to ensure a "clean" election are hampered in part by governors who fear repercussions if support for Putin -- or turnout -- is too low in their regions, adding that "it's almost impossible to avoid using administrative resources" in contemporary Russia.

"The way they're used may change, it can adapt to the style of the Kremlin, but there are too many efforts by regional authorities to obtain the desired result," she said.The United States has unveiled the latest round of financial sanctions targeting Russian individuals, companies, and intelligence agencies -- a move billed by administration officials as sending a strong warning about Russian election meddling, malicious cyberactivity, and other actions.

Treasury continues to pressure Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine, occupy Crimea, meddle in elections, as well as for its endemic corruption and human rights abuses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement accompanying the announcement on March 15.

Accordingly, Russian officials expressed outrage and suggested retaliatory measures would be forthcoming.

In the U.S. Congress, the reception was mixed.

"Today's action, using authorities provided by Congress, is an important step by the administration," said Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But more must be done.

And Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian activity in the United States, called the new measures a grievous disappointment.

And for some longtime watchers of U.S. policy toward Russia, the measures were something else altogether: nothing new.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Mike Eckel in Washington, Michael Carpenter, a former top Defense Department official overseeing Russia and Eurasia and a former foreign policy adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, says the law that Congress passed last year -- known as the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA -- provided the administration with plenty of legal tools.

But, he says, it chose not to use them.

RFE/RL: What do you make of these measures announced today by the Treasury Department? Do they signal any sort of shift in policy for the Trump administration?

Michael Carpenter: I dont think this indicates any sort of shift on the part of the administration in its Russia policy. In fact, I think its a calculated move to do as little as possible following the attempted assassination of the ex-Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K. and in response to the CAATSA law, while making it seem like the administration is moving forward but in fact is actually doing nothing.

I believe that the United States should use the enormous asymmetrical power that it has to impose real financial sanctions on Russia."

Most of these entities and individuals...were designated in December 2016 by the Obama administration. Re-designating them doesnt impose any additional sanctions force. It achieves absolutely nothing except to appear that the Trump administration is doing something.

This is duplicating what were already weak sanctions to begin with. And when you designate Russian intelligence services, theres no practical effect that flows from this. These entities dont transact in the U.S. financial systems. They may transact covertly through shell companies and other types of front organizations, but this doesnt really provide a whole lot new leverage to go after them.

To my mind, its much ado about nothing.

RFE/RL: Maybe CAATSA doesnt provide enough authority in this regard?

Carpenter: CAATSA provides broad authority for the administration to impose sanctions on Russia defense, energy, intelligence, as well as financial sectors, as well as individuals. So CAATSA has the ability, in fact, to impose crippling sanctions on Russia should it choose to do so. These are the exact opposite of that. These are purely...these really arent new sanctions at all. These are sanctions that were announced by the Obama administration in 2016.

RFE/RL: What would you advocate the administration should be doing toward Russia?

Carpenter: I believe that the United States should use the enormous asymmetrical power that it has to impose real financial sanctions on Russia. What weve done so far is debt-and-equity restrictions on financial companies. Thats not the same at all as full blocking sanctions, like weve imposed on Iran and North Korea.

If we impose those types of what I call full blocking sanctions -- sanctions that prevent any transaction from occurring in the U.S. financial sector -- on a few Russian banks -- like two or three of the top banks -- it would have an immediate crippling effect on Russias economy.

The only bank weve designated with full blocking sanctions is Bank Rossyia, which is a small crony bank that at the time it was designated was the 26th largest bank in Russia and is really inconsequential.

Were like a superpower that is afraid to look at its own shadow. I mean, we have enormous power at our disposal. We are either unaware, or are aware, and we are consciously limiting ourselves to things that have marginal, if any, impact at all.

RFE/RL: What do you make of the timing of the announcement, coming amid this furor over the poisoning of the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain?

Carpenter: I think its a conscious strategy to announce these in the context that the administration wants to appear that it is doing something. I think by taking the first step with these sanctions, it...will put forward the narrative that the U.S. is acting while others are considering what to do. But, in fact, that action amounts to nothing.

RFE/RL: Whats your opinion of what some have called the nuclear option -- cutting Russia off from the global interbank transfer system known as SWIFT?

Carpenter: Taking Russia out of the SWIFT interbank clearing system would potentially have a very devastating impact on Russias economy. It would also impact European economies. So we have to structure sanctions smartly so that we dont create a new financial crisis in Europe.

Going immediately for whats called the "nuclear option" -- the SWIFT option -- is foolish. It would hurt a lot of our European allies. Theres a way to do this where you can have a crippling effect on Russias economy without necessarily impacting the European economy, at least not in a systemic way. Perhaps here or there on the margins. And the way you do that is you go after a few Russian financial institutions, a few large parastatal companies, and then you can have a real impact.

But theres no need to separate Russia from the world economy. Thats going too far.

RFE/RL: What about more tangible measures, such as a military option or expelling more diplomats?

Carpenter: Expelling diplomats does nothing. Its a purely symbolic move. The diplomats can be backfilled...and then the other side simply retaliates in a tit-for-tat manner. And weve seen that. At the end of the day, youve achieved nothing. Youve imposed no lasting consequence on your adversary that they havent been able to impose on you. [Persona non grata] is just a completely meaningless path.

What you could do is you could authorize a more permanent U.S. military presence on the eastern flank of NATO. That would be useful. That would be a cost for Russias aggressive behavior in North America and Europe. You could sanction Russian companies. We all know what the large Russian companies are. They operate globally -- primarily energy companies -- but theres also some significant financial institutions.

If you apply full blocking sanctions -- not debt-and-equity restrictions; I want to make perfectly clear that there is a huge distinction between the two -- if you imposed full blocking sanctions on a handful of Russian companies, believe me you would catch Moscows attention.

This interview has been edited for purposes of length and clarity.ON MY MIND

It's easy to believe we are living in an age of emperors, strongmen, and presidents for life.

With Vladimir Putin's inevitable "reelection" this weekend, Xi Jinping's successful abolition of term limits in China, and the solidification of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule in Turkey, the trend seems clear.

In a piece featured below, the always insightful Ivan Krastev argues that "the leaders of the world's most powerful countries, democracies and non-democracies alike, are fashioning themselves as modern-day emperors. They are concentrating power in their own hands with no plans to leave office in their lifetime."

So are we entering an "emperor's moment" as Krastev argues.

Maybe. But maybe this is a bit premature. Xi's abandonment of term limits in China, for example, has undermined -- and could effectively eradicate -- the most serious model challenging liberal democracy.

China is an authoritarian state to be sure, but it was one with functioning institutions and elite turnover; it was one where leaders were limited to two five-year terms. This served as a check on clan rule and gave the system a degree of dynamism.

Now Xi, like Erdogan, risks turning himself into just another strongman -- just like Putin.

The difference is crucial, because Putin's personalized rule, and the clan politics that have accompanied it, has sapped the energy and dynamism out of Russia's economy and society.

The age of emperors may turn out to be just a moment.

IN THE NEWS

Prime Minister Theresa May says Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats and halt high-level contacts as part of a package of measures against Moscow, which ignored a deadline to explain how a deadly chemical developed during the Cold War was used to poison a former Russian spy in the English city of Salisbury last week.

Allies have expressed support for Britain after it announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the poisoning of a former spy with a military-grade nerve agent, but offered no quick response to the incident.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said that the countrys law enforcement agencies were investigating rich Russian individuals with assets in Britain, and suggested that those who owe their wealth to their ties with President Vladimir Putin could be brought to justice.

The Kremlin has expressed a measure of hope for an improvement in relations with the United States following President Donald Trump's nomination of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, saying bilateral ties cannot get much worse.

Amnesty International has accused Russia of mounting a "fierce crackdown" on political activists ahead of this week's presidential election, systematically violating their rights through "arbitrary" arrests and detentions.

The Russian government has blacklisted two European organizations involved in election monitoring, days ahead of the March 18 presidential vote.

Vladimir Putin has thanked the residents of the annexed Crimean Peninsula, saying a 2014 referendum that led Moscow to seize the Black Sea region was "real democracy."

The Ukrainian government has ordered its athletes not to take part in any competitions held in Russia.

Thirteen of Ukraine's most enthusiastic backers in the European Union have put pressure on Kyiv by warning that the implementation of important reforms are "just beginning or lagging behind," according to a document seen by RFE/RL.

WHAT I'M READING

The Age Of Emperors

Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Center for Liberal Studies in Sofia and author of the book After Europe, has an op-ed in The New York Times looking at the "era of presidents for life."

Putin's 'New' Foreign Policy

Daniel Treisman, a professor at UCLA, and editor of The New Autocracy: Information, Politics, And Policy In Putins Russia, has a piece in Russia Matters looking at new elements in Putin's foreign policy.

The Skripal Poisoning In Context

The always insightful Michael Carpenter, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, speaks to Bloomberg about the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK.

A Global 'Hybrid War'

On The Atlantic Council's website, Peter Dickinson argues that "from Crimea to Salisbury" it's "time to acknowledge Putins global hybrid war."

Putin's War

In The New Statesman, Lawrence Freedman looks at the tactics and motivations of Putin's war on the West.

Russia And The U.S. Election: The Public Evidence

In Russia Matters, David Filipov, Kevin Doyle and Natasha Yefimova-Trilling lay out the available public evidence about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Putin's Pop Stars

In an op-ed for The Moscow Times, political commentator and music critic Artemy Troitsky looks at a new song praising Putin that "harkens back to the Soviet period" and explains why pop stars are supporting the Kremlin leader.

Georgia's President Speaks

Foreign Policy's Emily Tamkin interviews Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili about NATO, Russia, and his controversial predecessor Mikheil Saakashvili.KYIV -- Ukraine's parliament has approved Yakiv Smoliy as the new chief of the National Bank.

After lawmakers approved his nomination on March 15, Smoliy vowed to continue reforms.

"Our goal remains the same. First, to preserve financial stability. Second, to support economic development and integration of Ukraine's financial system into the European one," Smoliy told lawmakers.

President Petro Poroshenko nominated Smoliy to run the bank in January, ending months of uncertainty over the highly politicized position.

Poroshenko's delay in putting forward a candidate following the resignation of former governor Valeria Hontareva last May caused concern among Ukraine's backers, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Hontareva's efforts to clean up Ukraine's financial sector irked wealthy oligarchs who critics say have treated the country's banks like their private coffers.

Hontareva also came under fire from some ordinary Ukrainians who blamed her for losses they suffered after she was appointed to follow the IMF advice to partially abandon state support for the hryvnya currency.

With reporting by ReutersKYIV -- Lawmaker and former Russian captive Nadia Savchenko has traded incendiary accusations with senior Ukrainian authorities and faces possible arrest over what Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko alleged was a detailed plan for a devastating "terrorist" attack on parliament.

Savchenko, a former military aviator who spent 22 months in Russian prisons after being detained by separatists in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, claimed on March 15 that lawmaker Serhiy Pashinskyy played a prominent role in a deadly crackdown on pro-European demonstrators during antigovernment Maidan protests that toppled Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

Speaking to journalists in front of the Security Service (SBU) headquarters in Kyiv, before she was questioned as a witness in a case against a man arrested last week on suspicion of plotting to kill President Petro Poroshenko and other officials in a series of armed attacks, Savchenko also asserted that Lutsenko covered up what she alleged was current parliament speaker Andriy Parubiy's involvement in sniper shootings that authorities say killed dozens of people during the crackdown on the Maidan protests.

However, Savchenko said later that she meant to accuse not Parubiy but Pashinskyy, and publicly apologized to the parliament speaker for "a slip of the tongue."

Lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada swiftly responded by kicking Savchenko out of the single-chamber parliament's national security and defense committee. Lutsenko, meanwhile, told parliament that Savchenko had planned an attack using grenades, mortars and automatic weapons.

Investigators have "irrefutable proof that Nadia Savchenko...personally planned, personally recruited, and personally gave instructions about how to commit a terrorist act here, in this chamber," Lutsenko said. He asked the Rada to strip her of her parliamentary immunity so that she could be arrested.

Lutsenko claimed that Savchenko's plan included destroying the Rada's roof cupola and killing surviving lawmakers with assault-rifle fire.

Savchenko became a national hero and was greeted with fanfare when she returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap with Russia in May 2016, but has faced mounting criticism since then. She has drawn fire for holding talks with the Russia-backed separatists without the government's consent.

In January 2017, lawmakers called for an investigation into what they said were anti-Ukrainian actions after Savchenko suggested that Kyiv would have to relax its claim on Crimea, which Russia seized after Yanukovych's ouster in 2014, in order to regain control of the territory held by the separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

More than 100 protesters were killed in the 2013-14 demonstrations, centered on Kyivs Maidan Nezalezhnost (Independence Square) that preceded Yanukovych's flight to Russia. Forty-eight of them were allegedly gunned down in February 2014 by snipers who Ukrainian authorities claim received direct orders from the Moscow-friendly Yanukovych.

In her remarks on March 15, Savchenko said that she saw Parubiy, who was on the antigovernment side at the time, "leading snipers into the Hotel Ukraine," which looms over the Maidan. "I saw a blue minibus and armed people coming out of it, I have said earlier [to investigators] who those people were. Those people are now lawmakers."

She said the deaths on the Maidan will never be thoroughly investigated, asserting that the government that came to power after Yanukovych's downfall does not want it to happen.

Savchenko also accused the government of "giving up Crimea" and said it bore responsibility for the deaths of Ukrainian soldiers in the ongoing conflict in the east, where more than 10,300 combatants and civilians have been killed in the war between Kyiv's forces and the separatists since April 2014.

Lutsenko's accusation came after Savchenko reported to SBU headquarters for questioning as a witness in the case against Volodymyr Ruban, who has been a key negotiator in prisoner exchanges with the Russia-backed separatists.

Ruban was arrested last week and charged with plotting to kill Poroshenko and other top officials, after he was detained while crossing into government-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine -- allegedly with large amounts of weapons and ammunition hidden in a shipment of furniture.

Investigators claim Ruban planned to use mortars, grenade launchers, guns, and explosives to carry out armed attacks on the residences of statesmen and political leaders" including Poroshenko, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksandr Turchynov with the intention of killing them.

Ruban, whose Center for the Release of POWs has been involved in prisoner exchanges between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists since 2014, maintains his innocence and says he was framed.

In the past, Ruban was involved in the activities of Ukrainian Choice, an organization that many in Ukraine consider to be pro-Kremlin. The group is headed by Viktor Medvedchuk, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and has played a major behind-the-scenes role in exchanges of captives.

Savchenko has been involved in prisoner exchanges in the past.

With reporting by ReutersTASHKENT -- A judge says that a medical examination has not confirmed torture claims by an Uzbek journalist who is on trial.

Judge Zafar Nurmatov said on March 15 at the trial of Bobomurod Abdullaev that "results of a complex medical examination" on Abdullaev had come back negative.

On March 7, when the trial of Abdullaev and his three co-defendants began, Nurmatov approved the defense teams request to allow the defendant to undergo a medical examination, after no objections were raised by prosecutors.

The trial of Abdullaev, blogger Hayot Hon Nasriddinov, businessmen Ravshan Salaev, and Shavkat Olloyorov -- is being closely watched by human rights advocates, opposition activists, and journalists as a test of the governments vow to reform Uzbek society.

A freelance journalist and contributor to the Fergana news agency and other media outlets, Abdullaev is charged with "conspiracy to overthrow the constitutional regime," which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

His lawyer, Sergei Mayorov, said last week that his client was tortured into making self-incriminating statements.

Mayorov said Abdullaev was tortured for several days after he was detained on a street in the capital, Tashkent, by security service officers on September 27.

Abdullayev was kept naked in his cell for several days and threatened that his daughter who lives in Russia would be raped, his other children living in Uzbekistan would be killed, and his wife would be jailed, Mayorov said.

The charges against Abdullaev and his co-defendants stem from a series of articles under the byline Usman Haqnazarov, which has been used by more than one person. The articles touched on issues related to circles close to the late former President Islam Karimov, who ruled the Central Asian country with an iron fist for more than a quarter of a century before his death in 2016.

The trial is seen as a test for President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who has promised reforms, and of his government's commitment to overhauling the justice system and addressing widespread allegations of abuse by security services.

Last month, 12 human rights groups called for Abdullaev's immediate release and an independent investigation of allegations that he was tortured.

Mirziyoev, a longtime prime minister who came to power after Karimov's death was announced in September 2016, has been shaking up the government structures, in particular the powerful security services and Interior Ministry.

In October, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Uzbek authorities had taken "some positive steps" during Mirziyoevs first year but still needs to make "sustainable" improvements on human rights.

President Shavkat Mirziyoev has changed the name of Uzbekistan's national security service, a move seen as another step aimed at shaking up the long-feared main successor of the KGB in the Central Asian country.

Mirziyoev signed a decree on March 14 changing the name from the National Security Service, or Milliy Xavfsizlik Xizmati (MXX), to the State Security Service, or Davlat Xavfsizlik Xizmati (DXX), Uzbek media reported.

The decree said the security service's duties include "protecting human rights and freedoms of Uzbek citizens, providing national security, [and] protecting Uzbekistan's national interests inside and outside the country."

It is also charged with fighting "organized crime, corruption, and terrorism" and supervising the border guard service in Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan.

Mirziyoev, a longtime former prime minister, has been shaking up government structures -- in particular the powerful security service and Interior Ministry -- since he succeeded long-ruling President Islamov Karimov after his death in 2016.

Mirziyoev has publicly criticized the security service, comparing its practices with those of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's NKVD during the Great Terror in 1937-38.

In late January, Mirziyoev dismissed General Rustam Inoyatov, who led the security service for almost 23 years.

Several high ranking security officials have been arrested or dismissed since then.

Banco Sabadell says recent events will not deter Cancun, Riviera Maya investments

Cancun, Q.R.  Banco Sabadell says recent travel events will not affect their Cancun and Riviera Maya investments, saying they are marginal issues considering how many millions of tourist come to the area every year.

Francesc Noguera Gili, CEO of Banco Sabadell Mexico, says that due to recent events such as the travel alerts that resulted from the Barcos Caribe ferry, his company has invested a lot of money into Cancun and Riviera Maya and will continue to do so.

Noguera Gili pointed out that over the past four years, his company has invested around $600 million USD into the region, 80 percent of which is in the Cancun, Riviera Maya tourism sector. He says Bano Sabadell is currently in the process of analyzing eight more proposals to grant financing for projects for the region.

In regard to recent travel incidents, Noguera Gili says, These are absolutely marginal issues within the set of how many millions of tourists come to this area each year. I do not think this has an impact, I think on the contrary. This destination has unbeatable conditions. We are talking about an infrastructure without parallel in the Caribbean  and we are seeing many investment projects. We are seeing a lot of appetite to continue growing here, especially in this area, Cancun and Riviera Maya.

He also stressed that the area has a privileged geographic location, having important tourism neighbors such as the United States and Canada.

The growth we are experiencing is very large and, in particular, in Cancun we have a business banking office headed by Teresa Morales who is very dedicated to financing the hotel sector.

We have many interests funded in Cancun and Riviera Maya, not only because we are a bank operating in Mexico, but because it is the most important destination in Mexico, a thriving destination, and we feel very comfortable, he said.

Banco Sabadell is a Spanish bank that opened its doors 27 years ago. Due to investment opportunities, the bank opened an office in Cancun nearly four years ago. They also have a team in Mexico City dedicated to hotel sector investments as well as a branch in Miami to help with investments in Mexico.Federal authorities destroy more than 460 guns at Cancun military base

Cancun, Q.R.  More than 460 guns were destroyed by federal authorities in Cancun Wednesday as part of a government clean to rid criminals of their weapons.

Cancun mayor, Remberto Estrada Barba, says that part of the problem is the amount of weapons in the hands of criminals. He described the event to destroy the guns as very significant saying that the weapons being removed from the streets around the state has an impact on violence since six out of every 10 homicides are committed with guns.

The law is very clear, he explains, There are restrictions on owning a weapon. The unfortunate thing is that all these weapons circulate in the black market. There are even cases where high caliber guns have been confiscated from minors.

He explained that while it is good to remove as many weapons from the streets as possible, we must also remove them from the hands of criminals and prevent them from reaching children.

Estrada Barba congratulated the judicial and ministerial authorities for putting an effort into the issue of weapons in the state pending the new justice system.

In total, 467 weapons that included guns, an excess of 3,300 rounds of ammunition and two silencers were destroyed along with pieces of military clothing and gear used by criminals. The destruction of the weapons was done by the Secretariat of National Defense at the X Military Region in Cancun.

General Gustavo Nieto Navarro, commander of the X Military Region, said that citizens can also voluntarily surrender their weapons as part of the Weapons Exchange Program where they are awarded with incentives.

The implementation of the Weapons Exchange Program is intended to promote the voluntary surrender of firearms, grenades and ammunition among citizens in exchange for incentives such as articles for domestic use.

The goal of the program is to diminish tragic and violent acts within the family or community nucleus through a permanent campaign.

He stressed that all weapons seized by the civil authorities are made available to the Secretariat of National Defense and all are destroyed.Free Google Station WiFi launched throughout Mexico including Cancun Airport

Cancun, Q.R.  Google has launced its Google Station to nearly 60 locations throughout Mexico including the Cancun International Airport. The new launch means free public WiFi in key, high-traffic areas.

Free WiFi, powered by Google, is available at almost 60 public venues across the country in partnership with local ISP Sitwifi. While this is Googles third launch of the station, it is the first in Latin America.

Google Station will launch in Mexico initially with 56 points, the idea is to gradually grow and reach more cities and more spaces, Miguel Angel Alva, Marketing Director for Google Mexico.

Google Station offers high speed connection in public places such as shopping centers, airports and bus stations via WiFi. The concept is part of the companys Next Billion Users global initiative that today, employs more than 400.

Google says rather than building new WiFi infrastructure from scratch, they partner with existing ISPs by offering them access to Googles high-performance WiFi platform, deployment tools and brand.

Googles mission is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful and this means reaching all people. We know that the country has made great advances, since 63 percent of the population is connected and 77 percent do so through a mobile device, so having free access is key to connecting all Mexicans, he added.

Google says it expects to expand the service to more than 100 locations throughout Mexico before the end of the year.

Anjali Joshi, vice president of Google Station explained, Now, users in Mexico, the first Latin American country to obtain Google Station, will experience high-quality connections to the Internet at airports, bus stations and shopping centers.

We want to expand to new high-traffic places to help more people connect, so we are looking for strategic partners and visionaries to work on this effort.

In addition to Mexico City, Google Station is available in some cities of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco Guerrero, Guanajuato, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, State of Mexico, Tabasco , Campeche, Chiapas, Yucatan and Quintana Roo.

In Quintana Roo, Google Station is available at both the Cancun and Cozumel International Airport. For a full list of Google Station WiFi hot spots in Mexico, visit the Google Station map.

Since its launch in 2015, Google has connected nearly 8 million people in India and Indonesia with more than 500 free WiFi hot spots.Mexico Supreme Court rules police searches without warrant constitutional

Mexico City, Mexico  The Supreme Court of Mexico has declared that a search of person or private vehicle without a warrant is constitutional and therefore, legal.

The announcement came this week when the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared it constitutional for police to perform inspections of a person or their vehicle without a judicial or ministerial order.

By a majority vote, the court approved amendments on various provisions of the National Code of Criminal Procedure whose draft was prepared by Minister Javier Laynez.

The National Human Rights Commission recently challenged the drafted proposal on the grounds that they violated individual rights saying police being able to carry out searches of people or vehicles without the order of a judge violates the rights to personal freedom and freedom of movement, legal security, privacy, private life, personal integrity and arbitrary non-interference.

However, the ministers of the Court voted in favor of the Laynez project, which established that the arguments of the National Human Rights Commission were unfounded because the police inspections constitute preventive and provisional controls authorized under the Amparo as well as the prevention and prosecution of crimes and their investigation.

The inspections, they say, are to be carried out only in the case of reasonable suspicion or flagrancy. Laynez said that the flagrancy of a crime can be revealed in two ways. When the crime is evident in the eyes of the police or when the inspection reveals it. He added that the control judges are the ones who will qualify if said inspection was legal.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Luis Maria Aguilar Morales, affirmed that the inspections are a proportional measure, suitable and with a constitutionally valid purpose to protect the public safety and the rights of the victims of crimes.Protest against Durango cyanide plant ends with 37 arrested

La Aurora, Durango  A battle between ejido residents and police ended with the arrest of more than 30 people who took to the streets in protest of a new cyanide plant.

Members of the United Front of La Laguna Peoples have been protesting the Chemours Laguna project in the Gomez Palacio Municipality of Durango, which will produce 65,000 tons of cyanide if it starts operating.

Locals have been protesting with road blockades. The battle began when authorities arrived to remove a protest blockade. The conflict began at around 5:00 a.m. when local ejidos claim police arrived and began throwing women and older adults out of the way.

Locals retaliated by throwing stones and attacking police with sticks. Being outnumbered, police left but quickly returned with more officials. It didnt take long for the brawl to include neighboring communities who also took to the streets.

More than 200 municipal and anti riot police clashed with residents for several hours. Officers reportedly used sticks, rocks, extinguishers and tear gas against the protesters, who in turn threw stones and Molotov cocktails, resulting in three injured officers.

By 10:00 a.m. the battle had settled enough for police to begin making arrests. In total, 37 people were taken to jail and 20 were left wounded.

Locals are calling for dialogue with the government. Activists claim the sodium cyanide production represents an environmental threat to the La Laguna region.Each bar is believed to weigh 20kg. There were almost nine tonnes on the ground. Some sources told about diamonds and platinum too. Police sealed off the area. After the accident, the crew of the aircraft decided to return to the airport, landing safely in the village of Magan, 12 kilometers from Yakutsk. Stanislav Borodyuk, a representative from the Kinross Gold company, whose filial was accountable for the precious metal development in the region, said that these were actually dore bars that consist of 70 percent of either gold or silver.



Gold on the ground in the airport

The whole cargo has been collected, there are no losses, so the issue of insurance is not applicable. The cargo belonged to Chukota Mining and Geological company. Some 75% of shares belong to Canadian Kinross Gold company, which is one of the ten largest gold mining companies in the world, owning projects in Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Mauritania, Russia and the United States. No one of the planes crew members was injured in the accident. Technical engineers at the airport who prepared it for takeoff have been detained.Florida-based East Coast Defenders (or E.C.D. Automotive Design) offers 100kWh Tesla swaps for classic Defender models

The Land Rover Defender is a British icon. Over the years, its rich heritage may have been a bit overshadowed by the Mercedes-Benz G-Class (or G-Wagen) and a few Japanese names. Still, the global LR Defender community is going strong.

Jaguar Land Rover has already introduced the off-roaders modern-day avatar in both 90 and 110 formats. In India, bookings have commenced for the 2020MY Land Rover Defender, which comes at a starting price of Rs 69.99 lakh ex-showroom.

While the new-gen Defender continues to be powered by an ICE unit  2.0-litre 296bhp/400Nm turbo petrol, to be precise  East Coast Defenders (or E.C.D. Automotive Design) from Florida has taken a different approach. Instead of plonking a traditional Rover V8, the team at E.C.D. Automotive Design is offering 100kWh Tesla swaps for classic Defender 110 models. The direct-drive Tesla motor promises a range of 220 miles (+350km) and a 0-100km/h sprint time of roughly 5.5 seconds.

A domestic wall charger can fill up the battery pack from empty in about 10 hours while a three-phase unit can drop this time to five hours. E.C.D. Automotive Designs electric Defender may have lost the V8 grunt but stays true to its off-road DNA, with the added advantage of full torque output at zero RPM. In one perspective, this is as close to a Tesla SUV with good off-road capabilities.

The Tesla Cybertruck is supposedly an excellent off-roader but would a sensible person buy the pick-up with its ghastly looks? Meanwhile, the Rivian R1T has proved the potential of an all-electric powertrain in off-roading besides looking good.

Electric swaps are becoming popular in todays automotive culture. While some of these are done just for the sake of it, certain examples are arguably better than their ICE donor. Recently, we had shared an interesting creation by Wales-based Electric Classic Cars on a Royal Enfield.

In its regular portfolio, East Coast Defenders has six engine choices: 430hp Chevrolet LS3, 565hp Chevrolet LS3, 320hp Chevrolet LC9, 640hp Chevrolet LT4, 190hp Rover V8 (the original choice) and a 2.8-litre Cummins diesel mill with 160bhp. In addition to this, the restoration firm offers a range of customisations and purpose-focused fitments for classic Land Rover models. E.C.D. Automotive Design undertakes one-off projects as well. The firms website has got a configurator for users to create their own versions of a modern classic Land Rover.The ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to help screen patients for a common diabetic eye disease gains momentum with a new study published online today in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Lily Peng, M.D., Ph.D., and her colleagues at Google AI research group, show that they could improve their disease detecting software by using a small subset of images adjudicated by ophthalmologists who specialize in retinal diseases. The specialists' input was then used to improve their computer's performance so that it was roughly equal to that of individual retinal specialists.

More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, and are at risk for diabetic retinopathy, a potentially blinding eye disease. People often don't notice changes in their vision in the disease's early stages. But as it progresses, diabetic retinopathy usually causes vision loss that in many cases cannot be reversed. That's why it's so important that people with diabetes have yearly screenings.

In earlier research, Dr. Peng and her team used neural networks -- complex mathematical systems for identifying patterns in data -- to recognize diabetic retinopathy. They fed thousands of retinal scans into these neural networks to teach them to "see" tiny hemorrhages and other lesions that are early warning signs of retinopathy. Dr. Peng showed the software worked roughly as well as human experts.

But Dr. Peng is interested in developing a system that would be good enough for her grandmother. So, to improve the accuracy of the software, she included the input of retina specialists, ophthalmologists who specialize in diseases of the retina.

"For my grandma, I would love to have a panel of subspecialists who actually treat the disease, to sit and debate her case, giving their opinion," Dr. Peng said. "But that is really expensive and it's hard to do. So how do you build an algorithm that gets close to this?"

To tease out how this could be done, Dr. Peng compared the performance of the original algorithm with manual image grading by either a majority decision of three general ophthalmologists, or a consensus grading by three retinal specialists.

The grading of diabetic retinopathy can be a complex process that requires the identification and quantification of fine features such as small aneurysms and hemorrhages. As a result, there can be a fair amount of variability among physicians examining images, looking for disease.

The retina specialists graded the images separately, then worked together to resolve any disagreements. Their review and subsequent consensus diagnosis offered considerable insight into the grading process, helping to correct errors such as artifacts caused by dust spots, distinguishing between different types of hemorrhages, and creating more precise definitions for "gray areas" that make it difficult to make a definitive diagnosis. At the end of the process, the retina specialists indicated that the precision used in the decision process was above that typically used in everyday clinical practice.

Using these specialist-graded images, Dr. Peng could then fine-tune the software, which improved their model's performance and improved detection of disease.

"We believe this work provides a basis for further research and raises the bar for reference standards in the field of applying machine learning to medicine," Dr. Peng said.Researchers from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and from the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University have collaboratively developed and described a llama-antibody that might have significant impact for future diagnostics and treatment of, e.g., kidney diseases.

The research team has studied an important protein, called C3, from the part of the innate immune system known as the complement system. Upon recognition of pathogenic organisms or dying cells from our own body, C3 is cleaved by blood enzymes as part of a defence mechanism. These enzymes are known as C3 convertases, and the cleavage of C3 results in two fragments. The fragment called 3b binds directly to the pathogens, while the other fragment recruits and stimulates immune cells to eliminate the wrongdoer.

In a healthy person, our own cells are protected against the effects of the C3 cleavage. However, as a result of mutations in our DNA, this protection might be lost, increasing the risk of developing chronic inflammatory disorders or autoimmune diseases. For a long time, the researchers have been focussing on developing agents that prevent such undesirable complement activation. For this reason, they developed the llama-antibody to prevent cleavage of C3. Llama-antibodies are also known as nanobodies due to their small size, and compared to normal antibodies, they are easy to develop and significantly cheaper to produce.

"The technology used to develop and produce these nanobodies has been known for more than two decades" says Gregers Rom Andersen, and adds "and therefore it is somewhat surprising that we, as far as we know, are the first in the world to develop a nanobody that inhibits the complement system."

By exposing crystals to X-rays and correlating the results with data from electron microscopy, the researchers have described how their nanobody binds C3 in large details.

"The crystal structure of our nanobody bound to C3 supports our earlier proposed models describing how the complement convertases recognize their substrates and therefore clearly explains why our nanobody exerts its inhibitory effect on the cleavage of C3. Our results also improve the basic understanding of how this essential mechanism within the complement system works. By comparing with previously published protein structures, we can furthermore explain why our nanobody inhibits the formation of the C3 convertases, our nanobody has a 'double inhibitory' effect so to speak," explains Rasmus Kjeldsen Jensen.

The newly developed nanobody inhibits the cleavage of the C3 protein

In addition to the work describing the C3-nanobody complex, the research team has also performed several laboratory experiments using serum from both mice and humans. These results confirm the observations from the atomic structure and clearly reveal that their newly developed nanobody inhibits the cleavage of C3 in both human and murine serum. The latter is important, since mice are often used as disease models.

"Our experiments in serum are important as they show that our nanobody actually works under physiological conditions, where the complement system naturally exerts its function. These results indicate that our nanobody could be used in treatment of diseases caused by overactivation of the complement system. As an example, part of the kidney is not protected against complement to the same degree as other tissues, and in this case our nanobody could be a candidate to stop complement driven disease progression," says Gregers Rom Andersen. "However, we also found that our nanobody is able to inhibit the protective effects our own body normally wield against complement, and one should therefore be very careful and meticulously assess the possible side effects of therapeutic treatment of diseases using our nanobody," concludes Gregers Rom Andersen.

The foundation of this work was established by the two Assistant Professors Kasper Rjkjr Andersen and Nick Stub Laursen from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, who were the first in Denmark to systematically develop and produce large-scale nanobodies. However, the driving force in the project was PhD student Rasmus Kjeldsen Jensen under the supervision of Professor Gregers Rom Andersen, who in the characterization of the nanobody was assisted by the two PhD students Trine Amalie Fogh Gadeberg and Rasmus Pihl.Researchers at the University of Sheffield have successfully used computer simulated models and medical imaging to test the strength of young children's bones, producing results which could help car seat manufacturers design safer car seats for young children.

The study, the first on infant bone strength in relation to age/weight using models developed from modern medical images, is published today in the Journal of Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology.

The research used CT scans -- x-rays to take detailed pictures of the bones from different angles -- and subsequent computer models to set up scenarios looking at how a different amount of force affects the bones, bending and twisting the bones to detect the breaking point.

These non-invasive techniques created 3D models of the femur (thigh bone) in the study of children's bones in the newborn to three-year-old age range.

This is the age range that has had the least research conducted previously but also the ages where children can't talk or communicate effectively about how their injury occurred. There is also a period of rapid growth between these ages and the researchers were able to determine how bones developed during this time and how bone strength changed.

Protection has improved significantly since the introduction of car seats but car accidents are still a leading cause of life threatening injury in children. Computer aided engineering is an essential part of vehicle development and safety assessments are increasingly relying on simulations. Therefore, it is vital that the correct simulations, using accurate models, are used to ensure optimum safety.

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Current testing for car seats in simulated crash tests often use scaled down models of adults to simulate a child in a given situation. However, anatomically, a toddler has a very different bone structure to an adult -- the bones are not fully formed and still growing.

Dr Xinshan Li, from the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield, said: "There is currently very little research looking into the bone strength of young children. Our data can be applied to help car seat manufacturers, pram manufacturers, toy manufacturers and any other companies designing children's products, to design and make safer products and use our modelling of bone strength in testing their products before bringing them to market.

"We will be continuing our research in this area and hope to work in partnership with these industries to demonstrate the impact our work could have in helping to prevent and minimise the impact of potential accidents. This will give parents peace of mind that their child is as safe as possible and that the products they are using have been tested using the very latest and accurate techniques."

Dr Amaka Offiah, Reader in Paediatric Musculoskeletal Imaging in the Department of Oncology and Metabolism at the University of Sheffield, and Honorary Consultant Paediatric Radiologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital, said: "Bone fractures are common in childhood and have been estimated to account for 25 per cent of all paediatric injuries. They can broadly be categorised into accidental or inflicted injuries.

"Currently, distinguishing between these can often be extremely difficult. Due to the difficulties in obtaining paediatric bone samples there has been a lack of research to provide evidence-based information on bone strength in young children.

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"In addition to the child safety industry-based applications, the findings from our study can be used in future to aid clinical diagnosis. If we can provide a table which shows bone strength by age range for different bones in the body, we can then calculate the force required to break that particular bone. This would help clinicians to use evidence-based information to decide whether an injury is accidental or inflicted, particularly for younger children who aren't able to articulate how the injury occurred. We are grateful to The Children's Hospital Charity, who funded the initial work in this area."

The Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine is a collaborative initiative between the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust (in silico medicine is also known as computational medicine). It is a multidisciplinary collaboration between over 140 academics and clinicians to develop computer simulations of the human body and its disease processes that can be used directly in clinical practice to improve diagnosis and treatment. MultiSim is an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded programme which is based in Insigneo.

Professor Damien Lacroix, Director of MultiSim, said: "The MultiSim project provided resources for this research, as the research team were able to use the same modelling techniques and software we created to look into musculoskeletal diseases and apply this to modelling for children's bones to test their strength.

"The potential applications of this research are far-reaching and demonstrate how computer simulations can potentially save time and provide a more reliable diagnosis for clinicians."

The research team is continuing their work in this area and will be building on the current research to assess other long bones, such as the tibia, expand their database to ensure a good representation of children in each age range, and look at more complex injury scenarios.

'Investigating the mechanical response of paediatric bone under bending and torsion using finite element analysis' by Zainab Altai, Marco Viceconti, Amaka Offiah and Xinshan Li is published in the Journal of Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology.

This study was supported by the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED). The project also received funding from the MultiSim Project and the European Commission H2020 programme through the CompBioMed Centre of Excellence.Like a great orchestra, your brain relies on the perfect coordination of many elements to function properly. And if one of those elements is out of sync, it affects the entire ensemble. In Alzheimer's disease, for instance, damage to specific neurons can alter brainwave rhythms and cause a loss of cognitive functions.

One type of neuron, called inhibitory interneuron, is particularly important for managing brain rhythms. It's also the research focus of a laboratory led by Jorge Palop, PhD, assistant investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. In a study published in Neuron, Palop and his collaborators uncovered the therapeutic benefits of genetically improving these interneurons and transplanting them into the brain of a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Interneurons control complex networks between neurons, allowing them to send signals to one another in a harmonized way. You can think of inhibitory interneurons as orchestra conductors. They create rhythms in the brain to instruct the players -- excitatory neurons -- when to play and when to stop. An imbalance between these two types of neurons creates disharmony and is seen in multiple neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism.

A Brain without a Conductor

Palop's previous studies showed that, in mouse models of Alzheimer's, the inhibitory interneurons do not work properly. So, the rhythms that organize the excitatory cells are disturbed and fail to function harmoniously, causing an imbalance in brain networks. This, in turn, affects memory formation and can lead to epileptic activity, which is often observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

His team found a way to reengineer inhibitory interneurons to improve their function. They showed that these enhanced interneurons, when transplanted into the abnormal brain of Alzheimer mice, can properly control the activity of excitatory cells and restore brain rhythms.

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"We took advantage of the fact that transplanted interneurons can integrate remarkably well into new brain tissues, and that each interneuron can control thousands of excitatory neurons," said Palop, who is also an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. "These properties make interneurons a promising therapeutic target for cognitive disorders associated with brain rhythm abnormalities and epileptic activity."

First, the scientists had to overcome a significant challenge. When they transplanted regular interneurons, they saw no beneficial effects, presumably because Alzheimer's disease creates a toxic environment in the brain.

The researchers then genetically boosted the activity of inhibitory interneurons by adding a protein called Nav1.1. They discovered that the interneurons with enhanced function were able to overcome the toxic disease environment and restore brain function.

"These optimized neurons are like master conductors," said Palop. "Even with a declining orchestra, they can restore the rhythms and harmony needed for cognitive functions."

Conductors Engineered for Alzheimer's Disease

The findings could eventually lead to the development of new treatment options for patients with Alzheimer's disease.

"Besides the applications this cell engineering and transplantation approach may find in regenerative medicine, our findings support the broader concept that enhancing the function of interneurons can counteract key aspects of Alzheimer's disease," said Lennart Mucke, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

In addition to examining if the cell therapy could be translated from mice to humans, Palop and his team are working to identify potential drugs as an alternative way to enhance the function of inhibitory interneurons.

"Advancing our understanding of Alzheimer's disease and identifying potential new treatment strategies are critical to addressing the escalating global health crisis," said Elizabeth Edgerly, PhD, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association, Northern California and Northern Nevada chapter. "We were proud to support Dr. Palop's research and vision with an Investigator Initiated Research Grant award." The Alzheimer's Association, which funded part of the study, is the world's largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research.Healthier fish stocks. Higher catches. Profits from fishing. Is there a way to achieve these holy grails of commercial fisheries without harming endangered species that are caught incidentally?

A new UC Santa Barbara-led study has found that may indeed be possible about half the time. According to the research group's analysis, ending overfishing would also promote population recoveries for many endangered species ensnared accidentally as bycatch -- the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species. The team's findings appear in the journal Science.

"Many large animals, including marine mammals, turtles and birds, are threatened by bycatch," said lead author Matt Burgess, a postdoctoral scholar in the Sustainable Fisheries Group at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. "We tend to think that we can only save these species by either dramatically improving our gear or by constraining our fisheries. But this project demonstrated that wasn't always the case. In about half the cases, overexploiting these mammals, turtles and birds occurs because we're also overexploiting the target species."

The study examined how much fishing pressure needs to be reduced to maximize profits in the 4,713 fisheries that produce most of the world's catch -- and to halt the population declines of 20 marine mammal, sea turtle and sea bird populations threatened as bycatch. The researchers also identified which fisheries might be causing the bycatch for each population.

To account for the many uncertainties in each of these aspects, the scientists simulated 1,000 possible scenarios. In each, they asked what fraction of the 20 threatened bycatch populations would begin to recover if all fisheries adopted efforts that would maximize their profits. For each bycatch population that would not recover under such efforts, the investigators then asked how much profit the fisheries would have to give up to enable recovery of the bycatch population. In 95 percent of the simulated scenarios, the analysis demonstrated that between seven and 13 of the bycatch populations could be saved from decline at a cost of less than 5 percent of the maximum profit.

"Maintaining productive fisheries and protecting threatened bycatch species are two of the primary goals of fisheries policy," Burgess said. "We found that about half the time we can accomplish these goals together with the same management actions."

For some populations like the eastern Pacific leatherback turtle, that bycatch is unsustainable but so, too, is the fishing pressure on many of the target species. "For many species, you actually get a 'win-win,' where building higher stocks of fish in the ocean leads to higher fishery profits and recovery of endangered species," said co-author Christopher Costello, a Bren professor and co-principal investigator of the Sustainable Fisheries Group.

To save the other half of the bycatch populations, fisheries would either have to reduce fishing so much that they would give up a lot of their profits or substantially improve their fishing technologies to better avoid bycatch. "These bycatch populations either need total or near-total elimination of bycatch to survive, like the vaquita porpoise from the Gulf of California," Burgess explained. "Or they are caught in fisheries that already exploit their target species relatively sustainably, as may be the case for the New Zealand sea lion."

"Recognizing the benefits of rebuilding fisheries to endangered populations allows us to also focus attention on other key sources of endangered species mortality, like egg poaching, invasive species, pollution and habitat loss," said co-author Rebecca Lewison of San Diego State University.

All of the data and computer code from the study is publicly available online. "We did this so that our analysis will be fully transparent and reproducible by others," said co-lead author Grant McDermott of the University of Oregon. "This is gradually becoming the norm in science, which is great."This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.Posted Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:36 am

Norma L. Heinicke

April 15, 1928  Nov. 25, 2017

Norma Lee (Payne) Heinicke was born April 15, 1928, in Louisville, Kentucky, and died Nov. 25, 2017, at age 89. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 22, 2018, at St. John Lutheran Church in Seward, with the Rev. Scott Bruick officiating. A gathering of family and friends will follow.Now Playing: Dispatchers received a 911 call about 4:15 a.m. reporting that two people appeared to be drowning after an argument broke out between the two near the intersection of Lakeshore and Hanover avenues, said Officer Felicia Aisthorpe, a spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department. Video: San Francisco Chronicle

A dispute between a man and a women turned deadly early Thursday at Oaklands Lake Merritt, where they were found in the water just before sunrise, authorities said.

The Alameda County coroner identified the victims as 39-year-old Michael Grace and 24-year-old Tayana Johnson, both of Oakland. Family members told police that the two were dating.After 17 students and staffers were shot to death in last months high school massacre in Florida, President Trump suggested that arming weapons-savvy teachers and other employees could head off such atrocities. Among the places the idea gained traction was Florida, where lawmakers voted to spend more money on armed school security officers.

But in one of the Bay Areas biggest school districts, officials are going in the opposite direction  taking a serious look at removing armed law enforcement officers from campuses.

The West Contra Costa Unified School District encompasses 54 schools in Richmond and surrounding cities. In November, the districts board voted to end the suspension and expulsion of any of the districts 29,000 students for nonviolent incidents. It also convened a task force to recommend by the end of the year whether to phase out school resource officers  police who are posted at campuses.

The five-member board suggested that a police presence at schools contributes to a school-to-prison pipeline. That outraged law enforcement officials, who believe their presence on campus is crucial for community policing and building relationships with youths.

District Superintendent Matt Duffy said the school board feared that having armed officers on campuses runs the risk of creating more punitive environments and might more likely lead to arrests. The task force is trying to sort out such issues, he said.

We just need to dig a little deeper to make sure we understand how the (school resource officers) are being utilized, Duffy said.

Rosa Furneaux/Special to The Chronicle

The district pays $2.5 million a year for 11 school resource officers, who rotate shifts at middle and high schools. Duffy said a re-evaluation doesnt necessarily mean that officers will be removed from campuses, but school board member Mister Phillips argued that removal is exactly the districts intention.

Some people think they dont contribute to a positive climate, and I think others think that theyre part of the school-to-prison pipeline, and others believe that communities of color are overly policed, Phillips said. In the current climate that we have with the shootings that have gone on around the country, with issues that weve had in our own district, I think that it would be foolish to eliminate school resource officers.

Phillips voted for the proposal to look at removing school resource officers because it was attached to the elimination of suspensions and expulsions for nonviolent incidents, which disproportionately affect African American and Latino students, he said.

In 2016 and 2017, there were 78 juvenile arrests initiated by school resource officers in West Contra Costa schools. Sixteen of those were for assault, while most of the rest were for lesser crimes such as theft, trespassing, disturbing the peace and possessing marijuana, according to the Bay Area Legal Aid, which compiled the data from police departments in the district.

One of the arrests involved a seventh-grader who brought a gun to Pinole Middle School in February 2017. No injuries were reported.

Some people would ask, When we need the police, cant we just call the police and they come? Why do we have to pay for an officer to be full time? Duffy said. That is really the question that we are digging into.

Rosa Furneaux/Special to The Chronicle

Lillian Chen, a youth justice attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid, said the district should spend its money on teacher training, more counselors and mental health professionals, and providing more resources to the wellness centers on campuses.

We are focusing on emotional safety as well as physical safety, said Chen, whose organization helped craft the ban on suspensions and expulsions. When emotional safety is at threat, that leads to physical safety being threatened.

If you have the positive support at school like mental health and social workers to focus on prevention and intervention, youll see the suspensions and arrests go down.

School board member Tom Panas said it was too early to say whether resource officers would be pulled off campuses.

I dont know whos driving the narrative that this is some kind of an effort to remove all of the school resource officers from the school, Panas said. When people show me some data, I can start to form some opinions and start asking some questions.

Officials in some of the cities in the district have banded together with law enforcement to fight the idea.

Officers participate in our career day and our active shooter training  they mentor kids, Hercules Mayor Chris Kelley said. So, this is absolutely critical for us. If we didnt have these officers building these relationships, I dont know what would happen.

El Cerrito Mayor Gabriel Quinto said the presence of school resource officers helped curb gang violence in his citys schools.

We need to remember why they were put there in the first place, and that is to make sure that our students are safe, he said.

Rosa Furneaux/Special to The Chronicle

Phillip Johnson, the principal of Kennedy High School in Richmond and a former police officer, said school resource officers allow for an immediate response if theres an incident on campus.

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.

Just based on what happened in Florida, I think that theres a strong need for school resource officers to be on campus, Johnson said. And I think that most of our teachers feel safer when we have officers here.

In December, police chiefs for all of the cities within the West Contra Costa district  El Cerrito, Pinole, Hercules, San Pablo and Richmond  wrote a sharply worded letter to Duffy expressing concerns that law enforcement wasnt consulted in the decision to re-evaluate the program.

We are disappointed that, despite our collective and individual beliefs that we were collaborating partners with the district on these programs, we were left out of discussions that led to the boards decision point, they wrote.

Richmond Police Chief Allwyn Brown said he hasnt heard back from Duffy. The superintendent said he had met instead with all the city managers that all the chiefs report to.

Brown said the role of uniformed officers on campus often is misconstrued.

Its not about enforcing laws, Brown said. Its primarily about being good mentors and good role models for kids from all backgrounds.

Richmond school resource officer Gary Lewis said he recently received a stack of notes from students at Sylvester Greenwood Academy, where hes stationed.

A lot of them say, Thank you for being here  we actually feel safe, Lewis said. I always say, Im here to motivate you, to counsel you, whatever you may need, if you want to sit down and talk.

Even as it considers phasing out resource officers, the West Contra Costa district decided to bring in a retired Richmond police lieutenant last week to evaluate school safety procedures.

Former Lt. Michael Booker was a school resource officer in the district for seven years. He said that such officers are an important piece for school safety and that if theyre removed the district will have a security hole to fill.

The question would be moving forward, Booker said. How is that going to work? That would be a question for the superintendent. But I do believe that there is a place for school resource officers.California Highway Patrol /

A fatal accident Thursday morning blocked all lanes on Highway 1 just north of Cypress Road in Marin County, causing residual delays in the area, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The accident occurred early just after midnight and its still not clear how many vehicles were involved, but CHP reported that it was pulling a vehicle out of a ditch early Thursday. All lanes reopened by 6:26 a.m.An exhibition of the art of Rube Goldberg, a San Franciscan who became one of the most famous cartoonists in the world, opened this week at the citys Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Goldberg was a man of thousands of ideas and hundreds of mad inventions that made simple things complicated. He was a celebrity, a star in the Golden Age of newspapering. His name was listed as an adjective in the dictionary, defined as accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply.

Goldberg produced more than 50,000 drawings, thousands of color comic strips, and 24 short silent films. In 1922 he was paid the princely sum of $200,000 a year by the McNaught syndicate. In todays money that is just over $2.84 million.

He got his first job as a cartoonist at The Chronicle, but quit when he couldnt get along with his editor. He then went to work for the San Francisco Bulletin for $10 a week.

But New York was the center of the world in those days  The front row, Goldberg called it  so he took a train east and pounded the pavement for weeks before the old New York Evening Mail hired him at $50 a week.

He drew single cartoons and strips, developed goofy characters like Mike and Ike, two dopey identical twins, and Boob McNutt. He also had a series called Foolish Questions, and in 1912 drew his first cartoon featuring an impossibly complicated invention, The Simple Mosquito Exterminator.

Another of his early works was a device designed to fish an olive out of a jar, a normally simple task that Goldberg turned into 12 complicated steps.

His aim, of course, was to show that machines had made everything complex for everyone. And that idea  the famous Rube Goldberg machines  made him famous.

He had a big presence, and a big ego, said Jennifer George, his granddaughter. People recognized him on the street and he always got the best table at restaurants. It was always, Right this way, Mr. Goldberg.

He was famous, but he was a wonderful grandfather, she said. His favorite bedtime story was about the San Francisco earthquake, how his bed rocked and how the city burned.

The exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, George said, is bringing him home.

A grandson, John George, said Goldberg loved New York, but he never forgot San Francisco.

Rueben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was born to a Jewish family in San Francisco on the Fourth of July, 1883. He went to Lowell High School and studied engineering at UC Berkeley. His only art training was from a sign painter, who taught him the basics.

He loved to draw  in grammar school; for the Lowell, his high school paper; for the Pelican humor magazine; and for the yearbook at Cal. Goldberg had no taste for engineering. I cant stand it, he told his father just before he quit an engineering job to draw pictures for a living at The Chronicle.

Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Some people from the Bay Area came with him on his road to fame as drawings. They included cigar-smoking San Francisco politicians with big mustaches and paunches, skinny Berkeley professors who lectured on impossibly complex subjects, and fussy old ladies he met at his family home.

Two of Goldbergs drawings bookend the exhibit. One is of a violin player he drew when he was 12. He won first place for it at John Swett grammar school in San Francisco. The other is a political cartoon that ran in the New York Sun in 1947, showing the atomic bomb teetering on a precipice between peace and world destruction. That one won a Pulitzer Prize.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf

The Art of Rube Goldberg

Where: Contemporary Jewish Museum, 756 Mission St., San Francisco

When: Now through July

Admission: $14 for adults, $12 for students and seniorsNest has started selling a $229 Internet-connected video doorbell that provides notification through an app when someone is at the door and sends an alert across Google-branded speakers in a users home.

The integration, announced Wednesday, illustrates the collaboration between Nest and Google. Google purchased Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion, but in 2015 each became a separate division within Alphabet. Last month, Nest went back to being part of Google, with its CEO, Marwan Fawaz, reporting to Googles senior vice president of hardware, Rick Osterloh.

Nest had struggled during its time as a stand-alone unit of Alphabet. Its CEO and co-founder, Tony Fadell, stepped down in 2016. That same year, Google began selling an Internet-connected speaker that some analysts thought would fall under the Nest lineup but was instead branded Google Home.

Were really at Google, finally, said Maxime Veron, Nests director of product marketing. Its very exciting we can really create this cross-team collaboration that we need to make our common customers lives easier and better.

Veron says theres more opportunity for collaboration now that Nest is again a Google subsidiary. However, analyst Patrick Moorhead with Moor Insights & Strategy says, Its not a foregone conclusion that putting these two groups together is going to be a future of success.

Nest entered the Internet-connected market relatively early, selling its popular thermostat in 2011. It started selling a smoke detector in 2013 and a camera in 2015, though some analysts criticized the company for not unveiling more new product lines fast enough.

Nests doorbell, called Nest Hello, marks its first entry into the $334 million video doorbell market, according to 2017 data from research firm Parks Associates. Last month, Amazon announced it had purchased video doorbell company Ring. Companies are battling to get the most access to the front door, according to Dina Abdelrazik, a Parks Associates research analyst.

Nests device will notify users when a person is at their door on the Nest app. If the user opts to use Googles digital assistant, his or her Nest Cam and Google Home speakers will also say out loud, Someones at the front door. On the app, its possible to see who is at the door and speak directly to them. Response options, voiced by the doorbell, include: Hi there, you can just leave it. Thanks.

Nest also began selling a $249 Internet-connected lock on Wednesday that it created with lock manufacturer Yale. The lock will work with the Nest doorbell, so if users opt to let a person in when they are not home, they can unlock the door through the app.

Another new Nest device is a $39 temperature sensor that will work with the companys flagship thermostat and allows different rooms to have different temperatures.

Asked about privacy concerns, Veron says that users have to opt in to using Google digital assistant. Information that Google collects through its assistant includes the types of Nest devices used. Information on users who choose not to use the Google assistant will remain within Nest, the company said.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

There is this notion that trusting Google with your data is a bad thing, Veron said. Honestly, the data Ive seen say otherwise. I think a lot of customers are very happy to share data with Google because of the benefit they get out of it.

After Nest was named its own division of Alphabet in 2015, its revenue became part of the parent company's other bets category, separate from Google, which makes the lions share of sales and profit. Now that Nest is part of Google, its finances will eventually fall under Googles other revenues category, but its unclear when exactly that will happen.

Abdelrazik said Nests financial performance will be under less pressure now that the company has rejoined Google.Flowers flow through Joan McLellan Taylers blood. She was born that way, a child of the McLellan flower empire that grew orchids on the Peninsula. As a girl attending the Katherine Delmar Burke School in Pacific Heights, McLellan Tayler would accompany her father to the San Francisco Flower Mart in the predawn hours to shop the floral vendors. At nearly 90 years old, McLellan Tayler regularly shops the Flower Mart, as she did last week while preparing her annual floral entry into the de Young Museum Bouquet to Arts exhibition.

For the past 34 years, select florists and floral artisans have been invited to re-create pieces from the de Youngs collection of artwork  with flowers. One hundred and 20 (give or take) exhibitors select or are assigned one piece of artwork, including the really modern stuff like video installations, and interpret it with flora and fauna. The fragrant results remain on display throughout the museum for a single week. And then, for the most part, they die.

I got my first choice, McLellan Tayler said of the artwork shed chosen to re-create with flowers. She has participated in 32 of the 34 Bouquets to Art exhibitions, and she fully intends to take part next year.

Basically, exhibitors like McLellan Tayler spend a day in January exploring every inch of the de Young. Nearly all of the museums pieces are up for floral artistry grabs, and each artist submits their top five choices to re-create in petals and leaves. It then comes down to Exhibitor Chair Lisa Harris, who spends an entire month trying to match exhibitors with art they like. Its a huge puzzle, Harris said.

Monday night, March 12, was the Gala Preview, an opportunity for donors and exhibitors to take a peek at this years show before the public took over. McCalls catered a gourmet buffet with rack of lamb, fresh rolled sushi and some wildly popular mini grilled cheese sandwiches. Open bars served cocktails and Champagne. Numerous dessert stations offered a decorate-your-own-doughnut bar and hundreds of pounds of Sees candy. And guests were encouraged to pose for photos against a blooming backdrop. The glitzy scene, all taking place in the grand entrance of the de Young, was exploding with color  and colorful people.

Bouquets to Art means a whole week of people who are extremely happy and smiling, said Fine Arts Museums Director Max Hollein.

Although, Hollein confessed, even when filled with thousands of flowers, the de Young Museum is not as aggressively pungent as one might imagine. Thats the disadvantage of American air conditioning, he said with a smile.

Several students from San Francisco City College wore floral-inspired creations of their own design. Each happily posed for photos with hobnobbers and socialites. Meanwhile, smartly dressed exhibitors in statement jewelry proudly showed off their pieces. Some exhibitors re-created the original artwork literally. The placement and color of each petal matched the painting, sculpture or tapestry. Others employed broader interpretation.

McLellan Tayler selected a piece of artwork near the lobby exit on the Main Level in Wilsey Court.

I like to be out in the open, she confessed.

But on Monday night, McLellan Tayler worried that her floral masterpiece was too close to the very distracting Sees candy station. Chocolate might be temporarily stealing the thunder of very expensive black ranunculus shed ferreted out at the Flower Mart. Its not my best work, McLellan Tayler insisted.

Her entry was stunning, although she was right. Thanks to the one-night-only wall of Sees, it was tough to tell which piece of artwork inspired McLellan Taylers unmistakably chic display. Her ranunculus, worth every penny, rested between slabs of glass as young spring branches and bold tropical leaves peered in from the back. I loved her artwork, but in our short time together chatting at a small gala cocktail table, I grew to love Joan McLellan Tayler, too.

Its easy to see how McLellan Tayler has thrived for nine decades. She seems to delight in just about everything, from the California poppies blooming along Interstate 280 to the task of re-creating artwork at the de Young. A fourth-generation San Franciscan, McLellan Tayler is full of fascinating insights on the city and the Bay Area. She knows it well and intimately, and giddily delights in asking me just as many questions as I asked her.

Three days ahead of time, McLellan Tayler said of her annual participation in Bouquets to Art, Im thinking, Oh, what am I doing? But then it all comes together. And I just love it.Tourists visiting Spain, says Tom Biederbeck, say that BMW translates to Break My Window in Spanish. So, if youve been reading Heather Knights recent stories about car break-ins, take heart. At least were not alone.

An SFGate.com item last week pictured new prevent theft signs posted in San Francisco by the city around Alamo Square, a major tourist destination. The signs and pictographs advise motorists who park their vehicles to lock your car, take your keys, hide your belongings and  we do have a sense of humor  fill a decoy purse with thousands of angry, poisonous bees. Noting that thieves can rob a car in 30 seconds, the signs provide a phone number for the San Francisco Police Department.

The strategy of the warnings is something like Munis oft-repeated admonishments to beware of cell phone snatchers and pickpockets. But maybe this is just a beginning. Some suggestions:

 Please be advised that hourly meter rates on these downtown streets are approximately the cost of one years tuition at your home states public university. Turn right around, drive back to your motel, park your car there and perhaps take a moment to use the restroom  because theyre not easy to find downtown  and then hop on a bus to Union Square. Watch your purse.

If you are making your way on foot from downtown to Golden Gate Park, its likely you will find yourself in the Tenderloin. Dont be diverted by unusual cloud formations, eclipses or the like. Keep your eyes down, and if it looks squishy, step around it.

Ogling mansions in the better part of town, be aware that if you are wearing off-brand jeans, you may be photographed by residents creating NextDoor entries pondering what you are doing there.

If youre sitting next to someone having a snack on Muni: Avoid the impulse to comment when the crinkled-up wrapper gets thrown on the floor, and at all costs refrain from checking out the gap between the window and the frame of the seat, a known repository for hazardous waste. Also, dont ask for a bite.

Award-winning documentarian Helen Whitney, whos spent the past four years or so researching, writing and directing Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death, acknowledged at a showing of an excerpt at KQED the other night that the subject  dying  is difficult for most people. When chitchat with strangers at cocktail parties turned to her latest project, for example, many people ran away, she said. That sure wasnt the case of viewers who gathered around her after the showing and after her onstage conversation with KQED Forum host Michael Krasny.

The two-hour documentary will be shown on KQED on Monday, March 26, at 9 p.m. The station supporters gathered to watch portions of the film  which profiles nine people with particular insights about the subject, including patients, caregivers, witnesses, a mortician  were as rapt as though theyd been watching a documentary about Woodstock.

And that comparison is apt: Most people in the audience  including me  were gray-haired. The first spotlight in the film is on mortician Caitlin Doughty, writer, conductor of death salons and creator of a Web series, Ask a Mortician. She was born in 1984, and her inclusion in the film seems to underline the filmmakers point, made many times in the film: This is not just a subject for the elderly. In fact, dying is an inevitable part of living.

Whitney said shed interviewed more than 300 people before choosing the nine, and in each interview she had learned something. I didnt come out of this extraordinary experience with a visceral faith. ... But what I did find was this sense of solidarity. We are going into this thing alone, but we are doing it together.

At Exposition Park in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 14, ground was broken for the billion-dollar Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which wound up there after San Francisco and Chicago said thanks but no thanks. The architect is Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, and the target date is 2021.

According to its website, Artificial divisions between high art and popular art are absent. ... Visitors who might be less inclined to visit a traditional fine art museum will be invited to engage with and relate to art forms they recognize and love.

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik

Im taking a break from Facebook. I just cant keep up sounding sincere all the time.

Young woman to friend, overheard in line at Cafe du Soleil on Fillmore by Sean ODonnellPEORIA, Ariz.  With Opening Day two weeks away, manager Bruce Bochy finally has the option to play his entire lineup now that the last straggler, third baseman Evan Longoria, seems fine.

Longoria missed a week with soreness in the back of his left ankle, near his heel, but returned against the Mariners on Wednesday night and played half the game. He got four innings in the field and batted three times.

He put his foot to the test immediately with a second-inning double off the wall in right-center and dashes to third and home on groundballs as he scored the first run in a 5-4 loss.

My ankle feels pretty good, Longoria said. I dont think its going to be an issue moving forward. I didnt feel any different than just standing around.

The bigger issue is Longorias timing, which he said needs a little work, understandable after missing a week.

That just comes with at-bats, he said. The more I start to pile them up and have at-bats in back-to-back days, itll start to click.

Longoria has 17 at-bats and thinks he comfortably could start the season with 40. So expect to see him in the lineup a lot in coming days, starting Thursday night if he feels good in the morning.

Cueto and the kid: A small set of bleachers behind home plate of Field 2 at the Giants minor-league complex fills with players, coaches and executives for games. On Wednesday, opening day for the minor-league games, general manager Bobby Evans and other evaluators who were there to see Johnny Cueto throw had their head on a swivel watching the Field 1 game, too.

On that field, 2017 first-round draft pick Heliot Ramos and second-rounder Jacob Gonzalez, son of Luis, batted second and third, respectively, in a low Class A game.

Both showed the right-handed swings that propelled them from high school  Ramos in Puerto Rico, Gonzalez in Arizona  to the high hopes (and signing bonuses) of the organization.

Each hit a double against the Indians, Ramos after striking out twice. Remember, he is 18 and was playing against college signees. Ramos also threw out a runner at third from center field, with Gonzalez applying the tag.

On the other field, Cueto threw 70 pitches against high Class A competition so he would not face the Mariners twice in six nights. They will see him at AT&T Park in the home-opening series.

Cueto allowed no runs and two hits in the equivalent of four innings. (Innings are routinely stopped when a pitch count is reached.) He threw in the high-80s but said his main purpose was refining his breaking pitches and myriad deliveries.

Some of the Cleveland prospects he faced were cocky, making Cueto smile by saying, Were going to get you. Were going to hit you.

Cueto is one start behind his rotation mates because he began throwing a few days after them, but believes he is close to being on target for his March 30 regular-season debut at Dodger Stadium.

I have some more outings, he said. I hope to get to 90 pitches and hopefully Ill be ready to go.

Mark Melancon also pitched in the game to ensure he could stretch to 20 pitches regardless of how many hitters he faced or outs he got. He allowed a hit and walk and struck out two, with no runs.

Dysons struggles: Reliever Sam Dyson continues to struggle as he tries to rediscover his sinker. He allowed the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth inning of the big-league clubs loss, to raise his ERA to 13.50.

Just give him a couple more outings here, Bochy said. I think the stuff is coming. From where he started, his velocity has picked up. Ive always said this is the toughest place for a sinkerballer. It would be nice for him to have a clean outing.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter @hankschulman

Mariners 5, Giants 4

Notable: Nonroster left-hander Derek Holland, the former Texas Ranger, allowed a Mike Marjama solo homer in a 31/3-inning start that helped solidify his shot at winning a relief job. Holland also got two double plays, walked two and struck out four.  Lefty reliever Josh Osich has not allowed a run in seven innings, including in 21/3 on Wednesday.  Giants hitters largely flailed against the opponents starter for the third straight game. James Paxton held them to two runs in 42/3 innings. The second run scored on Austin Slaters RBI single off Christian Bergman. Buster Posey followed with another RBI hit.

Quotable: Not really, but I have to go and pitch. I have to show Im a professional and set an example for the young kids and pitch in that environment.

 Johnny Cueto, through translator Erwin Higueros , on whether he was looking forward to traveling to Sacramento to start a March 24 exhibition against the River Cats at Raley Field.

Thursdays game: Giants vs. Padres, at Peoria, 6:40 p.m.

 Henry SchulmanThe Death of Stalin is a unique and hilarious British comedy from Armando Iannucci, best known as the creator of HBOs Veep and the British TV series The Thick of It. The movie is absolutely worth seeing, but it wont appeal to everybody, so you should know what to expect.

Its the story of the Central Committee of the Communist party in a period spanning from a few days before Josef Stalins death to the day of his funeral. It conflates events that took weeks and months, but otherwise it stays close to the facts in depicting the power struggle between Lavrentiy Beria, the ruthless head of the secret police, and Nikita Khrushchev.

This hardly seems the subject for comedy, but in practice, that very thing presents an ideal comic opportunity, both because of the sheer perversity of these brutal figures and the bizarreness of looking at them in a comedy context. Iannucci does something remarkable here, in that he lends the whole atmosphere a quality of the ridiculous, while keeping it just within bounds of the absurd. Thus, we appreciate the stakes and take seriously that the characters are at risk and that people are getting murdered.

The movie is funny throughout, sometimes funny from moment to moment, and so full of amusing asides that you might not catch all the humor in a single screening. At the same time, The Death of Stalin is a weird sort of hilarious, in that you easily might not laugh for minutes at a time. Instead of one big pie in the face, doled out at intervals, the movie presents an unending series of comic jabs, offered with a blank face and no pushing.

One of the running jokes, for example, is that every time someone hears of Stalins death, they force themselves to burst into tears, even though its clear that everyone hated the guy. Watching that isnt exactly side-splitting, but its definitely and consistently amusing.

Apparently, all the actors were directed to sound like themselves, and thats a smart touch. No one tries to sound or act Russian, and no effort is made to keep the accents uniform. Steve Buscemi as Khrushchev sounds like a nervous guy from Brooklyn. As Malenkov, who assumes power after Stalins death, Jeffrey Tambor sounds American, while Michael Palin (as Molotov), Jason Isaacs (as Field Marshal Zhukov) and Simon Russell Beale (as Beria) are their usual British selves. Just that one linguistic choice removes everything exotic from the characters and reduces them to comedic scale.

Immediately after the death of Stalin, Beria started releasing political prisoners, both as a way to distance himself from Stalins atrocities and to court favor with the public. Meanwhile, Khrushchev, who saw himself as the true reformer, felt himself getting pushed to the margins, and so he fought back. It happens that way in The Death of Stalin, too, but in the movie, its funnier.

Beale plays Beria as a vile creature, full of spite and malice. Hes a standout, and so is Buscemi, who spends most of the movie either fretting or panicking, but hes scheming, too  and Buscemi suggests that, when it counts, theres an iron core inside this guy. Palin plays Molotov as a figure almost out of Monty Python, who spouts nonsense and can change opinions from one sentence to the next. And Tambor is particularly funny as the unsteady Malenkov, who is so unsure of himself that he is constantly revising his orders.

At one point Tambor as Malenkov says No problem, and then insists that he actually meant, No! Problem! What makes this particularly funny is the way that Tambor, after saying something so implausible, subtly darts his eyes around the room to see if anyone believes him.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

The Death of Stalin

Starring Steve Buscemi and Simon Russell Beale. Directed by Armando Iannucci. (R. 106 minutes.)

Movie newsletter

Get the latest movie reviews, Mick LaSalles views, critics picks and more film news each week in the San Francisco Chronicles revamped movie newsletter! Sign up here for Popcorn Picks and other Chronicle and SFGATE newsletters like the Taploid, Chronicle Commuter, and breaking news alerts.A couple fleeing immigration officials who pulled them over in Delano (Kern County) were killed when their SUV crashed early Tuesday, police said.

Santos Hilario Garcia, 35, and Marcelina Garcia Profecto, 33, both of Delano, were stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The two pulled over, but when the agents stepped out of their vehicle, police said, the driver sped off, eventually going onto the dirt shoulder of the road and losing control of the vehicle.

The SUV overturned, police said, stopping when it hit a power pole in the 3000 block of West Cecil Avenue. Officers responded to the crash at 6:54 a.m. Hilario Garcia and Garcia Profecto were pronounced dead at the scene.

Now Playing: The Trump administration is suing to block California laws that extend protections for immigrants living in the United States illegally. FOX 11's Stephanie Stanton reports. Video: Fox5DC

ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said that deportation officers were following Hilario Garcia and Garcia Profecto after surveilling a residence they believed belonged to a previously removed Mexican citizen.

Though Hilario Garcia matched the description of the targeted person, ICE said he was not the person.

Haley said Hilario Garcia, who was a Mexican citizen, was voluntarily returned to Mexico three times between 2008 and 2017. He was deported under expedited removal in 2017. Haley also said he had a DUI conviction in 2014.

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.

Garcia Profecto had no prior encounters with ICE.

United Farm Workers president Arturo Rodriguez identified Hilario Garcia and Garcia Profecto as farmworkers and said that the two were looking for work when they were driving. The couple leaves behind six children, Rodriguez said.

Were trying to figure out how do we help the family take care of their immediate needs, Rodriguez said at a newsconference.Susan Walsh/Associated Press

If House Intelligence Committee Republicans had been content to find no proof that Donald Trumps presidential campaign conspired with Russia, it would have been up to partisans to argue about whether they looked hard enough. By departing even further from the facts to deny that Russia was rooting for Trump, the lawmakers all but confessed to a whitewash.

The Republicans conclusion this week that there was no collusion by the campaign was premature, and the question of the Trump teams role remains unsettled  hence the continuing investigations by the Senate Intelligence Committee and special counsel. The Russian effort to boost Trump, on the other hand, is well established.Democrat Conor Lamb, who shocked the nation with an apparent win in a strongly pro-Trump Pennsylvania congressional district, is anything but the San Francisco liberal that Republicans love to scorn.

And thats one reason why his surprise victory could be bad news for the true progressive Democrats looking to flip GOP seats in California.

Lamb was leading Republican Rick Saccone by a few hundred votes Wednesday with 100 percent of precincts reporting and all the absentee ballots counted from Tuesdays election. He vowed during the campaign not to support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said he was personally opposed to abortion and declined to say much about the environment in a district thats in the heart of steel, coal and natural gas country.

Let me tell you what kind of Democrat Conor is, Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said at Lambs rally Sunday. Hes a God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, Social Security-believing, health care-creating, and sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat!

Contrast that resume, carefully crafted to appeal to conservative-leaning voters in a district Trump won by 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election, with that of Democrat Andy Thorburn, a former teacher and businessman running for the Orange County seat of retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce.

Thorburn, a first-time candidate, is calling for a statewide ban on fracking, enactment of a Medicare for All single-payer health plan, a $15-an-hour minimum wage and tough new gun-control regulations. He has the endorsement of Our Revolution, a progressive group founded by veterans of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, and the California Nurses Association, arguably the states most liberal labor group.

Momentum Continues Among Progressives, Activists in Thorburns Bid for Congress, read a news release sent out this week that announced a new round of endorsements.

Thorburn is far from alone among the many Democrats challenging Republican incumbents this year. Single-payer health care, a much higher minimum wage and pumped-up gun laws are all mainstream proposals for California Democrats and show up on the issues list of plenty of those candidates, including the ones running against Orange County Republican incumbents like Mimi Walters and Dana Rohrabacher.

The question, though, is whether those core progressive Democratic stances can hold up in districts that conservative Republicans have held for decades.

While Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump in seven of Californias 14 Republican-held congressional districts, in only two of them has any Democrat other than Clinton won a majority of the votes in any election, according to a report Tuesday by Darry Sragow and Rob Pyers of the nonpartisan California Target Book, which reports on state election races.

In places like San Francisco and Berkeley, candidates can run to the far left and win because the voters share their views, said Sragow, the books publisher. But in the Central Valley and Orange County, the people who inhabit those districts and cast the votes arent ideologues. Youre going to have to have a more nuanced approach.

While progressives dont disagree that Democratic candidates need to fit their districts, they argue that those districts  and the ideology of their voters  have changed dramatically in California.

The state  and the Democratic Party  has shifted, said Mac Zilber, a consultant for Thorburn and other California candidates.

Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

You no longer need someone whos a Republican lite to win those (more conservative) seats, he said. Its not going to be a left versus right axis, but a consistent stand on the bread-and-butter issues that appeal to voters.

Republicans are eager to tag Lambs apparent victory as a one-off, a perfect storm of a lousy GOP candidate and a young, telegenic Democrat who basically ran as a Republican.

Speaking to reporters at the weekly GOP leadership news conference Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said the Pennsylvania race was a contest between two conservatives and that Lamb ran as a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-Nancy Pelosi conservative.

Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, said on Fox News Tuesday night that if the Democrats had run a Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton candidate, (the race) wouldnt be close, adding that a Democrat taking the more moderate stances that Lamb did wouldnt win against a more liberal candidate in a party primary.

Democrats agree that the Pennsylvania race was a unique political situation, but suggest that what happened there has little to do with the campaigns in California.

There isnt a targeted district in California thats nearly that Republican, said Drew Godinich of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Lamb ran a campaign that matched that district, and Im going to trust the Democrats who run those campaigns and live there to understand the values of their districts.

Democrats, better than Republicans, understand that the old GOP bastions are very different from how they have traditionally been viewed.

The old Orange County, which was a virtual synonym for conservative Republicans doesnt exist any more, but Republicans officeholders expect they can vote like they did 30 years ago, Godinich said. Thats not going to cut it.

But Democrats, even as they see the state shuffle to the left, still must be wary of moving too far, too fast.

Both parties are perpetually engaged in a dispute with the far edges of their parties, the progressive left for the Democrats and the conservative right for the Republicans, said Sragow of the California Target Book. But voters dont walk around with a P or a C on their foreheads.

Most California voters fall somewhere in the political middle, sharing a mix of liberal and conservative views, he said.

There are plenty of Californians who are unhappy with gun control, but support single-payer, much to the dismay of political analysts, Sragow said. You cant put them in a progressive or conservative box because most people have a range of views ... but if you want to win elections, you have to appeal to those people.Regardless of what they think of President Trump, Democrats should thank him for one thing: His election inspired a lot of smart, engaged people to run for office. And against everything he stands for.

The problem isnt just that there are too many of these new candidates for the Democratic Partys own good. Its that too many of them want to start their political careers at the top of the food chain: governor, senator, state treasurer.

Ive been baffled as to why more of these people dont channel their newfound political enthusiasm by running for say, the state Assembly. Or county supervisor. Or the water board.

Its easy to attribute this overreach to the bottomless ego of political candidates, otherwise known as Meg Whitman Syndrome. In 2010, the billionaire Silicon Valley CEO decided her first campaign for public office would be to run for governor. Why deign to climb the bottom rungs of the political ladder when youre already the boss?

But unlike Meg, none of these 2018 candidates have $144 million of their own money to blow on a campaign. In most cases, they have raised less money than gubernatorial front-runner Gavin Newsom has in his sofa cushions.

Plus, I learned something different as I talked to these lesser-known candidates. Other than ego, whats largely driving them is a combination of enthusiasm, earnestness and the desire to do their part to seize the political moment Trump ignited. Even if they dont win, they want to make the point that things need to change. Soon.

In California, that enthusiasm is expressed by candidates like Vivek Viswanathan. Better known to most voters as Who?, the Democrat is running for state treasurer. State Board of Equalization member (and former San Francisco supervisor) Fiona Ma has the inside track, $1.6 million in the bank and the California Democratic Partys endorsement.

Nevertheless, Viswanathan forges ahead. Hes a super smart guy. Has an undergraduate degree from Harvard, spent a year studying at Cambridge University, then got an MBA and a law degree from Stanford. He worked as a policy analyst for Hillary Clintons campaign and, most recently, as special adviser in Gov. Jerry Browns office. All that before he turns 31 next month. Hes also earnest.

So why does he start his political career running for statewide office in the nations largest state? What about running for Palo Alto City Council in his home city? There he could workshop a lot of his ideas about free college tuition and universal preschool.

People, especially in the Democratic Party, are looking for new faces, new ideas, Viswanathan said.

This year, given how much more aware and awake everybody is, if there was ever a year to try something different like this, this is it. And if I win  and even if I do well  other candidates will try the same thing, he said, because its hard to see a future in which the system changes if everyone is elected doing things the way theyve always been done.

To attract attention to his campaign, Viswanathan just started running  literally  from Sacramento to San Diego. Yes, the whole way, stopping in little towns that few candidates will visit.

Thats not what Michael Shellenberger, who is running for governor, is doing to raise attention. As the president of the center-left Environmental Progress think tank, hes the kind of wonky, engaged person people should want in government, especially because he isnt afraid to take on his fellow progressives.

He entered the national spotlight more than a decade ago when he co-wrote a treatise called The Death of Environmentalism that took on sacred cows like the Sierra Club. Hes a public intellectual who Ive mocked for his penchant for dropping the word Malthusian into casual conversation.

Yet over the past year, as he turned 46, he had an epiphany that he wanted to run for office. So, Michael, why not take your big brain and run for, say, the Assembly?

Oh, god. No. I couldnt do what I want to do there, he told me the other day. He wanted to run for governor so he would have a larger platform to talk about ideas hes proposing about affordable housing and nuclear power.

But the reality is few people are going to hear those ideas if he doesnt have the money to project them into the political atmosphere. Raising money  odious as it can be  is a sign of how much people believe in your ideas.

Shellenberger said hes raised about $35,000 so far, or about as much as Republican gubernatorial candidate John Coxs flush campaign will spend on pizza this year.

And then theres Alison Hartson. She is the best-known candidate for U.S. Senate youve never heard of because shes received little attention. But thanks to a statewide network of supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 37-year-old former Orange County school teacher raised $158,707 in contributions of less than $200 each over the last three months of 2017. Thats more money from small donations than either Sen. Dianne Feinstein or fellow challenger state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, has taken in over that period.

Impressive. And to her it raises a point about how our political fundraising system could improve. But it cost an average of about $1.1 million to win a state senate seat in 2014, according to the nonpartisan analysts at Maplight.

Hartson has a captivating personal story  shes the sixth of nine children and the first to graduate college. After watching budget cuts decimate public schools, she became the director of Wolf-PAC, a national group that wants to change the disproportional influence of money on our political system.

So why run against Feinstein, who as one of the wealthiest members of the Senate has a bottomless wallet? Why not start locally?

It was my experience that if we ever want to get these policies passed, we have to run for office at these offices at the federal level, Hartson told me recently in San Diego at the state Democratic Party convention. Kevin de Leon calls himself a progressive. But you cant call yourself progressive if you take corporate money.

Hartson may not be raising a lot of money, but shes been encouraged by what people are telling her when they learn about her campaign: Its making people say, Wow. She can possibly actually do that.In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Home section.

With all the new restaurant openings, I sometimes forget about the tried and true. With that in mind I checked out the 20-year-old the Girl & the Fig in Sonoma.

Even though it was a Tuesday night, every seat was taken, and just about every table turned over a second time.

That says a lot about how partners Sondra Bernstein and John Toulze run their businesses, which include the Fig Cafe and Winebar in Glen Ellen, the newly opened Rhone Room wine bar in Sonoma, and a food truck, the Fig Rig.

They originally opened the Girl & the Fig in Glen Ellen in 1997, then relocated the restaurant to Sonoma Plaza in the Sonoma hotel in 2000. From the start they had a very specific idea of offering French-inspired food using local products and a wine list made up of only Rhone varietals from California and around the world.

I had forgotten how warm and cozy the interior is, with its antique bar, stained woodwork and shabby chic dining room. While the inside seats 65, the outdoor patio is popular in warmer months and seats 75.

The restaurant shows its age in a few ways. The menu has about three times as many dishes as newer restaurants. Those include seven Petits Plats and Sandwiches  more like lunch main courses  and a dozen starters such as soups and salads.

A few years ago Toulze became obsessed with charcuterie and started his own line called Mano Formate, also on the menu. In the back of the restaurant is a fromagerie, and the menu features 10 or more cheeses.

Thats a lot to keep up with, but as I discovered, the restaurant does a good job.

The French accent is present in the steamed mussels ($15 for  pound; $25 a pound) with thin, crisp frites and aioli. The licorice flavor of the French pastis permeates the sauce along with garlic, leeks and herbs. Another starter is asparagus ($12), which carries the aroma of the grill, topped with radish, arugula chile lemon oil and smoked ricotta.

Michael Bauer/The Chronicle

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

The main courses include a dish rarely seen today: wild flounder meuniere ($29). The sauteed fish sits atop a puree of potatoes and sauteed spinach. Another main course was grilled pork tenderloin ($26) sliced over roasted cabbage, farro, fennel and mildly spicy chile sauce with a hint of sweetness surrounded by lemon caper brown butter.

I was most impressed with dessert, a course that many new restaurants dont pay enough attention to. Here you can get lavender creme brulee ($8) , an old fashion chocolate cake ($20, serves at least two); and what we ordered  a beautifully presented Meyer lemon pudding cake ($9) on swipes of blood orange caramel with a quenelle of whipped cream.

Simply put, the Girl & the Fig is a restaurant that has aged nicely and manages to equally serve the town and tourists.

110 W. Spain St., Sonoma; (707) 938-3634 or www.thegirlandthefig.com . Open continuously for lunch and dinner daily.

Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and editor at large. Email: mbauer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaelbauer1 Instagram: @michaelbauer1Lawyers representing would-be parents whose frozen eggs and embryos were inadvertently thawed and destroyed by a San Francisco fertility center filed a class-action lawsuit on Thursday.

The suit seeks $5 million in damages on behalf of customers of Pacific Fertility Center, the North Beach facility that reported a freezer malfunction damaged eggs and embryos from 500 or more customers who paid thousands of dollars for services.

Attorneys Adam Wolf and Tracey Cowan filed the suit Thursday on behalf of prospective parents Megan and Jonathan Bauer, of the Sacramento area, and unnamed others. The complaint cites reckless and negligent conduct by the clinic.

Wolf said the Bauers were storing eight embryos inside storage tank No. 4, the tank that the center said malfunctioned.

On Tuesday, an unnamed San Francisco woman filed a suit seeking $5 million for the loss of frozen tissue at the San Francisco facility. A similar suit was filed Monday on behalf of customers of a Cleveland fertility clinic that experienced a freezer malfunction.

Last weekend, the San Francisco center notified customers that an unknown number of frozen eggs and embryos had been compromised by the malfunction. In a statement, the center said it was truly sorry this happened and for the anxiety that this will surely cause.

The center said it had reviewed its cryo-preservation protocols and inspected its lab equipment.

More for you Nitrogen failure at SF fertility clinic; damage to frozen eggs...

Wolf told reporters that his clients embryos and dreams had been irrevocably destroyed. He added that those affected were further upset when the fertility center announced that the only way to determine if individual embryos and eggs were viable would be for the customers to visit the center and immediately attempt to implant the embryos.

Theyre being forced into an untenable position, Wolf said.

The San Francisco facility charges $8,300 to freeze donor eggs and $11,600 to perform in vitro fertilization, according to its website.A man who allegedly committed at least one sexual assault while a rape kit that implicated him in a 2008 attack in Berkeley went untested for years has now been charged with raping and murdering a UCSF dental student in 2015, authorities said.

Keith Kenard Asberry Jr., 33, of Antioch was charged Friday in the March 2015 killing in Albany of Randhir Kaur, a 37-year-old from India who was attending UCSF School of Dentistry. Kaur was raped and shot in her second-floor apartment on Kains Avenue, a block east of busy San Pablo Avenue; it was the citys first homicide in more than a decade.

The attack took place nearly eight years after a 19-year-old woman and 15-year-old girl were kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Berkeley. In 2016, a Chronicle investigation revealed that the Berkeley Police Department had failed to test a rape kit from that attack. If the kit had been tested, investigators could have matched DNA from the assailant with Asberrys DNA, which had been in a national database since he was convicted of a felony gun crime in 2005.

In February 2015, a 46-year-old woman was the victim of an attempted sexual assault in her home in Berkeley. Police quickly tested the rape kit from that attack, and it produced a match to Asberry. He was arrested four months later and is in Alameda County jail, awaiting trial for that assault and the 2008 rapes.

He was also charged last year in Contra Costa County with a home invasion rape in 2005 in El Cerrito after police there retested evidence using newer technology.

The findings in The Chronicles investigation have prompted several lawmakers to propose legislation to eliminate rape-kit backlogs across the state.

The Albany slaying was absolutely horrifying and tragically avoidable, and exactly why we need every rape kit in the state to be tested, Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said Wednesday.

Kaurs body was discovered after UCSF contacted a family member to say she had not shown up for her scheduled appointments. Albany police said Monday that an exhaustive three-year investigation had led them to Asberry, who was charged with rape, robbery and murder.

Its unclear whether DNA was found at the scene. Albany police and the Alameda County district attorneys office said they could not comment, citing a court order not to talk about the case.

Kaur was a student at the UCSF School of Dentistrys International Dentist Program, which admits 24 foreign-trained dentists each year. She had been at the university for eight months and was to graduate in June 2016.

California lawmakers have pushed for new laws over the past five years to ensure rape kits are tested, after reports emerged that tens of thousands of the kits have sat on shelves for decades across the country. Victims have expressed frustration at being unable to learn whether their kits were part of the national backlog.

Its unclear how many untested rape kits there are in California.

Two bills are pending in the Legislature: one by Chiu, requiring an audit to learn the number of untested rape kits in the state; and another by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino (San Bernardino County), to require that all future rape kits be tested.

Ive never encountered anyone who thinks these rape kits should not be tested, Chiu said. We are behind states like Texas and Kentucky that have implemented stronger reforms to end their backlogs, and California needs to catch up.

A rape kit is assembled from a painstaking, hours-long process where blood, urine, fingernail clippings, hair and swabs from the mouth, genitals and anus are collected. A victims clothes and underwear are bagged as evidence. Photos are taken of her body.

Trained nurses carefully inspect victims, looking for any traces of DNA evidence. Once completed, the kit is given to police, who can have it tested and analyzed in a lab for a DNA profile that might identify a suspect.

Cities and states that have cleared their shelves of untested rape kits have been able to identify suspects in cold cases. In many cases, they have identified serial offenders.

Allowing rape kits to sit untested on a shelf means cases go unsolved, serial rapists remain undetected, innocent people are incarcerated and survivors continue to wait for justice, said Ilse Knecht, director of policy and advocacy for the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national group pushing to end backlogs.

Berkeley police said they cant explain why the rape kit from the 2008 attack was shelved. The two victims in that case reported that a man had kidnapped them at gunpoint, raped the 19-year-old woman and digitally penetrated the 15-year-old, and then robbed them.

They immediately went to a hospital, where police were called and a rape exam was performed on the 19-year-old.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley previously told The Chronicle that the rape kit from that case was found in 2014 when her office asked law enforcement agencies to conduct an inventory all of their untested kits.

Had that kit been tested in 2008, we would have known who he was then, OMalley said in 2016.

Berkeley police Sgt. Andrew Frankel said there are still no answers as to why the kit went unexamined.

Asked whether the Albany killing and 2015 rape in Berkeley could have been prevented had the kit been tested, Frankel said, that requires a significant amount of conjecture which I cant speak to.

Asberry has pleaded not guilty in the Berkeley cases. He will enter a plea on the new charges of rape and murder on March 28.

In November, El Cerrito police linked Asberry to one of their unsolved cases, a 2005 home invasion rape of a 20-year-old woman. In that case, police said the womans rape kit was processed at the time of the crime, but that it was not successful in creating a DNA profile. Newer technology linked the attack to Asberry last year.

Police Chief Paul Keith said the 2005 home invasion rape stuck with officers in the department over the past 13 years.

It was a relief to see that hes been identified, Keith said of Asberry. But, its tragic to see the other destruction hes alleged to have caused.Marin County officials have confirmed that a person has been hospitalized after eating recreationally harvested shellfish a week after the state issued a warning to residents about abnormally high toxin levels in the Bay Area.

An adult was hospitalized for neurological symptoms after eating mussels harvested at Dillon Beach on Sunday, Marin County public health officer Matthew Willis said. The illness, called paralytic shellfish poison, or PSP, can cause symptoms ranging from numbness to loss of balance and muscle control.A U.S. senator has asked United Airlines to explain its high rate of animal deaths, deepening the carriers latest public relations crisis over a dog that perished in an overhead bin.

Eighteen of the 24 animals that died on a major U.S. airline last year were in Uniteds care, Louisiana Republican John Kennedy wrote in a letter to United President Scott Kirby on Wednesday.

For many people, pets are members of the family, Kennedy wrote. They should not be treated like insignificant cargo.

United faced heavy fallout from a Monday night incident aboard Flight 1284 from Houston to New Yorks LaGuardia Airport. A small dog in a pet carrier died after being placed in the overhead bins.

While the owner alerted a flight attendant that a dog was inside the crate, the attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin, United said.

Acquisitions

Broadcom

drops bid

Broadcom is officially withdrawing its $117 billion bid to buy Qualcomm, two days after President Trump blocked the Singapore companys ambitions over national security fears.

Wednesdays move is a formality since the presidential order had ensured the deal would be killed in any U.S. regulatory review. Broadcom said it still plans to move its headquarters to San Jose.

Retail

U.S. Toys R Us stores may shut

Toys R Us said Wednesday that it will close all its stores in Britain after failing to find a buyer, and the Washington Post reported that the once-dominant retailer plans to sell or close all its U.S. stores as well.

The companys website shows 25 Bay Area stores, seven of which were already scheduled to close.

Toys R Us, which filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. last year, is owned by the private equity firms Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the real estate firm Vornado Realty Trust.

The British arm of the toy seller went into administration, which is similar to a bankruptcy, in February. It had set a deadline of Wednesday to find a buyer for its remaining stores.

Groceries

Walmart adds

delivery areas

Walmart is expanding its online grocery delivery service to more than 100 U.S. metro areas as it tries to keep pace in an increasingly expensive turf war with Amazon, Target and other retailers.

On Wednesday, Walmart said its delivery service would be available to more than 40 percent of U.S. households by the end of the year. Some orders would be delivered on the day they are placed, the company said. Walmart plans to use 800 of its own stores to fulfill customer requests, and partner with Uber and other driving services for delivery.

Walmart charges a $9.95 fee for its grocery delivery service and requires a minimum order of $30.

Banking

Wells CEO

gets big raise

Wells Fargos board of directors has given CEO Tim Sloan a $4.6 million raise, despite the San Francisco bank continuing to face the fallout of its sales-practices scandal and other issues.

In its annual proxy to shareholders, Wells Fargo said Wednesday that Sloan made $17.6 million last year, up from $13 million in 2016. While Sloan did not get a cash bonus in 2017, the value of the Wells Fargo stock awarded him rose to $15 million from $10.5 million.

Earnings

Retailer tops

expectations

Williams-Sonoma on Wednesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $95.8 million ($1.13 per share).

Adjusted for one-time gains and costs, the San Francisco companys earnings came to $1.68 per share, topping expectations. For the quarter ending in May, Williams-Sonoma expects its per-share earnings to range from 55 to 60 cents.

Chronicle News ServicesShares of Hayward biopharmaceutical company Arcus Biosciences jumped 13 percent Thursday in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Founded in 2015, Arcus develops cancer immunotherapies, all of which are in the clinical development stage or earlier. The company sold 8 million shares for $15 each in the initial public offering, raising $120 million before underwriters fees.

Arcus, now worth approximately $723 million based on its share price, had previously raised $227 million in equity capital from investors including GV (formerly Google Ventures), Celgene Corp. and Stanford University.

Its debut comes amid a surge in offerings in the biotech sector, which analysts predict will continue in 2018. Last year, 36 biotech companies went public  up from 29 in 2016  and the average return was 67 percent, making biotech one of the highest-performing sectors of the IPO market, according to Renaissance Capital, which tracks an index of recent IPOs.

Arcus is the fourth Bay Area biotech company to go public since Dec. 1, following IPOs of San Franciscos Denali Therapeutics and Redwood Citys Menlo Therapeutics and Armo Biosciences.

Arcus stock rose as high as $22 in the days trading, then closed at $17.

Autos

Ford plans

major updates

Ford, with a sagging U.S. market share and one of the oldest vehicle lineups in the industry, is promising to revamp three-quarters of its models in the next two years.

Much of the emphasis will be on changing the entire lineup of sport utility vehicles while adding gas-electric hybrid powertrains, two off-road SUVs and two trucks.

Its all part of the larger plan to prepare the company for the future by cutting costs, increasing the number of common parts and feeding a long-starved product lineup.

The move, detailed at a presentation on Thursday at Fords product development center in Dearborn, Mich., comes at a time when Fords aging lineup has had trouble appealing to U.S. customers. In the past five years the companys market share has fallen over two percentage points to 14.4 percent so far this year. Last year its market share rose 0.1 percentage point.

Included in the hybrid plan is one for the F-150 pickup, the top-selling vehicle in America, that will offer increased towing power and an on-board generator. Ford pledged to be the hybrid sales leader, unseating Toyota in the U.S. by 2021.

The new products, including revamps of the Explorer big SUV and Escape compact SUV, should help dealers who have struggled against competitors with fresher vehicles. Ford concedes its model lineup is among the industrys oldest, with an average age of 5.7 years. It promised to drop that to 3.3 years by 2020.

Sri Lanka

Facebook

ban lifted

Sri Lankas government has lifted a weeklong ban on social media that was imposed because of concerns that it was being used to fan anti-Muslim violence in the countrys central region.

President Maithripala Sirisena said Thursday he ordered an immediate lifting of a ban on Facebook after his secretary met with company representatives. He said they pledged they would not allow the service to be used to incite disharmony. Viber and Whatsapp had already been unblocked.

Earnings

Adobe

Adobe Systems reported fiscal first-quarter sales and profit that beat analysts estimates on strong growth from an expanding suite of digital-media software and a surge in subscriptions.

Revenue jumped 24 percent to $2.08 billion and profit, excluding some costs, reached $1.55 a share in the quarter that ended March 2, the San Jose company said Thursday. Analysts expected $2.05 billion in sales and earnings of $1.44 a share.

Adobe is raising prices on popular software like Photoshop next month. Analysts said that helped subscription sales as customers looked to lock in lower rates. The company said revenue was boosted by subscribers coming off discounts and users buying multiple, not just single, applications.

CEO Shantanu Narayen pushed Adobe to a cloud model in 2012, and is now trying to diversify.

The company reaffirmed its 2018 profit forecast of $6.20 a share. Earnings in the current quarter will be $1.53 a share on revenue of $2.15 billion, Adobe forecast.

Chronicle News ServicesToys R Us, the iconic retail chain that has sold toys and games to millions of children for generations, is closing up shop in the United States.

The company decided to close or sell its remaining stores after its executives met with creditors throughout Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the discussions. More than 30,000 American jobs are at risk as a result.

Liquidation sales will take place over the next few months, as the company clears the shelves at its roughly 880 Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores around the country. In September, the private-equity-owned retailer filed for bankruptcy, one of the largest ever in the retail industry.

The companys website shows 25 Bay Area stores, seven of which were already scheduled to close.

Toys R Us signaled that it was nearing the end Wednesday morning when it said it would shut all its stores in Britain.

It is a colossal failure for a company that started out in 1948 as a small store that sold cribs, strollers and other baby items in Washington, D.C.

The company expanded to become one of the worlds leading toy retailers, with about 2,000 stores. It was known for its large inventory of toys for every age group and an advertising jingle  I Dont Want to Grow Up, Im a Toys R Us Kid  that was embedded in the American consumer consciousness.

Toys R Us was felled by a combination of too much debt and an antiquated business model that could not keep up with Amazon and Walmart.

The toy industry has been fighting a losing battle for the attention of children obsessed with smartphones and tablets. Global toy sales have been growing slightly each year, but at a slower pace than electronics and video games.

In addition, online toy sales have increased by more than 55 percent in the past two years to $17 billion in the United States, while e-commerce revenue for toys has exceeded brick-and-mortar performance in parts of Europe, according to Clavis Insight, an e-commerce research firm.

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Toys R Us had planned to shed some of its $5 billion debt load and refresh its operations.

But after a languid holiday sales season, the companys lenders grew worried about whether Toys R Us executives were taking steps drastic enough to restructure the business to allow it to compete over the long term, according to the people briefed on the matter.

In recent weeks, the companys creditors had begun to lose patience with the management and its turnaround efforts, these people said.

In January, the company said it was closing 182 unprofitable stores in the United States and had already started liquidating those locations.

But a total liquidation of its United States operations, the creditors calculated, may allow them to recover more money than keeping the stores open.

The company is owned by the private equity firms Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the real estate firm Vornado Realty Trust, which bought the company in 2005.

Weighed down by the debt that its owners heaped on the company when they bought it, Toys R Us has not adequately invested in its fading stores and e-commerce operations. Unable to compete with other retailers, Toys R Us has lost market share to better capitalized toy sellers.

Toys R Us controlled 13.6 percent of the toy market in the United States in 2016, according to research from IBISWorld. Walmart held 29.4 percent of the market share, Amazon had 16.3 percent and GameStop had 13.9 percent.After meetings with Ireland's prime minister and the American Petroleum Institute, President Trump on Thursday will sit down with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

The White House posted Trump's public schedule Wednesday evening. It includes a 3:30 p.m. ET meeting with Gates inside the Oval Office. The discussion will be closed to press.

We've reached out to Gates' spokespeople to learn more about the meeting and will update this story when we hear back.

This isn't Trump's first meeting with Gates, currently the second richest person in the world with a net worth of $90 billion. The two met in December 2016, just after Trump was elected, at Trump Tower in New York City.

In an interview with GeekWire three months later, Gates shared new details about that conversation. He said he stressed the importance of U.S. support for scientific research in areas including vaccines, education, and energy. He encouraged Trump to get behind an innovation agenda to spark breakthroughs in these areas, akin to a modern-day moonshot.

"I don't know if that will happen, but I wanted to get that in front of him," Gates said.

Gates and Trump also met in March 2017 at the White House. At that meeting, Gates told Trump and Congressional leaders that proposed cuts in U.S. foreign aid and funding to global health programs "could put millions of lives at risk," according to a statement by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In September, the foundation released a detailed report analyzing the impact of potential cuts to foreign aid spending.

The foundation also included the president in its annual letter published last month. Gates wrote that questions about the U.S. leader and the effect of his policies come up "more often than all the other topics in this letter combined."

The letter cites Trump's proposed cuts to foreign aid, his "America First" worldview, his lack of respect for women and others, and his shortcomings as a role model.

"Although we disagree with this administration more than the others we've met with," Gates writes, "we believe it's important to work together whenever possible."

This past January, Melinda Gates denounced Trump's comments about immigration after he reportedly asked why so many "people from shithole countries" were allowed into the U.S. during a meeting.A San Jose State University student was charged with sexually assaulting at least two men at the school, campus officials said.

Luis Venegas, 21, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on March 5, two days after the first victim reportedly came forward.

Venegas is a fourth-year student who had been residing in Campus Village A, according to university officials. The alleged assaults took place with acquaintances who were at his dorm, prosecutors said.

Venegas was charged with sexual assault, assault with the intent to commit sex crimes, false imprisonment and sexual battery.

He is accused of choking and restraining a student while trying to sexually assault him at the dormitory on March 3, said Deputy District Attorney Pinaki Chakravorty.

The choking was not connected to a sexual act, he added.

A second victim told police he was assaulted in encounters from 2014 to 2016, Chakravorty said. In one incident, Venegas is accused of orally copulating the man while he was under the influence of alcohol, prosecutors said.

In general, two victims with a similar (modus operandi) is concerning, Chakravorty said. That itself suggests a pattern.

Police learned of a possible third victim who is being investigated but has not yet led to any charges, officials said.

Venegas was being held at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas in lieu of $210,000 bail. He was arraigned March 7 and will enter a plea on April 12, prosecutors said.

Investigators believe there may be additional survivors or witnesses. Anyone with information is asked to call the University Police Department at (408) 924-2222 or Sgt. Justin Celano at (408) 924-2218.

To remain anonymous, use TipNow at (408) 337-2919 or SJSU@tipnow.org.After three months of spending most weekends at open houses, Nikita Prasad was at her wits' end trying to find a single room for rent in San Francisco.

Sometimes 50 people would show up to tour a single, $1,600 room, and then the master tenant would end up going with a friend or friend-of-friend in the end.

"Prices were obviously crazy, competition was insane," the 24-year-old said.

When you live in a region with a notorious housing crisis, finding a rental in your price range is like serial dating: time-consuming, exhausting and generally disappointing.

Competition for the most coveted rooms  the rent-controlled spaces with good light and closet space  is steep. When you respond to a Craigslist ad for a spot under $2,000 in San Francisco, you can bet dozens of other folks did the same. Then there's the "come check out the space" part of the process  it's more of an in-person interview than a home tour.

San Francisco room-hunting requires a certain amount of time, tenacity and luck. But there are tricks you can use to make the process bear more fruit.

SFGATE asked San Franciscans for their best tips for winning the city's rental roulette. Multiple people suggested including photos of yourself in applications to "show off some of your personality." Many said networking is key  as is true of many pursuits, it always helps to know people. One man said he'd even begun asking strangers in Uber Pools if they knew of room openings.

Frustrated, Prasad took an entirely different approach. After "striking out several times,"she began looking at entire properties  three to four bedroom homes  even though she only needed a single bedroom.

"These tend to stay on the market for a little longer than a single room, and are less competitive," she found.

So Prasad, an assistant account manager at an advertising agency, signed a lease on a four-bedroom apartment in Balboa Park  "the scariest thing I have ever done"  and set out in search of roommates to fill it.

The risk paid off.

"I got over 200 responses for the three remaining rooms," she said.

Now Prasad lives with three "awesome ladies" she handpicked. An added bonus: "I'm the master tenant as well, and will have rent control."

Click through the gallery above for more tips and tricks for navigating the Bay Area rental market.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.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Seaside High School students launched a petition Wednesday requesting that their teacher, Dennis Alexander, keep his job despite a shocking incident.

The well-liked teacher accidentally discharged a handgun in front of a classroom full of students Tuesday morning.

The teacher is trained in firearms because he serves as a Sand City reserve police officer. He was pointing his service weapon at the ceiling when it fired.

According to students, Alexander was in the middle of a demonstration about gun safety when the bullet knocked down parts of the ceiling. One student suffered moderate injuries and two students suffered minor injuries from falling debris.

Also Read: Bay Area students have voices heard at gun violence walkout

Alexander was not authorized to have a gun on campus, according to Monterey Peninsula Unified School District spokeswoman Marci McFadden.

He was placed on administrative leave from his teaching position, and he was also placed on administrative leave at the Sand City Police Department.

Some KSBW viewers disagreed with the Seaside Police Department and media describing the incident as an "accident," and instead said it should be described as "negligence."

The classroom shooting happened just one day before thousands of students across the country staged a National School Walkout Day to demand stronger gun control laws and to honor the 17 students and teachers killed in a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Seaside High School students also walked out and attended an assembly in the gym, where student Sydney Johnson gave a speech calling for everyone to support Alexander.

"Please take moment to look back on all the things he has done for this school," she asked.

"We're treating this like a crime and we're treating this like we are shaming him. He is the one who is going out into the community and helping us," Johnson said.

The teen said Alexander helped change her life. Johnson said after she was assaulted last year, her teacher recognized she was suffering, and got her help.

Math and leadership teacher Rikee Ross echoed the good Alexander has done at the school.

Also Read: The most provocative signs from anti-gun rallies across the U.S.

"He is an outstanding man. There are hundreds of kids lined up to sign a petition for him. He has changed thousands of lives on this campus," Ross said. "It's important that we hear the whole story and we hear what student's perspectives are as well."

Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante said Alexander has been a reserve Sand City police officer for the past 11 years, and described his track record as "positive and professional." The 2013 Reserve Officer of the Year is also a Seaside City Council member and Red Cross volunteer.

Whether to arm teachers with guns on campus to make American schools safer has been a fiery question politically over the past few weeks.

Teachers are not legally allowed to have firearms in California classrooms, even if they have a concealed carry permit.

Fermin Gonzales, whose son was the most seriously injured at Seaside High School, said the incident is a perfect example for why teachers should not carry firearms.

"This was an incident with a trained professional. If you just give them to everybody, this could happen again and again. And it could be a lot worse," Gonzales said.

Police officers returned to the school Wednesday as their investigation continues.NEW YORK  When Jennifer Emejulu went to see Black Panther, the New Jersey resident didnt feel like wearing any of the traditional Nigerian clothing she routinely wears for family parties.

She enjoyed seeing photos of those who did come out to see the global blockbuster about the superhero leader of a fictional African nation dressed in their African-inspired outfits, but Emejulu found it a little ironic, too.

Growing up, we used to get made fun of for being African by black Americans, says the 36-year-old physical therapist who was born and raised in the United States to Nigerian immigrant parents. Now ... were in; were cool.

In the weeks since its release, Black Panther has been a juggernaut  holding the top box-office spot, bringing in more than $560 million domestically and $1 billion globally. Featuring a predominantly black cast hailing from the all over the world, its an American-made film from an African American director, Ryan Coogler, thats an ode to Africa  set in the fictional, never-colonized and immeasurably powerful nation of Wakanda, with costuming and sets heavily inspired by existing African cultures.

Its central story pits TChalla, the Black Panther and king of Wakanda, against Erik Killmonger, the son of TChallas uncle and an American woman, who was abandoned in America, and touches on how and whether the countrys power should be used in aid of black people globally. Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, feels his fathers African homeland should arm black people in global uprisings, while TChalla, played by Chadwick Boseman, questions his countrys history of isolationism but doesnt want to see global bloodshed or Wakandan imperialism.

In touching on the questions of whats the connection or displacement among peoples of African descent all over the world, its put a spotlight on a very real-world issue, one thats been talked about by academics and activists for a century and more, and one thats had an impact on how Africans and African Americans have interacted with each other.

African American figures including W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X have long invoked a connection between American blacks, descended from those who were forced to come here as slaves and stripped of everything including their cultural heritages, with Africans on the continent and Africa itself, said Jonathan Gray, associate professor at John Jay College in Manhattan.

For a lot of people who are conscious, there is this tradition where weve tried to discern this connection, he said. Its an act of diasporic imagination. Its the same act of imagination that allows for a Jew living in Portugal, a Jew living in Brazil and a Jew living in Poland to all think of Jerusalem as their home even though, lets say in 1930, none of them had ever been to Jerusalem.

Some of the context of the need and desire for that connection has been the legalized racism of the systems African Americans were forced to live under, first slavery and then segregation, for much of the history of the United States, that has made it extremely difficult for most African Americans to trace their particular ancestries back past a handful of generations in this country.

If we had been allowed to come here of our own volition and we were able to maintain a sense of identity with where we actually come from with a sense of specificity, there might not be the reaction that people have right now, said Tony Armstrong, 46, an IT consultant in Miami who has done genetic testing to find even a general sense of where his roots in Africa might be.

We need to know that we dont come from nothing, said Shara Taylor, 34, of Nashville. We need to know that we came from somewhere, that we didnt just spring from the ground in chains in the United States.

But as much as theres been a push for connection in some corners, theres been plenty of disconnect as well, and even disdain from one group to the other, as stereotypes like those about poverty-stricken Africa or dangerous inner-city America have been absorbed by both groups, and theres a lack of real knowledge of the harsh realities of slavery on one hand and colonialism on the other, experts said.

We meet and encounter each other through these lenses of mutual ignorance, said Mwatabu Okantah, assistant professor at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. It makes relating to each other difficult.

Writing for the Huffington Post, Jolie A. Doggett questioned whether black Americans would be welcome if Wakanda were a real place. She was doubtful.

I found myself having to face the sometimes harsh reality that there is a division within our diaspora thats not going to easily heal, she said.

Funmilola Fagbamila, adjunct professor at California State University Los Angeles, said, There are complexities within black identity, between African Americans and ... specifically black people in Africa where they would say, no, you are not us.

But that has been shifting over time, especially in recent years, and the movie could play a role in opening dialogues, said Melina Abdullah, also a professor at Cal State LA, and chairwoman of Pan-African Studies.

I think the movie is sparking a conversation and consciousness among people, she said. The role of black art has always been to kind of awaken us, to get us to think creatively, critically, use our imagination to think about what freedom means.J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

WASHINGTON  Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trumps businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.

The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Trumps business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all records related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said.OAKLAND (BCN)

Two men who pleaded no contest to kidnapping charges for their roles in a $37 million computer chip heist in Fremont in 2011 that's believed to be the largest such heist in Silicon Valley history were sentenced to state prison terms today.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson sentenced Rolando Secreto, 45, to 10 years in prison and Roy Jiminez, 40, to five years.

According to California Deputy Attorney General Ralph Sivilla, Secreto and Jiminez were two of 16 men who invaded Unigen Corp., a silicon and modules design and manufacturing company at 45388 Warm Springs Road in Fremont at about 8:45 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2011, which was a Sunday.

Authorities said the men, who were from San Jose and Union City, wore masks and dark clothes, were armed with handguns and rifles and bound five Unigen employees at gunpoint and forced them into a backroom.

The suspects then loaded nearly 2 million flash memory chips onto a large truck and drove away at 9:11 a.m. that day, according to police.

Authorities later determined that the heist was an inside job because two of the suspects worked at Unigen, which is now based in Union City.

As part of its investigation into the heist, Fremont police enlisted the help of the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, or REACT, a high-tech crimes unit of the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

The investigation quickly led to the recovery of nearly 1.5 million, or 98 percent, of the stolen chips locally and in Asia.

Two of the suspects remain at large but most of the suspects were arrested within a few months of the large robbery, Sivilla said.

All but one of the suspects who've been arrested have pleaded no contest to various charges and been sentenced. The last remaining defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on April 13.

Faustino Adona, the alleged ringleader, pleaded no contest to four robbery counts last October and later was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Sivilla said the defendants apparently planned to sell the stolen computer chips to foreign tech companies.

The 14 defendants cumulatively have been ordered to pay $782,600 in restitution fines, as that's the value of the chips that never were recovered.

###SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Three men who were found dead last month on a street in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood have been identified by the medical examiner as Adam Wilson, 36, David Clark, 31, and Michael Campbell, 32.

The men are believed to have died from fentanyl poisoning after likely ingesting methamphetamine laced with the synthetic opioid, San Francisco Department of Public Health officials said last month.

The medical examiner's office has not determined a cause of death, health department spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said today.

Last month, health department officials said a preliminary screening by the medical examiner showed that the trio all had methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in their bodies.

Officers initially found Wilson, Clark and Campbell after responding to a 4:35 a.m. call regarding unresponsive people in the 1500 block of Page Street, according to police.

Officers arrived and confirmed the men were unresponsive. Medics then pronounced them dead at the scene.

Investigators determined there were no signs of foul play.

A glass pipe recovered at the scene was tested by the medical examiner's office and had cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl, a fentanyl analog, health department officials said.

###SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Three men broke into an apartment in San Francisco's Oceanview neighborhood late Wednesday night, holding the residents at gunpoint, police said.

Officers responded around 11:35 p.m. to a home in the 200 block of Farallones Street.

They learned that three men broke into an apartment and brandished guns at the three victims.

RELATED VIDEO: 2017 San Francisco crime statistics

Two of the victims were hit in the head with pistols and although they suffered injuries, they were not considered life-threatening and the victims declined to go to a hospital, police said.

The suspects took cellphones, wallets, shoes and a safe before fleeing in a vehicle. They were all described as men in their late teens to early 20s, according to police.ANTIOCH (BCN)

Antioch will create a desalination plant with a $10 million grant from the state of California, the city announced on Wednesday.

Antioch is among only three cities or water agencies to receive the large grant, according to the Antioch city manager's office.

The city will use the money to generate its own clean, safe drinking water.

The desalination plant will eventually be able to convert up to 6 million gallons of salt water into clean drinking water every day, according to city officials.

"This is a tremendous economic development engine which allows Antioch to competitively attract industries that need a reliable local water supply," Antioch Mayor Sean Wright said in a statement.

The grant is funded by a water bond, Proposition 1, which was approved in November 2014. It authorized over $7 billion in general bonds for state and municipal water projects.

###The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced today that they have determined the fatal shooting of a San Jose man last May by a police officer to be lawful.

Shortly before midnight on May 2, 2017, San Jose police Officer Mario Martinez, a 14-year veteran of the department, showed up to 1527 Mt. Frazier Drive on a report that a father and son were fighting, according to a report written by Deputy District Attorney Steve Dal Porto said.

When Martinez was exiting his patrol car, a pit bull rushed at him from one direction and Joseph Tourino was running at him with knives in both hands from another direction, prosecutors said.

According to the deputy district attorney's report, Martinez originally thought Tourino was attempting to stop the dog from running at him, but Tourino "abruptly changed directions from the dog's path and moved in a direct line toward him."

Dal Porto wrote that Martinez was struggling to pull his service weapon from the holster and began moving backwards. Tourino lunged at him with the knife in his right hand raised above his head. Martinez then fired three rounds and hit Tourino once in the lower abdomen.

Officer Adam Dorn was on scene in order to provide cover, Dal Porto said wrote. Dorn moved close to Martinez and told Tourino to keep his hands visible and toss a knife away from his body that had landed nearby when he was shot.

After complying, Tourino is heard saying, "It's not your fault, officers, I wanted this ... I hate myself" on Martinez's body cam, according to the report.

Tourino was transported to Regional Medical Center of San Jose but after undergoing surgery for several hours, he was pronounced dead the following morning.

Dal Porto concluded in his report that Martinez had a "genuine and reasonable belief that the decedent intended to stab and kill him with the knives and presented him with an obvious and imminent threat."

The deputy district attorney also said the declaration underscored Tourino's intention to bring about his death through the very means by which it occurred.

According to the district attorney's office, Tourino's father, friends and others told investigators handling the case that he was mentally ill and had attempted suicide at least one time. They also said he had told several people he may die by suicide by having police officers shoot him.

###OAKLAND (BCN)

Emergency officials are responding to an incident at Lake Merritt that began early this morning.

Oakland fire dispatch said Oakland police asked them to respond at 4:19 a.m. to the area of Hanover Avenue and Lakeshore Boulevard.

The agency did not provide any further information.

San Francisco fire confirmed that their rescue squad was assisting Oakland fire with the incident.

###SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Attorneys representing a Sacramento-area couple have filed a class action lawsuit on their behalf against a San Francisco fertility clinic after the clinic announced earlier this week the potential destruction of thousands of eggs and embryos in storage.

The eggs and embryos, which were being stored at Pacific Fertility Center for in vitro fertilization procedures, were impacted due to a leak in the seal of a tissue storage tank, which allowed liquid nitrogen to dip below necessary levels, according to attorney Adam Wolf with the law firm Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr and Kane.

The attorneys are charging the clinic with negligence, breach of contract and conversion, or interfering with someone else's property.

The couple, who are both in their mid to late 30s, had been paying Pacific Fertility $600 annually for about four years to store their eight embryos, Wolf said.

The couple had been planning on transferring their embryos, the final step for in vitro fertilization, next month. Those plans, however, have been quashed, according to the couple's attorneys.

"Pacific has forced these people into an untenable position," attorney Tracey Cowen said of the couple. "They are not sure if they have the financial means to even do this again."

The price for the initial process of extracting eggs or embryos can cost at least $10,000, Cowen said.

According to the attorneys, when the leak was discovered, Pacific Fertility immediately notified patients but said the eggs and embryos had been impacted and could not confirm whether they had been irreversibly damaged. That could only be confirmed once the embryo has been thawed.

"Once you thaw them, you have to use them more or less immediately," Cowen said.

The class action lawsuit is seeking damages in excess of $5 million and the attorneys said they may take on more of the clinic's patients as clients.

In addition to the lawsuit, Cowen said the law firm plans on working with regulators and legislators at all levels of government to change the fertility industry by creating more regulations for clinics and providing more protections for clients.

"What we really hope is that this never happens anywhere again," Wolf said.

The law firm on Monday filed a similar class action lawsuit against a Cleveland hospital for the potential destruction of up to 2,000 eggs and embryos. Litigation also involving the loss or destruction of eggs and embryos is being handled by the firm in a hearing this week in Orange County.

Officials with Pacific Fertility Center were not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit.

###Foothill-De Anza Community College District police announced today that they issued their officers body-worn cameras Thursday to be more transparent with the community.

Police said that they submitted a grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Justice in the spring of 2016 for the purchase of body-worn camera technology. They were one of 12 California agencies-and the only college police department recipient-awarded a grant in the fall of 2017 to purchase and deploy the cameras.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A federal judge in San Francisco today set a fast-track schedule with a jury trial as soon as June on a civil rights lawsuit in which pregnant Alameda County jail inmates claim they are mistreated.

U.S. District Judge James Donato said at a hearing that he will handle the case on an expedited basis and hopes to have a trial possibly by early June on the lawsuit filed in January by six current and former pregnant inmates at the county's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

The trial is expected three or four days.

The plaintiffs claim pregnant prisoners are denied adequate medical care, nutritious food, warm clothing and fresh air. They contend they are kept in unsanitary conditions, there are rats in the jail kitchen and their laundry is sometimes returned dirty.

The defendants in the case are Alameda County, Sheriff Gregory Ahern and other jail officials.

County lawyers told the judge in a filing last week that "Santa Rita Jail is a clean, orderly, and well-managed jail staffed by extraordinarily professional and compassionate deputies."

"It also meets or exceeds all controlling legal requirements regarding the administration of local detention facilities and is proudly accredited by the American Correctional Association," lawyers for the county wrote.

Donato originally scheduled today's court session as a hearing on the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction requiring improvements in the conditions before a trial is held.

But he said that the two sides' descriptions of conditions are so far apart that the facts must be decided by a jury. He deferred ruling on a preliminary injunction and instead announced the fast-track schedule.

The judge said that in the meantime, while awaiting trial, the plaintiffs can file emergency requests for specific changes if needed, but said they must back up any requests with statements from doctors.

Two pregnant inmates, guarded by officers, attended today's court session, but Donato did not hear any testimony from the inmates or any other witnesses.

Donato also said a seventh plaintiff who is a current pregnant inmate can join the case and he ordered the plaintiffs to file an amended version of their lawsuit by April 5.

Outside of court, Yolanda Huang, a lawyer for the inmates, said Donato's decision to make the trial a priority shows that he "recognized the seriousness of the issue."

Huang said she expected that at trial, the jurors will decide whether the inmates' rights were violated; if they find a violation, the judge would then decide on the remedy, such as a permanent injunction.

Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly referred to his initial comment on the case in January and said sheriff's officials would have no further comment outside of court now that the litigation is under way.

In January, Kelly said the allegations were "false claims" and were "especially egregious."

###

225-5936Marin County Public Health has confirmed one case of illness from paralytic shellfish poison, a toxin that can be found in mussels, clams and oysters.

The person ate mussels harvested on Sunday in Dillon Beach and went to the hospital with symptoms of shellfish poisoning, according to the department.

The person is expected to recover because their doctor was able to diagnose the poisoning very quickly, the department said.

The health department warned the public of the toxin on March 7 after the California Department of Public Health found extremely high levels in a mussel sample from Chimney Rock in the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The department said the sample contained about 37 times the "alert" level of paralytic shellfish poison, known as PSP.

Changes in water conditions, including temperature, flow and salt content can cause the toxins to surge. Symptoms of poisoning could include tingling, numbness, dizziness, nausea, or respiratory problems.

According to the department, the amount of toxins is the highest that Marin has seen in 20 years and could potentially be lethal.

The highest levels were found near Chimney Rock and areas north of Stinson Beach.

They advised the public on March 7 to avoid collecting shellfish until it is safe again.

The warning does not apply to commercially sold clams, mussels, scallops, or oysters from approved sources, the department said.

In the last 90 years, California state statistics say there have been 542 reported illnesses and 39 deaths due to paralytic shellfish poison.A celebration of life service is scheduled Monday evening for the three women employees of The Pathway Home veterans' treatment center in Yountville who were slain there last week.

Executive director Christine Loeber, 48, and staff psychologists Dr. Jennifer Gonzales Shushereba, 32, a clinical psychologist, and Dr. Jennifer Gray Golick, 42, a clinical director, were found dead around 6 p.m. last Friday after a standoff that began around 10:15 a.m. in a room at the Veterans Home of California on California Drive.OAKLAND (BCN)

A reputed gang member who once was charged with murder for the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl in Oakland in 2013 has been ordered to stand trial on three counts of murder for three fatal shootings in Oakland in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson ruled late Wednesday that prosecutors produced sufficient evidence to have Joseph Carroll, 31, face a jury for the fatal shootings.

Carroll is accused of killing 18-year-old Nguyen Ngo in the 800 block of 45th Street at about 4:15 p.m. on April 23, 2009, 24-year-old Nehemiah Lewis in the 800 block of Athens Avenue on June 11, 2010, and 23-year-old Andrew Henderson on E Street in Oakland on April 13, 2011.

The cases had gone cold but prosecutors filed the three murder charges against Carroll late last year after police developed new evidence that they believe ties Carroll to the three homicides.

Carroll also faces a special circumstance allegation that he committed multiple murders so he potentially could face the death penalty if he's convicted.

However, Carroll's lawyer Ernie Castillo said today he thinks the prosecution will have a difficult time getting a jury to convict Carroll of committing the three killings because he believes their case is based on unreliable "snitches and informants."

Two prosecution witnesses who were brought to court to testify during Carroll's two-day preliminary hearing refused to testify and were found in contempt of court by Thompson.

Castillo said a third prosecution witness agreed to testify but said the incriminating statements he had made against Carroll to police last year were a lie.

Carroll and Darnell Williams were charged with murder for the fatal shooting of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in the 3400 block of Wilson Avenue in Oakland on July 17, 2013.

Oakland police alleged in probable cause statements that Alaysha's shooting death was an outgrowth of Carroll's rage that his cousin, 26-year-old Jermaine Davis, was fatally shot in the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley at 6:52 p.m. on July 17, 2013, a little more than three hours before Alaysha was killed.

But at the end of a preliminary hearing in January 2014, a judge dismissed the murder charge against Carroll, saying there was a lack of evidence to prove the prosecution's theory that Alaysha was killed as a result of a conspiracy by Carroll to seek revenge against the man he thought had murdered his cousin.

Williams was sentenced to the death penalty in 2016 after he was convicted of murdering Alaysha as well as murdering 22-year-old Anthony Medearis III in Berkeley in an unrelated shooting about seven weeks later on Sept. 8, 2013.

Oakland police said that in conducting phone wiretaps to try to establish evidence against the suspects in the shooting that killed Alaysha, they discovered evidence about an unrelated plot in which they said Carroll and three colleagues were planning to murder two men they believed had "disrespected" Carroll and his brother Coleon Carroll in rap videos.

Carroll and the other three defendants were ordered to stand trial on conspiracy to commit murder charges, but in 2015 Carroll pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of conspiracy to commit assault. The other three men also pleaded no contest to lesser charges.

Prosecutors say that in 2007 Carroll was convicted of a felony charge of evading an officer.

Carroll also was convicted of a federal gun charge. He was released from federal prison last October after completing his sentence but was immediately transferred to an Alameda County jail in connection with the new murder charges filed against him.

###

272-6280

Defense attorney Ernie Castillo (510) 686-1555 or (415) 608-0282BERKELEY (BCN)

University of California at Berkeley police reported one attempted robbery and a separate armed robbery in off-campus areas on Sunday and Monday.

The first incident on Sunday was an attempted robbery on Hearst Avenue, according to police. The case fell within Berkeley police jurisdiction.

A man was walking near Euclid Avenue when a vehicle approached him with its lights off, police said.

Three men jumped out of the car and attacked the victim, police said. One of the suspects tried to grab the man's backpack while the other suspects kicked him.

The victim was able to hold on to his property, according to police. The suspects fled the scene and the victim was treated for minor injuries at the university health center.

On Tuesday, campus police responded to a report of an armed robbery that had happened on Monday at about 1 p.m. in Berkeley's People's Park.

A suspect took a serrated kitchen knife from a victim's belongings and allegedly threatened the person while stealing their items, according to campus police.

Police said the victim and the suspect knew each other, and the victim was not injured during the robbery.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact campus police at (510) 642-0472 or (510) 642-6760 out of business hours.

###SAN JOSE (BCN)

A San Jose State University student in custody for three counts of alleged sexual assault appeared in court today and was denied a motion to eliminate bail set at $210,000 because of his inability to pay it.

SJSU officials said university police are searching for witnesses or survivors in connection with alleged acts committed by Luis Venegas, 21.

Venegas is a fourth-year student at SJSU and had been living in Campus Village A before someone contacted campus police on March 3, prompting an investigation, according to the university.

Venegas was then arrested and booked into Santa Clara County Jail on March 5.

Two additional survivors were discovered through the investigation. In each case, Venegas and his survivor knew each other, university officials said.

Venegas was charged with sexual assault, assault with the intent to commit sex crimes, false imprisonment and sexual battery.

Venegas appeared in court this morning at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice, just minutes from SJSU.

Judge Socrates Peter Manoukian denied Venegas' defense motion to eliminate bail because he had no money to his name.

Venegas' attorney said there was documentation that he had no money in his wallet and his parents receive disability and Social Security benefits. Venegas had not had a job since 2015 and is undertaking at least $4,000 in student loans each year, the attorney said.

Manoukian said there was insufficient evidence that Venegas had no money, and that "not having money in your wallet means your significant other could have cleaned it out the night before."

Venegas' attorney said he is prepared to withdraw from the university, where he was studying to obtain a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, and will submit to a stay-away order from the campus itself if he is able to obtain his belongings still at SJSU.

The defense also proposed that Venegas stay with his parents at their home in the Southern California town of Brawley once he's released from custody, but Manoukian rejected the idea.

Prosecutors said removing bail and allowing Venegas to leave jail would be a public safety concern.

The judge discussed the seriousness of the five felonies the suspect is charged with, noting that two of the individuals alleging sexual assault told investigators that they were weakened into the situation by at least one drug.

Venegas remains in custody and will be in court next on April 12.

Students were alerted of the situation in a campus-wide email sent out Wednesday, according to SJSU police Capt. Alan Cavallo.

Venega's arrest was made public by the college on Wednesday and not prior to that because the suspect was already in custody, according to university spokeswoman Pat Harris.

Harris said those who have been sexually assaulted can use SJSU's Title IX Office as a confidential resource whether or not they have filed a police report by reaching out to (408) 924-2218.

Anyone who is A survivor or witness to thE case should contact the campus police department at (408) 924-2222 or Sgt. Justin Celano at (408) 924-2218.

Anonymous tips can be submitted through the TipNow service at (408) 337-2919 or SJSU@tipnow.org.

###The Marin County Sheriff's Office has identified a deputy who died after a solo vehicle crash in the west part of the county early this morning as Ryan Zirkle, 24, of Petaluma.

Zirkle was hired by the sheriff's office in December 2015 and he was assigned to the Point Reyes substation.

California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Barclay said Zirkle lost control of his vehicle on a left turn on state Highway 1 just north of Point Reyes Station Road shortly after midnight. The vehicle went off an embankment on the right side of the road and struck a tree.

Sheriff Robert Doyle said his office received a 911 hang-up call by someone reporting signs of a traffic accident. The sheriff's office had not heard from Zirkle for several minutes, so Zirkle's partner was dispatched to investigate and discovered the crash scene, Doyle said.

It took 35 minutes to remove Zirkle from his vehicle and he was flown by medical helicopter to Petaluma Valley Hospital where he died, Doyle said.

On-duty sheriff's deputies escorted Zirkle's body to the Sonoma County coroner's office, Doyle said.

Doyle said Zirkle grew up and attended schools in Novato and attended Sacramento State University. He was described as happy, enthusiastic, positive and a man who wanted to serve the community.

Zirkle's fiancie was out of town at the time of the crash and her father returned her to Marin County. Zirkle recently bought her a home in Petaluma, Doyle said.

Zirkle is survived by his parents, two older brothers and his fiancie, Doyle said.

###BCN20)

By Bay City News Service

The mother of a 16-year-old girl who was fatally shot last year by two Fremont police officers while they were trying to arrest her boyfriend, who was wanted for multiple armed robberies, filed a federal civil rights suit against the officers and the city today.

Elena "Ebbie" Mondragon of Antioch, who was pregnant, was shot near the City View Apartments complex at 25200 Carlos Bee Blvd. near the California State University East Bay campus at about 5:20 p.m. on March 14, 2017.

Mondragon was treated by the Hayward Fire Department at the scene and then transported to a trauma center, where she died of her injuries.

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Robert Graff wrote in a recent lengthy report on the shooting that Mondragon's death "was unintended and tragic" and he believes that Fremont Detective Joel Hernandez and Sgt. Jeremy Miskella "acted in lawful" self-defense when they fired shots at suspect Rico Tiger, 19, and struck her instead.

Graff said the evidence supports the conclusion that Hernandez and Miskella acted "under an actual and reasonable belief" that Tiger posed an immediate threat of death or great bodily injury to themselves and other officers by driving a stolen BMW at them while they were trying to arrest him on a warrant for multiple armed robberies in Fremont, Union City and Santa Clara County.

But Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents Mondragon's mother, Michelle Mondragon, alleged at a news conference at his office that was attended by about 20 of Mondragon's family members, that Hernandez and Miskella "wrongfully took the life of Elena in a botched police maneuver."

Burris said Fremont officers, who were plain-clothed undercover officers from the Southern Alameda County Major Crime Task Force, were well-armed and should have tried to arrest Tiger when he, Mondragon and two other teens were swimming at the City View Apartments complex that weekday afternoon, which was a school day.

Burris said the officers had a plan to apprehend Tiger at the pool "but blew it and afterward made up for the mistake they made by engaging in poor tactics."

The attorney said as Tiger prepared to drive off with the other teens, an unmarked Dodge minivan and unmarked Honda Pilot pulled in front of the car and several men jumped out of the unmarked vehicles with assault rifles and did not identify themselves as police officers and weren't wearing uniforms.

Burris said Tiger tried to drive away but he said Miskella and Hernandez opened fire on the moving car, which he said was a violation of Fremont police policy.

Burris said police officers are supposed to step out of the way of cars that are speeding toward them and aren't supposed to shoot into a moving car unless a suspect is displaying a weapon, which he said wasn't the case with Tiger.

Burris also said all of the six to eight officers who were part of the operation failed to activate their body-worn cameras, which he said would have recorded important video evidence of the shooting.

Although Burris said Tiger didn't know the undercover officers were police officers, District Attorney Inspector Jason Riechers wrote in a probable cause statement that a passenger who was in the stolen BMW told police that it was clear to him that men who were in the Dodge minivan were a police task force because they had the word "police" on their chests.

Riechers also said the passenger also told police that he heard Tiger say, "Police, duck down" and heard Tiger make a comment about the police having their guns out.

The District Attorney's Office recently charged Tiger with murder for allegedly causing Mondragon's death by acting provocatively and with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer for allegedly trying to kill Miskella and a colleague, Fremont Officer Ghailan Chahouati.

Prosecutors also charged Tiger with vehicular manslaughter for allegedly killing Cristel Antunez-Ayala in a vehicle crash at Bancroft and 90th avenues in East Oakland on Feb. 26, 2017.

Riechers alleged Tiger was driving a stolen Audi at an estimated 90 miles per hour and that he was fleeing from Oakland police officers who suspected the vehicle was the getaway car used in the Santa Clara County robberies.

Tiger currently is in custody in Santa Clara County on a pending criminal case in which he's charged with multiple armed robberies. He will be transported to Alameda County at a later date to face the charges he faces in the county.

City of Fremont spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said the city has no comment on the lawsuit.

Michelle Mondragon said at the news conference that she's upset that authorities didn't tell her that her daughter was dying.

Fighting back tears, Mondragon said, "I could have seen her and told her I loved her but she was alone."

Elena Mondragon's uncle, Miguel Minjares, said, "We're broken hearted and will never be the same."

Mondragon's aunt, Christina Flores, said, "We're broken and I don't know if we'll ever be complete."

Flores said that feeling "is mixed with anger because we're not getting the justice we deserve."

The suit seeks unspecified general, special and punitive damages.

###

272-6280

Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques (510) 790-6957 or (510) 520-1876realtor.com/ Karwai Tang/WireImage

Actress and comedian Mindy Kaling has been busy. She's currently in cinemas as Mrs. Who in the fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time; shes producing "Champions," a new sitcom on NBC; and she just sold another home in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. The charming Spanish-style abode in Beverly Grove went for $1,955,000.

The Mindy Project creator had initially listed the four-bedroom, three-bathroom residence for $2.2 million. But she still comes out ahead on the home, which she bought in 2007 for $1,575,000, according to property records.Update: A day after the publication of this report, Roomster CEO John Shriber issued a new warning on the website's affiliate page. It reads:

"We recently became aware that an affiliate(s) is either posting, emailing or texting people on Craigslist. This is not allowed. We have removed every affiliate who has been caught doing this in the past, and if we catch you we will remove your account. If you are doing this you must stop at once!!! We do not want this type of traffic."

End of update.

Finding a room in the Bay Area induces enough headaches, but some house hunters have run into a bizarre roadblock  requests to join a roommate-matching website called Roomster before they can visit the advertised rental.

Veronica Polivanaya spent months combing Craigslist for a room to rent in San Francisco. She responded to countless ads, with subject lines like "Sunny room in Mission District" or "3-bd Victorian in Nob Hill," that included photos, utility cost breakdowns and sometimes descriptions of the current roommates.

The 26-year-old would respond through Craigslist or by texting a provided number. Often within minutes, she'd receive a response along the lines of "Room still available. Sign up here," with a link to a website called Roomster.

But after making an account, she could never find the rooms that had been advertised on Craigslist.

This same thing kept happening  at least 10 times, Polivanaya said  so she decided to get off Craigslist altogether.

Founded in 2003 by John Shriber and Roman Zaks, Roomster calls itself the "world's largest multi-platform social network for connecting roommates." The New York-based company operates in 192 countries and claims to have 10 million users.

"More than 400 thousand new users" sign up each month, the site claims.

Some of these signups come from Roomster's "Affiliate Marketing Program." Individual guerrilla marketers receive about 20 cents on average per referred user, CEO John Shriber told SFGATE.

RELATED VIDEO: Is living at the San Francisco airport cheaper than renting an apartment?

Program guidelines prohibit affiliates from using "unsolicited bulk mail" or other mechanisms that "falsely generates hits or signups." Though the official program terms do not mention Craigslist by name, a red banner on the Affiliate Program homepage reads:

"Attention affiliates! We will not do business with any affiliates who post on Craigslist. We will not accept any leads that come from Craigslist. We will not pay for any leads that come from Craigslist. If you post on Craigslist your affiliate account will be terminated."

Shriber said users found to be in violation of the Craigslist stipulation are immediately blocked and removed from the program. Six months ago Roomster froze new affiliate signups to "focus on quality control," he added.

"To suggest that Roomster is scamming anyone is an outright lie," Shriber told SFGATE over email. "We have absolutely nothing to do with this. In fact we do everything we can to stop this behavior. We can not be responsible for the actions of others."

When asked how Roomster verifies where leads come from, Shriber replied, "When affiliates sign up we ask them to give us a link to where we can find our Roomster links, so we can spot check."

Of the 64 reviews on the Roomster page of the Better Business Bureau website, not a single one was positive. The Bureau said its files indicate a "pattern of complaints concerning a renewal policy and deceptive advertising." Many consumers complained that the disclosure of automatic renewal was not made clear at signup time and that they had responded to "misleading ads on local Craigslist to drive users toward their website."

Bay Area resident Michelle Adelman decided to sign up for Roomster after being directed there from a post in a Facebook group. Adelman found that in order to respond to messages on the site, she had to purchase a subscription, so she bought the cheapest plan. Plans unlock Roomster messaging capabilities and access to users' social media profiles. Subscriptions range from five to 30 days and cost $7.95 to $24.95.

The following month, Adelman said her plan automatically renewed and the company charged her about $7 to receive a subscription refund.

John M. Simpson, the director of Consumer Watchdog's privacy and technology project, says he would take Roomster's comments with a "tremendous grain of salt."

"What you'll see with other websites, where horrible things are going on, they say they're handling it but then they benefit from it," Simpson said. "I don't know if that's happening with Roomster, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is."

Polivanaya had never heard of Roomster prior to her Craigslist housing search, "so I thought, this must be a credible site to vet potential roommates," she said. Besides, with rent-controlled apartments abounding in San Francisco, room prices fluctuate wildly and it can be hard to parse "too good to be true" listings from real ones.

Polivanaya isn't the only Bay Area housing hunter who says she's been duped by Roomster affiliates. In less than 24 hours, more than 20 people had responded to two Facebook posts in Bay Area housing groups saying they had been redirected to Roomster while searching for homes online.

One woman said she had been directed to the site over 20 times. Two respondents even claimed the incessant Roomster redirects deterred them from looking for housing in San Francisco.

Polivnanaya eventually snagged a nice apartment in the NoPa neighborhood. She found it on Facebook.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.MY LAI, Vietnam  The shudder of artillery fire woke the boy at 5:30 a.m. Three American soldiers appeared at his familys home a couple of hours later and forced the mother and five children into their bomb shelter, a structure almost every rural home had during the Vietnam War, to keep residents safe.

One soldier set fire to the familys thatched house while the others tossed grenades into the shelter. Protected under the torn bodies of his mother and his four siblings, 10-year-old Pham Thanh Cong was the only survivor.

It was March 16, 1968, 50 years ago. The American soldiers of Charlie Company, sent on what they were told was a mission to confront a crack outfit of their Vietcong enemies, met no resistance, but over three to four hours killed 504 unarmed civilians, mostly women, children and elderly men, in My Lai and a neighboring community. Vietnamese refer to the greater village where the killings occurred as Son My.

We started hearing the screaming and moaning from our neighbors, which were followed by gunfire and grenade explosions, then the screaming and moaning stopped, and my mother knew that the American soldiers had killed people, Cong said this week. I was covered with the flesh and hair of my mother and sisters and brother.

Knocked unconscious with injuries to his head and wounds on his torso from grenade fragments, Cong was saved that afternoon when his father came to retrieve the bodies.

The My Lai massacre was the most notorious episode in modern U.S. military history, but not an aberration in Americas war in Vietnam.

The U.S. militarys own records, filed discreetly away for three decades, described 300 other cases of what could fairly be described as war crimes. My Lai was distinguished by the shocking one-day death toll, the stomach-churning photographs and the gruesome details exposed by a high-level U.S. Army inquiry.

Estimates of civilians killed during the U.S. ground war in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973 are generally 1 million to 2 million.

The average U.S. soldier could not be sure who the enemy was, rarely encountering one directly. They were targeted by land mines, booby traps, snipers.

Fifty years after the massacre, and almost 43 years after the communist victory reunified Vietnam, most of the rancor is gone, at least publicly, between the nations. They normalized diplomatic relations in 1995, and the United States is now one of Vietnams top trading partners and investors.1 Peace possibilities: The top American commander in Afghanistan and other U.S. officials are talking up prospects for peace negotiations with the Taliban, arguing that after 16 years of war the militants are weary of a stalemate on the battlefield. Gen. John Nicholson, who commands more than 14,000 U.S troops in an American-led coalition, acknowledged that peace talks, which the Taliban definitively rejected just two years ago, likely would take years to bear fruit. His emphasis on a push for peace coincides with the Trump administrations injection of new resources into the war effort and the start of the traditional fighting season this spring. It also comes as turmoil in the State Department raises questions about the steadiness, depth and effectiveness of American diplomatic clout.

2 WWII bomb: Italian bomb experts have moved to the sea for safe detonation a 500-pound British bomb from World War II, accidentally dug up in an Adriatic town. Some 23,000 people in Fano were evacuated Tuesday night as a precaution while the bomb was transported to sea. The bomb was accidentally dug up during excavation work. The army said the Italian navy took the bomb out to an area in the Adriatic outside navigation routes. The accidental unearthing of Allied bombs is an occasional event in Italy.BRATISLAVA, Slovakia  The prime minister of Slovakia resigned Thursday following mass demonstrations over the killing of a journalist who was uncovering government corruption. But officials said there would not be new elections and the ruling party would remain in power.

With anger still intense over the killings of the journalist, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, and the way the government has responded, it is not clear that the prime ministers resignation will end the crisis. Many of the demonstrators who have taken to the streets in the largest numbers since the Velvet Revolution of 1989 have demanded the fall of the government and a new round of elections.BEIRUT  For Syrians marking seven years of war, their country has never looked as helpless or fragmented.

President Bashar Assad has decimated the rebellion, thanks to massive military aid from Russia and Iran, but foreign powers have carved out zones of influence across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are trapped in besieged areas, and heavy fighting is under way in the suburbs of Damascus and in the north, where al Qaeda-linked militants are clashing with rival insurgents and Turkish troops are battling a Syrian Kurdish militia.

The violence has accelerated even as the United States, Russia, Iran and Turkey worked diplomatic tracks to broker local truces and freeze the lines of conflict over the past year. Those efforts now appear to have been aimed at mapping out areas of influence.

I dont even see Syria anymore, said Zaina Erhaim, a Syrian journalist who left the country in 2016 and now lives in London.

Its called Syria on the map. But if you can think about an ordinary Syrian who wants to go from Daraa to Idlib, can you think about how many countries or nationalities hes going to be passing to reach there? she asked.

A short list would include the remnants of Syrias Western-backed opposition, Lebanons Hezbollah and other Iran-backed Shiite fighters from as far away as Afghanistan, Syrian troops, Russian pilots, al Qaeda-linked jihadists, U.S.-allied Kurdish forces and Turkish tank crews.

Nearly half a million people have been killed in Syria since Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, after security forces arrested a group of teenagers who scrawled anti-Assad graffiti on a wall in the southern city of Daraa.

A demonstration calling for reforms in Damascus Old City on March 15 is now widely seen as the start of the uprising. Three days later, security forces opened fire on a protest in Daraa, killing four people and drawing first blood.

The protests spread across the country, and nearly everywhere they were met with batons and bullets. Within months, the protesters began taking up arms and the cycle of bloodshed accelerated.

Today, hopes of democratic Syria seem distant, as the rebellion has splintered and the violence has spawned extremism. The activists who organized the initial protests have been hunted down or driven out of the country, either by Syrias feared security agencies or the jihadists that haunt liberated areas.LONDON  The leaders of the United States, France and Germany joined Britain on Thursday in blaming Russia for poisoning a former spy with a powerful nerve agent, calling the attack the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.

In a rare joint statement, President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May said there is no plausible alternative explanation to Russian responsibility.

They said Russias failure to respond to Britains legitimate request for an explanation further underlines its responsibility.

The leaders said the use of a chemical weapon is an assault on U.K. sovereignty and a breach of international law.

The statement is the fruit of British efforts to enlist international support as it tries to hold Russia accountable for the March 4 attack that left former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in critical condition and a British police officer seriously ill.

Britain-Russia relations have plunged to Cold War-era levels of iciness since the poisoning. May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts with Moscow and vowed both open and covert actions following the attack.

Russia denies being the source of the nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Russia would work to express its position on the international stage.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow would certainly expel some British diplomats in a tit-for-tat response.

Lavrov said British accusations of Moscows involvement are intended to distract public attention from Britains troubled exit from the European Union.

He argued that boorish and unfounded accusations against Russia reflect the hopeless situation the British government has found itself in when it cant meet the obligations given to the public in connection with exit from the EU.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said the decision about how to retaliate would come from President Vladimir Putin, and there is no doubt that he will choose the option that best reflects Russian interests.

May said that Britain would also clamp down on murky Russian money and strengthen the governments ability to impose sanctions on those who abuse human rights.MANAMA, Bahrain  Iranian naval forces appear to have deliberately halted their provocations of U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf in recent months, a U.S. military official said Thursday.

According to Navy Cmdr. William Urban, spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, there have been no unsafe and unprofessional actions by Iranian naval forces in the Gulf since August 2017.

Prior to that, Iranian vessels had periodically made high-speed approaches to U.S. ships that were considered dangerous provocations.

Urban declined to speculate on the reason for the change.

It seems like theyve absolutely made a conscious decision to give us more space, he said. That is definitely a change in their behavior.

The last tense encounter between the U.S. Navy and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf was recorded on Aug. 14, 2017, when an unarmed Iranian drone shadowed the Nimitz aircraft carrier at night and came close enough to F-18 fighter jets to put the lives of American pilots at risk, the Navy said.

The drone did not respond to repeated radio calls and came within 1,000 feet of U.S. fighters. In a similar encounter Aug. 8, the Navy said an Iranian drone came within 100 feet of an F-18 preparing to land on the Nimitz.

For the first eight months of 2017, the Navy recorded 14 instances of what it describes as unsafe and/or unprofessional interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in 2016 and 23 in 2015.

Of the incidents at sea last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing and holding overnight 10 U.S. sailors who strayed into the Islamic Republics territorial waters.

Iranian forces in turn accuse the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf.ABUJA, Nigeria  Facing different but equally harrowing crises, parents and educators in the United States and northeast Nigeria are debating similarly drastic measures to improve school safety as a painful public reckoning plays out in both countries.

As students hold walkouts across the U.S. amid a scourge of mass shootings, President Trumps proposal to put more guns in schools carries echoes of questions being asked in one corner of Africas most populous country. Determined to do something, Nigerias government has deployed armed guards to schools while parents debate the merits of arming teachers themselves.

Americans tend to think of their struggles as far removed from the misfortunes that afflict distant, volatile nations like Nigeria, where 110 schoolgirls abducted in February from the town of Dapchi have not been returned. After all, while America has been devastated by terrorism, there is no marauding insurgency in the U.S. like the Boko Haram extremists who have killed more than 20,000 people in the past eight years.

For parents focused squarely on their childrens well being, that distinction may be beside the point.

What teachers should have in their hands should be chalk, books, rulers and markers  certainly not guns, said Nafisat Aliyu, a mother of three boys in Maiduguri, Borno state, where Boko Haram was formed. She said impressionable young kids may see their teachers carrying firearms and decide they want to try one for themselves. Armed teachers can be as dangerous as having some crazy fellow running into the school with a blazing gun.

The threat to students at school in northeast Nigeria has had devastating consequences. Nearly 1,400 primary and junior secondary schools have been destroyed in Borno state by Boko Haram insurgents, according to UNICEF and Borno government statistics. A total of 2,295 teachers have been killed since 2009. Schools were closed for about 40 months in the region, and even today, 52 percent of children are not attending school.

In Parkland, Fla., 17 people were killed last month at Stoneman Douglas High School and its students have become prominent gun control advocates. Theyve been vocal in opposition to arming their teachers as a policy response. The students have used rallies and media appearances to call for stricter laws on guns, including a new Florida measure to raise the minimum age to buy rifles to 21 from 18.

The debate is also playing out in Washington as Trump, in his school safety proposal released this week, pledged to help states pay for firearms training for teachers. U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also said that schools and communities that want to arm their teachers should have that option.

Global approaches to school safety vary from place to place, though there dont appear to be any countries that arm their teachers to the extent Trump has suggested.

Armed security officers are routine at Israeli schools, and Russia has put guards at schools following violent incidents that garnered national attention. In Mexico, many cities hold emergency drills for what to do if gunfire related to the drug war breaks out near schools, as sometimes happens. In Sweden, the education authority issues pamphlets with general advice about armed attacks

In Nigerias Yobe state, where the girls were taken last month, the government has sent armed guards to schools in remote locations.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!Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Alex Turnbull. Credit:AAP "Hes a good, sharp guy - My jabs were meant to be funny. In hindsight, a bit over the line," Lefevre told Fairfax Media in 2014. His newfound respect for Turnbull may have something to do with threats of legal action from the young banker. Turnbull's aggressive pursuit of Lefevre suggests that he has inherited his fathers famous temperament and determination. But it is his judgment that has been called into question of late over his claim he was squeezed out of Goldman for raising concerns about a controversial Malaysian deal. Turnbull Jr hit the headlines last week when he told The Australian he blew the whistle on Goldman's lucrative dealings with Malaysia's controversial sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB. The Wall St firm picked up an astonishing $US590 million in fees in 2012 and 2013 for helping the sovereign fund raise $US6.5 billion worth of debt.

Loading Most of this money was allegedly funnelled overseas in a manner that has now attracted charges from the US Department of Justice. Whistleblowing is a shit business, Turnbull was quoted as saying last week in an article that reverberated around south-east Asia in the lead up to one of the most important events his father has hosted as Prime Minister: The South East Asian leaders summit. The matter is particular sensitive given one of the key figures allegedly enriched by the looting of the fund is Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who arrives in Australia this week.

It's not the first time Turnbull has made news at an inopportune time for his father. In 2016, he was outed as the author (using a pseudonym) of a scathing Facebook post attacking the Singaporean governments handling of the smoke haze crisis. Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was in Australia talking with Malcolm Turnbull when that story broke. Turnbull's latest allegation has its origins in an obscure Malaysian blog Realpolitikasia, which last year speculated without any supporting evidence that Malcolm Turnbull was not investigating Australian links to the 1MDB scandal due to the fact that Alex was working for Goldman at the time. According to subsequent posts on Realpolitikasia, Alex Turnbull got in touch with the blogger, Ganesh Sahathevan, via a LinkedIn email on Friday, March 2. Turnbull, who left Goldman in July 2014, denied he benefited from 1MDB deals and asked Sahathevan to take the post down. It is true that Turnbull worked in Goldman's Special Situations Group, an in-house hedge fund that had nothing to do with 1MDB.

Media circus But he then went further, stating that he had called out the insane pricing and bizarre structure of the bond raising for 1MDB conducted by Goldman and got yelled at by compliance for casting doubt on the integrity of the bankers conducting the bond raising. As a result I was 'b tracked' and resigned, he said. Turnbull then threatened legal action in another email, adding: I am not going to do this in public to drive traffic to your site and cause a media circus. Sahathevan was clearly not too worried. He duly posted the correspondence on his blog.

Turnbull's claims then surfaced days later in the article in The Australian, which included fresh comments from the 35-year-old. The result was the media circus he had hoped to avoid in the first place. Turnbull told Fairfax Media last week that he was "misquoted" and has since gone to ground. He declined to comment for this article when repeatedly approached on Wednesday. Goldman has denied any suggestion Turnbull was sidelined for raising governance concerns. Credit:AP Goldman has hotly denied any suggestion Turnbull was sidelined for raising governance concerns. "Mr Turnbull had no involvement in the 1MDB transactions. Not surprisingly, we havent found any electronic communications of Mr Turnbull identifying any improper conduct with respect to these transactions or any action taken against him as a result," Goldman said in a prepared statement this week.

But things got worse for Turnbull this week when it emerged he had sent Goldman a 2000-word resignation email that did not include any mention of 1MDB. Instead, he complained at length about compliance rules that prevented him trading media stocks because of his father who was Australias communications minister at that time. This is an unfair form of discrimination, Turnbull complained in the email. I now cant invest in technology, media, telecoms or anything of the purview of my dads ministry. Ruling out all of technology is very crippling. If you want to know how I felt about my career at GS when this was explained to me here is a nice clip from Aliens, he said citing the cult sci/fi horror movie. Tit-for-tat world According to the email, which has been seen by Fairfax Media, Turnbull asked to be moved to another division of the global investment bank. His request appeared to fall on deaf ears. Sources close to Goldman claim he was not a strong performer and that Turnbull's anger comes from being passed over for promotion.

Turnbull does appear to have had a special interest in the media, communications and tech sector. However, it is standard practice for investment banks to impose rules that limit potential conflicts of interest. Turnbull also complained about Goldmans restrictive social media. According to the resignation email, they should have embraced his desire to exchange ideas and research with fellow traders and investment bankers outside of Goldman Sachs Chinese walls. This is a content business, complained Alex, you need ideas in order to make money". It is a tit-for-tat world. You cant skulk on chats hoovering up other peoples material and work for extended periods of time without getting kicked out if you do not contribute to the conversation. It might provide some solace for Alex that his dad's career at Goldman was not all smooth sailing either.Consumers have lost some faith in Apple and Google products, according to an annual survey in the US that looks at how average users view the 100 most talked-about brands.

The reputations of the two tech giants both took a significant hit this year, falling out of the top 20 for the first time since 2009, according to the poll by market research company Harris Insights. Apple dropped from second place to 29th place; Google moved from eighth place to 28th. Neither firm appeared on the poll's list for best "products and services" either, though Amazon, LG Electronics and Microsoft did.

Apple has fallen out of favour among a dearth of exciting new products. Credit:James Alcock

The poll asked survey participants two open-ended questions: Which companies did they think had the best reputations last year? And which had the worst? The firm then took the 100 most-mentioned companies and asked more than 25,000 consumers how they view each brand on a variety of criteria including social responsibility and financial performance.

Overall, Amazon took the top spot for the third year in a row (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post). The list covers a variety of industries. This year, air bag manufacturer Takata rounded out the bottom, just below the Weinstein Company.Something significant is happening in the San Francisco Bay Area at the moment. Everyone wants to leave. That was the inescapable vibe I got on a visit to the famous city, and the sprawl that surrounds it, last week.

Locals bemoan the real estate prices in this metropolis, steep even by Australian standards. Living costs are also exorbitant - San Francisco ranked 16th in a recent list of the world's most expensive cities. (Sydney was 32nd, Melbourne 64th.) And its homelessness problem is shocking - espeicially for a town that houses vast wealth, and has served as the world's fountain of innovation.

San Francisco ranked 16th in a recent list of the world's most expensive cities.

"Success brings with it its own series of problems, and San Francisco is not immune to that," James Allworth, an Australian ex-pat who co-hosts one of the best and most influential podcasts on tech and business, told me over lunch in the city's financial district.

The onetime capital of American counter-culture now houses the establishment. The world's biggest and most powerful corporations are based there, or nearby in Silicon Valley.Would you believe we have a retailer on the ASX that has now reported eight consecutive years of record profits and it has reiterated its intent to acquire a rival retailer that is a household name.

That is where the exciting news ends for Rod Duke, the Aussie owner of Kiwi retailer Briscoe Group.

Not even the Kiwi press could get that excited about its latest earnings result this week which showed that, despite the record result, margins are shrinking in a tough retail environment.

"It was a tough year but we still managed to do record sales and record profitability," said Duke.The future of Toys 'R' Us in Australia is uncertain with about 2700 local jobs at risk if a new owner cannot be found, following the American retail giant's decision to shut up shop in the United States and Britain.

News broke overnight Australia time that Toys 'R' Us was preparing to wind-down its business and liquidate inventory in all 735 stores in the US after failing to reach a deal to restructure billions of dollars of debt.

The company's 75 stores in Britain will close within six weeks after administrators failed to find a buyer there.

The company said in a statement it would try to sell its operations in Canada, Asia and Central Europe, but made no firm comment on the future of 45 stores in Australia.Small business and family enterprise ombudsman Kate Carnell has slammed the big four banks and other lenders for their delay in complying with unfair contracts.

"It seems to be saying that compliance with the law is somehow voluntary, when you get around to it," she says. "That is simply not the case."

Kate Carnell is frustrated at delays in compliance with unfair contracts legislation. Credit: Louie Douvis

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's report on unfair contract terms and small business loans report was released on Thursday more than a year after the legislation was implemented.

The legislation extends unfair contract term protections for consumers to cover standard form small business contracts entered into or renewed after November 12, 2016.Griffiths is a young historian who yearned to get beyond the few centuries of written Australian historical records and to understand how it is that archaeologists explore the deeper past. His research took him to archaeological sites in every Australian state and territory  sometimes as camp manager and cook. Digging holes and lab-based dating methods were, Griffiths learned, only part of the process. Archaeologists also formed complex and intimate relationships with the places they researched, including with their traditional owners.

So, it has been with real interest and satisfaction that I found that these ideas are the heart of a new and wonderful book by Billy Griffiths: Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia.

A young Indigenous man recently tweeted: "been sitting at my desk all day, but I don't know that until an archaeologist tells me." I had to laugh. It was a clever swipe at the "whitesplaining" Indigenous people must have to endure from academics. But then I found myself thinking: the discovery of deep time within scientific ways of knowing has changed how Australians relate to the Indigenous past. Especially as it was made when Indigenous people were reasserting their rights to land and culture.

This approach has been integral to the 60 years of collective research that has uncovered 65,000 years of Australian Indigenous continuity and change. So it is that personalities, politics and culture have shaped how archaeologists have read Australia's ancient past. And as Griffiths ably shows us, the reverse is also true: the revelation of deep time has indeed meant a profound shift in how Australians relate to their country. Archaeology, as Griffiths put it, has made deep time dreamers of us all.

Each of Griffiths' chapters follows an individual archaeologist's relationship with a region or site across Australia. From Tasmania to the Top End, we are swept up in their passionate endeavours, achievements and occasional failures.

The journey begins in 1956 with John Mulvaney, then Australia's only trained archaeologist, struggling to form a team and even to fund a vehicle to get them into the field. I gasped in disbelief when Mulvaney calls the ABC to report that his northern Queensland dig had had a date of more than 14,000 years, only to be told it was of "no interest" to the public! As Griffiths shows us, nothing could be further from the truth. Uncovering Australia's deep past has influenced national politics, policies and identities.

Jim Bowler's almost-accidental 1969 discovery in the Willandra Lakes district of the 40,000 year-old remains of Mungo Lady was a watershed for international science, the Australian public and Indigenous people. "You have been here 200 years, we for 40,000," read placards protesting the Australian Day celebrations in 1988. The successful campaign to save Tasmania's Franklin River, which swung the 1983 Federal election in Bob Hawke's favour, depended upon the work of archaeologists dating local sites back to the last Ice Age.

And in 2017, the team at the Madjedbebe rock shelter near Kakadu confirmed that the first Australians arrived 65,000 years ago. The implications of this freshest finding cannot be underestimated, Griffiths explains, for it means reconsidering the global story of human migration.There is no old city because, as Michael Pembroke notes, the US-led forces dropped a greater tonnage of bombs during the Korean conflict than in the Pacific theatre during World War II. Pyongyang was all but obliterated, its population dropping to just 50,000 under an intense carpet bombing campaign aimed at rendering it and every other North Korean city to rubble. For good measure, this was the first war in which napalm was used extensively, although its horror would only become apparent to a wider public during the Vietnam conflict.

The 170-metre Juche tower in Pyongyang is a compulsory stop for visitors to the North Korean capital. The panorama of the entire city stretches out below. The spectacle of leaden Stalinist architecture led one among a group I was there with some years ago to ask of our guide: "Where is the old part of the city?"

Korea by Michael Pembroke.

Korea marks a failure not just of the US military but also of the US polity. Pembroke makes a fairly compelling argument that its Korea debacle has defined US engagement with the world since, also determining the length and depth of the Cold War and laying the foundations for the uncertainty that now besets North Asia and the rest of the world.

The parallels between the US stance of the 1950s and the present are eerily alarming: President Truman refused to take either the newly founded People's Republic of China or its leader Mao Zedong seriously, referring to the latter as "Mousie Dung". This combination once characterised as arrogance, condescension, naivete and racism has echoes in the more recent Donald Trump denunciation of Kim Jong-un as "Little Rocket Man".

The division of the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel at the end of World War II was a strategic bargain between the US and the USSR, an act by global powers that bore no relation to what Koreans wanted. There is no argument that North Korea subsequently invaded the South  a move that was quickly repulsed. It was the abject failure of US leadership that insisted upon punishing the North by thrusting northward to the Chinese border that precipitated the calamity that followed. This was an ideological war. By reading the USSR into the plot, the Cold War of "goodies" and "baddies" was secured.

Pembroke argues that the US manipulated the United Nations to mandate military action that would cripple the future utility of the organisation. China's intervention in Korea proved decisive and led to a shambolic retreat by the US-led forces. It also showed how massive conventional military force was not necessarily the key to battleground victory, a lesson not yet learned by the US and many of its allies."It just couldn't be any more Shakespearean," Rooney Mara muses. She plays the title role in Garth Davis' Mary Magdalene, which pieces together what is known of the life of the woman Christ arguably regarded as his most important disciple. The one thing most people "know" about Mary is she was a prostitute, but there is no evidence for this in the Bible.

The Catholic Church itself scrubbed that idea in 1969, but that didn't pass into common knowledge. Mary Magdalene, sinner turned saint, remained marginalised. Which makes this her #timesup moment. "It's unbelievable, the timing," Mara says. "Because we filmed this over a year ago. We could never have guessed just how timely it was going to be."

Rooney Mara plays Mary Magdalene in the new Garth Davis film. Credit:Transmission Films

Even now, circumstances are conspiring to keep Magdalene in her place: the film was produced by the Weinstein Company. "And just because the film is tied up with the Weinsteins means that the film may not get a release in the United States," Mara says. "This film about a woman whose story has been completely tarnished, kept quiet for thousands of years, finally is going to be told and because the man who makes the movie gets exposed for who he is, her story still might not get out there. It's pretty Shakespearean."

Time was when Mara was such a reluctant interviewee she would say almost nothing in the space of half an hour, but she's fired up by this subject. She was raised a Catholic in a huge Irish-Italian family. "Think every stereotype in existence!" she once said in an unusually expansive moment. At school she was taught by nuns and there was church on Sundays. Reading the script that draws on the Gospel of Mary, a text rediscovered by Western scholars at the end of the last century, Mara realised how little she knew."If I'm being truthful, a lot of it is still the repercussions of losing him," Hayes says. "That's still, all these years on, coming out on this album. And it could easily pop up on another album. A lot of [my lyrics] are about me working through my confusion, looking for connection."

The father of BRMC bassist/vocalist Robert Levon Been died of a heart attack in 2010, at Belgium's Pukkelpop festival, where he was working as a sound tech for the band.

Going through such a traumatic event could have influenced the new album, but when guitarist/vocalist Pete Hayes listens to Wrong Creatures, he hears echoes of a different trauma, still lingering from the past: the death of the band's "best friend and father figure, Michael Been".

Wrong Creatures, the fifth album for psych-rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, marks their first since 2013's Specter at the Feast. In that five-year interim, drummer Leah Shapiro had brain surgery to remove structural abnormalities.

Hayes also confesses that lyrics are not his forte. Speaking from Montreal, where BRMC are touring and snow is piled high outside, the 42-year-old is softly-spoken, almost shy. His main tool of expression, he thinks, is his guitar, not his singing voice.

"It's not so much the words," he admits, with a quiet chuckle. "I find myself trying to not get too wordy [with lyrics], so I don't struggle to remember what I'm trying to say. I don't have a big enough vocabulary, for one thing. I'm not looking to learn big words to explain what I'm feeling. But, musically, I find that that's where the connection gets a bit deeper. I'm able to express emotion better through sound ... you just go with the emotion of the melody. Language can get in the way."

Setting out to work on Wrong Creatures, the trio didn't have grand ambitions. "We never come at it with a big vision, it's more like 'hopefully we can scratch some songs together, and hopefully they make sense together as an album'," Hayes says.

The tunes all are thick with noise and propulsive with rock'n'roll swagger; born, most often, in long, loud jam sessions. "A lot of the songs start out as hour-long jams, you have to whittle that down to five minutes," Hayes says. This means that, as B-sides and "extra tracks", the San Francisco band has a whole bunch of leftovers that veer closer to sheer noise. "At the end of the day, you're just really hoping that you've got songs, you know what I mean?" Hayes says.

The goal of any BRMC album is to "capture the energy" of their stage show. With that done, the band get to hit the road, revel in the joys of performing. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are one of those bands that hits hardest on stage, and Hayes loves how every show is different, songs never remaining the same.Last week, I got trapped inside my pants.

It was Oscars day and also the opening night of the Melbourne Fashion Festival, so you might say things were a little hectic.

Even expensive clothes can have cheap and weak zips. Credit:Shutterstock

That morning, I pulled on my polkadot culottes, fresh from the dry cleaner, and set off to work.

After three hours of red carpet coverage, I got up for a bathroom break, before commencing to write my report for the next days paper.Betsy DeVos, U.S. secretary of education. As Australia reckons with its own culture of abuse and harassment on university residential college campuses, the battle to target sexual assault perpetrated by and against students continues in Americas tertiary institutions. In a widely panned interview aired recently on 60 Minutes, the US Secretary for Education Betsy DeVos announced that one sexual assault [on campus] is one too many, and one falsely accused individual is one too many. DeVos isnt wrong. False allegations of sexual assault are inexcusable. Not only do they severely impact the life of the person falsely accused, they make it more difficult for survivors of sexual assault to come forward. The problem is that DeVos is using the asymmetrical comparison of sexual assault versus false allegations to justify her attacks on Title IX, an important federal law created specifically to prevent sexual discrimination in American universities and one that oversees how reports of sexual assault are investigated. In reality, false rape allegations account for roughly 2-6 percent of all criminal reports, a statistic that accords almost exactly with false reports made for numerous other crimes. But unlike car theft and home invasions, incidents of rape go mostly unreported which means that false allegations are actually comparatively significantly lower. DeVos appears completely ignorant of this reality though; during this same 60 Minutes interview, she was asked if she was suggesting that the number of false reports was the same as the number of actual assaults. I dont know, she replied. But it doesnt matter that DeVos has no idea what shes talking about, particularly when it comes to the statistics on sexual assault. By asserting the stance of symmetrical correlation as she has, she not only affirms the widely held (and grossly incorrect) view that sexual assault and false allegations are roughly on par, she also makes campuses even less hospitable for the students who still struggle to have their reports taken seriously.

There are more insidious actions at work here. DeVos (who was appointed by Trump to the role of Education Secretary, despite having no apparent experience in the field) launched her attack back in September 2017 on new guidelines introduced to Title IX by the Obama administration. She consulted in part with mens rights groups, including the National Coalition for Men which has been accused in the past of publishing the names and photographs of sexual assault survivors on social media. As Randi Weingarten wrote for Think shortly after in October, As a result of this reversal of Title IX protections, undergraduates who are sexually assaulted will once again face a second assault in the form of victim-blaming and intimidation, for no reason other than to shield perpetrators and bolster the arguments of rape deniers who have long minimised and excused these violent crimes. Its important to challenge victim blaming rhetoric on issues of campus assault not just because perpetuating it makes things less safe for those more likely to be victimised, but because interrupting a pattern of sexual violence actually stops predators. It is not beneficial to anyone to pretend that sexual assault is something only Evil Monsters do. Sexual assault is a crime that is made easier to perpetrate by the culture of silence, victim blaming, entitlement and sexism that surrounds it. And contrary to what most people want to believe, most rapists are able to move through the world without being detected or even suspected. In 2009, Stephanie McWhorter conducted a longitudinal study of sexual behaviours with a sample of 1146 newly enlisted men in the US Navy, beginning from the age of 14. Of this sample, 144 men (13 per cent) admitted to attempting or completing a rape. Within this group of self admitted rapists, 71 per cent admitted to being repeat offenders with an average of 6.36 assaults each. Together, this group were responsible for just over 800 rapes. The vast majority were perpetrated against a victim who was intoxicated while a quarter involved force. Overall, one sixth of these rapes involved a combination of the two.While much has been written about Professor Stephen Hawking's contributions to science and his value as a role model on how to tackle adversity, it is equally important to celebrate his humanity, vice-like grip on reality, concern for others and just plain common sense.

The celebrated academic, who faced up to profound physical and medical challenges with an unsurpassed level of stoicism and grace, never allowed himself to become trapped in an ivory tower even after his body became a prison for what many have called a beautiful mind.

Like Einstein, Professor Hawking's active interest in the world around him extended to questions about the purpose of human intelligence itself and whether or not humanity would survive.

His view on the first was ambitious: "My goal... is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all".A Canberra judge has warned two parents charged with child neglect he will lock them up if they don't engage with authorities.

The pair - who cannot be named because it would identify the child  pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court last year to causing grievous bodily harm by negligent or unlawful act or omission.

The father, 45, and mother, 23, had been due to face a sentencing hearing before Justice John Burns on Thursday, but the matter had to be adjourned because they had failed to attend court ordered appointments so alcohol and drug assessment and pre-sentence reports could be completed.

Defence lawyers told the court the parents had not missed the appointments in a bid to delay proceedings, but rather lacked the ability to manage time effectively.

The court heard the father's lack of "sophistication" meant he had not fully comprehended the timeframes involved, while the mother suffered from debilitating depression which often saw her bedridden.A Labor government would establish a national petrol commission to monitor and investigate price gouging and collusion by oil companies, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has promised.

Mr Rudd said the body would operate within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), under the direction of a special commissioner.

The petrol commissioner, who would be answerable to the ACCC commissioner, would work full time going after oil companies which keep prices artificially high.

Instead of the ACCC relying on its informal price monitoring powers and using only publicly available information, Labor would provide specific powers to the petrol commissioner to get into the companies and check their documentation.

"We will make sure they use those formal powers which are currently only available if the prime minister or the treasurer direct them," Mr Rudd told Network Ten.There is no way Peter Eklund could be described as a blue-blooded toff who exploits a loophole in the tax system to rip off Australian battlers. But that is what Bill Shorten would have you believe about this man and others who will pay for Labors new $59 billion revenue grab.

Eklund trained as an electrician and worked at a coal mine until he was made redundant when he was 55. He took casual jobs for four years but found the options ran out around his home town of Rockhampton.

Illustration: Simon Letch Credit:

Now, at age 61, he is a self-funded retiree who has to live on his savings. He and his wife, after raising three children, rely on their bank deposits and shares to get by. Their incomes are less than $18,200 each, which means they are below the tax-free threshold.

This is not a picture of a couple of carefree retirees who splash their government cash on trips to a Pacific island. Yes, Eklund has about $110,000 in shares, mostly Telstra and NAB. Yes, the dividends are an important income. And, yes, they get a cash refund from the Australian Tax Office every year under the dividend imputation rules that have been in place for almost two decades.The national sergeant-at-arms of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang has been charged after police raids uncovered more than 85kg of drugs, hydrogen chloride gas cylinders and a clandestine drug lab in a disused bus.

Martin Klein, 35, was arrested by Strike Force Creswell investigators early on Wednesday evening after he attended a storage cage in residential car park in Kellyville Ridge that was the subject of a police search warrant.

The raids, which stretched from Sydney's inner west to Tarago, just outside of Goulburn, uncovered 17.4kg of methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) pills, 1.7kg of powder, believed to be cocaine; and more than 67kg of powders, believed to be MDA, illicit drugs, and assorted precursors.

By Thursday afternoon, search warrants had been executed at the storage cage, a unit in the same complex, a home in Beaumont Hills, a local business in Drummoyne and a property outside of Tarago, where a clandestine laboratory was located in a disused bus.An investigation into Brisbanes suspected pet dingoes has proved owners misclassified their dogs on council documents.

Fairfax Media last month revealed six Australian dingoes were registered as current on a publicly available Brisbane City Council data sheet that had last been updated on October 18, 2017.

A council investigation has revealed six suspected dingoes registered as pets are not actually dingoes.

The suspected dingoes were registered to addresses in Murarrie, Bardon, Chelmer, Ashgrove, Tingalpa and Bald Hills.

In Queensland, dingoes are considered restricted invasive animals and cannot legally be kept as a pet.A man has been arrested and charged by Gold Coast police twice within 24 hours, after allegedly sparking an emergency at a highrise building before making threats at a nearby school.

An emergency situation was declared in Surfers Paradise on Wednesday afternoon after bystanders reported seeing a man carrying what appeared to be a gun and watched him walk into the Beachcomber Resort about 3.45pm, according to police.

Police took a man into custody and revoked the emergency declaration just before 5pm on Wednesday. Credit:Isabelle Mullen - Twitter

An emergency situation was declared about 4.10pm, with several of the rooms inside the Hanlan Street building evacuated and people in nearby units also told to leave as a precaution.

Police said the man was seen going up to a room in the building, where a 33-year-old woman and four-year-old child were also staying.A live weapons testing range, the latest high-tech security, an all-weather vehicle test track and specialty laser-testing equipment will all be in place when Australias latest centre for military vehicles opens at the Redbank Industrial Estate in 2020.

Small and medium gauge ammunition and explosives will be stored at a purpose-built armoury on the site and fire treatment facilities will be the very latest, because of the high threat of fire at a military complex.

A Rheinmetall military vehicle plant in the Netherlands very similar to one to be built at Redbank in Ipswich. Credit:Rheinmetall

The weapons testing range is to test and adjust the 30-millimetre cannon and machinegun equipped to new Boxer CRV armoured vehicles manufactured by Rheinmetall, which on Wednesday won a $5 billion defence contract from the Australian government.

The development application for the project contains a special report on risks and hazards for the site on Robert Smith Drive at Redbank, including the high risk of fire.A search and rescue operation is underway off the coast of Port Hedland on Thursday morning after a helicopter ditched into the ocean.

The helicopter, which had two people on board, crashed about 35 kilometres north of Port Hedland on its way to collect a marine pilot from an iron ore bulk carrier and bring them back to the harbour.

The trainee helicopter pilot was from Aviator Group, a company which specialises in marine pilot transfers. Credit:Aviator Group

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, who is coordinating the search, said one of the helicopter's crew has been retrieved from the ocean alive while searches continued for the trainee pilot.

"The marine pilot on board the MV Squireship witnessed the helicopter ditch into the water and immediately notified harbour control, which in turn advised AMSA just before midnight local time," an AMSA spokesman said.WAs Health Minister Roger Cook has stayed silent on whether he will heed his departments call to set a target for reducing childhood obesity.

The government tasked WA Health to begin the Sustainable Health Review soon after the 2017 election as part of a commitment to get runaway health spending under control.

While the review team is not due to make its final report until November, it has released an interim report, with a list of preliminary directions and recommendations for immediate action.

The report listed prevention as the number one priority in its list of preliminary directions, saying the state needed to keep people healthy and get serious about prevention".

It recommended the Department of Health immediately take a leadership role in development of whole-of-government targets, commencing with childhood obesity.The Prime Minister's invitation to principals to tackle bullying is welcome on this National Day of Action against Violence and Bullying.

"Bullying and violence has no place in Australia," Mr Turnbull said when announcing extra funding to schools to tackle the problem. His interest is welcome.

We must continue to fight bullying. Credit:Janie Barrett

It may be an inconvenient truth, but bullying is not only found in schools; it is commonplace in the institutions of our everyday life, from workplaces to our roads, even to our parliaments.

Children are moulded as much by what they learn in school as through observation of others. All adults  parents, teachers, bosses, politicians - have a responsibility to set an example to our young people. Those in public life who belittle and insult each other, their behaviour channelled onto your screens, have an obligation to help stamp out this menace by addressing their own conduct."It's madness. You do not put your hand in the pocket of voters one week out from a byelection, no matter the demographic or how far you're reaching into their pockets."

A Labor insider is speaking of both anger and fear bubbling within the federal opposition party as it heads to the already fraught byelection of Batman, the long-time Labor seat in Melbournes inner north that is under serious assault by The Greens.

Though no one will put their name publicly to it, many Labor strategists are dumb-founded by Bill Shortens decision, just a few days from the poll, to announce a policy that abolishes cash-back share dividend imputation, stopping tax refunds being paid to more than 1 million Australian retirees and shareholders who don't pay tax on their income.

Shorten and his finance spokespeople appear to have gambled that young Greens and so-called rusted on older Labor voters who dominate the electorate either side of Bell Street - the much ballyhooed hipster-proof fence - either feel they wont be hit by the policy or will be attracted to the sales pitch of get the fat cats and redistribute the money for services.Malcolm Turnbull is urging Asian leaders to expand a regional trade alliance at a time of growing protectionism in the United States, singling out Indonesia and Thailand as two countries that could commit to a deal.

The Prime Minister told Fairfax Media he absolutely wanted to encourage more neighbours to sign up to the Trans Pacific Partnership as he hosts 10 regional leaders at a rare summit in Sydney this weekend.

But progress on regional security appears more difficult as leaders consider whether to use the special summit to send a sharper message to Beijing about the build-up of military bases in the South China Sea.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Trade will be a priority at the gathering of the Association of South East Asian Nations in the wake of US president Donald Trumps shock decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium.Why are the leaders of south-east Asia holding their summit in Australia for the first time? Malcolm Turnbull invited them because Australia is feeling more insecure in the world than at any time since World War II.

With a mad king in the White House castle and with an unconstrained China breaking international rules, Australia is casting about for security. South-east Asia could be Australia's last best option.

And its leaders agreed to come because they are feeling every bit as edgy, and some of them much more so.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has thrown his support behind Australia joining ASEAN. Credit:Jefri Tarigan

Vietnam, for instance, is in a state of high alert against Chinese maritime territory-grabbing. Last week it hosted a US aircraft carrier for the first time since the Vietnam War.The Opposition leader, Luke Foley, has ruled out knocking down and rebuilding two Sydney stadiums if Labor wins government and would only do "modest refurbishments".

Mr Foley's comments came as the government voted to release documents relating to the controversial policy, including any cost benefit analysis, safety audits and correspondence with sporting codes.

"We won't have a bar of spending $2.7 billion on knocking down two perfectly functional stadiums and building new ones in their place," Mr Foley said.

"We won't be knocking down and rebuilding either Moore Park (Allianz) or Olympic Park (ANZ) stadium because there are much greater priorities for NSW."Mr Turnbull has invited president Jokowi to dinner at his home tomorrow night ahead of the two-day summit, the first time Australia has hosted an ASEAN leaders' meeting. The president said the private dinner "means we are very close; this means there is mutual respect". The Indonesian leader said he was not sure whether Australian membership of ASEAN would be supported by the other members of the bloc, the chief political and economic grouping of South East Asia for the past 51 years. The president also threw his weight behind finalising the delayed Indonesia-Australia free trade deal, possibly as soon as this weekend. "I will push my ministers", he said. Loading

He also left open the possibility of reviving a Keating-era security pact while stressing the close relationship between the two nations. Former prime minister Paul Keating, who has long argued for full Australian membership of ASEAN, said Australia could bring skills and expertise in foreign policy to the grouping. I have always believed that our nearest, largest neighbour was the one most likely to see the sense and the benefit of Australia joining ASEAN. I am very gratified to hear that President Jokowi has said what he has said. In doing so, he has underlined and confirmed my faith in Indonesia as one of our greatest friends, and so singularly important to us. Joko Widodo addresses residents in Serang, Banten, accompanied by the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Wimboh Santoso, and the head of Indonesian Ulema Council Ma'ruf Amin. Credit:Amilia Rosa

ASEAN is headquartered in Indonesia, its biggest member. ASEAN's other nine members are Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. In 2002, the then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad thwarted John Howard's attempts to engage more deeply with ASEAN, while the then Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri expressed reservations too. Earlier this week, former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa  a friend of Australia's  said the membership question was a distraction, while former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said in 2017 that Australia couldn't join because it's just "not Southeast Asian". ANU Indonesia expert Dr Greg Fealy said: "The question is whether the other ASEAN countries would agree. ASEAN works on consensus so if you don't get universal agreement it won't happen." On the eve of the historic ASEAN-Australia summit in Sydney President Jokowi said that only technical details of the delayed free trade agreement between Australia and Indonesia remained to be settled.

"The bilateral relationship with Australia is very strong, very strong," he said. He had originally called for it to be completed by the end of last year. On the defence pact struck in 1995 by Mr Keating and former president Suharto  which marked an historic high point in relations between the two nations  President Jokowi chose his words carefully but did not rule reviving such a close arrangement. Fairfax reporter James Massola interviews President Jokowi. Credit:Jefri Tarigan I think it depends on the government. If we want to make our relations stronger, its always from the government, always from the leaders. Im sure if the communication is like now, we wont have a problem in our relations.

The president also praised the close co-operation on counter-terrorism between the two nations. The President and Prime Minister had spoken regularly on the phone, Mr Jokowi said, to resolve issues such as the threat posed by Islamic extremists who last year seized the Philippines city of Marawi. We have good cooperation on Marawi, not only with Australia but also with Malaysia, with the Philippines, with Brunei. You know that no country is invulnerable from terrorism or extremism. However, in Indonesia, pluralism and tolerance has always been in our DNA. He dismissed the idea that Indonesia faced a growing threat from foreign fighters returning from the battle front in Syria or Iraq, following the defeat of Islamic State. No, no. We are the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. We have 220 million Muslims in Indonesia. I think if theres only one, two or three people do this, it is very small, it is very small. We are modern Muslims, tolerant Muslims, moderate Muslims compared with other countries, he said.

ANU professor Michael Wesley cautioned that ASEAN was an organisation that dealt in consensus but President Jokowis comments were a significant development". While Indonesia is the biggest country and the leader of ASEAN, he would have a harder job to convince other countries, Singapore and Malaysia in particular, that Australia would form a useful part of ASEAN. Geo-political and economic trends are bringing Australia and ASEAN together in much more powerful ways than ever before. It is inevitable and probably a little late that Australia is waking up to the importance of ASEAN. President Jokowi will face a presidential election in April 2019 but unofficial campaigning is effectively already under way. He is due to choose a candidate for vice-president by August and his decision will be made against the backdrop of rising influence of more conservative Islamic theology on electoral politics in his country.Stockholm: North Korea's foreign minister will visit Sweden on Thursday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said, prompting speculation that the two-day trip could lay the groundwork for a mooted meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho. Credit:AP

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was due to discuss with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom the security situation on the Korean peninsula and Sweden's representation of the United States, which has no embassy in Pyongyang, the ministry said.

News of the meeting coincided with comments by the US Pacific Command, who said the United States could not be overly optimistic about the outcome of any summit and must go into it with "eyes wide open."

Admiral Harry Harris told the Senate Armed Services Committee he believed the United States would stick to its demand for the "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisaton" of the Korean peninsula.Paris: A French judge has issued an international arrest warrant for the daughter of Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz in relation to an attack by her bodyguard against a worker in her Parisian flat, a source close to the investigation said.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz. Credit:New York Times

Princess Hassa bint Salman is the sister of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and is wanted for questioning related to armed violence, kidnapping, theft and death threats relating to a member of her security team, the source said.

The warrant, which was issued in December, comes at a sensitive time in French-Saudi relations.

Under former president Francois Hollande, France nurtured closer ties with Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states, in particular Saudi Arabia, due to its tough stance on Iran in nuclear negotiations.Riyadh: Saudi Arabia will develop nuclear weapons if its arch-rival Iran does so, the kingdom's crown prince said in remarks released on Thursday, raising the prospect of a nuclear arms race in a region already riven with conflict.

Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's crown prince. Credit:Bloomberg

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in a 60 Minutes interview that will air in the United States on Sunday.

He also reiterated previous comments he has made likening Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Hitler.

"He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler, who wanted to expand at the time," the prince says in the interview.Los Angeles: President Donald Trump woke up in the land of earthquakes in California on Wednesday morning, but he was 4000kms away from the tremor that was shaking his party.

While the President hobnobbed with wealthy donors in the enclave of Beverly Park on Tuesday night, the voters in the suburbs south of Pittsburgh were in revolt, the Democrats were claiming victory in a Pennsylvania congressional election seen as a referendum on Trump's performance.

Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former Marine, scored a razor-thin but extraordinary upset in a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania after a few thousand absentee ballots cemented a Democratic victory in the heart of Trump's Rust Belt base.

The Republican candidate, Rick Saccone, may still contest the outcome, but Lamb's 627-vote lead Wednesday afternoon appeared insurmountable, given that the four counties in Pennsylvania's 18th district have about 500 provisional, military and other absentee ballots left to count.

Just as they did outside Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, in December, and Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, DC, in November, energised and angry suburban voters were swamping the Trump stalwarts in the more rural parts of those regions, sending a clear message to Republicans around the country.A transatlantic stock market giant made its trading debut Wednesday as the newly-merged market operator NYSE Euronext listed in Paris and New York at an initial reference price of 75.61 euros.

Created at the end of March, the stock market group boasted a market value of 19.32 billion euros (25.81 billion US dollars), making it the world's largest listed exchange group based on the opening price for the combined share on Euronext Paris.

At a launch ceremony at the Paris stock exchange it made no secret of its global ambitions and its plan to move on to Asia.

"NYSE Euronext is the global leader and we have significant business opportunities ahead of us," John Thain, the group's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"We have 78 of the top 100 largest companies in the world listed on NYSE Euronext markets, and we will continue to expand our global footprint and offer our customers a wider variety of trading products and services.Maple Gold targets New Discovery with diamond drilling now underway at the NE Syenite Target

Posted by Publisher Internet

Montreal (Quebec): Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (?Maple Gold? or the ?Company?) (TSX-V: MGM, OTCQB: MGMLF; Frankfurt: M3G  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmDlWCznkI&t=8s) is pleased to announce that a drill rig has arrived and is now turning at the NE Syenite Target, where the Company plans to complete approximately 10 drill-holes during the current campaign. The virtually untested NE Syenite Target includes the same host rocks as much of the current resource area and covers an area approximately the same size (6 km by ~2 km).

The syenite to the NE of the resource area was not documented on government geological maps.? However, previous work from past operators at the Douay Gold Project included a top-of-bedrock drilling program in the NE Syenite Target area back in the 1980s. The results of this program along with a diamond drill-hole from 1989 helped define this high-priority target area (see Target Details section) approximately 2.5 km to the northeast of the resource area (see Figure 1).

Maple Gold?s President & CEO, Matthew Hornor, stated: ?Starting the drilling at the NE Syenite target has been something we?ve all been highly anticipating. This is a totally new area on the project with a very intriguing greenfields target. We appreciate the additional risk that goes with greenfields drilling, but we are following the discovery model and the magnitude of this target area and potential impact on future resources makes the potential reward very compelling.?

NE Syenite Target Details

In 1989, about 15 shallow ?top-of-bedrock? RC holes were drilled in the general NE Syenite area. This appears to have been followed by a north-south fence of two diamond drill holes completed in the same year by Gowest Amalgamated Resources. The northernmost hole, G-89-1, cut 148m of mafic tuff and syenite, i.e. very similar geology to parts of Maple Gold?s current Resource Area. ?

Only five (5) samples were taken in these two holes. Maple Gold believes that the lack of sampling in the 1989 drill holes may reflect a lack of understanding of intrusive-related gold systems at that time, as this style of mineralization was really only defined in the 1990s. At the time of drilling in 1989, most companies were looking for high-grade orogenic gold systems (shear zone hosted gold-quartz veins). Drilling has now commenced at the NE Syenite Target (pictured below), with approximately 10 drill-holes planned for this virtually untested target.

Maple Gold also recently began its own campaign of ?top-of-bedrock? drilling to explore for additional syenitic intrusive complexes in the western part of the property; new target areas generated from this work are expected to be diamond drilled in subsequent drill campaigns.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical data contained in this press release was reviewed and prepared under the supervision of Fred Speidel, M. Sc, P. Geo., Vice-President Exploration, of Maple Gold.?Mr. Speidel is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.?Mr. Speidel has verified the data related to the exploration information disclosed in this news release through his direct participation in the work.

About Maple Gold

Maple Gold is a well-funded gold exploration company focused on advancing a district-scale gold project in one of the world?s premier mining jurisdictions. The Company?s 370 km? Douay Gold Project is located along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone within the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec, Canada. The Project has an established gold resource that remains open in multiple directions, with excellent infrastructure and several large scale operating mines within this prolific mining district. Maple Gold has a significant drill campaign under way to expand on the known Resource Areas and test new discovery targets within the Company?s 55 km of strike along the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone. For more information please visit www.maplegoldmines.com.

ON BEHALF OF MAPLE GOLD MINES LTD.

?Matthew Hornor?

B. Matthew Hornor, President & CEO

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains ?forward-looking information\ and ?forward-looking statements? (collectively referred to as ?forward-looking statements?) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation in Canada. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management?s best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company?s expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the mineral resource estimate, including statements regarding contained ounces, optimal cut-off grade and average gold grade, as well as statements regarding upcoming exploration programs. When used herein, words such as ?anticipate?, ?will?, ?intend? and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are based on certain estimates, expectations, analysis and opinions that management believed reasonable at the time they were made or in certain cases, on third party expert opinions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, and uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual events, results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future events, results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Maple Gold Mines Ltd.?s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company?s website at www.maplegoldmines.com. 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.First Cobalt Announces Friendly Acquisition of US Cobalt

Posted by Publisher Internet

First Cobalt Corp. (TSX-V: FCC, ASX: FCC, OTCQB: FTSSF) (\First Cobalt\  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db8vIJ5fkO8&t=1s) and US Cobalt Inc. (TSX-V: USCO, OTCQB: USCFF) (\US Cobalt\) are pleased to announce they have entered into a definitive agreement (the \Arrangement Agreement\) whereby First Cobalt will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of US Cobalt pursuant to a plan of arrangement (the \Transaction\), further enhancing First Cobalt\-\-s position as a pure-play North American cobalt company.

Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, all of the US Cobalt issued and outstanding common shares will be exchanged on the basis of 1.5 First Cobalt common shares for each US Cobalt common share issued and outstanding (the \Exchange Ratio\). The Exchange Ratio represents a 61.8% premium to US Cobalt\-\-s closing price and a 58.5% premium based on both companies\-\- 5-day volume-weighted average trading prices, both as at March 13, 2018. As part of the Transaction, it is expected that (a) all US Cobalt stock options outstanding will be replaced with First Cobalt stock options and be exercisable for First Cobalt shares based on the Exchange Ratio for the remainder of their original term, and (b) all US Cobalt warrants outstanding will participate in the Transaction on a comparable basis to holders of US Cobalt common shares based on the in-the-money portion of those securities. This implies a total equity value of approximately $149.9 million on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis.

Upon completion of the Transaction, existing First Cobalt and US Cobalt shareholders will own approximately 62.5% and 37.5% of the combined company respectively, on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis, assuming all US Cobalt options and warrants are exercised prior to completion of the Transaction.

Transaction Highlights

Clean Cobalt: Strategically positions First Cobalt as a leading non-DRC cobalt company with North American projects located in close proximity to infrastructure as well as electric vehicle and technology hubs such as Michigan and California

Vertically Integrated: Pure-play North American cobalt company with three significant North American assets

1. Ontario: 50 historic mines across 100 km2 in the Canadian Cobalt Camp

2. Idaho: Iron Creek Cobalt Project in the U.S. with a historic mineral resource estimate (non-compliant with NI 43-101) of 1.3M tons grading 0.59% cobalt

3. Refinery: The only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials

Revaluation Opportunity: Combined entity will have an enhanced capital markets profile with a global institutional shareholder base, a strong balance sheet and a proven management team

Trent Mell, First Cobalt President and CEO commented,

\We foresee a shortage of cobalt over the next five years yet there are few companies doing significant work to identify new sources of supply. This transaction creates a larger platform to discover and develop cobalt projects for the growing electric vehicle market by combining high quality North American assets in two of the best cobalt jurisdictions outside the DRC. US Cobalt\-\-s Idaho project complements our Canadian Cobalt Camp properties, offering upside potential for shareholders of both companies. We view the First Cobalt Refinery as a strategic asset as it is the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials. We look forward to working with the US Cobalt technical team as they complete drilling in support of a maiden mineral resource estimate expected later in 2018.\

US Cobalt CEO Wayne Tisdale commented,

\The transaction offers our shareholders an opportunity to benefit from a larger North American cobalt company with a portfolio of high quality assets and a strong balance sheet. US Cobalt shareholders will have meaningful ownership in a vertically integrated pure-play cobalt company with a proven and experienced management team that shares our commitment to creating long-term sustainable value. We are very proud of what the US Cobalt team has accomplished in a very short period of time. We look forward to advancing our original vision that demand for ethically-sourced cobalt is just beginning.\

Benefits to First Cobalt Shareholders

Acquisition of a high quality asset in the Idaho Cobalt Belt with excellent near-term resource potential

Strengthens and de-risks portfolio of assets with the addition of an advanced exploration project with a historic non-compliant resource estimate

Opportunity to leverage the First Cobalt refinery through exposure to projects in two jurisdictions

Aligns with First Cobalt\-\-s strategy of growing its presence in North America

Benefits to US Cobalt Shareholders

Immediate and significant premium of approximately 61.8% based on the prior day closing price, and 58.5% based on the 5-day VWAPs of both companies

US Cobalt shareholders will maintain a meaningful position in First Cobalt, allowing for upside participation as First Cobalt progresses with exploration and development projects

US Cobalt shareholders will benefit from the increased size and liquidity of the combined company

Combined company has significant revaluation potential as a vertically integrated pure-play cobalt company with assets outside the DRC

US Cobalt exploration team joins a First Cobalt senior management team with significant experience in exploration, development and operations across various jurisdictions with a history of creating shareholder value

Transaction Summary

The Transaction will be completed pursuant to a plan of arrangement. The Transaction will require approval by two thirds of the votes cast at a special meeting of US Cobalt shareholders expected to be held in May 2018 with the Transaction expected to close by the end of May 2018. The directors and senior officers of US Cobalt, representing approximately 6.7% of the outstanding US Cobalt common shares, have entered into voting support agreements, pursuant to which they will vote their common shares held in favour of the Transaction.

In addition to securityholder and court approvals, the Transaction is subject to applicable regulatory approvals, including acceptance by the TSX-V, and the satisfaction of certain other closing conditions customary for a transaction of this nature. The Arrangement Agreement includes customary deal protections, including non-solicitation covenants, including a $5.5 million termination fee payable by either party under certain customary circumstances.

First Cobalt has agreed to appoint a US Cobalt nominee to its Board of Directors effective at the closing of the Transaction.

Full details of the Transaction will be included in the meeting materials which are expected to be mailed to the shareholders of US Cobalt in April 2018.

Board of Directors\-\- Recommendations

The Arrangement Agreement has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of First Cobalt and US Cobalt. The Board of Directors of US Cobalt recommends that its shareholders vote in favour of the Transaction.

The Board of Directors of US Cobalt has received opinions from each of Fort Capital Partners and Eight Capital Corp. that, based upon and subject to the assumptions, limitations, and qualifications stated in each such opinion, the consideration to be received by US Cobalt shareholders (other than First Cobalt) pursuant to the Transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to such US Cobalt shareholders.

Advisors and Counsel

Canaccord Genuity Corp. acted as financial advisor to First Cobalt. Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP acted as legal counsel to First Cobalt. Fort Capital Partners acted as financial advisor to US Cobalt and has provided a fairness opinion to the US Cobalt Board of Directors. Eight Capital Corp. has provided a second fairness opinion to the US Cobalt Board of Directors. Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP acted as legal counsel to US Cobalt.

About First Cobalt

First Cobalt assets include almost half of the historic mining properties in the Cobalt Camp in Ontario, Canada. First Cobalt controls 50 historic mines over 10,000 hectares as well as a mill and the only permitted cobalt refinery in North America capable of producing battery materials. First Cobalt began drilling in the Cobalt Camp in 2017 and seeks to build shareholder value through new discovery and growth opportunities.

About US Cobalt

US Cobalt is an exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of deposits of production grade metal which are critical components to power storage solutions including lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and consumer electronics. US Cobalt\-\-s key assets are located in Idaho and Utah.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, \forwardlooking statements\) within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as \plans\, \expects\-\-, \estimates\, \intends\, \anticipates\, \believes\ or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results \may\, \could\, \would\, \might\, \occur\ or \be achieved\. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements. In particular, forward-looking information included in this news release includes, without limitation, assumptions and expectations with regard to the Transaction and its completion and the anticipated benefits and advantages of the Transaction, the future prospects of the combined company, including the resource potential of the Iron Creek Cobalt Project, the opportunity to leverage the First Cobalt refinery, and the revaluation potential of the combined company. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth in the management discussion and analysis and other disclosures of risk factors for each of First Cobalt and US Cobalt, filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although First Cobalt and US Cobalt believe that the information and assumptions used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, First Cobalt and US Cobalt disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Historic Estimates

US Cobalt considers the cobalt and copper tonnage and grade estimates above as historical estimates. The 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. They 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 US 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 Iron Creek property. US Cobalt has not undertaken any independent investigation of the historical estimates nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the accuracy of the information. US Cobalt believes that the historical estimates are relevant to continuing exploration on the Iron Creek property.Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then thunderstorms developing late. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then thunderstorms developing late. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.Stephen Hawking discussed why we should go to space on April 21, 2008, at George Washington University in Washington as part of a lecture series for NASA's 50th anniversary.

The death of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, reported today (March 14), prompted accolades from across NASA, including from its acting administrator and many astronauts.

Robert Lightfoot, NASA's acting administrator, spoke about Hawking's career in a statement on the NASA website.

"Today, the world lost a giant among men, whose impact cannot be overstated. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Stephen Hawking. Stephen's breakthroughs in the fields of physics and astronomy not only changed how we view the cosmos, but also has played, and will continue to play, a pivotal role in shaping NASA's efforts to explore our solar system and beyond. [Scientists and the Public Remember Stephen Hawking]

"Along with groundbreaking and inspiring work came another attribute that made Stephen a hero not just to younger generations, but also to his peers," he continued. "A longtime friend to NASA, Stephen was a passionate communicator who wanted to share the excitement of discovery with all. His loss is felt around the world by all he inspired with his work and his personal story of perseverance."

Astronaut Karen Nyberg, who was on the International Space Station for six months in 2013 as part of Expedition 36/37, tweeted a picture of Earth along with a quote from Hawking. "It is such a simple image with a compelling message. One planet. One human race," the quote from Hawking read. Nyberg added, "RIP Stephen Hawking. May you continue to inspire through curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom."

"A true visionary has passed...his wisdom is a gift for our future," added astronaut Drew Feustel on Twitter. Feustel, a veteran of two spaceflights (STS-125, STS-134), is expected to launch to the International Space Station as part of Expedition 55/56 on March 21; he will command Expedition 56.

Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a year off-planet between 2015 and 2016 as part of Expeditions 43-46, also tweeted about Hawking's passing. "A loss for all humanity. #RIP Stephen Hawking," said Kelly, who also was a part of STS-103, STS-118 and Expeditions 25/26.

"So sad to hear of the passing of #StephenHawkingRIP," tweeted former space shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino, who participated in the shuttle missions STS-109 and STS-125; the latter was the last mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. "He truly changed the way we see the universe," Massimino said.

"Stephen Hawking told us about the universe; Craig Mack told the universe about us. Both are missed," tweeted astronaut Victor Glover; Mack was a rap icon who passed away yesterday at age 46.

Other former NASA astronauts also chimed in (this list doesn't include the astronauts who retweeted quotes from other sources):

"#RIP Stephen Hawking. Thank you for your contributions to our world."  Clayton Anderson (STS-117, ISS 15/16, STS-131)

"Today we lost a great scientist and human being! Rest In Peace. Hoy perdimos un gran cientifico y ser humano. Que descanse en paz."  Jose Hernandez (STS-128)

"Stephen Hawking taught the world about the universe. He also taught me about patience. I met him once and it was a day I will never forget."  Mark Kelly (STS-108, STS-121, STS-124, STS-134)

"Saddened at the loss of a brilliant man who overcame impossible odds to help us understand the mysteries of the cosmos." - Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., (STS-61C)

"Saddened by this world's loss of Stephen Hawking. Thankful for the wisdom and strength he shared with us all. 'And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up' #Stephen Hawking 1942-2018 #RIP"  Nicole Stott (STS-128, ISS 20/21)

The loss of Hawking also inspired tributes from international astronauts who have worked regularly with NASA.

"He inspired generations to look beyond our own blue planet and expand our understanding of the universe. His personality and genius will be sorely missed. My thoughts are with his family," wrote British astronaut Tim Peake, who flew to the ISS in 2015-16 (Expeditions 46/47).

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano began his tweet with a Hawking quote: "It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love." Added Parmitano, "That's a wonderful 'theory of everything' in its own merit. RIP Professor Hawking." Parmitano flew to the ISS in 2013 (Expeditions 36/37) and is expected to return in 2019.

"Sad to hear another childhood hero of mine has moved on," tweeted German astronaut Alexander Gerst, a veteran of one ISS flight (Expeditions 40/41) who will return for Expedition 56, and command Expedition 57. "Thanks for inspiring me along with millions of youngsters and students, showing us that physics & sciences are the opposite of boring! You will continue to be aboard with us, on all those future space exploration missions!"

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, who will fly to the International Space Station in November as part of Expedition 58/59, tweeted a short tribute. "RIP, Prof Hawking. Had the chance to meet him while a student at @Cambridge Uni [University of Cambridge in the UK]. A friendly, life-loving genius, whose intellectual legacy is huge."

"Genius is so fine and rare," tweeted fellow Canadian astronaut and space station commander Chris Hadfield, who flew to space during STS-74, STS-100 and Expeditions 34/35. "Goodbye Professor Hawking. You inspired and taught us all."

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Boeing's design for a Deep Space Gateway, an astronaut outpost near the moon. NASA is developing plans for a new Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway in orbit near the moon for future astronaut missions.

DENVER  NASA is pressing forward on plans to build a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, an outpost for astronauts positioned in the space near Earth's moon.

According to NASA, the Gateway will not only be a place to live, learn and work around the moon but will also support an array of missions to the lunar surface. And scientists foresee a host of uses for the station.

By making use of a suite of instruments housed on or inside the structure itself, or free-flying nearby, scientists could make Earth and solar observations.They could also carry out astrophysics and fundamental physics experiments as well as human physiology and space biology studies.

NASA's fiscal year 2019 budget request calls for launching the first element of the Gateway  its power and propulsion module  into space in 2022. NASA plans to launch the module through a competitive commercial launch contract in an effort to both speed up establishment of the Gateway and advance commercial partnerships in deep space. Under that plan, construction of the Gateway would be complete after two additional launches by 2025, rounding out the complex with habitation, logistics and airlock capabilities. [6 Private Deep-Space Habitat Concepts for Mars]

Breadth of science

Several hundred scientists gathered here between Feb. 27 and March 1 to take part in a Deep Space Gateway Concept Science Workshop that discussed how best to use what is billed by NASA as developing "a strategic presence" in cislunar space (or the space near the moon).

"We invited scientists from a wide range of disciplines and thrilled with the breadth of science that's represented," said Ben Bussey, chief exploration scientist in NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

"The different science areas are really embracing the idea of a human-tended Gateway around the moon and it doesn't compete with what they currently do. It represents a new opportunity for them," Bussey told Space.com. Even though the Gateway isn't science-driven, he said, NASA would like science to be performed at the facility and wants to identify what the Gateway could enable.

A artist's depiction of NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. (Image credit: NASA)

One thing is clear: Don't think of the Gateway as International Space Station 2.0.

"It's a lot smaller," Bussey said, and would be an uncrewed platform that has a crew once a year.

The Gateway could be parked in what scientists call a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), an orbit in cislunar space that could serve as a staging area for future missions.

Such orbits, which make close passes by the moon and loop far out, have the advantage of being near the moon, but always keep a station within the line of sight of flight controllers on Earth, as well as in sunlight for solar arrays.

"It ends up being a very interesting orbit," Bussey said, with NRHOs now seen as a viable candidate for long-term cislunar operations and aggregation.

Multiple priority goals

"A Gateway in the vicinity of the moon has been the goal of scientists and designers of space exploration scenarios for almost two decades," said Harley Thronson, a senior technologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

More than a half century later, Thronson said, professionals at the Deep Space Gateway workshop discussed how a habitation system might be adapted to achieve multiple priority goals in space and Earth sciences. "The Gateway, as planned, offers some of the same advantages to scientists as the space shuttle and the International Space Station , although in a much different location," he said.

Learning from the experience of NASA's space shuttle missions' servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers at the workshop presented concepts for upgrading future very large observatories "or even one day actually assembling them in space, taking advantage of both astronauts and robots on site," Thronson said.

Whole-Earth observations

This image shows four Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit possibilities for NASA's planned Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway. (Image credit: NASA/JSC)

The Gateway's unique vantage point permits astronaut operation of telerobots on the lunar surface, Thronson said.

These could include exploring the youngest craters on the moon, or laying out radio antennae to investigate the faint radio emission from hydrogen, emitted when the universe was a tiny fraction of its present age, he said. No other planned observatory will observe the universe any younger, he added.

"The Earth itself could become a target of observation from the Gateway," Thronson said. "Remarkably, there have been very few whole-Earth observations from space that closely duplicate how Earth-like planets might appear to future astronomical observatories. A telescope at the Deep Space Gateway might accomplish this."

Lunar telerobotics

An artist's illustration of the view from a deep-space habitat. (Image credit: European Space Agency)

The role of exploration telepresence from the Gateway also garnered discussion at the meeting.

"But we really don't have a lot of information about the value of doing lunar telerobotics from the Deep Space Gateway, as opposed to doing it from the Earth," said Dan Lester, a senior research scientist at Exinetics in Austin, Texas.

Lester said that telepresence depends a lot on the cognitive load of what you're trying to do, and the price of modest control latency. "If you're trying to pick up a rock  probably not that much. If you're trying to tie a shoelace, it would make a big difference," he said.

Some would say that telerobotic control from the Gateway, or from an Orion spacecraft, enables operation on the moon's far side, Lester added. On the other hand, it is cheap and easy to put a relay satellite at, for example, the Earth-moon Lagrangian point (L2) that would provide direct communications from Earth to the lunar far side.

"[There's] no question, however, that the value of low latency telepresence for Mars is enormous, and implementation of that control strategy on the moon is exquisite practice for doing it on Mars in the future," Lester said.

Agency alignment

Just like the International Space Station today, where 15 different countries work together in space, there will be a role for international cooperation on the NASA's Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway.

"The NASA Gateway Science workshop was a valuable meeting that highlighted the many opportunities that the Gateway presents for science," said James Carpenter, a strategy officer in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration.

What was discussed at the workshop was very much aligned with recent discussions within a European science community event held by ESA last December, Carpenter told Space.com.

"It is exciting to see the alignment of international ideas about the future of exploration and the opportunities that could be offered by the Gateway on our journey to the moon," Carpenter said.

Moondoggle?

Not everyone is thrilled with NASA's Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway plan.

The concept has received a thumbs-down from Robert Zubrin, president of the Colorado-based Pioneer Astronautics as well as founder and president of the public advocacy group, the Mars Society.

Zubrin did not attend the recent gathering, but in a recent Op-Ed piece he labeled the Gateway as a "boondoggle" that has a price tag of several tens of billions of dollars, at the least, and serves no useful purpose.

"We do not need a lunar-orbiting station to go to the moon, or to Mars, or to near-Earth asteroids. We do not need it to go anywhere," Zubrin said.

"There is nothing worth doing in lunar orbit, nothing to use, and nothing to explore," Zubrin said. "It is true that one could operate rovers on the lunar surface from orbit, but the argument that it is worth the expense of such a station in order to eliminate the two-second time delay involved in controlling them from Earth is absurd."

"We are on the verge of having self-driving cars on Earth that can handle traffic conditions in New York City and Los Angeles," Zubrin added. "There's a lot less traffic on the moon."

Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Stephen Hawking died today (March 14), leaving behind a massive legacy of work as an astrophysicist, science communicator, activist, and figure of pop culture admiration. And on the day of his death, a question he raised and worked on until the last years of his life remains unanswered: Can information really be lost to the universe?

Hawking's most famous paper, "Black Hole Explosions?," published 44 years ago in 1974, took a hatchet to the whole notion of black holes as physicists had previous understood them. And it was Hawking's first whack at that basic question.

"Classically, a black hole should be 'perfectly cold' in the sense that it absorbs everything but emits nothing. This is how they were understood in the early 1970s," Robert McNees, a physicist at Loyola University in Chicago, wrote in an email. [Stephen Hawking's Most Intriguing Quotes on Humanity, Aliens and Women]

A black hole like that would radiate no energy, and no matter could escape from it. It would just exist, cold, silent, and eternal. Hawking's paper made the black holes alive  and possibly mortal.

"When Stephen considered quantum mechanical effects in the mid-70s, he discovered that black holes should, in principle, radiate as if they were thermal objects with a temperature," McNees told Live Science. "If they radiate energy then their mass will decrease. And he found that as this happens, as they shrink, their temperature goes up and they radiate even faster."

Eventually, perhaps, the black hole would disappear entirely, or shrink to a little nubbin. Without fully reconciling relativity and quantum mechanics in a robust theory of "quantum gravity" (what physicists call a "theory of everything"), the final stage of that black hole evaporation remains a mystery.

"The problem is that, according to his calculations, the radiation is perfectly thermal. It doesn't retain any information about the state of the material that formed the black hole, and this would violate a fundamental rule in quantum mechanics," McNees wrote.

Quantum physics requires that the whole future and past of every particle should be, in principle, possible to figure out and link through a series of chained, causal, probabilistic events. But if a black hole release an undifferentiated soup of particles with their information  their histories  unrecoverably erased, then that requirement is fundamentally broken. [Stephen Hawking's Most Far-Out Ideas About Black Holes]

"[Physicists call this] the 'black hole information paradox,' and attempts to resolve it have driven much of the work in quantum gravity since it was first articulated," McNees wrote.

Hawking was already an accomplished physicist by 1974. And many brief biographies imply that, following the publication of his 1988 popular science book "A Brief History of Time," his most important scientific work was behind him. But Hawking continued to produce significant and controversial scientific papers until as recently as this decade, wrangling with the paradox he introduced decades earlier.

The most dramatic late-career paper Hawking wrote suggested the black holes as they've classically been understood don't exist at all.

In "Information Preservation and Weather Forecasting for Black Holes," published in 2014, he suggested that the "event horizon" around black holes, the point beyond which even light could not escape, doesn't really exist. Instead, he wrote, there's simply an "apparent" horizon of trapped light which could fade away and allow the light to escape.

"The absence of event horizons mean that there are no black holes  in the sense of regimes from which light cant escape to infinity," Hawking wrote.

He also suggested some fundamental conceptual problems with a number of features physicists had attributed to black holes, like "firewalls" around their boundaries that destroy observers who try to enter.

That wasn't Hawking's final word on science. As recently as 2016, Hawking published a paper with the University of Cambridge physicist Malcolm Perry and Harvard University physicist Andrew Strominger called "Soft Hair on Black Holes."

The research team argued that black holes are surrounded by "soft" or zero-energy particles, which they call hair. That hair, they wrote, stores the lost information of particles emitted by black holes on "holographic plates" beyond the black holes' boundary regions. So the information, while displaced, is never truly lost.

"A complete description of the holographic plate and resolution of the information paradox remains an open challenge, which we have presented new and concrete tools to address," they wrote.

Even near the end of his life, Hawking remained very much a working scientist, presenting ideas that advanced his field, and ideas his colleagues rejected.

"It's my impression that the 2014 paper is not widely accepted. The 2016 paper, on the other hand, which is work with Perry and Strominger, is a direction that people are still actively working on," McNees wrote.

"The black hole information paradox has been one of the defining questions for people working on quantum gravity. And, as it remains unanswered, I think it remains the most interesting question that [Hawking] raised."

Originally published on Live Science.A group of citizen scientists helped to discover a new type of aurora they named "Steve," and now NASA wants your help photographing the unusual phenomenon.

Members of a Facebook group known as the Alberta Aurora Chasers originally documented the aurora-like light show in the night skies over western Canada. Unlike other auroras, the phenomenon (which scientists have turned into an acronym: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) appears as a distinct purple ribbon of light with green "picket fence" accents. STEVE occurs at lower latitudes than most of the northern lights, according to a statement from NASA.

Using the European Space Agency's Swarm magnetic field mission, researchers were able to study STEVE in greater detail, revealing new clues about the interactions of Earth's magnetic field and upper atmosphere that cause the phenomenon. Their findings were published yesterday (March 14) in the journal Science Advances. [Amazing Auroras: Photos of Earth's Northern Lights]

Now, a citizen science project called Aurorasaurus, which is funded by NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation, is seeking skywatchers' help to learn even more about STEVE's appearance, life cycle and implications. People from around the world can report where they have seen auroras, including STEVE, and post photos online or using the Aurorasaurus mobile app.

Since its discovery, STEVE has been documented in the United Kingdom, Canada, Alaska, the northern United States and New Zealand.

The aurora structure known as "Steve" shimmers over Helena Lake Ranch, British Columbia in Canada in this image by Andy Witteman. (Image credit: Andy Witteman - @CNLastro)

To help citizens observe STEVE, NASA provides some basic skywatching tips: For starters, this phenomenon appears between 5 and 10 degrees farther south in the Northern Hemisphere, compared to other auroras. The ribbon of mostly purple light is a very narrow arc that is aligned east-west and extends for hundreds or thousands of miles, according to the NASA statement.

Occasionally, a rapidly evolving, green "picket fence" structure accompanies STEVE. While the green accent-lights are short-lived, STEVE can last 20 minutes to an hour. Also, the phenomenon has been documented only in concurrence with a normal aurora  which is why scientists need your help to learn more about how the two phenomena are connected.

Furthermore, the appearance of STEVE may be limited to certain seasons. "It was not observed from October 2016 to February 2017. It also hasn't been seen from October 2017 to the present, March 2018," NASA officials said in the statement. (However, NASA's Elizabeth MacDonald, a researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told Space.com the phenomenon was just spotted again the night of March 10.)

Skywatchers who want to get involved can report sightings of STEVE and other auroras using Aurorasaurus.

Editor's note: If you captured an amazing photo of STEVE or any other night sky sight, and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck stands with his creation, "The Humanity Star," which is visible in the night sky if you know when and where to look.

If you get up before sunrise this week in North America, you may get a glimpse of what some have come to call the "cosmic disco ball" moving across the predawn sky.

The American company Rocket Lab launched the small satellite known as the Humanity Star on Jan. 21 of this year. The satellite is currently orbiting Earth, was built to reflect the sun's light and is meant to be "a bright symbol and reminder to all on Earth about our fragile place in the universe," according to Peter Beck, the founder and chief executive of Rocket Lab.

Humanity Star launched from Rocket Lab's private launchpad based in the Mahia Peninsula, east of Wairoa, New Zealand. Along with Humanity Star, the small rocket also carried several tiny satellites (known as cubesats) into Earth orbit. [NASA Put a Big Disco Ball in Space 40 Years Ago, and It's Still There]

Humanity Star is visible for viewers in North America in the coming week's predawn sky. Here, its path is shown from 5:43 a.m. to 5:46 a.m. EDT on March 17. (Image credit: Starry Night software)

As most satellites go, Humanity Star is not very large  it's a sphere measuring only about 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter. The satellite is composed of a substance known as carbon fiber.

According to the manufacturing company Innovative Composite Engineering, "Carbon fiber is made of thin, strong crystalline filaments of carbon [and] is used to strengthen material. Carbon fiber can be thinner than a strand of human hair and gets its strength when twisted together like yarn." The material is five times stronger than steel and twice as stiff, while remaining lightweight.

Humanity Star is orbiting Earth every 92.1 minutes, at an inclination of 82.9 degrees. It's traveling virtually from pole to pole, thus making it observable from all over the globe. It currently travels in an elliptical orbit that takes it as close as 176.1 miles (283.4 kilometers) to Earth (its perigee point) to as far out as 294.5 miles (474 km) away (its apogee point).

A satellite as small as this would normally be visible only with binoculars, as its visual magnitude typically would be dimmer than seventh magnitude, which is below the threshold of naked-eye visibility under a dark, clear sky.

But Humanity Star's exterior is covered with 65 highly reflective panels, giving it the look of a mirrored disco ball from the 1970s. When sunlight strikes one of the panels, the reflective glint is visible from the ground as a brief flash of light. Depending on the angle of the reflection to the observer, the brightness of a flash could range anywhere from magnitude 3 (about as bright as a star of medium brightness) to magnitude -1 (almost as bright as Sirius, the brightest star  lower magnitudes are brighter).

Until recently, Humanity Star had not been visible to observers in North America because it had been passing by during the daytime hours. Now, however, it is making passes in the hours just before sunrise and has been sighted by many observers.

Get a schedule

If you plan to watch for Humanity Star, you'll need a sighting schedule for your location. There are a few places online where you can get such a schedule. Probably the best is the Heavens Above website at heavens-above.com.

When you go to this site, you will be asked to log in. Once you register, all you need to do is indicate your location. Then, you'll have the option of selecting whatever satellite you wish to observe. Humanity Star is currently on the short list of eight orbiting satellites; that list also includes the International Space Station. Using Heavens Above, you can generate a sky map showing Humanity Star's path among the background stars.

This is important, because unlike other satellites that look like moving stars, Humanity Star is visible only when it flashes briefly into view. Your best bet is to concentrate on that particular part of the path where the satellite is expected to be and watch for a flash or multiple flashes. That's what makes the sky map produced on the Heavens Above page so valuable. Binoculars can help you follow Humanity Star on its path across the sky. Those who have seen it have reported numerous flashes visible in binoculars, with the brightest ones (seen with the naked eye) at magnitudes ranging from +2 (as bright as Polaris, the North Star) to -1 (almost as bright as Sirius).

Brighter flashes should occur when Humanity Star is tracking opposite to the sun (in the eastern sky after sunset or western sky before sunrise). Veteran satellite observer Jim Cook, of Germantown, Maryland, noted the following: "Passes seen on the same side as the sun would be back-lit, so that only the bottom reflective panels would produce reflections, all of which would be shallow-angled, and thus dimmer than more direct reflections produced when Humanity Star is passing through the opposite sky to the sun, where at least some of the panels would be more open-faced."

In essence, this satellite is tumbling in its orbit around Earth. Sometimes the reflective panels are favorable, and we get many very bright flashes. Sometimes the mirrors miss us or almost miss us, and we get fewer and/or dimmer flashes.

Two other sites also provide tracking information, but they provide only the ground track  that is, what part of the world Humanity Star is passing over  without the path through the stars and constellations that are visible on Heavens Above.

One website, thehumanitystar.com by Rocket Lab, also provides a lot of background information as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

Another is N2YO, which provides not only real-time tracking but also 10-day predictions for your location. In the upper-right corner of the site, type "Humanity Star" in the search box, and hit the search button.

Predawn passes for North America will continue until approximately March 24. The next round of passes will come during the evening hours after sunset, opening up around May 11 and closing around May 20.

A one-shot deal

Sometime in the early fall, according to Rocket Lab, Humanity Star will degrade and burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. There will be no sequels. Humanity Star has been designed to be a one-time, short-term experience. The intention, according to Beck, is to encourage more people to look up at the night sky, particularly those who may not otherwise be looking.

Editor's note: If you captured an amazing astronomy photo and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments to spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's' Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for Fios1 News in Rye Brook, New York. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.AMY MEETS HER IDOL ON AN ALL-NEW "BROOKLYN NINE-NINE" SUNDAY, APRIL 8, ON FOXDavid Fumero ("Power") Guest-StarsJake surprises Amy with an investigation into a string of arsons connected to her favorite crossword puzzle author, Vin Stermley (guest star David Fumero). Meanwhile, Gina helps Holt jazz up his Commissioner candidate speech, and Terry, Rosa, Hitchcock and Scully argue over who is most deserving of the new detective car in the all-new "The Puzzle Master" episode of BROOKLYN NINE-NINE airing Sunday, April 8 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (BRK-514) (TV-14 D, L)Cast: Andy Samberg as Det. Jake Peralta; Andre Braugher as Capt. Ray Holt; Terry Crews as Sgt. Terry Jeffords; Melissa Fumero as Det. Amy Santiago; Joe Lo Truglio as Det. Charles Boyle; Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti; Stephanie Beatriz as Det. Rosa Diaz; Dirk Blocker as Det. Hitchcock; Joel McKinnon Miller as Det. ScullyGuest Cast: David Fumero as Vin StermleyWelcome To SpoilerTV



We bring you a comprehensive and up to date spoiler service on all the major US TV shows and Movies. You can find specific show content by clicking the menu system at the top of the screen. We scour the Internet for spoilers as well as posting our own exclusive spoilers (Scripts, Casting Calls, Set Photos etc) as well as recaps and other fun articles and polls. We hope you enjoy your stay.



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A proposal to allow bear hunting in Connecticut was shot down by the Legislatures Environment Committee on Wednesday.

Friends of Animals cheered the 21-8 vote, saying it was pleased common sense and truth prevailed.

Group President Priscilla Feral said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection needs to advance education without shooting animals to death, and they cant be the mouthpiece for only 1 percent of state residents who hunt.

Another statement from Friends of Animals correspondent Nicole Rivard said: Bear-proof garbage cans and education, not guns, are whats needed to prevent human/black bear conflict in Litchfield County, where a whopping 182,571 people live and a paltry 235 black bears reside. DEEP already has a nuisance bear program in place  there were only five nuisance black bears in the entire state in 2017. As one state biologist told us recently, black bears are actually shy.

Shooting bears in a bear trophy hunt will not teach the ones who arent slaughtered not to be opportunistic feeders. But educating people about how their behaviors enhance risks will make a difference, Rivard said.

Bear hunting was one of three bills before the General Assemblys Environment Committee.

Two other separate hunting bills would establish a first-ever night hunt for coyote and statewide Sunday bow hunting on private land for deer. The committee did approve the bow hunting bill in a 19-10 vote, while no vote was taken on the coyote bill.

During Fridays public hearing, each bill drew a large following of opponents who disagreed with any expansion of hunting and supporters who cited a growing infringement of potentially dangerous animals into populated areas as justification for expanded hunting.

At the hearing, Friends of Animals pointed out that there have been no fatal bear attacks in Connecticut.

More News Black bear sighted in New Milford

Susan Whalen, a deputy commissioner for DEEP, said there are an estimated 800 bears in Connecticut, and the population is growing by 10 percent a year. Whalen said DEEP supports bear hunting by permit in Litchfield County to reduce the numbers.

At the hearing, Chris Marino, secretary of the Northwest Connecticut Sportsmans Council, said hunting is an effective tool to control all wildlife, including coyotes.

As a management tool, this bill could be effective in addressing coyote predation on deer, as well as pets and livestock, Marino said. Another consideration regarding the coyote and other large, mammalian predators is that their numbers are so high now that they stand alongside of deer as major tick carriers in the state.

Friends of Animals Communications Director Fran Silverman said allowing a bear hunt will not make residents in the state safe. In fact, there is a weak correlation between the population of black bears and bear attacks, according to a study in The Journal of Wildlife Management. Bear-human conflict is more closely correlated with human behavior.This piece originally ran in 2018 on the occasion of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's 85th birthday. In light of her passing last weekend at the age of 87, we have decided to update and republish the article in recognition of her decades of groundbreaking accomplishments.

If you want tips about staying power, look no further than the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The second female justice to preside over the United States Supreme Court, she was nominated and confirmed for the job in 1993, 204 years into the judicial bodys existence. But long before Ginsburg joined the highest court in the land, she was a determined lawyer, fighting for womens rights.

Read on for five lessons from Justice Ginsburg.

Dont be afraid to get out in front of causes that are meaningful to you

Ginsburg was a dogged advocate for womens rights, especially after the uphill battle she experienced while getting her own education and starting her career. After graduating from the top of her class at Cornell, she was one of nine women in her class at Harvard Law School in 1956. While at Harvard, she simultaneously was raising her 14-month-old daughter while dealing with a sexist dean who actually asked her how she could justify taking a spot from a qualified man?

After she graduated from Columbia  where she had transferred from Harvard  she was rejected from the first 14 law firms she applied to because she was a woman. But she kept going. In 1970, Ginsburg founded Womens Rights Law Reporter, the first law review in the United States dedicated to legal issues around womens rights. Two years later, Ginsburg founded the ACLU Women's Rights Project.

Stretch yourself to achieve your goals

Ginsburg is nothing if not determined. Back in the '60s, she casually learned Swedish in order to co-author Civil Procedure in Sweden. The justices workout routine is famous for its consistency and rigor. Ginsburg hits the gym with her trainer every day and puts herself through the paces, with machine pulldowns, medicine ball push-ups and wall squats. Not even a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer could slow Ginsburg down. Nine years after beating the disease she has no plans to retire any time soon.

Find a partner that supports you, and vice versa

Ginsburg was married to her husband, Martin, for 56 years until his death from cancer in 2010. For many years, after the retirement of Sandra Day OConnor, Marty, as he was called, was often the only man in the group of Supreme Court spouses, but he was famously unfazed by it. Ginsburg called him her best friend, and when asked by Katie Couric why their marriage was so successful, she had this to say: "You can't have it all, all at once. Who  man or woman  has it all, all at once? Over my life span I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it."

Pay it forward

From her position on the bench of the highest court in the land, Ginsburg continues to fight for womens rights  especially in her own workplace. Case in point, Ginsburg had this to say about the demographic breakdown of the court during a 2015 talk at Georgetown: "People ask me sometimes, 'When do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court?' And my answer is when there are nine."

Leave the world a better place than it was when you found it

When asked by Irin Carmon what Ginsburg would like to be remembered for, her answer was simple. Someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability. And to help repair tears in her society, to make things a little better through the use of whatever ability she has. To do something, as my colleague David Souter would say, outside myself. Cause Ive gotten much more satisfaction for the things that Ive done for which I was not paid.

Related:

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Debunked: The Myth That 70 Percent of Change Initiatives Fail



Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedT he water is calm in the South of France as property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz gives a tour of his swanky new superyacht Da Vinci, featuring a hot tub, office and fridge stocked with wine. Looking relaxed, its a long way from choppier times seven years ago this month when he and his brother Robert were arrested as part of a botched Serious Fraud Office investigation into the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

The brothers were awarded damages after what Vincent describes as the most stressful time of my life. However, today he admits he is still not entirely stress-free. As chairman of property investor Consensus Business Group, he is among thousands of UK entrepreneurs and firms in Cannes this week for the annual Mipim property conference, known for its champagne-soaked parties and deal making.

Im nervous about Britain leaving the EU and the implications on the London property market, Tchenguiz says. My business has money to invest, but we are waiting to see if any clearer rules on Brexit are set before we commit to big London purchases.

He is not alone in flagging up the 12-month countdown until Britain is meant to leave the EU.

Although this weeks male-dominated jamboree has come under the spotlight for potential sexism in the wake of the Presidents Club dinner (where property firms sponsored a number of tables), seasoned Mipim attendees point out that the main chatter in the wine bars here is about how the London property market will look next March.

As one veteran guest says: Mipim is so much more business-like than before the crash. In 2007 it felt like the last days of Rome. This week its been more like Last of the Summer Wine. People are just busy trying to agree sales.

The more subdued mood comes as lawyers, agents, bankers and landlords at Mipim assess the difficulties they face over the next year in London, and reveal what help they would like from the Government.

Part of the worry is from would-be investors who are calculating whether they should take on the risk of tenants quitting the UK after Brexit. Many buyers want bigger discounts and some vendors are prepared to cut prices.

Tim Struth, the boss of QuoinStone Investment Management, says he does not expect an exodus of businesses but admits: Some occupiers may decide to take less space.

The transition away from Europe amounts to the biggest constitutional change that we in the property industry have seen in our lifetimes.

Its not just the offices sector that is suffering from Brexit-induced jitters. Veteran housebuilder Tony Pidgley, Berkeleys chairman, warned at Mipim that residential developers face a looming shortage of skilled construction workers. And estate agents talking in the bars across Cannes main drag  La Croisette, a strip of luxury hotels and shops  say that the market for dearer flats in Zone 1 is tough. They think buyers are freezing or scrapping plans to buy homes as they wait to see how pricing looks once Britain leaves the bloc. Stamp duty changes are also a deterrent.

There is still money pouring into London. This week, the Evening Standard revealed that South Korean investor Mirae Asset Global Investments has agreed to buy a City office development from US private equity giant Blackstone for 250 million. In the West End, Savills says Asian buyers accounted for over half of 718 million spent on commercial assets in the first two months of 2018. Agent JLL adds that many were enticed by the weaker pound, and demand from the Middle East is strong too.

An overwhelming majority of property experts questioned by the Evening Standard at Mipim think clarification of passporting rights and access to EU financial markets after Brexit is vital to give investors and tenants security before committing themselves to London property. They also want to know that measures will be in place to ensure there are enough skilled construction workers.

GVAs head of City transactions Chris Gore is hopeful: I predict that next March at Mipim there will be a lot more decision-making. Regardless of whether Brexit terms are good or bad, at least investors will know what they are dealing with. Certainty is what the market needs right now.

The City of London Corporations planning chairman Chris Hayward remains bullish: Among the Citys many global advantages is that we are able to provide new developments while maintaining, refurbishing and reinventing our older buildings. The regeneration is second to none.Ten Lifestyle is another faller despite the travel platform for the world's wealthy and mass affluent announcing a contract with HSBC to provide concierge services to one of the group's exclusive wealth propositions.

Brokers at Jefferies were all over it.

Have some of this from analyst Ken Rumph: "Todays contract win with HSBC is a significant step forward. Our estimates are built on winning more business, but each confirmation adds confidence and visibility, and in this case, validation and risk reduction, especially for the Asian region within the global Jade customer base.

"HSBC was a key target for Ten, so the news below is all round positive - validation of a new major global customer, won from a competitor, with multi-year visibility. Whilst additional contracts are built into our estimates, each confirmation reduces risk and adds value."

Wait there's more: "Tens progress since its December 2017 IPO has therefore been very supportive  rolling out a number of additional MasterCard regional contracts, winning new business from Visa in CEMEA and APAC Valentine."T he Treasury has paid Deloitte more than 6 million to help defend a multi-billion lawsuit from Iranian finance house Mellat despite the bank also being a client of the accounting giant.

Tehrans Bank Mellat was slapped with financial sanctions by the Treasury under the Counter-Terrorism Act due to its apparent involvement in funding the Iran nuclear programme.

The bank sued, successfully claiming in the Supreme Court that the sanctions were unlawful.

It is now seeking damages of $4 billion (2.9 billion) in what is the biggest claim ever taken against the UK Treasury.

The Deloitte contract, awarded in March 2016, is for forensic accounting work and was uncovered by public tenders researcher Tussell.

It is among the biggest handed by Whitehall to a single firm for accountancy.

However, Deloitte was also acting as auditor of Bank Mellats large Turkish operation at the time, signing off its accounts as recently as last April.

It denied this represented a conflict of interest, saying it informed the Treasury and that it no longer acts for Bank Mellat.J eremy Corbyn consistently dismays the majority of Labour MPs with his eccentric views, his ineffective performances at PMQs and his hard-Left takeover.

When asked in private how they could make him Prime Minister, most respond lamely, saying theres no prospect of unseating him, and anything is better than the Conservative Government we have.

They comfort themselves with the thought that, were he to lead a government, sensible Labour MPs who held his majority would prevent him doing anything too crazy or damaging.

That was always a delusion, and Mr Corbyns response this week to the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal has exposed it. Prime Ministers often act without the need for parliamentary approval.

Ignore Tory cries that Mr Corbyn is playing politics with security. The ferocity of the Tory response shows that political advantage is always sought.

While the Evening Standard has applauded Mrs Mays package of retaliation against Russia, Mr Corbyn is perfectly within his rights to question if it will work.

Some ministers privately suspect it wont. But what is unacceptable is when Mr Corbyn refuses to condemn Russia in any way for its involvement in an attempted assassination involving the use of a chemical weapon, threatening the emergency services and people who rushed to help the stricken pair.

It is not  as Mr Corbyns aide Seumas Milne suggests  a conspiracy theory, or an attempt to frame Russia, to point the finger at the Kremlin when a deadly nerve agent that only it has manufactured is used.

Either the attack came on the orders of President Putin, or it was carried out by rogue elements of the Russian state that he cannot control.

Either way, the Russian government bears direct responsibility. The refusal to say so is alarming enough coming from a Leader of the Opposition.

Were a Prime Minister to behave this way, the damage would be catastrophic.

The opioid time bomb

Opioids investigation - David Cohen

Do the drugs work? No  or at least almost never for the sort of blinding long-term pain that makes life a misery.

Today, at the start of a major investigation, we expose the shocking cost to our health, happiness and the NHS purse of opioid over-prescription.

These are drugs handed out to control pain and they are everywhere: 24 million prescriptions to 3.1 million people in England last year. Yet as our investigation reveals, in nine out of 10 cases of chronic pain, opioids make no difference at all.

So why arent we told this? Why does a cash-strapped NHS waste 210 million a year on opioid prescriptions? And why are people being given such risky drugs needlessly?

Opioids were involved with more than 20,000 hospital admissions in England last year.

In the United States they bring a plague of addiction, criminality and deaths. Thankfully, we do not suffer the same scourge here. But we have found that of the five most powerful ones available, none comes with explicit warnings about addiction risks.

People must be told about the potential for harm.

They are effective in cancer and end-of-life-care, but handed out in their millions, like sweets for chronic pain, they offer false hope, and as we report today, can wreck lives and destroy families.

Heading for Rotterdam

News that Unilever will no longer have its global HQ in Britain as well as the Netherlands is a blow.

Our country worked hard in recent years to create a competitive environment that attracted international businesses, and this decision by one of the worlds largest and most international firms will reinforce the economic evidence that the UK is now falling behind.

The Brexiteers scream that Brexit has nothing to do with this, and the company does not want to pile insult onto injury.

But ask yourself this question: if Unilever had chosen Britain instead of Holland, do you think it would be saying Brexit had nothing to do with it?

Or would we be hearing further nonsense about a Brexit bonus and Project Fear confounded?Les lunettes de marque ne sont pas ce qui manque dans les commerces. Il y en a de toutes les sortes dont les lunettes de []I n 2014 the mathematician Jordan Ellenberg invented a method to measure how far most readers actually make it through the famous, intellectual tomes they claim to have consumed cover to cover.This involved comparing the spread of highlighted passages on Kindle against the books number of pages to produce a rating out of 100.

Ellenberg named his equation The Hawking Index, in tribute to the visionary physicist who died earlier this week, at the age of 76, and his best-selling, famously unread book.

Does it detract from the legacy of Stephen Hawking that most of us cant get our heads around the contents page his most significant work, A Brief History of Time, let alone fully comprehend the depths and implications of his scientific achievements? Apparently not, as becomes more and more obvious with every new obituary, affectionate tweet and public tribute.

Hawkings life touched other lives, and not just those of the people he narrowly missed while charging around Cambridge in his wheelchair. (It seems everyone whos ever been within a few miles of the university town has their own, much-treasured version of the Stephen Hawking nearly ran me over anecdote.)

Equations such as Ellenbergs will do us no good in trying to quantify and appreciate this kind of legacy, but looking through the letters that Albert Einstein, the first celebrity scientist, wrote to his sister Maja just might. These go on display at Christies next month, in preparation for their auction in May, and include Einsteins unusually calm and candid assessment of his own output. For instance, in 1924, nine years after he completed the general theory of relativity, Einstein wrote: Scientifically I havent achieved much recently  the brain gradually goes off with age, although thats not so unpleasant. It also means that youre not so answerable for your later years. Most biographers agree that if Einstein had died in 1916, his fundamental legacy would be unchanged, and yet, there was so much more good stuff to come.

Ellen E Jones: 'its not the mind that earned our admiration but the man'

He lived until 1955 (like Hawking, Einstein was also 76 when he died), and in that time highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons, campaigned for civil rights in the US and played the violin for fun. Hawking, too, didnt just achieve; he lived. And far from the caricature of the head-in-the-clouds genius, that meant actively participating in the world around him. Perhaps, having been diagnosed with a life-limiting condition at 21, it was impossible for him to be otherwise, but that made his energetic engagement no less impressive. Often it was light-hearted and fun (his cameos in The Simpsons and Star Trek), and often it was passionate and sustained (his campaigning on behalf of the NHS and advocacy for the disabled). Now, looking up at the stars and wondering about the universe, as Hawking urged us to do, we can marvel at how lucky we were to exist in the same moment as such a great mind (the chances are infinitesimal). Ultimately though, its not the mind that earned our admiration but the man.

Leave quietly... and hope we will notice

AFP/Getty Images

Is Cameron Diaz, pictured, still making movies? This week an announcement about the 45-year-old stars retirement was confusingly retracted only a few hours after it was made by friend and former co-star Selma Blair.

Remember, as with house parties, so with careers: announcing ones exit is always a bad move.

No one believes you (see Daniel Day-Lewis) and you may even find yourself forced to sneak back in a little while later, when you realise all the other options fall short (see Jay-Z).

Far better to slip quietly off and hope that somebody eventually notices youve gone.

* They get chucked around a lot, but only someone unfamiliar with the Disney-A A Milne oeuvre could consider Eeyore and Tigger the most useful political epithets in the Hundred Acre Wood. I have a three-year-old, so I know about Owl, whose inability to admit his own ignorance frequently leads to disaster. Remind you of anyone? Or theres Rabbit, whose obsession with rules makes him suited to the civil service. Best of all, theres mother figure Kanga. Would that the Government could follow her example when it comes to protecting free school meals.

* When National Geographic celebrated its 130th anniversary earlier this year, I was proud to attend, and proud to have contributed to Aprils special issue on race. Now that I know so much more about the magazines shameful history of racist coverage, Im prouder still.Y ou cant beat a good paradox. One of my favourites comes from Peter Moravec, a scientist at Carnegie Mellon university in the US  he points out that lots of things that humans find difficult, and have to study for years to master  such as chess, complex mathematics and financial analysis  are actually tasks that computers excel at.

Meanwhile, things that come naturally to a young child  recognising a face, interacting with people, moving around and so on  are some of the toughest skills to teach machines. This insight has come to be known as Moravecs Paradox, and its something technologists have been grappling with for decades.

As US academic Steven Pinker puts it: When it comes to technology, the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard. The mental abilities of a four-year-old that we take for granted  recognising a face, lifting a pencil, walking across a room, answering a question  in fact solve some of the hardest engineering problems ever conceived.

Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to creativity. Children are good at using their imagination, making things up, telling stories and concocting new games  but this innate human ability is fiendishly difficult to train software and computers to do. That means if youre doing a job that involves creativity, no matter what the industry or field, its less likely to be replaced by software  because luckily for us, robots are hopeless on that front.

Thats great news because it shows how we can ensure we dont lose out to technology  by doing more of what humans are good at, and nurturing peoples creative abilities.

Rohan Silva

At a time when the Bank of England is predicting that as many as 15 million British jobs could be lost to automation, politicians should be pulling out all the stops to ensure our education system is equipping people with the skills they need to find high-quality work. Sadly, we seem to be heading in the wrong direction.

The English Baccalaureate  known as the EBacc  now evaluates schools on their performance in English, maths and a handful of other subjects but excludes the creative arts. As a result, creative subjects are in steep decline in state schools across the country.

According to a report by the Education Policy Institute, the number of hours secondary schools spend teaching the arts has been reduced by 17 per cent in recent years, while the number of students taking at least one creative subject at GCSE level has fallen fast.

Changes to school funding are further adding to the squeeze. A recent BBC survey found that nine in 10 schools are cutting back on lesson time, staff or facilities in at least one arts subject.

Music education has been hit especially hard, with free musical instrument lessons being removed from many UK schools. This is tough on poorer families, and its bad for social mobility too.

As Andrew Lloyd Webber rightly says: The removal of funding from music in schools is fast becoming a farce as well as a national scandal. Music is a proven asset to everything from childrens behaviour to academic achievement.

To Lloyd Webbers immense credit hes put his money where his mouth is, and donated millions to provide music classes to children who wouldnt otherwise get the chance to learn an instrument.

But if Britain is going to keep producing the employment, businesses and industries of the future, were going to need more than philanthropy  government needs to step up and make sure arts subjects are properly taught in schools. There would be plenty of other benefits too.

Right now, countries such as China and India are evolving fast, and moving away from low-cost manufacturing towards domestic consumption and higher-value goods. This means hundreds of millions of new middle-class purchasers of creative content like films, music and video games  as well as growing creative industries such as fashion, advertising and technology.

Thats a huge opportunity for the UK  but one we risk squandering if we dont have the right education policies in place.

Theres another upside too  related to science, which you might think has nothing to do with the arts. On the contrary  an American study recently found that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are almost three times more likely than the general population to play a musical instrument or regularly participate in the arts.

Its a similar story with members of the Royal Society, Britains most illustrious scientific body  compared with other scientists, theyre twice as likely to have an artistic hobby.

As Nick Hillman, of the Higher Education Policy Institute, notes: The UKs future success depends on excellence in breadth and deeper links between the arts and the sciences.

It would be so easy for the Government to start to put things right  for instance, by including at least one arts subject in the EBacc, and making clear that performance in the arts should count towards school league tables.

But the first step would be for politicians to recognise the economic importance of fostering creativity, at a time when technology is replacing so many human jobs.

Unfortunately, as another paradox shows, were not always smart at valuing the things that really matter.

More than 150 years ago, the economist Adam Smith described the paradox of value  the fact that essential goods such as water, which we couldnt survive without, are often very cheap, while much less useful items such as diamonds are incredibly expensive.N ever seen the Statue of Liberty? Or the Sydney Opera House?

Legoland are lessening the need to shell out on transatlantic flights and hotel rooms by bringing the worlds greatest sights to Windsor  in Lego form, of course.

This week, the half-term haven has added a host of new iconic architectural wonders to its Miniland and Miniland USA exhibits.

The added models feature the likes of Indias Taj Mahal and The Forbidden City in China as well as the aforementioned Australian cultural centre.

Look around the new Miniland cities at Legoland

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Miniland USA has welcomed additions including The White House, Times Square, the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and the Empire State Building.

The new creations required two million Lego bricks to build, which takes the total number of bricks in the Miniland area to over 40 million.I ts testament to the timeless quality of Shakespeares stories that more than 400 years after they were written, theyre still being adapted for film.

Hollywood has returned to the Bard for inspiration time and again, right from the earliest days of film, through to the golden age and more contemporary offerings  the world, it seems, will never tire of his tales.

Weve had loyal adaptations that stick rigidly to Shakespeares prose, ones that transport his words to new times and places, and films so subtle that you might never know they were influenced by his plays at all.

To mark what would have been the playwright's birthday, these are the best Shakespeare film adaptation of all time.

Hamlet (1996)

Hamlet (1996) trailer

With a hefty running time of 4 hours and 20 minutes, Kenneth Branaghs Hamlet might not be not the most accessible, but its one of the most faithful film versions of a Shakespeare play in recent times. Branagh leads an incredible cast, with Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, Robin Williams, Jack Lemmon, Timothy Spall and Derek Jacobi among the players. Ken Dodd, who sadly passed away at the age of 90 in 2018, appears as Yorick.

The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971)

Macbeth (Polanski, 1971) - HD Trailer

This 1971 adaptation from controversial director Roman Polanski is a reverential take on one of Shakespeares best-known plays. It stars Jon Finch, Francesca Annis and a young Martin Shaw and also features an eerie score from the prog rock group Third Ear Band.

Everything from the dirt and grime of the unforgiving Scottish highlands to the splashes of blood and heat of the witches cauldron feels real. As palpable an experience youre ever likely to get from a Shakespeare adaptation.

The Lion King

The Lion King trailer

While not specifically an adaptation of one of the Bard's works, Disney classic the Lion King draws heavily on the story of Hamlet. After his father dies in suspicious circumstances, young prince Simba must take back the throne from his conniving uncle  sound familiar? Its a kids classic and a fresh interpretation of the play, and Mufasas death scene remains the most heart-wrenching moment Disney have ever put to screen.

Romeo + Juliet

Romeo and Juliet 1996 trailer

Baz Luhrmann brings his signature cinematic flair to this fresh adaptation of arguably Shakespeare's most famous play. Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio star as the doomed lovers in the story, which is relocated to modern day "Verona Beach" (in real life, Mexico City). Rather than talk down to its audience or compromise on the integrity of the original play, the film had the confidence to stick to Shakespeares dialogue, celebrating the wonder of the text.

10 Things I Hate About You

10 Things I Hate About You trailer

Few may have realised when this cherished romcom came out in 1999, but 10 Things I Hate About You is inspired by Shakespeares comedy The Taming of the Shrew. Heath Ledger gives one of the standout performances of his tragically short career alongside Julia Stiles, offering one of the most memorable on-screen romances of the decade.

West Side Story

West Side Story - Official Trailer [HD]

The excellent Romeo and Juliet adaptation West Side Story moved the tragic romance to 50s New York, shining a light on attitudes to immigration in the US. The Montagues and Capulets became rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks, with the star-crossed lovers at the centre of the film escalating tensions between the white and Puerto Rican groups. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheims soundtrack is timeless too, featuring numbers like Somewhere, America and Maria.

Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet 1948 trailer

Master thespian Laurence Olivier delivers a fine performance in the classic 1948 film Hamlet, which remains one of the most revered Shakespeare film adaptations of all time. Olivier is in imperious form throughout the movie, which came to influence and inform every performance of the prodigious central role thereafter.

The Tempest

The Tempest Movie Trailer Official (HD)

Helen Mirren stars alongside Felicity Jones, Ben Whishaw and Russell Brand in this 2010 film, which sees the gender of Mirrens lead role Prospero switched and renamed Prospera. The acclaimed play, one of the last ever written by Shakespeare, is brought to life by director Julie Taymore, who also directed the hugely successful stage musical The Lion King. The film divided critics on release but is worth seeking out for its strong performances and remarkable visuals.

Macbeth (2015)

MACBETH Official UK Teaser Trailer (2015) - Michael Fassbender HDI t may only boast of a population of just over four million people, but Ireland has never been short of creatives.

Indeed, Irish authors are amongst the best in the world; Marian Keyes, for instance, has sold over 35 million copies of her 12 novels, whilst Colm Toibin's and Cecelia Aherns have been made into blockbuster films and nominated for the Man Booker Prize.

Below is just a taster of the incredible talent that Ireland has produced  our pick of the best books by Irish authors ahead of St. Patricks Day.

1. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

A beautiful novel set in rural Ireland in the 1950s, it centres on Eilis Lacey  a young woman who is unable to find work. She decides to immigrate from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn, New York City to pursue better job prospects. The novel is an emotional rollercoaster which sees Eilis battle with the pull between her new life in the States and the life she left behind in Ireland. It won the Costa Novel Award in 2009, and was long-listed for the Booker prize that same year. In 2016 it was adapted into a film.

(Note: when visiting Ireland, make sure you head down to Co. Wexford to Enniscorthy to see some spots where the film was shot).

2. Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Aherns debut novel, P.S. I Love You was published when the author was just 22 and was an instant best-seller, staying at the top of the Irish best-sellers list for 19 weeks and topping the best-sellers lists in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands.

Its Aherns follow-up novel, however, that is my personal favourite.

Where Rainbows End centres on the lifelong friendship between Alex and Rosie. Written in epistolary form, the novel charts their friendship  and star-crossed lovers-type romance  from early childhood through to middle age. Rosies world is turned upside down when she becomes unexpectedly pregnant after a one-night stand at 18 and Alex had moved across the other side of the world. The book has since been adapted into a film called Love, Rosie, starring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin.

3. Rachels Holiday by Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes is one of the best writers of our time  and the numbers are there to prove it. As of March last year, before her latest novel was published, Marian Keyes had sold an incredible 35 million copies of her 12 previous novels. Yet, Keyes didnt start writing books until she was 30 and had just been admitted to rehab for alcoholism. Since then she has become the darling of the Irish literary scene and her Twitter account is something to behold  it will leave you laughing for hours.

While all of her books are a treat, Rachels Holiday stands out. Rachel has lived in New York for the better part of a decade and after a near-deadly cocktail of alcohol and cocaine she is taken back to Dublin and put into rehab by her family. What follows is a heart-warming tale in Keyes signature witty, and very Irish style.

4. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney released her debut novel Conversations with Friends last year at just 26 and from the offset there was hype around her book.

Set among the Dublin elite, Conversations with Friends centres on two best friends on summer holidays who meet an older married couple and how their relationships intertwine. We listed it in our top books for 2017 last year and it was described as an, absorbing confessional about the emotional connections around sex, in both heterosexual and lesbian relationships, where the power balance isnt clear.

5. The Sea by John Banville

An Irish friend of mine said he reads this novel at least once a year and now Ive read it I can see why. Written by Wexford-born writer John Banville, The Sea won the Booker prize in 2005 and is narrated by a man named Max, a widowed art historian returning to a seaside house he knew as a child.

Whilst attempting to deal with the loss of his wife, we discover that something happened at the house he lodges at... A novel about love, loss and the unpredictable power of memory, this novel will captivate you like no other.

6. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen

Elizabeth Bowens novel was published less than a decade after the end of the Irish War of Independence in 1921 - the backdrop for this book. Based on the lives of the Naylor family in Co. Cork, Bowen said of the novel [it was the] nearest to my heart, and had a deep, unclouded, spontaneous source. It is a work of instinct rather than knowledge.

7. Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy is another name synonymous with Irish fiction and she carved out quite a library for herself  publishing 16 novels while alive and a 17th was published posthumously in 2012.

Scarlet Feather was published in 2000 and won the WH Smith Book Award for Fiction. A favourite among her readers, it looks at a year in the life of friends Cathy Scarlett and Tom Feather while they attempted to open a catering business, with themes including class divisions and broken families.

8. Room by Emma Donoghue

Whilst the film adaption was critically-acclaimed when it was released in 2015 (nominated for Best Picture), the novel was equally well-received, appearing on the New York Times bestsellers list and winning the Man Booker Prize in 2010.

The novel is about Jack and Ma who live in Room. Told from Jacks perspective, we find out that Ma was kidnapped by Old Nick when she was a teenager and has been kept in that room ever since. Five-year-old Jack was born in the room and has never seen the outside world. The novel follows their escape and their adjustment to the outside world.

9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Of all of Oscar Wildes novels, this is arguably his most popular work. Written in his distinctive manor, The Picture of Dorian Gray sees the protagonist sell his soul for eternal youth and beauty. When the book was first published in 1890, it caused quite the scandal and Wilde was attacked for his corrupting influence.

10. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Adapted into a major  and tear-jerking  film in 2008, the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was released in 2006 and centres around two young boys  Bruno who lives in a house next to Auschwitz and Shmuel who is in the camp. The boys become good friends and the novel explores the atrocities of concentration camps from a childs perspective. It also has an ending that will make any grown adult weep.

11. Ulysses by James Joyce

Dubbed the hardest book to finish, even the author needed to take a break when he finished writing it: James Joyce didnt write a line of prose for a year afterwards.

The novel itself chronicles the encounters and appointments of Leopold Bloom in Dublin over the course of an ordinary day on June 16, 1904. It is divided into three books of18 episodes and immortalises Dublin during an age none of us will ever know.

12. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Hailed as one of the best Irish books of the past decade, Colum McCanns Let the Great World Spin, set in New York City, revolves around two central events: the real-life tightrope walk of Philippe Petit between the Twin Towers in 1974, 110 stories up, and the fictional courtroom trial of a prostitute.

There are 11 different protagonists introduced throughout the book, which paints a glorious picture of Seventies New York City and its inhabitants.

13. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

This novel was banned in Ireland when it was first published, but Edna OBriens debut book fought to give a voice to the marginalised women of Ireland in the 60s. Focussing on Kate and Baba, two girls from rural Ireland, it tackles issues like sexual taboos and the Catholic mentality of Irish society.

14. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Frank McCourts 1996 memoir focusses primarily on his childhood growing up in Brooklyn, New York but also on his life in Limerick. He touches on his struggles with poverty and his fathers battle with alcoholism. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for a Biography or Autobiography.

15. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

A childhood classic, C.S. Lewiss tale of four siblings finding a magic wardrobe that transports them to the land of Narnia during World War II is charming and powerful in equal measure. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first of four novels published by Lewis in this series; a release which spanned from 1950 to 1956. They were later adapted into three films in the mid-2000s.

16. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

A Booker prize winner, renowned director Charles Arrowby hides away on the coast trying to escape the dramatics of London. With plans to write a memoir about his great love affair, none of his plans come to fruition and the novel follows strange events and unexpected visitors. A page-turner, this novel is about so much more than the bio leads on.

17. The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerneyI magine the fuss if someone proposed a mosque for 5,000 worshippers in Regents Park today. Yet for more than 40 years its golden dome and minaret have ridden above the tree canopy with barely a murmur.

Sir Frederick Gibberds banal, modernist mosque is just one of hundreds that feature in Shahed Saleems intriguing The British Mosque, the first survey of its type. Hes a mosque architect himself, designing a contemporary Bethnal Green mosque with a pierced concrete facade that lends an Arabic geometricality and skilfully breaks with the unfortunate tradition of brick box mosques with stuck on plastic domes and other generic Islamic motifs.

The mosque came to Britain surprisingly late. Despite Muslims living in ports including London since the early 18th century, the first purpose-built mosque was in Woking in 1889, a Mughal miniature aimed at converts. Instead mosques were usually  and still are  house conversions (45 per cent of the total) while another 39 per cent are remodelled cinemas, schools, churches and the like.

There are still surprisingly few  fewer than 1,600 mosques for 2.7 million British Muslims compared to some 37,000 churches for three million active worshippers of all Christian denominations.

This is the consequence of newness and lack of funds, which has also meant the British mosque, with rare exceptions, has rarely become fully articulated as a building type.

Post-war immigrants were often from conservative villages across the sub-continent rather than urban sophisticates intimate with the noble history of sacred Islamic architecture. Indeed, many British mosques dont reflect the architecture of a home region but are a mash-up of Egyptian, Ottoman, Moghul and other traditions reflecting the diverse backgrounds of their congregations. Architectural niceties havent been high on the agenda  although recently they have seen greater innovation or at least more coherently evoke historic models in Gloucester, Leicester and Bradford.

Another factor in the limited flowering of mosque architecture in the UK is resistance to changes to our skyline. This is only briefly discussed in the book but there has been minaret-phobia to match Islamophobia across Europe, the US and Australia. Swiss and Austrian populists, for instance, have both attempted to ban the building of minarets.

London has not been immune with past objectors to Leytonstones mosque citing the obvious alien symbol of the minaret. Council planners demanded a smaller dome. One objector observed that the proposals may be in keeping with Regents Park, but it is definitely not here.

In fact, as the book shows, Regents Park mosque was itself the eventual outcome of a 70-year struggle to get it built with a previous, oriental design rejected despite the obvious parallel of John Nashs Regency terraces and his Brighton Pavilion fantasia.K enneth Clark didn't think his Civilisation scripts would be worth reading. "Whatever their merits as television, the programmes will not be printable", he warned his publisher. "It was simply the libretto of an intellectual soap opera", he maintained after publication.

He was too modest. Civilisation: A Personal View, published in 1969, sold a million and a half copies over the next decade and has never been out of print. In his new introduction to a paperback edition (without a single illustration), Alastair Sooke argues that the success of the book has trumped that of the TV series. "Ultimately, Clark's best case for civilisation remains the 'harmony' of his own prose".

Read with an iPad to hand, supplying more images than any publisher could, Kenneth Clarks Civilisation remains enthralling, as he takes us from one triumph of European civilisation to another, emphatically commending to us the very best of everything - "the supreme dramatist of human life in all its diversity" (Giotto), "the greatest philosophic poet that has ever lived" (Dante), "the greatest architectural unit built in England since the Middle Ages" (Greenwich), and so forth.

For sure, his focus is narrow but Clark knew that. "Obviously, I could not include the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome, because to have done so would have meant another ten programmes, at least, and the same was true of China, Persia, India and the world of Islam. Heaven knows, I had taken on enough."

He wondered in his foreword if he should have dropped the title of Civilisation, which seems to suggest there could be only one such achievement. He knew well that "Civilisation was not a state but a process, and what I must look for was not civilisation, but civilisations". Nonetheless, loyal to his initial concept, he went with the title, softening it with a concessionary subtitle.

If limiting the projects scope seems defensible, there is much in Clarks perspective thats simply no longer tenable, so Eurocentric, so white, so male, so committed to the ideas of individual genius it is. "I believe in genius. I believe that almost everything that of value which has happened in the world has been due to individuals", he proclaimed.

Even more reprehensibly, Clark openly asserted that some cultures too were of higher value to civilisation than others. Discriminating just within Europe, he said that, despite its art, Spain hadn't done much "to enlarge the human mind and pull mankind a few steps up the hill" - and that "the non-existence of a clear, concrete German prose has been one of the chief disasters to European civilisation".

The best books of 2017 - in pictures 1 /24 The best books of 2017 - in pictures The best books of 2017, as chosen by ES Writers Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides Rohan Silva: "[This book] is not only the best thing Ive read all year  it also couldnt be more 2017, featuring transgender teenagers, rape allegations on campus and much more." Asias Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century by Richard McGregor Michael Burleigh: "Richard McGregors stunningly good Asias Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century tackles how the interplay of Chinese assertiveness with Trumps dissolution of US power is fundamentally altering the balance of power in this vast region." A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin and The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray David Sexton: "By far the most compelling political book of the year was Douglas Murrays The Strange Death of Europe, which raises the debate beyond current squabbles to whats really happening now to European civilisation." Mr Lear, A Life of Art and Nonsense by Jenny Uglow and Mozart's Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt Jane Shilling: "The Owl and the Pussycat, the Jumblies, the Old Man with a Beard  the characters in Edward Lears nonsense verse have beguiled generations of readers with their captivating exuberance and melancholy." Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie and The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson George Osbourne: "Here are two books that have helped us interpret our confusing world this year." Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin Claire Allfree: "It takes the form of a conversation between a teenage boy and a dying older woman but its also a nightmare dispatch from modern-day Argentina, every page stuffed with horrors. Its dazzling, unforgettable, and deeply strange. Ive never read anything like it." What You Did Not Tell by Mark Mazower Robert Fox: "The story of the Mazowers, their blood relatives and connections, is the reality check to the worlds romanticised and fictionalised by Conrad, John le Carre and Robert Harris. They suffered and survived world wars, revolution, show trials and holocaust." Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann and To Catch a King by Charles Spencer Dan Jones: "Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann was that rare thing: a book about the 16th century that said something new." In The Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott and First Love by Gwendoline Christie Arifa Akbar: "In the Days of Rain is Rebecca Stotts astounding memoir of her fathers life, and her own, in a fundamentalist Christian cult, and is written with the rigour of a historian and the eye of a novelist." Blue Planet II by by James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow and The Standing Chandelier by Lionel Shriver Katie Law: "Lionel Shrivers novella The Standing Chandelier was terrific, skewering the notion that the sisterhood beats all, and doing so much more eloquently than all the rubbish grip-lit currently doing the rounds." A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre and Grant by Ron Chernow Simon Sebag Montefiore: "John le Carres A Legacy of Spies is a brilliant novel of deception, love and distrust to join his supreme espionage canon  an elegaic meeting of our tawdry past and splintering present through a reinvestigation of how Smiley artfully exploited a case that cost the life of a beautiful woman  by our greatest novelist, long overdue for the Nobel Prize." Unwinnable: Britains War in Afghanistan 20012014 by Theo Farrell and Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson Justin Marozzi: "As a reminder of how not to prosecute a war in a far-off place that has confounded the best efforts of many foreign powers over the centuries, Theo Farrells masterful account of Britains ill-fated adventure in Afghanistan, Unwinnable: Britains War in Afghanistan 20012014 is surely the last word on the subject." David Jones by Thomas Dilworth and Red Famine by Anne Applebaum Melanie McDonagh: "Thomas Dilworths account of the life and works of David Jones  David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet  is pretty well the perfect biography." Selected Poems by Thom Gunn and Deaths of Poets by Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley Claire Harman: "Do we prefer poets who die young and tragically to aged pen-pushers like Eliot? What, they ask, is the price of poetry? This is definitely one for the eggheads Christmas stocking." The Politics of Opera: A History from Monteverdi to Mozart by Mitchell Cohen Anne McElvoy: "Operas, the author argues, change their political meanings according to their setting, and the deep research and clear prose here hit a high C." Stranger, Baby by Emily Berry Johanna Thomas-Corr: "'A mothers death lasts a lot of years,' she writes in her second collection, which is about grief, estrangement and the question of where parent ends and child begins." Munich by Robert Harris, Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout and Basked of Deplorables by Tom Rachman Nick Curtis: "I did enjoy Elizabeth Strouts Anything Is Possible  piercing, sort-of short stories that comprise a sort-of sequel to the excellent My Name is Lucy Barton." After Kathy Acker by Chris Kraus and WTF: What Have We Done, Why Did It Happen, How Do We Take Back Control by Robert Preston Matthew dAncona: "Robert Pestons WTF: What Have We Done, Why Did It Happen, How Do We Take Back Control is a fascinating exploration of the new political landscape and that rarest of things: a successful blend of personal reflection and objective analysis." Syria: Recipes from Home by collated by Itab Azzam and Dina Mousawi and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Richard Godwin: "I was so pleased that George Saunders won the Booker for Lincoln in the Bardo. Hes like literary psilocybin, scaring the bejesus out of you before revealing the world anew." We are the End by Gonzalo C Garcia and Paranoid Narcissism by Miguel Cullen Ian Thomson: "It casts a jaundiced eye on the world of computer-gaming and disappointed love. I was swept up the dizzy-making, pleasurably nutty prose and the sarcastic, sweet-sour humour." Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner and Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney Susannah Butter: " Rooney has a light touch, a talent for recounting conversations and for making you feel the heavy weight of her characters secrets. She doesnt shy away from politics either." Your Life In My Hands by Rachel Clarke and The Day That Went Missing by Richard Beard Rosamund Urwin: "In The Day That Went Missing, Richard Beard gives an account of watching his brother drown when they were both children. It is more than just a study on grief, exploring memory and the savagery of the stiff upper lip. No book has moved me more this year." Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and What Doesnt Kill Us by Scott Carney William Leith: "One of my favourite books this year, and definitely the most useful, was Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker. He tells us all sorts of things about sleep and dreaming. Now I go to sleep much earlier and feel much better for it."

And right at the start of the book, Clark notoriously compared the Apollo of the Belvedere with an African mask that had belonged to Roger Fry. Although acknowledging that most people nowadays would find the mask more moving, "I don't think there's any doubt that the Apollo embodies a higher state of civilisation than the mask", Clark affirmed.

Any presenter or lecturer saying anything like that now would be disgraced. And so, while Civilisation remains in print and available on the iPlayer, fifty years on the BBC has revisited it, with a new series in which the title credit appears first in the singular, then with a corrective "s" emerging, changing everything.

Civilisations strives to give equal prominence to cultures from all over the world. This capacious approach means that it can have no chronological narrative like Clark, but instead hops around between eras and cultures, linking them only thematically, sometimes erratically. The lead presenter, the irrepressible Simon Schama, makes this work, though, by his effusive emphasis on our shared humanity as "the art-making animal", from prehistory on - "it's what we humans do, what we want to do, what we can't stop ourselves doing".

Schama is not afraid of talking of "a bona fide masterpiece" either (for example. a 10th century Chinese landscape painting in this evening's show), while his wild enthusiasm about a tiny gem engraving, found recently in a Mycenean grave, is more than justified by wonderful high-resolution photography of this astonishingly accomplished image of warriors fighting to the death that pre-dates Homer by 700 years.

However, the BBC would be embarrassed these days to have a series celebrating global diversity presented solely by a 73-year-old white man, however zingy or inclusive his approach. So Schama has been allocated five of the nine shows, while the feminist and classicist Mary Beard and the British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga have anchored two each, taking quite different approaches. Its a botch. Almost as if they represented minorities.

Schama's scripts will doubtless be published in a revised format in due course (he is busy on his multi-volume history of the Jews and another book for next year called Return of the Tribes). Beard's and Olusoga's, however, are being published now, in separate little volumes, containing just two disconnected chapters each, in large print.

In First Contact and Cult of Progress, David Olusoga describes the results of early contact, interaction and conflict between Europeans and other cultures, movingly leading on the British looting of the Benin bronzes from Nigeria in the 1890s, before looking at what happened to the Aztecs, in Japan and in India.

In an Afterword, Olusoga describes how his mother would take him and his siblings to see the bronzes in the British Museum and this inspired him. The knowledge that our African ancestors, as well as our European ones, had created great art and formed sophisticated civilisations was a truth that I cannot recall ever not knowing.

He quotes Kenneth Clarks disparaging comment about the African mask and the Negro imagination but then generously says his book is not in riposte to Clark, an enormously significant cultural figure whom I admire, but to remind myself, and those who might be interested, that there is a single human imagination, of which all art is a product.

Mary Beards How Do We Look and The Eye of Faith is much more tendentious. Beard tells us she is looking not at works of art themselves but ways of seeing them. I am putting the viewers of art back into the frame. Mine is not a Great Man view of art history, with all its usual heroes and geniuses, she tells us proudly.

In her notes, she displays some academic conceit about this approach. Academic art history has turned its attention to viewers, consumers, responses and social context for decadesBut the figure of the artist as creative genius still remains the focus of popular exhibitions, television presentations and most non-specialized work in the subject, she tells us, almost as if the latter were a mistaken, outdated way of carrying on.

Thats odd, because if shes committed to any one thing, it is  other than virtuously bringing as many women into the story as possible, however much ingenuity it takes - total cultural relativism. Nothing is better than anything else, except in the eyes of the viewers, none of whom are more right than each other either. Everythings lovely. (Except the male gaze.)

She puts the tenet as radically as this: The inconvenient truth, of course, is that so-called barbarians may be no more than those with a different view from ourselves of what it is to be civilised, and of what matters in human culture. In the end, one persons barbarity is another persons civilisation.

In accordance with this belief, in her chapter on The Eye of Faith, she maintains that iconoclasts and idolaters both have their point  as the Puritan smashing up of the Lady Chapel in Ely Cathedral shows. Liberated, you might almost say, from the figures of saints, kings and prophets that once crowded the walls, and with its clear stainless windows, the Lady Chapel has been transformed into another version of beauty.

Perhaps its inadvertent, how flatly this contradicts Simon Schamas ferocious denunciation, at the very start of the series, of the ISIS destruction of Palmyra and Assyrian treasures in Mosul, as the opposite of civilisation and a mutilation on the body of our humanity?

Then again, in How Do We Look?, she says that the Aphrodite of Knidos established that edgy relationship between a statue of a woman and an assumed male viewer that has never been lost from the history of European art. To make the point, she repeats an imaginary fable about how a young man fell in love with the statue and, after being locked in with it overnight, left a stain at the top of the statues thigh, on the inside near her buttocks, before going mad and jumping off a cliff.

Among the uncomfortable lessons inscribed in this story, Beard tells us, is how a female statue can drive a man mad and also how art can act as an alibi for what was  lets face it  rape. Dont forget, Aphrodite never consented.

Lets face it, it wasnt, and Aphrodite could neither have consented nor dissented. The comment seems about as astute as the protest by some Im Sorry I Havent A Clue listeners that the treatment of the lovely Samantha was sexist.A rmand de Brignac Magnum Launch

Restaurant Casa Cruz

Alice Temperley, Phoebe Hitchcox and Nick Hendrix were amongst stars sipping the new Blanc de Blancs en Magnum at Champagne Armand de Brignacs launch party, in the swanky Restaurant Casa Cruz. 60 VIPs helped get through 10 of the limited 1,000 bottles of fizz made globally  save some for the rest of us, right?

Armand de Brignacs launch party 1 /6 Armand de Brignacs launch party Vicky Lee Dave Benett Sabrina Percy Dave Benett Lady Daisy Fane, Natalie Salmon and Jemima Cadbury Dave Benett Kristina Blahnik Dave Benett Jemima Cadbury (L) and David Tollemache Dave Benett Arnaud Massenet (L) and Caroline Sciamma-Massenet Dave Benett

Pool party

Mayfair

Back a Londres and summer was firmly in the air at Nicky Zimmermanns cocktail party, where Emma Weymouth and Candice Lake sipped pear juice amid the bikinis, and Zimmermann was just grateful to be there, having barely made it onto a Eurostar that was jampacked with PFW luggage.

Zimmerman 1 /6 Zimmerman Mark-Francis Vandelli & Emma Weymouth Lady Kitty Spencer Candice Lake Jasmine Hemsley Olivia Buckingham and Nicky Zimmermann Sabrina Percy

Females Forward

Londons Hospital Club

Mark Francis Vandelli joined the line-up of female celebrities at Bardou's annual dinner celebrating International Womens Day. Melanie Sykes, Sabrina Percy and Louise Thompson were amongst the attendants who enjoyed a night of fine art, wining and dining.

Bardou x IWD 1 /4 Bardou x IWD Roxy Horner Sabrina Percy Lily Fortescue Rosanna Falconer

La fete a la maison

Paris

Aint no party like a Givenchy house party, especially one at Pariss magnificent Hotel de Poulpry to celebrate Clare Waight Kellers debut collection. Noomi Rapace and Virgil Abloh played arcade games, while Karen Elson strummed guitar and a fortune teller predicted all kinds of fun for the rest of PFW.

Givenchy house party 1 /5 Givenchy house party Noomi Rapace Virgil Abloh Sevdaliza Arizona Muse Anwar Hadid & Nicola Peltz

Brits abroad

Paris

Championing British talent abroad, the BFC rewarded plucky young UK designers with a Hendricks-fuelled party at The Hoxton Paris to celebrate 10 years of London Show Rooms, where Roksanda Ilincic clinked glasses with Erdem and Jefferson Hack toe tapped to Jodie Harshs DJ set.

10 years of London Show Rooms 1 /8 10 years of London Show Rooms Jordan Macaskill and Yasmin Sewell Angelica Cheung Eudon Choi Erdem Moralioglu Roksanda Ilincic Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert David Koma Jonathan Saunders

Espie Roche Launch Breakfast

The Chess Club

Spring has sprung in Mayfair at the launch of this Italian leather goods brand. Candice Lake, Olivia Buckingham and Laura Fantacci were amongst fashion gurus who started their day the right way.

Espie Roche Launch Breakfast 1 /4 Espie Roche Launch Breakfast

SALONI LODHA WEEKEND

Udapur, India

A colourful weekend like no other, as designer Saloni Lodha made custom apparel and partied for three days straight with Dree Hemmingway, Caroline Issa, Peter Dundas and many other names in fashion. Saloni even had time to collaborate with her favourite brands and artists  Amrapali Jewels and Charlotte Olympia.I n 2018, perhaps more than ever before, men, collectively, are under scrutiny.

I am hesitant in sentences such as this one to use phrases like us men, because I am fairly certain that the subsection of us men to which I refer  myself and, I would hope, most of the men reading this  would all prefer to be defined as much by their outlook and morals as by their genitals, and all believe that said scrutiny has been a long time coming.

To see the gender pay gap exposed, to read the horror stories of predatory monsters like you-know-who and to hear the no-less-important tales of everyday sexism further down the power chain and thus much closer to home has, for men, been appalling and important. Of an evening, talk among my group of friends, among all groups of male friends, has often been of little else.

But once the contemplative, supportive segment of the conversation has passed, once alcohol has done its thing and people become a little more brash and a lot more truthful, the tone, I have often found in recent months, will switch to something just as impassioned but slightly more panicked.

Most men, to slightly retool Saul from Breaking Bads phrase, know a guy who knows a guy who works with a guy. By which I mean a guy who has been publicly called out for his actions towards women. I have an acquaintance who, six months ago, was the successful head of his own company. He was not what I would call a friend, but if I saw him out we would speak. A handful of genuinely shocking Twitter revelations from women he has worked with later, and he is gone. And not just gone from his job. I asked a couple of people if they could put me in touch with him for this piece. I was told he was now off the grid. I think hes in Africa somewhere, one of them said to me.

Less extremely, another, closer friend is fairly high up in an organisation which has had a number of employees recently visit HR with allegations of systemic sexism. He is worried. Not, I hasten to add, because he has ever  as far as I know  been guilty of any reprehensible behaviour himself. And not even because he might possibly be guilty of turning a blind eye to whats been casually going on for some time, and thus enabling it. He is worried that women he works with, and more so that women who work for him, might now be looking at him in a slightly different light. Might be wondering about him. Might be thinking that his sudden, subtle, unconscious change in day-to-day manner means he has something that he is trying to hide.

Illustrations by Serge Seidlitz

Well, boohoo, the poor little overprivileged white man, one might justifiably say. But this kind of paranoia, this kind of questioning of oneself  have I always, truly, been a good person? Have I never said anything that could be construed as sexist that could sink me? Do I in fact deserve to be sunk?  is starting to feel increasingly prevalent among men. The fact that I have, while talking to people about these matters over the past few weeks, heard the question that is now being used as the headline for this piece being uttered a number of times, is telling.

Now of course the answer to that question, broadly speaking, is, No, of course it f***ing isnt. To live in an era when your most immediate worry upon waking up is whether you have slept through an early morning spin class is, obviously, substantially better than waking up in a cave with the distinct possibility that a hungry bear may be leaning over you. To exist as a healthy(ish) man in 2018 is to know that the chances of being sent off to shoot and be shot at by other men not dissimilar to yourself are slim. To be encouraged to talk about your deepest-held insecurities. To be allowed to cover up your spots with concealer and not be laughed at. Much.

Four or five years ago, with mens magazines far more likely to feature one of your heroes opening up about their battle with depression than pages and pages of naked female flesh, it felt as though a new template for masculinity was being established. David Beckham and then Ronaldo had made it okay to be brilliant at sport and also spend more than 10 minutes on your morning grooming regime. As a feminist, black president busied himself making the world a better place, Mark Zuckerberg replaced Warren Buffett as the archetype of a successful businessman, and the sensitive outpourings of (pre-Kanye) Kanye West, Drake and then Kendrick Lamar sold in enormous quantities while the aggressive, mysogynistic braggadocio of 50 Cent floundered and felt preposterously outdated. The career of Dapper Laughs well, when was the last time you heard anyone mention Dapper Laughs? Men and women, together, laughed at characters such as Danny Dyer, whose schtick suddenly seemed almost quaint. In truth, the fact the latter seemed to suddenly be spending many of his interviews banging on about how he had been mentored by Harold Pinter was telling.

But then came Donald Trump: as emphatic a reminder that these old-world notions of masculinity were far from extinct as you could wish for. When the locker room talk clip surfaced, people thought he was done. But he was not done. To much of America, and to a large section of American women, it ultimately did not matter. And here, in the era of Trump being empowered to be Trump, is a hypothetical that Trump-berating men might well ask of themselves: if you had been present in 2005 when Trump was bragging about being able to grab them by the pussy, would you, unaware that it would be recorded and played 10 years later, have pulled him up on it? Or would you have giggled nervously, thought thats a bit much, and forgot about it? Going further  and moving, inevitably, on to Harvey Weinstein  would you, if you had been working at Miramax in the 1990s watching your intrepid boss shepherd Pulp Fiction into existence, have done anything about the stories you were hearing daily? Or would you have been one of the many, a couple of decades on, donning a Times Up pin and pleading obliviousness, despite the fact that Seth MacFarlane was making a joke about it at the 2013 Oscars?

I think most men, if they are brutally honest with themselves, know the answer to all of these questions. But if there is a positive to be taken from the revelations of the past six months, it is that the above mentioned era of what now seems like empty, surface-level feminist posturing is over. The questions that men need to ask of themselves should be far darker, deeper and more difficult than, Is it okay for me to sign off my emails to colleagues with kisses? (For the record, no, it isnt.)H ow to improve on the success story that is already the Triumph Bobber: add a chunkier front end, toughen up the retro styling and throw in a few desirable extras. Welcome to the Bobber Black.

Triumph built its first motorcycle way back in 1902, but no model has ever been quite so well received as the Bobber. Introduced in late 2016, the old-school factory custom  which harks back to stripped-down post-war styling trends  is the marques fastest-ever seller, with projected production being doubled to meet worldwide demand.

Never one to rest on its laurels, Triumph has figured out how to make its sales success even more desirable. Enter the more muscular Bobber Black, with its 16-inch front wheel and chunky Avon Cobra rubber replacing the standard models Bonneville T120-sourced 19-inch rim. Fatter (47mm, over 41mm) Showa forks boast 310mm twin discs and Brembo calipers.

Black by name, black by nature

The newcomers name is reflected in the two available paint schemes  Jet Black and Matt Jet Black  and dearth of chrome in favour of a more sombre finish for the usual brightwork. A new LED headlamp incorporates a daytime running light (DRL), and easy-to-operate, single-button cruise control is now fitted as standard.

There are no running-gear changes over its more established stablemate, and rake, trail and wheelbase also remain the same  yet despite that fat front tyre, the Black somehow enhances the usual Bobbers already surprisingly precise and stable handling. This two-wheeled hot rod belies its retro roots, and is a credit to its makers engineering and design expertise honed over 116 years

While the bikes look may hark back to the 1950s, thoroughly modern electronics such as ride-by-wire throttle and traction control keep the riding experience firmly in the 21st century. The 1200cc High Torque parallel twin pulls and pulls, making the most of its special tune that gives 10 per cent more power at lower revs than in its Bonneville sibling. It feels meatier and less sanitised here  and sounds it, too, thanks to the Blacks chunky slash-cut exhausts. Just watch out for ground clearance

The ride is not nearly as unforgiving as the faux hard-tail rear end and low overall stance would suggest. In fact, only the most aggressive road surfaces bring out the suspensions harsh side. And those double front discs pull up just as well as youd expect.

Sarah Bradley

In the minimalist Black, Triumph has achieved the seemingly impossible by improving upon the standard Bobber. The all-round riding experience is fabulous, the look and feel utterly authentic but with a mean edge, and the attention to detail superb.

The iconic manufacturer has drawn on its heritage to stunning effect. The fact its managed to stay true to its roots while retaining unwavering modern-day standards is testament to its ability to look forward as well as back; Triumphs Bobber Black is another major score for British design and innovation.

Details: Triumph Bonneville Bobber Black

Price: 11,650 (11,775 in matt black)

Engine: 1,200cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin

Power: 77PS @ 6,100rpm

Torque: 106Nm @ 4,000rpm

Suspension: 47mm Showa conventional forks, non-adjustable (f); KYB monoshock, non-adjustable (r)

Brakes: 310mm twin discs, two-piston calipers (f); 255mm disc, single-piston Nissin caliper (r), ABS

Fuel tank size: 9.1 litres

Dry weight: 237.5kg kg (dry)

Standard kit: Fat 16in front rim with Avon Cobra tyre, single-button cruise control, blacked-out detailing, 5in LED headlight with DRL, ride-by-wire, Road and Rain modes, switchable traction control, multi-function display, torque-assist clutch, immobiliser, LED rear light, wire-spoke wheels, adjustable riding position, low 688mm single seat, 120-plus official manufacturer accessories

Colours: Jet Black, Matt Jet Black

On sale: Now

Triumphs Factory Visitor Experience

Its a bit of a trek from London, but Triumphs new Factory Visitor Experience is the perfect ride-out destination.

Based at the iconic British bike brands HQ in Hinckley, Leicestershire, the free-to-enter, permanent attraction is an engaging showcase of Triumphs historic and modern achievements in design, engineering, racing and popular culture. The world-leading collection of motorcycles and memorabilia includes movie and motorsport icons, dealer signage and racing ephemera.

Among the priceless bikes on show are Steve McQueens stunt machine from The Great Escape, the Texas Cee-Gar 1956 Bonneville Salt Flats world speed record-setting streamliner, and the very first Triumph No1 from 1902.

Enhance your day with a 90-minute guided factory tour, which for 15 provides behind-the-scenes access to Triumphs unique engineering and manufacturing facilities. Theres a shop selling tasteful merchandise, and you can even refresh in the Triumph 1902 cafe before your ride home back to the Big Smoke.Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []'

For 20 a drop-in workout, you can get your day off to the best possible start at 1Rebel, Londons hottest gym at the moment, offering a no-contract, high intensity workout to a house music playlist curated by top London DJs. The session is intense and guaranteed to get your endorphins flowing, but happily the deal is sweetened with a cold press juice bar, heated benches and floors in the changing rooms, swish toiletries and even a free beer as you leave.

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Stretch and lunch al fresco

La Muella / La Muella

Having pushed your limbs to the limit in London, make sure you arrive at La Muella in Ibiza in time for a recuperative yoga class before lunch al fresco. La Muella sits on the road between San Lorenzo and San Juan in the islands north, and behind the unassuming whitewashed facade lies an enchanting, thoroughly bohemian Ibizan den. Shop the swish boutique for crystals and handwoven textiles, then settle down for spectacular salads such as the Lubina, served on a pumpkin and lemongrass puree with wild rice, caramel chilli, almonds and a courgette salad.

Retail therapy at The Rose

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Gypsy Westwood / Gypsy Westwood

The Rose is less of a boutique and more of a museum of nice things, with eclectic artwork, handmade garments and beautiful ceramics and homeware. Look out for the handmade silk items designed by co-owner Claudina Damonte, including kaftans, palazzo pants and ruffled maxi dresses. The Rose is a favourite among visiting designers  Isabel Marant comes here every time she visits the island.

Roam medieval ruins

Alamy / Alamy

Much of Ibizas modern day character has been minted since the hippies first arrived on the island in the Sixties, but visitors are rewarded for delving into the islands history. A good place to start is the Unesco World Heritage-listed Dalt Vila (literally "high town), strolling the medieval ruins amid a maze of cobblestoned lanes and whitewashed walls.

Get your zen on at the Nobu spa

Nobu / Nobu

Youve worked your body hard today, so reward those weary limbs with a soak and a massage at the most envy-inducing spa on the island: the in-house spa at the new Nobu Hotel. A Six Senses spa, this is easily the best place to restore body and soul, perhaps with an outdoor massage in a balmy pavilion overlooking the bay, or go glam at the blow-dry bar. Outdoor roof terraces and beach cabanas mean you can have your treatment wherever you please.

Refuel on raw organic juice

Sofia Gomez Fonzo

For decades Ibiza was associated with hedonism, but today its also renowned as the heart of the raw, paleo vegan culinary scene. Potion was one of the first cold-pressed juice bars on the island, and its still one of the very best, with a wide range of juices and nut milks. A particular favourite is the Black Magic, packed with charcoal to cleanse and flush out any excesses from the night before.

Sunset swim at Cala Bonita

Cala Bonita / Cala Bonita

Unwind with a sunset dip at Cala Bonita, a secluded cove with one of the prettiest beach restaurants on the island, Restaurant Cala Bonita. Picturesque S'Estanyol beach on the south is within easy reach of Talamanca Bay, Ibiza Town and Jesus, but it feels a world away from the bustle. And the restaurant is beloved by both locals and returning visitors, serving sophisticated Balearic cuisine in a rustic setting.

With a central location and check-in just 20 minutes before departure, youll have time to fit in a morning workout before you fly from London City Airport.P avement tables and people actually sitting in them; the point at which strolling becomes a pleasure: in Europe, these are the markers of spring, cemented by lengthening days and languid coffees.

Its also marked by islands such as Ibiza, Hvar and Sardinia starting to gear into action. And getting there before the club scene opens has particular pleasure  some intriguing new hotels will emerge on the White Isle this spring, Seven Pines Resort and the pink-hued Paradiso will open their doors for early adopters.

Eastern Promise

Spring in Eastern Europe is harder won but all the sweeter when the blossom arrives, with Belgrade and Zagreb both affordable and exciting cities. Come the first sign of good weather and locals in Budapest and Prague head to the river.

Navigli Grande canal in Milan / Alamy Stock Photo

Somehow, though, its often not the capital cities that work best in spring but smaller, secondary ones. Milan has all the grandiose, triumphal architecture of a capital city. There are guards wearing faintly ridiculous costumes outside the Duomo but they are there basically for the Instagram likes. Milan is the perfect second city, an urban example of the enjoyably wayward younger sibling that has all the fun and none of the responsibility.

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Barcelona may not match Madrid with the Prado, but it has Spains strongest food culture. And, while there are some choice museums and buildings, you dont get monument fatigue. In truth, Spain has a mouthwatering selection of great cities to explore.

Seville is filled with Moorish delights, from the hammans to the Alcazar. Its position in the frying pan of Spain means that youre pretty much guaranteed good weather. Also punching above its weight in both art and cafe life is Nice. And, like Barcelona, theres a beach too. Give me Split over Dubrovnik any day. Its less crowded and real life goes on around the Roman remains of Diocletians palace.

Affordable Areas

Elsewhere, Lisbon may currently have Madonna as resident, but Porto is a jewel with flights from a variety of airports, including London City. Affordable, a joy to get around and digital nomads are colonising it, even in the time it takes to read this article.

In general, second cities are also much easier on the bank balance.

Total Avantgarde in Porto / Luis Ferraz / Torel Avantgarde H

The Torel Avantgarde may have a rooftop pool and a living wall, but rates start at around 130 a night.

Malta is gaining serious attention this year, too. Valletta is one of the 2018 Cities of Culture and there are a slew of affordable but stylish places to stay. Try Valletta Vintage from 79 per room with Mr and Mrs Smith.T he more I learn about Florida, the less I want to simply visit Orlando and Miami Beach. I have lost no affection for theme park thrills and art deco architecture, but the Sunshine State has so much more to offer along its eight-degree sub-tropical span.

My prescription for a Florida family holiday begins in the far west, on the beach at Pensacola: a dazzling sandbank eight miles out to sea from the city, with a beach ball for a water tower and indulgence in abundance. On the mainland, take your passport to the National Naval Aviation Museum, because its part of a military base. The first and last humans to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, were trained in Pensacola as naval aviators.

Head east along Floridas Panhandle, the narrow corridor squeezed between Alabama and the coast. This is Americas deepest south, embroidered by country lanes and punctuated by opportunities for dining.

Family Feasts

Introduce the youngsters to the alien concept of oysters in a fun location such as Mikes Oyster Bar on Panama City Beach or the Raw Bar (officially the Indian Pass Trading Post) in Gulf County. At the latter, you can reward them for their culinary courage with a horse ride along the beach. Follow the curl of the Gulf Coast and turn south along the Florida peninsula, where the adventure options expand. At Crystal River, close encounters with the massive manatee are on offer. Kitted out with a wetsuit and snorkel, deploy the dead mans float to share the sub-aqua world of the sea cow. The calmest, quietest people get the best experience.

Alamy Stock Photo

Further south, Sarasota is the repository for Americas circus kings. At the Ringling Circus Museum, children can clown around on the worlds lowest high wire (just a few inches off the ground).

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Adults may be more interested in the yoga nights held on the estate, especially when they learn a cash bar will be available. Offshore, Siesta Beach claims its sugary sand stays cool on the feet even on the hottest day.

Take The Trial

Forsake the freeway for the Tamiami Trail, the pioneering Highway 41 that shadows the shoreline around to Miami. Pause for ice-cream devouring and gallery gazing along Fifth Avenue in Naples, then aim for the Everglades and step aboard an airboat  powered by what resembles the business end of an industrial-sized hairdryer. You skim at up to 40mph through the mangrove swamp, slowing only for eyeball-to-eyeball encounters with alligators.

Miami Beach remains, according to my teenage daughters, the epitome of cool, augmented by the worlds finest French toast in the shiny setting of the 11th Street Diners chrome dining car.

But for Atlantic breezes at prices more suited to the parlous state of sterling, continue up the coast to Cocoa Beach or Daytona Beach  both well placed for Floridas final frontier.

Getty Images

Try to time your visit to the Kennedy Space Center to coincide with one of the launches that take place, on average, once or twice a month.

Three. We have ignition. Two And lift off.

Flames engulf the rocket as it rises. At the viewing area, the ground shakes. A tidal wave of noise sweeps across the swamp to slam against you as the rocket soars into space.

The vehicle is now supersonic, 10 miles in altitude.A young woman who was left in a coma after an alleged racist attack in the street has died in hospital.

The woman, named as 18-year-old Egyptian student Mariam Mustafa, was said to have been punched repeatedly in the attack in Nottingham almost a month ago.

She died in hospital on Wednesday after the assault on February 20 left her in a coma.

Police said she was set upon after getting on a bus at the scene near the Victoria Centre shopping precinct. She was followed by a group of women, who it is claimed were then threatening and abusive and physically attacked her.

The victim was later taken to the Queen's Medical Centre and placed in an induced coma. She was then transferred to Nottingham City Hospital but died on Wednesday.

Ms Mustafas mother reportedly claimed the attack was racially motivated.

The incident has sparked criticism from Egypts foreign ministry. On March 2, the ministry urged British police to investigate the case more seriously.

Ms Mustafa's mother is said to have posted a video to Facebook, saying: "Four months ago, two of the same 10 women abused my daughter in the street with no specific reason. We went to the police station and issued an official complaint; however, nothing happened."

A Home Office post-mortem examination is due to take place.

A 17-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm was bailed pending further investigation following the incident.

Detective Chief Inspector Mat Healey, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Our thoughts are with the woman's family, who we are giving support to at this difficult time.

"Our investigation is ongoing and extensive inquiries have already been completed but we're urging anyone with any information that could help us with our inquiries to get in touch with us as soon as possible.

"We know there were a lot of people standing at the bus stop when the assault happened and we're urging them to please come forward with any information which could help us."

Nottinghamshire Police said they are aware of social media posts claiming the attack was motivated by hate and are "keeping an open mind".

A Home Office post-mortem examination is due to take place. A 17-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm was bailed pending further investigation following the incident.

A statement from the force said: "We would like to reassure the community that we are treating this incident very seriously and we are working hard to establish the circumstances.A 14-year-old boy was left with life-changing injuries after being shot in north London.

The teenager managed to stagger into Seven Sisters tube station to seek help after being attacked in a nearby estate, witnesses said.

Armed police flooded Seven Sisters Road and the station was sealed off following the shooting at about 11pm on Tuesday.

The victim was rushed to hospital where he remains in a stable condition.

Shooting: the scene of the attack in Seven Sisters, north London / Twitter/@999London

It comes just days after rapper Kelvin Odunuyi, 19, was shot dead as he stood with friends outside a cinema in nearby Wood Green.

Kelvin Odunuyi, 19, was gunned down in Wood Green

Mr Odunuyis killing is thought to have been related to an escalating postcode war between gangs in Wood Green and Tottenham.

Police in Haringey were yesterday granted blanket stop and search powers across a swathe of the borough in response to the latest violence.

A shopkeeper on Seven Sisters Road said he heard a single gunshot before seeing three young men running away from the Stonebridge estate.

He told the Standard: I heard the shot, just one. I was in the shop and then I saw some boys run away.

The shot was behind the flats, and the victim ran into the station. One minute after I heard the shot, there were 20 police with the guns.

A resident of Stonebridge estate added: I thought a car had backfired, but it was that loud, just the once. There was a lot of screaming and shouting.

My partner was coming at that time and saw a kid running through the estate.

The teenager is believed to be the youngest casualty of gun violence in the capital since Corey Davis Junior, 14, was shot dead in Forest Gate last September.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Polices gang unit Trident are investigating. There have been no arrests.

Detective Inspector Tom Williams said: At this early stage of the investigation we are still establishing the motive behind this attack and are pursuing a number of different leads.

We are very keen for anyone who may have seen or heard anything to contact us as soon as possible.I s the inquiry into bullying in the House of Commons descending into factionalism? Some MPs fear that it might be used to settle old scores instead of investigating inappropriate behaviour.

These fears have intensified after Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the House, told friends that while standing in the corridor outside John Bercows office shed heard him bellowing and being aggressive. Minutes later a female official emerged looking flushed and upset. The incident is now being used by some Labour MPs to suggest that the independent inquiry launched by Leadsom should be scrapped because it has become too personal.

Just to recap, Bercow is one of three MPs who have been accused of bullying staff. He was in the slightly odd position of also being in the chair for the urgent question onbullying staff.

Last night Bercow recused himself from chairing the investigation into abusive behaviour.

Leadsom is trying to stop her inquiry being scuppered by confirming it will not carry out investigations into individual cases. She will give reassurance that this is not a witch hunt, says a source. We will of course hear from previous cases and look into previous cases, but we are not judge and jury.

But it wasnt just overwhelming irony that forced Bercow to step down. On Monday Andrew Bridgen, the North West Leicestershire MP, tabled an Early Day Motion calling for an independent investigation without Bercow.

Theres history between the two. Bridgen has long been an opponent of the Speaker. On Monday, Bridgen, a Leaver, said he believed Bercow had it in for Brexit, after a car with a "Bollocks to Brexit" sticker was parked in the speakers space in Parliament: Given his apolitical position as Speaker of the House, he shouldnt be able to trumpet them from the rooftops as he does. To complicate matters, Rosie Winterton, chief whip at the time Labour's Paul Farrelly was accused of bullying, is setting the inquiry's terms of reference.

---

Stephen Hawking had an impressive ability to laugh at his predicament. A few years ago, while he was ill in hospital, cartoonist Rick Brookes published a drawing suggesting doctors could speed up his recovery by turning him off and on again. It caused a furore with everyone but Hawking: he found the image so amusing he bought a copy.

---

Emma Freud will walk down the aisle but not to marry her partner of 25 years, rom-com king Richard Curtis, with whom she has four kids. Her ordination was ratified on Tuesday with a certificate from the American Marriage Ministries. No jokes about four weddings and a funeral, please.

Daisy Lowe and the Hollywood mums join Lees jean genie crowd

Jean queen: Daisy Lowe (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage) / Mike Marsland/WireImage

Its all in the genes. Or is it the jeans? Last night denim brand Lee Jeans toasted the launch of Body Optix  a collection of body-enhancing denim  with a big dinner at the London Edition Hotel in Bloomsbury.Daisy Lowe led the charge, having established that she cant bear the term curvy.

I get labelled as curvy but Im sure women who are size 14 or 16 find that infuriating, she has said. Im only curvy compared to normal model size.

She was joined by Tamsin Egerton, the St Trinians actress, and Transformers star Laura Haddock, both of whom have recently had second children with actor partners  Egerton with Pearl Harbors Josh Hartnett and Haddock with Sam Claflin of The Hunger Games.

SW1A

Who leaked Boris Johnsons 12-page letter to Theresa May to Sky News a fortnight ago? And why the sudden departure of Tom Swarbrick, Number 10s communications deputy, pictured? Johnson wrote that it is wrong to see the task as maintaining no border in Ireland. The day before his letter surfaced the Foreign Secretary had talked up a frictionless Irish border, like the one between Camden and Westminster. Apparently, Johnson demanded a scalp. A week on, Swarbrick quietly disappeared from Number 10. Staffers are usually either bullied out or pushed, says an ex-Number 10 adviser. I hear Swarbricks next gig is in journalism  surely not with Sky News?

---

Andrew Gimson launched Gimsons Prime Ministers last night. Alec Douglas-Home was a favourite. In old age he was on a train and two middle-aged ladies said, It was a tragedy you were never Prime Minister. Actually, he said, I was.

Quote of the day

Im fascinated by Mussolini. He had amazing fashion sense, that whole thing with the uniforms

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon says he just adores Benito Mussolini.

Not in front of the parents, Adwoa

Girl talk: Adowa Aboah (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for COACH) / Getty Images for COACH

Model and activist Adwoa Aboah held her second Gurls Talk event last week in New York. It's part of her initiative to get young girls sharing experiences about sexuality and mental health. At her first event, in London, she tackled the taboo of anti-depressants suppressing libido, telling the crowd that thanks to medication she hadnt orgasmed in years.J eremy Corbyn is facing a fierce backlash from Labour MPs after his spokesman raised doubts over Government intelligence concluding Russia was behind the poisoning of a former double agent.

The Labour leader was criticised by Conservatives and some of his own frontbench team over his response to the investigations.

And many hit out at comments made by his senior aide Seumas Milne - who said the UK had a problematic history with intelligence.

Theresa May slammed the comments as outrageous and a group of Labour backbenchers joined together to sign a motion saying they "unequivocally accept" the Russian state's responsibility for the attack that left Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fighting for their lives.

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith also conceded that it would have been easier for us if the Labour leader had been clearer about his support for Mrs Mays plan to expel Russian diplomats.

Theresa May expels Russian diplomats in response to nerve agent attack

She told the Daily Mirror that it was "quite clear" that, due to the nature of the chemical weapon used, it had been an "act of aggression", adding: "And that is why we are fully supporting the expulsion of 23 diplomats.

After Mrs May announced her plans to the commons on Wednesday, Mr Corbyn responded to say that the UKs response should be guided by the rule of law and based on clear evidence.

He then asked if Mrs May had responded to Russias request for a sample of the nerve agent.

Mr Corbyn added that it was a matter of huge regret that the UKs diplomatic capacity has been stripped back with cuts of, 25 per cent in the last five years  comments which sparked roars of condemnation from the Conservative benches.

His aid Mr Milne later told reporters that the Government may have more information on the matter.

Russian spy 'poisoning': Sergei and Yulia Skripal are fighting for life in hospital / PA

"The Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don't, he said.

"However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly. So, I think the right approach is to seek the evidence to follow international treaties, particularly in relation to prohibitive chemical weapons."

He said the evidence pointed "overwhelmingly" to Russia being behind the attack, but added: "In the meantime I think it is essential we follow the evidence and what the evidence produces.

Ms Griffith later assured reporters that senior Labour figures had been briefed by security services and said: "Looking back, perhaps it would have been easier for us if he had made it clear at the beginning of what he said, just how much we support the expulsion of the diplomats.

Her comments were supported by many Labour MPs but shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has said media reports of Jeremy Corbyn's comments are at odds with what the Labour leader said in Parliament.

Russia 'highly likely' to be behind Skripal nerve agent attack, May tells MPs

Referring to shadow security minister Nick Thomas-Symonds's appearance on BBC Two's Newsnight, she tweeted: "So @NickTorfaenMP sets out what @jeremycorbyn ACTUALLY said in Parliament about Russian spy poisoning, as opposed to what media is claiming he said SalisburyChemicalAttack"

But Mr Milnes comments prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion "unequivocally" accepting the "Russian state's culpability" for the attack, and supporting "fully" the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of the leader's senior aide Seumas Milne.J eremy Corbyn was today left isolated by his own MPs in a rebellion over his handling of the Salisbury poison spy plot.

Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffiths said Labours front-bench accepted the Prime Ministers position of Kremlin involvement in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Mr Corbyn has been called out by members of his own party for appearing to prevaricate on Moscows role. His spin chief Seumas Milne also cast doubts on Russian involvement in a briefing to journalists.

Shadow defence secretary Ms Griffiths today said the partys frontbench is now united and believe the Prime Minister when she says Russia was responsible for the attack.

Referring to Mr Corbyns address to the Commons, she told the BBC: Some of us perhaps speak in different ways, and I perhaps speak in a more plain-speaking way but he has made it very clear.. that we are fully supportive of the Governments actions, because clearly we accept that the Prime Minister has said that Russia is responsible.

She distanced herself from the partys communications director Mr Milne, who last night told reporters in Westminster that government intelligence, particularly in relation to WMDs, had a problematic history.

She said: I cant speak for Seumus Milne. He has to speak for himself. I think the situation is very different.

Mr Corbyn has been summoned to appear before the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night to face furious MPs who believe he does not reflect the wider partys views.

A Labour source said: There will almost certainly be questions that Jeremy Corbyn should come and address the PLP. Whats happened is totally deplorable.

MP John Woodcock who led an early day motion (EDM) signed by 18 Labour backbenchers accepting Russian culpability said people are deeply unhappy with the idea that Labour would be aligned with the Kremlin.

Jim Fitzpatrick said: On the basis of all the evidence that Russia is responsible, we need to be fully demonstrating that we believe that is the case. I think the Labour Party front bench were completely out of step with the mood of the whole house, and on the Labour benches.

Labour MP Mike Gapes has called for Mr Milne to be sacked.T he full horror of a mass acid attack at a nightclub is being recreated in venues across the capital to train managers and staff how to deal with the threat.

Police are running role-play demonstrations with clubbers screaming and scrambling in panic and suffering graphically realistic injuries.

It follows a spike in incidents, with 464 attacks using a corrosive substance last year, including ones that left victims with serious burns.

Emergency services have launched Project Diffuse, providing venues with response kits and practical advice.

Police demonstrate how to react to an acid attack

Drills are being held, with one at Cargo nightclub in Shoreditch and the latest, at Metal Works in Angel, attended by the Standard.

Detective Superintendent Mike West, leading the police response, said: For London we have the biggest night-time economy in the country so its about being prepared. The likelihood of an attack is low. However it has a huge impact on the victims. Therefore we are treating it as seriously as knife crime.

Mayuan Mak, manager at Metal Works, said: This can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. As the first responder you have to stop and engage your brain in the crucial first moments.

Arthur Collins was jailed for 20 years following an acid attack where he injured 22 people / Metropolitan Police

Heavy sentences have been handed down to perpetrators over the last year. In December Arthur Collins, 25, the former boyfriend of Ferne McCann from The Only Way Is Essex, was jailed for 20 years for injuring 22 people at Mangle nightclub in Dalston last April.

Derryck John, 17, of Croydon, was locked up for 10 and a half years this week after admitting acid attacks on six moped riders last July.

Video shows the moment police located Derryck John, after he carried out six acid attacks

Project Diffuse was set up by the Metropolitan Police, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade.

Police have kitted out cars with emergency response kits containing two pairs of thick rubber gauntlets, two pairs of goggles, five litres of water and a hose attachment.

The 18 kits have been sent to businesses whose staff will be first responders. Landmarks such as Buckingham Palace will also have them.

Mr West said: The most important thing is copious amounts of water. While you will probably be left with some scarring, pouring water will combat the intensity of the injury.

Staff are taught to prioritise face, eyes, and larger burns and pour water over victims for up to 30 minutes.

As corrosive substances can be transferred to the skin of others, victims should have clothing cut away. LAS duty team leader Steve Gibbons said: Acid attacks go back to Victorian times and treatment hasnt changed much.

Remove clothing, especially if sticking to skin. Remove contamination with water.

At least two fire crews will attend a major incident and use hoses to provide cold water.A n A&E consultant who left an angry note on an ambulance after his car was blocked in has sparked fury among paramedics.

Zain Ali Kazmi returned to his ambulance to find the note pinned to the windscreen at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

He shared an image of the angry missive on Facebook and claimed the consultant should not have parked there in the first place.

It read: Think about others before you block others car and was signed A&E Consultant.

Angry note: The missive was left by an A&E consultant / Facebook

He wrote: Came out of ED to find this! Another note on an ambulance this time from an A&E consultant outside A&E because he was blocked in a bay where he shouldn't have parked himself!"

Angry note: The letter was left pinned to the windscreen of an ambulance / Facebook

The paramedic later told the Huddersfield Examiner: You dont just leave a note on an ambulance. Its not the way to deal with it.

Dr Sarah Robertshaw, Head of Clinical Service for Emergency Medicine, at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: We have been working hard with the Yorkshire Ambulance Service over the last six months to improve our ambulance hand over times, and frequently find ourselves amongst the top in the region.

Backlash: Zain Ali Kazmi shared images of the note on social media / Facebook

It was therefore disappointing to see this post on social media today. We have spoken to the doctor in question.

The latest row comes weeks after 26-year-old Kirsty Sharman was fined 120 for leaving a note on an ambulance in Stoke.

She appeared at North Staffordshire Justice Centre last month where she admitted her angry tirade after she wrote a note which read: "If this van is for anyone but No.14 then you have no right to park here.

"I couldn't give a s**t if the whole street collapses. Now move your van from outside my house."T housands of British troops will be vaccinated against anthrax poisoning following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will announce the measure today along with plans for a new chemical weapons defence centre.

In his first keynote speech since becoming Secretary of State last year, Mr Williamson will set out the threats facing the UK, his vision for the Modernising Defence Programme, and make the case for investment in the armed forces.

"If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury," Mr Williamson will say.

Salisbury spy attack: What we know so far

"We know the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from others.

"But we have world-class expertise at Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Porton Down and today I can announce we will be strengthening this capability by investing 48m in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence."

Theresa May expels Russian diplomats in response to nerve agent attack

Experts based at DSTL in Wiltshire were tasked with analysing the nerve agent used to poison Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and played a crucial role in linking the attack to Russia.

In light of what he will describe as a growing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat from a range of state actors, he will confirm that thousands of British troops who are held at high-readiness will be vaccinated against anthrax.

In a move to ensure personnel are protected and ready to deploy to areas where the risk of this type of attack exists, Mr Williamson will state how the voluntary vaccination will offer "vital protection against a deadly danger".

Anthrax is a spore-producing bacterium and is often used as a weapon in a powder, spray or as an aerosol - with inhalation the most dangerous form of transmission and usually fatal.

Mr Williamson is also expected to warn how the country has "arrived at a profound moment in our history", stressing there is a "crossroads where the choice before us as a nation is simple - to sit back and let events overtake us or step forward".

"As Brexit beckons, the eyes of the world are on us. Rest assured our adversaries will be watching even more closely than our allies," he will add.

"This is our moment to retain our competitive advantage."

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

During his speech on Thursday, hosted by Policy Exchange and Rolls Royce in Bristol, Mr Williamson will also set out his vision for the ongoing Modernising Defence Programme.

The South Staffordshire MP will say that the programme, launched in January and due to report in the summer, will give Britain a "more productive, harder-hitting joint force", which is able to counter conventional threats and "deal with the new challenges of asymmetric conflict".

This will mean taking intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability "to the next level", and "accelerating" the development of specialist Army information unit, 77 Brigade, he will add.E dinburgh has been voted the most attractive city in the UK to live and work in, according to a new study.

The Scottish city's access to education, healthcare and vast green spaces saw it rank higher than anywhere else in Britain.

Edinburgh came ahead of the UK capital although London scored higher on earnings, employment and business activity.

Commissioned by Royal Mail, the study ranked 12 cities across nine categories including access to education, green space and healthcare, cultural services and housing costs.

Scotland: The City of Edinburgh - In pictures 1 /19 Scotland: The City of Edinburgh - In pictures Panoramic view of Edinburgh DarilonPixabay Highland dancers perform on the Esplanade during the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle PA Edinburgh Tama66/Pixabay New Year revellers enjoy Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations AFP/Getty Images Edinburgh Castle kolibri5/Pixabay The massed pipes and drums during the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo PA Edinburgh Festival Fringe entertainers perform on the Royal Mile Getty Images Edinburgh kolibri5/Pixabay Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations Getty Images Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations Getty Images Fireworks light up the sky in Edinburgh during the Hogmanay New Year celebrations PA Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle Getty Images Ruins in Edinburgh thirtyone10/Pixabay Princes Street and the Balmoral Clock in Edinburgh PA Edinburgh Festival Fringe entertainers Getty Images The Royal Mile Getty Images Greyfriars Bobby statue shoegal2010/Pixabay National Monument of Edinburgh shilmar/Pixabay Bagpipes player MrChris89/Pixabay

The Scottish capital came first on access to education and performed well on job opportunities, business community, earnings and access to green space, which covers 28 per cent of the city.

Edinburgh came first in access to education / Getty Images

Earnings in Edinburgh (at 578 on average per week) are second only to London and the city also has the second highest number of start-ups, while office space costs are about half that of London and the employment rate is strong at 70.8 per cent.

Edinburgh Council Leader Adam McVey said: "It is welcome news that Edinburgh is yet again receiving recognition as the UK's top city to live and work in.

It also performed well on job opportunities, business community, earnings and access to green space / Tama66/Pixabay

"The facts demonstrating the city's attributes are plentiful and our own statistics in Edinburgh by Numbers show that Edinburgh is a vibrant capital city with a diverse economy, an increasing population with strong investment potential."

Ranked: the UK's best cities to live and work in 1. Edinburgh 2. London 3. Bristol 4. Newcastle-Gateshead 5. Manchester 6. Glasgow 7. Leeds 8. Cardiff 9. Sheffield 10. Liverpool 11. Belfast 12. Birmingham

People in London, which came in second place, have the highest earnings at 697 per week on average, while employment levels are strong at 73.7 per cent.

London fell down when it came to housing affordability / Getty Images

However the capital fell down when it came to affordable housing and office costs which are the highest in the UK.

Bristol, in third place, has an employment rate of 77.3 per cent and is the top-ranking UK city for job opportunities while Newcastle-Gateshead was fourth and Manchester fifth overall.

Most Instagrammed Views in London 1 /21 Most Instagrammed Views in London The view from one of the gondola's of the London Eye PA The London Eye AFP/Getty Images Sunrise seen from the Shard PA Archive/PA Images A west facing view from the Shard PA Archive/PA Images An autumnal scene at Hyde Park PA Archive/PA Images Birds swim in Hyde Park Jeremy Selwyn A frosty morning in Hyde Park REUTERS The O2 Arena on the Greenwich peninsula, South-East London PA Archive/PA Images The O2 Arena PA Archive/PA Images Tower Bridge before sunrise PA Archive/PA Images A general view of Kew Gardens near the Palm House at The Royal Botanic Gardens PA Archive/PA Images View of Palm House at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew PA Archive/PA Images The sun rises over Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn London skyline from Primrose Hill PA Archive/PA Images Alexandra Palace PA Wire/PA Images View from Alexandra Palace PA Archive/PA Images View of the South Bank PA Archive/PA Images The London Eye and the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank with the Houses of Parliament beyond PA Archive/PA Images View of the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye on the South Bank PA Archive/PA Images Aerial view of the Shard Getty Images St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge PA Archive/PA Images

Glasgow came in sixth place.

Known as the 'dear green place' it lives up to its reputation, taking first place for the share of the city which is green space, at 35 per cent.

People in London have the highest earnings / Getty Images

Leeds was votred seventh place followed by Cardiff, Sheffield, Liverpool, Belfast and Birmingham.

London also scored high on employment levels / Getty Images

Royal Mail spokesman David Gold said: "This new research from Royal Mail shows there is hot competition among the UK's leading cities to be the most attractive location for people to live and work in.

"Edinburgh has the edge on other economically significant UK cities. Bristol also performs well in categories including job opportunities, healthcare, business community and culture."

Royal Mail worked with Cebr to investigate the UK's most attractive cities to live and work in.

The research considered the UK's ten most economically significant cities as well as the capital cities of Wales and Northern Ireland.L iz Hurleys nephew has been pictured for the first time since he was brutally stabbed in south London.

Miles Hurley lost more than four pints of blood after he was repeatedly stabbed in a mob attack in Wandsworth.

The picture posted to Instagram shows the 21-year-old model stood next to a friend also thought to have been injured in the attack. The image was captioned MY SURVIVORS. Grateful.

It's thought that the attack was triggered by road rage after Mr Hurley and a friend, overtook a car.

Some minutes later a gang then chased the pair until they pulled over, before setting upon them and stabbing them multiple times.

In an Instagram post, Liz Hurley said: My 21 year old nephew @mileshurley1 was brutally attacked by four men in London on Thursday night. He was repeatedly stabbed and lost more than four pints of blood.

"A policeman was patrolling close by and administered first aid until the ambulance arrived. The deepest wound just missed severing his spine.

"By some miracle no vital organs were damaged. We are praying that these animals are caught before they maim, or even kill, someone else. These are sad days."

According to reports, Miles is recuperating at his aunts house in Hertfordshire after being discharged from hospital.

It's thought that Ms Hurley, 52, rushed back from the US to be with him.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed two men were attacked by a group who got out of a vehicle and set upon them in Ascalon Street, Battersea.

He added: A 21-year-old man was discovered with stab wounds.

Another man, also believed to be aged 21, was also found suffering from stab wounds.

They were both taken by LAS to a south London hospital where their conditions are described as not life-threatening or life-changing.A top London advertising firm has issued an apology after a worker sent an internal email ranking his female colleagues in order of attractiveness.

The&Partnership employee sparked an angry backlash after the email, which included a list of his top five and bottom five female co-workers, was posted online.

He had shared the sexist message with his office on his last day of work last Thursday, on International Womens Day.

In one crude comment about a female colleague, the planner said: If you were the last girl on earth, I would use you as bait to trap a wild animal I would be happier f******.

His former employers said in statement that it has since apologised to staff for the offensive email.

A The&Partnership spokeswoman said: We have apologised to our staff and others for any offence this email has caused, and have made it clear to all employees we will not tolerate emails of this kind being sent.

The firm went on to say that this type of top five list had been shared by employees on their last day in the past, but that they had not before been indicative of a chauvinistic culture".

It added: They [the emails] have been shared by both departing men and women, and have often listed five best friends at the agency, rather than people of the opposite gender.

In another comment in the leavers email, which had the subject line Bye Bye, the man listed a female colleague and wrote: I dont see the attraction tbh, but everyone else rates you, so you must be doing something right.

The employee has since said he is incredibly sorry for the email, admitting that he totally missed the mark.

He said: Sending these top five emails has become common practice at many ad agencies and, by sending that email yesterday [last Friday], I have contributed to this culture of toxic masculinity.

All women mentioned in it are friends and people I very genuinely love and respect. After checking with them to make sure they were happy to be mentioned in the email  as part of what I erroneously considered at the time a joke  I thought that was enough to validate me pressing send.

It wasnt and should never have been.

He said he should absolutely be held accountable for the misguided, offensive message, adding: the email was meant to be a stupid, ironic attempt to subvert and mock the sexist top five emails that have been sent around agencies for many years.N igel Farage has defended Canadian far right activist Lauren Southern after she was detained at Calais and refused entry to the UK.

Ms Southern claims she has been permanently banned from Britain after she was held by Border Force officials in Coquelles, France, on Monday.

She says she was detained under the Terrorism Act after previously giving out leaflets and posters about Islam in Luton.

Mr Farage said on his LBC show on Wednesday: What she says is she thinks there are elements of Islam that are not compatible with western society, she talks about rights of women, homosexuality.

Now that may be a point of view that a lot of people find very uncomfortable, it may be a point of view they agree with, but surely the point is we should be allowed to have this debate in modern Britain.

I do find it amazing that we used the Terrorism Act on someone like this in a country where the government let back in 400 people whod fought for Isis in Syria.

Barred: Far-right activist Lauren Southern / Lauren Southern/Facebook

Mr Farage aired part of an interview he conducted with Ms Southern on the show, in which she said she would try to challenge the decision to ban her from entry.

She said: There was nothing racist about those leaflets, I spoke about the LGBT community and about Islam, neither of those things have anything to do with race.

I said yes I was handing out leaflets in Luton and they simply decided they were racist.

According to reports, Ms Southern had been planning to meet Austrian Martin Sellner of the Generation Identity group and American commentator Brittany Pettibone in the UK.

The pair were also refused entry at Luton airport on Friday.

They were removed from the country on Sunday, according to the Home Office.B oris Johnson has called for a collective international response to Russia's involvement in the use of a nerve agent on British soil.

The Foreign Secretary said all responsible nations were obliged to take on Russian aggression after the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

But his calls were immediately undermined by France.

A spokesman for President Emmanuel Macron said Britain risks punishing Russia prematurely, labelling the decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats from the UK as fantasy politics.

Mr Johnson said the poison used in the spy attack was specifically chosen to send a message to political dissenters challenging Russian president Vladimir Putin.

"Britain is striving to uphold the rules on which the safety of every country depends. I hope and believe that our friends will stand alongside us, he wrote in the Washington Post.

Criticism: Emmanuel Macron's spokesman warned against Theresa May's approach / AP

Mr Johnson also warned Russians in the UK who are directly associated with Mr Putin that they could face unexplained wealth orders to "bring them to justice for acts of gross corruption and anything that threatens the rights, the freedom or the property of people in this country."

Britain accuses Russia over nerve agent attack at UN meeting

Speaking to the BBC, he added: "There's a global disgust at what has happened. We will continue to make the case to our friends and allies that as a comity of nations we need to stand up to Russia."

Former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the international response must be collective or it would be a victory for Russia.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "A collective response is very important. Anything short of full solidarity with the UK now will be considered a victory for the Kremlin. "

The US, meanwhile, backed Mrs May's position. A White House spokesman said: "The United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom.

"The United States shares the United Kingdom's assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the United Kingdom's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response."

Vladimir Putin faces accusations of Kremlin involvement in the poisoning / EPA

Mr Johnson said he understood that the Skripals remain in a "critical but stable" condition in hospital, while the police officer who came to their aid was responding to treatment.

He said the "recklessness and brutality" shown by Russia had "shocked and appalled" countries around the world and welcomed the strength of support shown by the US and European nations.

Mr Johnson said he had not yet received any indication of a possible Russian response to Britain's decision to expel 23 diplomats.

Asked if he knew what Moscow intended to do, he told the BBC: "That's a matter for them. We believe that what we have done is commensurate with what we've seen on the streets of Salisbury.

"A nerve agent has been used in a European country for the first time since the Second World War. We believe that the UK Government has responded robustly, as the people of this country would expect us to respond.T wo weeks. Thats how long it took for Philip Hopwood, a businessman on more than 150,000 a year, to become addicted to prescription opioids and begin the slippery slide that, in 18 months, would destroy his life.

The married father of five seemingly had it all. He lived in a 750,000 converted barn, drove a Mercedes, sent his children to private schools and employed 40 people in his building surveyor business in Covent Garden, which counted estate agent Savills and London councils among its clients. Having grown up in poverty in the East End and left school at 14 with no qualifications, he was proud of the 3 million business he had built from scratch.

But Philip, 56, had a secret. Every fortnight he would meet his drug dealer in Oxford Street and hand over 500. The dealer would pass him an innocuous plastic bag with a box of painkillers known as Oxy.

It was an illicit drug deal in plain sight. Oxycodone is a class-A opioid and acquiring it without a prescription carries a seven-year prison sentence, but Philip had become too addicted to care. He was taking a potentially fatal dose of 200 milligrams a day, 10 times the amount he started on.

Little did he know that oxycodone, along with other potent prescription opioids such as fentanyl, was responsible for 16,800 deaths in the US in 2016 and a growing number of fatalities in the UK, where oxycodone deaths have doubled in the last four years to 75 in 2016.

Like thousands of people who become addicted to prescription opioids, Philips introduction to the pills had been via his doctor. Five years ago his appendix burst and after an operation to remove it, he was hospitalised and put on a morphine clicker to address the pain.

I was not the sort of person who took drugs and had never experienced anything like morphine before... It not only took away the pain but made me feel fantastic

I was not the sort of person who took drugs and had never experienced anything like morphine before, said Philip. It not only took away the pain but made me feel fantastic, surrounding me with a warm feeling  like being wrapped in cotton wool.

Opioids, it must be said, are highly successful in providing relief from post-operative and acute pain, as well as to ameliorate cancer pain. What Philip failed to realise is how addictive and destructive opioids can be if they become part of your long-term lifestyle, either as an attempted remedy for chronic pain or  as in Philips case  when used recreationally to alleviate stress.

My addiction started innocently almost two years ago when a friend at the gym said try one of these and offered me a morphine sulfate tablet to help me chill out from the pressure I was feeling at work, said Philip.

I took one 10 milligram MST which made me feel wonderfully warm and relaxed and triggered my memory of being on morphine in hospital. I asked him to get me more.

Philip paid 10 for each 10mg pill and took one a day but the hit only lasted 12 hours, so he upped it to two. Within two weeks, he was needing more pills to achieve the same effect  known as tolerance. He began taking four pills a day, switching between MST and oxycodone.

I became alarmed at how quickly it had escalated and tried to stop but I got withdrawal symptoms, he said. I felt like hell  nauseous, anxious, jittery, unable to sleep. The only thing that relieved the symptoms was more pills. You think to yourself: these are given out by GPs every day of the week, how bad can they be?

Philip hid his habit from his wife and children, citing overwork and stress for his increasingly detached behaviour. I felt deceitful and shameful. I had no desire for sex and became emotionally cut off.

I was a Spurs season ticket holder but I stopped going to matches with friends because I had become incoherent and didnt want to be challenged on what was going on. My marriage of 20 years started to crumble.

But instead of cutting down, Philip ramped up. I discovered how easy it was to buy online. I Googled, Where can I buy opioids? and a dozen websites popped up.

Two clicks later and I was ordering shipments from online pharmacies in India and Pakistan and having brown-paper packages stuffed with oxycodone delivered to my door within 48 hours.

He believes he spent up to 50,000 over two years. The Crime Survey for England and Wales reports that one in 13 adults has taken prescription painkillers not prescribed to them, with an increasing number bought online. Philips experience of the internet, however, was patchy: sometimes he got sent counterfeit pills.

He switched instead to the dealer who would arrange to meet him on Oxford Street. Within a year he had upped his daily dose to the potentially fatal 200mg. He knew he was in deep trouble but felt powerless to stop it.

The Oxy made my brain fuzzy and I started to forget appointments and miss business meetings, but not taking them made me feel even worse, he said. I just wanted to sleep and wouldnt turn up for jobs and after a while my business collapsed and I had to let all my staff go.

I could not get out of bed for three days and was crying continuously. I finally told my wife about my addiction

Then last May Philip had a breakdown. I could not get out of bed for three days and was crying continuously. I finally told my wife about my addiction.

She was relieved to hear the truth but furious with my lies. She threatened to leave unless I got help, so I went to see my GP who advised me to go into rehab.

Philip prevaricated, but things came to a head in the summer when he took his family to Turkey and his wife found his stash of oxycodone and threw it out. He started to get hideous withdrawal symptoms and panicked.

I drove to the airport, jumped on a plane and flew to London, he said. I told my family I was flying home to go into rehab, but I had lied so many times they didnt believe me. My family were devastated.

That was when Philip checked into Sanctuary Lodge, a private clinic in Essex run by UK Addiction Treatment, where he paid 15,000 for seven weeks of in-patient care to get clean. Ukat says that admissions for prescription opioid addicts at its six treatment centres have risen by 30 per cent in the past two years, indicating a growing opioid addiction problem in England.

On the day Philip met the Standard, he was a Ukat out-patient, three months clean and attending daily Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He looked smart and rested, nothing like a dishevelled drug addict.

I am one of the lucky ones, he said. It is difficult if not impossible to get in-patient detox treatment for opioids on the NHS.

I am fortunate that I have the money to go private because coming off opioids is the hardest thing.

Its like having flu but 10 times worse. I had insomnia for 10 days, I couldnt eat, I had the shakes, nausea, diarrhoea. I would never, ever have got through it on my own.

But the fallout has been devastating. He is living as a lodger in a shared east London bed-sit, a far cry from his five-bedroom barn in Harlow. My wife and I are estranged, he said. He looked stricken. I hope to win my wife back and I have begun to rebuild my business, but there are big trust issues to overcome.

Prescription opioids are essentially heroin in pill form... Get hooked and they will take a flamethrower to your life

He paused. It will take time for the people I let down to trust me again. I want to warn people how easy it is to ruin your life. I want to send a wake-up call to the Government.

You wont believe the people I see addicted to opioids at NA meetings  lawyers, accountants, well-known musicians, models, even lords. This is a growing problem right here in the UK.

If somebody had said to me, Heres a bag of heroin, try it, I would have told them to f*** off. But thats effectively what I got into. Prescription opioids are essentially heroin in pill form in a blister pack. Get hooked and they will take a flamethrower to your life.T he family of an Afghan toddler named Donald Trump said their lives have been ruined by the backlash over his name.

The 18-month-old was born in 2016 while his billionaire businessman namesake was running for the US presidency.

His parents, Jamila and Sayed Assadullah, were reportedly admirers of the Americans successful career and hoped their boy could follow in his footsteps.

However, the use of a non-Muslim name has instead caused problems among their family in central Afghanistan.

The parents said they admired Donald Trump's successful career / REUTERS

Mr Assadullah told the New York Times that his father, who traditionally would have had the first say on the babys name, was furious at their decision.

He said: "They told me 'How you can select the name of an infidel for your son?'

"My father is an angry man.

Donald Trump's birth certificate / EPA

"He told me that he could not tolerate the fact that I call my son Donald Trump.

"So I left and moved my family to Kabul."

Mr Assadullah said he also encountered problems at the government office for verifying IDs, where he was allegedly disrespected and threatened over the name.

He claims to have become a fan of the US President after watching him on television and reading his books during a college degree.

He said he never wanted his child's name to be made public and claimed a picture of the birth certificate was initially leaked on social media.

Donald Trump has a lot of special qualities," Mr Assadullah told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.D onald Trump has imposed sanctions on 19 Russians over alleged interference in the US election and cyber-attacks.

Among them are 13 individuals charged last month by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and five entities including Russian intelligence services.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement: "The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure.

US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign using hacking and propaganda, including attempting to tilt the race in Mr Trump's favour.

They said that included adopting false online personas to push divisive messages and staging political rallies while posing as Americans.

Russia denies interfering in the election.

It came as Mr Trump said "it looks like" Russia was behind the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in the UK.

He said it was a "very sad situation" that the US was taking "very seriously".

The UK has blamed Russia for the attack and is expelling 23 of its diplomats, but Moscow denies all involvement.

Thursday's US sanctions freeze any assets the individuals and entities have in the country and prohibit American citizens from carrying out business with them.

Mr Mnuchin said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs "for their destabilising activities".D onald Trump Jrs marriage to former model wife Vanessa is on the rocks, it was claimed today.

The presidents oldest son had reportedly hoped to avoid a divorce while Mr Trump remained in the White House.

But, according to fresh reports in the United States, the couple who have five young children have been finding it harder to resolve their problems.

The problems have been there for a long time. Hes never there, claimed a source. Vanessa is a devoted mother, but she is increasingly lonely and alone in the house with the children.

Friends reportedly said no divorce papers have yet been filed, but the pair were said to be living separate lives and expected to make their separation official soon, claimed the New York Post.

However, another insider was quoted as saying the couple were hoping to save their 13-year marriage.

Donald Jr. and Vanessa have been dealing with some issues, but they are not yet at the stage of filing for divorce. They are trying to deal with this privately, the source said. Don is still living at home, is a good dad and is super involved in his kids lives.

He has always travelled for work, so his current schedule is not something out of the ordinary. He has a busy travel schedule now as he always does.

Donald Jr, 40, is an avid hunter and is regularly abroad. There are many pictures of him online posing with the carcasses of elephants, leopards and other animals.

With brother, Eric, 34, he is running the Trump Organisation while their father is in the Oval Office.

A sombre-looking Mrs Trump, 40, was spotted in New York yesterday with oldest daughter, Kai, 10. The couple have four other children, Donald III, nine, Tristan, seven, Spencer, five, and three-year-old Chloe.

Vanessa was said to have been absent from a number of recent family events, including their annual New Years Eve gala.

The couple have not responded to requests for comment.

Donald Jr proposed to Vanessa, who was a model and actress at the time, with a $100,000 engagement ring back in 2004 and they were married at Mar-a-Lago in November 2005.

Prior to the wedding, Vanessa had been linked to Leonardo DiCaprio and had a small role in the film Somethings Gotta Give. She was hospitalised recently after receiving a letter that contained a white powder substance.A t least four people have been crushed to death after a newly installed pedestrian bridge collapsed onto a busy road in Florida.

Cars were trapped underneath the Florida International University Bridge when it fell onto a Miami motorway on Thursday afternoon.

Emergency services were working through the night to clear the rubble and search for bodies with so far four people found dead amid the wreckage.

Fire Chief Dave Downey said a further nine victims were removed "early on" and rushed to nearby hospitals.

At least eight cars were trapped directly under the bridge / REUTERS

He said the "search and rescue mode" - deploying trained canines, search cameras and sensitive listening devices - was set to continue for hours.

Governor Rick Scott said at an evening news conference that "everybody is working hard to make sure we rescue anyone who can be rescued".

Vehicles are seen trapped under the collapsed pedestrian bridge / Getty Images

He said a major investigation would be launched into why the bridge, which was erected in just six hours on Saturday, crumbled and fell.

Shocking footage from the scene showed vehicles crumpled under the weight of the bridge, with rubble strewn across the road.

The bridge had only been installed on Saturday / EPA

One witness, Suzy Bermudez was waiting in a line of traffic when she saw the cars in front of her 'totally smashed, almost to the ground' by the falling bridge.

She told ABC News: It fell on the cars that were waiting for the light to change. All of a sudden, I saw it collapse. It was in slow motion.

I couldn't process it until I actually jumped out of my car.

A major investigation is being launched into why the bridge collapsed / EPA

Jacob Miller, a senior at FIU, was visiting a friend in a dorm when he heard sirens and horns honking. He went to a balcony and could see rubble coming down.

"I saw there were multiple cars crushed under the bridge. It was just terrible. I saw some people stopping their cars, trying to get out, trying to assess the situation to see if there is anything they could do to help," he said.

Search-and-rescue crews drilled holes into the debris and used their highly trained dogs to look for survivors. They had to work carefully because part of the structure was still unsafe.

The 950-ton bridge had been assembled by the side of the highway and moved into place on Saturday to great fanfare. It stretched almost 200ft to connect Florida International University with the city of Sweetwater. It was expected to open to foot traffic next year.

FIU president Mark Rosenberg said: "Now we're feeling immense sadness, uncontrollable sadness. And our hearts go out to all those affected, their friends and their families.

Donald Trump said the bridge collapse was "heartbreaking" and "so tragic".

The US president tweeted: "Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected."

Dramatic images show vehicles stuck underneath the bridge / Jonathan Munoz

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt III said a team of specialists was heading to Miami on Thursday night with plans to begin its investigation on Friday morning.

Miami-Dade Police director Juan Perez said his department's homicide team would take over the investigation after rescue efforts are complete.

Munilla Construction Management (MCM), the Miami-based construction management firm that won the bridge contract, had a news release on its website touting the project with FIGG Bridge Engineers, a Tallahassee firm.

MCM said on Twitter that it was "a family business and we are all devastated and doing everything we can to assist. We will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way."

FIGG said in a statement: "In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before."

Florida International University is the second largest university in the state, with 55,000 students, most of whom live off-campus. The bridge was supposed to be a safe way to cross a busy highway.F lorida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz remained silent in court as a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf for the murder of 17 people.

The 19-year-old, shackled and wearing red prison clothes, sat in the jury box with his head bowed and said nothing during the brief hearing.

Because he refused to announce his plea, the judge entered it for him on each of the 34 counts he faces.

His lawyer Melisa McNeill reiterated that Cruz would plead guilty if prosecutors waived the death penalty, which they refused to do.

The suspect's brother Zachary, 18, sat in the courtroom and could be seen crying.

Cruz's brother Zachary could be seen crying during the brief hearing / AP

Cruz is accused of carrying out the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that also wounded 17 people in a case that has reignited a national debate about gun control and school safety.

It also prompted a nationwide walkout of thousands of students, who showed solidarity with the Parkland students a month after the shooting.

US mass gun violence protest 1 /7 US mass gun violence protest Thousands of local students sit for 17 minutes outside the White House AFP/Getty Images Students at Philadelphia High School of Creative And Performing Arts participate in a walkout to address school safety and gun violence Getty Images Students participate in a protest against gun violence on Capitol Hill in Washington Getty Images Students from Montgomery Blair High School march down Colesville Road in support of gun reform legislation Getty Images Students from Montgomery Blair High School march down Colesville Road in support of gun reform legislation Getty Images Students from Montgomery Blair High School march down Colesville Road in support of gun reform legislation Getty Images Students from surrounding schools gather at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan Getty Images

As Cruz sat in the courtroom, more details of the shooting emerged as the Coral Springs Police Department released recordings of 911 calls and police radio traffic.

In the recordings, students and dispatchers were uncertain about the shooter's location and how to hide from him.

Some were frightened the gunman would return to their location when asked if they could perform CPR on the wounded.

"Please, please, please, there are people here. They are bleeding. They are all going to die," a teenage girl calling from Room 1216 said through tears and heavy breathing.

"There's a lot of people around us that are injured, people that are injured, people that are bleeding. He is upstairs now."

Moments later, the girl starts screaming "They are coming in, oh no!" before discovering it was police officers who were entering the room.

A teacher from Room 1216 also called for help and told the 911 operator that a student had been hit in the chest, and wasn't breathing.

"He's twitching. There's blood all over," she said.

At one point, the operator warned that the shooter was still in the hallway, advising the teacher to keep the students still.

"Stay down, he's by your room, OK. Everyone be quiet."

The police radio recordings showed that the Coral Springs police officers were the first to enter the school building after confirming that Broward County Sheriff's Office deputies had not gone in.

As they clear each of the building's three floors, the officers describe seeing shell casings on the floor and bullet holes in the windows.

They warned that the suspect may have changed clothes after they reported finding a camouflaged jacket, ski mask and backpack on the first floor.

On the third floor, officers said they found an AR-15 with a magazine still attached.

The officers found wounded victims and bodies, and they prioritised evacuating the wounded before allowing other students and teachers to leave.

On the third floor, they said they shattered windows in some locked classroom doors because terrified students would not open doors.

Cruz was arrested a few blocks away from the school.A tech billionaire has paid more than 7,000 ($10,000) on the promise that one day the entire contents of his brain will be uploaded to a computer so that it is preserved forever.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sam Altman joined start-up company Nectomes waiting list to upload the contents of his brain onto a computer so that his consciousness can live on after he dies.

Nectome, founded in 2016 by a pair of MIT AI researchers, hopes to eventually offer a way of preserving the brain and all its memories using a process called aldehyde-stabilised cryopreservation.

Mr Altman, founder of Y Combinator, told the MIT Technology Review: I assume my brain will be uploaded to the cloud.

Mr Altman said he assumes his brain will be uploaded onto the cloud / Getty Images

Speaking to the MIT Technology Review, Nectomes founder, Robert McIntyre said that the process will involve a high tech embalming technique which causes the customer to die.

The living individual will be hooked up to a machine which pumps them with embalming chemicals, a method which is 100 per cent fatal the company claimed.

The user experience will be identical to physician-assisted suicide, Mr McIntyre said.

Nectome said on its site: Our mission is to preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favourite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family.

We believe that within the current century it will be feasible to digitise this information and use it to recreate your consciousness.

Nectome hope to be able to preserve human memories / Getty Images

The company said it plans to connect people with terminal illnesses to a heart and lung machine and pump the embalming mixture into their cateroid arteries in their necks while they are alive but under general anaesthesia.

After consulting with lawyers, the company believe that the process will be legal as it falls under Californias two-year-old End of Life Option Act, which permits doctor-assisted suicide for terminal patients.

Currently, Nectome doesnt have a method for uploading the brains it stores, but it hopes to demonstrate a fully uploaded simulation of a biological neural network in 2024 according to its website.

The idea of uploading a human brain onto a computer has gained traction among some scientists.

Futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson told The Sun that he believes in 50 years time well be able to transfer our brains to the cloud.D onald Trump has sent condolences to two crew members who died after a US Navy fighter jet crashed off the Florida coast.

"Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible @USNavy," the US president said.

The men died after a their F/A-18 Super Hornet jet crashed off the coast of Key West, Florida.

The fighter was on approach to land at the naval air station and crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway.

President Trump sent his condolences to the two US Navy airmen

The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, but US Naval Air Forces reported late on Wednesday night that both had died. Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The cause of the crash is also under investigation.U nited Airlines is investigating after mistakenly flying a familys dog to Japan  just a day after a puppy died on a flight after being stored in an overhead bin.

Kara Swindle and her two children flew from Oregon to Kansas City in Missouri on Tuesday night, according to US reports.

But when they went to a cargo facility to pick up Irgo, a 10-year-old German Shepherd, they were instead given a Great Dane.

Ms Swindle discovered the dog had been put on a flight to Japan, where the Great Dane was supposed to go.

United Airlines has apologised / Kara Swindle via KCTV

Airline officials in Japan put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City. It was not clear when he would arrive home.

Ms Swindle told news site KCTV that the dog had never been on a flight before and she was worried he would not survive.

She said what was supposed to be an hour long journey had become 16 hours, with the return flight still to come.

She said: "I dont know if hes going to be able to sustain this flight because he is a 10-year-old dog and hes never been on a flight before.

"I honestly dont know if hes going to survive this flight."

United Airlines said in a statement to KCTV5 News: "An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible.

We apologise for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened."

It comes after a familys beloved French Bulldog died after a United Airlines flight attendant insisted on storing him an overhead compartment.

The airline apologised over the death of Kokito and accepted "full responsibility" for the incident.

Fellow passenger Maggie Gremminger wrote on Twitter: I assumed there must be ventilation as surely the flight attendant wouldnt have instructed this otherwise.P olice are investigating the death of a dog which died on a United Airlines plane after a flight attendant demanded that its owners store their pet in an overhead cabin.

The Houston County District Attorneys Office, working with the countys animal cruelty task force, has launched a probe into the incident which occurred on Monday.

Police said on Wednesday that once the investigation is complete they will decide whether or not criminal charges are warranted.

Carvana Cloud, Chief of Houston County District Attorneys Office said: We have a task force, an animal cruelty task force led by precinct 5 and they are conducting the investigation.

'Tragedy': the dog was in a standard pet-carrier / Facebook

Catalina Robledo was travelling with her daughter Sophia Ceballos, 11, and her son on a flight from Houston to New York when they were asked to put their dog in the overhead cabin.

United Airlines said that the flight attendant who asked the family to put the pet carrier in the overhead store was not aware the pet was inside it.

The family disputed those claims.

United have since acknowledged that there was a dog in the carrier but claimed that the flight attendant did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin.

The treatment of Dr David Dao from United Airlines received widespread criticism / Reuters

A spokesman said: We have spoken to the family, our crew and a number of passengers who were seated nearby. We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier.

However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin. As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support."

The company said it plans to issue bright coloured bag tags by April for customers travelling with in-cabin pets to make staff aware when an animal is onboard.

The incident prompted Senator John Kennedy to send a letter to United President Scott Kirby demanding an immediate explanation for the number of animals who have died in United Airlines care.

He later said that he planned to pass a bill on Thursday banning airlines from putting pets in overhead bins.

I will be filing a bill tomorrow that will prohibit airlines from putting animals in overhead bins. Violators will face significant fines. Pets are family, he said.

The US Department of Transportation is also investigating the incident.

A spokesman for the DOT said: DOT is looking into the circumstances surrounding the recent death of a pet onboard a United Airlines flight and is in contact with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that enforces the Animal Welfare Act and handles complaints about alleged animal mistreatment.

On Thursday United accidentally flew a German Shepard to Japan instead of Kansas.

United Airlines said in a statement to KCTV5 News: "An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible.A US mother has been jailed for six months for shooting dead her boyfriend in a botched YouTube stunt they hoped would go viral.

Monalisa Perez, 20, fired a gun at Pedro Ruiz, 22, from a foot away, with both believing the hard-back encyclopaedia held to his chest would shield him.

But Ruiz was fatally wounded by the bullet last June. The couples three-year-old child and almost 30 other people were watching at the time.

On Wednesday, a Minnesota judge formally sentenced Perez to 180 days behind bars. He said she could serve her time in 10-day increments over the next three years as set out in the plea agreement.

Monalisa Perez was jailed for 180 days (Northwest Regional Corrections ) / Northwest Regional Corrections

Perez was also been banned from owning firearms for life and placed on probation for ten years.

In a chilling tweet sent hours before the fatal shot, Perez told her followers that she and Ruiz were going to "shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever".

The couple regularly posted videos of much safer pranks to a YouTube channel in a bid to achieve internet fame.

Perez told investigators Ruiz had convinced her to participate by showing her other books he had shot where the bullet did not go through to the other side.

They used a GoPro camera to record the video in which Perez aimed a Desert Eagle .50 calibre at the book before pulling the trigger.

Perez called 911 to report that she had accidentally shot her boyfriend.Review at a glance









T here are subjects that seem almost too painful to contemplate, unless circumstances force them upon you. My Babys Life: Who Decides? is a two-part documentary set in Southampton Childrens Hospital Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, looking at the treatment of children who have little hope of ever being able to live a full or happy life.

As the units director explains: Our capacity to support life exceeds our ability to treat the underlying disease  we can keep people alive long beyond the point where weve got a real treatment for them. That raises dilemmas for both parents and doctors.

We meet Tallulah, born so prematurely that she weighed just a pound, now 18 months old and permanently on a life support machine. Five years ago she could not have survived.

Her parents have not left the hospital since her birth  and when her tracheotomy tube has to be changed, she cannot breathe at all. Three times her parents have been told there is an option to withdraw treatment but they want to give her the best fighting chance.

Max was born five months premature and cant breathe for himself either. We see him going in for a tracheotomy, while his crying father says hes being butchered. At six months old, Max has only been held by his parents a few times. But after the operation he seems at first markedly better, indeed quite the charmer  hes like a different baby, says his mother, happily.

Difficult job: the staff at Southampton General Hospital who look after unwell babies / Channel 4

At eight months old, Mimi is suffering heart failure  and her parents think further treatment will cause too much suffering for her and agree to withdraw her from further intervention. Nowadays its very rare that parents withdraw, observes a consultant  but the unit supports them in their decision.

Youve been able to meet her and shes been able to meet you, says a palliative carer, gently. And as her parents face the consequences of their choice, she suggests: I think she is saying to us that her life is too difficult  and we have to respect that.

As one of the doctors puts it: Families embark on this journey in the hope of a cure  nobody embarks on a journey like this thinking that their destination will be requiring ventilatory support. The difficulty is that by the time it becomes clear where that journey is going to end, you are on it.

My Babys Life: Who Decides?, directed by Kira Phillips, follows these families over the year when the Charlie Gard case was in the headlines. The trust that all involved, the medics as well as the parents, have given to the programme-makers to portray their stories with the care and nuance that they deserve is evident throughout  and fully repaid. Tears will flow.

Victim: Lily Harrison who was caught up in the Manchester Arena attack ITV) / ITV

No previews have been granted of Four Days That Shook Britain, a documentary telling the human stories of those caught up in the terror of the attacks at Westminster Bridge, the Ariana Grande Concert in Manchester, Borough Market and outside Finsbury Park mosque, between March and June last year.

The production company responsible, Minnow Films, has previously won awards for its drama Damilola, Our Beloved Boy and the documentary 7/7: One Day in London. But will the programme offer analysis as well as emotion?

My Babys Life: Who Decides? airs Thursday, March 15, Channel 4, 9pm and Four Days That Shook Britain airs Thursday, March 15, ITV, 9pm.

Pick of the day

Britannia

Jez Butterworths swords and druids drama has been unapologetically out there since the start, with a tone which pulses between Game of Thrones, Green Wing and a muddy Sunday at Glastonbury.

Did it take itself seriously? Possibly not. Was that a good thing? Surely it was, because any drama which sets out to revisit the attempted invasion of Kent by the Roman general Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey, projecting forcefully) as a supernatural struggle against a bunch of Celts and druids acting strangely under prophetic moons was always going to be playful.

And so it has proved. The finale has hellhounds, blood sacrifice and a display of firepower, as the Roman pyrotechnics are unleashed. As usual, Zoe Wanamaker steals the show as Queen Antedia, dismissing the suggestion of peace talks with a gruff parlay my balls. Mackenzie Crook, as the Gollum-like Veran, captures the psychedelic logic at the heart of the series with the proclamation: Hope is the small daughter of a blind father.

Sky Atlantic, 9pm

Screen time

Civilisations

following Mary Beards examination of images of the human body in ancient art during last weeks episode, Simon Schama returns to the series tonight, turning his attention to the artistic depiction of nature.

While some have opted for realistic renderings of flora and fauna, many have opted for idealised landscapes offering views of Paradise on Earth. Schama begins his tour through the subject in 10th-century China before stopping off in Renaissance Germany and Holland to reveal how their distinctive styles developed alongside the emergence of both countries as forces on the international stage.

Finally, he reveals what photographer Ansel Adamss atmospheric pictures of the USs expansive rural areas say about the nation as a whole.

BBC Two, 9pm

London Go

This week four women nominated for a Woman of the Year awards will be in the studio, all of whom inhabit the body of comedian Anna Morris.

Her one-woman show Bitchelors begins next Monday in the Soho Theatre, and tomorrow shell be talking to host Luke Blackall about the concept, and how the audience decides who wins.

Tomorrow, London Live, 7pm

New TV shows to look forward to in 2018 1 /17 New TV shows to look forward to in 2018 The Little Drummer Girl Florence Pugh as Charlie with Alexander Skarsgard as Becker in the John le Carre thriller BBC / The Little Drummer Girl Distribution Limited. The Cry Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie Synchronicity Films Ltd/Lachlan Moore Vanity Fair ITV and Amazon's remake of William. M. Thackeray's classic novel starring Olivia Cooke and Tom Bateman ITV Wanderlust Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh star in BBC's new raunchy drama BBC/Drama Republic Press Charlotte Riley and Ben Chaplin go head-to-head as rival newspaper editors in new drama from Doctor Foster creator Mike Barlett BBC Death and Nightingales Jamie Dornan, Ann Skelly and Matthew Rhys star in a three-part drama for BBC Two BBC Maniac Emma Stone and Jonah Hill star in the limited Netflix series coming September Michele K. Short / Netflix Disenchantment Matt Groening is back and on Netflix with new adult comedy following Princess Bean and friends Netflix / Matt Groening Age Before Beauty Age Before Beauty on BBC One with Polly Walker, Sue Johnston and Lisa Riley follows a family business with plenty of secrets BBC/Mainstreet Pictures/Todd Antony Hard Sun Luther creator Neil Cross has another dabble at the cop show format in this crime/sci-fi drama inspired by the Bowie song Five Years. BBC/Euston Films A Very English Scandal Hugh Grant stars in this drama from Doctor Who/Sherlock writer Russell T Davies, which adapts John Prestons book about the scandal that surrounded Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe BBC/Blueprint Television Ltd Kiri National Treasure writer Jack Thorne pens a four-part drama about the abduction of a young black girl. The ever-reliable Sarah Lancashire is unconventional social worker Miriam, who finds herself being blamed. Channel 4 Britannia Filmed in Wales and Prague, Jez Butterworths historical drama is set in 43AD, when Roman General Aulus (David Morrissey) is attempting to conquer the Celts. Sky Collateral David Hares four-part drama (his first original TV series) explores the repercussions after a pizza delivery man is shot dead. Carey Mulligan plays Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie, who investigates. BBC/The Forge Save Me In the absence of Doctor Foster, Suranne Jones stars as the mother of a missing girl who believes that her ex- (Lennie James, who wrote the show) is guilty of the abduction, forcing him to work to clear his name. Sky Atlantic Troy: Fall of a City Swords and sandals epic in eight parts made in a collaboration with Netflix, written by David Farr (who also wrote The Night Manager). BBC/Wild Mercury Productions Patrick Melrose Benedict Cumberbatch looks right at home in this adaptation of the Edward St Aubyn novels about an outrageous aristocrat struggling to overcome the damage inflicted by an abusive father. Dave Benett

Crush

What Oasis forgot to include alongside fags and booze in their simple hedonism paean Cigarettes and Alcohol is caramel, all of which are consumed in quantity by the three leads in this romantic comedy.

Andie MacDowell, Imelda Staunton, and Anna Chancellor are the three friends who convene each week to detail their latest dating shockers; then there appears a glimmer of hope for teacher Kate (MacDowell), when she meets an organist at a funeral.

An organist who used to be one of her pupils.

The screenwriter John McKay originally titled his film The Sad F*****s Club, a name which remained attached until it collided with test audiences. Bill Paterson and Caroline Holdaway also appear.

London Live, 10.15pm

Set the box

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, with David Letterman

The semi-retired talk show host continues his limited run of interviews, meeting Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, below, who engages in small talk about The Lion King before discussing the way culture and religion are used to excuse misogyny. Theres a brief tour of Oxford University, including a visit to the library. Do you have Harry Potter? Dave asks. (They dont).

Netflix

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The Bureau

This gritty political drama follows the DGSE (the French equivalent of MI6 or the CIA) and has been hailed as one of the best dramas to come out of France. Mixing the testimony of real spies with current events, it centres around intelligence officer Guillaume Malotru Debailly (Mathieu Kassovitz), who returns to Paris after six years undercover in Syria. When he learns that his Syrian lover is in Paris he breaks the rules and reconnects.T he anniversary of Shakespeares birth is to be marked by the release of a new adaptation of Macbeth, with a modern twist.

The Scottish play is one of the bards best-known works, but an upcoming production will bring the drama to a whole new audience by being made available to watch online.

Starring Last Kingdom and Luther actor Mark Rowley, the film was shot entirely on green screen, featuring a variety of unusual backdrops including hand-painted and computer-modelled vistas.

The new adaptation is directed by Kit Monkman, who says the production was an ideal opportunity.

Macbeth is a play thats fascinated by interiority and imagination and Shakespeares storytelling is far from naturalistic so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to explore a more abstract theatrical approach to the screen, he said.

Meanwhile, chair of the International Shakespeare Association Professor Peter Holland, described the new adaptation as brilliant and exhilarating.

New TV shows to look forward to in 2018 1 /17 New TV shows to look forward to in 2018 The Little Drummer Girl Florence Pugh as Charlie with Alexander Skarsgard as Becker in the John le Carre thriller BBC / The Little Drummer Girl Distribution Limited. The Cry Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie Synchronicity Films Ltd/Lachlan Moore Vanity Fair ITV and Amazon's remake of William. M. Thackeray's classic novel starring Olivia Cooke and Tom Bateman ITV Wanderlust Toni Collette and Steven Mackintosh star in BBC's new raunchy drama BBC/Drama Republic Press Charlotte Riley and Ben Chaplin go head-to-head as rival newspaper editors in new drama from Doctor Foster creator Mike Barlett BBC Death and Nightingales Jamie Dornan, Ann Skelly and Matthew Rhys star in a three-part drama for BBC Two BBC Maniac Emma Stone and Jonah Hill star in the limited Netflix series coming September Michele K. Short / Netflix Disenchantment Matt Groening is back and on Netflix with new adult comedy following Princess Bean and friends Netflix / Matt Groening Age Before Beauty Age Before Beauty on BBC One with Polly Walker, Sue Johnston and Lisa Riley follows a family business with plenty of secrets BBC/Mainstreet Pictures/Todd Antony Hard Sun Luther creator Neil Cross has another dabble at the cop show format in this crime/sci-fi drama inspired by the Bowie song Five Years. BBC/Euston Films A Very English Scandal Hugh Grant stars in this drama from Doctor Who/Sherlock writer Russell T Davies, which adapts John Prestons book about the scandal that surrounded Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe BBC/Blueprint Television Ltd Kiri National Treasure writer Jack Thorne pens a four-part drama about the abduction of a young black girl. The ever-reliable Sarah Lancashire is unconventional social worker Miriam, who finds herself being blamed. Channel 4 Britannia Filmed in Wales and Prague, Jez Butterworths historical drama is set in 43AD, when Roman General Aulus (David Morrissey) is attempting to conquer the Celts. Sky Collateral David Hares four-part drama (his first original TV series) explores the repercussions after a pizza delivery man is shot dead. Carey Mulligan plays Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie, who investigates. BBC/The Forge Save Me In the absence of Doctor Foster, Suranne Jones stars as the mother of a missing girl who believes that her ex- (Lennie James, who wrote the show) is guilty of the abduction, forcing him to work to clear his name. Sky Atlantic Troy: Fall of a City Swords and sandals epic in eight parts made in a collaboration with Netflix, written by David Farr (who also wrote The Night Manager). BBC/Wild Mercury Productions Patrick Melrose Benedict Cumberbatch looks right at home in this adaptation of the Edward St Aubyn novels about an outrageous aristocrat struggling to overcome the damage inflicted by an abusive father. Dave Benett

Brilliant and exhilarating. Kit Monkmans Macbeth [is] the most innovative rethinking of what it means to put Shakespeare on film for decades.

A forceful reimagining of Shakespeares most famous tragedy.T he global intelligence platform start-up Streetbees has announced today it has raised $12m in Series A funding, from some of Europes top investors.

The start-up, led by CEO Tugce Bulut, is changing the market research industry. Instead of paying a traditional company to carry out market research, Streetbees uses its one million plus Bees across the world to provide insights to some of the worlds biggest brands.

Say, a company wants to launch a new brand of breakfast cereal. They would commission Streetbees to find out what people across the world are eating for breakfast every day.

Streetbees uploads the task onto its mobile app, and its Bees will respond with images and photos, across 150 different markets.

Its an interesting proposition and one that has proved popular with businesses such as Unilever, PepsiCo, Vodafone, and LOreal. In terms of investors, the venture capital firm Atomico, founded by former Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, led the latest funding round alongside Octopus Ventures and LocalGlobe.

Carolina Brochado, the Atomico Partner who led the investment, said: With Streetbees, we have found the worlds first real-time technology-enabled customer insights platform  giving brands dynamic responses, from real customers, for a fraction of the cost and time taken by traditional incumbents. Streetbees has fundamentally changed the way international companies can engage and understand their global consumer base.

The Evening Standard caught up with Bulut ahead of the announcement to discuss the vision behind Streetbees and how it plans to invest the new funding.

Meet Tugce Bulut, CEO of Streetbees

Bulut, who is originally from Istanbul but took up residence in the UK from 2005 when she began studying at Cambridge, has a background in strategy consultancy. She did this for six years in London and found she was regularly coming up with the same challenge: finding genuine, authentic data.

Streetbees founder and CEO, Tugce Bulut (Streetbees ) / Streetbees

For instance, we were working with one of the worlds largest food delivery apps trying to expand to new markets, like Brazil, she explains. It wasnt even possible to find out how many takeaway restaurants are in Brazil to start with. How are you going to help companies get into new markets if you dont have any information and visibility?

Its this issue that led her to start Streetbees with her co-founder, COO Oliver May, in 2015.

Making data global

According to Bulut, research by nature is global. Thats why from day one, Streetbees has been operating in the top 87 countries across the world, with a presence in 150. This is for two reasons: it works for the clients who commission Streetbees to expand beyond just the markets they know.

As well, it is a vehicle to encourage the development of other markets across the world.

If we can increase the amount of information and knowledge we have about all the markets globally, we can help get more international business done, which helps with international development, she explains.

And its not just the clients that benefit from this research too. Streetbees pays its bees across the world for offering their insights.

The Streebees mobile app (Streetbees ) / Streetbees

One of the things that always frustrated me was that we would pay millions of dollars for research and not even a fraction of that would go back to the people providing the information. Instead, what we do is return an important portion of that value created back to the user so they are in the driving seat.

Bulut maintains that this makes the relationship more transparent between Streetbees and its users. It allows users to contribute what they want, when they want, and they understand how the information is going to inform business decisions.

She makes the point that it isnt like Facebook, where advertising is sold off the back of someones profile, their likes, and their dislikes.

Users should be in control of the information, so they can decide if they want to share it or not. We wont go to the backdoor and get it from you  its completely in your control.

Machine learning and data science

Streetbees work is all made possible by machine learning algorithms. For instance, it is developing a new platform named Always On.

Instead of a company commissioning a specific type of research after something has happened, say it loses market share and wants to find out why, Always On will constantly be generating this information.

Always On is about learning about behaviour, explains Bulut. Just like you put your breakfast on Instagram, were asking where did you buy breakfast today. Where did you get your coffee, what type did you have?

It gives users a tool to share as much as they would like to and whenever it is relevant for them.

Always On will be constantly collecting unstructured data  in the forms of videos and photos, which are maintained in a database. Then, when Streetbees needs to, using natural language processing it can ask questions from this global dataset.

But, developing technology like this isnt cheap, particularly when its all being done in-house. This is why Streetbees went through its latest funding round, in order to raise investment for its technology, and in particular, to grow the data science team behind it.

We want to make solutions that are affordable and scalable for everyone to use. That needs a lot of investment, says Bulut. What we are developing on the natural language processing side is cutting-edge, which is really exciting but challenging at the same time.

As well, the company wants to grow its presence in the US, where it recently launched its first stateside office, in New York.

Despite this expansion, Streetbees will remain based in London.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Like a Medieval inquisition bereft of any due legal process, Russia is being put on the rack over the mysterious poisoning of a former Kremlin spy exiled to Britain.

No evidence is presented, just piles of innuendo and Russophobia heaped up into a bonfire. The prosecution is based solely on pejorative accusations, and the accused  Russia  is not permitted to fairly contest the incriminating information.

This is the same playbook as seen over alleged Russian meddling in the US and European elections over the past two years. Western politicians, intelligence services, think-tanks and media are chock-full of allegations and innuendo of Russian influence campaigns. But no evidence is ever presented. Not a scrap, not a scintilla. Its a case of presumed guilt, and a conviction verdict without any facts.

Its the same inquisitorial echo stemming from the unsolved downing of the Malaysian airliner in July 2014 over Eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people. Recall how British media were within days of that tragedy irresponsibly peddling disgraceful headlines claiming Putin shot down passenger airliner.

This week, British Prime Minister Theresa Mays addressed parliament accusing Moscow of responsibility for the alleged murderous attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the southern England town of Salisbury on March 4.

Skripal (66) and his adult daughter were rushed to intensive care following an incident in which it appears that the pair were exposed to a lethal nerve agent while strolling through a public park on a Sunday afternoon.

Only one week later, after sensational media speculation implicating Russian state involvement, the British authorities are claiming that they have identified the chemical weapon as Novichok  a Soviet-era manufactured poison. The positive analysis was reportedly carried out by Britains top-secret chemical weapons laboratory at Porton Down, which is only six miles away from the incident.

May stood up in the House of Commons on Monday and said: It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia the [British] government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act. She went on to describe that act as a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil.

Downing Street then gave Moscow 24 hours to explain how a military-grade chemical weapon was deployed on British territory. If an explanation is not provided by Moscow then the British government is warning that extensive retaliatory measures will be taken. Britain is being backed by Washington and NATOs command in Brussels to take tough reprisals.

British media are reporting that retaliatory measures include expelling Russias ambassador from Britain, and ramping up NATO military forces on Russias borders. The incendiary dynamic could lead to a military confrontation.

The rush to escalate the crisis conveys the suspicion of a scripted, premeditated process hatched by London and its allies to deliberately aggravate relations with Russia. Almost from the moment of the poisoning incident on March 4, the British media have abandoned all professional restraint to impugn Russia. Its been a trial by media.

Russias foreign ministry has rightly likened the whole affair to a circus show.

For a start, like the Medieval inquisitions, the accused is not permitted a chance to contest the allegations through independent examination.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week following the British prime ministers disclosure about a Soviet-era chemical weapon that requests made by Moscow to assess the information were denied by London.

So, the British authorities make serious claims about a Soviet-era poison incriminating Moscow over an attempted murder of a former Kremlin spy who has been living openly and unmolested while in exile in Britain for the past eight years.

But Moscow is not allowed to examine the purported evidence. For all we know, was the alleged Novichok even used in the apparent attack on the Skripal father and daughter? The pair could have been attacked with another related organophosphate nerve agent, such as sarin or VX. And even if they were exposed to Novichok, who is to say it wasnt administered from stockpiles owned by British state services in an attempt to frame up Russia?

This is the same contemptible lack of due process as seen with American and European allegations against Russia of interference in elections and other supposed cyber-attacks. Russia is harangued with endless hearsay and assertion, but is never permitted to inspect the supposed incriminating information.

It certainly seems strange, to say the least, that the British authorities were so swiftly able to identify the offending chemical weapon. Only a few days ago, Britains top government chemical weapons expert Dr Alistair Hay said in a media interview that it would take weeks, possibly months for any identification procedure to be completed. Yet, in only one week, British military intelligence have apparently concluded that the chemical weapon used on the Russian pair was the Soviet-era Novichok.

Former Russian lawmaker Igor Morozov, who is a veteran of security services, reportedly said this week that Russia halted production of Novichok years ago and destroyed its stockpiles under the auspices of the UN-affiliated Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

In any case, the British and their American and NATO allies are trying to put Russia in an impossible situation that would not stand up in a modern court of law.

Moscow is expected to provide an explanation about undisclosed charges which are essentially hearsay. And if an explanation is not provided then Britain and its allies are justified to take retaliatory action.

Just like in the Middle Ages, the prosecutors of our modern-day Russophobia fables are willing to burn people at the stake based on no evidence whatsoever.

But this is a very dangerous game. The people being burned could turn out to be whole countries in a war that Western governments are recklessly stoking.The new weapons described in President Putins March 1 state of the union address were dismissed by US officials and the mainstream media. Many Western analysts expressed skepticism. He was just bragging, wrote the Washington Post. White House spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the video he showed was cheesy.

But on March 11, the world saw the test of the new Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-to-surface missile. The posted video footage is far from cheesy. It shows a MiG-31 aircraft launching a Kinzhal carried on its under-fuselage pylons. The missile is capable of traveling ten times faster than the speed of sound and is able to hit sea and land targets as far as 2,000 km away. The MiG-31B also boasts a speed of Mach 2.83 and a range of 1,450 km, or up to 2,200 km if the plane is refueled in flight. These features greatly increase the aircrafts killing range and allow the missile to be transported rapidly to the launch area.

The Kh-47M2 missile can handle very complex flight profiles, conducting high-G maneuvers as it goes into its terminal approach. It can carry a nuclear or conventional warhead. Over 250 test flights have been conducted this year. It would not be a great surprise to see the Kinzhal being used in Syria. Once this missile is operational, US aircraft carriers and other sea targets will become easy prey. No air or ballistic missile defense (BMD) will be able to protect sites on the ground.

The Russian defense industry has made manifest progress in recent years. It has met the American challenge and even pulled ahead of the US in the production of super weapons, including the systems capable of hypersonic flight. No other country is remotely close to being able to produce these.

And its not just the Kinzhal. There are other systems in the inventory of the Russian armed forces that Americans have been trying to develop on their own, but with no real success. Russias new Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile, which will be put in service this year, is a good example. It poses a challenge to US naval supremacy on the high seas. Hypersonic systems are now part of Russias arsenal but America still has a long way to go before their versions are operational. US analysts admit this. Now America is going to have to make a real push if it wants to catch up.

The US has always touted its advantage in stealth technology but thanks to the weapons listed by President Putin, that is no longer a magic bullet that can penetrate an enemys defenses. Russia has made a quantum technological leap. Electronic warfare countermeasures and complex flight trajectories are no longer needed. Hypersonic weapons virtually neutralize the most sophisticated missile-defense systems.

Once such weapons are operational, this changes the whole concept of air defense. US BMD, both global and continental, has lost its relevance. Many years of effort have gone down the drain. Only the Russian S-500 can engage targets traveling at M5.0-M6.0. Air and missile defense is yet another domain in which Russias leadership is uncontested.

This is reality. The US may like it or not, but in this context preventing an arms race has taken on special importance. A strategic dialog is a much better alternative to a strident confrontation.

After President Putins landmark address was delivered, a group of US senators wrote a letter asking the administration to begin negotiating with Russia on arms control. The video footage posted by Russias Ministry of Defense provides evidence to confirm the Russian presidents claims. President Trumps planned visit to North Korea in May is good news and many hopes rest on it. The problems that need to be discussed are urgent. So is the issue of the eroding system of arms control. After all, Moscow poses a far greater threat to Washington than Pyongyang. Changing its approach to US-Russian relations is in keeping with Washingtons interests. Actually, the first step was taken on Sept. 12 in Finland. Now is the time to take another. It must be done, because President Putin was not trying to impress anyone. He was just stating the facts.The NPA (the illegal armed wing of the local Communist Party) is taking heavy losses but is still not willing (or unified enough) to negotiate a peace deal. So far this year the security forces have taken over 200 firearms and nearly as many bombs from the NPA. More importantly over 2,300 NPA members and supporters have been captured or surrendered. These former leftist rebels report that morale is poor throughout the organization and that the only factions likely to continue operating are those that have basically become gangsters whose members dont care what their political label is as long as they are making money. When you have this many surrenders there are usually even larger losses from desertion (by recent recruits who have no police record of their NPA activities and can easily just walk away) and fewer recruits. The NPA leadership is still unable to exercise control over the entire organization, which is now coming apart.

The government suspended peace negotiations with the NPA in mid-2017. NPA negotiators were warned that the peace talks (resumed earlier in 2017) would be abandoned if some progress was not made. The government kept the negotiations with the NPA going in 2017 despite persistent NPA demands that hundreds of jailed NPA members be freed first. Since February 2017 the army and police were ordered to exert maximum pressure on the NPA and that apparently worked because the operations concentrated on the NPA factions known to be hostile to a peace deal. This was important because in January 2017 negotiators realized that there were too many NPA factions that refused to make peace and that problem remained unsolved. Until the NPA can regain control over (or disown) disobedient factions the government will continue its efforts to destroy the NPA completely. Both the government and the NPA leadership are trying, in different ways, to deal with the uncooperative NPA factions and that is enough to maintain the option to resume negotiations. But at the moment the government appears to have had enough of NPA instability and irrational behavior. For example, some senior NPA leaders still insist the NPA still has a chance of overthrowing democracy and replacing it with a communist dictatorship. Since August 2017 (after the Marawi City battle ended) the security forces have turned much of their attention to the NPA and that has crippled the leftist rebels. The factions remaining are operating like bandits now and being treated as such in areas where they are still active.

The government has been less successful dealing with the endemic corruption. This is the enemy within that is really the root cause of most political and economic problems the Philippines suffers from. The 2017 international corruption ratings show the world that the Philippines is not making much progress and is stuck near the bottom (111 out of 180 nations compared with 101 out of 176 nations in 2016) of international standings. Corruption in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index is measured on a 1 (most corrupt) to 100 (not corrupt) scale. The most corrupt nations ( usually Syria/14, South Sudan/12 and Somalia/9 ) have a rating of under 15 while of the least corrupt (New Zealand and Denmark) are over 85. African nations are the most corrupt, followed by Middle Eastern ones. In Southeast Asia the Philippines has the most problems with corruption. The current Philippines score is 34 (versus 35 in 2016) compared to 63 (61) for Taiwan, 40 (40) for India, 29 (29) for Russia, 54 (53) for South Korea, 17 (12) for North Korea, 35 (33) for Vietnam, 84 (84) for Singapore, 73 (72) for Japan, 37 (37) for Indonesia, 77 (79) for Australia, 38 (36) for Sri Lanka, 33 (36) for the Maldives, 41 (40) for China, 32 (32) for Pakistan, 28 (26) for Bangladesh, 30 (29) for Iran, 15 (15) for Afghanistan, 30 (28) for Burma, 2 71 (66) for the UAE (United Arab Emirates), 62 (64) for Israel, 75 (74) for the United States, 27 (28) for Nigeria, 43 (45) for South Africa, 18 (17) for Iraq, 40 (41) for Turkey, 49 (46) for Saudi Arabia and 28 (28) for Lebanon. A lower corruption score is common with nations in economic trouble and problems dealing with Islamic terrorism and crime in general. The Philippines corruption score has not changed much since 2012, when it was also 34. It went as high as 38 in 2014.

Many Filipinos see corruption as a weakness that the Chinese are quietly seeking to exploit. For example a Chinese credit rating agency recently gave the Philippines an excellent (AAA) rating. This got different reactions in the Philippines. Some saw it as an accurate assessment of how things were going. The rating agency noted that tax and other reforms were underway and that GDP growth was expected to stay strong (at 6.8 percent) even though the Filipino government was seeking something between seven and eight percent. This upbeat assessment made it possible for China to approve new loans to the Philippines. That made a lot of Filipinos uneasy. Thats because China is increasingly using its large foreign investments as weapons. Case in point is the tactic of loaning poor countries large amounts of money for huge development projects (like ports, roads and railroads). The loans are on terms that look attractive but eventually much be repaid. When the debtor nation runs into trouble making payments China offers to reduce the load in return for control (if not majority ownership) of the ports, railroad, airport or whatever. With control of these facilities China can probably run them more efficiently, and profitably. But control means it is easier for China to use the facility for military or espionage purposes. This is called DTD (Debt Trap Diplomacy) and has been a favorite Chinese tactic for over a thousand years by virtue of China having been, until a few centuries ago, the wealthiest empire on the planet. Nations currently vulnerable (they have large Chinese debts) to DTD are Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Venezuela and Tajikistan. Most nations are aware of the DTD trap but where there is a lot of corruption China can create a DTD situation anyway. Some of these DTD efforts go bad and cost China a lot of money, but on average DTD is a net gain for China as it gains military, economic and diplomatic advantages without having to fight.

March 14, 2018: President Duterte announced that the Philippines was withdrawing from the ICC (International Criminal Court), a process that takes a year to become final. This is in response to UN members persuading the ICC to investigate the Philippines for its war on drugs and what some UN members are calling crimes against humanity. Filipino critics of the war on drugs back the continued ICC investigation and possible prosecution of senior government officials, including Duterte. Since the war on drugs began in mid-2016 some 4,100 drug trade operatives have been killed according to official police count. ICC supporters insist the true death toll is three times that. That is because during the same period police reported another 16,000 homicides with possible drug connections. At the same time there have been nearly 120,000 drug related arrests and 1.3 million people have voluntarily surrendered. Many suspected leaders of drug gangs have been arrested and then released because of insufficient evidence (plus lots of lawyers and possibly bribes). Meanwhile the majority of Filipinos support the war on drugs and have from the beginning. It is unclear if the ICC is going after any of those supporters as well.

March 13, 2018: In the south (Sulu province) soldiers clashed with about thirty Abu Sayyaf gunmen. Five of the Islamic terrorists were killed and six soldiers wounded before the Abu Sayyaf men managed to flee, carrying several wounded with them. The soldiers could have killed or wounded more of the Abu Sayyaf but the troops were seeking kidnap victims still held by the group and these are usually escorted by a lot of armed men when they are moved around. Abu Sayyaf has not been able to kidnap many people lately and only has a few hostages they are still trying to get a ransom for. Thus the troops were particularly careful in how (and how much) firepower they used.

The U.S. delivered six ScanEagle UAVs to the Philippines where the air force will use them for surveillance of areas where Islamic terrorists or leftist rebels are active. These UAVs can also be used for maritime patrol (several navies use ScanEagle on ships for surveillance at sea). The Americans had success with ScanEagle in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and still use it.

March 12, 2018: France and the Philippines agreed to cooperate in dealing with Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.

March 11, 2018: Police arrested two members of Abu Sayyaf who were wanted to participation in a 2002 attack that involved a number of Americans being kidnapped.

March 10, 2018: In the south (Sulu province) marines, responding to calls for help from locals, found and killed an Abu Sayyaf member who was in possession of ammo and equipment used by the Islamic terror group.

March 8, 2018: In the south (Maguindanao province) troops encountered fifty BIFF gunmen and during three days of fighting at least 44 of the Islamic terrorists were killed. Several soldiers were wounded. Several thousand civilians in the area temporarily fled to avoid all the fighting.

March 7, 2018: In the north (Bulacan province) a wanted NPA leader was confronted and killed in a gun battle. Police were responding to a tip.

March 4, 2018: The army revealed that they believe they know who the new leader of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) in Southeast Asia is. Not surprisingly it is Abu Dar, a well-known associate of the former leader; Isnilon Hapilon, who died in mid-October as he was trying to get out of the besieged city of Marawi. While Abu Dar is much younger than Hapilon he is less radical and more careful. Which is probably why he was entrusted with many financial matters. Since late 2017 the army has been trying to determine if Abu Dar was really still alive and actually head of the local Islamic terrorists.

Abu Dar survived horrific Islamic terrorist losses in the May-October 2017 battle for Marawi City. In December 2017 the army confirmed that all seven Maute brothers are dead. These men were the core leadership of the Maute Group. This was a radical MILF faction that opposed the peace treaty MILF negotiated and considers itself part of ISIL. The largest ISIL faction in Marawi City was from the Maute Group who unexpectedly brought in hundreds of their own gunmen who were willing to fight to the death and triggered an existing plan to gather in Marawi City to inspire local Moslems to rise up and drive out Christians. The Maute family is one of the larger and wealthier clans in the south and the Maute brothers got mixed up with clan politics, MILF and eventually ISIL. The Marawi City battle began on May 23rd when a raid to capture or kill Isnilon Hapilon (the head of Abu Sayyaf since 2016) escalated unexpectedly. As the fighting went on there were efforts to end what quickly turned into dead (literally) end for the ISIL men who showed up. MILF refused to help negotiate a withdrawal of the remaining Islamic terrorists (many of them former MILF members) from the city. By October the battle was over and many of the troops concentrated in and around Marawi City were being sent to other areas in the south where there was still Islamic terrorist activity. The Maute Group was nearly wiped out in Marawi City and although all seven of the Maute brothers were now dead one other key Maute Group leader, Abu Dar, was still free. Abu Dar belongs to the same tribe (the Maranao) as the Maute clan and was considered the most likely one to take command of the Maute Group and rebuild it. To that end the army believed Abu Dar has been spending most of his time in his native Lanao del Sur province, the same province where Marawi City is.

February 28, 2018: In the south, across the Sulu Sea in nearby Malaysia (Sabah) local police encountered, pursued and killed a wanted (in the Philippines and Malaysia) Abu Sayyaf leader (Nurhassan Jamiri) and two of his followers.

February 23, 2018: The Philippines and China are negotiating a compromise that will enable Chinese firms to explore for oil in off shore waters that international law (and a recent decision by an international court) recognize as Filipino. China disagrees but is willing to work out a compromise as long as only Chinese firms do the exploration and then operation of any oil production facilities needed. While China considers its growing number of South China Sea islands demilitarized that is not entirely true and Chinese generals are openly calling for permission to officially install anti-aircraft and anti-ship missile systems on the islands. This would trigger more confrontations with other nations that have large navies and also depend on unimpeded access to the South China Sea for their overseas trade. While the Philippines cannot handle Chinese aggression in the South China Sea alone a coalition of major naval powers could and that is where this is headed and what China wants to avoid.

February 22, 2018: In the south (Sulu province) marines, acting on a tip, arrested an Abu Sayyaf man who was living in a village where guarded a hidden weapons cache of eight assault rifles, ammo and other military equipment.

February 18, 2018: In the south (Agusan del Sur) an army patrol encountered ten NPA gunmen and after a brief gun battle two of the rebels were dead and the rest fled. The NPA men also left behind three AK-47s and quantities of ammo, explosives and other equipment. Two days earlier troops had killed another NPA man from this NPA faction (Guerrilla Front Committee 14). Elsewhere in the south (Zamboanga del Sur province) an army patrol clashed with a group of NPA gunmen. This left one soldier and one rebels dead.Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that India is violating ceasefire agreement time and again on the Line of Control and working boundary.

In such circumstances we are not expecting improvement in relations between the two countries.

He expressed these views while talking to a private news channel in Islamabad.

Referring to prevailing political situation in the country, he said that it is not possible to keep alive on political ground without support of people.The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday indicted PML-N leader and Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry in contempt of court.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal conducted hearing of the case and rejected the ministers plea.

The court handed over the charge sheet to the PML-N leader and directed him to sign it.

During the hearing, the lawyer Kamran Murtaza adopted stance that a new petition has been submitted by his client therefore; the indictment cannot be done until verdict is declared on the new plea.

Todays date is set for the indictment proceedings. We will hear you afterwards. First let us indict the minister in the case, remarked Justice Ejaz Afzal.

On the other hand, Talal Chaudhry pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him by the Supreme Court.

The court while concluding the proceeding adjourned the hearing till March 27.The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) announced on Thursday its support for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate in the contest for the Senate's opposition leader.

The development came after a PTI delegation called on the MQM-P leaders in Bahadurabad.

Addressing the media alongside PTI local leader Imran Ismail and Senator Azam Swati, MQM-P's Faisal Sabzwari said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had destroyed Sindh in 10 years.

He added that it is not appropriate for the MQM-P to vote for Sherry Rehman, the PPP candidate for the opposition leader slot.

The PTI leaders informed the media that they will announce their nominee on Friday. Sources said Senator Swati, who hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, could be the party's nominee for the post.

On Wednesday, PPP nominated Rehman as its candidate for Senate opposition leader.

Sources said six of eight independent senators from the tribal areas are supporting the PPP.

PPP, which has 20 seats in the Senate, will need the support of other opposition parties to have Rehman appointed.

The PTI has a total of 12 seats in the Upper House of Parliament and the MQM-P five. Moreover, there are around a dozen independent senators from the tribal areas and Balochistan who are in the opposition.

An election is held among opposition party members to elect the opposition leader by a simple majority.

A senior figure in the PPP, Rehman served as the editor of Herald for over a decade before making a foray into politics. She was elected to the national assembly in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008, and served as the federal minister for information and broadcasting.

She has also served as a senator since 2015 and was Pakistans Ambassador to the US (2011-13).A Bay of Plenty native plant nursery is to receive a $5.8 million boost from the Government Provincial Growth Fund to expand production.

Ngati Whares plant nursery in Minginui will expand from employing nine people at present to 90, and plant production to where the nursery can delivery one million trees each year from 2021 and an estimated 7.5 million trees within 10 years.

The nursery currently sells plants to neighbouring iwi and Maori trusts, as well as private customers such as NZ Manuka and farmers.

Ngati Whare is kaitiaki of Whirinaki Te Pua-aTane, says chairman of Te Runanga o Ngati Whare, Bronco Carson.

After our Treaty of Waitangi Settlement, we started with a plan to regenerate 640 hectares of the 55,000 ha from pine to native by harvesting seeds and growing seedlings.

Our values and principles underpin the regeneration plan, enhancing the mauri and matauranga of the ngahere and the mana of Ngati Whare. Kaumatua and hapu members will share traditional knowledge and Hauora is a key driver for this programme.

The iwis forest regeneration journey started in 2016 with a $1.6 million investment in the nursery at Minginui, which is 90km southeast of Rotorua. The confidence to convert of old forestry service buildings, build new poly and shades houses and invest in world-best propagation technology, followed a timely visit to Scion, the Crown Research Institute for forestry.

The native forest surrounding the Minginui Nursery contain some of the best podocarp remaining in the North Island. The trees include mature totara, rimu, matai, kahikatea and miro up to 60 metres tall.

Scion general manager research and investments, Dr Russell Burton says it needed a partner to prove the cuttings technology could be successful at scale inside a commercial nursery.

What has evolved is a first of its kind, successful technology partnership between a Crown Research Institute and a Maori business, says Russell.

Scion and Ngati Whare have developed a cross-cultural understanding of tikanga Maori and the scientific language and research methods used in indigenous vegetative propagation technologies and research.

The future for indigenous forestry is huge not only in an economic sense in terms of the returns on sustainably managed and milled native timber, but also for non-timber, ecological, environmental, cultural and heritage benefits, says Russell.

Timber with aesthetic appeal for specialty uses, enhancing natural regrowth on farms, and more functional uses like shelter, erosion control, improving water quality and carbon sequestration are some of the purposes for planting and regenerating native trees, he says. It can also help us to improve the resilience of New Zealands iconic trees for future generations to enjoy.

With the investment, Ngati Whare is at the forefront of helping develop a potentially lucrative industry in indigenous forestry for New Zealand.

Rick Braddock, chairman of the runungas commercial arm Ngati Whare Holdings, says the investment from the Provincial Growth Fund acknowledges the output from the nursery supports the Governments agenda to deliver one billion trees, address national climate change goals, reinvigorate regional economies and grow skilled employment.

Ngati Whares vision is firmly fixed on sustainable economic freedom for its whanau, says Rick.

The nursery is a first step in providing whanau with employment, skills and development as well as lifting the economic prosperity of Minginui township and the region, says Rick.

As part of the nursery upgrade cellphone coverage is being extended to cover the township area.

Minister for Forestry and Minister for Regional Economic Development Shane Jones says the government needs to work with nurseries and help them increase production to ensure enough seedlings  both exotics and indigenous  are available to be planted.

With the Government committed to seeing one billion trees planted over the next 10 years, we need to work with nurseries, says Shane.

The funding were announcing today will allow Minginui Nursery to grow up to one million native trees every year and expand its current workforce from nine to 90.

Its already involved in growing forest-grade podocarp species  rimu, totara, matai, kahikatea, miro  and kauri, and also has a large order book for manuka, kanuka and other pioneer species.

Minginui was planned as a forestry town by the Ministry of Works and was built in the late 1940s, but has experienced ongoing population decline since the closure of the sawmill in the late 1980s. Only about 1300 people now live in the area, with fewer than 300 living in the town itself.

Community development is the key driver for the nurserys move to increase its production of forestry grade native seedlings to an industrial scale.

With the PGFs help, Minginui Nursery can play its part in rejuvenating the region, contributing to employment and skills development and better social outcomes for the community.

Ngati Whare Holdings has already proven it can operate a nursery on commercial terms, employ and train local people and the Government is happy to partner with such businesses, says Shane.

Minginui is going to get cell phone coverage to support the scaling up of the Minginui nursery owned by Ngati Whare Holdings, says Associate Minister of Agriculture, Hon Meka Whaitiri announced today.

Included in Hon Shane Jones announcement of $5.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is a contribution towards covering the costs to bring the cellphone service to Minginui village in the Whirinaki Forest which will be up and running shortly.

This coverage will enable the nursery to function effectively and efficiently in a modern competitive business environment and support this community, says Meka Whaitiri, who has ministerial responsibility for primary sector skills development and Maori agribusiness.

This service will build on Ngati Whares previous investment ($40,000) in the wireless broadband infrastructure that is already in place and Ngati Whares practice of investing in its social infrastructure.Auckland

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The Raspberry Pi Foundation on Wednesday launched the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.

The new release comes two years after the introduction of its predecessor, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.

The Raspberry Pi computer runs the open source Raspbian operating system.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is an incremental upgrade to a line of predecessors that have become entrenched in education, hobbyist and industry markets.

The initial production run was only 10,000 boards, noted Simon Ritter, deputy CTO of Azul Systems.

The Raspberry Pi, having sold in excess of 15 million boards, is now the worlds third best-selling computer. Only the Windows PC and Mac have sold more, he told LinuxInsider.

Hardware Rundown

Pi 3 Model B+ offers substantial system improvements.

Its 64-bit 1.4-GHz quad-core Broadcom Arm Cortex A53-architecture processor replaces the Raspberry Pi 3 Model Bs 1.2-GHz CPU.

The Gigabit Ethernet boost (over USB) is nearly three times faster than the previous 100-MB speed.

The new processor provides improved heat control and power management plus full compatibility with previous models, all for the same US$35 price tag.

Other improvements:

Bluetooth 4.2 (an upgrade from 4.1) that supports Local Area Networks at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz along with Bluetooth Low Energy;

Dual-band WiFi;

Modular WiFi compliance certification.

All of the improvements fit onto the same footprint as the original Pi 3, noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

The new hardware is otherwise physically identical to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and Raspberry Pi 2. It comes with four USB 2.0 ports, a 40-pin GPIO header, one full-size HDMI port, display and camera ports, four-pole stereo output and composite video ports.

The improved connectivity should reduce wireless compliance testing and make it simpler and less expensive to develop products based on the new solution, King told LinuxInsider.

As Raspberry Pi releases become increasingly powerful and robust, they also gain value as commercial platform options, he said.

Boosts Usability

One of the things that makes the new release so promising is its enhances networking, according to Aaron Saxton, director of training and education at UKFast, which delivers Raspberry Pi Caf projects to local schools to support the development of programming skills.

The networking of the original Pi has let it down for a while. Having that connectivity to deliver more bandwidth and networking is really important, he told LinuxInsider.

Being part of the Pi Caf enables UKFast to create better educational networked devices, from storage to applications and dev work, Saxton said. It even allows users to build server infrastructures within an internal network.

The latest Pi release remains affordable, and it is compact and flexible as well as robust. It runs on open source software, which makes it accessible to everyone.

The new features mean we can do so much more with so little, said Saxton. The connectivity is the big one for us, meaning we can truly connect our students and expand their digital horizons.

Although the Pi 3 model B+ still uses the Broadcom BCM2837 SoC chip, new packaging and an improved board layout allow much more even dissipation of heat when under load, according to Azuls Ritter. That accounts for the increased processor speed.

Innovative Initiatives

The Pis usefulness isnt limited to educational settings  it benefits many industries. The tiny computer helps users do everything from building apps using programming language like Python, to deploying and launching websites, learning Linux, and developing an assortment of Web skills. It enhances the computer science curriculum and teacher development.

Fundamentally, its about seeing and feeling the hardware and being able to engage with it, Saxton said.

Pi customers run the gamut from traditional home brew makers to companies developing commercial solutions.

At $35, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is a solidly powerful and flexible brain that can add digital intelligence and features to a wide range of products and projects, Pund-ITs King pointed out.

Pi computers can function as simple do-it-yourself PCs or as robust wireless smart home and office solutions, said King.

Another innovation for Raspberry Pi computers is use of the Kano Kit to teach computing skills, suggested Chris Byrne, cofounder of Sensorpro.

We have used the older models for various coding projects, including using it to build the Kano computer. It runs the coding platform Scratch so we would get [users] to code in Scratch and then run it on the Pi, Byrne told LinuxInsider.

Win-Win Proposition

The Pi has been a massive success with schoolchildren. That success has spread far wider than anyone ever imagined it would, noted Azul Systems Ritter.

If you can think of a computer-based project, someone will have used a Raspberry Pi to implement it, he said.

For example, Ritter used a Raspberry Pi computer connected to his car to display all sorts of extra information. He used a cluster of Pis to run machine learning software that learned to play Minecraft.

Ive also built a weather station and even used one to monitor my brain activity with the goal of controlling a LEGO motor with my mind, Ritter said, adding that results of that project have been somewhat variable.

Among the many factors that account for Raspberry Pis success, said Ritter, are the following:

The cost makes it very easy to include in any project;

It runs Linux, giving you access to an almost unlimited set of developer tools, libraries and interfaces, of which the majority are open source; and

Interfacing for the Raspberry Pis 40-pin connector has become a near de facto standard for other SoC board developers.

Not only is it straightforward to connect your own sensors and actuators using interfaces like GPIO, I2C, SPI and UART, Ritter said, but you also have easy access to things like GPS, industrial CAN buses, and even heart rate monitoring.Back in June 2017, it was reported that a pregnant teenager had fatally shot her boyfriend during a YouTube stunt gone wrong. Today, Monalisa Perez, now 20, has been given a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Last year, Perez shot 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz, who she had been dating for five years, with one of the worlds most powerful pistolsa Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgunoutside of the couples home. The incident took place in front of 30 onlookers, including their three-year-old child.

Ruiz was holding a 1.5-inch thick hardcover encyclopedia in front of his chest to try to stop the bullet, but Perez fired the gun from around a foot away and the pojectile traveled through the book and into his body. The couple had a YouTube channel and hoped the stunt would increase its popularity. Ruiz reportedly told his aunt they wanted to perform the shooting because we want more viewers, we want to get famous."

Perez said she was reluctant to go through with it, but her boyfriend had been shooting books and showed her one that a bullet didnt manage to penetratehis way of convincing her it was safe.

Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever HIS idea not MINE  Monalisa Perez (@MonalisaPerez5) June 26, 2017

Under the terms of the plea bargain, Minnesota Judge Jeffrey Remick said Perez would serve a 180-day jail term. For the first six months, this will alternate between 10 days in jail and ten days free, amounting to 90 days of incarceration. The remaining 90 days can be served in home confinement. Perez will also serve ten years of supervised probation, is banned for life from owning firearms, and can make no financial gains from the case.

The sentence was well below the maximum 10-years imprisonment the offense carries, but Norman County Attorney James Brue said: "The reality [is] that this foolish stunt was dreamed up, planned and executed by Pedro Ruiz, and the defendant wrongfully and tragically relied on his assurances that the stunt was safe."Cyber attacks can cause headaches for businesses and loss of revenue. For one petrochemical operation in Saudi Arabia, a simple breach would have been preferred compared to what has been discovered. Malware found in the facility back in August was designed to damage equipment and potentially result in an explosion that would destroy the entire plant.

According to investigators looking into the matter, the only reason why the attack failed was due to a flaw in the offending code that caused a system shutdown. Had the malware been written correctly, there would be one less petroleum facility in existence. It is believed that political motives may be the reasoning for such an attack. Due to the complexity of the code, support from a government is somewhat likely.

There is fear that the same attack could be launched against other chemical processing facilities since the same industrial controllers are used across the industry. Schneider Electric has sold more than 13,000 systems that make use of Triconex safety controller susceptible to attack.

Software analysis has shown that the code used has not been discovered on any other systems to date. In order to design the malware used, it is almost essential that the developers had access to the Triconex safety system components ahead of time for testing. Investigators have stated that the parts required cost about $40,000 on eBay.

Some experts familiar with the Saudi Arabian oil and chemical industry believe that the attack may have been a way to put Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plans to diversify the local economy on hold.

United States government entities and private security firm Mandiant are all still working on the incident. The NSA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and also the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are all working to gather as much information as possible.

Although little information on how the attack actually works has been shared, it is believed that the malicious code can be injected remotely making the threat of another attack high.

Based on past history of attacks against Saudi Arabia and looking at the sophistication of the cyber attack leaves few likely perpetrators. The United States, Israel, Russia, China, and Iran are considered to have some of the best cyber capabilities related to industrial equipment. Out of those, only Iran has incentive to harm Saudi businesses.

Still, there is no evidence that has been shared that would be able to directly relate the attack back to a single entity. As researchers continue to gather information on the incident, it is not likely for further information to be made available.Radio conglomerate iHeartMedia has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after reaching an agreement in principle with investors regarding a balance sheet restructuring of more than $10 billion in outstanding debt, around half of the more than $20 billion in debt that has burdened the companys capital structure.

The proceedings, filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, do not include Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings or its subsidiaries. iHeartMedia said it will maintain day-to-day operations as usual and believes it has enough cash on hand  along with money it will generate from ongoing operations  to support the business through the bankruptcy proceedings.

The San Antonio-based company is the largest radio station group owner in the US, overseeing more than 850 terrestrial radio stations.

iHeart found itself under a mountain of debt following a leveraged buyout of Clear Channel Outdoor in 2008. As The Wall Street Journal recounts, the $26.7 billion deal was troubled almost from the start and things havent improved much as of late. Over the past five years, the company has spent more on debt payments than it has earned.

As demonstrated here and with the recent Toys R Us news, debt isnt your friend.

The restructuring comes just days after the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards. That event, held at The Forum in Inglewood, California, over the weekend, brought out some of the biggest names in the music industry.

Image courtesy MBM ContractingUS Has Had 498 Shootings and 14,516 Fatalities So Far in 2021This may be unpopular, but I have to say I have a soft spot for the unions.

I first started work in a saw mill at 16 and my dad told me I had to join the union and I did. There was smoko at 10 oclock  and you were supposed to smoke, but in an early act of defiance I never took up the fags. Smoko always included a cup of strong black tea. There was no milk because there were no refrigerators in the saw mills.

Smoko always included a cup of strong black tea. Credit:George Lipman

All these years later I still drink black tea and I still think fondly of the union that did its best to protect us workers.

Bosses were tough people coming out of the depression of the '30s and the testing times of World War II. By the time I started in the saw mill in the '50s, they were as hard as the iron bark we milled. It was dangerous work and my union negotiated a scale of compensation for serious injuries including the loss of fingers at the saw bench.The last rites are being read over the carcass of the woeful beast that was the Murray Goulburn investment vehicle.

The explanatory memorandum was released on Wednesday which recommended investors accept the 80 per share takeover bid from the Canucks from Saputo.

These are the same investors who flooded in a few years back with $500 million cash - which gave them shares at $2.10 each, but no voting rights.

Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:

I acknowledge and appreciate that there is some disappointment among many of our shareholders with the commercial position that MG is currently in, said the companys chairman John Spark.

He was appointed last year to shut the gate after the prize cow had well and truly bolted.

Spark warned investors that faced the prospect of substantial loss of value in the near term and risk the viability of the business in the medium term unless they agreed to inject a substantial amount of cash into the business.

Given that Sparksie is the former head of insolvency and turnaround firm Ferrier Hodgson, that should have given everyone pause for thought.

The Independent Expert Grant Samuel was even more explicit: There would be a real prospect of further milk losses taking Murray Goulburn past a tipping point that would precipitate loss of financier support and wholesale destruction of equity value.Books and stories, the Sydney Writers' Festival proposed last year, were the perfect emotional retreat from the uncertainty, fear and upheaval of Donald Trump's White House, Brexit and climate change.

But as the movement against sexual harrassment gains momentum, questions of diversity stalk Hollywood and investigations continue into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections, the festival's artistic director Michaela McGuire has declared 2018 a year of reckoning by which ''old power structures'' have begun to ''tremble under the collective weight of the bullshit'' they hold up.

Power structures are beginning to tremble under the weight of ''bullshit'' says the festival's artistic director, Michaela McGuire. Credit:Louie Douvis

The power of literature and words, the power of voices from the margins rising up and the power of stories, buried but not forgotten, lie at the heart of this year's power-themed festival which celebrates its 21st year at a temporary new home at Redfern's Carriageworks.

''It's a response to the ever expanding reckoning of the last couple of months where for the first time in a long time people started to question what it is to have power, who has it, why, how it can be abused and misused and how it can be wrested back,'' McGuire said.Fiction

The Lebs

Michael Mohammed Ahmad

Hachette, $27.99

Anyone living in Sydney at the start of this century would remember headlines such as "Terror Australis  Bin Laden in our suburbs". Evil refugees were coming by the boatload, war with Iraq was looming, and we didn't need to look far to find the enemy already among us, just some boys in the western suburbs.

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is a writer steeped in identity politics. Credit:James Brickwood

We first met Bani Adam, in Michael Mohammed Ahmad's 2014 debut, The Tribe. Now Bani's a teenager at Punchbowl Boys High, in Sydney's west. Convicted gang-rapist Bilal Skaf is on the front page of every paper and September 11 is about to make it even tougher to be a Muslim boy.

Bookish Bani hates "being a Lebo" and can't believe how dumb his classmates are. An Alawite in a sea of Sunnis, Bani stands apart in a black beret and his sister's flares. He wants to be Tolstoy or Chekhov, even if it means getting bashed for being a "poofter". He's infatuated with his English teacher and thinks there's a secret message in her getting him, and only him, to read Lolita.Italian designer Donatella Versace has announced that her luxury fashion house will no longer use fur.

Fur? I am out of that. I dont want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesnt feel right, she told 1843 magazine, which is published by The Economist Group, in its April/May 2018 edition.

No fur: Donatella Versace. Credit:AP

However, at the time of writing, Versaces website was urging customers to "indulge in ... fur-embellished coats that turn heads.

It was also recommending a "luxurious addition to your couch with this Medusa Royal fur-silk cushion".A Canberra man who made a bold demand for a Coca-Cola after stealing almost $2000 from McDonald's in Conder was jailed on Tuesday.

In October last year, Jamie Rootsey, 24, climbed through the drive-through window at the McDonald's outlet in south Canberra armed with a double-bladed knife.

He joined another man in stealing $1912.90 in cash from the till, during which a McDonald's employee sustained a small cut to his arm.

While the cut may have been minor, Justice Michael Elkaim said the effect on the victim's emotional and psychological wellbeing would have been major.

The Gilmore man was arrested a couple of days after the incident and charged with aggravated robbery. He has been in custody since.Sydneysiders have been complaining for weeks about the unsightly mess created by dockless share bikes carelessly discarded by riders but for some pedestrians, the real issue is the danger the bikes pose when they can't be seen at all.

Donna Purcell knows from others telling her that there are hundreds of share bikes out there, "but the times I experience them are the times I fall over them because they've been left as a trip hazard".

Donna Purcell and her guide dog Dora. Guide dogs are trained to take their handler to traffic poles. Credit:Peter Braig

Ms Purcell, 52, navigates the city with the help of her guide dog Dora. She's one of many vision impaired Sydneysiders who have noticed a serious upswing in bikes, leaving footpaths and traffic light poles inaccessible and creating dangerous tripping hazards and confusing guide dogs.

It's a problem she barely encountered 12 months ago but now "I'm constantly coming across them. It's definitely escalated".Irish tourists who have fled the country after causing havoc across south-east Queensland will be blacklisted from returning, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has declared.

Others who have tried to join the alleged scammers have been blocked at the border and deported.

CCTV footage of a group of women who allegedly scammed a Brisbane restaurant and hotels. Credit:7 News Brisbane.

The two dozen Irish men and women are accused of defrauding residents and stealing from businesses in 12 separate incidents across Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Most of them are believed to have fled Australia at the weekend after their images were released, while four remaining suspects are being closely monitored by Queensland police and border force officers.Our double standard on who is an 'over stayer' Let me get this right. A Tamil, asylum-seeking couple with two Australian-born children, residents for five years in a Queensland country town, are arrested in the dead of night and locked up to await forcible deportation, despite having received an assurance of renewed visas (Comment, 14/3). Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people on student and tourist visas "over stay" but are left in peace. It is gob-smacking. Bill Shorten, where are you? Jill Sanguinetti, East Brunswick Please, Minister, show us your human side for once Dear Peter Dutton. With all respect, I must tell you that I am very worried about you. You must be extremely unhappy. Whenever you are plotting yet another drastic intervention, such as the one with the Tamil family this week, it must be so hard to sleep at night. Your actions, attitudes, and  here is that word again  values are disturbing and un-Australian. They are also inhumane. How these things must trouble you, as you reflect on the despair that you create in the lives of those who are already deeply traumatised.

I have an idea that might help you, sir. Did you know that a single act of compassion can put you in touch with your own humanity? No? Well, it really can. Many Australians yearn, indeed, pray for the day when you will try that simple thing. Just for once, show us the compassionate Peter Dutton. Jacob de Ridder, Rosanna Many of us will not look away from this cruelty How did it come to this ("Family's treatment is our shame")? And who carries out these instructions from the government? Peter Dutton, how can you ask Australian citizens to behave in such cruel and insensitive ways? Thank you, Clementine Ford. We will not look away. Geoff and Gillian Senior, Camperdown

Dutton's warped set of priorities Peter Dutton offers white South Africans, who might lose their farms, safe haven, but blocks legitimate refugees who might lose their lives. It is good to see that he has his priorities sorted. Jack Morris, Kennington FORUM Act on homelessness, now

The newly-released Census data showing a marked rise in homelessness (The Age, 14/3) will come as no surprise to homeless services. The Prime Minister, Treasurer and successive social services ministers have been repeatedly advised of the brewing crisis. Despite this, the government is pushing through Parliament a National Housing and Homelessness Agreement that has no increase in funding for frontline homelessness responses. Two in every five Victorians who were counted as homeless on census night were under the age of 25. We urgently require more federal investment in services that can respond to immediate needs and prevent young people from becoming entrenched in the system as homeless adults. We also need national policy reform that addresses the major drivers of homelessness, including family violence. Vicki Sutton, CEO, Melbourne City Mission The tide turns on Trump It appears that the Americans who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 national election are reaching for their Valium tablets. The 20per cent turnaround in the Pennsylvania byelection is far from "fake news", President Trump. So much for the taxation sweetener as a bribe to entice voters to back him in 2020.

Rob Park, Surrey Hills A dangerous 'friend' At last count, 20 of Donald Trump's White House staff gone: either sacked or resigned. Does this tell us something? Malcolm Turnbull had better be wary of his "mate". Quite a lot of people do not trust the President, and with good reason. Judith Dunn, Bentleigh East An act of animal cruelty

I confess to being something of a "dog tragic" but I think that most people would be appalled at the recent incident on a United Airlines plane. A flight attendant insisted that a 10-month-old French bulldog pup be placed in an overhead locker, even though its carrier was designed to fit under an airline seat. The dog died, in the presence of its owner and her children, and aghast passengers. Not a nice story to share, but the indignation and sorrow it inspires insists on such sharing. Kay Arthur, Diamond Creek Cronyism in leadership The fascination of the Trinity Grammar hair cutting saga is a very Melbourne story, focusing as it does on the life inside an elite private school. Ignored is the weak governance that such schools maintain with their largely self-appointed councils, lack of financial transparency and marginalisation of the major stakeholder group, the parents. Few such schools provide a robust democratic mechanism that allows parents to be actively involved in the direction of the school. Rather, their role is to provide the funds that allow the largely unelected councils to expend on whatever whim takes their fancy. In this context, the children are seen as orphans and the parents irrelevant.

Elite private schools are now major commercial enterprises that are increasingly at odds with the charitable objectives of their church-based owners and founders. Perhaps the saddest thing of all is that the episode models to the next generation the role of cronyism in leadership that is maintained by unaccountable governance structures. Dr Simon Smith, Victoria University Stop telephoning us, 'John' Australians are already alienated from the political system. Now voters in Batman have to endure a barrage of junk mail, and invasions of their privacy and disturbances of their evenings by answering robo calls from assorted whining characters such as "John the pensioner". We hang up immediately and vow not to vote for any party that arrogantly presumes upon our time. If we want to find out how to vote, we are quite capable of looking up such information. Stop abusing our landline and mobile phones. Ian Anderson, Bundoora

Beware collateral damage Canberra is a long way from South Australia and Batman, but the release of a Labor policy with the word "tax" in it will do damage to its cause in both elections. Is Labor beginning to feel so comfortable with a latest poll of 54/46 that it can afford to be insensitive to bad news? Doubtless the news is not so bad because it will enhance university, hospital, school and Centrelink funding, but the collateral damage in the meantime will be hard to offset. Graeme Lee, Fitzroy An increase in wellbeing I am a self-funded retiree whose income will be reduced by the plan to eliminate cash refunds due to imputation credits. However, I applaud this initiative by the ALP. If it causes financial hardship for some retirees, I am sure this problem can be addressed. Even if it only saves $50billion in cash refunds, the retained funds could go a long way towards creating jobs to improve outcomes for people and the planet.

So much better than giving $50billion in tax cuts to large corporations and hoping some of it will be used to create jobs and "trickle down" to people in need. It is distressing to see people sleeping in the streets and hear tales of hardship by welfare recipients. If this policy reduces inequality any decrease in income for the majority of retirees will be more than offset by an increase in wellbeing for rich and poor alike. Mary Sweeney, South Yarra The 'non rich' will retaliate Bill Shorten asserts that Labor's plan will halt the flow of revenue to the very rich. Well, we are not very rich. Our combined refunds from franking credits amount to little more than the $4000 to $5000, referred to in the media as the amount typically received by individuals. Nevertheless, the cash refunds we receive amount to about one-third of our annual disposable incomes, after medical and other insurance premiums, municipal rates and power bills have been paid. If Labor intends to target the wealthy, it should refine its policy. If it does not, then hitherto rusted-on supporters will have to vote for the enemy.

Arthur and Elaine Roberts, Elwood How is tax plan 'unfair'? So, a self-funded retiree pays insufficient tax to get the full amount of franking credits back from the Australian Taxation Office, where those credits would normally offset tax paid. To compensate for that "unfairness", the ATO gives them the cash equivalent. If their annual income derived from their self-managed fund is so low, then surely they would be allowed access to a part or full aged pension? Wait  they can't do this because they have too much in assets. Where, exactly, are we meant to find this unfair? The government again needs a reality check before exploding into outrage. Gia Underwood, Northcote An unhappy Labor man

I have been a Labor voter since my first election in the early 1960s. Bill Shorten, you have said nothing about blocking the Adani mine. Now you have topped yourself by killing franked shares "refunds". Not happy, Bill. And I am not super rich, either. David Hansen, Glen Waverley It's my turn at the trough For many years I have supported a number of charities, including mental health research, heart research and sponsoring a child through World Vision. When I was working and paying tax, I could claim a tax refund for these donations. Now that I am retired and living off my superannuation, I pay no tax, so get no tax benefits from my payments. In fact, I am in the same boat as non-taxpaying shareholders were before 2001, when Peter Costello gave them refunds in lieu of reductions in their tax liabilities. Since Scott Morrison is so enraged that these non-taxpayers may miss out on their refunds, could he fix the anomaly that leaves non-taxpaying donors to charity out of pocket? I would like to get my snout into the same trough.

Graeme Smithies, Fairfield An unfair punishment Criticism of Labor's proposed tax changes focuses on how lower-income retirees will be affected, and rightly so. But where is the fairness in suddenly taking up to 30 per cent of wealthier retirees' income, from people who have saved all their lives and followed all the rules to give themselves a more comfortable retirement? Ralph Frank, Malvern East No tax payment, no refund

Why all the fuss? The solution is simple and equitable. Imputation credits should be used to reduce a person's tax liability where tax has actually been paid. Otherwise, any unused credits should be allowed to accumulate for use at a later time when those who would be affected by Labor's proposal actually pay tax. If you do not pay tax, you should not be eligible for a tax refund. Steve Weal, Ringwood East Better spending priorities A number of self-funded retirees and pensioners will feel the loss of their cashed-out franking credits. But let's be clear: the system is a rort, a government handout just because you own some Australian shares. The dividend imputation system is justified because it prevents double taxation  of company profits, and the resultant dividends to shareholders. But if no tax is paid by said shareholder, there is no double taxation and hence no justification for a cash payout.

This money can be better used to benefit the many, not the few  health, education, aged care, the environment, etc. I now await the spending priorities to be set by Labor before the next election. Lesley Ryder, Blackburn South The new presenter: Redi If the ABC had really wanted to attract a new, younger audience to its breakfast radio program without alienating the existing listeners  "Mourning listeners are tuned off ABC" (The Age, 14/3)  couldn't it have just rebadged Red as Redi? Geoff Paddle, Princes Hill

The listeners rule, ok? Dear Aunty, you should have listened to your listeners before the ratings came out. Roger Christiansz, Wheelers Hill AND ANOTHER THING The US

Goodbye, Rex Tillerson, the last vestige of sanity. Jerry Koliha, South Melbourne It's become a badge of honour to be sacked by Trump. Scott Ramsay, Strathdale I expect the leader of the free world to have impulse control. Not: tweet, act, consult. But: consult, think, act, tweet.

Gaell Hildebrand, Cohuna Politics Dutton is quick to consider visas for white South African farmers, but not the Rohingya of Myanmar. Racist double standard? Gareth Sambrook, Melbourne Is being heartless and lacking compassion the criteria to be immigration minister?

David Ginsbourg, East Bentleigh Bill, you've given Malcolm the greatest free kick of all time. It will be interesting to see the next Newspoll. Allan Lowry, Brighton East Bill has just "Shortened" the odds. Bet May, Berwick

I'm being inundated with recorded messages (from Labor, I think). I hang up immediately. It's not the way to gain my vote in Batman. Lesley Taskis, Kingsbury Could someone explain what a "retail politician" is (the latest catchphrase of commentators)? Lorraine Bates, Surrey Hills People

Vale Stephen Hawking. And the universe becomes a little smaller. Dave Quinn, Collingwood Though there may be a tear, I'll do as Hawking implored us and look up at the stars, not down at my feet. Steve Melzer, Hughesdale A great mind, a great citizen of the world.

Bill Proctor, Launching Place Congratulations to Scott Spits for his excellent coverage of the Paralympics. His accounts of our talented athletes are inspirational. Cath Dyson, Mount Eliza Class exists and there are some very selfish members of the middle classes in private school cliques. Pamela Papadopoulos, South YarraPolice close off High Street in Thomastown. Credit:Paul Harris

Three weeks ago, a body was found on the roof of a phone shop in Melbournes north.

There was little explanation, apart from reports that the unfortunate soul was holding an object that struck overhead power lines.

But police preparing a report for the coroner believe the 29-year-old man from Reservoir wasnt on the roof of the High Street shop in Thomastown for legitimate reasons.

They suspect he had not quite kicked his habit of breaking into businesses and, having been released from prison just a couple of weeks before, was at it again.Medicare

A Brunswick doctor who was until recently a business partner of controversial biochemist and underworld figure Shane Charter has been ordered by the federal government to repay almost $400,000 that he rorted from Medicare.

Doctor Constantinos Perkoulidis, who practiced at the Brunswick Hill Medical Clinic, was also slapped with a two-year ban from performing more than a dozen medical procedures.

When a professional services review raised serious concerns about Medicare overcharging, Dr Perkoulidis claimed his patients were "extraordinarily unlucky".

The Brunswick Hill Medical Clinic is no longer associated with Dr Perkoulidis.Labor MP Jane Garrett has ruled out running for Melbourne lord mayor. Credit:Mal Fairclough

State Labor MP Jane Garrett has finally ruled out running as Melbourne's lord mayor.

The decision means Labor will not have to contest a by-election in Ms Garrett's marginal seat of Brunswick.

Ms Garrett told ABC radio she had been tempted to run for the mayoralty but decided against it to spare her party the pain of a by-election.

The vacancy for lord mayor was created after Robert Doyle resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. A report this week upheld the allegations of sexual harassment against the former lord mayor."We are trying so desperately to hold onto hope and trying to desperately see justice. We want to hold onto the fact that we will see her back in Australia one day," she said. Loading However, early this week, Grossman reversed his position and withdrew support for Leifer, citing the perception that his backing had been interpreted as supporting an attempt to avoid trial. There are many confounding aspects of this case including the role of Rabbi Grossman. Grossman has assisted accused sexual predators before, including Breslov Rabbi Eliezer Berland who fought extradition to Israel from South Africa. Grossman went to South Africa twice and argued for Berland to be given bail.

Ultimately, Berland was sentenced in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court in 2016 after admitting to one assault and two counts of indecent acts. Private investigators' photograph of Malka Leifer in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak. So why did Grossman back away from Leifer? Multiple sources in both Australia and Israel said the backlash against the rabbi's decision to support Leifer was immediate. Donors, staff and some board members of his Migdal Ohr organisation objected to his move on social media, and directly to the organisation. One source said that he personally knew people who had contacted board members to complain, only to be told they were sullying the reputation of a fine man.

However a social media campaign involving Australian and American activists and a number of Australian rabbis put moral pressure on the rabbi. An open letter addressed to Grossman said Leifer's alleged crimes had "caused untold pain and suffering". "Your conduct in this matter raises many serious questions ... By involving yourself in legal proceedings which have nothing to do with you for the purpose of supporting an alleged multiple rapist and child sexual abuser and in showing no regard for the pain and suffering of her alleged victims, you are guilty of not only gross Rabbinic overreach but have also committed a huge Chillul Hashem (desecration of G-ds name), which has brought the entire Jewish community into disrepute," the letter read. More than that, sources say, was the threat to the funding of Migdal Ohr. Rabbi Grossman's group claims to endorse child protection, and sources have told Fairfax Media many key funders, particularly in the United States, demanded that Grossman retract his support for Leifer. About half the funding for Grossman's organisation comes from the Israeli government, and the rest from Jewish communities from across the world including Canada, Brazil and Britain and 10 percent from the Jewish Agency for Israel. The United Israel Appeal Australia (UIA) donates money to the Jewish Agency but a representative from the UIA in Melbourne told Fairfax Media that we're transparent about where our money goes and none had ever been sent to Migdal Ohr.

Rabbi Grossman didn't have a moral realisation, the source said. He didn't issue an apology for the hurt caused [to Leifers victims.] One source told Fairfax Media that Grossman knew about the allegations against Leifer as far back as 2012 and supported her. Fairfax approached Rabbi Grossman Enterprises for a response, but was referred to his earlier statement. Israel's then Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir (left) is blessed by Rabbi Menachem Abraham in 1984 while Rabbi Yitzhchak Dovid Grossman (also known as the Disco rabbi) looks on. Credit:AP

Leifer has been fighting extradition to Australia for four years. She fled from Australia to Israel soon after the allegations were aired in 2008, living there while alleging she was mentally unfit to stand trial. But police were forced to act after an Israeli private investigator filmed more than 200 hours of footage of Leifer in an occupied West Bank settlement and found her to be a normal, healthy person. She remains in custody while an Israeli judge assesses an appeal to deny her access to house arrest. There are growing calls from the Jewish community within Australia for the Israeli legal system to facilitate Leifers extradition to Australia and face justice. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has raised the matter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in 2017 said that, justice demands that she be brought back to Australia to answer the charges. In 2015, Victorian Supreme Court judge Jack Rush ordered the Adass Israel girls' school to pay $1,024,428 in damages to Ms Erlich.Ashland Brand Ttransformation Wins Distinction Among 2018 REBRAND 100 Global Awards







COVINGTON, KENTUCKY, March 15, 2018  Ashlands remarkable brand transformation following its final separation from Valvoline Inc. last year ranks among the most successful rebranding campaigns in the U.S., earning the global specialty chemicals company recognition in the 2018 REBRAND 100 Global Awards.

REBRAND is a leading global resource for case studies on effective brand transformations: the repositioning, revitalizing and redesign of existing brand assets to meet business goals. Once a year, a new panel of international business, marketing and design executives is selected to jury the competition, with the goal of showcasing the most effective brand transformations.

Five companies were recognized with Best of awards by REBRAND. Another 45 firms  including Ashland  were honored with awards of distinction. The remaining 50 received merit awards.

The most compelling entries used storytelling, in various forms, that was relatable, thought-provoking and emotional. Winning rebrands transcend telling to showing us brand value and why we should care," said 2018 juror, June M. Archer, C-suite business leader and brand builder.

Ashland has a blueprint for the future which is our pathway for creating the leading premier specialty chemicals company in the world, said Bill Wulfsohn, Ashland chairman and chief executive officer. Our foundation includes safe, compliant and responsible operations, a winning strategy and a high-performance organization. Our winning strategy has two core components: aligning the organization around a clear sense of purpose and implementing a winning competitive strategy.

Ashlands new brand identity projects our global organizations passion and tenacity for developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems in applied chemistry, always pushing the boundaries of whats possible and advancing the competitiveness of our customers across diverse industries, he said.

Added Carolmarie Brown, director of global marketing and business communications at Ashland: Our ambitious re-branding signaled the realization of a clear corporate vision, organizational transformation, and separation from Valvoline. It inspired us to think, speak and act as one organization, significantly improving our competitiveness, and it has proven to be a powerful tool in increasing the value of our offer and enterprise."

Axel Lober, a 2018 awards juror and head of Branding and Strategic Projects, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, noted, In a rapidly changing business environment, cultural change is pivotal for companies to succeed. Strong brands can support or even drive this change  which turns a rebrand into a much larger opportunity than a simple refresh of colors.

To learn more about REBRANDs award of distinction for Ashland, please visit https://rebrand.com/distinction-ashland/ and www.ashland.com/rebrand.

About Ashland Ashland Global Holdings Inc. is a premier global specialty chemicals company serving customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including adhesives, architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care and pharmaceutical. At Ashland, we are approximately 6,500 passionate, tenacious solvers  from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators  who thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com to learn more.

About REBRAND and the REBRAND 100 Global Awards

REBRAND is the world's leading platform for brand transformation insights, case examples, programs, and expertise. Celebrating 12+ years of excellence, its renowned REBRAND 100 Global Awards is the most prestigious, juried recognition for repositioned brands, having reached participation from over 61 countries in 40+ industries. Featured in such media as The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg News, articles and books, the results have generated an unrivaled global library of transformed brands for business reference and research.

C-ASH

 Trademark, Ashland or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries.Alaska Airlines. Photo: PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

In a new lawsuit, Alaska Airlines first officer and co-pilot Betty Pina alleges she was drugged and raped by her captain in between flights in June. The assault allegedly occurred during a brief overnight stay in Minneapolis after the pair got drinks at a hotel bar.

The Daily Beast reports Pina, 39, woke up in a hotel room to the smell of vomit in June. She was naked from the waist down and had apparently thrown up on the walls and bed of the room. Her boss and captain (whom the Cut is not identifying at this time, as he is a private citizen and has not been charged with a crime) was allegedly in bed next to her, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Washington court.

Pina  an Army chopper veteran based in Seattle  alleges in the complaint that she and the captain, who she hadnt met before that flight assignment, got drinks at the hotel that night. She drank he first glass of wine without any problem, but after the captain brought her the second glass, she was having a hard time keeping her head up and things appeared to be closing in.

The complaint continues, [The captain] took her glass to refill it. The next thing she remembers is waking up and being pulled on her right ankle. Pina thinks she said No, and rolled on her side.

But when Pina woke up in the morning, her pants and underwear were off and she slid off the bed. This didnt feel like a hangover, the complaint reads. Pinas muscles hurt, her head hurt, she was foggy, and her stomach hurt the worst.

The captain allegedly denied having any sexual contact with her that morning. Pina reported the rape and an investigation was launched. She was then taken off active flight crew for an extended period and only recently returned to full duty. The lawsuit states, [The captain] is still employed by Alaska Airlines, and remains a threat to other employees. Pina claims the airline is liable for his actions.Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump. Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

On Wednesday, Page Six reported that friends of Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Vanessa, say the couple have been living separate lives and are considering divorce.

The problems have been there for a long time, the couple had hoped to stay together during the presidents time in office, but it is getting harder to resolve their issues. Hes never there, one source said.

Vanessa Trump is reportedly uncomfortable with the intense media scrutiny of the Trump family since Donald Trumps election, and has concerns for her childrens safety, particularly after an envelope of white powder was delivered to the family back in February.

One source also suggested Don Jr.s combative public persona has played a role in the couples separation, claiming that since his fathers election, Don Jr. appears to have changed recently, and friends are concerned about him. Another friend denies this, though, telling Page Six, Don has always had a bold and aggressive nature on social, theres no change to his stance on Twitter.

Whether Twitter contributed to the Trumps marital strife or not, sources agree the couple have been struggling.

While they are not legally separated, I cannot deny there are issues, there are a lot of intricate things that go on in a marriage, said one friend. Don and Vanessa are focused on their family, they are trying to do this quietly and privately, and when they have something to say on the record, they will do so. This has nothing to do with politics, this is a personal matter between two people.

Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa first met at a fashion show in 2003, where Donald Trump introduced his son to Vanessa multiple times. Vanessa told the New York Times when she and Don Jr. saw each other again weeks later, she said, wait, youre the one with the retarded dad! The couple married in 2005, after Don Jr. proposed to Vanessa in a New Jersey mall with a $100,000 ring that he reportedly got for free in exchange for making himself available for promotional opportunities. The only guests in attendance were paparazzi and TV camera crews.Morgan Roof. Photo: Richland County Sheriffs Office

Morgan Roof, whose older brother Dylann Roof murdered nine people at a historically black church in Charleston in 2015, was arrested on Wednesday for bringing weapons to her South Carolina high school during National School Walkout Day.

As BuzzFeed News reports, court records show that 18-year-old Roof was charged with possessing weapons and marijuana at AC Flora High School in Columbia, South Carolina. She was released on a $5,000 bond and is not allowed to return to campus.

Roof also reportedly posted a message on Snapchat earlier that day, which read in part: I hope its a trap and yall get shot. We know its fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.

In a statement, according to BuzzFeed News, the principal of Roofs school wrote, The posting was not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate. That student was dealt with in a swift and severe manner as the posting caused quite a disruption.

The National School Walkout Day was held on the one-month anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during which 17 people were killed. On Wednesday, thousands of students across the U.S. walked out of their classrooms to protest gun violence and demand safer schools.

Roofs brother Dylann, 22, is a self-professed white-supremacist who was sentenced to death for killing nine people in the Charleston church massacre. In another Snapchat post on Wednesday, Roof wrote, [T]hey are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what tf you think its gonna do?

This is Morgan Roof, Dylann Roofs little sister, her snapchats there and all do your thang twitter pic.twitter.com/MttSF875is  tatianna (@yungteet) March 14, 2018

South Carolinas governor Henry McMaster wrote on Twitter that potential tragedy was avoided at AC Flora High School following the arrest. He also called for a police officer to be put in every school.

Potential tragedy was avoided at AC Flora High School. In two separate incidents, students and educators reacted quickly to reports of suspicious activity and behavior to their Richland County Sheriff's Department school resource officer. (1/)  Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) March 15, 2018Mariam Moustafa. Photo: Just Giving

In late February, 18-year-old Egyptian student Mariam Moustafa was badly beaten by a group of women in Nottingham, England. On Wednesday, she succumbed to her injuries  and with her death comes questions about negligence by medics and the police, as well as whether the attack was racially motivated.

According to the Times, Moustafa was beaten by a group of girls aged 15 to 17 on the evening of February 20. They reportedly punched her, dragged her down the street, and then followed her onto a bus where they continued their attack.

Moustafa was brought to a hospital that evening, then released early the following afternoon. She was re-admitted shortly afterward after suffering a brain hemorrhage and placed into a coma.

Per The Guardian, the Nottinghamshire police said there is no information to suggest that the assault was motivated by hate but we continue to keep an open mind.

Her family thinks otherwise, with her 16-year-old sister Mallak saying that the same alleged group of girls had attacked them in August. I do think that vital warnings were missed, she told the Times. The police shouldve done something after the first attack but they did nothing.

My wife and I think it was racially motivated because Mariam didnt know these girls, why would you attack someone randomly? her father, Mohamed, elaborated. They were all of different color skin to Mariam. Maybe that is why they did this  they also called her black rose.

Many on social media have also pointed out that there would be a major international outcry if she were a Western student murdered abroad.

The government of Egypt and embassy have been closely following the circumstances of this vicious attack with the relevant British authorities and express the need for those responsible be be brought to justice swiftly, the Egyptian embassy in London said in a statement. As for current progress on bringing the alleged attackers to justice, The Guardian reports that a 17-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm was bailed pending further investigation following the incident.

Moustafa had been studying to become an engineer at Nottingham College. Now I feel like I have lost my other half, Mallak told the BBC. I dont know who to speak to, I dont have my sister.Emily Javier and Alex Lovell. Photo: Ariane Kunze/AP Photo/Alex Lovell/Facebook

Last week, 30-year-old Emily Javier from Camas, Washington, was charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing her boyfriend, Alex Lovell, with a samurai sword because she suspected he was cheating on her. Lovell survived the brutal attack, and now says the whole thing was a misunderstanding, telling BuzzFeed News he wasnt cheating on Javier, he was just playing too many video games.

I was training too hard, it exhausted me, Lovell said of his intensive video-game training regimen. I felt bad because she needed the affection. I just couldnt keep up.

According to court documents, Javier believed Lovell was cheating on her after she found Tinder on his phone, and saw red hair in their shower drain (Lovells hair is brown, and Javiers is dyed green).

I was trying to kill him for cheating. That was my purpose, she reportedly told police.

The attack took place in the early hours of Saturday, March 3. Javier allegedly waited until Lovell had fallen asleep, and then stabbed him with a samurai sword she had purchased at the mall a few days before. Lovell said he only survived thanks to his knowledge of Wing Chun  a Chinese martial art he told Buzzfeed he became obsessed with after watching the kung fu movie Ip Man.

Ive been indirectly preparing myself for this night my whole life, he explained. I didnt freeze. The Wing Chun came out. I was able to stand on a knee that was just almost chopped in half and a foot that was hanging on by a thread.

Lovell said he was able to convince Javier to stop attacking him and call the cops, and that he had forgiven her. He also explained that the red hairs in the shower were his dogs, and that he had never been particularly successful on dating apps.

Im not a model or 63. Tall dudes slay Tinder. Everyone knows that.

Read the full story here.An amber alert has been issued for Lynn Roby, 3, and Jordyn Washington, 2. Both girls have been missing since 2 p.m., March 14. (National Center For Missing And Exploited Children)

Young Children Believed to Be in Danger After Being Taken by Father Have Been Found Safe

Update: Jordyn Washington, 2, and Lynn Roby, 3, have been found safe on Thursday afternoon, March 15, according to police. The children were found safe and healthy at their paternal grandmothers home and were taken to Markham Police Department.

An amber alert was issued on Wednesday afternoon, March 14, after Illinois State Police said two children were taken by their father who is a suspect in a fatal shooting that occurred earlier in the day. Police have said that they believe the children are in danger.

Police are looking for 2-year-old Jordyn Washington and 3-year-old Lynn Roby. The two girls were last seen in Markham, Illinois, in a silver 2004 or 2005 Chevrolet Malibu or Impala.

They are believed to have been taken by their 40-year-old father Lynn Washington who police say is armed and dangerous, reported the Chicago Tribune.

He is considered armed and dangerous based on his criminal history and our investigation, Markham Police Chief Mack Sanders told the newspaper.

Sanders said the childrens mother, Lakisha Washington  believed to be in her late 20s  was killed in a domestic shooting at a gas station at 167th Street and Pulaski Road in Markham at around 1:30 p.m. earlier on Wednesday.

Lakisha was returning from a club in another city when she got into an argument with Lynn Washington.

She was in the car and it was a domestic incident involving him and her, and she wound up getting shot, Sanders told the newspaper.

Police said the children were with a family friend at the time of the shooting. The family friend said they were not aware of the shooting when the childrens father came to pick them up.

The 40-year-old is prohibited from having any contact with the children according to a protection order that was issued on Nov. 30, reported the Tribune.

According to the alert, which was issued at 9:55 p.m. by Illinois State Police, both children are black and have brown hair.

Lynn Washington has tattoos on neck, left arm, right arm, and chest.

From NTD.tv

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersBritains Horrific Child Grooming Scandal Exposed as Hundreds of Girls Raped, Beaten, Sold for Sex

As many as 1,000 children may have fallen prey to a sex gang that groomed, gang-raped, and forced girls as young as 11 into prostitution.

The shocking plight of young victims reportedly went on for as long as 40 years in the British town of Telford, which has become synonymous with endemic child sex exploitation.

But, according to a report by the Mirror, girls in other UK towns, like Rochdale and Rotherham, also suffered at the hands of perverts and torturers.

Young victims were scoped, lured away, drugged, beaten, and raped in a web of intrigue and tragedy that saw multiple people murdered.

One of the victims, pseudonym Holly, was a victim of child exploitation in Telford from the age of 14.

She told Victoria Derbyshire, a journalist and BBC broadcaster, she went to a sexual health clinic for the morning-after pill twice a week for three years, but no one ever asked her any questions.

She shared with the Derbyshire on a televised program, not just details of the abuse, but also the failure of authorities to question what was going on, much less intervene.

He beat me with his belt if I didnt agree to let him rape me. Then he tried to make me and himself feel better by giving me money, Holly told the reporter about how her abuser initially mistreated her, before revealing a horrific escalation.

Telford is a very small area, so theres nowhere to hide. If someone knows where you live and your daily routine, theyre going to find you. It quickly moved on to being sold every single day. So I was being sold two or three times per night. Taken into what I can only describe as a rape house, which was set up for the only purpose of girls being sold to men, Holly continued.

Asked why she did not go to the police or try to break free of the abuse, Holly told of threats that she believed were very real.

The reason I kept going back was they were threatening me with burning my house down, which was a real threat, Holly said in the interview with Derbyshire. And they would say theyd rape my mom, and rape my sisters. And they knew all about my family. There was just no escape at all.

According to the Mirror, 16-year-old Lucy Lowe was killed in 2000 along with her mother and sister after her 26-year-old abuser Azhar Ali Mehmood set fire to their house.

Mehmood reportedly targeted Lucy in 1997 and she was just 14 when she gave birth to his daughter.

He was jailed for triple homicide.

But he was never arrested nor charged in connection with any child sex crimes over his illegal relationship with the schoolgirl.

Multiple victims told that Lucys death was used as a warning to other girls.

Holly said as the abuse got worse, it drove her to attempt suicide.

I was gang-raped just after I turned 16. Thats one of the worst things that ever happened to me. After that, I tried to commit suicide. And everyone was saying to me that I was trying to cry out for help. No, I genuinely wanted to die because I thought that was the only way out.

She also spoke of numerous times where intervention seemed possible, even likely, but in the end, hopelessly absent.

I was in cars that were stopped and searched by the police, with older men and it was never questioned who I was, my name was never asked, Holly said, according to the BBC.

I just think if theyd been more proactive at points like that, things could have changed earlier. I was also going to the doctor at the youth sexual health clinic, a couple of times a week for at least three years for the morning after pill.

Victoria Derbyshire asked in disbelief whether anyone ever inquired about Hollys welfare.

No questions were asked as to what was going on in my life, she said.

A MailOnline report claims the police victim blame Telford sex abuse victims and cite an internal memo that allegedly states that in most cases the sex is consensual.

Police describe the rape of children as young as 11 as mostly consensual in shocking memo. #Telford #TelfordGirls https://t.co/EA52czfFHB  Sam Corfield (@_samcorfield) March 15, 2018

But child abuse lawyer Dino Nocivelli, cited by MailOnline, criticized West Mercia Police for their handling of the investigation.

Nocivelli told MailOnline, The authorities just dont seem to get it. Children cannot agree to sex. Just because a child is not being physically forced to carry out sexual acts, it doesnt mean they consented. Many of these children will have been groomed and manipulated by their abusers and would have been threatened to keep silent. How can you say an 11-year-old is capable of consenting to sex with a 40-year-old? This is rape.

Becky Watson had been abused since she was 11, after being lured in by another victim. She died aged 13, in a car accident that was later described by the driver as a prank gone wrong. Her story is becoming all too common in multicultural Britain. #Telford #120dB pic.twitter.com/lvjxthdW8q  Gen Identity England (@GenIdentEngland) March 14, 2018

The report came a day after West Mercia Police Superintendent Tom Harding significantly disputed claims that 1,000-plus children may have been groomed over four decades in Telford.

I dont believe Telford is any worse than lots of places across England and Wales, Harding said.

Harding was quick to add that addressing child sexual exploitation remained the departments number one priority in Telford. But told the BBC, according to MailOnline I am confident that, in the main, we do know the scale of CSE. Therefore, I significantly dispute the 1,000 plus figure and do feel it is sensationalized.

This is Lucy Lowe. Lucy was just 16 when she was made pregnant with her second child after being regularly raped by her rapist the 26-year-old Azhar Ali Mehmood. A taxi driver. She was killed along with mum Eileen & sister Sarah when her rapist set her house on fire.#Telford pic.twitter.com/IMgypEM5qQ  Ashish? (@Ak__Ashii) March 14, 2018

Many media outlets, however, have accused the authorities of downplaying the abuse, ignoring evidence, and foot-dragging.

An 18-month investigation by the Mirror revealed a series of uncomfortable allegations:

Social workers knew of abuse in the 1990s but police took a decade to launch a probe.

Council staff viewed abused and trafficked children as prostitutes instead of victims, according to previously unseen files.

Authorities failed to keep details of abusers from Asian communities for fear of racism.

Police failed to investigate one recent case five times until an MP intervened.

One victim said cops tried to stop her finding out why her abusers had not been prosecuted because they feared she would talk to the media, the Mirror states.

Other reports surfaced of whistleblowers being demonized or even forced out of jobs.

I think youre going to need a bigger list!!#telford pic.twitter.com/DgtRhAtLbS  Andy V (@andyvblue) March 15, 2018

The Telford scandal has been cast into the spotlight again as British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament recently that an inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Telford should move forward quickly.

According to MailOnline, May said, we have all been shocked by the case, which she called horrific.

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California Man Arrested in States Largest Raptor Poaching Case

California wildlife officers have arrested a man in what has been described as the largest raptor poaching case in the states history.

Authorities found more than 130 dead hawks and other birds on an 80-acre property in Lassen County, said the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in a statement.

Its like nothing we have ever seen, Captain Patrick Foy of CDFWs law enforcement division told the SF Gate.

Ive been doing this for 21 years and some of us have been around in excess of three decades. We all kind of looked at each other and said weve known of nothing close to this many raptors involved in a poaching case.

Officials were alerted to the property after receiving an anonymous tip from a person who said they saw a man kill a hawk in the area, the CDFW said.

A local officer inspected the property, and found two dead raptors in a tree and seven at its base, which justified obtaining a search warrant, the SF Gate reported.

Later, during the search, investigators with the help of a sniffer dog found a total of 126 raptor carcasses in addition to the original nine. They also found two dead bobcats, one taxidermied mountain lion, and other non-game birds, said the CDFW.

Most of the raptors found were red-tailed hawks. At least one dead owl was also found, as well as an uncommon migratory ferruginous hawk.

The property belonged to 67-year-old Richard Parker, who was booked on Sunday, March 11, with multiples charges including the take of birds of prey, take of migratory nongame birds as designated by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, take of other nongame birds, and possession of wildlife unlawfully taken.

The illegal taking of raptors can lead to up to 6 months jail, and a fine of up to $5,000 per bird, the CDFW said.

Avian experts are currently working to identify the species of each bird killed. This is important because different birds are protected by different laws, which also carry differing penalty regimes, said Foy, reported the SF Gate. Therefore, the charges may change as the investigation proceeds.

Raptors, which are the top birds of prey in the food chain, play an important role in the ecosystem by controlling rodent and small mammal populations, the CDFW said. The removal of a large number of these birds is therefore expected to detrimentally impact the local environment.

When you think about what raptors eat, its rodents, voles, mice, rats and squirrels. Those populations are very likely going to increase, Foy said, reported the SF Gate. More people want to see more raptors and less rats  but ultimately, thats going to be reversed.

Theres no question about it, its going to be a concern for the immediate vicinity, he said. Taking 130 raptors out of the population? Its going to take years to recover.

From NTD.tv

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Child Trafficking Through International Adoption Continues Despite Regulations

Global adoption is a big business, fraught with loose regulations and profit incentives that have made it a target for kidnappers, human traffickers, and pedophiles.

Despite regulations on international adoptions, and with some countries even banning all foreign adoptions, the problem has continued. Kidnappers continue to fuel the trade, and adoption agencies continue to skirt the laws.

What I stumbled on was horrific, said Ed Opperman, a private investigator and host of The Opperman Report radio show.

Opperman began investigating cases of parents trying to locate their real children and of kids looking for their real parents. In some countries, theres no vetting whatsoever, he said. There is money to be made in this adoption business.

Its out there. Theyre exploited for child labor, for sex, you name it.  Peter Gleason, lawyer and former NYPD police officer

You can go to Thailand and countries in Africa and just pick up a kid, and come back to America with no paperwork, he said. Even Russia, which has acted to crack down on international adoptions, has only minimal red tape that includes a test, a background check, and a waiting period.

In July 2014, a new U.S. law went into effect that required federal review and accreditation of all U.S. adoption agencies. The Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012 was passed amid widespread reports that kidnappers were selling children to foreign orphanages, sometimes with the cooperation of what appeared to be legitimate humanitarian groups.

Guatemala banned international adoptions in 2007, at a time when close to 1 out of every 100 children born in the country were being adopted by foreign parents. In 2011, investigative journalist and author Erin Siegal McIntyre obtained memos from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala that showed children were being kidnapped for the industry, and that mothers were being threatened with death for attempting to locate their children.

After the foreign adoption industry in Guatemala was shut down, and after Guatemala adopted international standards on foreign adoptions under the Hague Abduction Convention, the international adoption market went elsewhere and the local criminals looked for new streams of revenue. However, the abuse of adoptions didnt end. InSight Crime reported in 2013 that in Guatemala, illegal adoptions continue to flourish despite regulations, and that the majority of stolen babies are sold for irregular adoptions or for their organs.

Ongoing Abuse

While the 2014 U.S. law ended the wild west state of the international adoption business in the United States, which had been mostly untouched by federal regulation and oversight, the law did little to solve the problem.

In 2016, Uganda tightened its foreign adoption laws, according to Reuters, to restrict fast-track foreign adoptions in which children with living parents could be kidnapped under the guise of adoption in just days. Reuters stated that hundreds of children were taken from Uganda, mainly to the United States.

In India, children up for adoption have been referred to as manufactured orphans. Indias Firstpost news outlet reported that in 2016, a kidnap-for-adoption racket was uncovered in Kolkata, where an adoption agency was found guilty of stealing infants from impoverished unwed mothers, rape survivors, and marginalized families.

It stated, In many cases, healthy babies were substituted with stillborns and the mothers were told their babies had died. Sometimes, poor parents were made to sign documents which they did not comprehend. They thought they were admitting their children to a free residential school but actually ended up giving up all rights over them.

In 2017, police in India arrested the heads of an adoption center that was selling children to foreign couples for between $12,000 and $23,000 per child.

The problem has continued even in the United States. In 2017, the FBI raided the agency European Adoption Consultants in Ohio, where news outlet WKYC reported allegations that the enterprise failed to adequately supervise adoptions for preventing the sale, abduction, exploitation, or trafficking of children. European Adoption Consultants was also reported to have failed to prevent the solicitation of bribes and to have fraudulently obtained birth parent consent.

The company operated in Bulgaria, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, India, Poland, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ukraine.

According to Peter Gleason, a lawyer and former police officer in the New York Police Department, the problem of child trafficking through adoption agencies is well-known. Its out there, he said. Theyre exploited for child labor, for sex, you name it.

Exploiting Disaster

Human traffickers also take advantage of natural disasters. Australias ABC News reported that in the wake of Haitis 2010 earthquake, trafficking networks were springing into action immediately after the disaster and taking advantage of the weakness of local authorities and relief coordination to kidnap children.

This issue hit the headlines when Laura Silsby, the former director of The New Life Childrens Refuge, was arrested with nine other American nationals for trying to bring 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic without documentation.

There is money to be made in this adoption business.  Ed Opperman, private investigator and radio show host

Silsby initially claimed the children were orphaned or abandoned, but the Haitian government and the charity SOS Childrens Villages found this wasnt true; none of the children were orphans, as all had at least one living parent. Silsbys legal adviser, Jorge Puello, was also detained in an alleged human trafficking ring accused of bringing women and children from Central America and Haiti.

Former President Bill Clinton, who was then coordinating relief efforts in Haiti, intervened to have all co-conspirators in the case released, except Silby. Yet prosecutors reduced her charges from conspiracy and child abduction to arranging irregular travel.

Re-homing of Children

Among the other ongoing issues, according to Opperman, is that of re-homing, in which people can adopt children, then pass the children to new parents with almost no regulation.

Theres a whole network, there are message boards, there are Yahoo groups of all these people whove got these kids. They dont want them anymore, and they re-home them, Opperman said.

He said child advertisements can include statements of pre-teen children being sexually aggressive, having problems with substance abuse, or being very eager to please.

Theres no paperwork. What they do is they give you a power of attorney, that here, you can enroll my kid in school, you can take him to the doctor, and thats it. The kids gone, he said. And there are documented cases where these kids, they wound up with pedophiles.

After theyre in the United States and handed off to less regulated forms of adoption, the children are more likely to face abuse.

Geoffrey Rogers, CEO of the U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking, said that approximately 60 to 70 percent of kids that are trafficked in the United States come out of the foster care system.

Approximately 60 to 70 percent of kids that are trafficked in the United States come out of the foster care system.  Geoffrey Rogers, CEO, U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking

According to a 2015 report from the Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service, re-homing is not regulated; theres no legal framework to address it, and its mostly an underground affair.

The report notes the majority of children who fall victim to re-homing are adopted from abroad. It says close to 73 percent are advertised as adopted from overseas, and only around 7 percent are advertised as not from overseas. Ten to 20 percent of adoptions fail.

With domestic adoptions, there are processes and procedures for the rights of birth mothers, for future adoptive parents, and for the welfare of the children. The report states, These safeguards are often absent when parents adopt children from overseas.

This is because children born in U.S. hospitals or to U.S. citizens benefit from reliable documentation that is often absent in international adoptions, which creates a greater risk of unethical conduct than in domestic adoptions, the report states.

Opperman noted that the situation for children adopted from overseas also differs heavily across states. Among the states with the weakest regulations, he said, is Utah, and he noted that some adoption agencies will choose to establish their office in the states with weak oversight. There are a couple states where its just a free for allyou can do whatever you want. Even if the adoption goes through in Florida or New York, theyll do the paperwork out of Utah.

Opperman said, Theres really no vetting done with these private adoptions whatsoever. Once they take place, nobody knows where these kids went.Debris Flies Though Windshield on Highway, Hits Driver

A young man from Eastvale, California, was killed on Wednesday, March 14, when metal debris crashed through the windshield of his car.

The 24-year-old victim was driving on the westbound Foothill (210) Freeway in Duarte when debris kicked up by a nearby vehicle smashed into his Volkswagen.

After impact, the man, whose name was withheld pending notification of his family, died at the scene at about 12:45 p.m. on Buena Vista Street, NBC Los Angeles reported.

The man was driving his Volkswagen Jetta at about 60 mph in the No. 4 lane when a tan pickup truck or SUV reportedly drove ahead of the Jetta and went over some metal debris, California Highway Patrol Rodrigo Jimenez told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The metal debris entered the Volkswagen through the windshield, striking the 24-year-old, Jimenez said.

The victim was driving with a 25-year-old passenger at the time.

A driver was killed when debris crashed through the windshield of his car on the westbound 210 Freeway in Duarte. https://t.co/i2SnAoYnhY  NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) March 15, 2018

That passenger, also unnamed as of writing, then took control of the Volkswagen and stopped it at the Buena Vista Street off-ramp.

He attempted to perform first aid until Los Angeles County Fire Department crews arrived at the scene, according to Jimenez. The passenger was not injured in the incident.

The passenger immediately took control of the Volkswagen and brought the vehicle to a stop at the Buena Vista Street off-ramp, Jimenez told NBC Los Angeles.

Authorities are still looking for the driver who went ahead of the victim. Its unclear what the identity of the suspect is at this time.

The number one lane of the Buena Vista Street off-ramp was blocked until about 3:45 p.m on Wednesday while the fatal crash was being investigated, according to Jiminez.

Anyone with information that could help investigators identify and locate the driver of the vehicle that struck the debris was urged to call the CHPs Baldwin Park Area Office at (636) 338-1164 to speak with Officer Kyle Croxford.

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Drug Dealer Jailed After Police Identify Fingerprints From WhatsApp Photo

A drug dealer who touted his wares on WhatsApp has been jailed after police identified him from his fingertips in the photo.

Elliot Morris, 28, was among nine people sentenced on Tuesday, March 13 for conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Morris, from Redditch, England was also convicted of possessing MDMA and cocaine. He was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Cardiff Crown Court in Wales.

Police said experts forensically identified the fingerprints from the image, which he shared on Whatsapp to show off his supply, Wales Online reported.

The image shows pills including blue Skype and yellow Ikea branded tablets in his hand.

His parents, Darren and Dominque Morris were also sentenced for conspiracy to supply.

The investigation into the gang began when police raided the home of Joe Thomas, 25, in South Wales in August after witnessing a drop-off at the property.

Thomas was arrested alongside Aaron McKay, 22, Danial Jenkins, 26, Nathan Burgess, 26, and Michael Rouse, 31, after bags of a strong type of cannabis known as Gorilla Glue was discovered at the home.

Analysis of McKays phone uncovered WhatsApp messages dating back months, which linked him to the Morris familyhis up-stream suppliers.

A cannabis factory was discovered at the home of Darren and Dominque Morris, as well as at another property that they rented out. Then officers realised the couples son, Elliot Morris, was heading up the operation.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins described the plot as substantial in his sentencing remarks, according to Wales Online.

Stefan Weidmann, who was defending Morris, said, Drugs have brought calamity to this family. Utter, utter calamity.

According to the newspaper, Kelly Huggins, senior prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Wales, said: We had to consider a large amount of material in this case.

She added, We are pleased that these drugs are no longer a danger to the public and have been taken off the streets.

Officers recovered cannabis, cocaine, and ecstasy worth around 36,000 ($50,250) and around 21,000 ($30,000) in cash from the investigation.

Morris admitted that the majority of his 20,000 ($28,000) worth of bitcoin was gained from his illegal drug sales.

His girlfriend Rosaleeen Abdel-Salam, 25, from Tutnall, Worcestershire and Chazino Suban, 27, from Birmingham were also arrested for separate drug offences.

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Father Recalls the Moment he Found Out Two of His Small Children Were Dead

A New York father recalled the moment his plane landed and he found out two of his children were dead. He shared the memory in a courtroom, with the woman who allegedly killed them sitting across from him.

Its the worst thing imaginable. I was hoping this is just a nightmare and it wasnt, Kevin Krim said, recalling the moment he stood in the aircraft galley before getting escorted off the plane by police, The New York Times reported.

I was crying, kind of flailing around, Krim said, after being taken from the airplane and getting driven to the hospital by police, the Times reported. I was asking: What happened? What happened?

I got down on my knees and I said Im sorry, Krim told the court, recalling the moment he was able to see his two children dead at the hospital, the Times reported. I said I love you and kissed them and said goodbye.

In 2012, Krims wife went to pick up their 6-year-old daughter from ballet class, but she wasnt there. The wife came home to find Lucia and her 2-year-old brother Leo dead in the bathtub. The murder weapon was laying in the sink. The nanny tried to put a second knife through her own neck in an unsuccessful suicide attempt, according to the Times.

Krim told the court he never saw signs that anything was wrong with the familys nanny, 55-year-old Yoselyn Ortega, according to the Times. But he did tell the court that Ortega used a fake reference when the had family first hired her, and that the glowing answers that reference gave to the familys questions were falsified.

The answers we got back were all a lie, Krim said, via the Times. Every single one.

Marina Krim, the mother of the deceased children, testified earlier this month. She was out with a third child, her then 3-year-old daughter Nessie, at a swimming class at the time of the murder. After not finding Lucia, a.k.a Lulu, at dance class, she recalled returning home to find her children dead, Time reported.

Its like a horror movie, she said to the court on March 1, via Time. I go down, I walk down the hall and I see the light on under the back of the door, and Im like, Oh God its so quiet in here, oh God. Why is it so  quiet?

It was a scream you cant imagine is even inside of you, she said in court, via Time. I dont even know where it came from. I just thought: Im never going to be able to talk to them ever again. They are dead. I just saw my kids dead.

Ortegas lawyers told the court the nanny has undiagnosed mental illnesses and cannot take responsibility for what she did, according to Time.

The family has since given birth to two more children since the murders, Time reported. While the case continues, the Krims established the Lulu & Leo Fund to help children and families develop critical creative skills, according to the funds Facebook page.

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Neighbors React to Parents Arrest After Their 13 Children Found Shackled, Malnourished in HomeFather Screams at Couple Who Allegedly Killed His 4-Year-Old Daughter

A father of a 4-year-old girl broke down in court after the girls mother and mothers boyfriend who were charged with the childs death made an appearance on Tuesday, March 13.

It was an emotional day for Mickhal Garrett as he watched his daughters suspected killers walk out into the court.

You killed my [ommited] daughter, Garrett shouted at the couple, reported Fox 8. You hurt my baby.

Sierra Day, 23, and Deonte Lewis, 26  both from Ohio  have been charged with aggravated murder in the death of Aniya Day-Garrett who were looking after the child when she died on March 11. They are both being held on a $1 million bond each.

Aniya had suffered a stroke which was allegedly caused by blunt impacts to the head with a subdural hematoma, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office, reported Cleveland.com. She was later pronounced dead at Euclid Hospital.

According to Fox 8, the hospital reported the little girls death as a suspected homicide. This was later confirmed by the medical examiners office.

Officials also found evidence that Aniya was malnourished.

Garrett and other family members told reporters outside Euclid Municipal Court on March 13 that they had suspected the 4-year-old was malnourished and was being physically abused by Day and Lewis in recent months.

This beautiful 4-year-old daughters life was cut down, senselessly, Aniyas paternal grandmother, Rachael Garrett, told reporters, reported Cleveland.com.

Beaten, abused, battered, starved  you have to be heartless, she added.

The family had made a number of complaints to the Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Children and Family Services to report bruises on the girls body, such as rug burns and black eyes.

The agency confirmed that it had received three calls about Aniya in 2017 and was investigating the claims. However, the agency concluded that there was not enough evidence to warrant removing the child from her mothers home, reported the news website.

I did everything in my power to let them know, you know, that I was a stand-up dad and that my daughter was being harmed and abused at home and this was an emergency, Garrett said, reported Fox 8.

He also added that he was petitioning for emergency custody at the time of his daughters death.

The girls father has been fighting for custody of the 4-year-old, a relative said.

[Hed do] anything to make her smile. He always made her smile, Garretts sister Brittany Hill told reporters. Anytime you would see him near her, she was smiling. She loved her daddy.

Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the childs death. No further information has been released.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses. As of March 15, they have raised over $3,100 of their $10,000 goal.

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A father in Georgia engaged in a shootout with intruders early Thursday morning, March 15, leaving one intruder dead.

Just after midnight, three men broke into the mans Covington Glen apartment in DeKalb County, police told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

They had handguns, Lt. Rod Bryant said. They started shooting at him.

The man grabbed a gun and fired back at the intruders.

The shootout spilled outside as the four people continued to exchange fire.

Two intruders eventually fled but one was fatally shot and was found in the parking lot. Besides the mask, the dead man also had on a pair of gloves.

Bullet holes remain in DeKalb apartment where father shot and killed home invasion suspect. Two others got away. Police say he wrestled with armed men, then got his own gun and started shooting. 2 other adults and two kids in the apartment werent injured pic.twitter.com/41aNRYmOVu  Steve Gehlbach (@SteveGWSB) March 15, 2018



Its unknown if anybody else was hit, Bryant said. We dont have any evidence of that yet, but you never know.

The fathers son and daughter were in their rooms during the shootout. Two other adults were also inside the apartment.

The homicide unit responded and declared this a justified shooting, Lt. Lonzy Robertson said.

Police believe the break-in was targeted but dont yet know why the apartment was targeted.

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Texas Sheriff Andy Louderback Talks About MS-13The FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA), under the Obama administration, committed numerous violations of procedures intended to safeguard Americans personal data and communications collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Under the section, which was part of amendments to FISA passed in 2008 under President George W. Bush, the intelligence community has broad powers to collect internet and telephone data to spy on foreign nationals.

Procedures to protect Americans data collected under the program were weakened under President Barack Obama in 2011, allowing the NSA to search through Americans data using their names. Previously, these types of searches, known as queries using United States person identifiers, were prohibited.

In its ruling in 2011, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) said the relaxation of the querying rules would be limited to queries reasonably likely to yield foreign intelligence information.

The FISC at the time also approved the broader collection of so-called upstream data, which is all internet data traveling through key internet backbone carriers.

However, in subsequent years, policies intended to defend against the misuse of this power, called minimization and targeting procedures, were systematically broken, resulting in numerous violations.

Click on image to enlarge.

A declassified top-secret FISC report released in April 2017 revealed that the NSA had an 85 percent noncompliance rate when it came to searches involving Americans.

The 702 system, which was never designed to spy on Americans, but rather to safeguard U.S. national security, had become a powerful spying tool in the hands of the government.

Problems with the FISA system received nationwide attention in February after a declassified House intelligence committee memo revealed that the FBI and the Department of Justice had obtained a FISA warrant on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, using information paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The initial warrant, and its three subsequent renewals could have been used to spy on anyone who was in contact with Page, including members of the Trump campaign. The NSA is allowed to analyze communications two hops from its original target. Anyone in direct communication with Page is one hop away, and anyone in communication with those talking to Page is two hops away.

Last year, it was already revealed that top Obama officials, including national security adviser Susan Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, used so-called unmasking requests to obtain communications belonging to specific members of the Trump campaign and transition team.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on March 7 that he has appointed a person outside of Washington to look into the allegations of FISA abuse. Sessionss statement came in response to a letter signed by 13 members of Congress calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate the alleged abuse.

Problems With the FBI

According to the declassified top-secret FISC report, the FBI provided access to sensitive 702 data to employees that were not authorized to have access to the data. In some cases, this data was then exported by the employees, and it is unclear how it was subsequently used.

Last year, it was already revealed that top Obama officials, including national security adviser Susan Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, used so-called unmasking requests to obtain communications belonging to specific members of the Trump campaign and transition team.

The agency also provided contractors with access to raw 702 data. The contractors maintained access to the data, even after their work for the FBI was finished.

In one case, an unauthorized private entity was given access by the FBI to 702 data. The unnamed private entity is mostly staffed by private contractors, whose access to 702 data was not controlled or monitored.

The contractors had access to raw FISA information that went well beyond what was necessary to respond to the FBIs requests, wrote the FISC, in its report.

The FBI discontinued the private entitys access to raw FISA data in April 2016, the same month in which the Clinton campaign and the DNC used law firm Perkins Coie to retain Fusion GPS to produce the so-called Trump dossier.

The dossier would eventually lead to the FBI obtaining the FISA warrant on Carter Page in October 2016.

While the FISC did recertify the FBIs minimization procedures as being constitutional it wrote that it was nonetheless concerned about the FBIs apparent disregard of minimization rules and whether the FBI may be engaging in similar disclosures of raw Section 702 information that have not been reported.

The scope of the FBIs accessing of Americans data is unclear, as the government is not required to provide the FISC with numbers on violations. In the NSAs case, it told the court that it was unable to provide a number for how many times Americans data had been unlawfully accessed. The scope of the NSAs violations also remains unclear.

In response to the problems, as well as an internal review by the agency, the NSA stopped the collection of what are called multicommunication transactions (MCTs) to minimize violations. The term MCTs refers to the NSAs mass collection of communications while targeting one communication.

The FBI and CIA will no longer have access to upstream data collected by the NSA at key internet junctions.

In January, President Donald Trump ordered his director of national intelligence to develop procedures for law enforcement agencies to obtain the identities of Americans in intelligence reports. This practice of unmasking is what was used to spy on the Trump campaign during the elections.

Trump did authorize Section 702 in January for another six years, stressing the importance of the program for national security.

Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately stated how many hops the NSA is allowed to analyze communications from its original target; the correct number is two hops. The Epoch Times regrets the error.

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Freeland Condemns Despicable Use of Chemical in UK Spy Attack

OTTAWAForeign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada condemns what she calls the despicable use of a chemical agent in a March 4 attack in the United Kingdom.

Russia is accused of using a nerve agent against former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Both remain in critical condition in a Salisbury hospital.

We condemn in the strongest terms the despicable use of a chemical agent on the sovereign territory of the United Kingdom, Freeland said in a statement March 14.

Russias likely involvement in this attack is a serious breach of the rules-based order.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said March 13 that the use of Russian-developed nerve agent Novichok to poison Skripal and his daughter makes it highly likely that Russia was involved. Novichok refers to a class of nerve agents developed in the Soviet Union near the end of the Cold War.

Freelands statement comes as May and her national security council meet to consider sanctions against Russia after Moscow ignored a deadline to explain how the nerve agent was used to target the former spy.

Moscow says it wont comply with Britains demands unless the government provides samples of the poison collected by investigators. Russias embassy in the U.K. warned March 13 that any sanctions would meet with a response.

Canada offers its complete support to the United Kingdom and calls on all states to cooperate fully with British investigators, Freeland said.

From The Canadian PressRussian President Vladimir Putin (L), accompanied by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, visits the construction site of the Amur gas processing plant, part of the "Power of Siberia" project, in the far eastern Amur region on August 3, 2017. (Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Gazprom to Cut Hundreds of Traders as Kremlin Retreats From West

MOSCOW Russian gas giant Gazprom will cut hundreds of jobs at its overseas trading and export offices, including Britain, and move them to St Petersburg, according to two sources familiar with the plan, which comes at a time of rising tensions with the West.

One of the sources said the decision reflected a broader trend of Russian state firms retreating from the West as part of President Vladimir Putins drive to repatriate capital to reduce exposure to sanctions and also shore up the domestic economy.

In Russia, this story can be sold as a job creation exercise on home turf. This is useful, especially ahead of the presidential election, said the source, referring to the vote on Sunday that Putin is widely expected to win.

The reorganization comes as relations between Russia and Britain, where Gazprom has the largest trading office by far, have hit a new low after Prime Minister Theresa May said Moscow was to blame for the attempted murder a former Russian double agent in an English city.

However the jobs decision was taken earlier this year, long before the spy scandal erupted, according to the sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Gazprom, which has its headquarters in St Petersburg, said it was too early to comment on numbers and moves. The company last month that it planned to reorganize its overseas trading and export operations but gave no details.

This work is aimed at strengthening the companys position abroad, a spokesman said.

Gazproms overseas trading and exports divisions employ around 2,000 people, with the bulk of them  around 1,000  in London. It also has offices in locations including Paris, Houston, Singapore and cities in Germany. Not all employees are traders, as they also include finance and logistics specialists.

The reorganization will see the number of people more than halved, while about the same number of people will be hired in St Petersburg from where many trading operations will be executed, according to one of the sources who did not give more specific details about where the cuts would happen.

Since setting up Gazproms trading offices in London in 2005, Gazprom has hired dozens of top traders from rival companies such as Total and Gunvor.

Repatriating Capital

Russias annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 triggered a series of U.S. and EU sanctions against the Kremlin and its companies, and ties have worsened further after Russia was accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Russian state banks such as VTB and companies such as Rosneft have since scaled back their presence in the West, while some of Putins closest allies such as businessman Gennady Timchenko have sold their assets in the West and repatriated capital to Russia.

The West has repeatedly accused Putin of using Gazprom as a economic and political weapon after the gas behemoth cut supplies to Ukraine, thus disrupting deliveries to Europe. Moscow denies that charge.

Europe gets a third of its gas from Russia, and Gazprom has spent 15 years on building a mighty trading division to help it further boost that share.

The plan to move Gazproms trading headquarters from London to St Petersburg was first considered by the companys management in 2015 but it was put on ice due to concerns about an exodus of people and the difficulties of raising credit for a capital-intensive operation, according to Gazprom sources.

The last time Gazproms marketing and trading division published its results, for 2014, it said it made a net income of $613 million and a return on equity of 41 percent while staff costs stood at $162 million. The unit has not published results since.Director and actor George Clooney arrives on the red carpet for the movie "Suburbicon" during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

George Clooney Praises Trump for Progress on North Korea

In an unexpected departure from the party line, Hollywood star George Clooney praised President Donald Trump for progress made on North Korea.

Clooneys acclaim was part of an editorial he co-published in Foreign Affairs magazine on March 14, less than a week after South Korean officials announced that Trump had agreed to meet North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong Un.

Although it may be too early to say, the fact that Leader Kim Jong Un agreed to a moratorium on missile testingand that there is now an expected meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump in the works (as controversial as it might be)suggests that the sanctions over the last year or so have worked, Clooney wrote.

So far, the current administration has sanctioned more North Korean targets than were sanctioned during the entire Obama presidency, he added.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, among others, credited Trump for the progress made on de-escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but Clooneys comments are a surprise since he is on record repeatedly criticizing Trump on a range of issues. The actor even cursed at the president in an expletive-laden interview in September with the Daily Beast.

The historic meeting between Trump and Kim was made possible by Trumps assertive foreign policy agenda composed of strict international sanctions and the credible threat of military action.

Moon praised Trumps stance when North Korea agreed to meet with South Korea in January. That meeting led to an agreement that North Koreans would attend the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Kims sister traveled to South Korea for the Olympics, met with president Moon, and invited him to visit North Korea. Moon didnt immediately agree and instead sent envoys to meet with Kim in Pyongyang. These envoys delivered Kims invitation to Trump.

Trump will become the first head of state to meet Kim since the communist dictator took power. Trump has held firm to his condition for any talks with Kim to include discussing denuclearization of North Korea. Kim agreed to Trumps terms.

Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze, Trump tweeted on March 8. 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!

From NTD.tv

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U.S. Imposes More North Korea SanctionsFourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed (R) of Irving, Texas, arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol Oct. 20. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Filed by Father of Texas Boy Arrested With Homemade Clock at School

A Texas judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the father of a boy who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school.

Ahmed Mohamed at 14 was arrested when he took his homemade clock to MacArthur High School in Irving in 2015.

Authorities believed that the homemade device was possibly a bomb.

The teenager told ABC News that he took the clock to school to impress a teacher.

She saw a clock that, in her opinion, looked like a threat to her, Ahmed said of the unnamed teacher. It felt really weird getting arrested because I never thought Id ever get arrested.

He added, I repeatedly told them, Its a clock, but no matter how much I told them, I guess thats not a bold enough answer to them. I want it [the clock] back, with my humility.

Mohamed was suspended from the school for three days over what administrators described as a suspicious device.

He was initially charged with having a hoax bomb but the police later dropped the charge.

Mohameds father later filed a lawsuit alleging that the school discriminated against his son because of his race and religion. The Mohameds are Muslims.

The boy never returned to school and his family later moved to Qatar, reported the Dallas Morning News.

U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay of Dallas dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice on March 15, reported Fox4.

The decision means that Mohameds lawsuit cannot be refiled based on the same claims.

Lindsay also ordered the family to cover all costs associated with the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asked for unspecified damages. Two months after the arrest, attorneys for the family sent letters to city and school officials demanding a payment of $15 million or they would file the lawsuit. When the demands went ignored, the lawsuit was filed.

In a statement released Wednesday, the city of Irving said that it is extremely pleased by the courts ruling, which supports the justifiable actions taken by the officers in the matter. We remain committed to ensuring the safety of all Irving residents and schoolchildren.

Katie Long, the attorney for Irving Independent School District (ISD), said in a statement that the district was pleased the court had dismissed the case in its entirety and that it had recognized that there was no basis to the claim that Irving Independent School District or any employee discriminated against this student on the basis of race or religion, reported The News.

The Courts Order confirms that there is no plausible claim that Irving ISD or its employees violated anyones constitutional rights. Irving ISD is committed to the safety, well-being, and equality of all students, the statement said.

From NTD.tv

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Lost World War I Submarine Found 103 Years LaterKentucky Woman Delivers Her Own Baby by C-Section

A Kentucky midwife participated in the delivery of her own baby at a Frankfort clinic, but with an added catchthe birth was via Caesarean section.

Emily Dial asked photographer and friend Sarah Hill to document the unforgettable moment of her baby coming into the world, with the extraordinary involvement of the childbearing mother.

Hill told LoveWhatMatters.com that Dial coordinated the process closely with medical staff so that she could co-deliver her baby, whose sex she wanted to be a mystery until the very end.

Nurses, doctors, anaesthesiologists eagerly came in and took guesses if it was going to be a boy or a girl because whats more exciting than pulling out your own baby if you also dont know the sex? Hill told the website.

Dial, whose career centers on childbirth, told the website that she found it thrilling to be able to connect the personal and the professional.

It was tying together the two things I love the most: my family and my career. It truly was one of the happiest moments of my life, Dial said. It was truly a full circle moment.

And Hill was there to capture it in all its glory.

This was by far one of the most incredible days of my life. My amazing midwife Emily Dial not only had a C-Section today but SHE PULLED THE BABY OUT HERSELF!!!!!! It was unreal. To say that she is amazing, is an understatement, Hill posted on Facebook.

Along with words of excitement, Hill also heaped praise on the new mother for her determination to deliver her own child.

She was meant to bring babies into this world and didnt let a little thing like a C-Section stop her from delivering her own! To watch her colleagues rally around her and make this happen was so beautiful. It was truly an honor to be there and capture this for her and DanielAnd surprise!! Its a GIRL!!

Hill also shared a set of photos from the birth.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Dial prepared methodically for the pre-planned surgery, scrubbing hands and donning gloves.

Obstetricians Dr. Mark Wainwright and Dr. Amanda Hess assisted with the surgical delivery.

According to Hill, Wainwright made the cut and helped guide her hands to the baby.

It was an incredible feeling to reach down, feel her head, then slowly feel the rest of her coming, but a little strange not being able to feel the rest of my abdomen, Dial told CafeMum.

Once Dial pulled the baby fully out of her abdomen, she raised her up and looked into her eyes.

Lifting her out and seeing her face-to-face is that surreal moment every mum relives the rest of their lives: that moment you are face-to-face with your child and having that moment of awe.

Emma Kaye Dial was born at 11:17 a.m. weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces.

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45-Year-Old Woman Unexpectedly Gives Birth After Not Realizing She Was PregnantLongtime Nursing Supervisor Killed by Disgruntled Worker With Gun

A longtime nursing supervisor was killed by a disgruntled worker at UAB Highlands in Georgia.

Nancy Swift, 63, was shot dead at the medical facility late Wednesday, March 14.

Sources told AL.com that Swift was reprimanding an employee, who then got out his gun and shot Swift dead.

The worker was identified as Trevis Devon Coleman, 31, who worked in the central sterile supply field.

Coleman then shot Tim Isley, a 28-year-old instrument management supervisor, before shooting himself.

Swift was rushed to the UAB Highlands ER, where doctors tried to save her life but failed. She was pronounced dead at 9 p.m.

Isley was rushed to main UAB Hospital where he quickly underwent surgery and is now in critical condition but stable. Isley works for STERIS IMS, a medical instrument repair and sterile processing consulting and management service based in Birmingham, the company confirmed to CBS 42.

Coleman was pronounced dead at the scene.

WBRC FOX6 News  Birmingham, AL

The first officers on the scene rushed inside without hesitation.

Our training for an active shooter is we dont wait, said Birmingham police Lt. Pete Williston. If we can go in as a team, thats how we prefer to do it, but the officers that arrived on the scene did not hesitate. They immediately responded to the active threat that was perceived.

Authorities said there are metal detectors at UAB Highlands and confirmed they were in use on Wednesday.

We have extensive security measures in place that include police officers on site 24-7 as well as others that we do not publicly disclose in the interest of safety, Anthony Patterson, the UAB Hospital vice president, said.

Last night's shooting at UAB Highlands hospital in Birmingham left two people dead, including the shooter, and another injured. https://t.co/nkzcmrRBoJ pic.twitter.com/peNSq8ivFg  AL.com (@aldotcom) March 15, 2018

UAB Highlands is one of the campuses of UAB Hospital, which is part of the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

A family member of Isleys told CBS that he wanted to spread the message that forgiveness is key.

What Tim would tell you to say if he could speak right now, is that Jesus Christ is Lord, forgiveness trumps all, serve others, love others, and treat others as you would want them to treat you and with genuine Christ-like love. He would also give you a huge smile and hug, the relative said.

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Kayaker Rescues Iguana Swimming Miles From ShoreMarine Admits Murder Five Years After Brutal Killing in California Motel

A former Marine finally stood trial this week for the brutal killing of an army reservist in a California motel room, after five years of delays.

Then, just one hour into the trial, he reversed his plea to guilty, according to local reports.

Former Marine Kevin Coset, 28, was first arrested in February 2013 over the death of an Army reservist whose body had been found a month before, zipped up in a sleeping bag inside his SUV about 50 miles from San Diego.

Alvin Bulaoro was stabbed 44 times and shot twice in the head in December 2012, although his body was not found until Jan 3. 2013, reports CBS 8.

When Coset, who was representing himself in court, was finally brought to trial on Tuesday, March 13, he switched his plea just one hour into proceedings, after the prosecution had made their opening statement.

According to the San Diego deputy district attorney, Coset admitted to the murder in a plea bargain that dropped a special circumstance allegationwhich could have meant life imprisonment without parolereported the San Diego Tribune.

Bulaoro, 24, served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve and was also a Navy vet.

He went missing Dec. 21, 2012, and was reported by his family two days later. Two weeks later his brother found his Toyota 4Runner at a grocery store parking lot in Fallbrook, about 50 miles from San Diego. His body was in the back seat, inside the sleeping bag.

About an hour into murder trial, former Marine admits to brutal killing https://t.co/DBmPRxmtqT pic.twitter.com/GP4JOBZQiP  San Diego Union-Tribune (@sdut) March 15, 2018

After several leads that turned into dead-ends, that sleeping bag put police on a trail that eventually led to Coset, after they realized it was a style sold on nearby Marine base at Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego.

They checked and found that one had been sold on base in the hours before Bulaoro disappeared.

The card used to purchase the sleeping bag had been used to rent a motel room in Fallbrook, a few miles from the base. Police then discovered an additional $100 charge for damage, that included a large pool of bloodsomething motel staff had failed to report.

Police concluded that Bulaoro had been murdered in the motel room, and arrested Coset in February 2013.

In Cosets barracks room at Pendleton, they found a journal, reported the Tribune.

One section read: My name is Kevin Coset. I am 23 years old and currently serving in Marine Corps. Over the past few years, my life has been heading in a strange direction. Tonight I had to kill for the third time.

Coset wrote about something he called the Musgrove organization, which he said had entered his mind and stolen his intelligence.

After initially representing himself, criminal proceedings were put on hold when Coset was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state hospital, reported CBS.

After a psychiatric evaluation, Coset was granted permission to represent himself last year.

He is due for sentencing on April 20 and faces a maximum of 51 years.

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Texas Sheriff Andy Louderback Talks About MS-13Massive Explosion and Fire at Chemical Plant in Texas

An explosion and massive fire erupted at a chemical plant southwest of Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday morning, March 15.

One person is missing and at least two other people have been injured by the blast that took place at the Tri-Chem Industries plant, NBC DFW reported. The plant is located along Texas State Highway 171 in the Hood County town of Cresson.

Witnesses at the scene told NBC DFW that there was a big kaboom at about 9:45 a.m. The loud noise was then followed by big fireballs that started to shoot out of the building.

One of the injured suffered from severe burns and was sent to a Dallas hospital for treatment, FOX 4 reported.

Firefighters and first-responders are letting the fire burn itself out. The Fort Worth Fire Department has sent 10 units to the scene for fire and hazardous materials support, according to CBS.

The family of one of the workers at the plant, 27-year-old Dillon Mitchell, told CBS that he is still missing at the blast site, as of the time of this publication. They also said he saw sparks before the explosion.

A total of about 12 people work at the plant.

According to NBC DFW, secondary explosions were seen at about 11:15 a.m. as the fire continued. By 1 p.m., a large portion of the roof had collapsed and the fire had burned down to only a few active areas.

RAW VIDEO: A second explosion erupts from the Hood County chemical plant fire https://t.co/PeEqIKVRtO pic.twitter.com/pkF0yBeP5v  WFAA (@wfaa) March 15, 2018

Cresson Mayor Bob Cornett told CBS that the liquid chemical plant manufactures products like soap, which is an acid. He said the emergency crew response was massive.

The fire was believed to have been caused by a worker who dragged his foot along the floor of the plant as the chemicals were being mixed, Cornett told the Associated Press. But officials told NBC DFW that static electricity may have been the cause of the fire.

Family of 27-year-old Dillon Mitchell says he is missing in #Texas chemical plant explosion. Family says he saw sparks before 9:30 explosion. 12 workers in plant. Law enforcement wont confirm if anyone is missing. @CBSDFW  MaryAnn Martinez (@maryanncbs11) March 15, 2018

Authorities will not know the cause of the explosion until the fire is out and they have time to investigate the scene.

The State Highway 171 was closed in the area due to the explosion, FOX 4 reported.

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Firefighter Going Over 100 mph Before Deadly CrashMinnesota High School Demonstrator Kicked Off Property for Holding Guns Dont Kill People Sign

A Minnesota student holding a Guns dont kill people, people kill people sign was allegedly escorted off school property by the institutions principal and threatened with arrest.

According to Kenny MacDonald, who uploaded a video of the incident, the unnamed New Prague High School student walked out without saying a word peacefully put up his sign, after which school principal Lonnie Seifert confronted him and allegedly threatened to have him put into a police car.

MacDonald wrote in the post that students walked out on Thursday, March 15, in solidarity with victims of the Florida shooting, and displayed signs containing different messages.

Students held signs that said, Arm our teachers they had two signs, MacDonald wrote.

The student who was escorted allegedly held up a sign that said, Guns dont kill people, people kill people.

MacDonald said he posted the video to publicize the incident which, he said, violates the first amendment and makes me sick.

According to the Jordan Independent, Superintendent Tim Dittberner said an investigation has been launched into the incident and a related statement will be released.

Heres the post in full:

Kids at our school today walked out, in honor of the 17 students killed in Florida. Students held signs that said, Arm our teachers they had two signs. A student walked out without saying a word peacefully put up his sign which said guns dont kill people, people kill people he was escorted off the property by our principal and threatened to be put into a police car. This violates the first amendment and makes me sick that they can do whatever they want. Please make this go viral. Location: New Prague High school, Minnesota.

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Video Catches Woman Climbing Through Drive-Thru WindowMother Arrested in Parking Lot After Baby Left Alone in Car

A mother has been arrested after she was accused of leaving her baby inside her car while she went out shopping.

According to ABC affiliate WXYZ, the incident took place at the Southgate Sams club on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 14, in Southgate, Michigan.

The baby girl was left inside sleeping by herself for about an hour, according to FOX 2 Detroit.

While the mother, whose identity has not been revealed yet, went inside to shop, other customers spotted the 2-year-old inside the car.

One customer, Kaitlyn Wolske, filmed the incident and shared it on her social media. The video spread like wildfire on Facebook, gaining thousands of shares.

Mom leaves her baby in the car to shop! Way to go Southgate police for eliminating scummy parents! The baby looked to be about a year old. Not for sure though. P.s. Yes Im very repetitive with my words but I was so mad!! Wolske wrote on Facebook.

Southgate police were then called to the scene, according to FOX 2 Detriot. The mother was arrested at the scene and the child was taken away by the officers.

The baby daughter was eventually released to her family while the mother was charged.

Thats your baby! Whether shes sleeping or not, whats wrong with you! Unbelievable, one person can be heard saying in the video.

Its unclear from the video if the windows of the vehicle were rolled down or not.

According to ClickOnDetroit, shoppers said temperatures at the time were freezing at just 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Police said the baby was alert when they rescued her from the car. The parking lot was filled with officers.

After officers handcuffed and detained the mother, Wolske said the womans demeanor changed.

She wasnt crying because she was remorseful, Wolske told ClickOnDetroit. She started crying only when they arrested her.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersPolice officers in forensics suits and protective masks work at the scene of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal on March 13, 2018 in Salisbury, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Nerve Agents Could Have Been Stolen in Post-Soviet Chaos: Experts

MOSCOW/AMSTERDAMThe British government says Russia is to blame for poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent, and most chemical weapons specialists agree.

But they say an alternative explanation cannot be ruled out: that the nerve agent got into the hands of people not acting for the Russian state.

The Soviet Unions chemical weapons program was in such disarray in the aftermath of the Cold War that some toxic substances and know-how could have got into the hands of criminals, say people who dealt with the program at the time.

Could somebody have smuggled something out? said Amy Smithson, a biological and chemical weapons expert.

I certainly wouldnt rule that possibility out, especially a small amount and particularly in view of how lax the security was at Russian chemical facilities in the early 1990s.

While nerve agents degrade over time, if the pre-cursor ingredients for the nerve agent were smuggled out back then, stored in proper conditions and mixed recently, they could still be deadly in a small-scale attack, two experts on chemical weapons told Reuters.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in hospital in critical condition after being found unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4. A police officer was also harmed and remains in a serious condition.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that there is no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter, and for threatening the lives of other British citizens.

Russia has denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack.

Poisoned Telephone

Accounts of security deficiencies at weapons facilities indicate that, at least for a period in the 1990s, Moscow was not in firm control of its chemical weapons stockpiles or the people guarding them.

When Russian banking magnate Ivan Kivelidi and his secretary died in 1995 from organ failure after a military-grade poison was found on the telephone receiver of his Moscow office, an employee of a state chemical research institute confessed to having secretly supplied the toxin.

In a closed-door trial, Kivelidis business partner was convicted of poisoning Kivelidi over a dispute. At the trial, prosecutors said the business partner had obtained the poison, via several intermediaries, from Leonard Rink, an employee of a state chemical research institute known as GosNIIOKhT.

The same institute, according to Vil Mirzayanov, a Soviet chemical weapons scientist who later turned whistleblower, was part of the state chemical weapons program and helped develop the Novichok family of nerve agents that Britain has said was responsible for poisoning Skripal.

In a statement to investigators after his arrest, viewed by Reuters, Rink said he was in possession of poisons created as part of the chemical weapons program which he stored in his garage. On more than one occasion, he said, he sold the substances to supplement his income and pay down a debt.

The poison in the Kivelidi case was sold in a deal brokered by an ex-policeman contact of Rinks. Rink handed over the poison, in an ampoule hidden inside a pen presentation box, in a meeting at Moscows Belorussky station, according to his statement.

Rink received a one-year suspended prison sentence for misuse of powers, according to Boris Kuznetsov, who was a lawyer for Kivelidis business partner during the trial.

Kuznetsov said he believed his client was innocent, and that Kivelidi was poisoned by rogue intelligence officers acting without the knowledge of the Russian president at the time, Boris Yeltsin.

He added that he would share files from the case with the British authorities because he believed they could be relevant to the Skripal investigation.

Reuters was not able to contact Rink.

State of Disarray

The Soviet chemical weapons program was a sprawling operation spread across far-flung provincial cities that incorporated the worlds largest chemical arsenal, publicly declared at 40,000 tonnes.

When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, funding dried up, scientists salaries were in several months of arrears, staff morale slumped and facilities were left to fend for themselves with little government control or oversight.

According to a 1995 report published by the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington security think-tank, and based on accounts from industry insiders, physical security at the facilities was deficient.

It said railroad entrances to the facilities were padlocked but unguarded, and at some sites chemical weapons were stored in buildings with wooden doors and tiled roofs that an intruder could get into with little difficulty.

Chemical weapons were stored in silos without tamper-proof seals, making it difficult to detect if small quantities were being siphoned off.

A second report by the Stimson Center four years later highlighted the risk of Soviet chemical weapons scientistswho earned a pittance when they were paid at all  being recruited by criminals, terrorists, or rogue states.

All the ingredients for successful black marketeering are present through the chemical and biological complexesunder- or unemployed, scientists and managers, valuable commodities at far-flung locations, and poor security, the report said.

Satellite States

In some cases in the early 1990s, highly toxic chemical agents wound up outside Russian territory, in ex-Soviet facilities in newly-independent states such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

According to Mirzayanov, the former Soviet chemical weapons scientist, the Novichok family of nerve agents developed by the GosNIIOKhT institute was tested in Nukus, Uzbekistan.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Mirzayanov, now resident in Princeton, New Jersey, said though he believed the Kremlin was behind the Skripal attack.

The ex-Soviet republics outside Russia that suddenly found themselves hosting ex-Soviet chemical weapons facilities were even less equipped than Moscow to secure them.

U.S. troops who arrived in Uzbekistan after 2001 to establish an air base in the city of Khanabad came across stockpiles of old munitions that had not been accounted for, which turned out to contain chlorine and other chemical compounds, said someone who was present at the time and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

People in the chemical weapons field said security since the 1990s had improved drastically, helped by Western aid, the transfer of weapons stockpiles from neighboring states to Russia and a stronger Russian state.

Russias trade and industry ministry, which oversaw the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles, said in a statement sent to Reuters that Russia had destroyed 100 percent of the stocks in strict compliance with international commitments, and faster than the United States.

The ministry did not address questions about chemical weapons smuggling in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse.

Ukraines state security service, which tracks weapons proliferation, said it had no immediate comment.

The Uzbek foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The state-owned Kazakh nuclear company which operates the Pavlodar Chemical Plant, a former chemical weapons facility, and the Energy Ministry, to which the nuclear company reports, did not reply to questions.Indian River County Jail, where two assistant nurses are being held for defrauding patients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Nursing Assistants Arrested After Scamming Elderly Patients Out of Over $500,000

Two Florida nursing assistants scammed patients for more than $500,000 and used it to take cruises, get plastic surgery, and even rent a Rolls Royce.

Twenty-nine-year-old Chiquita McGee and 30-year-old Sophia Shephard also managed to convince patients to open credit cards in the names of the nurses, but linked to the patients accounts, and let the nurses access an unlimited line of credit, USA Today and TC Palm reported.

The two nurses charged over $400,000 in dental work, plastic surgery, cruises, jewelry, clothing, and a car engine, according to detectives. The patients families alerted the Florida Department of Health of the fraud, who then called the police. Authorities went to the homes of McGee and Shephard with search warrants after a four-month investigation, according to USA Today.

Ive seen fraud cases like this before, but not for $500,000, said Indian River Shores Public Safety Chief Rich Rosell, via USA Today. For a little town like Indian River Shores, something like this is unheard of.

The fraudulent charges first showed up on the patients credit card statements in February 2017, according to TC Palm. Police seized merchandise from McGee and Shephards homes on March 13 and the items are still being inventoried by police, but police are having trouble finding a place to store it all because of the amount. Police are also analyzing a laptop they seized.

It is a plausible concern of law enforcement that there could be other victims, Rosell said, via TC Palm. Were hoping once the forensics is completed, well find out more information.

Indian River Home Care Plus, the agency that contracted the women, fired them in November, but that was before they knew about the fraud. They were fired for reasons including using abusive language toward staff members and forging hours, TC Palm reported.

We learned of the fraudulent actions from the family at the end of November, and immediately reported the illegal activity to the authorities, said Margot Kornicks, owner of Indian River Home Care Plus, via TC Palm. We have been working with the Indian River Shores Public [Safety] Department ever since.

The women were charged with scheme to defraud, organized fraud, and exploitation of the elderly, three felonies. They are being held in Indian River County Jail without bail. If convicted, they could face up to 60 years in prison, according to USA Today.

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Brothers Step in When They See Man Harassing Two Teen Girls on New York SubwayPolice released this photo of the suspect who allegedly assaulted a 12-year-old girl on a train in Sydney. (New South Wales Police)

Police Seeking Man Who Allegedly Assaulted 12-Year-Old Girl on Train

Police have released images of a man who allegedly assaulted a 12-year-old girl on a busy train in Sydney, Australia, in a bid to find him.

The man, believed to be in his 30s, is accused of indecently assaulting the girl on New Years Day, according to a police statement released on March 14.

Police said the girl and her family boarded a train at Central station headed for western Sydney and sat next to a man. During the trip, the man tried to start a conversation with the girl and then allegedly assaulted her when her parents were not looking.

The girl told police that the man glared at her for the rest of the trip until he got off at Granville station, reported 9News.

The 12-year-old and her family then got off the train two stops later and alerted police.

Police said they have been looking for the man for two months and they hope that by releasing the image, they will be able to obtain more information about the incident.

Sooner or later, we will identify who he is and he would be in a much better position to come forward and talk to us about what occurred, Detective Chief Inspector Brad Monk told 9News.

This is very concerning and we have very grave concerns that this man will reoffend, he added.

The man is described to be of an Indian sub-continental appearance and aged between 30 to 40. He is depicted to be clean-shaven with acne on his face, and was wearing a long-sleeved lilac shirt with white pants when he allegedly assaulted the girl.

Anyone with information in relation to this incident is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online at https:// nsw.crimestoppers.com.au/.

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Kangaroo Attacks CyclistZheng Yuzhi, whose apartment was demolished by authorities three months ago and is now homeless, in an area once filled with housing for migrant workers, in the Changing District of Beijing, China, on December 5, 2017. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Roughly $112 Million of Poverty Relief Funds Misused by the Chinese Regime

During a press conference following a session of Chinas rubber-stamp parliament on March 7, Chinas Ministry of Finance admitted that the regime misappropriated 730 million yuan (approximately $112.2 million) in poverty relief funds last year.

Since taking power, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to eradicate rural poverty completely by 2020making it a major political priority to prevent income inequality from causing social instability and chaos for the regime.

About 493 million, or 36 percent of Chinas population, still live on $5.50 a day or less, according to World Bank data. The regimes official data also indicates that more than 43 million people currently live on less than 95 cents a day.

Liu Yongfu, director of the State Councils Leading Group Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development, admitted during another press conference held on the same day that central and local authorities have committed poverty relief-related misdeeds, such as falsely reporting the number of people who have escaped poverty.

Liu also noted that the Chinese authorities have investigated more than 60,000 cases of misreporting data and other misconduct, such as embezzlement, involving more than 80,000 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in the past five years.

Tian Qizhuang, an independent writer and current affairs commentator, believes that the fundamental reason for the funds misuse is that there is no way for Chinese citizens to monitor how the authorities allocate the money.

How much money from the countrys fiscal budget is for poverty alleviation? Where is the money spent? Tian told Sound of Hope Radio. The Chinese Communist Partys anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, has previously uncovered incidents of officials embezzling local funds meant for poverty alleviation.

After Chinas Ministry of Finance announced that the central authorities have allocated an additional 20 billion yuan (approximately $3.17 billion) on top of last years budget of 86 billion yuan (approximately $13.22 billion) for poverty alleviationreaching a total of 106.1 billion yuan (approximately $16.8 billion) for 2018Tian expressed concern that this will only lead to more corruption.

Tian gave the example of subsidy funds for damaged houses in rural areas, which the Chinese authorities are supposed to have disbursed, yet some villages have not received any money for years. So he believes the money must be taken by CCP officials at different levels.

Although Liu Yongfu proposed to strengthen the oversight of how poverty alleviation funds are used, experts remain skeptical.

It is because we have a problematic system; the governments fiscal expenditure is not transparent, Ma Wenfeng, a special economics analyst at the state-run media Xinhua, told Sound of Hope.Vehicles are seen trapped under the collapsed pedestrian bridge in Miami, Fla., on March 15, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Several Killed When Foot Bridge Collapses at Florida University

MIAMIA newly installed pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday, March 15, killing several people and crushing vehicles caught in the rain of rubble in Miami-Dade County, officials said.



THE FIU BRIDGE COLLAPSED OH MY GOD pic.twitter.com/JO7jfx5AoN  Gabriela Collazo (@GabrielaRose12) March 15, 2018

Several people were killed. I just dont know how many, Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol said in a telephone interview.

Eight vehicles were crushed underneath the pedestrian crosswalk and eight victims were transported to hospitals, said Paul Estopinan, operations battalion chief at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, during a press conference.

The department received a call about the collapse around 1:30 p.m, Estopinan said.

Munilla Construction Management, which installed the bridge, in a statement on Twitter, said the bridge suffered a catastrophic collapse causing injuries and loss of life.

The bridge connects the university with the city of Sweetwater and was installed on Saturday in six hours over the eight-lane highway, according to a story that was posted on the universitys website. It was 174 feet (53 m) long and weighed 950 tons.

The bridge was intended to provide a walkway over southwest Eighth Street, one of the busiest roads in South Florida. An 18-year-old female FIU student from San Diego was killed while trying to cross the street near FIU last August, according to local media reports.

Students at FIU are currently on their spring break vacation, which runs from March 12 to March 17.

Television footage showed firefighters were walking across the flattened wreckage and medics treating injured people. Emergency personnel appeared to be trying to work their way through a hole in the top of the bridge.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said President Donald Trump is aware of the collapse.

Our brave first responders are working feverishly to save lives, she said at a news briefing.

Florida Governor Rick Scott will head to the scene later in the day, his office said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Twitter that it was sending a team to investigate the bridge collapse.

Munilla Construction Management was founded in 1983 and owned by five brothers, according to its website. In addition to its Florida operations, the company also has divisions in Texas and Panama and employs 500 people.

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Lucky Motorcyclist Narrowly Avoids Multi-Car CrashToys R Us to Honor Gift Cards for 30 Days

Toy R Us has agreed to honor gift cards for both Toys R Us and Babies R Us for 30 days, despite going through bankruptcy.

By law, Toys R Us is not obliged to honor gift cards as it goes through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. However, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer asked the Federal Trade Commission to work out a deal with the failing toy giant to honor the cards, WTOL reports.

Schumer is also trying to get an agreement to let customers redeem the cards for cash.

A lot of gift cards were given as holiday gifts to parents who would have used them to buy toys for their children, so this agreement is a sort of Springtime Christmas for the children of people holding the cards.

Toys R Us entered into bankruptcy proceedings in September 2017. The giant toy retailer had a disastrous holiday season, earning only half of what it projected.

In January the toy chain announced that it would close 182 of its U.S. stores.

The closing of the U.S. stores will leave about 30,000 people out of work.

The vacant stores will also be a drain on commercial real estate markets.

The bankruptcy of Toys R Us will have even deeper and farther-reaching effects. Toymakers Hasbro and Mattel had been depending on the retail outlet to market about 10 percent of their annual production.

The two toymakers will be forced to do more business with Walmart and Target. Both stores have much less shelf space for displaying toys than Toys R Us, which was devoted entirely to that class of product.

Both companies have also been slumping financially, and there have been talks of a merger between the two.

The toy market is volatile. No one can guess correctly every time which toys will popular and which will flop.

From NTD.tv

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American Mirai Nagasu Makes Figure Skating History at Pyeongchang 2018President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing the White House to Joint Base Andrews en route to San Diego, Calif., on March 13, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Trump Administration Sanctions Russia for Election Interference and Cyberattacks

The Trump administration sanctioned 19 Russians and five Russian entities on Thursday, March 15, for attempted election interference, cyber attacks, and intrusions into critical infrastructure.

The Department of the Treasury will block the property of the people and entities sanctioned and Americans are, in general, prohibited from doing business with them.

The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

The sanctions list includes the 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities named in Special Counsel Robert Muellers indictment last month. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The indictment contained no allegation of collusion and no allegation that the Russians altered the outcome of the race, according to Muellers boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Russias two main government intelligence agencies, the FSB and the GRU, as well as six GRU operatives, were also sanctioned in connection with the cyber attacks. The six GRU operatives are Grigoriy Molchanov, Igor Kostyukov, Igor Korobov, Sergey Gizunov, Vladimir Alexseyev, and Sergei Afanasyev.

The Treasury named NotPetya as one of the destructive cyberattacks that led to the sanctions, calling it the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history. The hack caused billions of dollars in damage worldwide and disrupted global shipping, trade, and medicine production. In the United States, several hospitals were unable to create electronic records, according to the statement.

Russian government cyber actors also targeted a broad range of U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure industries, including energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors.

The Treasury Department also cited a range of other malicious activities coming from Russia, including the recent nerve agent attack in the United Kingdom and ongoing occupation of Crimea. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned Russia in a joint statement on Thursday for the nerve-agent attack. Russia denies it was responsible.

A very sad situation, Trump said on Thursday. It looks like the Russians were behind it. Something that should never ever happen and were taking it very seriously. And were taking it very seriously, as, I think, are many others.

Recommended Video: President Donald Trumps Weekly AddressMarch 10, 2018Two Dead in California After Man and Woman Heard Fighting at Lake Merritt

Two people were pronounced dead in California on Thursday morning, March 15, shortly after a man and woman were heard fighting in the area.

The womans body was recovered around 7 a.m. from Lake Merritt in Oakland, officials told KTVU.

Shes believed to be in her 20s.

The mans body was pulled from the lake earlier in the morning. Crews found him thrashing in the water before they rescued him but he became unresponsive.

He was rushed to the hospital but declared dead just before 8 a.m.

Oakland Battalion Chief Zoraida Diaz told East Bay Times that the police officers saw there was a gentleman who was thrashing in the water and so they swam out. He started to slow down and they were able to retrieve him, she said.



The man was believed to be in his 40s.

Witnesses made several 911 calls around 4:30 a.m., saying a man and woman could be heard yelling near the lake around the intersection of Hanover and Lakeshore avenues.

The nature of the argument was unclear, even to people who could hear the yelling.

I heard them screaming, one neighbor told KTVU. I couldnt make out the words, really. She said she heard the womans voice saying, help, help, help.

Four Oakland Police Officers jumped into Lake Merritt this morning in an attempt to save a drowning man. CPR administered, unfortunately he was pronounced deceased. Oakland Fire Department recovered a female from the lake, also deceased. pic.twitter.com/NquK4nNmyl  Oakland Police Dept. (@oaklandpoliceca) March 15, 2018

It appears rescue crews may have found a body. They just ran over to their truck and grabbed this stretcher. pic.twitter.com/H5kfxXSkJa  Amy Hollyfield (@amyhollyfield) March 15, 2018

San Francisco dive team about to enter Oaklands Lake Merritt to search for possible drown victim. Man already pulled out of water. Performed CPR- dont know his status. pic.twitter.com/L5GPD3nF2n  Amy Hollyfield (@amyhollyfield) March 15, 2018

Officers told ABC 7 that they arent sure if the man and woman knew each other and, if they did, what their relationship was. They also dont know if a crime was committed. Officers searched the area for nearby surveillance cameras to shed light on what happened.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Oakland Police at 510-238-3821.

Lake Merritt is a 3.4-mile tidal lagoon in urban Oakland. It has a 3.4-mile heart-shaped shoreline and is a popular place for people and animals alike. It is also home to the oldest designated wildlife refuge in the U.S.

From NTD.tv

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Cookie-Crazed Squirrel Attacks New York PolicemanWoman Gets Prison Sentence for Killing Boyfriend in YouTube Stunt That Went Wrong

A woman has received a prison sentence after shooting her boyfriend dead in a YouTube stunt gone wrong.

The Internet stunt was meant to rocket Pedro Ruiz III and his girlfriend to fame but ended in Ruizs death.

Cameras captured the moment that Monalisa Perez, 20, pulled the trigger on a handgun aimed at Ruiz from just one foot away. Ruiz was holding a hardcover book to his chest in the mistaken belief that it would be enough to stop the .50-caliber bullet.

We were doing a YouTube video, and it went wrong, a transcript of the call quotes Perez, reported the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Its all on recording.

Perez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years, most of which is suspended for 10 years, leaving 180 days to be served in jail.

Judge Jeffrey Remick accepted the plea deal and ruled that Perez, who is the mother of two small children, can serve the sentence in 10-day increments in South Dakota, where she now resides. She previously lived in Minnesota. Between now and 2020, she must serve 30 days in jail each year by June 26, which is the anniversary of Ruizs death. After that, she can serve the rest through electronic home monitoring.

Norman County Attorney James Brue, made it clear the idea for the foolish stunt came from Ruiz, which was the reason for the short sentence, reported the Duluth News-Tribune. Brue told the court that the guidelines make an exception for cases in which the offender played a minor or passive role in the crime.

Perez didnt speak in court.

Woman who accidentally killed her boyfriend in a YouTube stunt sentenced to six months in jail https://t.co/mI77cFbkDd  AFP news agency (@AFP) March 14, 2018

Ruizs aunt, Paulita Ruiz, told Perez during the sentencing on March 14 that she was at fault for ending her nephews life.

This comes from the heart, where you shot him, she said during Monalisa Perezs sentencing at the Norman County Courthouse. You took him away from us, Mona.

Family members said that they disagreed with the notion that it was Ruizs idea to try to pull off the stunt.

Perez, though, forwarded the idea just hours before the shooting on Twitter.

Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE, she wrote.

Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever?? HIS idea not MINE?  Monalisa Perez (@MonalisaPerez5) June 26, 2017

Ruiz later said that the death was a reminder of how foolish it was to set up the stunt just to get famous on the Internet.

The footage was never uploaded to Perezs YouTube channel, which has 25,700 subscribers and featured the couples life and various pranks and stunts.

The video was submitted to law enforcement officials as evidence. The judge said he would say next week whether it would be made publicly available. Part of the ruling stated that Perez could not financially profit off of the video.

Perez was also prohibited from owning firearms for the rest of her life, and she was ordered to pay for Ruizs funeral.

From NTD.tv

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Zachary Stieber Reporter Follow Zachary Stieber covers U.S. news, including politics and court cases. He started at The Epoch Times as a New York City metro reporter. zackstieber

deo]No Leftovers, a Jamaican-focused restaurant, has opened at 182 Connecticut Ave. off I-95's Exit 14. The restaurant is in the space that was occupied by Swanky Franks from 1950 until its closing last May.

The new eatery features jerk chicken, oxtail, curry goat, Jamaican-style beef patties, red pea soup and gungo pea soup, plus coconut water and Jamaica's Ting soda. No Leftovers primarily caters to a takeout crowd, although a small dine-in section is within the establishment.Here are links to the biggest stories on the internet today.

Stephen Hawking, renowned scientist, dies at 76 Considered by many to be the worlds greatest living scientist, Hawking was also a cosmologist, astronomer, mathematician and author of numerous books including the landmark A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 10 million copies.

Tributes flood in for Stephen Hawking The academic, author and noted scientist brought his complex theories to a wide audience through his bestselling book, A Brief History of Time. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years, his three children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said in a joint statement.

Why Trumps CIA pick could face bumpy confirmation Several key Republican senators say Gina Haspel will have to answer for her role in the CIAs interrogation and detention program before she can be confirmed as the next CIA director, a signal that she faces a bruising and potentially difficult confirmation battle ahead.

Tillersons dismissal rattles foreign nerves ahead of North Korea summit Rex Tillerson may have spent the last 14 months being contradicted by his boss on all manner of foreign policy, but the now-fired Secretary of State was at least a known quantity for US allies during tense moments in 2017.

Philippines to withdraw from International Criminal Court Dutertes spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement Wednesday the country had given notice that it would withdraw from the treaty that established the court. Duterte has been accused of encouraging extrajudicial killings and other rights abuses in his bid to rid the country of drugs since his election in 2016.

What  and whom  Merkels outlasted during her 12 years in power Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, entered parliament in 1990 as the Soviet Empire crumbled, rising quickly through the ranks in the newly unified German government led by the late Helmut Kohl.

Angela Merkel starts fourth term as German Chancellor She will now begin a historic fourth term as Chancellor. The vote in parliament ended almost six months of political turmoil after a federal election saw millions of voters desert the two mainstream parties  Merkels Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party (SPD)  turning instead to parties on the left and right.

Trevor Noah Diagnoses Trump With A New Xenophobic Condition Trevor Noah thinks hes pinpointed one of President Donald Trumps conditions. In a behind-the-scenes clip published online by The Daily Show on Tuesday, the comedian lightheartedly suggested that Trump was suffering from xenophobic FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Seth Meyers Mocks Trump For The Cowardly Way He Fired Rex Tillerson Seth Meyers took issue with the way President Donald Trump fired outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesdays broadcast of Late Night. Tillerson reportedly learned of his ousting from the White House after Trump tweeted the news.

Trumps Visit To Wall Prototypes Shows The Hubris And Absurdity Of The Idea SAN DIEGO  It could have been a victory lap. On a foggy Tuesday, President Donald Trump traveled to the desert outside of San Diego to visit eight wall prototypes constructed in service of his signature policy goal: his big, beautiful southern border wall.

Hillary Clinton Says Trump Appealed To Racist, Sexist Voters Hillary Clinton provoked ridicule and censure for tone-deaf comments at a conference in India about the differences between the states that voted for her during the 2016 presidential election and those that voted for Donald Trump.

UK to expel 23 Russian diplomats The UK will expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow refused to explain how a Russian-made nerve agent was used on former spy in Salisbury, the PM says. Theresa May said the diplomats, who have a week to leave, were identified as undeclared intelligence officers.

Africas only female leader refuses to quit Africas only female head of state, Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, is refusing to quit over an expense scandal, just days after it was announced she would resign. Ms Gurib-Fakim denies any misconduct after allegations emerged she made tens of thousands worth of personal purchases on a charity bank card.

Test election held for Pennsylvania seat A Democrat and a Republican are neck-and-neck in a Pennsylvania special House election viewed as a test ahead of Novembers mid-term polls. The solidly Republican 18th congressional district race pits Democrat Conor Lamb against Republican lawmaker Rick Saccone. The two are competing to replace Tim Murphy, who resigned last October.

Stephen Hawking: Reaction to his death Tributes have been pouring in to the world renowned physicist, who defied motor neurone disease.

Sacked Tillerson issues Russia warning Sacked US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned of Russias troubling behaviour and actions in a parting statement after being fired by President Donald Trump. He pointedly failed to thank Mr Trump or praise his policies. The former ExxonMobil chief had a series of public rifts with the White House after being appointed last year.

Not just a brilliant scientist, Stephen Hawking was a pop culture juggernaut Stephen Hawking got plenty right about the universe, and that even extended to his thoughts on pop culture.  The Simpsons is the best thing on American television, the late astrophysicist said on BBCs The Culture Show, reflecting on his appearance on the hit animated series back in 1999.

Dont believe the rumors: Instagram isnt killing the algorithm Hey, Instagram haters: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the company has no plans to change its algorithm-based photo feed, despite what you may have heard. Rumors began swirling late last week that the photo-sharing app had miraculously decided to reverse the two-year-old decision to implement an algorithmic feed.

Stephen Hawking had a brilliant response when asked if he had an equation for time travel Twitter account Letters of Note shared a letter sent by Stephen Hawking to a magazine who asked if he had an equation for time travel.

Stephen Hawking died on Einsteins birthday because everything in the cosmos is connected As the world reels from the death of Stephen Hawking, one of the great science minds in all of history, admirers are taking some solace in a few coincidences surrounding Hawkings birthday and the date of his passing.Not in time for Wiltons annual spring restaurant week, Zio Italian Kitchen Pizzeria & Bar is preparing to open at 1 Danbury Road in space that was previously a Johns Best Pizza restaurant and lounge that closed in February.

The new restaurant takes its name for the Italian word for uncle in reference to Frank Sandolo, who has ran the Johns Best restaurant for 47 years, with niece and nephew Joann and Robert now taking the lead on Zio Italian Kitchen.HARTFORD  Legalization of recreational marijuana in this election year seems distant, as a bill about regulating the drug limped through the General Law Committee on Thursday.

In a public hearing, lawmakers voiced many concerns about regulating recreational use, sales, commercial and personal growing, and the impact of a recreational industry on the states burgeoning medical marijuana operations.

I suspect this is still a ways off, but this is a conversation to determine how to go forward, said Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, a co-chair of the committee.

While chairman of the committee Rep. Mike DAgostino, D-Hamden, called regulating recreational use vital a in press conference before the hearing, his view was not matched by many.

Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, who has served on the committee for nearly two decades, listed off many worries about the proposal, like how could regulators track that individuals are only growing the six plants permitted in their backyard? How would they measure and test the potency of the marijuana, like alcohol?

I dont want our state to turn into the wild west of marijuana, said Kissel, who also opposed the states legalization of medical pot in 2012.

Rep. Josh Elliot, D-Hamden, has been a vocal proponent of legalization and testified his support before the General Law Committee Thursday. But even Elliot says he is not hopeful legalization will happen this session.

Given that the make up of the legislature is the same as it was last year, there is no reason to believe we are going to have a different outcome, he said. However if we can get some good work done this year in creating the infrastructure for the regulatory framework, that gives us less work to do next year, assuming we have the numbers.

Advocates for legalization say now is this time to act on recreational marijuana, however. Recreational, non-medical marijuana stores in Massachusetts will open for business as soon as July.

According to studies, one in seven Connecticut residents already use marijuana, said Sam Tracy, director of the Connecticut Coalition to Regulate Marijuana.

Marijuana prohibition has lasted 80 years. Yet, it has been just as much of a failure as Americas short-lived experiment with alcohol prohibition, wrote Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, in testimony. It is time we take the rational, common-sense approach to marijuana, as we did with alcohol: regulating and taxing it.

The Marijuana Policy Project predicts legalization could bring $166 million a year to the state from Connecticut residents alone, based on a flat tax of $50 per ounce and regular sales taxes. If passed, Connecticut would become the 10th state to allow recreational marijuana use.

Marijuana is less addictive and less harmful than at least three other substances - alcohol, tobacco and opioid medication - that we legalize and regulate in Connecticut, said Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport. I support that effort so that we can bring the sale and regulation of marijuana out of the shadows and off our streets.

General Law is not the only committee talking about recreational pot this session; bills dealing with taxing marijuana and other aspects of recreational use are being discussed by the Appropriations and Judiciary committees this session.

Out of all of the committees that are going to hear it, this is probably going to be the least contentious one because this the one thats just, if we were to do it, what would the framework look like? said Elliot. Judiciary is going to be a total nightmare.

General Law will vote on its bill dealing with legalization by Tuesday, with the other committees following with votes in April.

While up or down votes in committee dont kill the bill  they only result in a favorable or unfavorable recommendation to the House or Senate  they are a good indication of how successful a bill may be later.

Rep. Daniel Rovero, D-Killingly, joked to advocates: I have to vote on this sooner or later and somewhere you have to supply us with some samples... I love brownies. But I gave them up for Lent. But Easter is only a few weeks away.WESTPORT  Westport lost a prominent arts activist and philanthropist with the passing of Howard J. Aibel, who died March 9 from complications from pneumonia.

Aibels legacy will live on, however, as the Westport Country Playhouse renamed its campus The Howard J. Aibel Theater Center at Westport Country Playhouse in February thanks to a $3 million donation from Aibel, who served on the Playhouse board vice chair at the time of his death.

Aibel was 88 at the time of his death.

Our community has lost a great leader and advocate. Howard never sought the spotlight but always sought to inspire others to action, leading by his own actions. He believed that experiencing live theatre is central to a life well lives; his was certainly well lived, Michael Barker, Playhouse managing director said in a statement following Howards death.

A former international dispute resolution attorney and before that, Executive Vice President and Chief legal officer of ITT Corporation, Aibel, 88, was active in many nonprofit organizations, serving as chairman of the Alliance of Resident Theatres in New York, a member of the Weston Conservation Commission, trustee emeritus of Sacred Heart University, and as a former board member of the Westport Arts Center. Aibel moved to Westport in the 1960s and most recently resided in Weston.

Aibel was a long-time supporter of the Westport Arts Center and the arts in Fairfield County, with a special affinity for theater, visual arts, and chamber music, the Westport Arts Center wrote in a post on its website following news of Aibels death.

Inded, Aibels heart seemed to be in the arts. I have found live theater to be life transformative, Aibel said following the announcement the Playhouse would take his name.

In addition to his arts philanthropy, Aibel held positions as the president of the Harvard Law Association of New York, vice president of the Bar Association of New York, and a trustee of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.

It was with deep sadness that I learned of the passing of Howard Aibel, Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe wrote in a statement on March 12, adding Aibel embodied a life of fulfilling service, compassion and philanthropy to the greater community.NORWALK  With competition among Democrats running for various state offices this November, Norwalk Democratic Town Committee Chairman Edwin Camacho on Wednesday evening proposed sending the citys delegates as a voting bloc to the nomination convention in Hartford in May.

The suggestion sparked a debate, at times heated, among members of the newly seated 2018-19 Norwalk DTC in the Common Council chambers of City Hall.

Camacho, who was re-elected chairman unchallenged earlier in the evening, found himself defending the idea.

Im simply suggesting that we discuss and at some point vote as to whether or not were going to begin behaving like a big city, Camacho said. Not in terms of the chair(person) dictating to the DTC, but going into a convention with as much clout and as much power and as much as influence as we can wield as a city so that people will pay attention to us, perhaps even in connection with the ECS formula or other matters where Norwalk is traditionally overlooked.

Between March 27 and April 3, the Norwalk DTC will select 47 delegates to send to state and regional conventions to cast ballots for Democrats running for the 4th Congressional District, governor, U.S. Senate and other statewide office, as well as the probate judge and the 25th state Senate District.

While Camacho noted delegates, even if sent as part of a bloc, wouldnt be bound to vote for a candidate not of their liking, the idea alarmed many DTC members.

Esther Murillo, a DTC member from District E, alluded to the 2016 presidential race in which Hillary Clinton received the partys nomination over Bernie Sanders.

Hearing this sort of strategy is going to create a lot of doubt into the leadership and its going to make people reluctant to be involved in an organization that is saying, Were going to decide, as a small group, what everybody should go for, Murillo said.

Frank Nash, another DTC member from District E, cited his opposition to the Iraq War as grounds for supporting Ned Lamont over incumbent Joe Lieberman in Connecticuts 2006 U.S. Senate race. Camachos remark that delegates be released to vote their conscience after the first round of balloting at this years convention didnt sit well with him.

I always vote my conscience and I think it is very important, as a group of people. Their conscious is what is important, Nash said. And if you dont vote as a bloc and you start to shift, and you shift delegates to the person who eventually becomes the winner, then you have even more input into that winner.

Laoise King, assistant to Mayor Harry Rilling, said sending delegates as a bloc to a convention separates towns from cities in Connecticut, with the latter having power, regardless of who becomes the winning candidate.

If you go with the winner, thats great, and if you dont go with the winner, they really cant ignore you, because youre strong, King said. When we divide and go up there with seven delegates for this person, five delegates for this person, were no different than Weston or Easton or Redding.

The discussion, which the Norwalk DTC will resume March 29, comes amid growing enthusiasm among Democrats at the local, state and federal levels about their prospects running into this Novembers elections.

On Wednesday, Democrat Conor Lamb claimed victory over Republican incumbent Rick Saccone in a razer-thin election in Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional District the day before. The results may be challenged. The district supported Republican Donald Trump by a 20-point margin in the 2016 presidential election.

Stuart Wells, Norwalks Democratic registrar of voters, cited Democrats performance in the citys 2017 municipal elections as grounds for re-electing Camacho.

Weve done pretty well under his leadership, taking 14 out of 15 (council seats) and losing the last seat by a tiny margin, and we all want to do the same thing for the state (elections), so I believe we can continue what weve been doing, Wells said.

Camacho, a District A Democrat and criminal defense attorney who early in his career worked as staff counsel with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund and Education Fund, was first elected DTC chairman in March 2014.

Rilling, a Democrat, was elected to a third two-year mayoral term by voters in November.

Councilwoman Eloisa Melendez, a DTC member from District A, alluded to Democratic momentum while nominating Kay Anderson for the committees corresponding secretary. Were at a very important point with the Democratic Party right now, a lot of people want to join because of whats happening at the federal level. She later addressed the bloc delegate proposal.

Bottom line is the idea is being presented, Melendez said. Lets just talk about it.

On Jan. 11, Norwalk DTC held caucuses at five locations throughout the city for registered Democrats to cast ballots for members  11 per district  to sit on the committee for the period 2018-19.

The elected and reelected members were seated March 6 after the window for challengers to primary the caucus results closed. Tuesdays meeting at City Hall marked the election of officers for the 2018-19 DTC with Camacho reelected chairman, William Pappa elected vice chairman, Colin Hosten recording secretary, Anderson corresponding secretary, Pat Marshock treasurer and Stephanie Thomas assistant treasurer.NORWALK  The proposal of a new charter school in Norwalk received enthusiastic support from advocates of school choice at a public hearing Wednesday night. But the district and several residents who fear it might disrupt recent strides in public education opposed the application.

The Norwalk Charter School for Excellence, or Norwalk Excellence, would offer a comprehensive program for students in preschool through fifth grade, with a possible expansion to include a middle school model upon renewal.

Modeled after the Bronx Excellence Network  which has five charter schools in the Bronx and an affiliate in Stamford that opened in 2015  Norwalk Excellence would provide an education that offers students a lifelong pathway to success in a way traditional schools do not, said Charlene Reid, chief executive officer and founder of Excellence Community Schools, which manages the Schools for Excellence in the Bronx and in Stamford.

Every child should have access to receive high quality education. I am a public educator and I believe that, Reid said Wednesday. It is what our democracy is made of and every child should have access no matter what their parents zip code, neighborhood or salary is.

The Rev. Lindsay Curtis of Grace Baptist Church made the same appeal to the three members of the state Department of Education who were facilitating the public hearing, requesting that they approve the application for another charter school in Norwalk.

Curtis had submitted his own application to start a second charter school in Norwalk several years ago but did not receive approval from the state Board of Education.

He said Norwalk Excellence has one thing that his application did not: a successful track record.

Their track record speaks for themselves, Curtis said. I always found it discouraging that Norwalk could not land a charter school. All around them in Bridgeport, in Stamford and in New Haven are able to land a charter school, and I think that our kids deserve a second charter school.

Having another charter school would not only provide Norwalk families with another educational option but would also help the citys only charter school serve students it doesnt have room for, said Mary Newbery, assistant director of Side by Side Charter School.

Side by Side has had at least 100 students on it waiting list every year since it opened 21 years ago, Newbery said.

One size doesnt fit all for kids, and especially kids who come from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, she said. Theres a lot of things that go into a successful education for a young person and we strongly support school choice.

While the district is generally supportive of all forms of school choice, Superintendent Steven Adamowski said in a letter that adding a second charter school in Norwalk is questionable at this time  given the financial crisis Connecticut is in.

Unable to attend the public hearing, Norwalk Chief of School Operations Frank Costanzo read Adamowskis letter on his behalf.

In his letter, Adamowski claimed the district has demonstrated its own capacity to develop a model for low-performing districts to share and to emulate, with improvements in student achievement and schools that offer choice and diversity.

The district has one inter-district and three intra-district magnet schools and several open choice academy programs, and all schools are racially and ethnically balanced according to state standards even with 63 percent of enrolled students who are minorities.

Based on these values, opening a second charter school is not merited, Adamowski concluded. And the decision to do so might also possibly threaten the districts already underfunded Education Cost Sharing grant from the state.

We cannot afford a loss in enrollment to a competing charter school district and result in further diminution of our ECS grant, Adamowski said in his letter.

Chris Yerinides, a member of the Common Council, also raised his concerns.

He pointed out that charter schools do not use unionized teachers, and therefore do not require the same teaching certifications that public schools do. Charter schools also do not follow the same racial balancing standards, he said, which may hinder the progress that Norwalk has achieved in the area of diversity.

Moreover, he said charter schools in Connecticut tend to serve less children with disabilities, emerging bi-lingual children and children who are eligible for free and reduced priced lunches compared to public schools in the same cities, citing research from the advocacy group Connecticut Voices for Children.

As a result, comparing the test results of charter schools with local public schools is like comparing apples to oranges because they often serve very different groups of children, Yerinides said. Claims of having success should be taken with a grain of salt.

The public hearing adjourned around 7:30 p.m.

The next step is for the state Board of Education to vote on the application at its subsequent meeting, most likely sometime in May, a state Board of Education member said.For years, performance ratings have plagued organizations. Managers and employees alike have dreaded the yearly meeting when employees received their grade, for lack of a better word. But now -- finally! --employers are wising up to the ineffectiveness of employee ratings.

Related: All You Need to Know About Performance Management Without Ratings

The Global Leadership Forecast 2018 from DDI, the Conference Board and EY, looked at data from over 25,800 company leaders from around the world. The research found that 20 percent of these companies had stopped using performance ratings.

And, an interesting fact -- whether it's related or not -- these companies also had more women in senior positions and a higher quality of leadership.

But before you rush to drop the outdated form of performance management known as performance reviews, you might want to first understand what systems have been successful at other organizations.

Don't boil ratings down to a single number.

Performance ratings attempt to boil down months of behavior to a single number. And they fail. Rating an employee a "3" for communication skills ignores the nuances of his or her behavior. It also leads to biased assessments.

This is why San Francisco-based employee-performance management platform Reflektive has never used performance ratings. Instead, its managers meet with employees quarterly and provide qualitative and quantitative feedback.

We believe traditional ratings do more harm than good, Rachel Ernst, head of employee success, said via email. Employees dont typically do well with a number or letter-rating system.

Related: 4 Unconscious Biases That Distort Performance Reviews

Instead of telling employees if theyve "passed" or "failed," provide ways for your managers to track different aspects of performance. Using data helps to erase bias and shows employees their evaluations are fair. Just make sure that all employees know how each metric is assessed and how it ties to their role in the organization.

Then, set managers and employees up to have a conversation. Have managers focus on progress with regard to employees' and organizational goals. Encourage them to ask individuals what they believe is working and what is hindering their performance. This will show employees that feedback is collaborative rather than judgmental.

Assess cultural fit.

Performance reviews are not just about behaviors. They also need to take into account how well an employee is representing the company.

William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of the Houston-based church-staffing firm Vanderbloemen Search Group, advises including feedback about the companys core values.

While we still have key result areas [KPIs], we have augmented our review process to include measuring how well our people are living out our nine cultural values, he said in an email.

As a result, Vanderbloemen says his team is more productive and experiences lower turnover. Each employee understands and is invested in the company values.

The trick is to clearly set expectations about values-based performance. Have managers sit down with their employees and discuss what it means to embody each of the core values. Managers should ask employees to explain the values and their specific role in their own words. Then, both can talk about how the employees responsibilities align with the values. This will help both managers and employees create customized expectations for the individual.

Factor in peers.

Employees spend most of their time at work with their co-workers. Often, they have a better picture of a colleague's performance than managers. This is why, at my company, I ask employees to provide anonymous peer feedback.

I ask everyone to focus on how a co-worker has excelled and where there can still be improvements. This gives me a clear idea of how each individual is doing, so I can have a more meaningful conversation about their performance.

This system also shows employees that the rest of the team appreciates their actions. They see their peers value all they contribute.

Be careful when relaying peer feedback. Never reveal who said what. That will lead to gossip and divide the team. Plus, if employees worry about retribution, they wont provide as honest or detailed feedback.

Focus on development.

The aforementioned Global Leadership Forecast 2018 found that when managers spend 75 percent of a performance review discussing employee development, there is a stronger outcome in the employees future performance. Atlanta-based psychologist and author of Extraordinary Influence, Tim Irwin, says this is because of how the brain functions.

Perceived criticism engages the part of the brain that has a negativity bias, Irwin said in an email. When this part of the brain is engaged, creativity, innovation and problem-solving are diminished. The recipient essentially shuts down and derives minimal benefit from the exchange.

Irwin went on to point out that when managers frame the conversation in terms of employee development, people are more receptive. They process the feedback as a way to reach their personal goals rather than as punishment.

Related: 7 New Trends Top Companies Use to Separate Performance from Compensation

Train managers to deliver feedback in a career-focused manner. For example, instead of telling an employee that clients have complained about his or her communication skills, suggest concrete ways the employee can improve. These steps also need to clearly tie to an individuals goal to show how changing will pay off in the long-run -- for the employee and company alike.

Related:

The Performance-Management Secret Only 1 in 5 Companies Knows

How Reflexively Apologizing for Everything All the Time Undermines Your Career

Why it is Important for Companies to have Periodic Employee Performance Review?



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka has intimated that he is open to a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Speaking after a meeting with Ukambani Church leaders at the African Brotherhood church headquarters in Machakos on Wednesday, Kalonzo said that together with his two other NASA co-principals, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula, they are seeking to meet the President.

Kalonzo noted that no peace-loving leader would oppose constructive dialogue aimed at providing solutions to problems afflicting the country.

Because we believe in constructive dialogue, kutokana na yale Raila alituelezea, huenda Wetangula, Mudavadi na mimi, tukikubaliana, tufanye kikao na President Uhuru Kenyatta sisi watatu ili tuskie upande wake akikubali tutamuona, akikataa hatuwezi mlazimisha, said Mr. Musyoka.

While supporting Raila Odingas meeting with President Kenyatta last week, Musyoka said they can work together with the government and still remain as one party.

The intention is that NASA will stay as NASA, you can be in opposition and work because this is one country, lakini tumekubali If our captain ametupa kofia pale, facts speak for themselves, he added.

The former VP also noted that he was the one who insisted on dialogue after he came back from Germany only for Odinga to beat him to meeting with the president.

He said a motion in parliament to endorse the dialogue held between President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga should have waited until next week when other parties in the Nasa coalition will meet and deliberate on the meeting.

Musyoka, however, advised Members of Parliament from his party to pass the motion for an all-inclusive dialogue.

He said a meeting of the Akamba community to chart the political direction of the community will be held on Easter Monday at Komarock grounds in Machakos County.NORWALK  SoNo visitors may have to adjust their driving and parking habits once the Connecticut Department of Transportation starts replacing the Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River.

The 45-space Norwalk Water Street Lot lies next to the Maritime Aquariums IMAX Theater, which the DOT plans to raze to create a staging area for replacement of the nearby 122-year-old rail bridge.

Neither state nor local officials foresee the lot closing, but parts of it will be off limits at times.

There are times, related to the crane, that the North Water Lot will be closed and we are working with their (DOT) team  theres a parking team for the Walk Bridge  as far as how we deal with displaced parkers and also lost revenue for that lot, said Kathryn Hebert, the citys administrative services manager and staff person to the Norwalk Parking Authority.

Parking disruptions are among the many issues for which DOT and local officials must develop mitigation plans before the nearly $1 billion bridge replacement gets under way in 2019. The project will take four to five years to complete, according to the department. The DOT already has begun preliminary track-and-signal upgrades either side of the Walk Bridge.

The Maritime Garage, located along North Water Street approximately 400 feet northwest of the Walk Bridge, is safe from the construction work but motorists will have difficulty reaching it at times.

There will be times when North Water Street will be closed, but we have two access points, said Hebert, referring to the Marshall and North Water streets entrances and exits to the garage.

Expect disruptions

The SONO Ironworks building, a mixture of apartments and street-level retail and businesses developed by Spinnaker Real Estate Partners at 1 North Water St., is located within feet of the western abutment of the Walk Bridge. Within Ironworks is a 240-space parking garage of which 140 spaces are allocated for residents of the building. The remaining spaces are used by other tenants and the public. The garage has two entrances and exits, one from Washington Street and the other along North Water Street right next to the bridge.

We will develop a traffic and parking management plan when CT DOT finalizes the bridge design and informs us of the construction sequence and schedule, Spinnaker said in an email Friday. We anticipate working closely with CT DOT and the city of Norwalk with the goal of minimizing disruption to our residents, commercial tenants and the general public, but we understand that the project will have a significant impact on South Norwalk during construction.

Danielle Vinci, marketing coordinator for Braachs House of Flowers within SONO Ironworks, said she directs customers to park in the Ironworks garage rather than at the North Water Street Lot.

The garage, the first 90 minutes are free, so we tell them to park there or try to park in the little cul-de-sac, Vinci said. Its easier with the parking garage because you just put your card in, pull it out.

Vinci anticipates that SoNo businesses and visitors will learn to live with the construction and expressed confidence theyll survive the project.

Its just something were going to have to learn to deal with, Vinci said. I feel like this downtown area has enough going for it that, it will be annoying for the first two weeks, a little hiccup, and then people will get used to it.

Parking alternatives

DOT spokesman Judd Everhart said the parking impacts will be identified through two studies. The Alternative/Replacement Parking Plan will identify construction impacts and provide available parking alternatives. At this point, the DOT foresees little impact on the Maritime Garage other than rented spaces provided to the departments newly opened Walk Bridge Welcome Center across the street at 20 Marshall St.

It is anticipated that the North Water Street lot will be used only for short and discrete periods needed to assemble and dismantle cranes used for Walk Bridge construction, Everhart said. An Employee Parking Study is also under way, which will determine the Walk Bridge Programs employee parking requirements.

Everhart said off-site parking locations are being considered so that public parking will not be heavily affected during construction. It will be the responsibility of the Walk Bridge replacement team to provide transportation to off-site workers, he added.

Aquarium plan in place

The Maritime Aquarium already has made plans to survive the disruptions. With the IMAX Theater to be razed, the aquarium last fall received city approval to build on the east side of its main entrance a two-story, 11,900-square-foot addition that will house a 4D, 178-seat theater, entrance lobby, ticket area and other space.

The aquarium hosts upward of 500,000 visitors a year, the vast majority of whom park in the Maritime Garage.

We expect that will remain the case when the Walk Bridge construction begins, said aquarium spokesman Dave Sigworth. In fact, the percentage of our guests parking in the Maritime Garage probably will increase after the IMAX Theater ceases operation, because then there will be no Aquarium entrance at the south end of our facility.

Parking among survey questions

Last Tuesday, the DOT project team opened up the welcome center at the corner of the Lock Building at 20 Marshall St. Overall, the department is leasing 17,106 square feet in the building, including the welcome center, a construction engineering and inspection office, and a project and program management office. The total monthly rent is $30,650, according to Everhart.

On Feb. 21, the team invited a number of property owners to the center and briefed them on a forthcoming Business Coordination Plan aimed at helping businesses survive the disruptions of the Walk Bridge replacement.

The effort began the following day with telephone calls to business owners, asking them to sit down for one-on-one interviews, and will continue with a survey asking, among other things, customer and employee parking needs.A huge number of students across the United States left their classes Wednesday morning to remember the victims of last month's Florida shooting and to show their support for gun-control legislation. As The Washington Post today, the National Student Walkout is "unprecedented in recent American history."

Let's be clear about what's going on here. Since the shooting at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people, mostly young, were killed, students have used social media, confronted politicians, and worked with established organizations to build a nationwide movement for gun control. It may be the most vital and strong such movement we've seen in years.

On Wednesday, students walked away from their desks not just at high schools, but at colleges and even elementary schools to participate in the event, which has been dubbed The National Walkout Day.

In Portland, Maine, where schools were closed due to a severe snow storm, two dozen students from King Middle School arranged to meet at nearby Monument Square. In Alexandria, Virginia, several dozen children, many of whom were met by their parents, walked out of a local school in an action led by two eleven-year-old students.

"In the beginning, our principal wasn't completely supportive but by the second or third day of doing this, that week, he was completely supportive," one protester told the Guardian. "Nobody expects a bunch of ten and eleven year olds to stand up and start walking out of the school building."

While the protests were larger in the blue states where they enjoy strong support from adults - in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo joined a group of high school students protesting in Zuccotti Park - others walked out in smaller numbers. At a high school in Marietta Georgia, where the school's 1,000 students were reportedly "warned against" taking part in the protest, three students left the building despite the presence of police officers stationed meant to discourage the action.

Even corporations are beginning to join in. Viacom, the corporate parent of Comedy Central and MTV, released a statement saying, "Viacom to support courageous youth activists who have had enough of gun violence," and allowed screens on their television channels to go blank for 17 minutes at 10 am Wednesday to signify their support for the school walk-out. Lyft recently announced they would offer students complementary transportation to the next expected mass action, a March 24 march on Washington and in other cities called March for Our Lives.

As this shows, not all this action is taking place without adult assistance. The mass action Wednesday was initially planned by the organizers of the Women's March. This has led some to claim that student are being manipulated by greater adult leftwing forces: Fox News commentator Todd Starnes claimed the media is "cynically using a lot of traumatized teens" to attack Trump, while former Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke tweeted that some of the organizing has "GEORGE SOROS' FINGERPRINTS all over it." (Yes, the caps are his.)

But this idea - which is half concern trolling and half conspiracy theorizing - is absurd. This movement started not with adult action, but in conversations between Parkland students in the hours after the massacre at their school, and it quickly spread to social media. It took almost everyone by surprise.

It shouldn't have, of course. The struggle for gun regulations deserves a mass movement. The United States has more gun violence than any other first world country. We are responsible for almost one-third of mass shootings in the entire world over the past several decades. Mass shootings continue to occur even as violent crime is mostly falling in the United States. Many different types of gun regulations enjoy broad popular support.

What's more, the issue demonstrates how politicians of both parties remain captured by interest groups and lobbyists - I'm looking at you, National Rifle Association - while selling out the wants and needs of the people who elected them. When the teenagers of Parkland - perhaps traumatized, perhaps furious - began to speak truth to power, it turned out there were millions of Americans, children and adults, simply waiting for someone to begin to demand change and refuse to accept no for an answer.

Don't get me wrong. No one is expecting immediate movement on the issue - President Trump, for one, is so in thrall to the NRA that he quickly backed away from his promises of action. It's going to be a long slog. But momentum appears to be on the side of the teens. And little wonder: they possess more energy and enthusiasm, and, in the time honored way of youth, they are less cynical about what can be accomplished. The kids are all right.

---

Olen is a contributor to The Washington Post and the author of "Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry." Her work has appeared in Slate, the Nation, the New York Times, the Atlantic and many other publications. She serves on the advisory board of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.Im getting a little tired of Jennifer Lawrence. Is it still allowable in the age of peak celebrity that were entitled to reach critical mass and become, uh, less than enthralled with a popular figure? Its not Lawrences work that Im carping about necessarily. Her only screen credit in 2017, mother!, tanked, but it was never expected to be anything more than a contractual obligation and/or pairing of her with her then-boyfriend, writer/director Darren Aronofsky.

It isnt barely as good as this weekends Red Sparrow, which also isnt all that good, yet this woman is everywhere. Shes being interviewed on the press junket. Shes spot hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live. Her every waking thought on the gamut from Kardashian pregnancies to #metoo and Amy Schumers wedding is assaulting my ears and eyeballs. Give it a minute. And then there she was at Sundays 90th Academy Awards, gamely co-presenting with the barely ambulatory Jodie Foster and becoming a viral meme for climbing over seats with a full glass of Chardonnay in such a Jennifer Lawrence kind of way.

Im glad I got Lawrences Red Sparrow out of the way on Saturday because the next nights Oscars were a hoot. I see that the television viewership was at an all-time low, but I thought those of us that stuck through the (total of) nine hours of ABCs coverage were treated to a quality presentation. Host Kimmel was witty and off-beat.

The stars were all self-conscious (Times Up fatigue?) and thats a neat way to see your celebs. There were surprise winners, up to and including Best Picture, and seemingly many from Mexico. Guillermo del Toro had a big night and at times he made me both laugh and cry - and I did both during the walkabout audience-crashing segue. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty even had a chance to redeem themselves and I snickered every time Envelopegate was referenced. Ultimately I predicted only ten categories correctly on my ballot. But what do I know? Neither of the two films that prevented me from completing Oscar Quest 2017 (documentary feature Faces Places and Russian foreign language pic Loveless) were a factor. Maybe next year someone else might pretend Black Panther is of nominating caliber.

My thoughts on Red Sparrow are meager. It confirms a suspicion that George and Elaine once joked about in the Seinfeld finale episode: Russia is bleak, even in springtime. Prima ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) goes from celebrated artist to castoff burden when her leg is shattered in a competitors accident. In order to secure her ability to care for a sick relative, her uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts) persuades her to become a sparrow, an alluring spy type that uses her body and her wiles to entrance enemies of the deep state.

Its even weirder than it sounds, this predatory relationship between uncle and niece. After a protracted montage of learning to manipulate men and use her psychosexuality as a weapon, something Dominika knew all along, a few conspiratorial figures (Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling) deem her ready for a mission where she seduces a CIA officer (Joel Edgerton) in order to learn his secrets.

Or maybe she wants to turn him into a double agent. And then shes a double agent. Or is it triple? Once youre a quadruple agent, I realized during this film, the mathematics become geometrically inane and I started to wonder if this movie had chance to be as marginally good as either 2010s The Debt or last years Atomic Blonde. Turns out, no, it isnt.

Red Sparrow runs 139 minutes and is rated R for strong violence, torture, sexual content, language, and some graphic nudity. I give this film one star out of four.By now, youve likely seen the notice to Muranga University of Technology (MUT) students to avoid the institution as KWS conducts a monkey shooting exercise.

The notice, signed by the institutions chief security officer Mr Kimotho, informed the students to stay away as live bullets would be used.

The exercise will involve firing of life (sic) bullets which may cause fear and panic, the notice, whose ref was Shooting of Monkeys, read in part.

The notice was understood by many to mean that the exercise would involve shooting dead the monkeys. This resulted in an uproar online as netizens demanded answers from the Kenya Wildlife Service.

But KWS spokesperson Paul Gathitu Masela has said that the shooting of monkeys notice was a miscommunication by the university.

He confirmed that the exercise is ongoing but it does not involve the massacre of the primates.

They called in about the disturbance and we advised them to inform the students of the exercise that involve shooting in the air to scare away the monkeys. It is usually our first intervention which if it fails we then capture and relocate the monkeys, Masela told Nairobi News.

He explained that the university was to notify students that there would be friendly fire.

We needed the institution just to advise that it was friendly fire for managing the situation and scare away the monkeys and possibly capture and relocate them if the warden advises on that as the next move. The operation is still ongoing and the warden will be giving information to us on whether they are still there and if there is need for relocation, said Masela.

Muranga County had declared an all-out war against the marauding animals and launched a programme dubbed Tafuta Tumbili.

We had to reach out to the county government and explain that it is our mandate and that we were willing and able to assist without the capture becoming commercialized and turning into a money making venture, Masela added.EDWARDSVILLE  A pair of associate judges and a circuit judge will be presenting programs soon designed to encourage students to make choices that will keep them out of their courtrooms.

The 50-minute presentations  Seven Reasons to Leave the Party  are peppered with true stories of teens who made poor choices.

Teens need to know the personal and legal consequences of drinking and driving, taking drugs and having underage sex, Associate Judge Sarah Smith said in a news release about the programs.

They are being touted as blunt, visual interactive school programs, aimed at seventh through 12th graders.

Associate Judges Sarah Smith and Martin Mengarelli will make the first presentation at 8:50 a.m., and Circuit Judge David Dugan will join Mengarelli for a second presentation an hour later. The Seven Reasons to Leave the Party presentation will be given Friday, March 16 at Triad High School in Troy.

It is open to any schools in the area, Smith said in a message. So while Triad is our first presentation, we are hoping more schools will take advantage of this awesome program.

It begins with hip-hop music that sets the tone for a typical teen house party. Something illegal is going on in each room in the house.

By using actual court cases, the judges will give students seven reasons to leave the party, including:

 Do the math: alcohol/drugs plus cars = death

 You like the Internet? So do schools and employers . . . YOUR record may be there.

 Trust is fragile. Dont break it.

Movies are more fun than urine tests.

 . . . and by the way, they watch you urinate to prevent cheating,

 That $2 beer may really cost hundreds in fees and fines. Its cheaper at 21.

 You waited 16 years for your drivers license. Dont lose it  or your car.

Nowadays, we are seeing more and more youth getting into trouble for alcohol or drug related offenses, cyberbullying or sexting, Smith said. And by the time they end up in our courtrooms, this is too late.

The program takes a preventative law type approach. Hopefully, the real life scenarios scare them into thinking about their choices, she said.

The judges also hope to make parents more aware of the judges commitment to preventative law. They will be available to make presentations at schools in the area. Many of them will be scheduled near homecoming, prom and other popular party times during the school year.

The program is sponsored by the Illinois Judges Association.Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Black Theater Workshops (BTW) first ever reunion, Sankofa: Reclaiming Our Time, will be a time for dance, learning and celebration. The event will run from Friday-Sunday, March 16-18 at SIUEs Metcalf Theater.

Current SIUE BTW members and alumni will perform original pieces that celebrate the spirit of Sankofa-fetching from the past that which is good and bringing it to the present to evoke positive change, said Kathryn Bentley, associate professor in the Department of Theater and Dance and BTW artistic director. The alumni are looking forward to coming back and performing with the current students. This will be a wonderful celebration.

This years event is under the artistic direction of Bentley and her student assistant, Myy Moffett. Performances will be at 7:30 p. m. Friday-Saturday, March 16-17 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 18. A reception will follow Friday nights performance.

A portion of the event is being funded by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Targeted Funding Initiative (TFI). CAS Dean Greg Budzban, PhD, first created TFI grants in 2016. The program offers a way to continuously innovate and find novel ways of doing things. It utilizes funding acquired through the Colleges Winter Session courses and is supplemented with other internal CAS funds.

Thanks to the TFI grant, Bentley has been able to bring the Black theater experience to 53 students at the SIUE East St. Louis Charter High School (CHS) through the Sankofa Residency. The eight-week residency includes a near-peer mentorship model where Bentley is assisted by two of her theater performance students, Justin Truman and Michael Watkins. The grant enabled two SIUE alumni, Joel King and Curtis Lewis, to participate as special guests performers, where they will bring BTW to the CHS on Friday, March 16  performing and leading master classes with the high school students.

The following workshops and alumni presenters are scheduled for Saturday:

12-1:15 p.m. - Auditioning with Josh Douglas, who received a bachelors in theater and dance/performance in 2009

1:30-2:45 p.m. - Storytelling and Improv with Ashley Bland , who earned a bachelors in theater and dance in 2013

3-4:45 p.m. - Master Class, Acting for the Stage: Scene and Monologue Study with Curtis Lewis and Joel P.E. King

5-6:30 p.m. - Panel Discussion, Black Theater Today: Is It Still Relevant?

Lewis, received his bachelors in theater performance in 2011 from SIUE. He is an actor, writer, director and producer. Lewis founded Journey Live Production in 2008. He formed the traveling theater company after writing his first play, Beauty Inside and Out in 2006.

King earned a bachelors in art/art studio with a minor in music in 2003. He is an entrepreneur, performer, writer, director and producer. Kings production company, JPEK CreativeWorks Theatre has had great success after bringing quality, original productions to the area and abroad.

The late Lisa Colbert started the BTW in 1999 as an avenue for students to create and perform theatrical work of the African-American theater canon, according to Bentley.

Students from all academic disciplines have participated as writers, performers, designers and audience members in BTW. They have engaged in writing original work, as well as performing work by noted Black playwrights, added Bentley. Students have also collaborated with professional artists from St. Louis, such as Hassie Davis (BS 92), Fannie Lebby and David A.N. Jackson. BTW alums are professional playwrights, directors, performers and producers.

The reunion performance will be a time to award current BTW members and honor BTW alumni.

Avalon Palmer and Kiara Ulmer will receive the Rudy Wilson Griot award. The late Rudolph Rudy G. Wilson, former assistant provost for cultural and social diversity at SIUE, was a BTW supporter who performed several times with students. The award recognizes students who embody Wilsons love of storytelling.

Theodore H. Jamison, SIUE alumnus known around the world for his masterful work in dance, will receive special recognition for his commitment to the arts. Jamison received a bachelor's in theater from SIUE in 1977.

Baba Theo has generously impacted so many lives, and I want us as an artistic community to take a moment to recognize his tireless contributions, said Bentley.

On Sunday, the Colbert Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to students who exemplify Colberts commitment to upholding the diverse voices in theatrical expression. Colbert was a professor, actor, director, poet and activist whose vision continues to reach students. This years awardees are Luis Castro, Mitanesha Moffett, David Zimmerman and Michael Watkins.

This reunion is a celebration of the power and beauty that Black Theatre Workshop has been and continues to be for countless students, said Bentley.The March 4 attack left former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal in critical condition and a British police officer seriously ill.The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. 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KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.11 hours ago

Investors, Have You Used the Rule of 72? If Not, Here's Why You're Missing Out

You could live to 120 and not know everything you could possibly know about investing. However, it's also important to have a firm grasp on the basics. One of the most basic concepts of personal finance involves the rule of 72.

Read ArticleFor the umpteenth time now, retired President Daniel Arap Moi has been killed by the internet. This after fake news about his death circulated on social media with Nasa strategist David Ndii among the circulators on Twitter.

The government has since condemned the reports, revealing that Moi is doing well.

We are forced to clarify that the FAKE news maliciously circulated by some individuals regarding the wellbeing of former President Daniel Arap Moi is completely untrue.

H.E. the former President is in Tel-Aviv, Israel, for a routine medical check-up that has been very successful. H.E. the former President is recuperating well and is in very good health.

He will be sightseeing today and he takes this opportunity to wish all his fellow Kenyans well.

We hope that this information will put to rest any unfortunate ill-intended rumours.

The former presidents press secretary Lee Njiru has also issued a statement debunking the misleading reports.

The former president is in high spirits, hearty and expected home soon. So far he is steady, robust and is responding very well to treatment, Njiru said.

Moi was flown to Israel for a medical check up on Sunday, March 11.

Njiru said he was to receive treatment on his knee, which has been troubling him for some time.

On January 27, 2017, he underwent a minor surgery on his knee at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi.

The problem began on July 30, 2006, after his Range Rover collided with a pick-up truck at the Rukuma Viewpoint in Limuru.Nairobi residents will in coming months be able to use Uber to have their food orders delivered to their doorsteps.

The Taxi-hailing company is set to launch its food delivery service- Uber Eats- this year. Currently, Uber Eats operates in over 200 cities around the globe and partners with more than 80,000 restaurants.

After three years of making safe and affordable rides available at the touch of a button, Uber has announced its continued investment in East Africa with the forthcoming launch of Uber Eats in Kenya, Uber spokesperson East Africa Janet Kemboi said in a statement.Prep Polls: Florence-Henrys football team moves up to No. 3 in Class 9AA

Florence-Henrys high school football team is now ranked third in Class 9AA in this weeks South Dakota Prep Media poll.If your summer of revenge spending has come for a payback of its own in the form of lingering debt, make a plan for paying it off. Also, check out more of the week's best money tips from experts.ST. HELENA  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.Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Equifax executive with insider trading, alleging that he profited from confidential information about the massive breach at the company that compromised sensitive data of 148 million people.

Jun Ying, former chief information officer of a U.S. business unit of Equifax, faces civil and criminal charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Ying used confidential information to conclude that his company had suffered a massive data breach, and he dumped his stock before the news went public, Richard Best, Director of the SECs Atlanta Regional Office, said in a statement.

Read more:

Equifax finds additional 2.4 million in U.S. impacted by 2017 data breach

Equifax Canada works to rebuild trust after major data breach

Equifax disclosed last year that hackers had obtained sensitive information, including Social Security numbers and dates of birth, for more than 143 million people. The high-profile data breach affected about 8,000 Canadian customers, which began in May and was discovered by the company July 29.

According to the complaint, Equifax began assembling teams, Project Sierra and Project Sparta to respond to the breach. At the time, Ying, 42, had worked at Equifax since 2013 and was a leading candidate to become its global chief information officer. But he was not initially part of either team responding to the breach.

Then in late August, according to the complaint, Ying began to realize the company had been victim of a major theft. After a call with a high-ranking executive, Ying texted to a colleague: Sounds bad. We may be the one breached. . . . Starting to put 2 and 2 together.

A few days later, Ying searched online to determine how a major cyberbreach had affected the stock price of one of Equifaxs competitors, Experian. Within an hour of discovering how Experians stock price had suffered after a much smaller hack, Ying exercised all of his vested Equifax stock options, according to the complaints. He then sold those shares for nearly $1 million.

The next day, according to the indictment, Ying texted a friend: I think some big media announcement is coming about us. . . . I think it might be bad. Nine days later Equifax publicly announced that it had been breached, sending its stock price plummeting. If Ying had waited until news of the breach was made public, he would have suffered losses of $117,000, according to the SEC complaint.

The alleged actions of this defendant undermine the publics confidence in the nations stock markets, David LeValley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement.

Yings attorney declined to comment.

The company dismissed Ying after learning about the trades and is co-operating with federal authorities, Equifax said in a statement. We take corporate governance and compliance very seriously, and will not tolerate violations of our policies, said Equifaxs interim Chief Executive Officer, Paulino Do Rego Barros, Jr.

Trading by other Equifax executives had also previously come under scrutiny. Those executives  Chief Financial Officer John W. Gamble; Joseph M. Loughran III, president of U.S. information solutions; and Rodolfo O. Ploder, president of workforce solutions  sold large amounts of their shares of Equifax stock before news of the breach become public and made $2 million in profits. A special committee formed by Equifaxs board of directors investigated the matter and cleared those executives of wrongdoing last year. Also, none were mentioned in the complaints filed Wednesday against Ying.

The news is likely to renew complaints that Equifax hasnt paid a high-enough price for the breach. The company bungled its initial response, including a post on its Twitter page that mistakenly directed consumers in search of help to a fake site pretending to be Equifax. Its former chief executive Richard Smith was repeatedly hauled before Congress for lengthy hearings. Earlier this month, Equifax said that 2.4 million more consumers than previously reported were affected by the massive data breach, bringing the total of those affected to as many as 147.9 million consumers or about half the country.

But the government response has been, largely, muted so far. Despite numerous investigations, the firm has not fined or charged for its conduct related to the breach. Years from now, there are going to be families who cant get home loans, families who have terrible credit scores, and families who are stuck fighting fraudulent charges because of Equifax, Sen. Ben Sasse said in a statement. Someone has to answer for this.

With files from the Canadian PressToronto rocks!

It also raps, cuts dance tracks, sings reggae, plays the blues and performs a mean raga. So the question is: what songs would make your ultimate Toronto playlist?

Thats what we set out to determine when selecting the top 100 Toronto songs from the citys long pop history. Toronto prides itself as a music city, and with the success of so many artists, that pride is reflected back in song. It seems that every generation had its scene, from Yorkville to Queen Street to the rise of the independents and the indie rockers to the woozy R&B thats a hallmark of many young artists right now.

Drake is one musician who wears this citys pride on his sleeve at all times, but hes certainly not the only artist nowadays who fills his work with shout-outs and references to his hometown  although that wasnt always the case.

There was a time in Canada, where Canadian artists like Neil Young sang about a town in northern Ontario, and Joni Mitchell talked about blue money and the Maple Leafs, and Murray McLauchlan and Down by the Henry Moore  people talked about where they were from, said Denise Donlon, the longtime former MuchMusic and label executive (who is married to McLauchlan). And while I was at MuchMusic, there was moment where especially the big bands, they eschewed mentioning Canadian place names because they thought it might hinder their success in America. And then we came roaring back, with the Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip and Bobcaygeon, Devon and Mr. Metro and all that, so as evidenced by our songs, weve gone through a self-worth crisis and come back (out) the other side.

That sense of local pride was always evident in the Barenaked Ladies music when they burst onto the scene 30 years ago out of Scarborough. The group famously went from being banned from playing at Nathan Phillips Square because of their name to selling multiplatinum albums. Next week, they will reunite with founding member Steven Page to perform at the Junos and be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Our Scarborough roots, initially, was a huge part of our identity. We were suburban kids, and hey man, we wore that proudly, said Tyler Stewart, BNLs drummer. I think thats another thing, that sense of possibility (about) our music, and Maestro and Dream Warriors, people who are from your block, singing songs about your neighbourhood  that sense of local pride was pretty big.

That sense of pride has only grown exponentially with the rise of Drake, the self-declared 6ix God, but who are the other local artists whose work belongs in the Toronto pantheon? Everyone we consulted had their own take, and we were surprised by the number of arguments we got into over not only the songs but also how best to determine and define an acts Toronto-ness.

As a result, here are our guidelines for what made our list:

Groups or artists that were born, formed or based here  or affiliated with a Toronto-based scene. The entire GTA counts.

References to the city in song carry weight and usually pushed us to choose it from an artists catalogue. Toronto-shot imagery in music videos also counts.

It helps to be an artists breakthrough or a hit, in whatever way that can be measured  on the charts, awards, Spotify plays or YouTube views.

In order to celebrate the diversity of Torontos scene and to be inclusive, one entry effectively takes an artist off the board.

Beyond that, well, its a listicle, so a lot of this is arbitrary  we could easily have gone to 200 without repeating ourselves. But we tried to come up with a list that paid tribute to the great music that has been, and is still being, created around this city. That said, we already know that as soon as it is published, it is going to be torn apart. Thats part of the fun. Follow along the list with the snippets below, our Spotify playlist here, or our YouTube playlist here.

So Toronto, what did we miss? Send your thoughts to rmudhar@thestar.ca.

Warning: list and songs contain explicit language.

100 Killy Killamonjaro From the album: Surrender Your Soul, 2018 Toronto connnections: Scarborough Soundcloud/emo rapper who's up next. Shot with a $300 budget, the video has already garnered more than 14 million YouTube views, and Killy just dropped full-length project Surrender Your Soul. Why yes, we are trying to be hip with the kids. 99 Rihanna featuring Drake Work From the album: Anti, 2016 Toronto connnections: Co-written by PartyNextDoor, co-produced by Boi-1da and Noah Shebib. Plus, of course, Director X's steamy video. RiRi and Drizzy made a local hotspot even hotter when they filmed the video at The Real Jerk on Gerrard St. E., accelerating rumours that theirs was more than a "working" relationship. 98 Roni Size w. Reprazent Brown Paper Bag From the album: New Forms, 1997 Toronto connnections: British drum 'n' bass legend shot the video here. The Mercury Prize-winning New Forms is one of the most important DnB releases, and this is one of its biggest songs. Toronto had a huge DnB scene at the time, and Size spent time here and the video is full of shots of downtown. 97 Kiran Ahluwalia with Tinariwen Mustt Mustt From the album: Aam Zameen: Common Ground, 2011 Toronto connnections: Juno-winning singer moved to Toronto at age 9. Ahluwalia teamed up with the Grammy-winning Tuareg band to cover a song popularized by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. This album went on to win the Juno for World Music Recording of the year. 96 Sloan The Good in Everyone From the album: One Chord to Another, 1996 Toronto connnections: Original formed in Halifax, its members moved here, where they continue to churn out albums. While "Underwhelmed" was their grungy Halifax-born hit, the have a raft of incredibly catchy Toronto-bred tunes. The video for this song was shot at Pearson International Airport. 95 Kon Kan I Beg Your Pardon From the album: Move to Move, 1988 Toronto connnections: Synthpop project started by Barry Harris. Winner of Juno for Dance Recording in 1990, the song charted all over the world, and remains cheesily good. As good as Can-con New Order ripoffs get. 94 Sharon, Lois and Bram Skinnamarink From the album: One Elephant, Deux Elephants, 1978 Toronto connnections: Proudly local children's trio who have an uptown playground named in their honour. The track is actually a cover from a Broadway show from 1910, but it became the group's signature hit, which  admit it  you are already singing in your head. 93 Serena Ryder Stompa From the album: Harmony, 2012 Toronto connnections: Born here, but raised in Millbrook. This monster hit from the local single songwriter is all about the healing power of music, and was notable for being added to the playlists of almost every commercial radio station in the city. 92 Alvvays Archie, Marry Me From the album: Alvvays, 2014 Toronto connnections: Relocated from the Maritimes to Torontos west end in 2011. Led by the silken-voiced Molly Rankin  of Cape Bretons royal Rankin family  this jangly/noisy quintet quietly unleashed this instant classic upon the world to much acclaim and success just to the left of the mainstream proper in 2014. Most bands wait their whole careers to write one song this good; Alvvays did it with its first single. 91 Billy Talent Try Honesty From the album: Billy Talent, 2003 Toronto connnections: Formed out of high-school friendships in the Mississauga enclave of Streetsville. A massive rock-radio hit with an anthemic chorus that endures to this day, this signature single introduced the rest of Canada to a band that was already selling out the 2,200-capacity Kool Haus on its own DIY merits when it was still going by the name Pezz. 90 Jason Collett Charlyn, Angel of Kensington From the album: Here's to Being Here, 2008 Toronto connnections: Born in Bramalea, singer/songwriter is part of the Broken Social Scene crew. Likeable local rootsy musician found time to record several solo albums in between gigs slinging guitar for BSS. This track, which name-checks the bohemian neighbourhood, was one of the singles off his fourth solo album. He's also well known for hosting his annual Basement Revue series of concerts, which brings together unlikely pairings of artists. 89 Thunderheist Jerk it From the album: Thunderheist, 2009 Toronto connnections: Funky duo raised in the underground hip hop scene. Grabbing widespread hipster attention with a wave of great singles, this infectious track epitomized their sound with charged beats rapped over by raspy vocalist Isis Salam. 88 Moonstarr Movin' On From the album: Dupont, 2002 Toronto connnections: Yep, that's Dupont Station on the album cover. Signed to Public Transit Recording  which had a TTC-inspired logo  this melodic and jazzy house track was a lighter side of Toronto's electronic scene at the time. 87 13 Engines Smoke and Ashes From the album: Perpetual Motion Machine, 1993 Toronto connnections: Formed at York University This alt rock outfit scored some minor hits, but their fourth album pushed them into the mainstream in Canada, spawning several singles. 86 Ron Sexsmith Secret Heart From the album: Ron Sexsmith, 1995 Toronto connnections: Every local musicians favourite songwriter. A troubadour in the best sense of the word, his songwriting is revered by Ronheads" and many have long waited for him to break big. Feist covered this song on her first album, Let It Die. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is such a fan that he recorded a duet version of Gold In Them Hills with Sexsmith in 2002. 85 Treble Charger Trinity Bellwoods From the album: NC17, 1994 Toronto connnections: Everyone's favourite hipster park immortalized in song. This band from Sault Ste. Marie beat Daniel Caesars similarly named track by more than 20 years. 84 Red Rider Lunatic Fringe From the album: As Far as Siam, 1981 Toronto connnections: Formed here and added Tom Cochrane as lead singer. Now a staple of classic rock radio, Cochrane was inspired to write this after fears of rising anti-Semitism. It was their first hit, but the group also did well with "Big League and Boy Inside the Man. 83 Edward Bear Last Song From the album: Last Song, 1972 Toronto connnections: Group musicians lived together on Davenport when they wrote this song. They had a few chart hits, but are best known for the melancholy Last Song  Its the last song Ill ever write for you  which charted around the world. Writer Larry Evoy said he knew it was "killer" when they recorded it. 82 Jane Child Don't Want to Fall in Love From the album: Jane Child, 1989 Toronto connnections: Born here, and was a member of the Canadian Opera Company children's chorus. This somewhat dated yet danceable 80s track was a huge hit, peaking at no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 81 Death From Above 1979 Romantic Rights From the album: You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, 2004 Toronto connnections: Duo met and formed in the city. One of the first singles off their first official album. After it came out, they broke up in 2006, but when they reunited for a small-venue gig at the South by Southwest festival in Austin five years later, the excitement was sufficient to cause an actual riot amongst fans who decided theyd rather tear down the fences ringing the venue than miss out. 80 Metric Combat Baby From the album: Old World Underground, Where Are You now?, 2003 Toronto connnections: Cross-border band formed here. The popular indie rock group had bigger albums, but this was one of the singles off their first studio album and helped them break out and gain renown as a fierce live act. 79 Glass Tiger Don't Forget me (when I'm gone) From the album: The Thin Red Line, 1986 Toronto connnections: Started in Newmarket as a band called Tokyo. A huge hit that topped the charts in Canada, and no. 2 in the U.S, the song won the Juno for Single of the Year. Bryan Adams guested on vocals. 78 The Rheostatics The Ballad of Wendel Clark parts 1 and 2 From the album: Greatest Hits, 1987 Toronto connnections: Beloved local legends. Plenty of possible choices from this literate band  "Claire," "Whale Music," "Record Body Count"  but this track was off their first album and got them college radio play. It also has a bit of the Hockey Night in Canada theme in there. And, well, Wendel Clark. 77 Change of Heart There You Go From the album: Smile, 1992 Toronto connnections: Alt-rockers led by Ian Blurton based here. Smile  recently released on vinyl for the first time by local reissue imprint Label Obscura  was a local indie success story, and this track was their only Top 10 hit. Blurton would go on to front Blurtonia, Cmon and Public Animal and produce the Weakerthans classic Left & Leaving album. 76 Badbadnotgood Hedron From the album: III, 2014 Toronto connnections: The innovative group came together at Humber Colleges prestigious jazz program. This instrumental group started doing jazzy covers of hip-hop tracks and now has gone to perform and work with several artists including Tyler the Creator and Ghostface Killah. 75 Daniel Caesar ft. Kali Uchis Get You From the album: Freudian, 2017 Toronto connnections: Born in the 'Shwa. It feels like the soulful Caesar just arrived, yet hes already caught critical acclaim for Freudian and is working with high-profile musicians like Chance the Rapper. Get You earned two Grammy nominations, despite the fact that Caesar has been releasing his own work independently, drawing on just a small group of close friends. 74 Jazz Cartier Dead or Alive From the album: Marauding in Paradise, 2015 Toronto connnections: MC burst onto the local scene a few years ago with next big thing hype. This track was nominated for the SOCAN songwriting prize, and he went on to win a 2017 Rap Recording Juno for his record Hotel Paranoia. 73 Max Webster A Million Vacations From the album: A Million Vacations, 1979 Toronto connnections: Band formed here in 1973. The hard rockers had several singles in the '70s, but this was their biggest selling album, certified platinum in Canada. Also notable for launching the career of one Kim Mitchell. 72 Platinum Blonde Standing in the Dark From the album: Standing in the Dark, 1983 Toronto connnections: Formed here. This album went triple platinum in Canada. British-born bandleader and New Wave fashion plate Mark Holmes was one of the movers and shakers who started the Mod Club night at the old Lava Lounge on College Street, which ultimately morphed into the venue down the street known as, yes, the Mod Club. 71 Big Sugar Diggin' a hole From the album: Hemi-Vision, 1996 Toronto connnections: Blues rock group had a mid-90s moment. Made up of former members of Molly Johnson's back-up band, Big Sugar had a solid career, before breaking up and reforming in 2010. Bandleader Gordie Johnson remains a hotshot guitarist. He eventually relocated to Austin, Tex., and formed the southern-tinged combo Grady. 70 Luke and the Apostles Been Burnt 1967 Toronto connnections: Blues rock trio formed here. Considered one of the top purveyors of local blue-eyed soul, the Apostles played a lot of gigs around town at The Purple Onion and others. The single was recorded but held for a year after a member was arrested for marijuana possession and served his sentence. The band broke up after this single, but members went on to perform in Kensington Market and The Ugly Duckings, reformed a few times, and were playing gigs around town in 2013. 69 The Viletones Screamin' Fist From the album: Screaming Fist, 1977 Toronto connnections: Part of Canada's first wave of punk bands, this group was led by the mercurial Steve Leckie. The Viletones might best be described as Canada's answer to The Stooges. After forming, they received coverage around the world and played New York's legendary CBGB's in a show that was reviewed by Lester Bangs and spoofed by SCTV. 68 Fifth Column The Fairview Mall Story From the album: To Sir With Hate, 1985 Toronto connnections: The group and song help launched the citys queercore scene. Proto-feminist group Fifth Column formed in the early '80s, and its first full-length album is now considered a classic. The song is based on an incident where the names of 32 men who were arrested for having sex in the mens room of Fairview Mall in St. Catharines were released, leading one to commit suicide. 67 Alessia Cara Here From the album: Know-it-All, 2015 Toronto connnections: Brampton bred. This was her first breakout track  with 143 million YouTube views and counting  and the 21-year-old is going strong, recently winning the Best New Artist Grammy. Here was originally released to the Internet without a label behind it. They came calling quickly. 66 Azari & III Reckless (With Your Love) From the album: Azari & III, 2012 Toronto connnections: Based here. Announced with "Hungry for the Power" and this track, this quartet  confusingly named as a duo  seemed poised to break huge and rule the nascent EDM world. Unfortunately, the group couldnt hold it together and split in 2014. 65 Chalk Circle April Fool From the album: The Great Lake EP, 1986 Toronto connnections: Formed in Newcastle, Ont. Taking their name from a Berthold Brecht play, this EP spawned a couple of hits, including "Me, Myself and I," the title track and April Fool. This song has found a strong second life in recent years locally on Boom FM, where you can be assured to hear it at least once a day. 64 Murray McLauchlan Down by the Henry Moore From the album: Sweeping the Spotlight Away, 1974 Toronto connnections: Born in Scotland, he was raised in suburban Toronto. This loving ode to the city is chock full of Toronto references with a chorus that still holds today: I went down to the Henry Moore, / Skated all in the square. / The moon above my shoulder / and the ice was in my hair. 63 Nick Holder Da Sambafrique From the album: From Within, 1999 Toronto connnections: Brampton house music legend. Holder has produced more than 60 songs. This Latin-inspired track was a huge hit that embodies the worldly spirit of the Movement/Milk party scene that was big in the city in the late '90s/early '00s. 62 Tokyo Police Club Nature of the Experiment From the album: A Lesson in Crime EP, 2006 Toronto connnections: Originally from Newmarket. For a time they were the barely-out-of-high-school representatives of T.O.'s indie rock scene that the international press loved. One of the first breakout acts on the Paper Bag Records roster after Broken Social Scene and Stars, both of whom would decamp to the Arts & Crafts label. 61 The Hidden Cameras Golden Streams From the album: The Smell of Our Own, 2003 Toronto connnections: A big part of the Vaseline/Vazaleen nights. Described by leader Joel Gibb as "gay folk church music," this mildly racy tune was the first track off their internationally acclaimed second record. The group was known for impressive live shows and included members who went on to solo careers such as Owen Pallett, Gentlemen Reg and author/playwright Maggie MacDonald. 60 Abdominal ft. Notes to Self T-Ode From the album: Escape From the Pigeon Hole, 2007 Toronto connnections: Local MCs literal ode to the city The deep-voiced rapper rhymes his love letter to the Screwface Capital. Its somewhat surprising Tourism Toronto never adopted this track. 59 Len Steal My Sunshine From the album: You Can't Stop the Bum Rush, 1999 Toronto connnections: Sibling-led duo who have worked with a cast of rotating musicians. The infectious summer single makes Len endure today as a one-hit wonder. Won several MMVAs and often appears on playlists of best summer songs. The video featured the band burning through a lot of Sony Music Canada money during a bacchanalian beach vacation. 58 Alannah Myles Black Velvet From the album: Alannah Myles, 1989 Toronto connnections: Toronto born. Appeared on an episode of Kids of Degrassi Street. This Elvis tribute was an inescapable radio hit, winning a Grammy and Juno. The video was partially shot on Myles family ranch in Buckhorn, Ont. It was co-written by Myless then boyfriend Christopher Ward, who had previously risen to nationwide fame as one of the original MuchMusic VJs. 57 Dan Hill Sometimes When We Touch From the album: Longer Fuse, 1977 Toronto connnections: Grammy winner was born, and still lives, here. The singer-songwriter's biggest hit, this ballad charted around the world, and has been covered by numerous others, including Tina Turner and Barry Manilow. If youre into trivia: His brother Lawrence Hill is the author of The Book of Negroes. 56 Baby Blue Soundcrew Money Jane From the album: Private Party Collectors Edition, 2000 Toronto connnections: Group was releasing mixtapes here. Born out of connections built at the government-sponsored Fresh Arts program, Money Jane features Kardinal, Jully Black and Sean Paul, and has been called "the song that invented the Toronto sound" by Fader. 55 Deadmau5 Sofi Needs a Ladder From the album: 4x4=12, 2010 Toronto connnections: Electronic artist calls this burg home. The mask-wearing electronic musician is officially (and proudly) from Niagara Falls, but hes adopted Toronto as his place of residence and studio base since becoming one of the biggest EDM draws in the world. This track was the pop-crossover hit off his biggest album so far. Won the Juno for Dance Recording of the Year. 54 Sum 41 Fat Lip From the album: All Killer No Filler, 2001 Toronto connnections: Foursome formed in Ajax. Led by Derryck Whibley, this single off their first album hit no. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock tracks chart, and the album was certified platinum in Canada and the U.S. It led to a string of hits over the next decade. 53 National Velvet Flesh Under Skin From the album: National Velvet, 1988 Toronto connnections: Standard bearers for the citys proud 80s Goth scene. Another freak cross-Canada late-80s radio hit, Flesh Under Skin briefly opened a national window on the black-eyeliner set to a generation of weird rural kids from coast to coast whod never get a chance to set foot in Sanctuary. Also Maria Del Mar was a powerhouse rock vocalist. Seriously underrated band. 52 Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet Having an Average Weekend From the album: Savvy Show Stoppers, 1988 Toronto connnections: Although its origins lie in Calgary, this instrumental surf-rock trio became forever synonymous with the sound of Toronto when Having an Average Weekend was adopted as the theme song for beloved sketch-comedy show The Kids in the Hall in 1989. For years, Having an Average Weekend and other brief, buzzing jams from the Shadowy Men canon would play to audiences well beyond Torontos city limits in Canada and the rest of the world over the CBC hits grainy black-and-white interstitial street shots of such local landmarks as the Silver Dollar Room. 51 Kim Mitchell Patio Lanterns From the album: Shakin' like a Human Being, 1986 Toronto connnections: Sarnia-born Mitchell moved to Toronto to make it big. What Canadian cottage or dock party is complete without this song or "Go for a Soda?" The latter became an improbable international hit thanks to MADD endorsement. Patio Lanterns won Juno Single of the Year and proved that, for Mitchell, there was life after Max Webster. Before life took him to afternoon-DJ duties on Q107. 50 Esthero That Girl From the album: Breath From Another, 1998 Toronto connnections: Based here. Estheros debut albums legacy has grown over the past two decades and is now considered something of a trip-hop classic, but often overlooked is the fact that the man behind the boards on Breath from Another was Doc McKinney, one of the producers who sculpted the brooding downtempo sounds of the Weeknds original EPs. That Girl was a hit on MuchMusic and won the Juno for Cinematography of the Year. 49 Lilly Singh and Humble the Poet IVIVI From the album: IVIVI, 2016 Toronto connnections: Toronto connection: Local YouTube stars collaborate on an anthem. A love letter to the city's diversity, YouTube superstar Singh and Humble combine Indian sounds and beats to express the sentiment: "Ain't no city in the world with a better mix." 48 Klaatu Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft From the album: 3:47 EST, 1977 Toronto connnections: Local trio was initially rumoured to be the Beatles in disguise. One of the psychedelic pop bands big hits, Calling Occupants also charted in the U.S. and was covered by the Carpenters. 47 Our Lady Peace Naveed From the album: Naveed, 1994 Toronto connnections: The band started with a callout in Now Magazine. An absolutely huge album that spawned several singles, including this and "Starseed." For a while, OLP rivaled the Tragically Hip as the most popular rock band in the land. 46 Buffy Sainte-Marie Universal Soldier From the album: Its My Way!, 1964 Toronto connnections: Buffys first big hit was written in Yorkville. Sainte-Marie hails from Saskatchewan, but she  like fellow hippie-ish Prairie-ites Neil Young and Joni Mitchell  was lured to the vibrant Yorkville singer/songwriter scene during the 60s. She reportedly wrote this single, her first big hit and one covered to even greater success by Donovan a year later, at the Purple Onion. 45 Pukka Orchestra Cherry Beach Express From the album: The Pukka Orchestra, 1984 Toronto connnections: Lyrics accusing police of beatings at Cherry Beach. The local new wavers eponymous album spawned a few hits, but the Toronto police tried to get this song banned from radio play because its about police brutality, and 52 Division gets an unwelcome call-out. 44 K'naan Wavin' Flag From the album: Troubadour, 2009 Toronto connnections: Somali-Canadian rapper moved to Canada at 13. This worldwide hit about the struggles of displaced refugees has had other lives, re-recorded as a Canadian charity single and also for Coca Cola for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 43 Deborah Cox Nobody's Supposed to be here From the album: One Wish, 1998 Toronto connnections: Scarborough born Queen of Canadian R&B. An absolute monster hit, it was at the top of the Billboard R&B charts for a record 14 weeks when it was released. 42 Gowan A Criminal Mind From the album: Strange Animal, 1985 Toronto connnections: Toronto connection: Born in Scotland, but trained at the Royal Conservatory and broke out here. Blessed with one of the first Canadian videos  a half-animated one, at that  to really help an artist break out, it won the Juno for Video of the Year. The song was one of the big hits off Gowans huge second album, a strange mix of glam, prog and ultra-fey popcraft thats still one of the weirder homegrown success stories of the 80s. 41 Choclair Let's Ride From the album: Ice Cold, 1999 Toronto connnections: Scarberian. Produced by Kardinal Offishall, this track off his debut featured a video with the MC riding around in various vehicles throughout the city. The songs piano hook is still instantly recognizable. 40 Mary Margaret O'Hara When you know why you're happy From the album: Miss America, 1988 Toronto connnections: Idiosyncratic artist was born and raised here. Her only full-length album, it drew worldwide raves and is considered a cult classic. The songs were recorded over many years, and eventually put together by her label and released. 39 Ian and Sylvia Four Strong Winds From the album: Four Strong Winds, 1963 Toronto connnections: Toronto connection: He's from B.C. She's from Chatham, but they met and started performing together here. The folk duo released this song on their second album, and it became an enduring hit. Now a country classic, it has been covered by major artists, including Neil Young, Marianne Faithful, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and John Denver, who asked the writers to drop the Canadian references. 38 Feist 1 2 3 4 From the album: The Reminder, 2007 Toronto connnections: Lives here. This solo track is still the biggest song to come out of the Broken Social Scene and Arts and Crafts scene of the 00s. The cleverly choreographed video was memorable, but it was the use of the song on an iPod commercial that likely had a bigger role in catapulting Feist to international fame. 37 PUP DVP From the album: The Dream is Over, 2016 Toronto connnections: The Pathetic Uses of Potential are from here. With an awesome video game-inspired video, this insanely catchy track doesn't sound better than when "you are doing 180 on the DVP." Although we call shenanigans, because you can never go that fast on the Don Valley parking lot. 36 Rough Trade High School Confidential From the album: Avoid Freud, 1980 Toronto connnections: Had several members centred around Carole Pope and Kevan Staples. The new wave bands biggest hit was considered one of the most sexually explicit songs on the radio at the time, and has become a gay anthem. 35 Jackie Mittoo Soul Bird From the album: Wishbone, 1971 Toronto connnections: Jamaican legend immigrated to the city. Mittoo was already well known as a member of the Skatalites and other bands, but moved to Toronto amid the wave of Caribbean immigration in the 60s and 70s, which created what is now called the Jamaica-Toronto scene  theres a 2006 Light in the Attic Records compilation called Jamaica to Toronto  of which this joyous, horn-drenched track is a highlight. 34 Michie Mee & L.A. Luv Jamaican Funk From the album: Jamaican Funk  Canadian Style, 1991 Toronto connnections: Born in Jamaica, Mee moved here at a young age. Canadas hip-hop queen started performing at 14, and she was the first local MC signed by a U.S. label. This track demonstrates the Caribbean influence that is intertwined with this citys urban music. 33 The Poles CN Tower From the album: CN Tower EP, 1977 Toronto connnections: Take a guess. An intoxicating mix of punk and new wave led by Michaela Jordan on vocals, the band was the centre of the punk scene the grew around the Crash n Burn club on Queen St. W. This track was a hit inspired  long before Drakes Views -- by the then-new monument that still towers over the city. 32 The Mynah Birds Its My Time 1966 Toronto connnections: Lived and died in Yorkville. Rick James (then James Johnson) was basically AWOL on a navy call-up and fled to Canada when he chanced into a lead-singer role with this nascent northern-R&B combo. A chap named Neil Young would enter the lineup shortly before the revolving-door membership would solidify long enough to record a 7-inch for Motown, featuring Its My Time backed with Go On and Cry. For a number of shady reasons, it never saw the light of day until it appeared on The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966 in 2006. But it exists. The Rick James/Neil Young summit did happen. And it happened in Toronto. 31 The Pursuit of Happiness I'm an Adult Now From the album: Love Junk, 1987 Toronto connnections: A huge local indie success story before that became a thing. The band was formed by Moe Berg and independently released this track as 12-inch and shot a cheap-as-crud video clip that quickly blew up, charting nationally, getting airplay on MuchMusic and getting the group signed to Chrysalis Records, and eventually having their debut, Love Junk, produced by Todd Rundgren. 30 The Diodes Tired of Waking up Tired From the album: Released, 1979 Toronto connnections: Toronto connection: Seminal punk band opened up the Crash 'n' Burn club, which was centre of Torontos punk scene. In 2011, the Diodes was voted "Best Toronto Band ever" by Toronto Star readers. The single would later be covered on a split 7-inch by fellow local heroes Change of Heart and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. 29 Cowboy Junkies Misguided Angel From the album: The Trinity Session, 1988 Toronto connnections: Toronto connection: Sibling-led band formed in Toronto. This album was a critical and commercial hit, and was recorded in the Church of the Holy Trinity with all the members around a single microphone, giving it a live-off-the-floor feel. Although the album contained a number of creatively reimagined covers, this original track was one of its hits. Became a surprise sleeper success outside of the country, too. 28 Devon Mr. Metro 1990 Toronto connnections: Malton raised rapper and multi-instrumentalist. While it was inspired by a racist incident in the U.S., the local MC aimed this at the Toronto police, using "to Serve and Protect" to satirical effect. The video was controversial, and the police threatened to sue for defamation for clips where officers could be identified, which were eventually blacked out. Devon won a Juno for Best Rap Recording, and the video won an MMVA in 1993. 27 Rolling Stones Before They Make Me Run From the album: Some Girls, 1978 Toronto connnections: Jagger and the boys have had a long-standing relationship with the city. The Stones recorded parts of the 1977 live album Love You Live at the still-in-stasis El Mocambo and have used Toronto as a staging ground for tours  whilst occasionally playing a secret gig here and there  for years. But this is the only Stones track that the city can truly claim: written and sung by Keith Richards, it was inspired by his getting busted for heroin possession at the Toronto airport in 1977. 26 Toronto Your Daddy Don't Know From the album: Get it on Credit, 1982 Toronto connnections: Hmm, can't think of any. Formed in the late 70s, these rockers had a few hits in the early 80s, with "Your Daddy Don't Know" becoming the highest charting of all their releases. They also wrote "What About Love," which became a chart-topping hit for Heart. 25 The Jeff Healey Band Angel Eyes From the album: See the Light, 1988 Toronto connnections: Raised in the city's west end. The late, blind guitar whiz and singer/songwriter was a musical virtuoso known for his jazz and blues work, but this pop-hit power ballad reached No. 5 on the Billboard chart. A basement club at Queen and Bathurst used to bear his name. 24 K-OS Crabbuckit From the album: Joyful Rebellion, 2004 Toronto connnections: Born and raised. The first single off his eventual platinum-selling second album was the song that really put k-os over the top, and became the first hip hop song to win Juno Single of the Year. The They Live-inspired video  which won the MMVA for video of the year  features the artist walking around the Trinity Bellwoods Park area wearing sunglasses that reveal various people to be crab-like creatures. 23 Anne Murray Snowbird From the album: This Way is My Way, 1969 Toronto connnections: Nova Scotia-born Canadian legends career took off here. She sang O Canada at the Blue Jays first home game in 1977. The first female artist to sell more than 50 million albums, Murray is a country-pop legend who has won four Grammy Awards, a record 24 Junos and helped pave the way for Canadian women including k.d. lang and Celine Dion. 22 Gordon Lightfoot On Yonge St. From the album: A Painter Passing Through, 1998 Toronto connnections: Born in Orillia, but the folk singer is a national treasure who has lived here forever and was synonymous with the old Yorkville folk scene. This track about the longest street in the world seems to be from a day that most locals wouldn't recognize: "Everyone you pass seems to wanna say hello." Maybe to you, Mr. Lightfoot, but most locals we know avert their eyes. 21 Owen Pallet This Lamb sells Condos From the album: He Poos Clouds, 2006 Toronto connnections: Mississauga-born violin virtuoso played in several local bands. Pallett  whose solo album won the inaugural Polaris Prize  pokes fun at Brad Lamb, a local real-estate agent whose billboards once often featured his head on the body of a lamb. 20 Peaches F--k the Pain Away From the album: The Teaches of Peaches, 2000 Toronto connnections: She was born Merrill Nisker  and reborn as the deliciously raunchy Peaches  here. A seminal electronic track, this is her signature tune, which has been covered and used in all kinds of films and television licensing and been cited as an influence by musicians including Thom Yorke. Originally released on the late, great Toronto indie label Teenage USA before the rest of the world got a hold of it. 19 F--ked Up Municipal Prick From the album: Police, 2003 Toronto connnections: Local hardcore heroes who won the Polaris Prize for 2008s The Chemistry of Common Life. While concept album Chemistry is their masterpiece, this track featured lead singer Damian Abraham shouting the names of municipal politicians. 18 Shuffle Demons Spadina Bus From the album: Streetniks, 1986 Toronto connnections: Wacky local jazzbos. They broke into the sort-of-mainstream with this hit off their debut, which literally shouted out one of the TTC's most popular routes. The track was then used as the soundtrack to Speakers Corner on City. This is the main reason any Canadian of a certain age outside of Toronto even knew what a Spadina bus was back in the day. 17 Leonard Cohen Closing Time From the album: The Future, 1992 Toronto connnections: Montreal legend pays tribute to one of our own. Not to be confused with the Semisonic song  or the Tom Waits song  with the same title, this country-tinged track is the legendary's singer songwriter's ode to the Matador, the infamous ballroom-turned-boozecan at College St. and Dovercourt Rd. that is still trying to come back to life as a more legit live-music destination. The venues current owners have diligently made sure Cohens signature is preserved on the old dressing-room wall. 16 Kardinal Offishall Bakardi Slang From the album: Quest for Fire Vol. 1, 2000 Toronto connnections: Homegrown hip hop torch bearer. Off this second album, it was his first solo hit to chart across Canada, and was re-recorded for U.S. release and became a hit in Jamaica. The song popularized T-Dot as a far sexier nickname for Toronto than Hogtown. The video features the rapper driving through hoods like Oakwood and Jane and Finch in a Humvee. 15 The Weeknd Secrets From the album: Starboy, 2017 Toronto connnections: Global superstar helped kick off our indie r&b scene. From the three free, critically acclaimed EPs that launched his career to his current hitmaking status, this track shows his hometown roots with video scenes shot at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus and the Toronto Reference Library. 14 Dream Warriors My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style From the album: And Now The Legacy Begins, 1991 Toronto connnections: King Lou and Capital Q were from the Jane and Finch area. Considered jazz rap and alternative hip-hop pioneers, Dream Warriors debut did well nationally, spawning hits including "Wash Your Face in My Sink," "Ludi and this, their most successful track worldwide. A song that managed to sample Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova" and reference the cheesy Canadian game show Definition, Dream Warriors helped define upbeat early Canadian hip-hop. 13 The Band The Weight From the album: Music from Big Pink, 1968 Toronto connnections: They started out here as The Hawks, Ronnie Hawkins backing band, before they backed-up some guy named Bob Dylan. People forget The Band is Canadian (with some American members) but this is one of the best-known songs by one of the greatest rock bands of all time. At one point they were known as the Canadian Squires. 12 Snow Informer From the album: Twelve Inches of Snow, 1992 Toronto connnections: Born, raised and briefly incarcerated here. Considered one of the best and worst songs of the 1990s, Snow's patois-laden dancehall reggae track remains inexplicably compelling. It won a 1994 Juno for Best Reggae Recording and, after spending seven weeks at the top of the Billboard charts, is one of the most successful reggae songs of all time. 11 The Lowest of the Low Just about the Only Blues From the album: Shakespeare My Butt, 1991 Toronto connnections: For a time, the biggest indie band in town. The album is considered a Canadian rock classic, spawning several singles, including "Bleed a Little While Tonight" and "Eternal Fatalist." Full of local references  "Under the Carlaw Bridge"  this song is inspired by The Only Cafe, which is still slinging beers on the Danforth. 10 Martha & the Muffins Echo Beach From the album: Metro Music, 1980 Toronto connnections: Formed for a party at the Ontario College of Art. The first album from this Canadian synth-pop outfit spawned this single, which became an international hit for the group that they never topped. But these guys wanted the world to know where they were from. The single included a map of the Toronto Islands, and the album a map of the city. Today there is lakeside concert venue on the grounds of Ontario Place named after the track. 9 The Spoons Romantic Traffic From the album: Listen to the City, 1984 Toronto connnections: The first music video to be entirely shot on the TTC. This single from the Burlington new wave band appeared on the soundtrack to the Ron Mann film Listen to the City. Romantic Traffic went on to become a hit across Canada, but the video remains a slice of pure local nostalgia. (Remember when we had red subway cars?) 8 Parachute Club Rise Up  From the album: Parachute Club, 1983 Toronto connnections: Big part of the Queen Street scene. A social justice anthem that was ahead of its time, calling for peace and "freedom to love who we please, the track was the biggest hit for this group, rising up across the country and on the Billboard chart. It won the Juno for Single of the Year, beating Bryan Adams "Cuts Like a Knife" and Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night." 7 Blue Rodeo Try From the album: Outskirts, 1987 Toronto connnections: Country rock legends formed here in 1984. If you can't make it in New York, come back to Toronto and go on to become Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees. This single off their first record really kicked things off for the band that went on to win Junos for Single and Video of the Year, launching a long and illustrious career. Emblematic of the Queen West roots n roll sound of the 80s. 6 Broken Social Scene Anthems for a 17 year old girl From the album: You Forgot it in People, 2002 Toronto connnections: The sprawling indie rock collective was formed in a near-Parkdale basement by originators Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew. The second album from the group that has ranged in size from five to more than 20 members features this fan-favourite track with Metrics Emily Haines on vocals. The band helped kick off the idyllic Torontopia vibe and the careers of Metric, Stars, Leslie Feist and pretty much everyone else in Canada ever associated with it. 5 Drake Started from the Bottom From the album: Nothing Was the Same, 2013 Toronto connnections: 6ix God. The artist that made hometown pride part of his brand, Drake has a plethora of tracks that could have made the list. This tune, which famously charts his rise from the bottom to here, wins for the unmistakably Toronto-set video, which serves as an f-bomb-laden tourism ad with Drizzy and friends in Shoppers Drug Mart uniforms. The only way he could beat that was if he reprised his role as Jimmy on Degrassi. 4 Barenaked Ladies If I had a million dollars From the album: Gordon, 1992 Toronto connnections: Once famously banned from city hall for its controversial name, these Scarborough heroes had the last laugh. One of their first and most beloved songs honed during busking sessions on local street corners, it appeared on their earliest recordings and their major label debut, Gordon. A perfect example of the band's goofy humour, with lyrics that were often improvised, it landed at No. 2 on CBC's 50 Tracks radio program in 2005. It also briefly occasioned the band being (fondly) pelted by boxes of Kraft Dinner during its performances. 3 Rush The Spirit of Radio From the album: Permanent Waves, 1980 Toronto connnections: Our gift to the world of prog-rock. The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees recently quietly called it quits after 41 years. With so many career phases  and Toronto-centric contenders like "YYZ" and Subdivisions"  Rush made it tough to choose just one, but we'll go with this hit that took its inspiration from the tagline for CFNY. 2 Maestro Fresh-Wes Let Your Backbone Slide From the album: Symphony in Effect, 1989 Toronto connnections: Born and raised. The song that birthed Canadian hip-hop, with a precious video shot around town  and featuring a cameo from the CBC's Dwight Drummond  it was the first Canadian hip-hop single that charted in the U.S., and eventually went on to win the Juno for Best Rap Recording. The song has inspired many rappers  including Drake  and for almost two decades was the best selling Canadian hip-hop single of all time. It's still a jam. 1 The Tragically Hip 50 Mission Cap From the album: Fully Completely, 1992 Toronto connnections: The quintessential Canadian band sings about a Leaf legend. While originally from Kingston, the bulk of the Hip's membership eventually moved here. One of bands most popular songs, 50 Mission Cap has long tied the group to the beloved hockey team. The song popularized vanished Toronto Maple Leaf Bill Barilko's story and the retired jersey was recently used as part of the team's tribute to the late Gord Downie.

Read more about:I am getting the impression that Doug Ford, newly minted leader of the Ontario PC Party, really does not want to have the talk.

You know, the talk about sex.

When asked during a combative CBC radio interview this week to go into detail about his promise to repeal the Ontario sex-education curriculum, Ford sounded like my kids used to while growing up when I broached the tricky subject of sex with them: evasive and pretty keen to change the subject.

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I have an idea. Why dont we talk about important things, about the economy? he testily asked Ottawa Morning host Robyn Bresnahan.

She had just contradicted his false assertion that parents had not been consulted in the updating of the sex-education curriculum, which has been in place, despite uproar in some communities, since 2015.

In fact, as Premier Kathleen Wynne reiterated this week, parents along with educators, medical professionals and even the police were widely consulted, especially on the pivotal point of age appropriateness.

When pressed, Ford could not cite any specific item from the curriculum egregious enough to justify him, a man who clearly respects taxpayer money, embarking if he wins on what could be a costly process of repeal, consult further and replace with a new curriculum.

But he did simplistically state this issue is really about respecting parents, adding what happens to our own kids is our business, its not about the Liberal ideology thats being breathed down our back.

In other words, repealing the sex-education curriculum is an ideological issue.

Its how Ford got social conservatives on board to elect him party leader, especially the supporters of fellow leadership candidate Tanya Granic Allen, head of a parents group that fiercely opposed the curriculum.

It was Granic Allen, remember, who shot to spurious stardom during the first Conservative leadership debate when she said that math scores might be higher and students more focused if theyre not talking about anal sex in the classroom.

Her use of that specific sexual term caused another leadership hopeful, Caroline Mulroney, to later quip that her kids learned more about sex from watching that first debate than in school. Mulroney was the only leadership candidate who said she would not reopen the sex-ed issue.

Sex and politicians. Not a good mix.

Some turn out to be hypocrites, like former U.S. Republican congressman Tim Murphy, who was publicly anti-abortion but resigned after reports he privately urged that option on a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Some turn out to be panderers, like Doug Ford, dazzled when audiences cheer wildly at his promise to repeal sex-education, but who appears to know nothing about the actual curriculum.

While not all parents who currently oppose sex-education are social conservatives, two of its most vocal opponents are Granic Allen and evangelist Charles McVety, both anti-abortion crusaders who have labelled this sex-education curriculum radical.

They would much rather see an emphasis on love and marriage than, say, gender expression.

Even if you discount ideology, religious values or outright intolerance, this issue should not only be about respecting the parents.

It should be about respecting our children and their right to have up to the minute information  both scientific and social  that will help keep them safe in a complex world that can become sexually toxic for them before Mom and Dad even suspect they are ready for certain details. (Not my little girl!)

In fact, in the #MeToo era in which we have learned that even relatively empowered actresses felt pressured into sexual encounters with now disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, I cant think of anything more important than giving our children specific knowledge  on consent, and on sex in the digital era  that will empower them and keep them safe.

Parents are often the last to accurately gauge when their kids need sexual information.

A recent article in the New York Times titled Teenagers Are Sexting  Now What? quoted University of Calgary psychologist Sheri Madigan, who authored a large study on digital sexual activity, saying that because the average age of first cellphone ownership is 10.3, parents need to start talking to their kids at a much younger age than they might have assumed: Let them know not to get into a car with a stranger, let them know that text messages and emails and online communications should never include anyone with no clothes, Madigan said.

Its terrifying to parents of any ideological stripe that young kids have to be armed with such information. But unless you keep them in a bubble, away from phones, screens and even other kids who might be well ahead of them, they simply need to know.

No sex-education program is perfect but it can still be a valuable two-way street. Kids can learn something in school and tell their parents about it, perhaps opening up a conversation they wouldnt have otherwise.

Most parents are challenged daily by making a living, keeping their own relationships healthy, spending enough time with their children, motivating them in school, and just getting by.

Many are grateful for the help that comprehensive sex-education gives them. There is less chance of missing something important that could affect your child.

Doug Ford would prefer to keep it vague. In an interview with the Star, he now says he is not looking at a big massive change in the sex-education curriculum.

That response wont satisfy either social conservatives who want many changes more in line with their values, or progressives who want him to leave it alone. Or even anyone in between.

They need the kind of details Ford is so far unwilling to give.

Time for the talk, Doug.

Judith Timson writes weekly about cultural, social and political issues. You can reach her at judith.timson@sympatico.ca and follow her on Twitter @judithtimson.

Read more about:ANCHORAGE, AlaskaTwo experienced mountain climbers trying to tackle a new route in Alaska were presumed dead after climbing ropes that matched their gear were found in a crevasse, authorities said Wednesday.

George Ryan Johnson, 34, of Juneau, and Marc-Andre Leclerc, 25, of Squamish, B.C., were reported missing after they failed to return from a climb March 7 on a seven-peaked mountain not far from Alaskas capital city.

Rescuers had to wait until Tuesday for the weather to clear to fly to Mendenhall Towers, a mountain that rises nearly 2,134 metres over the Juneau Ice Field, about 20 km north of Juneau.

They found an intact anchor rope at the top of an ice chute on one peak and saw two climbing ropes in a crevasse midway down the same peak.

Megan Peters, a spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers, said it wasnt clear what went wrong because no one saw what happened.

We know they made it to the top. We know they set anchor, she said. Whether they were taken out by an avalanche, whether their rope failed  I mean, anything could happen.

Officials wont be able to recover the bodies right away because of avalanche danger. Johnson and Leclerc had been flown to the mountain and planned to ski out to an area to be picked up.

Leclerc was considered a gifted climber. Outside magazine called him one of the best young alpinists in the world, and his biography on the website of a sponsor, Canadian outdoor equipment company ArcTeryx, says he completed several ascents in Canada and Patagonia.

Sadly, we have lost two really great climbers and I lost a son I am very proud of, Leclercs father, Serge, wrote on Facebook. Thank you for the support during this difficult time. My heart is so broken ... Part of me is gone with him.

Treya Klassen, a close friend of Serge Leclerc, said last week that the younger Leclerc had his eye on climbing Mendenhall Towers for a decade.

An online version of Alpinist magazine said Johnson knew the mountain. He had scaled Mendenhall Towers multiple times and received an American Alpine Club grant earlier this year to climb the 4,216-metre Mount Hayes in the Alaska Range, according to the Juneau Empire newspaper.

Online fundraising pages have been set up for both men. The page for Johnson said the money will be used to pay for search efforts and to support his 2-year-old son.

Leclercs family said donations will help his partner as she and other family members grieve.

Lawmakers in the Alaska House of Representatives held a moment of silence for the climbers Wednesday.MONTREALA helicopter circled overhead and dozens of law enforcement and volunteers canvassed a Montreal neighbourhood Thursday as police assured the public they were doing everything they could to find a missing 10-year-old boy.

Police could be seen going door-to-door, speaking with residents and looking into recycling bins and under porches as groups of citizen volunteers handed out flyers to passersby.

But as of early evening, there was still no trace of Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou, police indicated.

Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said authorities still dont know what happened to the boy, who hasnt been seen since Monday.

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"He could be a lost boy, someone who was abducted or he could have fallen in the Riviere- des-Prairies (river)," he said.

Officers in boats and on horseback combed a river and a wooded riverside park where Kouakou was last seen by a witness shortly after he left his family home to head to a friends house, he said.

More than 120 tips have been called in since police launched an Amber Alert for several hours Tuesday, but Brabant said none of them have proved concrete.

For now, all the hypotheses are looked at because we dont have any leads, he said in an interview.

We have more than 100 tips that came into our line and all of them were looked at, but none of those helped us to start a point of search.

Brabant said that while officers were considering all possibilities, they were not currently planning to reissue the Amber Alert, which is triggered in the case of abductions.

The boys father, Frederic Kouakou, told reporters he is convinced the boy was kidnapped, and he appealed to anyone with information to come forward.

Yannick Adou, one of several dozen volunteers who was helping in the search, said he too believes the boy was abducted, adding the group would be going door-to-door to find out if Kouakou is in someones home.

Adou, who knows the Kouakou family, said the disappearance of one of the communitys children was felt by everyone.

Im a father, I have three kids, so its painful to know that we lost one of our kids, he said.

We are mobilized to find Ariel, and its very, very important for all of us.

Another volunteer, Sandra St-Amour, said she didnt know the family but, as a mother, was moved by their plight.

When a kid is missing, everybody should come give a hand because it could be your kid, you never know, she said.

Volunteers were met by a police officer and sent out in small groups to recheck parts of the neighbourhood to ensure nothing had been missed.

Idris Doumbia, a friend of the family who helped to co-ordinate them, estimated that more than 100 people had volunteered throughout the day.

Police say the boy, who is French-speaking, is Black, has black hair and black eyes and was wearing a black coat with a hood, grey pants and yellow shoes before he disappeared.

A mobile command post remained in the area and authorities were asking anyone with information to call police.

Brabant said police do not currently need more volunteers to join the search. Instead, they should share the boy's information and keep an eye out for him if they live nearby, he said.

Brabant admitted the search was becoming harder with each passing day but said police won't give up until the boy is found.

"It's quite rare (in the case of) a young boy who has been missing for three days in a residential neighbourhood for nobody to see anything," he said.

Read more about:MONTREALOlympic figure skater Meagan Duhamel strode slowly from cage to cage Thursday, greeting some of Canadas newest arrivals from South Korea at an emergency dog shelter in Montreal.

Youre scared eh? Thats OK, she said, reaching out a reassuring hand to a big golden-coloured dog named Bear.

Duhamel was on hand as Humane Society Internationals Canadian branch detailed its latest operation, bringing more than 80 dogs to the organizations emergency shelter in Montreal from a farm in Siheung-si, South Korea.

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The Olympic star, who ended her competitive career in the recent Winter Games in South Korea with a bronze medal in pairs figure skating and a gold in a team event, added her voice to those calling for an end to the dog-meat trade.

After inspecting many of the canines, Duhamel said it is heartbreaking to see them when all they want is love.

Some of the dogs that were destined for the dinner plate were clearly suspicious and scared of interacting with humans at the Montreal shelter.

But there are others who are friendly and loving and I think that theyll adjust very well into homes and a loving family, said Duhamel, 32.

I just hope they all find a home and people that will treat them well.

Ewa Demianowicz, senior campaign manager for HSIs Canadian branch, who was on site in South Korea for the recent removal, described the conditions as deplorable and showed a video of multiple dogs crammed into tight quarters with fellow pups.

They were exposed to the elements and living off restaurant waste with no water, socialization or proper vet care, she said.

Duhamel, a vegan for the past decade, has travelled extensively in Asia over the past 15 years and had heard about dog meat being readily available in South Korea and China.

Wanting to help, she started by making a monetary donation and volunteering to fly with dogs back to North America.

I thought: why would I hope this dog gets adopted and rescued  why wouldnt I bring the dog back myself and keep him and give him a loving home? Duhamel said.

Thats how she ended up adopting Moo-tae, a miniature dachshund mix who was rescued from a South Korean dog-meat farm about one year ago.

The Humane Society says there are an estimated 17,000 facilities in South Korea, where some 2.5 million canines are raised for human consumption yearly.

Borami Seo, a South Korean member of HSI, said its an industry in dire straits because of a dwindling older clientele and rising household pet ownership.

They (some farmers) want to stop this industry because they know its a dying industry, there are not many people eating dog meat, Seo said. My family, my friends, I dont know anyone who consumes dog meat.

HSI said it has helped shutter 11 dog-meat farms and rescued about 1,300 dogs in South Korea. The farmers sign a legal agreement with HSI to move into more humane vocations.

Finding adoptive homes for bigger dogs in South Korea is problematic given most people live in Seoul, where smaller living spaces are the norm.

Thats not an issue in North America, where the plan is to find each a place to live, said HSI Canada executive director Rebecca Aldworth.

This rescue will not be successful until these dogs end up in forever homes, so we need the public to open up their hearts and homes to these dogs, Aldworth said.MONTREALThe head of Quebecs human and childrens rights commission has resigned after a report that he was the focus of a police investigation into allegations he had sexual relations with a teenage boy and later paid $50,000 to the alleged victim to settle a lawsuit.

Camil Picard, a trained psychologist who has been working for Quebecs Director of Youth Protection since the 1990s, was named to the Quebecs Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse in 2013 as vice-president responsible for youth issues. He was named interim president of the human rights commission last November.

His resignation as interim president was announced Thursday morning by Quebec Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee.

The facts that were revealed this morning are extremely troubling, she told reporters in Quebec City.

A spokesperson for Vallee told the Star in an email that the government later learned Picard had also resigned his post as vice-president.

According to a report in La Presse, Picard was alleged to have had sexual relations with a 16-year-old boy in 1983, offering him a job at a Quebec City group home for troubled youth, as well as cocaine, red wine and gifts such as a leather jacket, a watch and ski tickets.

Over the course of about 10 months, Picard and the boy allegedly had sexual relations seven or eight times.

The newspaper obtained its information from a sworn declaration that Yvan Cote, the alleged victim, made to police in 2007. Cote died in 2012.

According to La Presse, the Quebec City police investigation included a hidden-camera conversation between Cote and Picard. The results of the probe were submitted to the Quebec Crown Prosecutors office, which decided against laying criminal charges against Picard.

Cote then had a lawyer threaten Picard with a civil lawsuit over the abuse, though one was never filed because an agreement to pay $50,000 to the alleged victim was reached in 2010.

The Quebec human rights commission did not respond to a request for comment from the Star Thursday.

Picard denied the allegations to La Presse: I dont know where youre getting this from. Im surprised and unsettled by what you are telling me. You cant accuse someone of something they havent been charged with and didnt do.

The newspaper said it also received a lawyers letter on Picards behalf in which he categorically denies the allegations.

The Quebec government was apparently not made aware of Picards past when he underwent a background check before being named to the human rights commission, which is a government appointment.

Read more about:Police have charged a man with second degree murder after finding a 39-year-old woman and her 15-year-old son dead in an Ajax home. Her 13-year-old daughter was also found in the home with life-threatening injuries, and died in hospital late Wednesday night.

Its an isolated incident  its not a random attack, Const. George Tudos told reporters.

The 15-year-old has been identified as Roy Pejcinovski, a star goalie with the Don Mills Flyers bantam AAA hockey team.

Team president Peter MacInnis said Pejcinovskis death is a tremendous loss for the Flyers, which are in the city finals to represent the Greater Toronto Area for the provincial championship.

Its tough for the players on the team, the parents, the staff  he was a great kid, MacInnis told The Canadian Press. And his buddies on the team are 14 or 15, how do you deal with that?

Durham Region police were called to the area around 11 a.m. Wednesday after a woman went to a house on Hilling Dr., near Westney Rd. S. and Lake Driveway W., to check on her friend.

She was instead met at the door by a man who refused to let her inside, police said. After barring her from entering, he fled the area in a vehicle.

The man is believed to have been in a relationship with the deceased woman, police said, but hes not the father of the children. He also didnt live at the home with the family.

Police said there was a third child in the family who was not in the house at the time of the attack.

She was located by police safe and sound at another location, Tudos said.

Numerous comments expressing sadness have been posted to the 15-year-olds Instagram in the hours following the news by friends and well-wishers.

MacInnis said the teen was a top player, who had promising prospects in next years Ontario Hockey League draft.

He was an elite athlete, he was absolutely the teams No. 1 goalie and he has been for several years, he said, adding that grief counsellors were brought in at Wednesday nights practice to break the news to Pejcinovskis teammates.

MacInnis said the Flyers were scheduled to play Friday, but the team has asked the league to postpone the game as players cope with the loss of their goalie.

There are a whole lot of mixed emotions, he said. If it happened in the summer, it would still be a tragedy, but the fact that the team is in the high part of the season, its very difficult.

The team plans to do something in Pejcinovskis honour, MacInnis said, but details will be discussed later.

Police found the vehicle the suspect fled in abandoned in the Brock Rd. and Highway 401 area in Pickering a couple hours later. Later that evening, police arrested the man without incident at a residence in Oshawa.

Before the death of the 13-year-old girl was confirmed, the 29-year-old Ajax man  who has not been named by police  was set to be charged with two counts of second degree murder and one of attempted murder. He is appearing in court Thursday morning.

Hes going to be held for a bail hearing and well be releasing the name of that individual (Thursday) once that informations sworn before the courts, Tudos said.

The exact cause of death is still unknown, but post-mortems have been scheduled.

Tudos wouldnt comment when asked about a report that one of the victims was found with a stab wound to the neck.

Correction - March 15, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that said Roy Pejcinovski was a star goalie with the Don Mills Flyers minor midget hockey team.

With files from Reka Szekely, Tamar Harris, Annie Arnone and The Canadian PressAMERICAN CANYON -- American Canyon Middle School has joined elite company in the New Technology Network (NTN) after being named an exemplary school as well as a National Demonstration Site to show off their achievements.

ACMS was one of four schools selected from the nearly 200 NTN campuses in the country. The other three demonstration sites chosen were Central Coast New Tech in Nipomo, New Tech Institute in Evansville, Indiana, and Niles New Tech Entrepreneurial Academy in Michigan.

The middle school is the second Napa Valley Unified School District campus chosen as a demonstration site. In 2016, Napa Junction Elementary School received the same honor.

As a National Demonstration Site, they will host visitors and provide training for schools throughout the country to showcase their best practices, said Krista Clark, communications director for New Tech Network.

ACMS has hosted delegations of instructors and education officials in recent years.

In 2015, a group of Chinese principals and administrators visited ACMS as part of its mission to research Western-style education and how American schools are changing to fit the needs of their students and keep pace with changes in technology, including the use of Project Based Learning.

A New Tech school since 2012, ACMS was selected as a demonstration site because it has shown successful implementation of standards-based Project Based Learning, deep integration and use of technology, so that all students gain the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life, college and the careers of tomorrow, New Tech Network said in a press release.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.Peel police are receiving tips from the public on the possible identity of three men who viciously beat a man with autism at the Square One bus terminal Tuesday night, leaving him with a broken nose and cuts to his face.

We have been getting tips and (investigators) are doing follow-ups, confirmed Peel spokesperson Const. Harinder Sohi Thursday morning.

The 29-year-old victim was treated and released from hospital.

His nose was broken, and he had lacerations to his face, Sohi said.

Social media has been awash with public outrage over the brief and shocking attack ever since police appealed for help finding the attackers and released security video footage of the seemingly random violence.

Surveillance video released by police shows the man, 29, sitting on the bottom of a flight of stairs and lacing up a pair of rollerblades when he was approached behind by three men around 10:45 p.m. The man was punched in the face before the three unidentified males repeatedly punched, kneed and stomped on him. The assault appeared to last under 10 seconds.

This young man was sitting there and three punks started beating on him ... He did not deserve this, wrote Nicole Ed on Facebook.

The victim was taken to hospital following the assault on the stairs of the bus terminals lower level.

The three suspects are described as South Asian males with a light to medium complexion. One had a short beard and was wearing a black T-shirt with a red Air Jordan logo and white Jordan lettering, with black track pants and black shoes.

Another was clean-shaven, wearing a black jacket with a grey horizontal stripe across the chest and a grey vertical stripe along the hood, black track pants and black shoes.

The third was unshaven, wearing a black hoodie with a Nike logo on the front and white Nike lettering along the sleeves, black track pants and black shoes.

Anyone with information can call police at 905-453-2121, ext. 1233 or Peel Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

With files from Brennan DohertyA 21-year-old female pedestrian is in critical condition with multiple injuries after she was the victim of a hit-and-run in the downtown core early Wednesday morning.

Just after 2:20 a.m., a northbound Toyota was in the wrong lane when it struck the woman while she was crossing Huron St. on the north side of College St., Toronto police said.

She was rushed to Toronto General Hospital in critical condition.

The 19-year-old male driver fled the scene and was later found by police in Forest Hill.

Rylan Balappa-Lawes, of Mississauga, has been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, fail to stop after accident causing bodily harm, impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, and more than 80 mgs operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.Back in March 2011 when thousands of Syrians took over the countrys streets, Torontos Bayan Khatib was beaming with pride and hope for her native country.

I very fondly remember exciting, hopeful, glorious days. Many of us Syrian activists had never felt more alive, she said of the sweeping movement that championed freedom, peace and democracy. We used to have thousands of people come to our protests here in Toronto. Everybody was so excited and hopeful for the whole Arab spring.

Fast forward seven years later, the dreams of a free and democratic Syria have been shattered by an ongoing civil war that has destroyed cities, killed thousands of people and driven others into exile. No one could have predicted this outcome, said Khatib.

This Saturday evening, she and dozens of other local Syrian activists will gather at Yonge-Dundas, singing the chants of the revolution and remembering those who have lost their lives during these past seven years.

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The event is about keeping hope alive for a peaceful and democratic Syria, while also calling upon the world to push for the end of violence against civilians, Khatib said.

The dream of a free Syria continues to live on, she said. I dont have hope in the international community but it is our only hope to force (President Bashar) al-Assad to stop the killings and step down.

Human rights groups and humanitarian organizations continue to decry the deteriorating situation, with frequent bombings of hospitals, schools and other public areas where people are seeking refuge. The United Nations even said the violence could amount to crimes against humanity, according to the Associated Press.

In its latest report on the plight of Syrian children living inside the country and in refugee camps across the region, World Vision Canada warns the stress of war could have irreversible impact on their long-term physical and emotional well-being.

The groups director of humanitarian and emergency affairs Lindsay Gladding said the world needs to show real commitment and support a ceasefire in order to hold successful peace talks between the warring parties.

Were not doing enough. We cant continue to see this as just business as usual, she said.

By the numbers:

Over 5.5 million Syrians have fled the country since 2011, half of them children. Another six million have been internally displaced.

Over 70 per cent of Syrian children in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan live in overcrowded housing, with insufficient access to water and electricity.

Over 80 per cent of Syrian children in the three countries have no psychological support, and over 55 per cent have no access to basic healthcare.

Source: World Vision Canadas Beyond Survival report

Read more about:The federal government is now investigating a serious incident at the International Centre in Mississauga that sent a worker to hospital after he was hit with a forklift.

The incident occurred Monday March 12.

A worker was directing a forklift driver and the driver accidentally pushed the worker up against the safety railings, according to information provided to Michael Prescott, International Centre CEO. The driver immediately backed up and released the worker, who suffered a blow to the chest and abdomen area.

Read more:

Worker in critical condition after being trapped under forklift at International Centre in Mississauga: police

The injured man was rushed to Sunnybrook hospital by Peel paramedics.

We can report that his X-ray results did not indicate any serious injuries and he was released from the hospital the same day, Prescott said in a statement, refuting earlier reports from witnesses that the man was trapped or pinned under the forklift.

The accident was deemed driver error and no charges were brought against The International Centre, he added.

Both the driver and injured worker were employed by an outside supplier to The International Centre.

Ontarios Ministry of Labour said the incident falls under federal jurisdiction and said Employment and Social Development Canada is now investigating.

The Government of Canada believes every employee has the right to a healthy and safe workplace, and to return home safely at the end of their work day, said spokesperson Christopher Simard. The labour program is currently conducting an investigation. As a result, we cannot comment on this case.

Prescott said The International Centre takes workplace safety issues seriously.

We are committed to maintaining a healthy and safe workplace for all employees and outside contractors; our goal is to protect the well-being of all persons in the workplace, he said.

Read more about:Mossack Fonseca, the offshore law firm behind the Panama Papers, is dead.

The Panamanian firm that gained international notoriety two years ago when its internal database was leaked, revealing decades of questionable business practices that facilitated money laundering, corruption, bribery and tax evasion, will close its remaining offices by the end of the month.

According to a statement obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the firm blamed the Panama Papers scandal for its demise.

The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, whose obligatory consequence is the total cessation of operations to the public, the statement said.

The firm also said it would continue to call for justice and would cooperate with authorities to demonstrate that no crime has been committed.

The law firm, which once boasted 600 employees in 40 offices on tropical islands, European duchies and Asian city states, administered 214,000 offshore entities tied to 12 current or former heads of state, 140 politicians and others. The Panama Papers revelations prompted the prime ministers of Iceland and Pakistan to resign.

Mossack Fonseca has grown smaller since the Panama Papers went public. It was raided by authorities in Panama and El Salvador, hit with a record fine in the British Virgin Islands and shut down its offices in the British overseas territories and United States.

Tax collectors around the world have recouped more than $500 million from people named in the leak.

The Panama Papers investigations have helped catalyse global public opinion against tax havens for helping criminals and corrupt politicians launder their illicit funds, concealing trillions from public tax coffers around the world.

Read more:

Canadas largest corporations pay far less tax than you think

CRA conducts simultaneous Panama Papers raids in the GTA, Calgary and Vancouver

Ottawa promises crackdown on loopholes that let big banks avoid billions in taxes

Canadians alone have parked more than $250 billion in the 10 most popular tax havens.

The investigation was the biggest journalistic collaboration in history. More than 400 journalists from 80 countries  including the Star and CBC/Radio-Canada  produced more than 5,000 articles and reports, which were recognized with top journalism awards including a Pulitzer Prize, the Prix Europa, and a British Journalism Award.

Politicians have credited the leak with paving the way for international agreements to crack down on corporate tax avoidance and the abuse of tax havens.

Over the last two years, Ottawa has committed more than $1 billion to the Canada Revenue Agency to beef up enforcement, targeting sophisticated offshore schemes and the tax professionals who design them.

Read more about:Doug Fords pitch to Ontario voters will be simple  no glossy magazine with 147 promises like his predecessor  and the new leader of the Progressive Conservatives predicts his popularity will help the party nab 10 Toronto seats from the Liberals.

Fords platform would lower hospital wait times, cut hydro rates, reduce the size and cost of government  but he promises all that will be done through almost $6 billion of to-be-identified efficiencies, not job losses.

Let me be clear: No one is getting laid off, Ford said during an interview at the Etobicoke head office of his familys labels business, amid Liberal predictions some 40,000 jobs are at stake.

As for a recent Forum Research poll that found the PCs would win a majority but almost half of those surveyed expressed disapproval of him as leader, he questioned the pollster and the small sample size and said hes seen polls that are absolutely opposite I am the only candidate out of anyone on both sides that attracts Liberal and NDP voters, and they know it.

Read more:

Opinion | Chantal Hebert: Doug Fords win shows that grassroot movements continue to shape Canadas politics

Opinion | Bob Hepburn: How should the media cover a hostile Doug Ford?

PC Leader Doug Ford promises to scrap the Liberals sex-ed curriculum

I know some Liberal insiders and they told me Kathleen Wynne was terrified that youd win because youd attract the 416 voters that theyve held on to for years. I proved it out in Scarborough when I helped Raymond Cho win a byelection in a stunning upset in Scarborough-Rouge River in 2016.

We are going to win nine to 10 seats in Toronto and were going to win 905.

Ford emerged victorious from the leadership of the PC party last weekend after a tough fight with Christine Elliott, who actually took the popular vote and four more ridings than he did  but he won because the ridings he captured were worth more points than the ones Elliott took.

Elliott initially contested the results, but conceded Sunday night after meeting with Ford. It was her third unsuccessful run at the leadership.

We just talked, Ford said of their hours-long meeting. Weve known each other for years  its talking to your friend, saying, Christine, we can do this together. I need your help, I need your expertise, your knowledge. I need you.

She agreed, and shes happy, Im happy, were moving forward and shes going to play a critical role in our government, he said, along with other leadership contenders Caroline Mulroney and Tanya Granic Allen.

Ford also said hes fed up with the drama around Patrick Brown, the former leader who resigned after being accused of alleged sexual misconduct with two young women while a federal MP, and who now faces a number of questions about his dealings while at the helm.

We just have to move on, Ford said, adding he has neither spoken with Brown nor decided if he will allow Brown to run under the PC banner. Im tired of this Patrick Brown saga. I just want to focus on Kathleen Wynne, and defeat Kathleen Wynne.

Ford has asked that all nominations be reviewed after a number of complaints of improper processes under Brown, and said there are still about 22 ridings where candidates need to be nominated  including his own nomination in Etobicoke North.

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)

If elected, Ford said he will put the family business, Deco Labels, into a blind trust.

Ford said his platform  which his team is going at full steam to finish, given the election is just over two months away  will be fully costed.

People want five simple points that affect their lives every day  thats the direction I gave to the policy team. I want to cost it, I want it justified and show me the numbers.

The platform will also end cap-and-trade, reduce hydro rates and, like all other areas, look at better business practices to bring costs down, he said.

There are a lot of sole-source deals in there that are officially driving up the hydro costs, and then we are going to get rid of the carbon tax as well, he said.

On education, administration could be shared and trimmed, and boards could cut costs through shared procurement  as could all government departments, he added.

All the procurement adds up to a tremendous amount, he said. We can drive costs down 15 per cent.

On the health front, Ford said hes assembled a team of health professionals  headed by Dr. Rueben Devlin, the former CEO of Humber River Hospital who was at the helm when his brother, Rob Ford, was being treated there for cancer  to look at the issue of improving wait times.

He said hell revamp the education curriculum and examine why our Grade 6 math students havent hit the provincial standards, thats concerning, he said of a trend that has been of concern around North America.

As he pledged to social conservatives during the leadership campaign, he will repeal the sex-ed curriculum  though he doesnt think a lot needs to be done.

Its not a big, massive change, he said, adding the main issues are that parents were not consulted, as well as the age-appropriateness of the material.

Ford will be at Queens Park on Tuesday to meet with caucus, and then continue to visit candidates and ridings across the province.

He said Ontarians  including Liberal and NDP voters, and disenfranchised PC members  want a fresh outlook.

Read more about:Students hoisted Stand United signs. They chanted Hey, hey, ho, ho  the NRA has got to go outside the White House. Others read the names of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High victims aloud in a sombre tribute.

These scenes played out across the country as students put down their pencils and pens and walked out of class to protest gun violence. Activists hoped it would be the biggest demonstration of student activism yet in response to last months massacre in Florida.

Read more:

School safety bill approved as FBI admits it should have done more to stop Parkland shooting

Parkland school shooting suspect silent in court, judge enters not guilty plea on his behalf

Opinion | Rossie DiManno: Maybe this is the moment the U.S. finally accepts it has a gun problem

A personal connection to Parkland

At East Chapel Hill High School in North Carolina, senior Talia Pomp said one of her best friends attends Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and texted her during the rampage last month, leaving an everlasting impact on her.

That personal connection made it like super real for me  and this has to be the last one, said Pomp, who handed out orange T-shirts with #enough written on them to her classmates.

Some of her classmates aligned their desks in a circle to discuss gun violence in America. Above them hung an image of Che Guevara, a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America and a universal symbol of revolution.

Sharing more than a name

Parkland High School outside Allentown, Penn., shares more than a name with the school in Parkland, Fla.

Stoneman Douglas freshman Daniel Duff, who survived the shooting by hiding in a closet but lost seven of his friends, is the cousin of Collin and Kyleigh Duff, who go to Parkland High in Pennsylvania. The Duff siblings have been selling #parklandforparkland bracelets, raising more than $10,000 (U.S.) for the Florida shooting victims.

Daniel Duff described what it was like to live through the shooting in a video that was shown at the rally.

How many more mass shootings does it have to take for real change? he said.

Parkland High students called for stricter gun laws, read short biographies of each of the 17 shooting victims and observed a moment of silence at 10 a.m. The gym was bathed in bright white light as students turned on their cellphone flashlights.

Collin Duff said it was important that Parkland High, a massive school of more than 3,200 students, show solidarity with the school in Parkland, Fla.

It could have happened to anyone, he said. It could have happened to us.Note: The contents of this story could be offensive to some readers.

WASHINGTONHow did George Nader  Lebanese-American businessman, globe-trotting fixer, convicted child molester  get caught up in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation?

The answer, it seems, can be found in the shadows, where Nader has long operated.

His long history included intrepid back-channel mediation between Israel and Arab countries  and a 15-year-old pedophilia conviction in Europe that has not been previously reported. But Mueller, in his investigation of U.S. President Donald Trump, his campaign and possible wrongdoing connected to Russia, is focused on Naders role in two high-level get-togethers after the presidential election, according to three people familiar with the case.

Read more:

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Putin says he doesnt care about alleged U.S. election interference

Ex-Trump aide Sam Nunberg appears before grand jury following outspoken interviews

Nader was caught in Muellers web a few days before the anniversary of Trumps inauguration. He was transiting through Dulles International Airport outside Washington, on his way to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort, when his plans changed  abruptly and involuntarily.

Muellers investigators stopped him, people familiar with the case said. His electronics were seized and he was then allowed to go see his lawyer. Nader later agreed to co-operate with Muellers investigation, said the people with knowledge of the case as it pertains to Nader. They werent authorized to speak publicly on the case and demanded anonymity.

Nader is little known to the public, a man who has led a shadowy existence as a go-between across numerous Middle East capitals and who gave testimony to Muellers Washington grand jury earlier this month.

Nader joined a meeting at New Yorks Trump Tower in December 2016 that brought together presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief strategist Steve Bannon  fired by Trump last August  and Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates.

A second meeting occurred a month later in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles and involved Nader, bin Zayed, former Blackwater boss Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to President Vladimir Putin.

Naders record of sexual abuse in Prague appears unrelated to his role in Muellers probe in the United States; it is unclear whether Muellers investigators knew about it. One of Naders lawyers, Sandeep Savla, suggested that information about his record was being leaked to stop him from co-operating.

This is nothing more than an orchestrated, disgusting scheme by those who are trying to intimidate Mr. Nader into silence. It wont work, he said. Mr. Nader will continue to answer truthfully questions put to him by the special counsel.

Kathy Ruemmler, who previously served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, is among the lawyers representing Nader. She declined to answer questions about her client.

A George Nader was convicted by Pragues Municipal Court of 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in May 2003, court spokesperson Marketa Puci told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said the crimes occurred between 1999 and 2002. She said Nader served time in a Prague prison, though it isnt clear how much. He was then ordered expelled.

Puci said Nader was convicted of moral corruption of minors, sexual abuse and impairing morals, after abusing underage boys.

In one case, Nader requested oral sex from a 14-year-old in a room at the Hilton Hotel in Prague, Puci said. After the boy refused, Nader masturbated in front of the boy and paid him about $100 (U.S.) , she said.

The verdict cites other examples of Nader providing money, jewelry, cellphones, clothes and accommodation for sexual services. The AP was able to see a copy of the verdict, which gives Naders birthdate as May 15, 1959. Nader was separately accused in Washington, D.C., of child pornography infractions in 1985, but those charges were later dropped. A criminal docket sheet obtained by the AP shows the same birthdate for Nader.

Two people with knowledge of the case confirmed it involved the same Nader now co-operating with Mueller.

Many of Naders former contacts and one-time friends have noted in recent weeks how they lost touch with him in the early 2000s.

Nader had worked in recent times as an adviser to bin Zayed, one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, according to people who know Nader. The questioning of Nader in the Mueller probe suggests possible interest in UAE relations with Trumps transition team or his administration.

Naders connections with Trump confidants include Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser who co-hosted a Tuesday night event attended by the president in Beverly Hills, California.

Earlier this month, several media organizations, including the AP, obtained emails belonging to Broidy, a California-based venture capitalist and the Republican National Committees deputy finance chairman. They show Broidy emailing Nader with a summary of Broidys talks with Kushner and Trump in the White House in October 2017, touching on matters including the UAEs bitter dispute with fellow Persian Gulf country Qatar.

Broidy accused Qatar of hacking his emails. The Qataris denied the charge.

Your governments actions against U.S. citizens will jeopardize your nations relationship with the United States, Broidy wrote in a public letter to Qatars U.S. ambassador.

In response, the Qatari government called Broidys baseless accusations a diversionary tactic.

Read more about:LONDONFor nearly three decades, since a Soviet whistle-blower told the world of its existence, the nerve agent Novichok has scared American weapons experts. The Pentagon sent teams to destroy abandoned laboratories that once produced the chemical, believed to be orders of magnitude more lethal than sarin or VX.

There was no sign of it ever being used. Until last week.

Now, Britons are taking in the disquieting information that a Novichok nerve agent, a weapon invented for use against NATO troops, was released in the quiet town of Salisbury, its target a former Russian spy named Sergei Skripal. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, collapsed onto a bench in a catatonic state on March 4, and remain hospitalized, in critical condition.

In a rare joint statement Thursday, British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and said there is no plausible alternative explanation to Russian responsibility for the attack.

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, the leaders said, calling it an assault on U.K. sovereignty and a breach of international law.

Earlier this week Britains Home Ministry indicated that it viewed state-sponsored violence by Moscow as a larger problem, announcing that it would scrutinize a series of suspicious deaths of Russians on British soil. Home Minister Amber Rudd said the police and MI5, Britains domestic security agency, would review 14 cases catalogued last year in an investigation by BuzzFeed. The British police also announced an investigation into the death on Monday of Nikolai Glushkov, a close associate of one of Putins most prominent foes.

In interviews, chemical weapons experts said it was possible that Novichok nerve agents had been used before on Kremlin targets in Britain, but had escaped detection.

Exposure, either by inhalation or through the skin, leads to muscle spasms, secretion of fluid into the lungs and organ failure, sometimes accompanied by foaming at the mouth. But if the victim has already died, experts said, the police could easily mistake the cause of death for a simple heart attack.

Its entirely likely that we have seen someone expire from this and not realized it, said Daniel Gerstein, a former senior official at the United States Department of Homeland Security who is now at the RAND Corporation. We realized in this case because they were found unresponsive on a park bench. Had it been a higher dose, maybe they would have died and we would have thought it was natural causes.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on Tuesday that his country had nothing to do with Skripals poisoning, adding that Moscow had received an incoherent response when it asked London for details, which he said amounted to a rejection of our legitimate demands.

Read more:

U.S., France and Germany unite with U.K. against Russia over nerve agent attack on ex-spy

U.K. expels 23 Russian diplomats, cuts high-level contacts over poisoning of ex-spy

Analysis | Why Vladimir Putin will never apologize for attacking an ex-spy

The dispute between the two countries has sharply worsened tensions between Russia and the West, already strained by Moscows role in the Syrian conflict and its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Though American laboratories stopped producing nerve agents around 1970, after the production of so-called third-generation nerve agents like sarin and VX, Soviet scientists continued their work for two decades, producing a fourth generation.

The Novichok nerve agents came in solid form, like a powder or thick paste, and would not register on the chemical detector paper that NATO troops used.

A chemist who worked in the laboratory developing Novichok accidentally inhaled fumes while filling a syringe, and collapsed. Though he was injected with an antidote and eventually awoke, he suffered from depression and epilepsy and died five years later, leaving Vil Mirzayanov, a scientist who helped develop the agent, deeply disillusioned.

Antidotes exist, but what does antidote mean? Mirzayanov, who had leaked the project to the press and later immigrated to the United States, told Sky News on Tuesday. Youre saving a person who has been exposed to this gas  but temporarily, not to die this time. But he will be an invalid for the rest of his life.

Andrew Weber, a former assistant secretary of defence for nuclear, chemical and biological defence programs, recalls picking his way through a secret, abandoned Soviet research facility in Nukus, Uzbekistan, which the United States was asked to helped destroy in the early 2000s.

Entering a basement room, Weber saw a disturbing sight: dozens and dozens of restraining devices used to immobilize dogs while their skin was exposed to Novichok agents in the form of a powder or paste. He said that he believed each test involved 50 to 100 dogs, and that at least 1,000 dogs had been killed at the facility.

The Pentagon, Weber said, devoted a lot of resources to improving our protection, detection and countermeasures against it. But it did not anticipate its use in an assassination, he said, in part because it was so easily traced to Russia.

Its obviously tightly controlled by the Russian government, he said. Its implausible to me  possible, but not probable  that this chemical weapon would have been diverted from a Russian facility. It would be well guarded.

Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons specialist who once served as an adviser to the Secret Service, said the agents were so shrouded in mystery that I dont know how many chemical compounds are in the Novichok family.

In Salisbury, where Skripal and his daughter were stricken, residents described mounting anxiety on Tuesday as they learned more about the nerve agent. The authorities reassured residents that there was no significant health risk. But they ratcheted up their precautions as the days went on, finally advising people who had been near the victims to wash or wipe everything they were wearing or carrying at the time.

Adam Langley, 44, a construction worker, said his 13-year-old daughter had been peppering him with questions, among them: Is it true that it can stay in your body for years, and make you sick later?

She sends me texts throughout the day, asking if Im sure were not going to die, Langley said. He recalls swearing aloud when he researched Novichok on the internet.

Lisa Patterson, a local estate agent, had a similar reaction. Were not talking about rat poison, she said, with a nervous laugh. This stuff could kill a herd of elephants.

Kaszeta, who now heads a British-based security firm, said the nerve agent could have been transported in a glass jar and spread on Skripals steering wheel, or on items he handled at a restaurant. The agent then could be transferred to anything Skripal touched for the next two hours, he said.

While the chemical would take effect almost instantaneously if inhaled, Kaszeta said, it would work much more slowly, perhaps over a matter of hours, if absorbed through the skin. The agent is activated when it comes in contact with water and would be absorbed through the pores, slowed down by subcutaneous fat, Kaszeta said.

At first the effect would be felt locally, around the point of exposure.

Once the chemical entered the bloodstream, it would cause the victims muscles to go into spasms, pupils to shrink to pinpoints, and breathing to become very laboured, said Alastair Hay, an emeritus professor of toxicology at the University of Leeds. At this point, the victims life could be saved only by the administration of atropine, which counteracts the agent and allows the body to metabolize it.

The attack on Skripal and his daughter occurred a short drive from Porton Down, Britains premier chemical weapons laboratory, which went to work isolating the agent from blood samples, breaking it into fragments and examining it through a mass spectrometer. Researchers would have initially looked for more common chemical agents, like sarin, and then proceeded through a long series of more obscure ones until they found a match, Hay said.

When they get an unknown chemical, they will compare it with the information thats in the library and, bingo, youve got all your strawberries lined up, he said. Given how lethal the agent is, Kaszeta said, it seems probable that the two victims survived by happenstance.

There are a few ways this could play out, and one is that something got screwed up in the delivery, he said. The other is that he washed his hands and got most of it off. The third is that this dosage was sublethal, just to send a message. It could have been the horse head in the bed.

With files from the Associated PressPresident Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbour to the north without knowing whether that was the case.

Trudeau came to see me. Hes a good guy, Justin. He said, No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please, Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio of the private event in Missouri obtained by The Washington Post. Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  Donald, we have no trade deficit. Hes very proud because everybody else, you know, were getting killed.

 So, hes proud. I said, Wrong, Justin, you do. I didnt even know.  I had no idea. I just said, Youre wrong. You know why? Because were so stupid.  And I thought they were smart. I said, Youre wrong, Justin. He said, Nope, we have no trade deficit. I said, Well, in that case, I feel differently, I said, but I dont believe it. I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, Check, because I cant believe it.

Well, sir, youre actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesnt include energy and timber.  And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. Its incredible.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada.

In his 30-minute speech to donors in Missouri, Trump launched a blistering attack against major U.S. allies and global economies, accusing the European Union, China, Japan and South Korea of ripping off the United States for decades and pillaging the U.S. workforce. He also described the North American Free Trade Agreement as a disaster and heaped blame on the World Trade Organization for allowing other countries to box in the United States on trade.

Trump seemed to threaten to pull U.S. troops stationed in South Korea if he didnt get what he wanted on trade with Seoul, an ally. He said the country had gotten rich but that U.S. politicians never negotiated better deals. We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them, Trump said. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Lets see what happens.

Our allies care about themselves, he said. They dont care about us.

Read more:

Trumps new economic adviser called Trudeau a left-wing crazy guy  but he sides with Canada on NAFTA, tariffs

Trump says Canada is very smooth on trade, but hes wise to its tricks

Trumps economic advisers say hes wrong: The U.S. has a trade surplus with Canada, not a deficit

Trumps comments to donors that laid bare his approach to arguing trade facts with foreign leaders show how he might try to engage with other heads of state in the coming weeks. Trump has said he will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as soon as next week, a steep increase in duties that could affect some of the U.S. governments biggest trading partners.

Trump said countries can request exemptions from these tariffs but only after direct negotiations with him. The audio from the fundraiser shows how difficult these discussions could prove.

The through lines of Trumps meandering speech were simple: Trump was tougher than all the rest, and the United States was not going to be laughed at or taken advantage of.

He accused Japan of using gimmicks to deny U.S. auto companies access to its consumers, said South Korea was taking advantage of outdated trade rules even though its economy was strong, and said China had single-handedly rebuilt itself on the back of its trade surplus with the United States.

Trump said he didnt even want Japan to pay the tariffs but to build more automobiles in the United States, adding that Japan would do so if tariffs were imposed. There is no evidence of such a possibility as of now.

His comments were among his most protectionist to date and didnt identify a single benefit the United States receives from its trading relationships.

The free-trade globalists, he said, are against his trade moves because theyre worldly people, they have stuff on the other side. Gary Cohn, the presidents top economic adviser, recently quit over the tariffs and was derisively labelled by his critics as a globalist.

Trump mocked other politicians for wanting to keep NAFTA, calling Mexico spoiled and saying that Canada had outsmarted the U.S. The best deal is to terminate it and make a new deal, he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he'll only be "tweaking" NAFTA as it pertains to Canada, at a news conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. Trudeau also met with Paul Ryan, U.S. Speaker of the House.

Read more about:The landscaping will be coordinated. Trees will be replaced.

Its going to end up being a really nice development aesthetically, said Scott Heun. It will all blend nicely. The size of the trees they have to replace. When it all comes back together, I think its going to be a nice finished product that will be harmonious with the older home and the existing Laurel Street neighborhood.

While some property owners wouldnt welcome 18 new homes so close to their own house, Scott Heun said the new homes were part of his plan almost from the start.

I knew it was a big investment, Scott Heun said, and the property had potential to be developed. He looked at different ideas such as selling the lower acreage or planting vineyards.

Ultimately, the best use, in my opinion, was to develop it with the Riordans.

The Laurel Park Estates home prices currently range from $839,000 to more than $975,000, with lot sizes from 7,300 to 9,600 square feet. The houses vary from 2,149 to 2,821 square feet and up to 5 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Some will be two stories.

Exterior design options include either Bungalow, French Villa or Contemporary Farmhouse.

The first four homes are now for sale.CHICAGOUnited Airlines has announced it will issue special bag tags for animal carriers and prosecutors have launched an investigation to determine if criminal charges are warranted following the death of a French bulldog puppy that was forced into an overhead bin on a United flight.

The Chicago-based airline said a flight attendant who ordered the passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin aboard a Houston-to-New York flight Monday didnt know there was a dog inside.

To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright coloured bag tags to customers travelling with in-cabin pets, United said in a statement.

Read more:

A United Airlines flight attendant made a woman put her puppy in an overhead bin. He died

The family that owned the dog and other passengers contradicted the airlines account, saying the dogs barks were audible from inside the bin.

Eleven-year-old Sophia Ceballos told NBC News that her mother told the flight attendant Its a dog, its a dog, and (the flight attendant) said we have to put it up there, in the bin.

Other passengers backed up the familys account on Twitter and Facebook.

Late Wednesday, the Harris County, Texas, district attorneys office said its animal cruelty division is working with the countys animal cruelty task force on a criminal investigation about what happened on the plane.

A statement from prosecutors said they wont decide if criminal charges are warranted until the investigation is completed.

The Associated Press sent an email seeing comment Thursday on the criminal investigation to an airline spokesperson.

Last year, 18 animals, mostly dogs, died while being transported on United  three-fourths of all animal deaths on U.S. carriers, according to the Department of Transportation. Those figures represent animals that die in cargo holds.

It is rare that an animal dies on a plane. Even on United, there was only one death for roughly every 4,500 animals transported last year.

United, which promotes its pet-shipping program called PetSafe, carries more animals than any other airline, but its animal-death rate is also the highest in the industry. Alaska Airlines, which carries only 17 per cent fewer animals, had just two deaths last year.WASHINGTONWhen U.S. President Donald Trump boasted Wednesday that he had made up a claim at a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  telling Trudeau that the U.S. had a trade deficit with Canada before he had any idea whether that was actually true  he was not telling Trudeau anything the prime minister did not already know.

Even before the Washington Post obtained the tape of the closed-door fundraiser speech in Missouri, Trudeaus team was well aware that Trump invents figures about trade deficits. So was everyone else who closely follows Trumps words on trade.

In fact, Trump did it again, five times, in the very same fundraiser speech in which he told the tale of his attempt to deceive Trudeau. In rapid succession, he gave inaccurate figures for the deficit with Japan ($100 billion, though it was $56 billion last year according to U.S. Department of Commerce figures issued last week), with Mexico ($100 billion, though it was $69 billion last year), with China ($500 billion, though it was $337 billion last year), with the world ($800 billion, though it was $568 billion last year), and with Canada: he claimed in the speech that his guess had been proven right by data, since the U.S. actually does have a $17 billion deficit with Canada.

In fact, the Department of Commerce says, the U.S. had a surplus with Canada of $2.8 billion last year.

Trump kept up his assault on trade truth on Thursday morning. This time, he repeated another of his favourite false claims about trade deficits  claiming he knew he was actually right about his assertion to Trudeau that the U.S. has a deficit, even though he did not have the evidence at the time he made the assertion, because the U.S. has a trade deficit with almost all countries.

Not so. According to U.S. government data, the U.S. had a 2017 trade surplus with 129 countries and territories, more than half of all its trading partners, even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade in which the U.S. excels. While none of the surpluses was even close to as big as the deficit with China  the biggest surplus, with Hong Kong, was $35 billion  Trumps claim is objectively false.

The Department of Commerce figures above were calculated on a balance of payments basis. Using the census basis, another method of calculation used by the U.S. government, the figures are slightly but not meaningfully different.

There are two basic kinds of false Trump figures on trade deficits with individual countries.

His claims about Canada fall into the first category: countries for which he ignores trade in services. Trumps regular claim, which he made on Wednesday, is that the U.S. has a $17 billion deficit with Canada. That would be correct if he specified that he was talking only about trade in goods: that figure was $17.6 billion in 2017 on the census basis. But he never specifies. And when you do count services, in which the U.S. has had a surplus of more than $20 billion for the last three years, the net balance is a clear U.S. surplus. Using the census basis, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says the U.S. had a $12.5 billion surplus in 2016.

Trumps Wednesday claims about Japan and China fall into the second category: countries for which he simply invents a deficit figure. There is no government data, using either method, that says the U.S. has a trade deficit of $100 billion with either of those two countries  let alone the $130 billion figure Trump gave for Mexico in February.

The status of individual trade deficits would not be a topic of public discussion if not for Trumps fixation on the subject.

Though most economists say trade deficits are not the best way to measure the health of a trade relationship  and though his new chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said earlier this month that trade deficits by themselves dont matter  Trump views U.S. deficits as the ultimate indicator that the country is losing on trade.

A deficit means that Americans are buying more from another country than they are selling to that country. Economists say that Americans gain even from the buying, since they are able to obtain goods and services that may not be available from U.S. producers or may only be available at much higher costs.

The Star is keeping track of every false claim Trump says as U.S. president. As of Monday, he had said 1,314 false claims in the first 416 days of his presidency, an average of 3.2 per day.

Prior to Monday  the most recent of the Stars weekly updates  Trump had made 79 false claims about deficits since his Jan. 20, 2017, inauguration. Heres that list, which does not include his five false claims on Wednesday and one on Thursday:

If Trump is a serial liar, why call this a list of false claims, not lies? The answer is that we cant be sure that each and every one was intentional. In some cases, he may have been confused or ignorant. What we know, objectively, is that he was not telling the truth.

Read more about:Multiple assassinations, the illegal annexation of Crimea, the downing of a commercial airliner, ongoing cyber attacks, systematic cheating at Olympic Games, meddling in U.S., French, German, U.K., Spanish and other elections, have all demonstrated Vladimir Putins intentions over the past decade.

Yet it is the vulgar impertinence of Putins latest assault that may have finally laid bare the true nature of the Putin regime to even the most skeptical observers. The chemical attack in Salisbury, England, by suspected agents of the Russian government, has proven that no government nor borders are capable of protecting citizens against the poisonous fury of the Kremlin.

The Novichok nerve agent that was used against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, is an extremely rare Soviet-era toxin, developed by Moscow to both kill its targets with maximum efficiency and evade detection by NATO inspection equipment.

This is not the first time a rare poison, controlled exclusively by the Russian government, has been used to poison Kremlin critics.

In 2006, a former Russian FSB agent, turned whistleblower, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned with Polonium 210. The highly toxic substance is produced and stored by Russian state nuclear agency, Rosatom, which is also the current parent owner of one of Canadas largest uranium producers, Toronto based Uranium One.

A British inquiry into the Litvenenko murder concluded that the radioactive Polonium used to kill him was administered by two Russian intelligence agents, Andrei Lugavoi and Dimitri Kovtun, who were likely acting on the orders of Vladimir Putin. The U.S. has placed both men on their Magnitsky sanctions list for their role in the murder, yet remain missing from Canadas list.

NATO members have issued a joint statement defining the Kremlins chemical attack in Salisbury as the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory.

Unchecked, Putin will accelerate his aggression. He will continuing attacking our democracy, institutions and society through ongoing information warfare campaigns and manipulation. The risk to Canada and our upcoming elections should not be understated.

Tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and stern statements will not compel Putin to stop. Like a schoolyard bully, Putins attacks can only be slowed by confrontation and containment. Appeasement only fuels his authoritarian appetite for dominance.

Like the mafia, the Russian economy is a racket run by its president. The oligarchs who control much of the money inside Russia rely on Putin, who allows them to operate  at a cost. Putin, in turn, protects the oligarchs for a cut of their business and their political support. Maintaining this system is at the core of every decision Putin makes.

The threat of disruption to the kleptocracy that Putin has created for himself and his friends is his Achilles heel. The network of corrupt officials and oligarchs who support him expect to vacation at villas in the French Riviera, ski at resorts in British Columbia, send their children to North American private schools and hide their assets in Western real estate, including in Canada.

In October of 2017, Canada unanimously adopted Magnitsky legislation, which allows our government to place targeted sanctions against corrupt human rights abusers around the world, freezing their assets and banning their entry into Canada. The United States has adopted similar legislation and the U.K. currently has a visa ban law.

With the upcoming G7 summit in Quebec, Canada has a unique opportunity to build on the international credibility it earned by adopting Magnitsky legislation by placing it on the G7 agenda.

France and Germany are likely motivated to find ways to hold accountable and deter those who meddle in their elections. A harmonized system of defensive G7 sanctions, will create serious consequences for the Kremlin and like-minded regimes that seek to undermine our democratic systems, institutions and society.

This is a moment, not unlike the formation of NATO, when Canada can lead and make a lasting global impact to protect our own democracy and human rights activists around the world.

Marcus Kolga is a communications strategist, documentary filmmaker and an expert on sanctions and disinformation. He is a senior fellow at The Macdonald-Laurier Institute's Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad.

Read more about:For several weeks now, the Senate has been immersed in the study of bills C-45 and C-46. The former implements a national framework for cannabis legalization, while the latter introduces changes to the Criminal Codes impaired driving provisions. You can expect to hear a lot more about our debates as we get closer to the end of June, the deadline the Trudeau government has set itself for the adoption of both bills.

On the one hand, the Liberal government absolutely wants to keep to that deadline. On the other, the Conservative opposition is attempting by any means to delay the adoption of the bills, if only to embarrass the government. Caught between the two are 43 independent senators (out of 93).

Between now and the summer recess, every one of them will have a variety of difficult decisions to make. Indeed, there will be as many votes as proposals for amendments and procedural motions, all of which will have a determining influence on the fate of these bills.

Two central questions will determine my approach during these debates.

First, am I in favour of legalization or not? I already answered that question a few months ago: I agree with legalization. The failure of prohibition has been abundantly demonstrated over the past 40 years. Legalization is not a miracle solution, but it does provide advantages over the status quo.

At the very least, legalization will allow us to launch large education campaigns on the potential harms of cannabis, to ensure the safety of cannabis products for consumers, and finally to decriminalize a behaviour which in many regards is neither more nor less serious than the consumption of alcohol.

The second question I will ask myself is, in a debate of this importance, what is the role of the Senate? Even if a majority of Canadians are in favour of this government initiative, many have asked us to prevent legalization. Intervening with this purpose in mind, however, would run counter to our constitutional role.

Indeed, the Salisbury Convention, which we inherited from the House of Lords, states that the Upper Chamber must never oppose a bill designed to keep an electoral commitment made by the elected government. The Liberals were indeed elected in the fall of 2015 on a promise to legalize marijuana. Who are we, unelected parliamentarians, to prevent the government from making good on that promise to Canadians?

It would also not be legitimate for the Senate to unduly delay the implementation of that promise. Of course, Senators must play their legislative role, which is to study bills C-45 and C-46 carefully, listen attentively to the views of concerned Canadians, and propose improvements if needed. Once a reasonable period of time has been devoted to that work, the time to vote will be upon us.

What is a reasonable period of time? Bill C-46 was submitted to the Senate on Nov. 1, 2017, and Bill C-45, on Nov. 28. On June 1, 2018, we will have had these bills before us for five and six months, respectively. Committees will have heard many witnesses, and all senators will have had ample opportunity to express themselves at length. We will still have a months work left.

For those who would still seek to postpone the deadline further, we will have no choice but to conclude that the goal is not greater scrutiny of the bills, but rather to mirror the objective announced by the leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer, last November: that is, to block the legislation.

We have not reached this point yet. For the moment, senators are conscientiously examining both bills. Whether they are for or against legalization, they share the same concern, that of protecting the health of Canadians, particularly young Canadians.

This very concern will result in several of us moving amendments. It is too soon to say whether such amendments will be passed or not, and if they are, whether they will be accepted in whole or in part by the government. One thing is certain: it is through this type of rigorous legislative work, focused on the interests of the population, and ideally devoid of partisanship, that the Senate is best able to convince Canadians of its usefulness.

Andre Pratte is an Independent senator.

Read more about:Doug Ford says that if hes elected premier in June he will scrap the provinces two-year-old sex education curriculum and start from scratch. We have to make sure we tweak a few things, said the newly minted leader of Ontarios Progressive Conservatives, though he wont say what exactly needs tweaking. Thats beside the point, he insists; the real issue is that parents werent consulted.

This ubiquitous claim has haunted the sex-ed curriculum from its earliest days. Indeed, loud gripes about a failure to consult killed Queens Parks previous attempt to update the course in 2010. But as Premier Kathleen Wynne said this week, the contention that parents were not consulted is just not true.

The main sex-ed curriculum was studied and developed over eight years. The government consulted hundreds of psychologists, police, educators and religious bodies, including more than 4,000 parents from elementary schools across the province, before giving it the go-ahead.

So how, if so many parents were consulted, did the process yield such an unpopular curriculum? Simply, it didnt.

While of course some parents do strongly oppose the course, the impression of overwhelming opposition was largely created by right-wing organizations such as the Institute of Canadian Values and REAL Women of Canada, which made a lot of noise in their effort to promote unfounded myths about what students will actually be taught.

In reality, most parents do want sex education in the schools. Some 90 per cent of Ontarians thought the old sex-ed course needed updating and, at the time it was introduced, a majority supported the new curriculum. And the experts agree. Among backers of the sex-ed course are organizations such as the Institute for Catholic Education, the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada and the Ontario Public Health Association.

No wonder. In 1998, when the previous curriculum was brought in, gay marriage was illegal, there were no smartphones, the word sexting hadnt been invented, and the important debate around consent was not yet mainstream. The previous course included no mention of cyber-bullying, now a widespread phenomenon, or gender identity, about which we have learned a great deal over the last decade. The world has changed and sex has changed with it. It would be irresponsible if our pedagogy did not keep up.

Some of the curriculums opponents argue that sex education is a moral issue and thus the rightful purview, not of schools, but of parents. But of course this ignores that most parents today want help to prepare their children for sex in the digital age. And it ignores, too, that the curriculum does not in fact seek to impose a moral point of view, but rather to cover matters of human rights and public health, issues that fall squarely within the mandate of public education.

The anger in certain corners over the curriculum seems in truth to have less to do with the provinces failure to consult than with the failure of the consultations outcome to reflect the views of the aggrieved. But of course public consultation cant guarantee that everyone will be happy. On an issue as fraught and divisive as this one, the only guarantee is that a minority will be upset. Sometimes thats the best democracy can do.

The people and the evidence have spoken. The Wynne government was right two years ago to bring sex education into the 21st century. It would be a shame if Doug Ford, in the name of democracy, subverted the democratic will and took away a tool our children need to navigate the modern world.

Read more about:You may have heard that one of Torontos early Black settlers was likely the citys first cabbie. Or that Blacks in the 1950s flocked to the railroad as porters  not because they loved train travel but because thats where Black workers didnt face a shut door. Or that thousands of Black women started arriving here in the late 1950s  because thats who the government let in as immigrants.

But a Black funeral director?

Correction. Make that, Black owner of a funeral home  because thats what I discovered during Black history month. In Toronto, 2018.

Shes barely 5-foot-2, elegant in her navy blue and white uniform topped with silver gray and blue striped necktie, hair tightly braided, not a strand out of place, resting on top of an exquisitely disarming half smile as she welcomes the reporter into Covenant Funeral Homes, at the corner of Eglinton Ave. E. and Midland Ave.

Luann Jones is used to double takes from prospective clients she is about to engage face-to-face at a pre-funeral arrangement.

On the phone shes undertaker nondescript  professional and proper, disclosing just so much without disguising anything, a hint of British lilt to leave one wondering.

Then they come in to make arrangements to bury a loved one and, ah, she is, oh, yes, Black.

I researched it and theres never been a Black funeral home in our country, in history, Jones says. So, Im like the Harriet Tubman of funeral services. Others will come after me but that history cant be changed. Im the first.

Its not a boast; its delivered in mortician monotone, yet with a twinkle. Twenty-two years in the industry and Jones is nowhere near a dead end. Rather, she aims to expand Covenant into a series of funeral homes across the GTA.

Whos to tell Jones she cant. Thats what she heard and disregarded from those in the know in the industry.

Youll never get in, they told me. Nobody gets in on the first try, others said when she applied to the funeral services program at Humber College in 1997. The college gets 800 applicants, accepts 200 and graduates fewer than 150 then. And Jones was looking to enroll after being out of school and work for eight years.

Jones considered being an airline attendant but didnt make the height restrictions, since relaxed.

When she submitted her application for funeral services at Humber she scanned the framed wall photos of the recent graduating classes. She had to go back five years to find someone who looked like her.

Persistent as I am, I did get in on the first try. Out of the tribulations I have gone through  single mom, two sons, wanting something better for them, juggling school, parenting, waking up at 2 and 3 a.m. to do my studies . . . I made it.

Side glances, quizzical looks and furrowed brows are regular responses to someones declaration that undertaker is a chosen career choice.

Jones is more than mortician. She is counsellor, mediator, baby sitter, medic, priest, neutralizer in the midst of family fights. You have to pick people up off the floor when they pass out. Ive done mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she says. For some directors they say this not my job, but Im a Jill of all trades, and master of some.

Rarely does someone talk about the dead with such, ah, respect and regard.

Some bodies arrive at her mortuary without having had a bath in months, Jones says. I bathe them and its an honour and a privilege. Families have built a lifetime of relationships with the deceased and I get to serve them and look after their loved ones for a few hours. This is what I was called to do  and I absolutely love it.

Each body gets my personal stamp of approval. They dont go out if they dont look right.

Jones wasnt finished.

Im a perfectionist. Its all about the fine details  the preparation of the body for final viewing. This is the last time (families will) have the experience of seeing their loved ones. It must be pleasing and comforting.

I almost wanted to observe her do a preparation  the bath, make up, dressing and presentation for final viewing. Readers with weak stomachs or cultural and childish fears and superstitions about the dead are probably feeling queasy about now. But I left Covenant, went home and told my wife I found the person I want to prepare my body for burial . . . in time, of course.

Strange, I know.

Jones parents left Guyana for England before landing in Toronto in 1977. They lived in the Annex, Oakwood and Vaughan Rd. and then in Mississauga. Young Luann was a high school sprinter, lifted weights in the off season and was working for a graphic arts company when an accident forced her to reboot her life.

I told God if he would bless me I would be a blessing to others. It was my covenant.

A career counsellor suggested her aptitude pointed to nursing, social work and funeral directing. She had never been to a funeral but remembered her elementary school guidance counsellor pointing in that direction.

To gain her funeral directors licence (1999) she had to embalm 100 bodies, direct five funerals and do five pre-arrangements, plus an internship, write the board exams and complete an embalming in front of a licensed funeral director.

Race was never an issue for young Luann. She grew up in Italian neighbourhoods, picked up Spanish and Italian from the area kids to go with her British brogue. Not until she graduated from the funeral directors course did she feel the sting of exclusion.

Shed done well in the course with the help of supportive instructors, but didnt get a placement for months. And even when she did, her bosses would carefully script which clients she would serve  reserving her for Black families or social service burials or children.

I was told I dont look like I sound. My manager told me, in an awkward way, that I dont fit.

She added a funeral consultancy agency to her work, delivering clients to established funeral homes. But they often complained about Black funerals being too long, starting late and not paying on time. Jones had her own beef with her industry.

Too many of her colleagues did not know how to make up a Black corpse with the right shade and tone to make the deceased look just right, instead of a pasty pale. So she took to carrying her own special makeup kit for people of colour.

Jones does all races, all clients, indigent funerals, unclaimed bodies. Last week she was priest, and grieving family, and funeral train as Covenant buried an unclaimed body, sent her by social services.

It was just me, my funeral guys and the cemetery workers. I do give them a dignified committal. This is what I was called to do  her covenant.

Royson James column appears weekly. rjames@thestar.caFor much of the past eight years Doug Ford has had a strong hate on for many of Ontarios media outlets, and especially the Toronto Star.

His hostility arose initially from what he claims was unfair and unjustified media coverage of his brother, the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford, whose well-documented problems with drugs and booze were reported extensively in the Star and other media.

During his one term as a Toronto councillor and during his failed 2014 Toronto mayoral bid, Ford continually attacked much of the mainstream media, suggesting many reporters were either liars, downtown elitists or hacks with a liberal bias.

Bashing the media isnt new for politicians. It has been happening for decades, maybe centuries. Rob Ford did it as mayor, going so far as decreeing that the Stars reporters werent to be given any official city documents and at one point filing a notice of libel against the Star over its coverage.

And in the U.S., Donald Trump has taken the tactic to new heights  or lows  with his rants about fake news and his personal attacks on individual journalists.

Such tactics are extremely effective for Trump and now for Doug Ford because they appeal to their base of supporters, who share a hatred for the mainstream media, seeing it as the enemy.

While he loathes most journalists, Ford also craves media attention. He likes to manipulate the press, staging news conferences that have no news, granting interviews to favoured conservative columnists at the tabloid Toronto Sun and talk-show hosts who often act as unquestioning cheerleaders for his candidacy.

So how should the media cover Doug Ford now that hes the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader and possibly the next premier?

Indeed, how should reporters cover any politician who is so obviously hostile to them? Just this week Ford flashed that dislike for journalists during a testy and often condescending interview with Robyn Bresnahan, host of CBCs Ottawa Morning program.

Should reporters delve once again into Fords personal and business histories? Should they follow up, for example, on a story published several years ago by the Globe and Mail questioning Fords claim that hes a sound businessman? Should they pursue another Globe report that said Ford was a hashish dealer in the 1980s, which he denies?

As much as it stirs the wrath of Ford and his Ford Nation fans, the fundamental role of the media is to provide responsible reporting on politicians in order to inform citizens on who they are and where they stand on issues. Its especially true in Fords case, where if polls are correct, the Tories will win the June 7 election and he will become the second most powerful politician in Canada.

The media is right to question outlandish claims by Ford, such as the one he repeated in the CBC Ottawa interview about how he saved Toronto taxpayers billions of dollars as a councillor.

As I have written before, its the job of journalists to provide context and analysis of what politicians are telling voters. They have a duty to report on their backgrounds, to get better at fact-checking in real time on social media, to push them to elaborate on overly general policy statements, and to compare and contrast their election platforms.

In an interview last weekend on CBCs The Sunday Edition, Washington Post editor Marty Barron said theres a growing demand in the U.S. in the wake of Trumps election for fair and honest accountability journalism that holds government officials and powerful individuals to account.

When you see wrongdoing or falsehoods on the part of powerful individuals, including the people who are leading the country  and maybe especially the people who are leading the country  we have an obligation to investigate that as energetically and aggressively as we possibly can, Barron said.

The same can be said about Ontario  and Ford.

It may not seem fair to Ford, but its the medias job fearlessly to dig up any and all information about him that readers should know about and that is true. To do anything less would be an abdication of the medias role in our democracy.

Bob Hepburns column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

Read more about:In terms of foreign policy damage, whatever harm Justin Trudeau did by parading around India in colourful outfits is a nothing-burger compared to the severe hardship he is inflicting on Venezuela.

And yet media commentators have been full-throttle in denouncing the prime ministers alleged wardrobe malfunction on his recent India trip while being silent  or downright supportive  of Trudeaus decision last fall to join the Trump administration in imposing sanctions on the struggling South American nation.

Anyone following the international media coverage would conclude that the Venezuelan government is terribly autocratic and that Western nations, led by the U.S., have stepped in with sanctions out of concern over human rights abuses there.

A closer look suggests a different scenario that puts Western actions in a less laudable light: Washington is waging economic war against a nation that dared to rise up and reject U.S. control over its ample oil reserves.

The Obama administration targeted individual Venezuelans with sanctions, but the Trump administrations sanctions are much broader, taking punishing aim at the countrys entire economy.

Sadly, Trudeau is backing up the U.S. bully, apparently hoping to win a reprieve from Trumps arbitrary trade measures  a strategy that seems unfair to Venezuela and also likely futile. Well return to Canadas sorry role in this saga in a moment.

Venezuela has been in Washingtons cross hairs ever since the dramatic 1998 election of Hugo Chavez, a charismatic, populist leader  and this is one case where the word populist legitimately applies.

Unlike the populist Donald Trump, Chavez actually came from humble roots as the child of black and Indian parents, and actually championed his countrys large peasant population.

Indeed, unlike many Third World leaders who siphon off their nations wealth in cahoots with foreign multinationals and local elites, Chavez enraged Washington by nationalizing Venezuelas oil and redirecting the wealth to health care, education, housing and food for the poor.

Venezuelas wealthy elite, angry about losing their privileged position, vowed to overthrow Chavez  and briefly did in a violent 2002 coup, with the help of Washington, before being repelled two days later when hundreds of thousands of pro-Chavez demonstrators from poor neighbourhoods took to the streets of Caracas.

Many in the elite had worked for the U.S.-owned oil industry when it effectively ran the oil-rich nation. And, like the Cuban elite after Fidel Castro nationalized U.S.-owned industry there, the Venezuelan elite has remained close to Washington.

After the failed 2002 coup, Venezuelas elite concentrated on demonizing Chavez  and Nicolas Maduro, his hand-picked successor, who narrowly won election following Chavezs death from cancer in 2013.

Although lacking Chavezs charisma, Maduro has continued to win elections even as the countrys economy has plunged, along with world oil prices. Frustrated, the opposition has adopted increasingly violent tactics  including a bizarre attack last year when rebels dropped grenades from a helicopter on the countrys Supreme Court.

Alfred de Zayas, a UN-appointed expert sent to investigate the chaos last fall, met with dozens of opposition activists as well as church and human rights groups, and concluded that the Maduro regime has made major mistakes including excessive force by the police.

But de Zayas also found that popular support for the Chavez revolution remains strong. And he accused anti-government demonstrators of having attacked hospitals, nursery schools, burned ambulances and buses in order to intimidate the people. Is this not classic terrorism?

The UN expert also explained that the sanctions  which he considers reminiscent of U.S. measures against Chiles Salvador Allende in the 1970s  are aggravating the suffering of Venezuelans, and he called for them to end. That would be the greatest help, he said.

But Canada refuses to listen. Our sanctions arent as broad as Trumps, but they lend Canadian credibility to penalizing Venezuela, thereby providing political cover for the harsh U.S. measures.

And so we continue to inflict sanctions on Venezuela, citing the lofty goal of defending human rights  even while we actively trade and sell arms to full-fledged dictatorships, such as Saudi Arabia.

Whats going on in Venezuela is a bitter class war, with millions of poor people committed to defending a revolution carried out in their name, and Canada taking the side of the wealthy, well-armed opposition.

Linda McQuaig interviewed Hugo Chavez in Caracas in 2004 for a book she wrote on the geopolitics of oil.

Read more about:The news, of course, is not that the coverage of people in the National Geographic was racist. It is that the magazine is acknowledging it.

Its a headline-grabber that has been lauded variously for its honesty, for not shrinking away from using the word racist rather than other euphemisms mainstream media conjure up, and for moving towards correction.

Its a big deal. That is a problem, because this giant leap in journalism is a small but long overdue step in the march of progress.

Black people and Indigenous people around the world  thinkers, academics, writers, poets, lawyers, ordinary folks  have been actively resisting racism and colonialism in the course of the National Geographics 130-year history.

But its only now, 18 years into the new millennia, that the needle of change has whizzed all the way from denial to  a baby first step. One magazine, a leader in the North American media that is otherwise rife with racial insensitivities and non-representational staff, has devoted an issue to race and is acknowledging that yes, it has been racist.

What the National Geographic did was news because its an information source of such reach and authority that its imperialist gaze trained the rest of the world through its to see itself as relational to whiteness or its colonial rulers.

Susan Goldberg, the magazines new editor in chief, said in her note that it hurts to share the appalling stories from the magazines past.

Introspection and the realization of being complicit in wrongdoing are indeed excruciatingly painful  but they pale in comparison to the harms inflicted on those who have been wronged.

Change is never easy.

Even in its earnestness to set the record straight, the magazine went awry in its cover piece depicting mixed-race twins. Marcia and Millie Biggs say theyve never been subjected to racism, says the intro to the story.

What could be the question asked to receive that answer? Have you ever faced racism?

In other words, have you ever faced the intentional prejudice of another person in a way that they spoke to you hurtfully invoking your race?

And if the answer to that is no, does that mean a person has never faced racism? What about the racism that is enacted in structural ways that sees a child punished for crimes others get away with, that views struggling kids not as children in need but as a menace that deserves institutional wrath?

Depicting mixed-race kids on the cover to stand in for post-racial hope also perpetuates the myth of racially mixed people being the panacea for racial divisions. It enables those who dont want to deal with racial inequities under the guise of were all humans to jump from race shouldnt matter to race doesnt matter.

But even missteps wont happen unless the first steps are taken. This requires leadership.

For this moment of reckoning to have meaning, Canadian media must view it as a throwing down of the gauntlet.

We cover a diverse world, Goldberg said. If we want to do so accurately and with authority, we need a diverse staff to cover it.

Journalists make countless judgments: what to cover, what to ask, whom to quote, which quote to publish, where to place it. Judgments are rooted in experience and a lack of diverse experiences directly constricts broad-minded perspectives.

In the past year, so much has been said about lack of representation in Canadian newsrooms that it risks being repetitive, but has it wrought change? Have hiring decisions changed, for instance?

Theres no empirical evidence because unlike American media, there is still no transparency around staffing data. Anecdotal evidence from various newsrooms suggests a resounding no.

Has coverage changed? Yes and no. There is a lot more talk about racism. A multi-racial lens is slowly starting to be applied to various journalistic beats ranging from housing or real estate, elections or education, food or film, immigration or security or the criminal justice system.

Yet, Canadian newsrooms also continue to exhibit shameful instances of racial illiteracy  journalists criticizing white privilege without a grasp of what it really means; racial indifference  all-white panels discussing Is Donald Trump racist for saying s---hole countries; racial/gender insensitivity  a victim-blaming headline on murdered Indigenous teen Tina Fontaine.

These are but a few examples. On Twitter, there continues to be backlash to the mere concept  not reality  of equal power in society with white male journalists openly mocking academic terms such as intersectional which defines how marginalized identities intersect with systems of power.

History, if it remembers these people at all, wont judge them kindly, but thats a while away. Until its time for history to make its call, what action are the current leaders willing to commit to?

On Twitter @shreeparadkarDid Vladimir Putin order the nerve agent attack in Britain that seriously injured three? Perhaps he did. But before pronouncing the Russian president guilty, it would be nice to see some evidence.

Extrajudicial attacks by great powers on real and imagined enemies are not unknown. The U.S. routinely uses drones to assassinate those  whether American citizens or not  whom it deems security threats.

It doesnt much care if these targets are killed in countries, such as Yemen or Pakistan, with which Washington is nominally at peace.

Israel, too, has used assassination as a tool. In 1997, Israeli agents used phoney Canadian passports in an attempt to assassinate a Hamas official in Jordan.

In 1985, French intelligence agents famously blew up the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior when it was at port in New Zealand, killing one.

The two agents convicted of the crime eventually spent less than two years in jail at a military base in French Polynesia.

In 1988, a British SAS unit assassinated three unarmed IRA members in Gibraltar who were believed to be plotting a terrorist attack.

So it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Russian agents were responsible for the chemical attack in England that put former double agent Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and a British police officer, in hospital on March 4.

Certainly, this is the position taken by British Prime Minister Theresa May who has said it is highly likely that Russia was responsible.

She has been joined in this denunciation by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump, all of whom agreed in a joint communique that there is no other plausible explanation.

Canadas Justin Trudeau too has decried Russias likely involvement.

The leaders careful use of the words likely and plausible reflects the fact that, to date, there is no hard evidence on who was behind the attack.

Skripal, a former Soviet intelligence agent who had worked secretly for Britains MI6 during the 1990s, was probably not on Moscows Christmas card list.

But he was not killed after being arrested and jailed by the Russians in 2004. Nor was there any effort by the Russians to exempt Skripal from a spy swap in 2010 that saw him relocated to England.

Putin was in power during this entire period. Why would the Russian president put in jeopardy his already strained relations with the West by trying to assassinate Skripal now?

May points out that the nerve poison used in the attack was first developed in the former Soviet Union during the 70s and 80s. But there is no indication that Russia maintained a monopoly on the toxin known as Novichok.

In fact, had Western countries followed the usual Cold War practice they would have developed their own versions of Novichok, if for no other reason than to search for antidotes.

As well, samples of Novichok could have been sold abroad by corrupt Russian officials during the Wild West years that followed the collapse of Communism. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, one of the few British politicians who does not assume a deliberate Russian plot, has said the attack could have occurred because Moscow negligently lost control of the toxin.

None of this means that Putin is in the clear. Russian agents have done this kind of thing before, most notably in 2006 when two of them killed Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent living in Britain, by lacing his tea with radioactive polonium.

A public inquiry later concluded that Putin had probably approved that assassination.

And perhaps he was involved in this attempt as well. Britain has wisely asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate. With luck, it will turn up some facts  which in the mad rush to blame the Wests favourite villain are sorely lacking.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.Cox noted that he has built two-bedroom apartments in Indiana for about $80,000 per unit and rented them for $700 to $800 a month, while construction costs in California are many times higher.

He cited $300,000 per unit in Fresno, $500,000 in San Diego and $700,000 in San Francisco, which comports with the states own data. The current state budget says the average cost of building an affordable housing unit in California is $350,000.

California is building about 100,000 units of new housing a year now, but the state says we need to be building 180,000 new units a year. At a $350,000 unit cost, that means we need to be spending $63 billion a year on housing construction.

Some of the candidates want even higher levels of construction. Newsom and Villaraigosa have talked about building 500,000 new units a year to attack the backlog of unmet needs. But that would mean coming up with $200 billion a year in construction funding.

As last years housing finance legislation demonstrated, state and local governments can generate, at best, a tiny fraction of those immense numbers. So, obviously, the solution to Californias housing dilemma, if there is one, lies in reducing construction costs and making private investment in housing more attractive.In the southwest corner of Moss Park, the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society marked its seven-month anniversary this week.

Yet in the past week, theyve noticed a change.

I began noticing an increase in police presence over the last two weeks. I saw more cars patrolling the neighbourhood and more officers on the streets. Perhaps, I thought, it was because I was outside more often now that the freezing cold weather had eased off.

Then I saw a tweet from Zoe Dodd, a member of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society who said, Everyday we are dealing with an increase in police presence that didnt exist for the 6 mnths. We may be unsanctioned but we are training and shadowing new sites, sharing our policies and all we need is a park permit to b sanctioned.

Since late summer, over 5,000 people have come through the sites doors. Actually, having doors is a relatively new phenomenon. When they set up last August, volunteers crouched under a tent; they stocked their supplies from a van. They took down the whole operation every day until things slowly started becoming more permanent.

The province donated a heated tent. In late November, the Canadian Union of Public Employees donated the trailer where I met Tave Cole, a volunteer whose day job is a working in harm reduction at South Riverdale Community Health Centre.

When we opened, we had an informal arrangement that the police would give us distance, says Cole.

Because many  though decidedly not all  drug users are people who are low-income, racialized and struggling with mental health, they have a reasonable fear of police. The Toronto Overdose Action Plan notes that people attending an overdose often hesitate to involve police. The citys survey that informed that plan found that 89 per cent (of survey respondents) rated police not attending overdose events as having a very large or large benefit to the overdose crisis.

Volunteers in Moss Park said the police presence has a dual effect. People are less likely to go to the overdose prevention site when theyre worried about being arrested and seeing police in the neighbourhood creates a crush of people escaping into the shelter.

Its a public safety problem more than a criminal law problem, says Dane. (Toronto Police did not respond to my request for information or comment.)

Cole told me theyve been able to reverse 188 overdoses.

When you take into account people having a safe space and not having to be in a hurry to use, weve probably done more harm reduction than that, she says. Another volunteer, Dane, noted that the OPS service in the park acts as a point of connection to other services.

For every person that comes to inject, weve had five people come in for socks, hot chocolate, information, he says. By their count, that means theyve served more than just the 5,000 people who enter the trailer to inject; rather it means theyve helped 30,000 people in a variety of ways.

Moreover, the pop-up site has become an informal centre of excellence with residents, frontline workers and people from other cities, such as Barrie and London, dropping in to be trained on naloxone use.

In Vancouver, there was a 36 per cent increase in arrests for heroin according to Susan Boyd, a researcher from the University of Victoria; overall, 73 per cent of all drug arrests in Canada were for possession. Their job is to make the city a safer place. For people in and around Moss Park, the police presence makes them less safe and their lives that much more precarious.

Residents and service workers are taking up the responsibility to ensure safety on the streets. When it comes to people who use drugs, that responsibility is more complicated for police.

To save lives, everyone must step up: municipal, provincial and federal governments have a lot of work to do. But the police must also find a way to allow drug users a safe place to inject, and hopefully someday, recover.

Inside the trailer, Tave Cole prepared for another day as people began lining up outside.

Were just always busy.

Vicky Mochama is a co-host of the podcast, Safe Space. Her column appears every second Thursday. She also writes a tri-weekly column for Metro News that mixes politics, news and humour.The U.S. is the 18th happiest place in the world.

It seems President Trump has some work to do to make America great again, according to a new United Nations survey.

Finland overtook Norway as the world's happiest country, according to the UN's 2018 World Happiness Report, while the United States placed 18th in the survey behind Costa Rica, Germany and Ireland.

The U.K. came in right behind the U.S., in the 19th spot.

Burundi, a small, land-locked country in eastern Africa, overtook the bottom spot on the list from the Central African Republic.

The survey ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels and 117 by the happiness of their immigrants.

The top-5 countries in the survey were Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland. The ten happiest countries also scored highest on immigrant happiness.

The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born," said John Helliwell, co-editor of the report and a professor at the University of British Columbia.ALTON  Commissioners made quick work of three resolutions Tuesday, giving permission for an employee to attend a seminar, continuing resident programs and writing off accounts.

The Alton Housing Authority boards votes allow: Jameca Chapman, office manager/executive assistant to attend a public housing seminar on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments capital fund program in Atlanta, Georgia on March 29-30; Executive Director Greg Denton to enter into agreements with agencies or organizations to provide programs for residents, mostly youths, within budgetary constraints; and to write off $13,943.50 in doubtful accounts for the quarter.For the Telegraph

COLLINSVILLE  Ameren Illinois teamed with two Metro East organizations to help income-eligible customers reduce their energy bills. One-time bill payment grants of up to $150 were provided to more than 1,100 customers at events held in East St. Louis and Granite City March 13 and 14.

In addition to providing monetary grants, Ameren Illinois advisors were on hand to meet with attendees to discuss bill payment options and energy efficiency strategies. Each attendee received a free kit containing energy-saving products, such as LED bulbs, a faucet aerator, high efficiency shower head and a smart power strip.More Information

Rekowski addresses Finance Committee

By Scott Cousins

scousins@thetelegraph.com

EDWARDSVILLE - Concerns over possible data breaches and recent searches of Madison County offices spilled over to the Finance and Government Relations Committee after Public Defender John Rekowski accused some unnamed county workers of acting like "third-graders" and reiterating his need for a separate network to keep records confidential.

Rekowski spoke about a Feb. 21 letter he sent to various county officials citing the need for a separate computer network for the Public Defenders Office.

He also noted that since he sent the letter, there has been some pushback by county workers or officials, who he did not name, who he accused of acting like "third-graders on a schoolyard lot."

"I take exception to that," he said. "If you want to do this type of stuff, lets do it in the open."

Finance Committee Member Phil Chapman, R-Highland, said Rekowski should make these issues known to the Personnel and Labor Relations Committee.

"As far as I'm concerned that needs to stop," he added.

Committee Chair Lisa Ciampoli, R-Collinsville, said she would need to see examples or proof of Rekowski's accusations about data tampering before being willing to expend money on it.

Rekowski replied that he had been shown by police copies of emails that were found on computers that he had not sent the information to.

"It creates a legal and ethical problem in my office," he said, adding that there are specific concerns about client confidentiality.

There was some additional discussion by committee members before IT Director Rob Dorman angrily said that the issue was not about a data breech, it was about filling Freedom of Information Act requests.

"I'm getting tired of my office being thrown under the bus," he said.

Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons then said that data from the Public Defenders Office was exempt from the FOIA.

"The situation will be addressed in the proper format at the proper time," Gibbons said.

There was some additional discussion, then Chapman noted that they were possibly going into personnel or other areas that should be discussed in executive session.

Ciampoli then halted discussion on the topic.ALTON  More than 100 Alton High School students gathered near the schools flagpole Wednesday morning to remember the 17 individuals killed last month in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and to advocate for change.

I see a lot of people from all walks of life and we may seem different, but we are all the same inside, one Alton High School student told his classmates at the close of the 17-minute demonstration. Some of us are turning 18, so this is your opportunity to vote. We need more control, because people are dying.

The event was part of the National School Walkout organized a month to the day after a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shot and killed 17 students, teachers and staff members at the school. The students Wednesday stayed outside for 17 minutes, one minute for each life lost.

The movement gained momentum over the last month and was planned by Womens March Youth Empower. During the walkout, students heard the names of the 17 that were killed on Feb. 14. They also had a moment of silence for three minutes at the end of the walkout.

The walkout took place under the watchful eye of the district, which supported the demonstration and held a discussion with students and staff Feb. 27 to discuss ways they could make the school safer. In a letter sent to parents ahead of Wednesdays walkout, Alton High School Principal Michael Bellm outlined the procedures for the walkout and said students would have the choice whether to participate in the demonstration or remain in class during that time.

At Alton High School, our top priority is to support the academic and social-emotional needs of our students while maintaining a safe and orderly environment for all, the letter said, assuring parents that administrators and members of the schools security team would be outside to supervise the students during the walkout.

Superintendent Mark Cappel was among those at the school helping supervise the event. Several Madison County Sheriffs deputies were seen blocking both entrances to the school during the walkout, and were also seen turning cars away from the school.

Journalism teacher Jordan Graham also had his students taking photos of the walkout as well as writing articles for the student newspaper, The RedBird Word.

For the most part, the students that I interact with are very supportive and the journalism students get more involved, Graham said.

Cappel said he thought it was a nice tribute to the students that were killed and overall the students behaved well.

Im proud of our students for their behavior this morning and of the leadership of the students that got up and spoke, he said. We do have students that are concerned for safety and we want to hear from them.

Alton Middle School participated as well, but directed their students to the cafeteria rather than outside. Approximately 170 students took part in the walkout according to Richard Baird, a teachers assistant at Alton Middle School. A number of other area school districts took part in the nationwide event, including Edwardsville, East Alton-Wood River and Roxana, among others.

Reach reporter Kelsey Schulz at 618-208-6452.EDWARDSVILLE  The Illinois Supreme Court has denied Edwardsville Mayor Hal Pattons appeal and has officially removed his name from the ballot for the 56th District Senate seats Republican nomination.

As announced Tuesday, the Illinois Supreme Court has denied to hear Pattons appeal and has denied a motion for a stay of the Appellate Courts order. This means Patton is officially off of the ballot, at least for the primary. Although Ken Menzel, of the Illinois State Board of Elections, indicated that Pattons attorney Burt Odelson said he may attempt to appeal Pattons case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This has not yet been confirmed from Patton or Odelson.

In a statement received by Patton March 13 regarding his candidacy, he said he will be taking some time to evaluate the next steps to getting his name back on the ballot in time for the election in November.

The rigged political system in Illinois is alive and well and this process has been a clear example of that. This is why its so hard to get good people to run for office, Patton said. This case was filed in Cook County because thats where Mike Madigan and his attorney have the most influence and where voters in the 56th District have the least . The people of Madison, St. Clair and Jersey County deserve better than to be controlled by Cook County.

I am going to take time to evaluate all of my options, but I can assure you that I am more committed than ever to being on the ballot in November and putting an end to business as usual in Springfield, he added.

Pattons objector, Charles Yancey, first appealed the Illinois State Board of Elections on Jan. 11 with a motion to remove Patton from the ballot after signing a petition for State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville. Illinois state law prohibits candidates from signing petitions for different political parties. Last week, the Appellate Court also ruled against Patton and forwarded the cast to the Cook County Circuit Court to invalidate any votes that had been received for his nomination.

The primary election in Illinois is set for Tuesday, March 20 and early bird voting is currently ongoing, as it first started Thursday, Feb. 8.

The 56th District includes all or parts of Edwardsville, Alton, Glen Carbon, Bethalto, Caseyville, Collinsville, East Alton, Elsah, Fairview Heights, Hartford, Godfrey, Granite City, Madison, Maryville, OFallon, Pontoon Beach, Roxana, Shiloh, South Roxana, Swansea and Wood River.If we overlook the reality that President Donald Trumps talk about the death penalty for drug dealers is unconstitutional and still are comfortable with the fact it also is immoral, then the only thing standing in the way of backing the idea is that it simply wont work.

Speaking this weekend, Trump doubled-down on comments he reportedly made during the past week about drug dealers paying the ultimate price for their crimes. He shared a conversation with the president of Singapore about how that nation deals with drug crimes.

He said, We have a zero tolerance policy. That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty, Trump said, calling it a discussion we have to start thinking about, although I dont know if this countrys ready for it.

Even staunch conservatives probably arent ready for it. While most recognize the need for reform in this nations broken justice system, its hard to reconcile that with Republicans platform of valuing human life.

We will assume the reasons behind the idea are pure: to stop the epidemic of drug use in the nation. But Trumps track record on justice issues is slightly bruised. Post-president Trump has expressed that the Justice Department is there to follow his directions. Candidate Trump intimated that he would use the justice system to put his opponent behind bars. Pre-candidate Trump took out full-page ads in the papers in New York calling for five black and Latino teenagers accused of raping a woman in Central Park to be executed  and decades later still insisted the teens were guilty, despite DNA evidence exonerating them in 2002.

Eighth Amendment protections against cruel or excessive punishment create a large constitutional roadblock between bravado and fruition, fortunately. Totalitarian regimes dont have that sticking point.

Take Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, quoted by CNN as praising Trumps comments.

He would like to follow Duterte because they have no problem in the Philippines, he just killed them, Duterte said. Duterte, incidentally, has been nicknamed The Punisher by media outlets and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have criticized the extrajudicial killings of accused criminals by vigilantes. Although not implicated in the killings, Duterte has spoken in support of the actions.

That does not mean the death penalty cannot be meted in the most severe cases against drug traffickers. The Death Penalty Information Center lists four drug-related crimes that can have death penalty provisions, such as when law enforcement officers are killed in the commission of certain drug-related crimes.

The problem has been that the effectiveness of the death penalty itself is questionable. First, its expensive, with the sometimes decades-long trial and appeals process costing on average nearly $1 million.

Even Duterte has acknowledged the get-tough measures have not slowed drug use in the Philippines.

Theres a risk to being unwilling or unable to acknowledge facts. Theres more of a danger in dismissing them to pander to voters.

Solutions are needed. Too many lives have been lost, and too many families destroyed, by the scourge of drugs.

Government-sanctioned killing is not the way to change that.Cutouts and whites ruled the ramp as fashion designer Anupama Dayal recreated her magic on day one of Amazon India Fashion Week-Autumn Winter 2018. Taking inspiration from Lucknow, the designer carefully added the craft and culture of the historical city but tweaked the ancient look according to the modern times.

After the ramp show, Dayal said, "The collection is inspired by a visit to Lucknow. I fell in love with the city, its craft and culture. Everything about Lucknow is historical but as a designer, it is so beautiful and perfect as it is. Through my work, I have tried to tweak the inspiration according to the modern times for my women, who will wear it more easily."

Unlike other designers who generally get inspired by the chikankari work, Dayal through her collection has openly experimented with androgynous motifs. She said the idea was to bring out something unique as well as bold. "Normally, we see Lucknow chikankari, shins and florals but I, on the other hand, brought the aggression of the sword in a more androgynous motifs like swords, daggers, large kites and large roses. I played down the aggression of the sword through use of very pale colours," she adds.

Designer Anupama Dayal

Though Anupama's signature style focuses on adding ample colour to the outfits, in this collection, she has not shied away from playing with whites. "There was a lot of lilac, lavender and white. Whites must have been very unexpected from me but I filled up the craving for colour. With the whites, I tried to keep the feel very comfortable. Since the brand sells in cities and the collection is available in most resort destinations across the world, I chose to keep the outfits transparent so as to keep them light for the sea and sand," she adds.

She used simple silhouettes by devoting ample emphasis on the necklines. Describing the silhouettes, Dayal says "There are a lot of cutouts on the waist. In India, women are really confident of showing their midriff as they wear sarees comfortably. In other countries, women really hesitate to show their abs. Necklines are often on one sidethere is something on one side and nothing on the other side. So they are asymmetric. A lot of emphasis has been given so as to use the collar bones of women. I feel Indian women have really beautiful collar bones."

On asking what trends will rule the coming season, Dayal says whites, frills and ruffles will be hot sellers. "Ruffles are new to me because I refrain from using them. This time, however, I have added them in a subtle manner. Besides this, a certain kind of composition of colours such as pink and red together or lavender with cream, which even from me thanks to my mad use of colours is still unexpected."He offered a cure for everything from low libido and erectile dysfunction to premature ejaculation. He had seven wives and fathered 50-odd children across the country. M.S. Sarkar, the sexologist who was born in Karachi in undivided India, sold dreams of virility to thousands of Indians, is no more. His family estimates that he is over 90 years of age.

"He died peacefully at our home in Thiruvananthapuram. My mother, sisters, and myself, were present there," his youngest son Sher Khan told THE WEEK. S.K. Sarkar, as he is popularly known, is now running the clinic, which was once thronged by people who came in search of solutions for their troubles in bed.

Twenty-four of his sons, from across the country, arrived for the last rites. In the journey from Karachi to Uttar Pradesh to Kolkata, Hyderabad, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, his progeny were the only trace Sarkar left behind. "But nobody knows exactly how many children he has fathered,'' said his youngest son.

Sarkar left Karachi in the early 1940s. Then he was Mohammed Syed; his grandfather Haji Nawab Ali Khan was a royal physician. The story was that Syed left Karachi after a tiff with his grandfather, who opposed his love affair.

Syed drew from his Unani roots and established the first clinic in Uttar Pradesh. It was there that he first got married. By then, partition happened and communal issues flared up. Sensing that a secular-sounding name would be better for his practice, Syed took on a new nameM.S. Sarkar. His business flourished.

But he did not stay there for long. He travelled across the country before finally settling down in Thiruvananthapuram. He married everywhere that he established clinics.

Was he trying to be a living, breathing model of male virility? What exactly was his mission? One cannot help but wonder. "Nobody really knows why he married so many.... nobody dared to ask him that,'' said his son S.K. Sarkar.

Once he set up his clinic in Thiruvananthapuram, his business exploded. His advertisements started appearing regularly in Malayalam dailies, offering solutions to all male sexual issues. His face was prominently placed in pocket-size ads. For the orthodox Malayali society in the seventies and eighties, they heralded something of a sexual revolution; the ads offered solutions to many issues that were discussed in hushed tones till then.

"I still remember looking at those ads stealthily during my younger days. He looked very handsome... We, as young boys, felt a mix of jealousy and curiosity,'' said a writer who did not wish to be named.

According to him, Sarkar's ads did bring in the much needed openness about issues related to sex.

"The Kerala society finally accepted the sexology profession, and that there was nothing wrong in seeing a sexologist,'' he added.

People flocked to his clinic in the outskirts of the city, though in a clandestine manner.

"My father helped many overcome their sexual issues and even helped thousands of couples in siring offsprings,'' said S.K. Sarkar.

But he never learnt Malayalam, despite staying here for more than 50 years. "He would say it was the toughest language on earth,'' said S.K. Sarkar in chaste Malayalam.

Sarkar was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. "He forgot everything, including his Pakistani roots," said his son.

The sexologist was finally laid to rest in Thiruvananthapuram.But this idea - which is half concern trolling and half conspiracy theorizing - is absurd. This movement started not with adult action, but in conversations between Parkland students in the hours after the massacre at their school, and it quickly spread to social media. It took almost everyone by surprise.

It shouldn't have, of course. The struggle for gun regulations deserves a mass movement. The United States has more gun violence than any other first world country. We are responsible for almost one-third of mass shootings in the entire world over the past several decades. Mass shootings continue to occur even as violent crime is mostly falling in the United States. Many different types of gun regulations enjoy broad popular support.

What's more, the issue demonstrates how politicians of both parties remain captured by interest groups and lobbyists - I'm looking at you, National Rifle Association - while selling out the wants and needs of the people who elected them. When the teenagers of Parkland - perhaps traumatized, perhaps furious - began to speak truth to power, it turned out there were millions of Americans, children and adults, simply waiting for someone to begin to demand change and refuse to accept no for an answer.Ravi: She toh always tops the class. Riya can mug up answers like that!

Rekha: Leave it yaar! Who cares? Riya is like that only.

Try to picture this idle "Hinglish" bickering, and an Indian school or college will be the first to come to mind. But it may no longer be too far-fetched to imagine it unravelling in a university campus in the UK, the land of Queen's English. While Hinglish is not yet recognised as an official language in India, or even considered as a course of instruction in Indian universities, Portsmouth College in Hampshire, United Kingdom, has taken the lead by according it the seriousness of a "business language"perhaps indicative of the growing clout of India Inc in the country. The looming repercussions of Brexit on job opportunities in the corporate sector is also considered a reason behind the move. The college plans to regularise the teaching of Hinglish in their 2018-19 academic year, as part of their Modern Business Language and Culture Programme, after a successful pilot project was launched with a select number of students in November 2017.

India is the birthplace of this non-native variety of spoken English, colloquially termed Hinglish. A hybrid mix of Hindi and English, it is liberally used across schools, offices, north Indian popular culture, and private conversations. It has come to represent a neither-here-nor-there kind of linguistic conundrum, even as its speakers consider themselves fluent in both Hindi and English. Common examples of this remixed version include: 'tension mat le na' ( Dont get stressed about this) or 'she was bhunno-ing the masala' (she was frying the spices). Purists scoff at this courtship as corruption, while researchers believe it is natural process of "alchemisation" in a multicultural society. Deputy principal of the Portsmouth College, Simon Barrable, talks about why Hinglish matters. Excerpts from an email interview:



What prompted the inclusion of Hinglish as a language course in your academic curriculum?

We decided to introduce a Modern Business Languages and Culture course, made up of Mandarin in term 1 and Hinglish in term 2. This was in recognition of the ever-growing importance of the China and India in the world economy. Giving our students some basic language skills and a cultural understanding of these countries may well improve their employment prospects in a future, post-Brexit world, as well as broaden their horizons.

Who are typically interested in taking this course? Is it mostly non-resident Indians? Or does it also include foreigners with no Indian origins?

We have a real mixture of students taking the course. Some do have Indian origins, but the majority do not. They have taken it for the reasons I mentioned before.

What is the extent of Hinglish usage in the UK? Was it introduced keeping in mind placements in Indian companies? Is that the primary motivation?

I'm no expert, but I believe the extent of Hinglish usage in the UK is limited. We are primarily introducing it to students, along with a better understanding of Indian culture, to improve their CVs and broaden their outlook on the world.

Are you aware of other colleges mulling over introducing this language course?

I'm not aware of any other UK colleges running or considering running the course. I think we are unique in this at this moment.

How have you ascertained that knowing this version of English will help employment prospects? Is there any survey or study done to show that Hinglish is gaining currency as a means of communication?

We haven't completed a survey ourselves, but we are aware that it has been spoken since the 17th century and that the rapid economic development in India has spread its use. It is now apparently the most widely spoken business language on the sub-continent and British diplomats have to have a working knowledge of it.

Can you give us some more details of the course: the duration of the course and what are some of its components? Do you also offer help with placements in Indian companies?

The course runs for 10 weeks and covers basic words and phrases, how to present yourself and behave in Indian business contexts, and some coverage of wider cultural aspects of life in India, including food and popular traditions. We don't as yet offer placements with Indian companies, but we do give students extensive help with work experience and placements with UK companies, some of which will do business with India.Though the latest PNB fraud might have cast a shadow on corporate banking and lending segments in India, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, founder and CEO of Kolkata-headquartered Bandhan Bank, feels that the retail banking segment has a huge potential for growth in India due to the vast unbanked and untapped customer base in the country particularly in the rural areas.

We see huge potential in the basic retail banking services in India as customers are bound to use the basic services of the banks. We are only focusing on retail banking as of now and have seen healthy traction in this business. Corporate banking is a very complicated business and we have not ventured into it. Ever since we entered the banking business more than two years back we have had very good experience in this field though a huge chunk of our business is still in the microfinance field, Ghosh told THE WEEK as the bank's IPO kicked off on Thursday.

The bank hopes that the IPO would further build customer trust and help the company in attracting good investors. The IPO will close on Monday, March 19.

Ghosh said that it is the ability of a bank or a microfinance institution to build a trust with its customers that matters the most in attracting and retaining them. He added that a microfinancing business, in particularly, runs on trust and still forms a huge chunk of the company's overall business. Though, now we are also in the banking business our micro finance business is still very strong, particularly, in the rural areas of the country, and we have centres across India to cater to our micro finance customers. A customer meets a micro finance institution regularly and there is regular interface with the customers and that helps build their trust,added Ghosh.

Interestingly, Bandhan Bank is one of the only private sector banks headquartered in Kolkata and now has Pan India presence. It is also expanding rapidly. In India, a lot needs to be done in the rural parts of the country to bank the unbanked population and our aim is to tap this segment by providing them banking services. According to reports, India, though it has around 70 per cent of the total population living in rural areas, there are only 34 per cent of total bank branches that cater to them. On the other hand, only 30 per cent of the country's total population lives in the urban areas. But there are around 66 per cent bank branches to cater to their banking needs. So the potential to tap the rural population is huge in India, remarked Ghosh.

Ghosh says that a major challenge that retail banking faces in the country is dearth of skilled manpower to handle the segment and a lot of skilling needs to be done in this field. We have set up training centres to skill our staff in the retail banking space and the training is yielding us good results, said Ghosh.India and the US appear to be on the verge of a trade war over subsidies as Indian commerce secretary refuted the US charge in WTO that India is subsidising its exports.



The US Foreign Trade Representative (USFTR), Robert Lightheizer's office on Wednesday, had communicated to the commerce ministry, challenging India's various export subsidy programmes which amounted to $7 billion. The US has sought 'dispute settlement consultations' by invoking a resolution mechanism of the WTO on Wednesday.

"We do not consider this $7 billion as export subsidy. Some are tax forgone and others. We will try and understand the basis of their assumptions first," Rita Teotia, commerce secretary said, confirming that her ministry is seeking legal advice to prepare New Delhi's official response on the US objections. An official response will be sent soon.

As per WTO rules, India must respond within 60 days.

The US objections note that from the year 2013 India had notched a per capita GDP of $1000  a benchmark that trigger actions against any developing nation continuing with export subsidies. However, Teotia said that, "our understanding was that under the WTO provisions, developing countries are provided a time of 8 years to comply."

"We also have the right to seek extension of export subsidies for upto three years, a year before expiry of subsidy," she said.

Teotia said that India will engage with the US and place its position. "We hope they understand the very clear and logical position on this already in the WTO," said Teotia.

The commerce secretary said that either way both India and the US are interested in selling to each other. This year, both imports from the US and exports from India had increased.

Teotia credited the openness of market access to US in India and hoped the same will be reciprocated. The US exports to India amounted to $75 billion so far this year, a healthy rise over last year.

Leaders of the two nations would meet at the WTO mini-ministerial to be held in New Delhi later next week. India is likely to bring up for discussion a number of issues, including trade restrictions imposed by the US on import of solar panels, duties on its export of steel and aluminium among several others.

"We are not a national security threat to the US," maintained the commerce secretary.

The GoI programmes under the US radar include the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS); Export Oriented Units Scheme (EoU) and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme; Special Economic Zones (SEZ); Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme (EPCG); and a duty free imports for exporters programme, announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in the Union budget this year.

"These apparent export subsidies provide financial benefits to Indian exporters that allow them to sell their goods more cheaply to the detriment of American workers and manufacturers," the USFTR said in a statement.

"USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing US rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO," it said.Reserve Bank of India clearance for the Kerala Bank, an ambitious concept of CPI-M led LDF government, is expected by the end of this month. This was stated by Minister for Law A.K. Balan, on behalf of State Minister for Co-operation Kadakampally Surendran in the state assembly today.

With the formation of the Kerala Co-operative Bank by merging district co-operative banks with state co-operative banks, affiliation of primary agriculture co-operative societies would be with the new Bank. State government expect to get RBI clearance for the Kerala Bank by end of this month, Balan said during question hour.

Government was of the view that the functioning of the primary co-operatives would be strengthened with the formation of proposed Kerala Co-operative Bank, he said. It was stated in a written reply in the assembly that steps have been taken for software integration of all Bank branches by according sanction to RFP (request for proposal, procurement, installation and commissioning).Public sector banks have confirmed that Nirav Modi scam is the only case of Letters of Undertaking (LoU) fraud within the banking system and no other bank is affected with an LoU related fraud. They have said that it is one of its kind in about 5000 branches dealing in foreign exchange in the entire banking system in India.



"Each bank has already scanned their LoU/LoC related transactions and have confirmed during the workshop that all of them are properly assessed, genuine and accounted for except those already reported, said M.S. Sastry, Deputy managing director and chief risk officer of State Bank of India.

The public sector bankers are attending a three day workshop of executive directors, chief risk officers and chief technical officers of public sector banks at State Bank Academy, Gurgaon. The workshop was organised to ascertain prevailing risk management practices and arrive at a common understanding with regards to best practices.

Action plans have been drawn to further strengthen controls in areas of trade finance, SWIFT, credit risk, operational risk besides cyber and IT risk. Banks will now place these action plans with timelines for implementation/improvement before the respective boards.

Further controls have also now been put in place that includes additional layer of approval for all outward SWIFT messages, integration of SWIFT with CBS latest by 30th April 2018, besides time restrictions for such transactions, that is, between 9am to 8pm only.

Banks will also work towards improving risk awareness and ethical awareness among staff and preventive monitoring and surveillance of transactions. Banks will further strengthen KYE (Know your Employee) through technological intervention and employees at critical positions will be under stringent watch.

An onsite cyber security operation centre (C-SOC) that will monitor all IT assets of banks is also in the process of being established.American pop-rock band OneRepublic is set to perform live on April 21 in Mumbai's MMRDA Grounds, announced event management company, Opium Events, and are beyond excited about the tour.

Fans can expect OneRepublic to perform some of their biggest songs, from 'Apologise' to 'Secrets,' 'Good Life,' the smash hit 'Counting Stars' and more recently released singles from the latest album Oh My My.

Apart from India, the Grammy-nominated Colorado-bred quintet is embarking on a two-week Asia tour comprising Singapore, South Korea, China, Malaysia during which they will also perform at the Grammy Festival in Beijing alongside Pharrell Williams and James Bay.

OneRepublic, in a statement, said, We've wanted to visit India for years, and are beyond excited to finally get the chance to not only perform a full concert but also explore your beautiful country. See you soon!

Opium Events Director Cyrus Gorimar, said, We have been in talks with the management since over six months now as we realised that the band enjoys a great repertoire in the country with a significant fanbase originating out of India. Our pre-registrations have seen a phenomenal response with more than 10,000 registrations received in a span of 24 hours and we are anticipating close to 15,000 fans for the event. The production and scale of the event will be extraordinary with a multi-crore spend invested into the event.

Tickets to OneRepublic Live In India 2018 start from Rs 4,200 and sale on ticketing portal, www.bookmyshow.com has already started from March 14, 2018.

Ticket details:

Rs 4,200 (Silver); Rs 6,900 (Gold); Rs 9951 (Platinum); Rs 24,000 (VIP)

OneRepublic's highly anticipated fourth album Oh My My released on October 7, 2016, and debuted at #3the band's highest charting debut yet on the Billboard 200. Ryan Tedder calls it their ultimate playlist, that include singles 'Wherever I Go', 'Kids' and 'Let's Hurt Tonight'.

OneRepublic is in the studio working on their next album and will be supporting Zac Brown Band across several US stadium during the summer.Actress Radhika Apte has never shied away from calling a spade a spade, and won't take nonsense frrm anyone. Speaking on Neha Dhupia's show BFFs with Vogue, Radhika revealed she had once slapped her co-star on the sets of a Tamil film.

She said that it was her first day on the set. Her co-star, a famous Tamil actor whose name she didn't disclose, began tickling her feet. I was stunned as wed never met before and I instinctively slapped him, she said.

The upcoming episode of the show also features Rajkummar Rao.

Radhika was last seen with Akshay Kumar in Padman, was recently trolled for posting pictures of herself dressed in a bikini on a Goa beach.The two high-profile bypolls in Uttar Pradesh may have been lost, but the BJP managed to score a heavy win in the Charilam Assembly seat on Thursday; voting for the seat was held up because of the death of the Left Front candidate earlier.

Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debabarma won the seat, defeating his Left Front rival by around 25,550 votes. The CPI(M) candidate lost his deposit even as the Left Front had initially wanted to abstain from the Charilam election, alleging mass torture of its cadres.

A beaming Biplab Deb, chief minister of Tripura, told THE WEEK, We are now having 36 seats. Now we will have to deliver. Most of the people have voted for us.

The BJP tried to project this win as a consolation for the party leadership in Delhi, which seemingly went 'off-mood' after the drubbing in the UP and Bihar byelections.

Sunil Deodhar, BJPs state in-charge in Tripura, said, Dont worry when election would come, we will do it again. BJP has not lost in India at all. It will come back to power again in 2019.

The CPI(M) leadership was speechless about why it did not put up any fight against the BJP in Charilam. Though the party complained about mass torture, none of the CPI(M) leaders went to Election Commission and said Communist cadres or leaders could not enter the area.

Of course, they should have taken this up with the EC. Its the duty of the EC to give security to candidate and voters. But nothing of that sort has come as far as I know, said Debabarma.

A victory procession hit the streets on Thursday soon after the win. This is the first time the CPI(M) has lost the seat in 25 years.

Meanwhile in his first cabinet meeting, Deb has already approved implementation of recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission for state government employees as promised by the BJP in its manifesto. The government is also sending proposals to New Delhi for approval of a medical college in Agartala. A survey has also been ordered for one big hospital in North Tripura and another in South Tripura.The accountancy question paper of Class 12 in the ongoing CBSE exams has been leaked on WhatsApp. Images of the question paper has been doing its rounds on social media since last evening, according to media reports. The accountancy exam was scheduled for Thursday.

Following the complaint, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has ordered an inquiry into it on Thursday. "Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE. Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to negligence of CBSE," Sisodia said in a tweet.

The question paper reportedly matches set II of today's CBSE's accountancy question paper.

Media reports qouted CBSE sources saying an expert committee will investigate the matter.Sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Thursday launched his new party and called it the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), meaning Amma Peoples Development party. His outfit is the newest addition to Tamil Nadus landscape of political start-ups. However, unlike other leaders who launched a new outfit, Dhinakaran is no political novice. And now with the new outfit, Dhinakaran aims to carry forward Jayalalithaas legacy.

Retrieving the two leaves symbol and capturing the party is my aim, Dhinakaran told the crowd he addressed at Melur near Madurai, during the launch of his party on Thursday. His party flag too will have the AIADMKs tricolour band of red, white and black, with Jayalalithaas image in the middle. Jayas face replaces that of former chief minister C.N. Annadurai in the original AIADMK flag.

But more than all this, what matters in the partys name is the word Amma. Already the AIADMK, headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, has challenged the Delhi High Courts order, which allowed Dhinakaran to launch his new party and use cooker as its symbol.

Minutes before, Dhinakaran launched his party in Madurai, state Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar, known for taking digs at the former, called him a shani and termed his exit as 'good riddance to the AIADMK'.

But Dhinakaran, more than a Shani, is likely to be a thorn in the flesh for the current AIADMK leaders, as he aims to stake claim to Jayalalithaas legacy. Dhinakaran, like in the recent past, is confident of his ability to project himself as the political inheritor of the former chief minister's legacy. In fact, this was his passport to Fort St George, when he won a bypoll from her erstwhile constituency, R.K. Nagar, in December last year.

Dhinakaran is yet another claimant of Jayalalithaas legacy like Palanisamy and Panneerselvam. This is because invoking Jaya only can help them lure the cadres. Clearly, Dhinakarans party launch happened just minutes before his nemesis, Panneerselvam, was getting ready to present his budget.

Panneerselvam, with a photograph of his mentor Jayalalithaa pasted on the briefcase, was seen walking down to the Assembly hall with Palanisamy. Incidentally, Panneerselvam and Palanisamy refer to their government as Ammas Government. Panneerselvam's budget, as always, invoked Jayalalithaas name as he hailed her as the eternal leader who would guide him, the government and the party.

But even as he presented his budget, the massive crowd at Madurai, for Dhinakarans meeting, gains importance, as Madurai has of late turned to be the route to political power in Chennai.

Jayakumar might have brushed aside Dhinakaran, calling him a Shani. But this government is just an arrangement between the ruling party MLAs to run the party. The AIADMK will exist under OPS and EPS until they are in power, tells a AIADMK minister who was also one among the ruling party MLAs worried about Dhinakarans rising clout.

But invoking Jayalalithaas name and positioning himself as her successor is only a temporary relief to haul up and pull up in the future. Dhinakaran's aim is to capture the AIADMK from Palanisamy and Panneerselvam. Dhinakaran is confident of a takeover, after the Madras HC rules in a case related to the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs who had allied with him. The 18 pro-Dhinakaran MLAs, who alleged corruption charges in a petition to the governor, were disqualified by the speaker last year.

Apparently, there are just two options: if the court upholds the speakers ruling and disqualifies the MLAs, the Palanisamy government becomes a minority and he might be pushed to demonstrate his strength through a floor test. Dhinakaran hopes that such a ruling will push the state under Presidents rule, as Palanisamy would lose in the floor test. In such a situation, Dhinakaran believes that the rank and file of the party will come with him, which is why he put up a big show in Madurai.

Again, if the court rules in favour of the MLAs, Dhinakaran will head the rebel MLAs in the Assembly, which means the government will move on and he will continue to be a sidelined leader and lead a splinter group.

However in an already politically crowded state, Dhinakarans new outfit is yet another party, which can only eat into the AIADMK's vote bank. The AIADMK has a vote share of 35 to 40 per cent and Dhinakaran can consolidate a significant part of this. Again, hailing from the south of Tamil Nadu, which has much of the Thevar vote bank, Dhinakaran could get a wide support base.

With the rise of Dhinakaran, Panneerselvam who also hails from the same caste lines, might lose his clout. On the other hand, Palanisamy enjoys a wide support base in west Tamil Nadu, which predominantly consists of the Gounder community. And if Palanisamy leads the party, Panneerselvam might not be able to hold his clout as the possibility of Palanisamy ceding his political power is next to impossible.

In such a case, after the verdict in the disqualification case, there are likely chances that Dhinakaran could have a better chance at being seen as the inheritor of Jayalalithaas legacy. However, his allegiance to Sasikala, or Chinnamma, might still derail Dhinakaran's prospects, given that anger against her has not yet died down.

He will affect the chances of AIADMK; he will make inroads into the AIADMK votes, which will obviously be advantage DMK. I dont think his new party will have any big effect in the state, says senior journalist R. Mani.

However, Dhinakarans fate in becoming a future leader and capturing the party remains to be seen, as the two-leaves bribery case and the FERA cases hang over him as a sword of Damocles. His R.K. Nagar victory and the new party launch might prove a damp squib if the two-leaves bribery case takes the legal route. The case could put him in a spot. Unlike how he was seen as a hero, last yearwhen he was out of Tihar jail and how his charisma grew during the R.K. Nagar pollthis time, the two leaves case might cripple Dhinakaran's political future.DACA means the world to me. DACA is more than the political debate this country is in as to what to do with the program. It is about people who are trying to better themselves and achieve the American Dream. I find it hard to believe that in the summer of 2010, I was in Wise, North Carolina waking up at 5 in the morning, and now I am in my second year of law school.

If it had not been for DACA, I would not have made it this far. I have gained valuable experiences from the various jobs I have worked in which if I was not covered under DACA I would not be able to do. I hope to graduate in 2019, and take the bar that same summer.

In Florida, it is possible to become an attorney as a DACA recipient. I pray that when the time comes for me to sit down for the bar exam, DACA is still in place, so that I can practice law.

I chose to become an attorney because of all of the injustices I witnessed growing up in various stages of my life. I want to bring justice to those who deserve it. I hope that the people who are against DACA realize that we are not all criminals. For example, my story is unique like every dreamer in America.

I am originally from Eastado de Mexico, Mexico. I was less than a year old when my parents immigrated to America. My parents left their friends, family, and homeland in search of a better life.Early on March 15, media agencies carried reports on two different fighter 'procurements' for the Indian Air Force. One of the reports stated that the IAF had 'committed' to buy 201 Tejas variants once an 'improved' variant was developed and met its performance parameters, making for a total of 324 Tejases in the IAF.

Another report stated that the ministry of defence had asked the IAF to evaluate Boeing's F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighter for a purchase of at least 100 fighters, to be built in India, in a deal valued at approximately $15 billion.

At first glance, it is hard to decipher whether the two procurement plans have any relationship or, more importantly, whether they are complementary in nature. Not to forget where the IAF was going to come up with the funds to cover these possible acquisitions.

Coming to the Tejas. The Tejas programme is woefully behind schedule and, as of now, the IAF is buying a total of 123 Tejas jets in multiple batches, at an estimated cost of nearly Rs 75,000 crore. The 'improved' Tejas jets, currently referred to as Tejas MK-2, are expected to have newer engines, radars and increased fuel capacity.

The improved variant was warranted as the IAF wasn't satisfied with the original design's performance. However, an improved design would take around five years to be ready for service, given the need for extensive testing and qualification. The Tejas was meant to replace the MiG-21 and MiG-23/27 fighters, but the aircraft's age would be seriously showing by 2025-30which is when the MK-2 should be entering full service, assuming all goes well.

With respect to the Super Hornet, the latest MoD instructions appear to be a repeat of what happened a decade ago when the IAF held a much-touted competition involving multiple vendors to buy 126 aircraft, which led to the French Rafale's selection. The medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) competition was keenly watched across the world. What is less well known, however, is the fact that the IAF initially raised a requirement for 126 Mirage-2000s shortly after the Kargil War in 1999, which subsequent governments decided to expand into a competition.

The 'current' competition comes three years ago after Prime Minister Narendra Modi junked negotiations to buy 126 Rafales and opted to buy 36 jets off the shelf. Boeing had offered the Super Hornet in the MMRCA competition, but it failed to match the IAF's technical parameters.

Leaving aside the technical merits of the Super Hornet or the Rafale or any other competitor, the question of precise time lines for the induction of these fighters and which company will partner with a chosen foreign supplier in India remain unanswered.

So in essence, the IAF seems to be back to where it was not 10 years ago, but arguably 20 years ago.If anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...Ahead of the crucial Assembly polls scheduled to be held in April-May, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah finds himself cornered over the Lingayat community's demand to be given the status of a separate religion. On Thursday, nearly 50 Veerashaiva pontiffs who met the chief minister demanded that the government should reject the report from an expert committee that 'favours' according separate religion status and minority tag to only Lingayats, while excluding the Veerashaivas.

We are not happy with the report as it is tilted towards the Lingayat faction, which was well represented in the committee. The issue is serious and needs long deliberations. So, we urge the government not to make any recommendation to the Centre till the completion of the polls. If need be, the government may constitute another expert committee, with representation from both factions, said Sri Dingaleshwara Swami of Balehosur Math, who was accompanied by 50 other pontiffs. The pontiffs warned of a massive agitation if the government went ahead with its plan to place the committee report before the Centre.

The Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, for long, considered as one, is today facing an identity crisis. Siddaramaiah finds himself being accused of having 'engineered' the split of the community for electoral dividends, as Lingayats are the critical support base of the BJP.

A week after the state-appointed expert committee headed by Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das submitted its report favouring the separate religion status and minority status to Lingayats, the government is worried about a vertical split within the cabinet over the issue.

Two of his cabinet colleaguesM.B. Patil and Vinay Kulkarni who spearheaded the Lingayat agitationare threatening to resign from the cabinet if the government does not refer the expert committee report to the Centre. But the rival faction comprising ministers Eshwar Khandre and S.S. Mallikarjuna (son of veteran Congress leader and All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha president Shamanur Shivashankarappa) have urged the CM to reject the report.

A cabinet meeting held last week was not only inconclusive but witnessed a shouting match between ministers belonging to the two groups. Now, both factions have threatened to resign from the cabinet if their demand is not met.

Sensing trouble, the CM put off a second cabinet meeting scheduled last Wednesday to buy time to clear the deadlock within his cabinet. According to sources, the silence of prominent and powerful Lingayat pontiffsof Suttur Mutt in Mysuru (CM's home town) and Siddaganga Mutt in Tumkurhas also vexed Siddaramaiah. A surprise meeting of BJP's Lingayat strongman B.S. Yeddyurappa with Shamanur Shankarappa has upset the Congress party, as the rift within the Congress cabinet is now wide open.

The overzealous Patil-Kulkarni duo snubbing the oldest associationVeerashaiva Mahasabha headed by Shamanur all through the agitationand eventually petitioning the government (through the newly formed World Lingayat Mahasabha) demanding the separate religion status to only Lingayats has not gone down well with Shamanur and a majority of pontiffs who argue that Veerashaiva and Lingayat are one.

The BJP, on the other hand, is treading on the issue with caution, unwilling to upset both factions. Yeddyurappa has only reiterated that his party would not tolerate any efforts to divide the community.

The committee, which has come out with a report within two-and-a-half months, is said to have observed that Lingayats cannot be considered as a sub-sect of Hinduism. It was founded by the 12th century social reformer Basavanna. Based on the historical documents, Lingayat can be accorded minority status on the lines of Buddhism and Jainism.

In a memorandum to the chief minister, the delegation of seers stated that Veerashaiva-Lingayat was an ancient religion established by Lord Shiva, propagated through panchaacharyas (pontiffs), Basavanna and sharanas (followers).

It has been rejuvenated by the pontiffs from time to time and has assumed a secular character as it welcomes people of every caste and creed into its fold and imparts education and culture. The recent development has not only pained us, but also diverted our attention towards safeguarding our religion. We urge the state to take a favourable decision by rejecting the report, says the memorandum.

Out of the 3,000 pontiffs, only a handful of them are supporting those who are conspiring to break the community. The ball is in the state government's court. We have urged the CM not to take an decision that will break the community and not accept the report. The CM comes from a socialist background and we have urged him to treat everyone as equal. If the government decides to go ahead with the recommendation, we are prepared to launch a massive agitation against the government and the Congress Party, explained Dingaleshwara Swami.

However, S.M. Jaamdar, former bureaucrat, who is part of the Lingayat agitation, argues that the report has been exhaustive. The committee has taken into consideration both sides of the argument and has also heard at least 21 people from the other faction (Veerashaiva). If they have failed to present facts and evidence, the panel is not to be blamed, says Jaamdar.Repeated delays in key naval projects have not only hit country's maritime preparedness, but also led to huge cost escalation. Three important naval projects, which were to cost Rs. 9,892 crore, eventually cost the Navy Rs 38,855 crorefour times the original cost.

Highlighting the delays in naval projects, the Standing Committee on Defence, headed by Major General B.C. Khanduri (retd), in its report tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, claimed that repeated delays in procurement projects have become 'part and parcel of the procedures'.

While mentioning about considerable delays in number of projects of the Navy, including Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), naval offshore patrol vessels, fast interceptor crafts, landing craft utility and water jet fast attack craft, the parliamentary panel observed that " the delays have adversely impacted the exchequer.

In case of IAC, the delivery schedule of the aircraft carrier has been been revised from December 2010 to October 2018. But, the warship is expected to be delivered by October 2020. The panel noted that the main reasons for time overrun are the non-availability of Russian steel, and delay in receipt of critical pre-launch equipment such as gear box and diesel generators.

"The original coast of Rs. 3,261 crore was revised to Rs. 19,341 crore by the Cabinet Committee on Security in July 2014. Increased equipment costs, including weapons and sensors, and Aviation Facilities Complex (AFC) due to finalisation from generic to specific equipment has further added to the cost overrun," the Standing Committee report stated.

After commissioning 40,000 tons warship, the IAC will be formally named as INS Vikrant. With this, India will join the elite group of indigenous built aircraft carrier, as other than Indian Navy, only the US, Russia, Britain and France have capacity to design and build aircraft carriers of 40,000 tonnes and heavier.

Similarly, in case of Project 15A with MDL, Mumbai, delivery of three ships named INS Kolkata, INS Kochi and INS Chennai, faced repeated delays. The committee observed that "the original cost of Rs. 3580 crore was revised to Rs. 11,662 crore. Cost overrun has been mainly due to the increase in equipment cost and Yard material, increase of cost of labour and labour overheads and realistic assessment of cost of weapons and sensors."

And in case of Project 28 with M/s GRSE, Kolkata, delivery schedule of three shipsINS Kamrota, INS Kadmatt and INS Kiltanwas revised repeatedly, which led to cost overrun from Rs. 3,051.2 crore to Rs. 78,52.39 crore.

"The Committee are distressed to note that factors relating to costing are not assessed and calculated well in advance. To the dismay of the Committee, apart from the required capability not being handed over to the navy, the cost incurred on the project turned to a complete waste," the panel observed.

The Committee recommended that due care be taken in concluding contracts and added that regular follow ups are an inescapable necessity. Otherwise, the precious funds of the exchequer will continue to keep going in vain, the committee stated.Do you think cities in south India are the best compared to those in other parts of the country? Think again. According to a recent survey, other cities have raced past south Indian state capitals in performance when it comes to quality of governance.

Pune has unseated Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram as the best governed city in the Annual Survey of India's City-System (ASICS) undertaken for 2017 by non-profit organisation Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD).

Pune is the best city when it comes to local governance and Bengaluru the worst, says the study that evaluated the quality of governance by analysing the functioning of urban local bodies in 23 major cities across 20 states. The cities scored between 3.0 and 5.1 on a scale of 10.

Delhi, which ranked sixth among 23 Indian cities surveyed, improved its position this year from last year's ninth, with a score of 4.4 out of 10 in the annual city governance rankings. An ASICS team member said Delhi's score had improved because of urban renewal projects under Central government schemes such as AMRUT and Smart City.

Pune (5.1) ranked first, followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat. The bottom five cities on the list were Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Patna and Chennai , with scores ranging between 3 and 3.3 out of 10.

The survey looked at governance in other countries to explain where Indian metros stand when compared with some mega cities elsewhere. Johannesburg in South Africa, London in the UK and New York in the US scored 7.6, 8.8 and 8.8, respectively.

The higher the ranking, better are the chances of cities delivering quality infrastructure and services in the long term, the report said.

"Indian cities are in a precarious situation. There is a marginal improvement, but the rate is slow compared to the rate at which problems in the cities are growing," JCCD CEO Srikanth Viswanathan said while releasing the fifth edition of the survey here.

The report is based on a study of urban bodies and an analysis of laws, policies and RTI replies.

"We are slow in responding to challenges. If we have aspirations of high economic growth, job creation and giving a better quality of life (to the people), we have to address these problems on a war-footing," he said.

The scores signal that Indian cities are "grossly under-prepared" in delivering a high quality of life that is sustainable in the long term, said the report.

"The recurring floods, garbage crises, fire accidents, building collapses, air pollution and dengue outbreaks are only symptoms of this deeper governance crisis in our cities," the report said.

The rankings were based on four distinct but inter-related componentsurban planning and design, urban capacities and resources; empowered and legitimate political representation and transparency, accountability and participation.

The ASICS report is designed to help city leaders pinpoint issues in urban governance in their cities and help them chalk out a reform road map to make them more livable, Viswanathan said.

The study suggests remedial measures such as focusing on city planning, finances and human resource management, transparency and a greater role of citizens in urban bodies.

(With inputs from PTI)The Supreme Court on Thursday lashed out at a section of the media for what it said was "irresponsible reporting" and observed that they should not feel like the "Pope sitting on the pulpit".

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, in particular, criticised the electronic media and websites against baseless publications, containing insinuations, and emphasised the importance of "responsible journalism".

Justice Misra said,"Many in the electronic media think they can write anything. Whatever excites your imaginationyou can write anything and get away... can some people sit on the pulpit and write anything? Is that journalism?"

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits... are they free to write anything? What they write sometimes is sheer contempt of court," the CJI observed.

Stressing that he was not commenting on the case before the bench, Justice Misra added, "You cannot reproduce anything that comes to your heart and mind. There has to be some basis. You cannot nurture, construct, construe, create anything. That's not the culture of journalism."

"The question of gagging the media does not come at all. I have myself rebuffed all attempts to gag the media, but we do expect the media, especially electronic media, to become more responsible. They cannot publish anything only because they have some websites," Justice Misra said, while cautioning such electronic media and websites.

Justice Misra's remarks came during the hearing of an appeal by a news portal and its founding editors and journalist against the Gujarat High Court's January 8 order, refusing to quash summons issued against them by a trial court.Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah stayed away from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh bypolls. Despite that, their rivals termed the defeat of the BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur as a major set back for the ruling party.

Instead of Modi and Shah, their lookalikes were in the campaign trail. They came from Delhi and campaigned. But the party received a major snub from the people. There was a massive fall of voting percentage in UP byelections. Now its clear; BJPs vote share has gone down around 5 per cent since last time in 2014, which shows their voters mostly stayed away from the polling booths on the voting day. Voters did not take election seriously like their party did.

Cadre-based party always takes elections seriously. But there have been two instances very recently which made it an exception. BJPs top brass is rather busy in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan or Tripura. In Tripura, they won a massive victory recently. BJP thought that the byelection campaign did not make any sense and that it would be proper to canvas the leadership in full elections in states which would go to poll. In return, what they got was a clear slap from the people that every election is an electionwhether its local, state or general or even byelection.

The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had stitched up an alliance days before the elections. However, had the BJP jumped into the bandwagon, it would not have become easy for the SP-BSP alliance to win the seats which were held by the chief minister and the deputy chief minister.

There is another cadre-based party which has done similar mistake. Its the CPI(M) which refused to fight the election in a seat in Tripura, which was canceled earlier due to death of a left front candidate. But after the drubbing in the hands of BJP-IPFT, CP(M) decided to quit from the battlefield raising the issue of violence.

How can we enter into election when our party workers had to flee from their houses fearing torture from the BJP cadres? has been the argument of Bijan Dhar, CPI(M)s Tripura secretary.

But the issue is if Sitaram Yechudi and Manik Sarkar could visit Belonia, where Lenins statue was pulled down, then why could not all the senior leaders go to Chairali (the only seat where the election took place) and guard their partymen from the rowdies in the BJP party? At least the election would have been held under the watchful eyes of the election commission of India which is also in charge of the security of the political parties and candidates. But they were busy parading farmers in Maharashtra where they did not have any stake in electoral politics.

Like people of Uttar Pradesh, people of Tripura would also find it difficult to digest the communists and it might take years for the communists to make a come back in Tripura where they ruled for 25 years at one go. Same thing happened in West Bengal, where the party almost went to oblivion in 2011.

Around 46 years ago, the left had faced a similar kind of situation in Bengal when Congress, under the leadership of Sidhartha Sankar Ray, allegedly looted the vote booths. Even leaders like Jyoti Basu, who never lost election since 1946, had to face defeat in the hands of Congress machinery. Many elders of Bengal, who are still alive, could remember how they were sent back from the polling booths with the messages that their votes had been already cast. Basu and his men did not quit till the election date. When it was apparent after the election that the entire ballot boxes were looted, Basu and others decided to quit from the election process citing the democracy as a farce.

Now, after the UP elections results were out, the BJP is facing million dollar questions. Will Akhilesh Yadav and Mayavati join hands in 2019? The most likely answer would be 'Yes'. Thats because 2019 Lok Sabha election would not make Akhilesh or Mayavati as chief minister. So they would have nothing to gain by fighting against each other. But they could jointly try to unseat Moditheir common enemy and could hog the limelight then.

Trust me, we would do everything possible to unseat Modi government from power. UP byelections gave us that strength that we alone could change the scenario, said vice president of SP, Kiranmoy Nanda, to THE WEEK.

Modi got 71 seats in UP in 2014. If it comes down half of that big tally in 2019, and if there would be possible rout in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the prime minister would have to leave the 7 Race Course Road.

So the UP byelections may not have had big implications to his number in Lok Sabha, but it has shown the vulnerability which could bring ultimate catastrophe for the party that Marxists are dealing with in India these days.Russia will soon expel British diplomats in retaliation for Britains decision to kick out 23 Russian envoys over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

In London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ratcheted up the rhetoric against Russia, accusing it of glorying in the attack on Sergei Skripal, which he described as a way of scaring anyone who stood up to President Vladimir Putin.

Britain says Russia is responsible for the poisoning with a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent of Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33. They were found unconscious on March 4 in the city of Salisbury in southern England and remain critically ill in hospital.

Moscow denies any involvement. The Kremlin said the British position was irresponsible and not backed up by evidence. It said Britain would not have to wait long for Russias response.

Lavrov was quoted by the official news agency RIA as saying the accusations were unacceptable and that British diplomats would be expelled.

But in a series of British media interviews early on Thursday, Johnson said the evidence of Russian guilt was overwhelming because only Moscow had access to the poison used and a motive for harming Sergei Skripal.

There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that weve heard from the Russians that to me betokens their fundamental guilt, he told the BBC.

They want to simultaneously deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it.

Johnson said the attack was a way for Putin to send a message to anyone considering taking a stand against it that You do that, you are going to die.

Targeting Russian money

A former agent of the GRU, Russias military intelligence agency, Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain before being arrested in Moscow and jailed in 2006. He was freed as part of a spy swap deal in 2010 and took refuge in Britain.

At home, the British government has been under pressure from lawmakers and media to show it is getting tough on Russia, with some experts saying that despite the rhetoric the response did not go far enough to bother Putin.

Johnson defended the measures announced on Wednesday and suggested that there could be further consequences for wealthy Russians with assets in Britain.

We will go after the money and actually we are going after the money, he said, adding that the National Crime Agency and Economic Crimes Unit were investigating a wide range of individuals. He declined to give details, citing legal reasons.

What people want to see is some of the very rich people ... whose wealth can be attributed to their relationship with Vladimir Putin, it may be that the law agencies, that the police will be able to put unexplained wealth orders on them, to bring them to justice for their acts of gross corruption, he said.

Johnson also said he had been heartened by strong expressions of support from the United States and other allies  although it remains unclear whether there will be a coordinated international response to the Novichok attack.

France, which on Wednesday had said it wanted proof of Russian involvement before deciding whether to take action against Russia, appeared to change its position on Thursday, saying it agreed with the assessment of its NATO ally Britain.

France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation (than Russian involvement) and reiterates its solidarity with its ally, President Emmanuel Macrons office said.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Wednesday that Washington believed Moscow was responsible for the attack, adding it was a crime worthy of UN Security Council action.

Any effective Security Council action seems highly unlikely, however, given that Russia, like Britain and the United States, is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the body.

Russia has repeatedly said Britain was refusing to provide a sample of the nerve agent used in Salisbury.

Johnson said Britain would send a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons for them to independently assess it.

-ReutersClimate change might not be a reality for US President Donald Trump. But for the residents of Switzerland, it is a big truth and one that affects them immediately.

Global warming has had a hazardous impact on the glaciers of Switzerland and the locals have been resorting to a strange, but apparently effective way to protect their all important Rhone Glacier.

As summer starts, the residents of the area head to the glacier with white blankets and cover the ice.

But don't blankets keep us warm? The white blankets, in case of the glaciers, reflect the sun rays and protect the ice from melting.

The residents have been using blankets to protect the glacier for the last eight years, according to a Quartz report. The covering reduces melting by 70 per cent, says Swiss glaciologist David Volken.

The Rhone Glacier, a popular tourist spot, has been reduced by 39.93 metres in the last 10 years. Volken said the glacier loses between 10 and 12 centimetres (up to eight inches) of ice thickness on a hot day.

Though a non-conventional idea, this method is being used in Italy and Germany, too. Scientists are also looking at other ways to protect glaciers and to slow down, if not arrest, the melting. Covering the glaciers with artificial snow is also being considered. This method also will reflect the sun rays rather than absorbing it. Other ideas in consideration include pumping sea water over the Arctic sea ice in winter to prompt thicker ice formation.

But all these ideas work only when significant changes are made to curb actions which contribute to global warming and climate change. Human activity in the past few hundred years raised the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 40 per cent. Carbon dioxide is a heat trapping gas and is one of the biggest reasons for global warming.Katrina Gulliver, a Time magazine contributor, wrote an article in February stating that On May 18, 1927, a man named Andrew Kehoe blew up the school in Bath Township, Mich. Most of the 44 killed were children. It remains the deadliest attack on a school in U.S. history. It is also regularly left out of accounts of terrorism in America. ... Today, Kehoe does fit into a defined role for a dangerous individual  we might see him as part of a continuum of angry white men, including the Unabomber and Timothy McVeigh  but in the 1920s, that was not a commonly known archetype."

Therefore, the issue of gun control or the NRA is a narrow focus on a larger problem, which is the determination of a disturbed frustrated person or persons who will find any means necessary to cause harm to fellow human beings or property.

Those who are targeting the NRA as the problem of violence in America are wasting their ammunition in the wrong place and their effort to attack one form of weaponry is an affront to the victims killed by other forms of weapons and it says that this one method of killing is more important than knives, bombs and, in the case of Timothy McVeigh, a truck full of fertilizer.There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour with respect to fight against terrorism after President Donald Trump blasted Islamabad for providing safe havens to militants and suspended more than $1 billion security aid to the country, a top American official has said.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis also said that there are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping the US' ongoing efforts against terrorism.

"There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced)," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to Afghanistan, according to the transcripts released by the US Department of Defense.

In his new South Asia Policy in August last, President Trump had called for tougher measure against Pakistan if it fails to cooperate with the US in its fight against terrorism.

In his first tweet of the new year, Trump had accused Pakistan of basing its relationship with the US on "nothing but lies and deceit".

Days after his tweet, the US suspended over $1.15 billion in security aid and the delivery of military equipment to Pakistan for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups.

"There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction," Mattis said.

In January, the Pakistan government issued a fatwa signed by more than 1,800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Mattis said that despite the apparent changes in Pakistan, he'd still like to talk to people dealing with the border issues and intelligence and their impression of the situation.

"One of the reasons I want to go in is actually talk to the people who are dealing with the border issues right now, dealing with intelligence and what they're seeing. And then go back and talk with our intelligence agencies in Washington, DC, and put together an assessment of this," Mattis said.

"There is a number of things that have been going on, but I want to talk to people here and see the reality and how they see it and go back and talk to intelligence agencies and get a full assessment of where we're at," he said.

Responding to a question on Taliban, Mattis said the US has to set the conditions where the Taliban realise they cannot win with bombs.

"At that point, setting the conditions for the diplomats to sit down, and the leadership to sit down and try to get this out of the violence and into the diplomatic stance," he said.

Mattis, however, said that while the US tries to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, it will still ramp up the military pressure on it.

"..you need to have that door open, even as you increase the military pressure and say this is not going to work. You know, to just be setting off bombs," he said.

The defense secretary said that the US needs to lead and provide the substance for the reconciliation effort.

"...it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That would be a bridge too far right now to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said.

In Kabul, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussed the South Asia strategy and the US' commitment to Afghanistan.

Pentagon's chief spokesperson Dana White said that Mattis praised Ghani's recent offer to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions.

"He noted Ghani's diplomatic approach achieved a level of international support not possible with military action alone. Secretary Mattis offered his full support to the Afghan-led reconciliation process, aimed at achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan," White said.

At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, President Ghani called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks to "save the country" while offering security and incentives like passports to insurgents who take part in the negotiations.

During the meeting, Mattis emphasised that the peace offer does not eliminate the need for offensive operations against the Taliban, and noted the importance of continued Afghan National Defense and Security Forces progress on the battlefield.

"The two leaders also reinforced that the recent Taliban peace offer without preconditions was genuine, and they are ready to embrace all who are willing to reconcile," White said.

-PTIThe Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Helena and Calistoga will host a candlelight vigil and night walk in support of the family of Jennifer Golick, who was killed in the recent shooting at the Veterans Home, at 7 p.m. Monday, starting at the St. Helena Clubhouse on Tainter Street.

The event is intended to let the Golick family know that in the midst of their grief, the community is standing with them.

Participants will hold candles and walk to the Golick house, where they will observe a few minutes of silence before walking back.

Since Golick was a huge San Francisco Giants fan, the club will also hand out orange lights and ask everyone in St. Helena and Calistoga to put up a string of orange lights in their front yard in remembrance of Golick.Intelsat S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides satellite communications services worldwide. The company offers a range of communications services to media companies, fixed and wireless telecommunications operators, data networking service providers for enterprise and mobile applications in the air and on the seas, multinational corporations, and Internet service providers; and commercial satellite communication services to the U.S. government and other military organizations and their contractors. It provides various on-network services, including transponder services; managed services that combine satellite capacity, teleport facilities, satellite communications hardware, and other ground facilities to provide managed and monitored broadband, trunking, video, and private network services to customers; and channel services primarily used for providing point-to-point bilateral services to telecommunications providers. The company also offers off-network services comprising transponder, mobile satellite, and other services. In addition, it offers satellite-related consulting and technical services that include the lifecycle of satellite operations and related infrastructure ranging from satellite and launch vehicle procurement through telemetry and commanding services, and related equipment sale services. The company was founded in 1964 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Intelsat S.A. is a subsidiary of Serafina S.A.

Read MoreBayer Aktiengesellschaft operates as a life science company worldwide. It operates through Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, and Crop Science segments. The Pharmaceuticals segment offers prescription products primarily for cardiology and women's health care; specialty therapeutics in the areas of oncology, hematology, and ophthalmology; and diagnostic imaging equipment and contrast agents, as well as cell and gene therapy. The Consumer Health segment markets nonprescription over-the-counter medicines, medical products, medicated skincare products, nutritional supplements, and self-care solutions in dermatology, nutritional supplements, pain and cardiovascular risk prevention, digestive health, allergy, and cold and cough. The Crop Science segment offers chemical and biological crop protection products, improved plant traits, seeds, digital solution, and pest and weed control products, as well as customer service for agriculture. This segment also provides breeding, propagation, and production/processing of seeds, including seed dressing. Bayer Aktiengesellschaft has a collaboration agreement with MD Anderson Cancer Center to develop oncology drugs; research and license agreement with Dewpoint Therapeutics, Inc. for the development of new treatments for cardiovascular and gynecological diseases; collaboration agreement with Exscientia Ltd, Foundation Medicine Inc., and Evotec AG; research collaboration with Arvinas Inc. and Forschungszentrum JAlich GmbH; strategic research partnership with University of Oxford to develop novel gynecological therapies; and research collaboration agreements with Haplogen GmbH and Kyoto University to identify new drugs candidates for the treatment of pulmonary diseases. The company distributes its products through wholesalers, pharmacies and pharmacy chains, supermarkets, online and other retailers, and hospitals, as well as directly to farmers. Bayer Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO Energy Canada, XTO Energy Inc., and XTO Holdings LLC.CEMEX SAB de CV engages in the production, distribution, marketing, and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete, and aggregates. It operates though the following geographical segments: Mexico; United States; Europe; South, Central America and the Caribbean (SCA&C); Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA); and Others. The Europe segment covers United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia, as well as trading activities in Scandinavia, and Finland. The SCA&C segment includes Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Caribbean TCL, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Jamaica, the Caribbean, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The EMEA segment comprises of Egypt, Israel, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. The Others segment refers to the cement trade maritime operations, information technology solutions business, and other corporate entities as well as other minor subsidiaries with different lines of business. The company was founded by Lorenzo Zambrano Gutierrez in 1906 and is headquartered in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico.

Read MoreALBANY  When U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed corruption charges against former top Cuomo administration aide Joe Percoco in 2016, Bharara said he hoped the case would go to trial "so that all New Yorkers can see, in gory detail, what their state government has been up to."

The trial, which ended Tuesday with Percoco's conviction on three corruption charges and his acquittal on three others, did not disappoint.

While the case will be remembered for the conviction of Cuomo's longtime right-hand man, testimony and evidence also revealed other legal lines that may have been skirted by the Cuomo administration but were not the subject of the prosecution.

Percoco was found guilty Tuesday of swapping his considerable influence as Cuomo's executive deputy secretary for more than $300,000 in cash bribes.

One running theme of the trial that was not the subject of direct criminal charges was the overlap of Cuomo's governmental staff with his successful 2014 re-election campaign, which was managed by Percoco. Under state law, governmental resources cannot be used to benefit political campaigns.

Early in the trial, the jury heard testimony from Linda Lacewell, Cuomo's governmental chief of staff and counsel, who testified that part of her duties had included "vetting" contributions to the governor's campaign from people with business before state government.

Lacewell was serving as an unpaid "volunteer" for the campaign, according to her testimony.

Asked specifically if Lacewell's campaign work had been performed outside the confines of Cuomo's governmental office, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi responded that, every employee "is trained on the appropriate use of state resources and we expect that training to be followed. There was no suggestion otherwise during this trial."

Another 2014 campaign volunteer was Seth Agata, who currently serves as executive director of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the state's ethics watchdog  the panel may be tasked with investigating fallout from the Percoco matter.

Agata's day job in 2014 was serving as counsel in Cuomo's office, but he also testified that he "gave some of my time" to the state Democratic Committee, a vehicle for Cuomo's campaign operation, as well as to the Cuomo campaign itself.

Agata testified Percoco had asked him for legal guidance about Cuomo's use of private aircraft (donated by private interests) for Cuomo campaign events or for the state Democratic Party.

Azzopardi, Cuomo's spokesman, reiterated that Agata was volunteering his time. Asked if Agata's campaign work had been performed outside of Cuomo's governmental office, Azzopardi referred again generally to training in the appropriate use of state recourses, and said there was no suggestion of wrongdoing during the trial.

A spokesman for JCOPE did not respond to questions.

Percoco left the Executive Chamber payroll in April 2014 to manage Cuomo's reelection campaign.

Several months later, Percoco sought advice from Agata about other outside employment opportunities. In response, Agata prepared for Percoco  who was at the time not a government employee  a two-page memorandum on the permissibility of Percoco's activities that was dated July 9, 2014. The memo was headlined with Executive Chamber letterhead.

David Grandeau, the state's former top lobbying official and a frequent critic of Agata and JCOPE, has filed a complaint with the agency charging that Agata violated state law because he allegedly used state resources to further Percoco's private business interests.

Grandeau noted that in the past, JCOPE has issued guidance to state employees that they "not use your agency letterhead to write a letter regarding ANY personal matter" not relating to agency business.

Azzopardi said it is "perfectly appropriate for a counsel to give advice to a former employee on complying with a two-year lobbying ban."

The question of whether various Cuomo employees used government resources for campaign activitiy is especially relevant because evidence showed Percoco extensively used his Executive Chamber office in Manhattan after leaving state service to run the 2014 campaign.

Prosecutors presented evidence showing that from May 1 to Dec. 7, 2014, Percoco made 837 calls from his government phone at Cuomo's office in Manhattan, which were made on 68 separate days. During that period, Percoco was working extensively for clients with business before state government that were his co-defendants in the trial.

Cuomo's public schedules show that the governor was often present when Percoco was using the government desk while on leave, the New York Times reported.

On Wednesday, Cuomo told reporters that he believed Percoco was doing "transition work" whenever the former aide would return to his old government office during the eight-month period in 2014 when Percoco was serving as campaign manager.

"When he left state government, he would come back into the office to handle transition matters," Cuomo said in a Manhattan Q&A. "He was there (in the administration) for a long time, he was in an important position, and he would come back and he was handling the transition. Which is fine. But there should be no other work done from a government office besides that transition work. And in the trial, there was a suggestion that there was  and that's a violation of the rules."

In fact, it's a violation of state public officers law  something noted in a complaint recently filed with JCOPE by state GOP Chairman Ed Cox. If Cuomo knew Percoco was doing campaign work from the government office, he could face sanction.

In her testimony, Lacewell stated that she observed Percoco at his Executive Chamber office after he had resigned and taken his new job at the campaign. Agata also testified that he observed Percoco using his old desk.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Azzopardi referred to the governor's statement that he believed Percoco was handling "transition matters" when asked whether Agata or Lacewell had flagged Percoco's activities.

Although Cuomo promised to make his administration the "most transparent" in state history while running for office in 2010, the trial raised new questions about that assertion as well.

Todd Howe  a cooperating prosecution witness who in 2016 pleaded guilty to conspiring with Percoco  testified that he communicated with a long list of top Cuomo administration officials on their private email accounts.

The officials' use of private email would make it difficult if not impossible for reporters or the public to unearth the communications through open records requests. The practice would violate long-standing state policies meant to promote transparency.

Under questioning, Howe said it was actually Cuomo officials that had often asked the lobbyist to shift to private email to discuss state business.

"But (in) many instances, they particularly said, 'Don't e-mail my government e-mail, e-mail me on my personal account,'" Howe testified.

"The administration's position is that government email should be used for government business and government email should not be used for non-government reasons," Azzopardi said. "Any action that deviates from this is against administration policy."

One person on Howe's list of email contacts was Jim Malatras, the former state operations director. In fact, Howe said that Malatras was not only one of his private email correspondents, but recommended Howe communicate with an app called Wickr that auto-deletes text messages. (Howe said he couldn't recall if he had downloaded the app or not.)

Malatras has declined to comment on the matter. Asked if administration officials used the Wickr app more broadly to communicate, Azzopardi said he had "never heard" of it.

Questions also arose during the trial about the accuracy of Cuomo's public schedules. In her testimony, Lacewell stated that the Cuomo administration leaves events off Cuomo's schedules  which are prepared after the fact and released months later to the public  and may not always include the names of everyone present.

Azzopardi said that her testimony was intended to "account for mistakes and human error in record-keeping and the disclosed limitations" of schedules, noting that when they are posted online, there is a disclaimer that "unofficial and personal events" as well as "information that might tend to compromise security" is not included.

In response to the verdict, reform groups are calling 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.

Asked on Wednesday whether ethics reform would go to the top of his priority list, Cuomo said he would push to ban outside income for state officials  the "single best ethics reform which makes everything else moot."

The outside income of elected officials  many of whom have pushed back on the idea  was not a subject of the Percoco trial.

In his comments Wednesday, Cuomo batted back when asked about Republican criticism that his close ties to Percoco demonstrated he allowed a culture of corruption to fester in his administration.

"Look at the facts, right? We're in the political silly season and people can say whatever they want to say," Cuomo said. "But there are still facts. This was a two-year trial (and) investigation. There was absolutely no suggestion ever made that I had anything to do with anything. Right? An exhaustive trial, and there was never any suggestion about any involvement by me."

Cuomo called Percoco's crimes "a violation of everything my administration stands for."Courtesy of New York State Police

A New Lebanon man has been charged with sexually assaulting a child, a felony, following an eight-month investigation by law enforcement officials.

Police discovered three separate incidents in which Keith Benson, 47, had inappropriate sexual contact with a child under the age of 13, State Police said.Adam Lee wants to shake things up.

Selling wine isnt what I like to do, Lee says. Hes good at it, of course. Lee is a darling of wine writers and consumers because he is outspoken, generous with his time and thoughts, and because, well, he makes darn good wine. Lee and his wife, Dianna Novy Lee, launched their Siduri label in 1994, specializing in cool-climate pinot noirs from around California and later from Oregon. They sold Siduri in early 2015 to Jackson Family Wines, becoming the first winery in the Jackson empire that did not come with vineyards.

With the sale, Lee agreed to stay on at Siduri for three years. That time has now expired, and his official status with Siduri is in limbo, though in a recent interview in Santa Rosa, California, he said he would like to pursue several projects with Jackson Family Wines.

Meanwhile, hes launching a project of his own, with a marketing twist. The Clarice Wine Company will still feature pinot noir, from two iconic pinot vineyards, Garys Vineyard and Rosellas Vineyard, both in the Santa Lucia Highlands of central California. Lee has been buying grapes from both vineyards for Siduri since its initial vintages in 1999 and 2001, respectively. There will also be a Santa Lucia Highlands blend of juice from the two vineyards.Albany

The state Public Service Commission on Thursday gave New Wave Energy Corp. of Buffalo the green light to sell gas and electric supply to low-income utility customers in upstate New York. Companies must prove they can guarantee a savings against the utility price in order to be approved.Patrick Keegan remembers walking into a Toys R Us store in Yonkers as a child.

Like any youngster, he was drawn to the colorful items and variety of toys lining the store's aisles. Years later, the Cohoes resident started working for the iconic retailer at its stores in Colonie and Latham. He occasionally volunteered to dress up as Geoffrey the Giraffe, the Toys R Us mascot, to greet customers.

"No one else wanted to do it, so I did," said Keegan, who no longer works for the company. "Seeing the little kids smile and laugh was just great."

The New Jersey-based company filed documents Thursday seeking bankruptcy court approval to shut down its remaining 735 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, a day after media reports that Toys R Us planned to close its stores in the U.K. in the next six weeks after failing to find a buyer. The company is considering selling the Canadian arm of its business and looking into an option that would save up to 200 top-performing U.S. stores.

In a statement, CEO Dave Brandon said the company didn't have the financial support to continue operating.

"This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years," he said.

The store closures put up to 33,000 jobs at risk. Asked by the Times Union how many people the company employs in New York, spokeswoman Nicole Hayes said she did not have that information available.

The retailer will honor unused gift cards for the next 30 days, she said. On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer urged Toys R Us to offer cash back to people with unused gift cards, a day after he called on the Federal Trade Commission to ensure that laws are not being violated in the case of liquidation and people have time to get money back.

"The music's about to stop for them, but it's leaving hundreds of thousands who bought the gift cards from Toys R Us in the lurch," he said in a video Thursday. "Today, I am urging Toys R Us to give cash back, dollar for dollar, for the gift cards that people bought during this holiday season. Otherwise, the gift cards will be about as worthless as a lump of coal in your stocking."

The company's demise is also a blow to toy makers and vendors that sold products at Toys R Us, such as Mattel, which named Toys R Us among its three largest customers in the company's 2016 report.

Keegan said he was saddened by the news of the shutdown.

"I thought it would last longer," he said. "But no one goes into brick and mortar stores anymore. It's a sign of the changing times."

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The company traces its roots to 1948, when founder Charles Lazarus opened a store in Washington, D.C., devoted to selling baby furniture. He eventually opened a store dedicated to toys, with the backwards "R" in the logo intended to reflect a child's handwriting. The Babies R Us chain was added in 1996, and eventually the company grew to include more than 1,500 stores.

But the retailer struggled to compete with online heavyweights like Amazon and Walmart, and faced a heavy debt load of more than $4 billion after several private investment firms took the company private in 2005. In September Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy and later announced plans to close around 182 of its stores.

Fifteen stores in New York were on the list of planned closures, including a Babies R Us in Latham and a Toys R Us in Glens Falls. Several have already started discount sales, including the Latham store, which was to close by the end of March, a store employee told the Times Union on Tuesday. The company also operates a Toys R Us and Babies R Store in Colonie and a Toys R Us in Clifton Park, among dozens of other stores across New York State.

When she heard the Latham location would be closing, Schyler Rivette was worried. The Glens Falls resident is expecting a baby in May and had registered at Babies R Us ahead of an upcoming baby shower. Registries will be active for the next 30 days, Hayes said.

She was also looking forward to the convenience of having diapers, formula and other necessities nearby, she said. The closures are "stressful for us who based all of our child's needs for when he gets here off their stores," Rivette said.

miszler@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @madisoniszlerYou know that scene in "The Graduate," the one where Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock bangs on the glass at the church and absconds with his soon-to-be-wed ex-girlfriend, trading in domesticity and societal expectations for an uncertain future?

Take out the Hollywood drama and it's kind of like the story of Saratoga's Candy Ambulance, the grunge-inspired power trio that's wrapping up a monthlong East Coast and Midwest tour with a homecoming show at Desperate Annie's on Monday.

The roots of Candy Ambulance go back to a Queensbury elementary school classroom, when the rhythm section of Jesse Bolduc and Jon Cantiello first met. As teens, they'd started and played in various bands. It wasn't until 2014, when Bolduc became friends with his co-worker Caitlin Barker, that the duo found their ideal musical companion.

At the time, musical pursuits were not at the forefront of her mind.

"At the time, I was in a nice relationship and I was like, 'Oh, I'll do the domestic thing,'" Barker recalled. "That ended in about two weeks (after meeting Bolduc and Cantiello). I traded it in for the opposite of domesticity."

At the time, Cantiello and Bolduc were in the Basic Brothers, an outfit Bolduc describes as sounding like "early Coldplay." Barker was coming in with no real musical experience. But she brought a passion to the music that created an exciting, new dynamic.

"I barely knew how to play guitar," Barker said. "I don't know why they hung out with me."

"With Basic Brothers, we were early Coldplay-sounding, kind of pop-alternative," Bolduc added. "Meeting Caitlin and the songs she wrote, they were more raw and (had) more emotion. The songs were straightforward but more interesting."

Thus, Candy Ambulance was born. As stated, Barker wasn't much of a guitarist in the early days, so she took lessons to hone her chops. Still, the early shows were known less for proficiency and more for their partial nudity.

"We weren't all that tight, we weren't all that good," Bolduc said.

"We took our clothes off," Barker added, explaining that it was a way to stand out from other bands, though the group stopped stripping down to their skivvies once some people made it weird.

More Information If you go Super Dark Collective Presents Super Dark Monday: Candy Ambulance with North by North and Your Brain on Drugs When: 9 p.m., Monday Where: Desperate Annie's, 12-14 Caroline St., Saratoga For more info on the show: https://www.facebook.com/SuperDarkCollective/ For more on Candy Ambulance, visit: www.candyambulance.com See More Collapse

While disrobing isn't something Candy Ambulance makes a habit of anymore, concertgoers haven't forgotten.

"It got strange to us when people wanted us to take our clothes off," Barker continued. "We're still known as the 'underwear band.' I might do it now if I'm feeling it and people are having a good time."

Present-day Candy Ambulance is more about the tunes. Last month, the band released its second EP, "Spray." The six tracks conjure the style of '90s grunge rock, but the presentation feels vital and new, not like a deliberately anachronistic throwback.

Along with the new music is a push to move the group's popularity to a new level, with the ultimate goal of being able to make Candy Ambulance the band members' full-time job within the next five years. Last year, Candy Ambulance signed with a PR company called Behind the Curtain Media. The move is paying off already, as Bolduc noted Candy Ambulance receives daily email updates about their songs' nationwide airplay and there's been a noticeable uptick in the amount of interviews the group has conducted on this tour.

Then there's the tour itself, which serves as the bridge between their cost-effective DIY roots and its potential to be a breakout indie rock act. In order to save money and not trigger Barker's gluten allergy, the band eats sparingly, subsisting on hard-boiled eggs kept inside a cooler in the van. The real change of pace is that the bulk of the gigs on the tour have taken place at clubs instead of at strangers' houses. It's helped to ensure there's better sound equipment, as well as help expose the band to a newer audience, something Candy Ambulance is very excited about.

"The shows are different," Cantiello said, recalling a performance where water in the basement at a show led to the bassist from another act getting shocked each time she hit a chord. "The venue shows are more professional. You don't have to worry about getting electrocuted."

"We had a group, for our first time in Missouri, a group of 17-year-olds came because they heard us," Barker enthused. "It was the coolest thing to have teenagers dig it!"

Jim Shahen Jr. is a frequent contributor to the Times Union.STRIKING OUT

Acorn TV

Season Premiere! The hit Irish legal drama returns for the North American premiere of its second season. This season, Tara (Amy Huberman, 2017 Irish Film and Television Academy Awards winner and 2018 nominee for best actress in a lead role in a drama series) strikes back. Now confidently her own boss, Tara is faced with morally challenging scenarios that push her and her team in their personal and professional lives. Tara and Eric's (Rory Keenan) complex relationship remains center stage, and the arrival of Eric's brother Sam brings added tension and intrigue. Neil Morrissey also stars.

BENJI

Netflix

Original Film! This retelling of the classic story follows one orphaned puppy and two New Orleans schoolkids, Carter and Frankie, who strike up a friendship with the tenacious street dog. When danger befalls them, and they end up kidnapped by robbers who are in over their heads, Benji and his scruffy sidekick come to the rescue.

ON MY BLOCK

Netflix

New Series! Co-created by Lauren Iungerich (Awkward.), Eddie Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft, this series is a coming-of-age comedy about four bright and street-savvy friends navigating their way through the triumph, pain and newness of high school. Their school is in a predominantly Hispanic and African-American part of South Central L.A., and the fearless foursome must confront the challenges of both adolescence and their neighborhood.

TAKE YOUR PILLS

Netflix

This film takes a look at an America where ceaseless competition everywhere from the school to the workplace has led to Adderall and other prescription stimulants becoming the defining drugs of a generation in which everyone wants a performance edge.

WILD WILD COUNTRY

Netflix

New Series! This six-episode documentary series looks back at a largely forgotten moment in American cultural history. When the world's most controversial guru builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, a massive conflict with local ranchers ensues. This produces the first bioterror attack in U.S. history, the largest case of illegal wiretapping ever recorded and the world's biggest collection of Rolls-Royce automobiles.

"THE SIMPSONS" ST. PATRICK'S DAY CELEBRATION

FXX, beginning at 6 p.m.

"All this drinking, violence, destruction of property  are these the things we think of when we think of the Irish?" asks Kent Brockman (voice of Harry Shearer) in The Simpsons episode "Homer vs. the 18th Amendment." Get an early start on St. Patty's Day with a 12-episode stunt of The Simpsons, including that episode and others honoring the Emerald Isle.

MISTRESS HUNTER

Lifetime Movies, 8 p.m.

Original Film! The Young and the Restless' Lauralee Bell plays married mom Jackie Blanchard, who thinks she has a perfect relationship ... until she discovers her husband is having an affair. "She wants to give him a little stress and payback," Bell explains. So Jackie hires a mistress hunter (Lydia Look), a type of private investigator who specializes in toying with philandering men and their side pieces. Things go too far, however, and two people end up dead.

BLINDSPOT: "DEDUCTIONS"

NBC, 8 p.m.

The team must decide whether to trust a prisoner who warns them of a dangerous plot. Also, Zapata (Audrey Esparza) is caught between the FBI and the CIA, while Roman (Luke Mitchell) and Crawford (special guest star David Morse) butt heads over how to handle a volatile situation.

TAKEN: "INVITATION ONLY"

NBC, 9 p.m.

Intelligence agency honcho Hart (Jennifer Beals) sends spy Mills (Clive Standen) and sniper Santana (Jessica Camacho) to infiltrate a high-security North Korean labor camp in order to free an Israeli-American nuclear physicist (Michael Benyaer) who was long thought dead.

THE SECRET LIFE OF KIDS

USA Network, 9 p.m.

New Series! In what is described as "a comedic and revealing social experiment," young children experience the social world while experts provide commentary. The children will enter a school that is fully rigged with cameras in every corner to capture how they approach topics such as love, hate, relationships, lying and the complex world of social politics. In addition to experts, teachers will work with the kids in the classroom, introducing creative activities that will provide insight into how children think and act.

STRIKE BACK

Cinemax, 10 p.m.

With news that Omar Idrisi (Don Haney) could be alive, Section 20 must make sure the terrorist's dangerous wife, Jane (Katherine Kelly), doesn't find him first. So the ops team tracks down Rachel Sheridan (Dervla Kirwan), an ex-CIA contractor who may know where he is.

THIS IS NOT HAPPENING: "WASTED"

Comedy Central, 12 a.m. (late-night)

The monologue series features comedians telling true stories about a single topic. Tonight's theme is "wasted," so Last Comic Standing's Dave Landau, Theo Von (Inside Amy Schumer) and others talk about their adventures in debauchery. Think of it as some close friends telling you about that time they got drunk and did stupid stuff, but much, much funnier.

Brought to you by the publishers of TV Guide.  TV Guide 2018Dunn Memorial Bridge, which connects the cities of Albany and Rensselaer, has seen two upgrades since it first straddled the Hudson River in 1882.

Once know as the Albany-Greenbush Bridge, it was proceeded by two expansive revisions, each named after Albany World War I Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Parker F. Dunn. The earlier structures featured movable center sections to allow large ships to pass  similar to the Livingston Avenue and Green Island bridges.ALBANY - For the first time, the Albany County Legislature has a Black Caucus to provide African-Americans in the county a unified voice to represent their interests.

The legislature on Monday unanimously voted to recognize the caucus, which consists of legislators of majority-minority districts and members of color who share common interests.

The group will focus on ensuring the countys redistricting process  to begin in 2020 with the new U.S. Census  is fair and has equal representation of minorities, on increasing diversity in the county workforce and on construction projects and contracts, and on promotes economic growth that benefits people of all backgrounds and socioeconomic status, among others.

It is the intent of the Legislative Black Caucus to represent the values and advance the issues and concerns of the legislatures lower wards, whose residents are predominantly African American, said Legislator William Clay, who was elected chair of the caucus during its first meeting in January.

The newly formed Black Caucus also includes Legislators Samuel Fein, Wanda Willingham, Lucille McKnight, Norma Chapman and Merton Simpson.

Willingham will serve as deputy chair and Fein was elected as secretary.

As we met together during the last few months, we realized how much we can get accomplished as a group in representing minorities, not only those who live in Albany, but countywide, Willingham said. This is how layers of government operate on the federal and state levels, and were now bringing it to the county.

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African Americans make up 14 percent of the countys population of roughly 300,000, which is about a 3 percent increase from 2000, according to census data. About 6.5 percent are Asian, 5.8 percent are Hispanic and another 2.7 percent identify as two or more races.

McKnight, who is the longest serving African-American member of the county Legislature, said the creation of a Black Caucus is historic.

Our legislature is 50 years old, and well finally have a vehicle to deal with the critical issues affecting our neighborhoods, she said.

The first African-American legislator in the county was Homer Perkins, who served from 1968 to 1983.ALBANY - Mayor Kathy Sheehan wont be marching in this years St. Patricks Day parade as she and her family head to Puerto Rico on Saturday to become part of the relief efforts for the hurricane-ravaged island.

I wanted the opportunity to go down and see for myself because from here, it appears that the response in Puerto Rico has been slow and has not been as robust as it needs to be, she said Wednesday ahead of her familys departure. We need to highlight this because these are fellow American citizens who are in need, and I would certainly hope that if we had something as devastating happen here in the city of Albany that the response would be more robust.

The U.S. territory was pummeled by Hurricane Maria in September, leaving nearly half a million people without electricity and many without access to clean drinking water. Media reports have described the response and relief efforts as lackluster.

Since the hurricane hit the island, local organizations and community leaders across the Capital Region have come together to raise money and collect supplies to send to Puerto Rico.

Those who had the means to escape the aftermath have been welcomed into various communities in on the U.S. mainland, with 30,000 Puerto Ricans expected to come to New York this year. Already 109 Puerto Ricans  50 children and 59 adults  have migrated to Amsterdam, a Mohawk River city in the Greater Capital Region.

Sparked by the ongoing challenges Puerto Rico has faced in its recovery and knowing local community leaders who hail from the island, Sheehan said it was a personal decision to travel with her husband and son and get boots on the ground. The city is not paying for the trip.

When Sheehan was in high school, she did a similar mission trip to Mississippi where the group she was with helped paint peoples homes and remembered it was a great experience. With her son on school break and Group Mission Trips  based out of Colorado  offering a trip to Puerto Rico, she said it was the opportune time to go.

I spoke to the parade committee and said I dont want anybody to take it personally, or have anybody read anything more into this than Im trying to do something for myself and my family and the people of Puerto Rico who really need the help, she said.

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Sheehan recognized that critics could argue that theres work to be done in Albany, and her focus should be in the capital city, but she pointed out that people in Albany have resources that people in Puerto Rico dont.

We have created funding streams to help people who are low income to stay in their homes and rebuild, she said.

Plus, volunteer groups coming from across the country have come to assist the city in the past, she said.

It helps you to really put things in perspective, she said. We know were going to see folks who still dont have electricity, may or may not have running water, and I want them to know that there are people who care and are willing to come down and help them rebuild.ALBANY  Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday urged state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia to stop school administrators from punishing students who walked out of their schools this week as part of a national protest against gun violence.

"In the last 24 hours, there have been several reports of New York State schools disciplining students and faculty for participating in yesterdays historic events to stop gun violence, Cuomo said in a public letter to Elia. These actions send a terrible message to New Yorks children and are against constitutional free speech protections. I call on you to use SEDs authority to stop these schools, reverse course and cease any disciplinary actions.

The governor had joined students and activists in one of the protests at a Manhattan school on Wednesday.

Nationwide, millions of students walked out for 17 minutes to protest gun violence in the wake of the recent fatal shootings of 17 people, including 14 students, at a Parkland, Fla. high school.

In the Capital Region, students in Schuylerville and South Glens Falls faced some consequences if they walked out. Students in many other districts also were warned they could face discipline if they left their classrooms.

In at least one disturbing incident, it was reported that the school physically blocked the exits to prevent students from demonstrating, the governor wrote, apparently in reference to a report that Schuylerville High School blocked the roadway to its campus.

Elia responded in a letter that echoed Cuomos praise for the students and said she would investigate any cases where student safety was in jeopardy.

I have discussed with school district superintendents, board members, teachers and others the importance of learning from this tragedy by engaging our students in an important civics lesson on the power of their own voices, she wrote.

Officials from the Schuylerville district didnt return a phone call on Thursday.

Farther north, students at South Glens Falls High School were told that instead of walking out, they should gather in groups and discuss the issue of gun violence. They used a backdrop of restorative justice, that focuses on fixing the harm that is created by crime.

Each class broke their routine, as faculty and students discussed the issue, said interim Superintendent Jon Hunter.

In the middle schools, about a dozen students walked out, he said.

Later they got an extra homework assignment  to write to someone, be it a friend, parent or lawmaker  explaining why they walked out.

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When asked about Cuomos letter, Hunter said schools have to walk a line allowing freedom of expression but also assuring there are no disruptions in the educational process.

And schools are not supposed to exhibit favoritism or take sides in social or political debates.

We want them to have a voice but we cant tell them which way to go, Hunter said.

He believes the experience will lead to some permanent changes at South Glens Falls and other schools.

For example, they may add regular restorative justice circles where students and teachers discuss crime, gun violence or other salient events.

More for you Capital Region students leave classes to protest mass shootings

He raised the question of whether local school boards may address the issue of walk-outs in their codes of conduct as a result of the nationwide event.

Were an educational body and we have to be neutral and factual and make this a learning situation and a growing situation for our kids, added Hunter.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTUALBANY  When the planes hit the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, West Point cadet Joe Quinn scrambled to learn his brother's fate. His brother, James, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. The financial services firm would, within hours, become forever linked with tragedy. Its offices occupied floors 101 through 105 of the North Tower, where one of the hijacked airliners struck, killing 658 employees, including Quinn's beloved brother.

Quinn survived that and a tour of duty in Afghanistan and two in Iraq. His wife endured the loss of her loved ones in the wars. Friends admired the couple's strength.

"But we were like the twin towers ... inside we were burning ... we were going to collapse," said Quinn, who is now executive director of Headstrong, a nonprofit group now expanding into the Capital Region that offers free counseling aimed at post-9/11 military veterans and their spouses.

Quinn spoke Thursday at a press conference held at the University at Albany, where law firm Tully Rinckey helped him introduce Headstrong. The Quinns' lives, he said, dramatically changed for the better after they sought psychological therapy.

Headstrong is now offering free counseling by qualified therapists to local veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, other mental health problems such as anger management and suicidal thoughts, and even grief. Marital counseling is also available.

"The veteran answers a few questions and within 21 hours, he will get a call from us and the location of a local counselor," said Headstrong program director Gerard Ilaria, a licensed social worker. "This is all confidential."

Founded in 2012 by combat veterans, Headstrong is partnered with the Weill Cornell Medical College. Currently, it also serves New York City, San Diego/Riverside County, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

The counseling is free and available regardless of how many years a vet may need it.

"It's up to us to raise the money to pay for the therapy; that's not the veterans' worry," Ilaria said.

Headstrong lists many well known foundations as donors and supporters on its website. Among the supporters are Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors Foundation, the late Paul Newman's foundation and The Gerstner Family Foundation.

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Headstrong aims to cut red tape and delays that many say have plagued the Veterans Administration in recent years.

Still, Peter Potter, spokesman for the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center, says veterans seeking treatment there can also expect quick response times.

"I'm a veteran and I get all of my treatment right here at the (Stratton VA) where we take pride in our fast response time," he said. "We call a veteran seeking mental health counseling back within 24 hours and counseling is free."

When one phones the Albany VA center's general information number, the automated system tells callers which number to punch if he or she is having suicidal thoughts. The system is then supposed to patch the caller to a counselor.

To reach a Headstrong counselor in your area, visit the website at http://getheadstrong.org .Albany

Gilboa and Blenheim are about to be flush. More to the point, the Schoharie County towns will be getting long-term payments worth at least $50 million over the next 50 years starting in 2019.

Are we happy? Yes, said Blenheim Supervisor Donald Airey. Its a game changer.

The payments, which should increase over time, will go a long way in his town of 392 people.

Town roads and the equipment to maintain them will be updated, and theyll be able to outfit a new Town Hall that replace the one severely damaged by flooding during Tropical Storm Irene. Eventually, Blenheim may be able to do away with its admittedly modest town property tax.

The money will come from the New York Power Authority, which operates the 1,100 megawatt Blenheim-Gilboa power project which is along Schoharie Creek.

Based on a pair of reservoirs, water from one is pumped uphill to the other and then released through turbines when power is needed.

The plant will be 50 years old in 2019 which means that NYPA is working on getting a new 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees such facilities.

The payments are included in NYPAs application for relicensing.

Overall, NYPA is offering more than $70 million in benefits to the area. Along with the payments, there will be improvements to the nearby Mine Kill State Park, fish habitat enhancements and new stream gauges for Schoharie Creek.

These agreements mark a significant milestone in the negotiation of a new 50-year federal license, NYPA President and CEO Gil. C. Quiniones said in a prepared statement.

Not everyone is thrilled. The agreement has some local officials feeling high and dry.

Its just disappointing, said Chris Tague, Schoharie town supervisor. He said he believes Schoharie County should be getting some payments as well.

I think what they were doing was divide and conquer, he said of NYPA. He added that some towns negotiated with NYPA separately from a countywide flood-control panel that has also kept watch over the project.

Why is Schoharie County County being treated so badly? asked Earl Van Warmer, supervisor of Esperance, which is further downstream.

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More for you $1B powers Gilboa plan

He said some county officials are considering reaching out to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and theyve already contacted U.S. Rep John Faso who represents the area in Congress as well as fellow GOP state Sen. Jim Seward.

NYPA pointed out that it has been in confidential settlement talks with the county for several years but no agreement has been reached.



Certainly the existence of reservoirs has concerned county residents, given the flood-prone nature of Schoharie Creek.

More than the NYPA reservoirs, though, people have long worried about the much larger, nearby Schoharie Reservoir, which is part of New York Citys water supply.

Residents as well as lawmakers all the way along Schoharie Creek and even along the Mohawk River clear into Schenectady and Cohoes some 70 miles away have voiced concerns about what could happen if that dam were to be breached.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758Reading the March 12, 2018, edition of The New Yorker, I came across a piece called The Spreading Vine by Jiayang Fan. The article highlights the Chinese governments concerted effort to expand both the consumption and creation of wine in China.

Although the effort is nascent, through a series of initiatives and focused investments China has largely transformed a country where only a few years ago wine wasnt even readily consumed into one with nearly 40 million new wine drinkers.

At the same time, turbo-charging its vineyard development efforts so that now China has more acres planted in wine grapes than any other country besides Spain. Wine production isnt far behind, with China now being the seventh-largest producer of wine on earth, the article says.

With most of Chinas wine ties to the French, one might also assume there were tight wine links to the Napa Valley, with many of the new Chinese wineries having names such as Grace Vineyard, Maykama Vineyards, Silver Heights, Domaine Helan Mountain, or Chateau Bacchus. But youd be wrong. And to prove it, as of March 11, 2018 the Napa Valley (or California or even America) isnt even listed on the DecanterChina website within the list of All (wine) regions of the world.Michael P. Farrell

TROY  A 29-year-old man was arraigned in City Court Wednesday for attacking an off-duty police officer, leaving him with a broken nose and other injuries early on March 10 outside a downtown bar, police said.

Officer Timothy White had left Bootleggers on Broadway at 200 Broadway at about 1:15 a.m. that Saturday when he had a verbal exchange with a person driving by, police said. That passing vehicle backed up to the car which White had entered to leave, police said.NEW SCOTLAND - A 23-year-old Voorheesville man was charged with raping his ex-girlfriend and weapons possession after Albany County sheriff's investigators seized a Glock pistol and assault weapons from his home.

A woman told sheriff's deputies that Jeremy W. Siddon, her ex-boyfriend, raped her. When deputies searched Siddon's apartment, they found a loaded 9mm Glock handgun, several assault weapons and an electronic stun gun as well as ballistic vests.At the end of the 19th century, two of the most famous dogs in the country were from Albany, their celebrity spread by eager newspapers that attracted readers with tales of canines independently hopping trains to other cities and navigating their way home.

They were Railroad Jack and Owney. Both scruffy terrier mutts that sometimes were mistaken for one another, the pair had distinguishing characteristics, including their ears  Jack's were cropped, Owney's not  and their train habits.

Owney, whose rail-riding reign lasted from about 1889 to 1897, was a postal dog. He made his home in the Albany post office, rode in train mail cars and, according to contemporary media accounts, preferred to associate with postal workers and others responsible for moving the mail.

Railroad Jack, first described in news accounts in 1887, was more open, glad to ride in the baggage car of any rail line and befriend all in railroad uniforms. His travels took him as far as Mexico and Cuba.

"He never lacked an invitation to ride," the New York Herald wrote in its 1893 obituary of Jack, which described his favorite excursion as a round trip between Albany and Manhattan: "He generally came down on the West Shore. Landing at the Forty-second Street ferry he would trot over to the Grand Central Station and put up there for a few days. He usually returned to Albany by the Central (rail)road."

While Owney went down in history, Railroad Jack has largely been lost to it.

Owney has been the subject of children's books, songs and a postage stamp. His preserved body and a statue of him are on display at The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington.

Railroad Jack, too, was taxidermied. The plan was to put him in a case at Albany's Union Station, on Broadway. He was there for a while. Then Schenectady's station wanted him, too, so stuffed Jack went there. The last account of him was part of a display with other animals in a North Pearl Street store window.

Since then, almost nothing.

Railroad Jack's vanishing, in physical form and from popular memory, has been the central mystery occupying pursuits for the past several years for Kelli Huggins, a Siena College graduate who is the education coordinator at Chemung County Historical Society in Elmira. She has finished the research for and has begun the writing of a book titled "Finding Railroad Jack," which looks at the phenomenon of canine celebrity of the late 19th century.

"People think of Rin Tin Tin and Lassie, but I argue it began well before that  with Railroad Jack and Owney," said Huggins.

"Before these two dogs, every community would have its own special dog that everybody knew, that maybe had a special trick and was considered a community dog," said Huggins. "But it's not until these two guys started hopping trains that you get dogs that are nationally and even internationally known."

Their celebrity was such that newspapers from The New York Times to tiny papers in the Midwest wrote about them. A popular postcard from the period bears Railroad Jack's likeness and refers to him as "the most celebrated canine tourist in the world." Huggins found evidence of a brand of shoe made in Albany that was named after Railroad Jack. A Boston company posed Jack with a container of its salve and promised to send a photo of the dog to anyone who purchased Johnson's Anodyne Liniment. The lotion, the company's ads said, was his favorite remedy, "always ... in his grip sack, whether at home or abroad."

Among the factors at work to boost the pooches' celebrity were surging newspaper readership that was a precursor to the tabloid wars among press barons in the late 1890s and a changing view of animals.

"There was a sympathetic revolution where people started to view dogs ... not as something you just have around, and maybe it does some work and you feed it," Huggins said. "They're really these creatures that started to be viewed as part of the family ... a member of the household. Owney and Jack are ambassadors of that change."

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Huggins contends that the dogs' stories were embraced in part because they could be seen as representing iconic American myths and success stories.

The narrative, in part true and in part inflated by the media, was a striver of humble origins who through pluck and drive and personality became a celebrity.

"They were the canine embodiment of the American dream  lowly status to self-made success," said Huggins.

According to Huggins' research, Railroad Jack and Owney really did have some autonomy and the intelligence to get themselves on and off trains, to different stations and back home to Albany.

"There are references to (Jack) being requested to be at a dog show, and they'd put him on a train, but he'd get off somewhere he wanted to, and they'd have to find him. He was doing what he wanted," said Huggins. As Jack's fame grew, she said, so did the human management of his appearances.

"By 1893-93, he's in full celebrity mode, and people were thinking of what to do with him," she said. "Once he got to Florida, obviously somebody had to arrange to put him on the mail boat to Cuba."

Huggins' search for Railroad Jack's preserved body has been frustrating and so far fruitless.

"I've talked to all the local historians, the history buffs, called in all the favors, but everyone is at a loss," said Huggins, who chronicles her search and solicits information on the book's website, findingrailroadjack.com.

"The big question," she said, "is how does Jack's story end up? I feel like if there are any clues left, they're probably in somebody personal collection, private family papers or something. I'm not thinking Jack's stuffed corpse is in somebody's attic, but who knows?"A man who allegedly sexually abused a child is among the people state troopers say they are looking for as part of their Warrant Wednesday effort.

Ruben D. Mosquera, 74, is wanted by State Police in Middletown on a charge of second-degree sexual abuse. Mosquera was arrested amid allegations he had inappropriate contact with an 11-year-old child and did not return to court.

Matthew M. Dabros, 32, is wanted by State Police in Poughkeepsie on charges of burglary, assault, menacing and criminal mischief. The charges are connected to a domestic violence case in the Pleasant Valley Court,

Sasha M. Reyes, 26, is wanted by State Police in Fredonia on charges of reckless endangerment and harassment tied to a domestic incident that occurred on Sept. 10.

Amanda E. Coonrod, 34, is wanted by State Police in North Syracuse on a charge of misdemeanor drug possession and marijuana possession. A warrant was issued in Salina Town Court after Coonrod allegedly failed to appear in court last year to answer to charges that accused her of possessing Oxycodone and marijuana.

John H. Motyka, 49, is wanted by State Police in Wayland on a grand larceny charge that accuses him of stealing $2,931 from a local American Legion post. State Police say Motyka pleaded guilty to allegation but did not return to court for sentencing.

Michaelea Freelove, 21, is wanted by State Police in Ithaca on petit larceny and resisting arrest charges that accuse her of stealing tools from a local store and then running from the troopers who tried to arrest her.

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Stephen W. Smutz, 34, is wanted by State Police in Lewis who accuse him of failing to appear in court after he was accused of sending nude photographs of himself to a 14-year-old. Smutz is charged with disseminating indecent material to a minor.

Diego Tamay, 30, is wanted by State Police in Schuyler on a charge of felony driving while intoxicated charge that stems from a July 8, 2012 arrest on the Thruway. Tamay was allegedly behind the wheel when his vehicle hit another from behind. Tamay was charged with the felony because of a previous DWI conviction, troopers said.

Jonathan Cermeno, 36, is wanted by State Police in Latham on charges of false personation and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Troopers said Cermeno was arrest in 2009 after he allegedly gave police a false name because he had 15 active suspensions on his driving record.Ever wonder why Alexa is so far ahead of Siri? How Apple lost the voice assistant race to Amazon despite having a head start?

Now we know, thanks to a new report featuring insight from 12 former Apple employees, who revealed years of inner turmoil at the Cupertino-based Mac maker.

In a story published by The Information yesterday (Mar. 14) Siri's failings are tied to a rampant lack of communication and clashing personalities. The big picture, it seems, is that a constant shuffle of managers and team leaders kept the digital assistant from having a consistent steward, and preventing developers from harnessing Siri's potential, something that has helped Alexa soar.

Siri's rocky start is called out by one former Siri team member, comparing it to Alexa: "When Alexa shipped, it was rock solid from day one  For Siri to get there, they almost need to set everything aside and start over." Yes, that's right, the people who saw the inner workings of Siri think Apple should junk it and start from square one.

"When Steve died the day after Siri launched, they lost the vision  They didnt have a big picture."

The acquisition days, and early, pre-release moments, were positive, as Steve Jobs convinced Siri Inc.'s founders to be acquired by Apple. Norman Winarsky (who helped found Siri Inc.) said Mr. Jobs "motivated the team enormously," and "made them believe they could make a ding in the universe. He made us all believe that."

But the vision of Siri's creators would erode before Apple even released it, as their plan to make an "App Store for AI"  which sounds similar to Alexa's Skills repository  got shelved. Instead, "Jobs wanted Siri to focus on a few things that only Apple would have complete control over," and "early Siri team members said [Jobs] promised them that theyd be able to work on building out a third-party ecosystem later." That has yet to happen, at least in earnest.

One ex-employee blames the failure to properly deliver on Siri on the post-Jobs Apple: "When Steve died the day after Siri launched, they lost the vision  They didnt have a big picture."

While Apple senior vice president Scott Forstall was to lead the team, he soon delegated this responsibility to focus on Apple Maps, by handing Siri duty to Richard Williamson, who worked with Forstall on Apple Maps.

While "several former employees" claim Mr. Williamson's decisions  including one to limit the introduction of Siri features to a once-annual cycle  clashed with the team, Williamson told The Information that this was not true.

After launch, Siri was a disaster," Mr. Williamson wrote. "It was slow, when it worked at all. The software was riddled with serious bugs. Those problems lie entirely with the original Siri team, certainly not me."

Siri Inc. CEO Dag Kittlaus tweeted in response: This statement, wholly false, was made by the architect and head of the biggest launch disaster in Apple history, Apple Maps. In reality Siri worked great at launch but, like any new platform under unexpectedly massive load, required scaling adjustments and 24 hour workdays."

Those 24-hour workdays came from infrastructure problems, as Apple apparently hadn't prepared for the amount of traffic that would come from Siri. Even worse, a lot of the flaws seem to be related to the code as, one employee remembered "a Siri task that originally needed 500 servers coming down to only five servers after improving the code."

Then, Luc Julia, who had worked with Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer in the 1990s, was brought on to solve the team's management issues. Mr. Julia, though, clashed with Forstall, who pushed for Mr. Julia to be let go, which happened before a year passed in his time running Siri. Problems between Williamson and the Siri team eventually led to the departure of Cheyer who was "among the most zealous proponents of getting Siri to reach its potential."

That same year (2012), Forestall and Williamson both left Apple, after the Apple Maps fiasco was a black mark on the company's reputation. Then, Apple brought in Bill Stasior, a key figure in Amazon's search unit with a Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, to run Siri. But he was also doing a lot of work in search, and the combination of the two seemingly became too much for one man.

MORE: Alexa vs. Siri vs. Google Assistant: Which Smart Assistant Wins?



Stasior led Apple's 2013 decision to purchase Topsy, a Twitter search tool that would be used in both Siri and Spotlight, Apple's system search tool. Unfortunately, the Topsy team didn't want to work with the Siri team, which they "viewed as slow and bogged down by the initial infrastructure that had been patched up but never completely replaced since it launched."

Trying to solve Siri's natural language processing abilities, Apple tried to outsource work to the Nuance firm in Boston, before hiring Alex Acero away from Microsoft, where he worked in speech recognition. It then tried to solve the team with another acquisition in 2013, the Novauris speech startup.

Those teams would work together for only 6 months before splitting up. And then Amazon launched the Echo and Alexa, and Apple was caught in the lurch, their milkshake having been consumed, to borrow a phrase from There Will Be Blood.

According to two Siri team members, "their team didnt even learn about Apples HomePod project until 2015after Amazon unveiled the Echo in late 2014." This may (according to a source) be attributable to an Apple plan to launch the HomePod without Siri.

Sure, Apple's delivered SiriKit to help developers use Siri, but it's potential has yet to be fulfilled. Apple's closed nature on Siri continues to show in the cracks of its seams, as Spotify still can't use the virtual assistant.

The sources speaking to The Information echo a chorus that Apple users and enthusiasts have heard and said for years: "The companys commitment to creating flawless online services is less of a priority than designing transformational hardware, and that can cause problems for a project as complex as the one Mr. Stasior manages."

Credit: Tom's GuideThe GTR was unveiled only a couple of months after McLaren chief Mike Flewitt said that the firm wants to race the Senna at Le Mans. This version of the GTR wont be able to do that due to existing FIA regulations and the fact that its being designed as a customer car, but McLaren will use the lessons it learns from this model to develop a proper Le Mans entry. But, before that happens in 2020, the production version of this concept car will arrive in 2019. Lets find out more about it in the review below.

Its been only three months since McLaren unveiled the Senna as a successor to the P1, and the British firm has already confirmed that it will build a GTR version of the supercar. The announcement was made at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, where McLaren also unveiled a concept version of the upcoming track car. Called the Senna GTR, it follows in the footsteps of the P1 GTR as a track-only vehicle built in very limited numbers.

McLaren Senna GTR Concept Exterior

Production-ready design

Aggressive aero upgrades

Clip-on parts

Big splitter

Ridiculous rear diffuser

Same wing as the road-going model

Wider fenders

Despite being labeled a concept car, the Senna GTR looks ready to go into production

Despite being labeled a concept car, the Senna GTR looks ready to go into production. The new features that set it apart from the regular model are by no means exaggerated and look quite common for a production race. The front end retains the headlamps and the hood of the standard Senna, but almost all other elements have been altered. McLaren developed new, wider fenders and a big splitter that extends several inches in front of the nose.

The intakes between the splitter and the nose have been enlarged too, giving the impression that the latter floats in the air. The new fenders now extend more toward the front, almost covering the LED DRLs. They also sport big winglets that improve airflow around the car.

The profile sees dramatic changes too. Not only the fenders are wider to accommodate the wider track, McLaren also revised the side skirts, which are also wider and sharper. The side mirrors are also new, as are the fuel caps in the quarter windows. The standard wheels were replaced by lighter, motorsport-spec units wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero tires.

Out back, there's a new, massive diffuser that extends further away from the body

Around back, it appears as if McLaren kept the standard carbon-fiber wing, but made modifications to the upper fenders and the engine hood. But the biggest change by far lies below the fascia, in the form of a massive diffuser that extends further back. This thing looks like its totally independent from the car and it helps the Senna generate incredible downforce. According to McLaren, the production model will be able to generate up to 1,000 kg. Thats a whopping 2,204 pounds!

Another big change is that the new body parts have been designed as clip-on elements to the cockpit structure, which allows for relatively easy modification and replacement. While these cars wont become professional racers, the fact that they will be raced at private events makes the clip-on standard a good thing. The ability to replace damaged parts as quick as possible is obligatory.

McLaren Senna GTR Concept Interior

Stripped-out cockpit

Base carbon-fiber

Custom display

Race-spec steering wheel

Racing seats and harnesses

Enhanced safety

Will feature that central driver layout... based on the McLaren F1

The Senna GTR will have a more radical, race-oriented cockpit than its standard sibling

McLaren didnt publish any photos of the interior, but its safe to assume that it will follow in the footsteps of the P1 GTR, which had a more radical, race-oriented cockpit than its standard sibling. Look for the dashboard to retain the shape of the production model, but dont expect it to still feature the vertical infotainment display in the center or the rotating instrument cluster.

The steering wheel will also be replaced with a controller-type unit with many buttons and knobs. The instrument cluster will be replaced by a simpler screen that will display only critical information such as revs, speed, acceleration, tire pressure, and other data you need on the race track.

The floors and the door panels will be stripped off to bare carbon-fiber, while the already sporty seats will be replaced with even more aggressive carbon-fiber units with FIA-approved racing harnesses. All told, the Senna GTR will look like a full-fledged LMP1 prototype inside the cabin.

McLaren Senna GTR Concept Drivetrain

Beefed-up 4.0-liter V-8

At least 814 horsepower

Quicker than standard model

0-to-60 mph in 2.6 seconds?

Race-spec transmission

Upgraded suspension

Output will increase to "at least" 814 horsepower

Just like the P1 GTR, the Senna GTR will get a few extras under the hood as well. Final specs arent yet available, but McLaren confirmed that the new race-spec model will be powered by a beefed-up version of the Sennas twin-turbo, 4.0-liter V-8 engine. The mill is rated at 789 horsepower and 590 pound-feet in standard spec and McLaren says that output will increase to "at least" 814 horses. No word on extra torque, but the Senna GTR could get more than 600 pound-feet with the upgrades.

Curb weight will remain mostly unchanged, so its natural to assume that the GTR, which already benefits from more grip and downforce, will be quicker than the regular Senna in a straight line and will post quicker lap times. While the Senna needs 2.7 seconds to hit 60 mph from a standing start, the Senna GTR could reach this benchmark in 2.6 clicks. Top speed will probably remain the same at 211 mph.

The incredible downforce and the slick tires, combined with the race-spec transmission and revised double wishbone suspension will ensure that the Senna GTR will also post the quickest lap times of any McLaren except for the companys Formula One cars.

Conclusion

The Senna GTRs arrival only three months behind the standard model is far from surprising. While the GTR versions of the F1 and P1 took some time to develop, things are moving significantly quicker in 2018 and McLaren is acting accordingly. Sure, the new GTR wont be here in production form until 2019, but McLaren wants to create as much hype as possible and get interested customers to empty their bank accounts. With production capped to only 75 units, the Senna GTR will probably be sold out in just a few months.

Love it Spectacular aerodynamic upgrades Aggressive rear diffuser Wider track and body for better stability How radical can you get?

Leave it You cant buy one



References

McLaren Senna

Will Debut at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show

Read our full review on the 2019 McLaren Senna.

Read our full review on the 2016 McLaren P1 GTR.

Read more McLaren news.

Read more Geneva Motor Show news.Ducati continued its Panigale legacy in 2018 with the V4 base model and its variants, the V4 S and the V4 Speciale. Dramatic as it may sound, the V4 family may well be the finest streetbikes at their price points, and thats not just clever sales prose, its the troofus roofus. It isnt just about the raw power  214 horsepower from the base model V4/V4 S and 226 horsepower from the Special  because the electronics suite is nearly beyond compare with an absolute alphabet soup of acronyms for all the engine/brake/chassis-control features. That performance comes bundled with a sexy superbike visage that looks fast even when sitting still, and all for $21,195 for the base model. This is a weapon of mass seduction that is drawing down on the general riding public rather than an elite (read: rich) few.

Ducati Panigale V4 Design

This isn't a racer look-alike bike; you're going to be in full-on Superman mode from the moment you swing a leg over it.

To call the Panigale V4 family windtunnel tested would be an exercise in understatement. The long front fairing and bubble cockpit glass comes tuned for maximum penetration and minimal drag with deep notches to give the clip-on bars room to swing. An aggressive nose-down/tail-up stance makes the Panigale look a bit like a sprinter crouched at the blocks with oodles of that sensuous Italian style for which Ducati is known.

The sheet metal/body panels were relentlessly sculpted so as to remove the superfluous and inconsequential while retaining just enough for the sake of the aesthetics and performance considerations. Evil-looking triangular cutouts in the fairing house dual headlights just above the gaping maw formed by the cowling with LED turn signals cleverly combined with the mirrors to keep the front end as clean as possible. Vents in the cowl draw the air and waste heat through the engine compartment and allow it to reintegrate with the slipstream and help reduce drag, and a belly pan does the same while acting as a fairing ahead of the blocky silencer.

Clip-on bars bracket the TFT instrument panel to pull the rider forward over the hump of the 4.23-gallon fuel tank, and you should make no mistake about it; this isnt a racer look-alike bike built on a standard model with bars that will allow you to adopt a civilized, if not relaxed, riding position. There aint no half-steppin with this thing. Youre going to be in full-on Superman mode from the moment you swing a leg over it and feel the impossibly narrow waist pull you into the bike with a steep rise and tailbone pad to keep you planted in the saddle.

With 214 horsepower pulling on your arms, youre going to need that butt-stop to keep from un-assing the bike even with all the fancy safety gear, of which there is plenty. A tucked-under LED taillight and mudguard-mount turn signal/plateholder complete the street-legal gear for the rear end. The Speciale, being set up almost like a straight-up racebike, runs an even cleaner look with neither mirrors nor mudguard and a whole host of bike-lightening carbon-fiber goodies under unique red, white and green livery. Unlike the other two, the Speciale will have a limited run of only 1,500 numbered units.

Ducati Panigale V4 Chassis

The Panigale V4s have the honor of being the first production bikes to run ZR-rated Pirelli DIABLO Supercorsa SP hoops.

Ducati uses what it calls its Front Frame concept as the basis for the V4s chassis. Essentially, the structure relies upon a combination of monocoque and stressed-engine technology to form an incredibly lightweight hybrid assembly. A magnesium front subframe and cast-aluminum seat support contribute to a low sprung weight (386 pounds, dry) while the cast-aluminum, single-sided swingarm and aluminum rims help with the unsprung weight. The base V4 rolls on a set of 17-inch, cast aluminum rims, but the S and Speciale feature forged aluminum Marchesini wheels while the whole family has the honor of being the first production bikes to run Pirelli DIABLO Supercorsa SP hoops. These ZR-rated rubbers come in a 120/70 up front with a beefy 200/60 out back and a special tread profile meant to maintain consistent traction throughout the full range of the lean angle.

Suspension components differ a bit across the board. The base model rides on a set of inverted Showa Big Piston Forks with the whole trinity of adjustments to include spring preload as well as compression- and rebound-damping tweaks. A Sachs steering damper tames the front end with another Sachs product  the rear shock absorber  that is just as tuneable as the front forks. As nice as that is, it pales against the all-around Ohlins products on the S and the Speciale that starts out with a set of NIX-30 forks, TTX36 rear shock and steering damper. All of the above comes under the control of the Ohlins Smart EC 2.0 that provides automatic and dynamic adjustments to the system for top-shelf suspension performance.

As youd expect on a bike with so much potential to go, it comes with the utmost in stopping power. A pair of the new Brembo Stylema monobloc calipers  successor to the M50  bite the dual 330 mm front discs with four, 30 mm pistons while the rear makes do with a 245 mm disc and a two-piston anchor. The ABS Cornering EVO system and Bosch 9.1MP prevents loss of traction due to overbraking, even when splitting the available traction between steering and braking forces.

Model: V4 V4 S V4 Speciale Frame: Aluminum alloy "Front Frame" Aluminum alloy "Front Frame" Aluminum alloy "Front Frame" Rake: 24.5 24.5 24.5 Front wheel trail: 100 mm (4 in) 100 mm (4 in) 100 mm (4 in) Front suspension: Fully adjustable Showa BPF fork. 43 mm chromed inner tubes Ohlins NIX30 43 mm fully adjustable fork with TiN treatment. Electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ohlins Smart EC2.0 event-based mode. Ohlins NIX30 43 mm fully adjustable fork with TiN treatment. Electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ohlins Smart EC2.0 event-based mode. Front wheel: 5-spokes light alloy 3.50" x 17" 3-spoke forged aluminum alloy 3.50 x 17 3-spoke forged magnesium alloy 3.50 x 17 Front tire: Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 120/70 ZR17 Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 120/70 ZR17 Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 120/70 ZR17 Rear Suspension: Fully adjustable Sachs unit. Aluminum single-sided swingarm Fully adjustable Ohlins TTX36 unit. Electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ohlins Smart EC 2.0 event-based mode. Aluminum single-sided swingarm Fully adjustable Ohlins TTX36 unit. Electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ohlins Smart EC 2.0 event-based mode. Aluminum single-sided swingarm Rear Wheel: 5-spokes light alloy 6.00 x 17 3 spokes forged aluminum alloy 6.00 x 17 5 spokes light alloy 6.00 x 17 Rear tire: Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 200/60 ZR17 Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 200/60 ZR17 Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 200/60 ZR17 Wheel travel (front/rear): 120 mm (4.7 in) - 130 mm (5.1 in) 120 mm (4.7 in) - 130 mm (5.1 in) 120 mm (4.7 in) - 130 mm (5.1 in) Front brake: 2 x 330 mm semi-floating discs, radially mounted Brembo Monobloc Stylema (M4.30) 4-piston callipers with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO 2 x 330 mm semi-floating discs, radially mounted Brembo Monobloc Stylema (M4.30) 4-piston callipers with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO 2 x 330 mm semi-floating discs, radially mounted Brembo Monobloc Stylema (M4.30) 4-piston callipers with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO Rear brake: 245 mm disc, 2-piston calliper with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO 245 mm disc, 2-piston calliper with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO 245 mm disc, 2-piston calliper with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO

Ducati Panigale V4 Drivetrain

The Desmosedici Stradale powerplant is a technological marvel unto itself and comes off as the true star of the show.

If you think this thing is cool so far, you aint seen nothin yet. The Desmosedici Stradale powerplant is a technological marvel unto itself and comes off as the true star of the show. First the mundane. The V4 engine runs an 81 mm bore and 53.5 mm stroke with a nuclear-hot 14-to-1 compression ratio. Ducatis Desmodromic valvetrain times four valves per barrel with its customary push-open/pull-closed camshaft arrangement. A variable-length intake system feeds the beast with ride-by-wire control and electronic fuel injection within the elliptical throttle bodies. Modern but fairly mundane, right? Well, its the electronics that steal the show.

All three models come with the same array of safety features to include the Ducati Traction Control, Power Modes, Riding Modes, Wheelie Control, Slide Control and Engine Brake Control. They also benefit from some additional racetastic tech in the form of the Ducati Quick Shift and the Ducati Power Launch. Now, Im not sayin that these gadgets can replace riding skill, cause they wont, but they will increase the odds you will survive the journey as you explore and expand your personal riding envelope.

Though its a four-banger, the exhaust note sounds very much akin to that of a twin; this is due to it firing almost as a twin with very little delay between the ignition of both cylinders within the bank. This results in some truly impressive power numbers with 91.5 pound-feet of torque at 10,000 rpm and a whopping 214 horsepower at 13,000 rpm. Opt for the race kit on the Speciale and you can milk a total of 226 horsepower from the plant. Holy cow, Batman.

Engine: Desmosedici Stradale 90 V4, rearward-rotating crankshaft, 4 Desmodromically actuated valves per cylinder, liquid cooled Displacement: 1,103 cc Bore x Stroke: 81 x 53.5 mm Compression Ratio: 14.0:1 Power: 157.5 kW (214 hp) @ 13,000 rpm (Speciale: 166.3 kW (226 hp) Torque: 124.0 Nm (91.5 lb-ft) @ 10,000 rpm Fuel injection: Electronic fuel injection system. Twin injectors per cylinder. Full ride-by-wire elliptical throttle bodies. Variable length intake system Exhaust: 4-2-1-2 system, with 2 catalytic converters and 2 lambda probes Primary drive: Straight cut gears; Ratio 1.80:1 Ratio: 1=38/14 2=36/17 3=33/19 4=32/21 5=30/22 6=30/24 Final drive: Chain; Front sprocket 16; Rear sprocket 41 Clutch: Hydraulically controlled slipper and self-servo wet multiplate clutch

Ducati Panigale V4 Pricing

MSRP, while within reach of mere mortals, is, thankfully, out of reach of the majority of the entry-level and casual-skill crowd.

Usually you might expect the price to act as a firewall to keep weapons such as these out of the hands of ordinary mortals, but such is not the case with the V4 family. The base model starts out at $21,495 while the mid-grade V4 S carries a $27,895 sticker. At the top, the Speciale goes for $39,995, but if youre looking at a racebike, price probably isnt an issue.

Safety Equipment: Riding Modes, Power Modes, Bosch Cornering ABS EVO, Ducati Traction Control (DTC) EVO, Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) EVO, Ducati Slide Control (DSC), Engine Brake Control (EBC) EVO, Auto tire calibration Instrumentation: Last generation digital unit with 5" TFT colour display Warranty: 24 months unlimited mileage Color: Ducati Red (V4 Speciale: Tri-Color Livery) Price:  2018: V4: $21,195, V4 S:$27,495, V4 Speciale: $39,995  2019: V4: $21,495, V4 S: $27,895, V4 Speciale: $39,995

Ducati Panigale V4 Competitors

The CBR1000 RR falls short in a few places, but some may argue the price difference more than covers it with a significantly lower starting MSRP.

There are a handful of race replica bikes currently on the market, but for the most part are priced well beyond the Panigales prospects. At the reasonable end of the price spectrum however, there are plenty from which to choose, so I grabbed one of the more popular alternatives with the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. Honda packs a pile o racing DNA into the Blade along with plenty of curb appeal and superbike aggression with a nose-down/tail-up stance and windtunnel-tested body panels that leaves no doubt as to its purpose in life.

Integrated turn-signal/mirror assemblies and a plateholder/mudguard give it a racer-turned-street legal look, but in truth its much like the base V4; not exactly a track-day machine. Fully adjustable, usd Showa Big-Piston Forks support the CBR with a Showa Balance Free Rear Cushion shock in back that delivers same. As with the Duc, the upgraded CBR models come with dynamic suspension, but in the base models manually adjustable stems is what you get. Tokico supplies the Blades brakes, and even though Honda offers an ABS model, the Duc is still pulling from the a higher shelf.

Hondas plant leaves a few cubes on the table against Ducs cheater-liter with only 998 cc tucked away. This definitely registers on the heinie dyno with a concurrent drop in power to the tune of 189 horsepower and 84 pounds o grunt. Make no mistake, the CBRs numbers still point to a serious machine that you disrespect at your own peril, but at the end of the day it does fall a little short. Honda also falls short in the engine electronics, but not by much. RbW, TC, Riding Mode Select System, Wheelie Control and the Selectable Engine Brake give the rider almost the same level of electronic fandanglery as the more expensive Panigale. How much more expensive? Well, the Honda CBR1000 RR falls short in a few places, but some may argue the price difference more than covers it with a low, $16,499 starting MSRP.

He Said

Shopping by price leaves the Blade in a good position, but it quickly pales in comparison if you start to look at value instead of just price. Ducati builds a Hell of a bike, and the price on this badboy makes it likely well be seeing lots of them on U.S. roads, and that right soon. As for the Blade, well, the upgraded versions are more closely matched in some ways, farther apart in others for tradeoffs of different sorts.

She Said

My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, This is an impressive machine. It has 1.1 horsepower per kilogram, for those who keep track of that sort of thing. It has an engine derived directly from the MotoGP Desmosedici and is probably as close as many of us will get to a real MotoGP bike. Well, not me. Im too old and dont heal quickly anymore, but other people will love this bike.

Ducati Panigale V4 Specifications

Engine & Drivetrain: Engine: Desmosedici Stradale 90 V4, rearward-rotating crankshaft, 4 Desmodromically actuated valves per cylinder, liquid cooled Displacement: 1,103 cc Bore x Stroke: 81 x 53.5 mm Compression Ratio: 14.0:1 Power: 157.5 kW (214 hp) @ 13,000 rpm (Speciale: 166.3 kW (226 hp) Torque: 124.0 Nm (91.5 lb-ft) @ 10,000 rpm Fuel injection: Electronic fuel injection system. Twin injectors per cylinder. Full ride-by-wire elliptical throttle bodies. Variable length intake system Exhaust: 4-2-1-2 system, with 2 catalytic converters and 2 lambda probes Primary drive: Straight cut gears; Ratio 1.80:1 Ratio: 1=38/14 2=36/17 3=33/19 4=32/21 5=30/22 6=30/24 Final drive: Chain; Front sprocket 16; Rear sprocket 41 Clutch: Hydraulically controlled slipper and self-servo wet multiplate clutch Chassis: Frame: Aluminum alloy "Front Frame" Rake: 24.5 Front wheel trail: 100 mm (4 in) Front suspension: V4: Fully adjustable Showa BPF fork. 43 mm chromed inner tubes V4 S, Speciale: Ohlins NIX30 43 mm fully adjustable fork with TiN treatment. Electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ohlins Smart EC2.0 event-based mode. Front wheel: V4: 5-spokes light alloy 3.50" x 17" V4 S: 3-spoke forged aluminum alloy 3.50 x 17 V4 Speciale: 3-spoke forged magnesium alloy 3.50 x 17 Front tire: Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 120/70 ZR17 Rear Suspension: V4: Fully adjustable Sachs unit. Aluminum single-sided swingarm V4 S, V4 Speciale: Fully adjustable Ohlins TTX36 unit. Electronic compression and rebound damping adjustment with Ohlins Smart EC 2.0 event-based mode. Aluminum single-sided swingarm Rear Wheel: V4: 5-spokes light alloy 6.00 x 17 V4 S: 3 spokes forged aluminum alloy 6.00 x 17 V4 Speciale: 5 spokes light alloy 6.00 x 17 Rear tire: Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP 200/60 ZR17 Wheel travel (front/rear): 120 mm (4.7 in) - 130 mm (5.1 in) Front brake: 2 x 330 mm semi-floating discs, radially mounted Brembo Monobloc Stylema (M4.30) 4-piston callipers with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO Rear brake: 245 mm disc, 2-piston calliper with Bosch Cornering ABS EVO Dimensions & Capacities: Kerb weight: 198 kg (436lb) (V4 S, V4 Speciale: 195 kg (430 lbs)) Seat height: 830 mm (32.48 in) Wheelbase: 1,469 mm (57.8 in) Fuel tank capacity: 16 l - 4.23 gallon (US) Number of seats: V4, V4 S: Dual seats  V4 Speciale: Single seat Top Speed: 190 mph (est) Details: Safety Equipment: Riding Modes, Power Modes, Bosch Cornering ABS EVO, Ducati Traction Control (DTC) EVO, Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) EVO, Ducati Slide Control (DSC), Engine Brake Control (EBC) EVO, Auto tire calibration Instrumentation: Last generation digital unit with 5" TFT colour display Warranty: 24 months unlimited mileage Color: Ducati Red (V4 Speciale: Tri-Color Livery) Price:  2018: V4: $21,195, V4 S:$27,495, V4 Speciale: $39,995  2019: V4: $21,495, V4 S: $27,895, V4 Speciale: $39,995

Further Reading

Honda CBR1000RR

See our review on the Honda CBR1000RR.

Ducati

Read more Ducati news.Photo: Robert Clark

There may have been fewer New York City rental apartments available in February, but many landlords were still enticing new lessees with incentives.

The use of incentives was at or near record levels in February throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Thats according to a report released today by New York brokerage Douglas Elliman.

In Manhattan, the average rental price fell 2.4 percent from last year to $4,019 in February. Listing inventory was down 17.1 percent from last year in February, but the number of new leases was up 6.8 percent compared to February 2017. The number of new construction leases rose three times faster than those within existing developments. The median price of a Manhattan new construction condo slipped 4.7 percent annually to $4,757 in February.

The net share of new leases that contained incentives was 47.6 percent in February  nearly double what was recorded the same time last year.

Landlords are using incentives as a way to offset high rental prices.

Landlords are being influenced by higher asking prices at the high end of the market and are trying to keep face rents high, Jonathan Miller, CEO of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, and the author of the report, tells BuzzBuzzNews.

Incentives are typically a period of free rent used by landlords to keep units occupied, which in turn keeps the vacancy rate down (as seen this month in Manhattan). Some landlords have begun luring new tenants with more high-tech incentives like Netflix subscriptions and Amazon gift cards. The average incentive is 1.4 months free rent in Manhattan.

Manhattan net effective rent declined 2.8 percent annually to $3,168  the third consecutive monthly year-over-year decline. (Net effective rent refers to the total amount a tenant will pay after adjusting the asking rent for incentives.)

Manhattans vacancy rate dropped to 2.29 percent in February from 2.44 percent the previous month, a sign that the use of incentives is working to fill empty units.

Manhattan apartments were on the market an average of 34 days in February, down from the 57 days recorded last year.

Over the last year, the average rental price of a Brooklyn apartment rose 1 percent to $3,109 in February. At the same time, the number of available rentals was down 21.3 percent from last year while the number of new leases rose 15.1 percent annually.

New construction leases surged by more than 50 percent year-over-year but were outnumbered by existing rentals five-to-one in February.

New construction is having a big impact on the overall Brooklyn housing market.

New construction is playing a big role. Were seeing a lot of new units entering the market but skewed to the higher end and, as a result, we are overbuilt at the top and under-built at the entry level, Miller says.

The share of new leases that contained landlord incentives skyrocketed from 15.7 percent last year to 47.5 percent in February  the third consecutive landlord incentive record and tied with January 2018.

At the same time, Brooklyns net effective median rent fell 3.1 percent year-over-year to $2,632  the ninth annual decline recorded in the last 10 months.

Brooklyn apartments were on the market on average of 31 days in February, down substantially from the 53 days recorded last year.

Meantime, the market share of leases in Queens with landlord incentives rose to the third highest level recorded in February. Some 48.8 percent of leases contained landlord incentives.

The number of new leases surged 35 percent from last year in February as new inventory hit the market. Average rental prices decreased by 0.4 percent year-over-year to $2,898 in February.

Queens apartments were on the market an average of 29 days in February, down from the 39 days recorded at the same time last year.

Citywide, the use of incentives is a practice that is going to stick around for a while longer.

There appears to be no end to new supply whereas the condo new development volume is tapering, Miller says.

Click here to read the entire report.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A Ugandan lawmaker apologised Wednesday after encouraging men to beat their wives to "discipline" them, in comments that sparked an outcry in the east African nation.



The MP, Onesmus Twinamasiko, wrote in a letter to parliament that he actually "detests all form of violence against women".



"Kindly accept my most sincere and unreserved apologies honourable members and the general public and more particularly the women."



The apology comes after Twinamasiko gave an interview the day after women's day, March 8, to local television station NTV and said: "as a man you need to discipline your wife, you need to touch her and tackle her and beat her somehow, to really streamline her".



His remarks sparked anger from women.



However, his view is not uncommon in Uganda. A government report published in 2016 showed that one in five female Ugandans between the age of 14 and 49 had reported physical or sexual violence within a 12-month period.



Parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga vowed to investigate Twinamasiko for encouraging violence against women and the women's parliamentary association demanded that he withdraw the statement and apologise.



Meanwhile on Twitter, the hashtag #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign trended in Uganda.



On women's day, President Yoweri Museveni described men who batter their wives as "cowards".







AFPMatt D

If you bought your flight with a UK credit card in the UK, even on a foreign website, and you didn't get your flight, then as long as your loss is in excess of 100 then all you have to do is write to your credit card company with details, quoting your transaction number and date from your credit card statement, then they will almost surely refund your money.

If they don't, your credit card company will have a complaints process to justify why they do not give you your money back. That's the UK law although I understand that there are some changes around, that probably doesn't matter because most likely when you made your ticket purchase the old law applied. Your complaint is not with the airline but with the credit card company. If you have used a debit card, not a credit card like I did you are stuffed. If you are not from the UK then obviously this does not apply to you. Your TA profile is empty, by the way.

The ability to claim back from your credit card company is not ,in the UK, related to insurance. Even if you have complimentary travel insurance with your credit card, or have travel insurance underwritten by the bank who supplied your credit card, this is a matter of failing to supply goods and services paid with your credit card. In the UK the credit card company refunds you.. Obviously you cannot claim to recover your loss from both! That would be fraud. But as long as you make it clear to your insurers or your credit card company this is not the case then you can claim from either. Both these organisations have independent government offices who you can approach to make sure you do get recompense- at no further cost to yourself.

It is probably better to claim from the credit card company as you may have an 'excess' clause in your travel insurance policy.

If you wish to bring the airline down, and that is your right, then you are going to need a whole load of cash, some expensive lawyers, and a very good legal and factual argument indeed to bring this about On the other hand if you have no factual argument to put forward backed up by these resources the airline could theoretically take action against you! One must remember that as far as we know airline regulation in Costa Rica is indeed carried out by qualified and trained staff- even if you personally disbelieve that.

However as reported on Wikipedia, and you shouldn't always believe what's on Wikipedia, the bankers and leaseholders are already taking planes back.

For those of us old enough to remember, in the 1950's was it BOAC who lost a series of Comet aircraft, the first jet passenger aircraft through metal fatigue? That airline was allowed to continue and from that we have British Airways. Not the most comfortable airline but fairly successful, I would say. Couldn't help inserting that barely relevant information.

If Nature Air fails to perform as a company they'll go down in due course, be sure of that.Yes, we used Interbus to get to AOL, though we were not coming directly from SJO, we were coming from farther, S. Caribbean, to AOL. We had contacted a few shared shuttle companies, and Interbus was the one we had used before + they did not want extra money for the drop off and pick up at AOL (another Co was extra US$40 pp or total, not sure now). Interbus van was the same rate from our hotel on the Caribbean coast to AOL as it would have been to any hotel in La Fortuna/Arenal area. It was a long ride, and for that distance and time we thought the rate of just over US$50 pp was very reasonable. We also got lucky and there was only 1 other family in the van for 9-10 ppl, they were going to another Arenal hotel, so lots of space on the way, a/c, nice drivers, no problems. Had some stops for washrooms, snacks, souvenir store. Your transfer from SJO might be different, because it is much shorter.

Interbus has only one afternoon van from SJO area toward Arenal hotels, at 2 pm: . They do not pick up right from SJO, but from Denny's parking lot, where you need to get by a short taxi ride from the arrivals terminal. Since you are staying at a hotel the first night, they will pick you up from your hotel. Pick a hotel for the first night that offers free airport shuttle and breakfast.

For some reason, Interbus own site shows only afternoon shuttle. This transportation planning site shows 8 am with Interbus, too: . You might found out why, because you probably want to head out earlier than later.

Check out these shuttles, too. They do operate between San Jose and Arenal, too: .

There are also companies that offer adventure type of transfers, like rafting to get you to Arenal. E.g., (be careful - they wanted to charge us extra for the drop off at AOL!).

Read more about the local shuttle between La Fortuna and AOL: . US$8 pp each way.

If you do decide to stay at AOL, I would advise against staying in some of the Standards rooms located near La Casona house, as that section is 1/2 km away from everything- see the property and trails map. There are some Standards rooms closer to the reception, pool, trails, too. We ended up at a far away Standard room with a view of a parking lot first, then moved to a better, Smithsonian category room, and got a great view of the volcano in front of our balcony.

We thought that either category rooms are modest, nothing special, no a/c, no TV, no fridge, just a safety box and a coffee maker. But the balcony view was spectacular, the breakfast views from the restaurant - too, the trails right there very convenient. You cannot seee the volcano from the trails all the time, only from time to time, because some trails are in the forest, so you see a lot of wet mossy vegetation, plants growing on top of plants, etc. They include a free morning hike with a guide for 2.5 hrs. We booked it when we were confirming our reservation and then again when we arrived, at the reception, - for the first morning.

There is only 1 restaurant, breakfast included, 1 bar inside the restaurant, you can see lunch and dinner menu on the AOL's site; everything else in terms of food - if you go on tours - your lunch might be included or you can eat on the way back, in La Fortuna. (If you want some non perishable snacks in the room, bring your own and wrap them up well, not to attract tiny sugar ants.)

SkyAdventure entrance is very close to AOL. They pick up from AOL 15 min before the booked tour start time, for a fee. (We found SkyAdventure very fast to respond to e-mails.)Good afternoon all.

Im in initial planning mode for our proposed Vietnam trip in April 2019. Looking to take in Ho Chi Minh City and Hoi An. We have only visited SE Asia once before, which was last year when we used Trailfinders to book our trip to Thailand. They were excellent with everything going like clockwork from start to finish. Despite being extensively travelled and always relying on making my own bookings to many places in Europe, Canada and USA, I was reluctant to do so for SE Asia.

Im now wanting to do my own bookings for Vietnam. My proposed itinerary would be 3 or 4 nights in Ho Chi Minh City (proposed flight wouldnt land until 19.30 so first night would be lost so to speak). Likely to use Emirates or other Gulf State airline who fly from my local airport. Internal flights probably with Vietnamese Airlines. 9 nights in Hoi An, flying back to and then leaving Hoi Chi Minh on the same day /night.

Im aware of taxi scams etc and the need to allow plenty of time between arrival of internal and departure of international flights, but my question is whether there is any other unexpected pitfall or issue that seasoned travellers have come across when travelling to Vietnam when they were booking their trip.

Thanks in advance.It may not look like it when you see my provisional itinerary below(!), but Ive spent a few days and many hours trying to construct a first trip to Japan for my wife and me. Its for cherry blossom season in 2019, probably starting on 30 March 2019. As you can tell, were planning far ahead! Were in our 60s, but fit and active. Were planning to travel by bullet train.

I have three questions on which Id really welcome advice from experienced travellers to Japan:

(1) Is the itinerary reasonable? I know others might do things differently, but have I made any stupid mistakes? For example, (a) is the route as logical/convenient as I think it is? (b) are 2 nights at Kawaguchi-ko and Miyajima too much bearing in mind that a bit of relaxation after Tokyo and after Kyoto and Hiroshima might be very welcome!

(2) Without wanting to put you to too much trouble, does it make sense, financially, to buy a 14-day Japan Rail pass starting on the day we leave Tokyo and travel to Kawaguci-ko? Or would it be better to buy separate tickets? My research suggests that the pass is worthwhile, but Ive come across a few places where it says it isnt if youre not actually using it most days (which we wont be doing because we have 4 days in Kyoto, and 2 in several other places.)

(3) To save hassle and time, at the end of the trip is it a good  or a bad!  idea to go from Takayama to a hotel near Tokyo airport for our last night, rather than head back into Tokyo and then out again next day? Well probably be flying from Haneda, with our flight back to London leavng at about 9:45 am.

Overnight flight from London to Tokyo

1. Tokyo

2. Tokyo

3. Tokyo

4. Tokyo

5. Kawaguchi-ko

6. Kawaguchi-ko

7. Kyoto

8. Kyoto

9. Kyoto

10. Kyoto

11. Hiroshima

12. Hiroshima

13. Miyajima

14. Miyajima

15. Takayama

16. Takayama

17. Takayama

18. Tokyo airport hotel

Return to LondonUsed an on-Line Visa service company called Vietnam Visa Service Ltd ( email address getvisatovietnam@gmail.com , with office at Packsimex Building, Ho Chi Minh City ) to get a landing visa to Da Nang with Fast Track service which is supposed to have their agent meet us at the airport to help expedite the visa process. We paid us$ 84 for 2 persons instead of the normal fee. The Visa approval letter ( via email ) was supposed to come within two days of payment but mine only came after I chase after them 5 days later. The worst part is when we arrived in Da Nang airport, there was no one there to receive us and we had to line up for an hour to get our visa like the others. I emailed them immediately yesterday morning to complaint and still have not heard from them.I have my itinerary figured out beside 1 day trip from Tokyo.

Tokyo 4 days

Kyoto 4 days

Nara 1 day

Kanazawa 1 day

Nikko 1 day

Kamakura or Lake Kawaguchi 1 day

based on hotel and flight reservation and my travel friend leaving early from Tokyo, that day trip has to be from Tokyo. It will be on April 9, 10 or 11. Likely 11. I was debatting doing that day trip to Lake Kawaguchi based on feedback that it might be different from rest of itinerary. However, it looks like cherry blossoms would not have started blooming when I go so it might not be worth it.

transportation seems to be not too easy too to visit the many sites of Lake Kawaguchi. Sounds like I should have a car to make it work during a day trip.

Thoughts?

Edited: 3 years agoThis is our first family trip to New York for all of us. We are a family of four traveling late April early May coming up. We are staying in the Poconos and driving into the city. We are needing the best safest parking that we can get for the day that is close to a metro to ride within the city.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great. I have looked at apps and researched it as much as possible and still need an idea.Re: Getting from LGA to JFK help ;)

6. Re: Getting from LGA to JFK help ;)

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After the Telugu Desam Party quit the National Democratic Alliance over lack of financial support, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the Centre was committed to giving Andhra Pradesh a special package equivalent to a special category state and has been endlessly waiting for the state government to revert on mechanism of receiving it.



Jaitley said the modalities of giving the special package were agreed way back in September 2016 but the state government only in January this year suggested a change in route of receiving funds, to which the Centre agreed but has not heard from it ever since.



"A solution has been put on the table. It is for Andhra Pradesh to decide whether they want the resources or they want to make an issue (out of it)," he told PTI.



The TDP, which has 16 MPs in the 545-member Lok Sabha, first pulled out its ministers from the Narendra Modi government and today decided to quit the alliance itself.



The party, which is in power in Andhra Pradesh, had been demanding greater financial assistance to make up for the disadvantage it has been put to since its division in 2014.



Jaitley, however, said the Centre has been fully committed to giving the promised funds to the state and there has been no delay on its part.



He said the so-called special category status cannot be given to Andhra Pradesh in its literal sense after implementation of the award of 14th Finance Commission, which deals with sharing of central government's financial resources with the states.



The constitutionally-mandated Commission gave increased share of states fund in central taxes to 42 per cent from 32 per cent previously and meeting revenue deficit in case any state needs to be extraordinarily compensated.



The minister said a special category state gets to pay just 10 per cent share of the money to be spent on a centrally sponsored scheme in comparison to general category states having to pay 40 per cent.



The remaining 90 per cent in case of special category states and 60 per cent in general category states is borne by the Centre.



The 30 per cent equivalent advantage that the special category states had was agreed to be given to Andhra Pradesh for five years.



"We found a solution on September 16, 2016 that instead of a special category, we will give a special package," he said adding the funds equivalent to 30 per cent additional funding was to be met in some other form.



Andhra Pradesh, he said, suggested that this should come to it in form of external aided projects wherein the repayment is 90 per cent borne by the Centre and 10 per cent by the state.



"We agreed," he said.



But in January this year, Andhra Pradesh changed its stance and said it should come via NABARD, Jaitley said adding the Centre told the state that such funding would increase its fiscal deficit and restrict borrowing space.



So it was suggested that a special purpose vehicle be created into which NABARD can transfer funds.



The Centre would have repaid such funds to the extent of 90 per cent, he said.



"On February 7 their officers said they will find out the details and come. No one has come till now," he said.



"We have been literally waiting for them to come."



"The Centre has always been willing to give and there is no delay on our part," he said.



"The changeover has been done in January by Andhra Pradesh not by us."



On meeting the revenue deficit faced by the state due to carving out of Telangana, Jaitley said 14th Finance Commission has already calculated the funds for 2015 to 2020, which the Centre will pay.



For the 10 months prior to that, the deficit can be calculated either by taking the 2013-14 as the base or by extrapolating revenue of 2015-16.



In the first case only Rs 138 crore is left to be paid and if the second is used, Rs 1,600 crore is due.



"We have said take it," he said.



"We have been waiting endlessly for a response from them to resolve the issue," he added. -- PTI

- Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has pleaded with President Uhuru Kenyatta to save his political career

- Speaking during a secession of parliament, Owino called on the president to remove him from the fire he has found himself in

- The Embakasi East MP has several times found himself on the wrong side of the law for insulting the president

- In September, 2017 the legislator was arrested by 10 CID officers and held at the DCI headquarters for explosive utterances against Uhuru

- Owino on Friday, March 2, 2018 was dealt a major blow after the High Court invalidated his election victory

- Judge Joseph Sergon ruled that the election was not free and fair and ordered IEBC to conduct fresh polls in Embakasi East

Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has pleaded with President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene and secure his political future after his parliamentary win was nullified.

Owino, who has softened his stance regarding the President, was speaking in parliament where he sought Uhurus help on his political future which currently looks uncertain.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Ruto asisimua Wakenya baada ya kunaswa kwenye video akicheza Odi Dance

Babu Owino pleads with Uhuru to save his sinking political career. Photo: KTN

READ ALSO: Uhuru responds to Babu Owino after his insult

He strategically used a biblical reference to urge Uhuru to take him "out of the fire" as he had suffered for long enough.

The MP was referring to his recent setback where the court nullified his parliamentary win on grounds that the poll might not have been conducted in a free and fair manner.

"I would like to tell the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, that he has put Babu Owino in fire, and he has burned and he is strong. I do not want to be stronger than this, let him remove me from the fire," he said amid laughter from other parliamentarians.

READ ALSO: Uhuru responds to Babu Owino after his insult

The conversation came from the parliamentary debate on whether to back the recent pact of unity betweeen Uhuru and NASA leader Raila Odinga.

Owino has in recent times been one of Jubilees harshest critics, and has been arrested on several occasions in connection with alleged insults directed at Uhuru.

He has since toned down on his outbursts and even promised to quit hurling insults at fellow leaders from the Jubilee camp.

Babu Owino now wants Uhuru to take him "out of the fire". Photo: Babu Owino/Facebook

READ ALSO: Babu Owino appeals High Court decision to nullify his election as MP for Embakasi East

With Raila pledging to put aside his differences with Uhuru and focusing on rebuilding the nation, Owino also seems to have followed suit, as he recently ended his long-standing feud with artist and Starehe MP Charles Njagua.

READ ALSO: Babu Owino arrested

Despite his passionate plea to the President, his fate still lies in the hands of the courts after he appealed the nullification.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news

My friend was forced to cook and eat snakes in Saudi Arabia:

Source: Tuko.co.ke- New firms seeking to apply for licenses to supply electricity in Kenya are putting Kenya power's monopoly under threat

- The new firms have applied for the licenses according to a gazette notice by the Energy Regulatory Commission

- This comes after a bill was tabled in parliament to see other distributors and retailers allowed to distribute electricity

Kenya Power's monopoly in electricity distribution and retail in the country is under threat as new firms are seeking to apply for licenses to connect homes to electricity.

TUKO.co.ke understands a local firm PowerGen has applied for a license to generate and supply electricity according to a gazette notice by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Serikali yatoa taarifa kuhusu afya ya rais mstaafu Daniel Moi

Kenya Power's tight monopoly under threat as new players apply for licenses

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kenya Power opens hotline after complaints over electricity bills

American companies, owned by Microfosoft co-founder, which also sell small scale solar power directly to consumers are also seeking to join the industry.

This comes after the proposed Energy Bill 2017 which want other distributors and retailers licensed promising homes and businesses a choice and better quality of service was tabled in parliament.

A retail license authorises a person to supply electricity to consumers through a series of commercial activities including procuring the energy from other licensees, inspection of premises, metering, selling, billing and collecting revenue, read the Bill

READ ALSO: Power blackout strikes most parts of Kenya and Uganda

It also provided for sector regulators to set the minimum capital required to enter the power distribution and retail business. The plan was to restrict retail licensees to a particular area or areas stated in the license.

The government was however adamant the power retail market cannot be opened up until a clear framework is put in place and transmission network developed.

This was the second time the bill was in parliament after President Uhuru Kenyatta in October 2016 asked Mps to remove a clause that demanded Kenya Power to compensate customers for losses resulting from electricity blackouts

ALSO WATCH: Kenya's public university lecturers on strike | TUKO TV on TUKO tv

Source: Tuko- Teachers Service Commission, teachers' employer, is set to hire 900 teachers to be deployed to Wajir County

- The Commission's CEO, Nancy Macharia, said the government is planning to hire 585 primary school tutors and 315 teachers for secondary schools in Wajir County

- The new tutors, who must be Kenyan citizens registered with TSC, will be employed on a three-year renewable contract

- The move comes after TSC redeployed to other counties non-local teachers over serious security concerns

- Wajir is currently experiencing acute shortage of teachers after more than 1100 non-local teachers fled the county in fear of al-shabaab

- Some 200 public schools are also said to be staring at closure due to absence of teachers in the Northern Kenya region

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is set to hire at least 900 teachers to be deployed to Wajir County after the Commission transfered non-local teachers working in the region to other counties over security concerns.

TUKO.co.ke on Thursday, March 15, established that the government was planning to hire 585 public primary school tutors and 315 teachers for public secondary schools in Wajir County.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Huyu ndiye 'Mr Nakuru'; barobaro anayewazingua wanawake kwa tabasamu lake

Some 200 public schools are said to be facing imminent closure due to the acute shortage of teachers in Wwajir County. Photo:The Star.

READ ALSO: Matiangi is no joke, enters school while students are still asleep

According to TSC's CEO, Nancy Macharia, the new tutors must be Kenyan citizens registered with TSC. They will be hired on a three-year renewable contract.

The contracts, the CEO added, will be renewed upon review of the individual teacher's performance during the three years.

READ ALSO: 200 schools to be shut in Northern Kenya as al-shabaab threat looms large

This latest move by the government came amid fears that the non-local teachers working in Wajir County were being targeted by al-shabaab.

As was earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, Wajir is currently experiencing acute shortage of teachers after hundreds of non-local teachers fled the county in fear of al-shabaab.

READ ALSO: 1,500 Teachers To Be Trained For Northern Kenya Schools

A meeting held by education stakeholders in Wajir on Tuesday, March 13, revealed that more than 1100 teachers had fled the county.

The stakeholders also warned that some 200 public schools were staring at closure and over 14,000 students likely to be sent home due to acute shortage of teachers in the region.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

The Horror of Child Marriage in Kenya - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Mombasa governor Hassan Joho recently showed his fun side after engaging in some interesting activities while on a trip in Estonia, Europe

- The governor, who has primarily jetted to Estonia for official business, decided to explore some activities in the icy country

- Photos he shared on his social media revealed a different side of the governor as he took a break from the political scene to focus on leisure activities

Mombasa governor Hassan Joho took a much needed break from the Kenyan political scene to enjoy an excursion in Europe as TUKO.co.ke has learnt.

Governor 001, as he has come to be referred to is currently in Estonia, Europe where he sought to strengthen international relations between the small Republic and Mombasa.

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Joho is arguably the most stylish politician in the country. Photo: Hassan Joho/Facebook

In photos seen on his Instagram, the governor showed that it was not all business in Estonia as he enjoyed some local activities in the area.

Apart from going on an expensive looking snow bike ride, Joho also engaged in ice fishing and from the looks of it, he integrated with the culture seamlessly.

Here are the photos:

Joho has previously expressed his desire to work with Estonia for the improvement of the tourism sector in Mombasa.

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Kenya's public university lecturers on strike | TUKO TV:

Heavy rains rock Nairobi city | TUKO TV:

Source: TukoThe Health Minister says the Health Ministry is not ignoring the concerns of nurses on shortThe University of Dayton will install 4,026 solar panels with a capacity of 1.26 megawatts of power that will provide approximately 2 percent of campuswide power consumption and offset carbon emissions by about 1 percent annually.

The solar arrays installed on the front lawn of Daniel J. Curran Place at 1700 S. Patterson Blvd. and the roof of Fitz Hall will provide nearly 10 percent of the power consumption of both buildings. The arrays also will power electric car charging stations at both locations.

The University hopes to have the arrays online by early 2019.

Offsetting campus carbon emissions by 1 percent in a year is equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 278 cars, or the annual carbon dioxide emissions from 1.4 million pounds of burned coal, 140 homes, or conserving 3,010 barrels of oil. See the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency graphic above.

During the 30-year lifespan of the arrays, the University anticipates it will save about $300,000 and prevent 39,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being added to the atmosphere.

"This project fits our Catholic mission and our responsibility to be good stewards of Gods creation, and is another step toward fulfilling our aspiration to be a leader in sustainability education, research, and operations," University of Dayton President Eric F. Spina said.

As part of the long-term power purchase agreement, Cincinnati-based Melink Corporation will engineer and construct the arrays, and sell the electricity to the University. The University has an option to purchase the arrays after eight years.

We are super-excited to partner with the University of Dayton," Melink CEO Steve Melink said. This is an opportunity to educate and inspire not only the students and faculty but the general public throughout Ohio and the Midwest. Sustainability and clean energy are the way of the future, and UD has just put a big stake in the ground as a leader.

The arrays at Curran Place and Fitz Hall are in addition to smaller Melink solar arrays already at RecPlex and Solar Integrated Resources arrays on five student residences. The Adele Center, a student residential facility currently under construction at 301 Lowes St., also will have a 53.4 kilowatt Melink solar array when it opens next year.

Several University units collaborated on the project, including finance and administrative services, advancement, facilities management and planning, the Hanley Sustainability Institute, the School of Engineering renewable and clean energy graduate program, and the Research Institute.

The Hanley Sustainability Institute, the University of Dayton Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service-Learning (ETHOS), and students, faculty and researchers will participate in the installation of the modules, conduct sustainability research and incorporate them into curriculum and other programming.

"One attractive feature of working with Melink is that Melink involves our students in this project from the very beginning and on an ongoing basis," said Bob Brecha, director of research in the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute. "Our campus has quite intentionally become a giant sustainability lab where students from all majors can have a hand in many of our efforts to become a greener campus."

Many of those efforts have resulted in $500,000 in Dayton Power and Light rebates (see the related links). The University has used those rebates to seed a Green Revolving Fund launched in 2016 to support energy-saving improvements on campus, sustainability-related research and hands-on learning opportunities for students. Savings and additional rebates from those improvements are reinvested in the Green Revolving Fund to fund even more sustainability initiatives on campus.

"Our improvements in this area certainly affect the bottom line, but the true bottom line is how the improvements affect our students," said Steve Kendig, University of Dayton executive director of energy utilization and environmental sustainability. "We ultimately want 'sustainability' to be, not 'a bunch of initiatives' but a lifestyle, one that provides our students examples of caring for the common good."

As part of its commitment to sustainability, UD became a fair trade university and was the first Catholic university in the nation to divest from fossil fuels. The University is a member of the U.N. Global Compact, the Global Catholic Climate Movement, Second Nature's Carbon Commitment, "We're Still In," and has committed to renovating or building facilities on campus with at least silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification or an equivalent status in mind.

The U.N. Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, asks businesses and organizations to build cultures of integrity and meet fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. The Global Catholic Climate Movement is an international coalition of Catholic organizations and individuals that, in union with and in support of the pope and bishops, seeks to raise a Catholic voice in global climate change discussions. The Second Nature's Carbon Commitment commits the University to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. "We're Still In" is a declaration by community leaders nationwide to support climate action to meet the Paris Agreement.

The University's sustainability education initiatives received a boost in 2014 with a $12.5 million gift from the George and Amanda Hanley Foundation. The largest single gift in University history also established the Hanley Sustainability Institute.Ukraine has received its own production of large-caliber artillery shells, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has reported on Facebook.

"I congratulate State Joint-Stock Holding Company Artem, part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, on the successful fire tests of 152mm artillery shells," the head of state wrote on his Facebook page on March 14.

He also added: "We continue to strengthen the Ukrainian Armed Forces!"

State Joint-Stock Holding Company Artem, part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, successfully carried out fire tests of 152mm artillery ammunition of its own production.

"The cooperation of the concern's enterprises allowed us to master the production of artillery ammunition in the shortest time possible in order to meet the requirements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is an important step that increases the combat capability of the Ukrainian army," the concern's press service quoted Director General of Ukroboronprom Pavlo Bukin as saying.

opThe requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine has confirmed that the agreement to hold a joint meeting with Russias Gazprom has been achieved, the Ukrainian companys press service reports.

Naftogaz and Gazprom will meet to discuss the situation. Naftogaz sees no need to cancel contracts and expects Gazprom to implement the Stockholm Arbitration decisions. The parties will discuss the proposal of Naftogaz to review the transit tariff, reads the report.

As Ukrinform earlier reported, on February 28, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce obliged Gazprom to pay NJSC Naftogaz $4.63 billion in compensation for the failure to meet its gas transit obligations. According to Naftogaz, this ruling means that Gazprom must pay Ukraine about $2.56 billion, taking into account the final payment for gas supplied in 2014 and 2015.

Gazprom, after the Stockholm arbitration decision not in its favor, had launched the process of terminating contracts for the supply and transit of gas with Ukraine's Naftogaz and retuned the prepayment to the Ukrainian company.

iyAbout 60 entrepreneurs from Moldova and Ukraine, aged between 18 and 35, will get financial assistance from the European Union under the Joint Opportunities in Business for Youth Program, according to the press service of Moldovas Economy and Infrastructure Ministry.

First of all, this project will encourage and support young entrepreneurs. It will enable future Moldavian and Ukrainian entrepreneurs to share experience and get to know each other better, laying the foundation for long-term cooperation between Moldova and Ukraine, said General Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, Iulia Costin.

According to her, a special online platform for discussion and approval of business plans will be created within the project, and young entrepreneurs will be able to participate in various business forums.

The Joint Opportunities in Business for Youth Project is financed by the European Union and will be implemented by Moldovas Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development (ODIMM), in partnership with Ukraines Youth Public Organization New European Generation.

The project will last for 14 months.

iyUkrainian MP Nadia Savchenko arrived at Kyiv's Boryspil Airport from Munich late on March 14, according to the 112 Ukraine television channel.

"It was a very good flight. I met a lot of good people on my way - our Ukrainians who are forced to go and earn money abroad," Savchenko told a channel correspondent.

The MP did not disclose the details of her trip.

Earlier it was reported that Savchenko had been summoned for questioning to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) due to the case of Volodymyr Ruban, the head of the Officer Corps Center for Prisoner Release.

Later, Savchenko's spokesperson said that the lawmaker had not received any subpoena or invitation to the SBU and was on a working visit to the PACE. At the same time, the head of the parliamentary delegation to the PACE, Volodymyr Ariev, noted that Savchenko had not appeared at a PACE meeting.

Savchenko, in turn, said that she would stay on a working trip to Strasbourg until March 16. She also said she had not received any formal subpoena for interrogation and therefore called on the SBU to hand it over to her.

opThe U.S. State Department has expressed a negative reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin's pre-election speech in the occupied Ukrainian Crimea, reminding Russia that sanctions will remain in place until complete de-occupation of the peninsula.

U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Heather Nauert said this in a statement issued on Wednesday, March 14, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Four years ago this week, Russia held an illegitimate, fabricated 'referendum' in Ukraine in a futile attempt to legitimize its purported annexation of Ukrainian territory. Crimean residents were compelled to vote under scrutiny by heavily armed Russian troops," she said.

She stressed that Russia's claim that Ukrainians made a free choice in that sham "referendum" has always lacked credibility.

"In his campaign rally in Crimea today, President Putin reiterated Russia's false claims to Ukrainian territory in another open admission that the Russian government disdains the international order and disrespects the territorial integrity of sovereign nations," Nauert said.

She emphasized that in addition to an illegitimate "referendum," Russia had violated a number of other obligations and norms, causing numerous human losses on the Ukrainian peninsula.

"Over the past four years, Russia has engaged in a campaign of coercion and violence, targeting anyone opposed to its attempted annexation. Russian occupation authorities have subjected Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, pro-Ukrainian activists, civil society members, and independent journalists to politically motivated prosecution and ongoing repression, while methodically suppressing nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets," the statement says.

In this regard, Nauert emphasized that the United States called on Russia to cease its attempts to quell fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and religion or belief.

"We reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Crimea is part of Ukraine and our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine," she said.

opThe Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has prepared proposals on the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia, including the possible suspension of the treaty in part or in full, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa has said.

"The Foreign Ministry has prepared a number of proposals and an analysis of the possible suspension of the treaty itself, either partially or completely. This is permitted by international law and the treaty itself. It can be suspended completely or partially, or denounced. That is, there are several options," Betsa said.

At the same time, she said that possible options were not limited to this list. "We did not make any final decision, because the final decision is made by the president. This is a treaty on behalf of Ukraine," the diplomat said. She also said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was working on possible options for this treaty and "making a further analysis."

Speaking about the Commonwealth of Independent States, the diplomat recalled that Ukraine was not a member of this organization, because it had not ratified the CIS charter.

She said that after Russian aggression Ukraine "does not take part now in meetings of higher bodies of the CIS." "We always proceeded from the fact that our goal is to quit the CIS, which is a post-Soviet model that has exhausted itself, but we also make inventories of the treaties that are important to us. The withdrawal from the CIS does not mean automatic withdrawal from multilateral agreements. Some agreements are important to us," Betsa said.

She also added that these agreements included agreements on social and pension provision.

The Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Russia and Ukraine was signed by the presidents of the two countries on May 31, 1997. The countries formally recognized the borders of each other and fixed the principles of strategic partnership and respect for territorial integrity. After annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the conflict in Donbas, there were repeated calls in Ukraine to terminate this treaty due to Russia's violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Ukraine did not ratify the CIS charter, therefore it is formally considered to be an observer in this organization, and not its member.

opA meeting of the UN Security Council on Crimea will serve as a signal to Russia that the world does not agree to occupation of the peninsula, and Moscow should not hope that the Western community will accept this fact in a few years.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki said this during the Europe-Ukraine Forum in Rzeszow, Poland, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The debate in the UN, also thanks to Poland, will give another signal that we do not agree to this [occupation of Crimea]. It won't be so that four years will pass and we will accept this fact. We will not agree to this. Russia will feel the consequences of violation of international treaties that it signed, violation of basic international principles," Cichocki said.

He noted that Poland was actively involved in the international process on improving sanctions policy against Russia. In this context, he noted that the Polish side had recently handed over another package of proposals to U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, who was on a visit to Warsaw.

opUkrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said that on March 15 he will submit a motion to the Verkhovna Rada on the prosecution, detention and arrest of MP Nadia Savchenko, because she, according to him, plotted a terrorist attack in the session hall of the Ukrainian parliament.

He said this from the parliament's rostrum on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The investigation has undeniable evidence that Ukrainian people's deputy Nadia Savchenko personally planned, personally recruited, personally gave instructions on how to carry out a terrorist attack here, in this hall [of the Verkhovna Rada], by destroying two government boxes with combat grenades, firing at the dome of the Verkhovna Rada from mortars and finishing those who survive from machineguns. So today, as Ukraine's prosecutor general, I will submit to the Verkhovna Rada a motion on the prosecution, detention and arrest of people's deputy Nadia Savchenko," Lutsenko said.

At the same time, he also called on MPs to urgently support a draft law "envisaging, after a motion by the prosecutor general, that diplomatic passports of people's deputies would stop" so that they remain in Ukraine and stand trial.

"The current rules of procedure provide for five days for an answer of a people's deputy. I hope that next Wednesday we will [get a decision from] the committee on rules of procedure, and next Thursday the Verkhovna Rada will make a decision against the organizer of a plotted terrorist attack in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine," the prosecutor general added.

As Ukrinform reported, Savchenko was summoned to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on March 13 for interrogation in the case of Volodymyr Ruban, who was detained in Donetsk region when attempting to bring weapons from the occupied territory, but the MP did not visit investigators.

Subsequently, Savchenko said she had learned about a subpoena in media outlets that "are not a reliable source of information" and added that from March 12 to March 16, she is "on a planned working visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where EU parliamentary sessions are underway."

She also said that she had officially informed the Ukrainian parliament's apparatus about this trip, therefore, in her opinion, the information provided was available to the SBU.

Savchenko also said that she would like to be handed a subpoena for interrogation at the SBU.

However, the parliament chairman's spokesperson said that Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy had not signed an order on a foreign trip by Savchenko.

Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on March 14 that he would be obliged to submit a motion on Savchenko's arrest to the Verkhovna Rada if she does not appear for questioning on March 15.

opFederal President of the Republic of Austria Alexander van der Bellen has visited the city of Lviv in the framework of his official visit to Ukraine and discussed investment proposals with the city leadership.

This was reported by the press service of the Lviv City Council.

"I am happy to visit Lviv, the city with which Austria has a special connection. I wish that economic, cultural and, above all, human relations between Austria and Lviv continue to deepen in the future," the Austrian president wrote in the Book of Honored Guests of Lviv.

During the meeting with the leaders of the city and the region, the parties discussed the possibilities of cooperation between Lviv region and the regions of the Alpine country and investment proposals. In particular, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy invited the Austrian president to take the LvivMozArt festival under his personal patronage, as a platform for the development of Ukrainian-Austrian relations, including economic, political and cultural relations.

ishThe Attorney General of Greece has promised the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine that 26 Ukrainians, the members of the crews of the three foreign ships arrested in Greece, will soon be able to return home.

Official representative of the Department of Consular Service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine Vasyl Kyrylych said this at a briefing on Thursday, March 15, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Our key petition to the Greek side is to take final decisions and give an opportunity to the citizens of Ukraine  the crew members of the foreign ships arrested in Greece, to return to Ukraine. The Attorney General of Greece promised that the decisions would be made quickly. She stressed that the crew members were not detained, therefore after taking a decision on cargo and ships, the crew members would be able to return to Ukraine," Kyrylych said.

He said that our compatriots  the members of the crews of Mekong Spirit, RC 300-97 and Andromeda ships, could not leave the territory of Greece until the completion of investigative actions and delivering final decisions.

ishOver the past four years, Russia has engaged in a campaign of coercion and violence, targeting anyone opposed to its attempted annexation.

Spokesperson for the U.S. Department Heather Nauert has reminded Russian President Vladimir Putin that the illegally annexed territory of Crimea belongs to Ukraine.

"Four years ago this week, Russia held an illegitimate, fabricated 'referendum' in Ukraine in a futile attempt to legitimize its purported annexation of Ukrainian territory. Crimean residents were compelled to vote under scrutiny by heavily armed Russian troops. Russia's claim that Ukrainians made a free choice in that sham 'referendum' has always lacked credibility," Nauert told a briefing in Washington March 14, 2018.

"In his campaign rally in Crimea today, President Putin reiterated Russia's false claims to Ukrainian territory in another open admission that the Russian government disdains the international order and disrespects the territorial integrity of sovereign nations," Nauert stressed.

"In light of Putin's remarks, it is important to call attention to the illegitimacy of the staged 'referendum,' but also to the tremendous human costs the Russian government has imposed on the people of Crimea. Over the past four years, Russia has engaged in a campaign of coercion and violence, targeting anyone opposed to its attempted annexation," she said.

Read alsoRussian presidential elections in Crimea illegitimate  Austrian President

According to Nauert, Russian occupation authorities have subjected Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, pro-Ukrainian activists, civil society members, and independent journalists to politically motivated prosecution and ongoing repression, while methodically suppressing nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets.

"We stand behind those courageous individuals who continue to speak out about these abuses and we call on Russia to cease its attempts to quell fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and religion or belief," Nauert said.

"We reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Crimea is part of Ukraine and our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine," she added.

UNIAN memo. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia. On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin. The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced. Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began.Zakarpattia is a truly multinational region, where one can hardly recall any incidents of ethnic hatred throughout Ukraine's modern history. Everything is peaceful and friendly in the area where plenty of mixed marriages are registered and locals are mostly multilingual.

Misunderstandings came with the adoption of Ukraine's new education law where Article 7 concerning the language of command at schools raised concerns in Hungary. Budapest believes that the legislation restricts the right of minorities to acquire education in their native language. The case came up to the Venice Commission, and the heated debate started to cool down. Everything seemed to be considered at the diplomatic and legislative level.

First, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the building and another time an explosive was planted

However, there were two extremely unpleasant incidents took place related to the office of the Hungarian Culture Association in Zakarpattia. First, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the building and another time an explosive was planted. And although in both cases, the law enforcers quickly revealed those who carried out and ordered these provocations, Hungary received another trump card to show the whole world how Ukrainians "treat" Hungarians. Accusations were followed by appeals for the introduction of an OSCE monitoring mission to Zakarpattia.

Initially, the issue was brought up by deputy chair of the Hungarian Culture Association in Zakarpattia, deputy head of the regional Council Josyp Barto. He told Hromadske Radio he had already met with a representative of the OSCE SMM, Giorgio Zeljkovic. "We agreed with him that after the monitoring, he would appeal to his superiors that representatives of the OSCE operate in Zakarpattia permanently," Hromadske quoted Barto as saying.

Then the head of the Hungarian Culture Association in Zakarpattya, MP Vasyl Brenzovych (BPP) head a meeting with Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto where the need for the OSCE mission deployment was also on the agenda. It was a few days later when Szijjarto himself claimed he had talked to the OSCE secretary general who assured that a 12-strong OSCE monitoring mission would operate in Zakarpattia.

The thing is that the whole story seems odd to say the least because no one in the regional state administration is aware of that. "There were no proposals submitted to the administration to open a permanent monitoring mission, and the administration did not approve this," head of the administration's information department Yaroslav Halas told Hromadske.

Recently, Josyp Barto walked back on his earlier statements and claimed there had been merely a proposal to carry out monitoring rather than a call for a mandatory introduction of the OSCE mission to Zakarpattia.

According to a local online media outlet Prozak.info, "In fact, the presence of the OSCE mission in Zakarpattia a priori determines our region as potentially dangerous, a kind of a hot spot on the map of Ukraine. And it's clear that no investors will come to the hot spot. Similarly, foreign ministries will not advise their citizens to visit. That is, Zakarpattia could lose both investors and tourists."

Unfortunately, there has been a series of assaults on civic activists on the part of radical Ukrainian nationalists in Uzhgorod

Who could possibly claim that the situation in Zakarpattia actually gives grounds to foreign governments to discourage their citizens from traveling to the area? Well, it turns out that Ukraine's neighbors can. On Wednesday, an alert was posted on the website of the Consulate of the Hungarian Republic, recommending that Hungarian nationals refrain from traveling to Zakarpattia March 16-18. The thing is that, unfortunately, there has been a series of assaults on civic activists on the part of radical Ukrainian nationalists in Uzhgorod. Moreover, in this period, nationalists scheduled a march in honor of the anniversary of the Carpathian Ukraine. Usually, such rallies hear outright anti-Hungarian slogans, over which MP Brenzovych had earlier addressed the parliament.

And yet, is there a difference between the OSCE "mission" and OSCE "monitoring"? Indeed, an OSCE Special Monitoring Mission is already present in Ukraine and its operations extend throughout its territory. The nearest OSCE office is located in Ivano-Frankivsk, and it has already been mentioned that representatives of this OSCE office will simply monitor from time to time the observance of national minorities' rights in Zakarpattia. But opening of a new special mission in Zakarpattia would be a much more serious step.

"It is necessary understand that according to OSCE standards and norms, a Mission is a very clear concept," said an expert at the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Dmytro Tuzhansky, whose organization cooperates with the OSCE and who has worked in one of its missions observing the elections. "Its founding, deployment, transfer, expansion, closure, and so on - every step is taken under a very clear and thorough procedure. Key decisions, such as the establishment of a mission and its deployment, are adopted given consent of all 57 OSCE member states. Members of any mission operate according to strictly prescribed standards. Each mission has its objectives and a mandate. That is, everything is very serious and regulated, because it is actually about a diplomatic level of operations."

Unfortunately, the latest discussions about an OSCE mission in Zakarpattia see a very frivolous use of the term "mission", as well as of the concept of "permanent presence" of OSCE observers in Zakarpattia. None of the two is likely to be launched in the area.

It was as early as last year when Budapest initially started to appeal to the OSCE over the situation in Zakarpattia in the wake of the adoption of the education law and certain outright provocations. The idea was formally supported by the Hungarian community as well. To explain why the OSCE should particularly focus on Zakarpattia, statements were made claiming an ongoing anti-Hungarian campaign both in Zakarpattia and in Ukraine in general, provocations being carried out against Hungarians, and so on. That is, some rather general and speculative statements. Unfortunately, in this context, the official Budapest and individual members of the Hungarian community in Zakarpattia comment on the emergence in the region of OSCE patrols as a new "mission" or "permanent presence". At the same time, The OSCE SMM to Ukraine has already stated that they have no separate mission or office in Zakarpattia, adding that the situation in Zakarpattia remains generally calm.

Budapest's current official position on the OSCE presence in Zakarpattia, supported by local Hungarian politicians, only hinders the search for a compromise between Kyiv and Budapest, whose relations escalated following the adoption of the education law.

Of course, the current situation in Zakarpattia gives no grounds for the introduction of the OSCE special mission, although this would be something very pleasing to the Kremlin's eye. Law enforcers have proved that both attacks on the office of the Hungarian Culture Association in Zakarpattia were plotted and ordered by Russia which will continue trying to destabilize the situation in the region.

Unfortunately, recent actions by Ukrainian nationalists in Zakarpattia and the mentioned march they scheduled for March 17 could only pour oil into the fire. It may so happen that during their rally, provocations might take place and things might get out of hand. At one of the local TV channels, the Zakarpattia police assure that they are ready to refute any provocations during the march, but for some reason, it seems to me that their bravado is unfounded.

Petro Goys is an Uzhgorod-based ethnic HungarianLutsenko will submit a motion to the Verkhovna Rada for the arrest of MP Savchenko.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko says investigators have clear evidence that Ukrainian Member of Parliament Nadiia Savchenko personally gave instructions on how to prepare a terrorist attack on the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.

"The investigation has irrefutable evidence that Ukrainian MP Nadiia Savchenko personally planned, personally gave instructions on how to commit a terrorist act here, in this hall, to destroy the government and official sectors with grenades, and cause the Verkhovna Rada's dome to fall by firing mortars and kill survivors with machine guns," Lutsenko said at a parliament session meeting on March 15, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

Read alsoSavchenko asks to release POW swap organizer Ruban against her guarantees

Lutsenko noted he would submit a motion to the Verkhovna Rada for the arrest of MP Savchenko.

As earlier reported, Savchenko is suspected of complicity and participation in preparations for a coup d'etat in Ukraine in the case of Volodymyr Ruban, the Head of the Ukrainian "Officer Corps" center for the exchange of prisoners of war.

Ruban was detained on the contact line with the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" at the Maiorsk checkpoint in Donetsk region on March 8.

He reportedly attempted to smuggle a huge arsenal of weapons from the militant-occupied areas into the government-controlled territory.

Ruban is being charged with preparing a terrorist attack and illegal possession of weapons. In addition, he is suspected of plotting an assassination of the president of Ukraine and a number of top officials in Kyiv.

Ruban has denied all charges, claiming he merely acted as a truck driver and knew nothing about the weapons hidden in furniture in the back of the vehicle.

On March 9, 2018, Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky district court chose a preventive measure for Ruban  60-day imprisonment without bail.The decision was backed by 261 MPs out of the 349 registered in the session hall.

Ukraine's parliament has expelled independent Member of Parliament Nadiia Savchenko from the Verkhovna Rada's National Security and Defense Committee.

Read alsoChief prosecutor says Savchenko plotted terrorist attack on parliament

Relevant decision No. 5543 to amend the Verkhovna Rada's legal act on the election of chairpersons, first deputies, deputy chairpersons, secretaries, members of committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the eighth convocation was backed by 261 MPs out of the 349 registered in the session hall, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

As reported earlier, on March 14, the Verkhovna Rada's National Security and Defense Committee called on Parliament Speaker Andriy Parubiy to consider the Savchenko's expulsion from the committee at the March 15 parliament session.The UN Security Council will have an Arria-formula meeting.

The Ukrainian president's envoy for the Crimean Tatar people, Ukrainian Member of Parliament and Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev has said the UN Security Council will hold a meeting on the situation in occupied Crimea at the initiative of Ukraine.

Read alsoU.S. State Department: Crimea is Ukraine

"The meeting will start at 21:00 Kyiv time on March 15. It is reported that the Security Council will have an Arria-formula meeting, i.e. not only members of the Security Council, but also other states and representatives of civil society can take part in it. Representatives of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people were also invited to participate in the meeting," Dzhemilev wrote on Facebook.

"This meeting was initiated by Ukraine. It is important given that Russian illegal presidential elections in Crimea are scheduled for March 18. In addition, it is the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula," spokesman of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations Oleh Nikolenko told BBC News Ukraine.

UNIAN memo. The "Arria-formula meetings" are a relatively recent practice of the members of the Security Council. Like the informal consultations of the whole of the Security Council, they are not envisaged in the Charter of the United Nations or the Security Council's provisional rules of procedure. The "Arria-formula meetings" are very informal, confidential gatherings which enable Security Council members to have a frank and private exchange of views, within a flexible procedural framework, with persons whom the inviting member or members of the Council (who also act as the facilitators or convenors) believe it would be beneficial to hear and/or to whom they may wish to convey a message. They provide interested Council members an opportunity to engage in a direct dialogue with high representatives of governments and international organizations  often at the latter's request  as well as non-state parties, on matters with which they are concerned and which fall within the purview of responsibility of the Security Council.Kyrylych said he had visited Greece to find out information about these categories of Ukrainian citizens.

Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's consular service department Vasyl Kyrylych has said 105 citizens of Ukraine were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment in Greece as of early March 2018, while pretrial investigations are under way in cases of 43 Ukrainians.

According to him, there are two groups of Ukrainian citizens who are detained or convicted in Greece. In particular, these are Ukrainians who are crew members of seized foreign ships and those crew members whose vessels are reportedly involved in the smuggling of refugees.

Read alsoUkrainian sailor sentenced to 180 years in prison in Greece for smuggling of refugees

Kyrylych said he had spent a week in Greece to find out all the details related to these categories of Ukrainian citizens.

He said that these 148 Ukrainians include 132 citizens who were detained for the smuggling of refugees. However, according to him, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry notes upward dynamics of the detention of Ukrainians for the smuggling of refugees, so the data may vary and even increase.

In his words, 16 Ukrainian citizens convicted of the smuggling of illegal migrants were released on parole in 2017 in keeping with court rulings after they had served a third of their term.

In 2018, Greek courts have already released another three Ukrainians on parole. "They have served a third or even less than a third of their term," he added.Bakulin was not in the session hall when his issue was being considered.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has voted to arrest Ukrainian MP from the Opposition Bloc parliamentary faction Yevhen Bakulin.

Some 240 MPs out of 337 registered in the session hall backed the decision to arrest him, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

Read alsoChief prosecutor says Savchenko plotted terrorist attack on parliament

Bakulin was not in the session hall when his issue was being considered.

At the same time, the deputies received documents with his explanations in written.

According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, the pretrial investigation established that Bakulin had highly likely participated in a criminal organization led by disgraced ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych since March 2010. Lutsenko reported Bakulin "had planned and organized the execution of a number of particularly serious and related crimes, namely: the illegal seizure of funds of PJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine in the amount of UAH 449.963 million (US$17.31 million), as well as an executed attempt to seize the funds of this public joint-stock company worth UAH 5.1 billion (US$196.2 million)."

Lutsenko said the second case concerns the seizure of $404.374 million in funds of JSC Chornomornaftogaz for the purchase of overpriced drilling rigs for oil and gas production on the Black Sea shelf.

UNIAN memo. Bakulin, 61, is a Ukrainian politician of Russian origin. He was chairman of the board of Ukraine's oil and gas giant Naftogaz of Ukraine twice in March through December 2007 and from March 2, 2010, to March 25, 2014. He also held senior positions at gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannia (2003-2005, 2006-2007) and the operator of Ukraine's main oil pipelines Ukrtransnafta (2006).Savchenko was summoned by the SBU to testify in the case against Ruban.

Ukrainian Member of Parliament Nadiia Savchenko claims she is ready to provide guarantees for the release of Head of the Ukrainian "Officer Corps" center for the exchange of prisoners of war (POW) Volodymyr Ruban, who was detained in Donbas on March 8 on charges of plotting a terrorist act against the country's top officials in Kyiv.

"I have never disowned anyone in my life, even being in Russian captivity. And I will not do this in Ukraine. I ask to release Volodymyr Ruban against my guarantees," Savchenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on March 15.

Read alsoRuban arrested until May 6

Savchenko was summoned to testify in the case against Ruban and entered the building of the Main Directorate of the SBU Security Service in Kyiv and Kyiv region at 10:45 Kyiv time. She was accompanied by her sister Vira, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

As reported earlier, Savchenko arrived in Ukraine from Munich in the early hours of March 15.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ruban was detained on the contact line with the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" at the Maiorsk checkpoint in Donetsk region on March 8.

He reportedly attempted to smuggle a huge arsenal of weapons from the militant-occupied areas into the government-controlled territory.

Ruban is being charged with preparing a terrorist attack and illegal possession of weapons. In addition, he is suspected of plotting an assassination of the president of Ukraine and a number of top officials in Kyiv.

Ruban has denied all charges, claiming he merely acted as a truck driver and knew nothing about the weapons hidden in furniture in the back of the vehicle.

On March 9, 2018, Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky district court chose a preventive measure for Ruban  60-day imprisonment without bail.Valeriya Lutkovskaya's term in office expired on April 27, 2017.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has voted in support of MP Lyudmila Denisova (Popular Front) to become the country's Human Rights Commissioner.

In a speech before the vote, Denisova noted that in Ukraine, the right to life requires top priority protection, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

She assured that she would make every effort to protect the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and, in general, all those who need protection.

"We will not disregard internally displaced persons. In Ukraine, there should be no discrimination on any grounds," Denisova said, adding that she supports the comprehensive implementation of a large-scale judicial reform and further development of free legal aid centers.

Read alsoUkraine should drop law hampering activists work - HRWThe new ombudswoman believes labor migration is a major threat to Ukraine.

"Most of our migrants work illegally. They are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking," Denisova said, adding that Ukraine must provide protection and legal assistance to its citizens.

In her address, Denisova also assured that she would always support and protect the rights of journalists, especially the right to their professional activity.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Valeriya Lutkovskaya's term in office expired on April 27, 2017.Sajdik said further adherence to the cessation of fire and the general situation in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine were the main discussion topics of the Working Group on Security.

Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Ambassador Martin Sajdik has said the average number of ceasefire violations is one of the lowest levels over the past two years.

"As it is known, on March 2, 2018, the Trilateral Contact Group, with the participation of the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR), re-affirmed full commitment to a comprehensive, sustainable and unlimited cease-fire, starting from March 5, 2018," Sajdik said in a press statement after the TCG meeting on March 14, 2018.

"Following this statement and as facilitated by the sides' efforts, recently it has become possible to significantly reduce the average number of ceasefire violations to one of the lowest levels over the past two years," he said.

Read alsoOSCE reports 95 explosions in Donbas within 24 hours on March 12-13

"This year, it has also been possible to achieve a significant reduction in the number of civilian casualties. Compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, the respective number has declined three times, according to the preliminary data provided by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. All this clearly demonstrates that with the political will numerous achievements can be accomplished," Sajdik said.

He said further adherence to the cessation of fire and the general situation in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine were the main discussion topics of the Working Group on Security.

"In particular, the participants stressed that the successful implementation of ceasefire requires strict adherence to the previously agreed principles, such as: issuance of the respective ceasefire orders as well as the effective use of disciplinary measures for ceasefire violations; avoiding forward movements and reconnaissance missions; withdrawal of heavy weapons, especially from populated areas; securing civil infrastructure, in particular by prevention of targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and public premises," Sajdik stressed.The situation remains calm in other areas of the Ukrainian defense.

Russia's hybrid military forces have violated the ceasefire since the beginning of the day as they fired 82mm mortars near the village of Vodiane in eastern Ukraine after a daylong truce.

Read alsoOSCE: Average number of ceasefire violations lowest in past two years

"Since the beginning of the day, the enemy has violated the ceasefire once. In particular, the occupiers fired 82mm mortars at the Ukrainian positions near the village of Vodiane, which is in the Donetsk sector. The situation remains calm in other areas of our defense," speaker of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations Oleh Sushynskiy told 112 Ukraine TV channel on March 15.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations said in its update as of the morning of March 15 that Russia's hybrid military forces fully adhered to the ceasefire in Donbas on March 14.SIU raises over $480,000 on Day of Giving

by Rebecca Renshaw

CARBONDALE, Ill.  The second annual Day of Giving for Southern Illinois University Carbondale raised more than $480,000 from more than 1,800 donors, and the donations are still rolling in.

With the theme of Give the Gift of Experience as its call to action, the 24-hour fundraising campaign rallied SIU supporters across the country and the globe in support of SIU students and programs.

The SIU Day of Giving website at siuday.siu.edu shows where funds were donated.

Many small donations made a big difference

SIU Chancellor Carlo Montemagno thanked the many alumni, friends, students, faculty and staff who supported the campaign.

The 24-hour campaign model provides a mechanism for people to connect with their giving, Montemagno said. It provides a framework so that everybody says, My $50 gift or $20 gift is going to make a difference, because were all giving together as a community.

These donations not only help the university with key projects, but also reveal the deep affection that many have for SIU Carbondale.

Looking forward to SIUs 150th anniversary

Jim Salmo, vice chancellor for development and alumni relations and CEO of the SIU Foundation, said the funds will make an immediate impact on the areas designated by donors. Another goal is to attract first-time donors.

This event once again exceeded our expectations, Salmo said, noting that the first Day of Giving raised $341,121. We are already looking forward to next year as the kick-off to SIU Carbondales 150 anniversary celebration.

Student involvement drove donations

Salmo said students played a pivotal role in the events success. Many students connected with the campaign through information booths at Morris Library, the Student Center and many colleges and units.

Trophies headed to CASA and Education and Human Services

Traveling trophies will be presented to the college or unit with the highest number of participants and for the college or unit that raised the most dollars.

There was a tremendous amount of participation this year over last year and I think it came from a friendly competition among the colleges, Salmo said. Im very pleased to announce that SIUs College of Applied Sciences and Arts will be awarded the trophy for receiving the highest number of gifts at 306. SIUs College of Education and Human Services raised the most dollars at $96,996.

The event would not have been successful without several online ambassadors and on-campus volunteers, including students and alumni who shared fundraising progress and messaging on various social platforms, Salmo said. A video highlighting the many exciting experiences students have on campus had nearly 50,000 views.Immediately after the plane took off, one of its back doors fell off.

A Russian An-12 transport plane, which was loaded with nine tonnes of gold, lost most of its freight on March 15 in an aviation incident, which was close to a plane crash.

The gold is being collected on the runway and in the nearby areas of the Yakutsk airfield in east Siberia, Russia, the Telegram Channel Mash said.

Read alsoRussian transport plane crashes in Syria killing all 32 on board  media

Immediately after the plane took off, its left back door fell off. Several parts of the aircraft fuselage have already been found on the ground.

The search for the gold is still under way across the entire surrounding area in the vicinity of the Yakutsk airfield.

Some 172 gold bars have already been found. Each of them weighs 20 kg.

The press service of JSC Yakutsk Airport said in an official statement on the incident that the plane belongs to Nimbus Airlines. According to the statement, the plane successfully landed at Magan Airport in the village of Magan, a few kilometers at the west of Yakutsk. An investigation into the incident is under way.Trump and Kim have committed to meeting at a time and place to be determined before the end of May to discuss North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Differences over how to deal with North Korea's nuclear challenge were a key factor in President Donald Trump's decision to replace Rex Tillerson as U.S. secretary of state, according to sources familiar with the internal deliberations.

Tillerson had been an early advocate of talks with North Korea to the annoyance of Trump, who wanted to keep applying maximum pressure on Pyongyang before responding to an invitation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the sources said, as reported by Reuters.

That had led to fear that Tillerson might be too willing to make concessions to North Korea, the sources said.

"He's got to have somebody in there that he totally trusts," said a senior U.S. official.

In recent weeks Trump spent time putting in place a succession plan, lining up Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to take over at the State Department and CIA deputy director Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo as the head of the spy agency, the source said.

A key aim was to get the team in place prior to moving ahead with North Korea.

Read alsoTrump sacks Tillerson who earlier spoke of Russia's complicity in spy poisoning in Britain

Trump and Kim have committed to meeting at a time and place to be determined before the end of May to discuss North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

In a snub, Tillerson was left out of the loop regarding the North Korean invitation and was on his first trip to Africa when Trump sat down at the White House with a visiting delegation from South Korea last Thursday and agreed to meet Kim.

The next day, Friday, Trump told White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to tell Tillerson he needed to resign, White House officials said.

One source said Kelly had been trying to protect Tillerson as long as he could, but that Trump had grown weary of Tillerson's tendency to contradict the president on a variety of issues and had been telling friends he was about to dump him.

Tillerson, who was in Nairobi at the time and still had two stops to go  Chad and Nigeria  asked that he first return to the United States before it was announced.

Hours after Tillerson landed in Washington on Tuesday, Trump announced on Twitter that he was being dismissed and replaced by Pompeo.

State Department officials said Tillerson did not know why he was being pushed out. One of them, Steve Goldstein, was fired later on Tuesday after he contradicted the White House's version.

Tillerson, whose tenure ends on March 31, returned to the State Department on Wednesday to hand over responsibilities to John Sullivan, his deputy, and to meet with senior officials, a State Department official said.

The official said Tillerson's chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, and deputy chief of staff, Christine Ciccone, had resigned.

It was not immediately clear whether Tillerson's policy chief, Brian Hook, would stay on beyond March 31. The department announced on Wednesday that Hook would travel to Vienna to participate in a meeting on Friday on the Iran nuclear deal.Lavrov said Russia's response would come "very soon".

Russia warned on Thursday that it would retaliate very soon for Britain's expulsion of 23 diplomats over a nerve toxin attack on a Russian former double agent.

Britain says Russia is responsible for using the Novichok nerve agent against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury. They have been critically ill in hospital since they were found on March 4, Reuters wrote.

Russia denies any involvement and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused London of behaving in a "boorish" way, adding that this was partly due to the problems Britain faces over its planned exit from the European Union next year.

Lavrov said Russia's response would come "very soon" but be conveyed to British officials first, an apparent contradiction of an earlier report by state news agency RIA that said Lavrov had promised to expel British diplomats.

In the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats from London since the Cold War, Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday gave 23 Russians who she said were spies working under diplomatic cover a week to leave London.

Read alsoSky News: 23 Russian diplomats to be expelled from UK

"These are all signs of a provocation against our country. The position of the British side seems absolutely irresponsible to us," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"We insist that Russia has no connection to what happened in Great Britain," Peskov told a conference call.

In London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ratcheted up the rhetoric against Russia, accusing it of glorying in the attack on Skripal, which he described as a way of scaring anyone who stood up to President Vladimir Putin.

Johnson said the evidence of Russian guilt was "overwhelming" because only Moscow had access to the poison used and a motive for harming Skripal.

"There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we've heard from the Russians that to me betokens their fundamental guilt," he told the BBC.

"They want to simultaneously deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it."

Johnson said the attack was a way for Putin to send a message to anyone considering taking a stand against it that 'You do that, you are going to die'.The sanctions are the first use of the powers that Congress passed last year in retaliation for Moscow's meddling.

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including 13 indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his Russia-related investigation.

Also targeted were five Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, which is accused of orchestrating a mass online disinformation campaign to affect the election that Donald Trump won over Hillary Clinton, according to CTV News.

The sanctions are the first use of the powers that Congress passed last year in retaliation for Moscow's meddling. The targets include officials working for the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU. Thursday's action freezes any assets the individuals and entities may have in the United States and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The department said in a statement that the GRU and Russia's military interfered in the 2016 election and were "directly responsible" for the NotPetya cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe in June 2017.

Read alsoMueller eyes charges against Russians who stole, spread Democrats' emails  mediaAmong those penalized was Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "chef" and who ran the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, also known as the "troll factory", and 12 of the agency's employees. They were included in Mueller's indictment last month.

The Internet Research Agency "tampered with, altered, or caused a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes and institutions," specifically the 2016 U.S. presidential race, the department said.

"The IRA created and managed a vast number of fake online personas that posed as legitimate U.S. persons to include grassroots organizations, interest groups, and a state political party on social media," the Treasury Department statement said. "Through this activity, the IRA posted thousands of ads that reached millions of people online."

Read alsoRussian networks worked to boost far right in Italy ahead of elections - mediaThe sanctions also affect the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, and six of its employees, for cyberattacks more broadly, including those targeting Russian journalists, opposition figures, foreign politicians and U.S. officials. The Americans members of the diplomatic corps, the military and White House staffers.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Pakistan's largest fertilizer producer, Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (FFC) and Pakistans largest IPP the Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO) have entered into a strategic alliance to set up a 330 MW Coal based Power Plant in Thar

Lahore, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) Pakistan's largest fertilizer producer, Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (FFC) and Pakistans largest IPP the Hub Power Company Limited (HUBCO) have entered into a strategic alliance to set up a 330 MW Coal based Power Plant in Thar.

The Shareholders Agreement (SHA) was signed amongst HUBCO, FFC and China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), a state owned enterprise from China in an event held in Islamabad. The power plant, being a CPEC Project, will be built under a special purpose company, Thar Energy Limited (TEL), and will be based on indigenous coal to be mined from the coal fields of Thar Block-II in which HUBCO has an 8% equity stake.

Commenting on the Shareholding pattern of Thar Energy Limited, Lt Gen Shafqaat Ahmed, HI (M) (Retd), CE&MD FFC informed that FFC will hold 30% shareholding whereas China Machinery Engineering Corporation will hold 10% and remaining 60% will be held by HUBCO.

He assured that this project will help address the power shortfall in the country utilizing local coal, which is also a major goal of the current Government besides adding value to the Company's long term investments in the best interest of its shareholders.

Mr. Khalid Mansoor, CEO HUBCO said Thar Mine would be a game changer for Pakistan as it would indigenize the energy source for the Country. The Project being setup by TEL would be amongst the first of the series of Power Plants based on Thar Coal and would bring about substantial savings in foreign exchange of the Country.

CE&MD FFC and CEO HUBCO added they believe that this strategic partnership will open up new avenues of business growth, whereas the excellent financial position, credibility and best business practices of the two corporates will provide synergy and confidence for all the stakeholders.

Mr. Saleemullah Memon, CEO Thar Energy Limited on the occasion said that with strong and professional sponsors backing the Project would be completed within the allocated cost and time. FFC and HUBCO both are well reputed and internationally recognized corporate entities with extremely high business and financial credibility.

Financial close of the Project is expected in June 2018, whereas the ground work on the site has already commenced and the project is expected to begin commercial production by Dec 2020.The board of Statoil announced Thursday it wants to rename the firm Equinor as Norway's state-owned energy company seeks to diversify its business from the oil and gas sector.

Oslo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :The board of Statoil announced Thursday it wants to rename the firm Equinor as Norway's state-owned energy company seeks to diversify its business from the oil and gas sector. Founded in 1972 to tap oil deposits found off Norway's coast, the firm has in recent years moved into renewable energy, with parks of offshore wind turbines, including in British waters. "The world is changing, and so is Statoil," said board chairman Jon Erik Reinhardsen in a statement.

"The biggest transition our modern-day energy systems have ever seen is underway, and we aim to be at the forefront of this development." It said the name was created by combining "equi", the starting point for words like equality and equilibrium, with "nor" for the firm's Norwegian origin.

The firm said it plans to devote 15 to 20 percent of investment into "new energy solutions" by 2030. The new name will be proposed to shareholders at the annual general meeting on 15 May, but the firm said the Norwegian government, the majority shareholder with 67 percent, supports the proposal and will vote in favour of the resolution. "The decision reflects the fact that Statoil is in the process of becoming an energy producer in a broader sense, in line with the global trend in the energy sector," Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Soviknes told AFP in an email.Results of 40,000 Prize bond list announced, the list is published of the winners.

Lahore (UrduPoint / UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th March, 2018 ) -: The balloting of prize bonds worth Rs.200/- each will was held Today in Faisalabad on March 15th. The Draw number is 73. The winner of the prize bond announced, prize bond number 629636 won the amount of 750,000 PKR.

The second prize winners are 035474, 172997, 202532, 425987, 661011 they all won Rs. 250,000. Third prize was awarded to 2000+ lucky winners.

The draw was held in Faisalabad Pakistan. The full list of 2000+ winners is published in our business section, you can read here.(@rukhshanmir)

The Sindh government in collaboration with World Bank has decided to devolve property tax collection to the local bodies, DMCs for which a proper database and capacity building of local bodies staff concerned would be undertaken shortly.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :The Sindh government in collaboration with World Bank has decided to devolve property tax collection to the local bodies, DMCs for which a proper database and capacity building of local bodies staff concerned would be undertaken shortly.

This decision was made by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a meeting he held with a World Bank team led by senior economist Ms Yoonhee Kim, Urban development Specialist Mr Shoaib Athar, Public Sector Specialist Irum Touqeer, Urban development Specialists Takaaki Masaki and others.

The Sindh government delegation was led by the CM Sindh, comprising Minister Local Government Jam Khan Shoro, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhter, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Excise Haleem Shaikh, Chairman DMCs and others.

The Sindh CM in his opening remarks said that he had already devolved property tax to local bodies in Karachi KMC but they have to develop a system for collection. He added that property survey of Sukkur has been conducted.

It is interesting to note that earlier there were only 35,000 households registered for collection of property tax but the fresh survey has revealed an amazing figure of 65,000 houses fit for levy of property tax.

The World bank team through a presentation said that the current collection of property tax in Sindh is Rs2 billion while there was a potential of Rs 7.2 billion. Citing the examples of Punjab, they said that they collected $88 million during 2015-16, Chennai collected $90 million, Indian Hyderabad collected $179 million, Banglore $201 million and Mumbai $373 million.

These figures are enough to assess how much Karachi in terms of its size and household can collect property tax, they said. The world bank said that the tax base has been eroded by virtue of very generous exemptions.

It was also pointed out that the administration of property tax is based on `old' system technology, current billing system is not fit-for-purpose. They recommended a self-assessment and self-payment platform for property tax customers is need of the hour.

The property tax arrears constitute a major problem and significant loss of revenue. The World Bank suggested devolution of Urban Immovable Property Tax (UIPT) to local bodies, DMC.

On this, the CM Sindh said that the local councils of Karachi - DMCs do not yet have the capacity to administer UIPT collection functions, in the absence of staff trained in property tax law and procedures, and there are lack of IT capabilities.

He added that he had already issued directive to the local bodies to develop an efficient system. It the meeting it was agreed to take immediate measures within next three months. These measures include agreement and legislation about UIPT devolution road map and institutional arrangement and survey preparations and their launch.

The bank also suggested phase-I (July 18 to June 2020) in which survey would be completed along with preparation of property tax data base. An improvement would be in tax payers services. Training and capacity building of DMCs staff identification, procurement, pilot deployment of ICT system for DMC would be undertaken.

In the phase-II (July 2020 to June 2023) legal reforms, introduction of a self-assessment and self-payment system. The valuation methodology and updating valuation table would also be made and exemption and relief system would also be reformed and it was agreed upon that the enforcement powers would be strengthened further.

It was decided to undertake a full survey of all buildings in the six DMCs of the city; collect qualitative and quantitative data for each building, including property use, to collect the GPS co-ordinates for each building including digital image and to build upon the experiences from Sukkur and with participation from ETD and DMCs It was also decided to establish an IT Revenue Management System (IRMS) for DMCs.

There would be a hardware and software determine host for the data server. The DMC staff to be involved in the building survey and they would be provided training in the new IT Revenue Management System, training in property tax management including valuation, law, billing, collection and enforcement Taxpayer/customer services training On this, the CM Sindh directed excise department to support a modern, ICT-based, Revenue Management System.

We would also bring in legal reforms needed to move to a self-assessment and on-line self-payment system.(@FahadShabbir)

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Muhammad Baligh-Ur-Rehman on Thursday informed the National Assembly that Quranic Education (Nazra) will be taught to Muslim students in all the public and private educational institutions in federal capital.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Federal Minister for education and Professional Training, Muhammad Baligh-Ur-Rehman on Thursday informed the National Assembly that Quranic Education (Nazra) will be taught to Muslim students in all the public and private educational institutions in federal capital.

Responding to question during question hour, he said that National Assembly had passed a bill to provide compulsory teaching of the Holy Quran to Muslim students in all educational institutions.

Baligh-ur-Rehman said it is not only our religious but also constitutional duty to make teaching of Holy Quran and Islamiyat compulsory. He said it was a consensus document and expressed the confidence that other provinces will also follow it.

Under the bill, he said, students from Grade I (one) to Grade V (five) will be taught Nazra Quran while simple translation of Quran will be taught to the students from Grade VI to Intermediate.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Malta's National Statistics Office said Thursday that 87,190 foreign students are attending Malta's English language courses at local licensed English Language Teaching (ELT) schools in 2017.

VALLETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Malta's National Statistics Office said Thursday that 87,190 foreign students are attending Malta's English language courses at local licensed English Language Teaching (ELT) schools in 2017.

Statistics reveals that foreign students number in 2017 increased by 13.6 percent over 2016.

The majority of students attending English courses in Malta came from Italy, Germany and France, which together accounted for more than half of total students.

The largest share of language students were aged 15 years or less, making up 32.2 percent of total students. The most popular course offered by local licensed ELT schools is General English. 71.5 percent of students studying during 2017 opted for this course.

English language teaching is an important sector within the tourism industry as well as a predominant contributor to an ever-evolving education sector.SIU faculty will present research 'lightning' talks next week

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Want to know more about some of the research that Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty are involved in?

University faculty will offer insight into some of their ongoing work during Flash Talk 2 hosted by the College of Applied Sciences and Arts on March 21. The presentations are from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Varsity Center, 418 S. Illinois Ave., Carbondale.

The presentations are free and open to the public. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. There will be refreshments.

Faculty from throughout the university are participating

There are 25 presentations by 33 faculty from numerous departments throughout the university. This is the second year for the event.

Faculty members will give a three- to five-minute PowerPoint lightning talk, with each presenter answering three questions: What is it? Why is it of interest? and How might the community be further involved?

Get involved with research projects

Because the audience may not be familiar with a technical topic, presenters will make their discussions understandable to people who are outside of the expertise field.

Karen Johnson, associate professor in aviation technologies, said the goal is for people to realize how many exciting and innovative research projects are happening at SIU and start thinking about ways that they or someone they know could maybe get involved.

Varsity Center hosting for the first time

Holding the event in the Varsity Center for the first time is exciting, Johnson said.

Since the goal is to garner interest and possibly partnerships with others including the community, holding it in such a mainstay of Carbondale as the Varsity is fitting, she said.

Event highlights ongoing research

A variety of research will be highlighted, including:

Strong Survivors: Cancer-Rehabilitation Research and Service, Phil Anton, Department of Kinesiology.

Virtual Reality in the School of Architecture, Michael Brazley, Architecture.

Can Medical Marijuana Be a Solution to the Opioid Crisis? Jessica Cataldo, Sandy Collins, Thomas Shaw, Health Care Management; Scott Collins and Richard McKinnies, Radiation Therapy/Dosimetry, and Jane Nichols, Rehabilitation Institute.

How Technology Will Change our Fashion Sense and Forecast our Vision Attentions, Yuli Liang and Seung-Hee Lee, Fashion Design and Merchandising.

Parental Desocialization in Sport, Julie Partridge, Kinesiology.

Fatigue Awareness of Collegiate Flight Students, Matthew Romero and Michael Robertson, Aviation Management and Flight

A complete list of presentations and presenters is available.

Flash talk features collaboration

Dean Andy Wang said one of the colleges goals has been to promote collaboration among faculty from different disciplines and connect faculty with the region.

This year, we have some faculty members from other colleges, which was exactly what we would like to see, Wang said. Considering the Chancellors reorganization plan, some of CASAs programs will be moving to their new homes. It is a great opportunity for faculty in the new school to start building research teams and collaborations with current CASA faculty via this flash talk and presentation.Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division Dr. Tariq Fazal Chudhary on Thursday informed the National Assembly that up-gradation of 200 educational institutions in federal capital will be completed soon.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division Dr. Tariq Fazal Chudhary on Thursday informed the National Assembly that up-gradation of 200 educational institutions in Federal capital will be completed soon.

Responding to questions during question hour, he said that about Rs 2.7 billion had been spent by the federal government to up-grade and provide missing facilities to the schools. Under the up-gradation program, he said that schools and colleges would be provided with modern facilities including new classrooms, laboratories, libraries, latest security gadgets and elevated boundary walls.

He said that about Rs. 80 million had been spent for the construction of the boundary walls.

To another question, he said that majority of Private Educational Institutions of Islamabad are charging separate computer fee from students of various classes.

The minister said that Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) had made the Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Fee Determination) Rules, 2016 but it has been challenged in Islamabad High Court on the issues of fee structure and regulation.

He said PEIRA currently cannot determine and regulate fee structure of these private schools and colleges due to sub-judice matter. However, he said, during revision of these Rules in the light of judgment of the Court, this aspect will be decided accordingly.(@rukhshanmir)

Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) has started taking strategic steps for ensuring access of quality assured, safe and effective medicines at affordable price and other therapeutic goods to the people of the country

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) has started taking strategic steps for ensuring access of quality assured, safe and effective medicines at affordable price and other therapeutic goods to the people of the country.

According to an official of DRAP, such changes are apparent in the form of efficient registration process of drugs, better market surveillance for stopping the menace of counterfeit, spurious and falsified drugs and therapeutic goods, and preparation and implementation of new regulations.

He said that the DRAP's registration board considers new formulations, anti-cancer drugs, antiretroviral drugs, Thalassemia, blood products and blood bags etc., in order to provide latest treatment options to the patients in need.

He added new drugs for treatment of Hepatitis-C were registered keeping in view the prevalence of the disease in the country. In addition, addressing to patient needs for drugs suffering frequent shortages, also get preferential registration to avoid life saving essential drug's shortages.

Similarly, a new policy for orphan and critically needed drugs has been developed. He said that in a combined effort by Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination and DRAP, these drugs have been made available in the country at most economical rates.

Furthermore, registration priority has been given to live saving medicines.

He said that in accordance with Drug Pricing Policy 2015, MRPs of 192 new drug formulations and 198 additional packs of registered drugs were determined in year 2016, subsequently approved by the Federal Government.

He said that new initiatives of Costing and Pricing has been made by incorporation of strict punishment to control black marketeering and over charging on drug prices by amendments in schedule II and III of DRAP Act, 2012.

He said that authenticity and quality of drugs in the market is further assured by introduction of 2D Barcodes on the packaging of the drugs. Furthermore, a complete track and trace system enables regulators and manufacturers to monitor the movement of the drugs and ensuring that no falsified drug has been sold.

He said that the resultant approaches for regulation of therapeutic goods including medical devices, Health and OTC products, and Pharmaceutical and Biological drugs contributed towards the overall increase in the efficiency of the authority, that is evident from the recently published reports of WHO and USP PQM determining DRAP as the fastest growing regulatory authority in the region.

He said that long standing pendency in its registration and licensing division and long queue of public health urgency drugs also created problems in form of shortages of life-saving medicine.Police on Thursday arrested 11 drug pushers and recovered narcotics and illegal weapons from them

SARGODHA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) ::Police on Thursday arrested 11 drug pushers and recovered narcotics and illegal weapons from them. A police spokesman said the accused were identified as Mazhar Iqbal, Asad Abbas, Samar, Shafqat, Aziz, Hayat, Safdar, Amjad Raza, etc. Police recovered 2,030g hashish, 1,500g heroin, 100 bottles of liquor and five pistols.Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, Major General Rayimbedi Duyshenbiev called on Federal Minister for Defence, Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan in his office at Ministry of Defence Rawalpindi on Thursday.

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Chief of the General Staff of Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, Major General Rayimbedi Duyshenbiev called on Federal Minister for Defence, Engr.

Khurram Dastgir Khan in his office at Ministry of Defence Rawalpindi on Thursday. While welcoming the dignitary the Defence Minister said that Pakistan greatly valued its friendly relations with Kyrgyzstan and looked forward to further strengthen this friendship.

Both the sides agreed that there was considerable potential to further enhance mutual relations in defence and other fields. The minister expressed satisfaction on the recent ratification of bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual training.

He stated that Pakistan looked forward to further enhance cooperation with Kyrgyzstan at bilateral as well as within the framework of regional and international organizations. He also highlighted that regional stability security and peace were our common goals.

The minister stressed on further diversification and strengthening of defence cooperation between the two sides through a broad based agreement. He also suggested regular exchange of defence delegations to each other's training institutions.

The expertise of armed forces of Pakistan in the field of counter-terrorism along with related training facilities was also mentioned by the Defence Minister. The visiting dignitary highlighted the importance Kyrgyzstan placed on strengthening defence collaboration with Pakistan.

He supported the idea of a wide ranging MoU on military and technical cooperation. He also invited the Defense Minister to visit Kyrgyzstan at his convenience. Dastgir also appraised Major General Duyshenbiev of the capabilities of Pakistan's Defence Industries and mentioned that Pakistan could meet the requirements of Kyrgyz Armed Forces.

He also extended invitation to the Kyrgyz delegation to visit Pakistan to participate in IDEAS-2018.(@rukhshanmir)

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, has said Pakistan is completely implementing IAEA guidelines and ensuring nuclear safety and security standards.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) :The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, has said Pakistan is completely implementing IAEA guidelines and ensuring nuclear safety and security standards.

He said this while addressing a seminar here on Wednesday at a hotel, jointly organised by the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) and the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA).

Yukiya Amano said that the IAEA appreciates Pakistan's efforts.

He said that 18 hospitals in Pakistan are carrying out treatment of cancer related diseases and it needs to be further extended to the rural areas of the country.

The DG IAEA said that he has visited the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant K-3 and K-4 projects and the advanced technology used their is impressive. PIIA Chairperson Dr. Masooma Hassan, Director General Security Division of CISS Dr. Zafer Ali, Executive Director CISS Ali Serwar Naqvi and PNIRA Chairman Jamsheed Hashmi also spoke.(@FahadShabbir)

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested 21 persons deported from Turkey, upon their arrival at Sialkot International Airport on Thursday.

SIALKOT, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested 21 persons deported from Turkey, upon their arrival at Sialkot International Airport on Thursday. Mufakhar Adeel, FIA divisional deputy director, told that the FIA sent the accused behind the bars and registered cases against them.The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday signed an agreement with the government of Switzerland to promote tourism in the province.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday signed an agreement with the government of Switzerland to promote tourism in the province.

The agreement was signed following Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and Switzerland to open new avenues of cooperation in museum sector through capacity building of museum experts, arranging exchange visits and conducting joint research programmes.

Under the agreement signed by Rietberg Museum Director Albert Lutz and Secretary Tourism and Museum Muhammad Tariq in a ceremony, Switzerland will provide Rs 20 million as insurance for taking giant sized Buddha statue from Peshawar Museum to exhibition in Rietberg museum Zurich for three months and 18 days.

Speaking on the occasion, the secretary said that KP government had signed the agreement under an MoU between Pakistan and Switzerland to enhance cooperation between both the countries in the museum sector.

He said the agreement would help promote tourism industry to project soft image of the province. He said that the KP was the first ever province of the country to have agreement with Switzerland for promoting tourism and attracting more tourists to the province.

He said that statute would attract a large number of visitors in exhibition for its colossal size. He said the memorandum would provide an adequate framework for future institutional co-operation between the museums of Pakistan and Rietberg Museum in the areas of capacity building, joint research programmes, publications, scholarships for doctoral and post-doctoral research for professionals and young scholars of Pakistan in museology in the universities of Switzerland.

He added it would also promote exchange visits between museum experts of both countries, museum-related seminars, discussion programmes and other activities.(@rukhshanmir)

The biggest Buddha statue in the Peshawar Museum would be displayed at the Rietberg Museum Zurich in Switzerland at an exhibition to promote religious tourism.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :The biggest Buddha statue in the Peshawar Museum would be displayed at the Rietberg Museum Zurich in Switzerland at an exhibition to promote religious tourism.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism and Museums Department and the Switzerland government, the Buddha would be transported to Switzerland where it will be showcased at the Rietberg Museum Zurich to promote religious tourism.

Secretary Tourism, sports, Archeology, Museums and Youth Affairs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Tariq and Director Rietberg Museum Zurich, Switzerland, Albert Lutz singed the MoU. Secretary National History and Literary Heritage Division Aamir Hassan, Director General of Heritage and Museums, Islamabad, Syed Junaid Akhlaq were also present during the MoU signing ceremony.

The MoU was part of an earlier agreement signed between the Pakistan and Switzerland governments to open new avenues of cooperation in museums sector through capacity-building of museum experts, arranging exchange visits, conducting joint research programmes, publications and to provide scholarships for doctoral and post-doctoral research for professionals and young scholars of Pakistan in Switzerland.

After the devolution of power to provinces after the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was first to ink such an agreement in Museums sector with a foreign country.

According to the MoU between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Switzerland governments, the biggest statute of Buddha in the Peshawar Museum would be shifted and displayed at an exhibition at the Rietberg Museum Zurich in Switzerland.

The statue would be displayed for a period of three months and 18 days where tourists, religious people and followers of Buddhism can visit and take a look at the relic. The Rietberg Museum Zurich, Switzerland, would be liable to pay $20 million to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government if any damages were caused to the statue during the course of transportation, exhibition and its return to the province, the signing parties agreed.

It is expected that the displaying of the statue of religious importance for many people would attract a huge number of foreign tourists to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular while to the country in general.

Officials at the Directorate of Archeology, Museums and Tourism were confident that the agreement would help promote religious tourism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and generate revenue for the province.ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has strongly condemned the terrorist attack near Raiwind, Lahore targeting police personnel and civilians.

The prime minister expressed deep grief and sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the attack.

The prime minister prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls and grant of courage to the bereaved families to bear this irreparable loss with fortitude. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also prayed for swift recovery of those injured in the attack. APP/mikPresident Mamnoon Hussain Thursday while appreciating the Eisenhower Fellowship Programme in human resource development said it was playing a significant role in training of experts in various fields

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :President Mamnoon Hussain Thursday while appreciating the Eisenhower Fellowship Programme in human resource development said it was playing a significant role in training of experts in various fields.

Talking to President of Eisenhower Fellowships George de Lama who along with a delegation called on him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President said the fellows of this institution were performing invaluable services for the humanity.

Chief Operating Officer Indus Hospital Karachi Abdul Bari Khan and other fellows of the Eisenhower Fellowships were also present on the occasion. The President expressed pleasure over the fact that Pakistani scholars were associated with this programme from the beginning and were engaged in the service of country and humanity.

He emphasized that such institutions play a commendable role in imparting education and the human resource development. He hoped that cooperation between Pakistan and Eisenhower Fellowships would continue to grow in future.

The President said Pakistan has been hugely affected by terrorism in the region and thousands of Pakistanis have made enormous sacrifices of life and property. He highlighted that Pakistani diaspora was playing a vibrant role in the progress and development of America and these peoples were serving as a bridge between the both countries.

President Eisenhower Fellowships George de Lama termed his visit to Pakistan as pleasant and memorable.Math Field Day lets young mathematicians compete for scholarships and prizes

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Young mathematicians from two states will once again travel to Southern Illinois University Carbondale for day of competitions, comradery and achievement.

The annual Math Field Day competition is set for Tuesday, March 20, at the SIU Arena. Organizers expect students from about 40 schools in Illinois and Missouri to attend and compete for scholarships and prizes.

A maximum of 36 students per school  nine from each grade  may participate.

The event, which includes a comprehensive test designed, presented and scored by Department of Mathematics faculty, kicks off at 10 a.m. and runs until noon. Organizers will present awards at the arena beginning at 2 p.m.

Prizes include an academic scholarship for the highest-scoring junior who plans to major in a science field. The Pfeffer Scholarship Award is offered through the College of Science at SIU and is valued at up to $4,000 over four years.

Top-scoring student teams will receive trophies or ribbons in three divisions based on school enrollment size. Students also can win certificates for individual accomplishments in each academic division.

SIU will host a program for math teachers during the event, as well. The program will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Roger and Sally Tedrick Auditorium, Boydston Center room 189, at the SIU Arena. The program features a talk by David Kammler, professor emeritus and mathematics distinguished teacher.

A luncheon for sophomores and juniors is set for noon to 1:30 p.m. in the First Mid Bank Saluki Lounge, room 30 at the arena.

For more information, contact co-chairs Kathy Pericak-Spector, retired professor of mathematics, or Ron Nagrodski, senior mathematics lecturer, at 618/453-5302 or mathfd@siu.edu.President Mamnoon Hussain has condemned terrorist attack in Lahore on Wednesday and prayed for eternal peace of the martyred police personnel and people.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :President Mamnoon Hussain has condemned terrorist attack in Lahore on Wednesday and prayed for eternal peace of the martyred police personnel and people.

While expressing sympathies with the bereaved families, the president directed the authorities concerned to provide best medical treatment and every possible assistance to the injured and affected people.

The president said such kinds of coward acts could not deter resolve of the government against the war on terrorism. He said the Pakistani nation had defeated terrorists after giving numerous sacrifices.Strong economy, political stability in Pakistan is imperative for resolving the core Kashmir issue in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiris and in light of United Nation resolutions, said speakers of a Seminar titled 'illegal detention of Hurriyat leaders a challenge to world conscience.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Strong economy, political stability in Pakistan is imperative for resolving the core Kashmir issue in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiris and in light of United Nation resolutions, said speakers of a Seminar titled 'illegal detention of Hurriyat leaders a challenge to world conscience.' The speakers of the seminar organized by All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) in collaboration with Kashmir Media Service stressed approaching Indian civil society specially living abroad for highlighting Indian atrocities in the occupied Kashmir.

Sheikh Tajjamul islam, a well known senior Kashmiri journalist said the basic issue is to end illegal occupation of India on Kashmir. Human Rights violations are being committed in the occupied Kashmir as a state policy.

He said over 700,000 Indian troops were present in the occupied territory and involved in human rights violations. Over 60,000 Kashmiri families are not being provided travel documents, denying them right to travel abroad.

Muhammad Farooq Rehman, former Convener All Parties Hurriyat Conference AJK, said sacrifices of Kahmiris would never forgotten by the world. Senior leader of APHC, Syed Yousaf Naseem said the commitment of Kashmiris for winning right to self determination could never be compromised.

Former Chief Justice AJK, Justice (Retd) Manzoor Hussain Gilani said Pakistan embassies abroad must highlight Indian atrocities on Kashmiris on daily basis in their respective countries of duty.

Convener APHC, Ghulam Muhammad Safi said there should be collective efforts for narrative of Kashmiris. Spokesman JKLF, Muhammad Rafique Dar, Dr Shaheen Akhtar, Barrister Afzal Hussain also spoke on the occasion.

Meanwhile, a resolution was adopted unanimously asking the United Nations to assume its responsibility of organizing the plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with its resolutions. Seminar asked all international bodies to mount pressure on India to release all Hurriyat leaders and activists and repeal black laws.

The sitting urged UN and other relevant international for a to investgatie Indian atrocities and bring perpetrators to justice. The resolution urged UN to take serious note of the Indian designs to convey the Muslim majority in Indian occupied Kashmir in to minority.

Urged India to cease forthwith all human rights violations and stop the bloodshed of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Asked India to cease forthwith all human rights violations and stop the bloodshed of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The resolution demanded Government of Pakistan and all national parties to adopt a proactive approach to project in the world the Indian state terrorism perpetrated in the occupied Kashmir, takes steps to asure the peole of Kashmir Pakistan's full and unconditional support and make further steps towards utilizing all relevant UN mechanisms to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Zagreb, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday condemned the Croatian president for praising the country's immigrants to Argentina and warned they included many officials of its World War II pro-Nazi regime.

Visiting Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said earlier this week in Buenos Aires that "after WWII many Croatians sought and found indeed in Argentina the space of freedom where they were able to prove their patriotism".

But her remarks were strongly criticised by the Nazi hunters who warned that Croatian immigrants to Argentina included a number of the country's WWII Ustasha regime officials. Her remarks "constitute a blanket whitewash of some of the worst criminals of WWII", the centre's top Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said in a statement.

"The only question is whether her statement stemmed from admiration for these murderous Ustasha or ignorance of their postwar escape." Croatian immigrants to Argentina included Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic, secret police chief Eugen Dido Kvaternik and commander of their most notorious concentration camp Dinko Sakic.

Sakic was extradited from Argentina to Croatia in 1998 for a trial and was sentenced to 20 years in jail. He died in prison in 2006. Grabar-Kitarovic's remarks were also criticised by the opposition and some independent media.

However, the president rejected the criticism as a "malicious interpretation of her statement". In a letter to Zuroff she accused him of "repeated attempts to impose a collective stigma on Croatia, Croatian people and Croatian immigrants" which she deemed "unacceptable".

According to some estimates about 100 Ustasha fled to Argentina after WWII. The Ustasha persecuted and killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croatians. For the past few years critics accuse Croatia's authorities of downplaying the atrocities committed by the Ustasha and turning a blind eye to a surge of nostalgia for the pro-Nazi past.S part of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Vice Chairperson of the commission, Belarus' Permanent Representative to the international organizations in Vienna Alena Kupchyna attended a high-level event to mark the launch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime document on strategic partnership and programme activity in Eastern Europe,

MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) ::As part of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Vice Chairperson of the commission, Belarus' Permanent Representative to the international organizations in Vienna Alena Kupchyna attended a high-level event to mark the launch of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime document on strategic partnership and programme activity in Eastern Europe, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.

The document defines the strategic framework of cooperation of the UN Office on Crime and Drugs with Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine in the following priority areas: combating transnational organized crime; a comprehensive and balanced approach in the fight against drugs; countermeasures to corruption; assistance to the development of legal systems.

The total budget of the events envisaged in the document makes up $9 million. Alena Kupchyna stressed in her speech the importance of the program document of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, which will promote the partnership and strengthen coordination in both the participating countries and the international level.

In her words, the approach is at the basis of Belarus? efforts to combat cross-border organized crime, illegal drug and human trafficking. A practical example of such partnership is Belarus? initiatives to set up the Group of Friends United against Human Trafficking and adopt the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Belarus' permanent representative also stressed the importance of setting up an efficient mechanism for the implementation of the document to concentrate efforts and resources on the areas of priority interest for the participating states.

The event organized by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in cooperation with the diplomatic missions of Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine in Vienna was attended by representatives of the law-enforcement bodies of Moldova and Ukraine, heads of the corresponding subdivisions of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, representatives of the diplomatic corps and donors.(@FahadShabbir)

Prime Minister Viktor Orban told around 100,000 supporters gathered in Budapest on Thursday that Hungary's "way of life will lose its meaning" if his opponents win the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Budapest, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Viktor Orban told around 100,000 supporters gathered in Budapest on Thursday that Hungary's "way of life will lose its meaning" if his opponents win the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Orban told the rally, a show of strength ahead of the April 8 vote, that he was the defender of "millions with national feeling" against the "globalist elite". He repeated his key campaign themes in attacking international NGOs and US billionaire George Soros -- whom he accuses of meddling in Hungarian politics -- as well as his vehement opposition to immigration.

"Large western European countries bit by bit are losing their own countries, they want to force us to do the same," he told the crowd.

"Africa wants to kick down our door, and Brussels is not defending us." He added: "We will take moral, legal and political revenge after the elections" on opponents, in what some opposition politicians have interpreted as a threat.

Another 10,000 people gathered for a counter-demonstration, according to an estimate by an AFP journalist at the scene. A further 5,000 attended a leftwing rally organised by the socialist MSZP party and former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's DK, with another 5,000 at a students' demonstration.

Despite polls consistently showing a majority of Hungarians are dissatisfied with the government, 54-year-old Orban looks firmly on course to win a third consecutive term.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The US is regularly violating the nuclear deal and this is a source of concern for Iran. Therefore, we will raise this issue in Vienna,' Baeidinejad said, IRNA reported. Tehran has recently accused the European countries of taking a hypocritical stance regarding the deal and appeasing US President Donald Trump, the report said.

VIENNA, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Mar, 2018 ) ::'The US is regularly violating the nuclear deal and this is a source of concern for Iran. Therefore, we will raise this issue in Vienna,' Baeidinejad said, IRNA reported.

Tehran has recently accused the European countries of taking a hypocritical stance regarding the deal and appeasing US President Donald Trump, the report said. Iran specifically believes that Washington is scaring European traders about the consequences of working with Iranian companies and it is necessary for the European Union to resolve the matter for the sake of the deal.

'All we have agreed is that nuclear deal has no link to the other issues,' Baeidinejad said. 'The agenda of the Berlin meeting is not to prepare for another negotiation over Iran's missile or regional issues.

We have been assured that Britain's position in the Berlin meeting will be to convince the US to keep adhering to the deal,' Iranian envoy was quoted as saying. 'Britain has declared to us that they will have a very frank dialogue with the US and they will expect Trump's administration to adhere to its commitment in nuclear deal,' he said.(@FahadShabbir)

Mongolian Defence Minister Enkhbold Nyamaa met with his Qatari counterpart Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah in Doha on further strengthening bilateral cooperation in the defence sector,

ULAN BATOR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) ::Mongolian Defence Minister Enkhbold Nyamaa met with his Qatari counterpart Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah in Doha on further strengthening bilateral cooperation in the defence sector, the Mongolian Defence Ministry said Thursday.

They met on the sidelines of the sixth edition of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX) in the Qatari capital on Wednesday, Xinhua reported. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on a wide range of issues in the defense sector, including the revision of cooperation agreements between the two countries and exchange of visits by the two defense ministries.

They also talked about Qatar's participation in the annual Khaan Quest military exercises in Mongolia and the continuation of the training of Mongolian servicemen at the Qatari military academy.(@FahadShabbir)

Saudi Arabia's cabinet has 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.

RIYADH, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Saudi Arabia's cabinet has 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 practices for radioactive waste management, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) 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 co-operation 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.(@FahadShabbir)

Bratislava, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico offered Wednesday to resign, under pressure from the opposition for his handling of a scandal over the killing of a journalist investigating political corruption.

"Today I have offered my resignation to the president of the republic," Fico said. "If the president accepts it, I am ready to resign tomorrow."Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday evening over a Supreme Court decision nullifying a referendum in favor of a major railroad project.

ZAGREB, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday evening over a Supreme Court decision nullifying a referendum in favor of a major railroad project.

Cerar said he would formally notify President Boris Pahor on Thursday. The move means that Slovenia's parliamentary elections, which were due in early June, will be held earlier. The referendum in September approved the government's plan to build 27 kilometers of additional railway linking the Adriatic port of Koper with the Divaca hub near the border with Italy, a project worth nearly one billion Euros.

Cerar said the rail line would be of "strategic importance for the development of Slovenia." But the Slovenian Supreme Court ordered a new vote, saying the government unfairly influenced voters to approve the project.

"This was the straw that broke the camel's back," Cerar said in his resignation note to parliament.

"The second track project has been hit by another blow taken by those who want to stop Slovenia's positive development.

I don't want to be part of such stories." Cerar says his center-left coalition is leaving the country in much better economic shape than it was when it took power in 2014. "I have made a decision any trustworthy politician should make in such a situation," Cerar said in a statement broadcast live.

"You (citizens) will have a chance in the elections to judge between right and wrong and who deserves your support." "During my term the economic crisis ended. Slovenia has stable economic growth, third strongest in EU," he said. "We have the lowest unemployment rate after 2009." Cerar's resignation was also a surprise to his coalition partners.What the National School Walkout says about schools and free speech

In the wake of a massive national student walkout protesting lax gun laws, the director of UFs Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project suggests that school officials should carefully consider whether punishing the protesters is the right course.



Students from South Plantation High School, carrying placards, protest in support of gun control. Carlos Garcia/Reuters





Thousands of high school students across the nation left their classes March 14 precisely at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes.

The walkout served two purposes: to honor the 17 people  including 14 students  killed exactly one month ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and to call for stronger gun control laws.

Organized by a Womens March unit called Youth Empower and promoted on Twitter with the hashtags #Enough and #NationalSchoolWalkout, students throughout the country took to the streets and gathered at various places to call attention to the problem of gun violence in schools and in their communities.

Some schools are threatening to punish these young activists. But others are trying to work with them. As one article put it, The response from school districts has been mixed, with some threatening to suspend students and others promising to incorporate the walkout into a civics lesson.

Enter the First Amendment

From my standpoint as director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida, all of this raises important questions about the scope of First Amendment speech rights for high school students. Are the students who exit their classes immune from punishment?

A starting point for answering this question is to understand that the First Amendment only protects against government censorship, not censorship by private entities. Thus, only public school students have First Amendment speech rights. Private school students do not.

California is an exception to this rule. It has a statute known as the Leonard Law that extends First Amendment speech rights to students at private nonreligious high schools. No other state has such a statute.

From black armbands to student walkouts

The second point is that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1969 in a case called Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that public high school students do have First Amendment speech rights while on campus. Those rights are limited, however. Specifically, the right of free speech ends when there are facts that might reasonably lead school authorities to forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities.

In Tinker, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of several students who wore black armbands to their schools to protest the war in Vietnam and to support a truce over the winter holidays. There was simply no evidence that the passive expression of a political viewpoint on a sleeve might substantially and materially disrupt educational activities.

Like Tinker, the student walkouts today are a form of political expression and, in particular, dissenting political expression because the students object to current gun laws. Such speech lies at the heart of the First Amendment.

As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court in a nonstudent speech case in 2010, Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. He added that political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it, whether by design or inadvertence. With todays walkouts, students want to hold lawmakers accountable for what they view as lax gun control laws.

Not immune from punishment

School officials who punish students for walking out of class today have the right to do so as long as they are enforcing regular attendance policies in a consistent manner. They could also argue that leaving class for 17 minutes amounts to a substantial and material disruption of educational activities, per the rule from Tinker.

On the other hand, missing 17 minutes out of a school day and, in turn, an entire school year seems neither substantially nor materially disruptive. Punishing students for a brief but important moment of political activism may be sending the wrong message about freedom of speech in a democratic society.

Many universities have said they will not hold it against applicants who are punished due to todays walkout. As Richard H. Shaw, dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid at Stanford University, stated, Given the nature of this national tragedy and the true and heartfelt response of students in expressing their perspectives and expectations, the University will not consider the choice of students to participate in protests as a factor in the review of present or future candidates.

The price of civil disobedience

So the choice to walk out and face possible punishment ultimately is left to the students. Sometimes that choice may be worth it. As Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida recently put it:

The effectiveness of civil disobedience has always depended on a willingness to throw yourself in the way, whether that is sitting-in at a lunch counter or occupying the university presidents office. But that also means accepting that disciplinary or even legal consequences may result.

The bottom line is that the First Amendment does not give public high school students a right to walk out of classes. It does, however, give administrators a critical justification for shielding them from punishment and to take advantage of a teachable moment about the importance of political protest in the United States.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.(@FahadShabbir)

Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker once hailed as a hero and a symbol of resistance against Russia, has been accused of plotting a terrorist attack against the Kiev parliament, authorities said Thursday.

Kiev, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker once hailed as a hero and a symbol of resistance against Russia, has been accused of plotting a terrorist attack against the Kiev parliament, authorities said Thursday.

Ukraine's General Prosecutor Yury Lutsenko told lawmakers in parliament that the investigation had "indisputable evidence" that Savchenko planned a "terror attack" on parliament. Lutsenko claimed Savchenko had been plotting to destroy the chamber with grenades and mortar launchers and "finish off the survivors with automatic rifles." He offered no evidence, however.

In 2014, the 36-year-old former combat pilot was captured while fighting against Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and found guilty of involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.

She spent around two years in a Russian prison and became a symbol of Ukraine's resistance, launching several hunger strikes. Savchenko returned to a hero's welcome to Kiev in May, 2016 as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.

But her political star has faded since her return to Kiev where she became a lawmaker for former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's political party. She has regularly stirred controversy and contradicted President Petro Poroshenko's policies by supporting direct talks with pro-Kremlin separatists and visiting rebel-held territory.

On Thursday Parliament voted to expel Savchenko from its national security and defence committee.The UN Security Council warned Thursday that conditions in war-torn Yemen are worsening and having a "devastating" impact on civilians, with 22.2 million now in need of humanitarian assistance.

United Nations, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :The UN Security Council warned Thursday that conditions in war-torn Yemen are worsening and having a "devastating" impact on civilians, with 22.2 million now in need of humanitarian assistance.

The council cited indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas, with large numbers of civilian casualties and damage to civilian structures. "The Security Council expresses its grave concern at the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, and the devastating humanitarian impact of the conflict on civilians," it said in a statement.

The statement said the UN estimate of 22.2 million people now in need of humanitarian aid was 3.4 million more than last year. The British-drafted statement was the product of weeks of negotiations with Saudi Arabia, a leading protagonist in the conflict, and other countries, diplomats said.

The statement required the unanimous approval of the council's 15 members, unlike a resolution, which can be passed by a simple majority if it is not vetoed by one of its five permanent members.

It called on all parties to "respect and protect schools, medical facilities, and personnel." Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have hit civilian areas. But the United Nations also has denounced the use of schools by combatants, often as arms depots.

The Security Council condemned "in the strongest possible terms" ballistic missile attacks in November and December on Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed Huthi rebels. The United States accuses Iran of supplying the missiles used in the attacks on Saudi Arabia, but the statement made no mention of Tehran.

Tehran has denied the accusations and Russia recently vetoed a US-drafted resolution that sought to condemn Iran for violating a UN arms embargo posed on Yemen. "The Security Council calls on all member states to fully implement the arms embargo as required by the relevant Security Council resolutions," he statement said.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

A visiting top United Nations official on Thursday met Zimbabwean foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo to discuss the world body's support to Zimbabwe's upcoming polls.

HARARE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :A visiting top United Nations official on Thursday met Zimbabwean foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo to discuss the world body's support to Zimbabwe's upcoming polls.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) administrator Achim Steiner told journalists after the meeting that the UN was committed to supporting Zimbabwe's efforts to hold free and fair elections and achieve economic growth, said a Xinhua.

"We are very much committed to the success of this election as we are committed also to the economic recovery of Zimbabwe as a nation in terms of its macro-economic indicators," Steiner said. He said the UN was pleased to provide Zimbabwe with technical support for the crucial polls, which comes after the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe last November.

"We are very proud and pleased to be part of efforts to support the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) not only on the technical side but also on public outreach, voter education and many of the elements that are essential to make this a successful election," he said.

Already, the UNDP has provided support to ZEC to conduct bio-metric voter registration under which 5.3 million Zimbabweans have so far registered for the polls. Steiner's visit is the first by a UN official since the end of Mugabe's presidency. Zimbabwean elections are expected to be held no later than August 21 this year.Tens of thousands of supporters of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban took to the streets of Budapest on Thursday in a mass show of force before the elections on April 8.

Budapest, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Mar, 2018 ) :Tens of thousands of supporters of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban took to the streets of Budapest on Thursday in a mass show of force before the elections on April 8.

Another 4,000 people gathered for a counter-demonstration, one of several such rallies planned during the day, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Polls put the 54-year-old, who has repeatedly clashed with Brussels over immigration and the rule of law, firmly on course to win a third consecutive term.

But a surprise by-election defeat for Orban's ruling Fidesz party last month suggests the race may be tighter than expected. Critics say the charismatic strongman has eroded democratic institutions like judicial independence and the media, and steered Hungary towards authoritarian one-party rule.

After being elected in 2010, Orban placed loyalists at the head of state institutions, and rewrote both the constitution and election rules, cementing his grip on power. His second term since 2014 has been dominated by nationalistic and anti-immigration campaigns that detractors say have stoked xenophobia in the central European country of 10 million.

But bolstered by an improving economy and with the opposition divided, the former student leader of demonstrations that brought down communism nearly 30 years ago still enjoys strong support. His supporters say Orban defends Hungary against meddling by the EU and US billionaire George Soros, and that his reforms are cleaning up a mess left by previous Socialist-led governments.

Numbers at the pro-Orban "Peace March" were swelled by people brought in from outside the capital and also from Poland, which like Hungary has also clashed with Brussels. At the front was a banner reading "Homeland Before All" while others carried slogans saying: "God protect Hungary and Poland from leftwing ideology!" "This government supports the Hungarian people by helping them start families," David Magyar, a 23-year-old economics student told AFP.

"We feel safe here," said a 53-year-old business woman, who only gave her name as Gyongyi. "There isn't a single refugee running around the streets."Page Content

Eager teams will gather in Stevens Point next month, looking for "nuggets" of wisdom and "panning" for the right answer. It is all part of the "rush" that is the world's largest trivia contest, held once again through the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's WWSP 90FM the weekend of April 13-15.

"Trivia 49: The Trivia Rush of 49" will bring thousands of participants together from around the world for 54 hours of trivia questions and music. The radio station's student staff members support the work of long-time coordinators, Jim "The Oz" Oliva and John Eckendorf.

Recently profiled in Wisconsin PBS's Feb. 22 episode of "Around the Corner with John McGivern," (www.milwaukeepbs.org/local-programs/programs/around-corner-john-mcgivern) the trivia contest not only brings together the Stevens Point community, it is a learning experience for student staff members to help plan the event.

"Trivia season is an exciting time around 90FM," said Ben Kurowski, the station's public relations director. "Trivia gives a chance for people in the community to come together for a fun weekend of competition. The staff and volunteers have been working to create a contest that will be exciting for everyone."

The contest kicks off at 4 p.m. Friday, April 13, with a parade around the UW-Stevens Point campus. Questions begin at 6 p.m. and continue until midnight Sunday, April 15. The radio station will broadcast eight trivia questions per hour and teams will have the length of two songs to call in with the correct answer in order to be awarded points.

The contest also includes two running questions for which teams must go out in the community to find the answer, three music questions for which sound bites from eight songs are played and participants must decipher the name of the song, and three trivia stone, scavenger-hunt like questions. The top teams win trophies and bragging rights.

To join the fun, teams must register in person and in advance at the 90FM Studios from 3-7 p.m. Monday -Thursday, April 9-12, and noon to 6 p.m. Friday, April 13. Registration is $40 per team, with proceeds supporting the general maintenance of WWSP 90FM and scholarships for 90FM staff members. To register an out-of-town team or pre-order merchandise, go to www.90fmtrivia.org. Merchandise may also be purchased on-site at registration.

This year's Trivia movie screens at midnight Friday, April 6, and at 10 a.m. and midnight on Saturday, April 7. The movie is for all ages and costs $3 at the door.

Celebrating its 50th year, the non-profit WWSP 90FM at UW-Stevens Point is the largest student-led radio station in the Midwest. To learn more or schedule interviews with Trivia coordinators and players, contact University Communications and Marketing at 715-346-3572, 346-2490 or ucm@uwsp.edu.

In July 2016, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale explained to Congress the protocol to deport a foreign national.

Two things are generally required, he said. An administratively final order of removal, and a travel document issued by a foreign government.

An order of removal is a deportation order.

Of the two, the travel document is the hardest to obtain. Travel documents can be permission from the deportee's country or a valid passport. But both require cooperation from countries. Usually, there are written repatriation agreements. But often, a deportation is done on an ad-hoc basis, said Leon Fresco, a former Department of Justice immigration official.

He explained, using a hypothetical case in which an immigrant is to be deported to the U.S.

This isnt actually a real thing. But suppose we were trying to deport someone to America. What we might be able to do, if we couldnt land a flight in America, is to land a flight in, like, Tijuana and walk the person up to the border. And sometimes they take that person at that point. And so, we do do some of that.

Fresco added that if deportees are to be sent back by plane, permission from the destination country is required, and that is where repatriation agreements come in.

"The countries, receiving these removals, see the flight manifest  the list of people who are on the flight  and approve. So, there is multiple steps along the way where the receiving government is issuing travel documents, approving that the flight comes to their airspace, and approving the people on the flight," an official with ICE explains.

As VOA reported earlier this month, President Donald Trumps administration has removed more than a dozen countries from its list of recalcitrant countries  nations that refuse to take back their nationals when the U.S. wants to deport them.

That would seem to indicate that more countries are accepting their citizens. And ICE said it, along with other government agencies, is forging agreements.

"The U.S. government, particularly (Department of Homeland Security) with ICE and the State Department, with the Bureau of Consular Affairs are engaging diplomatically with those governments to kind of work on in the entire process in bilateral relationship," the ICE offfical told VOA.

But negotiating a repatriation agreement can be fraught with challenges.

Talks with Laos

VOA has obtained documents that offer a small window into the arduous process of hammering out a deportation agreement between the U.S. and Laos.

A pair of embassy cables from 2008 and 2009  released earlier by the online whistleblower organization WikiLeaks  describes attempts of U.S. and Laos officials to work out a repatriation agreement.

The documents show that in February 2009, three U.S. officials from the State Department and ICE traveled to Vientiane, Laoss capital, to examine ways to repatriate Laos nationals.

While the State Department was invited to participate in this particular meeting, ICE is the one who tries to engage in diplomatic efforts to remove people, Fresco said. But in his view, it is the State Department that has the clout to get countries to do things.

He concluded, So, what ends up happening as a result of that, is that we end up with situations where we don't have these very formal diplomatic arrangements.

Notes of the 2009 meeting reveal that Laos repeatedly requested that deportation agreements be negotiated one-by-one, while the U.S. was hoping that each case could be resolved in 60 days.

But Laos said that verifying its citizens, particularly after a long absence, could be problematic because the names of rural districts and villages were often changed.

The individual may only remember the name of his native village, but that name may have disappeared, said Mai Sayavongs, then-deputy director of the Europe and Americas department for the Laos government.

Another problem for Laotian deportees: Expired citizenship from their home country.

Expatriates were required to register with the embassy in the country in which they were living or lose their citizenship after 10 years.

By the end of the embassy cable in 2009, both countries were still hoping to reach agreement on basic procedures covering all cases.

It never happened. Laos was not on the recalcitrant list during former President Barack Obamas time but has been added to the list under Trump.

A current State Department spokesperson told VOA the agency could not confirm or comment on something reported to be an internal department document.

When talks fail

When a travel document is not issued, ICE then moves on to other actions, such as sending letters to the nations embassies in the United States urging cooperation with the removal process and recommending inclusion of countries to the recalcitrant list.



"If the United States could just fly a plane whenever it wanted and drop people off, there wouldnt be recalcitrant countries. It doesnt work that way in a number of aspects," the ICE official said.



If none of the above work, ICE requests the issuance of demarches (formal instructions) to the uncooperative country by the Department of State. The agency can recommend visa sanctions under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

That is exactly what the Trump administration did in September when it imposed visa sanctions on Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone for failing to accept removable nationals.

In the 2009 cable released by Wikileaks, Sayavongs noted that during the administration of George W. Bush in 2007, the U.S. had tried to send 26 people back to Laos, but the repatriation procedures had not been consistent and had sometimes created problems, as when the Lao were unaware of a return until the individual debarked from a plane in Laos.

Quyen Dinh, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, said recent enforcement actions show a more aggressive strategy on the part of the U.S. government, especially toward Southeast Asian countries.

Thats the scary part. They [ICE] can deport people, even if they dont have a (memorandum of understanding) with a country. Theres nothing that prohibits the U.S. from deporting folks who are not U.S. citizens back to different countries, she said.The Afghan Talibans silence to the latest offer of unconditional talks by the Kabul government has raised hopes in Islamabad and Washington the insurgent group may be mulling over joining the peace process. Previous offers of negotiations had been promptly rejected.



Pakistani military leaders contend their renewed push to bring insurgents to the table has led to the change in behavior.

A senior military official with direct knowledge of the developments said a recent open letter from the Taliban seeking direct talks with the United States was also an outcome of Pakistans fresh push in partnership with other key stakeholders to try to end the Afghan war.

He spoke to a group of reporters on condition of anonymity.

The path ahead is fraught with troubles and requires all stakeholders to use their respective influences to nudge warring Afghan sides to the negotiating table, he said.

The peace-making effort, he added, is also leading to improvement in Islamabads relations with Kabul and Washington.The official explained Pakistani civilian and security institutions, including the spy agency ISI, are in contact and talking to Taliban representatives. We are sincerely trying to persuade them and their allied Haqqani group to join the Afghan reconciliation process, the military official insisted.



But he cautioned the matters could not be resolved overnight because decades of hostilities have led to an extremely complex situation in Afghanistan.



There are groups in the Taliban and some of them are in contact with Russia, some with Iran and some with Pakistan, the official noted.

Pakistan maintains security forces have eliminated all militant sanctuaries on its soil, but Taliban insurgents use nearly three million Afghan refugees as cover and military operations could result in collateral damage and trigger a violent militant backlash.



No comment yet

So far, the stance [regarding Afghan President Ghanis offer] has not been shared with me, so I am unable to offer any comments, Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has said in response to VOAs repeated queries.



The Talibans reaction to past peace overtures by Kabul had been that it would join intra-Afghan talks only after all foreign forces leave Afghanistan.



The insurgent group would also justify its refusal, saying Afghan rulers are American stooges and engaging in talks with them would be simply a waste of time because they are not authorized by Washington to determine the fate of foreign occupation of Afghanistan.



Ghanis proposed peace plan, includes removal of the names of Taliban officials from international blacklists, allowing insurgents to open an office in Kabul to pursue their goals through non-violent means and join the national political process.



General John Nicholson, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan acknowledged Wednesday he is also detecting signs the Taliban does not intend to reject outright Ghanis latest offer that is backed by all international stakeholders.



We know a lot is going on right now, I mean, this offer, I think, is being considered [by the Taliban]. We havent seen a public response [to the dialogue offer] which is interesting, the general said in Kabul.



International efforts



Nicholson cited wider diplomatic and battlefield pressure on the insurgents as well as Washingtons ongoing intense dialogue at various levels and collaboration with Islamabad.



I think some of the pressure is the U.S. policy putting pressure on Pakistan and that pressure is being felt, the American general noted.

Nicholson described Kabuls peace overture as a well thought out plan and stopped short of rejecting U.S. involvement in peace talks with the Taliban while commenting on the groups open letter to Americans.



The idea of talking exclusively to the U.S. is not in our approach to this. We think it is an Afghan-led process, the general reminded.



Its encouraging that these offers are on the table and that we would appear to be in a point where they could start having a conversation on this, said Nicholson. He cautioned though, peace processes take years to shape up.



Pakistani officials also note an improvement in relations with the Afghan government and speak of a better understanding developing between Pakistani army General Qamar Javed Bajwa and President Ghani.



Islamabads recent diplomatic engagements with Washington have also started paying dividends and allowed the two sides to understand each others concerns stemming from the protracted Afghan hostilities. Last week, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua led a high-level delegation to the United States and held extensive talks with senior Trump administration officials.



Both sides have been tight-lipped about these meetings, though privately Pakistani officials report significant" progress. They say in return for Islamabads renewed attempts to help start Afghan peace talks, Washington has also begun to accommodate some Pakistani concerns.



Officials cited last weeks U.S. drone strike in an eastern Afghan border region that killed 21 militants, including senior commanders, of the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, which is plotting terrorist attacks against Pakistan. At Islamabads persuasion, the U.S. State Department on Friday offered a reward of $5 million for information on Mullah Fazlullah, the fugitive chief of the Pakistani Taliban, who is believed to be operating out of Afghanistan.

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who stepped down in January after criticism from President Donald Trump, met Thursday with a U.S. Justice Department official in an effort to preserve his pension, according to a source familiar with the matter.

McCabe planned to retire Sunday with full benefits, but some or all of his pension could be at risk after the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Office of Professional Responsibility recommended firing him for misleading Justice Department investigators about his supervision of probes into Hillary Clinton, Trump's presidential opponent, said the source, who requested anonymity.

The person spoke anonymously because no decisions have been made, and the matter is still not public.

McCabe did not return a call seeking comment.

Sunday is McCabe's birthday, which triggers his eligibility for full pension benefits, the source said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is out of town Thursday, so McCabe met with a person in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's office to make his final appeal in a meeting that lasted more than three hours, the source said.

The person spoke anonymously because no decisions have been made.

McCabe, a 20-plus-year FBI veteran and lifelong Republican, has been a target of Trump and others who have questioned whether his role in the investigations was politically biased or compromised because his wife, a Democrat, got donations for her Virginia state Senate campaign from Virginia's then-governor, Terry McAuliffe, a close ally of the Clintons.

If Sessions fires McCabe, he could be accused of bending to the will of Trump, who has attacked McCabe on Twitter for his role in the Clinton investigations while his wife received donations from what Trump called "Clinton Puppets."

But if Sessions allows McCabe to stay until his retirement, he could face a backlash from conservatives who have attacked the FBI.

When asked about it Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the decision is up to Sessions. However, she also called McCabe a "bad actor" and said it is "well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior."

'Facts and circumstances'

It is unclear what will determine if McCabe can retain all or part of his pension if he is fired, the source said.

In general, the impact of a person's termination depends on facts and circumstances, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.

The recommendation to fire McCabe was based on a report by the Justice Department's inspector general, which according to the source says McCabe misled investigators about his communications with a former Wall Street Journal reporter.

McCabe denies misleading them in any way.

On two occasions in 2016, McCabe authorized an FBI public affairs officer to talk to a Wall Street Journal reporter who was writing about McCabe's role in probes related to Clinton, the source said.

The FBI has said that at the time McCabe got involved in one of the probes, into Clinton's use of a private email server, his wife's election campaign was over.

One article that discussed McCabe's role in the investigation into the Clintons' charitable foundation claimed some agents thought McCabe was trying to quash the probe, which McCabe said was not true.Angolan prosecutors have charged former central bank governor, Valter Filipe da Silva, in relation to an alleged $500 million fraud attempted against the Angolan government last year, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

The news was first broken earlier on Thursday by the blog Maka Angola run by activist and journalist Rafael Marques.

Angola's prosecutors' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.A Japanese company used a Vietnamese trainee in work to decontaminate areas tainted with radioactive materials released by the March 2011 nuclear disaster without explanations about possible health hazards, it was learned Wednesday.

The practice was unveiled at a press conference by a labor union supporting the 24-year-old man, who came to Japan under the country's Technical Intern Training Program for foreigners.According to the union, the man arrived in Japan in September 2015 as a trainee in construction machinery, building demolition and civil engineering and was employed by a construction company in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in October that year.Between that month and March 2016, he took part in work in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, also northeastern Japan, to replace soil contaminated with radioactive substances from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.But his contract with the company had no mention of decontamination work. The company gave him no explanation about details of his work or the hazards of exposure to radiation, according to the man.The private school that Barron Trump attends has joined other schools in calling for gun control.



St. Andrew's Episcopal School and more than 100 schools in Maryland and the Washington area on Wednesday signed an open letter calling on Barron Trump's father, Republican President Donald Trump, and Congress to support gun control measures and to reject arming teachers. The White House has proposed arming educators.



The schools support a "robust system of registration and background checks" with an emphasis on assault weapons. They also back stronger mental health services.

The letter was published as tens of thousands of students walked out of their classrooms Wednesday to demand action on gun violence and school safety. The walkout was triggered by the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.Actor Brendan Fraser feels a sense of relief after recently revealing publicly that he was the victim of alleged sexual misconduct in 2003.



Fraser shared his feelings about the incident while promoting the FX television miniseries, Trust on Wednesday at a New York screening.



Fraser alleged in an interview with GQ magazine that former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk intimately groped him. Berk says he just pinched the actor.



He says it took courage to talk about the incident and that he's hopeful that change will come from all those coming forward to discuss sexual misconduct.



Fraser says the incident changed him, making him feel more reclusive. But he said that getting that burden off his chest after 15 years felt good.



In the 10-part series, Fraser plays private investigator James Fletcher Chace who is hired by J. Paul Getty to fix problems, including the kidnapping of his grandson that the series centers on.



Getty is portrayed in the series by Donald Sutherland. After J. Paul Getty III is kidnapped, the elder Getty refuses to negotiate for his release.



Directed by Danny Boyle, Trust also stars Hilary Swank, Harris Dickinson, and Michael Esper. It premieres at 10 p.m. EDT March 25.The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. have jointly condemned the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil that has been blamed on Moscow, calling it "the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War."

A joint statement issued Thursday by Prime Minister Theresa May, President Emmanual Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Donald Trump said there was no plausible alternative explanation to Russia's involvement in the attack. "We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack," the leaders said.

Later at the White House, President Trump said "it certainly looks like the Russians" were responsible.



WATCH: Trump on Russia spy poisoning

Russia has denied any involvement.

Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in the English town of Salisbury and rushed to the hospital, where they remain in serious condition. Several other individuals, including a police officer, were sickened.

British Prime Minister May announced a series of reprisals against Russia over the poisoning, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats. It will be the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since 1971, at the height of the Cold War.

Russian retaliation



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow will expel British diplomats "soon" in retaliation. In remarks Thursday in Moscow, Lavrov called May's actions "boorish" and said it was intended to distract from Britain's difficult negotiations in leaving the European Union.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for a "proportionate" British response to a nerve agent attack, saying the incident must have "consequences".

The White House issued a statement Wednesday that said the U.S. "stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom" and shares in the assessment "that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support Britain's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response.

British officials said the chemical nerve agent known as Novichok was used in the attack. It was developed by the Soviet Union and inherited by Russia.

Skripal, a former agent of Russia's military intelligence agency, was arrested in 2004 for betraying dozens of Russian agents to Britain. He was freed in 2010 as part of an exchange of spies with the United States, and eventually settled in Britain.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his government will take "measures" in the coming days in response to the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter.

Prime Minister May traveled to Salisbury later Thursday to speak with residents and officials.The already troubled African island of Madagascar faces a new and terrifying threat: bubonic plague. In recent years, the Indian Ocean nation has become the world's top site for the storied disease, with hundreds of cases and scored of plague deaths last year. Aid officials are warning that things could get worse unless more is done to prevent and fight the spread of the often-deadly disease.



Madagascar is the worlds hotspot for this flea-borne disease. It first gained infamy in the 14th century for killing some 25 million people in Europe. That epidemic earned the disease its ominous nickname, Black Death.



Last year, Madagascar saw more cases of bubonic plague than anywhere in the world, with 256 cases and 60 deaths. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says that some 500 cases have been recorded on the island every year since 2009.



The ICRC this week announced a campaign with Malagasy authorities to eliminate flea-ridden disease-carrying rodents in a prison in the capital. Prisons in the nation are often overcrowded and dirty, making them ideal breeding grounds for disease.



Bubonic plague is rare in the modern era. But ICRC spokesman Jean-Yves Clemenzo says it persists in some pockets of the world, like Madagascar. He spoke to VOA from Geneva. Its not only Madagascar. You have still cases of plague in around 15 countries in the world, mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and some South American countries," he stated. "It's mainly due to poor health conditions, poor infrastructure.



Bubonic plague sounds terrifying because it is. Victims who are bitten by plague-infected fleas -- carried on rats -- often develop painful lymph-node swelling, flu-like symptoms and gangrene on their extremities. Without life-saving antibiotics, about two-thirds of those infected will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Medical officials say plague is not spread from person to person. But no vaccine is available.



Clemenzo said that it is vital to not hesitate if you are bitten by a flea and begin to experience symptoms. So if you fear that you have plague, that you have bites on the body, what is important is to react very quickly, as the disease can spread and people can die in 24 hours. So its important to contact, to go to the [nearest] health facility or to contact the Institute Pasteur in Antananarivo and to act very, very, very quickly, he explained.



Madagascar has had some severe problems recently. The cyclone-prone island has suffered recent tragedies of almost Biblical proportions, including a locust invasion, flooding and drought.



Those natural problems are exacerbated by the islands decline in recent years. A 2009 coup has made the island increasingly isolated and aid officials say they have seen an economic decline since then.



Earlier this week, two U.N. agencies reported that as many as 4 million people in rural parts of the country are now food insecure because of a large-scale crop failure.The URL has been copied to your clipboard

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Dozens of civilians were killed and injured in northern Syria's Afrin as the Turkish army and allied militias fight Kurdish YPG fighters near the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 30,000 civilians have recently fled surrounding villages. Newroz Rasho reports.Colombian authorities say they have arrested a Cuban national suspected of plotting to kill American diplomats on behalf of Islamic State.

The suspect, Raul Gutierrez, appeared in a Bogota court Thursday and was ordered held without bail on terrorism and conspiracy charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Gutierrez, who is in Colombia illegally, planned to attack Bogota's exclusive Zona Rosa, a densely populated area frequently visited by American tourists and diplomats.

Colombian authorities began tracking Gutierrez after they intercepted communications from late February in which Gutierrez allegedly discussed plans to make and detonate a homemade explosive.

Spanish police and the FBI had been monitoring Gutierrez for several weeks. They say he showed signs of indoctrination in radical Islam.

Colombian prosecutors said Gutierrez had received precise instructions in communications with people from Spain and Morocco on carrying out an attack targeting Americans.

It is not yet known if Gutierrez is part of the Islamic State network, or merely a sympathizer.Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Thursday he would hold talks only with the Social Democratic party (CSSD) as he seeks to form a new coalition government with support in parliament.

Babis ANO party cruised to a major victory in an election last October, but has not persuaded any other party to either join a coalition or support its minority government, which lost a confidence vote in January.

Most parties are shunning ANO, mainly because of a criminal charge brought against Babis over an alleged fraud of European Union subsidies worth 2 million euros a decade ago. He denies any wrongdoing.

After another round of talks with parties on Thurday, Babis said he would now limit the negotiations to CSSD.

We agreed that we will now talk exclusively with CSSD, until April 10, Babis said at a news conference.

We are negotiating a minority government of ANO and CSSD, with the support of the Communist party, based on program. Other parties can support us too, that is up to them, he said.

If ANOs 78 lawmakers were allied with 15 from CSSD in parliament, the support of 15 additional Communist votes would give the government a majority in the 200-strong lower chamber.

ANO will not hold more talks with the far-right, anti-EU SPD party of Czech-Japanese businessman Tomio Okamura, Babis said.

The possibility of support from the SPD had raised concern among opposition parties and from some in ANO.Cooking is Chris Spear's passion. He's been professionally cooking since he was 16. Over the years, he worked for big restaurants and reached a point where he had almost 100 employees reporting to him. That's when he missed flexibility and wanted to be more creative. So, he quit working for restaurants and founded his own catering company, Perfect Little Bites in Frederick, Maryland.

"Not that having your business is easy, but I want to have the flexibility to say, 'It's Valentine's Day, and it's more important to me to stay home with my wife,' or to be home cooking for someone. I really wanted something that I felt was mine," Spear explained.

Spending long hours in the kitchen doesn't tire Spear, but he had often been concerned that becoming an independent chef would make him feel lonely. That inspired him to found Chefs Without Restaurants, an online resource for chefs.

"I've been thinking about the Chefs Without Restaurants for about five years now, even before I took Perfect Little Bites full time, because I kept thinking about, 'Well, when I do this full time, who are going to be my colleagues? Who are going to be the people who I can bounce ideas off? Who am I going to be able to [get to] do things like cater an event that's maybe outside my range of 30 people? Like, do I have a resource where I can pull in one or two other people?' " he said. " ... And what I started to see was other independent chefs were referring customers to me, [and] I started to do that back to them. I kind of thought, 'There's got to be an easier way to do this.' "

Dozens have joined

Since the group started last January around 100 chefs have joined it.

"We're caterers," he said. "We're personal chefs. We run food trucks. We have awesome food specialty shops." Spear said he wanted to find an arrangement that would be beneficial to all such groups but didn't cost them any money.

So now he has a Facebook group where he can post information about, for instance, a potential customer who wants to arrange a dinner in a given location and within a certain price range, and he can offer interested chefs more information.

Customers can also benefit from this network. Spear said he's building a website where customers will be able to check out profiles of the Chefs Without Restaurants members, learn about their specialties and see what kinds of events they can cater, large or small.

Lana and Bobby Browner are a wife-and-husband team who own their own catering company, Bent and Bent Events, in Frederick.

"We've been doing this for five years, since he graduated from a culinary school," Lana Browner said.

"We specialize in Creole cuisine, Caribbean cuisine. So we blend flavors and bring a nice flavor, a different flavor in the field of food in Frederick County," Bobby Browner said.

When the Browners heard about Spear's group, they decided to become members.

"I think the biggest hurdle for a lot of chefs is that they don't really form an alliance because they're all kind of competing with each other, but you don't have that in this group," Lana Browner said. "What we've experienced so far is a lot of learning about different chefs in the area. It's even been interesting to get feedback from chefs that are not in this immediate area."

Her husband added, "It's a really competitive field," but there's "a lot of camaraderie, a lot of openness and a lot of sharing" within the group.

Shared kitchen

The group is also bringing more business to local facilities, like a shared kitchen called Maryland Bakes where members often meet and work. Terri Rowe, a food entrepreneur and owner of Maryland Bakes, said the group brings more energy to the small food businesses in the area.

"They bring connections," she said. "They bring a variety of talents and gifts. They bring creative ideas and just the whole network of independent people joining together. So it's a big community."

The whole local food community seems to embrace Chefs Without Restaurants.

Oil & Vinegar Frederick is one of the local shops Spear likes. The place often hosts events to introduce cooking ideas and chefs to their customers.

Store owner Sharon Streb said small businesses should help one another succeed.

When other chefs and businesses come to her store, "they get in front of our customers and hopefully we get in front of their customers. That's a win-win for both of us," she said. "It's tough out there for a small business, and not a lot of small businesses succeed. It's important that we can work together and be successful, both of us."

That's the goal for Spear, who wants to carve out a space for independent chefs on the food map in the area.Escalating street protests by Iranians against water shortages in a rural part of central Iran have inspired more domestic criticism of the government's handling of the nation's water resources.

Overseas-based human rights groups say the protests by farmers in Varzaneh in Isfahan province began last month and escalated into violent confrontations with security forces last week.

Iranian activists have posted several video clips on social media showing what they said were Varzaneh farmers protesting the transfer of local river water to steel factories in neighboring Yazd province.

One of the clips, which the activists said were recorded last Friday, shows a barren area with a large group of people confronting police on foot or on motorcycles. Some of the protesters threw stones at the police, who the video narrator said responded with tear gas and bullets.

Iranian state-affiliated news agency Mehr said a member of parliament for Isfahan province blamed the violence on the government. In a report published Sunday, Mehr quoted Hassan Kamran-Dastjerdi as telling an open session of parliament that Iran's energy ministry has "plundered" water from Varzaneh's farmers by redirecting it to steel factories and refineries in neighboring areas. He said the farmers had been working on the land along the Zayandeh River for centuries.

'Losing their livelihood'

In Tuesday's edition of VOA Persian's Straight Talk call-in show, one caller, who said he was in Isfahan province and identified himself as Mohsen, said the Zayandeh River has been drying up, making it harder for farmers to plant rice and driving up rice prices.

"Isfahanis are not pleased that water from Isfahan is being diverted to Yazd, even though the people there are fellow citizens," Mohsen said. "The farmers are losing their livelihood because the river water is not available to them. That is why they are demonstrating."

Mohsen and the other Iran-based callers to Straight Talk criticized what they saw as the Iranian government's mismanagement of water resources, which have been depleted across the country in recent years.

A man who said he was calling from the southwestern province of Khuzestan, said the area had been suffering from water shortages, despite the existence of government-built dams. He also said the government lacked technology to turn wastewater into drinking water and had not done enough to educate people to avoid using drinking water for washing.

Iranian officials have acknowledged that outdated agricultural and irrigation systems and poor water management policies in the past three decades have contributed to the shortages. Below-average levels of precipitation in recent months have exacerbated the situation.

The lack of rain has led to further shrinkage of Iran's Lake Urmia, the largest saltwater lake in the Middle East. In a report published last month, Iran's Financial Tribune said the latest data from the West Azerbaijan Regional Water Authority showed Lake Urmia had shrunk by 248 square kilometers (96 square miles) over the past year. The report also said precipitation in the lake's catchment area had fallen 7 percent from September to February, compared with the same period the year before.

Behrooz Samadbeygi and Afshar Sigarchi of VOA's Persian service contributed to this report.Iranian naval forces appear to have deliberately halted their provocations of U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf in recent months, a U.S. military official said Thursday.

According to Navy Cmdr. William Urban, spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, there have been no "unsafe and unprofessional'' actions by Iranian naval forces in the Gulf since August 2017.

Prior to that, Iranian vessels had periodically made high-speed approaches to U.S. ships that were considered dangerous provocations.

Urban declined to speculate on the reason for the change.

"It seems like they've absolutely made a conscious decision to give us more space,'' he said. "That is definitely a change in their behavior.''

Urban spoke to reporters traveling with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who stopped in Bahrain to meet with senior government officials and U.S. military leaders on his way back from Afghanistan.

The last tense encounter between the U.S. Navy and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf was recorded on Aug. 14, 2017, when an unarmed Iranian drone shadowed the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier at night and came close enough to F-18 fighter jets to put the lives of American pilots at risk, the Navy said at the time.

The drone did not respond to repeated radio calls and came within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of U.S. fighters. In a similar encounter Aug. 8, the Navy said an Iranian drone came within 100 feet (30 meters) of an F-18 preparing to land on the Nimitz.

For the first eight months of 2017, the Navy recorded 14 instances of what it describes as "unsafe and/or unprofessional'' interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in 2016 and 23 in 2015.

The incidents at sea almost always involved the Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Some analysts believe the incidents are meant in part to squeeze moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration after the 2015 nuclear deal.

Of the incidents at sea last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing and holding overnight 10 U.S. sailors who strayed into the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.

Iranian forces in turn accuse the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes.

Bahrain, where Mattis stopped on Thursday, is a tiny island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia and the home of U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Of Bahrain's approximately 1.4 million people, about half are Bahraini citizens, the majority of them Shiite.

The island has been ruled since 1783 by the Sunni Al Khalifa family. King Hamad, who took the throne in 1999, initially took steps to move the country from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one. The first parliamentary elections since 1973 were held in 2002.

However, the Shiite majority accused the government of treating them like second-class citizens. They joined pro-democracy activists in demanding more political freedoms in 2011, as Arab Spring protests swept the wider Middle East. Saudi and Emirati troops ultimately helped violently put down the demonstrations.Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday announced cash handouts on top of bonuses already paid to staff of Malaysia's largest government-linked asset management firm, as he prepares for a general election that must be held by August.

The scandal-plagued prime minister needs to consolidate support for his coalition from its traditional vote base of civil servants and the majority Malay-Muslims, to stave off an unprecedented challenge from his former mentor turned opposition leader, Mahathir Mohamad.

Najib said each of the more than 1,500 staff of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), which oversees assets worth about 279 billion ringgit ($71 billion), will get a payment of 2,000 ringgit, in conjunction with the firm's 40th anniversary.

"The ex-gratia [payment] will be made in May this year, so you can celebrate Aidilfitri with joy," he said to thunderous applause at the firm's anniversary celebration.

Malaysia's Muslims will celebrate the holiday of Aidilfitri, or Eid, in mid-June, ending the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The announcement is Najib's latest effort to win over voters as he faces down financial scandals at a state fund and a government palm oil agency.

Mahathir, who led the country from 1981 to 2003, turned on his former protege more than two years ago, after news broke of a multi-billion dollar scandal involving state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib and the fund have denied any wrongdoing.

The prime minister also faces the prospect of losing support from palm oil plantation smallholders operating under state-owned palm oil agency Felda, which has been hit by financial scandals of its own.

In July, Najib offered hundreds of millions of dollars in cash handouts and debt waivers in a bid to win over the agency's more than 600,000 smallholders, a key vote bank for his ruling party.

In October, Najib unveiled a national budget that promised to cut personal income tax for lower-income earners, hand out more to pensioners and spend billions on schools, hospitals and rural services to allay voters' worries.

Earlier, he announced aid running into billions of dollars directed at the mainly Muslim ethnic Malay majority in a bid to neutralize Mahathir's influence.

Mahathir has repeatedly criticized Najib's populist policies, denigrating them as "livestock feed" aimed at covering up the prime minister's scandals.A man who claimed on a TV series that he helped burn and bury the remains of a missing Alabama teen in Aruba has died after police say he was stabbed with his own knife during a foiled kidnapping of a woman in Florida.

John Christopher Ludwick tried to kidnap a woman Wednesday as she exited her driveway in North Port. Ludwick and the woman knew each other, said a police spokesman in North Port, a small city south of the Tampa Bay area.

"They were roommates at one point. He apparently became kind of infatuated with her. She was doing everything in her power to distance herself from him," spokesman Josh Taylor said.

Police said she fought back, and Ludwick was stabbed in the struggle with his own knife.

According to a police report, the victim said she felt that Ludwick was stalking her in person and on social media.

He ran, but officers found him in a wooded area. He died at a hospital.

Ludwick was a friend of Joran Van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Van der Sloot is in prison now for an unrelated murder in Peru. North Port police say they've informed authorities involved in the Holloway case of Ludwick's death.

Ludwick claimed Van der Sloot paid him $1,500 to dig up her body in 2010, five years after the 18-year-old vanished on the Dutch Caribbean island.

"The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasn't recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that," Ludwick said in the video. He purported that Holloway's skull was burned to eliminate any remaining hair fibers, saying: "It was doused in gasoline in a fire pit in a cave."

Taylor said North Port Police was aware of Ludwick and added that the FBI had interviewed him.

Ludwick and his allegations were the center of the TV program about Holloway's disappearance.

Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, sued the network and the production company that was responsible for the 2017 program. In a federal court document, Holloway alleged that the six-part series was misleading and a fictional "farce" that gave her false hope her daughter's remains had been discovered. It also caused her unnecessary suffering, she said.

The show investigated whether bone fragments found were that of Holloway, but they weren't.

Ludwick appeared on "The Nancy Grace Show," and other network programs, when Van der Sloot was arrested in Peru for beating a woman to death in 2010  five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance.

Ludwick defended his friend and said the victim in Peru should have been more careful when she realized who Van der Sloot was.

"I'm not saying she deserved it, but she definitely could have prevented it by leaving immediately," he said.

Ludwick told Grace that he met Van der Sloot on Aruba in 2010 and hung out with him almost every day for a few months.

"He seemed like he'd be a cool guy, he's a good person and a good friend," Ludwick said on the show. He added that he was from Alexandria, Virginia. On another show, he said of Stephany Flores, the victim in Peru, "If she hadn't been nosy and confronted him like that, she wouldn't have died."The mayor of Iran's capital Tehran resigned after hard-liners criticized him for attending a ceremony in which primary school girls danced, Iranian media reported Thursday.

Mohammad Ali Najafi submitted his resignation to Tehran's City Council and the council was expected to discuss over this issue in April.

Last week, prosecutors summoned Najafi for attending the ceremony in which a group of under-age girls danced in a ceremony held to commemorate International Women's Day.

Council head Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, without elaboration, said Najafi resigned due to illness.

Hard-liners used the case to increase pressure on the U.S.-educated 65-year-old technocrat who came into office in August promising to fight corruption.

Official reports say the municipality had some $10 billion in debt, including $1 billion to contractors, when Najafi took office.

Najafi had taken over from Mohammd Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative politician who briefly stood as a candidate against President Hassan Rouhani in May before dropping out.

Mohammad Reza Aref, a reformist parliament member and former vice president under President Khatami, asked the City Council to review Najafi's resignation and change his decision.

Reformists believe that pressure has been placed on Najafi following his claims of fraud in Tehran's municipal government during Qalibaf's time as mayor.

Parliament member Parvaneh Mafi was quoted by the Hamshahri daily as saying Najafi's "efforts to combat corruption ... may have led to pressures on him and affected his resignation."

Political pressures on Najafi are the result of factional push and pull between hard-liners and moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration.

Iranian hard-liners in Parliament this week tried to impeach three of Rouhani's ministers, but failed.How did George Nader  Lebanese-American businessman, globe-trotting fixer, convicted child molester  get caught up in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation?

The answer, it seems, can be found in the shadows, where Nader has long operated.

His long history included intrepid back-channel mediation between Israel and Arab countries  and a 15-year-old pedophilia conviction in Europe that has not been previously reported. But Mueller, in his investigation of President Donald Trump, his campaign and possible wrongdoing connected to Russia, is focused on Nader's role in two high-level get-togethers after the presidential election, according to three people familiar with the case.

Nader was caught in Mueller's web a few days before the anniversary of Trumps inauguration. He was transiting through Dulles International Airport outside Washington, on his way to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort, when his plans changed  abruptly and involuntarily.

Muellers investigators stopped him, people familiar with the case said. His electronics were seized and he was then allowed to go see his lawyer. Nader later agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigation, said the people with knowledge of the case as it pertains to Nader. They werent authorized to speak publicly on the case and demanded anonymity.

Nader is little known to the public, a man who has led a shadowy existence as a go-between across numerous Middle East capitals and who gave testimony to Muellers Washington grand jury earlier this month.

Nader joined a meeting at New Yorks Trump Tower in December 2016 that brought together presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief strategist Steve Bannon  fired by Trump last August  and Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates.

A second meeting occurred a month later in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles and involved Nader, bin Zayed, former Blackwater boss Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to President Vladimir Putin.

Naders record of sexual abuse in Prague appears unrelated to his role in Muellers probe in the United States; it is unclear whether Mueller's investigators knew about it. One of Nader's lawyers, Sandeep Savla, suggested that information about his record was being leaked to stop him from cooperating.

This is nothing more than an orchestrated, disgusting scheme by those who are trying to intimidate Mr. Nader into silence. It wont work, he said. Mr. Nader will continue to answer truthfully questions put to him by the special counsel.

Kathy Ruemmler, who previously served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, is among the lawyers representing Nader. She declined to answer questions about her client.

A George Nader was convicted by Pragues Municipal Court of 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in May 2003, court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said the crimes occurred between 1999 and 2002. She said Nader served time in a Prague prison, though it isnt clear how much. He was then ordered expelled.

Puci said Nader was convicted of moral corruption of minors, sexual abuse and impairing morals, after abusing underage boys.

In one case, Nader requested oral sex from a 14-year-old boy in a room at the Hilton Hotel in Prague, Puci said. After the boy refused, Nader masturbated in front of him and paid him 2,000 koruna  worth about $100 today, she said.

The verdict cites other examples of Nader providing money, jewelry, cellphones, clothes and accommodation for sexual services. The AP was able to see a copy of the verdict, which gives Naders birthdate as May 15, 1959. Nader was separately accused in Washington, D.C., of child pornography infractions in 1985, but those charges were later dropped. A criminal docket sheet obtained by the AP shows the same birthdate for Nader.

Two people with knowledge of the case confirmed it involved the same Nader now cooperating with Mueller.

Many of Naders former contacts and onetime friends have noted in recent weeks how they lost touch with him in the early 2000s.

Nader had worked in recent times as an adviser to bin Zayed, one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, according to people who know Nader. The questioning of Nader in the Mueller probe suggests possible interest in UAE relations with Trumps transition team or his administration.

Naders connections with Trump confidants include Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser who co-hosted a Tuesday night event attended by the president in Beverly Hills, California.

Earlier this month, several media organizations, including the AP, obtained emails belonging to Broidy, a California-based venture capitalist and the Republican National Committees deputy finance chairman. They show Broidy emailing Nader with a summary of Broidys talks with Kushner and Trump in the White House in October 2017, touching on matters including the UAEs bitter dispute with fellow Persian Gulf country Qatar.

Broidy accused Qatar of hacking his emails. The Qataris denied the charge.

Your governments actions against U.S. citizens will jeopardize your nations relationship with the United States, Broidy wrote in a public letter to Qatars U.S. ambassador.

In response, the Qatari government called Broidys baseless accusations'' a diversionary tactic.Proposals put forward by Myanmars government to add further restrictions to a controversial assembly law have attracted widespread criticism, with rights groups accusing the civilian-led government of backsliding on democratic progress.

On March 7, the countrys Upper House approved amendments to the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, which would include potential three-year jail terms for anybody deemed to have supported, financially or otherwise, a protest that has the intention to break national security, rule of law, public order or public morals.

The proposed amendments come after a series of protests in the country, including one against a deadly government crackdown in Mrauk U, Rakhine State, in the west, and the killing of rebel soldiers from Kayah State, in the east.

Nationalist groups have also become increasingly vocal in recent months, particularly in the aftermath of the crisis in Rakhine State, for which Myanmars government and its military have attracted considerable international criticism.

Opposition to amendments

The proposed amendments have been met with a significant backlash from several quarters.

On March 5, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Yangon against the proposed changes, holding placards and chanting slogans that accused the government of attacking freedom of expression.

We dont accept the proposal to the Assembly Act, said Thet Swe Win, one of the marchs organizers. It is not according to democratic standards.

Thet Swe Win told VOA that the changes were a retreat from democratic progress in the country.

This proposal is so they can arrest whoever they want. This is improper and undemocratic, he said.

Despite the country being ruled by Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD), which many hoped would bring an era of political reform to the country, those protesting against the changes have found an unlikely ally in the form of military-appointed lawmakers, who have spoken out against the proposed amendments.

I object to it because it is not in line with democratic standards, said Lieutenant Colonel Tin Lin Oo, a Tatmadaw MP, during a parliamentary session to discuss the changes. [The amendments] should not be promulgated. Theres already a law enacted under which the Myanmar Police Force will warn if things are in confusion, and not in accordance with the regulations.

Government will not comment

Several senior officials from the NLD refused to comment when contacted by VOA to discuss the issue, and it is unclear what the reasons are behind the proposed changes, which have attracted criticism from both inside and outside the country.

With dozens of peaceful protesters wrongfully arrested under the existing version of the law since the National League for Democracy came to power, these amendments are a step in the wrong direction, said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asian division of Human Rights Watch. Parliament should heed the call of Burmese civil society groups and withdraw the bill, he said, adding the proposed moves were a major step backwards.

Lawmakers from elsewhere in the nation have also criticized the proposed move, saying they represent a backsliding of democratic progress.

Retreat from democracy?

If passed, the amendments would not only stifle freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but would also mark a significant shrinking of democratic space in Myanmar, said Teddy Baguilat, a Philippines congressman, who is also a board member of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

Many are ambiguously defined and significantly widen opportunities for the authorities to further criminalize peaceful protests under a law that had already been used numerous times against students, farmers, and journalists, said Baguilat.

Additional reporting from Aung Naing Soe in Yangon.Mercy Philip will never forget January 12, 2017. Thats the day she says her 8-year-old daughter walked up to her and asked if she could wash her panties. Philip asked her daughter why she needed to wash her panties and her daughter said a male neighbor had "climbed on her body" and then told her to wash her panties afterward. The mother immediately took her daughter to a clinic. And on the same day, Philip and her husband went to the police. The neighbor, who was arrested based on the medical report, was released from jail and is awaiting trial.

Yet the family's life has been upended. They have been ridiculed by people in the community, pressured to drop the charges, and condemned for trying to ruin a mans life, Philip said. When her daughter goes outside, people stare, laugh or throw stones at her, the mother said.

Social stigma The shame and social stigma attached to sexual abuse stops most families in Nigeria from seeking justice. They usually end up settling cases of child sexual abuse through cash payments often quietly negotiated by religious leaders. To settle means to forget about it ... let sleeping dogs lie, said Bukola Ajao, the Philips' lawyer. Please, we are sorry, but this kind of matter is not something that you just apologize for. The most recent data available on child sex abuse in Nigeria is from 2014. That study -- from Nigeria's National Population Commission, the U.N. Childrens Fund and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- revealed that 1-in-4 girls and 1-in-10 boys in Nigeria experience sexual violence before the age of 18.

The Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital at Kaduna State University in the Kaduna state capital handles requests to provide evidence for suspected child sex abuse. At the time VOA visited the hospital, in the space of 30 minutes, more than five women with children had entered the ward. All are new cases of suspected child abuse, according to Dr. Musa Shuaibu, a pediatrician. "Nearly on a daily basis, there would be one form of abuse or the other. And that is quite alarming in view of the fact that quite a negligible fraction, actually get reported to the hospital, Shuaibu said.

Activists seek new law Activists are lobbying Kaduna state to approve the federal Child Rights Act of 2003 that mandates a 14-year jail sentence for a child sex abuse conviction and life imprisonment for rape. Eleven states in the north, including Kaduna, have not ratified it. Instead, those states rely on Sharia courts and a colonial-era penal code to prosecute child sex abuse. Kaduna State Minister of Women and Social Development Hajia Hafsatu Mohammed Baba told VOA the state government is committed to passing it. But the Supreme Sharia Council has said that the federal statute is a Western import and an attempt to restrict Sharia courts. WATCH: Facing Stigma, Nigerians Demand Justice in Child Sex Cases



Meanwhile, families are often left with only difficult choices. You know how things are around here. Things like this can never be buried, said Asabe Musa, whose daughter was molested when she was 5 years old. "This is the kind of story that goes around  maybe when the girl does find someone to marry, someone will go and tell his family what happened to her."



After hearing about the abuse, relatives of Musas husband, who live in northern Nigeria, traveled to Kaduna to speak with Musa about settling the case. Afterwards, they took the child with them, hoping that she would be less stigmatized in a community where she is unknown. Musa, whose face is lined with sorrow, said she wants her daughter back.



Few go to court At one orphanage in the center of town, children dance around together in a circle. A slender young woman clenches the hand of her little girl. The woman, who asked to be identified as Ladi, said she cant go to court as it was her father who raped her young daughter. My daughter was covered in blood. I picked her up and just stood there. He was someone I had always respected, so I didnt say anything to him. I picked her up and went to town with her in the morning, she said. She has been running ever since. Going back to her village is not an option, she said, as her father is a chief there. For the past decade, Hauwa Hassan, the owner and manager of the orphanage, has worked with about 20 families dealing with child sex abuse. She says only three of them took her advice to go to court. Those cases were never concluded. One 7-year-old orphan said he was walking to school when an old fruit seller offered a pear to lure the boy into the back of his shop. The abuse went on until the boy complained to his uncle about pains in his body. When it happened, the first thing we did was we stopped him from going out and even from school and kept him at home, the boy's uncle, Anas Umar, said, blinking hard to stop the tears.Is North Koreas air force selling canned soup and taxi rides to upgrade its runways and airstrips?

Amid the toughest sanctions ever against the North and its nuclear weapons program, there are some compelling reasons to believe the answer may well be yes. The story of how  and why  offers some insight into how North Koreas economy functions under Kim Jong Un.

Theres a fine line between North Koreas military and its private sector. To augment the already huge share of the countrys limited national resources earmarked for defense, North Korean military units control everything from restaurants to farms to the flagship airline.

Air Koryo is far more than just an airline.

An airline, a brand

Over the past several years, it has also become one of the countrys most recognizable consumer brands.

With only a dozen or so active-use aircraft operating on limited routes to China and the Russian Far East, its hard to imagine its ever been much of a moneymaker for Pyongyang in the conventional, ticket-sales sort of way. But it is a symbol of national prestige and serves as a key lifeline to the outside world, transporting people and loads and loads of precious  and often not-very-closely-scrutinized  cargo.

Air Koryo runs at least one gas station and car wash in Pyongyang, has its own fleet of taxis, and operates several retail shops, including a boutique at the airport. At the relatively upscale Potonggang Department Store in central Pyongyang, whole aisles are devoted to Air Koryo brand products, from crates of liquor to row after row of Cokelike sodas and a half dozen varieties of canned goods, including pheasant soup and canned peaches.

Capitalist-style entrepreneurialism

The airlines moves mirror broader shifts in the North Korean economy, which is still socialist and technically centrally controlled, but under Kim has shifted rapidly toward capitalist-style entrepreneurialism.

At the grassroots level, street vendors and small, bazaar-style markets are common. Higher up, state-run enterprises are adapting to become more productive and profitable  quite possibly because the regime, pinched by sanctions and shrinking trade possibilities, cant afford to prop them up anymore.

Its not just Air Koryo: Naegohyang, a major producer of cigarettes including the luxury 7.27 brand reportedly favored by Kim himself, has begun pushing its own line of sporting goods. Theyre sold alongside Nike, Adidas and other pricey imports at its flagship stores near Pyongyangs diplomatic quarter and in the exclusive Scientists Street district, a neighborhood built to reward the countrys scientists and technicians.

Air Koryo got a big boost with Kims decision to completely overhaul the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, which opened a shiny new terminal in 2015. The next year, Air Koryo started its taxi service. The Air Koryo soft drink line was launched in 2016. A gas station and car wash followed in 2017.

Its impossible to say how profitable those initiatives have been. But the swelling variety of the goods and their ready availability in the capital and elsewhere is undeniable.

The appearance of a subsidiary company, Korea Hanggong Trading, at recent trade fairs suggests Air Koryo may be considering an export business, something of a stretch in the current political climate and sanctions aimed at cutting off the Norths ability to fund its nuclear program.

Air force subsidiary

Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University and editor of the North Korean Economy Watch blog, describes the airline as a wholly owned subsidiary of the air force, which is using its consumer goods business to help finance reconstruction of its own infrastructure, including runway renovations and new revetments at remote highway airfields.

Selling Air Koryo-labeled products made by military factories can help the air force boost revenues outside of its official budget allocations, Melvin said.

A new headquarters for Air Koryo has been built near the international airport, he noted.

For many years, North Korea has tried to turn its subsidy-dependent state-owned enterprises into profitable operations that pay taxes, he said in an email to The Associated Press. Maybe Air Koryos time has simply come.

Air Koryos connection to the military is not immediately obvious and is often overlooked.

But according to a 2014 United Nations Panel of Experts report, the airline, all airports and airfields in North Korea are controlled by the Korean Peoples Air Force through its Civil Aviation Bureau. The report added that the airlines personnel are believed to be members of the air force and all in-country maintenance is conducted by air force engineering staff.

Target for sanctions

That makes it a natural target for sanctions, another incentive for diversification.

Though Washington-backed efforts to blacklist the airline entirely have failed, the U.S. Treasury Department in 2016 slapped sanctions on Air Koryo for doing a fly-over during a 2013 military parade and for transporting spare parts used in Scud-B missile systems, among other things.

The listing does not ban Americans from flying on Air Koryo, but restricts them from doing other kinds of business with it.

The U.N., meanwhile, has warned that considering the control over and use by the air force of Air Koryos aircraft, member states could be in violation of its arms embargo on the North should they engage with the airline in anything from financial transactions to technical training.The issue of domestic violence has come to the fore in Uganda after a member of parliament argued in favor of wife beating.



In the words of the Ugandan legislator, a man who disciplines his wife can touch, tackle and beat her to streamline her.



Onesmus Twinamatsiko, a member of national parliament, made the comments to a national TV outlet on March 8. Outraged, the public demanded an apology. This is what they got on the floor of parliament Wednesday.



"Kindly accept my sincere and unreserved apologies honorable members(applause) and the general public and more particularly the women. This apology is unconditional. The beating I meant wasn't the normal beating, but another type(applause)," he said.



In other media interviews this week, Twinamatsiko reportedly said certain forms of abuse, like slapping, are ok.



Female legislator Adeke Anne Ebaju is among the MP's demanding disciplinary action against her colleague.



"There was no remorse in his statement. He still made mention of a certain beating in quotes which he did not even explain," she said. "And whatever explanation he attaches to it, I think it still belittles women. Did you see how all the male colleagues were thumping when he spoke about a certain beating?"



VOA was not able to obtain recent government statistics on spousal abuse. However, a 2011 demographic and health survey is telling. It found that about three out of five in Uganda believe that wife beating is justified. This is despite laws such as the constitution and the Domestic Violence Act which outlaw such abuse.

On International Women's Day, March 8, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni had highlighted the issue and passed a stern warning.



"Men who are cowards are the ones who beat women. Why do you beat women, why don't you, if you want to fight, why don't you look for fellow men and you fight? Why do you beat somebody who is weak?," said the president.



The reasons women cited for beatings according to the 2011 survey included going out without permission, neglecting the children, arguing back, refusing to have sex, or burning the food.



VOA spoke to Tina Musuya, the executive director of Center for Domestic Violence Prevention in Kampala.



"All those who still think that a man must be the head of a household, think they are privileged to discipline them. So, many of them think that when someone does that, it's an expression of love. And when the victims come out to seek for support, they are blamed and told to, you know, there is no good man out there, just hang in there, pray about it, he will one day change," she said.



Local activists view Twinamatsiko's comments as a setback. They say the narrative needs to change on domestic violence in Uganda, with perpetrators being held accountable, not excused.Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on Wednesday filed a motion in federal court seeking to dismiss charges against him, saying that the special counsel had exceeded his authority by charging Manafort with crimes not related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In a 46-page filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Manaforts attorney Kevin Downing said Manafort had been threatened with additional indictments and faces a game of criminal-procedure whack-a-mole by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match.

Under the terms of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensteins order in May appointing Mueller, the special counsel can probe links or coordination between Trumps campaign and Russia as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.

Conspiracy charges

Muellers office indicted Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates in October on charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraines former pro-Russian government.

Gates, a former Trump aide, pleaded guilty last month to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the United States.

The filing said the special counsel should only be concerned with issues involving Russian meddling in the election. Instead Mueller has been given a blank check for a wide-ranging investigation.

It is a blank check the special counsel has cashed, repeatedly, it said.

The charges against Manafort simply have no connection to alleged coordination with the Russian government or the 2016 presidential election, the filing said.

Civil suit

In January, Manafort filed a civil lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal court accusing Rosenstein of exceeding his legal authority to grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across.

None of the charges against Manafort or Gates make reference to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election nor accusations of collusion between Moscow and Trumps campaign.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow sought to meddle in the campaign to tilt the vote in favor of Trump, the Republican candidate, including by hacking the emails of leading Democrats and distributing disinformation and propaganda online.

Russia has denied the accusations of interference. Trump has said there was no collusion and denied any attempt to obstruct Muellers probe.

Manafort is also facing separate indictments in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, charging him with bank fraud, filing false tax returns and failing to report foreign bank accounts to the U.S. government.Perus congress has voted by a wide margin to reopen impeachment proceedings against President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, thrusting the Andean nation into renewed political turmoil as it prepares to host President Donald Trump at a regional summit less than a month away.

Its the second time lawmakers have threatened to remove the former Wall Street investor over his ties to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which is at the center of Latin Americas biggest corruption scandal.

In December, Kuczynski narrowly avoided being voted out of office after a small opposition faction including the son of then-jailed former President Alberto Fujimori abstained. Days later, Kuczynski pardoned Fujimori from a 25-year jail sentence for human rights abuses committed during his decade-long rule.

But analysts say his chances of survival look slimmer this time. The deeply unpopular president has become increasingly isolated as one-time allies abandon him and polls show a majority of Peruvians want Kuczynski out.

Hes going to have a lot more difficulty, said Eduardo Dargent, a political science professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

The measure adopted Thursday inviting Kuczynski to appear before congress next week to defend his actions had the support of 87 lawmakers  the same number needed to eventually oust the president on grounds of moral incapacity. Fifteen lawmakers opposed the action and another 15 abstained.

At the heart of Kucyznskis troubles is $782,000 in payments that Odebrecht made to his private consulting firm more than a decade earlier. For months, Kuczynski had denied having any political or business ties with Odebrecht even as three of his predecessors were investigated for taking bribes from the company.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying some $800 million in bribes to officials across Latin America, including $29 million to politicians in Peru, as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department in 2016.

The Odebrecht scandal has ensnared some of the regions most prominent politicians and jolted Peru, where two former presidents stand accused of accepting money from the construction empire. Analysts say the latest rocky chapter in Kucyzynskis presidency could negatively impact the nations economy.

The timing of the impeachment proceedings couldnt be worse. In less than a month Peru is scheduled to host Trump and other leaders for the Summit of the Americas, whose main theme is how to combat corruption in the Western Hemisphere.

Prime Minister Mercedes Araoz said after Thursdays vote that the attempt to oust Kuczynski destroys Perus image as a country built on clear, democratic rules.

Kuczynski has denied any wrongdoing and says he will not step down. If he is removed he would be replaced by Vice President Martin Vizcarra, a former governor who is currently serving as Peru's ambassador to Canada.

As I've said from the beginning, I dont have anything to hide, Kuczynski wrote on Twitter Thursday. And I am willing to testify with absolute transparency.President Donald Trumps decision to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state with CIA Director Mike Pompeo comes just days after the president surprised many by announcing his plans to meet soon with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Korea experts and other foreign policy analysts disagree on what impact having a new chief U.S. diplomat will have on the likelihood that the summit will ever take place and on the prospects for its success. But they agree that Pompeo will have very little time to prepare for a high-risk summit between the president and a nonconventional U.S. adversary.

Much work to be done

Aaron David Miller of the Wilson Center has helped prepare several presidents and secretaries of state for Middle East peace talks and summits.

Miller told VOA that time is of the essence because there is a tremendous amount of work to do to prepare the U.S. position in advance. He said he believes that is one likely reason Trump made the change in State Department leadership now.

Part of the reason Trump did this was to identify a team leader to do summit preparation, and I am assuming that is Pompeo, because nobody else in the government right now can do it, he said.

Trump stressed that he likes, respects and admires Pompeo. He told reporters that he has a better chemistry with Pompeo than he ever had with Tillerson, and that he and Pompeo agree with each other on global issues.

Miller said this rapport between a secretary and a president is something foreign leaders and negotiators pick up on instantly, and it makes a difference. He added, however, that even if Trump and Pompeo broadly agree, Pompeo should not simply echo the presidents views.

The question is whether he is going to stand up and privately offer alternative counsel to the president, even when the president strongly disagrees, or is he going to shut up? Stand up, or shut up? he said. And the best secretaries of state privately, quietly convey their advice to the president with an honesty and clarity that serves the national interest. That is what this guy has got to do.

'Top-down' talks

Jeong Se-hyun, a former South Korean unification minister, told VOA the U.S.-North Korea talks are different this time because it is top-down from the president, instead of bottom-up from lower-level negotiators.

The past U.S.-North Korea talks operated from the bottom-up. Working-level officials met and set the agenda. But this time, President Trump made his decision directly for the very first U.S.-North Korean summit. So, I dont think the change in the secretary of state position will have a great impact in the U.S.-North Korean summit, Jeong said.

"Decisions will probably be made directly by President Trump, and it is highly probable that the (talks) will move according to the president's instructions, rather than according to the secretary of state as a working-level official," Jeong added.

While Tillerson has often been an advocate for diplomacy, Pompeo has taken a harder line on the Iran nuclear deal and on the leadership in North Korea.

In July 2017, Pompeo said, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate the (North Korean) regime from this system. ...The North Korean people, Im sure, are lovely people and would love to see him go.

Tough talk in past an asset?

Kim Tae-woo, the former president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, told VOA that Pompeo's tough rhetoric on Pyongyang in the past could be an asset.

Pompeo advocated taking a hardline with North Korea, and replacing Tillerson with the CIA director would mean that the U.S. is willing to show a strong message that its possible to take a military action without any tolerance if North Korea becomes deceptive once again or tries to buy time during negotiations, Kim said.

Some experts say that Pompeo may adapt his language to his new role as the top U.S. diplomat, if he is confirmed by the Senate as expected in April.The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Iran held the first-ever quadrilateral meeting in Baku to discuss regional cooperation.

At the center of the discussions was the construction of Rasht-Astara railroad, the 180-kilometer-long rail line that will connect the Iranian and Azerbaijani cities. The project is expected to be completed in three years.

"This project will herald the beginning of a new transportation corridor from the south to the west," said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. The railroad will be connected with the already constructed Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line that links Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed hope that the meeting of the four ministers will help boost regional cooperation, particularly the advancement of infrastructure projects in transportation and energy.

"This format will allow us to increase trade, attract investment to our countries. In our next meeting, we will discuss concrete projects," he added.

According to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, the project corresponds with the interests of the regional nations.

"The new transportation corridor will bridge two continents. The new corridor serves the interests of our countries and peoples," he said.

The next meeting of the four ministers is to take place in Georgia.

In their final statement, the ministers expressed support for regional peace and stability based on mutual respect for territorial integrity.The death of a family dog aboard a United Airlines flight this week has grabbed the attention of federal regulators and at least one U.S. senator.

A French bulldog puppy named Kokito died Monday after a flight attendant told the family he and his carrier had to be stowed in an overhead storage bin during the Houston-to-New York flight.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration both say they are looking into the case.

Senator demands explanation

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana sent a letter to the president of United Airlines, J. Scott Kirby, demanding an immediate explanation of why so many family pets have died aboard United flights.

Pets are members of the family. They should not be treated like insignificant cargo, Kennedy wrote.

A Transportation Department report said of 24 animals who died aboard U.S. airlines flights last year, 18 were traveling on United planes. Thirteen other pets on United flights were injured.

Puppy put in overhead bin

According to United passenger Catalina Robledo, the flight attendant told her she would have to put Kokito into the storage bin above the seats because his carrier was sticking into the aisle.

Robledo said she could hear the dog barking throughout much of the 3.5-hour flight but was not allowed to get up and check on him because of turbulence. She found Kokito dead inside the carrier when the flight landed in New York.

Robledos daughter told CBS News the flight attendant did not seem to care that there was a live animal in the bin who likely could not breathe.

United says the flight attendant may not have heard or understood the carrier had a dog in it and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin.

United refunded the familys airfare and the fee it charges to take a pet on board.

Experts say flat-faced dog breeds, such as bulldogs, are vulnerable while flying because they have trouble breathing in thin oxygen.

Animal rights groups urge passengers to use good judgment when traveling with pets and consider all the alternatives to flying.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow will expel British diplomats "soon" in retaliation for British Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian double spy.

In remarks Thursday in Moscow, Lavrov called May's actions "boorish" and said it was intended to distract from Britain's difficult negotiations in leaving the European Union.

Lavrov said Moscow will inform London directly through official channels before going public with its response.

Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in the English town of Salisbury and rushed to the hospital, where they remain in serious condition. Several other individuals, including a police officer, were sickened.

Britain has said it believes Russia was behind the attack and Prime Minister May announced a series of reprisals, including the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats since 1971, at the height of the Cold War. Russia has denied involvement.

The White House issued a statement Wednesday that said the U.S. "stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom" and shares in the assessment "that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support Britain's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response.

British officials said the chemical nerve agent known as Novichok was used in the attack. It was developed by the Soviet Union and inherited by Russia.

Skripal, a former agent of Russia's military intelligence agency, was arrested in 2004 for betraying dozens of Russian agents to Britain. He was freed in 2010 as part of an exchange of spies with the United States, and eventually settled in Britain.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his government will take "measures" in the coming days in response to the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter.

Macron told reporters during a visit to central France that information shared by British intelligence services confirms Moscow's involvement in the attack. He formally backed Prime Minister May's accusations earlier Thursday after the two leaders spoke by phone. His office issued a statement saying Macron shares the British's leaders view that "there is no other plausible explanation" for the incident.

A spokesman for Prime Minister May says she will travel to Salisbury later Thursday to speak with residents and officials.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler and said Saudi Arabia will quickly develop a nuclear bomb if Iran does the same.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed said in an interview scheduled to air this Sunday on CBS's 60 Minutes.

WATCH: Trump to Roll Out Red Carpet for Saudi Crown Prince





Congressional reaction to the Saudi's conditional willingness to build a nuclear bomb was predictably mixed along party lines, with Democratic Senator Bill Nelson agreeing Iran's development of such a weapon would lead to their proliferation in the region.

"I think you would start to see a bunch of the Gulf states use their wealth to develop a nuclear weapon. And thats why its all the more important that Iran not develop a nuclear weapon, and thats all the more reason to keep the nuclear agreement in place, because it guarantees  unless Iran breaks the agreement  for another 10-12 years that they will not have a nuclear weapon  Once you get these other [Middle Eastern] nations with nuclear weapons, that gets to be a highly risky, very destabilized situation."

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would not recertify the 2015 agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers, maintaining it was too lenient and that Iran had violated parts of the deal, including allowing access to international inspectors. The initial structure lifted stringent economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limitations on the country's nuclear energy program, which global powers feared Iran would leverage to develop a nuclear weapon.

"Weve got a president now thats going to deal with the Iran crisis a little bit different, and the world knows it," said Republican Senator David Perdue. "Youve seen Congress put more sanctions on Iran because of their nefarious activities. So were taking a unified approach to Iran. The rest of the world is backing us up so far, and I think we are going to see more of that under the new secretary of state."

When asked if other regional non-nuclear nations would be encouraged to develop nuclear weapons if the agreement is not renewed, Perdue responded, "I really dont think so. Theres a historic line in the sand about nuclear proliferation."

In a preview of the interview released Thursday, the 32-year-old heir to the Saudi throne also said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comportment is similar to Hitler's during the rise of Nazi Germany.

"He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time. Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East," he said.

When asked if Saudi Arabia's centuries-old rivalry with Iran is a factor in the current rift between the two countries, Prince Mohammed said, "Iran is not a rival to Saudi Arabia. Its army is not among the top five armies in the Muslim world. The Saudi economy is larger than the Iranian economy. Iran is far from being equal to Saudi Arabia."

Saudi Arabia, governed by a Sunni monarch, has accused Iran of financing militia operations to weaken Arab states. Iran, a Shiite theocracy, has denounced the Saudis for supporting Sunni militant groups. Their attempts to dominate the region has placed them on opposite sides of conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and forced the displacement of millions of others.

VOA's Michael Bowman contributed to this report.Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, has resigned after more than two weeks of political turmoil and public protests sparked by the killing of an investigative journalist.

The country's president, Andrej Kiska, on Thursday asked Fico's deputy, Peter Pellegrini, to form a new government.

The resignation followed Slovakia's largest protests since the anti-communist Velvet Revolution of 1989. Tens of thousands of Slovaks joined anti-government protests across the country last week to demand a thorough investigation in the shooting deaths of reporter Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina Kusnirova.

At the time of his death last month, Kuciak, 27, had been writing about ties between the Italian organized-crime group known as the 'Ndrangheta and individuals close to Fico. The government of Slovakia has offered a $1.2 million reward for information about the killings.

Fico vowed Thursday to remain in politics as the active leader of his Smer party.

The unsolved killing has fueled public anger over corruption and threatened to bring down the coalition before the party leaders agreed to a change of guard. Protest leaders released a statement saying that the governing coalition, including the Smer party, had "humiliated and misled the whole public with its decision." They planned to hold protests in more than 30 cities Friday.Slovenia Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned late Wednesday over a Supreme Court decision nullifying a referendum in favor of a major railroad project.

"This was the straw that broke the camel's back," Cerar said in his resignation note to parliament. "The second track project has been hit by another blow taken by those who want to stop Slovenia's positive development. I don't want to be part of such stories."

He plans to submit his resignation to President Borut Pahor Thursday.

Voters in September approved the $1.2 billion project to extend a key rail line from an Adriatic port to the Italian border.

But the Slovenian Supreme Court ordered a new vote, saying the government unfairly influenced voters to approve the project.

Cerar said the rail line would be of "strategic importance for the development of Slovenia."

Cerar says his center-left coalition is leaving the country in much better economic shape than it was when it took power in 2014.

Parliamentary elections are set for June, but Cerar's resignation may move them up.Slovenia will likely hold an early national election in May, the president's office said on Thursday, after Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned protesting about legal obstacles to a key development project.

Cerar said he had also had enough of pressure from trade unions and what he described as obstruction from coalition partners when he said late on Wednesday he was stepping down.

Slovenia was already due to hold elections in June. But President Borut Pahor had decided after meeting Cerar not to nominate an interim prime minister to lead the government until then, his office said.

Pahor believed "it is better to call premature parliamentary election" in the last two weeks of May, his office added. That would be the country's third early vote in a row.

The presidency said he would hold off formally calling the vote until he met parties and lawmakers next week. They also have the right to nominate an interim prime minister  though that was seen as highly unlikely so close to election day.



Cerar resigned hours after the Supreme Court annulled the result of a September referendum that had approved a 1-billion-euro railway project which was the biggest investment project of his center-left government.

He has also faced strikes by public sector workers demanding wage hikes, alongside squabbling in the governing coalition, made up of his Party of Modern Center, the Social Democrats and the pensioners' party Desus.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry said earlier on Thursday that Cerar's resignation did not pose a significant risk to the economy, as the political system had already been gearing up for an election.

The government's macroeconomic institute UMAR on Thursday increased its GDP forecast for 2018 to 5.1 percent from the 3.9 percent forecast in September, saying the economy would be boosted by exports and investments.

The yield on Slovenia's 10-year benchmark bond fell to 1.197 percent by 1310 GMT on Thursday from 1.247 percent a day before, according to Reuters data, suggesting investors were keeping their nerve.Students across the country participated in school walkouts Wednesday morning to commemorate the 17 victims of February's school shooting in South Florida. One school district in Maryland did not condone the walkout, but still allowed its students to participate. From Frederick, VOA's Jill Craig has more.North Korea's foreign minister arrived in Sweden Thursday for talks with his Swedish counterpart. The surprise trip could be a step toward a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on a direct flight from Beijing. Ri will meet Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom at an undisclosed location Thursday or Friday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973 and is one of the few Western countries with an embassy in Pyongyang. It provides consular services for the United States in North Korea.

"If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate ]talks], be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Sweden's TT news agency earlier Thursday.

"We shouldn't be naive and believe it is Sweden that solves these problems," Lofven added.

Sweden's foreign ministry said the talks between Wallstrom and Ri "will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," but also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry referred to the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs, saying the U.N. "emphasized the need for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict."

The Swedish ministry said a statement summarizing the talks will be made available Friday.

Ri, a former diplomat in Stockholm and London and an ex-nuclear envoy with broad experience in negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States, was tapped as Pyongyang's foreign minister in 2016.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month, he urged the United Nations not to remain silent about what he called "the U.S. dangerous game of aggravating [the] situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war."

The trip by Ri is being closely watched because there remains a huge amount of preparation that needs to be done and relatively little time before Kim is supposedly planning to sit down for summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim by May. So far, North Korea has yet to publicly comment on what it hopes to gain from the summits, adding an extra element of mystery and skepticism.

Sweden has been rumored as a possible site for the summit between Kim and Trump, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

Senior South Korean officials who traveled to Pyongyang earlier this month and met with Kim say he is willing to discuss the North's nuclear weapons program.

It could suggest a potential breakthrough, or a fallback to the North's longstanding position that it's willing to get rid of its nuclear weapons if the United States guarantees its safety.

In the past, that has meant Washington would have to withdraw all of its troops from South Korea, a condition no U.S. president has been willing to consider.

Niklas Swanstrom of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy said the meeting between the two foreign ministers would only be preliminary to higher-level talks but they could give an indication of North Korea's interests and demands.

"The assumption is of course that [they] will speak a bit about the proposed talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un," Swanstrom told The Associated Press.A scion of Thailands biggest autoparts group launched a political party in Bangkok on Thursday as an alternative to established parties, promising to bridge a festering political divide.

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, 39, executive vice president and director of the Thai Summit Group launched the Future Forward Party in a part of Bangkoks old Chinatown being revived with hip shops, restaurants and galleries.

Thanathorn said he hoped to appeal to younger voters and disenfranchised citizens.

Give democracy a chance, the graduate of New York University Stern School of Business said in English at the launch. We dont need governance through guns, he added in Thai, referring to the ruling military, which took power in 2014.

Politics returns slowly

The launch comes two weeks after Thailands Election Commission opened registration for new parties, one of the first signs of a tentative return to democracy.

Thailand has been under military rule since a 2014 coup toppled an elected government.

Since the coup, the generals have banned political activity. They have also repeatedly delayed a general election with the latest date February 2019.

The country has been largely divided since a 2006 coup against then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a businessman turned politician who gained a loyal following among rural voters but made enemies among the military-royalist elite.

The militarys intervention in 2014 was to topple a civilian government led by Thaksins sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

Thanathorns uncle, Suriya Juangroongruangkit, held various senior positions in an earlier incarnation of Thaksins political machine, the Thai Rak Thai Party, and the youthful Thanathorn has been described by some as the next Thaksin.

But on Thursday he dismissed any suggestion of links to the self-exiled former telecommunications tycoon, saying he did not side with any existing group.

We have our own stance, he said.

New generation

A member of the Thaksin-backed Puea Thai party welcomed Thanathorns party as an alternative to old military-aligned parties for voters sick and tired of dictatorship.

These voters may not want to vote Puea Thai but vote for this new party instead, which would be useful because they would be taking votes away from those that support dictatorship, Watana Muangsook, a Puea Thai Party member, told Reuters.

Yuttaporn Issarachai, a political science lecturer at the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University said the new party might attract a respectable number of voters from a new generation.

It could be a midsize party appealing to voters aged 18 to 25, Yuttaporn told Reuters.

Critics of the junta say it has failed to deliver on its promises and that political divisions endure, while impatience with the stalled return to democracy grows.

Activists have defied a ban on gatherings to organize small protests while Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, 63, who as army chief led the 2014 coup, appears to be embarking on his own campaign to stay on as prime minister.

Thanathorn, whose family also has a major stake in the newspaper publisher Matichon Pcl, resigned from the board of that company on Wednesday but remains on the board of privately held Thai Summit.

Thanatorn did not list any party policies because formal political campaigning is still banned.

Among party co-founders he introduced were a filmmaker and several gay rights and environmental activists.

Thanathorn said he hoped to win the support of ordinary people.

People who are not famous ... but who want to shape our countrys future together, he said.Thousands of men, women and children fled Syrias eastern Ghouta region Thursday.

With their belongings packed on their backs, held in their hands, bound to bicycles or loaded into pick-up trucks, the war-weary sought an escape.

Rebels have held the eastern Ghouta region since 2012, but now Syrian troops are in control of most of the area after repeated shelling and air strikes.

WATCH: Syrian Civil War stretches to seven years

Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement that his recent trip to Syria reinforces my view that wars across the region have reached a frightening new normal. He added, Too often destruction seems to be the goal as the basic standards of humanity are ignored.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said Thursdays exodus of people from the besieged area near Damascus was the largest since government forces launched a campaign to recapture it last month.

After the Syrian army opened a corridor following a late-night advance, the civilians were seen fleeing to an area held by the Syrian government on foot, in cars and on motorcycles.

The Observatory said hundreds of families have also left the town of Afrin, headed toward villages held by pro-government forces. They are fleeing a Turkish military offensive against Syrian-Kurdish forces.

Earlier this week, scores of wounded and sick people were evacuated from eastern Ghouta, which has been divided into three encircled areas by the government offensive.

Twenty-five trucks hauling humanitarian aid entered the northern rebel-held area and were headed to the town of Douma, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The ICRC added the convoy was transporting enough food aid for 26,100 people for one month and other items as well.

Russia and Syria have said their forces only target armed militants and try to halt insurgent mortar attacks that have killed dozens of people in the area.The two countries have blamed the rebels of using civilians as human shields, an accusation the insurgents have denied.

Amnesty International, however, accused the Syrian and Russian governments and other participants in the war Thursday of failing to end the suffering of millions of Syrians and to stop attacks on civilians in eastern Ghouta and Afrin.

The international communitys catastrophic failure to take concrete action to protect the people of Syria has allowed parties to the conflict, most notably the Syrian government, to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity with complete impunity, often with assistance of outside powers, particularly Russia, Amnestys Middle East research director Lynn Maalouf said in a statement issued on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian Civil war.

The human rights group said 400,000 civilians in eastern Ghouta are being starved and indiscriminately bombed by the Syrian government with the backing of Russia.

Opposition groups have responded by Indiscriminately shelling two villages in the northwestern Syrian city of Idleb, Amnesty said, and added hundreds of Syrian Kurds have fled Afrin to escape attacks by the Turkish government and opposition groups.

Amnesty called on the United Nations Security Council to enforce its resolutions which call for an end to unlawful sieges and attacks. The group also urged the council to refer those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court.

Additionally, the rights group requested that all parties involved in the war to obey international law by allowing civilians who want to flee the area to leave freely and to provide unrestricted access to humanitarian aid.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's planned visit to Washington Monday has been postponed, his spokesman said Thursday, following the U.S. decision to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

A planned visit Monday to Washington by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has been postponed. No reason was given but Cavusoglu had earlier described the meeting as key to resolving ongoing differences between the countries over Washingtons support of the Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, in its war against the Islamic State.

Ankara considers the militia terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Turkey has been angered by Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey sees the YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

There had been signs of an easing in strains between the NATO allies after a recent visit to Turkey by Tillerson, whom U.S. President Donald Trump sacked Tuesday as secretary of state.

But Turkish media has seized on a tweet purportedly made by Pompeo after a failed coup in July 2016, and before he became CIA director, which referred to Turkey as a "totalitarian Islamist dictatorship." The tweet was later removed.

Turkey has been angered by the U.S. failure to extradite the Pennsylvania-based cleric whom Ankara blames for orchestrating that attempted putsch and by the conviction of a Turkish banker in an Iran sanctions-busting case.President Donald Trump's decision to slap punishing tariffs on Chinese goods may prove to be a blessing in disguise for China, even as it prepares to retaliate, analysts said.



Trumps trade offensive also has huge implications for the European Union and other countries, and that is making it impossible for the Western world to jointly counter Beijings protectionism in areas where they see eye to eye.



Until recently, Western countries and Japan, were working on measures to fight back what they consider Chinas dumping of low-cost goods and theft of intellectual property rights, but now they have had to suddenly change their priorities as they focus on responding to Washingtons actions.



One of the biggest problems with recent Trumps actions is that it seems to alienate many countries who have nearly identical interests in confronting Beijing and their strongly protectionist trade regime, said Christopher Balding, a professor of economics at Peking Universitys HSBC Business School. However, they may not be as inclined to back Trump if he is imposing tariffs on them.



New scenario



In December, trade ministers from the European Union, Japan and the United States issued a statement pledging to enhance trilateral cooperation in the World Trade Organization and other organizations to fight against Chinas state-backed market disorienting trade practices.

Jacob Kirkegaard, a fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics told VOA the new situation is clearly beneficial to China. And the likelihood the West could work together to confront China on its protectionist measures, be it IPR (intellectual property rights) thefts or forced technology transfers has been diluted, he said.



There is no doubt that the splitting the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) or Western camp on trade disputes, because of the unilateral decision of the Trump administration is a benefit to China, Kirkegaard said.



The situation has taken such a dramatic turn to the point that European politicians who used to be riveted in their focus on China are now finding it more rewarding to be seen as leaders who can stand up to the Trump administration.



Politics of retaliation



For European policy makers to confront Trump on this is politically very appealing. Because they will be seen to be standing up to the bully, and all that, Kirkegaard said. And in that political climate where voters and others, and European industry, will likely be clamoring for retaliation.



Recent outbursts in European capitals against Trumps trade actions also bear out this scenario.



After meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last weekend, EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malstrom said this about Trumps actions, albeit without mentioning the United States directly.



Recently we have seen how it [protectionism] is used as a weapon to threaten and intimidate us. But we are not afraid, we will stand up to the bullies, Malstrom said at a conference Monday in Brussels.

Analysts are asking if Washington can save the EU and Japan from being targets of its trade actions and focus them only on China. That would help revive a Western alliance against Chinese protectionism, they said.



But at this point, Balding believes that is unlikely.



He [Trump] is very good at confrontation, but hes less skilled in creating, building and nurturing political alliances, he said.



China may take advantage of the rising protests against Trumps actions in the European Union, but it will also plan its own retaliatory actions.



An editorial in the Communist Party-backed Global Times put it bluntly, China wont allow itself to be trampled upon. Perhaps it is Chinas destiny to struggle with the U.S. only in order to teach Washington a lesson. In which case, so be it.



Battle at WTO



Whether threats of retaliation will force the U.S. President to rethink his strategy, is also another important question.



Analysts said he would not stop, even if it means facing flak at the WTO. In fact, the effectiveness of the global trade body may also be put in serious question if Washington continues to ignore its rules, analysts have noted.



At the core of Washingtons move is the use of national security as a justification for imposing the latest round of tariffs on steel and aluminum, instead of making a case about dumping goods and subsidies.



Kirkegaard said that if this is the path Trump continues on, that justification could be used to put up barriers against a wide range of goods that use steel or aluminum as components.



It potentially opens up the floodgates for future trade protectionism, he said. They [U.S. officials] claim they are doing this because of national security concerns, but they really have in mind are trade imbalances and big trade deficits.White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Thursday that President Donald Trump would soon consider new punitive measures against China for its alleged theft of intellectual property.

U.S. officials, according to news accounts, are considering imposing as much as $60 billion in annual tariffs against Chinese information technology, telecommunications and consumer exports to the U.S. in an effort to trim its chronic annual trade deficit with Beijing by $100 billion. Last year, the U.S. says it imported Chinese goods worth $375 billion more than it exported to China.

In the coming weeks, President Trump is going to have on his desk some recommendations, Navarro told CNBC. This will be one of the many steps the president is going to courageously take in order to address unfair trade practices.

I dont think theres a single person ... on Wall Street that will oppose cracking down on Chinas theft of our intellectual property or their forced transfer, Navarro said.

The new tariffs and other measures would be in addition to the 25 percent tariff on steel imports to the U.S. and 10 percent levy on aluminum that Trump announced last week, some of which affect China.

At a political fundraiser Wednesday, Trump attacked several trading partners for the billions of dollars in trade surpluses they have built up against the U.S. He contended that China had become an economic power  the world's second biggest economy  because of its trade surplus with the United States.

China warned it would likely retaliate against any new tariffs the U.S. imposes.

Foreign minister spokesman Lu Kang said, History has proven that a trade war is in no one's interest.

He said that if an undesirable situation arises, China has the intention of safeguarding its legitimate rights.

Trumps new tariffs on metal imports have led in recent days to volatility on U.S. stock exchanges, with wide day-to-day swings of hundreds of points in stock indexes.

But Navarro said the U.S. can impose the tariffs in a way that can be good for the American people and good for the global trading system. We can do this in a way that is peaceful and will improve and strengthen the trading system. ... Everybody on Wall Street needs to understand: Just relax.Egypt has ordered the release of two freelance journalists who were arrested while preparing a report on a historic tramway in Alexandria.



The defense lawyer for May al-Sabbagh and Ahmed Moustafa, arrested on Feb. 28, says prosecutors ordered their release on bail Thursday. Mohammed Hafez says they were charged with possession of visual and audio equipment with the intent to spread false news.



Egypt has regularly detained and prosecuted journalists as part of a broader crackdown since the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president. The crackdown has escalated ahead of a March 26-28 election in which President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi faces no serious opposition.



Egypt's pro-government media routinely accuse independent and foreign journalists of portraying the country in a negative light and trying to undermine its stability.A former military pilot who became a national icon in Ukraine after spending two years in a Russian prison has accused Ukraine's parliament speaker of being associated with snipers who fired on the crowds during the country's 2014 uprising.



Lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko told journalists Thursday that she saw Andriy Parubiy, a key organizer of massive protests that drove Ukraine's former Russia-friendly president from power, leading snipers into a hotel next to the capital's main square, the Maidan.



Unidentified snipers killed dozens on the Maidan in February 2014, triggering public anger and leading to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.



Parubiy made no immediate comment, but Ukraine's prosecutor responded by accusing Savchenko of plotting to overthrow the government.A large-scale United Nations program to halt deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the worlds second-largest rainforest, is harming local communities and failing to protect forests, land rights researchers said on Wednesday.

The U.S.-based group Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) called on the World Bank to withhold funding from 20 current or pending projects in the province of Mai-Ndombe, which has been a test case for a U.N.-backed conservation scheme known as REDD+.

In an area rife with land conflict, an RRI report said the forest protection projects in this western province threatened the rights and incomes of rural women and indigenous groups, including about 73,000 pygmies.

REDD+ was created to both halt deforestation and benefit local communities  yet the current projects in Mai-Ndombe fail to address both objectives, said Marine Gauthier, the reports author.

A spokesman for the U.N.'s REDD+ program did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the focal cases involves U.S. company Wildlife Works Carbon (WWC), which denied the accusations.

The company obtained a large land concession in order to protect a forest from loggers, and uses a share of the money earned from selling carbon credits to benefit people living there, said president Mike Korchinsky.

Millions of dollars of benefits have gone to the communities, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He said WWC had built schools, invested in medical clinics, and provided years of agricultural support.

But Gauthier said local communities, which signed agreements with the company, were not properly consulted, and claimed the project had hindered their farming and other activities.

These communities actually bear the burden of reducing deforestation, she said.

The World Bank said the funding provided by REDD+ and its partners supported some of the poorest Congolese citizens, while contributing to meeting climate goals.

We will review the reports findings and have no plans to withhold funding at this time, a World Bank spokesperson said in emailed comments.

The work improves livelihoods, lessens pressure on native forests and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation, the World Bank said. RRI said women and minorities had been worst affected by the REDD+ projects that were up and running, because they often lack formal land rights and are not consulted about decisions.

REDD+, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, was one of the solutions to climate change laid out in the 2015 Paris accord. It offers monetary incentives to scale back deforestation.

Congo could become the first country to sign a REDD+ deal with the World Bank this year, setting an example for more than 50 developing countries that plan to follow suit, said RRI.

However, it warned that deal could exacerbate conflict and set a dangerous global precedent if changes were not made. RRI said it had shared the results and that discussions with donors were underway.The U.N. Security Council is expected to adopt on Thursday a U.S.-drafted resolution that threatens to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan and sanctions against those blocking efforts to end one of Africa's worst wars.

The strongly-worded text is aimed at piling pressure on South Sudan's warring sides as they head into a new round of peace talks in Ethiopia next month to end the four-year war.

The council expresses its intention to consider all measures, including an arms embargo, as appropriate, to deprive the parties of the means to continue fighting, according to a final draft resolution.

Demanding an end to the fighting, the council will consider all appropriate measures ... against those who take actions that undermine the peace, stability, and security of South Sudan, said the text seen by AFP on Wednesday.

Peacekeeping mission

The draft resolution would also renew the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission for a year and maintain a regional force in Juba that was deployed after fierce fighting broke out in the capital in July 2016.

The United Nations has 12,500 troops and 1,500 police in its UNMISS mission, which is tasked with protecting civilians caught up in a brutal war between President Salva Kiirs forces and rebels.

Negotiations on the U.S.-drafted text began last week with Russia, China and Ethiopia raising objections to the threat of an arms embargo, diplomats said.

That stance was in line with the African Union, which has backed sanctions as a way to pressure the parties but has not endorsed an arms embargo.

The United States failed in late 2016 to garner enough support for a ban on weapons sales after eight countries including Russia, China, Angola, Egypt and Senegal abstained.

Nine votes are required to adopt a resolution in the 15-member council.

Despite the defeat, the United States has continued to call for an arms embargo, with the support of Britain and France.

Time for action?

Human Rights Watch's U.N. deputy director Akshaya Kumar said an arms embargo and sanctions are the missing pieces of the puzzle to shore up peace efforts in South Sudan.

It's good that the Security Council is threatening these steps but they have made these threats many times before, and what we are waiting for is action, she said.

The measure would push the council closer to action but another draft resolution would have to be approved for the actual arms embargo to be imposed.

The war in the worlds youngest nation has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted four million  roughly a third of the population  and raised the risk of famine.

Critical backing from US

South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, with critical backing from the United States, which remains Jubas biggest aid donor.

With the war now in its fifth year, Ethiopia is leading a regional peace effort, hosting talks between the government and rebel groups that have yet to produce a breakthrough.

A ceasefire deal agreed to in December has not taken hold, even though the level of violence has decreased.

The Ethiopia-led diplomatic effort has been billed as a last chance for peace as frustration grows over the ongoing war that has seen horrific levels of brutality.

Extraordinary cruelty

A U.N. rights commission last month said there was sufficient evidence to charge at least 41 senior officers and officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The commissions report documented extraordinary cruelty. Some victims were beheaded, burned alive or had their throats cut, others had their eyes gouged out or were tortured.

Addressing a recent African Union summit, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dropped his usual reluctance to criticize leaders and bluntly said of South Sudans leaders that he had never seen a political elite with so little interest in the well-being of its own people.Russia will add more Americans to its black list'' in response to new sanctions against Russians accused of election meddling.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov Friday as saying that Russia is preparing sanctions against a new group of American actors'' and possible additional steps.''

Ryabkov accused the U.S. of threatening global stability, but said that Moscow still wants to maintain a dialogue with Washington, despite being forced to take counter-measures due to "American political stubbornness," RIA reported.

Thursday, the Trump administration announced sanctions on 19 Russians and five companies accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

The U.S. is also joining harsh international condemnation of Russia for a nerve agent attack in Britain blamed on Moscow.

On Thursday, the U.S. government joined those of Britain, France and Germany in backing London's conclusion holding Russia responsible for the nerve agent attack. The joint statement says "there is no plausible alternative explanation" and "Russia's failure to address the legitimate request by the government of the United Kingdom further underlines Russia's responsibility."

WATCH: After Britain, US Imposes New Sanctions Against Russia

Blacklisting

The statement was issued shortly before Washington announced the blacklisting of five entities and 19 individuals for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other malicious cyberattacks, including on America's energy grid.

"I think you can see from the actions we've taken up until this point we're going to be tough on Russia until they decide to change their behavior," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at Thursday's regular briefing in response to a question about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is "playing" the U.S. president.

Among those targeted by the U.S. Treasury Department sanctions are two Russian intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), as well as 13 Russians already indicted by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

"It's more of the pressure we need to put on Russia. We've got to figure out some way to curtail their malign activities, whether it's cyber or otherwise," Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a member of the Armed Services and Judiciary committees, told VOA.

Action 'way overdue'

A Democratic senator, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, agreed with Tillis and said Thursday's action was "way overdue," accusing Trump administration members of going out "of their way to ignore all the attacks that Russia has made on us. Our intelligence services have been very clear. They tried to alter our elections and there is no question they'll try it again."

Leahy also told VOA that the administration's response remained unsatisfactory, "but even a little bit is better than nothing."

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin defended the administration's response.

In a statement, Mnuchin said the administration "is confronting and countering malign Russian cyberactivity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure. These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia."

The Treasury Department's action blocks the 19 sanctioned individuals and five entities from doing any business in the U.S., while saying that Americans "are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them."

'Ongoing' attacks

Russian cyberattacks on critical U.S. industrial and other infrastructure are "long term and still ongoing," a national security official told reporters on Thursday.

Another national security official, also speaking on condition of not being identified, singled out the FSB, saying it was targeting U.S. government cybersecurity specialists, diplomats, military and other personnel.

Treasury's statement blamed Russia for interference in the 2016 U.S. election and destructive cyberattacks, including the June 2017 NotPetya incident, which it characterized as "the most destructive and costly cyberattack in history." The U.S. said that attack disrupted global shipping, trade and the production of medicines, and prevented the creation of electronic records at several U.S. hospitals for more than a week.

Trump's choice to lead the National Security Agency, the lead U.S. electronic spy agency, also expressed concern about Russia's cyberactivity during his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"Unless the calculus changes, we should expect continued issues," said Army Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone, who has also been nominated to head the U.S. military's Cyber Command.

VOA's Michael Bowman on Capitol Hill and Jeff Seldin in Washington contributed to this report.The United States has blacklisted two dozen Russian "cyber actors" for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other malicious cyber-attacks.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions targeted the GRU, the Russian military intelligence organization, and 13 Russians already indicted by U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation of Moscow's meddling in the election, and the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg company that sought to sow discord in the U.S. election with fake stories and commentary about controversial American issues.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Thursdy the Trump administration "is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure. These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia."

The sanctions mark the first time the Trump administration has laid direct blame for election interference on the Russian government.



Trump has only reluctantly acknowledged Russian interference, saying it could have been other countries or individuals as well. He has ridiculed claims that his campaign colluded with Russian interests during his successful run for a four-year White House term as an excuse by opposition Democrats to explain his upset win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

19 targeted



Treasury's action blocks any the 19 sanctioned individuals and five entities from doing any business in the United States, while saying that Americans "are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them."

Treasury said its "action counters Russias continuing destabilizing activities, ranging from interference in the 2016 U.S. election to conducting destructive cyber-attacks," including the June 2017 NotPetya attack that hit European businesses.

It described the NotPetya incident last year as "the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history. The attack resulted in billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the United States, and significantly disrupted global shipping, trade, and the production of medicines. Additionally, several hospitals in the United States were unable to create electronic records for more than a week."

The Treasury statement said that since "at least March 2016, Russian government cyber actors have also targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors."



Treasury said that in addition to imposing the sanctions, it is continuing to "pressure Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine, occupy Crimea, meddle in elections, as well as for its endemic corruption and human rights abuses."

It said the "recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two (British) citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government."

Trump's choice to lead the National Security Agency, the lead U.S. electronic spy agency, also expressed concern about Russias cyber activity during his confirmation hearing at the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

"Unless the calculus changes, we should expect continued issues, said Army Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, who has also been nominated to head the U.S. militarys Cyber Command.

But he agreed with lawmakers about the need for a comprehensive strategy for defending the country in cyber space, as well as to protect critical infrastructure like the U.S electrical grid.

An overall strategy for how the nation is going to defend itself in cyber space is very important, Nakasone said, calling it, obviously one of the things that would help.

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Virginias Mark Warner, was more direct.

"We need a clearly articulated cyber doctrine that will deter nations like Russia from going after our crucial institutions," Warner said. "We've got make sure they know whether it's Russia or other near-peer adversaries that there will be consequences.

U.S. intelligence officials have repeatedly warned Russian efforts to interfere with U.S. elections continue unabated, as Moscow views its efforts in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a success.U.S. and Niger troops killed 11 Islamist militants from a Boko Haram splinter group in a firefight in December, the U.S. military said on Thursday, publicly acknowledging a previously unreported incident.

The fight took place two months after four American and four local soldiers were killed in Niger, and could prompt further questions about the extent of the little-reported U.S. mission in West Africa.

"During a mission in the Lake Chad Basin region the morning of December 6, a combined force of Nigerien and U.S. military members came under fire from a formation of violent extremists," United States Africa Command [Africom] said in a statement.

"We assessed 11 enemy killed in action, including two wearing suicide vests, and one weapons cache destroyed during this mission," it said, adding that "no U.S. or Nigerien forces were killed or wounded during the attack."

Niger's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A military source said the decision to issue the statement was taken after the New York Times learned the incident in an unclassified report the White House submitted to Congress this week.

The deaths of the four Americans in an ambush in Niger in October brought international and domestic attention to the U.S. mission to combat Islamist militants in the Sahel, the arid region south of the Sahara.

A regional branch of Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, which also led to a political fight between President Donald Trump and a congresswoman who accused him of speaking insensitively to the widow of one of those killed.

Southeastern Niger around Lake Chad, which borders Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, is an area where militants from Boko Haram have been particularly active. The Islamist group has gradually split into two factions, one of which has pledged allegiance to Syria-based Islamic State.

This faction does not have any known links to Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, the group on the western side of Niger that launched October's deadly ambush.

After the deaths of the Green Berets, the Pentagon was adamant that operation was not a kill-or-capture mission, but Nigerien officials insisted it was.

Anticipating similar questions about the December mission, Africom said: "there was no aspect of this mission focused on pursuing enemy militants," adding: "the purpose of this mission was to set the conditions for future partner-led operations against violent extremist organizations."

The United States has 800 soldiers operating in the largely desert nation, more than France, which has 4,000 in the wider Sahel tackling the Islamist militancy.Some striking doctors in Zimbabwe denouncing the manner they are being treated by the government. They have been on strike for two weeks, demanding improved working conditions, an upward review of their allowances and other issues. (Video: Courtesy Video)Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said his former deputy and now country President Emmerson Mnangagwa, "could never have assumed the presidency of the country without the army, the army which assisted him." Mugabe gave a press conference in Harare.Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has expressed disappointment at his former deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who toppled him last November. Mugabe told media in Harare, Thursday, he never thought Mnangagwa, "whose life I had worked so hard in prison to save," would turn against him.Zimbabwes opposition presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance says President Emmerson Mnangagwas government has not made any meaningful electoral reforms ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

Chamisa told a visiting delegation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Harare led by Advocate Leshele Thoahlane that Mnangagwas government is unlikely to implement reforms initiated by SADC in 2013.

They include media reforms that would ensure equal coverage of all contesting parties in state-controlled newspapers and radio stations.

The MDC-T acting president, who was accompanied at the meeting by nine members of the partys National Council, informed the SADC Electoral Advisory Council, that the Zimbabwe government has not been sincere on its commitment to a free, fair and credible election as it had not yet made public in substantive terms the roadmap to the next election.

Chamisa further 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 is neither agreement nor clarity on these key electoral matters.

He 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 poll would ensure a return of confidence and legitimacy in the country.

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.

Chamisa, who took over the presidential post from the late Morgan Tsvangirai, also expressed concern over the irregularities on the mapping of polling stations, partisan distribution of food handouts in the run-up to the polls and other issues.

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.

State officials were not available for comment.Outdoor screening of Gladiator with orchestra in Rome on 8-9 June.

Rome is to screen the movie Gladiator, whose soundtrack will be played by a live orchestra, at the Circus Maximus on 8 and 9 June.Ridley Scott's blockbuster historical drama, starring Russell Crowe, will be shown in high definition on the big screen, accompanied by 200 musicians and choir from the Italian Film Orchestra, under the baton of Californian conductor Justin Freer.Tickets for both evenings are already on sale , ranging in price from 50 to 250, depending on seat location. The film will be screened in Italian with English subtitles. A charity-raising preview of the show will be held on 6 June inside the Colosseum, for a smaller audience, Rome tourism committee chair Carola Penna told Italian news agency ANSA.Filmed on location in England, Morocco and Malta, Gladiator won five Oscars on its release in 2000.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.If the dreamers are expelled, there will be many times that number of victims. It will happen in an age that has given up as quaint the notion that America is fundamentally good and can never do wrong. America First suggests a different self understanding: Our country is fundamentally aggrieved and need not endeavor to do right. The visual record we make of the coming cruelty must necessarily be different, too. To acknowledge the dreamers as Americans, to allow them to appeal to us as people, to capture the normalcy of their lives, would create a record too galling to the conscience. The Dorothea Lange of this tragedy will have to emerge from among the dreamers themselves, for our government would never tolerate someone with her eye and humanity working on its behalf.[March 15, 2018] Raffles Health Insurance (Singapore) Selects Majesco's Health Core Platform Majesco (NYSE American: MJCO), a global provider of platform software solutions and consulting services for insurance business transformation today announced that Raffles Health Insurance ("RHI"), a leading healthcare insurance company based in Singapore, has selected Majesco's Health Core platform to transform their business by creating a compelling, integrated experience for their customers and stakeholders. RHI, incorporated in 2004, commenced operations as a general insurer and transitioned to a life insurer in March 2006 under the purview of the Monetary of Authority of Singapore. RHI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raffles Medical Group, a leading integrated healthcare service provider in Singapore. RHI offers both corporate group benefit plans and individual health plans. Majesco's Health Core platform will provide RHI with a single cloud platform to manage, administer and service their individual and group insurance. The platform will integrate with Central Provident Fund of Singapore and work in conjunction with the applications hosted by Ministry of Health to handle medical insurance with respect to Singapore residents. The platform will help RHI improve efficiencies and accelerate time to market with products and services. Ms. Christine Cheu, General Manager, RHI said, "We are pioneering the next generation of health insurance. With Majesco's Health Core platform, we aim to provide best in class healthcare experience to our stakeholders. Majesco's experience in this domain in the Asia Pacific ('APAC') region gives us the confidence that their expertise will help us achieve our goal of being a leader in the health insurance space." Ketan Mehta, CEO and Co-Founder of Majesco, said, "The insurance dynamics are changing rapidly with significant emphasis on speed to value, digital enablement and improving the customer experience. We are excited to have RHI join our growing customer community and honored to partner with a forward-thinking and innovative health insurer. We thank them for their confidence in our team and solutions." Majesco Health Core platform provides insurers a single platform for individual and group health products for the APAC region. The platform includes policy, billing and claims with out-of-the-box functionality supporting the end to end lifecycle from product setup and rating to service. The platform is unique in that the platform is designed to support individual and group health products on a single platform, enabling portability to retain employees as individual customers. The platform is used for the APAC region only. About Majeco Insurance business transformation is a journey of change and revitalization, a renaissance of Insurance. Approximately 150 insurance companies worldwide in P&C, L&A and Group/ Employee Benefits are transforming their businesses with Majesco's solutions. Our market leading software, consulting and services uniquely underpin the entire insurance value chain and are designed to empower insurers with the agility, innovation and speed needed to meet their transformation opportunities. Majesco's solutions include policy management, new business / underwriting, rating, billing, claims management, distribution management, BI/ analytics, predictive modeling, digital platform with mobile and portal, testing services, cloud services, bureau and content services, transformation services, consulting services and more. For more details on Majesco, please visit www.majesco.com. About Raffles Health Insurance Raffles Health Insurance was incorporated in 2004, commenced operations on January 2, 2005 as a general insurer and converted into a life insurer in March 2006 under the purview of the Monetary of Authority of Singapore. RHI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raffles Medical Group, a leading integrated healthcare service provider in Singapore. Prior to its inauguration in October 2012, RHI was known as International Medical Insurers Pte. Ltd.. For more details, please visit https://www.rafflesmedicalgroup.com/Insurance. Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of management, are not guarantees of performance and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. These forward-looking statements should, therefore, be considered in light of various important factors, including those set forth in Majesco's reports that it files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and which you should review, including those statements under "Item 1A - Risk Factors" in Majesco's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as amended by Majesco's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to: integration risks; changes in economic conditions, political conditions, trade protection measures, licensing requirements and tax matters; technology development risks; intellectual property rights risks; competition risks; additional scrutiny and increased expenses as a result of being a public company; the financial condition, financing requirements, prospects and cash flow of Majesco; loss of strategic relationships; changes in laws or regulations affecting the insurance industry in particular; restrictions on immigration; the ability and cost of retaining and recruiting key personnel; the ability to attract new clients and retain them and the risk of loss of large customers; continued compliance with evolving laws; customer data and cybersecurity risk; and Majesco's ability to raise capital to fund future growth. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as predictions of future events and Majesco cannot assure you that the events or circumstances discussed or reflected in these statements will be achieved or will occur. If such forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. You should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by Majesco or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified timeframe, or at all. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this presentation. Majesco disclaims any obligation to publicly update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005116/en/

[ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ]In-laws do not actually need to like one another to have a relationship. They only need to keep their eye on the prize (family harmony, and peaceful and healthy relationships with the children). To reach this goal, they should at least learn to tolerate one another, not bad-mouth one another to other family members, and resolve disputes when they arise.I support their basic right to advertise or help sponsor programs, and I have no green-eyeshade credentials that make me certain their statement is inaccurate, Mr. Getler wrote. But I have to say that the words in that spot, especially the ones that state with such force and certainty that, Every penny and more went into bringing energy to the world, also sound implausible, at best, to my laymans ears and then up the scale to misleading.

A live action version of Dora the Explorer might bypass Australia due to lack of tax breaks, the head of Screen Queensland says.

Australia - Queenslands film industry risks being snuffed out unless the federal government increases tax breaks to attract international film companies, the head of Screen Queensland has said.Tracey Vierra says they have been working to get Paramount's new Dora the Explorer live-action movie, based on Nickelodeon's beloved animated preschool series, to film in Queensland, but it may not go there because there is not enough of an incentive to film in Australia compared to other countries, including New Zealand.Australia has a 16.5% tax offset for international film productions, compared to 25% in New Zealand and 30% in the US state of Georgia.This isnt about being the cheapest, we dont want to be the cheapest, we want to be able to compete with those jurisdictions, Vierra toldradio.The Australian federal government has agreed to one-off arrangements for recent productions such as, but is yet to make a decision on thefilm, with a decision due by the end of the week.Vierra said Queensland missed out on the newfilm and a spinoff to the popularfranchise because a similar one-off arrangement could not be worked out in time.When I went and met with one of the big studios recently they said to me, We have this production, but we didnt know if we could get to the politicians in time to actually consider Australia and we took it off the table, and thats our issue, she said.Treasurer Scott Morrison is reportedly considering extending a one-off tax credit to theproduction, but prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday it was up to the state government to do more to attract film projects.We already have a very substantial tax break to encourage people to make movies in Australia and many do, he saidOn a case by case basis we can increase that, but its always open to the state government to do more.Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urged the prime minister to meet her halfway to ensure the local industry built on recent high-profile projects such asand theIf we do not secure this next blockbuster, the people on the Gold Coast will go to other parts of the world, and the jobs will be lost, Palaszczuk said.Around 80% of the people employed onat the moment do not have jobs. If we secure this next project, those jobs remain on the Gold Coast.In the works since 2015.is being developed through the studios Paramount Players division, and will center on Dora as a teenager moving to the city and living with her cousin.James Bobin, who directed, and, will be directing the film with a script fromanddirector Nick Stoller. Michael Bays Platinum Dunes label and his partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller are producing the flick.will receive a wide release in North America on Friday, August 2, 2019.Todays Headlines

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By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyAbout 44 percent of people who could potentially have benefited from PrEP in 2015 were African-Americans, but only 1.4 percent of those  7,000 out of about half a million  had prescriptions for PrEP, according to a new study released Tuesday by the CDC. And in a similar time period, a quarter of people who could have benefited from PrEP  nearly 300,000  were Latino, but only about 3 percent of them had PrEP prescriptions, according to the study. Among whites who were candidates for the drug, 14 percent had prescriptions.There is a reason for choosing Novichok. In its blatant Russian-ness, the nerve agent sends a signal to all who may be thinking of dissent in the intensifying repression of Putins Russia. The message is clear: We will find you, we will catch you, we will kill you  and though we will deny it with lip-curling scorn, the world will know beyond doubt that Russia did it.The funny thing was that if you played him right, you could often win, said Barbara Res, who ran Trumps construction operations in the 1980s. He needed to be stroked all the time and told how smart he was. Every decision process was clouded by his sense that he knows more than anybody else. But you could work with that: The way we got things done was to approach him with an idea and make him think it was his. It was so easy.The president is very, very committed to improving services for veterans, he continued. Theres no pressure to privatize, but there is certainly pressure to fix this system. And the way we are going to fix this system is by investing in VA, where it needs to be improved, as you are pushing us to, as well as working with the private sector.Rex Tillerson, who was fired Tuesday as secretary of state, always concluded that Iran was complying as international monitors have reported, although not in its spirit. He had urged the president to stay in the agreement to keep leverage over Irans ballistic missile testing and other actions not covered under the agreement. Although they disagreed on many foreign policy issues, Trump mentioned only the Iran deal in explaining why he thought it was time for Tillerson to go.In all, the new sanctions target 19 people and five organizations  though six of the people and four of the groups had been previously hit with sanctions, most under the Obama administration. Many were indicted last month by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to sway the races outcome. Mueller accused 13 individuals and three entities of spreading propaganda using social media and other means, with the goal of sowing discord.Dixon Award Bestowed on Three from WSU

March 15, 2018

OGDEN, Utah  Vice provost Bruce Davis, English professor L. Mikel Vause, and Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Zoology Samuel I. Zeveloff are fellow recipients of the Weber State University Alumni Associations 2018 H. Aldous Dixon Award in recognition of career excellence and distinguished service to students.

The trio will be honored at the 48th Annual H. Aldous Dixon Award luncheon March 21 at noon in the Hurst Center for Lifelong Learning on WSUs Ogden campus.

Bruce Davis Vice Provost

When Weber State administrators, faculty, staff and students face daunting challenges, they often look to Bruce Davis BS 79 for solutions. He has been a go-to guy for getting tough jobs done since he joined the business school full time nearly 30 years ago. When Weber State needed a steady hand to guide the Division of Online & Continuing Education, Davis was there. When Weber State opened a satellite center in Layton, Davis was there to direct it. When WSU Davis was built four years later, Davis was there to be its chief administrator. When the university sought a partnership with the NUAMES early college high school to secure a pipeline of future WSU students, Davis was there to be the point person in negotiations and serve as liaison. And thats just a sampling of the many contributions Davis has made to his alma mater.

After serving his country as a Navy corpsman with the Marines during the Vietnam War, Davis attended Weber State on the GI Bill. Theres a special place in his heart for military veterans and nontraditional students. Virtually all of his teaching and administrative work has focused on meeting their needs. He established an education group consisting of representatives from across campus to address concerns and enhance opportunities for current military students and returning veterans.

Having earned his Ph.D. by taking night classes at the University of Utah, Davis understands, firsthand, the importance of creating multiple paths to graduation and lifelong learning to accommodate different types of students.

Davis motto epitomizes the spirit of the Dixon Award: The student first and always. Despite his heavy administrative workload, he still manages to teach one class every semester. Davis was promoted to vice provost in 2008. He serves on a variety of university committees and is the face of WSU in numerous community venues.

L. Mikel Vause English professor

Former students and colleagues describe Mikel Vause BS 82 as an author, poet, scholar, environmentalist, adventurer, mentor and friend; they call him a man of grit  a master of the mountain and classroom. Vause is the quintessential storyteller and words are the tools of his trade. Whether he borrows phrases from Emily Brontes poems, Bob Dylans lyrics, William Shakespeares sonnets or Wallace Stegners prose, Vause is able to spin them into allegories that enrich the lives of those around him.

Vause began teaching at Weber State in 1982. Since then, he has helped scores of WSU students harness the power of words to gain self-confidence, achieve academic and career goals, diversify their worldviews and find courage in moments of despair. His dedication to scholarly exchange and intellectual enrichment runs deep. His positive influence at Weber State is indisputable.

In 1985, to give undergraduate students an opportunity to present their writing to university peers throughout the country, Vause and a colleague organized a conference unique in requesting submissions from undergraduates only. The professors brainstorm quickly became a Weber State showcase. Each year, the National Undergraduate Literature Conference attracts hundreds of student writers and brings some of the worlds most important literary figures to the Ogden campus.

Vause also established The Dead Poets Tour, a popular study abroad trip to England, Scotland and Wales. His extraordinary teaching has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Crystal Crest Master Teacher Award, the George and Beth Lowe Innovative Teaching Award and three Hemingway Awards, one of which allowed him to join a 2011 British expedition to the north side of Mount Everest.

Vause has been entrusted with multiple leadership positions at WSU, including chair of the universitys general education and curriculum committee, and director of Environmental Studies. With Vauses guidance, the Honors Program gained greater student participation and national recognition.

Samuel I. Zeveloff Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Zoology

Why would a Weber State zoology student trek through the remote, windswept rangeland of northeastern Utah in pursuit of the worlds smallest rabbits? The answer: Sam Zeveloff and his tenacious commitment to undergraduate research. For nearly 33 years, the East Coast native challenged Weber State students to look beyond themselves and see the bigger picture  to think ecologically as they searched for their place in the world and engaged in hands-on learning. Above all, Zeveloff wanted his students to leave WSU able to apply theories and academic abstractions to real-world challenges. To that end, the esteemed conservationist created a thesis program to facilitate extended student research projects. In addition to conducting field studies of pygmy rabbits, Zeveloffs students examined mountain goat, bat and raccoon populations. Zeveloff founded Save the Ringtails, a student philanthropy organization.

As chair of the zoology department from 1987 to 2012, Zeveloff directed numerous curriculum initiatives and encouraged faculty to involve their students in service learning and civic engagement. He secured private funding to purchase cadavers and equipment for WSUs human anatomy laboratory. Following the publication of his book, Mammals of the Intermountain West, Zeveloff arranged a donation of wildlife illustrations to the universitys Museum of Natural Science. He co-created a study abroad experience to China and Tibet, and helped establish an academic exchange with Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit in Tepic, Mexico. Zeveloff also collaborated on the development of an environmental studies emphasis for a Bachelor of Integrated Studies degree.

Zeveloffs exemplary teaching and innovative proposals drew numerous recognitions, including the Honors Programs Exemplary Collaboration Award for initiating the universitys annual Holocaust Commemoration. In 2014-15, Zeveloff was a Fulbright Scholar, teaching graduate courses and studying wildlife conservation at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria.

Since 1970, the WSU Alumni Association has presented the Dixon Award to outstanding faculty and staff who have distinguished themselves professionally and taken extra measures to meet student needs. The award is given in memory of former President Dixon who served as the schools chief administrator in 1919-20 and from 1937 to 1953.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.WESTPORT  A newly approved pension plan and new contract with Westports firefighters are expected to save the town $40 million over the next 20 years.

Although the pension and collective bargaining agreements were separate items, renegotiations for each fell at the same time and both came before the Representative Town Meeting on March 6.

The actuary estimates the town will realize a savings of $40 million over 20 years, RTM District 2 member Louis Mall said.

Negotiations on the firefighters pension plan began in 2016 and included representatives of the RTM, Board of Finance and Westports legal counsel, town attorney Floyd Dugas, of the firm Berchem Moses, who served as the towns labor counsel throughout the negotiations with the fire union, Local 1081 International Association of Firefighters.

The negotiating body came to an agreement on, and the RTM approved, a new pension plan in October, but the fire union did not ratify the plan and the town and union returned to the bargaining table.

After making one change  reducing the employee contributions from 10 percent down to 9 percent  and as a result of the change, the firefighters have approved the pension, Dugas said.

The new Fire Pension Fund doesnt change the pensions of any employee who has served in the fire department for over 20 years as of July 1, 2017, but for those firefighters with less than 20 years of service as of that date, the retirement age will increase from 49 to 52.

Additionally, changes were made in areas where Westports plan was richer than we would normally see, even in a public safety contract in the public sector in Connecticut, Dugas said. For example, the new plan did away with a 4 percent cost of living adjustment because, Dugas said, many pensions dont have a COLA, let alone one that tops out at 4 percent.

For new fire department employees, the town negotiated a hybrid-plan, which includes reduced benefits under the traditional pension plan, in addition to a defined contribution component.

The hybrid-plan is something thats catching on around the state and we ultimately felt it was a great balance between doing something that reduced pension costs, but at the same time providing still a very good plan that incentivizes people to stay and people to come to Westport and be firefighters, Dugas said.

The RTM voted unanimously, 33 to 0, to approve the pension agreement.

Ive spent a lot of time looking at pensions at the state level and was able to compare our towns pensions for the fire department with other towns and I think its a very reasonable agreement, District 5 RTM member Greg Kraut said.

Meanwhile, the town reached a collective bargaining agreement with the fire union that mirrors the police union contract a year ago, Dugas said.

The new, four-year agreement includes a wage increase of 2.5 percent in the first, third and fourth fiscal years and a 2.25 percent increase in the second fiscal year of the agreement, which will be 2019.

The savings, when a full transition of the workforce has been complete, will top out at $1 million a year, Dugas said.

Per the agreement, firefighters will contribute 11 percent toward their health insurance plans this year, 12 percent the second year, 13 percent the third year and 14 percent the fourth year.

The contract received a near-unanimous vote, with 32 RTM members voting in favor and Kristan Peters-Hamlin abstaining, saying she had not been given enough time to look over the material.

The fire union ratified the collective bargaining agreement in October and approved the revised pension plan Feb. 14.

The RTM will next meet on April 3.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.Manitoba smartphone users will soon start receiving emergency text messages warning of life-threatening situations, including when a child has been abducted.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/3/2018 (1286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba smartphone users will soon start receiving emergency text messages warning of life-threatening situations, including when a child has been abducted.

Wireless service providers began issuing notices Tuesday to customers, advising them of the Alert Ready system that will deliver, in cases of emergency, alerts from government, via text message.

DARREN STONE / TIMES COLONIST A poster for 4-year-old Michael Dunahee, who was abducted from a Victoria playground and never found.

The system will include Amber Alerts, said Greg Burch, spokesman for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.

Last April, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission directed the nations wireless service providers to implement a public alerting capability on their LTE networks. Since that time, they have been working with federal, provincial and territorial governments to develop a system that would share public alerts over wireless networks, Burch said Wednesday.

Once that system kicks in on April 6, it could save lives, advocates for missing children said.

"I think it is a big deal," said Christy Dzikowicz of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection in Winnipeg. "Having a notification thats reaching people is very critical. Its absolutely important to have more eyes and ears (on the lookout) and to be communicating to the public how important it is that they act."

An Amber Alert  officially Americas Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, but named after 1996 Texas abduction and homicide victim Amber Hagerman, 9  that is automatically sent to every smartphone in the area means more people will be on the lookout, Dzikowicz said.

She said shes talked to the parents of missing children about the advances in communications technology that might have made a difference in their cases. "Ive had conversations with Crystal Dunahee, Michaels mom," said the centres director of child safety and family advocacy.

Four-year-old Michael Dunahee vanished from a playground in Victoria in 1991. Even though Victoria is on an island, and his disappearance was reported right away, Michael has not been found.

"It was just a different world," said Dzikowicz, adding news of an abducted child now spreads much more quickly.

The addition of Amber Alert text messages will help, but only if members of the public understand the crucial role they play in finding an abducted child, Dzikowicz said. "Look back to the Peter Whitmore abductions in 2006."

Whitmore abducted a 14-year-old Winnipeg boy and then went to Saskatchewan, where he kidnapped a 10-year-old boy from a rural area.

The incident triggered the first Amber Alert in Saskatchewan, which ended two days later, when an area resident spotted Whitmore hiding out in an abandoned farmhouse near Kipling, about 150 kilometres east of Regina.

"It was a farmer who had his eyes and ears open and saw something weird at a farmhouse," Dzikowicz said.

The two boys were rescued, and Whitmore was arrested. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual assault, and received a life sentence.

"We need to be reminding people to trust their instincts when they see something thats odd or odd behaviour," Dzikowicz said, pointing to a more recent example.

"We had a missing little girl who was missing for a couple of years, until a Good Samaritan on the subway in Montreal saw a mom acting strangely with her daughter."

The man wasnt sure if the mom was mentally ill or scared, but instead of turning a blind eye, he called police.

"They came down and they realized this child had been abducted and was missing for a couple of years."

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Amber Alerts are only successful if the public pays attention, she said.

"Its not naive to think you could be the person who sees that kid."

The public had previously been able to voluntarily sign up to receive Amber Alert notifications on their cellphones and wireless devices (at wirelessamber.ca or by texting Amber to 26237). However, starting April. 6, all Manitobans with a wireless LTE device, such as a smartphone, will receive Amber Alerts via text message through the Alert Ready system.

An Amber Alert is issued only when an abduction has been confirmed, it is believed the victim is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death, and there is sufficient descriptive information about the victim and the suspect or the suspects vehicle to ensure the public can identify them, according to the Winnipeg Police Service website.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.caAbout Rowe Sanctuary

The Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary is near Gibbon and is one of several places to view cranes along the Platte River.

Crane season is Feb. 15 to April 15, and the center is open now from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., seven days a week. To go on a tour, reservations are required. For those who dont have reservations, the center also offers maps and has volunteers who can answer questions. More information is available at http://rowe.audubon.org/.OTTAWA  The federal government has likely thwarted its chance of getting $18.8 million back from Omnitrax over the damaged railway link to Churchill, corporate lawyers argue, after Ottawa agreed to remove the company from its lawsuit.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/3/2018 (1286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The federal government has likely thwarted its chance of getting $18.8 million back from Omnitrax over the damaged railway link to Churchill, corporate lawyers argue, after Ottawa agreed to remove the company from its lawsuit.

Last November, Ottawa sued Omnitrax for the funding it gave under a 2008 maintenance contract, because the Denver-based company refused to repair its railway after last Mays flooding. Last week, a judge amended the lawsuit to only name against Omnitraxs subsidiary, the Hudson Bay Railway Company (HBRC).

HBRC defence lawyer Jamie Kagan suggested last month only Omnitrax has millions of dollars. "The only thing that is left is a claim against a railroad that isnt operating right now," he said, days before a judge certified the legal change.

Four corporate lawyers told the Free Press its unlikely Ottawa will now be able to recuperate its $18.8 million in damages.

It's unclear, however, whether the government would take ownership of the line should HBRC declare bankruptcy.

"It's way too early to tell," Toronto-based lawyer Kevin O'Brien said Wednesday, adding it would depend on what's in Canada's contract with HBRC and whether there are other creditors who are also owed money. "It may end up being a practical solution in the circumstances, but that would just be wild speculation."

OBrien, who focuses on complex corporate litigation for the Osler firm, said it would be exceptional for a judge to order a parent company to pay damages on behalf of a subsidiary.

"It's rare that a court would do that, because it violates that bedrock possibility of corporate law: that a corporation is its own, separate entity," he said.

The theory is rooted in common law through the 1896 Salomon case in Britain, which found creditors of an insolvent company couldn't sue its shareholders over outstanding debts.

There have been rare circumstances where courts have agreed to "pierce the corporate veil," which means looking outside the corporation to attribute liability to a parent company. But those are almost exclusively limited to corporations that have formed shell companies to commit fraud.

In the filings, government lawyers say they believed HBRC and Omnitrax have an identical leadership structure, but they didnt claim either is committing fraud.

"The law's pretty clear on it. You really need to be able to show that the subsidiary was a sham, if you want to have a chance," OBrien said. "These cases get fought all the time. It's a very common issue."

All four corporate lawyers said its likely Ottawa will be left on the hook if HBRC goes insolvent, as the 2008 contract seems to not have a clause guaranteeing Omnitrax would be held responsible should HBRC be dissolved. The 2008 contract appears to only mention Omnitrax in email addresses, and names the railway owner as HBRC.

Omnitrax had raised that same dichotomy at the Canadian Transport Agency in January, in vain. The regulator has been probing whether the company broke federal law by discontinuing service along the line, after lawyers told the Free Press it appeared that was the case.

The CTA dismissed HBRCs claim it was separate from Omnitrax, noting the parent company has co-ordinated its entire public outreach since the washout, which occurred almost 10 months ago.

The federal Liberals have touted their lawsuit as a demonstration of their resolve for the Churchill, but that rings hollow to NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents Manitobas north.

"It's enraging," Ashton said. "It's a farce that they're making an argument that they're not the company involved."

She said its another blow to Churchill, the northern Manitoba town which has been reeling since Omnitraxs 2016 port layoffs. "It adds insult to injury. They got the public money when they wanted it."

Ashton blamed the federal Liberals for not holding Omnitraxs feet to the fire when it started layoffs.

"Omnitrax has done everything in its power to escape responsibility," she said, noting it has multiple holdings that seem to be turning a profit. Corporate registries show Omnitrax has at least four subsidiaries in various Canadian provinces.

With Canadas consent, a judge recently approved Omnitraxs request to no longer be named in the suit, and ordered Ottawa to pay the company $2,100, plus court fees.

In filings, Ottawa consented to Omnitraxs request, "to further the public interest and in the expeditious determination of Canada's claim" and move the case along "as expeditiously as possible."

OBrien said it may have taken "months and months" to deliberate how Omnitrax and HBRC are linked, plus at least six months if there was an appeal. "You could be several years down the road before you start fighting about who was legally responsible for this."

Transport Canada would not explain its reasoning, and didn't indicate whether it expects to take over the line should HBR declare bankruptcy. It instead reiterated statements its made since the flooding 10 months ago about Omnitrax having a duty to fix the line.

"The government of Canada is actively supporting the community of Churchill to address immediate needs and resulting economic impacts," wrote spokesman Pierre Manoni, noting the 2008 contract holds Omnitrax responsible to maintain the line until March 31, 2029.

The Town of Churchill declined to opine on the court proceedings; representatives have focused on Ottawas ongoing negotiations aimed at transferring the railway and port to a consortium of two local groups.

One group is led by Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, who had tried securing ownership of the railway prior to being elected head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

He questioned how much Ottawa has spent in lawyers fighting the case, especially if it doesnt lead to the compensation theyre seeking. "We all know these things cost ridiculous amounts of money," he said.

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Dumas secured a deal last summer to have Omnitrax transfer the railway to his group, but he needed $20 million in government spending to purchase it. He now wonders what would have happened had the deal gone through.

"What is the cost of having the people in northern Manitoba stranded and held hostage in the way that they are?" Dumas said.

Federal Energy Minister Jim Carr, who is overseeing issues in Churchill, said last Friday he wasnt aware of the change in the court filings. Transport Minister Marc Garneau was not available for an interview Tuesday or Wednesday; his office said it couldnt comment in detail due to the legal proceedings.

"The private owner of the line had the obligation to repair the rail track when it was damaged and it is irresponsible that they did not commence repairs," spokeswoman Delphine Denis wrote.

The Manitoba government has not said whether it will sue Omnitrax for the $20 million it gave the company through a similar 2008 contract, which the province has withheld from the Free Press on the grounds of a possible lawsuit.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caThe citizens group that hopes to restart the Canadian Pacific Railway yard relocation study left Winnipeg city hall Thursday with a pat on the back, but no commitments of support.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/3/2018 (1286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The citizens group that hopes to restart the Canadian Pacific Railway yard relocation study left Winnipeg city hall Thursday with a pat on the back, but no commitments of support.

The group, formally known as the Rail Yard Relocation Project, said the goal is to persuade the three levels of government to support a feasibility study that will show the potential benefits of moving the CP yard, as well as the likely costs.

"We were hoping the city would be favourable towards the idea of a feasibility study," said Lloyd Axworthy, one of four people who met with Mayor Brian Bowman and Coun. John Orlikow.

The group includes some local heavy hitters among its members. In addition to Axworthy, a former foreign affairs minister and the past president of the University of Winnipeg, the list includes: Charles Huband, a retired judge of the Manitoba Court of Appeal; Point Douglas activist Sel Burrows; Arlene Jones, past president of the Council of Women of Winnipeg; architect Brent Bellamy; and retired senior CP officials.

The group believes removing the rail line from the centre of Winnipeg will create multiple opportunities for residential, commercial and recreational development on the 400-acre parcel of land and eliminate the need for the construction of costly bridges.

"We want a feasibility study to indicate to us what those possibilities would be and what the costs would be," Huband said after Thursday's meeting. "If we can get that far, I think there will be a demand on the part of the citizens of Winnipeg to say, Lets move forward with this."

The idea was recently in the spotlight in January 2016, when the former NDP provincial government appointed former Quebec premier Jean Charest to lead a task force to study the issue of rail relocation. The task force was dissolved later that year  before it even got started  by the incoming Progressive Conservative government.

Burrows said when he and Huband first met last year, as they worked to put the citizens group together, they believed the project had a 15- to 20-year time frame. He said he now believes it can be achieved within 10 years.

"Anyone with vision knows you dont make decisions on big projects based on the present situation," Burrows said when acknowledging the Manitoba governments austerity mode.

The Thursday meeting was positive, Burrows said, but he noted Bowman made it clear while he can see the benefits of the rail yard relocation, its not a project the city can tackle on its own.

Bowman later played down the significance of the meeting and told reporters the project isn't among city hall's infrastructure priorities, the most important of which is fixing roads. He said there are no future meetings with the group scheduled.

"Today was really just listening. I meet with many groups in my office every day," Bowman said, following a noon-time event marking the opening of the new Windsor Park Library. "This was a meeting to hear from some people whove done some really good work in the community, to give me their thoughts. Thats all that today was about. Our priorities for infrastructure remain unchanged."

However, Orlikow said he told the relocation advocates he's committed to working with them.

"I personally have committed to work with them to explore ideas, share the work the city has already done and to continue discussions," said the chairman of city councils property and development committee.

The first hurdle is to get the three governments  municipal, provincial and federal  in agreement again and to launch the study, Burrows said. Physically relocating the rail yards and finding the money to get it done is a task several years down the road.

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The group has met informally with federal officials and they were encouraging, said Burrows, adding the group still has to arrange formal meetings with the federal and provincial governments.

"Our function is to encourage (the three levels of government) to move forward on a long-range plan, rather than a short-range plan," Huband said, noting the feasibility study is the first step.

"The indications we are getting informally are very positive," Burrows said. "Its a big project. Theres going to be a lot of difficulties along the way Our job is to bring everybody to the table."

 with files from Ryan Thorpe

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.caIn Professor Dowells Head, a 1925 science fiction novel by Alexander Belyayev that was a must-read when I was a kid, a dying scientist bequeaths his body to a colleague who then revives just the heart and the head. In this form, Prof. Dowell lives on but hates it. The life of British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday, had been almost like fictional Dowells since the 1980s, and he cherished it.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/3/2018 (1286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

In Professor Dowells Head, a 1925 science fiction novel by Alexander Belyayev that was a must-read when I was a kid, a dying scientist bequeaths his body to a colleague who then revives just the heart and the head. In this form, Prof. Dowell lives on but hates it. The life of British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday, had been almost like fictional Dowells since the 1980s, and he cherished it.

'Don't be disabled in spiritas well as physically.'  Stephen Hawking, 1942-2018

Hawkings scientific achievements are too obscure for most people, even though he was outstanding at popularizing his work. A Brief History of Time, his work on cosmology that sold 10 million copies, has been described as "the most popular book never read." Most of those who helped crash the website on which Hawkings 1966 PhD thesis, "Properties of Expanding Universes," was published last year probably couldnt get through the manuscript. The origins and size of the universe and the inner workings of time are esoteric matters, and to get at Hawkings birds-eye view one would need to be quite a high-flying bird.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Stephen Hawking poses beside a lamp titled 'black hole light,' presented to him during his visit to the Science Museum in London.

"The subject of this book is the structure of space-time on length-scales from 10^-13 cm, the radius of an elementary particle, up to 10^28 cm, the radius of the universe," a monograph Hawking co-authored with mathematician George F.R. Ellis in 1973, states boldly on page 2.

So, for an overwhelming majority of people, Hawkings real value has been in proving that a powerful brain doesnt really need a functioning body to survive, thrive and even have fun. Hawking arguably did more for the ascendance of nerd culture than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs put together. They were visionary and at times eccentric, but Hawking has been more than that: disembodied, a living challenge to the laws of nature that he wanted to bring into a single "theory of everything." Thats why Silicon Valley CEOs grieve his death. And the space entrepreneurs  Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson  have merely been following his most famous advice: "Look up at the stars and not down at your feet."

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"Strange, when I lived, it seemed to me that I only lived by the work of thought," Dowells head said in Belyayevs novel. "I really didnt quite notice my body, I was so absorbed in scientific work. And only when I lost my body did I feel what I was missing." It continues, "Oh, Id gladly give up my chimeric existence for the joy of hefting a simple cobblestone in my hand!"

Hawking must have gone through similar suffering after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrigs disease) but, uninterested in posing as a tragic figure, he remained both cheerful and pragmatic. "My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesnt prevent you doing well, and dont regret the things it interferes with," he said. "Dont be disabled in spirit as well as physically."

Had Hawking not lived this advice with what looked like supernatural ease, many of his quotes would read like the inspirational garbage one often finds on the social networks. He didnt need religion or any other spiritual crutches to sustain him  perhaps as big a contribution as any to millennials increasingly frequent atheism. Hawking merely appeared to enjoy what he did, including making scary predictions about an end of the world brought about by amok artificial intelligence or climate change. He enjoyed the headlines and the celebrity that had little to do with his research and everything to do with his flawless demonstration that an agile intellect didnt need arms, legs or even a working voice. The software that allowed Hawking to speak is available to anyone under an open licence, a reminder that the human body can fail but that doesnt have to bring down the mind it houses.

Hawking wasnt exactly a cyborg: though he lived extraordinarily long for someone with his condition, he didnt live long enough to get artificial "spare parts" or have his brain transferred to a computer so it could live on in a robot body. Hawking thought it would be possible someday. "I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer, so its theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death," he said in 2013.

As in everything else he said and did, Hawking wasnt weighted down by the present, just as he was minimally constrained by his paralyzed physical shell. This nonchalance about living outside an uncomfortable frame and Hawkings enormous courage in facing both death and the future will live on, even if his cosmological theories remain unproven or end up rejected.

Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website slon.ru. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.Brookfield Asset Management, Inc. engages in the management of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. It operates through the following segments: Asset Management, Real Estate, Renewable Power, Infrastructure, Private Equity, Residential Development, and Corporate Activities. The Asset Management segment includes the management of its listed partnerships, private funds and public securities. The Real Estate segment is comprised of the ownership, operation and development of core office, core retail, LP investments and other properties. The Renewable Power segment encompasses the ownership, operation and development of hydroelectric, wind, solar, storage and other power generating facilities. The Infrastructure segment consists of the ownership, operation and development of utilities, transport, energy, data infrastructure and sustainable resource assets. The Private Equity segment refers to the broad range of industries, and is mostly focused on business services, infrastructure services and industrials. The Residential Development segment represents homebuilding, condominium development and land development. The Corporate Activiti

Read MoreGERRY WEBER International AG operates as a fashion and lifestyle company. It operates through Wholesale, Retail, and HALLHUBER segments. The company engages in the design, production, wholesale, and retail of ladies wear. It offers knitwear, shirts, blouses, trousers, skirts, and outdoor jackets; accessories, such as bags, shoes, eyewear, and jewelry; and ready-to-wear items. GERRY WEBER International AG provides its products under the GERRY WEBER, TAIFUN, SAMOON by GERRY WEBER, and HALLHUBER brand families through retail stores and online shops. It operates approximately 1,270 company-managed stores and sales spaces; approximately 2,480 shop-in-shops; and 270 franchised stores worldwide, as well as brand online-shops in 9 countries. The company was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Halle, Germany.

Read MoreCYBG PLC, through its subsidiaries, provides retail and business banking products and services to individuals and businesses under the Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank, B, and Virgin Money brands in the United Kingdom. It operates through SME Banking and Retail Banking segments. The SME Banking segment offers a range of banking products and services, including business current accounts; and secured and unsecured term loans, business overdrafts, and invoice and asset financing products and services. It also provides international trade services, such as import loans, export loans, documentary collections, currency guarantees, and letters of credit for securing trade; and current account facilities comprising debit cards, cheque books, regular statements, direct debits, and standing orders, as well as day to day and online banking services. This segment serves business customers in the small business, commercial, corporate, and structured finance markets. The Retail Banking segment offers personal current accounts, savings accounts, and term deposits; occupied mortgage loans and BTL loans, unsecured personal loans, and overdrafts, as well as credit card products; and insurance and investment products. The company was founded in 1838 and is based in Leeds, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreUnited Internet AG, through its subsidiaries, operates as an Internet service provider (ISP). It operates through Consumer Access, Business Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments. The company offers landline-based broadband and mobile internet products, including home networks, online storage, telephony, and IPTV; and telecommunication products ranging from fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions, which include voice, data, and network solutions, as well as infrastructure services to national and international carriers and ISPs. It also provides ad-financed and fee-based application products for consumer and business customers, including domains, Websites, Web hosting, servers, cloud solutions, and e-shops; personal information management applications, such as email, to-do lists, appointments, and addresses; and group works, online storage, and office software. The company offers its access products through the yourfone, smartmobile.de, 1&1, winSIM, maxim, simplytel, DeutschlandSIM, PremiumSIM, and 1&1 versatel brands; and applications through GMX, mail.com, WEB.DE, home.pl, Arsys, Strato, 1&1 IONOS, Fasthosts, InterNetX, united-domains, and World4You brand names. In addition, it offers customers professional services in the fields of active domain management under the Sedo brand; and online advertising services under the United Internet Media brand name. The company has operations in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and Mexico. United Internet AG was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany.

Read MoreJacobs Engineering Group Inc. provides technical, professional, and construction services. The company's Aerospace, Technology, Environmental and Nuclear segment offers scientific, engineering, construction, nuclear, environmental, and technical support services to the aerospace, defense, technical, and automotive industries. Its Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities segment develops/rehabilitates plans for highways, bridges, transit, tunnels, airports, railroads, intermodal facilities, and maritime or port projects; develops or rehabilitates critical water resource systems, water/wastewater conveyance systems, and flood defense projects; and provides engineering design, construction management, design build, and operations and maintenance. This segment also designs and constructs buildings; offers consulting, engineering, procurement, construction management, and delivery services for life sciences clients; and provides services relating to modular construction and other consulting and strategic planning services, as well as offers services in containment, barrier technology, locally controlled environments, building systems automation, off-the-site design, and fabrication of facility modules. The company's Energy, Chemicals and Resources segment offers services relating to onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities, processing facilities, gathering systems, and transmission pipelines and terminals; feasibility/economic studies, technology evaluation, conceptual engineering, front end loading, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and commissioning services; and engineering, procurement, and construction solutions. This segment also provides services, such as manufacturing complex, expansions, modifications, and management of plant relocations; construction management and field construction services; and services to operate and maintain facilities. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Read MoreSpanish car component manufacturer, Teknia Group, has opened a new plant in Tangier to boost its production capacity.

The new factory, which replaces an existing plant set up by the group in 2011, is built over a surface area of 2,700 square meters, the Group said in a statement.

The Spanish group operates in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Turkey.

Moroccos automotive industry is growing at a rapid pace due to incentives and competitive factors attracting more and more investors and car parts makers.

These factors include Moroccos proximity to the European market, modern infrastructures, free trade zones, qualified manpower, open economy and stability.

Experts say that the development of the automotive industry in the country will help the Government create 90,000 jobs by 2020 in addition to the 100,000 that already exist.

The government also aspires to increase the proportion of locally produced components in exported cars from 40% to 65% by the end of the decade.

French automaker Renault operates two vehicle assembly plants in Morocco, in Casablanca and in Tangier, where it already produced its millionth vehicle since opening the factory in 2012. PSA Group will begin building cars near the Moroccan coastal city of Kenitra in 2019.GlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Wall Street analysts have given Chinook Energy 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 Chinook Energy wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Victoria Gold Corp. engages in the acquisition, evaluation, and exploration of mineral properties in Canada and the United States. The company primarily explores for gold deposits. Its principal property is 100% owned Dublin Gulch property, which hosts the Eagle Gold deposit covering an area of approximately 555 square kilometers located in central Yukon, Canada. The company was formerly known as Victoria Resource Corporation and changed its name to Victoria Gold Corp. in July 2008. Victoria Gold Corp. was founded in 1981 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreLibya has issued 205 warrants for the arrest of Libyans and foreigners suspected of being involved in a smuggling networks sending illegal migrants to Europe.

The wanted are also accused of human trafficking, torture, murder and rape. The Libyan attorney generals office said the network included members of the security services, migrant detention camp leaders, and officials from African embassies in Libya.

The investigations into smuggling networks are being carried out in conjunction with the Italian prosecutors office after a joint unit  pooling intelligence, coastguard and justice resources  was set up last year by the two countries.

The director of the attorney generals investigations office, Seddik al-Sour, said many immigration department officials had been found to be involved.

There are 205 warrants against the persons who organized the illegal immigration and the human trafficking, and the torture, the killing and the rapes, he said.

His office had detected a direct link between smugglers and the Islamic State group, he added.

In 2017, about 119,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Italy from across the Mediterranean and, according to the International Organization for Migration, more than 3,100 died making the crossing.

In 2016, 181,000 made it to Italy. Migration was a key issue in the countrys recent election campaign, where major parties have said Italy can no longer accept such high numbers and called for hundreds of thousands of migrants already in the country to be sent home.

Libya is a hotbed for human traffickers, whose networks thrived due to the chaos prevailing in the North African country since the fall of the regime of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

According to Amnesty International, hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya are at the mercy of Libyan authorities, militias, armed groups and smugglers often working seamlessly together for financial gain.

Tens of thousands are held in overcrowded detention centers, suffering abuse, ill-treatment and even slavery.Sanchez Energy Corporation, an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of U.S. onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources. It engages in the horizontal development of resources from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. It also holds an undeveloped acreage position in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in Mississippi and Louisiana. As of December 31, 2017, the company had assembled approximately 285,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford Shale; and owned approximately 37,000 net acres in the TMS. Sanchez Energy Corporation was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreResearch students from the University of Wolverhampton presented at an International Conference on Sustainable Futures in Bahrain recently.

Eight students from the School of Architecture and Built Environment in the Faculty of Science and Engineering successfully reported their research findings at the International Conference on Sustainable Futures.

The Conference was organised by the Applied Science University (ASU), Bahrain, in association with London South Bank University (LSBU), UK and The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)  the professional body for construction management and leadership.

Students submitted research papers which had been peer reviewed by world leading experts in the field of sustainability. Out of a total of 150 papers which had been submitted, 65 were accepted.

Two students were awarded the best paper prize for their work.

Dr Subashini Suresh, Reader in Construction Management said: The presentations at the conference addressed an audience from a wide range of policy makers, practitioners and academics from the public and private sectors with representatives from over 30 countries in attendance.

The research work presented by our group of students successfully attracted interest from construction professionals around the world, with discussions on future collaboration currently on-going with colleagues from Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The event provided an opportunity for the students to promote their research as well as the Universitys teaching programmes.

Dr Suresh Renukappa, Senior Lecturer and Dr Subashini Suresh, Reader, supervised the student visit which saw the successful students presenting to the conference on a range of topics including renewable energy strategies, pervasive augmented reality in the construction industry, managing knowledge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia construction industry, building information management (BIM) education in the Dominican Republic, leadership for knowledge management, lean techniques for health and safety management, BIM for construction management, and equality and diversity of ethnic minority women in the UK construction industry.

Picture Caption from left to right: Angelines Donastorg, Research student and Professor Ghassan Fouad Aouad, President of ASU, presented with Best Paper prize for Evaluating critical success factors for implementing renewable energy strategies in the Dominican Republic.

Picture Caption from left to right: Professor Ghassan Fouad Aouad, President of ASU, Rachel Toor, University Graduate, and Professor David Phoenix, Vice Chancellor of LSBU for Best Paper prize for Factors affecting the equality and diversity of ethnic minority women in the UK construction industry: An empirical study.

ENDS

For more information please contact the Media Relations Office on 01902 32 2736 or 01902 518647.The scene near an explosion in Austin. Photo: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images

Three package bombs have gone off in Austin, Texas, in the past two weeks, and they appear to have targeted members of prominent black families, the president of the local NAACP told NBC News Wednesday.

The families of Stephen House, who was killed on March 2, and Draylen Mason, who was killed on Monday, have known each other for a long time and go to the same church, according to Nelson Linder. The Austin NAACP president said that a third bomb, which injured 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera, may have been intended for another person who might be connected to the House and Mason families.

Though the Austin police agree that the bombings are related, they havent suggested a motive. They also havent said whether they think the victims were personally targeted. But interim Austin police chief Brian Manley did tell reporters this week that theyre not ruling out the possibly that hate crime is at the core of this.

Mason, 17, was a musician who was set to enroll at the University of Texas Butler School of Music. His grandmother LaVonne Mason is a co-founder of the Austin Area Urban League. House, 39, was a father and founder of his own money-management firm. His stepfather, Freddie Dixon, who is close with Masons grandparents, was the longtime pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church, a historic black church that was founded by newly freed slaves.

Dixon told the Washington Post that he doesnt think the victims history is a coincidence. Somebodys done their homework on both of us, and they knew what they were doing, he said. My diagnosis: Number one, I think its a hate crime. Number two, somebodys got some kind of vendetta here.

Investigators have begun looking into the connection between the Mason and House families, attempting to see if the victims relationships to prominent members of Austins African-American community is related to the bombings, the Austin American-Statesman reported on Wednesday.

As for the third bomb, police have a theory that it was meant for a woman who is not related to the Mason family, but shares their last name.

The bombs themselves provide some clue as to who may have delivered them. According to ABC News, the explosives displayed a level of sophistication, indicating that the bomb-maker or bomb-makers were highly skilled.

The devices were set up to be detonated by motion like shaking or jostling, which is why they exploded when they were picked up. The devices also had some sort of safety switch, which enabled the bomber to move the devices without blowing themselves up, the sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News.

As police continue their probe into the bombings, a sense of unease has come over the city as Austinites prepare for another potential bombing. And they remain vigilant. Since Monday, there have been nearly 500 reports of suspicious packages in the city. None of them have contained explosives.Arizona educators have been galvanized by the growth of teachers struggles, with increasing demands for a statewide strike modeled after West Virginia. Hundreds continued their demonstrations at the state capitol building in Phoenix yesterday, as state legislators voted on increased tax credits for private schools, a measure which, should it pass, will further deplete the bankrupted public school system.

Arizona slashed $1.5 billion from K-12 education during the 2008 recession, reducing per-student funding by 36.6 percent. In 2016, Proposition 123 restored only 18 percent of those cuts, leaving a net shortfall for education at over $1 billion. The measure, in response to a lawsuit over the states failure to adequately fund schools, took monies not from big business, but from the state land trust.

Per-student spending now stands at $4,157, one of the lowest levels nationally, in one of the economically hardest-hit states in the US. A report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation last year shows that Arizona children ranked near the bottom of the nation in overall wellbeing. The survey measured the percentages of kids living in poverty, access to health care and early-childhood education and other indices. The state has 24 percent of children living in high poverty areas and was 46th in the rate of children ages 3 and 4 enrolled in preschool.

On Monday, March 11 about 300 teachers protested outside the radio station KTAR in Phoenix as Republican Governor Doug Ducey spoke inside. Duceys administration has promoted school vouchers and refused to increase teacher salaries more than a derisory 1 percent. His response to the mounting protests has been to spend more than $1 million on TV ads to lie about his record on public education.

The planned Day of Action for Education on March 28 at the state capitol and associated protests in northern Arizona and Tucson are expected to draw thousands. The demonstration has been organized by Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSA), originally an anti-school voucher group; Arizona Educators United, a Facebook group of 30,000 members, begun March 4; the Arizona Parent Teacher Association, as well as other teacher Facebook groups.

Dustin, a teacher in Phoenix, said, Our main issue is class sizes. We have classes exceeding 27 and 28 for first graders. You cannot get anything done with a class that size. Little kids need help. Also, the expenditures on kids needs to go up. I believe we are ranked 48th in the country. The governor promised millions of dollars to education and we got 1 percent a year. It would take a 20 percent raise to put Arizona in the middle of the pack of states.

Ive worked as a teacher for 20 years. I have a Masters degree and doctoral hours and make $46,000 a year. That might sound okay until you realize that I have to pay $1,000 a month for health care out of that income.

Britne Hart posted on Arizona Educators United: [I] cant afford to go to a dentisttoo expensive, barely can afford groceries, rent takes most of my check. Its so frustrating to know that I have a Masters, and I still live paycheck to paycheck. Been teaching 5 years and am ready to quit!! I cant sustain the cost of living.

The median pay for Arizona elementary teachers was $42,474 as of 2016, ranking 50th nationally, according to the Arizona State University Morrison Institute for Public Policy. The state has about 60,000 active classroom teachers, triple the size of West Virginias teacher population.

Another educator, Dave Jasperson, shared on social media, When I came here three years ago from Texas I took a $17,000 pay cut. I refigured my loss this year, as today it would be $27,000. Between teaching, planning and getting ready for class, I figure I put in 50 hours a week. I also drive for Lyft about 60 hours a week.

Additionally, since 2009, ongoing cuts to school capital funding have totaled more than $2 billion. An Arizona Republic investigation found nearly 30 percent of the states school buses failed mandatory safety inspection for major defects in 2015. Schools have been shut down as structural problems in buildings have forced emergency repairs in the middle of the school year. Schools are also diverting dollars normally used for operations, including teacher pay, to help shore up problematic buildings, buses or essential technology and supplies, due to chronic capital underfunding.

Meanwhile, private school tax credits have dramatically expanded, from $61 million in 2008 to $253 million in 2018 and growing. The credits direct public tax monies to private and religious schools. Arizonas scheme, similar to operations in Florida and Pennsylvania, allows well-heeled residents to donate to a voucher-granting nonprofit and receive a dollar-for-dollar credit on their state taxes. The voucher is then used for tuition at private schools.

The response of the unions to the growing outrage of Arizona educators has been, predictably, to dampen down expectations, seek to assert control over the movement and line up with Democratic Party politicians. As the WSWS reported earlier, AEA president Joe Thomas has been regularly consulting with Dale Lee, the president of the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), who played the leading role in betraying the nine-day strike. According to NBC News, With Lees encouragement, Thomas and his members adopted small symbolic steps: having teachers wear red, planning walk-ins and walkoutsall while they mull whether to strike.

Dustin, who organized his own teachers Facebook page, said, The red movement was started by teachers, but I feel like the color is now tainted. I used to live in Ohio, a huge union state, and I know how they [the unions] contain things. The union, the AEA, last week tried to hijack the teachers movement to put forward a Democratic candidate for governor, using our rally to announce his campaign. I think this movement must be apolitical. The AEA took red away from us. He emphasized, NEA/AEA has failed us.

While the AEA is promoting the Democrats as the supposed opposition to the Republican governors assault on public education, the last Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano (2003-2009), slashed $100 million from Arizona state universities and another $40 million from the states community colleges.

Dustin explained the enormous difficulties facing teachers in the state. You learn to bounce around between districts to get higher pay. We have three great universities in our state producing great professionals. But 75 percent of students leave the state to go to other jobs. Of the 25 percent who stay, I bet 20 percent go into other fields. Then the districts also have shortages. Say a district has three schools, it will probably lose about 30 teachers a yearand that is year after year. Sometimes we have young people who come in from other states to teach here. Usually between 1-3 years, and then they are gone.

People are disillusioned with education and the health problems incurred because of stress in their field. Ive been in the state 12 years and every district has been Title I [economically disadvantaged]. There are many reservation schools, which are poor, and there are many undocumented immigrants here. A lot of families dont speak English and this is why there are high levels of poverty. There is no reason for there to be homelessness or hunger anywhere. There is so much wealth here.

The unions try to put a front on that they are working for us, but they are sitting down with the 1 percent. Ive always had a problem with that. I supported them only to support my fellow teachers as part of the organization. The unions have lost their usefulness.

Here in Arizona, the unions are really money-sucking; they dont provide anything. I care about the people I work for. For so long I put everybody elses kids in front of myself and my kids. Nothing has improved. Its time to make a change. We are riding the wave of West Virginia, although it may be more of an uphill fight here. Its really the wild, wild West.

The real lesson of the West Virginia revolt was that it revealed the enormous chasm between educators and the unions, and raises the need for teachers and school employees to form rank-and-file committees, independent of the AFT and NEA and their state affiliates, to mobilize the broadest support in the working class to oppose the bipartisan attack on public education.The reactionary character of the #MeToo sexual misconduct campaign reveals itself very sharply when we see its precepts applied retroactively to historical artists and artworks. Far from this campaign being a progressive vehicle for the victims of sexual assault, its censorious, puritanical policing of art history and morality emerges openly. Representations of sexuality and physicality are under attack in what Austrian film director Michael Haneke has described as a crusade against any form of eroticism.

The widespread condemnations of Manchester Art Gallerys recent removal from view of pre-Raphaelite John William Waterhouses 1896 painting Hylas and the Nymphs led to some frantic back-pedalling by the gallery, which claimed that the removal was to prompt conversations about displaying and interpreting artworks, before being forced to rehang the much-loved picture a week later.

The ahistorical middle-class moralizing of the campaign perhaps reached a new low, however, with an attack on Scots poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). The casual way in which the attack began is itself revealing. Poet Liz Lochhead, a former Scots Makar, or national laureate, was preparing for a Burns Night talk on Burns and Women. Referring to a 1788 letter to his friend Robert Ainslie, in which Burns boasts of sex with his heavily pregnant lover Jean Armour until she rejoiced, Lochhead described the poet as a sex pest whose disgraceful sexual boast seemed very like a rape of his heavily pregnant girlfriend. Its very, very Weinsteinian.

Giving credence to this drivel, the Guardian, the bulletin board of the most privileged proponents of identity politics, ran Lochheads piece under the headline, Robert Burns: was the beloved poet a Weinsteinian sex pest?

Robert Burns

The comparison is invidious, historically inaccurate, and insupportable. It has attracted much controversy, with experts at Glasgow Universitys Centre for Robert Burns Studies prominent in criticising it. Professor Gerard Carruthers, co-director of the Centre, noted that there is no good evidence that Burns was a rapist or sex pest. Carruthers was critical of the lack of historical perspective: Were now refracting everything through our 21st century presentism, essentially judging history by the ephemeral journalistic stories of today. Please can we show respect both to history and to the real victims of appalling, verifiable sexual assaults?

The Centres Dr Pauline Mackay, who has published widely on Burnss bawdy material in its wider European contemporary context, also dismissed the remark, saying There is no comparison between Burns and Weinstein.

Mackays historical work undermines the casual comparison. She notes that Burns, like many of his contemporaries and admired predecessors, was writing and circulating bawdy material for the enjoyment of his male companions at gentlemens clubs. Burns was careful to keep his bawdry within a select circle of male acquaintances and patrons. It was not published until three years after his death.

The support for Lochheads comparison has demonstrated how the #MeToo witch-hunt has moved from any notion of investigation and due process to vilification on the basis of unproven or uninvestigated allegations. Professor Robert Crawford, a biographer of Burns, interprets the 1788 letter along the same lines as Lochhead, suggesting that what he [Burns] presents in his recent lovemaking to the heavily pregnant Jean as exclamations of pleasure may well have been cries of pain. [emphasis added].

How does Crawford know what they may well have been? He also thinks Lochhead is surely right in saying Burns had his Weinstein moments. His evidence is not convincing, however: he compares Burnss praise of his pintle in the letter with the poem Nine Inch Will Please A Lady, a poem Mackay describes simply as one of Burnss vulgar yet humorous commentaries on heterosexual relationships.

Liz Lochhead

Crawford acknowledges that Burnss bawdy comments are calculated rhetorical performances by an 18th century buck showing off for the supposed benefit of his male cronies. The rhetorical performances may say various things about gender relations in Burnss society but not by any stretch of the imagination that their author was a rapist.

Lochhead is prepared to concede the rhetoric and the possibility that the sexual encounter was not rape, but only in order to attack Burns again: The really sad thing to me is that Burns might even have been letting his pen run away with him and describing what might actually have been, at the time, for all we know, actually the mutual pleasure of both. A loving homecoming he was willing to trash just to impress that younger man he was showing off to so blatantly and so disgracefully. Pathetic really 

Damned if he did, damned if he didnt. This is all preposterous and stupid.

As Mackay notes, Burnss bawdry offers a fascinating record of 18th-century society and sexual mores. She sees him not just sometimes enjoying smut for its own sake but also viewing bawdry as a scathing and effective tool to scrutinise 18th-century religious, domestic and political culture.

This gets us closer to the real subversive greatness in Burnss poetry, which Lochhead does not seem to have intended her glib comparison to overshadow. Not so long agobefore the #MeToo crowd was so present on the sceneLochhead tempered criticism of his sexual behaviour with a genuine defence of his verse. She commented in 2009 about criticisms of his behaviour, Its not relevant to his poetry, its not the point. We dont look to him for a way to live our lives Of course I wouldnt look to him as a feminist role model, but hes not a role model, hes a great poet.

Burns is one of the finest of the late 18th century poets, a product of the Enlightenment and a pioneer of Romanticism, and one who should be read more widely than ever.

The son of an Ayrshire tenant farmer, he first committed the sin of Rhyme in 1774, while working on the family farm. His life was marked by the stresses of maintaining himself and family financially, balanced against a determined freedom and rigour of thought. Confronting a Polemical divinity he began to puzzle Calvinism with so much heat and indiscretion that I raised a hue and cry of heresy against me which has not ceased to this hour. His poetry is marked by keen satires on contemporary society: Paul Lafargue recalled Karl Marx listening with great pleasure to his daughters reciting or singing [Burnss] satires or ballads.

His love life was certainly complicated. In 1785, Elizabeth, his daughter by his mothers servant Betty Paton, was born, shortly before he met Jean Armour. His relationships proliferated. Armour was pregnant with his twins in 1786, while Burns was also still devoted to Mary Campbell. Later he would have a relationship with Agnes McLehose, but turned to her maid Jenny Clow for a more physical relationship. Early in 1786, Burns signed some sort of Wedlock with Armour, but her father repudiated him and sent Jean away. They were married in 1788, and the Ainslie letter deals with his return to her from McLehose.

Cover of Robert Burnss Poems ... (1786)

Struggling to make ends meet and trying to forget Jean in dissipation and riot, Burns agreed to take a post on a slave plantation in Jamaica. Lack of money and the feelings of a father when Jean gave birth led him to postpone and then abandon his emigration. It was at this point that he was encouraged first to publish his poems to finance the trip. This led to him being courted by the Edinburgh literary scene and groomed as a contributor to anthologies of Scottish song and verse like James Johnstons Scots Musical Museum.

Burnss association with slavery is problematic for those who do not view him historically, but his poetry attests to an aspiration for freedom globally. The final lines of For a that and a that are justly celebrated:

For a that, and a that,

Its comin yet for a that,

That Man to Man the warld oer,

Shall brothers be for a that.

Burns also wrote movingly of The Slaves Lament:

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,

In the lands of Virginia-ginia O;

And I think on friends most dear with the bitter, bitter tear,

And Alas! I am weary, weary O!

Burnss political outlook has much in common with that of Thomas Paine. (Like Paine, Burns also served in the excise). Where Paine was articulating the theoretical and practical programmes of the revolutionary bourgeoisie in France and America, Burns was trying to balance poetic expressions of support against his financial backing from conservative sections of the Scottish establishment. His poems sound a radical note of support for the American revolution (speaking of the Royalty of Man in an ode on Washingtons birthday), and notebooks that indicate a Republican enthusiasm for the French revolution even as he was having to convince patrons of his loyalty. Carruthers has described Burns as hiding his politics in plain view.

Thomas Paine

Burnss poems include tender love lyrics alongside a robust physicality and sensuality, and a blending of language registers from local Scots to standard English. As Lord Byron noted of Burnss letters: What an antithetical mind. Tenderness, roughness, delicacy, coarseness, sentiment, sensuality, soaring and grovelling, dirt and deity all mixed up in that one compound of inspired clay. Lochhead sees in this rather accurate assessment of Burnss qualities merely Byrons positively smacking his lips in delight.

Even Lochheads somewhat shifty defence of Burnss greatness has not been shared by all. Her appalling reference to Weinstein has chimed with a wider attack both on Burns as a man of his timethe Enlightenment, significantlyand on poetic freedoms. Stuart Kelly, critic and literary editor of Scotland on Sunday, wrote last year about the 1788 letter. He too called Burns a rapist, and, like Crawford, rejects any consideration of rhetorical or historical context in understanding the letter (Even if it is merely braggart behaviour, I wonder why we all raise a glass to the poet ?).

Kelly goes further than the implicit attack on the Enlightenment and Lochheads casual smear of Byron. He points to Percy Bysshe Shelleys great essay A Defence of Poetry, with its distinction between a poets moral character and their work:

Their errors have been weighed and found to have been dust in the balance; if their sins were as scarlet, they are now white as snow; they have been washed in the blood of the mediator and redeemer, Time. Kelly finds Shelleys ideas increasingly problematic.

One is reminded of Macaulays essay devoted to Byron: [O]nce in six or seven years our virtue becomes outrageous. We cannot suffer the laws of religion and decency to be violated. We must make a stand against vice. We must teach libertines that the English people appreciate the importance of domestic ties. Accordingly some unfortunate man, in no respect more depraved than hundreds whose offences have been treated with lenity, is singled out as an expiatory sacrifice He is, in truth, a sort of whipping-boy, by whose vicarious agonies all the other transgressors of the same class are, it is supposed, sufficiently chastised. We reflect very complacently on our own severity At length our anger is satiated. Our victim is ruined and heart-broken. And our virtue goes quietly to sleep for seven years more.

Lord Byron

Burns is simply collateral damage in Kellys attempt to find a Scottish poet with less historical baggage. Kelly rules out major poets on political grounds (Walter Scott for his opposition to the 1832 Reform Bill, as well as the Stalinist Hugh MacDiarmid for his poems praising Lenin and, in his Scottish nationalist zeal, apparently sanctioning the Imminent Destruction of London by German bombing in 1940) or subjective judgement (Robert Louis Stevenson for being a bit louche), and suggests Veronica Forrest-Thomson. Elsewhere there have been calls for the north-eastern poet Nan Shepherd to take Burnss place.

The poetry, too, is also not Lochheads target: My quarrel isnt with Burns  My problems with, well, not quite all, but 99 out of 100 Burns Suppers.

Burnss greatness as a poet is subordinated to the anodyne requirements of a nationally acceptable figure, when everything that is greatest about Burns speaks against that easy homogeneity. It is unjust both to Burns and to those suggested in his stead, because they cannot be read as the poets they actually were. There is a place in poetry for all sensual aspects of human experience, not just those which suit narrow provincial interests.As British Prime Minister Theresa May moves to cut off relations with Russia after the mysterious poisoning of former British spy Sergei Skripal, a debate over war policy is erupting in the French ruling elite.

This debate constitutes a warning to youth and workers in France and internationally. As French President Emmanuel Macron pushes for the draft, NATO is creating conditions for wars in which large draftee armies could be deployed. And as Mays threats show, events are moving towards not only war in the Middle East, but also a clash with a nuclear-armed opponent, Russia.

The debate in France also points to political issues behind Mays decision to escalate a confrontation with Russia before any serious investigation of the Skripal affair takes place. Behind the rush to judgment in this as-yet unclarified case, powerful factions of the European ruling class are working out how to mount a military escalation aimed at Russia, Turkey and Syria.

The first signal came on Monday evening from ex-President Francois Hollande, who pushed for a NATO war with Syria in 2013 despite Russian opposition, and then had to make a humiliating climb-down after Washington decided not to attack. Having abandoned public life last year, after taking the unprecedented decision not to run for re-election due to his unpopularity, he emerged from retirement to call for war in Le Monde.

Hollande laid out a stunning list of targets. Implicitly taking Macrons policy to task, he warned about Russia and its ties to Turkey and Syria: Russia has been rearming for years now, and if it is threatening, it must be threatened. By allowing Ankara to bomb our Kurdish allies in Syria, Moscow is also trying to divide NATO. Barely a year ago, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin could not find harsh enough words for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Now, these two countries have agreed on a partition of Syria.

Hollande stressed that what is at stake is not just Syria, but the world order and French imperialisms position in it: The issue is how to respond to Vladimir Putin, not so much how to respond to [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad.  The West must realize the true scope of the danger. Implicitly referring to Macrons calls for dialog with Putin, Hollande added that talking to Putin should not mean letting him advance his interests unchecked, and that since Trump is unpredictable, it is up to France, Europe, NATO to take action.

Beyond Russia, he called for enforcing no-fly zones in Syria against Syrian and Turkish planes in Ghouta and Afrinthat is, shooting them down if they were in these areasasking, What sort of ally is Turkey to launch strikes against our own allies? Targeting Macron, he added, If I supported the Kurds in context of our coalition, it is not to leave them in their current situation. If I was very hard on Bashar al-Assads regime, and I was consistently hard, it was not to let him liquidate political opposition and massacre his own people.

Hollandes comments drew a bitter retort from Macron defending his record since his election: Since last May, France has pursued a consistent and coherent policy, without being complicit but trying to be effective, by restoring dialog. These last years in Syria, has the absence of full dialog with Russia allowed us to progress further?

Without naming Hollande, Macron attacked him for calling for ground war when Hollande did not launch one himself in 2013: We must be clear, France will not intervene militarily on the ground in Syria. I say that very firmly. And I believe some people who are giving lessons today took the same decisions.

Nonetheless, Macron soon found himself facing an advocate of confrontation with Turkey in his own cabinet. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was Hollandes defence minister, criticized Turkeys intervention in Afrin, declaring: The struggle against the Islamic State is the principal reason for our military intervention in the Levant. It is a national security priority, and we fear that the Turkish action there will ultimately weaken the pressure on the remaining IS forces in Syria.

And the Journal de Dimanche called for a European response to the Skripal case, pressing for the European Union (EU) to adopt Londons line against Moscow. Paris and Berlin, it wrote, discuss rather frankly with Vladimir Putin, and cannot afford to remain silent. We cannot let Russia sink deeper rifts into the EU with such behavior. Italy, Greece, Hungary and other smaller countries are being wooed by Moscow to be more indulgent. If Europe wants to defend itself, and not only on cyber or energy issues, it must do so in unity.

A bitter battle is raging in the ruling elite. Yesterday, right-wing ex-prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin criticised May and warned of the potential for military escalation.

He said, I believe Mrs Theresa May went too far in this reaction before having any results of the inquiry, before having very precise elements to make a firm accusation.  When Mrs Theresa May appeals to British public opinion in order to alert it, to say If we are attacked we will respond, naturally the Russians will answer, If you respond, we will respond to your response. That is called escalation, and that is what is dangerous.

Youth and workers must be warned: none of the politicians in this debate want peace. All are willing to send masses of people to fight overseas. Macron is calling for a return to the draft and stepped-up war in Mali; as prime minister, Raffarin oversaw the early stages of Frances intervention in Ivory Coast and participation in the NATO occupation of Afghanistan. They disagree not over whether to wage imperialist wars, but over the best strategy to wage them.

The debate reflects bitter conflicts between Washington and the EU over US threats of trade war against EU products and plans for an EU army independent from NATO and Washington.

Hollandes criticisms reflect the views of sections of the ruling class concerned that Macrons plan for a German-French axis leading the EU antagonizes allies like Britain and the United States. Macron speaks for those that view US policy against Russia, like the threat of arming Ukrainian militias to attack Russian-backed forces in east Ukraine, as very dangerous, and believe the EU must be able to take independent military action.

The obstacles to Macrons plans for a Berlin-Paris axis are rapidly coming into focus. They will face a test later this week, when officials of Germanys newly-installed Grand Coalition government visit Paris for talks.

Macron spoke to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung yesterday, appealing for aid from Berlin. If Germany does not move, part of my plans are condemned to failure, he told the FAZ. We totally depend the one on the other. I do not believe for a second that a European project can be crowned with success without or against Germany. Macron also made clear that an EU led by Berlin and Paris would be a militaristic, anti-refugee bloc, declaring: We cannot each year bring in hundreds of thousands of migrants.Renowned cosmologist, theoretical physicist and author Stephen Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England early on March 14. He was 76 years old and is survived by his ex-wives Jane Wilde and Elaine Mason, three children and three grandchildren.

There is much to celebrate about Hawking's life. He led a rich scientific career, playing a key role in deepening our understanding of gravitational physics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and cosmology. He also wrote numerous books popularizing science, most notably his 1988 work A Brief History of Time, which remained on the bestseller list of the Sunday Times for 237 weeks.

His achievements are all the more remarkable considering that Hawking contracted motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrigs disease) when he was 21 years old. The disease confined him to a wheel chair and eventually forced him to speak with a speech synthesizer. Despite this, he continued both his work and his life, surviving beyond his original two-year life expectancy for more than half a century. The struggles faced by Hawking and his first wife Jane Wilde as his disease developed were dramatized in the 2014 film, The Theory of Everything.

Hawking was born in 1942 in Oxford, England, where his parents moved to have a child away from the bombs being dropped on London in World War II. When he was 8, he moved to St. Albans where his father, Frank, became the head of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research. Through his fathers travels abroad and his mother, Isobels, friends, Hawking spent a significant amount of his youth with the poet Robert Graves (I, Claudius, 1934).

He began his physics career at University College, Oxford in 1959 after he found that the university had no pure mathematics program. Though he was not the most diligent student (he claims he only spent 1,000 hours working throughout his undergraduate career, about one quarter that of an average student), he nonetheless developed a firm grasp of theoretical physics and received first-class honors on his degree from Oxford, allowing him to pursue graduate studies at Cambridge.

Stephens graduate studies were almost immediately halted when he contracted Lou Gehrig's disease. Over the course of several months, as doctors realized that Hawkings particular version of the ailment acted very slowly, Hawking returned to his work on general relativity and cosmology. He obtained his doctorate in 1966 for his thesis, which took the concept of a spacetime singularity that Roger Penrose developed to study black holes and applied the mathematics to the structure of the entire Universe.

Black holes were first predicted by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916, using Albert Einsteins recently published equations of general relativity. Einstein showed that a massive body can bend the path of light as it travels from one point to another. Schwarzschild took this idea and investigated what would happen as the mass of the object increased to an arbitrary high. He found that, eventually, enormous mass produces a region of spacetime that bends light so much that its path becomes a circle and never continues its journey. This object is black because no light is emitted from it, and it is a hole because neither light nor any form of matter can leave it once inside.

Penrose was studying the mathematics that describes what occurs inside the black hole. He realized that not only does matter get trapped, it becomes denser and denserinfinitely so. At the center of a black hole, he showed that general relativity predicts a point of infinite mass and zero volume, a singularity. Hawking took this insight and combined it with the theory of the expanding Universe. He realized that if one winds back the evolution of the Universe to the Big Bang, that too had to be one of Penrose's singularities.

Hawkings largest contribution to theoretical physics came from his attempts to combine the physics of black holes with thermodynamicsthe theory that describes the relationship between heat and all forms of energy. Hawking used a framework developed by physicist Jacob Bekenstein to show that, contrary to accepted theories, black holes do have a temperature, which means that they must radiate energy and lose mass over time.

While this effect is predicted to be miniscule for known black holes, it contradicted the idea that black holes are eternally growing objects that will eventually contain everything within the Universe. Moreover, the mechanism through which black holes emit radiation requires the inclusion of quantum mechanics into the calculations to make sense. To date, this radiation is the only phenomena which requires the combined mathematics of thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and general relativity to explain.

And while it has yet to be directly or indirectly observed, this Bekenstein-Hawking radiation has been generally accepted as true by scientists and has led to a great many other discoveries in theoretical physics and cosmology. It also plays a key role in any theory of quantum gravitythe myriad attempts to fully combine general relativity and quantum mechanicsas one of the primary experimental tests.

Hawkings contributions to the physics of black holes established him as a preeminent scientist of his age. However, it was with the publication of A Brief History of Time that he became known throughout the world. The book, written for non-specialists, would be the point of entry for millions of people into an exploration of cosmological phenomena such as the Big Bang and black holes.

Hawking described in language accessible to laymen and young people such complex theories as quantum physics and the still-elusive search for the theory of everything.

A Brief History of Time was the first of a series of popular scientific books, including The Universe in a Nutshell, On the Shoulders of Giants, and God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History.

Hawking encouraged his reading public to search for rational answers and explanations for everything. My goal is simple, he said in 1985. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all. He told Der Spiegel in 1988, We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

Hawking maintained a generally left-wing political stance throughout his life, declaring that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a war crime, campaigning against nuclear weapons, opposing the Israeli oppression of Palestinians and speaking out against cuts to Britains National Health Service, which Hawking maintained was what allowed him to live into his 70s.

Hawking never wavered on his materialist conception of the Universe. Even as his health deteriorated, his deep understanding of the laws of motion that govern matter on cosmological scales led him to reject religion and mysticism as a way of understanding the world. He declared in 2011:

We are each free to believe what we want, and it is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realisation. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.Democratic candidate Conor Lamb won a narrow victory over Republican Rick Saccone in Tuesdays special House election in the 18th congressional district of Pennsylvania. The district occupies the southwest corner of the state, a former steel and coal-producing region that includes the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh. It backed Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton by a 20-point margin in 2016.

With all precincts and absentee ballots counted in the four counties that make up the district, Lamb had a lead of 627 votes, 113,813 to 113,186. Lamb claimed victory, and both the television networks and local newspapers called the result in his favor. However, Saccone and the Republican Party have not yet conceded, discussing their options for a recount or challenge to the result.

Assuming the result stands, the special election would be the first in which a House seat changed parties since Trump took office. In the four special elections in 2017 caused by Trumps appointment of Republican congressmen to cabinet posts, there were major swings to the Democratic Party, but Republicans still held the seats, albeit by diminished margins.

The vacancy in the 18th congressional district was caused by the resignation of longtime Representative Tim Murphy, a Republican who did not even face a Democratic challenger in 2014 or 2016. Murphy, a right-wing opponent of abortion rights, resigned after it was revealed that, in the course of an extramarital affair, he had pressured his mistress to get an abortion.

Tuesdays vote has national implications, since there are 114 congressional districts held by Republicans that voted for Trump in 2016 by a smaller margin than the southwest Pennsylvania district. All of those districts are thus potential targets for Democratic takeover, under conditions in which the Republican majority in Congressafter the Pennsylvania defeatis down to 23 seats.

The Democratic leadership in Washington fears more than anything else a sharp swing to the left in popular sentiment in reaction to the attacks on democratic rights and social programs being carried out by the Trump administration and the Republican Congress, as well as its huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has set up a firewall against such a development by promoting more right-wing candidates in party primaries, particularly those with a military-intelligence background, as well as policemen and prosecutors. Lamb, age 33, a recent Marine veteran and current federal prosecutor, checked both boxes.

In the event of a sweeping Democratic victory in November, there will be an influx of new members who come to Congress for previous service in the CIA, the military, the State Department or the National Security Council.

A WSWS analysis published last week identified 57 candidates with a military-intelligence background seeking Democratic congressional nominations in districts identified by the DCCC as competitive. This compares to only 19 military veterans in the current Democratic caucus in the House, out of 193 members.

Lamb is the first of the 57 military-intelligence Democrats to be elected to Congress. His opponent, Rick Saccone, had a similar background, with a much longer career in Air Force intelligence, including multiple deployments to South Korea, before he retired and went into local politics, winning four terms in the Pennsylvania state legislature.

Saccone campaigned on a typical Republican ultra-right program, combining appeals to right-wing religious groups on abortion and gay rights with overt hostility to unionsin a district with at least 80,000 union households, including 20,000 current and retired steelworkers and nearly that many coal miners, most of them retired or unemployed.

It was Saccone and the Republicans who chose to make the contest a referendum on Trump, evidently assuming that this strategy would be successful in a district Trump carried so easily in November 2016. While Lamb raised $3.9 million for the race, itself a huge sum for a brief congressional campaign, Republican Party organizations poured in more than $10 million. Trump visited the district twice for campaign rallies, while family members and other Trump surrogates were campaigning with Saccone continually.

The Democratic candidate offered a series of olive branches to the right, declaring his personal opposition to abortion, although he said it should still be legal, affirming his opposition to any form of gun control, including limits on the possession of assault rifles, and opposing a proposed increase in the statewide minimum wage to $15 an hour.

When he faced Republican attack ads saying that he would represent another vote in Congress to make Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House again, Lamb responded that he would not vote for Pelosi as the Democratic leader.

Despite that disavowal, Lamb is a scion of the Democratic Party establishment: his grandfather was Democratic leader in the state senate, and his uncle is the current city controller in Pittsburgh. He did not win the Democratic nomination in a primary, but was selected over six rivals by a party committee after the incumbent unexpectedly resigned.

While benefiting from popular anger against Trump, Lamb himself said virtually nothing critical of the president, going so far as to declare that Trump was not even an issue in the election campaign, which revolved around purely local concerns.

Perhaps the most important factor in Lambs campaign was the full backing of the unions, particularly the steelworkers and coal miners, whose retirees make up a huge percentage of the 18th districts population. Saccone campaigned as a supporter of a state right-to-work law, which would threaten the dues income that finances the lavish perks and salaries of the union officials. Lamb opposed such a law. Both candidates endorsed Trumps imposition of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which the unions enthusiastically supported.

The United Mine Workers union, which did not support Hillary Clinton against Trump, campaigned heavily for Lamb, and even tried to associate the Lamb campaign with the struggle by teachers taking place only a few miles away, across the state line in West Virginia.

At a rally for Lamb in a former mining town, Waynesburg, the candidate said only a few words, the usual mush, while UMWA President Cecil Roberts hailed him as a a God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, Social Security-believing, sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat.

Such language only testifies to the entirely right-wing political orientation of both the unions and the Democratic Party, which are the principal obstacles to the development of an independent political movement of the working class against the Trump administration, the corporate-controlled two-party structure, and the capitalist system as a whole.The Trump administration has taken a series of actions this week that expose the authoritarian character of the government and the breakdown of democratic forms of rule in the United States.

On Tuesday, Trump summarily fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, announcing that he would be replaced by close Trump supporter and current CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Tillerson reportedly learned of the change at the same time as the media, when it was announced in a 140-character tweet.

The form of the change in personnel at the highest level of the state is significant. Trump treats his cabinet, and expects them to act, as an assemblage of courtiers, loyal only to him. The Secretary of State is the senior cabinet post, which historically carries with it the greatest prestige, and the occupant of this position is the fourth person in the legal line of succession to the presidency.

Trump chooses ciphers, humiliates them publicly, and then throws them out as if they were pieces of garbage. He thereby demonstrates his contempt not only for individuals, but also the office they occupy.

The same statement on Twitter announced the nomination of Pompeo to succeed Tillerson, the first time that an intelligence official has been elevated to the post of principal foreign representative of the US government. Trump also announced the nomination of CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo. Haspel is notorious for her role in directing the CIAs rendition and torture program, including waterboarding at a secret CIA prison in Thailand.

These are only the latest in a week of ominous decisions and actions emanating from the White House:

* The Justice Department filed suit against the state of California, seeking to use the courts to crush any opposition to intensified mass repression against immigrants. During a visit to southern California to view models of his proposed wall along the US-Mexico border, Trump declared that state officials were aiding criminals and putting the police at risk of being murdered by immigrants.

* Rejecting the urgings of many advisers, one of whom resigned in protest, Trump signed an order imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, while boasting of his desire to start a trade war that would have incalculable effects on the world economy.

* Trump agreed to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, without even informing his top military and diplomatic aides, in what is widely viewed as an effort to stage-manage an international provocationthrough the summits collapse or failurethat would become the pretext for war.

* Addressing a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump threatened the media, denounced political opponents in vulgar and racist terms, and called for the execution of drug dealers.

All these events have a similar character: Trump conducts himself more and more in the manner of a Mussolini, putting into practice his frequent declaration during the 2016 campaign that only he could put right what is wrong about American society. He conducts himself, not as the elected representative of the American people, or even as the leader of one of the two main capitalist parties, but as a personalist ruler, an authoritarian of the Latin American or fascist type, the arbiter of all major social and political issues.

Trump has now ordered a military parade in Washington, tentatively set for Veterans Day, five days after the midterm elections. No doubt he expects to use a display of military force, with warplanes in skies over the White House and Capitol, to offset the expected negative results at the polls. It raises the question: What is Trump up to?

There will be more surprises from Trump. There has been a tendency in the press to dismiss him as a buffoon who does not know what he is doing. With this comes an underestimation of the political danger.

Trump is a criminal type, used to working within the milieu of the underworld of Atlantic City, Las Vegas and the New York real estate market. He is inclined to play va banque (go for broke). There is, moreover, a tradition in American politics of starting a war in an attempt to resolve domestic political crises, and any such war would bring with it the most catastrophic consequences.

Equally ominous is the complete lack of any response or significant protest within official political circles. Trumps own cabinet is largely drawn from people who have no political constituency of their ownmillionaires and billionaires, frequently as backward and ignorant as Trump himself, and as indifferent to democratic rights and constitutional norms.

The Democrats are not opponents of the growing conspiracy against constitutional norms, they are another form of their breakdown. They have presented the trio of military officers holding top positions in the administrationWhite House chief of staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, and Defense Secretary James Mattisas the adults in the room who will supposedly curb Trumps excesses. But the prominence of the military in Trumps inner circle is only one more expression of the drift towards authoritarian rule.

As the WSWS has documented in an extensive survey of Democratic candidates in the midterm elections, the party has essentially undergone a friendly takeover by the CIA. The Democrats response to the nomination of the torturer Haspel to head the agency was summed up by Dianne Feinstein, the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee: She seems to have the confidence of the agency, which is good.

In centering its criticism of Trump on fabricated allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Democrats have acted as the voice of sections of the military-intelligence apparatus opposed to any abandonment of the strongly anti-Russian policy adopted under the Obama administration.

Working people in the United Statesand around the worldhave no alternative within the framework of capitalist politics. On the one hand, Trump is governing as an ultra-right radical, seeking to cultivate a fascistic social base, operating outside of any known constitutional or legal framework. On the other hand, a political opposition that is so far removed from any democratic conceptions that its answer is to censor the Internet and suppress social divisions at home, while advocating war with the worlds second greatest nuclear-armed power.

The old forms of rule, the entire 230-year-old constitutional framework, is disintegrating under the impact of the growth of the social inequality, the division of American society between a tiny wealthy elite at the top, which controls both parties.

It is impossible to separate the character of the Trump administration from the system that has produced it: capitalism. The social force that must be mobilized against it is the working class. The year has already seen a powerful growth of class struggle, in the United States and internationally. The urgent task is to introduce into this developing objective movement a socialist consciousness and a socialist political leadership.Rail workers have told WSWS reporters they are intensely hostile to a sellout agreement being pushed by the management of Sydney Trains and New South Wales Transport, acting on behalf of the state Liberal-National government.

The deal, on which up to 9,000 workers are voting in a postal ballot set to conclude on March 23, will worsen the intolerable conditions facing train staff. It will accelerate the privatisation of once publicly-owned transport services. The vote, being organised by a private third-party, has been designed to prevent any discussion or mass meetings. Some workers have raised concerns that the result will not be transparent.

Workers also have legitimately expressed suspicion toward the unions, which have collaborated with the government over the past three months to push through the agreement. In an attempt to deflect growing opposition to their own role, some of the unions, including the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), claim not to have endorsed the latest offer.

In reality, the RTBU and other unions, alongside management, drew up the latest agreement and have repeatedly promoted it. At the same time, they have done everything they can during the past eight months to suppress any industrial or political struggle by rail workers.

The Combined Rail Unions, including the RTBU, entered into closed-room negotiations with the government for a new deal last July, before the existing enterprise agreement (EA) expired. It was only in January, after months of talks, that the unions were compelled, as a result of mounting opposition from workers, to call a ballot on strike action.

After workers overwhelmingly endorsed a January 29 strike, the unions tried to prevent it from taking place. On January 23, the RTBU called a dubious text message ballot on whether workers would call off the stoppage, based on a one-page summary of a new EA. The union indicated it had agreed to unspecified cuts to conditions.

When workers repudiated the offer, the Fair Work Commission, created by the former federal Labor government with the full support of the unions, intervened. It banned the strike and all industrial action for six weeks. The RTBU and its union affiliates immediately declared they would always abide by the decisions of the pro-business industrial tribunal.

At the same time, the unions moved to shut down opposition to their sordid manoeuvres. The RTBU disabled comments on its official Facebook page, and refused to call any mass meetings or forums of workers.

On February 7, after further backroom negotiations, the unions announced they had received another offer from the government. RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens all but endorsed the deal, telling the media the union was very close on all the conditions to recommending it. Several days later, he confirmed that the agreement would include job cuts.

In other words, the RTBUs claim that it is not responsible for the current agreement is a cynical evasion.

Since the ballot began earlier this month, the RTBU has tacitly sought to pressure workers to ratify the agreement. On March 9, Claassens urged workers to vote and send it back as soon as you can. The union was not formally endorsing the agreement, he said, but: Thats not to say the EA and the wage increase along with all the other changes are a bad deal.

Claassens implicitly warned against a no vote. If workers rejected the deal, he said, the effective union-enforced wage freeze, which began when the last agreement expired last year, would continue.

The RTBUs double-talk was further exposed by explicit support for the agreement by the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), which covers some train workers, and is part of the Combined Rail Unions.

On March 8, ETU state secretary Dave McKinley issued a statement hailing union negotiators for the remarkable job they had done to get to the position we are in.

The fact that we have managed to break the governments long-held 2.5 percent wages cap is outstanding and will be viewed by other parts of the public sector as a great win and precedent, McKinley declared.

In reality, the wage rise, at just 3 percent per annum, is well below the rapidly rising cost of living. Both the government and the unions have confirmed that the meagre increase above the public sector wage cap will be paid for through productivity savings, i.e., further cuts to conditions.

McKinley wrote: On top of this all of your conditions have been maintained and a number of them enhanced. This is a lie. The agreement provides for continuous pro-business restructuring, job cuts, reorganisation of entire departments, and continued chronic understaffing.

The ETU state secretary also claimed that the deal provided limits on contract and casual labour. The agreement does the opposite. It allows the use of temporary labour across all Sydney and NSW Trains operations, at any time. It states that the employer may engage Employees either on a full-time, part-time, temporary fixed term or casual basis, in all classifications to provide flexibility of employment and to accommodate variability of business activity.

McKinley touted redundancy provisions in the EA, making clear the unions support for further job cuts. He likewise promoted paltry travel and meal allowances, declaring they showed this is the best outcome that could be attained through negotiations under a hostile Liberal state government.

McKinleys comments demonstrate that the Combined Rail Unions are seeking to impose yet another regressive agreement.

In 2014, the unions enforced a deal that removed prohibitions on forced redundancies and scrapped requirements that redeployed workers retain their original salary. The agreement was followed by mass retrenchments, including the elimination of a quarter of all station staff.

This followed decades of collaboration between the rail unions and successive Labor and Liberal-National governments in the destruction of thousands of jobs, the closure of workshops and the privatisation of state freight services.

Workers should vote no in the ballot and reject any agreement forced through via an anti-democratic ballot. The repudiation of the sell-out deal, however, is just the starting point.

The record makes clear that workers can only defend their jobs, wages and conditions through a rebellion against the unions. New organisations of struggle, including independent rank-and-file committees, are required. They would fight for a unified political and industrial campaign by workers across the rail network, along with freight workers, bus drivers and ferry staff, who confront similar attacks on the jobs and conditions.

In opposition to the corporatism of the unions, a new political perspective is required that rejects the subordination of transport, and every aspect of social life, to the profit dictates of a tiny corporate and financial elite. This means fighting for a workers government that would implement socialist policies, including placing transport, along with the banks and corporations, under public ownership and democratic workers control.GOP congressmen Devin Nunes and Peter King. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Last night, at a dinner with a few dozen conservatives hosted by the American Spectator, Devin Nunes expounded on his view that Donald Trumps campaign is extremely innocent of wrongdoing in the Russia scandal. Nunes, who is of course in charge of the House of Representatives putative investigation into this very question, combined strong beliefs about the bottom-line result of Robert Muellers probe with a deep lack of curiosity about any of its outstanding questions:

Now look at who Mueller has prosecuted at this point, and who is left to prosecute for collusion? he wondered. I mean, theres no one left. [Former Trump campaign manager Paul] Manafort would be the obvious guy to think of that was colluding, right? If you could have gotten him on collusion, he would have been the obvious choice. Flynn, I mean, I knew Flynn very very well, and he is not a secret communist supporting Putin. So, they cant get him on that. So who else do they have?

Who is left to prosecute for collusion? Well, lets see. There is Donald Trump Jr., who attended a meeting with a Russian promising to help his campaign, and loved it. Theres Jared Kushner, who also attended that meeting, and had a web of financial relationships and contacts with Russia that he suspiciously failed to disclose. There is Roger Stone, who reportedly knew about the Russian email hacking as early as spring 2016, before it was publicly known.

There is Flynn, who Nunes rules out as a suspect because he is not a secret communist. Nunes might not have been told that Russia is no longer a communist country, and there are reasons these days for non-Russians to develop secret relationships with its government, such as money, a thing Flynn was taking on the sly. Plus, theres Donald Trump, who worked with all these people, and all of whom had strong incentives to keep him apprised of their nefarious work on his behalf.

Nunes does concede that Manafort is not exactly a saint, but concludes that since he has not been charged with collusion yet, he never will be, nor will anybody else. The thing is, though, Mueller is still investigating. Nunes conducted a pretend investigation and concluded he found nothing. Its almost as if Nunes did not want to find any guilt!In less than 24 hours this week, more than 60,000 people joined a petition launched by residents of a small rural town asking that a family of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers, summarily seized by the Australian Border Force (ABF), be allowed to remain in Australia.

At 5am on March 5, ABF officers, accompanied by police and private Serco guards, arrived at the familys home in the central Queensland town of Biloela, effectively tearing the children out of bed. The husband and wife, Nadesalingam and Priya, along with two-year-old Kopiga and nine-month-old Dharuniga, were given just 10 minutes to pack, before being taken to an airport and flown to a detention centre in Melbourne, over 1,600 kilometres away.

This Tuesday night, despite the fight launched by the towns people, the family was about to be deported via Perth airport, on the other side of the country, to Sri Lanka, where official mistreatment of Tamils, particularly those forced to return, remains endemic. They were pulled off the plane at the last minute after a legal intervention.

This dramatic development further underscores the determination of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls government, led by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, to deport the family, in violation of their basic legal and democratic rights. The family was about to be removed from the country even though Priya still had a court appeal pending in May against the governments refusal of her asylum visa application.

Ben Miller, a Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, said that during the March 5 raid Nadesalingam was separated from his wife and children, and Priya, in her van, was separated from her children and not allowed to sit with them, despite the children being obviously distressed.

Similar raids may be taking place across the country. The chilling events in Biloela have only come to public attention because of the fight taken up by the towns people.

The pre-dawn raid was conducted despite Priyas bridging visa expiring by just a single day and despite the couple being informed that an extension would be granted.

The family later reported that, once imprisoned in Melbournes Broadmeadows detention centre, they were ordered to sign documents in which they supposedly approved their voluntary removal. They were threatened with being denied access to a phone, and the forcible deportation of each family member separately, if they did not sign.

A Home Affairs Department spokesperson flatly defended the raid, saying the familys refugee visa applications had been comprehensively assessed by the department, various tribunals and courts and they were found not to meet Australias protection obligations.

Nadesalingam and Priya fled to Australia separately in 2012 and 2013, marrying in 2014. Both were escaping the aftermath of the 26-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka, in which thousands of Tamils were killed before the war ended in May 2009 with a military occupation of the countrys north and east.

Nadesalingam allegedly has links to the former separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Suspected associates of the LTTE face persecution by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Sri Lanka, including harassment, imprisonment, torture and death.

Despite this, Nadesalingams application for protection was repeatedly rejected, forcing the family into an increasingly stressful and insecure position. They made a home for themselves in Biloela, a town with less than 6,000 residents, and had lived there for four years. Nadesalingam worked at the Biloela meatworks.

The community was outraged over their brutal removal. Angela Fredericks, a resident, launched a change.org petition. Fredericks wrote: Our community is not ready to let this family go. They love living and contributing to our society. We want them here. She added that the couple were settled in Biloela after fleeing torture and suffering in Sri Lanka.

Other residents voiced their anger on social media. Katrina Mears wrote on Facebook: Omg, they are such a beautiful family and integrated so well into Biloela. This is a shame and a travesty. Michelle Horrocks wrote: Omg, these are just a lovely family, have them in my prayers for a speedy and safe return to our community here in Biloela.

Rex Gruspe, who lived next door to the family, said they were good neighbours. We happened to see each other when I [was] going to work and Priya was taking the children for a walk. Nadesh was always happy to help when he saw me doing DIY in the house.

Mike Tye, a former neighbour and work colleague of Nadesalingam, wrote: He is one of many hard-working refugees striving to provide for their family. These are the sort of people who deserve to become citizens. He said the family were shy, but friendly and generous people who would share what little they had.

This response cuts across the frequent media depiction of rural Australians as being xenophobic or racist. The residents insist that the family has a right to live in Australia, in direct opposition to the anti-refugee policies created and maintained by successive Labor and Liberal-National governments.

This raid is not, however, an isolated incident. It is part of a series of political developments that has laid the groundwork for mass deportations. In 2012, the Greens-backed Gillard Labor government set up an agreement with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for the deportation of all Sri Lankan asylum seekers who flee to Australia by boat, initially sending back 700.

Since then, hundreds of Tamil refugees have been forcibly returned to Sri Lanka, including 46-year-old Santharuban Thangalingam, who was deported last month, despite warning he would face persecution due to his links to the LTTE. He has faced harassment from the CID since his return.

Last March, the current Liberal-National government, which has deepened Labors policies, announced that as many as 30,000 asylum seekers in Australia could be cut off welfare if they failed to complete complex visa documents within 60 days. This month, the government ended the status resolution support service (SRSS), a form of income support of about $478 a fortnight, on which about 12,000 asylum seekers rely, leaving them facing destitution.

Some Labor and Greens politicians are cynically trying to distance themselves from their parties role in creating the legal and political conditions for the Biloela raid. On Facebook, Andrew Miles, a federal Labor MP, said reports of the raid were deeply disturbing. Greens Senator Andrew Bartlett released a media statement condemning the raid. But the Greens kept the Gillard government in office as it summarily deported hundreds of Sri Lankan refugees in 201213.

Similar shocking scenes are occurring internationally, as capitalist governments shut their doors to the millions of people, mostly fleeing US-led wars or terrible poverty and exploitation. In the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are daily grabbing workers and families from their homes or off the streets.Thousands of non-academic workers, who have been on strike since February 28, picketed their universities on Tuesday to protest the Sri Lankan governments refusal to address their demands.

Almost 16,000 workers from more than 15 state universities and other higher education institutions walked out two weeks ago for a 20 percent wage rise, a language proficiency allowance, increased concessionary loans and the introduction of medical insurance and a pension scheme.

While the strikers have shown their determination to continue and expand their industrial action, the University Trade Unions Joint Committee (UTUJC) is limiting the strike and insisting that it is possible to pressure the government and higher education authorities to make concessions.

The union alliance, which has made no criticism of the government, is attempting to cover up the political issues raised by the strike, despite the fact that the government and the education authorities have refused to discuss the workers demands.

From the outset, the UTUJC leadership insisted that the newly-appointed Higher Education Minister Kabir Hasim would give a positive response to the workers claims.

The union alliance also appointed a co-president from one of its affiliates that is controlled by the United National Party (UNP), the governments main coalition partner. This decision, UTUJC officials claimed, would help to facilitate discussions with the UNP leader, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and other senior ministers.

The government, which faces a deep economic crisis and is implementing austerity measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund, is determined not to allow any pay rise or grant the demands for medical insurance and pensions. It is relying on the union alliance to shut down the industrial action.

Addressing Moratuwa University employees on Tuesday, UTUJC branch leader K.M. Srisirsena said the union had not called for the picketing of all universities because it had to take into account the countrys situation. He did not explain this situation or its political implications.

The union official was alluding to the anti-democratic state of emergency the government declared on March 6 after anti-Muslim riots by extremist-right Buddhist groups in parts of central Kandy. The government claimed that the state of emergency would last a week, but it still remains in place.

UTUJC treasurer K.L.D.J. Richmond told about 200 employees picketing the University of Colombo it was regrettable that the government had not held any discussions with the union. He declared that it was the first time that the university unions faced such a situation.

Mounting anger among the strikers forced the UTUJC to announce this week that its members would not maintain essential services on the campuses. This includes farm work, looking after animals and maintaining laboratories.

Other non-academics have also joined the strike. Members of the university executive staff union decided to support the industrial action and placed bans on additional work. More protests will be held on Friday.

The UTUJC, like its union counterparts throughout Sri Lanka, opposes joint industrial and political action against the government, fearing that the unions would lose control of any united struggle.

From the beginning of the non-academic workers dispute, Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) members have intervened with an internationalist and socialist program.

On Tuesday, SEP and IYSSE teams campaigned at several universities in Colombo and its suburbs, distributing hundreds of copies of a party statement on the dispute and outlining the political tasks facing the striking workers.

The SEP statement explained: The issues in the non-academic workers strike are common in every class struggle: falling wages, declining social infrastructure, the onslaught on free education and growing social inequality. The entire working class, therefore, should come forward to defend and support the non-academic workers struggle and regard it as their own struggle.

The statement warned that non-academic workers place no trust in the UTUJC but fight for the development of independent action committees of workers to take the struggle out of the hands of the trade unions. Such committees should be elected by the workers and every decision should be taken through democratic discussions.

An IYSSE statement also appealed to youth and students, explaining that in order to fight the governments attacks they had to unite with the striking non-academic workers.

The UTUJC leadership denounced these statements. At Jayawardenapura University, the branch leadership was hostile to the SEP statement, particularly the section warning strikers not to place any trust in the UTUJC.

SEP and IYSSE campaigners pointed out the perfidious role played by the unions in the past period. One campaigner explained: These struggles cannot proceed without a political fight against the capitalist governments and the entire capitalist system. The trade unions around the world, including the UTUJC, are opposed to this political struggle.

Many workers asked for the copies of the statement and some discussed the difference between the trade unions and the action committees proposed by the SEP.

Following these discussions, one worker commented: I was wondering how we can proceed. If the government rejects any discussion with the unions, even after two weeks for the strike, what can they do? The trade unions are just instruments dealing with the government and the bosses.

When SEP members began handing out leaflets at the University of Colombo, UTUJC branch secretary R.P.G.D. Herath threatened the campaigners over a megaphone. He demanded that they stop distributing the leaflet and speaking with workers. However, when the picket protest ended, several strikers held discussions with SEP and IYSSE members.

After reading the SEP statement, Ravindra, a library worker, said: The government says that it doesnt have the money to increase our pay but its policies are dictated by the International Monetary Fund and its austerity program. The unions are covering this up from our members It seems that we are involved in a political fight against a government that carries out the dictates of the international capital.On Wednesday, the one month anniversary of the Parkland shooting that killed fourteen students and three teachers, one million middle school and high school students in the US and internationally walked out of class to protest gun violence and mass shootings in America.

The initial call for the protest came from Empower, the youth movement of the Democratic Party-controlled Womens March organization. It was planned as a walkout in which students would leave class and congregate on school grounds for 17 minutes of silence, one for each victim of the Parkland massacre. The central theme was to be on gun control, which was dominant in the slogans and speeches of many of the protests.

Many school administrators decided not to block walkouts but instead coordinated with the Democratic Party and the police to control the message as closely as possible. Some vetted students signs, chants, and speeches in advance and prevented students from speaking to the press.

In other cases, school administrators threatened detention, suspension or more severe punishment to students who participated in the protests. More than 100 students in Goshen, Kentucky defied their school administrations threats of suspension by walking out in the middle of class. The students have all received detention.

In Concord, California, Mt. Diablo High staff locked the school gates around campus before the scheduled 10 a.m. walkout. Around 10:15 a.m. students broke through a back gate and marched out of the school shouting Enough is enough! before school staff marshalled them back to campus.

Despite the efforts to control the message, many of the student walkouts and demonstrations were organized independently of Empower and developed into much larger events out of the control of the state-sanctioned politics of either party. In some cases, hundreds of students gathered away from school grounds to give speeches in which they took up not only school violence and gun control, but the broader social crisis in the US.

Marquan, a senior at Pioneer High School in Ypsilanti, Michigan spoke to an audience of 500 during a rally for all high school students in Washtenaw County, Michigan. He explained that their demonstration was about something bigger than gun violence alone which was a symptom of a much larger problem. Marquan and other student speakers went on to cite lack of health care, mass incarceration, and the inhumane treatment of immigrants as expressions of the same problems bound up with gun violence.

Marquan told the WSWS afterwards, Millions of people go without health care, we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, and our planet is being destroyed by climate change. There are a lot of things going on, and were starting to recognize this now. Its not the people who dont care about these things, but the few, the ruling elite, who put profit over the value of someones life, who dont care. The NRA [National Rifle Association] bribes our politicians, and its the same as big oil and big pharma. They put profit over life.

The protests varied in form and scope. At Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, several hundred students walked out of classes and sat silently in the school bus drop-off zone. Approximately 3,000 high school students in Madison, Wisconsin marched on the state capitol building where they rallied and listened to speeches.

Many university campuses held similar events. At the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, about 2,000 students gathered on the lawn for a vigil accompanied by student speeches.

Students from 28 middle schools and high schools in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia walked out of class and converged in front of the White House. The students sat with their backs facing the White House for 17 minutes before marching to the US Capitol for a rally.

Similar events took place in all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, and dozens of protests were held internationally by students in Japan, Tanzania, Israel, Iceland, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, Germany and several other countries in Europe.

It was at the protests in Washington, DC that the efforts to channel social anger back to the safe confines of establishment politics were most strongly felt. Democratic candidates for the 2018 midterm elections could be seen mixing throughout the crowd. The leadership of the Democratic Party, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Georgia Representative John Lewis worked to limit the focus of the demonstration solely on the issue of gun control and taking on the NRA.

Bernie Sanders, who calls himself a socialist, sounded a general theme in encouraging students to vote for Democrats in November. All across the country, people are sick and tired of gun violence, and the time is now for all of us together to stand up to the NRA and pass common sense gun legislation, Sanders declared.

Sanders was silent on the bipartisan cuts to funding for essential social programsincluding education and mental health counselingenacted to pay for corporate tax cuts and the Pentagons $700 billion budget.

Despite the official framework of the protests, the sentiments animating students went well beyond gun control and hostility to the NRA. Across the country young people expressed their frustrations and anger with the entire political establishment.

Ashley and Diana spoke to WSWS reporters in Washington, DC about the conditions that lead to violence at schools. The United States gave guns to people in South America. The United States gave guns to people in Mexico. That fuels the drug trade, that contributes to violence and perpetuates violence, Diana said.

Speaking about the importance of social services, Ashley explained, We need to stop this war budget and put money where it matters. People want to talk about mental health, they should fund mental health resources. People want to talk about education, they should fund schools.

Max and Anaya, juniors at San Diego High School, indicated that they each personally knew victims of gun violence. Anaya explained how incidents of gun violence in schools have become part of everyday life for her generation noting, It never seems to stop.

Its pathetic that we even have to do this [protest], Max exclaimed. All presidential administrations, not just Trump, but Obama too havent confronted this problem at all. The government is run by corporations rather than proper representatives of the people. He agreed that unending war is a significant cause of gun violence, adding that wars abroad are about domination, not the justifications offered by politicians.

Adrys, a student in the Bronx, New York said that the problem of mass shootings is not solely about being pro-gun or anti-gun, We have a gun issue, and a mental health issue and a capitalist issue. Law enforcement and officials knew that the Parkland shooter wanted to carry out an attack, she explained, but nobody did anything.

After considering a way to resolve the problem of school violence, Adrys said, Things should be done for the greater good, and movements are important. Some people in seats of power are abusing their power. But it is the working class that has the power ... If we unite, then we have the power.More than a week has passed since 33,000 West Virginia teachers and other school employees returned to work after a nine-day strike to oppose crushing health care costs and stagnant wages. On Tuesday, March 6, the three main school employee unionsthe American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV), the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), and the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association (WVSSPA)announced an agreement with the states billionaire governor, Jim Justice, for a paltry 5 percent wage increase.

The strike began not in the union offices, but through discussions of rank-and-file teachers and school workers in the states southern coal-mining regions, which have a rich tradition of class struggle and socialism. The unions attempted to end the strike without addressing health care costs and without a vote on February 27, but teachers again met among themselves and all 55 counties voted to continue the strike, which lasted another seven days. In the end, the unions, the state legislature, and the governor forced through the same sellout deal teachers had rejected a week prior.

The wage increase is to be funded not by raising taxes on the billions in profits extracted by the giant coal and natural gas corporations, which control the state (Governor Justice himself, the states richest man, is a former coal baron with personal wealth of $1.6 billion), but rather through cuts to social spending. This includes the cancellation of a free community college tuition program and threatened cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor that one-third of West Virginians rely upon.

The teachers central demand for a fix to their underfunded health insurance program, the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), was completely ignored. Instead, a task force has been formed, supposedly to find additional funding for the PEIA by December. Teachers health care premiums and other costs have risen year after year.

The task force consists of 29 members who fall into three major groups: first, state legislators like Republican senate president Mitch Carmichael, Robert Plymale, Democrat, and Republican Craig Blair, all of whom opposed giving teachers even the five percent raise. The second group are executives of billion-dollar health corporations like Andy Paterno of Centurion Insurance Services and Greg Burton of Brookstreet Insurance. The third are union presidents Dale Lee (WVEA), Christine Campbell (WVFT) and Joe White (WVSSPA), the very bureaucrats who ended the strike. One school teacher and one school superintendent are also on the task force, along with a handful of additional corporate representatives.

It should be noted that until September 2017 the PEIA Finance Board included two union leaders: Elaine Harris of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and Josh Sword, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, the labor federation that includes the AFT-WV. This proves that adding union leaders onto the new task force will do nothing to stop the soaring costs of health care for public employees.

Teachers and school workers contacted by the WSWS expressed widespread skepticism about the task force, the promise to fix PEIA, and the entire premise that there is no money to fund basic social rights like health care. Chelsea, a teacher from Raleigh County in southern West Virginia, said, I dont believe, with the state of our economy, that there is going to be a long-term fix to PEIA.

No, she continued, its a systemic issue. Health care in this country is a problem. The population here in West Virginia is aging, and our health is dwindling. Youve got an unhealthy system, with unhealthy people.

West Virginia has the highest rate of obesity in the nation and is at the center of a nationwide opioid addiction epidemic that killed more than 64,000 Americans in 2016. More than half a million West Virginians rely on Medicaid, which does not cover such basic needs as dental or optical health. The decline of the coal industry and resulting lack of jobs has led to an exodus of young people from the state, and by 2030 one in four residents will be over 65 years old.

What would solve the crisis is better jobs, Chelsea said. I teach in a high poverty area, and most of my kids are on Medicaid. They say that if they cant balance the budget next year, then cuts to Medicaid is whats going to be coming.

Zack, a 24-year-old school custodian, said, Everybodys skeptical of the task force. Our union leaders have been put on it, and I hope that they follow through. But they shouldnt have billion-dollar CEOs on there. And in my opinion, if the union makes a decision it should be based off of a vote of members. We should have had a vote on whether to go back to work, not just a decision made by a few people, whether we like it or not.

Lynn, a teacher from Logan County in the states southern coal fields, said, When they say they have no money, its really that they want to fund other projects that they prefer, like corporate tax cuts, cuts to the [natural gas and coal mining] severance tax. The Republicans opposed any wage increase, and the Democrats were saying that they support us. But its true that [former Democratic governor] Earl Tomblin cut lots of taxes for the companies.

The WSWS Teacher Newsletter fought for teachers and school employees to take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the WVEA and AFT-WV by electing rank-and-file strike committees to mobilize the broadest support in the working class against the bipartisan assault on public employees and public education. We urged workers to reject the sellout deal reached by the unions and to expand the struggle. The WSWS also drew the political lessons of the strike in order to prepare the next stage of struggle.

The West Virginia teachers strike was only the first episode in a continuing wave of social unrest among teachers across the country and around the world. Everywhere, teachers and other workers face an assault on living standards, wages, health care, and access to public education. A West Virginia school bus driver told the WSWS the day before the sell-out, Weve opened up the door. And I hope it turns into a humongous gate.

On Tuesday, following the model of the West Virginia teachers, thousands of striking lecturers and other university staff in the United Kingdom revolted against the University and College Union (UCU), voting amongst themselves to reject the sell-out deal reached by the UCU the previous day. These lecturers are facing deep cuts to their pensions.

Teachers walkouts and other actions are now being planned in Arizona, Oklahoma, Kentucky. In particular, Facebook groups have sprung up, which attract tens of thousands of followers overnight, allowing teachers to discuss demands and strategies directly among the rank-and-file, without mediation from the pro-corporate unions and mainstream media (although a massive campaign has been undertaken by the federal government and giant tech companies to censor political speech on the Internet). The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are trying to impose their authority over teachers in these states in order to smother opposition and kill it.

One West Virginia school worker, Beverly Barr, posted the following yesterday on the Facebook group WV Public Employees United:

I have been thinking about the results of the strike. I dont feel like we achieved as much as we hoped. The 5% raise only amounts to around $2020 per year. Dont get me wrong, I am grateful for any extra money in my pocket. Our biggest issue was the insurance, which has been constantly costing us more money. Even with health insurance, it seems like going to the doctor is not affordable anymore. PEIA was not fixed. I dont think we should have backed off on that issue. We chanted A freeze is not a fix in the capitol. I thought most of us were committed to that, then we ended up agreeing to this task force. I really hope that it works out, but I honestly fear that it wont and in 16 months we will be in the same position all over again. Then if we try to strike again, we look like spoiled brats who are going to walk out every time we dont get what we want. What I did gain from the strike was knowledge..... and what I learned scares me. I learned that our most of our legislators do not respect our profession. I learned that most of them are not willing to help the working class because it conflicts with their loyalties to the gas/oil industry or pharmaceutical companies.

Another worker told the WSWS, I felt like the union completely betrayed everyone the day they made the joint announcement with Governor Justice on February 27, calling the workers to return to schools.

I just kept wondering what must have gone on behind closed doors. I felt sold out. These people need to watch Matewan [a film about the Mine Wars in West Virginia]. In order to enact real change, we need to experience some real struggle and sacrifice. He added that he is, no longer affiliated with the union. Im keeping my money.Country

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For months now, congressional Republicans have been trying to discredit the federal investigation into Donald Trumps campaign by investigating the investigators. Specifically, right-wing lawmakers have presented the fact that Hillary Clintons campaign funded research into Trump by former British spy Christopher Steele  and that Steele later shared said research with the FBI  as evidence that the entire Russia investigation might be built on Clintonian lies.

This line of argument appeared to reach its apogee last month, when House Intelligence chair Devin Nunes released his much-hyped memo. That document purported to demonstrate that the FBI had used Steeles research to obtain a surveillance warrant of Trump aide Carter Page, one month before 2016 election, without disclosing the political motivations behind Steeles project to the relevant authorities. But the memo did not actually demonstrate anything of the kind. And Nuness insinuations were later proven to be false.

Nevertheless, the GOP persisted. And on Thursday, while Robert Mueller hit the Trump Organization with subpoenas, four Republican senators called on the Justice Department to appoint a second special prosecutor to investigate the FBIs relationship with Steele. As Politico reports:

The Judiciary panels chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), was joined by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) in requesting that DOJ name a special prosecutor to zero in on possible mishandling of the FBIs Russia investigation prior to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. Specifically, the quartet raised concerns about the FBIs relationship with Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier of verified and unverified intelligence alleging a Russian effort to compromise now-President Donald Trump.

The Republican senators noted in their Thursday letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that under current law, the Inspector General does not have the tools that a prosecutor would to gather all the facts, such as the ability to obtain testimony from essential witnesses who are not current DOJ employees.

Now, who knows  maybe there was some as-yet-unrevealed impropriety in the FBIs relationship with Christopher Steele, and/or the agencys use of his research. But considering the fact that a highly motivated House Intelligence Committee was unable to come up with anything approaching evidence of such malfeasance  and the reality that the federal government has limited investigatory resources  it is hard to understand how the attorney general could possibly justify approving the senators proposal to the public. (Although, its fairly easy to see how he might justify doing so to himself).Fixing the State Department isnt really in the job description. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

If and when Mike Pompeo is confirmed as secretary of State, he will inherit a department that has not only spent the past few decades losing ground to the Pentagon as the prime mover of U.S. foreign policy, but was also systematically gutted by his predecessor Rex Tillerson, who downsized the agency and pushed out droves of professional diplomats with centuries of collective experience.

Given that Tillersons only real legacy at State is one of painful cuts, staff attrition, rampant demoralization, and failed corporate-style management, it is natural to hope that his successor, however odious his politics may be, will at least prove a better manager on account of actually having a background in government service. This hope was expressed on Tuesday in pieces like this one from the Associated Press, which wishfully asserted that 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 nations most pressing national security matters.

Tillerson, of course, lacked both Trumps ear and his confidence. The AP also noted that Pompeos leadership of the Central Intelligence Agency was more focused on agility and delegation than Tillersons micromanaging approach at State. Pompeo is seen as a more forceful personality than Tillerson and could prove a more commanding presence on the world stage.

Even former ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, perhaps the second least likely person in the world to stand up for Mike Pompeo after Hillary Clinton herself, took to the opinion page of the New York Times to suggest that, if he wanted to, Pompeo could restore the State Department to its former glory and save it from utter irrelevance. In her op-ed, Power suggested that the secretary-designate move quickly to fill all of our empty ambassadorships, take steps to attract new foreign service officers, and change rules that discourage former employees from coming back to the department.

Yet Power also acknowledged that Pompeo was a driving force behind the endless partisan investigation into the 2012 attack on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others dead. A man who played such an outsize role in politicizing the position he is now poised to assume, for the thinly veiled purpose of damaging Barack Obamas presidency and Clintons own political ambitions, seems particularly unlikely to Make American Diplomacy Professional Again.

It may be that no Trump appointee can  attract diplomats to serve under a commander-in-chief who seems to hold diplomacy in contempt, Power wrote. But Mr. Pompeo has to try.

Will he, though? Indeed, is that even what hes being put there to do?

While history may remember Tillerson as one of the least competent and effectual secretaries of State in modern American history, in the final analysis, thats not why he was fired. Tillerson lost his job because for all his many faults, he wasnt a yes-man: He didnt flatter Trumps ego or back up his obviously wrong positions. He refused to participate in the lie that Russia didnt really meddle in our elections. He even got caught calling the president a moron. He neither sought nor needed Trumps approval.

Indeed, the fundamental irony of Tillersons ouster is that for how bad he was at his job, at the end of the day, it was trying to do it well that did him in. In this context, there is little reason to believe that Mike Pompeos State Department will function much more effectively than his predecessors. The facts before us suggest that its not really intended to.

Up to this point, the main obstacle to diplomacy in this administration was not Tillerson, but Trump himself. Yes, it was ridiculous that Tillerson had his staff print out Trumps tweets (presumably including the one that fired him) so that he could find out what the policy agenda was for the day, but whats even more ridiculous is a president issuing foreign-policy directives on Twitter in the first place.

In their Tillerson postmortem at Politico, Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky pointed out that Trump has never taken diplomacy or the State Department seriously. Tillersons ham-fisted downsizing of the department was neither accidental nor his own idea; Trump put him there to do just that. Had Tillerson been a better manager it might have helped stanch the bleeding of talent from the foreign service, but it would not have made much difference to his success, because Trump has never understood the point of having a secretary of State in the first place, or of having anyone other than himself speak to the world on behalf of the United States. To understand Trumps opinion of the State Department, one need look no further than his proposal last month to underfund it by nearly $9 billion.

Pompeos main appeal to Trump, meanwhile, is that he shares the presidents disdain for civilian diplomacy as a means of solving problems and advancing the American agenda internationally. On the policy side, that means the Iran nuclear deal is on even thinner ice and war with North Korea is that much more likely. The best-case scenario is that because Pompeo is simpatico with Trumps hawkish attitudes, he can get him to listen to reason and calm down when he really goes off the rails.

On the personnel side, meanwhile, its hard to see how a deeply partisan, military-first, hard-core Islamophobe transplanted from the CIA, whose chances of survival in his role may depend solely on his willingness to validate Trumps worst instincts, will convince all the professional diplomats who have left the department in the past year to come back. Tillersons mismanagement may have been the proximate cause of their departures, but the more fundamental issue remains that the president clearly doesnt think the work they do matters.Students outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The U.S. House on Wednesday passed its first piece of legislation aimed at preventing massacres like the one that took place last month in Parkland, Florida  and it included nothing about guns.

Approved by a 40710 vote, the Stop School Violence Act provides up to $75 million each year for the next decade to increase school safety measures, including metal detectors, locks, and training programs to help teachers spot potential problems. This is not what the students marching around the country on Wednesday were asking for.

Representative John Rutherford, a Florida Republican and the bills author, called it an important first step forward in protecting our children, our teachers and other administrators within our schools.

It is going to not only harden the target through technology but most importantly I believe its actually going to provide the tools and education needed by those in our schools to recognize those individuals who have the propensity to become active shooters, he said. Thats what this bill does.

The White House has come out in support of the bill, though it would like it amended so that it funds programs to arm teachers. Its still unclear what the bills fate will be in the Senate, where lawmakers have been even slower to act in the aftermath of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

While Democrats overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill, they also criticized it as being too narrow. This bill, on its own, is not the kind of meaningful congressional action needed to address this crisis of gun violence, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said in a statement.

This must be a first step and it must be followed by a serious effort to pass legislation that expands background checks and ban military-style assault weapons.

Florida Democrat Representative Ted Deutch agreed on CNN Thursday morning, saying we cant allow the gun lobby or anyone else to let us  let anyone  believe that this is the response to the shooting.

Meanwhile, the Parkland shooting has sparked some states to act in much more dramatic ways. Among them are Florida and Vermont, where Republican governor Phil Scott is pushing for legislation that would make it easier to seize guns from people deemed dangerous.Shadow of the Tomb Raider Comparison - Xbox One vs. Xbox One S vs. Xbox One X vs. PS4 vs. PS4 ProPhoto credit: Getty

From Esquire

Here at the shebeen, weve been tracking the ongoing festivities in a federal courtroom in Kansas City, where Kansas Secretary of State and patron saint of all vote-suppressors, Kris Kobach, is mounting his own defense of one of his pet laws against the onslaught of the local ACLU. Remember that old saw about a lawyer who defends himself having a fool for a client? Well, the reverse is true, too. A client who becomes his own lawyer has a fool for a lawyer.

The court has been merciless toward Kobach and toward his prime witnesses, including the notorious Hans von Spakovsky, who has been a vital member of the posse in pursuit of the franchise ever since the Republicans dreamed it up. For his part, Kobach has evinced all the legal skills of a marmoset. His feet havent touched the bottom of the pool since he entered the court. The federal district judge, a patient woman named Julie Robinson, is completely fed up with having to preside over a trial while filling in the gaps in Kobachs legal education, as this story from The Kansas City Star explains.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson has repeatedly warned Kobachs team about trying to introduce evidence that has not been shared with the plaintiffs during the first three days of the high stakes trial, which will determine whether thousands can vote in Kansas this November. Kobach complained that the parties in the case are relying on numbers that are stale after the judge blocked a line of questioning to Bryan Caskey, the state director of elections, on data that had not been provided to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case before the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.

This triggered a rebuke from Robinson after three days of polite warnings on the rules of legal procedure in the face of multiple hiccups from Kobachs team. We're not going to have a trial by ambush here... You're stuck with what you provided to them by the deadline, Robinson said. "No, no. That's not how trials are conducted," she told Kobach during the exchange. Sue Becker, an attorney on Kobachs team, tried to interject. Let me finish, the judge said as she continued on with her admonishment.

Story continues

Jesus H. Christ on torts, I learned that just by watching every Law & Order episode 20 times.

Photo credit: Getty

Kobachs witnesses have been no better. First, there was Jo French, a merry septuagenarian called by Kobach and his team in order to show that the voter-suppression law did not unduly burden the elderly. She did not do Kobach or his cause any favors. From Talking Points Memo:

A feisty woman who was eager to crack a joke or wander off topic, French described a lengthy process, and at times made comments suggesting it was tougher on her than she was letting on. She also raised questions about her contacts with Kobachs office leading up to her appearance Monday. I wanted [Kobach] to look good, she said at one point, when asked about when the Secretary of States office reached out to her about testifying.

Kobachs experts were no better than Ms. French. Drawn from the dingier precincts of the wingnut ideas industry, they included Stephen Camerota, of the extremist Center for Immigration Studies. Camerotas research was shredded by the ACLU lawyers, whom Camerota repeatedly interrupted until Judge Robinson had enough and told him, according to The Kansas City Star:

She can only take down one voice at a time or were going to kill her, Judge Julie Robinson said of the court reporter at one point. And then Im going to kill everyone else.

If Judge Robinson, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, isnt on the short-list for the Supreme Court the next time we have a Democratic president, Im going to be considerably frosted.

Then there was Jesse Richman, a researcher from Old Dominion. It was Richmans testimony that got Kobach accused of a trial by ambush by Judge Robinson. Richman also made the mistake of talking over Judge Robinson.

Wait, wait, wait! the judge called out as the situation heated up and more people in the courtroom began speaking simultaneously. Especially you, she added to Richman, instructing him not to talk except when answering questions. Youre not here to trash the plaintiff. Youre not here to argue with me.

(Also vital to keeping up with the latest from this flea circus is to get on the electric Twitter machine and follow Jessica Huseman - @JessicaHuseman - of the invaluable ProPublica. Huseman even became part of the trial when one of Kobachs lawyers accused her of having secretly recorded an interview with von Spakovsky. This was blatantly - and hilariously - untrue.)

The basic problem with Kobachs case, of course, is that its built atop a fake talking point that has been turned into an outright fantasy by years of repetition in the conservative terrarium. Hes asking the wrong judge to rule in favor of something that doesnt exist. This trial is just the farce that Kobachs entire career deserves.

You Might Also LikeThe stars wept for Stephen Hawking, who died Tuesday night at the age of 76.

The renown theoretical physicist, diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21, had been played on the big and small screens by Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch, both among the celebrities honoring the scientific mind.

We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet, Redmayne, who played Hawking in The Theory of Everything, said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family.

Cumberbatch, playing the titular role in BBCs television feature Hawking, sent his heartfelt love and condolences to all his family and colleagues.

I feel so lucky to have known such a truly great man whos profundity was found both in his work and the communication of that work. Both in person and in books, the actor continued.

Hawking also left an impression on the casts of The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, and Star Trek, who look back on his cameos fondly.

Not only your brilliance, but your sense of humor will be sorely missed by all, Johnny Galecki wrote in a tribute on Instagram  a sentiment echoed by cast mates Mayim Bialik and Kaley Cuoco.

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Al Jean, an executive producer and writer on The Simpsons, honored Hawkings sense of humor as vast as the universe, while Star Trek actor George Takei called him a hero to so many.

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Hawkings children Lucy, Robert, and Tim announced the news of their fathers passing in a statement. We are deeply saddened that our father passed away today, it read. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He once said, It would not be much of a universe if it wasnt home to the people you love. We will miss him forever.

See more responses below.

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This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.Trump and Putin before the sanctions. Photo: Jorge Silva/AFP/Getty Images

On Thursday, the Trump administration announced a raft of long-anticipated sanctions against Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election and other cyberattacks the country has launched against the United States.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions demonstrate that the U.S. is confronting and countering malign Russian cyberactivity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure. The announcement comes more than seven months after Trump reluctantly signed a bill calling for the sanctions and 45 days after the deadline to impose them passed.

Among the entities and individuals targeted are the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked troll farm that Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted last month, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch known as Putins chef. In total, the new sanctions target 19 individuals and five entities involved in what Mnuchin called the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia. Those sanctioned will no longer be allowed to travel to the U.S. or do business with American companies or individuals. Assets they hold in America will also be frozen.

In addition to Russias election meddling, the U.S. justified the sanctions by citing the NotPetya cyberattack, which targeted computers in Ukraine before going global, and a previously undisclosed attempt to attack the U.S. power grid.

The sanctions announcement comes on the same day that President Trump joined leaders from the U.K, France, and Germany to make his most forceful public statement against Russia, which is accused of orchestrating a nerve agent attack on a former spy living in England.First Lady Melania Trump, who hasnt been seen much since Winter Stormy Daniels hit Washington D.C., is planning to meet with reps of Twitter, Facebook and Google to lead the fight against online bullying, said Jimmy Kimmel.

Apparently the word irony doesnt translate from Slovenian, joked Kimmel, who recently told O magazine that steering his late-night show monologues into politics has cost me commercially, citing polls Ive seen.

All she has to do to fight cyberbullying is take a hammer to her husbands thumbs and phone.

Melania Trump holding a summit to stop cyberbullying is like Camille Cosby calling a meeting with Benadryl, Kimmel deadpanned.

Then he unveiled the First Ladys new anti-cyberbullying PSA:

It is important to set example for all children, whether they be Little Marcos, Lyin Teds, Sleepy-Eyed Chucks, Low-IQ Crazy Mikas, or Over-rated Meryls. If we dont treat each other well online, we are no better than fat little Rocket Mans. May god bless you, even the haters and the losers #Sad.

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James Corden And Shaggy Perform Donald Trump & Robert Mueller TheaterControversy is swirling around a junior high science teacher in Idaho who has been accused of feeding a puppy to a snapping turtle after school, multiple news outlets report.

On Thursday, the Franklin County Sheriffs Office and the Preston Police Department responded to a complaint about possible animal cruelty involving a teacher at Preston Junior High School, prosecutors said in a news release obtained by PEOPLE.

The teacher has not been officially named, and PEOPLEs efforts to reach them for comment were unsuccessful.

Authorities have declined to confirm or deny speculation about what exactly occurred at the school.

In a statement, district officials reportedly said only that on March 7, they were told of a regrettable circumstance involving some of the biological specimens at the school.

The event, the district said in a statement obtained by TV station KSTU, was not a part of any school-directed program. We emphasize that at no time was the safety of students or staff compromised.

The 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, the statement continued.

The district said it will decide 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.

PEOPLEs calls and emails to the school district and to the superintendent were not immediately returned.

Jill Parrish, described in news reports as a local animal rights activist and parent, reportedly said she filed the police report when she heard that the Preston Junior High teacher allegedly fed a live puppy to a snapping turtle in their classroom last week, as students watched.

Citing a law enforcement source, East Idaho News reported that the alleged feeding was done in front of students but it was unclear if the puppy was alive at the time.

Story continues

Parrish told KSTU, What I have learned in the last four days is disgusting. It is sick. It is sick.

Allowing children to watch an innocent baby puppy scream because it is being fed to an animal, that is violence, she reportedly said. That is not okay.

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Franklin Sheriff Dave Fryar told PEOPLE he had no comment on the incident and referred further inquiries to prosecutors.

In a statement, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Vic Pearson said local law enforcement had turned over its incident reports in the matter for review of potential animal cruelty charges against the teacher.

Due to a conflict of interest, though, Pearson said he sent the reports on to another prosecutor.

There has been a considerable amount of public reaction regarding the allegations being made, Pearson said in his statement. I understand the reaction of the public regarding this incident but would ask for some patience at this point in time.

Authorities need time to make sure they have met the legal and ethical standards required by the criminal justice system, he explained.

However, the volume of calls being received by both law enforcement and my office is hindering our ability to complete what needs to be done to reach the end goal of justice in this case, he said.

The Best Science Teacher or a Bully?

As the investigation continues, the teachers supporters and critics have gathered together.

Calling the teacher a bully, PETA released a statement of its own about the alleged incident, news station KUTV reports.

Any youngster who witnessed cruelty in the classroom is now in desperate need of lessons about having empathy for other living beings, PETA said, in part.

Like many of you, we are deeply disturbed by this news, the Idaho Humane Society wrote online this week, according to the Idaho Statesman. We will be following this situation closely and ensuring the full truth is disclosed and that if an act of animal cruelty occurred that the perpetrator is prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

A petition asking for the teacher to be fired has reportedly been signed more than 3,400 times. A petition supporting the teacher has been signed more than 2,400 times.

Its time to stand up for one of the best science teachers in the Preston, Idaho school district, said former student River McKay, who started the second petition, according to KIVI.

Hes the best science teacher Preston Junior High has, parent Julie Johnson told KSTU.

Some justified the alleged act while noting that they believed the puppy was possibly ailing and terminally ill.

Parent Annette Salvesen told KSTU, If it was a deformed puppy that was going to die anyway  [the teacher] is very much circle of life.Miley Cyrus has been slapped with a lawsuit alleging that her 2013 tune We Cant Stop rips off an earlier song by a Jamaican composer.

In his suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, Michael May, aka Flourgon, says that he wrote the song We Run Things in the 80s, and that the song was a No. 1 hit in Jamaica, and was additionally met with great acclaim in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America. (You can hear it above.)

Mays song contains the phrase We run things. Things no run we.' Cyrus We Cant Stop, meanwhile, contains the chorus hook We run things. Things dont run we.

Also Read: Miley Cyrus and Shia LaBeouf Are 'Teaching Treason,' Jon Voight Says (Video)

The suit also contends that We Cant Stop is largely rooted in Caribbean musical influence and features a theme of defiant audaciousness in the realm of self-discovery and self-governance. The entire theme of We Cant Stop would be hollow in sound and impact, and would fail to achieve success without the unique thrust of authenticity and the substantially similar theme of/provided by Plaintiff Mays original, protected content.

TheWrap has reached out to Cyrus label RCA, also named as a defendant in the suit, for comment.

Also Read: Watch Miley Cyrus Sob Through Emotional Concession Speech After Trump Win (Video)

The suit seeks a judicial determination that Mays copyright has been infringed, as well as unspecified damages.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

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'SNL': Larry David to Host Nov. 4 With Musical Guest Miley CyrusPhoto credit: Getty

From Esquire

Remember back earlier on Thursday, when the president* got into tough-guy costume and finally got around to implementing the sanctions that Congress had mandated several months ago, and I wrote that, in reaction to that, Robert Mueller nodded wisely and reached for another folder? You thought I was kidding, right? From The New York Times:

In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said. The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trumps lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trumps political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Muellers investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

From this, it looks like Mueller plans to burn it all down. It looks as though hes decided that everything with which this president* is involved is so irredeemably corrupt and lousy with dirty money that trying to split the difference between which corruption was involved with the campaign, and what dirty money financed it, is an impossible rats nest to untangle. So the easiest thing is to light a match and see what burns in what color flame.

Mr. Mueller could run afoul of a line the president has warned him not to cross. Though it is not clear how much of the subpoena is related to Mr. Trumps business beyond ties to Russia, Mr. Trump said in an interview with The New York Times in July that the special counsel would be crossing a red line if he looked into his familys finances beyond any relationship with Russia. The president declined to say how he would respond if he concluded that the special counsel had crossed that line.

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Its fairly clear that Mueller has pole-vaulted over that line. Your move, dude.

Photo credit: Getty

In this context, all those stories about an imminent Cabinet and senior staff shakeup (Scott Pruitt for Attorney General? Pull the other one) take on a more ominous appearance. It would be perfectly in character for this president* to concoct an utter bloodbath tomorrow, firing Jeff Sessions after Sessions fires Ron Rosenstein, putting someone in place to fire Mueller, and sticking crazoid John Bolton in as National Security adviser just for fun. Then, if he can get Mike Pompeo lined up at State and the Empress of the Black Sites installed at CIA, the president* will have in place a team made up of people absolutely disinclined to inconvenience him in his pursuit of all he can grab.

The Congress? Now pull both of them at once.

There is a sense right now of something stirring in the murk. Too many people are acting far too nervously. Something shapeless is rising from the deep and, waiting for it, is Robert Mueller. He plunges implacably forward and, if he ever does look behind him, sees only the rising floodtide of the Rubicon.

You Might Also LikeLast September, federal contractors began building prototypes of President Trumps long-promised border wall between the United States and Mexico. Throughout the months that followed, the eight models were built outside of San Diego in Otay Mesa. President Trump didnt miss his chance to see his vision unfold during his visit to California. On March 13, he visited the recently constructed 30-foot-tall prototypes and spoke to reporters on the implementation.

If you dont have a wall system, were not going to have a country, he said. Theres a lot of problems in Mexico. They have the cartels, and were fighting the cartels and were fighting them hard. Nobody [has] ever fought like we fought them.

After checking out the prototypes, the president expressed his desire for height and see-through capabilities to make it easier for border agents to have a clear view on the other side. When it came to going high, Trump suggested illegal immigrants trying to cross over were super-skilled at scaling structures. He told reporters: Getting over the top is easy. These are like professional mountain climbers. They are incredible climbers.

The visit to see the U.S.-Mexico border samples sparked demonstrations with protesters assembled on both sides of the border. There were Trump pinatas and signs that read, Trump, we will not pay for your wall. People also took their sentiments to social media where comments erupted on the presidents mountain climber remarks.

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Late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert also criticized the presidents border-wall prototypes, even touching on his interest in visibility. See-through means that immigrants can see a better life, but they cant touch it, he said.

Since announcing his presidential run, Trump has insisted that Mexico would pay for the creation of the border wall, but Mexicos president Enrique Pena Nieto has made it clear that Mexico will not give a peso toward this project. I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us, Pena Nieto said in a televised address in January. Mexico doesnt believe in walls.Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana is adding his voice to the national outcry over a puppy who died after a United Airlines flight attendant forced its owners to stow their beloved pet in an overhead bin for a three-hour flight.

Kennedy announced on Twitter Wednesday that he had written a letter to the president of United Airlines calling for an immediate explanation for the number of animals who have died recently in the airlines care.

In his letter to United president J. Scott Kirby, the Republican senator cited U.S. Department of Transportation data stating that 18 of the 24 animals who died in major U.S. airlines care last year were in the care of United.

Another 13 animals in Uniteds care suffered injuries last year. For comparison, Delta and American each reported two animal deaths, Kennedy added.

John Kennedy

This pattern of animal deaths and injuries is simply inexcusable, he wrote. For many people, pets are members of the family. They should not be treated like insignificant cargo. Frankly, they shouldnt be placed in the cargo hold much less an overhead bin.

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The family whose 10-month-old French bulldog, Kokito, was killed in the latest incident spoke out on Good Morning America on Wednesday.

He was a member of our family, Sophia Ceballos, 11, tearfully said in the interview. He was like my brother to me.

Ceballos, along with her mother, Catalina Robledo, and brother, 2 months, were traveling from Houston, Texas, back to their home in New York and decided to bring their pup along for the trip.

The return flight ended in tragedy after the flight attendant made them stow the dog in the overhead bin.

We were gonna put him under the seat and then the flight attendants came, she said, You have to put him up there because its going to block the path. And were like, Its a dog, its a dog. And shes like, It doesnt matter you still have to put it up there,  Ceballos recalled on GMA. She helped her put it up, and she just closed it like it was a bag.

Fellow passenger Maggie Gremminger told PEOPLE that she was stunned to see the puppy being stowed in an overhead bin but understood why the family followed the flight attendants instruction.

My only thought is that if it had been me, it would have been a hard scenario. The flight attendant is the authority figure, who should be trusted. I was thinking maybe there is an improved ventilation system or something of the sorts, Gremminger said. Also, the owner had an infant and other daughter. Causing a scene before flight could risk being kicked off the flight. I can only imagine she felt stuck in her decision to comply.WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump acknowledged that he and his now-ex secretary of state Rex Tillerson "disagreed on things." Turns out they were some pretty key things.

MORON-GATE

In October, NBC news reported that Tillerson called the president a "moron," in a meeting. Asked about the startling slight, Tillerson danced and ducked but never actually denied it. The brouhaha led Trump to suggest the two should face off and measure IQs.

"I think it's fake news, but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win," he said in an interview with Forbes.

___

WHEN "TALKS" ARE NOT "NEGOTIATIONS"

South Korean officials' announcement that the president was willing to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un stunned the world. Especially confounding was how it came just hours after his own top diplomat told reporters the two sides were far from sitting at the same table.

"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," Tillerson had said.

After the announcement, Tillerson tried to draw a distinction between "talks" with North Korea and "negotiations." Left unanswered was what there was for the two countries  still technically at war  would have to discuss if not a deal to address concerns about the North's nuclear weapons program.

It was only in October that Trump publicly rebuked Tillerson for his efforts with Pyongyang, tweeting he was "wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man..."

___

RUSSIA'S MOTIVATIONS

When tapped to be the country's top diplomat, Tillerson brought long-standing relationships with Russia forged during his time as CEO of Exxon Mobil. But his tone about the Kremlin has changed with his new job. Just this week Tillerson said the poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain "came from Russia," and that he had become "extremely concerned" about the regime there after spending a year trying to narrow differences with the Kremlin.

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"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."

His harsh words came as President Donald Trump's critics regularly accuse his administration of failing to stand up to the Kremlin, especially over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Just Tuesday, Trump praised a GOP draft report that challenges an assessment by U.S. intelligence that Russian meddling in the 2016 election was an effort to help Trump.

___

IRAN DEAL

President Donald Trump acknowledged that the things he and Tillerson disagreed on included the Iran deal. Trump berated the deal on the campaign trail and has long bristled at the requirement that he repeatedly certify Iran is complying with it. Tillerson "felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same," Trump said. Tillerson had privately encouraged Trump over the last year to stay in the Iran nuclear deal, believing that pulling out would be a greater risk to national security.

___

CLIMATE AND THE PARIS ACCORD

While at Exxon, Tillerson had expressed his support for the Paris climate accord and had urged Trump to stay in it to maintain U.S. influence on the issue. But in June, the president pulled the U.S. out. "My view didn't change," Tillerson said at a hearing on the State Department's budget a few weeks later. "My views were heard out. I respect that the president heard my views, but I respect the decision he's taken."If you were watching MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Comedy Central, TV Land or CMT when the channel went dark at 10 a.m. (in all time zones) on Wednesday, you shouldnt be alarmed. Your regularly scheduled programming is set to continue in 17 minutes.

Why? All Viacom-owned networks and platforms paused at that time to honor the 17 lives lost in the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last month.

According to the company, its a show of solidarity to coincide with the National School Walkout on Wednesday, a movement in which students and teachers all across the country will leave their classrooms for 17 minutes to pay tribute to the victims of gun violence and to show Congress their demand for stricter gun control laws.

Also Read: Paramount Network Delays 'Heathers' TV Series 'Out of Respect' for Florida Shooting Victims

MTV is also handing over control of its social media account to students across the country during the walkout.

Shari Redstone, the vice chair of Viacoms board, will donate $500,000 to the March For Our Lives movement and the companys networks will continue their support after the walkout, with coverage promoting the student-led demonstration in Washington, D.C. on March 24.

This generation continues to be the driving force for change, said Marva Smalls, Viacom executive vice president of global inclusion. With more than 17 young people dying from gun violence every single day, unfortunately no community is safe. We believe its critical to support the inspiring efforts of our youth, who are literally fighting for their lives. Viacom also has a responsibility to our audiences to do everything we can to elevate the many brave and bold activists to help them extend the reach and impact of their voices in this important movement.

Also Read: MTV, VH1 Head of Scripted Maggie Malina Steps Down

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These moves are in line with Viacoms decision to delay the premiere of Heathers on the Paramount Network last month, out of respect for the Florida shooting victims.

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For most of last year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saw Donald Trumps border wall as a joke. The policy lacked support from any major lobby or D.C. think tank. Democrats and Republicans from border areas  where voters werent crazy about the government screwing with their land  hated the proposal. Fiscal conservatives werent anxious to blow money on the boondoggle, and even immigration hardliners werent nearly as invested in the idea as they were in denying amnesty to illegals and restricting legal immigration.

But by January 2018, Trump had achieved the politically impossible: By strengthening his grip on the GOP base  and taking 800,000 American-raised, undocumented immigrants hostage  the president had gotten Senate Democrats to offer him $25 billion in border-wall funding, in exchange for permanent protections for former DACA recipients.

And Trump turned them down.

Despite the fact that Trump officially supported legal status for Dreamers and had made a border wall the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, the president refused to accept Chuck Schumers proposal. Instead, the great deal-maker insisted that Democrats also agree to support cutting legal immigration in half, even though such a measure did not even have enough Republican support to pass the Senate, and thus, was never going to happen.

Now, as Congress prepares to pass its last major spending bill before the November midterms, Trump has apparently realized his mistake. To pass an omnibus bill, Republicans need Democratic support in the Senate  and Democrats wont vote for border-wall funding unless its paired with relief for Dreamers. And if wall money isnt included in this bill, its quite possible that it will never be appropriated in any legislation: At the moment, it appears highly likely that Democrats will retake the House this November.

To this point, the strongest opposition to legal status for Dreamers has been concentrated in the House GOPs right wing. Its quite possible that, in the wake of a wave election, a Republican Senate would be willing to work with a Democratic House on a conventional Dream Act  i.e., amnesty for some subset of Dreamers combined with a bit of border-security funding. And then, there is even an outside chance that Schumer could be Majority Leader next year. Regardless, the chances that a Democratic House would vote for border-wall funding in 2019 are exceedingly slim.

Thus, Trump is desperately trying to get back to the negotiating table. As the Washington Post reports:

White House officials have told key Republican leaders on Capitol Hill that President Trump is open to cutting a deal in an upcoming spending bill to protect young immigrants from deportation in exchange for border wall funding, according to four GOP officials briefed on the talks.

One idea under consideration is a three-year extension of the DACA program in exchange for three years of wall funding, a GOP official said. This official said the talks, which are being led by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and legislative affairs head Marc Short, were fluid.

But the Republican leadership would rather leave Dreamers in limbo than alienate their right flank ahead of a must-pass spending bill. As Politico notes:

I dont get the sense its getting serious traction, said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who said there was no talk of it during a party meeting on Wednesday.

In fact, conservative House Republicans said that such a move could threaten House Speaker Paul Ryans standing among the partys right flank. Ryan is under pressure to pass a conservative immigration bill written by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), not punt.

It would jeopardize the stability of leadership, said Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), an immigration hard-liner. Forcing amnesty into a must-pass bill? Thats beyond the toleration level [of] conservatives in this conference.

And while Democrats would like to give Dreamers some protection from deportation, theyre surely both conscious of the fact that theyre likely to have more leverage on the issue next year  and ambivalent about the prospect of legislating a new category of second-class citizenship (which is what transforming DACA from an administrative policy to a written law would entail).

Its possible that the White House will be able to bring Congress around on a short-term DACA for wall money deal. But for the moment, it sure looks like the deal-maker-in-chief negotiated his way out of fulfilling his No. 1 campaign promise.Despite President Trump's reassurances that his White House is not in chaos, the departures of top aides and key members of his administration paint a very different picture.

As of March 7, there was turnover in 43% of the Trump White House's top-level positions in just 13 months, according to the research of Dr. Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, from the Brookings Institution and the White House Transition Project. Those figures don't include people who have left posts outside of the executive branch during Trump's first year in office.

Needless to say, these numbers are not normal. Tenpas' research shows that the turnover during Trump's first year is more than triple than that of President Barack Obama and double of that of President Ronald Reagan. And according to NPR, in Trump's first 14 months there's been more turnover in his Cabinet than 16 previous presidents had in their first two years in office.

Ahead, the full list of everyone who has either resigned or been fired from the Trump administration sine January 20, 2017.

David Shulkin, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Days in the administration: 431 (though he was appointed by President Obama in 2013)

Forced to resign by President Trump.

Days in the administration: 395

Resigned and decided to retire from the military.

Rex Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of State

Days in the administration: 416

Fired by President Trump, allegedly over differences on how to manage key areas of the U.S. foreign policy.

Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director

Days in the administration: 403

Resigned over her dislike for the D.C. scene and to pursue new opportunities.

Sally Yates, Acting Attorney General

Days in the administration: 11

Fired over her refusal to enforce President Trump's first travel ban.

James Comey, FBI Director

Days in the administration: 110

Fired reportedly because of his refusal to scale down the agency's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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Tom Price, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Days in the administration: 232

Resigned in the aftermath of a scandal for repeatedly traveling on private charter for official trips at taxpayers' expense.

Anthony Scaramucci, White House Communications Director

Days in the administration: 11

Fired by the then newly appointed Chief of Staff John Kelly, just days after going on an expletive-filled rant during an on-the-record interview with The New Yorker.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney

Days in the administration: 51

Fired as part of the purging of the leftover U.S. attorneys who served under the Obama administration.

Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist

Days in the administration: 209

Resigned after a controversial interview with the American Prospect and amid a lot of internal fighting.

Reince Priebus, White House Chief of Staff

Days in the administration: 188

Forced to resign so President Trump could replace him with John Kelly.

Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks Photo: Olivier DoulieryPool/Getty Images.

Tera Dahl, National Security Council Deputy Chief of Staff

Days in the administration: 166

Reassigned to a position outside of the White House, following a power shift in the NSC.

Katie Walsh, Deputy White House Chief of Staff

Days in the administration: 68

Resigned after the failure of the first House effort to repeal Obamacare in order to work at a pro-Trump PAC.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Southerland, Environmental Protection Agency's Director of Science and Technology at the Office of Water

Days in the administration: 193

Resigned in protest of how the EPA was being managed under the Trump administration.

Rich Higgins, National Security Council Director for Strategic Planning

Days in the administration: 176

Fired after writing a memo full of conspiracy theories, which argued the president was under attack domestically and internationally by "globalists," the "Deep State," and "Islamists."

Carl Icahn, Special Adviser to the President

Days in the administration: 211

Resigned before the publishing of an article detailing his conflicts of interest.

Derek Harvey, National Security Council Senior Director for the Middle East

Days in the administration: 182

Fired following a power shift in the NSC.

Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary

Days in the administration: 181

Resigned in protest after the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as White House Communications Director.

Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor

Days in the administration: 23

Forced to resign after it was revealed he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the public about his conversations with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

K.T. McFarland, Deputy National Security Advisor

Days in the administration: 118

Forced to resign following a power shift in the NSC.

Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President

Days in the administration: 211

Forced to resign following John Kelly's efforts to reshape the West Wing staff.

Rob Porter, White House Staff Secretary

Days in the administration: 385

Forced to resign after his two ex-wives went public with domestic violence allegations against him.

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Photo: Olivier Douliery/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Jamie Johnson, Director of the Department of Homeland Securitys Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnership

Days in the administration: 230

Forced to resign after audio of his past derogatory remarks about Black people and Muslims surfaced.

Carl Higbie, Chief of External Affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service

Days in the administration: 153

Forced to resign after audio of his past racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, anti-veterans, and anti-LGBTQ comments surfaced.

Omarosa Manigault, Director of Communications at the White House's Office of Public Liaison

Days in the administration: 340

Resigned in order to "pursue other opportunities."

Taylor Weyeneth, Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

Days in the administration: 364

Forced to resign after questions were raised about his resume and experience, since he was only 24-years-old.

William Bradford, Director of the Energy Department's Office of Indian Energy

Days in the administration: 120

Forced to resign after evidence surfaced of his past inflammatory comments about President Obama's mother.

Mike Dubke, White House Communications Director

Days in the administration: 89

Resigned for personal reasons.

Michael Short, White House Assistant Press Secretary

Days in the administration: 185

Resigned after Anthony Scaramucci told the press of his plans to fire him.

Walter Shaub, Director of the Office of Government Ethics

Days in the administration: 185

Resigned over concerns with the White House's approach to ethics rules.

Mark Corallo, Spokesman for the President's Legal Team

Days in the administration: 59

Resigned reportedly over concerns with how the White House managed the response to reports that Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower in the summer of 2016.

Omarosa Manigault, Former Director of Communications at the White House's Office of Public Liaison Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

John McEntee, Personal Assistant to the President

Days in the administration: 415

Fired because the Secret Service was investigating him for serious financial crimes.

Gary Cohn, National Economic Council Director

Days in the administration: 410

Resigned after internal disagreements over the administration's economic agenda.

Josh Raffel, White House Deputy Communications Director

Days in the administration: 402

Resigned for family reasons.

John Thompson, Director of the Census Bureau

Days in the administration: 110

Resigned to pursue new opportunities in the private sector.

Angella Reid, White House Chief Usher

Days in the administration: 106

Fired over unspecified reasons.

Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Advisor

Days in the administration: 304

Resigned for personal reasons.

Rick Dearborn, Deputy White House Chief of Staff

Days in the administration: 383

Resigned to pursue new opportunities in the private sector.

George Sifakis, Director of the White House's Office of Public Liaison

Days in the administration: 204

Resigned following John Kelly's efforts to reshape the West Wing staff.

Ezra Cohen-Watnick, National Security Council's Senior Director for Intelligence

Days in the administration: 188

Forced to resign following a power shift in the NSC.

Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General

Days in the administration: 92

Forced to resign after assisting the President Trump's transition.

Steve Bannon, Former White House Chief Strategist Photo: Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images.

Maliz Beams, Counselor at the U.S. Department of State

Days in the administration: 97

Resigned reportedly over differences with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Paul Winfree, Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Director of Budget Policy

Days in the administration: 330

Resigned to return to the Heritage Foundation.

Jeremy Katz, White House National Economic Council Deputy Director

Days in the administration: 340

Resigned for personal reasons.

Thomas Shannon, U ndersecretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State

Days in the administration: 385

Resigned for personal reasons.

John Feeley, U.S. Ambassador to Panama

Days in the administration: 385

Resigned over disagreements with the Trump administration.

Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Director

Days in the administration: 374

Resigned from his post after reportedly feeling pressure from FBI Director Christopher Wray. Fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions just before he left the agency.

Richard Cordray, Director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Days in the administration: 308

Resigned in order to run for governor of Ohio.

Craig Deare, Senior Adviser at the National Security Council's Western Hemisphere Division

Days in the administration: 396

Reassigned to a position outside of the White House after criticizing the administration's Latin American policies.

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Trump Thinks The U.S. Should Try Getting Rid Of Presidential Term Limits

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?

Laura Ingraham Apologizes For Tweet Mocking A Parkland Survivor

Parkland Survivor Calls For Boycott Of Laura Ingraham's Advertisers After She Mocks Him

The Parkland Students Arent Just Clapping Back At Critics, They Are Setting An ExampleVisionary physicist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76. The British scientist lived with ALS for 55 years, making him a medical miracle, and reminding us that ALS is a fight that still needs to be won.

This past year, Augie Nieto, co-founder of Life Fitness shared his story with us. He was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in 2005, and he and his wife Lynne Nieto are helping with the fight against ALS in amazing ways. The life expectancy for someone with ALS is usually only 2 to 5 years, but Augie has survived for 13 years after being diagnosed.

Lynne says the Augies Quest foundation has raised $60 million in the last 13 years. Her husband is also the chairman of the ALS Therapy Development Institute, which has raised over $110 million. Lynne and Augie believe it's an underfunded issue, not an incurable disease.

Augie reached out to The Doctors to share his thoughts on Stephen Hawking's passing and to pay tribute to an incredible man:

Stephen Hawking inspired us all  to never stop exploring, to lead with our talents, to never be limited by our disabilities, to challenge our perceptions, and to let our minds be free. I looked to him when I was diagnosed with ALS some 13 years ago, and found something Id yet to realize when it came to this horrible disease  hope. His passion and unending curiosity drives me still today, fueling our non-profit, Augies Quest to Cure ALSour commitment to fund critical research and discover new ways to treat and ultimately cure ALS. A disease Stephen Hawking showed us all how to live with; and, that it is possible to thrive despite ALS, said Augie Nieto, Chief Inspiration Officer, Augies Quest and Chairman ALS Therapy Development Institute, who is in the new film "Augie" chronicling his life, love and journey living with ALS.

To learn more about the Augie's Quest Foundation or to donate, click here.French bulldog puppy dies on United Airlines flight, put in overhead bin

A puppy died on a United Airlines flight Monday after a flight attendant made a passenger put him in the overhead compartment.

Against the airlines policy, a flight attendant on the flight from Houston to La Guardia told the pets owner, Catalina Robledo, she had to stow her 10-month-old French bulldog and his carrier in the overhead bin.

"'It's a dog, it's a dog.' He can't breathe up there.' And she said, 'It doesn't matter, it still goes up there, Robledos daughter, Sophia Ceballos, told CBS. She felt the dog and she put him up there.

The family of the dog, named Kokito, said he barked for two hours before going silent.

Facebook

After the over three-hour flight landed in New York, the dog was dead.

"He was a really special dog. It's just sad the way he has to, just leave," Ceballos said.

Maggie Gremminger told PEOPLE she sat near Robledo on the plane and that the family was visibly devastated at the loss of their beloved pet.

RELATED: The Love A Stranger Gave An Autistic Child During An 8-Hour Flight Shows How Much Kindness Is Left In The World

A stranger offered to hold her newborn while she sat on the floor, there in the airplane aisle, Gremminger said. She was holding her dog and rocking back and forth. Her daughter was also crying.

Gremminger said she is heartbroken that the unnamed flight attendant didnt listen to the Robledos request to keep the dog, which was in a TSA-approved pet carrier, by her side.

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.

Story continues

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According to United Airlines pet policy, the pet carrier must fit completely under the seat in front of the customer and remain there at all times. It says nothing about putting an animal in the overhead compartment.

A passenger who sat behind the owner of the puppy posted about the puppys tragic death on Facebook.

RELATED: Sad New Details Revealed About The 20-Year-Old Girl Who Is Permanently Blind After Gouging Her Eyes Out While On Drugs

However, the flight attendants of flight UA1284 felt that the innocent animal was better off crammed inside the overhead container without air and water. 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," the person wrote.

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Although multiple passengers said they heard the owner explain to the flight attendant there was a dog in the carrier, the attendant told United Airlines she was unaware of the animal, CBS reports.

Spokesman Charlie Hobart told CNNin a statement that the flight attendant was wrong for putting a live animal in the overhead compartment.

"This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," the statement reads. "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."

Spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said that the airline has connected with the deceased puppys owner and offered to pay for an autopsy of the Frenchie, CNN reports.

RELATED: A Woman Is Suing Spirit Airlines After They Banned Her From Traveling With Her Emotional Support Hamster And "Forced" Her To Flush It

Keywords: crime, pets

read moreA trip to Disney World ended in tragedy Tuesday when a bus carrying Texas' Channelview High School band members home from the Florida amusement park drove off the road and into an Alabama ravine, leaving the driver dead and multiple passengers injured.

The bus, which had about 45 people on board, fell into a 50-foot-deep ravine just off Interstate 10, in Loxley, early Tuesday morning, the Associated Press reports. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, officials said.

The bus driver was killed in the accident, and 10 other people were brought to Florida or Alabama hospitals by ambulance or helicopter, AP reports. First responders were forced to rappel into the chasm to rescue survivors, using "every piece of equipment on every truck to reach them," according to AP. I-10 was shut down in both directions while rescue efforts were underway.

Band members from Texas' Channelview High School were performing at a music festival in Orlando on Saturday, AP reports. They were returning to Texas when the bus wreck occurred.

The bus was operated by charter company First Class Tours of Houston.

"Our prayers are with the injured and their families at this time," the company wrote in a statement. "We pledge our assistance in cooperating with local authorities in the investigation."Photo credit: Richland County

From Cosmopolitan

Photo credit: Richland County

Morgan Roof, 18, was arrested on Wednesday and is charged with two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds, WISTV reports. Roof's brother Dylann was sentenced to death last year after murdering nine black people in cold blood in a Charleston church in 2015 - Dylann is an admitted white supremacist who told the FBI he was trying to start a race war with his attack.

On Wednesday, authorities were contacted by Columbia, South Carolina's, A.C. Flora High School to say Roof may have had drugs and weapons on school grounds. She'd also reportedly posted the below Snapchat as students were participating in a nationwide school walkout to protest gun violence; the Snap reportedly caused alarm amongst the student body.

Photo credit: WISTV

"Your [sic] walking out for the allowed time of 17min, they are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what ... you think it's gonna do? I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway," she allegedly wrote. "No offense ofc buuut."

According to CNN, the judge set Roof's bond at $5,000 with the condition she never again return to the high school. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued a statement after the incident thanking those who reported the "suspicious activity," saying "potential tragedy was avoided."

The Richland County Sheriff's Department confirmed Roof was Dylann's younger sister after the arrest. She's also charged with possession of marijuana.

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You Might Also LikeTheresa May and Donald Trump in September. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The leaders of France, Germany, the U.K., and U.S released a joint statement Thursday condemning Russia for its role in the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal on British soil.

The letter opens with Theresa May, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, and Angela Merkel saying they abhor the attack that has left the 66-year-old Skripal and his daughter Yulia hospitalized. It calls the attack an assault on U.K. sovereignty and a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law.

NEW: A joint statement, pointing finger at Russia for Salisbury poisoning, from @theresa_may, @EmmanuelMacron, Angela Merkel and @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/VCSwkKqr3G  Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) March 15, 2018

The statement comes just a day after Britain made its first move to respond to the attack, expelling 23 Russian diplomats and canceling planned diplomatic talks with the Kremlin. Russia has vowed to retaliate for expulsion of the diplomats using what Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the option that best reflects Russian interests.From Cosmopolitan

First it was the lack of pantyhose. Then it was the pants. Now Meghan Markle's legs are back in the news because people think they look too thin. Great!

Not even a week after the hubbub surrounding Kate Middleton's fingers, commoners have found something else "wrong" with the royal family to complain about. Yesterday all the major players made an appearance at Westminster Abbey for Commonwealth Day, and critics were abnormally preoccupied with the appearance of Markle's legs.

The former Suits actress ignited her first royal fashion "faux pas" during her engagement to Prince Harry back in November, when haters objected to seeing her bare legs in public.

"Although pantyhose are not required for every event, they are generally a rule for more formal or conservative royal events," Christine Ross of Meghan's Mirror explained to E! Online. "The perception is that pantyhose are more modest and feminine, but given how chilly London can be, it may be a practical choice more than anything."

So, despite the presence of a pair of nude tights, her ensemble yesterday - which included a white Crombie coat and a matching beret by Princess Diana's favorite milliner Stephen Jones - still caused a stir. Hey, guys, remember how it's not cool to body-shame women? At all? Ever? Period. Cool.

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You Might Also LikeA black man traveling on a United Airlines plane has claimed that a flight attendant agreed to give a white woman sitting next to him a $1,000 voucher for taking her feet off the tray table, while not offering him similar courtesy.

After his complaint went viral on Twitter, he called the company's response "tone deaf".

In a statement to Newsweek, United disputed the story, saying: "At no point was any customer offered compensation for this issue."

Trending: Amateur Scientist Discovers Mysterious New Aurora in Canada and Its Name Is Steve

The audacity of white privilege, Frederick Joseph, who started the Black Panther Challenge fundraising initiative, wrote in a series of tweets on Tuesday March 13.

While on a flight from Austin, Texas, to Newark, New Jersey, Joseph said, a woman sitting next to him took off her shoes and placed her feet on the tray table. He shared a picture appearing to show a persons foot on an airline table.

Joseph said that airline staff did not say anything despite walking past numerous times.

Im irate, Frederick wrote, because no black person would ever get away with this s--t.

When it seemed like the staff would not take any action, Joseph said he decided to speak to the woman beside him. According to Joseph, he said Maam, Im trying to eat, and your feet are next to my food.

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What do you want me to do?" the woman replied, according to Joseph. "The seats are small.

Don't miss: Sharon Stone Defies Casting Woes After Landing Role Written For 25-Year-Old

I understand, which is why there is room for your feet and legs under the seat in front of you, Joseph said he replied.

This is why I fly first class, and I dont come back here with everyone else, the woman then allegedly said back. When Joseph then asked her if she would put her feet down, he said the woman called over a flight attendant and accused Joseph of disrupting her flight while she was just trying to be comfortable.

Story continues

Related: United Airlines Flies 80-Year-Old Woman 1,400 Miles In The Wrong Direction

According to Joseph, the flight attendant suggested that the woman put her feet closer to the window or put one foot down, to which the woman replied: If I put one foot down, I want to be accommodated for accommodating him.

Speaking to Newsweek on the phone, Joseph said that the woman asked for a $1,000 voucher that had been offered by the airline prior to the flight for those willing to take a later plane. He said the attendant went to speak to someone else before returning and agreeing.

Shocked by this, Joseph said he asked the flight attendant What voucher will I be receiving for my suffering?

To which they allegedly replied Sir, we can only make but so many accommodations, and she has agreed to move her feet for you.

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In an update on Wednesday, Joseph said he had recieved a call from United saying that the woman did not recieve any compensation. Joseph says that he told the respresentative: Im happy to hear that, but I still have an issue with the flight attendant pacifying her and essentially taking her side.

Joseph says he told United that "the flight attendant created a negative situation for me and took her side" when the alleged offer took place. "I find it hard to believe that if this was a person of color someone wouldnt have asked her to put her feet down," Joseph said he continued.

He then said that the respresentative identified themselves as "a Hispanic person" and said that they personally did not "believe it has anything to do with race or culture."

In his most recent tweet, Joseph said: "Basically, United had a woman w/ a Spanish sounding surname tell me there should be no issue because the woman ended up not getting money.

"Oh, and racial bias didnt matter here, because again a woman with Spanish sounding name at United says it didnt," adding, "Tone deaf."

In a statement to Newsweek, United Airlines said "At no point was any customer offered compensation for this issue, and weve talked with our customer to clarify this with him, and address his concerns. We want all of our customers to be treated with respect, and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind."

Speaking to Newsweek, Joseph said that he did not feel he had been actively discriminated against but that "I do think theres an underlying way in which white people are often pacified that people of color are just not."

"Even the woman on the phone for United saying 'we would have done the same thing for anybody', I just dont believe that thats true."

"United has said that theres no voucher so she didnt end up getting it," Joseph said, but he added, "even in the moment, if youre not intending on giving her this, youre still publicly pacifying it. Even if she never recieves a thing at all, its still a matter of... you have aligned yourself with what shes saying and what she wants to do so you might as well just give her the money anyway because if it hadnt gone viral I would have been home thinking this woman got this money."

Joseph's story created much conversation on Twitter, with a number of users commenting on the racial undertones they percieved and asking for United to comment or apologize. A number of users noted that it occured a day after United said they took "full responsibility" for a puppy which died when a flight attendant allegedly made the owner put the animal in the overhead compartment.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDoes President Trumps Twitter activity undermine the first ladys cause? (Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

On the same day President Trump announced by tweet that he was replacing Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, the Washington Post reported that Melania Trump is scheduled to meet with tech giants to discuss strategies to curb cyberbullying.

Sources told the paper that the first lady, who has spoken in the past about her desire to see more positive online interactions, will address leaders from Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Snap.

Trump is reportedly hesitant to use the term cyberbullying, however, and her spokeswoman confirmed only that she had simply asked for a meeting to discuss one of the many things that impacts children.

Though the consensus is that more can be done to promote civility and crack down on trolls online  particularly when children are involved  Trumps project has been met with some derision.

Many called it ironic, given President Trumps reputation for online attacks  most recently, a New York Times reporter whom he blasted as a Hillary flunky  and Donald Trump Jr.s liking tweets that promote conspiracy theories involving 17-year-old Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg. Hoggs 14-year-old sister, Lauren, personally called on the first lady to stop the cyberbullying.

Not surprisingly, the Twittersphere had some strong reactions.

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The first ladys meeting is scheduled to take place March 20.

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Gina Haspel is the CIAs first female director  why arent more female agents getting promoted?

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We first met Lacena Candy Carson on the campaign trail in 2016, when she stumped for her husband, then-presidential candidate Ben Carson. After Ben took a role as Donald Trumps secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Candy became less visible than many Trumpworld spouses; she is mostly known as the accomplished violinist who played the national anthem at her husbands campaign kickoff event, instead of, say, posing with money. That is, until the saga of the $31,000 dining-room set dominated headlines, and drew Candy Carson right back into the spotlight.

Its been two weeks since The New York Times broke the news that Carson had tried to cancel an order for a $31,000 dining set for his office; Carson denied that he had any knowledge of the purchase when it was originally made. But newly released e-mails published by CNN reveal that the furniture was purchased based on printouts of the furniture the secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out. In addition, the initial Times report noted that a whistleblower claimed that Candy Carson had pressured her to find a way around a $5,000 limit on renovation expenses.

Even if she did allegedly do some behind-the-scenes pressuring of Carson staff, Candy Carson is still not letting on about how this table order really came to be. A H.U.D. spokesperson blamed the order on a Carson staffer, per CNN.

The secretary did not order a new table, this person said. The table was ordered by the career staffers in charge of the building. On Tuesday, H.U.D. spokesman Raffi Williams said that Candy Carson did have somewhat of a hand in the process, if only vaguely.

When presented with options by professional staff, Mrs. Carson participated in the selection of specific styles, he said.

The Greatest Carny Show on Earth: Inside CPAC, the Super Bowl for Trump Supporters

Photograph by Amy Lombard.

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Photograph by Amy Lombard.Young adults in one particular Pennsylvania suburb are at an increased risk of contracting an STD. According to a state health department alert, STDs, including HIV, among 15-to-24-year-olds in Beaver County, a suburb of Pittsburgh, are alarmingly high.

In calendar year (CY) 2017 and continuing into 2018 there has been a nearly threefold increase in the number of new diagnoses of HIV disease among Beaver County residents compared to the average number of new diagnoses in the previous five years, the alert states.

But HIV isnt the only STD on the rise in that area: Beaver County saw a 33 percent increase in reported gonorrhea cases from 2016 to 2017, from 137 cases in 2016 to 182 cases in 2017, the statement continues.

This increase was predominantly in 15-24 year olds, and saw concurrent increases in HIV cases as well, a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of Health tells Yahoo Lifestyle exclusively.

The state is trying to uncover why these STDs are affecting this particular area: The Pennsylvania Department of Health is working with local officials and investigating the potential causes of the increase in STDs among 15-24 year olds in Beaver County, Acting Secretary of Health and Physician General Rachel Levine, MD, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. At this time, this county is the only one in Pennsylvania seeing numbers of STD cases above what has typically being seen in the past.

However, according to CBS Pittsburgh, the issue has spread to Allegheny County as well. Our incidence rates for syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV have and continue to exceed the states incidence rates, Allegheny County Health Department Director Karen Hacker, MD, told the local news station.

STDs among 15-to-24-year-olds in a suburb of Pittsburgh are unusually high. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Pennsylvania DOH assured Yahoo Lifestyle that an increase can happen anywhere, and it is difficult to pinpoint exact causes.

Frank DiCenco at AHNs Premier Womens Health in Sewickley told CBS Pittsburgh it could be that the younger population is more promiscuous today than probably ever before.

Story continues

Part of the problem is that nearly half of U.S. high school students have had sexual intercourse, and only half of those students report using a condom, based on a 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on youth risk behavior. This is unfortunate yet unsurprising, since a 2014 MAC AIDS Fund survey found that nearly nine in 10 American teens mistakenly believe they are not at risk of contracting HIV or AIDS in their lifetime.

The Pennsylvania DOH also said that Pennsylvania has been seeing an increase in STDs much like the rest of the country. The increases Pennsylvania has seen in STD cases in recent years reflects increases nationally. The CDC reported that in 2013, teens and young adults contracted almost half of the 20 million new cases of STDs.

According to an article published last week, at least 125 people  including a dozen high school kids  in Milwaukee have been infected with HIV, syphilis, or both in one of the biggest outbreaks ever reported in the city. A representative from Milwaukee Public Schools sent the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle: In December, the Milwaukee Health Department informed Milwaukee Public Schools that the entire city is experiencing an increase in Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in 15-24-year-olds.

This problem is nationwide, however: In 2016, STD rates in the U.S. were the highest ever reported, according to the CDC. The CDC estimates that there are more than 20 million new cases of STDs in the United States each year, and at least half occur in young people aged 15 to 24.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.The list of things we have in common with Princess Charlotte is...short.

We're female and we're currently alive. End of list.

But wait! Prince William recently revealed his little gal's favorite hobby, and coincidentally, it's one of our faves as well.

Drumroll, please: It's dancing.

According to Hello! magazine, the Prince told Malta's prime minister at a Commonwealth Day reception, "My daughter Charlotte loves dancing."

No word on her favorite moves or songs, but is it just us, or does she strike you as a total Spice Girls gal?

RELATED: Queen Elizabeth Just Shared a Super-Sweet Detail About Prince George and Princess Charlotte's RelationshipDr. Stephen Hawking

On March 14, 2018, the world mourned the loss of Cambridge professor Stephen W. Hawking, PhD. Perhaps the most remarkable part of his passing was the fact that he was 76 years oldhe wasn't supposed to live past 23. Surviving the next 55 years took constant care, determination, andthough it seems strange to say itincredible luck.

In 1963, Dr. Hawking was a promising doctoral student at the University of Cambridge when he developed unusual clumsiness. He fell down a flight of stairs, according to author Kitty Ferguson's biography, Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind, and his speech began to slur. His doctors diagnosed him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosisALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. The prognosis: He had two years to live.

How did Dr. Hawking escape this death sentence? This is where chance creeps in: Although within a couple of years his speech was nearly unintelligible and he couldn't walk without assistance, Dr. Hawking nonetheless had an extremely slow-growing form of the disease. Two to five yearsthat is the common prognosis for ALS, Lucie Bruijn, PhD, MBA, chief scientist for the ALS Association told Readers Digest. Only 10 percent of patients survive for more than ten years. I was just at a big meeting with colleagues, and no one had ever seen such a case, says Dr. Bruijn, Only one clinician there had a patient that survived 20 years. Leo McCluskey, MD, associate professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, told Scientific American that slow-growing forms of ALS occur in "less than a few percent" of patients.

One of the mysteries of ALS is how it will progress, explains Dr. McCluskey. The condition attacks your muscle control centersyour motor neurons. There are two setshigher motor neurons in the frontal lobe of your brain and lower motor neurons in the spine. The disease can knock out the higher group, the lower, or both. Dr. Bruijn points out that ALS may also damage other parts of the brain, leading to dementia.

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ALS kills by disabling the muscles that help you breathe and swallow, which is why good care is so crucial to a patients survival, points out Dr. Bruijnand it played a key role in Dr. Hawking's story. On a 1985 trip to the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, Dr. Hawking contracted severe pneumonia (a common risk for ALS patients). He became so ill that doctors recommended stopping life support; his wife refused. Instead, the staff doubled down on his care: After a tracheotomy and around-the-clock nursing, Dr. Hawking recovered.

Dr. Bruijn points to research in Europe demonstrating that patients live longer and fare better when they get medical help tailored to ALS. The care he received and the technology he was able to take advantage ofthe motorized wheelchair, the communication systemhelped Dr. Hawking continue his research and engagement in life. She speculates that his active life may have, in turn, contributed to his longevity.

Dr. Hawking was a global icon for his intellect, and also because he continued to live a vibrant life with ALS, she says. Learn more about ALSand how to help in the fight against ithere.

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Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.A uniter, not a divider. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

On Capitol Hill, Republicans are united by their support for slashing taxes on the wealthy, and their opposition to increasing social spending on the poor. Congressman Steve King and Senator Susan Collins disagree about many things  among them the propriety of the presidents tweets, the benefits of legal immigration, and whether nonwhite people have ever contributed anything to civilization  but they nevertheless share a deep and abiding commitment to making the tax code more regressive.

Which is to say, the bitterest divisions among Republican elected officials, commentators, and operatives appear to lie on culture war issues; chiefly, on questions of immigration policy, racial rhetoric, and how unconditional ones loyalty should be to Donald Trumps personality cult.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats often appear most united on (what are conventionally referred to as) issues of social and cultural liberalism. During the 2016 primary, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton boasted nearly identical platforms on abortion, LGBT rights, criminal-justice reform, and immigration. But they argued bitterly over the desirability of single-payer health care, tuition-free public college, and breaking up the major Wall Street banks. In recent weeks, this internal division over the size and role of government has come back to the foreground, as a bill loosening post-2008 financial regulations sparked an acrimonious spat between the right and left flanks of Chuck Schumers caucus.

All this has led many pundits to believe that Donald Trumps brand of hard-edge nationalism has sown divisions within the GOP base  and even chased a significant number of moderate Republicans out of the party, while Democratic voters are split between Sanders-style social democrats and Clintonian neoliberals.

But a new working paper from Vanderbilt University political scientist Larry Bartels suggests this conventional wisdom is wrong. In truth, Republican voters are united by their support for Trumps reactionary nationalism, and divided on questions of taxes and spending  while the Democratic base is bound together by its support for big government, but somewhat divided by culture war issues.

In 2015 and 2016, YouGov surveyed the same 2,000 Americans about their views on the major parties and a wide range of policy issues. In November 2017, Bartels checked up on those same 2,000 individuals to see how the 2016 campaign had impacted their ideological views and partisan identities. Heres what he found:

[T]he current conventional wisdom regarding the bases of conflict within each party seems, judging from my analysis, to be quite mistaken. Democrats are supposed to be split between the young progressives drawn to Sanderss democratic socialism (Yglesias 2016) and an old guard committed to the neoliberalism of the Clintons and Joe Biden. In fact, however, rank and file Democrats are relatively united in their enthusiasm for an active government, but less united on cultural issues, where a sizable minority cling to the traditional values downplayed or even rejected by most party leaders.

Converselyrank 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 statea 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.

Remarkably, Bartels finds no evidence in these data that Trump has alienated traditional Republicans  at least, not to the point of precipitating defections from the party. Only 21 of the participants in YouGovs survey defected from the Republican Party in 2015 to the Democratic Party in 2017. And these voters were not more highly educated  nor much more socially or culturally liberal  than the average Republican. Coincidentally, exactly 21 respondents made the opposite partisan switch between 2015 and 2017. And these voters did look about as one would expect: While they tended to be a tad more conservative than the average Democrat on limited government issues, voters who defected to Trumps GOP were far to the right of the generic blue American on issues of culture conservatism.

Now, this is just one study. And other surveys have shown a more significant decline in Republican self-identification than the one Bartels found. But his conclusions about the nature of intraparty divides among Democratic and Republican bases are buttressed by other studies of the electorate and single-issue polls.

And yet, none of this means that the conventional wisdom about the the bases of conflict within each party is wrong. After all, we dont live in a direct democracy, but rather, a deeply dysfunctional republic  one in which the average member of Congress is a millionaire, the average House race costs more than $10 million to win, and corporations spend roughly $2.6 billion each year on lobbying. A sizable minority (if not a slim majority) of Republican voters support raising taxes on the superrich to fund more generous health-insurance subsidies for the middle-class  but that hasnt prevented GOP lawmakers from almost unanimously supporting the opposite proposition.

Meanwhile, just because Democratic voters are united in their support for big government liberalism doesnt mean that the party isnt riven by internal conflicts over the size and scale of the welfare and regulatory states. Democratic candidates need money to win elections; corporations have a great deal of that stuff, and tend to be more comfortable with the partys social liberalism than with its economically populist streak. And one consequence of this reality is that Chuck Schumer is currently helping Mitch McConnell increase the probability of a future financial crisis.

Similarly, just because one-fourth of Democratic voters think Trump has a point about standing for the national anthem, building a border wall, and the scourge of reverse racism, doesnt mean one-fourth of Democratic lawmakers are likely to feel the same: Such attitudes are disproportionately concentrated in non-college-educated voters, and there are very few of those in Congress. The fact that an elite socioeconomic and educational background is virtually a prerequisite for federal office in the U.S. means that our representatives tend to be more economically conservative, and culturally liberal, than their constituents. And this bent is reinforced by campaign finance pressures.

All of which is to say: Conventional wisdom is largely right about the most salient divisions in both parties  but wrong in assuming that those divisions are rooted in popular opinion. Political journalists should make a greater effort to mind this distinction; otherwise, they risk conveying the impression that there is a significant constituency for Paul Ryans austerity budgets  and broad, public consensus in favor of financial deregulation  when all available evidence points to the opposite conclusion.And yes, it was scented

In the ultimate fangirl move, during a press call, a plucky reporter gave Reese Witherspoon a copy of her college dissertation  a 15,000 word meditation on Witherspoons wildly popular film, Legally Blonde and its role in creating strong female characters.

Lucy Jayne Ford, a reporter for Bauer Media in London, was at a press junket to interview Witherspoon and her Wrinkle in Time co-stars Oprah Winfrey and Mindy Kaling, but couldnt resist the opportunity to show her admiration for Witherspoon.

I want to start by saying Im obviously a gigantic fan of all of you; Reese, I actually wrote 15,000 words on you once, Ford said before handing Reese a copy of her lengthy dissertation and explaining that she had watched the film 800 times to write it.

You can read it, you can burn it, you can clean your windows with it, but I feel like this was full circle for me that I wrote that four years ago.

While Ford conducted her interview after giving Witherspoon the dissertation, Witherspoon made sure to ask her one burning question that Elle Woods most definitely would have approved of before their time ended.

I have just one question, Witherspoon said. Is it scented?

I actually put perfume on it before this, Ford confided.

See Witherspoon receive the dissertation below.You weren't supposed to be talking about Stormy Daniels anymore. Even when the news broke that Donald Trump's lawyer, just days before the 2016 presidential election, had quietly paid a porn star a six-figure sum for her silence about her alleged extramarital affair with the candidate, it seemed destined to become just another one of the myriad scandals that, on its own, would have brought any other administration to a swift and ignominious end. But because this president is Donald Trump and not anyone else, it never seemed to matter quite as much as one might expect.

You are, however, still talking about Stormy Daniels, because Stormy Danielsreal name Stephanie Cliffordhasn't gone anywhere. The actress, perhaps emboldened by speculation as to whether the payment might constitute an unreported campaign contribution, embarked on a series of legal and public relations maneuvers designed to unshackle her. Earlier this month, she sued Trump in a California court, alleging that because only the president's lawyerand not the presidentsigned the nondisclosure agreement that accompanied the $130,000 payment, no "agreement" between Clifford and Trump ever really took place. A day later, she teased a 60 Minutes interview and publicly offered to return the money in exchange for the right to "speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the president and the attempts to silence her." When Trump missed the offer's expiration date, her attorney pounced.

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While CBS fact-checks the interview and, presumably, assigns a small army of lawyers to assess the potential liability associated with airing it, Trump has become uncharacteristically preoccupied with the saga's potential fallout. A source close to the president told CNN that Trump has been asking friends for their advice on how to make the story go away, and that, in the source's estimation, it might pose a greater threat to the presidency than Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. And for a man for whom no subject is too delicate for a tweet, there has been a noticeable dearth of Stormy Daniels-related missives emanating from the world's most-watched Twitter account.

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Clifford is succeeding where so many others have failed because, unlike the president's sorry lot of bested political rivals, she gets him. Throughout the 2016 campaign and since taking office, Trump has taken advantage of the fact that politicians tend to cling to an archaic notion of performative, above-the-board decency that he cheerfully floutsand by the time they decide to try their hand at casting aside erudite policy debates and fighting dirty, too, it's too late for it to matter. Stormy Daniels doesn't give a shit about polling numbers, or Sunday shows, or what the electorate thinks. Like Trump, she is a savvy self-promoter who is concerned only with winning, and she has no problem pulling the type of clever stunts that feckless also-rans like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio would have undoubtedly deemed beneath him.

This isn't the only thing they have in common. Yesterday, her lawyer trumpeted the patriotic motives purportedly underlying her quest for freedom, captioning a picture of his client and Anderson Cooper with a Teddy Roosevelt quote that refers to "courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood" as the "virtues that made America." Earlier this month, though, when asked if Daniels hopes to profit from her story, he flatly denied it and then backtracked in the same breath. "I don't know whether she's going to ultimately seek payment or not," Michael Avenatti put it to CBS This Morning. "What I do know is that she wants the public to know the truth, and she wants to be free of these agreements."

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Those goalsinforming the public, and freeing herself from relevant legal encumbrancesare related, but they aren't synonymous. And, respectfully, the assertion that she is uninterested in being compensated for her troubles strains credulity. Stormy Daniels probably loves America and democracy as much as anyone, but if telling voters salient information about Donald Trump's character were really her goal, it stands to reason that she would not have accepted $130,000 in exchange for a promise not to do just that. The far likelier explanation here is that in the intervening months, she has shrewdly determined that she has a lot more to gain from talking than she does from remaining silent. If the public learns "the truth" at the end of all of this, it will be a byproduct of Clifford's efforts to maximize her fame, her notoriety, and her earning potentialnot the purpose.

And that's perfectly fine. People needn't be motivated only by dutiful, highfalutin notions of patriotism in order to make a difference in the world, and amassing a fortune by smartly playing whatever weird hand you're dealt in life is the American dream, dammit. Stormy Daniels is outmaneuvering the president by being the first person to follow the Donald Trump blueprint better than Donald Trump himself, and she will have earned everythingthe tell-all book deal to end all tell-all book deals, at the very leastshe gets out of this.Miami (AFP) - The world's leading brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny plastic particles that are likely seeping in during the packaging process, according to a major study across nine countries published Wednesday.

"Widespread contamination" with plastic was found in the study, led by microplastic researcher Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia, according to a summary released by Orb Media, a US-based non-profit media collective.

Researchers tested 250 bottles of water in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand and the United States.

Plastic was identified in 93 percent of the samples, which included major name brands such as Aqua, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life and San Pellegrino.

The plastic debris included nylon, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene, which is used to make bottle caps.

"In this study, 65 percent of the particles we found were actually fragments and not fibers," Mason told AFP.

"I think that most of the plastic that we are seeing is coming from the bottle itself. It is coming from the cap. It is coming from the industrial process of bottling the water."

Particle concentration ranged from "zero to more than 10,000 likely plastic particles in a single bottle," said the report.

On average, plastic particles in the 100 micron (0.10 millimeter) size range -- considered "microplastics" -- were found at an average rate of 10.4 plastic particles per liter.

Even smaller particles were more common -- averaging about 325 per liter.

Other brands that were found to contain plastic contaminated included Bisleri, Epura, Gerolsteiner, Minalba and Wahaha.

Experts cautioned that the extent of the risk to human health posed by such contamination remains unclear.

"There are connections to increases in certain kinds of cancer to lower sperm count to increases in conditions like ADHD and autism," said Mason.

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"We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies."

- Time to ditch plastic? -

Previous research by Orb Media has found plastic particles in tap water, too, but on a smaller scale.

"Tap water, by and large, is much safer than bottled water," said Mason.

The three-month study used a technique developed by the University of East Anglia's School of Chemistry to "see" microplastic particles by staining them using fluorescent Nile Red dye, which makes plastic fluorescent when irradiated with blue light.

"We have been involved with independently reviewing the findings and methodology to ensure the study is robust and credible," said lead researcher Andrew Mayes, from UEA's School of Chemistry.

"The results stack up."

However, representatives from the bottled water industry took issue with the findings, saying they were not peer-reviewed and "not based on sound science," according to a statement from the International Bottled Water Association.

"A recent scientific study published in the peer-reviewed journal Water Research in February 2018 concluded that no statistically relevant amount of microplastic can be found in water in single-use plastic bottles," it added.

"There is no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of microplastic particles. The data on the topic is limited and conclusions differ dramatically from one study to another."

Jacqueline Savitz, chief policy officer for North America at Oceana, a marine advocacy group that was not involved in the research, said the study provides more evidence that society must abandon the ubiquitous use of plastic water bottles.

"We know plastics are building up in marine animals, and this means we too are being exposed, some of us every day," she said.

"It's more urgent now than ever before to make plastic water bottles a thing of the past."With tariffs done, Trumps sights are now on the Iran dealand, possibly, the Russia investigation. The president is finally realizing he is the president, a former White House official told me. Hes just making these decisions on his own.

From the moment Donald Trump appointed Chief of Staff John Kelly last summer, he vented to friends and advisers that Kelly was too overbearing, preventing him from acting on his instincts and impulses, the things that got him elected president. To truly be himself, Trump turned to Twitter and Fox & Friends. But over the past week, even though Kelly is still nominally on the scene, his presidency has entered a new phaseone in which Trump feels emboldened to throw off the shackles that have thus far constrained him.

In the span of a few days, Trump launched a global trade war by imposing new steel and aluminum tariffs; stunned the world by making a snap decision to sit down with Kim Jong Un at a nuclear summit this spring; fired his long-suffering secretary of state, Rex Tillerson; and appointed notorious supply-sider Larry Kudlow. The president is finally realizing he is the president, a former White House official told me. Hes just making these decisions on his own.

Speaking to reporters shortly after tweeting that he had replaced Tillerson at Foggy Bottom with hardline C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo, Trump indicated he would soon move against his remaining antagonists, many of whom he appointed with glee, in the executive branch. Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want, he said.

Some of whats driving Trump is a desire to surround himself with loyalists. But there are also high-stakes policy implications to Trumps uninhibited management style. Sources said Trump fired Tillerson partly because Tillerson opposed Trumps oft-stated desire to scuttle the Iran nuclear dealTrump even mentioned their disagreement when speaking to the press. And three sources told me that the next official likely to go is National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who, like Tillerson, had advocated for remaining in the deal.

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Last Tuesday, Trump met with ultra-hawkish former U.N. ambassador John Bolton in the Oval Office to discuss a potential job offer. Bolton has for years argued that the United States should pre-emptively attack Tehran. In 2015, he wrote a New York Times op-ed headlined, To Stop Irans Bomb, Bomb Iran, and last month, he wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed outlining the legal case for a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.

According to a person who spoke with Bolton after the meeting, Bolton recalled that Trump said he wanted him to join the administration: We need you in here, John. Bolton responded that there were only two jobs hed consider: secretary of state and national security adviser. Trump said, O.K, Ill call you really soon. Sources added that Trump spent much of the time with Bolton fuming that McMaster was speaking privately with Barack Obamas former national security adviser Susan Rice. Trump kept saying, Can you believe it? To Susan Rice? Can you believe it?

Perhaps most consequential for Robert Muellers investigation, sources said Trump has discussed a plan to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions. According to two Republicans in regular contact with the White House, there have been talks that Trump could replace Sessions with E.P.A. Administrator Scott Pruitt, who would not be recused from overseeing the Russia probe. Also, as an agency head and former state attorney general, Pruitt would presumably have a good shot at passing a Senate confirmation hearing.

Then there is the question of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trumps futures. Trump has told people for months that he wants them to go back to New York. Trump wants them out of there. He thinks theyve been getting hit too hard, a friend of the president said. But Javanka are digging in, sources said. Theyve damaged us so much already. What else can they say about us? Kushner recently said, according to a person who spoke with him. And if we go back to New York, theyll keep attacking. So what do we have to lose? In recent days, the couple have argued for their continued relevance by cooperating with pieces in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Sources said that if Kelly is forced out, Jared and Ivanka will fight to stay on.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Pruitt would not have to undergo a Senate confirmation hearing.President Trump was recently seen with what looks like a shrub of weeds in his front pocket. The President whom has been criticized for his style before, like wearing scotch tape on his tie- he was actually following many presidents footprints before him with showing this bizarre form of appreciation to the Irish. As the holiday of St. Patricks Day is just a few days away, it is the tradition for the President of the United States of America to welcome the Irish Prime Minister. The Prime Minister typically gifts the president with a bowl of shamrocks.The dangers of teenagers throwing house parties  like these kids in the movie Project X  are numerous. (Photo: Everett Collection)

After using her parents credit card to rent a house in which to throw a wild party, a Canadian 14-year-old is in major trouble  $20,000 worth, actually. Thats the amount of damage the teens caused, and which her parents must now pay.

Last week, police responded to a call that reported an uncontrolled party at a neighborhood home in West Vancouver, where nearly 200 teens were seen flooding out once officials arrived, according to CTV News. Left in their wake was a house with much destruction  to walls, furniture, and artwork, all of which her parents will be held accountable for.

According to the police report, the young girl responsible for the event had used her parents credit card without their permission. But the parents will still have to find a way to pay.

And while that might seem like a nightmare to any mom or dad, parents in the U.S. would not only be financially liable, but likely criminally as well, thanks to the threat of social host laws in many states.

There have been numerous cases of parents facing charges for hosting parties that involve underage drinking. While in this particular case, the parents werent present and the fete wasnt even at their own home, their names were on the credit card used to lay out payment for the rental house.

Social host laws hold non-commercial individuals, including parents, landowners, and tenants, responsible for underage drinking events on property they own, lease, or otherwise control, according to the Center for the Study of Law and Enforcement Policy  meaning that guardians remain responsible whether they provide the alcohol or not. (Luckily for these parents, though, Canadas Supreme Court ruled against social host liability law in the 2006 case of Childs v. Desomoreaux.)

Legal problems aside, though, the Canada party disaster can serve as a much-needed teachable moment for teens who may be thinking about throwing their own out-of-control party.

The first thing parents have to do is talk to their kids, child and adolescent psychologist Barbara Greenberg tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Approach it in a two-pronged way. Empathize with your kid and align yourself with them so that they know youre on their side. Explain the peer pressures and negative outcomes. Secondly, explain that this is our home that weve worked so hard for, and as a part of the family, you need to protect it too, and our resources.

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Its also important to have an adult supervising, she says, as a grown-ups presence can help a teen deflect inevitable peer pressure.

Youre actually helping your child by having an adult in the house or a neighbor stopping by, because youre giving your child an out, Greenberg explains. Kids get really scared, and theyre going to be secretly grateful that you helped them, especially with social medias ability to turn a seemingly innocent party into something that is out of a kids control.

As for what can be learned after a child makes the mistake of throwing a party that results in financial disaster? Greenberg says the bottom line is that young teenage children and unlimited credit cards are a dangerous recipe.

These parents should work out a plan for the teen to pay, she says of the 14-year-old Canadian girl, adding that this extreme example should serve as a talking point for parents everywhere. Show your kids the article, and ask them what they think. They want to know that you value what they say. They want to feel relevant and want to be heard.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Most students who wear an outfit deemed inappropriate by school administrators get sent home at some point during the school day. But for one high schooler in North Carolina, getting home from school was the whole problem after the assistant principal wouldnt let her on the school bus because of the top she was wearing.

On Friday afternoon, India Middleton received a call from her 16-year-old daughter, Makhigha Davis, who was sitting in Hoke County High Schools main office, telling her mom that she was taken off of the bus by school administrators.

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I told her I was working and needed to wait until my last pickup came, Middleton wrote in a Facebook post that has gone viral. I didnt receive a call from the administration until 5 p.m. He and I had a verbal exchange that ended in him hanging up on me.

Nearly an hour later, around 5 p.m., Middleton was finally able to get to the high school to pick up her daughter. When she arrived, she found Davis sitting outside of the school in 50-degree weather, with no adult supervision. In a video included in her Facebook post, Middleton is seen walking up to the building to show that all the lights are off, and all doors are locked. Davis said the last staffer left inside had closed the office and told her to wait outside.

I feel that if my child is not allowed to ride the bus because of inappropriate clothing, why would she be allowed to remain on campus for an hour and 45 minutes past the incident? Middleton continued in her post. And could this not have been addressed by in-school suspension Monday?

According to a statement provided to ABC11 by the school, it probably could have been dealt with at another time  and should have been.

Hoke County Schools will not make excuses for the poor judgement demonstrated by the assistant principal, the statement read. The best course of action would have been to allow the student to get on the bus Friday afternoon and, if deemed necessary, handle any dress code issues on Monday morning. All administrators understand that if a child is pulled from a bus then they are responsible for that childs supervision until they are safely picked up by a parent.

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But after coming to find her daughter in a seemingly unsafe situation, Middleton doesnt think the school has done enough by the statement. In fact, Middleton told ABC11 that she hasnt sent Davis back to school since.

Numerous parents have chimed in on Middletons Facebook post to express their own concerns about the way that Davis was treated, in addition to their confusion over the dress code issue. But, most important, everyone seems to be wondering about what the superintendent will do to punish the assistant principals actions  Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment from the school has not yet been returned.

It seems like there is no consequence for the administrator, Middleton told the ABC affiliate. He gets to go about his regular day.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

 Prom dress code bans students from showing excessive clevage  and the teens are upset

 After a boy with braided hair violated his dress code, his mom switched schools

 Dress-coded student told that not wearing a bra makes people assume bad things

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



A father in Afghanistan has caused strained relations with his family after naming his now-18-month-old son Donald Trump, according to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The report says the boy was born with light hair in the countrys central Daykundi Province while US President Donald Trump was running for office. The boys father, Sayed Assadullah, told RFE/RL that he named his son Donald Trump because he was a fan of the presidents writing, as well his business and political work, and because he hoped the name would bring his son success.

The decision to give the boy a non-Islamic is said to have angered relatives enough to prompt Assadullah to move with his family to Kabul. Despite this, Assadullah has high hopes for his son, the report says.

(President) Donald Trump has a lot of special qualities. Hes very capable, hes serious, and hes a good politician and a good writer, Assadullah says in the video, according to a translation provided by RFE/RL.

Because hes a really good person, and he wrote a lot of impressive books, and because he was a successful businessman, we decided to name our son Donald Trump. Credit: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via StoryfulJohannesburg (AFP) - South Africa summoned Australia's envoy to Pretoria Thursday to explain comments by a Canberra minister who suggested "persecuted" white farmers in the country should be offered fast-tracked humanitarian visas.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who has drawn criticism for cracking down on asylum seekers from Asia and the Middle East, said white farmers could be admitted as refugees.

Dutton made the offer in response to Pretoria's vow to enact land "expropriation without compensation" to redress land confiscations of the colonial and apartheid era.

According to police, 74 farmers were murdered between 2016 and 2017 in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest crime rates.

"It was communicated to the High Commissioner that the South African Government is offended by the statements," said foreign ministry spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya in a statement that demanded Dutton retract the comments.

The African Farmers Association of South Africa said it was "offensive for the minister to polarise agriculture".

"He is bringing a racial dimension into a socio-economic issue," said spokesman Neo Masithela. "Transformation has been extremely slow, it is a very emotional issue."

Land is a hugely divisive topic in South Africa, where 72 percent of individually-owned farms are in white hands 24 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule.

By contrast just four percent of such land is owned by black people, according to an audit cited by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Dutton suggested that white South African farmers could apply for humanitarian visas typically sought by Iranian, Iraqi and Somali asylum seekers.

"If you look at the footage and read the stories, you hear the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance they face," Dutton told Sydney's Daily Telegraph tabloid.

Another Australian cabinet minister, Steve Ciobo, agreed the farmers' situation was "cause for concern".

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"Let's be frank, if we see in this case -- people who are being thrown off their land, being persecuted, I've read of people being shot, rapes, all sorts of different things -- then I do believe that there's a role to be played," he told broadcaster ABC.

- New drive to re-distribute land -

South Africa earlier said that the situation described by the Australian ministers "does not exist".

"There is no reason for any government in the world to suspect that a section of South Africans is under danger from their own democratically elected government," said the foreign ministry in an uncharacteristically blunt statement.

The ruling African National Congress announced at its conference in December that it would press ahead with plans to amend the constitution to allow for redistribution of land without compensation to the affected owner.

"We must -- given the history we have had -- work with urgency to significantly and sustainably escalate the pace of land reform," Ramaphosa told parliament on Wednesday.

The government has not yet spelt out exactly how land would be redistributed.

Botched and often violent redistribution of land in neighbouring Zimbabwe under ex-leader Robert Mugabe left many farms in ruins, and the drop in production triggered an economic crisis that still haunts the country.

- 'Scapegoats' -

Campaign group AfriForum, which advocates for its largely white membership, many of whom speak Afrikaans, said farmers had been used as "scapegoats" for South Africa's wider problems.

"It must serve as a warning that South Africa runs the risk to lose even more productive, loyal citizens should their concerns about issues such as property rights not be listened to," said AfriForum's deputy chief executive Alana Bailey.

In October 2017 AfriForum put the murder rate for commercial farmers at 156 per 100,000 in 2016-17 -- well above the national average of 34.1 per 100,000.

But independent fact-checking service AfricaCheck warned that it was impossible to definitively state the murder rate for farmers in South Africa.

"South Africa is a very violent society and many people, not just farmers, experience unacceptably high levels of serious crime," Frans Cronje, head of the South African Institute for Race Relations, told AFP.

"It is futile and self-defeating to get into a conflict about whether farmers are more at risk than other South Africans."

Up to 500,000 white South Africans have left the country in the past 30 years, according to official statistics, with Australia ranking as the top destination.Lie to us all you want, just leave Justin Trudeau out of this. Photo: MIKE THEILER/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Following a string of particularly damaging controversies, President Trump let loose in recent days by taking steps to launch a global trade war, announcing hed sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Unsurprisingly, the Trumpiness has been turned up to 11 in private as well. The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Politico obtained audio recordings of a closed-door speech to donors on Wednesday in Missouri, which featured some new Trump gems, and/or terrifying insights into how the president views the world. Here are some of the standout moments.

Trump Bragged About the Time He Gave Trudeau Made-up Facts About Trade

Trump recalled insisting to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau that the U.S. has a trade deficit with his country, though he had no idea whether that was true. Per the Post:

Trudeau came to see me. Hes a good guy, Justin. He said, No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,  Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio obtained by The Washington Post. Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  Donald, we have no trade deficit. Hes very proud because everybody else, you know, were getting killed.

 So, hes proud. I said, Wrong, Justin, you do. I didnt even know.  I had no idea. I just said, Youre wrong. You know why? Because were so stupid.  And I thought they were smart. I said, Youre wrong, Justin. He said, Nope, we have no trade deficit. I said, Well, in that case, I feel differently, I said, but I dont believe it. I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, Check, because I cant believe it.

Well, sir, youre actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesnt include energy and timber.  And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. Its incredible.

Its no big revelation that Trump says things that are wildly false, and he actually told a version of the Trudeau story during a December rally in Pensacola, Florida.

In the Florida speech, Trump claimed he knew he was right because we dont have a surplus with anybody. (The U.S. has a trade surplus with many countries.) The new twist in Wednesdays remarks was Trumps admission that he had no idea if what he was telling Trudeau was accurate. (I didnt even know.  I had no idea. I just said, Youre wrong.)

Trumps assertion that he just happened to be correct is false. As the Canadian Press noted in December:

Statistics from the website of the office of the U.S. Trade Representatives  the very office handling NAFTA negotiations  paints an opposite portrait to the one Trump paints. It says, of last years trade balance: The U.S. goods and services trade surplus with Canada was US$12.5-billion in 2016.

That includes a large surplus in trade in services of $24.6-billion, mitigated by a deficit in goods of $12.1-billion.

There is an entire genre of invented Trump story that involves him being proven right about something by an unnamed individual. In this case, its the aide who confirms his invented claim was actually correct. 2/  Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 15, 2018

Hes not right. $17 billion was last years deficit in trade in goods: with services trade included, the net trade balance is a surplus, as his own economic advisers officially note. The repeat claim about Trudeau excluding energy and timber is fiction. https://t.co/VPnJHtuc4m  Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 15, 2018

Trump Revisited His Threat to Pull U.S. Troops Out of South Korea

During a tirade about how various allies are swindling the U.S., Trump alluded to pulling U.S. forces out of South Korea if they dont give him what he wants on trade.

We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them, Trump said. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Lets see what happens.

During the campaign, Trump accused Japan and South Korea of not paying enough for their own defense on several occasions, and threatened to withdraw the 80,000 troops stationed there primarily to deter North Korea. As president, Trump backed off on talk of removing the U.S. military presence, but he has called on the nations to pay more for their defense.

Trump Agreed to Kim Jong-un Meeting to Stick It to His Predecessors

It seems Trump still doesnt understand that he or any other U.S. president could have met North Koreas leader at any time, as Pyongyang sees a U.S.North Korean summit as a pinnacle of respectability. Trump mocked former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush during the speech, claiming they couldnt have met with Kim. Nobody would have done what I did, he added.

He summed up his predecessors position on North Korea saying, Its called appeasement, please dont do anything.

Trump claimed his bellicose rhetoric and tough sanctions led to a breakthrough on North Korea, and said the South Koreans told him Kim had promised not to do any nuclear tests or missile launches until the summit takes place (as the Post notes, That comment could not be verified).

Trump also mocked the media for doubting his diplomatic genius Hes going to get us in a war, he said, imitating a news anchor. You know whats going to get us in a war? Weakness.

Trump Laments Bowling Ball Test No One Has Heard Of

Trump claimed Japan uses a test that sounds physically impossible to pass to keep U.S. auto companies from selling their vehicles to Japanese consumers. Per the Post:

Its the bowling ball test. They take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and drop it on the hood of the car, Trump said of Japan. If the hood dents, the car doesnt qualify. Its horrible, he said. It was unclear what he was talking about.

That bowling ball test Trump made up is likely an attempt to reference Japan's strict regulatory inspection process for automobiles.



Here's the provision in the TPP that would've fixed that problem:https://t.co/fXrOsDgwdz pic.twitter.com/BmK20bdE4Z  Bill Watson (@kw_watson) March 15, 2018

Trump Said Democrat Conor Lamb Won in Pennsylvania Because Hes Like Trump

Democrats can stop gloating about winning a Pennsylvania congressional race in a district Trump took by 20 points. In Trumps telling, the important takeaway is that his rally for Rick Saccone significantly boosted a subpar-GOP candidate. From The Atlantic:

We had an interesting time because we lifted [Saccone] seven points up. Thats a lot, Trump said. And I was up 22 points, and we lifted seven, and seven normally would be enough, but well see how it all comes out. Its, like, virtually a tie. (It was not exactly clear what Trump was basing his conclusion of a seven-point boost on.)

Also Democrat Conor Lamb only won because he embraced Trump:

The young man last night that ran, he said, Oh, Im like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything. He ran on that basis, Trump said. He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.

Lamb actually ran against the GOP tax law, but that didnt stop House Speaker Paul Ryan from making similar excuses.

First Rule of Tax Reform: Dont Call It Tax Reform

Trump offered some advice to Republicans: despite mounting evidence that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act isnt going to save the GOP this fall, they should still run on the issue. However, they mustnt call it tax reform.

Do me a favor: Dont call it tax reform. It hasnt worked in 45 years, Trump said he told people involved in the midterms. You say youre reforming taxes, that means taxes could go up.

Trump recalled that he wanted to call it the Tax Cut Cut Cut plan.

They thought it sounded a little hokey and called it something else, he said. I liked the first one better.

Its not clear if Trump believes the many outlandish things he said on Wednesday, or if hes giving us all the Trudeau treatment. Either way, its not good.By Ed Cropley JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - From the outset, Rex Tillerson's first trip to Africa looked half-hearted and token, but with the hindsight knowledge that the U.S. Secretary of State was fired just two days in, his African hosts must be wondering why they bothered. Beyond $533 million in humanitarian aid and some pat remarks about security and not getting too cosy with China, Tillerson's main aim appeared to be clearing up the mess left by President Donald Trump's reported dismissal of some African nations as "shithole countries". Trump later denied making the comment. But the revelation from a senior White House official that Trump told Tillerson he was out of a job just two days into the six-day jaunt leaves little room for doubt about the Trump White House's attitude towards the continent. Given its increasing reliance for aid and trade on China, its main commercial partner, and a recent diplomatic push led by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the slight is likely to have real consequences for Washington's status on the continent of a billion people. "This shows Trump's disdain - a real own-goal, especially with Lavrov hot on his heels," said Jackie Cilliers, head of the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies. After a brief appearance at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia, where he spoke of the need for care when doing business with China, Tillerson flew to the Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, then Kenya, an important east African ally. His presence in Nairobi on Friday smoothed the way for a kiss-and-make-up meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga. It was downhill from there. Tillerson's focus switched to a possible summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un - and trying to keep his job. On Saturday, he pulled out of his activities in Nairobi, citing ill health, before flying to Chad and Nigeria. His time with leaders there on the front line of the fight against Boko Haram was cut short by the need to get home a day early. Only hours after he touched down in the United States, Trump announced on Twitter that Tillerson was fired. For Kenya's chattering political classes, it was a telling window into the priorities of the Trump White House. "It'd be better for Africa if the Trump administration just ignored us because of the chaos and dysfunction within the administration," said Nanjala Nyabola, a Kenyan writer and political analyst. "It's interesting and disturbing to see the administration flounder so much and not really have a coherent response to any major challenges on the continent and elsewhere." A spokesman for Kenya's president declined to comment. Nigeria's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. In Nigeria - where Tillerson held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday - the secretary of state's ousting was met with a sense of weary acceptance. "American foreign policy has always treated Africa as a leftover, which is why it's not a huge shock that Tillerson was in Africa while they fired him," said Pat Utomi, professor of political economy at Lagos Business School. "It doesn't augur well for the long-term message of America to Africa, especially with the message he sounded, which was 'beware of China'. This means that the warning he was giving was of no consequence," said Utomi. (Reporting by Ed Cropley; Additional reporting by Chijoke Ohuocha in Lagos and Maggie Flick in Nairobi; editing by Larry King)Adra (Syria) (AFP) - Thousands of civilians poured out of Eastern Ghouta on Thursday after a month-long bombardment brought the Syrian regime closer to recapturing the devastated rebel enclave outside Damascus.

Defying expectations and calls to step down, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was strengthening his grip on power as the conflict entered its eighth year.

His troops advanced in a ferocious assault on Ghouta, once the opposition's main bastion on the outskirts of the capital.

A war monitor said regime forces now control 70 percent of the area, splitting the remaining rebel territory into three shrinking pockets.

After a fierce air and ground assault, regime forces on Thursday captured Hammuriyeh town, in an isolated southern part of Ghouta.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said rebels later launched a counter-attack and regained parts of the town, killing 14 regime fighters.

Elsewhere, however, it said the regime overran Al-Rihan town in an assault led by Russian officers and advisers.

The regime's advance into Hammuriyeh had punched a corridor through the town into government-controlled territory.

Streams of women and children escaped through that corridor on Thursday, carrying plastic bags stuffed with clothes and pushing strollers piled high with suitcases and rugs.

They reached a regime checkpoint in Adra district, where ambulances and large green buses waited to take them to temporary shelters.

- 'Largest displacement' -

The Observatory said nearly 20,000 people fled the enclave in 24 hours before the flow stopped on Thursday evening.

It called the exodus "the largest displacement since the beginning of the assault on Ghouta."

The United Nations said it was trying to determine how many people have left the enclave.

"The UN has not observed the evacuations, but is visiting collective shelters where some of the evacuees are arriving," a UN spokesman said.

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Eastern Ghouta had been the main rebel bastion on the outskirts of Damascus since 2012 and came under a devastating regime siege the following year.

That left the area's roughly 400,000 residents struggling to secure food and hospitals crippled by shortages of medicine and equipment.

On Thursday, a joint convoy of food supplies for some 26,000 people entered Douma, the largest town in Ghouta and part of a separate rebel-controlled pocket.

"This is just a little of what these families need," said the International Committee of the Red Cross, which delivered the aid alongside the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN.

ICRC President Peter Maurer went with the convoy, the first time he had accompanied such an operation.

Twenty-five trucks were delivering food parcels and flour bags to hunger-stricken Douma residents when mortar rounds hit nearby.

Aid workers scrambled for cover, an AFP correspondent said, but were able to resume deliveries shortly afterwards.

- Divide-and-conquer -

Thursday's aid operation came after two consecutive days of medical evacuations from Douma, which saw dozens of civilians bussed out for treatment in Damascus.

Ghouta was in May 2017 designated a "de-escalation zone" -- an area where violence is supposed to ease, paving the way for humanitarian assistance and a nationwide truce.

But since February 18, Russian-backed government troops have pressed a ferocious air and ground assault that has brought most of Ghouta under government control.

The Pentagon accused Russia of being "complicit" in atrocities.

US President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, HR McMaster, said "all civilized nations must hold Iran and Russia accountable for their role in enabling atrocities and perpetuating human suffering in Syria."

The remaining rebel-held areas have been cut off from each other, in what analyst Nawar Oliver said was part of a divide-and-conquer strategy.

"The summary is that the regime cut up Ghouta into three zones, to comfortably work on securing three different agreements," said Oliver of the Turkey-based Omran Institute.

Assad is determined to retake Ghouta in order to secure the capital, which is regularly battered by rockets and mortars fired from the adjacent rebel enclave.

Dozens have been killed in rebel fire on Damascus in recent weeks, including one on Thursday, said state news agency SANA.

The assault on Ghouta has left nearly 1,250 civilians dead, around a fifth of them children.

The UN has made repeated demands for an immediate ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta, but they have gone unheeded.

For the past seven years, international efforts to bring an end to the violence raging across Syria have consistently failed.

The conflict has drawn in world powers, with Russia backing Assad and Turkey supporting an array of rebels in Syria's north against the regime, jihadists, and Kurds.

On Friday the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran met in Kazakhstan's capital Astana for a fresh round of talks.

Previous discussions in Astana last year paved the way for the de-escalation zones, which were credited with reducing government-rebel hostilities.

But the United States has branded the zones a failure in the wake of the assault on Eastern Ghouta.

In a separate front of the complex war, Ankara and allied Syrian factions on January 20 launched a sweeping ground and air assault against the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in northwestern Syria.

The offensive has forced 30,000 civilians from Afrin city in the past 24 hours, the Observatory said.

The city is home to around 350,000 people and is defended by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).Theresa May views the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill in Salisbury. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

Donald Trump has stated Russia looks likely to be behind the poisoning of a former double agent on UK soil.

The US President, who has been accused of not giving his full backing to a Nato ally in the days after the attack, said he was in deep discussions with Theresa May.

He told reporters: I spoke with the Prime Minister [Theresa May]. We are in deep discussion; a very sad situation. It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. Were taking it very seriously as, I think, are many others.

His comments come after the UK, US, France and Germany released a joint statement condemning the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.

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The allies said that there was no plausible alternative explanation other than direct culpability from Moscow for the attack against double agent Sergei Skripal.

The statement called the military-grade nerve agent attack an assault on UK sovereignty and a breach of international law.

The Prime Minister visited the site of the attack earlier today. She said: We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen and despicable act.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on March 4.

Police and MI5 are to look into allegations that a string of other deaths on UK soil may be linked to Russia.

Vladimir Putin addresses supporters during a rally celebrating the fourth anniversary of Russias annexation of Crimea (Getty)

Russia has said it will expel a number of British diplomats in retaliation to Mrs Mays raft of measures in response to the poisoning of the former spy on UK soil.

Moscow, which denies using the nerve agent, made clear its own retaliatory measure on Wednesday morning.

Their response came just hours after Boris Johnson ratcheted up the war of words by saying Moscows smug response revealed their guilt.

The UK announced it was expelling 23 Russian diplomats yesterday after a deadline passed for President Putin to explain how a Russian nerve agent was used on Skripal on the streets of Salisbury.

In response, Russias Foreign ministry condemned the absolutely insane accusations made by the UK prime minister against Russia.

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It added that diplomatic notes sent to the Foreign Office had received replies that made no sense.

It is thought President Putin will take the final decision as to when retaliatory measures will be taken.

Amid heated debate at a UN meeting on Wednesday night, the US positioned itself full-square behind the UK, describing the use of chemical weapons in Britain as a defining moment.

May takes aim

Mrs May announced in a speech to MPs on Wednesday her raft of measures towards Russia.

In a speech to MPs on Wednesday the PM announced the measures she would be taking and accused Russia of responding to her demands for an explanation with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.

She said Russia had failed to provide any credible explanation of events and of why it had an undeclared chemical weapons programme in contravention of international law.

Taking aim at President Putin directly, she added: It is tragic that President Putin has chosen to act in this way. But we will not tolerate the threat to life of British people and others on British soil from the Russian Government.

She stated the UK would:

expel 23 diplomats, giving them one week to leave the country

create new powers to detain those suspected of hostile state activity at the UK border.

ask the Home Secretary to look at new counter-espionage powers to clamp down on the full spectrum of hostile activities of foreign agents in our country.

take immediate actions to dismantle the Russian espionage network in the UK

increased checks on private flights, customs and freight traffic to track those visiting the country

freeze Russian state assets wherever there is evidence they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents

continue to bring all the capabilities of UK law enforcement to bear against serious criminals and corrupt elites

Russia fires back

Russia initially responded by describing Mrs Mays statement as an unprecedentedly rude provocation that undermines the foundations of a normal interstate dialogue between our countries.

The embassy also hit back with a clear nod to the cold war in a tweet that read: The temperature of Russia-UK relations drops to minus-23, but we are not afraid of cold weather.

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It added: We consider this hostile action as totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted. All the responsibility for the deterioration of the Russia-UK relationship lies with the current political leadership of Britain.

And at the UN meeting, UN Security Council representative Vasily Nebenzya condemned the completely irresponsible statements and threats against a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Moscow has now made their retaliation clear, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying the expulsions would happen soon. I promise you that.

Boriss smug comments

Boris Johnson has called for Britains allies to support its stand against Russia as the UK braced for retaliation for expelling Kremlin diplomats en masse.

Mr Johnson also said the poison used in the Salisbury spy attack was specifically chosen to send a message to political dissenters. (Reuters)

The Foreign Secretary said all responsible nations shared an obligation to take on Russian aggression that threatens the very architecture of global security.

Writing in the Washington Post, Mr Johnson also said the poison used in the Salisbury spy attack was specifically chosen to send a message to political dissenters challenging Russian president Vladimir Putin.

All responsible nations share an obligation to take a principled stance against this behaviour, he said.

The countermeasures announced by the Prime Minister are not solely about the attack in Salisbury.

Britain is striving to uphold the rules on which the safety of every country depends. I hope and believe that our friends will stand alongside us.

Labour in-fighting

Britains coherent response has been undermined by frictions on the Labour benches.

Theresa May announced 23 Russian diplomats would be kicked out of the UK (Picture: PA)

Jeremy Corbyn received fierce criticism from Conservatives and some of his own MPs after his team raised doubts about who was responsible for the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The Labour leader was pressed on the issue today, with a reporter asking about comments by his shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith, who has said it would have been easier for us if the Labour leader had made it clear he backed the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats over the attack.

Mr Corbyn told reporters: I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

What I was asking was questions, questions about the identity of the weapon, questions about the reference to the weapons convention and also the support of other allies. Thats what Oppositions are there for.

A group of Labour backbenchers had said it unequivocally accepts the Russian states culpability for the incident, while Theresa May said it was outrageous that Mr Corbyns spokesman had said there was a problematic history over the use of UK intelligence.

A test is erected during the investigation into the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal (PA)

LATEST ON RUSSIA DEVELOPMENTS AT YAHOO UK

Sergeis daughter Yulia was hospitalised with her father following the attack (Rex)

Britains allies, including Germany and the United States, have voiced their support (Rex)

A defining moment

At a meeting of the UN Security Council called to discuss the incident in Salisbury, the US ambassador to the world body, Nikki Haley, gave little ambiguity in her support for the UK. She said: Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning. The United States stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain.

The UK Ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Allen, with his US counterpart Nikki Haley (Getty Images)

The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent. Dozens of civilians and first responders were also exposed.

No two nations enjoy a stronger bond than that of the United States and the United Kingdom. Ours is truly a special relationship. When our friends in Great Britain face a challenge, the United States will always be there for them. Always.

If we dont take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used.

They could be used here in New York, or in cities of any country that sits on this council. This is a defining moment.

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and the countrys foreign minister, Julie Bishop, have issued a joint statement saying the country is considering its responses in support of the United Kingdom over the Salisbury incident.

Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov was found dead in his home in London on Monday (Rex)

Ongoing nerve agent risks

One of the inventors of the nerve agent used in the attack has warned that tiny traces of the chemical could put hundreds of people at risk for years to come.

Dr Vil Mirzayanov was part of the team that developed Novichok in a Russian chemical weapons institute.

He later became so concerned about the damage it could cause he became a whistleblower and fled to America.

He told Sky News: Its the same as nerve gas but 10 times, at least 10 times, more powerful.

The chemist warned that symptoms could develop even years after exposure to the substance, and that there is no cure.Updated | American students attending high school on a military base in Seoul, South Korea were threatened with military police if they tried to participate in a national student walkout to protest gun violence Wednesday.

The walkout was a grassroots effort built upon anti-gun violence activism of students who survived the school shooting in Parkland, Florida last month. Students had planned on walking out of school at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes to commemorate the 17 people killed in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Students across the U.S. participated and called for their lawmakers to take action on gun violence.

The administration of Seoul American High School highly discouraged participation. The school is on the Yongsan Garrison military base in South Koreas capital.

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A letter to parents and sponsors from Principal Donald Williams Jr. said students would face disciplinary action if they walked out Wednesday.

GettyImages-931922946

Timothy A. Clary/GETTY

Seoul American High School will maintain a roster of any student who walks out of class and will provide that list to the Yongsan Garrison Command Team to determine if any further steps are warranted, read the message. We would also like to note that any student who leaves campus during the walkout time will be dealt with by military police who will take their name information and then escort them back into school control immediately.

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The letter said that United States Forces Korea, under whose jurisdiction the base falls, prohibits protests on U.S. military installations.

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), which operates the schools, told Newsweek that no students at Seoul American High School attempted to walk out.

Leading up to the walkouts, our principals coordinated closely with their respective commanders throughout the Pacific. Overwhelmingly, commanders were supportive of our students' desire to express themselves and enable us to use this opportunity as a teachable moment, said Marcelo Calero, DoDEA Pacific Region Public Affairs Officer to Newsweek via email. Ultimately, DoDEA will observe and abide by the guidance and expectations issued by our commanders when it comes to upholding policy.

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The school's student council is planning a memorial for the Parkland shooting at a later date.

Students on other bases in South Korea, however, did participate in the walkout.

Around 100 students at Daegu Middle/High School at Camp Walker participated in the walkout, and between 150 and 200 students at Humphreys High School at Camp Humphreys held a vigil, according to Stars and Stripes.

This story was updated to include a statement from DoDEA.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation between Britain and Russia - AP

The US has thrown its diplomatic weight behind the UK over the Salisbury nerve agent attack as the international community joins forces with Britain against Russia.

Theresa May hit back at Moscow on Wednesday for the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who have been critical in hospital since they were found unconscious on March 4 on a bench in the city of Salisbury.

The Prime Minister announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, a move that has received international support.

As the Kremlin made it clear it is readying its response to the biggest expulsion of its embassy staff since the Cold War, the White House came down firmly on Britain's side, joining a growing list of countries pledging their support to the UK.

Here is a round up of how the world has reacted to the escalating diplomatic crisis.

The US

After the brazen poisoning of a former spy, Mrs May quickly pinned the blame on Russia. So did U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in what ultimately became one of his last public statements before being fired.

But at the White House, President Donald Trump's initial response was more circumspect, with his spokeswoman pointedly avoiding naming Russia as the likely perpetrator of the attack.

Sanders says we are standing with our U.K. ally after the nerve agent attack but will not will not say that Russia is behind the attack, despite Theresa May saying its highly likely Russia is to blame. (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/NL0cZIqhGk  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 12, 2018

Tougher rhetoric came only on Wednesday evening, when White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders put out a statement saying the U. "stands in solidarity with its closest ally".

"The United States shares the United Kingdom's assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the United Kingdom's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response," she said in a statement.

Story continues

"The latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behaviour in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes. The United States is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again."

At the United Nations, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador, said Russia must cooperate with the British investigation and "account for its actions."

Russia

Moscow has strongly denied being responsible for the nerve agent attack.

Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations accused British authorities of using "propaganda war tools" and having "other motives" than establishing the truth behind the poisoning of Colonel Skripal.

In comments tweeted by the Russian Mission at the UN, Vasily Nebenzya said the UK was "dragging" the case to the UN's Security Council, ignoring its international commitments because the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons "will not be convinced by its arguments".

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It said: "Incredible things are happening behind our eyes. The process of replacing the presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt is taking place. Moreover, this criminal law principle is transferred into international relations.

"The authorities of UK are not interested in finding the truth about the Skripal case, they have other motives. They are using propaganda war tools to influence an uninformed and impressionable public. There are no facts, only allegations about the 'Russian trace'."

France

At the United Nations on Wednesday, French officials declined to directly blame Russia until the country's involvement was proven.

However a subsequent statement by the French Embassy said the country's "solidarity with the UK is unquestionable".

"President Macron denounced as early as Tuesday the Salisbury chemical attack as unacceptable and assured Prime Minister May the UK had France's full support," the embassy said.

Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she took the British findings seriously and there would be a common European stance, although "we must still talk responsibly" with Russia despite differences of opinion.

Germany's new foreign minister said Berlin "can fully and completely understand" why Britain took action over the poisoning of a former Russian spy.

Heiko Maas said at a handover ceremony it was "disappointing that Russia so far doesn't appear to be prepared" to help clear up the case. He said it should "create transparency," either bilaterally to Britain or at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

German Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas Credit: AFP

Maas said Germany would consult closely with London "and we can fully and completely understand that Britain had to react to this."

Australia

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and the country's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, issued a joint statement on Thursday saying the country is "considering its responses in support of the United Kingdom" over the Salisbury incident.

Mrs May had made "a compelling case" on the Russian state's responsibility for the attack and Australia "stands with the UK in solidarity and supports, in the strongest terms, Prime Minister May's response," the statement said.

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"The Australian Government also supports the UK Government's right to take retaliatory measures, including its decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats and to call for an emergency session of the UN Security Council," it said, adding: "Australia is considering its responses in support of the United Kingdom, in close consultation with the UK Government and other partners."

Australia already has a range of sanctions in place against Russia, some of which were applied after the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 in 2014.

Canada

Prime Minister Just Trudeau said he spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May late on Wednesday, telling her Canada stands behind Britain.

"The attack is despicable and it is unacceptable that there would be chemical weapons used against citizens of the United Kingdom," Trudeau told reporters in Evraz, Sask. after touring a steel plant.

"Russia's likely involvement is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be condemned in the strongest terms. That's what I told Teresa May and that is what I'm glad to repeat here today."

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Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland also issued a statement condemning the attack.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the despicable use of a chemical agent on the sovereign territory of the United Kingdoma point I recently conveyed to my British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Russias likely involvement in this attack is a serious breach of the rules-based order.

Canada offers its complete support to the United Kingdom and calls on all states to cooperate fully with British investigators.Updated | After South Africa reportedly disregarded allegations about white farmers facing violence in the country, an Australian minister is looking into the possibility of giving farmers access to fast-track visas.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton suggested on Wednesday that he was considering offering white South African farmers visas on humanitarian grounds. The farmers fear fatal violence following calls to transfer land ownership from white to black farmers.

"If you look at the footage and read the stories, you hear the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance they face," Dutton told reporters, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. "We have the potential to help some of these people that are being persecuted."

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Dutton added that white farmers from South Africa needed assistance from a civilized country like ours.

"We want people who want to come here, abide by our laws, integrate into our society, work hard, not lead a life on welfare. And I think these people deserve special attention and we're certainly applying that special attention now, Dutton said.

898614772

GULSHAN KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

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South African government spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya told the BBC that no country should think anyone is being subjected to this kind of danger.



"There's no need for anyone to be scared or to fear anything," he said. "The land redistribution programme will be done according to the law. We want to say to our friends across the world that there's no need to panic."

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Thousands of people signed a petition earlier this month to allow white farmers from South Africa to emigrate to the U.S. after South Africa's Parliament supported a motion that would strip farmers of their land without compensation. The motion would amend the country's constitution.

This has struck fear in South African white farmers, who were reminded of a similar land redistribution program which severely hurt Zimbabwe in the 2000s.

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Over 4,000 white farmers were affected by what some called a dangerous land reform program, according to the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe.

This article has been corrected to reflect that calls were made to transfer land from white to black farmers.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekSenator Bernie Sanders joined students participating in a national walkout to protest gun violence outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. But while his appearance was cheered by those in attendance, it garnered predictable criticism in conservative circles. It was not merely his surprise presence at the event, however, that attracted a backlash but rather the appearance alongside him of multiple armed police officers.

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Videos and photos of the event showed students reacting with frenzied excitement to the arrival of the independent senator from Vermont, who was helped through the mass crowds, shaking hands and greeting protesters, via a police accompaniment.

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The images led to calls of hypocrisy on conservative news sites such as the Daily Caller.

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It is far from the first time that gun-rights advocates have aimed accusations of hypocrisy toward those who call for stricter gun control while receiving armed security. In 2016, gun-rights groups called for Democrats to bar all armed security at the Democratic National Convention.

Gun owners are demanding that the Democratic party practice what it preaches, read a petition from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. If a political party believes that guns do not make us safer, they should set an example by rejecting any and all forms of armed security at their convention.

Similar attacks have been used against celebrities who have called for tighter gun controls while enjoying protection by armed security. It has been noted, though, that the likes of Sanders, and others calling for stronger legislation, have never called for firearms to be taken away from trained professionals, but rather to expand background checks to ensure they dont get into the wrong hands.

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Sanders, however, has a murky history on gun control legislation, something that was used by Hillary Clinton to attack him during the 2016 Democratic primary.

Students walked out of school and took to the streets Wednesday as part of growing calls for gun control in the wake of a shooting at a high school in Florida last month that killed 17 people.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPhoto: Lotta From Stockholm

There are certain things in life that have been  fairly or unfairly  established as the best. You want a pair of rain boots? Hunter. Looking for cast iron? Lodge. But sometimes conventional wisdom is wrong, or at least not one size fits all. In our series As Good As or Better Than, we seek out the things that top  are prettier, longer-lasting, or just plain cheaper  the historic favorites.

I love a good pair of orthopedic-looking, ugly shoes  in the summer, my go-to sandals are all-black, plastic Birkenstock Arizona sandals  and I live in Brooklyn, so it shouldnt be a huge shock that I was enchanted by a pair of Swedish Hasbeens, which we once described as the official shoe of the Brooklyn Mom. These sandals, with a chunky wooden sole and delicate-looking braided toe strap, look like theyre straight out of an episode of Charlies Angels, and after eyeing them for months, imagining all the bell-bottoms and jumpsuits I could dress up with them, I pounced a couple of summers ago when they went on sale at Zappos, from over $200 to $108.

These Hasbeens have not disappointed on the style front, and I get excited to bust them out the moment the weather becomes reliably warm. But I dont wear them as much as I would like because theyre finicky. The manufacturers of Hasbeens are very insistent that you do not use your shoes in the rain, wet grass, or any other equally humid environments, but those conditions are hard to avoid during a New York City summer. (Plus, wood isnt a material thats super comfortable to walk around in for too long.)

So when I started looking for a pair of wooden, backless clogs (so I could live my best Alison Romaninspired life), I was hesitant to spend close to $200 on another pair of Hasbeens because, though adorable, theyre not the most practical. Then I spotted a friend wearing what I assumed were Hasbeens; when I asked her about them, she confided that they were actually another Swedish clog brand called Lotta From Stockholm  and they were less than $100. I went home, bought them immediately, and today, Im in love.

Swedish clogs in the wild. Photo: Lotta From Stockholm

The styling of the Lotta clogs is nearly identical to that of the Hasbeens, as is, upon first inspection and wear, the quality. (They also bear some resemblance to the culty No. 6 old-school wooden clogs, though its not as perfect of a match.) The sole is definitely solid wood, which creates a satisfying clomping sound when I walk, and the upper is beautiful, tanned leather.

All of that is to say that my Lottas are about as water-sensitive and comfortable as my Hasbeens, but for the price  only $60 for these wooden clogs on Amazon, as compared to $159 for the most comparable style from Hasbeens  I dont feel as bad if these clogs from Lotta From Stockholm get a little scuffed, stained with grass, or warped because of water damage. Its the right amount to pay for shoes I love but cant wear every single day. But that probably means Ill end up wearing them even more.

Editors Note: These Lotta From Stockholm clogs are available in a variety of colors, including black, burgundy, even gold and silver.

If youve had your eye on other styles from Swedish Hasbeens or other status-y summer clogs, Lotta from Stockholm has dupes for those, too  as well as a bunch of other warm weatherfriendly options.

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The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens wardrobe basics, white T-shirts for women, ultra-flattering pants, jeans for women, gray T-shirt, invisible underwear, and the most flattering things. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.

Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia has banned leaders of the Russian Night Wolves motorcycle club from entering the country next week because of security concerns, local media reported on Thursday. The club is under U.S. sanctions for its role in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in Ukraine. The Night Wolves announced the tour of Bosnia's autonomous Serb region as part of a swing through the Balkans under the slogan "Russian Balkans" but Bosnia's top security official said the visit was driven by political motives rather than tourism. Security Minister Dragan Mektic told Reuters this week that Bosnian Serb leaders want to use the Night Wolves to intimidate opponents of the region's president, Milorad Dodik, and sway voters ahead of an election in October. [ID: L8N1QU68A] Bosnia's security agencies banned club leader Alexander Zaldostanov, known by the nickname the Surgeon, and Sasa Savic, the leader of the club's branch in Serbia, the Sarajevo-based Dnevni Avaz daily reported. They were due to enter on March. 20. "Both men are marked with an entrance ban in our data base," Dnevni Avaz quoted Zoran Galic, the director of Bosnia's Border police, as saying. Reuters could not immediately obtain comment from the agency or security ministry. Dodik is also under U.S sanctions over an illegal referendum in the Serb region in 2016. He and other ethnic Serbs look to Russia rather than Western Europe because of a shared Orthodox religion and culture. Russian volunteers fought on the Serbian side during a war in the Balkans in the 1990s. Sarajevo-based investigative magazine Zurnal reported that the Night Wolves are expected to meet Dodik during the visit. Zurnal also said the Russian embassy helped organize the visit. The embassy in Sarajevo was not available for comment. U.S. Ambassador Moreen Cormack, commenting on Wednesday on the Night Wolves for Bosnian state television, said political actors in Bosnia should maintain stability and security. The United States sanctioned the organization in 2014 for contributing to the detribalization of Ukraine, she said. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazil's mammoth "Car Wash" graft scandal will be at the center of a Netflix series this March by the same director behind another tale of Latin American mega-crime, "Narcos."

Jose Padilha's new series, "The Mechanism," opens on March 23 and is heavily based on the graft scandal shaking Brazil over the last four years, involving the president, ex-presidents, top business executives and the country's state oil company.

"In Brazil, corruption is part of the logic, of the structure of politics," Padilha told journalists Thursday. "Corruption is the norm. This mechanism has no ideology and exists as much on the left as the right."

The series is mostly set in Brazil in 2013 with a female president, a big oil company called "Petrobrasil" and a vast construction contractor called "Miller & Brecht."

These are thinly veiled references to players at the heart of the real scandal when it first erupted in 2014.

At that time Dilma Rousseff was Brazil's first woman president and investigators with Operation Car Wash realized that executives at the giant construction company Odebrecht were systematically bribing politicians to get juicy contracts with Petrobras state-controlled oil company.

Since then, "Car Wash" has expanded, uncovering a sprawling web of embezzlement from Petrobras and bribery between other companies and a host of political parties.

Rousseff's mentor, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been sentenced to more than 12 years prison for bribe-taking and current President Michel Temer faces his own graft charges.

Padilha won acclaim for his gritty 2007 film "Elite Squad," about police battling drug gangs in Rio favelas. He also directed "Narcos" for Netflix, which tells the saga of Columbia's cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.Salisbury (United Kingdom) (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday the international community was taking a "united stance" against Russia as she made her first visit to the scene of a nerve agent attack.

She met members of the emergency services and the military deployed to the southwestern English city of Salisbury, where Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on March 4.

She also paid a private visit to Nick Bailey, a local policeman who became ill after attending to the pair. He remains in a serious condition in hospital but is said to be making good progress.

May has blamed Moscow for the attack and on Wednesday announced the expulsion of 23 diplomats and the suspension of some high-level contacts.

She signed a joint statement with the leaders of France, Germany and the United States demanding answers from Russia, which has repeatedly denied any involvement.

"What is important in the international arena -- and we have taken this into NATO, into the United Nations, we'll take it through into the European Union -- is that allies are standing alongside us and saying this is part of a pattern of activity that we have seen from Russia in their interference, their disruption that they have perpetrated across a number of countries in Europe," she said.

"This happened in the UK but it could have happened anywhere and we take a united stance against it."

Parts of Salisbury have been turned in a crime scene, as experts in biohazard suits take samples from the places visited by the Skripals before they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre.

Almost 200 troops have been deployed to help the investigation, while members of the public who may have been in the area at the time have been urged to wash their clothes.

A ministerial taskforce convened Thursday to help organise the clean-up operation and May pledged government support "to ensure that the city can recover, that we see tourists coming back to this city".Warren Buffett said that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) made a mistake by not investing in JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Buffett, 87, has publicly praised JPMorgans CEO Jamie Dimon. Hes also a fan of Dimons annual shareholder letter and often recommends that folks read it. That said, Berkshire Hathaway has never owned a share of the company.

I shouldve [invested], Buffett told Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer in a wide-ranging interview in Omaha, Nebraska, recently. Very obviously. I mean, its been a terrifically run operation. And it was very cheap, just like a number of others were.

Berkshire Hathaway has put a large percentage of its capital in bank stocks over the years, including JPMorgans peers Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), and Goldman Sachs (GS).

I made a mistake

Buffett acknowledged that he owns some JPMorgan shares in his personal account. I only have about five or six stocks. I have nothing, personally, to speak of in stocks, he said. The majority of his net worth is in Berkshire Hathaways stock, and Buffett has literally never sold a share.

We have had a pretty heavy weighting in banks right along. But I should have bought JPMorgan, Buffett said. I wish we bought a lot more. I made a mistake.

Yahoo Finance will live-stream Berkshire Hathaways 2018 Annual Shareholders Meeting on Saturday, May 5th.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - California lawmakers on Thursday launched a bipartisan bid to temporarily reduce taxes on the state's emerging recreational cannabis industry in order to help legally run pot businesses compete financially with black market growers and sellers.

Legislation introduced by assemblymen Tom Lackey, a Republican from Palmdale, and Rob Bonta, an Oakland-based Democrat, comes 2-1/2 months after a law took effect legalizing adult marijuana use in the most populous U.S. state.

"California cannabis businesses are making significant investments as they embrace the regulated marketplace while, at the same time, being undercut by unregulated competitors," Bonta said in a statement. The bill is aimed at "keeping customers at licensed stores and helping ensure the regulated market survives and thrives," he said.

The marijuana market in California, which lays claim to the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least $1 billion a year in tax revenue.

California pot farmers and other cannabis workers have complained at local government meetings in recent months that new regulations, licensing rules, fees and taxes have stifled their businesses and made it harder to offer products at affordable rates.

Lackey and Bonta's legislation, which would suspend a $148-per-pound marijuana cultivation tax and cut an excise tax on cannabis sales to 11 percent from 15 percent, is aimed at lowering costs for cannabis operations as they get up to code. Both provisions would expire in June 2021.

"We need to give legal businesses some temporary tax relief so they do not continue to be undercut," Lackey said.

The bill is awaiting a referral to a California State Assembly policy committee before it can make it to the assembly floor for a vote. It would then be moved to the state's senate.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Daniel Bases and James Dalgleish)Six children have been left without parents after their mother and father were killed in a car crash in an apparent attempt to flee Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who pulled them over after mistaking the father for an arrest target.

Police in Delano, a city in Kern County, California, said 35-year-old Santo Hilario Garcia and 33-year-old Marcelina Garcia Profecto were both pronounced dead at the scene after officers arrived to find their SUV overturned after smashing into a power pole just before 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

The United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union said the couple were farm workers, who were on their way to look for work to "provide for their six children."

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GettyImages-492659308 (1)

John Moore/Getty

"They were farm workers here in the area [of Delano] and they wanted to provide for their six children." UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said at a press conference at the scene of the crash. He said he was "sure they were thinking of their children" when they fled once they realized the officers who pulled them over in an unmarked vehicle belonged to ICE, not local police.

The Delano police department said in a statement that the couple had been stopped by ICE agents, who had activated their emergency lights to pull their vehicle over.

It is still unclear who was in the driver seat of the SUV, but the couple initially pulled over. However, they fled once agents began to exit their vehicle. Police say it was clear their SUV had been traveling at a high speed and lost control, overturning before coming to rest after slamming into a power pole.

Don't miss: Will NATO Hit Back At Russia For The Spy Poisoning?

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ICE confirmed that its officers had not only pulled the couple over, but had in fact mistaken Garcia for a target they had planned to arrest.

"ICE deportation officers arrived at a residence believed to belong to a previously removed Mexican citizen. A male matching the targets description exited the residence and entered a vehicle," ICE spokesperson Jennifer Elzea told Newsweek.

ICE said its officers then pulled over Garcia's vehicle, believing he matched the description of their target. Asked how the mix-up might have occurred, the agency did not immediately respond.

"Officers performed a vehicle stop by activating their emergency equipment and as they attempted to engage the driver, the vehicle drove away at a high rate of speed. As the officers departed the location of the attempted engagement, they came across the overturned vehicle and immediately dialed 911 for assistance," Elzea said. "Local officials were on the scene moments later," she added.

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The spokesperson said Garcia was originally from Mexico and had voluntarily returned to the country three times between 2008 and 2017. She said he was removed "under the provisions of expedited removal in 2017."

Elzea also said Garcia had a criminal history, citing a DUI conviction from 2014. Garcia Profecto had "no prior encounters with ICE," Elzea said.

Read more: ICE Agents Frustrated by Trump Using Agency as Political 'Pawn' to Push Anti-Immigration Agenda, Former Official Says

ACLU Southern California's Director of Immigrant Rights Jennie Pasquarella said in a statement that the union has received "numerous reports" of "ICE staking out the roads farmworkers travel to get to work and pulling them over during early morning hours without any lawful basis, resulting in numerous unlawful arrests of residents."

Pasquarella said agents often pull over farmworkers in unmarked vehicles, adding that the agents who pulled over Garcia and Garcia Profecto were also in an unmarked car.

"This incident demonstrates just how dangerous ICE's unlawful practices are to our communities," Pasquarella said. "This horrible tragedy is the direct result of ICE's inhumane tactics and the fear it provokes in hardworking people who stand to lose everything if they are deported."

The deadly incident comes amid a crackdown by ICE on undocumented immigrants in California. The agency has received widespread backlash over raids in Northern California that saw hundreds arrested.

The crash also came just a day after President Donald Trump lashed out at the state's leadership over immigration approach, and specifically, its allowance of sanctuary cities.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekN'Djamena (AFP) - Chad's government and unions have signed a deal to end a strike over austerity measures that has paralysed the public sector for more than six weeks.

The impoverished country, badly hit by a fall in the price of oil exports since 2015, introduced the austerity measures this year to meet the requirements of international donors.

But the public spending cuts have increased social tension and anger towards President Idriss Deby, in power since 1990.

Trade unions called an indefinite general strike in the state sector on January 29 after the government slashed civil servants' pay, and since then the whole public sector has stopped work, paralysing key sectors.

Late on Wednesday, the government and the trade union consortium announced a deal after two weeks of negotiations.

It calls for "the suspension of the strike and the resumption of work" after payments to civil servants, some 31,000 of whom did not receive wages in February.

In 2017, public-sector salaries totalled 376 billion CFA francs, roughly the equivalent of the combined revenue from income tax and customs duties, according to official figures given to AFP.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) opened up a three-year $312 million (254 million euro) credit line last June under a stabilisation programme.

But Chad, where nearly 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, has to make progress in improving state finances in order to gain access to the full amount.Chase Elliott is facing another points penalty.

Elliott, who was famously penalized 15 points after the first playoff race of 2017 because of tape on his spoiler, was penalized 25 points Wednesday for an infraction found following Sundays race at Phoenix.

Elliott finished third at Phoenix. According to NASCAR, its a rear suspension penalty. Per the sport, truck trailing arm spacer/pinion angle shim mating surfaces must be planar and must be in complete contact with corresponding mating surfaces at all points and at all times.

In simpler terms, its the same type of rear suspension penalty that cost Joey Logano a chance at the playoffs a year ago. Logano won at Richmond, but his win was encumbered an he couldnt use it for playoff qualification following a similar violation.

[Play Tourney Pickem | Fill out your bracket | Print it | Play against Draymond Green]

Elliotts team is appealing the penalty. His crew chief Alan Gustafson was fined $50,000 and car chief Josh Kirk was suspended for two races.

The points penalty drops Elliott from 16th in the standings all the way to 23rd. Hes got 66 points through four races following the penalty. Points leader Kevin Harvick has 168 points.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.More than 100 people gathered Wednesday outside the Smith & Wesson headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts, to pressure the firearms manufacturer to join the gun violence debate that has swept the nation following last months mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The group of students, educators, community members and clergy came from across the state to join the rally, where some held up a sign telling Smith & Wesson to stop selling assault weapons. The company, the largest U.S. gun manufacturer in 2016, makes the M&P 15, the AR-15 style rifle the gunman used in Parkland. It sells hundreds of thousands of them each year.

The event was scheduled to coincide with a national school walkout to protest gun violence on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting. Attendees wanted to bring Smith & Wesson into the discussion about gun reform and to speak up about the unique problems of gun violence in urban communities, said organizer Tara Parrish of the community group Pioneer Valley Project.

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Guns and gun violence are both facts of life in Springfield. The city was the site of the nations first armory, founded by George Washington in 1777, and has housed Smith & Wesson since the gunmakers inception in 1852. The company remains one of the largest private employers in western Massachusetts today.

Springfields relationship with firearms may be historic, but it also has a darker side. There were 68 shootings that ended in injury or death in the city last year, the police department recently told HuffPost.

Rarely do these two issues overlap in conversations among city leadership, said Parrish. But she believes younger residents may finally be starting to do their own analysis.

I think that now, in this moment, young people are saying, Wait a minute. This is in our backyard, Parrish said.

One of the groups demands is to meet with Smith & Wesson CEO James Debney within 30 days to discuss ways the company can help address gun violence. Among their proposals would be to recall the M&P 15 and to establish a compensation fund for communities affected by gun violence, said Parrish.

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The frame of this is to add to the conversation around what it means to be a responsible company at this moment, Parrish said. Just being a company that profits off these products isnt sufficient, given the outcomes that are often caused by their products.

Pioneer Valley Project hadnt received a response to their request for a meeting as of Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Smith & Wessons holding company, American Outdoor Brands Corporation, didnt immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Parrish also said shed heard from students in the Springfield area who had felt left out of the current campaign regarding guns in America. While student activists from Parkland  an affluent, majority-white suburb of Miami  have been leading the movement over the past month, the voices of students from more urban and diverse cities have sometimes been omitted.

Our young people are tired of being invisible on this issue. We have a particular perspective and that perspective is not being seen by the country, said Parrish. Its sort of like it comes back into view when its suburban white kids, but its not in view when its us.

Most students in Springfield dont support the idea of addressing school shootings with increased security, said Parrish. Many schools have already installed metal detectors, and the idea of putting more guns in classrooms seems like a bad idea to them.

A lot of these students are safest and feel safest when theyre in school, said Parrish. They get their breakfast and their lunch. Theyre in a structured environment with supportive adults, and its really the walk home where they kind of have to steel themselves a lot of the time, because thats where they may encounter gun violence.

Among the speakers at Wednesdays event was Hussein Abdi, a student at Springfield Central High School. He addressed the crowd, expressing concern that people had become desensitized to shootings. Abdi wanted to remind everyone, including the Smith & Wesson executives in the building behind the crowd, that every single person who gets shot is someones kid, someones friend.

We are here together today because Smith & Wesson needs to see us and know that they cant hide from us, he said. They need to do their part to make sure my siblings are safe and everyone in the community is safe as well from gun violence.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.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.Quito (AFP) - Colombia's government and ELN guerrillas resumed peace talks in the Ecuadoran capital on Thursday, more than two months after they were suspended over a spate of rebel attacks.

The latest round of talks, being held in a hacienda run by the Jesuit religious community outside Quito, are aimed at agreeing a new ceasefire that would pave the way for a final peace agreement.

"We can see the light at the end of the road that will lead us to the end of armed conflict with the National Liberation Army (ELN), to build a lasting and stable peace," said the head of the government delegation Gustavo Bell.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who is due to leave office in August, is trying to conclude a peace agreement with Colombia's last active rebel group, similar to the one he signed with Marxist guerrillas FARC in November 2016, which has since transformed into a political party.

However, the latest round of talks are being held against the backdrop of a more hostile political context in Colombia, after hardline conservatives opposed to making peace with the rebels gained ground in legislative elections Sunday.

Santos announced Monday that the talks would resume following the rebels' unilateral ceasefire during the 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, following a series of attacks on police stations that left six people dead and dozens more wounded.

The ELN "will continue talking" and "does not reject peace," said its leader Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, according to a statement released by negotiators.

In a separate development not affecting the ceasefire, at least six people were killed and two wounded in a clash between ELN forces and a drug trafficking gang in northeastern Colombia, the army said Thursday.

The firefight displaced six families and was sparked by a turf war over several municipalities in the department of Norte de Santander, on the Venezuelan border, it said.

The clashes occurred after a meeting in which both factions "did not reach an agreement" for control of the region, "so they decided to kill each other," General Alberto Mejia told Colombian media.By Julia Symmes Cobb BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's transitional justice tribunal - designed to try former leftist rebels and government soldiers for crimes during the country's five-decade war - will begin collecting evidence and preparing its first hearings, officials said on Thursday. The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) tribunal, founded under a 2016 peace deal between the government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, will try cases considered most representative of the war's violence. "This is a historic moment that marks the starting point of what it means for a country like this to heal wounds through the recognition of truth and responsibility," JEP president Mirtha Patricia Linares told journalists. More than 220,000 people were killed during the Andean country's long internal conflict between the government, leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers. One Marxist guerrilla group remains active with myriad crime gangs. Leaders of the FARC, now a political party, will be required to testify to the tribunals, recounting their part in killings, sexual violence, kidnappings, bombings and other crimes. If convicted, they may be ordered to complete five-to-eight-year sentences of restorative work like rebuilding roads or schools. Ex-fighters who lie or do not tell the whole truth but are later convicted could receive harsher sentences of between five and 20 years in regular prisons. Many Colombians believe the possible sentences are too lenient. Some 7,000 FARC fighters demobilized early last year and more than 4,600 of them have already submitted testimony for the JEP to process. Members of the armed forces who were involved in human rights violations will also appear before the JEP, which is set to operate for at least 15 years. Nearly 1,800 have submitted testimony. Some FARC leaders expected to be called before the court are preparing to serve in 10 congressional seats reserved for the group through 2026, under terms of the accord. Victims' organizations are encouraged to present case evidence to the JEP, officials said. The court will also take over war-related cases from the country's regular judicial authorities. The conflict's complexity and length mean the tribunal will rule only on a small portion of crimes. "Transitional justice, by definition, is modest, because we already know we can't do everything," tribunal administrator Nestor Raul Correa said. "If I were to give a random figure - of 200,000 crimes that have happened in these fifty years, we'll investigate 1,000." A start date for the first trial has not yet been set. (Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Suzannah Gonzales)Photo credit: Samir Hussein / Contributor / Getty

From Prima

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 Monday'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.

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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 the Duchess of Cambridge, 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La Paz (AFP) - The Bolivian government said Thursday the death toll among inmates at a riot-torn prison stormed by police had risen to eight, including two foreign nationals -- a Brazilian and a Paraguayan.

Deputy Interior Minister Jose Luis Quiroga offered the new toll after Wednesday's pre-dawn operation at the Palmasola prison in Santa Cruz, which also left about two dozen prisoners and police injured.

About 2,300 police surged into the cell blocks, a week after an uprising triggered by a government order that bars children younger than six from visiting jailed relatives.

Wives and children live in the prison voluntarily with their inmate relatives. They were allowed to leave before the raid began, Quiroga said.

"There was complete lawlessness in Palmasola," national police chief Alfonso Mendoza said. Searches turned up knives, firearms, grenades and nearly 200 mobile phones.

Located in eastern Bolivia, Palmasola houses an estimated 4,000 inmates and is reputed to be one of the most dangerous and overcrowded penitentiaries in the country. It was the scene of an uprising in 2013 that left 15 dead.

Inmates have often maintained effective control inside the prison, under cursory supervision by the state.Gavin Williamson and Vladimir Putin

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has boldly claimed that Russia should shut up as he faced questions over the threat of a new Cold War.

When quizzed about relations between Russia and the UK, he responded: Well lets face it, relations aint good are they Its feeling exceptionally, exceptionally chilly.

He added: Frankly Russia should go away, it should shut up.

It comes as the Prime Minister visited Salisbury on Thursday to speak to emergency services, members of the public and local businesses.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (R) on Downing Street (REX)

Prime Minister Theresa May arrives in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Thursday to hear about the emergency services response to the poisoning on March 4. (PA)

She will also receive a briefing from Public Health England.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, earlier warned Moscow will expel British diplomats soon after Mrs May announced the biggest expulsion of Russian embassy staff since the Cold War.

The stark remarks from the Defence Secretary came after he delivered a keynote speech in Bristol and faced questions about the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal.

SPY POISONING: LATEST ANALYSIS FROM YAHOO UK

What we will do is we will look at how Russia responds to what we have done, he said.

It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury. We have responded to that. Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up.

As he called for the whole country to unite with the Prime Minister, Williamson pleaded: You see it in the House of Commons and you listen to members of Parliament from all parties on the backbenches.

That is what they are wanting to see: Britain standing together against this great threat.

Dr Laurie Bristow, the UKs ambassador to Russia (left), with Boris Johnson when the Foreign Secrteary visited Moscow in December. (PA)

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As the diplomatic fall-out from the Salisbury spy poisoning scandal continued,

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Boris Johnson confirmed the UK will submit a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for it to carry out its own tests.

The US threw its diplomatic weight behind the UK on Thursday, saying it stands in solidarity with its closest ally.

Mr Johnson said the UKs response means Russias intelligence capabilities in the country had been basically eviscerated for decades.

Russian diplomats have been expelled from the UK in the wake of the poisoning. (PA)

The scene of Sergei Skripals poisoning in Salisbury, Wiltshire. (Rex)

The Foreign Secretary claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to send a message to any defecting Russians that youre going to die.

Announcing sanctions in the House of Commons, the PM said the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia amounted to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.

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Mrs May announced the suspension of high-level contacts with Russia, including a boycott of this summers World Cup by Government ministers and members of the royal family.

She said Russian state assets will be frozen wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents.

Salisbury spy poisoning: How the scandal unfolded. (PA)

Twenty-three Russian diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers have been given a week to leave the UK, in the largest mass expulsion since 31 were ordered out in 1985 following the defection of double agent Oleg Gordievsky.

Mr Corbyn drew criticism for his stance on the Salisbury incident after his spokesman said the history of the use of information from UK intelligence agencies is problematic and refused to say that the Labour leader accepted the Russian state was at fault.

The spokesmans comments prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.The warning was as serious as he could muster.

Rep. Steve Stivers, the Ohioan tasked with running House Republicans official campaign committee, stood in front of his colleagues at a GOP summit on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning and did a political version of those Scared Straight videos. The night before, the Republican nominee in a conservative corner of Pennsylvania struggled to keep pace with his Democratic rival in a special election despite eight-figures worth of outside cash to help him out.

This is a wake up call. Wake up, Stivers told colleagues, according to two GOP officials who attended the meeting at the private Capitol Hill Club.

President Donald Trump had carried the district in 2016 by a whopping 20 percentage points in the Pittsburgh suburbs where coal miners still dream of going back underground. Now? It looked like Democrats had flipped the seat in their favor, less than two years after they didnt even bother to nominate someone.

Incumbent Republicans nodded along, a bit sheepish that many hadnt taken Stivers previous admonishments seriously enough. Advisers to House Speaker Paul Ryan have been sounding the alarm for months about the status of the GOP caucus. Many incumbents are trailing their Democratic challengers in fundraising. Some hadnt yet hired campaign staff. More than a few were trying to keep the election at bay as long as they could and hadnt settled on teams for polling, digital ads or mail. Apparently it is a shock that November follows October follows September and on with these guys, snarked a third Republican with close ties to the Speakers Office.

Stivers, a popular but serious member of the GOP Leadership, wanted to make sure his colleagues knew the Republican majority rested on every one of their re-election bids. Nothing taking place on this block of Washington, where the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee call home, can outweigh a neglected campaign.

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Bear down, Stivers growled.

Message received. Maybe.

As much as Republicans were starting to freak out  and Democrats were celebrating  its worth pushing pause to consider what, exactly, the Pennsylvania district means to the GOP struggle to hold the majority. Yes, Conor Lamb ran a better-than-expected candidate and seems likely to become the newest member of the Democratic caucus. No, Rick Saccones campaign performances were not terrific, and perhaps he put too much confidence in his ability to replicate the Trump mojo.

But the bigger fight in 2018 is unlikely to be a carbon copy of what narrowly happened in Appalachia for a number of reasons. For one, Democrats avoided a messy primary fight in picking Lamb, a Marine veteran who secured the nomination by winning over 319 Democrats backing in a high school gym filled with 554 activists back in November. In other scenarios, an energized activist base on the Left  populated by newcomers to the process who demand ideological purity  may have prevented Lamb from winning the nomination had there been a real contest. In recent weeks, more than a few progressive activists grumbled that whether Lamb won or lost, another white male who wasnt a full-throated supporter of abortion rights would represent the district. (Lamb said he supported abortion rights but was personally opposed to the legal procedure, a stance that matches Democrats 2016 VP nominee Tim Kaine. Republicans called Lambs position pro-life-ish.)

At the same time, Lamb steadfastly avoided nationalizing the race and brushed off most questions about Trump. While liberals are largely united in their disdain of the President, Lamb gamely avoided moving him to center stage. Many of the loudest voices on the Left have tried to cast 2018 as a referendum on Republicans national agenda. Instead, Lamb kept the focus at home and talked about policy areas that matched the voters.

Democrats have acknowledged their problems with recruiting the right candidates. For every Lamb victory, there are at least as many idealists who fire up online activists and donors  only to fall in defeat when their progressive ideas are rejected by the voters who actually matter.

Former Congressman Rahm Emanuel  now the Mayor of Chicago  was the master at this when he ran the Democrats campaign committee in 2006. He sought out candidates who were tailored to the districts, even if they were afield from party orthodoxy on issues such as guns, abortion and unions. Democrats netted 30 seats that year, enough to elevate Nancy Pelosi to the House Speaker role. The price to pay was a caucus with moderates known as Blue Dogs. (Most of them are now gone.)

But the Emanuel approach is not in favor among the activists who are demanding purity. Need proof? The California Democratic Party declined to endorse Sen. Dianne Feinsteins bid for a sixth term because shes seen as too centrist. She is likely to face another Democrat, state Senate President Kevin de Leon, in a head-to-head race this November.

The spin coming from both sides betrayed an uncertainty for what comes next. Ryan, who stands to lose his gavel as Speaker if the Republicans dont build a stronger firewall against a Democratic wave, told reporters on Wednesday that Lamb was basically a conservative, and real Republican candidates will fare just fine this fall.

But in private, Ryan was reviewing campaign finance reports for his most-endangered colleagues in an effort to goose them to action. His strategists were telling incumbents to focus on the benefits on the Republican-led tax cuts  opposed by every House Democrat  and not the charisma of the President who signed them into law. And, given the reality check they watched on Tuesday, Republicans were scheduling time to phone donors with a warning that the GOP majority was in peril.

Across the aisle, Democrats predicted a wave of GOP retirement announcements in districts seen as less Republican-leaning than Lambs was seen and crowed about their recruits. There are more than 60 candidates running for Congress in our targeted battlefield who are veterans, national security experts, CIA officers, job-creators and trusted elected leaders, House Democrats committee wrote in a post-election memo that doubled as fundraising message.

Democrats had a good night. Their message broke through to voters, including many who had voted for Trump but now returned to their tribal home as Democratic voters. They showed the roughly $10 million in national conservative cash was not impenetrable armor.

But the convergence of luck and wisdom that unfolded in Pennsylvanias southwest corner isnt a given in other districts. And, for that reason, Democrats would be wise to keep their cockiness in check. After all, there are 237 days before the general election and, if the current political climate has taught us anything, it is that conditions change quickly and dramatically.

Just ask the pro-Trump voters south of Pittsburgh who cast ballots for Lamb.Donald Trump appeared to threaten U.S. ally South Korea that he would withdraw American troops from the Korean Peninsula if it Seoul doesnt give in to his demands on trade.

The president made the comments in a speech to donors at a fundraiser in Missouri. Audio from the event was leaked to the Washington Post.

Trump is pursuing an aggressive trade policy. He argues the U.S. is getting a raw deal with its trading partners, and is proposing a raft of protectionist measures and will only make exceptions for allies if they negotiate with him personally.

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Donald Trump South Korea

REUTERS/Leah Millis

In particular, Trump unveiled plans for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The U.S. imports four times more steel than it exports. The U.S. Department of Commerce concluded in February 2018 that this vast trade deficit poses a threat to national security.

South Korea is the world's fourth-largest steel exporter and in 2017 the U.S. was its third-largest export market by volume. It is also a major U.S. ally in Asia, and South Korea relies on American military might as a shield from its belligerent, nuclear-armed neighbor to the north.

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We have a very big trade deficit with [South Korea], and we protect them, Trump reportedly told donors. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Lets see what happens.

There have been thousands of U.S. troops on active duty in South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, to deter an invasion by communist North Korea.

Story continues

South Korea and the U.S. regularly carry out joint military exercises, increasingly seen as a show of force while Pyongyang ramps up its illegal nuclear weapons programme.

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The North Korean regime is attempting to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching the U.S. mainland.

It conducted a number of provocative missile tests to this end in 2017, and engaged in a war of words with Trump, which included mutual threats of annihilation.

However, since January the situation has cooled slightly and the North and South engaged in talks, brought on by the 2018 Winter Olympics held in South Korea. Both Koreas participated as a united team, creating a platform for peace talks.

Those talks between the North and South progressed so well that, against expectations, Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are now slated to meet by June, for talks on potential denuclearization.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Steve Holland and Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Differences over how to deal with North Korea's nuclear challenge were a key factor in President Donald Trump's decision to replace Rex Tillerson as U.S. secretary of state, according to sources familiar with the internal deliberations.

Tillerson had been an early advocate of talks with North Korea to the annoyance of Trump, who wanted to keep applying maximum pressure on Pyongyang before responding to an invitation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the sources said.

That had led to fear that Tillerson might be too willing to make concessions to North Korea, the sources said.

"He's got to have somebody in there that he totally trusts, said a senior U.S. official.

In recent weeks Trump spent time putting in place a succession plan, lining up Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo to take over at the State Department and CIA deputy director Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo as the head of the spy agency, the source said.

A key aim was to get the team in place prior to moving ahead with North Korea.

Trump and Kim have committed to meeting at a time and place to be determined before the end of May to discuss North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

In a snub, Tillerson was left out of the loop regarding the North Korean invitation and was on his first trip to Africa when Trump sat down at the White House with a visiting delegation from South Korea last Thursday and agreed to meet Kim.

The next day, Friday, Trump told White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to tell Tillerson he needed to resign, White House officials said.

One source said Kelly had been trying to protect Tillerson as long as he could, but that Trump had grown weary of Tillerson's tendency to contradict the president on a variety of issues and had been telling friends he was about to dump him.

Tillerson, who was in Nairobi at the time and still had two stops to go - Chad and Nigeria - asked that he first return to the United States before it was announced.

Story continues

Hours after Tillerson landed in Washington on Tuesday, Trump announced on Twitter that he was being dismissed and replaced by Pompeo.

State Department officials said Tillerson did not know why he was being pushed out. One of them, Steve Goldstein, was fired later on Tuesday after he contradicted the White House's version.

Tillerson, whose tenure ends on March 31, returned to the State Department on Wednesday to hand over responsibilities to John Sullivan, his deputy, and to meet with senior officials, a State Department official said.

The official said Tillerson's chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, and deputy chief of staff, Christine Ciccone, had resigned.

It was not immediately clear whether Tillerson's policy chief, Brian Hook, would stay on beyond March 31. The department announced on Wednesday that Hook would travel to Vienna to participate in a meeting on Friday on the Iran nuclear deal.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Tom Brown)By Alana Wise

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A German Shepherd that United Airlines mistakenly shipped to Japan was headed home to Kansas on Thursday, even as the carrier was still grappling with fallout over the death of a puppy on a separate United flight this week.

"An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations," United said in a statement on Thursday. "We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and are on their way to be reunited with their owners."

During the Denver connection, the German Shepherd, named Irgo, was scheduled to transfer to a flight arriving at Kansas City International Airport on Tuesday, but was mistakenly shipped to Japan instead while a Great Dane was sent to Kansas City.

"The German Shepherd is currently enroute from Tokyo to Wichita. The Great Dane arrived safely in Tokyo and is awaiting its connecting flight to Hiroshima," United said.

The German Shepherd's owner, Kara Swindle, had told Kansas City's KCTV that she was worried that given the 10-year-old dog's advanced age, he would not be able to survive the long flight home.

"He's never been on a flight before. I honestly don't know if he's going survive this flight," said Swindle, who is in the process of moving from Oregon to Kansas.

United's treatment of animals was questioned earlier this week when a French bulldog puppy in a carrying case died after a flight attendant insisted that the dog's owner put the animal in the overhead storage for the 3-1/2-hour flight from Houston to New York.

United has apologized for the death and said it was the result of a misunderstanding between the flight attendant and passenger about whether there was an animal in the carrying case.

The carrier has the highest rate of animal deaths and injury of any U.S. airline at a rate of 2.24 per 10,000 animals transported, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Story continues

On Thursday, U.S. senators John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, introduced the Welfare of Our Furry Friends Act (WOOFF) bill that would direct the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit storing live animals in overhead compartments and establish civil fines for violations.

The Transportation Department has said it is looking into the events that led to the dog's death and was in contact with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that enforces the Animal Welfare Act and handles complaints about alleged animal mistreatment.

(Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Suzannah Gonzales)The alleged suicide note left behind

Mbarara Police are investigating circumstances under, which a Swedish national committed suicide in a guest house.



Woldehaimanot Mussie ended his life by hanging in his room at Sun Set Guest house in Nyamityobora lower in Nyamityobora ward in Kakoba division of Mbarara municipality on Wednesday evening.



It was the cleaner who found the Swede's lifeless body and informed management. Mbarara police has opened a general inquiry file vide Mbarara GEF 21/2018.



Samson Kasasira, the Rwizi regional police spokesperson, says they dispatched the deceased's body to Mulago National Referral hospital for a postmortem.



He says that the deceased left behind a suicide note indicating his name and home country. He also instructed whoever lands on his body to get in touch with the Swedish Embassy. Kasasira says that the police have recorded statements from the proprietor of the guest house and cleaner.

In the note that Mussie reportedly left behind, he apologised to the guest house staff "for the mess."



Mussie is the second Swedish national to die in Uganda under very unclear this year. In February this year another Swedish national identified asAlex Nordlarndar Sebastien Andreas found dead in his room at Sheraton hotel.



Police later said toxic substances were found in the deceased's body.Vanessa Trump has officially filed for divorce from Donald Trump Jr.

After five children, the Donalds presidency, and even death threats, they certainly had a drama-packed 12 years of marriage.

Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump, on the set of Celebrity Apprentice in 2014, are divorcing. (Photo: Bobby Bank/GC Images)

Vanessas move follows a report in the New York Posts Page Six on Wednesday indicating the two were headed to divorce. Even though they had not legally separated yet, friends told the newspaper the two were already in the dreaded state of living separate lives. Donald Jr., an aspiring politico himself, has been, along with brother Eric Trump, running the Trump Organization and doing extensive traveling, including trips to feed his hunting passion. Vanessa is a devoted mother, but she is increasingly lonely and alone in the house with the children, the newspaper reported. And their problems arent new. They had hoped to stay together during the presidents time in office, but it is getting harder to resolve their issues. Hes never there.

Furthermore Donald Jr.s friends told the tabloid that he had changed recently, citing some of his tweets, including one attacking a teen survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Vanessa obviously had a very scary experience recently when she opened a letter, addressed to her husband at their home, that contained a threat as well as a mysterious white substance. She went to the hospital as a precaution.

The last year-plus of their lives has been truly a wild ride for the couple, both 40, but it really has never been dull from their first meeting  where they were introduced by the Donald  until now. Take a look 

2003: Donald Trump and his newly sober son Donald Jr.  who at that point was working off a reputation for drinking, womanizing, and frat boy antics  are at a fashion show. The future president, at the time engaged to Melania Knauss, spots the beautiful Vanessa Haydon  a native New Yorker, who modeled since childhood and was signed to Wilhelmina Models, and introduces himself and his son to her, Vanessa later recalled the meeting in a New York Times story, describing it as an awkward encounter. But it didnt end there. At intermission for the same show, the Donald again approached Vanessa. I dont think youve met my son Donald Trump Jr.,' Vanessa, who had been linked to Leonardo DiCaprio, remembered him saying. She replied, Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago.

Story continues

Six weeks later, Donald Jr., who by then works for his dad at the Trump Organization (they mended their earlier rift in which Donald Jr. didnt speak to the Donald for a year after his divorce from Ivana Trump), and Vanessa are introduced a third time, at a birthday party for a mutual friend. We talked for an hour, she told the New York Times, saying they initially didnt recognize each other. Then something clicked: Wait, youre the one with the retarded dad! Vanessa said. And love was born.

2004: Donald Jr. is called an heirhead and the cheapest gazillionaire after he accepts a free $100,000 engagement ring that he used to propose to Vanessa. But what is labeled one the cheesiest wedding proposals on record only got better. He invites reporters to the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey, where he proposes with his free ring in front of the press in the Bailey Banks & Biddle jewelry store.

Vanessa Haydon and Donald Trump Jr. during the Bailey Banks and Biddle Fine Jewelers Provides Diamond Engagement Ring for Donald Trump Jr.s Fiancee Vanessa Haydon event at Short Hills Mall in Short Hills, N.J., in 2004. (Photo: Mychal Watts/WireImage)

Donald Jr.s dad later makes fun of his son for the incident on Larry King Live. I guess hes trying to learn from me  but I didnt like it, the elder Trump says. I said, You have a name that is hot as a pistol, you have to be very careful with things like this.

November 2005: Despite the embarrassing engagement, Donald Jr. and Vanessa tie the knot at  you guessed it  Mar-a-Lago, the familys club in Florida. His father had just married Melania there months earlier. There were 370 guests, including Dynastys Joan Collins, model Sophie Dahl, and reality-TV star Brittny Gastineau. It is also a big deal because it was a reunion between the Donald and Ivana, who had a crazy bitter divorce. Vanessa tells Extra that she told her groom that he wasnt permitted to carry his Blackberry with during the wedding. They honeymoon in Fiji and Mexico.

Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump cut a slice of wedding cake at their wedding reception at Mar-a-Lago in November 2005. (Photo: Michelle McMinn Photography/Getty Images)

November 2006: Two days after their first wedding anniversary, the pair invite a small group of friends and relatives to their two-bedroom condominium on the Upper West Side and announce they were expecting their first child. Donald Jr. starts stepping out into the spotlight, including appearances on his dads baby, The Apprentice. When I started working, I realized that theres an end goal, that I can use some of this, he says of fame tied to to the Trump name. It would be like having an advantage and not taking advantage of it. Thats called stupid. Meanwhile, Vanessa also pursues the limelight, nabbing the cover of Hamptons Magazine and playing Beauty in the 2003 film Somethings Gotta Give. That is her only acting credit.

Vanessa Trump and Donald Trump Jr. attend the launch party for the holiday issue of Hamptons Magazine on Nov. 15, 2006. She was on the magazines cover. (Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

May 2007: The first Trumpette is born: Kai Madison Trump.

February 2009: Their son Donald Trump III makes his debut.

October 2011: Son Tristan Milos Trump joins the party.

Soon after the birth of their first child, Vanessa Trump and Donald Trump Jr. enjoy a night out at Roberto Cavallis Halloween Party at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City on Oct. 31, 2007. (Photo: Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic)

October 2012: Their son Spencer Frederick Trump is born.

Also that year, Donald Jr.  an outdoorsman since his Colorado days  finds himself at the center of a scandal after photos surface, from 2010, of him with his arms around an endangered dead leopard and posing with bloody elephant tail. At least one sponsor stops advertising on Celebrity Apprentice over the incident. Junior doesnt back down from his love of hunting.

June 2014: Their daughter Chloe Sophia Trump arrives.

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2016: As the Donald campaigns for president, Donald Jr. becomes a close political adviser to his father, as described by the New York Times. He campaigns, gives speeches, and maybe makes shady dealings.

2017: After his father wins, he focuses on the family business with Eric while the Donald and Ivanka head to Washington. However, hes accused of shady dealings related the the campaign and is grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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After that, Donald Jr. seems to take a step back  though not on social media. He continues to make controversial posts and hints that he may run for election himself. One related to his family, and referenced in the Page Six story about the possible divorce, was the photo of the couples daughter Chloes Halloween candy, which he captioned, Its never to [sic] early to teach her about socialism.

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He also briefly ends the Secret Service detail for their family, only to have it restored a few weeks later. According to Page Six, Vanessa, who is described as low-key, is uncomfortable with the intense focus on the Trump family, causing trouble at home.

2018: Donald Jr. is reportedly never at home, according to Page Six. He has been traveling a lot. In February he was in India, and he has continued to take his hunting trips. Vanessa is increasingly lonely and alone in the house with the children.

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Also during that month, she experiences a traumatic incident when she opens a letter addressed to Donald Jr., which was mailed to their Manhattan home, and it contains an explicit threat along with the white powder. Although it is later determined not to be hazardous, it was terrifying for Vanessa, who is hospitalized as a precaution. She is naturally worried for the safety of her children, reports Page Six. Donald Jr. speaks out about the incident via Twitter, calling it an incredibly scary situation and saying he is Thankful that Vanessa & my children are safe and unharmed.

On March 14, Page Six runs with its bombshell story about the couple talking divorce. The pair did not address the chatter with the paper reporting, A spokesperson for Donald Jr., Vanessa and the Trump Organization has declined to comment, despite numerous requests to do so over two days.

Vanessa filed court papers for an uncontested divorce the following day, according to the Associated Press.

[Editors note: This post was originally published March 15, 2018 at 1:15 p.m. ET.]

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:Donald Trump participates in a tour of US-Mexico border wall prototypes near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Donald Trump waited more than a year to visit California, a stronghold for his Democrat rivals. When he arrived, it was to tout the most enduring and divisive symbol of his presidency - his border wall with Mexico.

His arrival in Americas most populous state which is also home to the country's largest undocumented population was akin to a foray into enemy territory.

Democrats there would like to see him removed from office, while members of his own Republican Party are hoping his unpopularity doesn't drag down their re-election bids.

His tour of border wall prototypes near San Diego also reinforced the message that propelled him to the White House.

The President has long used liberal California as a reason for his hard line on immigration, vilifying its elected officials and lambasting city and state sanctuary policies that constrain law enforcement from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Escalating the confrontation, the US Justice Department last week sued over those policies.

California meanwhile has repeatedly sued the Trump administration over a number of policy decisions.

Rather than putting that rivalry aside for his visit, the President touted it. He previewed his trip by tweeting that the state's laws put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk.

He resumed the critique upon landing in the state, dismissing California Governor Jerry Brown as having done a very poor job, repeatedly excoriating sanctuary laws and urging Congress to revoke funding for sanctuary cities, a tactic that has been rejected in court.

Capturing the fractured political landscape Mr Trump, he was met with duelling demonstrations. Rival protesters shouted both their support and antipathy for their leader at each other from across police lines.

Flag-waving supporters chanted USA at a rally near the border.

A pro-Trump group called "San Diegans for Secure Borders" organised a rally to convey that the President is absolutely welcome in San Diego.

Story continues

Its founder Jeff Schwilk, who has been a prominent member of an anti-illegal immigration group called the Minutemen said Mr Trump "never wavered" from immigration reform "being his top issue".

Just as Mr Trumps immigration stance animated conservative voters, his election has galvanised elected officials and the liberal base in California. Groups representing the spectrum of the resistance to Mr Trump organised demonstrations, among them a local Womens March chapter and immigration advocates.

Some young people known as Dreamers, who entered the country illegally as children but have grown up in the US, have seen Mr Trump end a programme that offered protection from deportation, planned a vigil to highlight what they callled hateful rhetoric and xenophobic tendencies.

A Democratic member of Congress, Juan Vargas, drew applause for noting he has repeatedly voted for impeachment.

Sadly weve spent million of taxpayer dollars building prototypes that dont do a single thing to protect the country. All they do is create a backdrop for the president to come here and grandstand, said Christian Ramirez, who headed the Southern Border Communities Coalition and is running for a San Diego City Council seat whose district abuts the border.

Democrats hold all the levers of power in the California state government, and Mr Trump lost the state by millions of votes. It is also a fulcrum on which control of Congress could turn, with the Democratic Party aiming to unseat 10 Republican members as they look to create a swing of 24 seats in the House.

That has left some vulnerable incumbents walking a delicate balance, hoping not to alienate conservative voters while casting a wary eye towards a President who is politically toxic for many moderates.

Days before his visit, the California Republican Party embraced the President with a fundraising email highlighting the Department of Justice's decision to sue the state..

It said Governor Jerry Brown and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra were bragging about defying the federal government.

But some local Republicans were absent when the President toured the border. The San Diego County Republican Party did not make any plans for Mr Trumps visit, with a representative saying they were too busy planning for an annual fundraiser.

Rocky Chavez, one of the party's congressional candidates was also conspicuous by his absence.

Republican Rep Duncan Hunter, whose San Diego-area district is among those Democrats are hoping to turn, was initially planning to return to Washington but ended up heading to the border after a last-minute call from the White House.

However Matt Rexroad, a political consultant for California Republican Party predicted Mr Trumps visit would not affect tight races. He said it did little more than offer a helping of red meat to both liberals and conservatives.

For the administration they get to go back to the East Coast or the Midwest and say were sticking it to California, said Mr Rexroad, whose clients include one of California's Republican congressmen, Steve Knight.

"And the folks that dont like President Trump get to show up and rally and say they really stuck it to the administration".The younger sister of Dylann Roof, the convicted mass murderer who killed nine people at a historic black church in South Carolina, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly bringing weapons to her school on the same day the National Student Walkout was planned.

Morgan Roof, an 18-year-old student of A.C. Flora High School in Columbia, South Carolina, was charged with possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds, according to The State newspaper.

An administrator at the school alerted a school resource officer that a student on campus had made a threatening and racist Snapchat post and brought pepper spray and a knife to school. The Richland County Sheriffs Department later confirmed that the student was Morgan Roof.

Roofs Snapchat post criticized her schoolmates at Flora High for participating in the nationwide student walkouts in protest of gun violence on Wednesday. The protests were being held on the one-month anniversary of a horrific mass shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

I hope its a trap and yall get shot, Roof wrote of the protest at her school, according to a screenshot of her Snapchat post.

We know its fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.

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Roofs racist post was especially disturbing considering the heinous crimes of her brother, who is an avowed white supremacist.

In June 2015, Dylann Roof walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and opened fire on a Bible study group. He killed nine people. The 22-year-old shooter was found guilty on 33 federal charges and sentenced to death.

One of Dylann Roofs friends told investigators that he hoped the massacre would start a race war.

In a letter to students, parents and faculty, Principal Susan Childs said that a students social media post caused quite a disruption on campus. Childs letter did not identify Morgan Roof but described her post as a hateful message that was extremely inappropriate.

Story continues

Chris Slick, a neighbor of the Roofs, told The Post and Courier that Morgan Roof wasnt hateful.

Tragedy has struck this family again, Slick told the newspaper.

This is not the Morgan I knew. She didnt hate people. She didnt have prejudices like this  in fact, I witnessed the opposite, he added. I hope that one day, one day she finds peace and seeks forgiveness for what she did today. I cannot say I wish the same for her brother.

In a series of tweets, Gov. Henry McMaster said that potential tragedy was avoided at Flora High on Wednesday. He also called on the state General Assembly to pass legislation requiring police officers to be present at every school.

Law enforcement officials took Morgan Roof to the Richland County Detention Center, according to CBS affiliate WLTX 19. She was released on a $5,000 bond with the condition that she not return to school.

Also on HuffPost

Ethel Lance

A relative of Ethel Lance, 70, who had worked at the church for 30 years, identified her as a victim in an interview with The Post And Courier.



"I'm lost, I'm lost," Lance's grandson, Jon Quil Lance, told the media outlet. He described her as the heart of the family."

Clementa Pinckney

Clementa Pinckney, 41, was among the nine victims shot and killed by a gunman on June 18, 2015, at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.



Pinckney was the church's pastor and a state senator representing the 45th District.



A married father of two, Pinckney was elected to the state House at age 23, making him the youngest House member at the time.

Sharonda Coleman-Singleton

Charleston Southern University, where Sharonda Coleman-Singleton's son is a rising sophomore, confirmed her death in a statement on the university website.



"The CSU family is praying for ... his family during this painful time," said President Jairy C. Hunter Jr.



Coleman-Singleton, 45, was a high school track coach and a pastor at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, according to the church website.

Susie Jackson

Walter Jackson holds a photo of his mother Susie Jackson, one of the nine people killed in Wednesday's shooting at Emanuel AME Church, as he stands on his front porch Friday, June 19, 2015, in Charleston, S.C.

Tywanza Sanders

Lady June Cole, the president of Allen University in Columbia, confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Tywanza Sanders, 26, was one of the victims and said he graduated in 2014 with a degree in business administration.



He was a quiet, well-known student who was committed to his education, Cole said. He presented a warm and helpful spirit as he interacted with his colleagues. Mr. Sanders was participating in the Bible Study session at Mother Emanuel church at the time of the shooting.

Cynthia Hurd

Kurtis Rogers, communications director of the South Carolina State Library, confirmed to The Huffington Post that 54-year-old Cynthia Hurd, an employee of the Charleston County Public Library, was among the victims.



"We have staff members who have worked with her before on various projects. She had 31 years of service at the library in Charleston," he said.



The library also released a statement that called Hurd "a tireless servant of the community who spent her life helping residents, making sure they had every opportunity for an education and personal growth."

Depayne Middleton

Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, was identified as a victim by Charleston County Coroner' Rae H. Wooten.



Wooten said Middleton-Doctor retired from Charleston County in 2005, where she was director of the Community Development Block Grant Program.

Daniel Simmons

Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74, was a ministerial staff member, according to the church website. He was transported to a hospital after the shooting and later died.

Myra Thompson

The Church of the Holy Trinity, via its Facebook page, identified Myra Thompson, 59, as the wife of reverend Anthony Thomspon, Vicar of Holy Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church in Charleston.



"Please pray for all undergoing pain and suffering in this unspeakable crime," said Carl Lund, rector at the church.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Morgan Roof was arrested yesterday (TV)

The sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof has been arrested after she took a knife to school and threatened pupils taking part in a walkout protest against gun violence.

Morgan Roof has reportedly been charged with possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons of school grounds.

She was released on $5,000 (3,600) bail but has not been allowed to return to her Florida high school.

Roof, 18, was arrested after posting a video posted on her snapchat in which she spoke of her hope that students who participate in the National Walkout Day get shot, although no charges were filed for the message.

We know its fixing to be nothing but black people walking out anyway, she remarks in the clip.

The inflammatory comments were made on Snapchat

The racially charged comments come after her brother killed nine black parishioners in June 2015 when he opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Your (sic) walking out for the allowed time of 17 min, they are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what tf you think its gonna do? she wrote in the Snapchat caption.

I hope its a trap and yall get shot we know its fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway. No offense ofc buuut (sic).

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In a statement to parents, the AC Flora High School said: A student used social media to post a hateful message, the letter to parents read.

Dylann Roof was jailed for killing nine churchgoers in South Carolina.

The posting was not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate. That student was dealt with in a swift and severe manner as the posting caused quite a disruption.

Roofs brother was sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences without parole after pleading guilty to murder charges in April 2017.AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Russia must cooperate with the world's chemical weapons body and disclose a "Novichok" nerve agent program after a former spy was attacked with military-grade toxin in an English city, the European Union said on Thursday. "We support the call for a full and complete disclosure by the Russian Federation," Bulgaria's envoy to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Krassimir Kostov, told members of the OPCW's executive council. "We call on the Russian Federation to respond swiftly to the British government's legitimate questions and to co-operate with the OPCW," said Kostov, who made the comments on behalf of the EU. The EU's appeal to Russia came after Britain, the United States, Germany and France jointly called on Russia to explain the military-grade nerve toxin attack in England which they said threatened Western security. Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are in critical condition after being poisoned in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. Britain has asked the OPCW to independently verify the findings of its bio-chemical weapons laboratory, Porton Down, that the nerve agent was the powerful Soviet-era toxin. Russia declared roughly 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons to the OPCW in the 1990s. The agency said in October that Moscow had completed destruction of the stockpile. It did not declare Novichok. (Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's European allies spent more on defense for the third year running in 2017 but their outlays failed to lift more countries above a target sought by the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded allies dedicate 2 percent of national economic output on defense every year and has sought to keep up the pressure by calling that target, agreed at a NATO summit in 2014, a "bare minimum." NATO's 2017 annual report showed Estonia, Greece, Poland and Britain met the 2 percent goal, the same group as in 2016, although alliance officials say Latvia, Lithuania and Romania will join them in 2018. NATO has 29 member states in total. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, failing states on NATO's borders, and the spread of Islamist militancy have pushed European governments to focus more on boosting their home defenses after more than a decade of NATO-led operations in Afghanistan. But the 2017 report may not be the breakthrough many NATO diplomats believe they need to mollify Trump, who as the alliance's de-facto leader has made defense spending a priority. He is expected to attend a summit at NATO headquarters in July. In 2017, defense spending in Europe, including Turkey, rose 4.07 percent, or by $10.8 billion, compared to 2016, and marks a nearly $50-billion cumulative increase since spending began to increase in late-2014, the report said. Overall, the NATO European allies and Canada combined spent an average of 1.45 percent of their economic output on defense in 2017, compared to 3.57 percent in the United States. FEARS OF RUSSIA After years of defense cuts following the Cold War, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the shift in spending marks a significant change, as the alliance seeks to deter Russia and undergoes its biggest modernization in decades. "European allies and Canada are now stepping up," Stoltenberg told a news conference. "After years of declines, we are seeing three consecutive years of increases and more countries will meet the 2 percent target," he said. Large spending increases in Bulgaria, which fears Russian dominance in the Black Sea region, in Germany, which is leading a battalion of NATO troops in the Baltic, and in Norway, which borders Russia, helped the numbers last year compared to 2016. Even Spain, which is not among the big-spending eastern European nations worried about Moscow, raised defense expenditure by 18.25 percent in 2017 after a sharp fall in 2016. But that spending did not keep pace with an economic recovery in Europe after years of crisis in the euro zone, and Spain remained well off the NATO target of reaching, or moving toward, 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2024. Spending actually fell in Britain and Belgium, although in Britain's case the changes reflect fluctuations in the value of its pound currency, as the report is produced in U.S. dollars. As its biggest contributor, the United States, has warned European allies since the 2008/09 financial crisis that the alliance's military power and influence are at risk while countries such as China and Russia increase their budgets. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Gareth Jones)(Reuters) - A former Siemens AG employee pleaded guilty on Thursday to U.S. charges he took part in a $100 million scheme to bribe Argentine officials to win a contract to produce national identity cards, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Eberhard Reichert, a 78-year-old German national, pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to one count of conspiring to violate the anti-bribery, internal controls and books and records provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to commit wire fraud, the department said in a statement.

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh)Harare (AFP) - Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe described his departure from office in November as a "coup d'etat" in his first TV interview since then, aired by South Africa's state broadcaster on Thursday.

"I say it was a coup d'etat -- some people have refused to call it a coup d'etat," said Mugabe referring to the brief takeover by the army which led to Emmerson Mnangagwa assuming power after Mugabe's resignation.

"(...) We must undo this disgrace we have imposed on ourselves," he said.

Mugabe was forced to quit when the military stepped in and ZANU-PF lawmakers launched impeachment proceedings against their once beloved leader.

Since his dramatic reversal of fortune, he has largely appeared to stay out of public life.

The military moved against Mugabe, 94, after he sacked his then-deputy and heir-apparent Mnangwga apparently fearing the nonagenarian was grooming his wife Grace to succeed him as president.

The former first lady had cultivated her own factional support base within ZANU-PF known as "G-40" that was seen as hostile to the security establishment.

"It was truly a military takeover, there was no movement visible unless that movement was checked and allowed by the army," said Mugabe.Harare (AFP) - Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe described his departure from office in November as a "coup d'etat" that "we must undo" in his first TV interviews since then, aired on Thursday.

Mugabe, 94, spoke slowly but clearly to South Africa's SABC broadcaster from an office in Harare, dressed in a grey suit, sitting in front of a portrait of himself and his wife Grace.

"I say it was a coup d'etat -- some people have refused to call it a coup d'etat," said Mugabe referring to the brief army takeover which led to Emmerson Mnangagwa assuming power after Mugabe's resignation.

"We must undo this disgrace which we have imposed on ourselves, we don't deserve it... Zimbabwe doesn't deserve it."

In another similarly vehement interview, with Britain's ITV News, the elderly former leader said he had no desire to return to power.

"I don't want to be president, no of course," he said. "I'm now 94."

Mugabe told both interviewers he did not hate his successor President Mnangagwa, 75, but alleged that he had "betrayed the whole nation".

The ousted leader insisted he would not work with Mnangagwa and suggested that his presidency was "illegal" and "unconstitutional".

"People must be chosen in government in a proper way. I'm willing to discuss, willing to assist in that process -- but I must be invited," he said.

Gideon Chitanga, an analyst at the Johannesburg-based Political Economy Southern Africa think-tank, said that Mugabe's intervention was significant "coming at a time of elections".

- 'The man who turned against me' -

Presidential polls are due by the end of August in which Mnangagwa will face his first major electoral test.

"In the back of his mind (Mugabe) still sees himself as part of the problem and part of the solution," said Chitanga.

Mugabe's media appearance was apparently organised by the new National Patriotic Front (NPF) party which hopes to unseat Mnangagwa's government in polls expected by August.

Story continues

Mugabe sent shockwaves through the ZANU-PF ruling party when he recently met with the NPF's leader, retired general Ambrose Mutinhiri.

In response to a widely-shared image of the two, ZANU-PF Youth League supporters chanted "down with Mugabe" at a rally, a rare outburst from the normally disciplined party that Mugabe led for nearly four decades.

Mugabe was forced to quit the political scene he had dominated since independence from Britain in 1980 when the military stepped in and ZANU-PF lawmakers launched impeachment proceedings against their once beloved leader.

Since his dramatic reversal of fortune, he has largely stayed out of public life -- until breaking his silence Thursday.

Despite widespread jubilation following the army's seizure of power, many Zimbabweans are now disenchanted by what they see as a mere changing of the guard at the top of Zimbabwe's authoritarian system.

"It was a coup with a script to turn this into a military state. The people wanted a change of the entire ZANU-PF system -- not just one individual," businessman Munyaradzi Chihota, 40, told AFP as he travelled home.

"The situation has not changed since they removed Mugabe. If anything, we are worse off. (Mugabe) is 100 percent right that this was a military coup, that this country has been turned into a military state -- and that this has to be undone."

The military moved against Mugabe after he sacked his then-deputy and heir-apparent Mnangagwa, seemingly fearing the nonagenarian was grooming Grace to succeed him as president.

The former first lady had cultivated her own factional support base within ZANU-PF known as "G-40" that was seen as hostile to the security establishment -- Mnangagwa in particular.

"I never thought... he would be the man who turned against me," said Mugabe.

"It was truly a military takeover, there was no movement visible unless that movement was checked and allowed by the army."

Evan Mawarire, a pastor who became the face of anti-Mugabe demonstrations last year, tweeted that Mugabe "destroyed our lives".

"Today he appears on foreign media which he banned and claims he must be invited to a transitional process for Zimbabwe #RetireInPeaceBob."

Reflecting on his decades in power, which were marked by catastrophic economic policies, Mugabe remained adamant it had been a success story and any errors "weren't that bad".

"If anything, in comparison to other countries in Africa, we have had greater prosperity here and people have their land," he told ITV News.

However, when questioned about well documented human rights abuses throughout his tenure, Mugabe appeared more acknowledging of reality.

"We have been accused of that and on that side, yes some errors were done."

burs-gw/jj/jtaBy Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian gas giant Gazprom will cut hundreds of jobs at its overseas trading and export offices, including Britain, and move them to St Petersburg, according to two sources familiar with the plan, which comes at a time of rising tensions with the West.

One of the sources said the decision reflected a broader trend of Russian state firms retreating from the West as part of President Vladimir Putin's drive to repatriate capital to reduce exposure to sanctions and also shore up the domestic economy.

"In Russia, this story can be sold as a job creation exercise on home turf. This is useful, especially ahead of the presidential election," said the source, referring to the vote on Sunday that Putin is widely expected to win.

The reorganisation comes as relations between Russia and Britain, where Gazprom has the largest trading office by far, have hit a new low after Prime Minister Theresa May said Moscow was to blame for the attempted murder a former Russian double agent in an English city.

However the jobs decision was taken earlier this year, long before the spy scandal erupted, according to the sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Gazprom, which has its headquarters in St Petersburg, said it was too early to comment on numbers and moves. The company last month that it planned to reorganise its overseas trading and export operations but gave no details.

"This work is aimed at strengthening the company's position abroad," a spokesman said.

Gazprom's overseas trading and exports divisions employ around 2,000 people, with the bulk of them - around 1,000 - in London. It also has offices in locations including Paris, Houston, Singapore and cities in Germany. Not all employees are traders, as they also include finance and logistics specialists.

The reorganisation will see the number of people more than halved, while about the same number of people will be hired in St Petersburg from where many trading operations will be executed, according to one of the sources who did not give more specific details about where the cuts would happen.

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Since setting up Gazprom's trading offices in London in 2005, Gazprom has hired dozens of top traders from rival companies such as Total and Gunvor.

REPATRIATING CAPITAL

Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 triggered a series of U.S. and EU sanctions against the Kremlin and its companies, and ties have worsened further after Russia was accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Russian state banks such as VTB and companies such as Rosneft have since scaled back their presence in the West, while some of Putin's closest allies such as businessman Gennady Timchenko have sold their assets in the West and repatriated capital to Russia.

The West has repeatedly accused Putin of using Gazprom as a economic and political weapon after the gas behemoth cut supplies to Ukraine, thus disrupting deliveries to Europe. Moscow denies that charge.

Europe gets a third of its gas from Russia, and Gazprom has spent 15 years on building a mighty trading division to help it further boost that share.

The plan to move Gazprom's trading headquarters from London to St Petersburg was first considered by the company's management in 2015 but it was put on ice due to concerns about an exodus of people and the difficulties of raising credit for a capital-intensive operation, according to Gazprom sources.

The last time Gazprom's marketing and trading division published its results, for 2014, it said it made a net income of $613 million and a return on equity of 41 percent while staff costs stood at $162 million. The unit has not published results since.

(Additional reporting by Olesya Astakhova; Editing by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Pravin Char)General Kale Kayihura has today officially handed over the office of Inspector General of Police to his successor, Martin Okoth Ochola.



At a ceremony at the Uganda Police Force headquarters in Naguru, Kampala, the curtain came down on Kayihura's over 12 years as the head of Uganda's law enforcement agency. He said he will remain a loyal soldier of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) and a cadre in the struggle to liberate Uganda.

Gen Kale Kayihura hands over a report to his former deputy Okoth Ochola

Kayihura thanked President Yoweri Museveni for trusting him and elevating him to the top, not just in the police, but in the army where he rose through the ranks to become a General.



President Museveni on March 4 replaced Kayihura with his deputy, Okoth Ochola. Gen. Elly Tumwine took over as minister for Security, replacing Lt. Gen. Henry Tumukunde. The former Military Police commandant, Brig. Sabiiti Muzeyi takes over as deputy IGP.

Kayihura regretted his failures during the last 12 years as the head of the police, but spoke confidently about his tenure as the police boss noting that he leaves behind a better force than the one he inherited in November 2005.



"During my tenure as IGP, I may have fallen short in my assignment and that I deeply regret. But that is human and it is not due to lack of trying.



Perhaps to signal that he's out of the police force, Kayihura turned up dressed in his full military General's uniform. Despite his expression of regret, he outlined his achievements with confidence, only attributing his failure to the bad image in the force over the "last one year or so."



"Apart from the recent bad image which I will not be tempted to speak about its source, I am leaving a better police than I found," Kayihura said.

Forgive me if there is any I stepped on during my tenure , all I meant was for the good of our country , I didnt have any personal problem with any of you  - kale Kayihura #KayihuraHandOver @observerug pic.twitter.com/eu9xniwHDm  nicholas Bamulanzeki (@bamulanzeki) March 15, 2018

As he summarised his 20-paged handover report, the incoming IGP and his deputy Brigadier Muzeyi looked on.



During some of Kayihura's utterances, Ochola laughed heartily while Muzeyi maintained a serious face and made note of all key issues in his diary. During the vetting process, Ochola reportedly blamed the police mess on Kayihura, who he said respected no institutions.

Deputy IGP Sabiiti Muzeyi with IGP Okoth Ochola at Kayihura's handover. Photo: Nicholas Bamulanzeki

Kayihura apologised to whoever he may have hurt or wronged during his time as IGP, but noted that he did that in his line of duty, not personally. He thanked all the people he worked with from the ministers and senior civil servants to cleaners and those who served him tea.



All the other police directors watched on as Kayihura made a 30-minute statement. The handover ceremony began in a closed-door session at the IGP's office wing with only the ministers, General Jeje Odongo and state minister Obiga Kania, witnessing the handover from Kayihura to Ochola.



Like has been his culture, once the first session was over and all others joined the waiting officers in the main boardroom, Kayihura kept them waiting for about five minutes before he majestically marched through the corridors greeting people.



In a light mood, he asked journalists who had stood to take his pictures how he looked in his military attire.FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe speaks during a news conference, July 20, 2017. (Photo: Aaron Bernstein / Reuters)

WASHINGTON  Andrew McCabe, who took over as acting head of the FBI after President Donald Trump fired former Director James Comey last year, may soon be fired by the Trump administration just ahead of his formal retirement date on Sunday, putting his pension in peril after more than two decades at the bureau.

McCabe  a lifelong Republican  has a strained relationship with the president. Trump has complained about the Democratic political affiliation of McCabes wife, and criticized his oversight of FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton.

Trump has pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions  another frequent target of Trumps wrath  to get rid of McCabe. As first reported Wednesday by The New York Times, Sessions is now reviewing a recommendation to fire McCabe for alleged lack of candor in his discussions with the Justice Departments inspector general in the course of an investigation into how the Justice Department and the FBI handled the Clinton investigation.

Trumps statements about McCabe put pressure on Sessions to fire him, and would create an appearance of impropriety even if Sessions decision to fire McCabe were backed by a formal recommendation. The Justice Department said no formal decision has been made on McCabes fate.

The Department follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated, Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process. We have no personnel announcements at this time.

Reporters had been chasing down leads about McCabes fate in the past few days as he approached his official retirement date. McCabe formally stepped down from his position at the end of January, but was using accrued leave to carry him past his official retirement date of March 18.

While Trump has suggested that McCabe was a Clinton supporter, the justification for firing him  ironically  has to do with a decision he made that was damaging to Clinton and Obama appointees in the Justice Department.

Story continues

In 2016, McCabe evidently authorized a top aide and the FBIs chief spokesman to speak with a Wall Street Journal reporter for a story indicating that McCabe battled with Obama appointees within the Justice Department to allow an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation to continue. The FBI isnt supposed to disclose information about ongoing criminal investigations, but the Oct. 30, 2016, story went into an extraordinary level of detail about turf wars between the FBI and the Justice Department over the handling of the Clinton Foundation probe.

That article came on the heels of a Wall Street Journal story suggesting  to McCabes displeasure  that McCabe had a conflict of interest because his wifes political campaign had received money from groups tied to Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe. The chat with then-Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett was evidently intended to push back on the suggestion that McCabe was in Clintons pocket. The chat was referenced in text messages between two FBI employees that Republicans, as well as The Hills John Solomon and conservative media outlets, attempted to use to imply the FBI was leaking to hurt Trump ahead of the election.

In reality, the FBIs actions ahead of the election indisputably harmed Clinton. DOJs inspector general is conducting a broader investigation of the FBIs handling of the Clinton probe that is expected to examine Comeys actions.

The IGs findings on McCabe  issued in a separate report  started up the internal disciplinary process at the FBI. McCabe declined to comment through a spokesperson. A representative of the inspector generals office declined to comment when reached by HuffPost this week, and the office has generally been tight-lipped about the forthcoming reports.

But their decision to issue a separate report focusing solely on McCabe is somewhat unusual, and has enabled Sessions to take disciplinary action before McCabes retirement date, if he chooses.

McCabe and his attorney recently signed nondisclosure agreements that allowed them to read the results of the investigation but banned them from discussing its contents.

Related...

Here's What The FBI Lovers' Secret Texts Actually Say About Trump, Clinton And Leaks

FBI Texts Reveal Major Flaw In GOP Theory Of 'Deep State' Plot To Defeat Trump

DOJ Report To Knock Trump's Favorite FBI Foil Over Leak That Helped Trump's Own Campaign

Ryan Reilly is HuffPosts senior justice reporter, covering the Justice Department, federal law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs. Have a tip? Reach him at ryan.reilly@huffpost.com or on Signal at 202-527-9261.



Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.For the first time in California's history, the state has appointed an undocumented resident to a statewide post, announcing the decision just a day after President Donald Trump attacked its immigration approach during a visit to San Diego.

The decision made by the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday saw Lizbeth Mateo, a 33-year-old attorney and immigrant rights activist, appointed to serve on a committee that helps increase college access for students from low-income or underserved communities.

In announcing the decision, Senate President pro tempore Kevin de Leon appeared to recognize the move as an act of defiance in the face of the Trump administration's current immigration crackdown.

Trending: Spotify Tests Voice Control, Will It Soon Compete with Apple and Amazon?

DSC_6213-e1518012269416

Lizbeth Mateo Law

"While Donald Trump fixates on walls, California will continue to concentrate on opportunities," De Leon told The Sacramento Bee in a statement. "Ms. Mateo is a courageous, determined and intelligent young woman who at great personal risk has dedicated herself to fight for those seeking their rightful place in this country."

Mateo said she welcomed the opportunity, telling the newspaper that "while undocumented students have become more visible in our state, they remain under-represented in places where decisions that affect them are being made."

The attorney was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and came to the U.S. with her parents when she was just 14 years old. She went on to develop a passion for law and became the first person in her family to graduate from college, receiving her degree from Santa Clara University law school in 2016 and passing the California bar last year, according to her legal firm's website. She was officially sworn in by De Leon on June 29, 2017.

Don't miss: Virtual Kidnapping: Police Warn of Scammers Claiming to Abduct Children and Demanding Ransom

Story continues

California became the first state in the U.S. to allow undocumented immigrants to practice law in 2014, with New York following in its footsteps not long after.

GettyImages-580951026

Jessica Kourkounis/Getty

In 2010, Mateo also became one of the first undocumented young people to risk deportation by demanding the passage of the DREAM Act, legislation that would grant certain immigrants, including Dreamers, or people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, a path to citizenship. She also played a key role in helping a group of young people now known as the "Dream 9" return to the U.S. after being deported to Mexico.

The decision to appoint Mateo to a statewide post came just a day after Trump visited California for the first time as president, taking a trip to San Diego to see prototypes of the border wall he plans to build between the U.S. and Mexico.

Most popular: What Are the Ides of March? Meaning, Facts About the Day

Read more: Trump in California: President says state is begging us to build walls

During the visit, Trump claimed that California was "begging us to build walls in certain areas."

"They won't tell you that, but we said no, we won't do it until we build the whole wall," Trump said, adding that parts of the state were complaining about "people pouring in" across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The president has repeatedly condemned California's allowance of sanctuary cities, writing on Twitter on Wednesday that "California's sanctuary policies are illegal and unconstitutional and put the safety and security of our entire nation at risk.

"Thousands of dangerous and violent criminal aliens are released as a result of sanctuary policies, set free to prey on innocent Americans. THIS MUST STOP!" he added.

The U.S. leader also lashed out at the state's governor, Jerry Brown, saying he was doing a "terrible" job. Brown hit back, saying, "Thanks for the shout-out, Donald Trump. But bridges are still better than walls."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek(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.

Story continues

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.Mr Cruz pictured here during a previous court appearance: AP

Prosecutors are planning on seeking the death penalty for the man who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month, according to court filings.

Nikolas Cruz, who was arrested after that massacre on Valentines Day in Parkland, Florida, was indicted last week by a grand jury in Broward County on 17 counts of premeditated murder in the first degree, and 17 counts of attempted murder in the first degree.

Prosecutors in the case listed several aggravating factors that they say contributed to the decision to seek the death penalty, including that Mr Cruz knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons. The filling continues to say his crimes were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, and committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner.

The filing follows after Mr Cruzs attorneys signalled that their client was willing to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty.

Prosecutor also noted that they would like restrictions if the defence decides to try and introduce proof that their client mentally ill or suffering from some sort of mental condition.

That includes a deadline for filings like those, which could come into play since it is widely reported that Mr Cruz has battled with mental illness and depression in the past, especially following the November death of his adoptive mother.

Mr Cruz has confessed to authorities that he was the gunman who opened, according to a probable cause affidavit that was released soon after his arrest.

The defendant was arrested shortly after the shooting at the high school, which is the worst high school shooting in US history. He had exited the school he assaulted alongside students, and had wandered away from the scene before getting picked up by a police officer who saw him in a residential neighbourhood.

The shooting has sparked a fierce national debate over gun rights, with many of the student survivors vowing to push for gun control regulations so that the shooting they lived through might be the last.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.

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.

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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.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on Wednesday filed a motion in federal court seeking to dismiss charges against him, saying that the special counsel had exceeded his authority by charging Manafort with crimes not related to Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In a 46-page filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing said Manafort had been threatened with additional indictments and "faces a game of criminal-procedure whack-a-mole" by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, "whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match."

Under the terms of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's order in May appointing Mueller, the special counsel can probe links or coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly" from the investigation.

Mueller's office indicted Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates in October on charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States and failing to register as foreign agents of Ukraine's former pro-Russian government.

Gates, a former Trump aide, pleaded guilty last month to lying to investigators and conspiring to defraud the United States.

The filing said the special counsel should only be concerned with issues involving Russian meddling in the election. Instead Mueller has been given a blank check for a wide-ranging investigation. "It is a blank check the special counsel has cashed, repeatedly," it said.

The charges against Manafort "simply have no connection to alleged coordination with the Russian government or the 2016 presidential election," the filing said.

In January, Manafort filed a civil lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal court accusing Rosenstein of exceeding his legal authority to "grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across."

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None of the charges against Manafort or Gates make reference to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election nor accusations of collusion between Moscow and Trumps campaign.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow sought to meddle in the campaign to tilt the vote in favor of Trump, the Republican candidate, including by hacking the emails of leading Democrats and distributing disinformation and propaganda online.

Russia has denied the accusations of interference. Trump has said there was no collusion and denied any attempt to obstruct Mueller's probe.

Manafort is also facing separate indictments in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, charging him with bank fraud, filing false tax returns and failing to report foreign bank accounts to the U.S. government.

(Reporting by Sarah Lynch; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech and Michael Perry)Rome (AFP) - Lebanon received increased military support from the international community Thursday with France opening a 400 million euro ($492 million) line of credit to the country's army.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri thanked Paris at an international conference held in Rome to drum up money to bolster the armed forces of the country, long a proxy battleground for its bigger neighbours.

"This conference is important because we in Lebanon were the first to oust ISIS out of our soil -- we were able to do it with very little capabilities," Hariri said, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group.

He also condemned alleged interference by neighbour Israel.

"Israel remains the primary threat to Lebanon, its daily violations to our sovereignty must stop," he said.

Hariri said further discussion would be had to clarify the amounts pledged by each of the 40 countries at the Rome II Conference, which will be followed by two further meetings in Paris and Brussels.

France announced earlier in the month that it would provide 14 million euros to Lebanon's army, mostly in the form of anti-tank equipment.By John Irish and Marine Pennetier PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he shared Britain's assessment that Russia was behind a nerve agent attack on a former spy living in England and vowed to take measures in response in the coming days. France initially hesitated in fully backing Britain's position that Russia was to blame, saying on Wednesday it first wanted clear proof. But after speaking with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Macron sought to clear up any ambiguity. "Everything suggests that the responsibility is in fact attributable to Russia and in this the work carried out by the British (intelligence) services, shared with the French services, confirms it," Macron told reporters. "France strongly condemns this unacceptable attack on the soil of an allied country and I want to offer here all my solidarity to Theresa May." His office said a united response with European and transatlantic allies was needed, but quite what France might do remains unclear, especially as Macron has sought to turn a new leaf in relations with Russia since coming to office last year. Tensions were high between Macron's predecessor Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially over Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014, which prompted Paris to cancel a multi-billion dollar warship deal. Macron, 40 and new to international affairs, is due to be the guest of honor at an investor forum in St. Petersburg in late May, when a large French business delegation will accompany him in an effort to boost bilateral economic ties. "I will announce in the coming days the measures that we intend to take," Macron said, declining to say whether the visit to Russia would go ahead. FRENCH CAUTION Since announcing on Monday it believed Russia was "highly likely" to have been behind the March 4 attack, Britain has worked hard to draw allies' behind its position. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump were quick to assure May they took her views seriously. On Wednesday, May announced Britain was expelling 23 Russian diplomats, and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Thursday London would also target Russian wealth in Britain. Paris's nuanced initial reaction was in line with Macron's efforts since coming to office to build a new relationship with Putin, both for trade and to seek influence with Russia over its engagement in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere. Rather than directly confronting Putin through threats and "megaphone" diplomacy, Macron has emphasized private dialogue, while pushing for a restoration of business and cultural ties. Diplomats say Macron believes ostracizing Moscow will not yield results given its importance on the world stage and role in world crises. "There is a conscious policy decision that we must keep talking to the Russians and even go to Saint Petersburg despite none of the red lines Macron set next to Putin in Versailles (last May) being kept," said a former senior French diplomat. (Reporting by John Irish and Marine Pennetier; Editing by Luke Baker and Gareth Jones)By John Irish and Marine Pennetier

PARIS (Reuters) - France on Wednesday said it would be in touch with Britain in the coming hours to coordinate a response to a nerve agent attack on a Russian spy, which London has blamed on Russia, after an earlier muted reaction to Britain's allegations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier on Wednesday announced that Britain was expelling 23 Russian diplomats because it had received no explanation for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian former double agent, and his daughter with a Soviet-made nerve toxin.

In contrast to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump who assured May they were taking her government's views seriously, President Emmanuel Macron and other French officials have declined to point a finger directly at Russia.

French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said it was too early for Paris to decide whether action should be taken and a decisions would be made only once a case of Russian involvement was proven.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian later expressed full confidence in the investigations being carried out by Britain, though he too was careful not to say directly that Russia was behind the attack.

"In the coming hours, France will be in contact at the highest level with the British authorities to coordinate our response," Le Drian said before going into a meeting with his new German counterpart Heiko Maas.

The Elysee presidential palace said that Macron would speak on Thursday with May and added that London had been informing Paris and other allies since the start of the week in detail about Russia's responsibility in the "unacceptable" attack.

Britain's ambassador to France, Ed Llewellyn, tweeted on Tuesday that the first neuro toxin attack on European soil since 1945 required a "strong and coordinated response from our allies."

DIPLOMACY

Le Drian said that not only was the security of one of France's main allies at stake, but also that of France and Europe because a lethal nerve agent had been used despite international rules against chemical weapons proliferation.

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France's nuanced reaction was in line with Macron's efforts since coming into office to build a new relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Rather than directly confronting Putin through threats and megaphone diplomacy, he has emphasised private dialogue, while pushing for a restoration of business and cultural ties despite existing European Union sanctions on Moscow.

Diplomats say Macron believes ostracising Moscow will not yield results given its importance on the world stage and role in world crises. Despite obvious differences, he believes it is vital to keep a working relationship going with Russia.

Standing alongside Putin last May at the Chateau de Versailles, Macron heralded the start to a new page in relations after tensions under the previous administration. He said at the time that he wouldn't let differences over Syria, Ukraine and human rights strain their relationship.

Nearly a year on, there is little evidence to suggest he has gained anything tangible from the alternative approach in terms of foreign policy successes. However, he is due to be the guest of honour at an investor forum in Saint Petersburg at the end of May where a large French business delegation will also be present.

"France has a policy on Russia that its going to stick to. Theres no reason for this to knock that off-target," a French official said. "Youve got to remember there are pretty close ties between France and Russia, whether around literature, culture and business, and they are important."

(Additional reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey and Luke Baker; Editing by Richard Balmforth)United States has stepped up its attack on India's export friendly policies by alleging that the key programmes and incentives that India offers are creating an uneven playing field for US companies and workers.

This is despite the fact that Indian exports to United States consists of just 2.1 percent of the overall goods imports of that country.

In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer said that all key export promotion programmes of India, the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, Special Economic Zones, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme and a duty free imports for exporters programme are all providing financial benefits to Indian exporters that allow them to sell their goods more cheaply to the detriment of American workers and manufacturers.

USTR requested dispute settlement consultations with the Government of India at the World Trade Organization (WTO) challenging these programmes. "USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing U.S. rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO," Lighthizer said.

USTR data indicates that U.S. goods imports from India totaled $46.0 billion in 2016, up 2.7 percent ($1.2 billion) from 2015. U.S. imports of services from India were an estimated $26.8 billion in 2016, 8.6 percent ($2.1 billion) more than 2015. The top import categories in 2016 were precious metal and stone (diamonds) ($11 billion), pharmaceuticals ($7.4 billion), mineral fuels ($2.4 billion), miscellaneous textile articles ($2.3 billion), and machinery ($2.1 billion). Leading services imports from India to the U.S., in 2015, were in the telecommunications, computer, and information services, travel, and research and development sectors.

India's export friendly programmes that have been challenged by the US have been supporting the exporters of steel products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology products, textiles, and apparel.

USTR said that India is no longer eligible for the exception provided in WTO to specified developing countries to offer such export subsidies as it has crossed the economic benchmark limits. "India was initially within this group, but it surpassed the benchmark in 2015. India's exemption has expired, but India has not withdrawn its export subsidies", the statement said.

It also alleged that India has increased the size and scope of these programmes. "India introduced the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in 2015, which has rapidly expanded to include more than 8,000 eligible products, nearly double the number of products covered at its inception". It also points out that India's exports from Special Economic Zones increased over 6,000 percent from 2000 to 2017, and in 2016, exports from Special Economic Zones accounted for over $82 billion in exports, or 30 percent of India's export volume. Similarly, exports from the Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, increased by over 160 percent from 2000 to 2016.

Consultations are the first step in the WTO dispute settlement process. If the United States and India are not able to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultations, the United States may request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter.Paris (AFP) - Pensioners and retirement home workers staged protests across France on Thursday, kicking off a series of strikes against President Emmanuel Macron's reforms.

Thousands of retirees had already taken to the streets in January against higher taxes on their pensions, imposed to help offset lower social security charges for private-sector employees.

"We're not the gilded generation," said Michel Salingue of the FGR-FP union, adding that the average monthly French pension stood at 1,300 euros ($1,600).

"We've contributed more than our share already," he said.

But Macron, who has already overcome opposition to an overhaul of France's rigid labour laws and sharp cuts on wealth and capital gains taxes, shows no sign of backing down.

Speaking in Tours in central France on Wednesday, Macron said he "took responsibility" for the reforms while reiterating his call for "an effort to help young workers".

"Some people will complain and don't want to understand, but that's France," he said.

Staff from hundreds of state-run retirement homes across France also protested Thursday against low pay, a severe shortfall in staffing levels and unsanitary conditions in many establishments.

The government is pursuing a financing reform that would cut funding for the retirement homes by up to 25 percent, even as unions want the state to commit 7-10 billion euros ($8.6-12.3 billion) for hiring an additional 200,000 people.

"We can no longer accept that senior citizens are not getting showers regularly," said Mireille Stivala of the CGT, one of France's largest unions.

- Season of strikes? -

The government says it has little room for manoeuvre as it moves to cut France's deficit and streamline costly public services, a main platform of Macron's election campaign last year.

But pressure could mount in coming days as rail workers, long considered France's "working-class nobility", prepare a major strike over plans to strip new recruits of jobs-for-life and other benefits as part of an overhaul of the state operator SNCF.

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The action is set to begin on March 22 during a one-day walkout by rail unions alongside other civil servants protesting low pay and the increased use of subcontractors and part-time contracts.

Rail workers have also threatened to launch a wave of rolling strikes not seen since 1995, when SNCF workers spearheaded weeks of protests against retirement overhauls that eventually prompted the government to back down.

But it may be just the first skirmish in a long battle of wills, with top officials in Macron's centrist party saying recently that they want to push through nearly all of the president's reform agenda by the end of this year.

Other controversial plans include overhauling unemployment benefits and a constitutional reform that would reduce the number of seats in parliament by a third.

Also next week, pilots at Air France, in which the state owns a minority stake, are planning a one-day strike Friday to demand a six percent pay rise, saying they should share in the airline's improved earnings after a wage freeze imposed since 2011.

Ten Air France unions, covering everyone from pilots and flight attendants to ground staff, will stage a follow-up strike on March 30.(This version of the March 14 story corrects paragraph 16 to say that Lamb personally opposes abortion but accepts 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, instead of that he opposes abortion rights) By David Morgan and Jason Lange (Reuters) - The special election in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District was still too close to call on Wednesday but the winner could soon have to start campaigning all over again - in a different district against a different opponent for the November congressional elections. That is because the 18th District, as currently drawn in southwestern Pennsylvania, will cease to exist because of a recent court order that set new boundaries for every district in the state. Democrat Conor Lamb, who was slightly ahead in the race for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, likely will start campaigning in the new 17th District. Republican Rick Saccone, should he still have a political future after failing to handily win a district Donald Trump carried by 20 points in 2016, might try for the seat in the newly drawn 14th District. The political game of musical chairs could once again make western Pennsylvania hard-fought ground. Districts that were once considered solidly Republican and that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election now look winnable by Democrats. Pennsylvania's top court ruled in January that the state had been unfairly gerrymandered by Republican legislators, with districts shaped in order to include voters apt to favor their party. Pennsylvania Republicans, including eight U.S. congressmen, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the new map. "It's a much more competitive map," said Eric McGhee, a political scientist at the Public Policy Institute of California who helped craft an analysis of the new districts by PlanScore.org. Saccone, a conservative four-term state representative from Elizabeth Township, lives in the newly drawn 18th District that will skew Democrat because it includes the strongly Democratic city of Pittsburgh. But Saccone has already said he intends to run in the new 14th District, which will include much of the current 18th and strongly Republican communities to the west of it. Political analysts label the new 14th District safely Republican. It has a higher share of people who have not studied past high school and its median household income, at about $55,000, is lower than the old 18th District's $65,000, according to PlanScore's analysis. Saccone might want to move to the new district, although Pennsylvania law does not require candidates to run in the districts where they live. 'I WILL BE RUNNING LATER' Lamb has not said which seat he would seek in November but was clear during the campaign that he intended to compete. Political analysts and Pennsylvania Democratic strategists such as Mike Mikus believe the moderate Democrat would be a strong candidate in the new 17th. Compared with the old 18th, the new 17th District will have a larger share of black residents and will be slightly more educated - segments of the electorate that skew Democratic. Should Lamb run in the 17th, it could set up an incumbent-versus-incumbent showdown against Keith Rothfus, the Republican now representing the 12th District, a hammer-shaped district stretching from the Ohio border north of Pittsburgh to the Allegheny Mountains. Trump won that district over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 21 points. Rothfus has said he will run in the new 17th, which takes in the western portion of his current district. The newly drawn 17th District could be an easier district to win for a Democrat than Pennsylvania's 18th. Trump's vote tally in the new 17th would have barely won him the district. It includes the suburbs southwest, west and north of Pittsburgh where a large numbers of suburban Democrats might find Rothfus too conservative. The new 17th District does include a swath of Republican strongholds stretching to the Ohio border. But Lamb could make inroads in the blue-collar Trump strongholds of traditionally Democratic Beaver County, where voters could be attracted by his pro-gun, pro-military and pro-union positions. Lamb says he personally opposes abortion but accepts the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision allowing abortion as the law of the land. "I would put Lamb or another Democrat as a favorite over Rothfus," Mikus said. "Rothfus raises a lot of money but he is very conservative and probably too conservative for this district." Political analysts at the University of Virginia Center for Politics considered the new 17th District as leaning in Rothfus' favor until last week, when they moved it to a toss-up in anticipation of a possible Lamb candidacy. (Reporting by David Morgan in Mount Lebanon, Pa., and Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Damon Darlin, Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)By David Beasley

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia is set on Thursday to execute a man dubbed the "stocking strangler" for a series of murders in which he choked victims with panty hose, while Alabama plans its first execution since it botched a lethal injection a few weeks ago.

Lawyers for both men have launched last-minute appeals. If the executions go ahead, they would be the fifth and sixth this year in the United States, where 1,469 inmates have been put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

About an hour before the planned execution in Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal, allowing that lethal injection to take place.

Georgia plans to execute Carlton Gary, 67, at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) at its death chamber in Jackson for the murders of Florence Scheible, Martha Thurmond and Kathleen Woodruff in Columbus in 1977 and 1978. He was also linked to the murder of four other women in a two-year crime spree, police said.

But Gary's lawyers say evidence uncovered since his conviction raises serious doubts about the prosecutions case against him.

Mr. Gary is not the Columbus Stocking Strangler, his lawyers wrote in their March 9 appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hours before the planned execution, they asked for a halt to the proceedings to allow for DNA testing.

The killings stopped in 1978 but Gary was not arrested until 1984 when he was linked to a gun stolen in the home of one of the victims. Prosecutors said they had a confession from Gary and fingerprint evidence that implicated him in the crimes.

DNA testing of body fluids from crime scenes was not available at the time and subsequent testing clears Gary, his lawyers said, adding his confession was coerced and shoe print evidence that could have helped Gary's defense was withheld.

In Alabama, Michael Eggers, 50, is set to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) at the state prison for the 2000 kidnapping and murder of Bennie Francis Murray.

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Lawyers for Eggers said he has severe mental illness and asked courts to spare his life.

Alabama's death chamber protocols have come under a federal court review after it aborted its attempt on Feb. 22 to execute Doyle Hamm, 61, a convicted murderer with terminal cancer and severely compromised veins.

After more than 10 attempts to place a needle, the execution was called off.

(Reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Susan Thomas and James Dalgleish)Berlin (AFP) - Islamic groups in Germany Thursday criticised a lack of solidarity and support over a spate of attacks on Muslims and mosques carried out by right-wing extremists and "terrorist" groups.

They said Muslims were being made to feel that "they carry partial blame because, after their mosques have been desecrated by neo-Nazis using pig heads and graffiti of crosses, they are now also being attacked by foreign terrorist groups".

Last weekend saw a spate of arson and vandalism attacks targeting Turkish-German mosques, cultural institutions and businesses, some of which were claimed in online statements by militant pro-Kurdish groups angered by the Turkish military offensive in northern Syria.

"For decades, Muslims have faced a constant right-wing extremist threat" in Germany, said a joint statement by the Islamic Council, Central Council of Muslims, and the Coordinating Council of Muslims in Germany (KRM).

"This threat has been exacerbated by foreign terrorist groups."

This year had seen 27 attacks on Islamic houses of worship so far, ranging from graffiti to arson attacks, after more than 100 cases last year, said KRM spokesman Zekeriya Altug.

"In view of this massive threat situation, we miss tangible sympathy from the public and politicians," said Altug, also a board member of the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (Ditib).

The detection rate for these offences is very low, said Islamic Council chairman Burhan Kesici at a joint press conference.

The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, questioned Turkey's decision to summon the German ambassador after the recent attacks, saying they were not part of a bilateral conflict but a security problem in Germany.

"An attack on a house of worship is an attack on our democracy," he said.Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Germany failed to make progress in closing its yawning gender pay gap last year with women still earning 21 percent less than male colleagues, official data showed Thursday, giving the country one of the worst records in Europe.

Female employees earned on average 16.59 euros ($20.5) gross per hour in 2017 compared with 21 euros for men, the federal statistics office Destatis said, the same 21-percent difference as the year before.

The figures were released ahead of Germany's Equal Pay Day on March 18, calculated as the day until which women symbolically work for free each year before they start earning the same as men.

Germany is one of the biggest sinners on equal pay in the European Union, where women on average earn 16 percent less than their male peers.

Only Germany, Britain, the Czech Republic, Austria and Estonia recorded wage gaps above 20 percent in 2016, the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat reported last week.

The best performers were Romania, Italy and Luxembourg with gaps of around five percent.

As part of its efforts to tackle the imbalance, Germany in January introduced new legislation that gives women the right to know how their salary compares to that of a group of male colleagues in the same job.

The hope is that more transparency will reveal whether women are paid less -- and bolster their demands for a rise or pave the way for possible legal action.

Critics however complain that the law, which only applies to firms with more than 200 employees, will only foster workplace discontent as it doesn't force bosses to take action against wage discrepancies.

Part of Germany's huge gender pay gap stems from the high number of women in lower-paying or part-time jobs, often for childcare reasons, and the fact that they are under-represented in senior positions.

For women with the same qualifications doing the same work as men, the pay gap stands at around six percent.Correction appended

I would rather learn the truth than assume it.

The President has nominated Gina Haspel to head the CIA, and attention has focused on her role in the agencys torture program. I represent Abu Zubaydah, who was the first person imprisoned at a CIA black site and the first to have his interrogation enhanced. He was subjected to all of the approved techniques and many that were not. In a bit more than three weeks in August 2002, he was waterboarded 83 times, suspended from hooks in the ceiling, forced into a coffin for hours at a time in a gathering pool of his own urine and feces, crammed into a tiny box that wouldve been small even for a child, bombarded with screaming noise and cold air, compelled to stay awake for days on end, and rectally rehydrated.

Because of what he was made to endure, Abu Zubaydah suffers from frequent seizures, the origin of which cannot be determined. He is tormented by sounds that others do not hear, and cannot remember simple things that others cannot forget. Because his condition is classified, there is much about his welfare that the United States will not let me say. They have authorized me to report, however, that I am very concerned about his health.

Haspel did not torture my client. That distinction rests with two psychologists under contract with the CIA. In fact, it appears she was not yet present at the site during the worst of my clients ordeal: at least, so say former members of the CIA. According to the New York Times, she arrived in October 2002; Abu Zubaydahs most severe torture ended in late August. She was, however, present when another prisoner, Abdul al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was subjected to similar torture, including waterboarding.

But apart from this, we know very little about Haspels role. We do not know, for instance, whether she approved of the torture that had taken place before she got to Thailand or that took place after she arrived, and if she did, whether her approval was enthusiastic or begrudging. We do not know whether she made any attempt to restrain the two psychologists, and if so whether her attempts were overruled by authorities elsewhere.

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In fact, we do not even know the limits of her authority. One CIA cable, for instance, indicates that, even if she had wanted to, she could not have stopped the torture on her own. The Senate Torture Report, by contrast, claims she most certainly had that authority, and in fact that her authority was final; according to the Senate, she was the only person who couldve ended the torture.

In short, all we know is that she appears to have been in charge of a site where my client had previously been tortured, and supervised the site while another man was tortured. And make no mistake: it was torture. We ought not mince words about that. It was legally wrong and morally bankrupt, and my client will bear the physical and psychological scars for the rest of his life.

For some, Haspels supervisory presence at a secret prison where human beings were tortured is enough to disqualify her, and many of my colleagues on the Left have lined up against her. For me, however, her past raises many more questions than it answers. Now of all times, we need less knee-jerk condemnation and more sober, careful assessment. That is why we have a confirmation process.

Other questions surround her role in the destruction of nearly 90 videotapes of my clients torture, as well as several showing the torture of al-Nashiri. Again, the public record is ambiguous. On the one hand, there is no question that Haspel signed the cable directing that the tapes be destroyed. This is an exceedingly serious matter, not simply because it led to the destruction of irreplaceable evidence, but because at least one federal judge had explicitly ordered that the tapes be preserved. If Haspel deliberately violated the order of a federal judge, she could  and should  be held in contempt of court.

On the other hand, the CIA maintains that Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the Counterterrorism Center and Haspels boss at the time, gave the destruction order and that Haspel merely drafted it. In his book, Rodriguez repeats this version, and boasts about his determination to destroy the tapes. As with the events in Thailand, Haspel has never spoken publicly about the matter. Therefore, we simply do not know what her role may have been in the destruction of the tapes. We do not know, for instance, whether she expressed reservations, raised legal objections or suggested alternatives. The tapes were supposedly destroyed to protect the identity of people who appeared on screen. This of course is ridiculous, since the CIA could have easily obscured the identity of all participants. Did Haspel raise that possibility? Did others suggest it only to be overruled? We have no idea.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we do not know her current view. It is entirely possible that her position on enhanced interrogations has changed since 2002. In fact, given the course of events, we should hope that it has. The CIA tortured my client because they believed  apparently in good faith  that he was a senior member of al Qaeda who, among other misdeeds, had been involved in all of the organizations prior attacks and had particular expertise in resisting torture. They were wrong. We now know, and the U.S. has repeatedly admitted, that Abu Zubaydah was not a member of al Qaeda, that he was opposed to its ideology and that his protestations of ignorance were not evidence of a supernatural capacity to resist torture, but proof that the torturers had their facts wrong. In light of this, it is certainly worth asking whether Haspel believes the Agencys sickening experiment with torture was a mistake.

Gina Haspel is widely admired within the Agency, including by people I respect a great deal. It may be that, like her boss, she supports a helluva lot worse than waterboarding. It may also be that, like John McCain, she believes the torture scandal is one of the CIAs darkest chapters. Lets hear what she says, examine the record for ourselves, and learn the truth rather than assume it.

Correction: The original version of this story misstated the role Gina Haspel played in the CIAs torture program. Haspel, according to ProPublica and The New York Times, oversaw a CIA prison in Thailand where suspects were waterboarded, and she arrived at the prison in October 2002. She had not yet arrived at the prison when Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded, the last instance of which occurred in August 2002.Google goog will ban online advertisements promoting cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings starting in June, part of a broader crackdown on the marketing of a new breed of high-risk financial products.

Alphabets Google announced the decision Wednesday night in an update to its policy, which says it will begin to block ads for cryptocurrencies and related content. Facebook Inc. took a similar step in January, leaving the two largest web-ad sellers out of reach of the nascent digital-currency sector.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, pared an advance of about 2 percent after Googles announcement, trading little changed at $9,099 as of 1:04 p.m. in Hong Kong. Rival coins Ripple and Ether also pared gains.

The internet-search giant is also restricting ads for financial products including binary options, a risky derivative with an all-or-nothing payoff. Right now, Google queries for terms like binary options and buy bitcoin produce four ads at the top of the results.

Facebook fb , Googles primary rival for ad dollars, banned ads for cryptocurrencies in January. Some aggressive businesses found a loophole: purposely misspelling words like bitcoin in their ads. A Google spokeswoman said the companys policies will try to anticipate workarounds like this.

Googles updated policy came with the release of its annual bad ads report, a review of the number of malicious, deceptive and controversial ads Google scrubs from its massive search, display and video network. In 2017, Google said it removed more than 3.2 billion advertisements from the web. Thats up from 1.7 billion in 2016.

Last year, for instance, Google pulled 79 million ads for luring online clickers to websites with malware. Google is also accelerating a push against misleading content. The company suspended 7,000 customer accounts for ads that impersonated a news article  what Google calls tabloid cloaking  and blocked more than 12,000 websites for copying information from other publications.

Its unlikely that the 3.2 billion ads pulled in 2017, nor the coming cryptocurrency ban, will have a serious impact on sales. Last year, Google generated $95.4 billion in ad revenue, up 20 percent from 2016.With a change of policy, Google has announced a new hardline approach with a crackdown on cryptocurrency-related advertising.

Come June 2018, Google will ban online advertisements promoting any cryptocurrency-related content as a part of its newly updated financial services policy that introduces curbs on a handful of financial products including contracts for difference (CFDs), rolling spot forex and financial spread betting  all seen as high-risk products.

Aside from those binary options, an excerpt from Googles new restricted financial products policy reads the ban extends to:

Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice).

Furthermore, Google also said aggregator and affiliates using Google ads will no longer be allowed to host promotional material related to cryptocurrencies. In other words, Google is effectively disabling crypto-related advertising on its own website as well as third-party websites using its ad products. The ban, a move to effectively stamp out scams in the crypto space, will also impact legitimate or regulated companies offering cryptocurrency services.

Speaking to CNBC, Googles director of sustainable ads Scott Spencer explained the move as a precautionary measure to safeguard consumers.

We dont have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but weve seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that its an area that we want to approach with extreme caution.

The shift in policy comes alongside the ad giants annual bad ads report which points to over 3.2 billion ads taken down in 2017 for violating Googles advertising policies. Google also said it blacklisted 90,000 websites and 700,000 mobile apps in violation of publisher policies.

Googles ban follows a similar move by ad-rival Facebook which banned cryptocurrency-related advertising earlier in January. Facebook blamed misleading or deceptive promotional practices adopted by companies promoting initial coin offerings or cryptocurrencies while updating its intentionally broad change in policy that will extend to other Facebook-owned platforms like Instagram. We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve, Facebook said at the time.

Featured image from Shutterstock.



The post Google is Banning All Cryptocurrency, ICO Advertisements from June appeared first on CCN.

Republicans were banking on their $1.5 trillion tax cut to give them a boost in the 2018 elections, but that isnt how Tuesdays special election in Pennsylvania's deep-red 18th congressional district played out.

Outside groups spent millions promoting the tax cuts in support of Republican Rick Saccone. But in the final days of the race, Republicans backed away from the issue, a sign that the message wasnt resonating with the districts working-class and suburban voters.

Saccones weak performance against Democrat Conor Lamb in a district President Trump won by nearly 20 points suggests that the tax overhaul wont give Republicans the boost they were hoping for  and some Democrats think it may even work against the GOP. In this overwhelmingly Trump district, Republicans put all their eggs in the basket of Trump's tax plan. And the basket broke, Democratic strategist Jess Ferguson told Business Insider. If you can't hold onto a district that is this Republican after spending $10 million promoting your tax plan, it's not just that the tax plan failed to sell, it's that it backfired."

Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg sees a broader problem for the GOP, with the tax overhaul now tying Trump and the Republican Party to what he describes as House Speaker Paul Ryans agenda largely focused on cutting taxes for the rich. GOP chose plutocracy over a plan designed to help everyday people. It was a reveal. This thing is an albatross now for them as they head into the fall, Rosenberg tweeted.

Some Republicans leaders downplayed the implications of the election, though, and insisted that Saccone was a weak candidate and that Lamb ran as a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-Nancy Pelosi conservative, as Paul Ryan put it. And Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the House Republican Conference brushed off the Pennsylvania loss by saying, We aren't even in full momentum on tax reform.

Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter.By Michele Kambas ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece should tighten the rules of conduct for its legislators and judiciary to prevent corruption, a senior official in the Council of Europe's anti-corruption agency said in an interview. Graft has long been considered a cause of economic malaise in Greece, which has required three international bailouts since 2010 in return for reforms. The bailouts imposed deep austerity and hardship on the country's 11 million people. The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, a 47-nation human rights body that has no legislative powers, has praised Greece for adopting a code of conduct for its lawmakers and for improving their declarations of assets. But Athens needed to do more to provide transparency in political-party financing and interaction with lobbyists, said Gianluca Esposito, executive secretary of the council's Group of States against Corruption, known as GRECO. He also cited a need for a clearer distinction between the executive and the judiciary and for easing bottlenecks in the justice system. "I think corruption has had an impact, has contributed to getting where we are and into a situation where the economy was struggling," Esposito said, referring to the economic crisis. "That was a long time ago. Things have now certainly improved. The key is not to stop in the middle, but to continue on the reform process." Two reports issued by GRECO this month noted Greece had introduced asset declarations for lawmakers and adopted a code of conduct. But it was concerned about an apparent regression in allowing some anonymity in donating to political parties. It also expressed misgivings over a lack of clear criteria in lifting parliamentary immunity in cases to facilitate inquiries. In Greece's case, refusal to lift parliamentary immunity significantly outweighed the number of requests approved. "There are no clear criteria," Esposito said. "It's important for members of parliament to exercise their work without the fear of political prosecution. "... However, immunity doesn't mean impunity. Immunity doesn't shield a person from corruption and in most countries there are very transparent criteria about how this immunity is lifted." Among 180 countries or territories around the world, Greece ranks 59th, with a score of 48 on the public perception of corruption out of 100, according to a 2017 report by advocacy body Transparency International. That put it behind its EU peers Italy and Spain and level with Romania and Jordan. "I don't rank countries," Esposito said. Corruption existed in every country in one manifestation or another, which is why prevention was needed to prevent it taking hold, he said. "It is like a virus ... When it becomes the norm, nothing works anymore. Democracy doesn't work anymore. The economy doesn't work anymore, and the rule of law simply doesn't exist." (Reporting By Michele Kambas, editing by Larry King)It's Day 4 since the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suddenly grounded 11 A320neo aircraft on safety concerns - 8 of them belonging to IndiGo and the rest to GoAir - and the chaos over cancelled flights continues. The good news is that the two airlines are slowly getting their acts together in juggling flight schedules - they reportedly cancelled 48 flights yesterday, down from Tuesday's record of 65 flights. Starting today till March 22, 36 IndiGo flights will remain cancelled, and 18 flights between March 22 and 24. Meanwhile, GoAir has cancelled 8 flights during March 15-20 and 10 flights between March 16 and March 24.



The bad news is that, contrary to previous media reports, air passenger woes won't end by March 24. According to the IndiGo website, as many as 26 flights have been cancelled over March 25-31, a majority originating in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Chennai.



This means that the current trend of spiked airfares on several routes is likely to linger for a while. On Tuesday, a one way Delhi Mumbai flight reportedly cost over Rs 12,000. Booking a last-minute non-stop flight today on the same sector will set you back by at least Rs 14,000. "With current load factors at over 90%, this reduction in capacity is likely to have a 5-10% impact on fares on key routes in the short to medium term," Sharat Dhall, COO (B2C) at Yatra.com told The Economic Times.



Things will get markedly worse if the Delhi High Court rules in favour of advocate Yeshwant Shenoy. According to The Times of India, the latter filed a writ petition yesterday seeking the grounding of entire fleet of A320neos in the country till the technical problems are solved. Given that India boasts 45 of these aircrafts powered by Pratt & Whitney engines - of which 32 are with IndiGo - this makes a pretty scary future. The petition adds that these aircrafts have been facing engine problems since their introduction in India in March 2016.



In fact, last month, the DGCA had grounded three IndiGo A320neos boasting two PW1100 engines in compliance with an emergency airworthiness directive issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency on February 9 this year. This, in turn, followed reports of "several" in-flight engine shut downs in the A320 neo fleet worldwide fitted with PW1100 engines from serial number 450 and beyond. Previously, on noting repetitive defects on these aircrafts, the DGCA had even ordered 69 engine replacements in 18 months.



The latest DGCA directive on Monday, which proactively grounded aircrafts with even a single engine from the affected serial numbers, came hours after the third reported mid-air engine failure in two weeks. "Both IndiGo and GoAir have been told not to refit these engines, which are spare with them in their inventory," said the DGCA. So the problemwill take a while to get resolved. According to broking firm Edelweiss Financial Services, this "will hurt IndiGo in the near term" as it may lose market share to domestic peers.



An official statement from Pratt and Whitney 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."



However, in this age of technological advancement, where worldwide engine failures reportedly average around 25 annually in multi-engine aircrafts, what's happened in the Indian skies in the past two weeks is a pretty damning record.



With PTI inputsBEIJING (Reuters) - The death of British physicist Stephen Hawking unleashed a flood of tearful goodbyes on Chinese social media while state television and newspapers paid tribute to the man who had featured in many a school essay in China over the years. Hawking, who died in England on Wednesday, was the top trending topic on China's Twitter-like microblog Weibo at one point, with ordinary people and celebrities alike bidding farewell to the author of "A Brief History of Time". "May Hawking now run freely in the universe that he had explored," a Weibo user wrote in a post. The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, wrote on Weibo telling its 56.5 million followers to reflect on some of Hawking's quotes on science and life. The newspaper also remarked at the coincidence that Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death and died on Einstein's birthday. "One less star on earth, one more star in the sky," another Weibo post said. Hawking was followed by more than 4.7 million people on Weibo, China's biggest social media platform. His posts, while infrequent, were widely discussed and shared. In an oft-quoted post in 2016, Hawking wished all Chinese students taking the all-important annual university entrance exam best of luck, describing them as "the next generation of scientific minds". Hawking himself had been a subject of countless essays by Chinese students on who had inspired them the most. Hawking, who visited the Great Wall on one of his few trips to China despite being ravaged by a wasting motor neuron disease, had professed a deep appreciation for Chinese culture and customs, as well as its youth. Professor Liu Bing at Tsinghua University recalled meeting Hawking in 1985. "At that time, Hawking was not famous yet, and "The History of Time" had not been published. But the state of his physique left a deep impression on me, so I sought out an opportunity to take a photo with him," Liu said. China's foreign ministry, in its daily press briefing on Wednesday, took time out to pay tribute to Hawking, describing him as a "remarkable scientist" and a "fighter". Riding on the wave of sentiment, some merchants on popular online marketplace Taobao started to sell commemorative sweatshirts for 79 yuan ($12.52) a piece. Some bookstores in Beijing also reported a surge in inquiries on "A Brief History of Time". For a timeline on Hawking, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/PEOPLE-HAWKING/0100616B2FJ/hawking-time.jpg (Reporting by Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao; Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Michael Perry)In the major White House shake-up on Tuesday that saw former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sacked, the Trump administration also promoted the U.S. Department of State's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, to the fourth-highest ranking position within the division.

Nauert, a former Fox News host who joined the State Department as a spokeswoman in April 2017, will now serve as acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, replacing Steve Goldstein, who was fired shortly after Tillerson, having publicly contradicted the White House on how the secretary of state was notified about being axed.

The reshuffle also saw former Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo replace Tillerson as secretary of state, while the CIA's deputy director Gina Haspel was promoted to the CIA's top job.

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GettyImages-883221084

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty

Nauert's appointment didn't appear to make it into President Donald Trump's 253-character Twitter announcement of the shake-up early Tuesday morning, which 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!"

The former broadcaster will continue to serve as a spokeswoman for the State Department while also taking on Goldstein's responsibilities. The role also means overseeing three bureaus, which include Education and Cultural Affairs, Public Affairs and International Information Programs.

Before joining the department, Nauert worked in New York as an anchor and correspondent for Fox News Channel, as well as Fox and Friends, a morning program often quoted and praised by Trump.

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GettyImages-485280685

Monica Schipper/Getty

Nauert had been with Fox since 1996, apart from a two-year break with ABC News, before joining the Trump administration, Politico has previously reported. The journalist covered "global and domestic crises" and also reported on the 2016 presidential election that saw Trump elected as president. She also reported on the president's inauguration itself.

Nauert has also previously served as a network correspondent for ABC News where she covered breaking news stories. She graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Mount Vernon College in Washington.

Read more: Who Is Steve Goldstein? Aide Fired for Contradicting Donald Trump About Rex Tillerson's Firing, Report Says

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As State Department spokeswoman, Nauert came under fire in February after telling a reporter, "I don't know what some of you expect us to do" after she was asked what the Trump administration planned to do to address civil unrest in Syria.

Her predecessor, Goldstein, told CNN in a statement that serving in the role was "an honor of a lifetime."

"I'm grateful to the secretary and to the president for this opportunity. I wish everyone well and look forward to getting more rest, and perhaps winning an indoor rowing competition. We will see what [happens] next," he said.

As of Wednesday morning, the State Department had yet to remove Goldstein's name from its website as under secretary, with the page still connected to the fired aide's Twitter account.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Samia Nakhoul, Laila Bassam and Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah does not expect its arch foe Israel to launch a war for now in Lebanon but is prepared for one, the deputy leader of the Iran-backed Shi'ite group told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. As the war in Syria enters its eighth year, Sheikh Naim Qassem also said there was no end in sight to the conflict which would go on for at least two more years, and President Bashar al-Assad could not be forced out of an eventual settlement. "There is no solution in Syria under the title of 'excluding President Assad'. On the contrary, the solution in Syria is with President Assad, and he is the mandatory channel for the solution," Qassem said. The heavily armed Hezbollah joined the war in support of Assad in 2012, and has played a critical part in helping his government defeat Sunni rebels backed by the United States and its regional allies - Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Hezbollah has spearheaded a coalition of Tehran-backed Shi'ite militias that have deployed to Syria from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran's expanding power in Syria has caused deep alarm in neighboring enemy Israel. Israel has mounted numerous air strikes in Syria against what it has described as Hezbollah and Iranian targets. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned last month that Israel would not allow Iran to put a "noose of terror" around its neck and it could act not just against Iran's proxies, but Iran itself. In Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah last fought a major war in 2006, Iran is helping the group build factories to manufacture precision-guided missiles or refit its longer-range missiles with precision guidance systems, Israeli and U.S. officials say. Asked about the Israeli accusations and warnings, Qassem said he would not comment on Hezbollah's military capabilities, deployments or plans. "We don't talk about the military details, be it our capabilities or those of our allies, or our deployments, because they are secrets that we retain and we don't want to give a free gift to our enemy," he said. Hezbollah "is ready to confront the aggression if it happens, if Israel decides to carry out any foolish action", he said. "But it does not appear that the circumstances are for an Israeli decision for war." "We have declared repeatedly and frequently that we, as the resistance, work to have permanent readiness and we are ready to confront the Israeli aggression if it happens, and therefore we are ready to defend ourself by all available means." "We are working to fortify our front, and to be ready." HEZBOLLAH WILL STAY IN SYRIA AS LONG AS NECESSARY In Syria, however, he said it was possible Israel would conduct further "limited" attacks. "The Syrian regime has taken the decision to respond to this type of attack," he added. Syria's air defenses last month shot down an Israeli F-16 as it was returning from a bombing run in Syria after Israel said Iran had sent a drone into Israeli air space. Working closely with the Russian air force and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah has helped turn the tide in the Syrian war which appeared to pose a threat to Assad's rule as recently as 2015. The conflict passed its seventh anniversary on Thursday, having killed half a million people, driven out 5.8 million as refugees and uprooted millions more in the country. Qassem said Hezbollah would stay in Syria as long as necessary. "If we reach a political solution, of course Hezbollah will return to Lebanon." Assad and his allies had won the war by defeating what he described as a U.S.-led plot to destroy Syria, he added. "Syria has won the military battle, which will help them to win the political battle," he said. He added that Islamic State fighters who had sought to make Syria part of their "caliphate" had received a heavy blow and lost territories they held. While Assad's rule is no longer in danger, large areas of Syria remain outside his control at the borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. The United States has deployed forces into northern and eastern Syria where it is allied with Kurdish-led militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Turkey has also sent forces into the northwest. Qassem however did not expect the Syria war to lead to a direct confrontation between major powers. "It is clear that all the parties and their allies view that it is in their interests not to have a direct confrontation between America and Russia, and they have rules of engagement that they have studied together and are abiding by," he said. (Editing by William Maclean)A bus carrying high school students back home to Texas from a trip to Disney World plunged into a ravine in Alabama early Tuesday.

The crash, which happened around 5:30 a.m. local time on the eastbound side of I-10, killed one person and injured several people. Authorities said numerous students were transported via helicopter to emergency rooms.

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Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack said the students were returning to Houston, Texas, from a spring break trip to Disney World. Between 12 to 20 people were injured and one person died in the early morning incident.

Mack told AL.com that there was once critical injury and five serious injuries.

We have multiple injuries; the bus went down into a ravine, Baldwin County commissioner Chris Elliott told the Associated Press. The fire department and officers are having to rappel down into the area to get into it.

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Elliot said that the wounded were transported to three hospitals in Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, as well as a free-standing emergency room in Baldwin County.

Everybody is being transferred to a hospital to at least be checked out, he added.

Seven to eight medevac helicopters were used to take the injured to area hospitals, including University of South Alabama Hospital, AL.com reported.

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The bus, which had around 45 band students from Channelview High School, fell into a ravine known as Cowpen Creek. Officials from the Baldwin County Sheriffs Department and Mobile Fire and Rescue said the ravine is estimated to be between 50 to 60 feet deep.

Around 60 first responders were on the scene of the crash, Loxley Fire Department Chief Lovell said. Rescuers used the jaws of life to help free students from the bus. The last person was extricated just before 9 a.m.

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The Alabama Department of Transportation announced that eastbound traffic on I-10 was being diverted at Exit 44. Motorist were being asked to take Highway 59 South to US 90 East. The department added that crews are working to move the detour to Exit 49 Baldwin Beach Express, but asked that drivers take Highway 90 east into Florida regardless.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPhoto credit: Honda

From Road & Track

Welcome to The Grid, R&T's quick roundup of the auto industry and motorsports news you should know this morning.

Accords Sitting

The Honda Accord is one of the best selling cars of all time. The 2018 model is supposed to be one of the most impressive cars Honda has ever built and one of the finest Accords ever. But there's a problem: the Accord isn't selling like it should.

Honda is known for turning inventory on its dealer lots quickly, but right now dealers have a 104 day supply of the cars on average, which is a lot of Accords. Some are even turning down shipments of the new sedan? Why isn't it selling if it's so good? Well, it seems Honda isn't courting buyers who plan to lease the vehicles, with rates that require more down and a higher monthly payment than the Camry. It's a shame.

Check out the full report on Automotive News.

Toro Rosso's Engine Gamble

This year will be Toro Rosso's first with a Honda power unit in Formula One. It's also the first year that the series will limit teams to three power units for the entire 21 race season. That's kind of crazy considering just a few years ago there were engines that would be just for qualifying.

Toro Rosso is considering that there might be a point when an engine will be on its last legs and it'd make sense to take a grid penalty to put in a new power unit. Sure, you'd start further back in the pack, but you'd have more power. It likely depends on how easy it is to pass this year. And if the Honda has power to be competitive.

Welcome Back

Photo credit: Ford

If you've ever driven on the PCH from San Francisco to Los Angeles, you've seen more Mustangs than any other time in your life. Now, the Mustang built specifically for that journey is back.

The California Special makes an appearance once again. It's linked to a GT, so that means it has a 5.0 with 460 horsepower, a side stripe, blacked out grille, suede seats, and a B&O stereo. Nice.

You Might Also LikeBy Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May and British businesses are banking on European Union leaders granting a Brexit transition deal next week but diplomats said they could face disappointment unless a deadlock is broken over the Irish border. May's spokesman said on Thursday she remained "confident" of a deal that would reassure investors that little will change in trading with the bloc for around two years after Britain leaves next March and until a new trade pact can be agreed. EU diplomats and officials said talks have raised their hopes too that, with London anxious for a quick deal, the bloc's leaders can endorse a transition at a Brussels summit on Friday. But what some described as complete stalemate on Irish border arrangements risks derailing any agreement. "This whole thing could end in tears," one senior diplomat said. "British business might get a terrible shock." Asked about those concerns, a British government source conceded that there was still "a lot left to do". The EU is irritated by Britain's refusal to accept in the draft withdrawal treaty the inclusion of a "backstop" solution to avoid a disruptive hard land border between EU member state Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland. Sterling has suffered before when Brussels has warned that a transition deal cannot be taken for granted. It will not become certain until the whole withdrawal treaty is ratified, probably early next year, but Britain hopes for an interim EU commitment. "No one will promise May a transition just like that," a second diplomat said after envoys from the 27 remaining states discussed EU negotiators' latest draft (http://bit.ly/2FCnGZ8). "But there is something in the air, there is optimism. Cautious, but optimism. We want to use the fact that Britain wants the transition so much, we would hope many things will therefore move. We will stress the Irish issue." LEVERAGE Another EU diplomat echoed that view, saying: "There is a lot of movement. All the rest can be sorted out. But unless Ireland is sorted out, there is no transition deal at the summit." Germany's Brexit coordinator said "a lot of progress" was being made. Some foresaw a possible "fudge" of the Irish issue, as happened to secure a first interim accord last December. Dublin insists London must accept the "backstop" which the EU says May agreed to as part of the interim deal in December. That would see the province effectively retained inside an EU-run customs area, isolated as result from the British mainland. May, who relies on Northern Irish votes in parliament, has rejected that and said better solutions will have to wait for separate talks on future UK-EU trade, due to start this spring. There has been progress this week in narrowing differences on such issues as expatriate citizens' rights, copyright and nuclear cooperation. But EU negotiators are reluctant to give away leverage they believe they need to cut a final deal. "We won't just offer transition like that next week," a fourth EU diplomat said. "We would lose a lot of leverage, risk Ireland. But the latest talks have covered ground. So we'd look for a wording to recognize that and lock that progress. "To send a positive signal ahead. They will get it -- if they accept our conditions," the diplomat added. Negotiations are set for over the weekend and senior British representatives will be in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. May will attend the summit on Thursday, although Brexit will not be formally discussed. She may seek support against Russia over the nerve agent attack on a Russian former spy in Britain. Any Brexit transition deal will be discussed by the other 27 leaders when they reconvene without May the following day. (Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Elizabeth Piper in London, Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Catherine Evans)(WASHINGTON)  The House rejected legislation Tuesday easing how experimental drugs are provided to people with terminal illnesses, as Democrats calling the bill risky and misleading overcame support from President Donald Trump and emotional arguments by Republican lawmakers and ailing constituents.

The vote for the measure was 259-140, but that fell short of the two-thirds majority the GOP needed to prevail under special procedures. Since the Senate approved similar legislation last August, Republicans could revisit the legislation under rules that would require only a simple majority for passage, perhaps after reworking the measure.

The House will not let this be the end, said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Republicans brought patients with fatal diseases to the House chamber, including Jordan McLinn, 8, of Indianapolis, a muscular dystrophy sufferer who sat beside Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. McLinn appeared two years ago with then Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, now vice president, as Pence signed state legislation reducing restrictions.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., cited a message from fellow Pennsylvanian Matthew Bellina, a Navy veteran diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrigs disease. Bellinas message was, A vote against this is essentially a vote to kill me.

All but two voting Republicans backed the measure while Democrats were opposed by a margin exceeding 4-to-1.

Democrats, backed by scores of patients and research organizations, said the bill would achieve little since the federal Food and Drug Administration already approves 99 percent of the 1,000 requests it receives annually for an existing program that lets patients use unproven treatments. They said the proposal would create risks by rolling back the FDAs oversight role in the process and noted that most experimental drugs dont work.

The last thing I want to do is give patients false hope and to put them at risk by reducing the FDAs powers, said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce panel.

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GOP lawmakers rejected that argument.

There is no such thing as false hope. You either have hope or you have no hope, said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.

If I had a terminal diagnosis, Id even consider injecting monkey urine if I thought it would give me a few more months, a few more years with my children, said Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.

Under the Right to Try legislation, the FDA would no longer need to sign off if a doctor and pharmaceutical maker agree that a patient with no other options should try an experimental treatment.

The agency would have to be notified after treatment begins, manufacturers would have to report if problems arose and drug makers and doctors would be broadly shielded from legal liability. Manufacturers would still not be required to provide their pharmaceuticals.

More than 70 patient and research groups sent a letter of opposition Monday to House leaders saying the bill would not increase access to promising therapies and is still less safe that the FDAs existing process.

Critics said the measure misleadingly suggests the FDA is the bottleneck to providing the experimental treatments. They say the more common hurdle is manufacturers, which often prefer to use their limited quantities of early-stage drugs for clinical trials needed to gain final FDA approval for wide-spread sales or worry that a setback could damage the products marketability.

Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner and a Trump appointee, told Congress in October that 70 percent of the experimental drugs his agency currently lets seriously ill patients use are never approved.

The vast majority of people granted access to unproven treatments are using a drug that doesnt work, he said.Washington (AFP) - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow suit -- just days before he arrives in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed told CBS television in an interview, parts of which were released Thursday.

The upstart Saudi royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler, warning he could sweep through the Middle East like Germany's Nazis did at the start of World War II.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," said the 32-year-old heir to the throne.

"Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East."

Excerpts from the interview, which will air in full on CBS on Sunday, came as the Trump administration threatens to end the Iran nuclear deal, which could leave Tehran free to advance its development of atomic weapons.

Iran, under pressure from European powers to assuage US worries about its adherence to the nuclear deal, hit back at the prince.

"These words are worthless ... because they come from a simple mind full of illusions who speaks only bitterness and lies," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

- Stoking Saudi-Iran rivalry -

Prince Mohammed, the son and heir of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Monday ahead of talks with Trump on Tuesday.

The brazen prince, dubbed "MBS", has rocked Saudi Arabia since his father became king in 2015 and named him defense minister.

Last year, he was elevated to crown prince, and is seen as the effective ruler under his 82-year-old father.

Story continues

His moves have shaken up the kingdom -- declaring a liberalization of social mores from the stifling ideology of Wahhabi Islam, and moving to modernize a heavily top-down economy.

But in a move to consolidate his power over rival royals, he also locked up many princes and top businessmen for months to force them to hand over fortunes and accept him as the country's future sovereign.

And he has also added fuel to largely Sunni Saudi Arabia's fight with Shiite Iran.

He has mired the US-backed Saudi military in a disastrous confrontation with Tehran's proxies in a war that has destroyed much of Yemen, and launched a mostly failed effort by Gulf Arab states to isolate Qatar.

Trump however has repeatedly signalled his support for Saudi Arabia, visiting Riyadh in May 2017 on his first foreign trip as the US leader.

His son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner took the lead in building a relationship with Prince Mohammed, reportedly supporting the political offensive against Qatar -- which the US Defense Department opposed.

- Fast-track nuclear energy program -

But even in the United States, the kingdom's new nuclear energy push has raised worries that, as in Iran, it could potentially underpin a weapons program.

Earlier this week, the Saudi cabinet officially put the atomic energy program on a fast track, saying it aims to lessen domestic use of oil to preserve the kingdom's huge hydrocarbon resources for export markets.

By May 12, Trump must decide whether to stick with 2015's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which removed sanctions on Iran in exchange for its pledge to halt its push toward developing nuclear weapons capability.

Trump has repeatedly condemned the JCPOA, and his sacking Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson removed one of the deal's main defenders within the administration.

Tillerson's replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, is an Iran hawk whose arrival could sound the deal's death knell.

"The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind -- or at least it was one of the reasons," Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday.Washington (AFP) - Likening Iran's leader to Adolf Hitler, Saudi Arabia's crown prince warned in a US television interview that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an excerpt of the interview that aired Thursday on "CBS This Morning."

The 32-year-old Prince Mohammed said he has referred to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "the new Hitler" because "he wants to expand."

"He wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," Prince Mohammed said.

"Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East."

The interview is scheduled to run on CBS's "60 Minutes" show on Sunday, two days before the crown prince's scheduled White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.

His comments come amid concerns over nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and just days after the kingdom put an atomic energy program on a fast track.

Although intended to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, analysts warn the capacity to produce atomic energy could open a pathway to nuclear development for military purposes.

A 2015 nuclear agreement has placed curbs on Iran's nuclear program, but Trump has expressed a desire to scrap it, making its future uncertain.

The Saudi cabinet says its nuclear program will be in "full compliance with the principle of transparency" and meet nuclear safety standards "in accordance with an independent regulatory and supervisory framework."

The country has accelerated plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades, according to officials and analysts, at a cost of around $80 billion.

Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Faleh said in October that the nuclear program would start by building two reactors, each producing between 1.2 and 1.6 gigawatts of electricity.The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher,Tehran (AFP) - Iran on Thursday lashed out at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling him a "simple-mind" after the powerful young royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler.

"These words are worthless ... because they come from a simple-mind full of illusions who speaks only bitterness and lies," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

In an interview with CBS television, parts of which were released Thursday, Prince Mohammed also said that if Tehran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," the crown prince said.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," said the 32-year-old heir to the throne.

Shiite Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia are arch-rivals who back opposing sides in regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria.

Prince Mohammed's remarks were aired just days before he due to visit Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israel's military hit Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Palestinians set off two bombs near the border fence, the military said, with no casualties reported.

Israel's military also said it suspected based on surveillance video there was "an attempt" to fire rocket-propelled grenades toward its forces, but nothing was hit.

If confirmed, it would be the first time such weapons were used by Gaza militants against Israeli forces since a 2014 war, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

A security source from Hamas, the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip, said that one Israeli round hit an observation post near the border, causing damage but no casualties.

He said that earlier, shortly after sunrise, there were explosions near the border. Israel said two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated some 100 metres away from the fence on the Gaza side.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts and Israel said it could not say who was behind it, though it held Hamas responsible as the de facto power in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel said the IEDs were detonated "toward" soldiers in a vehicle on the Israeli side of the fence near the northeastern Gaza Strip at around 6:00 am.

"It appears that there was also an attempt to fire RPG rockets toward the force," Conricus said.

"We don't have the final confirmation of that yet, but that is currently our working assumption."

Israel's army then hit what it said were four military positions in the strip belonging to Hamas and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad with tank fire and another with air power, Conricus said.

Israel also warned Hamas not to use civilian protests that occur near the border fence as cover to carry out attacks against its forces.

Beginning on March 30, Gazans are planning to erect hundreds of tents near the Israeli border for a six-week show of support for Palestinian refugees.

Story continues

On February 17, four Israeli soldiers were wounded by an improvised explosive device on the border, sparking intense military retaliation.

Israel warplanes attacked 18 "terror targets belonging to Hamas" in Gaza in response to the blast, which severely wounded two of the soldiers, and a subsequent Palestinian rocket attack on southern Israel.

The following day, troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near the border, Gaza medical sources said.

The Israeli army said at the time that soldiers fired "warning shots" at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence "in a suspicious manner" but could not confirm Palestinian casualties.

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. The strip has been under an Israeli blockade for around a decade.Rome (AFP) - While Great Britain reels from the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal that echoes the espionage brinkmanship of the Cold War, on Thursday Italy remembers its highest-profile victim of the ideological battle between East and West.

On March 16, 1978, two-time former prime minister Aldo Moro was ambushed in Rome by far-left Red Brigades terrorists while on his way to the Italian parliament to participate in a confidence vote on a new government led by fellow former centre-right Christian Democrat (DC) premier Giulio Andreotti.

The Red Brigades killed Moro's five police bodyguards and fled with the DC leader, taking him to a hideout where he would be tried by a "people's court" composed of his kidnappers.

Found guilty of being the architect of the "historic compromise" that led to the Italian Communist Party (PCI) lending support to Andreotti's government, and failing to get imprisoned terrorists released, the Red Brigades murdered Moro.

On May 9, after 55 days of captivity his body was found, riddled with bullets, in the boot of a car parked equidistantly between the headquarters of the DC and PCI in the centre of Rome.

- Italy's 9/11 -

"It was Italy's 11th of September," wrote Ezio Mauro, editor of daily La Repubblica, on Wednesday.

"These are places that still seem to speak about what happened ... Every day, I pass by the area and I can not help but think about the spring of 1978 and an Italy that was exhausted by a terrible decade."

Moro's kidnap and murder was the apogee of the "years of lead", a period from the end of the 1960s to the start of the 1980s that was characterised by a surge in political violence.

Between the Piazza Fontana bombing in 1969 that killed 17 and the Bologna massacre, a bomb outside the city's train station in 1980 that killed 85, hundreds of attacks and murders were carried out, and the Red Brigades were one of the deadliest groups.

Story continues

"Since 1975, the Red Brigades had opted for a strategy of front-on struggle against the Italian state," says historian Philippe Foro, author of "The Moro Affair."

However, the murky details surrounding Moro's murder have never been fully cleared up, and within Italy a whole host of theories have sprung up as to why he was targeted.

- Cold War mystery -

Moro wrote a raft of letters to his family, Andreotti and Pope Paul VI, which urged the release of Red Brigade allies in prison. One, to his wife, read: "my blood will fall on them."

Foro added: "He had also made many opponents among those who condemned his policy of historic compromise with the PCI: within NATO, the Italian secret service, in politics..."

There are many among those who have chronicled the period who believe that not everything was done to find Aldo Moro and release him. And that the Italian state made the choice to "sacrifice" him for the sake of Cold War stability and to keep certain state secrets under wraps.

"For the United States, the power of the Communist Party in the Mediterranean's most important country was unacceptable and the Soviets also saw a threat in the historic compromise," said Ferdinando Imposimato, the judge who presided over the subsequent trial.

While Moro will remain the victim of a bloody political conflict that raged for over a decade and seeped into the 1980s, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini believes that he offers a lesson for a country left in political deadlock.

"He convinced the two winners of an election, neither of which had a majority, to support a government," said Franceschini on Wednesday.

"What was worthwhile for the leaders of yesterday is worthwhile for those of today."Shinzo Abe is considering a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, pictured here shaking hands with South Korean negotiator Chung Eui-yong - AFP

Japans prime minister Shinzo Abe is considering a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in an apparent change of strategy in dealing with Pyongyang.

Reports of a potential dialogue mark the latest in a series of fast-paced diplomatic developments, with North Korea and the United States recently announcing plans to hold a summit.

Mr Abe reportedly decided to consider the option of dialogue with Pyongyang after he was briefed by Suh Hoon, the South Korean envoy who helped negotiate the US-North Korea meeting, according to Kyodo News.

An Abe-Kim meeting would contrast starkly with the Japanese governments longstanding policy towards Pyongyang, which has firmly centred on maximum pressure and dismissed the idea of talks for the sake of talks.

However, such a summit would ease any concerns Japan might currently have that it is being left behind in dealing with North Korea, if talks between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington continue without Tokyos involvement.

The last high-level meeting between the two nations took place 14 years ago, when Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi met Mr Kims father Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.

Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shake hands at the end of a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan Credit: REUTERS

Mr Abe also reportedly anticipates the recent easing of tensions as a fresh opportunity to tackle not only denuclearisation but also North Koreas abduction of Japanese nationals dating back to the 1970s.

The issue has become a cornerstone of Mr Abes political tenure, with the PM rising to power on the back of calls for a tough line on North Korea and its Japanese abductions.

If we're to resolve the abduction issue, direct dialogue with the top - Mr Kim Jong-un - is essential," a government source from Mr Abe's office told Kyodo News.

Mr Abe has already announced plans to visit the US early next month in order to coordinate North Korean policies with Mr Trump ahead of a historic first meeting between a sitting US president and 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 Japanese government source added to Kyodo News.

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Japans apparent change in approach to Pyongyang reflected Mr Abes growing concerns that it has been sidelined by Washington and Seoul in discussions with North Korea, according to Professor Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University in Tokyo.

Abe was blindsided by Trumps sudden swerve towards talks, he told the Telegraph. Abe had been adamant that it is pointless to talk for the sake of talking.

So yet again Abe had the rug pulled out from beneath by the erratic Trump and is now scrambling to catch up with this dramatic turn of events and make Japan relevant to the process.

He has been seriously upstaged by Moon and is miffed that South Korea has taken lead. So this is about face saving and trying to make sure Japan has a voice in the talks because great concern is that Trump will cut a deal that doesn't address Japan's concerns.By Takashi Umekawa and Kiyoshi Takenaka TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office was aware in early March of potential problems with documents about a controversial land sale to a school operator with ties to Abe's wife, his top spokesman said on Thursday, amid suspicions of a cover-up. Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso have been under fire since the finance ministry admitted this week it had altered records relating to the discounted sale of land to the school operator. The affair has sparked calls for Aso to quit and could dash Abe's chances of securing another three-year term when the ruling party holds a leadership election in September. Abe has denied wrongdoing by himself or his wife Akie, while Aso has denied he instructed changes to the records. References to Abe, his wife, and Aso were removed from the finance ministry's records of the sale, copies of documents released by the ministry showed. Public broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday that a finance ministry official who committed suicide this month had left a note saying he thought he would be forced to take sole responsibility for doctoring the documents. "Some parts of the documents were too detailed, and my boss forced me to rewrite it," NHK quoted the note as saying. "If this continues, I will be forced to bear all the responsibility by myself." Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the land ministry had told his deputy on March 5 about possible gaps between documents in its possession and materials the finance ministry had previously submitted to parliament. Suga himself was told on March 6 and thought that his deputy told Abe about the matter the same day, he told reporters. On March 8, the finance ministry submitted copies of what it later acknowledged on March 12 were altered documents. Asked why he had not made the land ministry's concerns public, Suga said, "It was not a stage where we could confirm the documents." He did not see a problem with how the premier's office handled the matter, he added. Opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan senior lawmaker Seiji Osaka blasted Suga's explanation. "This is complete sophistry and a desecration of parliament," he was quoted by the Kyodo news agency as saying. The scandal has paralyzed parliamentary proceedings and even some in the ruling party are calling for Aso to resign. "To draw a line under the situation, it's obvious he should step down as a person who holds the highest responsibility of the finance ministry," former ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Taku Yamazaki told the Nikkei daily on Wednesday. Aso has rejected the calls to quit and said responsibility for the land sale lay with Nobuhisa Sagawa, who stepped down as tax chief on Friday last week. Sagawa headed the finance ministry division that submitted the documents before he became tax agency chief in July. A ruling party source told Reuters on Thursday that Aso would not attend a meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders in Buenos Aires next week amid the wrangling in parliament. Japan is seeking exemptions from import tariffs planned by U.S. President Donald Trump. Aso's absence from the G20 meet would deprive it of a lobbying opportunity, amid growing fears of a trade war that could hurt its export-reliant economy. (Additional reporting by Izumi Nakagawa, Leika Kihara and Stanley White; Writing by Chris Gallagher, Leika Kihara, Elaine Lies and Linda Sieg; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Catherine Evans)By Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Figuring out who is to blame in a widening political scandal that threatens Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is being complicated by a practice known as "sontaku", which loosely translates as "following unspoken orders". Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso are under fire after the ministry released altered documents related to the discounted sale of state-owned land to a school operator with ties to Abe's wife, raising the possibility of a cover-up. Abe has denied wrongdoing by himself or his wife and Aso has denied instructing any cover-up. Strictly speaking, that could be true if the officials involved in the land deal and altering the related documents engaged in "sontaku", by attempting to surmise their superiors' wishes and acting without explicit directions. "The invoking of implicit expectations is a wonderful way to shirk responsibility," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University's Japan campus. "Superiors can say, 'I didn't order it,' and those lower down can say, 'I'm following orders,' so the buck stops nowhere." WHAT IS "SONTAKU"? The word's original meaning is to "conjecture, surmise or speculate" and it has been around a long time, though rarely used in ordinary conversation. The term appeared in a passage of ancient Chinese poetry and originally meant the ability to see through someone's evil purposes, the Asahi newspaper said. When octogenarian Emperor Akihito in 2016 said publicly he feared his age and health would make it hard to fulfill his duties and mentioned the year 2018, listeners "surmised" he wanted to abdicate this year. There was no negative connotation. Last year, however, "sontaku" entered the spotlight after the scandal broke over the land sale to the school operator, whose head at the time, Yasunori Kagoike, told reporters he did not think there had been direct peddling of influence, but rather "sontaku". Chosen as "word of the year" by two publishers last year, "sontaku" has acquired a more negative connotation because of its link to the scandal. WHY DOES "SONTAKU" MATTER? If officials who signed off on the deal or altered related documents were engaging in "sontaku", it could be hard to prove their superiors did anything wrong, at least in legal terms. "Abe is a strong leader, so bureaucrats, without being ordered directly, did various things - dishonest and maybe illegal," said a ruling coalition lawmaker who declined to be identified speaking on a sensitive topic. "But as long as Abe gave no direct order, this will end as 'sontaku'," he said. "There is a difference between legal, political and ethical responsibility." Aso is under pressure to quit, however, even if he gave no direct order, as he oversees the ministry. Whether Abe wins a third term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in September, or is forced to step down sooner, will depend on whether, and how far, his support falls. IS "SONTAKU" JUST JAPANESE? The Abe government's tight control of top appointments may have boosted the incentive for bureaucrats to engage in "sontaku", although employees everywhere try to anticipate their bosses' wishes. "It's not something unfamiliar to people working anywhere else who want to get ahead and curry favor with those above," Kingston said. "But in Japan, it's developed to a higher art form." (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)Andrew McCabe announced he was stepping aside in January: REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who became a prominent target for Donald Trump, could reportedly be fired days before his planned retirement.

An internal investigation concluded Mr McCabe misled investigators who were looking into his decision to let FBI officials speak to the media about a probe into the Clinton Foundation, leading the FBIs Office of Professional Responsibility to recommend Attorney General Jeff Sessions fire Mr McCabe, according to CNN and the New York Times.

A Justice Department representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr McCabe announced that he was stepping aside in January and taking a leave of absence. It had been widely rumoured that he was planning to retire once he became eligible for a full pension this month.

His departure followed months of attacks from Mr Trump, who has lambasted the Department of Justice and the FBI as compromised by the presence of partisan officials.

The President repeatedly took to Twitter to blast Mr McCabes role overseeing FBI investigations of the Clinton Foundation - a philanthropic enterprise established by former President Bill Clinton - and of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!! Mr Trump wrote in December.

The President has assailed donations to Mr McCabes wife, a Democrat running for a spot in Virginias state legislature, from a political group overseen by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally.

Republicans, including Trump campaign surrogates, have suggested that Ms Clinton traded donations to the Clinton Foundation for influence. Representatives for Ms Clinton have said she never acted in an official capacity based on donations.

After Mr McCabe stepped aside in January, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump did not play a role in the decision.

Ms Sanders also deflected questions about a report that Mr Trump asked Mr McCabe who he voted for in the 2016 election, saying the two have had limited and pretty non-substantive conversations.Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the network helmed by Charles and David Koch, is launching a second $4 million ad campaign against two Democratic Senators who voted against the tax reform bill and are up for reelection in states President Donald Trump won by a landslide.

The ads will run in Indiana and Missouri, where Sens. Joe Donnelly and Claire McCaskill are seeking reelection in states where Trump won by nearly twenty points in the 2016 election. The group ran the first wave of ads against the two Senators in February.

The new ads, which will be released on Thursday and run for three weeks, feature testimonials from individuals in the respective states  an Indiana small business owner named Cathy and a working mother of three from Missouri named Lindsay  who argue that tax reform has benefitted them and dont understand why their Senators voted against it. The ad in Missouri seizes on McCaskills comments after she voted against tax reform last year, in which she said she opposed the measure because it gave the working people in her state scraps while benefiting the wealthy and corporations.

When I heard Claire McCaskill describe the tax cuts as scraps, I think its disrespectful. Getting bonuses and tax cuts  thats huge for families like mine, Lindsay, the mother from Missouri, says in the ad.

As more Americans see the benefits of tax reform, they are rightly concerned to learn that some lawmakers, like Joe Donnelly and Claire McCaskill, voted against tax relief for individuals and families, said Tim Phillips, the President of Americans for Prosperity. AFP is committed to holding opponents of tax reform accountable for seeking to deny individuals like Lindsey and Cathy the opportunity to improve their lives.

The ad buys are part of the networks $20 million effort to promote the tax bill. This push will be crucial in a midterm election year where history shows the party that holds the White House typically suffers Congressional losses  a dynamic officials with the network have acknowledged.

Story continues

But the ad push also comes at a time when touting tax reform, which some Republicans deemed one of their only bright spots in a difficult cycle, may not necessarily help as much as initially envisioned, as evidenced by the most recent election.

A Politico analysis of television ads from Tuesdays special election in Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional district  which Trump won by double digits in 2016  found that the percentage of television ads touting tax reform, which were largely financed by outside groups who spent millions in the race, declined as election day inched closer. Despite the conservative leanings of the district and Trumps 2016 victory, polling showed a tight race  the precise situation where touting the benefits of tax reform would presumably help the Republican candidate, Rick Saccone.

And in the beginning of February, the Politico analysis found, two thirds of the ads centered on tax reform; but by the first week in March, as polls continued to tighten, the groups were only airing two ads highlighting the law.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday night, the race was still too close to call. Saccone was trailing the Democratic candidate, Conor Lamb, by approximately 800 votes.

(Disclosure: Time Inc., TIMEs parent company, has been acquired by Meredith Corp. in a deal partially financed by Koch Equity Development, a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.)ATHENS (Reuters) - At least 11 asylum seekers were treated after clashes with police in a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos on Wednesday and about 200 women and children were evacuated to a nearby warehouse, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said. More than 5,000 asylum seekers live in the Moria refugee camp, nearly twice its intended capacity. Protests over living conditions are not uncommon but Wednesday's clashes, which a police spokesman said broke out after a group of about 50 people set fire to garbage bins, are among the most serious in months. A local news website said the violence was sparked by the attempted suicide of a Syrian man in the camp on Monday and said police used tear gas and flash grenades to disperse the crowd. A police official confirmed to Reuters that riot police had to intervene but would not comment on the reported use of tear gas and flash grenades. MSF posted on Twitter that it had provided medical aid. "Our team treated eleven people, among them small babies and pregnant women after clashes between #refugees and #Greek police. 200 women and children were evacuated to a nearby warehouse," it said. "The situation is calmer, but #Moria continues to be an awful place to live." Lesbos was the gateway to Europe in 2015 for nearly a million refugees and migrants, mostly fleeing Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. This month marks two years since the European Union and Turkey agreed to stem the flow. Under their deal, anyone who arrives on Greek islands must be returned to Turkey unless they qualify for asylum, but procedures can take several months and protests have erupted over delays, as well as living conditions which have been described by rights groups as unfit for humans. (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - A young, leftist Rio city councillor who grew up in a slum and worked on human rights issues was shot and killed Wednesday, authorities said.

The attack outraged Brazilian politicians and citizens, and protest rallies were called for Thursday.

Councillor Marielle Franco's driver also died in the attack, in which a car pulled up alongside theirs as she returned from a black women's empowerment event and shots were fired at them. One of her aides was wounded.

The federal government said it is investigating the shooting.

Amnesty International said the probe should be rigorous and focus on "the context, motive and responsibility" for the killing.

Social media lit up with calls for demonstrations Thursday outside City Hall and elsewhere in Rio.

"March against black genocide! WE ARE ALL Marielle Franco," said one appeal, which in a matter of hours drew pledges from some 20,000 people to attend the rally.

Franco, 38, belonged to the leftist PSOL party.

She was born and raised in a network of favelas, or slums, called Mare, one of the city's most violent areas.

Franco in recent weeks had criticized what she called an increase in police violence in the slums.

She has also criticized President Michel Temer for calling in army troops to boost security in Rio amid violence that has been on the rise since the city hosted the Olympic Games in 2016.

But Franco's party said she had not reported receiving threats of late.

Franco earned a degree in sociology and a masters in public administration.One hundred and six Ghanaian migrants who were detained in Libya on illegal migration charges on Tuesday returned home.



This follows the return of 127 Ghanaians who had been detained in Libya on same charges in November 2017.



The return was facilitated by the Ministry of Finance with assistance from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)



A statement released by the Public Affairs Bureau of the Ministry said the repatriation was necessitated following a fact-finding mission in response to reports of human trafficking and the mistreatment of Ghanaian migrants in Libya.



Government constituted a five- member fact-finding delegation which visited Libya from 5th to 10th February, 2018 to assess their situation. Among those identified by the fact-finding team were Ghanaians who were being held at detention centres for various offenses including entering Libya illegally as well as possession of fake documents. Subsequently, arrangements were made for their repatriation and the necessary travel documents issued to them, the statement said.



The statement added that government, in the meantime, is pursuing initiatives aimed at repatriating the remaining Ghanaian detainees who have expressed the desire to return to Ghana voluntarily.

Source: Graphic.com









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Featured VideoBamako (AFP) - Two Malian militia groups say they have recovered a US military vehicle and weapons that jihadist fighters seized after a deadly ambush of American special forces in neighbouring Niger in October.

The attack, which left four US troops dead, shed light on the scale of the US military presence in the Sahel and became a political issue in Washington.

The claim was made in a statement released on Wednesday by two armed groups, one of which in 2015 signed up to a peace deal with the Malian government pledging to join its fight against jihadists.

They said that in clashes with "the bandits," their fighters had recovered "a car and weapons belonging to the US special forces."

They want to return the equipment to the US authorities "by legal means," said the statement, adding that the fighting took place "on March 11-12."

It was issued by a group called GATIA, the acronym in French for the Imghad and Allies Touareg Self-Defence Force), which is pro-government, and the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), comprising former rebels.

The US Africa Command (Africom), asked by AFP, said the Pentagon "is aware" of the claim.

"However, at this time cannot verify authenticity of the claims and are looking into it," it said.

The October 4 attack occurred as a unit of 12 American special forces soldiers and 30 Nigerien troops returned from the village of Tongo Tongo, near the border with Mali.

They were attacked by a group of some 50 IS-affiliated fighters equipped with small arms, grenades and trucks mounted with guns.

Four Nigerien soldiers also died. The body of one US soldier, Sergeant La David Johnson, was not recovered until the following day.

The ambush was claimed by a group calling itself the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, led by Adnan Abu Walid Sahrawi, who has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.

A nine-minute propaganda video by the jihadists showed US troops wearing only limited body armour, desperately seeking cover behind an unarmored SUV while coming under heavy fire.

It raised fresh questions as to the nature of the mission and why the soldiers had been left so vulnerable.One of the most important numbers in math might today be named after the Greek letter  or pi, but the convention of representing it this way actually doesnt come from Greece at all. It comes from the pen of an 18th century farmers son and largely self-taught mathematician from the small island of Anglesey in Wales. The Welsh Government has even renamed Pi Day (on March 14 or 3/14, which matches the first three digits of pi, 3.14) as Pi Day Cymru.

The importance of the number we now call pi has been known about since ancient Egyptian times. It allows you to calculate the circumference and area of a circle from its diameter (and vice versa). But its also a number that crops up across all scientific disciplines from cosmology to thermodynamics. Yet even after mathematicians worked out how to calculate pi accurately to over 100 decimal places at the start of the 18th century, we didnt have an agreed symbol for the number.

Math Pi-oneer

From Accountant to Math Pioneer

This all changed thanks to William Jones who was born in 1674 in the parish of Llanfihangel Trer Beirdd. After attending a charity school, Jones landed a job as a merchants accountant and then as a math teacher on a warship, before publishing A New Compendium of the Whole Art of Navigation, his first book in 1702 on the mathematics of navigation. On his return to Britain, he began to teach math in London, possibly starting by holding classes in coffee shops for a small fee.

Shortly afterwards he published Synopsis palmariorum matheseos, a summary of the current state of the art developments in mathematics which reflected his own particular interests. In it is the first recorded use of the symbol  as the number that gives the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter.

We typically think of this number as being about 3.14, but Jones rightly suspected that the digits after its decimal point were infinite and non-repeating. This meant it could never be expressed in numbers, as he put it. That was why he recognised the number needed its own symbol. It is commonly thought that he chose pi either because it is the first letter of the word for periphery () or because it is the first letter of the word for perimeter (), or both.

Story continues

Finding pi.

In the pages of his Synopsis, Jones also showed his familiarity with the notion of an infinite series and how it could help calculate pi far more accurately than was possible just by drawing and measuring circles. An infinite series is the total of all the numbers in a sequence that goes on forever, for example  +  +  + and so on. Adding an infinite sequence of ever-smaller fractions like this can bring you closer and closer to a number with an infinite number of digits after the decimal point - just like pi. So by defining the right sequence, mathematicians were able to calculate pi to an increasing number of decimal places.

Infinite series also assist our understanding of rational numbers, more commonly referred to as fractions. Irrational numbers are the ones, like pi, that cant be written as a fraction, which is why Jones decided it needed its own symbol. What he wasnt able to do was prove with math that the digits of pi definitely were infinite and non-repeating and so that the number was truly irrational. This would eventually be achieved in 1768 by the French mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert. Jones dipped his toes into the subject and showed an intuitive grasp of the complexity of pi but lacked the analytical tools to enable him to develop his ideas further.

The Spread of the Symbol for 

Despite this - and his obscure background - Joness book was a success and led him to become an important and influential member of the scientific establishment. He was noticed and befriended by two of Britains foremost mathematicians  Edmund Halley and Sir Isaac Newton  and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1711. He later became the editor and publisher of many of Newtons manuscripts and built up an extraordinary library that was one of the greatest collections of books on science and mathematics ever known, and only recently fully dispersed.

Despite this success, the use of the symbol  spread slowly at first. It was popularized in 1737 by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (170783), one of the most eminent mathematicians of the 18th century, who likely came across Jones work while studying Newton at the University of Basel. His endorsement of the symbol in his own work ensured that it received wide publicity, yet even then the symbol wasnt adopted universally until as late as 1934. Today  is instantly recognized worldwide but few know that its history can be traced back to a small village in the heart of Anglesey.

This article was originally published on The Conversation by Gareth Ffowc Roberts, Emeritus Professor of Education, Bangor University. Read the original article here.

Photos via William Hogarth/National Portait Gallery, _Synopsis palmariorum matheseos_, Giphy, Flickr / burke_wicker

Photos via William Hogarth/National Portait Gallery, _Synopsis palmariorum matheseos_, Giphy, Flickr / burke_wicker

Written by Gareth Ffowc Roberts

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More From InversePort Louis (Mauritius) (AFP) - Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has refused to resign, vowing to fight allegations that saw her embroiled in a financial scandal, the presidency said in a statement Wednesday.

Gurib-Fakim, Africa's only female head of state, has been accused of using a bank card provided by an NGO to make personal purchases.

Last Friday Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced that Gurib-Fakim had agreed to resign, with a date set for her departure after Monday's ceremony celebrating the Indian Ocean archipelago nation's 50 years of independence.

But a statement from the presidency slammed "weeks of attacks and false allegations" and said Gurib-Fakim planned to clear her name and would not resign.

"Her Excellency Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, having nothing to feel guilty about and able to provide corroborating evidence, rejects any idea of resigning," read the statement.

"She is also willing to go to court to defend herself against the slanderous accusations against her."

Gurib-Fakim, whose role is mostly ceremonial, is a scientist and biologist of international renown, and in 2015 joined the London-based Planet Earth Institute (PEI) to try and develop scientific capacity in Africa.

The statement from the presidency said that in May 2016, she received a credit card to pay for travel and logistical expenses linked to her role.

Gurib-Fakim "who already had an identical credit card from the same bank inadvertently used the card from the PEI for expenses not linked to her mission totalling $26,000 (21,000 euros)", said the statement.

She said she immediately informed the PEI and paid back the amount, as well as all expenses paid by the PEI for her missions.

This is confirmed by a statement released by the PEI.

"She had repaid our Mauritian sister foundation for sums apparently inadvertently used on a credit card issued to her to cover logistical expenses whilst travelling to promote African science, technology and innovation," according to the brief statement on the organisation's website.

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Gurib-Fakim "thus never received gifts, favours, wages or expenses from the PEI, nor undue benefits or advantage. Her mission ended on March 20, 2017," said the statement.

An investigation by Mauritian newspaper L'Express detailed the purchase of a laptop in September 2016, clothes, shoes and jewellery in October, more jewellery in November and luxury clothing in December.

However it was not just the expenditure that raised anger on the island nation, but the president's association with Angolan billionaire Alvaro Sobrinho who helped found the PEI and is himself being investigated in Switzerland and Portugal for suspected fraud.

In 2017 he received permission to open an investment bank in Mauritius, prompting allegations of favouritism on his behalf.

It was shortly thereafter that Gurib-Fakim, under pressure from the opposition, resigned from her role at the PEI.Meek Mill performs at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Sept. 3, 2017, in Philadelphia. (Photo: Arik McArthur/FilmMagic).

Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill has certainly had his share of headlines for his legal issues, with his latest controversial conviction in November 2017 calling forth high-profile support from such names as Jay-Z, Colin Kaepernick, Rick Ross, T.I., and others.

Its estimated hes spent $30 million on legal defense over the past decade, disputing a variety of charges. Hes able to afford these staggering bills due to the success of his rap career, which includes lucrative brand endorsements as well as chart-topping music.

Mill granted a revealing interview to Rolling Stone from prison this week, in which he discusses some of these issues, as well as the judge whom many feel has treated him unfairly and has a personal grudge against him. The day the interview came out, a motion was filed by prosecutors stating there is a strong likelihood the rappers conviction would be reversed.

Unsurprisingly, trying to untangle the story of where his troubles began can be confusing. Heres a timeline to help sort things out.

2004: A teenage Meek, after several years battle-rapping on the streets of Philadelphia, joins rap group the Bloodhoundz.

2008: Meek is charged with illegal possession of a firearm and drug possession after police find a gun on him while he is walking to the corner store. He claims he is violently beaten, but he is charged with assault in return by the police.

2008: Meek meets his nemesis, Judge Genece Brinkley, for the first time. He faces 19 counts; Brinkley finds him guilty of seven, most of them gun-related. He is given an unusually harsh sentence of two years in jail and eight on probation. Several days later, his first solo mixtape, Flamers, comes out.

2009: Meek is released to house arrest and signs a management deal with former Will Smith bodyguard Charlie Mack, who assists with his legal issues. He releases and appears on a series of mixtapes, eventually putting out his first album in 2012.

2012: En route to the airport while promoting the new album, hes pulled over by police because of his tinted windows. They believe they smell marijuana coming from the car. After refusing to allow them to search his car, Meek is arrested and held overnight.

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A month later, he faces a violation of probation hearing, in which Judge Brinkley orders drug tests (he passes) and forbids him to continue his tour. He continues booking dates anyway, so he appears before the judge again in December and is ordered to stay home for the holidays.

2013: Meek appears in court in March for a hearing related to a possible probation violation as alleged by his probation officer, who says he left the state without providing a detailed itinerary. The rapper explains this by saying that his schedule changes rapidly. He asks for a new probation officer, but that request is denied.

In June, he faces similar violation issues. Additionally, the judge orders that he take etiquette courses after references to his probation officer on social media drive fans to send the officer death threats.

2014: Judge Brinkley revokes Meeks parole as a result of behavior that is deemed questionable, and which reportedly includes his social media activity as well as testing positive for Percocet (he claims he used it following oral surgery). He ends up serving five months in jail.

2015: In December, Meek is found guilty yet again of violating probation. Brinkley forbids him to work or perform until his sentencing in February 2016.

2016: He avoids a prison term at the sentencing but is forced to endure 90 days of house arrest instead, during which he is again forbidden to work.

2017: About a year later, Meek gets into a fight when an airport employee attempts to take a picture with him. Hes charged with misdemeanor assault, but the charges are eventually dropped.

A few months later, some videos capturing Meek doing stunts on a dirt bike go viral on social media, resulting in police charging him with reckless endangerment. This charge  a felony  is also dropped on condition he stay out of trouble for a few months and do community service.

However, the cumulative effect of these incidents spurs a parole hearing, in which Brinkley hands down a sentence of two to four years in prison for violating probation. Brinkley is clearly exasperated, saying shed been trying to help Meek for years but that he keeps thumbing his nose at the court. Meeks lawyers vow to appeal the decision.

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:A petition to get first lady Melania Trump to Stand With Immigrant FamiliesLike Yours!!! has received more than 44,250 signatures on Change.org.

Related: How did Melania Trump secure genius visa for extraordinary ability while dating the future president?

The petition, started by the immigration nonprofit Define American, strikes at the heart of a recent debate over an immigration program Trump likely used to put her Slovenian parents on the path to U.S. citizenshipand that her husband has proposed ending.

Trending: Did Trump Just Threaten To Withdraw U.S. Troops From South Korea?

President Donald Trump has explicitly favored bills that put great restrictions on so-called chain migration, which helps immigrants come to the U.S. based on family ties. An immigration attorney who represents the first lady last month confirmed that her parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs have become legal permanent residents, but would not comment on whether it was through chain migration, a scenario experts view as the most likely.

If it is good enough for the Trump family, it is good enough for the rest of the nation, the petition states in reference to chain migration.

We want her to stand beside her mother and father, the petition says, referring to the first lady, and tell their true immigration story, defending a system of legal immigration that works for American familiesand has clearly worked for them.

Don't miss: Apple and Samsung Smartphones May Struggle in 2018, and It's Their Own Fault

The petitions goal is to reach 50,000 signatures.

A White House spokeswoman for the first lady and her attorney Michael Wildes did not respond to requests for comment from Newsweek on Wednesday.

It is not the first time that Define American, founded by journalist and activist Jose Antonio Vargas, whose parents brought him to the U.S. illegally as a child, has targeted Melania Trump. In November 2016, it launched a petition to ask the first lady to share her immigration story, garnering a similar number of signatures as its latest effort.

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Most popular: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quotes: Seven Powerful Lines by the Notorious RBG on Her 85th Birthday

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Yet Melania Trump has not shared her immigration story. While on the campaign trail, her husband said during an August 2016 rally in North Carolina that she came into the U.S. legally and that she would soon hold a press conference to address the matter. The briefing, though, never transpired.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekMoscow (AFP) - Moscow said Thursday it was committed to helping Syria's regime "finish off" rebels in Eastern Ghouta, confirming its military is playing a role in the assault on the rebel enclave.

Russia has provided few details of its involvement in the offensive on Ghouta but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday left no doubt Moscow's forces were taking an active part.

"We will continue fighting terrorists, we will finish them off, we will help finish them off in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army is now conducting operations with our support," he said.

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria late last year, the military has released little information about its involvement.

Moscow has been overseeing efforts to evacuate civilians out of the Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus through a humanitarian corridor.

It has labelled rebel groups from that area "terrorists" who are not protected under the current ceasefire.

Eastern Ghouta has been the target of a blistering government assault for the past month, causing a humanitarian emergency. The offensive, backed by bombing, has split the enclave into three sections.

The Syrian Observatory monitor has blamed both Damascus and Moscow for massive civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta, though Russia has never admitted to participating in the bombing.A jury has convicted a man in the brutal murder of Reagan Tokes, an Ohio State University student who was killed in February 2017.

The jurors deliberated for nearly six hours before convicting Brian Golsby, 30, of kidnapping, robbery, rape and aggravated murder. He now faces sentencing, and is eligible for the death penalty.

Tokes family members sat silently in the courtroom as the verdict was read, their heads slightly bowed. Later, according to the Columbus Dispatch , Tokes mother burst into tears while embracing Reagans younger sister. Golsby showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

According to court testimony, Tokes usually had a co-worker walk her to her car after her shift as a part-time server at Bodega, a restaurant and bar in Short North, a trendy part of Columbus, Ohio.

But she left the restaurant alone on February 8, 2017. At about 9:45 p.m., Golsby kidnapped her. According to court testimony, he forced her to drive to a nearby ATM and withdraw $60 for him.

Then, according to testimony, he forced her to drive to Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City, Ohio. There, he raped her before shooting her twice in the head. Her body was found the following day.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors described Golsby as being cold and calculating. He went out to hunt that night  and he found Reagan Tokes, Jimmy Lowe, a Franklin County assistant prosecutor, told jurors. Theres no mystery here.

Brian Golsby

On Tuesday morning, the prosecutor gave her closing arguments, and she spoke about the terror that Tokes must have felt. He had her for two hours thinking what hes going to do to her, Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Rausch told the jurors.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

Defense attorney Diane Menashe disputed the prosecutions contention that Golsbys actions were premeditated. If Mr. Golsby didnt want to get caught, then perhaps he should not have worn the GPS bracelet, she told jurors, adding that Golsby likely shot Tokes when he panicked at the park.

The conviction came on what would have been Tokes 23rd birthday.

The sentencing phase of the trial begins Friday, when jurors will decide whether Tokes receives the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



Congressman Joaquin Castro was frustrated and angry. The Texas Democrat had just learned that the Republicans were pulling the plug on the tortured, bastardized House Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election. I just sawon the newsthat Mike Conaway is announcing that theyre wrapping up the investigation and the committee is just going to do a report, Castro, a member of the committee, says. There are unanswered questions on collusion, money laundering, and obstruction. Not following any of these leads is an abject failure for the American people. So thank God that Bob Mueller and the Senate are still conducting their investigations.

The Senate probes have plenty of their own partisan constraints. Mueller, however, has been barreling ahead. In mid-February the special counsel unveiled the indictment of 13 Russians and 3 Russian-related companies, charging them with waging a sprawling effort to plant thousands of bogus Internet items and stage sham rallies in support of the Trump campaign. Last months indictment, though, did more than identify alleged foreign criminals: it laid a foundation for Muellers next big move. Hes likely to target another batch of Russians, this time for hacking into the Democratic National Committee, Republican National Committee, and Clinton campaign computersand outside investigators expect Mueller will also name Americans who may have helped the Russians distribute the hacked materials.

Castro has a unique window onto the special counsels possible course and sees careful calculation in its unfolding. By indicting the 13 Russians first, he says, Mueller laid the groundwork to show that there is this malignant force out there that was interfering with the American elections. Once everybody can appreciate that, then he moves forward and says, O.K., these are the Americans that were helping these bad people.

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Possible big-name targetsall of whom have consistently denied conspiring with or aiding the Russian election-meddlinginclude Roger Stone Jr., the longtime Trump adviser; Guccifer 2.0 correspondent, and gleeful dirty trickster; Cambridge Analytica, the data-mining company; and Brad Parscale, who ran the Trump campaigns social-media operation. But Mueller has so far proven adept at uncovering previously obscure operatives and forcing them to plead guiltyincluding foreign-policy adviser George Papadopoulos, Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan, and Rick Gates, the right-hand man to Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign chairman who has financial ties to Eastern Europe.

The big question here is whether the Russians had any help in distributing the hacked material, Castro says. And its really any guidance or direction or information sharing or data sharing with any Americans. These are very sophisticated folks, so it doesnt take a lot of interaction necessarily to get them springing into action. They dont need 10,000 e-mails going back and forth. You just need to point them in the right direction. Mueller is very good at getting people to turn on their superiors. If youre looking just for a paper trail with the main cast of characters, you may not find it. But youve got all these underlings who may have been given a direction, Hey, go figure this out. Parscale had 100 people under him here in San Antonio for the digital operation. Including helpers from Twitter, Facebook, and Google. Weve heard that the Trump campaign went through dozens of Facebook embeds until they settled on people who they found loyal, one House investigator says. Has Mueller talked to them, or to the Google and Twitter embeds? Seems logical. (The special counsels office and Twitter declined to comment; Facebook and Google did not return requests for comment.)

Whoever Mueller names in the next indictment will also be contending with a new, sinister extra-legal worry. The poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter in England has sent chills through the ranks of witnesses and possible cooperatorsjust as it was intended to do. When countries do a spy swap, youre basically agreeing that were going to let you take this person, and theyre allowed to live in your country, says Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant defense secretary with an expertise in Russian affairs. Its not, Were going to let you take this person but were going to continue to try and kill them. Thats an unwritten rule of spycraft.

When it comes to the 2016 American presidential election, however, the Putin regime looks increasingly unwilling to follow rules of any kind. I suspect Skripal was talking to Christopher Steele or someone on Christopher Steeles team, Carpenter says, referring to the former British spy who in 2016 compiled the dossier of alleged ties between Trump and Russia. That is why this got Putins ire up, and so thats why they went after him. The Kremlins No. 1 goal here is to intimidate anyone that may have talked to Steele or any of his associates, or who might cooperate with Mueller. Yeah, its pretty ominous. Its a really, really bad development.Reported order is first time special counsel has asked for documents directly related to Trumps businesses in course of investigation

The Trump International Hotel in Washington DC. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

The special counsel, Robert Mueller, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, the New York Times reported on Thursday, in a sign that the investigation is inching closer to the president.

The subpoena was delivered in recent weeks and includes an order for the Trump Organization to turn over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.

It is the first known order directly related to Trumps sprawling business empire.

Asked by the New York Times last year whether he would consider Mueller examining his and his familys finances a red line, Trump said: I would say yeah. I would say yes. By the way, I would say, I dont  I dont  I mean, its possible theres a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?

He added: I dont make money from Russia. Other than I held the Miss Universe pageant there eight, nine years.

On Twitter, Trump has said he has had nothing to do with Russia  no deals, no loans, no nothing.

But on Wednesday Democratic lawmakers investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin alleged that the future presidents private company was actively negotiating a business deal in Moscow with a sanctioned Russian bank during the 2016 election campaign.

The statement by Democrats on the House intelligence committee, who have had access to internal Trump Organization documents and interviewed key witnesses, raises new questions about the Trump Organizations financial ties to Russia and its possible willingness to deal with a bank that had been placed under US sanctions.

The Democrats did not indicate the source of their information.

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One month before Trump laid down this red line, Don McGahn, the White House counsel, reportedly threatened to quit after Trump asked him to have Mueller fired because the president believed he had a number of conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation.

Meanwhile a new poll from Pew Research Center found 61% of Americans were very or somewhat confident Mueller will conduct a fair investigation.

Opinions divided along party lines. Some 46% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents agreed, while for Democrats the figure was 75%.

The study, carried out before Thursdays announcement of sanctions on Russian intelligence for its interference in the 2016 elections, also found 55% of Americans either not at all or not too confident that the Trump administration will take serious action to prevent Russia from influencing future elections in this country.

Mueller was appointed in May 2017 to investigate whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election.

He is also reportedly investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI director James Comey, who has said he refused to give the president his loyalty.

The White House referred all inquiries to the Trump Organization. A lawyer for the Trump Organization did not wish to comment on the record.

At her regular media briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to address reports of the subpoena directly.

As weve maintained all along and as the president has said numerous times, there was no collusion between the campaign and Russia, Sanders told reporters. Were going to continue to fully cooperate out of respect for the special counsel. Were not going to comment: for any specific questions about the Trump Organization, Id refer you there.

Additional reporting by David SmithNatalee Holloway has been missing since May 30 2005: Handout

A man who claimed he dug up and cremated the body of missing teenager Natalee Holloway to help his murder suspect friend has himself been killed while attempting to kidnap a woman, police have revealed.

The violent death of John Ludwick is the latest strange development in the hunt for Natalee, who was last seen getting into a car after leaving a nightclub at 1.30am on May 30 2005, the day she was due to fly home from a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Dutchman Joran van der Sloot remains the prime suspect in the case, but has never been charged with Natalees murder or disappearance.

He is, however, a convicted murderer, after being jailed for killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez in Lima, Peru, on May 30 2010, the fifth anniversary of Natalees disappearance.

Ludwick, 32, appeared to offer a new lead in the case last year when he was shown on a TV documentary claiming that in 2010 he had helped his friend van der Sloot dig up and then dispose of Natalees body.

Ludwick was shown confessing that after van der Sloot offered him $1,500, he crushed up Natalees bones and took them, mixed with dog remains, to a crematorium where he paid a worker $200 in cash to let him cremate what he said was his pet.

John Ludwick (Oxygen/NBC Universal)

In an extraordinary twist last month, however, the veracity of Ludwicks claims were effectively questioned by a lawsuit launched by Natalees mother who accused the documentary makers of producing a pre-scripted pre-planned farce whose broadcast was "outrageous".

Beth Holloway said the series had been acted out by a number of paid participants, including Ludwick.

His death will now make it even harder to establish whether his claims as aired in the documentary were true.

Police in North Port, Florida, said that just before 7am on Wednesday morning Ludwick went to the home of a woman who had once been his roommate and who had spurned his attempts to start a romantic relationship.

North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor told WFLA: As shes getting out of the car, there he is. He wanted the keys to her car. What he had plans for after that is yet to be determined but it was certainly a very scary situation."

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Mr Taylor, however, revealed that the woman fought back, grabbing Ludwicks knife and stabbing him several times. Ludwick ran off, bleeding heavily, but was found a few blocks away and later died.

Mr Taylor said the woman would face no charges.

"From every ounce of evidence we have so far, said Mr Taylor, She was a victim in this case.

"This gentleman had some ill intentions, she wasn't going quietly, and it ended very bad for him.

Mr Taylor could not say if any connection exists between Ludwicks apparent failed attack and Natalee's disappearance, but he added: When you look at this particular case, attempted kidnapping of a young girl, you go whoa, it seems eerily similar.

It is understood that local detectives have contacted the FBI.

In August 2017 Ludwick featured in The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a documentary mini-series which followed Natalees father Dave Holloway and his private investigator as they followed up new clues about what might have happened to the teenager.

In the series broadcast on Oxygen TV, Ludwick was shown explaining that he had crushed up Natalees unearthed bones so they werent recognisable as human, burning the skull to get rid of hair fibres.

He was filmed saying that after dog remains were added to the mix, he went to the crematorium and claimed his pet had died.

Ludwick was shown on the documentary saying that he and van der Sloot had then borrowed a fishermans boat and scattered the ashes at sea.

In the documentary series, his evidence was depicted as leading to the discovery of four bone fragments, which were tested to see if they came from Natalee, who lived in Mountain Brook, Alabama.

The credibility of what Ludwick said in the documentary was, however, cast into doubt by the lawsuit filed by Natalees mother Beth, who is divorced from Dave Holloway.

In her lawsuit, Ms Holloway accused Oxygen Media and production company Graden Media of pretending to report on the progress of an investigation as it was happening, when in fact everything had been pre-scripted, making the series a pre-planned farce, whose broadcast was outrageous.

In her lawsuit Beth Holloway claimed that at a point when the series portrayed Ludwick as being covertly recorded, he had already signed a non-disclosure agreement [and] was a paid participant in the series and aware at all times that he was being taped for publication.

The claims in the lawsuit have, however, been denied, with Oxygen issuing a statement defending the documentary and saying: We were disappointed to learn of the complaint and its inaccurate depiction of how the series was produced, and we want to reiterate our deep compassion and sympathy for all members of the Holloway family.

The documentary series was developed by a production company in close collaboration with Dave Holloway and his long-time private investigator. The show followed his continued search to find answers about his daughter Natalee from a lead he had received. We had hoped, along with Mr Holloway, that the information was going to provide closure.

In October 2017 Oxygen revealed that only one of the four bone fragments had been found to be human and its DNA did not match that of Natalee.

Joran van der Sloot initially claimed that he left Natalee drunk and sleeping on a beach, but has since made  and then retracted  a series of claims, including that he got a friend to dump her dead or unconscious body in the sea and even that he sold the teenager into sex slavery.We are looking for Pine pulp grade wood chips.

The quantity needed is 25,000 BDMT each 45-60 Days.

Send us your price on CIF Gemlick, Turkey and also price on FOB terms.By Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO accused Russia on Thursday of trying to destabilise the West with new nuclear weapons, cyber attacks and covert action, including the poisoning of a Russian former double agent in Britain, that blurred the line between peace and war. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters the use of the Novichok nerve agent against Sergei Skripal and his daughter "happened against a backdrop of a reckless pattern of Russian behaviour over many years". Russia denies any involvement and says it is the U.S.-led Atlantic alliance that is a risk to peace in Europe. Britain's National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill told NATO envoys at a special meeting of the alliance's governing North Atlantic Council that Russia was to blame. "What happened in Salisbury was the latest in a clear pattern of reckless and unlawful behaviour by the Russian state," Sedwill said in a statement he read to reporters after the meeting, referring to the English city where Skripal was attacked. Sedwill said the attack "concerns the whole alliance" and that Britain would support allies who faced similar threats. Britain's ambassador to NATO briefed the envoys on Wednesday. Stoltenberg said Russia was mixing nuclear and conventional weapons in military doctrine and exercises, which lowered the threshold for launching nuclear attacks, and increasingly deploying "hybrid tactics" such as soldiers without insignia. Stoltenberg listed Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, its direct support for separatists in Ukraine, its military presence in Moldova and Georgia, meddling in Western elections and its involvement in the war in Syria as evidence of Russia's threat. He cited the development of new nuclear weapons, which President Vladimir Putin unveiled in a bellicose speech on March 1, as another worrying development. "BLURRING THE LINE" He also accused Moscow of a "blurring of the line between peace, crisis and war", which he said was "destabilising and dangerous". Stoltenberg, who will meet British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday in Brussels, stressed there had been no request from London to activate the Western military alliance's mutual defence clause, but said Russia must be deterred. "The UK will respond and is responding in a proportionate and measured way ... I fully support there is a need for a response, because there must be consequences when we see actions like those in Salisbury," he said. NATO has deployed significant ground forces to the Baltic countries and Poland to dissuade Russia from repeating any Crimea-like seizures. Stoltenberg said there was little for NATO as an alliance to do immediately in response to the nerve agent attack, beyond giving Britain strong political support. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Kevin Liffey)The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has accused Russia of a crime worthy of action by the UN Security Council, as she backed Britains attempts to punish Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

The Trump administration was relatively quiet on the Russia issue for much of Wednesday after Theresa May expelled 23 Russian diplomats and blamed Moscow for this months nerve agent attack on the former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter.

But Ms Haley later came out swinging, telling a Security Council meeting that the US believes Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent.

Alone, Russias crime is worthy of this councils action, but this is not an isolated incident, Ms Haley said.  The assassination attempt in Salisbury is part of an alarming increase in the use of chemical weapons.

She added that American officials take no pleasure in constantly criticising Russia, but it must account for its actions.

The White House said it certainly appears that Russia is responsible for the attempted murder of an ex-spy based on all the evidence that Britain has available.

The president did tell the prime minister on the phone yesterday the United States does stand 100 per cent with our ally UK on this matter, White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters.

He said he does not know of any independent US assessment of the evidence, according to the White House pool report.

Mr Shah was also asked why Donald Trump has not responded to Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the same way that Ms May has responded to the poison attack.

The spokesman said the USs National Security Strategy lays out ways to counteract Russian cyberthreats and election meddling and noted that the National Security Council has had a meeting on the subject.

This president is taking this matter very seriously, Mr Shah. There will be more things that we can make public about his actions but we take the integrity of our elections extremely seriously and are treating it with the utmost forethought. And frankly we dont want to see the mistakes and the failure to act from the last administration plague our elections in 2018.

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Like it has denied interfering in the US election, the Kremlin has denied involvement in the UK nerve agent attack.

Mr Shahs statements are the furthest the White House has gone in placing responsibility on Russia for the attack. In its initial response, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stopped short of pinning blame on Moscow.

Republican Senator John McCain tweeted that the US must stand with the UK and ensure Russian authorities pay a price for their outrageous crimes.

A day before he was fired, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday expressed full confidence in the UKs assessment that Russia was likely responsible the poisoning.

Mr Tillerson did indeed give robust comments after this incident took place, and I am sure we will be working with his replacement to ensure that America is one of those allies who stand alongside us, said UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

She said that Britain has made the seriousness of the attempted murder of a former spy clear to US officials.

We are leaving our American colleagues in no doubt about the seriousness of this issue, Ms May told Parliament.Johannesburg (AFP) - Nine police officers appeared in a South African court Thursday over the deaths of three miners in the days before the 2012 Marikana massacre, when 34 striking workers were shot dead.

They are the first officers to be in court over the traumatic events of nearly six years ago, when police broke up a wildcat strike that had turned violent at the Marikana platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg.

The officers, who were granted bail by the court in Rustenburg, face charges of murder, attempted murder and subverting the course of justice.

The charges arise from killings on August 13 2012, three days before police opened fire on a group of workers shooting the 34 miners.

In documents read out in court Thursday, the prosecution said police fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of striking miners that was trying to prevent other workers from reporting for duty.

"Pandemonium ensued, resulting in the violent confrontation between the police and miners," prosecutors said.

Three miners and two police officers were killed.

The prosecution said the miners had "posed no danger" to the police at the time.

Three days later, 34 miners were gunned down in slayings that were the worst incident of police violence in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Other charges against officers in court on Thursday relate to the failure to disclose a body of a miner in a police van on the day of massacre.

The official inquiry established by then president Jacob Zuma put much of the blame for the deaths on police tactics used to disperse the 3,000 strikers.

Survivors and families of the dead have campaigned for justice, demanding that police officers face the court.

South Africa's new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, last month said he wanted "healing and atonement" over the massacre.

Ramaphosa has been dogged by allegations that he was partly responsible for the slayings.

At the time, he was a non-executive director of Lonmin, the mine owner, and had called for police to take action against the miners.In the presidents latest staff shake-up/The Apprentice: White House Edition performance art piece, Trump yesterday ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, announced that he would appoint CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace him, and named 33-year CIA veteran and current deputy director Gina Haspel to take over for Pompeo. Trump was quick to note on Twitter that, if confirmed by the Senate, Haspel would be the first woman so chosen to run the intelligence agency.

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The fact that Trump highlighted Haspels gender and the potentially historic nature of her appointment would suggest hes proud of himself for selecting her. It was as if to say, Look, I dont just say I grab women by the pussy. Sometimes I also elevate them to very important positions in the government! But this apparent line of thinking betrays a popular misconception about upending the power imbalance between the sexes: that simply choosing a womanany womanfor a big job is a sign of progress. On the contrary, Haspels nomination may be a personal victory, but it isnt a win for women or their civil right to be treated equal to men at work, because for one thing, Haspel is notorious for trampling on the civil rights of others.

Haspels selection as the nominee prompted The New York Times and others to resurface reports about Haspel that in 2002 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. According to ProPublica, which cited government records, Haspel was in a leadership position as Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian man whom the CIA mistakenly believed to be a high-level Al-Qaeda operative, was shackled to a gurney, waterboarded, deprived of sleep, and confined for hours in a coffin-like box, at times vomiting, urinating on himself, and losing consciousness so that medical personnel had to revive him.

Story continues

At one point, Haspel spoke directly with Zubaydah, according to ProPublica. She even reportedly congratulated him on the fine quality of his acting, saying, Good job! I like the way youre drooling; it adds realism. Im almost buying it. You wouldnt think a grown man would do that. Years later, as the Bush administrations interrogation tactics came under fire, and some were later banned, Haspel took part in an order for the video evidence to be destroyed via a giant shredder.

But the stain remains: As pointed out by USA Today, Haspels record could eventually render her a wanted woman in Europe. Last year, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) petitioned German prosecutors for an arrest warrant for Haspel based on her record of torture. Those who commit, order, or allow torture should be brought before a courtthis is especially true for senior officials from powerful nations, ECCHR general secretary Wolfgang Kaleck said in a statement about the submission. If the deputy director travels to Germany or Europe, she must be arrested. The ACLU has condemned Haspels nomination, saying she was up to her eyeballs in torture and urging the CIA to declassify and release every aspect of Haspels torture record before considering the nomination.

About that: Haspel must now be confirmed in a narrowly Republican (51472) Senate, and some members are already voicing their concerns. The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history, said Senator John McCain, the Republican from Arizona who was tortured as a prisoner in the Vietnam War. Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation program during the confirmation process. Senator Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat from Illinois and an Iraq War veteran, indicated she wouldnt vote for Haspel. Not only did she directly supervise the torture of detainees, but she also participated in covering it up by helping to destroy the video evidence. Her reprehensible actions should disqualify her from having the privilege of serving the American people in government ever again.

Its not a far leap, then, to see why Haspels groundbreaking nomination isnt exactly conjuring feminist warm fuzzies. As The Daily Show darkly joked on Twitter, Haspel breaks the glass ceiling . . . over the head of a detainee. Yes, shattering that glass ceiling is about women, a group of people who have been discriminated against and harassed, achieving equality, but not by squashing other marginalized groups to get there. This is Trumps kind of progress: women in high placesfrom Kellyanne Conway to his daughter Ivankacarrying out a mans largely anti-woman policies and celebrating it as history. Its why Sarah Huckabee Sanders serving as Trumps mouthpiece and saying the women who accused the president of sexual harassment are liars isnt the shining example of successful working motherhood I can in good conscience look up to.

Women should ask themselves what new path is Haspel creating for them to rise. Can I tell my daughter, as she learns about Sally Ride and Rosa Parks this Womens History Month, that if she abandons her regard for others civil liberties, she too, can ascend to CIA director some day? Thats not progress; thats just perpetuating the same cycle that keeps women down in the first place. Some agree with former CIA director John Brennan, who said this week that Haspel has a lot of integrity. She has tried to carry out her duties at CIA to the best of her ability, even when the CIA was asked to do some very difficult things in very challenging times. This would imply that Haspel knew better than what her ugly record shows. But blindly taking orders even if you believed they were wrongdangerously, and even criminally, wrongas opposed to standing up and fighting for what you believe is right? That doesnt sound like a trailblazer to me.Stockholm (AFP) - North Korea's top diplomat arrived Thursday in Sweden for talks which could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho arrived at Stockholm's Arlanda airport around 6:15 pm (1715 GMT) before being whisked away in a diplomatic motorcade.

The Scandinavian country has longstanding ties with North Korea. Its diplomatic mission in Pyongyang was the first Western embassy established in the country, in 1975.

Sweden's embassy represents US, Canadian and Australian diplomatic interests in North Korea, with the country playing a key role in liaising diplomatic talks.

During his two-day visit, Ri was to hold talks with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a possible Trump-Kim summit, and the fate of three Americans detained in the North.

International media have speculated that Sweden could be a potential location if a summit were to be confirmed.

Sweden's foreign ministry would not comment on that possibility, saying in a statement only that the talks would "focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia."

"They will also address the security situation on the Korean peninsula, which is high on the (UN) Security Council agenda," it said. Sweden is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

"The aim of the visit is to contribute to the effective implementation of the resolutions" voted by the Security Council against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme, as well as those calling "for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict".

- Historic summit? -

Ri was travelling with Choe Kang Il, deputy director general of the foreign ministry's North America section, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"We can't rule out the possibility of a contact between the North and the US" during Ri's trip to Sweden, a Beijing source told the news agency.

Story continues

The Swedish foreign ministry said there would not be any press conferences during Ri's visit but that it would publish a statement on Friday evening after the conclusion of talks.

After months of tension and warmongering over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, Trump has agreed to a summit proposal relayed by South Korean envoys who met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

But no specific time or venue has been set and North Korea has yet to confirm it even made the offer to meet.

- 'Cannot be naive' -

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said the rumours that Sweden could possibly host a summit were premature.

"I think it's much too early to speculate about that ... we're not there yet," Lofven told news agency TT.

However, he added: "If the main actors want Sweden to play a role -- facilitate, be a forum or a link or whatever it may be -- then we are ready to do that," he said, referring to North and South Korea, the US, Japan and China.

"This is such an incredibly important issue. We are a country that is militarily non-aligned and have a longstanding presence in North Korea, and with the trust we enjoy we think we can play a role," he said.

"But it has to be the main actors who decide which role Sweden will play."

"We cannot be naive and think that Sweden is going to resolve these problems," he said.

Jerker Hellstrom, Asia specialist at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) under the defence ministry, said Sweden has "an important role in the Korean peninsula, both as a protecting power and its contribution to the supervision of the (Korean War) armistice agreement."

However, North Korea watchers should not be overly optimistic about the current tone.

"The pause in escalation that we see right now is temporary," he said, noting that Pyongyang will eventually "need to prove its capabilities in the nuclear sphere."

Earlier this month, Trump thanked Lofven for Stockholm's efforts to negotiate the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested for stealing propaganda material during a 2016 trip to Pyongyang, but who died after returning home.

According to a source close to the Stockholm-Pyongyang talks, the fate of three Americans detained in North Korea is expected to be on the agenda.

"We know these consular cases are of great concern to the Americans, and when there are now gestures being made from both sides to defuse tensions, this is something North Korea can consider from its side," the unnamed source told Sweden's newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

UPDATE: 6:09 p.m. EST  Northwestern University said in an update on Twitter that a report of shots fired at the school Wednesday was a hoax. Authorities had been dispatched to the campus to investigate the scene.

ALL CLEAR, Northwestern said. Police have determined that the report of a man with a gun in Engelhart Hall was a hoax. It was made in a call to the Evanston Police Department. No danger to the community exists. Police are investigating the false report.

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UPDATE: 5:34 p.m. EST  Despite reports of a shots fired at Northwestern University Wednesday, authorities said they found no evidence of a victim, scene or gunman, the Chicago Tribune reported.

It remained unclear whether the call regarding shots fired was a hoax.

That could be a possibility that we are also investigating, said Evanston Police Cmdr. Ryan Glew, according to the Tribune. Were still treating this as an active investigation.

People nearby were still urged to remain sheltered in place while police investigated the situation.

Original story:

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Northwestern University was on lockdown after reports of a gunman and shots fired Wednesday afternoonthe day thousands of students around the country walked out of schools to protest gun violence and call on Congress to pass stricter firearms regulations.

The shooting was first reported at about 2:20 p.m. local time, according to the University.

"NU EMERGENCY: Person with gun on Evanston campus. If on campus, seek shelter in safe place and stay until further notice. Others keep away, the college tweeted at 2:39 p.m.

Evanston and [Northwestern University Police Department] in the area of Emerson and Maple. Report of gunman and shots fired in a residential building. Area checked no evidence of a victim, scene, or gunman found, the Evanston Police Department tweeted.

Story continues

The university issued an emergency bulletin alerting students that the incident is not a drill.

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This is not a drill. A person with a gun has been reported on the Evanston campus. If you are on the Evanston Campus, seek shelter in a safe place and remain there until further notice. If you are not on the Evanston campus, stay away. Repeat: This is not a drill."

Police were responding to the campuss Engelhart Hall, according to the college.

Deborah Copaken, an author and columnist, tweeted a screenshot of a heart-wrenching text exchange with her daughter Sasha, a student there.

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Person with a gun on campus I love you I think everythings fine theres a lockdown drill I love you, Sasha texted her around 2:43 p.m.

My heart is pounding, Sasha said.

Asked where she was, Sasha said, In a classroom lights are off sitting on the floor.

Police on scene but had not confirmed the reports as of 3:22 p.m.

Evanston is located just north of Chicago.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Ahmad Ghaddar and Dmitry Zhdannikov

LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer of crude, is hitting a roadblock in the next phase of expanding its oil production capacity as the appetite of international energy firms for investing in the country's low-return environment slackens.

Having slashed production targets in 2013 and 2014, most international oil firms in Iraq are revising their oilfields' plateau production levels even lower, and the discussions involved are moving slowly, Iraqi and company sources say.

Growth has been the hallmark of Iraq's oil production in the past decade with a rise of over 2.5 million barrels per day to a peak of 4.71 million bpd in late 2016, Reuters assessments show. (PRODN-IQ)

Iraq owes much of that growth to the likes of BP (BP.L), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Lukoil, Eni (ENI.MI), Total (TOTF.PA) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), which oversaw the redevelopment of its oilfields after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. (Progress to Plateau Production Levels in Iraq: http://reut.rs/2DoUA9r)

But those companies have long complained that the technical service contracts Baghdad offers are too stringent and give little return on investment.

Most companies in the past five years negotiated their production plateaus lower, forcing Iraq to reduce its capacity expansion plan from 12 million bpd to 9 million bpd by 2018.

Now this new target is far from attainable, and Iraq aims to raise capacity to 7 million bpd by 2022.

All companies except Petronas and Total are suggesting their plateaus be lowered, Abdul Mahdi al-Ameedi, head of the Iraqi oil ministry's licensing and contracts office, told Reuters.

On the sidelines of a conference in Berlin last month, al-Ameedi told reporters: "In principle we accept that we reduce the plateau level for certain fields to lower production rates, but this is all under discussion."

Total, with partner PetroChina, has committed to phase three of the expansion of the 4.1-billion-barrels Halfaya oilfield, which will double production there to 400,000 bpd in 2019.

Story continues

Petronas is on track to attain production of 230,000 bpd at its Garraf oilfield.(Iraq monthly crude oil production: http://reut.rs/2DoaGAe)

"What you're seeing now is a second wave of renegotiations in light of the oil price and the fact that budgets are down considerably compared to five years ago," Ian Thom, principal analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said.

"There are alternatives in tight oil and deepwater from many of the Iraq players that are more favourable," Thom said.

Only Lukoil has so far reached a preliminary agreement with the oil ministry on a lower plateau target, bringing the goal for its West Qurna 2 oilfield down to 800,000 bpd from 1.2 million bpd, al-Ameedi said.

But the two sides have not yet finalised talks as discussions continue on when Lukoil can hit the new target, he said.

"We are in discussions but nothing has been approved yet," al-Ameedi said.

Iraq wants the plateau to be hit earlier than Lukoil does, al-Ameedi said, but he declined to specify which timeframes were being discussed.

Lukoil declined to comment.

Delays in such negotiations are a headache for any oil company that needs to plan its annual budget based on how many oilfields it wants to drill and what new facilities it needs to bring extra production on stream.

The impact of negotiation delays is being felt disproportionately, with companies that have production levels farthest from the previously agreed plateau feeling the most heat, a source at one of those firms told Reuters.

LIMITED GROWTH ON ITS WAY

Iraq's oil capacity is near 5 million bpd and it can easily increase that by a further 10 percent in the next year or two, even without a new agreement on plateaus, analysts and industry sources say.

"If you bring the few fields where there is activity under way ... and if the Kirkuk and Bai Hassan fields return ... you could see production capacity from existing investments getting close to 5.5 million bpd in the next year or two," Thom said.

But beyond those investments at oilfields such as Rumaila, West Qurna 1, Halfaya and Zubair, "you would certainly expect a flat-lining of Iraq's oil production with the element of natural decline kicking in", Thom said.

Oilfield Companies Plateau New plateau

(million

bpd)

Rumaila BP, CNPC 2.1 (from

2.85)

Majnoon Shell*, Never

Petronas agreed new

plateau

(from 1.8)

West Qurna 1 ExxonMobil, 1.6 (from

PetroChina, 2.825)

Pertamina

Itochu**

West Qurna 2 Lukoil 1.2 (from 0.8***

1.8)

Zubair Eni, KOGAS 0.85 (from

1.2)

Halfaya CNPC, 0.4 (from 0.4

Total, 0.535)

Petronas

Maysan Oil CNOOC, TPAO 0.45

Garraf Petronas, 0.23 0.23

Japex

* Shell exiting project and will hand its share https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-oil-shell/shell-to-hand-over-iraqs-majnoon-oilfield-by-end-june-2018-iraqi-oil-officials-idUSKBN1D817D to Basra Oil Co by end of June

** Shell selling 20 percent stake https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-energy-shell/shell-agrees-to-sell-its-stake-in-iraqs-west-qurna-1-oilfield-to-japans-itochu-idUSKBN1F41TO to Itochu

*** Deal on plateau reduction not finalised yet

(Additional reporting by Olesya Astakhova in Moscow; Editing by Dale Hudson)(Reuters) - Oklahoma plans to start using nitrogen gas for executions, officials said on Wednesday, in what would be the first such method of capital punishment in the United States.

The state is turning to nitrogen after it and other states became unable to acquire drugs required for lethal injections because of opposition from manufacturers to their products being used for capital punishment.

Nitrogen is an odorless and tasteless gas that makes up about 78 percent of the air humans breathe but causes death when inhaled without any oxygen.

Oklahoma has not carried out an execution since 2015 after a series of mishaps, including a botched lethal injection where an inmate was seen writhing in pain and another inmate who was executed using a drug not approved by the state.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement that the state would use nitrogen hypoxia  asphyxiation by breathing in the inert gas  as its primary means of execution once a protocol had been finalized for the process.

Using an inert gas will be effective, simple to administer, easy to obtain and requires no complex medical procedures, Hunter said in the statement.

Under state law, if lethal injection is unavailable, executions must be carried out by nitrogen gas inhalation, the statement added.

A spokeswoman for Hunter declined to comment on when executions might resume.

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a capital punishment monitor, said it would be some time before the state could seek a death warrant for an execution using nitrogen.

He said it faced a court order requiring it to wait 150 days until after a use protocol was published and would likely face litigation.

Dunham was not aware nitrogen hypoxia had ever been used anywhere in the world to execute a person. He said the American Veterinary Medical Association deemed the process inappropriate for euthanizing mammals and said it would take more than seven minutes to bring about the death of a 70-pound (32-kg) pig.

Story continues

This is another execution process that is untested, untried and experimental Dunham said.

Hunters statement cited unnamed studies that said nitrogen hypoxia would lead to death in just a few minutes.

Dale Baich, one of the attorneys for the 20 Oklahoma death row inmates challenging the states method of execution, said the state needed to show what scientific research it had to prove the safety and legality of this new process.

Without complete transparency, we have no assurance that executions wont continue to be problematic, Baich said in a statement.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter Cooney)Oklahoma has announced plans to use nitrogen gas to execute death-row prisoners, as states struggle to find alternatives to their dwindling supplies of lethal injection drugs.

The Midwestern state would be the first in the US to use the procedure, for which protocol has yet to be established. The decision came after a number of drug manufacturers barred their products from being used in lethal injections, leaving states with a shortage of options.

Nitrogen is an odourless and tasteless gas which makes up around 78 per cent of the air humans breathe  but it causes death when inhaled without any oxygen.

Announcing the plan on Wednesday, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter called the nitrogen gas procedure effective, simple to administer, and easy to obtain.

Executions are the most profound application of state power, he said. I believe in justice for victims and their families, and in capital punishment as appropriate for dealing with those whose commit these crimes.

Oklahoma adopted the procedure as a backup method in 2015, but has not used it  or developed a protocol for using it  in the years since.

Mr Hunter said implementation could take three to four months, on top of a 150-day waiting period for federal review, according to local news station KWTV.

Others were not as optimistic about the development.

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, a capital punishment monitor, said it would be some time before the state could seek a death warrant for an execution using nitrogen.

He said it faced a court order requiring it to wait 150 days until after a use protocol was published and would probably face litigation.

Mr Dunham was not aware nitrogen hypoxia had ever been used anywhere in the world to execute a person.

He said the American Veterinary Medical Association deemed the process inappropriate for euthanising mammals and said it would take more than seven minutes to bring about the death of a 70-pound pig.

Story continues

This is another execution process that is untested, untried and experimental, Mr Dunham said.

Dale Baich, one of the lawyers challenging the states current execution procedure, also doubted that the new protocol would be an improvement.

This method has never been used before and is experimental, Mr Baich told The Washington Post. Oklahoma is once again asking us to trust it as officials learn on the job, through a new execution procedure and method.

He added: How can we trust Oklahoma to get this right when the states recent history reveals a culture of carelessness and mistakes in executions?

Oklahoma suspended executions in 2015, after officials made a number of high-profile errors. In 2014, a problem with an IV left one inmate writhing on the bed for 20 minutes before his execution was called off. The next year, officials were discovered to have used the wrong drug in a different execution.

Now, the state is one of many experimenting with alternative execution methods as their supply of lethal injection drugs dissipates. In recent years, Florida has adopted new lethal injection drugs, Tennessee has gone back to using the electric chair and Utah has reintroduced the firing squad.

In a statement on Oklahomas new procedure, the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter said: The question Oklahomans must ask is not whether they support the death penalty, but rather, do they trust this government with the power to kill its citizens.The Hague (AFP) - Leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the US on Thursday published a joint statement condemning the poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter earlier this month.

The four Western powers are demanding that Russia make a "full and complete" disclosure of its Novichok programme at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.

Herewith five questions about the OPCW and Russia's Novichok programme:

- What can the OPCW do? -

The most important aspect is for Britain to provide evidence that a chemical weapon has been used by providing samples to be tested, says Alastair Hay, retired professor of environmental toxicology at Leeds University.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the BBC that Britain is sending a sample of the nerve agent to the watchdog for examination.

London may now even ask the world's chemical watchdog to actively probe Russia, its right under the OPCW's Chemical Warfare Convention's challenge procedures.

Under the CWC, states also retain the right to act bilaterally, which is now the case with Britain expelling 23 diplomats and suspending high-level contacts with Moscow.

- Why wasn't Novichok probed? -

Based in The Hague, the OPCW can only investigate chemical weapons that are declared by the organisation's 192 member states.

The OPCW marked the final destruction of Russia's declared chemical weapons stockpile in October last year.

Russia did not declare Novichoks and has denied that they even exist, says chemical weapons expert Mark Bishop at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Dissident Soviet scientist Vil Mirzanayov, exiled in the United States, gained notoriety in the 1990s for his claims that Moscow was secretly developing Novichok and maintained tens of tonnes of the binary nerve agent in its undeclared chemical stockpile.

- How effective is the OPCW then? -

The OPCW "has been very effective in creating a world free of chemical weapons" says Sico van der Meer, researcher at The Hague's Clingendael Institute.

Story continues

More than 95 percent of the world's declared chemical stockpiles have now been destroyed and the OPCW in 2013 won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to rid the world of chemical arms.

The organisations' inspectors have been highly effective, but the system is not completely watertight, the experts say.

"If somebody wants to do harm, then there is always a way to do harm," said Van der Meer.

- What does the CWC say? -

It is the responsibility of the signatory to the Chemical Warfare Convention to declare its chemical weapons, including what they are, the quantities and the location and storage and production facilities.

The OPCW has the right to inspect facilities, but cannot do a house-to-house search.

Thus a certain level of trust is involved.

- Has Russia contravened the CWC? -

The CWC requires that member countries declare all of their chemical weapons. Russia on Thursday repeated its consistent denial that Novichok ever existed.

Britain's ambassador to the OPCW, Peter Wilson, on Tuesday accused Moscow of failing "for many years" to fully declare its chemical weapons stockpile. Chemical weapons expert Bishop said Moscow has claimed that its understanding of the pact was that it had to declare only chemicals that were destined for use in chemical weapons and not research chemicals.

"There are many toxic chemicals that chemists have produced that could be used as weapons, but have actually been produced for other purposes," he said.

"The Russians can say that they were doing research on Novichok-like chemicals to be used in pesticides" for instance, Bishop said.Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) says Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke privately told her that he knows it doesn't make financial sense to drill off the state's coast, despite the administration's plans to expand nearly all offshore waters to drilling. (Photo: Tom Williams via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke infuriated governors of coastal states in January when he unveiled sweeping plans to begin drilling for oil and gas off their shores.

But Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) says Zinke privately told her a couple of weeks ago that he knows drilling along the Pacific Northwest coastline is a bad investment.

I did meet with him, Brown told HuffPost in a Thursday sit-down. He told me that the return on investment is not very lucrative for offshore drilling, off of Oregon and Washington coasts. The return on investment is not good. We know that.

The governor said she told Zinke that drilling off Oregons coastline also isnt worth the risk because it falls along the Cascadia subduction zone fault line, and that activity there could increase the risk of an earthquake.

Thats whats different about the western coast, she said.

Its a sign of hope for Oregon, which, like many other coastal states, desperately wants an exemption from the Trump administrations drilling plans, which include opening up federal waters to drilling off of California for the first time in decades and expanding oil and gas exploration all along the East Coast.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) has warned of the unrecoverable damage this could do to the states $3 billion beach tourism industry. California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has said the reckless proposal contradicts the states efforts to wean itself off fossil fuels. Republican Govs. Charlie Baker (Mass.), Chris Sununu (N.H.) and Larry Hogan (Md.) are also strongly opposed, and Hogan even directed his attorney general to look into every possible legal option to block the administrations efforts.

Asked if Zinke is leaning toward an exemption for Oregon or Washington, Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift emailed HuffPost a detailed statement about the process for giving public comments on the proposed drilling plan.

Creating a Five Year Program is a very open and public process, and Secretary Zinke looks forward to meeting with more Governors and other coastal representatives who want to discuss the draft program, Swift said. Aside from those important meetings, there is continued outreach by the Department. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has planned 23 public meetings, in our coastal states, to secure feedback directly from citizens, to ensure all viewpoints are taken into consideration as the Department moves forward. Those unable to attend the public meetings are invited to submit their comments to www.regulations.gov.

Story continues

Asked to clarify what that has to do with Oregon or Washington getting an exemption, Swift replied, The statement sufficiently covers your request.

Brown doesn't want President Donald Trump to do any drilling off her state's coast: "Our beaches are sacred. (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It wouldnt be unprecedented if Zinke did offer an exemption. A week after announcing the administrations drilling plans, he arbitrarily exempted Florida. The move left other coastal governors even more outraged, particularly because it appeared to be entirely political: President Donald Trump wants Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to run for Senate against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. By exempting Florida from expanded drilling, which is very unpopular in the state and something that Scott opposes, Trump made his potential race a lot easier.

So Florida gets the exemption because of, I dont know what, political cronyism? Because they want to protect Mar-A-Lago? Are you kidding me? Brown said. Thats just not OK.

Zinke has previously defended his decision to exempt Florida by saying its coastal currents are different from those in other states.

The Interior Department is currently holding hearings around the country to take public comments on its drilling plans. Brown said people in her state need to keep speaking out against expanded drilling because, despite Zinkes comments to her being a good sign, nothing has changed from a policy standpoint.

We still havent been exempted, she said. Im not giving up until Oregon is off the hook. Our beaches are sacred.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The parents of a 12-year-old Mississippi boy say he killed himself last week after being subjected to intense bullying.

Andrew Leach of Southaven, Mississippi, was found dead at his familys home March 6. Leachs parents believe the sixth-grader had been struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, and killed himself after being bullied by fellow students at Southaven Middle School.

He finally came out with the information at school that he thought he may be bisexual, Matt Leach told WREG. I think that really amped up the bullying.

Leach said Southaven Middle School students had threatened his son with physical violence. Kids were telling him, Were gonna put hands on you. Youre not going to make it out of this bathroom. Things of that nature, he said.

Andrew Leachs mother, Cheryl Hudson, said she had spoken to school administrators about the bullying her son was experiencing, but that she didnt know how to handle it.

From what we are hearing, there was a group of kids that would go around calling him fat, ugly and worthless, Hudson told WREG. In a separate interview with Local Memphis, she added, These kids are awful. Theyre mean. Theyre cruel.

DeSoto County Schools, Leachs district, released a statement in response to the students death:

All bullying reports are treated with the utmost importance. Students and parents are encouraged to contact school officials anytime there are bullying concerns, and they can use a link on the DeSoto County Schools website if they would prefer to report bullying incidents anonymously. All claims are investigated thoroughly, and school counselors are trained to help students and intervene when they are aware of a situation. Our hearts go out to this young students friends and family.

If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HELLO to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Emergency response teams are searching for victims buried in the rubble after a pedestrian bridge near Florida International University (FIU) in Miami collapsed, killing at least four people.

Footage from the chaotic scene showed cars crushed underneath the 950-ton bridge, as first responders dug through the wreckage for survivors. Eight vehicles were trapped when the bridge  still under construction  collapsed on top of them, according to Florida Highway Patrol officials.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Dave Downey said four people had been killed and nine had been taken to the hospital. Kendall Regional Medical Centre told NBC they were treating 10 victims of the collapse: Two in critical condition and eight with minor injuries ranging from bruises to broken bones.

It was also unclear what had triggered the collapse of the bridge, which had only been erected on Saturday and was set to open in 2019.

Cique Philips, a student transferring to the school, was on the fourth floor of a nearby parking garage when the collapse happened.

The sound was thundering," he told The Independent. "Like an extremely loud boom.

Emergency response teams brought in dogs to help sniff out survivors, and asked television helicopters to keep clear of the area so they could hear cries for help.

"We're working our way into the pile trying to create holes that we can actually physically see," Miami-Dade Fire Department Division Chief Paul Estopian told reporters.

The university said in a statement that it was "shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding on campus".

"At this time we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information," the statement said. "We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene."

More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene, according to Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez. The police department will take over the homicide investigation after the search and rescue mission concludes.

Story continues

Florida Governor Rick Scott tweeted that he had spoken with Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez about the collapse, and would be in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson told Fox News he had heard that anywhere from six to 10 people had died. Marco Rubio, a second Senator from Florida, called the news "terrible" and said he would pray for the victims

President Donald Trump was also briefed on the situation, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

"Continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU - so tragic," the president tweeted that evening. "Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected."

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would send a team of 15 people to investigate the collapse.

The bridge crossed Southwest 8th Street near 109th Avenue, and was in high demand from students living the neighbouring suburban city of Sweetwater. It was intended to give Sweetwater residents safe passage over the busy street separating them from campus.

The bridge was constructed using innovative new technology, which was thought to lower the risk to workers and pedestrians. The entire 174-ft walkway was installed in one fell swoop on Saturday, when a special crane picked it up, moved it, and lowered it into place. A number of community members came out to watch the installation.

The entire project cost approximately $14.2m, according to a fact sheet on FIU's website, and was funded by a grant from the US Department of Transportation.

Additional reporting by Clark MindockBratislava (AFP) - Slovak Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who on Thursday was tasked with forming a new government following the resignation of his predecessor Robert Fico, has been dubbed by women's magazines as the country's "sexiest politician".

The 42-year-old bachelor and social-media savvy economist is known for his open-mindedness and willingness to compromise.

But while he is seen as competent, critics complain that his success in a string of posts held so far has been only middling at best.

"He will certainly be a milder, less offensive, and less arrogant prime minister than Robert Fico was," Bratislava-based political analyst Pavol Babos told AFP.

Fico offered his resignation on Wednesday in face of a public backlash over the murder of an investigative journalist.

President Andrej Kiska accepted the decision on Thursday, tipping Pellegrini as Fico's successor.

Described by Fico as a "good friend", "Pelle", as he is nicknamed, has long been perceived as "crown prince" within the Smer-SD party, where he has been deputy leader since 2014.

Slovak-born, but with Italian roots, he has held a number of different positions over the years, from speaker of parliament, education minister, state secretary for finance, deputy prime minister for investments to, most recently, acting culture minister.

But he has yet to prove himself as a real man of action, critics say.

"He had no scandals and no major results in these positions," Babos said.

A close associate who wished to remain anonymous told AFP that Pellegrini is "understanding, friendly and acts as if he were progressive. But when it comes to real action, that's where the story ends."

He told a reporter that he was "deeply affected" by last month's murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, who had been probing alleged high-level political corruption.

The killing and Kuciak's posthumous investigative report sparked a wave of anti-government sentiment and plunged the country into political crisis.

Story continues

- Pilot-in-training -

Pellegrini was born on October 6, 1975 in the central city of Banska Bystrica to a car mechanic father and a teacher mother.

According to his mother, Pellegrini loved cars and music, danced in an ensemble and played the accordion.

He studied finance, banking and investment in his hometown and in the eastern city of Kosice, before working as an economist and later as an aide to a Smer-SD lawmaker.

Pellegrini became an MP for the party in 2006 at the age of 29.

Deputy premier since 2016, he notably helped convince Jaguar Land Rover to invest 1.4 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to build a plant in Slovakia -- due to open this year -- thereby beating out competition from neighbouring Poland.

Pellegrini speaks Russian, German and English in addition to his native Slovak.

And he is currently studying for his pilot's licence.

"There are three things I like: modern technology, art and movement," he said once and even hoverboarded to a government meeting one time.

Pellegrini is also very active on social media.

When he uploaded a photo of himself holding a Bengal tiger cub last year, one user commented: "Both beasts look good."(Photo: Win McNamee via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Early in their efforts to push through tax reform last year, Republicans insisted the legislation was key to maintaining GOP majorities in Congress. Tax cuts, they said, would be popular enough that Americans would vote to keep Republicans in power.

But Democrats shocking upset in Tuesdays special congressional election in Pennsylvania, in a district where Donald Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016, cast doubt on that argument and further served as a warning sign for the GOP ahead of November.

Public polling on the tax law has improved over the initial numbers. But it became evident a few weeks ago that Republican messaging on the law wasnt working the way the party hoped. Outside GOP groups, which had poured nearly $11 million into the race  much of it on advertising the tax law  suddenly shifted tactics. Instead of touting their signature legislative achievement, Republicans began airing scary-sounding ads about immigrants, and attacking Democrat Conor Lambs record as a prosecutor. One GOP ad accused Lamb of allowing gun runners to avoid jail time and walk free. Its a well-worn playbook, one that Republicans used to turn out their base last year in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey.

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It didnt work on Tuesday. Democratic enthusiasm proved too great, giving Lamb a lead of several hundred votes with all absentee ballots counted. Republican candidate Rick Saccone, meanwhile, is expected to petition for a recount in the coming days.

Republicans attempted to downplay the results of the race Wednesday by arguing that Saccone was a terrible candidate with regrettable facial hair, and that Lamb ran a unique race that cant be used to make predictions about other parts of the country. Some even argued that running on the GOP tax law is still the way to go for candidates this November.

We arent even in full momentum on tax reform, House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) told reporters Wednesday.

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Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), meanwhile, said the tax bill helped Saccone, and that recent stories about how the bill has fueled a surge in corporate stock buybacks rather than raises didnt hurt the Republican candidate.

Im quite confident that the tax bill is net favorably perceived in that district, Toomey said. People understand that theres a combination of increasing compensation for employees, returning money to shareholders, more investment by the business  all of those things happened as a result.

But not every Republican was so sanguine.

Theres no way to pretty this up, and Im not going to insult the American people. We got our butt kicked last night. We need to find out why, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) told HuffPost. The truth will set you free, but sometimes itll make you feel like hell first. We need to face facts.

Another possible cause for GOP concern is the potential psychological effect of Tuesdays election on other candidates and incumbents alike. If Republicans cant win in a district that Trump carried so handily, they may also not be able to win in districts where the margin was smaller. That realization could prompt further GOP retirements, opening seats like the one in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) doesnt buy this view. Theres a lot fewer open seats if you look at competitive open seats, he said Wednesday.

Cole, who served as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2006, argued that incumbents will have an easier time defending the GOP tax law.

Its tougher for a candidate like Rick Saccone to run on it, because he wasnt here to vote for it, he said. And its easier for a candidate like Conor Lamb to negate it, cause he wasnt here to vote against it.

Democrats plan to run against the GOP tax law in November, at least indirectly. Last week, they introduced a $1 trillion infrastructure plan meant to overhaul the nations roads, bridges and waterways, and proposed paying for it by rolling back some of the tax cuts for the wealthy.

The success of GOP messaging on the tax law and the economy in November may ultimately hinge on other factors, though.

The popularity of the bill has increased since passage, no doubt aided by voters seeing both increased take-home pay and stories of bonuses and increased benefits due to the bill, said Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Heye lamented the cacophony of Trump-created noise, adding that the president could help things tremendously by staying out his own way and letting, indeed helping, these stories break through.

Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.More than 200 students at Pennridge High School in Pennsylvania received detention after participating in Wednesday's national student walkout calling for an end to gun violence. Superintendent Dr. Jaqueline A. Rattigan announced the students would serve the detentions on Saturday.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Rattigan said that around 225 students, including some who were accompanied by their parents, walked out of school as a part of a national movement orchestrated by students. The students opted to participate in the national walkout instead of attending an in-school assembly to remember the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Screen Shot 2018-03-15 at 12

Courtesy of Anna Tinneny

Trending: Assassins Creed Origins 1.41 Update Fixes New & Old DLC - Patch Notes

According to The Morning Call, Pennridge had notified parents Tuesday that the high school would be holding the remembrance assembly, which included 17 minutes of silence as well as a power point presentation of the 17 victims killed by alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz.

The letter also warned parents that any students who left school for the walkout would be doing so without permission and would "receive the consequences which would normally apply in such circumstances. Rattigan said students who were accompanied by their parents would be allowed to leave and would not face punishment.

District public relations coordinator Joe Ferry told Newsweek that five students who walked out later went to Dunkin Donuts and will face additional detention.

Anna Sophie Tinneny, a 17-year-old senior at Pennridge, told Newsweek that students whose parents could not sign them out were given a Saturday morning detention. The school did not accept written notes or emails from parents, she said.

Don't miss: Kids and Guns: Here's How Easy It Is for Children to Get Their Hands on a Firearm

Story continues

Tinneny said that while her parents are not completely in agreement with the reasons for the walkout they are supportive. She said her mother went with her to the school board meeting in an attempt to convince the school board to allow students to walk out.

I felt that its my responsibility to show my school community and Congress that gun control is an issue that I care about and that Im willing to sacrifice for it, she told Newsweek. I also wanted to show support to the Parkland students who have publicized the walkout.

Pennridge Students Sign Up For Detention

Vinny Polignano courtesy of Anna Tinneny

She said students returning to the school building were met with "barricades" manned by police and administrators who had them sign up for detention before being allowed back into class. Ferry, however, told Newsweek the set up was in place to allow students to quickly return to class.

Most popular: Record-Breaking Nuclear Fusion Has Been Achieved on a Mini Scale Using Laser-Heated Nanowires

"There were still police in the building when students returned as they had been during the assembly to ensure safety of all students and staff," he added.

Tinneny called the detentions an inconvenience but said she knew it was the consequence of walking out.

Since the detention is going to be full dozens of students from the walkout, were planning on another show of support for the movement by wearing signs with the names of the victims on it, she said.

Tinneny told Newsweek that she and some friends who planned the Pennridge walkout are going to D.C. to take part in the March For Our Lives later this month.

In a statement, Rattigan said approximately 800 students attended the assemblies at the high school to honor the victims of the February 14 shooting.

It was a moving experience for those who participated, she said. About 225 students, including a few who were accompanied by their parents, chose to walk out of school to hold their own activity.

"Just to be clear, no student will be disciplined because they expressed any particular viewpoint or opinion," Rattigan added. "Rather, the disciplinary consequence will be given for willfully breaking a school rule about leaving the building without permission."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekRepublicans and Democrats are employing very different fundraising strategies ahead of the midterm elections, but the results of a special election in Pennsylvania show the GOP strategy may have some drawbacks.

As in other races, a higher amount of Democratic dollars went straight to candidate Conor Lamb, while more Republican money went to outside groups backing state Rep. Rick Saccone. Lambs official campaign committee outraised Saccones 3 to 1, according to Issue One, a non-partisan group that tracks spending in politics. But outside groups backing Saccone outspent outside groups backing Lamb 6 to 1.

But the outside money did not seem to work in Pennsylvania, where Lamb currently leads by around 700 votes in a district that went heavily for President Donald Trump less than two years ago. Although Lamb and the Democratic party has claimed victory, the Associated Press says the race is still close to call.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics, said outside spending is not a reliable indicator of how an election will go, because it doesnt necessarily translate into votes since the biggest donors often hail from outside the voting conclaves.

Outside groups can spend any money they want but the question is at the end of the day are voters still open to their messages or whether theyve already made up their minds, said Krumholz, The outside groups are not going to be ones the pulling the lever to cast a vote.

The fundraising and spending patterns of both parties in these races mimicked what seems to be happening on a broader stage across the country. Democratic dollars have primarily gone to the candidates coffers, while Republican money went to outside groups. Lamb out-raised Saccone by $3 million, FEC documents show. While he had raised nearly $3.9 million by February 21, Saccone had raised nearly $920,000. And Lamb had the advantage when it came to small donors. Over half of Lambs total individual contributions were unitemized, or less than $200, in comparison with 24 percent of Saccones. Lamb also declined to accept money from corporate Political Action Committees.

Story continues

But Republicans had investments from some of the partys biggest donors who had contributed to party committees and outside spending groups, and they went all in. Per FEC filings, conservative groups and committees, including the National Republican Congressional Committee, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican National Committee and America First Action Super PAC spent over $9 million in the election. Although the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee invested over $1 million in the race, that spending was dwarfed by the conservative groups. And this was all for a race in a district that wont even exist in November, since the State Supreme Court order that the map be redrawn.

Republicans financial advantage in this arena, contrasted with Democrats investment in individual candidates, is not surprising. As of last month, the RNC had $38.8 million in cash on hand, while the Democratic National Committee had $423,000, and was saddled with $6.1 million in debt. But in the final quarter of 2017, over 40 Democratic challengers out-raised more than 30 House incumbents, according to figures from the Federal Election Commission touted by the DCCC.

But experts say the results in PA-18 reveal how this spending strategy could preview a problem for the upcoming midterm elections this fall. Independent groups have to spend more money airing television ads, since FCC regulations give candidates the lowest rates to run an ad. And, as Krumholz noted, it is always more likely that the contributors powering the candidates, particularly in House races, are actual voters, than the big name donors financing these outside groups.

Theres no question that Republicans will always have more outside money than Democrats do, said Josh Schwerin, Communications Director at Priorities USA, an advocacy group which has a Super PAC arm that invests in Democratic candidate. It did not invest in Pennsylvanias election. If you look across the playing field, especially in the House, Democrats are outraising Republicans and sitting Congressmen .. what we saw in PA-18 and will be likely replicated across the country in a November is that every dollar a candidate spends goes further than a dollar the outside group spends.

A Republican operative with one of the outside groups had similar sentiments. Outside groups have strong value and are able to get candidates over the finish line, but were not able to subsidize these campaigns, said the operative. Absent critical spending, [outside groups] can only do so much.

It appears that GOP groups may be realizing the extent of this problem. Steve Law, President and CEO of the Senate Leadership Fund, told the Washington Post his Super Pac is amping up efforts to encourage donors to contribute directly to candidates. And Rep. Steve Stivers, chairman of the NRCC, urged his colleagues to up their campaigning games in a closed door meeting Wednesday.

This is a wake-up call, said Stivers. Bear down.

Philip Elliott contributed reporting.Republicans are struggling to explain what could be an embarrassing result in a Pennsylvania congressional race between Democrat Conor Lamb and the Donald Trump-backed Rick Saccone  in a district the President won by 20 points in 2016.

In a stunning show for Democrats, after absentee ballots were counted Mr Lamb is 627 votes ahead out of slightly more than 226,000. Military and an unknown number of provisional ballots are still being counted, but essentially 100 per cent of votes are in.

Mr Lamb, a first-time candidate and former prosecutor, was declared the apparent winner by NBC News and gave a sort of victory speech early on Wednesday morning, but an official announcement has not been made as yet. A recount or a legal challenge are possible.

It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it, Mr Lamb told cheering supporters. However, before his rival claimed victory Mr Saccone told his supporters: Its not over yet... Were going to fight all the way to the end.

Mr Saccone and Mr Lamb are competing for the seat vacated by Republican representative Tim Murphy, who resigned amid a personal scandal in October. The Pennsylvania 18th district as it is currently defined will not last past the midterms in 2018  the current map was recently struck down for being biased towards Republicans. But the race remains a powerful symbol of what could happen in the November midterms  with Republicans trying to hold onto majorities in both chambers of Congress, the House and the Senate.

Mr Saccone was blessed with the full force of the White House in the weeks before the election, making appearances with everyone from Vice President Mike Pence to President Trumps son, Donald Jr. That is indicative of the races importance, at least for momentum and moral.

House Speaker Paul Ryan attempted to explain the phenomenon by calling the special election a race between two conservatives, and painted Mr Lamb as pro-life, pro-gun, anti-Nancy Pelosi [House Minority Leader] conservative. Privately, though, Mr Ryan was far less optimistic and he is said to have warned colleagues that however slim Mr Lambs lead is, the election results should serve as a bit of a wake-up call for the party. Mr Ryan is pushing his party to fundraise and fight, even in reliably conservative districts for the November 2018 midterm elections.

Story continues

Whether Mr Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine captain from a political family, wins the seat or not, it is a blow to Mr Trump, who endorsed Mr Saccone, a former diplomat to North Korea. The President swept into Pennsylvania with one of his semi-regular Make America Great Again rallies on Saturday, looking to give Mr Saccone a boost. Mr Trump promised that if Mr Saccone was put into the House, he would vote for us all the time.

As for Mr Saccone, the 60-year-old university professor and air force veteran had clearly hitched his wagon to Mr Trumps star power, having previously claimed he was the regions Mr Trump before Trump was Trump.

I ran on that agenda in 2010. Its the same agenda  its the peoples agenda. The President just nationalised it, he said to a local Pittsburgh radio station, referring to his priorities of repealing and replacing Obamacare, reducing government spending, increased support for the military, and protecting the Second Amendment.

Mr Saccone has won over many of the more rural counties that border West Virginia, but Mr Lamb won the more populated and suburban Allegany county, which was enough to give him the smallest of leads. The district, encompassing suburban and rural areas around Pittsburgh in four counties, has been so reliably Republican in recent elections that Democrats have sometimes failed to even field a candidate in past years.

The election, even if not a win for the Democrats, is an embarrassment to Mr Trump, having previously backed defeated Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. The President wholeheartedly endorsed the 71-year-old Mr Moore during that special election last year, even after several women came forward to detail alleged sexual misconduct and harassment by the former district attorney when he was in his thirties and they were teenagers. Mr Moore denied all the allegations made against him.

The scandal ultimately brought out voters to place Doug Jones in the seat that had not seen a Democrat in more than 25 years.

Steel is back, Mr Trump had repeatedly claimed at his weekend rally, an important slogan for the region once dominated by steelworkers. He touted it to show voters in the district that his administrations 25 per cent tariff on imported steel would be a way to help them, despite the near-universal criticism of the policy from Republicans and world leaders alike. Again, Mr Trump was found making the end of the campaign more about him than the man he was there to support.

However, the Presidents claims are not indicative of the regions employment and incoming companies, many of which are more focused on green energy and technology thanks, in part, to the influence of the nearest large city, Pittsburgh.

As with Alabama, this special election garnered millions of dollars in outside contributions and support.

Conservative groups spent upwards of $10m, according to the New York Times. In a sign of growing Democrat confidence, former Vice President Joe Biden, originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, came out to support Mr Lamb as the contest neared its end.Lima (AFP) - Peru's Congress will vote next week on whether to impeach President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski over alleged bribe-taking from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, it decided Thursday.

The 89-year-old former Wall Street banker will be invited to make his case before the opposition-dominated Congress, assisted by a lawyer. The Congress agreed by 87 votes to 15 to hold an impeachment debate and vote on March 22.

A source in the legislature said the vote would be held "next Thursday."

"I have nothing to hide and I am willing to declare with total transparency before the corresponding instances," Kuczynski said in a tweet on Thursday.

The threat of Kuczynksi's dismissal has caused uncertainty in Peru the month before it hosts the Summit of the Americas, which brings together leaders from the Western Hemisphere, including US President Donald Trump.

In December, Kuczynski survived an impeachment motion in Congress over the same Odebrecht-related matter.

A week later he was questioned for four hours in his office by anti-corruption prosecutors over his links to Odebrecht.

The former banker was accused of lying about his ties to the company.

He later admitted he had taken money from Odebrecht for what he and the company said were legitimate consulting fees.

Kuczynski was Peru's economy minister for part of the period during which the money was received, 2004-2013.

The opposition needed 51 votes to unleash the impeachment process, but got 87 votes, which is the number required to have the president impeached in next week's vote.

"They have obtained the exact number they need to dismiss him, a number that can go up or down, which suggests there's going to be an underground battle to the death between both sides," analyst Luis Benavente told AFP.

His removal by Congress would mean the elevation of First Vice President Martin Vizcarra, who also serves as ambassador to Canada.

Odebrecht has admitted spending millions to bribe government officials across Latin America to secure public works contracts.During the Friends of Ireland luncheon in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, President Donald Trump seemed to have weeds spilling out of his blazer. However POTUS  who has been criticized for his style in the past, such as for wearing tape on the back of his tie  was actually following the example of many presidents before him with this sartorial form of appreciation for the Irish.

President Donald Trump smiles during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Washington. (Photo: AP)

While there are plenty of presidential traditions for St. Patricks Day, such as inviting an Irish leader to the White House and exchanging bowls of shamrocks (Taoiseach Leo Varadkar got the honor this year), not all presidents stick to the same dress code for the holiday. Some have instead worn green ties or enamel shamrock lapel pins. Or, in President Barack Obamas case, he took things one step further by grabbing a Guinness. Ahead of St. Patricks Day on March 17, heres a look at how some of the presidents have styled themselves for the occasion.Miami (AFP) - 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.Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of killing 17 people in last months shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school.

Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz announced his decision in a court filing HuffPost obtained on Tuesday.

The decision came nearly a week after a grand jury indicted Cruz on 17 counts of first-degree premeditated murder and 17 counts of first-degree attempted murder for the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, appears in court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Feb. 19. (Photo: POOL New / Reuters)

Satz argued that the death penalty was warranted because Cruz knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons and committed a crime in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification, and because the crime was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, according to a copy of the filing.

Prosecutors decision to seek the death penalty does not necessarily mean that a plea deal is off the table, though the only other penalty available for Cruz is life in prison without the possibility of parole, The Associated Press reported.

Cruz has another formal arraignment scheduled for Wednesday, during which he is expected to be arraigned on an additional 17 counts of first-degree murder.

Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, had said that the teen would plead guilty if prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty.

Finkelsteins office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

CORRECTION: A photo caption in a previous version of this story indicated Cruz was 17. He is 19.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.To read of her glee during waterboarding is absolutely appalling

Senator will also seek to block Mike Pompeo as secretary of state

Senator Rand Paul: To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of the CIA?. I mean, how could you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA? Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Republican senator Rand Paul said on Wednesday he would oppose Donald Trumps nomination of Gina Haspel for director of the CIA, accusing her of having shown joyful glee during the torture of terrorism suspects.

Paul also announced that he would try to block the presidents nomination of the current CIA director, Mike Pompeo, to succeed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

The Kentucky senators stance could be especially awkward for Haspel, who is under scrutiny for reportedly overseeing a secret CIA prison in Thailand where detainees endured so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of the CIA? Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill. I mean, how could you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA? To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling.

Paul highlighted a ProPublica article from last year about a book written by one of the interrogators at the black site prison, recalling the waterboarding of the al-Qaida suspect Abu Zubaydah.

He said: The quote from one of the interrogators says that Gina Haspel said: Good job! I like the way youre drooling. It adds to the realism. I am almost buying it. You wouldnt think a grown man would do that.

Gina Haspel. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty Images

When you read that, sort of the joyful glee at someone whos being tortured, I find it just amazing that anyone would consider having this woman for head of the CIA. So my opposition to her is over her direct participation in interrogation and her gleeful enjoyment at the suffering of someone being tortured.

Haspels confirmation would send a terrible message to the world, Paul added. I dont want the message to be that if members of our armed services are captured that, since tortures OK with the Americans, its going to be fine to torture Americans when theyre captured, and I think that is the message that it sends.

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Paul claimed that Pompeo and Haspel both supported war in Iraq and currently want war in Iran, which he opposes. Im perplexed by the nomination of people who love the Iraq war so much that they would advocate for a war with Iran next. I think it goes against most of the things President Trump campaigned on.

Somebody thats advocating for regime change doesnt really sound like somebody youd want to have as your chief diplomat. Seriously, you think we can have discussions with other countries if were advocating for regime change? At least somebody needs to be advocating for diplomacy.

Paul pledged to do everything I can to block both nominees. He is the first Republican to come out against the two nominations, suddenly announced by Trump in a tweet on Tuesday. Last year, Paul was the only Republican to vote against Pompeo for CIA director. Pompeo was confirmed in that role with the support of two-thirds of the Senate early last year.

Republicans have a 51-49 majority in the Senate so it would take little dissent from Republicans to block a nomination. A successful effort against Haspel also depends on the solidarity of the Democrats, Paul noted.

The Republican senator John McCain, who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer and has not voted in months, said on Tuesday: The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history. Ms Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation program during the confirmation process.

I know the Senate will do its job in examining Ms Haspels record as well as her beliefs about torture and her approach to current law.

Human rights groups have also strongly condemned Haspels nomination.Stephen Hawking, pictured in 2016, has died at age 76. (Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

As the world mourns the death of famed physicist Stephen Hawking, many are calling out tributes that contain ableist language and what one disability rights blogger described as inspiration porn.

Among the social media posts honoring the A Brief History of Time author, who died March 13 at 76, are references to his use of a wheelchair and ALS diagnosis. Several tributes and obituaries have praised Hawking for overcoming his disease, while others claimed that death has freed him from his wheelchair.

But those comments perpetuate demeaning stereotypes, advocates and members of the public, including model and deaf activist Nyle DiMarco and actress and YA author Melinda Salisbury, argued.

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Shona Louise, an activist and disability rights, beauty, and lifestyle blogger, was among those tweeting her objection to how Hawkings disability has been portrayed. She explained to Yahoo Lifestyle why its important to be sensitive when addressing Hawkings health.

Since the death of Stephen Hawking was announced, tributes and tweets have poured in and similar themes keep coming up again and again, Louise said. Im seeing illustrations of him walking away from his wheelchair, countless tweets about how he overcame his disability during his lifetime, and just as many saying that he achieved what he did despite his disability. All of these are ableist responses.

Equally, I see people saying he was inspiring because he was disabled, an example of inspiration porn, she continued. Disabled people dont exist to inspire abled people. Be inspired by his incredible mind and work, be inspired by his humor and his activism, but dont say hes inspiring simply because hes disabled. Hawking achieved everything he did with his disability, not despite it. He never overcame his disability like some have suggested; he simply lived with it and worked with it, finding different ways to do things.

Ive also seen many people say that they dont see his disability, which isnt helpful either, Louise, who blogs about her experience with Marfan syndrome, added. When you erase someones disability, you are erasing their identity; you are erasing the discrimination they face. Stating that you dont see disability does not help to break down stigma like some people seem to think. Peoples ableist reactions to his death show just how deeply ingrained ableism is within society.

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Theres nothing wrong with celebrating Hawkings life and incredible work  but its possible to do that without fixating on his disability.

Stephen Hawking transcended the boundaries between being disabled or nondisabled, and that was the measure of him, Philip J. Connolly, policy and development manager for the advocacy group Disability Rights U.K., said to Yahoo Lifestyle.

He taught us all to identify with universal values. Now is not the time for labels but redefining what it is to be human: infinite wisdom, infinite curiosity, etc. in an infinite universe.

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Senator Rand Paul speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol: Win McNamee/Getty Images

A Republican senator has come out against Donald Trumps nominees for secretary of state and CIA director, throwing into question whether the president's picks will make it past their confirmation hearings.

Senator Rand Paul told reporters he would oppose the nomination of Mike Pompeo for secretary of state and Gina Haspel for CIA director, hinting he might go as far as to stage a filibuster during their hearings. Mr Paul took issue with the nominees support for the Iraq War, as well as their ties to enhanced interrogation techniques  techniques the senator and many others refer to as torture.

People complain sometimes about the filibuster; they complain about trying to obstruct. I think the debate over whether or not America is a country in favour of torture or not is an important one, Mr Paul said. Im going to do everything I can to block them.

Mr Pompeo and Ms Haspel must pass a simple majority vote in the Senate in order to be confirmed. Republicans currently hold a slim 51-49 majority in the upper chamber  meaning that if all Democrats vote no on the confirmations, the GOP will have little room for intra-party defection.

Mr Pauls vote is especially important, as he serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee is required to vote on Mr Pompeo's nomination before it moves to the full Senate.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr Paul accused Ms Haspel of being a direct participation in interrogation and finding gleeful enjoyment at the suffering of someone who was being tortured.

Ms Haspel, the current deputy director of the CIA, has previously been tied to controversial interrogation techniques. Among other things, the CIA veteran oversaw an American black site prison where detainees were waterboarded and subjected to other harsh questioning methods, according to a Senate report.

Mr Pompeo, meanwhile, has criticised the Obama administration for shutting down the black site prisons, and expressed support for so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

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A number of other politicians and activist groups have spoken out against the nominations, which were spurred by Mr Trumps decision to fire Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called Ms Haspel a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history and called on the CIA to declassify and release every aspect of her involvement with the interrogation programme.

Republican Senator John McCain has also signalled some opposition to Ms Haspel, saying she should divulge the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation programme. Mr McCain was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters he was not urging his fellow Democrats to oppose Mr Pompeos or Ms Haspels nominations at this point. Fourteen Democrats, including Mr Schumer, supported Mr Pompeos nomination to CIA director last year.

Mr Schumer said he was he was reserving judgment for Mr Pompeos confirmation hearing, slated for April.

"I'm not taking a position until we hear from him, but there are lots of outstanding questions," he said.Emeritus fellow at the University of Oxford and renowned atheist author Richard Dawkins claims that a combination of similar last names and naive news producers has confused him for Stephen Hawking.

Hawking, the theoretical physicist and cosmologist author, died Wednesday at the age of 76. But Dawkins, who is currently 76, took to Twitter on Wednesday to voice his concerns about young journalists and scientists confusing the names of the two famous English scientists. And while Dawkins is a longtime professor at the University of Oxford, Hawking was born in the English city.

"Many excellent young science graduates would give their all for a job in television. So where did a leading TV company find the 'Editorial Producer' who just invited to me 'to talk to us about the life and legacy of your colleague Richard Hawkins'?" Dawkins tweeted Wednesday.

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The very much alive evolutionary biologist and English ethologist also relayed a story in which Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, presented an award to Hawking but combined their names and referred to him as "Professor Hawkins."

Dawkins also claims that someone at a literary festival asked him why he wasn't in Hawking's iconic wheelchair. Professor Hawking was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease at the age of 22 and was only given a few years to live.

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"Now another TV producer wants me to talk about 'the death of Professor Hawkins.' I heard Prince Philip make the same mistake when presenting Professor Hawking with a big medal. Once, after a talk at a Lit Fest, the first question I got was 'Why arent you in your wheelchair?'" Dawkins posted to Twitter Wednesday.

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Hawking and Dawkins also became world-renowned authors, with Hawking's 1988 A Brief History of Time and Dawkins's 2006 The God Delusion setting the tone for modern conversations on cosmology and atheism, respectively.

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Several Twitter users responded with their own comedic responses to the confusion, using the moment to combine their book names and accomplishments.

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Screen Shot 2018-03-14 at 2

Screenshot: Twitter

The owner of the Amshold Group, a private holding company in the U.K., tweeted out his own condolences to "Stephen Hawkins" Wednesday.

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekLISBON (Reuters) - At least one foreign tourist was killed and another seriously injured by a rockslide that hit their beach camp just off continental Europe's westernmost point in Portugal as a result of a violent storm, authorities said on Thursday. The person killed was a 23-year-old Brazilian man. An 18-year-old German woman was rushed to hospital by helicopter with multiple fractures, police said. Three other tourists from the same group were being treated for shock. "The Maritime Authority has issued warnings in the last few days to avoid such areas because of the storms and rockslides ... These foreigners ... had the bad luck of having rocks falling right on their tent," said harbor police commander Rui Pereira da Terra. The group of five were camping out on the isolated Praia da Ursa beach, which lies beneath a 150-metre high cliff less than a mile north of Cape Roca, the western extremity of the Eurasian land mass on the Atlantic coast. The cape 40 km west of Lisbon, with its landmark lighthouse, is popular with tourists. Most of Portugal was hit by a low pressure storm dubbed Gisele on Wednesday and early on Thursday. (Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Catherine Evans)There are perks to being a royal besides living in a palace and dripping in jewels. There's a whole world of fashion  just ask her majesty. Queen Elizabeth II doesn't let a little rain stop her from fulfilling her duties. Instead, she takes the opportunity to make a style statement. The queen has custom umbrellas made to match her outfits. British fashion brand Fulton receives swatches of what her majesty plans to wear months in advance. The company then gets to work designing the trim and handle to match the exact color of her ensemble. Her royal highness loves a pop of color. She's worn mint green, baby blue, pink, yellow, and purple  to name a few. And every time, she has a matching umbrella to complete the look. Where does she keep these umbrellas? We're not sure, but something tells us there's a secret closet in Buckingham Palace that's a rainy day dream.Washington (AFP) - Russia is "complicit" in atrocities perpetrated by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because of its "deliberate" choice to violate terms of a ceasefire in besieged Eastern Ghouta, the Pentagon said Thursday, in comments hammered home separately by the US national security advisor.

Thousands of civilians poured out of Eastern Ghouta as the capture of a key town brought Syria's government even closer to retaking the devastated rebel enclave outside Damascus.

"The Russians made a deliberate choice not to restrain the Assad regime. Thus, the carnage in East Ghouta continues. Russia is morally complicit and responsible for Assad's atrocities," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told reporters.

"We urge Russia to compel the Assad regime to stop killing innocent Syrians and allow much needed aid to reach the people of East Ghouta and other remote areas. We support our diplomats in their efforts to resolve the conflict with the United Nations-backed Geneva process."

The 15 UN Security Council members -- including the United States -- unanimously adopted a resolution last month demanding a month-long ceasefire. But it has not been respected.

The Russia-backed Syrian army and allied militia began a fierce bombing campaign on February 18 on Eastern Ghouta -- the last opposition bastion near Damascus -- then launched a ground offensive a week later.

Russia, which was among those voting in favor of the UN text, indicated Thursday it would carry on backing Damascus in its military offensive.

"We will continue fighting terrorists, we will finish them off, we will help finish them off in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army is now conducting operations with our support," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The assault on Ghouta has left nearly 1,250 civilians dead, around a fifth of them children.

- 'Enabling atrocities' -

"Russia is either incompetent, committing illegal acts or both. Russia is propping up the Assad regime, not targeting Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists in Syria. Russia could stop the civilian casualties in Syria," said White.

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President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, HR McMaster, said separately that "all civilized nations must hold Iran and Russia accountable for their role in enabling atrocities and perpetuating human suffering in Syria."

Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, McMaster said all nations must respond "more forcibly than simply issuing strong statements.

"It is time to impose serious political and economic consequences on Moscow and Tehran," he said without giving more detail, as Washington faces criticism for not following up its words with action.

Along with Moscow, Tehran is the Syrian regime's other major ally.

"Assad should not have impunity for his crimes and neither should his sponsors," McMaster said, adding that Moscow "has done nothing" to encourage Assad to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid, or to respect ceasefire and de-escalation agreements.

On Monday Washington's United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council the US "remains prepared to act if we must."

She recalled -- as did McMaster on Thursday -- that Trump had ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base in April last year in retaliation for a sarin gas attack blamed on Assad's forces.The governments of the United States, Britain, France and Germany released a blistering joint statement condemning Russia on Thursday, hours after the Kremlin said it plans to expel British diplomats.

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, the statement said. It is an assault on UK 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.

Russias move appeared to be in retaliation against the U.K., which had announced a day earlier that it would boot Russian diplomats amid the investigation into the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

I would like to inform you that several diplomatic notes have been sent to the Foreign Office via the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik on Thursday. They sought to launch an active dialogue with officials in London  Weve received meaningless formal replies.

Zakharova accused the U.K. of a yearslong anti-Russian campaign to push Russian diplomats out of the country.

Both countries accuse the other of failing to cooperate in the poisoning investigation.

A day earlier, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats from the U.K. since the Cold War. She said all signs in the poisoning point to Russia, but the Russians rebuffed her demand for an explanation with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.

Skripal and his daughter, who were found poisoned on a bench in England earlier this month, remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition. The nerve agent used in the attack, novichok, was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

This article has been updated to include more details from the statement.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.A Republican congressman has condemned his fellow party members on the House Intelligence Committee after they said a draft report of their probe of Russias election interference disagrees with key American intelligence agencies on important aspects of Moscows campaign.

On Monday the top Republican working on the probe, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, said that the investigation is wrapping up after a year of looking at whether the Trump campaign aided Russia in their efforts to meddle in the election.

In a one-page overview of the committees findings, Republicans wrote that while they agreed with the January 2017 intelligence report by the CIA, FBI, and NSA that found Russia worked to interfere in the election, they disagreed with its conclusions with respect to [Russian President Vladimir] Putins supposed preference for candidate Trump.

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03_13_Intel

Leah Millis/Reuters

The committees findings follow special counsel Robert Muellers indictment of 13 Russians last month on charges of election fraud for conducting a years-long campaign of information warfare against the U.S. That campaign ultimately saw them supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton.

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Rep. Bill Keating, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee, slammed the Republican report Monday. Partisanship has trumped patriotism, he wrote on Twitter of its findings. It's outrageous that my Republican colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee stand completely at odds with our nation's top intelligence agencies who concluded Russia attacked our election system to help Donald Trump.

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The committees top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, called the end of the committees probe a tragic milestone for this Congress. Republicans on the committee, Schiff said, were afraid to compel witnesses to answer tough questions and subpoena documents, including phone records, text messages, bank records and other documents.

We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings, Conaway told reporters of the Trump campaigns interactions with Russians. But he dismissed those who see any connection in these inadvertent contacts as someone who has read too many spy novels.

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, President Donald Trump tweeted after the announcement the House committee is ending its probe. The president has long maintained the investigations are a partisan hoax and witch hunt started by Democrats to hurt him politically.

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The Intelligence Community stands by its January 2017 assessment, wrote the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a message to CNNs Jim Sciutto, noting it will review the committees findings.

The new Republican led-report is expected to show links between Russians and the Trump and Clinton campaigns, according to the draft overview. The report will be reviewed by Democrats and the intelligence community before release.

Schiff said that with the end of the investigation Republicans are walking away from the job of revealing to the American public the full extent of what happened during the 2016 election.

The Majority was not willing to pursue the facts wherever they would lead, he said in a statement.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekRussia has refused to answer any ultimatums from the U.S. or any of its allies, saying the West-led world order was no more and Moscow would pursue its own foreign policy path, despite new challenges across the globe and beyond.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a forum promoting investment in his country that many other nations had "a very nervous reaction" to Russia's rise from post-Soviet chaos into a leading world power in the past two decades. As Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to expand his country's military power and political influence, Western nations such as France, Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. have accused him of attempting to interfere in their internal affairs, a charge that Putin and his government have dismissed.

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"We do not seek confrontation with anybody. We wish to cooperate with all on equitable terms, on the basis of mutual respect and search for a balance of interest and mutually acceptable approaches," Lavrov said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

The Kremlin's top diplomat blamed recent tensions on the "categorical reluctance of the United States and its western allies to agree that the 500-year-long period of western domination in world affairs is coming to an end," saying such a transition would be difficult for those who "are in the habit of ruling the world for centuries."

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YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images

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In one of the most recent challenges to Russia's relationship with the West, London has accused Moscow of being behind the poisoning of a former Russian spy who fled to the U.K. after he was arrested for being a double agent and released in a 2010 prisoner swap. Russia has denied the charges, but the U.K. has already moved to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

"The response will come very quickly, I can assure you," Lavrov reportedly said when asked about Moscow's reaction to the measures.

The U.S. has also expelled diplomats and issued sanctions against Russia after accusing it of covertly helping President Donald Trump win the 2016 election. Both Russia and Trump deny being a part of the conspiracy, but relations have not recovered since.

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Russia and the West have not only been at odds politically. The U.S.-led military alliance NATO has boosted its military might across Russia's borders following Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula as unrest gripped Ukraine. Both Russia and NATO have bolstered their defenses and conducted frequent military drills across Europe, creating a Cold War-like arms race in which Russia claimed the U.S. was trying to undermine Moscow's power via a global missile shield.

Russia has also challenged Western ambitions abroad, entering the Syrian war on behalf of the embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015. Facing a seven-year uprising by jihadis and West-backed rebels, the Syrian government has recovered much of its losses thanks to Russian and Iranian support. As the U.S. considered military action in response to claims that Syria's armed forces had used chemical weapons in a rebel enclave outside Damascus, Russian officials threatened to hit back.

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LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

Russia's resurgence has prompted Trump to adopt a harsher stance against his former political ally, Putin. Like the Russian leader, Trump has sought to modernize and enhance his country's nuclear arsenal and potentially even develop "Space Forces." Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday that such a move would be akin to "opening a Pandora's box."

In an effort to revolutionize his own nuclear triad, Putin unveiled a number of new, advanced weapons earlier this month that he said were capable of overcoming even the most advanced U.S. defenses. These weapons, which included the Sarmat RS-28 "Satan 2" intercontinental ballistic missile, a "doomsday" torpedo and a nuclear-powered cruise missile, were already reportedly undergoing testing.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekLondon (AFP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May's response to the suspected Russian poisoning of a former spy has soothed Brexit divisions with her party, but has starkly exposed the ideological rift within the opposition Labour ranks.

May's decision to expel 23 diplomats and suspend high-level contacts with Russia over the nerve agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal received cross-party and media support, heralding a ceasefire in the bitter row over Brexit.

"The prime minister makes a compelling case for Kremlin culpability in the Salisbury incident and is right that such a reckless, hostile act by another state requires a robust response," the centre-left Guardian, normally a critic, said in its editorial.

May has recently faced rebellions from pro-EU MPs within her Conservative Party, delivering her a damaging parliamentary defeat over her Brexit strategy.

But leading rebel Anna Soubry praised May's announcement on Wednesday in the House of Commons, saying "the length of breadth of this place has completely supported not just the wise words and the leadership of the prime minister but also her firm actions."

"The response has been prudent, some have found it underwhelming but it is important to keep room for escalation as more evidence comes in," Kadri Liik, a senior policy fellow at European foreign policy think-tank ECFR, told AFP.

May's respite is in sharp contrast to opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose response to the crisis appears to have shattered the truce reached with centrist MPs following his better-than-expected performance in last year's general election.

The veteran leftist, recently accused by a Conservative lawmaker -- who later retracted the claim -- of passing secrets to a Czechoslovak agents he met in the 1980s, refused to blame the Kremlin outright, asking May if she had provided samples of the suspected poison to Moscow for analysis.

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Labour MP Ben Bradshaw led the thinly-veiled criticism, telling parliament that "most of us on these benches fully support the measures she has announced."

Colleague Yvette Cooper demanded "unequivocal" condemnation while former Labour minister Pat McFadden said defending Britain when threatened was an "essential component of political leadership".

About 20 Labour backbenchers signed a motion stating the Commons "unequivocally accepts the Russian state's culpability".

- 'Anti-Corbyn agenda' -

In the media, the Daily Telegraph denounced Corbyn's "craven posturing" while the Guardian called his response "dispiriting."

"He sounded too keen to find another explanation," said its editorial.

"He hasn't got the tone right," added Liik.

"Of course they need evidence, but that doesn't mean you should diminish the gravity of the crimes, because what happened was outrageous."

Irate MPs targeted Corbyn spokesman and strategist Seumas Milne after he later doubted the findings of Britain's intelligence services.

"There is a history between weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly," he told reporters, in reference to the Iraq War.

Milne's appointment in 2015 raised eyebrows given previous opinion articles he had written in the Guardian, in which he said "Putin has now become a cartoon villain and Russia the target of almost uniformly belligerent propaganda across the western media."

Centrist Labour MP Chuka Umunna tweeted that "Milne's comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs."

However, polls have yet to be released showing whether criticism within Westminster has translated to the electorate, with much of Corbyn's success based on defying the establishment and opposing the Iraq War.

Long-time ally and shadow interior minister Diane Abbott tapped into these sentiments when defending her boss.

"If we are to persuade any other nation to take significant measures alongside us, they may ask for a higher burden of proof," she said.

"The same outlets now condemning the Labour leader recently tried to label him as a Czech spy. They have an anti-Corbyn agenda."By Denis Pinchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) - Any move by Britain to cut its gas imports from Russia would be "politically motivated", the Russian energy minister said on Thursday, amid a worsening rift between Moscow and London over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in England. Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Wednesday that Britain would kick out 23 Russian diplomats, the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War, over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent. May has squarely blamed Russia for the attack and also said Britain was looking to reduce its gas imports from the country. Moscow denies any involvement in the attack and has vowed to retaliate against the measures announced by London. "Every country has the right to choose its own energy policy... Any decision (by Britain to cut Russian gas imports would be) politically motivated and not aimed at developing competition on the European (gas) market," Alexander Novak told reporters. Gazprom, which holds a monopoly on Russia's gas pipeline exports, supplied a total of 16.3 billion cubic meters of gas to Britain last year, slightly less than a year earlier, but still accounting for a fifth of the country's total gas consumption. Gas exports to Britain represent only 10 percent of Gazprom's total exports to western Europe. Germany remains its biggest buyer in Europe, taking a third of overall Russian gas exports. Last year Novatek , Russia's largest private gas producer, started liquefied natural gas exports, which could be shipped to any point globally depending on cost. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Gareth Jones)Moscow (AFP) - Russian media on Thursday accused British Prime Minister Theresa May of having "poisoned" relations with Moscow by announcing the expulsion of diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former double agent with a nerve agent.

"Theresa May has poisoned relations between London and Moscow," Nezavisimaya Gazeta headlined its front-page story.

Kommersant business daily accused Britain of seeking "toxic responses."

"The crisis in relations between Moscow and London has reached a new peak," it said.

May "tried to accuse Russia of every sin under the Sun," wrote popular pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Another pro-Kremlin daily, broadsheet Izvestia, wrote that Russia will respond "at least in a symmetrical way" to the expulsions, meaning it would expel the same number of diplomats.

But "Russia's reaction could be also be more wide-reaching," it predicted, citing diplomatic sources.

"Await a response," Izvestia headlined its story.

"A seemingly emerging warming in relations with London has turned into a long-lasting frost," wrote popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.

But it predicted that "Russia can bear it all without bowing down."

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found in a serious condition in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

British experts say the pair were poisoned with a nerve agent which was developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

May on Wednesday in parliament announced a number of moves including the expulsion of 23 diplomats and the suspension of high-level contacts with Russia.

Russia's foreign ministry slammed the measures as an "unprecedentedly rude provocation."Mozhaisk (Russia) (AFP) - Retired rocket scientist Anatoly Alexandrovich has a blunt suggestion for how the Russian healthcare system could be improved: "Drop an atomic bomb on it".

The 77-year-old has spent the morning bouncing between various doctors' offices in Mozhaisk, a town some 68 miles (110 km) to the west of Moscow, to get a prescription for medicine to treat a blood clot.

"Doctors get annoyed at the patients and the patients at the doctors," he says of the underfunded system.

"If a doctor prescribes an expensive medicine in Russia then the local administration shouts at them -- then the department of health shouts at the local administration."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is set to win a fourth term in a landslide on Sunday, has laid out plans to double spending on healthcare over the next six years along with a raft of other measures to tackle social problems.

But Anatoly, who has come with Soviet medals pinned to his chest for his hospital appointment, says previous declarations from the Kremlin have led to little change on the ground.

"Over 18 years with Putin, nothing has got better. Corruption has got worse. The courts, the prosecutor, everything is corrupt. Power has merged with the criminal underworld and Putin knows this."

The president has led a lacklustre election campaign, declining to take part in televised debates and shooting no new material for his own advertisements.

Instead, he and a compliant state media have sought to reinforce his image as the man who brought stability after the chaos of the 1990s, as well as restoring Russia's standing on the world stage.

It is a message that has proved popular with voters, nearly 70 percent of whom are expected to back Putin in the polls -- according to state pollsters -- though many of them acknowledge serious problems after almost two decades of his rule.

- The devil you know -

Galina Belousova, a 30-year-old shop assistant who has brought her young daughter for an appointment at Mozhaisk hospital, believes it is harder to bring up a child now than it was during her grandparents' time in the Soviet era.

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While her grandparents had stable employment, Belousova's husband can find only irregular work and might go more than a year without bringing in a salary.

"Everything is getting more and more expensive... it seems like it was easier to live then than now," she says, adding that monthly child support is barely enough for a pack of nappies.

Belousova questions if anything will change over another six-year term but still plans to vote for Putin, who has promised to raise spending on families.

"Of course I hope that Putin will improve something, though I have doubts. But it would be dangerous to elect another president," she says. "We're scared that it would be worse. I know what to expect from him."

The other seven candidates in the weekend election are a motley crew of Kremlin-approved challengers, including former reality TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak, ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and millionaire communist Pavel Grudinin.

None is polling at more than 8 percent, while Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin's most vocal critic, has been barred from standing for legal reasons.

"It would be good if there were more jobs. Because businesses are suffering, collective farms are dying... people have nowhere to work," says road worker Vladimir Kirikov.

On a lane leading to Borodino, the site of the bloody 1812 battle with France during Napoleon's Russia campaign, Kirikov praises Putin for restoring the country's defence capabilities after the "ruin" he was left by Boris Yeltsin.

But the 25-year-old's hopes for the president's next term are low: "Just that there's no war."Saudi Arabia's crown prince revealed on Thursday his intentions to develop a nuclear weapon if Iran was pursuing one as well.

Comparing Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Nazi ruler Adolf Hitler, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud accused his regional foe of trying "to expand" and "create his own project in the Middle East." The monarch then said he would not hesitate to attain nuclear capabilities if he suspected Iran was doing the same.

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"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," the crown prince told CBS News in a new interview.

RTS1NPWT

Egyptian Presidency/REUTERS

The comments came a day before the U.S. was scheduled to begin a new round of multinational talks concerning a historic nuclear deal struck in 2015 by the U.S. and Iran, and also signed by China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. Breaking nearly 25 years of diplomatic silence stemming from Iran's 1979 overthrow of a U.S.-installed absolute monarch and the hostage crisis that followed, former President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani reached the agreement.

While Iran has always maintained its nuclear program was solely for energy purposes, rival nations such as the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia have thought otherwise. The 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saw Iran agree to curb its nuclear production in exchange for the lifting of billions of dollars worth of international sanctions. The deal was widely praised, but also opposed by conservatives in both the U.S. and Iran.

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President Donald Trump has railed against the agreement and rallied his Middle East allies Israel and Saudi Arabia as well. After decertifying the deal last October, he agreed to renew it in December, but only as "a last chance," arguing that it did not go far enough to address Iran's ballistic missile development and support for foreign movements.

These groups, mostly Shiite Muslim paramilitaries, have become influential in the region, challenging Saudi Arabia's own stake. As Iran-backed groups tackled the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, Saudi Arabia has accused its rival of trying to establish a permanent presence in these countries as well as in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is involved in a three-year war against Zaidi Shiite Muslim rebels, known as Ansar Allah, or the Houthis, who were also suspected of receiving Iranian assistance.

Riyadh indicated interest for nuclear weapons back when the Iran deal was still in its final stages in May 2015, as The Wall Street Journal reported. Since then, Saudi Arabia has launched an initiative to build its own nuclear energy plant, a project linked to members of the Trump administration and potentially fellow U.S. ally South Korea, which received Saudi officials to discuss nuclear plans earlier this week, the official Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday.

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Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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That same day, Trump indicated an even stricter stance toward Iran by firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, at least partially due to the diplomat's support for the nuclear deal. Top Pentagon officials and the deal's other international signatories have all urged Trump not to leave the agreement, but the Republican leader has only hardened his position ahead of critical decisions over the deal's fate likely to made in the coming days or weeks.

Iran, meanwhile, has vowed never to renegotiate the terms of its agreement. New sanctions by the Trump administration have put pressure on Rouhani's government, which has struggled to deliver on promises of economic reform made because of the deal. Iran has, however, reached out to Saudi Arabia for rapprochement, hoping to mend ties that were cut in 2016 after Iranian protestors stormed the Riyadh's embassy in Tehran in response to Saudi Arabia's execution of a high-profile Shiite Muslim cleric.

"The problem is that our Saudi neighbors believe that it is in their interest for the world to perceive that they are suffering from a threat," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday during a talk in Pakistan, noting that Tehran would be prepared to back Riyadh in the event of any "foreign aggression," according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

"We do not see any cause for us or even for them for animosity, and we tell them you cant buy security from outside," he added.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekRIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will develop nuclear weapons if its arch-rival Iran does so, the kingdom's crown prince said in remarks released on Thursday, raising the prospect of a nuclear arms race in a region already riven with conflict. "Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in an interview that will air in full on Sunday. The Sunni Muslim kingdom has been at loggerheads with revolutionary Shi'ite Iran for decades. The countries have fought a long-running proxy war in the Middle East and beyond, backing rival sides in armed conflicts and political crises including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He downplayed Iran's power during the interview, saying that Iran was far from being a rival to Saudi Arabia. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi reacted harshly, saying the Saudi crown prince was a "delusional naive person" who has no idea of politics, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday. "He has no idea of politics apart from bitter talk that emanates from a lack of foresight ... His remarks do not deserve a response, because he is a delusional, naive person, who never talks, but with lies and bitterness," Qasemi said. Prince Mohammed, who also serves as Saudi defence minister, said last year that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries "is waged in Iran", prompting Iranian threats to hit back at most of Saudi Arabia except the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Riyadh has criticised the 2015 deal between world powers and Tehran under which economic sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for the Islamic Republic curbing its nuclear energy program. U.S. sanctions will resume unless President Donald Trump issues fresh "waivers" to suspend them on May 12. The comments by Prince Mohammed, who at 32 is heir to the throne, also have implications for Israel, another U.S. ally which neither confirms nor denies the widespread assumption that it controls the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal. Israel has long argued that, should Iran develop nuclear weapons, it would trigger similar projects among the Persian power's Arab rivals and further destabilise the region. It has never joined the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has said it would consider inspections and controls under the NPT only if was at peace with its Arab neighbours and Iran. CIVILIAN PROGRAMME Saudi Arabia is stepping up plans to develop a civilian nuclear energy capability as part of a reform plan led by Prince Mohammed to reduce the economys dependence on oil. The world's top oil exporter has previously said it wants nuclear technology only for peaceful uses but has left unclear whether it also wants to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel, a process which can also be used in the production of atomic weapons. The United States, South Korea, Russia, France and China are bidding on a multi-billion dollar tender to build the country's first two nuclear reactors. Prince Mohammed's comments, ahead of a trip to the United States next week, could impact the bid by a consortium that includes Toshiba-owned Westinghouse. U.S. companies can usually transfer nuclear technology to another country only if the United States has signed an agreement with that country ruling out domestic uranium enrichment and the preprocessing of spent nuclear fuel  steps that can have military uses. In previous talks, Saudi Arabia has refused to sign up to any agreement that would deprive it of the possibility of one day enriching uranium. Reactors need uranium enriched to around five percent purity but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to a higher, weapons-grade level. This has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns over the nuclear work of Iran, Saudi Arabias arch-rival which enriches uranium domestically. Riyadh approved a national policy for its atomic energy programme on Tuesday, including limiting all nuclear activities to peaceful purposes, within the limits defined by international treaties. (Reporting By Stephen Kalin, Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Hugh Lawson and William Maclean)This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Acclaimed British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking has died aged 76. Hawking is best known for his work on black holes, which revolutionized our understanding of the universe.

Hawking passed away today peacefully at his home in Cambridge, England, his family confirmed in a statement:

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We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world. He once said, It would not be much of a universe if it wasnt home to the people you love. We will miss him forever.

Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. In 1963 he was diagnosed with ALS, a form of motor neurone disease, and later confined to a wheelchair and forced to communicate via a computerized voice. But he continued his theoretical work and was outspoken on many things over much of his life.

Tributes have been pouring in on social media for the scientist, who made complex science accessible to everyone in his 1988 bestselling book A Brief History of Time.

Among those early to pay tribute were the American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and NASA.

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Others to pay tribute include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

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Hawkings acclaimed book, A Brief History of Time, was made into a documentary in 1991, directed by Errol Morris, who also paid tribute.

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Australian reaction

There have been reactions too from the world of astronomy in Australia, where the time difference gave scientists the chance to respond quickly to the news of Hawking's death.

Alan Duffy, associate professor and research fellow, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne

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Professor Stephen Hawking was an inspiration to me to become not just a scientist but a communicator of that science.

His work as a cosmologist, and discoveries in black hole physics were legendary. His best-known prediction, named by the community as Hawking Radiation, transformed black holes from inescapable gravitational prisons into objects that instead shrink and fade away over time.

His writings were inspirational to many scientists and enriched the lives of millions with the latest science and cosmic perspectives. He was also wonderfully funny with a fantastic media savviness that propelled him into A-list celebrity stardom as few other scientists before.

Through it all, of course, his illness made his achievements near-superhuman. How he manipulated Einsteins equations in his mind when he could no longer hold a pen I cant even begin to imagine.

While his many contributions will live on there is no doubt that science and the wider world is the poorer for his passing.

Jonti Horner, professor (astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia

I think Stephen Hawkings biggest achievement was getting people talking and interested in some very complex and challenging ideas about the universe and our place in it.

I remember the fuss when his book A Brief History of Time came out, and how it became such a big deal in the UK. It was amazing how widely read and discussed it was, particularly given its content (stuff that is usually portrayed as being really difficult and/or boring).

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It was a fantastic example of how even the most complex and challenging ideas can capture the imagination, when theyre explained in the right way. Above and beyond the great research he did, his impact as a communicator was fantastic.

He definitely did a lot to bring those kind of concepts into the mainstream, and doubtless inspired a whole new generation of cosmologists and astronomers. That is probably the best legacy any scientist could ask for!

Lisa Harvey-Smith, Group LeaderAustralia Telescope National Facility Science, CSIRO

Stephen Hawking was undoubtedly an intellectual giant, making leaps of reasoning that sometimes led to startling insights into the nature of the physical world. His finding that black holes slowly dissolve will probably be his greatest scientific legacy.

But he was much more than a skilled cosmologist. His greatest impact came from taking the time to carefully explain his theories to the public, engaging millions with his bestselling books.

As a 15-year-old, his most successful book A Brief History of Time had me captivated with relativity and quantum theory. This is the true strength of his legacy.

Matthew Bailes, ARC laureate fellow, Swinburne University of Technology, and director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)

Like many of the great theorists, Stephen Hawking had the ability to use very simple thought experiments to make predictions about the behavior of the universe.

My favorite was his insight into evaporating black holes, which combined general relativity and quantum mechanics.

His ability to remain engaged with the scientific community despite his physical condition was a testament to his rare talent.

Hawking also recognized the enormous potential of the universe to be teeming with life and the advances in technology that might permit its detection in the near future. Hence his support for Breakthrough Listen, the search for alien life in the Universe.

3_14_Stephen Hawking

Bryan Bedder/Stringer/Getty Images

Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (radio astronomy), Curtin University, Bentley, Australia

As an astrophysicist who has spent a significant fraction of my career working on the observational aspects of black holes using radio telescopes, and hoping to continue that with the billion dollar Square Kilometre Array over the next decade, Stephen Hawkings work to understand the physics of black holes is close to my heart.

His mathematical and physical insights into black holes have been astonishing, which at some level synthesized general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Hawkings work has inspired deep questions in physics and astrophysics, which has had a bearing on plans to build telescopes to explore the universe, including the Square Kilometre Array in Australia.

Alice Gorman, senior lecturer in archaeology and space studies, Flinders University, Australia

There are few scientists who reach as far into popular culture as Stephen Hawking did. His research tackled the biggest of big questionsthe nature of time, space and the universe we live in.

Sometimes it feels like science is losing ground in the modern world, but people still look to the stars for answers about who we are and how we come to be here.

Hawkings bestselling A Brief History of Time made cosmology accessible to people and brought black holes out of the shadows and into the public imagination.

Personally Ill miss his appearances on The Big Bang Theory, where he could out-nerd the nerds, and also provide some often necessary common sense. It was always great to see a world-class scientist just having fun.

Alan Duffy, associate professor and research fellow, Swinburne University of Technology; Alice Gorman, senior lecturer in archaeology and space studies, Flinders University; Jonti Horner, professor (astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland; Lisa Harvey-Smith, astronomer at CSIRO, CSIRO; Matthew Bailes, ARC laureate fellow, Swinburne University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, and Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (radio astronomy), Curtin University

The Conversation

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek[caption id="attachment_11933" align="aligncenter" width="620"]

Elizabeth Holmes, chief executive officer of Theranos[/caption] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday it has charged Silicon Valley blood-testing company Theranos, its current CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former President Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani with massive investor fraud. In a press release, the SEC said the defendants raised more than $700 million from investors "through an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the companys technology, business, and financial performance." Theranos and Holmes have agreed to settle the fraud charges against them, according to the SEC. Holmes has agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos, it added. In a call with reporters, Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, called the remedy against Holmes "pretty unique." He also said forcing her to give up control of the company she founded was "particularly meaningful  in Silicon Valley, where the founders of startup companies obviously value the concept of control here." Peikin added it is a "good example" of the types of remedies the SEC would seek in similar fraud actions, and consistent with the enforcement principles it laid out near the end of 2017. The SEC action is the latest twist in Theranos' long fall from grace, which was set off by a string of investigative articles published by The Wall Street Journal in 2015 and 2016 detailing the company's struggles to deliver on the promises of its blood-testing technology. The separate SEC complaints against Theranos, Holmes and Balwani, respectively, include allegations the company misled investors into thinking it was able to run some 200 blood tests using a small, proprietary analyzer when, in fact, it could run only 12, and ran others using modified, commercially available devices. The agency also alleges Balwani and Holmes told multiple investors that Theranos technology had been deployed by the Department of Defense in the battlefield, in Afghanistan, and on military medevac helicopters. In fact, the two were aware, or were "reckless in not knowing," that this was false, the SEC alleges. "While Theranos technology was used in a DOD burn study, it was never deployed by the DOD in the battlefield, in Afghanistan, or on medevac helicopters," both complaints note. The actions were filed in federal court in San Jose, California. Theranos is based in Palo Alto, California. Theranos is represented by Thomas Strickland and Christopher Davies of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, while Holmes is represented by John Dwyer at Cooley. Balwani is represented by Jeffrey Coopersmith at Davis Wright Tremaine, the SEC said. We believe the enforcement action by the SEC is unwarranted, Coopersmith said in a statement. Sunny Balwani accurately represented Theranos to investors to the best of his ability. He believed in the potential and mission of the company and its technology to promote transparency and benefit people by empowering them with access to their own health care information at a low cost. In a statement, Theranos noted neither the company nor Holmes admitted or denied any wrongdoing under the settlement. The company is pleased to be bringing this matter to a close and looks forward to advancing its technology," the company's directors said. Peikin told reporters the SEC had not sought to penalize Theranos itself because the company was essentially a two-person operation during the relevant period, and because doing so may have only further harmed investors. Holmes and Balwani were responsible for all of the misconduct thats alleged in our complaint, he said. [falcon-embed src="embed_1"] [falcon-embed src="embed_2"]By Christian Lowe, Maria Tsvetkova and Anthony Deutsch

MOSCOW/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The British government says Russia is to blame for poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent, and most chemical weapons specialists agree.

But they say an alternative explanation cannot be ruled out: that the nerve agent got into the hands of people not acting for the Russian state.

The Soviet Union's chemical weapons programme was in such disarray in the aftermath of the Cold War that some toxic substances and know-how could have got into the hands of criminals, say people who dealt with the programme at the time.

"Could somebody have smuggled something out?" said Amy Smithson, a biological and chemical weapons expert.

"I certainly wouldn't rule that possibility out, especially a small amount and particularly in view of how lax the security was at Russian chemical facilities in the early 1990s."

While nerve agents degrade over time, if the pre-cursor ingredients for the nerve agent were smuggled out back then, stored in proper conditions and mixed recently, they could still be deadly in a small-scale attack, two experts on chemical weapons told Reuters.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in hospital in critical condition after being found unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4. A police officer was also harmed and remains in a serious condition.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that "there is no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter, and for threatening the lives of other British citizens."

Russia has denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack.

POISONED TELEPHONE

Accounts of security deficiencies at weapons facilities indicate that, at least for a period in the 1990s, Moscow was not in firm control of its chemical weapons stockpiles or the people guarding them.

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When Russian banking magnate Ivan Kivelidi and his secretary died in 1995 from organ failure after a military-grade poison was found on the telephone receiver of his Moscow office, an employee of a state chemical research institute confessed to having secretly supplied the toxin.

In a closed-door trial, Kivelidi's business partner was convicted of poisoning Kivelidi over a dispute. At the trial, prosecutors said the business partner had obtained the poison, via several intermediaries, from Leonard Rink, an employee of a state chemical research institute known as GosNIIOKhT.

The same institute, according to Vil Mirzayanov, a Soviet chemical weapons scientist who later turned whistleblower, was part of the state chemical weapons programme and helped develop the "Novichok" family of nerve agents that Britain has said was responsible for poisoning Skripal.

In a statement to investigators after his arrest, viewed by Reuters, Rink said he was in possession of poisons created as part of the chemical weapons programme which he stored in his garage. On more than one occasion, he said, he sold the substances to supplement his income and pay down a debt.

The poison in the Kivelidi case was sold in a deal brokered by an ex-policeman contact of Rink's. Rink handed over the poison, in an ampoule hidden inside a pen presentation box, in a meeting at Moscow's Belorussky station, according to his statement.

Rink received a one-year suspended prison sentence for "misuse of powers," according to Boris Kuznetsov, who was a lawyer for Kivelidi's business partner during the trial.

Kuznetsov said he believed his client was innocent, and that Kivelidi was poisoned by rogue intelligence officers acting without the knowledge of the Russian president at the time, Boris Yeltsin.

He added that he would share files from the case with the British authorities, because he believed they could be relevant to the Skripal investigation.

Reuters was not able to contact Rink.

STATE OF DISARRAY

The Soviet chemical weapons programme was a sprawling operation spread across far-flung provincial cities that incorporated the world's largest chemical arsenal, publicly declared at 40,000 tonnes.

When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, funding dried up, scientists' salaries were in several months of arrears, staff morale slumped and facilities were left to fend for themselves with little government control or oversight.

According to a 1995 report published by the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington security think-tank, and based on accounts from industry insiders, physical security at the facilities was deficient.

It said railroad entrances to the facilities were padlocked but unguarded, and at some sites chemical weapons were stored in buildings with wooden doors and tiled roofs that an intruder could get into with little difficulty.

Chemical weapons were stored in silos without tamper-proof seals, making it difficult to detect if small quantities were being siphoned off.

A second report by the Stimson Center four years later highlighted the risk of Soviet chemical weapons scientists - who earned a pittance when they were paid at all - being recruited by criminals, terrorists, or rogue states.

"All the ingredients for successful black marketeering are present through the chemical and biological complexes - under- or unemployed, scientists and managers, valuable commodities at far-flung locations, and poor security," the report said.

SATELLITE STATES

In some cases in the early 1990s, highly toxic chemical agents wound up outside Russian territory, in ex-Soviet facilities in newly-independent states such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

According to Mirzayanov, the former Soviet chemical weapons scientist, the "Novichok" family of nerve agents developed by the GosNIIOKhT institute was tested in Nukus, Uzbekistan.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Mirzayanov, now resident in Princeton, New Jersey, said though he believed the Kremlin was behind the Skripal attack.

The ex-Soviet republics outside Russia that suddenly found themselves hosting ex-Soviet chemical weapons facilities were even less equipped than Moscow to secure them.

U.S. troops who arrived in Uzbekistan after 2001 to establish an air base in the city of Khanabad came across stockpiles of old munitions that had not been accounted for, which turned out to contain chlorine and other chemical compounds, said someone who was present at the time and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

People in the chemical weapons field said security since the 1990s had improved drastically, helped by Western aid, the transfer of weapons stockpiles from neighbouring states to Russia and a stronger Russian state.

Russia's trade and industry ministry, which oversaw the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles, said in a statement sent to Reuters that Russia had destroyed 100 percent of the stocks in strict compliance with international commitments, and faster than the United States.

The ministry did not address questions about chemical weapons smuggling in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse.

Ukraine's state security service, which tracks weapons proliferation, said it had no immediate comment.

The Uzbek foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The state-owned Kazakh nuclear company which operates the Pavlodar Chemical Plant, a former chemical weapons facility, and the Energy Ministry, to which the nuclear company reports, did not reply to questions.

(Graphic - How does a nerve agent work? http://tmsnrt.rs/2FjA6EQ)

(Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in ALMATY, Pavel Polityuk in KIEV and Joseph Ax in NEW YORK; Editing by Cassell Bryan-Low)On Wednesday evening, the Senate passed a bill that would roll back some banking regulations. Indirectly, the bill addresses Equifaxs historic data breach in which Social Security numbers and other personal data of 150 million people were exposed  a number that comprises well over half the U.S.s adult population.

Though Sens. Mark Warner (D-Virg.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had put forth a bill in January that would hold credit reporting agencies responsible for breaches, it did not progress and Congress had failed to issue a legislative response to the Equifax breach.

In a move meant to benefit consumers, the new Senate bill, which was introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), includes free credit freezes for consumers  stripping the credit bureaus like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion of a moneymaker. Credit freezes typically cost between $5 and $15 each. In addition, veterans are to be given free credit monitoring.

While the free freezes are good for consumers the Senate bill also stands to give credit reporting companies a break that could be worth far more than the cost of providing these services. The legislation also stipulates that people in the military and veterans (who are being given free monitoring) do not have the ability to sue the agencies.

Politico noted that the bill contains another bit in Equifaxs favor: The bill would essentially open a new line of business for the three major credit reporting agencies, allowing their joint entity VantageScore to issue credit scores for mortgage applicants with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Currently, Fair Isaacs FICO score is the sole provider of credit scores to determine a mortgage borrowers creditworthiness. The bill would expand competition for credit scores, but critics decry Equifaxs involvement.

With the anti-liability provisions and the window into the mortgage business, Equifaxs win shows the lobbying power the company still has, something that has angered consumer advocate groups. Public Citizens Financial Policy Advocate Bartlett Naylor called for Congress to do more to protect consumers in a press release.

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FILE  In this March 6, 2018, file photo, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, joined by, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., right, talks to reporters as the Senate moves closer to passing legislation to roll back some of the safeguards Congress put in place to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, at the Capitol in Washington. Burrowed within new Senate legislation to roll back restraints on banks is a break from data reporting requirements for lenders making certain levels of mortgage loans. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The trade group for credit-reporting agencies, the Consumer Data Industry Association, had pushed hard for liability limitations and for federal law to overrule states own rules. We believe data breach legislation should be both preemptive of state law and be limited to administrative enforcement, the groups president told Congress earlier this month.

In a statement to Yahoo Finance Equifax didnt comment on the move to limit the bureaus liability, but said it shares the sponsors goal of helping consumers gain access to credit and having more control over their personal credit data. Equifax supports a federal security freeze statute that simplifies the process for consumers. Security freezes are one of the many tools available which enable consumers to better protect themselves against potential identity theft.

The bill is considered likely to pass the House, and the Trump administration supports the bill as is.



Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann. Confidential tip line: FinanceTips[at]oath[.com].

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Elizabeth Warrens bill would thrash Equifax for another data breach

The worst company of the year, according to Yahoo Finance readersBelgrade (AFP) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Wednesday his country is ready for a compromise over Kosovo since resolving a dispute with its former province is key to its EU bid.

Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo's independence, declared unilaterally a decade ago.

Brussels insists normalisation of ties between the former foes, who fought each other in a 1990s war, is a key condition they both must meet in order to join the European Union.

"For us, the most difficult hurdle on the European path is indeed the situation over Kosovo and that is why Serbia is .... ready to talk about possible compromises," Vucic told reporters.

He spoke after meeting with Wess Mitchell, the US acting assistant secretary of state for European affairs.

Mitchell is on a tour of the region that has already taken him to Kosovo and Macedonia.

"We can accept only a compromise ... but not a humiliation of our own people," Vucic said.

Elected last year, Vucic, once an ultranationalist and close ally of the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic -- has become a staunch pro-European liberal who hopes to bring Serbia into the EU.

As he was sworn in May last year, Vucic urged an "internal dialogue" over the politically sensitive issue.

Although about 115 countries have recognised Kosovo's independence over the past 10 years, Serbia and dozens of other states, including its ally Russia, have not.

Serbia and mostly ethnic Albanian Kosovo have had difficult relations ever since the 1998-99 conflict, which claimed some 13,000 lives.

It ended after NATO launched a bombing campaign to oust Serbian forces from Kosovo.

Today Kosovo is home to some 120,000 ethnic Serbs, which is an estimate because they refuse to take part in a census.

Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of their history and Orthodox faith.

Belgrade and Pristina recently relaunched a low-level, EU-sponsored dialogue on normalising ties, first begun in 2011, after two years of deadlock.

Last month the EU unveiled a new eastward expansion strategy, presenting the prospect of membership as an incentive for reforms in the volatile Balkans region.

Serbia and Montenegro are favourites to become the bloc's next members, possibly by 2025.



Image via Roland/supplied

Georgia McLennan is a vibrant 24-year-old with a big smile and even bigger ambitions.

Despite suffering for months with continuous body aches, and then discovering the presence of a deadly disease, the nursing student remains hopeful.

It was New Years Eve when McLennan, from Australias Gold Coast, experienced her first symptom: a stabbing pain in the chest that led to multiple trips to the doctor. Astonishingly, McLennan appeared outwardly healthy.

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ALSO SEE: Teen unrecognizable after losing half her body weight

I was in that much pain I was going once or twice a week to the doctor It was at this point he asked if perhaps it was all in my head, Georgia told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Seeking a second opinion, a doctor eventually determined the student had tumours on her spleen and liver  but it wasnt until McLennan had a PET scan that she realized just how bad it was.

To the shock of her radiologists, McLennans body had become almost completely riddled with cancer, affecting every organ in her abdomen.

Image via Roland

ALSO SEE: Autistic girl left bruised and swollen in high school restraint

I was just in shock, very shocking, I couldnt believe it could happen to me, she said.

Doctors then diagnosed her with Burkitt Lymphoma.

All these radiologists came into the room to look at me They couldnt believe how healthy I looked given what they found inside me, she told the Bulletin.

When I saw the scan, I realized this is very bad.

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I found out later they thought I was going to die that weekend I didnt even have my mom there because I hadnt really worried it was cancer, she said.

Following an aggressive three-month course of daily chemotherapy and 10 sets of weekly spinal injections to help battle the disease, the 24-year-old is now in remission, and using her story to inspire others.

She also hopes to become an oncology nurse.

I feel like I can be there for people, I can understand what theyre going through, she said.

McLennan uses Instagram, fittingly titled Being Brave, to detail her journey and showcase her fighting will to survive.

Story continues

Georgias remission image shows the tumours have almost disappeared. (Image via Instagram)

When I was diagnosed with cancer I was so scared about losing my hair but I have realized it literally means nothing and Im soooo lucky to receive chemotherapy, she said in one post.

Feeling so so good after five blood transfusions, grateful for people who donate blood, she said in another.

Her story is also being used to draw donations to the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation Care for Cancer lunch on Friday, raising funds for the Foundations patient transport service and chemotherapy chairs.

I guess I just felt really lucky that I was having the treatment and that I have access to treatment, she said.

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You dont realize how much you appreciate a comfortable chair until you are forced to spend some of your most difficult hours in them, she said.

But I never felt like giving up. You go into survival mode and as I thought I was going to die, I didnt want to waste any time I had left feeling sorry for my situation.

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FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's election to pick outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma's successor will head to a runoff later this month after neither of the two frontrunners secured an outright majority in the first round, the electoral commission said on Tuesday. Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People's Party led the field of 16 candidates with 43.3 percent in the first round of the vote, held last Wednesday, according to results announced by the commission in the capital Freetown. Maada Bio, who briefly ruled the West African country as head of a military junta in 1996, will square off against first-round runner-up Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress, who took 42.7 percent. The runoff will take place on March 27, the commission said. Koroma is stepping aside after his maximum two terms in office. The largely peaceful vote to replace him came as a relief for the country of seven million people, which endured a brutal, diamond-fuelled civil war in the 1990s. But the winner will face pressure to revive a moribund economy that has been ravaged in recent years by low prices for its main export, iron ore, and an Ebola outbreak. (Reporting By Umaru Fofana; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Gareth Jones)The younger sister of Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015, has been arrested on drug and weapons charges at her high school: AP

The younger sister of Dylann Roof, who shot dead nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015, has been arrested after posting a troubling message on social media.

Morgan Roof, an 18-year-old student at AC Flora High School in Columbia, South Carolina, was arrested after posting a message on Snapchat saying she hoped students participating in the nationwide walkout to protest gun violence would get shot.

Ms Roof was arrested after school authorities called police after they saw the post and getting a tip about the weapon. She was booked on one count of marijuana possession and two counts of carrying a weapon on school grounds. No students had been harmed in the incident.

She had been carrying a knife and pepper spray, in violation of school policy, according to the local newspaper The State.

Ms Roofs social media post read: "Your walking out of the allowed time of 17min, they are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what tf you think it's gonna do? I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.

AC Flora was one of many schools in the area participating in the walkout, inspired by the survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting last month where 17 people were gunned down.

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Her race-related comment was concerning given that her brother had told the FBI he had chosen the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church and his victims - all black - in the hopes of starting a race war.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said in a statement that potential tragedy was avoided at AC Flora High School...We owe a debt of gratitude to all involved who acted so quickly and decisively.

Roof had pleaded guilty to nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and is now on death row in the US state of Indiana.

Ms Roof is currently being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - The teenage sister of avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to die for the 2015 massacre at a historic South Carolina black church, was arrested for carrying weapons and drugs at her high school, police said on Thursday.

Morgan Roof, 18, had a knife, pepper spray and marijuana when she was searched at A.C. Flora High School in Columbia, South Carolina, on Wednesday, said Richland County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Curtis Wilson.

Roof was charged with simple possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds.

Wilson said in a statement that school administrators had acted appropriately by calling the school resource officer to arrest Roof for violating school policy.

"No students were harmed as a result of this incident," Wilson said.

The arrest came on the morning of a walkout by tens of thousands of students nationwide to demand stronger gun laws following last month's Florida school shooting, in which 14 students and three faculty were killed.

Morgan Roof also made a racially charged Snapchat post about the walkout, according to the Post and Courier newspaper.

"I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin' out anyway," the post said, according to the newspaper.

Wilson said the post "caused alarm to the student body," but he could not immediately confirm its contents.

After being made aware of the social media post, school administrators searched Roof and found the drugs and weapons, Wilson said.

Two other students, both 16, were arrested on Tuesday at A.C. Flora High School and charged with having weapons on school grounds after a handgun and loaded magazine were found, according to Wilson. A third student, also 16, was arrested on Thursday in connection with those discoveries, he said.

No students were in any danger, Wilson said in a statement.

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Morgan Roof was released from jail on Thursday on an undisclosed bond, Richland County spokesman Andrew Haworth said.

In response to the arrests, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster called for more security at schools.

"For months, I have called on the General Assembly to join me in placing a trained, certified police officer in every school," he said in a statement.

Dylann Roof sat for 40 minutes with parishioners at the landmark Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston for a Bible study meeting before opening fire on June 17, 2015. He killed nine African-Americans in a hate-fueled attack he had been planning for months.

He was sentenced to death after his conviction on 33 federal counts, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion. He was also sentenced under a separate state murder charge to nine consecutive life terms without parole and three consecutive 30-year prison terms for attempted murder.

(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)There can be little doubt that the Russian government is behind the attempted assassination of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. While there were the typical official denials, the Russian state has ways of communicating its innocence to foreign governments. In this case, it has not done so.

The use of a nerve agent fits a pattern established by the murder of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium in 2006. This was not a McMafia-style operation commissioned by rogue elements. If they were to blame, Moscow would be even more alarmed than London. Since the chaos of the 1990s, Putin has restored the states traditional prerogatives in foreign covert operations, as well as the presidents prerogatives within it. This was graphically demonstrated in Crimea in early 2014 with the deployment of little green men.

But what could be the motive? The Russians think strategically and will have planned this operation carefully in terms of both its execution and impact. What it says to Russians living in the U.K. or those thinking of leaving the country is: disloyalty is always punishable, you will never be free of us and you will never be safe, wherever you live. Singling out the reclusive 66-year old Skripal, eight years after he came to the U.K. and had run out of secrets to tell, simply underlines the point: you do not have to be an arch enemy of the Putin system to be in potential danger, and your family may also be a target.

What it says to the British government led by Theresa May is: we believe you are weak, and we have no respect for you. In recent years, successive British governments have repeatedly communicated weakness to Russia without any intention of doing so.

First, even before the suspicious suicide of dissident oligarch Boris Berezovsky in 2013, the U.K. authorities had been singularly lackluster in prosecuting a macabre string of suspect deaths of Russian exiles on British soil. Until 2014, the government resisted a public inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, signaling that it was disinclined to name and shame Russia for fear of harming attempts to rebuild ties.

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Second, Russia viewed the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) of 2010 as an abdication of Britains great power role. The winding down of a fair portion of the U.K.s maritime reconnaissance and warfare capability in northern waters was regarded with incredulity. The SDSRs 2015 successor has repaired much of the damage to U.K. defense capacities, but this scarcely has registered in Moscow.

Third, David Camerons government chose to absent itself from the RussiaUkraine Minsk process, leaving the running to Paris and Berlin. Given the U.K.s prominent role in securing the rights and assurances that underpinned Ukraines independence and territorial integrity (including its signature on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum), London effectively communicated to Moscow that Ukraine had become a lesser priority and that Britain had better things to do. Although the U.K.s vigorous defence advisory effort has earned plaudits in Kiev, Russia no longer considers Britain to be a serious player in Ukraine.

Fourth, there is Brexit, which many of its supporters believe will strengthen Britains global influence. Whatever the merits of that claim, the Russians view Brexit as a case of the U.K. cutting off its nose to spite its face. From the earliest days of the Cold War, the USSR and its Russian successor viewed Britain as Washingtons number one proxy in Europe. From Moscows perspective, the U.K.s position at the EU top table enhanced U.S. and British influence simultaneously. That advantage has been thrown away.

For these reasons, the Skripal affair is not only a reflection of perceived weakness. It is also a test. If the U.K chooses to act toughly, will its allies support it or simply send their best wishes? This latest example of Russian reconnaissance by combat puts Britain into a bind.

Fortunately, whatever the allied response, the U.K. is the repository of a national asset of very high value to Russia: the City of London. For many years, it has effectively allowed key Russian stakeholders to use the services of the City  in particular, the London Stock Exchange, as well as the high-end property market  for purposes legitimate, illegitimate and even illegal.

It is time to transform them from a source of advantage to Russia to a strategic asset for the U.K. Doing so will require proper analysis, coordination (including the security services, the Treasury and the Serious Fraud Office) and dedicated resources. Asset freezes, money laundering investigations and selective cancellation of visas for individuals and their families who are either part of the regime or support it will cause real pain in Moscow. Impulsive and symbolic measures will not do the same.

Leon Trotsky once said, You might not be interested in war, but war is interested in you. Todays Russian leadership, political and military, believes it is at war with the West. It is not a war dominated by artillery and tanks, but by finance and social media, with huge opportunities for covert action from disinformation to assassination. As Russias Ministry of Defense stated in 2011, to prevail in these new conditions requires destabilizing the society and state, and forcing the state to make decisions in the interests of the opposing party. That is the test the U.K. faces.

This piece was originally published by Chatham House, the London-based think-tank for international affairs.Bratislava (AFP) - Slovakia's president has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico, who offered to step down after facing a public backlash over the murder of a journalist, a junior partner in the ruling coalition said Thursday.

Fico's Smer-SD party will put forward a candidate to replace him, according to Most-Hid, the smallest party in Slovakia's three-way government.

"Smer-SD as the strongest (coalition) party will table its candidate for prime minister. The president has agreed to this," Most-Hid chairman Bela Bugar told journalists Thursday.

"One third of the government members will be replaced," he added.

President Andrej Kiska was to make a statement later Thursday, his office said.

Slovak media reported that deputy prime minister Peter Pellegrini, 42, was tipped to succeed Fico.

Fico, 53, has been struggling to get on top of the scandal sparked by last month's deadly shooting of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee at their home near Bratislava.

Police said Kuciak's death was "most likely" related to his investigation on ties between Slovakia's top politicians and Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia.

The murder and Kuciak's article, published after his death, sparked a wave of anti-government sentiment in Slovakia, an EU and NATO member of 5.4 million people.

The premier's ruling coalition was facing a no-confidence vote by lawmakers scheduled for next Monday.

Interior minister Robert Kalinak and Culture Minister Marek Madaric already resigned earlier this week in a bid to save the government from collapsing.

Fico has been in power since 2012. He is known abroad for his anti-immigrant stance.Ljubljana (AFP) - Slovenia's outgoing government urged the European Commission on Thursday to act against Croatia, which it accuses of breaching EU law, after Zagreb refused to accept an international arbitration ruling over a bitter border row.

Ljubljana accuses Zagreb of not implementing a June ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which allocated Slovenia more than two-thirds of picturesque Piran Bay.

Zagreb has refused to recognise the decision and urged Slovenia to start fresh negotiations on the border spat, which has raged since they both declared independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991.

The court gave both parties six months to implement its decision, but after the deadline expired in December, police patrols from both countries started fining fishermen from the opposite side over border and fishing violations.

"If the European Commission does not initiate a procedure against Croatia in the time framework (three months) set by the Treaty on the functioning of the EU, the government will itself hand the case to the EU Court," the Slovenian government said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar, who announced his resignation late on Wednesday, said any procedure against Croatia would not affect the campaigning for parliamentary elections, expected to take place in June.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in January said the bloc was ready to step in to help resolve the dispute.

Juncker insisted the Piran Bay row was "not a big problem", but he warned that other Balkan countries hoping to join the EU would have to solve their border disputes before doing so.By Marja Novak

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned late on Wednesday, hours after a key investment project hit a legal obstacle, saying he had also had enough of obstruction from his coalition partners and pressure from trade unions.

The move comes less then three months ahead of general election which was expected in June. It was not clear whether Cerar's resignation would bring the election forward.

In pre-election opinion polls Cerar's centre-left Party of Modern Centre is trailing behind three other parties with a centre-left List of Marjan Sarec, which has never before run for parliament, being in the lead ahead of the opposition centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party.

Cerar said he would step down in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to annul the result of a September referendum that approved a 1-billion-euro railway project, the centre-left government's biggest investment programme.

"The (railway project) took a new blow from those who want to stop the positive development of Slovenia," he said. "I don't want to be part of such stories."

Earlier on Wednesday, teachers held their second one-day strike for higher wages. A number of other public sector employees are also demanding hefty pay hikes.

"Demands and suggestions have been becoming less and less feasible and even damaging to the state," Cerar said.

He told a news conference that coalition partners had been trying for a long time to undermine projects, without naming specific parties or programmes. He said he would keep the post until a new government was formed.

The government coalition, which took power in September 2014, includes Cerar's Party of Modern Centre, the Social Democrats and pensioners' party Desus.

The government had said joint public sector trade union demands amount to almost 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion), were not justified by productivity and GDP growth and would threaten planned fiscal consolidation.

Story continues

Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013, returned to growth a year later. The government expects economic growth of at least 3.9 percent this year versus 5 percent in 2017, boosted by exports and investments.

It hopes to end 2018 with a budget surplus of some 0.4 percent versus a deficit of 0.8 percent last year.

(Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Andrew Heavens)Ljubljana (AFP) - Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar tendered his resignation Wednesday after a court annulled the result of a referendum in the latest blow to his crisis-hit government, months ahead of planned elections.

"The forces of the past do not allow us to work for future generations," Cerar told a press conference. "I am tendering my resignation."

Earlier Wednesday the constitutional court invalidated the result of a referendum which approved a flagship government infrastructure project to upgrade transport links to Koper port on the Adriatic coast.

The project was estimated to cost around one billion euros and the government had hoped to start it before the summer.

The referendum, held in September 2017, resulted in a vote in favour of the building of a new railway line to service the town, Slovenia's only major commercial port.

The constitutional court found that the government had not acted with due impartiality as it spent public money to back a yes vote for the scheme.

The ruling was the latest blow for Cerar, whose Modern Centre Party (SMC) was bracing itself for difficult parliamentary elections due in June or July.

Former law professor Cerar, 54, took office in 2014 when SMC scored a stunning electoral victory just one month after being created, having vowed to lead Slovenia back from the edge of economic crisis.

The country was plunged into recession in 2012-13 by a crisis in its banking sector but last year registered growth of five per cent, its highest level in ten years.

However, recent months have seen several crises pile up as the government approaches the end of its term.

- 'Sabotage' -

Cerar said the ruling over the referendum was "the drop of water which made the vase overflow" for his fractious three-party coalition government.

On Wednesday he accused his coalition partners of recently "sabotaging" several government projects.

The ruling also came on the heels of a wave of strikes by public sector workers demanding higher pay.

Story continues

The government has resisting giving in to the demands, insisting that to do so would risk a new recession.

In November last year the fate of a Syrian refugee threatened with deportation also caused splits between the coalition partners.

Cerar said it was up to President Borut Pahor to decide whether or not to bring forward the elections. He will meet Pahor on Thursday.

The poll could result in an even more fractious parliament and a complicated process of forming a government.

Cerar's SMC is lagging in the polls behind the centre-right SDS party of former prime minister Janez Jansa and the Social Democrats currently in his coalition.

But outstripping them all is Marjan Sarec, former comedian turned politician, who is running on a vague platform and without an established party structure.

Previously known for his satirical impersonations of Slovenian politicians, he already created an upset in last year's presidential elections by making it to the second round and finishing six percentage points behind Pahor.

Sarec has campaigned on an anti-elite platform, a message that has struck a chord among a population whose widespread disillusionment with politics was evidenced by the record low turnout in the presidential election.Snapchat Map

Screenshot

Thousands of students walked out of their schools Wednesday to protest gun violence in the US and demand action from lawmakers.

Snapchat's Snap Maps are helping visualize the national moment in an incredible way.

Snapchat's Snap Map is helping users around the world visualize the massive movement protesting US gun violence that is being led by high-school students.

Tweet Embed:

//twitter.com/mims/statuses/973937933353934849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Incredible moment on social media -- East coast schools are walking out, calling on Congress to act on gun violence. @Snapchat's @SnapMap feature visualizing this movement in the most amazing way... pic.twitter.com/Tx1YF3GQO2

That dotted map is the result of 3,000 protests nationwide. The protests, which took the form of walkouts from school, were organized in response to the mass shooting that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.

Snapchat's popular Snap Map feature lets users locate friends and events on a map, with a heat map for context, and then lets you tap for footage. Similar screenshots of the Map feature were shared when South Florida students organized walkouts in February in honor of the victims.

Using crowdsourcing, Snapchat's Map helps show observers the moment's impact in a way news broadcasts may not be able to.

NOW WATCH: A father and son are growing fruit and vegetables 8 metres below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea  here's why

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Snapchat played a key visual role in the national student walkouts over gun violence  take a lookThe bridge trapped several vehicles underneath it, and reports indicate several people have been killed: AP

Witnesses of the bridge collapse at Florida International University in Miami have described a cloud of dust being sent into the air alongside a thunderous boom as the newly built, 950-tonne pedestrian structure smashed into the street below, trapping several vehicles.

The resulting scene, according to those near the site, was chaotic. People could be heard screaming from the trapped cars underneath the rubble of the bridge as emergency responders arrived and began to search for survivors.

The sound was thundering, Pique Philips, who was driving on the fourth floor of a parking garage adjacent to the bridge, told The Independent. Like an extremely loud boom.

Police on the scene told the Miami Herald that as many as six people were killed in the collapse, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue says that at least eight others were taken to the hospital on trauma alert. As many as six cars were caught beneath the collapsed structure.

Steven Ippolito Jr, a meteorologist with the National Weather service in Miami, says that he was a couple blocks down the street in traffic, waiting to turn right, when the bridge went down, seemingly without notice.

All of a sudden, the bridge just fell, Mr Ippolito told The Independent. There was law enforcement [police officers] right next to me, and I dont even think he knew how to react as his lights didnt go on, nor did he rush to see the scene immediately after.

Tonia Page, a witness who spoke with ABC News, said that the screams were terrifying.

As soon as I looked outside, I saw dust flying everywhere, Ms Page said. I knew the bridge had collapsed.

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While it was not immediately clear what caused the bridge collapsed, nearby construction workers speculated that it was an engineering failure, Monique O Madan, a reporter with the Miami Herald, tweeted, alongside a picture of men in orange vests and hard hats looking on at the toppled bridge. Ms Madan later tweeted that she had spoken to a woman whose car had been smashed by the bridge.

Story continues

"Katrina Collazo was at a red light when she said she felt something like small rocks fall on her car," the tweet reads. "As she turned around, the whole back seat was smashed and the car next to her, buried."

Florida International University released a statement saying that they are shocked and saddened, and that they plan on continuing the efforts to determine what went wrong.

We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge, the statement read. At this time we are still involved in the rescue efforts and gathering information. We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene. We will share updates as we have them.

The bridge was described as an instant bridge before its collapse, because it was installed in a single morning on Saturday. The bridge, which had not yet opened, cost $9 million and was funded through a 2013 US Department of Transportation grant.

The bridge had been constructed to connect the Florida International University campus to the nearby community of Sweetwater, which is estimated to be where 4,000 students of the school live.JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African court granted bail on Thursday to six police officers charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the 2012 killing of striking mine workers at Lonmins Marikana mine. They were the first officers to faces charges over what has become known as the "Marikana massacre" in which police opened fire on a group of people to disperse a wildcat strike, resulting in the deaths of 34 striking miners. The total death toll from the violence, the bloodiest security incident in post-apartheid South Africa, was 44 with 10 people killed in clashes leading up to the shooting, including two police officers. The case was investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), a unit within the police force which investigates suspected law-breaking by officers. The IPID's spokesman did not respond to a telephone request for comment. A separate judicial inquiry set up by former South African president Jacob Zuma largely laid the blame on the police for what it called "ill-planned and poorly commanded operations". South Africa's worst police killing since the end of apartheid sparked intense public and media criticism towards the police, mining companies, unions, the ruling African National Congress and Zuma himself. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by James Macharia and Jason Neely)CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa will not allow illegal land grabs, new President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday, as the country prepares to expropriate land without compensation following a vote in parliament. Ramaphosa, who replaced Jacob Zuma as president in February, is under pressure to deliver on promises to speed up land reform after slow progress at redistributing land to the country's black majority since the end of white minority rule in 1994. "We cannot have a situation where we allow land grabs, because that is anarchy," Ramaphosa said in a speech in parliament. "We cannot have a situation of anarchy when we have proper constitutional means through which we can work to give land to our people." Since parliament endorsed a motion to change the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation late last month, a Reuters reporter saw people frustrated with the sluggish pace of land reform seizing land outside Pretoria. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has long promised reforms to redress racial disparities in land ownership, but moves to expropriate land without compensation gathered pace after the party formally backed the policy in December. Ramaphosa has stressed that food production and security in the continent's biggest maize producer, must not be threatened by land reform. The land issue in Africa's most industrialized economy remains highly emotive more than two decades after the end of apartheid as white people still own most of South Africa's land following centuries of brutal colonial dispossession. South Africa has a history of colonial conquest and dispossession that pushed the black majority into crowded urban townships and rural reserves. It has worried some economists and farming groups, which have warned of a potentially devastating impact on the agricultural sector. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by James Macharia)SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates next week as part of efforts to deepen bilateral ties, Moon's office said on Thursday. The office said Moon is scheduled to land in Hanoi on March 22 for a three-day stay, during which he will meet Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. The trip is Moon's second to Vietnam after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Danang in November. In Indonesia last November, Moon unveiled the "New Southern Policy" aimed at better connecting South Korea to Southeast Asia and expand the economic clout of Asia's fourth-largest economy in the region home to more than half a billion people. "Vietnam is our largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and a core partner country for our New Southern Policy", Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. Moon will arrive in United Arab Emirates on March 24 for a three-day stay, Kim said. South Korea is building four nuclear reactors in the Middle Eastern country, and has been stationing a unit of special forces to train UAE troops since 2011. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Richard Borsuk)After spending a year in space, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is not the man he used to be  at least genetically speaking.

His genetic expression has changed, according to preliminary results from a NASA study that compared the bodily changes between the astronaut and his identical twin, who stayed on Earth while Kelly was aboard the International Space Station.

About 7 percent of Kellys gene activity has yet to return to normal  almost two years after his yearlong expedition came to an end. Kelly has since retired from NASA.

The Twins Study, as its been dubbed, looked at what happened to Kelly  both from a physiological and psychological perspective  before, during and after his trip in space, and then compared that data to Kellys twin brother, Mark.

Mark Kelly is also a retired NASA astronaut. Unlike his brother, however, who spent months at a time in space, Marks missions were on the shorter side. His last  and longest  mission, which took place in 2011, lasted 15 days.

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NASA described the research as a perfect nature versus nurture study  one that could provide important insights into the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body.

By measuring large numbers of [the brothers] metabolites, cytokines and proteins, researchers learned that spaceflight is associated with oxygen deprivation stress, increased inflammation, and dramatic nutrient shifts that affect gene expression, NASA said of the studys initial findings.

Although most of the biological changes Kelly experienced in space disappeared in the hours and days (and in some cases, weeks) after his return to Earth, NASA said some alterations appear to have persisted.

While 93 percent of his genetic expression has returned to normal, several hundred space genes still have changed activity levels, the data suggests. NASA said this could indicate longer term changes in genetic expression, caused by the stresses of spaceflight.

NASA said it would be releasing more findings from the Twins Study in the coming months. This research, they added, will inform their planning for a mission to Mars, which would see astronauts spending some three years in space.

Story continues

Reacting to the news of the study results this week, Kelly expressed amazement at his bodys changes  and also used the opportunity to poke fun at his brother.

This could be good news, he joked on Twitter. I no longer have to call [Mark] my identical twin brother anymore.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated that some of Kellys genes had changed. While his genes are the same, some of the gene expression has changed.

Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.It was bedlam on the beach as Inside Edition's cameras captured this year's spring break antics, including binge drinking, raunchy behavior and arrests.

Spring break is underway at South Padre Island, Texas, where Inside Editions Chief Investigative Correspondent Lisa Guerrero was on the beach with thousands of students.



"Let me ask you a serious question," she said to a group of girls. Are you worried at all about your safety?

"I am worried about my safety," one replied.

"We don't take drinks from other guys," another said.



We all have to stay together," replied a third girl.

But another potential danger is hiding in plain sight: Balconies.

In a YouTube video, daredevils are seen taking dangerous leaps off balconies and into the hotel pools below.

Balconies may seem safe, and they usually are, but students are killed or injured after falling from them each year.

Last year, two spring breakers died after falling from a hotel balcony in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

And according to police in South Padre Island, a 21-year-old reveler was perched on a seventh floor balcony when she slipped and plummeted to her death in 2015.

Guerrero watched plenty of binge drinking on balconies and spotted one spring breaker sitting on the railing.

During one out-of-control midnight pool party, Guerrero spotted a group of guys standing on chairs and tables on a balcony. She went to the ninth floor to try and talk to them but they refused to speak to her.

Guerrero then spoke to others she spotted on another balcony. They assured her they would not do anything dangerous.

None of us are going to climb on the balcony and do anything dumb, one girl told Guerrero.

I've had a friend halfway off the balcony almost falling off and I have had to grab them and be like, 'You cant be that dumb,' another student told Inside Edition.

With weeks of spring break still yet to come, lets hope the party stays fun but safe.

Story continues

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Related Articles:The Late Show host Stephen Colbert jokingly suggested Tuesday night that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee brought their Russia investigation to a close because they dont want to be sprayed with nerve agent.

On Monday night, Republicans on the committee announced that their investigation had come to a close. They said that a draft report of their findings contradicts U.S. intelligence agencies view of Russias attempt to interfere in the election with respect to [Russian President Vladimir] Putins supposed preference for candidate Trump. The announcement was slammed by Democrats on the panel, including top Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who called the decision a tragic milestone for this Congress.

A day later, Colbert had his first chance to weigh in. Yes, after a yearlong investigation they have examined all the evidence, and they have concluded they do not want to be sprayed with a nerve agent," Colbert said. It was a reference to the recent nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the U.K., an incident British Prime Minister Theresa May said was highly likely to have been carried out by Russia.

Trending: How Did Stephen Hawking's Speech and Communication Tools Work?

The GOP here reached an opposite conclusion Monday from the entire intelligence community, but anyone who watched the committee work over the past year already knew that they were opposed to intelligence, Colbert added.

Indeed, The Hill reported that Democrats on the committee have claimed Republicans left several topics of the investigation untouched or inadequately explored. Democrats also vowed to continue to pursue these lines of investigation despite the committees findings.

The end of the House committee's official inquiry has no bearing on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian election interference. Thirteen Russians were recently indicted as part of the probe on charges of election interference, and there are no signs of Muellers investigation coming to a close any time soon.

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA motor neurone disease (MMD) charity said an influx of donations and visitors to its website following the death of Stephen Hawking caused it to crash as it couldnt cope with the overwhelming demand.

The MND Association, based in the UK, said it had so many visitors to its site following the death of the renowned physicist at the age of 76, that its servers could not cope.

Hawking, who became a patron of the charity in 2008, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of MND, when he was 21 years old.

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Despite many people with the disease dying within the first few years of diagnosis, with around a third not surviving past a year, Hawking managed to live for more than 50 years until his death at his home on 14 March.

While the website was down, the MND tweeted out a link to a separate donations page set up in their name where people could show their support.

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The charity paid tribute to the professor for everything he achieved while coping with the debilitating disease which effects nerve cells.

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Sally Light, Chief Executive of the MND Association, said: Through so many years in the public eye he did a huge amount to raise awareness of MND, yet he never allowed himself to be defined by his illness. His approach to life with MND is an example to all of us.

We were honoured that Professor Hawking was a patron of the Association and inspired by his tenacity to keep pushing boundaries.

Nick Goldup, Director of Care Improvement, MND Association, said: Prof Hawking was a remarkable man, who lived with MND far longer than many would have anticipated.

Around a third of people with MND die within a year of diagnosis and as yet we have no cure and no effective treatment.

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The disease eventually confined Hawking to a wheelchair. He lost his voice in 1985 after catching pneumonia and undergoing an operation to restore his breathing.

He was fitted with a voice box to help him communicate, with the electronic voice it emitted becoming one of his trademarks. Despite being born in Cambridge, England, the voice which became one of the most instantly recognisable in the world was an American accent.

We are currently looking at ways that people living with MND can bank their own voices so that when they need to use a computerised system they can still use their very own voice, albeit generated artificially, said Steve Bell, Deputy Director of Care at the MND Association.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPorn star Stormy Daniels launched a crowdfunding campaign Wednesday to help cover the cost of her legal battle against President Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid her $130,000 days before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about alleged sexual relations she had with Trump a decade earlier.

The campaign raised more than $130,000  the amount Cohen paid her, and which she has offered to return  in a little more than a day.

I am attempting to speak honestly and openly to the American people about my relationship with now President Donald Trump and the intimidation and tactics used against me, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, writes on the campaigns website. But unfortunately, I do not have the vast resources to fight Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen alone.

Both Cohen and the White House have denied that any sexual encounter between Trump and Daniels ever occurred.

According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this month, Daniels says that in October 2016, Trump, through Cohen, coerced her into signing a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from speaking publicly about the year-long sexual relationship she says had with Trump beginning in 2006. In return, Daniels was paid $130,000  a payment Cohen says he facilitated without Trumps knowledge to protect the then Republican nominee.

Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, has called Cohens claim that Trump didnt know about the arrangement laughable.

In the suit, Avenatti and Daniels claim Trump never signed the agreement and that it should be null and void.

Last week, Daniels offered to return the $130,000 she received from Cohen, allowing her to speak freely about her alleged affair with Trump  and to 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. But under the terms of the agreement, if it stands up in court, she could be liable for a $1 million penalty each time she violates it.

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In an interview with CNN on Friday, Avenatti said Daniels has evidence to back her claims.

We have substantial evidence and facts that were not included in the complaint, Avenatti said.

The complaint also alleges that late last month, Cohen surreptitiously initiated a bogus arbitration proceeding against Daniels. According to the suit, Cohen did so without even providing [Daniels] with notice of the proceeding and basic due process.

At the White House last week, press secretary Sarah Sanders cited that case in her response to a question about the allegations, saying, This case has already been won in arbitration.

Avenatti responded by mocking Trump.

Yeah. And he also won the popular vote, Avenatti said.

I think when shes allowed to speak openly, and the American people hear her explanation, theyre going to judge for themselves whether shes credible, he said.

The public explanation may be coming soon. Last week, Anderson Cooper sat down with Daniels and Avenatti for an interview that will be broadcast on an upcoming episode of 60 Minutes, according to CBS.

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On her fundraising page, Daniels said she needs funds to pay for attorneys fees; out-of-pocket costs associated with the lawsuit, arbitration, and my right to speak openly; security expenses; and damages that may be awarded against me if I speak out and ultimately lose to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.

The campaign has elicited pledges from more than 4,000 people, many of whom posted messages of encouragement with their donations.

I never thought as a 51-year-old woman Id be giving money to a porn star. Yet, here I am, someone who pledged $10 wrote. Go get him, honey.

Supporting your legal fees, wrote another contributor to Daniels campaign. If Muellers findings cant take the Trump administration down, maybe your story can.

Another echoed a famous remark by former FBI Director James Comey regarding a conversation he had with Trump: Lordy, I hope there are tapes.

Read more from Yahoo News:Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels attends the 2018 Adult Video News Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The adult film star who is suing President Donald Trump for the right to talk about their alleged affair has started a crowdfunding campaign to pay her legal bills.

Stephanie Clifford, better known by stage name Stormy Daniels, sued Mr Trump this week over a nondisclosure agreement she claims he paid her to sign in the months before the election. Ms Daniels wants to invalidate the agreement and speak openly about the alleged affair, which she says occurred in 2006.

Mr Trump, through spokespeople, has said the affair never happened.

On a newly established Crowd Justice page, Ms Daniels asked for help paying the attorney's fees, security expenses, and out-of-pocket costs associated with the lawsuit. She also asked her funds in the event that she is ordered to pay damages for speaking out.

I am attempting to speak honestly and openly to the American people about my relationship with now President Donald Trump, as well as the intimidation and tactics that he, together with his attorney Michael Cohen, have used to silence me, Ms Daniels wrote.

She added: I am more fortunate than many, many people in this country. And for that I am grateful. But unfortunately, I do not have the vast resources to fight Mr Trump and Mr Cohen alone.

The page raised more than $10,000 on Wednesday  the same day it was started.

In her lawsuit, Ms Daniels claims Mr Cohen coerced her into signing a statement saying the affair never happened. The statement was issued in January, after the Wall St Journal first reported on the $130,000 payment.

In the months since, Mr Cohen has won a restraining order against Ms Daniels, preventing her from speaking out as her legal challenge continues. The actress is reportedly worried that the order will prevent CBS from airing her recent interview with Anderson Cooper.

A hearing for the suit has been set for 12 July at the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Mr Cohen has admitted to paying Ms Daniels the $130,000, but maintains that Mr Trump had no idea that he transaction occurred. Mr Trump has never admitted knowledge of the payment.

Story continues

Ms Daniels offered to return the money earlier this week, in exchange for the ability to speak openly. On her Crowd Justice page, she said the president and his attorneys never responded to the offer.

The watchdog group Common Cause filed has also filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and Department of Justice over the payment, naming both Mr Trump and Mr Cohen. The group claims the payment to Ms Daniels was an in-kind campaign contribution that was never properly reported.

Mr Cohen has called the allegations in the complaint baseless.

Related Video:

Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.

While students at schools across the country participated in a National School Walkout to protest gun violence in the wake of the deadly February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida, the walkout at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado carried extra emotional weight.

SEE ALSO: Lin-Manuel Miranda, James Corden, and other big names show their support during the National School Walkout

The April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine was devastating in its scope and marked a new stage in the way the media  and the country  reacted to school shootings. A total of 13 people were killed: 12 students and one teacher. It remains one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country's history.

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Though few, if any, students currently at Columbine were alive at the time of the shooting, they've grown up with the specter of it hanging over them, from stories from parents and siblings to the school's memorial to the victims. This tragic part of the school's history gives them a deep connection to the Parkland survivors and other victims of gun violence.

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In a sense, the modern epidemic of school shootings  and the way we debate the fallout  started at Columbine. For an entire generation, it will always be the first incident that comes to mind on the topic.

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But while the shootings at Columbine and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are separated by nearly two decades, the students at both schools stood united on Wednesday  along with thousands of other students across the land  in the fight against the gun violence that continues to plague the country.Syria's devastating civil war reached its seventh year Thursday, with President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies taking on the last of the insurgents trying to unseat him. Meanwhile, the U.S. is caught in the middle of a new conflict between two of its partners.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitor tied to Syria's exiled opposition, reported Monday that more than 500,000 people have been killed since protests against Assad and his Baathist government broke out on March 15, 2011. In addition to the dead, many of whom have been civilians, the U.N. has estimated up to 5.4 million people have fled Syria and another 6.1 million have been internally displaced by the fighting.

When a series of regional demonstrations against political corruption, economic grievances and social repression reached Syria, it was met with a harsh response from local security forces, who were soon faced with an armed opposition backed by the West, Turkey and Gulf Arab states.

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In the ensuing chaos, jihadi Sunni Muslim organizations such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) spread through rebel ranks, prompting Kurds to form their own militias that were officially backed by the U.S. in October 2015, a month after Russia began its aerial campaign in support of Assad. These Kurdish fighters formed the vanguard for the ground assault for a U.S.-led coalition bombing ISIS, but they have sided with Assad last month against a joint Turkish and rebel assault launched against Kurdish areas in Afrin, northwestern Syria.

As the Syrian military, backed by Russian warplanes and various pro-government militiasmany of which were Iran-backed, mostly Shiite Muslim groupstook out the last of ISIS in eastern Syria they have once again focused their efforts toward battling the final strongholds of rebels and jihadis in the west, notably the northwestern province of Idlib and the Damascus suburbs of eastern Ghouta.

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World powers have so far failed to find a solution to the complex conflict and, meanwhile, the fighting rages on in Afrin and eastern Ghouta, with all combatants blaming one another for one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. After seven years of conflict, these images show not only death and destruction but the cautious rehabilitation of some parts of Syria, even as others continue to suffer.

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekOn Wednesday, students nationwide left class to honor the 17 teenagers who died in the Parkland shooting, and to protest lax gun control laws in the United States.

SEE ALSO: This comic breaks down student protesters' rights ahead of National School Walkout for gun control

But on #NationalWalkoutDay, 16-year-old Justin Blackman realized that he was the only student at Wilson Preparatory Academy in Wilson, North Carolina to participate in the protest.

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"It's National Walkout Day, I'm the only one from my school out here," he said in a video he tweeted. Im just going to be chilling here for the next 15 minutes.

According to CNN, about 700 students attend Wilson Preparatory Academy. Blackman was the only student to leave class. He spent 17 minutes outside, one for every person who died at Stoneman Douglas High School last month, and then walked back to his Spanish class.

The school declined to comment on the issue, but told CNN Blackman is an "independent thinker."

He didn't think that anyone would care. Theres going to be like six people watching this hopefully," he said in the video.

Instead, Blackman received an outpouring of support from people around the country.

Lindsay Knauf, who's from Newtown, Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook school shooting occurred in 2012, thanked Blackman for standing up.

"Seeing the action that is finally taking place means the world to all of us here," she tweeted at him.

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Filmmaker and A Wrinkle In Time director Ava DuVernay retweeted Blackman's video with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

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Alexis Tracton, a freshman at Stoneman Douglas, thanked Blackman. "I'm inspired by you for being a leader," she tweeted at him, "Every little thing makes a difference."

Story continues

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Since it was posted, Blackman's video was viewed more than 2.6 million times at the time of writing, and has received more than 11,000 comments.

Blackman isn't the only student to walk out alone at school; second grader Leonardo Aguilar joined the high schoolers in San Jose because he was reportedly the only one to leave his classroom.

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And school officials in Sayreville, New Jersey threatened Rosa Rodriguez with suspension for leaving class, but she did it anyway.

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This may be the start of Blackman's career in leadership. The high schooler runs a YouTube channel for gaming, but he's thinking about starting one dedicated to politics.

"I'm young and I HAVE A VOICE!!!!" he tweeted.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View.On Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged healthcare technology startup Theranos Inc. with fraud. Included in the charge is founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes as well as previous president Ramesh Sunny Balwani. According to a release, the SEC says the company received more than $700 million from investors by falsifying claims about their performance and product.

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The Silicon Valley-based Theranos was founded in 2003 and claimed its portable blood analyzer could perform comprehensive tests nearly anywhere with only a few drops of blood from the finger. However, the SEC says the product could perform just a small sample of tests and used tools made by other companies.

The SEC also asserted that Theranos's claim that their product was used by the U.S. Department of Defense in Afghanistan is not true. The charge also highlights the company's declaration that it would make more than $100 million in revenue in 2014; in reality Theranos made less than $200,000 in revenue from operations that year, according to the release.

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The SEC says that Theranos and Holmes will pay a penalty. In addition, Holmes will give up her majority voting control and reduce her equity in the company.

According to Fortune magazine, Theranos secured a $100 million loan in December 2017 after the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. A 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation showed that the company, once valued at $9 billion had been using the technology of other companies to perform its tests. That investigation led to a series of stories that took down the company, including a Financial Times piece that questioned the validity of certain partnerships and numerous stories on quality issues. Holmes had previously been dubbed "The next Steve Jobs."

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekInfosys, a company from India that has promised to bring 500 jobs to a "design and innovation hub" in Providence, announced Wednesday that it will bring 1,000 jobs to a similar hub in Hartford.

On Thursday, Infosys global software major said it will soon open a technology and innovation hub in the USA state of CT and hire about 1,000 American workers by 2022.

The India-based company with almost 200,000 employees worldwide already had about 300 to 400 people in Rhode Island - most working for Citizens Bank - when it announced its design hub late previous year.

"Hartford's position as the world's insurance capital, paired with Connecticut's academic institutions will place us in proximity to clients and accelerate the recruitment of local talent", asserted Kumar in the statement. The hub in CT will have a special focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing, Infosys said in a regulatory filing late last night.

CBSE denies Class 12 Accountancy paper leaked on Social Media

Manish Sisodia took to Twitter to clarify the situation and said that swift action must be taken against whoever is responsible. According to the Indian Express news, the CBSE paper was also being shared on messaging app Whatsapp.

Dan Seguro de Desempleo a locatarios de mercado siniestrado

El servidor publico explico que mil 814 metros cuadrados fueron afectados en los que habia un total de 250 locales de 970 que tiene el mercado.

Share Buyback Program Approved by Rayonier Advanced Materials (NYSE:RYAM) Board

Analysts are also projecting an Average Revenue Estimate for Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc.as $510890 in the Current Quarter. Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc (NYSE:RYAM)'s price distance from 52-week high is -8.56 and from 52-week low is 65.07.

The hub will include insurance and healthcare labs that will focus on smart underwriting, claims fraud, IoT (Internet of Things) and cloud, and will employ data security and data sharing features to help Infosys clients comply with all applicable privacy laws while promoting innovation.

"Connecticut is a hub for health care innovation, and these capabilities are a key part of Cigna's global growth strategy", said EVP and global chief information officer at Cigna, Mark Boxer. "I look forward to working with the leadership at Infosys as they establish a big presence here in our capital city". "We are excited to announce the expansion of our presence in CT and to create 1,000 technology jobs in the state", Infosys President Ravi Kumar said. "With Infosys' expanded presence and focus on attracting and training top local talent, Infosys will strengthen Connecticut's innovation ecosystem and help to develop the technology workforce of the future", Loree added.

The technology services and consulting company's first technology and innovation hub is in Indianapolis, and it has announced one for Raleigh, North Carolina.On Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former president and chief operating officer Ramesh Sunny Balwani with massive fraud.

Theranos, a blood testing company, claimed that it could perform a wide-range of laboratory tests using just a finger pricks worth of blood. The company was founded in 2003 by then-19-year-old Holmes, a Stanford dropout who was once seen as a Silicon Valley wunderkind.

The claims, if true, would have been revolutionary. Investors poured money into Theranos. The company was once valued at $9 billion.

The SEC settled with Theranos and Holmes, who did not deny or admit the allegations. In the settlement, which is subject to court approval, she will pay a $500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos by converting her super-majority Theranos Class B Common shares to Class A Common shares, according to the SEC complaint.

The commission is pursuing charges against Balwani, who left the company in 2016, in federal district court in Northern California.

Why were Theranos, Holmes and Balwani charged?

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged Silicon Valley-based private company Theranos Inc., its founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes and its former president Ramesh Sunny Balwani with raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they allegedly exaggerated or made false statements about the companys technology, business, and financial performance, according to the SEC complaint.

The SEC alleges that Theranos made misleading media statements, investor presentations and more claiming that its blood testing technology (a machine known as the Edison) could perform far more laboratory tests than it really could. In reality, investors said, the company used traditional testing methods and machines built by other companies.

Story continues

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Additionally, the complaint charged that the company claimed its technology was used by the U.S. Department of Defense on the ground in Afghanistan. A presentation also boasted that Theranos was expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue in 2014.

The DOD never used Theranos, the complaint states, and the 2014 revenue was actually around $100,000.

Theranos gave the following statement to Forbes regarding the SEC charges: The Company is pleased to be bringing this matter to a close and looks forward to advancing its technology.

Whats the background in all of this?

The SEC spent over two years investigating the company after a 2015 Wall Street Journal story called the Theranos technology into question.

Reporter John Carreyrou, troubled by the companys secrecy in a New Yorker article, investigated the companys claims. His reporting alleged that the company was not using its signature technology to do the majority of the tests that it advertised  but was using traditional machines. Former employees who spoke to Carreyrou also reportedly worried about the accuracy of the signature technology, the Edison.

In 2016, after an investigation the companys Newark, California lab, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notice saying that it was determined that the deficient practices of the laboratory pose immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety.

In 2016, the company told regulators that it voided two years worth of tests, according the Wall Street Journal.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid revoked the companys license to run the lab, and placed sanctions on Holmes forbidding her from owning or operating a lab for two years.

Theranos settled with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, in 2017. Theranos agreed to stay out of the blood testing business for two years in exchange for a smaller monetary penalty ($30,000) and the withdrawing of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid revocation of the Theranos CLIA operating certificates, according to Reuters.

In 2017, the company settled with Walgreens, which once partnered with the lab. It also settled a suit with a former backer, the hedge fund Partner Fund Management, which had invested millions in the company in 2014.Lima (AFP) - Three European tourists were banished from the Incan citadel Machu Picchu in Peru after taking photos of themselves exposing their backsides, police said Wednesday.

The visitors -- a 21-year-old from Germany, a 24-year-old from Switzerland and a 26-year-old from the Netherlands -- were expelled from the site on Tuesday, according to authorities.

"The three tourists dropped their pants to show their buttocks and took photos," police official Martin Flores told AFP. "That is not allowed ... in accordance with internal rules in place there, the three tourists were expelled, but they were not detained."

Peruvian authorities consider undressing at Machu Picchu disrespectful. The majestic 15th century stone citadel -- the jewel in Peru's tourism industry -- is located 74 kilometers (45 miles) from Cusco, former capital of the Incan Empire, in southeastern Peru.

Built on the top of a mountain, it blends into surrounding thick foliage.

In June 2014 Peru's culture ministry reiterated that nudity is banned after a wave of visitors snapping offensive pictures.

Spanish colonizers never knew of Machu Picchu, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1983. It was discovered in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham.Washington (AFP) - 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.Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump insisted Thursday the United States maintained a trade deficit with Canada, contradicting official statistics and prodding the northern neighbor as fraught trade talks continue.

The morning Twitter post from the president followed reporting in The Washington Post, which said Trump had boasted of fabricating trade data during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"We do have a trade deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive)," Trump said on Twitter, adding that Trudeau "doesn't like saying that Canada has a surplus."

"But they do...they almost all do...that's how I know."

The United States -- which imports high volumes of raw materials and commodities, including oil, lumber and paper from Canada -- exported $2.8 billion more to Canada than it imported from the country in 2017, the Commerce Department reported this month.

Considering only goods trade, however, the United States did run a $17.6 billion deficit with Canada last year. Trump has in the past discounted services when discussing bilateral trade balances.

Trump last year launched trilateral negotiations with Canada and Mexico to overhaul the North-American Free Trade Agreement, which the president has described as a "disaster," costing US jobs and undermining domestic industrial production.

The talks have been acrimonious, however, with Canadian and Mexican officials rejecting US proposals and prompting worries of an outright US withdrawal.

The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that Trump had boasted to political donors that he had "no idea" if his claims of a trade deficit with Canada were true when he spoke recently with Trudeau.

Trump recalled the exchange with Justin Trudeau in a fundraising speech in Missouri, of which the paper said it had obtained an audio recording.

- 'I had no idea' -

"Trudeau came to see me. He's a good guy, Justin. He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,'" Trump was quoted as saying, imitating Trudeau.

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"Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed.

"... So, he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.'"

Trump added: "You know why? Because we're so stupid. ... And I thought they were smart. I said, 'Youre wrong, Justin.' He said, 'Nope, we have no trade deficit.' I said, 'Well, in that case, I feel differently,' I said, 'but I don't believe it.' I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, 'Check, because I can't believe it.'"

Trudeau met with Trump at the White House in October of last year, when the conversation purportedly took place.

The Missouri speech also saw the president lash out at US allies and major global economies over trade.

Trump said allies including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, as well as China, had ripped off the United States and American workers.

"Our allies care about themselves," he said. "They don't care about us."

He seemed to suggest that the United States would withdraw troops stationed in South Korea if it did not get its way with Seoul on trade.

Trump criticized other politicians for wanting to keep the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which is being renegotiated at Trump's insistence.

Trump called Mexico "spoiled" and said Canada had outsmarted the United States.Washington (AFP) - A senior White House advisor on trade said Thursday that President Donald Trump would soon consider fresh punitive measures against Beijing over its "theft" of US intellectual property.

The warning raises the temperature for currently fraught US foreign relations, in which Trump's aggressive trade maneuvers have taken center stage.

With tariffs recently announced on major imports including steel and aluminum, trade war fears have sent markets tumbling and left US trading partners torn between conciliation and pushback in response.

"In the coming weeks, President Trump is going to have on his desk some recommendations," Peter Navarro said on CNBC.

"This will be one of the many steps the president is going to courageously take in order to address unfair trade practices."

Chinese officials have warned they are likely to retaliate in kind. Speaking at a regular briefing on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: "History has proven that a trade war is in no one's interest."

"If an undesirable situation arises, China has the intention of safeguarding its legitimate rights," he said.

The United States has long accused Beijing of forcing US companies to turn over proprietary commercial information and intellectual property as a condition of operating in China.

The office of the US Trade Representative launched an inquiry into the matter in August and is due to submit its findings to the White House soon.

The newly ascendant Navarro emerged triumphant last week when former top economic advisor Gary Cohn resigned following a bruising internal battle over whether to impose the steel and aluminum tariffs.

- ' Cracking down' -

Trump himself has for decades held nationalistic views on trade and opposed globalization.

But the new tariffs have drawn rebukes from top lawmakers in Trump's own Republican Party as well as fierce opposition from industry groups, which fear rising consumer prices and raw materials costs as well as diminished access to export markets.

Story continues

The Harvard-trained Navarro rose to prominence by publishing anti-Beijing diatribes on trade and is an outlier among more mainstream economists, who believe excessive tariffs will be self-defeating.

"I don't think ... anybody on Wall Street will oppose cracking down on China's theft of our intellectual property," Navarro said Thursday.

The United States on Wednesday launched a trade dispute with India at the World Trade Organization over export subsidies.

Officials say the White House's actions on intellectual property could include a raft of retaliatory tariffs on billions of dollars of tech and telecommunications imports from China.

Documents seen Wednesday by AFP also indicated the United States has proposed WTO reforms that would punish member countries which fail to abide by certain rules -- a move seen as aimed squarely at Beijing, which the Trump administration says is not a market economy and should not have been admitted the WTO.

Navarro added Thursday that fears of tit-for-tat countermeasures and subsequent harm to growth were overblown.

"We're going to work with our allies and trading partners to make things better for everybody," Navarro said.

"I think it'll be fine if you just look at the chess board because nobody really has any incentive to pick a fight with us. They're getting too good a deal from us."By John Walcott and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gina Haspel, the veteran CIA undercover officer President Donald Trump picked on Tuesday to head the agency, is supported by many in the U.S. intelligence community but has faced criticism for overseeing a secret CIA prison in Thailand where detainees were tortured. Intelligence officers who served with her, and congressional officials said that in 2002, during Republican President George W. Bush's administration, she was responsible for the secret prison code-named "Cat's 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 Bush's presidency, she carried out an order to destroy videotapes of the waterboarding, which simulates drowning and is considered a form of torture, according to those people. Haspel is generally held in high regard at the CIA, working as deputy director under Mike Pompeo, whom Trump nominated to be the next secretary of state on Tuesday after firing Rex Tillerson from the post. If confirmed by the Senate, Haspel would become the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. But she could face close scrutiny in her confirmation hearings over her involvement in "black site" facilities, so called because their existence is unacknowledged by the U.S. government. Her nomination faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, which Trump's fellow Republicans control 51-49. She could be opposed by all the Democrats, and some Republicans may also oppose her, including Senator Rand Paul, who has called a news conference on Wednesday to discuss the nomination. "The torture of detainees in U.S. custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," said Republican Senator John McCain, who was himself tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "Ms. Haspel needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program during the confirmation process." In 2009, days after taking office, Democratic President Barack Obama banned "enhanced interrogation techniques," including waterboarding, and ordered the closure of the secret detention sites. Trump defended the torture of detainees during the 2016 presidential race, saying it "works." He has not taken any action to reverse Obama's policy, but Haspel's nomination will fan concerns. 'REOPEN WOUNDS' "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. On Tuesday, some U.S. intelligence officials said reports of her alleged involvement in interrogations involving torture were false. But they did not immediately provide details. They did not dispute her involvement in drafting orders to destroy videotapes of harsh interrogation techniques, which was reported in the book "Hard Measures," by Jose Rodriguez, her boss in the agency at the time, and former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow. A CIA spokesman had no immediate comment. Democrats voiced opposition, including their top person on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, who said senators had "a lot of questions" about Haspel and they "deserved to have those questions answered, in an open hearing setting." Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican, promised to support her nomination and said he was "proud" of her work. If confirmed, Haspel would face immediate tests on policy, said three current intelligence officials. One is whether she and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis can prepare Trump adequately for his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A second, they said, is if she can help persuade Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin is an increasingly aggressive adversary, and that failing to confront him would weaken U.S. relations with its closest allies and with the CIA's most valuable partners. "She may face the same tough choice that Tillerson and others have faced: Stick to your convictions or knuckle under to keep your job," a fourth official said. Iran is a third test, those officials said. The U.S. intelligence assessment is that the 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear weapons program is on balance a good one, and that Trump's criticism of it threatens efforts to constrain Iran's nuclear ambitions and ties with the other nations that negotiated the pact, China, France, Germany, Britain and Russia. Some current and former CIA officials said they saw some benefit to naming an insider to head the agency. "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." Trump told reporters he had worked closely with Haspel and considered her "an outstanding person." Haspel has served in a number of undercover overseas posts, including as chief of the CIA's station in London and its 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. Daniel Hoffman, a former three-time station chief for the CIA, praised Haspel and said her nomination sent a powerful message inside the agency because she came up from the lower ranks. "Shes somebody who tries to bring disparate elements together," the kind of collaboration that is important in intelligence work, said Hoffman. "Shes got the highest level of intellectual integrity and honesty." (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Patricia Zengerle; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Mary Milliken, Will Dunham and Peter Cooney)WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump downplayed the significance of the Democratic victory in the special election in Pennsylvanias 18th Congressional District on Wednesday, claiming that Conor Lamb won because he tried to be like Trump.

Lamb, a political newcomer, was projected to defeat state Rep. Rick Saccone in Tuesdays election, although the margin was thin. It was a staggering show of Democratic strength in a deep-red Pennsylvania congressional district that Trump won by almost 20 points in 2016.

The young man last night that ran, he said, Oh, Im like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything. He ran on that basis, Trump said at a fundraiser in Missouri on Wednesday, according to The Atlantic. He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.

Lamb, in fact, ran against the GOP-passed tax cut law. And even conservative groups realized that the signature achievement of the Republican Congress wasnt resonating with voters; they shifted away from that issue as the campaign went on. Saccone, however, tried to sell himself as a politician in the mold of Trump.

Just last weekend, Trump campaigned outside of Pittsburgh for GOP candidate Rick Saccone, a state senator whose message was built on support of Trump and his policies. But what typically would have been an easy GOP victory on Tuesday evening became a narrow race between Saccone and Lamb that stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Lamb declared victory, leading by only a few hundred votes. By Wednesday evening, he was projected to win as the remaining absentee, provisional and military ballots would not have been enough for Saccone to surpass Lamb.

Trump claimed Wednesday that he lifted [Saccone] 7 points up, although its not clear how he came up with that number.

Its actually interesting, because its only a congressman for five months, Trump added, downplaying the results. Because of redistricting, the 18th District will exist in its current form only until the end of the year. Lambs hometown will be shifted into a new district, an area where Trump would have won by just 3 percentage points.

Story continues

Saccones projected loss would add to a string of embarrassing Republican performances in special elections as the 2018 midterm primaries loom. Trump has distanced himself from previous GOP special election losers, including Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was upset by Democrat Doug Jones.

The southwestern Pennsylvania congressional district, a traditional GOP bastion that includes the affluent south suburbs of Pittsburgh and rural towns in former coal country, became vacant late last year, when former Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) resigned after pressuring a woman with whom he had an affair to get an abortion.

Republicans had invested vast time and energy trying to prevent a close race against Lamb, who gained support in part by distancing himself from national Democrats and staking out more conservative positions.

In addition to Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and two of Trumps children, Donald Trump Jr. and White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump, had visited the area in recent weeks to drum up support for Saccone.

By Tuesday night, as a closer-than-expected race appeared likely, Republicans were already coming up with various reasons to blame Saccone and downplay the results, with one GOP strategist complaining about the candidates facial hair.

White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah suggested to reporters Wednesday that Trump should take credit for helping Saccone  a message similar to what the president said at the fundraiser later that night.

The presidents engagement in the race turned what was a deficit for the Republican candidate to what is essentially a tie, he said.

But Saccone was widely predicted to win the traditionally GOP district.

Shah also claimed that Lamb won because he really embraced the presidents policies and his vision.

Under Pennsylvania law, this congressional election does not automatically trigger a recount. Saccone could petition for a recount within five days.

Amanda Terkel contributed reporting.

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Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.President Donald Trump on Wednesday night said Democrat Conor Lamb defeated the Republican candidate, whom Trump campaigned for, in Pennsylvania in part because he supported the Republican tax cuts. That's false. Lamb ran against the tax cuts.

The young man last night that ran, he said, Oh, Im like Trump,'" the president told attendees at a private fundraising event for Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley, according to an audio recording obtained by The Atlantic. "'Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything. He ran on that basis.

Lamb did not love the tax cuts. He campaigned against the tax law that Republicans pushed through Congress without a single Democratic vote.

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The 33-year-old Congressman-elect called the tax cuts a "giveaway" to the richest 1 percent and corporations and criticized it as a "betrayal" to middle-class households, according to the Associated Press.

Speaking to supporters at a campaign rally, Lamb said Republicans had to "give tax relief to their donors, to the 1 percent and big corporations," the AP reported in February.

GettyImages-932132018

Eric Thayer-Pool/Getty Images

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Trump himself also tweeted about Lamb's opposition to the tax law, a signature piece of legislation for his administration, one day before the election. "Lamb will always vote for [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi and Dems.... Will raise taxes, weak on Crime and Border," he wrote on Monday.

Story continues

Two days later, after Lamb's narrow victory over Republican candidate Rick Saccone, Trump struck a more conciliatory tone. He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me, Trump said of Lamb, according to The Atlantic.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, also branded Lamb a "conservative," at his weekly news conference on Tuesday.

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"Both of these people, both of these candidates, the Republican and the Democrat, ran as conservatives, ran as pro-gun, pro-life, anti-Nancy Pelosi conservatives, and I think thats the takeaway you see here," he said.

Lamb, a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, has expressed his support for gun rights. His first television ad featured a photo of him shooting what appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle as the narrator said he "served four years in the Marines. Still loves to shoot." Lamb has also opposed an assault weapons ban, though he did endorsed "universal background checks."

In a rebuttal to Lamb's "conservative" labeling, Jon Favreauformer chief speechwriter for President Barack Obama and co-founder of Crooked Mediaenumerated his left-leaning policy positions in a tweet on Wednesday.

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Lamb edged out Saccone in the special election for Pennsylvania's 18th District, receiving 49.8 percent of votes to his challenger's 49.6 percent with 100 percent of districts reportinga difference of just 627 votes. Trump won that district by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDonald Trump reportedly boasted at a fundraising dinner about making up facts in a meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

The US President admitted he told Mr Trudeau America had a trade deficit with its North American neighbour when he actually had no idea if it was true, according to an audio recording obtained by The Washington Post.

Trudeau came to see me. Hes a good guy, Justin. He said, No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,  Mr Trump allegedly said to guests at the fundraiser in Missouri.

Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  Donald, we have no trade deficit. Hes very proud because everybody else, you know, were getting killed.

So, hes proud. I said, Wrong, Justin, you do. I didnt even know... I had no idea. I just said, Youre wrong. You know why? Because were so stupid And I thought they were smart. I said, Youre wrong, Justin.

He said, Nope, we have no trade deficit. I said, Well, in that case, I feel differently, I said, but I dont believe it. I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, Check, because I cant believe it.

In 2016, the US had a trade surplus of $12.5bn with Canada, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Well, sir, youre actually right, Mr Trump continued. We have no deficit, but that doesnt include energy and timber And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. Its incredible.

The comments emerged just hours after Mr Trudeau said he trusted the billionaire.

In terms of commitments that hes made to me, in conversations weve had about things that matter, he has been consistent with me, the prime minister told Bloomberg.

According to The Post, Mr Trump went on to launch an attack on the European Union, Japan, South Korea and China for their trade practices, and again described the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) as a disaster.

The 71-year-old also appeared to threaten to pull troops out of South Korea unless it gave the President what he wanted on trade, the newspaper reported.

Story continues

We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them, Mr Trump said. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Lets see what happens.

Our allies care about themselves. They dont care about us.

The White House has been contacted for comment.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President Donald Trump holds up a figurine handed to him by former Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt, right, after signing a policy directive to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually Mars, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, in Washington.

Space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea, Donald Trump told a group of US Marines yesterday. We may even have a Space Force, develop another one, Space Force.

Trump haters howledwhat a joke! Trumps Call For A Space Force Makes Him The Laughingstock Of The Galaxy, proclaimed the Huffington Post. But, with the unerring precision of a stopped clock twice a day, Trump has stumbled into a deadly serious policy debateand sided against his own administration.

Although the president took credit for the idea, saying he came up with it himself while fooling around in a meeting, there is a real push in Congress for a dedicated space force, called a Space Corps by its chief proponent, Alabama representative Mike Rogers. So far, Trumps Pentagon officials have said they dont support such a reorganization. Neither does the US Air Force, currently responsible for military activity in space.

The US does have good reason to focus on national security in orbit. The US military depends on space for everything from communications to navigation. Fears over nuclear-armed missiles and anti-satellite weapons are growing, and so is the amount of investment in economic activity in space. The recent launch of four unauthorized satellites, and the lack of any clear avenue of response from the government, underscores this reality.

The Trump administration has said its goal is to make the US the key home for private space investment, with National Space Council executive director Scott Pace saying that outer space is not a global commons, not the common heritage of mankind, not res communis, nor is it a public good.

The other reason the US might want a dedicated space force is more prosaic: The US Air Force is bad at buying space hardware, like rockets and satellites, cheaply and efficiently. One way to start fixing this long-running problem might be to adopt a clean slate, with a new agency. A model for a middle ground solution might be more of a Space Coast Guard than a Space Force, with civilian regulatory responsibilities as well as a military duties.

Story continues

Of course, the Air Force is fighting tooth and nail to hang on to its responsibilities, and its budget. The service has appointed a new three-star general to focus solely on space security in an effort to convince its critics that it is taking space seriously.

Trump, attracted to grand projects with huge budgets that smack of American exceptionalism, has been a rhetorical proponent of space exploration since he came into office, re-establishing the National Space Council and calling for a return to the moon. So far, his budget proposals have not demanded major change at NASA, and Congress has largely ignored his wishes and his nominee to run the space agency, representative Jim Bridenstine.

Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news.

More stories from Quartz:After first signaling that he would support increased gun-safety regulations in the wake of the deadly Parkland, Fla. shootings last month, President Donald Trump is now changing his focus to that of school disciplinary measures  namely, rolling back Obama-era guidelines that were designed to reduce racial bias in how students are punished.

But critics say of this new idea say not only will it fail to reduce school gun violence, but it also will encourage an approach to discipline that has been shown, in study after study, to be racially biased, with black students bearing the brunt of punishments.

(Photo: Getty Images)

There is no connection at all between the shooting and disciplinary policies, Scott Sargrad, managing director for think tank Center for American Progresss K-12 education policy, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. And especially not with schools moving towards more positive approaches to behavior. Furthermore, ignoring the wide racial gaps in school discipline is incredibly misguided, warns the former Obama administration Department of Education policy expert.

Thats particularly clear when examining the evidence. A 2014 report from the Department of Education, for example, found that even though black students make up only 18 percent of preschool enrollments nationally, nearly half of all preschoolers suspended from school during the 2011-2012 school year were black. And these numbers are likely to be even higher, because many preschoolers attend private preschools that are not required to report suspensions and expulsions. The data was confirmed by an analysis of data from the 2016 National Survey of Childrens Health by the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. The think tank found that black preschool students are 2.2 times more likely than other children to be expelled.

Students from surrounding schools gather in lower Manhattan to mark one month since the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida and to demand an end to gun violence on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Getty Images)

A September 2016 study by researchers at Yale Universitys Child Study Center found that early education staff tend to observe black children  and especially black boys  more closely when challenging behaviors are expected, and that white preschool teachers have lower expectations for the behavior of their black students versus their white students.

Story continues

Such findings are what contribute to the so-called preschool-to-prison pipeline, or the documented trend that the suspension or expulsion of young students leads to those same students being more likely to drop out of or fail high school, and wind up incarcerated later in life.

But preschool, of course, is not where problems of racial bias in school discipline end.

In the K-12 environment, the Obama administrations U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights found that black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than that of their white peers, with young women of color faring the worst of all. Even though boys receive more than two-thirds of all suspensions, black girls are suspended at higher rates than girls of any other race and most boys.

The discrimination experienced by students of color isnt limited to just school-specific discipline, either. Black students comprise only 16 percent of enrollees in American public schools, but represent 27 percent of students referred to law enforcement by faculty and administration and 31 percent of students subjected to school-related arrest. In comparison, white students comprise 51 percent of enrollees, 41 percent referred to law enforcement and 39 percent arrested.

Experts at the Center for American Progress point out that the Obama-era guidance seeks to rectify these injustices. They further say that accusations of governmental overreach in regard to the guidelines are misinformed, as they did not establish any new mandatory laws or policies  just suggestions and resources.

The guidelines certainly did not cause the Parkland, Fla., shooting, Sargrad says.

He points to a report released by the Center for American Progress in January that found huge racial disparities in terms of who was disciplined at the two largest school districts in the United States  New York City and Los Angeles. The report found that although white students make up 15 percent of the New York City district and account for only 8 percent of suspensions, African-American students there comprise 27 percent of the district, but account for 47 percent of suspensions. The numbers were similar in Los Angeles, where African-American students comprised just 8 percent of enrollment, but accounted for 39 percent of days suspended.

Students subject to these kinds of measures and who interact with the criminal justice system while in school are less likely to have success after high school, Sargrad says. This means that if black students are disproportionately being targeted by zero-tolerance behavior measures, they are also being disproportionately set up for less success in life, often leading to incarceration.

Aaron Durst, 17, a student at East High School in Denver, raises his hand in protest against gun violence on the Colorado State Capitol on March 14, 2018. (Photo: Getty Images)

The main issue when we talk about the school-to-prison pipeline is that there is an overreliance on punitive policies, particularly in districts with high proportions of students of color. These students are more likely to have law enforcement involved, even in minor disciplinary infractions, including the criminalization of even minor disruptions, he says. They are more likely to drop out of school altogether. Theyre less likely to go to college. Theyre less likely to get a job. And then they are more likely to become chronically connected to the criminal justice system.

Sargrad wrote in a brief just last week that Broward County, where Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is located, changed its disciplinary policies to move away from traditionally discriminatory zero-tolerance practices in 2013  a full year before the Obama administration guidance was issued. The district opted to reduce suspensions, expulsions, and arrests by implementing a new program that involved referring students to counseling services  successfully reducing arrests by two-thirds, with 90 percent of students who received counseling services not repeating the behavior for which they entered the program.

Sargrad also noted in his brief that the Obama-era guidance in no way serves as an infringement on law enforcements work. Had the shooter been arrested during a school-related incident  without a felony conviction or involuntary commitment to a mental health treatment facility  that still would would not have prevented him from legally buying a gun.

Last, Sargrad points out, the Parkland shooter was transferred from Marjory Stoneman Douglas to alternative schools multiple times  effectively an expulsion by another name. These measures did not prevent the shooting from happening but also probably further alienated him, as he returned to the school that removed him to commit mass murder, he writes.

Parents need to talk to school and district leadership and ask, Are you suspending for things like tardiness? Do you have consistent policies for things like talking back to teachers? Those types of policies can be really important to reduce the kind of bias inherent in the system, Sargrad says. Because this kind of systemic bias does exist and exists throughout all school districts everywhere  I think right now its unfortunate that this issue is being used as a distraction from the work of gun violence prevention.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

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Istanbul (AFP) - Grieving families on Thursday bade farewell to the young women killed in a plane crash over Iran while returning from a pre-wedding celebration for a Turkish businessman's daughter, in a tragedy that shocked the country.

Mina Basaran, 28, daughter of businessman Huseyin Basaran, had taken seven of her girlfriends to the United Arab Emirates for a trip ahead of her wedding in April.

But on their way home to Turkey, the private jet belonging to her father's company crashed over Iran killing all eight women, as well as the two female pilots and the air hostess.

Basaran was to be buried after a farewell ceremony at a mosque in the Atakoy district of Istanbul for her and two other victims attended by the Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Two other friends killed in the accident, Liana Hananel and Jasmin Baruh Siloni, members of Istanbul's Jewish community, were buried in separate ceremonies at two Jewish cemeteries in the districts of Ulus and Arnavutkoy.

The other passengers were laid to rest separately while hostess Eda Uslu was buried in Istanbul and pilot Melike Kuvvet, a former member of the Turkish air force, was buried in her home city of Konya.

Her pilot's overalls were laid on her coffin as relatives laid their heads on it in grief, television pictures showed.

Full-page tributes were placed by the family of Mina Basaran as well as her finance Murat Gezer who wrote, heartbreakingly: "My sweet-hearted angel. I love you very much. Wait for me."

They were due to marry on April 14 at the Ciragan Saray, an Ottoman-era palace by the Bosphorus.

Mina Basaran was already a board member of the family company while many of her seven girlfriends who accompanied her on the trip had successful careers with some already starting families.

Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation said the plane crashed after a technical problem whose origin remains unknown. The body of the other pilot, Beril Gerbes, has yet to be recovered.ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's planned visit to Washington on March 19 has been postponed, his spokesman said on Thursday, following the U.S. decision to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

The spokesman did not give a reason for the decision. On Wednesday, Cavusoglu said he hoped to build good relations with new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo but he must respect Turkey, amid deep tensions over Syria policy and other issues.

Turkey has been angered by Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the fight against Islamic State. Turkey sees the YPG as a terrorist group and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

There had been signs of an easing in strains between the NATO allies after a recent visit to Turkey by Tillerson, whom U.S. President Donald Trump sacked on Tuesday as secretary of state.

But Turkish media has seized on a tweet purportedly made by Pompeo after a failed coup in July 2016 - and before he became CIA director - which referred to Turkey as a "totalitarian Islamist dictatorship". The tweet was later removed.

Turkey has been angered by the U.S. failure to extradite the Pennsylvania-based cleric Ankara whom blames for orchestrating that attempted putsch and by the conviction of a Turkish banker in an Iran sanctions-busting case.

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan)Beirut (AFP) - A Turkish-led offensive to capture the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin in northern Syria has forced 30,000 civilians from its main city in 24 hours, a monitor said Thursday.

"More than 30,000 people were displaced since yesterday (Wednesday) as a result of Turkish bombardment against the city," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"They went to areas controlled by the Syrian regime and to the outskirts of the city" under the control of Kurdish militia, the monitoring group said.

On January 20, Turkey launched a major ground and air offensive on the Afrin enclave, with the support of Syrian Arab rebel proxies.

It claims to have now almost completely encircled the region's main city of Afrin.

An AFP correspondent inside the city saw hundreds of families cramming into the back of pick-up trucks and onto tractor-drawn carts as they prepared to leave the city via the only remaining exit.

Those who stayed behind formed long queues outside shops to buy bread and various food goods in preparation for a fully fledged siege by Turkish and allied forces.

Afrin is one of the cantons in the self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomous administration in northern Syria and Ankara is worried by the consolidation along its border of a de facto statelet ruled by a group it considers a terrorist organisation.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said on Wednesday two aviators had been killed in a F/A-18F Super Hornet crash during a training flight off the coast of Key West, Florida.

The Navy said in a statement the pilot and weapons systems officer were recovered from the water and declared dead after the two-seater jet crashed on its final approach to Naval Air Station Key West. The incident is under investigation, it said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement posted on Twitter early Thursday: "Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible @USNavy."

A Navy spokesperson also said in a statement that the names of the aviators are being withheld pending notifications of their families.

"Their families are in our prayers," the statement said.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali, additional reporting by Rich McKay; Editing by Paul Tait)CONAKRY (Reuters) - Two people were shot dead on Wednesday during riots in the capital of Guinea as authorities clashed with anti-government protesters, a senior police source said. The circumstances of the two civilian deaths were not yet clear, but they occurred in the Wanindara suburb of Conakry where police and gendarmes had clashed with protesters and dispersed crowds with tear gas, witnesses said. A government spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the demonstrations in Africa's top producer of bauxite where political violence frequently occurs. The West African nation's opposition parties are demanding the publication of results from local elections held on Feb. 4 that allies of President Alpha Conde say they have won. Meanwhile, rioting had subsided in the western mining towns of Boke and Kamsar, allowing bauxite shipments to resume, company and government officials said. Train and barge traffic restarted after demonstrators lifted barricades, said Frederic Bouzigues, managing director of Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB). A senior official at the National Agency for Development of Mining Infrastructure also said operations were running normally. (Reporting By Saliou Samb in Conakry and Edward McAllister in Dakar; Editing by Richard Balmforth)GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office said in a report on Thursday that Mexican authorities had tortured dozens of people in connection with an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students, and called for a full inquiry. The abduction and suspected massacre of the trainee teachers in the southwestern city of Iguala precipitated one of the worst crises of President Enrique Pena Nieto's government as criticism swirled around its investigation into the case. The U.N. report into the fate of the students, who attended a college in the town of Ayotzinapa, puts the spotlight back on failings by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) on law and order as it attempts to secure re-election in July. "The findings of the report point to a pattern of committing, tolerating and covering up torture in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case," Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in the report. Murders hit a record high in Mexico last year, and discontent over lawlessness and corruption has hammered support for the PRI, whose candidate is running third in most polls for the July presidential election, well behind the favorite. Mexico's mission in Geneva said the ambassador was not immediately available to comment on the U.N. report, entitled "Double injustice - human rights violations in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case". An initial government investigation found that the students, who were on five buses, were abducted by corrupt police who handed them over to members of a drug cartel. The gang members then killed them, incinerated their bodies at a trash dump and threw the ashes into a river, it concluded. But that account has been widely questioned by local and international human rights experts. Only the remains of one of the students has been definitively identified. Zeid's office, which examined information related to 63 out of 129 people detained in connected with the case, said it had documented arbitrary detention and torture based on interviews, judicial files and medical records. It had information on the possible torture of 51 people and "solid grounds to conclude that at least 34 of these individuals were tortured", including one woman. But it stopped short of attributing blame for the murders. "Ayotzinapa is a test case of the Mexican authorities' willingness and ability to tackle serious human rights violations," Zeid said. "I urge the Mexican authorities to ensure that the search for truth and justice regarding Ayotzinapa continues, and also that those responsible for torture and other human rights violations committed during the investigation are held accountable." The U.N. report calls for any evidence in the Ayotzinapa case for which there are credible indications that it was obtained under torture to be excluded or invalidated. A team of international experts said in September 2015 that Mexico's official account of the Ayotzinapa case did not add up, citing deep flaws in the inquiry. The experts suggested the missing bus may have been carrying a shipment of cash or drugs. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday that crimes against humanity had been committed in Mexico "in the name of security." Mexico said on Monday it had arrested a suspected drug gang member regarded as a key figure in the kidnapping. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Marguerita Choy)By Prak Chan Thul PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A U.N. human rights envoy urged Cambodia on Wednesday to drop a ban on the country's main opposition party so it can take part in a July general election. Cambodia's Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in November and banned more than 100 of its politicians in a ruling that was widely condemned by the international community. Rhona Smith, U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, said the CNRP ban had denied Cambodians the right to take part in the vote through their chosen representatives. "I repeat my call on the government to restore the space for any Cambodians to exercise the right to stand for election without fear or intimidation," Smith told a news conference. "I also call for an urgent reconsideration of the blanket ban on 118 political actors," she added, referring to the banned lawmakers and senior members of the CNRP. The CNRP was dissolved at the request of veteran Prime Minister Hun Sen's government, which accused the party of plotting to take power with the help of the United States. The CNRP and the United States embassy in Cambodia denied that. The dissolution of the CNRP followed the arrest of its leader, Kem Sokha, who was also accused of plotting to take power with U.S. help. Kem Sokha said the charge was leveled against him because of the threat the opposition posed at the July elections. Cambodia's last election, in 2013, marked Hun Sen's toughest challenge in three decades of rule. His party won but with a greatly reduced majority while the CNRP made big gains, despite what it said was widespread cheating. Western countries have criticized Hun Sen over the CNRP's dissolution and the arrest of Kem Sokha ahead of the general election and some have taken steps against the government. The United States has imposed visa sanctions on high-ranking government officials while the EU announced in December it would suspend funding for the election. Hun Sen's government and its allies have targeted non-government organizations, opposition lawmakers and some independent media in the crackdown. Smith urged authorities to provide an "even playing field" to other smaller parties in the vote. A spokesman for Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), responding to Smith's remarks, said the opposition party was "dead". (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Robert Birsel)A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed during a training flight off the coast of Florida Keys on Wednesday afternoon.

The two aviators on board of the F/A-18F Super Hornet, the pilot and a weapons system officer, were recovered and brought to the Lower Keys Medical Center. They were later declared dead.

The U.S. Navy is withholding their names until their families are notified, it said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

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03_15_Florida_Keys

Barbie Wilson/Reuters

A witness described the plane bursting into flames. "I saw the fire and then it just dropped," Barbie Wilson, who witnessed the incident while driving, told FL Keys News. In the air, I saw fire, she said.

President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the aviators' families in a tweet on Wednesday night. "Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible U.S. Navy," he wrote.

Incidentally, the president visited a Boeing manufacturing facility in Missouri earlier on Wednesday, describing the F-18 as one of his "favorite planes" and a "work of art."

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The meeting came two weeks after reaching a $3.9 billion informal agreement for two planes to serve as Air Force One that he had threatened to cancel because of their price tag.

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The Navy is probing the cause of the crash, not the first instance of a deadly incident during training on board of an F/A-18 fighter jet.

In a statement to the House Armed Services Committee in March 2017, first reported by Bloomberg, U.S. Navy commanders shared concerns about the state of the F-18 fleet, associated with an increase in pilots' "physiological episodes," due to oxygen deficiency or loss of cabin pressure in the fighter jets.

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A series of crashes occurred in 2016. Among these, one involving F/A-18A pilot Captain Jeff Kuss who died in Tennessee in June, while another deadly incident involving a single-seater F/A-18C Hornet killed Major Richard Norton in California in late July. Four days later, in August, an F/A-18C Hornet crashed in Nevada, but the pilot ejected to safety.

03_15_Donald_Boeing

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

A presidential candidate at the time, Trump commented on the August crash during an interview with The Washington Post that took place the day after the incident.

"Oh, did they have another one of these things go down? Its terrible that crash. Never liked that plane, structurally. I never thought that plane could" he said, reacting to a news report playing on a television that was switched on throughout the interview, before being interrupted by the reporter who was asking him about an entirely different topic.

Trump then changed his tune about Boeing's fighter jets, asking the company in December 2016 to price a contract for their F/A-18 Super Hornet to compete with Lockheed Martin's expensive F-35 fighters.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States cannot be overly optimistic about the outcome of any summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and must go into it with "eyes wide open," the head of the U.S. Pacific Command said on Thursday. Admiral Harry Harris told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee he believed the United States would stick to its demand for the "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula. He said he was encouraged by the prospect of a summit, but that North Korea remained the biggest security threat in the Asia-Pacific region. "I think we can't be overly optimistic on outcome. We will just have to see where it goes," Harris said. "We've never been in a position where a president - our president - has met with a leader of North Korea, ever. I don't know how to predict the future. I just think we have to go into this with eyes wide open." Trump made a surprise announcement last week that he was willing to meet Kim in a bid to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States. Trump made those remarks after a South Korean official who had met Kim last week said he had "committed to denuclearization" and to suspending nuclear and missile tests, but North Korea had yet to comment directly on that meeting. Harris said he believed Kim would like to see a reunification of the Korean peninsula under his rule, and sought respect, status and security through the possession of nuclear weapons. The Trump administration has said it prefers a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis, but that all options are on the table, including military ones, and officials have spoken of the possibility of a limited preventive strike on North Korea. Harris said there was no "bloody-nose strategy," as reported in the media. "I dont know what that is," he said. "I am charged with developing for the national command authority a range of options through the spectrum of violence, and I am ready to execute whatever the president and the national command authority directs me to do. But a bloody nose strategy is not contemplated. "I believe ... that if we do anything along the kinetic region of the spectrum of conflict that we have to be ready to do the whole thing. And we are ready to do the whole thing if ordered by the president." Harris said he believed Kim would "do a victory dance" if the United States were to withdraw its forces from South Korea and Japan and abrogated those alliances. Harris accused Russia of playing a "spoiler" role over North Korea and of seeking to "mess things up" when it came to sanctions and U.S. President Donald Trump's maximum pressure campaign, even though Moscow officially supported the sanctions. "If the sanctions that are put in place over North Korea are too hard on North Korea, including the sanctions that China is following, I believe Russia will seek to relieve pressure of the sanctions regime and the pressure campaign," Harris said. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish)By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul said on Wednesday he would oppose President Donald Trump's nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state and CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to become the new director of the CIA.

Paul added he would "do everything I can" to block them. He was the first of Trump's fellow Republicans to come out against the nominations, which the president announced on Tuesday. Paul was the only Republican who voted last year against Pompeo's nomination to head the CIA.

He said Pompeo and Haspel both supported war in Iraq and want war in Iran, which he opposes, and he criticized both for supporting the use of waterboarding and other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques widely considered torture.

Haspel has faced strong criticism for overseeing a secret Central Intelligence Agency prison where detainees were tortured in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I find it just amazing that anyone would consider having this woman at the head of the CIA. My opposition to her is over her direct participation in interrogation and her gleeful enjoyment at the suffering of someone who was being tortured," Paul told a news conference.

Pompeo, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives, was confirmed as CIA director with the support of two-thirds of the Senate last year. Many legislators have said they are happy with his work at the agency, and expect he will be confirmed as the United States' top diplomat.

Another Republican senator, John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, also had questions about Haspel, but did not say he would oppose her. McCain has not been in Washington to vote this year as he undergoes cancer treatment at home in Arizona.

'FOLLOWING ORDERS'

Haspel is respected for her work in the clandestine service and held in high regard at the CIA.

An intelligence officer who worked with Haspel denied she was anything like a "gleeful participant," saying: "That makes it sound like she was holding the bucket and laughing, when all she was was a bureaucrat following orders."

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A CIA spokesman said the agency was aware of Paul's statement and had no immediate comment.

A White House spokesman said Haspel already had "pretty public bipartisan support," including from Leon Panetta, who led the CIA under former Democratic President Barack Obama. "We look forward to her confirmation," spokesman Raj Shah told reporters.

Republicans have a slim 51-49 Senate majority, so it would take little intra-party dissent to block a nomination - but only if all Democrats vote no.

Paul could make the process difficult, particularly for Pompeo. He is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will hold Pompeo's confirmation hearing and vote on whether to report his nomination favourably to the full Senate.

Paul's opposition could prevent that, if every Democrat opposed the nominee, although the Senate's Republican leaders could hold a vote anyway.

Committee Democrats said it was too early to say how they would vote.

Senate Republicans said they expected both confirmation hearings to be held soon. Pompeo's is expected in April.

Every Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel voted against Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, in January 2017, but the panel advanced his nomination by an 11-10 vote because every Republican, including Paul, backed him.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by David Alexander, Mark Hosenball, John Walcott and Makini Brice; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)By Alexander Cornwell ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will train Somaliland security forces as part of a deal to establish a military base in the semi-autonomous region, Somaliland's president said on Thursday. UAE government officials could not immediately be reached for comment - but the UAE has committed to invest hundreds of million dollars in recent years in the territory on a strategically important stretch of coastline on the Gulf of Aden. The UAE began construction last year of a base on a site at the airport of the Somaliland port city Berbera, and will be allowed to maintain a presence for 30 years. Berbera is less than 300 km (190 miles) south of war-torn Yemen, where UAE troops are fighting rebels as part of a Saudi-backed coalition. President Muse Bihi Abdi said the UAE would train police and military in Somaliland, which wants independence from war-torn Somalia but is not recognized internationally. He said he expected the agreement to be finalised within two months. "They have the resources and the knowledge," Abdi told Reuters in an interview in Abu Dhabi. UAE has become more assertive in its foreign policy in recent years. The UAE Armed Forces have been fighting in the Yemen conflict since 2015 and in the past deployed in international operations including Kosovo and Afghanistan. Abdi said the military base, which he expects will be completed this year, will guarantee economic development and security for Somaliland and act as a deterrent to extremist groups in the region. Somaliland's Foreign Minister, Saad Ali Shire, who was present during the interview, declined to disclose how many UAE soldiers would be stationed at the base. "POLITICAL MISTAKE" Several regional powers have set up military bases along the Horn of Africa coastline, including Turkey in Somalia's capital. The United States, China, Japan and France all have bases in neighboring Djibouti. "It's safer to have a lot of military in the area," Abdi said. Abdi said he hoped UAE investments, including a new civilian airport and a road connecting Berbera to landlocked Ethiopia, will lead to a "huge creation of employment" in Somaliland where unemployment is rampant. "The biggest threat to Somaliland is poverty," he said. Dubai's DP World is also developing Berbera port and building a free trade zone nearby. This week, Somalia's parliament voted to ban DP World from the country, an act that it said had nullified the agreement. Abdi said the vote was a "joke" and a "political mistake" that would have no impact on the DP World agreement that includes the government of Ethiopia. Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has acted as a de-facto state since then.. Abdi also said he expected the UAE would make a hard currency deposit into Somaliland's central bank but added that there had been no agreement between the two sides. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Maggie Fick and Andrew Heavens)London (AFP) - Britain's opposition Labour leader and his spokesman cast doubt Wednesday on whether Russia was to blame for the poisoning of a former spy, after the government announced sanctions against Moscow.

Jeremy Corbyn's lukewarm response to Prime Minister Theresa May's statement was followed by several interventions by Labour MPs backing the government's response to the attack on Sergei Skripal.

In parliament, Corbyn questioned May on whether she had responded to Russia's request to provide samples of the nerve agent used, after Moscow complained it had been kept in the dark in the investigation.

He added: "Has high-resolution trace analysis been run on a sample of the nerve agent, and has that revealed any evidence as to the location of its production or the identity of its perpetrators?"

After May expelled 23 diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Russia, he urged her to "retain a robust dialogue with Russia, in the interests of our own and wider international security".

Corbyn also emphasised the importance of building an "international consensus to address the use of chemical weapons".

May declined to directly answer his questions about the nerve agent samples, and Corbyn's spokesman later went further in questioning what happened.

"The government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don't," the spokesman told reporters.

"However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly."

He was alluding to the evidence suggesting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which was used to justify the 2003 US-led invasion but was later found to be wrong.

The government suggested on Monday that either Russia itself directed the attack, or had "lost control" of the nerve agent -- but May said Wednesday she now believed Moscow was "culpable".

The spokesman said: "If the material is from the Soviet period, the break-up of the Soviet state led to all sorts of military material ending up in random hands."

Corbyn has come under fire from May's Conservatives and the right-wing media for his past statements of support in favour of the Soviet Union, and was last month forced to deny he cooperated with communists in then Czechoslovakia.By William James SALISBURY, England (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May visited Salisbury on Thursday, the elegant cathedral city which became the unlikely backdrop to a chemical attack against a Russian former double agent this month. Dominated by its 13th Century cathedral with England's highest spire, Salisbury has witnessed dramatic scenes since the attack as soldiers in chemical suits and gas masks conduct forensic searches. Dozens of passersby and schoolchildren crowded outside the city's Guildhall to get a view of May as she met emergency service workers, police and local politicians. Most locals who have spoken to reporters have welcomed her tough stance against Russia in the affair but some worry about the effect on tourism and possible lingering health dangers. Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center on March 4 after being exposed to what the British authorities have identified as a military-grade, Soviet era Novichok nerve agent. They remain critically ill in hospital. The pair had visited a pizzeria and a pub before collapsing and although officials have said there is no public health danger, they have advised anyone who was in the vicinity to wash their clothes and clean all jewelry, mobile phones and spectacles with antiseptic wipes. "I don't think these things can ever be investigated quickly, but there's sort of mixed messages," said Tommy Roberts, 50, who runs a nearby bar and hotel. "First there is no risk to the public health, then there's a little bit, then it's 'make sure you wash everything'." FALLING TRADE Several local traders have noticed a drop in custom since the incident and May made a point of meeting some of them. She visited a small clothes boutique, speaking to shop owner Sarah Haydon, who welcomed her arrival. "We just need people to come back to the city," Haydon told reporters after May had left. "I love the city and we should promote that the city is fine." May has blamed President Vladimir Putin for the attack and on Wednesday announced Britain would expel 23 Russian diplomats she said were intelligence agents. Russia denies any involvement. "I was surprised at how tough she's been. I though she might pussyfoot around, but she hasn't," said Samantha Smith, 22 who works for a product design firm in Salisbury. May said her visit was to thank emergency and health services and reassure the public about their safety. "It's been great to meet some tourists here in Salisbury, people coming to Salisbury, still enjoying this great city," she said. Sergei Skripal, a former colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, betrayed dozens of Russian spies to British intelligence before he was arrested in Moscow in 2004. He was given a lengthy jail term in 2006 but was released four years later as part of a swap for 10 Russian spies caught in the United States. Since arriving in Britain, he had lived modestly in Salisbury, keeping out of the spotlight until earlier this month. (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper in London; editing by Stephen Addison)Kiev (AFP) - A Ukrainian lawmaker once hailed as a hero and a symbol of resistance against Russia, has been accused of plotting a terrorist attack against the Kiev parliament, authorities said Thursday.

Ukraine's General Prosecutor Yury Lutsenko told lawmakers in parliament an investigation had "indisputable evidence" that Nadiya Savchenko planned a "terror attack" on parliament.

He claimed Savchenko had been plotting to destroy the chamber with grenades and mortar launchers and "finish off the survivors with automatic rifles."

Lutsenko offered no evidence, however.

Parliament on Thursday voted to expel Savchenko from its national security and defence committee.

In 2014, the 36-year-old former combat pilot was captured while fighting against Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and found guilty of involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists in the country's war-torn east.

She spent around two years in a Russian prison and became a symbol of Ukraine's resistance, launching several hunger strikes.

Savchenko returned to a hero's welcome to Kiev in May, 2016 as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.

But her political star has faded since her return to Kiev where she became a lawmaker for former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's political party.

She has regularly stirred controversy and contradicted President Petro Poroshenko's policies by supporting direct talks with pro-Kremlin separatists and visiting rebel-held territory.

- 'Fighting Ukraine's enemies' -

On Thursday, Savchenko did not confirm or deny the accusations but said she'd support a "military coup" in Ukraine.

"Ukrainians, ask yourselves -- didn't any of you at least once think about destroying these authorities?" she told reporters before being questioned by the security service.

"Who did not think about blowing up" the presidential administration or the Verkhovna Rada parliament?" she said, sporting her signature cropped haircut.

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She also accused Poroshenko of corruption and crimes against the Ukrainian people, claiming a lot of members of the military would support a coup.

She said she had recently spoken to members of the European Parliament, drawing their attention to the "crimes of our authorities."

She added she was not afraid.

"In Russia, I fought against Ukraine's external enemies. In Ukraine I am fighting against Ukraine's internal enemies."

The accusations against Savchenko were levelled after authorities last week charged a prisoner swap negotiator, Volodymyr Ruban, with plotting to assassinate Poroshenko and other top officials.

A judge in Kiev said Ruban planned to use mortar fire and grenades to attack the presidential administration and parliament.

The security service said that the entire operation was orchestrated by the separatist leadership and at least tacitly approved by Russia.

On Monday Savchenko was summoned for questioning by Ukraine's security service as a witness in Ruban's case.

Last year, both Savchenko and Ruban went to the rebel-controlled stronghold of Donetsk to visit Ukrainians captured by the separatists.

- Authorities 'not trusted' -

Political observers say that even though Savchenko enjoys little support now, the Ukrainian authorities also have lost much of their credibility over the past years.

"The problem is that those who voice these accusations are not trusted. People do not believe them," political analyst Mykola Davydyuk told AFP.

"It is clear that some sort of political process is under way but we don't know yet what this means."

He stressed that the prosecutors should release "firm evidence" implicating Savchenko in the crime.

Political analysts point to mounting public disillusionment in Ukraine with Poroshenko's government which came to power after a popular uprising ousted a Kremlin-backed regime in 2014.

After the bloody revolution Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea and supported an insurgency in the east of the country in a conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives since April 2014.

More than 90 percent of Ukrainians believe that the political situation in the country is "critical" or "tense", the Rating independent pollster, said in February.

Fifty nine percent of respondents believe that Ukraine needs "radical change."United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council warned Thursday that conditions in war-torn Yemen are worsening and having a "devastating" impact on civilians, with 22.2 million now in need of humanitarian assistance.

The council cited indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas, with large numbers of civilian casualties and damage to civilian structures.

"The Security Council expresses its grave concern at the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, and the devastating humanitarian impact of the conflict on civilians," it said in a statement.

The statement said the UN estimate of 22.2 million people now in need of humanitarian aid was 3.4 million more than last year.

The British-drafted statement was the product of weeks of negotiations with Saudi Arabia, a leading protagonist in the conflict, and other countries, diplomats said.

The statement required the unanimous approval of the council's 15 members, unlike a resolution, which can be passed by a simple majority if it is not vetoed by one of its five permanent members.

It called on all parties to "respect and protect schools, medical facilities, and personnel."

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have hit civilian areas. But the United Nations also has denounced the use of schools by combatants, often as arms depots.

The Security Council condemned "in the strongest possible terms" ballistic missile attacks in November and December on Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed Huthi rebels.

The United States accuses Iran of supplying the missiles used in the attacks on Saudi Arabia, but the statement made no mention of Tehran.

Tehran has denied the accusations and Russia recently vetoed a US-drafted resolution that sought to condemn Iran for violating a UN arms embargo posed on Yemen.

"The Security Council calls on all member states to fully implement the arms embargo as required by the relevant Security Council resolutions," he statement said.

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- Donations sought -

As it has for months with little success, the council renewed a call for aid organizations to be given free access to the country, notably through its ports and airports.

An estimated $2.96 billion in aid is needed this year to meet the country's needs.

A donor's conference is expected to be held soon in Geneva, and the council encouraged member states to contribute.

In the statement, the council acknowledged "the pledge made by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to contribute nearly $1 billion to the UN appeal."

The two countries entered the war in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government after it was driven from the capital Sanaa by Huthi rebels.

"The members of the Security Council reaffirm their strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen," the statement said.A Kansas family says United Airlines mistakenly flew their German shepherd to Japan in another black eye for the air carrier.

It all started when Kara Swindle was flying home to Wichita from Oregon Tuesday night with her two children and Irgo, their 10-year-old family dog, KCTV reported.

But when they landed in Kansas City, Swindle says United Airlines staff gave her a Great Dane instead.

That's when Swindle said she was told her dog was actually on a flight to Japan, the intended destination for the Great Dane.

United paid for Swindle and her children to stay at a hotel near the airport Tuesday night while the issue was sorted.

Thankfully, airport officials were able to locate Irgo when his flight landed in Japan, but Swindle said she remains worried about Irgo's safety.

"He is a 10-year-old dog, and hes never been on a flight before," she said. "I honestly dont know if hes going to survive this flight."

A spokesperson for United issued the following statement:

"An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible. We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened."

This is the second dog-related incident in a few days for which United has received a heap of negative publicity.

Kokito, a 10-month-old French bulldog, was in its traveling case Monday and stored underneath a seat on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York City when a flight attendant ordered the dog's owner to place the animal in the overhead bin, according to the owners and other passengers aboard the plane.

"I said it's a dog, it's a dog  it can't breathe there," 11-year-old Sophia Ceballos said Wednesday on CBS This Morning. "It doesn't matter. She felt the dog and she put him up there."

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Kokito could be heard barking and yelping in the bin, but after about an hour, he went silent, according to reports. He was later found dead.

In a statement, United said the flight attendant was unaware there was a dog in the carrier. the airline called the incident "a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again."

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Related Articles:Vanessa Trump filed for divorce from her husband, Donald Trump Jr., on Thursday afternoon, according to multiple reports.

Vanessa filed for an uncontested proceeding with the Manhattan Supreme Court, Page Six reported. The outlet initially reported on the pairs marital problems on Wednesday, citing multiple unnamed sources who claimed the couple have been living separate lives.

The couple released a joint statement later on Thursday, confirming their separation.

After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways, the statement said, according to CNN. We will always have tremendous respect for each other and our families. We have five beautiful children together and they remain our top priority. We ask for your privacy during this time.

Sources told the New York tabloid that friends were increasingly concerned over Trump Jr.s online behavior, including liking tweets by conspiracy theorists criticizing a teenage survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.

President Donald Trumps daughter-in-law was hospitalized in February after a Massachusetts man sent an envelope of white powder to the couples Trump Tower residence in New York City. Upon examination, the powder was discovered to be non-hazardous.

Shortly after his wifes hospitalization, Trump Jr. left for India on a Trump Organization trip.

Although the businessman has not taken an explicit role in his fathers White House, Trump Jr. has made a number of appearances on behalf of the first family. He met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a closed-door meeting in February and made several stops in Pennsylvania this month to campaign on behalf of Republican congressional candidate Rick Sacconne.

The couples marital issues seem to have been exacerbated by the powder incident and Trump Jr.s travels, which have left Vanessa increasingly lonely, based on Page Six reports.

Vanessa Trump, 40, and Donald Trump Jr., 40, have five children and have been married since 2005. An uncontested filing means the pair anticipate an amiable separation, without a legal battle over child custody or assets.

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The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

This article has been updated with a joint statement from Vanessa Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.CARACAS (Reuters) - 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 UN'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. (Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Peter Cooney)East Asia Forum, Vu Minh Khuong

Politics, Asia

Vietnam may be the most logical meeting point.

Here Is Where Trump and Kim Jong-un Should Really Meet

On 8 March 2018, the United States government announced that US President Donald Trump had agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a place and time to be determined. The media seem to agree that there are two possible places in which this surprising event could take place: the Korean Demilitarized Zone or Beijing.

The location of the meeting is highly symbolic and could therefore be a valuable strategic move for both parties. Hanoi is an ideal choice, satisfying three criteria that are important to a successful outcome: it demonstrates serious interest in making fundamental improvements to USNorth Korea relations, it sends a powerful symbolic message to the world community in a place where the Vietnam and the United States have reconciled past grievances, and it points to the preparatory steps that North Korea needs to make to join the world community.

By choosing Hanoi as the meetings venue, both parties would demonstrate that they are serious about making fundamental changes in their policy toward one another. Hanoi as a city reflects how, in only one generation, diplomatic relations can be transformed from hostile to collaborative and mutually supportive. During the VietnamAmerican war, and even before the launch of the 1986 economic reforms, Hanoi was a centre of resentment and suspicion against the United States. By contrast, Americans now enjoy a welcoming environment in Hanoi, which has become a buzzing hub of economic exchange, tourism, and cultural interaction.

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The lifting of the US trade embargo in 1994 and the normalisation of relations with the United States in 1995 have had a transformative effect on Vietnams economy and development. Vietnam is now one of the fastest growing countries in the world, having emerged from a position of isolation and impoverishment in the 1980s to become an open and vibrant economy. Vietnams exports increased more 200 times between 1986 and 2016. They reached US$213 billion in 2017, 80 per cent of which are manufactured goods and a significant proportion destined for the US market. Furthermore, Vietnam has far surpassed many large economies in the region, including Indonesia and the Philippines, on the total value of manufactured exports.

Story continues

Both Vietnam and the United States consider their partnership strategic and have made vigorous efforts to deepen it. The historic visit of the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Da Nang in March 2018 is a remarkable example of that commitment. During the war, US aircraft carriers travelled to Vietnam to support bombing missions. Today, their visit is a welcome symbol of friendship.

By holding the summit in Hanoi, the United States and North Korea would send a powerful signal to the international community about the approach they intend in improving relations: forward looking, practical and absent external political intervention. Vietnam is a relevant example for North Korea to consider in adopting strategies to normalise relations with the United States and to promote its own economic reforms.

Hanoi is an ideal choice as the United States and North Korea consider the next steps in turning the summit into substantive progress. South Korea, as one of the largest and most committed investors in Vietnam, can showcase its capabilities to enable North Korea to prosper through diplomatic normalisation, economic modernisation and global integration. As of December 2017, South Koreas total foreign direct investment in Vietnam amounted to US$57.7 billion. Investment from Samsung and LG, which combined exported nearly US$50 billion worth of electronics products made in Vietnam, have enabled the country to achieve rapid export growth and turn its trade balance from deficit to surplus. If North Korea shows a genuine desire for reconciliation, it can be expected that South Korea will be ready to help its neighbour to succeed.

Holding a USNorth Korea summit in Hanoi is an opportunity to make history and advance diplomatic goals in a place with a similar history of its own. If it chooses to adopt reforms and pursue trade openness, North Korea could soon become one of the most attractive emerging-economy investment destinations and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Through its own recent experience, Vietnam can offer North Korean policymakers advice about how to transition from an isolated and command-based economy to a globally integrated and market-driven economy. This change is unlikely to be easy, but now is a rare window of opportunity to re-imagine what an open and prosperous North Korea could look like, and how it can be achieved.

All ideas should be on the table, including a summit hosted by Hanoi.

Vu Minh Khuong is associate professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore and a visiting professor, Nazarbaev University Graduate School of Public Policy

This article originally appeared on East Asia Forum.

Image: Reuters

Read full articleBy Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York hedge fund manager on Thursday pleaded guilty to federal charges that he defrauded investors through a nearly $22 million Ponzi scheme.

Michael Scronic, 46, entered his plea to one count of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Catherine Seibel in White Plains, New York, federal prosecutors announced.

A lawyer for Scronic, Rachel Martin, declined to comment.

Prosecutors said Scronic, of Pound Ridge, New York, sent investors in his Scronic Macro Fund bogus account statements from 2010 to 2017 showing large positive returns. In fact, they said, he lost or spent all but about $27,000 of the $21.8 million he told investors the fund had.

Prosecutors said Scronic spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on himself while managing the fund, including on rent, fees for beach and country club memberships, and mortgage payments for a vacation home near Stratton Mountain in Vermont.

Scronic used new money to repay earlier investors, but began refusing to honor some investors redemption requests when money became tight in the summer of 2017.

They said Scronic blamed a vacation, a relatives medical condition, email issues, and a new quarterly redemption policy for refusing one investors Aug. 8 redemption request, despite having earlier promised that investor "quick and painless" redemptions on demand.

Scronic worked for Morgan Stanley from 1998 to 2005, including on an equities trading desk, and has degrees from Stanford University and the University of Chicago, according to court papers. Morgan Stanley was not accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Scronic also faces related civil claims from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)New Zealand police on Thursday said they were investigating a former Russian double agent's claims that an unknown assailant tried to poison him on an Auckland street in 2006.

Boris Karpichkov recounted the incident on British television this week in the wake of the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter that has caused a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow.

Karpichkov was trying to keep a low profile in New Zealand at the time after defecting to Britain following a falling out with his Russian paymasters.

He said he had spotted people following him then a beggar approached him on Queen Street, one of Auckland's main thoroughfares.

"Next what I felt was kind of dust thrown into my face. Then (the) beggar just walked away," he told Good Morning Britain.

Karpichkov said his head soon started spinning and that evening he developed a rash, suffering long-term ill health that saw him lose 30 kilograms (66 pounds) over the next two months.

New Zealand police said they were examining the claims by Karpichkov, who played Russian and Lithuanian intelligence services against one another before fleeing to Britain in the late 1990s.

"Police are aware that Mr Karpichkov was in New Zealand between June 2006 and October 2007. We are currently examining our files to assess what information we may hold about Mr Karpichkov," they said.

"Given the historic nature of this matter it is likely to take some time to complete this assessment."

Karpichkov also claimed on the programme that he was warned ahead of the Skripal attack that they were both on an eight-man hitlist being targeted by Russia's secret service.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, were poisoned in Salisbury last week with a nerve agent identified as a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok.

Britain has described Moscow as "culpable" for the attack, expelling 23 diplomats and suspending high-level contacts in retaliation.HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is making consultations on rejoining the Commonwealth, its foreign minister has said, as new President Emmerson Mnanagwa seeks to mend international ties. Sibusiso Moyo also told parliament that there was nothing to stop Harare from rejoining the grouping of 53 nations, most of them former British colonies. "In fact, the process which is there at the moment is that there are necessary processes and consultations which are taking place," Moyo said, according to a transcript of his comments in parliament seen by Reuters on Thursday. Former president Robert Mugabe pulled Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth in 2003 after he was criticized over disputed elections and violent seizures of white-owned farms. Mnangagwa, who took over when Mugabe quit as president after nearly four decades in power following a de facto military coup in November, has said he wants Zimbabwe to rejoin. He has also said he may ask Commonwealth, European Union and United Nations observers to oversee presidential and parliamentary elections this year, the conduct of which is seen as an important test for Zimbabwe's future foreign relations. Mnangagwa has said Zimbabwe still wants to end discrimination between black and white farmers but will seek new ways to compensate those who have lost their properties. Former colonial ruler Britain said last month that Harare should press on with transparent and fair land reform. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia and Catherine Evans)The recent coalition crisis pushed the real Haredi draft problem into a corner.

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The Israeli Defense Service Law defines a person designated for defense service" as an Israel national or a permanent resident from the age of 16.5. According to the letter of the law, all Israeli Arab citizens, as well as the 340,000 Palestinian permanent residents of east Jerusalem, are required to enlist. All religious girls are required to enlist. All Druze girls are required to enlist.

The vast majority of them dont enlist, of course. Despite the IDFs efforts, many girls avoid conscription under different excuses and shams, while the state turns a blind eye. Not to mention the different draft dodgers.

The false slogan of an equal share of the burden is pulled out only when it comes to Haredim (Photo: Yuval Chen)

For some reasons, the Lapids havent issued a demand to draft all these people for the sake of an equal share of the burden, and the High Court of Justice hasnt demanded their enlistment to help carry the security burden. The false slogan of an equal share of the burden is pulled out only when it comes to Haredim.

Less than half of 18-year-olds enlist today, and the number decreases every year. In fact, there is no difference between Haredim, Arabs and religious girls. These are all members of the public with unique characteristics who dont enlist for national, religious and cultural reasons. But while the Jewish public, mainly from the left-wing and centrist camp, feels for the Arabs and justifies the failure to draft them, when it comes to the Haredim everyone cries out. How hypocritical.

Despite all the efforts, most Haredim havent enlisted and wont serve in the future either. All the decisions and laws from the past and those that are yet to come wont change a thing, just like an attempt at forcing Arabs to enlist would have failed miserably. Moreover, most IDF generals are against drafting all the Haredim and believe it will do more harm than good.

The IDF serves as a yeshiva conscription army. A young Haredi man reporting to the recruitment center has two options: To enlist in the IDF or in a yeshiva. Clearly, the vast majority pick the yeshiva, they are forbidden to work and are funded by the state. How foolish is that?

There is a simple solution: To exempt Haredim, as well as Arabs and religious girls. A young Haredi will be like any other young Israeli who is exempted from military service. He wont be funded by the state and will be able to do as he pleases: If he wants to studylet him study; if he wants to worklet him work; and if he wants to join the armylet him join the army, like quite a few Bedouins and Christians who do so even though they dont have to. Im convinced that, as a result, the number of Haredim enlisting out of their own free will exceed the number of Haredim who enlist today.

Every soldier who completes full service will begin his civil life with an extra NIS 120,000, in addition to all the benefits granted to ex-servicemen (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

With the money saved from funding yeshiva students, about NIS 2 billion a year, the state will pay the salaries of IDF soldiers in the third year of their service. Their salary will be compared to the average wage in Israelabout NIS 9,800 today. As a result, every soldier who completes full service will begin his civil life with an extra NIS 120,000, in addition to all the benefits granted to ex-servicemen, giving them a much more promising starting point in life than today. Thats the proper way to respect and reward soldiers who gave three years of their life for the security of the State of Israel and its citizens.

At the same time, the exemption from military service will make the Haredim in Israel more similar to Hasidic Jews in the United States, where most high school yeshiva graduates go out to work and only a small minority study in a high yeshiva.

This will solve a conflict as old as the state, which has been aggravated in the past decade as a result of the huge growth in the number of yeshiva students exempted from military service. This dispute is dividing the Israeli society, sparking hatred and incitement and seriously harming the states economy.

Unfortunately, my proposal has no chance of being accepted, as the current situation is convenient and beneficial for both sides. The Haredi rabbis and politicians are enjoying the regular flow of funds, and the young Haredim depend on their public leaders, and mainly on yeshiva heads who basically determine who will be exempted from military service. The Lapids, on the other hand, will be able to keep making empty promises, as if theyre really capable of drafting the Haredim, and scoring political gains.

The small and divisive politics are defeating logic, and public activists are defeating common sense. Lets just hope this doesnt last forever.The USS Iwo Jima aircraft carrier docked Wednesday at the Port of Haifa, after participating in the massive joint 2018 Juniper Cobra exercise held this month.

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The 257-meter-long ship was brought into the port by the port's aisle with the aid of three tugboats.





USS Iwo Jima at Port of Haifa (Photo: Erez Simon/GeoDrones)

The Iwo Jima, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, will remain in Haifa harbor for four days.

In the port and in the city of Haifa, workers prepared in advance for the arrival of the shipparticularly for the 2,000 sailors and soldiers on board.

(Photo: Erez Simon/GeoDrones)

Dozens of buses were summoned to take the crew members for tours throughout the country, and the businesses in the lower city and Haifa beaches made sure they were able to accommodate the larger-than-usual number of visitors.

Eshel Armoni, chairman of the Haifa Port Board of Directors, welcomed the ship and its crew, saying he has no doubt "many businesses in the city will enjoy the thousands of visiting American soldiers."The 2019 state budget passed its second and third readings in the Knesset Plenum overnight Wednesday, enabling Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) to breathe a sigh of relief after it was almost sabotaged by political A crisis that gripped the coalition over the last few weeks.

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The budget, which was at the heart of the coalition crisis, passed with 62 MKs backing it and 54 voting against it.

As part of a deal struck on Tuesday evening to avert early elections, the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party consented to backing the budget on condition that its IDF conscription bill designed to exempt Haredim from military service passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset.

Minister Moshe Kahlon (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The controversial draft bill passed with a 59 MK majority, with 38 MKs voting against it, with no abstentions.

Speaking at the Knesset Plenum ahead of the second and third readings, Kahlon said that he had lived up to his promise by bringing it to a vote.

"A week ago, I said that the people of Israel would sit at the Seder night either with a budget or without a finance minister. Tonight we can say that the people of Israel will sit for the holiday meal with a budget and with a finance minister," he said, referring to the feast of Passover.

"I promised that the budget would pass at a predetermined time without threats and extortionand I delivered," he added, boasting it would be "the most socially-driven (budget) the people of Israel have ever had."

This budget is for all citizens of the State of Israel, not for the coalition and not for the opposition, the finance minister proudly proclaimed. It isnt for people who were born into money, and it isnt for a new or old resident. The budget reflects social values and national priorities. That has been my policy and that of the Finance Ministry since the first state budget at the end of 2015 to the present 2019 state budget.

I stood for the state budget passing because whoever harms it harms the citizens of the State of Israel.

The largest sums of the budget are earmarked for defense (NIS 73 billion), education (NIS 64 billion), health (NIS 42 billion) and national insurance (NIS 46 billion).

Another NIS 20 billion will be pumped into public transport and NIS 19 billion into the Ministry of Public Security. Both higher education and the Ministry of Welfare will receive a financial injection of NIS 11 billion each, while local authorities will receive NIS 6 billion and the Ministry of Housing will get a NIS 5.3 billion boost.

As the recently resolved crisis deepened over the last few weeks and threatened to dismantle the coalition, Kahlon was unequivocal in his position, stating that if the budgeta hallmark of his economic policydid not pass, he would not be able to remain in office.

"Without this budget, I would have no public mandate, and I would be violating my agreement with the voter. I dont see how I would be able to remain finance minister," Kahlon said at a Kulanu faction meeting.

He also stressed his party was "not in favor of early elections. Whoever wishes to drag us to elections is harming the public. I hope our friends in the coalition will come to their senses."Welcome Guest! You Are Here:A number of explosives were detonated in the small hours of Thursday morning on the Gaza border fence which were aimed killing and wounding Israeli security forces.

No one was hurt in the incident, which took place on the northern border of the coastal enclave.Two explosive devices were detonated in the small hours of Thursday morning on the Gaza border fence, which were aimed killing and wounding Israeli security forces, the IDF said.

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No one was hurt in the incident, which took place on the northern border of the coastal enclave. A military official later said that the army was looking into whether an anti-tank missile was fired at Israeli soldiers.

IDF sniper watches as Palestinian protestors riot on Gaza border (Photo: Yoav Zitun)

In response, the IDF fired from the air and from a tank at targets belonging to the Hamas terror group, which controls the Gaza Strip. Islamic Jihad targets were also struck.

According to Palestinian sources, another two observation posts and a position in northern Gaza were attacked but it was not immediately clear whether any Palestinians were wounded.

Footage of IDF attacks on Hamas positions

X

While it was originally reported that three or four devices were said to have exploded during an IDF patrol in the area, a military official later clarified that two bombs had been detonated within quick succession.

The force, however, was a significant distance away from the point of explosion. No damage, therefore, was caused to the military vehicles carrying the patrol.

Two bombs were detonated within a minute of one another at a distance of 100 meters from the forces. Following an identification of an observation post, we are looking into whether a anti-tank rocket was also fired at the soldiers, an IDF official said.

In response, we attacked five targets in Gaza. We dont know who is responsible for the attack. We will act sharply against attempts to turn the protesters into a cover for terror activities.

The explosions took place close to an area in which hundreds of Gazans have staged numerous end-of-week protests between the strips Shuja'iyya neighborhood and Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Weekly protests staged in Gaza (Photo: AFP)

The IDF launched an investigation into whether the bombs were once again planted by the demonstrators.

It is the second time that explosives have been used to harm Israelis on the border in one month.

In February, two soldiers were seriously wounded and two others moderately and lightly wounded when an explosive device was set off near an IDF patrol around the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip, opposite the Ein HaShlosha kibbutz.Economic decline in the Gaza Strip has become too steep to be tackled by international aid and also requires that the Israeli- and Egyptian-blockaded Palestinian enclave be allowed freer trade, the World Bank said on Thursday.

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"The (Gaza) economy cannot survive without being connected to the outside world," it said in a 46-page report issued as world powers convened in Rome to discuss the future of a UN relief agency for Palestinians threatened by US funding cuts.

"Any effort at economic recovery and development must address the impacts of the current closure regime."

Citing security, Israel and Egypt limit movement across Gaza's borders. The territory has been under Hamas control since 2007 but the Islamist terror group has been in Cairo-mediated talks on a power-share with the US-backed Palestinian administration.

Israel says that matters could be alleviated in the coastal enclave if the Hamas terror group dedicated more of its efforts toward building an economic infrastructure instead of misusing materials to attack Israel.

Gaza's economic growth plummeted from 8 percent in 2016 to 0.5 percent last year, with some half of the labour force unemployed and public health at risk from deteriorations in basic services like water and electricity, the World Bank said.

"In the long term, aid will not be able to provide the impetus for growth, nor can it reverse Gaza's de-development," it said, urging that Palestinian exports from the enclave be stepped up and restrictions relaxed on "dual-use" importsa reference to materials that might have military applications.

Israel and Egypt did not immediately comment on the report, which came a day after they and 18 other countries held a Washington conference on potential remedies for Gaza's crisis.

The White Housewhich, like Israel, shuns Hamas for being a terror organization and accuses the Palestinians of not pursuing peace sufficientlysaid it presented "specific project ideas" that might be pursued at an international meeting on Gaza in Brussels on March 20.

The report highlights necessary preconditions for a sustained economic recovery in Gaza, one of which is effective governance systems and institutional strengthening under the Palestinian Authoritys leadership, which it sayd are also key for a sustainable recovery.An IDF official has said that the army is looking into whether an anti-tank missile was fired at Israeli soldiers after two bombs were detonated on the Gaza-Israel border.

Two bombs were detonated within a minute of one another at a distance of 100 meters from the forces. Following an identification of an observation post, we are looking into whether a anti-tank rocket was also fired at the soldiers, the official said.

In response, we attacked five targets in Gaza. We dont know who is responsible for the attack. We will act sharply against attempts to turn the protesters into a cover for terror activities.Moscow is still working on retaliatory measures against Britain for London's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats, Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Britain is to kick out 23 Russian diplomats, the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War, over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent in England that Prime Minister Theresa May blamed on Moscow, an assessment backed by the United States.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Britain of refusing to cooperate with Moscow in the investigation of the incident.

Zakharova, who said Moscow was concerned about the use of chemical weapons in Britain, said allegations that Russia was involved were "insane".The United Nations chief is warning that a US-induced half-billion-dollar funding shortfall for the UN relief agency for Palestinians risks cutting critical services that could "push the suffering in disastrous and unpredictable directions."

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Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed an emergency funding conference in Rome on Thursday after the Trump administration slashed tens of millions to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN's oldest and largest aid agency in the Middle East.

Guterres said investment in UN programs addresses the despair and other factors "that lead to radicalization."

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Photo: AP)

He also posted on his Twitter account an appeal for supporting UNRWA.

"Supporting UNRWA is not only a matter of human solidarity with Palestine refugees, it is an investment in peace. #DignityIsPriceless," he wrote.

The Trump administration announced in January it was slashing $65 million this year. But the UN. said the actual cut was to the tune of $300 million because the US had led the agency to believe it would provide $365 million in 2018.

At the time, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denied the withholding of the $65 million was to punish Palestinians, who have been sharply critical of Trump's announcement last month that he would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

After Trump announced that he would be withholding the funds, a number of countries scrambled to fill the shortfall. The head of the UNRWA said that Russia, Kuwait and nine European countries had agreed to speed up their contributions.

The US had been UNWRA's largest donor, supplying nearly 30 percent of its budget. In announcing the cuts in January, the US State Department said it wanted reforms at the agency, which Israel has strongly criticized.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the agency had already undertaken reform measures to streamline and rationalize its activities, but said "there is a limit to its ability to do so" given the enormous sustained needs faced by 5 million people.

"It is vital and it is necessary to address these very basic services, but also to provide dignity for multitudes of Palestinians and to (protect) many of them from the potential threats of radicalization and terrorism," he told reporters.

UNRWA center in Gaza (Photo: AFP)

The agency head, Pierre Kraehenbuel, said expectations in the region were high that donors would step up and come to the agency's rescue.

"The message to the Palestinian refugees has to be that they are not forgotten. All eyes in the refugee camps throughout the Middle East are on this conference," he said.

On Thursday, a report by the World Bank said that the decline in the Gaza Strip has become too steep to be tackled by international aid and also requires that the Israeli- and Egyptian-blockaded Palestinian enclave be allowed freer trade.

"The (Gaza) economy cannot survive without being connected to the outside world," it said in a 46-page report issued as world powers convened in Rome to discuss the future of a UN relief agency for Palestinians threatened by US funding cuts.

"Any effort at economic recovery and development must address the impacts of the current closure regime."With less than two weeks before elections, Egypt's president says he's prepared to personally join security forces battling Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

The outcome of the March 26-28 election is a foregone conclusion, with general-turned-president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi running virtually unopposed. His only challenger is a little-known politician who supports him.

With a landslide win beyond doubt, al-Sisi and his supporters are urging voters to come out and cast their ballots since a high turnout will accord the vote legitimacy.

In televised comments Thursday, al-Sisi vowed to prosecute the fight against Islamic State-led militants until the end. "We either live together, or we die together," he said, referring to himself and security forces.

"We are fighting modern day heretics ... we are fighting for the sake of God."Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday that British behaviour in the dispute with Russia shows London has something to hide.

"London has something to hide. Partners are nervous," Maria Zakharova said on her Facebook page.

The comment came soon after Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Thursday that Britain will invest 48 million pounds ($67 million) in a new chemical warfare defence centre at its Porton Down military research laboratory.The United Nations received pledges Thursday of nearly $100 million in new funding for the UN relief agency for Palestinians after the US slashed its aid , but it is still facing a nearly $350 million shortfall this year.

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UN officials said the countries providing the new financing included Qatar, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, Korea, Mexico, Slovakia, India and France.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said "an important first step was reached" at an emergency donor conference in Rome with the new pledges. But he said "a long way is in front of us" to fully fund the agency, which went into the conference facing a $446 million gap in financing this yearthe worst funding crisis in its 68-year history.

"If UNRWA would not exist, if these services were not provided, the security of region would be severely undermined," Guterres told reporters at the conference's conclusion. "Now it is very clear, it is absolutely essential, that the extraordinary unanimity in political support to UNRWA and its activities translates itself into cash."

The agency, the oldest and largest UN relief program in the Middle East, provides health care, education and social services to an estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Israel complains that the organization grants Palestinian refugees special status by counting descendants of Palestinians who were either forced to leave or fled during the 1948 War of Independence.

By using this unique categorization which no other refugee in the world is afforded, Israel says that UNRWA is responsible for exacerbating, rather than solving, the problem.

The body's edcuational facilities have also been used in the past for Hamas terror purposes.

Last October, it was reported that UNRWA discovered a Hamas attack tunnel underneath one of its schools in Gaza.

But the matter was not a focus for Guterres and reforms that US President Donald Trump had called for were also neglected. Guterres told the conference that cutting sanitation, health care and medical services in already poverty-wracked and conflict-ridden areas "would have severe impacta cascade of problems that could push the suffering in disastrous and unpredictable directions."

The Trump administration announced in January it was slashing $65 million this year. But the agency said the actual cut was around $300 million because the US had led the agency to believe it would provide $365 million in 2018.

The US had been UNWRA's largest donor, supplying nearly 30 percent of its budget. In announcing the cuts in January, the US State Department said it wanted reforms at the agency, which Israel has strongly criticized.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who along with his counterparts from Jordan and Sweden co-hosted the meeting, said the agency had already undertaken reform measures to streamline and rationalize its activities. But he said "there is a limit to its ability to do so" given the enormous sustained needs.

"It is vital and it is necessary to address these very basic services, but also to provide dignity for multitudes of Palestinians and to (protect) many of them from the potential threats of radicalization and terrorism," he told reporters.

The agency's chief, Pierre Kraehenbuel, said expectations in the region were high that donors would step up.

"The message to the Palestinian refugees has to be that they are not forgotten," he said.The High Court issued a temporary injunction for the state, ordering it to halt the expulsion of asylum seekers from Israel until it submits a response to a petition made to the court against the expulsion. The state's reply, the justices ruled, must be submitted by March 26.

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According to the ruling by Chief Justice Esther Hayut, Deputy Chief Justice Hanan Melcer and Justice Neal Hendel, the injunction will not apply to anyone agreeing to leave Israel willingly. The order, moreover, will not apply to preparations for the expulsion, which may go through as planned.

Nearer to the state submitting its reply, the court ruled, it will be decided whether to extend the injunction. The Holot migrant detention center, meanwhile, was closed Wednesday.

The High Court issued a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers' expulsion (Photo: EPA)

Stop the expulsion " movement commented on the High Court's decision, saying, "The expulsion's mechanism is slowly crumbling. The idea that the State of Israel will expel to refugeedom thousands of human beings is incomprehensible. We hope this is the first sign en route to stopping the expulsion completely."

Shula Keshet, one of the leaders of the "South Tel Aviv against the expulsion" group, said, "The High Court's decision must not only be a first step to stopping the expulsion, but also a wakeup call to the Israeli government to change its policystop the evacuations of residents of the city's south and rehabilitating neighborhoods."

Sheffi Paz, of the "South Tel Aviv Liberation Front," however, attacked the High Court's decision. She said, "This injunction has no legal basis. It was born only of the fear felt by High Court justices who have suddenly found themselves approving an expulsion they never intended to approve, because they placed a small landmine in their previous ruling that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu was able to defuse.

"South Tel Aviv residents scorn the justices and legal clerks, who fail to do their jobs. We don't have one iota of trust in the legal system, and will therefore renew protests outside the home of Chief Justice Hayut in Tzahla, a (north Tel Aviv) neighborhood no infiltrator resides in."

Protesters calling for the expulsion. Protests will return to Chief Justice Hayut's Tzahla home Saturday night (Photo: AFP)

The High Court's verdict was handed down on a petition submitted six weeks ago by 119 human rights activists, in which they sought to freeze the agreement the government had reportedly signed with Rwanda regarding receiving asylum seekers deported from Israel.

Sigal Avivi Kook, one of the petitioners, welcomed the court's decision, saying, "The injunction is an important step that we hope will prevent the continued implementation of the expulsion plan.

"The court's decision will also allow to work specifically for the release of asylum seekers incarcerated in the Saharonim detention center under the expulsion plan, since their incarceration has been voided."

A protest against the expulsion (Photo: Yariv Katz)

Petitioners, represented by attorney Itay Mack, claimed that Prime Minister Netanyahu, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri sharply overstepped their authority to administer foreign relations and from the articles of the law regulating entrance into Israel when they approved the agreement with Rwanda.

The agreement, they said, was highly irregular and hitherto unheard of in the country's history, adding it constituted a moral stain that could never be expunged, and that only the Knesset could make decisions of such magnitude.Haifa residents received Thursday morning a front row seat for the impressive capabilities of the American aircraft carrier USS Iwo Jima, which dropped anchor Wednesday at the city's port, as hovercrafts emerged from the ship and commenced an impromptu drill in the port area.

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One of the main tasks of the ship, which has recently participated in the massive joint 2018 Juniper Cobra exercise held this month, is to bring landing forces to coast with such vehicles. Each of them can carry hundreds of soldiers ashore.

Amphibious hovercrafts deployed by USS Iwo Jima (:   )

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Ynet military correspondent Yoav Zitun added that the concluding ceremony for the joint exercise was held Thursday.

During its several day visit to the country, the USS Iwo Jima helicopter carrier was docked at the Haifa port. The 257-meter-long ship was brought into port by the port's aisle with the aid of three tugboats.

The Iwo Jima, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, will remain in Haifa harbor for four days.

Amphibious hovercraft (Photo: Port of Haifa)

In the port and in the city of Haifa, workers prepared in advance for the arrival of the shipparticularly for the 2,000 sailors and soldiers on board.

Dozens of buses were summoned to take the crew members for tours throughout the country, and the businesses in the Lower City and Haifa beaches made sure they were able to accommodate the larger-than-usual number of visitors.David S. Wyman, a leading scholar of the US response to the Holocaust whose "The Abandonment of the Jews" was a provocative, best-selling critique of everyone from religious leaders to President Franklin Roosevelt, died Wednesday at age 89

The author's David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies announced that Wyman died at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts, after a lengthy illness. Wyman was a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The grandson of Protestant ministers, Wyman was in graduate school when he began a long-term quest to learn what was done on behalf of the millions of Jews rounded up and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.The annual nationwide exercise of the IDF's General Staff this year marked the escalation of the threat from the northeast: while the army still considers Hezbollah its main enemy in the next possible major confrontation, and is therefore preparing accordingly, as time goes by, Iran's foothold in Syria is slowly forcing the IDF to bolster its awareness and military readiness against the Iranian threat.

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A future multi-theater war, the IDF predicts, may have Iran as a major actor, and if so will undoubtedly drag its proxy in Gaza, Hamas, to back it in its efforts with a simultaneous pincer attack from the north and the south.

Footage of the IDF's General Staff exercise (:  ")

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"The exercise was very challenging and was attended by all the commanders and the administration of the exercise, headed by Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, and expressed a variety of threats by land, sea, air and cyberwarfare," explained a senior IDF officer, adding that the exercise heavily involved the Home Front Command, "with the understanding that in every serious scenario (in Israeled) the home front is a second front."

The officer noted that the exercise took into account the issue of air coordination vis-a-vis the Russian air force operating in Syria, even during wartime.

As for the threat from the south, the exercise simulated a scenario of militants infiltrating the country from the Gaza Strip through offensive tunnels, storming communities in the Gaza vicinity.

IDF leaders discuss strategy in war room (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

On Tuesday morning, Security Cabinet members were supposed to participate for four hours in the exercise, but most canceled their attendance due to the political crisis surrounding the exemption from IDF enlistment for yeshiva students pushed by the Haredi factions.

Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman participated in the exercise as part of his duties, while Cabinet member and former GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant arrived at his own initiative, accompanied by GOC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon.

The rest of the Cabinet did not come to the exercise for even a brief impression, not even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The senior IDF officer noted that while the exercise was planned to involve simulations of decision by the political echelon, the drill was, at its core, a general exercise by the IDF, and for the IDF.

Simulating evacuation of wounded (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Meanwhile, 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.

The exercise will help military forces from both countries to prepare for a multitude of aerial defense scenarios, from dealing with enemy planes and drones, through heavy rocket barrages from several fronts and ending with precision-targeted missiles being fired at Israel.Police in Colombia have arrested a Cuban man suspected of plotting to kill American diplomats in the name of the Islamic State.

The suspect, Raul Gutierrez, arrived Thursday in handcuffs to a Bogota courtroom where a judge ordered him held without bail on terrorism and conspiracy charges. He was arrested earlier in the week in the western city of Pereira in a coordinated investigation involving police in Spain and the FBI.

Authorities said they had intercepted communications from late February in which Gutierrez allegedly discussed plans to make and detonate a homemade explosive in a restaurant in Bogota where he had sought work as a dishwasher and which was frequented by US diplomats. In another message sent over the Telegram instant messaging service, he also allegedly expressed a willingness to blow himself up for Allah and ISIS.Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah does not expect its arch foe Israel to launch a war for now in Lebanon but is prepared for one, the deputy leader of the Iran-backed Shiite terrorist group told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

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As the war in Syria enters its eighth year, Sheikh Naim Qassem also said there was no end in sight to the conflict, which he said would go on for at least two more years, and that President Bashar al-Assad could not be forced out of an eventual settlement.

"There is no solution in Syria under the title of 'excluding President Assad.' On the contrary, the solution in Syria is with President Assad, and he is the mandatory channel for the solution," Qassem said.

Hezbollah's Sheikh Naim Qassem said that while his group did not expect Israel to initiate war, it was ready for it (Photo: Reuters)

The heavily armed Hezbollah joined the war in support of Assad in 2012, and has played a critical part in helping his government defeat Sunni rebels backed by the United States and its regional alliesSaudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

Hezbollah has spearheaded a coalition of Tehran-backed Shiite militias that have deployed to Syria from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran's expanding power in Syria has caused deep alarm in neighboring enemy Israel.

Israel has mounted numerous air strikes in Syria against what it has described as Hezbollah and Iranian targets.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned last month that Israel would not allow Iran to put a " noose of terror " around its neck and it could act not just against Iran's proxies, but Iran itself.

In Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah last fought a major war in 2006, Iran is helping the group build factories to manufacture precision-guided missiles or refit its longer-range missiles with precision guidance systems, Israeli and US officials say.

An Iranian Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missile (Photo: AP)

Asked about the Israeli accusations and warnings, Qassem said he would not comment on Hezbollah's military capabilities, deployments or plans.

"We don't talk about the military details, be it our capabilities or those of our allies, or our deployments, because they are secrets that we retain and we don't want to give a free gift to our enemy," he said.

Hezbollah "is ready to confront the aggression if it happens, if Israel decides to carry out any foolish action," he said. "But it does not appear that the circumstances are for an Israeli decision for war.

"We have declared repeatedly and frequently that we, as the resistance, work to have permanent readiness and are ready to confront Israeli aggression if it happens, and therefore we are ready to defend ourselves by all available means. We are working to fortify our front, and to be ready."

Hezbollah forces on the outskirts of Damascus (Photo: AFP)

'Hezbollah will stay in Syria as long as necessary'

In Syria, however, he said it was possible Israel would conduct further "limited" attacks. "The Syrian regime has taken the decision to respond to this type of attack," he added.

Syria's air defenses last month shot down an Israeli F-16 as it was returning from a bombing run in Syria after Israel said Iran had sent a drone into Israeli air space.

Working closely with the Russian air force and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah has helped turn the tide in the Syrian war that appeared to pose a threat to Assad's rule as recently as 2015.

The conflict passed its seventh anniversary on Thursday, having killed half a million people, driven out 5.8 million as refugees and uprooted millions more in the country.

Qassem said Hezbollah would stay in Syria as long as necessary. If we reach a political solution, of course Hezbollah will return to Lebanon," he qualified.

Syrian President Assad defeated the US-led plot to destroy Syria, Qassem claimed (Photo: EPA)

Assad and his allies had won the war by defeating what he described as a US-led plot to destroy Syria, he added. "Syria has won the military battle, which will help them win the political battle," he said.

He added that Islamic State fighters who had sought to make Syria part of their "caliphate" had received a heavy blow and lost territories they held.

While Assad's rule is no longer in danger, large swaths of Syria remain outside his control at the borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

The United States has deployed forces into northern and eastern Syria, where it is allied with Kurdish-led militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Turkey has also sent forces into the northwest.

Qassem, however, did not expect the Syria war to lead to a direct confrontation between the major powers.

"It is clear that all the parties and their allies view that it is in their interests not to have a direct confrontation between America and Russia, and they have rules of engagement that they have studied together and are abiding by," he said.

Sheikh Naim Qassem (Photo: Reuters)

Hezbollah expects its allies to win more seats in Lebanon vote

Speaking about the upcoming parliamentary elections in his country, the sheikh said Hezbollah expected its allies to win more seats in the May poll, but does not expect any fundamental change in the balance of power in government.

The May 6 election looks set to deepen the strong political influence already wielded in Lebanon by the heavily armed terror group, which is backed by Iran and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States.

Lebanon's first parliamentary vote since 2009 will be held according to a new law that is widely expected to yield fewer seats for the Future Movement led by Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, Lebanon's leading Sunni.

"Our ambition from these elections is not to increase the number of Hezbollah MPs. Our ambition is for there to be broader representation for our allies from different groups, sects and parties," Sheikh Qassem told Reuters.

"This law will certainly increase the number of MPs of Hezbollah's allies," he said.

Qassem did not say how many seats he expected Hezbollah and its allies to win in parliament, where the 128 seats are divided among Lebanon's 17 officially recognized religious groups according to a strict quota.

Lebanese PM Hariri's March 14 alliance won the majority of seats in the previous elections (Photo: Reuters)

Since then, March 14 has largely disintegrated while Hezbollah and its allies have grown stronger, and Hariri's long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia has become strained.

In 2016, Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun became head of state in a political deal that also made Hariri head of a government that spans nearly all of Lebanon's main political groups, including Hezbollah.

Last November, Saudi Arabia lost patience with Hariri's political accommodation of Hezbollah, forcing him to resign as prime minister and briefly putting him under house arrest in Riyadh, according to Lebanese officials.

PM Hariri (L) and Saudi King Salman (Photo: EPA)

Following French intervention, however, Hariri returned to Lebanon and retracted the resignation after his government reiterated its policy of staying out of regional conflicts.

Qassem said he expected only minor changes in the composition of the next government, but it was too early to talk about who would be the next prime ministera post reserved for a Sunni Muslim in the sectarian system.

"The change in the shape of government and the way it is formed will be limited, but certainly it will be subjected to wider accountability by MPs because of the variety that will be in parliament," he concluded.Iran said on Monday that Saudi crown prince was a "delusional naive person" who has no idea of politics, state TV reported, in reaction to Mohammed bin Salman's interview with CBS news channel.

"He has no idea of politics apart from bitter talk that emanates from a lack of foresight ... His remarks do not deserve a response, because he is a delusional, naive person, who never talks, but with lies and bitterness," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.

"Iran respects all its neighbours ... Tehran invites all regional countries, especially some ill-wishers and obstinate enemies to dialogue and tolerance."The Russian Defense Ministry has shot back at British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, who advised Russia to "go away and shut up."

The ministry's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, called Williamson's "rhetoric worthy of a harridan," saying Thursday it reflected "his intellectual impotence." He added that "the boorish language is apparently the only thing left in the British military arsenal."

The statement reflected an escalating war of words between Moscow and London over the poisoning of a former spy in Britain that Britain has blamed on Russia. Moscow rejected the accusations.

Konashenkov said Williamson's language underlined both "the baselessness of all London's accusations against Russia" and "the complete nullity of the accusers."

He said Russia has "developed immunity to all kinds of fake accusations in all deadly sins coming from London."Lebanon plans to increase its military presence along its southern border with Israel, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Thursday at a meeting in Rome, where he is seeking financial support for the armed forces.

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Bolstering Lebanons army and internal security forces is seen as a way for the international community to keep Hezbollah, which has helped sway the Syrian civil war in President Bashar al-Assads favor, from broadening its clout in the Lebanese heartland.

The Israel-Lebanon border (Photo: EPA)

Some 40 countries participated in the meeting, along with and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. While some financial aid was announced on Thursday, Hariri said that the goal of the meeting was not to gather pledges.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) took no part in the 2006 war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia. Since then, it has received more than $1.5 billion in US military assistance and, in the last seven years, training and support from the US Special Forces.

We will be sending more LAF troops to the south, and we stress our intention to deploy another regiment, he said, adding that Israel remains the primary threat to Lebanon.

While we are thinking of ways to move from a state of cessation of hostilities to a state of permanent ceasefire, Israel continues to make plans to build walls on reservation areas along the blue line, Hariri said.

In a joint statement, the conference participants said Lebanon should accelerate effective and durable deployments to the South.

The UN Security Council has allowed for 15,000 Lebanese troops to be deployed along the border since the end of the 2006 conflict.

On Thursday, Hariri said he presented the five-year plans for Lebanons military and security services to the participants, and each country would decide in the coming months how it could help.

The European Union pledged 50 million euros ($61.6 million) to Lebanons security forces, and Hariri said France had created a 400-million-euro credit facility to purchase equipment for Lebanons military and security forces. The UK has pledged an additional $13 million, it said on Twitter.

Im extremely satisfied with the outcome, Hariri said after the conference.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri (Photo: AFP)

Hariri dismissed concerns that weapons intended for the Lebanese army would end up in the hands of Hezbollah, saying: We have never lost a weapon to anyone... and it will never happen in the future.

On Thursday, Hariri reiterated his commitment to the policy of dissociation, which is meant to keep the deeply fractured state out of regional conflicts such as the Syrian civil war.

Guterres told reporters: This is the moment in which the international community needs to express its full support (for Lebanon).

Italian caretaker Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Lebanons stability was vital to region.

Lebanon must be sheltered from the forces of destabilization, he said. Assuring Lebanons stability assures the broader security of the Mediterranean and, as a consequence, of Europe.

The Rome meeting is the first of three aimed at helping Lebanon stimulate its economy and weather the neighboring civil war and attendant refugee crisis.

In April, donors will meet in Paris, where Lebanon is seeking up to $16 billion in infrastructure investments. A meeting in Brussels follows, intended to help Lebanon cope with the more than 1 million Syrian refugees it is hosting.Finance Minister and Kulanu Chairperson Moshe Kahlon said Thursday that if an indictment is filed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he will not be able to continue serving in office.

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In an interview on Channel 2 News, which was broadcast Thursday night, Kahlon said that "if a trial against the prime minister begins, he will not be able to serve."

Finance Minister Kahlon (Photo: Yair Sagi)

Kahlon asked what would happen if an indictment was filed against Netanyahu, to which he responded, "There is a law that says that the attorney general decides whether an indictment will be filed," adding that, should Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decide to file an indictment against the prime minister, "the prime minister will not be able to continue serving while indicted."

"That's my answer," he said resolutely, noting that, should that happen, he believes Netanyahu will step down of his own volition. Either that, "or everyone else will," he stressed, concluding that he and his party will surely not stay in a coalition under an indicted premier.

PM Netanyahu (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

In February, the Israel Police announced there is sufficient evidence to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases against him, Case 1000 and Case 2000.

Case 1000 concerns illicit gifts Netanyahu allegedly received from business moguls Arnon Milchan and James Packer , whereas Case 2000 concerns talks the premier had with Yedioth Ahronoth owner and publisher Arnon Mozes regarding the Israel Hayom daily.

The recommendations are now in the hands of Attorney General Mandelblit, who will review the material before deciding whether to file charges. Netanyahu can remain in office during that process, which could drag on for months.It is fair to say that every sitting government is closely monitored, especially by the opposition parties, in a bid to ensure that Ghanaians get what is deserved.

The politicization of the public policies of a country, more often than not, casts the citizens into groups, each with identifiable interests.

YEN.com.gh brings to you 5 actions by the Akufo-Addo government that became subjects for intensive debates in Ghana:

1. The appointment of Martin Amidu as Ghana's first Special Prosecutor

A cross-section of Ghanaians were literally taken aback when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo revealed that Ghanas first Special Prosecutor would be Martin Alamisi Amidu, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

The president eulogized the experience of the astute legal practitioner, and expressed optimism that he would diligently execute his duties.

Martin Amidu

READ ALSO: Social media users mock Shatta Wale over his recent "attack" on Stonebwoy

2. The Free SHS programme

The Free Senior High School (SHS) policy was one of the key campaign promises of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the December 2016 elections.

Questions were raised with respect to aspects of it such as funding and execution. That none withstanding, the first batch of students to enjoy the policy began schooling from September 2017.

3. Paperless ports

Another objective was with a complete overhaul of work done at Ghanas ports. The decision, it was reportedly fueled by the desire to eliminate corruption at the ports.

This course of action did not go unnoticed, as it was subjected to intense debates by some Ghanaians.

4. Digital address system  "Jack where are you?"

The digital address system, nicknamed Jack, where are you? was also subjected to intense scrutiny as Ghanaians debated the need for such a system, especially when the details of the costs involved came to the attention of the public.

5. One district, one factory

Among the many assurances given during the 2016 elections, the then candidate Akufo-Addo assured Ghanaians that factories would be built in selected districts in the country. A year on, it remains of the promises Ghanaians look forward to with hope.

READ ALSO: Two persons arrested in connection with the Royal Motors robbery incident

I want people to listen to my music  Kobla Jnr

Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram

Source: YenA frustrated past student of the University of Ghana has dragged the University to Ghana's high court for failing to graduate him.

The student by name Collins Owusu-Sekyere served writs from the High Court to the University Wednesday March 14.

According to the former Commonwealth Hall resident, the University has refused to graduate him despite completing about two years ago.

A writ of summons that has been served to the university

READ ALSO: 5 Amazing Photos of Ghana's First Lady

A report on legonconnect.com suggests that the plaintiff, Collins Owusu-Sekyere, was part of a group of students that organized an illegal procession from Commonwealth Hall to Hilla Limann hall somewhere in March 2016, after the university had clearly banned all such processions.

According to the report, Collins claimed he was not part of the said procession but was not even invited to tell his side of the story.

On March 10, 2106, the university expelled all students who were reportedly part ofthe said procession from their halls of residence which included Collins.

READ ALSO: Nana Appiah Mensah apologises to Stonebwoy

Collins Owusu-Sekyere has therefore taking the university to the High Court to seek for fair treatment.

The University of Ghana is yet to respond to the issue.

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:

I want people to listen to my music - Kobla Jnr

Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos .

Source: Yen NewsGhanaian actress, Jessica Williams, has put herself in the front role when it comes to the sexiest actresses in the countrys movie industry.

According to her, not many ladies in the industry can boast to have her unique body shape, hence describing herself as the sexiest actress in Ghana.

Jessica is an upcoming actress and has so far starred in some movies, as well as television series.

Actress Jessica Williams

READ ALSO: Ebony tribute concert slated for March 23

Speaking at the launch of one of her latest movie titled 'King with no culture', the actress said no other lady in the Ghana movie industry currently compares to her when it comes to an alluring beauty.

In a video that was captured by blogger Zionfelix, the actress is seen praising her physique and looks in what looked like an endorsement video.

This is the girl Jessica Williams and apparently I have been appointed as the most sexiest actress in Ghana. Tell me what you think about it, take a good look a me, Jessica said.

It is unknown who nominated the actress as the sexiest in the Ghana movie industry, however, as it stands she has already claimed the title and it is now over to her colleague actresses to debate that.

Check out YEN.com.gh's TOP-5 impressive insults by Ghanaian politicians:

READ ALSO: Two more suspects arrested over Royal Motors robbery

Send us a message via our official Facebook and/or Instagram page to get it published on YEN.com.gh

Source: YenOne of the major issues bothering the minds of Ghanaians is security.There has been a recent rise in armed robbery lately with robbers not only taking away valuables and hard cash but also leaving victims either emotionally traumatized or killed.

Following the rise in these cases, the police department embarked on a massive reshuffle exercise as a government the advice of security personnel deployed a team of both police and military officers to check crime across the country.

READ ALSO: 10 rare tricks to passing your BECE or WASSCE with straight A's

But in the midst of all these Ghanaians are asking so many questions about the Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu. YEN.com.gh compiles a list of these questions to the IGP.

1. The question to resign

Some readers of YEN.com.gh believe asking the question of when the IGP will resign is in the right place especially when the recent spate of crime in the country is evidence enough that his authority is not that effective.

2. The question of where COP Kofi Boakye is

Many Ghanaians want the return of COP Kofi Boakye, one of the remarkable police officers who has managed to fight crime using his skills and power. Readers of YEN.com.gh believe his comeback could turn things around.

3. The question of how Ghana is fighting crime now

Our readers want to know the various strategies or reforms the Ghana police department is employing to fight crime and insecurity in the country. They want to hear about new strategies, not old ones.

4. The question of whether police uniforms must be changed

Some readers believe the color of police uniforms are not favoring them. According to some readers, a change in the uniform could help improve the effectiveness of the police.

5. The question of whether all community police officers were screened before employed

Readers of YEN.com.gh believe the rise in crime could also be linked to some community police officers who may be in bed with these criminals. They want answers since most of them doubt their trust on these officers.

READ ALSO: 5 top diseases killing Ghanaians today

Records by the Ghana Police Service reveal that the ratio of security officials to civilians currently stands at 1 policeman to 500 Ghanaians. This troubling reality falls in sharp contrast with the success stories of various African countries who have a satisfactory of police per civilian ratio.

Who is going to be Ghanas next top pastor?

Send us a message via our official Facebook and/or Instagram page to get it published on YEN.com.gh

Source: Yen- EPA officials have stated that some water bodies in the Western Region have been polluted with toxic cyanide

- Officials say water bodies were so polluted that they could smell the cyanide in the evening air

- Cyanide is a toxic chemical capable of killing in seconds

Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed that initial lab results show that the overuse of cyanide by illegal small scale miners has polluted some water bodies in Aboso, in the Western Region.

According to a report by Myjoyonline.com, Ghana's foremost anti-galamsey fighting force, Operation Vanguard, recently arrested four illegal miners suspected of using chemicals like zinc and cyanide in the course of their operation.

READ ALSO: Gov't refuses to support Atta Mills presidential library

Mr. Moses Kpebu, a Senior Program Officer at EPA, revealed that, upon arriving at the sight in the evening, team members were able to smell the cyanide because the substance fumes when the temperature declines.

"Just as we got to the site yesterday, we realized that we could even smell the cyanide. You know in the evening, the cyanide fumes they come especially when the weather becomes cold. So when we got there in the evening, we could even smell the cyanide," he said.

The four illegal miners' arrest come a mere 24 hours after Operation Vanguard arrested 27 individuals, 7 Chinese nationals and 20 local miners, in Bremang and Brofoyeduru.

Squadron Leader Omane Agyei, PRO of Operation Vanguard, told Joy News how the miners were eventually apprehended.

"Kudos to personnel of FOB [Forward Operating Base] West.They first have to do recognisance and that one they have to do [it] in plain clothes before they sprung the attack.

"They [personnel] had so many difficulties because when they [miners] see a newcomer come into their site, they will be apprehensive to the extent that there were so many tactics that were deployed to enable us to come and spring this attack."

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: Joe Mettle condemns pre-marital sex but fails to say if he's ever done it

Do you have any story to share with YEN? Get featured! We are available on Facebook and Instagram

Source: YenComments and links to reports on science, and its applications.Guwahati: The city based Apollo Hospital will conduct the next OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club on Saturday (17 March 2018), where Dr Prabin Saikia (medicine) will be available for free healthcare consultations to the media persons.





Organized under the series of Evening with a Doctor programs for the benefit of press club members along with their close relatives, the weekly camp from 3 pm to 5pm will also facilitate the participants to check their weight and blood pressure.





The weekly health camps have been supported by most of Assam based hospitals namely Down Town Hospitals, GNRC Hospitals, Dispur Hospital, Barthakur Clinic, Wintrobe Hospital, Nemcare Hospital, Sun Valley



Guwahati : Assam government will constitute a committee consisting of representatives of six communities to facilitate liaison between them and the governments to expedite the process of according ST status to these communities.





Holding a meeting with the representatives of six communities at Assam Legislative Assembly premises in Guwahati on Wednesday, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal while mooting the idea for a committee said that a body consisting of the representatives of the six communities would ensure seamless communication between the demanding communities, both Assam and Central government.





Acknowledging the necessity of granting ST Status, Sonowal assured the visiting representatives to take the matter immediately to New Delhi for appropriate intervention of the Centre.





The Assam CM also reiterated his governments commitment to act as a catalyst to ensure granting of ST Status to Moran, Muttock, Koch Raj Bongshi, Tai Ahom, Sootea and Tea Tribes.





He also assured the representatives that the government has accorded top-most importance to bring the demand of the six communities in its agenda of priorities.





Close on the heels of earlier stand for endorsing demands of the six communities for ST status, Government is committed to push the demand for early disposal of the issue, Sonowal said.





President of All Moran Students Union Arunjyoti Moran, its Secretary Naba Moran and Advisor Tarun Barua, President of Tai Ahom Students Union Litul Buragohain, its Joint Secretary Dulal Barua, President of All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association Rajen Kumar, its Secretary Paban Bedia, Advisor of Konch Rajbongshi Students Union Hiteswar Barman, President of All Assam Chutia Students Union Bitupan Saikia, Chief Ministers Media and Legal Advisors Hirshikesh Goswami and Shantanu Bharali, Chief Secretary TY Das, Additional Chief Secretaries Alak Kumar and Rajib Bora, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sajay Lohiya, Member Secretary SLAC for Students and Youth Welfare Lakhya Konwar and a host senior officers were present at the meeting.







Guwahati : After Kolkata, unidentified persons had now damaged and defaced a statue of BJP ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in Lower Assams Kokrajhar district.





The incident took place at Rabindra Nagar area in Kokrajhar town on Tuesday night.





Police has started investigation, but failed to arrest any person who involved with it.





Local people had condemned the act and demanded to arrest the culprits.





The incident follows toppling of damaging statues of Communist icon Vladimir Lenin in Tripura, social reformer Periyar in Tamil Nadu, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in Kolkata.





Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal strongly condemned the

act of vandalism in which a bust of noted political thinker and academician Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.





In a statement, the Assam CM said that the incident is very condemnable and the Government would not tolerate such incidents.





He directed the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of Kokrajhar district to take stern action and book the miscreants who were indulged in the act under relevant provisions of law.





He also directed the administration to step up vigil and take all necessary measures to prevent such acts of vandalism.







Imphal : Indias north eastern state Manipur is turned as a safe haven for drugs smugglers and it was proved again after the troops of Assam Rifles had seized huge quantity of drugs worth of around Rs 12 crore from the state.





According to the reports, the Assam Rifles troops on Wednesday had recovered huge quantity of WY tablets and brown sugar from a drug peddler in Tengnoupal district in the state along with Myanmar border.





A top official of Assam Rifles said that, the troops had apprehended the drug peddler with huge quantity of brown sugar and WY tablets worth of Rs 11.96 crore.





During the preliminary interrogation, the drug peddler revealed that, it was carried from Myanmar and being transported to Shillong.





Later, the drug peddler and recovered drugs were handed over to Imphal based Narcotic Control Bureau.





In past three years, security forces had recovered huge quantity drugs worth over Rs 100 crore from different parts of the state.





On January 6 last, Manipur police had seized WY drugs, worth of Rs 3 crore from the international market area in Imphal West district.







Guwahati, March 14 : Illiterate person would not be contested in the panchayat elections in Assam.





Assam Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed the Assam Panchayat (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and according to the new amendment bill, illiterate person will not be contested in the panchayat elections in the state from now.





Apart from it, who does not have a functional sanitary toilet in his or her residence will not eligible for contesting panchayat polls in the state.





The new bill also provisions that, who has more than two living children from a single or multiple partners will not be eligible for contesting elections.





The minimum educational qualifications for general category have been fixed for contesting panchayat elections.





For the Gaon Panchayat Member, every candidate of general category will be needed to pass Class VI examination from an educational institution.





In case of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), More Other Backward Classes (MOBC) shall not be a bar for contesting election or to be elected for the post of Gaon Panchayat Member.





On the other hand, who has not passed Class 10 or equivalent examination under any council or board recognized by the state or the central government will not eligible for contesting for the post of Gaon Panchayat President, Anchalik Panchayat Member and minimum Class 12 pass is fixed for contesting for the post of Zila Parishad Member.





In case of candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), More Other Backward Classes (MOBC), minimum educational qualification shall be Class VIII examination passed for Gaon Panchayat President, Anchalik Panchayat Member and Class 10 passed for Zila Parishad Member.





Assam Panchayat and Rural development minister Naba Doley had placed the bill in the assembly.





On the other hand, the Assam government informed the house that, it will introduce a resolution this week in the Assembly and will request the Centre to fix minimum educational qualification for candidates to contest Assembly and Parliament elections.





Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, we will move an official resolution in next 2-3 days to have minimum qualifications for Assembly and Parliamentary polls.





The Assam minister further said that, if needed an all-party delegation team will meet the President, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Opposition leader that there should be a model educational qualification.







Guwahati: With a view to ensure stabilization of prices of essential commodities and generating greater consumer awareness, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday directed the Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to prepare a road map and take up comprehensive measures..





While reviewing the activities of the department in a meeting, which was held at the conference hall of his office at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati, Sonowal directed the department to keep a stock of essential items including perishable items like potato and onion for public distribution to meet up shortage during emergency situations.





He asked the department to make an assessment of requirement of perishable items mostly during monsoon period and tie up with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NEFED) for procurement of the same.





Sonowal also directed the department to take up steps for setting up cold storages under PPP mode in the state. Significantly, a provision of Rs 50 crore has been made in the current budget to meet any emergency situation.





The Assam Chief Minister emphasised on generating more awareness among consumers and inform them about comparative prices of essential items available in the country through different mass media including digital medium.





He observed that sharing information on prices of commodities and its comparative information through different media platforms with consumers will boost public confidence in the department.





Sonowal instructed the department to make the presence of its officials felt in the field and ensuring strict monitoring of prices of essential commodities.





Moreover, underscoring the need for taking up more innovative measures by the department, Assam CM Sonowal directed to implement Amar Dukan on Wheel in all the 97 towns of the state on a priority basis simultaneously and promote digital payment in their transactions.





Sonowal also appreciated the department on the implementation of Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in the state under which subsidised LPG connections have been provided to 9.18 lakh households during 2017-18.

Under the scheme, a target is set to provide subsidised connection to 30 lakh households in the state.





He also lauded the initiative proposed by the department to set up Food and Civil Supplies Corporation on pilot basis in few of the districts of the state, which is expected to play a crucial role in stabilizing prices of essential commodities.





F&CS and Consumer Affairs Minister Rihon Daimary, Water Resources Minister Keshav Mahanta, Chief Ministers Media Adviser Hrishikesh Goswami, Legal Adviser Santanu Bharali, Additional Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna, CMs Principal Secretary Sanjay Lohia and several other senior officials of the department were present in the meeting.







BEIRUT, Mar 15: Syrian government forces and Russian aircraft blanketed parts of the besieged, rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghotua with airstrikes and rocket fire on Thursday, activists said, as Syrians marked seven years since the popular uprising that sparked their countrys vicious civil war.





Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross managed to send a joint relief agencies convoy with aid for thousands of displaced into another part of eastern Ghouta, the town of Douma, the ICRC said.





According to Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, the organizations first responders were unable to reach the wounded in several other towns in eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the assault. It said one of its rescue workers was killed in an airstrike on the town of Hazeh.





They are burning Ghouta to the ground, said Anas al-Dimashqi, a media activist and resident of Kafr Batna, a town also targeted in intense airstrikes Thursday.





Dimashqi, the White Helmets and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that government and Russian aircraft were using napalm-like incendiary weapons to spread fires in the towns.





Government and Russian forces also targeted a column of civilians trying to flee another town, Hamouria, early Thursday, according to the activists and the Observatory. At least 26 civilians were killed Hamouria on Wednesday, the Observatory said earlier.





The Syrian government, backed by its allies Iran and Russia, is determined to retake control of the once farming region just outside the Damascus, after seven years of war and bloodletting that has killed over 450,000 people and displaced millions.





More than 1,200 people have been killed since pro-government forces launched their assault on eastern Ghouta more than three weeks ago.





Damascus and Moscow have ignored a Feb. 25 U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire for the entire country.





The eastern Ghouta region was one of the hubs of the uprising against President Bashar Assad in 2011 and was quickly targeted for a siege, mass arrests, and extrajudicial killings by security forces.





Government forces cleaved the region in two parts earlier this week, and isolated the areas largest town, Douma, from the rest of the suburbs.





Douma has seen four days of relative calm, said local media activist Youssef Boustani.





The 25-truck aid convoy organized by the international Red Cross, the Syrian Red Crescent, and the United Nations crossed into eastern Ghouta on Thursday, according to the ICRC, and was expected to deliver aid later in the day.





Damascus routinely blocks the aid agencies from delivering relief to opposition-held areas in the country.





The Russian military, meanwhile, said it had extended a humanitarian pause to operations targeting Douma through Thursday and Friday. It claimed the pause has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.



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Lucara unveils 1,175-ct rough diamond in New York  report Lucara Diamond and manufacturer HB Antwerp unveiled a 1,175-carat diamond in New York City in a bid to attract investors. Reuters reports that the stone recovered at the Karowe mine, in Botswana last June would be on display for a week at the Whitby...

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BlueRock boosts H1 output, grade at Karevleei as loss narrows BlueRock Diamonds has recorded a 79% increase in carats produced at Kareevlei Diamond Mine in South Africa to 8,949 carats in the six months to June 2021 compared to 4,981 carats, a year earlier.SNc Channels:



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Mar-14-2018 18:05 TweetFollow @OregonNews New York Gubernatorial Candidate Says Marijuana May Bring $500 Million a Year Giambra says the new revenue stream could help rebuild New York State

Joel Giambra, an independent candidate for governor, believes pot can be an economical benefit to New York.

(BUFFALO, NY) - "Conservative projections of an estimated $500 million a year in initial marijuana tax revenues for New York State could leverage enormous economic impact across the board and help rebuild our state," says former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, an independent candidate for New York governor who believes the time has come to legalize the sale of marijuana. "Nine other states have taken this step and medical marijuana is legal in 29 states," says Giambra, who is seeking the Reform Party line for governor. "Other states are poised to take action and according to Arcview Market Research, one of the top market research firms for the cannabis industry, legal marijuana sales were expected to hit $9.7 billion in North America in 2017 (final numbers not available yet). We need to take marijuana off the black market and cultivate an entrepreneurial economy in New York State instead of crushing our citizens with more onerous taxes to feed the Albany political pipeline." Giambra said that based on research he has commissioned that he is releasing today, an excise tax of 13 percent in addition to the existing state and local sales taxes on legal adult marijuana would generate $500 million a year and could finance state bonding of $12.2 billion over five years. "The money generated from legalizing marijuana would go a long way toward dealing with our state's crumbling roads and bridges and help with the equally daunting challenge of fixing the broken New York City metropolitan transit system," said Giambra. "Legalizing the adult use of marijuana is a cornerstone of my campaign for governor. I pledge that if I win election, it will be one of my major priorities because of the immediate economic benefits it can produce." Giambra said according to his analysis, every $1 billion spent on infrastructure will create 13,000 jobs directly in construction and among suppliers and thousands more indirectly, leading to more than 244,000 new jobs over seven years. "This is a plan to rebuild New York without continuing to raise taxes," said Giambra. "There's another billion dollars in taxes and fees already projected in the Albany pipeline this year to deal with a deficit estimated of at least $4.4 billion. I think the citizens have had enough. "Let's take marijuana off the black market, like other states have, and begin to phase in that new revenue stream and put that money to work for the people of New York." Legalization of marijuana also has strong public support as a 2017 Gallup Poll showed that 64 percent of Americans favor legalization, with a majority of Republicans backing it for the first time. Upon the enactment of the cannabis regulation, Governor Giambra will ensure  if need be, by the power of the pardon  that all non-violent marijuana convictions are expunged and all individuals currently incarcerated for non-violent marijuana crimes are released as immediately as is practicable. Minorities in New York continue to face marijuana arrests nearly 10 times the rate of whites. _________________________________________

Prohibition | Marijuana | Marijuana | Most Commented on





Articles for March 13, 2018 | Articles for March 14, 2018 | Articles for March 15, 2018Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Albert R. Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Browne-Baptiste again calls for recusal of magistrate in Nice Radio case

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The trial against Nice Radio head, Douglas DeFreitas, related to comments he is alleged to have made after the general elections of 2015, may see a third magistrate having to step back from the matter.

When the matter was called on Monday at the Kingstown Magistrateas Court before senior magistrate Rickie Burnett, Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, defence attorney for DeFreitas, informed that she had made two submissions in the case.

DeFreitas was charged in June, 2016, that he did at Dorsetshire Hill, publish a false statement which was likely to cause fear or alarm or to disturb the public peace.

The day after the general elections on December 9, 2015, DeFreitas is alleged to have said: aI have just had confirmation that six of the ballots were unsealed and one missing. Six of the ballots were unsealed and one missing. It means that something went on down there in the polling station and we are calling for by-elections by Monday. We want by-elections; we donat wantaAnd I want the leadership to the NDP to find some transportation, get supporters to go down there and to get into place, please and persons who can go on their own, go down there and support Exeter on this matter.a

Since June 2016, 11 further and similar charges, related to statements made on the day after the general elections, were placed against DeFreitas.

On Monday, counsel for the Crown Karim Nelson made an application for an amendment to the charges and asked that afeara and ato disturb the public peacea be excised. Therefore, the charges are to read only alikely to cause alarm.a

Burnett, not having the charges before him, said the amendments are to be made at the next sitting of the case.

Bacchus-Baptiste also stated that she had made certain requests for disclosure, which the other side has asteadfastly refuseda.

The lawyer said the charges are very specific about ballot boxes and someone cannot be charged for saying certain things about the ballot boxes, and the prosecution claim it is not true, but donat want to show the ballot boxes. aThat is totally unfair; completely unfair,a she commented.

aTwelve charges basically having to do with the security of the ballot boxes,a she said, further claiming that, athere are a number of photographs out there to show indeed that the ballot boxes were not properly secured.a

However, Burnett may not be the magistrate to rule on the request for disclosure, as Bacchus-Baptiste has also made an application for him to recuse himself. She said her reasons are avery cogenta, also noting that the other side had not yet responded.

Burnett said the application for recusal should be ventilated in court.

Another court date was set, as the defendant needs to go abroad for medical reasons, and the prosecution needs to respond to the submissions made.

Burnett asked that Nelson respond by May 1, and set the next court date for May 17.

If Burnett recuses himself, he will follow magistrates Bertie Pompey and Zoila Ellis-Browne. Pompey had recused himself on the basis that he was involved in a civil matter in which DeFreitas was also involved.

Ellis-Browne had recused herself upon request of Bacchus-Baptiste, who cited a areal possibility for bias,a because of Ellis-Browneas marriage to former member of Parliament for the Unity Labour Party (ULP), Michael Browne.(KR)Cibc FirstCaribbean appoints new private wealth investment advisor

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Regional bank CIBC FirstCaribbean recently announced the appointment of Paul Michael Jenkins to the post of Private Wealth Investment advisor.

The experienced banking executive will work with CIBC FirstCaribbean clients in The Cayman Islands, Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean to provide international investment advice. He has amassed a significant amount of experience in the area of Private Wealth Management, having worked with institutional and private clients in Canada and the Caribbean for over 15 years, most recently with Scotiabank & Trust in The Cayman Islands.

Jenkins holds an honours Bacheloras degree from The University of Western Ontario (Western University), and an MBA, specializing in Finance, from Alliance Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom. He has spoken internationally at several conferences and written numerous articles on the discipline of wealth management.

He said he was eager to provide clients with access to a new Investment Advisory Platform. This new management platform uses state-of-the-art financial asset management tools provided by BNY Mellonas Pershing. It delivers direct access to investment accounts from any Wi-Fi location globally, providing clients with real time portfolio positions and valuations.

aThis is a game changer in our development of our clientsa portfolios,a he noted. aAs a relationship oriented bank, itas our job to know our clientsa accounts inside-out and provide them with the products and services tailored to maximize their wealth potential.a

Glenn Abell, director, Private Wealth Management, welcomed Mr Jenkins to CIBC FirstCaribbean. aWe are pleased to have someone of Paulas calibre join our Private Wealth Management team. His knowledge will add new and increased depth to our relationship management team.a

Jenkinsa appointment took effect from February 21, 2018.Clean sweep for NNP in Grenada general elections

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Prime Minister of Grenada Dr Keith Mitchell led his New National Party (NNP) to an historic clean sweep of all 15 seats in a general election there on Tuesday, making it the third time he has achieved the feat in electoral politics in Grenada.

The 71-year-old Mitchell, who led the NNP to a consecutive sweep following his 2013 victory, immediately called on the leadership of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be part of the social partners that will chart the way forward for the tri-island state.

aIt feels good, the people of my country has shown the level of confidence in the way I have governed, it is a humbling experience,a Mitchell said after the preliminary results showed that the party had swept all the seats in Parliament.

Mitchell easily won the St George North West seat, which he has been representing for more than three decades, defeating the NDCas Alli Anthony Brian Dowden by a 2,546 to 406 margin.

Former NDC executive Peter David, who was fired from the party in 2013, easily won the Town of St George seat, polling 1,616 votes, as compared to 789 for Claudette Joseph of the NDC.

In the St George South constituency, Health Minister Nickolas Tang Conway Steele polled the most votes in the election, receiving 3,536 votes, as against 2,679 for former public servant and trade unionist Raymond Roberts of the NDC.

Mitchell said he is convinced that if his administration is able to bring Grenadians, including the estimated 20,000 people who voted against the NNP together, then the country would be better off.

He against dismissed the notion that the clean sweep would result in the Government having a free hand in running the affairs of the country.

aYou canat ignore that 20 000 people voted against you . . . the task is to bring that element into the decision making process,a he said, reiterating his call for the NDC to join the social partners in adealing with the problems of the country.a

He has already indicated he would be looking at the manifesto of the NDC, adding ayou could have the best ideas and you donat have that team willing to reach out for different opinions, you are not going to be as successful as you should be.

aThe NDC will get a commitment from us to involve them. They refused before . . . but I hope with the present results more common sense will prevail,a Mitchell said, adding that he had not yet received any congratulatory message from Burke.

Burke, who led the party into an election for the first time, failed to win the St George North East constituency, losing to the NNPas Tobias Clement 2,458 to 2,319 votes.

Mitchell said if he had to provide any advice to the NDC, it would be to change the leadership, so as to provide leadership, in the country.

Barbados-based political scientist and pollster, Peter Wickham, who had predicted an NNP victory, said that the NDC strategy awas flaweda.

He said the party would have been better off campaigning on the promise of a astrong oppositiona, rather than trying to tell the population it would win the election, given the results of the 2,103 poll.

aThe mistake the NDC made is that they made people believe that they were winning,a Wickham said, adding that the results made it imperative for the aNDC to clean housea.

Another political commentator, Ambrose Phillip, said the NDC has to ado some soul-searchinga, adding it had underestimated the electorate.

Mitchell has not given any indication as to the composition of his new Cabinet or when the members would be sworn in. (CMC)CSME may never be realized, says Dr Gonsalves

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The dream of a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is yet to be realized and possibly never will be.

In 1973, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was established under and by virtue of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. In 2001, the juridical framework for the CSME was formally elaborated in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

But the Single Economy is yet to be operationalized as envisaged.a

aIt is not that some progress has not been made, but the CARICOM Single Economy is still to be achieved, said Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves while delivering a lecture recently entitled aSome Salient Issues for Resolution in CARICOM.a

Gonsalves, speaking on February 22 before a conference room filled with senior public servants and members of the private sector, told them that we have witnessed solid progress in trade facilitation, freedom of movement of CARICOM nationals, the establishment and functioning of the supra-national Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in its original jurisdiction, and the enhancement of functional cooperation in education, health, security, and the coordination of foreign policy.a

However, aStill, in each of the areas of progress, there is much that is yet to be accomplished. But more than all this, the core features of the CARICOM Single Economy are yet to be realized.a

Gonsalves noted that although a March 2017 Report of the Commission to Review Jamaicaas Relations within the CARICOM and CARIFORUM Frameworks (the Golding Report, called after its Chairman, former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding), has proffered an ahighly stylized and somewhat overblown critiquea of the lack of progress in the implementation of the CSME, there is much truth in it.a

Quoting from the report, Gonsalves said, aaSomething cannot be said to have failed unless it has been tried. The Single Market and Economy that we so often declare is not working cannot, in reality, be expected to work, because it has not yet been functionally established.

aSo much time has elapsed and so much that should have been done has not been done that we are in danger of succumbing to aintegration fatiguea without having actually integrated and we are having difficulty sustaining or renewing our commitment to the process.a

The Prime Minister said the Golding Report tells of a Jamaican-centered perspective, from which flows a bundle of 33 recommendations, with suggested timelines for implementation.

He said many of these recommendations are relatively run-of-the-mill, sensible correctives to specific challenges or initiatives which have been

canvassed repeatedly by this or that review, internal and external, of CARICOM.a

But, according to Gonsalves, asome, though, are plain unworkable under the extant governance arrangements in CARICOM; and altered governance has been enduringly problematic.a

He said that the Golding Reportas telling recommendation with undoubted far-reaching consequences for Jamaica and CARICOM is this: aThere needs to be a clear, definitive commitment now from each Member State to a specific time-bound, measurable and verifiable programme of action to fulfill all its obligations and complete all the requirements for the single market and economy to be fully established and operational within the next five years.aa

Gonsalves stated that the report says that in the absence of such a commitment and its diligent execution, Jamaica will withdraw from the single market and economy, but seek to retain its position as a member of CARICOM in a status similar to that held by The Bahamas. After doing this, Jamaica would then consider what form of trading arrangement it would wish to pursue with other CARICOM Member States.

aThis recommendation is central to the Golding Reportas menu of recommendations; its no-nonsense, take-it-or-leave-it alitmus test,a he said, adding that under the rubric of this central recommendation, the Golding Report lists 22 amust doa items for the CSME over the next five years, or else withdrawal by Jamaica.

Gonsalves said while the Golding Report has been laid in the Jamaica Parliament, CARICOM does not yet know the position of the Jamaica government on Goldingas recommendations.a

Gonsalves, however, said that in his opinion, only a well-constructed, authoritative executive CARICOM Commission will be able to push and manage the CSME as a lived reality, but many current enthusiasts were lukewarm to the idea when they were in office.a

Gonsalves said the integration process in the Caribbean has always been marked by distinct but connected circles of integration, such as the OECS, CARICOM, the ACS, CELAC and ALBA-Petro Caribe.a

aEach integration circle has its points of contact and relevance with others, all of which are designed to advance the interests of their member countries in solidarity with each other.a None of these integration circles undermines the integrity and efficacy of another; indeed, they are all supplementary and complementary to each other in a dynamic integration process.a

Gonsalves told the gathering that St Vincent and the Grenadines is committed to deepening and broadening, in all practical circumstances, the process of regional integration in the collective interest of our peopleas further development.

He said in his opinion, it is doubtful, given the current context of globalization, the condition of the regional economies, the unequal yoking of the Member States of CARICOM, and the highly unlikely attainment of an executive CARICOM Commission, that a single economy can be fashioned in CARICOM now or in the foreseeable future.a

aIf this assessment is correct, we ought reasonably to spend our time more usefully on the attainment of the goals resident in the other pillars of CARICOMas design. In this way, our focus is likely to yield substantial results even on modest objectives, than to be in thrall of a permanent condition of dissatisfaction because of the elusive single economy, and its essential precondition, an authoritative executive governance apparatus.aDigicel anniversary month to culminate with epic concert

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While March 2003 is etched in the minds of Vincentians as the time that Digicel revolutionized telecommunications in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), March 2018 is shaping up to also have great impact on Vincentians.

This, as Digicel on Monday, March 6, officially launched its aMarch Madnessa promotion, which is geared at rewarding all its customers, both pre and postpaid, with a series of deals and FREE offers.

On Monday morning, prepaid customers woke up to a message informing them that they were all gifted 50 free minutes to call not only SVG, but over 150 countries, including US, UK and Canada. Additionally, customers were rewarded with free data and international minutes for simply topping up $5 or more.

Fanta Williams, chief of Operations at Digicel SVG said about the exciting promotion, aThis is the start of a month full of rewards for our loyal customers of 15 years a free credit, data and a giveaway of up to $5,000 in cash. In fact, our aMarch Madnessa promotion is just one aspect of Digicelas 15th anniversary celebration activities, since the promotion will climax with a grand concert on Saturday, March 24 at the Victoria Park. The concert, which connects our customers to the music they love, is our way to thank them for choosing and supporting Digicel over the past 15 years.a

Siccaturie aJahCurea Alcock and Andrae aPopcaana Sutherland are billed as headliners for the March 24 concert a making it the first time the two artistes will share the stage. Patrons can also expect to see performances by some of SVGas best artistes, including: Shirtz aProblem Childa James and Kevon aKeva Alleyne, along with SVGas best DJs.

For further information on the aMarch Madnessa offers and the concert details, Digicel customers should stay tuned to the radio, check their text messages and follow Digicelas social media pages for the latest updates.GHS launches 2018 Young Leaders project

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The Girlsa High School (GHS) RBTT Young Leaders are seeking to be aAngels of Change,a as they embark on multiple projects under their theme, aAcknowledging yesterday, changing today, bettering tomorrow.a

Excitement brewed amongst the 30 girls selected to be the GHS Young Leaders 2018, on the day of the official launch of the GHS Young Leaders 2018 at the school last Friday, March 9.

The launch marked the beginning of the schoolas participation in the Young Leaders Competition hosted by the RBTT bank that explores the theme aI am me, leading change in our communitiesa.

aWhich will challenge you, our Young Leaders, to be the change. You should be challenged to ask yourself, who, what, where is our community? Is it in our school, our neighbourhood, our church, our world?a advised the representative from RBTT, Amelia Lai, while speaking on tackling the theme.

aIdentify the need, gap or problem, and as a team develop a strategy for impact,a she intoned.

However, major sponsor representative, managing director of Cash Money Auto Elton Bailey, had already requested an overview of the projects the girls intended to complete, before agreeing to be their sponsor.

aI was extremely impressed with the programme outline. I was touched to see these young ladies using their skills, and resources, and making personal sacrifices in St Vincent, and also the Grenadines, to help the less fortunate,a he remarked.

Certainly, aexcited and drivena were the adjectives which the president of the GHS Young Leaders 2018, Divya Singh, used to describe her team.

aThe vision and passion in each of our eyes in every meeting,a has resulted in eight ideas for projects, and two fund-raisers that will be carried out by the group, which will, aenhance personal development, raise social consciousness, and improve the physical environment,a Singh informed.

They intend to tackle unemployment by creating social awareness on the issue and sourcing jobs for five skilled individuals; they will also seek to educate the younger generation on domestic abuse and all aspects of it, through the project aEducate to elevatea; the teamas internal project will tackle a problem of rodents and pests at the school by creating several eating areas around the school and supplying them with garbage bins; they will provide counselling sessions for teen moms who have lost hope; and to personally supply a home for the less fortunate with supplies that they are in need of.

The girls made an effort to include the needs of those in the Grenadines with a project entitled, aLifting the Sunrisea in Bequia, which is designed to aaid the Sunrise Group of Children with special needs, by creating committed and lasting relationships with local clothing and food retailers to enhance the food.a

The Young Leaders also intend to place needed seating areas at the Bequia Airport, as well as paint a mural.

On that very day, the aAngels of Changea initiative was launched as one of the projects for the team. The president introduced it as a fund which is intended to facilitate monetary contributions from anyone, even those who live abroad, for the well-being of orphans. It is intended to help with their schooling and social activities and to provide acore childhood experiencesa to them.

A large glass container with cut wings on the front was placed in the middle of the spectating students and the podium, as the GHS Young Leaders 2018 kicked off the donations.

Following them, a stream of students and teachers followed to make their contributions to the fund as well.

The group was given much advice on the eve of their journey, including from their acting headmistress Michelle Beache, who advised, aI implore you, GHS Young Leaders, to learn about the various elements of your project, to execute them to the best of your abilities, have fun anda be the change agents you were meant to be.a(KR)ICT Week slated for March 19 to 23

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The Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in collaboration with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), will host ICT Week from March 19 to 23, 2018. The theme for the Week is 21st Century Government. The main aim of the Weekas activities is to sensitize the population on the use of ICT as a lever for economic growth and development.

The main focus of ICT Week will be on emphasizing the steps that need to be taken by Caribbean Governments to accelerate the implementation of 21st Century Government, which is characterised as citizen-centric and utilizing technology for the seamless delivery of services to its citizens.

A major component of the ICT Week a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is the ICT Roadshow. The ICT Roadshow-SVG, which is an initiative of the CTU, is a public awareness and education programme, designed to enable stakeholders to maximize the benefits of ICT.

Specifically, the Roadshow ademonstrates how technology can be used to transform society, by offering education, fostering innovation and encouraging regional governments to implement ICT effectively with regard to public services and governance.a

The ICT Roadshow-SVG will target students from the nationas primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions and is scheduled for Friday, March 23, commencing at 9 a.m.

It comprises a Primary School Forum a This segment of the ICT Roadshow-SVG will focus on teaching primary school students about coding/computer programming. Students selected from the nationas primary schools will participate in the sessions, which will be held at various computer laboratories; Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum a This segment will be held at the Kingstown Methodist Church Hall and is aimed at providing participants with information on some of the opportunities that are available to existing and potential entrepreneurs in ICT. The segment is scheduled to commence at 9 a.m.

There will be presentations by: the St Vincent and the Grenadines National Centre for Technological Innovation (SVGNCTI) on its current CARCIP funded Incubation and Training programme, as well as presentations from some of the incubatees currently enrolled in the programme; Apollo Knights, director of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC). This presentation will focus on the NTRCas annual I2 Competition; Felix Lewis, the general manager of the Centre of Enterprise Development, will chair the forum.

The Youth Forum will have two different sessions, geared towards the lower secondary, and upper secondary and tertiary students. The session targeting the lower secondary school students will focus on training in drones assembly and functions, while the session targeting upper secondary and tertiary students will feature a practical session on the Internet of things, as well as data analytics. The forum will be held at the Kingstown Methodist Church Conference Hall, and is scheduled to commence at 9 a.m.Loyal Bank exec got citizenship through merit  PM Gonsalves

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Loyal Bank executive Adrian Baron did not become a citizen of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) through a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) or Resident by Investment (RBI) programme, but through merit.

On Monday, at a press conference at Cabinet Room, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who is also the Minister in charge of citizenship and immigration, said Baron was granted citizenship after residing here for eight or nine years.

SEARCHLIGHT has learnt that Baron came to SVG in 2006 and was granted citizenship in 2015.

SVG does not have a CBI or RBI programme, and the Prime Minister has remained steadfastly opposed to such initiatives.

a You know I never go into individual personsa situation for citizenship, but you can rest assured that once a citizenship is granted there would have been the requisite due diligence and everything, in the normal way,a Gonsalves said.

He said under the law, if a person is resident here for five years, has made an important contribution in economic or social terms, understands what the citizenship is, can read and speak the English language with proficiency and does not have a bad record, he or she could be accorded citizenship.

aSimilarly, and then there is the alternative, the straight seven years naturalization. So, I put that information in the mix. In other words, [it was] dealt with in accordance with the law,a Gonsalves told journalists at cabinet room.

Baron, and another Vincentian, Linda Bullock, were indicted on March 1 by the United States Attorneyas Office in relation to a $50 million international securities fraud and money laundering scheme.

Baron, 63, was employed as the chief business officer (CBO) of Loyal Bank and a director of Loyal Agency. He primarily worked at Loyal Bankas office in Budapest, Hungary. Prior to being CBO, Baron had been employed as the CEO of Loyal Bank between 2006 and 2014.

Bullock, 57, is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Loyal Bank and a director of Loyal Agency and Trust Corp. She primarily works at Loyal Bankas office at Villa, SVG.

Loyal Bank Ltd is an offshore bank with offices in Budapest, Hungary and SVG; and Loyal Agency and Trust Corp, an offshore management company, located in SVG.

Baron was taken into custody in Hungary on March 3 and is awaiting an extradition hearing in Hungary. Gonsalves said no formal request has been made to the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines in relation to Bullock and extradition.

Gonsalves said the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of SVG has had Loyal Bank under scrutiny for a number of years.LVGS teachers extend outreach to Liberty Lodge boys

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The 13 boys who are housed at the Liberty Lodge Boys Training Centre (LLBTC) will soon embark on a number of engagements, spearheaded by a group of teachers from the Lodge Village Government School (LVGS).

As part of an outreach effort of both institutions, recently, teachers from the Lodge Village Government School, including Anasha Crooks, Adina Wilma Bushay, Dalcia Hanson, Coombs, Lavette Johnson and Karen James, provided the boys of the LLBTC with lunch. It was an occasion that was welcomed by both parties.

Social skills instructor at the LLBTC Sherise Durrant expressed gratitude on behalf of the boys. Also singing the chorus of satisfaction was principal of the LVGS Kesslon Wilson, who lauded his teachers for the initiative.

aThese events are geared towards helping these boys in socialization aspects, as well as developing trust in adults, confidence in themselves and so prepare them for their imminent return to their mainstream homes,a Wilson said.

He noted that the special attachment with the LLBTS has come about because three of the boys who reside there are students of the LVGS.

The schoolas principal revealed that other plans for the boys include the provision of slippers, taking them to church and a crayfish catching competition.

The latter, according to Wilson, will take place at Table Rock in Vermont, and will also serve as an outing for the boys.(RT)More musical opportunities available for Vincentians

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An organization calling itself aOpportunities in Music Inca has been registered as a non-profit organization in the state of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

A release from the organization said the motivation for the initiative stems from the idea that all Vincentian children who would like to learn to play a musical instrument should be afforded the opportunity to do so.

aNo barriers a social, economic or otherwise should stand in the way. And yet, this is merely a first step towards a loftier, far-reaching concept that would necessitate a meeting of minds among the proponents of this vision and the government of the day. It all flows from the proposition that music should be an integral part of every childas education,a the release said.

Beginning in 2009, shipments of musical instruments from Canada were sent to the Ministry of Education, even as exploratory discussions were being held with ministry officials up to the highest level, and other interested parties in the community. Three large and two small shipments, totalling more than 200 instruments, have so far been donated by the organization.

The instruments donated include saxophones, trumpets, clarinets, flutes, tenors, bass recorders, French horns, violins, violas, cellos and acoustic and bass guitars. Some 60 glockenspiels (small xylophones), requested especially for the juniors, were also part of the donations.

To date, according to the Ministry of Education, instruments have been distributed to 15 schools; and it is estimated that these donations, added to the Ministryas inventory, made possible the participation of over 1,000 more students in the music programme than would otherwise have been the case.

Several flagship schools, notably the Bethel High School, North Union Secondary, the St Vincent Girlsa High School, and the Richland Park Government, are acting as pace-setters and a source of inspiration for the rest, the release said.

Other entities and individuals acting in the role of bona fide patrons also played a major part in nurturing this monumental undertaking in its nascent state.

Opportunities in Music Inc is grateful to Long & McQuade Musical Instruments (Canada); Leo Lewis, Vincy-Canadian; the late Pauline Yearwood, originally from Georgetown, who spent her later years in Montreal; Ken Boyea, local entrepreneur and proven patriot; and the St Vincent and the Grenadines Ottawa Association, for their generous financial and other support.

Moving forward, there are formidable tasks to be confronted. One of the most challenging pertains to the recruitment of volunteer teachers, both to replace the ones who leave, and to meet the needs for growth.

According to the release, Ministry of Education personnel working in the field to promote music as a fundamental part of the curriculum are greatly encouraged by the notably closer collaboration between the Ministries of Culture and Education to accelerate the advancement of the music programme in the schools.

Equally encouraging is the conjuncture of forces working together to drive home the message about the value of music in the learning process; and Opportunities in Music Inc is truly proud to be a timely participant in this worthy and rewarding cause.

aIn due course, we shall introduce our company personnel and Steering Committee members. In the meantime, we are pleased to announce that former Commissioner, Keith Miller, has kindly agreed to join our team. Part of Mr Milleras role as general secretary would be to serve as the chief contact person for the organization,a the release said.Public Servants told to free up information!

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Public servants should adopt the mindset that data collected by the state is the peoplesa data and should be made available to the public as a matter of policy.

aWe need to have a voluntary system and not something where people have to coerce someone to give them data,a said Minister of Finance, Economic Planning, Sustainable Development and Information Technology Camillo Gonsalves.

Last Monday, Gonsalves, speaking at a training workshop on OpenStreetMap (OSM) said the government must set policy as it relates to the dissemination of data and he would like to see a focal point for the sharing of information attached to every government department.

Addressing a gathering in the Ministry of Health conference room, Gonsalves, the minister responsible for statistics, said the training in OSM is part of aa very excitinga initiative and thrust by the government to move into open data from a state perspective.

The Minister said the government has reached out to the World Bank for assistance in making government data available in a way that is usable by the private sector, civil society and ministries in the government.

The Minister stressed that on many occasions, there is an instinct in the bureaucracy not to share data, as persons with the information sometimes think, aWhy are we making that public? We donat know what is going to happen to it when you let it go; somebody might do something evil with the data.a

Sharing a personal experience, the Finance Minister said when he became a parliamentarian, he could not find the Hansard (records of Parliament) anywhere other than in the Parliament building.

aaand you would have to go ask someone to take a dusty book down and look it up and I said Hansard is public. I will start a website and put the Hansards online,a said Gonsalves.

He revealed that over the course of one weekend, he started a rudimentary website and put about a decade worth of Hansards that he had in Portable Document Format (PDF) and he was told immediately by people in that part of the bureaucracy to take it down, because there was a plan to make the Hansards available for a fee, so people could buy them.

Gonsalves said, in his opinion, the Hansards contained a lot of useful information that could be beneficial to the private sector and to young people who may have ideas about how to manipulate or use that data, either for fun, information or some commercial benefit, but they were gathering dust.

Today, the Hansards are still not online and those wishing to scrutinize those documents must journey to the House of Assembly, where they can look at the records free of charge.

aaand I think that we should share that data and I think that a lot of the discourse in this country, a lot of the debate in this country is hampered because of a very fundamental problem and that problem is a lack of data.

aA lot of people say I hear so and so is the problem or somebody told me that this and that is the problem and the data, when produced, can very easily shape the debate one way or the other; but when the debate comes after the fact, then there is a suspicion about the data,a said Gonsalves.

He added, aif there is a debate about an issue that exists in the absence of data and then the state produces data thereafter, then people say aawwa, somebody in a back room of the government just cook that up to squash the debate or to kill this issuea.a

The Minister said he believes that once the data does not affect personal privacy or national security, it should be ventilated.

He said collected data can be made anonymous, as it is useful to know things like how many persons went to the doctor for a certain ailment, aand that can guide policy and action in a number of ways.a

Gonsalves stressed that we must have an open data policy and disabuse the public service of the notion that it is their data that they can give it out as a favour to people that they like aor they donat like.a

He said without a policy, the access to data is left to all sorts of idiosyncrasies and it is important that the policy is set and moves from there.

The Finance Minister said an open data readiness assessment sought to determine if there is a demand for it in SVG.

aA lot of time, open data demand is driven by universities and we donat have a university here, so there was worry that we are going to spend money to make this data accessible and then nobody is going to access it.a

He said the report revealed that we are a good candidate for the process for freeing up open data.

Gonsalves, who also wants to see publicly available data on the Laws of SVG, the Government Gazette and data on crime broken down, for example into the types of crimes being committed in different areas.

aThe police are collecting the data, but there is no real reason why they should not share the data in a way that the public can assess and manipulate.

aWe inform these discussions with data and we inform these discussions with data that is freely available so that the entire country, if it so desires, can engage in the conversation using a set of factsa,a said Gonsalves.

The Minister said he is hoping to launch an open data portal that will host various datasets, starting with least sensitive, least controversial data.(LC)Region to get German support for marine protection

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Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and Germanyas new Ambassador to (CARICOM) Holger Michael signed an agreement totalling 25,700,000 euros on Monday for a Sustainable Financing Mechanism for Marine Protection in the region.

Ambassador LaRocque had, minutes earlier at the Secretariatas Georgetown, Guyana headquarters, received Ambassador Michaelas credentials as his country new representative to the Community.

In thanking Germany, the Secretary-General said the agreement was both timely and relevant, agiven our drive to become climate resilienta. Ambassador Michael said the issue of resilience was aclose to the hearta of his country and regarded the funding as an important element in the long standing co-operation between Germany and the region.

Earlier at the accreditation ceremony, Ambassador Michael had emphasized Germanyas special interest in climate change and stated his recognition that the Caribbean was in the aforefront of the battlea against the phenomenon. He noted that helping the region to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change was, in effect, helping the world.

Secretary-General LaRocque referred to the many areas of co-operation between the Community and its Member States and Germany. He cited areas such as renewable energy and health, pointing out that Germany had been a pioneer in working with the region on renewable energy.Students accused of crimes still have a right to an education

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Any student accused of a crime still has a right to an education under the Education Act 2006 of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

And, a person of school age who is found guilty of an offence, and expelled from school, is still entitled to a government provided education, once they are of school age.

Recently, there has been uproar over the return to school of three boys, ages 15, 16 and 17, charged with the rape of a 12-year-old girl, their schoolmate. The alleged incident is said to have taken place on Wednesday, January 31, when the female student was exiting the schoolas bathroom.

This week, on hearing that the boys were back at school, talk radio and social media engaged in debate, with some expressing concern that the boys had been allowed to return to the school where the act was allegedly committed.

But, Minister of Education St Clair aJimmya Prince said on Monday that while he understands the outrage, the Ministry is obligated by the Education Act to continue to provide schooling for the boys. a

aIt is an allegation; so the Ministry just canat put them out of school. But at the same time, we have to be sensitive; so, what we are doing is put them in student support and let the teachers send work for them, because it is difficult to get them, into other schools,a Prince told SEARCHLIGHT.

He added, ait is our responsibility to continue their education; we are responsible for them; we have to do that according to the law, the Education Act.a

Part of the Education Act states that the principal may suspend a student for a period not exceeding 10 school days for agross misconduct which may constitute a risk or danger to members of staff or other students.a

About three weeks ago, the boys returned to school after a 10-day suspension, but last Monday, they were taken off the school compound in a vehicle after the public outcry.

The Ministry of Education said on Monday that the boys are expected to take up their education at one of the Ministry of Educationas Student Support Programmes, most likely in Frenches, Kingstown.

Part III, Division 1 of the Education Act, Studentsa Rights and Responsibilities, Section 14: Right to education, says, aSubject to available resources and to this Act, all persons in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are entitled to receive an education appropriate to their needs.a

Division Five, Section 55 of the Act, which speaks to Discipline, Suspension and Expulsion of Students, says, aaexcept that if the Chief Education Officer, after consulting the principal, determines that the remedies mentioned in paragraphs (a) or (b) are not appropriate in the particular case, the Chief Education Officer, may, on the recommendation of the principal, expel the student.

a(3) Where the Chief Education Officer expels a student, the Chief Education Officer must make alternative arrangements for the education of that student as the circumstances warrant.a

Commenting further, Prince stated, asuppose tomorrow we hear they are innocent and we had already curtailed their education? We have to balance it between being sensitive and at the same time maintaining their own right to an education.a

Prince said the boys were allowed to return to the school where the alleged act took place, as it is difficult to place them at another school.

aWe were working on the logistics, talking to the parents, talking to the student support centre and talking to the schools. It would be unfair to curtail their education on the basis of an allegationawe have to follow the Education Act because that is what informs us,a said the Education Minister.

He said that there are other students in the system in similar situations and they too, have to be schooled.

In relation to the 12-year-old girl being removed from the school, Prince said she was moved, as the Ministry thought that it would be traumatic for her to remain at the same school where the alleged act took place. The girl and her guardians agreed, Prince said.

The boys are expected to re-appear at Family Court on Lower Bay Street on May 10 where they will be tried in a closed court session, which is usually the case with charges of this nature.(LC)Tribal leaders pay tribute to Chatoyer

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The Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer was hailed as a hero for all in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and for all indigenous people, at the annual wreath laying ceremony to honour the chief on Wednesday.

These words of praise were delivered by the Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, as well as the Leaders of the Indigenous Tribes of the Caribbean, who addressed a substantial crowd that filled the seats before the Obelisk on National Heroesa Day.

Also, speaking at the event were Minister of Health, Luke Browne, on behalf of the Minister of Tourism Cecil Mckie, who could not be there, and representative for West Kingstown, Daniel Cummings, who spoke for the Leader of the Opposition Dr Godwin Friday, who also could not be present. They, likewise, recognized the Garifuna Chiefas meaning to the people of SVG and the contribution that he has made.

It was the first time that the leaders of the various indigenous tribes, who were present in the country for the first ever Indigenous Peopleas Conference of the Caribbean, could be present at the event, which has taken place since Chatoyer was made a National Hero in 2004.

The representatives of the indigenous tribe in Suriname, clothed in the dress of their tribe, said, aPlease allow me to first pay due respect to the ancestors of this land,a as they launched into a lengthy tribute in the the language of their tribes.

While performing the ritual, a large cigarette was lit and puffed by the two tribal leaders (See photo on Front Page). David aDarkiea Williams, president of the Garifuna Heritage Foundation, told SEARCHLIGHT that he is not sure what herb was used in the cigarette, except that the herb is used during religious ceremonies of the tribes, sometimes as incense.

Turning to English, the male tribal leader, stated, aChief Joseph Chatoyer is a hero not only for St Vincent and the Grenadines, but for all of us as an indigenous chief who stood up and literally died for his people, in the struggle for freedom, respect and human dignity. We take courage from this history and carry this in our own hearts back to our own communities.a

This sentiment carried through into the other speeches at the event, Cummings also remarking, aThe Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer has had a lot of discussion surrounding his life, and especially the end of his life, but there is one thing that is common throughout our society, is the acceptance of him as a hero of our land.a

The Prime Minister, in his feature address, to applause from the crowd, stated that he especially wanted to make the point that, athe Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer is a National Hero for all of St Vincent and the Grenadines.a

aThe Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer is a National Hero for all of those groups who over time have made our country what it is,a he continued.

The Prime Minister stated that SVG now consists of a variety of people, descended from various groups, aThrough the fever of history, we have arrived at this particular point in time, we are arrived at this point in time, metaphorically as a symphony. And in that symphony, metaphorically, we are the songs of the indigenous peoples, the Kalinago and the Garifuna, we are the rhythm of Africa, we are the melody of Europe, we are the chords of Asia, and we are the homegrown lyrics of the Caribbean itself, with its Vincentian particularity.a

He continued, aSo, I donat want persons to marginalize Chatoyer and say he was a Garifuna chief. Chatoyer, because of his heroic exploits, because his life and work and those of his people, that they have changed the course of this history, and they have made an impact on us, to say that we hail him as our first and thus far only National Hero.a

Chief Chatoyer being part of the reason that conquest came late to SVG, the Prime Minister stated that he remains convinced of the lasting effect that this has had. aIt is my judgment that it has consequences for our lives and living today, and I believe it is one of the reasons for greater harmony among us in St Vincent and the Grenadines.a

On the day that the Chief was recognized, anticipation was also brewing in that there may be soon more National Heroes to join the aillustrious ranksa of the Chief.

Minister Browne stated, aImportantly, we are now closer to the naming of new National Heroes than we were last year. There are several worthy contenders for that much-wanted office, and we look forward with great bated breath and great anticipation, to an announcement..of the person or persons who would join the illustrious ranks of the Right Excellent Joseph Chatoyer in the pantheon of National Heroes.a

The Prime Minister himself indicated that all documentation has been submitted for more heroes to be considered by Cabinet.

aThe Honourable RenA Baptiste has now submitted all the documentation to the Office of the Prime Minister in relation to the deliberations of the National Heroes Advisory Committee, which she headed, and I expect that in the not too distant future the Cabinet will deliberate and act upon,a he informed.

He ended by saying that if athey (The Cabinet) are satisfied, advice would be given to His Excellency Governor General,a who is the Chancellor for these matters, and he would in turn make the designations.(KR)T&T PM to address currency transfer issue affecting Vincentian traffickers

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Dr Keith Rowley, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), has promised to address with urgency the currency transfer issue, which has been adversely affecting Vincentian traffickers during business in his country.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said while at the airport in Haiti last week, Rowley approached him and said that on his return to T&T, he would address the issue immediately.

Both Prime Ministers were in Haiti to attend the 29th Inter-sessional meeting of CARICOM Heads of State and Government on February 26 and 27.

Gonsalves said that during the Inter-sessional meeting, a lengthy discussion was held in caucus on the foreign exchange difficulties affecting trade between SVG and T&T.

Last month, Prime Minister Gonsalves said that it was wrong and unconscionable that T&T has failed to deal with the matter.

During Mondayas press conference, Gonsalves said that Rowley understands fully the seriousness of the issue, as he was showed statistics that for the last five years, SVG has exported in the region of EC$17 to $20 million dollars of agricultural produce to T&T, but in 2017 the number went down to EC$11 million dollars, while the volumes fell by half.

aaAnd the reason being that a number of agricultural producers simply donat bother anymore to send goods to Trinidad and Tobago, because they canat get their money,a said Gonsalves, who added that a number of traders have TT dollars in the banks in T&T, even though the Bank of SVG has tried a temporary solution of buying TT$2.5 million dollars from traders and farmers.

He, however, said that a temporary solution is not enough.

aaI am hopeful in a short period of time as a consequence of the interaction at CARICOM that we will find that Trinidad and Tobago is accommodating an appropriate solution.

aI want the traders and farmers to hear me on that one; it is a matter that I am not giving up on,a said Gonsalves.

Recently, the Monetary Council of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) agreed that member governments should take collective action towards a resolution on the issue.

Effective March 1, businesses in SVG desirous of making payments in United States dollars to T&T must seek the prior approval of the director general of Finance and Planning.

This measure was announced by Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves during his Budget presentation, in response to the difficulties experienced by local traffickers in repatriating their funds to SVG.Vincentian jurist to head CCJ

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The Honourable Mr Justice Adrian Dudley Saunders, a citizen of St Vincent and the Grenadines has been appointed as the incoming President of the Caribbean Court of Justice with effect from July 4, 2018.

The Heads of Government of CARICOM made the appointment at its last meeting, held in Haiti from February 26-27, 2018, acting on the nomination of the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC). The RJLSC had selected Mr Justice Saunders after a competitive merit based process.

President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Right Honourable Sir Dennis Byron, said, aJustice Saundersa appointment to be the incoming President of the Court has been greeted with pleasure by the entire Bench of the Court. He has served with distinction and has exhibited qualities of excellence, sharp intellect, strong moral values, leadership skills and encyclopaedic knowledge for the law tempered by things Caribbean.a

Mr Justice Saunders is chair of the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers (CAJO). He is also the course director of the Halifax-based Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute. Mr Justice Saunders has also co-authored the book, Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) in 1975 and the Legal Education Certificate of the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad & Tobago in 1977. He was called to the Bar of St Vincent & the Grenadines in that same year.

Mr Justice Saunders remained in private practice as a barrister and solicitor from 1977 until 1996 when he was appointed as a Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC). In 2003, he was confirmed as a Justice of Appeal of the ECSC and one year later he was appointed to act as Chief Justice of that Court. Mr Justice Saunders was appointed a Judge of the CCJ in 2005.If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). Interesting data from the US Courts on federal criminal justice caseloads in FY 2017 | Main | "Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Firearms Offenses in the Federal Criminal Justice System" 

March 14, 2018

Oklahoma embracing nitrogen gas instead of lethal drugs as method of execution

As detailed in this new CNN piece, headlined "Oklahoma plans to use new execution method," the Sooners are soon to be trying a novel execution protocol. Here are the details:

Unable to obtain drugs to use for its lethal injections, Oklahoma will use inert gas inhalation as the primary method for death penalty executions once a protocol is developed and finalized, the state's attorney general announced Wednesday. Oklahoma is the first state to adopt this method. "As you know, in Oklahoma, a bill that was signed back in 2015 by the governor states that if lethal injection is held unconstitutional or is unavailable, an execution shall be carried out by nitrogen hypoxia," Attorney General Mike Hunter said. "We are exercising that option." Nitrogen is one of several inert gases that can cause hypoxia, an oxygen deficiency that causes death. Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Joe M. Allbaugh said his office will prepare the legal documents within the next 90 to 120 days and, if that's acceptable, the attorney general will move forward with the protocol. Hunter said the state is "at the very beginning of this process ... and will provide updates as they become available." Currently, 49 people sit on death row in Oklahoma; 16 have exhausted their ability to appeal their cases, Allbaugh said. The state has struggled to find legally obtainable lethal injection drugs, he said. It previously used a three-drug combination: an anesthetic (either sodium thiopental, pentobarbital or midazolam), a paralytic agent (pancuronium bromide) and a heart-stopping agent to cause death (potassium chloride), according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.... The bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission issued a study of the death penalty in the state on April 25. The report concluded that the moratorium should remain in place until significant reforms to the death penalty process are made, and recommended a one-drug barbiturate execution protocol. But Hunter said inert gas inhalation is used in countries that have legalized assisted suicide. A 2010 Journal of Medical Ethics study, based on experiments performed by Swiss organization Dignitas, found that the dying process of oxygen deprivation caused by an inert gas is "potentially quick and appears painless." "It also bypasses the prescribing role of physicians, effectively demedicalizing assisted suicide," the researchers wrote. Hunter said that "using an (inert gas inhalation) will be effective, simple to administer, easy to obtain and requires no complex medical procedures." "Research has shown that individuals exposed to an excessive amount of inert gas experience fatigue, dizziness, perhaps a headache, loss of breath and eventual loss of consciousness," he said, citing the US Air Force Flight Surgeon's Guide, which looks at cases of pilots breathing excessive amounts of inert gas. Hunter said that people who die by inhalation of inert gases are dead within just a few minutes. The method is "safest, best and most effective," he said. By contrast, the American Veterinary Medical Association's Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals recommend the use of nitrogen for chickens, turkeys and pigs but say it's unacceptable for other mammals. "These gases create an anoxic environment that is distressing for some species," the authors say. Oklahoma re-enacted the death penalty in 1973 and, since 1976, has performed 112 executions. Hunter noted that an overwhelming majority of the Oklahoma electorate voted to amend the Constitution and guarantee the state's power to impose capital punishment two years ago.

March 14, 2018 at 07:43 PM | Permalink

Comments

"But Hunter said inert gas inhalation is used in countries that have legalized assisted suicide."

It just might be the case that voluntary use is different from involuntary use.

The discussion includes a policy statement of American Veterinary Medical Association's Guidelines that opposes it for cats and dogs. But, then again, we are dealing with humans on death row here. Some think more highly of the former.

Meanwhile, "The bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission issued a study of the death penalty in the state on April 25. The report concluded that the moratorium should remain in place until significant reforms to the death penalty process are made, and recommended a one-drug barbiturate execution protocol."

It discusses the movement regarding nitrogen gas & seems to reject it for the time being because of lack of adequate information. IF we have a death penalty, there are those not inclined to support it as policy who think either nitrogen gas or the firing squad are the best approaches. It just might be that the best approach is simply not having the death penalty. At least, both dissents in Glossip seemed to have a good argument in hindsight.

http://okdeathpenaltyreview.org/

Posted by: Joe | Mar 14, 2018 9:44:35 PM

I recall this proposal in the Comment section many times, for many years, and not by me. Is there a way to get government officials to read this cutting edge blog?



It is a circle. If you are afraid, your heart will beat fast. If your heart beats fast, you will be afraid. To make it fast, one should suck the oxygen from the lungs fast. I once had a coughing fit. I found myself on my back, still in my seat, facing the ceiling, not knowing how long I was unconscious. I had no awareness of getting unconscious. It was instantaneous.

I eventually completely solved my coughing and nasal dripping problem with a simple solution, a humidifier. I would like to get that remedy to Hillary Clinton, to help her, not to hurt her. If anyone can tell me how to communicate with her about her incessant coughing, I would appreciate it.



Posted by: David Behar | Mar 15, 2018 5:52:08 AM

Describing a method of killing people as "safest" strikes me as peak absurdity.

Posted by: Guy Hamilton-Smith | Mar 15, 2018 9:04:05 AM

"Describing a method of killing people as "safest" strikes me as peak absurdity."

Realistically, we are going to have to kill people in certain contexts & reducing the problems as much as possible there is a reasonable approach. "Safe sex" means "safer sex" since there is always a chance of some problem arising.

Posted by: Joe | Mar 15, 2018 11:37:53 AM

Guy Hamilton,

Safe for everyone else is not at all absurd. Old-style poison gas has the problem of needing extreme care to not expose the execution staff and witnesses. The firing squad has a risk of ricochet and hanging has a (admittedly far-fetched) risk of falling through the trap . Even lethal injection has the possibility of coming into contact with blood.



Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Mar 15, 2018 11:48:53 AM

For the past several years, attorneys representing death row have argued that inert gas is a better option than lethal injections. See http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/18/03/173052P.pdf. Now that one state is seriously considering that option, in what has to be considered the biggest non-surprise of the year, we are going to start to see arguments about why inert gas is cruel and unusual punishment.

Posted by: tmm | Mar 15, 2018 4:27:29 PM

Any deliberate killing of another human being is cruel and unusual or we would all be doing it. The State has no more excuse than a murderer. What the Constitution might or may not say about it is irrelevant. If we condemn a murderer for his disrespect for the life of his victim and then condemn him in turn to suffer the same fate, which disrespects his life similarly - then we have committed an equally cruel and unusual act - for which there is no excuse as alternative punishments are available. The means of killing may make the act all the more cruel and is a valid argument to make, but the final moral position is that we SHOULD NOT KILL.

Posted by: peter | Mar 15, 2018 5:05:57 PM

"the biggest non-surprise of the year"

Such would be true, for both sides, in a range of cases. All sides repeatedly cite alternatives that they deep down are not crazy about, but to show that changing the current policy is possible. They often don't like any form of the policy. At times, the alternative actually is better, but that still doesn't mean it is good enough.

And, obviously, the defense attorney will try to use whatever reasonable means possible to save the life, liberty and property of the client. This is a respectable thing and when sex crimes are involved seems to get consistent support on this blog. Meanwhile, the state repeatedly will push for something, such as less habeas protections. It will often not swing for the fences but go for one step. If that step is reached, it will not surprise if the state will push for more the next time.

Maybe, tmm is aware of this, and just left it unsaid. So, I said it.

====

The moral position is "thou shall not murder." Or, "thou shall not kill unjustly." Killing in self-defense is not immoral. All things considered, however, I don't think the death penalty is a valid self-defense mechanism.

Posted by: Joe | Mar 15, 2018 6:27:03 PM

I reject morality in its entirety. Ethics on the other hand is another story, the former is imposed while the latter is arrived at. I do not believe self-defense is the only ethical reason for killing.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Mar 15, 2018 11:40:28 PM

I hope this takes the whole "painful death" thing off the table.

As an aside, there is one painless way to die -- a sufficiently large explosion right next to you would do the trick.

Posted by: William Jockusch | Mar 16, 2018 5:23:43 AM

Joe. Murder is the unlawful homicide. A death penalty law does not result in murder. It results in an execution.

The safety referred to is safety from endless and expensive lawyer appeals.

Once the public decides to revive the death penalty in a real way, it should start with the rounding up of the 25000 people in the lawyer hierarchy, one hour fair trials, and summary execution in the court basement. Shoot these traitors in insurrection against our constitution in the head.

Posted by: David Behar | Mar 16, 2018 11:21:07 AM

Post a commentAt the meeting, chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong shared the city drections to develop high-tech agriculture in the upcoming time.Currently, the city focuses on developing the fields of mechanics, food and foodstuff processing, chemicals, plastic, rubber, electronics and information technology.However, the city has still faced difficulties and challenges in processing industries.The city leader hoped that the visit would create opportunity to promote cooperation between both sides via sharing mutual experiences about green agricultural development, techniques of processing industries as well as ecological tourism development.The Ireland minister said Ireland is also ready to share technologies and methods to create fresh agricultural products and support sustainable development for the citys agricultural sector.

BY THNAH HANG- Translated by Huyen HuongThe ceremony was chaired by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his spouse.Following the welcoming ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held talks with his Australian counterpart.After talks, the two Prime Ministers are to witness the signing of important bilateral cooperative agreements, including a joint statement on establishing the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership.Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs official visit to Australia took place in the context of the thriving bilateral relations, especially after the two countries set up Comprehensive Partnership in 2009 and inked the declaration on enhancing the partnership in 2015.Two-way trade grows over 7 percent every year to reach nearly US$ 6.5 billion in 2017, up 22.2 percent against 2016. Australia ranks 20th among 126 countries and territories landing investment in the Southeast Asian nation with 412 projects valued at US$ 1.8 billion. Meanwhile, Vietnam has 44 projects worth US$ 387.1 million in Australia.Australia is currently among the largest non-refundable official development assistance providers for Vietnam with over AUD 110 million in aid every year from 2010.Both sides have enjoyed strong cooperation in education with a line-up of Australian scholarships granted to Vietnamese students every year. There are some 30,000 Vietnamese students pursuing study in the country.

VNSForeign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on March 15, 2018

2018/03/15

Q: According to the ROK government, State Councilor Yang Jiechi is due to visit the ROK next week. Can you give us details of his visit? Whom he will be meeting and what is the purpose of the visit?

A: China and the ROK remain in communication on such issues as bilateral relations and the Korean Peninsula situation. I have no information to offer at this moment regarding your question. We will let you know timely when we have it.

Q: DPRK Foreign Minister was spotted at the Beijing International Airport earlier in the day. Is he due in Beijing for any meeting or is he on his way to any other country?

A: My information is that DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho is on his way to Sweden via the Beijing International Airport. Other than that, I have no information to offer.

Q: The United States has asked China to cut its trade surplus by $100 billion. This follows an early tweet from President Trump when he said that it was $1 billion but was later corrected by the US side to $100 billion. So what measures will China take to deal with this? Will China have any talks with the US on reducing trade surplus and how?

A: I have seen relevant reports as well. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Commerce officials, my colleagues and I have repeatedly talked about China's position on China-US economic relations in the past few days. I want to reiterate the following points:

First, the economic relations between China and the US are in nature mutually beneficial. Over the course of the past 40 years, bilateral trade and investment cooperation has opened up huge market, created a large number of jobs, and done immense good for the people and business communities of the two countries. Like I always say, if China-US economic cooperation only benefited China lopsidedly, then I honestly don't believe that China-US economic relations could have gone this far.

Second, in our economic engagement with other countries, we always honor our commitments and live up to our promises, by which we mean those made in the multilateral trade regime centered around the WTO rules as well as bilateral or plurilateral investment agreements we inked with other countries. We will not accept unilateral game rules any country tries to force upon us.

Third, looking back at the past 40 years, China and the US have been able to properly and constructively manage trade frictions. Today, we still believe that China and the US can resolve their differences through friendly consultations, and we sincerely want to do that. History teaches us that trade war is in the interest of no one. If anything unpleasant does come about, though we all hope it never will, we are definitely determined to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests.

As for the specific issues you mentioned, I can tell you that for quite some time, China and the US have been in contact with each other on how to deal with our trade frictions. We hope that by making the pie of our cooperation bigger, these problems would be properly and constructively addressed.

Q: Yesterday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced that 23 Russian diplomats have a week to leave the country, after blaming Moscow for poisoning a former Russian intelligence officer. The Russian side denies all these accusations. How would China comment on the situation? How will this affect international cooperation on resolving today's hotspot issues within the framework of the United Nations Security Council?

A: As I said yesterday, we have noted the response from Britain and Russia on it. We hope that relevant parties could properly resolve this issue through dialogue and consultation in the spirit of mutual respect and equality while respecting facts and acting in strict accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and relevant international laws.

Russia and the UK, as permanent members of the UN Security Council, are two important and influential countries in the world. We hope that they could properly resolve this issue through consultation. After all, maintaining communication and cooperation between permanent members of Security Council could not be more important.A drag queen dressed as Elsa proved that the cold didnt bother them anyway.

Lawyer Jason Triplett helped a police van that got stuck in a snowbank in the South End neighborhood of Boston, according to Gay Star News. Triplett said he was dressed as the Frozen character to give his friends a laugh.

That was worth it enough for me, he said to the Boston Globe.

Bar patrons who were in The Gallows bar cheered as Triplett, with blonde braids and a dress, pushed the car. The video spread over social media and received over two million views in 12 hours according to GSN.

Yeah but what does it say about Boston that none of the people laughing in the video went out there to help Elsa, Dwight Silverman tweeted.

Yeah but what does it say about Boston that none of the people laughing in the video went out there to help Elsa? https://t.co/eKqqNL6gBZ  Dwight Silverman (@dsilverman) March 14, 2018

You cant make it up, restaurant publicist Chris Haynes, who filmed the video, said. The great part of the video is it just sort of shows you his unmitigated commitment to helping get the truck unstuck. Thats what makes it really fun.

After freeing the truck, Elsa curtseyed to the crowd as they applauded.

The officers involved were especially grateful for the help and would like to thank the Elsa-impersonator for the assist, said Boston police spokesman James Kenneally to the Boston Globe.Members of the Las Vegas community are coming out in support after a hangout spot for the transgender community was attacked by a shooter.

The Las Vegas Lounge was shot at several times on Feb. 23, according to PinkNews. The pair of victims in the attack included trans woman Callie Lou-Bee Haywood, who was taken from the scene with a gunshot wound to the leg.

Contrary to what you may have heard on the news, there was no altercation, there was no interaction what so ever [sic] with the suspect, Lounge General Manager Jennifer Hallie said in a Feb. 24 Facebook post. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement which through investigation are treating this as a random act of violence.

According to Hallies post, the bar remained open after the shooting. As of publication, the suspect has not been found by Las Vegas Police.

You're telling me that this man walked into a bar for trans people, shot a trans woman of color in the leg, and another person in the stomach, with windows so tinted you can't see inside, and a trans pride flag hanging up outside, and it's not a hate crime, Twitter user AwkwardEggcorn tweeted on Feb. 28.

Hallie launched a GoFundMe on Haywoods behalf to pay for her medical expenses. According to the website, the fundraiser has raised $6,452 of its $8,000 goal.

According to NewNowNext, several local outlets including Fox 5 KVVU and the Las Vegas Review-Journal did not identify the bar as a transgender hangout in their respective reporting of the incident.Ibetyoucanwiggle caught favourite Go Sandy Go in the final strides in one of two $20,000 Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund (DSBF) first leg divisions for three-year-old filly pacers while Pedal Power won her division easily on a windy Wednesday (March 14) at Dover Downs.

Montrell Teague moved Ibetyoucanwiggle from the outside into second behind Go Sandy Go (Jason Green) after the start of her DSBF $20,000 prelim and stalked the favourite until coming out on the final turn. Following a stretch long battle, Ibetyoucanwiggle reached the finish line first with just a nose to spare in 1:57.1. George Teague owns the Mr Wiggles-Betting Machine bay, who won for the first time in two starts this year. She has won $64,640 lifetime. Cold N Chilly (Vic Kirby) was third.

In the second $20,000 prelim, trainer Darrell and Leah Lewis Pedal Power and Tim Tetrick notched a 1:55.4 decision. It was the first start this year for the Roddys Bags Again-Calico Moon filly, who has never been out of the money in 10 races lifetime. She has six wins, three seconds and a third while banking $93,443. Lydia (Ross Wolfenden) was the runner-up with Studio Session (Sean Bier) the show finisher.

This week and next, DSBF $20,000 preliminaries are raced Monday through Thursday. After the two legs are completed, the top eight point-earners return for $100,000 finals on meet closing day, Thursday, March 29.

In the $16,000 Mare Winners Over Pace, Sweet Bobbie pulled heading to the clubhouse turn and Art Stafford Jr. raced the Art Major-Odds On Gobye six-year-old on the outside moving up to challenge leader Empress Deo (Teague) at the three-quarters and then got up in the closing strides for a 1:53 victory. Gary Ewing owns and trains the winner, who won for the second time in 2018. She now has 27 lifetime wins and a $276,376 bankroll. Hold It Hanover (Eddie Davis Jr.) was the third-place finisher.

Marion Beachys Berazzled won the richest purse event on the card when Corey Callahan steered a 1:52.4 triumph in a $22,000 mares pace. It was the Charley Barley-Razmataz Hanover four-year-olds second win this year and Callahans fourth winning drive of the day. Goin Again (Vince Copeland) and Roselily (Stafford Jr.) finished second and third, respectively.

(With files from Dover Downs)Meadows-based trainer Randy Bendis dabbled in the international Standardbred market years ago, but had drifted away from imports. Now, hes back.

The American dollar is very strong compared to what it was, Bendis says. You can buy more for less overseas.

When horses make over a certain amount in New Zealand, they never can go back down in class. The connections get a little frustrated and look to sell. Weve had luck there in the past, and we figured wed take another shot.

The result: Late last year, Bendis and Jack Piatt II purchased Rycroft N, who will be seeking his first U.S. win Saturday in an action-parked card flush with wagering opportunities and St. Patricks Day activities for fans. Rycroft N will start from Post 5 in Race 5, an $11,500 conditioned pace, with Mike Wilder driving.

Rycroft N, a seven-year-old gelding with $113,078 in career earnings, hit the ticket in his first two starts for Bendis  the second with the addition of lasix  but was perhaps strongest in his most recent outing, when he finished a rallying fourth after having dropped back to last.

That definitely was his best effort, confirms Bendis, who ranks second in 2018 wins at the Meadows behind only Ron Burke. He was six or seven high in the last turn. Hell like it when they start going more early. He likes to hunt rather than being hunted.

That fifth race is the second leg of Saturdays Pick 4, which offers a $15,000 total pool guarantee in association with the United States Trotting Association Strategic Wagering Initiative  and theres much more for fans to enjoy.

Mychoice members can compete in the Road to the Triple Crown Thoroughbred Handicapping Contest while all fans wearing green to celebrate St. Patricks Day will receive a free Meadows programs and Lucky Lenses sunglasses. Programs and lenses will be distributed at the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association table.

Harness racing bingo will also be on tap. In addition, the MSOA will give away a $100 betting voucher each time a driver with colours that include green wins on the 10-race Meadows card. Drivers wearing the green Saturday: Wilbur OYoder, Tyler OStillings, Ray OPaver and OWilder.

More information on any of the scheduled activities is available at the retail counter in the tracks racebook.

(Meadows)New Zealand-bred mare Shartin will take her first shot against North American stakes competition  in the first leg of the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series at Yonkers Raceway Friday night (March 16)  since arriving in the barn of Jim King Jr. last fall.

A winner of the Group 2 Queensland Oaks at Albion Park last July, the daughter of Tintin In American out of the Live Or Die mare Bagdarin came to the U.S. after Rick Poillucci, who owns Shartin in partnership with Jo Ann King, scouted the mare from the same connections he purchased Nike Franco from in 2016.

Although Nike Franco is a multiple Grand Circuit stakes-winning mare and earner of $740,660, Australian trainer Dean Braun made a bold comparison about the two.

When we got her, the guy that trained her over there, he also trained Nike Franco and he said he felt this mare was every bit that she was if not more, King recalled. I said, thats a pretty tall order, but well see about that.

Although Shartin arrived in the U.S. at the end of October unraced since winning an overnight at Tabcorp Park Melton August 18, King didnt have to start fresh with her training. Braun had already begun bringing Shartin back before she shipped across the Pacific. However, because training styles are so different in Australia, King was unsure how far along Shartin would be when she arrived.

When I got her, I couldnt interpret what he was telling me hed done with her. I asked him, if you still had her, when would she be ready to qualify? He gave me a time that he thought she should be ready to qualify, King explained. Its a little different when hes telling me shes been so far in five minutes, so far in four minutes. That doesnt compute with me. Its all different.

King was impressed by how well Shartin handled her transcontinental journey when she arrived at his stable in Delaware. She was in perfect health and showed no signs of stress or excessive fatigue from the trip.

She arrived very healthy, I would say she was more healthy than any other horse Ive gotten from there, he said. Some horses it takes a big toll on, but some horses act like they just came from next door. For her, she took the trip really well.

Once he began working with her, King quickly realized Shartin wasnt to be toyed with. Although she has a pleasant demeanour in the barn, she becomes pugnacious on the racetrack. Braun even warned King Shartin was a bit bossy.

Shes pretty aggressive, shes pretty eager, King said. Theres nothing mean about her, shes really nice to care for and she tries to do what you ask her to do, but on the track, she gets in a bit of a hurry.

Shartins first stateside qualifier came at Dover Downs January 10. She won by three and a quarter lengths in 1:55.1 before posting three straight sub-1:53 victories at Dover Downs, which culminated in a 1:52.3 score in the Filly and Mare Open Handicap on February 7. Shartin tasted her first defeat while finishing second to Monica Gallagher in the Meadowlands first race on February 17, a card that was cut short due to a blizzard.

At this time, theres really been no end to her, King said. The only time she hasnt won so far was at the Meadowlands on the snow night when they had to cancel there and at Yonkers. She didnt know if she won or not, it was snowing so hard she couldnt see. As far as she knew, she did win. Were pretty pleased with the return weve gotten so far.

Shartin rebounded from her narrow loss to earn a half-length victory in the distaff feature at Dover in her most recent outing on February 28. Shartin raced first-over in that start and grinded to within three lengths of pacesetter, Nerida Franco. However, Shartin struggled to advance as the leader posted a :27.1 third quarter and looked to kick away on the final turn. Shartin used a :27.3 final panel to wear down Nerida Franco and post a lifetime best 1:50.2 victory. The win boosted her record to 11 wins from 18 starts, good for more than $122,492 in purses.

She was out a long way. She came first-over and really looked like at best she was going to be second, but she just kept coming and coming, King said. She knows where the wire is and how to get there. Shes pretty tough, she can go a long ways.

Shartin will start from Post 1 in the first division of the Blue Chip Matchmakers first leg on Friday night. She is the 7-5 morning line choice with Tim Tetrick in the sulky after her major competition, Mach It A Par and Gina Grace, drew Post 7 and 8, respectively. King will leave the decision making to Tetrick, but is bullish about Shartins chances in the series.

Shes not one that he needs to baby or trip out, I dont think, King said. I feel pretty good about it. I hate to say Im confident, but I feel pretty good about it. Shes done everything weve asked.

Friday nights card at Yonkers features four divisions of the Matchmaker Series, spanning races seven through ten. First post time is 6:50 p.m. For entries to Fridays races, click here.

(SOANY)Linda Kakaley, the mother of driver Matt Kakaley, who was injured in a race accident on Tuesday night (March 13) at Yonkers Raceway, told harnessracing.com Thursday morning that her son is recovering following facial surgery and is grateful for all the support he's received.

"We can't thank everybody enough for all of the calls, texts and messages Matt has received expressing their support for him," said Linda. "Matt said last night that he couldn't believe how many people have reached out and that it made him feel so really good that it brought tears to his eyes."

Kakaley suffered a broken nose and collarbone and facial fractures in the accident that occurred in Race 10 on Tuesday. Kakaley was driving Lawgiver Hanover when the horse took a bad step and went down going into the third turn. Driver Jim Marohn Jr., who was behind with Big Jer, also went down, but he and the horse both escaped injury. Lawgiver Hanover was later euthanized.

Originally taken to a hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., Kakaley was moved to Westchester Medical Center, where the surgery was performed.

"Matt had surgery yesterday but will need two more surgeries later to repair the collarbone and some other facial injuries," said Linda. "But we're hopeful the doctors will be able to release him to go home as soon as today."

Driver Mark MacDonald visited Kakaley in hospital on Thursday afternoon, and gave an additional update on Kakaley's condition.

"Considering what he went through, he was in very good spirits, laughing and joking, said MacDonald.

It was MacDonalds understanding that Kakaley is to be discharged from Westchester Medical sooner rather than later, returning sometime next week to have more work performed on his collarbone.

I dont know if its the best-case scenario, but it seems to be close, MacDonald added. The doctors see no reason he wont recover and get back driving, maybe within five or six weeks.

Does Kakaley had any recollection of the accident?

Not much, MacDonald said.

Kakaley and longtime partner Annie Larrabee in late December became parents of a baby girl, Arianna Christine. Kakaley will celebrate his 30th birthday on March 19. The 2010 Rising Star Award winner, Kakaley has 4,169 career victories with $61.1 million in purse earnings.

Please join Standardbred Canada in wishing Kakaley a speedy and complete recovery from his injuries.

(Harnessracing.com and Yonkers)Taxpayer Dollars Fund Billions for Abortions

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- Planned Parenthood and its affiliates received $1.5 billion between 2013-2015 from American taxpayers while under investigation for harvesting and selling aborted baby body parts.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an extensive report last week that details the amount of federal tax dollars spent during those three years by three abortion providers including Planned Parenthood Federation of American (PPFA), Marie Stopes International (MSI), and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). The report is the result of more than 120 House and Senate members who sent a letter to the GAO requesting data on funding from federal programs received by certain organizations, including Planned Parenthood.

Between 2013-2015, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates spent $288 million in federal funds and another 1.2 billion in funding from Medicaid (which includes a combination of federal and state funds) for a total of $1.5 billion over three years from federal health programs. The largest amount granted was $170 million from Title X programs, followed by $21 million from Title V Maternal Child Health Services block grants and $18 million from Teen Pregnancy Prevention program. The U.S. Agency for International Development also dispersed $14 million and $110 million to IPPF and MSI, respectively.

Within a week of taking office on January 23, 2017, President Trump reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, now called the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA), which bans U.S. funding for abortions overseas. The expanded policy prohibits $9 billion in U.S. taxpayer money from funding foreign organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning. Under President Trump's PLGHA policy, these organizations must now agree not to perform or promote abortion overseas if they wish to keep receiving federal funds. This policy was not in place during the time covered in the GAO's report.

The report is the first to break down funding amounts by Planned Parenthood affiliates, showing that $544 million  more than one-third of total funding  went to those affiliates that have since been referred to the Justice Department in December 2017 for investigation for their role in the harvesting and selling of aborted baby body parts.

The top five Planned Parenthood recipients that have been referred by Congress for criminal investigation are:

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte  $229 million



Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties  $118 million



Planned Parenthood Los Angeles  $106 million



Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest  $105 million



Planned Parenthood Northern California  $104 million

"This Government Accountability Office report reveals the obscene and despicable amount of money taxpayers are forced to fund Planned Parenthood and its international affiliate organizations," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "Not one penny of taxpayer dollars should go to fund the killing of innocent children. The mass shootings we have witnessed across the country are gut wrenching and sad. Yet, each day we kill more innocent children in the most brutal way and force American taxpayers to foot the bill. Every decent person should be outraged and demand an end to funding abortion," said Staver.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.

"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."

~Edgar Allan PoeThe Narok  Mai Mahiu road has been reopened to traffic after repair works on the section that had been cut off by flood waters. Hundreds of travellers were stranded for hours on road after a section of the road collapsed on Tuesday night. The giant crack responsible for the collapse is 3 kilometers long and at least 6 meters deep. The heavy rains killed one schoolgirl. Three other students from a local secondary school were saved from being swept away and taken to hospital.

Police moved to the scene and blocked the road directing motorists to alternative routes to avoid the gulley measuring about four metres wide and six metres deep. This crack in the Earth is very impressive:

Here some pictures of the natural disaster:

After the lightning that killed more than 15 people in Rwanda, now deadly floods damage Kenya. SOmebody has something against Africa right now!

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Standard MediaCoconut Sugar, Coconut Oil and More of the Colorful Paintings Created Under the Sea in Northern Sulawesi, IndonesiaNorthern Sulawesi is called The Land of Coconuts.The symbol of the region that is used on their flag is a single coconut tree.Coconuts are used in cooking and in all sorts of delicious desserts, but the most common use and the biggest production is for coconut oil and brown coconut sugar.Brown coconut sugar is extracted and then hardened inside the empty shells of coconuts.The sugar hardens into a rock, with a caramel Jaggery flavor that is very tasty.Locally this brown coconut sugar is called Gulamera, which means Red Sugar, or Gulabatu, which means A Sugar Stone.Coconuts are a symbol of status in this area.In the old days, when a boy came to ask the parents of his girlfriend for her hand in marriage, he was asked how many coconut trees he owned.If he had lots of empty land, houses or any other kind of wealth, it was considered transitory, and did not matter.Coconut trees, which produce many kilos of precious coconuts every year, are considered a safe investment and a measure of real wealth.Coconuts are treated with respect, love and care, as you would care for a human child.It is believed that a coconut tree has a similar spirit to that of a human being.This is because a coconut tree matures at around 13 years of age and stops producing coconuts at around 65 years of age.The production of coconut oil and its distribution provides work to many families in the region.As you can clearly see, money DOES grow on trees....From the land of coconuts,Wishing you all the best,Tali"When you hear that healthy laughter of a child and you realize: That's what's supposed to happen  all the time, for all of us,"  Patricia Jones, founder PS I Love You FoundationFamilies have to wait more for bodies, says envoy

Families of those killed in the US-Bangla plane crash will have to wait for more days to receive the bodies, says the Dhaka envoy in Kathmandu.

Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams spoke to the media in the Nepalese capital on Wednesday after emerging from a hospital, where several of the crash victims are being treated. "The forensics department will take four more days to finish the autopsies.

Then they will confirm the identities by matching information provided by the victims' relatives. It may take one or two more days to take back the bodies," she said. The confirmation of identity, which will require matching DNA samples, will take three weeks, according to Shams. The US-Bangla aircraft veered off its course and crashed short of the runway at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday, with 71 people on board. In shocking the death toll rose to 51, which includes 28 Bangladeshis.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Ambassador Shams, however, evaded a direct answer to queries over the toll and said that autopsies on 18 bodies have so far been completed. The foreign offices of the two countries have opened talks on the process of repatriating the bodies, according to her. "Officials of the embassy and the foreign ministry are always at the hospitals. The embassy has also opened a coordination centre," Shams said on allegations by the victims' relatives that Dhaka officials were not cooperating. US-Bangla Airlines spokesperson Kamrul Islam told the media in Dhaka that they were ready to transport back the bodies to Dhaka as soon as the governments of Bangladesh and Nepal give the clearance.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was on an official visit to Singapore, cut short her trip and rushed back home to Dhaka on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Hasina convened an emergency meeting, where it has been decided that the nation will pass a mourning day on Thursday for the victims. Principal Secretary to the PM Nojibur Rahman told the media that the priority is the treatment of survivors and bringing back the bodies as soon as possible.

A team Bangladesh doctors, specialised in burn injuries, has been kept ready to fly to Kathmandu, said the PMO official adding a police team will also fly out to collect DNA samples from the dead.

"If the survivors want, the government will bring back them to treat here at the burns unit in Bangladesh as it offers quality medical care," said Rahman.News In Brief

7 prisoners killed in Bolivia clash

AP, Bolivia

Police raided Bolivia's notorious Palmasola prison early Wednesday in a hunt for weapons and other contraband, touching off a gunbattle with prisoners who control the jail. Seven inmates died and 25 people, including six officers, were wounded, authorities said.

Some 2,300 police officers participated in the operation and were supported by helicopters.

National police Col. Faustino Mendoza said officers seized arms, equipment to distill alcohol, marijuana plants and other drugs from the section that houses the most dangerous inmates.



North Korean FM to visit Sweden

AP, Stockholm

North Korea's foreign minister is due to visit Sweden Thursday, a surprise move that can be seen as a first step toward the Scandinavian country hosting a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry says Ri Yong Ho will meet his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom.



Bali going quiet for 'Day Of Silence'

AFP, Indonesia

Indonesia's bustling tourist island Bali is set to go quiet with Internet service and flights temporarily halted for a "Day of Silence", while young people get ready to pucker up.

Residents of the Hindu-dominated island stop regular daily activities for a day of meditation, fasting and introspection, an annual rite that includes elaborate beachside ceremonies and demon-like effigies.



Six dead in Senegal military copter crash

AFP, Dakar

Six people were killed and 14 others injured when a Senegalese military helicopter crashed late Wednesday, according to a government statement giving an updated toll from the incident in the south of the country.

The helicopter, which went down in a mangrove forest in the coastal area of Missirah, was carrying 20 people, including four crew, army spokesman Colonel Abdou Ndiaye told AFP earlier.

According to a statement released by the government, rescue workers said six people died at the scene.Syria conflict rages as war enters eighth year

More than 1,220 civilians-a fifth of them children-have been killed in the rebel-held enclave since the Syrian regime launched a ferocious air and ground offensive.

AFP, Beirut :

Syria's lacerating conflict entered its eighth year Thursday with the country riven by international power struggles, as Turkey encircled a besieged northern Kurdish enclave, while Russian-backed regime forces pounded into shrinking rebel areas near Damascus.

The bloodshed, which has devastated huge swathes of the country since it started on March 15, 2011 when the government of President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on mostly peaceful protests, has splintered into ever more complicated conflicts.In the latest fighting, Ankara-backed forces launched a bombardment of Afrin and closed in on the main city, in an offensive that could redraw the map in northern Syria.

The development came as regime forces, backed by Moscow, broke into a key town in the beleaguered rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta late Wednesday, driving further into the last opposition bastion outside Damascus.

More than 1,220 civilians-a fifth of them children-have been killed in the rebel-held enclave since the Syrian regime launched a ferocious air and ground offensive on February 18.

International efforts have consistently failed to stop one of the deadliest wars of the century, with more than 350,000 people killed since the conflict first erupted, and more than half of Syria's pre-war population of 20 million displaced.

While the past few months saw the collapse of the Islamic State group's "caliphate"-an experiment in jihadist statehood declared in 2014 in swathes of Syria and Iraq-world powers have since sought to carve out increased influence in the region.

US-backed Kurds hold oil-rich territory in northeastern Syria covering 30 percent of the country and a motley assortment of Turkey-backed Arab rebels are cutting a third haven in the northwest.

Ankara, which launched a deadly ground and air offensive against the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin on January 20, vowed on Wednesday that its encirclement of the main city "will have been completed by the evening", a Turkish presidency source said.

The claim was laughed off by a top official in the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which controls Afrin.

"It sounds like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is daydreaming when he says Afrin will fall tonight," Redur Khalil told AFP.

On Wednesday, Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the Syrian regime, which has deployed pro-government forces to the fray after the Kurds asked for help.

Shells rained down on Afrin city, killing 10 civilians including four children.

Displaced families have swelled the city's population to around 350,000, and officials feared a humanitarian crisis should Turkish forces draw closer.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that Turkey-led forces controlled 70 percent of the wider Kurdish enclave, after seizing several villages.



RANGPUR: Prof Dr Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, VC, Begum Rokeya University addressing a foundation training for the newly -appointed teachers on the campus as Chief Guest on Tuesday.Microplastic found in bottled drinking water of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle

Business Desk :

The global average density for 259 bottles across 11 global brands was 325 microplastic particles per litre.

Bottled water, marketed as being a pure and cleaner alternative to normal drinking water, is not as clean as it is advertised to be. They have been found to contain microplastic and other particles.

Widespread contamination with plastic debris was revealed in exclusive tests run on more than 250 bottles from 11 leading brands, collected from nine countries.

While some bottles had effectively zero plastic, one was found to contain over 10,000 particles per litre, according to the findings of Orb Media, a non-profit journalism organization based in Washington.

The global average was 325 microplastic particles per litre of bottled water. Plastic was found in 93% of the samples.

However, it is still unclear what effect the microplastic particles have on human health.

The bottle brands tested are Bisleri owned by Bisleri; Dasani of Coca-Cola; Evian, Aqua of Danone; Gerolsteiner of Gerolsteiner; Minalba of Minalba; Nestle Pure life, San Pellegrino of Nestle; Aquafina, E-pura of PepsiCo; Wahaha of Wahaha.

Averaging across lots by brand, Nestle Pure Life and Gerolsteiner showed the highest average densities at 930 and 807 MPP/L, respectively, while San Pellegrino and Minalba showed the lowest microplastic contamination with 30.0 and 63.1 MPP/L, respectively, according to research findings.

The study data indicated that the contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging and or the bottling process itself.Students receive free laptops at DIU

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister of ICT Division of Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and ICT, distributing laptops among the students of Daffodil International University at the 71 Milonayoton of the University on Sunday.

Campus Report :

Daffodil International University (DIU) in association with Daffodil Computers Ltd distributed 2200 DCL laptops among the students under "One Student-One Laptop" project at the university's 71 Milonayoton on Sunday. State Minister of ICT Division of Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and ICT, Zunaid Ahmed Palak was the chief guest at the Laptop Distribution Ceremony and handed over the laptops to the students.

The function was presided over by Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, Board of Trustees, DIU. The function was addressed by Prof Dr Yousuf M Islam, Vice Chancellor, Prof Dr SM Mahabub Ul Haque Majumder, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof Dr Engr AKM Fazlul Hoque, Registrar of the University and Mohammad Nuruzzaman, CEO, Daffodil Family. Before distributing the Laptops, Hamidul Haque Khan, Treasurer of the university conducted the oath taking part of the ceremony where the students swore upon regarding the best use of the laptops in academic and education purpose.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MP said that Europe and America need more than 20 lakh programmer by the year of 2021. Considering this demand, Bangladesh has taken initiative of establishing 28 IT park and 3 lakh educated trained and skilled ICT specialists will be developed through these IT Parks. Admiring different national and international achievements of DIU, the minister said, role of DIU is remarkable also in this regards. DIU is helping government of Bangladesh to ahead ICT sector and build up Digital Bangladesh. The University is providing large number of ICT skilled manpower and human resources in the country who are contributing to the society in ICT sector.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak said to the students that fourth industrial revolution is happening around the world. Robot, artificial intelligence, big data etc is using now in education, health, bank, garments sector and everywhere. So now we need lot of ICT specialist, programmer, problem solver and critical thinker. Without these, we cannot win the world. Now world winning tool laptop is on your hand. The Minister urged the students to make the best use of this laptop for building a bright future.

Md. Sabur Khan said, technology is now a part and parcel of teaching and learning. He urged the students to be a potential ICT skilled graduate to contribute to the nation developing bright career ensuring proper utilization and application of the Laptop.

DU VC underscores research on microbiology

Campus REport :

Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University (DU) urged researchers to take collaborative research initiatives with industrial institutions on microbiology. He came up with the call while addressing a daylong conference on microbiology on the DU campus on Saturday.

The Department of Microbiology of the university with support from Bangladesh Society of Microbiologist (BSM) organised the conference at its auditorium.

Akhtaruzzaman formally inaugurated the conference as the chief guest. The theme of the conference was 'Challenges and Innovations in Controlling Microbiological Hazards'.

Underscoring the need for carrying out more researches on microbiology, the DU VC said industrial institutions should strengthen relations with the country's universities aiming to launch joint research programmes on microbiology.

At the onset of his speech, he paid rich tribute to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, four slain national leaders and the martyrs of the 1971 Liberation War.

Over 250 researchers and teachers took part in the conference and shared their experience and research findings on microbiology.

Chaired by convener of the conference Prof Dr Md Mozammel Huq, the meeting was addressed, among others, by acting dean of the Biological Science Faculty Prof Mihir Lal Saha and Dr Mohammad Aminul Islam, an associate scientist of icddr,b.4 members of hijacking gang held, money, arms recovered

Chittagong Bureau :

City Detective Branch police rounded up four members of a auto rickshaw based hijacking gang from city area . DB police patrol team apprehended them on board of CNG taxi from CRB area in the on Wednesday .

The detained hijackers namely- Md. Maksudur Rahman, Wahidul Islam, Md. Jainul, Iqbal Hossain .After interrogation by law enforcers , the detained hijackers confessed that their target on bank where bulk money are withdrawn by the customers and they always stay near the bank premises .

Deputy Police Commissioner (DB) Md. Shahidullah told the media that one NGO employee Mitu Ghosh withdraws Tk.1.70 lakh from Dhaka Bank branch of Jubilee road and he was proceeding to Nur Ahmed Road and the hijacking party obstructed the way of Mitu ghosh on board of rickshaw and picked up him in the CNG taxi forcibly .

Following the hue and cry by Mitu Ghosh, on patrol duty DB vigilance team chased them and managed to apprehend them from CRB area and recovered the hijacked money bag instantly. Besides , police recovered one gun, 4 round bullets, two knives, and hijacked taka amounting to Tk.1.70 lakh and detained the taxi under police custody, sources added.

Bangladesh likely to eradicate poverty by 2030: Muhith

CU Correspondent :

The growth of our GDP is now very prospective and Bangladesh is likely to eradicate the poverty by 2030.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith yesterday said it on a conference titled ''Finance for Sustainable Development Growth and Development'' organised by Finance Department at Chittagong University while addressing as Chief Guest.

He urged the people to give special importance in sustainable growth and development under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and also emphasised on improving the standard of higher education and research which lead to financial emancipation in business arena providing realistic planning, organization ,direction ,controlling of leadership, preplanned use of resources, reduction of expenditure ,ensuring transparency and accountability and so on.

CU Vice-Chancellor Pro Dr Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury inaugurated the conference and Governor of Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir, Secretary of Ministry of Finance Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury and Pro- Vice-Chancellor Dr Shirin Akter also addressed the Conference as a special guest while current Chairman of Chittagong University finance department was in the Chair .

Addressing as Special guest Fazle Kabir , Governor of Bangladesh Bank , said "development should be for human being . In competitive world, the young graduates should devote them to acquire knowledge by which they themselves involve in prospering of the country.



Todays Events

City Desk :

Discussion



Bangladesh Unmukta Ganotantrik Parishad organises a discussion on 'Release of Begum Khaleda Zia, Role of Election Commission in Holding Impartial Election and Citizens' Thoughts' in the Roundtable Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity at 10:30 am.



Hunger strike



Mahanagar Sarbajanin Puja Committee will stage a hunger strike programme on the premises of Shri Shri Dhakeshwari Jatiya Mandir at 10 am with a call to recover occupied land of the Dhakeshwari Mandir.



Meeting



Jatiyatabadi Ganotantrik Andolon orgnises a meeting in the VIP Lounge of the Jatiya Press Club at 10 am in protest against lengthy of imprisonment of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) organises a condolence rally in the city\'s Segunbagicha area on Thursday in memory of those including DRU Member Ahmed Faisal who were killed in US-Bangla aircraft accident in Nepal.Bangladeshi nationals arrested in Malaysia

NEWS media reported that Malaysian Immigration Department on Thursday arrested 28 Bangladeshi citizens for allegedly operating an unauthorised homestay service in Kuala Lumpur. No proper document was found with the detainees. The shocking news tells reveals that our expatriate Bangladeshis are involving with the illegal business that at the end is blurring Bangladesh's image and narrows the scope for mobility of Bangladeshi nationals in other states.

The Bangladesh Embassy in Kuala Lumpur should take such incidents as a warning and put out a message to the Bangladeshis that such criminal involvement would not be sheltered and they must stay out of it. We must remind the expatriate nationals that they are the real ambassadors of the country to the receiving country and such criminal involvement wrongly show case Bangladesh's image.

The Immigration Office said they found seven different companies simultaneously carrying out homestay business without permits. Earlier, on January 12, Malaysian Immigration Department detained a Bangladeshi expatriate in a raid for allegedly running a trafficking gang. On the same day, the immigration department, after weeks of surveillance, raided the house of another Bangladeshi national and found 50 Bangladeshis staying there mostly blacklisted by the department. In December 2017, a Bangladeshi film director was detained by the Malaysian police for alleged trafficking on the pretext of organising a cultural event.

In our view Bangladesh government on our side should put out strong warning to our nationals not to be involved in such crime during training for outgoing labours. They must not become part of network promoting homestay facilities to illegal expatriates. We must say the government should collect detail information about the crime records of the detainees from the Malaysian Immigration. The Bangladesh Embassy should also extend legal help to those who seems to be victim of wrong information or for failing to comprehend the consequences.

It can't be denied that the contribution of Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia economy is very strong and they deserve to be pardoned. But action against willful offenders must start to combat human trafficking under the cover of manpower export.

Govern people feel free to commit big crimes and make big money

Special Correspondent :

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) recently busted a kidnapping racket operated by an Awami League leader and his son who have become millionaires allegedly by taking huge amount of ransom money from family members of the hostages. The kingpin of the gang Selim Molla is vice president of Harirampur Unit Awami League in Manikganj district and second-in-command his son Rajibul Hasan alias Rajib is general secretary of same upazila Chhatra League. All the 10 members of the racket arrested by the RAB are leaders of ruling party and its different associate bodies.

According to the report of a local daily, the gang in the last few years had abducted several persons, mostly moneyed businessmen, from the capital city Dhaka and its surrounding areas. During operation, the kidnappers wearing DB police uniforms used microbuses along with carrying pistols and walkie-talkies.



Acting on a tip-off, the members of RAB on Sunday last arrested Selim Mollah and nine others raiding his residence in Kalua village and rescued two businessmen. The RAB also recovered a huge quantity of arms-ammunition along with 2, 85,000 ransom money from their possession. RAB claimed that some rooms of the building were used as torture rooms.

No doubt social crimes, including abduction, murder, extortion and rape, have marked a rise where the influential people belonging to the ruling party are mainly involved. It's a big question how a kidnapping gang in the guise of detective police ran their illegal business even in the capital for a long time dodging the law enforcement agencies? In the last few years, several hundred people so far have been abducted and most of them returned home after a long break. In all cases, the victims remained tight lipped after return.

At present, the moneyed businessmen are unsafe in the country. Many of them finding it unsafe to live in the country. That is the case with men in connection with powerful ones in the government.Russia will expel UK diplomats in retaliation

Row over spy attack escalates

Reuters, Moscow :

Russia will soon expel British diplomats in retaliation for Britain's decision to kick out 23 Russian envoys over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

In London, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ratcheted up the rhetoric against Russia, accusing it of glorying in the attack on Sergei Skripal, which he described as a way of scaring anyone who stood up to President Vladimir Putin.

Britain says Russia is responsible for the poisoning with a Soviet-era 'Novichok' nerve agent of Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33. They were found unconscious on March 4 in the city of Salisbury in southern England and remain critically ill in hospital.

Moscow denies any involvement. The Kremlin said the British position was irresponsible and not backed up by evidence. It said Britain would not have to wait long for Russia's response.

Lavrov was quoted by the official news agency RIA as saying the accusations were unacceptable and that British diplomats would be expelled.

But in a series of British media interviews early on Thursday, Johnson said the evidence of Russian guilt was "overwhelming" because only Moscow had access to the poison used and a motive for harming Sergei Skripal.

"There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we're heard from the Russians that to me betokens their fundamental guilt," he told the BBC.

"They want to simultaneously deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it."

Johnson said the attack was a way for Putin to send a message to anyone considering taking a stand against it that 'You do that, you are going to die'.

A former agent of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain before being arrested in Moscow and jailed in 2006. He was freed as part of a spy swap deal in 2010 and took refuge in Britain.

At home, the British government has been under pressure from lawmakers and media to show it is getting tough on Russia, with some experts saying that despite the rhetoric the response did not go far enough to bother Putin.

Johnson defended the measures announced on Wednesday and suggested that there could be further consequences for wealthy Russians with assets in Britain.

"We will go after the money and actually we are going after the money," he said, adding that the National Crime Agency and Economic Crimes Unit were investigating a wide range of individuals. He declined to give details, citing legal reasons.

"What people want to see is some of the very rich people ... whose wealth can be attributed to their relationship with Vladimir Putin, it may be that the law agencies, that the police will be able to put unexplained wealth orders on them, to bring them to justice for their acts of gross corruption," he said.

Johnson also said he had been heartened by strong expressions of support from the United States and other allies-although it remains unclear whether there will be a coordinated international response to the Novichok attack.Gas crisis hits kitchen, industries

Titas supply 1,600-1700 mmcfd against demand of 2,000: Director, Operation

Anisul Islam Noor :

People's life becomes a misery in many parts of the capital and its adjoining areas for severe fall in pressure of the piped gas supply to the households, as they have to count an extra cost of living to keep an alternative arrangement for cooking.

They are paying for piped gas but they have also to continue an alternative source for cooking as supply of gas is too poor to fire in the household gas burners, lamented some of the city dwellers.

Though officials in the marketing agencies show different causes, an energy expert smells a ploy to jack up natural-gas price and then introduce costly LNG in the captive fuel market.

Energy Adviser of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Prof Shamsul

Alam told The New Nation on Wednesday that the government kept raising tariffs of gas frequently but failed to ensure its smooth supply, which severely hurts people.

"The consumers are not getting gas even after paying higher tariffs. A vested group is illegally getting the benefits. Titas must stop this (the network of illegal trades)," he added.

Prof. Alam also feared that some groups might be hatching conspiracy to create an artificial crisis for making it costly and force people to use the expensive LNG from the captive market.

According to him, disruption to supply of the key fossil energy is not only hampering regular activities like cooking breakfast and lunch but also enhancing the cost of living of the residents on account of alternative arrangements.

Besides, queues of automobiles before the CNG filling stations have grown bigger over the last few days as production in gas-based industries is suffering most.

All types of consumers said the gas pressure goes down beyond the usage level from around 7:30am to almost 6:00pm.

Some parts of Uttara, Mirpur, Eskaton, Old Dhaka, Demra, Maniknagar, Keraniganj, Basaboo and Tongi are the worst hit areas, alleged residents of the area.

In many areas, the situation turned too bad for them to light up the gas-fired ovens throughout the day, forcing people there to change and limit their sleeping habit to prepare food in the early hours.

Like the households, many restaurants and hotels are also seen using cylinder gas as an alternative to keep their business on. The alternative arrangements cost the customers extras.

Simultaneously, low pressure of gas was reported at many Compressed National Gas (CNG) stations in the capital.

Officials, however, admitted gas supply disruption, saying that less-than-expected level of supply resulted in the situation.

But sufferers came down heavily on the distributor, alleging that low pressure of gas has been a common phenomenon in the city over the last several months but the authorities remaining heedless to the nagging problem facing civic life. National demand for natural gas is said to be more than 3,700 million cubic feet per day while the state-owned Petrobangla could supply less than 2,700 mmcfd, according to the officials.

When contacted, Director (Operations) of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited HM Ali Ashraf admitting the fact of disruption told The New Nation on Wednesday that they supply 1,600 mmcfd to 1,700 mmcfd against a demand for over 2,000 mmcfd.

He, however, was optimistic about improvement in the situation. "The problem would be resolved from coming April 26 when the liquefied natural gas (LNG) will start to come," he said.

Seeking anonymity, another Titas official blamed illegal consumption of the fossil fuel alongside the demand-supply mismatch for causing the situation to turn for the worse.

He said many people in the capital consume gas illegally from many "source points", which are yet to be removed.Heated argument between Khaleda's lawyers and CJ block her bail

bdnews24.com :

A fiery argument between the pro-BNP lawyers and Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain at the Supreme Court has been capped off by the Supreme Court blocking Khaleda Zia's bail.

The BNP chief had secured the bail from the High Court after her conviction of corruption in Zia Orphanage Trust case by a trial court. The four-strong Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Hossain on Wednesday froze until Sunday the four-month interim bail. The latest order by the apex court means the State and the

Anti-Corruption Commission ACC will be able to file regular appeals seeking permission to challenge the High Court's bail order. Lawyers for Khaleda, irked by the stay order, say it has 'undermined the image' of the Supreme Court. The lawyers for the BNP chief, however, did not get orders in their favour when they moved a Comilla court against a previous order showing her arrested in a case of violence during protests in 2015. It means Khaleda has to remain in jail even if the Supreme Court upholds the High Court's bail order and until the Comilla court gives an order in her favour. The former prime minister has been serving a five-year prison sentence in the old Dhaka Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road since Feb 8 when a Dhaka court convicted her of misusing international donations meant for an orphanage. After the High Court granted her bail on Monday, the State and the ACC moved the chamber judge, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique on Tuesday, seeking a stay on the bail order.

The chamber judge, however, forwarded the case for hearing to the full bench of the Appellate Division without blocking it. When ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam started his arguments on Wednesday, Chief Justice Hossain asked him to bring first the civil petition (CP) for leave to appeal, or a petition seeking permission to challenge any order. "The civil petition hasn't arrived yet. We'll see the matter when it comes," Justice Hossain said. He then asked Khurshid whether they got a copy of the chamber judge's order. The ACC lawyer said they did not get the copy on Tuesday as the office hours ended at 5pm. He said they would submit the CP after getting a copy of the order. "That's why we've sought a stay until Sunday or Monday," he said. "File the CP first. It's stayed until then," the chief justice said at this point. Then, two of Khaleda's lawyers - former attorney general AJ Mohammad Ali and Supreme Court Bar Association President Zainal Abedin - stood up. "Won't you like to hear from us? Have you issued a stay order without hearing us?" Abedin asked the chief justice. The chief justice replied, "It has been stayed until Sunday. We will hear (from you) on that day." Abedin said, "You've issued the order without hearing from us. We have something to say."Death reference reaches HC

UNB, Dhaka :

The death reference of Fulgazi upazila parishad chairman Ekramul Haque killing case reached the High Court (HC) on Thursday for examining the trial court verdict that sentenced 39 people to death.

All the files and documents relating to the case reached the HC from a Feni court, said Barrister Mohammad Saifur Rahman, special officer of High Court division.

On March 13, the Feni court sentenced 39 people to death in the sensational murder case.

Ekram, also the president of Fulgazi upazila unit of Awami League, came under attack by armed miscreants in front of Bilasi Cinema Hall on May 20, 2014 while on his way to Fulgazi upazila headquarters from his Masterpara residence in Feni district town.

The attackers intercepted his microbus and fired at him from a very close range and then set fire to the vehicle. They left the scene after confirming Ekram's death on the spot.

Ekram's brother Rezaul Haque Jasim filed a case against Minar and others with Feni Model Police Station on May 21, 2014. Plainclothes police arrested Minar from the capital on May 27, 2014.ACC files leave to appeal against Khaleda`s bail

Court Correspondent :

The government and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday (Thursday) filed separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

The Attorney General's office and the ACC both submitted separate petitions seeking extension of the Supreme Court order that stayed the High Court order granting bail to Khaleda Zia till Sunday.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Ekramul Haque Tutul told newsmen that the lower court found Khaleda Zia guilty of embezzling the money and awarded her five years' imprisonment with fine. There is no scope for granting bail to the former premier on the grounds of old age, illness and social status, the DAG said. Tutul further said, the Appellate Division will hold hearing on the leave-to-appeal petition on Sunday.

Meanwhile, ACC Prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan told the media men that Khaleda Zia did not submit any medical certificate in support of her claim that she has been suffering from various diseases. "Khaleda Zia has misused her bail as she went abroad during the trial proceedings of the lower court," Advocate Khurshid Alam said.

The ACC lawyer also said, Khaleda Zia was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the case which is not a short period and she cannot be granted bail on this ground also.

The High Court on February 8, granted four months' bail to Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case in which she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. She was given bail on four grounds which included- a short sentencing of five years, health condition and her facing trial proceedings.

Following two separate petitions filed by the ACC and the government the Appellate Division on March 14 stayed the High Court order of bail till Sunday. The apex court also asked the ACC and government to file separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the court against the High Court order by Sunday.

BD observes state mourning for plane crash victims

BSS, Dhaka :

Bangladesh yesterday observed state mourning for the victims of Monday's US-Bangla aircraft crash in Nepal that left 49 people dead. Different government, semi-government, autonomous and private offices across the country marked the state mourning by

keeping the national flag at half-mast.

As part of the programme, people of different institutions wore black badges yesterday while special prayers will be offered today at all places of worship, including mosques, temples, churches and pagodas, seeking eternal peace and salvation of the departed souls of those killed in the crash.

On Wednesday, a high-powered emergency meeting, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, took the decision to observe the "One-day State Mourning" for the plane crash victims.

Officials said 26 Bangladeshis, 21 Nepalese, one Chinese and another Maldivian-were killed in the air crash at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) yesterday brought out a mourning procession from its office premises on the occasion as their fellow journalist colleague Ahmed Faisal of Boishakhi Television was killed in the tragic crash.

Wearing black badges, the journalists took part in the procession led by its President Saiful Islam and general secretary Syed Shukur Ali Shuvo.

They also observed a one-minute silence showing respect to the plane crash victims.

The national flag was kept at half-mast at Dhaka University, including its administrative building and Vice-Chancellor's residence on the occasion.

DU authority will arrange special prayers at mosques and other places of worship on the campus seeking eternal peace and salvation of the departed souls today.It is unbelievable our police can be so brutal to their own people

Editorial Desk :

The death of a Chatra Dal leader in jail custody has raised question whether he died from police torture. Vice president of BNP's student wing JCD's Dhaka city (north) unit Zakir Hossain Milon died in jail custody on Monday morning. Milon was in the custody of detective police for three days after he was arrested from a programme at Jatiya Press Club on March 6 where he went to attend a protest rally.

BNP leaders and family sources said Detective police sent him to jail on Sunday afternoon. Police also arrested three JCD leaders from a BNP programme on March 8 from Jatiya Press Club. They are also in police custody now and their families are passing time in agonies how they are being treated in police custody; as Zakir's death adds one more death in police custody.

The fact is that police don't treat political prisoners as per police code with legal protection eligible to political prisoners. The politicization of police has left political prisoners highly vulnerable to police beating and torture.

Family sources said hours before his death in jail custody on Monday morning,

Zakir told his uncle that he might not survive, because he was not feeling well. He remained silent whether he was tortured. He died on the way when he was shifted from Keranigonj Central Jail to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Detective Branch (South) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, "he expired in jail not in police custody' to suggest he did not die from torture in their custody.

The core issue is how our police can fatally torture prisoners in custody to cause death on many occasions. How one can explain Zakir's death. They had just killed him.

Even if he suffered heart attack as jail police claimed, how could it happen to a person who was young and healthy all along. Naturally one may suspect he was critically beaten to suffer a break.

We can't believe our police can do that and yet the young people are dying in police custody. Police can't rule out the responsibility.

During Pakistani days police were blamed for brutality and torture on Bangalee prisoners but it is not Pakistan now. We are living in independent Bangladesh where everybody has basic right to life and property. They have the right to take part in politics and campaign for the cause they believe in.

For being a political worker police can't arrest a person, put on remand and torture in many cases till to death. Such action by police is not acceptable in independent Bangladesh. People gave blood and lost their life to liberate the country not to see Pakistani type torture and police state is back again.

We must say we can't believe our police can be so brutal to their own people. It is not only sad but a national shame that our police cannot be civil in dealing with crimes. They must know brutal and arrogant tactics are no help in fighting crimes. Now we have police also engaged in crimes. We all must think of the image we are projecting.Plane crash survivor Shahreen returns, admitted to DMCH

Another taken to Singapore; 3 others to come home soon

Shahreen Ahmed, one of the injured passengers of crashed US-Bangla Airlines flight was brought home from Nepal and admitted into DMCH on Thursday. Relatives seen around her.

Staff Reporter :

Shahreen Ahmed, 30, one of the 10 Bangladeshi survivors of the US-Bangla plane crash, returned home on Thursday afternoon.

A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight carrying Shahreen landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka around 3:40pm, Tasmin Akhter, Manager (Public Relations) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, told The New Nation.

Shahreen was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) directly from the airport.

She suffered burn injury in her leg at the time of crash landing of the US-Bangla plane in the Tribhuvan International Airport of Nepal on March 12, leaving 51 people dead, including 28 Bangladeshi nationals.

Shahreen is the daughter of Mostak Ahmed and Ferdous Mostak of Baridhara DOHS in the city.

Another survivor of the plane crash has been taken to Singapore for better treatment.

Md Rezwanul Haque, Assistant Registrar of Rangpur Medical College Hospital, was flown to Singapore last night.

His wife on board died in the crash.

Three other injured Bangladeshi passengers will be brought to Bangladesh from Kathmandu soon.

Mehedi Hasan, Saiyada Kamrunnahar Shwarna and Almun Nahar Annie will be brought to Bangladesh by their relatives, according to External Publicity Wing of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Besides, two other injured-Eakub Ali and Emrana Kabir Hashi will be taken to India soon, it said.

No Objection Certificates (NOCs) have already been issued for them in this regard.PWD office asstt sued for amassing illegal wealth

UNB, Dhaka :

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday filed a case against Public Works Department office assistant Selim Mollah, who was arrested recently for kidnapping a businessman and his friend from the city, for illegally amassing wealth.

ACC Deputy Director Faridur Rahman filed the case against Selim, also a local Awami League leader of Manikganj, with Ramna Police Station, ACC Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya told UNB.

According to the case statement, Selima Mollah did not provide any legal document for wealth worth Tk 211,90,985 in the wealth statement submitted to the ACC.

Selim Mollah, his son and eight other people were arrested on Sunday last for kidnapping a Manikganj businessman, Zafar Iqbal, 40, and his friend Miraz Gazi, 35.

They kidnapped the duo from the capital's Farmgate area on Friday morning and demanded Tk 45 lakh as ransom. The kidnappers did not release them even after getting a ransom of Tk 2.85 lakh.

Selim Mollah is the vice-president of Harirampur upazila Awami League while his son Rajibul Islam is the general secretary of the upazila unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).

Law enforcers rescued the victims from the house of Selim Mollah at Kaloi village in Harirampur and arrested Selim Mollah, his son and eight others over the incident.Elections of 5 city corpons in July likely : CEC

Staff Reporter :

The election of five city corporations will be held in July this year few months ahead of the 11th Parliamentary election.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda on Thursday told the journalists after visiting the upazila election office at Poba of Rajshahi district.

"The elections to Gazipur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet city corporations will be held before the Parliamentary elections. The election schedule is yet to be finalized, but primarily I think the elections would be held by July," Nurul Huda said.

The five-year tenure of Gazipur City Corporation will expire on September 4 while that of Sylhet on September 8, Khulna on September 25, Rajshahi on October 5 and Barisal on October 23.

The CEC said the parliamentary election will be held between December 20, 2018 and January 20, 2019 but the Election Commission right now is taking preparations for five city corporation polls.

He also said Electronic Voting Machines would be used in the city corporation polls, but it is yet to be finalized.Richwood, TX (77531)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 91F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 68F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.The ownership of all government and quasi-government development service companies in Abu Dhabi will be transferred to a new company established by the emirate.

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has issued, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, a law to establish the Abu Dhabi Development Holding Company (ADDHC) as a public joint stock company, said a Wam news agency report.

According to the law, the new company will be an independent corporate body that enjoys full legal status to practice its activities and achieve its objectives, as well as its financial and administrative autonomy.

The ADDHC is mandated to monitor and guide development service companies in Abu Dhabi, to enable them to achieve excellence in terms of productivity, efficiency and quality, which will help to promote their businesses and realise the future goals, as outlined in the Abu Dhabi Vision.

The company will have a capital value of Dh500 million ($136 million), to be distributed in the same quantity of shares at a nominal value of Dh1 per share. The companys issued capital will be valued at Dh100 million, distributed in the same quantity of shares at a nominal value of Dh1 per share, which will be fully paid for and owned by the government. A resolution shall be issued by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council to name the development services companies that will become subsidiaries of the ADDHC.

In relation to the law, HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, issued a resolution to appoint the ADDHC's Board of Directors, which will be chaired by Jassem Bu Ataba Al Zaab, with Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan acting as Deputy Chairman.

The resolution also names Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Major General Mohammed Khalfan Al Rumaithi, Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Owaida Murshid Al Marrar, Saif Mohammed Al Hajeri, Falah Mohammed Al Ahbabi and Mohammed Khalifa Ahmed Al Mubarak as board members. Mohammed Sultan Ghanoum Al Hamli will serve as the companys Managing Director.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Haji Hassan, a diversified construction-focused group, has confirmed its strategic sponsorship for Gulf Construction Expo, the major showcase for the building and construction sector in the Northern Gulf.

Gulf Construction Expo takes place from April 24 to 26 at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of Bahrain.

Haji Hassan Group is headquartered in Bahrain with joint venture partnerships across the GCC. The group is a conglomeration of complementary businesses which have been serving the construction and industrial services sectors in Bahrain and the region since 1952.

The company manufactures building materials, precast concrete, readymix concrete, plastic and sewage pipes, construction chemicals, concrete blocks, steel reinforcement, rubber and mechanical engineering spare parts, all of which are essential for the construction sector.

The profile of the Haji Hassan Group of Companies will be represented by Haji Hasan Ready-mix, Bahrain Precast Concrete, Bahrain Asphalt, Bahrain Pipes, Arabian Chemical Industries, Bahrain Blocks, Haji Hassan Reinforcement and Arabian Parts Company.

The signing ceremony was attended by Haji Hassan Group deputy chairman Waheed Hassan Al A'ali, Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE) managing director Jubran Abdulrahman, Haji Hassan Group general manager Fouad Al Hamad, and HCE exhibitions director Ahmed Suleiman.

Al A'ali said: Our Strategic Sponsorship support for Gulf Construction Expo delivers on two goals for the company. Firstly, we look to promote the world-class capabilities of Haji Hassan which has been built on over 60 years of expertise and investment in our facilities; and secondly, we see Gulf Construction Expo as an important showcase to present Bahrain as a leader in quality building materials.

The group has an impressive track record of delivery on high-profile construction projects in Bahrain. These include Bin Faqeeh's Breaker Tower, Awali Mosque, Shaikh Isa Library, Sitra Causeway, Durrat Al Bahrain, the North Manama Causeway, runway upgrades and new apron stands at the Bahrain International Airport, Bahrain International Circuit, Muharraq sewage treatment plant, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Al Aali shopping complex, the Sofitel Bahrain luxury resort hotel and many more.



Abdulrahman, commenting on Haji Hassans role as Strategic Sponsor of the Expo, said: "Haji Hassan Group is a pioneer in the construction and building sectors of the GCC. Their participation provides visitors a panoply of products that reflect Bahrains capabilities of providing world-class suppliers for the booming construction projects in the region.

Gulf Construction Expo takes place alongside two other major exhibitions - The Gulf Property Show and Interiors Expo - thus ensuring the continued success of the biggest integrated business-to-business showcase for the construction, interiors and property sectors in the Northern Gulf.  TradeArabia News ServiceDubai-based Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) has achieved total electricity savings of 1,072 MW in 2017, valued at Dh2.8 billion ($762 million).



District cooling saves approximately 50 per cent of power used for cooling, compared to conventional cooling systems, according to a study conducted by the United Nations Energy Efficiency Initiatives, reported Emirates news agency Wam.



This makes district cooling one of the top energy-efficient and energy-saving accelerators in the world.



Empower CEO Ahmad bin Shafar said: "Due to our responsibility as a leading government company, we are committed to the conservation of natural resources. We continuously invest and innovate in the modernisation and development of district cooling technologies, according to the best international practices.



This reduces energy consumption and provides more eco-friendly and efficient district cooling services in the region. This also supports the directives of the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to reduce electricity and water consumption by 30 per cent, and transform Dubai into a global hub for green economy, while being the city with the lowest carbon footprint, by 2050."



"Empower is making a major shift in its corporate social responsibility, CSR, by moving from being district cooling services provider, to launching and implementing CSR initiatives and programmes to rationalise and conserve the consumption of energy resources. This contributes to sustainable development, and helps reducing carbon emissions, so as to support the UAEs efforts in becoming one of the leading countries in the world. So, we launched a four-month summer campaign called Smile at 24 degrees'. The campaign achieved 5.4 per cent energy savings in district cooling energy consumption," he added.



Empower introduced an online calculator on its website to helps its customers monitor and plan their district cooling consumption, helping them reduce consumption and achieve significant savings.The UAE will implement a series of measures, including entry permits, tax and customs exemptions and recognition of foreign driving licences, to ensure a seamless experience for the representatives of participant countries at Expo 2020 Dubai.



In an agreement with the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organisation responsible for overseeing and regulating World Expos, the UAE will also provide access to health insurance, education and the use of radio frequencies, to support Expo participants representatives and some family members.



Expo 2020 will run for six months from October 20, 2020 and expects to welcome more than 200 participants, including more than 180 nations, multinational organisations, businesses and educational institutions.



Thousands of people are expected to represent international participants on the site during the six-month event. They will be housed at the Expo Village, which will include 2,100 residential units, a retail mall and food and beverage outlets.



The agreement was signed by Najeeb Mohammed Al Ali, executive director, Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, on behalf of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Vicente G Loscertales, secretary general, BIE.



The ceremony took place in the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Paris, and was attended by Omar Saif Ghobash, UAE ambassador to France.



Al-Ali said: This agreement will help Expo 2020 provide a seamless experience for participants. It is the latest in a series of steps by the UAE Government to deliver a successful World Expo. Government authorities and departments are working at all levels to make the first World Expo in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (Measa) region a huge success.



Loscertales said: The BIE and World Expos are built on the principle that collaboration fosters innovation and drives progress. The UAE enjoys strong relationships with members of the international community and is facilitating the participation of countries, organisations and educational institutions, and their representatives, with the aim of delivering an Expo that brings the world together.



This agreement shows the UAEs commitment to ensuring the strong and efficient involvement of all Expo 2020 Dubai international participants.



The UAE will also establish a one-stop shop to ensure efficient processing of relevant documentation. The special measures will be granted to Expo 2020 participants on a case-by-case basis up to 10 October, 2021.



In line with its overall theme, Connecting Minds, Creating the Future, and underpinned by its three subthemes, Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability, Expo 2020 is fostering creativity, innovation and collaboration on a global level.



Expo 2020 expects to receive 25 million visits, with 70 per cent of visitors due to come from outside the UAE  the largest proportion in the 167-year history of World Expos.



More than 170 nations have already either publically or privately confirmed their participation. Further national participation announcements are expected in the coming months.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has honoured 37 companies for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability efforts during a recognition ceremony held at its premises today (March 15).



The Dubai Chamber CSR Label was presented to Al Futtaim Carillion, Al Rostamani Pegel, Amlak Finance, Apparel Group, Blue, Chalhoub Group, CHEP Middle East, Clyde & Co, Corporate Business Services, Daikin Middle East and Africa, DC Pro Engineering, Dimara International, Drydocks World, du, Ducab, Emirates Transport, Empower, Emrill Services, Enova, Future Pipe Industries, Information Fort, Intercoil International, MAB Facilities Management, Mashreq Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, Paramount Computer Systems, Quick Registration, Qurum Business Group, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), School Transport Services, Summertown Interiors, Tecom Group, UAE Exchange, Union National Bank, Veolia, wasl Asset Management Group and Zulekha Hospital.



Majid Saif Al Ghurair, chairman of Dubai Chamber, explained that the CSR Label was established by the chamber many years ago as part of its efforts to encourage and honour outstanding companies for their CSR and sustainability efforts.



He noted that the response to the CSR Label and its overall significance has grown in recent years, as Dubais business community has increasingly become more aware of the importance of adopting CSR and sustainability practices and strategies.



Companies that receive the label are not just gaining recognition, they are also setting an example for the rest of the business community. We are confident that the recognised companies will continue to build on their progress and encourage others to follow in their footsteps, Al Ghurair said.



He revealed that Dubai Chamber is planning to soon launch a new and improved CSR Label Framework, and said that companies in Dubai will be able to apply for the label in the current cycle.



With the Year of Zayed now upon us, we expect to see many more companies take a proactive approach to implementing CSR initiatives with the aim of boosting their social impact. Businesses in Dubai have a very important role to play in supporting this national initiative, Al Ghurair added.



On their part, the honourees thanked Dubai Chamber for its valuable support in providing a framework for companies to benchmark and enhance their CSR performance, as well as the opportunity to promote their activities and enhance their reputation.



Since its launch, the Dubai Chamber CSR Label has served as a diagnostic framework and management tool for the participating companies to gauge their approach to CSR and sustainability best practices, and asses their organisations impact on the environment and the local community.



The CSR Label is open to all organisations, private or public, regardless of their size, sector, or operations, and can make a major difference to a companys reputation, efficiency and productivity. The success of participating companies depends on how CSR objectives are set and communicated to all of their stakeholders.  TradeArabia News ServiceDubai Investments, a leading, diversified investment company, is participating in the Innovation Arabia Annual Conference and Exhibition in Dubai, reinforcing its commitment to innovative knowledge-based societies and smart communities of the future.



Dubai Investments has taken centre stage at the exhibition through its subsidiaries Modul University Dubai, University of Balamand in Dubai (UOBD) and the Mirdif Hills project, being developed by Dubai Investments Real Estate Company (DIRC), a wholly-owned DI subsidiary. The exhibition, being held at Dubai World Trade Centre, continues till March 13.



The companys participation in Innovation Arabia exhibition comes within the framework of highlighting its innovation across sectors to create sustainable communities.



Modul University Dubai is showcasing its higher education degrees for September 2018 intake across sectors  business, tourism, hospitality, sustainability, public governance, new media technologies, entrepreneurship and innovation to leadership and 110+ years legacy of Austrian education and research.



The University of Balamand in Dubai is presenting the 30 years legacy of Lebanon-based UOB, highlighting its undergraduate courses in science and engineering at the new campus in Dubai Investments Park.



Mirdif Hills, the mixed-use residential, commercial and retail development spread across 4 million sq ft and the only freehold project of its kind in Mirdif now, is showcasing its attractions, including 1,500 apartments  a mix of studio, one, two, three-bedroom apartments and duplexes, a four-star hotel, retail units and a 230-bed hospital.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe chemical industry in the Gulf region must embrace the circular economy, which if correctly leveraged, can generate huge economic and environmental benefits, said speakers during the 9th GPCA PlastiCon, being held in Dubai, UAE.



The event which opened yesterday (March 14) will conclude later today (March 15), at the Oberoi Hotel, Business Bay.



Stakeholders would need to work together to increase the circularity of plastics by making sure that plastic waste is adequately recovered and that it does not end up in landfill or in the environment, reported state news agency Wam.



The industry would also need to develop its innovation capabilities and work closely with regulators to formulate the right framework for plastic waste management, build an adequate infrastructure and adopt world-class standards, speakers said.



Ahmed Omar Abdulla, CEO, Borouge, and chairman, Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) Plastics Committee, opened the event with Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, executive vice president  petrochemicals, Sabic, delivering a keynote address on the role of plastics in a circular economy.



Abdulla said that more and more, polymer producers are strongly advocating commitment towards plastics circular economy which anticipates that plastics do not end up in our oceans or landfill, but rather contribute to an effective after-use economy.



He noted that governments in the GCC and around the world should start to enforce the policy of plastics circular economy to be a driving force in the efforts to enhance plastics sustainability.Oman-based Ithraa, a leading inward investment export development agency, recently hosted a delegation from Sri Lanka, with the aim of promoting and enhancing trade and investment relations between the two countries.



Dr Salem ben Nasser Al Ismaily, chairman of Ithraa, received the Sri Lankan delegation which was headed by Karu Jayasuriya, speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament and K Pathmanathan, Sri Lankan Ambassador to Oman. The meeting was also attended by Dr Said Al Mharmi, member of the Majlis Al Dawla, Ithraas advisor for planning and follow-up; Ali Al Balushi and Nasima Al Balushi, Ithraas director general for export development and acting director general for investment promotion.



The visiting Sri Lankan delegation aims to promote and enhance trade and investment relations with Oman, said a statement.



Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected to rise to 4.4 per cent in 2018, supported by a recovery in agriculture and industry and robust growth in services, reaching 5 per cent over the medium term, it said.



Many in Omans business community believe Sri Lanka offers unique opportunities for Omani exporters, said a statement.



Strong economic growth, an educated labour force, a growing middle class and access to markets in the region makes it an attractive market for Omani exporters, it said.



Al Ismaily said: We are here to develop and support two-way trade and investment. I encourage more Sri Lankan businesses to come in to Oman.



We are an excellent place in which to invest and grow your business. Indeed, I confirm that Ithraa is fully committed to helping strengthen and facilitate mutually beneficial business ties with Sri Lanka, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceA new line of Tadbeer centres providing critical services to domestic workers will be launched in the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman under a public-private partnership, a senior official at the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has revealed.

Ahmed Al Yassi, Director of Labour Relations for Domestic Work at Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, told the second forum for domestic work initiative in Ajman that Tadbeer Centres will help guarantee the provision of high-quality visa, orientation and training services, a Wam news agency report said.

''The one-stop centre will streamline services related to domestic workers and help keep an accurate database of their information for both contractual parties,'' he added. The centres aim to offer all services required to employers interested in hiring domestic helpers.

He stated that the centres will be operated according to provision of the Federal Law No 10/2017 on domestic workers.

Tadbeer Centres will set a new standard for the provision of services to domestic workers, enabling access to better information and training, and ensuring that working conditions and accommodation are appropriate.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation will license operators according to their capacity to meet high standards and ensure their customers ongoing happiness, matching the UAEs outstanding government service programme.

Services provided by Tadbeer Centres will include conducting pre-arrival interviews with domestic workers to ensure that they understand their contractual rights, the provision of training and education to new workers, resolving disputes between workers and employees, and checking on worker housing and accommodation.

The ministry said the centres are expected to set a new standard for the provision of services to domestic workers, protect their rights, enable access to better information and training, and ensure that working conditions and accommodation are appropriate, Wam said.Saudi law firm AlSabhan & AlAjaji has signed an agreement with international law firm Pinsent Masons during the Saudi-UK CEO Forum, to facilitate co-operative efforts to develop the Saudi firms legal know-how in the area of Public Private Partnership (PPP) transactions.



The forum took place during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans recent visit to the UK at Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two firms - signed by Ibrahim Al Ajaji, managing partner at AlAabhan & AlAjaji and Richard Foley, senior partner at Pinsent Masons - outlines a five-year commitment by Pinsent Masons to develop AlAabhan & AlAjajis legal know-how in PPPs.



AlSabhan & AlAjaji and Pinsent Masons have been working together for a number of years on Saudi, regional Mena and international matters, most evident in the infrastructure, energy and technology sectors. This MoU follows an association announcement made late last year and is evidence of the close relationship between the two firms.



Ibrahim AlAjaji said: We have planned for this with PM and it is the perfect time to execute it, Saudi Arabia has committed through Vision 2030 to become a global investment powerhouse realizing the strong investment capabilities the Kingdom has at its disposal. Public-Private Partnerships are an essential part of the delivery strategy.



Sachin Kerur, head of Pinsent Masons in the Middle East, said: "We have worked closely with Ibrahim and Naif for a number of years and they understand and share our commitment to client delivery and sector focus.



In line with Vision 2030, there has been a rapid pace of change in the Kingdom and we predict a number of international companies will want to invest in the country. With Pinsent Masons support, AlSabhan & AlAjaji will be able to meet the demand head-on, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceMadame Tussauds Dubai will officially open its doors to the public on October 14. The world-famous wax attraction, located adjacent to Ain Dubai, is the first of its kind in the GCC and the 25th edition globally and will be open seven days a week.Rotana Hotel Management Corporation has announced the official opening of its new hotel in Abu Dhabi, located in the heart of the Capital Centre business district.



The Pearl Rotana Capital Centre features 315 modern and spacious rooms and suites offering scenic views overlooking the stunning Arabian Gulf.



Located only a few steps away from the National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), and 20 minutes from Abu Dhabis international airport, the hotel offers five exclusive dining options, modern and comfortable accommodation and convenient business and leisure facilities.



With easy access to Abu Dhabis prime business area, the hotels extensive meeting and conference facilities are elegantly designed to complement the hotel and come equipped with the latest technology for meetings and presentation. Pearl Rotanas restaurants bring new food and beverage venues to the Abu Dhabi dining scene, with signature dishes from The Warehouse wine & tapas bar and Dinos Bistro Italiano.



Dinos Bistro Italiano is a casual Italian eatery that the whole family will enjoy. Its menu takes diners on a journey through the very best of Italian cuisine, including an open pizza station from the wood-fired oven and pasta made fresh on site by the talented culinary team. With a cosy and relaxing ambience, it will be the new hotspot for grabbing a business lunch on weekdays or a family-friendly brunch every Friday and Saturday.



Karim Nahas, the newly-appointed GM for Pearl Rotana Abu Dhabi, said: We are thrilled to be part of the regional success of Rotana and feel very proud to offer Abu Dhabi residents and offices around the area with new variety of hospitality and food & beverage services.



With central access to the citys key destinations, Pearl Rotana will become the ultimate stay for both business and leisure, and caters to the market with affordable package deals. The newly designed property encompasses numerous recreational facilities, including a rooftop swimming pool, massage treatment rooms and a Bodylines fitness and wellness club. - TradeArabia News ServiceHotel chain Hyatt has signed an agreement with Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust to manage one of its hotels.



Located in Jiefangbei, Chongqings Central Business District in western China, the hotel is currently under renovation and is expected to be rebranded as a Hyatt hotel in the first quarter of 2019.



Acquired by Hui Xian REIT in 2017, the hotel is currently being redesigned and integrated into the adjacent Chongqing Metropolitan Oriental Plaza, which is also under Hui Xian REITs ownership. With renovations expected to be complete in early 2019, the whole complex will be branded as Chongqing Oriental Plaza, and modelled after Beijing Oriental Plaza, encompassing the renovated hotel, a one-stop shopping centre, a Grade A office tower, and serviced apartments.



As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities in China, Chongqing is one of the busiest transportation hubs and main economic centres. It led economic growth across 19 provincial-level regions in 2017. The number of domestic and foreign tourists in Chongqing has increased more than 20 per cent year-over-year. To be branded as a Hyatt hotel in 2019, the hotel will be well positioned to accommodate the citys growing meetings, incentive, conference and event demand, creating an energizing space for travellers and corporate guests to convene and connect.



We are excited to further expand Hyatts brand footprint in Chongqing, a city with abundant tourism and economic growth, said Christopher Koehler, Hyatts vice president of operations and managing director for China. The hotel is expected to join the World of Hyatt loyalty program on July 1, 2018, and participate in our extensive network of hotels in more than 50 countries. We are very pleased to collaborate with Hui Xian REIT again, and we look forward to welcoming guests in the heart of Chongqing.



We have witnessed the role of Grand Hyatt Beijing in the success of Hui Xian REITs Beijing Oriental Plaza for the past 18 years, said H L Kam, chairman, Hui Xian Asset Management Limited. I am very pleased to collaborate with Hyatt again in Chongqing and look forward to the launch of a Hyatt hotel in 2019 as an integral part of Chongqing Oriental Plaza serving tourists and business communities in support of the rapidly growing development in Chongqing.



As part of the hotels renovations, the lobby, guestrooms, and food and beverage offerings are all being updated to bring a modern look and elevate the overall guest experience. - TradeArabia News ServiceTravelport today announced a new multi-year technology and content agreement with Airtrade Holland BV, a Dutch leader in the field of Travel Fulfillment and Travel Technology.



Under the new agreement, Airtrade will utilise Travelports open platform and Universal API technology to deliver to its customers informed content in real-time from over 400 airlines, 650,000 hotel properties and 35,000 car rental locations.



With 250 airlines signed up to use Travelports unique merchandising technology, Airtrade will also be able to display, gain powerful information around, and sell branded fare families and ancillary products (such as paid seat assignments, baggage fees, priority boarding, etc.) from these airlines.



As the first and only global distribution system (GDS) to be certified by Iata as a Level 3 Aggregator under its New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative, Travelport will soon further benefit Airtrade by creating NDC connections with airlines as they become available.



Jeroen Martron, CEO at Airtrade, commented: We are delighted to sign a strategic technology agreement with Travelport to power our travel products. We strongly believe the companys edge in technological innovation and wide choice of content will ensure our customers get the relevant and personalized information they need to create truly memorable trips.



Erik van Markus, country manager Netherlands at Travelport, said: We are looking forward to working closely with Airtrade to achieve its business goals and expansion strategy. It is a testament to our in-depth knowledge of the travel industry and best-in-class technology that travel leaders like Airtrade continually choose us to power their solutions. I look forward to seeing the business and its customers reap the many benefits this partnership will provide. - TradeArabia News Service[March 14, 2018] NTS Communications Brings Fiber Internet & Phone Services to Pampa, TX

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kelley.harber@ntscom.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nts-communications-brings-fiber-internet--phone-services-to-pampa-tx-300614050.html SOURCE NTS Communications, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]On March 15, four of the five Central Asian presidents are set to meet in Astana. It is the first summit of Central Asian leaders in nearly a decade. The Diplomat reports in its article All Together Now: Central Asia's Leaders Set to Meet in Astana that with Kazakhstans Nursultan Nazarbayev playing host and Uzbekistans Shavkat Mirziyoyev as the catalyst, the regions two largest economies are set to revive internally focused and inspired connectivity. Theyll be joined by Tajikistans Emomali Rahmon and Kyrgyzstans Sooronbay Jeenbekov. Turkmenistans president will not be attending the Astana summit, but Ashgabat is dispatching the speaker of parliament, Akja Nurberdieva.

Luca Anchesci, a lecturer in Central Asian Studies at the University of Glasgow, describes Central Asia as one of the most dis-integrated and disconnected regions in the world. Despite large-scale infrastructure projects  such as the Central Asia pipeline from Turkmenistan to China  connectivity in the region has more often than not been outward-facing, or centrifugal. Grassroots connectivity, he wrote, has been systematically frustrated by the regions political architecture and divergent policy strategies seeping out of Central Asias capitals.

Kazakhstan, for example, has charted a successful, internationally oriented strategy that has sought to both legitimize Nazarbayevs continued rule and plug the country into great power networks. Kazakhstan landing a two-year nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council is both a result of serious campaigning and a feature of Astanas so-called multivector foreign policy.

But even with this global outlook and success, Kazakhstan couldnt rope the rest of the region into the dream of connectivity. Uzbekistan, under previous leadership, acted more often than not as a boulder in the road impeding greater cooperation across the region, I wrote last November. Having just attended Mirziyoyevs regional security and cooperation conference in Samarkand, I noted, What was remarkable about Samarkand was not the conference  those are much the same all over the world  but rather the sense that this time optimistic statements about cooperation actually mark the starting point of action, rather than just the repetition of standard talking points.

At Samarkand, the foreign ministers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan all took to the podium to speak and presumably, behind closed doors, they were discussing the possibility of a regional leaders meeting. The idea was repeated several times by Uzbek government speakers and others at the conference, with the stress that the goal is not some supranational organization, just a functional regional dialogue.

The time may indeed be right for the concept to succeed. Central Asias leaders see each other to varying extents at several regional meetings, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summits. But membership varies, for example, with Uzbekistan a member of the former but only a former member of the latter  and Turkmenistan a member of neither. The SCO and the CSTO, while including Central Asian states, are not solely focused on Central Asias issues. The Eurasian Economic Union includes Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, along with Russia, Armenia and Belarus but hasnt yet drawn in the rest of the region.

Central Asia doesnt need another alphabet-soup grouping, but regular and routine conversations between the regions leaders  without outside influence, whether it be in the form of Russia, China, or the United States  would be a positive development.

What can we expect from the summit? Smiles and handshakes, certainly. One of the most concrete outcomes would be further discussion of resurrecting Central Asias unified electricity grid, but an iteration of shared regional priorities would be welcome. We can guess at the list  increasing trade, water resource management, energy security, freer movement of people, and so on. Its critical for Central Asias leaders to not just say the right words, but follow up with action aimed at addressing the frictions between them and seizing on the opportunities buried among them.After Armenia signed an agreement with the EU last November, it promised to reform its energy sector. The text of this agreement has a clause about closure of the only nuclear power plant in the region, located near the city of Metsamor, which provides about 40% of the country's energy. Environmentalists have been opposing it for a long time. Campaign under the slogan StopMetsamor has Facebook and Twitter accounts. Initiators of this campaign are asking the world community, the UN and the IAEA to close the Metsamor nuclear power plant, which poses a threat to the region.

Among the reasons why this NPP should be closed experts often mention the following: it was built in a 9.0 magnitude seismic zone, but the reactor's seismic resistance is designed for earthquakes of 8.0 magnitude; plant does not have safe earthquake shutdown System; the whole country is within the seismic zone with 7 - 11 intensity, according to MSK scale; earthquakes happened in 1926, 1931, and in Spitak, 1988, 75 km dist. from Metsamor NPP; soviet experts objected to the choice of its site. The US government has called it "aging and dangerous", while the EU classifies it as the oldest and least reliable. "In principle, NPP's should not be built in active seismic zones. This plant is threat to entire region," Alexis Luber, former EU ambassador to Armenia, said.

Plant fails to meet the internationally accepted safety standards and does not have emergency cooling system. Fukhisima Daichi's containment facilities failed to stop escaping radioactive material . Metsamor even does not have containment facilities. In addition, no serious or fudamental maintenance work was carried out. Armenia lacks the financial and material resources to maintain and operate it in accordance with the safety procedures and is not able to provide the required spare parts in a timely manner. Armenia lacks the human resources required to ensure the operation of the plant by the necessary requirements and most of the professionals trained during the USSR period have migrated.

Igor Yushkov, leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that if an accident occurs at the Armenian NPP, it can reach global scale: "The entire region will suffer from technogenic catastrophe, not only Armenia itself. In addition, an accident at any nuclear power plant generates a new wave of distrust towards the nuclear energy... If any accident occurs, it will affect the entire nuclear power industry in general and Russian prospects in this field in particular, because danger of the nuclear power plants will be actively discussed. All Western companies will begin to say that this is not just an accident, but an accident at the Soviet, Russian nuclear power plant, and this will affect Rosatom, its projects in other countries. It will happen even if they will be able to avoid nuclear contamination."

By burying radioactive waste from MNPP in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and by dumping the waste into rivers running into those territories Armenia has created conditions for ecological calamities whose serious consequences will not be eliminated for tens of years. Rivers Kura and Araz is constantly polluted through the pollution of small rivers flowing into them.

"Toxic waste from the Metsamor nuclear power plant and aluminum plant in Armenia are dumped in the Araks river, and it threatens both the river and people living nearby," said Kemaleddin Pirmuazzin, representative of the Iranian Parliamentary Committee for Environmental Protection.

"Metsamor NPP, which is located in seismically dangerous zone, is far from being in best technical condition. As a result of ongoing technical works, there are regular power outages. At one time, the entire country was left without electricity, because one of the cables for supplying electricity from Iran turned out to be defective," German political scientist Heiko Langner said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.

Russian magazine "Atomic Energy" cited several examples of dangerous nuclear activities in Armenia:

May 22, 1999 - Two Armenians were arrested in Beregovo, Ukraine, while attempting to sell 20 kg of U-235.

December 19, 2001 - 300 gr of uranium brought from Armenia was seized in Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia.

June 26, 2003 - Garik Dadadyan, a citizen of Armenia, was arrested in Sadakhlo-Bagratashen checkpoint between Armenia and Georgia for attempting to smuggle 170 g of highly enriched uranium U-235.

December 29, 2003 - Strontium-90 radioactive material in a scrap metal shipment outbounded from Metsamor for Iran was found in Megri checkpoint on the Armenian-Iranian border.

March 13, 2004 - Armenian citizen was arrested in Sadakhlo-Bagratashen checkpoint for transferring radioactive materials to Georgia.

October 24, 2007 - Four Armenian citizens were detained in Sarpi checkpoint on the Georgia-Turkey border for attempting to transfer 2.04 g of Lawrencium-103 to Turkey.

August 26, 2009 - The traces of Cesium-137 were found in Sadakhlo-Bagratashen checkpoint on the Armenian-Georgian border in the vehicle belonging to a resident of Noratus village of Gegharkunik, Armenia.

March, 2010 - Two Armenians, businessman Smbat Tonoyan and physicist of the Yerevan Institute of Physics Hrant Ohanyan were arrested at the hotel in Tbilisi with 18 gr uranium. The investigation revealed that Tonoyan would sell 120 g uranium for 1,5 million dollars.

September 16, 2010 - Three persons were arrested at Tbilisi airport for attempting to sell a small quantity of uranian and plutonium.

August, 2014 - Georgian authorities arrested two Armenians in Sadakhlo-Bagratashen checkpoint on the Armenian-Georgian border.

January, 2016 - Georgian authorities arrested three Armenians, also for trying to sneak Cesium-137 across the border in Sadakhlo-Bagratashen checkpoint on the Armenian Georgian border.

April, 2016 - Georgia's State Security Service detained three citizens of Armenia and three citizens of Georgia who tried to sell $200 million worth of Uranium-238 that was found in the home of one of the Georgians. It was revealed that detainees previously worked in Metsamor NPP. This group planned to sell it to the Middle East region.

Activists from StopMetsamor also believe that this plant is a potential target for terrorits at the very borders of the EU and cannot resist any plane crash.The Saudi government approved on Tuesday the national policy of its atomic energy program. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz had chaired the cabinet session in Riyadh. Asharq Al-Awsat reports in its article Saudi Arabia Approves National Policy for Atomic Energy Program that the policy insists on limiting nuclear activities to peaceful purposes and calls for enhanced safety measures as well as the use of best practices for radioactive waste management, the Saudi Press Agency reported.



The Kingdom will soon prepare to award contracts for its first nuclear power plants.



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 a visit by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, 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. Saudi Arabia has signed cooperation agreements with over a dozen countries in recent years to boost nuclear cooperation, including France, China and Russia.A meeting between director general of the Israel-Azerbaijan international association "AzIz" Lev Spivak, head of the "Sholumi" center Shaul Siman-Tov and director of the National Library of Azerbaijan, professor Kerim Tahirov was held in the beginning of March. Tahirov discussed what place does one of the largest libraries in the world has in the life of Azerbaijan.

He noted that a draft memorandum between the National Library of Israel and the National Library of Azerbaijan was already prepared. This project has already been submitted to the Foreign Ministries of both states. After this Memorandum of Cooperation signed, libraries will actively exchange books, which will help to enrich their respective collections.

Director general of "AzIz" association Lev Spivak spoke about the work of his association, about events that they are carrying out in order to show the truth about Azerbaijan to the people of Israel. He was talking about the Khojaly tragedy in particular. Lev Spivak spoke about the "Black Snowdrops" book, which was published in Israel. It was written by the Israeli writer and playwrighter, member of the Guild of Directors of Azerbaijan Efim Abramov and member of the European Congress of Writers and Russian-Speaking Writers of the Czech Republic, poet and playwrighter Leyla Begim. Last year, presentation of this book was held in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy. This year, at the end of February, the "AzIz" association held a presentation of this book in Prague and in Houston. There will be an audio version of this book by the end of March.

Kerim Tahirov praised the work of the AzIz association, noting the importance of such events and said that publication of this book helps to ensure that many people around the world will learn the truth about Azerbaijan. He stressed that the "Justice for Khojaly" campaign is held all over the world on the initiative of Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva. He said it had a huge resonance all over the world. Then Lev Spivak and Shaul Siman-Tov presented the "Black Snowdrops" book in Russian, as well as its translations into English and Czech languages and a copy of the audio version of this book to the National Library of Azerbaijan.

Kerim Tahirov expressed his gratitude to Lev Spivak for activities of his association, in particular for books dedicated to the Khojaly tragedy, and gave guests the "National Library of Azerbaijan" photo album (in Azerbaijani, Russian and English).The national idea has been a primary element in the complex socio-political, cultural and ethnic system of existence of any people at all times. All ethnic groups strive to know themselves as deeply as possible, understand thoughts of their ancestors, understand the historical processes that led to the current socio-cultural national unification.

Ethnogenesis of Azerbaijanis was the subject of research of both Azerbaijani and foreign scientists. However, touching on the various dimensions of the issue, researchers never set themselves the task of a systematic approach. In this context, the head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, academician Ramiz Mehdiyev's two volumes became a new study on the origin of the Azerbaijani people, its formation, the formation of the national idea. The author approaches the development of the problem in the historical-philosophical context, explores the formation of the national idea, starting with the foundations of the formation of the Azerbaijani people, points out the historical events that played an important role in this very complicated process. The books were published in Moscow: the first one - by the publishing house 'Stolitsa', the second - by 'The Russian Political Encyclopedia'.

The benefits of understanding history in the formation of national idea

In his first book titled 'The benefits of understanding history in the formation of national idea', Mehdiyev emphasizes that the very fact of the existence of an independent state gives grounds for Azerbaijan's intellectual thought to turn towards the "national idea" as a priority set of ideals, ideological orientations and values, aimed at finding the meaning of the existence of Azerbaijani society, as well as an answer to the question: what kind of idea should it be, what is its essence, what is its purpose, what does it consist of and what is it based on? The author notes that all these questions require a scientific answer. Only then can you decide on the national idea. "The national idea is the essence of society and the state, if there is no meaning neither the society nor the state will have a future, and historically they are doomed to fail," the academician writes.

He does not follow the path of researchers studying the history of formation of the Azerbaijani ethnos and the state of Azerbaijan. He highlights a number of aspects of the ethno-genesis of the Azerbaijani people. Ramiz Mehdiyev applies the anthropological and genetic approaches for the first time to provide a better insight into stages of the formation of the national idea. The scientist believes that it is necessary to study the historical facts comprehensively, otherwise one cannot fully understand the ethnocultural essence of the people: "History is philosophy teaching by examples. One only has to look around to see the everyday impact of the example force. Just look inside to discover why an example has such power. "

Speaking about ethnogenesis, ethnic origin of the people, the academician notes that it is impossible to study them without anthropological material: "Only anthropological data are an important basis for determining those ethnic strata from which an ethnos, and then a nation, are formed." The monograph contains material on the anthropological types of the peoples of the Caucasus, the mental characteristics of various ethnic groups, as well as genetic properties of man. The scientist calls to study anthropology, molecular genetic base, paleoanthropology and ethnopsychology of the Azerbaijani people, the role of the natural and geographical environment, whose data are necessary for scientific conclusions about the ethnogenesis of the Azerbaijani people.

The monograph highlights key stages of the formation of the national idea of the Azerbaijani people. The author thoroughly explores the sources of the formation of the national idea in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era and in the 19th-20th centuries. The academician also pays great attention to the titanic efforts of the national leader Heydar Aliyev to ensure socio-economic, spiritual and cultural progress of Azerbaijan. The author emphasizes that Heydar Aliyev in the conditions of the communist regime solved the problems of society, which led to the future development and flourishing of the nation. "The issues of the Azerbaijani national idea could be dealt with in abstract discussions... The problems of forming the national idea and struggling for its implementation are based on the solution of the daily problems of society, the provision of normal conditions for the socio-economic life of people, on their moral and spiritual readiness to do things in the name of a cherished notion," Mehdiyev writes.

The scientist also touches upon the issue of the ethnogenesis of Armenians, some of whom distort not only their origin, linking their roots to completely alien people, but also spread false information about the ethnogenesis of Azerbaijanis. The historical facts mentioned in the monograph, cited both by the Armenian historians and by foreign researchers, "tear to bits" the pseudo-historical Armenian school. In the book the reader will find information about the start of the Karabakh conflict, it will tell how the Armenian nationalists tried to persuade the Soviet leadership and the scientific community that Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to the so-called "Great Armenia", and how the Soviet leadership encouraged by failing to react.

The Azerbaijani national idea in the age of global transformation

The second book titled "The Azerbaijani national idea in the age of global transformation" features the analysis of the problem of the establishment of an independent Azerbaijani state at the end of the 20th century. The processes taking place in the early years of independence of Azerbaijan are thoroughly analyzed as a continuation of the study of the historical moments of the formation of the national idea, the structural features of state building are also revealed in Mehdiyev's book, he analyzes the essential elements necessary for the formation of national ideas and statehood.

The academician reveals the complexity of state building, preservation of independence, national values, showing that the return of the great leader Heydar Aliyev to power in the early years of Azerbaijan's independence saved the country from destruction and determined its future. "He clearly understood the way in which Azerbaijan should move. Heydar Aliyev proposed a concept that addressed three key issues: first, the establishment of political stability in the country; second, ensuring a multi-vector foreign policy; third, the implementation of the oil strategy, which would form the basis of the socio-economic policy ensuring the country's development and its advanced standing on the international arena," the author says in the book.

The documents cited in the book shed light on many hidden political processes that had geopolitical significance against the background of the interests of powerful regional states. The author highlights key stages of the formation of the national idea of Azerbaijan and describes in detail the political events that influenced the national identity.

The academician expresses his confidence that in the era of global transformations, Azerbaijan should move into a qualitatively new technological society and rely on creative youth: "A state with healthy and creative youth predominates has more chances for dynamic economic growth and development of society's life spheres. The innovation is about creativity, changing the existing model, creating a new one. The process of building the society of the XXI century in Azerbaijan can not but be based on the creative potential of a young innovator."

The academician notes that the year 2003 saw Azerbaijan enter a new stage of development, adding that this policy is continued by the state today in order to ensure comprehensive modernization of the country. Under the leadership of Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan has focused on this goal through building a solid human capital, applying the latest scientific achievements, new technologies and new management methods. The outlined ways of forming a national creative elite, the definition of a creative class, whose representatives are innovation-oriented and focused on economic development, draw attention.

The scientist is convinced that Azerbaijan is endowed with the necessary resources to maintain its nationally oriented path of development in the era of globalization. And further strengthening of state power will guarantee the realization of the national idea in modern conditions. According to Mehdiyev, thanks to the statehood talent of President Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani people will continue to move forward along the path of socio-economic development and address the national issues in accordance with the requirements of the 21st century. On this creative path Azerbaijan will move into a new postindustrial society ... And the creation of a postindustrial society is the main goal of the Azerbaijani people's national idea in the 21st century," the author emphasizes.

The two-volume book is targeted at philosophers, historians, sociologists, political scientists, as well as all those who follow the latest development on humanities and interested in theories of social development.Turkey says it won't hand over Afrin in northern Syria to the government in Damascus after it removes the Kurdish YPG militia, as its military and allied rebel forces prepare to attack the surrounded city.

Thousands of people continued to flee Afrin on Thursday to Nubul and Zhara in the northern countryside of Aleppo, which is under control of the Syrian government, amid air raids, artillery shelling, and the threat of an imminent ground invasion, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

Twelve people were killed and 60 wounded over the past 24 hours in Afrin city and its outskirts, the UK-based group reported. Kurdish sources said the death toll is likely to increase as many wounded are in critical condition, Al Jazeera reports.

"Our staff are doing their best, but our rooms are filled with wailing wounded and people in pain, as we lack some medical supplies," Dr Joan Shitika, head of the Afrin city hospital, told dpa news agency.The 6th Global Baku Forum has started in Baku today with the support of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum will be attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

The messages from Italian President Sergio Matarella, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Pope Francis and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will be read out.

About 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures who are the members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are also expected to participate in the forum.

The participants are expected to discuss such issues as peace and security in the Middle East, the current geopolitical situation in the Balkan region, and the growing role of youth in social and political life in the modern world.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening ceremony of the forum.

The Global Baku Forum has turned into an influential international platform, the Azerbaijani President noted in his statement.

"Among our guests there are representatives of more than fifty countries, more than 450 guests. Among them are 47 acting and former heads of states and governments, prominent politicians, statesmen, scientists, representatives of civil society," Ilham Aliyev added.

The president expressed confidence that during the work of the forum we will broadly discuss the issues which are on top agenda of international relations and that there will be important recommendations in order to provide security, stability, predictability and cooperation in the world.

Ilham Aliyev recalled that Azerbaijan has already hosted many international events. "Among them are - traditional Baku Humanitarian Forum, regular International Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, World Religious Leaders forum, UN Alliance of Civilizations Global Forum," he listed. The president also mentioned the inaugural European Games in 2015 and 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

"All these events serve the cause of cooperation, these events build bridges, establish more understanding between representatives of different countries, different religious, different views," he stressed.

Ilham Aliyev also said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Baku Process, which has now full support of the United Nations, and which is a unique platform of cooperation between the country members of the Council of Europe and the members of the Islamic Cooperation Organization. "Azerbaijan, as a member of both international organizations, initiated the meeting of the ministers of culture of both organizations in Baku, in 2008. Now, the Baku Process embraces the very broad activity in order to create better understanding between international organizations and peoples," the head of state pointed out.The deal on purchasing a 14.2% stake in Rosneft from the Glencore-QIA Consortium by Chinas CEFC has been frozen due to financial issues, Kommersant wrote.

Pouring $9.1 bln into obtaining the stake in the Russian oil and gas company could lead to a substantial increase in the debt burden. That being said, the deal is heavily dependent on external borrowings, and therefore can lead to a significant increase in CEFCs debt, according to China Chengxin Credit Rating Group.

Kommersants sources noted that the Chinese company has already made an initial payment for the transaction. One of the sources believes that, if China gives up the deal, it will forfeit a large sum of money to penalties, which can be equal to the down payment itself.

Meanwhile, political issues are exacerbating CEFCs financial problems. In early March, Chinese media reports said the companys Chairman Ye Jianming had been detained on suspicion of corruption.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday spoke over the phone to discuss bilateral and Turkey-EU relations, and regional issues, according to diplomatic sources, Anadolu Agency reports.

During the conversation, Erdogan congratulated Merkel for being re-elected to a fourth term as Germany's chancellor. The two leaders reiterated their commitment to accelerate dialogue and cooperation.

They vowed to collaborate in the fight against illegal migration and on refugee issues. The leaders stressed on joint cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Erdogan and Merkel also emphasized the significance of a key EU-Turkey summit set for March 26 in Varna, Bulgaria.Venezuela is likely to remain the biggest risk factor among leading oil producers for some time to come, according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

"Within the OPEC countries, the biggest risk factor is, and will likely remain, Venezuela," the IEA said in its closely-watched report published today.

"Without any compensatory change from other producers it is possible that the Latin American country could be the final element that tips the market decisively into deficit," CNBC cited the organization as saying.

While Venezuela boasts the world's largest proven oil reserves, crude production in the state has been steadily declining in recent years. The South American country continues to slog through an economic crisis precipitated by years of government mismanagement and exacerbated by a prolonged oil price slump.

Following years of sharp output losses, Venezuela's crude output is projected to tumble to 1.38 million barrels per day (mb/d) by the end of 2018, according to the IEA. That would represent the oil-dependent state's lowest level of output in approximately 70 years  with the exception of the 2002-2003 strike.

The IEA upwardly revised its global oil demand forecast to 99.3 mb/d in 2018. However, the group warned that recent signs of protectionism from the U.S. could hamper economic growth forecasts worldwide and in turn, hit trade flows and oil demand.

"A slowdown (in global trade) would have strong consequences, particularly for fuel used in the maritime sector and in the trucking industry," the report said.

The IEA said several key indicators were showing a market re-balancing was "clearly moving ahead" with supply and demand becoming more closely aligned. And should OPEC's production levels remain relatively flat for the remainder of 2018, the IEA suggested that the chances of a market deficit could rest on the cascading output losses in Venezuela.

"The deepening unplanned decline in Venezuela knocked crude oil production 420,000 barrels per day below its OPEC target during February and helped boost OPEC's compliance with supply cuts to the highest ever," the IEA said.Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia changed drastically after Vladimir Putin became Russia President, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to journalist Andrey Kondrashov in a new documentary film titled "Putin".

According to him, he still remembers the first meeting between national leader and then Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and head of Russia.

Ilham Aliyev said that their meeting lasted for a really long time, and after it ended "my father talked about his impression of Russian President for a long time."

"Of course, they had a lot in common: they were trained in the same school - Leningrad KGB School, they were colleagues, who understood each other really well and built relations based on trust," Azerbaijani President said.

He noted that according to his father Heydar Aliyev, "Azerbaijan got a reliable partner when Putin came to power."Russia will soon expel British diplomats in retaliation for Britains decision to kick out 23 Russian envoys over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent, the country's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Britain says Russia is responsible for the poisoning with a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent of Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia They were found unconscious on March 4 in the city of Salisbury in southern England and remain critically ill in hospital.

Moscow denies any involvement. The Kremlin said the British position was irresponsible and not backed up by evidence. It said Britain would not have to wait long for Russias response.

Lavrov said the accusations were unacceptable and that British diplomats would be expelled, RIA Novosti reported.

A former agent of the GRU, Russias military intelligence agency, Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain before being arrested in Moscow and jailed in 2006. He was freed as part of a spy swap deal in 2010 and took refuge in Britain.For many centuries Azerbaijan has been a land of peaceful coexistence of people of different religions and nations, Azerbaijans First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva said during the ceremony of awarding her with a gold medal of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

Mehriban Alieva expressed her deep gratitude to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center for awarding her with gold medal. "It is a great honor for me to receive this award from the center which promotes the high universal values and ideas of humanity, mutual understanding and peace," she stressed.

First Vice-President noted that traditions of multiculturalism and diversity are one of Azerbaijan's biggest treasures. "We preserve our traditions and we are open to the world. Today we talked about modern Azerbaijan, about impressive achievements of Azerbaijan after restoration of its independence," she said.

Mehriban Aliyeva thanked the President of Azerbaijan Republic, who is the bright example for her and for the people of her country, "as a person who has dedicated his life to the development and prosperity of our motherland". "Thank you Mr. President and I am proud to be a part of your team," she noted.

First Vice-President said that she also considered this award as recognition of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation's works. "I say thank you for all those who during 14 years worked with me and helped to implement all our ideas, all our projects in the fields of education, science, culture and social sphere," Aliyeva stressed.

"Finally I would like once again to mention the great efforts of co-chairs of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. Thanks to your activities the Center has become a very important international platform," she stressed.

"Mr. Serageldin, your experience, your knowledge inspired the young generation to use value of education and science to be more open to the world and broaden their horizons. Madam Vaira Vike-Freiberga, you are a shining example for many many across the world. We, in Azerbaijan, highly appreciate your activities, your efforts in building dialogue between nations and countries, your contributions to promoting the legacy of prominent Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi," Mehriban Alieva stressed.President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has sent a message of congratulations to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel following the victory of the CDU, in the legislative elections.

Nazarbayev outlined that the parliament elections showed the German people's trust in her and her politics aimed at strengthening Germany's position in Europe and the whole world, as well as strengthening social-economic situation in the country.

The president wished Merkel successes in her job, AKIpress reported.

Merkel was sworn in for a fourth term as German chancellor on March 14. Germany's parliament earlier approved her re-election by 364 votes to 315.Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the unknown facts about the tragedy in the Moscow Dubrovka Theater in 2002. According to the president, terrorists were going to execute hostages on Red Square one by one. In the second part of the movie "Putin," which was published on social networks, the head of state unveiled that the terrorists who seized a crowded theater in Moscow in 2002 had no intention of releasing the hostages.

"Their plan was to take a bus with hostages to Red Square and shoot people there, throwing bodies on the street, in a bid to influence the country's leadership and security services. Of course, we could not allow this," Putin said, Sputnik reports.

At that time Moscow was conducting an anti-terrorist campaign in the Russian region of Chechnya. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a number of terrorist and separatist groups emerged in Russia's Chechen Republic. In order to restore peace and order in the region, Moscow launched a counterterrorism operation there. The terrorist groups have been supported by a number of foreign jihadists. The issue of Chechen terrorism, which became dire following terrorist attacks in Moscow and other Russian cities, was one of the most pressing challenges for President Putin during his first term in office.

Before the rescue operation, the security services had to pump sleeping gas into the hall. However, according to Putin, the gas had not functioned yet at the time the decision to storm the building was made. "The next morning the tragic execution of hostages was due to take place. It was impossible to wait," the president said, explaining why the operation began before the gas took effect. According to Putin, he asked the head of Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) to launch the storm immediately. "Nobody but me could make such a decision," he added. Eventually, by the time of the storming, the gas had worked.

"Unfortunately, we lost a lot of people there. They were killed not by the shooting, and even not by the gas. Frankly speaking, people died because of the inability to act in that environment. There were enough antidote doses and it was necessary just to do the injection. However, some people got two or three injections, while others got none. We conducted a very thorough investigation, but under such circumstances, it is difficult to punish someone, people themselves went to their doom," Putin said.

"It was a very difficult and dangerous task for everyone who was there. Those engaged in the storm did not spare themselves. I want to make it clear that when the group was storming the building, everyone was ready for the worst, they actually went to their doom and did it for the sake of saving more than a thousand hostages," the president stressed.

"I am sure that if nothing is done, the number of victims would have been much greater," Putin concluded.Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan met with the chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev yesterday.

Kosachev noted that the two-day joint meeting of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of Armenia and of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Russian Council of the Federation was comprehensive, candid, and productive.

Kosachev said Russia and Armenia are working together with a maximum number of interparliamentary assemblies.

"We have developed cooperation within interparliamentary platforms in a very considerable and profound way," News.am cited him as saying.Saudi Arabia will develop nuclear weapons if Iran does so, the kingdoms crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said in remarks released on Thursday.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," CBS cited the prince as saying.

The interview will air in full on March 18.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom has been at loggerheads with revolutionary Shiite Iran for decades. The countries have fought a long-running proxy war in the Middle East and beyond, backing rival sides in armed conflicts and political crises including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Prince Mohammed, who also serves as Saudi defense minister, said last year that the kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries is waged in Iran.

Riyadh has criticized the 2015 deal between world powers and Tehran under which economic sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for the Islamic Republic curbing its nuclear energy program, Reuters recalls.NATO seeks meaningful dialogue with Russia, the Alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, presenting his annual report today.

He noted that NATO would continue to seek meaningful dialogue with Russia which, while difficult, was vital to increase transparency and to reduce risk.

"We do not want a new Cold War, and we do not want to be dragged into an arms race. An arms race has no winners. It is expensive, it is risky, it is in nobody's interest, Stoltenberg said.

At the same time he added that NATOs approach to Russia remains firm, defensive and proportionate.US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the United Kingdom's accusations against Russia in the case of the poisoning of former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Sputnik reports.

"It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. Something that should never ever happen and we're taking it very seriously as I think are many others," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.Turkey will not halt its ongoing operation in northwestern Syrias Afrin region until it is complete, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Speaking at an award ceremony in capital Ankara, Erdogan said the European Parliament (EP) is expected to ask Turkey to stop the operation in Afrin.

But the president said all such efforts would be in vain. "Do not desire in vain, we will not get out of there [Afrin] until our work is done."

The European Parliament has drafted a joint motion calling on Turkey to withdraw its troops from Syria's Afrin region. The motion is set to be voted on later Thursday. The European Parliament cannot say a word to Turkey [about the ongoing Operation Olive Branch], he added.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglus planned visit to the US on March 19 has been postponed, his spokesman said, following the US decision to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

The spokesman did not give a reason for the decision. Yesterday, Cavusoglu said he hoped to build good relations with new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo but he must respect Turkey, amid deep tensions over Syria policy and other issues, Reuters reported.Britain is accusing Russia of violating the Chemical Weapons Convention by failing to declare the military-grade nerve agent Novichok which it says was used to poison an ex-Russian agent.

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen said Russia informed the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which monitors the convention last September, that it completed the destruction of its stockpiles and facilities.

But he told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called by Britain that Russia never declared Novichok which it was required to do, and therefore it is "in serious breach of the chemical weapons program."

Allen said that fact alone should negate any Russian arguments "about the possibility of other countries having inherited this technology."

He said Russia "either did not care that the weapon used would be traced back to them, or mistakenly believed they could cover their traces."

Allen said Britain knows there will be more threats and attacks from Russia denying any involvement, US News reported.

He said that "this is how Russia has acted in every other case where it has been caught flouting international law  denial, distraction and threats."

But Allen said Britain won't let threats "weaken our resolve" in standing "firm" for democracy, the rule of law "and the freedom of our people."UK senior government sources say that plans are already in place for a further round of sanctions if Moscow continues with what they term as "brutal and aggressive actions".

Security officials hold that the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was ordered at the "highest levels" of the Kremlin.

The British Prime Minister Theresa Mays approach, the officials maintained, was "calibrated, calm and firm" and designed to highlight to the international community the gravity of what had occurred and the need for a "robust response".

"Although we have announced this response, further options remain on the table. Economic, diplomatic, legislative and security capabilities can all be brought to bear if needed," a senior Government official said.

"If we dont feel that what we have done thus far is having the required effect in the short, medium and long term  a change of behaviour from the Kremlin  we will look at them again and revise them," the Independent cited the official as saying.The US administration has for the first time applied the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) to impose sanctions against Russian citizens and organizations. The relevant information has been spread by Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury, TASS reports.

The sanctions were imposed due to "Russias continuing destabilizing activities, ranging from interference in the 2016 U.S. election to conducting destructive cyber-attacks, including the NotPetya attack, a cyber-attack attributed to the Russian military on February 15, 2018, " the Treasury said in the statement.

According to the Treasury, the cyber-attack was "the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history" and resulted "in billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the United States."

It also "significantly disrupted global shipping, trade, and the production of medicines" and several hospitals in the United States "were unable to create electronic records for more than a week," according to the statement.BEIJING  The China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) is scheduled to return to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwestern China, for its 15th edition from September 12-15.



The theme of this years event is Jointly building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the China-ASEAN community of innovation.



More countries, especially those along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, will be invited to attend the expo to create more business opportunities, said Wang Lei, the expos secretary-general.



Guo Chuanwei, an official from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said he hoped China and ASEAN nations could bring more top-level firms to the trade event to deepen cooperation between the two sides.



Launched in 2004, CAEXPO provides an important platform to promote trade and other relations between China and ASEAN countries.



Last year, the trade fair took place in Nanning from September 11-13. Viet Nam was represented by 250 booths, the most among ASEAN countries, introducing various products, including farm produce, processed food, footwear, consumer goods, wooden products and handicrafts.



China is currently ASEANs largest trade partner, while ASEAN is Chinas third largest trade partner. Trade between the two sides rose by 13.8 per cent to US$514.8 billion in 2017.

ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.  VNSHA NOI  Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) sold its entire offering of nearly 115 million shares, equivalent to 22.97 per cent of its charter capital, in its initial public offering (IPO) on the HCM Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

At the average winning price of VN10,100 per share, equal to the minimum bidding price set for the auction, the State collected nearly VN1.16 trillion (roughly US$51 million) from the share sale.

Before the IPO, 41 investors registered to take part in the auction, including 31 domestic and 10 foreign investors.

Under its equitisation plan, Vinafood 2 has charter capital of VN5 trillion with 51 per cent possessed by the State. The company sold nearly 23 per cent to the public while about 25 per cent will be offered to the strategic investor.

The remainder will be sold to its employees and workers at a preferential price level.

Prior to the IPO, the industry-property-finance conglomerate T&T Group was the only company filing a proposal to become Vinafood 2s strategic investor.

The selling price for the strategic investor will not be lower than the IPO price. Thus, T&T Group is expected to spend at least VN1.26 trillion for the purchase.

This month, Vinafood 2 will continue working with T&T Group and sell shares to employees.

According to the companys criteria for strategic investors, the strategic partner must be financially healthy so that it can help the firm restructure its financial system and be able to assist Vinafood 2 in seeking new markets and open new distribution channels in both domestic and overseas markets.

The strategic investor must have operated in the agriculture sector for at least three years; have total assets of at least VN10 trillion by December 31, 2015; and achieving net profits for three consecutive years and reaching a return-on-equity ratio of more than 5 per cent.

Vinafood 2 chairman Vu Ba Vinh said the companys auction happened in the context of the countrys rapid integration and it hopes to look for qualified investors to contribute to Vinafood 2 strategic business development.  VNSViet Nam has urged the US government to consider excluding Vietnamese products from its new announcement on tariff measures for imported steel and aluminium. Chu uc Khai, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), talks to Viet Nam News reporter Ta Thu Giang about the challenges faced by Vietnamese steel makers after the decision.

US President Donald Trump recently decided to apply 25 per cent tax on imported steel. How do you evaluate this decision?

On March 8, President Trump signed a decree imposing a tax of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, with the exception of Mexico and Canada. We think this decision is contrary to the goals and intentions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), of which the United States is a member, and is contrary to international practices.

The decision goes against the purpose of WTOs guideline to create equality of trade. With the introduction of this tariff, free trade ceases.

What is the volume of Viet Nam steel exported to America?

Viet Nam last year exported 4.7 million tonnes of steel to foreign countries, earning a revenue of US$3.1 billion.

Of this, 567,000 tonnes of steel were exported to the US, occupying 12 per cent of Viet Nams total export. This volume accounted for just 1.67 per cent of the USs steel imports. In 2016, the US imported 31 million tonnes of steel and in 2017, it imported 34 million tonnes.

We can see that Viet Nams export volume of steel is quite small compared to the USs volume of import.

I want to stress that Vietnamese steel products sold to the US are intended for use in civil construction, not for infrastructure or defence purposes and thus, does not affect the USs national security.

Viet Nams export of steel accounts for a small proportion of USs steel imports. It does not damage or threaten the US steel industries.

With such marginal volume of export, why is Viet Nam named in the group of countries which most affects the US economy?

This move comes in the context of Chinese steel products exported to the US falling sharply when the US imposed 14 anti-dumping duties and 10 self-defence taxes in 2016 and 2017. Meanwhile, Viet Nam is a country next to China, whose steel exports to this country have increased rapidly. The US suspected Viet Nam of importing steel from China and then exporting to the US.

In a letter sent to the Viet Nam Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnamese Government and the US Department of Commerce, VSA said before July 2017, Viet Nam had not manufactured hot-rolled coil steel, so it had to import from other countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Russia.

We imported hot-rolled coil steel with thickness of 6-7mm. It was then cold rolled down to below 1mm and processed through zinc or aluminium coated and colouring before being exported to foreign countries. The process of making thiner steel is huge and helps businesses to create added value and change Harmonised System code.

But its not just about importing hot-rolled steel and simply processing it before export.

Vietnamese businesses have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in modern technology to produce high-quality cold-rolled steel and galvanised steel products that meet the stringent standards of the US and Japan.

I affirm Viet Nam will easily solve this problem because it is able to produce enough hot-rolled coil steel from this year onwards to make other steel products, ensuring the Vietnamese origin.

Although it will certainly be difficult for Vietnamese steel manufacturers after the USs tax decision, Viet Nams steel industry will still promote its export to the world market, including ASEAN which is currently Viet Nams main market for steel, accounting for 59.3 per cent of exports, and domestic consumption with a population of more than 90 million.

How will Viet Nams steel businesses be affected after the decision of the US President?

Vietnamese enterprises are facing a lot of difficulties because they have to compete with large steel makers who are experienced in the market economy, such as Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union. In particular, we have to compete with countries that have geographical proximity to the US, such as Brazil, Canada and Mexico, as a result of which their costs of transporting goods to the US is cheaper, making their steel prices more competitive.

In the open market economy with a deep and large integration, the price of raw material of the Vietnamese steel industry is in common with global steel prices. With the same kind of product, if the cost of one company is 10 per cent higher than the others, it wont be able to compete with other companies in the market, not mentioning the 25 per cent tax on imported steel to the US.

If Viet Nams steel export to the US is reduced, Vietnamese steel companies will face many difficulties. For example, the expected volume of export will have to return home and domestic competition will be higher because of the decline in the export market.

Viet Nam started exporting steel to the US some two-three years ago when the steel maker Hoa Sen Group sent the first batch of 20,000 tonnes of steel products. Vietnamese companies saw potential in the US market so they spent a lot of money in building facilities and advanced technologies to produce steel for exports.

The US import tax on steel has been imposed at a time when the Vietnamese businesses investment has not been refunded, causing losses and unemployment.

What are the solutions to help Vietnamese businesses retain their market share in the US?

Our association has sent a letter to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to respond to the decision of the US President, asking for more measures to support steel makers. We will seek co-operation and consultation with other countries that are in a similar situation. If unsuccessful, we may consider co-ordinating with other countries to file a lawsuit against the US at WTO.

We have proposed to the Government to negotiate this issue in bilateral negotiations with the US about products it wants to export to Viet Nam. This is to persuade the US to exempt Vietnamese steel from the import tax. This is for the interests of both sides.

If we are not removed from the list, Vietnamese steel makers will have to minimise production costs to improve competitiveness so that they can maintain and occupy more market share in the US and other countries.

We always recommend Vietnamese businesses, who are sufficient in finances and human resources, to invest in modern technologies from the European Union and set up steel factories with a capacity of more than four million tonnes per year, so that they are capable of competing with other steel makers in the region and in the world.  VNSHA NOI  The Government Inspectorate (GI) has asked Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to relay its inspection results of a VN8.9 trillion (US$395 million) acquisition of Audio Visual Global (AVG) by State-owned communications giant Mobifone to the Ministry of Public Security for investigation.

This was part of an announcement released by the GI yesterday, saying the case was extremely serious.

The GIs inspection found that Mobifone was irresponsible and broke regulations in the acquisition, especially in the assessment of AVGs financial situation, allegedly leading to State budget losses of VNDD7 trillion.

AVG faced difficulties from its establishment to the time of business valuation in March 2015, with accumulated losses of more than VN1.6 trillion, accounting for 45 per cent of its charter capital.

However, Mobifone was dishonest in reporting the financial situation of AVG to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) during the acquisition process.

Mobifone even positively evaluated the business and financial situation of AVG, the GI said.

According to the GI, the assessment violated regulations in investment and managing and using State capital in enterprises.

The GI also found wrongdoings in choosing business valuation consultants, examining the business valuations results and using those results in buying AVGs shares.

Specifically, Mobifone choose Vietcombank Securities Limited Company (VCBS) and AMAX Investment Consultant Company, without using the bidding process.

Mobifones use of AMAXs valuation of AVGs value of VN16.565 trillion without excluding the short-term debt payment of VN1.134 trillion in order to negotiate a high price for AVGs shares was against regulations.

Additionally, the GI announced that during the acquisition, Mobifone didnt consult the professional communications and television agency, leading to an unfeasible acquisition project, which was still then submitted to the MIC, the companys State capital representative.

In conclusion, the GI stated that the responsibility for the wrongdoings went to the Board of Members, Board of Directors and other relevant departments of Mobifone.

Agreement ended

A day before the GIs announcement, Mobifone and AVG decided 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. The two sides will also try to not let the other party suffer more damages.

Pham Nhat Vu, a representative of AVG in the negotiations with Mobifone, agreed not to impose a fine or 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 consultants fees. AVG has agreed to share this expense with Mobifone.

AVG has made a deposit of VN450 billion to perform the agreement cancellation, Mobifone said in a press release on Tuesday.

According to the AVG representative, there are many reasons for cancelling the contract. First, since its acquisition, Mobifone has not operated and developed the AVG brand as planned and missed many opportunities to do so.

Second, Vu said since the contract was in effect, Mobifone had paid 95 per cent of the contract value. The deadline for payment has passed, 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 parties. According to Mobifone and AVG, the cancellation of the contract aims to repair the damage.

In early 2016, Mobifone announced the acquisition of AVG to expand its television network, one of the companys four main business areas. The details of the deal were not disclosed.

In August 2016, the Government promulgated Document No 1344/TTg, asking the GI to investigate the acquisition.

Last Thursday, the Party Central Committees Secretariat issued a letter on the handling of Mobifones acquisition of 95 per cent of AVG shares, calling the issue a serious, complicated and sensitive matter, and asked the GI to soon release the inspection results.

The Secretariat said that the Government and the GI must be responsible for reviewing and settling cases in an objective and accurate manner to ensure that punishment is given to the right person and lost State assets are revoked.  VNSHA NOI  Viet Nam Television Cable Corporation Limited Company (VTVcab) will float nearly 42.3 million shares in its initial public offering (IPO) on April 17 on Ha Noi Stock Exchange.

The number of shares to be sold is equivalent to 47.8 per cent of its charter capital.

The time for the IPO is in line with the Prime Ministers directive which asked the company to hold an IPO by June 30, 2018.

VTVcab, with a charter capital of VN884 billion (roughly US$39 million), is the only pay TV provider directly under VTV with 100 per cent equity owned by Vietnam Television.

At an initial bidding price of VN140,900 ($6.18) per share, the company is valued at nearly VN12.4 trillion ($543 million). Investors are expected to pay approximately VN6 trillion ($263 million) for the IPO shares.

VTVcab, founded in 2012 (previously known as MMDS Cable Television Centre), has superior position in the pay TV services industry in Viet Nam, thanks to great resources from VTV and advantage of both producing and selling content.

From the cable television system, VTVcab has expanded services to satellite digital TV and the latest, online television service. Currently, the provider broadcasts 200 TV channels, including 70 HD channels.

By the end of 2016, VTVcab reported a net revenue of VN2.05 trillion and a net profit of VN68.5 billion, an increase of 11.3 per cent and 5 per cent year-on-year, respectively.

However, its liabilities mounted to VN1.94 trillion, accounting for 80 per cent of the total capital. Of this, short-term debt was VN1.33 trillion, in excess of VN500 billion over short-term assets, raising the auditors concern about the companys liquidity.  VNSCAIRO  Agro-forestry-fishery goods from Viet Nam are enjoying the spotlight at the 51st Cairo International Fair underway in Egypts capital city.

Exhibited products include coffee, tea, cashew nuts, pepper, tra fish and several kinds of fine arts and handicrafts.

The fair, which will conclude on March 23, has seen the participation of 1,000 enterprises from 15 countries. It is expected to attract two million visitors.

Pham The Cuong, Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in Egypt, said through the event, Viet Nam hoped to promote investment opportunities among the business community in Egypt and in the world. During the fair, many foreign firms have expressed interest in joining trade fairs in Viet Nam this year, such as Vietnam Food 2018, Viet Fish and Viet Build, Cuong said.

Bilateral trade between Viet Nam and Egypt reached over US$350 million in 2017, with $320 million coming from Viet Nams exports, including seafood, coffee, pepper, cashew nuts, wooden products, textiles and mobile phones.

Trade experts, however, said the reviewed figures were yet to match the potential of the two countries. They suggested the two countries businesses to participate in bilateral trade fairs, exhibitions and investment workshops, thus expanding business opportunities.  VNSHA NOI  A delegation of 70 enterprises from Hong Kong will visit Viet Nam to seek cooperation with Vietnamese firms on March 21, 2018 in HCM City.

Those Hong Kong businesses specialise in finance, education, architecture, law, textiles, electronics components and footwear products.

The event will be organised by the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City when the minister of commerce and economic development of Hong Kong, Edward Yau Tang-wah, visits the city.

This is a bridge to help businesses in HCM City meet and seek opportunities for business development and investment cooperation with investors from Hong Kong.

Trade exchanges between Viet Nam and Hong Kong have been steadily increasing in the recent years. As of early September 2017, Viet Nam is Hong Kongs third largest trading partner in the ASEAN region, with a bilateral trade turnover of over US$13 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12 per cent. Of which, Hong Kong exported products worth $7.4 billion to Viet Nam and imported goods worth $5.7 billion. The main trade items between the two sides include telecommunications equipment and components, semiconductors, valves and electronic tubes, knitted fabrics and knitting tools.

Regarding investment, as of 20 March 2017, Hong Kong is the sixth largest investor in Viet Nam, with more than 1,200 investment projects and a total registered capital of more than $17.57 billion.  VNSHA NOI  The import of automobiles surged suddenly early this month, according to the General Department of Customs (GDC).

Statistics provided by the GDC showed that from March 2 to March 8, auto businesses registered to import 2,020 cars of all kinds to Viet Nam, having a total value of US$44.42 million, most of which were cars with nine seats or less.

No cars with nine seats or more were imported.

Most of the imported cars came from Thailand, the remaining from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. The vehicles were shipped through Hai Phong and Sai Gon ports.

This has been a surprise for the car market in Viet Nam after the number of vehicles imported was at a record low in the first two months of this year. Specifically, cars having less than nine seats only reached 18 units in January and 13 units in February, as auto importers failed to meet the demand of the Governments Decree 116 dated on October 17 last year, which stipulates the conditions for production, assembly, import and business of automobiles, and their warranty and maintenance services.

The import of cars increased in early this month, because the importers met the requirements of the Decree 116, especially the Vehicle Type Approval Certificate. Honda Vietnam is the first firm to import cars according to the decrees regulations, with nearly 2,000 units, including Honda CR-V, Jazz, Civic and Accord originating from Thailand. It is also the first batch of imported auto to enjoy 0 per cent import duty under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), which became effective from January 1, 2018.

The sales of automobiles in February reached 12,394 units in the Vietnamese market, down 52 per cent against January and 29 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Insiders said the decline of sales in February this year was normal because it coincides with the Lunar New Year holiday.  VNSHA NOI  Construction investors are often totally indifferent to the storm of dust, construction waste and general filth their projects unleash on the general public. The Ministry of Construction has taken an action as drastic as the neglect of these investors and their greedy firms.

Thanks to Circular No 02/2018/TTBXD, all construction projects that violate environmental sanitation rules will be suspended, beginning on April 1.

Dust on street, building materials on the sidewalk

People have come to accept the unsightly and unhealthy consequences of ongoing construction projects in cities across the country: dust clouding the air, construction waste obstructing sidewalks and odours filling the atmosphere.

A survey by the Kinh te & o thi (Urban and Economic) newspaper revealed that along many roads in Ha Noi with many ongoing construction sites, such as Le Van Luong, Khuat Duy Tien and Nguyen Xien, dust and noise pollution are quite common.

Late in 2016, a public outcry arose as the Eco-Green City construction project at Nguyen Xien Road violated Vietnamese legal regulations on labour safety and environmental sanitation.

The projects investor arbitrarily occupied the pavement as a place for containing construction materials and waste. Thanh Tri Districts construction inspectors issued fines of up to VN30 million and banned the occupation of the pavement.

Similarly, in the area of Thang Long Road, at the road section through the Me Tri and Phu o wards in Nam Tu Liem District; in An Khanh, Lai Yen, Song Phuong and Van Con communes in Hoai uc District, household and construction wastes, soil and stone from construction sites spread over the pavements.

The methods of transporting materials and building waste in nearby works havent strictly implemented the regulations of the city authorities to ensure environmental sanitation.

Many vehicles carrying construction material were overloaded and uncovered. They didnt seriously obey the regulations to wash vehicles before leaving the construction sites. This situation lead to contaminated streets, dust storms on dry days and mud swamps on wet ones.

To control the environmental pollution at the construction sites, the Ministry of Construction issued the Circular No. 02/2018 / TTBXD that will come into effect from April 1. The circular enhances the responsibility of the construction owners in the field of environmental protection and strictly punishes wrongdoings.

In particular, it will require enterprises to make reports on their environmental impact assessments, environmental protection plans and environmental protection commitments as prescribed.

The investors will be forced to suspend construction if relevant authorities find violations of labour safety regulations, environmental pollution or the risk of environmental incident.

Economic expert Nguyen Minh Phong said, "Basically, the owner is afraid of the project being forced to halt construction abruptly. It would affect the whole process of the project. Delaying the process will increase costs, leading to reduced investment possibilities.

A construction inspector in Thanh Xuan District said if the inspectors only made a record of the offense and issued a fine, investors were still not afraid because the fine was negligible; investors are willing to pay a few tens of millions of ong to continue construction.

Therefore, when the law allows the application of measures to suspend construction, the investors will be forced to obey regulations on shielding the site and washing the vehicles before leaving the sites.

According to Prof. ang Hung Vo, most important was developing a sense of responsibility within each construction company.

In Japan, as I know, the construction site is completely covered, with no dust going out, he said. Even the materials surrounding the construction site can be soundproofed and the construction workers on the site also have to change shoes to avoid carrying sand to the outside.

In particular, vehicles carrying materials before running into the streets were washed carefully, according to Vo. Most of the construction companies here were self-strictly adhering to the standards of waste emission and pollution control.

In any country, there are certain sanctions to control the construction sites environment. However, in determining efficacy, the key is still the human factor," Vo said.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment reported that environmental quality nation-wide and in Ha Noi in particular has been decreasing dramatically as a result of construction activities.

Each year, the citys air absorbs about 80,000 tonnes of smoke and dust, 9,000 tonnes of SO2, 19,000 tonnes of NO2 and 46,000 tonnes of CO2.

In particular, the process of digging and transporting construction materials, often with high-capacity diesel engines, have emitted harmful gases such as SO2, NOx, CO, affecting the health of people living around construction areas.VNSAndrew Doyle, Irelands Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Forestry sends a message to Viet Nam News readers on the occasion of St Patricks Day, Irelands National Day.

On March 17, the world turns green in celebration of Irelands national day, St Patricks Day. This is a special time of celebration in Ireland and for all of those of Irish descent and affinity around the world. This year, I am delighted to be in Viet Nam to further our bilateral ties.

This is my second visit to Viet Nam. In 2016 I led an agri-food trade mission to Ha Noi and was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm I encountered here. Viet Nams development story has much in common with Irelands. Forty years ago, Ireland was a poor, agricultural based economy. Today, Ireland has a modern knowledge based economy focusing on services and high-tech industries and dependent on trade, industry and investment.

Ireland is a stable, competitive, secure and pro-business economy. In an increasingly complex and uncertain world, we remain true to our values. We believe in the international rule of law. We believe in free trade and the kind of globalisation that serves the greater good and the welfare, not just of our people, but of people everywhere. Our membership of the European Union (EU) has been a key factor in Irelands development success - and we remain a committed member of the EU and the Eurozone.

Irelands agri-food sector plays a critical role in the Irish economy. In a generation, our food industry has evolved into a world-class, global player. As a farmer myself I am extremely passionate about farming and what Irish farms have to offer the world. Our farms are the bedrock of Irelands natural, grass-based, sustainable food production systems. They combine traditional values and the best of nature with science and technology, to produce the highest quality food, with different generations of the family working together.

Planning for the future brings with it the responsibility of ensuring the next generations are not compromised in their ability to plan for theirs. Population increases and climate change are just two of the challenges putting enormous pressure on our planets finite resources. One of the most important investments we have made in recent years has been in Origin Green, our national agriculture and food sustainability programme which enables our food industry to set and achieve measurable sustainability targets.

Sustainability is key, and so too is safety. In Ireland we have invested in our food safety systems. This has allowed us to ensure safety not just for our domestic consumers but around the world. Today, Irelands world-class meat, dairy, beverages and seafood are enjoyed far beyond our shores. Last year, we exported 12.5 billion euro of food and drink to 180 countries. Irish meat and livestock is exported to more than 50 markets. Irish beef is on the shelves of 82 supermarket chains across Europe  more countries and more customers than any other national beef. We export to 120 countries in the dairy sector, including here in Viet Nam where I am delighted to see top quality Irish milk products.

We have pioneered change in our own agri-systems in Ireland and we have learned a lot from it. We are keen to work with Viet Nam to ensure both of our countries benefit mutually from the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement.

This week I will meet my counterpart at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review our co-operation in agriculture. We have achieved a lot since my last visit to Ha Noi less than two years ago. Through the Irish Aid programme we are supporting experience sharing between Ireland and Viet Nam. Since my last visit we have supported four new partnerships - with Viet Nam National University of Agriculture, IPSARD and NAFIQAD and Hue University. This week I am accompanied by the Dublin Institute of Technology, which is partnering with Hue University on the development of a curriculum on food safety management. We hope this collaboration can help train the next generation of food safety specialists in Viet Nam to the highest international standards.

I am very optimistic about our future partnerships with Viet Nam, and confident that we can work together for safer, more sustainable, greener agriculture.

So on this special week, when Viet Nam joins Ireland and the world in turning green, I want to wish all of the friends of Ireland in Viet Nam a very happy St. Patricks Day, or as we say in the Irish language, Beannachtai na Feile Padraig.  VNSHA NOI  The third exhibition by the Bui (Dust) fine arts non-professional artists community is being held at the Exhibition Centre of Fine Arts and Photography, 29 Hang Bai Street, Ha Noi.

Entitled About Time, the exhibition attracted over 100 non-professional painters of different ages and walks of life, sharing the same passion for fine arts.

With the slogan Beautiful moments and memories I carry into painting, the exhibition is aimed at creating a playground for non-professional painters and artists who adore fine arts and wish to express beloved memories through their work, such as a memorable location, object or familiar human shape.

Over 100 paintings of various subjects, styles and materials, including pencil, silk, oil, charcoal, water, silverpoint, gouache by over 100 non-professional artists from Ha Noi and HCM City were displayed at the exhibition, creating an abundant arts environment in the cities and attracting many visitors.

Tran Thuy Phuong, founder of Bui community and one of the members of the organising board, said the subject of this years exhibition is about time, We hope that through this exhibition, participants will use art as a tool to show their feelings about important memories and those that inspire them. In order to do so, we also hope this will be a playground for non-professional artists. We hope you always try your best and Bui will always be your second home.

At the exhibition, representatives of the organising board also presented certificates to 68 artists whose works of art were showcased.

Bui Thi My Hanh, a kindergarten teacher, was honoured for her charcoal painting titled Tam Vai Lanh va cCy Trau Ba (The Linen and the Golden Pothos). She said participating in the exhibition was a precious experience for her, The most important thing is the idea. I am really happy and honoured to be a part of this art community. If I had more time, my painting would be more complete. I am also blessed to know my mother has posted my painting to Facebook so people know about it.

Hoang Thu Huong, an office worker, who painted Tinh Lang (Peaceful and Quiet) on silk canvas, said her two-floor house in a small alley inspired her artwork, I was walked the zigzag street ever since I was a toddler. This corner, where I sit many times to look at the sunlight in summer and autumn, hearing the falling leaves and sparrows singing on the rooftops, brings an endless inner peace to my soul.

The exhibition lasts until March 17, when a prize ceremony will be held.NEW YORK  Hungary on Wednesday launched a cultural diplomacy push in New York with its prolific state-run opera planning a full two weeks of music and ballet.

The Hungarian State Opera and Hungarian National Ballet will make their US debut by sending 350 musicians and dancers to New York with support from Prime Minister Viktor Orbans right-wing government.

The October 30-November 11 performances at Lincoln Center will highlight Hungarian works including Bank Ban, a signature opera of national anthem composer Ferenc Erkel, and Bluebeards Castle, the only opera of early 20th-century giant Bela Bartok.

The company will also perform the more recent Mario and the Magician, based on the Thomas Mann novella, and Swan Lake in the version of late Dutch choreographer Rudi van Dantzig.

"We never had in the history of Hungarian culture anything that is this long, this big, mobilises this much (personnel) and has a budget like this," Ferenc Kumin, Hungarys consul general in New York, told a news conference.

Szilveszter Okovacs, general director of the Hungarian State Opera, said that the government agreed to some US$3 million to support the performances in New York.

The Hungarian State Opera, whose landmark building in Budapest is under renovation, has been touring widely internationally including a 19-city tour of Japan last year.

The state opera is among the worlds most productive, with Okovacs putting its number of performances at more than 400 per year.  AFPLONDON  Donatella Versace has said her familys luxury fashion label will no longer use real furs in its products, according to an interview with a British magazine.

The Italian fashion queen and Versaces creative director told The Economists 1843 magazine that it would stop the practice, without providing further details on the change.

"Fur? I am out of that," Versace said. "I dont want to kill animals to make fashion.

"It doesnt feel right."

Versaces headquarters in Milan, Italy, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.

1843 noted the announcement was such a "volte-face" that at the time of the magazine writing its article, which was published online on Wednesday, Versaces website was still urging customers to buy "fur-embellished coats that turn heads".

Versace had previously resisted pressure to join a host of other fashion brands, including Armani, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren which had all already ditched furs from their collections.

The luxury label has historically included lots of furs across its ranges, from a variety of species including mink and raccoon dog, according to the Humane Society International (HSI), which campaigns globally for an end to the fur trade.

It noted Versaces autumn/winter 2017 collection included laser cut mink and fox coats.

"Versace is a massively influential luxury brand that symbolises excess and glamour, and so its decision to stop using fur shows that compassionate fashion has never been more on trend," said Claire Bass, executive director of HSIs UK arm.

However, the International Fur Federation said it was "disappointed" by the decision.

"The majority of top designers will continue to work with fur as they know it is a natural product that is produced responsibly," said its CEO Mark Oaten.

"With growing concern about the environment and plastics in fashion, I truly believe fur is the natural and responsible choice for designers and consumers."  AFPNgo Duy Hieu.  Photo laodong.vn

Ngo Duy Hieu, a National Assembly deputy and director of the Labour Relations Commission under the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour, speaks to Lao ong (Labour) newspaper about the Viet Nam Trade Unions determination to renew itself.

What are the major issues for labour in the CPTPP?

In the field of labour and trade unions, the CPTPP has touched upon some key issues relating to Viet Nam, such as the implementation of international labour criteria, stopping trade sanctions being applied in the first five years after the CPTPP comes into force towards the establishment of grass roots trade unions (these unions do not belong to the Viet Nam General Confederation of Trade Union or VGCL) and no commercial sanction being applied in the seven years following the enforcement of the CPTPP on the alliance of grassroots trade unions.

Some other issues have also been covered in the CPTPP, including the agreement on collective labour negotiation, forced labour, child labour, working hours, rest hours, minimum wage and others.

What opportunities and challenges has the CPTPP presented to the VGCL?

As a member of the CPTPP, Vietnamese people will have more job opportunities and the jobs will be more sustainable with working conditions that can improve. Whats more, workers wages will be higher and their living conditions will be much better. In short, by implementing the commitments of the CPTPP, Vietnamese trade union members and employees will benefit.

Of course, besides opportunities there will be challenges. The biggest challenge is that in the near future, new organisations representing workers beside the VGCL will be established. In other words there will be competition between the VGCL and trade unions created by workers themselves. The operational environment of trade unions will experience a big change due to complications in labour relations.

We hope fair and healthy competition will occur between the VGCL and the new trade unions. We hope with a long history of development and its extensive grassroots organisation nationwide, the VGCL will be able to protect the rights of its members.

Does the VGCL have a strategy to cope with the new situation?

The VGCL is the official representative of Vietnamese Trade Unions organisations nationwide. Throughout the course of negotiating the CPTPP, the VGCL played an important role in preparing various scenarios following the treatys signing. The following are some of the major tasks that the VGCL put efforts into:

First, we plan to launch a communication campaign to raise trade union members awareness of opportunities and challenges facing Viet Nam as a member of the CPTPP.

Second, we will reform and improve the quality of trade union organisations activities, particularly activities to protect union members benefits as well as non-union members.

Third, we hope to improve the quality of trade union leaders, particularly their capacity in negotiation with their employers to protect workers benefits.

Fourth, we expect to improve activities of grassroots trade unions to gain more confidence from trade union members and to become strong and reliable supporters.

Last, we will renovate the trade union organisational model along the lines of simplicity, effectiveness and efficiency.

The VGCL has been drafting a proposal to reform the organisation and activities of the Viet Nam Trade Union. In the meantime, the VGCL has also prepared for the revision of the Trade Union Law to present to the upcoming 12th of the National Congress of the Viet Nam Trade Union.

How will the 2012 Trade Union Law be revised?

We deem it necessary to revise the 2012 Trade Union Law for a new situation. In the five years since the Trade Union Law came to force, we dont see any major issues which requires a thorough revision of the law. However, to prepare for some provisions relating to labour and trade union which are written in the CPTPP we need between three to four years to change our Trade Union Law. So the 2012 Trade Union Law must be revised in 2021 and be ready for submission to the National Assembly for approval in 2022. VNSPrime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited the Australian National University (ANU), one of the worlds top research universities, right after his arrival in Canberra yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

CANBERRA  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited the Australian National University (ANU), one of the worlds top research universities, right after his arrival in Canberra yesterday.

Talking with the ANU leaders, lecturers and students, the PM highlighted Viet Nams dynamic economy, saying the country had set up trade ties with over 230 countries and territories worldwide and signed 12 free trade agreements (FTAs).

Viet Nam had also joined many international organisations such as the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), he said.

The leader highly valued Australias support for and co-operation with Viet Nam, especially in education, high-tech agriculture and climate change response, adding that the two countries had also co-operated in many multilateral forums and engaged in many regional trade and investment agreements, with the latest being the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Viet Nam and Australia also shared viewpoints on issues of keeping peace and ensuring regional security, including the East Sea matter, Phuc said.

He also informed the ANU leaders, lecturers and students that during his ongoing visit to Australia, the two sides would officially elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership.

Responding to ANU Chancellor Gareth Evanss question regarding Viet Nams business environment, the PM said the Vietnamese Government had continuously improved the domestic business environment, which has been recognised by prestigious organisations like the WB and the World Economic Forum.

Mentioning prospects for educational co-operation between Viet Nam and Australia, he expressed his hope that the ANU would expand its connection with Vietnamese educational facilities to exchange experience and students.

We are ready to create the best conditions for the ANU and other universities of Australia to step up educational collaboration with Viet Nam, he stressed.

He noted that the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training is scheduled to sign a co-operation agreement with the Australian Department of Education and Training for 2018-23.

Following the talk, Phuc had a roundtable with leaders of the ANU, during which he emphasised the fruitful relationship between Viet Nam and Australia, particularly in education and training.

He noted that about 30,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Australia, the highest number of Vietnamese students in any foreign country, saying the figure reflected the confidence of Vietnamese students and their parents in Australian universities.

Besides, up to 60,000 Vietnamese graduates from Australian educational facilities have returned home to serve the nation, the leader added.

Phuc said apart from co-operation in trade, investment and other areas, the affiliation in education-training should be intensified after the two countries elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership.

Later the same day, Phuc met with the Vietnamese Embassys staff and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Australia.

The leader asked the embassy and the overseas Vietnamese to contribute more to enhancing trade ties between Viet Nam and Australia, surpassing the present figure of US$7 billion.

The Party and State always considered the Vietnamese community abroad an integral part of the nation, he said, noting his hope that the OVs would unite and look towards the homeland.

The 40-member club of Vietnamese scientists in Canberra also made a debut on this occasion.  VNSCANBERRA  A grand welcome ceremony with cannon salute was held for Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Parliament House on Capitol Hill in Canberra, Australia, on March 15.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by his spouse and a high-level Vietnamese delegation.

The welcome ceremony was chaired by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his spouse.

Following the ceremony, Phuc held talks with his Australian counterpart.

After the talks, the two Prime Ministers were witness to the signing of important bilateral cooperative agreements, including a joint statement on establishing the Viet Nam-Australia Strategic Partnership.

Phucs official visit to Australia comes in the context of thriving bilateral relations, especially after the two countries set up a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009 and inked a declaration on enhancing the partnership in 2015.

Two-way trade between Viet Nam and Australia grows over 7 per cent every year and reached nearly US$6.5 billion in 2017, up 22.2 per cent against 2016. Australia ranks 20th among 126 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation, with 412 projects valued at $1.8 billion. Meanwhile, Viet Nam has 44 projects worth $387.1 million in Australia.

Australia is currently among the largest non-refundable official development assistance providers to Viet Nam, with over AUD$110 million in aid every year since 2010.

Both countries have enjoyed strong cooperation in education, with a line-up of Australian scholarships granted to Vietnamese students every year. There are some 30,000 Vietnamese students in Australia.  VNSCANBERRA  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull signed a joint statement on the establishment of the Viet Nam-Australia Strategic Partnership following talks in Canberra, Australia on March 15 as part of the Vietnamese PMs visit.

At the talks, PM Turnbull expressed his pleasure to host the Vietnamese Government leader following their previous meeting at the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in a Nang, Viet Nam in November 2017, and at a time when the two sides are celebrating the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.



He said he is impressed by the Vietnamese Governments efforts in socio-economic development and international integration, especially the countrys successful hosting of APEC Year 2017.



PM Phuc congratulated Australia on its achievements over the past year, especially in economy, noting his belief that Australia will continue growing in a sustainable and prosperous manner, with greater role and position in the region and the world.



The two sides shared delight at the progress of the Viet Nam-Australia partnership over the past 45 years, with strengthened political trust and strategic interest sharing, which has paved the way to lift bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.



They agreed to increase the exchange of high-level delegations through all channels of party, state, government and parliament as well as people-to-people contacts.



To realise the bilateral strategic partnership, the two sides concurred to set up contact mechanisms at the level of foreign, defence and economic ministers, while maintaining existing bilateral co-operation mechanisms such as the diplomatic and defence strategic dialogues, consular consultations and dialogues on agriculture, education and science-technology.



They will continue to implement the Viet Nam-Australia Plan of Action in 2016-19, and creating optimal conditions for localities of both sides to promote their partnership.



The two PMs lauded the effective affiliation in defence and security, which shows high political trust, through activities of capacity building, English training, joint drills, information sharing and co-operation among military forces, especially naval forces, as well as visits of Australian Royal Navys ships to Viet Nam.



PM Turnbull affirmed that Australia will expand training assistance and support Viet Nam in UN peacekeeping operations, initially by providing equipment and logistics services to the Vietnamese mission in South Sudan.



Both sides agreed to enhance co-operation in coping with common security challenges, including terrorism, transnational crimes, human trafficking and illegal migration, thus ensuring security in each country and contributing to peace and stability in the region.



The PMs expressed pleasure at the growth of two-way trade in recent years with nearly US$6.5 billion in 2017, up 7 per cent over the previous year. Australia is the eighth largest trade partner of Viet Nam, while Viet Nam is the 15th largest trade partner of Australia.



Both sides agreed to create top conditions for the development of bilateral economic ties, increasing economic interests in bilateral relations based on the complementary nature of the two economies.



PM Turnbull affirmed that Australia welcomes Viet Nams tropical fruits and fresh agricultural products gaining access to its market, and encourages close co-operation between the two countries offices, associations and businesses in increasing product quality and hastening import procedures, first of all for Viet Nams fresh shrimp and dragon fruits, and later for other fruits such as longan, rambutan and star apples.



Both host and guest stressed the need to expand investment in each others strong fields. PM Phuc asked Australia to encourage its businesses to invest in Viet Nam in energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, knowledge-based economy and science and technology.



Phuc spoke highly of Australias official development assistance (ODA) for Viet Nam, notably the Cao Lanh bridge project which will be inaugurated this year.



He asked Australia to continue providing ODA, focusing on infrastructure, agriculture, rural development, climate change, high-quality human resources development and e-government building.



The two sides emphasised closer connectivity between the two peoples through education co-operation, cultural exchanges and tourism development, serving as a foundation for the bilateral strategic partnership.



They underlined the importance of education collaboration, with Australia pledging to increase the number of scholarships and support Viet Nam in training. They also agreed to boost ties between their universities and training establishments.



The PMs expressed delight at the increasing number of Vietnamese students in Australia. Currently, there are nearly 30,000 Vietnamese students in Australia, who have contributed to improving the quality of human resources and Viet Nams socio-economic development, together with 60,000 alumni.



The Australian leader said he is impressed by bilateral tourism growth, with nearly 500,000 Australians visiting Viet Nam in 2017. He appreciated Viet Nams facilitation of visa granting for Australian citizens.



The two sides agreed to encourage the opening of more direct air routes between the two countries major cities, and encourage participation in the Viet Nam-Australia Work and Holiday programme.



Australia pledges to maintain assistance for Viet Nam in high-tech and organic agriculture, and support the implementation of the Viet Nam-Australia Renovation Partnership Programme, PM Turnbull said.



PM Phuc took this occasion to ask the Australian government to continue creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Australia.



The two government leaders also exchanged views on regional and international issues. PM Phuc appreciated Australias support for Viet Nams hosting of APEC Year 2017, and congratulated Australia on hosting the ASEAN-Australia Summit.



PM Turnbull reaffirmed that Australia supports the central role and unity of ASEAN. He hailed PM Phucs visit and the upgrade of bilateral ties to a strategic partnership ahead of the ASEAN-Australia Summit as a significant contribution to the Summit and ASEAN-Australia relations.



The two sides agreed to continue with their co-ordination at regional and international forums, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.



PM Turnbull appreciated Viet Nams role in pushing the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Chile.



He urged the two sides to co-ordinate with each other in the ratification and implementation of the pact, expressing his belief that the agreement would benefit its member countries while keeping the door open for the US and other nations that want to join the deal in the future.



Host and guest also agreed on the significance of ensuring peace, stability, security, and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea, and settling disputes on the basis of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. They also showed their support for the early conclusion of a legally-binding Code of Conduct in the East Sea.



PM Phuc took the occasion to invite his Australian counterpart to soon visit Viet Nam. The Australian leader accepted the invitation.



Following the talks, the two PMs signed the Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership between Viet Nam and Australia.



They also witnessed the signing of four important documents, including an agreement between the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Australian Department of Education and Training on educational co-operation between the two Governments for 2018-2023. The other three comprise a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Australian Department of Education and Training on vocational education, an MoU between the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation on enhancing collaboration in science and technology and an MoU between the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research in the spheres of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.



PM Phuc stressed that the establishment of the strategic partnership has created a historical milestone in the bilateral ties, helping deepen the two countries co-operation, both bilaterally and multilaterally.



Meanwhile, PM Turnbull affirmed that Viet Nam and Australia will stand side by side in development, within the framework of the strategic partnership, as well as co-operation mechanisms of ASEAN or CPTPP, for the sake of the two countries people, and for security and prosperity in the region.



On this occasion, PM Turnbull hosted a banquet for his Vietnamese counterpart and his entourage.



The same day, leaders of the two countries defence ministries signed a document on their intention to enhance defence co-operation.  VNSCANBERRA  Prime Minister of Viet Nam Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Governor-General of Australia Peter Cosgrove hailed the importance of the establishment of a strategic partnership between their countries at a meeting in Canberra on Thursday.

PM Phuc expressed his delight that his visit coincided with the 45th founding anniversary of the two countries diplomatic ties.

Governor-General Cosgrove said he is impressed with the development of Viet Nams economy in recent years, congratulating the country on its integration and improving its role and stature in the region and the world, especially the successful organisation of the APEC Economic Leaders Week last year.

The two sides described the strategic partnership establishment as a breakthrough in bilateral relations, creating a new framework and opportunities for co-operation. They affirmed their resolve to increase high-ranking visits and meetings and step up people-to-people exchange.

Cosgrove confirmed that he will visit Viet Nam in late May as a practical contribution to celebrations of the 45-year diplomatic relationship.

He said that people-to-people and cultural exchange and tourism co-operation provided a solid foundation for the strategic partnership.

There are currently nearly 30,000 Vietnamese students in Australia, more than 60,000 others who used to study in Australia and over 1,000 under the New Colombo Plan. Nearly 500,000 Australians visited Viet Nam in 2017. Those figures show the two countries close-knit connection, he noted.

At the meeting, the two leaders agreed to enhance co-operation in security, defence, economy-trade-investment, education, labour and science-technology.

The Governor-General said the Vietnamese community with more than 300,000 people in Australia are making important contributions to and affirming their role in local socio-economic life, becoming a bridge linking the two nations.

PM Phuc thanked and asked Australia to continue creating favourable conditions for expats to integrate into the local society and do more for bilateral ties.

Discussing regional and international issues of shared concern, PM Phuc lauded the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit hosted for the first time by Australia in Sydney. Meanwhile, Governor-General Cosgrove reiterated his countrys stance of supporting the peaceful settlement of disputes in the South China Sea (East Sea) and the compliance with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

After the meeting, Governor-General Cosgrove drove a buggy taking PM Phuc and his spouse to see kangaroos in the grounds of the Government House, a special act showing Australias respect for Viet Nam.

Later on Thursday, the two leaders and their spouses, along with government officials of Viet Nam and Australia, attended a banquet marking the 45th anniversary of the countries diplomatic relations.

In his speech, Governor-General Cosgrove said Australia is proud to have a friend like Viet Nam and support Viet Nam to develop. He voiced his belief that the two countries connectivity will continue to flourish in the future.

PM Phuc also expressed his belief in a bright future for bilateral relations, particularly when the strategic partnership is implemented in all aspects, for the sake of the two peoples and for a peaceful and prosperous Asia-Pacific.  VNSCANBERRA  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a high-ranking delegation from Viet Nam are paying an official visit to Australia and attending the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit from March 14-18.

The two sides issued a joint statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership between Viet Nam and Australia. The following is the full text of the joint statement.





JOINT STATEMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM AND THE GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA



15 March 2018





1. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1973, Vietnam and Australia have built strong and substantive relations on the basis of mutual respect and interest. Converging security and economic interests and deepening people-to-people links anchor our bilateral relationship and cooperation.



2. The Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership, announced in 2009 and enhanced in 2015, underlines the concerted efforts of the governments and peoples of the two countries to advance bilateral relations.



3. Recognising that 2018 marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Australia, we jointly decide to elevate the bilateral relationship to the level of a Strategic Partnership, on the occasion of the Official Visit to Australia by H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Vietnam.



4. In declaring a Strategic Partnership, Vietnam and Australia pledge our commitment to deepening ties based on respect for the United Nations Charter, international law and each others sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and respective political systems. We will enhance mutual trust and understanding to strengthen the bilateral relationship and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region. In particular, we commit to working intensively to ensure that our region remains peaceful, resilient and shaped by the rules and norms that have prevailed for decades.



5. The Vietnam-Australia Plan of Action 2016-2019 remains in effect and will be renewed on the signing of this Joint Statement.



Bilateral Cooperation - Political cooperation



6. We commit to deepening bilateral political cooperation including through frequent high-level exchanges between the Communist Party, Government and National Assembly of Vietnam, and the political parties, Government and Parliament of Australia.



7. To reflect better the modern and dynamic relationship, we will strengthen political engagement through annual ministerial meetings aimed at maximising opportunities to exchange views, ideas and initiatives on strategic issues. These regular and high-level exchanges will be complemented by existing bilateral meetings, which include the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue, Vietnam-Australia Human Rights Dialogue, Vietnam-Australia Consular Consultations and Vietnam-Australia Agriculture Forum.



8. We commit to strengthening bilateral political engagement on foreign and regional issues through the establishment of an annual Foreign Ministers Meeting.



9. We pledge to expand high-level official contacts to advance the already strong cooperation in economics and trade, foreign affairs, defence, security, law and justice, science, technology, agriculture, innovation and education, and other areas such as labour and tourism.



Economic cooperation and development



10. We commit to deepen the bilateral trade and investment relationship and pursue more open trade and investment through global and regional economic integration.



11. Building on the complementary nature of the two economies, we will promote market access and trade facilitation measures for both sides, including for agricultural and seafood products.



12. We welcome the establishment of an annual ministerial-level Economic Partnership Meeting to identify opportunities to expand trade, investment and development cooperation, and for sustained economic reform. Superseding the Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee, this new economic forum will facilitate discussions among key ministers responsible for trade, investment, development and planning, and drive synergies among the different facets of our economic links.



13. We acknowledge the importance of strong commercial and business-to-business engagement in underpinning our trade and investment relationship. We encourage positive business engagement and building understanding of our respective economic complementarities, including through two-way business and trade missions.



14. Australia recognises the significant achievements of Vietnam in reducing poverty and its aspirations to develop its economy further. Vietnam appreciates Australias long-standing bilateral and regional official development assistance. We commit to an economic partnership that will assist Vietnam to achieve its socio-economic and development aspirations, placing an emphasis on economic reform, human resource development, private sector engagement, climate change, gender equality and innovation.



15. We will continue building a mutually beneficial agriculture partnership, including joint research and technical assistance projects to improve the capability and competitiveness of Vietnams agriculture sector and promote international standards and reliable supply chains.



16. We will also further strengthen our mutual interests in energy, resources, the blue economy and environmental cooperation, and in responding to climate change.



Defence, law and justice, intelligence and security cooperation



17. We confirm our increasing strategic relations and shared regional interests and reaffirm our commitment to closer defence, law and justice, intelligence and security cooperation, contributing to the peace, stability and development of the region.



18. We reaffirm our commitment to an annual Defence Ministers Meeting to facilitate high-level dialogue on defence matters underpinned by the Memorandum of Understanding for Defence Cooperation signed in 2010. These exchanges will be an opportunity to explore further defence cooperation, including in education and training, maritime and aviation security, peacekeeping training and support, counter-terrorism, war legacy issues and other areas.



19. We welcome the cooperation between Australian and Vietnamese police, maritime and border authorities, and mutually decide to strengthen further security and law enforcement cooperation, including through an annual Security Dialogue at Vice-Ministerial level and greater exchange of intelligence and information sharing, and capacity building.



20. We commit to continue strengthening bilateral cooperation and participation in regional efforts to address traditional and non-traditional security threats, especially transnational crime, including people smuggling and human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, cybercrime, and in recovering the proceeds of these crimes.



21. We will strengthen bilateral and regional cooperation between and among maritime policy-making, administration and law enforcement agencies through dialogue and coordination, practical cooperation and capacity-building activities.



Education, science and technology, labour, social affairs and cultural cooperation and people-to-people links



22. We emphasise the strengthening of the people-to-people aspect of the relationship, particularly the two-way flow of youth and students. We strongly support Australian and Vietnamese students to study in Vietnam and Australia, including through the New Colombo Plan, and Australian and Vietnamese scholarships.



23. We reaffirm the significance of our education, training and research relationship and the large Vietnamese alumni of Australian education institutions. We reaffirm support for education policy dialogues to enhance institutional linkages and the transnational delivery of education (including by taking advantage of advances in communication technologies) and expand student, academic, researcher and professional mobility.



24. We will promote cooperation in the areas of vocational education and social affairs, including striving towards gender equality and note opportunities for labour mobility through Australias skilled migration program.



25. We will continue to promote and expand mutually beneficial cooperation on science, technology and innovation; strengthen connectivity between research institutions; and encourage technology transfer, expert exchange and information sharing on science, technology and innovation.



26. We recognise the role of social and peoples organisations in both countries in fostering good relations, friendship and understanding between the Vietnamese and Australian people.



27. We recognise the success of the Vietnamese community in Australia and highly value its contribution to bilateral relations. We highlight the role of young people in building mutually beneficial networks of influence among future leaders and entrepreneurs.



28. We commit to promote the effective implementation of the Vietnam - Australia Work and Holiday program.



29. We welcome the rapid increase in visitor numbers to both countries and associated growth in aviation and tourism and will look for opportunities to enhance cooperation in the tourism sector.



30. We reiterate the importance of cultural cooperation in promoting mutual understanding between people of our two countries and are committed to developing further cooperation between Vietnam and Australia in this area.



Regional and International Cooperation



31. We will work closely to preserve the open, inclusive and rules-based regional order, which underpins regional peace, security, stability and increasing prosperity. We share the goal of reinforcing and developing regional and international institutions to promote our common political, economic and security interests.



32. We support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which has brought harmony and coherence to our region. We will continue to develop the Strategic Partnership between ASEAN and Australia and commend the historic ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, including a suite of practical initiatives for enhanced cooperation.



33. We emphasise ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture and resolve to work together to strengthen ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), with ASEAN as the driving force. In this regard, we affirm the importance of the EAS as the premier leaders-led regional forum for dialogue and cooperation on strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern.



34. We pledge to continue to work together to address regional and global emerging issues, including: terrorism; transnational crime; cybercrime; people smuggling and human trafficking;environmental protection; climate change; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU); energy security; maritime safety and security; food and water security; infectious diseases; quality infrastructure; narrowing the development gap; digital economy; and supporting economic growth, promoting trade and investment liberalisation, and enhancing regional and sub-regional connectivity and sustainable prosperity in the region.



35. We will strengthen our cooperation in the areas of sustainable development, environmental protection and management, responses to climate change and resilience to natural disasters consistent with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Paris Agreement on Climate Change.



36. We reaffirm our commitment to promoting security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight, and the rule of law, including the observance and implementation of international legal obligations in good faith; and to the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and through the appropriate ASEAN-led mechanisms.In this regard, we remain concerned about the situation in the South China Sea and affirm our commitment to continue working actively together to promote peace and stability in the region.We reiterate the importance of the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the early conclusion of an effective and binding Code of Conduct (COC) between ASEAN and China, consistent with international law.



37. Building on the significant outcomes of the 25th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, we commit to further our cooperation in promoting regional economic integration, and free and open trade and investment through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and APEC, as well as supporting the rules-based multilateral trading system.CANBERRA  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met President of the Senate Scott Ryan and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tony Smith in Canberra on Thursday during his visit to Australia from March 14-16.

The Australian legislators welcomed the PM, his spouse and the Vietnamese delegation on their visit to Australia, describing it as an important hallmark in 2018 when the two countries are celebrating the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

They lauded the results of the talks between the two PMs, especially the signing of a joint statement on the establishment of the Viet Nam-Australia Strategic Partnership and other co-operation deals in education-training, science-technology and agriculture, saying these created breakthroughs in relations between the two countries.

Viet Nam treasures and wants to deepen relations with Australia via all channels, including the parliamentary one, the PM told the leaders, suggesting their bodies pay heed to pushing ties between the law-making agencies of the two countries.

The Australian leaders hailed the outcomes reached during the visit to Australia by Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in November 2017 and said they would visit Viet Nam at the earliest possible time.

The Senate and the House of Representatives always support and assist the development of Viet Nam-Australia relations, they stressed.

Senate President Scott Ryan highlighted the role of nearly 300,000 Vietnamese-Australian people to the growth of Australia and said he would continue working to support the Vietnamese community in their integration into the local society and making wealth so they will make contributions to the countrys development and bilateral ties.

House of Representatives Speaker Tony Smith, for his part, shared his admiration for the strong tourism co-operation between the two countries, citing the figure of nearly 500,000 Australians having visited Viet Nam in 2017.

PM Phuc agreed with the two leaders that education co-operation continues to be a highlight in the two countries co-operation as evidenced by nearly 30,000 Vietnamese students currently studying in Australia plus 60,000 Vietnamese alumni of Australian universities and colleges, and thousands of Australian students taking part in exchange programmes in Viet Nam under the New Colombo Plan.

By accelerating education co-operation, the two countries are working together to build a foundation for their future, he underscored.

Earlier the same day, PM Phuc visited the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), an independent agency of the Australian government responsible for scientific research in Australia, and attended an exhibition there.

The Vietnamese leader welcomed the sound partnership between the organisation and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Viet Nam, noting that the two countries, with their supplementary strengths, shall collaborate to make the best use of opportunities brought by Industry 4.0. He also suggested the CSIRO continuing assisting Viet Nam to develop green, organic and high-tech agriculture.  VNSHCM CITY  Freshwater aquaculture has prospered in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Tien Giang recently because of advanced farming methods and good prices, according to the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The price of tra fish increased significantly last year, reaching VN32,000-34,000 (US$1.4 - 1.5) a kilogramme at certain times, resulting in the revival of tra fish farming and nurseries.

Nguyen Van Nam, who has a 20ha tra fish farm beside the Tien River in Cai Lay Districts Tan Phong Commune, said at these prices tra farmers could make profits of VN10,000 per kilogramme.

The revival of tra nurseries is also due to a resumption in exports, he said.

Le Van Hoang, who breeds around 100 tonnes of tra fish fries a year in Thanh Loc, another commune in Cai Lay, said the price of tra fry has increased sharply because of high demand.

The price is VN60,000  70,000 ($2.6 - 3) for a kilogramme of fry of the type that has 40-45 to a kilogramme.

Hoang said he earned a profit of VN3 billion ($132,000) last year.

In Cai Be Districts Hau My Bac A Commune, the provinces main area for the fish-rice farming model, many farmers have earned big profits from producing fries of various fish species.

Au Van On, head of the Hau My Bac A Commune Fisheries Union, said the production of fries of various freshwater fish under the rice-fish farming model fetches farmers hundreds of millions of ong per hectare a year.

The rice they grow provides them with a further income, he said.

The province plans to have 5,830ha of freshwater fish farming this year, according to the department.

Shrimp and fish are bred mostly in rice fields in flood-prone areas, tra fish in ponds along the Tien River, and tilapia and red tilapia in cages in the river.

Frogs, eels and other freshwater species are also bred under various farming models, including the horticulture-aquaculture-animal husbandry model.

Cao Van Hoa, deputy director of the department, said the province has a dense network of rivers and canals and flood-prone areas in the upstream of the Tien River and the ong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) region for breeding high-value freshwater species.

Freshwater aquaculture provides work and income for farmers when there are no crops, he said.

The province has designated freshwater aquaculture areas, including rice-fish farming areas in Cai Be District, fish cages in the Tien River in My Tho City and Chau Thanh and Cai Lay districts, and fish fry nurseries in the ong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) region.

It has 68ha of fish bred under good agricultural practices (GAP) standards, including 6.4ha under Global GAP standards.

The province also has around 1,190 fish cages to breed mostly red tilapia in the Tien River. - VNSHCM CITY  HCM City plans to earmark more than VN38 billion (US$1.6 million) this year providing free vocational training for people living in rural areas.

As planned, as many as 10,500 people will benefit from the trainining programme in agriculture and other vocations.

Of them, 9,800, including people with disabilities, will get training for less than three months based on the real demands in the job market.

The rest will join two- or three-year training courses at vocational schools.

Authorities hope that 80 per cent of the trainees will get jobs upon completing training.

The city also plans to provide professional training in managing businesses, starting up, and consulting for vocational training and jobs for members of State organisations and unions, vocational teachers and managers at districts Peoples Committees.

The plan will provide funds to buy equipment for four new public vocational schools in rural areas.

According to relevant agencies, nearly 46,000 people in rural areas were trained in the last five years, with 90 per cent of them getting jobs afterwards.

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy head of the HCM Citys Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information, told the Vietnam News Agency that more than a million working age people live in the citys rural areas.

But their academic qualifications and skills are low, Tuan said, pointing out that nearly 40 per cent of household producers only finish primary school.

Nearly 70 per cent of the rural workforce lacks technical and management training while only 3 per cent has graduated from colleges and universities, he said.

The city has developed various occupations in its rural areas to dovetail with its agricultural restructure programme and the National Target Programme on new-style rural area building. VNSHCM CITY  One of the two tunnels at the An Suong intersection located between HCM Citys District 12 and Hoc Mon District opened on Wednesday after nearly 13 months of construction.

Work on the tunnel No 1 began on January 19 last year with a total cost of VN149.9 billion (US$6.6 million).

The tunnel extends from downtown to Cu Chi District and Tay Ninh Province. It is above ground on Truong Chinh Street for a distance of 140m, and on National Highway No 22 for 180m.

The two-lane tunnel is 445m long, 9m wide and 4.75m high.

Trinh Linh Phuong, deputy director of the Urban Transport Management Zone No 3, said: This tunnel is expected to reduce traffic congestion at the citys northwest gateway. The maximum speed for automobiles in the tunnel is 50km per hour.

Construction of Tunnel N1 at An Suong intersection in HCM City.  VNS Photo Ngoc Diep

The tunnel, which has a life span of 100 years, can resist earthquakes measuring seven on the Richter scale.

Nguyen inh Trung, 46, a resident in District 12, said several serious traffic accidents had occurred at the An Suong intersection. I hope the tunnel will solve the traffic problems there.

Nguyen Van Quoc, 41, a truck driver in District 12, said that traffic gridlock during peak hours occurred at the intersection regularly. The tunnel should ensure the smooth flow of traffic, he said.

Construction on the second tunnel No 2, extending from Cu Chi District towards the citys downtown, is expected to begin this year.  VNSTHUA THIEN- HUE  Farmers in the central provinces of Ha Tinh and Thua Thien- Hue are in deep sorrow as their vegetables have remained unconsumed for weeks due to a price fall.

In Ha Tinh, farmers are harvesting their vegetables to feed pigs and cattle. Others have let the plant wither in the fields.

Nguyen inh Dung, a farmer in the provinces Thach Lien Commune, said he had fed his vegetables to his cows as no traders came to his field after Tet (Lunar New Year).

Nguyen Thi Yen, another farmer in the provinces Thach Hung Commune, said she has been so depressed from the vegetable price fall that she has left the plant on the field to save the effort of harvesting.

Farmers said in a report by the online newswire infonet that price had plunged abruptly. Cabbages, for instance, previously cost VN20,000 (87 cents) each but have now dropped to VN3,000 each.

No traders have come despite that low price, said Dung.

Nguyen Sy Dan, chairman of Thach Lien Commune, said favourable weather at the end of last year resulted in a bumper crop of mustard, cabbage, turnip and lettuce. But as always, a bumper crop meant a price fall as supply exceeded consumption, he said.

Farmers in Thua Thien- Hue experienced a similar situation. Vegetables produced by farmers in the province could not be consumed either due to a similar price fall.

Local farmers said the cost for each kilogramme fell from VN25,000 (US$1.1) to VN2,000, driving traders away from their VietGAP (Vietnamese Good Agriculture Practice) produce.

Truong Hao, a farmer in Quang Thanh Commune, said he had to harvest the mature lettuce to feed pigs and attempt to keep the younger plants until a price increase.

Hoang Vong, deputy head of Quang ien Districts agriculture division, said local vegetables could not compete with vegetables imported from the Central Highlands province of Lam ong, leading to a price fall due to low sales.

Unconsumed vegetables also occurred in other communes of Phong An, ien Hoa, ien Loc, Huong Xuan and Quang Tho.

Agriculture authorities have been struggling with the question of low prices during a bumper crop of agricultural products for years, but there is no sign that they have found a way out.  VNSHA NOI  As part of efforts to improve the investment and business environment, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered ministries, sector and localities to grant construction permits and perform related procedures faster.

According to a direction issued on Tuesday, the time limit for granting construction permits and related procedures should be reduced from 166 days to 120 days.

This includes reductions in a series of procedures in the process.

The procedure to appraise construction designs, technical designs and to grant construction permit will be reduced to no longer than 63 days, a 19-day reduction compared to what the World Bank observed in 2017.

The time limit for the appraisal of fire and explosion prevention and fighting measures will be reduced to 20 days, a 10-day decrease.

The time limit to handle procedures to supply electricity and water and connect water drainage systems will be seven days, instead of 14 days.

The procedures to handle the registration of land and property on land, to grant approval for land use, homeownership and ownership of property on land are also asked to be cut by 10 days to no more than 20 days.

The Prime Minister asked that these targets be achieved in 2018.

To that end, he asked ministries, sectors and localities to enhance IT use, improve the efficiency of the single-window mechanism and promote the use of online public services.

State bodies involved in the process were also asked to increase co-operation to simultaneously carry out related administrative procedures to speed up the process.

The Ministry of Construction is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the PMs direction and reporting to the PM if problems arise.  VNSHA NOI  Experts from Japan Productivity Centre and Viet Nam National Productivity Institute have supported 12 companies in the north to improve their employee satisfaction and workplace environment to increase productivity.

The two centres have been supporting the companies for the past two years.

This is part of the project for Improvement of employee satisfaction and work environment, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) from May 2016 to April 2018.

The project, also known as the WISE Project, has helped companies identify factors that hinder their productivity and develop solutions to common industry problems.

Almost all the Vietnamese companies, especially small-scale enterprises, are considered to be seriously lacking in practical consulting skills and human resources that could improve business and workers welfare.

Under the project, companies are instructed to apply the 5S - a workplace organisation method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. Their translations from Japanese are sort, set in order, shine, standardise and sustain, respectively.

The list describes how to organise a work space for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items and sustaining the new order. The decision-making process usually comes from a dialogue on standardisation, which builds an understanding among employees of how to work.

o Van Dung, deputy director of Yamaguchi Viet Nam, major producer of auxiliary mechanic, lab equipment and factory supplies, said before joining the WISE Project, the flow of product lines in the company was not effective.

He said the company had no standard, no specific regulations, no training policy, no check-sheet for machine maintenance and no periodic maintenance plan.

He also admitted that previously, communication to staff at the company was not good.

But this changed with the WISE Project, Dung said.

The company restructured and redesigned the flow of products (for example, raw material, completed product, quality test) so that distances between the stages of production were narrowed, helping save time and labour, and increasing connectivity.

Yamaguchi worker Ha Thi Linh said after learning about and practising the 5S method, workers put office equipment in an orderly manner and the work place became cleaner and brighter.

Tran inh Trung, a worker of ALS Cargo Terminal at Aviation Logistic, another participant in the WISE Project, said there were visible changes after the projects implementation. With a clean working environment, everything is easier to find, thanks to 5S, he said.

For build-up work, I do not have to wait for a forklift or for material as much as before. Jobs are assigned clearly. This has helped increase productivity, Trung said.

Le Thi Thu Huong, Administrative and Human Resource Director at ALS, said one of the causes of Viet Nams low productivity was that Vietnamese workers carried out tasks quickly but not carefully and meticulously.

Other causes included unreasonable work organisation, lack of funding for updated technology and a training system relying heavily on theory instead of practical skills.

Once the problems were solved, productivity increased, which also led to better income for employees, Huong said, adding if the employees were satisfied with the working environment and income, they would be with the company for further growth.

Kobayashi Ryutaro, a senior representative of JICA Viet Nam Office, said: Improvement in the work environment and increasing labour satisfaction are very important for Vietnamese enterprises, which are facing limitations in terms of capital, technology and human resource. I do believe that in near future, Vietnamese enterprises will receive high-quality support and consultation by made-in-Viet Nam experts.  VNSHCM CITY  The Japanese consulate in HCM City on March 14 agreed to provide more than US$403,000 for five grassroots projects in healthcare and education in Viet Nam under the Japanese Governments Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects.

The Vu A Dinh Primary School in ak Nong Provinces Cu Jut District and the Tri Thuy Primary School in Ninh Thuan Provinces Ninh Hai District will receive grants to build new classrooms.

The aid will also be used to build the Cong Hai Commune Medical Station in Ninh Thuan Provinces Thuan Bac District.

Cho Lach District Medical Centre in Ben Tre Province and Moc Hoa District Medical Centre in Long An Province will receive aid to buy new medical equipment.

Kawaue Junichi, consulate general of Japan in HCM City, said the projects would help improve infrastructure as well as living and learning conditions for local residents.

Between 1995 and 2016, the Japanese Governments Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects provided non-refundable financial assistance worth more than $13.87 million to 174 projects in education, health, water and sanitation, and agricultural development in 26 southern cities and provinces. VNSHA NOI  Ha Noi Peoples Court on Wednesday sentenced three Chinese men to prison for using fake ATM cards to withdraw some VN90 million (US$ 4,000) in April last year.

The accused are Zhu Hai Rong, 41; Qiu Shui Binh, 42; and Zhong Jian Hua, 38. While Rong was sentenced to 42 months in prison, Binh and Hua got 36 months each.

According to investigation, in March 2017, an unknown Chinese national offered to pay each of the three men 5,000 Chinese yuan ($800) if they agreed to go to Viet Nam and steal money using fake ATM cards.

On April 22, 2017, the three men arrived in Viet Nam and stayed at a hotel in My inh 2 Ward, Nam Tu Liem District in Ha Noi. On April 22 and 23, they used dozens of ATM cards to withdraw some VN90 million.

They were caught in the evening of April 23 when Hua was withdrawing money from an HSBC ATM and Bing from an ANZ ATM in Hoan Kiem District.  VNSHCM CITY  A giant tumour weighing over 1kg was removed from a 6-day-old infant at HCM City Hospital for Children on Wednesday afternoon, the hospital announced on Thursday morning.

The baby, weighing 3.8kg, was born on March 9 in the 37th week of pregnancy through C-section at Tu Du Hospital, while the tumour was found a few weeks ago.

The surgery to remove the tumour lasted three hours. Post surgery, the condition of the child was said to be stable. However, doctors are concerned that the massive tumour surgery in the infants tailbone area may affect its urinary function later in life because the surgery may affect the dominant nervous system. Patients suffering from similar conditions are typically monitored over the long term.

The surgery was the result of successful co-operation between Tu Du Hospital - a leading maternity hospital in the south - and the Hospital for Children. More than 20 cases of neonatal deformities have been transferred from Tu Du Hospital to Childrens Hospital so far for timely intervention.  VNSHA NOI  Five to six typhoons are expected to hit Viet Nams mainland this year, the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has said.

Weather forecasts of the centre show that 12-13 typhoons and tropical depressions will form in the East Sea this year. Five to six of them are expected to have a direct impact on Viet Nams mainland, especially the central region.

The total amount of rainfall in the first half of the year is expected to be 15-30 per cent higher than previous years average in the northern, central and southern regions, the centre said.

Flooding is expected to occur in the central and Central Highlands regions earlier than in previous years. The peak discharge on all rivers in these regions is also expected to be higher than previous years.

High tides will appear in the coastal areas of the southern region in early October, November and mid-December and in the central region in mid-November and mid-December.

Storm surges and high waves are expected in the central coast. A strong and prolonged cold wave in the last few months of the year is likely to cause huge waves of 3-4m in height in the central coastal areas and southeastern region.

The first typhoon of this year hit Viet Nam in January, and there was a low atmospheric weather system in February. This shows that the stormy season in the East Sea had hit the country much earlier than in previous years, Le Thanh Hai, the centres deputy director, told the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper in early March.  VNSHA NOI  The Ministry of Health (MoH) said on Thursday that no woman and newborn died in HCM City due to birth complications at home.

A press conference was held in HCM City on Thursday following rumours that a woman and her newborn had died after she gave birth at home in District 2. The rumours started spreading on social media late Wednesday.

According to a post on social media by a user, the mother died of exhaustion, while the child died from suffocation. The mother was said to have attended a training workshop on giving birth naturally at the cost of VN15 million (US$659).

Nguyen uc Vinh, director of the MoHs Department of Maternal and Child Health, said at the press conference that such information was unfounded.

The health ministry immediately requested HCM Citys health department and Tu Du Hospital authorities to come to District 2 to verify the information, he said. No mother and newborn were found dead in the district, therefore, the health ministry declared the information unfounded.

The health ministry has also requested the citys health department to find out if such a case has happened in the city, Vinh said.

We will propose the Ministry of Information and Communications to impose strict measures against individuals who take advantage of social media to upload misleading and harmful information, he said, adding that the health ministry does not encourage citizens to follow the natural birth trend that has been perpetuated on social media as an advanced birth-giving option.

The trend advises women to give birth at home and not cut the babys umbilical cord right after birth but wait for the placenta (to which the cord is attached) to self-decompose in 3-10 days, or even in two weeks, when the cord will fall off itself.

This is a dangerous and unscientific trend that can prove fatal for the mother and child or cause serious medical complications, said Nguyen Ba My Nhi, deputy director of Tu Du Hospital.

Several hospitals do perform delayed umbilical cord clamping to allow more blood to flow from the placenta to the baby. But this procedure must be timed carefully because placentas, when left outside for too long, may get infected and affect the baby, which can be fatal, she said.  VNSby Bao Hoa

It is not just normal, but a norm that it takes quite some time in Viet Nam for a new policy to sink in to the community after it takes effect.

Weve heard so many implementing agencies explain delays in implementing a policy or low saying they are yet to receive guidance decrees or circulars. Eventually, though, they do take effect and people get used to it.

However, there are times this lag time can be used to critically examine a particular policy, in terms of its stated aims and potential to achieve it.

One such instance, I feel, is a new Health Ministry circular that mandates that parents and guardians of children under 72 months old should carry their ID cards when they go to the hospital.

Most of the parents I talked to at the National Childrens Hospital on Tuesday did not know of this rule, just as I did not know I had to buy insurance for my motorbike until I ran a red light, got pulled over, and was asked to present the insurance papers.

The Health Ministry circular, issued December last year and taking effect on March 1 this year, requires doctors to write the identification number of a parent or other legal guardian on all prescriptions for outpatients under 72 months old.

Cao Hung Thai, deputy head of MoHs Department of Medical Examination Management, explained that the ID number will be used by doctors when writing out prescriptions. Just one out of ten parents with kids under 6 years that I spoke to said she might, just might, have heard of the new rule. The others had no idea, although three of them did carry their IDs, and a careful mother happened to have a photo of it on her phone.

Those who did not know were none to impressed with the new rule.

My baby suddenly got a high fever today, said Tran Thi Lanh of Ha Noi. I rushed him to the hospital, and at that time, I only thought of taking him and what he needs, not my identification card.

My husband is always the one taking ID papers, she added. I would have never remembered bringing mine.

Nguyen Thi An of Ha Noi and her husband took their daughter to the hospital together, but neither bothered to carry their IDs.

She had a fever, and we thought it would be a regular health check, so we didnt bring [the cards], An said. The doctor did not request to see it when he was giving us the prescription, either.

The parents laidback attitude towards identity documents is understandable since the State issues free health insurance cards for all children under 6 years old. Until now, these insurance cards were all that was needed when taking their children to hospitals.

So whats the point of the new policy? Deputy head Thai of MoHs Department of Medical Examination Management said that it aims to ensure safe use of medicine, help patients track their treatment expenses and uphold legality in medical services.

Although it takes a little more time from the doctors, this is necessary in order to manage the process of prescribing and selling medicines, especially when antibiotic abuse and overuse are still common in Viet Nam, he said.

Pharmacies would be held responsible if inspectors find they have sold medicines for prescriptions without identification numbers, as would the prescribing doctors.

Most children patients under six years old are taken to hospital by their parents or relatives, so I think it is not difficult to include their information in the childrens prescriptions, Thai added.

Yes, but would it serve the real purpose?

A Hanoian mother, Truong Thi Anh Hong felt the new rule was unnecessary and complicated.

Suppose someone comes a long way from other provinces to Ha Noi and forgets to bring their card, what will doctors do then?

It is also a difficult rule to implement. Doctor Nguyen Ta Dung from the Family Doctor Clinic in Ha Noi said his facility knew about the requirement but had not been able to comply. They did not know where to write the parents ID card numbers, he said.

Neither our prescription form nor patient management system has a line for the ID number. And theres no way we can write it by hand each time  it would be too time-consuming, he said.

A new prescription form was issued alongside the circular, which has a space for the identification number. But now we would have to modify our software to comply with that new form. Too much hassle, he said.

More importantly, this requirement will not reduce out of prescription antibiotic sales at pharmacies, he said. Not to mention the wholesale pharmacies  they cant be monitored with these prescriptions, he said.

As much as I appreciate the authorities aim to tighten control on medicine use, I think this is a well-intentioned idea that does not work.

On the one hand, it troubles parents whose dont carry their identification cards everywhere they go and complicates the administrative procedures at hospitals. On the other hand, it does not strike at the root of antibiotic overuse, if thats what the real aim is. Adding the identification numbers will only let inspectors know exactly who pharmacies sell antibiotics to, not prevent them from selling antibiotics without doctors prescriptions, which will anyway require another rule or set of rules. Antibiotic abuse is a serious enough problem that cannot be addressed with half-measures.

Actually the new ID rule would not even qualify as a half-measure. It would be a no-measure. And should be dealt with as such.  VNSUNITED NATIONS, United States  The UN Security Council is expected to adopt on Thursday a US-drafted resolution that threatens to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan and sanctions against those blocking efforts to end one of Africas worst wars.

The strongly-worded text is aimed at piling pressure on South Sudans warring sides as they head into a new round of peace talks in Ethiopia next month to end the four-year war.

The council "expresses its intention to consider all measures, including an arms embargo, as appropriate, to deprive the parties of the means to continue fighting," according to a final draft resolution.

Demanding an end to the fighting, the council will "consider all appropriate measures... against those who take actions that undermine the peace, stability, and security of South Sudan," said the text seen by AFP on Wednesday.

The draft resolution would also renew the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission for a year and maintain a regional force in Juba that was deployed after fierce fighting broke out in the capital in July 2016.

The United Nations has 12,500 troops and 1,500 police in its UNMISS mission, which is tasked with protecting civilians caught up in a brutal war between President Salva Kiirs forces and rebels.

Negotiations on the US-drafted text began last week with Russia, China and Ethiopia raising objections to the threat of an arms embargo, diplomats said.

That stance was in line with the African Union, which has backed sanctions as a way to pressure the parties but has not endorsed an arms embargo.

The United States failed in late 2016 to garner enough support for a ban on weapons sales after eight countries including Russia, China, Angola, Egypt and Senegal abstained.

Nine votes are required to adopt a resolution in the 15-member council.Despite the defeat, the United States has continued to call for an arms embargo, with the support of Britain and France. Time for action? Human Rights Watchs UN deputy director Akshaya Kumar said an arms embargo and sanctions are the "missing pieces of the puzzle" to shore up peace efforts in South Sudan.

"Its good that the Security Council is threatening these steps but they have made these threats many times before, and what we are waiting for is action," she said.

The measure would push the council closer to action but another draft resolution would have to be approved for the actual arms embargo to be imposed.

The war in the worlds youngest nation has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted four million -- roughly a third of the population -- and raised the risk of famine. South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, with critical backing from the United States, which remains Jubas biggest aid donor.

With the war now in its fifth year, Ethiopia is leading a regional peace effort, hosting talks between the government and rebel groups that have yet to produce a breakthrough.

A ceasefire deal agreed in December has not taken hold, even though the level of violence has decreased.

The Ethiopia-led diplomatic effort has been billed as a last chance for peace as frustration grows over the ongoing war that has seen horrific levels of brutality.

A UN rights commission last month said there was sufficient evidence to charge at least 41 senior officers and officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The commissions report documented extraordinary cruelty. Some victims were beheaded, burned alive or had their throats cut, others had their eyes gouged out or were tortured.

Addressing a recent African Union summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dropped his usual reluctance to criticise leaders and bluntly said of South Sudans leaders that he "had never seen a political elite with so little interest in the well-being of its own people."  AFPOver the past two years, WarbirdsNews has been reporting HERE on the efforts of Jason Capra and his team at Vintage Wings, Inc. to resurrect an abandoned combat veteran Douglas C-53 Skytrooper back to flying condition in Beach City, Ohio. Now nicknamed Beach City Baby, C-53 41-20095 has come a long way since those early beginnings, and the quality of the restoration process looks impressive indeed. We thought our readers would enjoy seeing some of the work accomplished so far, and will let Jason Capra pick up the story from here

Vintage Wings Inc. has come a long way in just under three years. The process of getting her airworthy has been accelerated in order to get the aircraft under cover as soon as possible (which is not possible at the present location). A deal was made with the Franklin-Venango Regional Airport in Western Pennsylvania for a climate-controlled hangar for her full restoration and safe storage into the future while partnering with the local EAA Chapter. In the meantime, the restoration team has been working full-tilt to get Beach City Baby back in the air again for the move to Pennsylvania.

Some of the major milestones already accomplished include removal of the aging corporate interior and full restoration of cockpit instrumentation, radios and control panels. All control surfaces have been removed, rebuilt and recovered by our very talented members at Franklin-Venango Regional Airport. The entire aircraft has been completely rewired which enabled Vintage Wings latest milestone  the restoration and starting of the right engine with the left engine closely following suit. Both engines have been completely inspected thoroughly with compression checks and bore-scoped while replacing almost every component associated with them. Vintage Carburetors, Preferred Airparts, Champion Aerospace, Dynamic Aviation and Sun Air Parts have been instrumental in the restoration of our C-53s engines. The right engine has about 5 hours of running time now and performs flawlessly while the left will be started soon for the first time since being refurbished.

Her flaps and all of its components have been completely removed and are currently being rebuilt and refurbished. Vintage Wings has also purchased three new tires for the aircraft and has already rebuilt the tailwheel and replaced the tire. The main tires and brakes will be replaced and rebuilt this spring. The original nose was put back on the aircraft with the former fiberglass corporate radome being taken off and traded for more parts. The entire tail area has essentially been rebuilt and is still being wrapped up due to damage from neglect from before.

The interior is being stripped of all old paint and adhesive which our members have been painstakingly at for some time now and are nearing the end of this messy and labor-intensive process. Both navigator and radio operator stations are being completely rebuilt and both will be restored to honor our C-53s wartime occupants which whom weve located and have been communicating with.

As winter draws to a close and spring approaches, the Vintage Wings Inc. team will be all hands-on deck to get the C-53 up and out of Beach City Ohio by mid to late summer and ensure that the upcoming winter sees her sitting in her new home in Pennsylvania indoors and not outside anymore. Its time to bring Beach City Baby inside to finish her restoration and god willing, have her on the air show circuit by 2019 or 2020. We cant do this without your help however. Please visit our website at www.vintagewingsinc.com and click the Join Us tab to become a member of our team and show your support for saving this 1942 C-53 Skytrooper. Every penny counts. Every level of membership receives a gift from us to say thank you for your support.

Many thanks to Jason Capra for his report, and for the valiant work that he and his team are doing to preserve an important historic aircraft. For those of you who would like to help with their efforts.

Lets Restore the Roar  Support Jason Capra and Vintage Wings at www.vintagewingsinc.comRegister now for 'Out of the Darkness' Community Walk in Octoberarchives 22 Aug - 29 Aug (3) 15 Aug - 22 Aug (1) 8 Aug - 15 Aug (3) 1 Aug - 8 Aug (1) 25 Jul - 1 Aug (3) 18 Jul - 25 Jul (1) 11 Jul - 18 Jul (1) 27 Jun - 4 Jul (4) 20 Jun - 27 Jun (3) 13 Jun - 20 Jun (1) 30 May - 6 Jun (2) 23 May - 30 May (4) 2 May - 9 May (3) 25 Apr - 2 May (4) 4 Apr - 11 Apr (2) 28 Mar - 4 Apr (4) 28 Feb - 7 Mar (1) 7 Feb - 14 Feb (2) 10 Jan - 17 Jan (2) 27 Dec - 3 Jan (2) 13 Dec - 20 Dec (3) 6 Dec - 13 Dec (1) 29 Nov - 6 Dec (1) 15 Nov - 22 Nov (6) 8 Nov - 15 Nov (1) 25 Oct - 1 Nov (1) 18 Oct - 25 Oct (3) 4 Oct - 11 Oct (1) 27 Sep - 4 Oct (1) 20 Sep - 27 Sep (2) 13 Sep - 20 Sep (4) 6 Sep - 13 Sep (3) 30 Aug - 6 Sep (1) 23 Aug - 30 Aug (1) 16 Aug - 23 Aug (4) 9 Aug - 16 Aug (1) 2 Aug - 9 Aug (3) 26 Jul - 2 Aug (4) 19 Jul - 26 Jul (5) 12 Jul - 19 Jul (2) 5 Jul - 12 Jul (7) 28 Jun - 5 Jul (2) 21 Jun - 28 Jun (7) 14 Jun 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(1)Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.Local News

Crimestopper Authorizes Two Payments





At their meeting Wednesday evening, the Macoupin-Montgomery County Crimestoppers authorized a payment for a tip leading to the discovery of a gun on Hillsboro High School grounds last week.



Hillsboro police investigated and discovered a gun in a vehicle in the high school parking lot. One person was apprehended and turned over to school administration. Crimestoppers awarded a payment of $400 for the tip.



Crimestoppers also approved a $350 payment to a person who provided information about a woman wanted on drug warrants, and who was allegedly involved in a burglary. The subject was arrested by Hillsboro Police on February 22, and was taken to the Montgomery County Jail.

Mar 15, 2018 | By Tess

Wipro3D, the additive manufacturing division of Indias Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, has opened a new metal 3D printing facility in Bengaluru. The 1,200-square-foot solution center is reportedly Indias most cutting-edge metal AM facility.

With its new 3D printing center, which was inaugurated by Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, Wipro3D is not only aiming to bolster Indias AM market but also to bring its metal 3D printing solutions to the world.

Based on the confidence developed from our India operations, we are planning to take Wipro3D global, said Pratik Kumar, CEO of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering.

The new and AS9100Rev D certified additive manufacturing facility is reportedly equipped with a range of state-of-the-art technologies including metal AM systems, post-processing equipment, characterization technologies, and qualification and validation facilities.

Wipro3D was launched in 2012 and has become a mainstay in the Indian 3D printing market. The company has provided additive manufacturing solutions and services to a range of industries including the aerospace, automotive, healthcare, and engineering sectors.

Last fall, Wipros 3D printing division partnered with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop new 3D printed antennae with the help of its in-house EOS 3D printers. The antennae have since been sent up to space, marking the first metal 3D printed part that India has sent into space.

Indias first functional metal AM component in space was built by Wipro3D, commented Ajay Parikh, business head of Wipro3D. We have built competencies and offerings across additive consulting, engineering, manufacturing, research and development as well as turnkey solutions to deliver impactful business outcomes for our customers. We see 3D printing or additive manufacturing as a critical component in the digital manufacturing and future-proofing strategy of any enterprise.

With its newly established metal 3D printing solutions center, Wipro3D is hoping to expand its additive manufacturing partnerships and collaborations within India, but also across the globe. Existing partners of Wipro3D include software company Authentise, consulting firm Print Form, Israel Aerospace Industries, and others.

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

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Benjamin A. Schupmann in the Oxford University Press Blog:

The rise of extremist populism in recent years places liberal democracy, not to mention committed liberal democrats, in an awkward position. There has been an alarming rise in public support for such extremist movements, even in established liberal democratic states. In states such as Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Venezuela, democratically elected governments are enacting illiberal and anti-democratic political goals and values into law and in some cases directly into their constitutions. Once in power, these movements have sought  among other things  to concentrate political power in the executive branch, subordinate the judiciary and the civil service to the executive, intimidate and disempower domestic opposition, undermine press freedoms, infringe on minority rights, limit freedoms of expression and assembly, control universities, and finally stoke xenophobic, anti-pluralist, anti-Semitic, and racist sentiments.

Victor Orban, Hungarys Prime Minister, has characterized this development as illiberal democracy. Defenders of liberal democracy and theorists of populism, in turn, have responded by condemning this turn as simply undemocratic. The abuse of democratically obtained powers to dismantle liberal and democratic commitments is democratic suicide.

A sort of paradox sits at the heart of democratic suicide, however. If a majority or supermajority legallyseeks to enact laws that undermine liberal constitutionalism and democracy, is it best characterized as undemocratic? What constitutional measures can be taken to prevent democratic suicide from happening, if any?

It is widely believed in the West today that democracy is the ultimate basis of political authority. If true, liberal democrats have little recourse when a majority or super majority of the people legally amend liberal and democratic values out of the constitution  except to hope that voters will come around by the next election.Lovers of shiny new things will find much to shop this weeklook for new non-wool Allbirds, Reformation's Pac Heights store, bridal bras from ThirdLove, and a cool Birkenstocks pop-up.

Shoes do grow on treesAllbirds' fresh kicks debut today.

Don't worry, your merino-wool babies aren't going anywherethey just have some new friends. Allbirds' new Tree collection of sneaks is made of the pulp of eucalyptus trees, yet another innovative material creation from Tim Brown, Joey Zwillinger and the team. Super breathable and lighter than the originals, the new kicks are ideal for warmer weather as they wick moisture away from tootsies for a cooling effect. Naturally, the shoes are ethically sourced and sustainableusing only five percent of the water and one-third of the land of traditional footwear materials. Runner colors include kauri cloud, stone and navy. And surprise!the new collection also include the Skipper, with a vintage boat-shoe feel. (Think Paul Newman circa 1930s, but modern.) The color lineup here: rose, stone and navy. All Trees have a mesh construction and wool-lined insoles, and cost $95. Timber! // allbirds.com

(Courtesy of Reformation)

Reformation just opened its second SF store.

It has been just about a year since Valencia Street welcomed Reformation to San Francisco. Just yesterday, the doors to outpost number two, on Fillmore Street, swung open, welcoming flocks of cool girls seeking sustainable floral frocks, skinny denim and most-wanted accessories. Like its Mission sister, the bright and airy space (the former home of Curve) feels much like a showroom with uncluttered racks and just one or two sizes of each style on display. (The rest live in back.) Yes, it's also tricked out with Reformation's famous touchscreen technology. Basically, you digitally choose your styles and sizes on screen and, presto chango, they'll find their way into one of five dressing rooms, awaiting your arrival. A small and chic seating area nearby makes a comfy hang for dudes or non-shopping buds. // 2360 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights), thereformation.com

(Courtesy of ThirdLove)

ThirdLove is in a matrimonial state of mind.

Today, SF's favorite purveyor of comfy, designed-to fit-your-girls bras launches its first bridal collection. ThirdLove's new line features nine styles and a color palette of ivory (or sea salt) and periwinkle, the online retailer's ode to something blue. Among the classic piecesideal for the Big Day, honeymoon or any day betweenare bras, underwear and bodysuits in allover lace or with lace touches. Founder Heidi Zak swears you will never (ever) have to hike up your bra when snuggled into the 24/7 classic lace strapless bra. Prices range from $34 to $198. // thirdlove.com

(Courtesy of Birkenstock)

Birkenstock and Elle pop up together at Nordstrom.Delegates read paperwork before a plenary session of China's National People's Congress in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: AP

China unveiled a plan to restructure the government with a major cabinet reshuffle aimed at making the administration more efficient and service-oriented.

The ministerial reform plan was submitted Tuesday to the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberations.

The plan will see some ministries merge, others restructure, new ones created and a few dissolved. Once the plan is implemented China's central government will have 26 ministries and commissions.

There will also be new administrations including the immigration administration, an international development cooperation agency, and a banking and insurance regulatory commission.

Compared with the current setup, the number of ministerial-level entities will be reduced by eight and that of vice-ministerial-level entities by seven.

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, said State Councilor Wang Yong, reported the Xinhua News Agency.

"It focuses on the needs of development and meets the people's expectations," Wang said.

He said the cabinet reshuffle clears institutional obstacles to make the market play a decisive role in resource allocation. The reshuffle will also help China build a modern economy with high-quality growth.

Another main theme of the reform is the strengthening of the leadership of the Party. The reforms will help "combat various efforts to deny, weaken and dilute the Party's leadership," Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, wrote in a commentary published in the People's Daily.

In some areas, the weakening of the Party's leadership still exists, Ding said in the commentary. "This is also restricting the systematic development of the socialist market economy."

Beginning 1982, amid its reform and opening-up, China began downsizing the central government about every five years, Xinhua reported.

Need for change

The new ministries that the State Council plans to establish reflect the need for change, experts said.

A State immigration administration is to be set up under the Ministry of Public Security to formulate and enforce immigration rules, as the number of foreigners working and living in China has been increasing, raising new requirements on immigration administration and services."

"This shows that China is becoming more confident in opening to the international community, and foreigners in China will receive better service," said Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank.

The proposed administration will be responsible for formulating and implementing immigration policies including border control, administering visas for foreigners, the management of refugees and nationality, taking the lead in coordinating the administration of foreigners who illegally enter, work or overstay in China, and the repatriation of illegal immigrants, Xinhua reported.

The welfare of military personnel will be better protected with the establishment of a new ministry devoted to veterans' affairs.

"A well-developed and sophisticated care system for veterans will provide more confidence and conditions to the country when considering the use of military forces overseas," said a military expert and PLA veteran who asked for anonymity.

"If the government can't protect and take care of veterans, then the young people's will to serve in the military will be damaged, and the source of the country's military strength will weaken," Zhu Lijia, a professor of public management at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The move aims to protect the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families, improve the service and management system of demobilized military personnel, and make military service an occupation that enjoys public respect, Xinhua reported.

A banking and insurance regulatory commission will be formed to replace the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. The new body will be more effective at forestalling risks in the financial sector.

The international development cooperation agency, to be formed by merging parts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce, will "give full play to foreign aid as a key means of major-country diplomacy," Wang said.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.Students from the Air Force Military Medical University take part in a match. Photo: VCG

Military medical universities are being encouraged and helped to shift from their previous focus of making profits to putting more emphasis on their important battlefield-oriented duties under sweeping reforms, Chinese military professors said on Monday.

As part of China's ongoing military reforms, the Ministry of National Defense announced a new name list of military universities and colleges on June 29, 2017, with the three top universities being renamed based on their military services.

In this list, the Second Military Medical University, Third Military Medical University and Fourth Military Medical University have been renamed the PLA Naval Medical University, Army Medical University and Air Force Military Medical University respectively.

Chinese defense ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said in 2017 June, "This round of reforms of military academies has adjusted the structure and layout of the military education system."

"After this, we will have formed the overall setup of academies with joint operational universities as the core, specialized colleges of various arms as the foundation and civil-military integrated education as the supplement."

All in the name

The reforms have cleared up widespread queries in society about the necessity of military medical universities, according to an article posted in the PLA Daily public WeChat account on Saturday.

And training medical professionals through regular medical schools has led to criticisms of the special duties shouldered by the military academies, the article reads.

"Don't forget, the most important part of the name 'military' medical universities is the word 'military,' and the 'combat' role should be prioritized," Zhou Xianzhi, who has served as the head of the PLA Air Force Military Medical University since 2017, was quoted in the article as saying.

Such reforms demonstrate the Communist Party of China Central Military Commission's resolve in adjusting and reshaping the education and training system for military medical universities, pointing a clear direction for the universities to optimize their resources under the "battlefield comes first" principle, Zhou said.

Naming medical universities according to their services can effectively control their numbers, avoiding a future increase in the number of schools that abuse the military title, Li Daguang, a military professor at the PLA Defense University, told the Global Times on Monday.

Li said that such a move can provide clear outlines for military universities' daily research and training work by optimizing their resources and shifting the focus from the market back to the battlefield as their military nature demands. It is also in line with the overall spirit of military reform, Li added.

Back to business

Zhou also admitted that under certain circumstances, military education and medical institutes previously invested too much of their energy in expanding their scales and pursuing profits while neglecting their duties on the battlefield.

"Now, with the new names and reformed structure, we are shifting the focus back to the battlefield and readiness for winning wars, which is and should be the major job for military medical universities."

According to the PLA Daily article, the PLA Air Force Military Medical University, formerly known as the Fourth Military Medical University, is now under the management of the PLA Air Force establishment, and has trained more than 90,000 medical talents for the army and the country over the years.

Historic breakthroughs have been made in military reforms, with four former general departments at PLA headquarters being reorganized into 15 agencies within the Central Military Commission (CMC). One-third of the personnel have also been cut, according to the Xinhua News Agency.WiseGuyReports.com with their unique quality of simplifying the market research study, presents a deep diving study report Payments Landscape in Greece: Opportunities and Risks to 2021

Payments Landscape in Greece

Overview

Payments Landscape in Greece: Opportunities and Risks to 2021, report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Chilean cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, payment cards, credit transfers, direct debit, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e).

The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2017-21f). It also offers information on the countrys competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.

Click here for sample report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3054175-payments-landscape-in-greece-opportunities-and-risks-to-2021

Top Companies mentioned

National Bank of Greece

Piraeus Bank

Alpha Bank

Eurobank

Visa

Mastercard

American Express

Diners Club

Payments Landscape in Greece Industry Major Outlook

In the wake of the economic crisis, the Greek government was forced to implement austerity measures in 2015 to gain access to a 86bn ($103.2bn) bailout package from the IMF, the EU, and the European Central Bank.

Consequently, the government imposed capital controls and took a number of measures to arrest the outward flow of money, curb tax evasion, and encourage electronic payments, including restrictions on cash withdrawals at ATMs, remittances, and the use of payment cards abroad.

Some of the measures include the compulsory acceptance of card-based payments at retail outlets and by certain categories of professionals (such as doctors, lawyers, electricians, and plumbers) effective from January 1, 2016. In extension to that the government identified 85 different business categories that are required to install POS terminals, for which the government set a deadline of July 2017. Refusal by these business categories to accept card-based payments attracts a fine of 1,500 ($1,800).

To make online payments more convenient, MyBank, a pan-European e-authorization solution, was made available to Greek consumers from May 2016. To make payments, users need to select the MyBank option on the online retailers website, which connects them to their online or mobile banking platform. Here they need to approve a SEPA credit transfer order containing the details of the online retailer.

Participating banks in Greece are Piraeus Bank, NBG, Eurobank, and Alpha Bank. According to the Hellenic Bank Association, between January-August 2017, transactions valued at 15m ($18m) were made using MyBank.

Debit card penetration is anticipated to grow further over the next five years, as in June 2017 the government introduced a new regulation making it compulsory for private companies to pay employee salaries only through a bank account. Employers who do not comply with the regulation will be penalized by the Labor Inspectorate.

Payments Landscape in Greece  Competitive Analysis

Key players are making innovative developments in Payments Landscape in Greece industry. The same will help in improving the market performance. Heavy investments are made by major players in the R&D sector

.Continued

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Website: www.wiseguyreports.comNew Speedcast Navigation as a Service(TM) Streamlines Vessel Technical Management



Distribution of eNavigation Charts Through Partnership with SRH Marine

Sydney, Mar 15, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Speedcast International Limited ( ASX:SDA ), the world's most trusted provider of remote communication and IT solutions, is partnering with SRH Marine to provide Maritime vessels with Navigation as a Service (NaaS), a simplified electronic distribution of electronic navigational charts and updates. Speedcast NaaS is powered by Speedcast's SIGMA Gateway platform and SRH Marine's Pilot.The Maritime world is becoming increasingly digitalized and Speedcast Navigation as a Service will simplify the delivery of electronic navigational charts and updates to assist navigation across the oceans. Speedcast Navigation as a Service, with its remote monitoring and data analytics capabilities, brings Maritime navigation into the digital age and will enable simpler eNavigation regulatory compliance."Speedcast Navigation as a Service is an excellent example of our increased focus on innovation that brings the benefits of leading-edge technologies to our customers," said Tim Bailey, Executive Vice President, Products, Marketing and Business Development, Speedcast. "Speedcast NaaS represents the next step in eNavigation, ensuring that vessels receive chart updates faster and with greater cost efficiency."Commercial vessels rely on distribution of physical media across the globe to keep a vessel's electronic charts up to date. This method is time consuming and expensive, with updated chart media frequently not reaching its target vessel in a timely way. This can potentially cause regulatory and safety issues. Speedcast NaaS efficiently distributes relevant eNavigation charts and updates to a vessel via Inmarsat Fleet Xpress, Fleet Broadband or Speedcast's Ku network. NaaS is a fully managed value add solution, supplied via SIGMA Gateway or SIGMA Xtreme and is provided as part of a monthly communications service. The single invoice approach provides simplified manageability for vessel owners and operators."SRH Marine is excited to deliver the future of digital services with Speedcast via NaaS, with SRH Pilot and SIGMA Gateway. NaaS will revolutionise the electronic navigation world, helping vessels navigate safely and more cost effectively and ensuring customers' return on investment," said Panayiotis Giannoulis, COO SRH Marine.Speedcast NaaS is available through Speedcast's SIGMA Gateway and SIGMA Xtreme and requires no additional hardware. This announcement furthers Speedcast's increased focus to streamline operations and provide an exceptional customer experience. With 1,300 employees, customers in more than 100 countries, more than 250 field engineers globally and four 24/7 worldwide customer support centres, plus a few regional ones, Speedcast is changing the way customers see remote communications providers.About SRH MARINE SAITSRH is a leader in marine electronics established in Greece with subsidiaries in UK, Cyprus, Middle East and Spain. SRH operations are based on sales of navigation and communication equipment, spare parts, distribution of digital services, technical services, full maintenance agreements and a global after sales service/support network for more than 20 years, 24/7 remote support and 26 service engineers along with 50 back office staff guarantees the timely and efficient delivery of SRH solutions. For more information about SRH Marine SAIT, visit http://www.srhmar.com About Speedcast International Ltd

Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) is the world's most trusted communications and IT services provider, delivering critical communications solutions to the Maritime, Energy, Mining, Media, Telecom, Cruise, NGO, Government, and Enterprise sectors. With more satellite capacity than any other provider, Speedcast enables faster, seamless pole-to-pole coverage from a global hybrid satellite, fiber, cellular, microwave, MPLS, and IP transport network with direct access to public cloud platforms. The company also integrates differentiated technology offerings that provide smarter ways to communicate and distribute content, manage network and remote operations, protect and secure investments, and improve the crew and guest experience. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 3,200 customers in over 140 countries. Learn more at www.speedcast.com.Strategic review finds Caula has strong potential to produce high value vanadium products, creating a further cashflow opportunity



Graphite Vanadium Project on track first production mid 2019

Sydney, Mar 15, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Mustang Resources ( ASX:MUS ) ( OTCMKTS:GGPLF ) is pleased to announce that a strategic review led by new Managing Director Dr Bernard Olivier has found that the Company's Caula Graphite Project in Mozambique is well on track for first production by the middle of next year.The review also established that Stage 1 of Caula will produce vanadium concentrate which can be either sold or stockpiled for further processing to high purity vanadium products as part of Stage 2.The extensive review was conducted alongside the Concept Study, which is set for completion in the June 2018 quarter.Dr Evan Kirby, who recently joined the Mustang Board of Directors as a Non- Executive Director and consultant and has significant graphite and vanadium experience, assisted Dr Olivier in the review.The key findings of the review were:- Caula contains an exceptional combination of both high-grade (13% TGC) and large flakes sizes (~55% large, jumbo and super jumbo).- Concept Study on track for completion by Q2 2018.- The vanadium content of the ore represents an additional cashflow opportunity, especially given the structural shift in the vanadium market.- The most effective way to develop Caula involves a two-stage process:- Stage 1 Development Strategy:o Stage 1 Development Strategy comprises a robust, low-cost mining operation producing ~100,000tpa of ore for 10,000 to 15,000tpa of high-grade (97% C+) graphite concentrate.o From the start of operations, vanadium will be extracted to a concentrate. This will be sold to a vanadium producer or stockpiled for future production of refined vanadium pentoxide chemicals (98% and 99%+ V2O5).o The Stage 1 Graphite Plant is being designed to allow future incorporation of all processing equipment into the larger Stage 2 graphite plant.o Sale of graphite and vanadium products produced in Stage 1 will be used to secure binding off-take agreements and associated finance required for Stage 2 development.o Stage 1 of the project development is expected to be completed and producing sellable products in H1 2019.- Stage 2 Development Strategy:o Expansion of mining operations to between 300,000 and 600,000tpa of ore.o Construction of a large full-scale processing plant capable of delivering 50,000 to 75,000tpa of high grade (97% C+) graphite concentrateo Construction of a full-scale vanadium concentrate processing plant capable of producing refined vanadium products (99.9% purity vanadium pentoxide and other vanadium chemicals such as vanadium sulfate) for the fast-growing aerospace alloy and battery markets.o With a hypothetical ore grade of 0.4% V2O5, a 600,000tpa mining operation could produce ~2,000tpa of V2O5 (98% and 99.9% purity vanadium pentoxide chemicals) with a current market value of >US$60 million p.a.(see Note 1 below)1. BackgroundThe Caula Graphite Project represents a unique combination of both high grade and large flake size that distinguishes the project from its peers (see Figure 1 in link below). The Caula project has delivered a maiden JORC Inferred Resource of 5.4Mt at an average grade of 13% TGC (6% cut-off) for more than 700,000 tonnes of contained graphite. The exploration results included exceptionally high-grade intercepts of up to 26% TGC. (see Note 2 below)In addition, initial metallurgical test work has confirmed Caula can yield high percentages of Super Jumbo, Jumbo and Large flakes (~55% from the fresh ore) with carbon content up to 98% through simple flotation (average of 97% C across all size fractions). (see Note 3 below) Oxidised ore has also demonstrated excellent treatment characteristics.In addition to the exceptional quality of the products, Mustang has already proven that its experienced team in Mozambique can both build and operate a mining project. The recent conversion of exploration licences to mining concessions on the neighbouring ruby project is further testimony to Mustang's abilities to execute project delivery successfully in Mozambique. Furthermore, Mustang constructed and commissioned the current 200tph processing plant being utilised on the Montepuez Ruby Project that borders the Caula Graphite Project (see Figure 2 in link below). Mustang is able to utilise the infrastructure and operations camp of the ruby project to fast track the graphite project development.2. Concept Study UpdateAs announced on 5 February 2018(see Note 4 below), the Company has completed the 1,400m diamond drilling campaign which will underpin the Concept Study of the Caula Graphite Project. The Concept Study remains on track for completion in Q2 this year. Approximately 1.2 tonnes of diamond drill core, comprising 51 samples from the current drilling program, have been delivered to Nagrom Laboratories in Perth for graphite and vanadium recovery test work. The samples, representing oxide and fresh ore, will be tested both as composites and as individual samples to investigate orebody variability. Multi-element analysis of the samples is being performed by SGS South Africa and full results are expected shortly.3. Development StrategyGiven the potential of both the graphite and vanadium component of the Caula ore, Mustang is developing a dual extraction flowsheet that will allow extraction of both graphite and vanadium from the feed ore. The two-stage development strategy also suits the team's operational skills and abilities as well as ensuring that binding off-take agreements can be secured to finance Stage 2 of the development plan which represents the vast majority of the development costs. Binding off-take agreements and associated project finance typically require considerable quantities of final graphite concentrates for product qualification and the Company considers that its staged development strategy will ensure delivery of cost-effective products within a very short timeframe. The Company estimates that, subject to the final results of the Concept study, it can fast track the Stage 1 development phase for completion and sellable product delivery in H1 2019.3.1 Stage 1Stage 1 consists of the establishment of a low-cost mining operation delivering approximately 100,000tpa of ore to a robust cost-effective processing plant capable of producing 10,000tpa to 15,000tpa of high-grade graphite concentrate. Notably, the required feed grade of 100,000tpa (~20 tonnes per hour) is considerably smaller than the Company's current 200tph processing plant located on the neighbouring ruby tenements.Vanadium will be extracted to a concentrate from the inception of the project and the vanadium extraction process will be integrated into the Stage 1 plant. Vanadium concentrate will be sold to a vanadium chemicals producer or stockpiled for future production of refined vanadium chemicals (98% and 99%+ vanadium pentoxide products). The Stage 1 Graphite Plant is being designed to allow future incorporation of all processing equipment into the larger Stage 2 Graphite and Vanadium plant. Through the production of both graphite and vanadium concentrates, the Company is confident that it will be able to secure binding off-take agreements and associated finance required for Stage 2 development. Stage 1 of the project's development is expected to be completed and producing a sellable product in H1 2019.3.2 Stage 2Stage 2 comprises of the expansion of mining operations to between 300,000tpa and 600,000tpa of ore. Stage 2 is aimed at delivering a large full-scale processing plant capable of delivering 50,000 tpa to 75,000 tpa of high grade (97% C+) graphite concentrate as well as the integrated construction of a full-scale vanadium concentrate processing plant capable of producing refined vanadium chemicals for the fast growing high-tech markets (e.g. battery and aerospace markets).Preliminary considerations indicate that the vanadium processing plant could potentially deliver between 1,200 to >2,000 tpa of V2O5 as high-purity products that will sell at significant premiums to ferro-vanadium or standard grade 98% vanadium pentoxide flake.4. Graphite and Vanadium economical potentialThe Caula ores are considered to be broadly similar to ore at the nearby Balama Project of Syrah Resources ( ASX:SYR ). In July 2014, Syrah published the results of its vanadium scoping study.(see Note 5 below) The outcome of the study was very positive and most of the conclusions drawn have relevance to the Caula Graphite Project. The following points were noted:- The vanadium in the ore did not report to the graphite concentrate and graphite concentrate samples were below the detection limit for vanadium analysis.- There was strong correlation between graphite and vanadium grades in the ore.- Vanadium could be recovered to a concentrate by a combination of froth flotation and wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS). These are well established processing methods commonly applied in the mining and minerals industry.- A vanadium chemicals plant could be sourced from China where there is extensive experience with vanadium extraction from graphitic and carbonaceous ores.Worldwide, the major use of vanadium is as an alloying agent in full alloy and high strength low alloy steels. China has recently increased the minimum specification for reinforcing steel used in buildings and as a result, domestic vanadium consumption is expected to increase by 10,000 tonnes per year (Metal Bulletin, August 2017). The vanadium market has already experienced a structural shift, changing China from being a net exporter of vanadium to becoming a net importer of vanadium. The use of vanadium in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB batteries), used for large scale energy storage is set to drive a further increase in demand. Consequently, vanadium supplies have tightened and the price of vanadium has increased sharply over the last two years to current levels of ~US$30,500/tonne, making it the best performing battery metal of 2017(see Note 6 below).Notes:1 Based on 13 March 2018 pricing of US$13.9/lb (US$30,500/tonne) for 98% purity Vanadium pentoxide delivered in China. Source: vanadiumprice.com2 Refer to ASX Announcement dated 1 December 2017 "Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate Completed for Caula Graphite Project" inclusive of all the JORC Tables listed in the Appendix3 Refer to ASX Announcement dated 13 December 2017 "Outlook for Caula graphite project continues to grow with increased recoveries of large to super jumbo flake" inclusive of all the JORC Tables listed in the Appendix4 Refer to ASX Announcement dated 5 February 2018 "Concept study drilling completed, intersects additional wide shallow zones of graphite at Caula" inclusive of all the JORC Tables listed in the Appendix.5 Refer to Syrah Resources' ASX Announcement dated 30 July 2014 "Vanadium Scoping Study Finalised"6 "Best performing battery metal of the year isn't cobalt", Mark Burton. Bloomberg. January 26, 2018To view figures, please visit:About New Energy Minerals Ltd

New Energy Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXE) (FRA:GGY) is an ASX listed junior mining company, that recently announced the divestment of the Company's Caula vanadium - graphite project and the Montepuez Ruby project in Mozambique.

AU$25M EQUITY RAISING CLOSED FULLY SUBSCRIBED

Perth, Mar 15, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Image Resources NL ( ASX:IMA ) ( OTCMKTS:IMREF ) ("Image" or "the Company") is pleased to announce its Equity Raising (see ASX release 11 March 2018) has closed fully subscribed. The AU$25m Equity Raising was launched on 11 March 2018 with Euroz Securities Limited, the Sole Lead Manager and Sole Bookrunner. Demand has come from new and existing investors.In accordance with the Subscription Deed with Vestpro International Limited ("Vestpro") (see ASX release 11 March 2018), Vestpro will be subscribing for 131,936,921 Shares (AU$13,193,692.10) under the Equity Raising.New shares under this placement will be issued using the Share Placement Facility approved by Shareholders at the general meeting held on 13 February 2018. Settlement is schedule for 23 March 2018 and allotment on 26 March 2018.The closing of the Equity Raising is the final part of the total project funding required for the Boonanarring Project.Mr Bob Besley, Chairman commented, "The Company remains encouraged by the strong support shown from existing and new shareholders and institutions and in particular Vestpro International. Completion of the equity raising paves the way for the completion of development of the Boonanarring project and the robustness of the project continues to strengthen as market prices for mineral sand commodities continue to rise."On 8 March 2018 the Company announced it had entered into a Loan Note Subscription Agreement ("LNSA") with Pala Investments Limited and Castlelake IV, L.P. and CL V Investment Solutions LLC which are entities controlled by Castlelake L.P. to raise AU$50M (see Note below) from the issue of senior secured loan notes.Boonanarring is fully permitted, requires project capital costs of only AU$52M, and has a construction lead time of an estimated six months. In addition, the Company already owns the processing equipment required to make an HMC product, and owns the land covering the first two years of ore reserves as well as the area required for the construction of the processing plant and related facilities. Importantly, the Company has also secured a binding off-take agreement for 100% of HMC production for the life of the mine.Construction of the Boonanarring Project will commence immediately. Initial mining pre-strip and construction of the wet concentrator plant and associated production facilities are expected to be completed near the end of the 3rd Qtr. 2018, followed by commissioning and first production during the 4th Qtr. 2018.This announcement is intended to end the suspension of trading of the Company's securities.Note: US$ denominated Loan Notes equivalent to AU$50M at signing of the LNSA.About Image Resources NL

Image Resources NL (ASX:IMA) is a mineral sands focused mining company operating an open-cut mine and ore processing facility at its 100%-owned, high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring Project, located 80km north of Perth in the infrastructure rich North Perth Basin.

Boonanarring is arguably one of the highest grade, zircon-rich mineral sands projects in Australia. Construction and project commissioning were completed on-time and on-budget in 2018. Production commenced in December 2018 and HMC production ramped-up to exceed name-plate capacity in only the second month of operation. The Company achieved profitability in Q1 2019 and was cashflow positive in Q2 2019 and is now at steady state production.

Half Year Financial Report

Sydney, Mar 15, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The directors submit their report for Thomson Resources Ltd ( ASX:TMZ ) for the half year ended 31 December 2017.Review and results of operationsThe net results of operations after income tax expense for the half year was a profit of $317,102 (2016: loss $236,144).Thomson continued its exploration at the Bygoo Tin Project with successful drilling during the half year intersecting high grade tin of similar tenor to those previously recorded at both North and South prospects. Further significant funding was also received under the amended Farm-in and Joint Venture Agreement. Where a North American private investor can earn a 51% equitable interest of the Bygoo Tin Project on contributing $A3,000,000 in a series of staged payments by 30 June 2018. They then have an option to contribute additional funds to earn a further 25% interest. The option will be exercisable until 1 October 2018 at an exercise price of A$22,000,000, with an initial payment at commencement of A$4,000,000. Further drilling at Bygoo and other prospects in the regional area is planned to commence in the first quarter of 2018.Principal activitiesThe principal activity of the Company is exploration for the discovery and delineation of high grade base and precious metal deposits specifically within the Lachlan and Thomson Fold Belt of NSW and the development of those resources into cash flow generating businesses.To view the full report, please visit:About Thomson Resources Ltd

Thomson Resources Ltd (ASX:TMZ) is an NSW active mineral explorer. Thomson has several tin projects (including an advanced project near Ardlethan), as well as gold, copper and zinc targets in a range of settings. Thomson has a good record of discovery, with multiple new Intrusion-Related Gold (gold with copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, tungsten) systems discovered in the Thomson Fold Belt in the NW of the state.

Board Changes

Perth, Mar 16, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - MMJ PhytoTech Limited ( ASX:MMJ ) ("MMJ") is pleased to announce the appointment of Doug Halley to the board, effective immediately.Doug is an experienced company director, having served on a number of Australian public company boards, including most recently as Chairman of DUET Group which was a member of the ASX100 prior to it being taken over at an attractive share price premium last year. His experience and key appointment terms are summarised in the attachment to this release (see link below).Jason Bednar has retired from the board of MMJ and will remain on the board of Harvest One Cannabis Inc. ( CVE:HVST ) ("Harvest One") as an independent non-executive director.Commenting on these changes, MMJ's Chairman Peter Wall said "We are pleased to have attracted Doug Halley to our board. He is an experienced director with skills that complement those of the board and which will be valuable as MMJ continues to grow as a cannabis investment company. Doug also knows our CEO Jason Conroy and they had success together at DUET Group. Jason Bednar was a tireless and valuable contributor to MMJ and we are pleased that he will remain on the board of Harvest One, MMJ's largest investment."To view the attachment, please visit:About MMJ Group Holdings Ltd

MMJ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:MMJ) is a global cannabis investment company. MMJ owns a portfolio of minority investments and aims to invest across the full range of emerging cannabis-related sectors including healthcare, technology, infrastructure, logistics, processing, cultivation, equipment and retail. For MMJ's latest investor presentation and news, please visit: http://www.mmjphytotech.com.au/investors/Shasta County, Calif -- Protesting has always been a big part of our nations history.

Whether it was fighting against segregation, fighting against the Vietnam War, or now fighting for stricter gun laws, each generation has had its fight.

Students from all corners of Shasta County walked out at 10 in the morning on Wednesday, as part of the national walk out to support stricter gun laws and honor the 17 students killed in Parkland Florida last month.

Although each student had their reasons for being out ..

Its commemorating the lives that were lost in the florida shooting. And showing us whats really important and what we stand for," said one student.

What we should be out here for is the mental health aspect," added anoter.

Some people will say our fore fathers would roll around in the grave if they heard we wanted guns banned but our fore fathers children werent getting shot up," added a third.

Some locals say these students should not be given a forum.

While scrolling on our Action News Now Facebook page, people had a variety of things to say including, "Minors dont have first amendments" , "Of course its to miss school", and "continue to chew on your tide pods."

But for the Shasta County students, who say theyre now fighting their generations fight, this walkout is more than just being out of class.

"Kid who deserve their life, kids my age. Im 15 and I dont want to lose my life im scared to death to come to school."

These teens did receive a lot of positive messages as well. You can check those out on our Action News Now facebook page.Criterion's Chairman Iain Duffin says: I am delighted with Andrews appointment to the Criterion Board, his experience across the platform markets truly supports our aim in increasing the reach of Criterions capabilities. As Andrew is also an integral member of the TeX Board, I am delighted that he has agreed to take on this additional Non-Executive Director role, and this can only further support Criterion to help develop a closer working relationship with TeX. Andrew brings with him more than 18 years experience working in the Financial Services Industry having held a number of senior positions in Deloitte, Investec Bank, JP Morgan, Close Brothers, Barclays and Fidelity. Prior to joining Fidelity, his most recently held positions included Managing Director of Close Fund Services Ltd and Global Head of Wealth Services at Barclays. He joined Fidelity in 2014 as Head of Platform Shared Services and Change where his primary responsibility was the execution of Fidelitys multi-year strategic programme. Andrew has since moved into Fidelitys Global Business Operations where he is now responsible for a wide range of operational functions across the business globally. He is also a Non-Executive director of TeX, a not-for-profit organisation focused on setting standards and governance for transfers and re-registrations in the industry. Andrew says: Similar to TeX, Criterion plays a significant role in driving improvements to the standards and governance of transaction and data exchanges between industry participants, leading to a better client experience. I look forward to making a meaningful contribution to its mission and enhancing the working relationship between TeX and Criterion, something I am passionate about. Caroline Mansley, Managing Director of Criterion, adds: Andrew brings great energy and focus on change that really simplifies the customer experience, something I am also very passionate about doing. Criterion is totally committed to remove complexity from the industry, having his experience will really assist how we do prioritise and increase our existing capability to achieve this.

Of course, it would not be wise on its own to take anything Henderson says too seriously, bearing in mind his boss is a director of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and he is associated with the pharmaceutical lobby organisation Sense About Science . However, bearing in mind the Toronto Sun story of February it is not exactly encouraging that WHO and the CDC have chosen Baxter as well as GlaxoSmithKline to develop a vaccine against H1N1.

The biggest worry would be if a person or a pig became infected with both swine flu and H5N1 avian flu at the same time. As the former is highly transmissible but does not appear to be particularly lethal, while the latter is highly virulent but does not spread easily, a reassortment between the two could generate a very dangerous strain.

The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldnt die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses...

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organizations European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter Internationals research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.

But have things improved since 2001? Probably the scariest story this year has so far been overlooked by the media at large. On February 27 an article appeared in the Toronto Sun by Helen Branwell, Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus (link no longer available, but confirmation in the record of the British parliament ):

The most recent paroxysm in the swine flu saga begs some interesting questions which scarcely ought to be swept aside. Last week veteran Australian scientist, Adrian Gibbs, author of 250 peer review studies raised the issue whether H1N1 virus could have been created in a lab error. Of course, denials were rapid. ABC News reported ( HERE .)

As BBC4 prepares to televise its new scare documentary Contagion AoA re-posts a sequence of articles by UK editor, John Stone, from 2009-10 highlighting an earlier shadowy attempt to hi-jack global health agenda by the vaccine industry. While AoA does not take the view that a deadly infectious pandemic is an impossibility there is major problem of distorting health policy, and promoting ineffective and dangerous solutions, warned about once again recently by infectious disease expert Tom Jefferson .

So many aspects of these stories are not re-assuring. There have been no further reports on the Baxter bird flu fiasco since February, which at best sounds like criminal negligence of a high order  meanwhile the WHO and CDC remain silent. Health officials have failed to deny that the swine flu virus could have been created in a laboratory, but merely claim that such a security lapse is unlikely, when we know a much worse one occurred within the last 3 months. And Julie Gerberding, out-going director of CDC, fails to deny that swine flu is man-made but only tells us that she is not concerned.

Calling Big Pharmas Bluff  Swine Flu Misfires in the UK

By John Stone (August 14, 2009)

There was a remarkable moment in the unfolding swine flu saga on UK television on Tuesday morning. Following the publication of a systematic review of the safety of anti-virals such as Tamiflu and Relenza for children which came to the view that they were contra-indicated for the under-12s TV interviewer Andrew Castle presented health minister Andy Burnham with the case of his own daughter, Georgina. Georgina, who suffers from asthma, had been prescribed Tamiflu without seeing a doctor on suspicion that she had swine flu, and was subsequently taken to hospital with respiratory collapse. The interview also highlighted the fact that in many cases if you are presently suspected of having swine flu you will not be seen by a doctor for fear of contagion, and will be interviewed by people with no medical training  often in their teens  before being handed out anti-viral drugs. Despite the publication of the new study the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, is sticking to his guns that Tamiflu should be given to children on the basis that the new study was based on the treatment of conventional flu not swine flu (video no longer available). Castle also pointed out that other adolescents at his daughters school had suffered ill-effects from the drug.

It should be stated categorically, whatever people in the United States believe about our National Health Service in the UK, that these events are completely without precedent in its history. By now we are having deaths of people who have been prevented from seeing doctors and given wrong diagnoses as a result of the scare Mother Dies of Meningitis After Swine Flu Diagnosis, Girl Dies of Meningitis after Swine Flu Diagnosis ). Many children are suffering the vile and unnecessary side-effects of Tamiflu. We have thousands of people bunking off work on suspicion of having the illness (Swine Flu Skivers Cost Firms More than Virus), and a doctor wrote to me last week complaining that the numbers were being artificially inflated:

'I have been doing locums in lots of different practices . In some Primary Care Trusts, they are remunerating GPs for their extra swine flu work by looking at how many consultations are logged as 'swine flu', so I have been told to enter any cold, upper-respiratory tract infection , fever etc as swine flu, and some GPs are going back in their patients records since the swine flu started and re-labelling the reason for the consultation. Is it any wonder there are so many cases?'



But what is very interesting about all this is that although many people have been scared by all the hype (which has been led by the World Health Organization and by the UK government) they are also beginning to learn the lesson and have become profoundly cynical about what is going on - more people joke about it than are scared, but they are also beginning to be very fed up. It is instructive to look at the posts under the Daily Mail report of the Castle interview: most posters think the whole thing has been got up by the pharmaceutical industry and the government to sell their products: they are also vastly apprehensive about the forthcoming universal vaccination campaign with vaccines which they know have not been properly tested (Children Given Untested Swine Flu Vaccine).

The unprecedented nature of the proposed arrangements seems to have led the Department of Health to fabricate the claim that there was a similar mass vaccination against smallpox in 1964 (HERE ) (the last numerically significant smallpox vaccinations in the UK seem to have taken place in 1960 and 62, involving less than 700,000 people in total (HERE ).

Whatever, the origins of the virus the cynical view of much of the public is perhaps no better than our governments and the pharmaceutical industry deserve. Despite our overloaded vaccine schedules - in the UK we have 25 vaccines by 13 months  the pharmaceutical industry is still placing its major hopes for expansion in the area of vaccines in the next decade (Pharma 2020 Vision , Doubling Vaccine Sales by 2013 , Kids Vaccine Market Set to Quadruple ). In the circumstances it is an interesting question how this could possibly be accomplished without a series of gigantic, global health-scares? All we can say is - if this is the case - that in the UK at the moment it appears not to be working, and if we are visited by more dangerous viruses in future people may not see the pharmaceutical industry and the government as their protectors.

Concern Grows in the British Media About Swine Flu Vaccine





By John Stone (August 17, 2009)



Concern is finally being raised in the UK media that government agencies are failing to be straight with the public over the safety of the proposed swine flu vaccine now scheduled for release in October.



Leaked documents show that there is concern  as with the previous US swine flu scare in 1976  that the vaccine might give rise to Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause paralysis or death. A letter was sent to 600 neurologists from Professor Elizabeth Miller of the Health Protection Agency acknowledging concern on 29 July, two days after a letter circulated amongst the Association of British Neurologists by Dr Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, chair of its surveillance unit, and Professor Patrick Chinnery chair of its clinical research committee. The leak highlights the fact that Prof Miller is prepared to disclose the concern secretly to professionals but not the public. Her letter, quoted in the Mail on Sunday, states:



The vaccines used to combat an expected swine influenza pandemic in 1976 were shown to be associated with GBS and were withdrawn from use.



GBS has been identified as a condition needing enhanced surveillance when the swine flu vaccines are rolled out.



Reporting every case of GBS irrespective of vaccination or disease history is essential for conducting robust epidemiological analyses capable of identifying whether there is an increased risk of GBS in defined time periods after vaccination, or after influenza itself, compared with the background risk.

In 2001-2 Prof Miller director of Public Health Service Laboratory, which was later incorporated into the Health Protection Agency, disclosed funding from several vaccine manufacturers  including those currently favoured by government contracts for swine flu vaccine  Smith Kline Beecham (fore-runner of GSK) and Baxter Healthcare . It is not clear what the position is today. Eyebrows were raised earlier this year when Baxter, who are under investigation for circulating live avian flu virus in batches of ordinary flu vaccine to destinations in central Europe, were nevertheless awarded part of the contract for the manufacture of swine flu vaccine both globally and in the UK. No explanation of the incident has yet come to light.



Prof Miller is exceptionally well connected. A recent biographical note states:



Professor Elizabeth Miller is the Head of the Immunisation Department at the Health Protection Agency, Centre for Infections in Colindale North West London. She joined the Epidemiological Research Laboratory in 1978 to work on the large post-licensure safety and efficacy studies of pertussis vaccines that were being conducted following the collapse of the UK whooping cough immunisation programme in the mid 1970s. This experience prompted her continuing interest in the risks and benefits of vaccination programmes and organising trials of new vaccines. She has been involved with trials of acellular pertussis, MMR, Hib, meningococcal C vaccines and more recently the new pneumococcal vaccines. Her other interests include seroepidemiology and mathematical modelling, vaccine safety studies and viral infections in pregnancy. Professor Miller also has wide experience of committee membership, covering bodies such as the UK and European licensing authorities, the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, various Data Safety Monitoring Boards, The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) subgroups and scientific organisations such as the Medical Research Council. She has also led or acted as an external expert on various European projects combined with her work for the European Medicines Evaluation Agency.



Another report in the Daily Telegraph reveals that the GSK version of the swine flu vaccine will contain mercury:



Prof David Salisbury, head of immunisation at the Department of Health, said the vaccines will arrive in vials containing about ten doses as it is not feasible to produce or store single-dose preloaded syringes on the scale needed to vaccine the 11m people who will be offered the vaccine between October and December.



He said, if only one or two doses in a vial are used on one day the GSK vaccine can be stored overnight in the fridge and the remaining doses used the next day. However the Baxter vaccine, which does not contain thiomersal, would have to be thrown away if the whole vial's contents were not used within three hours, he added.



Initially, the vaccines are to be targeted children and adults with underlying health problems, and pregnant women, not groups on whom it is likely to have been trialed in the first place.

UK H1N1 Virus News

By John Stone (August 18, 2009)

There were two new stories in UK media today, indicating the lack of administrative grip on the almost entirely government fabricated situation. One was the tragic plea of a father of teenage girl who had died of tonsillitis to close down the governments swine flu helpline and the other was a panel of government advisers notably Prof Hugh Pennington - seeking to distance themselves from government policy in Tamiflu. This had less to do with unpleasant side-effects for Tamiflu which has recently been exciting public concern, than that it might be instrumental in a relatively benign situation of causing the virus to develop resistance to the drug.

One of the committee, Prof Robert Dingwall, told the Guardian:

"It was felt ... it would simply be unacceptable to the UK population to tell them we had a huge stockpile of drugs but they were not going to be made available."

However, firm responsibility for any public panic must lie with government and the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, who told the media a month ago that 65,000 people might die from the virus in the UK (HERE ). The yawning gap between Sir Liam and reality was demonstrated in an article by Pennington on 27 July. In a week when people were being told that 100,000 people had the virus, the government had a mere 31 confirmed cases out of 212 tested for. Pennington  who nevertheless favours a vaccination campaign  wrote:

The best way to assess the accuracy of diagnosis in sentinel practices is to get them to send samples from patients for virology. But only 137 English patients were tested for this purpose last week; 27 were positive. As a sample supposedly covering the whole nation, this is pathetic. All that can be said in its favour is that the rest of the UK did no better; 12 tests were done in Wales (one positive) and 13 in Northern Ireland (one positive). There are 58 sentinel practices in Scotland. They sent in 50 samples; two were positive.



The absurdity was further highlighted in the letter of Gloucester GP, Patrick Lush, to BMJ today:



I am An Inner City GP in England, in the past 3 or 4 weeks I have been seeing patient(s) with what I suspect is H1N1 'swine flu', I am treating some of these cases with antiviral medication. The numbers of people that I diagnose will go toward making up the numbers of the UK flu epidemic numbers. But I am not allowed to take swabs on even a proportion of the cases. So that even in retrospect I will not be able to see if my diagnoses are correct. The computer saying 'rubbish in, rubbish out' comes to mind when assessing the UK statistics. Incidentally the numbers of patients with fever, myalgia and what I take to be 'swine flu' went down last week as compared to the week before. I await the late Autumn and winter with interest.



The stockpiling of Tamiflu goes back to the early days of the avian flu scare when Sir Liam told the BBC that the virus was certain to combine and mutate with regular flu virus and that he expected 50, 000 people in the UK to die:



A bird flu pandemic will hit Britain - but not necessarily this winter, the chief medical officer has said.



Sir Liam Donaldson said a deadly outbreak would come when a strain of bird flu mutated with human flu.



He told the BBC's Sunday AM show it would probably kill about 50,000 people in the UK, but the epicentre of any new strain was likely to be in East Asia.



The UK has so far stockpiled 2.5m doses of anti-viral drugs - and may restrict travel if there is an outbreak.



How he knew this we do not know: four years later, of course, we are still waiting, although the mysterious Baxter incident earlier this year might have brought it to an end. At the very least we know that the Baxter incident did not seem to discourage the World Health Organization and the British government from ordering swine flu vaccine from them.

Hilarity Breaks out in UK Over Government Plans for Mass Burial for Swine Flu Victims

By John Stone (August 19, 2009)



Articles in the Daily Mail and London Evening Standard today reported government contingency plans for mass burials in the event of the swine flu epidemic taking off. Following a meeting last month the Home Office has published a 56 page document The Framework of Planners Preparing to Manage Deaths. Faced with lurid projections that they would not be able to bury the bodies fast enough it is interesting to report that the overwhelming response of readers was of profound scepticism and derision. People suspect they are being manipulated, some blame the newspaper (which was plainly just reporting) and some blame the government and the pharmaceutical industry.

Comments such as:

What mad cow thought this one up?

What a joke. Someone somewhere must be worrying we are all going to refuse the vaccination...

I have better idea - dig a mass grave and drop all the Members of Parliament in...





Doesnt it make you glad to be British...well organised and prepared for the worst. This is a flipping flu epidemic...more chance of dying after you have had the untried jab...

I bet if an MP were to die of swine flu he/she would not be buried in a mass grave

Its not cholera! Itss not bubonic plague! Its just swine flu which has been hyped up by the drug interest and the media!

Oh, for heavens sake I am still waiting to catch bird flu!

This is admittedly not the first plan of its kind. In 2006 the government published plans for the excess burial of 320,000 people from avian flu. But while chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, was insisting that the arrival of human bird flu was only a matter of time chief government scientist Sir David King was briefing that the chances of it happening were very low and reports that a global pandemic was inevitable were totally misleading.



The scepticism was recently echoed by leading Cochrane Collaboration epidemiologist Tom Jefferson in Der Spiegel:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Jefferson, the world is living in fear of swine flu. And some predict that, by next winter, one-third of the world's population might be infected. Are you personally worried? Are you and your family taking any precautions?

Tom Jefferson: I wash my hands very often -- and it's not all because of swine flu. That's probably the most effective precaution there is against all respiratory viruses, and the majority of gastrointestinal viruses and germs as well.

SPIEGEL: Do you consider the swine flu to be particularly worrisome?

Jefferson : It's true that influenza viruses are unpredictable, so it does call for a certain degree of caution. But one of the extraordinary features of this influenza -- and the whole influenza saga -- is that there are some people who make predictions year after year, and they get worse and worse. None of them so far have come about, and these people are still there making these predictions. For example, what happened with the bird flu, which was supposed to kill us all? Nothing. But that doesn't stop these people from always making their predictions. Sometimes you get the feeling that there is a whole industry almost waiting for a pandemic to occur.

SPIEGEL: Who do you mean? The World Health Organization (WHO)?

Jefferson: The WHO and public health officials, virologists and the pharmaceutical companies. They've built this machine around the impending pandemic. And there's a lot of money involved, and influence, and careers, and entire institutions! And all it took was one of these influenza viruses to mutate to start the machine grinding...

Of course, this is only part humorous. The project has already caused medical chaos in the UK and cost the lives of people who couldnt get to a doctor with other more life threatening conditions. But also many people have been frightened, first of all by the prospect of catching what is in most cases a mild illness, but also now the possibility that governments are engaged in a policy of mass slaughter. Some of the comments in the Daily Mail reflect this  I have little doubt this is a paranoid misjudgement and the main motives behind this disreputable episode are financial and pharmaceutical industry growth plans. However, the amount of mistrust engendered by the swine flu affair will not be easily repaired. If I was an investor I would start to unload my pharma stocks now.

Sir Liams Skeleton: the UK Department of Health Fabricates Flu Deaths to Boost Vaccination

By John Stone (January 13, 2010)



Annual flu deaths in the UK averaged no more than 33 over the last 4 years despite an earlier statement by the Department of Health that 12,000 people die in the country from flu every year. Recent disclosures by out-going Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson demonstrate that such figures are fabricated to boost vaccination uptake. Quizzed in on-line British Medical Journal by deputy editor Tony Delamothe, Sir Liam posted details late on Christmas Eve.



Sir Liam and colleagues state that an:



"Estimate of flu deaths is found in the annual mortality statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics. These statistics record the underlying cause of death. They are based on all registered deaths, based on the information on death certificates. The number of deaths for England & Wales with an underlying cause of influenza (ICD-10 code J10-J11) for the four recent calendar years are: 39 (2008), 31 (2007), 17 (2006) and 44 (2005). Many more deaths are attributed to pneumonia, some of which will be secondary to influenza.



However, they also give another official method of estimating flu deaths which greatly inflates the numbers in some years:



The official estimate of influenza mortality is produced by the Health Protection Agency. It is derived from excess all-cause death registrations in the winter. When the number of all-cause death registrations rises above an expected level in a given week, this excess is counted. The estimates for the last five years in England & Wales are: 1965 (2004-05 winter season), 0 (2005-06), 0 (2006-07), 426 (2007- 08), and 10351 (2008-09). The highest estimate in recent years was for the 1999-2000 flu season, at 21,497.



It is interesting to note that in two out of five quoted recent years there was a zero figure, which means that mortality was under the projected estimate, and therefore a negative sum. Since projected mortality can only be based on average, it is inevitable that in some years it will be above and others below. The Department of Health has also tried to associate flu death with entire excess mortality for the winter season. For instance, a BBC news report with Sir Liam - which was part of the annual flu vaccine drive in 2007 - declared:



"According to Department of Health figures, flu contributes to over 25,000 excess winter deaths every year and thousands of people are hospitalised due to serious complications."



Less ambiguously a pamphlet on pandemic flu, published by the Department of Health and with an introduction by Sir Liam states:



"Ordinary flu occurs every year during the winter months in the UK. It affects 10-15% of the UK population, causing around 12,000 deaths every year."



A factor of 360 separates 33 deaths a year from 12,000. It is not clear what impact, if any, flu vaccination  which is far from universal  has on mortality, but fictitiously high death rates from flu continue to be invoked in support of the vaccination campaign.



John Stone is UK Editor for Age of Autism.Who will be the next big-time musical act to record in Muscle Shoals?

Because it feels like the time is right.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gregg Allman cut the highest profile album made in Muscle Shoals, the North Alabama recording Mecca, in the last few years. Allman's stirring, Grammy-nominated final studio LP "Southern Blood," released early 2018, was cut at hallowed FAME Studios.

Blues-rockers The Black Keys' 2010 LP "Brothers" remains the biggest record made in the Shoals this decade. That multi-platinum, Grammy-winning disc was tracked in the famous 3614 Jackson Hwy. Muscle Shoals Sound building in Sheffield.

With Muscle Shoals Sound in 2018 becoming more active in recording again, and Allman's swan song displaying the soulful sound FAME remains capable of, studios here seem poised to enter a new chapter. After the '60s and '70s zenith, documented in the popular 2013 documentary film "Muscle Shoals," the area's recording and songwriting industry remained productive. Even if that work hasn't always been quite as high profile. In recent times, a new generation of Alabama musicians, including Jason Isbell and Alabama Shakes, tracked at Sheffield's Nutthouse Recording Studio, for example, on their way up.

Now, following the triptych of Allman, Black Keys and the "Muscle Shoals" doc, the time's come for other prominent or rising names to record in Muscle Shoals again.

With that hope in mind, I put together a list of 20 acts who seem like good fits for cutting in Muscle Shoals. The list was kept to active artists and bands. For example, if Rolling Stones and Allman Brothers indebted rockers The Black Crowes ever reunited, they could make one hell of a FAME Studios record. But the Crowes are very much broken-up currently, so I didn't include them in the following list. Also tried to keep the list to acts who haven't recorded in the Shoals yet - at least, that we know of. It would be amazing for The Stones to return to Muscle Shoals Sound, where they cut hits "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses," to track a new studio album. But for the purpose of this list, Jagger and Keef don't meet criteria.

Of course, these are just my takes. If you think of other well-known, present-day acts ideally suited for making new music in Muscle Shoals, let us know the artist in the comments section. For Muscle Shoals music fans, this is a pretty wonderful idea to consider.

By Matt Wake | mwake@al.com

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Jack White

The 21st century's flagship rocker has an affinity for Southern music and talent for twisting history into fresh sounds. Also, Bob Dylan, a major Jack White influence, recorded two of his gospel-period albums at Muscle Shoals Sound, just the sort of curveball White has been known to pull.

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Adele

You can't argue with Adele's vocal prowess, and some Muscle Shoals heat on her musical arrangements and basic tracks would only heighten that strength.

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John Legend

John Legend is the rare contemporary R&B artist who can let his musical roots show but never feels like a throwback, a perfect match for helping move major Shoals recordings forward. Maybe Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard put in a good word when she guested on Legend's 2016 single "Darkness and Light."

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Neil Young

A Shoals session would probably be a better fit for Neil Young's folk side than his electric storms. Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham has collaborated with Young in the past, both live and on record.

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Maren Morris

Soul/R&B is the sound many listeners associate with Muscle Shoals. But with hits from Mac Davis and others, there's a strong-music history too particularly at FAME. Twentysomething country hotshot Maren Morris' music, such as 2016 hit "My Church," would work well in a present-tense Shoals context.

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Bruno Mars

White-hot pop-star with legit musical chops and vintage soul appreciation. It might be unrealistic to think of Bruno Mars (or, as mentioned above, John Legend) cutting an entire album in Muscle Shoals. But even just a song or two would likely spark both the artist and the area.

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Justin Timberlake

The wokeness-obsessed and boyband-biased haters are going to hate. But there's no denying Justin Timberlake's talent at this point, and exploring a more roots-oriented sound would be a tasteful move for him as he gets deeper into his 40s.

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Erykah Badu

Please bring your earth-soul-mama vibe to Muscle Shoals ASAP, ma'am.

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Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton's former band SteelDrivers cut a Grammy-winning record called "The Muscle Shoals Sessions," with local stud Gary Nichols at the mic, after Stapleton left the band. As a solo artist, Stapleton is making some of the most resonant guitar-based music going, on the Americana side of things, but scruffy enough he was tabbed as a Guns N' Roses support-act. He seems a natural to make a Muscle Shoals record.

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U2

U2 frontman Bono appeared in the "Muscle Shoals" doc, saying, among other things: "Magic is the word that comes to mind when I think of Muscle Shoals."

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Miranda Lambert

Country spitfire could easily tap into Bobbie Gentry-style "Fancy" sass.

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Foo Fighters

Many music fans were surprised when Dave Grohl's HBO series "Sonic Highways," which took his band Foo Fighters to eight legendary music cities to record their eighth album, didn't include a Muscle Shoals stop. So if Grohl and HBO ever decide to do "Sonic Highways" season two ...

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Bruce Springsteen

Perhaps the most anthemic American singer/songwriter ever, Bruce Springsteen is no stranger to going small either, see "Nebraska," etc., and a more intimate sounding (perhaps E Street Band-less) Boss record made in Muscle Shoals would slay.

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Tedeschi Trucks Band

Why not go straight to the source of their Duane Allman and Etta James touchstones?

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Sturgill Simpson

It's easy to picture Sturgill Simpson's next take on Waylon-Jennings-meets-Van-Morrison aesthetics going down in the Shoals.

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D'Angelo

Would be intriguing to hear this mercurial modern master put some country into his funk. But don't hold your breath, as D'Angelo famously went 14 years between his classic "Voodoo" album and successful comeback "Black Messiah."

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Leon Bridges

From Clarence Carter to Staple Singers, the Shoals has always wielded sanctified pow.

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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

In recent interviews, former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant has expressed interest in cutting another album with bluegrass star Alison Krauss, with whom he made 2008 sepia standout "Raising Sand."

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Lucy Dacus

One of the most interesting young indie songwriters going, Lucy Dacus' recent single "Addictions" boasts some creative horn lines. Horns have graced many a Muscle Shoals hit, from Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" on, so it would be awesome to hear Dacus do an entire album with horns in the Shoals.

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Eric Clapton

"Clapton is God" has been a saying for like 50 years now. But it was Duane Allman who was Eric Clapton's personal six-string deity, starting with Clapton's fondness for Allman's solo on Wilson Pickett's 1969 "Hey Jude" FAME Studios cover and culminating with "Layla," the 1970 masterwork Derek and The Dominos album Clapton and Allman made together. Clapton has been slowing down on touring in recent years and faced heath challenges. But if Slowhand feels like giving it one more studio go at FAME, the results would likely produce some of his most moving music in years.

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More on music

A new era of recording begins at Muscle Shoals Sound

The 20 best songs ever recorded in Muscle Shoals

A forgotten Drive-By Trucker's raucous return

The musical secrets of FAME Studios legend Rick Hall

Will a troubled Southern R&B genius finally get his due?For about five years, Carnival Cruise Line's Holiday ship was a familiar sight in downtown Mobile, where it sailed to and from Mexico. Then, in 2009, Holiday - the smallest ship in Carnival's fleet - was replaced by the newer, larger Fantasy, and it was transferred to Ibero Cruises, Carnival's Spanish subsidiary.

Now the Holiday, built in 1985, is for sale, with an asking price of $55 million on QPS Marine Ships. The ship is 728 feet long and has nine decks. It holds 1,452 passengers and 660 crew members and is docked in Marseille, France.

Among the Holiday's amenities are several lounges, a dance club, a piano bar, a library and three restaurants that seat 300 to 480 guests.

In September of 2005, while it was docked in Mobile, the Holiday was among three Carnival ships leased for six months by the Federal Emergency Management Association as a temporary home for hundreds left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

In March of 2006, the Holiday was welcomed back at Alabama Cruise Terminal in Mobile. Its successor, the Fantasy, was replaced by the Elation in May of 2010, and in October of 2011 Carnival Cruise Line abruptly left Mobile.

The Holiday was one of seven cruise ships used as a floating hotel at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

After five years without a cruise ship in Mobile, the Fantasy returned in November of 2016 and now offers cruises to the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. Built in 1990, it has become the oldest ship in Carnival's fleet.A Shelby County Sheriff's Office helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing Thursday afternoon.

The incident happened about 1:15 p.m. The helicopter was assisting in the ongoing search for a missing kayaker who disappeared nearly one week ago. During the course of aerial operations to search for any signs of the man, authorities said, the helicopter came in contact with Alabama Power lines.

They made the emergency landing in a field near the Logan Martin Dam. There were no injuries report.

Sheriff's officials the Federal Aviation Administration and Alabama Power have been notified.

The search for 69-year-old James Lowery has been underway since Friday, March 9. The Georgia man was last seen before noon on March 9 at the Logan Martin Dam.Nancy Turnage Swift

A woman fatally shot at UAB Highlands Wednesday evening was a longtime nursing supervisor who died at the hands of a disgruntled employee.

Nancy Swift, a 63-year-old Mississippi native, was described by those who knew her as a sweet, kind soul. She was a wife and mother who lived in Shelby County with her husband.

The shooting happened just before 7 p.m. in or near Swift's second-floor office near the operating room at the 11th Avenue South facility. Sources say Swift was reprimanding an employee - 31-year-old central sterile supply worker Trevis Devon Coleman - who then brandished a gun and opened fire.

Swift was shot, as was a 28-year-old instrument management supervisor Tim Isley, the son of Springville Mayor Butch Isley. After shooting the two, the suspect then turned the gun on himself and died on the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Coleman was pronounced dead on the scene at 7:35 p.m. Coworkers said there had been prior problems with him at work.

The first officers on the scene rushed inside. "Our training for an active shooter is we don't wait,'' said Birmingham police Lt. Pete Williston. "If we can go in as a team, that's how we prefer to do it, but the officers that arrived on the scene did not hesitate. They immediately responded to the active threat that was perceived."

Isley was rushed to the main UAB Hospital where he underwent surgery and was critical but stable in the facility's Trauma and Burn Intensive Care Unit late Wednesday night. Swift was rushed to the emergency room at UAB Highlands where police announced at 10 p.m. that she had died. Her official time of death was 9:01 p.m.

UAB canceled all surgeries scheduled for Thursday at UAB Highlands but said all other hospital operations would continue as normal. Counselors are being provided for employees.

Timothy Noah Isley

"We ask that you please join us in prayer for these families, those who work where the incident occurred, and those who were immediately on the scene, including first responders who acted so heroically under extremely difficult circumstances,'' UAB officials said in a statement to employees information them of the deadly incident.

The ordeal began at 6:55 p.m. Wednesday, when police received the citywide call of an active shooter at the hospital. UAB Police has officers stationed at both UAB Highlands and the main hospital and a call for all possible assistance was dispatched.

Birmingham police officers from precincts across the city - as well as Interim Police Chief Orlando Wilson - descended upon the area and set up a blocks-wide perimeter. Unsure of how many people were wounded, doctors from the main hospital were transported by police to UAB Highlands.

The first officers entered the hospital and then transitioned out once the SWAT team arrived. A methodical room-by-room search was carried out until it was determined there was no longer a threat.

UAB issued an "All Clear" about 7:45 p.m. Crime scene technicians and homicide detectives were brought in to process the scene.

"It's terrible,'' said Birmingham Fire and Rescue Capt. Harold Watson. "As far as what makes people do these terrible things, I don't know."

UAB Hospital Vice President Anthony Patterson called the shooting a horrific tragedy. "This is a sad day for Birmingham UAB. We lost a colleague and a friend last night,'' he said. "First I want to offer my sincerest condolences to the victims who have suffered and to their family and colleagues who are grieving this senseless loss of life and injury."

"Our highest priority is the health and safety of our patients and employees," Patterson said, "and while we all want to know how this happened, we will respect the dignity and the privacy of the victims."

Authorities said there are metal detectors at UAB Highlands and they were in use on Wednesday. "We have extensive security measures in place that include police officers on site 24-7 as well as others that we do not publicly disclose in the interest of safety."

Patterson said UAB officials are limited in what they can say because of the ongoing investigation and also federal laws that protect patient privacy. "When we leave here, we will continue the important work to understand this horrific tragedy,'' he said, "and make sure UAB Hospital is as safe as the environment can be."

The Isley family released this statement on Thursday afternoon: "Our son, Timothy Noah Isley, was injured in a shooting that occurred last night at his place of employment. We would like to thank the doctors and staff at UAB Hospital for the fine care Tim has received as a result of those injuries. Following emergent surgery last night, and a follow up operation this morning, Tim is resting in the Intensive Care Unit recovering from his injuries. In addition to our continued concern for our son's recovery, we grieve along with the families of others affected by this tragedy. We ask that you continue to pray for Tim and please respect our privacy and refrain from contacting the family at this time."

Friends and family of Swift gathered at her Pelham home Thursday, but said they weren't yet ready to talk about what happened.

Coleman's family declined to comment on the shooting, but friends of Coleman, who had no criminal record, said what happened at the hospital was unexpected.

"I've known him all my life,'' said Mekayla Rembert, who lived across from Coleman in southwest Birmingham. "He was a little secluded, but he was sweet person. Don't let them tell you he was all bad."

Rembert was shot and paralyzed in 2011 on the front porch of her home in 2011 in a similar situation. She was sitting on the front with family when her boyfriend got upset with her and pulled a six-shot Smith & Wesson. He shot and wounded Rembert and her grandmother, and then turned the gun on himself.

Wednesday night's shooting brought the memories flooding back. "What makes a person click? No one knows what is going through somebody's mind,'' she said. "People do crazy things and I guess we'll leave her never knowing."A man and a woman are behind bars, charged in connection with the shooting death of a Tuscaloosa man outside a Bessemer motel.

Bessemer police on Thursday announced the arrests of Alexandria Stephens, 23, and Parker Herron, 18. They are charged in the Monday, March 12, slaying of 41-year-old Daniel Laverne Beams.

Stephens, of Tuscaloosa, is charged with manslaughter. She and Herron are both charged with theft of property.

Parker Drake Herron

Bessemer police were dispatched about 11:40 p.m. Monday to the Economy Inn at 1113 9th Avenue S.W. on a report of a person shot, said Sgt. Cortice Miles. They arrived at the motel to find Beams suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Miles said detectives believe that Beams, Stephens, and Herron rode together to the Economy Inn in Beams' vehicle. An argument ensued inside of the car that resulted in the shooting death of Beams by Stephens.

While Beams lay on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound, Herron drove off with Beams' vehicle with Stephens as the passenger. Beams' vehicle was located in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday afternoon and was impounded by detectives. Detectives believe that drugs may be involved with this case.

Stephens was convicted of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in 2017. She also shows several other arrests. Stephens and Herron had warrants issued yesterday for their arrests out of Tuscaloosa County for burglary third-degree.

Miles thanked the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, and the Winfield Police Department, for their assistance in the investigation leading to the arrest of Stephens and Herron.

Beams, a father of three children between the ages of two and 20, struggled with drug addiction, his sister said, Valerie Beams. She had feared that might have played a role in his death. Both Beams and Stephens, who also is from Tuscaloosa, had previous drugs arrests.

"He told me he was cleaning his act up,'' Valerie Beams said. "I told him to stop doing it. That he could do better for himself. He wasn't the fighting type or gang type or anything like that. I'm not going to lie, he did have a drug problem, but he was harmless."

Daniel Beams painted cars for a living, and it was his passion, his sister said. "Everybody said he was the bet car painter ever,'' she said. "He started it in high school and he was a workaholic."

The siblings, two of four in the family, were extremely close. "I didn't like what he did all the time, but I was still there for him. We always said, 'I love you,''' she said. "He was a very loving person. That's how I want people to remember him."

Stephens' bond is set at $60,000. Herron's bond is set at $30,000. Both are awaiting transfer to the Jefferson County Jail.A Madison County Circuit Judge this afternoon recused himself from presiding over the Roland Campos trial, a case in which a former sheriff's investigator is accused of child molestation.

Former Madison County sheriff's investigator Roland Campos appeared in court today for a hearing on whether a local judge would recuse himself from the case.

Judge Chris Comer made the decision to recuse after hearing concerns about an "appearance of impropriety." The optics of the case are a concern for prosecutors and the defense because Campos worked 10 years for the Madison County Sheriff's Office. He resigned this past August on the day he eventually was booked into the Madison County Jail.

Judge Comer held a hearing this afternoon to consider a recusal motion that was filed by the defense and supported by the prosecution. Comer said he sought an advisory opinion from the Judicial Inquiry Commission and hadn't made a decision at the beginning of the hearing.

The judge said his only prior contact with Campos came during a murder trial in which the now-former investigator testified several years ago.

Defense attorney Richard Jensen said although he doesn't suspect any impropriety on the judge's part, the legal question is: Will reasonable people see an appearance of favoritism? Prosecutor Brittany Bucak, an assistant state attorney general, agreed.

The judge's recusal comes after the Madison County District Attorney's Office recused all of its prosecutors from the case. The sheriff's office handed over the investigation to Huntsville police detectives.

The case began Aug. 18, 2017 when the 12-year-old victim reported sexual abuse to the guidance counselor at her middle school, police have said. The victim was taken to the National Child Advocacy Center for a forensic interview, in which she said Campos had touched her genitals and breasts, a Huntsville police investigator testified at a hearing last year. The abuse allegedly happened in February.

As the investigation continued, authorities learned the child also had disclosed the sexual abuse allegations to her mother and a local pastor, according to testimony. The pastor, Michael Walker, of Southside Baptist Church, has been charged with a misdemeanor and accused of failing to report to the abuse. Campos attended Walker's church.

The mother told police Campos has admitted to molesting the victim, according to the investigator. Further details about the circumstances of the alleged confession weren't revealed in court.

AL.com isn't publishing further details about the allegations to protect the identity of the victim.

It's unclear how long it might take to get another judge assigned to the case. A judge from another county could be assigned.

Campos is charged with two counts of felony sexual abuse.

Updated Aug. 21, 2018 to show Walker's charge was dropped after Campos pleaded guilty.The Alabama Attorney General's office has announced a $3.3 million settlement with Colonial Pipeline Company resolving the state's environmental claims resulting from a gasoline leak detected Sept. 9, 2016 and an explosion and fire on Oct. 31 of that year.

The deal includes a $1.3 million civil penalty, $1.8 million in "projects to benefit the state of Alabama," and $200,000 to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, according to a news release from Alabama AG Steve Marshall and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

"This agreement first and foremost addresses the environmental damage to land and water caused by significant gasoline spills in Shelby County during 2016," Marshall said. "I am pleased by the outstanding work of ADEM's legal team who worked closely with our lawyers to achieve a settlement which I believe is fair, reasonable and benefits the people of Alabama."

The Sept. 9 incident involved a massive leak in the below-ground pipeline in Shelby County, at the site of an inactive coal mine near the Cahaba River Wildlife Management Area. A mining inspector detected the leak and notified authorities.

Approximately 7,370 barrels or 309,540 gallons of gasoline were released in that incident. The pipeline, which carries gasoline from refineries near Houston to distribution points as far as New Jersey, was shut down for several days following the detection of the leak, leading to gas shortages and price spikes across much of the eastern United States.

According to the AG's office, the leak was caused by pipe fatigue that resulted from improper compaction of soil below that portion of the pipeline.

Several weeks later, on Oct. 31, contractors working on the pipeline reportedly sparked an explosion when they accidentally struck the line with excavating equipment. Two workers were killed in the explosion, which witnesses say sent a 'geyser' of burning gasoline 100 feet in the air. The fire burned for more than three days at the site before it was extinguished.

Another 4,444 barrels -- or 186,648 gallons -- of gasoline were released. A portion of the gasoline lost after the explosion was successfully recovered.

The settlement also includes "three small releases elsewhere in Alabama."

Colonial's primary regulator is the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is a U.S. Department of Transportation agency, but the investigations into the two incidents are being headed by the National Transportation Safety Board. No public announcement has been made regarding the status of those investigations.A bill to expand oversight of child care centers in Alabama, the subject of debate and compromise for more than a year, won final approval today in the Legislature.

Gov. Kay Ivey could sign the Child Care Safety Act into law.

Josh Pendergrass, communications director for the governor, said the bill by Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee would be reviewed.

"In keeping with the governor's well-known practice, Rep. Warren's bill will undergo a legal review and then be considered, on its merits, for approval by the governor," Pendergrass said in an email.

The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 23-4 today. That came after Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, agreed to drop his efforts to block the bill. Shelnutt had delayed the bill last week because he said he had concerns about the effect on church-affiliated child care centers that accept children who receive federal subsidies.

Warren and supporters of her bill say it would be an important step toward uniform standards needed to ensure safety in child care centers.

The Alabama Department of Human Resources licenses and sets minimum standards for child care centers, but state law allows centers that claim affiliation with a church to be exempt.

Almost half of the state's roughly 1,900 centers are exempt.

Warren's bill would require licensing for any center that enrolls children whose families receive federal subsidies, including church-affiliated centers.

Other church-affiliated centers would remain exempt from licensing but would face more regulation, including a requirement to report employees names and criminal histories to DHR each year.

The House passed Warren's bill by a vote of 86-5 on Feb. 1. A similar bill had also passed the House last year but died in the Senate on the last day of the session.

"It's going to make a difference," Warren said. "Things are not going to be business as usual in the state of Alabama in day cares in the state. And that's every day care in the state of Alabama."

A 5-year-old Mobile boy died last August after he was left in a van by a driver for an unlicensed center. The driver had a criminal record, authorities said.

Warren said the tragedy exemplified the need for more regulations after her bill had failed a few months before.

"I couldn't say that last year in May, but his death in August proved that we had a problem in the state of Alabama," Warren said.

Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, who handled Warren's bill in the Senate, said it was an example of where "government has to infringe a little bit," comparing it to a seat belt bill he sponsored years go.

"We're going to save lives by passing this bill," Dial said.

Angela Thomas, communications manager for VOICES for Alabama's Children, issued a statement calling the bill an "incremental step." VOICES has advocated for years for a repeal of the license-exemption for church-affiliated centers.

"Our position on the state of child care licensing remains the same - all child care facilities should be licensed and inspected," Thomas said.

Voting against the bill were Sens. Shelnutt; Greg Albritton, R-Range; Tim Melson, R-Florence and Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.An Alabama lawmaker wants to stop the practice of springing forward and falling back.

Sen. Rusty Glover, R-Semmes, has introduced a measure that would put Alabama on Daylight Saving Time year-round. The bill is co-sponsored by 27 Republican and Democrat Senators.

"Like most Alabamians, I would like to see our state keep Daylight Savings Time year round instead of changing our clocks back in the fall. Research has shown the immense benefits this would bring to our state and her citizens," Glover said.

Currently, clocks are set ahead one hour on the second Sunday in March and back again the first Sunday in November. The practice dates to World War I, originally starting as a way to conserve energy.

The federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to opt out of DST and Arizona and Hawaii stay on standard time year-round. States are not allowed to remain in DST permanently and any measure passed in Alabama or any other state would require Congressional approval before it could be enacted.

Glover's resolution asks President Donald Trump and Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to allow Alabama to make the change, and urges them to enact DST across the country.

It's not the first time Glover has introduced time change legislation, though previous efforts have been unsuccessful.

Last week, Florida's legislature passed a bill to allow the state to stay on DST all year. The measure is awaiting the signature of Gov. Rick Scott."Beware the Ides of March."

You may have heard the phrase at some point in your life. Ever wondered what it means?

March 15 is referred to as the "Ides of March." The actual phrase references nothing more than the day- in Roman times "ides" was a date, referring to the first full moon of a given month, which usually fell on the 15th.

It was on the Ides of March in 44BC that Roman emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed to death during a meeting of the Senate. Caesar had previously been warned by a seer that he would come to harm no later than the Ides of March, a warning the emperor ignored.

History says the conversation went something like this:

"Well, the Ides of March are come," Caesar said.

"Aye, they are come," responded the seer, "but they are not gone."

Caesar's murder sparked a civil war in Rome, giving the Ides of March its initial bad reputation.

The legend of the Ides of March truly began, however, when William Shakespeare referenced it in his play 16th century play "Julius Caesar." In the play, the warning to Caesar is even simpler: "Beware the Ides of March."

Like many of Shakespeare's phrases - "All that glitters is not gold," "brave new world," and "elbow room," - "the Ides of March" lasted through history and is still used today to signify a particularly ominous day.Teachers who train and qualify could have guns in school under a bill approved this morning by an Alabama House of Representatives committee.

The bill by Rep. Will Ainsworth, R-Guntersville, is one of the proposals sparked by the mass shooting that killed 17 people at a Florida high school on Feb. 14.

The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee approved it on a 5-4 vote. The bill is still a long way from becoming law. It would have to pass the House and Senate.

The committee heard pros and cons about arming teachers during a public hearing on Wednesday.

The committee adopted a new version of Ainsworth's bill this morning before approving it. Ainsworth said it combined his bill with parts of another by Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla. Farley's bill would have allowed school systems to set up volunteer emergency teams under the supervision of county sheriffs and police chiefs.

Farley asked the committee to set his bill aside this morning.

Voting for Ainsworth's bill in committee this morning were Ainsworth, Farley and Reps. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, the committee chairman, Isaac Whorton, R-Valley and Tommy Hanes, R-Scottsboro.

Voting against it were Reps. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa; Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville; Mary Moore, D-Birmingham; and Harry Shiver, R-Stockton.

Shiver, a retired physical education teacher and coach who taught for 32 years, said he opposed the bill because he was against teachers carrying guns, in part, because most teachers are women.

"I taught for 32 years and it's mostly ladies that's teaching and they've got more things to worry about than carrying a gun," Shiver said.

Shiver said teachers with guns would be at risk of being shot by law enforcement responding to a shooting inside a school.

Ainsworth said many women can capably handle firearms, including those who serve in the military and law enforcement.

Moore said instead of arming teachers, the Legislature should boost funding to provide more money for police officers based in schools, often called school resource officers.

Moore said the poorer school systems that can't afford school resource officers also would not be able to pay for the 40-hour training required for any armed teachers under Ainsworth's proposal.

"Even though you give them that option, they can't opt in because they don't have the funding," Moore said.

Ainsworth said the training to arm teachers. would be less expensive that school resource officers.

Under Ainsworth's bill, a teacher or school administrator designated to carry or store a gun on campus would have to complete, at a minimum, 40 hours of training that would include firearms safety, crisis management and active shooter training. They would also have to complete a firearms qualification annually.

Also, before final approval to carry or store a gun, a teacher or administrator would need a recommendation from the school principal, local superintendent and sheriff or chief of police and approval by the local school board.

"It's also going to allow the superintendent, working with the principal as well as the local law enforcement agent, chief of police or the sheriff in that community, to actually decide who would carry," Ainsworth said. "It's still voluntary, strictly permissive."

Ainsworth's bill goes to the House floor.

If it passes the House, Sen. Gerald Dial said he might carry it in the Senate, depending on some of the specifics. Dial said he generally supports the concept.

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said it was too soon to assess the chances without knowing specifics on a bill that might ultimately reach the Senate.

"It's my intent to assign it to a committee and just see where it goes from there," Marsh said.

Marsh has said he expects the session to wrap up by the end of the month.A regional job fair that organizers say will represent employers looking to fill more than 2,000 positions will be held March 22 at the Mobile Civic Center.

According to information provided by the Alabama Department of Labor, the event is being organized by the Alabama Career Center System along with partners including the city of Mobile and the Southwest Alabama Partnership for Training and employment.

The event will be open to all from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 22; it will open at 10 a.m. for veterans. There is no fee to attend. Job-seekers are encouraged to re-register at www.labor.alabama.gov/jobfair. "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."

Participants also are advised to bring copies of their resumes and to dress professionally.

Employers interested in taking part also can register at the site, or by calling 251-461-4146.

In a press release announcing the event, Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said this is the first such regional fair his department has helped present in Mobile. "We've got a diverse group of employers who are planning to attend, and all of them are looking to hire," he said. "This is a great opportunity for anyone looking for a job or looking for a change in career."

According to information provided by organizers, participating companies will include Alabama Power, Aloha Hospitality, Amazon, Berg Spiral Pipe, Buffalo Rock, Fedex Freight, Ingalls, Meyer Vacation Rentals, Provalus, Rouses Market, SSAB, the University of South Alabama, VT MAE, Waffle House and many more. More than 2,200 available jobs are represented.MIAMI (AP) -- Florida officials said Thursday that four people have been found dead in the rubble of a collapsed South Florida pedestrian bridge where the frantic search for any survivors continued past nightfall.

Fire Chief Dave Downey said at an evening news briefing that four deceased people were found amid the chaotic scene of concrete rubble and crumpled vehicles. He said nine victims were removed "early on" and taken to hospitals but didn't elaborate on their conditions. He said the "search and rescue mode" -- deploying trained canines, search cameras and sensitive listening devices -- was continuing into the night.

Gov. Rick Scott also spoke to reporters, saying "everybody is working hard to make sure we rescue anyone who can be rescued." The Florida governor added that an exhaustive investigation now beginning will get to the bottom of "why this happened and what happened" and vowed that anyone who did anything wrong would be held accountable.

Miami-Dade police director Juan Perez praised the actions of first responders during a news conference but acknowledged the likelihood of finding more victims under the rubble was growing more difficult with the passage of time.

"We know that there's going to be a negative outcome at the end of the day," Perez said.

The bridge was under construction and collapsed onto a busy Miami highway Thursday, crushing at least eight vehicles under massive slabs of concrete and steel. One side of the bridge led to Florida International University, a school west of the city's downtown.

Search-and-rescue crews drilled holes into the debris and used their highly trained dogs to look for survivors. They had to work carefully because part of the structure was still unsafe. At least 10 people were taken to hospitals. The number of fatalities was not immediately known.

The 950-ton (860-metric ton) bridge had been assembled by the side of the highway and moved into place Saturday to great fanfare. The span stretched almost 200 feet (60 meters) to connect Florida International University with the city of Sweetwater. It was expected to open to foot traffic next year.

"This bridge was about goodness, not sadness," said FIU President Mark Rosenberg. "Now we're feeling immense sadness, uncontrollable sadness. And our hearts go out to all those affected, their friends and their families. We're committed to assist in all efforts necessary, and our hope is that this sadness can galvanize the entire community to stay the course, a course of goodness, of hope, of opportunity."

First-of-its-kind pedestrian bridge swings into place. FIU is about building bridges and student safety. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully, -President Mark B. Rosenberg. https://t.co/x8gPM9A4DG #worldsahead pic.twitter.com/mPEMeh2zmw  FIU (@FIU) March 10, 2018

Jacob Miller, a senior at FIU, was visiting a friend in a dorm when he heard sirens and horns honking. He went to a balcony and could see rubble coming down.

"I saw there were multiple cars crushed under the bridge. It was just terrible. I saw some people stopping their cars, trying to get out, trying to assess the situation to see if there is anything they could do to help," he said.

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt III said a team of specialists was heading to Miami on Thursday night with plans to begin its investigation Friday morning.

Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said his department's homicide team would take over the investigation after rescue efforts are complete.

The exact death toll was unclear. Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alejandro Camacho told CBS News that there were "several fatalities." Carlie Waibel, a spokeswoman for Sen. Bill Nelson, said local officials told Nelson that people had died, but a final number had not been confirmed.

An accelerated construction method was supposed to reduce risks to workers and pedestrians and minimize traffic disruption, the university said.

Renderings showed a tall, off-center tower with cables attached to the walkway to support it. When the bridge collapsed, the main tower had not yet been installed, and it was unclear what the builders were using as temporary supports.

Robert Bea, a professor of engineering and construction management at the University of California, Berkeley, said it was too early to know exactly what happened, but the decision to use what the bridge builders called an "innovative installation" was risky, especially because the bridge spanned a heavily traveled thoroughfare.

"Innovations take a design firm into an area where they don't have applicable experience, and then we have another unexpected failure on our hands," Bea said after reviewing the bridge's design and photos of the collapse.

Sweetwater police Detective Juan Llera was in a nearby meeting when the bridge collapsed.

"I heard a 'boom' like a bomb had exploded," he said. "At first I thought it was a terrorist attack."

He said he saw three construction workers who had been injured. One had a head injury and was passing in and out of consciousness, another one had a leg injury leg and the third was lying on the street unconscious. He started performing CPR on him.

"We were able to keep him alive to send him to the hospital," Llera said.

Kendall Regional Medical Center received 10 injured people. Of those, two were in "extremely critical" condition and the other eight were stable with injuries such as broken bones, bruises and abrasions, said Dr. Mark McKenney, the hospital's director of general surgery.

Of the two more serious cases, one arrived in cardiac arrest but was revived. The other had a serious brain injury, McKenney said.

The main companies behind the $14.2 million construction project have faced questions about their past work, and one was fined in 2012 when a 90-ton (80-metric ton) section of a bridge collapsed in Virginia.

Munilla Construction Management, or MCM, the Miami-based construction management firm that won the bridge contract, had a news release on its website touting the project with FIGG Bridge Engineers, a Tallahassee firm. It said initial reports that it had taken its website down were incorrect and that the site had become temporarily unavailable due to increased web traffic. "It has since been restored," the company said in a statement.

MCM said on Twitter that it was "a family business and we are all devastated and doing everything we can to assist. We will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way."

FIGG said in a statement, "In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before."

But FIGG was fined in 2012 after a 90-ton (80-metric ton) section of a bridge it was building in Virginia crashed onto railroad tracks below, causing minor injuries to several workers. The citation from the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry said FIGG did not properly inspect a girder and had not obtained written consent from its manufacturer before modifying it, according to a story in The Virginian-Pilot.

Court documents show that MCM was accused of substandard work in a lawsuit filed earlier this month. The suit said a worker at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, where the company is working on an expansion, was injured when a makeshift MCM-built bridge collapsed under his weight.

The suit accused the company of employing "incompetent, inexperienced, unskilled or careless employees" at the job site.

A review of Occupational Safety Health Administration records shows that MCM has been fined for 11 safety violations in the past five years. The fines totaling more than $50,000 arose from complaints about unsafe trenches, cement dust and other problems at its Florida work sites.

Florida International University is the second largest university in the state, with 55,000 students, most of whom live off-campus. The bridge was supposed to be a safe way to cross a busy highway.

A university student was killed in August while crossing the road that the bridge was supposed to span.

Written by Adriana Gomez Licon. Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Curt Anderson in Miami and Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg contributed to this report.Fallout over a five-year investigation of Alabama State University that found no wrongdoing temporarily stalled consideration of the education budget in the state Senate.

Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, proposed an amendment to boost Alabama State's budget by $3.5 million to offset the damage caused by the investigation.

When the Senate rejected the amendment, Singleton launched a filibuster to block a vote on the budget.

Singleton later proposed a second amendment to provide an additional $1.2 million to Alabama State. The Senate adopted the second amendment, then approved the education budget.

The education budget calls for spending $6.6 billion from the Education Trust Fund next year, about $216 million more than this year.

The House had passed the budget earlier, but would have to agree to Senate changes before sending the budget to the governor, who could give it final approval.

The probe of ASU was launched under former Gov. Robert Bentley and

by the state Attorney General's office with no charges.

ASU officials and former officials have previously said the investigation hurt the university's finances and reputation, leading to a decline in enrollment and other problems.

Singleton said the University of Alabama and Auburn University would never have been targets of a forensic audit and subsequent investigation under the same circumstances.

Although Singleton's first amendment was rejected, other senators from both parties made comments on the floor backing Singleton in his view of what happened to Alabama State.

"We had what amounted to a public show trial with no indictments and no convictions," Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Montgomery, said.

Singleton said the $1.2 million in his amendment for ASU would go to deferred maintenance. Before the amendment, the budget already included $400,000 for dormitory renovations at ASU.

With Singleton's amendment, ASU would now receive $46 million from the Education Trust Fund, an increase of $3 million over this year.

Earlier today, the Senate also approved a 2.5 percent cost of living raise for education employees in K-12 and community colleges. The raise is expected to cost about $102 million a year.Update:

Toys R Us gift cards will expire in 30 days,

The bankrupt toy chain's "reward dollars" and "endless earnings" will also expire in 30 days. Any gift cards and reward points not used by that date will lose their value.

Earlier story:

Toys R Us has filed for liquidation and announced it will close all 735 of its U.S. stores, the latest retailer to collapse amid growing online competition and crushing debt.

The shutdown will result in the loss of 33,000 jobs and big-box real estate vacancies across the country. It will also leave thousands of kids and parents holding Toys R Us gift cards, a popular gifting option among the younger set. So, what should you do if you have a Toys R Us gift card?

Confusion over Toys R Us gift cards began yesterday when the company announced it was closing its UK operations and stores there quit accepting gift cards on March 11. The announcement spread online, where it began to be reported that U.S. stores were no longer accepting the cards. As of March 14, Toys R Us was still accepting gift cards, though the announcement of its bankruptcy and closure could change that.

The company said it will provide more details about liquidation plans soon, so the timeline for when stores will be shutting down remains to be seen. The best advice? Spend your gift card sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, Sen. Church Schumer, D-NY, wants to make sure the retailer honors its cards.

The Senate Minority Leader sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen urging the agency to do its part to protect consumers.

"With the entire Toys R Us operation at risk of shutting its doors for good, I am urging the company to redeem outstanding gift cards for cash, so they are not as worthless and unwanted as a lump of coal in a stocking," Schumer said. "It would be a sad toy story if those same consumers got gamed by a Toys R Us closure and left holding useless gift cards that were intended to bring a smile to the face of a child."Update:

Toys R Us has filed for liquidation and has

The toy chain said it will provide more details about liquidation plans in the near future.

"I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the company's U.S. operations," Dave Brandon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said. "We are therefore implementing an orderly process to shutter our U.S. operations and will pursue going concern sales or reorganizations of certain of our international businesses, while our other international businesses consider their options."

Earlier story:

Toys R Us is planning to sell or close all 800 of its U.S. stores, according to multiple media reports.

The retail chain has failed to find a buyer or restructure its debt in the wake of its bankruptcy late last year. The New Jersey-based chain filed for bankruptcy in September, with disappointing holiday sales and concern among vendors adding to its financial issues.

The chain announced in January it was closing 180 locations, roughly 20 percent of its retail footprint.

The chain's shutdown could eliminate the jobs of as many as 33,000 people.

According to the Washington Post, U.S. employees have been told shutdowns would occur over time and not all at once.

Two Toys R Us stores in Alabama were originally set to close, which included the Summit location. The store in Tuscaloosa, located at 2600 McFarland Blvd. was the other. Company officials later said the Summit location would remain open. Other Toys R Us locations in Alabama are in Dothan, Foley, Hoover, Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery.

Toys R Us UK announced Wednesday it was closing all 100 of its stores.

At the time of its bankruptcy, Toys R Us faced debts of up to $4.9 billion, including $400 million in interest payments due in 2018 and $1.7 billion due in 2019.A rocketry club from California won't attend a prestigious NASAcompetition due to their home state's ban against publicly funded travel to Alabama.

The Citrus College Rocket Owls were one of 60 school teams invited to Huntsville to compete in NASA Student Launch Program in April. Groups from 23 states are competing in the 18th annual event in which teams design, build, test and fly a high-altitude reusable rocket.

Despite their invite, Citrus College, a community college located outside Los Angeles, won't be attending. Last year, California announced it was banning publicly funded travel to Alabama and seven other states due to laws that could discriminate against the LGBTQ community. In Alabama's case, it was a law that allows adoption agencies to follow faith-based policies, which includes not placing children with same-sex couples.

"The college stands with the State Chancellor, the Legislature and the Governor in support of AB 1887 as a response against discrimination. As an alternative, the Rocket Owls will be participating in a rocket competition sponsored by Friends of Amateur Rocketry/Mars Society to be held in Mojave, California."

The change isn't enough for some, however. Citrus College math professor Paul Swatzel said he's donating $500 towards effort to provide private funding for the Alabama trip.



"To be an undergraduate, even more a community college student, to do something like this alongside Ivy League schools and top four-year schools across the country is quite an experience," Swatzel told the Citrus College Clarion.

The Rocket Owl's dilemma has also attracted the attention of famed "October Sky" author Homer Hickam, a former NASA engineer.

Despite the ban, team members said they will continue their work with a goal of meeting all contest goals save the final launch.

"The team will still hold an "official" launch in Southern California but will not be able to receive any points for the launch itself. This will effectively take the team out of the running for a Top 5 ranking in the competition, a tradition consistently held by the Rocket Owls throughout its lifetime," the team said in a statement.

"The team knows that the true reward of the NASA Student Launch is the work put into the competition; the reports, the presentations, the construction, and the launches are all experiences that have fostered the team's skills and have contributed to their academic and professional development," it added.

Only one other community college, Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been invited to attend. Two other California schools - UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley - are planning to attend the event, relying on private funding. Cal Poly Pomona's team will also be attending but using non-state funding for the trip, university officials said.

Update: Corrected March 16, 3:58 p.m. to reflect Cal Poly Pomona will be attending the event.One person was killed and another wounded in a shooting Wednesday evening at UAB Hospital Highlands. A third person -- the gunman -- then shot and killed himself, according to Birmingham police.

One victim, an employee, was shot multiple times in the chest and rushed to the main UAB Hospital. The second victim was being treated at Highlands. At least one of the two injured is a male.

The surviving victim is in stable condition, police said just before 10 p.m.

The shooter, a male, was found dead in a third floor emergency room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

At 6:55 p.m., police received the citywide call of an active shooter at the hospital. "There is no threat to the public," Lt. Peter Williston said at 8:40 p.m.

After police determined the scene was secure, officers searched each room. Paramedics entered the building through the same-day surgery entrance and were taken to the second floor where it was believed the victims were located.

It appears police have made about a 3-4 block perimeter around UAB Highland.  Anna Beahm (@_AnnaBeahm) March 15, 2018

Employees were led to UAB Police headquarters. One woman who appeared to be an employee collapsed from an apparent panic attack and was examined by medics.

After going into a lock-down following reports of the shooting, UAB around 7:45 p.m. sent an alert saying police "issued an all clear."

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Capt. Harold Watson said the shooting points to the need for more active shooting training for first responders and for the general public to be more aware of their surroundings.

All UAB Highlands Hospital surgeries scheduled for Thursday are cancelled. All other UAB campuses will operate at normal times.

The facility is at 1201 11th Ave. S.

AL.com reporters Ivana Hrynkiw and Anna Beahm contributed to this report.The Texas family of a bus driver who died when his charter bus veered off an Alabama interstate with dozens of students aboard says it's unlikely he fell asleep.

Alisa Louis said Wednesday that her 65-year-old husband, Harry Caligone, had made the spring break trip to Disney World for years. This year, he had been driving students from Channelview High School near Houston.

About three dozen students and adults went to hospitals after the accident, and nine remained hospitalized Wednesday. Caligone was the only person killed.

Caligone's son, Harrison Guy, told the Houston Chronicle that his father was a responsible driver who wouldn't continue driving if sleepy.

Investigators say the accident happened early Tuesday as Caligone drove to meet a relief driver less than an hour away in Mobile.A record number of Alabama schools participated in an annual school safety awards contest that was first started 16 years ago under former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor.

This year's award judging occurred on Wednesday, the same day that students nationwide joined in for mass protests as part of the #ENOUGH: National School Walkout, in recognition of the one-month anniversary following the Feb. 14 school shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17.

Forty-seven schools submitted entries that were judged by a panel of 16 law enforcement personnel at the Alabama Attorney General's Office in Montgomery. That is about twice as many schools compared to those who participated in the contest last year.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that occurs next year," said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, whose office has continued with a contest that has occurred each year since 2013, after it was briefly stopped. "We want to be able to advance best practices around the state. This highlights the really good things in what schools are doing in physical planning and training and we'll take that statewide to replicate what they are doing really well."

Winning entries will be announced next week. Marshall said his office will travel around the state, present trophies to the winning schools and highlight their school security plans.

"What we are doing is bringing attention to the school systems, education personnel and law enforcement what schools are doing the best of the best," Marshall said. "We hope that by highlighting what they are doing, that we are able to identify those programs that transcend schools and school systems."

Madison City Police Cpl. Chris Townsend, who was one of the day's judges, said the biggest takeaway he got from the participating school systems was the increasing collaborative efforts schools were undertaking with police and emergency officials.

Townsend also credited the Alabama school systems for increasing the number of uniformed and trained school resource officers statewide. Alabama is home to the National Association of School Resources, based in Hoover.

Bobby Hall, executive director of learning support with Sylacauga City Schools who also served as a judge, said his school system has increased the number of resource officers since last month's tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. All four of Sylacauga's schools now has a school resource officer, up from two before the Florida shooting.

Other schools have been adding school resource officers, including the Baldwin County School System which announced last week that all 46 campuses will have a resource officer before the start of the next school year.

"It's very intriguing to see how bad things bring about good things," Hall said. "The biggest thing is the training of the officers in the schools. It's a different arena as opposed to being on patrol."

The judging also occurred as lawmakers, just blocks away in the State House, debated a host of school safety and security proposals highlighted by a bill that would allow trained teachers carry firearms into schools.

Marshall said whatever the Legislature decides to do, he wants law enforcement professionals to have a voice.

"They are the ones who are the most knowledgeable on how to deal with a crisis," Marshall said.By Jamie Schor, marketing manager of Red Mountain Theatre Company

Red Mountain Theatre Company is proud to announce the inaugural Human Rights New Works Festival, March 15-18 at the RMTC Cabaret Theatre. This four day event will feature a variety of dramatic staged readings of new works, panel discussions, a full production of a curated piece, and talkback sessions.

In its essence, the festival is a conversation and a celebration of what unites us all-our humanity.

University of Montevallo Theatre Professor and Department Chair David Callaghan

One of the four readings featured is Sam's Room, a pop concert dramedy that follows Sam, a teenager in 1998 with nonverbal special needs, on his path to find a way to communicate. Shifting between cruel reality and pop star fantasy, Sam's Room powerfully reveals the universal struggle with communication by giving a voice to someone who's never had one.

University of Montevallo Theatre Professor and Department Chair David Callaghan has never been shy to take the helm of an ambitious project. Serving as director of Sam's Room, Dr. Callaghan was connected to the work when approached about participating in the Human Rights New Works Festival. When reflecting on the work, Callaghan stated,"I was attracted to the theatricality of it. I recently directed Spring Awakening and it had a similar driving principle that every teenager envisions themselves as a rock star in the privacy of their bedroom. It's the story of their dreamscapes and how they transcend those boundaries. I connected that to Sam's Room and Sam's need to communicate."

On a larger scope, Dr. Callaghan believes this delivers a much larger social message on a local, regional, national, and global scale. "It generates awareness to society about students on the spectrum. Over the years, it has become a larger part of our educational landscape. It further diminishes a stigma about individuals with special need and allows them and their families to feel more inclusive. Hopefully, it makes people more aware of our shared humanity and live theatre creates a space for thoughtful reflection in the midst of our overloaded lives," Callaghan noted.

As it regards to the Human Rights New Works Festival, Dr. Callaghan is excited about the upcoming event and what it means for the city of Birmingham. "It's the first time Birmingham is presenting a platform on such a scale. I'm really interested in musicals and plays that engage social themes. It's a tremendous achievement for RMTC and I am very happy for them. The festival is an ambitious and exciting event."

RMTC is ecstatic to have Dr. Callaghan on board for an event that hopes to open the doors of communication among the artist, the individual, and the community overall. RMTC invites the public to an event that will surely be engaging, enlightening, and life changing.

Sam Room's

RMTC Cabaret Theatre

Saturday, March 17 at 8:30PM

Book by Dale Sampson with Trey Coates-Mitchell

Music & Lyrics by Caitlin Bell, Marc Campbell and Dale Sampson

Tickets for individual readings are $10 each or you can purchase a Readings Pass for $20. Tickets for Alabama Story (full production) start at $15. For more information, visit RMTChumanrights.org.Seventeen minutes is not enough.

I appreciate the statement. I do. I admire the pluck, in the face of bile from those who claimed 17 minutes of "skipping school" would corrupt our young.

Those are the same kind of people who demanded young people stay in school instead of following the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Birmingham Children's crusade in 1963, who told them they would never make a difference. Who told them they were just children who could not change the world.

So thank you, students, for the 17 minutes. Those steps mean something.

But 17 minutes is not enough. Eighteen minutes is not enough.

The day of the national school walkout - when students across the nation made their voices heard for 17 students killed in Parkland, Fla., and many in Alabama added an 18th minute for Huffman High's Courtlin Arrington - part of UAB hospital was locked down for an "active shooter."

A disgruntled worker killed his boss, Nancy Swift, in cold blood. He shot another man and turned the gun on himself.

Active shooters. School shootings. Lockdown. Words we have come to know too well, and to loathe. It is numbing.

People question whether the incident at Huffman this month was a school shooting or a shooting at a school, and I see the difference. I see the absurdity. We talk semantics instead of solutions, and Alabama's inevitable answer will be to let people die, to toss more guns into the shooting gallery and hope the right people get the business end of the bullets.

I wish I felt numb. I ought to.

In the time I've been covering news in my town - Birmingham -- there have been 2,900 murders in the city alone. In the time I've been covering news in this state - 32 years now - there have been 11,500 killings in the state of Alabama. Most of them by gun.

UAB Highlands locked down Wednesday night as a disgruntled employee opened fire. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

That's like the whole city of Gulf Shores, shot dead.

Some of them stand out. If only because we stop long enough to pay attention. Arrington was one, shot dead in a classroom that should have been a safe place.

There was little Ta Leayah Stafford, shot in the head while sitting in a car last year in Birmingham. She was four years old, ripped from the world as collateral damage in a shootout.

There was 12-year-old Kayla Mendenhall who went to a family gathering in Leeds last year, to a place where she felt safe. She played and wrestled with a family member who was strapped. The gun went off. And she died.

Before she had a chance to become anything. But a victim.

Seventeen minutes is a start. It's not enough.

Because the problem we have in America is not just a school problem. Mass shootings and run-of-the-mill shootings and accidental shootings and all manner of shootings are bigger than that. Metal detectors won't solve them and arming Mr. Kotter or Ms. Frizzle won't solve them -- at least two teachers accidentally fired weapons in their schools this week. Pretending we protect ourselves by giving every Tom, Dick and Mary a weapon is an insult to the dead.

Have you seen Tom, Dick and Mary try to use the chip reader in a checkout line? You want that as the last line of defense?

Kayla Mendenhall

We have too many guns. They are too easy to get. We give people who want to stockpile those weapons the loudest voice in the debate, and too few people dare to speak up.

We make it too easy for unstable people to put their hands on weapons that kill large numbers of people. In far less than 17 minutes.

But that's not enough either. Families must see their role in these tragedies, recognize signs of trouble and work to prevent it. We must re-evaluate the way we spot and deal with mental illness. We must put as half as much effort into rehabilitation as we do punishment. We have be able to discuss solutions before it's too late.

Reason cannot be drowned out by politics.

Adults must stand. Like those students. To make Wednesday's protest just a start.

John Archibald's column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.Sam Hinkes laid down for 17 minutes in the grass of Plaza of the Americas holding up an orange sign that read MSD Strong.

Remembering his town of Coral Springs, neighbor to Parkland, the 22-year-old UF psychology senior said he wanted to channel his emotions after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resulted in the deaths of 14 high schoolers and three faculty members. He wanted to take action. They spent 17 minutes lying down to honor the victims.

I went home and saw flowers and how this shattered the community, and it hurt, he said. But Im channeling that hurt into trying to make a difference.

Hinkes was one of a handful of people who participated in Indivisible UFs lie-down protest at 10 a.m. Wednesday to draw awareness to the shooting and the need for gun reform. Indivisible UF is a political advocacy and activism group, said Sophia Eikemberry, co-founder and vice president of Indivisible UF.

Eikemberry said she created the protest because she wanted to make a statement at UF.

Those walking by the protest would give odd looks or stop to ask questions on gun control.

Calissa McCue, a 23-year-old UF history junior, walked by the protest on the way to get food before class. She said she did not think the display would make much of an impact on the overall issue.

It doesnt seem that big, she said. The D.C. shoes protest that happened recently was shocking and brought lots of attention, she said of the recent protest at the Capitol where people left thousands of shoes to represent child victims of gun violence since 2012. A few people lying on the grass compared to that doesnt do much.

Hinkes said he urges students to not let the momentum started by the students in Parkland slide.

Not only is UF or the state of Florida listening, he said, but the world is listening. If something compels you to get up in the morning to do something like this, get up and be loud.

Students lie on the grass at Plaza of the Americas holding signs as a part of Indivisible UF's lie-down protest Wednesday morning.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe NowFor 17 minutes, about 100 Eastside High School students, arms linked, stood silent in their school courtyard Wednesday morning. Catherine Sarosi, 18, had never heard her classmates so quiet.

We felt the gravity of what had happened, and we wanted to respect the people that lost their lives, Sarosi said.

Sarosi and her classmates were among thousands of students who marched and walked-out of their schools across the country to protest gun violence and demand gun reform. Students left their classrooms for 17 minutes, one minute for each victim of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to The New York Times. Alachua County School Board member Robert Hyatt said students who participated in Wednesdays protests would not face punishment.

The students walked out of classes at about 10 a.m. and met in the courtyard. Some brought signs, including one that listed anti-gun laws, Sarosi said.

After the 17 minutes of silence, Eastside student Ari Bechtel told his classmates to take a stand and get involved. After Bechtel spoke, students went back to class  but not to stay. At about noon, before lunch period, students marched out of classes again, this time more informally, said Bailey McIntyre, a 17-year-old high school senior.

McIntyre said the second walkout was an opportunity for students to talk about change they want to see happen.

I'm contacting legislators, McIntyre said on how she plans on making a change.

On the other side of the city, about 100 other protesters marched from Buchholz High School to Congressman Ted Yohos office, located at 5000 NW 27th Court, where they honored the victims of the Parkland shooting and advocated for stricter gun regulations. Womens March for Gainesville and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in Americas Gainesville chapter co-sponsored the event.

Sandy Parker, a volunteer with Indivisible Gainesville, started the rally in front of Yohos office by saying the name and age of each Parkland shooting victim while one white rose for each was placed in front of a marquis outside the office. A black ribbon was tied to a card with the victims name to each flower.

No more names. No more victims, protesters chanted after the last flower was placed.

After the chants, students took the megaphone to share their fears.

Middle School seventh-grader Resli Ward told the crowd said before Parkland, shootings always seemed so far away. But now the Westwood Middle School seventh-grader and her friends talk all the time about the possibility of someone showing up to their classroom with a gun.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now

Students should be worried about their next test, not if theyre going to die today, she said.

When the 11:15 a.m. march from Buchholz High School began, Lorelei Essers grandnephew ran ahead of her.

Four-year-old Gabriel jumped up and down the sidewalk with his blue and yellow sign that read Childrens Lives Matter.

Esser, 68, held her own sign high above her head, which read, Stand Up For Children Not Guns. She said she struggles with how to present the dangers of guns to her grandnephew.

She doesnt want to frighten him. But then she thinks of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where children only two to three years older than Gabriel were killed.

Age is indiscriminate, it doesnt matter whether youre his age or my age, she said. These shootings affect all of us.

Yoho talked with about a handful of students from the march over Skype from his Washington D.C. office at 12:30 p.m. about gun reform. His office scheduled the meeting Monday when the Alachua County Sheriffs Office told Yohos aids of the Wednesday protest, said Yoho constituent advocate Jessica Norfleet.

For nearly an hour, Yoho and the students went back and forth. At one point Yoho suggested the students try shooting a gun.

I find it interesting that you want to take away rights from people that youve never experienced, Yoho said. Go out to a sporting play or one of the gun ranges and have an instruction on how to use a gun, and then come back and lets have this conversation then.

Resli, one of the students at the meeting, responded that she was 13.

Yoho said he would be open to doing an town hall-style talk with high school students at a local school the next time hes in town.

After the Skype chat, 18-year-old GHS senior Paige Wearrien said she was disappointed Yoho focused so much of the conversation on the Founding Fathers and the Second Amendment when its current-day students who are at risk.

I do appreciate the fact that he took the time out to listen to the voices that really matter, because we are the ones who are affected, Wearrien said. But I do feel he could have been more open-minded.

Staff writer Jessica Giles contributed to this report.

Contact David Hoffman at dhoffman@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @hoffdavid123.

Five students, including one middle schooler, Skyped with Congressman Ted Yoho, who was in his Washington D.C. office Wednesday during the nationwide Walkout Wednesday protest.UF Professor Pierre Ramond remembers sitting down with Stephen Hawking at a California Institute of Technology cafeteria in 1979.

Hawking, who frequented the Caltech campus, had asked to meet with Ramond, now a distinguished professor of theoretical physics. They spoke for hours about relativity.

One of the worst experiences in my life, he said.

By the end of the conversation, Ramond was exhausted. He had never met anyone like Hawking, who could hold a conversation about theories of the universe but needed assistance to eat. He went home and fell asleep. Hawking was an extreme of what human beings can do until his death, said Ramond, who was lucky enough to have met the world-renowned theoretical physicist.

Hawking died peacefully in his Cambridge home Wednesday at the age of 76, according to a public statement by the University of Cambridge. Hawking coincidentally died the same day as Albert Einsteins birthday and Pi Day, which celebrates the mathematical constant of pi, or 3.14.

Ramond met Hawking about a decade after the well-known scientist had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrigs Disease, a slowly progressive debilitating disease. He was still capable of speech at this time, and began bombarding Ramond with very high-level questions.

Other members of the UF physics community reflected on Hawkings life as well Wednesday.

In the morning, Derek Klein, a UF astrophysics senior, sensed shock in a study lounge in the New Physics Building as the news sunk in, he said.

Its definitely bittersweet, the 31-year-old said.

Katia Matcheva, a UF physics associate professor, began her electromagnetism lecture Wednesday morning by showing a video clip commemorating Hawking and reminding her class of the many positives that came from his life. She said his contributions to humanity will live on and his passion is inspiring for anyone, even those not in science fields.

He is not gone, Matcheva said. He overcame such a debilitating health problem that he had and lived a very meaningful and a very full life.

Contact Elliott Nasby at enasby@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_ElohEl.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now

In this Wednesday, July 21, 1999 file photo Professor Stephen Hawking smiles during a news conference at the University of Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany. Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said early Wednesday, March 14, 2018.Kaitlin Thorp was walking through Turlington Plaza when she stopped at a map and tried to locate Syria. She put her small pin on the country that sits between Turkey and Iraq.

Thorp was one of about 30 people who put pins on the map, with most generally hovering in the Middle East. But a few were pinned farther away such as in Florida and near India. The event, Pin Syria on a Map, was held for the first time from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday by the student organization as part of UFs second-annual Syria Solidarity Week, said Mariam Elsafty, vice president of Students Organize for Syria.

The week is a national effort dedicated to raising awareness about the Syrian crisis because Thursday marks the seven-year anniversary of the Syrian revolution, Elsafty said.

I feel like these days a lot of people have a lot of things to say about Syria, but honestly some people dont even know where to locate it on a map, the 19-year-old UF biology sophomore said.

She said it brings it back to the basics and normalizes Syria to people, encouraging them to look into its history and read more about it.

If you cant get yourself to understand something as basic as where a country is located in a region, then you cant get yourself to understand the bigger and deeper complicated issues at hand, Elsafty said.

Thorp, 18, said she stopped by because she is really passionate about the Middle East. The UF wildlife ecology and conservation freshman said the United States should be doing more humanitarian efforts to help Syrians who are suffering and have no control over their situations.

If people are more aware of where countries that are always seen in the headlines are, the people that come from there, their cultures and their values, it makes it more real, Thorp said.

We have more of a reason to take action and try to help these people if we are aware of where they live and that they are humans and not just people we see on the news, she said.

Upcoming events:

Syria 101: An event 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Reitz Room 2360 will consist of a presentation, a guest speaker who will join through Skype and a candlelit vigil at about 7:35 p.m.

"I stand with Syria: A silent flash mob 12:35 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. Friday on Turlington.

Kaitlin Thorp, an 18-year-old UF wildlife ecology and conservation freshman, stopped by Turlington Plaza on Wednesday morning to participate in Pin Syria on a Map, an event put on by Students Organize for Syria.

Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe NowPipe producer Vallourec is seeking to exclude Brazilian semifinished steel tubes from the United States' 25% tariff on steel imports under Section 232.

"Vallourec USA is discussing with the US Department of Commerce the exemption of the 25% tariff over semifinished steel tubes exported from Vallourec do Brasil," Vallourec's Brazilian division told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday March 14.



US President Donald Trump signed into law tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminium imports on March 8.



Vallourec's Brazilian unit had been improving production levels by exporting semi-finished tubes to the US for further processing, until the Section 232 investigation forced the company to hit the brakes.



The company is also "confident" that Brazilian steel products should be excluded altogether from the tariffs, because the Brazilian and US steel production chains are "complementary," Vallourec said. "Vallourec do Brasil will take actions, along with [Brazil's steel institute] Aco Brasil and government authorities, to show that 81% of Brazilian steel exports to the US are actually intermediate goods."





Brazilian president Michel Temer has said his country's government, along with other nations, is considering filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the United States' decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

"If an amicable solution is not reached fast, we will file a representation with WTO - not isolated, but with all other countries that have been harmed by this measure," Temer said on Wednesday March 14, according to a report from the country's official news agency, Agencia Brasil.



This is the first comment from the Brazilian president since President Donald Trump set blanket tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminium imports on March 8.



But the Brazilian government will first encourage local companies "to work together with the American Congress to try to change this measure," Temer said. He will also try to negotiate the issue with Trump.



"We are against all protectionism," Temer said.



Following the announcement of the US import tariffs, Brazil's foreign trade ministry, MDIC, said those measures would cause serious losses to Brazilian exports - and have a significant negative effect on bilateral trade flows and on trade and investment relations between the two countries.





Posted on: March 15, 2018 12:07 PM

Leaders of 53 countries in the Commonwealth will benefit from the wisdom of unheard voices of women, thanks to the contribution of Anglican Churches. The Commonwealth Secretariat held a media briefing yesterday (Wednesday) ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which will take place in London and in the grounds of Windsor Castle from 16-20 April. The formal CHOGM gathering will take place on Thursday and Friday (19-20 April). The first part of the week (16-18 April) will be taken up by four themed forums.

The first, the Commonwealth Peoples Forum, will bring together the largest and most diverse gathering of civil society people in the Commonwealth calendar, a secretariat spokesman said. Other forums will focus on business, womens issues, and youth. During yesterdays briefing, members of staff working for the Commonwealth secretariat stressed how the different strands were interconnected. The business forum, for example, will be looking at empowering women in the workplace and also helping large established companies and new and disruptive elements  innovative ideas from young people  can benefit from each other.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, recently appointed a Special Representative to the Commonwealth, the Revd Flora Winfield, in recognition of the strong Anglican presence in many Commonwealth countries and the historic links and shared values between the Anglican Communion and the Commonwealth. She will be present at the womens forum, as will the Bishop of Swaziland, Ellinah Wamukoya, the Commonwealths gender adviser, Kemi Ogunsanya, said.

They are going to share best practices  ways that they have been able to improve relationships with government, she said, and also the impact they have played in changing attitudes around these issues by actions taken by the Anglican churches and other religious bodies. They are providing unheard voices of women from all over the Commonwealth to contribute, to speak on the issues, at the womens forum.

The issues that the Forum will address are those being tackled by Anglican provinces around the world in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Scotland, explained that the UN nations adopted the SDGs in 2015, two years after the values were incorporated into the new Commonwealth Charter.

The Commonwealth isnt a political union or free trade area, but a voluntary association of 53 independent and equal sovereign states, most of whom were former members of the British Empire. The 53 nations are home to some 2.4 billion people, in both advanced economies and developing countries  including 30 that are classed as small states. Over 60 per cent of the combined population of the Commonwealth is under the age of 30.

Recent activities by the Commonwealth in support of its values and the SDGs include help to establish a public defender service in the Bahamas and an electoral commission in Nauru. It has set up regional anti-corruption networks in Africa and the Caribbean. It is helping to train judges in Nigeria to implement new legislation allowing courts to seize assets of criminals; and is supporting a National Dialogue in Zambia.

In its activities, it is keen to work with faith communities, including the churches of the Anglican Communion, and is working on a new initiative, Faith in the Commonwealth. It doesnt mean faiths in the Commonwealth, it means that we have faith that the Commonwealth as the broadest family, encompassing those of all religions and those of none, Baroness Scotland said. It is an opportunity for us to deliver the SDGs together by working with those communities to build better understanding, to build better appreciation and to build peace.

Of course the issue of women in these areas is of vital importance. So faith, and faith communities, is something that we are working with closely.

Rwanda was the last new nation to join the Commonwealth, in 2009. Last month (February), Gambia rejoined the Commonwealth, taking the membership up to 53 nations. Zimbabwes membership was suspended in 2002 after an observer mission criticised the countrys presidential election, saying it was neither free nor fair. The then-President, Robert Mugabe, formally took Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth in December 2003. Current President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signalled his desire for Zimbabwe to re-enter the Commonwealth; but has yet to begin the formal process. Yesterday, Baroness Scotland indicated that the process was unlikely to commence until after new Presidential elections in Zimbabwe later this year.Posted on: March 15, 2018 12:48 PM

[Episcopal News Service, by David Paulsen and Mary Frances Schjonberg] Episcopalians gathered in Springfield, Massachusetts, outside the headquarters of Smith & Wesson Corporation to rally behind protest signs that asked the gun manufacturer to Stop Selling Assault Weapons. Episcopalians in Trenton, New Jersey, participated in a 12-hour Day of Lamentation over gun violence. Students of Episcopal schools from New York to Florida walked out of class to participate in a nationwide call to action.

Student-led demonstrations around the US and the dozens of separate events at Episcopal cathedrals and churches coincided yesterday (14 March) to mark one month since the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Though independently organised, the variety of events  on what was billed by youth organisers as National Walkout Day  served to underscore a common push for political action to address the seemingly relentless outbreak of mass shootings in the US.

This is the only developed nation in the world that has a gun death problem at the rate we do, New Jersey Bishop Chip Stokes said in his sermon at Eucharist held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Trenton. Those of us who oppose it need to get in the face of the problem and cry out in the name of the Lord.

Such calls have been growing since 17 students and educators were shot and killed on 14 February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. A 19-year-old former student has been charged following the massacre.

The series of Episcopal events yesterday, coordinated by Bishops United Against Gun Violence, included services, prayers, the tolling of bells and, in some cases, a more direct form of advocacy.

An estimated hundred or more demonstrators, led by young people and interfaith leaders, including the bishops of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts and the Diocese of Massachusetts, stood for an hour outside the Smith & Wesson facility in Springfield drew Protect Children Not Guns, read one protest sign.

Smith & Wesson made the guns used in the mass shootings in Parkland, in Aurora, Colorado, and in San Bernardino, California.

At the end of the hour, the student leaders delivered three demands to the guards at the Smith & Wesson visitor centre. They hope for a meeting with company leaders within the next 30 days. They are asking the manufacturer to stop selling military-grade weapons to the civilian population and to create a community compensation fund to help bear the costs related to gun violence.(ANSA) - Strasbourg, March 15 - The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday gave conditional approval to the relocation of the European Medicines Agency from London to Amsterdam due to Brexit.

Italy and Milan, which missed out on winning EMA after lots were drawn when the cities tied in the vote to decide the agency's new home, are appealing the decision.

They argue that important information about the move to Amsterdam was withheld during the bidding process after doubts emerged about its readiness to host EMA.

The EP set three conditions: the Netherlands must ensure the full and continuous operations of the EMA; EU institutions must be more greatly involved in future choices of offices; and the European Commission must report on a quarterly basis on the EMA dossier's progress.

The relocation was approved with 507 votes in favour, 112 against and 37 abstentions.

(ANSA) - Brussels, march 15 - The European Court of Justice on Thursday rejected an appeal by a Spanish catering chain to use the logo 'The Mafia sits down to eat', upholding Italy's plea that it was clear publicity for the criminal organisation.

The ECJ said the logo "transmits a broadly positive image of the Mafia" and "trivialises the grave attacks unleashed against the fundamental values of the Union".

Mafia-themed products around the world earn untold sums of money.

Two years ago Italian farmers' association Coldiretti denounced the global proliferation of food and drink labels and restaurant chains recalling Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia at the expense of authentic Made in Italy products.

The 'Mafia' brand is "used widely in international food services to attract business," Coldiretti said, citing Spain's 'La Mafia' restaurant chain where eateries are decorated with murals depicting famous mobsters and the 'Cosa Nostra' pizzerias found in countries all over the globe.

The association also flagged up Mafiozzo coffee from Bulgaria, Chilli Mafia snacks from Britain, The Godfather wine from Napa Valley in California, and spicy red Wicked Cosa Nostra sauce from Missouri, among other Mafia-branded products.

(ANSA) - Rome, March 15 - Slovak Premier Robert Fico has decided to step down amid a furore sparked by the murder of an investigative journalist probing the Italian 'Ndrangheta mafia's alleged ties to the country's business and political community.

Fico will be replaced by Deputy Premier Peter Pellegrini amid the backlash following last month's murders of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.

On Tuesday Calabrian Ndrangheta-linked businesman Antonino Vadala, arrested then released in connection with Kuciak's murder, was re-arrested in Slovakia 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 murders.

They were released two days later.

Kuciak's last, unfinished report on suspected 'Ndrangheta links to Slovakia's business and political communities said Vadala and others had fraudulently used EU funds. His former business associate, a former Miss Universe contestant named Premier Fico's assistant, is among those who have quit amid the public indignation over the case and corruption woes, which also brought down the interior minister.

BEIRUT - Nearly ten thousand civilians left Eastern Ghouta on Thursday, reported Syrian state TV. The exodus is the largest yet from the area besieged by government and allied forces for almost 5 years and still partially controlled by opposition forces. The UN has estimated the population of the predominantly agricultural area near the capital to be around 400,000.



Regime forces are continuing to advance after an intensive bombing campaign since February 18 that has left at least 1,200 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). State-owned TV said that the civilians had left though a corridor from the city of Hamouriya in central Ghouta. Meanwhile, two major areas in Ghouta have fallen into the hands of government forces and anti-regime militias have withdrawn. Local sources say that the armed factions have withdrawn from Hamouriya and Saqba in central Ghouta. The news cannot be verified independently. The sources added that the government forces, backed by Iran and Russia, will soon enter Hamouriya and the nearby Saqba.Migrant landings fell to under 800 in Feb in Italy, FRONTEX Less than a tenth of Feb 2017, stable in Greece and Spain

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, MARCH 15 - In February, the flow of migrants to the EU via the Mediterranean Sea dropped in Italy and was stable in Greece and Spain, reported FRONTEX, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. The number of migrants who arrived in Italy from the central Mediterranean route dropped last month to under 800, less than a tenth of the number seen in February 2017. In the January-February, the overall number of migrants on the route dropped by 61% compared with the previous year to 5,200 due both to bad weather conditions and more activity by the Libyan coast guard to prevent departures. FRONTEX noted that Eritreans are thus far the largest group using the central Mediterranean group, followed by Tunisians. Some 3,400 irregular crossings were made to the EU on the four routes in February, a three quarters drop on 2017. In the first two months of the year, the total number was halved to 12,000, mostly due to lesser migration on the central Mediterranean route. In Spain, instead, in January-February the number of arrivals remained unvaried compared with 2017 at 2,500 with most originally from Guinea, Morocco or Mali. The situation was stable in Greece as well, where 1,600 arrived in February, ''in line'' with the number seen in February 2017, mostly from Syria and Turkey. The number arriving via the Balkan route was instead ''relatively low'' in February at only 150, reportedly due mostly to close cooperation on border control among countries in the area. (ANSAmed).



Syria: NGO, loyalists advance in Ghouta towards Hamuriya Local civil protection, 15 civilians killed in 24 hours

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MARCH 15 - Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia are advancing in Ghouta, the area east of Damascus still partially held by local armed groups supported on various levels by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.



According to UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, loyalists are attempting to advance towards Hamuriya, a key area closest to the capital Damascus.



Meanwhile at least 15 civilians, including three minors, were reported dead over the last 24 hours following Russian and Syrian government air raids on the region. According to the area's civil protection, 13 people were killed in raids on Hamuriya and two rescuers died in Zamalka while the ambulance they were travelling on was struck by a bomb.



The reports cannot be independently verified on the ground.



(ANSAmed)SARAJEVO - Aleksandar Zaldostanov, leader of the 'Night Wolves', a Russian motorcycle group close to President Vladimir Putin, was banned from entering Bosnia for security reasons, the usually well-informed news site Zurnal.ba reported on Thursday. According to the website, Serbian citizen Sasa Savic, who is believed to be the Night Wolves' leader in the Balkans, was also refused entry.



Zaldostanov, known as the surgeon, whose name is included in a US 'black list' due to his connections and activity with pro-Russian Ukraine separatists, should lead a group of a few dozen Russian bikers on a nine-day tour called 'Russian Balkans'.



The tour is scheduled to start on March 19 in Serbia, then Bosnia through Bijeljina, Brcko, Doboj, Banja Luka, the main city of the Republika Srpska (Rs, the Serbian-majority entity in Bosnia).



In Banja Luka, Rs president, Milorad Dodik, together the energy minister, Petar Djokic, considered the leader of the Wolves in Bosnia, was meant to hand to Zaldostanov a high honor of Rs for the ''promotion of Orthodoxy''.



Bosnia's security minister, Dragan Mektic, has said that the current government of Rs means to use the Night Wolves to intimidate political rivals in elections to be held in October in Bosnia.ROME - UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, needs ''446 million dollars for 2018'' in an unprecedented financial crisis in its history, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres denounced on Thursday. Primary services like education, healthcare and food could be reduced or even cut off completely for about 1.7 million Palestinian refugees, he said, opening an UNRWA donors' conference in Rome at FAO.

''Today I ask you to bridge the agency's shortfall for 2018 with predictable, sustained and additional funding. I also appeal to you to increase support in the years ahead to ensure schooling, health care and food assistance'', he said. ''Such spending is an investment with wide-ranging dividends - in the human development of the Palestinian people, in stability today and in a peaceful future in and beyond Palestine. It can also address some of the despair and other factors that lead to radicalization''.

''I appeal to all donors - each government and organization in this room today - to step forward and give UNRWA what you can. Truly, what you can. ''If each of you does that, we will be able to address UNRWA's shortfall. More importantly, we will send a strong message to Palestine refugees that we are committed to their rights, their well-being, and meeting their daily needs.

To those who may question the expense, let me echo UNRWA's fundraising campaign: Dignity is priceless. As a matter of human solidarity, and as a matter of smart steps for peace, let us give UNRWA our full and generous support'', Guterres told participants.

Over 70 delegations attended the conference. Participants included Palestinian Premier Rami Hamdallah - who escaped an attack in Gaza two days ago - the foreign minister of Italy, Angelino Alfano, Lebanon, Gebran Bassil, France, Jean-Yves Le Drian and EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. The secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Abul-Gheit and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation attended. For Gulf countries, the deputy foreign ministers of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were also at the conference.ROME - Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano on Thursday said Italy intends to double funding for UN Palestinian refugee agency UNWRA in 2018.



''It is my pleasure to announce that in 2018 Italy intends to double the financial support to UNRWA-managed humanitarian activities. We will not fail to give our support to this agency'', Alfano told a ministerial-level meeting in support of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), held at the FAO headquarters in Rome. ''In order to tackle the crisis in Syria, during the last few years UNRWA has been obliged to increase its assistance and relief activities for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees left in the country, and also assist the tens of thousands of displaced persons in Lebanon and Jordan'', the foreign minister noted. The meeting in Rome, which was co-chaired by the Foreign Ministers of Jordan, Sweden and Egypt, was attended by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and the Palestinian Prime Minister Hamdallah to discuss UNRWA's financial situation.

ROME- Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday told reporters on the sidelines of an UNRWA donors' conference in Rome that ''the problems we are dealing with are serious and real and the implications huge - they involve five million Palestinian refugees, including 500,000 students''.



''The challenge for us is to take a step forward on our responsibilities and ensure that Palestinian children can continue to have classrooms where they can go, hospitals where they can be treated and food on their table''.



The UN Palestinian refugee agency, said Safadi, is a ''political'' entity that should convey the message that ''the world has not abandoned Palestinian refugees that have lived for 70 years in this situation and endure injustices''.



Together with the ministers of Sweden and Egypt, Jordan co-chairs the ministerial-level summit of UNRWA attended by over 70 delegations.



Supporting UNWRA, said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, is ''necessary to preserve the dignity of Palestinian refugees, avoid radicalism and therefore counter terrorism.



Shoukry continued saying that it is necessary for UNRWA's mandate to have a fundamental role in ''maintaining vital services it offers to refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank''. It is important, he concluded, that the conference on Thursday can ''strengthen UNRWA's role, offering the necessary support to the organization''. The UN agency's deficit is worth 446 million dollars. Without new funding, UNRWA diplomatic sources warned, ''by next June we will be forced to close 700 schools and 140 clinics operating in very difficult conditions''. (ANSAmed).Violence on women: Croatia to ratify Istanbul Convention Right, Catholic Church against, introduces concept of 'gender'

(ANSAmed) - ZAGREB, MARCH 15 - Amid a harsh controversy that has been ongoing for months and the opposition of conservative parties and the Catholic Church, Croatia is preparing to ratify the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe on the prevention and fight against violence on women and domestic abuse.



The Catholic Church and the right are opposing the ratification of the document, claiming that there is an intention of introducing the concept of ''gender'' in national laws through the ratification of the convention to protect women against violence.



After intense talks at the helm of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ, conservatives), the ruling party, Premier Andrej Plenkovic announced that over the coming weeks the government will present to Parliament a law to ratify the convention.



Plenkovic, who belongs to the moderate, centrist wing of HDZ, has spent much of his political capital to convince conservatives in his party to accept Croatia's 'yes' to the document of the Council of Europe.



Croatia in 2011 was among 45 countries that signed the convention but Parliament in Zagreb has not ratified it yet, as other 27 European countries, including Italy, have done.



Flydubai recently selected NYCOs Turbonycoil 600, a synthetic standard turbine oil, for use in its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft.

Flydubais current fleet consists of 61 Boeing 737 aircraft including Boeing Next Generation 737-800 aircraft powered by CFM56-7B engines and the Boeing 737 MAX 8 powered by Leap-1B engines. flydubai has up to 296 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on order.

Approved against demanding specifications, including SAE AS 5780 SPC Class and MIL-PRF-23699 STD Class, Turbonycoil 600 has received certification for use by all major engine manufacturers. It has logged more than 30 years of experience in jet engines of military and commercial aircraft.



Also after setting up stocks of products in Paris CDG, Singapore and Atlanta (USA) with OEMServices, NYCO is now establishing a storage unit in Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. The stocks offer airlines, MROs, OEMs and distributors a selection of products likely to respond to routine, critical and AOG requests, thus strengthening the responsiveness of NYCO and the availability of its products.

The storage spaces meet the standards of civil aviation and aims at strengthening NYCO logistics operations. The products in the stock are a selection of turbine oils, hydraulic fluids and greases. NYCO works with OEMServices, because of its long experience and excellent reputation in the aviation sector.In 2017, the Russian Federation retained the second place in the list of the world`s biggest arms exporters, a study issued by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says.



(Credit: Rostec)

According to SIPRI`s "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2017" report, Russia`s share of the global arms market was 22 percent in 2013-2017, with India, China and Vietnam being the largest importers of Russian-originated hardware. The abovementioned three countries accounted for 35 percent, 12 percent, and 10 percent of Russian arms imports within the prescribed period, respectively.



However, there was a slight fall compared with the previous period, 2008-2012." Russian arms exports decreased by 7.1 percent between 2008-12 and 2013-17," the authors of the study say. According to the specialists from SIPRI, traditional importers of Russian weapons continued to order hardware, however, sometimes in lesser quantities. At the same time, some countries almost dropped out from the list of Russia`s clients in military-technical area, for instance, Venezuela, which was ranked 25th in the Top-40 list of the world`s biggest arms importers in 2013-2017.



The study by SIPRI says that Russia exported defense items of hardware to 47 states within the prescribed period, with three biggest importers (India, China and Vietnam as mentioned earlier) accounting for 58 percent of the exports. The shares of the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas reached 66 percent, 13 percent, 11 percent, 6.2 percent, and 4.2 percent, respectively.



It should be mentioned that five world`s biggest exporters of arms, namely, the United States of America (USA), Russia, France, Germany and China accounted for 74 percent of the defense exports in 2013-2017, the specialists of SIPRI say.



According to the study, India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were the world`s biggest importers of weapons within the prescribed period. They accounted for 12 percent, 10 percent, and 4.5 percent of the global arms imports, respectively. It is noteworthy that the United Arab Emirates held the fourth place in the list of the biggest arms importers in 2013-2017, having secured a share of 4.4 percent of the global arms imports.



The report issued by SIPRI shows that Russia had strong positions on the arms markets of several countries in 2013-2017. For instance, India and China acquired 62 percent and 65 percent of their defense imports from Russia within the prescribed period. Moscow also dominated the market of Vietnam and Venezuela, accounting for 85 percent and 66 percent of the countries` arms imports, respectively. Moreover, Russia had a large share of the defense market of former Soviet republics. In particular, Kazakhstan acquired 78 percent of its arms imports from Russia, while the share of Russian-originated hardware in the structure of Azerbaijan`s arms imports reached 65 percent within the prescribed period. According to SIPRI, Egypt, Iraq, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Myanmar were among Russia`s most important partners in 2013-2017.



Turning to the regional structure of the Russian defense exports, it should be mentioned that Moscow accounted for 39 percent of defense supplies to the African region in 2013-2017, the analysts of the institute say. Russia also accounted for 27 percent of deliveries to South America, beating the United States and France. Moscow was the biggest exporter of defense hardware to the Asia-Pacific region (34 percent of the arms deliveries to the region), leaving behind the United States and China.



The competition between the United States and Russia on the global arms market has stirred up. According to the abovementioned SIPRI`s study, Washington had a share of 34 percent of the arms market in 2013-2017, while Russia, as mentioned earlier, accounted for 22 percent. Therefore, the combined share of both countries slightly exceeded 50 percent. It is noteworthy that France emerged as the third biggest arms exporter (6.7% of major arms exports within the prescribed period), outshining Germany (5.8% of major arms exports), China (5.7% of major arms exports) and the United Kingdom (4.8% of major arms exports).



Despite sanctions imposed by Western countries, Russia remains a high-profile player on the global arms market. In March, presidential aide for military-technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin told Russian media that Moscow had exported defense hardware worth USD16 billion last year and had signed contracts worth USD16 billion for the delivery of equipment. The volume of the Russian backlog of export orders had reached USD45 billion, with 50 percent accounted by MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) countries. According to Kozhin, MENA states are followed by China and India. Aviation hardware had accounted for more than 50 percent, land systems - for 20 percent, air defense assets - for 10 percent, and naval hardware - for 10 percent, the aide emphasized. It is noteworthy that last year India held the fifth place in the list of importers of Russian-made defense equipment. According to Kozhin, the volume of Russia`s obligations under contracts with China reached USD6 billion (or 14.44 percent of the order backlog), including S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) air defense systems, Sukhoi Su-35 multirole combat aircraft (Flanker-E+), Beriev Be-200 and Be-103 amphibious planes, Kamov Ka-32A11BC and Mil Mi-171 utility helicopters, Ansat light rotorcraft, aviation engines, and research-and-development works.



According to Russian experts, Moscow was successfully developing military-technical cooperation with foreign partners last year. The Eksport Vooruzheniy (Arms Exports) magazine issued by the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) says that nobody could predict so-called Middle Eastern breakthrough. Not only did Russia sign a contract for the delivery of the S-400 system to Turkey, but Moscow also entered the arms market of Saudi Arabia and other countries of the region. Therefore, Moscow gained a significant success, as the estimated deal with Saudi Arabia is worth USD3.5 billion. The contracts with this country also envisage infrastructure projects to transfer technologies to Riyadh and to build manufacturing capacities there, the authors of the magazine add.The American Payroll Association's 36th Annual Congress will take place at the National Harbor, MD, USA starting from May 15 for five days.

Dezan Shira & Associates' Manager of Human Resources Administration and Payroll Services, Helen Kong, and Global Business Development Manager, Maria Kotova, will participate in this APA conference introducing recent trends in the management of the human resources in Asia and key features of launched International Payroll and Human Resources Administration Service: called iPAY.

Being invited as the guest presenter, Helen Kong will speak at a seminar on the topic of 'Payroll in China and Vietnam' during the conference. She will explain how multinational organizations shall equip their payroll teams with good understanding of local HR and payroll policies and practices in order to help organizations achieve stronger payroll performance and ensuring compliance levels stay intact.

The presentation will cover key topics including the regulation of local social welfare contribution base calculation, contribution rate related policy and social welfare liability for both employer and employees in Asia. Helen will also talk about the relevant employment law in China and Vietnam such as employment contract term, over time calculation and statutory leaves for employees.

Besides, Dezan Shira & Associates will also have a booth at the expo of the congress. Helen will be there to further share the knowledge and experience of how foreign investors can better manage their human resources in Asia and how this can affect their business success.

Registration:

For RSVP, please click here.Salman will feature in the new 'FeelTheFizz' campaign for Appy Fizz.

New Delhi: Beverage major Parle Agro on Thursday said it has signed Bollywood superstar Salman Khan as the face of its popular brand Appy Fizz.

Associating with Salman Khan is a part of Appy Fizz's large scale marketing investments, aiming to further strengthen the brand's connect with millions of consumers across India, Parle Agro said in a statement.

Salman joins the existing list of brand ambassador of the company's products with Alia Bhatt as the face for Frooti and its variants and Tollywood superstar Allu Arjun for Frooti in south India.

"Appy Fizz has established a strong foothold in the market over the years and with this collaboration, we want to further build the brand through aggressive marketing initiatives," Parle Agro Joint MD and CMO Nadia Chauhan said.

Salman will feature in the new 'FeelTheFizz' campaign for Appy Fizz, the company said adding it aims to take the fruit plus fizz category to Rs 4,000 crore.

Parle Agro has brands like Frooti, Appy, Frooti Fizz, Appy Fizz, Bailley, among others.Exemptions provided to PSBs make it hard for RBI to act against them.

Mumbai: In the wake of the PNB scam, RBI governor Urjit Patel has called for making banking regulatory powers neutral to bank ownership as the Central Bank has only limited set of powers under the Banking Regulations Act (BR Act) to effectively supervise the public sector banks.

In his first public comments following the PNB scam that has raised concern regarding the quality of audit processes followed in state owned banks, the RBI governor stated that its regulatory powers over PSBs are weaker than those over the private sector banks.

He said that the RBI cannot remove directors and management at PSBs as the relevant sections of the BR Act is not applicable to them. Similarly, the section of the BR Act that provides for supersession of a bank board is also not applicable in the case of PSBs.

This legislative reality has in effect led to a deep fissure in the landscape of banking regulatory terrain: a system of dual regulation, by the finance ministry in addition to the RBI. Temptation to engage in fraud at the level of employee or employees is always present, in banks (or in corporations), be it in public sector or private sector. The question then is whether there is adequate deterrence faced by employees from undertaking frauds and enough incentives for management to put in place preventive measures to pre-empt frauds, he said while addressing a seminar in Gujarat National Law University.

Responding to criticism regarding the failure of RBI audit to detect the fraud, the governor said it is simply infeasible for a banking regulator to be in the every nook and corner of banking activity to rule out frauds by being there.

In the specific case at hand, the Reserve Bank had identified, based on cyber risk considerations, the exact source of operational hazard  through which we understand now the fraud had been perpetrated. In particular, the RBI had issued precise instructions via three circulars in 2016 to enable banks to eliminate the hazard. It turns out ex post the bank had simply not done so. Clearly, the internal processes at the bank failed in allowing the operational hazard to remain in place in spite of clear instructions to close it, he said.

Mr Patel added that the exemptions granted to state-owned banks under the BR Act mean that the regulator that can respond relatively quickly against banking frauds or irregularity cannot take effective action.

In case of private sector banks, he said that the real deterrence arises from market and regulatory discipline, and their confluence. A private bank CEOs primary concern is whether he or she will be able to raise capital when the need arises or even whether he or she will still be running the bank the next day.

The point is that they could be readily cautioned through their boards and even replaced by the RBI in case of large or persistent irregularities.

While the original idea behind bank nationalisation was complete government control over credit allocation to the economy, Mr Patel said the situation in India is exactly the reverse with RBIs regulatory powers over PSBs are weaker than those over the private sector banks.

Meanwhile Mr Patel, invoking mythology, said that the RBI has undertaken the cleaning up of the countrys credit culture as the Mandara mount in the Amrit Manthan of the economy.

Until the churn is complete and the nectar of stability safely secured for the countrys future, someone must consume the poison that emanates along the way, he said.

If we need to face the brickbats and be the Neelakantha consuming this poison, we will do so as our duty; we will persist with our endeavours and get better with each trial and tribulation along the way, he said.Jaya Bachchan had confirmed that Amitabh was in pain owing to the heavy costumes he had to don for the Vijay Krishna Acharya movie.

In the wee hours of Wednesday, Amitabh Bachchan confirmed on Twitter that his doctors had managed to cure him of his ailment.

Taking a leaf out of his late father Harivanshrai Bachchans poetic sense, Amitabh wrote in Hindi, Kuch kasht bada, Chikitsak ko chikitsa ke liye bulana pada, Ilaaj prabal, Swasth hua naval, Isi bahaane, apnon ko pata chala.

The veteran actor said that the team of doctors, who flew in to Jodhpur, where he was shooting for Thugs of Hindostan at the Mehrangarh Fort, had treated him and that he was back in action. Big B had earlier suffered a rib fracture on the sets of the film, and had even had to visit a hospital recently during the Film City schedule. Jaya Bachchan had confirmed that Amitabh was in pain owing to the heavy costumes he had to don for the Vijay Krishna Acharya movie.

He had also suffered from a back pain, which made him miss an event, before the medics treated him in time to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Bollywood sojurn.

No stranger to ailments, Amitabh has battled many maladies in his 49-year-long career in filmdom. From Myasthenia Gravis to tuberculosis, hepatitis B, a cracker blast that damaged his left hand a near-fatal punch on his solar plexus, delivered by Puneet Issar on the sets of Coolie, hes been through it all.

 Sanskriti MediaNow, a source reveals that the actress, found to be having a severe deficiency of Vitamin D-3, was advised bed rest.

The actor will return to work only after the doctor gives the green signal. 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.That the films violent trailer has been granted a U/A certificate is very encouraging, according to the director.

Hansal Mehtas new film Omerta is not for the weak-willed. Violent, brutal and savage in its depiction of terrorism, it is an unapologetically violent portrayal of a rudderless immoral world.

That the films violent trailer has been granted a U/A certificate is very encouraging, according to the director. It means that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is finally looking at films within their given context and not judging them in isolation. If I make a film about a violent situation, there is bound to be violence at the heart of the film, he says.

At a time when terror outfits are being clamped down, Hansal Mehtas Omerta could be perceived as a too-hot-to-handle biopic on the terror activities of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.

Hansal is hoping to see the film make it into theatres without any cuts. Weve had screenings of the film the world over. We showed it at the Toronto Film Festival to packed houses. We did a screening at MAMI and at the Florence Film Festival, where the audience was almost fully Italian. They understood the context of the point I was making about state-sanctioned terrorism. I hope our certification board will get the point too. If they dont I am ready for battle. I wont take any cuts.

Rajkummar Rao, who plays the lead in Omerta, felt his boundaries as an actor being pushed by the demands of the character. Omerta is a very powerful film, I feel. As an actor, it took a toll on my mental health. It wasnt an easy character to portray, but Hansal sir pushed me to my limits. We made this film with a lot of honesty and passion.

This is the first time Rajkummar plays an unapologetically negative character. Its an antagonist story, so that way it was a first for us. It feels great when audiences like our effort and can see the honesty in our film.The filmmaker will juggle time between his twins and work, which he claims are equally important to him.

Contrary to reports, filmmaker, talk show host and actor Karan Johar isnt about to take a year-long break from movies. It was earlier speculated that he would go on a sabbatical to enjoy some more time with his twin toddlers, Yash and Roohi Johar. But sources claim otherwise.

He isnt taking any break, says a source. Karan is going to be everywhere, doing everything he loves doing.

Karan nods, My babies are beautiful, and I have all the time in the world for them. Theyre my lifelines and the reason for me to go into the 2.0 version of my life. But work is also a big part of who I am, and creating Dharma Productions, and taking it to a higher level is pretty much a big dream I have.

And of course, the producer has multiple releases lined up for this year, with Dhadak to Brahmastra, and Simbaa to Drive. Hes also working on Raazi and Student of the Year 2. Heres to more of Karan in the coming days.

Sanskriti MediaThe web series, thats already on air on the AltBalaji app features Ronit Roy, Mona Singh and Gurdip Kohli in lead roles.

Known for coming up with innovative ideas for her shows and movies, Ekta Kapoor is currently promoting a new web series called Kehne Ko Humsafar Hai.

The story revolves around the life of a 40-year-old man, who finds love outside marriage, and the producer believes that its high time Indians came out and spoke about infidelity and sex. India mein khaane ke daant aur hote hain aur dikhane ke aur (Were two-faced). Our population is so large, and we still have problem with talking about sex, she asserts. There are so many extra marital affairs in our country. We hide the why and how of how these take place for the society. What happens with extra marital relationships is what this show is basically about.

While she delves into true love in her serials, what does the term mean to Ekta herself, we ask. According to me, true love comes without boundaries; its without any prohibition. If you love someone while you think about the society simultaneously, then its an adjustment, a compromise.

She adds, But when you go against the tide and against society for your love, and you know youre right, then theres some honesty in it. That takes a lot of pain to go through with.

The web series, thats already on air on the AltBalaji app features Ronit Roy, Mona Singh and Gurdip Kohli in lead roles.'Two cases of alleged human rights violation received in the current year are under investigation,' defence ministry said.

Bhamre said that requisite sensitisation of all ranks and training at various levels on human rights issues is ensured and human rights training is imparted regularly to the armed force personnel. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

New Delhi: The Defence Ministry on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that 17 cases of alleged human rights violations by armed force personnel were received in three years, of which 12 were found to be false.

"There were 17 cases of alleged human rights violations received in the last three years (2015-17). Of these, 12 cases were investigated and found to be false. The other five are under investigation," Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply.

"Two cases of alleged human rights violation received in the current year are under investigation," he said.

The Minister said there is "zero tolerance" for rights violations and all allegations are thoroughly and swiftly investigated and strict action taken against those found guilty.

Bhamre said that requisite sensitisation of all ranks and training at various levels on human rights issues is ensured and human rights training is imparted regularly to the armed force personnel.

"In addition, human rights training forms an important part of the Pre-Induction training (PIT) of the troops in the Corps Battle Schools, before deployment in counterinsurgency/counter terrorism operations. The human rights aspects are also enshrined in the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) commandments, which are reiterated to all the troops before conduct of any operation," Bhamre said.

Asked if the norms are known and being implemented by soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir, the Minister said: "The said norms are known to all and have been promulgated in the form of dos and don'ts for the conduct of operations and are part of COAS commandments."The Criminal Law (Haryana Amendment) Bill, moved by the state's parliamentary affairs min was passed on the last day of the budget session.

The Bill also provides for making the existing criminal laws related to other sexual offences more stringent. (Photo: PTI)

Chandigarh: The Haryana Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a Bill which provides for death penalty to those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 years or less.

After Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Haryana has become the third state where the Assembly has approved the provision of capital punishment for such sexual offenders, the House was informed.

The Criminal Law (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2018, moved by the state's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, was passed on the last day of the budget session.

The Bill was passed unanimously with INLD and Congress members also lending their support.

A few Congress members put forth some suggestions, with senior leader Kiran Choudhary suggesting death penalty and harsher provisions for all rapists irrespective of the age of victims.

"After Section 376-A of the Penal Code, the following Section shall be inserted, namely 376-AA," the Bill stated.

Under section 376-AA, in case of rape of a girl up to 12 years of age, there will be a punishment of death or rigorous imprisonment of not less than 14 years which may extend to imprisonment for life that is for remainder period of the convicts natural life, according to the legislation.

A provision 376-DA has also been added after section 376-D of the penal code. Under section--376-DA, if a girl upto 12 years of age is raped by one or more persons constituting a group, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape and will be punished with death or rigorous imprisonment for a term which will not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to life along with a fine.

The Bill also provides for making the existing criminal laws related to other sexual offences more stringent.

Also Read: Haryana to enact law ensuring capital punishment for minor rape: CM

The punishment under section 354 of the IPC (Assault or criminal force against woman with intent to outrage her modesty) will not be less than two years (earlier not less than one year) but may extend up to seven years (earlier up to five years).

Also, under section 354D (2) of the IPC, those found guilty of stalking will be punished on first conviction with imprisonment up to three years and can be punished on a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for not less than three years, but which may extend to seven years (earlier up to five years).

The new additions also include provisions of fining the convict and any such fine will be paid to the victim.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, during his speech in the House, expressed anguish over recent incidents of rape in the state, which he said had happened in the past as well. He said voices were raised from various quarters that provisions of "harsher punishment for rape".

"Some members have made some suggestions, which are procedural in nature. Through this Bill, our intention is that the tough law will act as a strong deterrence, we are taking the first step," he said.

He rejected charges levelled by some opposition members that politics was the reason to bring the tougher law.

Congress members Karan Singh Dalal and Geeta Bhukkal also gave their suggestions while Women and Child Development minister Kavita Jain said while tough laws will be in place from time to time, there was also a need to bring about a change in the mindset among the people to help stop crimes against women.In a statement, Islamabad had called envoy Sohail Mahmood for 'consultations' after 'no positive action had been taken by India'.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, 'We want that our Commission in Islamabad functions smoothly, the officials are not harassed, their work is not obstructed and that the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations, 1961 is abided by.' (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

New Delhi: Amidst recent diplomatic standoff between the neighbouring countries of India and Pakistan, Islamabad, on Thursday, called back its High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after alleged incidents of harassment of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

In a statement, Islamabad said that it had called envoy Sohail Mahmood for "consultations" after "no positive action had been taken by India".

Reports claimed that the envoy has been called back home for an unspecified time.

Read: After alleging 'harassment', Pakistan calls back envoy to India for unspecified time

Reacting on the development, the Indian government said that calling back envoys for consultations is a routine process and there is nothing unusual in this.

Addressing the media in Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "I am a bit surprised about the question about Pakistan High commissioner going back. It is pretty normal and pretty routine. I leave it at that. It is not a recall. It is very routine."

On the claims of Pakistan, Raveesh Kumar said, "We take note of their (Pakistan's) concerns. We are looking into these issues. We will not specify the issues taken up in front of the media. We do not wish to respond to this through media but through established diplomatic channels. Our issues havent been resolved in Islamabad.

Raveesh Kumar added: "We want that our Commission in Islamabad functions smoothly, the officials are not harassed, their work is not obstructed and that the Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations, 1961 is abided by."

Notably, a day ago, Pakistan had summoned Indias Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and said such despicable incidents indicate complicit unwillingness of the Indian government to protect foreign diplomats.

Also Read: Pak summons Indian Dy High Commissioner over 'harassment' of envoy's kids

Earlier, New Delhi and Islamabad traded harassment claims of their High Commissions. While Islamabad complained that its diplomats were being subjected to different kinds of harassment in India, New Delhi, on the other hand, alleged that several Indian mission staffers in Islamabad have been severely harassed and intimidated.A special court in Mumbai had issued non-bailable warrants early this month on the request of the ED.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved the Interpol for issuance of a red corner notice against diamond traders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connection with the multi-crore PNB scam.

Sources said the agency had sought issuance of the Interpol warrant against the two, based on court-issued non-bailable warrants obtained by it in a money laundering case.

The agency is understood to have sent the request to the CBI, nodal agency for the Interpol in India, for taking it up with the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France.

A red corner notice (RCN) is issued to seek the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action in a criminal case probe.

Once an RCN is issued, the Interpol seeks to arrest the person concerned in any part of the world and notifies that country to take his or her custody for further action at their end, sources said.

A special court in Mumbai had issued non-bailable warrants early this month on the request of the ED. The ED had earlier issued summonses to Modi and Choksi  the key accused in the scam  asking them to appear before it in Mumbai. However, both of them expressed their inability to depose citing business engagements. Both are accused on charges of money laundering (under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act) in alleged connivance with some employees of PNB and have been stated by probe agencies to have left India before criminal charges were pressed against them. The CBI too is probing the case.

Meanwhile, diamond traders, including Modi, Choksi, Jatin Mehta, and embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya are among 31 business people facing a CBI investigation who are fugitives abroad, the government told Parliament on Wednesday.

Mr Modi and Mr Choksi are the key accused in the mult-crore PNB scam. Also on the list is Nirav Modis wife, Ami.Women and Child Welfare Department, Labour Department, and others along with police conducted the rescue operation.

Police are collecting the useful data from the children, who will be shifted to Saidabad children home. (Photo: ANI)

Hyderabad (Telangana): The Hyderabad police rescued 26 children, allegedly working as "bonded labourers" and nabbed a person, who was involved in trafficking these minors.

Speaking to ANI, Hyderabad's District Child Protection officer, Md Imtiaz Raheem said, "We have a received a information from an NGO that some employers are bringing 200 child labours in Dhanapur express train."

Women and Child Welfare Department, Labour Department, and others along with police conducted the rescue operation.

According to the police, most of the rescued children were from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Police are collecting the useful data from the children, who will be shifted to Saidabad children home.

Investigation in the matter is underway.The Lower House was adjourned for the day immediately thereafter.

The Opposition parties protested against the passage of the budget without debate, as the session is slated to continue till April 6. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the crucial Finance Bill 2018 and a Rs 89.25 lakh crore spending plan for the next fiscal year without discussion amid ruckus through voice vote, which led to the adjournment of both the Houses of Parliament for the eighth day running.

The Finance Bill as well as the Appropriation Bill were passed in a matter of 25 minutes even as vociferous members from TDP, AIADMK, SP and the RJD stood in the well of the house and shouted slogans over a slew of issues.

Holding placards and shouting slogans, MPs from TDP and YRS Congress sought special assistance for Andhra Pradesh, AIADMK members were seeking setting up of the Cauvery river tribunal. The MPs from the Congress, Left and SP were seen shouting slogans over the manner in which the finance and appropriation bills were being passed.

The Lower House was adjourned for the day immediately thereafter. The Opposition parties protested against the passage of the budget without debate, as the session is slated to continue till April 6.

The Rajya Sabha, which was informed of the passage of the budget by the Lok Sabha at 2 PM, was also adjourned for the day within about three minutes thereafter.

In the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved 21 amendments to the Bill containing taxation proposals for 2018-19, which were approved by voice vote. So was the Appropriation Bill which detailed spending plans for 99 government ministries and departments.

With this, the parliamentary approval for the Modi governments fifth and final budget was completed in the Lok Sabha, where the ruling BJP-led NDA enjoys absolute majority. Earlier this week, the BJP had issued a three-day whip to its members to be present in the House.

As slogan-shouting began soon after the House assembled, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan accepted Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumars proposal for advancing the time of the passage of the Finance and other bills, scheduled in the agenda at 5 pm, to noon. Thereafter, she adjourned the House till 12 PM as members of the opposition and TDP and AIADMK raised slogans on various issues, including against the passage of the budget without debate, the Rs 12,700 crore banking scam, special status to Andhra Pradesh among others.and setting up of Cauvery Management Board for river water sharing by riparian states.

Neither the Lok Sabha, nor the Rajya Sabha have transacted any substantial business in the past eight days since the second leg of the budget session began on March 5.

After passage of the finance and appropriation bills in the Lok Sabha, both these legislations have to go to Rajya Sabha for passage.

However, since these are money bills, they would be considered approved, if the Upper House does not return them to the Lower House within 14 days.

The Opposition has an upper hand in the Rajya Sabha. The proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were also washed out for the eighth straight day today, amid uproar by the opposition and NDA partner TDP over the same issues.

The House was adjourned till 2 PM soon after it had assembled for the day. The Chair called it a day after it reassembled at 2 PM as uproarious scenes continued.

When the Upper House met at 2 PM, the opposition members trooped into the Well raising slogans like BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao (remove BJP, save the country) and displaying placards.

As the noisy protests continued, Kurien thereafter adjourned the House for the day.

Three of the SP members in the House - R S Tiwari, Chandrapal Singh Yadav and Neeraj Shekhar donned red caps as counting trends in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypolls showed their party candidates leading in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths constitutencyPassing the verdict in less than two minutes, the judge said that there was no prima facie case made out in the charges framed against them.

Chennai: In a major relief to former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran and five others, a special CBI court in Chennai on Wednesday discharged them from the illegal telephone exchange scam.

The verdict comes as a shot in the arm for Marans, who have already been discharged in the Aircel-Maxis case. The court cases had considerably reduced the clout of junior Maran in the DMK and with Wednesdays verdict, he is expected to make a comeback.

When their discharge petitions came up for hearing before XIV additional special court for CBI cases in the morning, special judge S. Natarajan posted the matter to 2.30 pm for pronouncing verdict on their plea.

Soon after the trial commenced in the afternoon, the judge said the petitions moved by former BSNL general manager K. Brahmnathan and former deputy general manager M. P. Velusamy, were allowed.

Similarly, he allowed the petitions filed by DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran and Kalanidhi Maran, Chief technical officer S. Kannan and electrician K. S. Ravi of Sun TV network and Dayanidhi Marans private secretary Gowthaman.

Passing the verdict in less than two minutes, the judge said that there was no prima facie case made out in the charges framed against them.

The CBI alleged that Dayanidhi Maran used 764 telephone links and for which no bills were raised causing a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to BSNL, Chennai and MTNL, Delhi when he was telecom minister. He installed the illegal telephone exchange at his residences in Chennai during June 2004 to December 2006.'No country in the world could have undertaken this exercise where day after day, 10 lakh payments are made daily,' KK Venugopal said.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on March 19. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a "huge public interest" project and no country in the world could have undertaken such an exercise where 10 lakh daily payments were made, the Centre told the Supreme Court.

The government told a bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and N V Ramana that they have been providing adequate funds to the states under the Act and refuted the claims of a petitioner NGO that states were unable to provide employment to people due to lack of funds provided by the Centre under the scheme.

"This (MGNREGA) is a huge public interest programme and project, just like others like food safety," Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench, adding that around 10 lakh payments were made daily under the Act.

"No country in the world could have undertaken this exercise where day after day, 10 lakh payments are made daily," he said.

Venugopal said whenever the states demand more funds from the Centre under the scheme, it was provided. He said there could be some glitches in the process, but as soon as the government is informed, these are fixed.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing NGO Swaraj Abhiyan, told the bench that states have to "plead" with the Centre to get an increase in their budget to pay for employment given under the Act.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on March 19.

Bhushan had earlier argued that the Centre was forcing the states to slash their projected demand for funds under the scheme due to which the states were unable to provide employment to people.

The NGO had argued that the Centre cannot cap the funds under the Act which provides for 100 days of employment per family per year.

The Centre had earlier told the bench that there was no instance where it has either capped the number of days of employment under the Act or not released funds to the states.

It had said that in 2016-17 financial year, 20 states had crossed the agreed budget and the Centre had provided the funds to them.

The court, which is hearing the plea that has sought relief measures in drought-hit states in the country, had earlier said that state food commissions, as mandated under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, should be set up even in states not hit by drought.The IED blast on Tuesday killed nine CRPF personnel and injured three other troopers.

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: A day after Naxals blew up a mine protected vehicle (MPV) in Kistaram forest under Chhattisgarhs south Bastar district of Sukma, intelligence reports on Wednesday revealed that local superintendent of police Abhishek Meena was the actual target of the rebels. The Maoists blew up the anti-landmine vehicle presuming the officer was travelling in it.

The IED blast on Tuesday killed nine CRPF personnel and injured three other troopers.

The Sukma SP might be the target of Maoists in the Tuesdays incident. He along with Sukma additional SP Suman Saurav had passed in the route just 15 minutes before the incident, Bastar inspector-general of police Vivekanand Sinha confirmed to this newspaper on Wednesday.

Mr Meena was returning in the route after supervising progress of works in the under-construction bridge at nearby Pottakpalli along with Sukma additional SP Suman Saurav and some CRPF officers, intelligence sources revealed.

Intelligence sources said Naxals had presumed that Mr Meena was in the MPV and hence targeted it.

Mandavi Hidma, commander of battalion No. 1 of Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army, was said to be the brain behind the planning and execution of the Naxal ambush.

A component of the battalion, Kistaram area committee, was present at the attack site and may have carried out the IED blast, the Bastar IG said.

This is the core area of the battalion. The Maoists were perturbed over construction of roads in the area and feared that the road connectivity will help security forces intrude into their zone, the IG said.

The under-construction four km long Kistaram-Palodi road has made the Maoist rank nervous, intelligence sources said.

The Naxals were rattled with the establishment of CRPF camp at Palodi in December last year. The camp has led to restriction of interstate movement of Maoists, a senior police officer posted in Bastar said.Govt sources in New Delhi have said that Indian deplomats in Islamabad were being regularly tailed and intimidated.

Islamabad has asked High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood to return home for an unspecified time. (Photo: Pakistan Embassy)

New Delhi: Days after Pakistan alleged that its diplomats in India were being "harassed", Islamabad has asked High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood to return home for an unspecified time for consultations.

"Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood would be visiting Islamabad shortly for consultations on matters relating to Pakistan-India relations," Dr Muhammad Faisal, spokesperson, MOFA informed.

However the Indian government sources, reacting to the move said that the consultation is routine process between the embassy and the foreign office, adding that it is nothing unusual, a report in NDTV said.

Pakistan had on Tuesday, summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, according to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Pakistan also accused the Indian officials of intimidating the children of a senior diplomat while they were on their way to school.

The Pakistan high commission alleged that the children were harassed and blocked by Indian authorities while they were on their way to the British School, according to a report in The Times of India.

It said the counsellor's car with his children onboard was hit from behind by another car occupied by Indian authorities.

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.

In reply, government sources in New Delhi said that Indian deplomats in Islamabad were being regularly tailed and intimidated.

"It's a normal affair for an Indian diplomat to get blocked in the middle of the road," a source said.

Indian Government sources also said Pakistani security agencies are resorting to "aggressive surveillance, violation of physical space and tailing of officers in close and dangerous proximity".

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.The meeting marks Rahuls attempts to reach out to like-minded parties with an aim to build an anti-BJP force ahead of the 2019 LS polls.

New Delhi: Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost two key seats in Uttar Pradesh, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths Gorakhpur, to the combined force of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress President Rahul Gandhi met Nationalist Congress (NC) leader Sharad Pawar on Wednesday night.

According to reports, the meeting marks Rahuls attempts to reach out to leaders of like-minded parties with an aim to build an anti-BJP force ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The meet also explore an alliance to challenge the BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

Rahul is also expected to meet Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee when she visits Delhi on March 28 to underscore the need for a strong alliance to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 polls.

Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule was also present during the meeting, which took place at her home.

The leaders took up from where they had left off at the dinner hosted on Tuesday by Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the UPA. Twenty parties attended the dinner, which was seen as a show of opposition unity.

The dinner took place against the backdrop of a logjam in Parliament, which has witnessed continuous disruptions since the start of the second part of the Budget Session on March 5.

The BJP is having a tough time in Maharashtra, a state that it rules with the Shiv Sena. The Sena has declared that it will contest Lok Sabha elections alone and has escalated its almost daily attacks on its long-time ally.

Rahul Gandhi's initiative to reach out to leaders of like-minded parties comes at a time when Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has proposed an "anti-Congress, anti-BJP alliance" for the national election, a call that has been supported by Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP was defeated on the Gorakhpur, and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh by Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine while the Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) defeated the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) - an NDA ally - on Araria Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.The bench observed that the media should be more responsible and said it cannot write whatever it feels about anyone.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Jay Shah and others, who have filed the complaint against the scribes, to respond within two weeks to the plea filed by the journalists against the Gujarat High Court's order. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked a Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against the news portal The Wire and its journalists.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Jay Shah and others, who have filed the complaint against the scribes, to respond within two weeks to the plea filed by the journalists against the Gujarat High Court's order, refusing to quash summons issued against them by the trial court.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, observed that the media should be more responsible and said it cannot write whatever it feels about anyone.

The chief justice, while repeatedly stressing that he was not commenting on the case before it, also said that sometimes journalists write in a way that amounts to "sheer contempt of court".

"I have told many times about Freedom of Speech and Expression. We are not going to gag the media. The question of gagging the media does not arise. But the press should be more responsible," he said.

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits," the chief justice observed. "... they are writing sometimes which amounts to sheer contempt of court," he added.

The Gujarat High Court had on January 8 rejected a petition filed by the news portal, seeking quashing of a criminal defamation case filed against it by Jay Shah over an article related to his company.

The high court rejected the petition on the grounds that the article, "The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah", is per say "defamatory" and the trial court should proceed with the case.

Jay Shah had moved the lower court alleging criminal defamation by the petitioners after the article published by the website claimed his company's turnover grew exponentially after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.

After the suit was filed on October 9, 2017, the court initiated proceedings against them under CrPC's section 202 (to inquire into a case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding).

The suit has been filed against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and M K Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism.

The foundation publishes The Wire. Jay Shah has separately filed a civil defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the website over the article. Jay Shah had rejected the charge made in the article, insisting the story was "false, derogatory and defamatory".New twist may cause delay in deciding Ayodhya case.

New Delhi: In a new twist to the Ayodhya title dispute, the Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to examine the correctness of its 1994 verdict holding that offering namaz in a mosque is not an essential and integral part of Islam and Muslims can offer prayers anywhere.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer agreed to examine this after senior counsel Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for one of the Muslim parties, submitted that the 1994 verdict was wrong and needed to be reconsidered. The bench told the counsel that it would refer the matter to a larger bench that would examine the issues raised by Mr Dhawan.

The bench asked Mr Dhawan to submit legal propositions by March 23 on why the matter required reconsideration by a larger bench of five judges. Senior counsel K. Parasaran, C.S. Vaidyanathan and others agreed the issue raised by 1994 verdict could be examined as a preliminary issue. If it is examined by a five-judge bench as a preliminary question, then there is a possibility of delay in deciding the Ayodhya title suits.

The bench dismissed the intervention applications filed by third parties who are not connected with the title suit. When an applicant said that 10,523 residents of Ayodhya and Faizabad had signed a statement of compromise for the dispute, the bench said such a compromise could be effected outside the court, as the present dispute was purely a legal issue.

Mr Dhawan pointed out that the 1994 verdict ordering status quo on installation of the Ram idol at the disputed site recognised Hindus right to worship at that place but completely ignored the rights of Muslims to offer namaz at the Babri Masjid, saying that offering namaz in a mosque is not an essential and integral part of Islam. He said the court had also taken a view that a mosque need not be rebuilt at this site.

He said the Allahabad high court, while deciding the title suit in 2010, had apportioned one-third of the land to Hindus, one-third to Muslims and one-third to Ram Lulla, relying on the status quo order of 1994. The high court had observed that the sentiments of Hindus on offering worship should be recognised. Mr Dhawan said the 1994 verdict was binding on the three judges. Thus, if the same logic were followed, a mosque would never be constructed on the disputed site as this finding had already prejudiced their right.

At one stage, the bench reiterated it will deal with the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case purely as a land dispute, and other issues were not relevant. But Mr Dhawan said the issue could not be brushed aside. He argued that in 1934 the British had recognised the right of Muslims to offer prayers at the Babri Masjid and rebuilt the mosque. But this right was not recognised in 1949 after Independence.

Mr Dhawan contended that on December 6, 1992 the masjid was demolished and the idol of Lord Ram was surreptitiously placed at the disputed site. Muslims can never accept trespass by Hindus and criminality of demolition of the Babri Masjid, he said, adding: Our right to offer prayers was not taken into consideration in the 1994 verdict. On the other hand, Mr Dhawan said the right of Hindus to offer worship was recognised on an illegality. Why was the right to Muslims not considered, he asked, and urged the court to reconsider the 1994 verdict.

Those who filed the appeals included the Sunni Central Waqf Board, UP; the Nirmohi Akhara; the All-India Hindu Mahasabha and Bhagwan Shri Ram Virajman. There are voluminous records, scripts and documents in seven languages  Sanskrit, Pali, Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Punjabi and Urdu  which are to be translated into English.

On behalf of Hindus it was argued that having accepted that the disputed site was the birthplace of Lord Ram, there was no reason why one-third of the land was to be given to Muslims for construction of a mosque. They wanted the entire area be granted to the Hindus to facilitate the construction of a Ram Mandir.

The appeal on behalf of Muslims raised several questions, including whether myth, belief or faith could be substituted by history for the purposes of application of the law for the time being in force? Whether in view of the fact that devotees of Lord Ram demolished the building during the pendency of their suit, relief could be granted to such a plaintiff; and whether the high court, on the basis of belief and faith, could have competently decided the issue in the wake of the fact that with respect to the structure prior to December 6, 1992 all supportive evidences were available with effect from the year 1528 till December 6, 1992, whereas for the evidence prior to the year 1528, the religious text and scriptures have been taken into consideration; whether the act of demolition of the structure was an act of vandalism? If the demolition was illegal, then certainly the relief was to return all plaints; also if it was an act of vandalism, it should not have been given the seal of approval.SC in its much-awaited ruling on decades-long dispute increased K'taka's share of water and directed the state to release 177.25 TMC to TN.

The Tamil Nadu government in 2016 sought the apex court's intervention, saying there was a deficit of 50.0052 TMC ft. of water released from Karnataka's reservoirs, with respect to the minimum limit prescribed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. (Photo: PTI)

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution that urged the Centre to constitute Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Monitoring Committee.

Earlier on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker P Dhanapal gave permission to convene Special Assembly meeting over Cauvery.

"Government intended to put forward a resolution and I have agreed to its demand," Dhanapal said in Chennai.

Addressing the meeting, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Working President MK Stalin said, "Time has come for all party leaders to unite to get Cauvery water. The centre is bending Supreme Court's order as per its need."

In Delhi, some of the DMK MPs were seen wearing black dresses outside the Parliament on Thursday.

Even the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MPs staged a protest in front of the Parliament over the same issue.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK and other opposition parties opposed the Budget Session.

Speaking to reporters, Stalin said DMK legislators wore black shirts as a mark of protest on the inaction in setting up CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) as directed by the Supreme Court on February 16.

The top court on February 16 had ordered the central government to set up the CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee within six weeks.

However, the apex court's verdict decreased Tamil Nadu's share in the water body, much to the dismay of the people of the state.

Read: Cauvery: A decision at last, now make it work

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy had expressed dissent over the Cauvery Water verdict, saying that the Supreme Court order reducing the allotment of water for the state from Cauvery river was 'disappointing.'

On February 22, Palanisamy urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take an appropriate action for the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board.

The Chief Minister also urged the Prime Minister for implementing Cauvery regulation committee as per the Supreme Court guidelines.

The Prime Minister was in Chennai to launch Amma Two Wheeler Scheme here on the birth anniversary of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

The apex court in its much-awaited verdict on the decades-long dispute increased Karnataka's share of water and directed the state to release 177.25 TMC to Tamil Nadu.

Cauvery originates in Karnataka's Kodagu district, flows into Tamil Nadu, and reaches the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar.

The Tamil Nadu government in 2016 sought the apex court's intervention, saying there was a deficit of 50.0052 TMC ft. of water released from Karnataka's reservoirs, with respect to the minimum limit prescribed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

The Cauvery tribunal recommended that the Cauvery Management Board be modelled after Bhakra Beas Management Board by the Centre unless an appropriate mechanism comes to place.'Perhaps his (Tagore's) works are more popular in China than India, if not equally popular,' Chinese Consul Ma Zhanwu said.

He was speaking at a seminar 'China-India Buddhist and Other Exchanges' attended by Chinese and Indian scholars and organised by the Chinese consulate, Kolkata. (Photo: ANI)

Kolkata: Chinese Consul Ma Zhanwu on Thursday called for greater interactions between China and India on the cultural front saying that the ties between the two countries existed even thousands of years ago.

He was speaking at a seminar 'China-India Buddhist and Other Exchanges' attended by Chinese and Indian scholars and organised by the Chinese consulate, Kolkata.

"I heard from scholars that the two countries started commercial and other interactions several thousand years back through the Silk Road and Buddhism was introduced to China through this route. Later on, Indian monks travelled to China through this route and Chinese monks like Hiuen Tsang also went to India by the same road 1,400 years back," Zhanwu said.

"You need to have a relationship based on the principles of peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness and of course, and mutual benefit, the envoy said.

The consul said, there should be more effective use of names like Hiuen Tsang and Rabindranath Tagore to promote closer, stronger cultural ties and more people-to-people exchanges in the future.

"Perhaps his (Tagore's) works are more popular in China than India, if not equally popular," Zhanwu said.

He said a complete set of Tagore's works has been published in China on May 7, in 2017, that elicited very good response from the readers. Tagore's short stories and many of his poems were also very popular among Chinese students and part of school curriculum, he said.

Visva Bharati officiating Vice-Chancellor Sabujkali Sen told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar that the Chinese Consulate, Kolkata, was involved in the revamp of China Bhavan, which had been founded by Tagore 80 years back as a centre for Chinese studies.

"The Consulate has last month given Rs 60 lakh to renovate China Bhavan and always supports the student exchange programme between Visva Bharati and Chinese Universities. This is an important part in furthering people-to-people exchanges," Sen said.

A number of well-known Chinese scholars from different Chinese institutions as well as Indian scholars deliberated on the past of Indo-China exchanges, delving into history, and future possibilities.A report from Khonmoh said that clashes between stone-throwing youth and security forces erupted soon after the encounter started.

Army soldiers cordon off the area near a residential building where suspected gunmen are holed up on the outskirts of Srinagar on Thursday. (Photo: AP)

SRINAGAR: A gunfight is raging between a group of militants and security forces in Khanmoh area outside the highway town of Pampore in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district since Thursday afternoon.

The fighting broke out after the militants attacked the police guards of a local BJP leader Dr Anwar Khan. His personal security officer Bilal Ahmed was injured in the attack, the police said. The doctors attending on Ahmed said he received a minor injury in the shootout and is out of danger. The police denied the militants had tried to kill the BJP leader and said that he was inside a building when the attack took place on his security guards who were standing outside.

Soon after the attack, the security forces including the J&K polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG), the Army and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) laid siege to the area to take on the assailants. While the search operation was underway, contact was established with the holed up militants. The encounter is going on, said a police spokesperson here.

A statement issued by the police here said that the militants had attacked the security men guarding the BJP activist while he was visiting Arsh Institute at Khonmoh. The incident happened outside the institute where the PSOs were present, it said adding that the PSOs repulsed the attack while exhibiting extreme caution to avoid any collateral damage leading the militants to flee from the spot.

A report from Khonmoh said that clashes between stone-throwing youth and security forces erupted soon after the encounter started.

Angry youth in groups are hurling rocks at the security forces apparently to disrupt the operation, said a local resident over the phone.

Meanwhile, the police on Thursday claimed that it with the Army raided a place in central district of Budgam and arrested three persons who were in possession of three pistols with magazines and two rounds of ammunition. A vehicle in the use of the accused identified as Faizan ul Zaman Bhat, Sajad Ahmed Dar and Miaser Ahmed has also been seized, another police statement said.Pakistan had issued a note verbale recently to India on the matter, while India had issued a note verbale to Pakistan on Saturday.

New Delhi/Islamabad: With the India-Pakistan row over the harassment of diplomats worsening, Pakistan on Thursday recalled its high commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, to Islamabad for consultations, but an unfazed India said it was pretty normal for diplomats to go back to their countries for consultations. Pakistan had issued a note verbale recently to India on the matter, while India had issued a note verbale to Pakistan on Saturday. There are indications that New Delhi may also call its high commissioner home for consultations if and when required.

The external affairs ministry refused to discuss the incidents that led to the row, saying these will be taken up with Pakistan through established diplomatic channels and not through the media, but added that the Pakistani complaints were being looked into. New Delhi, however, did say that the Indian high commission in Islamabad was facing a litany of issues which have not been resolved for several months. Both sides have alleged that their diplomats have been harassed in the other country, with Islamabad also saying the children of their diplomatic staff have also been traumatised after vehicles ferrying them to school were stopped. Pakistani diplomatic sources that claim doorbells are being rung and phone calls being received by their diplomats at odd hours. On Thursday, the Pakistan foreign ministry said: Pakistans high commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood would be visiting Islamabad shortly for consultations on matters relating to Pakistan-India relations.

Asked about this, MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar said: It is pretty normal and routine for any country to call its envoy for consultations. He added: Consultations by any resident ambassador/high commissioner with their headquarters is a matter for that country. We of course have no comments to offer on the news reports regarding the Pakistan high commissioner.

Asked whether India had plans to call its envoy too for consultations, the MEA spokesman said he was not aware of any such plan, but that it could be done as and when required, adding quickly, however, that there was no linkage to the diplomat harassment row.

Asked about the details in the reported incidents of harassment, the MEA said: We have seen reports of the issues raised by Pakistan. We do not wish to respond to these issues through the media but through established diplomatic channels. What I can say is that we are looking into these issues.

The MEA added: As you know, our high commission is facing a litany of issues which have not been resolved for several months. We raise these issues in good faith through diplomatic channels and not through the media. We have asked for immediate resolution of these issues faced by our high commission in Islamabad, so that the safety and security of our diplomatic mission and its diplomatic and consular officials is assured. We would like our mission to function normally, without any obstruction or harassment, in keeping with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961.

The Pakistan foreign ministry, meanwhile, lashed out at India over the row, saying: The deliberate bullying is not confined to a single isolated event, but continues unabated in a series of incidents... Pakistan can go to any limit for the safeguarding of its diplomats.

The huge diplomatic spat pertaining to harassment of diplomats and their families had hit the headlines earlier this week, with both sides lodging protests on the matter with each other. Indian government sources had said that harassment is the new normal for Indian high commission personnel in Islamabad for the past year or more, with the Indian high commissioner lodging a strong protest nearly a month ago on February 16 with Islamabad against multiple acts of hooliganism against Indian properties and personnel. Sources said that in view of such an atmosphere of intimidation, most families have returned to India and children have been withdrawn from schools.

Sources had said: Indias residential complex in Islamabad was raided by Pakistan agencies who expelled all Pakistani service providers and later disconnected power and water supply, and that despite

the (Pakistani) foreign secretarys assurance, the power supply was not restored for over two weeks.

Indian government sources also said Pakistani security agencies are resorting to aggressive surveillance, violation of physical space and tailing of officers in close and dangerous proximity. Indian government sources also said the car of Indias high commissioner was stopped recently in a busy road to prevent him from attending an event while another Indian diplomats house was broken into and a laptop stolen.

Pakistan foreign ministry sources also alleged that the harassment of Pakistani diplomats in New Delhi, after which a note verbale was issued to India. Pakistani sources said that in one incident on Thursday, the children of Pakistans deputy high commissioner were going to school in a car when it was chased by a motorcycle and another vehicle, after which unidentified men took the driver off and hurled abuses.

Indian government sources said the Pakistani complaints would be investigated, adding that while New Delhi makes all efforts to provide a safe, secure and hospitable environment for diplomats to work in, that this cannot be said of Islamabad, unfortunately.Eligible farmers from the five districts of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Fazilka and Ferozepur got their loan waiver certificates on Wednesday.

Chandigarh: Lashing out at the Akalis for trying to mislead people, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday categorically ruled out any move to withdraw free power for agriculture.

Captain Amarinder Singh was addressing the farming community at a programme to issue debt waiver certificates amounting to Rs 162.16 crore to 29,192 farmers at the Dana Mandi here, in the second stage of waiver of loans for the states 10.25 lakh small and marginal farmers. Eligible farmers from the five districts of Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Fazilka and Ferozepur got their loan waiver certificates on Wednesday.

Describing the distribution of the certificate as part of the fulfilment of election promise made to the farmers, Mr Singh assured the farmers that the slight delay in the matter was the result not of funds paucity but the fact that the procedure for identification and verification of the eligible farmers, along with their loan amount, was taking some time.

However, he made it clear that he was totally committed to implementing the promise of debt waiver, which he had made ahead of the Assembly elections after hearing of farmer suicides in every place he visited.Dhinakaran's party launch is seen as a means to retrieve the ruling party from the 'clutches of traitors'.

Dhinakaran had contested and won the RK Nagar constituency Assembly bye-polls last December, under the 'pressure cooker' symbol. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Chennai: Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Thursday launched his political party, named it 'Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam' and unveiled its black-red-white flag featuring image of late leader J Jayalalithaa at Melur in Madurai.

Dhinakaran's party launch is seen as a means to retrieve the ruling party from the clutches of traitors.

Following the launch, Dhinakaran said that his party will win all upcoming elections by using the latest name and party flag. He added that the newly formed party will use cooker symbol until it retrieves the two leaves symbol.

However, Tamil Nadu minister Jayakumar dismissed Dhinakaran's latest move saying, "AIADMK is like a lion and Dinakaran's party like a mosquito on the lion," NDTV reported.

Dhinakaran's new party comes days after the Delhi high court directed the Election Commission to allot any common symbol, preferably the pressure cooker, for his faction of the AIADMK and any one name from the three proposed by the rebel leader.

While seeking pressure cooker, which was a rage in the RK Nagar byelection that he romped home in December last year, he had suggested that Election Commission allot one of the three names  All India Amma Anna Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam, MGR Amma Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam and MGR Amma Dravidar Kazhagam  for his faction.

A political party is needed to retrieve the AIADMK from the clutches of traitors. We need a registered political party to fully retrieve the AIADMK from the present rulers, the rebel leader had said earlier.

The RK Nagar MLAs announcement to launch a political party comes weeks after actor-politician Kamal Haasan floated his party Makkal Needhi Maiam in Madurai. On December 31, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth had announced his decision to enter politics but he is yet to launch a party.

Dhinakaran had won the byelections held in Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in December last year under the 'pressure cooker' symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes.Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose party members were also in the Well, sought a discussion on the bills.

New Delhi: Opposition members tore papers and threw them around in the Lok Sabha on Thursday as relentless protests by them and NDA partner TDP disrupted proceedings in both Houses of Parliament for the ninth straight day, but the government managed to get two bills passed without debate amid the din.

While Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned the Lok Sabha till noon and then for the day, the Rajya Sabha, which saw a total of three adjournments, could not take up the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bills, due to the disruptions.

The proceedings of the two Houses were paralysed as Opposition parties, along with ruling NDA partner TDP the TRS, stormed the Well and continued their noisy protests over a host of issues, including the banking scam, special status for Andhra and setting up of Cauvery management board.

In the Lok Sabha however, the government pushed two legislations, Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, amid continued din and the House passed them with a voice vote without debate.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose party members were also in the Well, sought a discussion on the bills.

With continuous protests by different parties making the prospect of any discussion improbable, the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings for the passage of bills.

As the second bill was being passed without debate, some Opposition members were seen tearing some papers and throwing them around, as the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, Moving the Pay-ment of Gratuity Bill for passage, labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said it is a very important legislation for employees, especially women.

The bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the Central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.The Andhra Pradesh ruling party will hold a high-level politburo meeting on Friday, where a decision in this regard might be taken.

New Delhi: Trouble in the ruling NDA seems to have intensified after the shock defeat of the BJP in the bypolls of Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats, particularly Gorakhpur. While the Shiv Sena claimed that the bypolls results were an indication that people have realised that they have been cheated, another key ally, TDP, gave indications that it could snap ties with the BJP-led NDA. The Andhra Pradesh ruling party will hold a high-level politburo meeting on Friday, where a decision in this regard might be taken.

TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, in a teleconference with his MPs, said that PM Narendra Modi is trying to repeat in Andhra Pradesh what he has done in Tamil Nadu. His comments were seen in response to allegations made by actor-politician Pawan Kalyan against Mr Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh. The TDP is abuzz with rumours that Mr Kalyans diatribe against the states ruling party leaders was scripted by the Centre, which has so far refused to grant special category status to the state, the primary demand of the TDP.

Meanwhile, the blame game began in the saffron camp with BJP MP Subramanian Swamy launching a veiled attack on chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Without naming the CM, Dr Swamy said that the BJPs highest decision-making body, the parliamentary board, must think before giving important positions to people. The attack comes a day after the SP-BSP alliance defeated the saffron party in its bastion  Yogi Adityanaths Gorakhpur  as well as in deputy CM Keshav Prasad Mauryas Phulpur constituency.

However, BJP leaders continued to make controversial remarks over the bypoll defeats. A day after the it lost the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll in Bihar, Union minister Giriraj Singh warned that it would soon turn into a hub of terrorists.

Araria is not just a border area, connected to Nepal and Bengal. They have led to a hardline ideology, which is not just dangerous for Bihar, but for the whole country. It will become a hub of terrorism... The RJD has started a new political culture for its political ambitions, said the minister. His statement evoked strong criticism from several political leaders.

Former Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav tweeted: This man is a Central minister and unfortunately he is not aware its his government in Bihar and Delhi. If he and the BJP doesnt believe in (chief minister) Nitish Kumars leadership, then why dont they ask him to step down or withdraw their support? Such a shame for Nitish Kumar.Defying the so called jinx, Yogi Adityanath had visited the satellite township bordering the Delhi last year.

New Delhi: After BJPs shocking defeat in the bypolls of two prestigious Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, including Gorakhpur which was earlier held by chief minister Yogi Adiyanath, BJP circle is abuzz with rumours that the poll verdict was the result of the Noida jinx.

Defying the so-called jinx, Mr Adityanath had visited the satellite township bordering the national capital last year in December ahead of the inauguration of Delhi Metros Magenta Line by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His predecessors had avoided visiting Noida apparently over the rumour that any chief minister who visits the township loses power. Though it were bypolls, which the BJP lost, Gorakhpur had been represented by Mr Adityanath for five terms untill his elevation as the states chief minister last year.

This parliamentary constituency has been with the representative of the Gorakhnath Math for almost three decades. Mr Adityanath is the current head of the math.

The jinx apparently started in 1998 when the then chief minister, Vir Bahadur Singh, lost power within days of visiting Noida in 1988.

This jinxs victims have been Kalyan Singh, Mulayam Singh and Mayawati.Sources pointed out that its very introduction may cause embarrassment to the Centre.

New Delhi: With speculation agog that the NDAs unhappy ally Telugu Desam Party may support a YSR Congress-sponsored no-confidence motion which it aims to move in the Lok Sabha on March 16 against the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening held a high-level meeting with some of his top Cabinet colleagues to chart out a strategy for tackling the ongoing political turmoil.

The meeting was held just a day after the BJP-led NDA was jolted by reverses suffered in two key Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha byelections of Gorakhpur and Phulpur at the hands of the Samajwadi Party.

Highly-placed sources confirmed to this newspaper that the meeting, attended by home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, transport minister Nitin Gadkari and parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar along with BJP president Amit Shah, discussed at length the trouble brewing down south given the speculation gaining traction that the TDP, which has already withdrawn its representatives from the Union Council of Ministers, may back the no-confidence motion moved by its rival in the state, the YSR Congress. Sources further said that at the meeting, held at the Prime Ministers residence, ways to end the ongoing logjam in Parliament that has been held hostage to disruptions by the Opposition parties, and even the TDP and YSR Congress, over issues ranging from the PNB fraud and Nirav Modi controversy to Andhra Pradesh being given special category status, was also discussed.

Even the losses suffered by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanaths home turf Gorakhpur and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Mauryas Phulpur Lok Sabha seats to the Samajwadi Party in bypolls were analysed threadbare, sources added.

YSR Congress MP from Ongole Y.V. Subba Reddy on Thursday gave a notice to the Lok Sabha secretary-general to move a no-confidence motion against the government on March 16. With TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu having called the partys politburo meeting in Amaravati on Friday, the political grapevine feels that it may pull out of the NDA completely.

A no-confidence motion requires the support of at least 50 MPs to be accepted, and given the fact that the YSR Congress has just nine MPs and the TDP 16 in the Lok Sabha, it could fall through.

With the BJP alone having 274 members in the 536-member Lok Sabha and enjoying support of allies having over 56 members, the no-confidence motion, if accepted, is certain to be defeated.

However, sources pointed out that its very introduction may cause embarrassment to the Centre.

Meanwhile YSR Congress chief Jagamohan Reddy is learnt to have written to various parties to seek support for the no-confidence motion. The YSR Congress chief is said to have indicated that if the Centre does not grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh, all his MPs would resign from the Lok Sabha.

Also, with the YSR Congress being the main Opposition party in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, by giving a notice for a no-confidence motion, it has stolen a march over the TDP on the issue of seeking special status for the state, an issue on which both have been stalling the parliamentary proceedings for the past nine days.The bench said it would hear the transfer and all related petitions on March 26 to settle the issue.

New Delhi: In a huge relief to Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P. Chidambaram, the Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the Enforcement Directorate from arresting him in connection with the INX media case till March 26.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, while extending the protection of stay of arrest granted by the Delhi high court till March 22, transferred to the apex court all the petitions filed by Karti challenging the powers of the ED to arrest him under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act even without registering an FIR.

The bench said it would hear the transfer and all related petitions on March 26 to settle the issue. It passed this order on appeals filed by the ED challenging the March 9 order of the Delhi high court granting protection from arrest to Karti. The bench said it would also examine whether the high courts can grant anticipatory bail to an accused under the PMLA in a writ petition.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal strenuously argued that in the absence of registration of FIR by the Enforcement Directorate or receipt of a complaint, no arrest could be made.

Additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED, argued that the registration of ECIR (economic case information report) is itself based on a cognisable offence and the ED has the power to arrest, search, seize and attachment of properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

He said Bombay, Punjab and Haryana and Delhi high courts have interpreted Sections 19 and 45 of PMLA on power of arrest differently and, hence, he apex court should adjudicate the issue.

In its appeal the ED said the high court could not have given anticipatory bail to Karti under its jurisdiction as this will become a legal device for persons like diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who had fled the country, even before they are questioned in ED cases.

ED said it apprehended that more number of persons like Nirav Modi, who are facing money laundering cases will make an attempt to get relief by approaching the high court seeking stay of arrest. It said over 1,000 such cases are pending across the country being probed by ED and all these cases will he affected if Kartis anticipatory bail was not cancelled.

By an interim order passed on March 9, the Delhi HC has restrained ED from arresting Karti Chidambaram till March 20 (it was later extended till March 22) in the alleged money laundering case involving INX Media. Karti is accused of having received Rs 10 lakhs in kickbacks in 2007 to clear foreign investment worth Rs 305 crore for INX Media, which was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, at a time when his father P. Chidambaram was finance minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

The ED prayed for quashing the High Court order and an interim stay of this order to enable ED to arrest Karti Chidambaram if it was warranted.Eom.The victim, a junior colleague of Tejpal, has accused him of sexually assaulting her inside a lift at a hotel in Goa in 2013.

Panaji: The in-camera trial in the rape case against former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal began on Thursday with a district court in north Goa recording the statement of the victim.

On the first day of the trial, the victim who had accused Mr Tejpal of sexually assaulting her, was examined.

Additional district and sessions judge Vijaya Pol at Mapusa recorded the statement of the victim during the trial, which began at 10 am and concluded at 5 pm.

The victim was examined today and it will continue for the next two days  tomorrow and the day after, public prosecutor Francis Tavera told reporters outside the court.

He said the trial is being held in-camera with no access to media. Mr Tejpal was present in the courtroom during the trial, while his family members were asked to stay out.

The victim, a junior colleague of Mr Tejpal, had accused him of sexually assaulting her inside a lift at a five-star hotel in Goa during the magazines THiNK fest event in 2013.

In September last year, the district court had framed charges of rape and wrongful confinement against Mr Tejpal.

Mr Tejpal was charged under various IPC Sections, including 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 350 (criminal force), 376 (rape) and 354- (A) and (B) (sexually coloured remarks and use of criminal force on woman).

He had earlier moved the Bombay high court seeking a stay on framing of charges against him, but his petition was dismissed.

Mr Tejpal was arrested by the Goa crime branch on November 30, 2013, after his anticipatory bail was rejected by the court. He has been out on the bail since May 2014, when the Supreme Court granted him the relief.Here is what researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine found.

Washington: Turns out, even the world's most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) is not untouched by racial and ethnic disparities.

According to a research led by Johns Hopkins Medicine, the world's most common curable STI, Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), disproportionately affects the black community. A report of the findings highlighted the major racial/ethnic disparities in TV infection in the United States population, calling on the need to improve racial equity in sexual health.

"These findings are likely reflective of real social and structural disparities, such as lower access to health care, that result in high infection rates in the black community. Targeted public health education about Trichomonas will be critical," said Aaron Tobian, the study's senior author.

Trichomonas vaginalis infection is caused by a protozoan parasite and is asymptomatic in most people. In women, TV infection cases can be characteriSed by a foul-smelling vaginal discharge, painful urination and abdominal pain. Similar urination and abdominal symptoms can be seen in men. However, if TV infection is left untreated, it can lead to severe consequences in women, such as pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.

Unlike with some other STIs, there is currently no routine surveillance or reporting programs for TV in the United States, and only two previous studies have ever examined its prevalence on a national scale, according to Tobian. Those studies, he said, only focused on women or a younger population.

To examine the prevalence of TV infection in both males and females 18 to 59 years old, Tobian and colleagues used data from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a collection of health information from the United States' non-institutionalised, civilian population that includes valid TV results from urine samples.

Of the 4,057 participants, 1,942 were males, 2,115 were females, 822 identified as non-Hispanic black and 3,235 identified as other races/ethnicities.

While the prevalence of TV infection was 0.03 and 0.8 percent among males and females of other races/ethnicities, the burden of TV infection was significantly higher among black males and females: 4.2 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.

Higher prevalence of TV infection was associated with being female, black, older, having less than a high school education and living below poverty level, independent of having multiple sexual partners. TV prevalence was also higher among older individuals (i.e., 25-59 years old compared to age 18-24).

People below the poverty level had a prevalence of 3.9 percent versus 0.6 percent for those at or above poverty level, and individuals without a high school education had a prevalence of 2.9 percent versus 0.8 percent for those with at least a high school education.

Currently, screening for TV infection is only recommended for people who are HIV-positive. Eshan U. Patel, the lead author of the study, said the new findings should encourage broader screening initiatives, educational programming, and policy changes to ensure access to sexual health care. "It's unfortunate that TV infection hasn't received a stronger public health response, especially since it is easy to diagnose and treat," said Patel.

TV infection can be detected using the same diagnostic platform as the one used for Chlamydia and can be cured with just one pill - metronidazole.

The findings from the study are published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.Festival sees over 18,000 tourist footfalls during one-and-a-half-month Grape and Wine extravaganza by MTDC.

The objective of this festival was to promote Agro - tourism and Nashik as a tourist destination.

Mumbai: The India Grape Harvest Festival 2018 organised by India Grape Harvest and supported by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation in conjunction with Ministry of Tourism witnessed success with an encouraging interest at multiple destinations across Nashik Valley.

The objective of this festival was to promote Agro - tourism and Nashik as a tourist destination. Sixteen delegations from countries including Japan, Germany and France were present there.

This was the only festival comprising a longest duration of one and a half months with Vinchur Wine Park and Vaitarna as their two campsites.

India Grape Harvest festival viewed participation from Indias best wineries to show the beginning of the harvest season. Various activities such as grape stomping, wine tasting, cooking in wine (master class) and painting with wine were exhibited during the festival.

Enthusiastic travellers across Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Indore and Surat attended this festival and enjoyed Indian Art, Tribal Art, craft, music, food and culture. Brainstorming sessions from Grape to Glass that described the gist of the wine making process, were organised for the people who were a part of this festival. The festival helped generate a lot of revenue to various wineries and create employment opportunities.

Speaking on the occasion, Jaykumar Rawal, Minister of Tourism and (EGS), Government of Maharashtra, I am happy to see the response for this festival from the people across the country as well as outside India. It has helped in enhancing employment opportunities, revenue, hotel business, Agro Tourism etc. In addition, this festival has communicated the hidden story of every single person who has contributed and put in efforts behind each drop of wine here. We also hope to see ahead a Grand Carnival that will be held on 18th March 2018.Police reported that the student 'returned' on Thursday and said that she had 'gone out'.

She is a student at the School of Life Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). (Photo: File)

New Delhi: A 26-year-old JNU student, who had gone missing on March 11, "returned" on Thursday, police said. The matter came to light after her family lodged a complaint on March 12 at the Vasant Kunj police station, police said.

The student "returned" on Thursday and said that she had "gone out". She is yet to give further details, they said. She is a student at the School of Life Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The woman had spoken to her family on March 10 but from March 11, her phone was switched off, they said. Police said that after her family's attempts to trace her did not yield result, they approached them with a complaint.

The matter is being probed, they said.The AAP government has already expressed its serious concern over the decrease in the number of ration card holders.

New Delhi: The AAP government and lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal are all set for another face-off over the recent Cabinet decision granting approval for home delivery of ration under Targeted Public Distribution System to all its beneficiaries in the national capital. The cabinet, chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, had recently given a go-ahead to the scheme despite objections raised by the law and finance departments of the city government.

Sources said that the Cabinet decision, which is pending L-Gs approval, may not be cleared as the two key departments had raised serious objections over the implementation of the home delivery scheme. The two departments had said that the home delivery of ration cannot be made as the scheme has to be implemented in accordance with Central rules. The state governments provide subsidised wheat, rice and sugar under the Targeted Distribution System in accordance with Central rules.

Sources said if Raj Niwas does not approve the city Cabinet decision on home delivery of ration, there are chances that the AAP leaders may go all out to raise their voice against any such decision. The AAP government has already expressed its serious concern over the decrease in the number of ration card holders.

The number of ration card holders in Delhi has gone down from 30 lakh to 19 lakh in the past few years. The issue had hit headlines when two AAP legislators questioned chief secretary Anshu Prakash over the contentious issue and also alllegedly assaulted him in chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence. It is learnt that the Cabinet had accorded approval to the proposal of the department of food, supply and consumer affairs for providing doorstep delivery of wheat, rice and sugar to eligible beneficiaries of Targeted Public Distribution System under National Food Security Act 2013.

The Cabinet had taken this decision by over-ruling the objections raised by the law and finance departments.

The project for doorstep delivery of food grains is primarily aimed at reforming the Targeted PDS in public interest. The AAP government is committed to ensure that eligible beneficiaries receive their due ration in a transparent manner with maximum ease. Aadhaar-based identification of ration holders was one such reform, which has faced teething problems resulting in ration beneficiaries facing unforeseen trouble. Given this experience, doorstep delivery of ration of the cabinet is said to be aimed at removing the problems faced by ration beneficiaries.

A senior officer said that the attention of the Cabinet was also drawn to the extant laws and guidelines issued by the ministry of consumer affairs, Government of India, asking state governments to ensure home delivery of ration to the beneficiaries experiencing difficulty in getting their entitled quantum of subsidised foodgrain due to old age and physical disability.

The city cabinet had also decided that the service provider for home delivery of ration would be selected in a transparent manner through open bidding. A senior AAP functionary said that the cabinets proposal was also aimed at providing a higher level of transparency in delivery system through inbuilt online monitoring system which would weed out corruption and diversion of food grains. It will save time and resources of ration beneficiaries of Delhi.The accused, Asif Saifi (27), was inspired by Bollywood films and used to recited dialogues from films while making the ransom calls.

Saifi was finally arrested from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, police said, adding the child was rescued. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: A UPSC aspirant has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a minor from northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura area and demanding ransom to pay off his debts, police said.

The accused, Asif Saifi (27), was inspired by Bollywood films and used to recited dialogues from films while making the ransom calls, they said.

Saifi, who completed his M.Tech, was preparing for the civil services. He was in debt. He had borrowed Rs 4-5 lakh to pay a man who had promised him a government job. The man, however, cheated him, police said.

Desperate to make money, Saifi befriended the 5-year-old victim and found out the phone number of the child's father.

The accused one day took away the child and kept him in a shanty. He used to make ransom calls to the child's parents from borrowed phones, police said.

Saifi was finally arrested from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, they said, adding the child was rescued.The end-to-end travel time of Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus stretch is 34 minutes and will cost Rs 40.

Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Harsh Vardhan during the inauguration of Delhi Metro Pink Line at DMRC Bhawan in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Indicating that there were issues of financial viability on some routes, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that his government will soon clear the Delhi Metros long pending Phase IV expansion project. The CM said this in presence of Union minister of housing and urban affairs (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri, along with whom, he ceremonially flagged of the Majlis Park to Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus section of the much-awaited Pink Line, from the Metro Bhawan. The end-to-end travel time of Majlis Park-Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus stretch is 34 minutes and will cost `40.

The chief minister also raised the issue of hike in Metro fare with Mr Puri at the inauguration, with the latter saying the Centre cannot do anything about it.

Metro is the lifeline of Delhi, and it is an important mode of transport for the city. The Delhi government will soon give clearance for the Phase-IV project. There are issues of financial viability on some of the routes, the chief minister said. On the last fare hike, Mr Kejriwal said the Delhi government and the Centre should sit together and find out a solution.

The newly opened section, which has 12 stations, is part of the 59 km-long Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor (Pink Line  Line 7) of Delhi Metros Phase-III.

A small segment of the Pink Line in the Trilokpuri area in Wast Delhi is also awaiting clearance due to some land issues and other related matters associated with the local people.

Mr Puri had recently said that the Aam Aadmi Party government was sitting on the Delhi Metros phase IV project and the rapid raid system connecting the national Capital to Meert. We are finding a solution. The solution is where we are not getting support from the Delhi government over the Metro projects, we have decided that we we will do it ourselves. Rail corridors, we will do on our own.

If they (Delhi government) are not willing to approve a project or provide funding, we are finding out a solution for it, the Urban affairs minister had said.

Last year, Mr Puri had reportedly said the delay had pushed the cost of Metros Phase-IV by Rs 12,000 crore, adding that, the cost of the Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit project had also gone up by Rs 1,000 crore.

Incidentally, an official at the chief ministers office had then said that the Delhi government had given in-principle approval to the Phase-IV metro project, but the files were pending with bureaucrats in the Delhi governments finance department.This byelection was also seen as a test for Tejashwi Yadav, who has been trying to keep the party intact.

Former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awami Morcha supremo Jitan Ram Manjhi celebrates in Patna on Wednesday after RJD partys success in Araria and Jehanabad Assembly elections. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: The byelection results in Bihar has come as a major setback for the ruling NDA. The RJD, which is the main Opposition party in the state, has won two of the three seats. Byelections were held for Araria Lok Sabha seat and two assembly segments  Jehanabad and Bhabhua.

RJD candidate Sarfaraz Alam has won the Araria Lok Sabha seat after defeating BJP candidate Pradip Kumar Singh by the margin of 63,000 votes. The byelection for the Araria Lok Sabha seat was necessitated by the death of RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin.

The contest was mainly between RJDs Sarfaraz Alam, Taslimuddins son and BJP candidate Pradip Kumar Singh, who had won the seat in 2009 but lost to Taslimuddin in 2014 general elections by 2 lakh votes.

The RJD also retained its Jehanabad Assembly seat that fell vacant after the demise of Mundrika Singh Yadav. The party gave the ticket to his son Krishna Mohan alias Suday Yadav, who defeated JD-U candidate Abhiram Singh by 35,036 votes. Abhiram Singh had won the seat in 2010 when his party was in alliance with the BJP.

The RJDs victory from the Jehanabad by a strong margin also indicates that a large number of upper caste voters have moved away from the NDA.

Jitan Ram Manjhi factor also seems to have worked in gaining a substantial amount of Mahadalits and EBC votes in favour of the RJD. Mr Manjhi had moved out of the NDA and joined the Grand Secular Alliance after he was denied a ticket from Jehanabad. However, the BJP managed to retain its Bhabhua Assembly seat where its candidate Rinky Pandey won by 14,866 votes after defeating Congress candidate Shambhu Patel. The seat fell vacant after her husband Anand Pandeys demise. She secured 64,413 votes against 49,647 of the Congress.

The byelections in the state were seen as the first test for chief minister Nitish Kumar, who had pulled out of the RJD-Congress Grand Secular Alliance in July last year to form a government with the BJP.

Nitish Kumar had backstabbed public mandate by leaving the grand alliance. This byelection was the reply to him from people. The results also show that my father Lalu Yadav has not his popularity among the masses, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said after the results.

This byelection was also seen as a test for Tejashwi Yadav, who has been trying to keep the party intact. Political analysts are of the view that the victory has opened the gate for him to play a vital role in the state politics.

Sources claim that Araria seat had become the prestige issue for all the political parties. While Tejashwi Yadav had the task to retain the seat, the BJP sent all the big faces to campaign in favor of its candidate Pradip Singh.

According to political analysts here, the high margin victory shows that the RJD has managed to maintain its popularity among Muslim Yadav vote base despite cases against RJD chief Lalu Yadav and his family.

Observers are of the view that RJDs convincing victory in Bihar and SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh will play a vital role in the formation of a larger alliance at the national level against the BJP.

The BJP leaders, however, dismissed speculations that by-election result is a warning signal for the NDA at the Centre. They said that by-election results failed to indicate any decisive swing as both all political parties retained their seats.

All winning candidates won on sympathy votes so to speculate that BJP is losing its sheen is wrong. We firmly believe that people of Bihar will give us their votes in 2019 Lok Sabha and 2020 assembly elections for the work which our government has been doing for Bihar. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.KEM Hospitals dean Dr Avinash Supe told The Asian Age, He has a severe stomach ailment with complications for which we are treating him.

Mumbai: Senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and former deputy chief minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, who is suffering from stomach problems and was shifted from J.J. Hospital to civic-run KEM Hospital on Tuesday, is suspected to be suffering from a severe ailment, inflammation in the pancreas, according to tests conducted on him.

Mr Bhujbal underwent a few tests prescribed by doctors, including Hepatopancreatobilary (HPB) and Gastroenterology (GI). Reports of a few tests are pending while those received have found that he is suffering from an inflammation in the pancreas.

KEM Hospitals dean Dr Avinash Supe told The Asian Age, He has a severe stomach ailment with complications for which we are treating him. A few test reports are still pending while the rest stated that he has an inflammation in the pancreas.

According to sources, Mr Bhujbal has been admitted with indigestion and severe stomach ache to a special room under Dr Shobna J. Bhatia, ward number 43, gastro surgery department, second floor. They said he underwent a couple of tests on Wednesday.

Mr Bhujbal has been in jail since March 2016 following his arrest in the `870 crore Maharashtra Sadan scam by the ED. The court has asked jail authorities to shift him to the super-specialty department of KEM hospital. He was admitted to state-run J.J. Hospital on March 3. A CT scan and sonography revealed that he was suffering from abdominal ailments. He has also been diagnosed with asthma and respiratory problems as well.The police produced Ekbote in the court of judge Prahlad Bhagure on Thursday amid heavy bandobast.

Pune: President of the Samastha Hindu Aghadi, Milind Ekbote  who was arrested Wednesday by the Pune police for his alleged role in inciting violence at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1  has been remanded to five-day police custody till March 19 by a Pune district court.

The police produced Ekbote in the court of judge Prahlad Bhagure on Thursday amid heavy bandobast. The Pune police arrested Ekbote Wednesday afternoon after the Supreme Court rejected his bail plea Wednesday morning. Ujjwala Pawar, public prosecutor, asked for 14 days police custody as the police needs to interrogate Mr Ekbote regarding his mobile which is lost and details of the people he met at Sonai Hotel on December 30, 2017.

Ms Pawar said, Ekbote told the police that the mobile with the SIM card he had been using before January 2, 2018, was lost. However, the police found out call records through the same mobile till January 18. The voice records match with Mr Ekbotes voice. Despite saying he lost the mobile, Mr Ekbote did not register a complaint with the police. The police needs to find the details of mobile and text messages he sent via social networking applications.

Ms Pawar further said, The police wants to know details of four to five people Mr Ekbote had a meeting with at Sonai Hotel, Perne Phata, near Bhima-Koregoan on December 30, 2017, two days before the riots. Mr Ekbote distributed pamphlets before January 1 with inflammatory content. Two boys got the pamphlets printed from somewhere. The police wants to get details of these boys, the computer hard disc through which the pamphlets were printed as the disc might have more inflammatory material.

S.K. Jain, Ekbotes advocate, said, We asked for minimum days of police custody as Ekbote has appeared before the police four times. We have produced the pamphlets before the police.Opp members push for his arrest in legislative council.

Mumbai: The Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar on Thursday announced a long march in the city on March 26 to press for the arrest of right-wing leader Sambhaji Bhide for his alleged involvement in inciting violence at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1.

Mr Ambedkar warned that if Mr Bhide was not arrested before March 26, all 250 organisations, which had earlier organised the Bhima-Koregaon Shourya Din, would start an agitation in the city. The issue of Mr Bhides arrest was also raised in the legislative council on Thursday with opposition members demanding his arrest.

The opposition asked the government why it was not taking any action against Mr Bhide. Since they were not allowed to speak by the council chairman, they stormed the steps of the Vidhan Bhavan and raised slogans against the government. Mr Ambedkar too was present in the Vidhan Bhavan on Thursday, where he alleged that the state government is not serious about the investigation into the Bhima-Koregaon violence. We have been continuously demanding the arrest of Mr Bhide. They arrested Milind Ekbote only after Supreme Court order. That is why we are warning the government to arrest him before March 26, else we will protest in Mumbai, he said. MLC Kapil Patil was with him and supported the agitation plan.

The apex court had, on Wednesday, passed strong strictures on the police investigation as well as Mr Ekbote. The police acted as soon as the SC made its remarks and arrested Mr Ekbote in Pune. The opposition parties have termed it as the governments failure and given all credit to the SC for the arrest.

Meanwhile, moving a special discussion motion on the issue in the council, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLC Vidya Chavan and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Prof Jogendra Kawade said the government should act strictly against Mr Bhide. You should have made the arrest of Sambhaji Bhide long back. But state government is saving him. Mr Ekbote was also being saved, but the SC came to the peoples help. If the state government is really not helping the perpetrators of the Bhima-Koregaon violence, then it should have arrested Mr Bhide long back, she said.

But council chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar did not allow this issue to be discussed in the house as it had been discussed on Tuesday. Interestingly, Mr Fadnavis did not mention Mr Bhide by name during his reply. Opposition members too had not pressed for his clarification.The luxury label has historically included lots of furs across its ranges, from a variety of species including mink and raccoon dog.

However, the International Fur Federation said it was "disappointed" by the decision (Photo: AFP)

London: Donatella Versace has said her family's luxury fashion label will no longer use real furs in its products, according to an interview with a British magazine.

The Italian fashion queen and Versace's creative director told The Economist's 1843 magazine that it would stop the practice, without providing further details on the change. "Fur? I am out of that," Versace said. "I don't want to kill animals to make fashion, it doesn't feel right."

Versace's headquarters in Milan, Italy, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night (March 14).

1843 noted the announcement was such a "volte-face" that at the time of the magazine writing its article, which was published online Wednesday, Versace's website was still urging customers to buy "fur-embellished coats that turn heads".

Versace had previously resisted pressure to join a host of other fashion brands, including Armani, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren which had all already ditched furs from their collections. The luxury label has historically included lots of furs across its ranges, from a variety of species including mink and raccoon dog, according to the Humane Society International (HSI), which campaigns globally for an end to the fur trade.

It noted Versace's autumn / winter 2017 collection included laser cut mink and fox coats. "Versace is a massively influential luxury brand that symbolises excess and glamour, and so its decision to stop using fur shows that compassionate fashion has never been more on trend," said Claire Bass, executive director of HSI's UK arm.

However, the International Fur Federation said it was "disappointed" by the decision. "The majority of top designers will continue to work with fur as they know it is a natural product that is produced responsibly," said its CEO Mark Oaten. "With growing concern about the environment and plastics in fashion, I truly believe fur is the natural and responsible choice for designers and consumers."Lee's personal battle began in 2005 when she reported the abuse to her human resources department, only to be ostracized.

Lee Eun-eui has been offering free legal help for victims of sexual violence since 2015, as part of a South Korean government's programme to support the victims. (Photo: Representational/ Pixabay)

Seoul: Almost a decade ago, Lee Eun-eui was thrust into a lonely battle against her employer Samsung after she reported unwelcome touching by a superior.

Shamed by her supervisors and sidelined by her colleagues, Lee's career as an international sales representative at the company stagnated.

"No one will be on your side," Lee says her boss told her.

After two years, Lee won a lawsuit against her employer Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co Ltd, prevailing against part of a conglomerate so large and powerful in South Korea that the country is often referred to as the "Republic of Samsung".

Lee has since built a new career as a lawyer helping other South Korean women with sex abuse cases.

Haunted by her colleagues' silence, Lee hopes the #MeToo movement now sweeping the country will inspire more people to stand up for women who might otherwise experience the shame and silence she faced.

"What people need to think about now amid the #MeToo movement is empathizing with those #MeToo stories that are not personally related to them," Lee said.

Long Legal Battle

After sluggish start, the global #MeToo movement has gathered pace in South Korea, leading to accusations in recent weeks of sexual assault and harassment against prominent politicians, entertainers and religious figures.

Seoul has since vowed to strengthen laws against sexual assault and implement measures to reduce harassment.

Lee's personal battle began in 2005 when she reported the abuse to her human resources department, only to be ostracized.

In desperation, she filed a complaint to Samsung's chairman Lee Kun-hee. Lee says the Samsung chairman did not respond.

"If I was a little bit weaker mentally, I would have jumped off the building at Taepyung Street," Lee said of Samsung's then headquarters.

In 2008, Lee filed a civil lawsuit alleging her employer did not do enough to protect her while inflicting mental pain on her.

The Suwon District Court ruled in her favour in 2010 and ordered Samsung Elec-Mech to pay her around 40 million won (USD 37,460) in damages.

"Although the plaintiff was sexually harassed at work, the defendant Samsung Electro-Mechanics did not take an appropriate measure and even put her at a disadvantage. Therefore, it is clear that this inflicted mental pain on the plaintiff," the court verdict said.

Samsung Elec-Mech did not comment after the case and declined comment when contacted by Reuters for this story.

Lee thinks her case did lead to needed reforms at Samsung, which did not appeal the verdict and has since treated sex abuse cases more fairly, according to Lee, citing feedback from her former colleagues.

"Samsung is very sensitive about problems they have experienced," she said. "I think we have both grown up by confronting each other."

I have been there

Other lawyers supporting victims say there have been improvements with South Korea's handling of sexual abuse cases to better help those seeking justice in the courtroom.

"In the legal realm, courts have recently begun to accept victims' testimonies as direct evidence rather than circumstantial evidence if those testimonies are detailed and consistent," said Kim Soo-jin, an attorney from the Korean Women Lawyers Association.

Lee has been offering free legal help for victims of sexual violence since 2015, as part of a South Korean government's programme to support the victims. She says many are still hesitant to take their cases to the court.

"Office workers are still afraid of talking about their stories publicly... There are many loopholes where companies can take minimal actions and get away from it," Lee said.

"It is not victims' preference to come out and talk. They are desperate. I know, because I have been there."French Finance Minister says he will take legal action against Google and Apple for abusive business practices.

Le Maire accused Google and Apple of imposing tariffs on developers wishing to sell their apps to the internet giants.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says he will take legal action against Google and Apple for abusive business practices, a move that could result in fines of several million euros.

Speaking on RTL radio on March 14, Le Maire accused Google and Apple of imposing tariffs on developers wishing to sell their apps to the internet giants. Le Maire added he finds unacceptable that both companies can also gather data from the developers and unilaterally modify contracts.

Le Maire said he will file a lawsuit before the Paris Commercial Court because I consider that Google and Apple, as powerful as they are, shouldnt treat our start-ups and our developers in the way they do today.State prosecutors said on Tuesday they would seek the death penalty for the massacre in which 17 students and staff were gunned down.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, chose to remain silent during a hearing in Broward County circuit court in Fort Lauderdale. (Photo: AP)

Fort Lauderdale: A Florida judge entered a not-guilty plea for Nikolas Cruz, who faces a possible death penalty for a massacre at a high school in February that killed 17 people and triggered a nationwide walkout of students on Wednesday.

Cruz, 19, chose to remain silent during a hearing in Broward County circuit court in Fort Lauderdale.

Judge Elizabeth Scherer then entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf for 17 counts each of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the February 14 shooting spree in Parkland.

Cruz, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and shackled at wrists and ankles, sat alone and kept his head bowed in what is normally the jury box while guarded by a dozen deputies.

Nine relatives of victims of the attack at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School attended the hearing. "Son of a bitch," one said as Cruz was led from the courtroom.

State prosecutors said on Tuesday they would seek the death penalty for the massacre in which 17 students and staff were gunned down. Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott has said he supports the death penalty for Cruz.

Scherer also instructed Cruz to fill out an application to determine if he can pay for his lawyers. After a presentation on Cruz's finances by his lawyers, she said he had roughly USD 37,000 and scheduled an April 11 hearing to determine whether he was indigent.

Scherer also set April 27 for a hearing for attorneys to agree to a trial date.

Cruz's court appearance coincided with students spilling out of classrooms by the thousands waving signs and chanting slogans in a coast-to-coast protest against gun violence prompted by the Florida rampage.

One of the protests took place in Fort Lauderdale near the courthouse, in front of the county's public school offices. About 275 students from a half dozen Broward County high schools, some of whom walked more than 15 miles (24 km), demanded an end to gun violence.

About 40 of the students staged a "die in," laying down on the sidewalk to protest gun violence in schools. Others chanted, "End gun violence. No more silence."India expressed its concerns that country like Pak, which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Mullah Omar, pretending to be a victim.

India highlighted that how Pakistan has continued to support cross-border terrorism and attempting to mask its territorial ambitions in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inseparable part of India. (Representational image)

Geneva: India on Wednesday told the United Nations that Pakistan is a major source of terrorism all over the world.

In exercising its second right of reply (RoR) to a Pakistani statement, India said, "It is most regrettable that Pakistan has yet again chosen to consume the Councils precious time for making claims and allegations against India when Pakistans own deplorable record on human rights and its dubious history as a major source of terrorism in our region and beyond is already widely known."

India highlighted the atrocities carried out by Pakistani establishment and its military on the innocent civilians of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh, "Where people are routinely abducted and unlawfully killed. More than a million people remain displaced as a result of the current and past armed conflicts in the northwest of Pakistan."

"Women and girls, especially from minority communities, are abducted and forcibly married. The minorities are persecuted, including through notorious blasphemy laws," it added.

India further highlighted that how Pakistan has continued to support cross-border terrorism and attempting to mask its territorial ambitions in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inseparable part of India.

"Use of terrorism as a state policy under the guise of concern for human rights. Pakistan has continued to support cross-border terrorism in India. We await credible action by the Government of Pakistan to bring all those involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack and the 2016 Pathankot and Uri attacks - to justice," it said.

India expressed its concerns that country like Pakistan, which protected al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Taliban founder and former leader Mullah Omar, pretending to be a victim.

"Is it not woefully farcical that the state which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Mullah Omar should make the pretence of being a victim?" India said.

It added, "In gross violation of UN Security Council resolution 1267, the UN designated terrorists like Hafiz Mohammed Saeed are freely operating with State support, and the UN designated entities are being politically mainstreamed in Pakistan. Do we all need lessons on democracy and human rights from a country with such a track record, a country whose own situation is charitably described as a failed state?"

India rejected the attempts of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations, stating that it has no locus standi to comment on Indias internal affairs.Police discovered Ei-ichi Negishi walking in the area, and his wife was found dead near their car.

Ei-ichi Negishi is a Japanese national who came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to study chemistry. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1979. (Photo: AP)

Chicago: A Japanese Nobel Prize-winner was hospitalized Wednesday and his wife was dead, reportedly after driving off a road in rural Illinois.

Ei-ichi Negishi, 82, a chemist teaching at Purdue University in the neighbouring state of Indiana, and his wife Sumire Negishi, 80, were reported missing Monday.

Police found them early Tuesday morning about 200 miles (320 km) northeast of their home, on land belonging to the Orchard Hills Landfill operated by the company Advanced Disposal.

Police discovered Ei-ichi Negishi walking in the area, and his wife was found dead near their car.

"Both her and the vehicle were found on the landfill property," Lieutenant Brian Ketter of the Ogle County Sheriff's office said.

The couple had been driving to a nearby airport and became disoriented, and Ei-Ichi Negishi crashed their car into a ditch, according to WTHR television.

The TV station reported that Sumire Negishi had stayed behind while her husband left looking for help.

Police would not confirm details about the incident, but did not suspect foul play.

The Rockford airport is located approximately eight miles (13 km) from where the couple was discovered.

The local coroner's office said an autopsy was pending. Ei-ichi Negishi was receiving treatment at a hospital, police said.

Negishi is a Japanese national who came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to study chemistry. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1979.

He, along with two other scientists, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2010 for developing a method for creating complex chemicals. The method is widely used, including for the production of pharmaceuticals.As a scientist he earned comparisons with Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.

LONDON: World dignitaries, celebrities and academics on Wednesday mourned Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who died aged 76 after a cosmic career in which his mental genius transcended his physical disability to probe the secrets of the universe.

Propelled to stardom by his 1988 book A Brief History of Time, an unlikely worldwide bestseller, Hawkings genius and wit won over fans from far beyond the rarefied world of astrophysics.

As a scientist he earned comparisons with Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.

Hawking died peacefully at his home in the British university city of Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A university source told AFP that his health deteriorated around Christmas time.

We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today, Hawkings children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim said in a statement.

He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years.

Queen Elizabeth II sent a message of condolence to Hawkings family, Buckingham Palace said. Prime Minister Theresa May praised the scientist as a brilliant and extraordinary mind on Twitter.

Tearful well-wishers lined up at the University of Cambridges Gonville and Caius College, where Hawking was a fellow for more than five decades, to sign a book of condolence.Karimova strangled the baby in a fit and then went to a local shop where she purchased 160-litre black bin liners and food.

Dozens of police investigating the case are conducting searches in freezing temperatures as the boys body remains missing. (Representational Image)

A mother-daughter altercation escalated beyond reason when Anna Karimova strangled her nine-month-old son to death.

The brutal incident took place shortly after Karimovas mother chided the 26-year-old for having a second child without having a stable source of income or a relationship, the DailyMail reported.

Karimova strangled the baby in a fit and then went to a local shop where she purchased 160-litre black bin liners and food because she was hungry.

She then went to see a friend where she gave away the infants toys, clothes and other belongings in a composed manner, investigators in Russia's Volgograd region say.

Karimova who separated from her husband a short while after the wedding also has a 2-year-old daughter who is being raised by her mother.

On the fateful night, Karimovas mother, who was disapproving of her lifestyle, was berating her for having a baby without the means to support the child and portrayed her as a bad mother who failed at her relationship.

Thereafter the woman strangled her baby and dumped him in the garbage in a plastic bag.

Dozens of police investigating the case are conducting searches in freezing temperatures as the boys body remains missing.

Karimova has been detained and will be charged for the grisly murder.Lahore experienced multiple terror attacks in 2017 that killed more than 60 people.

Around 14 were policemen among the 25 who were injured in the blast. The condition of four policemen is stated to be critical, Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad said. (Photo: AP)

Lahore: A teenage suicide bomber on Wednesday blew himself up near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, killing nine people, including five policemen, police said.

According to rescue officials, the blast took place close to a check post, a few kilometers from the palatial residence of the Sharif family, and next to the congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat centre.

Around 25 people were also injured in the attack.

"Five policemen  two inspectors and three constables  are among nine persons killed in the blast. Around 14 were policemen among the 25 who were injured in the blast. The condition of four policemen is stated to be critical," Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad said.

He said the Rescue ambulances have shifted the injured to the Sharif medical complex and other nearby hospitals.

Inspector General Police, Punjab, Arif Nawaz confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack carried out by a teenage boy who blew himself up near the checkpost.

Deputy Inspector General Police, Lahore, Dr Haider Ashraf said: "A teenage boy blew himself up at the check post set up close to the Tableeghi centre where at least 14 or so cops were present".

However, he did not give the exact age of the boy.

He said the "police personnel" were the target of the blast. "The condition of some policemen is critical," he said.

It was such a powerful blast that its sound was heard several kilometers from the site. A fire ball was seen after the blast at the Nisar Police Check Post.

Some reports said Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of the blast. The suicide attack has taken place a week before the semi-finals of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore.

"The PSL semi-finals will be held in Lahore as per schedule as we have made all security arrangements in this regard," Ashraf said.

Pakistan Rangers quick response force has reached the spot and cordoned off the area along with the police.

This is the first explosion targeting the provincial capital in 2018. Lahore experienced multiple terror attacks in 2017 that killed more than 60 people.by Adriano Pelosin

This is the story of an ordinary day of pain. "The greater the sin, the greater the forgiveness". God frees us from slavery paying the price of our redemption with the Blood of his One and Only son, Jesus Christ.

Bangkok (AsiaNews) - Dear Friends, I just turned 72 on 1st of March, without celebrations, in a villa that a Catholic man puts at my disposal when I need to rest and retire in prayer, located on hills some 150 km from Bangkok. I was with some kids who live with me in St Marks Parish. The weather was good and nature was beautiful. I thank the Lord.

Now let me describe to you a day of normal service, 8 March 2018 for example. That day I got up at 5 am when it was still dark, I did some meditation on the readings of the day. I am the salvation of the people, says the Lord. Should they cry to me in any distress, I will hear them, and I will be their Lord for ever, said the Entrance Antiphon.

At 6 o'clock I celebrate the Office of Readings and Lauds together with young aspiring missionaries. At 7 we had breakfast. At 7.45 I went by car with Nat, one of the men who drive me, to Mr Sanya. His son, Ai, is 15, and in the juvenile detention centre. Sanya's friends also came: Mrs Nat and her husband Tii with two grandchildren aged three and five.

During the trip we talked about Nats and Tiis problems: two sons, 23 and 25, both in prison at Sam Kok. The next day we were going to visit them. Another son has problems with his wife and has been a Buddhist monk for two months. The grandchildren are staying with the grandparents. Tii has a herniated disc that does not allow him to work as he would like.

Nat, the wife, has had a very troubled life. She was bought as a child by a family who then lent her to a prostitution house for money. At 15, she escaped and has lived with her husband Tii. But when she was 20, she met an Australian who got her a passport and took her to Australia for a few years. She then moved on to another man in Germany and was then abandoned.

At nine we arrive at Juvenile Court in Tanyaburi. Ai has not arrived yet and so we went for a simple breakfast. With the equivalent of six dollars we ate, five adults and two children. At 10 am the minibus arrived, bringing Ai from the detention centre to the courthouse. I asked Ai if he would like to come and stay with me at the church with the other boys: there he can continue to study and prepare for the future. He knows that dad drinks and does not work; life is difficult at home.

At 11 am they called us in to hear the judge sentence Ai to another two months of detention because he is stubborn. The boy broke down in tears. During lunch we comfort each other about Ai and his story and then we brough our guests home.

In the afternoon I was going to get some rest, but Ms Noina called me on the phone. She is from the Wat Sake's shantytown. She was in tears: her daughter was beaten by her husband for the umpteenth time. She asked me if I could go with her to get her daughter and two grandchildren of three and a year. I pray: "Lord, give me the strength and the wisdom to do this service" and I went immediately. I took Ms Noina and her sister Ang in the car. On the way, we talked about the latters problems. Her husband left her and her oldest son, in his thirties, beats her.

At about 2.30 pm we arrived at the house of Noina's daughter, Leck. Her face still swollen from the beating, she took her children and ran out. The husband ran after her and took the older son because he did not want him to go away with his mother. As they argued, I prayed in silence for a long time: "Lord, help us, have mercy on your children". Then, slowly I convinced the father not to increase his son's pain and to let him go with his mother.

We got at home around 9 pm. In the parish there is "B", a boy I had found in the slums of Praram Hok about 20 years ago. I baptised him last year. He is married and has a good job. But he had an accident: he was hit by a car and his left shoulder was injured. It will take two months to heal before he can go back to work. He rents a house with his mother who has cancer and is separated from her husband. His wife has flat feet and cannot stand for long.

Finally, the day ended, and thanking God for letting me to see his mercy, I took a shower and went to bed.

The greater the pain, the greater the hope of salvation. And the unexpected surprise of God. The greater the sin, the greater the forgiveness. The more evident death is, the greater the victory of the resurrection.

I offer everyone our prayers and Gods blessing. He became poor so that we may be rich. To all of you, I wish victory over evil with Easter, which is Gods passage that frees us from slavery paying the price of our redemption with the Blood of his One and Only son, Jesus Christ

Ps: You can follow me on Facebook.by Santosh Digal

For the Bishops Conference, the apparent remedy might end up destroying even those marriages that could have been saved. Card Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila, calls on married couples to make decisions for the good of their children. The Couples for Christ movement is against the bill because of the sacredness and indissolubility of marriage.

Manila (AsiaNews)  The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a pastoral statement about a pending divorce bill before the Filipino Congress.

In a context in which divorce is presented as an easy option, marriages and families are bound to break up more easily, said Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Archbishop of Davao Romulo Valles.

The prelate calls on legislators to consider all the implications that a divorce law could entail for Filipino society.

We merely ask that they consider the possibility that divorce, while it may indeed provide quick legal remedies for some seemingly failed marriages, might end up destroying even those marriages that could have been saved by dialogues or the intervention of family, friends, pastors, and counsellors, he stressed.

Even couples in seemingly successful marriages would often look back and recall the countless challenges that had almost brought their relationship to a breaking point if they had not learned to transcend personal hurts through understanding and forgiveness, he added.

More children will grow up disoriented and deprived of the care of both parents, he noted citing the emotional and psychological impact that divorce would have on children.

Filipino Catholics are strongly opposed to the draft bill, which is backed by 53 per cent of Filipinos according to a Social Weather Stations survey.

The CBCPs Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL) has been urging the lawmakers to expose the proposed law, CBCP ECFL secretary Fr Enrico Emmanuel Ayo said.

We have to take this seriously because the damages are irreversible. There are more damages and immoralities that will come out of divorce than the good that divorce can offer, said Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Florencio.

Card Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila, calls on married couples to make decisions for the good of their children who are just at the stage of discovering life. Consider also their sufferings and their capacity to absorb the burdens.

What the lawmakers are considering or the reasons for divorce is relative effect, disregarding the foundational basis or intrinsic value of family life, especially its indissolubility, unity and sanctity of marriage, said Fr William Victor Garica, parish priest at Holy Family in Kamia (diocese of Cubao), speaking to AsiaNews.

Meanwhile, one of the most influential Catholic lay groups, Couples for Christ (CFC), said that what the country needs is support for marriage.

Marriage, although regulated by civil and Church laws, originates neither from the Church nor the State, but from God. Therefore, neither Church nor State can alter the intrinsic definition of marriage, with its indissolubility. As a community, we stand for the sacredness and indissolubility of marriage, and are against the divorce bill, the CFC said in a statement.Thousands of people were forced to undergo sterilisation because of intellectual disabilities or mental illness under a law in force between 1948 and 1996. The first lawsuit for compensation will be heard on 28 March.

Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The Japanese government is planning to carry out a nationwide survey into forced sterilisations ordered under a now-defunct eugenics law. The results of the survey could lay the groundwork for possible compensation for those affected.

The Eugenic Protection Act, in force between 1948 and 1996, authorised the sterilisation of people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness or hereditary disorders in order to prevent the birth of "inferior" offspring.

For a long time, the authorities had been reluctant to open investigations on this thorny issue. But the call for a survey came from a cross-partisan group of lawmakers and the deputy governor of Hokkaido.

For their part, some of the victims have started to file claims for compensation. The first is a woman in her sixties from Miyagi prefecture.

She filed a suit on 30 January against the government, claiming that she was forcibly sterilised as a teenager. The trial is set to start on 28 March at the Sendai District Court.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, about 25,000 people underwent sterilisation on the basis of the old law, with about 16,500 of them forcibly subjected to the operation without their consent.

However, their identities have been difficult to confirm because very few documents remain listing their names. According to data compiled by Kyodo News, named records have been found for just 3,596 people across 27 of Japans 47 prefectures.

The survey will require each prefecture to collect records from the authorities that performed the operations."If I want the Lord to listen to my requests, I must return, and return again, to knock at the door of Gods heart, since my own heart is committed to [this petition]! But if my heart is not concerned for this need, or the person for whom I am praying, neither will it be capable of courage and patience".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - To pray to God in freedom, like children and to pray with insistence, to pray in short with courage and patience. This is the grace that Pope Francis has urged we ask for at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, inspired by the First Reading, taken from the book of Exodus, with the conversation between the Lord and Moses on the apostasy of His people.

The prophet tries to dissuade the Lord from acting on his blazing wrath against His people, who had forsaken the glory of the living God to worship a golden calf. In Moses bold dialogue, he reminds God of all He had done for his people, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt, and of the faithfulness of Abraham and Isaac.

In this face-to-face encounter, the Pope said, Moses preoccupation and love for Gods people is evident. He is not afraid to tell the truth and does not enter into the deviation game.

God appreciates this, said Pope Francis. When God sees a person who continually prays for something, He is moved.

No tangents. I am with the people, and I am with You. This is intercessory prayer: a prayer that argues and has the courage to speak directly to the face of the Lord, who is patient. Patience is needed in intercessory prayer. We cannot promise someone we will pray for them, pray only an Our Father and a Hail Mary, and then leave it at that. No. If you agree to pray for someone else, you must take this [other] path. And patience is needed.

In daily life, the Holy Father said, unfortunately there are many cases of managers ready to sacrifice an organization in order to save their own interests and to make a profit. But Moses refused to go off on a tangent; he is with the people and fights for them. Scripture, Pope Francis said, is full of good examples of constancy and the capacity to be patient, such as the Canaanite woman and the blind Bartimaeus of Jericho.

Two things are needed for intercessory prayer: courage, or parrhesia, and patience. If I want the Lord to listen to my requests, I must return, and return again, to knock at the door of Gods heart, since my own heart is committed to [this petition]! But if my heart is not concerned for this need, or the person for whom I am praying, neither will it be capable of courage and patience.

Finally, Pope Francis pointed out the path of intercessory prayer. He said it means being concerned for others and willing to fight, strive, and fast for them.

May the Lord give us this grace: The grace to pray before God in freedom, like children; to pray with insistence; to pray with patience; but, above all, to pray in the knowledge that I am speaking with my Father, who will listen to me. May the Lord help us to advance in this form of intercessory prayer.Andrew Brunson, 50, has been held in prison for over 500 days without formal charges. The public prosecutor claims he is linked to the Gulen movement, alleged "mastermind" of the coup. He risks 35 years in prison. Activists and NGOs speak of "total lack of proof".

Istanbul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A 50-year-old US pastor, who has been in Turkish jail for over 500 days without any charges against him, risks a life sentence. The mans lawyers and supporters speak of the sham procedure and shameful, baseless accusations. On the other hand, government authorities claim he is tied to the network that promoted the (failed) coup of summer 2016 and, therefore, demand 35 years in prison that correspond to life imprisonment in the country.

Andrew Brunson, who led a domestic church for 23 years in the coastal city of Izmir is one of tens of thousands of victims of repression launched by the government following the coup launched by a group of senior Turkish army officers.

Turkish authorities claim Brunson is an "official" of the organization that belongs to Fetullah Gulen, considered the master mind of the attempted coup. In recent months, the US pastor has repeatedly rejected allegations of affiliation to the group, for which he would have "stolen secret documents" with the intention of "overthrowing the government".

Activists and human rights organizations in the United States underline the "total lack of evidence" against Brunson, who they say is the victim of "ridiculous and specious accusations". Although he has been receiving legal assistance since December 2016, his conversations with lawyers are always recorded and his legal files have been seized. The defence cannot access the acts.

The charges against the man are based on the testimony of a person whose identity is kept secret. Brunson reportedly received money from the Gulen network to support and finance his missionary work. The accused - who in this year and a half in prison has lost weight and had health problems - strongly rejects the claim and professes himself to be a devout Christian and a peaceful pastor, who could never receive money from a pro-Islamic movement .

The Turkish public prosecutor this week formalized the request for a sentence of 35 years in prison, equivalent to life imprisonment. Now the court has 15 days to order the indictment.

20 months after Turkeys failed coup on 14-15 July 2016, when the power President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wavered, the campaign of repression against real or imaginary plotters and supporters continues.

According to Turkeys Justice Ministry, some 50,510 people have been arrested on coup charges, more than 120,000 have been detained, and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings since the failed coup a year ago.

According to data released by the Justice Ministry on Thursday, there are outstanding detention warrants for 8,087 individuals, including 152 military officers, 392 police officers, and 3 governors. Among the arrestees are 169 generals, 7,089 colonels and 24 governors.

A total of 2,431 members of the Turkish judiciary are among those arrested, whilst 265 of them are at large. A total of 4,521 judges and prosecutors were dismissed from their jobs.By Karen Lamb, Biostatistician, Deakin University

Flickr/Scott Thompson, CC BY

This St Patricks Day, revellers around the world will crowd the streets seeking one of Irelands national drinks: a pint of Guinness. But besides this tasty stout, one of the most fundamental and commonly used tools of science also has its origins at the Guinness brewery.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Guinness was scaling up its operations, and was interested in applying a scientific approach to all aspects of Guinness production: from barley growth right through to the Guinness taste.

Before adopting a scientific approach, brewers at Guinness relied on subjective methods, such as the appearance and scent of hops, to assess produce quality.





Read more:

What the stats say: is Steve Smith the second-best Australian cricket batsman ever?





Science in the brew

Once scientific brewers were recruited, a more objective approach was taken. The first scientific brewer, Thomas Bennett Case, was hired in 1893 and he believed that the amount of soft resins in hops was related to the quality of Guinness. He was therefore keen to estimate the amount of soft resin in particular crops of hops.

The challenge facing Case was that he, like any scientist, could not measure everything at once. It was not possible for him to assess the amount of soft resin in every single one of the countless hop flowers (added by the thousands to enormous vats of soon-to-be Guinness) in his charge.

Instead, he took a sample of hops (11 measurements of 50 grams each) and calculated the average soft resin content. His hope was that the average soft resin content of his small sample could be used to estimate the soft resin content of the entire crop (what statisticians would call the population) of hops.

For comparison, a colleague took a further 14 measurements of 50 grams each from the same lot of hops. Case found a small difference in the average amount of soft resins between these samples.

He was stumped. Were these differences in hop content due to real differences across the whole hop crop, or were they due to random error introduced by using small sample sizes?

Size matters

At the time, statistics relied on what is called large-sample theory, which unsurprisingly requires large samples (150 or more) to work. Applying it to problems involving small samples (like those faced by Case at Guinness) was difficult.









Wikimedia





This was the problem that William Sealy Gosset, a recent graduate of chemistry and mathematics at Oxford University, was keen to address. Gosset began work as an apprentice brewer at the Guinness factory in Dublin in 1899.

In 1906, Gosset, now a self-taught statistician, went to study with Karl Pearson, a leading figure in statistics, at University College London.

Gosset was keen to adapt Pearsons large-sample methods to deal with the small samples they used at Guinness. There, he developed his ideas and readied them for publication.

However, until the late 1930s, Guinness would not allow employees to publish under their own names for fear that other brewers would learn of their scientific approaches to beer. As a result, Gosset published his most important paper, The Probable Error of a Mean, under the pseudonym Student in the journal Biometrika in 1908.









Biometrika (screen grab)





This was the origin of Students t-test, a fundamental statistical method that is widely used to this day.

Students t-test

The problem that Case faced was that using small samples of hops introduces a new source of uncertainty into the analysis, leaving him less able to distinguish between real, true differences between two batches of hops and differences due to this uncertainty.

Gossets genius was to devise a way of accounting for this: the t-distribution. This mathematically defines the relationship between the size of sample and the amount of uncertainty this imposes.

Basically, when carrying out experiments, the t-distribution (and the famous t-test that depends upon it) allows beer brewers and scientists alike to account for the size of the sample they have used in their work, and then define just how confident they are in their findings.

Sticking with the brewers case, you would have information from the two samples, such as the average soft resin content of the hops and the spread of each measurement around the average of each sample.

Without going into too much detail, the t-test helps to determine whether there is evidence of a difference between the two averages based on the sample size (that is, the number of measurements taken from a particular hop crop). In the brewers case they were looking for zero difference between their two samples.

A lasting legacy

Gossets method did not draw the attention of the statistical community until another leading statistical figure, Ronald Aylmer Fisher, enthusiastically embraced the method and provided a mathematical proof.

Since that time, the t-test has been used to tackle a huge range of scientific problems, from the assessment of brain function in stroke patients , to the measurement of carbon and nitrogen content in coastal ocean-dwelling bacteria, to how the behaviour of coal miners may or may not lead to accidents (the consumption of Guinness by these miners was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not a focus of the study).

In fact, Students t-test has been employed in essentially every field of scientific endeavour: biology, physics, psychology, biometrics, economics and medicine.





Read more:

Bayes' Theorem: the maths tool we probably use every day, but what is it?





It is a staple of undergraduate statistics taught across these disciplines, but few may be aware of Gossets role in creating the t-test and his beery reasons for doing so.

Gosset remained at Guinness throughout his life as Head Experimental Brewer, then Head of the Statistics Department he formed at Guinness, before his promotion to Head Brewer for the new Guinness brewery in London in 1935. He published several papers as Student but his true identity was only publicly revealed upon his death in 1937.

So, if youre drinking a Guinness this St Patricks day, raise a glass to the little-known character who played a pivotal role in beer, statistics and indeed, modern science: William Sealy Gosset.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Originally published in The Conversation.By Tamara Davis, Professor, The University of Queensland

kosalabandara/flickr, CC BY

With the death of Stephen Hawking, the world has lost an adventurer.

I was one of the many who first encountered the deep ideas of cosmology through Hawkings book A Brief History of Time, and found myself inspired. To his readers Hawking revealed a whole new world  showing how physics can address some of the deep questions of our existence, all the way to the deepest of all: how did the universe begin?

Physics is often perceived to be dry and devoid of imagination, but as researchers we realise that could not be further from the truth. In research, we routinely throw assumptions in the bin, play with what if scenarios, and rely on insight and creativity to explore new ideas that could take us beyond the bounds of the physics we already know. Stephen Hawking was a master at this.





Read more:

A timeline of Stephen Hawking's remarkable life





Theory of everything

What made Hawking such a trailblazer were his attempts to merge quantum physics and general relativity.

The situation in modern physics is both powerful and dire. We have two incredibly strong theories that have passed every test we can throw at them, and yet we cant unify them.

General relativity is our theory of gravity, with thanks to Einstein, and quantum physics is our theory of everything else  in particular, how particles interact. Both have been tested to incredible precision and have become everyday tools. We use general relativity to make our GPS system accurate, and quantum physics is used to design key elements of all high technology.

However, we still have no theory that combines the two, and this has perplexed physicists for a century. Merging the two theories engaged Einstein for the latter half of his life to no avail.

The quest for a quantum theory of gravity that can also explain the whole universe, is known as the search for a theory of everything, or ToE.

Hawkings most famous insight was to take seriously the question of what would happen if you took a quantum system and put it near the event horizon of a black hole. Even without a final theory of quantum gravity, he revealed that in some special circumstances you can calculate solutions anyway.





Read more:

Tributes pour in for Stephen Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist who died at age 76





The mind of God

Hawking famously described the quest for a theory of everything in analogy to God:

If we do discover a theory of everything it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason  for then we would truly know the mind of God.

He was forced to explain this line many times. As a devout atheist he made it clear that he didnt mean we would understand a deity, but rather that we would be able to explain, using physics, the birth of the universe itself, and all of the processes within it, thus demonstrating there is no need for a god.

In his own words:

God may exist, but science can explain the universe without the need for a creator.









websummit/flickr, CC BY





How the big bang banged

We know that nothing, not even light, can escape a black holes gravitational pull. Nevertheless, Hawking discovered that black holes should glow. The light they emit is now known as Hawking radiation.

But if light cant escape from black holes, how can they glow?

The event horizon of a black hole is the point of no return. Once you are within the event horizon you can never escape, and no light you emit will ever be seen outside. The reason black holes can glow is because no light actually emerges from inside the event horizon. The light gets created just outside of it, thanks to the black holes interaction with the quantum vacuum.

This leads to another question, because another important rule of physics is conservation of energy; you cant create something from nothing. So in order to glow, the black hole has to pay a price, and it pays with the only currency it has  its mass.

As the black hole emits light it gets lighter, and the lighter the black hole the more dramatically it shines, which accelerates its demise, until it evaporates into nothing in an intense flash of radiation.

As spectacular as that may be, it may seem a trifle esoteric: why should we care how black holes behave? Well, the theories Hawking was developing also have implications for the question of how the universe began. Hawking proposed a mechanism, through quantum physics, by which a universe could be born. In other words, he proposed an answer to how the big bang banged.

The symphony of space

Hawking became one of the worlds most recognisable physicists. His fame saw him appear frequently in popular culture including on the Simpsons and Star Trek (where he played himself). Not only a superb researcher, he was a brilliant communicator, and this set him apart from his peers. His A Brief History of Time sold more than 10 million copies and was translated into at least 35 languages.









epicfireworks/flickr, CC BY





One of the fantastic things about A Brief History of Time was that it made complex ideas simple, but also didnt shy away from giving the gory details. Hawking showed respect to his readers and to their potential to understand  perhaps having higher expectations of them than they had of themselves. As a result, he was able to convey a great feeling of the depth of thought behind the theories.

Millions of readers engrossed in his book left with a sense of wonder, even if they fell short of full understanding. Like listening to a symphony, you can appreciate the beauty and complexity of the music without knowing how to play any of the instruments.

Hawking played the symphony of space into words on a page, which left people with the feeling they had experienced something profound, even if they hadnt fully understood it.

Be curious

That Hawking survived until age 76 is truly remarkable.









wwworks/flickr, CC BY





Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as a 22 year old, he was given only two years to live.

Rather than being defeated by such a diagnosis he dove into research with an urgency perhaps inspired by his limited time. He determined to do something significant with his time remaining, and thus attacked some of the most profound and challenging questions in physics.

To the benefit of humankind he did not succumb to the disease and was able to continue researching for another half-century. That he refused to let physical difficulties deter him from his lifes work is an inspiration to us all.

He was also a real character, and is famous for placing high-profile bets on big physics questions (which he usually lost). In 1974 he bet that the x-ray source at the centre of our galaxy, Cygnus X-1, was not a black hole, but conceded the loss due to overwhelming evidence by 1990.

From our modern perspective its astonishing to realise that all of his early research on black holes was done before we were even sure they existed.





Read more:

Stephen Hawking: Martin Rees looks back on colleague's spectacular success against all odds





One of Hawkings most fascinating bets was about the information paradox. The fact that black holes can evaporate turned out to be extremely perplexing, because all the information about what went into them is lost as the black hole vanishes. In quantum physics you cant destroy information, thus the paradox.

Although Hawking conceded this bet very publicly in 2004, most physicists would still argue that the answer is unresolved. Recently it has seen a resurgence of interest with the firewall paradox and Hawking himself was adding new ideas to the debate even in his last few years.

As we say farewell to one of the greatest thinkers of our time, I leave you with some of his best advice:

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

With Stephen Hawkings passing, humanity has lost a brilliant mind and an inspirational human being.

Tamara Davis receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Originally published in The Conversation.Photo of an intersection stoplight courtesy of Pixabay.

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technology is now a reality for some motorists in Washington, D.C. Traffic signal networks at more than 600 intersections in the District of Columbia have been enabled to support Audi of Americas time-to-green feature of Traffic Light Information.

With a focus on the benefits of the technology to help reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries, Mayor Bowser noted in a statement, This initiative represents the kind of innovation that is critical for us to advance the traffic safety goals of Vision Zero.

Available on select 2017 and 2018 models, Traffic Light Information is an Audi connect PRIME feature that enables the car to communicate with the infrastructure in cities that carry the service. When one of these select Audi models approaches a connected traffic light, it receives real-time signal information from the traffic management system that monitors traffic lights via the onboard 4G LTE data connection. At a red light, the TLI feature displays the time remaining until the signal turns greens. Designed to improve safety and mobility, the time to green information is intended to reduce driver stress.

Launched in 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Traffic Light Information is now also available in parts of Dallas and Houston, as well as Palo Alto, Arcadia, Denver, and Portland. Today, with the addition of the District of Colombia, over 1,600 intersections across the nation support Traffic Light Information.

According to Audi, future iterations of V2I technology might include integration within the vehicles start/stop function, Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory, optimized navigation routing and other predictive services.Babson and international business community to convene for premier global summit April 20-22

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Babson College, the preeminent global leader in entrepreneurship education, will host its fourth annual Babson Connect: Worldwidein Madrid, Spain April 20-22, 2018.

This years premier global business summit will bring together renowned figures in the international business community, as well as Babson alumni, faculty, parents, administrators, and friends, to celebrate the ways in which Entrepreneurial Thought & Action positively transforms businesses, societies, and lives worldwide.

Babson Connect: Worldwide is an unmatched opportunity to gather, celebrate, learn and inspire one another in a different global entrepreneurial hub each year, said Babson College President Kerry Healey. We invite the Babson community to join us this year in Madrida leading European financial and technological center rich in culture and history, and a natural next step in Babsons trip around the world.

Among this years impressive list of speakers are fashion industry icons, Tommy Hilfiger, Elle Macpherson P20, and Lawrence Stroll P17, executives from some of the worlds largest corporations, including Carlos Torres Vila, CEO of BBVA, and Ferit Sahenk P20, Chairman of Dogus Holdings, and leading humanitarians, including Paul Farmer, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health.

Highlights also include the presentation of Babsons newest Lewis Institute Community Changemaker honoreesLeila Janah, Give Work Founder and CEO of Samasource and LXMI, and Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Permanent Member of the Spanish Council of State and President of the Women for Africa Foundation.

Babson will also name its 2018 Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs InducteeJuan Roig, President of Mercadona, who will be honored at a private event in Valencia this April.

According to the latest report from the Babson-sponsored Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), more than 50 percent of adults in Spain see entrepreneurship as a good career choice, and 60 percent are undeterred by fear of failure when deciding whether or not to start a business. Regionally, Europe demonstrates the second highest rate of entrepreneurs driven by opportunity rather than necessity (75 percent), just below North America.

Launched in 2015 in historic Cartagena, Colombia, Babson Connect: Worldwide has since traveled to Dubai, UAE the international hub of entrepreneurial activity, and then Bangkok, Thailand, one of the great economic success stories of Asia.

Babson Connect: Worldwide Madrid

Featured Events

Keynote speeches from:

Raj SisodiaBabsons F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc.



Arthur C. Brooks, President, American Enterprise Institute

Panels on Family Entrepreneurship and Business, Global Finance, The Business of Fashion,Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship, A Glimpse into the World of Luxury Brands, and more





Social events that feature the best of Spanish cuisine and entertainment, and valuable networking opportunities

Friday, April 20, 2018

Welcome remarks will feature Babson College President Kerry Healey.

The days sessions will begin with a Conversation on Family Entrepreneurship and Business, moderated by William Gartner, Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship, featuring Francisco J. Riberas P1315, Executive Chairman of Gestamp, and Susana Gallardo P13.

A Global Finance panel will follow, featuring Ferit Sahenk P20, Chairman of Dogus Holdings, Carlos Torres Vila, CEO of BBVA, Matias Pedro Rodriguez Inciarte, Presidente de Santander Universidades, and Claudio Aguirre, CEO and Co-Founding Partner, Altamer Capital Partners. The session will be moderated by Bruce Herring, former President, Fidelity Strategic Advisors, Inc.

The Business of Fashion conversation will follow, moderated by Dianne Sahenk P20, and will feature Elle Macpherson P20, entrepreneur, supermodel, and mother of two sons, Tommy Hilfiger, Principal Designer, and Lawrence Stroll P17.

The afternoon will include a keynote speech given by Raj Sisodia, F.W. Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc.

President Healey and Babson Undergraduate School Dean Ian Lapp will then present the Class of 2018 Global ScholarsCassiano Dos Santos 18, Lizaveta Litvinava 18, Rosine Ndayishimiye 18, and Salome Mosehle 18.

The day will conclude with a cultural reception and dinner at Fortuny.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Chair of the Babson College Board of Trustees, Marla Capozzi MBA'96, will welcome attendees to the second day of Babson Connect: Worldwide Madrid.

President Healey will follow with the presentation of Babsons 2018 Lewis Institute Community Changemaker Awards, designed to recognize persons who have set something in motion in order to create positive change. This years honorees include Leila Janah and Maria Teresa Fernandez. She will also present a video from this year's Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs awards in Valencia, honoring Juan Roig, President of Mercadona. Established in 1978, the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs is the worlds first entrepreneurship hall of fame.

The Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship conversation will commence, featuring Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University and Co-Founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health; Carmella Kletjian, President and Co-Founder of The Kletjian Foundation; and Mack Cheney, Director of the Kletjian Foundation. The panel will be moderated by Cheryl Kiser, Executive Director of The Lewis Institute and Babson Social Innovation Lab.

Organizational psychologist and transition coach, Esther F. Rosa P'21, will then moderate a Conversation with Cayetano Rivera Ordonez, bullfighter and entrepreneur.

The next panel will be A Glimpse into the World of Luxury Brands, featuring Pierre Halimi Lacharlotte P'21, General Manager of Montres Journe America, Count Charles Faber-Castell, Managing Director Premium of Faber-Castell, Assunta Jimenez-Ontiveros, PR and Communications Director of Chanel Spain and Portugal, and Leila Janah, "Give Work" Founder and CEO of Samasource. It will be moderated by Cyril Camus 91, Chairman of Camus Cognac and Babson Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame inductee.

Arthur C. Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute, will then lead a keynote on How to Live a Startup Up Life.

A final panel discussion will follow about Leveraging the Babson Network, featuring prominent members of the Babson Class of 2004 and 2006, Alexander Thomson 06, President and Founder of TGI Group, Adam Said 04, CEO of ACE & Company, Charles Lorenceau 06, Managing Director of ACE & Company, and Melissa Arostegui 06, Co-Founder of One Dominican. Professor Emeritus Jean-Pierre Jeanette will moderate.

The evening will conclude with a Gala Reception and Dinner at the Casino de Madrid.

BCW 2018 Advisory Committee:

Paloma Botin P12

Cyril Camus 91, Babson Global Advisory Board

Marla Capozzi MBA96, Chair of the Babson Board of Trustees

Said and Mariana Darwazah P15 20, Trustee

Angel De La Fuente P21

Harish Fabiani P17, Trustee

Susana Gallardo P13, Babson Global Advisory Board

Jean-Paul Gut P19

Muhammad Habib 81, P09, Babson Global Advisory Board

Markus Krautli 81, P12, Babson Global Advisory Board

Pierre Lacharlotte P21, Babson Global Advisory Board

Suchitra Lohia P06 15, Trustee

Narender Madnani 91, Trustee

Ignacio Mora-Figueroa MBA00

Francisco Riberas P13 15

Dianne and Ferit Sahenk P20

Adam Said 04

BCW 2018 Host Committee:

The Carabias Family 14 14 17

Simran H. Fabiani 17

Ricardo Gomez-Acebo Botin 12

Vasana Jantarach MBA07

Pablo Kuszelewski MBA15

Francois Nuyts MBA96

Maria Pereda Ehrlich 15

The Perez Olivera Family 16

Martin Restrepo 17, Trustee

Monica Riberas 15

Patricia Riberas 13

Samuel Soria Santos MBA11

Alexander Thomson-Payan 06

Deans Student Ambassadors:

Elia M. Innamorati 20

Defne Sahenk 20

Rayhaan Surve 20

Alvaro De La Fuente 21

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds. The top-rankedcollege for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society. We prepare the entrepreneurial leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to make a difference in the world, and have an impact on organizations of all sizes and types. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought & Action as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.Harold Pierce covers education and health for The Californian. He can be reached at 661-395-7404. Follow him on Twitter @RoldyPierceA hearing one month from now could bring to closure to a long-running battle between Kern County and the California Emergency Medical ServicesJoseph Luiz can be reached at 395-7368 or by email at jluiz@bakersfield.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @JLuiz_TBC.Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well, and at Schwebel Baking Co., consistently achieving the highest level of quality often comes from experience. Take the workforce at its Youngstown, OH, bakery. Getting on the day shift at the flagship facility often requires decades of experience on the production line, according to Michael Elenz, vice-president of manufacturing.

As he walks through the plant, he routinely points out how long many of his veteran bakers have worked for the company. A mixer operator on the bun line needs 22 years to hold that prime position. A tenured member of the packaging department put in 26 years in various jobs. A lot of people who start working at Schwebels end up working here their whole careers, Mr. Elenz said.

Such experience anchors the tradition of excellence that is rooted in the companys storied history, which dates back to 1906 when it was founded by Joseph and Dora Schwebel. The legacy today lives on in the third and fourth generation of family members who work at the company, but nearly everywhere, there are reminders of the past.

Strolling through the Youngtown headquarters, visitors step back in time. The halls are decorated with photos and memorabilia of the company and its ongoing efforts to build its brand name. It could be a photo of Eleanor Roosevelt with Dora, who was inducted into the Baking Hall of Fame in 2009. Promotional pieces show Happy the Clown, who made his debut in the 1930s to boost morale during the Great Depression. A classic sign captures one of the bakerys most memorable advertising campaigns: If its not Schwebels, dont eat it.

Lee Schwebel, vice-president of marketing and de facto curator of the companys history, noted that less than 5% of all family-owned businesses survive to the fourth generation. The constant is the bloodline, he said.

But Lee stressed the story isnt only about the generations that have been active in the family bakery. Its about the entire team and all of the people, he explained.

True to tradition

Throughout the decades, Schwebel Baking has kept to its core competency and still focuses on what it does best, according to Paul Schwebel, the companys president. Were a bread and bun bakery. Thats it, he said. We dont produce any sweets. Its strictly bread and rolls.

White bread is still the top seller among the hundreds of products it makes, including wheat, 100% whole wheat, Italian, soft rye and multigrain breads. The bakery also produces breakfast breads as well as hearth-baked breads and rolls, and it distributes bagels, English muffins, pitas and tortillas. The products are sold not only under the Schwebels brand, but also under national franchise brands such as Cinnabon, Country Hearth, taliano, Roman Meal, Miltons and Sun-Maid.

Rye bread is our signature product, Paul said. That product dates back 106 years. The formula hasnt changed since Pauls grandfather learned how to bake it in Europe and began baking 40 loaves a day when the family bakery started. In fact, the bakery still produces a 5-lb version of its rye bread for select customers, although the most popular variety remains the 2-lb loaf. We still make an awful lot of rye bread. There are people from all over the country who will call us and order it, and well mail it to them, he observed.

The company operates about 30 depots and services the retail and food service channels throughout most of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, western New York and northern West Virginia. In Ohio, its the market leader in Cleveland, Columbus, Akron/Canton and Youngstown, as well as in Pittsburgh and Erie, PA.

To supply these markets, Schwebels operates four bakeries in Ohio  Youngstown, Cuyahoga Falls, Solon and Hebron  which together produce more than 700,000 packages of baked goods a day. Outside of the Youngstown plant, the company acquired the other facilities as it expanded geographically during the 1980s and 1990s.

All of its bakeries produce hamburger and hot dog buns, and most make white bread. We exchange products based on shipping needs, Paul said. The company relies on an intricate system of cross-docking to supply its markets with a full line of bread, buns and rolls.

Award-winning quality

In some competitive product categories such as white bread, Schwebel Baking has found a way to differentiate its products from the rest, Mr. Elenz noted. In production, we always run the white bread last because we want to be the freshest in the market, he said.

Seven years ago, the company joined The Long Co., a bakery cooperative based in Chicago, IL, and in competition with dozens of other bakeries, received the co-ops best bun award six times. In fact, Mr. Elenz said, the cooperative retired one trophy after one of its bakeries received the best bun award three years in a row.

All four of my bakeries are competing against one another, along with everybody else in the co-op, he noted. Im fine as long as its a Schwebel trophy.

To monitor product quality, every bakery gets evaluated daily with product sent by line operators, not supervisors, to the Schwebel Baking headquarters for scoring. Friendly competition among its bakeries  and even among shifts within each facility  extends into other areas. The company tracks waste, lost time and efficiency, just to name a few. At the end of the year, we recognize the winners of the program, Mr. Elenz said.

In conjunction with its quality assurance efforts, Paul added, the bakeries are ramping up their food safety programs  everything from traceability and lot tracking to establishing a product recall program  as they prepare for certification by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) as a part of the Global Food Safety Initiative sometime next year.

Schwebels QA and BRC processes are are part of its overall continuous improvement strategy. If youre going to survive, you need to reinvest in your business constantly, Paul said. You cant skip a year of not buying trucks or bakery equipment  be it mixers or dividers. There are technological advantages that you have to take advantage of and ordinary wear-outs.

The insides of the ovens installed in the 1970s and 1980s have been replaced, and new controls now monitor baking times and temperatures. With such controls, the bakeries can monitor their operations in real time and reduce downtime and waste. Everything today uses PLCs, Paul said. The control that you get from them is just totally phenomenal. Any time we have an opportunity to update a control panel or replace it, we do it.

Tradition at work

The 125,000-sq-ft Youngstown bakery houses a bread line, a bun line and a hearth line that produce a full spectrum of baked goods for the bread aisle. Typically, production runs nearly six days a week with the bakery shut down on Monday and Friday afternoons and evenings for sanitation and maintenance.

Three 100,000-lb Pfening silos hold patent flour, while a fourth silo supplies rye flour to the bread and hearth lines. The silos are enclosed to minimize noise and dust and provide safety. Flour is pneumatically transferred to various use bins throughout the bakery, then blown to the scales on the mixers for the various lines. All minor and micro ingredients are scaled in a central area for lot tracking and traceability. The centralized scaling department also helps the bakery control allergens and ensures accuracy.

Line supervisors have windowed offices scattered throughout the bakery so that they can monitor the areas where they have key responsibilities. They can observe the makeup area, for instance, while they are doing their paperwork, Mr. Elenz said.

Overall, the bakery uses six horizontal mixers for the three production lines. Two Shaffer 2,000-lb horizontal mixers, for example, feed the sponge-and-dough bread line. Sponges typically rest in the fermentation room for about 3.5 hours to produce Schwebels premium white bread. An AMF divider can produce up to 140, 1.5-lb loaves a minute. Dough pieces travel through a conical rounder and two cross-moulders before dropping into 5-strap pans.

After traveling through an APV (now Baker Thermal Solutions) Templex proofer, the loaves bake in a single-lap oven. Depanned breads travel up SpanTech conveyors to a Stewart Systems overhead cooler that is more than a mile long, Mr. Elenz noted.

The bread line has four Bettendorf Stanford band slicers  one serves as a backup  with Burford closure systems. AMF pattern formers position the loaves that are trayed, stacked and rolled into the warehouse for distribution, which starts before the break of dawn.

Meanwhile, the combination hearth line uses two horizontal mixers, including one for hearth rolls and one for producing Schwebels classic rye bread with a traditional, 36-hour ferment. We take no shortcuts here, Mr. Elenz noted. The dough travels from a dough chunker up an inclined belt conveyor to a versatile Gemini hearth line outfitted with a Werner & Pfleiderer 8-pocket divider, makeup line and intermediate proofer for rolls.

Hearth items typically are placed on peel boards, racked and rolled into a walk-in proof box and baked in a Readco steel-plated oven. The freshly baked breads and rolls travel on two spiral coolers, with the exception of its 5-lb rye bread thats cooled on racks. All other products pass through an AMF slicer and bagger and a Burford twist tyer.

For bun production, the bakery relies on a liquid ferment system that feeds a Shaffer 1,600-lb horizontal mixer. Twin AMF piston dividers crank out 800 pieces a minute. After passing through rounding bars and receiving flour dusting and an intermediate proof, the dough pieces are panned and travel to another Templex proofer and bake in a Baker Perkins single-lap oven. After traveling on a Stewart spiral cooler, the buns enter laners, indexers and slicers and baggers.

To ensure product freshness, most of the companys breads and buns are distributed to retailers within a 200-mile radius of each bakery, according to Paul. Quality and consistency, he added, are the fundamentals to success that have been a Schwebel Baking tradition over the years.

Our plan is to continue to grow and prosper, he said. There are six family members in the business  three in the third generation and three in the fourth generation. So we have the next generation in place, and theyre learning about the family business and performing well.

Such stability, he said, will keep the bakery on the right track in the future.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.Two men have been taken to the hospital as a fire started at the Sugar Creek Mobile Home Community early Thursday morning, says officials.

2 was taken to Tampa General Hospital

No firefighters were injured

Largo Fire Chief Terry Tokarz told Spectrum Bay News 9 that crews went to the mobile home at 10265 Ulmerton Rd. around 5:07 a.m. to battle the blaze as two men who live in the home were taken to the Tampa General Hospital.

One of the men were taken to the hospital's burn center, but Tokarz did not say which section of the hospital the other man was taken to.

The extent of their injuries is unknown and no firefighters were injured, the fire chief confirmed.

Tokarz did not say how the fire started.

Check back for updates.Superintendents from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Pasco, and Manatee Counties are calling on Gov. Rick Scott to veto the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) in the proposed state budget.

Superintendents deliver common message: "Let's do more."

Governor's office points to record highs in per-pupil funding

Much of increased funding diverted to school security

Were all delivering one message: Lets do more, said Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins.

The administrators say theyre concerned because theyre only seeing an increase in Base Student Allocation (BSA) funds of 47 cents per student. BSA is what districts use to pay for costs like teacher salaries and school supplies.

Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning wrote a letter that he said was hand-delivered to Gov. Scott Wednesday. It notes that based on the current budget, Pasco would receive an additional $34,613.29 in BSA money for the 2018-2019 school year.

This amount is not even close to what we would pay a starting, new teacher in Pasco County, Browning said.

Record-high per-pupil funding?

The governors office notes that his budget proposal includes an increase in BSA funding of $152.45 per student. It also mentions that overall per-pupil funding is at a record high in the state for the third year in a row at $7,408 per-pupil.

We are hearing that they are giving record funding to schools this year. The point thats being lost is that almost all of that funding is tied to categorical funding, said School District of Manatee County Superintendent Dr. Diana Green.

The superintendents said that the final state budget diverts nearly all of that money into school security measures. While they applaud the focus on safety, all said theyre concerned about what this will mean for other expenses.

For Hillsborough County alone, the difference between what was proposed and what ended up in the budget adds up to more than $30 million, said Eakins. Thats $30 million we cannot use to support students and teachers.

Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd said despite her district becoming one of the largest in the state, teachers and staff have still been able to create an environment that allows them to connect with students.

That environment may suffer a great deal. If the budget remains where it is, we expect well be forced to make significant cuts, Byrd said. It may mean we cant hire teachers needed to be in compliance with the class size amendment. It would surely put a strain on all of our teachers.

Special session necessary?

Other costs expected to face the districts in the coming year include mandatory increases in contributions to the state retirement system and rising electric, fuel, and health care costs.

The governorcited several times that the surplus revenue in this state is well over $3 billion this year, said Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Grego. With that surplus, our future youth receive 47 cents. We should and we must do better.

The group wants Gov. Scott to call the legislature back for a special session to adjust the BSA funding.

The governors deputy communications director, McKinley Lewis, said in a statement, In this years budget, K-12 public schools are provided hundreds of millions of dollars and the flexibility needed to make each school safer while still increasing Floridas per-pupil funding to a record high. The Governor has been clear  the number one priority right now is making our schools safer, and hes glad that the Legislature provided funding for that specific reason.

Gov. Scotts office also said that since he took office, BSA has grown by $725.20 per pupil. They say that works out to a 21% increase while student enrollment has grown by seven percent during the same time.

Superintendents are asking community members whod like to see BSA funding increased to e-mail the governor at rick.scott@eog.myflorida.com using the subject line Lets Do More.Authorities in Pinellas County are investigating a morning crash that involved a deputy and said an arrest has been made in the case.

Maurice Jones, 27, faces multiple charges

Lt. Kenneth Euler, Jr., treated for non-life-threatening injuries

Crash happened Thursday morning in St. Petersburg



It happened about 2:20 a.m. Thursday at 16th Street South and 14th Avenue South in St. Petersburg.

The Sheriff's Office said a Violent Crimes Task Force deputy observed a suspicious vehicle and pulled behind it.

The suspect vehicle then sped away and ran several stop signs, authorities said.

The deputy notified others and attempted to stop the vehicle.

Lt. Kenneth Euler, Jr., was driving an unmarked Chevrolet, and authorities said the suspect vehicle crashed into the driver's side of Euler's vehicle.

The suspect, 27-year-old Maurice Jones, fled on foot but was later captured. He was treated at a local hospital, then taken to the Pinellas County Jail.

He faces charges of leaving the scene of a crash, reckless driving and resisting.

Euler was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.A newly-installed pedestrian bridge has collapsed over a busy roadway at Florida International University, with at least four deaths and nine people hospitalized.

FIU pedestrian bridge touted by university collapses

Bridge span had just been installed Saturday

Florida Gov. Scott cancels Sanford appearance to head to FIU

Multiple vehicles were seen crushed underneath span



As of 8:15 p.m. first responders from multiple agencies were still working in search and rescue mode to locate victims of the collapse.

During a press conference late Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott, Senator Marco Rubio and FIU President Mark Rosenberg joined representatives from county and city agencies responding to the incident in expressing their condolences and their commitment to first finding and helping victims, then investigating what caused the collapse.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Dave Downey reported that a little over 100 first responders from multiple agencies, including Miami-Dade Police and the Florida Highway Patrol, responded to the scene to aid victims. Downey also confirmed that crews would remain in search and rescue mode on site until they were satisfied there was no one else left to help.

The Florida Highway Patrol added that they expected the stretch of SW 8th Street between SW 107th Avenue and SW 117th Avenue to be closed for an extended period, first for search and rescue operations, then later for clean up and an investigation into the cause of the collapse.

None of the victims of the collapse have yet been identified.

The 174-foot, 950-ton span fell Thursday afternoon at the university's main Miami-area campus. Video shows vehicles underneath the bridge were hit.

Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Alejandro Camacho initially told CNN that "five to six vehicles" were crushed underneath the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge, which was just installed Saturday. But authorities later said at a presser that there are eight vehicles underneath the bridge.

A Kendall Regional Medical Center official said they received 10 level one trauma patients from the bridge collapse ranging from 20 to 50 years of age. Two patients were reported to be in "extremely critical" condition, while eight others had traumatic injuries but are all stable. No brain injuries were reported.

The hospital said they aren't expecting any more critical patients and that other injured people may be at other hospitals.

FHP urged people to stay out of the area of SW 107th Ave. and SW 117th Ave.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott canceled a Thursday afternoon appearance in Sanford to head straight to FIU to be briefed by local law enforcement and university officials on the collapse of the bridge.

FIU tweeted about the "first-of-its-kind" bridge on its Twitter page Saturday, March 10, 2018.

HAPPENING NOW: A newly-installed pedestrian bridge has collapsed at @FIU, and there are at least 5 vehicles underneath. Video showed several people being loaded into ambulances.



Story we're updating: https://t.co/RbfEXlkEtK pic.twitter.com/aPLbjeJ8mB  Bay News 9 (@BN9) March 15, 2018

According to the Florida Department of Transportation, the bridge was an FIU project, not an FDOT project. The designer of the bridge, the contractor and the Construction Engineering and Inspection (CEI) company were all under contract with the university.

FDOT named the designer of the bridge as FIGG Engineering. The contractor who both built and installed the bridge was MCM Construction, and the CEI is Bolton Perez and Associates.

FDOT also specified in a media release that "due to the unique characteristics of the design of the bridge, an independent, secondary design check was required," and that it was the university's responsibility to select a firm to conduct that review. Under the terms of FIU's agreement with the state, the university was to select an FDOT pre-qualified firm to perform the review.

The firm FIU selected, Louis Berger, was not FDOT pre-qualified to conduct the review.

"First of its kind"

The pedestrian bridge was called a "first of its kind" by FIU in a story published Saturday, March 10 on its website. According to a fact sheet about the bridge on FIU's website, it was designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane and was supposed to last more than 100 years, CNN reported. It cost $14.2 million to build. It funded as part of a $19.4 million grant from the Department of Transportation, the fact sheet said.

"FIU is about building bridges and student safety. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully," FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg said in the FIU story. "We are filled with pride and satisfaction at seeing this engineering feat come to life and connect our campus to the surrounding community where thousands of our students live."

FIU touted the bridge as the first to be constructed entirely of self-cleaning concrete which, when exposed to sunlight, "the titanium dioxide in the concrete captures pollutants and turns it bright white, reducing maintenance costs," it said in the story.



Just spoke to @SecElaineChao On my way to @fiu where I have been an adjunct professor for 10 years. SW 8th street, the road under the collapsed bridge is heavily used by so many people in #Miami This is such a horrifying tragedy  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 15, 2018

Many people have started to share their condolences on social media. Sen. Bill Nelson offered to help in any way he can and said he was going to call Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to ask the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate what went wrong.

Construction on the bridge, designed by FIGG Bridge Engineers and built by MCM, began last spring and was expected to be completed in early 2019.

The NTSB confirmed it is sending a team to investigate the bridge collapse.



Information from the Associated Press and CNN contributed to this story.While Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd wants to selectively train and arm school staff, a school board member has another idea.

Polk County School Boardmember Billy Townsend wants AR-15 registry

Says it would make it easy for law enforcement to react to 'red flags'

Townsend hopes Polk County sheriff will take up the concept

Polk County School Boardmember Billy Townsend would like for local law enforcement to have access to a registry of AR-15 owners, basically treating guns likes cars.

If someone gets a red flag, we dont know what guns he has, what access he has to an AR-15. If his neighbor has one," Townsend explained. "Those types of things we dont know. I dont want to know but I want my law enforcement to so that they can act quickly on a red flag.

At a gun shop in Lakeland, gun owners reacted differently to the idea.

You need to know who got guns. You got some nut cases. Everybody getting crazy, said Ray Pope, a hunter. This thing about the government coming to take your guns and stuff like that, thats a bunch of hoopla, you know? They need to know who got guns. I want them to know who got guns.

I think what they need to do first is focus on making our schools safer. I dont know what a database is going to do, said Chuck Edwards, a retired police officer. I think what youre going to do is infringe on the privacy of a lot of good gun owners.

Sheriff Grady Judd declined an interview on the topic.

When Townsend proposed his idea to Judd Tuesday during a school board work session, Judd simply replied, Its against the law.

Townsend responded by saying, Well you just changed the law because youre a pretty talented guy. I would like you to advocate with us to make Polk County the safest gun ownership community in Florida. Are you wiling to do that?

Judd replied, Im not here to talk about politics today.

Townsend hoped Judd would work with him to push for changing the law, but whether that will happen remains to be seen.

Hawaii was the first state to enroll firearms owners into a centralized information system. That program started in 2016.

Here's a look at how registration is handled on the Hawaii Police website.The Coral Springs Police Department has released additional 911 calls during the terrifying moments at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

You can hear calls from parents who had just received messages from their kids about a shooting -- and a lot of the parents are surprisingly calm, likely not even knowing the extent of what was going on.

Many parents were still trying to piece together what was happening at the high school, and if their child was in any real danger, or if it was some sort of misunderstanding.

"She just texted me, 'Mommy please call the cops, it's not a joke. I love you if anything happens to me," one caller can be heard saying.

911 operators received call after call from parents hoping they could provide some information as to what was happening at Stoneman Douglas.

"My son is at Stoneman Douglas High School, he's locked in a closet with a teacher. I just wanted someone to know they're in a closet with no windows and have no idea they're there," one parent said.

During those moments there was a lot of confusion and hopeful doubt that there wasn't actually an active shooter situation at the school. But with call after call that hope dwindled.

A lot of parents called reporting their child's location on campus, or to say they were hiding with classmates, and one man called saying his wife is a teacher at the school and knows students are injured.

"We have injuries on the third floor, my wife's a teacher there," the man reported to the 911 operator. "How many kids are injured?" "She can't see, she's tucked away in a building but she said to get the police to the third floor, there's injuries," the man said.

One thing all of these callers had in common was that their family members inside Stoneman Douglas had no idea what exactly was happening -- and what they did know, their family reported to 911 operators, hoping it would help.

"My step-daughter is in Stoneman Douglas with the active shooter in Coral Springs, Florida. She's been texting me, they are in the JROTC room and she said the active shooter is on their floor. I wanted to relay information because I know SWAT is there looking for him," one caller reported.

With every call and every piece of information reported, they had some peace of mind that help was at least on the way.For Immediate Release, March 15, 2018 Contacts: Catherine Kilduff, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 780-8862, ckilduff@biologicaldiversity.org

Melissa Angel, Turtle Island Restoration Network, (919) 539-5024, melissa@tirn.net

Alicia Cordero, Wishtoyo Foundation, (805) 323-7023, aliciacordero@wishtoyo.org Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administrations Failure to Protect Pacific Humpback Whales Threatened by Fishing Gear, Ship Strikes, Oil Spills SAN FRANCISCO The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation today sued the Trump administration for failing to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean, where the animals face threats from fisheries, ship strikes and oil spills. Todays lawsuit, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, aims to force the National Marine Fisheries Service to follow the Endangered Species Acts requirement to designate critical habitat within one year of listing a species as threatened or endangered and not authorize actions that would damage that habitat. Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered and a third as threatened in September 2016. As cargo ships and crabbing gear slaughter West Coast humpbacks, the Trump administration wont lift a finger to save these magnificent whales, said Catherine Kilduff, a Center attorney. The federal government needs to protect critical humpback habitat thats prone to oil spills and dangerously dense with fishing gear and ship traffic. These whales need urgent action, not more delays. One population of endangered humpback whales that feeds off Californias coast numbers around 400 individuals, meaning any death or injury from entanglement could hurt the entire populations recovery. At least 54 humpback whales were found tangled up in fishing gear off the West Coast in 2016. Entanglements cause injuries and death as the ropes cut into animals flesh, sap their strength and lead to drowning. Many incidents in 2016 were clustered around the biologically rich Monterey Bay, where migrating whales come to feed. We will continue to compel the Trump administration to abide by environmental laws and protect humpback whales from Californias industrial fisheries, ship traffic and oil spills, said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. Protecting humpback habitat now helps secures their future and the health of our imperiled ocean ecosystems. Ship strikes and oil spills are the other major threats to West Coast humpback whales. A study found that an estimated 22 humpback whales off California, Oregon and Washington die each year after being hit by ships. On Jan. 4 the Trump administration released its plan to invite offshore oil and gas drilling into every ocean in the country  despite the fact that such drilling can be lethal for whales. In 2015 endangered humpback whales were observed swimming in the Refugio oil spill, which dumped at least 21,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean. The spill killed hundreds of marine mammals and birds, including dolphins and sea lions. Since time immemorial, Chumash people have shared our home waters of the Santa Barbara Channel with humpback whales. They have a deeply respected role in our culture, guiding and protecting our maritime people as we navigate through the channel. In reciprocity, the Chumash people play a strong role in protecting our magnificent relatives as they face increasing threats from ship strikes, entanglement, and gas and oil development, said Alicia Cordero, First Nations program officer for the Wishtoyo Foundation. Ensuring proper designation of critical habitat for these populations of endangered humpback whales is a core responsibility for Chumash people, keeping our millennia-old commitment to all our relations and preservation of our culture. Critical habitat protection would help safeguard ocean areas essential for migrating and feeding. The designation would ensure that federally permitted activities do not continue to drive humpback whales to the brink of extinction by destroying important areas. Evidence shows that endangered or threatened species that have protected critical habitat are twice as likely to show signs of recovery as those without it. Humpback whale populations that need critical habitat were identified in 2016 by the National Marine Fisheries Service, including the threatened Mexico population that feeds off the U.S. West Coast and Alaska and the endangered Central America population that feeds almost exclusively off California and Oregon.SINGAPORE - Singapore on Wednesday launched public hearings on possible legislation to combat "fake news" which critics said could be used to curtail free speech.

 pixel2013 via Pixabay

Deliberate online falsehoods

Protect free speech and enhance free speech

A 10-member parliamentary committee was set up in January to tackle false online information which the government says could threaten national security.The wealthy city-state is among the countries looking to introduce legislation to rein in fake news but critics have cautioned this could be used to exert further control over the media.Some 164 people have written to the committee, including academics, technology and social media companies such as Facebook and Google, and civil activists to give their inputs.The committee will call 79 individuals and organisations to testify over eight days after which it is expected to make recommendations to lawmakers within months."Deliberate online falsehoods are a serious global problem... It is a complex problem, affecting us in many different ways," said committee chairman and parliamentary deputy speaker Charles Chong at the opening of the hearing.Several academics were called to testify on the first day, including cyber-conflict expert Michael Raska, who noted that cyber attacks and false information online could have the same political impact as a military strike."How does Singapore deter (these attacks) and respond militarily? These attacks can happen far away where a conventional response is not viable," he said.Singapore already has tough laws in place to prevent the incitement of racial and religious discord, as well as legislation covering libel, public protests and dissent.The possibility of more regulation in what is seen as a curb on free speech has some big technology companies worried.But the Singapore government has said curbing what it calls online falsehoods is necessary and denied it was aimed at curtailing free speech."In fact, one of the purposes of dealing with deliberate online falsehoods is to protect free speech and enhance free speech," Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who is on the committee, said during Wednesday's hearing.Singapore is ranked 151 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index by non-profit group Reporters Without Borders.AFP via I-Net Bridge.Cross-border e-commerce continues to provide significant growth opportunities for retailers and manufacturers with an international online product offering. According to a 2017 DHL report, cross-border retail volumes are predicted to increase at an annual average rate of 25% between 2015 and 2020 (from $300billion to $900billion) - twice the pace of domestic e-commerce growth.

kittaya mangruan via 123RF

1. The cost of express shipping

2. Returns rates

3. Basket values

4. The customers business is doing well locally

5. Unfamiliarity with customs procedures and processes

Steve Burd, vice president of sales for DHL Express sub-Saharan Africa, says that this highlights a boundless opportunity for African businesses looking to take a piece of the cross-border e-commerce pie.Burd says that DHL Express works with thousands of e-commerce customers around the world, with a lot of them at start-up phase. We are therefore well aware of the perceived hurdles involved when considering to trade across borders.He points to five common areas which domestic e-commerce customers consider to be a challenge when deciding where to trade internationally.There is no risk at offering your customers an express delivery option, says Burd. Customers want choice, not only in their product selection, but also when and how they receive it. In our experience, customers are willing to pay a fair price for a faster, more efficient service.Weve found that the return rates are actually much lower on international shipping. Businesses could always do it on a trial basis and measure the benefits over losses and adjust their strategies accordingly.We have found that basket values often increase with the introduction of express shipping. Customers tend to buy more to justify the premium shipping costs.Evidence shows that international customers will spend significantly more than local ones, says Burd. So even if international traffic to your website is small, it can be worth a lot for limited effort. There are free online tools available which will give you an indication of your international traffic on your website  this will provide an idea of which countries to focus your efforts on. There is no risk in opening doors to the international market  only the risk of getting left behind.This is where your choice of delivery partner comes in. If your paperwork has been done correctly, there shouldnt be any customs delays or worries. Collaborating with an experienced partner that has extensive knowledge and know-how of customs procedures on the African continent will assist the businesss e-commerce offering to evolve.More than 98% of Steinhoff International's shareholders voted to discharge all of the directors and supervisory board members from liabilities at the group's annual general meeting (AGM) in March 2017.

The existence of the little-known resolution has raised concern that shareholders may not be able to take legal action against board members.The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is one of the largest shareholders in Steinhoff, has sent a note to fund managers who manage its investments, asking them to indicate whether they voted in favour of the resolution.Given that 98.37% of shareholders attending the 2017 AGM backed the resolutions it seems inevitable that all of the fund managers holding Steinhoff shares on behalf of the PIC voted in favour.But Amsterdam-based company law authorities say the resolutions will not absolve the directors of their liability. The protection granted by the resolutions is based on the assumption that shareholders can fully rely on the information provided by Steinhoff's annual accounts and the annual report. This is certainly not the case with Steinhoff, whose annual accounts dating back to 2015 have been withdrawn and will be restated on completion of what is expected to be a lengthy investigation by PwC.As for the group's annual reports, at the top of every page of the 2015 and 2016 reports is a warning: "Information can no longer be relied on."Armand Kersten, head of European relations at the Dutch Investors Association, which initiated a class action against Steinhoff in December, said that liability resolutions are common in Dutch-registered companies."The Dutch Companies Act provides for the adoption of the annual accounts by the general meeting of shareholders but it does not imply a discharge of liability for the executive directors or the supervisory directors. This means there must be an explicit resolution dealing with the discharge," Kersten said.But he said the discharge was based on the information provided to the shareholders in the annual accounts, the annual report or through discussion at the general meeting of shareholders."In the Steinhoff situation Dutch case law dictates that a discharge does not condone management failures that have been kept under wraps."Kersten said members of the managing board (equivalent to executive directors in SA) and supervisory board (nonexecutive directors) should not rely on the discharge granted to them at the 2017 AGM so as to avoid liability for the proper fulfilment of their duties to the company.The resolution put to the 2017 AGM states: "It is proposed to the general meeting of shareholders to discharge the members of the management board in office during the financial year that ended 30 September 2016 from all liability in relation to the exercise of their duties for such financial year ended 30 September 2016, to the extent that the exercise of such duties is apparent from the 2016 financial statements or has otherwise been disclosed to the general meeting of shareholders."One Steinhoff shareholder who balked at the resolution said that in terms of South African company law directors could not be excluded from liability. When he asked for additional information the shareholder received a curt note from the company secretary saying that he was no longer a shareholder in a South African company but in a Dutch company and that, in terms of Dutch law, directors were annually discharged of their liabilities.The IPCCs first cities conference revealed the challenges in bridging the gaps between scientific knowledge and policy practice, and between cities in developed and developing nations. Cities IPCC/Twitter

A collision of science, practice and politics

What did these encounters reveal?

An agenda for urban climate action

The significance of a UN-organised global scientific conference on climate change and cities should not be underestimated. Urbanisation has been a United Nations concern since 1963 . Policy attention strengthened in the 1970s when the UN Habitat agency was established. This focus was redoubled in the mid-2000s when it was reported that more than half of the global population was now urban.Climate change has been a topic of UN action since 1988 , with policy attention intensifying in the late 1990s and mid-2010s. Appreciation has since grown that with 55% of the worlds people now living in cities , this is where where efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change must be focused.By venturing onto urban terrain the IPCC faces some interesting scientific questions. To a large degree biological or physical systems can be studied as objective phenomena that behave according to discoverable and predictable patterns. Carbon dioxide objectively traps solar radiation leading to climatic warming; biological species die at temperatures above their tolerance.By contrast cities are riven with historical, social, economic, cultural and political dynamics. The theoretical and conceptual frames that scientists apply to cities are subject to many biases.We certainly can calculate the emissions a city produces and chart the likely impacts on it from a changing climate. But the reasons why a city came to emit so much and how it responds to the need to reduce emissions and adapt to impacts are highly contingent. Objective validation and verification are difficult. Identifying causality and forward pathways is very difficult.There is also a vast divide between the physical and social science of cities and the policymakers and practitioners who shape urban development. Research shows that most urban professionals simply do not read urban science . Instead they draw on practice knowledge acquired from peer practitioners via an array of non-scientific channels and networks.These difficulties were observable at the IPCC cities conference. It was scientific in purpose but a subtle politics was at play. Rather than being convened by a scientific body, the conference was co-ordinated as an instrument of the worlds national polities and the IPCC, organised by a mix of UN organisations and NGO networks , and sponsored by a local, provincial and national government.Fewer than two-thirds of delegates were scientists; the remaining 40 per cent were policy officials and practitioners. The problem of connecting scientific and practice knowledge was often on display.Many cities have accepted the clear scientific evidence on climate change and accompanying global targets. These cities are striving at the local scale to cut emissions and adapt to changing climate patterns. For many, their main need is for knowledge of practical policies and programs, rather than more evidence of climate change impacts or mitigation technologies.Often these cities are racing far ahead of slow and certain science. They are sharing practical experience of mitigation and adaptation strategies via self-organising peer-city networks. Finding ways to link inventive but unsystematic practice knowledge with the formal peer-reviewed processes of orthodox science will be a critical task for climate change scientists and policymakers.Policymakers are also grappling with how to implement global agreements within complex international arrangements. There face myriad tiers of national, regional, city and local governance, involving a plethora of discrete public, private and civic actors.For this group, their priorities at the IPCC cities conference concerned policy processes and institutional design, political commitment and implementation instruments. Their needs are for policy, institutional and political science as much as for further scientific detail on climate change.The conference generated many fascinating insights. One major theme was the question of informality.Many cities beyond the developed world are weakly governed. Multiple dimensions of urban life, including housing and infrastructure, are organised via informal institutions. Achieving effective action in these circumstances is a considerable policy problem.A related problem is the gross geographical imbalance in scientific effort and focus on urban climate questions. Most research focuses on the cities of the developed West. And most of those are comparatively well resourced to respond to climate change.In contrast, the cities of the developing world lack a systematic data and research base to enable effective and timely climate action. Yet these are the cities where many of the most severe climate impacts will be felt. Resolving this inequity is a fundamental international scientific challenge, as is growing the capacity to build a better evidence base.Another question the IPCC needs to navigate is the boundary between science and politics in urban climate policy. During conference plenaries, the moderator  a former city mayor  excluded questions about specific political representatives stances on climate change according to apolitical IPCC rules. Yet questions about the effects on cities of neoliberalism were deemed permissible.Urban scientists will require an especially nuanced framing of their research agenda if they are to address the very material politics of urban climate policy via theoretical abstraction alone.The conference also provided some memorable highlights. William Rees, the originator of ecological footprint theory , lambasted delegates for not adequately appreciating the absolute material limits to resource exploitation. And the youth delegates received a standing ovation as the cohort who will be grappling with urban climate effects long after their older peers have departed.The conference released a research agenda . This outlines the urgent need for inclusive and socially transformative action on climate change, improved evidence and information to support climate responses, and new funding and finance mechanisms to make this possible. Its a very high-level guide for climate and urban scientists seeking to better understand climate change impacts on cities.The conference appears to have met the IPCCs needs to compile and review a large volume of scientific and practice insight for its assessment reporting. Whether it will have a wider effect on climate policy and action in cities remains unclear.The participating scientists and practitioners certainly shared a general commitment to advancing the urban climate agenda. But it remains uncertain whether methodical scientific processes will be timely enough to meet the accelerating and expanding demands of urgent urban climate action.Wine Cellar - with expert palates Roland Peens and James Pietersen - recently hosted its second luxury white taste-off, which saw 74 tasters assemble in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Ten of South Africa's most expensive wines were blind-tasted and ranked by the public tasters in order of their favourite, to their least favourite.

400 Gabriel Glasses and the most expensive white wines in S.A. #WineCellarLuxuryWhite pic.twitter.com/6P5r7wbc12  Roland Peens (@WineCellarRSA) March 7, 2018

Johannesburg Top Three:

Ken Forrester, FMC Single Barrel 2014  R 700 Capensis, Chardonnay 2014  R 950 Sadie Family, Palladius 2015  R 725

Cape Town Top Three:

Capensis, Chardonnay 2014  R 950 Ken Forrester, FMC Single Barrel 2014  R 700 Paul Cluver, Seven Flags Chardonnay 2016  R 610

Overall results:

Capensis, Chardonnay 2014  R 950 Ken Forrester, FMC Single Barrel 2014  R 700 Paul Cluver, Seven Flags Chardonnay 2016  R 610

All wines tasted during the luxury white wine tasting:



1



Spier



Franks K Smit



2015



2



Reyneke



Natural Chenin Blanc



2016



3



Sadie Family



Palladius



2015



4



Raats



Eden High Density Chenin Blanc



2015



5



Ken Forrester



The FMC - Single Barrel



2013



6



Paul Cluver



Seven Flags Chardonnay



2016



7



Uva Mira



Icon Chardonnay



2014



8



Leeu Passant



Stellenbosch Chardonnay



2015



9



Capensis



Chardonnay



2014



10



Delaire Graaff



Terrace Block Chardonnay



2015



The order of the wines was random and tasters were unaware of the line-up. The results from Johannesburg were combined with those from Cape Town and the live announcement was made to tasters in both cities over Skype as well as on social media.Once every two years, the unique opportunity arises to not only take part in, but play a deciding role in determining SAs top luxury wines from a selection of ten of the countrys finest at each event, priced at up to R2000 a bottle.The luxury red wine tasting will take place on 18 April in the same format.Twenty-eight people have been arrested for trespassing and contempt of court after a sting operation at five hijacked properties in the south of Johannesburg.

Mayor Herman Mashaba said the operation took place on Tuesday night. Minors found in the properties were handed to the department of social development for placement in a safer place."One undocumented foreign national was also arrested during the operation. Home Affairs is expected to process the suspect," Mashaba said."With respect to some of the properties, the owners had evicted unlawful occupiers and hijackers from their properties, however, these unlawful occupiers then forcibly moved back into the properties, trespassing and failing to adhere to an order of court in the process."Mashaba said the suspects were expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Thursday, 15 March. Four of the hijacked properties were returned to their owners. "I am informed that in the case of one of the properties, hijacked four years ago, the hijacker has been collecting monthly rental of R21,000. I am happy that the owner of this property will finally take control of it."The mayor also gave an update on the progress of the city's drive against hijacked buildings. He said 22 properties had been handed back to their rightful owners. About 300 buildings have been confirmed as hijacked after an audit of about 500 "bad" properties, 24 of which belong to the city. Fifteen property hijackers have been arrested so far.Cabinet has approved three bills for submission into Parliament.

Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes

iKamva National e-Skills Institute Bill

Hydrographic Bill

These include the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill of 2018, iKamva National e-Skills Institute Bill, 2018 as well as Hydrographic Bill of 2018.The Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill of 2018 has been approved by Cabinet for submission into Parliament.The bill aims to create the offences of hate crimes and hate speech and to put in place measures to prevent and combat these offences.It intends to address violence against persons on the basis of prejudice. It will also give effect to South Africas obligations in terms of international human rights instruments.Cabinet also approved for the iKamva National e-Skills Institute Bill, 2018 (iNeSI Bill) to be submitted to Parliament.The Bill provides for the establishment of iNeSI, as a legal entity with its own legislation to address e-skills (digital skills) capacity challenges in the country.Briefing the media following a Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane on Thursday noted that capacity development of e-Skills is seen as of the priority areas of government in building an inclusive economy, and to establish a capable and developmental state.The institute (iNeSI) will act as a national catalytic collaborator and change agent, for the development of digital skills and organisational capacity in the country, Minister Mokonyane said.Cabinet has further approved for the introduction of the Hydrographic Bill of 2018 into Parliament.The bill seeks to recognise and grant legislative status to the Office of the Hydrographer, which has been in existence in the Department of Defence (South African Navy), since the inception of hydrographic services in South Africa.The bill will enable the Hydrographer of the South African Navy to be recognised as the National Hydrographer.It will also ensure that the provision of hydrographic services is formalised and enacted into law.This is in line with the International Maritime Organisation and the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which is an international maritime treaty which sets minimum safety standards in the construction, equipment and operation of merchant ships, the Minister said.It would take more than 700 years to complete the land restitution process if claims were reopened and processed at the current pace a member of the high-level panel on key legislation told Parliament on Wednesday, 14 March.

We have created expectations that cant be met Aninka Claassens director of the Land and Accountability Research Centre at the University of Cape Town (UCT) told Parliaments portfolio committee on land reform and rural development.Section 25 (7) of the Constitution says a person or community dispossessed of their land after 1913 due to historically discriminatory laws or practices is entitled to restitution or redress.Claassens said there were already more than 7000 unsettled and more than 19000 unfinalised old order claims that were submitted between 1995 and 1998.At the current pace of finalising 560 claims a year they would take at least 35 years to deal with. New order claims lodged after 2014 would take 143 years to settle. If the process were to be re-opened another 397000 claims were likely to be lodged which at the current pace would take 709 years to finalise she said.She said the land claims commission did not have the capacity to deal with the number of claims it faced. Many of its staff were inadequately trained and the commission did not keep proper records. In some provinces less than 3% of files were in order according to a 2014 Genesis report she said.How do you process restitution claims when you dont have claim forms and people have been waiting 20 years she said.The panel also concluded that there had been inconsistent prioritisation of land claims and that invalid claims had been approved. There was increasing evidence of corruption and valid claims had been held back to enable counterclaims by specific elites to be lodged she said.The Conversation Africa is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community. Its aim is to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues, and allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversation.Go to: https://theconversation.com/africaThe winds of change blowing across parts of Southern Africa have also held promise for the mining industry. Better commodity prices, an improved political outlook for South Africa and Zimbabwe and a greater appetite for investment has prompted new leads and partnerships since the Investing in African Mining Indaba was held in Cape Town in February.

Mining Charter

Sustainability

Political changes in South Africa and Zimbabwe in particular are very encouraging. There is a lot of potential in Zimbabwe once things open up and investors are assured of geo-political issues, the robustness of regulations and protection for investors, said Michael Simms, mining and energy leader for global audit and advisory firm, Moore Stephens.Mining companies, investors and companies working with the industry have also continued to welcome assurances from South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, that he is committed to finding a solution to the dispute over the Mining Charter and will consider the needs of all stakeholders and interests of industry and the country as a whole.South Africas mining companies agreed in February to postpone a legal challenge to the governments new rules for the industry, which they say are onerous and could cost many jobs.From a South African perspective, clarity around the Mining Charter is the single biggest factor influencing capital investment into our mining industry. By all accounts the uncertainty has substantially restricted capital inflows into South Africa and we have fallen behind others on the continent, We appreciate that President Ramaphosa has promised to give this a significant amount of attention, said Olivier Barbeau, Moore Stephens South Africa mining leader based in Johannesburg.Expanding into the rapidly evolving sustainability space in Africa, which was a major feature at this years Mining Indaba, has also sparked opportunities.There has been a big push into environmentally sustainable mining. This continues to be under the microscope and may make all the difference in managing, operating and developing a leading mine, said Simms.UN experts have condemned the decision to seek the death sentence against Egyptian photojournalist Abou Zeid, who was arrested in August 2013 while covering clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

#FreeShawkan

UN human rights experts strongly condemn a decision by the Egyptian prosecutor to seek the death sentence against acclaimed photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as Shawkan, who was arrested while covering anti-government protests.Abou Zeid was arrested in August 2013 while covering clashes between Egyptian security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi. He has been charged with weapons possession and murder, amongst others. He remains in detention.Journalists and media workers covering protests should not be criminalized for their professional duties and they certainly should not be facing the death penalty for doing so, said the UN experts.Calling for the death penalty after unfair procedures is unacceptable: it is a derelict of legal duties, as well as a violation of international law, they said, adding the imposition of the death penalty under such conditions would amount to an arbitrary deprivation of life.Freedom of expression is a fundamental right protected by international law for which no one should risk detention and the death sentence. It is also a collective right which empowers populations through participation and democracy.Egypt must ensure that journalists are able to express their views and disseminate information without fear of intimidation, harassment or prosecution of any sort. We call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release and put an end to Abou Zeids groundless prosecution.In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recommended that Zeid be released immediately, and awarded the right to seek compensation.On 26 January 2018, several UN experts called on Egypt to halt all pending executions following repeated allegations of unfair trials.This job expired on 14 May 2018.This job expired on 2 May 2018.This job expired on 13 May 2018.It's been an article of faith among Minnesota's Anti-Muslim Bund that an Alpha News opinion piece, Bloomington Mosque Bombing: Hoax, Inside Job Or The Same Thing?, was the gospel truth about the bombing of Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center last August.

Only fools believe mosque blast wasn't a PR stunt, as Cory Zukowski wryly observed in a City Pages review of the column:

The attorney moonlights as a media watchdog and a conservative activist, routinely ripping Republicans for their laggard efforts in safeguarding America from The Mulsim Threat. So it's no surprise he smells the stench of conspiracy in the fireboming of the Dar Al-Farooq mosque. According to Gilmore, the still unsolved explosion that rocked the mosque before dawn on August 5 wasn't a terrorist attack. It was more likely a "hoax" or an "inside job" or a "fake hate crime." According to the FBI, the investigation remains ongoing. Spokesman Jeff Van Nest declined comment. Yet this scant info hasn't stopped Minnesota's leading anti-Muslim news site from leaping to conclusions.

Unfortunately these conclusions have lost force with the arrest of suspects in Illinois. Forum News political reporter Don Davis reports in Three Illinois men accused in Minnesota mosque bombing:

Federal officials in Illinois say they have arrested three men they think bombed a Bloomington mosque last summer. Law enforcement officers arrested the trio Tuesday morning, March 13, in east-central Illinois. While they were arrested on a charge of possessing a machine gun, a criminal complaint filed In U.S. District Court indicated authorities obtained evidence that they were responsible for bombing the Bloomington mosque last Aug. 5. Arrested were Michael B. Hari, 47; Joe Morris, 22; and Michael McWhorter, 29. The three are suspected in the Bloomington crime and also the attempted bombing of an abortion clinic in Champaign, Ill., on Nov. 7, 2017, among other crimes. Also arrested on the machine gun charge was Ellis Mack, 18, of Clarence, but court documents do not indicate he was suspected in the Bloomington bombing. Court documents filed by an FBI agent indicate that McWhorter "admitted to his participation in the bombing of the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center" in Bloomington. McWhorter, Hari and Morris drove from Illinois to the Twin Cities in a rented pickup truck, the document says. Hari was the driver, Morris smashed a mosque window and McWhorter threw a bomb through the broken window, the court filing indicated. McWhorter, who said it was Hari's idea to bomb the mosque, said "they did not indent to kill anyone, but they wanted to 'scare them out of the country' (referring to Muslims), because they push their beliefs on everyone else," the court document said. The bombing would "show them, they you're not welcome here," he added. However, the Twin Cities community showed compassion and came to the aid of those who worshiped in the mosque. . . .

Well, not everyone.

UPDATE: We'd missed this tweet by DFL Communications staffer Wilhelm Davis o his collection of other doubters (h/t J. Patrick Coolican in the Strib's Morning Hot Dish}:

Hey local republicans, I have plenty of screenshots of your tweets, articles and Facebook posts accusing the Muslims of Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center of bombing themselves. #mngop #mnleg  Wilhelm Davis (@WilhelmDavis) March 13, 2018

Coolican writes:

3 Illinois men arrested in Bloomington mosque bombing: Montemayor. Seems like some impressive investigative work by the FBI. DFL comms guy Wilhelm Davis collected all the claims by local conservative writers, radio hosts and Republican activists that the bombing was a "hoax" or a "false flag" back when it happened. No doubt apologies are forthcoming.

Photo: The incendiary device tossed into the Dar Al Farooq Center in Bloomington primarily struck the office of the mosque's imam. Damaged in the blast was the desk where the religious leader prepares for prayers in the morning. Shrapnel lodged in the side of the desk, the wall behind it and the ceiling above it. Kristi Belcamino / St. Paul Pioneer Press via West Central Tribune.

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A file photo.

MUMBAI (PTI): US aviation major Boeing and TAL Manufacturing Solutions (TAL), a Tata group company, on Wednesday signed a new contract to manufacture advanced composite floor beams for Boeing's 787-9/10 Dreamliners at the latter's dedicated facility in Nagpur.



Boeing and various Tata group companies are already manufacturing aerostructures for the aircraft maker's commercial and military planes.



Boeing had awarded the first contract to TAL for the floor beams in October 2011.



"This new contract for ACF beams for the B 787-9 and 787-10 planes is a reaffirmation of our commitment to India," Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar said, adding, "Boeing has provided advanced technology to support this partnership, and closely worked with TAL."



TAL recently delivered the 13,000th floor beam to 787 fuselage suppliers from its Mihan SEZ-based manufacturing facility for Boeing in Nagpur, the release added.



According to Tata Sons president for infrastructure, defence and aerospace Banmali Agrawala, the collaboration between Boeing and several Tata group companies on various aerospace and defence programmes will drive synergies and create future opportunities for both the companies in manufacturing and innovation.



Tata Boeing Aerospace recently inaugurated its state-of-the-art Apache fuselage facility in Hyderabad.

20KA special criminal justice reform panel focused on Meek Mill's current imprisonment took place in the rapper's hometown of Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Philly.com reports that during the event Meek's mother, Kathy Williams, pleaded to District Attorney Larry Krasner to help her son find victory in his legal case.

"I'm begging the D.A. Krasner. Can you please help me out?" she said.

Williams also criticized Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley, who sentenced Meek in November to two to four years for probation violations, and denied his request for bail in December.

"I don't even understand how he's been on probation for that many years," she said.

"It's like he murdered somebody. [Meek] has to beg to see his son. What kind of woman does that? Is she a mother? Do [sic] she have a mother?"

As previously noted, Meek's lawyers started a legal campaign in November to have Judge Brinkley removed from the recording artist's case.

They claim she imposed a harsher-than-usual sentence on the rapper, even though the prosecutor hadn't requested jail time, and that she "repeatedly offered inappropriate personal and professional advice" to Meek, "both on and off the record."

At the event, Meek himself telephoned from prison, and said, "I want to be a light for Philadelphia."

The event, titled "REFORM: Bringing Injustice to Light," took place at the University of Pennsylvania's Irving Auditorium.

Reverend Al Sharpton, Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and Meek's attorney Joe Tacopina were also among those in attendance.

Meek Mill is currently incarcerated at the Chester State Correctional Institution outside the city.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Fire fighters are tackling a serious fire at Chandler Building Supplies' Brighton branch.

Ten appliances, plus two aerial ladders and a water bowser, are currently at the scene, and police have closed nearby roads.

East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service was alerted at 8.44am, after the fire started in a store room at the builders merchant on Basin Road, North Portslade. According to the ESFRS, the building is well alight and creating large volumes of smoke.

There is no information at the moment about the cause of the fire.

ESFRS has advised nearby residents to close their windows, and for people to avoid the area. Brighton and Hove Police have closed surrounding roads and are advising motorists to take alternative routes.

Six fire appliances responded initially from Hove, Shoreham, Roedean and Newhaven, along with a further two from Preston Circus.

A further two appliances have now been dispatched from Lewes and Newhaven, along with two aerial ladder platforms from Preston Circus and Worthing and a water carrier, said an ESFRS spokesman.A portfolio of 10 wind turbines across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland are to be marketed for sale by administrators following the collapse of the company that owned them. Edinburgh-headquartered Future Renewables Eco (FRE) entered administration earlier this week, appointing Interpath Advisory to handle the process. FRE was established in 2015, with funding coming largely from 24 ...continue readingDear Reader,

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Digital EditorThe five-decade-old mining in Goa is staring at another bout of uncertainty as the Supreme Court order on closure of iron ore extraction activity in the state comes into effect on Thursday night.

Goa agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai had on Wednesday said that the state would face the "biggest" crisis from Thursday, when the mining ban comes into force.

The mining and tourism industries are the key revenue earners for the coastal state.

A cabinet committee had on Wednesday decided to urge Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, currently in the US for medical treatment, to file a review petition in the apex court as a last-ditch effort to save the and its stakeholders.

The state government fears that the sudden stoppage of extraction of fresh ore would result in 0.2 million people, working at mining sites on different assignments, losing their jobs.

The government, meanwhile, has drawn a comprehensive plan under which mine owners will stop the extraction of ore from tonight while machineries will be moved out from the sites later.

The Supreme Court (SC) had last month quashed the second renewal of iron ore mining leases given to 88 in Goa in 2015.

The apex court said it was giving time till March 15 to mining lease holders, 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 had said.

People dependent on this are worried as it appears there are no signs of resumption of mining activity in the near future.

This is the second big blow to the industry, which had faced closure in 2012 also following the SC directives.

The court had then taken cognisance of the M B Shah commission report, which claimed there was illegal mining worth Rs 350 billion in the state between 2005 and 2012.

The industry remained shut for nearly 19 months from October 2012 to April 2014, when the apex court finally allowed miners to operate while imposing several riders.

The restriction of extracting only 20 million metric tonnes of ore annually was also imposed on the industry, which had the capacity to tap double the ore, before the court ban on it in 2012.

After lifting of the ban, it took another 18 months for the industry to actually start the work as the first fresh extraction took place in October 2015.

The industry could not come to its full glory after resumption as during the fiscal 2015-16, just about 7.2 million metric tonnes of the ore was extracted.

Besides, a total of 37.11 million metric tonnes ore has been extracted from the time the ban was lifted till date, bringing in a revenue of Rs 12.43 billion, as per figures of the mines and geology department.

"The main reason why the industry could not pick up speed is the lack of demand from markets like China, which was a traditional buyer of the ore from Goa. The ore produced in the state is of low grade and it has no value in the international market," said Haresh Melwani, a mine owner and member of the Goa Mining Association.

Even after the ban was lifted, the industry was reeling under crisis due to several reasons, including taxation on the product, he said.

The shutting down of the mining industry now is expected to have an economic impact on Goa.

"The overall economy of the state will slow down. The impact is going to be huge. People living in the mining belt are in a state of panic. Their livelihood would be lost," Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party's MLA from Sanvordem constituency Deepak Pauskar said.

The Sanvordem constituency is predominantly a mining belt.

The state government has been trying to work out a solution to resolve the crisis but there may not be an immediate relief available for the people, he said.At least 60 Naxals led by local commanders are suspected to have been involved in the deadly attack on a contingent of the CRPF in Chhattisgarh's district yesterday, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.

Nine CRPF personnel were killed and two others wounded after Maoists blasted their mine-protected vehicle (MPV) using over 50 kg of explosives in the Kistaram area of the Maoist-hit district, around 500 km from the capital Raipur.

"We have received inputs that the Kistaram area committee of Maoists was involved in the attack on CRPF personnel. Some local commanders were leading the Maoist squad," Special Director General (Anti-Naxal Operations) D M Awasthi told PTI.

Four automatic weapons of CRPF jawans were reported to be missing from the attack site, he said.

Awasthi, along with Senior Security Advisor in Union Ministry of Home Affairs K Vijay Kumar and CRPF Director General Rajveev Rai Bhatnagar today visited the Palodi camp of security forces in and took stock of the situation.

According to ground inputs, at least 60 Naxals had gathered to execute the attack. They first triggered a blast targeting the MPV and then started firing, he said.

A road opening party of the state's Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG), which was patrolling on the same route in view of visit of SP Abhishek Meena, immediately launched retaliatory action after hearing the sound of the explosion, Awasthi said.

In the meantime, personnel of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), a unit of the CRPF, also reached there and countered the rebels, the IPS officer said.

The distance between Kistaram and Palodi is around 5 km and the strike took place half way mark where camps of security forces are located. Therefore, reinforcement was rushed to the spot from both directions, he said.

Security personnel travelling in the blast-hit MPV were carrying eight automatic rifles, of which four were recovered after the attack, while the rest are missing, Awasthi said.

The attack took place around 12:30 pm along the 5 km under-construction Kistaram-Palodi road when the troops of the 212th battalion of the CRPF were out for an operation, said officials yesterday.

(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.)Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said that he had received complaints about an alleged leak of CBSE's Class 12 Accountancy paper.



According to the media reports, the question paper was making rounds on Whatsapp on Thursday morning. The same set of paper was received by the ministry and was checked. It has been confirmed that it was the same set-II.

He also said that he has directed officers of the Directorate of Education to lodge a complaint with the examination board.



"Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE. Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to negligence of CBSE," Sisodia said on Twitter.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) officials were not immediately available for comment.A BJP leader escaped a militant attack in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, but his personal security officer (PSO) was injured in the incident, the police said.

Militants fired upon Anwar Khan, a BJP leader, at Balhama in Pulwama district, a police official said.

While Khan escaped the attack unhurt, his PSO, constable Bilal Ahmad, was injured in the incident, he added.

The injured policeman was rushed to a hospital, where his condition was stated to be stable, the official said.

Security forces had launched a search operation in the areas around the scene of attack on the BJP leader, he added.

"Following the leads from the Khunmoh (Balhama) incident, security forces have cordoned the area, from where the militants opened fire," the official said.Power demand in India is looking at an uptick this summer. The country's peak demand has been 157,000 Mw this month, 15 per cent higher than in the same month last year. The northern region, especially Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, are likely to load the grid the most.

Demand grew by 13 per cent, 10 per cent and 13 per cent in UP, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, respectively, goes a report from lender IDFC. UP has become the second state in the country with 20 Gw demand, after Maharashtra. In one month, the peak power shortage has increased by more than double to 1,281 MUs due to ...The Supreme Court on Thursday extended till March 26 the interim relief granted by the Delhi High Court to from arrest in the INX Media money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The apex court also transferred to itself the matter pending before the Delhi High Court keeping in view that several high courts in the country have given conflicting views on the interpretation of section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) which relates to ED's power to arrest an accused.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it would hear the matter on March 26 and the top court would answer the question regarding the interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA.

The apex court's order came hours after the high court extended Chidambaram's protection from arrest in the ED case from March 20 to March 22.

Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, is in jail in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI.Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said that the Islamic State (IS) will not have any further impact on India.

Addressing the Fourth Counter Terrorism Conference on 'Changing Contours of Global Terror' here, Rajnath Singh said, "The on-going propaganda by IS has significantly altered jihadi discourse in India, which so far was rooted in grievances against the Indian state/society. I am, however, happy that Indian social fabric has not been affected by the emergence of Islamic State and I am sure this will not have any further impact in our ...Pakistan is not expecting improvement in relations with India due to the frequent ceasefire violations by India, Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said today, amid a fresh war of words over the alleged harassment of Pakistani diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Asif's statement comes a day after cross-border firing injured two people in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Dawn newspaper reported.

"India is violating ceasefire agreement time and again on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary. In such circumstances we are not expecting improvement in relations between the two countries," Asif was quoted as saying by state-run Radio Pakistan.

Pakistan has summonned Indian diplomats here several times this year, alleging ceasefire violations by Indian forces.

Last month, the Pakistan Foreign Office had claimed that Indian forces had committed more than 190 ceasefire violations since the start of 2018, killing 13 civilians and injuring 65 others through the use of heavy mortars and automatic weapons.

But India has made it clear to Islamabad that the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for dialogue between the two countries.

"Any meaningful dialogue can be held only in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence. Onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere. India will continue to take firm and decisive steps to respond to cross-border terrorism," Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had said in Parliament earlier this month.

Ahir said Pakistan has been asked to abide by its commitment not to allow any territory under its control to be used against India in any manner, to respect the sanctity of the International Boundary and Line of Control and to adhere to the 2003 understanding on ceasefire along the International Boundary and the LoC to maintain peace and tranquility.

Foreign Minister Asif's comments came as the Pakistan Foreign Office claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.Pakistan has called back its High Commissioner in New Delhi, Sohail Mahmood, for consultation to Islamabad over incidents of "harassing" of its Embassy's staff in the Indian capital, the Foreign Office stated on Thursday.

Speaking at his weekly press briefing, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said they will hold consultations with the High Commissioner over "recent incidents of harassing of their diplomats".

Faisal claimed that the Indian government had not taken measures to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, adding that the Pakistani government lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy High Commissioner as well as India's External Affairs Ministry.

The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said its "staff and their families had been facing harassment, intimidation and outright violence from Indian state agencies in recent weeks in New Delhi".

It claimed that its Deputy High Commissioner's car was chased and his driver was abused by a group of men in the Indian capital last week.

Responding to complaints by Islamabad, New Delhi assured last week that "India makes all efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for diplomats to work in". It added the Indian officials had also faced "harassment" last year in Pakistan but they chose to deal with it through "quiet and persistent diplomacy".The Supreme Court today asked a Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against the news portal The Wire and its journalists.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Jay Shah and others, who have filed the complaint against the scribes, to respond within two weeks to the plea filed by the journalists against the Gujarat High Court's order, refusing to quash summons issued against them by the trial court.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, observed that the media should be more responsible and said it cannot write whatever it feels about anyone.

The chief justice, while repeatedly stressing that he was not commenting on the case before it, also said that sometimes journalists write in a way that amounts to "sheer contempt of court".

"I have told many times about Freedom of Speech and Expression. We are not going to gag the media.The question of gagging the media does not arise. But the press should be more responsible," he said.

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits," the chief justice observed. "... they are writing sometimes which amounts to sheer contempt of court," he added.

The Gujarat High Court had on January 8 rejected a petition filed by the news portal, seeking quashing of a criminal defamation case filed against it by Jay Shah over an article related to his company.

The high court rejected the petition on the grounds that the article, "The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah", is per say "defamatory" and the trial court should proceed with the case.

Jay Shah had moved the lower court alleging criminal defamation by the petitioners after the article published by the website claimed his company's turnover grew exponentially after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.

After the suit was filed on October 9, 2017, the court initiated proceedings against them under CrPC's section 202 (to inquire into a case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding).

The suit has been filed against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and M K Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism. The foundation publishes The Wire.

Jay Shah has separately filed a civil defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the website over the article.

Jay Shah had rejected the charge made in the article, insisting the story was "false, derogatory and defamatory".Country's trade deficit narrowed to $12 billion in February, its lowest in five months, amid concern that a global trade war could hit its exports because of US President Donald Trump's decision to hike import taxes on steel and aluminum. Merchandise exports are expected to touch $300 billion in the current fiscal year ending this month compared with $275.8 billion, mainly driven by a rise in commodity prices and strong demand in the US and Europe. February merchandise exports were $25.8 billion while imports were $37.8 billion, Rita Teaotia, a top trade ministry ...Modi's Yogi conundrum Shekhar Gupta

No one will challenge Modi in BJP. But Yogi is emulating him, making UP a mirror image of what Gujarat was under Modi, and making sure he isn't ...The US on Wednesday challenged Indian export subsidy schemes at the World Trade Organisation, saying these programmes harm American workers by creating an "uneven" playing field, officials said.

The US Trade Representative (USTR) argued that at least half a dozen Indian programmes provide financial benefits to Indian exporters, which allow them to sell their goods more cheaply to the detriment of American workers and manufacturers.

These programs are: the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, Special Economic Zones, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme and Duty Free Imports for Exporters Programme.

"These export subsidy programmes harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field on which they must compete," said Lighthizer.

"USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing US rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO," Lighthizer said.

The announcement from Lighthizer came while Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale was on his maiden visit to the US. He was scheduled to hold meetings with the USTR.

In a statement, the USTR alleged that through these programmes, India is given exemption from certain duties, taxes, and fees which benefits numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology products, textiles, and apparel.

According to the Indian government documents, thousands of Indian companies are receiving benefits totaling to over $7 billion annually from these programs.

The USTR said export subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to recipients.

A limited exception to this rule is for specified developing countries that may continue to provide export subsidies temporarily until they reach a defined economic benchmark.

India was initially within this group, but it surpassed the benchmark in 2015. India's exemption has expired, but India has not withdrawn its export subsidies, USTR alleged.

"In fact, India has increased the size and scope of these programs," USTR charged.

For example, India introduced the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in 2015, which has rapidly expanded to include more than 8,000 eligible products, nearly double the number of products covered at its inception, it alleged.

Exports from Special Economic Zones increased over 6,000 per cent from 2000 to 2017, and in 2016, exports from Special Economic Zones accounted for over $82 billion in exports, or 30 per cent of India's export volume.

Exports from the Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, increased by over 160 per cent from 2000 to 2016, it asserted.

Noting that consultations are the first step in the WTO dispute settlement process, The USTR said if the US and India are not able to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultations, it may request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter.

The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady applauded the USTR's decision to challenge through the WTO.

"The Administration's decision to challenge India's USD7 billion worth of prohibited subsidies is a plain and unmistakable signal that we will not tolerate any failure by our trading partners to live up to their commitments at the expense of US manufacturers, service providers, farmers, and ranchers," Brady said.

"Today's action highlights the value of ensuring that our trade agreements are fully enforceable through binding dispute settlement. We must continue to hold our trading partners accountable and ensure a level playing field for American workers and businesses," he said.

"In responding to India's prohibited subsidisation of its steel industry in this manner, we prove the significance of the WTO dispute settlement process as a powerful, valuable, and appropriate tool in the administration's toolbox to address unfair practices that hurt our steel workers and companies. I join the Administration in calling on India to end its unfair trading immediately," Brady said.Telangana on Thursday presented a tax-free, revenue surplus budget for 2018-19, proposing an expenditure of Rs 1744.53 billion, an increase of 16.57 percent over the previous year.

Of this, revenue expenditure is Rs 1254.54 billion and capital expenditure Rs 333.69 billion. The capital expenditure is 19 percentage of total expenditure. This is substantially higher when compared to other states, Finance Minister Etela Rajender told the state Assembly.

The estimated revenue surplus is Rs 55.20 billion and fiscal deficit is Rs 290.77 billion. The fiscal deficit is 3.45 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

"The new State of Telangana, formed amidst adverse conditions, uncertainties, doubts and challenges, rose to a level of becoming a role model for the entire country in many aspects," he said while presenting fifth budget since formation of Telangana in 2014.

The state revenue expected to touch Rs 737.51 billion in the next financial year, an increase of 20 percent over the revises estimates of 2017-18.

Transfers from the Centre are estimated at Rs 290.41 billion, a marginal increase over Rs 268.57 billion for 2017-18.

Telangana GSDP is expected to grow at 10.4 percent during 2017-18 as compared with the national GDP growth of 6.6 per cent.

He said Telangana achieved a double-digit growth bucking the national trend, despite the adverse short term to medium term impact of demonetisation and the teething problems following the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The budget proposals indicate that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government continued its focus on agriculture and allied sectors and on the welfare of poor and weaker sections of the society.

The budget proposes Rs 120 billion as input subsidy to farmers, Rs 5 billion for crop insurance and Rs 1.67 billion for promoting micro irrigation. The government has allocated Rs 250 billion for irrigation projects.

The budget has allocated Rs 18 billion for Mission Bhagiratha, the flagship scheme of the TRS government to provide piped water to all the households.

For two bedroom housing, another flagship programme, the minister allocated Rs 26 billion.

He announced that distribution of three acres of land to landless Dalits will continue this year.

The government identified 110,000 vacancies and initiated steps to fill up 83,000 posts. It has so far filled 27,000 vacancies.

A medical devices hub would be set up at Sultanpur in Sanga Reddy district. A Mega Food Park would come up at Buggapadu in Khammam district.

Rajender claimed that under TSiPASS, a single window clearance system for industries, as many as 6,200 new units were set up, bringing Rs 1.18 trillion of investment to the stateVice President Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said, the government and the opposition should stop playing blame game over major issues such as the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case and have a constructive discussion to find where the fault lies.

"There is no meaning in finding faults...it happened during their tenure, not ours. And then they would say, it happened in your tenure," the Vice President said, at the second day of CREDAI Conclave 2018, adding that, there is no benefit of such blame games.

The issue is not "this regime or that regime", the issue is that of people losing confidence in the banking system, he said.

He further said: "I hope that the parliament functions and there is a meaningful, constructive debate, (to find out) where does the fault lies."

"The irony is, members want discussion, government wants discussion, the chair wants discussion, but discussion is not taking place," he said, pointing to the ongoing disruption in the proceedings of the parliament over the Rs 135.40-billion PNB fraud case.

For avoiding such instances in the future, the Vice President advised organisations to maintain discipline.

"The organisations must have a code of conduct... Whoever is defaulting the norms, should be kept away," he said.

Due to such instances of fraud and defaulting, he said the banking sector in the country is being questioned.

"Is there a structural failure or a system failure? Is there a collusion of people at different levels? If it is so, then why no action is taken?" the Vice President questioned.

Further speaking on the real estate sector, he said: "After a slowdown in the market, the realty sector is showing signs of revival which is good for the economy."

The RERA and GST have been introduced to strengthened the market by increasing transparency and creating confidence among customers.

However, raising concern over high prices of land, Naidu said: "The prices of land in Vijaywada, Hyderabad... are equivalent to prices in New york and Washington, how can anybody justify (that)?"

The cost of unit is going up not because of the construction, but because of the land, and land is held by middlemen, he said, adding that, there needs to be a correction in prices of land.

Previously, Naidu had served as the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Urban Development during 2014-2017.Saudi Arabia will develop a nuclear bomb if its arch-rival Iran does so, the kingdom's 32-year-old crown prince said in a preview of a television interview released on Thursday. "Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in an interview that will air on Sunday. The kingdom, locked in a tussle for influence with Iran across the Middle East and beyond, is stepping up plans to develop a nuclear energy capability as part of a ...After tumbling 13 per cent and 14 per cent respectively when the frontline index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was at its peak level of 36,283 on January 29, 2018, the mid-and small-cap indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) have staged a partial recovery.

Both indices moved up for the fourth straight session this week with a gain of 2.7% and 2.5% respectively, as compared to 1.4% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. On a year-to-date basis, however, they still remain underperformers with a fall of eight per cent, as compared to less than one per cent fall in the S&P BSE Sensex. Markets can dip ...One of the most versatile actors of Bollywood, Alia Bhatt turns 25 today.

B-town celebs took to social media to wish the 'Dear Zindagi' star on her special day.

Filmmaker and Alia's father, Mahesh Bhatt posted a nostalgic photograph and captioned it as, "Such a BIG miracle in such a LITTLE girl ! Happy birthday Alia"

Such a BIG miracle in such a LITTLE girl ! ??????????????????????Happy birthday Alia ?????????? pic.twitter.com/oL6GQ4EqZ5  Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) March 15, 2018

Karan Johar, the one who had launched Alia Bhatt in Bollywood with his 2012 film 'Student Of The Year', shared some of the actor's looks from the upcoming highly anticipated film 'Raazi'.

"Happy birthday fellow fishie!!! @aliaa08 Wish you endless peace, harmony, & all things wonderful. May all your dreams come true!," wrote Shraddha Kapoor.

Happy birthday fellow fishie!!! @aliaa08 Wish you endless peace, harmony, & all things wonderful. May all your dreams come true! ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ??  Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) March 15, 2018

Powerhouse performer Alia Bhatt is ringing in her 25th birthday in Bulgaria where she is shooting for Ayan Mukerji's 'Brahmastra', which also stars Ranbir Kapoor.

She will also feature in Zoya Akhtar's 'Gully Boy' along with Ranveer Singh.

Born on March 15, 1993 in Mumbai to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan, Alia is best known for her roles in films like 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania', 'Highway', 'Udta Punjab', 'Dear Zindagi'.

'Highway' won her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and 'Udta Punjab' won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Iran on cooperation in the field of Health and Medicine.

The MoU was signed on February 17 during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to India

The MoU will encourage cooperation between the two countries and strengthen bilateral ties between them.

The MoU covers the following areas of cooperation:-

-Exchange experience in training of medical doctors and other health professionals.

-Assistance in development of human resources and setting up of healthcare facilities.

-Regulation of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics and exchange of information thereon.

-Cooperation in the field of medical research, new technologies and knowledge-based initiatives.

-Public health, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and cooperation in international health.

-Any other area of cooperation as may be mutually decided upon.

-A Working Group will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of this MoU.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hyderabad Police has arrested a notorious inter-state dacoit gang leader in connection with the Charminar robbery case.

Gold ornaments worth Rs 6 lakh have been seized from the 41-year-old, while other gang members are still absconding.

According to Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, the dacoit gang leader, Amjad Khwaja Ameen Shaik alias Amja, from Thane, Mumbai was involved in more than 40 cases.

On March 6, a gang barged into a goldsmith's workshop in Petlaburj near Charminar and fled with about five kilos of gold.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the Congress never wanted to create a special railway zone in Andhra Pradesh.

Goyal said this in a press conference when he was asked about the government's stand on the special railway zone in Vishakhapatnam.

"As per the AP Reorganisation Act, then ruling Congress party had not provided for the establishment of a zone. What it had only written was that the government will examine the feasibility of setting up a zone with its headquarters in Visakhapatnam," Goyal said.

The Union Minister said he wanted to remind people of Andhra Pradesh that the Congress never promised to create a railway zone in their state.

"Certain Congress leaders are politicising the issue. They are trying to make a virtue out of their own fallacy. If they (Congress) genuinely wanted to create a zone then they should have provided in the AP Reorganisation Act," Goyal said.

He blamed the Congress for not creating the special railway zone when it was in power.

"I squarely blame the Congress party for not having created a railway zone when they were in the government, or not even having provided in the AP Reorganising Act that a railway zone shall be created ," the Union Railway Minister said.

He, however, added that the matter is under the consideration of the Railway Ministry.

"The matter is under examination and an appropriate decision will be taken after considering all operational, technical, and financial implications of creating such a zone as per the norms of the railways," Goyal said.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N Raghuveera Reddy said last month that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Congress party had promised as many as 12 Central government projects, including railway zone for Visakhapatnam, steel plant in Kadapa, construction of Dugarajapatnam Port and special package for development of the backward districts in Rayalaseema and north Andhra.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Expressing its grave concern over the current political crisis in The Maldives, the European Parliament, through a resolution, has called upon the Governments of India and China to work with countries in the European Union (EU) to help deliver political and democratic stability in the crisis-ridden archipelago.

In a 16-point resolution introduced and passed unanimously earlier this week, the EU Parliament called on the EU "to make full use of all instruments at its disposal to promote respect for human rights and democratic principles in the Maldives, including, possibly, the suspension of EU financial assistance to the country pending the resumption of the rule of law and abidance by democratic principles."

The resolution said there was a need for introducing targeted measures and sanctions against those in the country undermining human rights, and to freeze the assets abroad of, and impose travel bans on, certain members of the Maldivian Government and their leading supporters in the Maldivian business community.

It further called on the Government of The Maldives to carry out "a far-reaching reform of the judiciary, to establish the impartiality of the Judicial Service Commission, to re-establish the independence of the Prosecutor General, and to respect due process of law and the right to a fair, impartial and independent trial."

The resolution also recognized that, under the Constitution, "elections must be held in 2018", and stressed that "immediate action should be taken to ensure that these elections are transparent and credible; that voters are given a genuine choice and that parties are able to campaign freely."

Expressing deep concern over the serious and deteriorating political and human rights situation in The Maldives, and the increasingly authoritarian rule of President Yameen and his Government, the EU Parliament, according to its resolution published by the website www.europarl.europa.eu, called on The Maldives "to lift the state of emergency immediately, to respect the institutions and their competencies as provided for in the Constitution, and to respect the fundamental rights of all people, including the right to freedom of expression and assembly, as well as the rule of law; expresses its growing concern over the recent actions of the government, which seriously damage and undermine democracy, and run counter to the Maldives' Constitution and the country's international human rights obligations."

It also condemned the "continued intimidation of, and threats against, journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders in the Maldives", and urged the Maldivian authorities to guarantee the safety of all civil society activists, human rights defenders and media workers in the country.

It also deplored the crackdown on political opponents in The Maldives, and called on the government to drop all charges against all those being held for political reasons and release them immediately and unconditionally.

It said it is very concerned over the increasing breakdown of the principle of separation of the executive, judicial and other powers in The Maldives, and called on "responsible authorities to take immediate steps to restore and uphold the principles enshrined in its Constitution."

It said that the Maldivian Government must engage in an inclusive dialogue with leaders of all political parties to pave the way for credible, transparent and inclusive elections. It called on the EU to also actively continue to support UN facilitation for and of such a dialogue.

The EU Parliament said that it "Believes that the only way to reverse the deterioration in democracy, human rights and freedoms in The Maldives is through a process of genuine dialogue, involving all political parties and other civic leaders."

"It further believes that, as a first step towards reconciliation, the government must release all opposition politicians currently held in jail, and reiterated the "EU's firm opposition to the death penalty, in all cases and without exception; strongly condemns the announcement of the reintroduction of the death penalty in the Maldives, and urges the government and parliament of the Maldives to respect the moratorium on the death penalty that has been in place for more than 60 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the use of a nerve agent in an attack in Britain on a former Russian spy and branded it as "unacceptable."

"The use of nerve agents as a weapon under any circumstances is unacceptable and its use by a state will constitute a serious violation of international law," China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing UN spokesman Farhan Haq as saying in a press briefing.

"While the secretary-general is not in a position to attribute responsibility, he strongly condemns the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hopes the incident will be thoroughly investigated," Haq told reporters.

The comments reportedly came before an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called at Britain's request to discuss the attack that left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.

Retired military intelligence officer Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre on March 4.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday stated that it was "highly likely" Russia was to blame for the attack.

In a strongly worded statement to the House of Commons, May said the "military grade" nerve agent used in the attack had been identified as Novichok, a substance developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning.

The Guardian quoted May as saying, "23 Russian diplomats will be expelled. They have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers. It will be the largest expulsion for 30 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Wednesday slammed Russia over the poison attack that left a former Russian double agent and his daughter comatose on a park bench last week.

"The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent," CNN reported, quoting Haley, as saying.

"If we don't take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used," Haley added,"They could be used here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this council."

Haley made her remarks at a UN Security Council emergency session.

Earlier on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump backed the British Government's theory which holds Russia responsible for the poison attack on the former Russian double agent.

"It sounds to me like it would be Russia, based on all the evidence they have. It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact," Trump told reporters outside the White House.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday stated that it was "highly likely" Russia was to blame for the attack.

In a strongly worded statement to the House of Commons, May said the "military grade" nerve agent used in the attack had been identified as Novichok, a substance developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Dismissing May's comments Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, told CNN, "This is a circus show in the British Parliament. The conclusion is obvious."

Furthermore, Russia has dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack against Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, according to the report.

Retired military intelligence officer Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre on March 4.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Over 1500 photographers from 9 countries and 80+ cities are coming to be a part of one of Asia's biggest photography conventions called PEP with 2 conferences, first of which is called PEPx, aimed at photography enthusiasts looking to turn professional and lovers of photography and PEP Summit, a unique learning conference for professional wedding photographers.

Slated to be a definitive event for both photography enthusiasts and professional photographers alike, PEP will bring together over 20 world renowned photographers and creative professionals to take the audience through the art, business, craft and experience of photography and aims to inspire them to be better at creativity and life.

Over the four days, the conference will explore topics in depth, ranging from strengthening the mind as a creative professional, how to develop your vision as a photographer, photojournalism, understanding aspects of the various genres of photography, the of photography to understanding the technical aspects of photography from lighting, lenses, framing, posing and more. The key fabric throughout the highly interactive summit being learning and inspiration.

Speakers include an enviable list of creative professionals and professional photographers from across the world with decades of experience in photography such as Ira Block, one of Nat Geo's most reputed photographers, TwoMann studios, one of the most awarded wedding photographers globally, Brendan De Clercq, Europe's famous celebrity photographer, Dheeraj Paul, India's leading people and travel photographer, Rafique Sayed, India's leading fashion and advertising photographer, Joseph Radhik, one of Asia's most influential wedding photographers, Diinesh Kumble, one of India's top wildlife photographers, Auditya Venkatesh, one of 20 top photographers on the web, globally and many more such stalwarts.

The conference will also have Masaba Gupta, renowned Indian fashion designer, comedian Sapan Varma, writer and leader Abhijit Bhaduri (ex HR head at Wipro, Microsoft) to talk about creativity and inspiration.

"Whatever I have learned and continue to learn as a photographer, has been by following, obsessing and being inspired by the works of great artists from around the world. Our aim was to create a platform that bridges the gap of learning and sharing with photographers and all curious learners, providing an access to the global greats to learn from, to build their art and to just be inspired to do more. My personal goal from PEP is to bring in the world's greatest photographers, whether they be from India or abroad to interface with the Indian photography community in a way that's useful, meaningful and effective," said Joseph Radhik, Photographer.

"Photography today is a serious career option for many. Just as the popularity of photography increases, being a good photographer alone isn't enough; you also need to fulfil the rigour and demands of being a good entrepreneur. Having experienced the challenges and loneliness of running a successful photography ourselves, we understand this well. In a person's journey to choose this path, we want to be able to give them a platform that helps them understand the joys as well as challenges of choosing this as a career option. In addition, if they take the plunge to be a full-time photographer, PEP is striving to build a community that helps them to collaborate, learn and be mentored by the best, in the right direction not just as a photographer but also as a businessman as well," said Co-founder Joshua Karthik.

"Our vision is to touch as many photographers, whatever be the stage of their journey, be it a lover of photography as an art form, considering photography as a career option or pursuing photography as a full time business. Last year when we held PEP Summit for the first time we realised that, while we are working to help the professionals, there also needs to be a format for the photography enthusiast to come and learn from people and companies from different walks of photography life. A few of these will hopefully be inspired enough to take up photography professionally. A few more will look at it as investing more time in their hobby. And yet more would look at it as a chance to meet like-minded people, learn and interact from, and with, them," said Arjun Rajan, the CEO (also one of the 3 co-founders) of PEP.

The PEP community is unique in its idea because it brings together the photographer community to become "stronger together". It aims to provide a platform to connect, inspire, mentor and collaborate to raise the bar and collectively better the entire photography industry. It also aims to inspire and build the community of photography enthusiasts who are serious about the hobby photography and may be looking to build it as a serious career option in the future.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Fans have taken to Twitter to demand posthumous Nobel Prize for the Theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, who died peacefully on Wednesday, March 14.

After the news of Hawking's death broke the internet, a fan shared a picture of the scientist and wrote, "R.I.P. Stephen Hawking. #StephenHawking. Posthumous Nobel. It's time".

One fan tweeted, "Could not be more true - maybe just name a prize for him as well - a mind that could see time and space in a new way and remain connected enough and caring enough to try and explain it to the rest of us. We were lucky to have met him .."

Another fan wrote, "He doesn't need a posthumous award. The inscription on the tomb of Sur Christopher Wren would be a perfect citation for the achievement of Professor Hawking. LECTOR SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE".

While the late Stephen Hawking has always been regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in the science, the renowned physicist was eluded by arguably the world's most prestigious award, the Nobel Prize, his entire career.

In 1963, Professor Hawking contracted a motor neuron disease that gradually paralysed him over the decades. He was still able to communicate using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device.

He was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, a fundamental theory in physics which describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles.

Professor Hawking is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

In 2002, he was ranked 25th in the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) poll of the '100 Greatest Britons.'

His book - 'A Brief History of Time', a popular- book on cosmology, had appeared on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks in the 2000s.

The British physicist was also the subject of the 2014 film 'The Theory Of Everything', which starred British actors Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones respectively.

A family spokesperson of Professor Hawking on Wednesday announced his death earlier on Wednesday.

Professor Hawking's children in a statement described him as a great scientist and an extraordinary man, whose work and legacy will live on for many years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)World number one Roger Federer cemented his spot in the quarter-finals of the Indian Wells Masters after brushing aside France's Jeremy Chardy in straight sets in the fourth round of the tournament here on Thursday.

The defending champion was almost untouchable on serve as he won 90 percent of his service points, including 100 percent of his first-serve points .

Federer eventually pushed his way past Chardy 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth-round clash of the men's singles event that lasted one hour and 22 minutes at the packed Stadium One.

It should be noted that it was only the fifth time that Federer has won a match without losing a first-serve point.

The Swiss star can now equal his season-best start of 16-0 with a win in the quarter-final, where he will lock with Chung Hyeon of South Korea for a place in the last-four.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Several people were killed after a newly-installed pedestrian bridge collapsed at the Florida University in Miami.

The CNN quoted a spokesman with the Florida Highway Patrol as saying that multiple people died as a result of a pedestrian bridge collapse at the university.

Aerial footage of the scene showed that several cars were crushed underneath the bridge. Fire trucks, police and other emergency vehicles were seen at the spot to rescue people trapped underneath the fallen bridge.

One of the students posted on Twitter, "my school finished putting up a bridge a few days ago and it literally just fell. my roommate and i heard it from our rooms and ran to the balcony."

Reportedly, the bridge was installed on Saturday.

(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.)Global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services Infosys on Thursday announced that it will open its next Technology and Innovation Hub in Hartford, Connecticut and hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2022.

The Connecticut Technology and Innovation Hub will have a special focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing.

It will bring Infosys closer to its Connecticut clients and serve as the global hub for Infosys' InsurTech and HealthTech efforts.

Infosys' investment in Connecticut is a continuation of the company's commitment to accelerate innovation for American enterprise by amplifying top local talent with the best global talent and shrink the IT skills gap in the marketplace.

"Today marks yet another landmark day in Connecticut's economic development efforts, at a time when our investments are bringing new life and vigor to our capital city," governor Dannel P. Malloy said.

"I am thrilled to welcome Infosys to Connecticut and congratulate them on their decision to establish a Technology and Innovation Hub in Hartford. Connecticut's tremendous assets and talent pipeline continue to attract high caliber companies to the state, and I look forward to the value that Infosys will bring to our community," he added.

"We are excited to announce the expansion of our presence in Connecticut and to create 1,000 technology jobs in the state," president, Infosys, Ravi Kumar said.

"This investment will further strengthen our ability to serve clients' needs throughout the new England region and expand the local workforce to help our clients compete in the rapidly digitizing insurance, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. Hartford's position as the insurance capital of the world, paired with Connecticut's world-renowned academic institutions, will place Infosys in close proximity to valued clients and accelerate the recruitment of highly-skilled local talent," Kumar added.

The hub will include insurance and healthcare labs that focus on smart underwriting, claims fraud, IoT and Cloud, and will employ cutting-edge data security and data-sharing features to help Infosys clients comply with all applicable privacy laws while promoting innovation.

Infosys will also leverage the hub to train its employees and develop pioneering techniques with agile, development operations, cloud and information security projects.

"Connecticut is a hub for health care innovation, and these capabilities are a key part of Cigna's global growth strategy," said EVP and global chief information officer at Cigna, Mark Boxer.

"We are continuously looking at technology-led innovation to simplify the healthcare experience for consumers and improve our engagement and alignment with healthcare providers, employers, and other stakeholders. We are pleased that Infosys has chosen to plant a flag here in Connecticut, and proud that we had a role in advancing employment in the region. We look forward to working with them as part of our technology journey," Boxer added.

"Stanley Black & Decker is excited to welcome Infosys to Hartford and Connecticut," said president and CEO, Stanley Black & Decker's, Jim Loree.

"This is a great win for the state. With Infosys' expanded presence and focus on attracting and training top local talent, Infosys will strengthen Connecticut's innovation ecosystem and help to develop the technology workforce of the future," Loree added.

Infosys inaugurated its first Technology and Innovation Hub in Indianapolis, Indiana and has already announced a Technology and Innovation Hub in Raleigh, North Carolina and a Design and Innovation Hub in Providence, Rhode Island.

As part of Infosys' commitment to boosting American innovation and helping to create the workforce of the future, Infosys Foundation USA has provided multiple grants for classroom technology and computer science training to teachers and schools.

To date, more than 4.7 million students; 13,000 teachers and 21,000 schools across America, including over 3,500 students, 35 teachers and 24 schools in Connecticut, have benefited from computer science training and classroom equipment funded by Infosys Foundation USA.

This includes grants for professional development for teachers, hands on workshops for students, and new technology and teaching aids for classrooms, with an emphasis placed on serving underrepresented groups such as women, African-American, Latino, urban, rural and autistic groups that will gain greater access to computer science and maker education.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court on Thursday gave interim protection to Karti Chidambaram from arrest in connection with the INX Media case.

He now cannot be arrested until March 26 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The Thursday order was regarding the ED case pending in Delhi High Court in relation with the adjudication of the probe agency's power to arrest Karti Chidambaram under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The extension comes as a relief to Karti after the probe agency on March 13 moved the apex court against the high court order, which had granted him relief.

Karti, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED for his alleged role in the INX Media case.

He is in judicial custody till March 24.

The high court on March 9 restrained the ED from arresting Karti Chidambaram till March 20 after he claimed the probe agency could not conduct the investigation without registering a formal case.

Karti Chidambaram and his father have dismissed the case as a political vendetta. The CBI and ED said Karti Chidambaram helped the INX Media Ltd get around foreign investment regulations in return for a bribe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kerala on Wednesday gave its nod for drafting the bill which will see a hike in the salaries and allowances of ministers, MLAs and former legislators.

According to reports, the ministers and MLAs in Kerala will see their salaries going up from Rs 55,012 to Rs 90,000 and from Rs 39,500 to Rs 70,000, respectively.

The travel allowance of ministers has been increased from Rs 10 to Rs 15 per km. However, fuel price will have to be borne by the ministers.

The bill is expected to be tabled in the assembly on March 20.

There are reports that the commission had proposed to increase the salary of ministers to Rs 1.37 lakh. However, the government fixed it as Rs 90,000.

In the case of legislators, the recommendation was to increase the salary along with allowances to Rs 92,000.

"The salaries of MLAs should have been hiked to at least Rs 90,000," said a legislator from the ruling front.

He further added, "Now, including travel allowance, the legislators are drawing only around Rs 39,000. The total allowances differ for MLAs from south Kerala and north Kerala as the TA is different for both.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested two directors of a city based private company in an on-going investigation of yet another bank fraud to the tune of Rs.515.15 crore.

It was alleged that the directors and vice president (Finance) of RP Info System cheated a consortium of 10 banks, such as Canara Bank, State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank committed bank fraud in criminal conspiracy with unknown bank officials by availing Bank funds on the basis of false & fabricated Stock/Receivables/Debtors Statements, forged Drawing Power letter.

It was further alleged that Letters of Credit (LC) opened by different member Banks of the Consortium on the applications of said private company started devolving from 2012 onwards due to non-maintenance of funds.

The said borrower company fraudulently did not route the sale proceeds through the loan account and allegedly siphoned off the entire amount. The said borrower company also inflated its receivables. Some of the purported Debtors had informed SBI that they had no dealings with the said private company.

The Debtors list submitted by the accused persons to the lending banks was false and fabricated. It was also alleged that the suspected companies shown as debtors had not purchased any computers or accessories from the accused company, although payment from them was shown as due.

The said accused persons also got opened LCs in the names of some fake supplier companies showing falsely that the accused company procured computer hardware & accessories from them for business.

A case has been registered on February 27 Under sections 120B, 420, 468, 471 of Indian Penal Code and Sections 13(2)of (Prevention of Corruption)PC Act, 1988.

Both the arrested will be produced in the Designated Court on March 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nine people. including five policemen, were killed in a suicide attack that took place at a police check post near a religious gathering at Raiwand on Wednesday.

As per certain rescue officials, the attack took place near the residence of Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

20 others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at Nisar Police check-post near the Tableeghi, as reported by the Dawn.

According to Director in General of Police Dr Haider Ashraf, the bomber arrived with an intention to blow up a bi-annual religious congregation underway at Tableeghi Markaz, but was stopped by a police from entering the venue of the congregation.

"It was at around 9:20pm when a teenage boy approached the police personnel. When a policeman tried to stop him, he blew himself up injuring all of the 12 police personnel present there," the Dawn quoted Ashraf as saying.

He further informed that among the deceased, two were sub-inspectors who later succumbed to their injuries. He suspected that the attacker wanted to target the check-post set up to provide security to the attendees of the congregation.

Those injured, including an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) and two station house officers, are still in a critical condition and being treated at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital at Raiwind and the Sharif Medical Hospital.

An injured constable, Abid Hussain, told journalists that he had been deputed at the entry point of the check-post to frisk those passing through the area.

"I saw a young boy who was trying to enter [the venue] and as soon as my colleague stopped him, I heard a powerful blast," Hussain told the Dawn, adding that he had lost consciousness after that and came to to his senses at a hospital.

Following the tragic incident, senior police officers, including Punjab IGP Capt (retired) Arif Nawaz and Capital City Police Officer Amin Wains, visited the site.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the blast so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The remaining cadres of the Garo Liberation Army (GNLA) surrendered before the Meghalaya government on Thursday.

This is being seen as a major step towards ending militancy in Meghalaya and the North East.

Concerted efforts by both the Centre and the state government, the rebel groups, community leaders, coupled with policy changes at various levels, including the strengthening of the law with a zero-tolerance policy towards militancy, brought the militants to the negotiating table, which is finally beginning to show positive results.

"The surrender of the last batch of GNLA militants, just when a new government has assumed office means we are beginning on a positive note, which is good news for everyone", said James Sangma, Meghalaya Home Minister.

The home minister thanked the people of the Garo Hills, West Khasi Hills and South-West Khasi Hills, the church leaders, civil society organisations, the police and government departments who worked hard and in harmony to bring peace to the state.

The surrendered militants handed over 2 AK 56 rifles, an INSAS rifle, a foreign made Glock pistol, one semi machine gun (SMG), a .303 rifle, a 9 mm pistol and a large quantity of ammunition to the authorities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cutting across all religions, caste and creed a multi-cultural event was organized in Kwatha village of Manipur in order to celebrate the country's diversity.

Ministry of Culture took an initiative to organise border area program at Kwatha village in Moreh aiming at uniting and promoting the rich cultural diversity of the country and to break the ice between mainland India and the northeast region.

Held under the aegis of North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC) in collaboration with Village Authority and 12th Assam Rifles, Kwatha, the event brought to light various artists who showcased the arts reflecting culture and traditions of their origin states in the form of folk dance and music.

Traditional folk dance, tribal songs, tribal arts and crafts remained the major attraction of the program.

"We are implementing the border area program to reach out to the people who are living in the international border town and to bring artists from mainland India and from other parts of northeast to showcase the rich cultural diversity of India, and we have implemented this because there are programs which we use to implement only at some district headquarters or some cities. But now the government of India has instructed us that we reach out and interact with the people residing in the remotest of places from all over India," said NEZCC Programme Officer, Oliver.

From 'Garba' folk dance of Gujarat to 'Kalbeliya' dance of Rajasthan, 'Bihu' dance of Assam and various tribal songs and dance stole the show as young artists clad in their colourful traditional clothes and immaculate accessories mesmerized the crowd by their performances.

It was a delightful experience for the villagers of the Kwatha village as they could witness the vibrant extravaganza of various cultures getting united with the spirit of oneness and brotherhood.

"We are delighted to be here and we are frequently visiting the hilly areas to perform. People are getting united here and the experience is really good for my entire group," said artist from Assam, Anupama das.

The event provided an opportunity to the people from the remotest corner of the northeast region to interact with the people from several other states and exchange their ideas and explore more about each other's culture.

More than 150 local artists from states like Kerala, Haryana, Gujarat, northeast states of Assam, Manipur etc participated in the program.

"To keep up the culture and tradition of Gujarat, I am here to showcase to the world, the rich cultural diversity of Gujarat. I came to Moreh all the way from Gujarat. People are amazing here and the atmosphere is also soothing. We love each other. I am thankful to NEZCC for inviting us to participate here," said an Artist from Ahmedabad, Daksha Mahinder Dakshi.

Keeping up the tradition of Manipur, a group of young Manipuri women donned in their traditional outfits called 'Phanek' grooved to drum beats followed by a live ritualistic song sung by a group of middle aged Manipuri women.

Organizing such event helps in strengthening integration thereby bringing people closer cutting across all religious lines irrespective of caste and creed. At the same time it paves a path for all to explore and exchange ideas on varied cultures and traditions.

It is worth mentioning that Border area programmes are often being organized to create awareness about the rich cultural mosaic of the country and instill a sense of brotherhood amongst all.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nagaland under the new government has decided to do away with the VIP culture in the state.

The newly formed People's Democratic Alliance government of Nagaland led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has decided to end the VIP culture in the state in all its forms. The announcement has come at a time when there is growing resentment amongst the people against this culture.

"We had committed in our manifesto that we will remove the VIP culture from the state. For us, the people are the masters and we assure the people of Nagaland that we will tirelessly work towards achievement of the commitment given to the people in our manifesto" said Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.

According to the report released by the Nagaland Home Commissioner Abhishek Singh, government officials and functionaries were strictly instructed not to display anything except the vehicle registration number on the vehicles as per the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and Central Motor Vehicle Act 1989.

Violators would face action under Section 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act 1988.

However, the ministers and MLAs will be provided appropriate colour coded car stickers to facilitate their movement.

Moreover, barring the Governor, Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Speaker and Deputy, the use of pilots and security escorts by all the government functionaries has been banned within the capital city Kohima and Dimapur.

Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, Sushil Kumar Patel and Nagaland Home Commissioner Abhisek Singh were among the first officials who did away with the names on their official vehicles and have requested others to follow suit.

It has also been decided to enhance and improve the security surveillance in the cities so that ministers and other functionaries need not use escorts and pilots within city limits.

The residents of Nagaland welcomed the verdict as a part of positive change in governance and renewed their hopes for a government that is finally committed to working for the welfare of the people.

The decisions and verdict is being seen as trendsetter for other parts of the country to follow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said no Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Members of Parliament (MP) came to meet him on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference here, the Union Minister categorically denied reports in a section of Andhra Pradesh media that he did not give time to the TDP MPs.

"There has been some wrong reporting in Andhra Pradesh media that I did not meet a delegation of TDP MPs and did not hear them on Tuesday but gave time and heard some MPs from some other political party," Goyal said.

He said the news report is completely wrong and baseless as every Tuesday he meets MPs from different political parties in an open house meeting at his office in the Parliament between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

"I would like to categorically state that this news item is completely wrong, baseless and untrue. On Tuesday, when I was sitting in the open house, I was called by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister for urgent meeting. And, during the period that I had left my office some MPs had to wait till I returned back to my office. To the best of my knowledge, no MP of the TDP either sought an appointment with me, or came to meet me during the open house," Goyal asserted.

Therefore, the Union Minister said, there is no question of refusing to meet or not meeting MPs of any political party whatsoever.

Some reports in Andhra Pradesh media said that Andhra Pradesh chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has taken serious objection to Union Minister Piyush Goyal not giving an appointment to the TDP MPs but gave time to the MPs from the opposition Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)American Pop-Rock Band OneRepublic is set to perform live on April 21 in Mumbai's MMRDA Grounds, announced event management company, Opium Events.

Fans can expect to hear a span of OneRepublic's biggest songs, from 'Apologize' to 'Secrets,' 'Good Life,' the smash hit 'Counting Stars' and more recently released singles from the latest album 'Oh My My'.

Apart from India, the Grammy nominated Colorado-bred quintet is embarking on a two-week Asia tour comprising of Singapore, South Korea, China, Malaysia during which they will also perform at the Grammy Festival in Beijing alongside Pharrell Williams and James Bay.

OneRepublic, in a statement, said, "We've wanted to visit India for years, and are beyond excited to finally get the chance to not only perform a full concert but also explore your beautiful country. See you soon!"

Opium Events Director Cyrus Gorimar, said, "We have been in talks with the management since over six months now as we realized that the band enjoys a great repertoire in the country with a significant fanbase originating out of India. Our pre-registrations have seen a phenomenal response with more than 10,000 registrations received in a span of 24 hours and we are anticipating close to 15,000 fans for the event. The production and scale of the event will be extraordinary with a multi-crore spend invested into the event."

Tickets to OneRepublic Live In India 2018 start from INR 4,200/- and will go on sale on ticketing portal, www.bookmyshow.com on 14th March 2018 onwards.

Ticket Details

INR 4,200/- (Silver)

INR 6,900/- (Gold)

INR 9951/- (Platinum)

INR 24,000/- (VIP)

OneRepublic's highly anticipated fourth album "Oh My My released on October 7, 2016, and debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 - the band's highest charting debut yet. Ryan Tedder calls it their "ultimate playlist," including singles "Wherever I Go," "Kids" and "Let's Hurt Tonight."

OneRepublic is in the studio working on their next album and will be supporting Zac Brown Band across several U.S. stadium dates summer 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan on Thursday confirmed that it has called back it High Commissioner to India for a meeting.

Dr. Muhammad Faisal, the spokesperson of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Pakistan High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood would be visiting Islamabad shortly for consultations on matters relating to Pakistan-India relations.

The development comes after the Pakistan High Commission complained on Saturday that its diplomats were being subjected to different kinds of harassment in New Delhi.

India too has alleged that several Indian mission staffers in Islamabad have been severely 'harassed and intimidated'.

The already souring ties between India and Pakistan have taken a sharp plunge ever since ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces have increased along the Line of Control (LoC) and terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir have seen a rise in the last few months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nadeem Nusrat, the spokesperson for the 'Free Karachi' campaign has said that the Pakistan Army was carrying out "ethnic cleansing" on the minority groups in Pakistan, adding that they were in grave danger.

He extended full support on behalf of the Mohajirs to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement and has urged all ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan to form a greater alliance against Pakistan's inhuman policies in Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Gilgit Baltistan.

Nusrat strongly condemned the false cases registered against Manzoor Pashteen and the Pashtun leadership on raising voice against discriminatory policies of Pakistan Army and termed this act as a violation of fundamental rights.

He added that the policies of the current US administration have given a new zeal to freedom loving religious and ethnic communities in Pakistan and stated that the Mohajirs were committed to seeing a stable South Asia and that they will continue to play their important role in achieving the goal.

Nusrat reiterated, "The Free Karachi campaign stands firmly with their Pashtun, Baloch, Gilgiti and Hazara brothers and sisters. Along with the Mohajirs, they have faced 70 years of oppression at the hands of Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Punjabi-dominated elite of Pakistan Army has carried out systematic ethnic cleansing of every minority group in Pakistan and the intensity of this savagery continues to grow with every passing day."

"Just like Naqeebullah Mehsud, thousands of young Pashtuns, Balochs, Mohajirs, Gilgiti and Hazaras have been extrajudicially killed. Thousands have disappeared after being picked up by the Pakistani security forces and their families are living in a state of an unending fear and helplessness with no knowledge of the whereabouts of their kins," he said.

"The Pakistani military establishment in connivance with the racist Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leadership has also manipulated the census figures in urban Sindh for decades to show the population of Karachi and other urban areas of Sindh less than half of the actual numbers," he added.

Continuing his tirade against the Pakistan Army, Nusrat stated that the "racist military establishment" and the "Punjabi ruling elite" had purposely diverted Karachi's resources to areas of their choice in order to create huge economic, social, educational and constitutional disparity in the minority communities.

He also alleged that religious minorities were also being systematically targeted in Pakistan, which led to the drastic reduction of Hindu and Christian populations in Pakistan.

The Mohajir Americans have led the 'Free Karachi' campaign in Washington D.C. and are tirelessly working to highlight the gross human rights abuses against minorities in Pakistan by its army and intelligence agencies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Despite the United States pressuring Pakistan, the Islamabad Government is still supporting the Taliban terrorist group in the border region with Afghanistan, revealed United State Army General Joseph L. Votel.

According to the Washington Times, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, when asked about the continued Pakistani support to Taliban, Gen. Votel noted, "I cannot tell you that we have seen decisive changes in the areas in which we're working, but I remain very well-engaged with my partner to ensure that we are moving forward on this."

On recent increase in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, Votel said, "Having sanctuary in Pakistan or having support from other actors in the region certainly is an aspect of the Taliban's success here."

The Washington Times report further quoted an intelligence source close to the Afghan border region as saying that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan is continuing its covert support for the Taliban in the border region.

"ISI is providing both protection and material support to the Taliban in areas between Quetta and the Afghan border," the source said.

The insider revealed that the ISI is working along with the Pakistani Army in Taliban in Pashtun ethnic areas of Balochistan province in the northwestern part of the country.

"In Pashtun areas which are close to Quetta, religious groups are operating madrasas" - Islamic schools, the source said. "Among these groups, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam is most active. Under Sami ul Haq's leadership, madrasas are creating new soldiers for Taliban in Balochistan's Pashtun belt." Maulana Sami ul Haq is a Pakistani cleric regarded as "the father of the Taliban."

"We believe top Taliban leadership are operating from Pashtunabad, Gulistan and surrounding areas," the source added.

The report highlighted that Taliban is working with the ISI in another small border district called Killa Abdullah, about 44 miles from Quetta, capital of Balochistan.

In that area, Taliban fighters have been spotted along "with automatic weapons either in motorbikes, or [in] four-by-four vehicles along with two to five companions," the source said.

The source further revealed that the local police is not allowed to stop the Taliban fighters from traveling from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

"These people freely travel in Quetta, Chaman and all surrounding areas," the source said. "Civilian [police] forces cannot intervene because they work under ISI and military apparatus. The police are also powerless and are afraid for their own security.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Consumer electronics manufacturer Panasonic had recently marked its 100th anniversary here by launched the 'Panasonic Museum' in Kadoma City, Osaka.

"This milestone will be a very important year to look back on the footsteps of the founder Konosuke Matsushita, in order to renew the determination to steadily move forward into the coming year," said Panasonic CEO Kazuhiro Tsuga.

Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic is one of the most iconic entrepreneurs in the history of Japan.

The purpose of the exhibition, based on Matsushita's life, was to inform the people about the beliefs on which the company was built.

In the exhibition, there was a house which recreated the state of the workspace at the time of its founding.

Also, a 'two-way socket' from his time was kept there.

A "Black and white TV", "washing machine" and "refrigerator", which were the symbol of the wealth and improvement of life during the economic growth of Japan, were on display too.

Panasonic's home appliances during the century were also exhibited in the "Hall of manufacturing ingenuity", which was open for a limited time.

"Visitors can understand the products of Panasonic from each generation; the ideas are hidden in the products, the convenience to use for customers, and the solutions to social needs and life," said a Panasonic employee, Jun Ishii.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind has congratulated his Nepali counterpart Bidhya Devi Bhandari on her victory in the just-concluded Nepal presidential election and pledged for further building of bilateral ties in various fields.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu wrote on their official Twitter handle, "Hon'ble President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind congratulates Rt. Hon'ble President Ms Bidya Devi Bhandari on her election as President of Nepal. Commits to working together to further strengthen wide-ranging cooperative bilateral ties for the benefit of people of India & Nepal."

In a letter, President Kovind wrote to President Bhandari that the former expressed confidence that Nepal will move forward on the path of prosperity and development under President Bhandari's guidance.

President Bhandari was on Wednesday sworn in as Nepal's President for the second time. She garnered over 74 percent of the votes to be re-elected, while her rival Nepali Congress' Kumari Laxmi Rai hardly drew 25 percent of the votes.

According to the Election Commission of Nepal (ECP), President Bhandari of the Left Alliance garnered 39,275 votes and Rai secured 11,730 votes.

With this, President Bhandari became the first President of federal Nepal and also the first Nepali President to be re-elected.

As close neighbours, India and Nepal share a unique relationship of friendship and cooperation characterised by deeply rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture. Both countries share close linguistic, marital and religious ties respectively.

Nepal was ravaged by a massive earthquake and continuous aftershocks in 2015, killing over 9,000 people and rendering thousands of people homeless. Therefore, India has granted Nepal an amount of USD 250 million for the post-earthquake reconstruction and will help in the construction of nearly 50,000 houses in the Himalayan nation.

Also, the two countries signed an agreement in 2014, where India will build a 900 MW hydropower plant in Nepal at a cost of USD 1 billion, to help the latter overcome the erratic power supply, which is a major problem there.

Despite the cordial relations between the two countries, political issues and border disputes have strained relations since late 2015.

Nepal promulgated its new constitution in 2015. However, the Madhesis, the Janajatis and the Tharus, which are smaller communities residing in the plains of Nepal were left out in the new constitution and were considered marginalised groups. India had requested Nepal to recognise the Madhesis in the constitution.

When Nepal failed to recognise the Madhesis and other groups, despite repeated requests, the Madhesis in particular, then blockaded the border points, fuelling months-old economic blockage. Nepal accused India of deliberately worsening the embargo by not allowing vehicles to pass from check-points where no protests were held.

K.P. Sharma Oli, the current Prime Minister of Nepal, had took a defiant stance against India's position to amend Nepal's constitution and signed trade and transit treaties with China to counter Indian dependence when he was at the helm in 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Family of a deceased woman suffering from breast cancer in Pune, has held a godman responsible for her death, alleging that the latter performed rituals to treat her.

The 24-year-old woman's family said that she died while undergoing recovery in Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, two days after a private doctor previously treating her came with a 'Mantrik', saying he had faith in him.

"We brought my sister to the Mangeshkar Hospital where she was recovering. Dr. Satish Chavan who was treating her earlier at another hospital, came with the godman and said he had faith in it," Mahesh Jagtap, brother of the deceased patient told reporters.

Dr. Chavan had earlier been treating the patient at a private hospital, but when she became unconscious, she was shifted to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital.

The death took place in Mangeshkar Hospital premises, but the family has pointed the finger at the godman and Dr. Chavan, contending that she was recovering in the hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A young woman, Purnima Devi Barman, from Assam has been conferred the 'Nari Shakti Puraskar' by the President, Ram Nath Kovind, in New Delhi on "International Women's Day, for her efforts in conserving the Adjutant Stork which is almost on the verge of extinction.

She has also won the prestigious Whitely Awards, also known as the Green Oscars last year. from Princess Anne, who is the patron of the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN).

Adjutant Stork are a rare species birds, which were once common across the wetlands in south-east Asia, but are now classified as endangered. With only around 1,200 of these birds remaining today, 800 of them reside in Assam.

It was her immense love for the endangered species of the adjutant stork, locally known as the 'Hargila' in Assamese, which led 37 year old Purnima on a crusade to save these birds.

"I landed in a village to do my PHD in 2008, but an incident changed my life and everything and my Phd got a backseat. I converted myself to a manager since then I have been working with people to protect the bird from extinction because as I told the incident that one tree owner was cutting down the nesting tree and the baby birds were falling down and it was a very painful moment" said Purnima.

She formed the 'Hargila Army' that consist of a team of female conservationists dedicated to protecting the greater adjutant stork.

Together, Purnima and her army are on a mission to break down barriers and challenge pre-conceived notions regarding the adjutant storks, which are often neglected for its odd looking images and messy activities. The greater adjutant is a scavenger bird and they mostly feed on garbage and rubbish dumb.

Twice a week, Purnima clambers up an 80 feet ladder to a bamboo platform. She sits for hours on end, to observe the odd-looking birds that have given her life new meaning.

It's a team work and I am working with communities to protect the scruffy endangered stork in Assam and have convinced the villagers of Dadara and Pachariya in Assam's Kamrup district to engage in the conservation activities. Earlier, the villagers used to destroy the habitat areas of the scavenger bird.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Expressing disappointment over the continuous disruption in the Parliament by various political parties, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday urged the Parliamentarians to co-operate in its proceedings.

Talking to media outside the Parliament, the Union Minister said that the Centre is ready to discuss any issue, as wanted by the opposition.

"We think that parliamentary proceedings should not be hindered in any situation. The Government is ready to discuss any issue on which opposition wants to debate. I want to make a polite request to all political parties to cooperate in parliamentary proceedings," Rajnath said.

The proceedings in both the houses of the Parliament have disrupted again today for the ninth consecutive day, as several parties continued to protests over various issues.

Earlier in the day, members of various parties trooped into the Well of the Lok Sabha, holding placards as soon as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took up the Question Hour.

Since March 5, when Parliament proceedings recommenced after a recess, the Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a daily basis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday told Delhi High Court that self-proclaimed god-man Baba Virendra Dev Dixit was last spotted in Nepal on August 2 and has sought more time to file the status report on his present location.

The high court is hearing a plea about the allegations of sexual assault on women and minor girls at Rohini-based ashram Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya.

The next date of hearing is on May 17.

Earlier on February 5, the high court had issued a lookout notice against Dixit in regards to the same. The notice came after the court heard the arguments made by Dixit's lawyer.

In December last year, over 40 girls were rescued in an operation that was carried out at the ashram after the high court formed a panel consisting of lawyers and Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid heavy rains, the Sindhi Congress organised a protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Sindh in Pakistan.

The activists shouted anti-Pakistan slogans demanding the United Nations to intervene in Sindh, where the political leaders are being targeted and forced conversion of minorities is rampant.

The protest was held at 'Broken Chair' during the ongoing 37th Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"It is the duty of UN to find the abducted people. They (security agencies) are not even forgiving their children. It is a shame on the Pakistani state to not be able to protect their citizens," Sindhi Congress Secretary General Lakhu Luhana said here.

He further said, "the only way is to counter and challenge that we all live together. Long live Balochistan and other Pakistan occupied areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A statue of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee was found damaged in Assam's Kokrajhar district.

The incident took place yesterday in Kokrajhar's Rabindra Nagar.

Kokrajhar police officials rushed to the spot as soon as the locals informed the police and the matter is under investigation.

The incident follows a similar act of vandalism in Kolkata where a bust of the Jana Sangh leader was damaged on March 7, for which seven people were arrested.

This is the first such case in Assam after a statue of Communist leader Vladimir Lenin was toppled in Tripura town two days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Left Front out of rule on March 3.

Mukherjee's bust in Kokrajhar was reportedly inaugurated in 2002 by BJP leader and former Bihar Minister Kailashpati Mishra.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) may support Friday's no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in Lok Sabha.

The TDP chief in his state assembly speech said: "If necessary, we will support the no-confidence motion against the Centre, whoever may place it."

The Chief Minister said his party would support anybody who moved a no-confidence motion in the state's interests.

Earlier today, YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy sought the support of Congress and Communist Party of India-(Marxist) for the no-confidence motion against the Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.

Last week, two TDP ministers resigned from the Centre after Naidu indicated that his party was considering to break away from the BJP-led NDA alliance over the non-issuance of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.

The YSRCP, too, has announced that its MPs would resign on April 6 if the Centre did not grant the special status to the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Institute of Cost Accountants of India is organising the National Cost Convention 2018.

The convention will be held at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on March 16th and 17th.

M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India has kindly consented to inaugurate the national cost convention as the chief guest.

P. P. Chaudhary, union minister of state for law and justice and corporate affairs and Injeti Srinivas, secretary, ministry of corporate affairs, government of India, have also kindly consented to grace the inaugural session as guests of honour.

CMA Sanjay Gupta, president of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) will deliver the welcome address.

During this session, MOS, law and justice and corporate affairs will release two research publications of the Institute - "Cost Governance" and "Self-Sustainability Model for Panchayats through Capacity Building".

The institute will organise a special session at 1400 hours on 16th March 2018 which will be chaired by Suresh Prabhu, union minister of commerce and industry.

During the session, the Institute and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) will enter into a MOU for training of two lacs youth in the area of finance and accounting including GST under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

On the second day of the convention, Piyush Goyal, union minister of railways and coal will chair a special session.

Shiv Pratap Shukla, minister of state for finance has also consented to be the chief guest for the valedictory programme on March 17th.

The NCC 2018 will be a great occasion for all the CMAs from across the globe to assemble and deliberate upon the important economic development nationally and globally and come to a conclusion on the steps to be taken.

This two-day convention will deliberate on the following topics by the eminent speakers across the country:

Ease of Doing Business: Contribution of CMAs

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code: CMAs Reviving Businesses

New India 2022: Vision of CMAs

Indian Railways: CMAs as Game Changer

Valuation: A New Perspective

Challenges in Doubling Indian Farmers' Income: Role of CMAs

.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Sri Lanka for promoting cooperation in the field of Information Technology and Electronics. The MoU was signed on 15th January, 2018 during the visit of Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad to Sri Lanka.

The MoU intends to promote closer co-operation in the areas of e-Governance, m-Governance, e-Public Services Delivery, cyber security, software technology parks, start-ups ecosystem etc.

The MoU shall be implemented by establishing a Working Group on IT&E composed of representatives of the two Parties. Bilateral Cooperation in ICT domain both B2B and G2G will be enhanced.

Background:

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has been mandated to promote international cooperation in the emerging and frontier areas of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) under bilateral and regional framework of cooperation.

MeitY has entered into MoUs / Agreements with counterpart organizations/agencies of various countries to promote close cooperation and exchange of information in the area of ICT. To further enhance cooperation with various countries, particularly in view of the new initiatives taken by Government of India like "Digital India", "Make in India" etc., there is an increased need for exploring business opportunities in the technology sector which are of interest.

The Prime Minister's visit to Sri Lanka in 2015 did a synergy in India's neighbourhood first policy. To extend the cooperation to IT sector, the Indian Mission in Colombo and MEA had emphasized on evolving a framework for active cooperation. In this regard, the MeitY negotiated a comprehensive MoU for a focussed cooperation in ICT areas such as in e-Governance, cyber security, B2B partnership, IT education and research / innovation, etc.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post-facto approval for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Iran for cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sectors. The MoU was signed on 17th February, 2018 during the visit of the President of Iran to India. The MoU provides for cooperation in the areas of agricultural crops, agricultural extension, horticulture, machinery, post harvest technology, plant quarantine measures, credit and cooperation. It also provides for cooperation in soil conservation and water management, integrated nutrients management, seed technology and agricultural marketing.

Livestock improvement, dairy development, animal health and other fields as mutually agreed upon fall within the scope of this MoU. Cooperation will also be effected through exchange of experts, materials and information, exchange of trainees and scientists on study visits/training programmes, facilitation of relevant conferences and workshops and any other means as may be mutually agreed upon.

Under the MoU, a Joint Working Group (JWG) will be formed to monitor the activities carried out in fulfillment of this MoU. The JWG will hold its meeting alternately in India and Iran once in every two years. The MoU will be valid initially for a period of five years and will be automatically extended for a subsequent period of five years unless either party notifies the other party of its intent of terminating it.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between India and Iran in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine.

Benefits:

The MoU will enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the areas of Traditional Systems of Medicine. This will be of immense importance to both countries considering their shared cultural heritage.

Background:

India is blessed with well- developed systems of traditional medicine including medicinal plants, which hold tremendous potential in the global health scenario.

India and Iran share several common features in their language. culture and traditions and also share a common legacy of using herbal medicines.

Both countries are having huge biodiversity and home for rare medicinal plants which are frequently used in Traditional Systems of Medicine. Moreover, Iran has endorsed the status of India as a true leader in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine backed by huge and strong infrastructure and State of the Art" production units.

The Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India having the mandate to promote, propagate and globalize the Traditional Systems of Medicine including Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy, has taken effective steps by entering into MoU with China, Malaysia, Trinidad & Tobago, Hungary, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius and Mongolia for cooperation in Traditional Medicine. Another MoU is proposed to be signed with Sri Lanka.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Himadri Speciality Chemical rose 2.53% to Rs 156.30 at 11:29 IST on BSE after the company said it will invest Rs 1000 crore in Carbon Black business in West Bengal.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 97.34 points, or 0.29% to 33,738.40.

On the BSE, 1.94 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 1.81 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 159 and a low of Rs 156.10 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 197 on 15 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 42.35 on 29 March 2017.

Himadri Speciality Chemical will invest Rs 1000 crore to expand its Carbon Black business. The company will set up new carbon black lines in its existing integrated plant in Mahistikry, West Bengal for producing Specialty Carbon Black.

Himadri Speciality said it has a large portfolio of products catering to the needs of diverse industries and carving for itself a niche in its sector. The company has already introduced 10 grades in the last 1.5 years in domestic and global markets and will now be expanding their business in North America, Europe, South East Asia and Middle East Markets.

In a separate announcement after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018, Himadri Speciality Chemical informed that the Government of India has imposed anti-dumping duty on the import of Sulphonated Naphthalene Formaldehyde (SNF) with a view to protect the interest of domestic manufacturers. The anti-dumping duty imposed shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier). Himadri Speciality Chemical said it has manufacturing facility of this product.

Net profit of Himadri Speciality Chemical rose 248.78% to Rs 70.14 crore on 42.17% rise in net sales to Rs 500.08 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

Himadri Speciality Chemical is the largest vertically integrated speciality carbon company and the largest producer of coal tar pitch in India with headquarters in Kolkata, West Bengal.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)ICICI Bank said it will sell 7.72 crore equity shares of its subsidiary, ICICI Securities, through an initial public offer (IPO). The IPO of ICICI Securities will open for subscription on 22 March 2018 and shall close on 26 March 2018. The price band for the IPO has been fixed at Rs 519 to Rs 520 per share. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

Wipro announced a strategic partnership with Trintech to deliver digital solutions that help simplify and automate functions at enterprises. Trintech is a leading global provider of integrated, cloud-based Record to Report (R2R) finance software solutions for the office of finance. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

IT major Infosys announced that it will open its next technology and innovation hub in Hartford, Connecticut and hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2022. The Connecticut Technology and Innovation Hub will have a special focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing. It will bring Infosys closer to its Connecticut clients and serve as the global hub for Infosys' InsurTech and HealthTech efforts. Infosys' investment in Connecticut is a continuation of the company's commitment to accelerate innovation for American enterprise by amplifying top local talent with the best global talent and shrink the IT skills gap in the marketplace. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

MMTC said its board will meet on 19 March 2018 to consider bonus issue. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

Havells India signed an agreement with Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co. for manufacturing of Magnetic Contactors (MC). Under the agreement, Hyundai Electric will provide technology know-how and grant a license to manufacture and market Magnetic Contactors (MC) under Havells brand. The MC market in India is presently estimated to be Rs 1200 crore and growing at 6-8% annually, the company said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)MMTC rose 11.50% to Rs 57.70 at 9:20 IST on BSE after the company said its board will meet on 19 March 2018 to consider bonus issue.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 26.69 points, or 0.08% to 33,809.05.

On the BSE, 3.14 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 2.63 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 58.50 and a low of Rs 55.40 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 101.60 on 7 November 2017. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 45.50 on 9 March 2018.

Net profit of MMTC declined 91.59% to Rs 6.26 crore on 31.47% decline in net sales to Rs 3387.11 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

MMTC is the largest international trading company in India. Government of India (GoI) held 89.953% stake in MMTC (as per the shareholding pattern as on 31 December 2017).

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Baa2 rating to HDFC Bank Limited's proposed Indian rupee-denominated senior unsecured bonds (masala bonds). The bonds are issued under the bank's USD3 billion Medium Term Note (MTN) program and will be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.

The rating outlook is stable.

The senior debt rating is subject to receipt of final documentation, the terms and conditions of which are not expected to change in any material way from the draft documents reviewed by Moody's.

RATINGS RATIONALE

HDFC Bank's senior unsecured debt rating of Baa2 is underpinned by the bank's BCA of baa2. Moody's also assumes a high probability of support for the bank from the Government of India (Baa2 stable) in the event of financial distress, considering HDFC's status as the largest private sector bank in India by assets, large retail deposit franchise and importance to the national payments system.

Given that the bank's BCA is already at baa2, this high support assumption does not result in any additional uplift to the bank's deposit or debt ratings.

HDFC Bank's BCA of baa2 reflects the bank's standalone credit strength and prudent underwriting policies, which have led to its superior financial performance when compared with similarly rated peers in India. The bank's BCA also reflects its consistent and strong financial results. Specifically, its performance in terms of profitability, capital and asset quality metrics has been better than the average for the Indian banking system.

WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATINGS -- UP

HDFC Bank's deposit and senior unsecured ratings could be upgraded, if India's sovereign rating is upgraded.

WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATINGS -- DOWN

Downward pressure on HDFC's BCA and ratings could arise from: (1) a sustained deterioration in impaired loans or loan-loss reserves; (2) a significantly higher new nonperforming loan formation rate than that previously experienced; (3) a decline in earnings, leading to a significant decrease in internal capital generation; or (4) a downgrade in the sovereign's foreign-currency debt rating.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 32 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, Asian markets were trading lower after the decline on Wall Street overnight amid concerns over heightened trade tensions. US stocks fell yesterday, 14 March 2018 after lackluster retail sales figures fanned concern that consumer spending is cooling.

Back home,key benchmark indices logged small losses in volatile session of trade yesterday, 14 March 2018 amid divergent trend in index pivotals. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 21.04 points or 0.06% to settle at 33,835.74. The Nifty 50 index declined 15.95 points or 0.15% to settle at 10,410.90.

The trading activity on that day showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 258.98 crore yesterday, 14 March 2018, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 432.03 crore yesterday, 14 March 2018, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news,Wipro announced a strategic partnership with Trintech to deliver digital solutions that help simplify and automate functions at enterprises. Trintech is a leading global provider of integrated, cloud-based Record to Report (R2R) finance software solutions for the office of finance. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

ICICI Bank informed that the IPO of its subsidiary, ICICI Securities, will open for subscription on 22 March 2018 and shall close on 26 March 2018. The price band for the IPO has been fixed at Rs 519 to Rs 520 per share. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

IT major Infosys announced that it will open its next technology and innovation hub in Hartford, Connecticut and hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2022. The Connecticut Technology and Innovation Hub will have a special focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing. It will bring Infosys closer to its Connecticut clients and serve as the global hub for Infosys' InsurTech and HealthTech efforts. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

Infosys' investment in Connecticut is a continuation of the company's commitment to accelerate innovation for American enterprise by amplifying top local talent with the best global talent and shrink the IT skills gap in the marketplace.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Suzlon Energy rose 1.04% to Rs 11.61 at 9:58 IST on BSE after the company announced that it has completed the commissioning of 340 megawatts solar power turnkey projects across sites in Telangana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

The announcement was made during market hours today, 15 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 39.99 points or 0.1% at 33,801.05. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index advanced 0.76%, outperforming the Sensex.

On the BSE, 9.09 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 56.78 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 11.71 and a low of Rs 11.45 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 22.25 on 22 May 2017 a 52-week low of Rs 10.63 on 8 March 2018.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 1063.95 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Suzlon Energy said that the projects of 340 megawatts (MW) have been executed over a period of time, concluding in Q4 March 2018. The company has completed delivery of its entire solar order book with the commissioning of aforesaid projects.

On a consolidated basis, Suzlon Energy reported net loss of Rs 32.68 crore in Q3 December 2017 compared with net profit of Rs 282.54 crore in Q3 December 2016. Net sales dropped 33.5% to Rs 2203.86 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

The Suzlon Group is one of the leading renewable energy solutions providers in the world with an international presence.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Wipro rose 2.78% to Rs 301.50 at 9:33 IST on BSE after the company said it will divest hosted data center services business to US-based Ensono for $405 million.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 51.39 points, or 0.15% to 33,784.35.

On the BSE, 42,000 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 7.49 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 302 and a low of Rs 294.85 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 334.75 on 16 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 242.38 on 24 April 2017.

Wipro said it signed a definitive agreement to divest its hosted data center services business to Ensono, a leading hybrid IT services provider, for $405 million. Wipro will unlock value by transitioning eight data centers, and over 900 employees of its hosted data center services business to Ensono.

Wipro and Ensono have also signed a long-term partnership agreement to jointly address the hybrid IT requirements of Wipro's new and existing enterprise customers. As part of the agreement, Wipro will make a strategic investment of $55 million in Ensono's combined entity.

Hosted Datacenter services business is one of the three businesses that became a part of Wipro when it acquired Infocrossing Inc in 2007. The other two businesses -- Medicare & Medicaid services in the health insurance space and ERP implementation services -- have been integrated with other Wipro businesses and are not part of this divestment.

In a separate announcement after market hours yesterday, 14 March 2018, Wipro announced a strategic partnership with Trintech to deliver digital solutions that help simplify and automate functions at enterprises. Trintech is a leading global provider of integrated, cloud-based Record to Report (R2R) finance software solutions for the office of finance.

Wipro's consolidated net profit fell 11.85% to Rs 1930.10 crore on 1.82% growth in net sales to Rs 13669 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q2 September 2017.

Wipro is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A youth was allegedly assaulted by his three friends over a monetary dispute and later crushed under the wheels of a car thrice, police said on Thursday, adding all accused were arrested.

The incident occurred on Tuesday night in Mukherjee Nagar area of north Delhi and came to notice after the victim, Arvind Kumar was found by some passer-bys, lying in a pool of blood, informed police.

Police said the accused have been identified as Deepak, Rakesh and Sonu, residents of Mukherjee Nagar area, were arrested on Wednesday night from their hideouts in north Delhi.

"Arvind Kumar suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries in his body. He has been admitted to hospital where he is battling for life in ICU of ISBT trauma center," said a senior police officer said.

"During investigation, it was found that Deepak, Rakesh and Sonu indulged into verbal duel with Arvind Kumar over a money dispute. It has been learnt that one of the trio borrowed money from Kumar and refused to pay him when he so demanded," Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan told IANS.

"The accused have planned to kill Kumar. They took him to a ground near the transport authority officer in Burari where they all consumed beers.

"The accused and Kumar later argued following which one of them smashed his head with a beer bottle. They brutally assaulted him. When he collapsed, they ran over him thrice with the car," the officer said.

The accused persons having thought that he had died then fled, she said, adding that passers-by later heard Kumar's cries for help, rushed to the spot and informed police, she said.

--IANS

sp/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hours after Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote was sent to police custody, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar on Thursday demanded the arrest of rightist leader and Shiv Pratishthan chief Sambhaji Bhide alias Bhide Guruji by March 26.

Tightening pressure on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine, the BBM chief served an ultimatum to the government to nab the leader within 10 days failing which he threatened a massive procession in Mumbai.

"He (Bhide) is also equally responsible like Ekbote and was involved in provoking the January caste riots in Bhima-Koregaon. Hence, even he deserved to be arrested and the government must do it by March 26," Ambedkar, who is the grandson of B.R. Ambedkar, the Architect of Indian Constitution, told media persons.

He termed it as surprising that while Ekbote was arrested on Wednesday, the other prime accused has not been booked yet, though the BBM has been raising this demand since the day of the rioting.

Ekbote's arrest followed two first information reports (FIR) lodged by Dalit activists Sushma Andhare and Anita Salve against Ekbote and the other against rightist leader from Sangli, Bhide.

The FIRs, lodged with Pune city police in early January, were later transferred to Pune rural police for investigations and further action. Ekbote was held from his home in Shivajinagar on Wednesday and Thursday, he was produced before a court which sent him to police custody till March 19.

Ekbote and Bhide are accused of instigating, planning and orchestrating the violence during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Anglo-Maratha War where the army of Peshwa Bajirao II was vanquished by a small force of the East India Company that comprised a large number of Dalits.

However, both Ekbote and Bhide - whose admirers include Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis - have vehemently denied playing any role in the January 1 riots and its subsequent fallout.

In a related development, retired supercop and ex-ambassador Julio Ribeiro on Thursday questioned how the state government could withdraw all cases - barring serious ones - registered in the Bhima-Koregaon riots.

On Tuesday, Fadnavis had announced in the state assembly the government's decision to withdraw all cases, except serious ones, lodged by police besides giving compensation to all victims who suffered property losses.

Ribeiro and others, through their NGOs, have filed a PIL in Bombay High Court contending that the Mumbai shutdown on January 3 was 'illegal' and the parties responsible for calling it must be made to compensate for the losses.

--IANS

qn/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Human rights NGO Amnesty International India on Thursday launched an interactive data website for keeping a track of and documenting hate crimes across the country.

"The first step to ensuring justice and ending impunity for hate crimes -- where people are targeted because of their membership of a particular group -- is to highlight their occurrence," said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India.

In 2017, an alarming number of alleged hate crimes -- including assault, rape and murder -- were reported against people from marginalized groups, especially Dalits and Muslims, the Amnesty International said as it launched the website named 'Halt the Hate'.

"Our website aims to draw attention to some of these crimes by tracking and documenting them. Dalits have been attacked for merely sporting moustaches, and Muslims lynched for transporting cattle. Dalit women have been branded as witches, and raped and killed," Patel said.

'Halt the Hate' documents alleged hate crimes against Dalits, Adivasis, members of racial or religious minority groups, transgender persons, and other marginalised people which are reported in mainstream English and Hindi media.

It documents 141 incidents of alleged hate crimes against Dalits and 44 against Muslims in 2017, including 69 incidents of killings where at least 146 people were killed. 35 incidents were found where women from these groups or transgender persons faced sexual violence.

The website documents alleged hate crimes from September 2015, when Mohammad Akhlaq was killed in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly possessing beef.

Cow-related violence and so-called 'honour killings' were among the common instances of the hate crimes.

Uttar Pradesh was the state with the most such incidents in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, 237 alleged hate crimes were recorded. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat recorded the most incidents.

Patel said that the extent of hate crime in India is unknown because the law - barring some exceptions - does not recognize hate crimes as specific offences.

"The data on our website is just a snapshot of alleged hate crimes in India. Many incidents are not reported in the media. While criminal investigations have been initiated in some cases, too many have gone unpunished," he said.

He said police needed to take steps to "unmask any potentially discriminatory motive" in a crime, and political leaders must be "more vocal" in denouncing such violence.

--IANS

mak/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bangladesh observed a national day of mourning on Thursday in memory of the 26 people killed in a US-Bangla Airplanes plane crash in Nepal.

The Bangladeshi government said in a statement that its national flag would fly at half-mast at all public, semi-public, autonomous and private offices as well as in all Bangladesh diplomatic missions abroad, bdnews24.com reported.

The aircraft with 71 people on board crashed and burst into flames while landing at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday. Fifty-one people were killed, including 26 Bangladeshis.

Ten Bangladeshis were also injured in the accident, of whom three would continue to receive treatment in Kathmandu. Two of the injured will be transferred to India, four will be moved to Bangladesh, and one has arrived in Singapore for treatment, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry said in a statement cited by Efe news.

"An injured passenger was taken to Singapore by an air ambulance last night," US-Bangla Airlines spokesperson Kamrul Islam said, adding that the condition of the injured was critical.

A majority of the victims suffered serious burns in the accident after the aircraft skidded off the runway, crashed and caught fire.

Initial investigations indicated that a miscommunication between the control tower at Kathmandu Airport and the cockpit could have caused the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft to crash.

The accident was the worst in the last 25 years in Nepal, which has repeatedly faced international sanctions for failing to adhere to safety standards in its aviation sector.

The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from operating in its territory since 2013, citing poor safety standards.

--IANS

soni/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, who is busy with the post-production process of his upcoming biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt, says biopics are more interesting when presented in a fictional format.

Hirani spoke at a '#FilmsForChange' initiative, organised by Good Pitch India and the Indian Documentary Foundation here. He was there along with Nandita Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Rahul Dholakia and Javed Jaffery on Wednesday.

While Hirani is making a film on Sanjay's life now, the BBC had made a documentary on the controversial actor's life back in 1996. It was titled "To Hell and Back".

Asked whether he ever thought of making a documentary on Sanjay's life instead of doing it in a fictionalised format, Hirani said: "Certain subjects will be more engaging if they are done in a fiction format and certain subjects would probably be more interesting in a documentary format.

"'PK' was the only film which I started with reverse where I wanted to talk about God and religion, but in the journey of making that film, I realised that I am ending up talking very little about it. There is so much to talk about God and religion that you cannot actually say enough in a fictional format.

"In a fictional format, it is expected that you have to sugarcoat your story, entertain the audience and still manage to say what you want to say. So, at some stage, I do want to make a documentary."

"There are still unsaid or undiscussed issues that I haven't been able to show in 'PK', so I want to do a documentary where you can say what you want to say. But in a film like 'Sanju', I think it's more engaging as a fictional film where you see another actor doing it.

"If you would simply pick up a mike (microphone) and say, 'Okay, there is a man who did drugs, who had a gun and did other things then', it's boring. I feel biopics are more interesting when you see it in a fictional format. Otherwise, it gets boring.

"Subjects where you want to say something else like as I said, if I want to talk about God, then I will probably go for documentary but not a biopic," he said.

"Sanju" the title of Hirani's forthcoming biographical drama film is produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Actor Ranbir Kapoor essays Sanjay's life on-screen in the movie, set for release on June 29.

--IANS

iv/rb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Brazil President Michel Temer has said he is likely to call his US counterpart Donald Trump over his decision to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminium.

"The steel issue is indeed alarming," Temer said on Wednesday during the opening of the World Economic Forum for Latin America in Sao Paulo, Xinhua news agency reported.

Trump recently announced a 25 per cent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent tariff on imported aluminium, sparking protests from his country's main trade partners, including Mexico, Canada and Brazil.

"Clearly we should address this topic very cautiously," said Temer, adding: "I realised that President Trump would appreciate communication from the countries implied."

Brazil would prefer an amicable resolution to the issue, but could ultimately appeal the decision at the World Trade Organization (WTO), said Temer.

Initially, Brazilian companies that export steel to the US should work "in cooperation with the US Congress to remove or reduce the tariffs," he said.

"If we don't come to a solution that's friendly and quick... we'll resort to the World Trade Organization, but not unilaterally, not just Brazil, but all of the countries that face losses stemming from the implementation of this measure," said Temer.

Brazil's Foreign Affairs Minister Aloysio Nunes, who was also at the opening ceremony, told reporters he has already requested a meeting with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to discuss exemptions for most Brazilian exports.

"Protectionism is a regression. We are going to defend ourselves in keeping with the rules of international trade," said Nunes.

Should Brazil have to respond to the tariffs, it will take measures "provided for in our legislation and in the international agreements signed with the United States," Nunes added.

Brazil is the second-largest exporter of steel to the US, after Canada, and the leading supplier of semi-finished steel of the United States.

In 2017, Brazilian industry sold $2.6 billion worth of steel to the US, or 4.7 million tonnes of the metal, according to official figures.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced plans to build a new $67 million Chemical Weapons Defence Centre.

It will be based at Porton Down in Wiltshire, home of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and will be built on what Williamson described as Britain's world class expertise.

He said the new centre will maintain Britain's cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We've brought together world-renowned explosive ordnance expertise with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialists. And we are continuing to invest and explore new ways and new capabilities to deal with this threat," he said on Thursday.

In a keynote speech at the Filton, near Bristol, home of Rolls Royce, Williamson also said British troops are to be offered anthrax vaccine to ensure Britain's armed forces are provided with vital protection against any deadly danger.

In reference to events earlier this month in Salisbury when a former Russian spy and his daughter were attacked with a nerve agent, Williamson said: "We know the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from other actors so we're evolving the capability to meet that danger."

Experts at Porton Down had identified the chemical that was used in the Salisbury incident.

Referring to world events, Williamson said after a long period of relative peace, threats are increasing again.

"In every continent of the world there are not just extremists but states willing to undermine our values, ideas, and everything we stand for," said Williamson.

Williamson also announced a $5.6 million contract to deliver a shot detection system which can sense enemy gunfire and protect troops using armoured vehicles.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi power distribution company (discom) BSES on Thursday announced new round-the-clock helpline numbers for its sister discoms in the capital -- BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL).

While the number for BRPL, operating in south and west Delhi, is 19123, that of BYPL, with jurisdiction in east and central Delhi, is 19122, a BSES release said.

"For services, these numbers mirror the existing call centre numbers 39999707 (BRPL) and 39999808 (BYPL)," it said.

"Besides registering 'no supply' and streetlight (non-LED) complaints through these numbers, consumers can also avail/apply for a host of services like new connections, name changes, duplicate bills, resolve billing and metering queries, as well as anonymously report power thefts," it added.

BSES also said it has integrated its mobile application with its backend IT modules, making it possible for its consumers to get many of these services without having to visit the discom office.

Now, besides registering 'no supply', streetlights and emergency complaints, consumers can also use the upgraded mobile app for applying for new connections, paying electricity bills, view past and current billing details and get location of BSES offices, among others, the statement said.

"BSES mobile app is now available for both Android and IOS phones. Consumers can download this app from the BSES website www.bsesdelhi.com, Google Play and App Store," it added.

--IANS

bc/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI on Thursday arrested two directors of Kolkata-based computer manufacturing firm R.P. Info System for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, an official said.

Those arrested have been identified as Shivaji Panja and Kaustav Ray.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR against the firm and its directors last month following a complaint received from Canara Bank on February 26.

It is alleged that the directors of the company, Panja, Ray and Vinay Bafna, and others cheated Canara Bank and nine other consortium member banks to the tue of Rs 515.15 crore.

The other members of consortium were the State Bank of India, the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, the State Bank of Patiala, the Union Bank of India, the Allahabad Bank, the Oriental Bank of Commerce, the Central Bank of India, the Punjab National Bank and the Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents. The banks also alleged that company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account.

Canara Bank in its complaint, now part of the FIR, has alleged that the company which manufactured computers with brand name Chirag had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards.

These loans have become NPA, the FIR said.

The CBI had also booked the firm in 2015 for cheating IDBI Bank to the tune of Rs 180 crore.

--IANS

rak/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia ordered an inquiry into it on Thursday.

"Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of to investigate and lodge a complaint with the CBSE," Sisodia said in a tweet.

The Minister also said that swift action must be taken so that hard-working students do not suffer due to the "negligence of the Central Board of Secondary Education".

--IANS

nkh/in/nks/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A five-member panel of medical experts has held the Fortis Hospital in Gurugram responsible for the death of a child during treatment last year.

The Medical Negligence Board headed by Dr S.S. Saroha and including Dr Rakesh Pathak, Dr D.S. Yadav, Dr Sanjay Narula and Dr Naresh Kumar was constituted after Sanjeev Sharma, a resident of New Delhi's Ranjeet Nagar, complained to Gurugram's Chief Medical Officer that the hospital was responsible for the death of his one-and-a-half-year-old son Vansh.

Vansh was admitted in the hospital for the treatment of a genetic disease. According to the board's report, the patient underwent a bone marrow transplant (BMT) on May 1, 2017.

He subsequently suffered from fever and developed complications due to infection.

Sharma complained that the hospital officials told him that the estimated cost of treatment will be Rs 13 lakh but later raised the amount to Rs 27 lakh, but the child could not be saved.

"The hospital was supposed to provide infection-free environment but failed to do so. The hospital also charged money for BMT room but did not provide such environment," Gurugram CMO B.K. Rajora said.

"Dr Satyaprakash Yadav, pediatric hematologist and bone marrow transplant physician, said in his report in writing that the infection spread due to the negligence of the hospital and that the mortality rate in the BMT was 30 per cent," the report read.

Fortis hospital was in the news last year also after a seven-year-old Class 2 student Adya Singh died of dengue on September 14-15 night and the hospital charged nearly Rs 16 lakh for the fortnight-long treatment from the family.

Adya Singh died while being shifted to Rockland Hospital in Delhi.

In January, a Fortis doctor was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with Adhya Singh's death after a four-member probe panel, headed by Haryana's Additional Director General of Health Rajeev Vadhera, investigated the Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) in Gurugram for charging the child's Dwarka-based family an exorbitant sum and held him guilty.

Later, the licence of the hospital blood bank was suspended and authorities banned the sale of medicines at the hospital counters.

--IANS

pradeep/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 p.m. on Thursday amid sharp exchanges between former Union Minister from the TDP, Y.S. Chowdary, and the Congress members over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 under the UPA government.

Chowdary, along with another Telugu Desam Party (TDP) member Ashok Gajapathi Raju, resigned from the Union Cabinet a few days back to protest against the alleged "injustice" being meted out to Andhra Pradesh by denying the state special category status.

The TDP is a partner in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but has of late accused the BJP of going back on its words vis-a-vis granting special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The Centre, however, has said that it has been providing all the required financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh in various forms.

Minutes after the House met for the day, Chowdary stood up to explain to the House why he resigned from the government, as per Rule 241 of the Upper House's procedures.

As per the said Rule, a member has to read out from the text that he has to submit to the Chair beforehand.

However, in his remarks Chowdary deviated from the text as he blamed the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of going ahead with the bifurcation of Andhra state into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh "hastily, unjustly and unscientifically".

This, and other sharp remarks from Chowdary, created a furore in the Congress benches and some of its members came near the Chair's podium to protest against Chowdary's remarks.

Amid the ruckus, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the House till 2 p.m.

Earlier, the House paid homage to its former member Hamida Habibullah who passed away two days back aged 101 years.

--IANS

mak/in/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress is expected to state its position on alliances for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and unveil a vision document at its plenary beginning here on Friday with party chief Rahul Gandhi keen on making the three-day event "worker-centric and not leader-centric".

The plenary, being held after eight years, will ratify Rahul Gandhi's election as Congress President and outline party's strategies to oust the Narendra Modi government in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul Gandhi, 47, was elected party chief in December last and the plenary will have his definitive stamp.

Party leaders said that Rahul Gandhi is keen that it is a "workers' plenary" and those working at the grass roots would contribute in a big way during the deliberations on the resolutions.

"The focus of plenary earlier always used to be the Congress President. Rahul ji wants to shift the foucs of plenary away from himself to workers, ideologogy and resolutions. It is a major shift. Their (the workers) suggestions will be noted and also incorporated in the resolutions," a party leader said.

Names of workers who would get a chance to speak have been drawn up on the suggestions of state units.

Rahul Gandhi is also keen on greater contribution from the youth during the plenary and party leaders said that many of the AICC members, who will take part in the deliberations, were young in keeping with the country's demographic profile.

"The Congress President wants a new set of ideas to come forth," the leader said.

It is not clear yet if Rahul Gandhi will opt for election to the Congress Working Committee in keeping with his oft-repeated thrust on internal democracy or opt to nominate them as has been the general practice in the party.

There have been suggestions that he should follow the route adopted by his mother during her 19-year stewardship of the party and not exercise the option, provided in the party constitution, of going for elections to choose half the members of CWC, the highest decision-making body of the party.

The political resolution is likely to spell out the party's stance on alliances amid several suggestions that opposition parties should come together against the BJP-led NDA in 2019.

The Congress has grown considerably weak since the last plenary, when it led the ruling coalition at the Centre besides several states. It is now ruling in only Punjab, Karnataka and Mizoram, besides Puducherry.

The Congress has not been able to stage sustained comeback after its debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and faces the challenge this year to oust the BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh besides defending its government in Karnataka.

Keen to build a grass-roots campaign against the Modi govenrment, the party will come out with "facts sheets" in the form of booklets on agriculture, economy, youth, weaker sections, besides national security.

The political resolution is expected to spell out ways in which the party will go about retrieving its lost ground and political space.

It is also expected to target the government on the around Rs 13,000 crore PNB fraud and the near washout so far of the second half of Budget Session of Parliament.

There will be a separate resolution on agriculture, poverty alleviation and unemployment.

This is in keeping with stance of Rahul Gandhi who has been consistently attacking the Modi government on issues concerning farmers and unemployment.

The economic resolution is expected to highlight the "mismanagement of economy" by the government.

The plenary will begin with a meeting of steering committee on Friday which would finalise the draft resolutions.

Rahul Gandhi's speech on Saturday morning is expected to set the tone of plenary. He will also make the concluding remarks.

While former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would address the plenary, there is no certainty yet if Sonia Gandhi will speak.

While slamming the BJP-led government , the Congress is expected to present its alternative policies in the form of a vision document.

The party has invited ambassadors and high commissioners of prominent friendly nations to the plenary.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the 2018-19 budget on March 22, it was announced on Thursday.

The budget session of the Delhi Assembly will begin on Friday and continue till March 28.

Sisodia will also present the Economic Survey of Delhi in the Assembly on March 19, followed by the Outcome Budget on March 20.

On the first day of the budget session on Friday, Lt Governor Anil Baijal will address the Assembly at 11 a.m.

Ruling Aam Aadmi Party's chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Thursday that they will raise the issue of the ongoing sealing drive in the Assembly.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India has shared with other countries its insights on empowering rural women and girls at an event on the sidelines of the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women drawing on its many programmes.

Leaders, diplomats and activists heard about how India was combating domestic violence, trying to right the unbalanced sex ratio, increasing women's political participation and providing financial services and educational opportunities for women and girls.

This was at the session on "Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls: Experiences from India" organised by India's UN Mission and UN Women on Wednesday.

The deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset is responsible for many of the problems women face and action to change them must be taken on a warfooting, said Nandini Azad, president of the Indian Co-operative Network for Women.

It has to start with resocialisation of boys, who have been trained in patriarchy and consider violence against women and various forms of oppressing them to be normal, she said and recounted her experiences with conducting workshops for boys and campaigns.

The sex ratio imbalance is a serious issue and finding a solution has to start with making the girl child valuable, Azad said.

While prosecuting sex-selected foeticide and providing for the health of girls are vital, changing the mindset is more important and India was undertaking one of the biggest campaigns for it, she added.

Subhalakshmi Nandi of UN Women India said that the ads and jingles produced for the campaign can have an impact in changing the mindset by starting a discussions on the status of women and reconsidering patriarchy.

To help women in rural areas deal with domestic violence, India has set up one-stop centres where women can get police action, psychosocial help, medical care and legal assistance, said Jupaka Madhavi, a Senior Consultant with the National Mission for Empowerment of Women.

India started with 36 such centres where women can get all the help in one place, and after two years it is now increasing them to 286 centres, she said.

The centres are called "Sakhi" or "Friend" and they are developed appropriately into places where women can find people to speak and find shelter, she said.

The data gathered about the women, their experiences and the perpetrators of violence are monitored in Delhi in realtime so they can get a picture of what is happening around the country and focus their action accordingly, Madhavi said.

Paulomi Tripathi, a diplomat at India's UN Mission, said because of the size of India's population and the large number of women living in rural areas, the government's programmes to raise their status and empower them will have a global impact and be essential for achieving the UN's sustainable development goals.

India's efforts for bettering the lives of women and girls in rural areas are multi-dimensional and touch every vital area of their lives, she added.

Chetan Sanghi, a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, said: "We would like to change the paradigm to women-led development."

If there was one area where there is consensus across the political spectrum, it is on improving the status of women, he said, listing 24 programmes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has undertaken to specifically benefit women.

These range from providing free cooking gas and constructing toilets to ensuring availability of financial services and digital training in rural areas, he said.

On social issues, India has taken long strides like outlawing instant divorce, he said.

It has by law increased paid maternity leave to six months from three months, he said.

Although some responses to it were not positive and some employers demurred in allowing them or discriminated in hiring because of it, virtual portals were set up for complaints and employers were made to change their decisions, he added.

In politics, there are 1.3 million elected women representatives at the local level and 20,000 of them have so far undergone training to enable them to take charge and act independently, he said.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Apparently, the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups were not the only ones indulging in frauds related to Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed another case against former Deputy Manager of PNB, Gokulnath Shetty -- who was arrested in multi-crore fraud involving Modi and Choksi -- for allegedly issuing Letters of Undertaking worth Rs 9.09 crore to Chandri Papers.

Besides Shetty, PNB's Brady House Branch in Mumbai's Single Window Operator Manoj Hanumant Kharat and Directors of Chandri Papers -- Aditya Rasiwasia and Ishwardas Agarwal -- have also been named in the CBI FIR registered on March 9.

The CBI registered the fresh case against Shetty following a complaint filed by the PNB on the same day.

The FIR said that Shetty and Kharat entered into criminal conspiracy with the directors of the Mumbai-based Chandri Papers and defrauded the PNB to the tune of $1,421,311.82 (equivalent to Rs 9,09,63,956) by issuing two LoUs.

The FIR said that company did not have any credit limit with the bank and no margin was retained.

"The LoUs were issued on April 25, 2017 favouring State Bank of India, Antwerp, Belgium with due date of payment as on January 20, 2020," the FIR said. These are the first LoUs with a maturity period of more than two years. Earlier, the LoUs issued were with a maturity period of 360 days, although the Reserve Bank of India stipulates a maturity period of only 90 days.

The CBI had arrested Shetty in February, alongwith two other persons, in connection with the bank fraud case against Modi and Choksi.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)He can barely speak a few lines of English, yet his deep insight and observations of rural life are reshaping how we view the hinterland.

With a distinctive voice -- as fresh as it is ancient -- Perumal Murugan's novels have literally taken Indian publishing by storm. But before the storm was a life lived amid poverty, few resources, an alcoholic father and an undying urge to pursue education against all odds.

"Odds," Perumal contended in an interview to IANS, "are many." But the suggestion that odds exist only in rural settings is misplaced and reflects a certain lack of awareness, said Murugan. Whenever we call farmers poor and judge their lives, it is from the perspective of a new kind of life that is emerging in the cities -- in the clothes we wear, the food we eat.

"Comparatively, it might seem that they are suffering from poverty; but as far as I have seen and understood, agriculture is not a profession -- it is a way of life. It is something you live and breathe every day. I have always felt that it is a very fulfilling life and there is never a sense of something missing in the village. I was yearning for nothing," maintained 52-year-old Murugan, who was thrust into the limelight after his novel "Madhurobhagan" came under attack from Hindutva supporters and was declared "blasphemous" in January 2015.

A totally shattered Murugan was hounded and brutally attacked and this saga of unfortunate events culminated in a self-imposed exile from writing. In 2016, however, Murugan returned to writing, after a Madras High Court order upheld his right to free speech.

In the same year, Tamil Nadu recorded its lowest annual rainfall in 140 years and the resultant drought-like situation is what forms the backdrop of "Poonachi, Or the Story of a Black Goat" (Translator: N. Kalyan Raman; Westland). It is his first novel after the controversy -- and it just strikes the right chord.

To be able to tell a story where animals take centrestage is not easy and rarely do fiction writers take up this challenge. But here is Murugan, a man of farms and villages, telling the story of a pitch-black goat with both conviction and purpose.

A hard life lived in rural Tamil Nadu is the reason for the conviction, but the purpose is greater -- to tell the story of humans in the words of animals, especially at a time when humans are at a loss for words to speak up for themselves.

"I am fearful of writing about humans; even more fearful of writing about gods," he says in the Preface to the novel. And since it is problematic to write about cows or pigs, he explores the rather "problem-free, harmless and, above all, energetic" universe of goats.

In doing so, he tells a sordid story of our times and weaves a fictional narrative around, among other things, the increasing levels of surveillance in society. An almost authoritarian regime wants to keep a count of all the livestock that flourishes in the fields and so Poonachi has to be tagged at an office.

Not only does his novel show what fiction can achieve but also opens up new horizons for its readers. There are heartbreaking moments, there is dilemma and confusion, there is hope and fear, there is sorrow and love -- all emotions we think are limited to humans. A powerful yet poignant story such as this could have only been told by Murugan.

His desire to continue living the agrarian way of life "is very much influenced by my childhood" -- and his memories of a carefree existence, though marred by difficult phases. He was the first in his extended family to pursue education above the middle school. His father ran a soda bottle shop and they had just a small plot of agricultural land to sustain the family.

"I would walk for five kilometres to school every day. It was a period of fun and happiness... we were about 15 boys and girls going to school together. We would play on the way, study and come back playing in the same manner. So more than my time at school, I remember going and coming back every day," he said. And what they would often do was "sort of interact with animals" on the way. It seemed as if they understood the language of the animals.

When he was in class seven, the small plot of land that sustained the family was taken away by the Housing Board, creating a fresh financial crisis.

"My family was thinking of pulling me out of school so we could have an extra pair of hands in the soda shop. They said that if he fails, we will pull him out," he recalled. But the young man, living in a family struggling to make ends meet, would go on to complete his PhD -- and in Tamil literature, of all subjects.

Through his graduation and Master's degrees, Murugan published short stories in Tamil weeklies and literary magazines, but he reached a saturation point where "I felt that the short story as a form could not capture the entirety of some of the things" that he wanted to write about. "So I decided to write a novel."

"Eru Veyyil" was published in 1991 and was more of a personal story: "How the Housing Board took away our land and the saga of misfortune that followed." It also established him in the Tamil literary space.

It is near impossible for a contemporary novelist in any Indian language to command a vast readership in English. Murugan has made the impossible possible. And where, in the past, it took decades for translations to become successful, Murugan only seems to grow stronger with every novel. He may, in fact, soon emerge as the most celebrated Indian writer of our times.

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Expressing solidarity with the UK, US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has warned that if concrete measures were not initiated, "Russia will use chemical weapons here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this Council".

Haley said the Donald Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain" following a nerve agent attack against a Russian double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week, the CNN reported.

In the strongest statement yet from the US administration on the affair, Haley said Washington shared the UK's assessment that the Russian state was behind the poisoning and demanded a firm international response.

"The US believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the UK using a military-grade nerve agent," Haley said in her remarks at a UN Security Council emergency session on Wednesday, blasting the Russian government for flouting international law, the CNN report said.

"If we don't take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used," said Haley.

"They could be used here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this council."

Russia, however, has dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack which landed the Skripals, along with a British police officer, in the hospital.

The UK believes Russia was behind the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia because of the nerve agent used. Novichok, was developed in the Soviet Union and could not be replicated by non-state actors, CNN quoted UK officials as saying.

London on Wednesday announced it would expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow failed to meet a UK deadline to give a "credible response".

Moscow's Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, even suggested the UK might have been responsible for the attack in an attempt to smear Russia. "In the Russian Federation, no scientific research or development work under the title Novichok were carried out," he told the Security Council.

Laying the blame firmly at Russia's door and highlighting Moscow's support of the Assad regime in Syria following that government's use of chemical weapons against civilians, Haley told fellow diplomats the world had reached "a defining moment".

"Time and time again, members states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance," said Haley. "Now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member.

"The credibility of this Council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable," she said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif invited Pakistan and China earlier this week to join the strategic Chabahar port project, India on Thursday said that it is Iran's prerogative to choose its partner for development of the port's infrastructure facilities.

"It is the prerogative of the government of Iran to choose its partner for the development of infrastructure facilities at the port," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media here.

"But at the same time, you are aware that India is supporting the development of Chabahar port as a robust and alternate access route to and from Afghanistan and central Asia," Kumar said.

Stating that significant progress has been made in operationalising the port, he said that four shipments of wheat to Afghanistan via Chabahar have been successfully sent and one shipment is scheduled to leave next month.

On Monday, Zarif had invited Pakistan to participate in the Chabahar port project that connects India to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

"We offered to participate in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). We have also offered Pakistan and China to participate in Chabahar," Zarif said while delivering a lecture at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad.

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.

Kumar also recalled that during Iran President Hassan Rouhani's visit to India last month, an agreement was signed with regard to interim operations of the Chabahar port.

"India's assistance for building Chabahar-Zahedan railway to realise the full potential of the port to connect to Afghanistan and central Asia also came up for discussion during that visit," he said.

"We continue to work with Iran on the full and effective operationalisation of the Chabahar port."

On Zarif's offer of Iran participating in the CPEC that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Kumar said that he would not like to comment or respond "to the distorted picture and falsehood that is routinely propagated by Pakistan".

"On the contrary, the fact that Pakistan is an epicentre of terrorism harbouring globally designated terrorists and other entities and providing safe haven and sanctuaries to them is a well-known fact," he said.

"Our position on Jammu and Kashmir is well-known and is consistent. Any action to alter the status of any part of the territory under the illegal and forcible occupation of Pakistan has no legal basis."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Iranian Foreign Ministry has slammed the US for its "interventionist" stance towards Syria.

The US "hostile" policies against the countries of the region is nothing new, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Wednesday, warning the US government against any "foolish" action on Syria, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Should America insists on such policies, the nations of the region will react and show that they won't accept foreign presence in their region," Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tehran Times.

US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Monday that Washington was ready to unilaterally "act" against Syria, just as it did last year when it bombed a Syrian government air base.

Her remarks followed the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government against its people.

Unlike the US-led coalition, Iran is present in Syria upon the official request of Damascus to help the country fight terrorism, said Qasemi.

"We hope peace returns to Syria through diplomacy," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday paid rich tributes to Dalit leader Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary, terming him a great social reformer and one who left an indelible mark on Indian

"Honourable Kanshi Ram was a great social reformer. His tireless efforts to connect the suppressed communities with and change left an indelible impression on Indian I bow to him on his birth anniversary," Gandhi said in a tweet.

Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram was born on March 15, 1934 at Khawaspur village in Ropar district of Punjab.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Kriti Kharbanda says she supports love marriage and that she is not the kind of person who can be instructed to fall in love.

In the movie "Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana", her character was against the concept of arranged marriage. What does she prefer in real life - love or arranged marriage?

"I am all for love marriage. I am not the kind of person who can be instructed to fall in love. I am not saying that it cannot happen. Most of my family members met the person and decided to get married. Their marriages have worked beautifully. I am a little more than that as I believe in love and companionship," Kriti said in a statement.

What's her take on women having a career post-marriage?

"I am all for career whether pre or post-marriage. A girl shouldn't say, 'You can eat because I cook' or the boy saying 'You are able to cook because I am bringing money home'. I believe equality in a relationship is very important and for that, both partners should be equally capable to handle anything," said the "Raaz Reboot" actress.

"Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana" is set for its world television premiere on Zee Cinema on Saturday.

"I fell in love with the script. The first time I met (director) Ratnaa Sinha, she gave me such a positive vibe. She seemed like someone who really loves and is passionate about Bollywood films," said the actress.

On her upcoming projects, she said: "I am currently working on the third instalment of 'Yamla Pagla Deewana'. I am thoroughly enjoying myself. We are almost done with the shoot and looking forward to its release soon. I am also working on a movie titled 'Karwan' with Dulquer Salmaan and Irrfan Khan. I play Dulquer's love interest in it."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As the deadlock continued for the ninth consecutive day in Parliament, the government on Thursday managed to pass two bills in the Lok Sabha without discussion even as members from different parties were protesting over several issues including the PNB bank fraud and the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Like the passage of the Finance Bill, 2018 as well as the Appropriation Bill and demands for grants on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha, the two bills--The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2017--were passed by voice vote in the lower house without any debate amidst din. Then the House was adjourned for the day.

Members from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) gathered near the Speaker's podium, and kept protesting while the bills were passed.

When the House reassembled after the first adjournment, Minister of State for Labour, Santosh Kumar Gangwar moved The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which was passed through voice vote in the din.

The government then moved The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which was also passed amid din through voice vote.

The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 amendment increases the upper ceiling of the gratuity from the present Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.

Under The Specific Relief Amendment Bill, certain civil courts may be designated as Special Courts by the state government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of a High Court.

The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day soon after it met after multiple earlier adjournments, amid a ruckus by the Congress, TDP and AIADMK members who thronged near the Chair's podium shouting slogans and displaying placards.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed noisy scenes as some of the Congress members trooped near the chair's podium taking exception to the remarks by former Union Minister and TDP leader Y. S. Chowdary on the bifurcation of the United Andhra Pradesh.

He alleged that the formation of Andhra Pradesh in February, 2014 was hasty and unscientific. The Congress members strongly protested his remark and forced the chair to adjourn the House.

The situation was not different when it met at 2 p.m. and again at 3 p.m.

The upper house was scheduled to take up the Finance Bill and two Appropriation Bills for discussion and returning to the Lok Sabha. However, the Bills could not be taken up in the house as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the AIADMK members created pandemonium.

The TDP members have been agitating over the alleged "injustice" meted out to Andhra Pradesh by the Centre by not giving it special status, while the AIADMK has been demanding the constitution of a Cauvery Water Board to look into the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked the agitating MPs to go back to their seats, saying if the House was not in order he would have to adjourn it and the responsibility for the house's failure to pass the Finance and Appropriation Bills would lie with "those who are shouting slogans".

"The responsibility for not taking up the Finance Bill is on you," Kurien told the MPs who had gathered near his seat before adjourning the house for the day.

As the logjam continued, the government expressed concern and urged the parties to ensure smooth functioning of both the houses by participating in debates while the Congress blamed the "allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" for not allowing the house to function.

"The proceedings of the House must not be disrupted under any circumstances. People expect that their elected representatives would raise their issues and actively participate in parliamentary debates," Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told reporters seeking cooperation from all political parties to ensure the smooth functioning of Parliament.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that parliament was expected to function but "the allies of the BJP" were not allowing it to.

The members from the Congress, the Trinamool and some other opposition parties have been protesting against the banking fraud committed by Nirav Modi and his associates, while the TDP and the YSR Congress have been demonstrating for special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The AIADMK has been demanding the setting up of a board for the management of the Cauvery river water.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Pune court on Thursday sent to police custody till March 19 Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote who has been accused of provoking the January 1 caste riots of Bhima-Koregaon in Maharashtra.

Ekbote, leader of the rightwing Hindu Ekta Aghadi, was arrested on Wednesday after the Supreme Court dismissed his plea for anticipatory bail.

His arrest followed two First Information Reports (FIRs) lodged in early January by Dalit activists Sushma Andhare and Anita Salve against Ekbote and another rightwing leader from Sangli, Sambhaji Bhide alias Guruji.

The complainants accused them of instigating, planning and orchestrating the violence during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Anglo-Maratha War between the army of Peshwa Bajirao II which was vanquished by a small force of East India Company that comprised a large number of Dalits.

During the rioting that shook Bhima-Koregaon and surroundings, a youth from Nanded was killed and properties worth over Rs 13 crore was damaged or destroyed.

Ekbote has been charged with provoking the riots, criminal conspiracy, rioting armed with deadly weapons, unlawful assembly, defiling places of worship with intent to insult religion and more.

Earlier, Pune Rural Police summoned Ekbote on at least five occasions but he appeared only once and then allegedly failed to cooperate in the probe.

Meanwhile, he applied for anticipatory bail in Pune Sessions Court which was rejected on January 22 and again dismissed by the Bombay High Court on February 2.

Thereafter, the Pune Sessions Court issued an arrest warrant against Ekbote, who moved the Supreme Court for interim bail which was granted till March 14 but only after rapping the state government for tardy progress in the investigations.

In its report to the apex court, the state government said he was not cooperating with the investigation.

Accordingly, a bench of Justice M.B. Lokur, Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice Deepak Gupta dismissed Ekbote's bail plea on Wednesday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 26-year-old female Ph.D student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, who went missing from the campus a few days ago, has been found in Lucknow, police said on Thursday.

"Pooja Kasana had left her hostel on the JNU campus on her own. She was found roaming in Lucknow and has since returned to Delhi. She has not joined the police investigation," Deputy Commissioner of Police Milind Mahadeo Dumbere told IANS.

As for her comments on her guide Professor A.K. Johri's conduct, there has been no complaint on the issue. "We will conduct a probe if she complains to police," Dumbere said.

Kasana had left the campus on March 10 after talking to her family that she was going out for dinner with friends. Her mobile phone was found switched off since then, the officer said.

"Her father Sheeshpal Singh and brother Pradeep, residents of Ghaziabad, visited her hostel and found her room locked on Sunday. On Monday, they complained to police that they suspected she was kidnapped."

Kasana, a first-year research scholar in the School of Life Sciences, told police that she had left her hostel of her own will after sending in her resignation through an email to Professor Johri.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda was Thursday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh for a second stint.

Nadda, the only candidate who filed nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the hill state, was elected after the expiry of time for withdrawal of nomination papers, an official told IANS.

In the 68-member house, the BJP has a two-thirds majority with 44 seats. Two independents are also supporting the government.

The opposition Congress, which has a strength of 21 legislators, had not contested the poll.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Google on Thursday rolled out Hindi support for its virtual assistant Google. The Assistant in Hindi will be available on Android phones 6.0+ (Marshmallow and above) and will soon come to Android 5.0 Lollipop, iPhones as well as Android Oreo (Go edition) devices.

Google Assistant is already available in Hindi in the instant-messaging platform Allo and in a special version on Reliance Jio feature phones.

"In order to make it even more useful to Indians over time, developers and businesses can now build Actions for the Hindi Assistant through the developer platform Actions on Google," said Purvi Shah, Technical Programme Manager, Assistant.

"Once an action is built, you can just say "Ok Google, talk to" and access the service or content straight through your Google Assistant," she added.

To try it out, just touch and hold the Home button or say "Ok Google" on eligible smartphones and your personal Google Assistant will be ready to help.

To access the Hindi Google Assistant, set your device language to Hindi and update your Google Search app to the latest version.

Google Assistant will be available in more than 30 languages by the end of this year.

"The Assistant is already available in eight languages, and by the end of the year it will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 per cent of all eligible Android phones worldwide," Nick Fox, Vice President of Product, Google wrote in a recent blog post.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was flying to Sweden on Thursday, the Swedish government said, raising the possibility that his trip might be aimed at contacting US officials ahead of a proposed summit between the two countries.

Sweden, whose Embassy represents US interests in the North Korean capital, has been touted as a possible venue for the momentous summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. The visit fuels speculation that a Stockholm encounter is in the cards, Yonhap news agency reported.

Ri will stay in Sweden for two days during which he is scheduled to meet Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish Ministry said.

"The talks will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the US, Canada and Australia," the Ministry said in a press release. "They will also address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, which is high on the Security Council agenda."

The security situation on the Korean Peninsula was also on the agenda.

Ri's trip to Sweden came after Trump accepted Kim's summit proposal, which was delivered by South Korea's presidential security adviser, adding he wants the meeting to be held by May. The North has yet to make any official announcement about the planned summit.

Earlier, Ri was spotted at the Beijing international airport as he was on his way to Sweden. Choe Kang-il, a senior North Korean diplomat handling US affairs, was also said to have arrived at the airport.

A South Korean government official earlier dismissed chances for contact between the US and North Korea in Sweden, saying that Ri's visit must be intended to strengthen ties with the European country.

"I haven't heard that the US has anything to do with his trip to Sweden," he said. "If the North wants to talk to the US, there would be no reason for its top diplomat to travel all the way to the European country. It could use the existing New York channel to communicate with the US."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Odisha Minister Jayanarayan Mishra was on Thursday arrested in connection with a firing incident in which a Biju Janata Dal worker had died in Bargarh district.

The police also arrested another accused Sibu Diwan. A total of eight persons have been arrested in the firing incident so far.

A police team led by Padampur sub-divisional police officer Laxmi Narayan Panda raided Mishra's house in Sambalpur and took him into custody for questioning.

Mishra was later arrested for his alleged link with the perpetrators of the violence.

"We have arrested Mishra for his alleged link with the firing incident in which one person was killed. We will produce him in court today (Thursday)," said a Padampur sub-divisional police officer.

Some miscreants had attacked Minister Sushanta Singh's brother Subrat Singh, his driver Dileswar Sahu and two other associates at Banabira village under Sohela block of Bargarh district on February 22.

The incident occurred two days before the Bijepur by-election held on February 24.

Dileswar Sahu, who sustained a critical head injury in the attack, died at the SCB Hospital in Cuttack.

Reacting to the arrest, Labour Minister Sushanta Singh said Mishra is the prime accused in the Banbira attack.

"There is no question of in the arrest. Mishra is involved in the violence which led to death of a person," said Singh.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Using a two-pronged tactic in the Human Rights Council, Pakistan has raised the Kashmir issue while speaking on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and then for itself.

In its reply during the debate on Wednesday at the UN in Geneva, India rejected the OIC statement saying the group had no standing in India's internal affairs and accused Pakistan of using "terrorism as a state policy under the guise of concern for human rights."

Islamabad also brought up Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on death row in Pakistan accused of being an Indian intelligence agent, while replying to India's counter statement.

Sumit Seth, a Counsellor in India's Mission in Geneva, said that the world does not need lessons in democracy and human rights from a "failed state" that has a record of protecting terrorists like Osama Bin Laden, persecuting minorities with blasphemy laws and enforcing disappearances.

"As regards the references to India in the OIC statement of earlier today, we outrightly reject all those references," he said. "The OIC has no locus standi on India's internal affairs."

A Second Secretary in Pakistan's Geneva UN Mission, Qazi Saleem Ahmed Khan, speaking on behalf of the OIC, tried to link Kashmir to Palestine.

Speaking about a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, Ahed Tamimi, who is on trial before an Israeli military tribunal on charges of assaulting Israeli soldiers, he slipped in a reference to Insha Mushtaq, a 16-year-old Kashmiri girl who lost her eyesight when hit by pellets fired by security forces.

In September, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Maleeha Lodhi held up a picture of an injured Palestinian girl that had been published in The New York Times claiming she was Kashmiri.

Later during Wednesday's debate, Pakistan's Permanent Representative in Geneva, Faruk Amil, said he was concerned about what he called the drift of India towards a "political order marked by extremism and rank communalism."

He referred to the beef controversy in India and alleged that Muslims carrying beef were being lynched.

Seth, in his right of reply said, "Various international organisations have repeatedly reported on how enforced disappearances continue with impunity in Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh where people are routinely abducted and unlawfully killed."

"More than a million people remain displaced as a result of the current and past armed conflicts in the northwest of Pakistan," he added.

"Women and girls, especially from minority communities, are abducted and forcibly married. The minorities are persecuted, including through notorious blasphemy laws."

"Terrorism is the most fundamental violation of human rights," he added. "Pakistan has long been attempting to mask its territorial ambitions in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inseparable part of India, and use of terrorism as a state policy under the guise of concern for human rights."

"Pakistan has continued to support cross-border terrorism in India," he said.

"We await credible action by the government of Pakistan to bring all those involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack and the 2016 Pathankot and Uri attacks to justice."

"Is it not woefully farcical that the state which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar should make the pretence of being a victim," he asked.

Adding that in gross violation of a Security Council resolution, UN designated terrorists like Hafiz Mohammed Saeed were freely operating in Pakistan with government support, and the groups designated as terrorist "are being politically mainstreamed in Pakistan".

Replying to Seth, a Pakistani delegate accused India of promoting terrorism in his country and claimed that Jadhav's arrest was proof of it.

He was cut off by the chair for exceeding his time limit as he made a long attack on India.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain on Thursday said that the poison Novichok used to attack a former spy and his daughter was manufactured by Russia.

"Novichok, which is a military grade nerve agent, cannot be manufactured by a non-state sponsor. It was identified by our world leading experts of defence science and technology departments," British High Commissioner to India Dominique Asquith told the media here.

According to him, there were "two plausible explanationsa of the attack - "either a direct act by Russia against Britain or the (Russian) government lost control of the military grade nerve agents'.

Former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, Sergei V. 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.

Skripal, who is a retired Russian military intelligence officer, was jailed for 13 years by Russia in 2006 for spying for Britain.

In retaliation to the incident, British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats. The reaction came from Britain after Russia denied any involvement in the attempted murder.

"The 23 expelled diplomats have been identified as under-clad intelligence officers," Asquith said.

"We provided the Russian government an opportunity to respond and their denial clearly demonstrated total disdain. They did not give any explanation how the agent came to be used in Britain."

The High Commissioner said that Britain will consider whether more measures were necessary as the investigation continues.

"We took some action as we were entitled to. We have our own weapon convention act and we followed that," he added.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview to news agency Sputnik on Wednesday said that Russia would also expel Britain diplomats "soon".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Public sector banks (PSBs) are important for the country, but there should be better governance and monitoring, said former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Bimal Jalan, adding that the recent Punjab National Bank (PNB) multi-crore fraud was a painful crisis.

"The character of public sector banks is extremely important... in public interest," Jalan said in an interview to BTVI, adding: "The only thing that we need to move on is regarding the governance structure of the public sector banking system. Much more autonomy should be given to the boards and (they should be made) accountable for the performance."

The PSBs are extremely important from the country's point of view, he said, as they are the ones which have expanded to rural and semi-urban areas and into the agriculture sector, where the largest section of Indians are employed.

"By and large this particular PNB crisis (Rs 13,540 crore fraud) is a very painful crisis from the systemic point of view," he said, adding: "I hope now we will see some improvement in the structure and management of the banking system and accountability of the boards of different public sector banks for performance and monitoring outcomes."

The banks should be accountable and the government should monitor their performance, he said.

The former RBI governor noted that the governance system is crucial for PSBs to function and they must stick to international standards in terms of cash reserve ratio and non-performing assets, among others.

With the recent reforms, such as the bankruptcy code, and prospective reforms in management and governance, the situation in the non-performing asset-ridden PSBs is likely to return to normal in two years time, he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday evening after the BJP's defeat in three Lok Sabha byelections and is believed to have discussed unity among opposition parties to take on the BJP-led NDA in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said that the meeting lasted about 90 minutes and the two leaders are believed to have discussed the political scenario after BJP's shock defeats in Phulpur and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and its inability to wrest Araria seat in Bihar from the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Gorakhpur seat was vacated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath and Phulpur by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The BSP had supported Samajwadi Party candidates in the two seats in order to defeat the BJP and the verdict is being seen as a template for opposition parties coming together in 2019.

The two leaders are believed to have discussed ways to take on Narendra Modi government inside and outside the Parliament.

Both Gandhi and Pawar were together at the dinner hosted by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for leaders of 19 opposition parties on Tuesday.

Pawar had also held meetings of opposition parties in January.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned for the day soon after it met at 3 p.m. after multiple earlier adjournments, amid a ruckus by the TDP and AIADMK members who thronged near the Chair's podium shouting slogans and displaying placards.

The Congress blamed the "allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" for not allowing the house to function.

The upper house was scheduled to take up the Finance Bill and two Appropriation Bills for discussion and returning to the Lok Sabha. However, the Bills could not be taken up in the house as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the AIADMK members created pandemonium.

The TDP is a partner in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) while the AIADMK is friendly towards the BJP and is with the government for all practical purposes.

The TDP members have been agitating over the alleged "injustice" meted out to Andhra Pradesh by the Centre by not giving it special status, while the AIADMK has been demanding the constitution of a Cauvery Water Board to look into the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked the agitating MPs to go back to their seats, saying if the House was not in order he would have to adjourn it and the responsibility for the house's failure to pass the Finance and Appropriation Bills would lie with "those who are shouting slogans".

"The responsibility for not taking up the Finance Bill is on you," Kurien told the MPs who had gathered near his seat before adjourning the house for the day.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the house was expected to function but "the allies of the BJP" were not allowing it to.

Earlier, TDP member and former Union Minister Y.S. Chowdary sought permission to complete the statement he was making in the morning under Rule 242 on why he resigned from the government.

However, Kurien said it was appropriate that Chowdary seek the Chairman's permission the next day as it was the latter who had aborted his statement in the morning.

Chowdary had blamed the earlier Congress-led UPA government for rushing with the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 "hastily, unjustly and unscientifically", which led to an uproar in the house.

Naidu then adjourned the upper house till 2 p.m.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russia will also expel UK diplomats "soon", Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, in response to the expulsion of 23 Russian envoys by Britain.

Lavrov in an interview to Sputnik news agency said that the expulsions would "definitely" happen.

Britain on Tuesday ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats believed involved in espionage-related activities, in the first wave of measures against Moscow for a nerve gas attack on a former double agent.

British Prime Minister Theresa May also outlined a range of other steps, including a halt to high-level meetings with Russian officials and calling off a planned visit to Britain by Lavrov.

May repeated the conclusion of British investigators that Russia had either deployed or lost control of dangerous nerve agents used in the attack -- targeting former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal-- and said Russia's defiant response has "demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events".

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dubbed the UK claims in the Skripal poisoning case as "insane".

Britain is refusing to cooperate with Russia in the case, Zakharova said, adding that Moscow sent to London four diplomatic notes to hold talks on the issue but received only "non-committal replies".

"Russia has officially expressed readiness to work, using all the mechanisms and tools of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), but London has been unwilling to cooperate with us within the legal framework, and the trend is only growing," she was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.

"We are again officially calling on Great Britain to provide all the materials on the incident, as they call it, with the spread of chemical weapons on UK territory," Zakharova said.

She also said that the UK had been "pushing" Russian diplomats out of the country via visa mechanisms for several years.

"Thus, Moscow has no doubt that London has launched an anti-Russian campaign... Britain's attitude showed that the Russophobic hysteria had reached a new level," Zakharova said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court on Thursday lashed out at a section of the media for what it said was "irresponsible reporting" and observed that they should not feel like the "Pope sitting on the pulpit".

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in particular criticised the electronic media and websites against baseless publications, containing insinuations, and emphasised the importance of "responsible journalism".

Justice Misra said: "Many in the electronic media think they can write anything. Whatever excites your imagination -- you can write anything and get away... can some people sit on the pulpit and write anything? Is that journalism?"

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits... are they free to write anything? What they write sometimes is sheer contempt of court," the CJI observed.

Stressing that he was not commenting on the case before the bench, Justice Misra added: "You cannot reproduce anything that comes to your heart and mind. There has to be some basis. You cannot nurture, construct, construe, create anything. That's not the culture of journalism."

"The question of gagging the media does not come at all. I have myself rebuffed all attempts to gag the media, but we do expect the media, especially electronic media, to become more responsible. They cannot publish anything only because they have some websites," Justice Misra said while cautioning such electronic media and websites.

Justice Misra's remarks came during the hearing of an appeal by news portal "The Wire" and its founding editors and journalist against the Gujarat High Court's January 8 order, refusing to quash summons issued against them by a trial court.

Journalist Rohini Singh's article on the company of Jay Shah, son of BJP President Amit Shah, was published in "The Wire". The article claimed Jay's company's turnover grew exponentially after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.

The top court asked the Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jay Shah last year against the news portal and its journalists.

The bench also comprising Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud asked Jay Shah to filed his response within two weeks.

The High Court had in January, rejecting the website's petition for quashing of the criminal defamation case filed by Jay Shah, had said that based on initial impression, there was a case against the reporter and editors.

The article "The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah" is per say defamatory and the trial court should proceed with the case, the High Court had ordered.

In October 2017, Jay Shah had filed a criminal defamation case in the trial court in Gujarat after 'The Wire' article.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Shia LaBeouf says he "f***ed up" in regards to his arrest in Georgia last year, where he was caught for public drunkenness while filming "The Peanut Butter Falcon".

In October the same year, he was found guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction and was placed on a year's probation.

"I f****d up," LaBeouf told Esquire magazine of the incident, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"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," he added.

On July 8 last year, LaBeouf got drunk and asked two pedestrians, one of whom was a police officer, to share a smoke. The request was denied.

He ignored the policeman who asked him to calm down and was handcuffed and brought to police station. A footage showed the actor bragging about his "millionaire lawyers".

The morning he got out of jail, he attended a small party of the cast and crew. No one brought up the arrest into topic.

Then, Zachary Gottsagen arrived and told him, "You're already famous. This is my chance. And you're ruining it."

Recalling the moment, he said: "To hear him say that he was disappointed in me probably changed the course of my life."

LaBeaouf also got drunk while filming "Lawless (2012)".

He drank to get into character, and then wrote a message from his character into the door of Mia Wasikowska's hotel room and he knocked his co-star Tom Hardy out.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lankan Muslims and supporters protested outside the UN against the recent violence targeting their community, and for some of them it had been an intimate family tragedy.

While participating in the demonstration of about 250 people, on Wednesday, they narrated to IANS the harrowing moments they went through as they helplessly shared the trauma in real time over the phone with their families as the relatives were besieged by mobs during the riots.

Munir Salim's parent's home was destroyed and car set ablaze by a rampaging mob in Welekada Ambalateena near Kandy on March 7, and his elderly parents and his sister with her five children barely managed to survive only because the rioters could not break the main door.

But they set fire to the second floor of the house, where his sister lived, said Salim, who is the president of the Sri Lanka Muslim Association of New Jersey.

His sister fled downstairs with her children and survived with her parents, he added.

"I was feeling helpless talking to my parents when they first told me how they were throwing stones at our house and setting fire to the mosque and the shops in the area," he said.

The rioters then moved away for a while seeking other targets, then returned to set the fire to the house and the properties as he was calling them back, he said.

The houses of two of his aunts nearby were also attacked and his cousin had to carry his paralysed mother as they fled for their lives, he said.

There were two deaths, injuries to dozens of people, hundreds of houses and businesses destroyed and several mosques damaged during the riots that started on February 26 and continued till March 10.

Sri Lanka imposed a State of Emergency and deployed troops to quell the violence.

For Shihana Mohamed it was a heartbreak, listening over the phone as her family's history of living harmoniously in the Kandy area for more than a thousand years, unraveled on March 6, she said.

She told IANS that her sister-in-law fractured her leg while fleeing the fury of the mob that attacked her brother's house, destroying it and burning his car in Kengalla, also near Kandy.

Her 83-year-old bedridden uncle's house was also attacked, she said, and his family had to carry him to safety.

As she was hearing about the attacks on her phone, she said that she wept and then desperately called diplomats asking for help.

While the attacks were taking place, the security personnel stationed nearby did not intervene, she said.

Mohamed said that while the attackers were Sinhala extremists, there were other Sinhalas who came to the aid of Muslims at risk to themselves.

The Sinhala family next to her brother's house tried to intervene, but the mob over-ran them, while a Sinhala neighbour stopped the rioters from burning down her house, even though they managed to break the windows, she said.

Her uncle was protected initially by a Sinhala, she said.

In another instance of communal amity, she said a Tamil family sheltered her sister-in-law, who had broken her leg.

For her family this was the second setback. During riots in 1989, which were not overtly communal but more political, her family's properties were destroyed and they had to rebuild home and business.

The Association of Sri Lankan Muslims in North America (Tasmina), which organised the protest, demanded that the UN intervene and hold the Sri Lankan government responsible for bringing the rioters to justice and protect minorities.

Ghazzali Wadood, who was one of the protesters, said, "It is the ultra-nationalists who are responsible for the attacks. The government should take action against the politicians behind the attacks."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stephen Hawking was a longtime friend to NASA, and a brilliant cosmologist and an inspiration to generations around the world, said the US space agency in honour of the acclaimed British physicist, who died a day ago.

Hawking died early on Wednesday leaving millions across the globe in mourning. He was 76.

"Today, the world lost a giant among men, whose impact cannot be overstated," acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, said in a statement, late on Wednesday.

"Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Stephen Hawking.

"Along with groundbreaking and inspiring work came another attribute that made Stephen a hero not just to younger generations, but also to his peers.

"A longtime friend to NASA, Stephen was a passionate communicator who wanted to share the excitement of discovery with all."

"His loss is felt around the world by all he inspired with his work and his personal story of perseverance."

Hawking's relationship with NASA spanned years.

In 2007, Hawking took his first flight in microgravity from NASA's Kennedy Spaceflight Centre. On April 21, 2008, Hawking and his daughter Lucy delivered a lecture as part of NASA's 50th anniversary.

Speaking of the importance of human spaceflight, Hawking concluded, "If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata aboard the International Space Station spoke with Hawking during their 2014 mission.

A year later, he made a video congratulating the New Horizons team for their successful flyby of Pluto.

Sharing the video earlier on Wednesday on Twitter, NASA said: "Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science.

"His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014"

"We explore because we are human, and we want to know," Hawking had said in the video.

Hawking's best known work found that black holes should glow, emitting what is now known as Hawking radiation.

"Although humanity has lost one of the most prominent cosmologists and astrophysicists of our time, his work and vision will last forever," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"His ability to communicate to the general public about the importance to study the universe and move science forward is a legacy that will endure to achieve greater heights to explore the solar system and beyond," Zurbuchen added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday presented a deficit budget for the year 2018-19.

Holding the Finance portfolio, Panneerselvam presented a budget that projected a revenue deficit of Rs 17,491 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 44,481 crore.

He said the total revenue for the state, including transfers from the central government, were estimated at Rs 176,251 crore for the next fiscal.

The expenditure for the next fiscal is estimated at Rs 193,742 crore.

Panneerselvam said the fall in tax revenue growth has been significant in 2017-18, owing to the reduction in commercial and state excise tax.

According to Panneerselvam, the economy would pick up the next fiscal and the signals are there in the growth of the gross state domestic product (GSDP).

He said the government's total debt is expected to be Rs 3.55 lakh crore next fiscal end, which will be 22.29 per cent of the GSDP.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The in-camera trial into the allegations of rape involving former editor-in-chief of Tehelka Tarun Tejpal got underway in a Goa court on Thursday, with the court recording the statement of the victim.

While the media has been barred from entering the courtroom, a lawyer associated with the case said, that Additional District and Sessions Court judge Vijaya Pol had begun recording the statement of the victim.

"The recording of the statement is expected to last till the end of the day," the lawyer said.

Before entering the courtroom located in a judicial complex in Mapusa, a short distance from Panaji, Tejpal briefly told reporters that the "truth will come out soon".

In 2013, when he was editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, Tejpal was accused of rape by a female colleague, who in her complaint to the police alleged that she was raped by the journalist in the elevator of a five-star resort in Goa where the magazine was hosting an international conclave.

Following the registration of FIR, Tejpal was arrested and remained in police and judicial custody for nearly a year, before being released on bail.

Tejpal subsequently resigned as the magazine's head.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Slamming the Congress for a hasty and unscientific division of Andhra Pradesh, TDP leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Thursday also told the BJP to keep its promises to the state.

Raju, who was the Aviation Minister, resigned along with party colleague Y.S. Chowdary from the Modi government to protest against the "injustice" meted out to Andhra Pradesh by denying the state special category status.

Making a scathing attack on the Congress, which oversaw Andhra's bifurcation, Raju said the division put a strain on the democratic process which was unparalleled in the world.

"Andhra Pradesh being reduced to the residue state of Andhra Pradesh in a rather unscientific manner threw its people in a situation where (they were) deprived of institutions, infrastructure, capital... reduced to the lowest per capita income among the region," he said in the Lok Sabha.

"Moreover, the way the division took place, along with the strain it put on democratic process, is probably unparalleled in any democratic republic in the world," Raju said, amid uproar from Congress benches.

"Intensive discussions addressing all concerns was absent. We were thankful to the then opposition who extracted reluctant assurances from the then government which raised hopes over future."

He said that while farmers gave up land to set up institutions in the new capital, "they find it difficult to accept complicated figures and drafts" and were baffled that assurances given in Parliament were still being debated.

Saying the TDP always had a "national outlook", he said: "Trying to get all shades of political thoughts on a common platform is not easy. Yet the effort continues. Telugus have always been proud Indians.

"Democratic processes should always address people's aspirations. It is in this context that I hope that the points raised during the division will be attended to logically," he said.

Raju thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending cooperation to the two TDP ministers.

The TDP has been protesting in Parliament since the budget was presented, stating the state had not been given the due it was promised when Telangana was created.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Film: "The Square"; Director: Ruben Ostlund; Cast: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Christopher Laesso; Rating: ***

Director Ruben Ostlund's "The Square" won the prestigious Palme d'Ore award at the Cannes Film Festival last year and is a force to reckon with, especially for its social commentary on the conflicting status of social class, power, fear and the behavioural reactions to each of these.

It is an atypical, funny and amusing art house film about an art house, specifically a pretentious Stockholm museum devoted to progressive modern art. It is a satire.

The gallery, a cold lonely place, full of large open spaces, white walls and quiet staff marginalised on the edges of the rooms, displays isolated installations where patrons try to find meaning in them.

The flow of the narrative is contradictory. It is linear and coherent, but also feels spontaneous and unpredictable with exaggerated humour, cynicism and briefly violent.

The plot, lined up with several real-life incidents, is sometimes mounted in lush cinematic saga that makes the heavy or awkward points about all sorts of uncomfortable and pressing contemporary topics amusing. In fact, though on-the-face, the audience is forced to find meaning in the scenes, just like how one does in abstract paintings.

Director Ostlund, though artistic in his approach, has used abstruse motifs, characters, jokes and cultural criticism. He unravels his oeuvre through the perspective of a sophisticated, highly educated and instinctively liberal art museum curator, Christian (Claes Bang), who during an interview with Anne (Elisabeth Moss) - an American journalist - finds it difficult to explain his major cutting edge artistic project.

The project has a square outlined in an open area and a message that reads: "The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations."

The square represents a political and ethical construct rather than simply a physical space. It represents people's sheltered nature as they hide from realities outside their comfort zones and social classes.

The actual narrative kicks off after a bizarre public incident in which Christian admirably protects a hysterical woman from being thrashed by an angry man. After the incident, he finds that his wallet and phone are stolen, which leads him to believe that the culprits live in a dodgy part of town.

So, with the help of his colleague Michael (Christopher Laesso) he tries tracing his stuff, which prompts him to send a moralistic letter to all the residents in the area. The outcome of the exercise is the crux of the narrative.

On a separate note, we see him battling with; on personal issues with Anne and his daughters and on his professional front - a charity dinner and a distasteful marketing campaign going awry.

Every scene, though ambiguous and imperfect, is predominantly stretched to emphasise. The first two acts meander haphazardly and the final act seems to be wrapped up in a hurry, making the film seem a bit abrupt.

However, the tonal shifts from comedic to fearful, show how an unfamiliar social situation or environment affects our emotions.

The performances of every actor are effortless and natural. In keeping with the theme of the film, how the characters switch from Swedish to English also typifies their moving from their comfort zones.

The film, with ace production values - the camerawork, sound designs and production designs - work towards a potent and stylishly disturbing film which is more of a creative fantasy. Overall, the film may appeal only to a few.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Designer Tommy Hilfiger says he has always admired Formula One World champion Lewis Hamilton for his incredible career as a racing driver.

Hilfiger, who launched his eponymous brand in 1985, has got Hamilton on board as the new global brand ambassador for men's range, including Hilfiger Collection, Tommy Hilfiger Tailored and Tommy Hilfiger Sportswear, Underwear and Swimwear, starting Spring 2018, read a statement.

"I have always admired Lewis' incredible endurance during the race as well as his unique style off the track, which speak to the new generation of Tommy Guys," Hilfiger said.

"He has built his incredible career as a racing driver with passion, dedication and extremely hard work - values I embraced when founding my brand. We have a history with Formula One, and this partnership builds on our heritage of collaborations within the world of motorsport," he added.

Hamilton said he believes in the "power of fashion and innovation to celebrate individuality and break conventions" like the fashion brand.

"Tommy's designs inspire me to be bold in every outfit that I put together outside of the racing track, expressing my creativity and eclectic style with confidence. His groundbreaking Tommy Now experiential events are one-of-a-kind, and I'm very excited to partner with such visionary brand," he added.

The collection, which premiered at TommyNow Drive show during Milan Fashion Week on February 25, gives nod to the Formula One racing pit crew, with heritage work wear and a strong focus on denim.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a bid to enthrall the people of Kolkata with a taste of authentic Italian art from the Renaissance period, a unique exhibition of famous Italian painter Raphael's works was inaugurated on Thursday as part of the multifarious events on occasion of the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations.

The exhibition entitled 'Opera Omina- Raffaello', organised by the Italian consulate here, exhibits life size digital renditions of 35 paintings by Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance period, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino including masterpieces like 'Madonna with a child' and 'the transfiguration' at the Indian Museum here.

"I thought Kolkata would be the right place for the exhibition for getting more people to see and appreciate it. We would also hold a concert tomorrow (Friday) where Italian musicians will play the Renaissance music to take the visual experience of the painting exhibition to another level. There would be a seminar on geographical indications in Kolkata in April and whole week of Italian cuisine in November," Italian Consul General Damiano Francovigh said.

"The aim of such exhibitions is to give the local visitors a first hand exposure of those great Italian art forms. We hope that they will be willing know and explore more about the cultural heritage by visiting Italy," he said.

The Italian Consul General said the calendar event to celebrate the friendship between the two countries were planned during Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi towards the end of last year.

Stating that the century old relation between the two countries needs to be celebrated more often, Francovigh said similar events on various aspects like art, culture, food, business etc would also be held in Delhi later this year.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu postponed his scheduled visit to Washington following the dismissal of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Turkish government announced on Thursday.

Cavusoglu's visit, which was planned for March 19, was expected to settle several issues regarding northern Syria, where Turkey has been fighting Kurdish militias.

US President Donald Trump fired Tillerson on Tuesday and nominated Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo to be the top US diplomat.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said he was looking forward to a better US-Turkey relationship in the wake of appointing a new US Secretary of State, Efe news reported.

Turkey has been engaged in conflict with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which it regards as a terror group with direct links to the Kurdish separatist PKK insurgents in eastern Turkey.

But Turkey's military incursion into Syria has ruffled feathers in the region and abroad, especially with the US, which has historically backed the Kurds in the war against the Islamic State terror organisation in Syria.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two militants were killed and three policemen including an SHO injured on Thursday in a gunfight that broke out on the outskirts of the city after a BJP leader was attacked, said police.

Police sources said two militants were killed and three policemen including a station house officer (SHO) injured in the gunfight between the security forces and hiding militants in Balhama area of Khonmoh in outskirts of Srinagar.

Militants had attacked BJP leader, Muhammad Anwar Khan and injured his security guard Bilal Ahmad after which they fled and took shelter in Balhama village.

Security personnel immediately surrounded the village and a gunfight started there.

Four houses have been damaged in the gunfight while police said firing exchanges have now stopped and searches are on to locate the bodies of two slain militants.

Authorities also announced suspension of rail service between Baramulla and Bannihal towns on Friday as a precautionary measure after intense clashes erupted between a stone pelting mob and the security forces at the gunfight site.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the alleged use of nerve agent in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned over the reported use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom to harm or kill persons," said Farhan Haq, Guterres' deputy spokesman, on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The use of nerve agents as a weapon under any circumstances is unacceptable and its use by a state will constitute a serious violation of international law."

"While the secretary-general is not in a position to attribute responsibility, he strongly condemns the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hopes the incident will be thoroughly investigated," Haq told a daily press briefing.

Guterres conveyed his sympathies to those who have been harmed and expressed his sincere hope for their early recovery, he said.

Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition.

British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain.

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from Britain and will freeze Russian state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

Britain will also suspend all planned high-level bilateral contacts with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the poisoning incident.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US-Bangla Airlines has suspended flights to Kathmandu for an indefinite period following its passenger plane crash at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport which left at least 51 people dead earlier this week.

The airline headquartered in Dhaka said in a statement on Thursday that they have stopped operating the Dhaka-Kathmandu-Dhaka flights temporarily.

A passenger plane of Bangladesh's private US Bangla Airlines crashed and burst into flames while landing at Nepal's international airport with 71 people onboard.

Amid rumours of miscommunication between the pilot and the air traffic control causing the accident, the Nepali government formed a panel to initiate an investigation into the crash.

"At this stage, we have no further information concerning the circumstances of the accident and US-Bangla is not in a position to speculate on the cause of this tragedy," the company has said on its website.

The US-Bangla Airlines said it will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation of all associated government agencies. To facilitate the cooperation, it established an emergency response centre at its headquarters in Dhaka.

The rescued Nepali and Bangladeshi passengers were undergoing treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A US Navy fighter jet has crashed off the coast of Key West, Florida, killing its two crew members, a media report said.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station around 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday when it crashed into the waters about a mile east of the runway.

The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, Naval Air Forces Atlantic spokesman Dave Hecht was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

However, late on Wednesday, the US Naval Air Forces reported that both had died. Their names were withheld pending notification of next of kin, the New York Post said.

The cause of the crash was under investigation.

The aircraft crew was based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

The jet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 213. It experienced a glitch near the Naval Air Station Key West in the area of Chica Key, Xinhua quoted authorities as saying.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An F-18 jet of the US Navy has crashed near Key West in the US state of Florida, the Navy said.

Both pilots were able to eject before the crash on Wednesday, search and rescue efforts are underway, according to Naval Air Forces Atlantic spokesman Dave Hecht, Xinhua reported.

The jet, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 213 from the state of Virginia, experienced a mishap near the Naval Air Station Key West in the area of Chica Key, according to authorities.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vedanta and Tata Steel are "not ineligible" to bid for the insolvent company Electrosteel Steels, the Resolution Professional (RP) of the debt-laden company told the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday.

Electrosteel Steels, which owes lenders Rs 11,309 crore, had been referred to the Tribunal following a push from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in June last year.

"The resolution professional has come to a decision that both Vedanta and Tata Steel are not ineligible under the norms of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code," RP's counsel Anindya Mitra, said appearing before the Kolkata bench of the Tribunal.

Through an affidavit, the RP, Dhaivat Anjaria, also informed the court that he had considered both the proposed resolution plans of the two resolution applicants and placed its before the Committee of Creditors (CoC).

In fact, Anjaria had received bids from Vedanta, Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors, Tata Steel and Renaissance Steel in January this year for the city-based insolvent steel maker.

The Abhishek Dalmia-led Renaissance Steel, alleged that the Vedanta and Tata Steel were not eligible to bid for the Electrosteel Steels as per the Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Advocates appearing for the two companies contested the arguments.

Renaissance moved the tribunal, asking it to prevent the RP from proceeding on further negotiations with Vedanta, the highest bidder, till the issue of eligibility of the Anil Agarwal-led company and Tata Steel is determined.

Renaissance's counsel Sumant Batra, on Thursday, contended before the bench that the 'short' affidavit filed by the RP was without 'clarifications' on the eligibility issues of Vedanta and Tata Steel.

"He avoided the main issues in his replies," Batra said.

After hearing arguments from all the parties in the case, the judge reserved his order.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The judgment in the fourth fodder scam case involving former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad was deferred on Thursday by a special CBI court here.

Lalu Prasad filed a fresh petition in the court of Shivapal Singh to make the then Auditor General an accused in the case since he did not report the fraudulent withdrawal from the treasury.

THe Rashtriya Janata Dal leader's petition will be heard on Friday.

The court will decide on the new date for pronouncing judgment after hearing Lalu Prasad's plea.

The hearing in the fodder case -- relating to fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 3.13 crore from December 1995 to January 1996 from the Dumka treasury -- was completed on March 5 and the verdict was fixed for March 15.

Besides Lalu Prasad, another former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra and 30 others are accused in this case.

Lalu Prasad was convicted in the first fodder scam case in 2013 and awarded five years in jail.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief was convicted by a special CBI court in the second case on December 23, 2017, and awarded three-and-a-half years' imprisonment on January 6.

He was convicted in the third case on January 24, related to fraudulent withdrawals from the Chaibasa treasury, and awarded a five-year jail term.

He now faces two other cases -- one in Ranchi and one in Patna.

The multi-million rupee fodder scam surfaced in the 1990s when Lalu Yadav was Chief Minister of undivided Bihar. The probe was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation on the Patna High Court's order.

The bulk of the cases were transferred to Ranchi after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain which has been pinned on Russia was the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II and there is "no plausible alternative explanation" than Russian culpability, said the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and the US in a joint statement on Thursday.

Former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in critical condition after they were targeted by a substance believed to be a Novichok nerve agent developed by Russia, an attack that Britain and France said was undoubtedly carried out under Russia's orders, the BBC reported.

"It is an assault on UK sovereignty and any such use by a State party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law," read the statement, which was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump.

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the incident. May on Thursday visited the site of the attack in Wiltshire. "We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen, brazen act and despicable act," she said.

Moscow denied any involvement in the attack and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that his country will also expel UK diplomats "soon" in reprisal.

The police officer who found Skripal and his daughter was also hospitalized and dozens of others who were in the area in the southern English city of Salisbury were urged by British authorities to wash the clothes they were wearing.

France, Germany and the US backed Britain's previous statements that there was no other explanation for the presence of the nerve agent and highlighted that Moscow's refusal to respond to May's demands for an explanation were further proof of its responsibility.

In the declaration, the leaders urged Russia to answer all questions related to the attack and fully disclose any information regarding the Novichok series of nerve agents to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The leaders said the situation was particularly concerning due to a past actions by Russia, most likely referring to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian FSB officer who defected to Britain and was in 2006 poisoned with polonium, a highly radioactive substance.

"We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security," the joint statement said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy called the decision to expel its 23 diplomats "unacceptable, unjustified and short-sighted".

The Embassy has also suggested on its Twitter feed that the UK may have the capacity to manufacture the nerve agent used in Salisbury.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)WhatsApp has signed a public commitment with Britain's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) not to share users' personal data with Facebook until data protection concerns are addressed.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp signed an "undertaking" wherein they have given a public commitment not to share personal data with Facebook until they can do so in compliance with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force in May.

"WhatsApp has assured us that no UK user data has ever been shared with Facebook (other than as a 'data processor')," Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said in a statement on Thursday.

"People have a right to have their personal data kept safe, only used in ways that are properly explained to them, and for certain uses of their data, to which they expressly consent. This is a requirement of the Data Protection Act," Denham added.

ICO has completed an investigation, which commenced in August 2016, into whether WhatsApp could legally share users' data with Facebook.

The investigation found that WhatsApp has not identified a lawful basis of processing for any such sharing of personal data.

"WhatsApp also failed to provide adequate fair processing information to users in relation to any such sharing of personal data," the ICO investigation revealed.

The European Union (EU) is introducing the GDPR in May to harmonise data privacy laws.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new data privacy option in compliance with the new legislation.

"I compliment WhatsApp in signing this undertaking, which I believe will build trust among their many UK users. I would also like to stress that signing an undertaking is not the end of story and I will closely monitor WhatsApp's adherence to it," Denham said.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told TechCrunch: "WhatsApp cares deeply about the privacy of its users. As we've repeatedly made clear for the last year we are not sharing data in the ways that the UK Information Commissioner has said she is concerned about anywhere in Europe."

Concerned over data privacy of its citizens, France's privacy watchdog in December 2017, issued formal notice to WhatsApp, asking the popular mobile messaging app to stop sharing user data with the parent company Facebook within a month.

Germany has also ordered Facebook to stop collecting data from WhatsApp users.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Farmer suicides have been taking place across India for years now, and studies of rural distress reveal the deeply-rooted, tenacious causes, such as lack of irrigation, fragmentation of land, unsuitability of seeds and inadequate sources of credit.

Despite the democratically-elected governments that claim to represent a country where over half the population is dependent on farming, agriculture has been consistently ignored at a steep cost to farmers' lives. Remedies have been tried -- the state waived loans to small and marginal farmers ahead of elections and such sops were criticised after elections for disrupting credit discipline among the borrowers.

The crisis provided an opportunity to try more adventurous "remedies"; farmers were cornered into using expensive, genetically-engineered seeds, even when these added heavily to the cost of cultivation of crops like cotton, further indebting them. Although this generated hope, which helped the governments get re-elected, none of the remedies worked. The question remained: Why did farmers commit suicide, bringing a bad name to "popular" governments?

So it became prudent and necessary for the state that other causes for the suicides were invented, such as alcoholism, depression, vices, etc. Farmers were blamed for being ambitious, extravagant, adventurous, lazy, cowardly, and too emotional. Camps were set up to help them cope with life's stresses, charities were organised and advice was dispensed. Additionally, the state found the usual way of containing the situation; not all farmer suicides would be recognised as such. There were rules to dying; only those deceased farmers who had unpaid bank loans in their names or in the names of their families, and had land in their names or in the names of their families, were considered to fall in the "farmer suicide" category.

These "correct" suicides of the farmers, verified through this process, earned them compensation money, which was given to their widows. Once again the state expected that such monetary relief would make the farmers, and voters in general, appreciate the kindness of the politicians and re-elect them. And once again, it was not a remedy. The question still persisted: Why did farmers commit suicide despite such "generosity" of the state?

Again, it became imperative for the state to find other reasons to explain why it failed to contain farmer suicides. It was believed that the compensation itself encouraged farmers to kill themselves; that the Rs 1 lakh might have increased the toll, and that farmers who died due to other reasons were shown as farmer suicides. But the state knew the truth, because the compensation procedure ensured that each farmer suicide was investigated in depth. The state was aware that farmer suicides happened because of one essential reason -- the farmer's sense of fairness and responsibility was hurt by his continued inability to repay debts.

This explanation was in stark contrast to the ease with which the state and politicians tried arbitrary solutions to farm distress and blamed farmers for their own deaths. It was an inconvenient truth that would have shifted the guilt to the state and was, therefore, never told. Meanwhile, the question continued: Why did farmers commit suicide, denting the image of every charismatic Prime Minister of the country and every dynamic Chief Minister of the state?

Farmer suicides reflect the crisis brewing through several phases of structural transformation of the rural sector. The first phase, from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, focused on land reforms, irrigation, and objectives like supply of credit, which are yet to be uniformly achieved. The second phase was the Green Revolution, during which the implications for distribution of resources, and economic and social development were ignored, and agricultural development was measured through productivity. The last phase was the period of economic reforms and globalisation, which only widened and deepened the inequalities.

During this time, and under the aegis of politically-correct pro-farmer governments, agriculture had become particularly difficult in rain-fed areas due to a fall in public investment in irrigation and infrastructure, and in technological research and innovations. Maharashtra presented the contradictory picture of extreme agricultural failure along with high non-agricultural growth. This disparity was sharpest in western Vidarbha, where the farmer was entirely at the mercy of the weather, the market, and the state's indifference.

The wide regional as well as inter-district differences suggest the study of the region as a unit, like Vidarbha, which displayed the severe impact of farm neglect. Further, owing to the intensity and length of the farm crisis, the study of Vidarbha mapped the diversity of conditions and the common factors for farmers' distress, such as indebtedness, rising costs of cultivation, declining returns, and inadequate policy support.

The region also indicated how small and marginal farming could not be sustained without substantial public infrastructure support, and that the solution had to include initiatives of both policy and civil society. In what might be true for the entire nation, agricultural distress in Vidarbha was also worsened by the opportunism of the political class that used the crisis in blame-games instead of meaningful and timely interventions.

The neglect that the farmers face through their lives has no witnesses, except perhaps, their wives. They knew how the state ignored their husbands while they were alive, how their desperate applications for welfare were dismissed, how many times their husbands visited the collectorates for relief, how much money was spent appeasing local officers like tehsildars, gram sevaks, panchayat members, talathis, etc. The wives had seen their husbands lose faith, and found the empty pesticide bottles that had ended their lives. These were the caring mothers who rescued the memories of their fathers for their children, shielding them from the painful facts.

These were the grieving women who, within days of a suicide, convinced the state of the good mental condition of their husbands, signed documents attesting to the "truth", and accepted the meagre cheques. But for the state, they did not exist. After all, what did the widows of farmers know about agriculture, crop management, bank loans, private debts, land documents, health bills, power connections, panchayat politics, children's education? The short answer was -- everything.

(Kota Neelima is the author of "Widows of Vidarbha", on the state of farm widows across the country. The views expressed are personal. Excerpted from the introduction of the book)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The decision by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to drop from her council of ministers for his remarks at a business meeting in Delhi is being hotly debated in political circles - especially what its consequences could be on the state's PDP-BJP ruling coalition.

By doing what she has done, the Chief Minister has proved that she is prepared to take political risks - and taking her for granted is something her colleagues and allies should learn not to do.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders were aghast after Drabu, who was the Finance Minister, was quoted as telling a meeting organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi that Kashmir was not a political problem and a conflict state but a "social problem". He said this while seeking investments in the state from businessmen and saying the conditions in the state were conducive to business "where you will find some very interesting opportunities" not just to make money but also to have "a lot of fun and enjoy yourselves".

ALSO READ: PDP sacks finance minister Haseeb Drabu over his remarks on Kashmir

PDP Vice President Sartaj Madni had said this was something which negated the very existence of the PDP because it is the firm belief of the party that Kashmir is a political problem that needed political remedies to resolve.

Interestingly, instead of voices being raised in Drabu's favour by his own party men, leaders of the PDP's coalition unlikely partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seem to be more worried about the decision to drop him.

Some senior BJP leaders have rushed to Delhi to discuss the development and its fallout on the ruling coalition with the central leadership of the party.

How important Drabu had been for the PDP was proved not once, but many times in the past. The late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed trusted him to work out the terms of the agenda of alliance with BJP Secretary Ram Madhav that finally paved the way for the present PDP-BJP coalition.

"Mufti Sahib always loved him and would overlook what some of his party men would say about Drabu Sahib," said a PDP insider, not wishing to be identified.

In a letter released to the media after he was dropped from the cabinet, Drabu expressed sorrow for not being told by the Chief Minister or her office about the decision to drop him.

"I read it on the website of daily 'Greater Kashmir'. I tried to call the Chief Minister, but was told she was busy and would call back. I waited, but my call was never returned," he rued.

He also said in his letter that he had been quoted out of context by the media and that he what he had said was that Kashmir is not only a political problem, but that "we must also look beyond this", Drabu clarified.

Sayeed made Drabu his economic advisor during his 2002 chief ministerial tenure and later made him the chairman of the local Jammu and Kashmir Bank. In fact, Drabu became the point man between the PDP and the BJP after the 2014 assembly elections.

The problem is that many PDP leaders had of late started saying that Drabu was more of "Delhi's man in Kashmir rather than Kashmir's man in Delhi". Drabu is reportedly very close to Ram Madhav, the powerful BJP leader who is in-charge of Kashmir affairs, which many say "cost him his job". It is this image that has been floating around in the PDP that finally cost him his berth in the state cabinet.

While even Mehbooba's political adversaries, including the Conference President, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, have welcomed her decision, her allies in the BJP are not happy at all about her decision.

"What did he say? He said it is a social problem and Kashmir is a society in search of itself. Is this wrong? We don't think this is something for which such a harsh decision should have been taken," a senior BJP leader told IANS, not wanting to be named.

His successor, Syed Altaf Bukhari, who has been assigned the finance portfolio, took a major decision immediately after taking over. Bukhari announced that the decision to replace the old treasury system by the Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) has been put on hold. The ambitious PAO system was Drabu's brainchild.

Bukhari's decision has been welcomed by hundreds of contractors in the state who had been on strike during the last 13 days demanding their pending payments and suspension of the PAO system at least till March 31.

Would Drabu's ouster be a storm in a teacup or would it have repercussions on the PDP-BJP ruling alliance in the immediate future? Ironically, Drabu's PDP colleagues say it won't be, while the BJP leaders in the state say it would.

(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor has returned the compliments to the government in the blame game for the fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), with a side kick to truant public sector banks (PSB). I have my sympathy for the RBI because of what the governor called dual control over PSBs but find it difficult to agree that this has made the RBI helpless.

The RBI has always had a nominee director on the boards of banks; so also, the government. No large credit proposal or any other matter brought to the board could be passed without the RBI nominee agreeing to it. ...The defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in all six Lok Sabha seats where by-elections were held this year has sounded alarm bells in the party in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2019 Parliamentary polls, while stoking speculation about the Opposition stitching an alliance together to take the BJP on after tasting success in the recent bypolls.

The BJP failed to break the jinx of repeated failures in Parliamentary by-elections in 2018 when it was defeated yesterday in Gorakhpur, the bastion of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Phulpur, earlier held by deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The ruling party's candidates in the two constituencies lost to the Samajwadi Party (SP), triggering a debate on whether political outfits opposed to the BJP could forge a mega alliance before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The SP, supported by the BSP, romped home in the bypolls.

SP's Pravin Nishad defeated Upendra Dutt Shukla of the BJP by 21,961 votes in Gorakhpur, a seat which had been with the BJP since 1989. Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel of SP cornered the Phulpur seat, drubbing the saffron party's Kaushalendra Singh Patel by 59,460 votes.

As the results of the two by-election were declared yesterday, Adityanath said there was a "lesson" to be learnt from the outcome, and cited over-confidence and the inability to understand the implications of the pact between SP and BSP as the prime reasons for the BJP's defeat.

UP Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh told PTI the outcome had brightened the prospects of the formation of a "maha gathbandhan" (grand alliance) ahead of the 2019 polls to defeat the saffron party.

"We will ponder seriously about a larger alliance keeping the next Lok Sabha polls in mind," he said.

The Congress had contested the 2017 UP Assembly polls jointly with the SP and might want to tackle the polls together next year, too, another senior party leader told PTI, requesting that he not be named.

The outcome of the March 11 bypolls has sparked talk in political circles about a continuing pact between the SP and the BSP -- once bitter critics in Uttar Pradesh.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav thanked BSP head Maywati, his former arch-rival, for the support the Bahujan Samaj Party gave the SP candidates in the by-elections.

"Foremost I want to thank BSP leader Mayawati for her and her party's support in this important fight," he told the media yesterday.

Though he did not take any questions on prospects of an alliance in the next Lok Sabha polls, saying that all he wanted to do for the present was thank the parties which had helped SP in its "grand" victory, there is conjecture about the parties coming together to fight the BJP.

The prospect of an anti-BJP alliance meeting with electoral success was also highlighted in Bihar, where Lalu Prasad's RJD retained the Araria Lok Sabha seat. Its nominee Sarfaraz Alam beat the BJP's Pradeep Kumar Singh by over 60,000 votes, dealing a blow to the JD(U)-BJP alliance, which went to the hustings for the first time after Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA fold last July.

There is growing concern in the BJP which has lost all the Lok Sabha by-elections held in 2018.

"This defeat is definitely an unexpected one," said UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi.

He said the possible causes would be analysed at length.

"There were some shortcomings which will be reviewed at the micro-level," he said.

Another senior UP BJP leader said the results had sounded "alarm bells" in the party.

Apart from Gorakhpur and Phulpur (UP) and Araria (Bihar), the party was defeated in the bypolls in Ajmer and Alwar (Rajasthan) and Uluberia (West Bengal).

In Rajasthan, both the seats were won by the Congress --- Raghu Sharma in Ajmer and Karan Singh Yadav in Alwar.

The BJP was defeated in Uluberia, too, with the seat going to Sajda Ahmed of the Trinamool Congress.

Wednesday's shocker for the BJP came days after its surprise win in three northeastern states, including Tripura, where it scripted history, demolishing the Left citadel of 25 years and forming its first government in the state. Together with its regional allies, the BJP also formed its governments in Nagaland and Meghalaya.

A consolidation of OBC, Dalit and Muslim votes powered SP candidates to victory in Gorakhpur, a seat represented by Adityanath for five successive terms, and Phulpur, which elected Maurya in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The two leaders had won their seats by margins of over 3 lakh votes, with Phulpur going to the BJP for the first time.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Maurya defeated his SP rival Dharam Raj Singh Patel by a record margin of 3.08 lakh votes, while Aditynath bagged Gorakhpur, defeating SP's Rajmati Nishad by 3,12,783 votes.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of hatching a conspiracy against the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

Naidu alleged that 'Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing the same with Andhra Pradesh, what he did with Tamil Nadu.

The Chief Minister said the BJP is using Opposition leaders Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan against the TDP.

"There is a strong anti-Modi and anti-BJP feeling across the country. Yesterday's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by-poll results are an example of that," Naidu during a teleconference with his Party MPs said.

"People will reject all those involved in this conspiracy. TDP had survived many such conspiracies.

People won't spare collusion politics," he added.

Naidu also rebuffed the corruption charges made by Pawan Kalyan, terming it 'baseless and meaningless'.

He further said that it is a crucial time for the people of the state when everybody should come together and intensify pressure on the Centre.

"Everyone should work for the interests of the state. Such criticism won't benefit anyone. Allegations are being levelled against me and Lokesh, but people know the truth," he said.MPs of the (SP) were seen donning red caps on Thursday inside Parliament House. When asked about the renewed love for the headgear - part of the party's dress code -- the MPs said it was a "red signal" and "alarm bell" for the BJP.

Asked why he and his party members were donning red caps, senior party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said: "This red cap is an alarm bell for the BJP."

The on Wednesday wrested two major Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh from the ruling BJP. In an alliance with its arch-rival Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Mayawati, the won the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats with a thumping majority.

The Gorakhpur seat was vacated by Yogi Adityanath -- which he held for five consecutive terms since 1998 -- after he was elevated as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. The Phulpur seat was vacated by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party could win only five out of 80 seats while the BJP and its allies won 73. The remaining two were won by the Congress.

Ram Gopal Yadav said that the results of the by-polls have given a new direction to the state and

"The results indicate that the winds of change are blowing and the future election of Lok Sabha would be different," he said.

However, he refused to comment on whether the alliance with the BSP would continue for the general elections scheduled for next year.

"This will be decided by Akhilesh Yadav and behen Mayawati. I cannot comment on this," he said.

The BJP's defeat has renewed the vigour in the opposition camp and many leaders are now openly advocating formation of a grand alliance for 2019.A teenaged Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police check-post near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, killing 10 people, including six policemen, police said.

According to rescue officials, the blast took place last night close to a police check post, a few kilometers from the palatial residence of the Sharif family, and next to the congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat centre.

"Five policemen - two inspectors and three constables - are among nine persons killed in the blast," Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad told PTI.

Today, one more policeman wounded in the attack on the Raiwind Markaz of the Tableeghi Jamaat succumbed to his injuries. His death brought the toll of those killed to 10.

Around 14 policemen are among 25 injured. The condition of some of them is stated to be critical.

According to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), four suspected militants tried to enter the Tableeghi Jamaat gathering but were stopped by policemen. One of the attackers then blew himself up while the remaining managed to flee from the spot, the Express Tribune reported.

Inspector General Police Punjab Arif Nawaz confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack carried out by a teenaged boy who blew himself up near the checkpost.

Deputy Inspector General Police Lahore Dr Haider Ashraf said: "A teenaged boy blew himself up at the check post set up close to the Tableeghi centre where at least 14 or so cops were present".

However, he did not give the exact age of the boy.

He said the "police personnel" were the target of the blast. "The condition of some policemen is critical," he said.

"The body parts of the bomber have also been recovered," the officer said.

It was such a powerful blast that its sound was heard several kilometers from the site. A fire ball was seen after the blast at the Nisar Police Check Post.

Abid Hussain, an injured constable, told journalists that he had been deputed at the entry point of the check-post to frisk those passing through the area.

"I saw a young boy who was trying to enter (the venue) and as soon as my colleague stopped him, I heard a powerful blast," Hussain said, adding that he had lost consciousness after that and came to later at a hospital.

Some reports said the Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of the blast and the banned outfit has threatened more attacks on police.

The suicide attack took place a week before the semi-finals of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore.

"The PSL semi-finals will be held in Lahore as per schedule as we have made all security arrangements in this regard," Ashraf said.

Pakistan Rangers quick response force has reached the spot and cordoned off the area along with the police.

President Mamnoon Hussain condemned the attack, saying such cowardly acts could not deter the government's resolve to fight terrorism.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif sought a report from the IGP and vowed to take the terrorists and their facilitators to task.

This is the first explosion targeting the provincial capital in 2018. Lahore experienced multiple terror attacks in 2017 that killed more than 60 people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two suspects were arrested in separate actions taken by police and the Border Security Force (BSF) in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer and Bikaner district, officials said today.

A team of police intelligence arrested Shahid Hussain Jilani (54) yesterday night from Pokaran of Jaisalmer district, Pokaran Deputy Superintendent of Police Nanak Singh said.

He said that Jilani was arrested after he could not give satisfactory answer in preliminary interrogation. He will be interrogated by joint investigation agencies.

In another action, a Pakistani national was arrested by a team of BSF in Bikaner district yesterday.

The BSF team has arrested Manjur Ahmed (50) from Bandli check post in Khajuwala town, Bikaner Superintendent of Police Swai Singh Godara said.

He said that the accused in preliminary interrogation revealed that he was a resident of Bahawalpur of Pakistan. He was later handed over to Khajuwala police.

The accused will now be interrogated by joint interrogation agencies, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Indians were today jailed in Singapore for getting into a scuffle with the police in 2015 during a Hindu procession, according to a media report.

Ramachandra Chandramohan, 35, was sentenced to one year and one week in jail and ordered to pay a fine of SGD8,000, Channel Asia reported today.

The businessman was convicted last month of seven charges - three for assaulting three policemen, two for verbally abusing an officer, and one each for disorderly behaviour and insulting a Muslim officer's religion.

He chose to serve an additional three weeks and five days behind bars in lieu of paying the fine.

Operations manager Jaya Kumar Krishnasamy, 31, was fined SGD 8,500. The third man, 36-year-old safety officer Gunasegaran Rajendran, was fined SGD 8,000.

They were found guilty of three and two charges respectively.

The trio got into a scuffle with the police on February 3, 2015, when officers pulled a music troupe playing urumi a traditional Indian drum out of the procession.

The men had hired the troupe, even though the playing of musical instruments along the Thaipusam route was banned.

In sentencing the men, District Judge Kessler Soh said the "authority of the police (cannot be) undermined by acts of defiance and abuse".

The trio had "displayed contempt against authority" and made some offensive remarks directed at a Muslim officer, which could have "inflamed religious sensitivities," said the judge.

At a hearing earlier this month, the men said they would resign themselves to whatever sentence the court deemed fit.

However, they sought to explain the significance of Thaipusam, a holy festival for the Hindus held every year here as part of penance-prayer by devotees carrying Kavadis and milkpots from one temple to another in a procession.

"Thaipusam is very sacred. It is part of our culture, tradition... we cannot change our culture because of this," the Channel Asia quoted Ramachandra has telling the court.

Though it seemed he had hit the policemen unprovoked, Ramachandra said that his reaction was "based on the approach (taken) by the authorities, the way they handled us, the way they spoke".

Gunasegaran pointed out that the men's interaction with the police before the scuffle broke out was not captured in incriminating videos played in court at their trial.

"We are not hooligans," he said. "We are responsible citizens, we hold jobs to support our families. Whatever happened (this is) not the real us. What triggered our behaviour was not captured in those videos," he told the court.

In convicting the men last month, the judge had found that the officers involved did not behave hard-handedly or unprofessionally.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Fifty-nine out of the 60 MLAs of the Tripura Assembly were administered their oaths at the assembly house today by protem speaker Ratan Chakraborty.

Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarman, who won from Charilam during the day, will be sworn in on Friday, Chakraborty told reporters after the oath taking ceremony.

Chakraborty said that 35 MLAs of ruling BJP, including Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and eight legislators from alliance partner Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) took their oaths today.

Sixteen MLAs of the opposition CPI-M, including former chief minister Manik Sarkar, who were slated to be sworn in tomorrow, also took their oaths along with the ruling legislators today.

All MLAs of the ruling party will perform in a constructive way, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb told reporters after swearing in as a legislator in the twelfth Assembly.

The chief minister said he expected a ''healthy opposition will also take part in the assembly proceedings in a constructive manner.

He said, ''If they (opposition) have any good suggestions, we will accept them.''



Chakraborty said that the first session of the new assembly would begin on March 23 and is likely to continue till March 31.

Meanwhile, Manik Sarkar was unanimously elected as the leader of the CPI-MLP and would be proposed as leader of the opposition, party mouthpiece Daily Deshrkatha reported today.

The decision was taken unanimously by the CPI-M MLAs yesterday, it said.

Badal Choudhury, who was revenue minister in the last government, was elected the deputy legislature party leader, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)has mopped up Rs 5.43 billion so far from monetisation of its assets in prime locations such as Mumbai and Chennai, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

The monetisation included the sale of six flats at Sterling Apartment, Mumbai to the State Bank of India with each of these flats fetching Rs 220 million, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply.

The national carrier also collected Rs 2.91 billion as lease rental from its priced building at Nariman Point, Mumbai between 2012-13 and January 2018, he said.

"In all, has monetised a sum of Rs 5.43 billion from 2012-13 to 2017-18," Sinha told the House.

However, he said the state-run airline has failed to meet its target of asset monetisation due to issues with land titles and end user restrictions.

The Centre had in 2012 approved monetisation of real estate assets in AI to the tune of Rs 50 billion over the next 10 year period with an annual target of Rs 5 billion from 2013 financial year onwards.

The monetised asset included selling of a vacant land at Coimbatore to NBCC for Rs 198 million and Lakshmi House at Chennai to the Ministry of External Affairs at Rs 977 million.

Replying to a separate question, the minister said the prices of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), constituting 35-50 per cent of the operational cost of an airline, has increased by over Rs 9,000 between January 1, 2017, to March, 2018 or about 17.40 per cent.

In January, a kilolitre of ATF cost Rs 52, 540.63. It touched Rs 61,681 on March 1, 2018, he added.BJP president Amit Shah will address a rally at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in the city on April 6, the Foundation Day of the BJP.

"Shah is coming here on April 6, which is the Foundation Day of the BJP. He will address a rally in the BKC on the same day. He will hold meetings with party officials, leaders and workers," a BJP leader said tonight.

The decision to organise the rally and finalise Shah's schedule was taken at the state-level meeting of the BJP leaders and functionaries.

According to the leader, discussion on probable candidates for the Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar Lok Sabha bypolls may be on the agenda of Shah during his visit.

Bhandara-Gondia seat in east Maharashtra fell vacant after sitting BJP MP Nana Patole resigned from the party and returned to the Congress. Palghar bypoll is necessitated due to the death of sitting MP Chintaman Wanga of the BJP.

The Election Commission has not yet announced the formal schecule for the bypolls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A global human rights body today launched an interactive website to track alleged hate crimes in India against "marginalised people" such as the Dalits, members of religious minority groups and transgenders.

"'Halt the Hate' website documents alleged hate crimes against Dalits, Adivasis, members of racial or religious minority groups, transgender persons, and other marginalised people which are reported in mainstream English and Hindi media," a member of Amnesty International India said.

The starting reference point for tracking crimes is September 2015, when Mohammad Akhlaq was killed in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly storing and consuming beef, it said.

"It documents 141 incidents of alleged hate crimes against Dalits and 44 against Muslims in 2017, including 69 incidents of killings where at least 146 people were killed," Amnesty India claimed in a statement.

The global NGO, based in Bengaluru in India, also claimed, "35 incidents were found where women from these groups or transgender persons faced sexual violence".

Cow-related violence and so-called honour killings' were among the common instances of alleged hate crimes, the human rights body said.

"In 2016, 237 alleged hate crimes were recorded. Most incidents were recorded in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat," Amnesty India alleged.

The first step to ensuring justice and ending impunity for hate crimes -- where people are targeted because of their membership of a particular group -- is to highlight their occurrence, said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India.

The website aims to draw the attention to some of these crimes by tracking and documenting them, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In an all out attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, NDA ally and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today accused them of "instigating other people" against him and his party TDP.

The outburst by Naidu capped a day of strong comments by him targeting BJP and the Prime Minister allegedly for being behind the corruption charges levelled by Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan against him and his son.

"Since it could not do anything to us on its own, the BJP is instigating others and try to interfere in Andhra like it did in Tamil Nadu. Should I get scared like a coward if Narendra Modi or NDA government instigate others against us?" Naidu said at a public meeting here tonight.

In a related development, TDP also indicated that it was toying with the idea of pulling out of the NDA.

An emergency meeting of the Telugu Desam Party politburo has been convened here tomorrow evening to take a call on the issue, party sources said.

At the public meeting, the Telugu Desam Party supremo said: "It has become a habit for them to weaken the leadership in each state and play according to their wishes. Those facing (criminal) cases may dance to their tunes but not me. I cannot be intimidated by anyone. I have no fear of anything in my life."



Stating that truth is fire, he said five crore people of Andhra would not remain silent spectators to the "injustice" being meted out by the Centre.

People who should actually be questioning the Centre for "doing injustice" to the state were instead targeting him, Naidu said taking a dig at Kalyan.

The actor had last night targeted Naidu and his son alleging that "Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation has become the number one state in corruption."



The Chief Minister said he wondered why the actor could not see the 'corruption' in the last four years.

"You remained silent for four years but now you are talking about corruption in the state. Instead of questioning Narendra Modi for the states rights, what does the state gain if you weaken or criticise me? This is atrocious and absurd," Naidu said.

Earlier in the day, Naidu termed as "baseless" the allegations of corruption levelled against him by Kalyan and said it was part of a "grand conspiracy" to weaken the TDP.

In an oblique reference to the BJP central leadership, the chief minister warned that "Tamil Nadu-type dramas" could not be played in Andhra Pradesh.

He was apparently referring to allegations by opposition parties in Tamil Nadu that BJP was controlling the AIADMK government in the state.

Naidu said that "some bigwigs" were enacting drama with the YSR Congress leaders till yesterday.

"Once they realised the drama failed, they started a new one," he added.

TDP leaders lashed out at Kalyan, a film star, saying he was reading out the "New Delhi script" and alleged that the BJP was behind him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)About 2,490 properties were sealed in the national capital by the four local bodies since December for violation of Delhi's Master Plan 2021, Parliament was informed today.

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affair Hardeep Singh Puri told the Rajya Sabha that North Delhi Municipal Corporation has sealed 1,359 properties, South Delhi Municipal Corporation 788, East Delhi Municipal Corporation 284 and New Delhi Municipal Council 56 properties since December 15, 2017.

However, no data was available on the estimated loss of business and jobs due to sealing of properties, he said.

The minister said sealing of properties in the National Capital Territory of Delhi was being carried out by the local bodies concerned for violation of the provision of Master Plan 2021 on the instructions of a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.

The sealing was carried out after a judgement, dated December 15, 2017, of the apex court, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Arunachal Pradesh Assembly has passed the 2018-19 budget by voice votes.

The budget was presented in the house on March 12 by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein who also hold the finance portfolio.

Participating in the budget discussion, Chief Minister Pema Khandu said "it should be the collective approach for all members including other stakeholders to convert resources in capitals in order to generate revenue to end dependence on the Centre."



Responding to various queries of the members, the chief minister said that the state government had already sanctioned Rs 7.7 crore for procurement of TV sets for all the 'gaon burhas' who were left out from the scheme earlier.

He called upon the members to suggest the state government with innovative schemes to be placed during the proposed meeting with the officials of the 15th Finance Commission to be held here from April 6 to 8 this year.

Participating in the discussion, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein held the budget as "inclusive" with focus on seven key sectors.

Stating that the state government has formulated the state industrial policy to woo private investment in the state, he said a bill to regularise land ownership had already been tabled in the Assembly for discussion.

Former Chief Minister Nabam Tuki while appreciating the budget said that there was no budgetary provision for regeneration of forest cover in the state for which his government earlier could manage higher grants from the 14th Finance Commission.

Tuki, the lone Congress MLA in the 60-member house, further requested the government to grant fund for infrastructure development in notified non-urban towns of the state.

He said that no central fund should be sanctioned unless urban local bodies (ULBs) in all notified urban towns were constituted. He also urged the government for fund provision to pay stipends to students from class one to eight.

Leader of Opposition Takam Parion (Peoples Party of Arunachal) said that because of many lacunae in sanctioning process, huge liabilities for the government had been accumulated since several years and the government should seriously ponder on it.

Pario also demanded the government to make public the amount of liabilities accumulated during 2016-17 and 2017-18 financial years.

He further suggested the government to provide incentives of Rs 10,000 each to all unemployed educated youths of the state per month till they got suitable employment.

Art and Culture Minister Dr Mohesh Chai quoting a UNESCO report of February 19 this year said that 26 dialects including Nah and Mra in the state out of total 200 in the were on the verge of extinction.

Education Minister Honchun Ngandam said that the state government had constituted a state regulatory commission to regulate private universities in the state.

Later the house passed the budget by voice votes yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A cabinet committee in Goa is of the view that auctioning the mining leases is the only way to resolve the crisis in the mining industry.

The cabinet advisory committee's members - Sudin Dhavalikar, Vijai Sardesai and Francis D'Souza - met yesterday to discuss what steps the state government needed to take to help the mining industry and its stakeholders.

The panel also resolved to file a review petition in the Supreme Court (SC) in connection with the mining issue.

The SC 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 lease holders, 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 had said.

Goa's senior minister Dhavalikar said today that the state has no other option but to auction the mining leases.

"Nobody can stop the auction as there is a Supreme Court order...we cannot ignore it," he told reporters here.

Dhavalikar, however, said the state government will examine the implications of the auctioning process as the interest of people dependent on this industry needs to be protected.

Sardesai also agreed to Dhavalikar's view, but cautioned that the auctioning of leases "should not be done at the cost of people dependent on the mining industry."



"What is option before us? We have to go as per the apex court, which is supreme in the country," he said.

Sardesai said while taking any stand in the matter, the priority should be to ensure that locals are not out of business.

D'Souza also said auctioning of leases seems to be the only option, but added that a final call on the issue has to be taken by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

Parrikar is currently in the US for a medical treatment.

Before leaving Goa, the chief minister had formed the cabinet advisory committee to guide the state administration on various matters in his absence.

The fresh extraction of ore from the mining leases will stop from tonight, as per the SC directives.

The state mines and geology department has drawn a detailed plan to stop the fresh extraction of ore, its transportation and also moving out of the machinery from the mining sites.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid the Opposition's demand for suspension of Aurangabad Police Commissioner Yashaswi Yadav over police "high-handedness" during a stir, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the Assembly that the police officer would be sent on compulsory leave from today.

He also announced that a two member committee would be formed to probe the incident of violence during the protest over dumping of garbage on the outskirts of Aurangabad on March 7.

Fadnavis said the committee comprising ACS (Home) and DGP would submit their report within a month and the government would take a decision on further action.

He also announced that IG Aurangabad would hold the additional charge as the city's police commissioner till then.

The chief minister made the announcements after the Lower House witnessed five adjournments over the issue.

The Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena members demanded suspension of Yadav alleging police high-handedness against the protesters.

"Even women and children were not spared. They were pulled out of their houses and beaten up," Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil alleged seeking suspension of the police commissioner.

Vikhe Patil was supported by NCP and Sena members.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar said Aurangabad muncipal commissioner and the police commissioner should be suspended.

Shiv Sena member Sanjay Shirsat also condemned the police "highhandedness" against the protesters.

Atul Save of BJP said cases were filed against 1,200 people and two SSC students could not give their board exam that day.

In response, Fadnavis said, "All cases, except those related to attack on police personnel, will be withdrawn."



The issue of violence in Aurangabad over the garbage dumping had come up in the House through a calling attention notice this morning.

Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil said a high level probe would be announced into the incident.

But, the Opposition and Shiv Sena members were not satisfied with his reply and were adamant on their demand for suspension of the police commissioner.

The House had to be adjourned twice for ten minutes as members of the Opposition parties and Sena rushed to the well, shouting slogans in support of their demand. Some members of the BJP were on their feet in support of the demand.

After the House resumed following a 15-minute break, the slogan-shouting continued.

The House was again adjourned three times- twice for 15 minutes and once for ten minutes.

Later, an angry Vikhe Patil told the House that some officers think they were above the system and needed to be punished.

Fadnavis then announced the government's decision, taking into consideration the sentiments of the House.

Eight police personnel were injured in stone-pelting as locals opposed dumping of garbage at Padegaon-Mitmita village on the outskirts of Aurangabad in central Maharashtra on March 7. The mob set on fire two garbage trucks of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) apart from damaging two police vehicles, police had said.

On the same day, local MLA Imitiaz Jaleel of AIMIM had alleged in the Assembly that police had lathi-charged the protesters. He also alleged that he fired in the air to disperse the mob during the protest at Mitmita village.

However, Aurangabad Police Commissioner Yashaswi Yadav has denied the allegations. He had said that only teargas was used to disperse the protesting crowd.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharipa Bahujan Mahasanghleader Prakash Ambedkar today demanded that the Maharashtra government arrest Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, failing which he will launch a protest.

Though Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote has been arrested, the government is yet to take Bhide into custody, he said.

A case was registered against Ekbote and Bhide, the head of the right wing outfit Shiv Pratishthan Sansthan, for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence that left a man dead near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district on January 1.

The incident took place during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Subsequent protests had disrupted normal life in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

The Pune rural police yesterday arrested Ekbote, after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

"We give an ultimatum to the government to arrest Bhide till March 26, failing which we will take to the streets," Ambedkar told reporters here.

He also demanded that the judicial commission, set up under retired Justice Jai Narayan Patel, to probe the Bhima-Koregaon violence be disbanded and asitting judge be appointed to investigate the incident.

The new committee should be given powers prescribed under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), he said.

He alleged that false cases were filed against those who came out on streets to express anguish over the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1.

Meanwhile, Ambedkar also demanded that all scholarships ofstudents belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) be given on time.

The income limit of the families of SC/ST/OBC students who seek scholarships should be increased to Rs 5 lakh and for the families of students of economically backward class, it should be raised to Rs 10 lakh, he demanded.

Also, the condition of 75 per cent attendance for SC, ST and OBC studentsto avail the scholarships should be done away with, said the Dalit leader and grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar.

The demands of students of the city-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) should also be addressed urgently, he said.

Ambedkar had last week come out in support of the TISS students, who have been protesting against the withdrawal of financial aid provided to them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Pune court today remanded Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, in police custody till March 19.

The police had yesterday arrested Ekbote from his residence here, after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

He was produced today before Special Judge P CBhagureat the Shivajinagar district court amid a heavy police bandobast.

Public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar argued in the court that the police needed Ekbote's custody to recover a mobile phone through which he had communicated with some people and given directions.

"He is not cooperating with police and claiming the mobile phone is lost. The call detail record (CDR) report shows that there was a communication using that phone, but he is denying the possession of the phone," said Pawar.

She also told the court that Ekbote had organised a meeting at Sonai Hotel close to Pernephatanear Koregaon Bhima days before the January 1 event, where he had distributed some pamphlets and given directions to people.

"The police custody is needed to recover the hard disk of the computer and printer which were used to print the pamphlets, mobile phone and police need to find who were those people, whom did Ekbote call and was constantly giving directions to," she said.

Last month, while extending the right-wing leader's protection from arrest, the apex court had asked the Pune rural police to submit a detailed report on the case and allowed them to question Ekbote.

Following directions from the court, he had appeared before the Shikrapur police here for questioning five times.

Yesterday, the police submitted a detailed report before the apex court and sought the "custodial interrogation" of Ekbote, while opposing his bail plea.

The SC accepted the demand for his custodial interrogation and rejected his bail application.

A case was registered against Ekbote and another Hindutva leader, Sambhaji Bhide, for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence that left a man dead near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial on January 1.

The incident took place during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Subsequent protests had disrupted normal life in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Block Development Officers across Bihar today went on a strike in protest against assault on an official in Siwan district on Monday.

The BDOs, however, decided to withdraw their stir late this evening following an assurance from Rural Development Minister Shravan Kumar that their grievances will be looked into and properly addressed.

"A delegation of the association met the minister who gave us the assurance that the guilty will be brought to book at the earliest and the safety of BDOs will be ensured. Hence we have decided to call off the strike and resume duties from tomorrow", the Association's president Prashant Kumar told PTI over phone.

The call for strike was given yesterday by the Bihar Rural Development Service Association in protest against the assault on Badaharia BDO Rajiv Kumar Sinha on March 12, when he was assaulted by a group of people during a meeting.

The injured BDO is undergoing treatment at a hospital here and the Association demanded immediate arrest of those who had beaten him up, besides providing adequate security to BDOs across the state, Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A veteran Indian-origin British MP today said he has written to Prime Minister Theresa May, asking her to consider inclusion of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in the country's school history curriculum.

Virendra Sharma, the Labour party MP for Ealing Southall, has been campaigning for the historic episode to be commemorated in the UK and had raised the issue during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday and was assured a written response from Theresa May.

"I was pleased to ask the Prime Minister about her plans to commemorate the Amritsar massacre, and delighted that she will look more closely at the matter, he said.

He added: "I believe it is important that everyone in the UK is aware of this country's colonial heritage, and that schoolchildren should be taught about the more shocking aspects of our history".

"I have written to the Prime Minister about my campaign for a permanent memorial and for the Amritsar massacre to be included in the school curriculum. I look forward to meeting her to discuss positive steps we can take," he said.

The 70-year-old parliamentarian has previously campaigned for an apology from the British government over the atrocity on April 13, 1919, when General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on thousands of unarmed protesters gathered at Jallianwala Bagh.

During his Indian trade mission in February 2013, the Prime Minister David Cameron had said it would be wrong to "reach back into history" and apologise for the wrongs of British colonialism.

The UK Foreign Office has stood by that view in its stand on the matter.

"As the former Prime Minister said when he visited the Jallianwala Bagh in 2013, the massacre was a deeply shameful act in British history and one that we should never forget. It is right that we pay respect to those who lost their lives and remember what happened. The British Government rightly condemned the events at the time," the FCO says.

Sharma is hopeful that his campaign for a permanent memorial and for the subject to be included in the school curriculum will bear fruit in time for next month's 99th anniversary of the massacre.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The results of bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar do not bode well for the Congress as the strengthening of regional outfits may weaken the grand old party's chances of leading a joint opposition front for the 2019 general elections.

Political observers feel that unless the Congress reclaims some states from the BJP and retains Karnataka in Assembly elections slated to be held later this year, its chances of leading such an alliance may weaken further.

The Congress, however, feels that the victory of the SP-BSP combine in Uttar Pradesh is an "aberration" and it is the only party with a pan-India presence capable of cobbling together and leading a coalition to defeat the BJP.

The Congress was left out of the SP-BSP combine in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls, where the alliance elbowed out the BJP in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's bastion of Gorakhpur and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya's constituency in Phulpur.

While on the one hand the Congress is seeking to put together a joint Opposition alliance to take the BJP on in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, regional parties are hoping to forge a united front without the Congress as another alternative.

TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has already taken the lead in this and has been in touch with leaders of other regional parties, such as Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress.

The Congress is also carrying on with its efforts to keep the Opposition together. Party leader Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner recently for all non-BJP parties, an event that was attended by leaders of 20 Opposition parties, including the Congress.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said it was now "crystal clear" that the people of the country had given its "no confidence" to the "Modi brand of politics, driven by rhetoric than reality and guided by headline management than the country's management".

"Naturally they are looking at alternatives. Opposition political parties are driven by the pressure and will of India's people to save the essence of India's foundational values and come together to defend them despite disagreement of and conflict of interest at times," he said.

The Congress was the "only natural party with a pan-India appeal" which could stitch the coalition together in the fight for "India's foundational and civilisational values", he told PTI.

Surjewala was not unduly worried about the party losing ground in the states -- its two candidates lost their deposits in the -- and said this was an "aberration".

"There will be some aberrations like we saw yesterday, yet the umbrella or the path to tread upon will be laid by the Congress, so that everyone can walk ahead hand-in-hand together," he said.

Another Congress leader, former Union minister S Jaipal Reddy, said the idea of a third front as propagated by Rao was merely a "stunt" to "befool" the people.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, however, had said on Thursday that the verdict of the bypolls showed the anger of the people against the BJP and that they would vote for any non-BJP candidate who had the potential to win.

Gandhi also said the Congress party was keen to rebuild the party in Uttar Pradesh but that would not happen overnight.

"The Congress is keen on rebuilding the party in Uttar Pradesh, but that will not happen overnight," he tweeted in Hindi.

A senior Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh and a former minister feared that after the bypolls, regional parties SP and BSP might think the Congress was "irrelevant" in the state.

He said if this idea gained ground, the bargaining power of the Congress could take a severe hit and the party may be given just 5 to 6 seats out of a total of 80 in the state in an electoral arrangement for the next Lok Sabha polls.

"The fate of the Congress is now totally in the hands of these two parties. And neither will want the Congress to contest in more than 5-6 seats out of a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP," the former minister told PTI.

The SP and BSP have their own vote banks and will not want the Congress to be strengthened as they fear that it could eat into their constituencies.

In the last Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress contested in only 103 of the 403 seats while the SP fought from 298.

The situation is not very different in other states such as Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where regional players are seeking to flex their muscles and will demand a greater pound of flesh from the Congress.

In Karnataka, the BSP and regional outfit JD-S have already tied up and in states such as Maharashtra and West Bengal, the NCP and the TMC would want to dominate the electoral arrangements.

The Congress, poll analysts said, can strengthen its position only if it wins Karnataka and later states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where it is in a direct contest with the BJP.The US cannot expect India to abruptly stop using Russian arms and instead needs a glide path to increase defence trade with New Delhi, a top American commander has told lawmakers.

India is "a key partner and a great strategic opportunity" for the US, Admiral Harry Harris told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing.

"Seventy per cent of their military hardware is Russian in origin. You can't expect India to go cold turkey on that," Harris told the lawmakers.

"I think we ought to look at ways to have a glide path, so that we can continue to trade in arms within India," he said.

Harris was responding to a question from senator Tom Cotton who asked about the impact of the recent sanctions legislation (CAATSA) Congress passed, designed primarily with Russia in mind, and specifically countries that continue to use Russian military hardware and systems.

India, a major consumer of Russian arms, is one of the countries that would be impacted by such a legislation.

"I supported that legislation. I still do. But I do have some concerns about potential unintended consequences among countries that, for various historical reasons, still have Russian hardware and it'd be hard to avoid Russian hardware, Senator Cotton said.

Harris expressed hope to achieve some relief for the rigidity that's in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) legislation.

Cotton then referred to a classified letter written by Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in which he is seeking exemptions for a number of countries. India is believed to be one of those countries for which Mattis has sought exemptions.

"I assume Secretary Mattis' point in this classified letter is, do you have a country like India that's a close ally, and growing ever closer, but for historical reasons going back decades, they just rely on a lot of Russian equipment, and would really impair them and therefore, our relationship with them to try to ask them to go cold turkey immediately," Cotton said.

"You are correct," Harris said.The CBI today arrested Shivaji Panja and Kaustav Ray, both directors of R P Infosystems for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, officials said.

In 2015, the company, which manufactured computers with brand name 'Chirag', was booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating IDBI bank to the tune of Rs 180 crore.

The CBI has booked R P Info Systems and its directors, including Panja and Ray, for allegedly cheating Canara Bank and nine other consortium members to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

The other members of the consortium were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the SBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

The bank in its complaint on February 26, now a part of the FIR, has alleged that the company had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards.

These loans have become non-performing asset (NPA), it said. The FIR also named Vijay Bafna and Debnath Pal, VP of the company.

The bank has alleged that the company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account.

The probe agency had booked the company and its directors in 2015 in connection with the case related to IDBI. But in the FIR, the agency had only focused on the exposure to IDBI bank which was over Rs 180 crore.

"During 2013, IDBI Bank relinquished their position as consortium leader after the deliberations with the RBI.

"It is learnt that in the month of December 2013, IDBI Bank lodged a complaint regarding the fraud committed on their bank alone to the CBI and the CBI investigated only their exposure of IDBI Bank," the latest complaint from Canara Bank said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Officials of The Banking Security and Fraud Cell of CBI today arrested two city-based businessmen on a complaint filed by Canara bank.

Two directors of RP Infosystems -- Shibaji Panja and Kaustuv Ray -- were arrested here today, CBI said.

Earlier, the CBI had registered an FIR against them on the basis of a written complaint filed by the bank alleging cheating and criminal conspiracy.

The FIR had also named Vijay Bafna and Debnath Pal, VP of the company.

The complainant said that the company had defrauded Canara Bank and consortium of nine other banks to the tune of Rs 515 crore alleging furnishing false stock, debtors and receivables.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A CBI court has rejected the regular bail pleas of Rotomac Global promoter, director and his son Rahul Kothari, in connection with the alleged Rs 36.95 billion willful loan default case.

Earlier on March 7, the court had turned down Vikram's interim bail plea also.

The CBI had arrested the duo accused in Delhi on February 23 and since then the accused have been in jail.

The accused were then brought to Lucknow on transit remand after their arrest.

The CBI court, on the application of premier agency, had on February 24 allowed their police remand for the purpose of interrogation in its custody.

The CBI remand period expired on March 7, after which the judge MP Chaudhary had taken him under judicial custody and sent him to jail.

Meanwhile, both the accused moved bail pleas but the court refused them bail. The court observed that the offence was serious and the accused did not deserve bail.

According to the prosecution, a consortium of seven banks led by Bank of India had extended loans worth Rs 29 billion to Rotomac Global Pvt Limited from 2008 onwards.

However, according to an FIR filed by CBI, the directors allegedly cheated the banks by diverting the raised funds in a conspiracy with unidentified bank officials.

The agency has claimed that instances were found where the credit sanctioned and disbursed to the company was used for purposes other than execution of the claimed export orders.

Also, citing the FIR only, the prosecutor also placed a case in which the credit sanctioned for an export order purportedly received from Singapore for the supply of wheat was diverted to another company named Bargadia Brothers Private Limited, Singapore.

The CBI prosecutor further narrated another modus operandi wherein the accused would use the loans -- disbursed on proposals for procurement of goods meant for exports -- for undeclared purposes.

In such cases, no export orders were allegedly executed by the company, the agency said.

Further, it was also alleged in the FIR that most suspect transactions of the company were with a limited number of buyers, sellers, sister concerns and subsidiary companies.

The FIR in the case has stated that the act of the accused amounted to misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.The CBI has registered a fresh case relating to "fraudulent" issuance of Rs 9 crore of LoUs to Chandri Papers and Allied Products by PNB's Brady House branch, at the centre of a storm over a similar fraud by billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

Retired PNB employee Gokulnath Shetty and single-window operator at the branch, Manoj Kharat,who are facing CBI probe in the Modi-Choksi case, have been booked by the agency in the fresh FIR registered by it, the officials said.

The agency has also named the company and its directors as accused in the case, they said.

After filing the FIR on March 9, the agency has carried out searches at various locations, sources said.

The CBI has alleged that Shetty retired on May 31, 2017, and Kharat entered into criminal conspiracy with directors of the company Aditya Rasiwasia and Ishwardas Agarwal.

The agency has alleged that as part of the conspiracy to defraud the public sector bank, they got issued two Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) for USD 1.4 million (about Rs 9.09 crore at the rate of Rs 64 per USD) favouring SBI Antwerp, Belgium, they said.

The due date of payment for the LoUs was January 20, 2020.

It is alleged that for the issuance of the two LoUs neither there was any available credit limit to the company nor any 110 per cent margin was retained by the bank, they said.

An LoU is a service whereby the bank guarantees a customers payment obligation of a specified amount to an oveseas bank.

Shetty and Kharat are already facing CBI probe in fraudulently issuing LoUs and Letters of Credit worth over Rs 13,000 crore to the companies of billionaire jewellers Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan today said Chahbahar and Gawadar are sister ports and complement each other in promoting future trade, transit and connectivity.

Chahbahar, the port in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich nation's southern coast is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port, which is being developed with Chinese investment and is located at distance of around 80 kms from Chabahar.

Foreign Office spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal said Chahbahar and Gawadar are sister ports and complement each other in promoting future trade, transit and connectivity.

"Our Minister of Maritime Affairs participated in the inauguration of a part of the Chabahar port. We will continue to work with Iran for deepening connectivity between the two ports," he said.

The spokesman also said Iranian Foreign Minister, who visited Islamabad this week, discussed the idea of Iran's participation in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Faisal said Pakistan wants peace in the region and was against any arms race but it was also not oblivious to the arms buildup in its neighbourhood.

"We are opposed to any arms race in South Asia and have been proposing measures for promoting restraint in both the nuclear and conventional domains. We expect external players to be mindful of the imperative of maintaining strategic stability in the region and refrain from policies that generate imbalances," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat today visited the Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) in nearby Wellington and interacted with the student-officers.

Rawat addressed student-officers of 73 staff course and complimented them for their high standards of training achieved, an official release said here.

He spoke to the students about "their roles and responsibilities and motivated them towards achieving joint operational efficiency," the release said.

The Chief of Army Staff acknowledged the fact that DSSC is a fountainhead of knowledge and professional wisdom and has successfully been producing excellent staff officers for command and staff functions in the armed forces, it said.

He also interacted with DSSC Commandant Lt Gen Amrik Singh.

DSSC is an inter-service institution of the Ministry of Defence and trains officers of all three Indian Armed Forces and officers from friendly foreign countries for command and staff appointments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China today agreed to provide Rs 48 billion assistance to Nepal for development, including post-disaster recovery plan for the strategic Tatopani border point that was damaged in a devastating earthquake in 2015.

China and Nepal have been stepping up efforts to improve road connectivity while speeding up plans to build a railway line connecting to Nepal's border after a Transit Trade Treaty was signed in 2016 with Beijing.

The Government of China has agreed to extend the assistance to Nepal for the projects on post-disaster recovery for Tatopani border point, the hospital reconstruction in Sindhupalchowk and reconstruction of Jiri Secondary School, the Nepal's Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

The Tatopani border point, a major trade route between Nepal and China, has remained closed since the 2015 earthquake, that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000, after it suffered massive damage.

Since Tatopani could not function, the Kerung port, also known as Rasuwagadhi, has been in operation for the cross border trading and tourism.

The project includes repairing of buildings, establishing protection measures to prevent from secondary disasters, including debris flow and landslide, and improving trade clearance capabilities.

The Chinese government has pledged to provide Nepalese Rupees 48 billion in grants for the purpose and an agreement was signed was signed today, the Ministry said in a statement.

Finance Secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong signed the agreements on behalf of the government of Nepal and the Chinese governments.

"I am confident that the economic cooperation between Nepal and China will help especially to overcome our infrastructure bottleneck and improve connectivity," Adhikari said.

"The Chinese government has been making positive effort to reopen the Tatopani port. We will carry out work of disaster treatment and road repair on the Chinese side. Considering the construction of border inspection station, both the countries have been discussing reconstruction of the border bridge," Yu was quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua agency.

For the resumption of the border point, the budget would be used for the renovation of the building and establishment of protection measures, so that trade clearance capabilities would be improved.

In Sindhupalchowk, a middle-sized hospital equipped with facilities like 39 beds capacity would be constructed and the school reconstruction is aimed at recovering and improving school facilities and functions.

Post earthquake, China had pledged to help Nepal with post-disaster reconstruction in five areas - infrastructure, livelihood recovery in hilly regions, cultural heritage renovation, capacity building of disaster prevention and health.

Till now, 22 China-Aid projects have been already initiated and are in the process of implementation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China's third generation fighter jets seem to have overcome their engine problems plaguing them while flying over high-altitude regions in Tibet bordering India, according to a media report today.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has posted video footage of drills by Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-11 fighter jets flying low over snow-capped mountains on Monday, suggest that the military has overcome engine problems afflicting the aircraft at high altitude areas, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

The jets are part of China's fleet of third-generation lightweight multi-role fighter aircraft, powered by Russian AL-31F engines. The J-11 is also part of fleet of China's third-generation fighter aircraft.

According to military observers, the engines had previously lost power above 3,000 metres, leading to a string of accidents, the report said, a rare revelation of the problems faced by the Chinese fighter aircraft in the high-altitude region.

In September 2015, a J-10 from the former Shenyang Military Region crashed during a night patrol when the plane climbed above 3,350 metres, state-run China Central Television reported.

The footage also showed a Shaanxi Y-9 transport aircraft taking off and landing at a high-altitude airport. The Y-9 can carry 106 passengers or 132 troops at one time, the Post report said.

A Xian JH-7 fighter-bomber is also seen flying over the snow-covered terrain, filling out the combat line-up in the PLA Air Forces' Western Theatre Command, which ranges from Chongqing to Tibet and Xinjiang.

In various exercises, we not only target imaginary rivals, but focus more on acquiring useful and effective combat skills, Zhan Houshun, the western theatres air force commander, said.

Military analysts said the apparent smooth flights by the warplanes in the latest drills suggested the air force had overcome the engines high-altitude problems, bolstering the PLA's defences against India.

Beijing-based military commentator Song Zhongping said the lack of air pressure at high altitudes made flying difficult, a situation complicated by variations in airflow in mountainous terrain.

The video showed that the engines in Chinese warplanes have been improved in terms of stability over complex geography. It also signalled that China has set up a highly specialised air wing in the country's west, Song was quoted as saying by the Post.

Hong Kong-based military analyst Leung Kwok-leung said the improvements would strengthen China's air defence against India.

Once the engine problem is solved, Chinese planes will be able to easily take off and land in high-altitude areas, making Indias air force less effective, Leung said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Calling Chinese actions in the East and South China Seas as coordinated, methodical and strategic, a top American commander today said Beijing is using its military and economic power to erode the free and open international order.

Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the US Pacific Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing said China is attempting to assert de facto sovereignty over disputed maritime features by further militarising its man-made bases.

"China is leveraging military modernisation, influence operations and predatory economics to coerce neighbouring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific to their advantage," Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the US Pacific Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing on Thursday.

"While some view China's actions in the East and South China Seas as opportunistic, I do not. I view them as coordinated, methodical and strategic, using their military and economic power to erode the free and open international order, he said.

China's aggression in the South China Sea moves along unabated, despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration's tribunal ruling that invalidated China's nine-dash line claim, an unprecedented land reclamation in 2016, he said.

"China's impressive military buildup could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain. Key investments include fielding significant improvements in missile systems, developing fifth-generation fighter capabilities and growing the size and capability of the Chinese navy, to include their first overseas base in the Port of Djibouti," he said.

"They're also heavily investing into the next wave of military technologies, including hypersonic missiles, advanced space and cyber capabilities, and artificial intelligence. If the US does not keep pace, PACOM will struggle to compete with the People's Liberation Army on future battlefields," Harris told the lawmakers.

Asserting that China's intent is "crystal clear", Harris warned lawmakers.

These types of aspirational goals could be appropriate for a nation of China's stature, but, judging by China's regional behaviour, Harris said he is concerned China will now work to undermine the rules-based international order not just in the Indo-Pacific, but on a global scale as China expands its presence in Central Asia, the Arctic, Africa, South America and Europe.

"This increasingly competitive environment necessitates continued dialogue between the United States and China and our militaries to improve understanding and reduce risk," he said.

Several lawmakers agreed with Harris. Senator Jack Reed, said the US needs a better global campaign to counter Chinese influence in the region.

For years, China has been circulating a narrative that the West is in decline and that the economic future lies with China, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese Consul Ma Zhanwu today called for greater interactions between China and India on the cultural front saying that the ties between the two countries existed even thousands of years ago.

He was speaking at a seminar 'China-India Buddhist and Other Exchanges' attended by Chinese and Indian scholars and organised by the Chinese consulate, Kolkata.

"I heard from scholars that the two countries started commercial and other interactions several thousand years back through the Silk Road and Buddhism was introduced to China through this route. Later on, Indian monks travelled to China through this route and Chinese monks like Hsuan Tsang also went to India by the same road 1,400 years back," Zhanwu said.

"You need to have relationship based on the principles of peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness and of course, on mutual benefit, the envoy said.

The consul said, there should be more effective use of names like Hsuan Tsang and Rabindranath Tagore to promote closer, stronger cultural ties and more people-to-people exchanges in the future.

"Perhaps his (Tagore's) works are more popular in China than India, if not equally popular," Zhanwu said.

He said a complete set of Tagore's works has been published in China on May 7 last year that elicited very good response from the readers.

Tagore's short stories and many of his poems were also very popular among Chinese students and part of school curriculum, he said.

Visva Bharati officiating Vice-Chancellor Sabujkali Sen told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar that the Chinese Consulate, Kolkata, was involved in the revamp of China Bhavan, which had been founded by Tagore 80 years back as a centre for Chinese studies.

"The Consulate has last month given Rs 60 lakh to renovate China Bhavan and always supports the student exchange programme between Visva Bharati and Chinese Universities. This is an important part in furthering people-to-people exchanges," Sen said.

A number of well-known Chinese scholars from different Chinese institutions as well as Indian scholars deliberated on the past of Indo-China exchanges, delving into history, and the future possibilities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)French President Emmanuel Macron has rolled out the red carpet for Indian youths, researchers and entrepreneurs, saying he would be proud if they made France their entry point to Europe and be their "long time strategic partner".

Macron, who was in India from March 10 to March 12, said both countries worked hard on deciding strategic partnerships in various sectors, including security, energy and environment.

He also termed the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) the beginning of a new achievement.

"I am finishing my trip in India. We are now in Benaras before leaving and flying back to Paris. I just wanted to thank you - Thank you India. Thanks for the three days in Delhi, in Taj Mahal and today in Benaras," he said in his video message before leaving India on March 12.

The video was released today.

He and his wife spent three "marvellous" days here he said, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the very warm welcome.

"We worked very hard , we decided on strategic partnerships, new decisions - from the security, economic, energy and environment points of view. We launched ISA, which is a great achievement at this stage. It was a beginning of new achievements. And I discovered India I have to say," he said.

Macron said he wanted to convey a last message -- choose France.

"Young people and young students, entrepreneurs, academics researchers, Indian leaders - choose France. You are very much welcome.

"I will be very proud to make my country the entry point for you in Europe and to be the long time strategic partner for you," he said.

The French president said it was an emotional three days, "... to spend hours with young people in Delhi and to be with you in Benaras today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police in Colombia have arrested a Cuban man suspected of plotting to kill American diplomats in the name of the Islamic State.

Police in Spain said Thursday they had been monitoring the online activities of the suspect, Raul Gutierrez, and that over a period of several weeks he showed signs of gradual indoctrination in radical Islam.

In late February he allegedly said he had obtained an arsenal of explosives that he planned to detonate at a popular dining area in Bogota frequented by US diplomats.

He was arrested Monday in the western city of Pereiera as a result of the operation between Spanish authorities, the FBI and Colombian police.

Gutierrez pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance yesterday.

The US Embassy in Colombia did not immediately comment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress MLAs registered their protest against yesterday's suspension of three party legislators by observing total silence during the Question Hour of the ongoing Budget Session of the Assembly here.

Four Congress MLAs, who were supposed to ask questions to different ministers, remained seated and did not utter anything when the Speaker Rajendra Trivedi called out their names.

The four MLAs-- Anand Chaudhary, Vajesinh Panada, Kalabhai Dabhi and Kanubhai Baraiya-- refrained from taking part in the Question Hour although they were prompted by the Speaker during their respective turns.

Of the total 11 questions, which came up for discussion during the Question Hour, four had been moved by these Congress MLAs, while the remaining seven questions were posed by the ruling BJP members.

When they did not stand up to ask their queries, the speaker moved to the next question.

Besides these four MLAs, no other Congress lawmaker asked any sub-question during the discussions in those questions moved by BJP MLAs.

The Assembly had on yesterday witnessed ugly scenes when the ruling BJP and opposition Congress members clashed in the House, leading to the suspension of two Congress MLAs from Amreli district- Pratap Dudhat and Amrish Der - for three years.

Another Congress legislator, Baldevji Thakor, was also suspended for a year for allegedly trying to assault BJP MLA Harsh Sanghvi at the lobby of the Assembly.

In addition to the suspension, the speaker also barred all the three from entering the Assembly premises during their period of suspension.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today walked out of the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Lok Sabha, alleging that the central government was adopting an "undemocratic" approach and bulldozing the proceedings in the House.

A meeting of the BAC to decide on the Lok Sabha's agenda for next week was held in Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's chamber this afternoon where leaders from a number of parties were present.

The Lok Sabha has been paralysed since March 5, when Parliament met after a recess, due to protest by various parties on issues like PNB scam, special status for Andhra Pradesh and Cauvery dispute. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were yesterday passed by the House without discussion and two other bills were also pushed today by the government.

Unhappy with the passage of bills without any discussion, Congress leader and deputy chief whip of the party in the lower house K C Venugopa today stormed out of the BAC meeting and accused the government of bypassing all democratic traditions and customs of the House.

He alleged that the government was trying to avoid discussion on the PNB scam issue.

The Government had yesterday passed the all-important finance bill and demands for grants without any discussion in the Lok Sabha. He said today too the government went ahead with two bills without any discussion, although the opposition parties, including the Congress, had agreed to cooperate in passage of important legislations like The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill.

"The Government was hell bent on passing bills without any discussion, and is neither interested in amicably settling the issues in the House in a democratic manner," Venugopal said in a statement.

The Congres leader said the government is making efforts to avoid any sort of discussion on the PNB scam, and is passing all the bills without any discussion amidst the din in Lok Sabha.

Allocating time for more bills would only help the government to pass them without any discussion, he said.

Mahajan's efforts last week to end the impasse in the House came a cropper after the Opposition alleged that the government had made no effort to reach out to them to important issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dalmia Bharat today said the committee of creditors of debt-ridden Binani Cement Ltd has approved the resolution plan submitted by its group entity Rajputana Properties Private Ltd.

The Committee of Creditors of Binani Cement Limited (BCL) constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 has approved the resolution plan for revival of BCL submitted by Rajputana Properties Private Limited, a Dalmia Bharat Group entity, Dalmia Bharat Ltd said in a BSE filing.

The Resolution Professional of BCL will now file the plan to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for its requisite approval. The Competition Commission of India has already granted its approval to the proposed acquisition of the stressed asset in the fastest and record time.

"Our Resolution Plan has taken care of all stakeholders including employees, workmen 81 small traders. The Resolution Plan envisages a disciplined investment criteria by Dalmia Bharat, proposed to be achieved through Rajputana becoming a joint venture (50:50) with India Resurgence Fund (backed by Piramal & Bain).

"This is the first ever transaction where a foreign PE investor invested in the undertaking referred under the Code."



The BCL's acquisition is the first billion-dollar transaction achieving the fastest resolution in a record period of 233 days since its reference to NCLT in late July 2017.

BCL along with its subsidiaries, is having a global cement capacity of 11.25 million tonnes (MT) with capacity in Rajasthan, India at 6.25 MT and overseas operations include a grinding unit in Dubai of 2 MT & clinker facility of 3 MT along with a 0.5 MT of grinding unit in China.

This is the third cement company under the IBC code where Dalmia Bharat Group has received approval of Resolution Plan, following Kalyanpur Cements Limited in January, 2018 and Murli Industries Limited in December, 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court here today allowed former Haryana chief minister O P Chautala's son Abhay Chautala, accused in a disproportionate assets case, to travel to Lahore in Pakistan.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar gave his nod to Abhay to travel from today till March 19 to Lahore for a wedding on furnishing a security of Rs 2 lakh, saying there was no tangible ground made by the CBI to deny him the permission.

"The present case relates to accused having possessed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. It is not the case of CBI that accused had tampered with evidence or there is a chance of accused absconding from justice," the court said.

"The only grievance of the CBI is that the accused had filed his application at the fag end and CBI did not get the time to verify the facts stated in the application by the accused. No tangible ground is made by the CBI for not granting the permission to go abroad," it said.

The court while allowing Abhay's plea also imposed conditions, including not contacting or influencing any witness and intimating the court prior to leaving and within 48 hours of return from abroad.

It also directed him to provide his travel itinerary and an attested copy of his passport and visa once he returned.

The court had yesterday reserved its order after Abhay's counsel Harsk K Sharma submitted an application before the special judge seeking permission for the accused to travel to Lahore.

The plea was opposed by the CBI, which had lodged the DA case against Abhay, his father and INLD chief O P Chautala and brother Ajay on the complaint of Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala.

Surjewala had alleged that the three accused had amassed wealth worth several times more than their income.

Objecting to Abhay's application, CBI Special Public Prosecutor Ajay Gupta had said there was an inexplicable delay in filing this plea as he made the request only today for travelling to the "enemy country" tomorrow.

"Why is the plea filed at the 11th hour? They are not seeking permission, they are informing the court about travel," Gupta said.

To this, Abhay's lawyer had said the wedding invitation card was received via WhatsApp only a day before and they moved the court for its nod immediately thereafter.

The CBI has alleged that Abhay owned assets worth over five times his income of Rs 22.89 crore as per income tax records during the 2000-2005 period. It has also claimed to have found Rs 119.69 crore worth of assets.

The CBI had also alleged that Ajay possessed assets exceeding his legal income by 339.27 per cent. His legal income between May 1993 and May 2006 was Rs 8.17 crore, but had acquired assets worth Rs 27.7 crore, it had alleged.

Earlier, all the three cases, which were being heard in different courts, were transferred to a single court on CBI's plea on the ground that trials in different courts would lead to inordinate delay in concluding them.

All charges have been denied by O P Chautala and his sons.

The former chief minister and Ajay were sentenced to 10 years in jail early this year by the high court in the 1999-2000 junior teachers recruitment scam.

The CBI had on March 26, 2010, charge sheeted Chautala indicting him for allegedly possessing assets worth Rs 6.09 crore, far exceeding his legal income between 1993 and 2006.

Two such cases are going on against his sons, Ajay and Abhay.

In its charge sheet, the CBI had alleged that Chautala's wealth was 189 per cent more than his income of Rs 3.22 crore during the period.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra government is "positive" on setting up an independent university for the Konkan region, minister Vinod Tawde said today.

"Keeping in mind students' interests, the government is positive on establishing a separate university for the Konkan region," Tawde told the Legislative Council here.

"A decision will be taken before the beginning of the new (academic) year after holding discussions with public representatives from Konkan," Tawde said.

Raising the issue, Niranjan Davkhare of NCP said the Mumbai University has 800 colleges under its jurisdiction, and the number of colleges is increasing every year, increasing the administrative burden.

The varsity becomes difficult to access for colleges in Konkan, especially in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, he said.

"Therefore it is necessary to have a separate university for 45 colleges in Ratnagiri,38 in Sindhudurg and 20 in Raigad," Davkhare said.

Students and parents from the three districts as well as the Ratnagiri Society, Konkan University Action Committee and elected representatives are making this demand for the last several years, he said.

Tawde, however, pointed out that Mumbai University has a certain brand value with its "glorious history of 150 years".

"Also, all the administrative work of Mumbai University is done online now. Checking of papers, rechecking, etc is also online," the minister said.

"Yet, keeping in mind the demand for separate university, we will hold a meeting with elected representatives. The current curriculum will also be discussed and the final decision will be taken," Tawde said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Indian cities - New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai, are among the in the world, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey, that named Singapore as the most expensive city.

According to the Worldwide Cost of Living 2018 survey, South Asian cities, particularly those in India and Pakistan offers the best value for money. Bengaluru, Chennai, Karachi and New Delhi featured among the 10 cheapest locations surveyed.

"India is tipped for rapid economic expansion, but in per-head terms, wage and spending growth will remain low. Income inequality means that low wages are the norm, limiting household spending and creating many tiers of pricing as well as strong competition from a range of retail sources," the report noted.

Moreover, cheap and plentiful supply of goods into cities from rural producers with short supply chains as well as government subsidies on some products, has kept prices down, especially by Western standards, the report noted.

Syria's capital, Damascus is the cheapest city in the world. Joining Damascus at the bottom is Venezuela's capital, Caracas and Kazakhstan's business centre, Almaty, in the second and third position respectively.

Others in the 10 list include Lagos at the 4th place, Bengaluru (5th), Karachi (6th), Algiers (7th), Chennai (8th), Bucharest (9th) and New Delhi (10th).

"Although the Indian subcontinent remains structurally cheap, instability is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in lowering the relative cost of living of a location. This means that there is a considerable element of risk in some of the world's cheapest cities," it added.

Singapore retained its title as the world's most expensive city for the fifth consecutive year. Singapore was ranked ahead of Paris placed second on the list, Zurich (3rd) and Hong Kong (4th).

According to the report, Oslo is the 5th most expensive city in the world, followed by Geneva (6th), Seoul (7th), Copenhagen (8th), Tel Aviv (9th) and Sydney (10th).

The Worldwide Cost of Living is a biannual Economist Intelligence Unit survey that compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services. These include food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help and recreational costs.The Delhi High Court today sought a response from the Delhi Police on former TV anchor and producer Suhaib Ilyasi's plea challenging his conviction and life imprisonment for killing his wife Anju 18 years ago.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta issued notice to the police on Ilyasi's plea.

He has also sought suspension of his sentence till pendency of his appeal.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 4.

Ilyasi, who was represented by senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, was taken into custody on December 16 last year after his conviction.

In his appeal, filed through advocate Rajiv Mohan, Ilyasi said he was not given an opportunity to cross examine all the witnesses after the charge was amended under IPC's Section 302 for murder.

Advocate Satender Sharma, who was representing Anju's mother Rukma Singh, said they have been suffering for long and not been made a party in the case. He also sought a copy of the appeal.

The bench said he can assist the prosecutor in the case.

The trial court had on December 20, 2017, sentenced Ilyasi to life term for stabbing his wife to death, saying he "committed murder and gave it a colour of suicide".

It had also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on him and directed that Rs 10 lakh be paid as compensation to Anju's parents. The expense would be borne by him.

Ilyasi was earlier charged with milder provisions, including 304 B (dowry death) of the IPC.

However, Anju's mother Rukma Singh and sister Rashmi Singh had moved the Delhi High Court, which in August 2014 had ruled that the TV producer would be tried under Section 302 of the IPC for murder.

Anju was rushed to a hospital on January 11, 2000 with stab wounds she received at her East Delhi residence.

Ilyasi, who had shot into limelight after hosting the TV crime show 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000. Charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife for dowry. He was granted bail later.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Lt Governor has requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to inquire into the alleged irregularities in Delhi Nagarik Sehkari Bank Ltd and has also directed the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police to probe into the matter.

Baijal had on October 16 referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) for an inquiry.

Already 40 appointments made by direct recruitment have been cancelled and promotion of 62 employees of the Delhi Nagarik Sehkari Bank Ltd has been set aside. A number of FIRs have also been lodged, a statement issued by the LG house said.

"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been requested to inquire into the matter to ensure that there are no financial irregularities in the running of the bank and wherever required, corrective and preventive measures/actions are taken.

"Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has been directed to investigate the entire matter. Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) has been provided the copy of the various reports and directed to inquire into the matter expeditiously for action as per law," the statement read.

The alleged irregularities in the cooperative bank came to light in 2013, after complaints were filed to the registrar of cooperative societies and the RBI, alleging fraudulent loans.It was a show of strength today by sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran who named his party after late leader J Jayalalithaa and unveiled its flag amid thousands of cadres who hailed him as the next Tamil Nadu "chief minister".

Naming his party "Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam" at an event here, Dhinakaran said the new outfit would capture power in the state.

Dhinakaran, who has the support of several dissident party workers and leaders, arrived in style in an open-top van acknowledging greetings from several supporters who had lined-up on streets in Melur with placards sporting his image.

Several party workers gave him the traditional 'poornakumbham', considered auspicious and a sign of respect.

It has mango leaves and a coconut in a decorated traditional vase or pot.

Banners and hoardings hailing Dhinakaran as the "future chief minister" were put up at several roads and junctions.

Former ministers V Senthil Balaji and P Palaniappan, senior leader S Anbazhagan, disqualified MLAs and Dhinakaran loyalists, including P Vetrivel and Thanga Tamil Selvan, attended the event.

Giant hoardings of Dhinakrana along with AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran (MGR), Jayalalithaa, Dravidian icon C N Annadurai, and jailed leader V K Sasikala were also put up for the event.

The venue had a green backdrop (Jayalalithaa's favourite colour).

As soon as he arrived, a popular yesteryear number from an MGR film 'vangaiyya vathiyar ayya', (welcome our leader) was played.

Dhinakaran paid floral tributes to MGR and Jayalalithaa.

Notwithstanding the move, he had said yesterday that his camp has not given up its right over the two-leaves symbol.

Cadres at the event claimed that it "overshadowed" party functions, including the Ilangyar Pasarai-Illam Pengal Pasarai at Theni, held by "betrayers" (ruling AIADMK led by K Palaniswami).

The 'pasarai,' event had witnessed an attendance of about 50,000 cadres, according to the ruling AIADMK.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ED has registered a money laundering case in connection with an alleged fraud of over Rs 173 crore in the United Bank of India (UBI) in 2016, involving the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) in West Bengal.

The central probe agency's zonal office in Kolkata has filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a July, 2016 FIR of the West Bengal CID.

Officials said the case of alleged fraud in the UBI pertains to providing fake bank guarantees to the raw material assistance scheme of the NSIC, that functions under the central Micro, Small and Medium Exterprises (MSME) Ministry.

The WB CID has filed a criminal case, acting on a complaint sent by the chief vigilance officer (CVO) of the NSIC, against 23 people, including an ex-employee of the organisation S K Halder, private person Debabrata Halder and few employees of the bank.

Officials of the UBI in collusion with the parties and consultants like S K Halder and Debabrata Halder with ulterior motives caused a "wrongful loss" of Rs 173 crore to the bank, the police FIR, accessed by PTI, alleged.

The CID had also arrested three senior employees of the state-run bank in this case in June last year.

The ED will now probe if the alleged tainted funds generated in this case were laundered and used to create illicit assets by the accused.

It may also attach the assets of the accused under the PMLA as part of its investigation in the case.

Sources in the agency said the fraud could go upto Rs 200 crore.

As per the police FIR, under its raw material assistance scheme, the NSIC provides short-term finance to the MSMEs for their raw material procurement in West Bengal by making direct payment to raw material suppliers against 100 per cent security of bank guarantees of nationalised or approved banks.

"The majority of the (fraudulent) bank guarantees stated to be invoked were issued for a period of three years and are reported to be invoked immediately within a period of 2-4 months after issue of bank guarantee," the FIR said.

In certain cases, it said, the NSIC detected "fraudulent transactions" and hence filed a police compliant in 2016.

The FIR said the NSIC detected such fraudulent instances in at least four of its branches in West Bengal like the one in Salt Lake, Kolkata, Howrah and Durgapur. It said the maximum of these fraudulent bank guarantees were "mobilised" by Halder in connivance with a Kolkata-based consultant Debabrata Halder and others.

S K Halder, post his retirement, was engaged by the NSIC as consultant for business generation under the said scheme, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)ELECRAMA, the biggest showcase of electrical and electronics manufacturers, generated business queries worth Rs 6,500 crore, organisers said.

In the five-day event that concluded yesterday over 1,200 exhibitors showcased their products and services and recorded over 2.98 lakh footfalls at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, ELECRAMA chairman Vijay Karia said a statement.

"We have had good opportunity to meet Indian manufacturers. The Indian industry has matured and improved a lot over the past 10 years," the statement quoted Jye Ying Lu, Director of Malaysia-based Powerpoint Electrical as saying.

Ornousa Sok Pona, Director at Thailand's government-owned Provincial Electricity Authority said:"In terms knowledge-sharing, ELECRAMA is of immense value. We hope to explore new products available in Indian markets."



ELECRAMA is organised by Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers' Association (IEEMA), which is the main association of manufacturers of electrical, industrial electronics and allied equipment with 800-plus member organisations.

IEEMA members contribute to more than 90 per cent of the power equipment installed in India and represent a turnover of over 25 billion dollars.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic group are protesting a sweeping Chinese surveillance and security campaign that has sent thousands of people into detention and political indoctrination centers.

Overseas Uighur activists said Thursday they plan demonstrations in 14 countries including the US, Australia and Turkey.

Video on social media showed hundreds of Uighur women with blue veils and blue flags chanting in Istanbul and Sydney.

Organizers said they would march at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday.

China has rolled out one of the world's most aggressive policing programs in the Uighurs' homeland of Xinjiang, a vast region in northwest China.

Officials say the crackdown is necessary to stamp out separatism and Islamic extremism, but Uighur activists and rights groups say it has only exacerbated tensions.

(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 US' decision to challenge Indian export subsidy schemes at World Trade Organisation (WTO) is an area of grave concern for domestic traders and the government should phase out these incentives, FIEO today said.

US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer has announced that America has requested dispute settlement consultations with India at WTO challenging Indian export subsidy programmes.

"It is a huge concern for export sector and the industry feels that the so called export subsidies should be eliminated gradually," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai told PTI.

He said the US is a major market for domestic exporters as it accounts for about 14 per cent of India's total exports.

According to the US, Indian subsidy programmes harm American workers by creating an "uneven" playing field.

These programs are: Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, Special Economic Zones, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme and Duty Free Imports for Exporters Programme.

Seeking consultation under the aegis of WTO is the first step of dispute settlement process.

If the two nations are not able to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultation, the US may request for a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter.

India has already lost two cases in WTO including on poultry and solar sector.

In 2016, India also dragged the US to WTO against the policies of eight American states for the renewable energy sector, alleging that the domestic content requirement norms are inconsistent with global trade rules.

Besides, the country has filed a complaint against American decision to impose high fees on temporary working visas.

India's exports to the US stood at USD 42.21 billion in 2016-17, while imports aggregated at USD 22.30 billion during the same fiscal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Continuing the positive growth path, India's exports grew by 4.5 per cent in February to USD 25.8 billion, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said today.

Imports too rose by 10.4 per cent to USD 37.8 billion during the last month, leaving a trade deficit of USD 12 billion.

The country's merchandise exports are showing continuous positive growth, Teaotia told reporters here.

During April-February period of the current fiscal, exports recorded a growth of 11 per cent to USD 273.7 billion, while imports grew by 21 per cent to USD 416.87 billion.

Oil imports in February rose by 32 per cent.

Export sectors, which are recording healthy growth so far includes chemicals, engineering goods and petroleum products.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four men were arrested and a juvenile was apprehended for their alleged involvement in the killing of a 47-year-old financier in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar last month, the police said today.

On February 8, the police were informed that a man, identified as Sanjay Chawla, had been stabbed. He later died of injuries, they said.

During its investigation, the police found that Chawla used to provide loans to people against monthly interests. While analysing his financial deals, the police became suspicious about a gemstone dealer called Manjot Singh (48), who had taken a loan from the victim, they said.

The police also found CCTV footage in which Singh was seen near the place of the crime.

After probing further into the case, the police apprehended Dinesh alias Chandan (22) and a juvenile from the Ganda Nala area in Chirag Delhi on March 14.

According to the police, the two said they had been hired by three men -- Rohit, Kale and Vicky --to kill Chawla and were paid Rs 35,000 each for the crime. Subsequently, the knife used to stab Chawla and the clothes worn by the accused at the time of the incident were recovered, Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said.

Rohit and Vicky were later arrested as was Singh. Kale is still at large.

The police said Singh revealed he had borrowed Rs 52 lakh from Chawla.

When Singh could not pay the interest on the loan, Chawla would "insult" him, the gemstone dealer told the police.

Singh decided to kill Chawla. He contacted two of his acquaintances, Vicky and Rohit, and promised to pay them Rs five lakh for the crime. The two in turn contacted Dinesh and the juvenile, who did a recce of Chawla's office and residence.

On February 8, Dinesh and the juvenile followed Chawla from his office to his residence.

Dinesh stabbed Chawla while the juvenile kept watch, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu & Kashmir-based Sarveshwar Foods today became the first small and medium enterprise (SME) from the state to make its debut on the capital market by getting listed on the National Stock Exchange.

The company, which is engaged in the business of processing and marketing of branded and un-branded basmati and non-basmati rice, is the 128th listing on NSE Emerge -- the exchange's platform for SMEs.

Shares of Sarveshwar Foods closed at Rs 70.05 apiece today, 17.59 per cent down from its issue price of Rs 85.

Sarveshwar Foods had garnered Rs 55 crore from its initial public offer (IPO), which opened on March 5 and closed on March 8. The company had fixed the price band at Rs 83-85 per share.

The issue was oversubscribed 1.56 times.

"The listing of an SME from Jammu and Kashmir is an important breakthrough for NSE Emerge platform, as it is reflective of our robust market development initiatives, as also the need for small businesses, wherever they are located, to tap more organised form of capital," NSE chief business development officer Ravi Varanasi told PTI.

With more than 80 listing in the current fiscal year, the stock exchange has a healthy pipeline for the next few months also.

According to Varanasi, cities like Ranchi, Guwahati and Patna are also emerging as clusters which shall be seeing activity in the coming days.

He also noted that awareness programs conducted by the exchange in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities have witnessed significant response from the entrepreneurs regarding the alternative fund raising mechanism from cities like Dehradun, Mohali, Morbi, Vishakhapatnam and Jammu.

"The main focus is to create awareness of the platform across all principal SME clusters. NSE team regularly conducts outreach programs in SME clusters to familiarise firms with the process of approaching capital markets as a new and viable option for raising capital in an efficient manner to scale up their businesses," Varanasi said.

"These programs also brief the SMEs with regard to the steps they should to take to prepare themselves for getting listed and raising capital. This should help us to tap the newer potential regions," he added.

NSE Emerge provides a platform to raise funds for SMEs on a growth path, as they are not large enough to list on the main board.

As per the NSE, the listed companies on NSE Emerge has together raised funds amounting to about Rs 1,800 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale held meetings with top State Department officials and discussed various bilateral issues, including shared interest in the Indo-Pacific region and America's support for New Delhi's emergence as a leading power.

Gokhale, on his maiden visit to the US as India's top diplomat, met the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department yesterday.

"They discussed US-India strategic cooperation, shared interests in the Indo-Pacific region, and US support for India's emergence as a leading power and security provider," a State Department Spokesperson told PTI.

Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna and Alice Wells, who is currently State Department's point person for South and Central Asia, were also present during the meeting.

No other details of the meeting was immediately available.

Gokhale's meetings in the tour were scheduled well in advance and was mainly meant to prepare for the first ever two-plus-two dialogue between the two countries.

Officials from the either side have not yet announced any dates of such a dialogue, but it was previously scheduled for some time in mid-April.

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 fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him. Pompeo needs to be confirmed by the Senate before he can occupy the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Forest fires caused financial losses of around Rs 6 crore in Himachal Pradesh during the last three years, Forest Minister Gobind Singh Thakur today said.

Replying to a question, he said that 3,200 forest fires broke out during the last three years, affecting over 3,2000 hectares of forest area in the state.

The minister said that an intensive mass awareness campaign is being launched during the fire prone season to create awareness among people, school children, Panchayats, NGOs etc. about the damage caused by forest fires.

He said the satellite based Fire Alert Messaging System, developed by Forest Survey of India (FSI) is being adopted in the state.

"More than 1,900 forest personnel are registered to receive the SMS alerts. The system enables early information of forest-fire incidents and quick response," he said.

Thakur said the forest beats have been categorised as highly sensitive, medium sensitive and low sensitive to forest fires and fire-watchers are deployed accordingly. He said the fire watchers are engaged in every fire-season from April 15 to June 30 to take necessary measures to prevent and control fires.

"Before every fire season, fire-lines are carved out as per available budget and teams of field staff are constituted and local people are also mobilized to quickly respond for combating forest fires," Thakur said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Crime Branch sleuths busted an illegal online lottery and betting racket by arresting four persons from Malwani area in western suburbs, an official said today.

Police yesterday raided a lottery centre and seized six computers, eight mobile phone handsets, two EDC machines, a printer, a bar code scanner, a router, printing equipment and cash worth Rs 3.28 lakh, he said.

Following the raid, police arrested Alpesh Battiya (34), Zahiruddin Shaikh (34), Kadar Badshah Shaikh (42), and Narendra Kanani (52) from Malwani area, the official said.

One of the accused, Kadar Shaikh, a lottery distributor, is the kingpin of the racket, he said.

"Kadar had developed a website and an online lottery application named 'Bhagyashree' which is similar to Rajshree Lottery, the authorised online lottery centre. Kadar then allotted franchises to some online lottery centres in suburbs and neighbouring areas as well," said Chimaji Adhav, senior police inspector, Unit-11.

Every online lottery centre used to make around Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 a day by by operating the "Bhagyashree online lottery" and application, he said.

For smooth operation of lottery and declaring its results, Kadar obtained a google engine, which has a server in Canada, said DCP (crime) Nisar Tamboli.

He said KAdar used to pay monthly rent to the engine online.

As the main accused had knowledge of the entire operation of Rajshree Lottery, he used all the infrastructure to promote his own lottery business, he said.

The accused started the online lottery as their commission as lottery agents was slashed after introduction of GST which brought lottery business under its ambit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will visit India from March 22 to 25 with an aim to strengthen bilateral ties.

It will be his first visit to India as the German President.

"The visit is significant as it will be the President's first visit after the new German government was sworn in yesterday," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

Apart from his engagements here, Steinmeier, who will be accompanied by a delegation of top German businessmen and indologists, will visit Varanasi and Chennai.

He had visited India several times in his former capacity as the Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany.

The last German President to visit India was Joachim Gauck in February 2014.

"India's relationship with Germany is amongst our foremost relations, bilaterally and in global context. After having established strategic partnership since 2000, successive governments on the two sides have endeavoured to broaden and deepen this relationship," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Germany is India's largest trading partner in Europe and the sixth largest trading partner in the world. India was ranked 24th in Germany's global trade.

"India's current priorities in most areas match with German expertise, such as renewable energy, skills development, smart city, water and waste management," the MEA said.

In 2016-17, the bilateral trade turnover was USD 18.76 billion. In 2016-17, India exported goods worth USD 7.18 billion to Germany and imported goods worth USD 11.58 billion.

Germany is the 7th largest foreign direct investor in India and the cumulative German FDI in India from April 2000 to December 2017 is USD 10.71 billion or 2.91 per cent of total FDI, according to official figures.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The hearing on two petitions for ineligibility of Tata Steel and Vedanta for takeover of Electrosteel Steels Ltd at Kolkata bench of NCLT was concluded today and the verdict is awaited.

"The hearing on both the ineligibility petitions under section 29A (which specifies grounds for ineligibility) of Insolvency and Bankrupcy Code on both Tata Steel and Vedanta had been concluded today. We are expecting a verdict in a few days," Debanjan Mandal of law firm Fox and Mandal, representing petitioner Renaissance Steel said.

There was no response from Tata Steel on the matter while Vedanta declined to comment.

Petitioner Renaissance Steel India Pvt challenged the eligibility of Vedanta and Tata Steel to bid for debt-laden Electrosteel Steels before National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Renaissance Steel India Pvt Ltd had submitted a resolution plan for Electrosteel on January 4 to Dhaivat Anjaria, the resolution professional (RP).

The liquidation value of Electrosteel Steels is Rs 2,900 crore.

In a meeting on February 27, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) for Electrosteel reportedly discussed all the resolution plans, and an offer by global resources and metals conglomerate Vedanta was shortlisted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following are the top at 1715 hours:



NATION:



DEL33 PAK-ENVOY-MEA Pak High commissioner called for consultations; it is normal: MEANew Delhi: The Pakistan High Commissioner was called for consultations and it is "normal", the external affairs ministry today said after the neighbouring country decided to call back its envoy to Islamabad.

DEL34 CONG-LS-BAC-WALKOUT



Cong walks out of meet on Lok Sabha agenda



New Delhi: The Congress today walked out of the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Lok Sabha, alleging that the central government was adopting an "undemocratic" approach and bulldozing the proceedings in the House.

DEL24 UP-LD AKHILESH



Let bygones be bygones, says Akhilesh on bitter past rivalry with BSP



Lucknow: Enthused by his party's strong showing in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav indicated today that his party was keen on burying its bitter rivalry with Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party saying sometimes "past incidents have to be forgotten".

DEL10 AVI-2NDLD AIRINDIA-TWITTER



Air India Twitter account hacked; later restored



Mumbai: Air India's official Twitter account was hacked late last night and was restored today, according to the airline.

DEL17 NBCC-SEIZED PROPERTIES



Govt discusses handing maintenance of seized properties to NBCC



New Delhi: The government is considering handing the task of maintaining, managing and earning revenue from immovable properties attached in money laundering cases to the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), officials said today.

DEL8 CBI-PNB-FRAUD



CBI registers fresh case related to Rs 9 cr fraud at PNB branch



New Delhi: The CBI has registered a fresh case relating to "fraudulent" issuance of Rs 9 crore of LoUs to Chandri Papers and Allied Products by PNB's Brady House branch, at the centre of a storm over a similar fraud by billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

BOM7 GJ-RS-UNOPPOSED



RS polls: All 4 candidates from Gujarat elected unopposed



Gandhinagar: Four candidates -- two each of the Congress and the BJP -- were today elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, days after the last moment entry of two nominees from these parties raised the prospect of a contest.

MDS7 TN-DHINAKARAN-LD PARTY



Dhinakaran names new party after Jaya, vows to take on 'betrayers'



Madurai: Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran today floated a new political party, the "Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam", named after late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

BUSINESS



DEL15 BIZ-LD FITCH-INDIA-GROWTH



India's growth to touch 7.3% next fiscal, 7.5% in 2019-20: Fitch



New Delhi: Indian economy is likely to grow by 7.3 per cent in next fiscal and the growth will accelerate further to 7.5 per cent in 2019-20 on account of increased investment in infrastructure and waning of the disruptions caused by GST rollout, said global rating agency Fitch.

LEGAL:



LGD15 SC-KARTI



INX Media case: SC protects Karti from arrest by ED till March 26



New Delhi: The Supreme Court today extended till March 26 the interim relief granted by the Delhi High Court to Karti Chidambaram from arrest in the INX Media money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

LGD9 SC-DEFAMATION



SC stays defamation proceedings by Jay Shah against portal



New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked a Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against the portal The Wire and its journalists.

LGD7 HC-KARTI



Delhi HC extends Karti's protection from arrest in ED case till Mar 22



New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today extended the protection from arrest to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case from March 20 to 22.

FOREIGN:



FGN15 PAK-INDIA-LD ENVOY



Pak summons its envoy in India for consultations over 'harassment': FO



Islamabad: Upping the ante, Pakistan says it has decided to call back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidence of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi. By Sajjad Hussain



FGN19 PAK-LD BLAST



10 killed in Taliban suicide attack near Sharif's residence



Lahore: A teenaged Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police check-post near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, killing 10 people, including six policemen, police says.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The House overwhelmingly approved a bill to improve school safety today, the first gun-related action by Congress since the shooting that left 17 dead at a Florida high school.

The bill authorizes USD 500 million over 10 years for grants to improve training and coordination between schools and local law enforcement and help identify signs of potential violence before they occur.

Lawmakers approved the bill, 407-10. It now goes to the Senate, where a similar measure is being considered.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the bill "provides a multi-layered approach" to identify threats so authorities can stop violence before it occurs.

"Tragic violence has no place in our schools. Every American believes that,'" Ryan said. "This legislation will actually take concrete action to prevent that."



The vote came as the FBI announced it is doubling the number of supervisors assigned to review tips received from the public about possible threats of mass shootings or other violence.

Deputy FBI Director David Bowdich told a Senate committee that the agency "could have and should have done more" to investigate information it received prior to the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The FBI received at least two credible tips that the suspect in the Florida school shooting had a "desire to kill" and access to guns and could be plotting an attack, but agents failed to investigate.

"While we will never know if any such investigative activity would have prevented this tragedy, we clearly should have done more," Bowdich told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Senate panel was considering a similar proposal to improve school safety, but a hearing yesterday focused on law enforcement failures in Florida.

Besides the FBI lapses, Broward County, Florida Sheriff Scott Israel has said his office received more than 20 calls about accused gunman Nikolas Cruz in the past few years Senator Charles Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee, noted that Israel declined an invitation to testify yesterday, as did Michael Carroll, secretary of Florida's Department of Children and Families.

"By thumbing their noses at Congress, Sheriff Israel and Secretary Carroll have let the American people down and also the citizens of Florida they serve," said Grassley, R-Iowa.

Some Democratic lawmakers sought to expand the focus to include gun control. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said more and more families are being victimized by mass shootings since a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons she authored expired in 2004.

"This Congress cannot continue to do nothing, because nothing means more lives are lost, including the youngest and the most vulnerable among us," said Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary panel.

"High school students are literally begging us to take action to get these guns off the streets and out of our schools." As Feinstein spoke, hundreds of students were rallying outside the Capitol to urge stricter gun control laws. The rally was part of a nationwide school walkout to protest gun violence following the Florida attack. A larger rally is planned March 24.

Chloe Appel, 15, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, held a sign that said, "Fix this before I text my mom from under a desk." The high school student said she's hopeful that Congress will enact gun control laws.

"After today and after the next protest Congress will see how many people feel strongly about this so they will have to make a change," she said.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders told the students that young people again are leading the nation, as they did during the civil rights and anti-war movements.

"All across the country people are sick and tired of gun violence, and the time is now for all of us together to stand up to the NRA and pass common-sense gun legislation," Sanders said.

The FBI has acknowledged it mishandled separate tips related to Cruz, last September and again in January.

"When we make mistakes, we will not hide them," Bowdich said, vowing to work with Congress to correct mistakes and prevent similar tragedies.

Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the FBI gets about 4,100 tips a day at its nationwide call centers with a staff of about 160 to handle them. More people should be dedicated to that task, Durbin said.

President Donald Trump cheered the House vote, tweeting that lawmakers "took major steps toward securing our schools by passing the STOP School Violence Act. We must put the safety of America's children FIRST by improving training and by giving schools and law enforcement better tools. A tragedy like Parkland can't happen ever again!"



The school safety measure was one of two bills included in a modest White House plan released over the weekend to combat school shootings. The other bill would strengthen, but not expand, the federal background check system for gun purchases.

The background checks bill has stalled in the Senate amid objections from some Republicans and concern by Democrats that it is insufficient. Without strong advocacy from the White House, an ambitious gun package appeared unlikely to even get off the ground, given most Republicans' opposition to any new restrictions on gun rights.

Ryan Petty, whose daughter, Alaina, was killed in the Parkland shooting, told senators that, "Nikolas Cruz and the deadly danger he posed were the worst-kept secrets in Parkland."



Petty, his voice shaking with emotion, called on lawmakers to follow the lead of Florida, which just passed legislation that raises the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21; extends a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns; and bans bump stocks, which allow guns to mimic fully automatic fire.

"Build on common ground," Petty said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Coming off from two back-to-back successes, Ali Abbas Zafar is nervous about the expectations surrounding "Bharat", his third collaboration with Salman Khan.

The director says it is natural for people to expect him and Salman to strike gold after two superhits -- "Sultan" and "Tiger Zinda Hai" -- together.

"With 'Tiger Zinda Hai' and 'Sultan' behind me, I'm more nervous for my next one because I know the expectations and anticipations will be really, really high," Ali told PTI.

The human-drama is a remake of the 2014 South Korean film"Ode To My Father".

"It is a very different film from 'Tiger' and 'Sultan'. We are trying to do something new with it. It's too early to talk about it," he said when prodded about "Bharat".

Ali believes working with Salman has added maturity to his craft as a filmmaker.

"People tell me there's a lot of maturity in my work now. May be that maturity has got to do because I'm working with Salman Khan who has so much experience.

"The text that I write kind of compliments (him) and he as a mature actor takes it to another level."



While today he and the superstar stand as one of the most formidable director-actor duos in Bollywood, Zafar's first meeting with Salman - some seven-eight years ago - was about everything else but work.

"My first ever meeting with him was through Katrina (Kaif). She was there in my first film ('Mere Brother Ki Dulhan) and we went to his house, somewhere in 2010-2011.

"We just had a very normal, regular conversation. At that point of time I had no idea I am going to make films with him.

"He was a huge star and I was just starting my career. We had a nice chat about life and world but not about cinema. He asked me where do I come from, what I want to do."



Talking ahead of the world television premiere of "Tiger Zinda Hai", scheduled forMarch 18on Sony Max,Zafar feels "liberated and uplifted" after the film became a blockbuster.

"Success pushes me to work even more hard. Everything now will create more anticipation, we will have to pull our socks up and work harder to meet those expectations.

"But when a film releases and you detach yourself from it, you can see the film more analytically and understand what worked and what didn't. That is a big learning exercise which always happen when you watch the film three-four months after its release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canada has conveyed to India that presence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an event here last month where the Indian map was "inaccurately" depicted, did not reflect its endorsement.

Trudeau had attended a conclave of Young Change Makers here on February 24 where the Indian map was reportedly shown incorrectly.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India had taken up the matter with Canada.

"We had taken up the matter with the Canadian side. We were informed that the inaccurate depiction of the Indian flag happened at the Young Change Maker's conclave held on Feb 24 which was attended by the Canadian Prime Minister," Kumar said during a media briefing.

He said the Canadian government has conveyed to India that the event was organised by a third party and the map and its backdrop were an artiste's creation.

"We have been told that they do not imply endorsement or acceptance by the government of Canada," he said.

India's map shown at the event reportedly shown Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Akshai Chin and Gujarat incorrectly.

Replying to another question, Kumar said the visit of a Chinese dignitary here has been cancelled as he had to attend a meeting of China's Communist Party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The increase in allocations to agriculture in the state budget would give a boost to the farm sector on which majority of people are dependent, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said today.

"The CM has expressed his happiness over greater allocations for the agriculture sector on which a great majority of people are dependent."



"More allocations for the irrigation projects, crop investment support scheme, power subsidies would help successfully implement the programmes aimed at developing the farm sector in a big way," a release from Raos office said.

Finance Minister E Rajender presented the last full budget of the government for 2018-19 today with a total outlay of Rs 1,74,453.

84 crore.

Agriculture and irrigation got the lions share of allocations.

Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council (Congress) Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the TRS government never spent the amount declared in the budget.

"Last year, though it announced a budget of Rs 1,49,646 crore, the government spent 1,08,000 croreduring the year and rest were allowed to lapse," he said.

During the current year a budget of Rs.1,74,453 crore has been presented but it was likely that more than 40 per cent of the same would be unspent, he claimed.

State BJP president and MLA K Laxman alleged that the TRS government betrayed farmers by not making a mention of Minimum Support Price.

The TRS government has not said anything about reviving industries like Sirpur paper mill and Nizam Sugars on which many workers are dependent, he alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Expressing disappointment over the US decision to impose high import duties on certain steel and aluminium products, India today said it should be exempted from the duty as it is America's strategic partner.

Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said the government has conveyed its "concerns and disappointment" over these measures taken by the Trump administration.

"Currently we are not a big exporter (of steel and aluminium), but we are an important strategic partner for the US and since this has been placed on security grounds, we feel that like other countries with whom US has a strategic partnership, India should also be exempted from these (duties)," she told reporters here.

The Trump administration is concerned about the adverse balance of trade with some some nations, but India is one of its trading partner to increase its exports, she said.

The US has seen a jump of 18 per cent in its exports to India last year, she said, adding that it is "inappropriate to apply these tariffs" on India.

Since these taxes are imposed on security grounds and some of the key trading partners of the US are excluded from this move, "we are certainly not a security threat to the US and exemption for India should also be available," Teaotia added.

The increase in America's exports to India last year reflects that market access in India is very open and that there are lot of opportunities to boost trade, she said.

On March 9, President Donald Trump imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium which he said were necessary to boost the US industry suffering from "unfair" business practices, a move that has sparked fears of a global trade war.

A levy of 25 per cent and 10 per cent was imposed on steel and aluminium imported from all countries except Canada and Mexico.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India continues to lag behind most of its neighbours, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, ranking 133 in the latest World Happiness Report released by the UN.

The report ranked Finland as the happiest country, closely followed by Norway and Denmark. Burundi was listed as the least happy country.

According to the report produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), India's happiness score fell by 0.698 points, bringing it down from its last year's position of 128.

In the sixth World Happiness Report, released ahead of the International Day of Happiness on March 20, the migration was the central issue under consideration.

"Increasingly, with globalisation, the people of the world are on the move; and most of these migrants are seeking a happier life," the report said.

There are large gaps in happiness between countries, and these will continue to create major pressures to migrate. Some of those who migrate between countries will benefit and others will lose, according to the report.

In happiness rankings for immigrants, India was ranked at 91. Finland's immigrants are also the happiest immigrant population in the world, based on the available data from 117 countries, the report said.

"Where immigrants are welcome and where they integrate well, immigration works best. A more tolerant attitude in the host country will prove best for migrants and for the original residents," the report said.

In the report that included 156 countries, Pakistan was ranked 75, Bhutan at 97, and China at 86.

Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were ranked 101, 115 and 116 respectively.

The US and the UK were in 18th and 19th place respectively.

The results are based on six key factors found to support wellbeing - income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity.

"The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born," said Professor John Helliwell of the University of British Columbia in Canada, co-editor of the report.

All of the top ten countries for overall happiness 2015-2017 are in the top 11 countries for immigrant happiness based on surveys covering 2005-2015.

"Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries," said Helliwell.

"Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A cloned Assamese buffalo male calf has been born for the first time, the Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) claimed here.

"We used unique methods and produced this clone calf, Sach-Gaurav, on December 22, 2017 through a normal delivery," CIRB cloning team head P S Yadav said today.

The calf was born to a Murrah buffalo. It was also the first to be born in the field, 100 kms from the cloning laboratory at Hi Tech Sach Dairy Farm here, he said.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research-CIRB is a central institute and it has a mandate to conserve superior animals of all buffalo breeds.

ICAR-CIRB Director Inderjeet Singh said the Assamese buffaloes were found only in the north-eastern part of the country and they were used mainly for agricultural work.

He said this was the second cloned male produced by ICAR-CIRB after Hisar-Gaurav, born December 11, 2015. Hisar-Gaurav was producing quality semen from the age of 22 months and ten females of the institute's herd were pregnant with its frozen semen.

Yadav said the birth weight of the calf was 54.2 kgs and it was in good health. It had normal physiological parameters and blood profile, he said.

The genotype of the calf was confirmed by microsatellite analysis (parentage verification) and chromosome analysis, he said.

Animal cloning can be an excellent reproductive tool for conservation and multiplication of selected superior animals of buffalo breeds, he said.

He said it was India's first cloned Assamese buffalo calf and the embryos were transported for about two hours before being transferred into the recipient mothers.

"The ovaries of Murrah buffaloes were used as a source of recipient oocytes...Small tissue of Assamese buffalo was airlifted from Veterinary College, Khannapara, Guwhati, 2000 km away from our cloning laboratory, to culture establish the donor cells," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Commonwealth chief has lauded India for its "strong commitment" towards the 53-nation grouping, saying it has set an example which the other member countries have emulated.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland said the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Britain next month marks a "great time" for India to lead the way on intra-Commonwealth cooperation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join heads of state from the member-countries at the summit in London and Windsor in April, during which they will get a chance to have "very personal and direct" interactions, Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland said at a pre-summit briefing here yesterday.

"India has done a lot on innovation and in every ministerial Commonwealth meeting, we see strong commitment from India. In welcoming that strong commitment from India, I am so happy to see it matched by the other 52 countries and the south-south cooperation taking place," she said.

"It is a great time for India and it is exciting to see the energised way in which new opportunities are being taken up," she said.

Scotland highlighted India's active role and "great generosity" during the recent Commonwealth education ministers' meeting in Fiji, where it shared with other member-states its Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) platform for education, innovation and change.

During the law ministers meeting in the Bahamas last year, India shared the sort of instruments being created to get cheaper, better and faster processes.

"Looking at the opportunity, we have launched a small and medium enterprise network in India and we are hoping to have a branch of that in the Pacific," said Scotland, who hailed India as the biggest democracy with 1.1 billion of the 2.4 billion people within the organisation's membership landscape.

CHOGM on April 19 and 20 will be preceded by the Commonwealth Business Forum between April 16-18, which will bring together hundreds of business people and stakeholders from across the 53 Commonwealth countries.

"Participation from Indian businesses to the Commonwealth Business Forum is just staggering in terms of the calibre, range, innovation and dynamism," said Richard Burge, CEO of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), who will be leading the trade and business strand of the agenda.

"India is a huge nation, it is bound to have a huge impact with its incredibly diverse economy. It is a really knock-your-socks-off economy and we should be really proud of it as a member and take every advantage that we can," he said.

The theme of CHOGM, being chaired by Britain this year, is "Towards a Common Future" and is focused on building on the strengths of the Commonwealth.

The last trade review of the organisation in 2016 had flagged a "Commonwealth advantage", which indicated that bilateral costs for trading partners in Commonwealth countries were on average 19 per cent less than between those in non-Commonwealth countries.

The 2018 summit will mark the launch of a new trade review, which will show that the Commonwealth is likely to miss its target of USD 1 trillion of trade between its members by 2020.

"The growth is slightly slower than we thought it was going to be because the global market has slowed down. We hoped it would be about a trillion by 2020 - the estimate now is it's probably going to be about 700 billion," said Scotland.

However, she said the range of disruptive technologies that were being thrown up held great promise for the "revitalised" relationship right across the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is a diverse community of 53 nations that work together to promote prosperity, democracy and peace.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India takes nuclear non-proliferation very seriously and unlike some of its neighbours, it does not believe in "dirty bombs", Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today, in an oblique reference to Pakistan.

Sitharaman, while speaking at a book release function here, said India is complying with nuclear non-proliferation regulations despite not being a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

"We are signing nuclear treaties as a commitment to non-proliferation and are not supportive of illegal spread, she said.

"Unlike some of our neighbours, India does not believe in dirty bombs, we take non-proliferation very seriously," she said.

Sitharaman also said infiltration bids from across the border with Pakistan have not come down.

"We are remaining alert, we will not entertain infiltration," she said.

On the issue of rising militancy-related incidents in Kashmir, the minister said the government is working with the state government to deal with the issue.

Efforts are going on and government is engaged, she said, referring to the visits of the Centre's interlocutor who has been engaging with different sections of people in the state.

She said India does not want an escalation in tensions, but it is for Pakistan to prove that their territory is not being used for terrorism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A former Indian-American president of the blood-testing company Theranos and the firm's founder and CEO were today charged with "massive fraud" amounting to over USD 700 million by the US federal regulators.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani and the founder Elizabeth Holmes raised money by deceiving investors about the company's technology, business and financial performance.

Holmes, 34 and Balwani, 52, raised more than USD 700 million in years-long "massive fraud", it said.

The SEC alleged that Theranos, Holmes and Balwani falsely claimed that its key product a portable blood analyser could conduct comprehensive blood tests from finger drops of blood, revolutionising the blood testing industry.

In truth, Theranos' proprietary analyser could complete only a small number of tests, and the company used analysers manufactured by others to conduct majority of patient tests.

Holmes and Balwani also claimed that the company's products were deployed by the US Department of Defence on the battlefield in Afghanistan and that the company generated more than USD 100 million in revenue in 2014.

In reality, the company's technology was never deployed by the US Department of Defence and generated a little more than USD 100,000 in revenue from operations in 2014.

Theranos and Holmes neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC's complaint and have agreed to settle the fraud charges levied against them.

Holmes agreed to pay a USD 500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos, the statement said.

Due to the company's liquidation preference, if Theranos is acquired or is otherwise liquidated, Holmes would not profit from her ownership until over USD 750 million is returned to defrauded investors and other preferred shareholders, it said.

Holmes was once touted as a rising star in Silicon Valley who promised to disrupt the health technology industry with her company's path-breaking technology for blood-testing.

Balwani, who lives in California, was the president and Chief Operating Officer of Theranos from September 2009 to May 2016.

In 2009, as Theranos was on the verge of running out of money, Holmes turned to her then-boyfriend Balwani, who guaranteed a line of credit for the company.

Balwani joined the company and became its president and Chief Operating Officer that same year, the SEC said.

From the time that Balwani joined the company until his departure in 2016, Theranos had no other senior managing executives besides Holmes and Balwani, it said.

They collaborated closely with each other and made decisions about the company together, it added.

From 2013 through 2015, Balwani received a salary approximately between USD 99,000 and USD 200,000.

The SEC will litigate its claims against Balwani in federal district court in the Northern District of California.

Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said investors were entitled to complete truth and candour from companies and their executives.

"The charges against Theranos, Holmes and Balwani make clear that there is no exemption from the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws simply because a company is non-public, development-stage, or the subject of exuberant media attention," he said.

Director of the SEC's San Francisco Regional Office Jina Choi said the Theranos story was an "important lesson" for Silicon Valley where innovators who seek to "revolutionise and disrupt" an industry.

"They must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today extended the interim relief from arrest granted by the Delhi High Court to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case till March 26 and said it would clear the "confusion" which has crept in due to divergent views of different high courts on ED's power to arrest.

The apex court also transferred to itself the matters pending before the Delhi High Court relating to the power of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to arrest in money laundering cases and also a plea filed by Karti seeking protection from arrest in ED's case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the top court would answer the question about interpretation of section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) relating to ED's power to arrest and also deal with the issue whether high courts can grant protection from arrest in a plea under Article 226 of the Constitution which deals with high court's power to issue writs and orders.

"There is some kind of confusion in the high courts. The Delhi High Court has referred it (issue pertaining to ED's power to arrest) to its larger bench but it will not be binding for other courts," the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said.

The court observed this after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, referred to the orders passed by different high courts, including Delhi and Bombay, on the issue.

When the apex court was informed that the Delhi High Court has extended till March 22 the interim protection from arrest to Karti in the money laundering case, the bench said it would transfer to itself the matters pending there and hear the arguments on them on March 26.

"We are directing so (transfer of pleas pending in high court), as there are conflicting views of various high courts. Registry is directed to intimate the registry of the High Court of Delhi to call for the papers of the above mentioned case(s)...," it said.

"The interim relief granted by the High Court in writ petition (criminal) number 739 of 2018 (filed by Karti) shall remain in force till the next date of hearing, that is March 26," the bench said.

Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, is currently in jail in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI.

In his plea before the high court, Karti has sought to strike down ED's power of arrest under section 19 of the PMLA, besides seeking quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and the probe being carried out by the agency.

He has also sought striking down the presumption codified in section 24 of the PMLA which says that when a person is accused of having committed an offence under section 3 (money laundering), the burden of proving that proceeds of the crime are untainted property, shall be on the accused.

During the hearing before the top court, Mehta referred to sequence of events in these matters including the issues pending before the high court, and said the high court had on March 9 granted relief to Karti in ED's case while hearing his plea under Article 226.

He said that on February 19, a division bench of the high court had made a reference to a larger bench on questions pertaining to arrest by ED, the need to supply the grounds of arrest to an accused and whether the offence was cognisable or non-cognisable under section 45 of the PMLA.

"There are over 1000 plus cases where we (ED) have reached the stage of section 19 throughout the country," Mehta said, adding "my difficulty is that even if the larger bench of the Delhi High Court gives a finding, it will not bind other courts. So this court has to give a finding on it, otherwise people will come to Delhi High Court only."



"All will rush to the Delhi High Court for ad-interim protection and we will not be able to do anything," he told the bench and referred to cases like PNB fraud and Kingfisher.

"Are we not even entitled to investigate," he asked.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Karti, told the bench that they have filed a plea before the high court saying there was neither an FIR, nor a complainant in ED's case.

He said the top court had on March 8 asked Karti, who is in judicial custody till March 24 in the CBI's case, to approach the high court for relief after which they had filed the plea in the high court.

The bench, after hearing the submissions, said it would not go into the merits but interpret the provision related to ED's power to arrest under PMLA and deal with the issue whether high courts could grant such relief under Article 226.

During the hearing, the bench was also informed that the Madras High Court has reserved its judgement on the pleas relating to the issuance of two Look Out Circulars (LOC) against Karti and others in connection with a corruption case. ED has challenged in the top court the March 9 order the high court granting interim protection to Karti.

Karti was arrested by the CBI on February 28 in Chennai immediately after he had returned from abroad.

An FIR by CBI, filed on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving Rs 305 crore in overseas funds in 2007 when P Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran today lashed out at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling him a "simple-mind" after the powerful young royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler.

"These words are worthless ... because they come from a simple-mind full of illusions who speaks only bitterness and lies," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

In an interview with CBS television, parts of which were released Thursday, Prince Mohammed also said that if Tehran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," the crown prince said.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," said the 32-year-old heir to the throne.

Shiite Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia are arch-rivals who back opposing sides in regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria.

Prince Mohammed's remarks were aired just days before he due to visit Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shifting of venue at the last minute has hit the Indian Science Congress (ISC) hard, the organisers said today, adding that fewer delegates will attend the science carnival starting here tomorrow and plenary sessions will not be held.

As many as 12 nobel laureates, who had confirmed their participation in the ISC, have backed out due to change of dates from January to March.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the science carnival tomorrow. It will continue till March 20.

The annual science carnival was to take place from January 3-7 this year at Osmania University in Hyderabad. However, the varsity later conveyed its inability to host the ISC due to tensions on the campus.

Following this, the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) decided that any university that wishes to host the ISC in the future must produce a letter from the chief minister and the governor of that particular state assuring all support to the event.

ISCA general president Achyuta Samanta said nearly 12,000 delegates, scientists and academicians attend the ISC, but this time the number will dip to 5,000.

"Twelve nobel laureates had confirmed their participation. But due to change of dates, they will not attend the event," Samanta said, adding that nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus may participate in the science carnival.

Ashok Saxena, the former general president of the ISCA, said every year the ISC has 32 plenary sessions with experts from across the world taking part and this gives students an opportunity to interact with them.

However, Samanta said, "There will be no plenary session this year."



Asked about the Dalai Lama not attending the ISC, he said after the event, which was to be held in Hyderabad, was postponed, they had approached the Tibetan spiritual leader, but the ISC was told that his calender was full.

Also, the ISC was told that the Dalai Lama had only recently visited Manipur, Samanta said.

The organisers have blamed the Osmania University for their hardships.

"They (the Osmania University) have damaged us. We are the one who are suffering," Saxena said.

The new dates of the Indian Science Congress has clashed with exam schedules of students. Several delegates had to face monetary loss due to cancellation of tickets, the organisers said.

"The nearest railway station is at Dimapur (Nagaland). Then the delegates have to travel by road to reach Imphal in Manipur. This has led to several of them cancelling their plans," Saxena said.

This is also perhaps the first time that the ISC had to be postponed. After the Osmania University expressed its inability to host the event, the ISCA got requests from five varsities, including the Manipur University to host the science carnival.

With militant outfits calling for a bandh in Imphal tomorrow, vice-chancellor of Manipur University Adya Prasad Pandey, has appealed to them to not to bother the university staff and students who are assisting the delegates in reaching Imphal.

The ISC will have sectional seminars on Agriculture and Forestry Science, Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Science, Chemical Science, Earth System Science, Engineering Science, Material Science, Mathematical Science, Medical Science, New Biology, Physical Science and Plant Science.

Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya will inaugurate the Children Science Congress on March 17 while his West Bengal counterpart Keshari Nath Tripathi will inaugurate the Women Science Congress the next day.

The ISC is an annual event, usually held in the first week of January, and is attended by top scientists from the country and also from different parts of the world.

The last science congress was held at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh in January this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Days after Iran invited China and Pakistan to participate in development of the Chabahar port, India today said it was the prerogative of the Iranian government to choose its partners for the project.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, during a three-day visit to Islamabad, invited Pakistan and China to participate in the strategic Chabahar Port project, saying it is not aimed at "strangulating" or "encircling" anybody.

"It is the prerogative of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose its partners for the development of infrastructure facilities there," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a media briefing.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman was inaugurated four months ago, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan.

India has been a key partner in the development of the port which is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port, being developed with Chinese investment.

"As you are aware, India is supporting the development of Chahbahar Port as a robust and alternate access route to and for Afghanistan and Central Asia," said Kumar, adding significant progress has been made in operationlising the port.

In November last year, India delivered the first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Chabahar Port.

"Shipment of wheat assistance to Afghanistan through Chahbahar is being successfully carried out since October last year. Four such shipments have been successfully delivered," said Kumar.

He said India's assistance for building Chabahar-Zahedan Railway to realise the full potential of the port and to connect it to Afghanistan and Central Asia was discussed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit here last month.

"We continue to work with Iran on the full and effective operationalisation of the Chabahar Port," said Kumar.

India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Italian Ambassador to India Lorenzo Angeloni today inaugurated an exhibition at National Gallery of Modern Art to commemorate 70th anniversary of Indo-Italy bilateral ties.

The exhibition -- Codici --showcases art works Codici, Codici a Tratti, and Fonte created by artists Licia Galizia and Michelangelo Lupone. These sculptural music art works react when they are touched.

The innovative conception of these art works is based on complete integration of music to plastic form by carrying sound to scenic space, Galizia said.

"Even visually impaired audience can enjoy the artwork by touching it since the elements' surface is engraved. Due to material we use, there is a pleasure in touching it, " Galizia added.

Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art Adwaita Charan Garanayak was also present on the occasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak today expressed resentment that there was not a single dalit candidate in the elections for 58 Rajya Sabha seats across various states in the country.

This behaviour is indicative of a planned conspiracy to sideline dalits socially, politically and administratively, Rajak, who is JD(U) deputy leader in the Bihar Assembly, alleged in a statement.

"Dalits are being deprived of political participation.... The rights of dalits and tribals are being infringed upon everywhere," he said.

Many people today advocate scrapping of reservations for the lower castes, Rajak said adding that they should tell the people why in cleaning jobs mostly dalits are employed while priests at temples continue to be from upper castes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On a day he was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha as the Congress candidate from Maharashtra, veteran journalist Kumar Ketkar today said journalists are not free from political biases.

Ketkar is one of the six candidates who are now set to enter the Upper House. Out of rest five, three are from the BJP, and one each from the Shiv Sena and the NCP--who are renominated by their respective parties.

The candidates were declared unopposed after the seventh nominee--Vijaya Rahatkar of the BJP--withdrew her candidature today.

"Comments like journalists should be open-minded, unbiased and objective have no meaning. There is and bias in newsrooms over placement of stories. Journalists do have a political stand," he said.

On his new political innings, Ketkar said he accepted the Congress' offer to enter the Rajya Sabha as he believed in the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Ketkar said he had rejected Balasaheb Thackeray's offer to enter the Rajya Sabha on the Shiv Sena ticket in 1998 as he didn't believe in the political ideology of that party.

He said even Pritish Nandy, a journalist turned communication expert who represented the Sena in Rajya Sabha in 1990s, was not a supporter of the party ideology.

"As the Rajya Sabha offer came from the party which believes in the ideology of Mahatma and Nehru, I accepted it. Had the BJP made me the offer, I would have declined it for sure," he told reporters after accepting his certificate of election.

Ketakar said though he was not a supporter of the political ideology of the Sena, he had supported many causes espoused by that party through his writings in newspapers.

"I had excellentand cordial relations with Balsaheb Thackeray and other Sena leaders," he said.

Ketkar, who had been in journalism for 45 years, said he was not an active journalist since 2013 after his last assignment.

He said his personal political leanings never reflected in his reporting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The judgement in the fourth case of multi-crore fodder scam against former Bihar chief ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra was deferred today by a CBI special court after the RJD leader's counsel filed a plea.

No date has been fixed yet for the pronouncement of judgement in the case which is related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka Treasury (RC 38A/96).

Special CBI Judge Shiv Pal Singh put off the judgement in view of the counsel for Lalu Prasad yesterday filing a petition under 319 CrPC, asking that the then three officials of the Accountant General of Office in the 1990s be made a party to the case under 319 CrPC.

Prasad's counsel said he had filed the petition yesterday and re-submitted it today after correcting some typographical mistakes.

The court today heard the petition and would decide it tomorrow, according to Prasad's counsel.

Besides Prasad and Mishra, there are 29 accused, including former IAS officers and AHD officials, in the Dumka Treasury case.

Earlier, Prasad was convicted in three fodder cases while Mishra was convicted in two fodder cases.

A special CBI court on January 24 this year sentenced Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra to five years in jail in a fodder scam case related to fradulent withdrawl of Rs 37.62 crore from Chaibasad treasury.

Earlier on January 6 this year, a special CBI court had sentenced Prasad to three-and-a-half years in jail and fined Rs 10 lakh in a fodder scam case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the Deoghar Treasury 21 years ago.

In 2013, Prasad was convicted in the first fodder scam case involving withdrawal of Rs 37.7 crore from the Chaibasa treasury.

Prasad has been in Birsa Munda jail at Ranchi since December 23 last year after being convicted in the second case pertaining to illegal withdrawal of money from Deogarh treasury.

The fifth case related to fradulent withdrawal of Rs 139 crore from treasury of Doranda in Ranchi is pending with the court.

The over Rs 900-crore fodder scam cases relate to illegal withdrawal of money from government treasury in different districts in the Animal Husbandry department in undivided Bihar in 1990s when RJD was in power in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The nearly four-week long ceasework by lawyers' associations demanding appointment of judges continued to cripple judicial work at the Calcutta High Court today.

High Court Bar Association president Uttam Majumdar said that representatives of the associations are scheduled to meet the Chief Justice of India tomorrow and the Union Law Minister on Saturday to discuss the issue of early appointment of judges to vacant posts.

At present 39 posts of judges are vacant at the Calcutta High Court, the oldest and one of the three chartered high courts in the country, which has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges, Majumdar said.

Three new judges have taken oath on March 12, which has taken the strength of sitting judges to 33.

Out of the 33 sitting judges, two preside over the Andaman and Nicobar Circuit Bench on rotation.

"We have been invited to a meeting with the Chief Justice of India tomorrow at New Delhi. We will place before the CJI the problems arising out of the acute shortage in the number of judges at the high court," Majumdar said.

He said that the meeting with the Union Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad which was earlier scheduled for today, would be held on Saturday at the national capital.

Apart from the Bar Association, which commands the largest share of members, the Bar Library Club and the Incorporated Law Society are also participating in the ceasework which commenced on February 19.

Majumdar said that the lawyers' fora will also take up the issue of appointment of a chief justice at the high court, which has had acting chief justices at the helm for the last three years with the exception of just three months.

The agitation is scheduled till tomorrow and the lawyers' bodies will hold meetings with their respective members on March 19 to place before them details of their discussions with the CJI and the union law minister.

A decision on whether the ceasework would continue or not will be taken at the meetings, Majumdar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tendered an apology for levelling charges of involvement in drugs trade against Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia following which the latter has decided to withdraw the court case against him.

Disclosing this today, Majithia claimed he was grateful that truth had won and Kejriwal had realized his mistake.

The SAD leader added that since the AAP leader had "tendered his apology", he did not want to pursue the defamation case filed against him.

Drug abuse was a major issue in the high-octane Punjab Assembly elections last year and Kejriwal, who was leading the AAP charge, accused Majithia, then a minister in the state government, of being involved in narcotics trade.

However, in his apology to Majithia, the Delhi chief minister said he had learnt that his allegations were unfounded.

"In the recent past I made certain statements and allegations against you regarding your alleged involvement in drug trade. These statements became a political issue. Now I've learnt that the allegations are unfounded. Hence there should be no politics on such issues. I hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologise for the same," Kejriwal said.

Talking to reporters here this evening, Majithia said he had accepted the apology.

"I thank Kejriwal for showing greatness in seeking apology for his remarks made against me. I have told my lawyers that from our side, this case ends as Kejriwal has sought apology. I have asked my counsels to withdraw the defamation case. Person makes mistake and with the grace of God, if I have the ability to forgive and I will forgive," the SAD leader said.

Majithia had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Ashish Khetan in May 2015 accusing them of tarnishing his image by alleging his involvements with drug trade.

"I had said from the beginning that either he will say sorry or he will go to jail. Sending someone to jail is not my intention, it was to protect my honour," he asserted.

The Delhi chief minister's apology had affirmed that politics of smear campaigns would never succeed, he said.

"It is indeed a historical moment that a sitting chief minister has submitted a written apology in court withdrawing all statements he made against me besides regretting the damage caused to my esteem as well as hurt caused to my family, friends and well wishers. In today's day and age, we are bound to commit mistakes. It is human nature. Kejriwal has displayed great courage to admit his mistake and move on," said Majithia.

The SAD leader said although it was "very torturous journey" for him as he battled the allegations. "The AAP, however, did not benefit as their candidate lost his security forfeited in my constitutency," he said.

Majithia said the entire controversy had taken a toll on his mother, whom he lost, because she could not understand this kind of politics.

My wife also went through a difficult phase, I thank the almighty that this chapter has ended and truth has prevailed, he said.

"If my two little kids were asked in school that your father does such things, you can imagine what could have been my position. What answer I could have given to them," he said.

AAP leader Ashish Khetan had apologized as well, he added.

Meanwhile, the AAP said that Kejriwal was facing dozens of civil and criminal cases related to defamation, putting hoardings or posters during election campaigns, violation of Sec 144, public protests etc in Delhi and other parts of India like Varanasi, Amethi, Punjab, Assam, Maharashtra, Goa and many other places.

"Most of these cases require personal appearance in court. These cases have been foisted by our political rivals to de-motivate us and keep our leadership busy in these legal matters. The decision to amicably sort out all such legal cases is a strategy as devised by the legal team of the party. The political cases in Delhi have been put on fast track forcing MLAs andmMinisters to virtually attend cases on daily basis in courts at Delhi and other states," spokesperson of AAP's Delhi unit Saurabh Bharadwaj said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Infosys Non Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani and Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan are among those who will be participating in the first Global digital summit being held at Kochi on March 22 and 23.

The conference aims to showcase Kerala as an Information Technology destination.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Joseph Sirosh, Head of Artificial Intelligence-Microsoft will be addressing the 2000 odd delegates through video conferencing.

'Towards a Digital Future' is the theme of the conference, '#Future', which will see the convergence of entrepreneurs, academicians and key influencers and other stakeholders in the Knowledge industry from across the globe, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, told reporters here.

World renowned IT experts will be participating in the conclave, he said.

Like the Kerala Travel Mart in the tourism sector, the IT companies are getting together to launch the new platform, he said.

S D Shibulal, Former CEO and Managing Director of Infosys and Chairman, High Power IT Committee (HPIC) Kerala Government said this platform is meant to bring together various participants, mostly Keralites, government, academia, various industries and entrepreneurs.

The conference will discuss emerging trends, ground realities and opportunities that would help individuals, enterprises and entrepreneurs to compete and lead in a digital world.

V K Mathews, CEO IBS Software Services and member HPIC, said the purpose of #FUTURE is to inspire and energise people towards a knowledge-driven digital future and prepare them to seize the emerging opportunities.

This would help facilitate the accelerated growth of the IT/ digital opportunities.

The conference will be held once in two years, he said.

Over 30 speakers will be addressing six sessions--'The Digital Future of Travel and Transportation, 'Data: Oil of the Digital Future', 'The Digital future of Health and Sustainability', 'The digital future of education and skills' and 'Technology disruption and inclusion'.

The conference will be presided by Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, on the inaugural day.

Christoph Mueller, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer- Emirates Group, Arun Kumar, Chairman and CEO KPMG India, Vindo Vasudevan, Group CEO Flytxt, Anuradha Acharya, Founder and CEO Mapmygenome, Krish Gopalakrishnan, former CEO and Co founder Infosys and member HPIC and Gita Gopinath, Harvard Professor and Financial Advisor to Chief minister, will be among those participating and addressing various sessions.

About 2000 delegates will be participating in the six sessions.

The summit will be the first-ever completely digitised event in the State using mobile-based services for registration, entry and communication during the meet, M Sivasankar, IT Secretary said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The fifth edition of Kerala Blog Express, the annual blogger outreach campaign of state Tourism Department, will be flagged off from here on March 18.

The campaign will see the participation of 30 bloggers from 28 countries across the globe this year, a Tourism Department release said here today.

Bloggers from countries such as France,the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Venezuela and Peru will be among the participants, the release said.

The chosen bloggers will take part in a two-week-long journey across the state, which will be flagged off from Mascot Hotel by Minister for Tourism, Cooperation and Devaswoms Kadakampally Surendran.

After being flagged off from Thiruvananthapuram, the bloggers will travel across the hills, beaches, backwaters, villages and various city life experiences in Kerala, and end the trip in Kochi on April 1.

The travellers would upload photos, videos and articles about the beauty and charm of Kerala and share them with followers all over the world.

Tourism Secretary Rani George said, "the Kerala Blog Express accords added emphasis to social media marketing and it would help reap the benefits as the unique initiative would reach out to travellers from across the globe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Reserve Bank of India clearance for the Kerala Bank, an ambitious concept of CPI-M led LDF government, is expected by the end of this month.

This was stated by Minister for Law A K Balan, on behalf of State Minister for Co-operation Kadakampally Surendran in the state assembly today.

With the formation of the Kerala Co-operative Bank by merging district co-operative banks with state co-operative banks, affiliation of primary agriculture co-operative societies would be with the new Bank.

State government expect to get RBI clearance for the Kerala Bank by end of this month, Balan said during question hour.

Government was of the view that the functioning of the primary co-operatives would be strengthened with the formation of proposed Kerala Co-operative Bank, he said.

It was stated in a written reply in the assembly that steps have been taken for software integration of all Bank branches by according sanction to RFP (request for proposal, procurement, installation and commissioning).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Kerala High Court today refused to interfere with the slapping of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act by the CBI against ruling CPI(M) strongman P Jayarajan and other accused in a case relating to the murder of an RSS worker in Kannur district in 2014.

Justice B Kemal Pasha said the CBI need not obtain sanction of the state government to invoke UAPA provisions and rejected the petition filed by Jayarajan and others challenging invoking of UAPA provisions against them.

Jayarajan, also Kannur district secretary of CPI(M) was named by the CBI as "principal conspirator" in the murder.

The judge said a CBI investigation in the case was ordered after finding that the probe carried out by Kerala Police was inefficient.

Either the central government or the state government can grant sanction to invoke UAPA against the accused, who come under the purview of the Act, the high court said.

The court, however, clarified that the validity of sanction of UAPA can be challenged by the accused during the stage of trial of the case.

The CBI, after taking over the probe from the state police, had charged him under the stringent UAPA for the killing, which it described as a "terrorist act".

In its supplementary final report filed before the court of the special judge of Ernakulam, the Special Crime Branch of the CBI's Thiruvananthapuram unit, which probed the case, had said the September 1, 2014 killing was "a well-conspired, planned and well-organised political murder".

Describing as "terrorist act", the "brutal" killing of the functionary, Elanthottathil Manoj, also known as Kathirur Manoj, the CBI charged Jayarajan under various sections including Sections 18 and 19 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.

Jayarajan, also facing charges under various IPC sections including 120(b) (conspiracy), is the 25th accused in the case.

The CBI in its report had accused Jayarajan of having entered into a criminal conspiracy with first accused Vikraman to execute killing of Manoj in a brutal and terrorising manner.

Forty-two-year-old Manoj, a district functionary of RSS, was hacked to death in Kathiroor in Kannur district on September 1, 2014, allegedly by a group of CPI(M) workers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 41-year-old man suspected to be heading a notorious gang involved in inter-state dacoity was today arrested in connection with a heist at a gold ornament making unit at Petlaburzhere, police said.

Amjad Khwaja Ameen Shaik, a native of Mumbai was arrested and Rs 6 lakh worth gold and other valuables robbed from the unit recovered from him, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar told reporters here.

On March 6, a gang of 10-members wearing masks robbed 3.5 kg gold and other valuables at knife-point at the unit in broad day light, he said.

"The gang members had conducted recce of the unit well before committing the offence," the commissioner said adding the gang members were previously involved in several cases of dacoity, robbery and extortions in different parts of Maharashtra also.

Special teams have been formed to nab the remaining members of the gang andrecover the looted booty from them, Kumar added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Larry Kudlow, a well-known conservative media pundit, would be the new chief economic advisor to US President Donald Trump, the White House said today, days after Gary Cohn resigned after losing his fight against stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Kudlow, 70, would replace Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive who quit the post after his differences with Trump on imposing a 25 per cent tariff on import of steel and 10 per cent on aluminum.

Kudlow, who served as Trump's informal economic adviser during the 2016 campaign, is a well-known conservative voice.

" was offered, and accepted, the position of Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The National Economic Council director advises the US president on economic issues and works to implement policy goals.

"We will work to have an orderly transition and will keep everyone posted on the timing of him officially assuming the role," Sanders said.

Kudlow served in the Regan administration when he helped craft the economic policy.

But television news personality has been outspoken in opposition to the tariff plan and wrote an op-ed for CNBC earlier this month that detailed his disagreements.

Trump acknowledged his disagreement on tariffs with Kudlow in a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, but said he welcomed the difference of opinion.

"I'm looking at very strongly. I've known him a long time. We don't agree on everything but in this case I think that's good. I want to have a divergent opinion -- we agree on most," Trump said.

He added that Kudlow has "come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point."



Top American lawmakers welcomed Kudlow's appointment to the crucial administration position.

Senator Lindsay Graham called the appointment "a home run choice" and praised Kudlow for his advocacy of "pro-growth" economic policies.

"He will be a steady hand in helping implement President Trump's pro-growth agenda and will provide insightful advice backed by a deep understanding of how the American economy works," Graham said.

Senator David Perdue said Kudlow would help Trump in making the US more competitive with the rest of the world.

"We need more smart, business-minded people who understand that this president is trying to make the US more competitive with the rest of the world and provide much needed economic relief after many years of failed fiscal policies," he said.

Democratic Congresswoman Ted W Lieu was less enthused by Kudlow's appointment, saying she was "appalled" that the person who will now drive the US' economic policy has argued that war is good for business.

"Our service members are brave patriots, not equity on a shareholder report. In an administration that has already been fraught with disastrous policy decisions, I worry about someone who thinks this way having the president's ear," said Lieu.

"Entering into conflict has to be a last resort and should never be evaluated primarily on its economic merits. Mr. Kudlows fringe ideas don't deserve a place in the White House," she said.

Independent Women's Forum's Director of Policy, Hadley Heath Manning said Kudlow's economic expertise will again be an asset to the nation, just as it was when he served under Ronald Reagan.Larry Kudlow, a well-known conservative media pundit, would be his new chief economic advisor, US President Donald Trump announced today, days after Gary Cohen resigned after losing his fight against stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Kudlow, 70, would replace Cohen, a former Goldman Sachs executive who quit the post after his differences with Trump on imposing a 25 per cent tariff on import of steel and 10 per cent on aluminum.

"Larry Kudlow will be my Chief Economic Advisor as Director of the National Economic Council. Our Country will have many years of Great Economic & Financial Success, with low taxes, unparalleled innovation, fair trade and an ever expanding labour force leading the way!," Trump tweeted.

Kudlow, who served as Trump's informal economic adviser during the 2016 campaign, is a well-known conservative voice.

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said said that Kudlow was offered, and accepted, the position of Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council.

The National Economic Council director advises the US president on economic issues and works to implement policy goals.

"We will work to have an orderly transition and will keep everyone posted on the timing of him officially assuming the role," Sanders said.

Kudlow served in the Regan administration when he helped craft the economic policy.

But television personality has been outspoken in opposition to the tariff plan and wrote an op-ed for CNBC earlier this month that detailed his disagreements.

Trump acknowledged his disagreement on tariffs with Kudlow in a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, but said he welcomed the difference of opinion.

"I'm looking at Larry Kudlow very strongly. I've known him a long time. We don't agree on everything but in this case I think that's good. I want to have a divergent opinion -- we agree on most," Trump said.

He added that Kudlow has "come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point."



Top American lawmakers welcomed Kudlow's appointment to the crucial administration position.

Senator Lindsay Graham called the appointment "a home run choice" and praised Kudlow for his advocacy of "pro-growth" economic policies.

"He will be a steady hand in helping implement President Trump's pro-growth agenda and will provide insightful advice backed by a deep understanding of how the American economy works," Graham said.

Senator David Perdue said Kudlow would help Trump in making the US more competitive with the rest of the world.

"We need more smart, business-minded people who understand that this president is trying to make the US more competitive with the rest of the world and provide much needed economic relief after many years of failed fiscal policies," he said.

Democratic Congresswoman Ted W Lieu was less enthused by Kudlow's appointment, saying she was "appalled" that the person who will now drive the US' economic policy has argued that war is good for business.

"Our service members are brave patriots, not equity on a shareholder report. In an administration that has already been fraught with disastrous policy decisions, I worry about someone who thinks this way having the president's ear," said Lieu.

"Entering into conflict has to be a last resort and should never be evaluated primarily on its economic merits. Mr. Kudlows fringe ideas don't deserve a place in the White House," she said.

Independent Women's Forum's Director of Policy, Hadley Heath Manning said Kudlow's economic expertise will again be an asset to the nation, just as it was when he served under Ronald Reagan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With India eyeing a big push for electric cars, Argentina has approached Indian government and companies to invest in lithium mines in the South American nation.

Argentina has one of the largest lithium reserves in the world.

To meet India's demand for electric vehicles, lithium will be needed in abundance to produce lithium-ion batteries... I am told India is planning to set up large lithium-ion battery plants. Argentina is ready to meet India's growing demand for lithium, said Mario Osvaldo Capello, Undersecretary of Mining Development, Ministry of Energy and Mining, Government of Argentina.

Capello, who is currently in India, has met top officials in the government including those from Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Mining, as also the corporates working on battery development and EV projects. These include representatives from Maruti Suzuki, Tata Chemicals and Su Kam battery.

We have lithium reserves to the tune of over 3,31,000 tonnes. Apart from giving various concessions on mining, we also offer competitive edge and ensure ease of doing business compared to our competitors. Already couple of top Indian corporate have showed interest in lithium mining in Argentina, Capello said.

Capello also said that top global corporate working on EV and lithium-ion batteries development projects like Toyota Tsusho Corp, Aberdeen International and China's Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co have formed consortiums for lithium mining in Argentina.

We want India to explore options for lithium mining apart from mining of other metals like copper, gold and silver. With India going to lead in EV revolution, we are also keen to partner with Indian companies in development of Lithium-ion battery technology, he added.

Recently government think-tank Niti Aayog announced that there are plans to set up large lithium-ion battery manufacturing plants



India is also pushing to have all-electric car fleet by 2030 to cut its oil imports bills and tackle environmental pollution problem. Notably, government-run Indian Space Research Organisation and DRDO are also working on development of low-cost lithium-ion batteries that can be used in EVs and other equipments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director Hansal Mehta, whose project on noted writer Sadat Hasan Manto could not take off, is looking forward to see how Nandita Das has approached the author's life.

Mehta had started working on the script with actor Rajkummar Rao but the director could not find producers for the movie and eventually moved on to "Aligarh".

Das' version features Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Manto and focuses on his years in Mumbai.

"Both Nandita Das and I were working on the 'Manto' script at the same time. She had called me saying she is also making a film on 'Manto'. I told her to go ahead and do it. I told her that I would make something else. I was anyways not getting producers for it," Mehta told PTI.

"Immediately after 'Shahid', I was going to make 'Manto' with Rajkummar (Rao). We had done a photo shoot with him. But it did not happen as we were not able to find producers....The scale, the budget at that time was not feasible," he added.

When asked if he was disheartened that the project could not become a reality, the director said, "I see it philosophically, as whatever happens just happens. Nandita was destined to make 'Manto' and I was destined to make 'Aligarh'."



Mehta said he was interested in seeing his colleague's perspective on the celebrated writer, one of the most prominent literary voices of the 20.

"She is a good story-teller. I am looking forward to see her version of 'Manto'," he added.

Currently, the director is awaiting the release of "Omerta", which chronicles the life of British terrorist of Pakistani-descent Omar Saeed Sheikh.

Rao is playing a titular role in "Omerta".

"I want people to hate him. The film has to provoke certain reaction, be it happiness or sadness. This film makes you angry. It also gives you an adrenaline rush, I wanted to make a film in thriller space.

"Here is a thriller where the hero is a complete antagonist. It was a challenge for both me and Raj, it is a new thing in our filmography," said Mehta, who has collaborated with Rao on multiple films.

"Omerta" is set to release on April 20.

Mehta is planning to team up with Rao again in their next project.

"I am at the moment focusing on my next directorial venture. We are working on the script with Raj. It is being written. We will start in the middle of the year somewhere," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) bill which seeks to empower the government to fix period of maternity leave and tax-free gratuity amount with an executive order.

After the passage of the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha, the government would be able to enhance the ceiling of tax-free gratuity to Rs 2 million from existing Rs 1 million for employee under the Payment of Gratuity Act.

After implementation of the seventh Central Pay Commission, the ceiling of gratuity amount for central government employees was increased from Rs 1 million to Rs 2 million. The unions are demanding for inclusion of the change into the Act.

The bill was passed amid the din in the Lok Sabha today as uproar over a host of issues went for the second week in a row.

Earlier in the day, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill was an important piece of legislation and sought the opposition's cooperation.

The bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

Moving the bill for passage, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said it is a very important legislation for employees, especially women.

Now, the bill will go to the Upper House for consideration and passage.

At present, formal sector workers with five or more years of service are eligible for Rs 10 lakh tax-free gratuity after leaving job or at time of superannuation.

A senior government official said that the government wants to provide tax-free gratuity of Rs 20 lakh to organised sector workers at par with the central government.

The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, was enacted to provide for gratuity payment to employees engaged in factories, mines, oilfields, plantations, ports, railway companies, shops or other establishments.

The law is applicable to employees, who have completed at least five years of continuous service in an establishment that has 10 or more persons.

The amendment will also allow the central government to notify the maternity leave period for female employees as deemed to be in continuous service in place of existing twelve weeks.

The proposal comes against the backdrop of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 enhancing the maximum maternity leave period to 26 weeks.

(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 proceedings of the Lok Sabha were paralysed for the ninth consecutive day today as several parties, including NDA constituent TDP, continued their noisy protests over various issues, including the PNB scam and special status for Andhra Pradesh.

As soon as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took up the Question Hour, members from various parties trooped into the Well holding placards.

When Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav was responding to the first question on rural housing, the protesting members raised their pitch, drowning his voice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the members of the opposition parties, including the Congress, to return to their seats and allow the House to function.

He said Parliament is the 'maha panchayat' of the country where issues are discussed but the disruptions are not allowing important issues to be raised.

He also thanked the Speaker for trying to ensure smooth functioning. He said the government is open to discuss issues including bank scam, Cauvery water management board and special status for Andhra Pradesh, but the House has to function first and members have to vacate the Well.

As the protests continued, the House was adjourned till 12 noon minutes after it met at 11 am.

While members from the Congress, TMC, TDP, YSR Congress and TRS were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, MPs from the Left were standing at their seats and shouting slogans.

Since March 5, when Parliament had met after a recess, the Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a daily basis. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were yesterday passed by the House without discussion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Expressing concern over detention of parents of boys or girls who fall in love and elope, the Madras High Court today directed the police to exercise caution before arresting the elders in such cases.

A division bench of justices C T Selvam and N Sathish Kumar directed the court registry to send a copy of its order to the state police chief for sensitising the force against wrongful action in such matters.

"Frequently parents and relatives of boys are without, a second thought, arrayed as accused in cases registered over boys and girls going missing and most commonly owing to love affairs... In many a case, this would amount to a social wrong at the hands of the police agency, whose very raison-d'etre is serving a social cause, the bench said.

The court, however, said its order should not be misunderstood and that it only wanted to impress upon the need for care and caution before effecting arrests in such cases.

It was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the father of a 17-year old girl who allegedly eloped with a 19-year old boy.

The bench also ordered the release of the boy's mother, who had been arrested and lodged in Salem prison in connection with the case, on a personal bond of Rs 5,000.

Alleging that his daughter was under illegal custody of the boy, the petitioner through the habeas corpus petition sought a direction to police to produce her in the court.

Acting on a complaint lodged by the petitioner on February 18 last, the police had arrested the boy's mother.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A major fire today damaged a Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) warehouse at Armenian Ghat Street, near the iconic Howrah Bridge, and gutted 15 shanties, officials said.

However, there was no report of any casualty, they added.

The fire broke out around noon and 21 fire engines were pressed into service. Ten water-jets were used by the fire-fighters and the flames were doused at 1.20 pm. The fire spread as a large quantity of articles made of plastic and painting materials were stored in the warehouse, the officials added.

Thick black smoke billowed over the area for about an hour, triggering panic at the neighbouring Mullik Ghat flower market.

As the area is close to the circular railway track, the train service was temporarily suspended and road traffic restricted to help the fire-fighters douse the flames.

Senior fire department and KoPT officials visited the area to assess the situation.

A KoPT spokesperson said a tenant had encroached upon the warehouse after the lease had lapsed and that an eviction notice was served to the tenant in 2014.

According to the terms of the lease deed, the tenant should have put in place adequate fire-fighting measures, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese Consul Ma Zhanwu today said many companies from his country wanted to do business with India.

A business delegation from China will be visiting India in mid-April, Zhanwu told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on 'China-India Buddhist and Other Exchanges' here.

"Many Chinese companies have evinced interest to do business in India including the eastern region and we will be happy to have more economic interactions," Zhanwu said in reply to a question about how China saw India as an investment destination and the 'Look East' policy of the Centre.

He said the areas of interest were both manufacturing and services including tourism but he did not name the companies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)For Pakistan's nuclear managers today, matching Indian nuclear capabilities is all that matters, says a new book which critically examines how and why the neighbouring country acquired its nuke weapons and many related issues.

In "Pakistan's Nuclear Bomb: A Story Of Defiance, Deterrence And Deviance", academic Hassan Abbas profiles the politicians and scientists involved in the development of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and the role of China and Saudi Arabia in supporting its nuclear infrastructure.

The book also examines Pakistani nuclear physicist A Q Khan's involvement in nuclear proliferation in Iran, Libya and North Korea, and argues that the origins and evolution of the Khan network were tied to the domestic and international political motivations underlying Pakistan's nuclear weapons project, and that project's organisation, oversight and management.

It further takes a look at the prospects for nuclear safety in Pakistan in the light of the country's nuclear control infrastructure and the threat posed by the Taliban and other extremist groups to the nuclear assets.

"Whether it is about prospects of admission into Nuclear Supplier Group or gaining access to western technology useful for civilian nuclear purposes, Pakistan feels that it is treated unfairly vis-a-vis India. On the side, Pakistan is also aggressively investing in developing nuclear reactors capable of yielding weapon-grade plutonium with China's help," Abbas writes.

The author also says that the simmering Kashmir dispute continues to drive Pakistan's security perspective and it considers all means including use of any proxy militant groups as legitimate. He adds that Pakistan is unlikely to budge from this posture in foreseeable future.

"India is obviously not impressed with this state of affairs and its calculus also involves following China's nuclear capabilities and policies," he writes in the book published by Penguin Random House India.

According to Abbas, India's nuclear posture naturally corresponds to its status as a rising global power; it pledges "no first use" but also promises a massive retaliation against an adversary that strikes first with nuclear weapons.

This only further complicates the South Asian security scene that has already yielded to a deadly nuclear arms race, he says.

Abbas also provides a brief sketch of North Korea's nuclear development, followed by an analysis of the historical nature of Pakistan-North Korea relations.

"Clearly, North Korea's determination in acquiring nuclear capabilities over 40 years suggests that the issue remained one of the highest priorities for the country's security and strategic considerations," he writes.

"As for Pakistan, nuclear proliferation, or the sale of its nuclear expertise to North Korea did not constitute a threat to its sovereignty. But what occurred beneath the surface is critical. Information about the exact nature of the transactions between Pakistan and North Korea reveals a complex web that involves the AQ Khan network, the Pakistani military, and the government of Pakistan," he says.A financial scandal is threatening to unseat Africa's only female head of state, the president of the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius.

President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, whose role is mostly ceremonial, faces allegations that she used a credit card provided by a non-governmental group to buy luxury goods.

Gurib-Fakim said this week that she "inadvertently" used the credit card from the London-based Planet Earth Institute for "out-of-pocket" expenses of about USD 27,000, and that she had paid back the money.

The president says she is the victim of a smear campaign and won't resign, contradicting an earlier comment by Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth that she would quit after Mauritius celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence from Britain last Monday.

Gurib-Fakim, 58, was appointed as president in 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The mayor of Iran's capital Tehran resigned after hard-liners criticised him for attending a ceremony in which primary school girls danced, Iranian media reported today.

Mohammad Ali Najafi submitted his resignation to Tehran's City Council and the council was expected to discuss over this issue in April.

Last week, prosecutors summoned Najafi for attending the ceremony in which a group of under-age girls danced in a ceremony held to commemorate International Women's Day.

Council head Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, without elaboration, said Najafi resigned due to illness.

Hard-liners used the case to increase pressure on the US-educated 65-year-old technocrat who came into office in August promising to fight corruption.

Official reports say the municipality had some USD 10 billion in debt, including USD 1 billion to contractors, when Najafi took office.

Najafi had taken over from Mohammd Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative politician who briefly stood as a candidate against President Hassan Rouhani in May before dropping out.

Mohammad Reza Aref, a reformist parliament member and former vice president under President Khatami, asked the City Council to review Najafi's resignation and change his decision.

Reformists believe that pressure has been placed on Najafi following his claims of fraud in Tehran's municipal government during Qalibaf's time as mayor.

Parliament member Parvaneh Mafi was quoted by the Hamshahri daily as saying Najafi's "efforts to combat corruption ... may have led to pressures on him and affected his resignation."



Political pressures on Najafi are the result of factional push and pull between hard-liners and moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration.

Iranian hard-liners in Parliament this week tried to impeach three of Rouhani's ministers, but failed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior cooperative leaders from Rajkot Jyotidnra Mehta and Dolarbhai Kotecha were today elected unopposed as the chairman and vice-chairman of the Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks Federation (GUJFED).

"The federation's board of directors meeting was held in Ahmedabad today, where Jyotindra Mehta was elected as chairman and Dolarbhai Kotecha as vice chairman unopposed of GUJFED," the GUJFED said in a release.

Mehta has been holding the post since 2006 while Kotecha since 2009," it said.

Mehta has been active in cooperative sector since over the last three decades and was honoured with "Sahakarita Ratna" award a couple of months back, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)More than 90 per cent of bottled water is contaminated with microplastics, finds a study which sampled top global brands such as Aquafina and Evian, as well as Indian ones like Bisleri.

Researchers from the State University of New York in the US tested 259 individual bottles from 27 different lots across 11 brands sold in 9 countries. Samples from 19 locations, including New Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai in India, were analysed.

After accounting for possible laboratory contamination, 93 per cent of bottled water showed some sign of microplastic contamination.

Researchers found an average of 10.4 microplastic particles per litre of bottled water using spectroscopic analysis. This is twice as much as what was found in previous study on tap water, they said.

The data from the report states that the contamination is at least partially coming from the packaging or the bottling process itself.

With the rise in plastics manufacture, there has been an associated rise in plastic pollution of the external environment.

Recently plastic pollution has been found within freshwater lakes, inland seas, rivers, wetlands and organisms from plankton to whales.

For the study, sample lots were procured with an eye to geographic diversity, size of the national packaged drinking water market (China, USA, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico), and high per captia consumption of packaged drinking water (Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand, USA).

Leading international brands in this study included Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life, and San Pellegrino.

Leading national brands included Aqua (Indonesia), Bisleri (India), Epura (Mexico), Gerolsteiner (Germany), Minalba (Brazil), and Wahaha (China).

As many bottled water brands are simply filtered municipal tap water, sample lots were purchased from a number of locations to increase the likelihood of diverse bottling sources.

Retail purchase, package preparation, and acceptance by shipping office of most sample cases were documented with video and still photography to confirm chain of possession, researchers said in the report.

For those samples with 500-600 mL per bottle, 10 bottles were randomly chosen from the lot, while for the 750 mL samples, 6 bottles were chosen, and for the 2L sample, 4 bottles were randomly chosen for analysis.

Only seventeen bottles out of the 259 bottles analysed showed no microplastic contamination, indicating that 93 per cent of the bottled water tested showed some sign of contamination.

The densities of microplastic contamination were quite variable ranging from the 17 bottles with no contamination to one bottle that showed an excess of 10,000 microplastic particles per litre.

A sample of Bisleri bottled water from Chennai showed over 5,000 microplastic particles per litre.

Polypropylene, often used to make plastic bottle caps, was found to be the most common polymeric material (54 per cent), while Nylon was the second most abundant (16 per cent.

Polyethylene corresponded to 10 per cent of the particles analysed.

"This study was as a follow-up to a tap water study released in September 2017. We found roughly twice as many plastic particles within bottled water as compared to tap water on average," according to the report.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a first, Microsoft researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can translate news from Chinese to English with the same quality and accuracy as a human.

Researchers said that their system achieved human parity on a commonly used test set of news stories, which was developed by a group of industry and academic partners.

To ensure the results were both accurate and on par with what people would have done, the team hired external bilingual human evaluators, who compared Microsoft's results to two independently produced human reference translations.

Xuedong Huang, a technical fellow in charge of Microsoft's speech, natural language and machine translation efforts, called it a major milestone in one of the most challenging natural language processing tasks.

"Hitting human parity in a machine translation task is a dream that all of us have had. We just didn't realise we'd be able to hit it so soon," Huang said.

The translation milestone was especially gratifying because of the possibilities it has for helping people understand each other better, he said.

Machine translation is a problem researchers have worked on for decades and for much of that time many believed human parity could never be achieved.

Ming Zhou, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Asia, cautioned that there are still many challenges ahead, such as testing the system on real-time news stories.

Arul Menezes, partner research manager of Microsoft's machine translation team, said that they set out to prove that its systems could perform about as well as a person when it used a language pair - Chinese and English - for which there is a lot of data, on a test set that includes the more commonplace vocabulary of general interest news stories.

"Given the best-case situation as far as data and availability of resources goes, we wanted to find out if we could actually match the performance of a professional human translator," said Menezes, who helped lead the project.

The research team can apply the technical breakthroughs they made for this achievement to Microsoft's commercially available translation products in multiple languages.

That will pave the way for more accurate and natural-sounding translations across other languages and for texts with more complex or niche vocabulary.

To reach the human parity milestone, researchers worked added a number of other training methods that would make the system more fluent and accurate.

These methods mimic how people improve their own work iteratively, by going over it again and again until they get it right.

"Much of our research is really inspired by how we humans do things, said Tie-Yan Liu, a principal research manager with Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing.

The researchers also developed two new techniques to improve the accuracy of their translations, Zhou said.

These techniques could be useful for improving machine translation in other languages and situations as well. He said they also could be used to make other AI breakthroughs beyond translation.

(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 the mining industry in Goa set to come to a standstill from tonight, Union minister Nitin Gadkari will visit the state next week and hold discussions with the stakeholders, a senior state minister said here.

Gadkari will arrive in Goa on March 20, Goa transport minister Sudin Dhavalikar said.

"He will meet BJP leaders, other (ruling) alliance members and representatives of mining industry to try and work out a solution," Dhavalikar told PTI.

The Supreme Court last month set aside second renewal of iron ore mining leases granted to 88 companies in 2015.

These companies must stop all mining operations with effect from March 16 until fresh mining leases (not fresh renewals) were granted, the apex court had said.

According to the state government, nearly two lakh people would lose their jobs if the mining activity stops.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 26-year-old JNU PhD scholar, who had gone missing on March 11, informed her parents today that she was fine and had "gone out", police said.

The matter came to light after her family lodged a complaint on March 12 at the Vasant Kunj police station, they said.

"The missing student has said that she had gone out on her own. She is fine," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southwest, Milind Dumbere.

She is in Lucknow. The woman was constantly being contacted on her cell phone by police officials but it was switched off, another officer said.

However, she contacted the Inspector investigating the case after she switched on her phone and found several calls and messages from the officer, police said.

She informed the personnel that she is fine and had left on her own.

The inspector also asked her to inform her family members that she is fine. Subsequently, she informed her parents too.

The woman had spoken to her family on March 10 but from March 11, her phone was switched off, they said.

Police said that after her family's attempts to trace her did not yield result, they approached them with a complaint.

The matter is being probed, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Moscow never had any programmes to develop the Novichok nerve agent Britain says was used on former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday.

"I want to state with all possible certainty that the Soviet Union or Russia had no programmes to develop a toxic agent called Novichok," he told Interfax agency.

He slammed people "distributing information that the programme allegedly existed," an apparent reference to Soviet chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who first revealed the existence of that class of ultra-powerful nerve agents.

Mirzayanov, who now lives in the United States, says Moscow invented the highly toxic nerve agent during the Cold War and used to make it in a Moscow-based institute where he worked until the early 1990s.

"We ended all research in the sphere of new military toxic agents after joining the (Chemical Weapons) Convention, and last year... all stockpiles of toxic agents were destroyed," said Ryabkov.

He said the United States has failed to do the same.

"I hope that debates around the tragedy in Salisbury will not be a new pretext for the US to depart from what they have to do within the framework of their own obligations," he added.

Britain and its allies France, Germany and the United States have pointed the finger at Moscow over the nerve agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal, who remains in critical condition along with his daughter Yulia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A US Navy fighter jet has crashed off the coast of Key West, Florida, killing its two crew members.

The F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station around 4:30 pm (local time), and crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway.

The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, but US Naval Air Forces reported late Wednesday night that both had died.

Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The cause of the crash is also under investigation.

The aircraft crew is based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nepal's controversial Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli today resigned from his post, a day after the Judicial Council sacked him for inconsistencies in his date of birth and remaining in office even after crossing the retirement age.

Parajuli met President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and submitted his resignation.

The Judicial Council removed Parajuli from his post yesterday stating the investigation of documents showed that he had attained the retirement age of 65 years seven months ago on August 5, 2017.

The Judicial Council in the removal letter to Chief Justice cited inconsistencies in the birth dates as mentioned in his citizenship and academic certificates.

The Judicial Council said that Parajuli should have retired seven months ago when he turned 65, the age of retirement for official positions in Nepal.

The Supreme Court's senior-most Justice, Deepak Raj Joshi today assumed office as the acting Chief Justice.

The judicial council's decision to remove Parajuli came in the wake of controversy surrounding Parajuli's date of birth and widespread condemnation of his move to charge the Nepal's leading newspaper Kantipur Daily with contempt of court for a series of articles that said he had given up to five different dates of birth on various official documents.

Parajuli was under pressure from his own team of justices to either resign or stay away from the judicial process after nine justices boycotted the benches assigned to them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The next course of action in the Mangaluru pub attack case in which all the accused were acquitted by a court would be taken in consultation with the state's legal team, Karnataka minister Ramalinga Reddy said today.

A court recently acquitted rightwing fringe group Sri Ram Sene Chief Pramod Muthalik and several others for lack of evidence.

"We will take a decision in the pub attack case after consulting our legal team, which includes our Advocate General," the Home minister told reporters here.

Over 30 Sri Ram Sene activists had allegedly barged into a pub on January 24, 2009, in Mangaluru 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.

To a query, Reddy said the government is continuing to give police protection to Muthalik "because of the threat he received long back."



Reddy said there has been no progress in the investigation into the M M Kalburgi assasination case.

Kannada writer and rationalist Kalburgi was shot dead at his residence by two unidentified assailants in August 2015.

On journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case, Reddy said, "Wewill disclose details as and when we get information in thisregard."



The 55-year-old Lankesh, known as an anti-establishment voice with strident anti-right wing views, was shot dead at her home on September 5 last year.

On March 9, police had arrested alleged gunrunner K T Naveen Kumar, who was taken into police custody on March 2 forquestioning in connection with the case.

Asked about a letter written by Additional DGP R P Sharma to Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha, Reddy said, "It is an illegal letter... I don't want to answer... ask the chief secretary."



In his letter, Sharma had highlighed "serious chink in the armour" of the state's security, triggering a political slugfest with BJP targetting the ruling Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A plea seeking protection and restoration of natural springs like Gaurikund in Uttarakhand today prompted the National Green Tribunal to ask the Centre, the state government and others to respond to it.

A bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim issued notices to the Ministry of Water Resources, Uttarakhand government, Central Ground Water Authority, National Biodiversity Authority and others while seeking their responses before April 6.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Uttarakhand resident Pratiba Naithani seeking directions for conservation of the hot springs in the state.

The green panel had last year disposed a plea filed by the same petitioner and had directed the state government to look into the issues raised by her and act to protect and conserve the natural springs.

"Despite the directions dated November 7, 2017 passed by this tribunal, the petitioner has learnt that respondents and more specifically the Uttarakhand government has done nothing to protect and conserve the natural springs," the plea said.

Gaurikund is a pilgrimage site and the base camp for a trek to the famous Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand. It is located at an altitude of 6,502 feet above mean sea level in the Himalayas.

The plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Bansal, referred to a reply filed by the Central Ground Water Authority and said that due to 2013 catastrophe, the bathing place and other parts of the "Gaurikund Tapt Kund" (hot spring) have been completely destroyed. A team was constituted by the Central Ground Water Board to rejuvenate the hot spring.

Quoting a research paper of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, the plea alleged that the natural springs in the state were becoming extinct due to lack of attention from the government.

The plea has sought directions to formulate and implement the Watershed Management Strategy for the protection and conservation of natural springs in Uttarakhand.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"Halkaa" by director Nila Madhab Panda, best known for "I am Kalam" and climate change film "Kadvi Hawa", has bagged the Grand Prix de Montreal award at the 21st Festival International du Film Pour Enfants de Montreal Film festival (FIFEM).

The film, which deals with the issue of open defecation, was selected among seven international children's films from different countries in the official competition of the festival held from March 8 to 11.

It stars child actor Tathastu as Pichku, who fights for the basic problem that he faces every day; defecating in the open amongst others.

Actors Ranvir Shorey and Paoli Dam plays Tathastu's parents in the film.

"It's a great honour that 'Halkaa' won the top award at its world premiere screening. The film has already been invited to six international film festivals. India is one of the largest youth populated countries, but we hardly produce children's cinema which is an irony," Panda said.

He said that the film can also viewed as a sequel to his National Award-winning film "I am Kalam" as it also follows a kid's journey to becoming a hero.

"I am sure audience will love this one as well. This is a family entertainer with amazing music from Shankar Ehsaan Loy," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Public sector want PNB to honour its commitment with regard to LoUs allegedly issued by it to Nirav Modi and its associates, said State Bank of India (SBI) Deputy Managing Director M S Sastry.

He also said exact liability will be known after the completion of investigation.

"They were all issued by PNB and against that we have made payment," he told reporters here.

When asked if he expects Punjab National Bank (PNB) to honour all LoUs, he said, "Yes".

Meanwhile, PNB executive director Sanjiv Sharan said, "the matter is being investigated and it is under the process. So, it can not be inferred right now. We are on the job".

Billionaire jeweller designer Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connivance with certain bank officials allegedly cheated the PNB of Rs 130 billion through fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).

The Mumbai branch of Punjab National Bank had issued as many as 1,213 letters of undertaking (LoUs) fraudulently for the group of companies belonging to Nirav Modi since March 2011.

Different investigating agencies, including CBI and Enforcement Directorate, are probing the fraud, dubbed as the biggest banking scam in the country.

Both houses of Parliament have witnessed repeated disruptions over the issue.

Hit by the PNB fraud, the Reserve Bank earlier this week stopped from issuing LoUs and Letters of Comfort for trade for imports into the country.

The RBI notification said that Letters of Credit (LC) and Bank Guarantees (BG) for trade credits for imports into India may continue to be issued, subject to compliance with the provisions.

The LC and BG will make trade slightly costlier but it is accepted instrument world-wide, Sastry said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypoll results will have no "direct" bearing on the coming assembly polls in Karnataka where the electoral dynamics is different, say political parties.

Wilting under the combined onslaught of the SP-BSP, the BJP suffered an embarrassing electoral reverse, losing the Gorakhpur seat which Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had retained for five terms, and the Phulpur seat.

The Congress, the BJP and the JDS are expected to be locked in a triangular contest in the Karnataka polls.

The JDS, led by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, however, sees in the UP and Bihar results a hope for resurgence of regional parties, maintaining it was a rejection of both the national parties -- the Congress and the BJP.

Political analyst Sandeep Shastri said the bypoll results would not have any impact on the Karnataka elections as the fight would be directly between the BJP and the Congress.

The Karnataka BJP had planned to use Yogi Adityanath as its star campaigner for the elections. He has already toured the state thrice in the run-up to the elections.

"Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in a sarcastic tweet following the UP reversal for the BJP.

During Adityanath's visits, both he and Siddaramaiah had engaged in a Twitter and verbal duel, mocking at each other on the issue of development and governance.

"By-election results will not have any direct impact on Karnataka elections, apart from the fact that claims like the BJP is unstoppable or invincible... Nobody will be able to face up to them; to that extent it has been demolished," state Congress working president Dinesh Gundu Rao said.

On forming an anti-BJP front in Karnataka with JDS to keep the saffron party out of power as done by the SP and the BSP, Rao said, "Post poll what happens we can't say..."



"We are confident of getting majority on our own, and we are not entering into any such alliance," he said.

Rao said the JDS was not committed to any ideology, recalling that Deve Gowda's party had earlier joined hands with the BJP to form the government.

Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala said the "decisive defeat" and rejection of the BJP and the Modi brand would be a great morale booster and would pave the way for a resounding victory for the Congress in Karnataka.

Adityanath was projected by the BJP as its mascot along with B S Yeddyurappa for the Karnataka polls.

"Rejection of his personality and policies on his own home front has established his incapacity to lead or be a pan-India brand ambassador," Surjewala told PTI in Delhi.

AICC general secretary incharge of Congress in Karnataka K C Venugopal said the bye-election results will definitely have a positive effect on Congress prospects in Karnataka, after one of BJP's star campaigner Yogi Adityanath lost his own seat.

"It bodes well for the Congress prospects. The opposition momentum is also increasing. All this will be a morale booster for us," he said.

He added that the BJP will now have to change its strategy as its campaign was centred around Adityanath.

According to the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa, "In the arena of opportunistic politics, sworn enemiesbecame allies."



"Congress decimated in #UPByPolls & in Bihar.Congress candidates lost their deposits in UP, yet @INCIndia is euphoric & celebrating. We will ensure the same fate for @INCKarnataka in the coming elections," he tweeted.

Karnataka will witness a triangular contest among the Congress, the BJP and the JDS in most of the 224 seats that will go to polls in April/May.

Opposition BJP that is going all out to unseat the Congress and come back to power for a second time.

"UP by-election will not have any impact on Karnataka assembly polls, it was only a by-election result for Parliament seats," BJP leader and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar said.

Noting that the SP and the BSP are regional parties in Uttar Pradesh, he said the people in Karnataka always prefer national parties.

"What is the situation of the Congress in by-elections, it is zero... in Tripura and other places where elections were held, the Congress was out... the Congress doesn't have address."



Another senior state BJP leader Suresh Kumar pointed out that the situation in Karnataka was completely different from Uttar Pradesh.

"Everyone is doing conditional analysis of the poll results," he said, adding, each state has its own dynamics and political chemistry.

On the Congress and the JDS joining hands to keep the BJP out of power, he said "They will not join, thanks to Siddaramaiah."



The JDS, which has a strong base in the Vokkaliga community belt and is seeking to spread its wings in north Karnataka also, is enthused by the UP and Bihar polls outcome.

In the Karnataka polls, the JDS is hoping to emerge as a kingmaker.

"UP and Bihar bypoll results give the message against both the national parties.

"It has also given the message that if regional parties work together, people see them as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP in the country," JDS state president and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said.

"There is huge sentiment for a regional party in Karnataka; it is both of a sentiment and emotion towards regional party here," he added.

The JDS has already entered into a pre-poll alliance with the BSP and is also in talks with Sharad Pawar's NCP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea's top diplomat arrived in Sweden today for two days of talks which could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho arrived at Stockholm's Arlanda airport around 6:15 pm (1715 GMT) before being whisked away in a diplomatic motorcade, AFP reporters saw.

Ri was to hold talks with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom -- whose country represents US interests in Pyongyang -- on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a possible summit between Trump and Kim, and the fate of three Americans detained in the North.

The Scandinavian country has longstanding ties with North Korea. Its diplomatic mission in Pyongyang was the first Western embassy established in the country, in 1975.

International media have speculated that Sweden could be a potential location if a Trump-Kim summit were to be confirmed.

Sweden's foreign ministry would not comment on that possibility, saying in a statement only that the talks would "focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia."



"They will also address the security situation on the Korean peninsula, which is high on the (UN) Security Council agenda," it said. Sweden is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

Ri was travelling with Choe Kang Il, deputy director general of the foreign ministry's North America section, according to South Korea's Yonhap agency.

"We can't rule out the possibility of a contact between the North and the US" during Ri's trip to Sweden, a Beijing source told the agency.

The Swedish foreign ministry has said there would not be any press conferences during his visit but that it would publish a statement on Friday evening after the conclusion of talks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)North Korea's foreign minister is traveling to Sweden Thursday, a surprise move that could be a first step toward a meeting in the Scandinavian country between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Ri Yong Ho who is scheduled to land in Stockholm later in the day, will meet Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said. It was not immediately clear when or where they would meet.

Talks "will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," the ministry said in a statement, but they also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973, and is now one of the few Western countries to have an embassy in Pyongyang. It provides consular services for the US in North Korea.

"The aim of the visit is to contribute to the effective implementation of the resolutions," the ministry said, referring to the condemnation of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs by the UN Security Council.

It said the United Nations had "emphasized the need for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict." "If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Sweden's TT agency.

"We shouldn't be naive and believe it is Sweden that solves these problems," Lofven said.

Niklas Swanstrom of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy said such a meeting would only be preliminary to higher-level talks but they could give an indication of what North Korea's interests and demands may be.

"The assumption is of course that (they) will speak a bit about the proposed talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un," Swanstrom told The Associated Press, noting relations between the two Koreas "have improved significantly" in recent weeks.

He said he did not expect the announcement of a date or location for a Trump-Kim meeting.

The Swedish ministry said a statement summarizing the talks will be made available Friday.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim by May.

Swedish media say that a North Korean delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol paid a visit to Stockholm in late January and briefly met with Lofven and Wallstrom.

Ri, a former diplomat in Stockholm and London, and an ex-nuclear envoy with broad experience in negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States, was tapped as Pyongyang's foreign minister in 2016.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month, he urged the United Nations not to remain silent about what he called "the US dangerous game of aggravating (the) situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war."



The trip by Ri is being closely watched because there remains a huge amount of preparation that needs to be done and relatively little time before Kim is supposedly planning to sit down for summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump.

So far, North Korea has yet to publicly comment on what it hopes to gain from the summits, adding an extra element of mystery and skepticism.

Senior South Korean officials who traveled to Pyongyang earlier this month and met with Kim say he is willing to discuss the North's nuclear weapons program.

It could suggest a potential breakthrough, or a fallback to the North's longstanding position that it's willing to get rid of its nuclear weapons if the United States guarantees its safety.

In the past, that has meant Washington would have to withdraw all of its troops from South Korea, a condition no US president has been willing to consider.

Sweden has been rumored as a possible site for the summit between Kim and Trump, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 76-year-old NRI woman from South Africa, who was feared to have gone missing after arriving in India last month, today returned to Mumbai, a senior Government Railway Police (GRP) official said.

Devikiamma Pillai, a South African national of Indian origin, came to India on vacation and checked in at a guest house in south Mumbai's Colaba area on February 21.

On February 23, she took a train for Bhubaneswar from the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus here, but afterwards her daughter could not contact her. Her last mobile phone location was traced to Gondia in Maharashtra.

"She hadn't been missing. She was actually travelling to places including Bhubaneswar, Howrah and Varanasi. The woman returned to the lodge in South Mumbai today," said senior inspector Mahesh Balwantrao of the GRP.

Police recorded her statement. According to Pillai, her phone stopped functioning after she reached Gondia and she couldn't restart it.

Pillai's daughter, who lives in South Africa, had asked the manager of the guest house to approach police as she could not contact her mother on phone.

Subsequently, the manager lodged a complaint with Kurla GRP on March 2.

Police had formed a special team to search for her.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Oil regulator PNGRB has terminated GAIL India Ltd's licence to build a Rs 10,000 crore natural gas pipeline from Surat in Gujarat to Paradip in Odisha, saying the state-owned firm hadn't started work on the project even after six years.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) also ordered encashing the company's entire performance bank guarantee of Rs 20 crore, according to the regulator's March 13 order.

GAIL had in November 2011 bid an astonishingly low pipeline tariff of Rs 0.01 (one paisa) per million British thermal unit to bag the project. It was formally awarded the licence in April 2012.

It had beaten Gujarat government firm GSPC India Transco Ltd to bag the Surat-Paradip project. This was the country's first pipeline originating and terminating at a port. The 2,112-km long pipeline was to have a capacity to carry 74.81 million standard cubic meters per day of gas.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had on numerous occasions told Parliament that the work on Surat-Paradip and other such pipelines had not started because of several reasons including non-availability of anchor load customers.

Other gas lines that have been delayed for a similar period include Mallavaram-Bhopal-Bhilwara, Mehsana-Bhatinda and Bhatinda-Jammu-Srinagar pipelines. Gujarat government entity GSPC India Transco Ltd is the licence holder of these lines since 2011.

The GAIL licence termination is the first such action by PNGRB since June 2012 when it had asked the government to cancel licence granted to Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure (RGTIL) to lay four gas pipelines over delays in implementation of the 2,175 km lines.

Relogistics Infrastructure Ltd (Relog), a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani's RGTIL, had in 2007-08 won government authorisation to lay Kakinada-Basudebpur-Howrah pipeline, Kakinada-Chennai line, Chennai-Bangalore-Mangalore pipeline and Chennai-Tuticorin line but physical work on these pipelines hadn't started.

In its March 13, 2018, order, PNGRB said it had encashed 25 per cent of GAIL's bank guarantee in September 2015 as the company hadn't met timelines and not even achieved financial closure (arranging of funds) for the project.

PNGRB said the September 22, 2015, order was to provide "natural justice" to GAIL to explore possibilities to come up with viable strategies on project implementation.

The state-owned firm's challenge of that order was dismissed by Delhi High Court in April 2017, following which Rs 5 crore of bank guarantee was encashed.

PNGRB then directed GAIL to replenish this amount as bank guarantee and quickly submit financial closure plan for the project.

GAIL then submitted a financial closure report, which was accepted by PNGRB, but refused to refurbish the bank guarantee.

PNGRB on January 18 wrote to GAIL intimating that its financial closure plan had been accepted and asked it to replenish within 15 days the Rs 5 crore guarantee already encashed, failing which the balance amount of Rs 15 crore would also be encashed and licence to lay the Surat-Paradip pipeline terminated.

GAIL, however, responded seeking refund of the encashed Rs 5 crore bank guarantee or restoring it to the core bank guarantee.

PNGRB did not agree to it and sent it a show cause and went ahead with the cancellation of the licence after failing to elicit a desired response from GAIL.

"The board has come to the conclusion that the authorised entity has failed to perform its obligations under the terms and conditions of authorisation with respect to refurbishment of the encashed performance bank guarantee amount of Rs 5 crore.

"Thus, action under the provision of Regulation 16(1)(c) be taken for encashment of the balance performance bank guarantee of Rs 15 crore and authorisation of GAIL (India) Ltd for Surat-Paradip natural gas pipeline project be terminated," PNGRB said in the order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Numetal, an SPV floated by the PE arm of Russian lender VTB Bank and Rewant Ruia, a Ruia family member, has claimed that its bid for Essar Steel has "solid legal backing" and if need be, "the other shareholders will buy out Rewant's" 25 per cent stake in the company.

The shareholders of Mauritius-based Numetal, a special purpose vehicle that focuses on steel and infra space along with manufacturing, are VTB Capital, the private equity arm of the VTB Bank; Russian steel and engineering major TPE.

Other promoters are Indo International, a Dubai-based steel trading firm promoted by an NRI, and the Aurora Trust in which Rewant Ruia, the son of one of the Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia, is a beneficiary and owns 25 per cent in Numetal. VTB Capital owns majority in the SPV.

Numetal and ArcelorMittal are the only two bidders for the 10-million tonne Essar Steel assets at Hazira, which owe the banks more than Rs 45,000 crore.

These companies, who have put up their bids on February 12, are battling with each other for the steel asset and are faced with questions on the eligibility of their bids.

Bids of both the companies are being evaluated by the resolution professional, risk and financial advisory Grant Thornton and law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

"If public perception is a challenge because of Rewant Ruia's minority stake in Numetal, we're ready to change that," Antoine Chemali, a senior advisor at Numetal Mauritius, told PTI here this evening.

"We've already spoken to him (Rewant Ruia) and are ready to do whatever it takes us to win the Essar Steel bid. We, the rest of the shareholders, are ready to buy out his minority stake from Numetal," he added.

But Chemali was quick to point out that Rewant does not have any say in the management of Numetal or enjoys a board representation. "He is just a minority shareholder," he said without quantifying his stake.

An Essar Group official told PTI that Rewant Ruia had resigned from the board of Essar Steel way back in 2012, and thus in no way is related to Essar Steel promoters.

It can be noted that both the bidders have threatened to challenge the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the resolution professional at higher courts if their bids were rejected.

This forced government to recently hint that it's amenable to make more changes to Section 29 of the IBC to redefine "connected/related parties" to exclude only original promoters who are defaulters from bidding for an asset that has gone to the bankruptcy courts.

While Numetal has claimed that ArcellorMittal is not eligible to bid as their India joint venture Uttam Galva is a defaulter and is in NCLT now, the world's largest steel major made the same allegation against Numetal because of Rewant's investment in the SPV company.

Chemali further claimed their bid for Essar Steel has solid legal backing, saying there is nothing in the law that can make their bid ineligible.

"From the point of view of law, we are fully eligible to bid for Essar Steel and there is legally nothing that can disqualify us from bidding. That's what our lawyers have told us. We've a strong legal backing for our bid and we are fully compliant with all the laws and we will not do anything that's against the laws of the land," said Chameli.

He also said they have submitted a very good revival proposal that has three parts-streamline and maximise the production at the 9.7-million tonne plant which is running at around 60 per cent now.

"So, our bid involves an upfront cash payout which is the bid amount, and an offer to pump in as much working capital as needed to run the plant for our first priority is to optimise the capacity level in the shortest possible time.

"The second part is the equity conversion that we will offer to the lenders and the third part of our offer is to invest more for expansion because we are very optimistic about the growth story of the steel sector in the country," explained the head of Numetal India Chandra Shekar Verma, who retired as the chairman of state-run steel major Sail.

"Shareholders of Numetal are well-versed in the steel sector apart from the infra and other key manufacturing areas and we are very serious that we get to own Essar Steel when the resolution process gets over by April 29," Chameli said.

Comments assume importance as there are reports that government is looking at further amending IBC to distinguish between promoters of defaulting firms that don't have a managerial role,from those who also manage stressed assets.

As per media reports, the corporate affairs ministry is believed to be considering two amendments to change the definition of "connected people" as per the IBC.

As of now, a promoter or investor in a defaulting company is not eligible to participate in the auction of stressed assets referred to the NCLT.

According to IBC, bids should be presented to the committee of creditors at least a month before the deadline which in the case of Essar Steel is April 29. And Chameli said they have not met the creditors but expressed the hope that they will be able to meet the deadline.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan has informed the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, about the steps taken by it to strengthen the safety of its civilian nuclear installations.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano's visit to Pakistan comes amid global concern over the safety and security of its nuclear assets.

Amano, who was on a three-day visit to Pakistan, yesterday visited the construction site of two reactors of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) here and commended the country's efforts to increase safety and security of its nuclear facilities as the country was working to increase its nuclear power capacity.

The reactors are expected to be ready in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and will produce over 2000 MW of electricity, close to 10 per cent of the country's total need.

In Islamabad, Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Muhammad Naeem briefed Amano on the Commission's role in overseeing the increasing use of peaceful nuclear technology to meet the country's development goals.

During his meetings with the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority and the PAEC, Amano was informed about the steps taken by Pakistan to strengthen nuclear safety, according to an official IAEA statement.

Later at a seminar, the IAEA chief said that "he was happy to see that the new plants were also heavily protected".

"Pakistan needs to have more electricity and it was committed to nuclear safety; you are working with the IAEA," Amano was quoted as saying in the statement.

Amano, also said, "the IAEA greatly values cooperation with Pakistan in peaceful uses of nuclear technology".

He said that he felt that access to nuclear power should not be limited to developed countries as developing states should also have the right to use atomic power.

He said it was a misconception that IAEA only worked to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. "We cover other scientific issues as well."



He said the IAEA details everyday uses of nuclear technology in sectors such as industry and agriculture.

During his meeting with the IAEA chief, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi commended the world body's support to Pakistan in the use of peaceful nuclear applications.

"Pakistan was ready to further strengthen its partnership with the IAEA and contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals worldwide," Abbasi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India today termed as "routine" Pakistan calling its high commissioner home for consultations after alleging that its diplomats and their families were "harassed and intimidated".

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was also facing a "litany of issues" which have not been resolved for several months by that country.

In latest escalation of tensions between the two countries, Pakistan today said it has decided to call home its envoy in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidence of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

"It is pretty normal and routine for any country to call its envoy for consultations," Kumar said during his weekly media briefing while replying to a volley of questions on the issue.

"Frankly, I am a bit surprised as to why this question is posed to me. Consultations by any resident Ambassador/High Commissioner with their headquarters is a matter for that country. We of course have no comments to offer on the reports regarding the Pakistan High Commissioner," he said.

The spokesperson said India was looking into the issues being raised by Pakistan.

He said India has also asked the Pakistan government for immediate resolution of the issues being faced by its mission in Islamabad so that the safety and security of Indian diplomatic mission and its diplomatic and consular officials are assured.

In Islamabad, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.

Kumar said the Indian High Commission was also facing lot of issues and India has already taken them up through diplomatic channels.

"We would like our Mission to function normally, without any obstruction or harassment, in keeping with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961," he said.

In Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

"We do not wish to respond to these issues through the media but through established diplomatic channels. What I can say is that we are looking into these issues," Kumar said.

Asked whether India was also asking its envoy in Islamabad to come to Delhi for consultations, he indicated that there was no such move.

The Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and "continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the India's Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level)".

He said the Pakistan High Commission shared with the external affairs ministry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officers but regrettably no positive action was taken by the Indian side so far.

Official sources here said Indian mission staffers in Islamabad have been severely "harassed and intimidated" and that harassment has been a new normal for them.

They said the Indian High Commissioner's car was recently stopped by Pakistani agencies in the middle of a busy road to prevent him from attending an event.

The sources said water and power supply to residences of Indian staffers have been cut intermittently in the last few months.

The sources here said India has been asking Pakistan to ensure that both high commissions are allowed to do their job in an atmosphere free of harassment and intimidation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan High Commissioner was called for consultations and it is "normal", the external affairs ministry today said after the neighbouring country decided to call back its envoy to Islamabad.

We are looking into issues raised by Pakistan High Commission here, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters.

Upping the ante, Pakistan today said it has decided to call back its high commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidence of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

"The Pakistan High Commissioner has been called for consultations and it is normal," Kumar said.

Noting that our high commission in Islamabad is facing a "litany of issues", he said that "we have taken them up through established mechanism".

"We want Pakistan to resolve the issues being faced by our staff and ensure their safety," he said.

Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Office had summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ruling AIADMK today lashed out at the critics of five decades of Dravidian rule in Tamil Nadu, stating that such a rule had ensured the southern state's progress in various social sectors in the last 50 years.

Presenting the state budget for 2018-19, AIADMK coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said certain critics with "myopic vision" were indulging in "fallacious propaganda" against the Dravidian rule.

DMK founder and late chief minister C N Annadurai heralded the first Dravidian government in Tamil Nadu in 1967, unseating the then Congress regime.

Ever since, only the two Dravidian arch rivals--DMK and AIADMK,--have been ruling the state.

Though Panneerselvam did not specify any "critic" of the Dravidian rule, he said he wanted to "send a strong message" that Tamil Nadu had progressed much more than many other states.

He compared the state with BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Rajasthan to drive home the point that Tamil Nadu stood better in many social indicators.

The state has bettered on its below the poverty line (BPL) numbers, and fared better than many states, he said.

While the percentage of persons living below poverty line in Tamil Nadu in 1973-74 was 54.94, it has come down to 11.28 per cent in 2011-12 as per the National Sample Survey, Panneerselvam said.

The national average in 2011-12 was 21.92 per cent as against the 54.88 per cent in 1973-74, he added.

"During the same period, this percentage came down from 48.15 to 16.63 in Gujarat, 54.47 to 20.90 in Karnataka, 61.78 to 31.65 in Madhya Pradesh, 53.24 to 17.35 in Maharashtra, 46.14 to 14.71 in Rajasthan, 57.07 to 29.43 in Uttar Pradesh and 63.43 to 19.98 in West Bengal," Panneerselvam said.

Further, Tamil Nadu's per capita income at current prices exceeded the national average, he said



In a recent NITI Aayog publication, Tamil Nadu stood at third place among all states in the country in health indicators, he said, adding, even in terms of GDP, the state has bettered its rank from No 5 in the 1950s to "the second largest economy" at present.

"All these achievements have been made possible by the social equity agenda provided by the Dravidian movement, without much patronage from the successive central governments, while such patronage has been extended to many other states," he said.

"It is very clearly evident that we have grown on our own efforts and strength. Such political critics should understand that Tamil Nadu is the crucible of socio-economic transformation, which others must emulate," he said.

The AIADMK, founded by late M G Ramachandran and taken forward by his protege, late J Jayalalithaa, has contributed to this enormous growth, Panneerselvam added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition members tore papers and threw them around in the Lok Sabha today as relentless protests by them and NDA partner TDP disrupted proceedings in both Houses of Parliament for the ninth straight day, but the government managed to get two bills passed without debate amid the din.

While Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned the Lok Sabha till noon and then for the day, the Rajya Sabha, which saw a total of three adjournments, could not take up the Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bills, due to the disruptions.

The proceedings of the two Houses were paralysed as opposition parties, along with ruling NDA partner TDP the TRS, stormed the Well and continued their noisy protests over a host of issues, including the banking scam, special status for Andhra and setting up of Cauvery management board.

In the Lok Sabha however, the government pushed two legislations, Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, amid continued din and the House passed them with a voice vote without debate.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose party members were also in the Well, sought a discussion on the bills.

With continuous protests by different parties making the prospect of any discussion improbable, the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings for the passage of bills.

As the second bill was being passed without debate, some Opposition members were seen tearing some papers and throwing them around, as the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, Moving the Payment of Gratuity Bill for passage, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said it is a very important legislation for employees, especially women.

The Bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill proposes to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of business contract and to reduce the discretion of courts in such matters.

Protests began in the House as soon as the Speaker took up the Question Hour in the morning, with members from various parties trooping into the Well holding placards.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the protesting members to allow the House to function and said Parliament was the 'maha panchayat' of the country where issues are discussed but disruptions were not allowing important issues to be raised.

He said the government was open to discuss issues including bank scam, Cauvery water management board and special status for Andhra Pradesh, but the House has to function first and members have to vacate the Well.

As the protests continued, the House was adjourned till 12 noon minutes before it was adjourned for the day. While members of Congress, TMC, TDP, YSR Congress and TRS were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, Left MPs were seen standing at their seats and raising slogans.

Since March 5 when the budget session resumed after recess, the two Houses have seen disruptions on a daily basis. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were yesterday passed by the House without discussion.

The Rajya Sabha proceedings were also disrupted due to uproarious scenes, with the House being adjourned for the day in the afternoon after witnessing two adjournments earlier, once till 2 PM and then again for an hour.

Minutes after the House reassembled at 3 PM, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien who was in the Chair urged the opposition to take up the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bills as members from TDP, AIADMK and Congress trooped into the Well raising slogans and carrying placards.

"Please listen to my request...There is Finance Bill... Appropriation Bills...If you don't consider (them), Rajya Sabha will beocme irrelevant. I will dispose (these) in five minutes," Kurien urged the members.

To this, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said "No Bill can just be finished in five minutes".

However, as the slogan-shouting continued, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, saying "I will have to adjourn the House and the responsibility of not discussing or taking up Finance Bill is on the shouting members".

Just before this, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved a statutory resolution to approve a notification of March 1 which seeks to increase the basic custom duty on chickpeas, falling under a tariff item of the Customs Tariff Act from 40 to 60 per cent.

In the morning, the Rajya Sabha was disrupted by Congress protests following a remark by TDP member and former minister Y S Chowdary that the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was carried out in a "hasty, unjust and unscientific" manner by the then UPA government. Two ministers of the TDP -- Chowdary and Ashok Gajapathi Raju -- had quit their posts after the party pulled out of the NDA government over the issue.

Following noisy protests by Congress members, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, who had allowed Chowdary to make a statement under Rule 241 on the reasons for quitting the Union Cabinet, adjourned the House till 2 PM.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today said Parliament should function to debate serious issue of alleged PNB bank fraud by Nirav Modi and others that have damaged the image of the country and led people to question the entire banking system.

Parliament has been repeatedly disrupted ever since it met after the recess to continue the Budget session. Today also, both houses were adjourned in the morning session.

"Two three instances of Nirav Modi, (Mehul) Choksi and Vijay Mallya...but they are damaging the image of the country and they are damaging the image of the system.

"People are questioning entire banking system. Is there a structural failure, is there a collusion of people at different levels. If it is so, then why no action is taken," Naidu said while addressing a realtors' body CREDAI annual conclave.

He expressed hope that Parliament would function and have meaningful and constructive debate on this important issue.

Stressing that there is no use in finding fault in whose regime the frauds took place, he said the lawmaker should find out where does the fault lies.

"The issue is of people losing confidence in the banking system. This is the larger issue. Who is accountable and what assurance they are giving to depositors. These are larger issues," Naidu said.

When the proposal came up for discussion in the Rajya Sabha on bank frauds, Naidu said he had permitted the debate but "unfortunately" discussion is not happening.

India's second largest lender Punjab National Bank has been hit by a fraud of about Rs 13,000 crore wherein billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Choksi allegedly used fraudulent letters of undertaking to obtain credit from overseas branches of Indian banks.

Naidu cautioned CREDAI not to allow black sheep and have a self code of conduct to keep defaulters and violators out of its organisation.

The law alone will not help in dealing with this disease as there are legal ways to fight cases for years together, he said, adding that the best way is voluntary code of conduct and whoever violates the norms, such black sheep and fly by night operators should be kept at distance.

This will enhance CREDAI's credibility and acceptability. "This is the need of hour in real estate sector.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A photo exhibition about India showcasing pictures captured by an Egyptian photographer has been held in Egypt as part of the mega annual cultural festival 'India by the Nile'.

The exhibition titled 'Indian Images: People and Places" was inaugurated by India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya at el-Sawy Cultural Center in Zamalek here yesterday.

The exhibition showcased 60 photographs taken from different parts of India by Egyptian photographer Khaled Gawdat.

"The basic theme of the exhibition was to depict people, expressions and different places, particularly Kerala. But we also have some pictures of Taj Mahal which he (the artist) finds as the most significant building that the man has created, Bhattacharyya said.

The photographs depicts every day life in India, landscapes, tourist places, cultural performances, people's faces and colourful costumes.

The Ambassador said that the exhibition continued the initiative started years ago by hosting photographers to show their works during the India by the Nile festival.

"Two years ago we had and exhibition by Haran Kumar who was a street child - was found in the street and adapted then he became a very accomplished photographer.

"Last year we were very lucky to have an exhibition by Ashraf Talaat, who is a very highly recognised photographer. And this year we have Dr Khaled Gawdat and I think the same story continues. India is the land of so many different stories. I hope this inspires many more Egyptians to go to India and find their own story, he said.

Originally a professor of surgery at Ain sham University, Gawdat has great passion for photography and takes around 100,000 pictures per year.

"I've visited India three times and it is a heaven for photographers with its people, colours, landscapes, tea farms, lakes and cultural heritage, Gawdat told PTI.

"When I visit India, I feel that I'm in my homeland. Egyptians and Indians have great similarities even the colour of our skin is similar, said Gawdat, whose last travel to India was in 2017.

Egyptian actress Samira Abdel Aziz, who also inaugurated the exhibition, said she had great love for India".

About ten years ago I performed a play in India and I dealt with people there. I felt how there are great similarities between us as people," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu today said he has directed the ministry to formulate a plan to grant patents at the earliest.

Over 2.32 lakh patent applications were pending with the Indian Patent Office as on November 30 last year.

He said that the ministry is taking steps such as modernising patent offices for effective implementation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) laws.

Prabhu said, I have directed my ministry to prepare a plan to release patents at the earliest possible time, which will be given to me in a few weeks.

He was speaking at the Leadership Summit on Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection here.

Usually, it takes about 6-7 years for grant of a patent. The ministry is working to significantly cut this time.

In 2016-17, 9,847 patents were granted by Indian Patent Office as against 6,326 in the previous year.

Prabhu also said that the ministry was preparing a module for law enforcement agencies, including the police department, to enforce IPR rules.

Intellectual property-related crimes are different and it is difficult to understand IPR law violations, "so we are sensitising the police," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday decided to impose a ban on certain plastic items from the Marathi New Year, 'Gudhi Padwa', on March 18.

An official in the state environment department said the ban will cover plastic carry bags, thermocol and plastic plates, cups, forks, bowls and spoons.

However, the draft of the proposed ban published a month ago, had also mentioned various other items such as flex boards, non-woven polypropylene bags, banners, flags, decorative door hangings, plastic sheets and all types of plastic wrappers.

Plastic manufacturers had recently held a protest in Mumbai, opposing the proposed ban.

An empowered committee under the Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam has been formed to discuss the ban on rest of the plastic goods, the official said.

"The committee will prepare the roadmap for banning rest of the plastic goods. Today, a ban on plastic was approved in principle, but the committee will decide the further action plan," the official said.

Kadam had earlier announced that the state will ban plastic items completely from March 18 this year.

The State has already banned plastic carry bags thinner than 50 microns and smaller than 8x12 inches.

But another officer in the Environment Department conceded that it has had little effect. "The environmental problems due to plastic are on rise. Water clogging dueto plastic bags causes health hazards. Animals are eating these bags, and plastic is hazardous for marine creatures too," he said.Power Minister R K Singh has called a high-level meeting of government top brass and industry tomorrow to sort out issues related to revised RBI norms for bad loan, coal shortage and stranded power projects.

Secretaries of Coal and Power, the Railways Board Chairman, the Central Electricity Authority Chairman and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission Secretary are expected to attend the meeting, a source said.

The chiefs of state-run power giant NTPC, PFC and REC, and the representatives of big power sector firms including Adani, Tata, JSW, GMR, Reliance, Essar, Lanco, Jaypee and L&T would also participate in the meet, the source said.

Earlier this year, Reserve Bank had come out with 'Resolution of Stressed Assets-Revised Framework' on February 12, 2018.

Post this circular, all other RBI guidelines for handling short-term and long-term issues regarding loan management (Flexible structuring of loans-5/25 scheme, SDR, S-4A, CDR scheme etc.) have been withdrawn.

According to the Circular, even a one-day default in debt servicing would require reporting to RBI and implementation of Resolution Plan.

All accounts with exposure of Rs 2,000 crore and above, on or after March 1, 2018 and in default have to formulate a Resolution plan within 180 days failing which, the case has to be mandatorily referred to NCLT for Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings.

The Association of Power Producers had pleaded before the RBI and the Prime Minister in a letter that there are currently more than 75,000 MW assets either under operation or under construction severely stressed due to various reasons like lower availability of coal, lack of Long Term/Medium Term PPAs, divergence between policy & regulations on pass through of incontestable change in law factors, huge delays in regulatory orders, and pending receivables from discoms.

The association said that stress in the sector is due to various factors beyond their control including delay of 3-4 months in payment of regular bills for supply of power from discoms.

They said there are Rs 8,300 crore of receivables currently and more than two years of delay in receiving orders from Regulatory Commissions to pass on the increase in cost of coal due to various taxes and duties which are to be treated as 'Change in Law'.

They further said that around Rs 7,800 crore amount is stuck as regulatory receivables due to delay in Orders and dispute being raised by discoms at the higher court, and this amount is increasing progressively.

They also draw attention towards short supply of coal as Coal India supplies only 60 per cent of coal required.

The association demanded that RBI should relax "default" clause from one-day delay in debt servicing and classify the asset as NPA (bad loan) only after the completion of 180-day period.

The submission of Resolution Plan (RP) should be initiated only after the 180-day period, the association said and sought to extend the implementation period of Resolution Plan from 180 days to one year as the current timeline under the new RBI circular to complete the resolution plan is extremely difficult.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Newly-elected Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said his priority was to provide a "corruption free, dynamic and transparent" government in the state, which was under the uninterrupted Left rule for 25 years.

He said his government would create an atmosphere conducive for industrialisation besides extending all help to the tribal population of the state.

"After assuming office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared that it was his objective to provide a corruption free government and as a first step he had introduced demonetisation", the BJP leader said.

"It is also our objective to provide a corruption free, dynamic and transparent government in Tripura so that the fruits of developments reach the grassroot level. We always remember that this government was formed by people", Deb, who took oath as the chief minister on March 9, told PTI in an interview here.

Asked about the CPI-M's allegation of post-poll violence in the state, he said, "Everyone knows what used to happen in the past after every election. I do not want to enter into any controversy.

"I have asked the police to maintain peace and given them a free hand to improve the law and order situation in the state. The state is peaceful now," he asserted.

Speaking on the unemployment problem in Tripura, the chief minister said despite the rate of literacy being more than 90 per cent in the north eastern state, unemployment was a major issue.

Deb said scope of government jobs was limited in Tripura and industrialisation had not taken place.

The state government will now concentrate more on skill development so that the young can be self employed under the Centre's 'Startup India', 'Make in India' schemes, he said.

"If you look at Gujarat, less than two per cent people are unemployed there because they are self-employed and have acquired the skills," he said.

The BJP leader said his government was also planning to develop tourism and thus create more job opportunities.

Deb said his government would lay more importance to entrepreneurship, adding that it would also work on creating a conducive atmosphere for setting up industries by using local resources like rubber, pineapple, wood and bamboo.

"At present, only 72,000 people are engaged in industry in the state which is very meagre. It can be seven lakh. We will try our best to engage more people in the industry," he said.

Asked about BJP's poll ally IPFT's demand for a separate state carving out some areas of Tripura, the chief minister said, "There are two ministers from the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and the tribal welfare department is also handled by one of them. Let them make an outline for the development of the tribals and I am always ready to help them".

On whether Hindutva had prevailed in the state after 25 years of communist rule, he said, "Hindutva is not a religion, it is a culture. Culture and religion are separate and cannot be mixed up".

Dev said his government wants a good work culture in the state and would not make politically motivated transfers.

The BJP and its ally IPFT had swept to power in Tripura securing a two-third majority. The BJP alone had bagged 35 seats and the IPFT captured 8 seats in the 60-member assembly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A priest was arrested today for allegedly performing some 'rituals' in the ICU of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital here for recovery of a 25-year-old woman patient, police said.

The accused, identified as Sachin Yerwadekar, and private doctor Satish Chavan were booked under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practises and Black Magic Act after the video of the alleged incident went viral on social media.

A case was lodged against the duo by the brother of the patient Sandhya Sonawane who died of multiple organ failure on March 12, a day after the rituals were allegedly performed.

"The accused Sachin Yerwadekar is a priest at the Parvati Devasthan Trust in the city. He was remanded in police custody for three days," said Alankar police station senior inspector Rekha Salunke.

Dr Chavan is still at large.

The deceased woman's relative had claimed that Dr Chavan, who runs a private hospital, had advised a surgery to remove a lump in Sonawane's chest, and as per his advise, she underwent the surgery.

Sonawane was admitted to the ICU of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital after her condition deteriorated.

The alleged incident occurred on March 11 when Dr Chavan brought along the priest to perform some rituals.

"This man took out some items from his bag and waved them from her head to toe while chanting something. We didn't have any prior knowledge about it, so we recorded the whole incident on mobile," the relative had said.

The hospital management had said its staff had no role in the entire episode.

Members of the Maharashtra Andha-shraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Maharashtra Superstition Eradication Committee) had sought registration of a complaint against the doctor.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has given her formal consent for her grandson Prince Harry to marry US actress Meghan Markle, according to a transcript of a meeting with her advisers released on Thursday.

"I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle," the Queen said at a meeting of her Privy Council in Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

She said her consent would be "signified under the Great Seal" and entered into the register of the Privy Council, an ancient body of councillors that dates back hundreds of years.

Prince Harry and Markle, who starred in the US television drama "Suits", will marry on May 19 at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, a royal residence located west of London.

British law states that the monarch must give their consent for the marriage of the six people next in line for the throne.

Harry is fifth in line after his father Prince Charles, brother Prince William and William's children George and Charlotte.

He will be bumped down to sixth place when William's wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth next month.

The Privy Council is a kind of royal advisory body and has around 400 members, including religious and political leaders.

Markle was baptised by the leader of the Church of England earlier this month ahead of her marriage to Harry out of respect for the Queen's role as head of the denomination.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rajya Sabha today got adjourned twice since morning till 3 pm following protests by opposition and TDP members seeking probe into the banking scam, a special package for Andhra Pradesh and the Cauvery water dispute.

Soon after it met for the day, the House was adjourned till 2 PM amidst the protests by Congress members over former minister Y S Chowdary's remarks against the erstwhile UPA regime over the division of Andhra Pradesh.

When it reassembled at 2 PM, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien adjourned the House within five minutes after the opposition members trooped into the Well raising slogans.

Kurien tried to pacify the agitating members saying the government was ready for discussions on the issues they were raising and they should return to their seats.

He tried to take up a short duration discussion on the scams in public sector banks, saying the notice for the short duration discussion "has been admitted and the government is ready for discussions on it."



However, as the members continued their protests, following which Deputy Chairman adjourned the house till 3 PM.

Earlier in the day, the Congress members trooped into the Well raising slogans after TDP MP Chowdhary said the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was carried out in a "hasty, unjust and unscientific" manner.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the former minister had been allowed permission under Rule 241 to make a statement on the reasons for quitting the Union Cabinet.

Two ministers of the TDP -- Chowdary and Ashok Gajapathi Raju -- had quit their posts after the party pulled out of the government over the issue of special status to Andhra Pradesh.

Chowdary began by thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party leader N Chandrababu Naidu for giving him an opportunity to be part of the Cabinet and then went on to say that he was making the statement to set the perspective right and "separate truth from propaganda".

He said the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was done in a "hasty, unjust and unscientific manner" by the government of the time.

The comment drew a sharp reaction from the Congress members who shouted in protest and started moving into the Well.

Naidu asked Chowdary not to deviate from the approved text of the statement and anything he said beyond it would not go on record.

But this did not satisfy the Congress members who moved into the Well with some holding placard supporting a special package for Andhra Pradesh. Naidu said the House was not a place to play and adjourned it till 2 PM.

Earlier the House mourned the death of its former member Hamida Habibullah. A qualified nurse who served in the military hospital in Lucknow till World War-II and had started the famed NGO SEWA, Habibullah died on March 13 at the age of 101 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The real estate sector is showing signs of revival after a period of slowdown, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today said but expressed concern over high prices of land parcels especially in smaller cities.

Addressing realtors' body CREDAI annual conclave, he asked the association to adopt self code of conduct for members and keep distance from defaulting and fly-by-night operators.

"After a period of slowdown in the market, the realty sector market is once again showing signs of revival, which is good for the economy," he said.

The construction and real estate sector plays a vital role as it is the second largest job provider after agriculture, he added.

Naidu hoped that the CREDAI is well geared to implement the best practices as required in the new real estate law RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority).

Referring to the court cases filed by home buyers against builders, Naidu said there is a need for regulator but regulations should not become strangulations.

"If there is no regulation, then you have more and more Vijay Mallya's, you have Nirav Modi's.....," the vice president said, adding that this realty law was passed during his stint as Minister of Urban Development.

The law, which came into effect from May last year, seeks to bring much-needed transparency in the property sector.

On high land price, Naidu said he wondered prices of land in Vijaywada and other places, are equivalent to New York and Washington.

The cost of housing units is going up because of land, he said.

Stating that land parcels are largely held by middle men, Naidu said, "there is a need for price correction" and "reality has to come in the real estate sector".

He also expressed concern over massive housing shortage of 19 million units currently, estimated to double at 38 million units by 2030.

Highlighting steps taken by the government to boost affordable housing, the vice president said this segment will drive the real estate sector in coming months.

Naidu said the private players have a great role to play in providing homes to people.

The delay in clearance for housing projects should be addressed by local bodies, he said, adding that there should not be obstruction in development in the name of environment.

Earlier, CREDAI President Jaxay Shah highlighted that initiatives taken by the association towards skill development of construction workers and waste management as well as environment protection. He also informed that member developers have taken up affordable housing projects in a big way.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An independent think tank says China's military is ramping up its security presence in Tajikistan with troop deployments amid fears that militants based in nearby Afghanistan could strike at western China.

The International Crisis Group said in a report yesterday that China has deployed soldiers and built a "counter-terrorism center" in Tajikistan near the three-way border of Tajikistan, China and Afghanistan.

China has repeatedly warned about ethnic Uighur militants who have left their homeland in western China to join extremist groups such as the Turkistan Islamic Party, a predominantly Uighur group that has bases in Syria and Afghanistan and is allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The Chinese defense ministry did not immediately respond to a fax seeking comment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Giriraj Singh today claimed that the victory of RJD's Sarfaraz Alam from Araria Lok Sabha seat would make the place a hub of terrorism, which would be a danger to not only Bihar but also the country.

Singh's controversial remarks invited strong comments from opposition parties, with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav saying the BJP should withdraw support from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar if it did not believe in his leadership.

A day after the BJP suffered reverses in Lok Sabha bypolls, Singh told reporters that the RJD had spawned an "extremist ideology" to fulfil its political ambitions.

"The RJD has started a new political culture for its political ambitions... They have spawned an extremist ideology which is a danger not only to Bihar but also to the country in the coming days. It will become a hub of terrorism," he claimed.

Singh, seen as a Hindutva hardliner within the BJP, has ignited controversies with his fiery comments in the past as well.

Attacking him, Yadav tweeted, "This man is a central minister and unfortunately he is not aware that it's his government in Bihar and Delhi."



"If he and the BJP don't believe in Nitish Kumar's leadership, then why don't they ask him to step down or withdraw support. Such a shame for Nitish Kumar," he said.

Alam had defeated BJP's Pradeep Kumar Singh by over 60,000 votes.

During the campaign for polls, Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai had claimed that Araria would become an "IS (Islamic State) den" if the RJD won from there.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A straight contest is in the offing between the BJP and the Congress for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Chhattisgarh as the candidates of both the parties stayed put today, which was the last day for withdrawal of nominations.

The election for the single seat that has fallen vacant due to the expiry of the term of Bhushan Lal Jangde (BJP) will be held on March 23.

The candidates in the fray are BJP national general secretary Saroj Pandey and the Congress' Lekhram Sahu.

"Pandey and Sahu did not withdraw from the race on the last date of withdrawal of nominations," state Assembly Secretary Chandra Shekhar Gangrade, who is also the election officer, told PTI.

Gangrade added that he had rejected the Congress' demand to quash Pandey's nomination.

The Congress had demanded that Pandey's papers be rejected as the MLAs of the ruling BJP, who are parliamentary secretaries, were among her proposers.

It had also contended that the final decision regarding the appointment of these MLAs as parliamentary secretaries was pending before the High Court.

In a letter to Gangrade, the Congress had cited the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs in Delhi in January by the president, on the Election Commission's recommendation, for being parliamentary secretaries, which is considered as holding offices of profit.

"Till the high court verdict comes, they should not be considered as proposers and the nomination papers of the BJP candidate should be rejected," the opposition party had stated.

The BJP is in a position to send one member to the Rajya Sabha from the state as each candidates needs to secure 46 votes.

In the 90-member Assembly, the BJP has 49 MLAs, the Congress 39, the BSP one, besides an Independent legislator.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United States today accused Russia of disdaining the international order and disrespecting the territorial integrity of sovereign nations.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert's remarks came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin's campaigned in Crimea, which the US alleges was annexed by Russia some four years ago.

In his election rally in Crimea, home to about two million people, Putin reportedly said that there was still a lot of work to do and that his government was working on various long-term projects.

"In his campaign rally in Crimea today, President Putin reiterated Russia's false claims to Ukrainian territory in another open admission that the Russian government disdains the international order and disrespects the territorial integrity of sovereign nations," Nauert said.

"Four years ago this week, Russia held an illegitimate, fabricated "referendum" in Ukraine in a futile attempt to legitimize its purported annexation of Ukrainian territory," she alleged.

Nauert alleged that the residents of Crimea were made to vote under duress during 2014's Crimean status referendum.

Russia claimed Crimea on March 18, 2014.

"Crimean residents were compelled to vote under scrutiny by heavily armed Russian troops.Russia's claim that Ukrainians made a free choice in that sham "referendum" has always lacked credibility," Nauert said.

Nauert said Russia has engaged in a campaign of coercion and violence over the past four years, "targeting anyone opposed to its attempted annexation".

"In light of Putin's remarks, it is important to call attention to the illegitimacy of the staged "referendum," but also to the tremendous human costs the Russian government has imposed on the people of Crimea," Nauert said.

"Russian occupation authorities have subjected Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, pro-Ukrainian activists, civil society members, and independent journalists to politically motivated prosecution and ongoing repression, while methodically suppressing nongovernmental organisations and independent media outlets," Nauert said.

The State Department spokesperson applauded people who speak out against the situation in Crimea.

"We stand behind those courageous individuals who continue to speak out about these abuses and we call on Russia to cease its attempts to quell fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and religion or belief," she said.

Nauert said the US will continue its Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine.

"We reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Crimea is part of Ukraine," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Russian military says it has extended a "humanitarian pause" in fighting for two days in a part of Syria's embattled eastern Ghouta enclave, just outside of Damascus.

The Russian Defense Ministry says the pause on Thursday and Friday is focused on the town of Douma. It claims the pause has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.

Maj Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by the Interfax agency as saying 131 people left the area through the humanitarian corridor on Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin says some 100 people are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.

Russia ordered the daily humanitarian pauses late last month, but few civilians have left. And activists said continued government shelling and airstrikes killed at least 20 civilians on Wednesday eastern Ghouta.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The head of Russian state-funded RT television says British Prime Minister Theresa May is to blame if British media are kicked out of Russia over the poisoning of an ex-spy.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan dismissed accusations that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal. It prompted threats to shut down RT's British operations, among other actions targeting Moscow.

Simonyan told The Associated Press in Moscow that "if we are censored in the UK, that's going to be it for the British media" in Russia.

She said it would be strange for Russia to be so "reckless and stupid" as to poison Skripal "knowing what outrage it would cause."



Skripal and his daughter are in critical condition in a British hospital after an attack that brought Russian-British relations to a post-Cold War low.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress MLA Nandita Das today claimed that three schools of Lampi in Kamrup district of Assam were used as polling stations in the just-concluded Meghalaya elections.

"Lower Lampi LP School, Khatapara LP School and Umtap UP School of Assam were used by the Meghalaya authorities as polling stations on February 27 even as the administration and the police in Kamrup looked the other way despite getting complaints," she said in Assam Assembly.

The Assembly elections in Meghalaya was conducted on February 27 this year.

Raising the issue as 'Special Mention', Das said that a total of 650 votes were cast in these three polling centres.

"This is all the more shocking as the schools remain 9 km inside Assam side of the Assam-Meghalaya border," she added.

Das alleged that border areas such as Lampi have been neglected by governments over the years, emboldening the neighbouring states to utilise Assams territory for their official purposes and encouraging encroachment.

"With growing encroachment and official activities at Lampi, Meghalaya is now in a position to claim legitimacy of its illegal occupation of Assam's land. The Assam government should wake up to the grim reality and intervene immediately and decisively," she added.

Das said that the Lampi area on the city outskirts had immense tourism potential with its scenic beauty and cool temperatures even during the summer, but nothing has been done to tap that.

Replying on behalf of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who also holds the Border Areas Development portfolio, IT Minister Keshab Mahanta admitted that the areas of Umtap, Khatapara and Lower Lampi were under encroachment.

He, however, informed that as per an official report following the Meghalaya polls, the polling centres were shifted by the Meghalaya authorities from the schools in question.

"We will have another enquiry conducted by the Kamrup Deputy Commissioner to ascertain whether Meghalaya used our schools as voting centres and the status of the encroachment in those areas, Mahanta said.

The minister added that following meetings between the DCs of Kamrup in Assam and West Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, it was agreed to maintain status quo in the areas having boundary disputes.

He also accused the previous Congress government of remaining indifferent to the problem of aggressive encroachment by neighbouring states.

AGP MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita urged the government to entrust an official with full charge of border affairs in different disputed areas in view of the fact that the DCs are overburdened with other responsibilities.

Abdul Khaleque of the Congress suggested that Assam should adopt an aggressive stand on border protection rather than remaining passive to the widespread incidents of border area encroachment by neighbouring states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shifting of venue at the last minute has hit the Indian Science Congress hard, the organisers today said stating that fewer delegates will attend the science carnival starting tomorrow, with no plenary sessions taking place.

Twelve noble laurates, who had confirmed their participation for the ISC, have backed out due to the change of dates.

The ISC was to take place in Hyderabad from January 3-7 but had to be postponed after Osmania University confirmed expressed its inability, citing law and order problem.

The move has also led to the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) taking a decision that any varsity that wishes to host the science congress in future must produce a letter from the chief minister and the governor of that particular state assuring all support to the event.

The science carnival will be held from March 16-20. It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

ISCA general president Achyuta Samanta said nearly 12,000 delegates, scientists and academicians attend the ISC, but this time the number will dip to 5000, more than half.

Twelve noble laurates had confirmed their participation but the due to the change of the dates they will not be attening the event, ISCA general president Achyuta Samanta, said, adding that Noble laurate Muhammad Yunus may attend the event.

Ashok Saxena, former general president of the ISCA, said every year, the ISC has 32 plenary sessions. Each session has experts from the country and across the globe.

This is also gives students to interact with them from close quarters, Saxena said.

But there will be no plenary sessions this year, Samanta added.

When asked about Dalai Lama not attending the ISC, Samanta said after the postponement of the event at Hyderabad, they had approached the Tibetan leader but the ISC was told that his calender was full.

Also, the ISC was told that Dalai Lama had only recently visited the Manipur state, Samanta added.

The organisers have blamed the Osmania University for their hardships.

They (the Osmania University, Hyderabad) have damaged us and we are the one who are suffering, Saxena said.

The change in the dates from January to March has also clashed with the exams schedules of students and teachers. Several of the delegates had to face monetary losses due to cancellation of tickets, the organisers said.

The nearest railway station is at Dimapur (Nagaland). And then there is a road journey to Manipur. So, travel also led to several of them cancelling the plan, Saxena added.

This is also perhaps the first time that the ISC had to be postponed. After the Osmania University expressed its inability to host the event, the ISC got requests from five varisities, including the Manipur University.

With militants outfits calling for bandh in Imphal tomorrow, Adya Prasad Pandey, vice-chancellor of the Manipur University, has appealed to them to not to bother the university staff and students, who are assisting the delegates to reach Imphal.

The ISC will have sectional seminars on Agriculture and Forestry Science, Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Science, Chemical Science, Earth System Science, Engineering Science, Material Science, Mathematical Science, Medical Science, New Biology, Physical Science and Plant Science.

Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya will inaugurate the Children Science Congress on March 17 while his West Bengal counterpart Keshari Nath Tripathi will inaugurate the Women Science Congress the next day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Markets regulator Sebi today imposed a fine of Rs 12 lakh on merchant banker Atherstone Capital Markets for mis-statement and non-disclosures of material developments in the IPO papers of Onelife Capital Advisors.

The regulator, through an interim order in December 2011, has barred Atherstone from taking up any new assignment as merchant banker till further directions. These directions were confirmed by Sebi in January 2013 and continued to be in force till July 2016.

"For the purpose of imposing penalty, I have considered the prohibition already undergone by noticee (Atherstone) for period of four-and-a-half years as a mitigating factor," Sebi Adjudicating Officer B J Dilip said in an order passed today.

Onelife Capital Advisors came out with its initial public offer (IPO) in September 2011 to raise Rs 36.85 crore.

According to the regulator, there were non-disclosures or mis-statements in the red herring prospectus (RHP) filed by Atherstone.

"I also conclude that there were certain material developments that took place subsequent to the filing of RHP which were neither updated in the prospectus nor informed to the investors through advertisements," he noted.

The regulator said that Atherstone as a Sebi- registered intermediary failed to conduct its duties as merchant banker which resulted mis-statement and non-disclosures in the prospectus relating to main objects of IPO.

"Such gross failure on the part of noticee affects the trust and confidence of investors on Sebi registered intermediary and therefore the conduct of noticee cannot be viewed leniently. I consider it a fit case for imposition of penalty that meets the ends of justice,"the adjudicating officer noted.

Accordingly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has levied a fine of Rs 12 lakh on Artherstone for violating ICDR (Issue of Capital & Disclosure) regulations as well as code of conduct for merchant bankers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Six people were killed and 14 others injured when a Senegalese military helicopter crashed, according to a government statement giving an updated toll from the incident in the south of the country.

The helicopter, which went down in a mangrove forest in the coastal area of Missirah late yesterday, was carrying 20 people, including four crew, army spokesman Colonel Abdou Ndiaye told AFP earlier.

According to a statement released by the government, rescue workers said six people died at the scene.

"The other 14 passengers were wounded, three seriously," it said, adding that the injured were being transferred to a regional hospital in Kaolack.

Authorities have launched an enquiry into the incident to determine the cause of the crash, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a peculiar case, a human resources manager from Bengaluru today moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the UIDAI to hand him back the biometric data of his late father collected for Aadhaar card.

Santosh Min B said he wanted the biometric details as these would be of no use for the UIDAI since his father was dead now and there were also chances of their misuse and abuse.

Santosh, who works with an ayurvedic clinic, told the apex court that his father died after he felt insulted during filling of life certificate at a provident fund office in Bengaluru, as his authentication by biometrics failed due to old-age and cataract surgery of his eyes.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra gave two-minutes time to Santosh Min B to argue his case in which he said that the Aadhaar scheme is like an "undeclared emergency".

"This court may direct the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to hand over my dad's biometric in a printed form, so that I can keep it for posterity," he told the bench also comprising justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.

He also sought abolishing of the Aadhaar scheme and said that "his father had passed away on December 31, 2016, the dark day in our history, as on that day demonetisation ended".

The bench interrupted him and said, "We will not allow you to give any speech. If you want you can argue on question of law, but you can't be allowed to give a speech".

Santosh, who appeared in person before the court, said that he had received a half written letter of his father N Bhanu Vikaraman for the Prime Minister in January this year.

In the letter, his father had written about the "harassment" a sick and elderly person faces during filling of life certificate form at provident fund offices throughout the country.

"In imposing the Aadhaar, the government of the day wanted to keep track of every single paise earned by the citizen and on other hand political parties can receive funds anonymously through electoral bonds," Santosh said in his submission.

He said that since his father is dead now, the biometric details would be of no use for the UIDAI and moreover there were chances of their misuse and abuse.

The bench, took on record his submissions and posted the matter for further hearing on March 20.

The bench, is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar and its enabling Act.

Senior advocate K V Vishwanathan, appearing for activist Aruna Roy, continued his arguments today and said that the use of the Aadhaar infrastructure by private entities is unconstitutional and authorising the use of the "Aadhaar number" as the sole proof of identity for an open-ended and unspecified set of laws or contracts, defeats the principle of informed consent at the time of enrolment.

"The broad and unlimited scope of activities covered under section 57 of the Act and the kind of private entities permitted to use Aadhaar is entirely disproportionate, beyond the Aims and Objectives of the Act, and without any compelling State interest," he said.

Viswanathan said that the Act also fails to specify the purpose for which the Aadhaar number may be used to establish identity, and whether it is necessary, given the alternative, existing modes of identification.

"Finally, no procedural safeguards govern the actions of private entities, and no remedies exist for authentication failures or service denial," he said.

Attacking the Aadhaar Act of 2016, the senior lawyer argued that section 7 of the Act was unconstitutional and violates Article 14.

"The requirement under section 7 for every person to undergo authentication to avail benefits/services/ entitlements, falls foul of Article 14 since, first, such mandatory authentication has caused, and continues to cause, exclusion of the most marginalised sections of society," he said.

He added that this exclusion is not simply a question of poor implementation that can be administratively resolved, but stems from the very design of the Act which is the use of biometric authentication as the primary method of identification.

"In questions of infringement of fundamental rights, courts have to decide on the proportionality of an imposition with greater scrutiny, when the primary decision maker (the State and UIDAI) did not give due weight to the competing balancing rights at stake," he said and concluded his arguments.

Senior advocates Anand Grover and Meenakshi Arora also addressed the court for the petitioners and termed the Aadhaar and its enabling Act as unconstitutional and in violation of fundamental rights.

Yesterday, the apex court was told that the collection of biometric details of citizens by UIDAI from 2010 onwards till 2016, when the enabling Aadhaar law came into force, was "illegal" and "invalid" and the collected data deserved to be destroyed.

The top court had earlier extended the March 31 deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes run by the government till it delivered its verdict on the validity of the 12-digit biometric number and its enabling law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has directed comprehensive measures for price stabilisation of essential commodities in the state.

To ensure stabilisation of prices of essential commodities and generating greater consumer awareness, Sonowal directed the Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to prepare a road map and take up comprehensive measures.

Reviewing the activities of the department in a meeting yesterday, Sonowal directed the department to keep a stock of essential items including perishable items like potato and onion for public distribution to meet shortage during emergency situations.

He asked the department to make an assessment of requirement of perishable items mostly during monsoon period and tie up with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NEFED) for their procurement.

He also directed the department to take up steps for setting up cold storages under PPP mode in the state where a provision of Rs 50 crore has been made in the current budget to meet any emergency situation.

The chief minister also emphasised on generating more awareness among consumers and inform them about comparative prices of essential items available in the country through different mass media including digital medium.

He said that sharing information on prices of commodities and its comparative information through different media platforms with consumers would boost public confidence in the department.

Underscoring the need for taking up more innovative measures by the department, Sonowal directed to implement Amar Dukan on Wheel in all the 97 towns of the state on a priority basis simultaneously and promote digital payment in their transactions.

Sonowal appreciated the department on the implementation of Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in the state under which subsidised LPG connections have been provided to 9.18 lakh households during 2017-18.

Under the scheme, a target is set to provide subsidised connection to 30 lakh households in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Spanish police searched the seat of the Catalan regional government in Barcelona today as part of an investigation into how last year's banned independence referendum was funded.

A Civil Guard spokesperson said the operation targeted the "citizens assistance office" and the offices of the grassroots separatist group Omnium Cultural, whose leader was jailed last year pending a probe into his role in Catalonia's breakaway bid.

During the raid, police detained the head of the citizens assistance department, Antoni Molons, and said his home would also be searched.

Officers were looking for "documents of an economic nature," according to Omnium Cultural spokesperson, Roger Rofin, who denied the use of any public funding.

"We have not received a single euro from the (Catalan parliament) since 2012," he said.

According to Spanish media, police are seeking evidence into the public financing of the referendum, organised by pro-independence leaders on October 1 despite a court ban.

"We launched an operation in the context of the inquiry heard by the judge of court number 13 in Barcelona," said the spokesperson.

The Catalan parliament was dissolved by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after it unilaterally declared independence on October 27 following the banned referendum on secession.

Since then, the region of 7.5 million people has been under direct rule from Madrid.

Catalonia's ousted leader Carles Puigdemont, in self-exposed exile in Belgium, faces arrest if he returns to Spain.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Speciality Restaurants Limited, which owns brands like Mainland China, Oh!Calcutta and Sigree among others, would invest Rs 40 crore for expansion and refurbishment of existing outlets over the next 18 months, a company official today said.

The company would open 8-12 new restaurants under its brands and the expansion would entirely be funded from internal accruals, MD of Speciality Restaurants Anjan Chatterjee said.

"We are entirely debt-free and the entire funding for expansion would be from internal accruals. We have Rs 70-75 crore lying in the bank," he told reporters.

Chatterjee was addressing a press conference on completion of 25 years in the hospitality business.

Chatterjee said the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) last year had upset the company's gameplan, affecting both the bottomline and expansion programmes.

"We are not getting any input tax credit under GST. This is hurting the restaurant business in a big way. We could have spent more on expansion. But GST has come in the way. And there is a 12 per cent hit on the bottomline as well," he said.

He said the company has been forced to increase prices by three to four per cent.

It is also in the process of incubating new brands like Spicery, he said.

Speciality Restaurants as of now runs 125 restaurants across the country, of which 17 are franchised.

Apart from India, it has outlets in Colombo, Doha, Dubai, Dhaka and Tanzania and plans to open outlets in new overseas locations, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Assam government has banned strikes by employees in the Oil and Gas sector in the state under the Essential Services Maintenance (Assam) Act, 1980 for six months.

A notification to this effect was issued on March 13 prohibiting strikes in Assam by officers, workmen, contract labour, tanker, driver and khalasi involved in the service in the Oil and Gas sector.

The prohibition will be in effect for a period of six months from the date of issue of the notification.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A teenaged Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police check-post near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, killing nine people, including five policemen, police said.

According to rescue officials, the blast took place last night close to a police check post, a few kilometers from the palatial residence of the Sharif family, and next to the congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat centre.

"Five policemen - two inspectors and three constables - are among nine persons killed in the blast," Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad told PTI.

Around 14 policemen are among 25 injured. The condition of four policemen is stated to be critical, Sajjad said.

The Rescue ambulances have shifted the injured to the Sharif medical complex and other nearby hospitals.

Inspector General Police Punjab Arif Nawaz confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack carried out by a teenaged boy who blew himself up near the checkpost.

Deputy Inspector General Police Lahore Dr Haider Ashraf said: "A teenaged boy blew himself up at the check post set up close to the Tableeghi centre where at least 14 or so cops were present".

However, he did not give the exact age of the boy.

He said the "police personnel" were the target of the blast. "The condition of some policemen is critical," he said.

"The body parts of the bomber have also been recovered," the officer said.

It was such a powerful blast that its sound was heard several kilometers from the site. A fire ball was seen after the blast at the Nisar Police Check Post.

Abid Hussain, an injured constable, told journalists that he had been deputed at the entry point of the check-post to frisk those passing through the area.

"I saw a young boy who was trying to enter (the venue) and as soon as my colleague stopped him, I heard a powerful blast," Hussain said, adding that he had lost consciousness after that and came to later at a hospital.

Some reports said the Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of the blast and the banned outfit has threatened more attacks on police.

The suicide attack took place a week before the semi-finals of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore.

"The PSL semi-finals will be held in Lahore as per schedule as we have made all security arrangements in this regard," Ashraf said.

Pakistan Rangers quick response force has reached the spot and cordoned off the area along with the police.

President Mamnoon Hussain condemned the attack, saying such cowardly acts could not deter the government's resolve to fight terrorism.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif sought a report from the IGP and vowed to take the terrorists and their facilitators to task.

This is the first explosion targeting the provincial capital in 2018. Lahore experienced multiple terror attacks in 2017 that killed more than 60 people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today attacked former chief minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi of practising "hit-and-run" inside the Assembly and said he should now face the house and make statements in it.

He also attacked the opposition, mainly the Congress, for alleging that nothing has been done from the budget proposals of the last two years.

"Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi practised hit-and-run in the House. He criticised me with a personal attack during the debate on the budget. When my turn came today, he is not present here," Sarma said in his reply to close discussion on the 2018-19 budget.

The former chief minister had taken part in the ongoing discussions on the budget on March 13.

Sarma said Gogoi should face and make statements inside the House instead of running away and comment in front of TV.

"Speaker Sir, I never said that Tarun Gogoi is the best CM. If he cannot give proof those lines should be expunged from records," Sarma said.

"I did not praise his son Gaurav and that is why I could not stay in Congress," said Sarma, who had handled different portfolios as cabinet minister for 15 years under Gogoi.

He said Gogoi's budget proposals did not have anything innovative and they were full of only centrally and externally aided schemes, while many of the announcements were never implemented.

"Nobody holds him accountable because of his seniority. We respect his seniority. But why does he want to put all responsibilities on me? Was I the Congress? I was only a minister," Sarma said.

The senior BJP leader also slammed the veteran Congress leader and said: "He always says that he never heard of Deendayal Upadhyay. Then how come he announced a scheme in Deendayal Upadhyay's name in 2006-7?"



He attacked the opposition, mainly the Congress, for alleging that the government had done nothing from the budget proposals of the last two years and presented a list of already implemented schemes.

Allaying fears on complying with the budget for 2018-19, Sarma said "We will get around Rs 26,000 crore from central tax devolution, Rs 17,000 crore for central schemes, Rs 17,000 crore from own resources, Rs 3,313 crore from Finance Commission and Rs 8,000 crore from oil royalty.

"With strong financial position, the government can also borrow and thus it will be able to garner around Rs 90,000 crore to run the state economy and implement the budget proposals during the next financial year," he claimed.

Sarma also informed the Assembly that under the BJP-led government, the tax collection and capital expenditure in the state have grown substantially due to the robust financial management.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ruling TDP, an NDA ally, would support any no-confidence motion against the BJP-led government at the centre in the interest of Andhra Pradesh as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has meted out 'injustice' to the state, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said today.

Naidu stated this in the state assembly hours after YSR Congress, TDP's rival in the state, gave notice for moving a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government, in the backdrop of the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

"We will support a no-confidence motion, whoever moves it. We will be ready for that and our 16-17 MPs will fully support that. We will co-operate with whoever fights for the states rights," Naidu told the state Assembly.

His announcement came amid indications that the TDP, which recently pulled out its ministers from the Narendra Modi government, was toying with the idea of quitting the NDA.

An emergency meeting of the Telugu Desam Party politburo has been convened here tomorrow evening to take a call on the issue, party sources said.

In his statement in the assembly, Naidu said: I am telling this with pain and agony, 40 years of political experience and as peoples word. It is not good to play with the lives of people. If you sincerely move the no-trust motion, we will fully co-operate. If you do it by colluding, we will expose you, the TDP president warned the YSRC.

The YSRC is seeking to put the the TDP on the defensive by moving a no-confidence motion.

Refuting criticism against him that he was 'weak, the chief minister said: "Mine is dharma, mitra dharma. For four years I have been requesting the Centre but now, only under inevitable circumstances, I started fighting only to secure the states rights since the Prime Minister has meted out injustice."



He reiterated the demand that the Centre fully implement the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 and also the promises made in the Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation of the state to carve out Telangana.

Naidu recalled that the TDP MPs had been constantly fighting in Parliament to get the promises fulfilled.

Earlier, the TDP chief discussed the no-trust motion with his senior colleagues and decided to support it.

During the day, the TDP floated a 'conspiracy' theory as it toyed with the idea of leaving the NDA. Several leaders targeted the BJP for the no-holds-barred attack by Jana Sena president and film star Pawan Kalyan on the Chief Minister and his son Lokesh last night.

Incidentally, Kalyan -- who floated Jana Sena in March 2014 -- played a key role in the TDP's victory in the then general elections.

His party did not contest the elections but supported the TDP-BJP combine, though in 2019 the Jana Sena is all set to become a major challenger to the TDP.

Chandrababu Naidu first held a teleconference with party MPs and senior leaders and followed it up with a meeting with ministers in the assembly.

Several TDP leaders condemned Kalyans diatribe and sought to blame it all on the BJP top leadership.

Beginning with Naidu, all TDP leaders alleged a conspiracy in collusion with the popular star to weaken their party as they lashed out at Kalyan for reading out the New Delhi script.

"At a time when I am fighting to safeguard the interests of the state, some people are trying to weaken me by indulging in unwarranted criticism instead of strengthening my hands. They should ponder if it is fair, Naidu said.

"Some bigwigs are behind this drama," he alleged, but did not name anyone.

Earlier in the day, in an oblique reference to the BJP central leadership, the chief minister warned that "Tamil Nadu-type dramas" could not be played in Andhra Pradesh.

He was apparently referring to allegations by opposition parties in Tamil Nadu that BJP was controlling the AIADMK government in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three terrorists were believed to be holed up in a house in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir today, after a failed bid to snatch the weapon of the personal security officer (PSO) of a BJP leader, the police said.

The terrorists tried to snatch the service rifle of constable Bilal Ahmad, who is the PSO of BJP leader Anwar Khan, at Balhama in Pulwama district, a police official said.

He added that the police personnel accompanying Khan foiled the attempt, during which Ahmad received a bullet injury.

State Director General of Police (DGP) S P Vaid confirmed the incident, saying an operation was going on to flush out the terrorists.

"Three terrorists are trapped in an undisclosed location and engaged in an exchange of fire after an unsuccessful attempt of weapon-snatching from the PSO of a protected person," he said.

Ahmad was rushed to a hospital, where his condition was stated to be stable, a police official said.

Another police personnel was reportedly injured in the exchange of fire with the terrorists, but officials did not confirm it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam today said his party chief Uddhav Thackeray has already made it clear that the Sena would contest the next elections all alone.

He also said that if the BJP wants to join hands with the Sena for the polls, the decision to that effect will be taken by Thackeray.

Kadam's statements come a day after state Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that BJP-Sena will contest the next elections together.

"Mungantiwar should remember that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had already announced that the party would go solo in the next elections. If Sena wants to join hands, it will be decided by the Sena leader and not by BJP," Kadam told reporters.

When asked about the BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, he said, "It was a trailer, wait for the whole picture."



Addressing the state Legislative Assembly yesterday, Mungantiwar had said that Shiv Sena-BJP will contest the next elections together in the interest of the people of the state, unlike the Congress-NCP, which are planning an alliance "to stay relevant" in state politics.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US Federal regulators today charged the blood-testing company Theranos, its founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes and former president Indian-American Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani with "massive fraud".

Holmes, 34, and Balwani, 52, raised more than USD 700 million by deceiving investors about the company's technology, and business and financial performance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement yesterday.

The SEC alleged that Theranos, Holmes, and Balwani falsely claimed that its key product a portable blood analyzer could conduct comprehensive blood tests from finger drops of blood, revolutionising the blood testing industry.

In truth, Theranos' proprietary analyzer could complete only a small number of tests, and the company used analyzers manufactured by others to conduct majority of patient tests.

Holmes and Balwani also claimed that Theranos' products were deployed by the US Department of Defense on the battlefield in Afghanistan and that the company would generate more than USD 100 million in revenue in 2014.

In reality, Theranos' technology was never deployed by the US Department of Defense and generated a little more than USD 100,000 in revenue from operations in 2014.

Theranos and Holmes neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC's complaint and have agreed to settle the fraud charges levied against them.

Holmes agreed to pay a USD 500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos.

Further, due to the company's liquidation preference, if Theranos is acquired or is otherwise liquidated, Holmes would not profit from her ownership until over USD 750 million is returned to defrauded investors and other preferred shareholders.

Holmes was once touted as a rising star in Silicon Valley who promised to disrupt the health technology industry with her company's path-breaking technology for blood-testing.

Balwani, of California, was the president and Chief Operating Officer of Theranos from September 2009 to May 2016.

In 2009, as Theranos was on the verge of running out of money, Holmes turned to her then-boyfriend Balwani, who guaranteed a line of credit for the company. Balwani joined the company and became its president and COO that same year, the SEC said.

From the time that Balwani joined Theranos until his departure in 2016, Theranos had no other senior managing executives besides Holmes and Balwani.

They collaborated closely with each other and made decisions about the company together.

From 2013 through 2015, Balwani received a salary of between approximately USD 99,000 and USD 200,000.

The SEC will litigate its claims against Balwani in federal district court in the Northern District of California.

Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said investors are entitled to complete truth and candor from companies and their executives.

"The charges against Theranos, Holmes, and Balwani make clear that there is no exemption from the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws simply because a company is non-public, development-stage, or the subject of exuberant media attention," he said.

Director of the SEC's San Francisco Regional Office Jina Choi said the Theranos story is an "important lesson" for Silicon Valley where innovators who seek to "revolutionise and disrupt" an industry.

"They must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour with respect to fight against terrorism, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has said.

Mattis said that there are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping the US' ongoing efforts against terrorism and have been for some time.

"There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced)," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to Afghanistan, according to the transcripts released by the US Department of Defense.

"There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction," he said.

In January, the Pakistan government issued a fatwa signed by more than 1800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Mattis said that despite the apparent changes in Pakistan, he'd still like to talk to people dealing with the border issues and intelligence and their impression of the situation.

"One of the reasons I want to go in is actually talk to the people who are dealing with the border issues right now, dealing with intelligence and what they're seeing. And then go back and talk with our intelligence agencies in Washington, DC, and put together an assessment of this," Mattis said.

"There is a number of things that have been going on, but I want to talk to people here and see the reality and how they see it and go back and talk to intelligence agencies and get a full assessment of where we're at," he said.

Responding to a question on Taliban, Mattis said the US has to set the conditions where the Taliban realize they cannot win with bombs.

"At that point, setting the conditions for the diplomats to sit down, and the leadership to sit down and try to get this out of the violence and into the diplomatic stance," he said.

Mattis, however, said that while the US tries to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, it will still ramp up the military pressure on it.

"..you need to have that door open, even as you increase the military pressure and say this is not going to work. You know, to just be setting off bombs," he said.

The Defense Secretary said that the US needs to lead and provide the substance for the reconciliation effort.

..it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That would be a bridge too far right now to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said.

In Kabul, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussed the South Asia strategy and the US' commitment to Afghanistan.

Pentagon's chief spokesperson Dana White said that Mattis praised Ghani's recent offer to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions.

"He noted Ghani's diplomatic approach achieved a level of international support not possible with military action alone. Secretary Mattis offered his full support to the Afghan-led reconciliation process, aimed at achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan," White said.

At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks to "save the country" while offering security and incentives like passports to insurgents who take part in the negotiations.

During the meeting, Mattis emphasised that the peace offer does not eliminate the need for offensive operations against the Taliban, and noted the importance of continued Afghan National Defense and Security Forces progress on the battlefield.

"The two Afghan leaders also reinforced that the recent Taliban peace offer without preconditions was genuine, and they are ready to embrace all who are willing to reconcile," White said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stepping up pressure on the Centre over the Cauvery issue, the Tamil Nadu Assembly today adopted a unanimous resolution urging it to constitute the Cauvery water management board (CMB) within six weeks.

While the ruling AIADMK said the issue was "intertwined with the aspirations" of the entire state, opposition DMK mooted en masse resignation of MLAs if the Centre did not set up CMB and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) within six weeks.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami hours later wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing to his notice the assembly resolution.

At a special afternoon sitting, exclusively convened to discuss the Cauvery issue, the DMK-led opposition supported the government resolution moved by Palaniswami.

"This House insists that Centre should constitute the empowered CMB and CWRC and implement them within six weeks," the resolution said.

It recalled the February 16 verdict of the Supreme Court on appeals by the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments over the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal's final order.

Moving the resolution, the Chief Minister said the river water dispute was not just confined to the Cauvery delta regions "but is intertwined with the aspirations of entire Tamil Nadu."



Speaking on the resolution, DMK Working President and Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin said: "If the Central government does not constitute the panels within six weeks, all Tamil Nadu MLAs should resign en masse. DMK is ready to do so," he said.

However, Stalin expressed hope that the Centre will not allow such a "crisis" to happen.

He said all political parties in the state were on the same page over the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict on the inter-state row involving Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Kerala and Puducherry are the other stakeholders.

Stalin, Congress Legislature Party Leader KR Ramasamy and lone IUML member KM Mohammed Abubacker spoke on the resolution and supported the government's stand.

Later, the Chief Minister who had recently submitted a memorandum to Modi urging the constitution of the Cauvery panels, recounted the decades old Cauvery dispute and capped it with the current developments.

Agreements between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the princely state of Mysore in 1892 and 1924 "clearly" underline Tamil Nadu's rights on the inter-state river but Karnataka "in violation" of the agreements had constructed various dams across the river in the 1960s and 1970s, he said.

He tracked the passage of the dispute, highlighting important details including the formation of a tribunal, its interim and final awards and later the legal battles on the issue taken forward by the state government.

He referred to the February 16 final verdict of the Supreme Court, pointing out that it has directed that a 'scheme' be evolved by the Centre within six weeks on the dispute.

Following the verdict, Tamil Nadu government has been demanding that the Centre immediately constitute the CMB and CWRC.

This had been reiterated by the state at a meeting convened by Union Water Resources Ministry to discuss the Cauvery issue with Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, he said.

Later, the resolution was adopted after Palaniswami requested the House to help unanimously pass it.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, a copy of which was circulated to media, Palaniswami said since four weeks had already lapsed "without any positive outcome" (on constitution of the panels) the farmers and the people of the state were deeply anguished.

"Hence, I request you to direct the Water Resources Ministry, to notify the formation of Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee and enable them to function effectively," he said.

The Supreme Court's direction to the Centre to notify a "scheme," for the implementation of final order of the Cauvery Tribunal meant only the "implementation machinery," which are CMB and the CWRC, he said.

The Chief Minister said he looked forward to the Prime Minister's "immediate positive" response in this matter.

A copy of the assembly resolution was enclosed with the letter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Toys 'R' Us said today it will liquidate all of its US stores, heralding the end of what had been an iconic player in the American toy industry.

"This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years," CEO Dave Brandon said in a statement.

"I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the company's US operations," he added.

The statement made no mention of jobs, but reports said the closure could hit 33,000 of them.

The debt-plagued retailer first filed for bankruptcy protection in September.

"We're putting a sale sign on everything," Brandon said earlier on a conference call with staff, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Started in 1948 amid the postwar US economic boom, Toys 'R' US has 881 stores in US territories and nearly 65,000 employees globally, according to the company's most recent press release last month.

The New Jersey-based company was saddled with debt following a leveraged buyout in 2005 by a consortium that included the KKR Group and Bain Capital.

Much like other retailers, Toys 'R' Us has been battered by competition from Amazon and other online retailers.

A weak holiday shopping season weighed on the company's efforts to reorganise, analysts said.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, blamed the company's woes on poor leadership.

"As the competitive dynamics of the toy market intensified, management failed to respond and evolve. As such, the brand lost relevance, customers and ultimately sales," Saunders said in a note yesterday.

"The main tragedy of liquidation will be the extensive loss of jobs. In our view, those on the shop-floor have been badly let down by management and those doing financial deals."



The company statement said it is exploring strategies for keeping the brand alive, including the sale of 200 US stores that could be packaged with its Canadian operations.

In February, the company's British business announced plans for an "orderly wind-down" of the company's store portfolio.

Toys 'R' Us employs 3,200 people at 100 stores in Britain.

In the statement the company also said it is pursuing a "going concern" reorganization and sale process for its Canadian and international operations in Asia and Central Europe, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

"The Company's international operations in Australia, France, Poland, Portugal and Spain are considering their options in light of this announcement," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Trade and Industry in the region today welcomed the Tamil Nadu budget for 2018-19 presented by finance minister and Deputy Chief minister O Paneerselvam.

In a statement President of Local Chapter of Indian chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vanitha Mohan appreciated the efforts of the government to lower the fiscal deficit from 4.12 per cent of GSDP to 2.82 per cent.

Welcoming various features, including allocation for social welfare, Athikadavu-Avinashi project and allocation for higher and school education, Vanitha Mohan said that the budget has shown as revenue deficit of Rs.17,490 crore.

"The long felt need of Coimbatore is the implementation of Metro Rail Project which we hope will see the light of day in the forthcoming year and we also expect allocation of funds for acquiring lands for Coimbatore Airport expansion project," she said.

In a separate statement, Tirupur Exporters Association president, Raja Shanmugham welcomed the announcement of releasing the long awaited new Integrated Textile policy.

Early releasing of the policy with incentives at par with other states will boost investment in our state itself at a time when other states have come out with attractive Textile Policies and have been periodically inviting Tirupur entrepreneurs to invest in their respective states, he said.

He also welcomed the increased allocation for Skill Development from Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore for providing training to two lakh unemployed youth, which will help the industry and the need of the hour to theindustry.

Raja Shanugham also hailed the allocation of fund for removing the deficiencies in ITI and also allocation of more fund to ITIs and welcomed the announcement of increasing the loan from Rs one Crore to Rs 5 Crore to first generation entrepreneurs.

Chairman, CII Coimbatore zone M Ramesh said that, given the period of economic recovery following the demonetization exercise and implementation of GST across the nation, the state is leading in Enrollment to Higher Education Institutions in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump continues to insist the United States has a trade deficit with Canada, following reports that he claimed at a fundraiser about talking trade with the country's prime minister without knowing all the facts.

Trump says on Twitter Thursday: "We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). PM Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn't like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs the U.S.(negotiating), but they do...they almost all do...and that's how I know!" Trump, who routinely inflates trade deficits, has previously complained about a trade deficit with Canada even though the U.S. runs an overall surplus with that country when the value of services is included in the calculation.

Trump spoke about trade during a fundraising speech in St. Louis yesterday, according to audio obtained by The Washington Post.

The paper reports that Trump said he freestyled with the facts when talking trade with Trudeau.

Trump said Trudeau told him there was no trade deficit. Trump said he replied, "'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.'" Trump claimed the figures don't include timber and energy.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Turkish-led offensive to capture the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin in northern Syria has forced 30,000 civilians from its main city in 24 hours, a monitor said today.

"More than 30,000 people were displaced since yesterday (Wednesday) as a result of Turkish bombardment against the city," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"They went to areas controlled by the Syrian regime and to the outskirts of the city" under the control of Kurdish militia, the monitoring group said.

On January 20, Turkey launched a major ground and air offensive on the Afrin enclave, with the support of Syrian Arab rebel proxies.

It claims to have now almost completely encircled the region's main city of Afrin.

An AFP correspondent inside the city saw hundreds of families cramming into the back of pick-up trucks and onto tractor-drawn carts as they prepared to leave the city via the only remaining exit.

Those who stayed behind formed long queues outside shops to buy bread and various food goods in preparation for a fully fledged siege by Turkish and allied forces.

Afrin is one of the cantons in the self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomous administration in northern Syria and Ankara is worried by the consolidation along its border of a de facto statelet ruled by a group it considers a terrorist organisation.Relentless protests by opposition and other parties again disrupted proceedings in the the Lok Sabha today but the government managed to get two bills passed amid the din.

The proceedings of House were paralysed for the ninth consecutive day as opposition parties besides the TRS and the TDP, which is a member of the ruling NDA, stormed the Well as soon as it met and continued with their noisy protests over a number of issues, including the PNB scam, special status for Andhra and increase of quota.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned the House till noon and then for the day.

However, the government pushed two bills- The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, for passage amid this din and the House passed them with a voice vote.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose party members were also in the Well, sought a discussion on the bills.

With continuous protests by different parties making the prospect of any discussion improbable, the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings for the passage of bills.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill was an important piece of legislation as he sought the opposition's cooperation.

The Bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

Moving the bill for passage, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said it is a very important legislation for employees, especially women.

The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill proposes to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of a business contract and to reduce discretion of courts in such matters.

Earlier, as soon as the Speaker took up the Question Hour, members from various parties trooped into the Well holding placards.

When Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav was responding to the first question on rural housing, the protesting members raised their pitch, drowning his voice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the members of the opposition parties, including the Congress, to return to their seats and allow the House to function.

He said Parliament is the 'maha panchayat' of the country where issues are discussed but the disruptions are not allowing important issues to be raised.

He also thanked the Speaker for trying to ensure smooth functioning. He said the government is open to discuss issues including bank scam, Cauvery water management board and special status for Andhra Pradesh, but the House has to function first and members have to vacate the Well.

As the protests continued, the House was adjourned till 12 noon minutes before it was adjourned till tomorrow.

While members from the Congress, TMC, TDP, YSR Congress and TRS were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, MPs from the Left were standing at their seats and shouting slogans.

Since March 5, when Parliament had met after a recess, the Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a daily basis. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were yesterday passed by the House without discussion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A member of Pune Zilla Parishad and his associate were arrested from suburban Mulund here while accepting Rs one crore "extortion" amount from a prominent Powai-based builder, police said today.

The accused, Gulab Parkhe, who earlier worked in the builder's construction company, was caught red-handed yesterday along with his associate Vithal Falke, a police official said.

"Parkhe had worked in the construction company for about six years, but quit the job last year. He then went to his village in Junnar tehsil in Pune district. There he got associated with a political party and was elected as a Pune ZP member," the official said.

Soon, Parkhe raised objections over his former employer's "illegal" construction activities in Powai and filed a complaint against them with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A construction company official contacted the accused in November last year to know the reason behind his complaint.

"Parkhe then demanded Rs 20 crore from them to settle the matter. However, after negotiations, the amount was finally settled for Rs six crore, to be paid in instalments," he said.

"On January 10, the company paid Rs 10 lakh to him as the first instalment. But the accused started pressuring them and threatened them he would not let them go ahead with the project," the official said.

The company approached Powai police and lodged a complaint yesterday.

"Police laid a trap and arrested the accused and his associate red-handed from a hotel in Mulund while accepting the extortion amount of Rs one crore last evening," DCP (Zone X) N D Reddy said.

The duo has been booked under IPC sections 384 (extortion) and 34 (common intention).

Today, they were produced in a local court, which sent them to two-day police custody for further investigation into the matter, Reddy added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Ugandan lawmaker has apologised after encouraging men to beat their wives to "discipline" them, in comments that sparked an outcry in the east African nation.

The MP, Onesmus Twinamasiko, wrote in a letter to parliament that he actually "detests all form of violence against women".

"Kindly accept my most sincere and unreserved apologies honourable members and the general public and more particularly the women."



The apology comes after Twinamasiko gave an interview the day after women's day, March 8, to local television station NTV and said: "as a man you need to discipline your wife, you need to touch her and tackle her and beat her somehow, to really streamline her".

His remarks sparked anger from women.

However his view is not uncommon in Uganda. A government report published in 2016 showed that one in five female Ugandans between the age of 14 and 49 had reported physical or sexual violence within a 12-month period.

Parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga vowed to investigate Twinamasiko for encouraging violence against women and the women's parliamentary association demanded that he withdraw the statement and apologise.

Meanwhile on Twitter the hashtag #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign trended in Uganda.

On women's day, President Yoweri Museveni described men who batter their wives as "cowards".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has asked district officials to complete the distribution of LPG connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to the remaining 15 lakh beneficiaries by April this year.

Twenty-eight lakh people have already benefited from the scheme in Jharkhand, an official release said.

The chief minister was taking stock of the progress made in the distribution of LPG cylinders and ovens to the beneficiaries of the scheme at a review meeting here yesterday.

The PMUY aims to safeguard the health of women and children by providing them with a clean cooking fuel so that they do not have to compromise their health in smoky kitchens or wander in unsafe areas collecting firewood.

Das also warned against corruption in the schemes meant for the poor.

"The 20-point programme Vice Chairperson at the state-level should review the district level 20-point programme every 15 days. Those who indulge in corrupt practices in poor people's scheme will face the consequences," the release quoting the chief minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain will invest 48 million in a new chemical weapons defence centre and vaccinate thousands of British soldiers against anthrax, the defence minister said today after the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

"We are investing 48 million (54 million euros, $67 million) in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence," Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said in a speech.

Williamson said the centre would be based at the existing Porton Down facility, a secretive British army base which analysed the nerve gas used to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain has accused Russia of being "culpable" for the attack.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory -- its official name -- employs 3,000 scientists across a sprawling rural site, and has an annual budget of 500 million.

It was founded in 1916 to counter German gas attacks in World War I, which initially involved chlorine and then mustard gas and phosgene.

In the 1950s scientists at Porton Down developed non-lethal CS gas, better known as tear gas, as well as the deadly nerve agent VX.

Given international conventions that prohibit the use of chemical weapons, research conducted at Porton Down is defensive in nature, according to the defence ministry.

"If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury," Williamson said on today.

He added however that threats from chemical weapons in different countries, not just Russia, were "intensifying".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UK government today announced that it will set up a new 48-million-pound chemical weapons defence centre and vaccinate thousands of British soldiers against anthrax in the wake of the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy.

UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson said the new facility will be located at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Porton Down, near Salisbury the city where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found collapsed after being poisoned with a deadly Russian-made nerve agent.

"If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury. We know the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from others," Williamson said.

"We have world-class expertise at Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Porton Down...we will be strengthening this capability by investing 48 million pounds in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence," he said, adding that new measures will include British troops being vaccinated against anthrax a dangerous bacterial disease used in some bio-terror attacks.

The attack on the former Russian spy, a British citizen, has revived fears of a new era of Cold War with Russia, with Williamson admitting that relations with Russia were not good. "Some people say it might not be a cold war, but it is chilly," he said.

His announcement came as Prime Minister Theresa May today paid a visit to the site of the poisoning in Salisbury today as a show of solidarity with the emergency and security services on the ground and to offer reassurance to the locals who have described the city centre as a "ghost town" since the chemical attack earlier this month.

In a Parliament statement yesterday, she had announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats identified as "undeclared intelligence officers" in the single biggest such expulsion in around 30 years.

Russia has said that it will retaliate with the expulsion of British diplomats from Moscow, describing the UK's allegations of Russian culpability in the Skripals' poisoning as insane and absolutely boorish.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who May declared would be barred from coming to the UK on a reciprocal visit planned for this year, claimed that the allegations were related to the UK's "inability to fulfil Brexit obligations".

In her Commons statement, Theresa May had said there was "no alternative conclusion" than to believe Russia was "culpable" for the attempted murder with a nerve agent from the Soviet-era Novichok group and announced a series of measures against Moscow, including freezing of Russian state assets and heightened monitoring of private flights, customs and freight linked with the country.

She told MPs that the Kremlin had failed to provide a credible explanation for how the nerve agent that it developed came to be used in the attack on the Skripals, who remain critically ill after being found slumped in Salisbury city centre on March 4.

She had confirmed that the UK's key allies, including the US, France and Germany were all supportive of its stand against "Russian aggression".

UK foreign secretary said that Russia had deliberately chosen the Soviet era nerve agent Novichok in the Salisbury attack as a warning to opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

"There is very little doubt in people's minds that this is a signature act by the Russia state deliberately using Novichok, a nerve agent developed by Russia to punish a Russian defector as they would see it, and in the run up to Vladimir Putin's election, the minister said.

"There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we've heard that indicates their fundamental guilt. They want to simultaneously deny it, yet at the same time to glory in it," he noted.

The foreign secretary added the UK government had been very heartened by the strength of the support around the world for Britain's stance against Russia.

After a French government spokesperson derided Britain's decision to act against the Kremlin as fantasy politics, Theresa May had another phone conversation with President Emmanuel Macron on the matter.

"France shares Britain's assessment that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with its ally," Macron's spokesperson said, in an apparent attempt to distance from the earlier comments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain, France, Germany and the US today "abhorred" a nerve agent attack on former Russian spy and his daughter, saying it is an assault on the UK's sovereignty and threatens the security of all nations.

In a rare joint statement, the four countries condemned the "first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War" and called on Russia to address all questions related to the attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

"We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal," they said.

The UK government has linked the attack to Soviet-designed nerve agents known as Novichok.

Novichok refers to a group of 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.

"Russia should, in particular, provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the strongly-worded statement said.

The joint statement was issued a day after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats identified as "undeclared intelligence officers" in the single biggest such expulsion in around 30 years.

Russia has said that it will retaliate with the expulsion of British diplomats from Moscow, describing the UK's allegations of Russian culpability in the Skripals' poisoning as "insane" and "absolutely boorish".

The four world powers in the statement said that the use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.

"It is an assault on the United Kingdom's 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 said.

"Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behavior. We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, the joint statement said.

"The United Kingdom thoroughly briefed its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. We share the United Kingdom's assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the government of the UK further underlines Russia's responsibility, statement said.

The attack on the former Russian spy, a British citizen, has revived fears of a new era of Cold War with Russia, with UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson admitting that relations with Russia were not good. "Some people say it might not be a cold war, but it is chilly," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Moscow today accused the British government of implicating Russia in the poisoning of an ex-spy to "deflect attention" from difficult negotiations with the EU over Brexit.

Britain accused Russia of involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal at a time when London's ties with European partners have been badly strained by Brexit.

"Perhaps it's clear that London has found itself in a very difficult situation over Brexit negotiations with the European Union," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

"The popularity of this government is going downwards," he said, arguing that Prime Minister Theresa May has been unable to deliver on her promises following Britain's decision to leave the bloc after a referendum in 2016.

"And organising a provocation around Sergei Skripal deflects attention," Lavrov said.

Britain faces the added difficulty with its famed "special relationship" with Washington looking increasingly weak.

Moscow has rejected Britain's demands that it provide answers as to how a Soviet-designed nerve agent ended up in Britain.

The United States said Wednesday that Russia was "responsible" for the nerve agent attack and urged the UN Security Council to hold Moscow accountable.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov today reiterated Moscow's position that Britain's accusations were unfounded and that the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter had "all the signs of a provocation".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said under the BJP dispensation, jobs are being given on merit basis and to assert his point, he cited the example of the recruitment of senior Congress leader Geeta Bhukkal's daughter for the post of an assistant professor.

Addressing the state Assembly on the concluding day of the budget session, he said that his government has adopted a transparent recruitment process.

An advertisement was issued on February 16, 2016 for the post of Assistant Professor (English) and after completing due process, the result was declared, the chief minister said.

Khattar informed the House that Sukriti Bhukkal, daughter of former education minister and sitting Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal, was also among the selected candidates and she joined as Assistant Professor (English) in Government College for Girls, Panchkula on January 4.

As soon as the chief minister took the name of Bhukkal's daughter, it triggered an angry reaction from the Congress legislator, who asked, "Has the government done a favour?"



"My daughter is a meritorious girl, who graduated from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi. Why only my daughter's name is being taken. When you are saying jobs are being given on merit in entire state, why is my daughter's name being singled out?" Geeta Bhukkal retorted as she engaged in a war of words with Finance Minister Abhimanyu.

Speaker Kanwar Pal tried to pacify her, saying, "What is wrong in what the CM has said?"



Taking a dig at previous Congress government, Abhimanyu said, "Everyone knows how merit was ignored during their rule and favouritism was adopted in giving jobs. I can understand your pain (pointing towards Bhukkal)".

"During their ten years of rule, merit was ignored. They should apologise in the House," the finance minister said.

Khattar tried to calm things down, saying the Sukriti Bhukkal was meritorious and he too was saying so.

Earlier, the chief minister announced in the House that 10 per cent horizontal reservation in recruitment to Group D posts would be provided for sportspersons from the state with outstanding performance.

He said the state government has made a provision under which preference for the place of posting would be sought from candidates prior to declaration of final result so that those selected can join within one to two days.

Khattar said the Staff Selection Commission had yesterday declared the result of the exam to recruit 6,134 clerks and the successful candidates are being informed about their place of posting through e-mail and SMS.

The commission has also declared the result for 380 posts of Multi Purpose Health Workers on March 8, he said.

"There is an atmosphere of joy in the state after the declaration of results as the selection of candidates has been made purely on the basis of merit without any recommendations," Khattar said.

While taking a dig at the previous government in the state, he said that no recruitment in Group D posts was made during the Congress' 10-year rule.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The White House today threw it weight behind the UK in the case of a nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter, saying it shares the British assessment that Russia is responsible for the attack.

It also said that the UK's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the alleged attack was a "just response".

"The US stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the UK.The US shares the UK's assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the UK's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday expelled 23 Russian diplomats - in the "single biggest expulsion" in more than 30 years - and suspended high-level bilateral contacts, saying Moscow was "culpable" of the nerve agent attack.

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.

Russia denies its involvement in the attempted murder.

Sanders said the attack fits into a pattern of behaviour in which Russia "disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes".

"The US is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again," she said.

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer said Russia's alleged attacks against dissidents on British soil were "unconscionable" and violate international law.

"I stand in strong solidarity with Prime Minister May and the British government as they take appropriate retaliatory action today," he said.

"In recent years, Vladimir Putin's Russia has supported violent separatism in Ukraine and Georgia, propped up the Assad regime in Syria, threatened Europe's energy supplies, and tried to hack elections in our country and others. Russian aggression must be met with strength and resolve," Hoyer said.

Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the US should lead a conversation with their NATO allies about a collective response to the act and future acts of aggression.

"Our ally took a strong step today but this likely won't be the last time that Russia tries to silence those who publicly condemn Putin's regime from Western soil," said Sasse.

"Whether it's the consideration of similar Russian expulsions from NATO nations.. or freezing more Russian assets, we ought to make it inescapably clear to Russia that its shadow war will meet a coordinated response, he said.

At the United Nations headquarters in New York, US Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Russia for the alleged use of nerve gas.

"Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: the US stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The US believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the UK using a military-grade nerve agent," Haley said during a special meeting of the UN Security Council convened at the request of Great Britain.

Haley said the US' constant criticism of Russia is not without reason.

"If the Russian government stopped using chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies; and if the Russian government stopped helping its Syrian ally to use chemical weapons to kill Syrian children; and if Russia cooperated with the OPCW by turning over all information related to this nerve agent, we would stop talking about them," said Haley.

"We take no pleasure in having to constantly criticise Russia, but we need Russia to stop giving us so many reasons to do so," she said.

Haley urged the UNSC to hold Russia accountable for the alleged use of chemical weapon.

"The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable," Haley said.

Jonathan Allen, Charg dAffaires of the permanent Mission of Britain to the UN, said the UK concluded that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act because it had previously produced this agent and due to its record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations.

"We saw only two plausible explanations: either it was a direct attack by Russia on my country; or Russia had lost control of a military-grade nerve agent which they had developed," said Allen.

"We requested the Russian government to provide an explanation by the end of Tuesday, March 13, on how this Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury. They provided no credible explanation which could suggest they lost control of their nerve agent," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US today slapped a series of sanctions on top Russian spy agencies and cyber actors for their alleged interference in the 2016 elections and conducting separate cyberattacks.

The Department of Treasury designated five entities and 19 individuals.

The Trump administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in the US election, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, said Treasury Secretary Steven T Mnuchin.

"These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia," Mnuchin said.

"Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions, informed by our intelligence community, to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilising activities by severing their access to the US financial system," he said.

CAATSA stands fir Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

These action, the Department of Treasury said, counters Russia's continuing destabilising activities, ranging from interference in the 2016 US election to conducting destructive cyber-attacks, including the NotPetya attack, a cyber-attack attributed to the Russian military on February 15, 2018 in statements released by the White House and the British Government.

"This cyber-attack was the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history. The attack resulted in billions of dollars of damage across Europe, Asia, and the US, and significantly disrupted global shipping, trade, and the production of medicines," it said.

Additionally, several hospitals in the US were unable to create electronic records for more than a week.

The Treasury alleged that since March 2016, Russian government cyber actors have also targeted US government entities and multiple US critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors.

Indicators of compromise, and technical details on the tactics, techniques, and procedures, are provided in the recent technical alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In addition to countering Russia's malign cyber activity, Treasury continues to pressure Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine, occupy Crimea, meddle in elections, as well as for its endemic corruption and human rights abuses.

"The recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in an attempt to murder two UK citizens further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government," the Treasury said.

To date, the Trump Administration has sanctioned more than 100 individuals and entities under its Ukraine and Russia-related sanctions authorities, including 21 individuals, nine entities, and 12 subsidiaries that are owned 50 percent or more by previously sanctioned Russian companies on January 26, 2018.

These sanctions are in addition to other ongoing efforts by Treasury to address destabilising activity emanating from within Russia, including its sanctioning of Russians targeted for activities related to the North Korea sanctions program, the Global Magnitsky program, and the Sergei Magnitsky Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour with respect to fight against terrorism after President Donald Trump blasted Islamabad for providing safe havens to militants and suspended more than USD 1 billion security aid to the country, a top American official has said.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis also said that there are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping the US' ongoing efforts against terrorism.

"There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced)," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to Afghanistan, according to the transcripts released by the US Department of Defense.

In his new South Asia Policy in August last, President Trump had called for tougher measure against Pakistan if it fails to cooperate with the US in its fight against terrorism.

In his first tweet of the new year, Trump had accused Pakistan of basing its relationship with the US on "nothing but lies and deceit".

Days after his tweet, the US suspended over USD 1.15 billion in security aid and the delivery of military equipment to Pakistan for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups.

"There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction," Mattis said.

In January, the Pakistan government issued a fatwa signed by more than 1,800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Mattis said that despite the apparent changes in Pakistan, he'd still like to talk to people dealing with the border issues and intelligence and their impression of the situation.

"One of the reasons I want to go in is actually talk to the people who are dealing with the border issues right now, dealing with intelligence and what they're seeing. And then go back and talk with our intelligence agencies in Washington, DC, and put together an assessment of this," Mattis said.

"There is a number of things that have been going on, but I want to talk to people here and see the reality and how they see it and go back and talk to intelligence agencies and get a full assessment of where we're at," he said.

Responding to a question on Taliban, Mattis said the US has to set the conditions where the Taliban realise they cannot win with bombs.

"At that point, setting the conditions for the diplomats to sit down, and the leadership to sit down and try to get this out of the violence and into the diplomatic stance," he said.

Mattis, however, said that while the US tries to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, it will still ramp up the military pressure on it.

"..you need to have that door open, even as you increase the military pressure and say this is not going to work. You know, to just be setting off bombs," he said.

The defense secretary said that the US needs to lead and provide the substance for the reconciliation effort.

"...it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That would be a bridge too far right now to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said.

In Kabul, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussed the South Asia strategy and the US' commitment to Afghanistan.

Pentagon's chief spokesperson Dana White said that Mattis praised Ghani's recent offer to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions.

"He noted Ghani's diplomatic approach achieved a level of international support not possible with military action alone. Secretary Mattis offered his full support to the Afghan-led reconciliation process, aimed at achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan," White said.

At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, President Ghani called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks to "save the country" while offering security and incentives like passports to insurgents who take part in the negotiations.

During the meeting, Mattis emphasised that the peace offer does not eliminate the need for offensive operations against the Taliban, and noted the importance of continued Afghan National Defense and Security Forces progress on the battlefield.

"The two leaders also reinforced that the recent Taliban peace offer without preconditions was genuine, and they are ready to embrace all who are willing to reconcile," White said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump today said it "certainly looks like" Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in the UK last week, underlining that the US takes the matter "very seriously".

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. Russia denies its involvement in the attempted murder.

Trump also said he was in "deep discussions" with British Prime Minister Theresa May over how to respond to the attack on Sergei Skripal, an ex-spy, and his daughter in Salisbury last week.

"It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. Something that should never, ever happen. And we're taking it very seriously, as, I think, are many others," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump said it looks like that the Russians were responsible for the nerve agent attack.

Later a senior administration official told reporters that Russia's behaviour on the world stage is continuing to trouble the US.

"We are continuing to press back in meaningful ways," the official said.

According to the FBI, DHS and intelligence community Russian government cyber actors are behind the targeting of the organizations in the energy sector. Cyberthreat actors have deliberately chosen the organizations, and they targeted him, rather than pursuing them as targets of opportunity, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)About 20 Veerashaiva pontiffs today met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and expressed their displeasure over a government appointed expert panel's report reportedly favouring giving separate religion status and minority tag to only Lingayats while excluding Veerashaivas.

"We are unhappy with the report as it is in favour of the Lingayat faction, which was well represented in the expert committee," they told reporters after meeting Siddaramaiah at his official residence 'Krishna' here.

The seers urged the government not to make any recommendation to the central government until the completion of assembly elections in the state.

"The issue is serious and needs long deliberations.So, we urge the government not to make any recommendation to the Centre till the completion of the polls," Sri Dingaleshwara Swami of Balehosur Math said.

He said of 3,000 pontiffs, only a handful were supporting those "who are conspiring to break the community."



The government, if needed, can set up another expert committee with representation from both factions - Lingayatas and Veerashaivas, he said.

The seers warned that they would launch a massive agitation if the government went ahead with its plan to place the report before the Centre, Dingaleshwara Swami said.

"The ball is in the state government's court. We have urged the chief minister not to take any decision that will break the community and not to accept the report."



A week after the expert committee submitted its report, ministers Eshwar Khandre and S S Mallikarjuna, son of veteran congress leader and All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha president Shamanur Shivashankarappa, have asked Siddaramaiah to reject it.

Sensing opposition from Veerashaiva ministers, Siddaramaiah had yesterday reportedly postponed a cabinet meeting, apparently to buy time to solve the dilemma.

The BJP has been cautious enough not to ruffle the feathers of both Veerashaivas and Lingayats, who form the saffron party's votebank.

Lingayat strongman and state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa has been saying his party would not tolerate the chief minister's efforts to "divide" the community.

In a memorandum to the chief minister, the delegation of seers stated that Veerashaiva-Lingayat was an ancient religion established by Lord Shiva, propagated through panchaacharyas (pontiffs), Basavanna and sharanas (followers).

"The recent development has not only pained us, but also diverted our attention towards safeguarding our religion. We urge the state to take a favourable decision by rejecting the report," the memorandum said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Veteran actress and talk show host Simi Garewal has been felicitated with a "UK Golden Flame Award" for her contribution to Indian cinema.

The 70-year-old actress received the award yesterday at the opening ceremony of the annual Tongues of Fire UK Asian Film Festival here.

This is like a homecoming because I went to Mumbai from London to try my luck in films for one year. That one year became a lifetime, said Garewal, best known for her roles in films like 'Mera Naam Joker' and 'Karz' and as the host of Bollywood talk show 'Rendezvous with Simi Garewal'.

She is also set to pay tribute to her late co-star Shashi Kapoor at a special festival screening of their 1973 classic film 'Siddhartha' over the weekend.

Garewal was joined at the opening of the film festival by Pakistani star Mahira Khan, whose latest film 'Verna' will be screened at the festival.

Khan, who received the Flame Award for film and activism, lamented the politicisation of art by a "handful of people" that has led to a ban on Pakistani actors in India.

We need to rise beyond politics and come together and enjoy films together, she said.

Marking 100 years of women winning the right to vote in the UK, the theme of the 2018 film festival has been classified as "F-Rated" a special rating assigned to films that have been recognised for their progressive representation of women, or those with women behind the camera.

In our 20th anniversary, Tongues on Fire UK Asian Film Festival are proudly going back to our roots of a female driven festival with a F-rated perspective to our films and events," saidDr Pushpinder Chowdhry, the founding-director of the festival.

"While curating films this year, I was aware that there is a lack of female directors in the industry. Through this festival, we endeavour to proactively reach out to, support, and inspire new filmmakers, giving them a chance to showcase their work, she said.

This year the London-centric festival, running from March 15-25, will also travel around other UK cities of Leicester, Manchester and Edinburgh.

We are pleased to support the 20th anniversary of the festival, enablingit toexpandto reach more people across the UK and to engageaudiences with a broad range of South Asian cinema, said Ben Luxford, Head of UK Audiences at the British Film Institute (BFI).

The line-up of the festival marks a mix of films from South Asia, including British-Pakistani co-production Cake which became the first Pakistani film to receive a red-carpet world premiere in Londons Leicester Square earlier this week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two decision making bodies of the Visva Bharati University will soon meet to nominate two members to a search committee for selecting a new vice-chancellor for the varsity, Officiating VC Sabujkali Sen said here today.

The Central university has been functioning without a full-time VC for the last two years after the then VC Sushanta Dattagupta was dismissed in February 2016.

The meetings of the Executive Council (EC) and the court, the two decision making bodies of the central university, will be held after getting a nod from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is its chancellor, Sen told PTI.

The names would then be forwarded to President Ram Nath Kovind for the final decision, she said.

"We will be visiting Delhi on March 20 to discuss some financial issues. We will take up with the PMO the issue of convening the EC and court meetings on a single day as soon as possible.

"Once we get the nod to convene the meetings, we will act accordingly and two names will be forwarded to the search committee formed by the President," she said.

The President can choose from the two names or pick up a third one, she said on the sidelines of a programme of the Chinese Consulate here.

The HRD ministry had on February 23 asked the Visva Bharati University to nominate two names for the search committee after the President disbanded the earlier search committee.

Sen said the university will advertise in newspapers within two-three days inviting applications for the VC's post.

The applications will be screened by the university and if found appropriate, two selected names would be sent to the search committee. No university official, associated with the process of nominating the two names, can apply for the post, she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump might take additional action against Chinese products, the White House has indicated.

The US has some USD 500 billion trade deficit with China. Ever since coming to power, Trump has sought to reduce this trade deficit which he says is mainly due to the unfair trade practices of China.

"His goal is free, fair, and reciprocal trade agreements in which other countries grant American products and American exports just as much access as we grant to their products and their imports into the US. He's going to be pushing for that, and there could be additional actions," White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters today in a gaggle abroad Air Force One.

Shah was responding to a question on media reports that the Trump administration is working to increase import tariff on a number of Chinese products. Early this month he had imposed a 25 per cent tariff on import of steel and another 10 per cent on aluminium.

"The president campaigned on, believes in strongly, that American workers and American businesses have been ripped off by foreign trade competitors and partners in the past, and he wants to level the playing field," Shah said.

Meanwhile, Florida Senator Marco Rubio urged the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) to include language in the upcoming Higher Education Reauthorization Act to address Chinese government-run programmes known as 'Confucius Institutes'.

Specifically, he urged the committee to make it harder for China to evade reporting requirements for any money it gives to US colleges and universities and to "require colleges and universities to choose between federal funding and Confucius Institute-related funding from the Chinese government".

"Confucius Institutes are Chinese government-run programs that use the teaching of Chinese language and culture as a tool to expand the political influence of the PRC," he said.

There are presently more than 100 Confucius Institutes, in addition to Confucius Classrooms at the K-12 level in the US.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A woman health worker was allegedly sexually assaulted by three youths when she had gone to a village here to administer polio drops, police said.

The incident took place at Mansorpur village when the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) worker was on duty during a local pulse polio drive, they said.

A case has been registered against Sanjit, Pervez and one other, who is yet to be identified, Station House Officer KPS Chahal said, adding that they are at large.

They had attempted to take the woman to a house, but she was saved by locales who heard her cry for help, the officer said.

Several health workers staged a protest at the local police station and demanded immediate arrest of the perpetrators.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The world would already be in a trade war if not for the World Trade Organization's leadership, the head of the body said today, defending the organisation amid rising concerns that free trade is under threat.

Roberto Azevedo told an audience at the World Economic Forum on Latin America that US President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has made the WTO more relevant than ever.

There are concerns the American tariffs will lead to it-for-tat reactions from other countries and could set off a trade war. European nations are already threatening to levy tariffs on US goods.

"If it weren't for the WTO, we would already been in a trade war," Azevedo told reporters after a panel on globalization.

Trump has ordered tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminum, though he has temporarily exempted Canada and Mexico. He has said other countries could be spared if they can convince the US that their exports don't threaten American industry.

Brazilian President Michel Temer warned yesterday that his country will bring the matter to the WTO if his Latin American nation doesn't achieve a "friendly" solution through negotiations with the US.

Brazil could be particularly affected by the new tariffs. After Canada, Brazil is the second-largest source of American steel imports, the vast majority of which are semi-finished products that Brazilian officials argue are vital to the US steel industry.

Temer called the tariffs a "major concern," but he added that Brazil would tread carefully. He said that it would go to the WTO with other affected countries if it necessary.

"Naturally, this collective of countries will give more force to the request," Temer said.

Azevedo has said there is a risk of a trade war, but he expressed confidence today that the WTO would help resolve the dispute. He said the relevant parties were already speaking.

"I think it's an opportunity for the system to prove once again how important, how necessary it is and that we're up for the task," Azevedo said.

He also took aim at the idea that protectionism -- keeping goods out of an economy or using tariffs to make them more expensive than domestic goods -- helps save jobs. New technology is responsible for the elimination of about 80 per cent of jobs lost in advanced economies, not imports, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China's removal of presidential term limits could see leader Xi Jinping stay in power for decades, the commander of US forces in the Pacific said today, viewing it as a harbinger of the authoritarian nation's direction and the strategic threat it poses to America.

Adm Harry Harris voiced concern at a congressional hearing over the constitutional change endorsed by China's rubber-stamp parliament, saying it indicated the kind of country it's becoming. He adopted a tougher stance than the White House, which has declined to weigh in on the issue.

Harris, who is President Donald Trump's nominee to become ambassador to Australia, said it was possible that Xi could still be president when China marks the centennial of communist party rule in 2049.

"China has taken advantage of our openness," Harris told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Our hope in the past has been that if we bring china into organisations like the World Trade Organization and include China in our military exercises and the like, and that somehow China will become like us."



"The reality is that's simply not true. China has taken advantage of our openness ... to continue the path that they've always been on and we're seeing that play out now in 2018. Certainly over the next 20 years or so that will be a concern," Harris said.

His comments of Xi's political future were notably tougher than the White House, which said this week that the removal of term presidential limits is China's business. Trump has even quipped, "Maybe we'll give that a shot someday."



Harris said China seeks regional hegemony and wants to push America out. He said China's development of hypersonic glide weapons and stealth fighter jets pose a significant threat to the US.

He also expressed concern about China's militarisation of islands it has built in the disputed South China Sea, and its acquisition of icebreaker ships although it has no Arctic border.

The Pacific commander did credit China, which is North Korea's main trading partner, for its implementation of UN sanctions against the pariah nation. He said the pressure campaign was a "big part" in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seeking a summit with Trump.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The YSR Congress today gave a notice for moving a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government following the Centre's refusal to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh and found unlikely support from its arch-rival Telugu Desam Party.

The YSR Congress's MP Y V Subba Reddy gave the notice to the Lok Sabha secretariat for including the motion in tomorrow's list of business, his office said.

The motion can be accepted only if it has the support of at least 50 members in the House. YSR Congress has nine MPs in the Lok Sabha.

If accepted, it will be the first no-confidence motion moved against the Modi-government.

YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to leaders of various parties seeking their support for the motion.

In the letter, he has asserted that if the Centre remains reluctant to grant the special category status to the state then all MPs of his party will resign on April 6.

While Subba Reddy's office said the notice was given for including the motion in tomorrow's list of business, YSR Congress chief said his party will move the motion on March 21.

Tomorrow Parliament's agenda for the next week will be decided.

In a sign of cross-party support the issue of special category status has in the state, TDP MP Thota Narasimham told PTI that his party will also support the motion. The YSR Congress is the main challenger to the TDP in the state.

With the BJP alone having 274 members in the 536-member Lok Sabha and enjoying support of allies, the no-confidence motion, if accepted, is certain to be defeated but has the potential to put the saffron party in a tight corner in a state like Andhra.

The TDP has withdrawn its ministers from the government after the Centre made it clear that it cannot grant the status to the state and the regional party, which is in power in the state, is now mulling to quit the NDA.

Even if TDP's 16 members support the no-confidence motion, the government will still has a big numerical advantage in the House.

The motion can hand over a political plank to Jagan Reddy in the state in which Assembly polls are due to be held along with the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Reddy, in his letter, recalled that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given an assurance in the Rajya Sabha while participating in a debate on the bill bifurcating the state that the special category status will be granted to it.

Venkaiah Naidu, then a senior BJP leader who is now the Vice President, had demanded in the House that the status should be given to the state for a minimum of 10 years, Reddy said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has cited 14th Finance Commission report to claim that the provision of special category status is no longer workable for Andhra Pradesh, but asserted that the Centre is willing to grant the state all benefits due under this status.

The BJP has accused regional parties in Andhra Pradesh of playing " of victimhood" and claimed that the central government had already given a lot of benefits to the state and was willing to do more.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Heather SomervilleSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's move to block a Singapore-based company's takeover of U.S. rival Qualcomm Inc threatens to stunt crucial Chinese investment in the country's startup capital, according to Silicon Valley venture capitalists and tech executives.The administration's heightened regulatory scrutiny on foreign investments, designed to safeguard U.S. companies, could in fact diminish their ability to compete in the global technology industry."Asian entities have become sources of capital and relationships for U.S. companies," said Jeff ...GAZA (Reuters) - Economic decline in the Gaza Strip has become too steep to be tackled by international aid and also requires that the Israeli- and Egyptian-blockaded Palestinian enclave be allowed freer trade, the World Bank said on Thursday."The (Gaza) economy cannot survive without being connected to the outside world," it said in a 46-page report issued as world powers convened in Rome to discuss the future of a U.N. relief agency for Palestinians threatened by U.S. funding cuts. "Any effort at economic recovery and development must address the impacts of the current closure ...By David ShepardsonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Thursday it will invest more than $100 million in two facilities as it prepares to build production versions of its Cruise self-driving car next year at its Orion Township assembly plant in Michigan.The largest U.S. automaker also said roof modules for GM's self-driving vehicles will be assembled at its Brownstown Battery Assembly plant. In January, GM filed a petition seeking U.S. government approval for a fully autonomous car - one without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator pedal - to enter the automaker's first ...By Manoj KumarNEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's trade deficit narrowed to $12 billion in February, its lowest in five months, amid concern that a global trade war could hit its exports because of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to hike import taxes on steel and aluminum. India's merchandise exports are expected to touch $300 billion in the current fiscal year ending this month compared with $275.8 billion, mainly driven by a rise in commodity prices and strong demand in the US and Europe.February merchandise exports were $25.8 billion while imports were $37.8 billion, Rita Teaotia, a top ...By Bernadette Christina MuntheJAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has impounded more than 200 tonnes of garlic imported from China, warning that a microscopic worm infestation found in the shipment could put at risk plans by the Southeast Asian country to boost its own garlic crop. Since coming to power in 2014, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pursued self-sufficiency policies to protect farmers, but efforts to rely on domestic supplies of everything from beef to rice have at times caused shortages and price spikes.Chinese food imports have previously proved sensitive in Indonesia. In ...By Tom Hals(Reuters) - IHeartMedia Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday as the largest U.S. radio station owner reached an agreement with creditors to more than halve its $20 billion in debt.The company said the agreement it reached with holders of more than $10 billion of its outstanding debt would restructure its balance sheet by transferring 94 percent of the stock in the reorganized company to its lenders. IHeartMedia has struggled with debt that was taken on to finance a $17.9 billion leveraged buyout, or LBO, in 2008 of what was then Clear Channel Communications Inc. That ...By Stephanie KellyNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher in choppy trade on Thursday, supported by a pickup in equity markets but pressured by expectations that crude supply will exceed demand later this year. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 27 cents to $61.23 a barrel, a 0.4 percent gain, by 12:54 p.m. EST (1654 GMT). Brent crude futures rose 20 cents to $65.09 a barrel, a 0.3 percent gain.Oil rose in tandem with a pickup in U.S. stock markets. Crude futures have moved in sync with equities uninterruptedly for the past 99 trading days, the longest such stretch in two ...MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's central bank is considering merging parts of bailed out lenders Otkritie and B&N Bank to create a business that would hold their unwanted assets, making it easier to turn around, and eventually sell, the remaining operations. The central bank is looking at merging Otkritie's Trast business with B&N's Rost to hold the "non-core" assets of the two banks, Otkritie said in a written response to a Reuters request. The plan is "being currently discussed", it said, without giving other details. The central bank declined to comment. The central bank said last month it was ...By Tanvi Mehta(Reuters) - Indian shares edged lower in a volatile session on Thursday with financial stocks continuing their downtrend while fertilizer stocks gained after the continuation of a government subsidy for urea.Banking shares were subdued with revelations of yet another fraud at Punjab National Bank compounding the already-gloomy sentiment on public-sector lenders.Stock markets across Asia slipped broadly in tandem with Wall Street, which fell for a third session overnight after U.S. President Donald Trump sought to impose fresh tariffs on China, intensifying fears of a trade war. ...Singapore Airlines has an open mind about making an initial bid for a stake in state-run Air India, the head of the Singaporean carrier's India business told Reuters on Thursday.

India said last week it would invite initial bids this month for a stake in the flag carrier. The cabinet approved the sale last year after successive governments poured billions of dollars into the indebted airline.

"India is a strategic market for Singapore Airlines. We have an open mind," David Lim, general manager for India, said in an interview when asked whether Singapore Airlines would bid.

He did not elaborate.

Several have expressed an interest in buying some of Air India's businesses, including low-cost Indian carrier IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe Aviation, Tata Group and Turkey's Celebi Aviation Holdings.

India cleared a proposal in January to allow foreign investors to own up to 49 percent of Air India, opening the way for global airlines to bid.

Lim said Singapore Airlines had already shown its commitment to the Indian market by setting up Vistara, a full-service domestic carrier it jointly owns with India's Tata Group.

He did not say whether Singapore Airlines would look at bidding for a stake in alone or with Tata.

Singapore Airlines operates 98 flights a week to India and plans to increase that to 104 by summer. Its low-cost airline, Scoot operates 46 flights to India, while Vistara is expected to launch its first international flights this year.

has six subsidiaries - three of which are loss-making - with assets worth about $4.6 billion. It has an estimated $1.24 billion worth of real estate, including hotels.

The carrier's debt has ballooned to $8.5 billion and India plans to transfer part of this into a separate unit before selling a stake in the carrier.

The government has injected $3.6 billion since 2012 to bail out which was founded in the 1930s and is known to generations of Indians for its Maharajah mascot.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States launched a challenge to Indian export subsidies at the World Trade Organization on Wednesday, saying they hurt U.S. companies by letting Indian exporters sell goods more cheaply, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.India provides exemptions from certain duties, taxes and fees that benefit numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and information technology products, Lighthizer's office said."These export subsidy programs harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field ...By Kate Holton and Paul SandleLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's third biggest company Unilever picked Rotterdam over London for its main headquarters on Thursday in a blow to Prime Minister Theresa May's government a year before Brexit.The Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove soap, Lipton teas and Ben & Jerry's ice cream launched a review of its dual-headed structure in 2017 after fighting off a $143 billion takeover from Kraft Heinz, triggering a battle between Britain and the Netherlands.Under the new plan, Unilever will continue to be listed in London, Amsterdam and New York, and will divide into three ...(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co Chief Executive Tim Sloan's made $17.6 million in 2017, up 35 percent from the previous year, despite opting out of the bank's annual incentive plan.The third-largest U.S. bank is looking to rebuild its reputation following a 2016 scandal that involved thousands of Wells Fargo employees opening perhaps millions of unauthorized customer accounts. Sloan, who said in January that the bank was not certain it had fully uncovered and fixed all problems related to the scandal, was among the top executives who did not receive cash bonuses for 2016. ...(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan's total compensation for 2017 was $17.6 million, about 35 percent higher than the previous year, the third largest U.S. bank said in a regulatory filing http://bit.ly/2pcD4QI on Wednesday.Sloan was named to Wells Fargo's top job in October 2016 after former CEO John Stumpf was forced to resign in the aftermath of a high-profile sales scandal that has hurt the bank's reputation and hampered its cost-cutting efforts.Sloan said in January that Wells Fargo was not certain it had fully uncovered and fixed all problems related to the ...United Airlines, under siege over the death of a puppy on one of its flights, says the flight attendant who ordered a passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin didnt know there was a dog inside.

The airlines account was contradicted by the family that owned the French bulldog, and also by other passengers on Monday nights flight.

Eleven-year-old Sophia Ceballos told NBC News that her mother told the flight attendant Its a dog, its a dog, and (the flight attendant) said we have to put it up there, in the bin.

Other passengers backed up the familys account on Twitter and Facebook.

United acknowledged Wednesday that the customer said there was a dog in the carrier. However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin, the airline said in a statement. United declined to identify the employee.

Late Wednesday, the district attorneys office in Harris County, Texas, said a criminal investigation has been launched into the dogs death aboard the Houston-to-New York flight.

Last year, 18 animals, mostly dogs, died while being transported on United  three-fourths of all animal deaths on U.S. carriers, according to the Department of Transportation. Those figures represent animals that die in cargo holds.

It is rare that an animal dies on a plane. Even on United there was only one death for roughly every 4,500 animals transported last year.

United, which promotes its pet-shipping program called PetSafe, carries more animals than any other airline, but its animal-death rate is also the highest in the industry. Alaska Airlines, which carries only 17 percent fewer animals, had just two deaths last year.

The overwhelming majority (of deaths), according to medical experts, were due to a pre-existing medical condition or the animal wasnt properly acclimated to its crate, said United spokesman Charles Hobart.

Hobart said the airline investigates every injury or death to an animal in its care. Pets are loaded last and taken off the plane first after landing, he said.

Uniteds PetSafe has its skeptics.

I think United tries to make a business out of pet transport with this program, but (airline) ramp workers are not veterinarians, said Brian Kelly, CEO of The Points Guy, a travel website that first highlighted this weeks incident.

Reports filed with the government indicate that in most cases of animal death or injury last year, United took no corrective action. Some animals were deemed to have died of natural causes, others from cardiac problems or gastric dilation, a condition associated with eating too much. One dog died of heat stroke, and another animal escaped while being handed back to its owner and was hit by a vehicle.

United has suffered a string of incidents that generated bad publicity in the last year, including the violent removal of a passenger from a United Express plane to make room for a crew member, and the death of a giant rabbit  its Iowa owners sued the airline, which they said cremated the animal to destroy evidence about the cause of death.

The issue of pets on planes has gotten attention recently after United and Delta Air Lines announced tightened restrictions on emotional-support animals, including requiring a health form filled out by a veterinarian.

If your pet must travel, experts have several recommendations:

 The cabin is safer than the cargo hold. Pets too large to fit in an under-seat carrier must go cargo unless its a service or emotional-support animal.

 Ask the airline or look up its rules about things such as carrier size, and dont force your pet into a carrier that is too small.

 Take nonstop flights to avoid layovers, which increase the chances your pet could be mishandled or left longer in the cargo hold.

 Avoid extremely hot or cold weather and busy periods such as holidays.

 Make sure your pets tags and your contact information on its carrier or crate are up to date.

 Tape a bag with a days worth of food to the top of the crate  just in case.

 If your pet flies in cargo, use your own crate instead of renting one from the airline; it will help get them acclimated and minimize anxiety.



David Koenig can be reached at <a target=blank href=http://twitter.com/airlinewriter>http://twitter.com/airlinewriter</a>Courtesy of the Cache County Jail

LOGAN  A 18-year-old North Logan man has pleaded guilty to burglarizing several homes last summer. Christian A. Jensen waived his right to a preliminary hearing and accepted a plea deal from prosecutors.

Court records show, Jensen appeared in 1st District Court Wednesday afternoon. He pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and one count of theft, all second-degree felonies, also two counts of unlawful use of a bank card, both third-degree felonies. As part of the agreement, state attorneys dropped the remaining 17 charges against him.

Last August, Jensen was caught on security cameras entering the garages of several residences. Once inside, he reportedly stole items from the garages and inside several vehicles.

Jensen later turned himself into police, after detectives released security camera footage to the news media, asking for the publics help identifying the burglar. He was booked into the Cache County Jail and later released after posting $7,500 bail.

Police also arrested a second suspect, Guy Hales. The 18-year-old Dillon, Montana, man later pleaded guilty for his involvement in the burglaries. He was sentenced to serve 210-days behind bars, complete several therapy programs, and apologize to the victims.

During Wednesdays court appearance, Jensen was scheduled to be sentenced April 24. He could face up to 15-years in prison.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.comBIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)  A job-related dispute led to a health care worker opening fire inside a hospital in a shooting that left two people dead and another critically injured, authorities said Thursday.

A man pulled out a gun and shot two people Wednesday night inside UAB Highlands, which is affiliated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The man then killed himself with a shot to the head, authorities said.

UAB spokesman Tyler Greer said the gunman, who police identified as 31-year-old Trevis Coleman of Birmingham, worked for UAB, as did Nancy Swift, a 63-year-old nursing manager who was killed.

A man who worked for Steris, a contractor who manages the hospitals sterile supplies, was wounded and listed in critical condition. Authorities didnt release his name, and Steris referred questions to police.

Lt. Peter Williston, a spokesman for the Birmingham Police Department, said investigators were still sorting out what had occurred.

We do know it was an employee relations issues that led to what happened, he said.

UAB Highlands is a campus of UAB Hospital, part of the medical school at the university.

Officials said metal detectors were in use, but they didnt explain how the shooter entered the building with a gun.

The shootings forced the hospital to cancel all of Thursdays scheduled surgeries.

We ask that you please join us in prayer for these families, those who work where the incident occurred, and those who were immediately on the scene, including the first responders who acted so heroically under extremely difficult circumstances, said Anthony Patterson, senior vice president of inpatient services for UAB Hospital.

Patterson said counseling services would be provided for employees.Many of them had already endured their share of heartache. Some had been trying for years to get pregnant, suffering through multiple miscarriages. Others had undergone cancer treatments that destroyed their fertility.

Now, hundreds of these women and couples have learned that the eggs and embryos they froze for eventual use in starting or expanding a family may have been destroyed by storage tank failures March 4 at two fertility clinics in suburban Cleveland and San Francisco.

Authorities are <a target=blank href=https://apnews.com/81fc1876e6c54c8294a645af155d0d5a/Investigations-begin-into-Ohio-fertility-clinic-malfunction>investigating</a> what went wrong to cause the biggest such loss in the U.S. since in vitro fertilization began nearly four decades ago. But some of these patients at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and the Pacific Fertility Clinic fear their last, best chance of having children may be gone.



Marlo Emch didnt grow up with a brother or sister near her age. Thats why she desperately wanted another child after giving birth last April to a son conceived through in vitro fertilization.

She imagined her son having a partner to help navigate life and someone who would be there after she and her husband were gone. It makes me sad to think he may never have a sibling close to his age, she said.

Emch and her husband, Jeremy, married in their late 30s and struggled to have a child, losing one pregnancy after three months, before turning to a fertility clinic.

People who are able to conceive naturally have no idea of the level of despair a woman has when they cant become pregnant, she said.

Everything worked perfectly with the birth of their son, and they planned trying for just one more this spring until being told last week that their seven remaining embryos may no longer be viable.

The couple, both now 42, wont know until the embryos are thawed and tested.

Chances are very, very low. The mother in me has to find out for sure. I almost feel like Im going to have to grieve all over again, said Emch, who lives in Burton, Ohio.

Since receiving the devastating news, she started a Facebook support group open to the 700 affected patients from the suburban Cleveland clinic.

One woman told of how her husband has died since the couple froze their embryos. That was her last connection to him, Emch said.



Before undergoing chemotherapy at age 23 for a rare cancer that affects bones and soft tissue, Elliott Ash decided to have his sperm frozen.

He hadnt even met his future wife but knew he wanted children someday.

Married five years ago, he and his wife decided in 2014 to start the process of having a child through in vitro fertilization while in their early 30s. Their son was born the next year, and two frozen embryos remained in storage at University Hospitals.

In an instant, everything was taken away, said Amber Ash.

Doctors have told the couple the embryos did not survive the thaw.

Her first thought was about her son and his lost opportunity to have a genetic sibling.

While her husbands cancer is in remission, chemotherapy left him sterile. Creating new embryos with his sperm is no longer an option.

The Bay Village, Ohio, couple was among the first to sue the hospital.

So many of us were cheated, cheated of the opportunity to start families or expand our families, said Amber Ash. Our motive really is we want to prevent this from happening again. To prevent another family from going through this complete nightmare.



Cameron Michalak and his wife, Amber, spent close to eight frustrating years trying to have a baby  both naturally and through fertilization treatments.

When nothing they tried worked, their doctor advised that their best and maybe only chance for a pregnancy would be through in vitro fertilization.

Expensive and exhaustive, the process took over their lives. Family and friends in the Cleveland area raised $13,000 through a GoFundMe campaign.

There were hundreds of injections, multiple times per day for Amber. Strict schedules for the waves of drugs. Another failure on the first round. And then more shots after Amber became pregnant with a girl due in April.

Extraordinarily invasive, said Cameron Michalak. I wouldnt wish that on her ever again.

Now, though, its a decision they may face again.

The couple had five frozen embryos  created by combining their eggs and sperm  that were frozen and stored in the failed tank. Now, repeating the process may be their only shot at having another child.

University Hospitals is offering to help patients with new fertility treatments.

That may still be an option for the Michalaks, who live in Vermillion, Ohio, because both are 34, but that might not be true for older patients. Others are deciding whether its worth risking additional health complications.

That was my first thought, all of the people who have not had a chance to have success yet, said Cameron Michalak. All of the people who dont have the time to wait or their time is now.



Katie Miller has had two children using her frozen embryos and was starting treatments at Pacific Fertility Clinic so she could have a third when she was got an email saying something went wrong.

She was among 500 people who have been told their embryos were in a storage tank that had dangerously low liquid nitrogen levels. The clinic said the embryos were transferred to a new tank.

You dont even think about whats happening in the lab. You just assume that thats really being taken care of and thats not something to worry about, Miller told KGO-TV in San Francisco.

The extent of the damage has not been disclosed.

There really are so many questions at this point, and hopefully there will be some good news, she said. But at the same time, there have to be people who have already received probably very devastating news.



Associated Press writer Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistans foreign ministry says it has called its top diplomat in India back home for consultations after allegations of harassment of Pakistani diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal says the decision was taken after Pakistani officials and their families in New Delhi reported maltreatment, such as being chased by motorcyclists who wanted to photograph them.

Islamabad also summoned an Indian diplomat in Pakistan in protest. India hasnt commented on the allegations.

Faisal said on Thursday that the envoy, Sohail Mahmood, is expected to return this week.

Nuclear-armed neighbors have a history of bitter relations and often accuse each others diplomatic staff of spying.

They also often trade fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety.STOCKHOLM (AP)  North Koreas foreign minister met with his Swedish counterpart Thursday after making a surprise trip to Stockholm that has fueled speculation about a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on a direct flight from Beijing and spent several hours at the Swedish Foreign Ministry before returning to the North Korean Embassy.

Ris talks with Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom are expected to resume on Friday.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973 and is one of the few Western countries with an embassy in Pyongyang. It provides consular services for the United States in North Korea.

If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Swedens TT news agency earlier Thursday.

We shouldnt be naive and believe it is Sweden that solves these problems, Lofven added.

Swedens foreign ministry said the talks between Wallstrom and Ri will focus on Swedens consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia, but also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry referred to the U.N. Security Councils condemnation of North Koreas nuclear weapons and missile programs, saying the U.N. emphasized the need for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The Swedish ministry said a statement summarizing the talks will be made available Friday.

Ri, a former diplomat in Stockholm and London and an ex-nuclear envoy with experience negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States, was tapped as Pyongyangs foreign minister in 2016.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month, he urged the United Nations not to remain silent about what he called the U.S. dangerous game of aggravating (the) situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war.

The trip by Ri is being closely watched because there remains a huge amount of preparation that needs to be done and relatively little time before Kim is supposedly planning to sit down for summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim by May. So far, North Korea has yet to publicly comment on what it hopes to gain from the summits, adding an extra element of mystery and skepticism.

Sweden has been rumored as a possible site for the summit between Kim and Trump, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

Senior South Korean officials who traveled to Pyongyang earlier this month and met with Kim say he is willing to discuss the Norths nuclear weapons program.

It could suggest a potential breakthrough, or a fallback to the Norths longstanding position that its willing to get rid of its nuclear weapons if the United States guarantees its safety.

In the past, that has meant Washington would have to withdraw all of its troops from South Korea, a condition no U.S. president has been willing to consider.

Niklas Swanstrom of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy said the meeting between the two foreign ministers would only be preliminary to higher-level talks but they could give an indication of North Koreas interests and demands.

The assumption is of course that (they) will speak a bit about the proposed talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, Swanstrom told The Associated Press.

He said he did not expect the announcement of a date or location for a Trump-Kim meeting.



Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)  A Hungarian court on Wednesday sentenced a Syrian man to seven years in prison after convicting him in a retrial of entering Hungary illegally and being complicit in an act of terror for throwing rocks at police during a 2015 border riot.

Ahmed Hamed, who was also expelled from Hungary for 10 years, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison in November 2016 but an appeals court annulled his conviction and ordered a retrial in June 2017.

The ruling has been appealed by both the prosecution and Hameds defense. Hamed will remain in custody.

The case stems from rioting on Sept. 16, 2015, when dozens of police officers, migrants and some journalists were injured in clashes on the Hungary-Serbia border a day after Hungary closed the frontier, stranding hundreds of migrants.

The court considered Hamed complicit in an act of terror because, along with others who remain unidentified, he threw rocks and other objects at police with the intention of pressuring the state authorities into reopening the border.

Among the mitigating circumstances, the court listed Hameds lack of a criminal record, his obligation to support two young daughters and that his harsh travails before the riot led to his restricted consciousness.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbans government has frequently used Hameds case in propaganda campaigns seeking support for its strict anti-migration policies.

Amnesty International said the conviction was a travesty of justice.

Todays verdict reflects the dangerous confluence of Hungarys draconian counterterrorism laws and its merciless crackdown on refugees and migrants, said Eda Seyhan, Amnesty Internationals Campaigner on Counter-Terrorism in Europe. Ahmeds conviction on these charges should be quashed on appeal and he should be released without delay.

The European Parliament and the U.S. State Department under then President Barack Obama expressed concerns about the prosecution after Hameds initial conviction.BEIRUT (AP)  Tens of thousands of terrified men, women and children streamed out on foot and in pick-up trucks Thursday from besieged enclaves on two fronts, fleeing bombings from the Syrian military near the capital, Damascus, and Turkish troops in the countrys north.

It was the largest single-day exodus of civilians from fighting in Syrias civil war and a reminder of how the conflict that sparked the worlds worst humanitarian catastrophe continues to hit new lows as it enters its eighth year.

The flight of an estimated 42,000 civilians came as their attackers Syrian government troops, backed by Russian aircraft, and Turkish forces  pushed their way into civilian centers, in strategic military advances that could turn the page on some of the most volatile flashpoints of the conflict.

Near the capital, Damascus, the Syrian government is chipping away at one of the largest and most significant opposition bastions since the early days of the rebellion  communities where some 400,000 people are estimated to be holed up.

Since mid-February, Syrian troops have targeted the capitals sprawling eastern Ghouta region with shells, airstrikes and, at times, even toxic gas, according to opposition medics. They are now in control of the majority of the enclave that had been in rebel hands since 2012.

Over the weekend, Syrian troops divided the enclave into three sectors, isolating the major urban centers and enabling a swift advance.

Starting Wednesday night, intense shelling and aerial strikes paved the way for a ground advance on Hamouria, a town in the regions isolated southern pocket. It also triggered a mass exodus, unexpected in scale.

At least 10,000 men, women and children emerged from Hamouria and nearby opposition towns, carrying mats and other possessions that sometimes poked out of suitcases. An elderly man pushed a bicycle piled with belongings. A shepherd brought his herd of sheep and cattle with him through the corridor set up by government forces.

What other choice do people have? said a doctor from Hamouria, who left a week earlier for another rebel-held town after his clinic and home were totally destroyed. It is either death or exiting, said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his identity and ensure the safety of his family.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group estimated that some 12,500 civilians fled eastern Ghouta. Later the government said it had seized Hamouria, but activists said opposition forces were fighting back.

The Observatory also said government forces targeted a column of civilians fleeing Hamouria before dawn Thursday, wounding several people, and that 26 people were killed in government strikes on the town Wednesday.

State-run Al-Ihkbariya TV said civilians would be taken to a center for identification and to receive humanitarian aid. The pro-government Al-Mayadeen TV showed buses waiting to transport those who fled.

Meanwhile, to the north, tens of thousands fled the Turkish military offensive on the Syrian Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin. Turkey considers the Kurdish militia a threat to its national security.

Turkish forces tightened their siege of Afrin in recent days. On Wednesday, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped to totally encircle the town by the evening, shells slammed into the town center after dusk, killing at least seven people and deepening the fear of a ground assault.

The escalation drove people into shelters overnight, and also triggered the mass exodus of an estimated 30,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Trucks, brimming with furniture and bags lined the road out of Afrin along with civilians on foot, lugging a few belongings. Some residents, speaking to Al-Mayadeen TV, said they were going to neighboring villages to get food and bread and hoped to return to Afrin.

Erdogan, addressing the European Parliament on Thursday, said he would not halt the military campaign against the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, known as the YPG, which controls Afrin.

We wont leave until our job is done, he said.

Thursdays civilian exodus underscored the intractability of a conflict that has invited world powers to stake out their spheres of influence in the fragmented country.

Throughout the conflict, entire neighborhoods and towns have been cleared of their residents amid intense fighting, departures that took place over days and weeks. The chaotic scenes Thursday were the most intense for a single day and were reminiscent of the floods of refugees trekking across Europe in late 2016.

Separately, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations delivered aid to more than 26,000 people in the town of Douma in eastern Ghouta, the ICRC said. The 25-truck convoy was the second to reach the town since an agreement was reached earlier this month.

Douma, the largest town in eastern Ghouta, is located in a northern section of the enclave isolated earlier by government forces and has seen relative calm for the last four days.

The Syrian, Russian and Turkish governments have ignored a Feb. 25 U.N. Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire for the entire country.

The eastern Ghouta region was one of the hubs of the uprising against Assad in 2011 and was quickly targeted for siege, mass arrests, and extrajudicial killings by security forces.

The Syrian government, backed by its allies Iran and Russia, appear determined to retake control of the once prosperous farming region outside Damascus, after seven years of war and bloodletting that has killed some 450,000 people and displaced millions.

More than 1,200 people have been killed since pro-government forces launched their assault on eastern Ghouta more than three weeks ago.

Amid the chaos, airstrikes continued on eastern Ghouta.

The oppositions Syrian Civil Defense said its first responders have been unable to reach the wounded in several towns in eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the governments assault. It said one of its rescue workers was killed in an airstrike on the town of Hazeh.

They are burning Ghouta to the ground, said Anas al-Dimashqi, a media activist and resident of Kafr Batna, a town also targeted in intense airstrikes Thursday.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said it had extended a humanitarian pause to operations targeting Douma through Thursday and Friday.



Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Moscow, Zeina Karam in Beirut and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.The Free Trade Agreement between China and Georgia, signed in 2017, came into force on January 1. This will allow Georgian products free access to one of the worlds largest consumer markets, and will free approximately 94 percent of Georgian products from customs taxes. The growth of Chinas economic interests has increased Georgias hope of playing a role in in Beijings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). By extension, Chinas increasing presence in the South Caucasus raises questions regarding the compatibility of Beijings interests with those of the regions traditional hegemon, Russia.

BACKGROUND: China has developed close trade contacts with all the South Caucasus countries and has invested extensively in the region. However, Georgian-Chinese cooperation stands out due to the size of investments and growth in bilateral trade.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Chinas state-owned investment activities in the region drove Chinese immigration to Georgia. In the early 2000s, the majority of Chinese migrants ran corner shop businesses and restaurants or worked as market vendors. After 2010, a dominant portion have been construction workers.

China is now Georgias third-largest trade partner after Turkey and Azerbaijan, whereas Russia is in fourth place. Trade between the two countries has increased significantly over the past 10 years, from about US$ 10 million in 2002 to US$ 823 million in 2014-2015. In 2017, China and Georgia signed a free trade agreement during the visit of a Georgian delegation to China in May. The Georgian government hopes that the countrys position at the Black Sea, with several ports such as Batumi, Poti and Anaklia, will allow it to function as a logistics hub for the entire region and particularly for Chinas BRI.

Aside from its Black Sea ports, Georgia can boast the East-West Highway, the countrys main land transport road, which essentially connects Azerbaijan and the Black Sea coast, and existing railway projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK). Indeed, from Beijings perspective the three most valuable projects underway in the South Caucasus relate to Georgia. These include the opening of the BTK railroad, which will make the delivery of containers, freight and passengers from Asia to Europe 45 percent faster. Second, the construction of a new deep-water seaport has commenced in Anaklia, on the Black Sea, capable of handling 100 million tons of cargo per year and of receiving large Panamax-type vessels. Third, Georgia is expanding the East-West Highway, in cooperation with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other organizations.

IMPLICATIONS: China has been considering the South Caucasus route since the announcement of the BRI in 2013. For example, in 2015 China tested the connection efficacy between the Xinjiang province to Georgias Poti port, via Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Railway cargo loaded in China on January 29 arrived in Georgia on February 6. However, handling administrative obstacles took almost a third of the time in transit. China carried out several other tests to explore the viability of the trade and transit route through the South Caucasus.

However, despite its advantages as a transit country, Georgia still faces numerous questions. Although Beijing considers Georgias location to be important, and the region to be strategically relevant, the Georgian corridor is not among the major transit and trade routes where China is investing heavily.

It is often overlooked in recently published analyses that the Georgian (by extension the South Caucasus) route has a marginal role in the corridors close to the Caucasus region envisioned under the BRI initiative, including from China to Europe through the New Eurasian Land Bridge; the China-Mongolia-Russia Corridor; and routes to Central and West Asian countries.

Also, while Beijing certainly demonstrates an interest in existing and upcoming infrastructure and construction projects in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and other major cities in Georgia, major Chinese-financed infrastructure and energy works completed in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in the past several years far exceed the level of China-Georgia cooperation.

There is also a geopolitical aspect to the increasing Georgian-Chinese cooperation. Deepening economic relations have a geopolitical corollary  by increasing its economic footprint, China also obtains a greater stake in Georgias stability and security. Naturally, aside from potential economic gains, Tbilisi also perceives relations with China as a means for mitigating Russian pressure on the country. In Tbilisis thinking, if more regional players become involved in Georgia, security stakes in the country will increase for all the actors. Georgias path of EU integration, as well as its partnerships with the U.S., Turkey and Azerbaijan, represent the attempts of consecutive Georgian governments to balance Russias geopolitical influence in the South Caucasus. The hope that Georgia now attaches to Chinas involvement follows the same pattern.

As China has built a new city at the outskirts of Tbilisi, have invested in Georgias second-largest city Kutaisi, and own three quarters of the shares of Potis free industrial zone, a clear east-west line to the Black Sea is materializing across the country, spotted with Chinese presence all along. It is certainly difficult to predict Chinas future moves, but it is reasonable to expect that new actions by Russian forces in South Ossetia to move the demarcation line of the breakaway region to the south, closer to the East-West Highway, will be of concern for China as it endangers its economic interconnection with the South Caucasus. Beijing will then have to either find a common understanding with Russia or become more involved in Georgias security.

There is already a precedent for Chinas military involvement in territories important to the BRI. China has taken certain steps in Central Asia that could potentially challenge Russia's economic and political influence in the region. China is already the largest trade partner of each of the Central Asian states, whereas Beijing has deepened its military and security ties with Tajikistan and partly with Kyrgyzstan mainly through military exercises and building military infrastructure on the Tajik-Afghan border.

For Tbilisi, an increased Chinese involvement in the South Caucasus will be a boon to its security. At present, however, hopes for such a development are seemingly unrealistic. Even in Central Asia, despite clear Chinese gains, Moscow still does not recognize a challenge to its influence by Beijing.

Another reason why Georgia is unlikely to become a point of contestation between China and Russia is the fact that Beijings is primarily concerned with fighting militancy and cross-border terrorism threatening the BRI. Therefore, while Beijing could very well invest in Georgian security beyond law enforcement and counterterrorism cooperation, security cooperation is unlikely to reach a level corresponding to that between China and the Central Asian states.

CONCLUSIONS: The prospects for increased Chinese engagement with Georgia are mixed. Beijing is indeed increasing its economic influence in Georgia. However, the investments are not on a par with Chinese actions in Central Asia or elsewhere, and Beijing is primarily interested in existing and upcoming infrastructure projects in Georgia. Moreover, there are currently no clear indications that Chinas activities in Georgia and the South Caucasus compete with Russian interests and influence. Yet, given the regions importance to Russia, Russian policymakers could come to perceive increasing Chinese engagement as a concern.

AUTHORS BIO: Emil Avdaliani teaches history and international relations at Tbilisi State University and Ilia State University. He has worked for various international consulting companies and currently publishes articles focused on military and political developments across the former Soviet space.

Image source: By gov.ge accessed on 3.13. 2018Corruption in Slovakia: The story of a young whistleblower

Published on March 15, 2018

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As a young whistleblower, Zuzana Hlavkova has seen it all: cronyism, power games and corruption. After leaving her job at the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she decided to go public with a scandal revealing irregularities in the Ministrys public procurement practices during Slovakias 2016 EU Council Presidency. We met with the young whistleblower in Germany to talk about her experience.

Who would have thought that I would unveil a national scandal? Im not a hero. Everyone can become a whistleblower, even ordinary people. I have just chosen to live life to the fullest, Zuzana says in a hushed tone. She is modest, but Zuzana Hlavkova has become a symbol in Slovakia after reporting cases of cronyism and unjustified use of public funds within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the countrys EU Council Presidency, which took place from July to December 2016. With the help of Transparency International, her mission is now to stress the importance of whistleblowers in society.

Make Slovakia great again

Slovakia is the second most corrupt country in the European Union, according to the World Economic Forum index. The ranking is done on the basis of three fundamental questions: how common is the diversion of public funds towards companies, individuals or groups in your country? How are political ethical standards evaluated in your country? And how common is it for companies to make undocumented payments or bribes? Zuzanas case may seem insignificant placed next to striking examples like the recent Paradise Papers, but it shows how deep corruption runs, how it is found at every level and how important it is to report corruption as an ordinary citizen.

We are in Leipzig, Germany, and Zuzana has just spoken about her experience at a conference in the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, which is also a journalism school. She has been touring Europe since she became a whistleblower last year, at only 26 years old. Mostly to meet people that have been corruption witnesses like me, but in other countries, she adds. She takes a deep breath and adjusts her chestnut-coloured hair. Shall we have some tea? Its kind of a long story. Zuzana started working for the Ministry in July 2015 as an expert on cultural events for the Slovak EU Council Presidency.

Slovakia became a member of the European Union on May 1st, 2004, after four years of membership negotiations, and only adopted the Euro in 2009. Together with the Baltic states, Slovenia and a few other countries, Slovakia is one of a handful of countries from the old communist bloc to be part of the EU today. Slovakia is a parliamentary democratic republic with a multi-party system, and the last presidential elections took place in 2014. Andrej Kiska, the current president, is pro-European and extensively mentioned the importance of Slovakia in the EU throughout his campaign. It was Kiska who governed the countrys 2016 EU Council Presidency semester.

With a degree in cultural studies from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, I wanted to return home after many years spent abroad between the UK, Mexico, Spain and Cyprus, and contribute to improving my countrys image. Participating in the preparation of the EU Presidency was the perfect opportunity [to do so], the young woman explains. Some of her main tasks were dealing with promotional activities, or launching the EU Presidency logo. During the first months the atmosphere was very stimulating. We were about 10 people and we were meeting regularly, speaking openly. But everything changed with the arrival of a new communications consultant.

One big mess

In autumn 2015, an unknown figure started incessantly visiting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Zuzana Tapakova, director of a private Slovak television station. She was introduced to us as a media advisor and she was always in meetings with the seniors from the Ministry, says the young whistleblower. We started to feel a strange pressure when, under her orders, we were forced to substantially change original projects for events, with a higher budget each time. Low cost and low profile initiatives were becoming huge and commercial events. Zuzana continues: What was particularly absurd were the two EU Presidency opening concerts. The estimated cost was 63,800 euros which, after the arrival of the new consultant, shot up to hundreds of thousands of euros. The new recruit also proposed an expensive ceremony to present the Presidency logo; an event that looked more like a catwalk for political parties than a national interest opportunity.

Thinking back to this episode, Zuzana becomes angry, as if it all happened the day before. She explains that: The entire department was against it. We agreed that a press conference would have sufficed for the launch of a logo, not a massive fanfare paid with public funds! After the Christmas holidays, Zuzana Hlavkova went back to work hoping that there had been some kind of mistake. She was wrong. Three agencies had been chosen for the launch of the logo, without specifying any kind of criteria. It was Evka, Tapakova's agency. According to the contract, the winning agency should not spend more than 162,000 euros, all costs included. Not only was Evka automatically selected, but we found out on the day of the event that the performances, the renting out of the theatre and the permits were all extra costs paid by the Ministry.

It all happened one week before the event, so the team didnt have enough time to change things or organise things well. We had to fill the seats with Ministry personnel because otherwise the theatre would have been empty. We had been forced as employees to act as hostesses for free. Where was the seriousness of a EU Presidency? There was something so absurd about the fact that this specific agency had been chosen. Zuzana didnt go to the launch of the logo that evening, and it was exactly in that moment she took the decision that changed her life.

Normally in Slovakia Zuzana specifies, public contracts are subject to an open offer, but in the case of the EU Presidency logo an exception was made with a pre-selected agency without any competition. These irregularities disturbed the young events organizer to such an extent that she ended up quitting her job. Before leaving, she left one last cry of concern in the form of a letter to Miroslav Lajcak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. His answer? Something happened with the logo ceremony, but nothing illegal. Thats what he told me when he invited me into his office. It was a very strange encounter, as if he was telling me that  although my intentions were noble  this is how things work. He even offered for me to choose any job I wanted in the institutions.

The tea was cold at this point, but we were so into the story that we continued sipping it without paying too much attention. I got out of that meeting without any grain of hope left. I felt like everything was useless, even going to the police, because they cant intervene in such cases. It was time to let it go and think about my life, but I was so angry and frustrated! I couldnt just let go of all my principles, Zuzana said, outraged.

Three kinds of whistleblowing

Flutura Kusari is a lawyer for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom in Leipzig and an expert in whistleblowing. She was at the same conference as Zuzana, and stressed that: It is important to explain the three different types of whistleblowing. There are internal whistleblowers, like when a person reports malfunctions in their own company. For example, telling the director that a corruption case is happening in the lower levels. The second type is external, like when a person goes to the police to denounce a wrongdoing of the system. And the third level is going public.

According to the standards of the European Court of Human Rights, every whistleblower must comply with the following procedure to be legally protected: they must try to resolve things within their company, then with the help of the police, and if nothing has worked, only then can they publicly denounce facts. There are some particular cases where steps can be skipped, Flutura Kusari specifies, especially when there is no procedure to report a case of corruption within a company. As a lawyer, I never recommend going to the public or to the media right away. There are enormous consequences for doing so.

Zuzana Hlavkova thought about her strategy for days, and considered all possible reprisals. She cried, she vented to her closest friends, she talked about it with her more sympathetic colleagues. Then she decided: I was ready to report the irregularities that I witnessed. Truth be told, I never felt like a whistleblower, but a citizen tired of seeing corruption and omerta.

I would do it again a thousand times

The storm began when the scandal of the Slovak Presidency came to light. Zuzana decided to rely on the NGO Transparency International, which has been taking care of defending whistleblowers for years in the aftermath of their denunciations. When you become a whistleblower, people start to recognise you on the streets, they know who you are and your story. I have tried in every way to safeguard my private space, because I like it the way it is. I dont want to become a star, but I have surely lost my anonymity. Zuzana also runs a blog on the Transparency International website, where she published documents, details of what she saw and tips for those who have something to report but who have not yet found the courage to do so.

Meanwhile, the political climate in Slovakia became tense. The Prime Minister Robert Fico described journalists who simply asked for clarification after Hlavkovas accusations as dirty anti-Slovak prostitutes. The government tried to bury my accusations, saying that as a young consultant I couldnt have known all those things, publicly denying the facts and calling me a liar in interviews, says Zuzana. Still, support from civil society was immense: Thousands of people had signed a petition to back me, knowing I had triggered indignation gave me the motivation to continue to fight against the abuse of power.

Anna Meyerscest is the director of the Whistleblowing International Network, an organisation that became the main reference for all cases of denunciation we know of today, from the Panama Papers to LuxLeaks, but also smaller and lesser-known cases such as Zuzanas. She is convinced that whistleblowers ensure democracy in a country. Supporting figures prove it: 40% of corruption cases are reported by whistleblowers. They are sometimes part of the solution because they are the most knowledgeable about what is happening within a company or institution. In a way, they are the guardians of democracy. You have to be very open to what whistleblowers are telling you, they cannot do it all alone, you need an audience ready to listen.

Corruption is a fundamental issue in Slovakia, but no senior politician has ever been convicted. A Transparency International report shows that Slovak citizens are the least likely European citizens to report corruption cases. Perhaps because of the desperation that something can change. 41% of the Slovak population thinks that an ordinary citizen cannot do anything against corruption.

What Zuzana Hlavkova is doing is an example for a committed and young Slovak generation, who struggles against favouritism and reacts to corruption in politics. Outside the journalism school in Leipzig theres a wonderful sunset, and Zuzana relaxes a little at the end of our conversation: I couldnt work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs anymore if I wanted to, which was my little dream. But I would do it again a thousand times. You dont have to be a superhero or be more courageous than others. You just have to have a strong civic sense.

Story by Veronica Di Benedetto Montaccini

Translated from Corruzione in Slovacchia, storia di una lanciatrice d'allerta| BY Ricki Green |

Future Lions 2018, AKQAs global undergraduate competition to discover a new generation of creative talent and showcase inspirational and innovative thinking, is now accepting entries.

Competition entries are now invited from students across the globe. Entries can be submitted digitally until 18:00 GMT on 18 April 2018.

Returning for its 13th year, in collaboration with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, AKQA Future Lions challenges students to push the boundaries, connecting an audience of their choosing to a product or service from a global brand in a way not possible three years ago. Open to all creative fields, there are no rules as to the format of the final entry, nor the media or technology used.

Visit www.futurelions.com for further details about the 2018 Future Lions competition and how to enter.

Says Nicolai Smith, creative director, AKQA and previous Future Lions winner: Without limitations, Future Lions encourages students to choose the most exhilarating and distinctive path: one that embraces discovery, breakthrough thinking and liberation from the past. No matter if youre a student in communications, architecture, technology or design, Future Lions is an invitation to showcase your ideas in front of the worlds leading creative organisations and make an impact for generations.

Create Tomorrow is this years Future Lions theme, exploring how recent advances in technology including artificial intelligence, blockchain, intelligent interfaces and new rules of energy, are advancing possibilities that are yet to manifest. The themes aesthetic is inspired by motifs from Art Deco, a movement that combined historic, modern and exotic styles to create bold and compelling work demonstrating the potential of human progress. Exploiting their freedom from rules, imaginative Art Deco thinkers explored and expanded their influences to infuse art with functionality, using technology and new materials to reveal a myriad of opportunities.

The five winning Future Lions 2018 student teams will be celebrated on stage at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on 21 June. Each will receive the prestigious Future Lions trophy and enjoy full access to the Festival. Alongside individual awards, the school with the highest number of shortlisted entries will be named Future Lions School of the Year, winning career workshops with AKQA international teams as part of their prize.

Celebrating progressive thinking, last years winning entries included BoseNeuro 35, a wireless headset using brainwave technology and sensors to assess music preferences and permit the curation of personalised playlists dependent on mood (VCU Brandcenter, USA); BeHeard, a smartphone app that uses facial recognition and voice technology to create a digital voice for people unable to speak (Miami Ad School Madrid, Spain); and Google Assistant KIDS, a child-friendly version of Google Assistant able to provide appropriate answers depending on the age of the user by recognising their pitch and pronunciation (School of Visual Arts, USA).| 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.

The end of content

Rather doom and gloom (read: clickbait) title, but Founder and CEO of GIPHY Alex Chung had a serious case to make. After strolling out to the podium and taking a photo of the audience with a retro-looking camera, Alex Chung boldly stated that text is a bad compression format. It simply takes too long to type out exactly how were feeling or communicate an emotion. Text lets you share a description, but a GIF shares an expression.

The average person is absorbing over 18 hours of content a day, so theres just not enough space. Were in a Content Real Estate Crisis. Companies like Netflix or other big players with bottomless budgets can afford to position their content during prime-time, but us? Weve gotta get creative and fill in the cracks.

Whether its micro-content (<6-seconds), new content displaying or sharing methods (AR, VR, Stories Platforms, Stickers, etc) or, yknow, by being Netflix and just throwing money at it  its a matter of finding a way to be entertaining.

At the end of his session, Chung revealed that the retro-looking camera he used at the start was actually a prototype of his: A GIPHY Camera. He wanted to see if we could capture more emotion in the real world by taking snapshots of emotive moments. He also revealed the GIPHY Frame: a 2mm-thick digital screen that looks like a polaroid but plays gifs. Chung has essentially created a juiced-up Polaroid camera. Unfortunately, these products will be released maybe never, I dont know.

In summary: Theres no space left for content. We either need to be small enough to fit in the cracks, find alternative space-saving methods or have enough money to just buy your own space.

And give us the GIPHY Camera, Chung  you tease!

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Why engaging with politics is critical for brands

To say the US political environment is highly-charged is a bit of an understatement. Which is why Latia Curry created Rally: a company that works with brands and agencies to navigate touchy political subjects when rolling out purpose-driven messaging. She showcased several high-profile US brands that have taken a stance and categorised them in three main stages.

Level 1. Testing the Waters

Brands like Burger King have produced videos across several issues like Net Neutrality and Cyber Bullying. Latia commended them for this effort but encouraged them to determine which issues they want to stand behind and really dial in and try to make a real-world change.

Level 2. Owning your Position

Last year, Lyft pledged to donate a million dollars to the ACLU as a result of President Trumps immigration orders on seven majority-Muslim countries. This gesture showcased that Lyft had moved beyond messaging towards more serious commitments.

Level 3. Walking the Walk

Interestingly, the brand Latia showcased on this level was ultra-conservative US brand Chick-Fil-A. While she didnt agree with the views of Chick-Fil-A, she said they were one of the best examples of a brands political beliefs filtering through their entire organization; from being closed on Sunday for church services, to open stances against same-sex marriage.

With Chick-Fil-A you know what you are getting as a consumer, beyond the food. The scary part is they are one of the fastest growing QSR chains in America.

Overall, it is becoming increasingly important for brands to determine their position on the political spectrum. Not only that, but you must make sure your efforts are authentic and consistent, or youll be doing more damage than good  to your brand and importantly, the communities youre trying to help.

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Dismantling with design: Creating equitable cities

Theres so much going on here that missing out on a few sessions is a given. But this means youll accidentally stumble into something else. Today, a drop-in ended up being a winner.

Social Entrepreneur Antionette Carrolls talk challenged IBMs claim that design is the intention of the outcome. She instead suggested that design is the intention, and unintentional impact, of the outcome.

Carroll talked about a key flaw in the way Design Thinking is often understood. We cant observe a problem, then leave to create the solution, but instead, we should create, build and test solutions in the community. People understand the problems better than we can observe them. As problem solvers, we should be helping people realise their solutions rather than trying to do it for them.

The unrest in Ferguson in 2014 drove Carroll to launch the Creation Reaction Lab  a think-tank approach to building equitable communities. In just 24 hours, the first lab resulted in 5 projects ranging from public art to educational problems. A perfect example of community helping community.

Because, to be blunt, who are we to say whats best for others?

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Where were going we dont need roads: Fly eVTOLs

With a job title like Director of Engineering for Aviation at Uber, Mark Moores talk was always going to be intriguing. He was joined by Antonio Campello, CEO of Aviation at Embraer X to talk about Vertical Take-off and Landing aircrafts (VTOLs).

As a catchy hype video outlined at the beginning of the session, the project the two companies are collaborating on is extremely ambitious  UberAIR: a fleet of electric autonomous vehicles that will alleviate metropolitan traffic.

The helicopter-like shuttles will be booked via the Uber App we all know and love, and launch from SkyPorts around the city. Theyll also be roomy enough to be shared with other passengers travelling to the same area  making the entire process more economical.

The vision is everything youd expect  ambitious, high tech and something out of science fiction. But the craziest part of this whole thing is its a lot closer that youd think. Uber is actively working on overcoming the barriers to make VTOLs a reality in every city and is bringing UberAIR to Dallas and Los Angeles by 2020.

With that launch date they will only just eek out Kitty Hawkthe company led by Sebastian Thrun and backed by Google co-founder Larry Pagewho only today announced they aim to launch their fleet of VTOLs in New Zealand by 2021.

So, not only will we have flying cars, but we wont even have to download a new app. Just when you thought Uber couldnt get more convenient.| BY Ricki Green |

Sydney Water has launched its new Beat the Bottle initiative with two successful beach clean-up events, developed by creative sustainability agency Republic of Everyone.

The initiative tackles the issue of bottled water by connecting people with the impact of plastic waste on our waterways and beaches.

After all when you see the problem, then help pick it up, you rethink buying the plastic to begin with.

Volunteers and members of the community were invited to meet at Manly Cove and North Beach, Wollongong to enjoy the beats of local DJs Purple Sneakers and True Vibenation, plus percussionists Junkyard Beats, while cleaning up plastic pollution from the water and shores.

To further celebrate the clean-up efforts, up and coming Sydney musicians, Chaos Emerald from Haiku Hands and Jayteehazard have collaborated and created a high-energy track called, Come Clean. Some lucky members of the community even received a limited edition vinyl, made of over 90% recycled marine debris, pressed with the track Come Clean. The vinyls were made by Vert design.

Says Jennifer Whittle, spokesperson at Sydney Water: The easiest way to reduce plastic bottle pollution in our waterways and beaches is to simply not buy bottled water, in fact we have a great alternative on-tap. Every year, Sydney Water removes over one million plastic bottles from our waterways before they can get to beaches. Local residents and our communities are the key to the solution, and Beat the Bottle is a fun way to get involved in overcoming the problems of plastic waste and littering.

Says Ben Peacock, founder, Republic of Everyone:,Sustainability needs to be fun. The more fun we make it, the more people will get involved and thats what Beat the Bottle is all about.

Republic of Everyone and sister agency, The Bravery, worked with Sydney Water to create the concept for the initiative, build the brand, organise and deliver the events and get people to come along.| BY Ricki Green |

Jessica Paige Ross has joined UM Australia as director of people and wellbeing, a new position at UM. She has steered people development programs for businesses including Silicon Valley start-ups such as Eventbrite, as well as large-scale retailer Target USA.

Ross will be focusing on people development programs for UM, with a particular emphasis on initiatives that address peoples well-being at work. Wellbeing touch points will be critical in how UM embraces the rapid evolution of the media industry and that people become recognised for their professional and personal skills, as well as their smart approach to work and home-life balances.

Says Fiona Johnston, CEO, UM Australia: Our industry is vibrant, dynamic, emotive and challenging. Looking after peoples futures is not just the job they have, the role they play or a decent PDP. All those things are vital, but it is also about how they exist in the space that is work. Both the location they reside in and the initiatives they employ to stay happy, healthy and resilient. We cant do it all, but we can encourage people to put their wellbeing first and we can ensure that culturally there is always permission to do so.

Ross has spent the majority of her professional career in California, most recently consulting to technology businesses on designing long lasting employee experiences at all stages of the employee journey. She worked with daily-deal platform LivingSocial, which in its major growth phase was engaging 40 to 60 new employees per week. She also managed global people programs for rapidly growing on-line ticketing platform Eventbrite and she is also a former executive team leader in human resources for US retailer Target.

Says Ross: My philosophy is that behind every business metric there is a person with a story and passion to become the best version of themselves. Behind every brand is a team of people working hard to bring their collective visions to life. I am thrilled to offer my expertise to UM as a dynamic, inclusive and creative business.

Says Johnston: Over the coming months we will be working more and more in the space of wellbeing, under our value of goodness and with a human belief that we are only as good as we feel, and we only feel as good as we allow ourselves to be.| BY Lynchy |

AdFest has unveiled the companies who have made the INNOVA Lotus shortlist: McCann Worldgroup Mumbai, Colenso BBDO Auckland, TBWA\Shanghai, TBWA\Hakuhodo Tokyo, McGarryBowen Shanghai, INNOCEAN Worldwide Seoul, Hakuhodo Inc/ TBWA\Hakuhodo Tokyo and BBDO Bangkok Bangkok.

For the first time, AdFest has invited representatives from each company to present their work in person to this years Jury Presidents. This live INNOVA shortlist presentation will take place on Day 1 of AdFest 2018 (Wednesday 21st March) from 9:30am to 1pm, and delegates at AdFest 2018 are invited to watch each company present their work.

We want to give each shortlisted agency the opportunity to elaborate on their work, explain the challenges they overcame, and convince the judges, face to face, that their idea is truly pushing into unchartered territory. For delegates, it will be a very valuable session  so much can be learned from watching other creative leaders present their ideas and answer the judges questions, explains Jimmy Lam, President of AdFest.

Entries to the INNOVA Lotus category are judged on their level of genuine innovation, talk-value, and results. The judges will be looking for world-class concepts that have made a dramatic impact on the marketplace  landmark ideas, technologies, designs, applications or creative properties that have pushed the marketing industry into unchartered territory. There are four sub-categories in INNOVA Lotus including Innovation in Creativity, Innovation in Technology, Innovation in Prototype Technology, and Innovation in Local Culture Application.

Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of AdFest said, By opening up the INNOVA presentations to AdFest delegates, we are giving all shortlisted companies the chance to explain their approach to innovation, experimentation and risk taking. Its also an opportunity for judges to ask questions and interrogate how each solution met the brief. The caliber of shortlisted projects this year is unparalleled, congratulations to everyone who made the cut.

All AdFest delegates are invited to attend the INNOVA shortlist presentation, which takes place in Hall A2 on Wednesday 21st March, 9:30am to 1pm at PEACH (Pattaya Exhibition and Conference Hall).| BY Lynchy |

WPP AUNZ has today announced Peter Bosilkovski has been appointed as regional CEO, Australia & NZ for Y&R, based in Sydney. He replaces Phil McDonald who has resigned from the agency, as covered by CB yesterday, to pursue other opportunities.

A highly respected and experienced leader, Bosilkovski joins Y&R following his departure as CEO at Leo Burnett Sydney where he worked for nine years, during which time the agency was named AFRs 4th Most Innovative Company in Australia, Adnews & AWARD Agency of the Year, 6th Ranked Creative Company in the World (Gunn Report) and Cannes Lions Media Agency of the Year. He began his career at J. Walter Thompson, and has since been involved with a raft of leading brands and award-winning work.

Says Mike Connaghan, CEO, WPP AUNZ: To have someone of Peters calibre return to the group and lead Y&R here in Australia and NZ is fantastic. Ive worked with Pete so I know his passion and drive, and Ive admired what hes achieved as a competitor. Hes back where he belongs.

Petes a strong leader, a clear thinker and someone who makes things happen. Petes experience in transforming an advertising business for the modern era has equipped him well to lead Y&R into the future.

Says Bosilkovski: Y&R is an iconic creative brand, so when this opportunity came along, I jumped at it. Im really looking forward to working with some of the great talents in the industry and leading the national and cross-Tasman agency.

Says Connaghan: Phil leaves the agency in good shape, and we thank him for his commitment and hard work since taking on the CEO role. He took the reins at a tough time for the business. Hes made a strong contribution to the agency and has played an important part in growing both its client base and capabilities.

Says McDonald: I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the wonderful people and clients of Y&R ANZ. In my time as Regional CEO, we have reinvented our business across five cities, won awards all over the world, attracted some great new clients and some of the best talent in the industry. The agency is well set up and after 11 years at Y&R, it is the right time for me to move on to a completely new opportunity, which I will announce in the coming weeks.Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 4:05AM

The latest Google Home update will now let you tell it to set location-specific reminders. You can prompt it with things like Hey Google, set a reminder to pick up more coffee at the grocery store. If your location services are on, youll get a reminder once you arrive at the place you set, like the aforementioned grocery store. You can even be more specific and ask for Google Home to remind you of a specific store, like say a Starbucks, and itll alert you if it finds you in any Starbucks. This gives Assistant an advantage over Siri because you need to specify a specific location to get the reminder. This feature is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Source: Android Authoritynews, latest-news

The ACT government is sending NSW students to some schools that are among Canberra's poorest and most disadvantaged. Two of the four options for families in Bungendore, Googong and other areas near the ACT face the greatest socioeconomic disadvantage in Canberra, based on factors such as parents' income and education. The government's new policy, which began this year, stops NSW students from attending inner-north and inner-south schools. Instead, if they want to attend a Canberra school rather than one in NSW, they must attend one of four primaries in Tuggeranong for families from Bungendore, Braidwood and other areas to the south and east; and one of three primaries in Belconnen for families from Yass, Goulburn and other areas to the west and north. It is a big change for NSW families who for many years sent their children to schools such as Campbell. For parents south and east of Canberra, the four primaries they can access are Gilmore, Richardson, Calwell and Wanniassa. All rank in the bottom 12 of Canberra's 56 public primary schools on socioeconomic indicators. Three rank below the national average. Gilmore has a socioeconomic advantage score of 899, against a national average of 1000 and a Canberra primary-school average of 1088, according to NAPLAN data released last week. Sixty per cent of Gilmore's students are in the bottom quartile for disadvantage. Just 4 per cent are in the top quarter. The picture is reversed at Campbell primary, where 65 per cent of children are in the top quarter of the population on socioeconomic advantage, and just 2 per cent in the bottom quarter. It is rosier for the Belconnen schools to which families from Yass, Goulburn and areas north and west of the ACT are directed: Charnwood-Dunlop, Evatt and Florey. All rank above the national average, although they are still in the bottom half of Canberra's schools. At Charnwood-Dunlop, 17 per cent of students are in the top socioeconomic quartile and 27 per cent are in the bottom, close to a national average. At Florey, which the most advantaged of the primary schools for NSW families, 31 per cent of students are in the top quartile and 17 per cent in the bottom. But Florey, like many of Canberra's schools, does worse than most schools in its socioeconomic cohort in national literacy and numeracy testing. When compared with 56 schools around the country with similar levels of advantage, Florey's year 5 students in 2017 ranked in the bottom 10 in all five subjects areas tested. The comparison includes private schools. The story is by no means confined to Florey. At Campbell, now barred to NSW students, the NAPLAN performance in year 5 in 2017 was similarly poor when compared with other Australian schools with the same socioeconomic profile. Campbell's socioeconomic score is 1143, one of the most advantaged schools in the ACT. But when compared with about 60 schools with students from similar backgrounds, Campbell's NAPLAN performance is also relatively poor; its year 5 students ranked between 48th and 58th place in the five subjects (reading, writing, maths, spelling and grammar). Wanniassa's year 5 students buck the trend, performing well compared with children in other, similar schools. Wanniassa's year 5 students came seventh and eight for writing and reading last year compared with about 40 similar schools (and between 18th and 24th for the other subjects). The ACT Education Directorate denied it was sending NSW students to the most disadvantaged schools. A spokeswoman pointed out that all the northside schools open to NSW children had a socioeconomic score above the national average. The northside schools were "more advantaged than the equivalent schools in the surrounding region" and the southside schools were similar, she said. In fact, Gilmore is more disadvantaged than any of the four government primary schools in Queanbeyan, the two in Cooma and the primary schools in Braidwood and Bungendore. And of those, only Queanbeyan South has a lower socioeconomic score than a second of the southside schools, Richardson. Overall, though, the NSW schools are more disadvantaged than most ACT schools. The Belconnen schools for parents north and west of Canberra are largely higher on the socioeconomic scale than the local NSW schools, especially the Goulburn schools. The spokeswoman said every ACT child was guaranteed a place in their local school but enrolments had been growing at the fastest rate in Australia, making it impossible to enrol out-of-area students. "The procedural change for NSW enrolments simply reflects this reality," she said. "Importantly, it also provides NSW students with enrolment certainty because they will now be guaranteed a place in an ACT public school." NSW students received the same opportunities as ACT students, including the Chromebooks recently handed out. Asked about schools' generally poor performance, the spokeswoman said "great teaching and learning occurs in all ACT public schools" and NAPLAN scores were a poor tool to assess school performance. She pointed to Charnwood-Dunlop's program to link parents, teachers and students in reading intervention, which brings the community together and has life-long benefits not necessarily reflected in NAPLAN scores.

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The wife of a former Canberra public servant struggled to make ends meet at home even as her husband stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from some of the city's most vulnerable citizens, a court heard on Thursday. Timothy Stewart McLeod, 36, was a gambler and a drinker, the court heard. He had "frittered away" the money, while hiding it from his wife. Prosecutors say McLeod was the "architect" behind a scheme in which $1.1 million was stolen in five years from ACT Public Trustee clients. But the scheme eventually unravelled while he was on holiday in America, and a colleague at trustee's office uncovered irregularities in McLeod's client's accounts. McLeod, a trust officer, would arrange for his tradesmen friends Joshua Leighton and Stephen Evans - who were approved trustee contractors - to perform work for the trustee's clients. He would then pay the tradesmen from the client's accounts. But the work was never done, and the money was split with him once it had been transferred into the contractor's account. He would also buy televisions for nursing homes which already had them, and bought a MacBook laptop for an elderly client with dementia. The amount McLeod took for himself was somewhere between $500,000 and $700,000, the court heard. He has pleaded guilty to four counts of theft. At times choking back tears, his wife told the ACT Supreme Court that she started to notice in 2012 how money was tight for the couple, and that McLeod could no longer contribute to the mortgage. She started to notice his drinking, and that he spent most nights away from the family home. "I felt it was harder to contain ... or not have a normal evening with friends without feeling like I had to interfere," she said, "trying to create boundaries to reign his drinking in." She said they rarely spoke about what happened, but McLeod had since told her that he was "torn apart" by the events, and "that he's sorry for everything." The couple now live with their two children in a small rural NSW town where they hold the licence for the local pub. She said she was forced to borrow money from her parents and that they made enough to cover the bills but not much more. She told the court she knew her husband was going to jail and that she would continue to support him. Prosecutor Anthony Williamson told the court that McLeod had "cynically and callously" exploited the inability of the trustee's clients to realise his crimes. He said that made the offences more serious, and he called for a sentence that firmly denounced his behaviour. "It is bad enough to betray any employer's trust and use one's position to dishonestly appropriate money," Mr Williamson said, "But where the offending involves the appropriation of money being held on trust for some of society's most vulnerable members, i.e. the infirm, chronically ill and mentally impaired, the offending can be fairly described at particularly egregious." McLeod's barrister Jack Pappas said that although prosecutors had called the man the architect of the plot, he pointed to the other offenders and said without receivers there would be no thieves. He said the man had facilitated justice by pleading guilty to the crimes and avoiding a lengthy trial. Mr Pappas said the motivation behind the man's crimes was more complex than simply greed, and pointed to his addictive drives and desire to earn the respect of his colleagues and his wife. The man's alcohol problem was extremely severe, the barrister said. He asked the judge to defer the sentence while McLeod, who also had diabetes, underwent a medically supervised detox at hospital before going into custody. Justice John Burns agreed, and said he would deliver McLeod's sentence later this month. McLeod is the last of four men to be sentenced for the theft. Evans and Leighton are currently serving time in prison, while Donald Savanahu avoided time behind bars.news, latest-news

Jakarta: An Australian man and a Cambodian man were killed when a landmine detonated during a military training exercise west of Phnom Penh on Thursday, police say. Three others were injured, including a second Australian, though his injuries are said not to be serious. He has been treated at a hospital in Phnom Penh and is able to walk. The Australians were military trainers according to police in Kampong Speu, 50 kilometres from Phnom Penh. Their names have not yet been released. A report on the deaths by Cambodian Lieutenant General Lanh Ko, seen by Fairfax Media, states that the two Australian nationals were "skilled experts in clearing landmines," and that the incident had taken place at 1.30pm local time on Thursday. The two Australian and three Cambodian soldiers "went to a shooting range, where many kinds of unexploded ordnance remain. "When they saw an unexploded ordnance, they picked it up by hand, then it exploded," the General wrote to the commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. "There were five casualties, two persons were seriously injured, and other three men were slightly wounded. They were sent to Kampong Speu Referral Hospital. Two of them died due to serious injuries." "The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man killed in Kampong Speu Province and to an Australian man injured in the same province," a department spokesperson said. "Due to privacy obligations we are unable to provide further information." Police said the mine detonated at a tank base after a Cambodian soldier, who was killed in the incident, picked up the war-era bomb after it had been detected under the ground. Cambodia is littered with unexploded ordnance (UXOs), a legacy of three decades of civil war. However, casualty figures have steadily come down over the past two decades thanks to an international effort to rid the country of the blight. A doctor at the Kampong Speu Hospital, Song Sokvisal, told Fairfax Media an Australian man had arrived at the hospital with serious injuries to his face, neck and arms. "His condition was serious. He was in a state of hopeless[ness]. We tried our best, but we could not save him. It happened too fast," Dr Sokvisal said. It's understood the dead Australian man was 40 and that his body has been viewed by Australian officials in Phnom Penh. The injured Australian man is said to be 39. Fairfax Media is yet to confirm the identities of either man. The army was investigating the blast, said defence ministry spokesman Chhum Sucheat. The Australian embassy in Phnom Penh did not immediately respond to a request for comment. with Reuters and AAP

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Jakarta: Indonesian president Joko Widodo has thrown his support behind Australia joining the Association of South East Asian Nations, a move that could transform Australias strategic position in the Asia-Pacific. Various Australian prime ministers have flirted with the idea of asking to join, but have never proposed it while in office. Joining South-East Asia's premier association of nations would underline Australia's importance in the fast-growing region. It is the first time an Indonesian president has endorsed the concept: "I think it's a good idea," president Jokowi said as he prepared to travel to Sydney for the weekend summit of the 10 ASEAN leaders with their Australian counterpart. Indonesia is the leader of the 10-nation grouping, making his intervention potentially highly significant. In an exclusive interview after Fairfax Media spent a day in Banten province with him on the central island of Java, the president universally known as "Jokowi" signalled he wanted Australia to play a larger role in the region in defence, trade and security matters. Asked about Austalia joining ASEAN, he said he endorsed it because our region will be better, [for] stability, economic stability, and also political stability. Sure, it will be better. Told of his remarks, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turbull responded: "I will look forward to discussing that with President Jokowi if he raises it with me". "We would wait to be invited," he told Fairfax Media. "We treat ASEAN and the centrality of ASEAN in the region with the greatest respect." Mr Turnbull has invited president Jokowi to dinner at his home tomorrow night ahead of the two-day summit, the first time Australia has hosted an ASEAN leaders' meeting. The president said the private dinner "means we are very close; this means there is mutual respect". The Indonesian leader said he was not sure whether Australian membership of ASEAN would be supported by the other members of the bloc, the chief political and economic grouping of South East Asia for the past 51 years. The president also threw his weight behind finalising the delayed Indonesia-Australia free trade deal, possibly as soon as this weekend. "I will push my ministers", he said. He also left open the possibility of reviving a Keating-era security pact while stressing the close relationship between the two nations. Former prime minister Paul Keating, who has long argued for full Australian membership of ASEAN, said Australia could bring skills and expertise in foreign policy to the grouping. I have always believed that our nearest, largest neighbour was the one most likely to see the sense and the benefit of Australia joining ASEAN. I am very gratified to hear that President Jokowi has said what he has said. In doing so, he has underlined and confirmed my faith in Indonesia as one of our greatest friends, and so singularly important to us. ASEAN is headquartered in Indonesia, its biggest member. ASEAN's other nine members are Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. In 2002, the then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad thwarted John Howard's attempts to engage more deeply with ASEAN, while the then Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri expressed reservations too. Earlier this week, former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa  a friend of Australia's  said the membership question was a distraction, while former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said in 2017 that Australia couldn't join because it's just "not Southeast Asian". ANU Indonesia expert Dr Greg Fealy said: "The question is whether the other ASEAN countries would agree. ASEAN works on consensus so if you don't get universal agreement it won't happen." On the eve of the historic ASEAN-Australia summit in Sydney President Jokowi said that only technical details of the delayed free trade agreement between Australia and Indonesia remained to be settled. "The bilateral relationship with Australia is very strong, very strong," he said. He had originally called for it to be completed by the end of last year. On the defence pact struck in 1995 by Mr Keating and former president Suharto  which marked an historic high point in relations between the two nations  President Jokowi chose his words carefully but did not rule reviving such a close arrangement. I think it depends on the government. If we want to make our relations stronger, its always from the government, always from the leaders. Im sure if the communication is like now, we wont have a problem in our relations. The president also praised the close co-operation on counter-terrorism between the two nations. The President and Prime Minister had spoken regularly on the phone, Mr Jokowi said, to resolve issues such as the threat posed by Islamic extremists who last year seized the Philippines city of Marawi. We have good cooperation on Marawi, not only with Australia but also with Malaysia, with the Philippines, with Brunei. You know that no country is invulnerable from terrorism or extremism. However, in Indonesia, pluralism and tolerance has always been in our DNA. He dismissed the idea that Indonesia faced a growing threat from foreign fighters returning from the battle front in Syria or Iraq, following the defeat of Islamic State. No, no. We are the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. We have 220 million Muslims in Indonesia. I think if theres only one, two or three people do this, it is very small, it is very small. We are modern Muslims, tolerant Muslims, moderate Muslims compared with other countries, he said. ANU professor Michael Wesley cautioned that ASEAN was an organisation that dealt in consensus but President Jokowis comments were a significant development". While Indonesia is the biggest country and the leader of ASEAN, he would have a harder job to convince other countries, Singapore and Malaysia in particular, that Australia would form a useful part of ASEAN. Geo-political and economic trends are bringing Australia and ASEAN together in much more powerful ways than ever before. It is inevitable and probably a little late that Australia is waking up to the importance of ASEAN. President Jokowi will face a presidential election in April 2019 but unofficial campaigning is effectively already under way. He is due to choose a candidate for vice-president by August and his decision will be made against the backdrop of rising influence of more conservative Islamic theology on electoral politics in his country. That influence saw a political ally of Mr Jokowi  the Chinese-Christian former governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok  jailed last year for blasphemy. But Mr Jokowi said he believed Indonesians had learned lessons from last year and predicted Islam would not dominate the presidential campaign. No, now I think our people can learn from last years election, not only from Jakarta but also from the other regions, the other cities the other provinces. Our people can every year learn from the elections. I am sure then our politics can be more stable. In Indonesia, our constitution respects freedom of speech and freedom to form groups. with Amilia Rosa, Karuni Rompies

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/36e986fc-76dc-4f3a-8eed-9d8a0c1d6d65/r0_100_1923_1186_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgI have to agree with a previous comment from Laura about all the controversy surrounding Hedley. My friends and I have been fans of the group for years and continue to support them to this day. Weve attended many of their concerts in Vancouver, which are always fun for the group because they get to play at home and they love the home crowd so much they tend to play long into the night for those fans.



The poor groups reputation has been torn to pieces simply because of some unproven comments online. To have both their opening acts drop them on their current tour, along with their management and the JUNO awards is disgusting. Sure they may portray a party lifestyle on stage but from what I understand they are quite involved with their communities off stage. You cant tell me that groups from 20+ years ago werent doing way worse things than what has been reported here, but because of this online environment now its easier to simply ruin someone without any proof.



My friends and I are still planning to attend their Kelowna concert to show our support for the group when they need it the most. These are Canadian artists and they should be supported by their fans.

Rachel GilPhoto: Contributed

In spite of several B.C. music festivals going under in the last year or so, there's a new kid on the block.

Skookum is coming to Stanley Park in Vancouver the weekend after Labour Day this fall.

The new, three-day festival features acts like Florence and the Machine, The Killers and The War on Drugs plus B.C. food, beer and other homegrown products.



Skookum's website says: "From Vancouvers forest-fringed stages in Canadas favourite urban park, to diverse and intimate After Dark events in the downtown core, get ready for a weekend of incredible music."

Tickets go on sale Friday, March 16.

Tall Tree Music Festival on Vancouver Island and Rock the Shores both shut down last year.

Organizers of Rock the Shores say they will return to Colwood in 2018 and both of the festival organizers pointed to the difficulty of getting acts during Canada 150 celebrations and the economic challenges that go hand in hand with producing quality music festivals.Chantelle Deacon

"All cultures are beautiful."

Diversity was celebrated with dancing, music, food and songs at the Okanagan College Vernon Campus on Wednesday.

"We had performers, door prizes and our elders, all sorts of cultures," said Kristyn Schoenknecht, student and event organizer. "We bring it together so that we can all share amongst each other the great experiences that we have among our cultures."

The free event took place throughout the day at the Kal View Cafe.

"We are all multicultural in some sort of way and to be able to share it, bring it, show it and recognize it is really big in the community," Schoenknecht said.

"To be able to hold something at a college or even National Aboriginal Day or any other day that we represent our culture is amazing."

The annual event proved to be a success with crowds of people showing up to celebrate each other.Photo: Bercum Builders

A Vernon company has taken the title of the 2018 Provincial Home Builder of the Year.

Bercum Builders brought home the award last Saturday at the Provincial Home Building Awards in Vancouver.

The local company won 3 of 5 Georgie categories.

Home building awards are more than just a piece of hardware," said owner of Bercum Builders, Darren Witt. "They are an important part of growing, improving, and staying at the forefront of our industry."

"I know our team does excellent work. Winning these industry accolades validates it."

A provincial win is big news for Bercum Builders and the Okanagan construction community.

'Jaw-dropping' is a word used to describe the waterfront home entered in this year's awards.

The home was designed and built to maximize the Okanagan lifestyle and showcase lakefront living.

The house features concrete and steel construction, floor to ceiling windows and four distinctly designed outdoor living spaces.

The business also won awards for 'Best Outdoor Living Space' and 'Best Master Bedroom.'

When I meet with a prospective client, my immediate thoughts are: How can I best honour their vision, hopes and dreams? Are we a good match? Who do I need on the building team that will help shape the project and are they available?" Witt said. "Our trades and suppliers have to be as committed to bringing their best as we are - its imperative, Bercum Builder's name goes on it."

To be eligible, association members submit entries for projects completed during the period before the application deadline.Photo: BC SPCA

The BC SPCA has identified the owner of a dog that was abandoned on a forest service road with a chain collar deeply embedded in its neck.

The dog, named Rusty, was brought to the SPCAs East Kootenay branch on March 10, and staff reached out to the public to help find the culprit.

Thank you to everyone who helped to get the word out about the investigation into Rusty, said general manager Lorie Chortyk.

An investigation is underway, so the identity of the owner can't be released.

We will send an update as soon as the case moves forward, said Chortyk.

The dog has had surgery to remove necrotic tissue from its neck and is expected to make a full recovery.

Rusty is in SPCA care and not available for adoption at this time.Photo: File photo

The BC Conservative Party is taking the NDP to task over its proposed payroll tax.

The Conservatives propose a progressive health premium instead, claiming the NDP is simply downloading the cost of MSP onto municipalities, businesses and public sector organizations, and ultimately the public, while creating a new drag on the economy.

According to the Conservatives, the payroll tax, which the NDP is disguising as a "health tax," is being implemented in 2019 even though Medical Service Plan premiums won't be eliminated until 2020. This means employers will have to pay twice in 2019.

"Not only is the NDP government taxing businesses in B.C. twice for the same thing in 2019, while giving nothing back to the citizens of B.C., they are also downloading the cost of healthcare onto the workers of B.C. through the back door, said Scott Anderson, Interim Leader of the BC Conservative Party.

Anderson said many British Columbian employers  including those in both the private and public sector  are being faced with millions of dollars in new payroll taxes.

These new expenses will force employers to increase prices that they charge consumers, cut back on services, reduce employee compensation, cut back on staffing levels, reduce growth and stall innovation, said Anderson. Further, this new tax will be downloaded onto municipal property taxes in the case of municipalities and other public sector organizations, like schools and libraries.

Anderson said under the new payroll tax, Vancouver will have to pay an additional $9 million in payroll tax, while the University of British Columbia alone will be forced to pay $23 million in new taxes.

In the case of the health authorities, the NDP has created a ludicrous situation in which the province is taxing itself to the tune of a billion dollars. To protect consumers, property owners, renters and workers from being penalized by the NDPs new payroll tax, we call on all MLAs to amend the budget, said Anderson.

The BC Conservatives propose a graduated, progressive health premium with a higher cap of $100. Employers, both public and private, will retain the ability to choose whether to cover the health premium, thereby avoiding municipal downloading, double taxation, and the creation of a new economic drag.Photo: Gord MacDonald

Some rare candy is causing a stir on social media in the Okanagan.

Gord MacDonald purchased the white Skittles, created for Pride Month, when they first went on sale.

I bought them online, he said. I knew I had better buy some before they were gone, they were really hard to find.

The rainbow-less skittles were quickly pulled from shelves, however, after they were blasted for being "racist" or anti-gay. Skittles' usual colours naturally tie in with the Pride movement's rainbow flag.

MacDonald said he forgot about the candies, found them on his shelf and thought hed try to sell the novelty item on Facebook.

In just one hour, he received more than 50 Facebook messages about the colourless candy.

They are all white so you dont even know what flavour you are getting when you eat them, he said. I am getting all kinds of messages, my Facebook is going nuts.

MacDonald said the comments have been keeping him busy. And he assures he has not sampled the treats.Photo: The Canadian Press

Three Vernon gangsters have lost an appeal of their murder convictions.

Peter Manolakos, Sheldon Richard ODonnell, Leslie Podolski, all alleged members of the Vernon 'Greeks" gang, were convicted of murder in 2012.

The dismissal was announced by the B.C. Court of Appeal through an online statement.

"The appellants advance 16 grounds of appeal. All grounds are addressed in the reasons for judgment ... The appeals are dismissed."

The reasons for the dismissal are under a publication ban.

"The reasons for judgment are of the court, and are signed," the statement reads. "However, there is a publication ban in place issued by the trial judge, Mr. Justice Smart, in respect of information identifying certain witnesses... The publication ban means that the full reasons for judgment must be sealed and only a redacted version complying with the ban may be released to the public."

Manolakos, Podolski and ODonnell along with two others were convicted for the North Okanagan-area murders of David Marniuk, Ronald Thom and Thomas Bryce in 2004 and 2005.

The trial began in May 2011 and involved 25 lawyers and more than 100 Crown witnesses before the jury began deliberations on Nov. 14.

with files from The Canadian PressMadison Erhardt

UPDATE: 430 p.m.

YLW staff and passengers are relieved to see the fog has lifted and the sunshine is out.

The canceled flights from this morning have been rerouted, however there are still a few flights delayed.

Flight WestJet 184 Calgary 15:20 remains Canceled.

Flight Alaska Airlines 2429 Seattle 06:00 +1 08:15 +1 Delayed

Flight Air Canada 8408 Calgary 17:10 18:15 Delayed

Flight WestJed 3261 Victoria 18:00 18:45 Delayed

UPDATE 12:15 p.m.

Airport Director Sam Samaddar said the extremely low visibility lead to the cancelations.

"Right now we are dealing with fog. It's very very low visibility," Samaddar said.

"If you look at the aircrafts that came in last night, they all got out this morning. The restrictions on departing flights one they are on the ground is less restrictive, but it is still restrictive," he added.

If visibility drops within a quarter of a mile no aircrafts are able to depart.

UPDATE 10:43 a.m.

Environment Canada meteorologist Cindy Yu, tells Castanet the fog we're experiencing in the valley is caused by what she calls an "upper-level low" which causes instability and will likely be hanging over southern B.C. for the remainder of the week.

"This system has just enough energy to produce some showers. In the last couple of days, we've had some precipitation and we still have snow on the ground, so it's a combination of a little bit of moisture and the evaporation, so as a result, we are seeing low-level moisture forming as fog."

Flights at YLW have been cancelled because of the fog. You are advised to check flight status at YLW before departing for the airport, a link is provided below.

Yu says the fog is expected to lift this afternoon but the weather system could hang around for several days.

UPDATE: 9:45 a.m.

The city of Kelowna is urging residents to contact their airline for schedule changes.

"Cancellations are due to the fog. Travelers are urged to contact their airline carriers to determine schedule changes," said Tom Wilson Corporate Communications Manager with the city of Kelowna.

ORIGINAL: 9:28 p.m.

A thick fog hanging low over the Okanagan is causing headaches for travellers.

Kelowna International Airport is fogged in this morning and, so far, has cancelled 10 flights.

Several other flights are delayed.

The following flights departing from YLW are cancelled:

Flight Air Canada 2185 Vancouver 08:35 cancelled

Flight WestJet 3119 Victoria 08:30 08:40 cancelled

Flight WestJet 3321 Vancouver 09:15 cancelled

Flight Air Canada 8399 Vancouver 09:20 cancelled

Flight Air Canada 8413 Vancouver 09:35 cancelled

Flight Air Canada 8402 Calgary 09:45 cancelled

Flight Alaska Airlines 2429 Seattle 09:49 cancelled

Flight WestJet 3224 Edmonton 10:15 cancelled

Flight WestJet 184 Calgary 15:20 cancelled

Flight WestJet 3323 Vancouver 10:25 cancelled

Check YLW's flight status board here.Photo: Darren Handschuh

Concerned parents presented their case for crossing guards at Beirsto Elementary to school board officials Wednesday.

Beairsto District Parent Advisory Council representative Christie Tujik said she feels board officials heard their plea to keep children safe.

Tujik said officials did not make any decision on the request for crossing guards at the school, but she is hopeful it will be on the April meeting agenda.

I think we were heard. There was no further discussion. They just asked us a few questions and I guess it goes to the agenda planning committee now, said Tujik, adding she left the meeting feeling positive about the presentation.

As the DPAC representative for Beairsto, Tujik meets regularly with other PACs from area schools and the chairperson of the DPAC sent the board a letter of support for the crossing guard request.

She said, 'It's our children's safety and we really need to focus on that,' said Tujik. I think the board was impressed with the presentation and all the data we had collected. Now it's in their hands.

The Beairsto PAC gathered mounds of information on the volume of traffic that goes past the school, and have spoken with government agencies and officials about the situation.

Among that information was a survey of more than 150 parents, who overwhelmingly had concerns about child safety.

Tujik said 92.6 per cent of the parents who responded to the survey agreed there should be crossing guards at the school.

And about 83 per cent of the people who responded stated they would send their children walking to school versus driving them if they knew there were crossing guards.

Kelly Smith, school district board chairperson, said as per board policy, the matter will be discussed at a future board meeting.

The board does not discuss matters at the same meeting they were presented at and will likely be discussed at the April 25 meeting.

Smith did say the presentation was well researched and they had really done their homework. This has been a concern for them for a long time. They have gone to virtually every group that would be involved in traffic safety and children.

Smith said one thing the board suggested was training Grade 7 students to be crossing guard, but parents had concerns that the road was too busy to have students take on the task.

Because the matter has yet to be discussed by the board, Smith said she could not comment on what direction the board may take on the matter.

The PAC also looked into the possibility of slowing traffic along 27th Street in front of the school, but have been told that is not possible.

Amanda Watson, the transportation manager for the city, explained the reasoning in an email to Castanet:

27th Street is not a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure highway, it is a city road. Previous PAC members have been informed of that and it has been explained that one reason for maintaining the 50 k/ph speed limit is because the traffic signals are co-ordinated to manage traffic flow."

Watson goes on to write, "Many factors are considered when assigning a road to be a school zone (has 30 kph limit) or a school area (no speed limit reduction) that include the classification of the road, the location of access points (pedestrian and vehicular) and where fencing is installed to name just a few, said Watson in an email.Photo: RCMP Anthony Otto Froese is wanted by Vernon police.

Vernon RCMP are hoping the public can help to locate a wanted man.

Anthony Otto Froese is wanted on three separate charges of trafficking a controlled substance, failing to appear for court and breach of recognizance.

Vernon North Okanagan RCMP have made several attempts to locate Froese, however have been unsuccessful, said Const. Kelly Brett.

Froese is described as a Caucasian male, 31 years old, 6'6'' tall, 205 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

If you have any information about Anthony Otto Froese or where he might be, please contact the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP at 250-545-7171, said Brett.

To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or leaving a tip online.

You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers. If you provide information that leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward, said Brett.Photo: Pilot PMR A render of a medical cannabis facility currently being built in California by Sunniva Inc., the same company proposing a massive cannabis facility near Oliver.

Staff with the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen have heard "a number of development inquiries" to build large medicinal cannabis facilities in the region.

Those facilities, according to staff, are better off in industrial zones as opposed to agricultural zones  as is currently allowed.

All of the development proposals are between 200,000 to 700,000 square-feet in size and "look like manufacturing buildings from the outside," RDOS development services manager Brad Dollevoet said.

He couldn't specify how many proposals the regional district has had nor where the proposed sites are.

Under the current zoning bylaw, a cannabis plant planned in an industrial zone would need to have a rezoning application be approved RDOS board members.

Dollevoet pointed out a 324,000 square-foot cannabis facility being built in California as a comparison to proposals seen in the South Okanagan. That particular facility is being built by Sunniva Inc., a company planning a massive cannabis plant on Osoyoos Indian Band land.

Cannabis production is currently considered agricultural in the regional district's zoning bylaws, which were last updated in 2014.

"The scale of these facilities... wasn't really envisioned back in 2014 when this was first being legislated," Dollovoet said during Thursday's board meeting.

Penticton director Helena Konanz raised concerns that some developers may build a large cannabis facility and go under, potentially leaving large buildings that have no other use.

"I'm guessing this is a rush to the gate... because there's a lot of money to be made here, bottom line. And I'm guessing that possibly at some point there will be a glut," Konanz said.

Penticton Mayor Andrew Jakubeit said in terms of fear of proliferation, the same argument could be made with the wine industry in the region.

"And yet that industry is flourishing... We don't see a lot of dormant or empty wineries, and I suspect it's not going to change with (cannabis facilities)," Jakubeit said.

"We can shift marijuana production to the industrial areas, which have been underused. Let's try to get to a trend that's growing and capitalize on it like we've capitalized on wine."

Board members with the regional district voted unanimously to pass first reading towards updating the industrial zoning bylaw  as was recommended by staff.Photo: Contributed

A BC Supreme Court ruling this week says a City of Kelowna bylaw restricting tourist RV accommodations on agricultural land is invalid.

In his decision, Justice Dev Dley says the city erred in the wording of a notice for a 2010 public hearing on changes to the bylaw.

Dley ruled the word "housekeeping" in the notice did not properly state the magnitude of the changes being proposed. He said significant changes were being made to the bylaw ... much more than "housekeeping amendments" inferred.

"If the city had simply stated (without any reference to housekeeping) that it was proposing amendments to the bylaw that would increase the minimum lot area, restrict the number of rental units and restrict the months during which rentals could be offered, that would have satisfied the statutory requirement," Dley said in his decision.

Surinder and Seema Khurana, who brought the suit against the city, established an RV park on their property in 2008 under provisions of the bylaw of the day. However, numerous complaints prompted the city to amend the bylaw in 2010.

While the court has ruled the new bylaw invalid, city clerk Stephen Fleming says it doesn't stop the city from continuing enforcement against the Khuranas and others the city deems are non-compliant.

"The zoning bylaw as a whole is not impacted or set aside," Fleming told Castanet. "It's the five definitions which were amended eight years ago that were set aside."

He says the definitions in question were not new, they just replaced existing ones.

"All it means is it goes back to what the definitions were prior to this change. To meet the grandfathering test, which is what these people are arguing, they must still meet a grandfathering test. The onus is on them."

Fleming says they have yet to do so.

Former city councillor Graeme James, who was also part of the court action, said he's disturbed and distraught the city will continue what he calls a "witch hunt" against himself and the Khuranas.

"The whole bylaw is invalid. They don't have a bylaw," claims James.

James says the city has used what he calls "intimidation tactics" against existing RV parks.

He also says the city clerk does not have the authority, on his own, to decide enforcement will continue.

"You basically have the city clerk who made monumental mistakes in 2010 telling council they are going to proceed with enforcement, when council hasn't even learned about it. This council is so incompetent they are being told what to do by city staff."Photo: Castanet Staff Coun. Tarik Sayeed and MP Richard Cannings at United Way celebration Wednesday evening at Poplar Grove

The United Way of the Central and South Okanagan held its annual community appreciation and campaign celebration Wednesday evening at Poplar Grove Winery.

The charity says it invested $460,000 in South Okanagan communities last year, including the support of 16 local programs.

Initiatives include 100 Homes Penticton, a working group aiming to build 100 low-income homes in the city, and the YES Project, a youth centre opening on Main Street later this year.

The United Way CSO has been operating in the region for the past 65 years.Ongoing Rise is collecting donations of backpacks and school supplies for local students of all ages from elementary school to high school that will be handed out before the new school year begins. Students can come in to the Rise Thrift...Seventh grade students from The Baylor School will host a fundraising 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run this Saturday. The race, known as the Over the Clover 5k (as it is being held on St. Patricks Day), will be held on the Baylor campus.

"Funds raised will send impoverished Lakota Sioux children to a summer fun and academic enrichment camp," officials said. "The children, residents of the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, live in some of the most challenging circumstances in all of the United States.

According to the non-profit agency Simply Smiles, the organization that runs the summer camp, unemployment rates on the reservation reach higher than 90%."Problems like drug and alcohol abuse, malnutrition, depression and diabetes are widespread in the Siouxs adult community and many children see little chance of improving their lives. As a result, there has been an epidemic of youth suicide among the tribes children. The summer camp functions as a haven that provides hope for the children who face these difficult challenges."After finding out about the children and their struggles, two of the seventh grade advisory groups decided to host the race with the goal of raising $1,000. The advisories of Ms. Lorraine Stewart and Mr. Bo Chamberlain have been soliciting corporate sponsors and encouraging local elementary school students to participate. The school with the most runners will receive a trophy, as will the runner wearing the most green.A donation as small as $10 can send a child to camp for a day. To support the students efforts, donations in the form of a check can be made out to The Baylor School can be sent to: Simply Smiles FundraiserC/O Mr. Bo Chamberlain171 Baylor School RoadChattanooga, TN 37405The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Thursday released county unemployment statistics for January. A vast majority of the states 95 counties continue to record unemployment rates under five percent and every countys rate was lower than it was in January 2017.

Williamson County continued to have Tennessees lowest unemployment rate at 2.5 percent, which is a 0.3 percent increase from December.

At 2.7 percent, Davidson and Cheatham Counties tied for the second lowest unemployment rates in the state. Rutherford, Wilson, Sumner, Moore, Knox, Robertson, and Lincoln Counties rounded out the list of the top ten lowest unemployment rates in Tennessee. Robertson and Lincoln Counties were not part of Decembers top ten list.

"Because of seasonal employment trends, Tennessee typically sees a slight uptick in county unemployment at the start of the year, said TDLWD Commissioner Burns Phillips. But the year-to-year comparison of statistics shows just how well the state is doing when it comes to job creation.

Many counties saw a decrease of two percent or more in year-to-year comparisons. Two counties once again stand out when comparing unemployment statistics from January 2018 to January 2017.

In east Tennessee, Scott Countys unemployment situation has improved significantly in comparison to same time last year. In January of 2017 the countys unemployment rate was 8.1 percent. This year, the rate in Scott County was 4.8 percent, a drop of 3.3 percentage points.

Lake County in west Tennessee has also experienced significant job growth over the last year. Last January the county had an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent. During January 2018 the county recorded a rate of 6.4 percent, a difference of 3.7 percentage points.

This is a great example of how Tennessees economy is not only strong in its metropolitan areas, but it is also doing well in many of the states more rural counties, Commissioner Phillips said.

Tennessee had a statewide unemployment rate of 3.3 percent in January, which was the sixth lowest in the nation. The national unemployment rate was 4.1 percent last month.

The statewide unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while county rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools and other recurring seasonal events from an economic time series.

The state of Tennessee will release the February 2018 statewide unemployment rate at 1:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 22. The county unemployment rates for that month will be released the following week on Thursday, March 29, at 1:30 p.m. CTSpecialty chemicals company LANXESS continues its profitable growth path. The company ended fiscal year 2017 with record earnings. LANXESS has also made a good start to the new year.

EBITDA pre exceptionals rose by 29.6 percent in fiscal year 2017 to EUR 1.29 billion, the highest result in the companys history. In the previous year, EBITDA pre exceptionals amounted to EUR 995 million. The operating result was therefore at the top end of the forecast range of EUR 1.25 billion to EUR 1.3 billion.

The main drivers of the strong rise in earnings were higher volumes in all segments as well as the strong contribution of the Chemtura businesses acquired in the previous year. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals increased from 12.9 percent to 13.3 percent, moving another step closer to the mid-term margin target. From 2021, the average margin is expected to be between 14 percent and 18 percent. Group revenue also rose substantially by 25.5 percent to EUR 9.66 billion in the last fiscal year compared with EUR 7.7 billion the year before.

Net income totaled EUR 87 million, after EUR 192 million in the previous year. This decline was due to significant one-time exceptional expenses, particularly for the integration of the Chemtura businesses and consolidation of production networks and value chains as well as a one-time charge arising from the U.S. tax reform. Adjusted for these exceptional items as well as amortization of intangible assets, net income was up by 53.9 percent from EUR 246 million to EUR 379 million.

The reported key financial ratios are in line with current market expectations.

We achieved a lot strategically and operationally in the last fiscal year, laying firm foundations for the future, said Matthias Zachert, Chairman of the LANXESS Board of Management. With Chemtura, we successfully completed our biggest acquisition to date, and also significantly improved the quality of our portfolio even more. In this set-up, we achieved the best earnings in LANXESSs history so far while further enhancing the Groups profitability.

Higher dividend proposed for 2017

The strong business performance in 2017 should be reflected in a further increased dividend. The Board of Management and Supervisory Board will therefore propose a 14-percent higher dividend of EUR 0.80 per share to the Annual Stockholders Meeting on May 15, 2018. This would correspond to a total dividend payout of around EUR 73.2 million.

German sites strengthened, growth regions expanded

Along with its acquisitions, LANXESS also accelerated its organic growth in 2017. The Group invested around EUR 550 million in its global plant network, including around EUR 235 million in the German sites. It also made progress with its aim of achieving a greater regional balance of its business in 2017. LANXESS continued to expand its presence and its sales in the growth regions of North America and Asia. North America increased its share of global sales from 17 percent to 19 percent, while that of Asia-Pacific rose from 26 percent to 28 percent. This means that the Group now generates almost half its sales in these two market regions.

Sales and earnings up in all segments

Sales of the Advanced Intermediates segment came to EUR 1.97 billion in fiscal year 2017, 13.1 percent above the prior-year figure of EUR 1.74 billion. EBITDA pre exceptionals increased by 2.8 percent to EUR 335 million compared with EUR 326 million a year earlier. A solid rise in volumes for intermediates generated this positive performance, offset by weak demand in the agricultural sector and adverse currency effects. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was 17.0 percent, against 18.7 percent in the previous year.

Sales in the Specialty Additives segment almost doubled, soaring by 90.7 percent to EUR 1.60 billion compared with EUR 841 million in the previous year. EBITDA pre exceptionals again grew strongly by 76.8 percent to EUR 267 million compared to EUR 151 million a year earlier. This strong earnings performance was the result of the integration of the Chemtura additives business. Higher volumes also had a positive impact on earnings. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals was 16.6 percent, against 18.0 percent in the previous year.

Sales in the Performance Chemicals segment rose by 10.5 percent from EUR 1.30 billion to EUR 1.44 billion. EBITDA pre exceptionals amounted to EUR 252 million, up 13.0 percent on the prior-year level of EUR 223 million. The improvement in earnings was mainly attributable to the strong volume growth. The Clean and Disinfect business that LANXESS acquired from Chemours in 2016 also made a substantial contribution to earnings. Accordingly, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals rose to 17.5 percent from 17.1 percent in the previous year.

Sales in the Engineering Materials segment increased by 29.4 percent from EUR 1.06 billion to EUR 1.37 billion. EBITDA pre exceptionals amounted to EUR 219 million, up by a substantial 37.7 percent on the prior-year level of EUR 159 million. This was driven by the urethanes business acquired with Chemtura as well as higher selling prices and volumes. Accordingly, the EBITDA margin pre exceptionals increased from 15.1 percent to 16.0 percent.

In the ARLANXEO segment, sales were up by 19.2 percent to EUR 3.23 billion against EUR 2.71 billion a year earlier. EBITDA pre exceptionals amounted to EUR 385 million, 3.2 percent higher than the prior-year level of EUR 373 million. Earnings were affected by the continuing challenging competitive situation, highly volatile raw material prices and the weak U.S. dollar. The EBITDA margin pre exceptionals came in at 11.9 percent, against 13.8 percent in the previous year.

Outlook for 2018: Accounting without ARLANXEO

The positive performance of 2017 has continued with a good start to the new year. For 2018, there will be an accounting change at LANXESS: The rubber joint venture ARLANXEO will be reported as a discontinued operation from the second quarter of 2018. In the other four segments combined under the name New LANXESS - Advanced Intermediates, Specialty Additives, Performance Chemicals and Engineering Materials - the Group expects a slight overall rise in EBITDA pre exceptionals. Excluding ARLANXEO, this key ratio was EUR 925 million in 2017.Evonik is planning to build a new production complex for the high-performance polymer polyamide 12 (PA 12) at its largest site, Marl Chemical Park in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The company plans to invest approximately 400 million in the PA 12 complex to increase its overall PA 12 capacity by more than 50 %. The complex is expected to become operational in early 2021 and to create about 150 jobs.



The PA 12 market is posting annual growth rates exceeding 5 % worldwide, according to Evonik, significantly outpacing the global gross domestic product (GDP). It has properties, such as high stability paired with flexibility, high-temperature resistance, and low weight. This makes it a replacement for steel, e.g., in the in automotive and lightweight design as well as in oil and gas pipelines. Furthermore, the material is used in the medical sector and in 3D printing.

Evonik Industries AG, Essen, Germany

Article Views: 2228Local toy retailers worry manufacturers could raise prices or shrink selection or that the absence of Toys R Us will make it that much easier for shoppers to shift toy purchases online. How big the impact will be depends on where the customers who shop at stores that are closing take their business. Toymakers, meanwhile, are worried about losing a retailer that stocked a wide variety and took chances on newer products.Fifty to sixty breweries will take part in the closer, which will be held May 25 at Theater on the Lake, with at least one beer from each maker matching the motif. More than 2,000 tickets will be available for Beer Under Glass; Good Libations will be limited to about 500 tickets.But on Thursday morning, Biermann tweeted: It is true. We have a lot going on right now we decided it would be for the best. Whats meant to be will always be. Then she deleted the tweet.Best known for playing Joe Cruz on Chicago Fire, Minoso stars as the title character in the short film, which was released Thursday on Amazon Prime, and shows how easily someone can be completely devastated by a health issue in this country.If theres a limitation in The Death of Stalin, its the nature and sound of the casting. Putting Buscemi and Tambor in the same setting as Beale and Palin, and letting everyone use their native dialects, leads to a dislocating quality. Even so, director Iannuccis ear for pacing and eye for semidocumentary-style chaos suits the material. The script, written by Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, with punch-ups from Peter Fellows, comes from a pair of French graphic novels. The transition to film may have been tricky, but it doesnt seem that way. Composer Christopher Willis scores the daylights out of this assignment, writing robust, borderline-kitsch marches and soul-stirring orchestral wallops for a sly blend of irony and sincerity.The song, If You Leave, became OMDs biggest hit in America, though McCluskey is somewhat sheepish about the quality as it was written at a time when he and Humphreys were hurriedly cranking out songs to fill out albums. We had nothing walking into the studio, so Paul sits at the piano and gets some chords, we put together some drum samples, and I came up with lyrics that did the job. Its a good song from a period when we were writing a lot of songs quickly out of necessity. We were relying on our ability to write and play music when we didnt have time to develop the best ideas. When were at our best, our lyrics are not the usual subjects for pop songs. Thats my forte, but in the mid- to late-80s I was just writing down the first words coming to my mind, which were slightly cliched lyrics.Its gotten so controversial and complicated over time because it implies that if you are not out to certain folks or not like living in a way that people can readily identify you as gay or bi or queer, then you are somehow on the down low, keeping a secret, she said. Whats more true is people are feeling very much empowered to identify however they want. It doesnt mean we have to exist so publicly  share those identities with whomever you feel is fitting.New Jersey health officials are warning travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport that they may have been exposed to the measles virus.



The state Department of Health says a young child carrying the disease arrived in the airport Monday from Brussels and later departed for Memphis. Health officials warn people could develop symptoms as late as April 2.



New Jersey residents who may have been exposed on the child's flight will be contacted by their local health departments. Officials recommend contacting a health care provider if one develops possible symptoms.



Measles is a highly contagious disease with symptoms that include rash, high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes.



The warning comes just a few months after another measles warning at Newark's airport.Yellowstone National Park is an iconic summer destination, and its landscape and wildlife place it on many people's bucket lists. But, the area's other attractions often are ignored. Austin Adventures has a fix for that with a six-day/five-night Montana Vacation Package that hits Yellowstone's high points while also throwing in hiking, horseback riding and whitewater rafting in the Big Sky State. Another bonus: It has specific dates for adults-only and for families. The first day of the trip will include a zip-line adventure across the Gallatin River, where much of the filming took place for the movie "A River Runs Through It." In succeeding days there will be an all-day hike amid the Spanish Peaks, rafting down the Yellowstone River and horseback riding in the Absaroka Mountains. The Yellowstone piece of the tour will include Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, the expansive Hayden Valley and its wealth of bison, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs. Lodging is at the 320 Guest Ranch, the Canyon Lodge and Cabins in Yellowstone and Chico Hot Springs Resort, where the namesake springs provide a soothing day-end soak. The trip is priced from $2,698 per person, double occupancy. For the family trip, the price for kids 12 and under is $2,428, with a minimum age of 7. Info on the adults-only trip is at http://tinyurl.com/yae89p9c and for the family trip at http://tinyurl.com/ycdfdeg4; 800-575-1540.Whether you feel, as Emanuel does, that Lucas decision to build in Los Angeles over his first choice, Chicago, was a missed opportunity for Chicago or, as the Friends of the Parks organization does, that Lucas was attempting to run roughshod over local concerns and the law by building on the lakefront, Wednesdays ceremony was an opportunity for Chicagoans to wonder what might have been.Pritzker explained in December that the only money he took out of the offshore trusts went to charitable organizations. He certainly isn't the only rich politician to keep money offshore, but hes the only one so far to claim that it helped him become a modern-day Robin Hood. Its insulting that he would think Illinoisans are stupid enough to believe he has offshore holdings so that he can help the less fortunate.But the Times report punctured his image. It cited accounts alleging that the architect had exposed himself to two female employees who were sent to his apartment. A third woman, the story said, recalled that 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. The fifth woman, who did not work for Meier, said she once had to flee his home after he forcefully pulled her onto a bed, the Times reported.Lakisha Roby was returning from a club outside of Markham when she got into an argument with Washington at the gas station, Sanders said. A man with Roby in the car drove north on Pulaski to a gas station in Robbins and sought help. The man was cooperating with police, the chief said. His relation to Roby was not known.Another man, Leonard Gipson, who had three separate convictions tossed out during the mass exoneration in November, had been granted a certificate last month for the lone conviction for which he served time in prison. On Thursday, Martin granted Gipson certificates for the two other Watts-related convictions after determining his boot camp sentences for those offenses qualified him for the certificates.The victim was standing in a parking lot when someone fired from a passing car, police said. He was taken to Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition was stabilized.According to prosecutors, Culpepper has a long history of violence with the victim. Days before the shooting, he broke the victims phone during an argument. Text messages between the two revealed Culpeppers level of aggression toward the victim which had been mounting up before the murder, prosecutors said.Tatjiann Brown was last seen around 9:30 p.m. at a BP gas station at Cicero Avenue and Polk Street in the Lawndale neighborhood. Brown left the gas station heading east on Polk, police said in a missing persons alert.Bauer chased down Legghette at the top of a stairwell outside the Thompson Center and attempted to detain him, authorities said, but the two struggled. Legghette then stumbled down the stairs, and Bauer either fell or followed him down the stairs to a landing below.Wen Min Chen, 30, is charged with four counts of aggravated assault with a weapon to a peace officer after police said they were called to a South Side residence by a woman who said Chen was in the back room with a large knife.In addition to Hari, authorities charged Joe Morris, 22, and Michael McWhorter, 29. All three men live in Clarence, a community with a population of just a few dozen people encircled by farm fields. During a reporter's visit on Wednesday, at least four homes displayed Confederate flags  one flying high atop a flagpole in a front yard.



It isn't clear why the men targeted a mosque in Minnesota, though Al-Farooq had been in the headlines in recent years.



A group of young Minnesota men who were convicted of conspiring to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State Group had frequented the mosque. A young woman and at least one of the men who successfully got to Syria also worshipped there. Mosque leaders were never accused of any wrongdoing.



Hari fled the U.S. in the early 2000s to live in Mexico and then the small South American nation of Belize, taking his two teenage daughters with him for fear his ex-wife would gain custody, according to media reports of legal proceedings against him after he returned to the U.S. in 2006. He was convicted of child abduction and given probation.



The case put Hari on television.



Dr. Phil McGraw of the "Dr. Phil" talk show used an investigator to help track down Hari in Belize, shortly before Hari came back to face charges of abducting his kids.



He wrote a handful of self-published books, including essays on religion. One was titled "Resurgence: More than Conquerors." Another was "Beowulf: A Novel of the Norsemen," which was listed as the first in a series.



Hari belonged to the Old German Baptist Brethren, a religious sect that shares some beliefs with the Amish, although its followers do not spurn modern technology, according to 2006 coverage of his trial published in the News-Gazette in Champaign, about 30 miles south of Clarence.



Some of Hari's neighbors told Champaign television station WCIA that Hari frightened them. One neighbor said Hari gave her "the heebie-jeebies."



His criminal record includes a charge of assaulting a neighbor who entered his property in July, when he allegedly held the man down and pointed a pellet gun at his head. Then in February, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives received an anonymous tip about explosives on that neighbor's property.



Authorities found explosives, including a pipe bomb, which McWhorter said he, Hari and Morris planted to discredit the neighbor who reported the assault, according to court documents. Hari allegedly called in the phony tip.



In a March 10 video, just days before his arrest, Hari went to YouTube again and posted as "Illinois Patriot," saying FBI and local law enforcement investigators had "run wild" and were terrorizing Clarence.



He asked "freedom-loving people everywhere to come and help us."Since then, tens of thousands of people have cast ballots at early voting sites thinking their choice was between incumbent Joe Berrios and challenger Fritz Kaegi. To date, nearly 99,000 early votes have been cast, the vast majority of them after the notices went out. That figure doesnt include tens of thousands of vote-by-mail ballots already sent out with the notices.The ad was released just six days before Kaegi faces incumbent Joe Berrios and challenger Andrea Raila in the Democratic primary. It features close Washington associate Jacky Grimshaw, who says Berrios was allied with Washington's political foes during the "Council Wars" era and that he "worked hard against Harold, and everything he represented."As the Tribune first reported, Munoz asked to send the order to the Housing Committee, whose chairman had agreed to give it a hearing, but Burke called for it to instead go to Finance. When there are conflicting calls for committee assignment, matters are sent to the Rules Committee, where they often wither on the vine.I think the basic way to look at this, theres a vote today in committee, everybody realized what was going to happen, the writing was there, Emanuel said on the Steve Cochran Show. And my view is, Ive always had this when I represented President Obama, President Clinton, my whole thing in contracts with organized labor, my door is always open if youre going to try to figure out how to get to a Yes.We cant tell you, and we arent clear what that will look like or what that plan is, because we did just agree to this late last night, Brown said. And so, what we will be doing in the coming weeks is working with, actually, all the airline carriers to kind of see what that plan looks like, and working specifically with American to see if we can figure out a way to build those gates while AT&T is working to relocate that facility."He becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play," Sorkin told New York magazine, "and while he's going along, he has a kind of running argument with Calpurnia, the housekeeper, which is a much bigger role in the play I just wrote. He is in denial about his neighbors and his friends and the world around him, that it is as racist as it is, that a Maycomb County jury could possibly put Tom Robinson in jail when it's so obvious what happened here. He becomes an apologist for these people."Andriy Karkoc reiterated that Thursday, saying his family provided copies of his father's physical and mental health records to the German government in 2015, and the Germans suspended their investigation based on those records. He said the records were also provided to the director of the U.S. Department of Justice Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.Van der Sloot, a teenager at the time, was seen with Holloway the night she vanished, and was subsequently arrested twice on suspicion that he was responsible. But he was released on both occasions because of a lack of evidence and was never charged in connection to Holloway's death.Trump won the district by about 20 percentage points in 2016, and the seat has been in Republican hands for the past 15 years. It was open now only because Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last fall amid revelations that he had asked a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to get an abortion.They were the O.B.H. The Original Bad Hombres. Catholic immigrants, they came to these shores as throwaways from their homeland  the kind of place that today someone might call a "s------- country"  where corrupt politicos had betrayed and cheated them. They arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs, a cigar box of family photographs, a fierce work ethic and the character that comes from suffering. They were denied jobs because of their religion or ethnicity. And when they could find work, they did the sorts of dangerous and dirty jobs that Americans thought were beneath them  only to be accused of taking jobs from natives. For their trouble, they were tormented by know-nothings and subjected to decades of insults, discrimination and mistreatment.How should voters react? After evenly evaluating all three candidates weeks ago, we endorsed Kaegi and still consider him the most promising candidate. The imperative here is for voters who take Democratic ballots to oust Berrios. Heaps of independent research, much of it by Tribune reporters, attest to the rank unfairness of his assessment system, which favors affluent homeowners at the expense of poor and minority communities. Each day weve been publishing, online and in print, new entries on our list of reasons to fire Berrios. Well keep doing that through Election Day.On the other, I drove by a massive walkout by the local junior high full of students cutting class to protest an issue that I doubt most have any grasp of, but are happy to join in the massive media-manipulated event. I drove by the long line of students who dont own firearms. Most have probably never carried or fired a firearm, never defended their country or family with a firearm  I have  and just jumped on the bandwagon. I could speak of the day-to-day violence that occurs in Chicago and Cook County and the statistics regarding mass shootings versus the gang- and drug-related homicides that occur  but that is a subject that has long been ignored here and that no gun control measures have or ever will stop.In my eyes, this day proved that no matter your age or your experience, you can make a difference. It shows that thousands of students across the country cared enough about an issue and wanted to take action on it. If we truly didnt have the wisdom to make laws and we truly didnt have the experience to make the change, then those thousands of students would not have protested for 17 minutes in honor of the fallen students and teachers. I hope that now, in light of these protests, lawmakers will finally care as much as the students do and make the difference that needs to be made. Sometimes I believe that adults need to be as passionate about something as children are; maybe then they would see what really caring about an issue feels like. Enough is enough.To stop the (National Rifle Association), follow the money. Banker Fritz Kaegis firm invested heavily in this NRA donors company. Kaegi got rich and the NRA got millions to spend blocking gun control. Now Kaegis spending his fortune calling himself progressive, but Kaegi puts profits over people. Joe Berrios stood up to the NRA, writing the landmark law outlawing guns in schools, and is fighting to ban assault weapons.3849 Provenance Way, Northbrook: $850,000 | Listed: July 21, 2021



This three-bedroom home has two full bathrooms, two half baths and three levels of living space including a finished walkout lower level with a wet bar. The kitchen is equipped with granite countertops, travertine backsplashes, a farmhouse sink, under- and over-cabinet lighting and an island and peninsula for seating. The kitchen, laundry room, foyer and bathrooms all have porcelain tile floors. The great room has natural finished oak flooring and offers access to a deck. A second-level loft overlooks the great room. The primary bedroom suite has a walk-in closet and a bath with double sinks and a shower. A lower-level storage area and a paver patio complete this home, which is located in a subdivision with park and playground areas.



Agent: Carol Gruner and Anita Scheindel, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, 847-790-8436, 847-373-6901



*Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options.



To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com.



Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.The Aurora Election Commission was created by referendum in 1934 at a time when there was no statewide voter registration. People went to polling places and signed an affidavit that they lived where they did, and then voted. The commission was seen as a way to locally control elections that some Aurorans then thought were manipulated by the city of Elgin through the county government in Geneva."I want to reuse and redevelop that site," Brolley said. "That is where we need residents to be involved and engaged in the community, either through volunteering or coming to meetings. Really, this is our village together and its all of our vision for what we want for the future."Were not yet sure what the fallout from this scam is going to be, he said. Were not sure how the callers are going to use it to their advantage, but [the BBB] is receiving lots of complaints from people saying they are getting these Can you hear me? phone calls, and after they answer yes, the caller hangs up. The numbers keep increasing, so somethings brewing. Its going to bubble up soon, and its happening across the country.These snappy little reports later evolved into neighborhood columns, which at one point totaled nine and now totals two in this newspaper. Quite honestly, I don't do today's social media. I like the print on the page, the newspaper in my hand, or at least, preserved on the screen for me to lose myself in the richness of the past.Shrunken brunch: Promise them brunch-in-bed. Then, crispy fry your favorite bacon. Fry enough to send the smells up to the bedrooms to get everyone hungry for a big breakfast. As gently as you can, fry two dozen quail eggs sunny-side-up in the grease that remains from frying bacon. Place each sunny-side-up egg on top of a little slice of cocktail bread. Toast the bread squares in the oven on a cookie sheet first for a few minutes. Put three regular-sized bacon slices on a plate with three of the tiny shrunken cocktail breads with sunny-side-up eggs  and watch for their surprise. You might want to have a few really good egg sandwiches ready and set aside for after pulling this April fools prank."That's where the coffee fest came from, talking about stuff both guys and girls like," said McCurdy, a mother of two young daughters who enjoys visiting three or four coffee shops in downtown Chicago on a rare day off with her husband. "I'm a coffee fanatic and a I know a lot of moms and small business owners are. There's not a coffee shop in downtown Frankfort.""Once I get the skeleton of tunes written myself, it becomes our own creation. It's just us. I just write songs and they turn out a certain way. If they don't sound cohesive it's maybe 'cause life isn't so cohesive," said Nielsen, who married his second wife, Kelly Steward, less than two years ago and also performs with her as Weep & Willow. "Shiny things are nice, but I like some dirt and grime and rust. Those are things that are songs.In Manhattan's lawsuit, the village contends Elwood and NorthPoint have discussed various issues  including water and sewer service, revenue projections, road improvements  that deals with land on the Manhattan side of the project. The lawsuit also points to emails and memos in which and an Elwood official says it would be the village's intent to serve the "entire project" for water and sewer needs. The lawsuit also points to a proposed memorandum of understanding dated May 25, 2017 in which a NorthPoint official discusses the company's intent to acquire 2,100 acres of land "immediately adjacent" to Elwood and that the "proposed acquisition of the conceptual site helps to preserve 2,300 acres +/- of land that would be annexed into the Village of Elwood at some point in the future.""It's cool (that) it's a permanent exhibit. They have a photo of me, a pair of my sneakers and a necklace. It was very humbling to see that. It was definitely a significant moment in my career. I'm catty-corner from Kahlil Gibran, probably one of my biggest influences," he said.Reese Bressler, a senior, was one of the students who spoke. For him the shooting in Florida was personal. He has attended Camp Horseshoe in Wisconsin, a camp Alex Schachter, one of the victims of the Stoneman Douglas shooting was set to attend. Bressler did not know Schachter personally, but he said some of his closest friends did.Landmarks Illinois officials said that, all told, the Campton Township project will cost about $210,000. So far, about $30,000 in cash has been raised with another $50,000 provided through in-kind donations of supplies and materials leveraged through the Skyline Council. They noted that the land that now holds the schoolhouse is privately owned and up for sale. To ensure it is not torn down, it must be moved to a new location.Los Angeles resident Tyler Barriss has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and other felonies after authorities said he called a police dispatcher in Wichita, Kan., Dec. 28 and falsely reported that he'd shot his father and was holding two other people hostageinside a home. When police responded to the address, 28-year-old Andy Finch emerged from the front door and was fatally shot by an officer. It was not clear why Finch's address was a target of the hoax, according to police."I think there's always room to run leaner and meaner, whether you're a business or government," he said. "The problem with government is  whether it's Lake County as well run as we actually are, or Cook County, which isn't very well run at all  is that government is really a giant self-licking ice cream, and it gets to add a scoop to itself anytime it likes.""They said that the community we were in was not ready for me. I was being discriminated against. They were violating my First Amendment rights. If teachers are afraid to advocate for student safety, or are fired for discussing oppression, what happens to our society?" Yamamoto said, according to the release.Notes sent from the jury to U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin during deliberations indicated they had been at an impasse over one of the charges in the lawsuit, although the notes did not indicate which charge had stalled jurors, before Thursday's ruling.By this point, you may think this is an anti-gun column, which it is not. I come from a family of gun owners, have many friends and family who hunt, shoot for sport and own guns of all sorts. This is not about coming for anybody's guns, so let's make this clear. This is about how young children  too young as we tell them they are in some cases  can somehow participate in a process that has forgotten about them for too long. How could we best provide our 8th-grade son a means to be heard in a safe and responsible way?"We're not asking for a barricade, which is what some people are saying we want, but we really feel we need to do something about the traffic there," said Cathy Giangrasse, president of the Saddle Brook Community Association.Frank Lloyd Wright, and to a lesser extent Daniel Burnham, are legendary figures in Chicago. Yet, we remember Wright principally for the homes he built in Oak Park and Hyde Park, and not for his urban contributions. We remember Burnham for his role in the 1893 Columbian Exposition and for the 1909 Plan of Chicago he prepared with Edward Bennett. There are few physical traces of these interventions in our city fabric, but Burnham lives on in our collective memory. Even the architecture library at the Art Institute is named after him, and includes all of his books and drawings! Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin, who are also extensively featured in the collections of the Art Institute, have only recently been rediscovered. Residents in Rogers Park named a beach park after Marion Mahony Griffin; she was even mentioned in the most recent season of the Showtime serial, set in Chicago, Shameless. This is belated, but much deserved, recognition for a husband and wife team who arguably did the most to globalize Chicago architecture and urbanism. Between 1914 and 1937, Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin practiced in Australia and India, creating hundreds of plans for residential, commercial, and civic buildings, as well as several city and neighborhood plans.District 64's plans were designed "to maintain a secure and respectful learning environment for students and staff on March 14 appropriate for our students' grade levels," according to a statement from district spokeswoman Bernadette Tramm and Superintendent Laurie Heinz. "We believe that the plans for elementary and middle schools offered every family the opportunity to select the level of civic engagement they wanted their child to experience around these difficult issues."Around 10:25 a.m. Thursday, Valparaiso police were called to the 400 block of Galway Drive in the Shamrock subdivision for a possible burglary in progress, according to a release from Sgt. Michael Grennes, the department's public information officer."There's still work to be done," the Republican governor said in a statement sent out during Thursday's early morning hours. "After meeting with (Republican legislative leaders) I'll look at all that can be done to complete unfinished business_whether that's by administrative or legislative authority, if needed."Van Bokkelen said the more information he was able to view would give context to what the emails mean to the defense and if they contain any privileged material. The judge said it's possible that emails that appear innocuous could have significant meaning in the context of the defense strategy.Kelley has Alzheimer's disease and requires daily medications that she does not have with her, according to a release from Sgt. Michael Grennes, public information officer with the Valparaiso Police Department.Detectives also had been actively searching for a 16-year-old boy from Chicago who was believed to have also been involved in the crimes. On March 9, Chicago police notified the River Forest Police Department that the 16-year-old had been shot multiple times in the 800 block of North Waller Avenue in Chicago. The teenager later died from his wounds at a hospital, police said.Ciecko was referring to an entrance on the back side of the hospital on Edgewood between 51st Street and 52nd place, which saw increased traffic from motorists, primarily but not exclusively hospital employees, seeking to find a quicker route to either 47th or 55th streetsCOVID cases rise in Pueblo since school started in August

The Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment report that COVID-19 cases for those ages 3 to 18 have risen since school started in August.The State Council, Chinas cabinet, has elevated 12 high-tech zones to national high-tech development zone status.

National-level high-tech zones concentrate high-tech industries in regional clusters and are popular investment destinations.

In addition to concentrating high-tech infrastructure and talent, national-level zones benefit from special government incentives, such as lower tax rates.

The new national high-tech zones are as follow:

Lucy Liu, Assistant Manager of Business Advisory Services at Dezan Shira & Associates Shenzhen office, noted that national-level high-tech parks are often magnets for investment. Liu explained, High-tech parks are special because they are more focused on technology companies. High-tech parks have certain resources to help them apply for perks offered by the government and lower operational costs, and they may have incubator spaces or provide incubator services within the park itself.

Business Intelligence from Dezan Shira & Associates

The development of high-tech zones is an important component of the Made in China 2025 industrial policy, which seeks to transform China into a leading innovator and high-tech manufacturer.

Zolzaya Erdenebileg, Senior Associate of Business Intelligence at Dezan Shira & Associates in Shanghai, said, The new zones demonstrate the continued implementation of the governments plans to become a global leader in science and technology by opening up more infrastructure and support for high-tech industries.Hugo Award-winning author Liu Cixin on Wednesday expressed his grief over the death of legendary physicist Stephen Hawking.





"There are people who can only flicker their eyelids, but their thoughts may travel far into space. There are those whose bodies are robust and strong, but their minds are weak, and they are destined to live their entire lives dependent on others," the science-fiction writer said.





The British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76, a family spokesperson said Wednesday.





Hawking, a towering figure in the modern history of physics, authored several best-sellers in science, including "A Brief History of Time," despite being bound to wheelchair after contracting a motor neurone disease in 1963.





In the end of one of Liu's short stories, Hawking, on behalf of humankind, asks the ultimate question to an alien: "What is the purpose of the Universe?"





No answer appears in the sky. The smile on the alien's face disappears, and a flash of unnoticeable panic occurs in his eyes.





Liu, author of "The Three-Body Problem," was the first Chinese author to receive the Hugo Award for Best Novel, in 2015.







You are here: Business

An environment friendly hydrogen-powered bus has made its debut in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, reports the official Wechat account of the Chengdu Municipal Development and Reform Commission.





Built by a local company, the 10.5-meter long bus is equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell system which can guarantee a smooth ride of 500 to 600 kilometers on a full tank of hydrogen.





The bus can convert to electric power if it runs out of hydrogen.





It's considered both pollution and emission-free.





The prototype is part of a 6 billion yuan program to manufacture 25,000 new energy vehicles.





Hydrogen power has been a growing trend among automobile manufacturers over the past few years. Chinese bus makers, including Zhongtong, Yutong and Beijing Automotive Group have become leaders in China in the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles.





Li Shupeng, president of Zhongtong Bus Holding Co., Ltd., also a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), is calling for more hydrogen gas stations to be built this year.



The past four years have witnessed positive outcomes of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the three areas plan to further strengthen cooperation, to improve the overall competitiveness as a potential world-class city cluster, said officials on the sidelines of the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress.





Yang Maorong, head of the Tianjin Binhai New Area, said that "with the aim of promoting regional coordinated development, we have set up the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park, integrating the innovative achievements and resources from Beijing with Tianjin's advanced manufacturing capacity and thus bringing the utmost benefits to both parties."





Yang, who is also an NPC deputy, noted that in the future, Hebei, Tianjin and Beijing are expected to make full use of their respective advantages, and boost joint development with concerted efforts, further realizing the nation's "Made in China 2025" strategy, as well as creating an internationally oriented platform for reform and opening-up.





Zhang Gong, vice-mayor of Beijing, agreed. "In the past three years, Beijing has injected a total of 560 billion yuan ($88 billion) into Tianjin and Hebei, further deepening the industrial integration among the regions. To date, companies from the Zhongguancun Science Park have set up more than 6,100 subsidiaries in the two regions."





Last November marked the first anniversary of the establishment of the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park, where many enterprises have benefited from the integration of innovative and industrial resources from Beijing and Tianjin.





"The reason why we choose to bring our company here is that we see the science park as an industry agglomeration district where science, technology, healthcare and finance industries can develop alongside each other," said Ning Shuxing, chief executive officer of Enduxinneng (Tianjin) Tech Co Ltd, a big data company that has just entered the Tianjin (Binhai)Zhongguancun Science Park.





Liu Qi, general manager of Sublue Tech Co Ltd, an underwater robot company that was set up in the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park last March, agreed.





He said that he and his team were attracted to the science park because they get favorable policies from not only the science park, but also from the Binhai New Area and Tianjin.





"Our employees in the Binhai New Area get subsidies for three consecutive years. The annual living allowances for each employee with a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and a PhD are 12,000 yuan, 24,000 yuan and 36,000 yuan respectively. The company also receives construction and rent subsidies," Liu said.





Duan Haibo, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, told the Xinhua News Agency that the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park plays a crucial role in deepening the innovative collaboration between Beijing and Tianjin, as well as accelerating regional transformation and industrial upgrading of the two regions.





According to Duan, the enactment of the government's favorable policies in the future will promote more cooperation between Beijing and the Binhai New Area by docking resources from the two regions, setting up industrial development foundations, as well as promoting communication between research institutes from Beijing and Tianjin, to build a cross-region innovation and entrepreneurship ecological system.





Besides, monthly intercity railway tickets between Beijing and Binhai have been issued to attract talents from Beijing to start businesses in the new area. Binhai also canceled driving restrictions in the new area for cars with a Beijing license, Yang added.





Beijing and Tianjin's efforts for coordinated development were echoed by what has taken place in Hebei. Yuan Tongli, vice-governor of Hebei province, said that during the past four years, Hebei has been sparing no efforts to contribute to the joint growth of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the province had witnessed significant progress on many fronts, including transportation, industrial manufacturing, education, healthcare as well as the environment.



You are here: Business

China International Import Expo (CIIE) has signed its first contract with a leading intelligent manufacturer, the organizers said Wednesday.





Tawara Kazuyuki, chairman of the board at Nachi (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.,said that he hopes to show and improve the company's robotic products and technology through the expo.





Nachi is a top company in the robotics industry and will be a highlight of the intelligent and high-end equipment zone of the CIIE.





The zone covers industries such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, energy conservation, 3D printing and new energy equipment.





More than 250 companies have signed letters of intent to take part in the CIIE, according to the CIIE Bureau.





The first CIIE will be held in Shanghai in November, which is expected to bring together thousands of enterprises from more than 100 countries.



China's emerging first-tier cities have become popular destinations for the inflow of talented professionals, according to a report.

Hangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou and Xiamen have outperformed Beijing and Shanghai in attracting professionals thanks to their vibrant business growth potential and abundant job opportunities, according to a report by global employment-oriented social networking platform LinkedIn.

The Internet sector is the most attractive industry among job seekers, followed by real estate, automobiles, financial services and education management.

"The employment landscape is in line with the industrial development of these sectors, with emerging industries and those undergoing upgrading posting stronger demand for professionals," said Zhou Zhenyu, a senior LinkedIn data expert.

The report pointed out that the Chinese are changing their jobs more frequently than before. The average time spent in one workplace shrank from 34 months in the 2014-2015 period to 22 months in the 2017-2018 period, pointing to a more vibrant employment market.

Chinese human resources staff are more tech-savvy than before as many have begun or are willing to use big data, artificial intelligence and other new technology to aid recruitment, according to the report.For the last 34 years, a primary school in Shenyang has maintained a policy not giving homework to its students. The free time has helped reduce the burden on students, who have continued to achieve great academic performance, reports banyuetan.org.

The Fifth Primary School of Shenyang Railway, in north China's Liaoning Province, is famous for its relaxed atmosphere. The school, which was established in 1958, introduced its no homework policy in 1984 in a pilot scheme for one class. But it has since been introduced across the campus.

Zhang Xiujin, the former head of the school, said "There are only teachers who don't know how to teach, there are no children who can't be taught. There is not a lot of knowledge that needs to be learned during the primary school period, so the extra workload is unnecessary."

With no homework to keep them busy at the end of the day, students can join optional courses or participate some of the school's 60 different clubs, as well as 20 compulsory courses covering topics including smart robots, music, and the arts.

A parent of one of the children at the school said, "This school prefers to encourage students to read books and news instead of giving them homework, which helps develop a good learning habit."

Wang Hongliang graduated from the school in 2013. He says the benefits of allowing students to think more and develop their individual interests are clear after they enter high school. "My life preparing for college entrance examination is full of stress, but the experience of studying at this primary school really helped me a lot."

In his government work report at the opening of this year's "Two Sessions," Premier Li Keqiang announced that the government will "give attention to addressing the problem of heavy extracurricular burdens on primary and secondary school students".You are here: China

A company in China has developed the world's fastest server with the most cost-effective big data search capability, according to big data testing service TPCBenchmark Express-BigBench.



The server, called I620-G30, can complete 3,383.95 big data searches per minute at the cost of US$307.86 per search.

The new server can complete a search twice as fast and at half the price of what was possible in the last century, said Qin Xiaoning, vice president of Sugon.

Sugon is a leader in high-performance computing, server, storage, and cloud computing and big data in China.Deputies to the National People's Congress Thursday shared their experiences on poverty alleviation at a press conference held on the sidelines of the ongoing session.





Zhao Huijie, Party Secretary of Xiaomiaozi Village of Chifeng City, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said the village was striving to inspire people to live a happy life.





"We taught a family to raise organic pigs and geese and now not only have they been lifted out of poverty but their ambition has been totally inspired," Zhao said.





The annual income per capita of his village was raised from 3,000 yuan (about 475 U.S. dollars) in 2009 to 13,000 last year.





Li Jun, Party Secretary of Xiuyun Village in southwest China's Sichuan Province, said his village had started a new poverty alleviation plan to give the impoverished more esteem.





"We have paired more than 5,000 city households with people who are living below the poverty line. Instead of pure donation, the donors buy agricultural produce from the poverty-stricken families," Li said.





China plans to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty this year, according to the annual government work report made by Premier Li Keqiang. The country will put more effort into developing local industry, education and healthcare, according to the report.





There were around 30 million Chinese living below the national poverty line at the end of last year.





"The challenges lie in illness," said Xiang Changjiang, director of the village committee of Xiangjia Village of Longhui County, central China's Hunan Province. "Many people were thrown back to poverty due to illness."





He suggested that government make policies to support people living in the rural areas who have serious illness, improve the health care system and increase the medical reimbursement ratio.





"The work gets harder towards the end, but we have confidence," said Cao Qinghua, Party Secretary of Lianzhu Township of Puer City, southwest China's Yunnan Province.



Thanks to 158 bridge bearings manufactured in a military factory in central China, the world's longest sea bridge sits majestically above the most bustling waters in southern China.





The bearings, or "joints" that connect the pier and bridge body, are crucial to the quality and lifespan of the 55-kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge situated in the Lingdingyang waters of the Pearl River Estuary.





The supplier of the joints, Luoyang Sunrui Special Equipment Co., is a subsidiary of Luoyang Ship Material Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, which provides technological support for Chinese naval warships.





Many technologies developed by the institute have been applied to several national key projects, such as the record-breaking Jiaolong deep-sea manned submersible, China's first aircraft carrier Liaoning, and the country's first manned space docking between Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and the country's first space lab Tiangong-1.





Due to deeper military-civilian integration, those technologies have been widely used in civilian areas, including major infrastructure projects, wind turbine blade, and affordable medical apparatus and instruments such as heart stent.





"Over 90 percent of our production value now comes from civilian goods," said Wang Guoyu, secretary of the Party committee of the institute.





As China continues to implement the military-civilian integration strategy, an increasing number of military enterprises have been applying their cutting-edge technologies to manufacturing civilian products. Once mysterious military technology has become a part of people's daily lives.





Haiying Special Materials Company uses one-millimeter-thick nanometer aerogel as a thermal insulation material for its winter boots. The material was used on the gas pipelines of Long March-5 rockets and microthermal lockers of the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft.





China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASIC) has partnered with the National Library of China and National Ancient Books Protection Center to apply astronautical technologies to the protection of ancient books.





According to Gao Hongwei, chairman of CASIC, more than 2,000 aerospace technologies have been applied to various sectors of the national economy, and made tremendous contributions to social development.





According to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense in December, 70 percent of products manufactured by military enterprises in China were for civilian use.





"China's defense industry has accumulated a lot of advanced technologies and high-end talent over the decades, but many achievements have not been adopted in civilian areas yet," said Zhang Liangrui from the administration. "China will introduce more measures to promote military-civilian integration, to contribute to national industrial upgrading and economic development."



The community with a shared future for humanity is a concept China put forward for the benefit of world peace and development. [File photo]





As a rising power on the world stage, China intends to make its full contribution to maintaining world peace and development by putting forward some eye-catching notions, such as the community with a shared future for humanity.





This is not simply an ordinary phrase, or even a slogan. It was added to both the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, as amended in October 2017, and the Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China, the draft amendments of which have been adopted at the first plenary session of the 13th National Peoples Congress on March 11.





It first saw light in a white paper entitled Chinas Peaceful Development, published by the Information Office of the State Council on September 6, 2011. According to this document: Economic globalization has become an important trend in the evolution of international relations. Countries of different systems and different types and at various development stages are in a state of mutual dependence, with their interests intertwined. This has transformed the world into a community of common destiny* in which members are closely interconnected. 





President Xi Jinping has mentioned this phrase many times at different occasions. The only difference between his speeches and the 2011 White Paper is that he adds for mankind or humanity after the original expression. In his important speech at the United Nations meeting in Geneva, on January 18 last year, for instance, he laid out the requirement in these words: Pass on the torch of peace from generation to generation, sustain development and make civilization flourish: this is what the people of all countries long for; it is also the responsibility that statesmen of our generation ought to shoulder. And so, Chinas proposition is to build a community of shared future for mankind, and achieve shared, win-win development.





Of course, fancy ideas, or great visions, can be realized only through tangible actions. In order to build the desired global community, President Xi has outlined an action plan covering five areas:





- Staying committed to building a world of lasting peace through dialogue and consultation;





- Establishing a world of common security for all through joint efforts;





- Creating a world of common prosperity through win-win cooperation;





- Developing an open and inclusive world through exchanges and mutual learning.





- Ensuring a world that is clean and beautiful by pursuing green and low-carbon development.





In the process of writing a paper on this concept, I conducted an informal survey with many of my foreign friends and foreign students via emails, social media and face-to-face interviews. I hope to know what they thought of the proposal, and how such a community could be realized. To my surprise, almost none of them had ever heard of it.





To construct an all-embracing community with a shared future is no easy task. It entails strenuous efforts by every individual and every nation. As a first step, the meaning of the word community, and the significance of creating it, must be made known as widely as possible.





Over the past few years, Chinese media and the academic community have paid great attention to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). There have been so many conferences, symposia and seminars on the concept, and the media has offered wide coverage of various events associated with it. Relatively speaking, not many academic meetings have, so far, been held to discuss the community of shared future for all humanity.





To make up for this shortfall, Chinese academics need to organize more international discussions on this topic, and the media needs to publicize such events.





As the BRI is one of the best paths towards the realization of a community with a shared future for humanity, both have an important role to play.





Indeed, a growing number of Chinese publications have come forth to promote this great cause. Unfortunately, most of them are written in Chinese and have little influence outside of China. It is, therefore, necessary to translate well-written books and papers into foreign languages so as to attract more non-Chinese readers. The Internet can also play an important role in this regard.





Nowadays, in every Chinese university there are many foreign students pursuing graduate or undergraduate studies in different academic fields. They are the future of the world, and it is they who will bear the greatest responsibility for developing the desired community with a shared future. In addition, they can also be a bridge linking China and their native places. Therefore, Chinese universities must seek to offer lectures or even whole courses on the topic.





It is also necessary to point out that, to publicize the concept, Chinese scholars and the media must use appropriate language that can be easily understood by the outside world; otherwise, what they say is likely to fall on deaf ears.





*This is the early-stage English translation of the Chinese concept ren lei ming yun gong tong ti. It was later changed to the version of a community of shared future for mankind and then further to the version of a community with a shared future for humanity to better convey the conception of this Chinese phrase.  The Editor





The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/jiangshixue.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.The 10th China-LAC Business Summit is held in Tangshan, China's Hebei province, Oct. 14-15, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]





With 33 member states, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is South America's largest regional bloc. During the great recession of 2008 this region faced huge difficulties in securing international financing from lending institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, leading many countries to turn to China, who is now the largest trade partner for some, including Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

It is fascinating to note that trade between China and Latin America was virtually non-existent at the turn of this century but rocketed to a remarkable $200 billion per year by 2014. Having already registered a record 2,000 percent increase since the year 2000, the extent of trade is set to grow exponentially as further diversification in Chinese investments is expected in the future. According to ongoing plans, China is directing $250 billion to the region in direct investments, in addition to about $500 billion in trade, between 2015 and 2019.

Trade is poised to expand further as economic engagement is spurred in six key sectors, namely manufacturing, information technology, scientific innovation, infrastructure, agriculture and natural energy resources. Chile is doing extremely well exporting wine, fruit and modified foods, while Colombian coffee is in huge demand abroad.

Increasing at the rate of 30 percent in 2017 alone, China is the largest trading partner of Peru, Chile and soon also Brazil. Investments from China having extended beyond raw-material extraction into car manufacturing, tech, and telecom, primarily in Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. What's more, since the 2018 China-Chile free trade agreement, 98 percent of products traded between these two nations will have zero tariffs.

Now, in a recent watershed moment, China proposed to extend the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the South American continent. At the second China-CELAC ministerial meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the group of states to play a "meaningful role" in the New Silk Road and to support free trade as part of an "open world economy."

Three documents were penned at the meeting: the Santiago Declaration regarding climate change; a broad-based joint action plan addressing science and technology, infrastructure and renewable energy; and a special declaration on the Belt and Road Initiative. Emphasizing the need for land and sea connectivity projects, Wang Yi stressed, "It has nothing to do with geopolitical competition. It follows the principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration."

Extending the BRI to South America would greatly improve the region's connectivity, with projects such as the recommended 19,000-km trans-Pacific fiber optic internet line, which would run from China to Chile, shortening distances by linking people across the world.

Welcoming the multi-dimensional agreements, Professor Luis Suarez from Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana hopes that they will "change the traditional perception of Latin America as an exporter of commodities and lead to the exchange of products with greater added value from both directions."

Promoting globalization, free trade and cooperation in South America, China discourages trade protectionism and has expressed belief in the shared gains for all.

Having already invested in Latin American infrastructure, China now moves to increase connectivity by extending the BRI into the South American continent. Increasing the worth and utility of ongoing construction projects, the move would also benefit more than 2,000 Chinese business enterprises already engaged in Latin America with bilateral trade exceeding $210 billion in 2017.

Endorsing the idea, Wu Hongying from the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations stated, "The region is an integral part of joint efforts to develop the Belt and Road Initiative."

As Latin American countries, especially G20 members Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, sought out foreign investment to complete large-scale infrastructure construction, China stepped in to fill the gap. This in turn helped to improve the investment climate in the region, attracting more participation from foreign businesses.

In just 15 years, in fact, Chinese trade and investment has set off an economic boom in Latin America, doubling the size of its middle class and alleviating poverty significantly.

With a focusing on sustainability instead of profits, China has managed to withstand the unstable economic and political trends in Latin America over the years. As a result, some Latin American countries are now curious about how the Chinese economic model has managed to be more resistant to the global slowdown experienced to a greater degree in the U.S. and many other capitalist countries.

The future may bring further opportunities for China to collaborate with CELAC countries to facilitate social progress and economic growth.

Sabena Siddiqui (Twitter: @sabena_siddiqi) is a foreign affairs journalist and lawyer based in Pakistan.





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.



 Flash

China is willing to maintain a cooperative posture with the United States and work with the new U.S. Secretary of State to promote the healthy and steady development of bilateral relations, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.





Spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine news briefing after U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced on his Twitter account that Rex Tillerson will no longer serve as Secretary of State, and he will be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.





"China and the United States maintained close communication during Tillerson's tenure and we appreciate his efforts in advancing the growth of Sino-U.S. relations," Lu said, adding that China is willing to work with the new Secretary of State to push forward the healthy and steady development of bilateral ties under the consensus reached by the two heads of state.





The cooperation in bilateral ties, regional and international issues not only accords with the fundamental interests of China and the United States, but also meets expectations of the international community, Lu said. Flash

An F-18 jet of the U.S. Navy crashed Wednesday afternoon near Key West in the U.S. state of Florida, killing two crew members on board, the Navy said.

"We are sad to report that both aviators have been declared deceased," the U.S. Naval Air Forces said on social media, adding that the relatives of the dead were being notified.

Both crew members ejected before the crash. They had been transferred to Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West before the declaration of their death, said Naval Air Forces Atlantic spokesman Dave Hecht.

The jet, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 213 from the state of Virginia, experienced a mishap as it approached the Boca Chica Field in the area of Chica Key, the authorities said.

According to witness accounts, the aircraft erupted into fire before "dropping from the sky." Photos taken at the site show the aircraft crashed upside down into shallow waters. It remains unknown whether the crew landed on land or in water.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation.

The F-18 Hornet is a twin-engine supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole combat jet that went into service in the 1980s. Flash

Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said Wednesday that Britain's allegations that Moscow was responsible for a nerve attack were "completely unacceptable."



"The Russian Federation thinks it is completely unacceptable to launch unjustified accusations as contained in the letter from Theresa May dated March 13 to the Secretary-General of the United Nations," Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom on March 4.

"We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event. Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account," he added.

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen said hundreds of his countrymen had potentially been exposed to the agent.

He said Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, were poisoned with "Novichok," which he insisted is a weapon that cannot be manufactured without the use of the highest-grade state laboratories.

"This was no common crime," he said. "It was an unlawful use of force."

U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity" with the UK, following the nerve agent attack against the former Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week.

The United States believes that Russia "is responsible for the attack" on the two people using a military-grade nerve agent, Haley added.

Russia dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack.

Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese ambassador to the UN, said China hopes that "a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation could be conducted based on facts and in accordance with relevant international rules and reach an evidence-based conclusion that can stand the test of facts and history."

"We hope relevant parties could properly handle this issue through appropriate channels," he said.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition.

British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from Britain and will freeze Russian state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

Britain will also suspend all planned high-level bilateral contacts with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the poisoning incident. Flash

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Wednesday that he was ready to resign in the wake of the murder of a journalist and his fiancee, provided that no early polls are called.



In a statement, Fico told said that he would resign from his post if Slovak President Andrej Kiska will respect the continuity of the ruling of the three-party coalition of Smer-SD, Most-Hid and Slovak National Party.

"A possible early election would cause huge instability in the country. Therefore (we) should continue the current coalition with the new prime minister nominated by my party, Smer-SD. This is the best solution," Fico said.

Other coalition leaders, Bela Bugar and Andrej Danko, appreciated the decision of Fico and expected the calming of the situation in country.

There had been massive protests in several Slovak cities with demonstrators demanding a new government and an independent investigation of the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova.



 Flash

University officials received a report of a shooting at graduate dorm on Wednesday in Northwestern University's main campus in Evanston in U.S. state of Illinois, local media Chicago Tribune reported.

Northwestern University spokesman Alan Cubbage said they received a report of a shooting inside the Frank C. Engelhart graduate residence hall at Emerson Street and Maple Avenue. He told reporters that Evanston Police and Northwestern University police responded to the scene.

Northwestern police said in a tweet that there is no evidence of a victim or gunman found at the residence hall. They told people to stay away from the area of Emerson and Maple. Flash

Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed the United States for its "interventionist" stance towards Syria.

The U.S. "hostile" policies against the countries of the region is nothing new, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said, warning the U.S. government against any "foolish" action on Syria.

"Should America insists on such policies, the nations of the region will react and show that they won't accept foreign presence in their region," Qasemi was quoted as saying by Tehran Times.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Monday that Washington was ready to unilaterally "act" against Syria, just as it did last year when it bombed a Syrian government air base.

Her remarks followed the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government against its people.

Unlike the U.S.-led coalition, Iran is present in Syria upon the official request of Damascus to help the country fight terrorism, said Qasemi.

"We hope peace returns to Syria through diplomacy," he said. Flash

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Angela Merkel has been elected chancellor for the fourth time on Wednesday by a narrow majority of delegates in the German federal parliament (Bundestag).



The 63-year old veteran stateswoman was supported by 364 out of 688 delegates during the anonymous vote, granting her only four more votes than the minimum threshold of 355 in the 709-seat chamber under German law.

Given that the ruling "grand coalition" parties have a combined 399 seats in the current parliament, the opposition unanimously voted against Merkel.

After taking an oath in the federal parliament, Merkel was received by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at his official Bellevue palace residence in Berlin where she was inaugurated together with her 15 cabinet ministers.

At the ceremony, Steinmeier urged the new government to win back trust which German citizens had lost in their political system. "A simple reiteration of the old will not suffice," the president warned.

The result of the parliamentary vote has no bearing on the legislative power of the new "grand coalition" and was largely interpreted by media and politicians as a public show of frustrated over the protracted process of government formation following national elections in September 2017.

Nevertheless, designated SPD leader Andrea Nahles expressed astonishment at the narrow margin with which Merkel secured her chancellorship.

"There were more opposition votes than I had expected," Nahles told the broadcaster Welt. She insisted that the SPD position had been "very cohesive", pointing her finger at rebel delegates in the CDU and CSU factions.

Opposition parties interpreted Merkel's parliamentary confirmation as evidence for growing fatigue with the "grand coalition" and remaining internal disputes between the CDU, CSU and SPD. Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner, who triggered the collapse of earlier "Jamaica" coalition negotiations, described Wednesday's vote as constituting a "loss of authority" for the chancellor.

The new federal cabinet will convene for the first time later today. Foreign minister Heiko Maas (SPD) will also travel to Paris on Wednesday in a first demonstration of the normalization of German politics to Berlin's international partners.

The chancellor is subsequently scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to discuss Franco-German plans for the reform of the European Union (EU) and eurozone. Flash

"The New Silk Road on the transcontinental transport corridors' map" was one of most crucial discussion panels during the 11th Europe-Ukraine Forum in Jasionka, southeastern Poland, which concluded Thursday.

Polish Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk is one of the speakers in the panel dedicated to the Belt and Road Initiative. He underlined the importance of creating the communication corridors between Europe and Asia, saying such corridors not only contribute to the development of the B&R Initiative, but most importantly help boost local economies and improve trade and cargo exchange.

"That is the sense in all this - the sense that we perceive the idea of one route, one road," Adamczyk said.

The minister also hoped for using this opportunity to extend the Polish A4 highway to Ukraine.

The highway, according to the minister, is of huge interest to countries such as Belarus, Ukraine, as well as the countries of Central Asia. Adamczyk reminded that such communication corridors, a part of Belt and Road initiative, are already being carried out.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa based on ancient land and maritime trade routes.

The two-day meeting in Jasionka has seen 300 speakers and more than 40 panel debates devoted to economic, political and social issues. The forum was accompanied by the 2nd Eastern Fair, attended by over 70 exhibitors from IT, financial, construction, motor, tourism and many other sectors. Flash

Scientists around the world have mourned the passing of and given high accolades to Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who revealed some secrets of the origin of the universe in his rather difficult lifetime stricken by deadly disease.



American space agency NASA praised Hawking who died in the early hours of Wednesday "a renowned physicist and ambassador of science," whose "theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring."

He "showed us there are no limits to achieving our dreams," European Space Agency said in its twitter account, praising the man who suffered amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and lost his ability to write down math equations, but worked with incredible determination to make great accomplishments in cosmology.

Christopher Shaw, a neuroscientist at King's College London called Hawking "an outliers outlier, both in terms of his extraordinary contribution to science and the time he survived with motor neuron disease."

"Stephen Hawking overcame unimaginable challenges to become one of the most influential and renowned scientists of our time. His life is a testament to the power of human creativity and imagination," said Venki Ramakrishnan, President of Britain's Royal Society.

Hawking, known for his work with black holes and relativity, had sought "new links between the very large (the cosmos) and the very small (atoms and quantum theory) and to gain deeper insights into the very beginning of our universe," according to Hawking's colleague Martin Rees, an astronomer with the University of Cambridge.

Hawking predicted that black holes would not be completely black, but would radiate in a characteristic way. His most important scientific legacy is his idea that "black holes slowly dissolve like aspirin in a glass of water," in the words of Lisa Harvey-Smith, an Australian astronomer.

"It is still the focus of theoretical interest, a topic of debate and controversy more than 40 years after his discovery," Rees said.

Hawking is also the author of popular science book "A Brief History of Time."

"He was a true genius who had a great admiration of and connection to the public. Most people, when he published A Brief History of Time, would have thought a book about physics would not sell. But Stephen knew people would want to read it and it turned out they did," said Katherine Mathieson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association.

Michio Kaku, American theoretical physicist called Hawking the "rock star of science."

Rees said Stephen was "far from being the archetype unworldy or nerdish scientist. His personality remained amazingly unwarped by his frustrations and handicaps."

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said that "we lost a great one today," who will be remembered for "his spirit and unbounded pursuit to gain a complete understanding of the universe, despite the obstacle he faced."

"Stephen Hawking was a great physicist, a great public communicator, and a great icon for science and rationalism throughout the world," according to Paul Nurse, Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. Flash

About half of wildlife and 60 percent of plants in 35 of the world's most exceptional ecosystems and habitats are at risk of extinction due to climate change, said a report based on a study.



The study, conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), University of East Anglia in Britain, and the James Cook University in Australia, was published on Tuesday in the journal Climate Change.

The study concluded that nearly 80,000 plants and animals in 35 biodiverse areas, including the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos islands, southwestern Australia and Madagascar, could be at risk in the next century if global temperatures continue to rise.

"Hotter days, longer periods of drought, and more intense storms are becoming the new normal, and species around the world are already feeling the effects," said Nikhil Advani, lead specialist for climate, communities and wildlife at the WWF.

Researchers examined the impact of climate change with three scenarios: a 2-degree-Celsius rise in global temperature, the upper target of the 2015 Paris Agreement, a 3.2-degree-Celsius rise, the estimated forecast given exiting national commitments, and a 4.5-degree-Celsius rise, if current carbon emissions trends remain unchanged.

The study found that in the second scenario, 60 percent of plant species and 50 percent of animal species in the Amazon would be wiped put. In the first scenario, the outlook is better, with more than 35 percent of species at risk of local extinction.

"The collected results reveal some striking trends. They add powerful evidence that we urgently need global action to mitigate climate change," the report said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in June last year that the United States would withdraw from the landmark Paris climate accord, weakening global efforts to fight climate change. Trump said in January that his country could join the international accord if it had a "completely different deal", calling the exiting one a "disaster" for the United States. Flash

President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in formed a committee to prepare for the upcoming summit meeting with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Blue House said Thursday.

Presidential spokesman Kim Eui-keyom told a press briefing Thursday that Moon appointed Im Jong-seok, presidential chief of staff, to lead the preparation committee.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, the country's top policymaker in charge of inter-Korean affairs, was named as vice head of the presidential committee.

Other members of the committee were Chung Eui-yong, top security advisor for Moon; Jang Ha-sung, presidential policy chief; Suh Hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency; Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha; Defense Minister Song Young-moo; and Hong Nam-ki, the minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The committee was composed of three sub-committees in charge of setting an agenda, promotion, and situations management, which will be headed by Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, Presidential Press Secretary Yoon Young-chan, and Kim Sang-gyun, second deputy director of the NIS, respectively.

The committee's first meeting will be held Friday afternoon, Moon's spokesman said. Working-level discussions will be made three or four times a week, with the committee's chief and vice chief in attendance along with the three heads of the sub-committees.

Moon and Kim have agreed to hold their first meeting in late April at Peace House, a South Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the two Koreas.

If held as scheduled, Kim will become the first DPRK leader to set foot on the ROK territory since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in armistice, not peace treaty. The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war.You are here: World

 Flash

The 6th Greater Mekong Subregion(GMS) Summit will be held in Hanoi on March 29-31, with the expectedparticipation of some 2,000 participants.





The participants include GMS countries leaders, senior publicofficials, private sector representatives and development partnerssuch as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and theAsian Development Bank (ADB), Vietnamese Deputy Minister of ForeignAffairs Dang Dinh Quy told reporters on Thursday.





Themed "Leveraging 25 years of Cooperation, Building anIntegrated, Sustainable and Prosperous GMS," the summit is set toreview achievements and shortcomings of cooperation programs overthe past 25 years.





Delegates will also discuss and set directions for cooperationand connectivity in the coming time, said Quy. Under the frameworkof the summit, main discussion sessions include infrastructure andfinancial sources, agriculture and global trade.





A GMS Business Summit will be held for the first time to connectfirms from member countries. Over 200 firms have registered toattend the business summit.





Countries under the GMS program, which focuses on increasedregional cooperation and integration for inclusive and sustainabledevelopment, include Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.



By David Flynn, Australian Business Traveller | Mar. 15, 2018

It's "goodbye" to Dubai and "hello again, old friend" to Singapore as Qantas next weekend ditches the Emirates hub and returns to Singapore as the stopover point for its Kangaroo Route to London.

The Gulf city will see its last Qantas flight on Saturday March 24 -- almost five years to the day that the Qantas-Emirates alliance saw the long-standing Singapore stopover axed in favour of Dubai.

Most Australian business travellers prefer Singapore to Dubai, regardless of whether it's for a two-hour pit-stop at the airport or a two-day stay to break their journey.

Over the years our readers have consistently voted for Singapore as their European stop-over of choice. When we held a reader poll in 2016, Singapore shot to the top with 46.5% of votes -- representing almost every second reader -- with Hong Kong coming in second at 26% and Dubai a distant third in the single-digit territory of just 9.2%.

So Qantas' change should be a winner among readers.

Yet we appreciate that some travellers have, on the whole, grown accustomed to that Dubai transit. While they may care little for the city itself, the timing of the flights does provide a better chance for sleeping on that 14 hour Dubai-Sydney leg).

And -- crucial for first class passengers on the Airbus A380 -- is the changed loungescape between Emirates' sprawling luxury first class lounge and the Qantas Singapore Lounge.

Comparing Emirates' flagship first class lounge to one of Qantas' business class lounges at an international outpost is an uneven playing field, of course, but all the same that's the situation which passengers will face.

But it's not just first class travellers who are raising the orange flag. Many frequent flyers -- including Australian Business Traveller readers, as indicated in this Community discussion -- are concerned that the Qantas Singapore lounge will simply be too small to cope with those superjumbo-loads of business class passengers, Platinum and Gold frequent flyers and Qantas Club passengers.

So, with the big change barely a week away, what's your thinking on Qantas' shift from Dubai back to Singapore and how will it affect your travels?President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message on Wednesday to Angela Merkel on her re-election as German chancellor, vowing joint efforts toward greater progress in bilateral ties.

Merkel was re-elected chancellor by parliament on Wednesday for her fourth term leading Europe's largest economy.

The two nations achieved lasting development in relations through joint efforts since the China-Germany All-round Strategic Partnership was established in 2014, Xi said.Putting H-shares on an even keel Updated: 2018-03-16 06:17 By Evelyn Yu in Hong Kong(HK Edition)

HKEX seen to benefit as mainland regulators woo strategic investors

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) - the nation's securities watchdog - packed off 2017 with a bang on Dec 29, unveiling a pilot scheme to make non-tradable H-shares available for public trading.

The surprise move, which came on the market's last trading day of the year, marks yet another big step forward in the push to further open up the Chinese mainland market.

The program would kick off with up to three companies handpicked by the commission and gradually extend to other H-shares - stocks of enterprises incorporated on the mainland and traded on the Hong Kong bourse - in a bid to improve direct financing for companies and deepen the links between the mainland and Hong Kong markets.

Since the first H-share - Tsingtao Brewery - was floated in Hong Kong in 1993, the past 25 years have seen 254 H-share companies, mostly State-owned enterprises (SOEs), listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) and the Growth Enterprise Market, according to the latest figures from the city's bourse operator.

As the end of 2017, 98 of the H-shares are also listed on the mainland, while the rest of the some 150 H-shares solely listed in Hong Kong form the focus of the pilot program, according to figures compiled by Wind.

Mainland tech behemoth Tencent Holdings and the nation's biggest mobile operator China Mobile, which are among some 150 red-chip stocks, or Hong Kong-listed mainland companies that are registered overseas, are not involved in the shake-up.

Due to the rules put in place by central government regulators, only a small proportion of the H-shares sold during an initial public offering are available for public investors. A huge chunk of the shares - as high as nearly 70 percent of the total standing shares for the some 150 H-share listed companies - are in the hands of substantial shareholders, mostly SOEs, according to CITIC Securities.

The Postal Savings Bank of China - the State-owned commercial retail bank with a market capitalization of 334.66 billion yuan ($53 billion) as of January this year - has non-tradable shares valued at HK$252.65 billion, representing 75.5 percent of its market capitalization, CITIC Securities data show.

China Construction Bank - one of the country's "Big Four" lenders that debuted in Hong Kong in 2005 - is the only H-share company whose shares are fully convertible.

The bank did not respond to China Daily's inquiry about how it obtained the full circulation.

Peter So, head of research at CCB International Securities, reckoned that the uneven share structure surrounding H-shares has gravely hindered corporate governance.

"The majority of shareholders holding chunks of non-tradable shares do not benefit from the upside of the stock prices and, thus, they lack the incentive to manage the company well and boost its stock price," he said.

A full circulation can essentially align the interests of small public shareholders and major shareholders, he said, and it's conducive to fundraising as major shareholders can sell their shares directly or use them as collateral; with a bolstered share price, companies with bigger market capitalization have stronger bargaining power with banks over loans. The conversion of non-tradable shares will also increase market turnover and benefit HKEX, said So.

2005 reform

Market watchers drew a comparison between the H-shares pilot scheme and the A-shares ownership reform in 2005 - a sweeping change that made stocks of some 1,000 A-share enterprises fully convertible within two years.

Shares of mainland-listed companies had been considerably "low float" prior to the 2005 reforms. CSRC statistics showed that, as of 2004, non-tradable shares accounted for up to 64 percent of the A-share market.

CSRC statistics showed that, as of 2004, non-tradable shares accounted for up to 64 percent of the A-share market.

The reform came during a four-year bear run, with the SSE Composite Index tumbling by half - from 2,218 points at the end of June, 2001 to 1,159 by April, 2005. Regulators subsequently moved in to restore confidence in the stock market.

The sweeping reforms had brought non-tradable shares down to a negligible 0.9 percent in the A-share market in a year, according to CITIC Securities. Analysts believed that the following bull runs in 2006 and 2007, which saw the SSE Composite Index jump six-fold - from around 1,000 points to above 6,000 - were largely fueled by the restructuring.

New context

Thirteen years on, regulators are poised to apply the same formula to H-shares. The new initiative underpins ongoing efforts to dismantle regulatory hurdles and has been given a new meaning in the context of the nation-led Belt and Road Initiative.

When the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges were founded in 1990, the central government took into account fostering the development of capital markets, and retaining control of the State-run entity, a CITIC report said.

"But, today, the regulators are more open up and they're willing to introduce strategic investors," said Steven Yang Lingxiu, chief Hong Kong strategist at CITIC Securities.

Citing the heavily promoted mixed ownership reform initiated by the central government, which saw China Unicom introduce four private companies - Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and JD - as its new shareholders last year, Yang said regulators are happy to see the participation of strategic investors with proven success in varied sectors to energize SOE titans. They are also determined to promote full convertibility of shares to facilitate fundraising, he said.

At the 11th Asian Financial Forum held in January, CSRC Vice-Chairman Jiang Yang said direct financing is the "key to capital formation and business deleveraging", and the regulator has pledged to put direct financing, especially equity financing, at the center of their work.

The launch of the high-profile Belt and Road Initiative has offered a fresh impetus for the start of the H-share circulation reform, Yang said, as the program would encourage more companies involved in the initiative to raise funds for various projects in Hong Kong.

As much as the market welcomes the new initiative, experts believe that the impact of the reform would not be on par with that of 2005.

The aggregate market capitalization of non-tradable shares of the more than 150 H-share companies listed only in Hong Kong stood at HK$2.62 trillion as of January this year - about the size of non-tradable A-shares in 2005 - but today, the number accounts for less than 8 percent of the Hong Kong stock market's value.

Details of the pilot scheme are still unavailable and it's not clear whether public investors would be compensated for as in 2005.

Analysts don't expect public stakeholders to be well compensated for, at least not as "generous" as in 2005, when many stakeholders were offered compensation with a share dividend of three shares for every 10 shares.

"Back in 2005, A-shares had a significant premium over shares in Hong Kong and other stock markets but, today, the valuation of some H-shares is even lower than that on the Hang Seng Index."

In the short term, full convertibility of H-shares might result in some volatility in stock prices but, ultimately, public shareholders would be "compensated for in a way with better corporate governance and profits", So said.

evelyn@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 03/16/2018 page8)Nearly 10 years ago, as a college pastor at the University of Oregon, I toiled nearly 80 hours a week doing the work of the Lord. No boundaries. No rhythms. No intention. No rest. Every crisis was my crisis. Every complaint was my problem. Everything and everyone came to me. The long and short of it. I began to burn out. And I knew there was a problem when I started hoping I would burn out. Burnout offered a way out of all the insanity. Though I had never thought it possible, I was, in Pauls words, beginning to weary in doing good (Gal. 6:9). The cost was high. I constantly got sick, my marriage was struggling, and my ministry became misery as I went frantically from crisis to crisis.

Flannery OConnor has this little throwaway line where she speaks of a priest who is unimaginative and overworked. That was me. There was only one problem: The ministry was thriving. People were getting baptized. Students were repenting. The group was growing. It all came to a head one Saturday morning. After an 80-hour workweek, I scheduled an appointment with a student in our college ministry for 10:00 a.m. that Saturday morning. Having not slept well for over a month, I missed my appointment, not even hearing the sound of my alarm. I woke up to a voicemail on my phone: How could you miss this appointment? Pastors shouldnt miss appointments. You have failed me.

I had become, in the words of Stanley Hauerwas, a quivering mass of availability. A need-filler. A gofer. A Christian handyman, available to everyone and everything but the Lord my God. Standing there, I nearly broke my flip phone over my knee and threw it against the wall. I had been working tirelessly only to let one more person down. I could not go on like I had been. By the sovereign grace of God, I had been reading a book by pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson. Through reading the book, I discovered something I had completely ignored in 10 years of Bible readingthis thing called the Sabbath. Peterson eloquently discussed how one day a week he would say no to ministry demands and go on hikes, eat good food, read poetry, and meet with God. I was intrigued. Was this not a waste of time? Was he not wasting his time on selfish endeavors? Then it clicked.

Up until this time, I had thought Sabbath-keeping was selfish. And I thought that if I did rest, it was a sign of weakness. Then I had the epiphany of a lifetime: I had been trying to be selfless. In helping everyone else, I had forgotten myself. I had become the preacher of the gospel who needed the gospel himself. Or, worse yet, I subconsciously thought God wanted me to forget about myself so I could serve others. But that is not the gospel. Jesus loves me too. I could love others only to the extent that I could recognize Gods love for me. I could see to the needs of my community only to the extent that I admitted my own needs. I could care for Gods people only to the extent that I would allow him to care for me. In forgetting all this, I had neglected to care for the body God had given me, the spirit he breathed into me, this soul that he molded with his own hand.

A Commandment, Not a Suggestion

Wisdom prevailed. I admitted my own limits and embraced my finitude. It was one of the first not goods in my life where I recognized I had a deep, human, God-created need. In living for everyone else, I had been trying to be omnipotent and omnipresent; God had never intended me to be either. As I read the Gospels, it became clearer and clearer to me that Jesus himself was not selfless. Jesus went into the mountains and prayed to the point that even his disciples could not find him. Jesus ate. Jesus drank. Jesus slept. He took care of himself. And never once was Jesus hurried from place to place, controlled by a busy schedule. Jesus lived a rhythm completely different from anyone around him. The rhythm of his life was, in itself, a prophetic act against the rhythms of the world.

Article continues below

Sabbath rhythms are not meant for paper; they are meant to be practiced. Holy days, rituals, liturgiesall are like musical notations which, in themselves, one Jewish scholar writes, cannot convey the nuances and textures of live performance. We are not to know about the Sabbath. We are to know the Sabbath. In the years since starting to practice the Sabbath, my family and I have become avid, albeit imperfect, amateur Sabbath-keepers. One day a week, my family turns all the screens off, lights some candles, prays, and invites the God of the Sabbath to bring us rest. This practice, which, again, we do far from perfectly, has saved my marriage, my ministry, my faith, and, I might even say, my life. However, we have come to find that Sabbath never just happens. In our 24/7 world, I have never once seen someone accidentally keep a Sabbath. Sabbath is an action of great purpose, one that demands feisty intentionality. It requires us to live in a rhythm that squarely opposes the dangerous pulse and habits of our world. Sabbath-keeping is not just a small vignette in the Bible. Page after page, story after story, book after book, Sabbath comes to us. This is not a minor motif in the story of the Bibleit is one of the greatest themes of the Bible. Sabbath is not extra credit. It is a commandment, not a suggestion.

Sabbath is Gods eternal way of helping us worship our good God and not worship the good work he has given us to do.

The Sabbath, Jacques Ellul contends, shows that work is not after all so excellent or desirable a thing as people often tell us. In other words, Sabbath provides work with a healthy framework within which good work can be done. The fourth commandment, we must remember, only prohibits us from work on Sabbath. Nothing else is prohibited. This simple act of not working revolutionizes our lives by re-centering our identity on being with God rather than on what we do for the world. Workaholism, in the end, is the result of our sense of self not fully coming into the light of Christ. Workaholism is very different from alcoholismfor the alcoholic, there is no slowly reintegrating alcohol after into your life after getting clean. Workaholism is different. For a workaholic, the issue becomes learning to live rightly in relationship to work. A workaholic will most likely have to get back to work.

The Idol of Exhaustion

As for my work, studies continue to reveal that pastoral burnout is connected to the pastors sense of being and worthiness. I became a workaholic chiefly because I had not allowed the grace of Jesus to reside in the depths of the caverns of my soul. I even used to think the Sabbath was a break from ministry. Now I see the Sabbath as ministry. It frees people. It helps others in the church. It establishes boundaries. And, above all, it proclaims the Good News of Jesus. As I read Peterson, one question came back to me over and over again: How can I preach salvation by grace when my life is built on an altar of workaholism?

In our culture, in place of a meaningful relationship with Jesus where we are defined by the Fathers love, we will continue to relish our overstuffed, busy lives. Busyness will be our trophy. More often than not, the only way we can truly feel good about our lives is if we are burning out doing it. We want scars to brag about. We have, as Barbara Brown Taylor writes, made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when were running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see least. It seems this cultural mantra has been treated like a command from God, but God never asked us to work to the point of burnout.

We were not created just to work.

Work is not our Ultimate.

A. J. Swoboda is the pastor of Theophilus Church in Portland, Oregon. This article is adapted from his book Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World (Brazos).

A. J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath, Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group,  2018. Used by permission of the publisher. www.bakerpublishinggroup.comFor Egyptian Christians, 2017 was the deadliest modern year on record. At least 87 were killed by terrorists.

But despite being labeled by ISIS as its favorite prey, Copts were only 12 percent of such fatalities last year. Far more Muslims died in extremist violence at the hand of fellow believers.

Unless they arent believers at all.

If American Christians often dont know how to understand Islam, they can take some comfort knowing that Egyptian Muslims struggle too.

A tragic case study occurred in December, when more than 300 people were killed at a Sinai mosque belonging to a Sufi order. Sufi Muslims are known for their mystical practices in search of spiritual communion with God. Many also seek intercession at the graves of Muslim saints.

In casual but solemn conversation at an upper-class organization in Cairo, one well-educated Egyptian woman reflected on the tragedy with colleagues. Yes, but they are Sufis, she said. Theyre not really Muslims.

The woman was not making light of the massacre, nor justifying it. But she had internalized a message preached by another type of MuslimSalafiswho judge Sufi practices to be outside the bounds of orthodox Islam. And when Salafis become jihadists, they may well kill Sufis as apostates.

In angry conversation with a middle-class taxi driver in Cairo, one typical Egyptian denounced ISIS for its crimes against both mosques and churches. No, we cant say that they arent Muslims, he said. Of course they are.

What causes such confusion? Innocent victims, praying in a mosque, are placed outside of Islam while murderers, salivating at the entrance, remain in the faith?

At issue is ...

1

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Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.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.AKRON, Ohio - East Akron could be the first Akron neighborhood to get a spray park. Mayor Dan Horrigan has said he would like to install one spray park in each ward.

The park would be installed at Talbot-Whitney Park between Talbot and Whitney avenues.

To learn what residents would like to see developed there and to gather feedback, city officials will attend a Ward 5 meeting, hosted by Councilwoman Tara Mosley Samples.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Thursday, March 15, at the East Akron neighborhood Development Corp, 550 S. Arlington St.

The spay park would be designed to run for about 15 minutes and then would need to be restarted with a button if kids were still playing. It would be turned on and off in the mornings and evenings at set times each day.

The water feature could include jets coming out of ground and possibly from a frog or flower feature geared for kids, to direct the water. An arch above would spray the water all around.

"It's a place for kids to gather safely and requires no lifeguard on duty," said Deputy Public Service Director Chris Ludle.

The city would run 100 percent fresh, non-recycled water through the spray that would then return to the city's storm water system for treatment.

If the community wants the spray park, the city would put the project out for bids.

The park would be installed in conjunction with several components of the Akron Waterways Renewed! sewer project that are now being built in the East Akron neighborhood.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.AKRON, Ohio - If you're looking for a hot sauce that is both flavorful and hot, look no further than Not Yo' Daddy's Mexican hot sauce, which opened late last year in Akron's Northside Marketplace.

The hot sauce company is owned by wives and business partners Cristina Gonzalez Alcala and Richelle Wardell, who share their 154 square-foot space with co-tenants Urban Buzz and Leaf.

The Northside Marketplace is a Downtown Akron Partnership initiative that is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Tenant businesses work two, four-hour shifts each month at a central cash register to pay for their "rent."

The central cash register allows shoppers to pay for most purchases at one place (a few stores have their own checkouts), and frees business owners from having to staff their space during operating hours.

"I don't think we could find a better place to catapult ourselves into trying to start a business," Gonzalez Alcala said.

Not Yo' Daddy's sauces are made in Akron at Sweet Mary's Bakery, and come in four flavors:

Original

Sweet Smoke

Ghost Pepper

Ole Chipotle

Northside Marketplace hours are Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Not Yo' Daddy's sauces can also be purchased online or at Sweet Mary's Bakery, Stray Dog Cafe (inside the Main St. Library), Urban Eats Cafe, Chameleon Cafe, Guy's Pizza Cuyahoga Falls and Jilly's Music Room.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.AKRON, Ohio - The United Way of Summit County and Info Line today announced they plan to merge in the next 90 days.

The merger will expand information and referral services across the county, while delivering operational efficiencies. Info Line Interim President and CEO Tanya Kahl will manage the organization's merger with United Way. Retiring President and CEO Richard Stahl will assist with the merger.

"Thousands of Summit County residents use 2-1-1 to access services," said Derrick W. Ransom, chair of Info Line's board of directors, in a news release. "This merger will be great for our community and will ensure continuity of services for those who need them."

Info Line has operated 2-1-1 resource and referral since 1975, along with the homeless hotline and rapid rehousing services. Nationally, most 2-1-1 services are operated by local United Way chapters. The merger will enable United Way to expand information and referral services in Summit County as part of its Bold Goals for 2025 initiative.

"As we work toward our Bold Goals and a better future for greater Akron, it's vital that we can refer local families to the resources they need to help them thrive," said Christine Mayer, chair of United Way's board of directors in a news release. "By working together as one organization, United Way and Info Line can ensure that those services will continue to grow and adapt to meet the needs of our community."

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.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge on Thursday declared that three men were wrongfully imprisoned for nearly two decades for a 1995 murder they maintain they didn't commit.

Laurese Glover, Eugene Johnson and Derrick Wheatt, who together have become known as "the East Cleveland Three," smiled and expressed relief as they posed for pictures with Judge Nancy Fuerst in her chambers.

"You're the second judge we've had our picture taken with," Glover quipped.

The declaration is an early procedural step in the men's quest to seek compensation from the state of Ohio for each year they spent locked away in prison, and was part of an agreement to settle a federal lawsuit they brought against Cuyahoga County and the two former prosecutors who handled their case, Carmen Marino and Deborah Naiman.

That agreement will see the men eventually collect about $1.5 million each.

As part of the agreement, the prosecutor's office agreed not to challenge the men's application. But a lawyer for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office, who will represent the state in the men's compensation case in the Court of Claims, objected by telephone Thursday and asked Fuerst to delay the hearing so his office could decide whether to respond to the claims.

Fuerst gave DeWine's office until 3 p.m. Friday to respond in writing and will formerly adopt her decision then.

The trio was convicted in the 1995 death of Clifton Hudson. They were released from prison in 2015 when their lawyers working on appeal discovered that evidence that called their guilt into question had been withheld both before and after their trial.

Their lawsuits, filed last year, claimed Marino and Naiman told East Cleveland police in 1998 to not release records relating to Hudson's death to the defendants, who by that point had been convicted, and instead told the department to send copies of the records to the prosecutor's office.

Those records were not released until 2013, when Ohio Innocence Project attorneys again requested them.

The lawsuits also claim that the East Cleveland detectives who investigated Hudson's shooting death manipulated witnesses and withheld information that could help exonerate the men.

The proposed settlement only covers claims made against the county, Marino and Naiman, and not those the trio made against East Cleveland and its detectives.

The group's fight now moves to the Ohio Court of Claims, where they will apply to receive compensation for each of the 19 years they were wrongfully imprisoned.

"This is one step further to reach a future for these men who were wrongfully treated by the system," Brett Murner, who represented Johnson, said.

To comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer

Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is alive and thriving in Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- What seemed like a distant memory buried in some long-gone America has become a popular pilgrimage this time of year.

They come for the milieu, even if most people would hardly associate a yellowish-green awning as a mood-setter. They come for the memories of going to such a place years ago, with their parents or grandparents. And they come for the fish  a crispy, succulent filet of Alaska pollock that makes the past travel full circle into the present.

Welcome to Arthur Treachers Fish & Chips -- a place that time forgot, but the people are increasingly coming to remember.

Text and photos (unless noted) by John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer

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A fast-food icon in the 1970s and '80s

The seafood chain, which started in Columbus in 1969, had 826 stores around the country during its peak in the 1970s. (Arthur Treachers)

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Still strong in Northeast Ohio

Now, there are only three of the original old-style stores left  all in Northeast Ohio. The busiest is Garfield Heights  and not just because the Cleveland area offers a bigger market than Akron or Youngstown, the sites of the other locations.

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A Lenten destination

This has become a tourist destination for Arthur Treachers aficionados, especially during Lent.

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Cult of Arthur Treacher's

We had a line of people outside waiting for us to open on Ash Wednesday, says owner Ben Vittoria, who stepped out from the kitchen area where he'd been working the fryers to attend to a number of customers that had just flooded the counter. "They came all the way from Toledo."

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Reliving memories

"Its almost like a cult," says Vittoria. "They love the fish and also reliving their memories coming here with their parents or grandparents.

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Still the same...

Little has changed since then at this location, from the decor to the fish recipe to the 1970s music playing over the speaker. Well, except for the lantern out front, seen here in a 2016 photo. It came down in during a vicious storm. It was destroyed and, unfortunately, couldn't be replaced... You can't find fixtures for a chain that has largely disappeared in America, except in Ohio.

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A tourist destination

"We used to sell gyros to diversify our business, because we weren't selling enough fish," says owner Ben Vittoria, referring to the Arthur Treacher's on Rockside Road in Garfield Heights. "But business took off and we were selling fish like crazy and got rid of the gyro area in the kitchen and added another fryer." Vittoria and store manager Robert Allen credit a 2016 Plain Dealer article for the turnaround. "It reminded people of this place they grew up with or had heard about and it started making the rounds on social media," adds Allen.

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King of the sea...

Arthur Treacher's onced reigned near the top of the fast-food-chain in America - especially during Lent, when its iconic Fish and Chips meal was a Friday staple. (The Plain Dealer)

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The rise of fast-food chains

The 1960s marked an era of fast growth for fast food, especially in Ohio - the home of chains such as Kenny Kings, Royal Castle , Beef Corral, Red Barn and Wendy's, whose founder Dave Thomas was an early investor in Arthur Treacher's.

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'English' brand with Cleveland connection

English-born, Cleveland-raised actor Bob Hope helped craft the image of the company, which got the fish and chips recipe from Malin's of Bow, of London. "Bob Hope suggested the company work with Arthur Treacher, who was an old English actor," says Vittoria. (WI Center for Film and Theater Research)

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'Like you were going to England'

In the old days, Arthur Treacher -- the actor that became the face of the company -- would show up at openings in a double-decker bus. "No one did anything like that, and it made Arthur Treacher's feel like a special night out, like you were going to England," says Ben Vittoria, the owner of the last three Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips in the Cleveland area. (Photo by and courtesy of Jim Smith)

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Still going in Cuyahoga Falls

A circa-1970s photo of Arthur Treacher's in Cuyahoga Falls -- one of three seafood stores in the area. (Arthur's Treachers)

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Still love those fish & chips dinners

"We've had people call from around the country to see if we do mail order," says Vittoria. "One guy from Oregon wanted me to mail him four dozen fish & chips dinners -- I wouldn't know how to even do that."

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Once the home of dozens of locations

Northeast Ohio was once home to dozens of Arthur Treacher's, including this location in Cedar and Lee roads in Cleveland Heights. (Special Collections, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection)

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Three locations left - in Northeast Ohio

There are three of the original-style Arthur Treacher's left in America, all in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland area location is at 12585 Rockside Road; Garfield Heights; 216-662-6067. There is also one at 1833 State Road in Cuyahoga Falls; 330-923-8900. There is also one in Niles: 2 Youngstown Warren Road; Pinetree Square; Niles, 330-505-2625.

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A quasi-religious devotion

The area developed a quasi-religious devotion to the chain - literally. "Entire congregations would come to Arthur Treacher's after church on a Friday," says Vittoria, who has been with the company since the 1970s. He also owns a franchise in Akron and in Cuyahoga Falls. There is a fourth location in Youngstown. (The Plain Dealer)

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Changes in diets, fast-food

But increased competition resulting in the fast-food wars of the 1970s squeezed smaller players like Arthur Treacher's. There were also changes in religious dietary practices as people became less observant. (YouTube)

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Golden years

Cups from the original heyday of Arthur Treacher's. (Arthur Treacher's)

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'England' via Cleveland

Bob Hope suggested the seafood restaurant align itself with English actor Arthur Treacher, whose movie career went back to the 1930s. Treacher would often show up at store openings in a double-decker bus. In the process, many customers believed that the Ohio company was actually from England. (The Plain Dealer)

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Soccer, anyone?

A circa-1970s ad for Arthur Treacher's featuring British soccer players. While the chain was actually out of Ohio, many thought it was imported from across the ocean. (Arthur Treacher's)

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Vintage Treacher's

A still from a vintage 1970s-era ad for Arthur Treacher's. (YouTube)

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Royal Castle

The 1960s marked an era of fast growth for fast food, especially in Ohio - the home of chains such as Royal Castle. Over the next couple of decades, the "fast-food wars" claimed a number of players, including Royal Castle. (Special Collections, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection)

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The war over cod...

The fast-food wars of the 1970s claimed many, as large chains squeezed regional and smaller players. Across the pond, the "Cod Wars" between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights led to an almost doubling in the price of fish for Arthur Treacher's. (Arthur Treacher's)

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Still flying the flag

By the end of the '70s, the company was sold and the menu changed and it went in bankruptcy a few years later. But Vittoria, seen here filling orders, kept on going. He has continued as a franchisee despite a number of restructurings that have left the fish and chips icon a shell of its former self.

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Flashback to West 117th

The Arthur Treacher's on West 117th, in Lakewood, was one of many locations to close when the company experienced a downturn. (Special Collections, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection)

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Loyal to the concept

"We still use the same recipe for the fish and our hush puppies," says Vittoria. "And our staff has been here with us and is very loyal," adds Allen. No doubt, Carmeron Maye and Christopher Jordan, have been working the fryers for 10 and three years, respectively. The longest-tenured kitchen staffer, Richard Kuznik, has been working here for 30 years.

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Limited qualities

Talk about vintage? The cups used for soda pop at the Arthur Treacher's in Garfield Heights are straight out of the old stock. When they're gone, they're gone. The location also still boasts the face is the Englishman on the front door... and the recipe remains the same.

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Memories...

Robert Allen has exhibited memorabilia around the Rockside Road Arthur Treacher's that recalls the company's heyday. "This is more than a restaurant to us," says Allen. "We're giving people a story, something they can remember."

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Arthur Treacher's through the years

Commemorative Cleveland Indians cups released by Arthur Treacher's in 1973. (Photo by John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer)

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A story...

"We're really devoted to the story," says Robert Allen, on the right, seen working the kitchen alongside longtime staffer Richard Kuznik.

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Lord Burger, anyone?

The 1960s marked an era of fast growth for fast food, especially in Ohio - the home of chains such as Lord Burger. This 1975 photo shows lunchtime at Lord Burger, 839 Prospect Avenue, in Cleveland. (Special Collections, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection)

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Fish & chips & hot dogs

Outside Ohio, Arthur Treacher's is incorporated or co-branded with stores such as Nathan's Famous Hot Dog or Salvatore's Old Fashioned Pizzeria, which serve Arthur Treacher's as a part of the menu.

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1975

As this 1975 ad indicates, there were 18 locations in the Cleveland area. (The Plain Dealer)

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1980

By the time this 1980 ad came out, there were 11 locations in the Cleveland area. (The Plain Dealer)

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Akron...

Only four operate exclusively as Arthur Treachers - all in Ohio, including this location on Waterloo Road in Akron. (Arthur Treacher's)

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A real guy...

Arthur Treacher, right, was an actual person -- an English actor known for movies and TV appearances with Merv Griffin. He also recorded an album with Griffin. (Photo by John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer)

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Arthur still at the door

You still find the face of Arthur Treacher himself on the door of the Garlield Heights restaurant that bears his name. Remember him? Not many do. After all, the English actor who lent his name to the chain got his start in 1930s and passed away decades ago. (Photo by John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer)

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Old-school...

An unidentified Arthur Treacher's from the old days. The seafood chain, which started in Columbus in 1969, had 826 stores around the country during its peak in the 1970s. (Arthur Treacher's)

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Down the street, a trip across the pond

"In the old days, Arthur Treacher's was seen as a cut above other fast-food chains," says Ben Vittoria. "It was like you were going to England." (Arthur Treacher's)

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Surviving tough times

By the end of the '70s, the company was sold and the menu changed and it went in bankruptcy a few year later, according to Vittoria, who has continued as a franchisee despite a number of restructurings that have left fish and chips icon a shell of its former self. (The Plain Dealer)

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$1.30

A 1970s ad -- imagine, $1.30. (The Plain Dealer)

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Still open

Arthur Treacher's enjoyed its heyday in the 1970s, but the fish and chips restaurant is still going -- thanks in large part to four remaining stores in Northeast Ohio.IHeartMedia Inc., the biggest U.S. radio-station owner, filed for bankruptcy with a plan to halve its debt load of more than $20 billion, the legacy of a leveraged buyout that hobbled the company as the digital era spawned new rivals.

IHeart, with about 850 radio stations and 17,000 employees worldwide, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Wednesday in Houston, a move that allows iHeart to keep operating while it tries to cement its turnaround plan. The deal still needs approval from the court and some holdout creditors, and the company could hear again from John Malone's Liberty Media, which has said it wants a stake in the reorganized media giant.

IHeart owns 12 radio stations in the Cleveland and Akron markets , according to its website. In Cleveland, the roster includes Majic 105.7-FM, 106.5-FM The Lake, 96.5 KISS FM, 99.5 WGAR-FM, 100.7 WMMS -- The Buzzard and Newsradio WTAM 1100-AM.The Akron stations are WKDD-FM/98.1, WHLO-AM/640 and Fox Radio 1350-AM. The Canton stations are Rock 106.9-FM, My 101.7-FM and 99.7 FM.

"Achieving a capital structure that finally matches our impressive operating business will further enhance iHeartMedia's position as America's #1 audio company," Chief Executive Officer Robert Pittman said in a statement.

After trying to ink a deal with creditors since last March, the company said that it reached an accord with investors holding more than $10 billion of its debt, along with its private equity owners, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners. Their leveraged buyout in 2008 was the reason for much of iHeart's borrowing, and the company hasn't posted an annual net profit for a decade. While cash has run short, iHeart said there's enough on hand, along with what it can earn from operations, to keep the business going, cutting the need for expensive new bankruptcy loans.

The company came to terms with its senior lenders just hours before filing for bankruptcy, company treasurer Brian Coleman said in court papers filed Thursday. But one holdout group, owed $190 million, has refused to join the deal and will likely fight the restructuring, Coleman said.

IHeart's Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. unit, which is 90 percent owned by the bankrupt company, wasn't included in the filing. The deal hands control to iHeart's senior creditors.

Among creditors is Malone's Liberty Media, which controls satellite radio giant SiriusXM. Liberty Media accumulated a position in iHeart's debt in recent months with an eye on gaining a stake in the radio business. Liberty sought to break the logjam in negotiations late in February by offering new capital and loans in return for a 40 percent stake, and has said it's willing to go higher. JCDecaux SA, the world's biggest outdoor-advertising agency, also has expressed interest in buying some of Clear Channel's assets.

While Liberty isn't mentioned directly in the restructuring documents, the agreement leaves room for potential bids by third parties and analysts have said iHeart holders probably haven't heard the last of Liberty's offer.

Speaking on a March 1 earnings call, Liberty Chief Executive Officer Greg Maffei cited "substantial synergies" between the ailing iHeart and two other Malone investments: the majority-owned satellite radio giant SiriusXM Holdings Inc. and Pandora Media Inc., the online music company where Liberty took a minority position last year. IHeart has its own streaming service. IHeart and Pandora, meanwhile, could share advertising technology and sales forces, Maffei said. IHeart's is larger than those at Pandora and Sirius, he said.

Read more: A timeline of iHeart's tumultuous decade

About 265 million people in the U.S. still tune in to iHeart's stations at least once a month, but newer media such as Spotify's streaming service and SiriusXM's satellite broadcasts have cut into the audience and put a damper on sales. IHeart countered with its own streaming services and a live-events business offering concerts and awards shows. The heavy debt was a drag on those efforts, draining $1.4 billion a year in interest payments, according to Coleman.

IHeart's traditional businesses -- the radio stations and the Clear Channel Outdoor billboard unit -- still contribute the bulk of its revenue. It's $20 billion in debt makes it the largest bankruptcy in the last year, and around the 30th largest ever.

The reorganization calls for holders of the company's term loan and other debt to get new debt, equity or warrants in a new company. Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, as equity owners, will get around 1 percent of the new common stock, according to regulatory filings. After bankruptcy, its capital structure will include $5.7 billion in new secured debt and a new asset-backed loan.

The bankruptcy caps a yearlong standoff with lenders and bondholders on its latest debt-cutting plan. The deadline was extended more than 20 times as negotiators exchanged proposals and iHeart sweetened the terms. The current attempt at an accord followed at least a dozen debt revisions over the past decade.

Emma Orr, Tiffany Kary, Bloomberg NewsMAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Receiving stolen property, Golden Gate Boulevard: Officers responded to Best Buy March 5 for a report of a Cleveland woman, 19, trying to pick up an iPad that was purchased with a stolen credit card.

The staff was aware of the fraudulent order because the person whose credit card had been used reported the incident at the North Olmsted store that day. The woman told officers she was working from home and had been instructed to pick up the package and ship it to another person.

She showed emails that proved her statement. Officers told her it may be part of a scam. She has been charged with attempted theft while the incident is being investigated.

Impaired driving, SOM Center Road: A Mayfield Heights woman, 24, was arrested for OVI after her vehicle was pulled over around 9:30 p.m. Feb. 24 for various traffic violations. An open can of beer was found inside the vehicle.

Theft, Mayfield Road: A 58-year-old resident was cited for theft at Walmart March 1 after he was suspected of stealing a phone charger docking kit, valued at $49.94.

Property damage, Marsol Road: A resident of the Drake apartments reported March 2 that her vehicle had been keyed while in the parking lot and she suspected her ex-boyfriend had caused the damage. She said she had seen the Vermilion man, 23, in the apartment lobby before she discovered the damage.

Officers learned that the man has an active warrant out of Geauga County for drug charges.

Suspicion, Mayfield Ridge Road: A man reported March 2 that there were two packages found at the former home of his parents that were addressed to each of them. A friend of his was working at the home and brought the packages into the home.

While he was there, an unknown man came to the home asking for the packages and stating they were delivered to the wrong address by mistake. The friend did not give the packages to the man, and they were later found to contain three iPhones and three iPads.

It is believed the items were purchased fraudulently.

Departmental information, Mayfield Road: A man reported March 3 that a family member, who was in jail in Highland Heights, may be using drugs. He said the man's ex-girlfriend told him the man owes money to drug dealers, and someone sent him messages threatening to go to Mayfield Middle School, where his son is a student.

It was believed the threat was directed toward the man's son. Officers notified the school of the report.

Assault, Sunset Road: A Mayfield Heights man, 26, was arrested for assault March 3 after a woman said he assaulted her at a friend's home. She said he came to the home, accusing her of stealing his medication, which is used to control seizures.

The man was uncooperative with police and suffered an abrasion to his forehead after banging his head against the protective glass in the cruiser.

Theft, SOM Center Road: A Cleveland woman, 52, was charged with theft March 4 after she was suspected of stealing a pair of pantyhose from Target. The staff had been watching her after she tried to return several clothing items that the system showed as not being purchased. She admitted those items were stolen from the store's Macedonia location.

Theft, Mayfield Road: An East Cleveland woman, 45, was arrested at Walmart March 4 for the suspected theft of $619 worth of merchandise she tried to conceal in a large storage tote.

Special attention, Enfield Drive: A man reported March 4 that he was the victim of an armed carjacking in East Cleveland. He said his wallet and wife's keys were inside the vehicle.

He asked for special attention to his home since he believed the suspects would now know his address.

Juvenile complaint, SOM Center Road: A boy, 12, admitted March 5 that he sent a picture on Snapchat of the "Florida shooter" with a threatening comment. The boy's mother said he has no access to any weapons. The boy is facing expulsion from Mayfield Middle School and the prosecutor is reviewing the case for potential charges.

See more Mayfield Heights news at Cleveland.com/hillcrest.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.LYNDHURST, Ohio -- OVI, Mayfield Road: At 2:55 a.m. March 10, a woman driving on Mayfield Road at Biltmore Road struck a utility pole, causing power to be lost in the immediate vicinity. The woman, 25, of Bedford Heights, was found to be intoxicated and was charged with OVI.

Mayfield Road was closed for a time as CEI repaired power lines. The road was fully re-opened to traffic at 4:23 p.m. March 11.

Overdose, Edenhurst Road: At 12:55 a.m. March 12, police were called to a home where a man, 35, had overdosed on drugs. Police administered Narcan to combat the drugs' effects and took the man to Hillcrest Hospital for treatment.

Assist person, Overbrook Road: At 8 p.m. March 11, a girl, 14, went to the police station to report that her father made her leave her house.

Police spoke with the mother and father and learned that the girl was upset because her parents were making her go to school the following Monday.

Drug abuse, Richmond Road: At 9:20 a.m. March 4, police stopped a car driven by an East Cleveland woman, 25, after the woman made an illegal turn at a red light. During the stop, it was found that the woman was in possession of marijuana.

The woman was cited for marijuana possession, making an illegal turn and not wearing her seat belt.

Theft, Cedar Road: At 6:10 p.m. March 7, a staff member at L.A. Fitness, 25145 Cedar Road, reported that credit cards were stolen from a man who is a member at the club.

Theft, Ridgebury Boulevard: At 5:30 p.m. March 5, a man reported that someone had stolen a snowblower from his garage.

Felonious assault, Glenlyn Road: At 11:35 a.m. March 5, the Lyndhurst police school resource officer learned that, on March 1, a female student, 16, had assaulted a fellow female student, also 16, with a lock. Police are investigating the matter.

OVI, Interstate 271: At 7:45 a.m. March 5, police responded to a call of a disabled car on the southbound I-271 exit ramp at Brainard Road. It was learned that the car's driver, a Chesterland woman, 29, was intoxicated. She was arrested for OVI and her car was towed.

The same woman had been involved in an incident on the morning of Feb. 25, when police were called to a home because the woman was breaking and throwing things at her boyfriend. The woman, who had locked herself in her boyfriend's home, was eventually taken to the hospital, but no charges were filed.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Menacing, Plainfield Road: A man, 39, reported March 3 that his housemate threatened to kill him and waved a stick at him. The man wanted to pursue menacing charges.

Officers spoke to the other man, 43, who said he grabbed the stick to protect himself because the man was acting aggressively. He denied threatening him.

Property damage, Colony Road: A man reported March 6 that a window on a garage door at his mother's house had been broken out. There were no witnesses to the incident.

Attempted breaking and entering, Grosvenor Road: A resident reported March 6 that someone tried to break into his home, but his dog scared off the potential intruder, who left behind a cell phone. The phone was turned over to officers, who are investigating the incident.

Theft, Warrensville Center Road: A Euclid man and boy were suspected of stealing $416 worth of snacks and electronics from Walmart March 6 by concealing them in a backpack.

The boy was released to his parents and the man was charged with theft and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Simple assault, Wilmington Road: A girl reported March 6 that she was assaulted at her home by a 20-year-old Woodmere man. The suspect left prior to the arrival of officers. The incident is under investigation.

Theft of vehicle, Greenvale Road: A man reported March 5 that his vehicle was broken into at his business and leaf blowers and a generator were stolen from it. Officers confirmed the passenger side door lock had been broken to gain entry.

Theft, Mayfield Road: A 60-year-old resident was cited for theft at Giant Eagle March 5 after she was found in possession of $50 worth of stolen merchandise.

Theft, Cedar Road: A woman reported March 4 that she believed items were stolen from the back hatch of her vehicle while it was parked at Bob Evans. Officers will review surveillance video to confirm if the theft took place in the parking lot.

Violation of protection order, Princeton Boulevard: A resident reported March 3 that the father of her unborn child violated a protection order by sending her a text message. Officers confirmed that the Chagrin Falls man, 34, had violated the protection order.

Theft, Mayfield Road: A woman reported March 3 that a Giant Eagle employee stole her cell phone while he was helping her load groceries into her vehicle. The man, 18, denied stealing the phone and there was no surveillance video in the area where the vehicle was parked.

Vandalism, Plainfield Road: A woman reported March 3 that there were 19 windows broken out in a home she rents out as a boarding house. She was informed of the damage by one of the tenants. It is unknown who caused the damage, which is estimated at $6,000. The incident is under investigation.

Domestic violence, Oakmount Road: A woman, 27, and man, 36, who reside together, were arrested for domestic violence at 2:42 a.m. March 3 after an incident at their home.

Property damage, Mayfield Road: A man reported March 3 that someone damaged his vehicle while was dropping his wife off at work at Giant Eagle. He said he returned to the vehicle to find a hole in his power steering and brake-caliber lines. He said the safety marker lights had been removed and there was damage to the electrical panel, as well. It was unknown who caused the damage.

See more South Euclid news at Cleveland.com/south-euclid.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The board of the fast-growing Cleveland Metroparks approved more than 72 new acres Thursday morning.

Leaders also announced a new attendance record set in 2017, the parks' centennial year.

The board approved a $542,274 deal for 63.3 acres of woods and meadows in Richmond Heights beetling over Euclid Creek Reservation. And the board accepted more than nine donated acres of floodplain in Broadview Heights protecting the East Branch of the Rocky River between Hinckley Reservation upstream and Brecksville Reservation downstream.

Except for the part of Euclid Creek Reservation on the lakefront, the site secured Thursday will be the biggest single addition the history of the 473-acre park, cobbled together from smaller plots starting in 1920.

The Richmond Heights land fronts on Stoneledge Drive. It was expected to be part of the Highland Ridge homes development, but the project went into foreclosure after the 2008 recession.

The current owner, K. Hoevanian Homes, agreed to delay the sale to the parks until May 2019. Metroparks leaders are optimistic about finding grants by then for the purchase, but today's vote commits the parks regardless.

The land is mostly wet woods, with many mature trees, including shagbark hickory, American beech, American elm, black gum, red maple, pin oak and chestnut oak. It has several openings used by neighbors to view and descend to the park's long, steep valley below.

"This acquisition will improve connectivity to our parks and protect important natural resources for future generations," Brian Zimmerman, the parks' CEO, said before Thursday's meeting. Officials have not decided yet whether to build parking spaces there.

The front of the property holds a high mound of soil dug from home sites nearby. Metroparks leaders say the owner will level the mound and seed it with wildflowers before the sale.

Hoevnanian Homes did not return a call for comment.

The land along the Rocky River is being donated by Sam Petros of Braemar Farms LLC. It will not be opened to the public. Parks leaders want it to protect the river's waters.

Since becoming CEO in 2010, Zimmerman has acquired more land per year than any park leader since the founder, William Stinchcomb. Last year, the parks gained 171 acres worth $4.5 million for just $243,000 of their own money. Donations and grants covered the rest of the land.

The parks now consist of 23,379 acres, with another 268 under contract.

At Thursday morning's meeting, Zimmerman announced an attendance estimate last year of more than 18.5 million, breaking a record set the year before of 17.8 million. Besides the usual hikers, bicyclists, picnickers and other everyday visitors, crowds gathered for several centennial celebrations.

The figures estimate how many visitors get out of their cars to enjoy the parks or enter the parks by other means They are based on observations and mechanical counters.

Far larger numbers of people drive through the parks to enjoy the views or reach other destinations.

The board meeting ended with a closed session to discuss acquiring yet more land.

For more about recent Cleveland Metroparks acquisitions, see tinyurl.com/y77qnyda.CLEVELAND, Ohio-- A Cleveland police officer is at the center of a criminal investigation in Rocky River where he's accused of sending lewd photos to a 17-year-old girl, according to five sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Officer Thomas Tewell, 31, who was hired in 2012, has not been charged with a crime, but Rocky River police are still investigating the case, according to the sources. The investigation is expected to take several more weeks.

Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said Tewell is on restricted duty because of the Rocky River investigation, but declined further comment about the details at the heart of the investigation.

Ciaccia said that Tewell's supervisors in the Second District placed him on restricted duty, but the police administration is unable to officially place him on restricted duty until formal charges are filed.

Tewell is working behind a desk and will not have any contact with the public while he is on-duty, but he is currently allowed to work off-duty jobs. She said that he would only be placed on administrative leave if felony charges are filed.

Tewell could also be subject to other disciplinary action through the department's internal affairs investigation if investigators find any wrongdoing.

Attempts to reach Tewell were not successful. Ciaccia in an email seeking a response from Tewell said he wouldn't be allowed to comment to the media, which is the department's policy.

In addition to the sources, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Jeff Follmer acknowledged the new investigation but declined to comment.

Rocky River police Lt. Bill Crates said investigators at his department are waiting for a forensic examination of the cellphone and other electronics to be completed before they proceed with the case.

The incident was reported to Rocky River police on Feb. 9, according to an incident report.

Tewell in 2014 was suspended for 25 days and given a "last-chance agreement" with the police department for sending a lewd photo to a woman he had issued a traffic ticket.

He also used social media to track the woman down and ask her out for drinks, according to his disciplinary letter.

Follmer said the last-chance agreement lasts only two years.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles recently announced that it will mail licenses to drivers rather than issue them at bureaus to provide better protection against counterfeiting and identity theft.

But that is hardly a new idea. Forty-one states already issue licenses by mail.

And many states also are more accommodating than Ohio on a variety of other regulations governing the renewal of licenses, including the method of obtaining a license renewal and how long a license is valid, according to a review of state policies on dmv.org.

Just how accommodating?

Thirty-three states send notices reminding drivers that their licenses are about to expire.

Ohio is not one of them. Lindsey Bohrer, public information officer for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, wrote in an email that the bureau sees no need to send reminders because expiration dates appear on drivers' licenses and the dates fall on the drivers' birthdays.

But in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota, three other states where licenses expire the drivers' birthdays, drivers receive written reminders 45 to 60 days before their licenses expire.

Can Ohioans renew online or by mail?

No.

Ohio is one of 13 states that require drivers to renew in person. The state requires an eye exam and new photo with every renewal. Bohrer said the state has not discussed changing the policy.

The other 12 states that require in-person renewals: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Wisconsin.

How many other ways can you renew a license in other states?

Four.

About 75 percent of states offer drivers two or more options to renew their license. Here is a breakdown:

3 states: Online, mail, person, phone (California, Illinois, Texas)

8 states: Mail or in person (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Wyoming)

13 states: Online, in mail or in person (Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington)

13 states: Online or in person (Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia).

District of Columbia - Online or in person.

Are there restrictions to online renewals?

Yes, many states require people to alternate in-person and online renewals. People also have to renew in person if any information on their license has changed.

How many years is a license valid for?

It ranges from two years in Vermont (where people can also choose four years) to 12 years in Arizona.

An Arizona driver's license is valid until age 65. But drivers need to visit a Division of Motor Vehicle office every 12 years to update their photo and take a vision exam.

Twenty states issue licenses for eight years.

Ohio and 10 other states issue licenses for four years.

Licenses are valid for five or six years in other states. However, Colorado issues licenses for three years.

How much does a license renewal cost?

Ohio charges $25.75. which is about average for four-year renewals.

The most expensive, based on years the license is valid, is $61.50 in Rhode Island for five years. Connecticut charges $72 for six years.

The least expensive is $15 in North Dakota for six years. Michigan charges $18 for four years.

What about mailing driver's licenses?

As mentioned above, 41 other states that provide driver licenses and identification cards through the mail. Starting in July, Ohio will do the same.

When drivers renew their licenses, they will be issued a temporary paper confirming driving privileges and their original licenses, with holes punched in them.

If a driver doesn't have a permanent address the license will be mailed to an address they provide.

For more information, visit: bmv.ohio.gov/NEWDL-IDCLEVELAND, Ohio -- Five men were indicted Thursday for their roles in an interstate drug ring that brought 220 pounds of marijuana and hundreds of Oxycodone pills to Northeast Ohio, prosecutors said.

Jaber Hammouda, 33, of North Olmsted; Amran Jabir, 30, of Chicago; Ahmad Abukhalil, 37, of Lakewood; Mohamed Mansour, 27, of Olmsted Falls; and Alaa Hassan, 23, of Westlake are all charged with conspiracy to possession with intent to distribute marijuana and 345 pills of Oxycodone, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Ohio.

Amer Jabir, 37; Ahmad Jabir, 22; Aymen Abdelrahim, 28, and Gerald Knox, 37, all of Cleveland were previously charged in the 39-count indictment, authorities said.

Knox also faces a gun possession charge related to the drug trafficking and being a felon.

Investigators said Amer Jabir was the ring leader and bought large amounts of marijuana from California to Chicago, and dropped off a portion of it in Chicago. The rest of it came to Cleveland and Detroit, according to federal investigators.

Ahmad Jabir and Abdelrahim served as dealers, officials said. Abdelrahim sold some of the Oxycodone pills from a gas station on West 25th Street, where he worked as a clerk.

All nine men were a part of the drug ring that operated between 2015 to 2018, officials said.

At the time of their arrest, federal authorities seized over 100 pounds of marijuana and over $1 million dollars in cash at locations in Chicago and North Olmsted, officials have said.

Thursday's indictment says the government is looking to seize more than $2 million in cash, five firearms, a 2015 Range Rover, a $5,000 casino poker chip and a variety of jewelry seized from locations in Cleveland, North Olmsted and Chicago as part of the investigation.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The state school board should not be taking votes about a bill that would change the entire state education bureaucracy, Rep. Bill Reineke, the bill's sponsor, said Wednesday.

Reineke, a Tiffin Republican, blasted Tuesday's vote by the board to oppose the bill as a "self-serving" attempt to " interfere in the internal deliberations of the Legislature."

He also questioned the board's motives in opposing the bill.

"The board is concerned that its duties would be taken away," he wrote in a response to the board's vote, adding, "The state board is aiming to thwart an initiative that has the potential to help fix our broken education system."

House Bill 512 would merge the state education, higher education and workforce departments into one, with the stated goal of streamlining efforts to better prepare students for jobs. The bill would also shift 80 percent of the power of the partially-elected state school board to an appointee of the governor.

Reineke and other supporters have pointed to Ohio's growing mismatch in the skills of Ohio high school graduates to what employers seek as a call to overhaul education in the state. They have also pointed to large numbers of graduates needing remedial classes once they go to college as further evidence of a system that needs to be changed.

In a conversation with The Plain Dealer today, he questioned why the state should protect this system instead of moving to another structure.

The bill picked up support of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

"This should result in Ohio's education and talent development systems being more agile, efective and accountable," the chamber's Keith Lake told a House committee debating the bill.

But state board members and others have opposed the plan. The board on Tuesday voted 11-4 against the bill, saying the new "mega-agency" would be less open to public input and scrutiny and would violate the spirit of the 1953 state constititutional amendment creating the board.

Board members have also told the House committee that the bill would remove the board from setting detailed rules for carrying out broader laws the legislature passes. The public hearings the board has now would vanish, they said.

Board member Lisa Woods of Medina told House committee Wednesday that the board is needed as a check and balance. An appointee could declare policies the political right hates - like transgender bathrooms, providing needles in the name of safer drug use, and giving Planned parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union a strong voice - all without any debate.

Policies the poilitical left would hate - like abstinence-only sex education, creation studies or the NRA leading school safety discussions - would never have hearings either.

"These are hot-button and extreme examples," Woods said. "But they highlight the power that this department would have."

Reineke fired back in a written response late Wednesday.

"The fact that taxpayer dollars are being used self-servingly to interfere in the internal deliberations of the Legislature about the board's respective duties and role is exactly why House Bill 512 is necessary," he added.

He also took issue with comments from board members that they can represent the voice of the people more than the legislature on education issues. House members represent about 120,000 people each and Senate members 330,000, he wrote, while state board members have about a million people in each of their districts.

"Therefore, it is my opinion that the legislature is much closer to the people and are better able to respond to their needs and concerns," he wrote.

Reineke declined to directly answer another objection to the bill that critics have raised - that Gov. John Kasich has skipped taking steps to improve the communication between departments that Reineke seeks with the bill.

Those include:

- Not appointing the state superintendent to the governor's own workforce board

- Not picking workforce experts for the eight school board seats the governor is allowed to appoint

- Apparently never meeting with State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria. Neither DeMaria nor Kasich staff would say this week if they have ever met, though each said DeMaria attends meetings of Kasich's cabinet.

Reineke deflected questions about Kasich, whose term will end at the end of this year, toward the bill and its goals.

His most direct response: "I think we move forward and this is going to take place under the next governor."COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Thursday his office will appeal a federal judge's order blocking the state's Down syndrome abortion ban from taking effect.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black issued a preliminary injunction putting House Bill 214 on hold while abortion providers challenged the law's constitutionality. The law bans abortions after a prenatal test shows the fetus has or is likely to have Down syndrome.

In his order, Black wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a woman's right to choose to end a pregnancy before the fetus is viable and states "cannot dictate what factors a woman is permitted to consider in making her choice."

"I strongly disagree with the district court's ruling that there is a categorical right to abortion that prevents even any consideration of Ohio's profound interests in combating discrimination against a class of human beings based upon disability," DeWine said in a statement. "We will be appealing."

Preterm Cleveland, Planned Parenthood of Ohio Southwest Region, Women's Med Center of Dayton, Dr. Roslyn Kade and Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio sued the state in February to stop the law. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued the law was unconstitutional and would force Ohio women to travel out of state for abortions or force women to continue pregnancies against their will.

Ohio is the fourth state to ban abortions based on a Down syndrome diagnosis. The laws are on hold in Indiana and Louisiana, pending court challenges there. North Dakota's sole abortion clinic decided not to challenge the law there, which banned abortions for any genetic anomaly, because it determined the law would not affect it.

Ohio Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abortion organization, urged legislators to pass the law, arguing it would end a discriminatory practice against people with Down syndrome.

"We are grateful that our pro-life attorney general will fiercely defend our law and fight for what is right. We elected him for moments like this," President Mike Gonidakis said. "Mike DeWine is the right person at the right time to defend our efforts and ensure special needs Ohioans are legally protected."

Supporters of the law questioned the impartiality of Black, who served as an unpaid director of the Planned Parenthood Association of Cincinnati from 1986 to 1989 and as board president in 1988. He recused himself from a 2014 case involving Planned Parenthood after Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati objected. Cases are randomly assigned to judges.

Abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio said DeWine is wasting Ohio taxpayers' money defending a blatantly unconstitutional law. An analysis from the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission concluded a single case challenging an abortion restriction could cost the state several hundred thousand dollars to cover legal expenses for the plaintiffs.

"The Down syndrome abortion ban violates four and a half decades of legal precedent that says a woman has the unfettered right to choose whether to end a pregnancy before the point of viability," NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said in a statement. "Women are perfectly able to make their own medical decisions. They don't need political interference from Mike DeWine, John Kasich and their cronies at the Statehouse."

Black began his order by quoting U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former Republican senator and friend of DeWine.

"Federal law is the law of the land," Black wrote. He continued, "And federal law is crystal clear: 'a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.'"David Shearer

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A homeless convicted sex offender has been charged with rape and kidnapping after park rangers say they caught him with a woman bound with surgical tubing.

Columbus police tell WCMH Channel 4 that David Shearer, 57, was discovered with the naked woman at about 9 a.m. Saturday at Scioto Audubon Park, which is just south of downtown.

According to Fox 28, Shearer met the 37-year-old victim at a bus stop and they went to the park together. Shearer is accused of then choking her and forcing her to take off her clothing.

Shearer is being held in jail on a $500,000 bond.

WMCH reports Shearer has been on the Ohio Sex Offender Registry since 2002. He has repeatedly failed to register his address and in 2016 was convicted of gross sexual imposition.

Franklin County Sheriff's Office Lt. Andy Eing tells WCMH it's difficult to keep track of homeless offenders.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A group of political experts will meet publicly next week to discuss the past, present and future of gerrymandering in Ohio and across the country.

Panelists at the Tuesday event will include David Daley, the former editor-in-chief of salon.com; Common Cause Ohio's Catherine Turcer, a longtime advocate for reforming how Ohio draws its legislative district lines; and Gregory T. Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.

The moderator for the event will be Cleveland data analysis editor Rich Exner. He has extensively covered gerrymandering in Ohio in an ongoing series on cleveland.com. He also has written about and analyzed the recent bipartisan reforms to try to make the process of drawing congressional lines more fair.

Panelists will discuss the recent reforms, as well as the outlook for Ohio's number of congressional seats in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. Census, among other related topics.

The event is organized by the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland, and will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Center, CWRU Siegal Lifelong Learning Center, 25700 Science Park Drive, #100 in Beachwood. Its corporate sponsor is First Interstate, Ltd., and Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer are co-sponsors.

To RSVP, click here.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Transfer of prisoners from Cleveland's House of Correction to Cuyahoga County began this week as part of a deal that will allow the city to get out of the jail business and help regionalization of jails in the county.

The effort is part of a deal struck last year between the city and Cuyahoga County to more efficiently handle prisoners.

As of Friday, no new inmates will be admitted to the city's House of Correction in Highland Hills. The process of moving them out to the Cuyahoga County Correction Center, a part of the Justice Center downtown, began Monday.

The House of Correction holds about 160 prisoners -- generally misdemeanor-level prisoners for 30 to 120 days. City officials have said the property likely will be sold. No plans have been finalized, said Dan Williams, a spokesman for Mayor Frank Jackson.

"The county is focused on increasing public safety and driving collaboration among regional partners, so all residents are safe and supported," County Executive Armond Budish said in a news release. "The elimination of costly duplication offers significant savings for cities, while being cost neutral to the county. We are also focused on increasing the quality of and type of services we provide to our inmates."

For years, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County sought to work out a deal that would get the city out of the jail business. Under an agreement approved last June, the city will pay the county $5.6 million during a transition period to handle jail services. Once the transition is complete, the city will pay the county $99 per inmate per day.

Cuyahoga County already has taken over the jail functions at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland.

The city expects to save about $5 million a year from the deal.

Budish's administration has made a regionalized jail system a priority for Cuyahoga County. Under the plan, the county will handle all jail responsibilities at sites around the county, allowing video conferencing for arraignments and freeing up patrol time for local police officers.

Absorbing the Cleveland jails is the biggest piece of that regionalization.

"Once the regionalization project is finalized, the county will be able to offer even stronger reentry and treatment services to all qualifying inmates," Budish said.

The county expects to complete regionalizing the jails by September. The next step will be to reopen Bedford Heights jail under county management for the southeastern part of Cuyahoga County.CLEVELAND, Ohio - If you want to go beyond the green beer, shamrocks and the usual blarney of St. Patrick's Day, and celebrate some real Irish heritage, drop by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square.

This month, a temporary exhibit, "Irish in the Civil War," will be featured inside the monument dedicated to Cuyahoga County veterans who served in that conflict from 1861 to 1865.

According to the exhibit, some 150,000 Irish Americans fought for the North, including seven Irish-born generals, during the war. An estimated 40,000 served with the Confederacy, including six generals.

Two flags in the exhibit represent this contrast - the banner of the 69th Infantry Regiment of New York, and that of the 10th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry.

Inevitably, Irish fought Irish, including the battle of Fredericksburg, in 1862, when Confederate Irish units of the 24th Georgia faced the 69th New York.

The exhibit notes that the New York unit was part of a suicidal attack across an open field, and was almost annihilated.

Yet their valor even won praise from their enemy. Confederate Brig. Gen. George Pickett -- who would later make his own doomed assault at the battle of Gettysburg - remarked that the Irish attack, "was beyond description . . . we forgot they were fighting us, and cheer after cheer at their fearlessness went up all along our line."

Irish in the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry fought near the Bloody Angle on the Gettysburg battle's third day, firing into the side of Pickett's charge and helping quash that Rebel attack.

Part of the monument exhibit includes an account of that battle from Capt. Thomas Galway, an officer in the Hibernian Guards of the 8th Ohio.

Galway wrote that their unit captured three Rebel colors and 1,854 prisoners during the battle.

However, "out of 216 men that took the field, we had 103 killed and wounded," Galway said. "I myself twice hit by pieces of iron shell from the enemy's artillery, and once the day before by canister.

"It was only after the utmost amount of valor and resistance had been used on both sides that we succeeded in compelling them to relinquish the field," he added.

The exhibit notes that at least seven Irish Ohioans were awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the war.

Tim Daley, monument executive director, said Cleveland had a growing population of Irish immigrants to draw upon for the war.

Many came here as a result of the devastating famine that struck Ireland in 1845-49, he said.

"The other thing, too, that we need to remember is that a lot of men left Ireland after the 1840s with the unsuccessful uprising against the British," he added. "So a lot of gentlemen ended up leaving Ireland to go get military training outside, with the hope of going back to Ireland."

Daley noted that one purpose of the exhibit is to provide history through the personal stories of the people who lived it, much like prior Soldiers' and Sailors' exhibits focusing on local Jews and blacks who fought in the Civil War.

One such Irish story is that of James K. O'Reilly who enlisted in the Hibernian Guard and rose to the rank of captain.

Capt. James K. O'Reilly, an ancestor of former Cuyahoga County judge Kenneth Callahan, who served in the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is featured in a temporary exhibit at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument dealing with Irish who fought in the Civil War. (Photo courtesy of Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument)

Part of the exhibit includes a letter to The Plain Dealer after O'Reilly's death following the war, in which a fellow officer remarked that, "During the twenty campaigns and more than sixty engagements in which the 8th Infantry gained its fame in the Civil War, O'Reilly's influence and example . . . contributed greatly to its fighting spirit, conduct and methods. He was fearless and quick-witted in the moment of danger or other emergency."

O'Reilly's name is one of thousands engraved on the monument's interior walls.

Daley said that when people visit the monument, "I hope that they realize that each of the people who served in the Civil War, regardless of their background, has a personal story to tell."

Even on St. Patrick's Day.

(The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument will be open on St. Patrick's Day from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. Regular winter hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Warrensville Heights man is accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend four times after he showed up on the porch of her East Side home asking to speak with her.

A first-degree felonious assault warrant was issued Tuesday for the arrest of 34-year-old Demetrius Matthews, court records show. He is not in custody.

The 40-year-old ex-girlfriend suffered two gunshot wounds to her abdomen, one to her thigh and one to the back of her head in the incident that happened about 2 a.m. Monday at her home on East 175th Street near South Miles Road in the Lee-Miles neighborhood.

Matthews knocked on the door and asked the woman to talk, prompting her to step outside onto her porch, police and court records say. Matthews pulled out a gun in the middle of their conversation and fired at least twice, a police report says.

The woman's son heard someone run off through the icy snow, and a witness heard a car peel away, the report says.

The woman's 21-year-old daughter heard her mother calling for help and found her just inside their front door. Paramedics rushed the woman to University Hospitals, where she was treated and later released, a hospital spokesman said Thursday.

Investigators found part of a bullet stuck in the front door, and hospital staff found another bullet still lodged inside the woman, the report says.

Cleveland police in December investigated Matthews for stealing credit cards from the woman, and family members told police that they suspected him in the recent theft of a television and Playstation from the home, according to the report.

Matthews has prior convictions in Cuyahoga County for theft and receiving stolen property. He was also sentenced to six months in prison in 2007 for aggravated assault, court records show.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - White supremacist Richard Spencer is no longer seeking to speak at large public campuses, including Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati and Kent State University.

Spencer, who had been fighting in courts for his First Amendment right to speak at public campuses, now is reconsidering those actions, according a video released over the weekend.

Spencer said in the video on YouTube that it is "time to take a step back" and determine if public speaking at campuses or any venue is the right way to achieve his goals.

His attorney said a lawsuit against Ohio State University will be dropped, according to cincinnati.com. Ohio State was sued last October after turning down a request for Spencer to speak on Nov. 15, citing safety concerns.

Spencer's decision to scale back campus appearances comes a little more than a week after a speech at Michigan State University drew hundreds of protestors and resulted in arrests.

After he won a lawsuit to appear on campus, Michigan State scheduled him to speak during spring break and in pavilion used by agriculture students.

He spoke to a crowd of about three dozen while about 500 people protested outside, The Lansing State Journal reported. Fights broke out at the protests outside, and more than 20 people were arrested on various charges.

The University of Cincinnati agreed last October to allow Spencer to speak, and scheduled the event for this month. But the event did not occur. Spencer sued the school for requiring him to pay a security fee. That lawsuit is still pending.

Spencer threatened to sue Kent State University in January after the university denied a request to allow him to speak on campus on May 4, the 48th anniversary of the day in 1970 when the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four people and wounding nine.

A Kent State spokesman on Thursday said the university would have no comment on Spencer.

Spencer helped coin the term "alt-right" to describe a movement characterized by racist, anti-Semitic and white nationalist views.

His requests to appear on campuses led to concerns about how to provide security while not violating First Amendment rights. At a "Unite the Right" rally last August at the University of Virginia, torch-wielding followers of Spencer marched the grounds chanting Nazi refrains.

The next day, a woman died in Charlottesville after a white nationalist drove into a crowd of counter-protesters.

There were protestors and a few scuffles when Spencer spoke at the University of Florida in October. The university spent about $500,000 on security.AURORA, Indiana -- A woman has been arrested on drug charges after police say she was receiving packages of pot from her son in California, addressed to "Grandma Stinker."

Debra Ferguson, 58, is being held in the Dearborn County Jail on multiple charges, including dealing in methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, conspiracy to deal marijuana and dealing in marijuana, all felonies, according to eaglecountryonline.com.

Her son, Eric Anderson of Yuba County, California, also is facing multiple drug-related charges, WLWT Channel 5 reports. An arrest warrant has been issued for Anderson.

WXIX Channel 19 says police received a tip that Ferguson was receiving regular shipments of marijuana from her son.

"Sometimes it takes tips from quite a few people, and for the information to come in and kind of like putting a puzzle together," Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens tells WLWT.

Aurora Police Chief Josh Daugherty tells WXIX that a search warrant conducted at Ferguson's home revealed "numerous narcotic prescription medications packaged for delivery along with multiple packages of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, packaging supplies, cell phones and an undisclosed amount of cash."

WLWT reports Ferguson admitted to police receiving the marijuana packages from her son and sending him cash.

Aurora is located in southeast Indiana along the Ohio River, about 30 miles west of Cincinnati.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.RICHLAND, South Carolina -- The sister of Dylann Roof, the gunman who shot and killed nine people at a church in 2015, was arrested Wednesday after authorities say she brought drugs and weapons to her high school.

A school resource officer at A.C. Flora High School found a knife, pepper spray and marijuana on Morgan Roof, 18, the Richland County Sheriff's Department tells CNN.

But it was post from Roof on the social media website Snapchat that raised concerns, according to the State.

In the post, Roof made a reference to a national walkout by students seeking stricter gun-control measures, saying she hoped those participating "would get shot," the State reports.

"Your walking out for the allowed time of 17min, they are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what tf you think it's gonna do?" Roof says in the full post. "I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway. No offense ofc buuut,"

No students at the high school were injured.

Roof is facing charges of simple possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds, CNN reports. She must post a $5,000 bond under the condition she doesn't return to the school.

Dylann Roof murdered nine black parishioners during a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015.

He was convicted and sentenced to death last year.

According to the State, Morgan Roof said at the time of the shooting that her brother was hoping to start a race war.

To comment on this story, please visit cleveland.com's crime and courts comments section.An excerpt from Zawistowski's lengthy email, sent this Ohio politicos and media members this week

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An Ohio Tea Party leader says he did not try to extort a $1 million contribution to a political nonprofit he runs in exchange for an endorsement of Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's campaign for governor.

Tom Zawistowski relayed his interactions with Nathan Estruth, Taylor's running mate, in a lengthy email that Zawistowski mass distributed to Ohio politicos and media members this week. In the email and in a subsequent interview with cleveland.com, Zawistowski said he decided to make the story public after hearing from "someone he trusts" who said Estruth had characterized the request of $1 million from Taylor's campaign as extortion.

Zawistowski said the proposed donation to his non-profit, We the People Convention, Inc., was meant to finance a slate of candidates for the Ohio Republican Party's central committee, not to hire him personally.

"I have nothing to hide," Zawistowski said.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Taylor campaign did not directly respond to Zawistowski's characterization of Estruth's comments.

"Mary Taylor does not buy endorsements," said the spokesman, Michael Duchesne. "We have broad support among tea party conservatives and leaders across the state. We applaud their efforts to reform the party process, and they will have no stronger voice for doing so than Governor Mary Taylor."

Zawistowski -- known in Ohio political circles as simply "Tom Z," -- is executive director of the Portage County Tea Party, and is a fixture in grassroots conservative politics.

The exact extent of his influence is debatable. But Zawistowski's role in the Ohio Tea Party community is prominent enough that a candidate forum he organized in suburban Columbus last year attracted three of the four Republicans who were running at the time for governor, as well as hundreds of Tea Party activists. In attendance were Attorney General Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Jon Husted, who ended up dropping out and becoming DeWine's running-mate, and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who now is running for the U.S. Senate. Taylor didn't attend the forum, but submitted a video in lieu of a personal appearance.

Zawistowski's communications firm, TRZ Business Services, has done work on behalf of conservative Ohio Republican politicians. The company has been paid about $42,000 over the past several years for marketing services and robo-calls on behalf of State Rep. Nino Vitale, State Rep. Kristina Roegner, and others, state records show. Zawistowski also ran unsuccessfully for chair of the Ohio Republican Party in 2013.

"There isn't a person in this country who runs for office who doesn't call me and ask me for my endorsement," Zawistowski told cleveland.com.

In his email this week, Zawistowski wrote he and Estruth met in February, shortly after Estruth, a business executive and conservative activist, joined Taylor's ticket. The two discussed an endorsement, but Zawistowski said the Taylor campaign would have to contribute $1 million to We the People, Inc. to pay for the slate of state GOP committee candidates.

In his pitch to the Taylor campaign, Zawistowski said the $1 million could be anonymous, since central committee races have no campaign finance disclosure requirements.

"I hope that the Taylor/Estruth campaigns will see the benefits of our offer and give us the incentives we need to feel good about entering into this relationship," Zawistowski wrote in a Feb. 7 email to the Taylor campaign.

In a subsequent email to the Taylor campaign, Zawistowski set a Feb. 23 deadline for a response from the Taylor campaign. Taylor's campaign allowed the deadline to pass.

Zawistowski told cleveland.com he'd felt jilted by past candidates seeking endorsements who failed to follow through on their promises, and the $1 million would leave him and others in his movement with something tangible.

Such a donation would be unprecedented -- We the People Convention Inc. has reported only $1,000 in overall contributions, according to campaign finance records. However, Zawistowski said the National Rifle Association provided his network with in-kind support -- he declined to say what or how much -- during the 2016 presidential campaign in Ohio.

Zawistowski said he believes that in politics, it's not uncommon for candidates to be offered money to drop out of races.

"They'll say, I'll give you a million bucks not to run, and to drop out of the primary," Zawistowski said. "What's different is, I said we need a million bucks to elect state central committee members."

In her campaign for governor, Taylor is trying to capture conservative grassroots support while positioning herself as more conservative than DeWine, the race's strong front-runner.PARMA, Ohio -- Shoplifting, State Road: On March 9, police were dispatched to a State Road business regarding two shoplifters. An arriving officer located the thieves, a Cleveland man and woman.

They fled the scene and attempted to elude police before being arrested. They were cited for shoplifting and fleeing.

Drug abuse, Broadview Road: During a March 9 traffic stop, police discovered a Cleveland woman was in possession of a felony narcotic. She was arrested for drug abuse.

Drug abuse, Ridge Road: During a March 9 traffic stop, police discovered a Parma resident had marijuana. The man was charged with trafficking and drug abuse.

Disturbance, State Road: On March 10, police were dispatched to Grovewood Grill on State Road regarding a fight. An arriving officer found a Parma man and woman causing a disturbance. They were arrested.

Stolen car, Pershing Avenue: On March 10, police were dispatched to Pershing Avenue after a resident discovered his car was missing. The man told the arriving officer that he suspected a woman took the vehicle. Police are investigating.

Suspicious situation, Tuxedo Avenue: On March 7, police were dispatched to a Tuxedo Avenue residence after a homeowner said someone was trying to break in.

An arriving officer located a Parma man, who was suspected of trying to enter the house. He was arrested.

Trespassing, Russell Avenue: On March 7, police were dispatched to a Russell Avenue home after a resident said an unwanted man entered the house. An arriving officer arrested the Parma man.

Burglary, W. 54th Street: On March 7, police were dispatched to a West 54th Street residence after a homeowner discovered someone had entered his home and took his property. There are no suspects. Police are investigating.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Market Highlights

New energy has developed profoundly and will continue to develop rapidly. Though new energy has the advantages of less pollution and large reservation. It also has the disadvantages of low energy density, wide distribution intermittent supply and high cost. The self-healing of smart grid gives a solution to these problems, which will update the control and protection system of power grid. In China, self-healing focuses on automation, real-time monitoring and self-adjustment. In America and Europe, self-healing emphasizes on fast simulation decision, co-ordination/self-adaptive control. The future development of self-healing technologies will depend on advanced control, big data and artificial intelligence.

Delivering electrical power from the generating station to consumption loads is the classical task of the power grid. However, a power grid and any other networks infrastructure share some difficulties in operation, control, efficiency, and reliability. In a self-healing grid, it only acts against grid disturbances, but also secures the grid against disturbances. Upgrade of distribution network infrastructure requires replacement of conventional analog systems with digital components, processors, software, and power electronic technologies. A major benefit of integration of this technology, is the low time requirement for reconfiguration of solutions to outages and faults, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes. Moreover, increasing integration of IoT, and rampant development of smart cities characterized by enhanced connectivity of electrical supply systems, tracking and monitoring consumption by consumers and service providers, drive the demand for such grids. Integration of distributed renewable energy systems is also expected propel demand for self-healing grids over the forecast period.

The Global Self-Healing Grid Market is expected to grow at ~ 9% CAGR during the forecast period.

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Key Players

The key players of global self-healing grid market are ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Siemens AG (Germany), General Electric Company (U.S.), S & C Electric Company (U.S.), Sentient Energy, Inc. (U.S.), Eaton Corporation plc (Ireland), Schneider Electric SE (France), Landis+Gyr AG (Switzerland), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Infosys Limited (India), Oracle Corporation (U.S.) and G&W Electric (U.S.).

Market Research Analysis

Transmission lines by application, hardware by component and public utility by End-user are expected to grow at the highest CAGR.

Global self-healing grid market has been segmented based on applications, components, End-users and regions. Based on applications, the market is segmented into transmission lines and distribution lines. Among these, transmission lines segment, is projected to dominate the self-healing grid market through 2023. The high dependency on transmission lines across the world for proper current transmission, is expected to boost this segment modification through self-healing systems. Based on the components, the market is segmented into hardware, and software & services. Hardware dominated the market in 2016 and is projected to be the fastest-growing component segment. The sensors in the hardware segment provide the data related to various utility assets, based on various parameters, such as, voltage, current, heat, temperature, and frequency. This data provided by sensors are used by equipment /component management system to provide actionable information, which is used to form a predictive maintenance schedule, depending on the health of the gird. Based on the end-users, the market has been segmented as public utility, and private utility. Public utility dominated the market in 2016 and is projected to be the fastest-growing packaging type over the next five years, as a result of the rise investments in grid modernization and requirement for energy efficiency. Public utilities are funded by the government and have a huge customer base. Increasing investments in distributed energy generation sources, have increased the grid complexity, as these sources are to be connected to grid for reliable supply of power.

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Asia Pacific Self-Healing Grid market, is expected to grow at the highest CAGR.

The global self-healing grid market is segmented into four prominent region as, Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to growing industrialization & urbanization and rising renewable power generation capacity in the region. Prominent countries such as China, Japan and India are driving the self-healing grid market in the Asia Pacific region. North America currently dominates the market, owing to smart grid investment and aging transmission & distribution infrastructure in the region.

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:

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Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar,

Pune - 411028

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Market Highlights

A smart meter is the next generation of a gas and electricity meter. It measures the amount of electricity a customer uses. It digitally send meter readings to the energy supplier for more accurate energy bills. Increasing investments in smart grid, smart city and the gas pipeline networks fuelling the growth of the market. However, high installation costs is the factor may hamper the growth of the market.

On the basis of application, market has been segmented into residential, commercial, and industrial. Residential sector dominates the application segment of the market. The increasing residential construction activities across the globe and government mandates, driving the growth of the market in residential sector.

Key Players

The key players of Global Smart Meters Market are

 Itron, Inc. (U.S.),

 Siemens AG (Germany),

 Sensus (Xylem) (U.S.),

 Badger Meter, Inc. (U.S.),

 Aclara Technologies, LLC. (U.S.),

 Kamstrup A/S (Denmark),

 Holley Metering, Ltd. (China),

 Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.),

 Wasion Group (China),

 Toshiba Corporation (Japan)

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On the basis of region, North America dominates the smart Meters market. Increasing repairing & upgradation of aging infrastructure activities, and monitoring & prevention of leakage driving the growth of the market. Additionally, lot of smart meters rollouts are taking place in countries such as the U.S., Canada, and Mexico which would impart growth in the North American region. Europe is expected to contribute significantly during the forecast period. Increasing demand and stringent government regulations in Europe driving the growth of the market in the region.

Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region during the forecast period. Rapid growth in residential, commercial, and industrial sector driving the growth of the market in the region. Additionally increasing investments in smart grid, smart city & the gas pipeline networks also fuelling the growth of the market. China remains the most prominent market in Asia Pacific region. Strict government regulations in China, pushed the mass deployment of smart meters over the recent years. Additionally, China is the key manufacturer of smart meters.

Market Research Analysis

Based on type, the market has been segmented into smart electricity meters, smart gas meters, smart water meters. Electric meters dominates the type segment of the market. It is the most widely consumed smart meters. Gas meters are expected to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period. Increasing investments in gas distribution infrastructure, are the key factors driving the demand for gas meters. Additionally, increasing focus on advanced metering infrastructure development in developed regions, are supporting the demand for smart gas meters. On the basis of technology, market has been segmented into automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). AMR dominates the technology segment of the market. AMR meters use one-way communication and primarily act as digital meter readers. AMI is expected to be the fastest growing technology of the market. AMI meters can use two-way communication to both transmit usage information and perform observation and maintenance tasks.

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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.

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Your eyes are precious, so its only natural that youd want to do your research on all the options available for eyelash growth or enhancement. Who wouldnt want that perfect combination of safe, effective, easy to order, and lowest-priced? A lash growth serum that can deliver all those things seems like it would be a dream product!

But buyer bewaresometimes things that seem too good to be true, really ARE too good to be true. Lets take a closer look at buying authentic brand-name Latisse vs. a generic lash growth treatment.

The Latisse Difference

Latisse eyelash growth serum (bimatoprost 0.03%) is manufactured in Waco, TX by the pharmaceutical company Allergan, which originally developed it. Allergan put it through extensive clinical testing and reporting, finally earning Latisse the distinction of being the first and only FDA-approved growth treatment for thinning lashes. It was and has always been a prescription product, subject to the federal and state regulations that oversee prescription treatments for the publics safety.

Authentic Latisse is factory-sealed by Allergan and marked with a lot number and expiration date, and it is distributed only through physicians offices, medical spas, and pharmaciesin other words, businesses with the medical or pharmaceutical licenses that allow them to dispense prescription products. In order to offer it on their websites, those businesses must meet strict regulations in every state in which they sell Latisse online. It may take a few extra steps to buy Latisse online legally with a valid prescription, but youll always know what youre getting.

What Is Generic Latisse, Really?

What about so-called generic Latisse? Heres an interesting fact: Before December of 2016, there was no legally-available FDA-approved generic equivalent to Latisse at all. Many products available on the web market themselves as generic Latisse or generic bimatoprost, but thats misleadingthey are products that contain bimatoprost, the active ingredient in Latisse (and in glaucoma medications like Lumigan), but they arent approved for safe and effective eyelash growth and may not have received any outside oversight at all. That means that you simply dont know what youre applying to your eyes or how the product was formulated.

Another danger to look out for is the seller. Websites that claim to sell Latisse or a generic equivalent without a prescription (and often at an extraordinarily low price) are often selling counterfeit products that dont work at all, or unregulated formulas that may not be safe to use. There is no identical product to Latisse that is available without a prescriptionanyone selling one that way is selling illegally. Simply put: You cant buy Latisse or anything like it on Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Overstock.com, or any other discount no-prescription website.

Overseas Production = Less Oversight

Even when generics are produced and imported to the US in compliance with regulations, problems can arise. Part of what makes it possible to sell generic drugs at a lower price is that the manufacturers use active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) sourced overseas. FDA oversight is more difficult outside the US; there are many fewer inspectors assigned to foreign countries, and inspectors must announce their visits well ahead of time (in the US, FDA inspections are usually unannounced in order to prevent manufacturers from trying to hide problems). Many large foreign pharmaceutical companies in India and China have had serious violations of FDA regulations, including unsanitary factory conditions and deleting quality control test results that showed issues with drugs that had been shipped out.

How to Protect Yourself from Bad or Illegal Products

What can you do to protect yourself from fake or harmful lash growth products? First, realize that theres no safe and legal shortcut to getting prescription-strength products without a prescription. Because Latisse and legal generic versions are approved for cosmetic use, it usually just takes a day or two to get a prescription and place an order with a legitimate seller backed by a pharmacy or physician. Here at SkinSolutions, we are licensed to offer telemedicine consultations with our owner and medical director, Dr. Vishal Verma, in 45 states. The consultation and prescription are included in the price of your Latisse purchase.

Second, investigate the site youre buying from. Look them up on Legit Script to see if theyre certified as a valid online pharmacy or if theyve been designated a rogue pharmacy. SkinSolutions is proud to have done the work to be awarded a LegitScript certification, showing our clients that we take their safety and peace of mind seriously.

Third, know what youre buying. Research the product, the manufacturer, and even the packaging to ensure that what youre getting is produced by a reputable company and in compliance with the law. Keep in mind that when you do buy a name brand, youre not just paying for a designer labelyoure getting the benefit of the brands good reputation and visibility, and your ability to trace it back to its source.

What is the difference between Latisse and Careprost for eyelash growth?

Careprost and Latisse both have same active ingredient Bimatoprost ophthalmic solution 0.03% at a similar quality and same strength . it is Careprost vs latisse I am provide you a reference of a expert, it is given below

Response: Technically yes, you could use 0.03% bimatoprost in lieu of Latisse, as bimatoprost is found in Latisse. However, I would caution you against using 0.03% bimatoprost without first consulting with your physician. The two products are very similar, although lying to your physician about the purpose of using bimatoprost/Latisse in order to save money may lead to complications down the road, such as an eye infection from using an incorrect applicator or even being flagged for insurance fraud (since 0.03% bimatoprost is often prescribed to treat glaucoma, not eyelashes), among other issues. While it may save you some money in the short term, it would likely save you a good deal of stress simply to visit your physician and pay for Latisse, which was designed specifically for those with thin and sparse lashes. Additionally, if you were to suffer any eye issues while using Latisse, it is better to have used a product under a physicians supervision (especially one familiar with your ocular history) so that he/she can determine the most appropriate response treatment. Brian Vassar Heil, MD Pittsburgh Plastic Surgeon (reference)

Want to make your eyelashes get thicker and longer in a simple and convenient way? Want to grow your eyelashes without any side effect? Want to grow your eyelashes in a way to save money? Careprost is an eye drop that could grow eyelashes rapidly and naturally.The price of Careprost is very affordable,Only 19.8 USD. And the price of Careprost is much lower than that of Latisse or Lumigan.As a result,It is considered that Careprost bimatoprost ophthalmic solution is the best way to solve the problem of eyelash growth.

We are a professional online beauty store specializing in eyelashes growth and have been established for several years. Accumulated a large number of customers. Receive a lot of good reviews about Careprost eyelash growth serum.All Careprost bimatoprost products are from original Careprost manufacturer and that could be fully assured the supply of our store. We have lots of years of experience in B2C E-commerce operations, and use SSL encryption system, and guarantee the security of customer privacy, never will not disclose customer information, zero risk payment online.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Dermacol Make-up Cover is Legendary high covering foundation. Extreme covering foundation Dermacol Makeup Cover was created as the first of its kind in Europe and one of the first in the world. The license for this foundation was eventually sold to Hollywood. It contains 50% pigments, which makes it a weapon against skin imperfections. DERMACOL COVER MAKEUP foundation provides PERFECT COVERAGE even in thin layers and is the perfect corrector for dark under-eye, unpleasant spots and skin blemishes. It completely covers acne, loss of pigmentation, post surgical bruising, tattoos etc. It may be used on the entire face or body for color correction, darkening or lightening the skin tones, and ensuring ideal balance. It is widely used as a professional make-up for photo or film shoots, modeling and for festive occasions.

Dermacol Make Up Cover Foundation Full Cover Acne,Tattoo and Dark circles under the eyes. Look at these videos.

Dermacol Make-up Cover  Acne

Dermacol Make-up Cover  Tattoo

Are you preparing for a meeting and need to hide your tattoo? Dont be nervous and use Make-up Cover.

Dermacol Make-up Cover  Dark circles under the eyes

Dark circles under the eyes, loss of pigmentations and other skin problemsforget it and use Make-up Cover.

The beauty industry has hit a revolution in the past few years and its all thanks to Youtube and the Internet as a whole. Have you seen the amount of beauty bloggers and reviewers who do hair and makeup tutorials, review products and give their tips and tricks so that everyone can look and feel fabulous? Well, no product gets by them! Now, consumers can see the good, the bad and the ugly of beauty products before wasting money on things that are no good. But products that are great? Well, theres a sure fire way to get everyone talking about them and trying them out! And right now, everyone is talking about Dermacol foundation. We are here to give you a very honest Dermacol foundation review and let you know what beauty bloggers and reviewers are saying about it.

Dermacol Foundation Characteristics

Dermacol foundation comes in 30g squeeze tubes, which is great because it slows down oxidation. You dont want too dermacol foundationmuch oxygen or even microbes from your fingertips, make up brushes, or sponges coming into contact with your product, so this packaging is great.

A 30g tube may not sound like a lot, but this foundation is seriously thick. You will only need a pea-sized amount, so the tube will actually last for a very long time. The golden tube comes in a simple, sealed, black and pink box with gold writing that indicates it is waterproof, has an SPF of 30 and that its hypoallergenic.

It comes in 13 blendable shades to choose from. Being that its a European company, they have a nice array of colors for Caucasian skin tones, but they are developing more colors for even more skin tones now that its popular the world over.

The product is very thick and creamy, almost like a mousse, so a little bit goes a very long way. It feels very light on the skin, which is surprising for a makeup that offers so much coverage. It leaves you with a natural, mat finish that isnt dry or cakey. It also has an amazing, almost chocolate-like smell.

Tips for a Perfect Finish

1.Start off with a freshly cleansed face. This will give you a good base to work on and it will protect the health of your skin.

2. Moisturize your skin with an oil-free moisturizer.

3. Its always a good idea to use a primer to increase the longevity of your makeup. It also helps to diminish the look of your pores and give you a smoother look. Its not mandatory with this quality of make-up, but it will definitely make it that much better.

4. For areas that have a high amount of discoloration, use an orange or green corrector underneath the foundation.

Use a make-up brush (some people may prefer a damp sponge or even a silicone sponge, but we found that the brush worked best. Its up to you though, so feel free to experiment with a few different tools, as long as its not your finger!) to apply very light amounts of the make up to your face (remember, a little goes a long way)

5. Blend, blend, blend!

6.You will more than likely not need a second layer, but if you have a very difficult area to cover, you can do a spot application.

7. Set with translucent power

Dermacol Foundation is full-coverage, which means its a thicker foundation than what you may normally use. There is a bit of a learning curve when applying it, because people will tend to put on too much. Remember, a little goes a very long way! For this reason, its really important that cleansing be a big part of your beauty routine, especially after using this product. So, be sure to clean your face very well after use.

Buy Dermacol Concealer price 9.8$/box:https://www.dermacolfoundation.us.comAMSTERDAM, March 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 14th, the winners of the 2018 European Press Prize are announced in Budapest. The ceremony is held at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, part of the Central European University, founded by George Soros. The evening is moderated by AntAnia MAszAros, formerA TV Presenter and Correspondent for the BBC, now Executive Director of Unicef. The keynote speaker is MiklAs Haraszti, former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and professor on global press freedom. The European Press Prize celebrates the highest achievements of European journalism - on a culturally significant day and in a historically significant time. During the 1848 revolution, one of the key demands was the abolishment of press censure. Now, the fight for press freedom continues as Hungary prepares itself for national elections - elections in which Viktor OrbAn and party are challenging the independent press. In support of Hungarian journalists and in honour of all those fighting for the right to write and read independent journalism - the European Press Prize celebrates its 2018 winners. "Budapest is right at the heart of Europe. By hosting the European Press Prize Award Ceremony and celebrating European journalism there - we'd like to emphasise the importance of an open, free and well-functioning press in a constitutional democracy." Yoeri Albrecht (Director of cultural debate centre de Balie, board member of the European Press Prize and member of the European Advisory Board of Open Society Foundation). For work that exemplifies exceptional reporting and tells a story in the best possible way - Michael Obert wins the Distinguished Reporting A ward for his article The Human Catcher, published by the SAddeutsche Zeitung Magazin. Obert's incredible reportage starts with the barrel of a machine gun, as he follows warlord Al Bija around the Mediterranean - fishing refugees out of the water in support of EU policy. For a project that challenges the current boundaries of journalism - Bureau Local wins the Innovation A ward . Judges saluted the impressive work of the runner-up: the nominated Jailed for A Like by Coda Story but called Bureau Local truly innovative in convincing us that local journalists play a defining role in holding the powerful to account. StAphane Foucart and StAphane Horel win the Investigative Reporting A ward for their remarkable research in The Monsanto Papers, published by Le Monde. Horel and Foucart uncover how Monsanto interferes with science, policy and people - to undermine the credibility of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. A special mention for runners-up Till Krause and Hannes Grassegger and their piece on horrible working conditions at facebook and the secret rules of their 'post deleters' in Behind the walls of silence. A A For an original and insightful interpretation of the world we live in, Dragan BursaA wins the Opinion Award , for his heart-breaking rendition of the brutal fate of Petar, a seven-year-old Serbian boy killed in the war. Bosnian war crimes rarely make it onto the Bosnian media, especially those openly pleading to end the impunity of war crimes - making this piece, published by Al Jazeera Balkans, a remarkable and incredibly relevant exception. For a piece which defies all categories and disciplines, the European Press Prize judges - under guidance of chairman Sir Harold Evans - single out one exceptional project to award a Special Prize . This year, in honour of the late Preparatory Committee Chairman and European Press Prize founding father Peter Preston, the judges chose to honour the article This crime requires only poverty, the internet and a buyer, written by Ida NyegArd Espersen for Jyllands-Posten. In her relentless pursuit to uncover the truth of a complex and untraceable new crime, NyegArd Espersen's work exemplifies those qualities Peter Preston strove to honour with the prize as whole. If you want more information on the Prize or its winners or wish to publish any of the translated works - please contact Milou Dirckx, milou@europeanpressprize.com , +31(0)627006043.We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..100%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-08-08, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.Jhon Leigh, director ejecutivo del Serfor, en reunion de Egilat..



"Quick work is required in these cases. I could assure the commission aims to have everything set up for the next Council of Ministers session," he told RPP radio and TV news station.





Moreover, Falconi recalled said file must be submitted to the Council of Ministers through the Justice Ministry head.





Citizens can rest assured that the Government is working transparently and expeditiously, the official pointed out.





"This work has no time limits," he added.





According to Falconi, the commission can recommend accepting the extradition request or denying it to be returned to the Supreme Court in case of any omission.





As is known, the Supreme Court on Tuesday approved the extradition request for Toledo, who currently resides as a fugitive from Peruvian Justice in the United States and faces an 18-month pretrial detention order









It must be noted Toledo is accused of receiving US$20 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to secure the Inter-Oceanic Highway contract, a major infrastructure venture connecting Peru and Brazil.





(END) VVS/CVC/JAA/RMB/MVB

Peruvian Justice Ministry's extradition file of former President Alejandro Toledo may be ready for the next Council of Ministers session, Deputy Justice Minister Juan Falconi informed.Published: 3/15/2018The most striking thing about the Kremlins behaviour over the past few days is the contempt Vladimir Putin and his gang of bandits feel for Great Britain.

No signs of contrition have been evident, still less any attempt by the Russians to engage with the British Government or to offer an explanation for their use of a deadly nerve agent on our soil.

We have been met with a combination of angry denials, vituperation and icy disdain from Russian politicians, diplomats and state broadcasters. A Kremlin spokesman warned that no one should threaten a nuclear state.

Putin himself  who as lately as March 1 boasted of Russias new high-tech nuclear weapons  appeared to smirk when asked by the BBC whether Russia was responsible for the poisoning in Salisbury.

Reliance

Putin himself  who as lately as March 1 boasted of Russias new high-tech nuclear weapons  appeared to smirk when asked by the BBC whether Russia was responsible for the poisoning in Salisbury

Are the Russians posturing? I doubt it. They know that whatever measures Britain adopts  and those announced yesterday by Theresa May were fine as far as they went  will be limited because we fear swingeing retaliation such as the withdrawal of Russian gas, on which we have developed an unhealthy reliance.

They also know the United Kingdom has run down its Armed Forces to their lowest point in modern times. We have become a timid, semi-pacified nation, while Russia under Putin is increasingly aggressive and warlike. Why should they take us seriously?

And, for our part, much of our political and media class dont expect Britain to be respected. The other day, one of the BBCs star interviewers asked querulously what a medium-sized power like Britain could do when confronted by the might of Russia. Little or nothing, it seemed.

Yet the Kremlins bellicosity, and the deference of many of our movers and shakers, are perplexing. As my colleague Dominic Lawson observed on Monday, Russia is dirt-poor, with an economy smaller than Italys. That makes it about two-thirds the size of ours.

Why should we be in awe of a country with significantly smaller resources which, by the bye, has a corrupt and inefficient administration? And why should Putin and his sinister Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov think they can treat us with such lofty condescension?

The answer is that although Russia is poor and ill-governed, it devotes a significantly larger percentage of its Gross Domestic Product (the value of all the goods and services it produces) to defence than Britain does.

According to the World Bank, Russia spends between 5 per cent and 6 per cent of its GDP on defence, while the United Kingdom struggles to meet 2 per cent  and, some would say, fiddles the figures in order to reach that modest figure.

So despite having emptier coffers, Russia is able to spend between 44 billion and 50 billion annually on defence (depending on whose figures you prefer), while Britain shells out around 36 billion.

Not an enormous difference, you will note. If Britain were able to increase its defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP, it could easily match Russia, and after a time boast comparable military resources.

As things stand, however, the Kremlin commands a much bigger navy and air force (though some of its ships and planes are long in the tooth) and an army at least ten times as big as Britains.

Of course, we shouldnt simply hold up Russia as an example. But following its invasion of Ukraine, its blood-soaked intervention in Syria and now its release of deadly nerve agents on British soil, there can be no doubt that the country is by far our most threatening potential adversary.

But what does our Government do? Does it reassess its historically low defence spending (in the Seventies and Eighties, it averaged more than 4 per cent of GDP)? Does it show signs of appreciating the dangers we face?

Military personnel wearing protective suits remove a police car and other vehicles from a public car park as they continue investigations into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal

No. Almost the opposite. Over the past year, there have been stories that the Royal Marines will be cut back and that our already depleted Army will be made even smaller. The Navy continues to dwindle. And its doubtful whether we can afford exorbitantly expensive American planes for two new aircraft carriers, one of which has already been commissioned.

The top brass have lined up to claim the Armed Forces are at breaking point. The Government responds by saying it is meeting the Nato target of 2 per cent, implicitly pointing the finger at countries such as Germany, Italy and even France, which fall far short.

These laggards should certainly spend more, since they are no less threatened by the Russian resurgence, and cant rely on American leadership for ever. But it is wickedly misleading to give the impression that Britain is spending what it needs to on defence.

Threat

Why cant our political class grasp the magnitude of the threat? Part of the answer, I suspect, is that nearly three-quarters of a century has passed since the end of World War II. Long years of peace have inculcated, in a generation unused to war, the assumption that it wont happen again.

Collective memory of a major conflagration is fading, and one suspects that history lessons in most schools do little or nothing to keep alive the fear of war among young people who imagine the good times will go on and on.

Above all, perhaps, our nice, soft, peace-loving politicians are unable to conceive that autocratic leaders wholly unlike them can be expansionist, utterly amoral and  an old-fashioned word, but the correct one  evil.

Putin is a threat: that is no longer in doubt. But our military planners  who usually dont look more than about five years ahead  have got rid of many tanks and withdrawn most of our troops from Germany in the reckless belief that Russia would never dare to strike first.

Meanwhile, how proud most of our rulers are that our foreign aid budget of nearly 14 billion a year makes us the second-biggest donor in the world. But even half that sum would help bridge the gap between Russian and British military expenditure.

Prowess

How often have we been told that in soft power  the lovely films we sent round the world; our pop stars; our popular culture; our billions of pounds in aid  Britain is second only to the U.S.

But soft power doesnt make any impression on bad men like Vladimir Putin  or, one might add, on President Xi Jinping of China, who it has just been decreed can stay in power for as long as he likes.

If nations want to defend themselves against the dangers periodically posed by lethal states and by ruthless leaders, they need hard power, not soft. They must spend what is necessary to protect themselves.

Soft power doesnt make any impression on bad men like Vladimir Putin

For pitys sake, isnt that a lesson we learned the hard way in the Thirties, when decent but limited statesmen such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain were slow to re-arm Britain as Adolf Hitler built up the military prowess of Nazi Germany?

I dont say Putin is Hitler. Of course not. But he has shown he has no respect for other countries borders, and now he has put at risk the well-being of British citizens going about their business in Salisbury on a Sunday afternoon.

What happened 11 days ago was shocking and outrageous. But if it jolts our complacent and slow-witted politicians into facing up to the dangers Russia really presents, that wicked act will have served a great purpose.A mother-of-three has revealed how stripping her family home of as many belongings as possible has made her content.

Cassie Bracknell, from Mandurah in Western Australia, has permanently decluttered her property after getting rid of 70 per cent of her household goods.

After turning her back on overconsumption, her humble abode now has just enough furniture, hardly any clothing and a bare minimum of worldly possessions.

She now uses the time she'd previously spent cleaning and packing things away to enjoying quality time with her children.

Scroll down for video

Cassie Bracknell, from Mandurah in Western Australia, has permanently decluttered her property after getting rid of 70 per cent of her household goods

The mother-of-three has revealed how striping her family home of as many belongings as possible has made her content

Before: The mother said she decided to downsize her possession after she became overwhelmed by the clutter in her home

'When you get rid of stuff, you just become less stressed,' she told 9News.

The mother said she decided to downsize her possession after she became overwhelmed by the clutter in her home.

Since embracing minimalism, Ms Bracknell said she has managed to save an extra $100 a week - and even booked a family holiday for the first time in four years.

'When you get into the mindset of not buying stuff just for the sake of buying stuff, you free up a lot of money,' she said.

She believed choosing a life with less goods will give her more time on the important moments - spending quality time with her children.

For those who want a life with less stuff, Ms Bracknell said decluttering doesn't happen overnight - as the process takes up to 12 weeks.

She advised setting up a sorting station before you embark on a journey of minimalism - have recycle, sell, giveaway and rubbish piles.

Professional organiser Carolyn Verhoef, from Outside the Box Organisation Solutions, said decluttering your home would free up 40 per cent more of your time.

'We actually don't do very well if we have more than three choices of something,' Ms Verhoef said.

She now uses the time she'd previously spent cleaning and packing things away to enjoying quality time with her children

'When we have lots of offerings of what to play with or what to do, we actually go into a bit of anxiety about "am I doing the right thing right now?".

'The clarity of mind is by far the thing that most people would get from living a much more minimal life. All of that clutter is taking up brain space so you don't think as clearly, you are less likely to be able to focus on something.'

Decluttering has become a popular modern lifestyle in recent years, with US friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus advocating the joys of living with less.

The pair, who are authors of The Minimalists, discovered the lifestyle after they felt trapped in their high-flying corporate careers.

The duo walked away from their six-figure salaries after jettisoning most of their possessions taught them that things can get in the way of most of the important 'things' in life: their health, passions, growth and relationships.Kelly Ferguson's two daughters Isabella, 12, and Pascale, 10, loved playing with their mother's make up.

The only issue is they would break the palettes and accidentally spill the powders around the bathroom sink.

So the Brisbane mother-of-three, 48, decided to create her own children's cosmetic range, called Kooki U, so her creative daughters - and other kids just like them - could have a way of experimenting without damaging pricey products.

Kelly Ferguson's two daughters Isabella, 12, and Pascale, 10, (pictured) loved playing with their mother's make up

'They started dancing at a young age, namely ballet, which required them to wear make up like red lips, mascara and blush,' Kelly told the Daily Mail Australia.

'From that moment forward they started using my make up, ruining it, breaking it... something I wasn't very happy about. But there were no kids brands out there aimed at fun and play.'

While her own daughters have shown an interest because of their desire to perform on stage, other young girls are turning to cosmetics because of YouTube videos and tutorials they watch online.

But Kelly is adamant the choice for children to wear make up should be an individual decision for each family.

While her own daughters have shown an interest because of their desire to perform on stage, other young girls are turning to cosmetics because of Youtube videos and tutorials they watch online (Kooki U pictured)

But Kelly is adamant the choice for children to wear make up should be an individual decision for each family

'We want kids who are having fun and experimenting with make up to have something to use. I wouldn't call this an everyday range at all - it's for occasional play use and involves neutral colours for that reason,' she said.

Kooki U sells Australian-made foundations, contour cream palettes, lipstick, lip gloss, eyebrow powder as an affordable price point - with many of the products less than $15.

They also create colourful bath bombs and and body moisturisers - much like you'd buy at Lush.

Kooki U sells Australian-made foundations, contour cream palettes, lipstick, lip gloss, eyebrow powder as an affordable price point - with many of the products less than $15

'A lot of the products are either clear or only lightly pigmented - with some of the lip stains offering more of a shade. So it gives the little ones a feeling of being grown up without looking older than they are,' Kelly said

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'A lot of the products are either clear or only lightly pigmented - with some of the lip stains offering more of a shade. So it gives the little ones a feeling of being grown up without looking older than they are,' Kelly said.

The brand, which was only launched three weeks ago, has received such positive feedback that Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival have chosen Kooki U as a sponsor.

'On Sunday I'll be heading to Melbourne to help with the kids event. There will be 120 children wearing our make up, which is incredible,' Kelly explained.When you look in your pantry, you'd be in the minority if you thought it was somewhere which 'sparked joy' in your day-to-day life.

But it was a lack of joy - which came about after she read the best-selling book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - that inspired Brisbane teacher, Kathie Ginman, 52, to do something about it.

What followed was a two-day makeover - comprising 'three garbage bags and three trips to Kmart'.

Brisbane teacher, Kathie Ginman, 52, overhauled her pantry (pictured) - after she found seven jars of cranberry sauce in the back of it

What followed was a two-day makeover - comprising 'three garbage bags and three trips to Kmart' - Kathie spent under $100 on the project (pictured)

Today, Kathie's (pictured) pantry looks supremely organised - and when she showcased the fruits of her labour on the Kmart group, more than one thousand people were delighted

Today, Kathie's pantry looks supremely organised - and when she showcased the fruits of her labour on the Kmart Mums Australia group, more than one thousand people were delighted with the results.

'Two days. Three trips to Kmart. Three garbage bags. Family think I have issues,' Kathie began her post.

'House is a mess. Found seven jars of cranberry sauce at the back! Thanks Kmart'.

The post was accompanied by a pantry filled with carefully-labelled jars, plastic containers and pieces of Tupperware.

The teacher from Brisbane said she spent '$15 on the sets of containers and bought three sets of jars, four plastic tubs. About $100'.

She also bought 'labels from eBay - $4 for 96 - and I printed the name on paper and sticky taped them on'.

Kathie isn't the first to show off her supremely organised pantry - Adelaide blogger, Iryna Federico, previously showed off her incredible pantry (pictured)

Though Iryna revealed her dream space took two years to complete, her passion project was one she'd had in mind for some time after spotting a pretty pastel pantry on Pinterest

'I started designing it before the builder even broke ground on our house and have only deemed it 'officially' finished a few months ago,' Iryna previously told FEMAIL

Since she posted the photos of her pantry earlier this week, Kathie has been inundated with praise on Facebook, and requests from others seeking to emulate her success:

'Looks amazing,' one person posted.

'Wanna come do mine?,' another commenter added - with others claiming they would pay her to overhaul their space.

Kathie admitted that since she made over the pantry, she feels much more content:

'It maybe brings me a lot of joy! I hear angel music when I open the doors,' she joked on the Kmart Mums Australia page.

The teacher also no longer finds herself buying multiple items of the same thing - as she did repeatedly with the seven jars of cranberry sauce.

Iryna brought her dream creation to life for under $3,000, by investing in items from Kmart, IKEA and Costco

Of course, this isn't the first pantry to overwhelm the Internet.

Adelaide blogger, Iryna Federico, 26, recently shared photos of her pastel pantry, and suffice to say it will give you all the inspiration you need to create the kitchen of your dreams.

Though Iryna revealed her dream space took two years to complete, her passion project was one she'd had in mind for some time after spotting a pretty pastel pantry on Pinterest.

'I started designing it before the builder even broke ground on our house and have only deemed it 'officially' finished a few months ago,' she told FEMAIL.

'I had our builder remove any shelving provision they had made in our quote and just ended up with a blank room.

'I then found a local cabinet maker here in Adelaide who brought my design to life; he installed all the shelving approximately a month after we moved in.'

Iryna brought her dream creation to life for under $3,000, by investing in items from Kmart, IKEA and Costco.If you've ever caught yourself scrolling through travel blogger's photos with envy, but didn't have the follower count to live the lifestyle yourself, one travel company is offering you the opportunity of a lifetime.

Busabout is looking for four people to take abroad on a three month tour of Europe - an all-expenses paid trip worth $9,000.

The lucky winners will be in charge of Snapchatting, vlogging, blogging and Instagramming their way between countries - using their phone to capture memories they can later upload to social media.

Scroll down for video

Busabout is looking for four people to take abroad on a three month tour of Europe - an all-expenses paid trip worth $9,000

As part of the trip the travellers will embark on a private hop-on-hop-off tour from early June until September this year; with accommodation, spending money and a bonus fee at the end of the trip.

The social media crew will tick off Lake Bled, Krakow and San Sebastian on the journey and venture off-the-beaten track to hidden gems like the hikers' paradise of Grunau in Austria, and adrenaline junkie haven of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland.

To finish the trip winners will spend a week cruising the picturesque ocean off the coast of Croatia.

As part of the trip the travellers will embark on a private hop-on-hop-off tour from early June until September this year; with accommodation, spending money and a bonus fee at the end of the trip

The social media crew will tick off Lake Bled, Krakow and San Sebastian on the journey and venture off-the-beaten track to hidden gems like the hikers' paradise of Grunau in Austria, and adrenaline junkie haven of Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland

For a spot on the tour entrants just need to select a preferred social platform (Instagram, Snapchat/Instagram Stories, YouTube or Blogspot) and record a 60 second video showcasing why they're the only person for the position.

Someone who knows exactly what the experience entails is Australian Leanne Melody, who won a spot on the incredible trip last year.

The 23-year-old self-described 'life enthusiast' still posts lavish photos to her Instagram account, showcasing the Greek Islands, Bali and Italy's rolling hills - opportunities that presented themselves after her overseas trip finished.

To finish the trip winners will spend a week cruising the picturesque oceans of Croatia

You heard it here first! Her number one travelling tip is to pack a copious amount of socks and underwear

Her number one travelling tip is to pack a copious amount of socks and underwear.

While it may seem like a no-brainer, depending on where you're headed on any overseas journey, washing facilities may be few and far between.

She also recommends packing a bar of laundry soap, which can double as hand soap, and a skipping rope which can be used for some on-the-go fitness or as a clothesline.

Staying stylish while being practical also calls for a little creative thinking, she told Escape.

She also recommends packing a bar of laundry soap, which can double as hand soap, and a skipping rope which can be used for some on-the-go fitness or as a clothesline

Leanne found that creating a bum bag from a modified purse was a good way of keeping all of her travel essentials in one place without looking dorky

Leanne found that creating a bum bag from a modified purse was a good way of keeping all of her travel essentials in one place without looking dorky.

'I transformed a small gold purse from H&M, tightened the strap, thread it through my body every day and wore it around my waist. I received so many compliments on it and it was the best hack ever!' she said.

And if you're looking to get that all-important snap for Instagram she recommends getting to a monument early - that way, it's relatively tourist-free and you can 'appreciate the moment.'

To submit your application to Busabout, which is due by mid-April, you can do so on their website.A midwife to the stars has hit back at trolls after she came under attack on social media for 'promoting bottle feeding'.

Australian midwife Cath Curtin has delivered more than 10,000 babies, including Rebecca Judd's four children and Tiffiny Hall's son, in her 42-year career.

But despite her impressive track record, she was slammed by a fellow midwife for encouraging new parents to feed their babies formula milk.

Australian midwife Cath Curtin delivered Rebecca and Chris Judd's four children - son Oscar, daughter Billie and twin boys Tom and Darcy

The popular midwife has delivered more than 10,000 babies in her 42-year career

Taking to Instagram, midwife Cath revealed the negative remark she received - as she weighed in on the never-ending debate between breast milk or bottle feeding.

The troll wrote: 'As a midwife myself I'm appalled that you are promoting bottle feeding and suggesting that success is when a very young baby sleeps all night.'

Responding to the criticism, the defiant midwife said: 'This is the bulls** that I'm sent by faceless people.

She defended her techniques, saying: 'My crime - I encourage new mums to be happy and enjoy their new babies, to feel proud to be a mum, to feed their babies a bottle of formula if they are hungry and I encourage their partners to be involved in the bath time routine.

'Often by about eight to 10 weeks lots of my babies sleep a decent stretch over night. You would think I was giving bad advice like starve your child.'

But despite her impressive track record, she was slammed by a fellow midwife for encouraging new parents to feed their babies formula milk

Midwife Cath has also delivered fitness star Tiffiny Hall and her comedian husband Ed Kavalee's baby boy Arnold

Midwife Cath said most of her patients are breastfeeding mothers who also choose to nurse their restless babies with formula milk because it helps them sleep.

'My mums breast feed long term, their babies may have a bottle of formula, the babies sleep, they are happy mums and their partners are happy too and involved in the care of their child,' she said.

'They are happy families.'

Penning the open letter to the troll, midwife Cath said: 'A note to this woman - I'm an experienced nurse, midwife and maternal and child health nurse and I know what I'm doing.

'Do you know how anxious and depressed women get if their baby does not sleep? I want new mums to feel good about themselves.

'You don't know me. You have never met me. Read my book before you throw stones at me.'This brave swimmer certainly has a brrracing workout each weekend - she skinny dips in one of the coldest rivers in Europe - which regularly plummets to temperaturess of -9C.

Inna Vladimirskaya, 32, strips off on the banks of the Dnieper river, in Kiev, Ukraine, every Sunday morning, and takes a swim - after jogging naked along the snowy banks of the river.

The thrill-seeker says she's been carrying out the bizarre ritual for nine years - often alongside her husband - because she believes the freezing temperatures keep her looking young and healthy.

Inna Vladimirskaya, 32, strips off on the banks of the Dnieper river, in Kiev, Ukraine, every Sunday morning

Before her swim, brave Inna takes a naked jog along the banks of the river

The fitness enthusiast believes her freezing workout is good for her health as the cold is good for activating circulation

Her swim was captured on camera by Czech photographer David Tesinsky - who had heard of her 'crazy' ritual from locals who see her skinny dipping every weekend.

Inna said: 'Every week I take a run in the snow and then plunge into the water.

'Immersion in cold water makes the blood rush to the internal organs, activating their circulation, which helps break down fat and improve muscle tone.

'It also helps beat muscle and joint pain and rejuvenates my skin, because of the increase in oxygen supply to it.

Fitness fan Inna believes the freezing temperatures keep her looking young and healthy

The brave swimmer carries out her bracing workout each weekend as she jogs and skinny dips in one of the coldest rivers in Europe

'The walrus looks much younger than its actual age, because it spends so much time in cold water.

'Humans can reap the same benefits if they are prepared to put the hard work in.

'I just make sure I don't stay in the water too long, and as soon as I am out I dry myself and go straight to my warm car.'A mother who admitted to being desperate for a daughter after having sons has been slammed by This Morning viewers.

British mother Jayne Ford admitted on the ITV chat show on Thursday that she'd even had counselling to deal with that fact that she hadn't had a little girl.

Unable to afford medical gender selection, she tried old wives tales like different sexual positions and different times of the month to conceive and eventually get the daughter she craved for so long.

But viewers slammed her confession, with many saying she was 'lucky' to have had children at all.

Jayne Ford admitted on This Morning that she'd had counselling to deal with that fact that she hadn't had a little girl

Jayne started to wonder if she'd ever have a little girl after the birth of her fourth son, and the need for a daughter started to grow.

But when her fifth son was born she became so 'obsessed' with having a little girl she got counselling.

Jayne said: 'I started to think what would my life be like, am I missing out? I'm so lucky to have what I have.

'Because I did talk the ears of all my friends and family, I thought it's not fair this obsession is in me, it's anted in me. I decided to seek outside help to talk to people who didn't mind me talking for an hour about how I felt.'

She had four sons before she finally had a daughter, which she said became a 'need' within her

Viewers slammed the interview, saying she was lucky to even have had children in the first place

The family didn't have the financial means to medically choose their next baby's gender, but she read a book that had tips on how to do so naturally.

The book advised having sex early on in ovulation as the sperms that will become girls foetuses swim slower.

Though there is no scientific evidence for this method, Jayne did have the girl she hoped for.

Viewers slammed Jayne's 'obsession' and took to Twitter to express their frustrations.

Others pointed out that many women can't have children or suffer miscarriages and would love just one son

One tweeted: 'All women who has had still born babies, miscarried, been unable to conceive at all...this is like a huge smack in the face.'

'Boy or girl it doesn't matter, all that is important is that your baby is healthy,' another posted.

A third said: 'Discussion over gender disappointment... This makes me so cross... Some women would give anything to even have one healthy.... Utterly maddening. Be grateful for what you have!!!'

'This woman being disappointed with the gender of her baby is making me so angry,' a fourth agreed.

Jayne read a book that told her different tricks to conceive a daughter, which she says worked for her

Dr Zoe said there was no scientific evidence that there is a natural way to conceive a baby of either sex

Jayne said her sons didn't take her desire for a daughter seriously, saying they gave her permission to be on the show.

She explained: 'They gave their permission for me to be here, for me to talk about it initially and they know how I felt. They know it was a need in me and nothing to do with them or something failing in them.'

This Morning's doctor Dr Zoe encouraged other parents feeling like this to seek counselling too.

She said: 'The first thing to do is what you did, talk about it, share it, and kind of rationalise it. In your situation sometimes it's a relationship with a parent you're trying to replicate.

'A lot of girls have strong relationships with their mothers and if they're having sons they feel they're going to miss out, but when you think about it you might have a stronger bond with a son then you would with a daughter so rationalise it.'Students took to the catwalk for Cambridge University's annual charity fashion show on Wednesday night.

The 23 women and men, selected after a number of auditions, were pictured wearing clothes by 12 designers including D&G, Nike, Alaia and Dirty South.

The Cambridge elite showed off their potential supermodel statistics as they strutted their stuff in see-through blouses, mini-skirts and tiny tops.

The fashion show, which had The Fabric of Politics as its theme this year, also featured some bizarre outfits, such as a puffy voile dress with a face on the front and a space-themed pyjama suit.

Others wore daring sheer shirts which left their breasts exposed or lingerie, covered by a blue cape with holes in, as they paraded in front of around 600 people at the event in Cambridge.

Students took to the catwalk for Cambridge University's annual charity fashion show on Wednesday night

The 23 women and men, selected after a number of auditions, were pictured wearing clothes by 12 designers including D&G, Nike, Alaia and Dirty South

The Cambridge elite showed off their potential supermodel statistics as they strutted their stuff in see-through blouses, mini-skirts and tiny tops

One female student wore tiny black shorts and a puffy blue top, whilst another exposed her long legs in a tiny black skirt with see-through netting over the top.

Some of the male models also held up banners with political messages as they paused at the end of the catwalk.

The annual event, which has grown bigger each year, raised money for A21 UK, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, which aims to 'abolish slavery everywhere, forever.'

Established in 2015, CUCFS (Cambridge University Charity Fashion Show) describes itself as one of the largest philanthropic events across the UK.

The fashion show, which had The Fabric of Politics as its theme this year, also featured some bizarre outfits, such as a puffy voile dress with a face on the front and a space-themed pyjama suit

Others wore daring sheer shirts which left their breasts exposed or lingerie, covered by a blue cape with holes in, as they paraded in front of around 600 people at the event in Cambridge

One female student wore tiny black shorts and a puffy blue top, whilst another exposed her long legs in a tiny black skirt with see-through netting over the top

The annual event, which has grown bigger each year, raised money for A21 UK, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, which aims to 'abolish slavery everywhere, forever.'

Established in 2015, CUCFS (Cambridge University Charity Fashion Show) describes itself as one of the largest philanthropic events across the UK

The event aims to bring together students to showcase the creative talent of the student body and celebrate the diversity of fashion

A student is seen donning a gold corseted dress as she struts down the catwalk

The event aims to bring together students to showcase the creative talent of the student body and celebrate the diversity of fashion.

The site says: 'The event is a high profile formal event which celebrates both up-and-coming graduate and established designers in the world of fashion.'

This year the event raised money for A21, a charity which is working to abolish human slavery.

The organisation fights human trafficking, including sexual exploitation & trafficking, forced slave labour, bonded labour, involuntary domestic servitude and child soldiery.

A statement on their site says: 'We restore survivors and equip them to live independently providing them with access to housing, medical treatment, counselling, education, employment and repatriation based on their individual needs.

One student rocked a black studded dress with an asymmetric hemline and blue eyeshadow

A male model wore a quirky orange and black checked tracksuit for the occasion

One model wore a funky blue satin dress with cutout sections along with a white chiffon skirt

Some of the male models also held up banners with political messages as they paused at the end of the catwalk



She rarely puts a foot wrong in the fashion stakes, and Queen Letizia looked typically stylish as she stepped out in Madrid today.

The royal, 45, opted for a chic black coat and tailored trousers as she attended a crafts workshops at the Teatro Real in the Spanish capital.

Once indoors, she later removed her coat to reveal a military style jacket underneath, which she teamed with a crisp white shirt.

Classic style: Queen Letizia of Spain opted for a black coat and tailored trousers on Thursday

Getting involved: The royal, 45, was invited to see the work at a crafts workshop in Madrid

The mother-of-two completed her ensemble with a pair of black ankle boots and matching clutch bag, along with a pair of large hooped earrings.

Wearing her brunette locks down over her shoulder, she opted for a subtle make-up look for the engagement.

Letizia looked in high spirits as she visited the crafts workshop, before attending a meeting.

It comes after the Spanish queen's ex-husband released a new book this week that seemed to be inspired by his relationship with the monarch.

Gracious: The royal smiled as she was greeted by an official outside the event in Madrid

Versatile: Letizia removed her black coat, left, to reveal an embroidered military jacket, right

Radiant: The Spanish queen opted for a dark smokey eye and minimal lipstick for the event

Alonso Guerrero Perez, 55, from Alcala de Henares, Spain, has published a fictional book called El Amor De Penny Robinson, or The Love of Penny Robinson.

The novel tells the story of a man - who has the same name as the author - suddenly thrust into the spotlight due to his ex-wife becoming queen.

In the book, the main character even describes how he took a nude snap of his first love, Laura, a character believed to be based on Letizia.

Letizia married high school teacher Alonso, nine years her senior, in 1998 following a ten-year romance - with the pair meeting when the future Spanish queen was just 16.

Best foot forward: The royal added a touch of edge to her look with heeled booties

The couple tied the knot in a civil ceremony in the town of Almendralejo, Badajoz, but divorced the following year after just one year of marriage.

The former journalist, now 45, met husband-to-be Felipe in 2002, while she was working for popular TV channel 24 Horas, with the couple announcing their engagement just a year later.

Letizia's status as a divorcee, as well as her former relationship with the high school teacher, caused controversy in Spain ahead of the royal wedding, suddenly thrusting Alonso into the spotlight.Italian fashion house Versace has announced it will no longer use fur in its designs.

Creative director Dontatella Versace, 62, said she refuses to 'kill animals to make fashion'.

The designer, who took the helm after the murder of her brother and company founder Gianni Versace in 1997, also hinted she could soon step down from her role, saying 'change is needed'.

Speaking during an interview with 1843 magazine, Donatella said: 'Fur? I am out of that. I don't want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesn't feel right.'

Creative director Dontatella Versace, 62, said she refuses to 'kill animals to make fashion'

Brands including Gucci, Giorgio Armani and Hugo Boss have already dropped fur from the collections as an increasing number of designers move towards sustainable and ethical fashion.

Versace sent fur down the runway as recently as February, when it featured in the autumn/winter designs showcased at Milan Fashion Week.

It did not announce when the fur would be phased out but it is expected to be next year at the earliest.

Donatella, who is credited with bringing the brand back from the brink of going under in 2004, also addressed rumours that she will soon be replaced as creative director.

She told the magazine: 'Somebody came up to me recently and said, "there will be a huge crisis if you leave  it will be a fashion disaster!"

'Can you believe that?...Yes I am Versace. But also Versace needs to mean change. And it needs to be an opportunity for others to express themselves.'

Following animal rights protest during Milan Fashion Week 2018, Donatella has now declared that she refuses to 'kill animals to make fashion' (model seen in fur on Versace catwalk in 2000)

'Fur? I am out of that. I don't want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesn't feel right,' Donatella said in an an interview this week (Versace model wearing fur in the nineties)

Animal rights activists made their presence known during Milan Fashion Week, with several dozen attempting to block access to the Marni preview.

One fur-wearing fashionista endured a shower of verbal abuse as he ducked into the show at the last minute, but no violence was reported.

Animal rights activists have claimed victories recently, with Armani and Gucci being among the latest to commit to not using animal furs in future collections. Brands like Marni, which was born out of a family fur business, have a tougher line to tread.

The Humane Society, which campaigns against the sale of fur, welcomed the decision Wednesday, noting that 'Versace is a massively influential luxury brand that symbolizes excess and glamour.'

Despite featuring fur on the catwalk as recently as February for the Autumn/winter 2018 which debuted at Milan Fashion Week, the designer has decided against the practice

Donatella has had a change of heart and will no longer promote the use of fur (seen wearing fur in 2014)

Versace hasn't said when it would phase fur out of their collections, but given the fashion cycle it wouldn't be before the next winter season. Versace is joining a trend among fashion houses to make its collections more environmentally sustainable.

The brand is making a comeback, and after coming off a triumphant outing at the Golden Globes, Donatella helped launch Milan Fashion Week menswear previews for next winter on Saturday on a high note.

Versace also dressed three women for the Oscars: Angelina Jolie, Saoirse Ronan, winner for best actress in a comedy, and star of the evening Oprah Winfrey, who wore a shape-hugging number to deliver her celebrated lifetime achievement award speech.

Versace has been riding a wave of appreciation since her September tribute show to her slain brother, fashion house founder Gianni Versace, reunited supermodels from the 1990s while highlighting some of the new generation's top talent (pictured September 17)

The mother-of-two, took over from Gianni in 1997, and brought the brand back from the brink of going under in 2004, certainly appears open to further change (siblings pictured together in the nineties)

Versace has been riding a wave of appreciation since her September tribute show to her slain brother, fashion house founder Gianni Versace, reunited supermodels from the 1990s while highlighting some of the new generation's top talent.

Additionally the brand has frequently been in the spotlight this year, following the release of BBC 2's The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the new series telling the story of his tragic death.

Hollywood actress Penelope Cruz takes the role of Donatella Versace, though the series has not been approved by the Versace family.

On 15 July 1997 Gianni Versace, aged 50, was gunned down on the doorstep of his lavish ocean-front Miami mansion (seen) by serial killer Andrew CunananAs Kim Kardashian's former assistant, there's no doubt Stephanie Shepherd picked up some tips and tricks about launching brands, taking the perfect picture and attracting online attention along the way while working for the social media master.

And while she's managed to secure over one million followers on Instagram thanks to her sexy Kim inspired pics, it looks like the Ohio native is now putting all her knowledge to even better use by becoming the face of new jewelry brand, 8 Other Reasons.

The campaign called 'Woman' features pictures of Shepherd modelling several pieces from the affordable jewelry collection.

New gig: Kim Kardashian's former assistant Stephanie Shepherd has been announced as the face of affordable jewelry brand 8 Other Reasons

Kopy kat: The brand campaign called 'Woman' features pictures of the Ohio native looking remarkably like her former boss

Going for gold: Hired as Kim's assistant in 2013, Stephanie was made COO of Kim's company in 2017

Mirror mirror: The brunette beauty bearing more than a striking resemblance to her former employer in several shots wearing similar outfits to ones Kim has been photographed in

Poolside: Stephanie also posed up a storm poolside in the campaign shoot, showing off her curves just like Kim does

And although she's reportedly no longer on speaking terms with her old boss, the pictures have a distinct Kim K feel, with the brunette beauty bearing more than a striking resemblance to her former employer in several shots.

In one shot Shepherd can be seen modelling a selection of layered gold necklaces, not unlike a personal collection Kim has shown off in the past.

And in another picture, she can be seen modelling minimalistic oversized hoop earrings while wearing an oversized pinstripe suit, not unlike a similar suit Kim debuted in the past.

An assistant to the reality star since 2013, the former Cleveland Cavaliers dancer was promoted to the position of COO of Kim's burgeoning beauty company before being fired in November 2017.

Water baby: The former Cleveland Cavaliers dancer started working for Kim in 2013

New direction: The Ohio native now boasts over one million Instagram followers and has started modelling in the wake of her dismissal

Tension: Sources say Stephanie's growing fame was causing tension between the two before she got fired

No wallflower: Sources say Kim didn't like that Stephanie was becoming famous in her own right and thought she should stay more in the background

Speaking to People, a source revealed that Shepherd's growing fame was causing tension between the two and was ultimately the reason behind her firing.

'Steph went from being an assistant to being a celebrity,' a source said.

'For a regular girl, she has a huge social media following. She loves the attention, but it took away from her job. There was a feeling that being Kim's assistant, Steph should stay more in the background. But Kim is the one who helped her get the followers by posting pictures with Steph.'

The source added: 'Kim needed an assistant where the relationship is more professional.

'It's very difficult to work with friends, so Kim decided to hire someone else. The bottom line is that Steph was hired as an assistant, and Kim wanted to keep it like that. They are not friends now.'

No love lost: Sources also claim Kim and Stephanie are no longer speaking to each other since the latter stopped working for the beauty mogul

Affordable: The affordable jewelry line might look like it was inspired by Kim but prices start at just $24Jimmy Kimmel showed his contempt for Melania Trump's anti-bullying campaign this week by airing a parody PSA for her initiative.

The late night TV host hasn't held back from tackling political topics on his show, and on Wednesday night aired a joke ad promoting her efforts to curb cyberbullying  while juxtaposing them with her husband's own insulting tweets.

Kimmel laughed as he introduced the video, and even suggested how the First Lady might better but a stop to cyberbullying.

Scroll down for video

Cracking jokes: Jimmy Kimmel mocked Melania Trump for her anti-bullying campaign this week, calling the initiative ironic

Taking a stand: He aired a parody PSA in which the First Lady argues against cyberbullying for the sake of children

Meetings: She is planning to meet with representatives from Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others to lead the fight against online bullying

'Melania's back and planning to meet with representatives from Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others to lead the fight against online bullying. Apparently the word "irony" doesn't translate from Slovenian,' he said in his monologue.

Kimmel offered a different way that Melania might stop bullying online, quipping: 'All she has to do to fight cyberbullying is take a hammer to her husband's thumbs and phone.

'Melania Trump holding a summit to stop cyberbullying is like Camille Cosby calling a meeting with Benadryl [to warn them that] it's making people woozy,' he cracked, before turning back to the scheduled meeting.

'She wants to begin with a discussion of how the companies have been addressing this issue so far, and then swap clothes with one of the attendees and sneak out as one of the group,' he said.

Something amiss: As kids' faces come on screen, they are juxtaposed with actual tweets by Donald Trump

Funny: Melania's fake voiceover says we need to protect kids, even if they're Little Marcos or Lyin' Teds

'Apparently the word "irony" doesn't translate from Slovenian,' Kimmel said in his monologue

Clever: Kimmel also joked, 'All she has to do to fight cyberbullying is take a hammer to her husband's thumbs and phone'

Discussion: The segment was in response to Melania's planned meeting with Google, Facebook, Twitter, and similar companies

'Melania's very serious about this,' he added. 'So much so, she just recorded this extremely emotional PSA.'

The PSA  a joke ad created by the show  begins with a video of Melania speaking to the camera, which has been dubbed with a voice-over of someone pretending to be the former model.

'The President and I have witnessed firsthand the compassion and commitment of Americans,' she says.

'And as First Lady, I face many important issues, but none has touched my heart more than the issue of cyberbullying and kindness online.

'It is important to set example for all children, whether they be Little Marcos, Lyin' Teds, sleepy-eyed Chucks, low IQ Crazy Mikas, or overrated Meryls,' she goes on.

At home: This is not the first time that people have called it ironic that Melania would stand against bullying

The ad concluded with Melania saying: 'If we don't treat each other well online, we are no better than fat little Rocket Mans'

Sounding off: Her husband has taken to Twitter on several occasions to sling insults at Kim Jong-un

Schoolyard taunts: He came up with the nickname 'Lyin' Ted' for Cruz during the campaign

Insults: He'd repeatedly said NBC's Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd has 'sleepy eyes'

Former friend: Last year, he insulted Mika Brzezinski, whom he was once friends with

Flashback: The tweets about Mika caused an uproar at the time

Oscar winner: He has also disparaged members of Hollywood including Meryl Streep

On the screen, video plays of children smiling at the camera, while Donald Trump's tweets  including Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Chuck Todd, Mika Brzezinski, and Meryl Streep  appear along the bottom.

'If we don't treat each other well online, we are no better than fat little Rocket Mans,' she adds, while a tweet about Kim Jong-un pops up.

'May God bless you, even haters and the losers,' she concludes, echoing her husband before adding: 'Hashtag: sad.'

Kimmel is not the first to comment on the irony of Melania calling for an end to cyberbullying, when her

'Dear Melania: Your husband is Donald Trump, tweeted MSNBC's Joy Reed after Melania's anti-bullying speech at the UN.

Opponents: He picked the name 'Crooked Hillary' for Hillary Clinton

Any disagreements: His insults are not limited to political opponents

Saying something doesn't make it true... He called one of the most successful plays ever on Broadway 'overrated'

Time for this: He even hit out at Arnold Schwarzenegger last year

'Melania's speech at the UN has to be a joke. HAS TO BE! She CANNOT be serious. Melanie, go home and give this speech to your HUSBAND!!' wrote New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow.

'Melania Trump condemned bullying at the U.N. today. She then looked at her husband, laughed, and said "I'm just kidding,"' added actor Albert Brooks.

After her meeting with Google and Facebook was announced this week, other Twitter users shared similar sentiments.

'Local woman wont acknowledge the call is coming from inside the house,' wrote one.

'Melania has been appointed to be Secretary of Irony,' quipped another.Yoga has soared in popularity in the last decade, so much so that carrying a yoga mat is considered a must-have accessory in some cities.

But now some teachers are pairing this ancient form of exercise with another relaxation technique: a sip of an ice cold beer.

Beer yoga - where yogis perform traditional poses while sipping from a bottle - has gone global, with classes in almost every major city from Bangkok to Melbourne.

However the trend has disgruntled purists, who say drinking a beer while performing spiritual exercises leads to yoga 'losing its meaning'.

Emma Joubert (pictured) held a beer yoga class in Melbourne last summer, which involves holding traditional poses while sipping ice cold beer from a bottle

A class in Melbourne held traditional poses and stretches while also exercising their mouths by drinking from a beer bottle

The UK's industry body, Yoga Alliance Professionals (YAP), has called the practice 'unacceptable' but those who teach beer yoga say combining the exercise with drinking alcohol makes it less intimidating for people who have never tried it before.

Guzel Mursalimova, 28, who has set up one of London's first beer yoga classes, told The Times: 'Some people do think mixing the two is unacceptable and I respect their opinion but what I wanted to do is bring something of daily life into the classes to make it seem a bit less scary.'

Beer yoga classes took place in London on Tuesday for London Beer Week but it was two years ago that the trend first took off.

Classes first took place in Berlin when two yoga teachers saw partygoers at Burning Man festival in Nevada combining the exercise with swigging from a beer bottle.

Ms Mursalimova, who saw 1,200 people attend 50 beer yoga classes last June, says adding beer into the mix encourages more men to join what is traditionally an exercise favoured by women.

These yoga lovers held boat pose while sipping from a beer bottle

Advocates of beer yoga say it helps make classes less intimidating, especially for men

She added: 'By combining beer with yoga, it lowers the barrier to come in for the first time.'

However yoga purists are unimpressed with the fad.

Yoga professionals have accused beer yoga of being nothing more than a money-grabbing fad

The YAP, which has 13,000 members, has sent out a notice to all yoga teachers to condemn the combination of beer and yoga - and accused the trend of being nothing more than a money-grabbing exercise.

Louise Wallace, who works for the body, told Georgie Keate at The Times: 'The term yoga has lost its meaning and people are using it to make money.

'Yoga is a sacred practice that has deep philosophical, spiritual roots. Alcohol is not compatible with it.'

Some have also questioned if adding a beer into the mix makes it harder for novices to hold the positions.

The addition of alcohol can also affect one's balance.

However advocates say that the combination acts as a gateway into yoga for those sceptical about the ancient practice.

Beer yoga isn't the only quirky spin on this traditional exercise, which hails back to the ancient teachings of Sage Pantanjali in 400 BC.

There are now dog yoga classes - where you perform poses with your dog - goat yoga groups, and ones where you hold positions in the buff.

Laughter yoga, aerial yoga, and hula hoop yoga are also unusual versions of the stress-busting exercise.The UK is one of the unhealthiest nations for children in the Western world, a report has found.

Our breastfeeding rates are lower than most other countries, while childhood obesity rates are significantly higher.

Baby girls in the UK have the shortest life expectancies in Western Europe, and die an average of three years earlier than girls in Spain.

The first international analysis has found the UK lagging behind most other developed countries in key measures of child health.

The UK is one of the unhealthiest nations for children in the Western world, a report has found

Undertaken by the Nuffield Trust think-tank, it examined 16 indicators including breastfeeding rates, obesity, life expectancy and birth defects caused by a lack of folic acid.

The UKs breastfeeding rates were found to be the worst out of the 14 countries with data available, with only 1 per cent of babies given breast milk exclusively at five months.

This compares with 34 per cent in Portugal, 26 per cent in Canada, 18 per cent in the Netherlands and 12 per cent in Belgium.

Obesity rates for girls meanwhile were the second worst of 15 countries, only behind the US. A total of 29.2 per cent of girls under 18 in the UK are classed as overweight or obese.

For boys the figure is slightly lower at 26.1 per cent, and this is the eighth worst.

The analysis also found that rates of a common birth defect linked to a lack of folic acid were the second highest after France. An average of 12.8 babies out of 10,000 in the UK are born with neural tube defects, which affect the brain, spine or spinal cord.

Our breastfeeding rates are lower than most other countries, while childhood obesity rates are significantly higher (file photo)

This is three times the rate of Spain where only four babies out of 10,000 are affected and foods are more commonly fortified with folic acid.

Lead author Dr Ronny Cheung said: While international comparisons of health outcomes should be handled with care, this research has an unequivocal message: we must do much better for our children and young people.

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said: Child health is notably absent from much policy thinking at the moment and we are now falling behind our peers when it comes to several vital measures. Its time for policymakers to take child health seriously before our somewhat mediocre international standing becomes even worse.

NHS boss: Use Brexit to curb junk food firms The Government must use the freedom of Brexit to get tough on the junk food industry, the head of NHS England has warned. Simon Stevens has called on ministers to use the flexibilities of leaving the EU to take back control of the fight against obesity. Stricter rules could include colour-coded labels  with red for high-calorie foods  and a 9pm watershed for some TV adverts. The Government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to take action and allowing the food industry to set its own rules. But ministers have previously pointed out that they were prohibited from introducing tougher rules due to EU-wide laws. Addressing the Diabetes UK conference in Docklands, east London, Mr Stevens said: One of the flexibilities ... is whether we can use our post-Brexit regulatory arrangements to take a more assertive stance on food labelling and other interventions that we know are going to help cut obesity. Advertisement

The analysis also found that girls born in the UK can expect to live an average of 82.3 years.

This was the lowest for the 11 European countries where figures were available, and three years less than a girl born in Spain.

For boys in the UK the average life expectancy is 79.2 years, the fourth worst of 11 countries.

Vaccine rates in the UK were lower than most other countries including for illnesses such as measles and whooping cough. Stillbirth rates were found to have improved, although they were still about average for the 15 countries.

Approximately 2.9 per 1,000 babies are stillborn in the UK, higher than in New Zealand at 2.3 per 1,000 births and the Netherlands at 1.8 per 1,000 births.

Dr Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: Given that children and young people make up a quarter of the UK population, its a real failure of the system that child health gets so little political attention.

Investing in child health makes both moral and economic sense  for every 1 you put in, you get an average of 10 back in terms of future productivity. We want to see the UK Government develop a comprehensive cross-departmental child health strategy.

Its also crucial that some of the biggest threats to child health are tackled boldly; for example tighter restrictions on junk food advertising to tackle obesity, the reinstatement of child poverty reduction targets and crucially the reversal of damaging public health cuts.

- Teenagers are more than twice as likely to be obese when they are bombarded with junk food adverts, a charity has warned.

Adverts on social media were the most to blame, with those aged 11 to 19 more likely to remember these than TV and billboards, a Cancer Research UK team found.A string of national cancer strategies have failed to close the survival gap with Europe, a study has found.

Although cancer survival rates in Britain have steadily improved over the past two decades, we still lag behind the majority of Europe.

The study found that a series of strategies  developed by governments and charities  had done nothing to accelerate advances and close the gap.

Experts examined the records of 3.5 million people with the 24 most common cancers between 1996 and 2000 and showed the major plans had no impact on the illness

They had also failed to reduce the gulf in survival rates between the rich and poor.

The NHS Cancer Plan launched in 2000 to tackle inequalities and improve cancer survival to levels comparable with Europe. Other schemes followed, including the Cancer Reform Strategy in 2007, the National Cancer Equality Initiative in 2008, and the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative in 2008.

The researchers, from The Cancer Survival Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, assessed the impact of these strategies in England by analysing the records of 3.5million patients with 24 of the most common cancers, including prostate, lung and breast cancer. The authors first analysed records between 1996 and 2000  before the first major plan was introduced.

Policies that did nothing 2000 NHS Cancer Plan promised UK survival rates would be among the best in Europe and pledged an extra 280million in 2001-02 rising to 570million by 2003-04. The ten-year programme aimed to save more lives, tackle the inequalities in health and build for the future by investing in research. 2007 Cancer Reform Strategy promised 370million by 2010. It aimed to speed up drug approval and gave more money to radiotherapy. Breast and bowel cancer screening programmes were extended. 2008 National Cancer Equality Initiative brought together healthcare professionals, the voluntary sector and academics to develop research proposals on cancer inequalities and to test interventions. 2008 National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative was a partnership between the Department of Health, the NHS and Cancer Research UK. It aimed to increase awareness of cancer symptoms and to promote early diagnosis. Advertisement

They worked out one-year survival rates by gender, year of diagnosis and level of deprivation.

The team compared these figures to those between 2001 and 2005, when the first strategy had been implemented, and then again with patients between 2006 and 2013.

One-year survival improved at a similar rate from 1996 for more than half of the cancers, suggesting the strategies had little impact, the British Medical Journal reports.

For nine cancers, such as kidney cancer in women and brain cancer in men, improvement in survival was initially negligible but increased from 2001 to 2006. However, these increases were between only 1 and 2 per cent a year.

Lead author Aimilia Exarchakou said: We found little evidence that cancer policies have had a direct impact on survival in England.

People from poorer backgrounds continue to experience the worst prognosis, with deprivation gaps remaining as high as 7 per cent for men and 9 per cent for women.

Emma Greenwood, Cancer Research UKs director of policy, said that although Englands success in dealing with cancer still lagged behind other comparable countries, overall survival had been improving since 2000.

The Department of Health said: Cancer survival rates are at a record high. This government is committed to investing in the discovery of new treatments and access to the best drugs.A former model has revealed how she has been unable to urinate for more than two years because of a bizarre condition.

Leanne Ward, from Aberdare, South Wales, is struck down with Fowler's syndrome, which has left her bladder muscles unable to relax.

An injection of Botox, usually used to reduce wrinkles, in her bladder allowed her to go the toilet for three months - the only time she has been able to since 2015.

But since then, Miss Ward, now 27, has been unable to go the toilet. Instead, she has been fitted with a catheter to help her pass urine.

The flexible tube, which she nicknames 'Percy' and describes as the bane of her life, has left her relying on morphine to control her pain.

Speaking about her ordeal, the former Miss Cornwall said: 'All this has had a huge impact on my life. I just want to be able to use the loo.'

Leanne Ward, from Aberdare, South Wales, is struck down with Fowler's syndrome, which has left her bladder muscles unable to relax

An injection of Botox, usually used to reduce wrinkles, in her bladder allowed her to go the toilet for three months - the only time she has been able to since 2015

Miss Ward's issues began after an unrelated operation in June 2015, for a suspected appendicitis at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant.

But surgeons assumed she had suffered a burst ovarian cyst after they discovered blood near her pelvis - rather than a swollen appendix.

Miss Ward, who grew up in Torpoint, Cornwall, expected to make a full recovery after surgery - but quickly realised she was unable to urinate.

She said: 'I desperately needed to. I was bursting  but I just couldnt, physically go.'

Doctors, who were unwilling to discharge her until she passed water, fitted her with a temporary catheter - a flexible tube used to empty the bladder into a drainage bag.

They taught her how to insert it herself at home. Miss Ward said: 'Doing this was very painful. I was so frightened. It was so painful having it put in.'

She was diagnosed with Fowler's syndrome in November 2015. It is caused by the bladder's sphincter muscles being unable to relax.

But since then, Miss Ward, now 27, has been unable to go the toilet. Instead, she has been fitted with a catheter to help her pass urine (pictured in hospital)

The flexible tube, which she nicknames 'Percy' and describes as the bane of her life, has left her relying on morphine to control her pain

Speaking about her ordeal, the former Miss Cornwall said: 'All this has had a huge impact on my life. I just want to be able to use the loo'

According to experts at the University of Central London it can occur as a result of an operation, or even spontaneously.

Speaking of the time she discovered what was causing her problem, Miss Ward said: 'I felt so relieved to have a reason for everything.

'It was good to have answers. It was amazing. It wasn't nice to have Fowler's syndrome, but to have a direction as to where to go next was good.'

Miss Ward was then put forward by her consultant for a trial to have Botox - often used a cosmetic procedure to reduce wrinkles - in January 2016.

But instead of being injected with the toxin in her face, she received it in her urethral sphincters, the two muscles controlling the exit of urine.

The treatment, administered at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, under general anaesthetic, made them relax, allowing her to pass water naturally.

Miss Ward said: 'It was brilliant. For three months - the best three months I've had since 2015 - I could wee.

'It was supposed to last for nine months but, even though it only lasted for three, it was really liberating.'

However, doctors have now warned the treatment is not suitable for her to undergo again because it's effects were short-lasting.

Miss Ward's issues began after an unrelated operation in June 2015, for a suspected appendicitis at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant

Miss Ward, who grew up in Torpoint, Cornwall, expected to make a full recovery after surgery - but quickly realised she was unable to urinate

WHAT IS FOWLER'S SYNDROME? First described in 1985, Fowler's syndrome is a cause of urinary retention in young women. Urinary retention in young women is not common but can be quite debilitating. It is unsure how many people have this condition. The abnormality lies in the urethral sphincter (the muscle that keeps you continent). The problem is caused by the sphincters failure to relax to allow urine to be passed normally. There is no neurological disorder associated with the condition. Up to half the women have associated polycystic ovaries. Currently the treatments for Fowlers syndrome are being researched and developed, including that of sacral nerve stimulation. Source: University College London Advertisement

Miss Ward, now fitted with a suprapubic catheter - through her abdominal wall, added: 'It was so disappointing to learn I wasn't having any more.'

She now experiences daily pain, caused by the tube, which she has nicknamed 'Percy', rubbing against her bladder.

Miss Ward added: 'You have to laugh about it. Percy is the bane of my life, I hate him, he is my worst enemy.'

She also suffers regularly with kidney and bladder infections and is prone to urinary tract infections.

Miss Ward continued: 'It also really hurts whether my bladder is full or empty.

'It's terrible. I take morphine for the pain and long for the day I can use the toilet normally.

'People don't know that Fowler's Syndrome is a thing. But it is - and it's serious.

'Its so rare that often when I've visited the doctor's or the hospital, people havent heard of it. But it's an extremely difficult thing to live with.'

This summer, at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Miss Ward will undergo surgery to have a Mitrofanoff procedure.

Doctors, who were unwilling to discharge her until she passed water, fitted her with a temporary catheter - a flexible tube used to empty the bladder into a drainage bag

This is when a urinary reservoir is fashioned from bowel, so the person's own bladder may be used as the reservoir

She is hopeful this will reduce her pain and enable to have a better quality or life.

Miss Ward said: 'I want to be able to pass urine more easily. It won't be naturally but hopefully more comfortably.'

She and her friends, who also suffer from Fowler's syndrome, are campaigning to raise awareness of the condition.

Miss Ward added: 'We believe more research is needed as it was discovered more than 30 years ago.

'We don't expect a cure, but we want advances in treatment and all healthcare professionals to be aware of it.

'This starts with awareness. I've created a Facebook video about it which has had more than 18,000 views.'LIMA- PERU- 21 DICIEMBRE. Se niega la vacancia al Presidente de la Republica Pedro Pablo Kuczynski en el pleno del Congreso. Foto: ANDINA/Eddy Ramos.A man with a severe skin condition that has ravaged his face has revealed how cruel strangers are 'scared' of him.

Dean Clifford, 38, from Queensland, has defied doctors who warned he wouldn't survive past the age of five because he has the most serious form of Epidermolysis Bullosa.

But, despite overcoming the odds to become the oldest living survivor in the world, he has faced years of ridicule for his appearance.

The rare, genetic condition causes him to have incredibly fragile skin, which blisters frequently and takes much longer than usual to heal itself.

But, despite the challenges he faces, he has transformed himself from a physically weak and sick child to a bodybuilder and motivational speaker.

Mr Clifford, who also works as a business and marketing officer, has today opened up about his condition, which strikes one in 50,000 people, for the first time.

He said: 'The way I describe it to people I meet is my skin is basically as strong as tissue paper or strong as butterfly wings.

Scroll down for video

Dean Clifford, from Queensland, has become the oldest living survivor in the world of the most serious form of Epidermolysis bullosa

'So the slightest little movement will create a blister or a tear in my skin that will become ulcerated and become a nightmare to deal with.

'Its sort of equivalent to living with third degree burns every single day.'

Mr Clifford has refused to let the condition bring him down and has always adhered to his personal philosophy - 'never admit defeat'.

He explained how he uses his ordeal - which sees him undergo a three-and-a-half hour routine every morning - as a 'learning experience' to better himself.

Every morning he soaks his bandages off in the bath, before treating any new skin issues and re-applying the bandages.

Simple tasks such as typing on keyboards or handshakes can cause his skin to weaken and blister.

This means he and his mother are constantly treating new skin problems during this protracted morning preparation.

'If I stay true to myself, I stay grounded,' he said. 'And if I stay true to whats important to me then I can always see a positive spin to just about anything.'

The rare, genetic condition causes him to have incredibly fragile skin, which blisters frequently and takes much longer than usual to heal itself

WHAT IS EPIDERMOLYSIS BULLOSA? Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a general term used to describe a group of rare, inherited disorders that cause the skin to become very fragile. Any trauma or friction causes patients' skin to blister. It affects around one in every 50,000 people worldwide. Around 40 per cent of sufferers do not survive the first year and most do not live beyond five years old. The three main types of the disorder include: EB simplex - where blistering occurs in the upper layer of skin. This affects 70 per cent of sufferers

Dystrophic EB - where blistering occurs in the upper layer beneath the skin's surface, which affects 25 per cent of patients

Junctional EB - where blistering occurs in the lower layer of the inner skin, which is usually the most severe form of the condition Most cases are obvious from birth. EB occurs due to faulty genes, which can be inherited or occur spontaneously. There is no cure. Treatment focuses on relieving pain and treating complications, such as infections or skin cancer. Source: NHS Choices and the National Organization for Rare Disorders Advertisement

His parents, Jenny and Peter, began noticing blisters appearing on their son soon after his birth.

But they just assumed he was allergic to the brand of baby wash they were using.

His condition worsened as more blisters formed in the following months  eventually leading doctors to diagnose him with EB.

Mrs Clifford said: 'The doctors painted a very bleak picture. We thought maybe two years, three years wed have.

'We didnt really think we would have him for a long time, but we were certainly willing to take up the challenge and keep him as well as we possibly could.'

Mr Clifford added that his own upbringing difficult at times, with other children often being too scared to be around him due to the severity of his facial blisters.

'I always knew that I was very different,' he said.

'I knew by people in the community being scared to be around me, or when Id go to the cities or go outside of my familiar environment the community would be scared to be around me.'

He added: 'Sometimes people will stop me in the street and pray with me, or come up and offer a miracle medical treatment that they have just read about on the internet.

'Kids to this day are still quite scared and concerned, which is fine, I can deal with kids and get them to understand pretty quickly, and I can deal with adults, and get adults to understand pretty quickly.

'If people want to get to know the person behind the skin condition then Im more than happy to share my story.'

But, despite the challenges he faces, he has transformed himself from a physically weak and sick child to a bodybuilder and motivational speaker (pictured as a child)

Mr Clifford, who also works as a business and marketing officer, has today opened up about his condition, which strikes one in 50,000 people, for the first time

None of this has stopped him from confronting his almost-constant pain to become a weightlifting marvel through diligent training and perseverance.

It began back in 2006 when Mr Clifford and his close friend and New Zealand All Black, Brad Thorn, began thinking of ways for him to improve his physical health.

He started weightlifting just the bar, before adding more weight and wowing his friends and family by bench-pressing 60kg by the end of his first session.

Mrs Clifford recalled when he first started his new hobby.

She said: 'When Dean stared weight lifting it was a little bit like "why put yourself under this pressure?" But when Dean wants to do something, hell do it.

'It has had consequences for his hands. But its also made him who he is now, and its a huge achievement.

'Who would have ever thought this little frail young man would become the man he is today.'

Weight training is a practice Mr Clifford has kept up, becoming strong enough to lift weights of up to 150kg, as well as perform push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises many others without his debilitating condition would find difficult.

He said: 'Theres nobody that I am aware of that is lifting the kind of weights that I lift and theres not many people in the world, whether theyve got EB or they have got a normal healthy body, that is able to train with me on a level or keep up with me.'

It began back in 2006 when Mr Clifford and his close friend and New Zealand All Black, Brad Thorn, began thinking of ways for him to improve his physical health

His parents, Jenny and Peter (pictured), began noticing blisters appearing on their son soon after his birth. But they just assumed he was allergic to the brand of baby wash they were using

Mr Clifford has refused to let the condition bring him down and has always adhered to his personal philosophy - 'never admit defeat'

Every morning he soaks his bandages off in the bath, before treating any new skin issues and re-applying the bandages. Simple tasks such as typing on keyboards or handshakes can cause his skin to weaken and blister

Friend, Aaron Whitchurch, who helps Mr Clifford train, added: 'I think weightlifting means quite a bit to Dean. Its given him a massive focus and drive in his life. I just think its amazing what he has been able to do to.'

This commitment to overcoming the odds has equipped him with the knowledge and experience needed to inspire others through his motivational speaking events.

The bodybuilder has become a fixture on the speech circuit, sharing his personal philosophy at numerous Australian companies and organisations, including primary schools, the Australian Federal Police, and even in one-on-one meetings with government departments and Prime Ministers.

'The message Im always trying to spread is basically to be true to yourself and find the thing that makes your life special,' he explained.

'Whether its weightlifting or sharing my unique life story, or whether its trying to inspire the next generation in the community.

'People can hopefully look past my skin condition to see somebody pretty amazing and achieving some phenomenal things in his own life.'

These appearances have naturally brought Mr Clifford some significant notoriety, which recently culminated in him being selected as a runner in the Queens Baton Relay in the upcoming 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Mr Clifford, who previously carried the Olympic torch through Kingaroy in 2000, said: 'Having achieved so much in these 18 years, since the 2000 Olympic torch run, I think it will be a bit more of an emotional time and sort of a reflecting time.'

Having accomplished so many unexpected things, Mr Clifford now has his sights set on maintaining his health and continuing to defy his original prognosis.

He said: 'Its been an amazing thing to be thinking long term and thinking about the prospect of living independently and sort of setting myself up for what could end up being a very long life.

'Which would be amazing to consider for somebody with a life expectancy of no more than two to five years of age.'Hospitals are running out of pain medication for patients as the opioid crisis continues to claim more than 100 lives each day.

Manufacturing issues have led to a shortage of injectable opioids in hospitals and medical facilities around the country that need them for patients with severe pain.

These injectables are different from the prescription pills that are fueling the opioid epidemic but both categories are highly controlled, highly addictive substances.

The shortage is just one facet of the medical system's struggle to strike a balance with opiates as there are too many in the wrong hands and not enough in the right ones.

Medical facilities are running low on injectable opioids for patient pain management because of manufacturing problems as America's opioid crisis claims the lives of 115 people each day

Opioids have been making headlines on a nearly daily basis in the past several years as overdoses have become the leading cause of death for adults under 50 in the US, claiming the lives of more than 115 Americans each day and more than 64,000 annually.

Beginning last summer, medical treatment facilities started to see issues with orders for injectable opioids, which are used for patients recovering from surgery, undergoing cancer treatment or those who have sustained significant trauma.

Unlike the prescription pills at the center of the opioid crisis, these injectable pain products are exclusively administered by medical professionals while a patient is directly monitored.

In response to the shortage, hospitals have had to pay extra close attention to what injectables they do have to make sure they're providing the best possible care given the limited resources.

At the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, doctors have been increasingly using alternative treatments such as oral opioid medications pills or in less severe cases, IV Tylenol.

The shortage of injectables has put a strain on hospital staff who have had to work longer hours and go through additional training for alternative methods.

Several hospice centers across the US have reportedly run out of the opioids they rely on to perform their primary function of keeping dying patients comfortable, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

'Any shortage of these medicines has the potential to impact the ability to provide adequate pain management to patients admitted with painful conditions or patients undergoing surgeries,' Dr Charles Morris, associate chief medical officer at Brigham and Women's, told STAT.

Last month pharmaceutical company Pfizer began notifying customers that it had paused production of some pain medicines and orders would likely not be back to normal until the first quarter of 2019 - nine months from now.

Pfizer, which controls more than half of the US market for opioid injectables, blamed the production interruption on problems with a third-party supplier for pre-filled syringes.

'We recognize the importance of these medicines to patients and physicians and are committed to resolving these shortages as quickly as possible,' a company spokesperson said.

'To that end, we are exploring the feasibility of increasing capacity within the global Pfizer manufacturing network and potential third party suppliers.'

Although the shortage wasn't directly caused by the opioid epidemic, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been limited in what it can do to address the shortage because of the strict regulations surrounding opiates.

Before smaller manufacturers can increase production of injectables to alleviate the shortage, the DEA has to raise quotas - which it has been slow to do.

Earlier this week a bill was introduced in the Senate that would make it easier for the DEA to respond to both under-production and over-production of opioids.

Scott Knoer, chief of pharmacy at the Cleveland Clinic, said he sees shortages all the time.

'There is a real cost to drug shortages,' Knoer told STAT. 'This month it's opiates. It's going to be something else next month. This revolving door means something is always going to be short. You're never over it.'A paper that claimed a homeopathic tincture could be used to treat cancer has been retracted after the authors were arrested for practicing medicine without a license.

The article claimed psorinum - a pus extracted from scabies cells, normally used for skin conditions - can be taken as a tincture to 'trigger a complex anti-tumor immune response' in patients.

The authors, father-and-son team Ashim and Aradeep Chatterjee of India, said their specific concoction, diluting it one million times, would treat stomach, gall bladder, pancreatic and liver cancers.

But last month the journal retracted the 2011 article after it emerged the Chatterjees were arrested at their clinic in Kolkata, for giving cancer patients this concoction - and no other cancer medication - despite no evidence to support their theory beyond their own paper.

The authors of this paper, father-and-son team Ashim and Aradeep Chatterjee of India, said their mix, diluting scabies pus a million times, treats stomach, pancreatic and liver cancers. It was retracted in February after it emerged the Chatterjees had been arrested

The journal eventually pulled the paper in late February, and the Chatterjees subsequent work published in the esteemed Journal of Clinical Oncology is now under review.

The Chatterjees carried out their research program at their own clinic, the Critical Cancer Management Research Center, depriving patients of conventional treatment and giving them scabies pus extract instead.

These patients served as the models for their research paper, which did not use any control or placebo as a comparison.

Their paper was published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a contentious publication that promotes homeopathy as a mainline treatment.

Despite its pro-homeopathy stance, the journal's publisher launched an investigation into the Chatterjees' article earlier this year.

The first major issue they singled out was that the Chatterjees own the clinic where the 'evidence' was compiled.

More critically, however, the Chatterjees claimed that their program started in 2001, when their ethics approval to perform it was granted. However, their clinic did not open until 2008, long after the approval expired.

When the publishers contacted the Chatterjees to smooth out these issues, they were told both had been arrested - the son, Aradeep, in June 2017, and his father Ashim in August - for practicing medicine without a license.

They contacted the four listed co-authors. Three said they disagreed with the paper, and one did not reply.Thousands of people have been exposed to measles at airports in Detroit, New Jersey and Memphis.

Officials confirmed this week that two international travelers with the viral infection passed through the Detroit Metropolitan airport, Memphis International Airport and the Newark Liberty International airport.

Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, there's a 90 percent chance that someone close to that person who has not been vaccinated against the illness will catch it too.

Symptoms usually take seven to 14 days to develop, and officials are urging passengers to be vigilant over a possible measles outbreak.

Travelers who visited airports in Detroit, Memphis and Newark (pictured) may have been exposed to the measles

The respiratory illness can be spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes or by touching a contaminated object.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) released a statement yesterday saying that a person with the infection traveled from India and landed in Detroit Metropolitan Airport on March 6.

They are asking people who were in the airport's north terminal between 2pm and 5pm that day to seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of the disease.

People exposed to the measles at the Detroit airport may develop symptoms by next week.

Passengers at the Newark airport in New Jersey between 12.45pm and 9pm on Monday were also exposed to the respiratory infection.

Officials said a young child diagnosed with measles arrived to Newark airport from Brussels then flew to Memphis that evening.

Those who were exposed to the measles at Newark or Memphis airports may develop symptoms as late as April 2.

'This case underscores the importance of following vaccine recommendations and being up-to-date on vaccines,' said Dr. Eden Wells, MDHHS Chief Medical Executive. 'Immunizations are the best way to protect our families and communities from the harmful, sometimes deadly consequences of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.'

There has been a recent uptick in measles cases worldwide.

WHAT IS MEASLES? Measles is a contagious respiratory infection. It is spread by droplets in the air from coughing or sneezing. Sufferers get an outbreak of itchy red blotches all over their body around two weeks after exposure. They also get a cough, sore throat, and a fever. Patients can take vitamin A and over-the-counter medications to treat the virus until it goes away. The best form of treatment is a preventative vaccine. Years after infection, measles sufferers can develop an always-fatal neurological disorder called SSPE. It targets the central nervous system. Advertisement

In 2017, the number of cases rose 400 percent in Europe due to vaccination fears.

Earlier this year, a measles outbreak impacted more than 100 people across five regions in England.

Symptoms of the disease, which includes cough, sensitivity to light, red eyes, and loss of appetite, don't appear until 10 to 12 days after being exposed to the virus.

Children younger than five years old and adults older than 20 years old are more likely to suffer from measles complications, such as ear infections and diarrhea.

Severe complications of the disease include pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

According to the CDC, about one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death from measles in young children.

The disease can be prevented with the MMR vaccine.

Two doses of the MMR vaccine - which is only licensed for use in children who are 12 months through 12 years of age - is 97 percent effective against measles. While, one dose is 93 percent effective against the respiratory infection.

However, the CDC recommends that adults born after 1957 who may not have received the MMR shot to get at least one dose.The death of cells in the brain's spatial system could be the reason why elderly people are prone to getting lost, according to researchers.

A new study compared brain activity patterns in a group of young and older adults as they completed a series of navigational tasks to shed light on why sense of direction tends to fade with age.

They found that an area of the brain that's central to spatial functioning becomes increasingly unstable with age in healthy adults and similarly in people with degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

The findings could ultimately be used to not only slow the deterioration of navigation ability but also to diagnose and treat diseases that cause cognitive decline and give elderly people more independence.

Researchers have found a possible explanation for why elderly people are prone to losing their sense of direction by locating instability in the brain's navigation system, shown in red above

The study by researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease was published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

Spatial orientation and navigation are considered to be some of the most complex abilities of the human mind because they require processing a flood of information including sensory stimuli and balance cues from the muscles.

These skills have been found to deteriorate with age, which can compromise a person's independence later in life.

'When you move around an unfamiliar environment, it is perfectly normal to get lost. Yet, this tends to happen more often to older people. So far, we know very little about the underlying neuronal mechanisms of these navigation problems,' lead author Matthias Stangl said.

The study was designed around a hypothesis that the deterioration was related to grid cells, which are important to navigational processing.

The researchers performed a series of experiments using virtual reality and mapping brain activity through functional brain imaging (fMRI).

They split 41 healthy adults into two groups: a 'young' group with 20 participants between ages 19 and 30, and an 'old' group with participants between ages 63 and 81.

For the first experiment participants had to navigate through a virtual reality computer-generated environment while their brain activity were monitored.

In the second experiment participants moved along predefined paths in a real space and virtual reality environment with occasional stops where they had to estimate their distance and orientation relative to the starting point without being able to see or pinpoint its location.

'All things considered, young participants did better in navigation, which is in line with previous studies. However, we found an association between decreased navigational performance and deficits in grid cell activity,' Thomas Wolbers, the study supervisor and a DZNE senior scientist said.

The results showed that firing patterns in grid cells were less stable in the older group, possibly explaining why older people often struggle with spatial navigation.

Aside from their role in navigation, grid cells are used in other cognitive functions as well.

Wolbers said the findings provide insights into neurophysiological changes in old age that may be used in designing treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's that cause cognitive decline.

'Assessing navigation performance and grid cell function could possibly facilitate early diagnosis of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders,' he said.

While more research is needed in this area, Wolbers said the findings lay the foundation for future studies on age-related decline in health adults and those with brain disorders.It's meant to make you smell fresher.

But scientists claim that deodorant may be doing more than just that - it could be making you ill.

More than a quarter of people suffer bad reactions to chemicals found in the sprays, a new study suggests.

Australian researchers quizzed 1,100 people to make the conclusion.

And they found that 26 per cent believe they experience reactions to the chemicals in deodorants, air fresheners and cleaning supplies.

Commonly reported side effects from the 'harmful' chemicals found in these products included asthma attacks, migraines and skin problems.

It's meant to make you smell fresher. But scientists claim that deodorant may be doing more than just that - it could be making you ill

Professor Anne Steinemann, lead author of the University of Melbourne research, told NewScientist: 'We're exposed to these chemicals continuously.

'But people may not realise they're being harmed until it's too late, and then they have chemical sensitivity.'

Scientists then revealed the number of people diagnosed with a sensitivity to these chemicals has quadrupled in 16 years.

A similar survey in 2002 showed just three per cent of participants had been told by their doctor that they have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.

DO DEODORANTS CAUSE CANCER? A study published in September 2016 found there may be an increased risk of breast cancer caused by aluminium compounds in antiperspirants. These compounds temporarily block sweat glands  but can build up in breast tissue and produce some oestrogen-like effects. While some simple deodorants designed just to mask odour do not contain them, most do. Andre-Pascal Sappino, co-author of the study, from the University of Geneva, looked at isolated human mammary cells and later replicated it in studies on mice. The study found long term exposure resulted in tumours which spread. But many leading experts pointed out flaws in the Swiss study and said there is no need to ban deodorants with aluminum salts. Advertisement

In contrast, some 13 per cent had been diagnosed in the new study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

However, double that amount - around 295 of the 1,137 adults surveyed - claimed to have experienced physical reactions to the chemicals.

Nearly 60 per cent of the volunteers with MCS admitted they have had to give up going to public restrooms that use fragrances.

And more than half of the 145 diagnosed participants revealed they could no longer wash their hands with smelly soap.

The researchers have now hypothesised an estimated 55 million adults in the US - around 16 per cent - suffer from MCS.

Professor Steinemann added: 'MCS is a serious and potentially disabling disease that is widespread and increasing in the US population.'

The new study comes after MailOnline reported scores of men are jumping on the band wagon of strange-smelling, intimate hygiene products.

Sales of male-only grooming products such as scrotal deodorants  which even come in a chocolate scent  have soared by 2,000 per cent in seven years.

The rise in demand has been attributed to the 'rise of the metrosexual'  a man who pays attention to his personal appearance.

But experts have repeatedly warned overuse of heavily-fragranced products can cause skin problems including eczema.SUNBURN by Laura Lippman (Faber 14.99)

SUNBURN

by Laura Lippman

(Faber 14.99)

The blurb on this book sells it as a sort of lovechild of literary novelist Anne Tyler and thriller writer James M. Cain.

And for once the blurb doesnt over-promise. Lippman writes the best opening pages of any thriller so far this year.

An unknown male narrator sits in a bar, his eyes focused on the sunburnt shoulder of a redhead called Polly. He is being paid to watch her.

Polly is a mother who has walked out on her family and is on the run.

Seedy American motels and cheap bars give this book a wonderful film noir flavour. Lippmans slinky, sly prose wraps itself around a deliciously concealed mystery. Not least because she manages to keep us guessing  and caring  about whether Polly is a victim or a perpetrator.

LET ME LIE by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere 12.99)

LET ME LIE

by Clare Mackintosh

(Sphere 12.99)

Fans of I Let You Go might be a tad disappointed by Mackintoshs latest offering.

This book is more concerned with the psychological unravelling of her characters than the straightforward suspense her readers are used to.

The central character, Anna, is a young mother trying to recover from the suicide of her parents, but who becomes convinced they were actually murdered.

Her search to find their killers uncovers more uncomfortable truths than she can cope with. One of them might still be alive . . .

The most powerful parts of the book concern the contradictions and turmoil caused by grief, and Mackintosh is good at creating sympathetic characters. But there were just a few too many twists in the plot to make this as good as her previous bestsellers.

WHILE YOU SLEEP by Stephanie Merritt (HarperCollins 12.99)

WHILE YOU SLEEP

by Stephanie Merritt

(HarperCollins 12.99)

The ingredients are traditional  a haunted house on a remote Scottish island is rented by a young woman running away from a secret disturbing experience.

But from the beginning, we are encouraged to believe Zoe Adams might be running towards even more danger. And what has the death, over a century ago, of a young widow and her son to do with Zoes new turmoil?

Merritts clever insight into the effects of psychological trauma has produced a contemporary, edgy and, at times, terrifying tale.

She convincingly conjures up the underlying menace of a remote landscape and a secretive, tight-knit community and tackles the themes of mental illness and the nature of different peoples realities with compassionate intelligence.NATURE

THE WOOD

By John Lewis-Stempel (Doubleday 14.99)

Xylophile is the correct word for a lover of woodlands.

Historian, naturalist and farmer John Lewis-Stempel admits he came late to woods, but succumbed to a delirious xylophilia during the four years he managed Cockshutt Wood in southwest Herefordshire, which he describes as three-and-a-half acres of mixed woodland with a secluded pool where the winter moon lives.

This lyrical book is the diary of his last year at Cockshutt Wood. It begins in December: a minimalist, milk-toned month. The hedgehogs, toads, frogs, snakes and insects with whose activities Lewis-Stempel enlivens later pages are all hibernating. Instead he watches the gaudy cock pheasants samurai bowing at each other and brings his pigs to rummage for goodies among the leaf litter.

The Wood is the diary of John Lewis-Stempel's last year at Cockshutt Wood. Stock image

As a farmer, Lewis-Stempel is keen to remind readers that although the woodland is no longer part of modern farming, historically, its bounty sustained livestock through the winter. Holly would have been ground up for cattle fodder, hawthorn was cut for the sheep and pannage  the traditional practice of releasing pigs in woods  was widespread.

Indeed, according to the Herefordshire Domesday Book, not much else mattered locally. There was woodland there for 160 pigs, if it had born mast [fruit], runs the entry for Pembridge. Lewis-Stempels mothers family held the pannage rights up the lane in the Golden Valley until 1600. Today, he is funny and tender about his pigs and their jolly, rootling expeditions. His favourite sow, Lavender, smells of freshly-ironed linen. Theyre always escaping. When a woman calls the farm to ask if his pigs are free range he replies: Madam, they are practically wild!

Historically, pannage served a dual purpose, providing food for the pigs and tidying up beech nuts and acorns which can be poisonous to cows and horses.

Later, Lewis-Stempel forages along with his pigs. He shares his recipes for wild garlic dolmades in April, elderflower champagne in June, mushroom pate in August and chestnut soup in October.

Its not all cosy. Lewis-Stempel often goes armed into his sanctuary. Carrying a gun concentrates the naturalists mind, sharpens the senses, he writes. On one occasion he reluctantly takes his son to execute a pair of Canada geese which have made their home on his beloved pond.

THE WOOD By John Lewis-Stempel (Doubleday 14.99)

The birds have attacked frogs, moorhens and mallards. He takes out the gander with one shot and expects the goose to fly, but she stays by the floating corpse of her mate. Is it love? Loyalty? he asks. Dead on the water, the Canadas float on their backs, and when the wind blows them towards us they are as menacing as pillows.

As so often throughout his work, Lewis-Stempel turns to poetry for company and consolation.

On the day he kills the geese he remembers Robert Frosts line: Pairing in all paradises ends.

Elsewhere his love of language finds him unearthing forgotten, regional words for wild things. In Olde Hereford, a rabbit was a clover snapper, a small twig was a yimp and a thrush was a Mavis.

Hes brilliant on birds and their habits, enjoying the company of blackbirds as they squawk round the wood like outraged ayatollahs.

When he shoots pheasants for his table, they fall like comets. Cockshutt got its name from its game after all: cock for woodcock, shutt for trap.

Lewis-Stempels research sends him roving back deeper in time, to 2000BC when the ancient Egyptians imported all their ash from Europe to make wheels. In the new millennium he is planting ash saplings in the hope that some will resist the ash dieback that is biting into Britains 80 million ash trees.

The farmer ends his diary in November, with a murmuration of 90 jackdaws swooping through leaf-stripper winds above him and a cup of acorn coffee warming his hands.

When his tenure of Cockshutt is up he finds the parting more painful than he had imagined. I thought the trees and birds belonged to me, he writes. But I now realise I belonged to them.The father of 'House of Horrors' captor David Turpin has revealed to DailyMail.com that he is optimistic about his grandchildren's recovery after their years of abuse, imprisonment and starvation.

'The children are doing just fine,' James Turpin said, adding that he had talked with some of the younger children but hoped to speak to the rest of the siblings soon.

Turpin, 84, who lives in the small town of Princeton, West Virginia, with his wife Betty, 81, said that he also hoped to visit his grandchildren in California.

The children, dubbed the 'Magnificent 13', were allegedly abused for years by their parents, David and Louise Turpin.

David Turpin, 57, and Louise, 48, have pleaded not guilty to charges of torture, abuse of a dependent adult, child abuse and false imprisonment from 2010 until present.

James Turpin, the father of 'House of Horrors' captor David Turpin said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com that he hopes to visit his recovering grandchildren (pictured above at their parents' wedding) in California

Louise and David Turpin have pleaded not guilty to charges of torture, abuse of a dependent adult, child abuse and false imprisonment from 2010 until present

Additionally, Louise Turpin is facing a charge of felony assault and David Turpin is charged with one count of a lewd act on a child.

They are being held on $13 million bail and if convicted, they face up to life in prison.

The couple were arrested in January after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from the family home in Perris, California, and called 911 on a deactivated cell phone.

Police discovered the 12 other siblings at the home amid the stench of human waste.

The seven adult children are recovering at Corona Regional Medical Facility while the six younger children have been split between two foster homes.

Louise Turpin's uncle, James Taylor, 67, also spoke with DailyMail.com at his home in Princeton and said his family were blindsided by reports of the abuse that his great-nieces and nephews had suffered.

The victims, who range in age from two to 29 years old, were chained to their beds as punishment.

When they were found, the oldest sibling weighed only 82lb. All of the children, besides the two year old, were malnourished and had to be hospitalized.

Louise Turpin's uncle, James Taylor, 67, also spoke with DailyMail.com at his home in Princeton and said his family were blindsided by reports of the abuse that his great-nieces and nephews had suffered

James Taylor said that his 93-year-old father, John Taylor, who 'gets on pretty good for his age', was aware of the accusations against his granddaughter and deeply troubled by them. Taylor said that he was close to Louise's mother, Phyllis Robinette, before she passed away in February 2016 at the age of 66

David and LouiseTurpin have been married since Louise was 16. She eloped with David Turpin after he signed her out of school and drove them to Texas. The couple was caught and returned to their hometown to wed. Above they are seen in their wedding photo in Princeton, West Virginia in 1984

Teresa Robinette says her sister had never 'had never drunk a beer or smoked a cigarette or done a drug' in her whole life. 'Pictured: Louise (top right) with her mother Phyllis, (left) her father, sisters Teresa (on fathers lap) and Elizabeth (bottom right)

Her mom, the wife of a preacher, allowed Louise to date David Turpin secretly. Above she is pictured as a 7th-grader (left) and with her sister Elizabeth (right)

Louise as a teenager (second from left) with sister Elizabeth (left), mother Phyllis, sister Teresa and father Wayne

The mother of 13 had told her brother Billy, who was the last to speak to her before her arrest, that she wanted another child. She is pictured left while pregnant with her youngest daughter and right after she gave birth

'Everybody is shocked that this even happened,' Taylor said. 'What made them do it? I wouldn't treat an animal like that.'

He said that his 93-year-old father, John Taylor, who 'gets on pretty good for his age', was aware of the accusations against his granddaughter and deeply troubled by them.

'He doesn't talk about it much,' he added.

Taylor said that it had been a 'few years' since Louise Turpin brought some of her children to West Virginia to meet family.

'I haven't seen her in so long, we lost contact. It was years ago that she lived here. She ran off with David and got married when she was 14 or 15,' he said.

'She didn't even come to my mom and my sister's funeral. I thought that was kind of strange. But if they had those kids all chained up that's probably why they didn't come.'

Taylor said that he was close to Louise's mother, Phyllis Robinette, before she passed away in February 2016 at the age of 66.

Taylor said that he believed Louise spoke to her on a daily basis.

The couple were arrested in January after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from the family home in Perris, California, and called 911 on a deactivated phone

Evidence against the couple includes videos, audio recordings and physical evidence of the years of abuse

The Turpins' seven adult children are recovering at Corona Regional Medical Facility. Louise Turpin is pictured above with one of her 13 children

The Turpins' six younger children have been split between two foster homes. Louise Turpin is pictured above with one of her 13 children

'When I would go down and see Phyllis, a lot of the time she would be on the phone with them,' Taylor said. 'They called my sister and she called them about every night.

'Phyllis planned on going down there [to California] but they kept making excuses. I see why now.'

He said his sister never knew about the abuse. 'I seen my sister about every day, she lived nearby. I don't even know how long this has been going on.'

Taylor said he was particularly shocked because he believed that David Turpin was educated and had a high-paying job, giving the impression that he was taking good care of his family.

The great-uncle said that he had not spoken to any of his great-nieces and nephews but was relieved to hear that they were being well cared for.

'I had a hard time dealing with the details but then I saw on the news that they were getting money and clothes,' he said. Fundraising efforts have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars for the siblings.

He said that the family who still lived in West Virginia would welcome the children with open arms should they ever want to visit.

'I would love to see them,' Taylor said.

The lawyers representing the seven adult Turpin children say they continue to recover from their years of abuse and are enjoying new freedoms including playing sports, listening to music and watching movies.

The lawyers representing the seven adult Turpin children say they continue to recover from their years of abus

The adult children are enjoying new freedoms including playing sports, listening to music and watching movies

The younger children are being introduced to experiences other children may take for granted - like toothbrushes, Harry Potter and iPads.

A preliminary hearing for the Turpins' trial is set for May 14.

Evidence against the couple includes videos, audio recordings and physical evidence of the years of abuse.

Last week, it emerged that the 17-year-old girl who had escaped from the home had shared videos of herself singing on YouTube.

The teen, who posted the clips under an alias, revealed the squalid conditions inside the home as a result.

In one clip, obtained by GMA, a huge pile of dirty clothes are seen in the corner of the room.

She was also seen playing with two small dogs - which were found well-fed and in good health by rescuers, in stark contrast to the condition of the children.

Louise Turpin's sister, Teresa Robinette, and brother, Billy Lambert, shared more details of the life of their sister and her husband in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com last month.Piffaro

continued

Unlike the more rigidly constrained performers who came to dominate classical music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Renaissance musicians embellished and improvised on dance tunes of their day in ways that Piffaro's co-director, Bob Wiemken, compares to the spontaneous creativity of jazz musicians. Though the players have sheet music on stands before them, they are at liberty to honor that inherited freedom by artfully deviating from the score.



Piffaro specializes in double reed instruments: the curved crumhorn, the shawm, and the dulcian, sweet-voiced forerunner of the modern bassoon. My personal favorite is the rackett, which the Germans called the Wurstfagott, or sausage bassoon. This stubby instrument, which looks like a polished piece of kindling studded with little holes, has a softly raspy but surprisingly deep tone. That's because the bore, or channel that the wind passes through, is quite long and coiled up nine times within it. The effect is somewhat bizarre, because we are accustomed to hearing bass clef sounds emanating from jumbo-sized instruments. As Wiemken demonstrates, you can carry a rackett in your pocket.



Piffaro's famously diverse collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century instruments also includes the tabor drum, a harp suggesting classical antiquity, the lute--cousin to the Arabian oud--and the Renaissance guitar, which could easily be mistaken for a ukulele.With his parents and grandmother facing dozens of years behind bars and his uncle dead from a bullet to the head, 10-year-old Alun Jackson has been left the smallest and saddest victim of the bizarre body-in-the-manure-heap murder case.

His whole life has been turned upside down since the arrests of his immediate family in Colorado over the past few days.

But it's neither the first nor the hardest challenge the tow-haired little boy has faced, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively. Three years ago, Alun nearly died when a horse kicked him in the head on the ranch now made infamous by the sensational murder case.

He battled through after surgeons were forced to remove part of his skull and then carefully put it back in place.

Alun is the only child of Stephanie and David Jackson, who both face charges in connection with the murder of Stephanie's brother Jake Millison.

The boy was just seven when he had his dice with death. A horse called Trigger kicked out, making contact with his skull.

Alun Jackson is the 10-year-old son of Stephanie and David Jackson, who both face charges in connection with the murder of her brother Jacob Millison. The boy's young life has been left upended after the arrests of his family

DailyMail.com has learned that Alun was just seven when he had his dice with death. A horse called Trigger kicked out, making contact with the boy's skull

Stephanie Jackson, 33, is now charged with the first-degree murder while Alun's father, David Jackson is charged with being an accessory to murder

In a moving online post, his mother wrote Alun was in the ICU for 10 days and 'in an induced coma for 8 of those days'

Jacob Millison was shot and killed as he slept in 2015. His body was discovered buried under a seven ft deep pit with a barrel of goat skulls and various dead farm animals

'It was the scariest thing I have ever seen,' family friend Becca Diani, who was cleaning cabins at the ranch at the time of the accident, told DailyMail.com exclusively.

Her co-worker  now fiance  Jake Pettigrew came running over saying 'We gotta go, we gotta go. Alun's been kicked in the head,' said Diani, whose 10-year-old son Victor was a classmate and playmate of Alun's.

She ran to the scene where she found the boy's mother Stephanie Jackson and her best friend Sheane Sparks pressing a towel to the boy's head. 'it was just soaked in blood,' she said.

Stephanie's mother Deborah Rudibaugh, 68, admitted to fatally shooting her son due to years of abuse

'They were saying to him: 'Don't go to sleep. Don't go to sleep,' and telling him to move his arms and legs but he could only move them on one side of his body.'

Alun was rushed to Gunnison Valley Hospital where he was stabilized before being airlifted to Denver for further treatment.

For a year he had to wear a helmet to protect his head. 'Victor gave him a shark helmet,' said Diani, 33. 'He loves sharks.'

Stephanie Jackson is now charged with the first-degree murder of her 29-year-old brother. Her mother, Deborah Rudibaugh, faces the same charge. Alun's father, David Jackson is charged with being an accessory to murder. All three face a host of other charges including tampering with a body and abusing a corpse.

Rudibaugh, 68, claims she killed her son as he slept because he was violent towards her. Though she was weakened by advanced breast cancer  which has now seen her weight plummet to 70 lb  and was just nine days removed from gallbladder surgery, she says she alone dragged his 170lb body to a manure pile, where it was hidden for two years before David Jackson found it. Police say the family then interred it in a 7ft deep pit with a barrel of goat skulls and various dead farm animals.

Investigators are convinced that Stephanie, 33, who had fought with her brother over just about everything since childhood, helped her mother murder him and say she is the only one with a motive  the inheritance of the $3 million ranch  to have him killed.

But regardless of whoever killed Jake Millison, it is Alun Jackson who is left with his young life upended.

Alun was named in honor of his Uncle Jake's best friend Alun Howells, a soldier who was just 20 when he was killed in a Baghdad firefight four months into Stephanie's pregnancy

He was rushed to Gunnison Valley Hospital where he was stabilized before being airlifted to Denver for further treatment. In an online post, his mother told how doctors removed part of his skull 'to help relieve the swelling on his brain'

The Jacksons bought a $74,000, two-bedroom house (pictured) in Denver with the help of $30,000 that Stephanie's stepfather Marion 'Rudy' Rudibaugh gave her six months before he died in 2009. The couple rented the home and returned to the ranch in 2012

Alun spent his much of his early childhood in Denver, but his parents felt the school system there was not good enough, so they moved back to the tiny town of Parlin, 8,000 feet up in the Colorado Rockies, where he could live on the family's 700-acre spread, known as the 7-11 Ranch.

By all accounts he loved the country life along the Quartz Creek in the ranch house next to Indian Head Rock, a local landmark where an outcrop resembles a native American's head.

'He's a great kid,' said Diani. 'He's at the age where he finds it hard to keep still, a very rough-and tumble boy.

'He's mainly gotten over his injuries, but there are times he still has to take a break. A year or so ago Stephanie posted a picture of him on Facebook riding Trigger saying he had gotten over his fears.'

Now, though, the little boy's life has been overturned again. Immediately after the arrests Sheane Sparks took care of him for a few days on the ranch, but last week, with his entire close family either dead or facing murder raps, he was sent to live with relatives in Utah.

Potentially both his mother and grandmother face the death penalty although prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue it and Colorado has only executed one person since 1975.

Stephanie, who now sits in Gunnison County Jail awaiting trial for the murder which police say happened on Saturday, May 16, 2015, two months before Alun's accident, posted heartbreaking images of her son online.

She told how doctors removed part of his skull 'to help relieve the swelling on his brain.'

Alun has since gotten over his injuries, but still has to 'take a break', a friend told DailyMail.com. Above he is pictured with his father David Jackson

Alun battled through after surgeons were forced to remove part of his skull and then carefully put it back in place. For a year, the young boy had to wear a helmet to protect his head

'He was in the ICU for 10 days and in an induced coma for 8 of those days, she wrote on the website TBIOnelove.com.

'He was in rehab for 2 weeks after that,' Jackson added. He passed all the OT and speech therapies within days of starting therapies and we got to bring him home about a month after his injury.

'About a month and a half after that they put the missing pieces of his skull back in.

'We are so lucky to have such a strong brave little boy. He amazes me everyday. In just a few days he will be back to normal activities and back to school full time,' she wrote in February 2016, six months after the accident.

Alun was named in honor of his Uncle Jake's best friend Alun Howells (pictured) a soldier who was just 20 when he was killed in a Baghdad firefight four months into Stephanie's pregnancy

Alun was named in honor of his Uncle Jake's best friend Alun Howells, a soldier who was just 20 when he was killed in a Baghdad firefight four months into Stephanie's pregnancy.

But even that decision caused conflict between brother and sister. 'Jake thought Steph had hijacked Alun's name,' said Pettigrew, a close friend of the dead man. 'Alun was his friend not Steph's.'

Alun's parents had fallen in love when David arrived in picturesque Gunnison, the nearest town to Parlin, operating the paintball machine in a traveling carnival, Pettigrew told DailyMail.com.

When the carnival left town, David stayed and he and Stephanie married in 2003 when both were still in their teens.

They bought a $74,000, two-bedroom house in Denver with the help of $30,000 that Stephanie's stepfather Marion 'Rudy' Rudibaugh gave her six months before he died in 2009. She thought she had turned her back on the 7-11 Ranch and the brother with whom she had warred all her life.

But in 2012 the couple decided to return. Shortly before the move she emailed a friend: 'I don't want Alun going to school here. Kids here are f***ed up. And well I'm totally sick of Denver.'

It was probably the worst decision of Stephanie's life.

Alun spent his much of his early childhood in Denver, but his parents felt the school system there was not good enough, so they moved back to the tiny town of Parlin, 8,000 feet up in the Colorado Rockies, where he could live on the family's 700-acre spread, known as the 7-11 Ranch.

Rudibaugh inherited the ranch when her second husband Rudy Rudibaugh died in 2009. In her will she planned to leave the ranch to her son and stepson Shane Rudibaugh after Stephanie and David moved away to live in Denver

The mother admitted to shooting her son at the family ranch  which contains the locally famous Indian Head Rock, a natural formation that resembles the head of a native American  early in the morning of May 16, 2015

Within months of returning to the ranch she and her husband were at loggerheads with Millison. 'Jake didn't like the thought that his sister had married a carny,' said Pettigrew, who worked at the ranch occasionally to help pay off a Harley Davidson he had bought from Millison for $4,000.

In January 2013 Millison took out a restraining order against his brother-in-law claiming he had pulled a gun on him during an argument about where snow should be piled.

Things got so bad that brother and sister just ignored each other, going about their business on the ranch hardly ever speaking. 'I can't even say hello to him,' Stephanie told police, while her mother said: 'He hated her, she hated him.'

'He always p***ed me off,' David Jackson, 34, told police investigating the murder, claiming Millison had dumped his tools on the ground and sold his toolbox. 'All my stuff was scattered,' he said, to be 'trampled on by cows and such.'

The Jacksons even moved out to live in an apartment in Gunnison, a picturesque mountain town 20 minutes away, so they didn't have to spend any more time than necessary around Jake.

The family told police that Millison was violent, a heavy drinker and used cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms. But friends such as Pettigrew and Diani paint a completely different picture, saying he was a fitness freak who lived for his Jiu-jitsu.

'I remember him dropping 20lb to get into the right weight class for one fight,' Pettigrew told DailyMail.com. 'At one point, he had weighed 220lb  nearly 230  and he got down to 170lb. You don't do that by drinking heavily.'

And Gunnison County Sheriff Rick Besecker told DailyMail.com: 'I get the impression he was very health conscious in the way he looked after his body.'

The family had told police that Millison (pictured) was violent, a heavy drinker and used cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms. But friends have disputed these claims, stating Millison was a fitness freak who loved martial arts

A total of 13 friends told police similar stories about Jake Millison's (center) 'kind' demeanor. They called him 'a good person who would avoid conflict,' 'calm, confident but unassuming,' 'laid back,' and 'really into healthy living,' among other descriptions. Max Matheny (front) told DailyMail.com that he was angry that the family has blackened Millison's memory with their claims

Pettigrew said: 'I've seen him mad  everyone gets mad. But never have I seen him get violent.

'And he was always the one you could call if you had had too much to drink. He would come out and drive you home.'

When Millison went out, he normally drank Coke, Pettigrew said. 'Occasionally a 7 and 7,' he added, referring to a cocktail of whiskey and 7 Up. 'But he would never have more than two. 'He was usually the designated driver.'

Another friend, Max Matheny, told DailyMail.com that he was angry that the family has blackened Millison's memory with their claims.

'I absolutely feel that his family is spreading a lot of false information about Jake and trying to twist his character. Jake was a very caring, kind and respectful person,' said Matheny.

A total of 13 friends told police similar stories. They called him 'a good person who would avoid conflict,' 'calm, confident but unassuming,' 'laid back,' and 'really into healthy living,' among other descriptions.

Many of them, including Pettigrew, Matheny and Randy Martinez, the last person apart from his killer to see him alive, told DailyMail.com that Millison often told them that if anything happened to him, they should look to his family.

Millison had gone with Martinez to Crested Butte, Colorado, on the night he died, to see the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. They asked Pettigrew and Diani to join them, but Pettigrew had just made a payment on the Harley and said he couldn't afford it. After the movie, they drove back to Gunnison to play pool at the Alamo bar.

When he returned to the 7-11 Ranch, Millison went to bed. Police checked his phone for the last things he ever did. They found that he watched Daft Punk and Pharrell sing Get Lucky and a routine by comedian J-L Cauvin.

Jake Pettigrew, friend of Jacob Millison and worker at the Rudibaugh Ranch, at his home in Gunnison Colorado

Pettigrew is engaged to Becca Diani (pictured) whose son is close friends with Alun Jackson

The phone was not used after 2.29 am on Saturday, May 16, 2015. After initially denying she had anything to do with his death, Rudibaugh told police she killed him with one bullet from her Smith & Wesson 'Ladysmith' .357 revolver sometime after 2 am that morning. She said she killed him because of his abuse.

'I get up and I take the .357 and I walk upstairs and I stand there a second and ask myself do you want to live the rest of your life like this, however long or short it would be, and my mind goes "no" and I pulled the trigger,' she told cops.

She said she managed to move the body using 'Yankee ingenuity and my knowledge of physics and chemistry and stuff.'

Within weeks of his disappearance Jake Millison's concerned friends reported him missing and put up a Facebook page asking for leads.

Deborah Rudibaugh waited four months before finally reporting her son missing in August, saying she had waited that long because he had gone on a trip to Nevada and California and he often would go weeks without calling.

But Sheriff Besecker said cops didn't believe her because there was no digital footprint of phone calls or bank records. They slowly built up their case, interviewing Rudibaugh three times before she confessed.

Eventually Gunnison County's 14-strong sheriff's department along with a host of other law enforcement agencies and five cadaver dogs raided the 7-11 ranch on July 17 last year discovering Millison's skeletal remains in the pit. It was wrapped in plastic and missing its left arm which they believe was eaten by animals. Forensic officers say the bullet that killed him was fired from Rudibaugh's Ladysmith.

But it took months to identify the body conclusively and that led to months of delay before the arrests over the past two weeks of mother, daughter and son-in-law  and new turmoil into the short and turbulent 10-year life of Alun Jackson.Ei-ichi Negishi, 82, a chemist teaching at Purdue University, and his wife Sumire Negishi, 80, were reported missing Monday

A Japanese Nobel Prize-winner was hospitalized Wednesday and his wife was dead, reportedly after driving off a road in rural Illinois.

Ei-ichi Negishi, 82, a chemist teaching at Purdue University in the neighboring state of Indiana, and his wife Sumire Negishi, 80, were reported missing Monday.

Police found them early Tuesday morning about 200 miles northeast of their home, on land belonging to the Orchard Hills Landfill operated by the company Advanced Disposal.

Police discovered Ei-ichi Negishi walking in the area, and his wife was found dead near their car.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate Ei-ichi Negishi (pictured receiving the medal from the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden during the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony) went missing with his wife on Monday

'Both her and the vehicle were found on the landfill property,' Lieutenant Brian Ketter of the Ogle County Sheriff's office told AFP.

The couple had been driving to a nearby airport and became disoriented, and Ei-Ichi Negishi crashed their car into a ditch, according to WTHR television.

The TV station reported that Sumire Negishi had stayed behind while her husband left looking for help.

Police would not confirm details about the incident, but did not suspect foul play.

The Rockford airport is located approximately eight miles from where the couple was discovered.

Ei-ichi Negishi and his wife Sumire were on their way to an Illinois airport when they became disoriented and crashed- he went to get help and was found walking along the road and she was dead in the car

The local coroner's office said an autopsy was pending. Ei-ichi Negishi was receiving treatment at a hospital, police said.

Negishi is a Japanese national who came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to study chemistry. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1979.

He, along with two other scientists, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2010 for developing a method for creating complex chemicals. The method is widely used, including for the production of pharmaceuticals.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has today publicly joined Prime Minister Theresa May in blaming Russia for poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent, and most chemical weapons specialists agree.

But they say an alternative explanation cannot be ruled out: that the nerve agent got into the hands of people not acting for the Russian state.

The Soviet chemical weapons programme was in such disarray after the Cold War that some toxic substances and know-how could have got into the hands of criminals, say people who dealt with the programme at the time.

Who is to blame: Soldiers wearing protective clothing in Gillingham, Dorset, as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian spy Sergei Skripal continues

'Could somebody have smuggled something out?' said Amy Smithson, a biological and chemical weapons expert.

'I certainly wouldn't rule that possibility out, especially a small amount and particularly in view of how lax the security was at Russian chemical facilities in the early 1990s.'

While nerve agents degrade over time, if the pre-cursor ingredients for the nerve agent were smuggled out back then, stored in proper conditions and mixed recently, they could still be deadly in a small-scale attack, two experts on chemical weapons told Reuters.

Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in hospital in critical condition after being found unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4. A police officer was also harmed and remains in a serious condition.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that 'there is no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter, and for threatening the lives of other British citizens.'

On Thursday, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he 'totally condemns' the attack and said 'the evidence points towards Russia' being responsible.

Russia has denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack.

Blame game: Prime Minister Theresa May, pictured visiting Salisbury today, has placed the blame squarely with Russia, although experts say there is a risk that this might not be the case

Accounts of security deficiencies at weapons facilities indicate that, at least for a period in the 1990s, Moscow was not in firm control of its chemical weapons stockpiles or the people guarding them.

When Russian banking magnate Ivan Kivelidi and his secretary died in 1995 from organ failure after a military-grade poison was found on the telephone receiver of his Moscow office, an employee of a state chemical research institute confessed to having secretly supplied the toxin.

In a closed-door trial, Kivelidi's business partner was convicted of poisoning Kivelidi over a dispute.

At the trial, prosecutors said the business partner had obtained the poison, via several intermediaries, from Leonard Rink, an employee of a state chemical research institute known as GosNIIOKhT.

The same institute, according to Vil Mirzayanov, a Soviet chemical weapons scientist who later turned whistleblower, was part of the state chemical weapons programme and helped develop the 'Novichok' family of nerve agents that Britain has said was responsible for poisoning Skripal.

In a statement to investigators after his arrest, viewed by Reuters, Rink said he was in possession of poisons created as part of the chemical weapons programme which he stored in his garage. On more than one occasion, he said, he sold the substances to supplement his income and pay down a debt.

The poison in the Kivelidi case was sold in a deal brokered by an ex-policeman contact of Rink's. Rink handed over the poison, in an ampoule hidden inside a pen presentation box, in a meeting at Moscow's Belorussky station, according to his statement.

Rink received a one-year suspended prison sentence for 'misuse of powers,' according to Boris Kuznetsov, who was a lawyer for Kivelidi's business partner during the trial.

Poisoned: Former Russian double-agent Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, remain in hospital in critical condition after being found unconscious on a bench Salisbury on March 4

Kuznetsov said he believed his client was innocent, and that Kivelidi was poisoned by rogue intelligence officers acting without the knowledge of the Russian president at the time, Boris Yeltsin.

He added that he would share files from the case with the British authorities, because he believed they could be relevant to the Skripal investigation.

Reuters was not able to contact Rink.

The Soviet chemical weapons programme was a sprawling operation spread across far-flung provincial cities that incorporated the world's largest chemical arsenal, publicly declared at 40,000 tonnes.

When the Soviet Union ceased to exist, funding dried up, scientists' salaries were in several months of arrears, staff morale slumped and facilities were left to fend for themselves with little government control or oversight.

According to a 1995 report published by the Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington security think-tank, and based on accounts from industry insiders, physical security at the facilities was deficient.

It said railroad entrances to the facilities were padlocked but unguarded, and at some sites chemical weapons were stored in buildings with wooden doors and tiled roofs that an intruder could get into with little difficulty.

Chemical weapons were stored in silos without tamper-proof seals, making it difficult to detect if small quantities were being siphoned off.

A second report by the Stimson Center four years later highlighted the risk of Soviet chemical weapons scientists - who earned a pittance when they were paid at all - being recruited by criminals, terrorists, or rogue states.

'All the ingredients for successful black marketeering are present through the chemical and biological complexes - under- or unemployed, scientists and managers, valuable commodities at far-flung locations, and poor security,' the report said.

In some cases in the early 1990s, highly toxic chemical agents wound up outside Russian territory, in ex-Soviet facilities in newly-independent states such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

According to Mirzayanov, the former Soviet chemical weapons scientist, the 'Novichok' family of nerve agents developed by the GosNIIOKhT institute was tested in Nukus, Uzbekistan.

In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Mirzayanov, now resident in Princeton, New Jersey, said though he believed the Kremlin was behind the Skripal attack.

The ex-Soviet republics outside Russia that suddenly found themselves hosting ex-Soviet chemical weapons facilities were even less equipped than Moscow to secure them.

U.S. troops who arrived in Uzbekistan after 2001 to establish an air base in the city of Khanabad came across stockpiles of old munitions that had not been accounted for, which turned out to contain chlorine and other chemical compounds, said someone who was present at the time and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

People in the chemical weapons field said security since the 1990s had improved drastically, helped by Western aid, the transfer of weapons stockpiles from neighbouring states to Russia and a stronger Russian state.

Russia's trade and industry ministry, which oversaw the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles, said in a statement sent to Reuters that Russia had destroyed 100 percent of the stocks in strict compliance with international commitments, and faster than the United States.

The ministry did not address questions about chemical weapons smuggling in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse.

Ukraine's state security service, which tracks weapons proliferation, said it had no immediate comment.

The Uzbek foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The state-owned Kazakh nuclear company which operates the Pavlodar Chemical Plant, a former chemical weapons facility, and the Energy Ministry, to which the nuclear company reports, did not reply to questions.Recordings of 911 calls made by students and teachers in the midst of the deadly mass shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which claimed 17 lives, have been released.

The Coral Springs Police Department released 115 recordings on Wednesday. The calls were made between 2pm and 4pm on February 14, the day when suspected gunman and former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, is said to have killed 17 students and teachers and wounded 17 others in a six-minute rampage.

The recordings, transcribed by the Sun Sentinel, revealed that students and dispatchers were uncertain about the shooter's location and ways to hide from Cruz.

Authorities released new 911 calls received from students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, when suspected school shooter Nikolas Cruz (pictured Wednesday at Broward County Courthouse) allegedly entered the grounds and started shooting students

Authorities release 115 new 911 calls, made between 2pm and 4pm on February 14, including one made just a minute after suspected shooter Cruz entered the building. In addition to placing 911 calls, students posted alerts on social media while hiding in classrooms (seen here)

At 2.22pm  just one minute after authorities said Cruz entered the building  a student in Room 1216, told the 911 operator that three of her classmates had been shot in her classroom.

The unidentified female student tells the dispatcher she sees bullet holes in the wall. 'There are a lot of people around us who are injured, people are bleeding,' she says.

'Please, hes upstairs now,' she says. 'Please, oh my God.'

'Please, please, there are people here. They are all bleeding. They are going to die,' the student tells the 911 dispatcher. She can then be heard saying to a classmate, 'Is he dead, is he dead?'

'Theres a kid, I think hes dead,' she says to the 911 operator, who tells her to 'Stay on the phone' and that 'We have lots of help on the way, OK?'

'Please, hes dead,' the student says.

The new 911 calls revealed that students and teachers were uncertain about whether it was the gunman or police who were approaching their classrooms. (Police are seen securing the classroom in this image taken by a student on February 14)

The girl says that she is hiding, but willing to try CPR, but is told by her teacher not to move. The 911 operator tells her to hide in a closet, however it turns out the closets are on the opposite side of the room from where the girl is.

'Make sure nobody in your class moves an inch, got it?' the operator says.

'Hes got blood dripping down his arms,' the girl, adding that the student next to her is among the wounded. When asked if the student is still breathing, the girl says she 'can't tell.'

The operator urges her to tell her class not to move when the girl says she suspects he is coming back.

In another call, between a school teacher and a Coral Springs 911 operator, the teacher can be heard whispering to her students, telling them to 'Please stay down, please stay down. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.'

Among the release 911 calls illustrating the confusion experienced by those inside the school was one call in which a student isn't sure whether it was the police or the shooter who was approaching the classroom. It turned out to be the police.

In a call with a teacher, the 911 dispatcher asks, 'Have you guys gotten training for active shooter?'

'Um, no, not really,' the teacher says. She then tells the dispatcher that her door is locked, but that a male student was shot through the door and that he isn't breathing.

'It happened so fast,' she says, adding that they couldn't see the shooter from inside the classroom.

When asked about the wounded student  one of 25 hiding in the room  the teacher tells the dispatcher that 'Theres blood all over. He got shot in the chest.' The student is slumped over his desk.

'Theres smoke all in my room. My window and my door is shot in,' the teacher says.

Coral Springs 911 dispatchers also received calls from parents of students who received text messages or spoke with their children who were inside the school at the time of the shooting, CNN reported.

911 operators can be heard telling some parents to tell their children to stay put and keep their phones on vibrate. Other parents were told not to go to the school during the shooting.

'I just want to know if it's a false alarm at Douglas High School?' a mother of a student asks, according to a transcript.

'No, it's not,' the dispatcher says.

'Oh, my god!' the mother replies.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that they would seek the death penalty against Cruz, who is charged with the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

His lawyer said Wednesday that Cruz would plead guilty to all 34 counts in his indictment if prosecutors waived the death penalty.

In court, Cruz  wearing red jail clothes and shackles sat in the jury box with his head bowed and remained silent, leaving the judge to enter a plea of not guilty to all 34 charges against him.

Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against Cruz. In court Wednesday, Cruz (seen here) kept silent, leaving the judge to enter a plea of not guilty to all 34 charges against him. His defense lawyer said he would plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off the tableThe crisis is expected to hit millions of Britons after wholesale energy prices went from a record low last May because of a lack of demand due to global lockdowns to the highest rates since the 1990s. Scott Byrom, Chief Executive Officer of TheEnergyShop.com, told MailOnline the 650,000 customers at the five energy companies to have folded in the past month were likely to be paying around 850-a-year for their energy because of the deals on offer in 2019 and 2020. But could immediately face a hike to 1,277 from October 1 due to the energy cap rise and may be paying as much as 1,500 by next April when they are moved to a new provider. There are concerns that millions more people could be in the same situation after energy consultants Baringa predicted that the number of UK energy companies could fall from 49 to 10 in the next 12 months if wholesale prices remain the same. Experts have said that many of the companies that have gone bust brought in customers on 'dirt cheap' fixed deals on the back of low prices last year - but now have no hope of making any money so either folded or are seeking a Government bailout. Ofgem will automatically move customers of Hub Energy, PfP, MoneyPlus, Utility Point, People's Energy to a new supplier in the coming days with British Gas taking 350,000 of them today and EDF 220,000 last week. Seven firms have collapsed in 2021 in total and many have only been in existence for five years. But energy market rules demand that customers whose supplier goes bust must be offered a fair deal by the new supplier - not the same one they had - meaning they are likely to pay significantly more. Stacey Stothard was one of 220,000 customer at Dorset-based Utility Point, which has gone bust. She believes her bill will now go up by up to 300 or more.Passengers on a roller coaster at Six Flags Fiesta in Texas were stuck in the air for 45 minutes on Tuesday afternoon after a safety sensor went off.

One of the sensors on 'Batman: The Ride' went off and froze the roller coaster - with some of the passengers stuck upside down as rescue crews worked to restore it.

'One of the many sensors on the ride sent an alert,' park spokeswoman Sydney Purvis told the Houston Chronicle.

One of the sensors on 'Batman: The Ride' went off and froze the roller coaster - with some of the passengers stuck upside down for 45 minutes as rescue crews worked to restore it

She said riders were stuck at the top just after the initial lift, and after nearly an hour were delivered to the ground unharmed.

The sensors serve as a safety precaution on the ride and can stall the roller coasters for a myriad of reasons - such as wind or other weather conditions.

Purvis did not give more details about exactly what triggered this sensor. She said stops like this aren't common.

Employees performed safety checks on the ride before allowing the public back onto it.

The Six Flags Fiesta is in Arlington Texas, and 'Batman: The Ride' opened to the public in August 2014.A gang of women who killed an Egyptian student in what her family believe was a race attack had abused her in the street months earlier, it has been claimed.

The mother of Mariam Moustafa says her daughter had been assaulted by the same thugs four months before but police in Nottingham 'did nothing'.

Mariam, 18, was left in a coma after being jumped by the group of female yobs outside a shopping centre while she waited for a bus on February 20, but died on Wednesday.

Her sister, Malak, was also previously beaten up by the same group of girls and in one brutal attack even broke her leg, the family said.

Despite relatives insisting the attacks were fuelled by racism, Nottinghamshire Police - heavily criticised by the Moustafa family - said they do not think the attack was 'motivated by hate'.

The mother of Mariam Moustafa (pictured) claimed that her daughter had been assaulted by the same thugs four months before but police in Nottingham 'did nothing'

The teenager had been shopping in Nottingham city centre before she was repeatedly assaulted by the women in an unprovoked attack on Parliament Street.

The engineering student was rushed to Nottingham City Hospital and placed in an induced coma but died on Wednesday.

Her family believe she was targeted in a racially-motivated attack by a group of women who had previously attacked her in the street, breaking her sister's leg.

According to an Egyptian newspaper, Moustafa's mother Nessrin Shehata posted a video on social media saying: 'Four months ago, two of the same ten women abused my daughter in the street with no specific reason.

'We went to the police station and issued an official complaint; however, nothing happened.'

She added that when the women saw her in the street walking alone, they attacked her once again and dragged her about several feet in the street.

Her uncle Amr El Hariry, 46, said he believed his niece would still be alive today had detectives investigated the original attack.

Speaking from Cairo, Egypt, he said: 'Two of the girls had actually attacked Mariam and Malak four months ago and broke Malak's leg.

'Their parents went to the police who just filed the complaint and that was all - that was a warning, they should've acted.

'The second time she was walking down the street when these girls shouted at her, they called her 'black rose' and Mariam said that wasn't her name.

'They started to beat her, kicking and punching her all over, she ran away but they chased after her. She didn't even know these girls.'

Mariam's family believe she was targeted in a racially-motivated attack by a group of women who had previously hurled abuse at her in the street

A 17-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and was subsequently released on conditional bail.

A Home Office post-mortem examination is due to take place.

Mariam, who was a Nottingham College engineering student, is understood to have suffered a bleed on the brain as well as a stroke during the attack.

She was reportedly punched several times before she was further verbally assaulted after getting onto the number 27 bus.

Mariam, who had just been offered a place at university in London, had originally been discharged, but started to deteriorate at home and was rushed back to hospital.

Mariam's sister also criticised Nottinghamshire Police for 'missing vital warning signs' that she believes could have saved her life.

Malak said: 'The first time they attacked me and Mariam was in August last year, because they said we were staring at them.

'She recognised them from the first attack and tried to walk away, they started shouting at her and followed her.

Mariam, who had just been offered a place at university in London, had originally been discharged, but started to deteriorate at home and was rushed back to hospital

'They're all younger than us, I think they aged between 15 and 17, I don't know who they are, and they go to a different school.

'The guy on the bus who was trying to protect Mariam was a friend of hers from college.

'I'm upset with everyone to be honest, no one did anything, something could've been done, and if the police did then she would still be here.

'I do think that vital warnings were missed, the police should've done something after the first attack but they did nothing.

'After the first attack, a complaint was filed and that was it - the second time they just said they were reopening the case and that was it.

'There has been little communication even after our family has been ripped apart.'

Dad Mohamed said they believed the attack was racially-motivated and added: 'My daughter has never had a problem with any girl in the city before.

'I don't know why they attacked her the first time, but they recognised her the second time and went after her again.

'My wife and I think it was racially motivated because Mariam didn't know these girls, why would you attack someone randomly?

'They were all of different colour skin to Mariam maybe that is why they did this - they also called her "black rose".

'I just don't know why they would attack her, when she did nothing wrong.'

Now diplomatic row looms as Egypt accuses UK of human rights failings The death of Mariam Moustafa turned into a diplomatic row yesterday as Egyptian authorities accused Britain of failings. Politicians in the 18-year-olds home country criticised her hospital treatment and the police investigation into the brutal gang attack. On Twitter, campaigners gave their posts labels including JusticeforMariam as concern about the case gathered momentum. The Egyptian prosecutor-general has reportedly made an official request for information about the attack. And human rights organisations in Egypt are said to be working on a dossier that includes a list of its nationals killed in mysterious circumstances in England. The head of Egypts human rights committee is even planning to send a parliamentary delegation to England to carry out its own probe, according to reports. Deputy chairman Margaret Azer called the death a complete and flagrant violation of human rights in Britain. She added: If a British or a western national was killed in Egypt, we would see an army of western organisations issuing reports on human rights conditions in Egypt. Another report said deputy foreign minister Khaled Rizk was investigating possible medical negligence. Critics say there is no democracy in Egypt and real power resides with the army. The country is often criticised for its own human rights violations, incuding extrajudicial killings and the repression of free speech. Last year Briton Laura Plummer, 34, was jailed after bringing in 290 tramadol tablets she said were for her Egyptian boyfriends bad back. The Egyptian embassy in London did not respond to a request to comment. Advertisement

Nottinghamshire Police said they did not think the attack was 'motivated by hate' but 'continued to keep an open mind'.

A force spokesperson added: 'We would like to reassure the community that we are treating this incident very seriously and we are working hard to establish the circumstances.

'We are also giving support to Mariam's family at this very difficult time.

'We know there were a lot of people standing at the bus stop when the assault happened and we are urging them and anyone else who has any information which could help us to please come forward.'

A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police added: 'We take all reports of crimes seriously and investigate thoroughly.

'We remain in daily contact with the victim's family and are supporting them at this very difficult time.'Professor Stephen Hawkings scientific genius was devoted to unravelling the complexities of the Universe.

But there was one area of human life for which he could find no solution.

Women. They are a complete mystery, he replied, when asked, on his 70th birthday, what subject occupied his daily thoughts the most.

The comment, given in an interview with the New Scientist magazine, was typical of Professor Hawkings self-deprecating humour.

Renowned for his brilliant mind and bloody-minded courage in the face of a crippling, terminal disease, he was the first to admit he was a man like any other.

Yesterday Jane, 73, (Mr Hawking's first wife, pictured) who remained close to her former husband until his death in the early hours of yesterday, said she was deeply saddened by the death of our dear Stephen

With a love of glamour and an eye for a pretty face, Professor Hawking kept a poster of Marilyn Monroe on his bathroom door  the iconic floating skirt image from the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch.

On his 60th birthday, with can-can girls draped over his chair, a Marilyn impersonator treated him to a breathless rendition of I Wanna Be Loved By You.

When nightclub impresario Peter Stringfellow once spotted the academic at one of his venues, he asked if he could be spared a minute to chat about the Universe, then said: Or would you rather look at the girls?

There was silence for a moment, recalled Stringfellow, And then he answered: The girls.

Of course, the two women who most shared his remarkable journey were his first wife, Jane Wilde, mother of his three children  Robert, Lucy, Tim  and second wife Elaine Mason, the nurse for whom he left Jane.

Yesterday Jane, 73, who remained close to her former husband until his death in the early hours of yesterday, said she was deeply saddened by the death of our dear Stephen.

She added: I am glad to be able to say he died peacefully in the comfort of his own home. The peace that he has found is well earned after such an extraordinary and courageous life. We shall feel his loss keenly for a long time.

Professor Hawking had been ill since Christmas and, though his death was not unexpected, his family are said to be devastated by his loss.

His second wife, Elaine, 68, who was divorced from the scientist in 2006 after 11 years of marriage, looked red-eyed as she spoke from her home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, describing her ex-husband as the love of her life.

He was a wonderful man, who was very, very special. I am still reeling  I am really upset. His death was a relief for him, I believe. He was the love of my life and I very reluctantly had to let go of him.

Elaine went on to claim that Professor Hawking proposed to her twice after their divorce, because he had never come to terms with their separation.

But it was Jane and their three children whom he invited to his 75th birthday party at his Cambridge home in January last year, which they celebrated with friends and a huge firework display. It is they who are now planning his funeral.

Married in 1965, Jane and Stephen Hawking divorced in 1995, five years after the professor had left her for Elaine.

Jane would later recount in her raw and brutally honest memoir, on which The Theory Of Everything  the 2015 film starring Eddie Redmayne  was based, that coping with his disability, his fame and three small children had, at times, left her in a black hole of despair.

Professor Hawkings former PA, Judy Fella, told the Mail yesterday that Jane never stopped feeling responsible for her ex-husband and continued to care for him right to the end.

You cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for Jane and the children in the early years, says Judy, who worked for Professor Hawking for 14 years from the Seventies. They remained friends and she, too, attended his 75th party.

His second wife, Elaine, 68, (pictured) who was divorced from the scientist in 2006 after 11 years of marriage, looked red-eyed as she spoke from her home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, describing her ex-husband as the love of her life

They stayed close because of their shared devotion to their three children, and there was something very beautiful about that towards the end of his life. In her 2007 memoir Travelling To Infinity, My Life With Stephen, Jane recalled the first time she encountered Stephen, in 1963, while walking through their home town of St Albans with a friend.

We had scarcely gone a hundred yards when a strange sight met our eyes: lolloping along in the opposite direction was a young man with an awkward gait, his head down his face shielded under an unruly mass of straight brown hair, recalled Jane.

A few months later they met at a party. Hawking was then a 21-year-old cosmology research student at Cambridge, and shortly afterwards Jane learned that hed been diagnosed with some terrible, paralysing, incurable disease.

They reckon hes probably only got a couple of years to live, a mutual friend told her. But a week later Jane, who admitted she was already falling for Stephen, met him again on a station platform. He was initially reluctant to contemplate a long-term relationship  and his parents warned Jane that their sons life would be short  but ignoring their better judgment, they fell in love and were married in 1965.

He had beautiful eyes and this amazing sense of humour, so we were always laughing. I was young and I had lots of energy and optimism, and that did make a difference, said Jane, in a 2015 interview.

But most importantly, I loved Stephen and wanted to do my best for him. So I thought I could easily devote two years of my life to help somebody I loved  someone who had so much potential  achieve his ambitions.

Black-and-white photographs from their wedding show a happy couple, Hawkings cane the only outward sign of the progression of his illness. The marriage would, contrary to the doctors bleak prognosis, last for a quarter of a century and lead to the birth of three children.

But despite many happy times, by the time Elaine Mason, a flame-haired nurse, came into the couples life in 1985, the Hawkings marriage had long been in crisis.

Elaine was employed after a pneumonia infection nearly killed Professor Hawking. He recovered, but needed round-the-clock care and could no longer speak. Elaines first husband, engineer David Mason, made the voice-box which created the robot-like vocal tone for which the physicist was famous.

Jane has since said that from the moment the nurses came into their home, their household was turned upside down. The publication of her husbands best-selling book, A Brief History Of Time, in 1988, only made things worse, she said.

The book sold ten million copies in 40 languages, and Jane would later reveals she felt that the family had been left behind. To me, Stephen was my husband and the father of my children. One does not say to ones husband: Oh you are so clever! I must worship the ground under your feet, or in this case, wheels. I found this kind of sycophantic attitude . . . exceptionally frustrating.

She added that: It drew all sort of people into our circle and made our home life intolerable.

Jane relied heavily on PA Judy Fella, a married mother-of-three who was employed by Hawking after answering a small ad in the local newspaper which stated a scientist was looking for a part-time secretary.

Judy, Hawkings right-hand woman for 14 years, will never forget the twinkle in his eyes when he first interviewed her for a job back in the Seventies.

He was the most lovely of men and from that first day we just clicked, says Judy, who remains fond of Jane and the children.

He liked a pretty face and I was a young, slim, blonde mother of three. We became the greatest of friends, and we had a lovely working, professional relationship.

Although he loved fame and glamour, he was happiest when he was treated as an ordinary person. He loved a glass of wine and going to restaurants and would often ask a nurse to put him in the car and take him out for an Indian meal.

Jane, meanwhile, had grown close to family friend, choirmaster Jonathan Hellyer Jones, whose own wife had died of leukaemia.

He moved into the Hawkings family home in Cambridge in the late Seventies, and Professor Hawking grew jealous of the friendship, believing Jane was lining up a new husband for when he died.

Much later, both Jane and Stephen would write with remarkable honesty about how their marriage cracked under the strain of his fame and increasing disability.

In her memoir (a tome she now says was penned while still raw with anger) Jane described the isolation she felt, the lack of intimacy and her terror of making love to her husband, fearing he might die in her arms.

That book, Music To Move The Stars, was updated in 2007, this time a gentler autobiography, which was turned into the film starring the Oscar-winning Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.

Of course, there was never any question of her leaving Stephen.

There was no alternative to just carrying on. I felt very committed to Stephen, and I didnt think he could manage without me, she recalled.

I wanted him to carry on doing his amazing work, and I also wanted the children to have a stable family behind them  so we just carried on.

Less explicitly, in 2013 Stephen penned his own version of events in a memoir entitled My Brief History, recounting how he gave his blessing to his wifes friendship with Hellyer Jones, whom she married in 1997, two years after her divorce from Hawking.

She was worried I was going to die soon and wanted someone who would give her and the children support and marry her when I was gone, he wrote. She found Jonathan . . .

Yet it was Stephen who, on their wedding anniversary in 1990, told Jane that their marriage was over. He moved in with Elaine, whom he married at Cambridge register office five years later, in a ceremony boycotted by his children.

Their marriage, which ended after 11 years, was dogged by allegations that Elaine  a mother-of-two who left her husband to raise their sons after moving in with Stephen  physically abused him, claims he always denied.

In 2000, detectives launched an inquiry after the professor made a number of visits to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, suffering from cuts and bruises, and another inquiry was opened in 2003 after his daughter, Lucy, rang police.

Yet, even after the marriage had crumbled, Stephen remained circumspect.

My marriage to Elaine was passionate and tempestuous, he wrote in his memoir.

We had our ups and downs, but Elaines being a nurse saved my life on several occasions.

But at the premiere of The Theory Of Everything, it was Jane who was at her former husbands side (pictured)

Daughter Lucy later spoke of that tempestuous period, calling it a catastrophic time. I think as a family we had our own falling into a black hole moment, she said.

Yesterday, Professor Hawkings sister Philippa Hufton, 71, who lives in Solihull, West Midlands, said: He had some difficulty with his feelings, but I think he lived a good life. There were problems, his marriages  that affected all of us in the family and made life difficult.

Yesterday, Elaine said of her relationship with Professor Hawking: I know his first wife likes to put me down, but we had 22 years together which were wonderful.

For us, our marriage was loving. People didnt like it and they tore us apart.

But at the premiere of The Theory Of Everything, it was Jane who was at her former husbands side.

Following the films release, she said: I feel a great deal of admiration and a lot of love for him, too. Its not the same kind of passionate love as before, but yes, I do still love him.The grandson of notorious mob boss 'Dapper Don' John Gotti was jailed for five years for torching a car over a mafia-linked road rage incident.

John J Gotti pleaded guilty last year to setting the fire in 2012 at the order of Bonanno family mobster Victor Asaro after he was cut off by the other motorist.

The 24-year-old is the son of Peter Gotti, one of five children of the famous Gambino family boss, also known as 'Teflon Don', who died as a federal prisoner in 2002.

John J Gotti was jailed for five years for torching a car over a mafia-linked road rage incident

He pleaded guilty last year to setting the fire in 2012 at the order of Bonanno family mobster Victor Asaro after he was cut off by the other motorist

Asaro ordered Gotti to torch the car after a traffic dust-up in Howard Beach, Queens, in 2012, for which he was jailed for eight years in December.

He gave the other driver's address to a Bonanno associate, who recruited Gotti and another man to douse the driver's car with gasoline and torch it.

The arsonists then fled the scene in a car driven by Gotti that briefly led a police car on a high-speed chase before officers gave up out of safety concerns.

Gotti is already serving an eight-year state sentence for peddling painkillers on the streets of New York, and half his federal sentence will run concurrently.

The 24-year-old is the grandson of famous Gambino family boss 'Dapper Don' or 'Teflon Don', John Gotti who died as a federal prisoner in 2002

Asaro, 82, ordered Gotti to torch the car after a traffic dust-up in Howard Beach, Queens, in 2012, for which he was jailed for eight years in December

He gave the other driver's address to a Bonanno associate, who recruited Gotti and another man to douse the driver's car (pictured) with gasoline and torch it

He was discovered with 205 Oxycodone pills, 18 methadone pills, marijuana, a testosterone bottle and close to $8,000 in cash in his car after police searched the vehicle on June 30 following a traffic stop.

'I'm in a good place today mentally and physically,' he told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Allyne Ross on Wednesday.

'I look forward to the years to come. I know when I leave here, I can give something good back to the world.'

His reaction was in contrast to Asaro who told the judge he didn't care what happened to him anymore because the prison term he received at age 82 'is a death sentence anyway'.

Gotti is already serving an eight-year state sentence for peddling painkillers on the streets of New York, and half his federal sentence will run concurrently

Before his arrest, Gotti owned a tattoo shop in Queens called Rebel Ink Tattoo and, according to his Facebook page, was a personal trainer and fitness model

Asaro was acquitted in 2015 in connection with the infamous 1978 heist at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F Kennedy International Airport that was retold in the 1990 film Goodfellas.

Gotti and Matthew 'Fat Matt' Rullan also pleaded guilty to their part in a bank robbery in Queens in 2012, in which they allegedly made off with nearly $5,500.

Before his arrest, Gotti owned a tattoo shop in Queens called Rebel Ink Tattoo and, according to his Facebook page, was a personal trainer and fitness model.

The young man's uncle, John A (Junior) Gotti, said his nephew's last name played a big role in him getting mixed up in trouble.

'With this kind of pressure, with my nephew being a young individual of limited life experience, and subject to being easily influenced by those who might not have his best long term interests at heart, it is not surprising that he would find himself one day involved with the criminal justice system,' his uncle wrote.A Queensland town has rallied together to save their neighbours from deportation after creating a petition for a young Tamil family to stay.

They were minutes from boarding a plane to Sri Lanka after a petition amassed enough signatures to pause their deportation.

With strong support from their hometown of Biloela in rural Queensland, the 5,500-strong community received 78,000 signatures asking the Home and Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for them to stay.

A small Queensand community has come together to keep a Tamil family in their hometown after they were arrested by the Australian Border Force

They were separated from each other and flown to Melbourne detention centre on March 5

The petition, which is aiming for 150,000 signatures, was organised by their family friend Angela Fredericks.

She described the family as a 'beautiful, gentle family (that) is now being held in a single room by three armed guards,' in her petition.

The young family of four were raided by the Australian Border Force on March 5 at 5am.

Nadesalingam and Priya and their Australian-born daughters, Dharuniga and Kopiga were given ten minutes by armed officers to pack up their home and leave for a detention centre in Melbourne.

Dharuniga, two and nine-month-old Kopiga were allegedly ripped from their beds and separated from their parents.

The whole family were then put on a flight to Melbourne where they would be detained for one week.

Biloea in Queensland has asked Peter Dutton to save a Tamil family from deportation

The family claimed they were told if they didn't sign deportation papers they wouldn't have any access to phone.

Two days later the family gave in, signed the papers and called their local doctor who spread the news to the town.

'Our community is not ready to let this family go. They love living and contributing to our society,' Ms Fredricks said.

This family was torn from their Queensland home by the Australian Border Force

A week passed and the family were flown to Perth and an injunction was applied.

The couple met in Australia when they arrived by boat to escape worn-torn Sri Lanka.

Nadesalingam's application for asylum had been rejected by the authorities.

Priya had been granted bridging visas and although she was expecting another when police raided their home.

The family had never went back to Sri Lanka or held a citizenship.

The family are still in a detention centre in Perth pending a hearing in early May.Piffaro

Back before Bach

by arwulf arwulf

From the March, 2018 issue

Anyone who experiences Philadelphia's world-famous Renaissance band Piffaro in concert at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on March 17 will come face to face with a breathtaking array of musical instruments from centuries past played with expertise in an atmosphere of relaxed conviviality.



Unlike the more rigidly constrained performers who came to dominate classical music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Renaissance musicians embellished and improvised on dance tunes of their day in ways that Piffaro's co-director, Bob Wiemken, compares to the spontaneous creativity of jazz musicians. Though the players have sheet music on stands before them, they are at liberty to honor that inherited freedom by artfully deviating from the score.



Piffaro specializes in double reed instruments: the curved crumhorn, the shawm, and the dulcian, sweet-voiced forerunner of the modern bassoon. My personal favorite is the rackett, which the Germans called the Wurstfagott, or sausage bassoon. This stubby instrument, which looks like a polished piece of kindling studded with little holes, has a softly raspy but surprisingly deep tone. That's because the bore, or channel that the wind passes through, is quite long and coiled up nine times within it. The effect is somewhat bizarre, because we are accustomed to hearing bass clef sounds emanating from jumbo-sized instruments. As Wiemken demonstrates, you can carry a rackett in your pocket.



Piffaro's famously diverse collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century instruments also includes the tabor drum, a harp suggesting classical antiquity, the lute--cousin to the Arabian oud--and the Renaissance guitar, which could easily be mistaken for a ukulele.



Founding member and artistic co-director Joan Kimball coordinates the organization's extensive educational outreach efforts. In a video online at the Google Cultural Institute, she demonstrates the gentle-voiced doucaine--a precursor to the oboe--describing how the instrument only existed in the form of written descriptions until the late 1980s when a fairly well-preserved specimen was salvaged from the wreckage of Henry VIII's sunken warship, the Mary Rose.



Kimball is also a respected medieval and Renaissance bagpipe enthusiast. Contrary to popular belief, bagpipes are not specific to Scotland and Ireland, for pipers have been heard throughout Europe for many centuries. In Italy, the word piffaro is traditionally used to describe both the pipes and the piper. Piffaro often lives up to its name by ending performances with the purling and keening of bagpipes.



[Originally published in March, 2018.]







Researchers say it also bypasses side effects involved with existing drugs

The drug could be released in 5-10 years and has a bonus of increasing libido

Researchers at Monash University in Melbourne are developing a male pill

A hormone-free male contraceptive pill could soon become a reality.

Australian scientists claim the reversible treatment is 100 per cent effective and may be available in supermarkets in just five years.

The drug, being developed by Monash University researchers, will stop sperm from leaving the penis during ejaculation.

It blocks two key proteins in the brain that are responsible for releasing swimmers during a male orgasm.

And they claim that it could boost libido by dilating blood vessels  exactly how Viagra works.

A male contraceptive pill that also increases libido is being worked on by scientists

Lead researcher Dr Sab Ventura announced that trials will begin if the next stage of drug development proves successful.

The project has just received a vital funding boost of 107,000 ($150,000) by the US-based Male Contraceptive Iniative.

He said: We are moving closer to developing a convenient, safe and effective, non-hormonal oral male contraceptive that can be readily reversed.

We aim to do this by developing a combination of two drugs that simultaneously block sperm transport rather than disrupt sperm development or maturation.

With this non-hormonal approach, sperm are unaffected so the contraception is likely to be readily reversible once the medication has been stopped.

The idea of a male contraceptive has been touted for decades.

Women have called for trials as they have repeatedly demanded contraception shouldnt be dished out to one gender.

However, trials of a male contraceptive have been hindered by the side effects, from irreversible damage to fertility problems and slashed libido.

The new drug, yet to be named, has been shown in early laboratory experiments to have no impact on sexual desire.

The preliminary trials also showed sperm remained healthy and viable, should men express a desire for children in the future.

Dr Ventura and his colleagues tested the effects of deleting two proteins that trigger the transport of sperm simultaneously.

Studies already show that blocking 1A-adrenoceptors and P2X1-purinoceptors can completely stop sperm from being released.

The researchers described the process of the contraceptive pill as just like blocking the chemical message to move swimmers.

If the findings prove true on humans, it means the drug shows more promise than some of the other options being floated by science.

There is already a widely-available drug approved for long-term use for enlarged prostates, called Flomax. It targets one of the two proteins.

But the Monash team would be the first to develop an oral contraceptive drug that can block the second protein.

They are now calling for extra funding to fast-track the process. They said the pill could be on the commercial market by 2023.Tributes flooded in yesterday from the worlds of politics, academia, science and showbusiness to Stephen Hawking, who died yesterday at the age of 76, coincidentally on the same date as Einsteins birthday.

His life was dramatised in the 2014 film The Theory Of Everything, for which Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for his performance as the physicist battling motor neurone disease.

Redmayne said in a statement: We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet. My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family.

Tributes flooded in from the worlds of politics, academia, science and showbusiness to Stephen Hawking, who died yesterday at the age of 76, coincidentally on the same date as Einsteins birthday

Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Professor Hawking in the 2004 TV film Hawking, said: I will miss our margaritas but will raise one to the stars to celebrate your life and the light of understanding you shone so brightly on them for the rest of us.

Theresa May paid tribute to Professor Hawking at Prime Ministers Questions, saying his exceptional contributions to science and our knowledge of the universe speak for themselves.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Queen will send a private message of condolence to Professor Hawkings family.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama also commemorated Professor Hawking  whom he awarded Americas highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2009. Mr Obama wrote: Have fun out there among the stars alongside a photo of himself with Hawking at the White House.

Here, one of Britains most distinguished scientists, the Astronomer Royal Professor Martin Rees, explains Stephen Hawkings huge impact on science, and how he first met him when they were young students at Cambridge.

Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, pays tribute to Stephen Hawking

During my first week as a graduate student at Cambridge University, I encountered a fellow student, two years ahead of me in his studies; he was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty.

This was Stephen Hawking. I learnt he had a degenerative disease, and might not live long enough even to finish his PhD.

In fact, he lived on for more than 50 years. Survival alone was a medical marvel. But of course he didnt merely survive.

What a voyage: The scientist, who inspired millions around the world, passed away at home in Cambridge this morning more than 50 years after he was given just two years to live

He became perhaps the most famous scientist in the world  acclaimed for his brilliant research, for his best-selling books about space, time and the cosmos, and, above all, for his astonishing triumph over adversity.

In the summer of 2012, he reached what must have been his largest-ever audience when he had a starring role at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in London. He was probably, at least since the death of the actor Christopher Reeve, the most famous disabled person in the world  but unlike Reeve, he had achieved fame while already disabled.

Astronomers are used to large numbers. But few numbers could be as large as the odds Id have given back in 1964, when Stephen received his death sentence, on him being able to celebrate such a list of achievements.

He was born in 1942, the eldest of four children. His father was a specialist in tropical medicine and his mother a medical research secretary, and both had been to Oxford University. He went to school in St Albans and in 1959, aged 17, he too went up to Oxford.

He passed away peacefully in Cambridge this morning after a long battle with motor neurone disease, his family has revealed (pictured with his mother on VE Day, 1945)

He was, by all accounts, a laid-back undergraduate, but his brilliance nonetheless earned him a first-class degree, and an entry ticket to a research career in Cambridge.

However, at the age of 21, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Within a few years of the diagnosis he was wheelchair-bound, and his speech was an indistinct croak that could only be interpreted by those who knew him.

But in other respects fortune had favoured him. In 1963, he married a childhood friend, Jane Wilde, who provided a supportive home life and with whom he had three children.

His scientific work went from strength to strength: he quickly came up with a succession of insights into the nature of black holes (then a very new idea) and how our universe began.

In 1974 he was elected to the Royal Society, Britains main scientific academy, at the exceptionally early age of 32. He was by then so frail that most of us suspected he could scale no further heights. But, for Stephen, this was still just the beginning.

He worked in the same building as I did. I would often push his wheelchair into his office, and he would ask me to open an abstruse book on quantum theory  the science of atoms, not a subject that had hitherto much interested him. He would sit hunched motionless for hours  he couldnt even turn the pages without help. I wondered what was going through his mind, and if his powers were failing.

But within a year he came up with his best-ever idea  encapsulated in an equation he said he wanted on his gravestone. The great advances in science generally involve discovering a link between phenomena that were hitherto thought to be unconnected  for instance, Isaac Newton famously realised that the force making an apple fall was the same as the force that held the moon and planets in their orbits.

Stephens eureka moment revealed a profound and unexpected link between gravity and quantum theory.

Birth of a genius: In 1974 he was elected to the Royal Society, Britains main scientific academy, at the exceptionally early age of 32. (pictured as a baby)

This has still not been tested. However, it became hugely influential, though he didnt get a Nobel Prize because the idea was not confirmed by experiment.

But in 2013 he was one of the first winners of the more valuable Milner Prize, worth $3 million, intended to recognise theoretical work. Cambridge was to be Stephens base throughout his career, and he became a familiar figure navigating his wheelchair around the citys streets.

His sense of fun would see him intentionally running over students toes on occasions, and even having the odd spin on a dance floor at college parties.

By the end of the Seventies, he had advanced to one of the most distinguished posts in the University  the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics, once held by Newton himself.

He continued to seek new links between the very large (the cosmos) and the very small (atoms and quantum theory) and to gain deeper insights into the very beginning of our universe  addressing questions like: was our Big Bang the only one?

In 1987, Stephen contracted pneumonia. He had to undergo a tracheotomy, which removed even the limited powers of speech he then possessed. It had been more than ten years since he could write, or even use a keyboard. Without speech, the only way he could communicate was by directing his eye towards one of the letters of the alphabet on a big board in front of him.

But he was saved by technology. He still had the use of one hand; and a computer, controlled by a single lever, allowed him to spell out sentences. These were then voiced by a speech synthesizer, with the androidal American accent that thereafter became his trademark.

His sense of fun would see him intentionally running over students toes on occasions, and even having the odd spin on a dance floor at college parties (pictured left with his siblings)

His lectures were, of course, pre-prepared, but conversation remained a struggle. Each word involved several presses of the lever, so even a sentence took several minutes. He learnt to economise with words, but his comments were often infused with wit.

In his last years, he became too weak to control this machine effectively, even via facial muscles or eye movements, and his communication  to his immense frustration  became even slower.

At the time of his tracheotomy operation, he had a rough draft of a book, which hed hoped would describe his ideas to a wide readership and earn something for his two eldest children, Robert and Lucy, who were then of college age. On his recovery from pneumonia, he resumed work with the help of an editor.

When the U.S. edition of A Brief History Of Time appeared, the printers made some errors (one picture was upside down), and the publishers tried to recall the stock. To their amazement, all copies had already been sold.

Easy rider: Schoolboy Stephen, aged 12, casually on his bicycle near his childhood home in St Albans

This was the first inkling that the book was destined for runaway success  A Brief History Of Time enjoyed four years on best-seller lists around the world.

Stephen became an international celebrity. He featured in numerous TV programmes; his lectures filled the Albert Hall, and similar venues in the U.S. and Japan.

He lectured at Clintons White House; he was back there more recently when then President Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a very rare honour for any foreigner.

He also featured in Star Trek and The Simpsons, and in numerous TV advertisements. He was the subject of an excellent TV docudrama where he was played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

In 1963, he married a childhood friend, Jane Wilde, who provided a supportive home life and with whom he had three children

And, of course, he was superbly impersonated by Eddie Redmayne in that Oscar-winning performance for the film The Theory Of Everything.

The pressure of his celebrity, and the need for round-the-clock care from a team of nurses, strained his marriage to breaking point.

In her own lengthy memoir, Music To Move The Stars, Jane chronicled the 25 years during which, with amazing dedication, she underpinned his family life and his career. However, as she said in 2004, fame and fortune muddied the waters and really took him way out of the orbit of our family.

The family was left devastated in 1990 when he told Jane that he was leaving their home to live with Elaine Mason, who had been one of his nurses and whose former husband had designed Stephens speech synthesizer.

However, that relationship did not work out either and, in 2006, Stephen and Elaine filed for divorce. He was sustained, then and thereafter, by a team of helpers and personal assistants, as well as his family. His daughter Lucy wrote books for children with her father billed as co-author.

Throughout all the domestic upheaval, he continued his scientific endeavours. His later ideas appear, beautifully illustrated, in other books such as The Universe In A Nutshell and The Grand Design. These werent bought by quite as many people as his first book. But they were more clearly written, and probably more people got to the end of them.

In 1990 when he told Jane that he was leaving their home to live with Elaine Mason, who had been one of his nurses and whose former husband had designed Stephens speech synthesizer

For his 60th birthday, in January 2002, hundreds of leading scientists came from all over the world to honour and celebrate Stephens discoveries, and to spend a week discussing the latest theories on space, time and the cosmos.

But the celebrations werent just scientific  that wouldnt have been Stephens style. There were parties and dinners each evening. Stephen was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. A Marilyn Monroe look-alike cut a huge birthday cake; a troupe of can-can dancers performed; there was music and singing.

And when the weeks events were all over, he celebrated with a trip in a hot air balloon.

Few of us then thought that he would survive to his 70th birthday. But he did, and this was again marked by an international gathering of scientists, and also with some razzmatazz: Richard Branson, Daniel Craig and other celebrities attended.

But Stephen was then plainly weakening, and had to watch most of the events via video, while in hospital on a respirator.

He also survived to enjoy his 75th birthday celebrations, which were shared by several million people via a live-stream on the internet.

Why did he become such a cult figure? The concept of an imprisoned mind roaming the cosmos plainly grabbed peoples imagination. If he had achieved equal distinction in, say, genetics rather than cosmology, his triumph of intellect against adversity probably wouldnt have had the same resonance with a worldwide public.

He himself reminded us that he wasnt another Einstein. Nonetheless few, if any, have done more to deepen our knowledge of gravity, space and time.

Yet he remained far from the archetypal unworldly or nerdish scientist  his personality remained amazingly unwarped by his frustrations and handicaps. As well as his inveterate scientific travels, he enjoyed trips to the theatre and opera. He had robust common sense, and forceful political opinions that he was ready to express.

Despite the pressures and difficulties, he was a determined campaigner for the disabled.

Throughout all the domestic upheaval, he continued his scientific endeavours. His later ideas appear, beautifully illustrated, in other books such as The Universe In A Nutshell and The Grand Design

He was also, at the personal level, sensitive to the misfortunes of others. He records that, when in hospital soon after his illness was diagnosed, his depression was lifted when he compared his lot with a boy in the next bed dying of leukaemia.

And he was happy to align himself with numerous campaigns and causes. When he visited Israel, he insisted on going also to the West Bank. Newspapers showed remarkable pictures of him, in his wheelchair, surrounded by fascinated and curious crowds in Ramallah.

Even more astonishing are the pictures of him floating in the NASA aircraft that allows passengers to experience weightlessness  he was manifestly overjoyed at escaping, albeit briefly, the clutches of the gravitational force hed studied for decades and which had so cruelly imprisoned his body. Had he lived longer, hed have pressed hard for the chance to be a space tourist.

Tragedy struck Stephen Hawking when he was only 21. He was diagnosed with a deadly disease, and his expectations dropped to zero. He himself said that everything that happened since then was a bonus.

And what a triumph his life has been. His name will live on in the annals of science; millions have had their cosmic horizons widened by his best-selling books; and even more, around the world, have been inspired by a unique example of achievement against all the odds  a manifestation of amazing will-power.

Even at school, they called him Einstein, Tony Rennell writes Family life in the middle-class household of Frank and Isobel Hawking was quiet and studious, but also odd to the point of eccentricity. Both of them were ferociously bright Oxford graduates (he in medicine, she in PPE). The eldest of their four children, Stephen was born in 1942 in Oxford, where the Hawkings had taken refuge from the Blitz. They returned to North London after the war, where young Stephen went to a progressive nursery school and didnt learn to read until he was eight. They then moved to St Albans, just outside London, to a shabby house that never got the fixing up it needed because money was tight and, anyway, they had more important matters on their minds. In the basement, they kept bees. In the garden greenhouse they made fireworks. We were definitely regarded as eccentric, Stephen confessed in his autobiography. Stephen was undoubtedly clever but not, it seems, in a precocious, child-genius way. At the independent St Albans School, his classmates nicknamed him Einstein  though one year he was third from bottom in his class. On his own admission, his writing was untidy and his work often sloppy. As he matured, however, he began to excel in mathematics and science. But he was no desk-bound swot, tied to his studies. He delighted in dancing. He and his sister, Mary, loved climbing and devised various unorthodox entry routes into the three-storey family home. He revelled in board games and, with school friends, made up new games of their own. They also built a computer from clock parts. His father  a respected medical researcher  was keen for Stephen to follow his footsteps into medicine. But his son had other ideas, prompted by his mother who encouraged him and his siblings to lie in the garden on summer nights to stare up at the stars. Stephen always had a strong sense of wonder, she recalled. I could see that the stars would draw him. Advertisement

Duffer's guide to black holes and his Theory of Everything

Stephen Hawking helped unlock the fundamental secrets of the universe, by examining black holes and emerging with a credible theory as to how our cosmos was created, reveals JOHN NAISH.

What is a black hole?

Stephen Hawking did not invent the theory behind black holes. Albert Einstein first predicted their existence. Then in the late Thirties, U.S. physicist Robert Oppenheimer  the father of the atomic bomb  developed Einsteins idea.

Oppenheimer suggested that massive objects such as stars could collapse under the titanic pull of their own gravity, to become crushed into a minute, massively dense object called a singularity.

This singularitys infinitely strong gravity would suck in everything around it  even light  so that all that would appear is a black hole.

How was Hawking involved?

Hawking turned around sciences entire attitude towards black holes. They arent merely destructive, he argued, they are actually responsible for the whole of creation.

Working with the Oxford physicist, Sir Roger Penrose, in 1970 he theorised that an exploding singularity at the heart of a black hole must have been responsible for creating our universe.

A big bang in science

HE realised that the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe was essentially the reverse of a black hole in which everything is crushed into an infinitesimally small object, the singularity, by gravitational pull.

With the Big Bang, everything in the universe explodes out of an infinitesimally small object.

What is the Theory Of Everything?

Hawkings achievement was to develop a theory that linked the very large (the cosmos and how gravity shaped it), and the very small (atoms and subatomic particles and the forces that determine their nature and behaviour). He was trying to find a single framework to explain all physical aspects of the universe  what fellow scientists now label the Theory Of Everything.

How does this relate to black holes?

Part of the theory held that subatomic particles come in pairs, one containing negative energy or anti-matter and the other, positive energy or matter.

Sometimes the pairs are separated near a black hole and the negative particles are sucked into it, while the positive ones remain on the outside.

Once inside, the negative energy particles reduce the black holes force and eventually  after millennia  can cause it to collapse.

The positive energy particles left on the edge of the black hole, meanwhile, emit measurable radiation, known as Hawking radiation. This was used by Hawking to determine the existence of any black hole.

What happens when a black hole dies?

At some point during a black holes collapse, the singularity at its heart suddenly releases all the energy and matter that it still contains.

The explosion can be bigger even than a million one-megaton hydrogen bombs, causing a vast amount of newly formed energy and matter to be thrown into the cosmos.

How our universe was created?

This is the kind of explosion that would have started our universe, Hawking argued. His work suggests that some 15 billion years ago, everything in our universe was squeezed into a singularity that exploded in the Big Bang  eventually forming galaxies, stars and planets.

Could a black hole destroy us all?

Hawking was not entirely certain whether our universe would one day collapse back into another black hole, then create another Big Bang and produce a new universe.

If it did happen, he said, it would not be for at least 20 billion years.Labour MP Keith Vaz has been spotted out and about at a Bollywood gala and a Polish folklore festival  but is still deemed too sick to be investigated over his liaison with Romanian male prostitutes.

A parliamentary inquiry into the veteran politician was suspended in December 'for medical reasons', but he has continued to take part in engagements in the UK and around the world.

Last month the Mail revealed that questions have been asked about exactly how ill Mr Vaz is.

Labour MP Keith Vaz appearing at an event with Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha in London

Since the investigation into his conduct was halted by the standards commissioner, the Leicester East MP has opened a new swimming pool in the city, attended planning meetings, travelled nearly 5,000 miles to India and took a trip to Saudi Arabia.

In his latest outing earlier this week, Mr Vaz appeared alongside Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha at an event in London, where they were both pictured on stage. Mr Sinha told the website Bollywood Hungama how he had been invited to come to the UK by the Labour MP.

He said: 'Keith and the Indian community in London wanted to honour me. I couldn't say no. This was a huge and humbling honour coming from my brothers and sisters on British soil.'

The MP was also a VIP guest at the Festival of Polish Folklore in Leicester on Sunday, described on its website as a vibrant celebration of Polish dance, song and music that featured more than 400 performers.

Mr Vaz was pictured in January at a meeting of the all party parliamentary group on Yemen

Married Mr Vaz, who has two children, stood down as chairman of the Commons home affairs committee after his involvement with male prostitutes was exposed by a newspaper sting in 2016.

During the liaison, at which he claimed his name was Jim and that he was a washing machine salesman, he discussed buying cocaine with one of the Romanian rent boys, with undercover film footage of him saying he would pay for the class-A drugs but did not want to take any himself.

Later that year, Scotland Yard dropped its investigation into Mr Vaz, but a separate probe by the Commons sleaze watchdog was due to look at whether the MP was guilty of a conflict of interest as he had been leading a review of vice laws at the time of the allegations.

The inquiry was also due to examine whether he had caused 'significant damage' to Parliament's reputation.

But in December, the standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson cited medical reasons when she suspended the long-running investigation into Mr Vaz.

However, that same month, Mr Vaz reportedly went on a trip to Saudi Arabia, while in January he posted a picture of himself in Goa, India, with government minister Rohan Khaunte.

That month he was also photographed alongside Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a meeting of the all party parliamentary group on Yemen.

In February, Mr Vaz was well enough to open a sports centre in Leicester, where we is an MP

Last month North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen, who instigated the original complaint in September 2016, said Mr Vaz appeared in 'fine fettle' and that a dossier on Mr Vaz's public appearances would be passed to the standards commissioner.

He added: 'He is supposedly unfit to answer questions about his conduct in relation to rent boys and cocaine, but he appears to be out and about in Leicester and elsewhere.

'He is the most healthy looking 'ill' person I've ever seen. At the end of the day, if he's unfit to be held to the standards of an MP then he's not fit to be an MP.

'He should step down and we should have a by-election in Leicester East. The parliamentary standards watchdog says she has independent medical advice to say that he cannot face questions. But he looks surprisingly well to me.'

Mr Vaz did not respond to a request for comment last night.A man was beaten and robbed after turning up to a Bondi apartment block on Wednesday night for what he thought was a Tinder date.

The man, 26, arrived at a red brick apartment block on Simpson Street just before 11pm, expecting to meet up with a woman, when he was accosted by two men, who stole his phone and wallet.

A distressed neighbour, who asked not to be named, told Daily Mail Australia she and her partner were woken by a loud commotion before seeing a man covered in blood.

A man was beaten and robbed on Wednesday night outside an apartment block in Bondi (street pictured) by two men who spoke with Irish accents

'We were in bed and there was all this commotion downstairs,' she said.

'The guy had blood all over his face. He'd been really badly attacked. He's a French backpacker.

'He told my partner and I he'd been hit by two Irish guys, they were really big guys.'

The man told the residents he had been at the unit block to meet up with a girl he had been speaking with on Tinder.

'She was a really hot backpacker apparently. Then when he arrived at what he thought was her place he was attacked,' she said.

'They took his wallet and phone and mugged him. He was in a right state. He was so shaken.'

The man told other residents of the apartment block he had been speaking to a 'hot backpacker' on Tinder and had arrived for a planned date

'She was a really hot backpacker apparently. Then when he arrived at what he thought was her place he was attacked,' she said (pictured: Bondi Beach)

A spokesman from NSW police said the man suffered 'minor head injuries and did not require medical treatment'.

Officers have launched an investigation into the attack and are looking for two men who spoke in an Irish accent to assist with inquiries.

Both men were in their mid-20s with pale skin. One man was skinny and about 182cm tall, wearing a cap with a green hooded top pulled over his head.

The other had a more solid build and was about 178cm tall. He was wearing a white t-shirt.

Six months ago, a similar incident took place just two kilometres away, in Wallis Street, Woollahra.

In September last year, another man was similarly attacked and mugged when he arrived for a Tinder date in nearby Woollahra (stock image)

A 23-year-old man was heading to a Tinder date when three men began to chase him, and robbed him of his wallet.

Police charged an 18-year-old man over the incident, and told ABC at the time it was clear to them the Tinder date had been a trap.

'The dating profile was set up, obviously falsely, to entice this male to attend a location in the eastern suburbs,' Detective Acting Inspector Michael Egan-Hirst said.

'Three males have approached him and one has chased him and robbed him of his wallet and some cash.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Tinder for comment.The commuter received a criminal conviction and a fine after receiving oral sex from a strange woman on the train

A train commuter who received a criminal conviction and a fine after receiving oral sex from a random woman he met on the platform says he is now 'in strife' with his girlfriend of 12 years.

Shane Brennan, from Wollongong, south of Sydney, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to willful and obscene exposure and offensive behaviour in a public place.

'I'm in strife,' he told Daily Mail Australia - after the story of his sexual encounter with the stranger that ended with him cleaning himself with Coca-Cola went viral.

'She's not happy,' Brennan said of his girlfriend.

He admitted he had been on the receiving end of a 'few choice words' from her since his tryst in broad daylight came to light.

When confronted by the mother of his three children, Brennan explained that 'it is what it is'.

Brennan claimed the woman approached him as he waited for the 9.56am train from Port Kembla to Wollongong on December 14. She announced she was 'horny' and asked for sex, he said.

Shane Brennan said he had explained to his partner that 'it is what it is'

His casual train partner was apparently masturbating in an empty carriage when the encounter occurred (stock image)

He declined - but the woman soon began masturbating on the otherwise 'empty' train carriage they shared.

He then allowed her to perform oral sex on him.

'As soon as the deed was done I was out of there and off,' he said.

The crime was all captured on train CCTV (closed circuit TV) cameras.

Brennan admitted: 'I didn't know they had cameras all throughout the train'.

'I can't help myself,' he said.

The Illawarra Mercury first reported the story after he appeared in court earlier this week.

The court was told station staff believed Brennan urinated on the floor. But he told police it was actually Coke he had poured from a bottle to rinse his private parts, the Mercury reported.

'As soon as the deed was done I was out of there and off,' convicted criminal Brennan said

Brennan said he poured the Coke on his private parts for personal hygiene reasons.

The woman was a bit younger than him, he claimed, but 'wasn't a good sort'.

It was unclear whether the woman got in trouble.

'She was the one masturbating,' he claimed.

'If she didn't offer me nothing I wouldn't have f***ing done it.'

The man approached a woman who was masturbating on the train, received oral sex from her and then washed his private parts off with Coca-Cola (stock image)

Meantime, the magistrate 'wasn't happy' with him in court this week.

'He said I well and truly crossed the line. And that sort of behaviour can't be tolerated, which is understandable,' he said.

Mr Brennan argued there was no one in the carriage at the time and 'you'd think the train guard would've said 'good on ya, mate'.'

He said he would not do it again and has been placed on a 12 month good behaviour bond.Nickelodeon stopped its regularly scheduled programming for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 who were killed in the school shooting in Florida, and some parents were very upset at the interruption.

From 10am until 10:17am, Nickelodeon went off air with a simple message streamed across the screen that read: 'In support of kids leading the way today, Nickelodeon will be off the air until 17 minutes past the hour.'

Many parents were happy to see the station their children watch bringing awareness to deadly problem of gun violence killing students across America and supporting the youth leading the way for change during Wednesday's National Student Walkout, however not everyone agreed with the cable network's daytime programming move.

The message Nickelodeon aired didn't reference guns or violence.

Some parents especially took issue with their children's routine, and their own, being disrupted by the cartoon Paw Patrol not airing for 17 minutes.

The message that was on the screen was in support of the students pushing for change in the wake of the Florida school shooting that left 14 children and 3 faculty members dead

'During the airing of PawPatrol on Nickelodeon this popped up. Not only did both of my little ones start crying because they dont know why the one show I let the watch in the morning was not on but @Nickelodeon you pissed this Mom off!'

'Dont drag my toddlers into this!' tweeted a mom whose handle is Raven Patriot.

She also thanked someone who defended her from a slew of negative reaction to her missive in taking a stand against the children's cable network, adding: 'Thank you! My toddlers have no clue what is going on nor should they need to at this age.'

Adding that she believed the daytime interruption message on the screen was actually for parents: 'This was intentionally done to get to parents. It may make getting a shower in the morning a bit harder but worth not sponsoring Nick any longer!'

Another mom, who goes by Christina O'Connor on Twitter, compared Nickelodeon going off air to living in North Korea.

'This Rings a Bell- Nickelodeon went 'Dark' Catering to Michelle Obama- get outside & exercise. Our son was a little guy then. He was upset but his Parents were Angry. We blocked Nickelodeon permanently from our home. This is America not North Korea. Outrageous,' she shared.

However, more parents applauded the network than bashed it for standing in solidarity with students protesting during National Student Walkout Day.

Young students, like these on Wednesday, were among the masses of America's youth calling for gun reform and finding an end to the problem of gun violence in schools

One parent, instead of talking about his kids crying, spoke about how he was tearing up to see Nickelodeon honor the students who were walking out of school today, and honoring the 17 lives that were lost.

'Why did Nickelodeon going off the air in support of National Student Walkout Day make me tear up? Something about the network that brought my kids Blue's Clues sticking with the young people who were watching it and Nick Jr. as toddlers is really moving,' tweeted dad Steve Huff.

The students who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have pushed for stricter gun control laws since the February 14 tragedy, and had sparked the school walkouts on Wednesday.Speed cameras are being covertly placed inside unmarked vehicles at thousands of locations nationwide to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the government.

Old model four-wheel-drives, vans and unmarked station wagons are common vehicles being used to catch unsuspecting motorists speeding.

Pictures show the variety of inconspicuous vehicles that are being parked roadside - loaded with 'traffic enforcement products' that are designed to improve road safety, but also raise millions in speeding fines.

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Pictures show the variety of inconspicuous vehicles that are being parked roadside - loaded with 'traffic enforcement products'. Pictured: Queens Road in Melbourne

Unmarked vehicles are being used at thousands of locations Australia-wide to catch unsuspecting motorists speeding, and raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Pictured: Mobile speed camera in Sydney

Old model four-wheel-drives, vans and unmarked station wagons are common vehicles being used. Pictured: Speed camera in Spring Hill, in Brisbane's inner suburbs

One picture shows an unmarked, white Ford Territory with tinted windows being used as a mobile speed camera.

Another shows a seemingly innocent grey Holden four-wheel-drive parked roadside - also with tinted windows.

Rear-facing mobile speed cameras have also been introduced, meaning motorcycles - which only have number plates at the back - can also be detected.

The cameras are loaded into the back of station wagons and the tailgate is dropped, meaning they are entirely concealed to oncoming vehicles.

Rear-facing mobile speed cameras have also been introduced, meaning motorcycles - which only have number plates at the back - can also be detected. Pictured: New speed camera technology in Perth

Cameras are loaded into the back of station wagons and are entirely concealed to oncoming vehicles

More than 3,500 mobile speed camera sites are in operation throughout Queensland, a further 2,000 in Victoria and 1,000 in New South Wales

The New South Wales government last year re-awarded a five-year contract to third party camera operator Redflex, as part of its expanded mobile enforcement program. Pictured: One of 1,000 mobile speed camera sites in NSW

More than 3,500 mobile speed camera sites are in operation throughout Queensland, a further 2,000 in Victoria and 1,000 in New South Wales.

The New South Wales government last year re-awarded a five-year contract to third party camera operator Redflex, as part of its expanded mobile enforcement program.

The company boasts 'unmatched detection accuracy' across six lanes of traffic, that can be either oncoming or receding.

Redflex boasts 'unmatched detection accuracy' across six lanes of traffic, that can be either oncoming or receding. Pictured: One of 1,000 mobile speed camera sites in NSW

More than $65million in revenue is expected be generated by Redflex over their five year contract. Pictured: A covert mobile speed camera unit which is in operation in Sydney

Pictures show that their systems operate inside subtly marked white station wagons with the cameras loaded in the back.

More than $65million in revenue is expected be generated by Redflex over their five year contract, Finance News Network reported.

Video captured last month showed a masked vigilante covering one of the mobile speed cameras with a towel while wearing an empty VB beer carton over his head.

The mystery 'hero', affectionately dubbed 'Demerit Man', took to the streets of Tamworth, northern NSW, to cover the speed camera - and also draw the ire of police.

Video captured last month showed a masked vigilante covering one of the mobile speed cameras with a towel while wearing an empty VB beer carton over his head

The mystery 'hero', affectionately dubbed 'Demerit Man', took to the streets of Tamworth, northern NSW, to cover the speed camera (pictured is another incident of 'camera blocking')

Meanwhile, a single mobile speed camera in Queensland handed out more than 18,000 tickets, resulting in more than $3million in fines in just a year.

The camera, located on Hale Street in the inner city Brisbane suburb of Petrie Terrace, raised five times more money than the next most lucrative location.

Police documents reveal the camera made $16,760 for every hour it was in operation, and contributed to $8million in infringements across Queensland.

A single mobile speed camera has handed out over 18,000 tickets resulting in more than $3million in fines in just a year. Pictured: A mobile speed camera on Brisbane's M1

The camera, located on Hale Street (pictured) in the inner city Brisbane suburb of Petrie Terrace, raised five times more money than the next most lucrative location

The NSW government introduced 384 new mobile speed camera locations in early 2017 at 'high-risk' locations.

A Transport for NSW spokesperson said: 'Our mobile speed cameras are the most obvious in the country, with clearly marked signage and high visibility fluorescent markings on the camera vehicles.

'Mobile speed cameras are extremely effective as they produce a sustained change in driver behaviour by increasing the real and perceived likelihood that they can be caught anywhere and anytime.

'This approach has been proven to be effective, with more than 99 per cent of vehicles consistently passing mobile speed cameras without being fined. Those who continue to do the wrong thing will be penalised.'

The spokesperson said all revenue is directed to a road safety fund which is used for programs such as high visibility police operations and school zone flashing lights.Dash cam footage has captured the moment a woman keys the luxury Audi of a complete stranger for the sixth time since February.

Father-of-two Evan Hansimikali posted the footage to his Facebook profile and said he was furious, frustrated and disappointed by the cowardly stunt.

Mr Hansimikali, who lives in Sydney's affluent Dover Heights, told Daily Mail Australia he installed the dash cam after the fourth incident in an attempt to catch the culprit.

Dash cam footage has shown the moment a women keys the car of a complete stranger for the sixth time in a single month

'We have captured her the last two times,' he said.

'The police have the footage and an address from a friend who believes he's seen her outside her apartment block.'

The two clips show the unidentified lady casually strolling past the front of Mr Hansimikali's car before putting the key to the bonnet, barely breaking stride as she does so.

The two clips show the unidentified lady casually strolling past the front of Mr Hansimikali's car before she put the key to the bonnet

The first video shows her doing it at night and the second during the day as she passes his Dover Heights home.

Mr Hansimikali said he believed he was being targeted at random.

'We are not parked over the foot path,' he said.

'The rangers and council allow the majority of our street to park in their driveways as long as there is room for pedestrians.'

Mr Hansimikali said he has footage showing people walking their dogs past his car with no issues.

The car is brand new car that he and his family bought just 3 months ago, the keying started in February

The damage is significant enough that he needs to get parts of the car replaced, Mr Hansimikali said he expects the costs of repairs to be in the thousands

The car is brand new car that he and his family bought just 3 months ago, the keying started in February.

The damage is significant enough that he needs to get parts of the car replaced.

'Well the whole bonnet and front right light need repairing,' he said.

Mr Hansimikali said he expects the costs of repairs to be in the thousands.

He also said when the culprit is caught he intends on pressing charges and seeing repayment for damages caused to his new car.

'We work hard to get ahead and its shocking that someone would vandalise and maliciously damage someone else's property for no apparent reason,' he said.

Friends of Mr Hansimikali commented on the post with shock and disgust with one calling it 'outrageous'.

'What the hell is wrong with this person?!,' another wrote.Jeremy Corbyn sparked uproar yesterday by refusing to criticise the Kremlin over the Salisbury attack.

He was accused of appeasing Vladimir Putin and was disowned by Labour MPs for failing to back Theresa Mays tough stance against Moscow. His chief spin doctor also came under fire after questioning the reliability of the security services, which have briefed Mr Corbyn on the nerve agent outrage.

In an apparent reference to the Iraq War, Seumas Milne said intelligence reports on weapons of mass destruction had been problematic. Mr Milne, who shared a platform with Mr Putin in 2014, even suggested an unknown party might be framing Russia over the attempted murder of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Jeremy Corybn, pictured, asked the PM whether she handed over a sample of the toxic nerve agent over to the Russian government so they would be able to analyse it themselves

Last night, 16 Labour MPs signed a motion supporting the action taken by the PM

Both Jeremy Corbyn and his spin doctor Seumas Milne, left, have faced criticism over their comments concerning the Russian nerve gas attack

Mr Corbyn asked the Prime Minister in the Commons yesterday whether she had responded to Moscows request for a sample of the nerve agent. Last night 16 Labour MPs signed a motion saying they unequivocally accept the Russian states culpability for the attack and fully supported the position taken by Mrs May.

Commenting on Mr Milnes intervention, MP Anna Turley said: Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values. Several shadow ministers were said to be considering whether to quit in disgust.

As Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain had arrived at a profound moment in our history where we could either sit back or step forward:

He also announced British troops are to be vaccinated against anthrax following the nerve agent attack;

The Prime Minister issued marching orders to 23 suspected Russian spies;

Moscow warned of revenge and said there could be tit-for-tat expulsions;

A sample of the Russian-made Novichok nerve agent is being sent for analysis by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons;

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable called for action to target the wealth of Russian oligarchs in London;

Government sources said Mrs May would not order the England team to boycott the World Cup in Russia;

Security minister Ben Wallace said ministers had not ruled out invoking the Nato rule requiring allies to defend a member state facing attack;

Energy analysts warned a coming cold snap could leave the UK dependent on Russian gas;

It emerged that the former British husband of Russian spy Anna Chapman had died at the age of just 36.

Mr Corbyn had been under pressure from his own side to get tougher on Moscow after refusing to issue any condemnation in the Commons on Monday.

Instead the Labour leader launched into a detailed series of questions about the nature of the nerve agent used  questions which appeared remarkably similar to those being asked by Kremlin officials. And he provoked uproar by suggesting the crisis was caused in part by cuts to the diplomatic corps.

Speaking after Theresa May had updated MPs, Mr Corbyn said: The attack in Salisbury was an appalling act of violence. Nerve agents are abominable if used in any war  it is utterly reckless to use them in a civilian environment.

Can the Prime Minister update the house on what conversations, if any, she has had with the Russian government and while suspending planned high-level contact does the Prime Minister agree that it is essential to maintain a robust dialogue with Russia?

We should urge our international allies to join us and call on Russia to reveal without delay full details of its chemical weapons programme.

On diplomatic service budgets, he said: It is, as we on these benches have expressed before, a matter of huge regret that our countrys diplomatic capacity has been stripped back, with cuts of 25 per cent in the past five years.

His stance shattered a Labour truce under which moderates have refrained from openly criticising him.

Yvette Cooper insisted it was vital that Russian aggression was met with unequivocal condemnation.

In a pointed rebuke to Mr Corbyn, Ben Bradshaw, another former Labour Cabinet minister, told Mrs May: Most of us on the Labour benches fully support the measures she has announced today.

Pat McFadden said: Responding with strength and resolve when your country is under threat is an essential component of political leadership. There is a Labour tradition that understands that. One Labour MP said Mr Milnes comments were a disgrace, adding: Putins craven, constant and shameful apologist might just as well stand aside and let the Kremlin write the speeches and brief the media directly.

The Prime Minister said she was sorry Mr Corbyn had failed to take the chance to condemn Russia. She described Mr Milnes comments as wrong and outrageous.

Former Tory minister Nick Boles said: Today Jeremy Corbyn faced a simple test  would he condemn the Russian government for launching a chemical weapons attack on the UK, and back the actions of the British government? His failure to do so reveals where his loyalties lie.

Philip Ingram, a former senior intelligence officer at GCHQ, also condemned the Labour leader. What Corbyn is doing is playing into Putins hands, he said. He is showing national political fraction and not unity  this is disgusting.

Meanwhile, it was claimed last night that a Russian couple were caught on CCTV in Salisbury moments before Colonel Skripal and his daughter were found poisoned.

Scotland Yard is said to be trying to identify a blonde woman and a dark-haired man, aged between 35 and 40.

Russian emigres in London are being shown grainy footage of the pair in the hope of identifying them.

Colonel Skripal and Yulia are still fighting for their lives in hospital.

n US ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency UN Security Council meeting last night that Russia must account for its actions.

If we dont take immediate, concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons use, she said.Embattled retail giant Toys 'R' Us has announced it will sell or close all of its U.S. and UK stores, with Australia's 39 branches likely to follow.

The chain filed for bankruptcy in the U.S in September and plunged into liquidation in the UK after failing to pay a AUD$26million tax bill.

CEO David Brandon is said to have told U.S. staff the company plans to file liquidation papers on Thursday and sell or close all 885 stores.

'We're putting a for sale sign on everything,' Mr Brandon told employees during a conference call, according to The Australian.

Embattled retail giant Toys 'R' Us has announced it will sell or close all of its U.S. and UK stores, with Australia's 39 branches likely to follow. A UK store is pictured earlier this month

'Frankly, all anyone has to do is offer one dollar more [than what is being offered by liquidation firms]... The last six months have been pure hell.'

When Toys 'R' Us first filed for US bankruptcy, its Australian arm said its 39 local stores would trade as normal.

But Mr Brandon is now said to have told staff the company was likely to liquidate not only in Australia, but also France, Spain, and Poland.

It also reportedly plans to sell its operations in Canada, Central Europe and Asia.

CEO David Brandon (pictured) is said to have told U.S. staff the company plans to file liquidation papers on Thursday

Toy 'R' Us' executive vice president of global communications, Amy von Walter, told The Sydney Morning Herald the company's Australian stores were 'open and serving customers as usual'.

But Ms von Walter would not elaborate or comment on plans to liquidate Australian branches.

Toys 'R' Us Australia posted a $7.7 million loss in the financial year to January 2017 and a $9 million loss the previous year.

A financial report filed in 2016 warned that the future of the Australian arm of the business relied on the support of the U.S. company.

Toy 'R' Us' executive vice president of global communications, Amy von Walter, said the company's Australian stores were 'open and serving customers as usual'

'Should the support be withdrawn or not continue, there is significant uncertainty whether the company or consolidated entity will be able to continue as going concerns,' the report read.

The U.S. company experienced some renewed success under Mr Brandon, who since 2015 has sought to make Toys 'R' Us the destination for children that it once was.

But his changes ultimately proved futile in the face of the online retailing competition from the likes of Amazon, Walmart and Target.

Now, the $11 billion in sales still happening at Toys R Us each year will disperse to other retailers and online discounters, analysts say.

'We're putting a for sale sign on everything,' Mr Brandon (pictured) reportedly told employees

GlobalData Retail estimates that nearly 14 percent of toy sales were made online in 2016, more than double the level five years ago.

Toys 'R' Us has more 1,500 stores globally which employ around 60,000 people, including nearly 3,000 in Australia.

All 75 stores in the UK are expected to will close within six weeks.The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will observe the upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan. The OSCE/ODIHR mission is led by Corien Jonker.

March 15, 2018, 16:52 PACE, OSCE/ODIHR to observe presidential elections in Azerbaijan

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 15, ARTSAKHPRESS:Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov told APA that the OSCE monitoring mission consists of 33 members, who are expected to arrive in Baku on April 10, Panorama.am reports.

To note, the European Parliament (EP) will not observe the Azerbaijani presidential elections scheduled for April 11 and consequently will neither comment on the process nor on the results that will be announced afterwards.

Should any Member of the European Parliament decide to observe these elections, she/he would do so on her/his own initiative and should under no circumstances commit the European Parliament through any statement or action, the EP said in a statement.South Africa demanded on Thursday that Australian interior minister Peter Dutton retract comments that suggested white farmers were being persecuted and deserved protection with special visas from a 'civilised country'.

Pretoria hauled in Canberra's High Commissioner for a diplomatic ticking off over Dutton's remarks, which also included a description of white farmers facing 'horrific circumstances' - a characterisation South Africa has rejected.

'The South African government is offended by the statements which have been attributed to the Australian Home Affairs Minister and a full retraction is expected,' the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) believes the farmers deserve 'special attention' and need help from a 'civilised country' like Australia

Australia is investigating what visas can be offered to white South African farmers who are facing violence and land seizures at home (stock image)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country was not heading down the road towards the type of violent and chaotic seizure of white-owned farms that triggered economic collapse in Zimbabwe nearly 20 years ago.

'We cannot have a situation where we allow land grabs, because that is anarchy,' Ramaphosa said. 'We cannot have a situation of anarchy when we have proper constitutional means through which we can work to give land to our people.'

South African anger was prompted after Australia considered fast-tracking visas for white farmers to allow them to flee 'horrific circumstances' for a 'civilised country'.

Addressing the issue, Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cited reports of land seizures and violence targeting the white farmers and insisted 'people do need help'.

The offer was swiftly rebuffed by South Africa, with a government spokesman saying that no section of the country's population was in any danger.

Dutton, who oversees immigration and has drawn international criticism for heading a tough crackdown on asylum-seekers from Asia and the Middle East, said the South Africans deserve 'special attention' for acceptance on refugee or humanitarian grounds.

'If you look at the footage, you hear the stories and you read the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance that they face,' Dutton told Sydney's Daily Telegraph late on Wednesday.

'I've asked my department to look at options and ways in which we can provide some assistance because I do think on the information I've seen people do need help, and they need help from a civilised country like ours.'

But South African government spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya told the BBC that there was 'no need for anyone to be scared or to fear anything'.

'The land redistribution programme will be done according to the law,' he said, adding: 'We remain a united nation here in South Africa - both black and white.'

Dutton's comments come just months after asylum-seekers and refugees held by Australia in a remote Pacific camp were awarded Aus$70 million ($56 million) for being illegally detained and treated negligently in the country's largest human rights class action settlement.

Canberra, which denied liability, sends asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat, rather than through official channels, to facilities on Nauru in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.

Confiscating the land could potentially lead to food shortages and an economic crisis similar to Zimbabwe (stock image)

The South African parliament recently passed a motion which may lead to white farmers having their land seized and given to black owners without compensation (stock image)

Dutton said that white South African farmers work hard and 'I think these people deserve special attention and we're applying that special attention now'.

He indicated that those wanting to leave may be considered under the 'in-country persecution' visa category, or through a refugee-humanitarian program.

Normally South Africans have to apply under other categories, including as a skilled worker or through family connections. Nearly 200,000 South Africans already live in Australia.

Late last year, thousands of white farmers blocked roads in South Africa to protest against what they said was an explosion of violence against their communities in rural areas.

Campaign group AfriForum, which advocates for its largely white membership, many of whom speak Afrikaans, cited dozens of murders.

Another Australian cabinet minister, Steve Ciobo, agreed the farmers' situation was 'cause for concern'.

'Let's be frank, if we see in this case -- people who are being thrown off their land, being persecuted, I've read of people being shot, rapes, all sorts of different things -- then I do believe that there's a role to be played,' he told broadcaster ABC.

Land ownership is a sensitive subject in South Africa, 24 years after the end of apartheid rule.

White people still own around 72 percent of individually-owned farms, with the black majority holding just four percent, according to an audit cited by Ramaphosa this week.

Crosses are planted on a hillside at the White Cross Monument, each one marking a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder, on October 31, 2017 in Ysterberg, South Africa

The country's ruling ANC party has backed expropriation of land without compensation.

AfriForum deputy chief executive Alana Bailey said on the group's website that Dutton's remarks should serve as a wake-up call for the South African government.

'It must serve as a warning that South Africa runs the risk to lose even more productive, loyal citizens should their concerns about issues such as property rights not be listened to in earnest,' Bailey said.

Dutton suggested an announcement could be made soon.

'We're just looking at the moment at what might be feasible and hopefully we'll make an announcement in due course,' he said.Islamic schools where children only study religion all day and graduate with no skills or qualifications will be outlawed under new proposals.

The Government wants to make it illegal to run full-time schools which focus solely on religious studies and leave pupils vulnerable to brainwashing by extremists.

The schools would be required to register with the Government and to broaden the curriculum to comply with Ofsted standards.

The law would apply to people of all faiths  including Muslims, Jews and Christians  and would allow the authorities to prosecute anyone running a full-time religious studies school.

Islamic schools where children only study religion all day and graduate with no skills or qualifications will be outlawed under new proposals. Pictured: Evening classes in Birmingham

Currently, a loophole exists which allows full-time schools to operate under the radar as long as they provide only religious education.

The loophole dates back to a time when the UK was less culturally diverse and hardly any of these schools existed.

However, in recent years, a number of former pupils of such schools have come forward to complain that they have graduated without having studied crucial academic subjects.

It has left them with a sheltered view of the world and little means of earning a living - meaning they could be more vulnerable to being recruited by extremists.

Under the new law, these schools would be required to register with the government and to broaden out the curriculum to comply with Ofsted standards.

A consultation paper on the plan states: 'We believe that all full time independent education settings should be registered and regulated, no matter what curriculum they offer.

'Currently, some cannot be registered because of the restricted range of their curriculum.

'This is unacceptable given the need to protect the welfare and education of the children involved.'

The schools would be required to register with the Government and to broaden the curriculum to comply with Ofsted standards (file photo)

Under the proposals, announced by communities secretary Sajid Javid, Ofsted would also be given more powers to gather evidence of extremist material when investigating unregistered schools.

The watchdog is currently on a crusade to discover all schools which refuse to register with the government and to pursue prosecutions against them - especially those which appear to be exposing pupils to radicalising material.

The plans come after a government-commissioned review by Dame Louise Casey on integration was published in 2016.

Mr Javid faced accusations of watering down her proposals yesterday, as a key recommendation to protect home-schooled pupils was dropped from the consultation paper.

She had originally recommended forcing all families wishing to home-school their children to register with the authorities, to make it harder for them to secretly send them to illegal religious schools.

Yesterday's wide-ranging document also included proposals to send community and religious leaders, such as Imams, on leadership courses.

Under the proposals, announced by communities secretary Sajid Javid, Ofsted would also be given more powers to gather evidence of extremist material when investigating unregistered schools

And it also suggests providing information to migrants before they arrive in the UK, to give them a 'clear expectation about life in modern Britain' including laws and norms.

When these migrants arrive, a package of practical information would be provided about accessing services, learning English and mixing with locals.

Mr Javid said the plans, backed by 50 million of public money, had been informed by his own experience growing up in a recent immigrant family.

He BBC Radio 4: 'When I was a young child, I sometimes had to miss school so that I could go to the doctor with my mother.

'But it wasn't because I was ill. It was because more than a decade after arriving from Pakistan she still barely spoke a word of English and needed me - her six year-old-son - to translate for her.

'For me, it was an early introduction to the way in which issues such as language skills create barriers to integration - and the very real impact that has on individuals....

'Eventually, my mother decided she'd be better off if she learned English. Today she's fluent and gets so much from it - whether that's engaging with everything society has to offer or chatting happily with her grandchildren.'Russia today denied ever making the toxic Novichok nerve agent used to strike down a double agent in Britain as it faced a wall of international condemnation.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said neither the Russian Federation or the Soviet Union had a Novichok weapons programme. He said his country destroyed the chemical weapon stocks it did hold last year.

The claim is the latest defence from Moscow and comes after Britain, the US, France and Germany issued a rare joint statement condemning the assault on Sergei Skripal.

The leaders said there is 'no plausible alternative explanation' to Moscow being involved in the attempted murder of a former spy on UK soil.

Speaking in Salisbury after the declaration was published, Mrs May said: 'This happened in the UK, but it could have happened anywhere and we are taking a united stance against it.'

In the new denial tonight, Mr Ryabkob told the Interfax news agency: 'I want to state with all possible certainty that the Soviet Union or Russia had no programmes to develop a toxic agent called Novichok.

He slammed people 'distributing information that the programme allegedly existed,' an apparent reference to Soviet chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who first revealed the existence of that class of ultra-powerful nerve agents.

The joint statement was released as Prime Minister Theresa May visited Salisbury today

President Emmanuel Macron (pictured right) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have swung in behind Britain over the nerve agent attack

US president Donald Trump (pictured in the White House last week) has also endorsed the joint statement released today

Mrs May was shown the ongoing investigation in Salisbury at the spot where Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found

In an excoriating assessment that lays down the gauntlet to Vladimir Putin, the leaders brand the incident an 'assault on UK sovereignty' and a 'clear violation' of laws on chemical weapons use.

At least 131 people could have potentially been in contact with the deadly nerve agent used in Salisbury. They had not yet developed any symptoms but are being monitored via daily phone calls, Wiltshire Police said last night. Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills also revealed that 46 people have attended hospital with concerns they could have been contaminated but only three  Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey  have tested positive. DS Bailey, who was among the first on the scene after the Skripals were found collapsed, was conscious and in a serious but stable condition. Mr Mills said: We have identified 131 people who potentially could have come in contact with the nerve agent. Advertisement

The statement said: 'The United Kingdom briefed thoroughly its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack.

'We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility.

'We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury. Russia should in particular provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).'

Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump said: 'It certainly looks like the Russians are behind it. We are taking it very seriously.'

The hard line came as Mrs May visited Salisbury to be updated on the investigation, and after Mr Macron moved to quell fears of a split with Britain over the attack.

Following the briefing, Mrs May said: 'What is important in the international arena - and we have taken this into Nato, into the United Nations, take it through into the European Union - is that allies are standing alongside us and saying this is part of a pattern of activity that we have seen from Russia in their interference, their disruption that they have perpetrated across a number of countries in Europe.

'This happened in the UK, but it could have happened anywhere and we take a united stance against it.'

France appeared to break ranks last night, with a government spokesman demanding more 'proof' of Moscow's involvement.

The intervention risked shattering the international tough line against Vladimir Putin, after a string of allies including Angela Merkel and Donald Trump swung in behind Theresa May.

But after speaking to the PM by telephone early this morning, Mr Macron said he had no doubt that Russia was linked to the attempted murders of a former spy and his daughter earlier this month.

'Everything leads us to believe that responsibility is in fact attributable to Russia,' he told reporters.

'I will announce in the coming days the measures that we intend to take.'

Vladimir Putin, pictured at the Kremlin today, has dismissed the idea Russia was involved in the Novichok attack on a former spy

Sergei Skripal remains in critical condition after the nerve agent attack earlier this month (file picture). Boris Johnson (pictured in London today) urged countries to take a stand against Russian aggression

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured) were targeted with the Russian-made Novichok agent on March 4

Army vehicles arrived in the Dorset village of Alderholt today as part of the Salisbury probe

Mrs May speaks to Wiltshire Police Temporary Chief Constable Kier Pritchard (left) today

The comments followed a statement from President Macron's office that attempted to clarify France's position.

'Since the beginning of the week, the United Kingdom has kept France closely informed of the evidence gathered by British investigators and evidence of Russia's responsibility in the attack,' it said.

'France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with its ally.'

Downing Street said the Prime Minister used their phone conversation to update Mr Macron on the investigation and reprisals she had announced against Russia.

'President Macron said that France completely shares the UK's assessment that there is no plausible explanation other than that Russia was responsible for the attack and he once again expressed his full support for the UK as a close and strong ally,' the spokesman said.

What action has Theresa May announced against Russia? The PM unveiled the fleet of measures being taken against Russia yesterday Theresa May has announced a fleet of tough measures against Russia in the wake of the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. They include: Expulsion of diplomats Britain will expel 23 Russian embassy staff who have been identified as 'undeclared intelligence officers' from the country within a week. This is the biggest expulsion of diplomats since 1971 when Ted Heath kicked 90 Soviet staff out after the UK uncovered a large Communist spy ring. All high-level contacts with Russia will also be suspended in protest. New and tougher anti-espionage laws will be brought forward to help degrade Russia's capabilities in the UK. The World Cup: Ministers and the Royal Family will boycott the football World Cup in Russia this summer. Britain hopes that other allies will also snub the sporting event . Tougher Sanctions: Theresa May also signaled that Russian oligarchs wanting to come into the UK and live the high life in London will face tough new checks and sanctions. The Government will now back amendments to bring in a Magnitsky Law into the UK - which imposes sanctions on Russians found to be linked to corruption or human rights abuses. Private plane checks While checks on Russian nationals coming to the UK will be stepped up. This will include increased checks on private flights and extra customs checks. The UK will also freeze Russian state assets. Cyber warfare? Mrs May suggested there will be covert action that would not be announced - an apparent hint at cyber attacks. But this is unlikely to ever be confirmed by the Government officially. Advertisement

'The Prime Minister and the President reiterated their condemnation of the use of all chemical weapons and said they would continue to cooperate closely in this area.

'The Prime Minister thanked the President for his ongoing support, including at Nato, the United Nations Security Council and in the OPCW, and they agreed to remain in close contact as the situation developed and in the run up to the March European Council meeting where this would be discussed.'

As Mrs May visited Salisbury today, the military cordoned off part of another village 12 miles away from the city.

The armed forces and emergency services swooped on Alderholt this morning, closing off a road in the area where Wiltshire Police Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey - who was taken to hospital following the nerve agent attack - is believed to live.

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said the activity is related to the Salisbury investigation, adding that it was 'on standby to support our colleagues'.

Two large Army low loaders and a crane escorted by police arrived in the village, after residents were told by officers last night that the road would be closed today.

France initially condemned the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter on Tuesday and expressed solidarity with Britain.

But French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux yesterday said it was too early for Paris to decide whether action should be taken against Russia.

Shortly after Mrs May said that she was expelling Russian diplomats and suspending bilateral talks, Mr Griveaux told a news conference: 'We don't do fantasy politics.

'Once the elements are proven, then the time will come for decisions to be made.'

While he called the attack a 'very serious act' on a strategic ally, he said that France was waiting for 'definitive conclusions' and evidence that the 'facts were completely true' before taking a position.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson admitted there had been different tones coming out of the French government, but said Mr Macron had been solidly behind the UK.

'They issued a joint statement yesterday condemning the attack on UK soil and the PM is speaking to President Macron again today,' he said.

Mr Johnson said the evidence of Russian guilt was 'overwhelming' because only Moscow had access to the poison used and a motive for harming Sergei Skripal.

'There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we're heard from the Russians that to me betokens their fundamental guilt,' he told the BBC.

'They want to simultaneously deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it.'

Writing in the Washington Post, Mr Johnson said: 'All responsible nations share an obligation to take a principled stance against this behaviour.

'The countermeasures announced by the Prime Minister are not solely about the attack in Salisbury.

'Britain is striving to uphold the rules on which the safety of every country depends. I hope and believe that our friends will stand alongside us.'

Mr Johnson said the attack was a way for Mr Putin to send a message to opponents of his regime that: 'You do that, you are going to die'.

Mr Macron has been on a charm offensive with Russia since becoming president.

He has emphasised private dialogue with Mr Putin, while pushing for a restoration of business and cultural ties despite existing European Union sanctions on Moscow.

Mrs May was today shown the area in Salisbury near where the nerve gas was deployed

Forensic investigators were still hard at work in Salisbury this week following the attackPresident Donald Trump reportedly has plans to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Trump has made it clear on several occasions that Sessions made the wrong move, and now Republican sources are telling Vanity Fair that the president wants to get Sessions out of the White House once and for all.

The sources claim Trump is eyeing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt as a replacement for Sessions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions may be the next one fired from the White House

A report claims that President Donald Trump (pictured) has plans to fire Sessions after he recused himself from the Russian probe

'As an agency head and former state attorney general, Pruitt would presumably have a good shot at passing a Senate confirmation hearing,' the outlet wrote.

Pruitt would also not be recused from overseeing the Russia probe, which could prove problematic for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into whether Trump's 2016 election campaign had ties to Russian officials.

Sessions has been on Trump's radar ever since his recusal from the investigation. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at his attorney general, even suggesting to the New York Times that had he known Sessions was going to recuse himself he wouldn't have nominated him for the position.

'Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,' Trump told the outlet, adding that it was 'unfair'.

'How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said: Thanks, Jeff, but I cant, you know, Im not going to take you. Its extremely unfair, and thats a mild word, to the president.'

Trump has made it clear he does not agree with Sessions (pictured) recusing himself from Robert Mueller's investigation. Sessions has said that he does not regret his decision

Sources say Trump is eyeing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (pictured) as a replacement for Sessions

Sessions, however, doesn't regret his decision and does not believe he made a mistake.

'I think thats what I had to do, he said over the weekend at a Federalist Society event.

Vanity Fair also reported that Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser HR McMaster, Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are reportedly on the chopping block.Advertisement

A cold snap next week could leave the country at the mercy of Russian gas suppliers, experts have warned.

Plunging temperatures on Sunday and Monday are likely to send demand for gas soaring across the UK and Europe to heat and light homes.

A report from the analysts S&P Platts warns that relying on Russia may be the only option for European nations if they suddenly need more as other suppliers are already running at or near capacity.

Gas reserves across the continent are at record lows after cold spells and the closure of British storage facilities.

Campaigners fear the growing reliance on imports leaves the UK vulnerable at a time of heightened political tension with Russia and Vladimir Putin (pictured) in the wake of the row over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury

But the report said: Gas demand is set to rise again from the end of the week across north-western Europe, bringing potential large-scale gas withdrawals back into play and prompting a likely increase in nominations for Russian gas imports.

Given the surge in demand, Russian gas supplies are considered the only swing source of gas under current conditions. Domestic production and other import sources are effectively maxed out.

Campaigners fear the growing reliance on imports leaves the UK vulnerable at a time of heightened political tension with Russia in the wake of the row over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.

Official figures suggest only a small proportion of Britains gas comes from Russia directly. But many major pipelines across Europe start in Russia. This allows state-backed giants such as Gazprom effective control of European gas supplies.

Gazprom claims it sold just over 16billion cubic metres of gas to the UK last year  around 20 per cent of the countrys total demand. Russias gas exports to Europe rose to a record 194billion cubic metres last year

The UK imports around 44 per cent of its gas from Europe and Norway. In turn, Europe imports around 35 per cent of its gas from Russia.

Experts say the UK would struggle to balance its own supplies if there were not enough available on the continent. And they warn that the only nation capable of increasing supplies in times of high demand is Russia.

Gazprom claims it sold just over 16billion cubic metres of gas to the UK last year  around 20 per cent of the countrys total demand. Russias gas exports to Europe rose to a record 194billion cubic metres last year.

Britain also bought a shipment of liquefied natural gas from Russia to cope with demand during the Beast from the East weather front at the end of February.

Tory MP Stephen Crabb said: We know Russia deliberately uses its energy resources to create relationships of dependency across Europe and I dont think we should be putting ourselves in that position. There are lots of options.

The Prime Minister told the Commons yesterday Britain is looking to other countries to supply gas as it ramps up measures against Russia in response to the Skripal affair.

The UK has become far more reliant on imports in recent years due to the dwindling supply of gas from the North Sea and the closure last year of the Rough storage facility, which at its peak accounted for 70 per cent of the UKs gas storage.

Mike Foster, of the industry body the Energy and Utilities Alliance, said: If we have greater levels of imports there is always some vulnerability and the risk is greater from events.

This is one of those positions where there is an event and the situation could degenerate to the position where Russia does look to reduce the amount of gas it supplies to the West. It loses money if it does, but as a retaliatory measure, its conceivable.

Tim Roache, of the GMB union, said: There is a real danger here. We need a serious strategy and investment in UK energy to make sure we can stand on our own two feet.

A cold snap is forecast to sweep over Britain and part of Europe this Sunday and Monday - which in turn is likely to increase the demand for gas

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: Britain benefits from highly diverse and flexible sources of gas supply. We estimate less than 1 per cent of our gas comes from Russia and are in no way reliant on it.

The fears over Britain's reliance on Russian gas come as Theresa May - with the backing of the UN - vowed a raft of punitive measures against Russia.

Speaking to MPs, Mrs May yesterday gave Russia's 'undeclared intelligence agents' a week to leave the UK in the biggest banishment of diplomats in a generation.

She also declared the UK will break off 'all high level contact' with the country, impose new sanctions and could seize the lucrative London assets of Putin's cronies.

Speaking to MPs, Mrs May yesterday gave Russia's 'undeclared intelligence agents' a week to leave the UK in the biggest banishment of diplomats in a generation.

She also declared the UK will break off 'all high level contact' with the country, impose new sanctions and could seize the lucrative London assets of Putin's cronies.

But Russia's reaction raises the prospect of a tit-for-tat escalation from the Russians, and Number 10 is braced for British officials to be expelled from Moscow in retaliation.

The move from Mrs May was swiftly branded 'absolutely unacceptable' by the Kremlin as they warned: 'Our response measures will not be long in coming.'

After being notified of the reprisals at the Foreign Office, ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko branded them a 'provocation' and 'unacceptable' and confirmed there would be expulsions of British diplomats.

And the Russian embassy tweeted that the measures were part of a bid to 'punish' Russia under a 'false pretext'.

It added: 'We believe it is absolutely unacceptable and unworthy of the British Government to seek to further seriously aggravate relations in pursuit of its unseemly political ends, having announced a whole series of hostile measures, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country.'

They added: 'Needless to say, our response measures will not be long in coming.'

The expulsions announced by Mrs May yesterday amount to around 40 per cent of the 58-strong contingent at the Russian embassy.

And it is the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats since 1971 when Ted Heath kicked 90 out of the country after uncovering a massive spy ring.

By contrast, just four diplomats were expelled following the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

All high-level contacts with Russia will be frozen, with ministers and the Royal Family boycotting the football world cup in the country this summer.

In an apparent reference to the activities of Russian oligarchs, Mrs May said there would be tighter checks on those coming to the country.

She said there could be 'no place' for corruption in the UK and the authorities would 'freeze Russian State assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents'.

Checks on private flights and freight traffic will be stepped up to detect and track those who could endanger the security of the UK.

Mrs May told MPs: 'Led by the National Crime Agency, we will continue to bring all the capabilities of UK law enforcement to bear against serious criminals and corrupt elites.

'There is no place for these people - or their money - in our country.'

She went on: 'We will also table a government amendment to the Sanctions Bill to strengthen our powers to impose sanctions in response to the violation of human rights.

'In doing so we will play our part in the international effort to punish those responsible for the sorts of abuses suffered by Sergei Magnitsky.'

Mr Magnitsky was a Russian human rights lawyer who was imprisoned after exposing corruption, beaten up in jail and eventually died in custody.

Calling out Mr Putin by name, Mrs May said: 'Many of us looked at a post-Soviet Russia with hope.

'We wanted a better relationship and it is tragic that President Putin has chosen to act in this way.

'But we will not tolerate the threat to life of British people and others on British soil from the Russian Government.

'Nor will we tolerate such a flagrant breach of Russia's international obligations.'Three quarters of a million people who have settled in the UK are not able to integrate in society because they do not speak English, Sajid Javid has said.

The Communities Secretary revealed 770,000 people speak no or very poor English  meaning daily tasks such as shopping become difficult.

To tackle this, he hopes to roll out a new community-based English language programme, with a network of conversation clubs.

He will also provide extra support for councils to improve provision of tuition, and lay on skills training to help women from isolated communities into work.

Three quarters of a million people who have settled in the UK are not able to integrate in society because they do not speak English, Sajid Javid has said

Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4s Today: Just imagine the opportunities they have given up on, the inability they have to socially mix with others and really contribute to society. Its not fair on them and its not fair on the rest of society.

Mr Javid, whose family came to the UK from Pakistan, said his mother took over ten years to learn English.

He said: When I was a young child, I sometimes had to miss school so that I could go to the doctor with my mother.

'But it wasnt because I was ill. It was because more than a decade after arriving from Pakistan she still barely spoke a word of English and needed me  her six-year-old-son  to translate for her.

For me, it was an early introduction to the way in which issues such as language skills create barriers to integration ... eventually, my mother decided shed be better off if she learned English.

Today shes fluent, and gets so much from it  whether thats engaging with everything society has to offer or chatting happily with her grandchildren.

His proposals, backed by 50million of public money, build on a 2016 report by Dame Louise Casey, who welcomed them yesterday and said it was important as a nation to speak a common language.

However, she questioned whether there was enough money in the system to fund more English language provision.

Mr Javid also highlighted the segregation problem in schools and said 60 per cent of ethnic minority pupils go to schools where ethnic minority pupils are in the majority (file photo)

Pressed on whether the money promised to support the strategy was enough, Mr Javid said: Its not just about the 50million, theres actually a substantial amount the Government already spends on helping people learn English. But there hasnt been enough of a joined-up approach between Whitehall and local government, he acknowledged.

Highlighting the segregation problem in schools, Mr Javid said: 'We believe about 60 per cent of ethnic minority pupils ... they go to schools where ethnic minority pupils are in the majority.

If you just think about that and the amount of segregation that has been caused by schools, something new has to be done. Yesterdays wide-ranging proposals also suggest providing information to migrants before they arrive in the UK, to give them a clear expectation about life in modern Britain including laws and norms.

The information packs provided for those migrating to this country could involve information on how to get a bus or how you go to the dentist, it is understood.

Dame Louise backed the measures to promote English tuition, telling Today: It is really important that as a nation we are all able to speak a common language and that common language is English.

Dame Louise said the strategy also included very important, very powerful proposals to tighten registration of home-schooling to protect children against exposure to extremist ideology.

But she warned that funding of 50million over two years would not be enough to deliver the seismic shift needed.Sunshine Coast man Shaun Patrick McGibney, 19, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass when he appeared at the Maroochydore Magistrates Court this week

A teenager has been punished for creating a fake advert in his girlfriend's mother's name, searching for 'sugar daddies'.

Sunshine Coast man Shaun Patrick McGibney, 19, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass when he appeared at the Maroochydore Magistrates Court this week.

The court heard the advert attracted a string of men who expressed interest in being the woman's sugar daddy, contacting and harassing her via her private details posted online.

The 19-year-old published the sugar daddy advert with online classifieds website, Locanto, the Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

The court heard McGibney created the account to 'piss the woman off', after she reportedly instigated the 'bizarre' feud.

McGibney said his girlfriend's mother tried to sabotage his relationship, by creating a fake Facebook account to lure the 19-year-old man in.

With the fake account, the woman reportedly tried to seduce McGibney in a bid to 'get between' him and his girlfriend, who was her daughter.

An unsigned statement provided to the court by McGibney's now former girlfriend, confirmed his story to be true.

In the statement, the ex-girlfriend said she remained good friends with McGibney since their relationship ended but was not on good terms with her mother.

The court heard McGibney (pictured) created the account to 'piss the woman off', after she reportedly instigated the 'bizarre' feud

When McGibney pleaded guilty at Maroochydore Magistrates Court (pictured), he was fined $550 for using a carriage service to harass

The girlfriend's unsigned statement, was one of three character references McGibney handed to the court, including one from his mother and his employer.

McGibney told the court he created the fake sugar daddy advert in retaliation, and did not regret it.

When he refused to apologise for his crime, Magistrate Haydn Stjernqvist delivered a stern warning to the teenager.

While acknowledging the situation was 'bizzare', Mr Stjernqvist told him: 'You just don't get down in the gutter'.

Mr Stjernqvist ordered McGibney to pay a $550 fine.

A conviction was recorded.Microplastics have been found in more than 90 per cent of popular brands of bottled water.

Researchers examined 11 brands of water bought in nine countries, and their findings call into question the manufacturers claims that bottled water is healthier than tap water.

The brands tested include the worlds dominant players  Nestle Pure Life, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, San Pellegrino and Gerolsteiner  as well as major brands across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Researchers examined 11 brands of water bought in nine countries, and their findings call into question the manufacturers claims that bottled water is healthier than tap water. File pic

The researchers found that 93 per cent of the water in the bottles contained some sort of microplastic, including polypropylene, polystyrene, nylon and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Microplastics are the result of the breakdown of the plastic waste that makes its way into landfills and oceans. Anything smaller than 5mm (5,000 microns) is considered microplastic.

The study found that on average there were 10.4 particles of plastic per litre that were 100 microns (0.10mm) or larger. This is double the level of microplastics in the tap water tested from more than a dozen countries across five continents in 2017.

Its unclear what the effect of microplastics is on human health, and no previous work has established a maximum safe level of consumption.

The brands tested include the worlds dominant players  Nestle Pure Life, Aquafina, Dasani and Evian

The European Food Safety Authority suggests most microplastics will be excreted by the body. But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has raised concerns about the possibility some particles could be small enough to pass into the bloodstream and organs.

Its not clear how the plastic is getting into the bottled water  whether its the water source itself or the manufacturing and bottling process. The research was conducted on behalf of Orb Media, a US-based non-profit journalism organisation.

Professor Sherri Mason, who carried out the laboratory work at the State University of New York, said: Even the simple act of opening the cap could cause plastic to be chipping off the cap. She said people can choose to not buy water in a plastic bottle, and to carry a refillable bottle instead.

But for other products, there is no choice. The majority of products on grocery and retail store shelves are contained in plastic.

Prof Mason added: Its portable, its lightweight, its convenient, its cheap  that just makes it easy, its so difficult to get people to care about things they cant see.

We see it in bottle after bottle and brand after brand. It is not about pointing fingers at particular brands  it is really showing that this is everywhere.

On the health implications, she said: Some of these particles are so small they can make their way across the gastrointestinal tract and be carried around the body. We dont know the implications of what that means on various organs and tissues.

A British academic suggested the findings could point to wider plastic contamination of food and drink.

Dr Andrew Mayes, of the Universality of East Anglia, said: This study is only just the start. When we start looking more carefully we will very likely find it in food and in packaging, in milk and any other place we look. I dont think mineral water is unique in that sense.

Some of the manufacturers whose products were tested questioned the validity and accuracy of the tests, claiming they could result in false positives.Two Tennessee schools sparked outrage during nationwide demonstrations against gun control on Wednesday,

Teenagers at a 'peaceful' protest at Antioch High School were seen tearing down an American flag during massive brawl.

They walked out of class along with thousands of others around the country to demand stricter gun legislation in the wake of the Parkland massacre.

Students at Centennial High School in Franklin, Tennessee, took to the streets with Confederate flags to counter protest.

A massive brawl broke out inside Antioch High School as videos show students tearing down an American flag

According to a student at the school, Antioch High School had planned to have 17 minutes of silence to remember the 17 people slain by Nikolas Cruz at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last month.

Metro Schools released a statement on Wednesday condemning the videos that were posted.

'At MNPS, we respect the right of our students to advocate for causes that are important to them,' the school said, WSMV reported.

They were supposed to be having a moment of silence for 17 minutes

'Unfortunately, some students on our Antioch campus today chose to protest in ways that significantly disrupted school operations and threatened the safety and order for other students and staff within our school.

'Swift action was taken by school security and MNPD to address the situation.

'No students or staff members were injured during the walkout?'

'The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. Inappropriate behaviors that threaten school safety will be handled immediately and firmly in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct and MNPD.'

'We understand that our students may be feeling lots of emotions, including anxiety, fear and even anger about todays events. We encourage parents to talk to your child(ren) about how they may be feeling, and the importance of expressing themselves in appropriate ways while at school. MNPS also has counselors available and ready to talk to students at any time. We look forward to welcoming students back tomorrow for a great day of teaching and learning.'

Meanwhile, a video showed the students at Centennial High School waving the Confederate flags towards those at their school who participated in actions.

Three white students can be seen holding a Confederate flag, briefly, before the clip goes out.

The school has not released a statement pertaining to the video.Police said Gregory John Briseno, 29, killed his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend at her apartment before turning the gun on himself

A Florida man shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend before taking his own life, hours after leaving a 'confession' on Facebook.

A Marion County Sheriff's Office news release reports that Alexis Marie Waranka, 26, and her boyfriend, Ryan Anthony Young, 30, were found dead on Wednesday morning at Waranka's apartment in Silver Springs Shores, Florida.

Waranka's ex-boyfriend, Gregory John Briseno, 29, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, in a red Honda a short time later, several miles away.

Police said that Briseno shot and killed Waranka and Young, before turning the gun on himself.

Authorities were alerted to the double homicide after receiving a hangup 911 call from Waranka's roommate at 4.59am. Police said the roommate heard the gunshots, News 6 reported.

Briseno posted a Facebook message appearing to explain his actions. The note was posted just a few hours before police received the 911 call and found the bodies of Alexis Marie Waranka and her boyfriend, Ryan Anthony Young

Alexis Marie Waranka, 26, (left) and her boyfriend, Ryan Anthony Young, 30, (right) were found dead in Waranka's apartment Wednesday and were believed to have been killed by Briseno

Police arrived at Waranka's apartment after receiving a hangup 911 call from her roommate. After witness interviews and examining social media, police identified Briseno as a suspect

Deputies said initial witness interviews and a Facebook post by Briseno around the time of the murders pointed to him as the prime suspect.

In the Facebook post, which was time stamped Wednesday at 1.32am, Briseno seemed to try to explain his upcoming actions, referring to both the passing out of judgement and the punishing of it, as well as 'collateral damage' and the fact that 'the situation has become irreversibly inevitable.'

'I was pushed to a limit I never thought I'd be pushed to. I was shown true evil in the past 6 months. My body, heart and mind has been affected to no repair. I will take the title of the bad guy,' Briseno wrote on Facebook.

Police said that in February, Waranka (pictured with Briseno) reported that Briseno threatened her and grabbed her by the throat. She did not press charges, however

In his Facebook post, Briseno wrote, 'I was pushed to a limit I never thought I'd be pushed to. I was shown true evil in the past 6 months'

'Nobody needs to know the true betrayal and trespass done unto me. She will keep her name intact wether [sic] it be good or bad. Any other party affected in the moment will only be that of collateral damage. Just know it had to be done. If you are the few who know part of the truth then I know still you won't understand why but just know that I am sorry and had to finish it all once and for all.

'To my brothers I am sorry for being weak and not letting go. Be better men than me. My nieces don't fear my loss for I am now at peace. My family I know I let you down and again don't expect any of you to understand. But this is how it is. I love all of you but the situation has become irreversibly inevitable. Though the world had been taken and turned upside down... judgement has been passed and just punishment has been dealt.'

In February, 'a conflict' between Waranka and Briseno had required police involvement.

Waranka 'had reported that he had made threats of violence against her and she said he had grabbed her throat,' Marion County Sheriffs Office spokesperson Lauren Lettelier told WFTV.

Responding officers were unable to find any evidence of injuries on Waranka and she declined to press charges against Briseno.

Briseno is 'a coward. He has to answer to someone higher than me,' Waranka's father, Troy, said, according to WFTV. He added that, 'As parents, we have to find out what our children are doing at all times, even as grown-ups.'The invention of an Armenian graduate of Cambridge University can revolutionize the industry of power supplied devices.

March 15, 2018, 17:32 Young Armenian scientist aims sky-high with revolutionary breakthrough invention in nanotechnology

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 15, ARTSAKHPRESS:Amalya Kostanyan, a scholarship holder of Luys Foundation, specializes in nanostructures. She and her team design new generation screens based on the nanostructures, and the screens are entirely carbon-based.

They are useful by the fact that they can be designed by new types of materials which are entirely made in laboratory conditions and with our desired features. We can create devices which will completely change our environment, which will enable to substitute silicon-based made devices with nanostructure-based made devices in mass production, she told reporters in Yerevan.

Amalya and her team already received the patent with the University of Cambridge and are thinking about mass production.

Since the basis of the innovation is mainly the industry with organic materials it will be possible to apply in any industry.

Imagine paper think phones, tablets which require almost no power for operation. They can be applied in healthcare, for example there are devices which check the heart and other organ functions during the day, the young scientist said.

It will be possible to use this device for three years with only half an hour of charging, she said.

Kostanyan said they are currently discussing what resources can be used to establish a laboratory operating with such technologies in Armenia.Entreprenuer Sam Altman is one of 25 people on a waiting list at Nectome, a startup company that says it is able to upload a person's brain into a computer so they can live forever

A Silicone Valley tech-billionaire is paying $10,000 to be killed so his brain can be preserved forever.

Entrepreneur Sam Altman is one of 25 people on a waiting list at Nectome, a startup company that says they can upload the contents of a person's brain and store it on a computer.

But in exchange for eternally preserving his mind, the 32-year-old will have to die in a process similar to physician-assisted suicide - which is only legal in five US states.

Somewhat ironically, the company Altman founded - Y Combinator - funds startups like Nectome.

The process he's signed up for involves embalming the brain so it can later be simulated onto a computer, according to the MIT Technology Review.

The customer, alive, is hooked up to a machine and then injected with Nectome's embalming chemicals.

The company said the method is '100 percent fatal.'

'The user experience will be identical to physician assisted suicide,' Nectome's co-founder Robert McIntyre told the Review.

Altman, the President of Y Combinator, has signed up to have his brain embalmed so it can be put into a computer simulator. He is seen arriving at a hotel in Dresden, Germany in 2016

On the company's website, it says the mission is to 'preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favorite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family'

On the company's website, it says the mission is to 'preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favorite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family.

'We believe that within the current century it will be feasible to digitize this information and use it to recreate your consciousness.'

Nectome said it plans to connect people with a terminal illness who sign up to a heart and lung machine and pump the embalming mixture into their cateroid arteries in their necks while they are alive but under general anesthesia. Pictured is an embalmed brain

The business pitch, similarly, said: 'What if we told you we could back up your mind?'

Embalming fluid can keep a body frozen and intact, without the threat of it starting to decompose, for hundreds or potentially thousands of years.

But in order for the procedure to work, the brain has to be fresh, according to the Review.

Nectome said it plans to connect people with a terminal illness who sign up to a heart and lung machine and pump the embalming mixture into their cateroid arteries in their necks while they are alive but under general anesthesia.

The practice does qualify as physician-assisted suicide, which is currently only legal in five out of the 50 states.

And even in those states, an individual must have a terminal illness and have been told they will only live for six months or less.

The company has consulted lawyers familiar with the law, and said that if people have a terminal illness they believe this service will be legal to them.

'The user experience will be identical to physician assisted suicide,' Nectome's co-founder Robert McIntyre (left) told the MIT Technology Review. Pictured right is the other co-founder Michael McCanna

The idea of uploading human conscisouness into computers or storing it on the cloud is gaining popularity among scientists in Silicone Valley.

Dr Ian Pearson, a futurologist, said he believes in 50 years time humans will be able to put our brains onto the cloud in an interview with the Sun.

He said a person would then be able to 'use any android that you feel like it to inhibit the real world.'

The science has also been written about in a lot of futurist literature, particularly in Ray Kurzweil's books.

Nectome has a large federal grant and is collaborating with MIT neuroscientist. Its embalming technique also just won an $80,000 prize for preserving a pigs brain so well that every synapse inside it could still be seen with an electron microscope, according to the Review.

Altman is seen on stage with Big Bang Theory star Mayam Bialik during the Breakthrough Prize at NASA Ames Research Center in December, 2017A Finks bikie boss has faced court today after he was arrested for a string of serious drug and firearm offences when police raided a Sydney storage unit.

Martin Klein, a senior member of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang, was arrested and charged by the NSW Strike Force Raptor on Wednesday night.

Strike Force Creswell officers executed a search warrant at a storage cage in a residential carpark at Kellyville Ridge, in Sydney's north-west on Tuesday.

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Martin Klein, (pictured) a senior member of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang, was arrested and charged by the NSW Strike Force Raptor on Wednesday night

Strike Force Creswell officers executed a search warrant at a storage cage in a residential carpark at Kellyville Ridge, in Sydney's north-west on Tuesday

Police seized 17.4kg of MDA pills, 1.7kg of powder - suspected to be cocaine - and more than 67kg of powders, also believed to be MDA, illicit drugs, assorted precursors, two firearms, a silencer and ammunition.

Just before 6pm on Wednesday police arrested the 35-year-old man when he attended the unit, which was under heavy surveillance.

Shortly after the arrest, investigators executed a crime scene warrant in the storage cage and search warrants at a unit in the complex and a home at Beaumont Hills.

Officers seized a .38 colt six-shot revolver, ammunition, encrypted mobile phones, cash, a hydrogen chloride gas cylinder, and various documentation.

Klein, who has been identified as a high-ranking member of the Finks OMCG, was taken to Riverstone Police Station and charged with large commercial drug supply and 15 firearms offences.

Just before 6pm on Wednesday police arrested the 35-year-old man (pictured left and right) when he attended the unit, which was under heavy surveillance

Shortly after the arrest, investigators executed a crime scene warrant in the storage cage and search warrants at a unit in the complex and a home at Beaumont Hills

Klein, who has been identified as a high-ranking member of the Finks OMCG, was taken to Riverstone Police Station and charged with large commercial drug supply and 15 firearms offences

Officers seized a .38 colt six-shot revolver, ammunition, encrypted mobile phones, cash, a hydrogen chloride gas cylinder, and various documentation

He was refused bail to appear at Blacktown Local Court on Thursday.

Footage has since surfaced of a heavily-tattooed Klein in handcuffs being led away by police.

Investigations under Strike Force Creswell are continuing.

Strike Force Raptor was established in 2009 and conducts proactive investigations and intelligence-based, high-impact policing operations to prevent and disrupt conflicts, and dismantle any network engaged in serious organised criminal activity.

Anyone with information, including relevant photos and videos, that may assist Strike Force Raptor can report it directly to investigators via the Strike Force Raptor online reporting page or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The Finks OMCG was formed in Sydney in 1969 and now has chapters in other states across Australia.

Klein (pictured) was refused bail to appear at Blacktown Local Court on Thursday

The Finks OMCG was formed in Sydney in 1969 and now has chapters in other states across Australia (Seized gun pictured)Jeremy Corbyn faced calls from Labour MPs to sack his spin chief last night after he claimed Russia may not be behind the spy poisoning.

Seumas Milne, the Labour leaders communications director, questioned the reliability of information from Britains intelligence agencies and left open the possibility Vladimir Putin is being framed.

Mr Milne said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq showed government claims that Russia was behind the Salisbury attack may be wrong. Theresa May condemned the comments as shocking and outrageous after a Conservative MP raised them in the Commons chamber.

Jeremy Corbyn faced calls from Labour MPs to sack his spin chief last night after he claimed Russia may not be behind the spy poisoning. Seumas Milne, the Labour leaders communications director, questioned the reliability of information from Britains intelligence agencies and left open the possibility Vladimir Putin is being framed

Mr Milne has long supported Mr Putin  and even appeared at an event with the Russian president after his invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The hard-Left spin doctor was pictured shaking hands with Mr Putin at a conference in Sochi, Russia, in October 2014  a year before he was appointed as Mr Corbyns director of strategy and communications.

The Labour leader has been given security briefings on the poisoning, but Mr Milne said yesterday that the Government may have more information.

In an extraordinary briefing, Mr Milne told reporters at Westminster: The Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others dont. However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.

Pressed on whether Moscow was being framed, he suggested the attack could have been carried out by another former Soviet state.

Mr Milne (left) said the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq showed government claims that Russia was behind the Salisbury attack may be wrong

He added: If the material is from the Soviet period, the break-up of the Soviet state led to all sorts of military material ending up in random hands. Labour MP Mike Gapes last night called for Mr Milne to be sacked.

He said: I understand that Jeremy Corbyns spokesman, Seumas Milne, has claimed there is no proof that Russia is behind the nerve gas attack in Salisbury.

Well Seumas has form on these matters. Not in my name.

His Labour colleague, Anna Turley, added: Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values.Friends of poisoned Yulia Skripal have claimed she is already dead and accused the Government of covering the news up.

Ms Skripal was exposed to a toxic substance alongside her father and former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury earlier this month.

The British Government has said the pair are still fighting for their lives in hospital.

But Yula Ni, who is listed as one of 33-year-old Ms Skripal's friends on VK, a Russian social networking site, has claimed she may already be dead.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia (pictured in Zizzi in 2016) left a trail of nerve agent in the restaurant after their poisoning

She told The Telegraph: 'I need some undeniable proof that she is actually alive, because we have suspicions that the truth about Yulia's and her father's conditions are being held from us.

'It appears to be very strange that there is not more concrete information available. The week has passed since they went into a comatose state.

'Can they breathe on their own or are they on a respirator? Do they react to light or have any other basic reflexes? The authorities should have already released some information to the public!'

Ms Ni, who has known Ms Skripal for decades, questioned why British police had not made more information available.

Another childhood friend of Ms Skripal, Irina Petrova, also cast doubt over whether she was still alive.

She said in Moscow most of the streets are covered by CCTV and she found it strange there was no video of the attack.

Ms Skripal was exposed to a toxic substance alongside her father and former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury earlier this month

And she said the fact her friend lived without fear, posting prolifically on social media about her life, made her doubt whether the Russian Government was behind the attack.

But she admitted Ms Skripal would be unlikely to speak of any threats because she was an 'ice queen'.

It comes as new footage emerged of Sergei Skripal's BMW being driven towards the centre of Salisbury on the day the double agent was poisoned.

Both he and his daughter remain in a critical condition in hospital.The widow to Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen testified in court early Wednesday where she turned away as video rolled showing survivors hide out during the June 2016 attack that killed 49 innocent people in Orlando.

Noor Salman, 31, is accused of helping her husband carry out the mass shooting and lying to law enforcement afterward, Assistant US Attorney Jeff Mandolfo said.

A number of Pulse nightclub shooting survivors appeared in court to share their harrowing stories.

Victim Bobby Rodriguez recounted the daunting memory of hiding out in the bathroom while shots were fired that night.

Rodriguez said she hopped up onto the toilet to hide her feet as she feared her life would end soon.

'The noise of the gunshots was only matched by the moans and screams from the victims... One man who was badly injured rushed into the bathroom and crawled under her stall,' she said in court, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

When she saw the injured man, Rodriguez said she placed his body on top of her and 'played dead'.

Noor Salman, the widow of Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen, looked away and covered her eyes in court Wednesday while video played showing the victims during the June 2016 shooting

In a court sketch, widow Salman is shown next to her defense attorney Linda Moreno

Salman (left), shown with, Omar Mateen (right) who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida

Matthew Gentili, of News 13 said the station, received a chilling call at 2:45am that night from the shooter while he was covering the horrific attack

Survivor Nelson Rodriguez said he 'felt so little' as he recalled fleeing the club through the east patio. He described the guilt he felt the moment he heard gunshots and was forced to leave others behind.

Matthew Gentili, who works at Spectrum News 13, also recalled receiving a chilling call from the shooter the night of the shooting: 'Do you know about the shooting? I did it for ISIS,' Gentili recalled Mateen telling him.

During the video, recorded by survivor Orlando Torres, who was with Bobby Rodriguez while she hid out in the bathroom as shots were fired, Salman reportedly covered her eyes, the local newspaper reports.

The Wednesday morning trial began with prosecutors claiming Salman knew what Mateen had been planning all along.

Claiming that Salman has already admitted as much to authorities, Mandolfo told the story of Pulse survivor, Jeff Rodriguez - who survived by hiding in a bathroom despite suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

Mandolfo said that Rodriguez and the other victims had no idea that an attack would be carried out that night and said, 'Only two knew, Omar Mateen and the defendant'.

Christine Leinonen, mother of Pulse victim Drew Leinonen, becomes emotional speaking at a press conference outside the U.S. Federal courthouse in Orlando about the Noor Salman trial Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Christopher Leinonen (R) with his boyfriend Juan Guerrero, 22, who was also killed in the massacre

Family members of Noor Salman arrive to federal court in Orlando on the morning that her trial began

If Salman, 31, found guilty of aiding and abetting Mateen in his attack on the Pulse nightclub (pictured), as well as obstructing a federal investigation, she could face life in prison

Investigators work the scene following a mass shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando Florida, U.S. June 12, 2016

Continuing, Mandolfo told the jurors that Salman admitted to the FBI that she regretted not doing more and told the court that she said, 'I'm sorry for what happened. I wish I would've told.'

Salman has pleaded not guilty.

The case will hinge on whether Noor Salman knew that her late husband Mateen was planning the June 2016 attack at Pulse nightclub.

If she found guilty of aiding and abetting Mateen, as well as obstructing a federal investigation, she could face life in prison.

Salman was at home with the couple's then-three-year-old son during the shooting rampage, which ended with Mateen's death in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Salman first claimed Mateen (pictured) acted without her knowledge. Later she acknowledged that she knew Mateen had bought an assault rifle and was watching ISIS recruitment videos

But prosecutors say she knew of her husband's plans and did nothing to stop him.

The trial, which is expected to last for a month, will take place at the Orlando courthouse where protesters have been gathering during jury selection to call for a guilty verdict.

Inside the courtroom, the owner of the Pulse nightclub, Barbara Poma, has been present for some of the initial proceedings.

Salman initially told investigators that her husband acted without her knowledge.

However, she later acknowledged being aware that her husband was watching Islamic State recruitment videos, had purchased an assault rifle and examined three possible attack locations, according to prosecutors.

Salman's attorneys contend the US government could not show any direct links between Mateen and Islamic State before the attack and has provided no evidence that Salman aided her husband.

In court papers filed on Tuesday, defense lawyers asked that prosecutors not be allowed to tell jurors during opening statements that the shooting rampage was intended as an attack on the gay community or that Salman took part in her husband's gun and ammunition purchases.

Defense lawyers asked that prosecutors not be allowed to tell jurors during opening statements that the shooting rampage was intended as an attack on the gay community (Pictured, a memorial following the Pulse nigthclub shooting)

Salman was indicted on two charges: obstruction of justice for alleged false statements to federal investigators, and aiding and abetting Mateen in his attempt to provide material support to a terrorist organization

'It was Mateen, not Noor, who decided to attack the Pulse Night Club, Mateen who chose to drive to the club, Mateen who purchased the weapon and ammunition, and Mateen who alone carried out the attack,' the defense said in court filings.

Salman was indicted on two charges: obstruction of justice for alleged false statements to federal investigators, and aiding and abetting Mateen in his attempt to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Mateen, 29, opened fire shortly after the last call for drinks on the club's popular Latin night.

Holding hostages during his standoff with police, he claimed allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State militant group before being fatally shot.Russia should 'go away and shut up' in response to Britain's retaliation over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson demanded today.

The Kremlin has signalled it will respond in kind to Theresa May's expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats thought to be enemy spies.

But Mr Williamson warned Vladimir Putin any tit-for-tat action would only escalate tensions as he warned the UK-Russia relationship was now 'exceptionally chilly'.

Answering questions after a major speech on the future of defence, Mr Williamson said: 'It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury. We have responded to that.

'Frankly Russia should go away and should shut up.

'But if they do respond to the action we have taken, we will look at it carefully and consider our options but it would be wrong to pre-judge their response.'

Russia should 'go away and shut up' in response to Britain's retaliation over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson demanded today

In his speech, Mr Williamson revealed that troops held at high readiness will be offered the vaccine as part of new measures to tackle the threat from chemical weapons.

This will ensure that troops are both protected and are ready to deploy to areas where the risk of an anthrax attack exists, the MoD said.

Sources said the risks were overseas, not in the UK.

Mr Williamson warned: 'We have arrived at a profound moment in our history, a crossroads where the choice before us as a nation is simple  to sit back and let events overtake us or step forward.

'As Brexit beckons, the eyes of the world are on us. Rest assured our adversaries will be watching even more closely than our allies.

'This is our moment to retain our competitive advantage.'

He set out a beefed-up military response to rising threats in light of the 'reckless' chemical attack in Salisbury.

The Defence Secretary also demanded more money for defence and announced the creation of a chemical weapons centre so the military can analyse toxins quicker.

Mr Williamson described the attempted assassination as 'calculated and brazen', saying: 'If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury.

'We know the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from others.'

Ahead of the speech, Former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the international response must be collective or it would be a victory for Russia.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'A collective response is very important. Anything short of full solidarity with the UK now will be considered a victory for the Kremlin.'

Mr Williamson will set out a beefed-up military response to rising threats in light of the 'reckless' chemical attack on Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right), who have been in a critical condition since they were found in Salisbury on March 4

Speaking at a Policy Exchange event in Bristol, Mr Williamson say there is world-class expertise at the Defence Science Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, which analysed the nerve agent that poisoned Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Scientists at the Wiltshire lab played a key role in linking the attack to Russia by identifying the specific substance used.

The capability will be strengthened with a new specialist centre, which will be given 48million 'to ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence'.

The MoD is currently carrying out a defence review of its military capabilities to work out which areas need more money amid rising Russian aggression.

The MoD is currently carrying out a defence review of its military capabilities to work out which areas need more money amid rising Russian aggression

In a speech at a Rolls-Royce plant in Bristol, Mr Williamson set out the threats that face the UK and the need to make sure the UK has the right capabilities to match these threats.

He also revealed how 77 Brigade will be taken to the 'next level' to help Britain win the 'information war' against countries such as Russia churning out propaganda and fake news.

The brigade uses psychological operations and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to help fight wars 'in the information age' and debunk myths such as those peddled by trolling factories.The daughter of a Russian exile found dead in his London home may have gone into hiding amid claims her father was being chased for 87million.

Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered by his family late on Monday night at his suburban home in New Malden.

It is understood Natalia Glushkova, his daughter, found her father with 'strangulation' marks on his neck although sources in Russia have suggested it could have been suicide.

Last night it was alleged the Russian businessman was riddled with debt, which has now been passed onto his children, prompting Natalia to vanish.

Before his death he was being sued for 87million by Russian state airline Aeroflot over claims he embezzled the cash with anti-Putin billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead in 2013.

The ongoing court case in Moscow has continued despite his death.

Natalia Glushkova (pictured), Nikolai Glushkov's daughter, found her father with 'strangulation' marks on his neck and now may have vanished after her father's debts emerged

It is understood the Natalia has now gone into hiding as Russian businesses prepare to go after her over her father's unpaid debt

Nikolai Glushkov arriving at the High Court annex on October 18, 2011, wearing a pink dickie bow

Forensics officers enter a tent outside a house in New Malden which has been sealed off after Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov, a close friend of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, was found dead

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.

Russian media speculated the cause of death could have been suicide, something his friends have vehemently denied.

They deny that he would have taken his life because by doing so his 87million debts would fall on his two children.

After legal decisions in Russian courts over his alleged Aeroflot debt, lawyers were planning to chase him to Britain.

But Glushkov intended to challenge the Russian money grab.

However, now he has died, Russian prosecutors plan to saddle these debts on his heirs, daughter and son Natalia and Dmitry.

'After receiving confirmed information about the death of the debtor, the bailiff will replace him with his legal successors, said a representative of Russias Bailiff Service.

According to The Times, Aeroflot - which is 51 percent owned by the state - was in the process of suing Glushkov.

Forensics officers erect a black sheet at the back of a property in New Malden, which has been sealed off

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

Natalia, who is studying for a Masters degree at the University of Westminster, was 'traumatised' by the grisly discovery she made on Monday night, according to The Sun.

Now, it appears she and her older brother Dmitry will be left to pick up the debt left behind by their father.

She previously graduated Moscow State University with qualifications in communications, advertising and PR.

Glushkov's daughter is understood to have founded a luxury lifestyle gentlemen's club boutique in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to a listing online.

Her father's 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.'

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.

Russian dissident found dead in his London home 'was so worried Putin would eliminate him he and a French bodyguard prepared a getaway plan'

The Russian dissident found dead in his London home had prepared a getaway plan because he feared so much for his life.

Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was discovered by his daughter late on Monday night at his suburban home in New Malden and his body was taken away in a private ambulance 24 hours later.

He had previously claimed that his close friend Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko, a double agent who was killed with polonium poison, had both been on a Kremlin hit list and speculated in interviews he was next.

His former bodyguard has now revealed the extent of his worry and the measures they took to preserve his safety.

The minder told the Telegraph how his employer Glushkov had hatched an escape plan which included a hideaway should his life be put in danger.

The Frenchman, who asked only to be identified by his initials RG, told the paper: 'When we were informed things were a little tense, we were told to prepare a getaway for Glushkov.'

He also worked with Glushkov's friend and former business partner Boris Berezovsky. and said poison was 'always a threat'.

The security guard said: 'Boris spoke openly that the orders came directly from Putin to eliminate him and his friends.'The sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday after bringing a knife to school with her and threatening students participating in the walkout against gun control. Morgan Roof is pictured in her mug shot

The sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday after bringing a knife to school with her and threatening students participating in the walkout against gun control.

Morgan Roof has been charged with simple possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds, WISTV reported. She has been released on a $5,000 bond, but was not allowed to return to the location of the incident - AC Flora High School.

The 18-year-old was apprehended after the student body was alarmed due to a threatening post on her Snapchat, in which she said she hopes students participating in the National Walkout Day 'get shot.'

'We know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin' out anyway,' she added.

The post was particularly alarming given her brother, Dylann Roof, opened fire on a church in Charleston, South Carolina, brutally murdering nine black parishioners on June 17, 2015 in an effort to start a race war.

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The sister of the Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday after bringing a knife to school with her and threatening students participating in the walkout against gun control

Morgan Roof has been charged with simple possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds, WISTV reported. She has been released on a $5,000 bond, but was not allowed to go back to school

The 18-year-old was apprehended after the student body was alarmed due to a threatening post on her Snapchat , in which she said she hopes students participating in the National Walkout Day 'get shot'

Thousands of students across the United States walked out of their school on Wednesday, on the month-anniversary of the Parkland school shooting, to protest gun violence.

The school she attends, AC Flora, was one of the schools that participated.

In her Snapchat post she made clear she disagrees with the walkout and went on to say: 'we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin' out anyway.'

'Your (sic) walking out for the allowed time of 17 min, they are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what tf you think it's gonna do?' she wrote in the post.

'I hope it's a trap and y'all get shot we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway. No offense ofc buuut (sic).'

In her Snapchat post she made clear she disagrees with the walkout and went on to say: 'we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin' out anyway.' She is pictured left with her father Frankln Roof just after her brother committed the massacre in 2015, and right in a Snapchat photo

Her brother Dylann Roof is a self-avowed white supremacist. He is pictured in June 19 in an image from a video uplink from the detention center to the courtroom during his charging

He pleaded guilty to nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the 2015 massacre at Charleston's historic Mother Emanuel AME Church

On her person when she was arrested was a knife, marijuana and pepper spray.

No students were harmed as a result of this incident.

Morgan has been taken to to the Alvin S Glenn Detention Center, and Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the school's administration acted appropriately by alerting the department of the potential threat.

The school issued a statement to parents on Wednesday to explain the situation and say that the comment was 'not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate.'

'A student used social media to post a hateful message,' the letter to parents read.

'The posting was not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate. That student was dealt with in a swift and severe manner as the posting caused quite a disruption.'

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster also issued a statement saying: 'potential tragedy was avoided at AC Flora High School.'

'In two separate incidents, students and educators reacted quickly to reports of suspicious activity and behavior to their Richland County Sheriff's Department school resource officer. We owe a debt of gratitude to all involved who acted so quickly and decisively.'

Throughout his trial a disturbing picture was painted of the Roof family. Growing up the children were allegedly victim to and witness of domestic abuse

During the trial videos of Morgan's visits to Dylann in jail were released, which show that he caused his sister and parents distress while behind bars. Roof is pictured as he enters the church just before killing the nine parishioners

In one video she is featured telling him he loves her as he refuses to say it back to her. Morgan and her father are pictured just days after Roof shot up the church in 2015

Morgan's brother Dylann Roof is a self-avowed white supremacist. He pleaded guilty to nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the 2015 massacre at Charleston's historic Mother Emanuel AME Church.

The 21-year-old is currently on death row in Indiana.

Throughout his trial a disturbing picture was painted of the Roof family.

Growing up the children were allegedly victim to and witness of domestic abuse.

However, the siblings were said to be raised by a loving stepmother, Paige Mann, who married their father Franklin Roof.

During the trial videos of Morgan's visits to Dylann in jail were released, which show that he caused his sister and parents distress while behind bars.

In one video she is featured telling him he loves her as he refuses to say it back to her.

'Roof's teenage sister, Morgan, told him that she wanted to attend his execution, if it occurred,' The Post and Courier reported.

'I love you, Dylann, even if you don't love me back,' the paper said she tearfully told him.

He apparently responded: 'Ok.'Britain will be free to sign trade deals during the Brexit transition period without permission from the European Union, it was claimed last night.

EU negotiators have accepted the UK's demand to pursue an independent trade policy while remaining inside the customs union and single market, according to reports.

The Times claimed that despite EU's negotiating guidelines that Britain will not be able to implement trade deals 'unless authorised to do so by the union', Michel Barnier's position had softened.

The victory for Britain came as Brexit Secretary David Davis appeared to bow to EU demands to end transition on December 31, 2020 - earlier than the UK wanted.

The victory for Britain came as Brexit Secretary David Davis (pictured left with EU negotiator Michel Barnier) appeared to bow to EU demands to end transition on December 31, 2020 - earlier than the UK wanted

The signals of a completed transition deal comes after the EU revised its draft negotiating stance offer to call for a comprehensive trade deal.

At the EU summit next week, Brussels will say that any agreement with the UK should be 'balanced, ambitious and wide-ranging' despite previous warnings that its offer would fall far short of what the Prime Minister wanted.

The decision to open up the offer was taken after member states wanting a more favourable deal with the UK objected to the rigid approach in draft negotiating 'guidelines' revealed last week.

The document also bolsters a push by the EU to encourage Britain to remain part of the customs union as part a deal, which has been ruled out by Mrs May

Signalling acceptance of a shorter transition period, Mr Davis told Newsnight he could 'live with' the EU proposal.

He said: 'What I would not do is delay the decision in order to get a month or two more.'

This will prove encouraging for British negotiators as the EU prepares to rubber-stamp the start of Brexit trade talks during a highly-anticipated summit in Brussels next week.

European Council leader Donald Tusk and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who are leading the EU side, had been pushing the UK to soften its stance of wanting to leave both the customs union and the single market.

But in meetings this week, a group of sympathetic countries insisted that the scope of the EU's offer should be changed.

Among the new additions to the document are calls for the EU and Britain to combine to face 'global challenges' such as climate change after Brexit. The text also calls for agreements to protect the mass flow of data between Europe and the UK, as well as a separate deal on road traffic.

EU negotiators have accepted the UK's demand to pursue an independent trade policy while remaining inside the customs union and single market, according to reports

While the updated guidelines suggest the EU is more willing to discuss the kind of deal wanted by Britain, the document also spells out opposition to key elements of Britain's approach.

EU diplomats pushed to further quash Chancellor Philip Hammond's hopes of reaching a deal to allow the City of London to operate across Europe after Brexit.

States such as France and Germany are also adamant that any agreement cannot be seen to be as good as current EU membership because it could encourage other countries to leave.

The document also bolsters a push by the EU to encourage Britain to remain part of the customs union as part a deal, which has been ruled out by Mrs May.A Southern California couple found with their three children in a makeshift desert shack said they hope to be reunited with their kids now that they have a house to live in.

Daniel Panico, 73, and Mona Kirk, 51, on Tuesday visited their new home near Joshua Tree that was paid for and furnished by donations to a GoFundMe campaign started by a friend.

Their lawyers have said they'll argue that child endangerment charges against the couple should be dropped. Panico and Kirk said they're not abusive, just poor.

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Daniel Panico, 73, and Mona Kirk, 51, show off their new home which was bought with funds donated from their community

The couple had their kids taken away from them last month when authorities discovered them living in horrendous conditions on their property near Joshua Tree, California

The money for the new home was raised on GoFundMe. The woman who organized the fund shared these pictures of the couple's new home being renovated

Above, a view of the new home's kitchen space, which looks like it still needs a bit of work

Workers install a hardwood floor in the home. The rest of the donations will be put towards furnishing the home

One of the bedrooms was painted pink for the kids, who are still in the custody of the state

Above, another bedroom in the couple's new home near Joshua Tree

More than $60,000 has been raised for the couple's new home

Authorities took custody of the three kids - between 11 and 14 years old - when the parents were arrested last month. The couple hasn't seen or spoken to their children since.

Panico fought back tears Tuesday as he thanked everyone who donated. He told KMIR-TV that he's dreamed of bringing his family together in a house like the one he now has.

Kirk recalled the fear she felt the day she and her husband of 17 years were arrested.

'I came out of the fort and there were three deputies holding their guns out and screaming for the kids to come out,' she told the news station.

This is the shack that the couple and their three kids were found living in last month

Trash was strewn about the property. This area seemed to function as the family's kitchen

The shelter was cobbled together with plywood and plastic sheeting. Several holes on the property were filled with feces, the sheriff's office said

When the children were rescued from the horror living situation, police said there was no signs they were physically abused and they did not seem to be malnourished

The children also were not enrolled in public school, which is a illegal for their ages

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department has said the children had been living in the shack without running water, bathrooms or electricity for several years in the desert about 125 miles east of Los Angeles.

The shelter was cobbled together with plywood and plastic sheeting. Several holes on the property were filled with feces, the sheriff's office said.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said at the time that the children didn't appear to have any obvious injuries and showed no outward signs of malnutrition but 'it was apparent they had not bathed in days.'

The children were not enrolled in public school and there was no evidence they were being educated, Bachman said.

Dozens of people rallied in support of the couple outside their court hearing March 6, holding signs that read 'Being homeless is not a crime' and 'Poverty is not a choice.'

Panico said he hopes to see laws changed so families who are struggling are not so easily separated.

'And children wrenched from their parents? It's not right,' he said.BY KEVIN PAMBA

PNGs POLITICAL and administrative elite had failed to deal with widespread corruption that is becoming a major killer in the country.

So said Joint CEO of Nasfund, Rod Mitchell, addressing a business ethics symposium at Divine Word University inMadang.

Mr Mitchell accused political leaders and the elite of paying lip service to the fight against endemic corruption.

Attempts to deal with corruption through the political process and by the elites have been almost non-existent, with paper-thin commitment to meet this serious challenge head on, Mr Mitchell said.

Six Commissions of Inquiry, costing millions of kina, were held in the last ten years but there had not been one successful prosecution despite the serious matters being raised.

The inertia of dealing effectively with white collar and high level corruption has been shown in the recent high profile Taiwan-gate and US$40 million Singapore scandal where matters were simply ignored, with the only moral outrage being that these matters had dare surface.

Mr Mitchell said similarly, the Ombudsman Commission had come under intense political pressure. He said the attempt to kill Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek last December was met with embarrassing silence.

He said the abuse of parliamentary democracy was a worrying trend, compounded by the trend to stifle debate in parliament by using the speaker to rule questions out of order.

Similarly, parliamentary business is too often adjourned for lack of quorum or lack of house business  all very hard to understand in a country that continues to face exceedingly difficult social challenges.

Mr Mitchell said the recent controversial reappointment of Sir Paulias Matane as governor-general left nothing but further suspicion in the minds of many people.

He said in this case expediency overrode clear open process.

And, of course, the recent adjournment of parliament now means that the constitution on the minimum number of sitting days, has been breached for the second time in as many years.

Source: http://dev.actnowpng.orgBeach-goers have been left scratching their heads after a cow and a bull were found washed up after flooding in Queensland.

A large bull was found on South Mission Beach on Tuesday night and locals spotted a cow at Wongaling on Wednesday morning, Cairns Post reported.

The cow carcass was taken to Tully Waste Transfer Station for burial on Wednesday morning and the bull was moved and buried above the high tide line at South Mission beach that afternoon.

Kennedy MP Bob Katter posted an image of the bull at South Mission Beach to Facebook

Locals spotted a cow at Wongaling on Wednesday morning

Residents were concerned about the carcasses, Mission Beach Community Association secretary Truus Biddlecombe told the publication.

'We have no idea where they come from and of course they can be a health risk if they are not removed quickly. With the high tides they might move somewhere else,' she said.

Councillor Wayne Kimberley said due to recent flooding 'we are unable to determine the owners of the cattle', but the matter posed no health risks to residents.

Kennedy MP Bob Katter posted an image of the bull at South Mission Beach to Facebook.

'It's another graphic illustration of the damage done by the flood waters. We'll never know the full damage but I'd say it's around $20m worth when you tally up crops, stock losses, property damage, machinery,' he wrote alongside the picture.

'We can't stop the floods but in the instance of little ones where if we'd been able to take away a foot or more by going ahead with the North Johnston Transfer it would have helped prevent a lot of damage.'

Beaches on the southern Queensland coast will remain closed as dangerous conditions from ex-tropical cyclone Linda continue to blow in.President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss some of the criminal charges he faces related to his foreign lobbying work on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

In a series of motions, attorneys for Paul Manafort attacked the case brought against him in Washington, arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller exceeded his authority to prosecute Manafort on criminal charges that date back more than a decade. The arguments largely mimic a civil suit Manafort filed earlier this year.

The filings were the first volley from the defense in a criminal case that exposes Manafort, 68, to the possibility of a decade or more in prison.

Former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort has asked a judge to dismiss the charges against him (pictured outside a Virginia court on March 8)

He is charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for his work on behalf of Ukrainian interests as well as lying to the government.

He is also accused of orchestrating an international money laundering scheme involving at least $30 million that was funneled through offshore accounts and used to fund a lavish lifestyle in the US Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Manafort's lawyers argue that Mueller shouldn't be allowed to prosecute him since the allegations in the indictment predate the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller was appointed to investigate potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, but his mandate allows him to prosecute crimes that arise from his investigation.

In their motion to dismiss, the defense lawyers say Mueller has improperly surpassed his authority including that granted to him to investigate any crimes arising from his inquiry.

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 week; Manafort is now on 24/7 home detention until a July trial

'The original and superseding indictments do not focus in the slightest on alleged coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, or even Mr. Manafort's brief involvement in the campaign,' the attorneys write.

Instead, the lawyers say, the indictments are focused on foreign consulting work that ended in 2014 and on years-old bank accounts and tax filings that have no connection to either the Trump campaign or the Russian government.

Lawyers for the Justice Department, which represents Mueller's office in the civil suit, have argued that Mueller is well within his authority. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller's investigation, has also expressed support for Mueller's investigation, saying it is being carried out properly.

On Wednesday, they asked Judge Thomas S. Ellis III (pictured) to dismiss the charges

In a separate motion filed Wednesday, Manafort also asks U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to dismiss one of two charges against him, saying they accuse him of the same crime of making false statements on forms he filed with the Justice Department's Foreign Agents Registration Act unit. Manafort's attorneys argue that allowing both charges to go forward would violate his Fifth Amendment protection from double jeopardy.

In another motion, Manafort's team is also challenging a money-laundering conspiracy charge against him, saying the millions he routed through offshore accounts was legitimate income from his foreign consulting that shouldn't be considered tainted by the allegations that he was acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S.

The motions are the latest move by Manafort's lawyers since his co-defendant and longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Manafort also faces a separate indictment in Virginia that accuses him of several counts of tax evasion and bank fraud. Both cases carry the potential for heavy prison sentences.

In a recent order confining Manafort to his home, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who presides in the Virginia case, noted that Manafort posed a significant flight risk because of his wealth and the fact that he 'faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.'

While Manafort waits for his trial, in July, he has been told he will need special permission to leave his house 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 last week 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.

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

'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.'

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.

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.A shooting in front of a Alabama hospital has left two injured and the gunman dead after he shot him self, according to local police.

Birmingham Police surrounded UAB Highlands Hospital on Wednesday evening after reports that a gunman had shot an employee and an additional person before turning the gun on himself.

Of the two injured, one was an employee who was shot multiple times in the chest and had to be taken to the main UAB Hospital. The other is being treated with life threatening injuries at Highland.

Birmingham Police surrounded UAB Highlands Hospital on Wednesday evening after reports that a gunman had shot an employee and an additional person

Of the two injured, one was an employee who was shot multiple times in the chest and had to be taken to the main UAB Hospital

The male shooter was found with a self-inflicted gunshot in a room on the third floor's emergency wing.

'There is no threat to the public,' Lt. Peter Williston shared once everything was clear after 8pm, reports AL.com.

The victims are believed to have been on the second floor. Paramedics had to go through the same-day surgery entrance to reach them.

The other is being treated with life threatening injuries at Highland

The male shooter was found with a self-inflicted gunshot in a room on the third floor's emergency wing

Staff were alerted a little after 7pm when the lock-down first took place and were given an all clear by 7.45pm.

When staff was led to UAB Police headquarters, a woman was said to have had a panic attack and needed to be examined by medics.

For Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Capt. Harold Watson, the shooting proves the need for more active shooting training for first responders. The general public needs to be more aware, he added.

Additional details are pending.Police have arrested two men and let a third one go after a violent road rage incident on a busy road was caught on a dash cam.

The altercation started after one man crashed into the back of another man's car in West Heidelberg, Melbourne, 3AW radio reported.

An argument broke out in the middle of the busy Waterdale Road between the two men when one refused to give his details to the other.

Scroll down for video

Police have arrested two men and let a third one go after a violent road rage incident on a busy road was caught on a dash cam

In reaction one of the men took the other's keys with the intention of holding onto them until police arrived.

Police said a third man who witnessed the crash stopped his car and got involved in the altercation.

He was travelling behind the two cars when the accident happened.

Within moments the three men started to throw punches as traffic rushed by them on both sides.

A passing motorist with a dash cam caught some of the fight on film.

After police arrived and reviewed the dash cam footage they took two men into custody, the one who rear ended the other and the third man who joined the fight

In the clip one man can be seen swinging wild punches at the other two, connecting with two punches caught in the footage.

One of the men is also seen returning a punch.

After police arrived and reviewed the dash cam footage they took two men into custody, the one who rear ended the other and the third man who joined the fight.

A 46-year-old man from Wantirna and a 20-year-old man from Brunswick East will now undergo police interviews.

The third man who was crashed into was allowed to leave the scene by police.

The incident occurred at 8.30am this morning.Irish tourists who have fled the country after causing havoc across southeast Queensland will be blacklisted from returning, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has declared.

Others who have tried to join the alleged scammers have been blocked at the border and deported.

The two dozen Irish men and women are accused of defrauding residents and stealing from businesses in 12 separate incidents across Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The Irish travellers accused of stealing their way through Brisbane have left Australia and are to be banned from returning

The Irish travellers were accused of scamming and stealing their way around Brisbane allegedly used their children to steal designer shoes, police revealed

Most of them are believed to have fled Australia at the weekend after their images were released, while four remaining suspects are being closely monitored by Queensland police and border force officers.

'A number of them have already left the country,' Mr Dutton confirmed on 2GB radio on Thursday.

'There are others that have tried to come in. They've been detained, as I'm advised, and turned around.

'People now will move onto our alert list so that it is very hard for them to return.'

Only four of the two-dozen tourists are believed to remain in the country, and they are being monitored by police

Police released these images of the men they believe are linked to the women responsible for allegedly shoplifting and scamming their way through south east Queensland

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asked about the Irish scammers on Wednesday, insisting people who commit crimes in Australia should be hauled before the courts.

The group are accused of terrorising residents in south east Queensland, with some posing as tradies and others stealing groceries from supermarkets and scamming restaurants for free meals by claiming they found glass or hair in their food.

Police issued a warning to Queenslanders on Friday to be vigilant of a group of potential scammers warning them about offering roofing and bitumen driveway works.A message in a bottle written by a seven-year-old boy took eight years to make a 19,000km journey to the coast of Spain.

Julien Joy wrote the note in 2010 before it was placed into a zip-lock bag and tucked inside a wine bottle, with some help from his mother.

The now 15-year-old remembers walking out to Manganese Point and throwing the bottle into the Whangarei Harbour, off the coast of New Zealand's North Island.

A message in a bottle written by Julien Joy (right) and his mother (left) took eight years to journey 19,000km to the coast of Spain

In February the pair received a letter (pictured) from a German woman Luisa who found it

Mrs Joy said she told Julien to write his name, address, a bit about the family and a request to write a letter when found.

The doting mother and her son never expected the bottle to travel so far and were shocked receive a letter from a German woman eight years later on February 21.

The woman named called Luisa explained she had discovered their message.

'Last summer I spent my vacation with my family near Bilbao [in Spain], in the little village Mundaka at the Atlantic ocean coast,' her letter reads.

'On a walk at the beach my mom found your message in a bottle covered with sand and seaweed. We opened it and decided to send you a message.'

The pair were delighted to hear from Luisa who explained her sister is a navy officer who works on a ship.

Julien Joy (pictured) wrote the note as a seven-year-old before it was tucked into the bottle

Luisa asked her sibling to release the bottle again back in to the North Sea between France and England with the original note, and another one from Luisa's family.

'I hope that your message will be transported with the Gulf Stream maybe up to Africa or maybe even up to South America,' she wrote.

Mrs Joy has since connected with Luisa on Facebook.

She says it would be 'really crazy' if they were to receive another reply but already have seen how anything is possible.Parliament House in Perth has been evacuated.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan was among about 400 people who were told to leave the building as both houses of parliament were debating legislation.

The executive manager of parliamentary services Rob Hunter said two groups of primary school children also had to leave the building shortly after 11.30am, Perth time.

Parliament House in Perth has been evacuated as both houses were debating legislation

The state's most powerful politicians gathered in a general area during the evacuation, which was a fire drill.

'We try and do as many as we can in a year,' Mr Hunter told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

'And we try and do one on a sitting day which is obviously today when there's lots of people around just to make sure we can clear the building quickly.'

Mr Hunter said the practice fire drill occurred without any drama.

'It exceeded my expectation to be quite honest,' he said.Firefighters have come to the rescue of a wandering toddler trying to cross a busy Melbourne intersection at night.

Parents of the wayward child, who is about 18 months old, thought she was at home watching TV when she managed to get outside and walk up to 100 metres from home.

The unsupervised child looked to be about to cross Bayview Rd in Ascot Vale about 7pm on Wednesday, when a firefighter driving in the area, saw her and jumped from his car to take her from harm's way.

Firefighters have come to the rescue of a toddler trying to cross a busy road

MFB commander Guy McCrorie, who happened to be in the area, also rushed over to assist, despite being on holidays.

The firefighting pair kept the youngster entertained and asked for help at a local medical centre, where a worker helped track down the girl's parents.

With help from police, she was reunited her with her family.

'The parents had thought she was watching TV and were extremely concerned that she had managed to get outside without them knowing,' Commander McCrorie said.

'They were very grateful to firefighters and to the member of the public who had assisted.

'It was lucky the firefighter was not only in the right place at the right time, but was diligent in acting on his instincts.

'We are also very appreciative of the assistance of the member of the public who was instrumental in bringing about this happy ending.'The scavenger hunt that got a sorority booted from Lehigh University's Pennsylvania campus until 2020 reveals a list of activities women were instructed to partake in, including sexual activities.

The Alpha Chi Omega sorority sisters at Lehigh University were encouraged to 'ski pole two boys' which is slang for manually stimulating two men at once, as well as 'hooking up with an Uber driver.' Another task told participants to drink bong water, and yet another told the women to participate in threesomes.

The list, which was reported by Total Frat Move, was used for a December sorority event and circulated online. The university ruled that the 77 tasks had violated the school's Code of Conduct.

This is the graphic scavenger hunt list the Alpha Chi Omega sorority sisters at Lehigh University asked women to participate in during a December event

The Alpha Chi Omega's Theta Chi chapter has lost its recognition at Lehigh University for two years after a 'reprehensible' scavenger hunt that involved drugs, alcohol and sexual activity

'Lehigh University expects all students to uphold community standards and act in a manner that reflects the university's Code of Conduct. Violations of these expectations, which are in place to foster a safe, respectful environment for all members of the Lehigh community, will result in consequences,' the university said in a statement.

The Alpha Chi Omega's Theta Chi chapter has lost its recognition at Lehigh University for two years and will be banned from campus up until May 2020.

The ban was put in place after the sorority hosted a December scavenger hunt in which participants were given a list of tasks that involved 'the use of drugs and alcohol, sexual activity and other activities'.

It was in violation of the Bethlehem school's policy, according to the Lehigh Greek Community blog published by the university.

The sorority was suspended in December following reports of the hunt and evidence of part of the scavenger list.

'The chapter proceeded to cooperate and turn over additional evidence, including the remainder of the scavenger hunt list and documented examples of members' completed tasks,' the university said.

A disciplinary committee investigating the incident called the scavenger hunt 'reprehensible.'

They said there was evidence to suggest the hunt had been going on for years.

The ban was put in place after the sorority (above) hosted a December scavenger hunt in which participants were given a list of tasks including drug use and alcohol

'The panel is deeply concerned about the escalated nature of the content of this year's list and we are unconvinced that this escalation wouldn't continue,' the committee said.

'This incident was a significant, reprehensible event that the entire chapter was aware of and leadership endorsed.'

By the time the sorority will be allowed to resume at Lehigh University, the students involved in the scavenger hunt will have graduated.

Alpha Chi Omega can appeal.

The national organization conducted an investigation resulting in probation and individual punishments for hazing and other related offenses.Footage has emerged revealing the moments that led up to a man punching a woman in the face during a shocking road rage incident.

The video shows unemployed single mother Bianca Lee Sams, 22, throwing nails at the ute of Clint Matthew Pollard, 41, who punched her in broad daylight at a Lake Munmorah intersection, 50kms north of Central Coast, last July.

She changed her earlier not guilty plea on Thursday and admitted to provoking Pollard by throwing the nails and telling him to 'come on', The Daily Telegraph reported.

Scroll down for videos

Footage has emerged revealing the moments that led up to Clint Matthew Pollard punching unemployed single mother Bianca Lee Sams at a Lake Munmorah intersection last July

The video (pictured) shows Sams, 22, throwing nails at the ute of Pollard, 41, who punched her in broad daylight

Sams also threw a large metal chisel at the vehicle, damaging multiple panels and the driver's side mirror.

Previously unseen footage - which can now be shown after Sams changed her plea - shows the mother goading Pollard for several kilometres before the assault.

She can be seen hanging out of the vehicle's passenger side-door and laughing as she hurls nails towards Pollard's ute.

When the pair eventually stop at an intersection, Sams exits the vehicle and stands with her arms crossed as Pollard approaches.

Sams (pictured) changed her earlier not guilty plea on Thursday and admitted to provoking Pollard by throwing the nails and telling him to 'come on'

Previously unseen footage - which can now be shown after Sams changed her plea - shows the mother goading Pollard for several kilometres before the assault

Pollard then unleashes a sickening punch that jolts Sams' head backwards and into the car door window.

Pollard appeared in Wyong Local Court last month where he pleaded guilty to the assault.

He was let off with a three-year good behaviour bond and was fined $900.

Sams' solicitor on Thursday morning entered guilty pleas to intentionally throwing objects at a vehicle risking the occupant's safety, having part of her body outside the window and two counts of damaging property.

Three further charges of failing to wear a seatbelt, being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and destroying property were withdrawn.

Sams was ordered by a magistrate to undergo a pre-sentence report before adjourning the case for sentencing on April 24.

Pollard unleashed a sickening punch that jolted Sams' head backwards and into the car door window

Pollard was let off with a three-year good behaviour bond and was fined $900 for assaulting Sams (pictured)

Sams' solicitor on Thursday morning entered guilty pleas to intentionally throwing objects at a vehicle risking the occupant's safety, having part of her body outside the window and two counts of damaging property (pictured is injury Sams sustained)

The court was told Sams would pay $1358.20 compensation to Pollard for what her solicitor called a 'bizarre' case.

Earlier, the driver of the other car, Taylor Benbridge, pleaded guilty to driving recklessly in a dangerous manner after attempting to reverse into Pollard while her five-month-old baby was on-board.

Ms Benbridge was given a suspended five-month jail sentence, with Magistrate Peter Feather noting she had bragged of her actions on Facebook at the time.

'Yeah he ran and once I seen him behind the car I tried running him over for hitting you  bloody gronk,' she wrote.

She was also fined $600 and had her licence suspended for three years.Dr Kevin Pamba

JEMIMAH SUKBAT | Loop PNG/Pacific Media Watch | Edited

MADANG - A staff member of Divine Word University, Dr Kevin Pamba, who has written for PNG Attitude (read one of his articles here) has become first Papua New Guinean journalist to be awarded a doctorate degree.

Dr Pambas thesis was on communicating with indigenous landowners around the LNG project in Hela Province, an area badly affected by the earthquake two weeks ago.

He said that among his research findings was that the government is "not present" in Hela, especially the Department of Petroleum and Energy.

In terms of communication with the landowners, getting the message across was barely working, he said.

Dr Pamba, from Ialibu in the Southern Highlands, completed his bachelors' degree in journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea.A man who claimed he helped dispose of Natalee Holloway's body after she went missing has been stabbed to death while trying to kidnap a woman.

John Christopher Ludwick was trying to abduct an unidentified woman as she got out of her car in the driveway in North Port, Florida.

A struggle ensued and Ludwick, 32, ended up being stabbed by the woman. He ran away and was found wounded nearby. He was flown to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Ludwick said that in 2010 he was paid by his best friend Jordan van der Sloot, the prime suspect in Hollway's disappearance, to dig up the teen's remains, cremate them and scatter the ashes in Aruba.

John Christopher Ludwick was stabbed to death in Florida on Wednesday morning as he attempted to kidnap a woman in the driveway of her home

Ludwick had said that he helped dispose of Natalee Holloway's remains after the 18-year-old disappeared in Aruba in May 2005

Holloway was last seen on May 29, 2005 leaving a nightclub with Joran van der Sloot, who remains a prime suspect in her disappearance

Police said in a Facebook post that Ludwick and his victim 'were familiar with' each other.

Authorities also confirmed that Ludwick was the same man who made repeated claims that he helped dispose of Natalee Holloway's body by burning it in a cave when she disappeared during a class graduation trip in Aruba in May 2005.

Holloway was in Aruba with her classmates to celebrate graduating high school. Her disappearance remains unsolved

'We are aware of Mr Ludwick's history and comments surrounding the disappearance of Natalee Ann Holloway,' the North Port Police Department said in a statement. 'The correct authorities who are working that case have been notified.'

Josh Taylor, a spokesman with the North Port police department, told WFTS that he could not say if there was a connection between Wednesday's attempted kidnapping and the Holloway case.

'When you look at this particular case, attempted kidnapping of a young girl, you go whoa. It seems very eerily similar,' he said.

WFTS reports that the FBI has been contacted.

During an episode of 'The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway' on Oxygen last September Ludwick said that in 2010 van der Sloot hatched a plan to dispose of the teenager's remains.

'The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasnt recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that,' he said on the show.

Ludwick (left) said that van der Sloot (right) asked him to dig up Holloway's remains and cremate them

Holloway was in Aruba with her classmates to celebrate graduating high school. The 18-year-old, from Mountain Brook, Alabama, was last seen on May 30, 2005 leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot, a then 17-year-old Dutch student living in Aruba.

No trace of her body has ever been found and the case remains unsolved.

Despite Ludwick's claims, he was never charged in connection to Holloway's death because of lack of evidence.

Van der Sloot, who is currently in prison in Peru for the 2010 murder of a 21-year-old woman and remains the prime suspect in Holloway's disappearance, was also never charged due to lack of evidence.The heartbroken father of an eight-year-old boy who was allegedly murdered by his own mother said he 'deeply regrets' not preventing his son's death.

Brodie Moran was allegedly suffocated with a pillow by his mother Joanne Finch, 41, at their seaside home in Tootgarook, southeast Melbourne, on March 8.

His British-born father Lee, who is believed to be living in Shanghai, has broken his silence on his devastating loss and has remembered his young son as a 'very loved, kind, considerate and caring boy'.

Brodie Moran (pictured with father Lee) was allegedly suffocated with a pillow by his mother Joanne Finch, 41, at their seaside home in Tootgarook, southeast Melbourne, on March 8

The eight-year-old (pictured) has been remembered as a 'very loved, kind, considerate and caring boy'

'My deepest regret is that I wasn't there to prevent his murder. Brodie was a very loved, kind, considerate and caring boy,' Mr Moran said in a statement.

'If I could be half the person my son was I would be proud.'

Mr Moran and Finch separated in 2015 however he was still in regular contact with his son, who he said he FaceTimed weekly.

He said there was no warning signs which may have indicated Finch was capable of hurting their son.

'Although Joanne and I had separated in July 2015, I never stopped loving, caring and supporting my son both emotionally and financially,' he said.

'At no point did I, or anyone around Brodie and Joanne, feel that he was in danger.

People will always have their own assumptions as to what lead up to my beautiful son's death. But the truth is there is no other story.'

'My deepest regret is that I wasn't there to prevent his murder. Brodie was a very loved, kind, considerate and caring boy,' Mr Moran (pictured with Brodie) said in a statement

Mr Moran and Finch (right) separated in 2015 however he was still in regular contact with his son (left), who he said he FaceTimed weekly

'At no point did I, or anyone around Brodie and Joanne, feel that he was in danger,' Mr Moran said (Brodie pictured)

The grieving father said Brodie's tragic passing had touched so many people around the world.

'He lived a life in his 8 short years that many others may not live in a lifetime,' Mr Moran added.

'When remembering Brodie it is with happiness of his warm cheeky smile and loving caring nature, and this is a gift he has left us all.'

Finch, also originally from the United Kingdom, faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 9 charged with one count of murder.

She called Triple-0 asking for help about 1.30pm last Thursday, but when officers arrived at the house they found the boy dead.

Finch, (left) also originally from the United Kingdom, faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 9 charged with one count of murder

Finch (pictured) called Triple-0 asking for help about 1.30pm last Thursday, but when officers arrived at the house they found the boy dead

Finch (pictured) was arrested at the scene when officers arrived and found Brodie's body

Police arrested Finch at the scene and charged her with one count of murder.

After learning of his son's death, Mr Moran took to Facebook to pray tribute to his 'little fella'.

'Thank you to everyone that has sent well wishes,' a shattered Mr Moran said.

'At the moment I feel empty, still in shock. I have lost the best part of me... words can not describe how much I love and miss my little fella.'

Finch did not apply for bail and will appear via video link for the next hearing date in June.

The court heard she needed to be given anti-depressants following the incident.A businessman is accused of falsely claiming to be Aboriginal so he could claim a $407,000 government grant reserved for Indigenous Australians.

Allan Lodge was handed a 'confirmation of Aboriginality' certificate in 2015 under a previous board of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation.

The new board and current CEO Eileen Cummings have now revealed the 48-year-old should never have been awarded the document in the Northern Territory and that all future confirmations are to be referred to their home state, according to the ABC.

'This [confirmation] seems to have just fallen through the cracks... We were horrified at the way this happened,' Ms Cummings told ABC Radio Darwin.

A businessman is accused of falsely claiming to be Aboriginal so he could claim a $407,000 government grant reserved for Indigenous Australians

Mr Lodge was handed a 'confirmation of Aboriginality' certificate in 2015 under a previous board of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation

Mr Lodge's former in-laws filed a complaint with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet last month, alleging that he was of New Zealand Maori descent.

'I am horrified that the Federal Government would give this man a government grant,' his former sister-in-law Elva Hunt reportedly wrote in the complaint.

'Allan Lodge is claiming now to be Indigenous but he told me he had New Zealand heritage.'

The grant is part of the Federal Government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy, which was allocated $4.9 billion in the 2015-16 Budget over four years to 2018-19.

Mr Lodge was handed the grant last September so he could expand his Innovative Office Furniture from Darwin to Katherine

Mr Lodge's former in-laws filed a complaint with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet last month, alleging that he was of New Zealand Maori descent

It was awarded to Mr Lodge last September so he could expand his Innovative Office Furniture from Darwin to Katherine.

The business is '100% Indigenous owned,' according to its website.

Mr Lodge last month told the ABC the allegations against him were 'very upsetting'.

Daily Mail Australia understands that Mr Lodge may be able to re-apply for confirmation in New South Wales.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the 48-year-old for comment.A group of Maori and Aboriginal dancers will make history when they put on a collaborative performance for the first time ever at this year's ANZAC Day ceremony.

Ash Penfold, a West Australian Aboriginal man, called on his fellow 'brothers' in a video shared to Facebook Tuesday, asking them to join him in the Corroboree and Haka fusion dance for Perth's dawn service on April 25.

Mr Penfold has begun preparations for the world-first event, having asked his Facebook followers to join him at Perth's Kings Park for a 'meet and greet' this Saturday.

Ash Penfold (pictured) called on his fellow 'brothers' to join him in a world first Corroboree and Haka fusion dance for Perth's dawn service on April 25

'We need dancers, support and overall people who are going to take action and be a part of the first ever Corroboree/Haka Anzac day dawn service at Kings Park!,' he wrote.

'I've just been to a meeting with the RSL and the events coordinator for the King Park Anzac day dawn service with a couple of Maori brothers from Haka For Life,' Mr Penfold said in the video.

'We are coming together to do a Corroboree/Maori Haka that's never been done before in history.'

Mr Penfold, a coordinator for the event, said it was all too common the only time his people came together was at a funeral, having met his father for the first time at a funeral for one of his older cousins.

He told Daily Mail Australia he had a vision of up to 100 Aboriginal dancers coming together for the occasion, with Kings Cross a place his community held a strong historic connection.

'Aboriginal and Maori people are twice as likely to attempt to take their life, so we want to create something new,' Mr Penfold said.

'It's about coming together as one before a funeral.'

The Aboriginal Corroberee is a music and dance performance where songs and dances celebrate and pass on information about The Dream Time. The word corroboree was used by early Europeans to describe Aboriginal ceremonies and is an English version of the Aboriginal word Caribberie.

Similarly, the Haka is a Maori dance traditionally performed by warriors before battle to show their strength and prowess in order to intimidate the opposition. The Haka can part of formal or official welcome ceremonies.

While the dance is still in its early stages of planning, Mr Penfold said the group would likely occupy a section of grass at Kings Park the morning of the service.

A group of Maori and Aboriginal dancers will make history when they put on a collaborative performance for the first time ever at this year's ANZAC Day ceremony

The performance was set to begin with a smoking ceremony from an Aboriginal elder, followed by a Welcome To Country and a traditional Aboriginal dance.

Maori dancers would then perform a version of the Haka specifically choreographed with a mental health message in support of servicemen.

Later in the piece, Mr Penfold said he hoped non Aboriginal members of the crowd would join in on the dancing.

'It's about inclusion.'Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has been dismissed after a lengthy investigation into his behaviour.

In May, the father-of three went on personal leave from his $619,905 job on full pay after allegations emerged he had helped his girlfriend, in her 20s, secure a job at Sydney Airport stamping passports.

Quaedvlieg has denied any wrongdoing.

The 53-year-old has said his relationship with the much younger woman only started after she got the job in December 2016 and claims salacious texts he sent her have been taken out of context.

Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg had been sacked from his $618,908-a-year job as commissioner for 'inappropriate behaviour'

In February, The Daily Telegraph reported Quaedvlieg had sent intimate and salacious texts back and forth with the woman, who is now his girlfriend.

A Statement of Grounds of Termination of Appointment states Quaedvlieg 'acted at particular times to modify policies relevant to recruitment processes so as to advantage... a particular candidate for ABF employment'.

The statement further stated Quaedvlieg failed to disclose 'a significant change within his personal life' and made a 'willfully or recklessly false statement to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in relation to the status of his personal relationships'.

Quaedvlieg 'failed to disclose his relationship with a person who was seeking employment in the ABF in circumstances where Mr Quaedvlieg had an interest in that person securing employment and was in a position to influence the relevant recruitment processes'.

In a statement released today, Quaedvlieg maintained his 'strong denial' and appeared to be considering fighting the dismissal.

'I was given a short opportunity to resign prior to my termination however I chose not to do that as it is tantamount to a concession of culpability, which I strenuously deny,' he said.

'I also have previously made a number of observations in relation to the inquiry processes and I intend to pursue these more formally in the relevant forums.

'I will now take some time to fully consider my options.'

Attorney-General Christian Porter (pictured) is understood to have found Mr Quaedvlieg guilty of breaching the Code of Conduct and recommended his sacking

Pictured: Roman Quaedvlieg's statement regarding his termination after a 10 month investigation on Thursday

The sacking comes after an investigation spanning 10 months, for which Quaedvlieg was reportedly paid more than $500,000.

It was completed by Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary Martin Parkinson and handed to Attorney-General Christian Porter who recommended the Governor General, Peter Cosgrove, dismiss Quaedvlieg.

On Wednesday the decision was signed off on by Federal Executive Council.

Quaedvlieg is a former Queensland police officer. He famously arrested the notorious bank robber Postcard Bandit in 1995 while wearing thongs, board shorts and a singlet.

He was previously the chief police officer of ACT Policing, and had been the Commissioner of the Australian Border Force since its creation in 2015.Mario Batali was seen out in New York's tony West Village on a chilly winter day, his hands deep in his pockets obstructing his ring finger after a slew of sexual assault allegations.

The disgraced chef buried his hands deep in his pockets, concealing his ring finger, on which he was spotted previously sporting a wedding band from his marriage with Susi Cahn, following the allegations made by 10 women that were revealed in December.

Wearing bright orange Crocs, a bright orange messenger bag, faded orange pants, his favorite tiny sunglasses, and his red hair tucked into his signature low pony tail, he appeared cold as he walked alone on the brisk city day.

Mario Batali was seen walking in the West Village amid recent sexual misconduct allegations, wearing bright orange Crocs and a matching tote on a chilly New York day

Batali had his hands buried firmly in his pockets making it impossible to tell if he was still wearing his wedding band following allegations by multiple women of sexual misconduct

The 57-year-old father-of-two has been accused by over 10 women of sexual misconduct, a behavior that was an open secret among members of the New York City restaurant scene.

The staff at one of the city's most popular establishments, The Spotted Pig, even referred to him at the time of the reports as 'The Red Menace.'

Following the late 2017 news, Batali announced he stepped down from his restaurant empire and would no longer be appearing as a host on his ABC daytime show The Chew in the wake of the allegations against him.

That came soon after Eater published an article in which four women accused the chef of inappropriate groping over the years.

One of the women said that Batali groped her chest after wine spilled on her shirt while another said he grabbed her from behind and held her tightly against his body.

Three of those four women asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution from Batali, who was their boss at that time.

Batali admitted that 'much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted.'

A representative for his restaurant business, Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, said an employee reported inappropriate behavior by Batali in October.

The company told Eater it was the first formal complaint against Batali and that he was reprimanded and required to attend training.

The group's restaurants include Babbo in New York, Carnevino Italian Steakhouse in Las Vegas and Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles.

It is also a partner in Eataly, an Italian food hall and grocer, which has locations in New York, Chicago and Boston.

His career took off after opening Po in New York City in the early 1990s, and he skyrocketed to fame with the airing of Molto Mario, a show that ran on the Food Network for eight years, until 2004.

When news first broke that 10 women were accusing him of sexual misconduct, he was still wearing his wedding ring (pictured with wife Susi Cahn)

Batali admitted in December that much of the behavior detailed seemed in line with things he had done, but it is unclear if he and Cahn are still together (pictured in 2015)

It was there that his signature look, a fleece vest, shorts, and orange Crocs, became recognizable to most people. He has also won several prestigious James Beard awards.

A spokesperson for the Food Network said on Monday that a planned reboot of Molto Mario had been put on hold, adding that it 'takes matters like this very seriously.'

Batali also released an additional apology that caused an uproar when he included a recipe for a cinnamon roll at the bottom of the blast email.

'I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team. My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility,' said Batali.

'Sharing the joys of Italian food, tradition and hospitality with all of you, each week, is an honor and privilege. Without the support of all of you  my fans  I would never have a forum in which to expound on this.'

He closed out by stating: 'I will work every day to regain your respect and trust.'A damning new study has revealed leading brands of water bottles are contaminated with tiny plastic particles.

The research was conducted by testing 250 bottles from 11 brands by Orb Media, a US-based journalism organisation, in collaboration with the State University of New York in Fredonia.

Some of the leading brands tested include Evian, Nestle, and San Pellegrino, which are all sold in Australia.

The research was conducted by testing 250 bottles from 11 brands including Evian, Nestle, and San Pellegrino, which are all sold in Australia

According to the research, a shocking 93 per cent of the 250 bottles tested were 'contaminated with plastic debris including polypropylene, nylon, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).'

From the 93% of contaminated bottles, an average of 10 plastic particles were found in each litre, which equates to the width of a human hair.

Sherri Mason, a professor at the university, conducted the analysis and said plastic was found 'in bottle after bottle and brand after brand', according to BBC News.

In order to test bottled water, a dye called Nile Red is infused into each bottle which then binds to the plastic.

The water is then filtered to 0.0015 millimeters.

The tested plastic particles are then analysed under a microscope with a crime-scene investigation light shining on the particles allowing them to glow like tiny embers, Orb Media reported.

Ms Mason says this testing reveals how plastic is everywhere.

Sherri Mason, a professor at the university, conducted the analysis and said plastic was found 'in bottle after bottle and brand after brand'

A Nestle spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the safety and quality of their products is priority for all their consumers.

'We assure consumers that all of our bottled waters are safe to drink.

Nestle have tested a range of their products for micro-plastics over the past two years, including San Pellegrino - which was tested by Orb - and to date, have not found micro-plastics in their products.

The Australian Beverages Council told Nine News they reject the findings of the study, claiming it doesn't represent Australian products.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Evian for comment.A former bikie president posted selfies on his Instagram account moments before he appeared in court charged with stalking and threatening his ex-girlfriend.

Brett Pechey, 31, the former boss of the Bandidos West End motorcycle gang, posted a photograph of himself outside Camden Local Court, south of Sydney, on Thursday.

'Another court appearance,' Pechey, who was once Queensland's most wanted bikie, captioned the selfie.

The heavily-tattooed bikie had flown down from the Gold Coast for his day in court, even posting a picture of his boarding pass the night before his appearance.

Police said Pechey used a mobile phone to stalk and intimidate his former girlfriend, who has an Apprehended Violence order in place against him.

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Ex-bikie president turned Instagram star Brett Pechey (right) has fronted court over charges of stalking and intimidating an ex-girlfriend. He is pictured with his current partner Rikki-Louise Jones

'Another court appearance': Pechey, 31, posted a selfie to his Instagram story from outside the Camden Local Court, south of Sydney, on Thursday morning. Once inside he was granted bail

A day earlier he posted this image of him on-board a plane from Brisbane to Sydney, seemingly flying south for the court case

The bikie, who is believed to have patched over from a Bandidos chapter to Sydney-based 'Brothers 4 Life', saw his bail conditions unchanged at Thursday's hearing.

He will appear in court again next month.

Run ins with the law are nothing knew for Pechey, who once held the title of the most wanted bikie in Queensland following a wild brawl in 2013.

In the wake what was known as the 'Broadbeach bikie brawl', Pechey fled to Thailand for close to a year before returning to Queensland when he ran out of money.

That incident saw dozens of bikies surround police officers before attacking, hitting a number with punches.

Pechey was also charged for being involved in an extortion ring and using standover tactics to extort money from gym goers on the Gold Coast.

Pechey (left) was charged with domestic stalking and three counts of using a carriage service to threaten serious harm

Pechey (left) was part of an expletive-laden social media stoush with ex-Hells Angels enforcer Benjamin 'Notorious' Geppert (right) in February

Geppert is in a relationship with Allaina Jones (right), while Pechey is now dating her cousin Rikki-Louise Jones (left)

At the time of the extortion racket he was sergeant-at-arms of the Bandidos chapter.

Pechey was involved in an expletive-laden social media stoush with ex-Hells Angels enforcer Benjamin 'Notorious' Geppert in February.

The vile Instagram feud came just weeks after the pair had posed together alongside their girlfriends.

Geppert is in a relationship with Allaina Jones, while Pechey is now dating her cousin Rikki-Louise Jones.

In his since deleted post to his online story, Geppert showed an image of Pechey's Instagram account with the words 'weak dog' written across it.

Pechey (pictured) had been introduced to Geppert through his girlfriend Rikki Jones (right)

In his since deleted post to his online story, Geppert showed an image of Pechey's Instagram account with the words 'weak dog' written across it.

Geppert's girlfriend Allaina Vader (right) boasts a total of 158,000 followers

'Kaos you weak boneyard dog... don't hide behind me for protection. Ya know where I live so come be a man,' he also wrote in a subsequent post.

Allaina and Rikki-Louise - who are both makeup artists - were thrust into the spotlight when their boyfriends became involved in an Instagram feud.

The social media feud put their relationship in turmoil with the pair unfollowing each other on Instagram, a platform where they boast a combined 200,000 followers.

Before her current relationship with Geppert, Allaina dated Bandidos enforcer John 'Brownie' Fahey.Convicted murderer Carlton Gary was denied clemency one day before he's scheduled to be executed

A convicted murderer, known as the 'stocking strangler' for choking elderly women with their own stockings before he killed them, was denied clemency, one day before he's set to executed for the murders of three elderly women in Georgia.

Carlton Gary is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7pm on Thursday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

The 67-year-old inmate was convicted on three counts each of malice murder, rape and burglary for the 1977 deaths of 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff.

Attorneys for Gary had submitted a clemency request saying the convicted murderer is innocent and evidence proves he did not commit the crimes, but a Georgia Patrol board announced Wednesday that the request was denied.

'Following a meeting to consider clemency for condemned inmate Carlton Michael Gary, and after thoroughly considering all of the facts and circumstances of the case, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency in the case,' a statement read.

Gary was convicted for the 1977 murders of three elderly women in Georgia. 89-year-old Florence Scheible was one of Gary's victims

Kathleen Woodruff, 74, was also another victim. Police said Gary broke into the women's homes and raped and murdered them

69-year-old Martha Thurmond was also killed. According to police, Gary would choke his victims, often times with their own stocking before killing them

Gary's lawyer Jack Martin released a statement during the board's clemency hearing saying: 'Physical and scientific evidence developed long after his trial proves that he is likely innocent of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death, including DNA evidence that the only eyewitness identifying Gary at trial was mistaken in her identification.'

'Despite this compelling evidence of innocence, the Georgia courts have refused to intervene,' he added.

From September 1977 to April 1978 elderly women in Columbus were raped, beaten and choked, often with their own stockings, according to CBS News. Seven women died and two were injured in the brutal attacks.

Prosecutors say the same did all nine attacks.

Gary was arrested for the crimes in May 1984, six years after the last killing, when a gun stolen from one of the victim's homes traced back to him.

Gary told police that he assisted in burglaries at the homes but another man raped and killed the women. His lawyers said his confession was never documented or recorded.

In the application for clemency, Gary's lawyers argue that evidence that would have helped at his trial was not available because the necessary testing was not accessible at that time or because prosecutors failed to present it.

According to his attorneys semen found on clothing one of the victim's was wearing did not match Gary. The woman survived the attack and testified that Gary was her attacker.

Gary, pictured in this undated photo, told police that he helped burglarize the victims' home but said another man committed the rapes and murders

Gary is scheduled to be executed on Thursday at 7pm at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson

His lawyers also claim that a police report states that the woman who identified Gary as her attacker had told detectives that she was asleep at the time of the attack and she wouldn't be able to identify the man because it was dark in her bedroom.

Gary's attorneys also wrote that a size 10 shoe print was found at one of the scenes and Gary wears a 13-and-a-half shoe.

'We are not talking about questionable recanting witnesses who came forward long after trial, but hard physical evidence of innocence,' his lawyers wrote.

According to CBS, the evidence included in the clemency application has all been presented in court filings and were disputed by the state because of their validity. The state also says it has even more evidence proving Gary was the attacker.

Gary's execution will be the first for the state of Georgia this year.A 47-year-old woman is fighting for life in hospital with serious head injuries after a man she knew 'attempted to kill her' in a failed murder-suicide attempt.

The man involved died in the incident in what police believe is non-suspicious circumstances after the attack in Queensland's Darling Downs.

Police arrived at the home in Goomburra, west of the Gold Coast, just before 1am on Thursday where they found the woman with a serious head injury.

A 47-year-old Queensland woman is in a critical condition after she sustained a serious head injury in an attempted murder-suicide by a 'man who knew her'

She was initially taken to Warwick Hospital but was then transferred to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, where she remains in a critical condition.

Officers were later called to another home in Glenore Grove just after 2:30am where they found the man's body.

Police allege the man attempted to kill the woman, who was known to him.Next Game: Calvin College 3/17/2018 | 1 p.m.

DOYLESTOWN (PA)  The Delaware Valley University men's lacrosse team opened the gates to Robert A. Lipinski field for the first time this season, but it was McDaniel College who spoiled the home-opener with a 17-4 victory.The Aggies (0-4) trailed by two after seven minutes of play beforewalked in and ripped a shot to the top-left part of the net from 10-yards out for his first of the year and a 2-1 game.The Green Terror (5-2) scored two more times before the end of the first quarter to take a three goal lead into the second. They added three more goals in the second and held DelVal off the board until P.J. Rafferty dodged to the middle and beat the keeper with 1:20 left in the half. The score remained 7-2 going into the second.McDaniel scored nine unanswered goals in the second half to pull away with the 17-4 win.and Matt Hardy scored for the Aggies in the second with Brasch setting up Brady for the fourth goal. Brasch led DelVal with two points, 10 shots and four ground balls. Three other Aggies had four ground balls includingwho led the team with five caused turnovers, andwho followed with four caused turnovers.Micah Brooks, Devon Maranto and Jared Payne each had four points to lead the Green Terror while Carson Marshall finished with three. Eight other players notched at least one point and long-pole Jack Myers led all players with nine ground balls.The Project's host Waleed Aly will address critics who have labeled him 'out of touch' in a shock admission on Thursday night's episode.

The Gold Logie winner hinted he would be stepping aside to lend his spotlight to some famous faces more 'in touch' with his audience in a preview for the segment.

Among those expected to make an appearance were Australian actress Margot Robbie, pop sensation Troye Sivan and NRL star Jonathon Thurston.

The Project's host Waleed Aly (pictured) will address critics who have labeled him 'out of touch' in a shock admission on Thursday night's episode

The controversial commentator's deflection came ahead of National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence Friday, with Aly saying the topic was one of few that 'terrified' him, News.com.au reported.

'I'm not the right person to talk to young Australians about it. They don't want another out-of-touch guy on the TV telling them what's up,' he announced.

The poignant piece was understood to have been co-written by the program's managing editor Tom Whitty and would also feature words from Samantha Jade, Peking Duk and G Flip.

Australian fashion and beauty Lauren Curtis was also expected to make an appearance, along with young surfer Sabre Norris and Instagram fitness guru Kayla Itsines.

Among those expected to speak on the topic were Australian actress Margot Robbie

Troye Sivan will also be part of the discussion ahead of National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence Friday

Former One Direction member Liam Payne also joined the discussion, borrowing the words from the late Amy 'Dolly' Everett, who committed suicide after a long battle against bullies.

'We must all make it easier for those who are bullied to speak, even if their voice shakes,' he said.

The 14-year-old from Katherine in the Northern Territory's father, Tick Everett, was also due to speak on the program in an effort to help save the lives of other young people.

'(The National Day of Action) won't bring our Dolly back but it may just prevent the loss of another young life.'

Former One Direction member Liam Payne (pictured) said 'we must all make it easier for those who are bullied to speak, even if their voice shakes'

Aly said while the issue may be a confronting one to tackle, it was important conversations about bullying were had by all members of the community.

'As a parent, few things make you feel as terrified, yet as helpless, as your child being bullied,' he told the publication.

'That fear of finding out too late or not at all, and of not knowing what to do once you do is incredibly difficult.'Robert Gooden, 35, took 14-year-old Heavenlee Benjamin from Maine to his home in Smyrna, Georgia. She voluntarily left her foster care home in Readerfield, Maine, to join the man.

A 35-year-old man who took a teenage girl, 14, from her Maine foster home, killed himself on Tuesday when authorities were closing in on his Georgia home.

Smyrna Police approached the Cobb County home of Robert Gooden on Thursday morning with a search warrant.

But upon entering the home, police heard a single gunshot and found the 35-year-old dead, according to Sgt. Louis Defense.

'We had nothing to do with the self-inflicted injury,' he said to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

'It's a tragic situation, and we're remorseful for the family that had to endure this.'

Police in Maine had been looking for the girl, Heavenlee Benjamin, for more than a week. She had been last seen on February 27 and local officials had asked for public assistance in finding her, CentralMaine.com reported.

It is believed that the young girl left her foster home on her own will and took a bus to Georgia with Gooden.

It is believed that there may have been other people involved as police continue to investigate. Sgt. Blaine Bronson of the Maine State Police does believe that Gooden posed a threat to the teen.

When Georgia authorities made their way inside Gooden's home, they heard a gunshot and found that he had shot himself dead

They had been hoping to charge him with criminal restraint for enticing a minor to leave the custody of their guardian

'We don't know all the details of her time there with him,' Bronson said to CentralMaine.com. 'I can't comment too much. But these situations, in general, when you have a predator preying on young kids, they are always dangerous and volatile.'

Both Georgia officials and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services are working on the case, Bronson added.

It was thought that Benjamin was in Smyrna and the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit was crucial in locating her, according to Bronson.

Gooden was to be charged with criminal restraint. The charge is a misdemeanor but is brought against a person who knowingly entices a minor from their guardians.

The man would have been extradited to Maine had he lived, Bronson asserted.

'It was really a lot of boot leather police work,' Bronson said.

Bethany Murphy, a woman related to the girl's foster family, described her as 'very quiet.'

She spends 'a lot of time' at the Readfield Community Library and attended Maranacook Community High School, the woman added.

'We are all, of course, so glad she is safe,' she said. 'We are grateful that God answered prayers and kept her safe.'

The family is still waiting for more information.A former Marine admitted stabbing an army reserve officer 44 times and shooting him twice, just an hour after his murder trial began.

Kevin Coset was charged with killing his lover Alvin Bulaoro, whose body was found zipped up in a sleeping bag in the back seat of his own car in January 2013.

The 27-year-old changed his plea to guilty after hearing the prosecution's opening statement at the Vista courthouse, north of San Diego.

Former Marine corporal Kevin Coset, 27, (left) admitted stabbing an army reserve officer 44 times and shooting him twice, just an hour after his murder trial began

He earlier decided to represent himself after years of legal wrangling over his mental fitness to stand trial and a stint in a psychiatric ward.

Coset wrote in chilling detail about murdering his victim, saying he 'had to kill for the third time' to 'survive in my fight', according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Lieutenant Bulaoro, 24, went missing on December 21, 2012, and two weeks later his body was found in his Toyota 4Runner in the parking lot of a grocery store.

Detectives had little to go on until they found through Bulaoro's phone records that he planned to meet up with someone the day he went missing.

Deputy District Attorney David Uyar said messages showed the pair were in a sexual relationship and had hooked up before they were due to meet.

The body of his lover Alvin Bulaoro, 24, was found zipped up in a sleeping bag in the back seat of his own car in January 2013

Because the owner of the phone he called paid cash for his pre-paid cell, all they had was CCTV of the man who bought it.

Then they discovered the type of sleeping bag was sold at nearby Camp Pendleton, where Coset was stationed, just an hour before Bulaoro vanished.

This time the buyer used a credit card which detectives traced to Coset, and he looked the same as the man who bought the phone.

The same card was used to pay for a motel room in Fallbrook, near where the car was found, with an extra $100 charge for a missing comforter and cleaning a pool of blood.

By the time police arrived the room had been cleaned, but traces of Bulaoro's blood was found under the carpet and on the walls, ceiling, and furniture.

The Marine corporal was then arrested outside his barracks in February 2013 and found the gun used to kill Bulaoro in his car along with the journal.

'My name is Kevin Coset. I am 23 years old and currently serving in Marine Corps. Over the past few years my life has been heading in a strange direction,' an entry read.

'Tonight I had to kill for the third time. It was a guy named Alvin Bulaoro out of Fallbrook.'

Detectives had little to go on until they found through Bulaoro's phone records that he planned to meet up with someone the day he went missing - who turned out to be Coset

Lieutenant Bulaoro went missing on December 21, 2012, and two weeks later his body was found in his Toyota 4Runner in the parking lot of a grocery store

Coset wrote he had to kill Bulaoro to 'survive in my fight' against something he called 'the Musgrove organization'.

In some bizarre ranting he claimed the group had been plotting against him for years, entering his mind, and stealing his intelligence.

He is now behind bars and faces up to 51 years jail when he is sentenced on April 20.

Bulaoro, an immigrant from the Philippines, was enlisted in the Navy for four years and worked as a human resources officer at Camp Pendleton.

He got his bachelor's degree and later became a lieutenant in the Army Reserves, and was just about to attend his commission ceremony.

'Mom you're going to be very proud of me,' he told his mother.A woman was left hospitalised after drinking a Starbucks drink which was filled with silica gel.

The woman, named Hanis, thought she had been crunching on nuts, which she requested to be in her coffee, but when she finished her drink she found the plastic packaging.

Sharil Bharin, the brother of Hanis, shared images of the churned up gel beads laced through the takeaway drink online.

A woman was left hospitalised after drinking a Starbucks drink which was filled with silica gel (pictured)

The woman, named Hanis, thought she had been crunching on nuts, which she requested to be in her coffee, but when she finished her drink she found the plastic packaging (pictured)

Mr Bharin found out his sister was taken to hospital following the frightening ordeal in Malaysia when she messaged him through WhatsApp.

'I'm at the hospital, the clinic asked me to seek medical assistance at the hospital instead,' Hanis wrote.

The young woman said her blood was tested three times by doctors after she ate the non-toxic beads which were crushed through her drink, Malaysian Digest reported.

Silica gel can cause harm to the body when it is consumed as it absorbs moisture.

The little beads can absorb 40 per cent of its weight in water meaning they can cause stomach pains, dry eyes and a dry throat if ingested.

Starbucks Malaysia responded to the woman's brother on Twitter, saying the 'apologised for the inconvenience'.

'We would definitely take this issue seriously and ensure there is proper action taken,' the coffee giant wrote.

'Can you kind PM (personal message) us your email address and contact details so we can forward this to our management and respond to you immediately.'

Sharil Bharin, the brother of Hanis, shared images of the churned up gel beads laced through the takeaway drink online, sparking a response from Starbucks Malaysia (pictured)A church has been forced to remove the word 'Jesus' from its signs ahead of Easter because it has been causing offence.

Elim Church on the Central Coast in New South Wales paid for digital signs to be displayed at Erina Fair shopping centre reading 'the greatness of His Power'.

Pastor Martin Duffy told 2GB radio that shopping centre manager Lendlease objected to the signs and forced them to be changed to read 'Risen Christ' instead of 'Jesus'.

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Elim Church on New South Wales' Central Coast paid for digital signs to be displayed at Erina Fair shopping centre reading 'the greatness of His Power'

Pastor Martin Duffy (left) told 2GB radio that shopping centre manager Lendlease objected to the signs and forced them to be changed from 'Jesus' to 'Risen Christ'

'The phrase 'Jesus is alive'... is the core message of the Christian faith and what Easter's really all about,' he said.

'It's a good message. I think there's a minority group out there that are constantly distorting the message of Jesus Christ. It's just going on and on.'

Elim Church is a West Gosford evangelical church located north of Sydney.

Pastor Duffy claimed Lendlease requested to withdraw the word 'Jesus' from the sign as it may have offended shoppers and non-Christians.

The sign was an advertisement for a free community event being held on the waterfront at Gosford.

'The greatness of His Power - Jesus is Alive!' the sign read.

Pastor Duffy said Lendlease has since changed their mind and allowed the word 'Jesus' to be included in the sign.

Pastor Duffy claimed the request to withdraw the word 'Jesus' from the sign as it may have offended shoppers (Elim Church on the Central Coast pictured)

He said Lendlease said the word 'Jesus' has yet to be added to the sign but he is hopeful it will be returned eventually.

In a statement, a Lendlease spokeswoman said they regretted asking for the sign to be amended.

'It was an error of judgment to ask Elim Church to change its messaging, and we apologise unreservedly.

'Lendlease values diversity and inclusion, and we welcome people of all backgrounds at our shopping centres.'West Mercia Police Supt Tom Harding has 'significantly disputed' claims that 1,000-plus children and young women may have been groomed over four decades in the Shropshire town

Police have been accused of 'victim blaming' the children who were abused by grooming gangs in Telford.

Officers investigating the Telford sex abuse scandal, in which some of the victims were just 11, were reportedly sent an internal message saying 'in most cases the sex is consensual'.

Child abuse lawyer Dino Nocivelli slammed West Mercia Police for the way they investigated the case.

It comes after Telford's police chief said that the number and scale of girls sexually abused there had been 'sensationalised'.

Mr Nocivelli, of Bolt Burdon Kemp, told the Daily Mirror: 'The authorities just don't seem to get it. Children cannot agree to sex.

'Just because a child is not being physically forced to carry out sexual acts, it doesn't mean they consented.

'Many of these children will have been groomed and manipulated by their abusers and would have been threatened to keep silent. How can you say an 11-year-old is capable of consenting to sex with a 40-year-old? This is rape.'

Yesterday, West Mercia Police Supt Tom Harding has 'significantly disputed' claims that 1,000-plus children may have been groomed over four decades in the Shropshire town.

He said: 'I don't believe Telford is any worse than lots of places across England and Wales'.

It came as Theresa May told the Commons has said it is important that an inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Telford gets under way as quickly as possible.

The Prime Minister said 'we have all been shocked' by the 'horrific' case, and said she was pleased that an inquiry would happen.

Becky Watson suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of a grooming gang, which began when she was 11 and she died in a car incident when she was 13. Vicky Round (right), a friend of Becky's, was abused by the same gang. She was just 20 when she died of a suspected overdose.

West Mercia Police has said that tackling child sexual exploitation remained its 'number one priority' for officers in Telford, whose approach had been 'subject to independent scrutiny' from the Home Office last year.

But Mr Harding, Superintendent for Telford and Wrekin, today disputed the scale of abuse.

He told the BBC: 'I am confident that, in the main, we do know the scale of CSE. Therefore, I significantly dispute the 1,000 plus figure and do feel it is sensationalised.

'Read the headlines, read the reports. What are they actually discussing? They're discussing cases from 20 or 30 years ago, offending back in the 1990s.

'We've never said there aren't cases, there are always cases we are working on and seeking to prosecute.'

It is feared there are still 46 girls in Telford at risk from grooming gangs.

In Telford brutal sex gang targeted the innocent girls over a 40-year period in what may be Britain's 'worst ever' child abuse scandal.

Lucy Lowe was 16 and pregnant with her second child when she was murdered alongside her sister Sarah, 17, and their mother Eileen, 49, in a house fire in Telford set by Lucy's boyfriend, Azhar Ali Mehmood

Girls in the town of Telford in Shropshire were drugged, beaten and raped at the hands of the violent groom gang which was active since the 1980s.

Three people were murdered and two others died following incidents linked to the sickening scandal.

Lucy Lowe, 16, died alongside her mother and sister after the man who had been abusing her, 26-year-old Azhar Ali Mehmood, set fire to their house.

The taxi-driver first targeted Lucy in 1997. She gave birth to his child when she was just 14.

Mehmood was jailed for murdering Lucy, her mother Eileen and her sister Sarah, 17.

However, he was never arrested or charged with any sex abuse crimes over his involvement with the young girl.

Becky Watson, 13, was killed after a car she was in crashed. At the time the incident was reported as a 'prank'.

However, it was revealed she had suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of a grooming gang, which began when she was 11.

Vicky Round, a friend of Becky's, was abused by the same gang.

They forced her into a crack cocaine addiction aged 12. By the age of 14 she was taking heroine regularly.

She died aged 20 after a suspected drug overdose.

Azhar Ali Mehmood was later jailed for life after being convicted of three counts of murder  but was never arrested or charged over sex abuse

Mubarek Ali, 34, (left) and his brother Ahdel Ali, 27, (right) from Telford were both jailed after sexually abusing young girls in a child sex abuse ring

A victim of a grooming gang in Telford told yesterday how she endured a 'whirlwind of rape' on a daily basis, as police, youth workers and medical staff apparently ignored tell-tale signs of her ordeal.

The woman, calling herself 'Holly', suffered four years of abuse as the ring sold her 'countless times' for sex.

Holly said she only escaped the cycle of abuse by leaving her home in the Shropshire town  where up to 1,000 children may have been abused over four decades  to live in hiding 40 miles away.

Seven members of the gang were eventually jailed in 2013 after a police investigation.

But detectives said at the time that up to 200 men from across the country had been involved in the ring  with a 'huge percentage of them' unidentified.

Telford sex scandal: Timeline of abuse 1980s Girls in Telford are targeted by groups of mainly Asian men 1996 A resident goes to police with information about a key abuser selling underage girls for sex Late 1990s Social workers learn of the problem but do little to help 2000 Lucy Lowe, 16, is killed alongside her mother and sister in an arson attack by abuser Azhar Ali Mehmood 2002 Abuse victim Becky Watson, 13, is killed in a road accident described as a 'prank' 2010-2012 Police probe Operation Chalice identifies potential 200 abusers but only nine are jailed 2016 MP Lucy Allan calls for public inquiry but police and council officials in Telford write to Home Secretary Amber Rudd saying this isn't necessary March 2018 As many as 1,000 victims are believed to have been abused Advertisement

According to Home Office figures, Telford, a town of 170,000 people, has the third highest number of child sexual offences recorded in the UK, after Blackpool and Rotherham.

Holly told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I was abused from the ages of 14 to 18. My abuse started with boys my own age, who went on to sell my phone number to older men.

'And from there it was just a whirlwind of rape every day, basically. I was going into the doctor's and the youth sexual health clinic to get the morning-after pill, probably twice a week, and nobody even questioned anything.

'I had two abortions, still nothing was said to me. I was in cars that were stopped by the police and they asked me no questions of why I was there with a much older man...

'It got to the point where I tried to commit suicide, and still nobody asked me any questions about what was going on in my life and why I was reacting the way I was reacting.'

Holly was interviewed by police during the inquiry, known as Operation Chalice, which resulted in the 2013 prison sentences, but in the end decided she could not face her abusers in court.

She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire she was taken to a 'rape house which was set up for the purpose of young girls being sold to men'. But the worst thing that ever happened to her during the cycle of abuse was when she was gang raped after turning 16.

She recalled: 'After that I tried to commit suicide. I genuinely wanted to die because I thought it was the only way out.'

Holly appeared to make a reference to the August 2000 murder of 16-year-old Lucy Lowe, who died in a house fire set by her 26-year-old boyfriend, and who has now been linked to the grooming epidemic.

'The only reason I kept going back [to the men] was because they were threatening me with burning my house down, which was a real threat in Telford because it had happened previously,' Holly said. 'They would [also] say to me that they would rape my mum and my sisters.'

In a U-turn yesterday, Labour-run Telford and Wrekin Council called on Home Secretary Amber Rudd to commission a public inquiry into cases of child sexual exploitation in the town.

The council, which said it has 'nothing to hide' over its handling of cases of grooming and sexual abuse of children in the town, previously insisted that the issue could be examined as part of the national ongoing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

During PMQs, Tory Telford MP Lucy Allan said: 'Like many towns and cities across the country, Telford has had some experiences of distressing cases of child sexual exploitation.

'The authorities in Telford have now agreed to conduct an independent inquiry to find out what happened and to give victims answers'.Marmite and PG Tips maker Unilever is to ditch its British head office and move it to the Netherlands but insists it has 'nothing to do with Brexit'.

The household goods giant also behind Ben & Jerry's, Pot Noodle, Dove, Lynx, Persil and Hellmann's mayonnaise will make Rotterdam its main base and stop calling the UK home for the first time in its 133-year history.

Unilever was so shaken by a 115billion hostile takeover bid by Kraft Heinz last year that it is believed to be seeking a safer haven outside the UK.

It is not known yet whether the change of base would mean Unilever quitting its historic headquarters at Victoria Embankment on the Thames. It is thought the firm is reluctant to do this.

Unilever executives have claimed that the move to Rotterdam has 'nothing to do with Brexit' and its 7,300 UK jobs are safe.

Unilever's London office on the Embankment will no longer be its joint headquarters with the board moving to Rotterdam, it was revealed today

The household goods giant also behind Dove, Lynx, Persil and Hellmann's mayonnaise will stop calling the UK home for the first time in its 133-year history

The firm has two annual meetings every year  one in each country  and two stock market listings of joint importance.

But the move could see it booted out of the FTSE 100, with only a secondary share listing now held in London.

Unilever has insisted that its 7,300 workers the UK and 3,100 in the Netherlands will be unaffected by the changes.

It added that Unilever will continue to be listed in London, Amsterdam and New York.

As part of the rejig, Unilever will also restructure into three divisions - beauty and personal care, home care, and foods and refreshment - which will each have different headquarters split between the UK and the Netherlands.

The beauty and personal care, and the home care divisions will be headquartered in London, while the foods and refreshment arm will have its HQ in Rotterdam.

The 115billion attack by Kraft Heinz prompted Unilever's Dutch boss Paul Polman to vow to do everything possible to protect the conglomerate falling into the hands of foreign vultures.

Unilever planning new research centre Unilever is preparing to open a 24million cutting-edge research and development centre in Port Sunlight, Wirral. It is already the base for 750 scientists developing new technologies for home care and personal care products. The location has history for Unilever. It gave its name to Lever Brothers famous Sunlight soap in the 1880s and housed the companys first purpose-built research laboratory, which opened in 1911. Several of its most successful products have been created there. Advertisement

And he, and the board of Unilever, now believe moving the head office to the Netherlands is its best defence.

Chief executive Polman has warned ministers that current rules do not give companies fair protection from hostile bids, saying last year: 'When you have a situation like this, with a national champion, there should be a level playing field.'

Union chiefs and MPs said the Government was to blame because of its 'lax' approach to foreign takeovers.

Ministers have been frantically lobbying Unilever to remain in the UK but tougher takeover rules in the Netherlands are thought to have been a key factor in deliberations.

Choosing Rotterdam for a merged headquarters will see Unilever stop calling Britain home for the first time in its 133-year history.

And the decision will be viewed as a dent to Brexit negotiations, with the UK trying to position itself as a global centre for business.

Britain's third biggest company Unilever will scrap its London corporate headquarters and make Rotterdam (pictured) its sole legal home

British Government officials reportedly met with Unilever to express their concerns that the London headquarters would be axed in favour of the Netherlands, but failed to convince them over the benefits of basing its main offices in the UK.

The Government is already under fire for failing to provide adequate assurances to businesses mulling their post-Brexit futures, particularly in light of plans to leave the EU single market.

But a Government spokesperson said: 'Unilever has today shown its long-term commitment to the UK by choosing to locate its two fastest-growing global business divisions in this country, safeguarding 7,300 jobs and 1bn a year of investment.

'As the company itself has made clear, its decision to transfer a small number of jobs to a corporate HQ in the Netherlands is part of a long-term restructuring of the company and is not connected to the UK's departure from the EU.'

Rhys McCarthy, the national officer for Unilever at the union Unite, said the firm's departure would be 'a huge shame'.

He said: 'This is a great British company that provides good, skilled British jobs.

'But clearly Unilever was badly shaken by the hostile takeover attempt and there is a wider issue here that the Government is missing. If you look at other countries  the French, the Germans, and in this case the Dutch  they take an approach that is much more focused on the long-term consequences of these deals.

'If something isn't done then we are going to see more and more decisions like this. If this doesn't shake the Government into doing something then I don't know what will.'

PG Tips, which was advertised with monkeys for decades, is one of many major British brands made by Unilever

Unilever has been lobbied by officials in the UK and the Netherlands, with Dutch premier Mark Rutte, who once worked at Unilever, rolling out the red carpet. His government has passed tax breaks on dividends and has vowed to slash corporation tax.

Takeover rules in the Netherlands are thought to be attractive to Unilever as well.

Unlike British rules, they require companies to consider the impact of deals on a wider range of stakeholders than just shareholders.

Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury Committee, called on the Government to strengthen protections for firms.

He added: 'We need to use Brexit to protect British industries, not open them up to even more foreign takeovers.'

Unilever has refused to comment on whether a relocation would result in any job losses.An exiled Russian businessman in London has appeared on TV flanked by two bodyguards claiming he is on a Kremlin 'death list'.

Sergey Kapchuk, 45, had earlier announced he was ready to return to his homeland after talks with a Russian emissary, but has now changed his mind.

The nerve agent poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury on March 4 and the sudden death of exile Nikolai Glushkov in New Malden, South West London on March 13 had led him to stay in Britain and seek protection, he said.

Kapchuk - who also uses the surname Windsor and is originally from Yekaterinburg - has lived in London for more than a decade after fleeing from Russia following a jail sentence linked to a fraud accusation.

London-based exiled Russian businessman Sergey Kapchuk (pictured) has appeared on TV flanked by two bodyguards claiming he is on a Kremlin 'death list'

Sergey Kapchuk, 45, had earlier announced he was ready to return to his homeland after talks with a Russian emissary, but has now changed his mind

The poisoning of Yulia, left, and her father Sergei Skripal, right, sparked a huge investigation and clean-up operation

Russia put him on an international wanted list.

In the interview, Kapchuk claimed he had been 12th on an assassination list and was now 11th. He did not give more details about the supposed list.

His interview with independent TV Rain follows reports that Britain has this week provided boosted protection to certain Russian figures who sought political asylum in London.

Nikolai Glushkov was found dead in New Malden, South West London on March 13

Asked if the two guards in dark glasses flanking him were provided by the British government he said: 'I can't answer this question.'

Asked if he still intended to return to Russia - as he announced last month - he said: 'I have changed my mind.'

He said: 'The Brits are stupidly asking me  are you afraid? I say  what about you, would you be afraid if you are number 12 on a (death) list?'

Kapchuk said Interpol had removed him and that he had been ready after negotiations with Russian emissary Boris Titov to return and set up a chain of businesses.

Titov included him on a list sent to Putin of a dozen businessmen ready to return from Britain to Russia.

He predicted dire economic consequences for Russia from sanctions.

'It will be a financial winter and, God save us, it may have serious social consequences,' he said.

Another escapee, mobile phone tycoon Evgeny Chichvarkin, 43, who fled from Moscow fearing prosecution in 2009 and now runs an upmarket boutique wine business, told Current Time TV he is increasingly scared.

He claimed Yulia Skripal may have been targeted because she 'did not swear to serve the FSB or GRU' secret services.

Another escapee, mobile phone tycoon Evgeny Chichvarkin (pictured), 43, who fled from Moscow fearing prosecution in 2009 and now runs an upmarket boutique wine business, told Current Time TV he is increasingly scared

'Their brain is infected,' he said. 'We don't know what is going on inside their brain

'Some idiot may ask Putin's permission for something. And Putin may agree to some nasty thing.

'I will watch my back more now when I am walking outside.'

Last month he had given an interview saying he felt safe in London.Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith today broke ranks to say she did not agree with Mr Corbyn and it was 'quite clear' the incident was an 'act of aggression'

Jeremy Corbyn has blasted the 'McCarthyite intolerance of dissent' on criticising Russia and claimed the country's mafia could be behind the poisoning of a double agent and his daughter on British soil.

The Labour leader is facing a mounting revolt from his own side over his failure to condemn Moscow following the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

But he has today defied his critics and once again refused to lay the blame for the attack at the door of Vladimir Putin, instead calling for calm.

Writing in the Guardian, Mr Corbyn said: 'To rush way ahead of the evidence being gathered by the police, in a fevered parliamentary atmosphere, serves neither justice nor our national security.'

He conceded Prime Minister Theresa May had been right to say the nerve agent used in the attack - Novichok - had either come from the Kremlin or had fallen into the wrong hands.

He said the possibility the Russian mafia had a growing presence in Britain could not be excluded.

But Mr Corbyn warned against a 'McCarthyite intolerance of dissent' over the issue and added: 'Labour is of course no supporter of the Putin regime, its conservative authoritarianism, abuse of human rights or political and economic corruption.

Jeremy Corbyn was branded a 'disgrace' after he failed to condemn the Kremlin over the Salisbury spy poisoning yesterday and parroted the Kremlin line by demanding that they are given a sample of the poison to test themselves

'However, that does not mean we should resign ourselves to a "new cold war" of escalating arms spending, proxy conflicts across the globe and a McCarthyite intolerance of dissent.'

Earlier in the day, Labour frontbenchers defied Mr Corbyn and backed Mrs May's tough line against Russia over the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Mr Corbyn was accused of parroting the Kremlin line in the Commons by making clear he did not accept that only Russia could have been the source of the military-grade Novichok agent.

The veteran left-winger's chief spin doctor openly questioned the reliability of the UK security services, which have briefed Mr Corbyn on the nerve agent outrage.

Two frontbenchers are said to have suggested they could quit over the stance.

And shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith today broke ranks to say she did not agree with Mr Corbyn and it was 'quite clear' the incident was an 'act of aggression'.

'We fully support the government's action because we hold Russia responsible,' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'We very much accept what the Prime Minister said, this is a very sophisticated nerve agent, and that Russia is responsible for this attack.

Ms Griffith said she was more 'plain speaking' than Jeremy Corbyn, arguing that he had clarified his position in a statement after his heavily-criticised Commons performance.

'I think the important thing is that is our position now,' she added.

Jeremy Corbyn pictured with his communications chief Seumus Milne, who has downplayed the number of people imprisoned under Stalin's murderous rule

Anna Turley was among a string of Labour MPs who angrily distanced themselves from the comments made by Jeremy Corbyn spokesman - who said that Russia might not be behind the attack and MI5 cannot be trusted because they were wrong about there being WMDs in Iraq

Ms Griffith distanced herself from Mr Milne, saying Britain had 'very, very fine intelligence services' and 'great expertise on some of these matters'.

'I can't speak for Seumas Milne, the spokesperson, he has to speak for himself,' she said.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Ms Griffith said senior Labour figures had been briefed by security services over the attack on Sunday March 4 that left Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fighting for their lives.

Asked if Mr Corbyn had undermined UK security assessments that it was 'highly likely' Russia was behind their poisoning, Ms Griffith said: 'Looking back, perhaps it would have been easier for us if he had made it clear at the beginning of what he said, just how much we support the expulsion of the diplomats.

Who is Seumas Milne and why are his views controversial? Seamus Milne is Jeremy Corbyn's official spokesman -but his comments defending Russia have sparked huge controversy (file pic) Seamus Milne is Jeremy Corbyn's official spokesman - meaning he is entrusted to speak on the Labour leader's behalf. But he is hugely controversial among Labour backbenchers and has been accused of being an apologist for Josef Stalin - the murderous Communist dictator. Here are some of the controversial comments Corbyn's spin chief has made: Blames Nato rather than Russia for military tensions: This anti-Russian incitement is dangerous folly. There certainly has been military expansionism. But it has overwhelmingly come from Nato, not Moscow. (March 4, 2015) The Labour spin chief defends Vladimir Putins annexation of Crimea as clearly defensive: No Russian government could have acquiesced in such a threat from territory that was at the heart of both Russia and the Soviet Union. Putins absorption of Crimea and support for the rebellion in eastern Ukraine is clearly defensive. (April 30, 2014) Mr Milne says the Soviet Union helped to drive up welfare standards: For all its brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality. 'It encompassed genuine idealism... Its existence helped to drive up welfare standards in the west. (February 16, 2006) Advertisement

'It would have been easier and perhaps we would not have had the conversations we are seeing.'

Mr Corbyn today defended his words in the Commons yesterday - insisting that his questions were proper.

He said: 'I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack, the perpetrators must be brought to justice, the International Chemical Weapons Convention must be evoked, and the source of this weapon, which appears to be Russia  either from the state or a rogue element from the state  must be brought to justice as a result of it.

'This is a serious, very serious, issue and has to be dealt with. I made that very clear yesterday.

'The evidence points towards Russia on this. Therefore, the responsibility must be borne by those who made the weapon and those who bought the weapon into the country and those who used the weapon.

'What I was asking was questions, questions about the identity of the weapon, questions about the reference to the weapons convention, and also the support of our other allies in this.

'Those were the questions I was asking  that is what Oppositions are there for.'

But in a sign of the fury among Labour backbenchers over Mr Corbyn's tone yesterday, Ms Griffith's comments were quickly supported by several Labour MPs.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw said she was 'spot on', while Kingston Upon Hull North MP Diana Johnson said she 'fully' supported the shadow defence secretary.

Meanwhile, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry is said to have told a London seminar: 'We utterly condemn this despicable act and support all the measures taken by the Government today.'

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith retweeted a Guardian op ed backing Mrs May's strong response and commenting that it was 'absolutely right' about the 'resolute, united strength we need to demonstrate in our response'.

Labour backbencher John Woodcock has tabled an Early Day Motion 'unequivocally' accepting the 'Russian state's culpability' for the attack, and supporting 'fully' the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

A number of MPs have signed the motion, with some going public with their criticism of Mr Milne - who previously blamed Nato for Russian aggression in Ukraine and criticised sanctions as 'disproportionate'.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: 'I'm afraid Seumas doesn't speak for my Labour or British values'.

Chuka Umunna said: 'Mr Milne's comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs.'

In a briefing for journalists yesterday, Mr Milne said: 'The Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don't.

'Red Scare' of the 1950s Senator Joseph McCarthy lent his name to the so-called witch-hunts that were carried out against suspected Soviet sympathisers living in America. The senator for Wisconsin fuelled the Red Scare in 1950 by claiming he had a list of 205 Communists manipulating government policy. More than 2,000 government employees were sacked with little proof and Hollywood writers, directors and actors were blacklisted. In 1954, he outraged President Eisenhower when he investigated Communist influence in the army. He lost his public standing after military hearings were broadcast on TV. Lawyer Joseph Welch famously asked him: Have you no sense of decency, sir? Three years after the hearings he died of liver failure. Advertisement

'However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.

'So, I think the right approach is to seek the evidence to follow international treaties, particularly in relation to prohibitive chemical weapons.'

Asked if he could rule out the possibility of Russia being framed, the spokesman said the evidence pointed 'overwhelmingly' to the two options set out by the PM.

'In the meantime I think it is essential we follow the evidence and what the evidence produces,' he added.

Labour moderates queued up to back the PM's tough words and actions in the Commons - and take a swipe at Mr Corbyn's stance.

Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said Russia's actions must be met with 'unequivocal condemnation'.

Mr Woodcock said: 'This is day for the House to speak as one for the nation.

'And the Prime Minister will be reassured to hear that a clear majority of Labour MPs, alongside the leaders of every other party, support the firm stance she is taking.'

The Russian embassy Twitter feed continued to mock Britain over the nerve gas attack today

Labour moderates queued up to back the PM's tough words and actions in the Commons yesterday - and take a swipe at Mr Corbyn's stance

He was cheered by fellow Labour backbenchers as he made the comments.

Labour MP Chris Leslie said Russia is 'thumbing its nose' at the West and must be brought to heel.

While fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant said: 'I completely support everything the Prime Minister has aid here today.'

Mr McFadden, a minister under Gordon Brown said: 'Responding with strength and resolve when you're country is under threat is an essential component of political leadership.

'There is a Labour tradition which understands that, and it has been understood by Prime Ministers of all parties who have stood at that despatch box.

'That means when chemical weapons are used we need more than words but deeds.'A tradesman who was allegedly beaten to within an inch of his life with a concrete scraper in a horrifying road rage attack has awoken from a coma, two weeks after doctors declared 'he may die'.

Brock Prime, 29, was left with his skull crushed five centimetres into his brain on the side of the M1 motorway near Coomera, Queensland on the night of February 24.

He had allegedly got into a savage fight with up to 13 people after a game of 'cat and mouse' between his Subaru and a van ended with the drivers pulling over.

In early March, a court heard Mr Prime may die from his injuries - but he today posted a photo to Instagram showing him awake after three weeks in a coma.

With his head shaved above a grizzly scar and tubes protruding from his nose, the tradesman managed a subtle smile from his bed at Gold Coast University Hospital.

Awake after three weeks: With his head shaved and tubes coming from his nose, Mr Prime managed a subtle smile from his bed at Gold Coast University Hospital

Mr Prime (left with his mother and right in a coma) was allegedly beaten to within an inch of his life with a concrete scraper in a horrifying road rage attack. He has defied the odds and awoken from a coma, two weeks after doctors declared 'he may die'

Brock Prime, 29, was left with his skull crushed five centimetres into his brain on the side of the M1 motorway near Coomera, Queensland on the night of February 24. Pictured: The scene of the alleged attack

Brock Prime, 29, (pictured) is said to have been attacked by a group of people who were travelling in a white van at Yatala about 9.30pm on Saturday 24 February

There was no caption on the photo which has attracted hundreds of comments from well-wishers.

Sammyrose wrote: 'So good to see that beautiful head of yours awake!'

Troylavery added: 'I knew I would see you again.'

A spokesman for the hospital said on Thursday afternoon that Mr Prime remained in a serious but stable condition.

Ryan Hallifax, Jordan Baklas and Jonathan Lawrence have been charged with grievous bodily harm over the incident.

On 5 March, Hallifax and Baklas were granted bail at Beenleigh Magistrates Court while Lawrence did not apply.

In opposing the bail, police prosecutor sergeant Ellen French argued the pair had displayed an inability to maintain self-control and 'had chosen to take matters into their own hands'.

Ryan Hallifax (left) and Jordan Baklas (right) were on March 5 granted bail at Beenleigh Magistrates Court while Jonathan Lawrence did not apply

Jonathan Lawrence, 26, is accused of being part of a group that bashed Brock Prime and last year called for tougher sentences on violent offenders after the murder of his daughter

But she also said the 29-year-old victim had produced the weapon, believed to be a concrete scraper, that was eventually taken from him and used in the attack.

Dirt from the scraper was said to have infected Mr Prime's brain.

In a combined hearing in early March, lawyers for Ryan Hallifax and Jordan Baklas argued the evidence and witness statements indicated their clients had played a limited role in the assault, with no proof they had ever held the weapon.

Representing Baklas, a 27-year-old cabinet maker, Jon Ide said he would contest the charge of grievous bodily harm.

'It's good for him that he's been granted bail but it's only the first step,' Mr Ide said outside court.

'Of course they are (remorseful); they're very upset at what's happened and they've found themselves in this situation.'

Truck driver Hallifax, who spent seven years in the army, will return to live with his mother after recently hearing his father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

His lawyer, David Gilmore, argued Hallifax had played the 'least role of anyone involved' and it was clear the complainant started the violence and his client also never held the weapon.

'He might have punched the complainant once at most,' Mr Gilmore said in court.

Mr Gilmore also said a covert police officer had heard Hallifax's side of the story while undercover and that it correlated with other separate reports.

Mr Prime (pictured) had recently survived a stabbing, and his father Darren died six weeks ago

Police say the incident began when a van, carrying up to 13 people, and Mr Prime's black Subaru Forester came close to colliding on the M1 around Coomera

A 'cat and mouse game' then began, with the two vehicles ducking and weaving through traffic in wet conditions on the motorway before they both finally pulled over

The duo's bail conditions include an alcohol ban, curfew, tri-weekly reports to the police station and an order to cease contact with an extensive list of people implicated in the incident.

The pair will reappear along with Jonathan Lawrence, 26, on May 2.

Detective Inspector Mark Thompson said the incident began when a van and Mr Prime's black Subaru Forester came close to colliding on the M1 around Coomera.

A 'cat and mouse game' then began, with the two vehicles ducking and weaving through traffic in wet conditions on the motorway before they both finally pulled over.

Five centimetres of Brock's skull was crushed into his brain with dirt and concrete. He is pictured, right



"Threatening to discipline students for participating in the peaceful demonstrations is not only inappropriate, it is unconstitutional," Cuomo wrote. "Reports that schools may also discipline faculty are also highly concerning and would send a terrible message to our students."

Cuomo also asked Elia to investigate schools that blocked exits to prevent students from leaving during the walkouts. At a school in Cheektowaga, a Buffalo suburb, administrators wanted students to remain inside due to safety concerns. There was staff posted at the main exit encouraging students to remain inside, according to The Buffalo News.

At Schuylerville High School, the entrances to the campus were reportedly blocked during the planned walkout.

Cuomo called such actions by school districts "an egregious safety violation" and "unlawful."

Elia responded to Cuomo's letter with one of her own Thursday. She reiterated her support for the walkouts and pledged to investigate reports "where the safety of students was put in jeopardy."This is the hair-raising moment an 15ft long python was caught by a homeowner hiding on the inside of his living room wall.

Somchai Subdang, 45, was watching TV on Tuesday afternoon when he heard an odd clunking sound coming from the plasterboard.

He put his ear to the wall to investigate and was taken aback to hear hissing noises also coming from the wall.

He says he 'jumped with fright' when he heard the noise in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mr Subdang then called rescuers who arrived and used a hammer to hack into the wall where the massive serpent was found coiled up.

Mr Subdang said: 'I'm not afraid of the snake when it's stuck in the wall, but it could have been scary if it got into the ceiling then dropped down onto me while I was sleeping.

This is the hair-raising moment an 15ft long python was caught by a homeowner hiding on the inside of his living room wall

'I'm disappointed that I'll have to fix the house now. But that's better than having a snake hiding in the house.'

Rescue worker Bang Sem, who is seen alongside his colleague in purple t-shirt in the video catching the python, said: 'This was an unusual place to find the snake. We think it got inside though a gap in the wall to shelter from the rain.

'I gave my young son my phone to start recording daddy catch snake. He enjoyed seeing it. The snake was about 4.5m long. It was returned back to nature.

Rescue worker Bang Sem pulls the 15ft python out of the wall it was trapped in in Bangkok

Somchai Subdang, 45, was watching TV on Tuesday afternoon when he heard an odd clunking sound coming from the plasterboard - he later discovered a 15ft Python living in his wall

The python was stuffed into a sack and driven away to be handed over to wildlife workers in the Thung Khru district of the city who released it back into the wild.

Pythons and other snakes are common in Thailand and are often found in drains, pipe, trees and bushes.

People living in Bangkok often find snakes in their homes. In 2017, the city's Fire and Rescue Department took more than 31,000 calls to remove snakes from homes.

Pythons such as the one in the video can grow up to 30ft long and often weigh over 200lbs.

They don't typically target humans and are non-venomous but have sharp teeth and can constrict humans.

Bang Sem poses with the python that was caught in the walls of Somchai Subdang's houseA sailor who was removed from a key position on the Titanic at the very last minute may have played a catastrophic role in its sinking.

As second officer on the ill-fated ship, David Blair was in charge of looking after the keys which opened a cabinet containing the crow's nest binoculars.

However Mr Blair was replaced by a more senior sailor by the Titanic's owner White Star Line, and accidentally forgot to hand the key over to his successor.

Without it, his shipmates were unable to get to the binoculars, which helped to look out for dangers in the distance including signs of bad weather and icebergs.

As second officer on the ill-fated ship, David Blair (left) was in charge of looking after the keys (right) which opened a cabinet containing the crow's nest binoculars

Although the move would prove to save Mr Blair's life, he wrote of his disappointment in a postcard (pictured) he sent to his sister-in-law

Lookout Fred Fleet, who survived the disaster in which 1,522 people died, later told an inquiry that if they had binoculars they would have seen the iceberg sooner.

When asked by a US senator how much sooner it might have been spotted, Mr Fleet replied: 'Enough to get out of the way.'

The story of Mr Blair is being retold as bravery medals awarded to him in a separate sea disaster go on sale.

Murray Shaw, 78, bought a set of nine medals, including an OBE for war service, from a dealer in 2011.

They are now going up for auction at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire on Monday, with an estimate of around 18,000.

Mr Shaw told the Burton Mail: 'David Blair was standing by for three months in Belfast when the Titanic was being built and was signed on for the whole of the New York voyage.

The 46,000-tonne Titanic struck the iceberg in the north Atlantic at 11.45pm on April 14 and sank at 2.20am on April 15

A photo of the keys before they were restored for auction. Pictured is a label which clearly reads 'binocular box'

'He would have been responsible for all the navigation equipment but was taken off the ship in Southampton, surplus to requirements.

'As a former Navy man myself, I can understand why he would have been upset.'

Mr Blair, from Tayside, was 37 when he sailed on the Titanic from Belfast to Southampton, and Mr Fleet recalled his ship mate having the binoculars with him during the two-day trip.

He had been due to be the second officer for the maiden voyage to New York on April 10 but was told at the 11th hour he wasn't going.

Bosses at White Star Line decided Henry Wilde, the experienced chief officer of the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic, should be transferred instead.

As a result everybody was moved down a rank but Mr Blair was deemed too senior to take up the position of third officer and was tasked to another ship.

Lookout Fred Fleet, who survived the disaster in which 1,522 people died, later told an inquiry that if they had binoculars they would have seen the iceberg sooner

Although the move would prove to save Mr Blair's life, he wrote of his disappointment in a postcard he sent to his sister-in-law.

He wrote: 'Am afraid I shall have to step out to make room for chief officer of the Olympic.

'This is a magnificent ship, I feel very disappointed I am not to make her first voyage.'

Mr Blair kept the key as a memento and eventually passed it on to his daughter Nancy who gave it to the British and International Seamans Society in the 1980s.

The key and the postcard, which had an estimate of around 70,000, sold at auction in 2007.

The 46,000-tonne Titanic struck the iceberg in the north Atlantic at 11.45pm on April 14 and sank at 2.20am on April 15.This is the adorable moment a baby squeals with laughter as he watches his mother pull a dummy out of her mouth.

The cute footage begins where the baby's mother is asking 'what's this?' as she shows her child a dummy, before putting it in her mouth.

She then goes to pull it out as the youngster watches in anticipation, before letting out a huge shriek of delight when she yanks the dummy out of her mouth.

The baby's undeniably infectious laugh continues as the mother attempts the giggle-inducing task again.

However she is unable to complete it as she breaks out in fits of laughter herself due to her baby's hilarious chuckle.

Continuing her trick only results in the baby becoming more and more excited as he watches and seems to enjoy it more each time.

The cute footage begins where the baby's mother is asking 'what's this?' as she shows her child a dummy, before putting it in her mouth before pulling it out causing the youngster to erupt into laughter

His mother even becomes concerned that he will have trouble breathing due to laughing so much.

The video, is was filmed in an unknown location, has attracted more than 86,000 YouTube views with many commenting on the clip.

Kerry Stone said: 'Omg. My cheeks are falling off from laughing so hard'

Karen Skultety posted: 'If you are ever in a bad mood just watch babies laughing. If you don't forget about your problems for just a moment, then you don't have a heart. The most beautiful music EVER!!!'Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has doubled down on his desire to bring white South African farmers to Australia after drawing an angry reaction from Pretoria.

Mr Dutton believes the farmers deserve 'special attention' from a 'civilised country' like Australia because they face violence and land seizures.

'I think in this circumstance we do need to look at the persecution that's taking place,' Mr Dutton told 2GB radio on Thursday.

He has directed his Home Affairs department to explore whether the farmers can be accepted into Australia through refugee, humanitarian or other visas, including the in-country persecution visa category.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) believes the farmers deserve 'special attention' and need help from a 'civilised country' like Australia

AfirForum chief executive Kallie Kriel said the fue of white South African famers is in Africa

Confiscating the land could potentially lead to food shortages and an economic crisis similar to Zimbabwe (stock image)

However, the South African foreign ministry says the 'threat' Mr Dutton refers to does not exist.

'There is no reason for any government in the world to suspect that a section of South Africans is under danger from their own democratically elected government,' it said in Pretoria, Reuters reported.

'We regret that the Australian government chose not to use the available diplomatic channels available for them to raise concerns or to seek clarification.'

AfriForum, a rights group representing primarily the white Afrikaner minority, praised Mr Dutton's comments but said it was not in favour of mass emigration.

'Our future is in Africa, not elsewhere,' chief executive Kallie Kriel said.

Mr Dutton believes white farmers in South Africa face 'horrific circumstances' and need help from Australia.

'We have a huge South African expat community within Australia. They work hard, they integrate well into Australian society. They contribute and make us a better country,' he said.

'They're the sorts of migrants that we want to bring into our country.'

'If you look at the footage and read the stories, you hear the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance they face,' Mr Dutton told the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.

Australia is investigating what visas can be offered to white South African farmers who are facing violence and land seizures at home (stock image)

'We have the potential to help some of these people that are being persecuted.'

The South African parliament recently passed a motion which may lead to white farmers having their land seized and given to black owners without compensation.

'We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land,' Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema said, The Independent reported.

Confiscating the land could potentially lead to food shortages and an economic crisis similar to Zimbabwe.

With an uncertain farming future and heavy drought, white South African farmers are already being pushed out of the industry.

Mr Dutton has directed the Home Affairs department to explore whether the farmers can be accepted into Australia through refugee, humanitarian or other visas, including the in-country persecution visa category.

'I do think on the information that I've seen, people do need help, and they need help from a civilised country like ours,' Mr Dutton said.

The minister said it was clear the farmers in question wanted to work hard and contribute to countries like Australia.

The South African parliament recently passed a motion which may lead to white farmers having their land seized and given to black owners without compensation (stock image)

However people have slammed the minister for his 'racist' decision to support white South Africans instead of those on Manus Island (pictured)

'We want people who want to come here, abide by our laws, integrate into our society, work hard, not lead a life on welfare,' he said.

'And I think these people deserve special attention and we're certainly applying that special attention now.'

Mr Dutton suggested an announcement could be made soon.

'We're just looking at the moment at what might be feasible and hopefully we'll make an announcement in due course,' he said.

'So Peter Dutton considers white South Africans to have suffered 'horrific circumstances', but the refugees, including Rohingya refugees, who languished for years in the Manus Island detention centre did not. Disgraceful,' one person wrote online (pictured)

'You didn't really care about those on boats who came here .... only sporting different skin colour,' another shared (pictured)

'Peter Dutton proving once again that whit supremacy has no subtlety,' one wrote (pictured)

Many people appeared angered by Mr Dutton's comments on social media with some people calling him 'racist'

'It's very interesting that Peter Dutton talk about the white South African deserve special attention no one cares about your statements ...,' another person shared (pictured)

However, people have slammed Mr Dutton for his decision to want to help white South Africans but not the refugees on Manus Island.

'So Peter Dutton considers white South Africans to have suffered 'horrific circumstances', but the refugees, including Rohingya refugees, who languished for years in the Manus Island detention centre did not. Disgraceful,' one person wrote online.

'You didn't really care about those on boats who came here citing similar persecution only sporting different skin colour. Now all of a sudden you're a humanitarian? Just stop,' another said.

'It's very interesting that Peter Dutton talks about the white South African deserve special attention no one care about your statements while you have such a barbaric policy on Manus and Nauru. Australia considers fast-track visas for white South African farmers,' someone else shared.An expectant couple lost their baby after a caesarean section was carried out too late - but were told the death was 'just one of those things', an inquest heard.

Laura Monks and Peter Winrow were told that their son Rueben was stillborn shortly after he was delivered at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, in November 2011.

Ms Monks told a coroner's court that she and her partner were told that the death of their baby was just 'one of those things'. But it has since emerged that he could have lived if doctors had delivered him sooner.

Laura Monks and Peter Winrow were told that their son Rueben was stillborn shortly after he was delivered at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, in November 2011 (Pictured: Ms Monks and Reuben. She choose to release this picture to to urge other mothers to 'scream from the rooftops' if they believe there is a problem with their baby)

In 2016 bosses at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust finally admitted responsibility and awarded the family 40,000.

Now, the first day of an inquest into Rueben's death at Bolton Coroner's Court has heard that the baby 'is likely to have survived' if Ms Monks had been given a c-section earlier.

Ms Monks visited the hospital - concerned that the baby wasn't moving - and was attached to a foetal heart monitor at 12.25pm on November 19.

Around 90 minutes later the monitor, or CTG, showed that Rueben's heart rate had some abnormalities - known as a 'pathological trace'.

Laura Monks told a coroner's inquest that she and her partner Peter Winrow were told that the death of their baby Rueben was just 'one of those things' (the couple are both pictured here)

Independent expert witness professor Janesh Gupta, of Birmingham Women's Hospital, told the inquest that Ms Monks should have been taken for an immediate 'category one' caesarean as a result of this reading.

This would mean Rueben would have been delivered within 30 minutes.

Instead, medics opted for a 'category two' caesarean, which have to be performed with 70 minutes.

The delivery however, then didn't take place for another 105 minutes, at around 4.30pm.

Professor Gupta said: '12.35pm is when the CTG was started and 90 minutes later it became pathological by default. This trace should have been registered as being pathological for a decision to be made for delivery.

'2.05pm would be the absolute latest that a category one caesarean should have been mandated.

'It is likely that Rueben would have survived if delivery had taken place within 30 minutes of the abnormal trace being found.'

Ms Monks is pictured here with her eldest son Darcy and her daughter Niamh

After admitting responsibility in 2016, the Trust issued a statement reading: 'Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust would like to once again offer its unreserved apologies to Mrs Monks for the treatment received in November 2011. This treatment fell below the standard expected by Mrs Monks, and that we as a Trust strive to achieve.

'Following Rueben's tragic death an investigation was commenced by the Trust to ensure lessons were learnt to improve the care that we provide.

'The Trust is committed to providing an excellent service and we recognise the importance of learning from mistakes of this nature.

'Rueben's death is now subject to an HM Coroner's investigation. The Trust is unable to comment further whilst coronial proceedings are ongoing.'Alex Salmond today defended running a talk show on RT and insisted the channel was not a propaganda tool for Russia.

The former First Minister of Scotland defied calls for him to cancel the 'Alex Salmond Show' and insisted he had complete editorial control over its content.

Mr Salmond, who has been running the show since last year, condemned the 'heinous crime' in Salisbury on today's edition of the programme.

Alex Salmond (pictured on the set of his RT programme) today defended running a talk show on RT and insisted the channel was not a propaganda tool for Russia

Mr Salmond has been under pressure to quit RT since Sergei Skripal (left) and his daughter Yulia (right) were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on March 4

The ex-SNP chief has been branded a 'useful idiot' by critics for defying criticism of the show, which he set up after losing his Commons seat last year.

Mr Salmond has been under sustained criticism ever since he launched the show with even his close ally Nicola Sturgeon distancing herself from the programme.

During today's show, Mr Salmond said: 'The chemical poisoning in Salisbury was a heinous crime and should be universally condemned.'

He said that his show is independently produced and added: 'I hold no brief from the Kremlin, nor am I required to have.

'No-one has tried to influence the contents of this show in any way, shape or form whatsoever.

'By definition RT has not been a propaganda station because it's regulated under a UK licence by Ofcom.'

Kremlin broadcaster RT (pictured on air this week 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

Russia has 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.

On Tuesday, Ofcom wrote to RT - formerly known as Russia Today - to explain its licence would be reviewed if ministers confirmed Mrs May's announcement it is '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.A teenager whose father was jailed for murdering her mother, grandmother and aunt wants police to re-investigate allegations he was part of the Telford paedophile ring.

Tasnim Lowe was born when Lucy Lowe was just 14 after she had underage sex with Azhar Ali Mehmood in the Shropshire town.

Her mother died two years later in 1997 alongside her grandmother Eileen and aunt Sarah after Mehmood, then 26, set fire to their house and was later jailed for their murders.

But he was never arrested or charged with any sex abuse crimes over his involvement with Lucy.

The killer could be released as early as 2019 but his daughter, who has visited him in jail, wants police to investigate him as part of its child grooming inquiry in Telford.

Speaking for the first time Tasnim, 18, told Good Morning Britain: 'She [my mother] didn't have a voice. All these girls that have happened currently, they can speak. Lucy never got to speak. The least I can do, is to speak for her and to get the point across about the grooming and Telford currently'.

Scroll down for video

Tasnim Lowe (left today) was born when her Lucy Lowe was just 14 (right) after she had underage sex with Azhar Ali Mehmood, who later murdered her mother, aunt and grandmother in the Shropshire town

Mehmood was later jailed for life after being convicted of three counts of murder  but was never arrested or charged over sex abuse

She added: 'I just hope that she's proud of me and I hope that I'm doing what I should be doing'.

Up to 1,000 children may have been abused over four decades in Telford, it has emerged.

Seven members of a child sex gang were eventually jailed in 2013 after a police investigation.

West Mercia Police Supt Tom Harding has 'significantly disputed' claims that 1,000-plus children and young women may have been groomed over four decades in the Shropshire town

But detectives said at the time that up to 200 men from across the country had been involved in the ring  with a 'huge percentage of them' unidentified.

Mehmood's daughter Tasnim said: 'He never did get convicted of anything but murder [...] But, whether he was involved with what's happened in Telford currently or not, it was still underage.'

Tasnim has no contact with her father after she saw him in prison two years ago.

She said: 'It's not I hate him or I love him. It's very mixed and it's always been like that. I saw him [in prison] when I was 16. It didn't go very well. We don't have contact now, but I mean, you can't really build a relationship after all those years.

'I don't think he'll get it (parole). If he does get it, that's up to him and his family, what they want to do. I ask for him to not be put back into Telford. That's my only ask.'

Yesterday Telford's police chief had said that the number and scale of girls sexually abused there had been 'sensationalised'.

West Mercia Police Supt Tom Harding has 'significantly disputed' claims that 1,000-plus children may have been groomed over four decades in the Shropshire town.

He said: 'I don't believe Telford is any worse than lots of places across England and Wales'.

It came as Theresa May told the Commons has said it is important that an inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Telford gets under way as quickly as possible.

The Prime Minister said 'we have all been shocked' by the 'horrific' case, and said she was pleased that an inquiry would happen.

West Mercia Police has said that tackling child sexual exploitation remained its 'number one priority' for officers in Telford, whose approach had been 'subject to independent scrutiny' from the Home Office last year.

Becky Watson suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of a grooming gang, which began when she was 11 and she died in a car incident when she was 13. Vicky Round (right), a friend of Becky's, was abused by the same gang. She was just 20 when she died of a suspected overdose.

But Mr Harding, Superintendent for Telford and Wrekin, today disputed the scale of abuse.

He told the BBC: 'I am confident that, in the main, we do know the scale of CSE. Therefore, I significantly dispute the 1,000 plus figure and do feel it is sensationalised.

'Read the headlines, read the reports. What are they actually discussing? They're discussing cases from 20 or 30 years ago, offending back in the 1990s.

'We've never said there aren't cases, there are always cases we are working on and seeking to prosecute.'

It is feared there are still 46 girls in Telford at risk from grooming gangs.

In Telford brutal sex gang targeted the innocent girls over a 40-year period in what may be Britain's 'worst ever' child abuse scandal.

Girls in the town of Telford in Shropshire were drugged, beaten and raped at the hands of the violent groom gang which was active since the 1980s.

Three people were murdered and two others died following incidents linked to the sickening scandal.

Becky Watson, 13, was killed after a car she was in crashed. At the time the incident was reported as a 'prank'.

However, it was revealed she had suffered two years of sex abuse at the hands of a grooming gang, which began when she was 11.

Vicky Round, a friend of Becky's, was abused by the same gang.

They forced her into a crack cocaine addiction aged 12. By the age of 14 she was taking heroine regularly.

She died aged 20 after a suspected drug overdose.

Mubarek Ali, 34, (left) and his brother Ahdel Ali, 27, (right) from Telford were both jailed after sexually abusing young girls in a child sex abuse ring

A victim of a grooming gang in Telford told yesterday how she endured a 'whirlwind of rape' on a daily basis, as police, youth workers and medical staff apparently ignored tell-tale signs of her ordeal.

The woman, calling herself 'Holly', suffered four years of abuse as the ring sold her 'countless times' for sex.

Holly said she only escaped the cycle of abuse by leaving her home in the Shropshire town  where up to 1,000 children may have been abused over four decades  to live in hiding 40 miles away.

Telford sex scandal: Timeline of abuse 1980s Girls in Telford are targeted by groups of mainly Asian men 1996 A resident goes to police with information about a key abuser selling underage girls for sex Late 1990s Social workers learn of the problem but do little to help 2000 Lucy Lowe, 16, is killed alongside her mother and sister in an arson attack by abuser Azhar Ali Mehmood 2002 Abuse victim Becky Watson, 13, is killed in a road accident described as a 'prank' 2010-2012 Police probe Operation Chalice identifies potential 200 abusers but only nine are jailed 2016 MP Lucy Allan calls for public inquiry but police and council officials in Telford write to Home Secretary Amber Rudd saying this isn't necessary March 2018 As many as 1,000 victims are believed to have been abused Advertisement

According to Home Office figures, Telford, a town of 170,000 people, has the third highest number of child sexual offences recorded in the UK, after Blackpool and Rotherham.

Holly told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I was abused from the ages of 14 to 18. My abuse started with boys my own age, who went on to sell my phone number to older men.

'And from there it was just a whirlwind of rape every day, basically. I was going into the doctor's and the youth sexual health clinic to get the morning-after pill, probably twice a week, and nobody even questioned anything.

'I had two abortions, still nothing was said to me. I was in cars that were stopped by the police and they asked me no questions of why I was there with a much older man...

'It got to the point where I tried to commit suicide, and still nobody asked me any questions about what was going on in my life and why I was reacting the way I was reacting.'

Holly was interviewed by police during the inquiry, known as Operation Chalice, which resulted in the 2013 prison sentences, but in the end decided she could not face her abusers in court.

She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire she was taken to a 'rape house which was set up for the purpose of young girls being sold to men'. But the worst thing that ever happened to her during the cycle of abuse was when she was gang raped after turning 16.

She recalled: 'After that I tried to commit suicide. I genuinely wanted to die because I thought it was the only way out.'

Holly appeared to make a reference to the August 2000 murder of 16-year-old Lucy Lowe, who died in a house fire set by her 26-year-old boyfriend, and who has now been linked to the grooming epidemic.

'The only reason I kept going back [to the men] was because they were threatening me with burning my house down, which was a real threat in Telford because it had happened previously,' Holly said. 'They would [also] say to me that they would rape my mum and my sisters.'

In a U-turn yesterday, Labour-run Telford and Wrekin Council called on Home Secretary Amber Rudd to commission a public inquiry into cases of child sexual exploitation in the town.

The council, which said it has 'nothing to hide' over its handling of cases of grooming and sexual abuse of children in the town, previously insisted that the issue could be examined as part of the national ongoing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

During PMQs, Tory Telford MP Lucy Allan said: 'Like many towns and cities across the country, Telford has had some experiences of distressing cases of child sexual exploitation.

'The authorities in Telford have now agreed to conduct an independent inquiry to find out what happened and to give victims answers'.Advertisement

A 500-year-old fortress in the Scottish highlands a couple bought for 65,000 is on the market for 695,000 after they transformed it into a luxury castle hideout.

Barholm Castle in Dumfries and Galloway is a 15th century fort and was once home to Scottish Reformation leader John Knox.

Owners Janet and John Brennan first stumbled across it in 1997 when it was just a shell of crumbling stone walls.

But after their eight-year 'labour of love', the castle is now a four-bedroom luxury home, complete with a great hall, spiral stone staircase and access to the castle's roof parapet.

 Slide me  Barholm Castle, Dumfries and Galloway is a 15th century fort and once home to Scottish Reformation leader John Knox. It was bought by Janet and John Brennan in 1997 who spent eight years transforming the crumbling stone walls into a luxury home

It took two years to complete the purchase, four years to get planning permission and three years of building work.

But Ms Brennan, 60 and Mr Brennan, 64, are selling up to be closer to family, giving someone else the chance to scoop up the property.

Nearly three years after putting it up for sale they are still yet to find a buyer and have re-marketed the property.

In its early days the castle was a stronghold and home to the local McCulloch clan, but in the mid-18th century it fell into disrepair.

Based in Gatehouse of Fleet in the South-West of Scotland, the castle sits around 100 miles from Edinburgh and Glasgow and close by are the local school, hospital and post office.

After their eight-year 'labour of love', the castle is now a four-bedroom luxury home (one of four-poster bedrooms pictured), complete with a great hall, spiral stone staircase and access to the castle's roof parapet

Pictured is the luxury kitchen the Brennans installed as part of their eight-year restoration complete with luxury fittings

Inside the 15th century fort is a luxury four bedroom home, with fully furnished living room (pictured) and a great hall

JOHN KNOX: THE MINISTER WHO LED THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND John Knox was a Scottish clergyman, who was the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland and often considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination. He was a Catholic deacon and priest but first joined the movement to reform the Scottish church in the early 1500s. He then went on to teach a number of sons of Protestants who had been captured in St Andrews Castle and called on Knox to become their minister. It was at this time that he is believed to have used Barholm as a place of refuge. In 1547 he was captured by the French, who attacked St Andrews Castle and was kept as a prisoner for over a year. On his release, he travelled to London, where he continued to attack the Roman Catholic faith but left the UK again in 1553 when Mary I became Queen. When he returned to Scotland, he realised how much the teaching of the Reformers was spreading. He then became one of the most well-known preachers in Scotland, with the Scottish Reformation taking place n 1560. Knox is credited with helping to write the Scots Confession of Faith, one of the first formal documents of the Church of Scotland. Advertisement

From the top of the castle's rooftop parapet you can look out onto the stunning views of the waters of Wigtown Bay.

On the ground floor you'll find the kitchen, as well as the boiler and the outhouse, then moving up you'll come across the splendour of the great hall.

On the second floor sits a bedroom with en-suite, and office and then moving on up, you'll find the second and third bedrooms, as well as a shower room and second en-suite.

Lastly, on the fourth floor, you'll find the final bedroom with a vaulted ceiling and it's here that John Knox was reputed to have hidden.

From there you can carry on up the stone staircase to an upper cap house chamber, with a door to the roof parapet, offering stunning seaside views.

From the top of the castle and its rooftop parapet you can look out onto the stunning views of the waters of Wigtown Bay

It took two years to complete the purchase, four years to get planning permission and three years of building work

Pictured: An original spiral stone staircase connects Barholm Castle's three floors and rooftop parapet

Previous owners Janet and John Brennan first stumbled across it in 1997 when it was just a shell of crumbling stone wallsGenerations of Australian women - grandmothers, mothers, and their children -are struggling with ice additions in regional towns where drug dependency can be rampant.

Three women spoke to the Nine Network's A Current Affair about inter-generational drug dependency and their long-term addiction to the drug.

'There's nothing worse than a grannie-junkie. It's disgusting,' Maria told the program.

Scroll down for video

Maria, a grandmother of four, said drugs are 'too easy' to buy in the regional Victorian town of Morwell where she lives

The grandmother of four said drugs are 'too easy' to buy in the regional Victorian town of Morwell (pictured) where she lives

Lizzie, also from Morwell, said 'It's a filthy drug ... it's a vicious cycle'

Maria, a grandmother of four, said drugs are 'too easy' to buy in the regional Victorian town of Morwell where she lives.

'Almost everyone here does drugs ... marijuana, ice, morphine, who knows what else,' she said.

Margaret Gordon from Ice Breakers in Albany agrees.

'It is readily available, which is a huge problem, every town in Australia has a problem with it  whether they can see it or not,' she said.

The grandmother of four moved 150km east from Melbourne after the Department of Housing re-housed her in a run-down housing commission block in the coal mining town.

According to Cracks in the ice, an online Government-funded toolkit about the meth crisis, 1.3 million Australians have used the drug  with rural and regional towns hit hardest.

According to Cracks in the ice, an online Government-funded toolkit about the meth crisis, 1.3 million Australians have used the drug  with rural and regional towns hit hardest

Maria receives $350 a week from Centrelink, some of which she says she uses to 'sometimes' buy ice.

'I feel very guilty using government money to score ice,' she said.

'If they said to me they'd give me my welfare on a card, and I wouldn't get the cash, I'd be very happy with that, 'cos I want the drugs out of my life altogether.

Maria said she doesn't want to use the drugs and she 'wants to be clean', but the town 'is a drug den'.

Drug use from generation to generation can be highly prevalent in country towns. 'Grandmothers and mothers are doing drugs and kids go without', Maria said

'I've been doing this [ice] for so many years, and I'm just sick of it,' she said.

'I want to be a decent person. I don't want to do this, it just drives me insane'.

A 'point of ice' costs Maria about $50 in Morwell, and the effect can last for three days.

In the regional town 'grandmothers and mothers are doing drugs,' Maria said.

'Kids go without. They go without food, they go without morals, they go without education ... they go without a lot'.

Drug use from generation to generation can be highly prevalent in country towns.

Ice Breaker's Ms Gordon said ice is particularly dangerous because it affects everyone  this means children can also access the drug and get addicted.

'There are young children who are experimenting with ice because they are in homes where it is readily available and their conditioned to the fact that using it is normal.

'The youngest person I know who uses it is 11 but I am aware of children starting younger,' she said.

In fact, Maria said she occasionally uses the drug with her daughter.

Lizzie, another grandmother addicted to ice, lives in the same block as Maria.

Penny, a heavily pregnant 25-year-old, said a life of drugs is all she's known and admitted to smoking ice three or four times a day

Penny, a heavily pregnant 25-year-old, said a life of drugs is all she's known.

The mother-of-three said she was introduced to drugs by her father when she was eight years old.

'I was first given morphine for a headache and after that I couldn't sleep without phenergan every night,' she said.

'Then it turns to pot, then you turn to heroin and everything and anything else.'

Penny said her family uses drugs and used drugs when she was young.

Ice Breaker's Ms Gordon said ice is particularly dangerous because it affects everyone  this means children can also access the drug and get addicted

'I've lived a life that this is all I've known, this is all I've been shown.'

Penny admitted one of her children was born with an addiction to heroin and morphine.

Stefan Gruenert, a Psychologist from substance abuse treatment service Odyssey House Victoria, told ACA that drug use becomes a normal part of daily functioning for some people

'It's often inter-generational  parents have been using alcohol or heroin or drugs pretty heavily, their children grow up in that environment.'

He also said poverty in these rural communities plays a factor in their populations' turning to drugs.John Hart has been given a jail sentence for failing to hand over documents during a divorce row. He was bailed pending an appeal

A millionaire property developer has been given a 14 month jail sentence for failing to comply with the terms of his 3.5million divorce settlement.

John Hart, 83, was married to his wife Karen, 62, for 24 years but the battle over how to divide their 9.5million estate has dragged on for seven years.

Mrs Hart was awarded 3.5million after legal proceedings in 2011, but went back to court in a failed attempt to win a larger share.

Now Mr Hart, who has prostate cancer, has been prosecuted for contempt of court for failing to provide information relating to his businesses as directed by the court.

Hart was sentenced for two separate breaches of a court order and was sentenced to nine months for each offence.

However, Hart immediately launched an appeal and was bailed until next Tuesday when the Court of Appeal's decision on his case will be dealt with.

Judge Stephen Wildblood told the court: 'The effect of these proceedings is that Mr Hart has not only lost some of the money that he holds so dear but the loss of his relationship with his former wife and children.

'From the upbeat, proud and canny businessman that I first saw three years ago, he is now an isolated and sad man seemingly unable to enjoy it for his remaining years the millions of pounds that he still owns.'

Mr Hart was already a multi-millionaire when the couple met in 1979, having started out on his father's fruit and veg stall in the 1950s. Mrs Hart was an air hostess with 'no assets, save for a Porsche'.

Mr Hart and his wife Karen have been through a long-running and acrimonious divorce battle

The couple married in 1987 and lived in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, with holiday homes in Miami and Spain.

They separated in 2006 and in 2011 a court ruled that Mrs Hart should receive 3.5million to meet her 'reasonable needs.'

Mrs Hart challenged the allocation of 37 per cent, saying she should be entitled to half their fortune, but lost at the Court of Appeal.

The saga came back before the court over Mr Hart's 'persistent' failure to provide documentation relating to his business.

As part of the settlement ruling, Judge Wildblood ordered Mr Hart to transfer ownership of one of his property firms to Mrs Hart.

He told the court: 'The management of the company by Mrs Hart should have been simple but Mr Hart has done his utmost to frustrate her ability to run it efficiently and effectively.'

The 1.1m former matrimonial home of Mr and Mrs Hart near Sutton Coldfield (pictured) - they also spent time in villas in Spain and the US

In 2015 Hart had stopped making maintenance payments to his family without justification, the court was told, and was more than 92,000 in arrears.

He delayed the transfer of the company to Mrs Hart, forcing her to go to the High Court to gain access to the premises.

However, when she got inside she discovered it had been stripped of all management records, leaving just two bank statements and a collection of licences and leases.

Judge Wildblood said at a previous hearing: 'You have to keep records for six years. He is a very astute and able businessman. Why should it arise that those [documents], which should be available, are not available?'

Judge Wildblood found his motivation was to 'intentionally to put pressure on Mrs Hart'. Mr Hart insisted subordinates had taken care of the documentation.

Defending Hart, Grant Armstrong said: 'This is a case where Mr Hart, for his part, has been the primary source of wealth for the parties. He has provided extensively for his family over a long period of time.

'He is a man of good character and this doesn't impact that. He rose from running a market stall to being a man of considerable wealth at the time that he met his wife. That is an element of the grit and determination that Mr Hart has.'The first New York City Republican committee to endorse Marc Molinaro for governor helped the front-runner for the GOP nomination to cross an important threshold.

The Manhattan Republican Party's executive committee endorsed Molinaro, R-Red Hook, following a candidates screening Wednesday night. It is the 32nd GOP county chair or committee endorsement announced by Molinaro's campaign over the past week.

With the Manhattan GOP's support, Molinaro now has endorsements representing 50.3 percent of the weighted vote at the convention. To win the nomination at the convention, a candidate must secure at least 50 percent of the vote.

Marc Molinaro to formally launch campaign for NY governor in April Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro has told Republican leaders he is a candidate for go

It's possible that state committee members could support a candidate other than the individual endorsed by their county chair or committee. But voters traditionally are unified in their support of one candidate at the convention.

Andrea Catsimatidis, chairwoman of the Manhattan Republican Party, said Molinaro is the best candidate to challenge Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"This election is critical for New York state, we desperately need to strengthen our economy, create jobs and make New York more affordable," Catsimatidis said. "As a strong county executive, Marc has proven that he has what it takes to make New York great again."A mother killed herself six years after her husband took his own life - leaving their three sons orphaned, an inquest has heard.

Angela 'Angie' Neville, 48, was found dead in the bathroom of her family home in Newquay, Cornwall, just a few weeks before last Christmas.

She had been battling depression and anxiety on top of the trauma of losing her husband Mark, 45, as well as her father and niece through suicide.

Kai (right), Nat (left) and Brock Neville (centre), of Newquay, Cornwall, lost their mother Angie, 48, just before Christmas. They are pictured mourning the loss of their father Mark in 2011

Mrs Neville (right) took her own life six years after the boys' father, surfboard shaper Mark (left), 45, was discovered dead off Fistral Beach in Newquay

The local community set up a fundraising page for the three sons to help with their living costs and has raised nearly 5,000.

The sons, Kai, Nat and Brock, were devastated after their mother was found in the bathroom by her best friend Justine Howey who had been due to drive her to work.

Her death came six years after their father, a surfboard shaper, was found dead on rocks off the Pentire Headland at Fistral beach in the Cornish surf resort.

Kai and Nat were present at the inquest in Truro and spoke about his mother.

Family and friends of Mr Neville pay tribute to the surfboard shaper after his death in 2011

A reading is given at the funeral for Mr Neville following his death in Cornwall seven years ago

Kai said: 'When I was born my mum was only 18 and throughout my life we had always been very close. She was not only my mum, but also a friend.

Mr Neville was previously described as a 'wonderful husband and a devoted father'

'She was the most caring, loving and kindest lady I have ever known. That was her personality. For myself and the family this was a complete shock.

'The last time I spoke to her she seemed really positive. We were speaking about Christmas and the future. She did say she was feeling a bit down because of various issues that were going on.

'Since the death of my dad, my mum always appeared really strong and continued to keep the family together. However, I think as the years had gone on, it began to affect her more and more.

'Over the last two or three years my mother suffered from loneliness. I strongly believe one of the main contributing factors is that mum worried about the boys seeing her when she was down.'

Teacher Kai, 30, and his girlfriend live in London and his brothers are living with them. Brock is in a new primary school and Nat has also resumed studies.

Kai said: 'Myself and my brothers have a strong bond, we have always been close. It's hard at times like this to keep everyone together but I wouldn't want my brothers to be anywhere else.'

Mr Neville was found dead on rocks off the Pentire Headland (file picture) at Fistral Beach

Coroner Dr Emma Carlyon recorded a conclusion that Mrs Neville had taken her own life after hearing police say there was no third party involvement in her death.

Mark Neville met Angie in Newquay in 1986, one year after he moved from Glasgow - after being a regular visitor to surf as a child with his own dad.

His body was found in February 2011 after he went missing 13 days earlier. An inquest into his death heard he had been battling depression and had suicidal thoughts.

His death was not suspicious but the coroner recorded an open verdict rather than suicide because an accident could not be ruled out.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116 123, or visit a local Samaritans branch. Click here for details.The family of Nick Gordon's girlfriend Laura Leal fear she is mortal danger after he was arrested over the weekend for allegedly beating her up.

They have voiced fears that she will 'end up dead like his previous girlfriend' - Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Sources connected to Leal told TMZ that their fears stem from his previous history of violent conduct towards her, as well as the fact that in 2015 he was found by a civil court to be legally responsible for the death of Brown.

Beaten: Laura Leal, 26, told DailyMail.com last year of her ordeal at the hands of Nick Gordon, Bobbi Kristina Houston's ex-fiance. 'That could have been me,' she said at the time

Injuries: Laura Leal was left badly battered in June 2017 - she told DailyMail.com that Gordon had pinned her to the bed and hit her repeatedly before she was able to escape by bashing him with a candle and apparently breaking his nose

Crybaby: Nick Gordon called 911 in the early morning hours of Saturday demanding that the Seminole County Sheriff's Office remove his girlfriend Laura Leal (Gordon and Leal above)

The family say they are especially worried because it appears Leal still wants to be with Gordon, according to a letter she wrote to the judge in relation to the latest assault allegation, in which she urged prosecutors to drop the case.

'We're told Laura's cut off relations with her family - a big change from last year, when she turned to [them] after Nick's first arrest for beating her,' TMZ said.

On Wednesday it emerged that Gordon was again being investigated by the Georgia authorities into the 2015 death of Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Sources within the Fulton County District Attorney's Office told TMZ that Gordon is 'back on their radar' after his domestic violence arrest last weekend.

Leal, Gordon's new girlfriend, claimed at the time he hit her in the face multiple times during their drive home from a bar in Sanford, Florida.

The police officer at the scene said she had a swollen bottom lip with dried blood after their alleged fight, USmagazine.com reported.

Gordon denied striking Leal, telling police, 'I didn't hit her. She attacked me and ripped my shirt. She also threw a bottle at me. I just want her to leave my house.'

Leal has refused to press charges against him.

He broke down in hysterics after calling 911 in the early morning hours of Saturday, telling authorities that he was the victim of abuse.

Bobbi Kristina Brown and Nick Gordon had a turbulent relationship - Gordon said she descended into a world of drink and drugs after her mother's death

DailyMail.com has obtained the two calls placed by Gordon just before he was arrested by police for battery of Leal, who he allegedly punched multiple times in the face and chest according to an arrest report from the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

Leal was left with a bloody lip after the attack, while Gordon, 29, had no visible injuries save for a small cut on his thumb.

Gordon was held legally accountable in a civil case for his fiancee Bobbi Kristina's death in 2015 after he didn't show up for a court hearing in a $36million suit brought against him by her family.

Bobbi Kristina, 22, was found face down in a bathtub after a night of partying and arguing.

An autopsy could not reveal the underlying cause of death because she spent more than seven months in a coma before she died.

Gordon said that he attempted to revive her in scenes that bore a chilling resemblance to the circumstances of her own mother, Whitney Houston's passing.

In October Gordon spoke out two years after Bobbi Kristina died, when he addressed rumors that he was responsible for her death. Her father Bobby Brown has repeatedly named named Gordon as his daughter's killer.

Brown's autopsy revealed she had marijuana, alcohol, a cocaine-related substance, anxiety medication, and morphine in her system, but her manner of death has been labeled 'undetermined' with the authorities baffled as to whether it was intentional or accidental.

Singer Whitney Houston (left) and her daughter Bobbi Kristina in 2011 in Beverly Hills, California

Bobby Brown and daughter Bobbi Kristina - he has long maintained that Nick Gordon is responsible for her death

For Bobbi Kristina, Gordon told DailyMailTV, her mother's death was the beginning of a descent into drug use that spiraled out of control. For him it was the end of a relationship that has long perplexed observers.

Gordon was 17 and Bobbi Kristina 14 when Houston invited him to move into their home in Georgia.

His own mother, he said, 'wasn't very good' at the time. She had left the state to be with another man. He didn't want to go with her.

He had met Bobbi Kristina at school but both dropped out to be tutored at home after he moved in to the Houston household.

Recalling Houston he said: 'It was like two or three months after I moved in she began to ask me, 'Call me mom.'

'We immediately clicked. From day one it was a really, really cool relationship so I'll miss it forever.

'It was like a mother, son relationship. It really was.'

In a bizarre twist of fate Gordon was there at the Beverly Hills Hotel back in February 2012 when Houston drowned in her bathtub. She was later found to have cocaine in her system.

As for Bobbi Kristina she was like his 'little wing man' at first. Gordon described them as 'the three musketeers.'

And while Houston's former husband Bobby Brown was 'busy creating his other family, his new family with his new wife,' Gordon claimed to have taken on the role of the man of the house - their 'protector.'

It was a role for which, in truth, he was ill equipped.

Family members have leveled the allegation that the shift of Gordon's relationship with Bobbi Kristina from siblings to romantic partners was motivated by money.

Throughout Houston's life both he and Bobbi Kristina received a monthly allowance, which, after her mother's death, Bobbi Kristina continued to pay to her then boyfriend.

But Gordon has always vehemently denied that that had anything to do with their romance.

He claimed that Houston wanted them to marry, telling them they should elope and that it was she who planted the seed of a relationship between them.

Bobbi Kristina Brown was found face down in the bathtub in her Georgia home in January 2015 - an autopsy could not reveal the underlying cause of death because she spent more than seven months in a coma before she died

Nick Gordon gave a candid interview to DailyMailTV in October about the circumstances of Bobbi Kristina's death

He said: 'Screw the money. I lost two people I loved. They could have the money; it's not even about that. Don't get me wrong, money's nice but it definitely doesn't buy you happiness. Maybe temporary happiness.'

For Bobbi Kristina there was, it seems, no true happiness after her mother's death.

Gordon said: 'Everything changed. She would cry and you know throughout all those nights I felt I couldn't do the same thing.

'So it was just all this built up emotion that I didn't get out as I'm sitting here trying to be strong for this person.'

After Houston's death Bobbi Kristina and Gordon told the family that they were married - though they were not.

Little did they know they were living on borrowed time. According to Gordon, Bobbi Kristina tried to commit suicide on two occasions - cutting deeply into her wrists.

She suffered two miscarriages and self-harmed and both became lost in a haze of drugs.

Asked if he regrets anything or if he believes now that the best thing for Bobbi Kristina might have been for him to leave he said: 'If I had somebody tell me this would be a good thing for y'all to separate I would have tried that.

'But I just know it was really just us two. Everybody knew [what was going on]. All these family members, all these family members that love and cared for hereverybody knew what was going on and they did nothing.

'People saw her struggling and nobody did anything.'

And when it all went so catastrophically wrong, Gordon said, he knew he would be blamed 'from the jump.'Advertisement

An extremely rare white lion cub - the first to be born in three years - has delighted tourists on safari in South Africa.

Two wildlife photographers were lucky enough to snap the four-day-old cub as it hid with its mother and siblings in a den at Kruger National Park.

Before other tourists on safari flocked to see the lioness and her three cubs, Mike Sutherland, 30, managed to capture the first photo of the newborn.

The safari guide and photographer had been taking a group of guests on a tour from the Ngala Safari Lodge last Monday when he was told of the cub sighting and rushed to the national park to catch a glimpse of the new arrival.

Mike Sutherland, 30, managed to capture the first photo of the newborn in a den at Kruger National Park in South Africa

Daryl Dell, 40, said he would always cherish' the moment he caught the tiny cub being carried by its mother in front of him

Due to viewing restrictions protecting the precious animals, he was only able to take photographs from 25 metres away.

Mr Sutherland, from Johannesburg, said: 'As soon as we arrived at the den, we had an immediate flash of white.

'There was a little cub of about four or five days old lying in front of its mother.

'White lion cubs are an extremely rare thing to see, and given its age, we were in absolute awe.'

Another guide and photographer Daryl Dell, 40, said he would always cherish' the moment he caught the tiny cub being carried by its mother in front of him.

He's worked on safari for 15 years, sometimes waiting up to 17 hours a day for sightings of some of Africa's most impressive animals, but claims this beat them all.

The extremely rare white lion cub - the first to be born in three years - has delighted tourists on safari in South Africa

White lions are classed as 'critically endangered' and in 2015 it was estimated there were only 13 left in the world

'This was a once in a lifetime moment - a moment that I will never forget and always cherish,' he said.

'We had heard there was a lioness at a den with a white cub so we decided to wait at the site to see what would happen in the hope of her moving the cubs.

'It was towards the end of the morning, a time when the chance of hyena and other threats are minimal because of the heat. Luckily my guests were very patient.

'As if it wasn't enough for the lioness to carry one cub, she then carried this white one and then another.

'We had planned to go out and find leopards and wild dogs. We never expected to see such a rare sight.'

Due to viewing restrictions protecting the precious animals, Mr Sutherland was only able to take photographs from 25m away

He had been taking a group of guests on a tour from the Ngala Safari Lodge when he was told of the cub sighting and rushed to the national park to catch a glimpse of the new arrival

The photographer snapped the four-day-old cub as it hid with its mother and siblings in a den at Kruger National Park

White lions are classed as 'critically endangered' and in 2015 it was estimated there were only 13 left in the world.

The last ones recorded were born in 2015 and it is believed one white lion male currently exists somewhere in the Kruger National Park but no recent information is available, according to Mr Sutherland.

'These cubs seldom make it to adulthood,' he said.

'Being a white lion in the wild, you are born with a disadvantage as your coat doesn't allow you to blend in as well as the normal, tawny-coloured lion would.

'This new cub is now the only one of its kind in Kruger and was born to two tawny-coloured lions.'

The last white lion was born in 2015 and it is believed one white lion male currently exists somewhere in the Kruger National Park but no recent information is available, according to Mr Sutherland

Cubs of this colour are produced when two tawny-coloured lions mate and both carry the recessive 'white' gene

He said cubs of this colour are produced when two tawny-coloured lions mate and both carry the recessive 'white' gene.

Mr Sutherland said he discovered the den on March 5 on the bank of the Timbavati River.

He spotted the cub and its family from 25 metres away, off a dirt track, and had to get the shots from there due to strict regulations.

He said: 'The image is special to me as they are the first record of this specific cub which is the first to be born in the area in many years.

Mr Sutherland said he discovered the den on March 5 on the bank of the Timbavati River. He spotted the cub and its family from 25 metres away, off a dirt track, and had to get the shots from there due to strict regulations

The white lion cub is seen sleeping with its tawny-coloured sibling inside a den at the South African national park

'The image also depicts its vulnerability from within the den.

'Our goal for the safari was to explore areas that were known for good game viewing and to maximise any opportunity we were presented with.

'We were fortunate enough to not only see these white lion cubs, but leopard cubs, multiple prides of lions, lions hunting, giraffes fighting and elephants swimming.

'I am hoping to continue my journey as a private safari guide and show people the rarities like this one.'

Mr Sutherland said: 'The image is special to me as they are the first record of this specific cub which is the first to be born in the area in many years'A photo of a knobbly-kneed Adolf Hitler that he later tried to ban has been unearthed in an album taken as a souvenir by a British soldier more than 70 years ago.

The black and white snap depicts the dictator sat crossed legged on a chair wearing lederhosen and knee-high socks with his bare legs on display.

It was taken in the 1920s at a time when Hitler wanted to portray himself as a man of the people.

But after he came to power in 1933 he tried to suppress the embarrassing picture as it went against his image as a hardened, iron-fisted ruler.

A black and white snap depicts the dictator sat crossed legged on a chair wearing lederhosen and knee-high socks with his bare legs on display

Lutze's son, Viktor Jnr (left), served in the German army and the album contains a picture of him as a teenager with Hitler taken before the war (right)

Thousands attend a Nazi rally during which Adolf Hitler spoke to the masses as they paraded their National Socialist flags

The photo album was found in the former home of prominent Nazi Viktor Lutze by a British army officer who was billeted there at the end of the Second World War.

Lutze's son, Viktor Jnr, served in the German army and the album contains a picture of him as a teenager with Hitler taken before the war.

Lutze, who was the leader of the notorious 'Brownshirts'- the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party - died in a car crash along with his daughter Inge in Potsdam, Germany, in 1943.

In the album there are numerous family photos of Lutze with his children and wife Paula.

Other snaps show the henchman being treated as a VIP at Nazi rallies. One picture shows him quaffing a goldfish bowl-sized glass of red wine.

The photos have now come to light by the son of the army officer who spirited them out of Lutze's old house in Bevergern in western Germany in 1945.

A group of high ranking Nazi generals attending a rally in about 1925. The photo was one of several black and white snaps found in Lutze's former home

In another photo from the album, Hitler once again meets with a young Viktor Lutze Jnr before his death in 1943

Viktor Lutze's wife Paula and Viktor Lutze Jnr are pictured together in the 1910s. Shown right, Lutze Snr gives a Nazi salute

The unnamed officer of the Royal Engineers brought them back to Britain with him after the war and it has been kept in his family ever since.

The photos are being sold by Hansons Auctioneers of Etwell, Derbys.

Adrian Stevenson, of Hansons, said: 'The odd-looking picture of Hitler was taken long before he became the German Chancellor and Fuhrer.

'He is captured wearing an alpine jacket and lederhosen.

'It was an early propaganda image and Hitler looked like a peasant to try and create the image that he was one of the people.

'But when he came to power it was entirely the wrong image to portray and he didn't want that image being used. He thought that a photo of him with his knees on display would harm his image.

'He tried to suppress it and it was banned from use.

A Nazi rally held before the start of the war. An unnamed officer of the Royal Engineers brought the photos back to Britain with him after the war and it has been kept in his family ever since

Lutze, who was the leader of the notorious 'Brownshirts' - the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party - died in a car crash along with his daughter Inge (far left) in Potsdam, Germany, in 1943

'Probably a few hundred of them were printed. It is very rare to come across these pictures today.

'This one came from the house of the high-ranking Nazi Viktor Lutze who was the head of the brownshirts.

'Had he survived the war Lutze would have been tried at Nuremberg and probably would have hung for war crimes.

'In 1945 a British officer of the Royal Engineers was billeted in his old house and he liberated these photos, shall we say.

'They have just been sat in a drawer for years and his son has decided now is the right time to sell them.'

Lutze died aged 52 and was given a state funeral in Germany, which Hitler spoke at.

The photos are being sold in four lots for about 50 each on March 19.President Trump gave himself double credit for the likely outcome of Tuesday's special election in Pennsylvania, saying Democrat Conor Lamb was ahead in the vote tally because he's 'like Trump.'

The president also claimed that the Republican contender, Rick Saccone, had received a Trump bump, making the race so close  though Saccone still lost in a district that had long voted for Congressional Republicans, and went for Trump in 2016 by 20 points.

'We had an interesting time because we lifted [Saccone] seven points up,' Trump told attendees at a closed-door fundraiser for Missouri Senate hopeful Josh Hawley Wednesday night, according to a recording obtained by the Atlantic.

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President Trump (left) said he actually gave a boost to Pennsylvania Congressional candidate Rick Saccone (right) despite Saccone's likely loss in a district that has gone red for years

The president also said that Democrat Conor Lamb was successful because he was 'like Trump.' Lamb didn't disparage the president during his campaign, but was against the Republican tax bill

On Saturday, President Trump (right) suggested he might throw Rick Saccone (left) under the bus if he lost, saying, 'I hate to put the pressure on you, Rick, but the world is watching, because I wont the district'

At last polling, Saccone had fallen behind Lamb by six points, though the Real Clear Politics polling average had Lamb ahead by just .2 per cent.

That was in line with the actual result with Lamb pulling off a squeaker win, edging out Saccone with just 627 votes.

The Associated Press still has yet to call the race in Lamb's favor while Republicans mull asking for a recount.

The previous person to hold the seat, Republican Rep. Tim Murphy  who resigned after it surfaced that he had asked his mistress to get an abortion  had won the district by 28 points over a Democratic challenger in 2012.

No Democrat had even run for the seat since then.

In Missouri, Trump touted overblown figures saying he had been '22 points up' in the 18th Congressional District in 2016 and he had lifted Saccone up seven.

The final poll before election day had Saccone earning 45 per cent of the vote.

'And seven would normally be enough, but we'll see how it comes out,' Trump told the crowd. 'It's, like, virtually a tie.'

The president said Lamb, a 33-year-old former Marine, had run a 'pretty smart race, actually.'

'The young man last night that ran, he said, "Oh, I'm like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything." He ran on that basis,' Trump explained to the crowd.

While Lamb did play up the fact that he knew how to use a firearm, he also said he opposed the Republican tax bill .

'He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, "Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me."'

Lamb, giving a victory speech in the early a.m. hours Wednesday morning, told the crowd that he was a 'Pennsylvania Democrat, a proud Western Pennsylvania Democrat,' explaining that his grandfather's love of FDR played into his personal feelings about politics.

Lamb had also said he'd be willing to work with the president, and anyone else across the aisle.

'He taught us that people have the right to know that their government walks on their side of the street,' Lamb said of his grandfather.

'What that means is I'll work on the problems that our people face, secure their jobs and pensions, protect their family and I'll work with anyone to do that,' the Democrat said, concluding his victory remarks.

Since Lamb pulled off what had previously looked like the political impossible Republicans like Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have tried to downplay the race.

Trump noted how, because of redistricting, Lamb would likely only hold office until early next year.

'It's actually interesting, because it's only a congressman for five months,' Trump said Wednesday night. 'I don't know about that one, Josh, it was a lot of work for five months,' he said, referencing Hawley.

The president also seemed to mock the caliber of the candidate in the Pennsylvania race, suggesting Hawley would perform better against Democratic Sen. Clair McCaskill in the fall.

'Because you do need the right candidate, have you heard about that?' Trump said. 'You do need the right candidate.'

The president had previously hinted he would throw Saccone, a Pennsylvania state House representative, under the bus if the Republican candidate was to lose.

'The world is watching,' Trump said at a Saccone rally Saturday outside of Pittsburgh. 'I hate to put the pressure on you, Rick, but the world is watching, because I wont the district.'A New York Police Department officer was caught with $50,000 in drug cash which federal authorities say she obtained while helping her boyfriend run a heroin trafficking ring that spanned from Mexico to New York.

Prosecutors say 31-year-old Yessenia Jimenez was arrested Tuesday on trafficking and weapons charges, with officials saying they turned their apartment into a drug stash house.

A Drug Enforcement Agency official says an agent arrested Jimenez with $50,000 and her NYPD service weapon in her possession.

Prosecutors say 31-year-old Yessenia Jimenez was arrested Tuesday on trafficking and weapons charges

Officials allege that Jimenez and her boyfriend, Luis Soto, turned their Bronx apartment into a drug stash house

Prosecutors say a months-long investigation into heroin trafficking led them to Jimenez and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Luis Soto.

The couple live together in an apartment in the Soundview section of The Bronx.

The NYPD says Jimenez has been suspended without pay.

She joined the department in 2015.

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement the arrest and allegations are troubling.

Prosecutors say a months-long investigation into heroin trafficking led them to Jimenez and Soto

The DEA first learned of Jimenez and Soto in January, when authorities seized over $70,000 in cash from a suspected drug dealer in Queens

'Cops are charged with enforcing the law, not breaking it,' the commissioner said.

'Todays arrest - for serious allegations of trafficking heroin - are troubling.'

Jimenez declined to comment.

The DEA first learned of Jimenez and Soto in January, when authorities seized over $70,000 in cash from a suspected drug dealer in Queens.

A search of the suspect's cell phone revealed the phone number of a person authorities say is a known drug trafficker in Mexico.

The text messages from the Mexican contact contained the phone number of another alleged co-conspirator, Soto.

One of the text messages from the Mexican contact read: 'con el 7 de parte de Rodolfo.

This is translated as 'with the 7 from Rodolfo.'

The DEA alleges that the suspect from Queens was being told to contact Soto in order to pick up $70,000 in cash.

A search of the suspect's cell phone revealed the phone number of a person authorities say is a known drug trafficker in Mexico. The text messages from the Mexican contact contained the phone number of another alleged co-conspirator, Soto

The DEA alleges that the suspect from Queens was being told to contact Soto in order to pick up $70,000 in cash

After federal agents learned of Soto's identity, they conducted surveillance operations outside of his Bronx apartment.

During the course of their investigation, they learned Soto was living with Jimenez, who was working as an officer for the NYPD.

The government alleges that Soto drove from New York to Massachusetts and back.

Upon his return to New York at around 2:00am on Tuesday, agents approached Soto as he was removing plastic bags from his car.

Investigators say they found a total of $50,000 in cash as well as a loaded Glock Model 19 handgun, which was issued to Jimenez by the NYPD.

Agents detained Soto, who acknowledged that he had picked up the cash in Massachusetts, though he did not say what it was for, according to the arrest report.

Hours later, agents searched the couple's apartment, where they found about 250 grams of a white substance that the government alleges is heroin.

Both Jimenez and Soto were charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin, possession of heroin, possession of at least 100 grams of heroin with intent to distribute, and using and carrying a firearm in relation to their heroin trafficking.

If convicted, both face a maximum sentence of life in prison.An Australian bomb expert was killed and another injured when a Russian-made landmine exploded inside a Cambodian base.

The blast at a shooting range also killed one and injured two Cambodian soldiers at 2pm local time on Thursday.

It is understood the men were shooting at targets when one noticed something on the ground. He went to pick it up and it exploded.

An Australian bomb expert was killed and another injured when a Russian-made landmine exploded inside a Cambodian base. One Cambodian soldier was killed and two injured in the blast at around 2pm local time on Thursday. Pictured: A victim is taken to hospital

The two Australian victims were bomb experts in their 40s helping train Cambodian troops at the base of a military armoured vehicle unit in the province of Kampong Speu, central Cambodia (stock image of Cambodian troops)

The two Australian victims were bomb experts in their 40s helping train Cambodian troops at the base of a military armoured vehicle unit in the province of Kampong Speu, central Cambodia.

All victims were taken to hospital, with the three injured only suffering minor wounds to their hands.

'The body of the Cambodian soldier has already been taken by family, while the Australian body is still at the hospital waiting to be taken by the Australian Embassy,' Health Department director O Vann told the Phom Penh Post.

The Cambodian Army is investigating, said defence ministry spokesman Chhum Sucheat.

The Australian Defence Force helps train Cambodian troops after fighting for the Kingdom against communist insurgents in the bloody civil war of 1967-1975.

The Soviet Union fought on the communist side. Several undiscovered landmines remain live throughout the country.

The Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Australian Defence Force for comment.A British expat who is facing up to a year in Cambodian prison for promoting a pool party with images deemed 'pornographic' has apologised during a court hearing.

Daniel Jones, 31, was among 10 foreigners arrested in January after police raided their bash at a private villa in Siem Reap, a popular hub for tourists near Cambodia's famous Angkor Wat temple ruins.

A Siem Reap court ultimately dropped charges against the others, but has pursued a case against party organiser Jones, who has been held in jail for nearly two months and is accused of producing pornographic materials to promote the party.

In the trial's first hearing on Thursday, he admitted to advertising the 'Let's Get Wet' event on Facebook with images from a previous pool party.

He insisted that there was no nudity or sex involved, but apologised for offending Cambodian people and said he did not know the advertisements breached an indecency law.

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Daniel Jones (L) was among 10 foreigners arrested in January after police raided their pool party at a private villa in Siem Reap

'Now I understand in Cambodia that these pictures are not good,' he told the court, adding that he did not take the photos himself.

Prosecutor Seng Samnang said any images that encourage sexual activity are illegal and against Cambodian culture.

'I did not understand Cambodian law. I am very sorry for that,' Jones responded.

A police witness said during the trial that cops raided the party to prevent acts of sex, adding that they found some condoms at the villa.

Jones said he had organised a total of four parties for tourists before his arrest, charging attendees $5 for transportation, a free drink and T-shirt.

Jones admitted to advertising the 'Let's Get Wet' event on Facebook with images from a previous pool party (above)

When a prosecutor showed him images he was accused of spreading on Facebook, Jones said that most belonged to a different event group -- known as 'Pub Crawl' -- which had been shut down in November.

No date has been set for a verdict.

While Cambodia is a popular with foreign 'backpacker' tourists and boasts a free-wheeling nightlife, the Buddhist country is often strict when protecting local traditions or heritage sites.

Authorities banned skimpy clothing inside the Angkor Wat complex in 2016 and have previously deported foreigners for taking racy photos among the temple ruins, which are considered sacred.

Jones, 31, was among 10 foreigners arrested in January after police raided their bash. Pictured, the men in a Siem Reap prison

But the location of those violations was inside the ancient city, not in the adjoining town of Siem Reap, a popular party destination lined with bars catering to foreigners.

Defence lawyer Suong Sophea urged the judge to consider the impact on tourism when penning a verdict for Jones.

'If such activities are considered offences, it will affect the tourism in Cambodia,' he said.A millionaire banker is fighting to stop his wife divorcing him in England, claiming she plundered their joint account whilst hiding her intentions to leave him.

Catja Thum resolved to divorce financier husband, Oliver Thum, after she 'discovered he had taken his mistress to his office party and to Rome for her 40th birthday,' London's Appeal Court heard.

But Mr Thum, 46, who co-owns multi-million-pound private equity fund, Elvaston Capital, claims he had no idea his wife was divorcing him until three months after she lodged her petition in London in October 2015.

During that time she had 'appropriated' almost 800,000 from their Swiss bank accounts, he claims, including a 30,000 gold bar the banker says was his alone.

Catja Thum (right outside London's Appeal Court) resolved to divorce financier husband, Oliver Thum (left), after she 'discovered he had taken his mistress to his office party and to Rome for her 40th birthday,' London's Appeal Court heard

Mr Thum is now asking the Court of Appeal to halt his wife's bid to divorce him in England in its tracks, claiming it is invalid because he was not told about it until it was too late.

But his wife is blaming the delay in serving court documents on her husband's 'intense and repeated' bids to save their marriage and win her back.

The court heard the former couple were both born in Germany but moved to London in 2009, so their two sons could be educated at English schools.

They set up home in a 3m luxury four-bedroom, three-bathroom, apartment off Gloucester Road, in Kensington.

Mrs Thum, 46, who works as a homeopath as well as being a mother, filed for divorce on October 26 2015, two days after she 'discovered' that the banker had 'taken his mistress to the office party and to Rome for her 40th birthday,' her barrister, Martin Pointer QC, said.

Christopher Pocock QC, for the husband, however, says that he didn't know his wife was divorcing him until months later, in January 2016.

The very next day after his discovery, Mr Thum launched a bid to end the crumbling marriage in a German family court.

He is now fighting to strike out his wife's divorce petition in England, where she would be likely to receive a larger payout under famously generous UK divorce laws.

Mr Thum, 46, who co-owns multi-million-pound private equity fund, Elvaston Capital, claims he had no idea his wife was divorcing him until three months after she lodged her petition in London in October 2015

Mr Pocock told the court: 'She went to Switzerland where she withdrew money from accounts to which they both had access and removed items from their safety deposit box.

'It was only on that day that she, or anyone on her behalf, did anything at all in terms of service of her petition.

'On 19 January 2016 the wife travelled to Zurich and attempted to remove 1.774m from accounts in their joint names and the husband's name.

'In fact she was successful only to the extent of about 760,000. She also appropriated from the parties' safety deposit box a 1kg gold bar belonging to the husband and a memory stick containing data belonging to the husband's company.

'He was not informed in any way until that evening of January 19, when he lodged his petition in Germany.

'He was completely unaware that his wife had issued a petition,' Mr Pocock said, adding that the husband's own petition was issued in the German court the very next day after he found out about hers.

'The wife served her petition on him on February 27 in England. We say that was too late for the wife to cure her obvious failure.

'By that time the German court was seized (of the matter),' he argued.

'We say the wife simply waited and she waited too long,' added the QC.

But Mr Pointer said the delay in serving Mr Thum with the English petition was down to his desperate attempts to win back his wife.

'From October until Christmas 2015, the wife was subjected to intense and repeated pleas from the husband not to bring their marriage to an end, notwithstanding the wife's discovery of his extra-marital affair, and the wife was prevailed upon to reconsider before effecting service.

They set up home in a 3m luxury four-bedroom, three-bathroom, apartment off Gloucester Road, in Kensington

'Christmas intervened; she did not want to progress the suit then with the distress that would be engendered by formal service.

'A pause of the kind that occurred here and for the reasons that we have summarised does not, properly analysed, constitute a failure on the part of the wife to take steps she was required to take to have service effected on the husband.

'The passage of four months between the formal issue of the petition in England and its service on the husband cannot be interpreted as an abuse of process by the wife.

'There is a potent case for a more generous time being allowed, particularly if there is evidence that the spouses are genuinely attempting to repair the marriage,' he said.

He denied that the wife had appropriated money or property she was not entitled to or that she had engaged in 'tactical manoevring.'

Mr Pointer urged the Appeal Court to uphold a High Court ruling by Mr Justice Mostyn in November 2016 that the wife's petition is valid.

'There is one central finding of fact by Mr Justice Mostyn, namely that the wife has not been guilty of unreasonable delay.

'That is not a finding with which this court should properly interfere on appeal,' said the barrister.

The hearing, before Lady Justice King, Lord Justice David Richards and Lord Justice Moylan, continues.India and Pakistan have accused each others' security agents of a peculiar form of harassment - ringing the doorbells of each others' diplomatic residencies and then running away.

The tit-for-tat doorbell wars began when the bell of the Indian Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan was rung at 3 am, Bloomsberg correspondent Ian Marlow tweeted.

'Since the Indian side felt this was done by Pakistan's security agencies, the doorbell of the Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner in Delhi was also rung at 3 am a few days later,' he said.

Staff at the Indian high Commission in Islamabad have also complained of intimidation at the hands of agents from the host country

An Indian cyclist rides past the entrance to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi - Pakistan says that one its senior diplomats has been disturbed by late night doorbell ringing

India and Pakistan have had a volatile relationship over the last 70 years, with tensions especially high over the Kashmir dispute

What at first glance might seems a somewhat childish dispute between the two nuclear armed neighbours quickly escalated - in part because the two countries remain bitterly divided over the increasingly violent Kashmir dispute.

Pakistan's foreign ministry on Thursday said it it had called its top diplomat in India back home for consultations after allegations of harassment of Pakistani diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal says the decision was taken after Pakistani officials and their families in New Delhi reported maltreatment, such as being chased by motorcyclists who wanted to photograph them.

India is mired in conflict in the Himalayan region of Kashmir where roughly 500,000 soldiers are deployed

From barbed grins in a carefully synchronised daily flag ceremony to murderous exchanges across barbed wire in Kashmir, the India-Pakistan border is a 70-year-old scar that will not heal

Indians walk near a wall with marks of mortar shells that landed allegedly in recent firing from the Pakistan side of the border in Kanachack district of Jammu and Kashmir, India

'The total apathy and failure of the Indian Government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so,' he said.

He said that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian Government.

Islamabad also summoned an Indian diplomat in Pakistan in protest. India hasn't commented on the allegations but has made complaints of its own.

Faisal said on Thursday that the envoy, Sohail Mahmood, is expected to return this week.

India for its part has alleged that several Indian mission staffers in Islamabad have been severely 'harassed and intimidated'.

In a long list of grievances, it said that its High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, had been harassed by the Pakistani security agencies.

They are alleged to have recently stopped Bisarias car in the middle of a busy road to prevent him from attending a lunch in Karachi.

They also say that Indian diplomats in Pakistan have been subjected to lewd phone calls and messages in addition to unusually aggressive surveillance techniques.

Thew two countries have a history of bitter relations and often accuse each other's diplomatic staff of spying.

They also often trade fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both countries claim in its entirety.



A trio of upstate New York members of Congress is requesting a report examining the damage to Lake Ontario's shoreline last year.

U.S. Reps. Chris Collins, John Katko and Claudia Tenney have asked House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen to include language requiring the report in an upcoming omnibus spending bill. The language would authorize the State Department to assess damage to the shoreline and report on Plan 2014, a Lake Ontario water management plan administered by the International Joint Commission.

Flooding that occurred along Lake Ontario last year has been attributed to record rainfall. But some elected officials have blamed Plan 2014 for the high water levels.

"Together with Reps. Collins and Tenney, I am committed to ensuring shoreline property owners, municipalities, farmers and businesses are able to recover from the severe flooding our region faced in 2017," Katko, R-Camillus, said. "As part of this effort, it is critical that we take steps to assess the detrimental impact of Plan 2014 on communities along Lake Ontario. Doing so will help our local officials take action to mitigate future damages and increase preparedness."

Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}A school that gained notoriety for banning an 80s-inspired hairstyle called 'Meet Me At McDonalds' and putting a limit on students' bedtimes has been praised by Ofsted.

The Charter Academy in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, has proved controversial since it took over Great Yarmouth High School in September 2017.

New headteacher Barry Smith hit the headlines last month after sending a letter home to parents banning the flamboyant haircut for male pupils.

After the Inspiration academy trust took over last September, pupils were also banned from using mobile phones at school, ordered to walk in single file to lessons, be asleep by 9.30pm and up by 6.30am every day.

The Charter Academy in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk decided to ban the 80s-inspired 'Meet Me At McDonalds' hairstyle (pictured) as part of a no-nonsense behaviour crackdown

The Academy (pictured) has proved controversial since it took over Great Yarmouth High School in September 2017

But an unannounced Ofsted inspection on February 21 has revealed a 'significant' improvement in pupil behaviour.

Mr Smith introduced strict rules to encourage positive change after the school was rated inadequate by the schools regulator in October 2016.

It had previously reported some of the worst GCSE results, but inspectors have now found a 'considerable decline of serious misconduct' since the measures were introduced.

New headteacher Barry Smith (pictured) hit the headlines last month after sending a letter home to parents banning the flamboyant haircut for male pupils

Ofsted inspector Jason Howard said staff and pupils attributed the improvements to the new behaviour policy introduced by new headteacher Mr Smith.

He wrote: 'All of the large number of pupils who spoke with inspectors said that they now feel safe at school.

'Pupils moved around the school site in an orderly manner and behaved very politely and respectfully to their peers and to adults.

'They wore their uniform with pride, arrived at lessons promptly, and settled down to learning quickly.

'In all lessons visited, learning took place in a calm and orderly environment.

'Relationships between pupils and teachers were positive, and consequently pupils had the confidence to ask and to answer questions.

'Pupils behaved well, both when interacting with their teachers and when working on their own.

'As a result, they worked hard, completing tasks in a focused manner. During break periods, pupils socialised with each other amicably.

Celebrities to have sported a similar hairstyle include Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar (left) and Olly Alexander, the lead singer of the synthpop band Years & Years (right)

'Pupils and teachers told inspectors that behaviour has improved significantly and that, as one put it, 'today is just what things are like now'.'

What is the Meet Me At McDonald's hairstyle? The hairstyle dubbed the 'Meet me at McDonald's' originated from a social media trend poking fun at 'chavvy' attire worn by teens who meet up at the fast food giant. In 2015 a Twitter page posted an image of four youngsters with the cut, captioning it 'the Meet us at McDonald's haircut'. There is also a 2016 Facebook page dedicated to the trend, called 'meet me at mcdonalds hair cut.'[sic] The page posted an image of the 'starter pack' for the trend, featuring the hairstyle, an Adidas tracksuit and Nike trainers. Advertisement

The school was once the worst performing in Norfolk with around a third of pupils leaving without a pass in English and Maths in 2017.

The new rules also included a ban on children getting out of their chairs without permission.

A letter banning the McDonalds cut, which is short at the side and curly and long on top, was sent out to parents on February 26.

Mr Smith drew up another document saying: 'You never pretend to be ill to get out of work because we expect you to work through it.

'If you feel sick we will give you a bucket. If you vomit - no problem!'

Some parents described the new rules as 'draconian' and withdrew their children from the school.

But many others praised the measures and said they supported the bid to turn around the school.

An unannounced Ofsted inspection on February 21 has revealed a 'significant' improvement in pupil behaviour at the Charter Academy (pictured)

Ofsted revealed that a large number of pupils had said they previously felt 'unsafe at the school'.

Mr Howard added in his report: 'They described 'dangerous' behaviour in corridors and during breaks from lessons, including regular fights, and said that abusive language was very common.

'Pupils explained that, very often, serious disruption during lessons prevented them from learning anything at all.

'Some said that in the past, they had 'dreaded', and in consequence sometimes avoided, coming to school because of these fears.

'Teachers and other staff told inspectors that they often found it difficult to teach because behaviour was so poor, that they were frequently the target of verbal, and occasionally of physical abuse, and that at times they too felt unsafe.'

The Ofsted report said that the school's records also indicated 'a considerable decline' in repeated disruption, more serious misconduct, particularly since the beginning of the current term.

The letter, effective from February 26, banned the 'Meet Me At McDonalds' haircut on all boys

Mr Howard said the number of exclusions from school and cases of internal isolation were falling, although they remained too high as 'the behaviour of a small number of pupils has not improved.'

He added: 'These pupils are removed from lessons when necessary so that learning continues.

'Pupils said that typically sanctions deter poor behaviour on the part of others because they are enforced consistently and quickly.

Headteacher Mr Smith said: 'This report clearly sets out the improvements that have taken place at Charter, because pupils and staff are now working together.

'The Ofsted inspectors saw what we see everyday, which is our warm but strict approach making sure that pupils can learn and teachers can teach.'

The Ofsted inspectors concluded that the academy should continue to work on improving behaviour and attendance.James Bulger's mother says Parliament has 'finally listened' after agreeing to debate her son's murder and why his killer Jon Venables has been free to commit more offences.

Denise Fergus has welcomed the decision to discuss a 211,000-strong petition about the horrific case and is still calling for a public inquiry.

Ms Fergus is demanding answers to 'mysteries' surrounding the 1993 murder and killer Jon Venables' time in the prison system including decisions about his parole.

Venables and Robert Thompson were both 10 when they kidnapped, tortured and murdered two-year-old James in Liverpool 25 years ago.

Last month, Venables - who lives under a new identity - was convicted of possessing indecent images of children for a second time and jailed for three years and four months.

James Bulger's mother Denise says she hopes she can get 'some justice' for her son after a campaign forced a debate in Parliament

Fergus believes there is 'mystery' surrounding the case and wants information about her son's killers Jon Venables (pictured) and Robert Thompson to be made public

Mrs Fergus said: 'I am so happy that something positive is happening finally, on the eve of what would have been my James's 28th birthday tomorrow.

Robert Thompson has not reoffended since and is believed to have settled down with a long-term partner

'The Petition Committee have finally listened to the overwhelming support from the public.'

She added: 'I cannot thank all who have supported me through what has been a very frustrating and emotional fight and hope that now I will finally get justice for James.'

In its initial response to the petition, the Government said: 'The offender was convicted of further offences as a direct result of robust and effective monitoring.

'Therefore the Government considers that a public inquiry into this tragic case is not necessary.'

But a statement released by the Petitions Committee on Thursday said there would be a debate on the petition.

It said: 'We don't know yet when the debate will happen, because there's an active legal case that's relevant to the petition.

'Parliament avoids talking about cases that are active in the UK courts because that could interfere with the legal process.'

Denise Fergus believes there is 'mystery' surrounding the case and wants information about her son's killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson to be made public.

Two-year-old James Bulger is snatched during a shopping trip to the Strand shopping centre, in Bootle, Merseyside in 1993

After serving eight years in youth prisons, Venables and Robert Thompson were both released and given new identities without ever serving in an adult jail.

Thompson has not reoffended since and is believed to have settled down with a long-term partner.

But Jon Venables has received almost 260,000 in legal aid to fund a number of court cases after his original conviction and has been repeatedly sent back to prison over child porn.

He was also given 259,585 for judicial reviews, bids for new identities and an appeal against his sentence, a Freedom of Information request revealed.

Even though their son's killer has received thousands in taxpayer funds, the family of James Bulger have not received any legal aid.

Figures released by the Department of Justice revealed Venables was given almost 180,000 to appeal against his 15-year sentence, according to the Daily Mirror.

His applications for new identities reportedly cost the taxpayer 250,000, while two judicial reviews came to more than 22,000, the Mirror reported.

Venables served eight years for the kidnap, torture and murder, along with Robert Thompson, of two-year-old James in 1993, when they were just ten years old.

Earlier this year Ralph Bulger, 51, James' father, launched a legal challenge to Venables' lifelong anonymity after his son's killer was jailed after admitting charges of making indecent images of children and having a 'sickening paedophile's manual'.

The Old Bailey in London heard that he continues to pose a 'lifelong risk' and presents a 'high risk of serious harm to children'.

Venables was jailed for 40 months in February for hoarding child abuse images.

The 35-year-old could be freed in just 20 months even though the court heard he had downloaded 1,170 images and videos of youngsters being sexually abused while supposedly under the supervision of probation and police.

It was the second time he had been caught downloading child pornography following his release from jail in 2001

In 2010 Venables pleaded guilty to downloading and distributing child pornography and was jailed for two years.

For the past four years Venables has been living anonymously in a flat living a 'relatively normal life', with only local police and his probation workers knowing of his whereabouts and new identity.

It later emerged that he breached his licence conditions in 2015 by going online just weeks before a Sexual Harm Prevention Order preventing him from accessing the internet expired.

But secretly he was only handed a police caution rather than being taken to court. Then in July 2017, Venables started trawling the dark web for 'repulsive' images and videos depicting babies and young boys being brutally abused.

On a day he was being assessed by probation, he downloaded 1,170 images on a laptop hidden behind the headboard in his bedroom, including a paedophile manual providing 'graphic details' of how children can be 'trained' to 'endure increasingly extreme forms of sexual abuse'.

After he was caught last November, Venables said: 'This is my own fault. I have let people down again. I have had stupid urges.'Theories by physicists and cosmologists about the universe have been debated for centuries and have never really been set in stone. Except in Stephen Hawkings case.

The famed theoretical physicist, who passed away on March 14 in Cambridge, UK at age 76, wished to have his revolutionary Hawking radiation formula engraved on his tombstone, according to the New York Times.

Hawking originally proposed the theory in 1974 in the journal Nature and its since gone on to influence many scientists working in cosmology and physics for decades. The theory radically changed the way scientists believe black holes work and reshaped many theories about cosmology and astrophysics.

Professor Stephen Hawking gives a talk at George Washington University in April 2008

Heres a look at who Stephen Hawking was, what his Hawking radiation theory entails and a few other of his theories and predictions.

Who was Stephen Hawking?

Stephen Hawking was a renowned theoretical physicist who contributed greatly to science despite suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for decades.

Hawking was born in Cambridge, UK on January 8, 1942.

A brilliant student of science, Hawking attended Oxford University and graduated with a degree in natural sciences and later attended the University of Cambridge to obtain a masters degree and PhD.

He was diagnosed with ALS in at just 21 years old in 1963. Despite a dire prognosis of just two years to live, Hawking lived for decades and went on to contribute greatly to physics and cosmology.

Hawking broke ground with his revolutionary new theories on black holes and quantum mechanics and also served as the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology in Cambridge. In 1988, he published A Brief History of Time, which went on to become a global bestseller.

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time book went on to become a global bestseller

Though best-known for his brilliant mind and revolutionary theories regarding astrophysics, Hawking never shied away from making his political views known to the public. He repeatedly warned of the dangers of a Donald Trump presidency and advocated fiercely for laws to address climate change and expand universal healthcare.

Stephen Hawking's net worth was believed to be about $20 million (14.3m), largely the result of the sales of his bestselling book A Brief History of Time.

Hawking passed away in Cambridge, UK at age 76 on March 14, 2018, but not after contributing decades of brilliant new theories to the fields of cosmology and theoretical physics. He received many notable accolades in his lifetime, including the Fundamental Physics Prize in 2012 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 from former President Barack Obama.

President Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Stephen Hawking in 2009

What is the Hawking radiation theory?

Hawking radiation is the theory that electromagnetic radiation should be released by black holes due to quantum effects close to its event horizon, which essentially means that black holes would shrink and ultimately explode over time without any matter to consume.

The theory, when first proposed, went against the conventional scientific wisdom at the time, as scientists had believed that absolutely nothing could escape a black hole once sucked in. The Hawking radiation theory, however, contradicted this and sparked a debate that has raged for decades in the scientific community.

Hawkings groundbreaking theory was instrumental in reshaping how physicists see the larger universe and how matter interacts with black holes. Widely considered one of Hawkings greatest contributions to science, Hawking radiation is still extensively debated in the scientific community but has unquestionably moved many debates about the universe forward.

Stephen Hawking's predictions

In addition to his revolutionary contributions to astrophysics and cosmology, Hawking put forth a number of other scientific theories and predictions.

When not theorizing about the stars, many of Hawkings predictions were much closer to Earth and the ultimate fate of humanity. He was a staunch advocate for reducing the impact of climate change, which he predicted could turn Earth into an unbearably hot planet like Venus, and sharply criticized President Trump for withdrawing from the Paris Agreement in 2017.

In addition, Hawking also theorized that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence could eventually make the human race obsolete. He also believed that the effects of unchecked climate change and the cataclysmic threat of advanced weaponry could eventually be the downfall of the human race and that space colonization was one of humanitys few chances for survival.A rejected Afghani asylum seeker in Germany has been arrested for murdering his girlfriend because she refused to convert to Islam.

Ahmad G., 18, was appealing the decision to deport him when prosecutors say he snapped in a row over 18-year-old Mireille B.'s refusal to wear a headscarf.

Mireille is one of several young women who has died at the hands of refugee men in the country - crimes which have helped fuel the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

She was stabbed to death on Monday night in the northern city of Flensburg.

A rejected Afghani asylum seeker in Germany has been arrested for murdering his girlfriend Mirielle B. (pictured with Ahmad G.) because she refused to convert to Islam

A good friend of the family of Mireille told the popular daily newspaper Bild: 'Ahmad was a jealous rooster who always wanted to control her.

'They has been an item since January 2016 but there were constant rows. He insisted she convert to Islam and always wear a headscarf.

'She wasn't sure. Whenever she went scarfless there was trouble.

'Mi told me that he fled alone from Afghanistan and had a great longing for his family. He's supposed to have a job in a civil engineering company.

'Once when I met with her he called her every two minutes on her phone demanding to know what was happening.'

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, Ahmad G. arrived in 2015 as an unaccompanied fugitive to Germany.

'His application for asylum was rejected. However, he had appealed against it,' said Clemens Teschendorf, spokesman for the city of Flensburg.

The murdered girl lived alone in the small apartment in which she was killed.

The killer has reportedly admitted that a final row about Islam and the headscarf led to her death.A spokesperson for Anderson Cooper has confirmed that he has split from his longtime boyfriend Ben Maisani after it was revealed he had taken at least five trips to Dallas where he has been spending time with 33-year-old doctor Victor Lopez.

'Benjamin and I separated as boyfriends some time ago. We are still family to each other, and love each other very much,' said Cooper in a statement.

'We remain the best of friends, and will continue to share much of our lives together.'

Cooper and Maisani do appear to still be living together, and were photographed leaving their Greenwich Village home together just two days ago on their way to the gym.

Going their separate ways: A rep for Anderson Cooper has confirmed to DailyMail.com that the journalist, 50 has split from his longtime boyfriend Ben Maisani, 45 (Cooper and Maisani above on Saturday)

New friend: Cooper has made at least five weekend trips to Dallas since December 20, where he spends time with radiologist Victor Lopez (Cooper and Lopez above in a photo posted on January 8 in Dallas)

Going strong: Cooper and Maisani were seen leaving the home they share together on Tuesday despite their split (above)

Swole twins: 'Benjamin and I separated as boyfriends some time ago. We are still family to each other, and love each other very much,' said Cooper in a statement (Cooper left and Maisani right on Tuesday as they left home at same time)

Big day: Cooper is pictured with Lopez in photos posted to social media from January and February, when he attended a 33rd birthday party for his new friend (Cooper and Lopez above on February 17 at Lopez's birthday)

Cooper was first spotted in Dallas the weekend before Christmas, staying at a luxury hotel where he was unable to avoid bumping into at least one excited couple, who snapped a photo with the on-air personality.

He stayed put in New York City over the holidays due to his annual New Years Eve hosting duties on CNN, but was back in Texas the following weekend.

That is when Lopez posted the first image of the two men together, which showed them sitting together in a car.

Lopez captioned the photo by writing: 'Weekend vibes.'

The young doctor appears to have been a fan of Cooper from even before they met, with his Instagram handle having formerly been Victoro360, which is similar to the title of Cooper's CNN show Anderson 360.

He changed it however in February to Victoro001.

He then managed to combine both work and play on the weekend of January 15 when he took Lopez along with him on a trip to New Orleans.

Cooper was there to shoot a 60 Minutes segment on the removal of monuments honoring Confederate leaders, and Lopez shared a photo of the two men inside a room at their hotel.

Lopez took that photo while laying on the couch and it shows his sneakers and Coopers smiling face as he sits in a chair wearing a suit with his notepad.

So tell me about your week, wrote Lopez, joking that it appeared as though he was at a therapists office.

Relaxing: Lopez posted a photo of himself in Cooper's hotel room when he joined him in New Orleans on January 13 as he filmed a 60 Minutes segment (Lopez's post above when he was still Victoro360)

Hanging with friends: Lopez and Cooper were also seen with his 60 Minutes producer Keith Sharman in the lobby of their hotel in New Orleans (above)

Letting loose: Lopez later posted a photo of himself wearing Mardi Gras beads to his Instagram Story (above) that was taken in his hotel room

The two men were also spotted by an excited visitor that weekend, who snapped a picture of the two in the lobby of their hotel as they and Cooper's 60 Minutes producer Keith Sharman spoke to an older gentleman in a suit and another woman.

Lopez later posted a photo of himself wearing Mardi Gras beads to his Instagram Story that was taken in his hotel room.

Two weeks after that Cooper was again in Dallas with Lopez, with the two men grabbing a meal at a local pizza chain.

Quick trip: On January 27, Cooper and Cohen performed their AC2 show at the Beacon Theater in New York City, with Copper's boyfriend Maisani in attendance (Cohen and Cooper with Dolores Catinia and Maisani over Cohen's shoulder to the right)

And he's off: Two days later, the manager at the Dallas pizzeria Cane Rosso posted a photo of himself with Cooper (above)

Trading places: Maisani caused tongues to wag after he was spotted kissing another man in Central Park back in 2012 (above)

That outing was reported on by one excited birthday girl and their server, who both noted on social media that seeing Cooper was a highlight of their day.

One of the women was also able to confirm that Cooper was in fact with Lopez at the restaurant.

Cooper even agreed to pose for a picture with the manager, though Lopez did not join him in the photo.

That trip came after Cooper had performed his AC2 show in New York City alongside Andy Cohen, with his live in Maisani one of the guests in attendance.

The next stop on that tour was in Boston, and Lopez did the travelling that time, heading up to Boston to watch Cooper perform and posting photos from the audience.

The show was in Boston on the night of February 10th, and the doctor posted a selfie flying home from Boston on February 11th.

Fly the friendly skies: Lopez shared this selfie on his changed Instagram account flying home from Boston on February 11th, the day after Cooper played a show in the same city

Friends and family: Cooper also posed up with Lopez's friends in a photo taken during his birthday weekend (above)

Out and about: Cooper did not acknowledge his relationship with Maisani until May of 2015 when he posted a photo of the two men on Instagram, writing: I guess when you're with someone a long time, you start to pose alike' (Instagram photo above)

And a week after that Cooper was in Dallas for Lopezs big birthday bash, photos of which were posted to social media and showed the two men smiling together in photos alone and with the doctors group of friends.

Cooper appears to have become nervous about the public exposure at some point however, with Lopez deleting some posts around this time and then switching his social media accounts to private.

He has also been seen getting cozy with another attractive gentleman in recent photos, suggesting that he and Cooper may just be friends or their fling is over.

These photos fueled speculation that Cooper may have called it quits with Maisani after nine years with the gay club proprietor

That did not initially seem to be the case, with Maisani, 45, accompanying Cooper to the 2018 Windward School Benefit in New York City where the Anderson 360 host was one of the honorees just this past weekend.

Travel buddy: The couple are frequently seen with friends Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos (above in October 2016 celebrating Ripa's birthday)

Open: Maisani was spotted kissing another man back in 2012 while dating Cooper, leading some to believe the men have an open relationship (Cooper and Maisani above in Venice last May)

DailyMail.com has also learned that Maisani is still living with Cooper in the converted firehouse he purchased for just over $4million back in 2009 in Manhattans Greenwich Village.

That is also the same year the two began dating, though the notoriously guarded Cooper did not officially acknowledge the relationship until May of 2015 when he posted a photo of the two men on Instagram, writing: I guess when you're with someone a long time, you start to pose alike.

Since that time however he has become incredibly open about his relationship, and even did a spread in the August 2016 issues Architectural Digest showing off the home he and Maisani own in a remote section of Brazil.

The men split their time between that vacation home, their Manhattan firehouse and Coopers growing Hamptons compound.

Cooper dropped $1.7million back in 2012 to buy the 2.4 acre property next door to his home in the village of Quogue.

Shortly after, Cooper picked up another property in Connecticut, shelling out approximately $8million for a 10,127-square-foot Tudor revival in Litchfield.

Red hot: Cooper and Maisani live in a converted firehouse in Greenwich Village (above) which Cooper purchased in 2009 around the time they began dating

Estate sale: The couple also has a massive Tudor estate in Connecticut that Cooper paid $8 million for in 2012 (above)

Out east: Cooper has combined two properties in the Hamptons (above) into a miniature compound for himself and Maisani

Those three vacation homes have been getting little use of recent however as their owner spends his free time in the Longhorn State.

Cooper and Maisani certainly spent plenty of time together last year, taking a trip to Venice in May and heading out to Bali in July as guests on Eos, the 305 foot sailing yacht owned by Barry Diller and wife Diane Von Furstenberg.

Cooper made multiple work trips to Dallas prior to meeting Lopez, including one in November where he was the keynote speaker at an AT&T event.

He and Cohen were also in the city with their AC2 tour the first weekend of December.

That could very well have been where he met Lopez, with Cohen meeting his former boyfriend Clifton Dassuncao after the Harvard PhD student attended the pair's show in Boston back in 2015.A man and woman, who are believed to be undocumented, were killed in a car crash on Tuesday while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California.

Santo Hilario Garcia 35, and Marcelina Garcia Profecto, 33, both Mexican nationals, leave behind their six children ranging in age from 8 to 18 years old.

The Delano Police Department said officers responded to the crash scene at the 3000 Block of West Cecil Avenue shortly before 7am on Tuesday.

Authorities said upon arrival they found the SUV upside down on its roof with the couple still inside.

Santo Hilario Garcia 35, and Marcelina Garcia Profecto (pictured together), 33, who are believed to be undocumented, were killed in a car crash on Tuesday while fleeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in California

They leave behind their six children ranging in age from 8 to 18 years old. A few of their children are seen at the crash site

The United Farm Workers and several other churches and organizations are working to provide support for the children (pictured), but their future remains uncertain

The vehicle had been traveling at a high rate of speed when the driver drove onto the dirt shoulder and lost control, according to the department.

Police said the SUV hit a power pole before coming to a stop. Garcia and Profecto were pronounced dead at the scene.

According to Fox 26, ICE agents arrived at the couple's home because they had reason to believe that a Mexican citizen was living in the US without legal permission.

The agents claimed the male matching the target's description ran from the home and drove away.

The agents then attempted to stop their vehicle by activating their emergency lights.

According to the agents, the driver initially pulled over, but fled after the agents exited their vehicle. It's unclear if ICE continued to pursue the couple after the initial stop.

On Wednesday, family and friends gathered at the crash site, where they created a makeshift memorial for the couple.

Arturo Rodriguez, the president of United Farm Workers (UFW), said the couple left their home Tuesday morning, searching for work.

On Wednesday, family and friends gathered at the crash site, where they created a makeshift memorial for the couple

Arturo Rodriguez, the president of United Farm Workers (UFW), said the couple left their home Tuesday morning, searching for work

The vehicle had been traveling at a high rate of speed when the driver drove onto the dirt shoulder and lost control, according to the department

'When they learned they were ice agents, because of their legal status, they became very scared and as a result they took off and eventually had a crash here on Cecil avenue,' Rodriguez told KGET.

Rodriguez said that as far as he knows 'Santos and Marcelina were law abiding folks,' who came to the US to work.

'They had not committed any crimes any major crimes other than the fact that they came here because they could not gain legal status in any other particular way,' he added.

Family members said the couple had been in the US for 15 years and were farmworkers.

The UFW and several other churches and organizations are working to provide support for the children, but their future remains uncertain.

According to Rodriguez, the oldest daughter is 18 and has a young child of her own.

'She doesn't know what's going to happen to her siblings, to her brothers and sisters right now so they're all just trying to figure out, what are the next steps,' Rodriguez told the station.

The Delano Police Department and its Traffic Division are conducting the collision investigation.

Police said the SUV hit a power pole before coming to a stopAubrey Lane (pictured) says she was raped by a drunk man who was seated next to her on a flight from Phoenix to New York City in June

A Colorado woman has told the harrowing story of how she was raped on a red eye flight by a passenger who flight attendants continued to serve alcohol even after he boarded the plane drunk.

Aubrey Lane, a 31-year-old married mother-of-one, says she was assaulted on a flight from Phoenix to New York City on June 16.

Lane was traveling to the Big Apple for a family trip, but the vacation was ruined before she even got there by a passenger who was seated next to her on the overnight flight.

She says the passenger appeared drunk the moment he took his seat next to her, and she could smell the alcohol on his breath.

'My first thought was this guy's drunk. He was super chatty,' Lane said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News. 'I've flown a lot. I'm used to people saying hello. This is the most anyone has sat down and started talking to me.'

Despite this, she says the flight attendants continued to serve him alcohol throughout the flight.

A few hours into the flight, Lane says she got up to use the restroom.

She says the man got up and followed her into the bathroom where he raped her.

Lane immediately reported the incident to flight attendants, who moved her to a seat at the back of the plane.

American Airlines tried to pay Lane $5,000 to settle her lawsuit. She did not take the offer. Above, an American Airlines flight in Washington, DC

'I was feeling overwhelmed ... all of a sudden, I was thrown in a middle seat, bawling. On top of being sad and hurt and scared, I was also embarrassed,' Lane said.

When they landed at JFK Airport, authorities were called to meet the plane at the gate, but only to take Lane to the hospital.

Her alleged attacker was not taken into custody and to this day she still doesn't know his name.

Because the incident happened in the air, it is up to the FBI to investigate and prosecute.

Agents were dispatched to the hospital where they interviewed Lane, but she says the case had gotten nowhere.

Paul Hudson, the president of the consumer advocate group Flyers Rights, says this isn't surprising, since the FBI doesn't consider assaults its top priority.

'What we're hearing from people is the U.S. Attorneys don't want to prosecute [and] don't have time for these things,' Hudson said. 'Often they are misdemeanors or are "he said, she said." That's not what they do. They're into terrorism and drug cases.'

Frustrated with the response, Lane is now looking into suing American Airlines.

Her attorneys say the airline was negligent for letting the drunk man board the plane and continuing to serve him drinks.

American responded to her attorneys in a letter in December, offering to give her a $5,000 payout. She has not accepted that offer.

When contacted by the Dallas Morning News, American spokesman Ross Feinstein refused to comment on the specifics of the case, but issued this statement: 'We want all of our customers to feel safe on our aircraft. We care deeply when we hear of these types of cases...our team offers investigative support as needed to federal, state and local law enforcement.'

He later added that the airline was sorry for not reaching out to Lane immediately after the assault to assure her they were taking the investigation seriously.

'We want to apologize that we missed the mark on assuring Ms Lane how seriously we take her complaint,' Feinstein said.

Lane is speaking out in hopes that American Airlines and other carriers improve their policies for addressing in-flight assaults.

'I'm coming out now because [American] hasn't made it evident it wants to change this,' Lane said. 'What's going to stop this from happening again unless I make a big fuss about it?'

Lane's family picked her up at the hospital after the assault, and her husband even flew out to comfort her on the trip - getting a last minute babysitter for their two-year-old son.

In the eight months since the assault, Lane says she's been inundated with bills for counselors and she's stopped working as a real estate brokers' associate because she doesn't want to be alone with strangers.

She has also moved across the state to be closer to her husband, who is in the military.

'It's caused stress on every level. It's hurt my job, my homelife,' she said. 'It's affected every single part of my life.'A Chinese policeman was hailed a hero after catching a distraught woman plunging off a window with bare hands.

Dramatic footage shows a woman sitting at a window ledge at about three metres high (9.8ft) and accidentally fell off the building.

The brave policeman suffered spinal compression fractures. The woman did not sustain any injuries.

A woman, circled, was sitting at a ledge on the first floor of a foot massage parlour in China

She fell off the window suddenly and policeman Abulati rushed to fetch her with bare hands

The incident took place in Kuqa county of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, northwest China, on March 4.

Police officer Abdusalam Abulati and his colleagues were patrolling near a foot massage parlour at around 4am.

Footage shows a woman sitting dangerously outside a window on first floor as the policemen tried to look for rescue equipment.

The woman, who was said to have an quarrel with her husband, suddenly fell off the building.

The policeman is knocked down by the force when the woman fell on top of him

The woman was saved by the policeman and did not sustain any injuries

But the policeman was sent to hospital with fractures in the spine

Officer Abulati rushed to fetch the woman with bare hands.

'I didn't too much and just rush to save her,' he told Pear Video.

The woman fell on top of the policeman and knocked him down instantly.

The woman was not injured but the policeman had to send into hospital.

Officer Abulati suffered spinal compression fracture and is covering after having treatment.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.The Queen has given her formal consent to the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - using their real names, Henry and Rachel.

In a letter to the Privy Council, the monarch expressed her approval of the upcoming wedding between her 'most dearly beloved grandson' and his fiancee, 36.

A similar letter was signed by Her Majesty just one week before the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

At a Privy Council meeting on Wednesday, the monarch made the declaration and will have signed a Great Seal of the Realm.

The Queen (left) has given her formal consent to the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured together, right)

In a letter to the Privy Council, the monarch expressed her approval of the upcoming wedding between her 'most dearly beloved grandson' and his fiancee, 36

It read: 'I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle, which Consent I am causing to be signified under the Great Seal and to be entered in the Books of the Privy Council.'

The first six people in the line of succession must have the Queen's consent before they can marry on May 19, as set out by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.

Should Prince Harry have married Meghan without the monarch's approval, he and his descendants would be banned from ever ascending to the throne.

The act's introduction saw sex removed as a determining factor in the line of succession, meaning Prince Harry is fifth-in-line behind Princess Charlotte.

A monarch's permission has been sought for those in the line of succession since the 18th century.

Under the Royal Marriages Act 1772, all descendants of George II had to obtain the sovereign's agreement before they wed, otherwise the marriage was invalid.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: Her Majesty finally gave consent to the marriage of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle under the Succession to the Crown Act by making a declaration at the meeting of the Privy Council on March 14, 2018.

The announcement comes as it was revealed Prince Harry took Meghan Markle to a secret meeting with traumatised war veterans that he says 'shocked us to our core'.

The 33-year-old  who himself served two tours on the frontline in Afghanistan - told how over the years he has seen his own forces buddies 'suffer, struggling to seek out the help they desperately need'.

A few weeks ago he took Meghan, 36, to meet other former service men and women trying to get care for crippling mental health problems, as he was keen to introduce her to a side of his public work that held such enormous personal resonance.

The pair visited Colchester Garrison, in Essex, where they spent time at The North Essex Veterans Mental Health Network away from the cameras and glare of publicity.

The former actress, who will become his wife on May 19 at Windsor Castle, has herself been holding private meetings with charities as she prepares to carve out her own role in 'The Firm'.

The announcement comes as it was revealed Prince Harry (shown today, right) took Meghan Markle to a secret meeting with traumatised war veterans that he says 'shocked us to our core'

Harry said: 'Some of the stories Meghan and I heard when we visited Colchester Garrison a few weeks ago shocked us to our core.'

His comments, made in a keynote speech at the Veterans Mental Health Conference at Kings College London, came as he insisted 'military service is enriching and good for society'.

Harry first served in Afghanistan as a forward air controller while serving in the Blues and Royals.

During his second tour, he later admitted to killing a Taliban commander as the co-pilot gunner on a fearsome Apache helicopter.

But the prince said one of the most troubling aspects of his experience in the military was watching his brothers in arms see their mental health deteriorate and struggle to find help.

The groom-to-be said: 'For me, this issue is personal. My time in the Army gave me the strongest respect for everyone who wears the uniform.

'It is a community I am proud to belong to, and I will always seek out anyway that I can to support it.

Prince Harry delivers a keynote speech at the annual Veterans Mental Health Conference at Kings College London today

'I have seen those I have served with suffer, struggling to seek out the help they desperately need.

'And we know there are more just like them who continue to suffer in silence.

'And when the individual doesn't or can't reach out for help, it is also their families who suffer; especially their spouses and children, who are left feeling desperate and confused as they try to seek appropriate help for the ones they love.'

The project Harry and Meghan went to see in Essex is designed to give veterans all the help they need in one place.

At a Privy Council meeting on Wednesday, the monarch made the declaration and will have signed a Great Seal of the Realm

It is part of a partnership called TILS, the Transition, Intervention and Liaison Services, which brings various health bodies together under one roof.

The intention is to create a 'one stop shop' - so that service men and women get the full help available without getting lost in the system.

Harry said: 'Meghan and I recently visited The North Essex Veterans Mental Health Network and we got to see the amazing work they are doing in Colchester.

'They have produced a seamless journey for veterans, with centrally held case management that results in transitional, not transactional movement across care services.

'This style of service has been adopted by NHS England and is now in operation across a number of health trusts across the country.'

He added: 'Our experiences show that employers value veterans and we want to push that message that they are incredible assets to any business.

'Any employer would be lucky to have them as part of your team  and that's a fact.

'Serving your country makes you a better person for your family, community and country; increased confidence, discipline, teamwork, loyalty, and the ability to realise huge potential in yourself.'Even if adult film star Stormy Daniels can't be released from the non-disclosure agreement she signed, she could be forced to talk about her alleged affair with President Trump in a deposition related to a court case.

Trump's longtime personal lawyer paid Daniels $130,000 through an LLC he set up in exchange for an agreement not to discuss her relationship with Trump or share any texts or images she may have.

He also went to an arbitrator seeking to enjoin her from speaking about anything to do with the relationship.

Cohen is also party to another lawsuit: he is suing BuzzFeed for its publication of the infamous golden showers dossier that makes salacious claims about Trump and claims the Russians had compromising material on him.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels could be forced to talk about her alleged affair with President Trump in a deposition related to a court case

BuzzFeed's lawyer has now written Daniels' attorney requesting she preserve any records connected to her relationship with Trump, Politico reported.

Attorney Katherine Bolger wrote Michael Avenatti, Daniels' attorney, saying that DAniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) is 'likely in possession of documents that are potentially relevant' to the lawsuit against her client.

She asked Daniels to preserve 'any documents or electronically stored information' about payments by Cohen or documents about the payment or her interactions with Cohen.

She also asks Daniels to preserve 'all documents or communications about any relationship and/or sexual encounter(s) Ms. Clifford had, and/or was alleged to have had, with President Trump.'

The dossier claims Cohen met operatives in Europe including in Prague for a meeting to 'clean up the mess' stemming from Trump associates' ties to Russia.

Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, is suing Buzzfeed over publication of the dossier, which he says includes false information about him including claiming he took a trip to Prague

Donald Trump and porn Stormy Daniels aka Stephanie Clifford pose together in 2006; the White House says he already won a case in arbitration against her and that he's denied the accusations of an affair

TICK TOCK: Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, tweeted out an image of his client flanked by himself and Anderson Cooper, who interviewed her for '60 Minutes'

Cohen, who filed a $100 million suit against the publication, says he has never even been to the Czech Republic and revealed his passport had no stamp showing he had been there.

Nevertheless, in defending the publication, Buzzfeed's lawyer appears to be looking for corroborating information that Cohen acted as Trump's fixer.

If Cohen engaged in certain patterns and practices, such as using a certain bank or process to try to contain damaging information, it could speak to his reputation or the substantial truth of what is contained in the dossier.

Lawyers in the case could try to depose Daniels, which may provide a back door way for her to discuss details of her relationship and the agreement she would otherwise be barred from undertaking.

A judge in the case would have to rule on any subpoena that gets issued.

Daniels is suing Trump in a California court to try to undue or declare void her NDA.

Cohen's lawyer, David Schwartz, said he would likely fight the effort to dig into the Daniels matter, which he characterized as unrelated to the dossier.

'Certainly at the appropriate time there'll be a fight in court as to limitations in discovery in this case,' he told Politico. 'We want a very narrow view of discovery for many different reasons,' he said."Even as the muscle die, the cognitive abilities of the brain remain intact, so the patient retains complete mental faculties, which makes it very difficult for them," he said.

The disease can happen at any age, but is more common in people above the age of 55.

"It is more common in men than women. To date, the cause is not known, but genetic factors or, perhaps, an infection may play a role," he said.

Few people survive beyond a decade.

"There are medicines that slow the progression of the disease and certain medical procedures like ventilator support or feeding tube help in prolonging life, but there is no cure," said Dr Vineet Suri, neurologist at Indraprastha Apollo hospital.

In India, ALS affects around 5 persons per 100,000, with men twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease, according to the Foundation for Research on Rare diseases and Disorders.

Treating ALS

Two medicines can delay the progression of the disease.An elderly great grandmother's rings were stolen from her family home while she was in hospital days after suffering a fall.

Georgie King said her grandmother, Carmel King, is still in hospital weeks after the family realised the five rings had been stolen from the home near Manly, New South Wales.

Mervyn King, 85, gave his wife the precious rings throughout their 65 years of marriage and has been left devastated.

Georgie King (centre) is devastated that her grandmother's five rings were stolen from their home near Manly, NSW, while she was in hospital (Mervyn King left and Carmel King right)

Mr King, 85, gave his wife the precious rings throughout their 65 years of marriage and has been left devastated (pictured together when Mr King gave Mrs King an eternity ring which was among the rings stolen)

'When pa realised he broke down in tears. He was absolutely devastated,' Ms King told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday (pictured one of the rings stolen)

'When pa realised he broke down in tears. He was absolutely devastated,' Ms King told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

'He is distressed about the loss of the symbol of their marriage and commitment being stolen.'

The heartbroken family suspects her grandmother's carers may have taken the rings, worth about $10,000, because they were among the few who knew the 83-year-old was hospitalised.

'My nana is also unwell and will not live much longer,' Ms King said.

'My nan has dementia and has had a stroke, so she had carers coming in daily to help shower and dress her.

'We aren't sure if she was home or not at the time the rings were stolen, or if they waited until she left for hospital.'

The couple had seven children through the 1950s and '60s but money was so scarce, Mrs King did not have an engagement ring for years.

'Later in the marriage they got their first ring together and that was one of the ones stolen,' Ms King said.

The heartbroken family suspects her grandmother's carers may have taken the rings, worth about $10,000 (pictured), because they were among the few who knew she was hospitalised

The 18 carot gold ring has seven diamonds which represent each of their children, making it one of the most precious possessions among those that were was stolen (pictured)

Ms King said her grandmother, who has 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, dedicated her life to social work and helped those who were less fortunate

Another ring stolen was an eternity ring given to Mrs King by her husband in the 1990s to celebrate their 40 years of marriage.

The 18 carot gold ring has seven diamonds which represent each of their children, making it one of the most precious possessions among those that were was stolen.

'We actually havent told her they have been stolen as we all fear it could make her so distraught it would affect her health,' Ms King said.

'She has spoken proudly of handing her rings down as heirlooms when she passed.

'Its so hard to know that such an important part of my nan and her life has been stolen.'

Ms King said her grandmother, who has 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, dedicated her life to social work and helped those who were less fortunate.

'We actually havent told her they have been stolen as we all fear it could make her so distraught it would affect her health,' Ms King said (pictured are some of the rings stolen)

'Its so hard to know that such an important part of my nan and her life has been stolen,' Ms King said (pictured Mr and Mrs King far left with granddaughter Brigit on her wedding day)

'I know that the chance of getting the rings back is so minimal ... but to know that so many people will know and care about what happened brings us all comfort,' Ms King said.

The rings stolen also include a yellow gold engagement ring with four diamonds, a white gold dress ring with a sapphire oval and small diamonds, a yellow gold dress ring with small rubies and a gold dress ring with a jade.

The rings are thought to have been stolen between February 27 and March 4 at the elderly couple's home in Balgowlah, NSW, and authorities are investigating.This footage shows the wartime spirit of King George VI and The Queen Mother as they walk through the streets of London following a Luftwaffe attack during the Blitz.

King George VI and his wife and mother of Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, can be seen visiting some of the worst-hit sites and greeting residents.

The video has re-emerged ahead of the anniversary of the day the first British person was killed during a WWII German aid raid, which is tomorrow.

It shows the destruction caused by the attacks as firefighters desperately fight the huge blazes which engulfed the Capital between September 1940 and May 1941.

The distressing footage was taken on an unknown date during the attacks which came to be known as the Blitz.

Other clips from the compilation show London the day after an air strike where huge areas of the city were levelled to the ground.

King George VI and The Queen Mother walk through the streets of London following a Luftwaffe attack during the Blitz

King George VI and his wife and mother of Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, can be seen visiting some of the worst-hit sites and greeting residents

Although the widespread German bombing of London didn't properly occur until September 1940, other parts of Britain were targeted before this.

One of these areas was the Orkney Islands, where Scapa Flow local James Isbiester became the first British victim in March 1940.

This was because it was Britain's main naval base at the start of the war due to its distance from German airfields.

The clip shows the war-time spirit of the royals who visited the site of the areas hit in a Luftwaffe attack

Remembering the tragedy, the Herald wrote: The folk of Orkney will be quietly remembering James Isbister, a 27-year-old road labourer who died almost exactly a year earlier [than the attacks in 1941].

'He was killed when a string of high explosive and incendiary devices tore through the cluster of cottages in the parish of Stenness during a raid by Heinkel bombers on warships anchored in Scapa Flow. This little-remembered tragedy occurred on March 16, 1940.

'When the bombs started to fall James Isbister was at home with his wife Lily and baby son Neil, who now lives in Kirkwall. Across the road a bomb blew apart the house occupied by Mrs Isabella McLeod. James ran to her aid but collapsed a few feet from his own front door, struck down by a shower of shrapnel.

The video shows the destruction caused by the attacks as firefighters desperately fight the huge blazes which engulfed the Capital between September 1940 and May 1941

The distressing footage was taken on an unknown date during the attacks which came to be known as the Blitz

'The attack was over in minutes and although others were injured, including Mrs McLeod who crawled from the shattered remains of her home, James Isbister was the only fatality.'

The Blitz was a German bombing offensive against Britain during the Second World War which ran from September 7, 1940 to May 11, 1941. The term was first used by the British press as an abbreviation of Blitzkrieg (lightening war).

After failing to gain air superiority during the Battle of Britain, Hitler turned his attention to breaking the will of the British people, targeting industrial areas such as London and Coventry.

32,000 civilians lost their lives during the Blitz, with 87,000 seriously injured. The bombings also saw two million homes destroyed, with famous landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Chamber of the House of Commons all sustaining damage.

Other clips from the compilation show London the day after an air strike where huge areas of the city were levelled to the ground

The Blitz was a German bombing offensive against Britain during the Second World War which ran from September 7, 1940 to May 11, 1941Robert de Niro is famous for his searing criticisms of President Donald Trump and on Tuesday, March 13 2018, the Godfather actor revealed he has no intention to stop.

At a charity event for the Fulfillment Fund, an organisation seeking to help youths reach higher education, in Los Angeles, de Niro made a speech in which he attacked Trump.

A college education is important, but education without humanity is ignorance. Look at our president. He made it through University of Pennsylvania, so he was exposed to a quality education, but hes still an idiot, the veteran actor said.

Robert de Niro branded Donald Trump an 'idiot' at a charity dinner in Los Angeles on March 13

He went on to promise to speak out against Trump at any function he attends: Now Im not trying to turn this non-political event into a political one, but as long as our countrys leadership is so appalling and so corrupt, Ill be speaking out at every venue.

To be silent in the face of such villainy is to be complicit, and its especially appropriate tonight because Trump treats education as a con, a way to make a profit at the expense of the suckers.

Branding Trump an idiot is perhaps one of the nicer ways that Robert de Niro has described the president. The actor famously said that he would like to punch Trump in the face during the 2016 US election.

In January 2018, at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala, the two-time Oscar-winner called Trump a 'f***ing fool', 'baby-in-chief' and 'jerk-off-in-chief'.

Education without humanity is ignorance. Look at our President. -- Robert De Niro pic.twitter.com/1EcdQeSUbA  Tara Bitran (@tarabitran) March 14, 2018

The following month, de Niro slammed Trump's climate policy, telling an audience in Dubai that he was visiting from a backwards country thats currently suffering from temporary insanity.

He said at the time: 'I am talking about my own country, the United States of America. We don't like to say we are a "backward" country so let's just say we're suffering from a case of temporary insanity.'

De Niros most recent comments come at a particularly difficult time for Trump. The Mueller investigation is ongoing and has now issued its first set of indictments in the Trump-Russia probe.

Then there is the Stormy Daniels lawsuit, potentially explosive 60 Minutes interview and the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, not to mention the high profile resignation of White House aide Hope Hicks.

The Taxi Driver actors attack on Trump comes just a day after protesters in California took to the streets to protest against the Presidents first official visit to the state. Nearly 200 people marched in San Diego, where Trump was scheduled to make a stop on Monday morning.

I don't want him, his hateful rhetoric, his hateful administration, any of his policies in my state, in my country, said one protester.Adetokunbo O. Akinnaso, the director of Dawn to Dusk Christian Childcare and Learning Center, has been charged with two counts of cruelty or neglect of children

The administrator of a New Jersey preschool has been arrested after brandishing a knife at two four-year-old children she was disciplining, police have said.

Adetokunbo O. Akinnaso, the director of Dawn to Dusk Christian Childcare and Learning Center, has been charged with two counts of cruelty or neglect of children, the Union County Prosecutor's Office said.

Neither of the children was hurt during the episode at the Plainfield school.

Ronald Bolandi, interim superintendent of Plainfield school district, said the director had been removed 'immediately' and 'will not be returning to the school', according to NJ.com.

He added: 'This requirement was necessary in order for the owner to continue her contract with the district.'

Bolandi also said: 'Although our day care centers are privately owned and we are not involved in the hiring of the staff, we do provide the resources necessary for our students to attend the centers.'

Akinnaso, 64, of Sicklerville, was arrested on Tuesday before being released.

Her first appearance in court is scheduled for April 2.

'We will be in communication with the family to provide support to the children involved and will continue to communicate with our families at the center throughout this process,' Bolandi said.

Neither of the children was hurt during the episode at the Plainfield school, Dawn to Dusk Christian Childcare and Learning Center (pictured)

'Our main focus will be to provide the best services to our students.'

The case is being investigated by the Special Victims Unit, as overseen by the county prosecutor's office.

Akinnaso could face 18 months in jail if found guilty of the charges.The widow of a NSW police sergeant who took his life after developing post-traumatic stress disorder said she received messages from her husband's colleague blaming her for his suicide.

Last month, four years after Tom Galvin took his life, his widow Kimberly Galvin said she received a text message from one of his colleagues blaming her for his death, she told 7 News.

'It was like that person was trying to make me feel that I had murdered my husband,' Mrs Galvin said.

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Kimberly Galvin (pictured), the widow of a NSW police sergeant Tom Galvin who took his life in 2013 said she received messages from her husband's colleague blaming her for his suicide

'How does it feel to be the person who pushed a broken man over the edge? Hang your head in shame,' Mrs Galvin said the messages read.

Her daughter was also allegedly called insulting names.

The officer behind the messages won't be named but Mrs Galvin said they are still serving at Penrith Police Station and she believes the officer should be removed from their position.

'This is hard, this is very hard,' she said.

NSW police sergeant Tom Galvin (pictured) took his life after developing post-traumatic stress disorder in 2013

Sergeant Tom Galvin was last stationed at Penrith LAC and died from suicide in July 2013.

The NSW Police Professional Standards Unit have said they will not investigate the matter further.

The officer has been counselled for sending the messages, but no criminal offence was substantiated, a statement from police said.

Sergeant Tom Galvin was last stationed at Penrith LAC and died from suicide in July 2013

'In an effort to be transparent police provided the relevant case law reference to outline why criminal action was not being taken'.

In a letter to Mrs Galvin police made a reference citing Lindt Cafe siege gunman Man Haron Monis's case in the High Court. The reference was meant to be in relation to the fact Monis had sent abusive letters to the families of dead soldiers.

A woman who said she had worked with Sergeant Galvin wrote on Facebook post in remembrance of the former officer saying he was was 'an amazing man and colleague'.

'When you join the police you have a black and white structured family of blue and given a number ... and sometimes you stumble and weaken,' she said.A Canadian man has been sentenced to two years in prison for sexually assaulting a girl and then filming it on her phone.

Drayton Dwayne Preston, 20, of Calgary, was ordered on Tuesday to 26 months in prison for raping a 17-year-old girl, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, as she was passed out in a bedroom.

Preston, who pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault, will also spend 20 years on the sex-offender registry list, reported CBC.

According to the agreed statement of fact, prepared jointly by the defense and prosecution, Preston and a group of friends - including Preston's girlfriend, the victim, and her boyfriend - were partying on the night of July 29, 2016 at the victim's house.

At the end of the night, the victim and her boyriend, who were both drunk, went to an upstairs bedroom, had sex, and passed out.

Drayton Dwayne Preston, 20 (pictured), of Calgary, Canada, is accused of raping a 17-year-old girl, while she was unconscious, in July 2016 and posting video of the assault and photos of her genitals to his Facebook account

Early the next morning, Preston broke into the girl's bedroom by removing a window screen and raped the victim.

She woke up in the middle of the rape but passed out again. When she woke up again, she saw Preston was on his knees at the side of the bed and so she pretended to be asleep.

He then assaulted her twice more before leaving. After he left her room, the victim told a friend who stayed the night about what had happened.

Later that night, the victim discovered Preston had stolen her phone, taken nude photos of her and recorded the assault.

He posted the images and video to his Facebook account and deleted them from her phone.

According to CBC, the video shows Preston walk up to the victim's bed, 'remove the blanket and spread her legs, all while her boyfriend is asleep next to her'.

He then is seen sexually assaulting her before taking photos of her genitals.

The victim was later confronted by Preston's girlfriend, who had seen the photos but believed the 17-year-old had sent them to Preston.

Preston (pictured) pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault. He was sentenced to 26 months in prison and will have to spend 20 years on the sex-offender registry list

'The victim...was in no position to consent. You knew she was in no position to consent, but you decided to take advantage of the situation,' said provincial court Judge Gord Wong in handing down his decision.

'You're not satisfied with committing this sexual offence, you go ahead and use someone else's phone to take picture...aand then send it back to yourself and post it on Facebook.

'It's a fundamental lack of respect for others that you demonstrated.'

Prosecutor Pam McCluskey noted that a doctor, during a pre-sentence psychiatric evaluation, said Preston 'talks about feeling sorry for himself.'

Preston was on house arrest prior to the sentencing hearing. He breached the conditions of his arrest three times and failed to attend court twice.



A seven-year-old girl's parents have pulled their daughter out of her Georgia elementary school after they watched her play a racist character in a student play.

Amber and Heath Bertram were horrified when they saw Anastasia on stage, holding up a sign that read 'Go home!' and 'Cursed is the man who integrates!'

Anastasia, who was playing the role of a white child against school desegregation, took the microphone and yelled at a black peer: 'Go away, you don't belong here!'

Heath Bertram told DailyMail.com that he was 'shocked and appalled' when he saw his daughter in the play at Burnett Elementary School.

Amber and Heath Bertram have pulled their daughter out of her elementary school in Douglasville, Georgia after they watched her play a racist character in a student play

Anastasia, who was playing the role of a white child against school desegregation, took the microphone and yelled at a black peer: 'Go away, you don't belong here!'

'Other parents started looking at me,' he said. 'She is the only white girl in her class, and one of the very few in the whole school.'

'Giving her the position of a white supremacist at the age of seven was unacceptable.'

Amber Bertram, who was out of town and saw a video of the play that her husband had filmed, said it left her 'literally speechless'.

'I was shaking,' she said. 'All I wanted to do was run to the school and ask them if they had lost their mind.'

'I was in disbelief. I couldn't believe that what I had witnessed was true.'

An African-American boy, holding a sign that said 'Go back to Africa!', also played the character of a student against Ruby Bridges, the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the US.

She was also made to hold up a sign that said 'Go home!' as another character, played by an African-American boy, carried a sign that said 'Go back to Africa!'

Amber and Heath Bertram (pictured with Anastasia) were in disbelief after they saw her on the stage and said they immediately contacted the school to express their concern with the role

Before Anastasia took the microphone, he told a group of girls on stage: 'We don't want our white children going to school with a black girl.'

Anastasia's parents said they were told by her teacher, Mrs Jamila James, that their daughter had volunteered for the part after a peer struggled to learn the lines.

'I was so excited when she volunteered to cover the role for another student,' James wrote in a message to Amber. 'She really stepped up and saved our play.'

But Amber was upset that she had not been contacted to give permission for the role before Anastasia went up on stage.

Amber, who reached out to James on a platform called ClassDoJo, told the teacher that Anastasia has always been taught to 'help adults as much as possible'.

'What she saw was the teacher needing help (according to you) and so she volunteered to help (according to you),' the message reads.

Anastasia's parents said they were told by her teacher, Mrs Jamila James, that their daughter had volunteered for the part after a peer struggled to learn the lines

'At seven years old, there was absolutely no way possible she could have understood the compromising position she was putting herself in.'

Amber also revealed she was upset that Anastasia had been filmed and photographed holding a sign 'telling black children to go away'.

'This is not an image I want portrayed of my child,' Amber told James. 'Nor did she have consent to be photographed and videotaped in this play.'

'The point still stands that this play did nothing but perpetuate the idea of racism and teach my child that the school sanctions her discriminating against anyone who doesn't look like her.'

James (pictured) apologized for the incident, telling Amber: 'It was never my intention to isolate or make any racial group feel bad'

James apologized for the incident, telling the mother: 'It was never my intention to isolate or make any racial group feel bad.'

But Amber said that after she sent a second email to the teacher regarding her concerns, her account on the platform was deleted.

DailyMail.com has reached out to James for comment.

The Bertrams decided to pull both their daughters out of the school following the incident.

'We did not feel they could stay in an environment like that,' Heath said.

'It's an environment that says it's okay to talk that way to people because they look different than you.'

Amber said she feared the play could also have put Anastasia in trouble.

'If she were to go out onto the playground the following day and tell a child to go away because they were black I can promise she would have been in trouble,' she said.

'But the school just put her on stage in front of her friends, teachers, peers, and other adults and taught her it was okay.'

The parents decided to pull both their girls out of Burnett Elementary School (pictured) in Douglasville, Georgia following the incident

'Anastasia is seven years old, at this age she is just starting to separate the times when her stuffed animals fight and when her and her sister fight.'

'But the school wants her, at seven, to differentiate between a play and real life.'

The girls' transfer was approved by the district and they will start at a different school on Friday.

Burnett Elementary School has declined to comment on the incident.

The Bertrams said they were only contacted by Douglas County School District Superintendent Trent North after they took their story to the media.

'I am calling to apologize. I was unaware of the treatment of your daughter,' North said in a voicemail message left on Amber's phone.

North has since confirmed that they are investigating the complaint.A former beauty queen may be swapping a sparkly crown for grim jail bars after she was found guilty of selling methamphetamine.

Najah Jackson-Ghamrawi was given a two-year custodial sentence for supplying drug ice to 'make money', 9News reported.

A number of texts were sent from the 'ice queen' discussing the sale of illicit drugs for '35 to 37 max' because it was 'the best on the market'.

Najah Jackson-Ghamrawi (pictured) may be swapping a sparkly crown for grim jail bars after she was found guilty of selling methamphetamine

The former beauty queen (pictured) was given a two-year custodial sentence for supplying drug ice to 'make money'

A number of texts were sent from the 'ice queen' (pictured Thursday) discussing the sale of illicit drugs for '35 to 37 max' because it was 'the best on the market'

'You'll be paying 37 max because prices have gone up now,' one of the text messages reportedly said.

The 20-year-old was described as having a 'pattern of dealing in drugs' and will now face the prospect of two years behind bars.

Ms Jackson-Ghamrawi broke down a number of times in the dock on Thursday, according to the publication.

The NSW District Court heard the teenager was home schooled from Year 10 but ran away from home when she was 18.

The former beauty queen experienced bullying as a teenager and fell in with the wrong crowds, the court heard.

Ms Jackson-Ghamrawi was named Miss Lebanon Emigrant Australia in 2016, beating disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer's sister, Mary.

Ms Jackson-Ghamrawi was named Miss Lebanon Emigrant Australia in 2016 (pictured), beating disgraced former mayor Salim Mehajer's sister, Mary

In the same year, the then 18-year-old (pictured) was arrested after a car chase through western Sydney where police reportedly found drugs and cash

In the same year, the then 18-year-old was arrested after a car chase through western Sydney where police reportedly found drugs and cash.

The young woman was fined more than $1,350 for driving without wearing a seat belt and failing to display P-plates but was not charged with any drug offences.

At the time, pageant organisers said her behaviour was 'not the image (they) want to represent the Australian Lebanese community'.A suspected terrorist has been arrested for making pipe bombs and plotting an attack on a kindergarten in Italy.

The 24-year-old, an Italian citizen of Latvian origin living in the city of Viterbo, north of Rome, was detained after a tip-off from the FBI.

He had used social media to praise Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect charged with killing eight people with a speeding truck in New York City last year and perpetrators of other attacks in the United States.

A suspected terrorist has been arrested for making pipe bombs and plotting an attack on a kindergarten in Italy. This was among the items found in the 24-year-old's apartment

The FBI told Italian police about the social media activity, the statement said. A police search of his apartment in Viterbo found material used to assemble pipe bombs.

According to a judge's detention order seen by Reuters, the man, identified as Denis Illarionovs and born in the Latvian capital, Riga, had written on social media phrases including one that read 'it's time to kill the children in the kindergarten'.

He praised Saipov as 'another fallen angel to the Kuffar' (infidel) and also used social media to hail those who had carried out gun attacks that left 15 people dead in Colorado in 1999 and five in Dallas in 2016.

The judge's warrant said police had found material such as cylinders, solid explosive material, many small coins, metal plates, a digital scale, a digital thermometer, fuses, and an electrical resistor.

They also found an air rifle, two air pistols and weapons used in hand-to-hand combat such as brass knuckles.

The man was arrested on Monday and charged with possession of explosive material. The arrest was made public after the judge approved his continued detention.

A judicial source said the charges against Illarionovs were formulated in such a way that they could promptly be hardened to terrorism offences if prosecutors so decided. If so, the case would be transferred to national anti-terrorism investigators in Rome.

The 24-year-old, an Italian citizen of Latvian origin living in the city of Viterbo, north of Rome, was detained after a tip-off from the FBI. The device above was found in his flat during a police raid

The judge's order said Illarionovs had been a troubled youth and lived by himself after his mother moved to Germany for work. After his arrest, he exercised his right not to answer questions. The order did not mention his religion.

One of his social media accounts was listed under 'Pope Little Pig XVI' and showed former Pope Benedict with a face deformed to make him look like a pig.

Many Muslims around the world criticised Benedict in 2006 after he delivered a lecture in Germany that they said associated Islam with violence. The pope denied it at the time, saying his words were misunderstood.

Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant, was arrested immediately after the October 31 attack in which he ploughed a truck down a bike lane on Manhattan's West Side.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest assault on New York City since Sept. 11, 2001.

In November, he pleaded not guilty to murder and other criminal chargesA homeowner from Texas who rented her property through Airbnb to a young man for one night in early February says her guest hosted a massive party that left her residence in shambles and reeking of urine and marijuana.

More than a month later, Chelsea McGovern and her husband, Tim, are still trying to get the popular short-term rental service to reimburse them for the damage to their San Antonio property, which they estimated at more than $18,000.

For the McGoverns, who operate a cabinetmaking business and own two houses across the street from one another along West Wildwood Drive in San Antonio, the situation began unfolding on February 2 when they were approached through Airbnb by a young man asking for lodgings for a single night.

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Trashed: Chelsea McGovern says her home in San Antonio, Texas (pictured) was left in shambles in February after her Airbnb guest threw a massive party there

Aftermath: Blue Solo cups are seen littering McGovern's newly renovated kitchen, left. Pictured right: a sofa with discarded drink cups

Mrs McGovern has been waiting for over a month now to get reimbursed for the damage to her property by the rental company

Despite the 'red flags' that Chelsea McGovern told KSAT she noticed right away, she decided to rent her home to the stranger, only to learn that he was throwing a huge gathering with hundreds of guests.

Before the night was out, Chelsea said some 300 people had passed through her property, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

The woman and her husband called police and Airbnb for help several times, but there was nothing they could do to put a stop the calamity unfolding in their home.

The next morning, the owner entered her tidy two-bedroom, one-bath home to find its walls damaged and splattered with Jello shots.

There was shattered glass everywhere from smashed beer bottles, windows and a glass dining table, and the cabinets in the kitchen were defaced.

Chelsea said her house was permeated with the stench of marijuana and there were cigarette butts that had been put out against the walls.

When McGovern entered one of the bedrooms, she had a vile surprise in store for her: someone had urinated on her bed, reported ABC News.

After contacting Airbnb, the homeowner was instructed to document the damage to her property, which she did.

The homeowner recorded video during the party, which she says shows throngs of people coming in and out of the house

The guests left in their wake overturned furniture and shards of shattered glass everywhere

Tim and Chelsea McGovern sent photos and video footage in support of their claim, but they say more than a month later, Airbnb has not reimbursed them for the damage, which they say has amounted to $18,868.

That sum factors in the time and effort the pair had spent cleaning up the mess and making repairs to the home, as well as loss of revenue.

They have homeowner's insurance on the house, but they say it does not cover short-term rentals.

Airbnb offers homeowners The Million Dollar Host Guarantee, which covers up to $1million in damage to properties listed on the service's site.

But the San Antonio couple are not convinced that they would be fully compensated.

After Chelseas repeated calls to Airbnb, the company responded to her this week with a written apology, which DailyMail.com obtained on Thursday.

Our original handling of this case did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves. We apologize to our host for the delay, the statement read. We have zero tolerance for disruptive behavior like this, we permanently banned this guest from our platform, we are fully supporting our host under the $1 Million Host Guarantee program, and we reached out to law enforcement to offer our assistance.

Blacklisted: An Airbnb spokesman says the guest has been banned from the service

According to Airbnb, in 2017, there were more than 49million arrivals at Airbnb listings worldwide. Property damage of more than $1,000 was reported to the company 0.004 per cent of the time.

There have been over 300 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings to date and negative incidents are extremely rare, but when they happen, we work to make things right, Airbnbs statement read.

To add insult to injury, Mrs McGovern said her guest from hell later left her a low three-star rating, claiming he was having a hard time reaching her during his stay.

An Airbnb spokesman told DailyMail.com on Thursday that following an investigation into the incident, the guest has been banned from the service and his rating has been removed.

Chelsea McGovern said the entire experience has put her off renting her property through Airbnb in the future.One legend (written 700 A.D.) described Patricks contest with native religious leaders, the druids. The druids insulted Patrick, tried to poison him and engaged him in magical duels  much like students of Harry Potters Hogwarts  in which they competed to manipulate the weather, destroy each others sacred books and survive raging fires.

When one druid dared to blaspheme the Christian God, however, Patrick sent the druid flying into air  the man dropped to the ground and broke his skull.

8. Patrick made God promise

Another legend from around the same time tells how Patrick fasted for 40 days atop a mountain, weeping, throwing things, and refusing to descend until an angel came on Gods behalf to grant the saints outrageous demands. These included the following: Patrick would redeem more souls from hell than any other saint; Patrick, rather than God, would judge Irish sinners at the end of time; and the English would never rule Ireland.

We know how that last one worked out. Perhaps God will keep the other two promises.

9. Patrick never mentioned a shamrockPaul Martin (pictured), a departing employee at The &Partnership in London, sent a message to all his colleagues on his last day, also International Women's Day, which included a list of 'Top Five' and 'Bottom Five' female colleagues

An employee at a top London advertising agency sent a sexist email to his entire office ranking female colleagues by attractiveness on International Women's Day.

Paul Martin, who worked at The &Partnership, sent the message on his last day, which included a list of 'Top Five' and 'Bottom Five' female colleagues.

One crude comment said he would only find one attractive 'after seven pints and a bag of pork scratchings'.

Another about a different women he worked with read: 'If you were the last girl on earth, I would use you as bait to trap a wild animal I would be happier f******.'

The &Partnership works with top brands including Cadbury's, Toyota and British Gas.

Other comments in the email, which has gone viral causing mass outrage, included: 'After watching this video, I am forever flaccid.'

When ranking his colleagues according to their looks, he added: 'Please bear in mind that this is based solely on looks and has nothing to do with personality; if it were, there might be some right munters in there and that would defeat the whole point of trying to sexistly objectify people (on International Women's Day, of all days.)'

Mr Martin , whose Twitter bio describes him as a 'lifelong ginger sufferer', claims the email was intended as a joke and a 'stupid, ironic attempt' at mocking macho culture.

This is the email which landed Paul Martin in hot water. He listed his female colleagues by order of attractiveness - with both a top five and a bottom five

He broke his colleagues down into several groups - including top five 'if I'd had a few too many'

Following a stream of derogatory descriptions for his female colleagues, Martin sighed off the email with, 'Paul x'

The apology, which is now pinned to the top of his profile, claims he was trying to make fun of the 'Top five' emails widely regarded as a tradition at advertising agencies.

But after the email was leaked on social media, Twitter users have been left furious, with some branding him a 'disgusting pig' and a 'joke'.

One woman wrote: 'Good luck in the new role, Paul Martin you disgusting pig. Anyone know where his new role is (was)?'

While a male user posted: 'I don't know this Paul Martin, but I suggest he stick to media planning and doesn't turn his hand to comedy.'

One crude comment said Mr Martin (pictured) would only find one attractive 'after seven pints and a bag of pork scratchings'

Fellow advertising creative Nathalie Gordon wrote: 'So I've just heard that 3 of the biggest agencies in London are making people send an all-staff email when they leave, which includes a 'Top 5' of people they either think are attractive/would sleep with. Please tell me this isn't true.'

Mr Martin's apology reads: 'On Friday 9th March, as I was due to leave my role at a London advertising agency, I sent an email around the office which had understandably offended and upset many people.

'First of all. I take full and sole responsibility for this and sincerely apologise for all offence this has caused.

The departing advertising worker apologised for his behaviour on Twitter, which included calling female staff 'munters'

'This absolutely wasn't my intention and I am incredibly sorry.

'Sending these 'Top Five' emails has become common practice at many ad agencies, and by sending that email yesterday, I have contributed to the culture of toxic masculinity.

'All the women mentioned in it are friends and people I very genuinely love and after checking with them to make sure they were happy to be mentioned in the email (as part of what I erroneously considered at the time a 'joke') I thought that was enough to validate me pressing 'send. It wasn't and should never have been.

'The email was meant to be a stupid, ironic attempt to subvert and mock the sexist 'Top Five' emails that have been sent around agencies for many years, but I have totally missed the mark and take full responsibility.

'But saying that this was completely misjudged doesn't even begin to cover it.

'This behaviour is never something to joke about and I'm incredibly sorry for my unforgivable naivety and being further complicit in contributing to an outdated and oppressive culture for women.

'I've seen that some women are worried about the repercussions of 'naming and shaming but please don't.

'I should absolutely be held accountable for this missguided, offensive mistake and face all and any consequences.

'Women (and men) should never feel worried about calling out this kind of conduct.

'I've still got an incredible amount of listening and learning to do and truly want to do better.

'I've donated further to 'Time's Up' Legal Defence Fund this morning and apologised again to everyone directly mentioned in the email, but if there's anything else I could or should do, please let me know.'

On Twitter, The Partnership's London account issued a statement about the shocking emails

On Twitter, The Partnership's London account issued a statement about the shocking emails.

The agency said: 'We do not condone sexism of any kind at The&Partnership LDN.

'Weve apologised to our staff and others for any offence this email has caused, and have taken action to make it clear to all employees that we will not tolerate emails of this kind being sent in future, by men or women.

'The&Partnership is a network of agencies that actively invests in and promotes women at all levels within the business: our three London agencies are all run by women, our media network in North America is run by two women, and we have female managing directors and heads of department across the business.

'Many of these women are actively involved in multiple initiatives to support, promote and empower women across the advertising and media industries.'Hakan Arif, a former Comanchero bikie, is on the run from authorities, police believe

The alleged boss of a $1billion global drug smuggling enterprise has escaped to Turkey before he could be extradited to Australia, a police source has revealed.

Hakan Arif was arrested in Dubai with five others including Michael and Fadi Ibrahim as part of an international investigation last August.

The former Comanchero bikie known as 'Mr Billionaire' and 'Little Hux' could not be extradited to Australia because he had temporary residency in the UAE.

After being released from a Dubai prison cell on bail, he has now gone off grid and is believed to have fled to Turkey on a fake passport.

A senior New South Wales police source told The Daily Telegraph that Arif is 'missing in action'.

'It's suspected he is in Turkey,' the source added.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Australian Federal Police for comment.

Four of the men arrested with Arif, Mustapha Dib, Koder Jomaa and Michael and Fadi Ibrahim, were extradited to Australia in September.

Fadi Ibrahim (pictured) was arrested in Dubai on money laundering charges and extradited in September

Michael Ibrahim (pictured) is facing life in jail if convicted of his alleged role in a drug smuggling ring

Arif and Stephen Elmir remained in prison in Dubai because they are UAE residents.

Arif is named in Dubai court documents as boss of the billion-dollar drug ring which allegedly planned to ship uncut cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine from Europe to Australia.

Elmir flew to Dubai in April after his brother-in-law Safwan Charbaji was shot dead.

It was reported before any of the Dubai Six had been extradited that five of them planned to become Lebanese citizens in a bid to escape extradition. Some of the men could face life in jail in Australia.

Fadi Ibrahim is charged with money laundering offences related to alleged tobacco smuggling.

Two of the 'Dubai Six' arrested in August could not be extradited in the UAE's largest city (pictured)

Sydney's Koder Jomaa (left) was one of six men arrested in raids in Dubai on August 8

Arif and Elmir are accused of being involved in a plan to smuggle 1.8 tonnes of MDMA, 136 kilograms of cocaine and 15 kilograms of ice into Australia.

The drugs, with a street value of $810 million, were seized in The Netherlands before the men were arrested in Dubai.

The Dubai Six allegedly used encrypted BlackBerry devices to plan their criminal activity with Arif using the monikers 'Mr Billionaire' and 'Little Hux' while Elmir was known as 'Mr Worldwide' and 'Staypaid'.

Fadi Ibrahim caught on surveillance camera as part of an international police operationYevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, The boss, also known as 'Putin's Chef'

Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin is accused of funding the Internet Research Agency

Prigozhin is accused of funding the Internet Research Agency. He was last sanctioned by former President Barack Obama in December 2016 for 'blocking property of additional persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine'.

The 56-year-old is said to have used his businesses, Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, to fund the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the 'Kremlin Troll factory' which was the vehicle for the alleged interference.

Prigozhin paid the salaries of the other 12 defendants indicted by Mueller last month, it is alleged, through this financial backing which prosecutors started in 2014.

The businessman is given the nickname 'Putin's Chef' because he owns restaurants favored by Putin as the venues for state dinners.

A 2016 profile of him by the Russian newsite Meduza described him as an ex-con who graduated from a boarding school only to join a gang and become convicted of attempted robbery and prostitution. He spent nine years in jail.

He gained access to St. Petersburg's elite in 1996 when he and a friend opened Staraya Tamozhnya, one of the city's finest restaurants. Until then, he had worked with his father more modesty in grocery stores and selling hot dogs.

He opened his New Island, his second restaurant, in 1997. Putin was first drawn to it in 2001 when he took the then French president Jacques Chirac there for a meal and Prigozhin served them.

He continued to cater to Putin's staff at the restaurant over the years and grew closer to them. Soon, he became the go-to caterer for official state events in Moscow.

Prigozhin, also known as 'Putin's chef' and is pictured above with Putin himself, paid the salaries of the other 12 defendants indicted by Mueller last month, it is alleged, through this financial backing which prosecutors started in 2014

The 56-year-old, pictured with Putin, is said to have used his businesses, Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, to fund the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the 'Kremlin Troll factory' which was the vehicle for the alleged interference

In 2010, he launched what was billed as a good-cause initiative to feed hungry schoolchildren in St Petersburg.

Putin attended the launch of food factory to celebrate it and the initiative was funded generously by state-owned bank Vnesheconombank.

A year into the project, parents became angry when they realized the food being produced was full of additives.

He then started feeding other school children in Moscow with more success, having obtained private contracts from the city's mayor.

Prigozhin won similarly lucrative contracts with the military.

In 2012, he signed a $1.2billion contract which had him provide 90 percent of the meals the Russian army's soldiers consumed. The system of outsourcing the military's meals ended in 2013.

It gave him his biggest paycheck and associates said at the time he was known to pay for private jets with cash.

Throughout, Prigozhin was a dedicated patriot and was proud of his association to Putin's government.

This lucrative relationship with the state carried on until 2013 when the laws changed and outside caterers were no longer brought in to provide the military with meals.

By then, Prigozhin had earned more than $1billion from the state through the deal.

The 'troll factory' (Internet Research Agency) was founded that same year. Though Mikhail Bystrov was named as its owner and CEO, Russian journalists learned of Prigozhin's connection to it early on.

Prigozhin, pictured above with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, gained access to St Petersburg's elite in 1996 when he and a friend opened Staraya Tamozhnya, one of the city's finest restaurants

What specifically prompted him to do it or if anyone put him up to it remains unclear.

In its genesis, the factory's employees had one job - to make complimentary posts on social media about Putin and the government and besmirch the names of its opponents.

When Prigozhin's association to the Internet Research Agency was revealed, he faced increased scrutiny from critics.

An article in 2015 highlighted how the factory worked and the conflict Prigozhin's relationship to Putin posed.

With the bad press about him growing, Prigozhin attempted in 2016 to have himself 'erased' from the internet.

It coincided with the introduction of a new bill which gave an individual the right to be forgotten.

The law was pushed by Putin and states that websites must delete content such as news stories about an individual if it breaks the law, is false or is 'obsolete'.

To date, Prigozhin has filed 15 lawsuits against the Russian search engine Yandex to try to have articles about him removed from the internet.

Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov, retired police colonel and the CEO frontman for the 'troll factory'

The Treasury sanctioned Bystrov and 11 others indicted by Mueller because they 'acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA'.

Bystrov was listed as the CEO of Internet Research Agency and his name has been linked to other companies which have been tied to the election interference.

Little is known of him other than that was an employee of the state who was born in 1958 and is a retired police colonel.

He, unlike Prigozhin, has not been pictured publicly with Putin and has kept himself out of the spotlight.

According to Mueller's investigation, he joined IRC in 2014 as its highest ranking employee.

'Bystrov was the general director. He subsequently served as the head of various other entities used by the organization to mask its activities, for example, Glavset LLC, where he was listed as that entity's general director,' it reads.

Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik, aka Mikhail Abramov, the second in command

Burchik was Bystrov's right-hand man at the organization, according to Mueller's complaint.

He used the name Mikhail Abramov too and was instrumental in orchestrating Project Lakhta, the generously funded project which officials say was the start of the interference.

At conception, it had a budget of the equivalent of $1.25million. Lakhta involved both US and Russian-targeted interference, it claimed.

He was in charge of meetings, structure and personnel, according to Mueller's indictment, had one-on-ones with Prigozhin.

Sergey Pavlovich Polozov, IT whiz who used US servers to hide 'troll factory's' real location in Russia

Polozov was in charge of the IT department and his biggest responsibility was hiding the location of the Internet Research's Agency HQ, now known to be 55 Savushkina Street in the Olgina neighborhood of St Petersburg.

Prosecutors allege that the posts its employees wrote were designed to look like they had been written by Americans who favored Trump.

This was possible, Mueller says, through the 'procurement of US servers' which at first glance made them look like they came from America if they were ever probed.

Mueller's indictment alleges: 'Polozov served as the manager of the IT department and oversaw the procurement of US servers and other company infrastructure that masked the organization's Russian location when conducting operations within the United States.

'To hide their Russian identities, [they], particular Polozov, purchased space on computer servers located inside the US in order to set up virtual private networks (VPNs). They connected from Russia to the US-based infrastructure by way of these VPNs and conducted activity in the US, including accessing online social media accounts, opening new accounts, and communicating with real US persons - while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity,' it reads.

Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova, female spy who 'came to US in 2013 to gather information and report it back'

The Trump administration claims that Kryloca served as a director at the IRA and was the firm's third-highest-ranked employee.

Mueller's complaint gives little detail of the background lives of the lesser known employees and there is scarce information about them available.

It is suggested though that Krylova, one of four women named, was the company's spy.

'In 2014, Krylova traveled to the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence to inform the organization's operations,' the indictment reads.

Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva, data analyst for alleged US interference dubbed 'the translator project'

Bogacheva was tied to what the employees referred to as 'the translator project' within the IRA.

It was part of the larger Project Lakhta but focused only on US audiences, it is claimed.

She too is alleged to have traveled to the US under false pretenses to gather information.

Bogacheva only worked for the company for three months between April and July 2014.

Maria Anatolyevna Bovda, project manager

Bovda is described in the Treasury's sanction statement as the 'head' of the translator project, the designated branch of the wider pro-Putin effort which focused on US audiences.

She worked there between November 2013 and October 2014, according to the statement.

Robert Sergeyevich Bovda, second in charge of the project

While it is not revealed in the sanctions or indictment, it is believed that Robert and Maria Bovda are married.

Robert Bovda acted beneath his wife as the second in charge of the 'translator' project and worked at the company over the same dates.

He too was accused by Mueller of trying to enter the US under false pretenses to collect information but he did not obtain a visa and could not make the trip.

Ogly, who also used the names Jayhoon Aslanov and Ajay Aslanov, was sanctioned because he 'acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA'.

Robert and Maria Bovda worked in the 'translator project' in the IRA, the designated branch of the wider pro-Putin effort which focused on US audiences

The Russian acted as the head of a the translator project, which conducted operations on social media with a focus on the US, according to a Department of Treasury press release.

The press release says that Ogly also oversaw operations that targeted the 2016 presidential election.

He took over when Maria Bovda left the project in late 2014 and he was at its helm during the election, it is claimed.

The Russian was also listed as a director for another company which has been tied to interference and is owned by Prigozhin.

Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev, data analyst

Podkopaev joined in June 2014 and drafted social media content to be blasted by the 'trolls'.

He also worked as a data analyst, targeting US audiences, according to the complaint.

Gleb Vasilchenko was accused of posting under numerous social media accounts which the factory operated from 2014 until September 2016

Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko, pre-election troll

Vasilchenko was accused in the indictment of posting under numerous social media accounts which the factory operated from 2014 until September 2016, two months before the election.

He went on to work for 'sub groups' which were also owned by Prigozhin and which also worked to interfere with the election, it is claimed.

As per the complaint, he 'was responsible for posting, monitoring and updating the social media content of many organization-controlled accounts while posing as US persons or US grassroots organizations.

Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina, posed as 'multiple US voters online'

The fourth woman sanctioned, Kaverzina is alleged to have used multiple social media accounts to pose as an American and make influential posts about politics and Donald Trump.

She joined in October 2014.

When US officials launched their investigation in 2017, Kaverzine allegedly let slip to a family member that they had been 'busted' and told how she had to spend time 'covering her tracks'.

'We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with colleagues. I created all these pictures and posts and the Americans believed it was written by their people,' she wrote.

Vladimir Venkov, pre-election troll

Venkov, one of three designated trolls, allegedly shared the responsibilities of Kaverzina and Vasilchenko to post content online while posing as an American.

The Trump administration also sanctioned two entities and six individuals for performing cyber attacks on behalf of the Russian government.

All individuals involved were sanctioned for 'acts for or on behalf of the Main Intelligence Directorate' Russia's top spy agency, according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

Below are the individuals and organizations involved:

Sergei Afanasyev, senior official at GRU

Afanasyev is a senior official at one of Russian's top spy agencies, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).

Russian news agency TASS previously named him as a deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

GRU, where Afanasyev reportedly works, is one of two Kremlin spy agencies that allegedly sent hackers into the Democratic National Committee's network ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

While Afanasyev is relatively unknown outside of Russia, he apparently attended Russian peace talks for the syrian civil war Astana, Kazakhstan, in February.

It is believed to be his last public appearance, and he spoke via video call.

There is little known about Afanasyev's work outside the Middle East and terrorism issues.

Igor Korobov is the current chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate General Staff (GRU) in the Ministry of Defense

Igor Korobov, Chief of the GRU

Korobov is the current chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate General Staff (GRU) in the Ministry of Defense.

He was sanctioned by Obama in 2016 for the hacking that disrupted the U.S. presidential election.

Prior to joining the GRU, Korobov served as head of the Strategic Intelligence Directorate and was an officer in the Soviet Air Forces.

Vladimir Alexseyev, First Deputy Chief at GRU

Alexseyev works on behalf of the GUR, and as of December 2016, he was a First Deputy Chief within the organization.

He was previously sanctioned by the President Barack Obama in response to the Russian government's 'aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at the US election in 2016', according ot a White House press statement.

Sergey Gizunov, Deputy Head at GRU

Gizunov is a deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.

He was previously sanctioned in December 2016 for alleged hacking during the presidential election.

Igor Kostyukov, First Deputy Chief at the GRU

Kostyukov is a first deputy chief in the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.

He was also sanctioned by Obama in December 2016 for election meddling.

Igor Kostyukov is a first deputy chief in the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff

Grigoriy Molchanov, senior official at GRU

Molchanov is a senior official in the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.

He has been part of the GRU since April 2016.

Five organizations were also hit with sanctions on Thursday, including two Russian government agencies and the 'troll factory', Internet Research Agency.

The organizations are listed below:

Internet Research Agency

The 'troll factory' where 13 Russians accused of meddling in the Us presidental election is called the Internet Research Agency.

It is headed up by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin's 'personal chef' who gained access to Russia's political power players through his luxury restaurants in St Petersburg in the mid 2000s.

In 2012, he landed a lucrative contract to provide the country's military soldiers with meals. It only lasted a year but was rumored to be worth around $1.2billion.

With his money,from his buseinsses, Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, the Agency, which was founded in 2013, flourished.

At one stage, former workers say 400 people were working there.

Their job began with pro-Putin posts on social media and, in one department, evolved into pro-Trump, anti-Clinton messages on fake accounts where they pretended to be American.

Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting were also sanctioned on Thursday.

Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)

The GRU is Russia's foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

The organization serves as Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency.

Federal Security Service (FSB)

The FSB, which was once run by Vladimir Putin, was set up in 1995 to fight perceived threats to Russia.

It has fought separatist rebels from Chechnya in two wars, and aims to prevent pro-Western 'colour' uprisings in Russia such as Georgia's Rose Revolution of 2003 and Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004.

But it was thrust into the global spotlight during the murder case involving former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned at a hotel in London's Mayfair in 2006 after being branded a 'traitor' in Russia.Fired Australian Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg exchanged 14,000 messages with his younger girlfriend in just one year - and staff thought she was his goddaughter.

The woman named Sarah, 25, first met the Mr Quaedvlieg on Twitter before she was given a job with the Border Force, the Courier Mail reported.

Mr Quaedvlieg, 53, was dismissed by Governor-General Peter Cosgrave on Thursday after a lengthy investigation into his behaviour. He denies any wrongdoing.

Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg had been sacked from his $618,908-a-year job as commissioner for 'inappropriate behaviour'

Mr Quaedvlieg, 53, was dismissed by Governor-General Peter Cosgrave on Thursday after a lengthy investigation into his behaviour

In May, the father-of three went on personal leave from his $619,905 job on full pay after allegations emerged he had helped his girlfriend, in her 20s, secure a job at Sydney Airport stamping passports.

There is a contrast between when the government and Mr Quaedvlieg considered his relationship with Sarah to have begun.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Cabinet Secretary Martin Parkinson are understood to have encouraged Mr Quaedvlieg to resign.

Mr Quaedvlieg said he intends to fight his dismissal either in court or through the Fair Work Commission.

A Statement of Grounds of Termination of Appointment states Mr Quaedvlieg 'acted at particular times to modify policies relevant to recruitment processes so as to advantage... a particular candidate for ABF employment'.

The statement further stated Mr Quaedvlieg failed to disclose 'a significant change within his personal life' and made a 'willfully or recklessly false statement to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in relation to the status of his personal relationships'.

Mr Quaedvlieg 'failed to disclose his relationship with a person who was seeking employment in the ABF in circumstances where Mr Quaedvlieg had an interest in that person securing employment and was in a position to influence the relevant recruitment processes'.

Quaedvlieg said he was given the opportunity to resign but had chosen to be sacked in order to maintain his innocence (pictured with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton)

In a statement, Mr Quaedvlieg maintained his 'strong denial' and appeared to be considering fighting the dismissal.

'I was given a short opportunity to resign prior to my termination however I chose not to do that as it is tantamount to a concession of culpability, which I strenuously deny,' he said.

'I also have previously made a number of observations in relation to the inquiry processes and I intend to pursue these more formally in the relevant forums.

'I will now take some time to fully consider my options.'

The sacking comes after an investigation spanning 10 months, for which Quaedvlieg was reportedly paid more than $500,000.

It was completed by Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary Martin Parkinson and handed to Attorney-General Christian Porter who recommended the Governor General, Peter Cosgrove, dismiss Quaedvlieg.

On Wednesday the decision was signed off on by Federal Executive Council.

Quaedvlieg is a former Queensland police officer. He famously arrested the notorious bank robber 'Postcard Bandit' in 1995 while wearing thongs, board shorts and a singlet.

He was previously the chief police officer of ACT Policing, and had been the Commissioner of the Australian Border Force since its creation in 2015.Islamic State's bloodthirsty offshoot in Afghanistan has released distressing pictures of primary school age kids taking part in an execution.

ISIS leaders in the Middle East have a long and appalling history of allowing small children to execute captives.

But with the collapse of the regime's self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, the group's propaganda arm is chronicling atrocities carried out by Islamic State's fighters in Khorasan Province  known as IS-KP

Two young boys from ISIS's Afghanistan offshoot have been photographed helping to execute what the terror group claimed was captured soldiers and a spy

The images show the captives being marched into a clearing the woods by the boys, who are armed with handguns, and an older fighter with a rifle

The images show the stooping men being marched through woods by the neck by the small boys.

The pictures then capture three kneeling prisoners dressed in orange boiler suits in the wooded area of the province close to the Pakistan border controlled by the group.

Behind them stand two heavily armed fighters who are flanked by two tiny boys  who appear to be around seven.

The youngsters stare intently ahead and both have handguns and holsters strapped across the small frames.

Another image reveals a leader on horseback watching over the grim proceedings.

IS-KP said the victims were two captured Afghan government soldiers and a spy and the killings took place in Nangarhar in the north east of the country.

The group's numbers are being swelled by battle-hardened fighters travelling to the area from the Middle East.

ISIS has been forced to relocate its propaganda operation from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan following the collapse of its so-called Caliphate

A number of Algerian and French nationals entered the largely ISIS-controlled district of Darzab in northern Jowzjan province in November, said district governor Baaz Mohammad Dawar.

At least two women were among the arrivals, who were travelling with a translator from Tajikistan as well as Chechens and Uzbeks, Dawar added.

European and Afghan security sources in Kabul confirmed Dawar's claim that French citizens were among the fighters.

Three of the Algerians seen in Darzab are believed to have been in Syria and Iraq, Dawar said.

When it first emerged in 2015, IS-KP overran large parts of eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

The jihadists have since spread north, including in Jowzjan on the border with Uzbekistan, and carried out multiple devastating attacks in the capital Kabul.

Mohammad Raza Ghafoori, the Jowzjan provincial governor's spokesman, said French-speaking Caucasian men and women had been seen training IS-KP fighters in Darzab.

He cited reports saying that around 50 children, some as young as 10, have also been recruited by the fighters.Michael Laurence Campbell, 21, was found guilty on Wednesday of three counts of criminal vehicular homicide

A Minnesota man has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend in a drunk car crash and abandoning her body in the vehicle, after he tried to blame the accident on her distracting passionate kissing.

Michael Laurence Campbell, 21, was found guilty by a jury on Wednesday on three counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the death of girlfriend Ria Patel, 20.

Campbell testified that the September 17 crash occurred during a moment of affection when Patel 'suddenly grabbed his face while he was driving and gave him a passionate kiss', according to a post-verdict statement.

Despite his attempts to point blame elsewhere, the jury found him guilty of two counts of criminal vehicular homicide - one for the crash and one for fleeing the scene.

The jury also found Campbell guilty of leaving the scene of an accident not caused by the driver but that resulted in death, according to SWNews Media.

'Mr. Campbell was probably drunk, he smashed into a pole going 65 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone and he ran away,' County Attorney Mike Freeman said after the verdicts, according to the Star Tribune.

Campbell, left, was drunk driving when he crashed into a traffic light pole that killed girlfriend Ria Patel, 20, right. He then fled the scene, leaving her body in the vehicle

Patel was a junior at the University of St. Thomas and died in the crash on September 17, 2017

In court Campbell tried to blame the accident on Patel, above, who he claimed passionately kissed him, distracting him behind the wheel

'Then he tried to deflect responsibility for his actions by claiming Ms. Patel was responsible for her own death by kissing him,' Freeman said.

'He also put her family through more distress by pretending that she was still alive,' he added.

His passionate kiss claims were quickly debunked in court.

'The crash occurred [supposedly] during that kiss. However, Patel suffered numerous serious injuries to her head and face and Campbell had none, according to testimony. If they had been kissing, Campbell would have had injuries, too,' a post-verdict statement said.

The horror crash took place September 17 in Minneapolis after the pair left a party.

Campbell, of Twin Cities, Minnesota, had been drinking and crashed into a traffic light post around 3:50am.

Campbell drove into a pole with such force that the attached traffic light fell and crashed on top of the passengers side, causing the roof to cave in on top of Patel.

A female witness told police she noticed Campbell return to the car moments later where he recovered his phone before leaving again and disregarding his lifeless girlfriend

Police in the area were informed of the horrifying matter after one witness saw the crash

The accident took place around 3:40am that Sunday with Campbell (right) behind the wheel

Campbell, center, is in jail without bond and will be sentenced April 5. He is expected to be sentenced to more than four years in jail

He then fled the scene to a nearby McDonalds, leaving Patel in the car.

A witness said Campbell returned to the car moments later, only to frantically search for his phone then leave again.

The charges report said investigators interviewed several people from the party who confirmed Campbell was hosting the late night bash and was 'super drunk' before departing with his girlfriend.

He also admitted in court to drinking before leaving the house with Patel.

Patel was a junior at the University of St. Thomas.

He was identified after police found his wallet inside the car, according to the Star Tribune.

Court testimonies revealed that Campbell ran three miles to the home he shared with roommates after the accident and locked himself in his room for hours, calling Patels phone from a blocked number multiple times.

Campbell called Patel's (above) sister hours after the accident to ask if she knew of her whereabouts and denied being in a car with her

The court said that Campbell 'also put [Patel's] family through more distress by pretending that she was still alive'

Her sister testified in court saying that Campbell texted her denying being with Patel (second left) the day before

Later he took an Uber to the town of St. Michaels where his parents live. He did not visit them but spent a day there.

'And it is during that time that he came up with a new story,' the county attorneys statement said.

Campbell was then located in Wright County and transported to a nearby hospital and later jailed for the crimes.

In court Campbell also testified that despite knowing Patel was dead he texted her sister nine hours later asking about Patels whereabouts.

The sister said in court that Campbell even talked to her on the phone and denied being in a car with Patel that night.

Campbell is in jail without bail and his sentencing is set for April 5.

Freeman said his office will seek a four year and nine months term sentence.An Afghan father has spoken of the abuse he received for naming his son Donald Trump in honor of the US president.

Sayed Assadullah said young Donald's blond hair sealed the deal when he was born in Daikundi in central Afghanistan on September 3, 2016.

At the time, Trump was preparing to take part in the first presidential debate after winning the Republican Party nomination.

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Sayed Assadullah said young Donald's blond hair sealed the deal when he was born in Daikundi in central Afghanistan on September 3, 2016

At the time he named his son, Trump was preparing to take part in the first presidential debate after winning the Republican Party nomination. Pictured: The young boy's birth certificate

While his wife, Jamila, agreed to the name, his family and neighbors were not so understanding. His family first treated the choice of name as a joke, but humor soon turned to anger over Assadullah's decision to pick a non-Muslim name

But Assadullah was already a fan of the president-to-be's work, telling The New York Times: 'I was reading Trump's books - I read his book "How to Get Rich".

'Then I read about his background: about how he built the Trump Tower, how he became the leader of the party. I understood that he is a hardworking man.

'I thought if I name my son Donald Trump, then it will affect my son's personality, his behavior.'

While his wife, Jamila, agreed to the name, his family and neighbors were not so understanding.

His family first treated the choice of name as a joke, but humor soon turned to anger over Assadullah's decision to pick a non-Muslim name.

'When I named my son Donald Trump, they were not happy,' he said.

'They told me, "How you can select the name of an infidel for your son?"'

Assadullah said he had come to admire Trump after watching him on a solar-powered television and hoped some of the tycoon's good fortune would rub off onto his son.

But the boy's hair was also a strong motivating factor.

'When my son was born, his hair was completely blond, and it matched Trump's hair,' he said.

'When I named my son Donald Trump, they were not happy,' Asadullah said. 'They told me, "How you can select the name of an infidel for your son?"'

Assadullah said he had come to admire Trump after watching him on a solar-powered television and hoped some of the tycoon's fortune would rub off onto his son (pictured)

In an interview with Radio Free Europe , the proud father said his 18-month-old boy (pictured) was 'very bright' like his namesake

'So when I saw his hair, I thought, "I will name him Trump".'

But the intolerant abuse from his family - especially his father, who he says is 'an angry man' - pushed him to leave his village and head to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Even there, however, Assadullah said he is treated with disrespect - with workers at the intelligence agency questioning him.

They said he was a 'culture-less' person for naming his son after a non-Muslim.

But in an interview with Radio Free Europe, the proud father said his 18-month-old boy was 'very bright' like his namesake.

According to The Times, a separate family in Afghanistan said they named their twins Vladimir Putin and Barack Hussein Obama - but the paper was not able to verify the claim.The U.S. military revealed for the first time on Wednesday that a group of Green Berets came under attack by Islamic State militants in Niger in December, two months after four soldiers were killed in a similar ambush in the West African country.

The attack in October raised questions about America's presence in Niger, where about 800 troops are stationed and the military is building a major drone base.

After that attack, the military promised to impose stricter restrictions on what kind of missions they carry out in the country.

The U.S. military revealed on Wednesday that Green Berets were involved in a firefight with Islamic State forces near Diffa in Niger in December

But the revelation of the second attack shows that the military is much more involved in the country's defense than originally thought.

Samantha Reho, a spokeswoman for United States African Command, told the New York Times on Wednesday that a group of American and Nigerian forces 'came under fire from a formation of violent extremists' while on a mission in the Lake Chad Basin area on December 6.

Eleven Islamic State fighters were killed in the firefight, including two wearing suicide vests. They are not believed to be part of the same group involved in the October attack.

No American or Nigerian soldiers were killed or wounded.

Reho made it appear as though the Americans acted out in self defense.

The December firefight came two months after four soldiers were killed in am ambush in western Niger. The victims pictured left to right: U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson, U.S. Special Forces Sgt. Bryan Black, U.S. Special Forces Sgt. Dustin Wright and U.S. Special Forces Sgt. La David Johnson

Earlier this month, ISIS released video showing the October ambush. The video was taken from cameras attached to the victims' helmets

'The purpose of the mission was to set the conditions for future partner-led operations against violent extremist organizations in the region,' Reho said. 'There was no aspect of this mission focused on pursuing enemy militants, and the combined force was postured to respond as necessary in case contact with the enemy occurred.'

She added: 'With that said, our forces do operate in unstable areas and are occasionally exposed to danger from enemy forces. When such a situation occurs, our personnel are authorized to respond to threats and violence appropriately.'

However, another military official who spoke to the Times under the condition of anonymity painted a different picture of the firefight.

The official said that the Green Berets were assisting the Nigerian forces on a multi-day operation near Diffa, to clear a potentially hostile area so that the Nigerians could build a new outpost there.

The firefight happened during the first major American mission in the country since the October ambush.

The October firefight happened while a group of U.S. and Nigerian troops were returning to their base from a mission in the capital city when they came under fire by about 50 Islamic State fighters.

Four Americans died in the attack, along with 11 Nigerians.

The families of the four victims still haven't been told what went wrong.

The deadly encounter has been investigated, but the results of the investigation have not yet been released, pending approval from Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

When the October ambush came to light, many senior Congressmen were surprised to learn the extent of America's military presence in Niger.

Myeshia Johnson, wife of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was among four special forces soldiers killed in Niger in October, kisses his coffin at a graveside service in Hollywood, Florida on October 21. The families of the four victims still have heard from the military about what went wrong

What was also concerning was that servicemen were not eligible for combat pay in the country, despite the considerable risks they clearly face there. That has since been changed.

After the most recent attack, the Pentagon could scale back operations in Niger further.

Last week, Gen Thomas Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command, testified in Congress and explained the dangers of operating in Niger.

'Niger is a country that's surrounded by problems on all of its borders,' Gen. Waldhauser said.

'We're trying to - to support a country and make sure that they're not taken over by violent extremist organizations who would take over those ungoverned spaces and turn them, and make plans to do things outside the region in Europe or perhaps in the United States,' he addedA federal court jury has awarded $33.5million in damages to the parents of a man who was fatally shot by a Southern California sheriff's deputy.

Nathanael Pickett, 29, was killed in a confrontation with San Bernardino County deputy Kyle Woods in November 2015.

The jury found Wednesday that Woods unreasonably obtained the 29-year-old, delayed medical aid and was negligent in use of deadly force.

The award included $15.5million in compensatory damages and $18million in punitive damages.

Nathanael Pickett, 29, was fatally shot by a deputy in November 2015 after he was approached for suspected trespassing at a motel he was staying in

Surveillance footage from the motel revealed the scuffle between the man and the deputy. The footage led the jury to believe the deputy wrongly described the altercation

Sheriff's officials tell the Los Angeles Times and the Southern California News Group that the department strongly disagrees with outcome of the trial and the verdict will be appealed.

'Our attorneys, the department and the county will be discussing appealing the jury's award,' said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.

The shooting occurred outside the El Rancho Motel in Barstow, California, which Pickett had recently moved into.

Woods was on patrol when he saw Pickett look back at him several times while crossing the road before disappearing.

The deputy assumed Pickett had jumped the fence to the motel and was trespassing, so he followed him.

When Woods approached Pickett, the man allegedly gave a false name and appeared to be intoxicated, according to the police filing.

Woods claimed he tried to detain Pickett, but he ran and then jumped on the deputy before punching him multiple times.

A witness (pictured right) saw the altercation. He told the courts he didn't see Pickett grab for the deputy's gun

Pickett was shot by deputy Kyle Woods outside the El Rancho Motel in Barstow, California. The deputy claimed Pickett attacked him but surveillance footage showed otherwise

The plantiffs' attorney Dale Galipo (pictured) told the jury that Woods made up his account of events after showing surveillance footage and pictures

The deputy then allegedly warned Pickett that he would shoot him while pulling out his gun.

The county argued that Pickett grabbed for the gun, which prompted Woods to shoot because he 'feared for his life'.

But plaintiffs' attorney Dale K. Galipo contended the assault account was made up.

During the trial, Galipo showed surveillance footage from the motel which doesn't feature Pickett throwing any punches or grabbing the deputy's gun.

A witness who saw the altercation also claimed he never saw the Pickett throw punches or grab the gun.

Galipo also showed pictures of Wood an hour after the incident and said the deputy doesn't appear like he was punched multiple times.

After deliberating for two hours, the jury awarded the parents $33.5million in damages, which experts say is among the largest awarded in a police shooting cases.The musician Goldie is believed to be the first ever person to plead guilty over Facetime after he admitted assaulting a bouncer today in a video link from Thailand -but in doing so he angered the female judge by calling her 'Dear'.

The actor was due to stand trial for allegedly attacking a bouncer at the Glastonbury Festival but the case proceeded without him this afternoon after he failed to show this morning, with his legal team saying he was busy in south-east Asia.

His 20-year-old daughter Chance was also accused of kicking the bouncer as he lay on the ground. Both were charged with assault by beating.

Goldie, left, tried to enter his plea via email as he and daughter Chance, right, face assault charges

But Goldie's legal team told Bristol Magistrates Court today that he could not appear because he was busy in Thailand and couldn't get back until May 31.

He had tried to enter his guilty plea via his solicitor who read out an email from him containing his instructions.

It said: 'Yep, guilty as charged.'

Because Chance was there to face the charges and District Judge Lyn Matthews said the case would go ahead in his absence.

The musician admitted assaulting a bouncer at Glastonbury Festival (pictured: the Pyramid stage)

Bristol Magistrates Court was told that the musician was unable to attend because he was busy in Thailand

The judge said the rules were not different for Goldie - whose real name is Clifford Price - because he's rich.

Judge Matthews said: 'Mr Price has never appeared in this court at any hearings. Clearly every date so far has been inconvenient for him.

'I am of the view that Mr Price has chosen not to be here today. It well may be that he has contractual obligations elsewhere, that it would be expensive to get out of.

'But when people work and have to come to court, it will have financial implications for them.

'I don't have a separate rule for people who earn rather more than average.'

The judge then asked the defence if it would be possible to Facetime or Skype him.

And when the judge addressed Goldie via FaceTime, using the phone of Chance's defence solicitor, Mr Peter Marshall, he confirmed his change of plea.

He said: 'Correct, my dear.'

An irate Judge Matthews responded: 'No, I'm not your dear.'

Goldie (pictured, right, with a younger Chance) and his 20-year-old daughter (left) were accused of kicking the bouncer as he lay on the ground

Judge Matthews read back to Goldie over Facetime a more formal email he had sent to his defence solicitor.

It read: 'Dear Judge, I wish to enter a guilty plea to common assault on the basis of the prosecution case against me.'

Prosecution Richard Posner said it would not be in the public interest to proceed with the case against Goldie's daughter, Chance, given his change of plea.

Mr Posner said: 'It is the prosecutions argument that it was Mr Prices sustained assault that then led, in part, to Miss Price becoming involved.'

'The crown are not going to prosecute her for that - as long as the co-defendant is sentenced in May.'

Chance attended court in the absence of her father this morning, but the DJ Facetimed the judge this afternoon to enter a guilty plea

Goldie was then instructed by the judge to attend Bristol Magistrates Court on May 30 at 9.45am, along with his daughter Chance.

She released Chance on unconditional bail until that date, and confirmed that the charges against her would be dropped if her father attended court that day.

Concluding the hearing, Judge Matthews said: 'I lament the waste of two days of court time.'

The DJ has not appeared before court since the alleged incident at Worthy Farm on June 23.

Both he and Chance failed to turn up to their plea hearing on November 16, 2017. Goldie was said to be attending to contractual musical obligations overseas by his counsel, Abigail Bache.

Goldie, who received an MBE last year, was allegedly involved in an 'altercation' with a security guard at last year's Glastonbury Festival, where he was performing.

He is accused of pushing security guard Dennis Poole and scratching his face.

Chance attended court without her father this morning and the trial went ahead this afternoon in his absence

Both Goldie and his daughter live in Hertfordshire, with the former living in Tring and the latter in Leavesden.

Chance appeared in the dock today wearing jeans, a leather jacket and a dark green scarf.

She was represented by Mr Peter Marshall, and her father by Abigail Bache.

Peter Marshall said the star, his daughter, and a couple of members of his team had been in a BBC backstage area of Glastonbury Festival before the incident happened.

As a performing artist at the festival, Goldie had permission to be there, and had the others with him.

But the area did not have any food areas, and so a couple of them had left to go and find food - and the dispute was over readmittance to the backstage area.

It was heard that five or six witnesses had been expecting to appear today, had the trial proceeded.

Miss Bache said Goldie is now primarily based in Thailand, and will not be available to apear before Bristol Magistrates until May 31. Judge Matthews instructed he should appear on this date to give evidence.After being shuttered for years, the Southern Cayuga Planetarium is getting closer to opening its doors once again.

A $500,000 capital improvement project involving infrastructure repairs to the planetarium will be up for a public vote in May.

The Southern Cayuga Central School District Board of Education accepted a resolution for the project at a board meeting Monday. Taxpayers will be able to decide the project's fate, along with school budget voting and board elections, on May 15. District Superintendent Patrick Jensen said the project would have "zero impact" on the district's tax levy. The planetarium, which neighbors the school building in Poplar Ridge, closed in 2014.

The capital project is currently set to include heating and ventilation system repairs, electrical upgrades, and electricity, roof, masonry and ceiling repairs. Jensen noted 81.2 percent of the project is eligible for state building aid. The majority of the undertaking's total cost would be handled by state building aid reimbursement, while the local debt service share would be paid through previous years' utility and fuel savings, Jensen said. The mild recent winters and decreased oil prices over the last couple years has allowed the district to accumulate around $100,000 to add to the project payment, Jensen saidA woman has been found guilty of manslaughter after her father died from her injecting him with heroin when he was 'too intoxicated to do it himself'.

Justeen Nichole Whittaker, 29, from Dover, Delaware, was sentenced 10 years in prison for the death of her father, Nathaniel Whittaker, in October.

Police found the 50-year-old father in cardiac arrest in the Americana Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland, and pronounced him dead on the scene after attempts to revive him.

Justeen told investigators she injected her father with heroin because he was 'too intoxicated to do it himself'.

Justeen Whittaker, 29, was found guilty of manslaughter after injecting her father with heroin because he was 'too intoxicated to do it himself'

Pictured is Nathaniel Whittaker who died at 50 years old from an overdose in a hotel room. Paramedics found him in cardiac arrest and attempted to revive him

Investigators found drug-related paraphernalia in the hotel room, which they discovered was for both Justeen and her father.

An autopsy on Nathaniel revealed he died from an overdose of fentanyl in his system after his daughter injected him with the lethal dose.

He died on October 24, 2017, and his daughter was sentenced on Wednesday for her involvement in the death.

Prosecutors asked to courts to give Justeen two to seven years in prison to send a message about drug abuse.

Interim State's Attorney Bill McDermott said in court: 'The community needs to know, that as quickly as heroin can steal a life, this Office will seek to take your freedom if you knowingly deal, distribute or administer drugs and it results in someone's death.'

Justeen was sentenced 10 years where all but three of the years are suspended in the Department of Corrections.

She will have two years of probation following her release.

The 29-year-old from Dover, Delaware, was sentenced 10 years in prison where all but three are suspended. She will then have two years of probation after she is releasedA council has extended formal condolences to Ellie Butler's grandfather after she was removed from his care only to be beaten to death by her father.

Ellie was killed by Ben Butler at their family home in Sutton, south London, just 11 months after being returned to him and her mother.

She was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after Butler was accused of shaking her.

But Ellie was returned to her birth parents in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court and died in October 2013.

Ellie was killed by Ben Butler at their family home in Sutton, south London, just 11 months after she was taken out of the care of her grandparents Neal and Linda Gray (pictured)

Ellie was returned to her birth parents Ben (left) and Jennie (right) in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court and died in October 2013

Richard Nash, executive head of safeguarding for children's services at Sutton Council, asked for permission to address her grandfather Neal Gray at an inquest into the six-year-old's death.

He said: 'Mr Gray, as you know we have spoken on several occasions since Ellie's death.

'Today gives the first opportunity for the local authority to formally extend condolences to you on the death of your granddaughter and I wish to do that.'

Mr Gray, who sat at the front of the hearing, replied: 'Thank you very much.'

Mr Nash told South London Coroner's Court in Croydon that the ruling left 'no role' for the local authority.

He said the court had ordered private social workers should be used and that 'the door of the family's home was, in effect, firmly closed to London Borough of Sutton'.

Ben Butler and Jennie Gray were jailed after he brutally murdered their six-year-old daughter Ellie (pictured together, right)

He described the decision as 'disappointing' and added: 'Taking into account all the other evidence the court had sufficient cause, in the view of LBS, to question the safety of Ellie if she was to be placed in their parents' care.

'The court considered the position that LBS put forward at this time but rejected it.'

Counsel for the inquest Adam Wiseman QC questioned Mr Nash on why more was not done by the council to protect Ellie.

'If the local authority had reasonable cause to suspect Ellie was at risk of significant harm your responsibility kicks in and Mrs Justice Hogg's ruling doesn't change that,' he added.

Mr Nash replied that the 'threshold was set at a uniquely high level' because of the court ruling.

Butler listened to proceedings via video link from prison, where he is currently serving life with a minimum term of 23 years for Ellie's murder.

Her mother, Jennie Gray, who was given a 42-month term for child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, followed the hearing from another prison.

The inquest will examine whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regard to Ellie's murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations.

It is expected to conclude at the end of next week.A hospital worker lashed out when a nurse told him off, causing him to fatally shoot her, injure another medical worker, then turn the gun on himself.

The horrific accident took place Wednesday evening at UAB Highlands hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.

Just before 7pm nurse Nancy Swift, 63, who was a longtime nursing supervisor at the hospital, allegedly told off Trevis Devon Coleman, 31, a central sterile supply worker at the hospital.

Victims: On Wednesday disgruntled employee Trevis Devon Coleman at UAB Highlands hospital in Alabama opened fire killing nurse Nancy Swift, 63, left, and Tim Isley, 28, right

The shocking shooting took place at UAB Highlands hospital (above) in Birmingham, Alabama at 6:55pm on Wednesday evening

Upset, Coleman then revealed his gun and opened fire, shooting Swift as well as another employee nearby, instrument management supervisor Tim Isley, 28.

Coleman then turned the gun on himself and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

He was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:35pm. He has no previous criminal history and was described by police as 'disgruntled'.

Workers at the hospital said there had been prior problems with him in the workplace, according to AL.com

Isley, who is the son of Springville Mayor Butch Isley, was rushed to the main UAB hospital wing and underwent surgery and is now in critical but stable condition.

Swift was taken to the emergency room and was pronounced dead by police. She died at 9:01pm.

It is not clear how Coleman got a gun into the second floor of the hospital building where the shooting took place and bypassed the UAB Highlands metal detectors that were in use on Wednesday.

'We have extensive security measures in place that include police officers on site 24-7 as well as others that we do not publicly disclose in the interest of safety,' the hospital said.

Swift, pictured left with her husband, was taken to the emergency room and was pronounced dead by police. She died at 9:01pm

Isley, above, underwent surgery after he was shot and is now in critical but stable condition

'This is a sad day for Birmingham UAB. We lost a colleague and a friend last night,' UAB Hospital Vice President Anthony Patterson said.

'First I want to offer my sincerest condolences to the victims who have suffered and to their family and colleagues who are grieving this senseless loss of life and injury,' he said.

'Our highest priority is the health and safety of our patients and employees and while we all want to know how this happened, we will respect the dignity and the privacy of the victims,' he added.

Swift hailed from Mississippi and lived in Shelby County with her husband. She was a wife as well as a mother.

Isley hailed from Springville, Alabama and has worked at STERIS Instrument Management Services since May 2016.

Police received the call of an active shooter at the hospital at 6:55pm on Wednesday and dispatched the officers stationed at the hospital.

SWAT team members also arrived on the scene and performed a room-by-room search until it was announced that there was no longer a threat.

The hospital announced an 'All Clear' at 7:45pm.

All UAB Highlands surgeries for Thursday were cancelled in light of the incident.

Authorities got the emergency call of an active gunman at 6:55pm on Wednesday evening )

H. R. Watson, the Captain of the Birmingham Fire Department spoke to the media in the wake of the shooting, after Coleman shot two then shot himself in the head

Police are not sure how Coleman brought the gun past the hospital's active metal detectorsParents were fined an eye-watering 24million for failing to ensure their children were going to school, new figures reveal.

Over the course of three years, 155 local authorities in England and Wales issued around 400,000 penalties.

And some councils issued penalties at rates nearly five times that of the average, it was also revealed.

It comes as some parents said they actively budget for the cost of penalties when planning holidays.

Over the course of three years, 155 local authorities in England and Wales issued around 400,000 penalties

They included the Isle of White, with 64 penalties issued per 1,000 pupils, East Riding of Yorkshire council, with 63 per 1,000 pupils and Suffolk, with 60 per 1,000.

The average rate across England and Wales was 12 penalties issued per 1,000 pupils.

In Wales, Merthyr Tydfil had the highest penalty rate at just 4.6 per 1,000 pupils  which is less than half the average of England and Wales.

There was an average of 12 penalties issued per 1,000 children - according to the BBC - for truancy or for parents taking children on holiday during term in 2016-17.

The Isle of Wight's cabinet member for schools, Paul Brading said the high rate of penalties was down to officials wanting all unauthorised absences 'thoroughly followed through'.

The council is also cutting the length of summer holidays from six to five weeks and introducing a two-week autumn half term from next year.

The changes will also give families on the islands more freedom to take a break outside school holiday dates, because many parents work in the tourism sector.

In Wales, Merthyr Tydfil had the highest penalty rate at just 4.6 per 1,000 pupils  which is less than half the average of England and Wales

Father-of-three Dave Brain said he and his family decided to ignore the threat of a 60 fine to holiday in Florida last September, following the death of his father.

'We try and stick to holidays but this was different and we budgeted for the fine, Mr Brain, co-creator and producer of the YouTube channel Guksack told the BBC.

Following the trip Mr Brain was fined 60, but said he would 'do it again in an instant if the same opportunity arose'.

A poll of 1,000 parents by global travel agency Kiwi.com also revealed that 65 percent of parents disagree with term-time fines.

The research found that more than half had taken their children out of school and half would risk it again.

Parents who took part in the study saved an average of 686 when booking holidays during term time.

Just under half revealed that cheaper prices were no the only factor when deciding on term-time holidays.

A total of 48 percent said they were also competing with colleagues to take off holiday time, which caused arguing, bullying and even prompted some to consider leaving their jobs.

It comes after a father lost his two-year legal battle for refusing to pay a fine for taking his daughter on a term-time holiday.

Father-of-three Dave Brain said he and his family decided to ignore the threat of a 60 fine to holiday in Florida last September, following the death of his father

Jon Platt, 46, was convicted of failing to secure his daughter's regular attendance at school in a hearing at Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court - where the case was returned after the businessman lost a landmark legal battle at the Supreme Court earlier this year.

Giving judgement last June, magistrate Jeannie Walker said: 'The circumstances of this case fall squarely into that breach of school rules.

She added: 'The council has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the child was not attending school regularly on those dates of the holiday.'

Jon Platt, 46 (pictured with his wife Sally), was convicted of failing to secure his daughter's regular attendance at school in a hearing at Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court - where the case was returned after the businessman lost a landmark legal battle at the Supreme Court earlier this year

The father said he has spent close to 30,000 on fighting the case, with additional funds covered by legal aid

Platt was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay 2,000 costs plus a 20 surcharge.

The father said he has spent close to 30,000 on fighting the case, with additional funds covered by legal aid.

Figures disclosed under Freedom of Information laws have shown the Department for Education had spent close to 140,000 pursuing the legal action.

Taxpayers will pick up an additional 60,000 for Platt's costs that have been granted by the courts.

Mr Platt said he feared his case would have implications for parents across England and Wales.

He said at the time: 'There were around 8.5million unauthorised absences around the country in a single term.

'Every single one of those is, if the headteacher decided that's what the school rules should be, an unauthorised breach, all 8.5million of those are criminal offences.'Former Pussycat Doll Kaya Jones went on an hours-long pro-gun Twitter rant while thousands of students took part in National School Walkout Day on Wednesday.

Jones, whose legal name is Chrystal Neria, accused students who participated in the peaceful demonstration of 'wanting an excuse to get out of class.'

The student protesters called for raising the minimum age required to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, increased background checks and bans on certain firearm accessories, such as bump stocks, which were used by the Las Vegas shooter on October 1.

The push for more gun control has gained more momentum since 17 died and 15 others were injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14.

Ex-Pussycat Doll Kaya Jones, seen here singing the national anthem in October in Las Vegas, Nevada, went on a pro-gun Twitter rant that lasted for hours on Wednesday

At first, Jones said it was 'their right,' to participate in the National School Walkout Day

At first, Jones stated the widespread peaceful protest carried out to call for reform in US gun control laws was 'their right,' referring to the individuals participating in the demonstration.

Jones later called the walk out 'a joke,' stating 'you need a gun to fight a gun.'

Jones, who joined the National Diversity Coalition for Trump as its Native American Ambassador in 2017, began her rant at 11.16 am Eastern on Wednesday, just over an hour after the first walkouts took place.

'They have their right to walk out & I have my right to bear arms,' she wrote.

Virginia students, mostly from McLean High School, were among the thousands of students to take part in National School Walkout Day, a 17 minute walkout in honor of the 17 who died in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida

Jones said that those who carried signs pitting protecting children against protecting gun rights were uninformed

She added: 'Im not giving up my rights because a crazy man killed people. Im holding on right to my rights so if a crazy man tries to kill me hes got another thing coming. Its called freedom. #2ADefenders #2A #2ndAmendment'

Later, she said that those who pitted protecting children against protecting gun rights were uninformed.

She wrote: 'This whole walk out on guns is a joke. You realize that in order to protect kids we need guns. The signs that read protect kids not guns are so unaware. You need a gun to fight a gun. Its not a want its a fact. And its my right to be able to protect myself. #ItsCalledFreedom'

She said those who did march on Wednesday were 'not very fearless' and were spreading 'lies and propaganda'

Other tweets by Jones accused students who participated in the walkout as wanting an excuse to get out of class, and stated that if 18 isn't old enough to buy a gun, it's not old enough to make laws regarding guns.

She said students who marched on Wednesday were 'not very fearless' and were spreading 'lies and propaganda.'

Jones argued that those who stayed in classes during the protests were 'brave.'

'The kids who showed love for school against the attacks on them are heroes,' she wrote.

She also echoed the common argument from gun rights advocates that 'guns don't kill people, people kill people.'

Jones argued that those who stayed in classes during the protests were 'brave'

Other tweets by Jones accused students who participated in the walkout as wanting an excuse to get out of class, and stated that if 18 isn't old enough to buy a gun, it's not old enough to make laws regarding guns

Jones echoed the common argument from gun rights advocates that 'guns don't kill people, people kill people'

Jones also brought recent controversy over police brutality up in her tweets, saying that it 'doesn't make sense' after posing the rhetorical question that '[people arguing for gun control] believe it's the person when a police officer fires his weapon, but not with a bad guy'

Jones wrote: 'Bad people kill people. Bad people use whatever they fancy to inflict harm. Bad people. Now dont punish good people who want to protect themselves for the actions of Bad people. Guns dont kill people, people kill people and just happen to use a gun.'

She also brought recent controversy over police brutality up in her tweets, saying that it 'doesn't make sense' after posing the rhetorical question that '[people arguing for gun control] believe it's the person when a police officer fires his weapon, but not with a bad guy.'

Jones posted her rant as tens of thousands of students walked out of their classrooms on Wednesday as a form of peaceful protest to demand action on gun violence and school safety.

The Pussycat Dolls are seen here, posing as themselves on the set of Las Vegas, in an episode titled 'Whatever Happened to Seymour Magoon?' that aired in 2005; Jones is on the far left

The walkout was triggered by the Florida school shooting that occurred on Valentine's Day.

That day, police said 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz admitted to using an AR-15 rifle that he had obtained legally to shoot and kill former classmates and a teacher, and injure many others.

Students, faculty staff and administrators across the country walked out of schools on Wednesday at 10.00 am in their respective time zones, for 17 minutes, to represent each of the lives lost in the Florida shooting.

This protest took place at the Leadership and Public Service High School in New York City on Wednesday during the school walkouts

Jones argued late on Wednesday that the walkouts were politically driven due to the presences of Democrats and lawmakers

Jones argued that the walkouts were politically driven due to the presences of Democrats and lawmakers.

The walkout was organized in part by the organizers of the Women's March.

In response to the shooting, the state of Florida has already enacted a new law, called The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, that raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21.

The NRA promptly filed a federal lawsuit challenging the minimum age section of the law on constitutional grounds.

Cruz in now being held in custody in Florida, facing trial on 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Police said 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz admitted to using an AR-15 rifle that he had obtained legally to shoot and kill former classmates and a teacher, and injure many others, on February 14; He is now in custody facing trial on 17 counts of premeditated murderDonald Trump's staff departure lounge seems to be filling up again, but he denied Thursday that a West Wing shakeup is on the way.

The president said in the Oval Office that news reports of a mass exodus are 'very false.'

But one White House aide worried aloud to the Axios news website on Wednesday that Trump is running 'the most toxic working environment on the planet.'

'Usually tough times bring people together. But right now this atmosphere is ripping people apart. There's no leadership, no trust, no direction and this point there's very little hope,' the aide said.

Trump has been frustrated by stories that project as many as five senior officials following National Economic Council chairman Gary Cohn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson out the door.

Denial: 'I've gotten to know a lot of people over the last year ... so there will always be change, but very little. It was a very false story, a very exaggerated and false story,' the president said of claims multiple senior White House and Cabinet officials are on their way out

He's in: Veteran CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow is having his first day as chief economic adviser, replacing Gary Cohn, while there is speculation John Bolton could become national security advisor

Dead men walking? Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who was appearing at the House Appropriations Subcommittee Thursday, is seen as primed to exit the administration while Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who traveled to Nashville, TN, may also have a rocky fate

'They wrote a story about staff changes today that was very false,' Trump said, without singling out any news outlet. 'We made a wonderful change. I think Mike Pompeo is going to be an incredible secretary of state.'

'I've gotten to know a lot of people over the last year ... so there will always be change, but very little.'

'It was a very false story, a very exaggerated and false story,' the president added.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly could all be primed to exit the administration.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's name is circulating as a possible replacement for Sessions, who has incurred the president's wrath for more than a year because he recused himself from an investigation about possible collusion between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.

As a former state attorney general who had nothing to do with the campaign itself, Pruitt wouldn't be constrained from getting directly involved.

'Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,' Trump told The New York Times last summer, adding that the decision was 'extremely unfair' to him as president.

Trump has already spoken with John Bolton, a very conservative defense hawk and former United Nations ambassador under George W. Bush, about replacing McMaster  a three-star general who has already spoken with the Pentagon about a return to active duty.

Are they on their way out? Serving general H.R. McMaster, the national security advisor who is an Army three star, and chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine four-star, are at the center of speculation over their futures

Shulkin, the lone Obama administration holdover in Trump's Cabinet, has ethics problems and may be pushed out any day now. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, says he's not interested in a lateral move to take over that agency.

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have been publicly floated as potential successors to Kelly.

This week the president hired CNBC financial commentator Larry Kudlow to be his chief economic adviser, replacing Cohn.

He also named CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state, filling the hole created by a presidential tweet on Tuesday morning.

Gina Haspel, the CIA's deputy director, will become the first woman to lead the spy agency once Pompeo makes his transition.

The staff turnover in Trump's White House has proceeded at a historic pace.

Just 14 months after Inauguration Day, more than 20 senior administration aides have already quit, or been fired or reassigned to other jobs.A Washington State man who was repeatedly stabbed and slashed with a samurai sword wielded by his jealous girlfriend is crediting his survival to his training as a competitive video game player - and his passion for Kung Fu movies.

Alex Lovell, 29, who is known in the online gaming community as Biggie, made national headlines earlier this month when he was rushed a hospital suffering from life-threatening injuries that police said were inflicted on him by his girlfriend of two years, 30-year-old Emily Javier.

The woman told police she attacked Lovell with the sword in the early hours of March 3 after discovering the dating app Tinder on his phone, in addition to a few other clues suggesting that her boyfriend has been unfaithful to her.

Alex 'Biggie' Lovell, 29, picture sitting up in a wheelchair in the hospital after being slashed with a samurai sword, is crediting his survival to his training as a competitive video game player

Emily Javier made a first appearance in Clark County Superior Court on March 5 over allegations that she stabbed her boyfriend with a samurai sword early March 3

After hacking Lovell with the weapon all over his body and nearly lopping off several of his fingers, Javier made a frantic call to police and summoned help for him, which he says likely saved his life.

Speaking to The Oregonian and BuzzFeed from his hospital bed via social media, Lovell explained that he had a low sex drive in recent months because he was spending more than 12 hours a day playing and training for a competitive video game called PlayerUnknown's Battleground.

I barely had time to hang out with my girlfriend, let alone another girl, he told The Oregonian.

Lovell said he was too physically exhausted to show Javier the affection that she deserved.

But the woman apparently interpreted his lack of interest in her as a sign that he was cheating on her with another woman and hatched a plan to exact bloody revenge on Lovell.

The man claims it was his special training as an 'Ethlete'  a slang term for a person who plays video games professionally - and a lifetime of watching martial arts films that helped him gather his strength and eventually restrain his girlfriend, despite his severe injuries.

I was able to Wing Chun my way to survival, Lovell said, referring to a traditional Southern Chinese Kung Fu martial art specializing in close range combat.

Eventually, Lovell was able to get Javier into a bear hug, but the woman still tried to grab his genitals and rip them off,, he told BuzzFeed.

I saw the look in her eyes, and it scared the living poop out of me, he said. I told her I loved her, and she was killing me. She needed to call police, or I was going to die.

Javier heeded his pleas and dialed 911, 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, they found Lovell curled into a ball with multiple stab wounds and was took him to a hospital. Javier was booked into jail on a first-degree attempted murder charge.

After her arrest, Javier told police she wanted to kill Lovell as punishment for infidelity after discovering the Tinder app on his phone, as well as strands of red hair in the shower drain.

Lovell, however, is adamant that there was no one else. He says the red hair possibly came from his reddish beard, or from his dog, and that he has not used Tinder since he and Javier got together.

Although Lovell remains in the hospital being treated for his gnarly injuries and has a long road to recovery ahead, having nearly lost his ring, middle and index fingers, he takes comfort from the fact that he was able to defend himself.

'I was just so proud for beating this samurai wannabe crazy lady with hate in her heart,' he said,

The 29-year-old pro gamer says he has forgiven his girlfriend and hopes she gets help. The two have not spoken since the day of the attack.

In another picture, labelled 'thankful', Lovell appears to be surrounded by family and friends while he recovers from the multiple sword wounds

On a chilling audio of Javier's 911 call, which was released this week, the woman can be heard crying hysterically and repeating 'he's dead' over and over again.

The dispatcher asked Javier where she stabbed Lovell.

'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!'

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 March 3.

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 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 the red hair in the 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, March 3, 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 being held on a $350,000 bond.

A GoFundMe campaign that has been launched to help Lovell with his medical expenses has so far drawn more than $8,000 in donations.A Qatari royal has described the terrifying moment his falcon hunting group was kidnapped by militants - sparking a complex ransom deal that reshaped Middle East relations.

The 37-year-old, part of Qatar's ruling Al Thani family, was in a 26-strong party held hostage while hunting in southern Iraq in December 2015.

It sparked panic in Doha and set in motion a wide-reaching deal with the hostages becoming pawns in tense geopolitical negotiations across the region. It is thought as much as $1billion may have been paid to eventually secure their release.

The Qatari royal has revealed how he was woken at 3am in his tent by a frightened servant who said soldiers in machine gun-mounted trucks had surrounded their hunting camp.

A short time later a masked militant with an AK-47 had entered his tent and a man started reading out names of family members.

A Qatari royal has described the terrifying moment his falcon hunting group was kidnapped by militants sparking a complex $1billion ransom deal that reshaped Middle East relations. Members of the party are pictured after their release and return to Doha

The Qatari, who the New York Times called Abu Mohammed to protect his identity, said he saw relatives lying face down and handcuffed with guns at their backs.

He told the newspaper, which has printed a lengthy investigation into the episode, that he was certain the kidnappers were ISIS fanatics who would kill them.

It was later claimed the militants were from Kata'ib Hezbollah, a Shiite faction formed in Iraq more than a decade ago.

The group officially denies it was behind the kidnapping and no other group has publicly claimed responsibility for the abduction.

They were bundled into trucks and transferred to an unknown location. From the sound of aircraft, they guessed they were near Tallil air base in southern Iraq.

From there, they were taken to a house and locked in basement cells.

Although Abu Mohammed attempted to bribe the captors with cash amounting to $33,000 - and several hundred thousand more when combined with other members of the party - the gang's leader is said to have told him: 'You think we want your money?', the New York Times reports.

In April 2017, it emerged that Qatar had secured the release of the 26 hostages after nearly a year and a half in captivity, including members of its ruling family, in what became possibly the region's most complex and sensitive hostage negotiation deal in recent years.

Several people with knowledge of the talks and a person involved in the negotiations said the hostage deal was linked to one of the largest population transfers in Syria's civil war, and was delayed for several days due to an explosion that killed at least 130 people, most of them children and government supporters, waiting to be transferred.

The transfer of thousands of Syrian civilians was also tied to another deal involving 750 political prisoners to be released by the Syrian government.

The 37-year-old, part of Qatar's ruling Al Thani family, was in a 26-strong party held hostage while hunting in southern Iraq in December 2015

The complexity of the talks highlighted Qatar's role as an experienced and shrewd facilitator in hostage negotiations - this time involving members of the Gulf Arab state's ruling family.

It also raised allegations, that remain unproven, that the tiny energy rich nation paid millions of dollars to an al-Qaeda-linked group to facilitate the population transfer in Syria that led to the hostages' release in Iraq.

The incident was sparked when the group was kidnapped December 16, 2015 from a desert camp for falcon hunters in southern Iraq.

They had legally entered Iraq to hunt inside Muthanna province, some 230 miles southeast of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Shiite militias are active in that area and work closely with the neighboring Shiite power Iran.

A person involved in the negotiations told Associated Press Qatar paid tens of millions of dollars to Shiite groups, and to the al-Qaeda-linked Levant Liberation Committee and Ahrar al-Sham, involved in population transfers in Syria.

Both groups were part of an armed opposition alliance that swept through Syria's Idlib province, seizing it from government control in 2015 and laying siege to two pro-government villages.

Speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, he said Qatari officials were given assurances about the well-being of the hostages during negotiations.

Two Iraqi officials- a government and a security official - also confirmed details of the release to the AP.

The abduction of the Qatari group drew Iran, Qatar and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah into negotiations, resulting in millions of dollars in payments to Sunni and Shiite factions, according to Iraqi officials and a person involved in the negotiations. They say the talks took place in Beirut.

The negotiator said the evacuation and transfer of thousands of Syrians from four besieged areas was central to the release of the Qataris.

The kidnapping sparked panic in Doha and sparked a complex ransom deal deal with the hostages becoming pawns in tense geopolitical negotiations across the region. Pictured above, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (pictured in 2014) attends a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha

The two pro-government villages, Foua and Kfarya, had been besieged by rebel fighters and under a steady barrage of rockets and mortars for years. The two opposition-held towns, Zabadani and Madaya, were under government siege for joining the 2011 uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The opposition-run Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian conflict through a network of on-the-ground activists, says the transfer included 800 armed men from both sides. Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the group, told the AP that the population swap in Syria was directly tied to the issue of the kidnapped Qataris.

Abdurrahman, citing information from negotiators he'd spoken with, said the Qataris first proposed bringing the fate of the hunting group into the talks about the besieged four areas in Syria.

The population exchange was criticized by rights groups, which said it rewarded siege tactics and amounted to forcible displacement along sectarian lines.

The hunting group eventually departed on a private Qatari jet from Baghdad.

Their release was a priority of Qatar's foreign policy for more than a year, said David Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The AP reported at the time that a Qatari ruling family member paid $2 million, in an effort involving hackers, to secure the release of the hostages.

Qatar says it does not support extremist groups in Syria or elsewhere, despite aggressive efforts to back Sunni rebel groups fighting to oust the Syrian government, which is backed by Iran and Russia.Cabinet minister Sajid Javid today became the latest MP to receive a hate-filled 'Punish a Muslim' letter to his parliamentary offices.

The Local Government Secretary is the fifth Muslim politician in less than a week to receive the poison pen letter.

The letters calls for Britons to be violent towards Muslims allocating points according to the ferocity of the assault.

It dishes out points according to how big the attack is - from 10 points if you 'verbally abuse a Muslim' to 2500 points if you 'Nuke Mecca'.

Cabinet minister Sajid Javid (pictured in Downing Street on Tuesday) today became the latest MP to receive a hate-filled 'Punish a Muslim' letter to his parliamentary offices

Other sickening acts include 50 points for throwing acid in a Muslim's face and 1000 points for bombing or burning a mosque.

Counter terrorism police have been called in to investigate the hate-filled anti-Muslim letters.

Other Muslim MPs who have received the letter have also received packages containing suspicious powders, but it currently remains unclear if Mr Javid did.

Although he tweeted a photograph of the letter hours after police were called to the House of Commons to deal with a package which contained a suspicious powder.

Theresa May condemned the abusive letters in PMQs earlier this week, branding them 'abhorrent'.

Mr Javid is the fifth MP to have received the note - with Labour MPs Rupa Huq, Rushanara Ali, Mohammad Yasin and Afzal Khan also receiving them.

The Local Government Secretary, who tweeted an image of the letter this afternoon, is the fifth Muslim politician in less than a week to receive the poison pen letter

A Parliamentary spokeswoman said: 'Today a suspicious item of mail in the Palace of Westminster was investigated by the Met Police and was found not to be harmful.

'The immediate area was evacuated as a precaution but access to the building was otherwise unaffected.

'Two people have attended hospital as a precaution. We cannot provide any further details while the Met Police investigation is ongoing.'

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.

Speaking earlier this week, Ms Huq said she had been assured that the substance was not harmful.

It is horrible though, its really very frightening. 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.Hope Hicks was a vision in black on her way to the White House on Thursday.

The outgoing White House Communications director looked mournfully chic as she made her way from her DC apartment to a waiting Lyft in a fur-lined wool coat, belted turtleneck dress and her favorite black suede pumps.

Hicks, who testified last month to telling 'white lies' on her boss' behalf, kept the coat open however and her legs bare, despite the fact that the temperature was below freezing in the nation's capital on Thursday morning.

This funereal look was rolled out on the same day that Hicks boss President Trump made his return to the White House after a two-day trip spent in California and Missouri.

Hicks did not seem all that sad however, and even cracked a smile at one point on her way to the car.

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Back in black: Hope Hicks (above flashing a rare smile) went for an expensive and somber look on Thursday as she headed into work for President Trump's return to the office

Expensive taste: She wore a fur-lined wool coat with a belted black turtleneck dress and her favorite black suede pumps

The cold never bothered her anyway: Hicks, 29, bared her legs despite the fact that temperatures in the nation's capitol were sub-freezing on Thursday morning

The secret in her eyes: It has been over two weeks since Hicks announced she would resign after testifying to the HIC that she tells white lies on her boss' behalf

Hicks colorless ensemble was a bit of surprise considering the fact that the White House was welcoming the Prime Minister of Ireland on Thursday.

This occasion got even President Trump to add a pop of color to his look, in the form of a green tie.

Her later got even greener when he stuffed his front pocket with a handful of shamrocks that were gifted to him by Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

President Trump spent Tuesday night in California after a fundraiser in Los Angeles and then stopped in Missouri Wednesday afternoon on his way back to the nation's capital.

Hicks is now starting her third week at work after announcing she would be stepping down from her post in the Trump administration, making her one of the many who has exited the team over the past month.

That mass exodus kicked off with the ousting of Hicks' boyfriend Rob Porter.

Porter resigned from his post after DailyMail.com revealed that he had been accused of physically abusing his two ex-wives in early February, a claim that the administration tried to initially deny.

That was on February 7, and since that time there have been five additional members of President Trump's administration have left their posts, including Hicks.

Pursed: Hicks' was also seen carrying her go-to vintage black tote from Bally

Road to nowhere: Hicks is now in her third week of work since declaring she was leaving the Trump administration

Mix and match: Hicks heads into work on Tuesday (left); Wednesday (center); and Thursday (right)

Hicks gave her notice on February 28, one day after the Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's West Wing-ally and spokesperson Josh Raffel announced he was stepping down from his post as senior communications official.

Economic adviser Gary Cohn was the next to go on March 6, and on March 12 President Trump's personal aide John McEntee was escorted out of the White House by security.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by President Trump on Tuesday, and then hours later was followed by Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein.

That second firing was a result of the first, with reports emerging that Goldstein was let go for contradicting the administration's version of events as it pertained to Tillerson's exit.Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}}

A job fair was held Feb. 27, Kubarek added, with similar kinds of service providers. Some of those affected employees attended.

Kubarek provided the update to Cayuga County legislators at a Planning Committee meeting Wednesday night. Tracy Verrier, executive director of the Cayuga Economic Development Agency was also asked about Cayuga Centers.

Verrier said she had no indication that the organization was cutting any programs, and said it had even applied for a workforce development grant through the New York State Regional Economic Development Awards. That grant was announced as awarded in December for $52,992, according to a release.

Kubarek said she believed the funding was going toward clinical training, programming that was not cut. According to a December Cayuga Centers release, the funding is to go toward enhancing "the agency's existing training by building on transferable skillsets of employees in low- and middle-skills positions." The training course subjects, the release said, include Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Trauma Informed Care, Human Trafficking Identification, Professionalism in the Workplace, Team Coordination, Professional Boundaries and Health Services Language and Documentation.

Verrier said the state will decide if the agency keeps that grant funding. Any projects that don't move forward with the state funding still stay in the region, she added.

Staff writer Gwendolyn Craig can be reached at (315) 282-2237 or gwendolyn.craig@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter @gwendolynnn1.

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Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.A Danish gun shop owner in South Africa initially accused of storing women's genitals in a freezer was handed two life sentences Thursday for raping a child and conspiracy to murder.

Peter Frederiksen, 65, was found guilty of 36 offences in the Free State High Court on November 6, including production of child pornography.

On Thursday, a judge told him he would be removed 'permanently' from society.

Peter Frederiksen who was initially accused of storing women's genitals in a freezer was handed two life sentences Thursday for raping a child and conspiracy to murder

He received the life sentences for the rape of the child and the murder of his wife, plus other prison terms totalling more than 40 years.

Judge Johann Daffue said that such a serious custodial sentence 'must not be imposed lightly', ruling that the murder of his wife 'was pre-meditated and planned'.

'You were the general and you orchestrated the murder,' Daffue added.

The sentencing hearing was attended by many women and children, whom Daffue described as 'vulnerable members of our society'.

'They, in particular, must be protected against person like you,' he said. 'You must be removed permanently from society'.

Frederiksen, 65, was found guilty of 36 offences in the Free State High Court on November 6, including production of child pornography

On Thursday, a judge told Frederiksen he would be removed 'permanently' from society

Frederiksen had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Twenty initial charges - later dropped - related to his alleged removal of clitorises which he reportedly kept in a freezer.

Those charges were discontinued as the court found that the law did not specify what penalties should apply for such alleged actions.

Detectives discovered more than 10 pieces of frozen female genitalia at Frederiksen's Bloemfontein home in September 2015.

Twenty initial charges - later dropped - related to his alleged removal of clitorises which he reportedly kept in a freezer

Frederiksen's wife, 28-year-old Anna Matseliso Molise, was due to be the prosecution's star witness.

But she was shot dead in October 2015 outside her house in Maseru, in neighbouring Lesotho.

South Africa has legislation prohibiting female genital mutilation, although it is not a common practice in the country.

Following the sentencing, Frederiksen apologised to the family of his late wife, his family in Denmark as well as to South Africans.Iowa police officers were horrified when they came upon a house where every square inch of the floor was covered six inches deep in cat feces.

They were called to the Des Moines home to investigate a strong ammonia smell.

But, as animal control officers approached the front door, the scent of animal waste was obvious.

Iowa olice officers were horrified when they came upon a Des Moines house (pictured) where every square inch of the floor was six inches deep in cat feces

Animal control officers (pictured) rescued at least 20 cats from the home on Wednesday

Authorities said it was impossible to walk inside the home, located on the 800 block of E Morton Avenue, without stepping in cat feces.

Officers found dozens of cats inside the home, including some that were no longer alive, according to WHO.

At least 20 cats were taken from the home by Wednesday afternoon, but officers kept finding more of them hidden in air vents and behind appliances in the house.

It remains unknown the exact number of cats that were found, either alive or dead.

But officers were still finding more cats hidden in air vents and behind appliances in the house

Officers said the stench of animal waste was 'obvious' as they approached the home

Officers are still working to rescue more cats, and plan to take them to a local veterinarian for examination.

Des Moines police said it was one of the worst homes they have ever entered.

The homeowner, who has not yet been identified, will likely face felony charges.

'It's a disregard for the animals because it's not safe for them,' Sergeant Jeff Cronin told the station.

'It's not safe for the occupant of the home as well. It's bad.'

The homeowner, who has not yet been identified, will likely face felony chargesBeware the ides of March, wrote William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. The phrase has long been synonymous with the assassination of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar and Shakespeares plays solidified the dates notoriety in history.

However, despite its deep connection to Caesar, the ides of Marchs significance predates the murder, although it certainly has taken on portentous connotations afterward.

Vincenzo Camuccini's The Death of Caesar depicts Caesar's assassination on the ides of March

Here is all the information on what is the Ides of March, when is it and who actually said Beware the ides of March in Shakespeares play.

When are the ides of March?

The ides of March is always March 15.

What are the Ides of March?

The ides of March is a date in the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15 on the Gregorian calendar. It was meant to be the day of the full moon.

The Roman calendar was not a sequential calendar, but rather was constructed around three constants in each month: the nones, the ides and the calends.

The Nones is the ninth day before the ides, which is the middle day of the month, and the calends marks the first day of the new month.

The Ides of March are come.  William Shakespeare (@Wwm_Shakespeare) March 15, 2018

Counting days would therefore be done backwards i.e. the fifth of the ides of March would mean the fifth day, inclusively, before the ides of the month of March. This would mean March 11.

Every month has a nones, ides and calends, however it is the connection between Caesar and Shakespeare that keeps the ides of March prominent in history.

Was Julius Caesar assassinated on the ides of March?

Beware the ides of March, Julius Caesar is warned during the feast of Lupercal in Shakespeares play. He is a dreamer. Let us leave him, dismisses Caesar. One month later, on the ides of March, Caesar was assassinated at the Roman Senate.

Beware the Ides of March! Julius Caesar was assassinated #onthisday in 44 BC. This coin was issued by his betrayer Brutus  https://t.co/JEGMInKpNG pic.twitter.com/wxxjWyBiHV  British Museum (@britishmuseum) March 15, 2018

According to ancient biographers such as Plutarch and Suetonious, Julius Caesar really was betrayed and stabbed 23 times in the senate on the ides of March in 44 BC, forever tainting the date with sinister connotations.

Who said Beware the Ides of March?

Although the warning Beware the ides of March will forever be remembered in history, who uttered those famous words in the play may not. It was actually just a haruspex, soothsayer.

According to Barry Strauss, the author of 'The Death of Caesar', there really was a soothsayer called Spurinna who issued a warning to Caesar. Though he warned Caesar to beware the next 30 days rather than just the ides of March.

What else happened on the Ides of March?

There may be more reason to beware the ides of March than just Caesars assassination.

On this day Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, a world record for rainfall was set in 1952 and in 1988, NASA reported that the ozone layer in the Northern Hemisphere was disappearing three times faster than anticipated.

In 2003, on the ides of March the World Health Organisation issued a heightened global health alert for the disease that was later called SARS.This is the first picture of a prison warden who made a four year old girl watch as he shot her parents - then drowned the terrified child in the sea.

Pavel Samar, 28, who is also known as Raven, is seen on a police video confessing to 'wilfully' killing the child. He wiped out the family to steal 3,200 to clear his debts.

Samar, himself the father of a small child, is now the subject of an appeal to Vladimir Putin by furious locals in Crimea to allow an exception to Russia's suspension of use of the death penalty.

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This is the first picture of a prison warden who made a four year old girl watch as he shot her parents - then drowned the terrified child in the sea

Raven Samar, 28, is seen on a police video confessing to 'wilfully' killing Arina (pictured)

Samar was taken to the crime scene where he had attempted to extort cash from Konstantin Larkov, 35, who arrived to clinch the deal with his partner Inna Khodareva, 32.

He lured them and their daughter Arina to the scene on the pretext of selling them his car.

They arrived in the small village of Geroevskoe and were met by two men who claimed to be the owners of the new car.

But when the parents got out of their Chevrolet Lanos, Samar pulled out a gun and demanded the cash.

He showed police how he shot the parents in their family car with his Makarov pistol, issued to him as a prison officer.

Samar (pictured) is now the subject of an appeal to Vladimir Putin by furious locals in Crimea to allow an exception to Russia's suspension of use of the death penalty

Samar (above) was taken to the crime scene where he had attempted to extort cash from a couple

After shooting the couple, the threw their bodies back in their car along with their terrified daughter

The father of one fought back and was shot five times, including in the chest.

The man died on the spot in full view of his distressed wife and daughter, said police.

Then Samar fired two bullets at the woman, killing her, as the girl cowered inches away by her mother's knees on the back seat.

The killer and an accomplice then pocketed the 255,000 RUB (3,236) Mr Larkov brought to buy the car, along with his Samsung phone, and stuffed the bodies inside.

Next he put the Chevrolet Lanos into first gear - so that it drove into the Kerch Strait bay between the Black and Azov seas.

Samar (pictured) then went to work at his job as a prison guard in Sevastopol just hours after the brutal murders, carrying the jail-issued gun he shot his victims with

Konstantin, 35, and Inna Larkov, 32, were shot dead by robbers who they thought were selling them a new car after they

When the parents got out of their Chevrolet Lanos, one of the men allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the couple repeatedly in the head and chest

The girl was still alive as the car sank.

Samar went to work at his job as a prison guard in Sevastopol just hours after the brutal murders, carrying the jail-issued gun he shot his victims with.

Detectives tracked him down a week later and he made a full confession, even leading them to the bodies and reenacting the sickening crime.

In horrific testimony to police, Samar said: ' The child was inside the car.'

When asked if she cried, he replied: Yes, cried.

He told police: I pushed the car to hide it.

The killer and his accomplice pocketed the 255,000 RUB (3,236) Mr Larkov brought to buy the car and stuffed the bodies inside with the terrified Arina

Little Arina drowned alongside her mother's body while trapped in the car by the cruel killers

Police asked: 'Did you understand that it is the cold time of year, that the doors are closed, the car in the water, did you suppose that the child will die?'

'Yes, I did suppose this,' he answered.

He faces life imprisonment after his confession.

A petition is demanding that Putin allow the death sentence in this case because of the cold-blooded murder of the child.

Russia suspended use of the death penalty after the collapse of the USSR.

Local community activist Alexander Talipov said it was time to restore the death penalty, which is suspended in Russia.

'I am in deep shock,' he said.

Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.Javed Javed, 65, made false claims that four worshippers at the Madina Mosque in Cardiff were paedophiles. Pictured: Leaving Cardiff Crown Court today

A sacked mosque official who set up a rogue website to wrongly accuse other Muslim worshippers of being paedophiles has managed to avoid jail.

Javed Javed made false claims about four men at the Madina mosque in Cardiff, linking them with child abuse and picturing them next to 'offensive' images such as pigs and alcohol.

The 65-year-old was sacked as treasurer of the mosque after a row with members, a court heard.

He then started using a website to upload 'derogatory' posts about the men.

In January 2017, Javed was given a restraining order banning him from making the posts, which he ignored.

He then set up another website where he accused the Mosque of harbouring paedophiles.

Prosecutor Peter Donnison said: 'He said members were paedophiles and involved in child sex offenses.

'He said individuals were having affairs with other members of the community, and the mosque harboured individuals associated with these activities.

'He also posted grossly offensive images including pictures of pigs and alcohol alongside members of the community.

'The victims found the images disturbing and said they were disgusted.'

His victims told Cardiff Crown court they lived in fear because of the false accusations leveled against them by Javed.

One victim said: 'I am concerned about going out in public because I'm aware people may have seen the website and believed his lies.'

Another said: 'I'm angry and disgusted Javed breached these order. Despite the hurt he caused we saw fit to forgive him and allow him to get his life straight.

'Nothing he said is true but I find myself being degraded by others on social media. It's had a detrimental effect on my social life.

'It's having an effect on my family and causes arguments because they want this to stop.'

Javed Javed, 65, made bogus sex claims about four men at the mosque - by linking them with child abuse and picturing them next to "offensive" images such as pigs and alcohol

One official at the mosque told the court: 'The impact it's had has been distressing and caused anger at the mosque.'

Neil Treharne, defending, said: 'He apologises for the upset he has caused. He will not be posting such things again.'

He told the court that Javed was 'broke' having recently been made homeless and was 'extremely ill' a stroke and kidney failure.

Giving his ruling, Jeremy Jenkins QC said Javed had caused 'considerable anxiety' to his victims.

He said: 'Each of these gentlemen acted with dignity and restraint despite the fact they must have been hurt by the things you posted.'

Javed, of Pontprennau, Cardiff, admitted six counts of acting in breach of a restraining order, was given an eight month suspended sentence and ordered to pay a 140 surcharge.The Queen's mounted bodyguard braved the rain today as they prepared for a summer of ceremonial duties with a parade around Hyde Park.

Following intense preparation involving hundreds of hours of training for the men, women and their horses, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment were put through their paces during their annual inspection by Major General Ben Bathurst, the General Officer Commanding the Household Division.

Stunning images show the originally pristine silver cuirasses and white breeches splattered with mud as the rain poured down in Central London.

The troopers completed moves replicating those to be performed on this years Queens Birthday Parade - also known as Trooping the Colour -which is the highlight of the ceremonial season.

They were accompanied in the inspection today by troops from the Swedish Life Guards and the French Garde Republicaine, who have been training with the elite British cavalry as part of a military exchange with the UK's allies.

The Major General's Inspection is the annual test of the regiment's ability to conduct state ceremonial duties for the year.Lyndon Smith (pictured), 46, murdered 20-year-old John Joyce, who he was competing against, after an argument broke out over the rules and he was called a 'fool'

A grandfather who stabbed a man to death in a row over a game of pool has been jailed for life.

Lyndon Smith, 46, murdered 20-year-old John Joyce, who he was competing against, after an argument broke out over the rules and he was called a 'fool'.

Father-of-four Smith left The Market Tavern in Bilston, West Midlands, but returned later that evening on August 17 armed with a 14cm knife.

He confronted Mr Joyce and his friends and attacked the Irishman as he headed towards a taxi rank.

Mr Joyce was stabbed four times and paramedics performed emergency CPR and used a defibrillator in the back of an ambulance - but despite their efforts he died at the scene.

A post mortem revealed he died from a stab wound to the chest.

Smith was arrested on suspicion of murder by officers a short time later and claimed he'd acted in self-defence.

Smith, of Bilston, was found guilty of murdering John Joyce following a two-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court last Friday.

On Thursday he was jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum of 22 years behind bars.

Mr Joyce (pictured) was stabbed four times and paramedics performed emergency CPR and used a defibrillator in the back of an ambulance - but despite their efforts he died at the scene

Nicola Heath, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'What started off as a trivial matter about the rules of a pool game would soon escalate into something deadly.

'Lyndon Smith took exception to this dispute and deliberately armed himself with a knife and sought the victim and his companions.

'Once he located the group of men, he stabbed Mr Joyce four times before running off.

'Throughout the case Smith claimed that he acted in self-defence, however, all of the evidence showed that he was the aggressor and the jury agreed.

'We appreciate that little will address the loss to Mr Joyce's family and our thoughts are with them at this time.'

Smith was found not guilty of wounding the victim's uncle James McDonagh and friend Michael Keenan, who were stabbed in the scuffle.Outgoing Europol director Rob Wainwright, pictured, has warned more than 1,000 ISIS jihadists could be seeking to return to Europe

More than 1,000 ISIS jihadists could try to return to Europe, security chiefs estimate.

Around 5,000 to 6,000 EU nationals are thought to have made the journey to join the militant group after its emergence in 2014.

Around a third of those who travelled may have died in fighting, it is believed, while a similar proportion have already returned to their home countries.

Rob Wainwright, executive director of Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, said that leaves a large number who are unaccounted for.

In an interview with the Press Association, he said: 'That's one of the big intelligence questions right now, about where these people are.'

Discussing possible theories he said: 'Have they relocated to different areas?

'Have they come back without our noticing? I think that's unlikely in the main.

'Maybe more have died than we thought.

'Then there's the final scenario which might be the most convincing, which is that maybe most of them are still there and committed to this cause of martyrdom.'

He added: 'We are concerned about it because it's a large number, it could still be over 1,000.

'They are perhaps capable of coming back and if they do come back they will do so in an even more radicalised state than when they went out, given their exposure to the conflict.

'It's one of those that is a top priority amongst our community.'

Questions over how returning extremists are managed by counter-terrorism agencies have intensified as IS comes under fierce military pressure.

Police in Britain have indicated that, of the UK-linked nationals who made the journey and remain in the region, around 100 could seek to re-enter the country.

Officers have played down the the prospect of all those who are technically eligible to come back doing so.

Mr Wainwright said it was important to have systems in place to ensure each returnee could be identified and assessed.

'You have to have enough intelligence sharing with your European partners to have the latest information about what they were engaged in in Syria and Iraq and what possible motivation they have for coming back,' he said.

Discussing the overall threat, Mr Wainwright said there is an even larger number of 'lone actors' in communities in Europe who have not travelled.

He also highlighted the use of technology and social media by ISIS.

Europol believe as well as returning jihadis, self-radicalised 'lone actors' are also a threat

He said: 'All these factors point to an evolution in threat from terrorism from something that has always traditionally been seen as a national security issue to something now that is a collective security issue.'

Mr Wainwright said the terror group's 'star is waning' amid military pressure but, pointing to the continuing threat from al Qaida, he added: 'I don't think we should be celebrating the defeat of international terrorism any time soon.'

The British law enforcement chief, who will depart from Europol later this year, said there has been an 'enormous' increase in intelligence sharing between member countries.

Around the time of the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016, there were about 6,000 intelligence entries in the agency's systems relating to terrorism - compared with around half a million today.

Mr Wainwright said the European law enforcement community is 'as cohesive and joined-up as at any time in the past'.

He added: 'We have to make sure, of course, that we can manage Brexit in a way that doesn't have a major dislocating effect on that cohesion.

'The political will is there. I'm encouraged by the public statements that have been made on different sides.

'I also detect a widespread understanding, recognition of the importance of getting this right.'A suspect wanted in connection to his girlfriend's recent killing in Tennessee took his own life and was at the same time shot by a police officer after being cornered by a SWAT team on Thursday.

Matthew McGinnis, 35, had a warrant out for his arrest for the shooting death of Nicole Stephens, a mother-of-two from Madison, whose body was discovered on Monday night inside a shed behind her home on Sussex Drive.

According to a press release from the Metro Nashville Police Department, an investigation has shown that the 39-year-old woman was murdered inside her boyfriend's bedroom at his townhome in the 1300 block of Rural Hill Road.

Murder suspect killed: Matthew McGinnis, 35 (left), killed himself as police were closing in on him in Tennessee. He was a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend, Nicole Stephens, 39 (right)

No way out: SWAT officers cornered the wanted man in his upstairs bathroom at his townhome (pictured) early Thursday morning

A veteran officer (not pictured) fired a shot at McGinnis almost at the same moment that he killed himself

The suspect then allegedly transported her body back to her residence and dumped it in the shed.

Stephens 21-year-old son had reported her missing on Monday morning after failing to reach her over the weekend. He went to his mothers home hours later and made the gruesome discovery.

Two days into the manhunt for McGinnis, police got a tip from his roommate that he was back home on Thursday morning.

Officers and members of the SWAT team converged on the residence and found the fugitive in an upstairs bathroom.

Police spokesperson Don Aaron said officers had ordered McGinnis to surrender peacefully before entering his home.

Domestic violence: Police believe McGinnis (left) killed the mother-of-two (right) at his home, then drove her body back to her property and dumped it in a shed

Dark past: McGinnis had a criminal record in Kentucky that included a conviction on a charge of receiving a stolen firearm

When they saw him holding a pistol in his hands, they reportedly pleaded with him, 'dont do it, according to WZTV.

According to police, the suspect pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

Officer Chris Key, an eight-year veteran with the Metro Police's undercover Gang Unit, fired a shot almost at the same time as McGinnis after noticing that the suspect made a twitching motion with his arm.

McGinnis was struck by both rounds and pronounced dead at the scene.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is now looking into what has been classified as an officer-involved shooting.

Family and friends of the slain mother-of-two have launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her funeral.

McGinnis had a criminal record in Kentucky that included convictions on charges of receiving a stolen firearm, DUI, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia stemming from a March 2016 arrest.This the heartwarming moment a farmer uses a kayak to rescue a lamb that had been washed away by severe flooding.

The footage, filmed in Kilkenny, Ireland, shows the lamb looking serene and calm as it is rowed to safety.

Kikenny, along with a number of other counties in Ireland, has been hit by floods over the past 24 hours with heavy rainfall warnings in place.

In the footage, you can see the farmer battling the flood waters as he rows towards the camera.

The lamb is in his lap and looks perfectly at ease in the kayak, despite the choppy waters.

The farmer breaks into a smile as they get closer to the camera and away from the buffeting floods.

In the footage, the hero farmer can be seen battling through the flood with the lamb perched calmly on his lap

He lifts the lamb up to the camera but the tiny animal seems oblivious to what's going on.

The footage comes amid flood warnings and severe rainfall in Ireland.

Kilkenny County Council earlier said 'extreme caution is advised due to significant levels of surface water on all roads' following 'extreme rainfall'."I think that standing out there sends a message that at least that we're not happy with the way things are going and there needs to be change," Reilly said.

The event started with an assembly, with pictures of the Parkland victims displayed in the auditorium. Ninth-grade class president Shelby Weeks and senior class president Eric Ansteth addressed the packed crowd, followed by English teacher Diana Jacobs taking to a piano to sing "Rise Up" by Andra Day. Morgan then said that since students were set to take to the streets around the country around that same time, Auburn students had the option to do the same. Different sections of the crowd were then dispersed outside.

People outside chatted among themselves at first, until voices pierced through the crowd, asking for silence. Eventually, the voices subsided and gave way to silence in the misty landscape. For several minutes, only a bird's cries, some stray coughs and the sound of sneakers on wet walkways could be heard. Some students hugged, others briefly bowed their heads and closed their eyes. Eventually students and staff shuffled back into the building.

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Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo said last week that an assembly would be held during the planned protests, but giving students the option to go outside was a choice decided upon earlier this week.Elliot Morris (pictured) was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Cardiff Crown Court for conspiracy to supply cannabis, possessing MDMA with intent and possessing cocaine

A drug dealer was snared by police after they identified his fingerprints from a photograph of him posing with ecstasy pills in his hand.

Elliot Morris who headed up the crime gang, shared pictures with his friends of himself holding the Ikea and Skype logo pills.

The 28-year-old was arrested when officers from Bridgend Priority Policing Team asked the Joint Scientific Support Unit (JSIU) at South Wales Police to examine the fingerprints, which provided a match on the national database.

Morris, of Redditch, Worcestershire, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Cardiff Crown Court after he admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis, possessing MDMA with intent and possessing cocaine.

The court heard how he was one of nine gang members who helped to supply cannabis, including his parents, Darren, 51, and Dominque, 44.

His father was jailed for 27 months and his mother for 12 months for a year for conspiracy to supply cannabis.

An investigation into the gang started in August last year when police raided the home of Joe Rees Thomas, 25, after witnessing a drop-off at the property.

Elliot Morris's father, Darren Morris, 51, (left) and his mother Dominque, 44, were also caught as part of the operation

Thomas was arrested along with Aaron McKay, 22, Danial Jenkins, 26, Nathan Burgess, 26, and Michael Rouse, 31, after bags of drugs of 'Gorilla Glue' cannabis were discovered at the property.

When police looked through McKay's phone they found WhatsApp messages dating back months which linked him to the Morris family, who where his suppliers.

Darren and Dominque were arrested after a cannabis factory was discovered at their home and it was later emerged their son was the leader of the organisation.

Morris was then arrested with his girlfriend Rosaleen Abdel-Salam, 25, of Tutnall, Worcs., and Chazino Suban, 27, of Birmingham.

Police then found an image of Morris holding a number of ecstasy tablets, taken on a mobile phone.

They also found bitcoin accounts which had 20,000 hidden in them, most of which was gained from the sale of illegal drugs.

A number of a pills, which cost roughly 10 each on the streets, which were recovered by police

Police identified Elliot Morris through his fingerprints in this photograph

In total, 36,000 of cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis was recovered, along with 21,000 in cash.

Detective Inspector Dean Taylor, of South Wales Police, said: 'This was a complex investigation which successfully drew on the skills of colleagues from multiple departments to ensure these drug dealers were brought to justice.

'This case again reiterates the importance of communities reporting their suspicions to us.

'The investigation began as the result of local intelligence about Joe Thomas and Aaron McKay, and what initially presented as a small-scale drug-dealing operation by two local men, soon unravelled in to a much larger, sophisticated set-up.

'It is testament to our officers, and all those involved, that we were able to secure convictions against this gang.'

The cannabis was a 'strong' type known as Gorilla Glue

Darren and Dominque were arrested after a cannabis factory was discovered at their home and it was later emerged their son was the leader of the organisation

Dave Thomas, forensic operations manager for the force, said: 'Specialist staff within the JSIU fully utilised their expert image-enhancing skills which enabled them to provide something that the unit's fingerprint identification experts could work.

'Despite being provided with only a very small section of the fingerprint which was visible in the photograph, the team were able to successfully identify the individual.'

Among the others to be sentenced included Joe Rees Thomas, 25, who was jailed for 27 months for producing cannabis and possessing cocaine, Aaron McKay, 22, of Pyle, who was jailed for 27 months, and Danial Jenkins, 26, of Kenfig Hill, who was jailed for eight months.

Nathan Burgess, 26, of Pyle Inn Way, Pyle, was jailed for nine months after he was convicted of possessing a Class B drug, Michael Rouse, 31, of Wildill, was jailed for nine months and Jonathan Scanlon, 27, of Willow Close, North Cornelly, who admitted possessing cocaine with the intent to supply  was jailed for 30 months.

Elliott Morris, 28, of Redditch, Worcestershire  who was also convicted of possessing MDMA with intent to supply and possessing cocaine  was jailed for eight-and-a-half years.More than 250 animals were rescued from terrible conditions, and one dog was found dead, on a backyard farm in Tenino, Washington at the weekend, according to a local animal advocacy group.

The animals, including dogs, cats, miniature horses, goats, chickens, turkeys and more are now being housed with various agencies and holding facilities throughout the area.

'This past Sunday we assisted the Sheriff's Office in one of the worst seizures most of us have seen,' Hooved Animal Rescue of Thurston County wrote in a blog posted on the organization's website on Wednesday.

Photos show the extreme neglect the animals were surviving under, with mini horses hooves grown out so extensively that they turned up in the air.

WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES

More than 250 animals were rescued from terrible conditions including this mini horse whose hooves were grown out so extensively that they turned up in the air

The mini horses have not been carried for by a farrier for years, Kathy Bailey, president of Hooved Animal Rescue told Q13 Fox.

Farriers are professionals who trim and shoe horses' hooves.

The mini horses were also found living in mud, which rose to knee-level on some of the animals, without access to any shelter from the elements.

The mini horses were found living in mud, which rose to knee-level on some of the animals, during wild weathe

The mini horses have not been carried for by a farrier, professoinals who trim and shoe horses' hooves, for years

The rest of the animals were not any better off.

A dog's crate was found, full of feces and urine, with dog food tossed on top of the animal excrement for the canines to eat.

'The water bucket had old straw and feces on it and the water inside was full of algae,' Bailey said.

Hooved Animal Rescue said this was the dog's water bucket

A dog's crate was found, full of feces and urine, with dog food tossed on top of the animal excrement for the canine to eat

Conditions on the property where the animals were seized were bleak

The goats were also found by rescuers in feces-filled stalls.

'When we put fresh water down for [the animals], they just scrambled for that water. I don't know how long it has been since they had fresh water. It was heartbreaking to see that,' Bailey said.

Hooved Animal rescue reportedly took in 34 animals, including one horse, 23 mini horses and 10 goats, that included two nursing kids and one baby that required bottle-feeding.

The organization said: 'There was a dog living among the feces and urine in this kennel'

The group shared this image of the goats' water buckets

Animal Services has taken charge of 19 animals, which included eight dogs, two cats, three rabbits and six domestic birds.

In addition, more than 200 poultry were removed by the Sheriff's Office, including chickens, turkeys, ducks and doves.

While some of the poultry have already been placed in foster homes, according to Hooved Animal Rescue, more than 140 were transported to a holding facility, which the organization is reportedly paying for.

Chickens, turkeys, ducks and doves were monght more than 200 poultry removed by the Sheriff's Office

Thurston County Animal Services has plans to refer a minimum of 19 charges for second-degree animal cruelty to the prosecutor's office.

It's possible more charges may be added, pending the completion of a full investigation.

No charges have been filed, at this time, so no names have been released as to who is responsible for the mistreatment of these animals.

The animal rescue group is now asking for donations to help cover the cost of bringing these animals back to good health.

The overgrown hooves on the mini horses need to be x-rayed before the farrier can begin work but it could cost at up to $15,000

No charges have been filed, at this time, so no names have been released as to who is responsible for the mistreatment of these animals

'The [overgrown hooves on the mini horses] need to be x-rayed before the farrier can begin work. All of them are in need of dental work that has been neglected for years and many are stallions so gelding will be soon to come! All of this is going to be expensive!' the organization said in its blog post.

'We are also covering the cost of caring for the poultry at the holding facility which meant buying feeders, waterers, shavings, and feed.'

X-rays alone are estimated to cost the non-profit organization up to $15,000.

Hooved Animal Rescue shared photos of the conditions they found on their Facebook page

The organization's website states that, 'Donations can be made through PayPal, mail, and through in-kind items such as supplies.'

The mailing address for the group is: PO Box 711, East Olympia, WA, 98540.

Those interested can access more information on how to send support by clicking here.North Korea's top diplomat has arrived in Sweden for talks which could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

Sweden's embassy in Pyongyang also represents US, Canadian and Australian diplomatic interests in North Korea, with the country playing a key role in liaising diplomatic talks.

Sweden confirmed that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was to visit the Scandinavian country for talks with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom.

'The talks will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia,' a foreign ministry statement said.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho leaves the Swedish goverment building Rosenbad in central Stockholm after meeting with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho (right) and his delegation arrive at the North Korean embassy in Stockholm on Thursday

'They will also address the security situation on the Korean peninsula, which is high on the (UN) Security Council agenda,' it said.

Sweden is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

'The aim of the visit is to contribute to the effective implementation of the resolutions' voted by the Security Council against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme as well as those calling 'for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict'.

Ri was travelling with Choe Kang-il, deputy director general of the foreign ministry's North America section, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

'We can't rule out the possibility of a contact between the North and the US' during Ri's trip to Sweden, a Beijing source told the news agency.

North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong-ho, at center facing, and his delegation arrive at Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, Sweden, Thursday March 18, 2018

Ri was expected to arrive in Stockholm around 6.15pm.

The Swedish foreign ministry said there would not be any press conferences during his visit but that it would publish a statement on Friday evening after the conclusion of talks.

After months of tension and warmongering over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, Trump has agreed to a summit proposal relayed by South Korean envoys who met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

But no specific time or venue has been set and North Korea has yet to confirm it even made the offer to meet.

International media have speculated that Sweden could be a potential location if the summit were to be confirmed.

The Scandinavian country has longstanding ties with North Korea - its diplomatic mission in Pyongyang was the first Western embassy established in the country, in 1975.

North Korea also has an embassy in Stockholm, in the leafy residential suburb of Lidingo.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and his delegation arrive at Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, Sweden, March 15, 2018

'I think it's much too early to speculate about that ... we're not there yet,' Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told news agency TT.

However, he added: 'If the main actors want Sweden to play a role - facilitate, be a forum or a link or whatever it may be - then we are ready to do that,' he said, referring to North and South Korea, the US, Japan and China.

'This is such an incredibly important issue. We are a country that is militarily non-aligned and have a longstanding presence in North Korea, and with the trust we enjoy we think we can play a role,' he said.

'But it has to be the main actors who decide which role Sweden will play.'

'We cannot be naive and think that Sweden is going to resolve these problems,' he said.

Jerker Hellstrom, Asia specialist at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) under the defence ministry, said Sweden has 'an important role in the Korean peninsula, both as a protecting power and its contribution to the supervision of the (Korean War) armistice agreement.'

However, North Korea watchers should not be overly optimistic about the current tone.

'The pause in escalation that we see right now is temporary,' he said, noting that Pyongyang will eventually 'need to prove its capabilities in the nuclear sphere.'

Earlier this month, Trump thanked Lofven for Stockholm's efforts to negotiate the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested for stealing propaganda material during a 2016 trip to Pyongyang, but who died after returning home.

According to a source close to the Stockholm-Pyongyang talks, the fate of three Americans detained in North Korea is also expected to be on the agenda.

'We know these consular cases are of great concern to the Americans, and when there are now gestures being made from both sides to defuse tensions, this is something North Korea can consider from its side,' the unnamed source told Sweden's newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter.The year 2018 has already seen a lot of days, Pi Day, International Womens Day, Valentines Day, and next week, it will tick off the International Day of Happiness.

Last years International Day of Happiness featured the Smurfs, which went around celebrating the day with a campaign promoting Sustainable Development Goals that were designed to help the world become more peaceful, equitable and healthy.

Today we have seen how the Small Smurfs Big Goals campaign is giving children and young people a platform to speak out about issues they are passionate about, said Caryl M. Stern, UNICEF US Fund President and CEO, at the time.

The International Day of Happiness was introduced by the United Nations in July 2012

As we celebrate International Day of Happiness, we hope many more young people are empowered to take action on the Sustainable Development Goals and help achieve a world free from poverty, inequality and injustice.

But what is International Day of Happiness, when is it and who came out top in the World Happiness Report?

When is International Day of Happiness?

The International Day of Happiness is on Tuesday, March 20, 2018.

What is International Day of Happiness?

During the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the then Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that the world needs a new economic paradigm that recognizes the parity between the three pillars of sustainable development.

These are social, economic and environmental well-being that together can define global happiness.

The #happiness movement is a call on governments, societies to get our priorities right, to adopt holistic goals to monitor the expressed levels of happiness in society, so that we can know when our society needs reforms to achieve happiness. https://t.co/gdoIKSjf43 @JeffDSachs  Happiness Day (@HappyDayMarch20) March 14, 2018

The meeting was held in Bhutan, a country that has prioritised national happiness since the 1970s and famously adopted the metric of Gross National Happiness.

In the resolution 66/281, the UN proclaimed March 20 as the International Day of Happiness, which seeks to promote the importance of happiness and position it as something to be strived for around the world.

On the UN website it says: The United Nations invites Member States, international and regional organizations, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organizations and individuals, to observe the International Day of Happiness in an appropriate manner, including through education and public awareness-raising activities.

In 2015, the UN introduced the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that seek to put an end to poverty, tackle inequality and increase environmental protection - three concepts that the UN says are key to well-being and happiness.

The International Day of Happiness advises people to join the movement for a happier world

What is the World Happiness Report?

The World Happiness Report is an annual report published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in the run up to the International Day of Happiness.

It ranks 156 countries by happiness levels, factoring things such as life expectancy, social support and corruption.

The Nordic countries have dominated the rankings lately. In 2016, Denmark topped the chart, but was knocked off top spot in 2017 by Norway. Finland was named as the happiest country in the world in 2018. The 2018 report included four more Nordic countries in the top ten.

The UK came in 19th, just one place above the United Arab Emirates, while the US ranked 18th.

Russia was 59th, China 86th while Burundi came in last.A heroic mother sacrificed her own life to save her two year old child as she was stabbed and set on fire by the youngster's jealous father, a court heard today.

Nursery worker Leanne Collopy, 25, was knifed 21 times by ex-boyfriend Saleem Said who lured her into a callous trap before dousing her with petrol and setting her alight, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire.

Yet as flames ripped across her back, the mother-of-two is said to of bravely held her daughter in her arms and shielded her from both the blaze and from her ex-partner as he rained down a barrage of savage knife blows.

Neighbours heard Miss Collopy shout: 'Help me! Help me! He's stabbing me!' through the walls of their adjoining properties and alerted police and firefighters, the court heard.

But by the time officers got access to the blazing house Miss Collopy had already suffered fatal wounds. She died four days later in hospital.

Nursery worker Leanne Collopy (pictured), 25, sacrificed her own life to save her two year old child as she was stabbed and set on fire by the youngster's jealous father, a court heard today

Her toddler suffered severe burns to her face, head and body and will need ongoing skin grafts. It emerged the two-year-old had also been doused with water by her mother as she fought for her life.

Miss Collopys other child, aged four, was on a sleepover at the time of the tragedy and is now living with her father away from the area.

Preston Crown Court heard in the run up to the murder last July 30, care worker Said, of Stockport, had purchased metal handcuffs, duct tape, white spirit from local stores and then petrol from a garage as part of an evil plan to kill Leanne in revenge for her dumping him.

He also carried out internet searches including: '16-steps-to-kill-someone-and-not-get-caught', 'how-to-start-a-fire-fast-and-furious-and-without-fuss' and 'how long it would take to suffocate someone?'

Miss Collopy, who had attained a degree in Early Years Teaching at Cumbria University, began dating Said in 2015 and had entered into a Muslim ceremony of marriage not recognised under UK law.

They split up last year after she complained about him being possessive and violent towards her.

The court heard that Said couldn't accept the romance was over and in the weeks before the killing he texted Miss Collopy saying: 'I can't go out, I can't do anything. I just think day and night, the world is a blur, nothing matters anymore. You have got what you wanted - my life is ruined.'

She was knifed 21 times by ex-boyfriend Saleem Said (pictured) who lured her into a callous trap before dousing her with petrol and setting her alight, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire

The court heard that Said couldn't accept that their romance was over and in the weeks before the killing he texted Miss Collopy saying: 'I can't go out, I can't do anything. I just think day and night, the world is a blur, nothing matters anymore'

On the day of the murder Said had an access visit with his daughter whilst Miss Collopy went out with friends.

But that evening, he rang her claiming she needed to come home as he had forgotten the child's cot.

Mr Francis McEntee prosecuting said: 'This was a ruse to draw Miss Collopy home, so he could carry out this planned attack.

'Inside the premises he engaged in a sustained, brutal attack, upon Miss Collopy, repeatedly stabbing her about the head and body with a kitchen knife that he had brought with him for that purpose.

'That attack continued even whilst Ms Collopy had their small child, in her arms. Indeed, this young woman's last, heroic, act was to save her daughter's life.

He told the court: 'When the police arrived, the property was dark and was full of smoke and an officer could just make out the outline of a small child sat upright on the kitchen worktop. He reached in through the window and pulled the child out.

'The baby's eyes were wide open and staring, and she didn't make a sound. She had burns on her face and hands and was wearing a baby grow covered in blood - but the blood on the baby grow was from the child's mother.

'The only proper inference is that the child had been in her mother's arms during a significant part of the attack and that Miss Collopy's last actions were to try and save her child.

The court heard a Boots parenting bag was found on the pavement outside the house containing a blue dressing gown belt, sleeping tablets, 'Kandytoys' metal handcuffs, a broken bottle of 'Smirnoff' Raspberry Vodka, a roll of 'Unibond' black duct tape and a 750ml plastic bottle of ASDA White Spirit.

When first interviewed, Said who was also injured in the blaze, kept silent apart from when he confirmed he was the owner of a BMW car driven to the murder scene.

Miss Collopy's toddler suffered severe burns to her face, head and body and will need ongoing skin grafts. It emerged the two-year-old had also been doused with water by her mother as she fought for her life

He later claimed he only bought handcuffs and duct tape because he was seeing prostitutes and said he had turned up to the house to threaten suicide.

Miss Collopy's mother Julie Doherty said in court: 'Leanne was a very proud mum with her whole life ahead of her and the emptiness we now feel will never go away.

'I have a longing for her to burst through the door and tell us her latest news - but I know I will never again be able to hug her, laugh with her, cry with her and even argue with her.

'I cry for the children and the fact they must grow up without a loving and caring mummy. The measure of what they will have to face is too distressing to think about - their own wedding and their children will never have a maternal grandmother.

'All she ever wanted to be was a mummy. I cry for what she went through that night. I think of how terrified she must have been, the pain she endured and I feel guilty I was not there.'

Miss Collopy's mother Julie Doherty said in court: 'Leanne (pictured) was a very proud mum with her whole life ahead of her and the emptiness we now feel will never go away'

In mitigation defence counsel Mukhtar Hussain QC said: 'It goes without saying that this is a sad and tragic case. The statements read by the family are the very thing that was the major part of this defendant's decision to plead guilty.

'He didn't want Leanne's family to go through and relive the circumstances of these very tragic events. '

Said pleaded guilty to murder and arson with intent to endanger life.

Jailing him for a minimum of 30 years, the Judge Mr Justice Robert Jay told an emotionless Said: 'This was a vicious, premeditated attack on Leanne spurred by your unconstrained jealousy.

'It's clear to me you had difficulties accepted your relationship with her was over and you were reaching the conclusion if you couldn't have Leanne you would have to kill her.

'[The toddler] was old enough to appreciate something terrible had happened and the mental and physical effects will be permanent. What happened will never leave the minds and souls of this family.'This is the incredible moment the 'French Spiderman' scales a 610ft building using just climbing shoes and chalk.

Alain Robert, 55, is known as the 'French Spiderman' for his gravity-defying climbing skills, and on Wednesday was filmed climbing a building in Paris.

The daredevil climber is known for scaling the world's tallest buildings and has in the past climbed up Dubai's Burj Khalifa and the Eiffel Tower.

In his latest exploit, Mr Robert reached the summit of the 610ft Tour Total building, the fourth tallest in the Paris business district.

Remarkably, it is the third time that the 55-year-old has made the climb.

Mr Robert has climbed more than 150 skyscrapers all over the world.

In 2015, he climbed Dubai's 1,007ft Cayan Tower with nothing more than sticky tape and chalk, which he kept in a pouch clipped to his waist, for assistance.

Alain Robert, the 'French Spiderman', climbed the 610ft Tour Total building on Wednesday despite security guards stopping him earlier

He has been climbing for more than 40 years, having started when he was 11 years old.

This time around, it took him just over an hour to climb the Tour Total.

He clung to the window ledges to lift himself up past the tower's 48 floors, cheered on by office workers-turned-spectators in La Defense.

Mr Robert had first tried to climb the Engie building on Wednesday morning, but was stopped by security guards.

The daredevil is 55 but says that he will continue climbing until he is physically unable because it is a passion and 'way of life'

He often climbs without permission and has been arrested several times.

In 2008, he scaled the New York Times building to unfurl a banner on global warming, and was arrested by police.

At 55 years old, Robert sees no end in sight for his vertiginous adventures.

'As long as I have the physical strength to scale heights, I will continue to climb,' he said.

'For me, climbing is a passion, it's a way of life.'

He was stopped in his initial attempt to climb the building and has been arrested on several occasions in his career for climbing without permissionThe White House whacked a favorite punching bag Thursday, as Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders again labeled President Trump's former nemesis, Hillary Clinton, as out-of-touch.

'She is completely disconnected from the American public and certainly I think shows her disdain for the millions and millions of Americans who came out and voted and supported President Trump and still support him today,' the press secretary said.

She was asked by a reporter from India about comments Clinton made while on a tour of the country that included her saying that white women only voted for Trump because of their white husbands who supported the Republican candidate.

Recent comments Hillary Clinton made in India about President Trump's voters and the states that he won are a 'perfect example of why Hillary Clinton is not in the White House,' Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday

Hillary Clinton, on a trip to India, said that white married women were pressured to vote for President Trump by their husbands. The White House reacted to those comments on Thursday saying Clinton was 'completely disconnected from the American people'

'I think that's a perfect example of why Hillary Clinton is not in the White House,' Huckabee Sanders replied.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from North Dakota, answered 'not soon enough' when asked when Hillary Clinton would 'ride off in the sunset'

Democrats weren't pleased that Clinton was making negative headlines again with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakotan Democrat who's facing a tough re-election bid, saying on a radio program hosted by the senator's brother that the ex-nominee's exit from politics could come 'not soon enough.'

Joel Heitkamp had asked his sister when Clinton would 'ride off in the sunset.'

'I don't know, not soon enough, I guess,' the Democratic senator first replied, before repeating her answer in a more definitive tone.

Heitkamp isn't the only one complaining about Clinton's most recent batch of controversial comments.

Some of the former secretary of state's top allies are anonymously saying she needs to just stop.

'She's annoying me. She's annoying everyone, as far as I can tell,' one unnamed 2016 Clinton surrogate told the Hill Newspaper Tuesday. 'Who let's her say these things?'

During the trip to India, Clinton explained how Democrats struggle to attract white male voters and, in turn, white married women.

'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,' the ex-Democratic nominee said.

On the same India trip, Hillary Clinton suggested that the states that voter for her were more economically advanced than those that voted for President Trump. That comment also irked Democrats who are trying to make inroads in places like Pennsylvania, which went for Trump

Clinton allies told the Hill's Amie Parnes, who co-authored the Clinton campaign book 'Shattered,' that they found her remarks cringe-worthy.

A former Obama White House official said, 'If these statements are a form of catharsis, it would be in the Democratic Party's best interest for her to get these out of her system soon.'

'We need leaders like her to look forward to 2020 and how to unify the party, not continue to re-litigate the past,' the official said.

The comments from Democrats were published just hours after Democrat Conor Lamb looked to be the winner of a district that once seemed out of reach.

Democrats also experienced a big post-Clinton win in December with the election of Alabama Sen. Doug Jones over Roy Moore, an accused pedophile, in a deep red state.

Both states, Alabama and Pennsylvania, had gone for Trump in 2016.

At the same appearance in India, Clinton had dubbed those Trump-supporting states less economically advanced than the states that went for her in the 2016 race.

Clinton allies told the Hill that they thought this was counter-productive as the party rebuilds and looks to those now-red states for the gains Democrats will need to take back the House in 2018.

'She puts herself in a position where [Democrats] from states that Trump won will have to distance themselves from her even more,' one former senior Clinton aide told the newspaper.

'That's a lot of states,' the ex-aide added.

A number of endangered Democratic senators come from red states too.

Mike Reed, the deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee, pointed out to reporters Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat up for re-election in Trump-supporting Montana, 'was forced to release an ad today, 8 months before Election Day, attempting to highlight areas of agreement with President Trump.'

'The Democrat brand is isolated, elitist, and as out-of-touch as it ever has been,' Reed harped as he shared Clinton's comments with reporters.

'At the RNC, we try not to continue to focus on Hillary Clinton. We really do try very hard,' Reed snarked. 'But this one is impossible to ignore.Hillary Clinton concealed her injured wrist under a navy shawl three days after fracturing it during a fall in India.

The former Secretary of State injured her right hand on Tuesday after slipping in a bathtub at the palace where she was staying in Jodhpur.

Doctors were called to the Umaid Bhawan Palace and diagnosed the 70-year-old with a sprain, advising her to rest which forced her to cancel plans to visit the Mehrangarh Fort that evening.

But the pain only worsened, and by Wednesday morning she decided to get her hand checked out at Goyal Hospital.

Doctors there administered a CT Scan and an X-ray of Clinton's wrist, and determined that she had a hairline fracture, the Times of India reports.

Scroll down for video

Hillary Clinton concealed her fractured wrist under a navy shawl on Thursday as she left Jodhpur in India

The former Secretary of State injured her right hand on Tuesday after slipping in a bathtub at the palace where she was staying in Jodhpur (above arriving in Jodhpur on Tuesday just before the fall)

Clinton was staying at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur for her three-day stay in the city

She slipped in a bathtub after arriving on Tuesday. Above, an example of a bath at the resort

They wrapped her wrist in a crepe bandage and advised her to rest further, and get a follow up in three days with doctors wherever she was staying.

Her doctors back in the U.S. agreed.

She arrived at the hospital early Wednesday and 'was here for about 15-20 minutes,' said Suresh Goyal, the CEO of Goyal Hospital in the city of Jodhpur.

On Thursday, she wore a scarf over her right arm and hand as she toured monuments in the city of Jaipur.

Clinton cancelled the rest of her plans for the day after the accident, which included traveling to a village outside the city to see workers weave carpets.

It meant that Clinton didn't get to do any of her planned itinerary in Jodhpur, as she was scheduled to leave for the next stop of her trip, Jaipur, on a chartered plane Thursday morning, according to DNA India.

This is the second time that Clinton has fallen on her tour of India.

This isn't the first time Clinton has fallen on her tour. While visiting the ancient city of Mandu on Monday, she fell down some stairs

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

While visiting the ancient city of Mandu in Madhya Pradesh, the former first lady and failed presidential candidate was filmed falling down the stairs Jahaz Mahal, of a 13th century harem.

It's unclear whether that fall contributed to Clinton's injury, as she did use her right hand to catch herself on the stairs.

The injury comes just five months after she broke her toe in a fall in London.

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 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 on Monday

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.

Clinton 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.'

The former Democrat presidential candidate is speaking in India to promote her book, What Happened, explaining her loss in the 2016 election.

Clinton blamed the defeat on voters who 'didn't like black people getting rights' or women getting jobs, in video of her remarks on Sunday shows.

The spill is the latest in a series of high-profile falls that have led Clinton's opponents to speculate about a possible underlying health issue.When Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin flew to Kentucky to tour Fort Knox during the the solar eclipse, he didn't just want any plane.

He wanted a Gulfstream G-IV according to several specific aircraft requests emailed by staff.

Documents obtained by a watchdog group in an information request revealed Thursday the repeated efforts by staff to secure the glamorous aircraft for a day trip that ended up including Mnuchin's wife, actress Louise Linton.

The trove of documents also revealed a total $1 million spent on military aircraft taken, it was said, so he could use secure communications in the air, and asked for a military aircraft to ferry the couple around their four-city European honeymoon.

Mnuchin withdrew that request but if it had gone ahead the Air Force would have flown the newlyweds to Edinburgh, Paris, Gargano, in Italy; and Milan in Italy then home.

The request claimed it would be 'the most cost-effective means to secure communications during this trip  both on-the-ground and in-transit'.

On the trip to Fort Knox, the secretary the chance to see the eclipse from an optimal location after viewing some of the nation's stored bullion.

The cost was up to $33,000, according to government documents revealed Thursday.

'Secretary Mnuchin's 2017 official travel totaled $1.2 million, substantially less than the $2.8 million his predecessor in the Obama administration averaged annually,' responded Tony Sayegh, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs:. 'Both figures represent the cost to the government for commercial and government air travel, train travel, hotels, vehicles, and other costs for the Secretaries and their security and traveling staff,' he added.

Going for gold? Louise Linton caused a brouhaha last year when she shared this image of her and hubby Steven Mnuchin arriving in Kentucky - and tagged her clothing labels

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (pictured with his wife in November 2017) didn't just want any plane

The plane he got, with its sleek oval windows, provided the perfect backdrop for what ended up being an infamous image after Linton tweeted it out along with hashtags for the brands she was wearing.

A June 27, 2017 email from a Treasury to advance the trip official specifically mentioned the aircraft.

'I am sending a request to see the availability for a same-day mission for an upcoming trip for us in August. The Secretary is looking to travel to Fort Knox on August 8th,' the official wrote to Lori Pink, a government aircraft specialist in a partially redacted email.

'We would request the GIV to accommodate staff and security. We would fly in to Louisville, reposition the plane at Fort Knox and then depart from Fort Knox back to DC,' wrote the Treasury's director of travel policy and operations,' the email states.

'I'm sorry, but our G-IV won't be available that week,' was the initial response from an faa.gov officlal. An eight-seat Citation was available.

The plan called for a 9:30 AM departure from Washington National Airport, an arrival in Louisville at 11:00 AM, at which time people would 'reposition' the plane to allow for a 5:00 pm departure from Fort Knox 'without Treasury passengers.'

The trip ended up moving when the Senate's August recess got pushed back.

A June 28, 2017 estimate from the faa.gov, which arranges government aircraft, refers to running 'performance requirements for the Citation operating at Ft. Knox Army Airfield. It refers to a backup of having the group return to the Louisville airport.

'We wold request the GIV to accommodate staff and security,' wrote a Treasury aide

The government's G-IV wasn't available

An early estimate put the cost at $19,000

THREE-WAY TICKET: Officials arranged to have the jet move between airports without the travelers

IT NEVER HURTS TO ASK: An official asked if any previously scheduled missions fell through

WOULD YOU MIND FIXING THE G-IV? The unidentified Treasury employee asked if the plane might be available later in August

At that point, the price is quoted at $19,000  though it would be just $2,000 without the Ft. Knox stop.

Pink responded at one point: 'At this time, the end of August is heavily scheduled. We can offer the G4 on August 31 and September 1 if either of those dates work for the Secretary's travel. Should other dates become available in a reasonable time, we'll get back to you.

The Treasury official wrote back: 'Just checking to see if, by chance, any other missions fell through and an asset would be available for July 21st,' the official wrote  likely referring to August 21.

'Understand if nothing is available, but figured I'd give it one last shot. Thanks.'

'We are still unable to support your requested travel the week of 21 August,' Pink, a flight operations specialist, responded.

A July 18 made another pitch for the GIV aircraft.

'As you may have seen, the Senate is pushing back August recess and it is going to impact our visit. We are working to identify dates later in August for the same routing and will keep you posted. We will pull down the planned mission for the 8th at this time.'

'Question,' the email continued. 'I know the GIV was unavailable for the 8th due to maintenance. Is that asset available, by chance, later in the month? Closer to the last two weeks of August?'

After getting turned down, the Treasury official wrote back with another pitch. 'Just checking to see if, by chance, any other missions fell through and an asset would be available for July 21st,' the official wrote  likely referring to August 21.

'Understand if nothing is available, but figured I'd give it one last shot. Thanks.'

'We are still unable to support your requested travel the week of 21 August,' Pink, a flight operations specialist, responded.

A Treasury Department report found there 'is no indication that the date [of the trip] was chosen to coincide with the solar eclipse.'

It also said Mnuchin requested a Gulfstream 550, the plane he apparently ended up with, in case the Fort Knox runway was wet and wanted a plane with 'communications capabilities is requested in the event that the secretary's participation on a call during travel arises.'

A Treasury spokesperson trashed the report, saying: 'Much of CREW's 'report' consists of falsehoods and mischaracterizations. Even CREW concedes that the Secretary's travel requests 'bear a remarkable similarity' to the requests submitted by secretaries in the Obama Administration, using the same approval process and level of justification.'

The spokesperson added: 'The documents CREW cites are the same documents that were examined by Treasury's Inspector General in his review of Treasury's travel, in which he identified no violation of law, regulation, or ethics requirements. The Inspector General confirmed that the Secretary is 'required by applicable authority and policy to have access to secure communications at a high level of classification at all times,' justifying the use of military aircraft. These documents explicitly demonstrate Treasury's concern for being prudent with taxpayer dollars while fulfilling important departmental responsibilities.'

Mnuchin racked up $33,000 in air costs to take a government jet to Kentucky with his wife during the eclipse, government documents reveal.

A Treasury official made another specific request for the GIV for a Mnuchin day trip to Miami.

'Per your request I have asked FAA for a quote for use of the G-IV for the Miami day trip on June 15. Times estimated and can be updated as needed. Total cost for the flight would be approx. $26,953.33, an FAA official responded.

But the official added: 'While I understand that current availability of commercial flights do not accommodate your scheduling needs, for your awareness, the cost per person on commercial air is approx.: $688 roundtrip.'

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington obtained government records for Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's travel through information requests, determining that taxpayers covered $1 million in air travel for seven trips he took in 2017.

Mnuchin, a wealthy movie producer who became Donald Trump's finance chair and then secretary of the Treasury, is not among those officials required to travel on special aircraft.

The Ft. Knox trip gained Internet notoriety after Mnuchin's wife, actress Louise Linton, posted a glamorous picture on Instagram, including hashtags of her various name brand accessories.

Her wardrobe totaled more than $14,000, DailyMail.com revealed at the time.

Mnuchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attended a luncheon event shortly before the eclipse, and McConnell posted about it on Facebook, saying they viewed the eclipse.

A June trip to Miami cost $45,000 for air expenses. A trip to West Virginia and Las Vegas cost $93,000.

And Middle East trip cost cost $183,000, a document titled 'Mil Air Costs Administration to date.'

One email, from the director of Travel Policy and Operations at Treasury, quotes a roughly $27,000 flight to Miami  but also reveals Mnuchin would be able to cut costs to just $688 if he was willing to fly commercial.

The email is titled 'FAA quote for Miami.'

Mnuchin's taxpayer funded trip coincided with the eclipse

THIS ONE'S EVEN FASTER: President Donald Trump sits between Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (L) and Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg (R) during a round table at Boeing in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. March 14, 2018

'Per your request I have asked FAA for a quote for use of the G-IV for the Miami day trip on June 15. Times estimated and can be updated as needed. Total cost for the flight would be approx. $26,953.33,' wrote the unnamed official.

The official then added: 'While I understand that current availability of commercial flights do not accommodate your scheduling needs, for your awareness, the cost per person on commercial air is approx.: $688 roundtrip.

The trip was for Mnuchin to attend the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America and to host a meeting Mexico's finance minister.

GOOD TO KNOW! A Treasury official noted that Mnuchin's cost of government aircraft to Miami would be $26,953  but he could fly commercial for $688

Treasury sought to designate it as a 'White House Mission tirp,' noting it was justified due to 'scheduling, logistics, and secure communications needs during the return flight.'

Plane crass: Linton was slammed for boasting of her $14,540 outfit in a state where 19% live under the poverty line. A spokesperson said her seat on the flight was paid for by Mnuchin

'From the documents we obtained, it appears Secretary Mnuchin considers first and foremost his own comfort and ease, leaving the protection of taxpayer money at the bottom of his list of priorities,' CREW's chief FOIA counsel Anne Weismann said in a statement that accompanied the release of the documents.

'The public still has no reasonable explanation for why Secretary Mnuchin apparently has never used commercial aircraft while his predecessors did, or why he needs military aircraft that can accommodate 120 passengers when his travel manifests contain far fewer names,' Weismann added.

CREW wrote in its report: 'The documents Treasury provided CREW show that to date Secretary Mnuchin apparently has not made a single trip on a commercial aircraft.'

From Kentucky at the time of the Mnuchin visit, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell posted on Facebook with a sun-lit image of himself and Mnuchin  with no trace of Linton in the shot  outside the front door of Ft. Knox, which Mnuchin toured during the trip on Monday.

'The U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and I in front of the main door to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox before we viewed the #solareclipse today,' McConnell wrote, in an image from Fort Knox, Kentucky.A California mother of two died one day after undergoing extensive cosmetic surgery in Miami.

Delma Pineda, 44, of San Francisco, flew to Miami, along with her four-year-old son, to have a number of cosmetic procedures performed on March 5, reported el Nuevo Herald.

Following a one-day surgery during which she received liposuction, a tummy tuck and a breast lift and augmentation, she was in excruciating pain, Cindy Barahona, a friend with whom Pineda was staying, told the newspaper.

Pineda collapsed at 4am and died 12 hours later at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Mother-of-two Delma Pineda, 44 (pictured), of San Francisco, died one day after having a number of cosmetic procedures performed on March 5

Pineda (pictured) underwent liposuction, a tummy tuck and a breast lift and augmentation. She collapsed the next morning at 4am and died 12 hours later at Jackson Memorial Hospital

On the day of the surgery, employees at CG Cosmetic Surgery Center (pictured) sent Pineda to another location to receive a pre-operation ultrasound. The location was closed but, when Pineda returned without having completed the ultrasound, staff proceeded with the surgeries

On the day of the surgery, employees at CG Cosmetic Surgery Center sent Pineda to another location to receive a pre-operation ultrasound, Barahona said.

However, the location was closed. But, when Pineda returned without having completed the ultrasound, staff proceeded with the surgeries regardless.

An official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Pineda's ex-husband, who wishes to remain anonymous, told NBC 6 that a medical examiner told the family that she had swelling in her brain and sustained a stroke, which then caused a heart attack.

Pineda's ex-husband, who wishes to remain anonymous, said a medical examiner told the family that she (pictured) had swelling in her brain and sustained a stroke, which then caused a heart attack. An official cause of death has yet to be determined

Her family has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for burial costs as well as a potential legal battle. Pineda worked as a medical assistant and had two sons, ages 17 and four (pictured)

DailyMail.com has not been able to independently confirm that this was the cause of Pineda's death.

Family members say that Pineda had no underlying medical conditions and described her to the Herald as 'healthy as a horse'.

Her family has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for burial costs as well as a potential legal battle.

So far, more than $15,400 has been raised out of an initial $15,000 goal.

CG Cosmetic Surgery released a statement on Wednesday, that read in part: 'It is our preliminary understanding that the events giving rise to this incident are unrelated to CG Cosmetic's services.

'We are closely monitoring this case and will facilitate any and all investigation into the cause of this incident.'

Florida records show that the doctor, Scott Loessin, who performed the procedures is licensed. Family members say that Pineda (left and right) had no underlying medical conditions and described her to the Herald as 'healthy as a horse'

CG Cosmetic Surgery (pictured) released a statement on Wednesday, saying in part: 'It is our preliminary understanding that the events giving rise to this incident are unrelated to CG Cosmetic's services'

According to the Herald, Florida records show that the doctor, Scott Loessin, who performed the procedures is licensed.

Pineda worked as a medical assistant, according to the GoFundMe page, and had two sons, ages 17 and four.

Funeral services have been scheduled for Friday in El Cerrito, California.Susan Smith, the owner of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Pet Travel, said she answers nearly 100 questions a day about traveling with or transporting pets. And the questions arent just about domestic flights.

China to Turkey, South Africa to London, she said. Were a mobile world, and people want to bring their pets with them.

Baby boomers are traveling with their pets, as are millennials, who have waited longer to have kids than previous generations and bought pets instead, Smith said. Additionally, theres been an influx of people traveling with emotional support and service animals, which fly in the cabin for free.

On United, passengers who cant bring a pet in the cabin can use the airlines PetSafe program. Customers receive information on preparing the animal for the trip, such as familiarizing the pet with its kennel and driving the pet through a car wash while in the kennel, which approximates what it might experience in a planes cargo hold, Hobart said.

Animals are taken from the airport to the airplane in climate-controlled vehicles, and they are last to be loaded in the cargo hold and first to be removed, he said.A woman who crashed into a Michigan police car had two vials of urine stashed inside her bra, it has been revealed.

The 40-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was arrested for driving under the influence of narcotics.

She lost control of her vehicle and struck the Roseville Police car on Interstate 696 at 6.40am on Thursday.

A 40-year-old woman who crashed into a police car (pictured) in Roseville, Michigan had two vials of urine stashed inside her bra, it has been revealed

The cop car was parked at the scene of a traffic collision at the time of the crash. The officer was not injured, according to authorities.

After the woman's arrest, police found the two vials of urine stashed inside her bra.

Officers believe she was scheduled for an upcoming drug test, according to WDIV.

The woman lost control of her vehicle and struck the Roseville Police car on Interstate 696 at 6.40am on Thursday

State Police Lt Mike Shaw said the intended use of the vials has not been confirmed.

Shaw said officers are now more concerned with just being hit by a car during traffic stops rather than being shot in the line of duty.

'You've got one eye on the crash report, you've got one eye on the people whose involved over there,' he said.

'And the third eye you got is sitting in the back of your head hoping someone doesn't run you down.'Christopher Parker, 35, was arrested on Tuesday by a Colorado task force that was assembled to investigate six unsolved shootings that happened in 2015

A man has been jailed on charges of first degree murder and attempted first degree murder for two of six random shootings that took place in Colorado in 2015.

Christopher Parker, 35, was arrested on Tuesday by the task force that was assembled to investigate the unsolved shootings, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office announced on Thursday.

The Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force took Parker into custody for the killing of William Connole in Loveland.

Connole was shot and killed on June 3, 2015, at the age of 65.

Police said Connole was standing at an intersection near his home when Parker allegedly fatally shot him at about 10.45 pm, local time.

The Larimer County Sheriff's Office announced on Thursday that the Northern Colorado Shooting Task Force took Parker into custody for the killing of William Connole (pictured) in Loveland on June 3, 2015, at the age of 65

Parker is also accused of discharging a firearm in the direction of a person driving a motorcycle in Loveland, just 15 minutes earlier on that same night.

The motorcyclist, reportedly, was not struck during the alleged incident.

Parker was reportedly driving a pickup truck when he is accused of opening fire that evening.

The first of the six unsolved shootings involved victim Cori Romero, 20, on April 22, 2015, according to CBS Denver.

The first of the six unsolved shootings involved victim Cori Romero, 20, on April 22, 2015

Romero survived after being shot in the neck while driving her vehicle in an eastbound lane on Harmony Road as she entered the on ramp for Interstate 25 South in Fort Collins

Romero survived after being shot in the neck while driving her vehicle in an eastbound lane on Harmony Road as she entered the on ramp for Interstate 25 South in Fort Collins.

Then, on May 18 of that year, John Jacoby, age 47, was shot twice and died at the scene, as he was riding his bike on Weld County Road 15 north of Windsor.

Authorities believe these two shootings may be connected to each other, based on unspecified forensic evidence, but not the other remaining unsolved shootings from about that same time.

John Jacoby, age 47, was shot twice and died at the scene, as he was riding his bike on Weld County Road 15 north of Windsor, on May 18, 2015

The other two shootings which prompted the creation of the shooting task forced occurred at a school in North Larimer County on September 15, 2015, and at a hospital that same weekend.

'All four of these cases remain open and unsolved,' Larimer County Capt. Bob Coleman said at a news conference on Thursday, referring to the fatal shooting of Jacoby, the shooting of survivor Romero, and the school and hospital shooting that both happened on the same weekend, in September 2015.

Parker is reportedly being held without bond, and has a criminal record that includes operation of an unsafe vehicle and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Denver Post.The haunting 000 call made by a woman who bludgeoned her ex-boyfriend to death with the help of her Neo-Nazi lover has been heard for the first time.

Melony Attwood, 37, and her boyfriend Robert Edhouse, 22, bashed 42-year-old Alan Taylor with a hammer in the bedroom of his Girraween home in Perth, before staging the murder scene to look like a botched robbery.

The pair trashed Mr Taylor's home to make it look like a burglary gone wrong and went to the movies to watch The Jungle Book.

Atwood then returned to the crime scene where she went through the 'charade' of making a distressed phone call to the police.

Scroll down for video

Melony Attwood, 37, (right) and her 22-year-old live-in lover Robert Edhouse, (left) killed her partner Alan Taylor, 42, in April 2016

Mr Taylor (pictured) was found bludgeoned to death in his home in Girrawheen, Perth in 2016. He was living with Attwood, their three-year-old son and several other people including Edhouse when he was killed

'Oh my god, there's blood everywhere,' a sobbing Attwood is heard telling the emergency operator.

Attwood, who shared a child with Mr Taylor, pretended to be waiting outside her ex-boyfriend's home when she first made the 000 call.

She told the operator the door handle had been caved in and she was worried something bad had happened.

It was then the self-confessed Neo-Nazi pretended to stumble upon the battered body of Mr Taylor, while narrating the horror to the 000 operator.

'Oh my God. He's on the floor. Alan? Alan?' Attwood said on the phone.

'There's blood all over the bedroom, and he's on the floor.'

Attwood, (right) who shared a child with Mr Taylor, pretended to be waiting outside her ex-boyfriend's home when she first made the 000 call

Images from Attwood's personal Facebook page depict the Aryan Nation's Perth flag hung in a backyard, as well as a number of swastika symbols

Another image on her Facebook account depicts a message which reads: 'I'm going to start hugging people that I hate so I know what size hole to dig.' Pictured: Her Facebook pictures

The phone operator then asked an audibly distressed Attwood if it looked like Mr Taylor had 'done it to himself,' to which she replied: 'No I don't think he's done this to himself, the house is trashed.'

'There's blood splattered, I don't know,' she added.

Attwood and Edhouse were found guilty of Mr Taylor's murder in the WA Supreme Court while 21-year-old Corey Joshua Dymock was found guilty of being an accessory.

The killer lovers took it in turns to beat him with a hammer before changing out of their bloodied clothes and going to see a movie to create a false alibi.

The pair then went to another neo-Nazi's house where they laughed and joked about the killing and discussed how they would receive $1million from Mr Taylor's life insurance.

It wasn't until the next day that Attwood returned to the murder scene where she reported Mr Taylor's death to the police.

Paramedics said the helpless victim may have been alive for up to five hours before bleeding to death.

ATTWOOD'S DISTURBING 000 CALL Attwood: Umm, I've just gotten home, umm, my front door handle's just been caved in. Umm, I don't want to go inside but I'm calling out to my ex who's meant to be inside and no-one's making any noise or anything. Attwood: Alan? Oh my God, there's blood everywhere (crying). Operator: Blood? You say there's blood everywhere? Attwood: Yes. (crying) Oh my God (crying). He's on the floor. Alan? Alan? Operator: You need to take a few breaths so I can understand what you're saying. Attwood: There's blood all over the bedroom, and he's on the floor. Operator: Who's on the floor? Attwood: Alan. Operator: Is he breathing? Attwood: I don't know. Alan? Operator: I'm sorry to ask this question but does it look like someone has done this to him or does it look like he's done this to himself? Attwood: No I don't think he's done this to himself, the house is trashed. There's blood splattered, I don't know. Advertisement

Mr Taylor was living with Attwood, their three-year-old son and several other people including Edhouse in a Perth property when he was killed.

Mr Taylor and Attwood had been together for nine years but she had become 'tired' of him and wanted to be with Edhouse instead.

Edhouse was president of the Perth chapter of white supremacist group Aryan Nations and Attwood ran a linked group called Aryan girls.

All three offenders will face a sentencing hearing in May.

A fourth person, who cannot be identified because he was 17, pleaded guilty to murder and was given a reduced sentence for testifying after his grandmother 'told him to tell the truth.'

Major crime squad Det-Sgt Dean Lampard described the attack against Mr Taylor as 'brutal' with a 'high level of violence'.'

Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization. It was set up in Hayden, Idaho but has chapters around the world. Pctured: an image from Attwood's Facebook

Graffiti tied to the group has also been appearing including an ill-shapen swastika spray-painted onto a Midland carparkTragic death: Christopher Lopez, 23 (right), was struck and killed by a boulder on a California freeway while riding in his wife's car on Tuesday

A 23-year-old man from California was killed while riding as a passenger in his wife's car on Tuesday after police say someone intentionally threw a boulder from an overpass in Pasadena that crashed through the windshield.

The deadly incident took place just before 9pm. According to the California Highway Patrol Christopher Cris Lopez was traveling west in his wife's 2017 Toyota Corolla along 134 Freeway and passing under the Orange Grove Boulevard overpass when an identified person hurled a 30-to-35-pound rock at the vehicle below.

Lopez was struck by the heavy projectile, suffering fatal injuries. His 21-year-old wife immediately rushed his to Glendale Adventist Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead less than 40 minutes after the attack, reported KTLA.

Lopez was traveling west in his wife's 2017 Toyota Corolla along 134 Freeway and passing under the Orange Grove Boulevard overpass when an identified person hurled the rock

According to the description of a GoFundMe campaign launched by a friend, the boulder shattered all the bones in Lopez's chest and smashed his jaw.

The 23-year-old man is survived by his young widow and their daughter. As of Thursday afternoon, more than $1,400 has been raised in donations to help the family with Lopez's funeral expenses.

Investigators are now looking for information that could lead to the arrest of the culprit, who could be facing murder charges.

Lopez, who worked as a barrista (pictured) leaves behind his young widow and their daughter

Friends of the victim took to Facebook on Thursday to pay tribute to the young husband and father, who was described as an 'amazing man.'

There have been several similar incidents involving rock throwing in recent years.

In October 2017, 32-year-old Kenneth White was killed in Michigan when police said several teenagers hurled a rock through his windshield.

In July 2014, Sharon Budd and her husband, Randy, were traveling on a central Pennsylvania highway when four teens dropped a large rock from an overpass, which struck the woman in the head.

Sharon suffered severe damage to her skull and eventually lost an eye. Her husband of 33 years committed suicide in 2016.

Anyone with information on the Pasadena case was urged to call the CHP Altadena Area Station at (626) 296-8100.A firefighter diagnosed with a rare, inoperable brain tumour and told he has less than a month to live is in a desperate race to raise funds for pioneering treatment.

Stefan Hawcroft, 29, of Lincoln, has diffuse pontine glioma, an aggressive cancer that has reached his brain and spinal cord, consigning him to a wheelchair.

So far, standard treatments have not had the desired effect, and the cancer has restricted his mobility on his right side and left him struggling to speak. Pioneering treatment in Germany could save his life but time is running out.

Stefan Hawcroft, 29, of Lincoln, has diffuse pontine glioma, an aggressive cancer that has spread to his brain and spinal cord, consigning him to a wheelchair. He is in a race against time to raise funds to pay for potentially life saving pioneering treatment after doctors gave up

So far, standard treatments have not had the desired effect, and the cancer has restricted his mobility on his right side and left him struggling to speak (pictured with his sister Emma)

Just a fortnight ago, and five years on from his initial diagnosis, Mr Hawcroft and his family were left devastated after medics said they would no longer be pursuing treatment and advised him he had a month left to live.

Now the family have launched a campaign to raise thousands of pounds to fund potentially life-saving treatment in Germany.

And remarkably, half of the 30,000 needed to afford four sessions of immunotherapy treatment in Germany has been raised in less than 24 hours.

But with no further NHS options available to the family, each further round of treatment costs 80,000 meaning he urgently requires more donations.

'It was devastating for us and the whole family when we were told there was nothing more they could do,' his wife Rebecca said.

'I didn't know how to react - I asked the doctor if he was joking.

'Stefan has taken everything in his stride. He just says this isn't the end of me, I am not giving up.

Tragedy: Just a fortnight ago, and five years on from his initial diagnosis, Mr Hawcroft and his family were left devastated after medics said they would no longer be pursuing treatment and advised him he had a month left to live (pictured with loving wife Rebecca)

Urgent: The family have launched a campaign to raise thousands of pounds to fund potentially life-saving treatment in Germany. Half of the 30,000 needed to afford four sessions of immunotherapy treatment in Germany has been raised in 24 hours but more is needed

'He has always been a fighter. He was having an operation to put a stint in his brain as he had hydrocephalus - where fluid builds up on the brain.

'It was taking too long as the surgeons couldn't get the stint in and they were going to give up and let him pass.

'It was a miracle they got it in as usually it takes one hour but his took four.

Credit to his community: Stefan has continued to serve his Lincoln community as a firefighter during his treatment. He is pictured here with his colleagues on duty

Staying strong: His wife described the gruelling treatment so far 'he has always been a fighter. He was having an operation to put a stint in his brain as he had hydrocephalus - where fluid builds up on the brain. It was a miracle they got it in as usually it an hour but his took four'

'He has this fighting spirit that is really encouraging and his outlook is always so positive.'

The pair met five years ago - just a few months after Mr Hawcroft received his initial cancer diagnosis.

The couple tied the knot three weeks ago. But despite his fight with cancer, the student midwife is grateful for every second they have spent together so far.

'We have a perfect life,' she said. 'We have a beautiful house, a beautiful family, a wonderful dog and overall we have had a great life together.

Active: A biopsy in September showed signs of aggressive changes. On January 25 the day of his birthday he was rushed in for emergency surgery to have a shunt fitted to drain hydrocephalus fluid from the brain caused by his tumour blocking a ventricle

'A palliative care team are working with us and we have accepted what we have been told - but we are choosing to fight.

'We have dealt with everything together but we have come too far just to give up now.'

His wife has been amazed by the response for the treatment, which she says is his last hope.

Race against time: Since surgery his condition has deteriorated and now the brave firefighter is in a race against time for funds to pay for the potentially life saving treatment

The GoFundMe page says: 'Stefan has battled this for over 5 years having lots of rounds of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and still working as a fire fighter in Lincolnshire throughout!'

'The plan at the moment is to raise money via the GoFundMe page,' she said.

'It really is his last chance. It works like having a jab. It has been on trial here in London, but doctors say that one shot could kill him.

'We have to try it though. It is either we let him die or we fight and we are clinging on to even that one per cent that it will work.'The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five organizations over malicious cyber activity including the meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Among those sanctioned are FSB, Russia's top spy service; the military intelligence agency, or GRU, and its chief officer; and 13 people indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller last month.

Mueller indicted 13 Russians last month, including a businessman nicknamed Putin's 'chef', a female spy who came to the US in 2014 to gather intel and a computer whiz who used servers to hide 'troll factory's location'.

The Treasury Department announced the latest sanctions on Thursday, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin saying additional sanctions were planned against Russian government officials and oligarchs.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign using hacking and propaganda, an effort that eventually included attempting to tilt the race in President Donald Trump's favor.

Russia denies interfering in the election.

The names of those sanctioned and the accusations against them are listed here.

Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, The boss, also known as 'Putin's Chef'

Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin is accused of funding the Internet Research Agency

Prigozhin is accused of funding the Internet Research Agency. He was last sanctioned by former President Barack Obama in December 2016 for 'blocking property of additional persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine'.

The 56-year-old is said to have used his businesses, Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, to fund the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the 'Kremlin Troll factory' which was the vehicle for the alleged interference.

Prigozhin paid the salaries of the other 12 defendants indicted by Mueller last month, it is alleged, through this financial backing which prosecutors started in 2014.

The businessman is given the nickname 'Putin's Chef' because he owns restaurants favored by Putin as the venues for state dinners.

A 2016 profile of him by the Russian newsite Meduza described him as an ex-con who graduated from a boarding school only to join a gang and become convicted of attempted robbery and prostitution. He spent nine years in jail.

He gained access to St. Petersburg's elite in 1996 when he and a friend opened Staraya Tamozhnya, one of the city's finest restaurants. Until then, he had worked with his father more modesty in grocery stores and selling hot dogs.

He opened his New Island, his second restaurant, in 1997. Putin was first drawn to it in 2001 when he took the then French president Jacques Chirac there for a meal and Prigozhin served them.

He continued to cater to Putin's staff at the restaurant over the years and grew closer to them. Soon, he became the go-to caterer for official state events in Moscow.

Prigozhin, also known as 'Putin's chef' and is pictured above with Putin himself, paid the salaries of the other 12 defendants indicted by Mueller last month, it is alleged, through this financial backing which prosecutors started in 2014

The 56-year-old, pictured with Putin, is said to have used his businesses, Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, to fund the Internet Research Agency (IRA), known as the 'Kremlin Troll factory' which was the vehicle for the alleged interference

In 2010, he launched what was billed as a good-cause initiative to feed hungry schoolchildren in St Petersburg.

Putin attended the launch of food factory to celebrate it and the initiative was funded generously by state-owned bank Vnesheconombank.

A year into the project, parents became angry when they realized the food being produced was full of additives.

He then started feeding other school children in Moscow with more success, having obtained private contracts from the city's mayor.

Prigozhin won similarly lucrative contracts with the military.

In 2012, he signed a $1.2billion contract which had him provide 90 percent of the meals the Russian army's soldiers consumed. The system of outsourcing the military's meals ended in 2013.

It gave him his biggest paycheck and associates said at the time he was known to pay for private jets with cash.

Throughout, Prigozhin was a dedicated patriot and was proud of his association to Putin's government.

This lucrative relationship with the state carried on until 2013 when the laws changed and outside caterers were no longer brought in to provide the military with meals.

By then, Prigozhin had earned more than $1billion from the state through the deal.

The 'troll factory' (Internet Research Agency) was founded that same year. Though Mikhail Bystrov was named as its owner and CEO, Russian journalists learned of Prigozhin's connection to it early on.

Prigozhin, pictured above with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, gained access to St Petersburg's elite in 1996 when he and a friend opened Staraya Tamozhnya, one of the city's finest restaurants

What specifically prompted him to do it or if anyone put him up to it remains unclear.

In its genesis, the factory's employees had one job - to make complimentary posts on social media about Putin and the government and besmirch the names of its opponents.

When Prigozhin's association to the Internet Research Agency was revealed, he faced increased scrutiny from critics.

An article in 2015 highlighted how the factory worked and the conflict Prigozhin's relationship to Putin posed.

With the bad press about him growing, Prigozhin attempted in 2016 to have himself 'erased' from the internet.

It coincided with the introduction of a new bill which gave an individual the right to be forgotten.

The law was pushed by Putin and states that websites must delete content such as news stories about an individual if it breaks the law, is false or is 'obsolete'.

To date, Prigozhin has filed 15 lawsuits against the Russian search engine Yandex to try to have articles about him removed from the internet.

Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov, retired police colonel and the CEO frontman for the 'troll factory'

The Treasury sanctioned Bystrov and 11 others indicted by Mueller because they 'acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA'.

Bystrov was listed as the CEO of Internet Research Agency and his name has been linked to other companies which have been tied to the election interference.

Little is known of him other than that was an employee of the state who was born in 1958 and is a retired police colonel.

He, unlike Prigozhin, has not been pictured publicly with Putin and has kept himself out of the spotlight.

According to Mueller's investigation, he joined IRC in 2014 as its highest ranking employee.

'Bystrov was the general director. He subsequently served as the head of various other entities used by the organization to mask its activities, for example, Glavset LLC, where he was listed as that entity's general director,' it reads.

Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik, aka Mikhail Abramov, the second in command

Burchik was Bystrov's right-hand man at the organization, according to Mueller's complaint.

He used the name Mikhail Abramov too and was instrumental in orchestrating Project Lakhta, the generously funded project which officials say was the start of the interference.

At conception, it had a budget of the equivalent of $1.25million. Lakhta involved both US and Russian-targeted interference, it claimed.

He was in charge of meetings, structure and personnel, according to Mueller's indictment, had one-on-ones with Prigozhin.

Sergey Pavlovich Polozov, IT whiz who used US servers to hide 'troll factory's' real location in Russia

Polozov was in charge of the IT department and his biggest responsibility was hiding the location of the Internet Research's Agency HQ, now known to be 55 Savushkina Street in the Olgina neighborhood of St Petersburg.

Prosecutors allege that the posts its employees wrote were designed to look like they had been written by Americans who favored Trump.

This was possible, Mueller says, through the 'procurement of US servers' which at first glance made them look like they came from America if they were ever probed.

Mueller's indictment alleges: 'Polozov served as the manager of the IT department and oversaw the procurement of US servers and other company infrastructure that masked the organization's Russian location when conducting operations within the United States.

'To hide their Russian identities, [they], particular Polozov, purchased space on computer servers located inside the US in order to set up virtual private networks (VPNs). They connected from Russia to the US-based infrastructure by way of these VPNs and conducted activity in the US, including accessing online social media accounts, opening new accounts, and communicating with real US persons - while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity,' it reads.

Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova, female spy who 'came to US in 2013 to gather information and report it back'

The Trump administration claims that Kryloca served as a director at the IRA and was the firm's third-highest-ranked employee.

Mueller's complaint gives little detail of the background lives of the lesser known employees and there is scarce information about them available.

It is suggested though that Krylova, one of four women named, was the company's spy.

'In 2014, Krylova traveled to the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence to inform the organization's operations,' the indictment reads.

Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva, data analyst for alleged US interference dubbed 'the translator project'

Bogacheva was tied to what the employees referred to as 'the translator project' within the IRA.

It was part of the larger Project Lakhta but focused only on US audiences, it is claimed.

She too is alleged to have traveled to the US under false pretenses to gather information.

Bogacheva only worked for the company for three months between April and July 2014.

Maria Anatolyevna Bovda, project manager

Bovda is described in the Treasury's sanction statement as the 'head' of the translator project, the designated branch of the wider pro-Putin effort which focused on US audiences.

She worked there between November 2013 and October 2014, according to the statement.

Robert Sergeyevich Bovda, second in charge of the project

While it is not revealed in the sanctions or indictment, it is believed that Robert and Maria Bovda are married.

Robert Bovda acted beneath his wife as the second in charge of the 'translator' project and worked at the company over the same dates.

He too was accused by Mueller of trying to enter the US under false pretenses to collect information but he did not obtain a visa and could not make the trip.

Ogly, who also used the names Jayhoon Aslanov and Ajay Aslanov, was sanctioned because he 'acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA'.

Robert and Maria Bovda worked in the 'translator project' in the IRA, the designated branch of the wider pro-Putin effort which focused on US audiences

The Russian acted as the head of a the translator project, which conducted operations on social media with a focus on the US, according to a Department of Treasury press release.

The press release says that Ogly also oversaw operations that targeted the 2016 presidential election.

He took over when Maria Bovda left the project in late 2014 and he was at its helm during the election, it is claimed.

The Russian was also listed as a director for another company which has been tied to interference and is owned by Prigozhin.

Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev, data analyst

Podkopaev joined in June 2014 and drafted social media content to be blasted by the 'trolls'.

He also worked as a data analyst, targeting US audiences, according to the complaint.

Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko, pre-election troll

Gleb Vasilchenko was accused of posting under numerous social media accounts which the factory operated from 2014 until September 2016

Vasilchenko was accused in the indictment of posting under numerous social media accounts which the factory operated from 2014 until September 2016, two months before the election.

He went on to work for 'sub groups' which were also owned by Prigozhin and which also worked to interfere with the election, it is claimed.

As per the complaint, he 'was responsible for posting, monitoring and updating the social media content of many organization-controlled accounts while posing as US persons or US grassroots organizations.

Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina, posed as 'multiple US voters online'

The fourth woman sanctioned, Kaverzina is alleged to have used multiple social media accounts to pose as an American and make influential posts about politics and Donald Trump.

She joined in October 2014.

When US officials launched their investigation in 2017, Kaverzine allegedly let slip to a family member that they had been 'busted' and told how she had to spend time 'covering her tracks'.

'We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with colleagues. I created all these pictures and posts and the Americans believed it was written by their people,' she wrote.

Vladimir Venkov, pre-election troll

Venkov, one of three designated trolls, allegedly shared the responsibilities of Kaverzina and Vasilchenko to post content online while posing as an American.

The Trump administration also sanctioned two entities and six individuals for performing cyber attacks on behalf of the Russian government.

All individuals involved were sanctioned for 'acts for or on behalf of the Main Intelligence Directorate' Russia's top spy agency, according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

Below are the individuals and organizations involved:

Sergei Afanasyev, senior official at GRU

Afanasyev is a senior official at one of Russian's top spy agencies, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).

Russian news agency TASS previously named him as a deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

GRU, where Afanasyev reportedly works, is one of two Kremlin spy agencies that allegedly sent hackers into the Democratic National Committee's network ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

While Afanasyev is relatively unknown outside of Russia, he apparently attended Russian peace talks for the syrian civil war Astana, Kazakhstan, in February.

It is believed to be his last public appearance, and he spoke via video call.

There is little known about Afanasyev's work outside the Middle East and terrorism issues.

Igor Korobov is the current chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate General Staff (GRU) in the Ministry of Defense

Igor Korobov, Chief of the GRU

Korobov is the current chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate General Staff (GRU) in the Ministry of Defense.

He was sanctioned by Obama in 2016 for the hacking that disrupted the U.S. presidential election.

Prior to joining the GRU, Korobov served as head of the Strategic Intelligence Directorate and was an officer in the Soviet Air Forces.

Vladimir Alexseyev, First Deputy Chief at GRU

Alexseyev works on behalf of the GUR, and as of December 2016, he was a First Deputy Chief within the organization.

He was previously sanctioned by the President Barack Obama in response to the Russian government's 'aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at the US election in 2016', according ot a White House press statement.

Sergey Gizunov, Deputy Head at GRU

Gizunov is a deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.

He was previously sanctioned in December 2016 for alleged hacking during the presidential election.

Igor Kostyukov, First Deputy Chief at the GRU

Kostyukov is a first deputy chief in the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.

He was also sanctioned by Obama in December 2016 for election meddling.

Igor Kostyukov is a first deputy chief in the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff

Grigoriy Molchanov, senior official at GRU

Molchanov is a senior official in the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff.

He has been part of the GRU since April 2016.

Five organizations were also hit with sanctions on Thursday, including two Russian government agencies and the 'troll factory', Internet Research Agency.

The organizations are listed below:

Internet Research Agency

The 'troll factory' where 13 Russians accused of meddling in the Us presidental election is called the Internet Research Agency.

It is headed up by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin's 'personal chef' who gained access to Russia's political power players through his luxury restaurants in St Petersburg in the mid 2000s.

In 2012, he landed a lucrative contract to provide the country's military soldiers with meals. It only lasted a year but was rumored to be worth around $1.2billion.

With his money,from his buseinsses, Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, the Agency, which was founded in 2013, flourished.

At one stage, former workers say 400 people were working there.

Their job began with pro-Putin posts on social media and, in one department, evolved into pro-Trump, anti-Clinton messages on fake accounts where they pretended to be American.

Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting were also sanctioned on Thursday.

Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)

The GRU is Russia's foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

The organization serves as Russia's largest foreign intelligence agency.

Federal Security Service (FSB)

The FSB, which was once run by Vladimir Putin, was set up in 1995 to fight perceived threats to Russia.

It has fought separatist rebels from Chechnya in two wars, and aims to prevent pro-Western 'colour' uprisings in Russia such as Georgia's Rose Revolution of 2003 and Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004.

But it was thrust into the global spotlight during the murder case involving former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned at a hotel in London's Mayfair in 2006 after being branded a 'traitor' in Russia.When the Pope stretched out to stroke Karl Klappers face, the baby did what any teething child would do.

He shoved the pontiffs hand into his face and gave it a bite.

Seven month old Karl made his impression on Pope Francis at a blessing ceremony in the Vatican.

Karl Klapper, pictured with his mother Kerstin, bit Pope Francis on the finger during an audience with the Pope in the Vatican, prompting an impressive reaction from the Pontiff

His horrified parents - event manager father Jan Henning, 36, and teacher mum Kerstin, 35, had made a special trip from their home in Ludenscheid, Germany, for the blessing ceremony.

As the pontiff stroked the youngsters face he struck - and Pope Francis recoiled in mock horror before smiling at what German media dubbed the nibble attack.

Proud dad Jan said: The Holy Father made light of it.

He wanted to know how old our little one was and what he was called. He was a really nice man.Donald Trump Jr acknowledged his split from wife Vanessa for the first time on Thursday evening in an Instagram post.

'No matter what is going on bedtime cuddling with the smurf puts a Yuge smile on my face. #bedtime#daddysgirl #cuddle,' wrote Don Jr.

He included that remark alongside a photo of himself lying in bed with his daughter Chloe, the youngest of his five children.

Just a few hours earlier, a source told DailyMail.com that Vanessa had filed divorce papers in Manhattan Supreme Court after 12 years of marriage.

That source added that Vanessa listed the divorce as uncontested, meaning that she is not asking for full custody of the children at this time and that Donald Jr does not object to the filing.

'After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways,' the pair said in a joint statement.

'We will always have tremendous respect for each other and our families. We have five beautiful children together and they remain our top priority. We ask for your privacy during this time.'

Vanessa was photographed outside her Manhattan apartment building on Thursday morning shortly before her divorce papers were filed in court.

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Don Jr posted this Instagram image of him with his daughter before bed on Thursday saying bedtime cuddles put a 'smile on my face'

Moving on: Vanessa Trump is seen outside her Manhattan apartment building on Thursday before filing divorce papers in a Manhattan court

Keeping it civil: The couple have five children and a source tells DailyMail.com that Vanessa is not seeking full custody at this time

N9othing to say: Vanessa (above) hurried into her building while someone unloaded the car

Cake by the ocean: The family was last seen together in February when they all celebrated Don III birthday in Palm Beach (above)

Happier times: The pair were all smiles on a family vacation to Aspen last March, but left early when their son Tristan broke his leg (Don Jr, Ivanka and Vanessa in Aspen)

Vanessa was joined by Secret Service on Thursday, who unloaded her car outside the building.

The men began taking in empty suitcases, suggesting that the children may soon be heading off on a trip over school vacation.

It is unclear if the five children will all head off with together or if the couple will split up their brood.

This will be the first time that a child of the president has entered into divorce proceedings while their father held office.

Some are also now wondering if Vanessa could be called to testify against her estranged husband should he be indicted in the Russia probe.

'In theory, Vanessa could talk about what Donald Trump Jr. knew about the Russia investigation if spousal privilege doesnt apply, but that would take the divorce into a dark place,' said Joshua Forman, a celebrity divorce attorney at Partner at Chemtob, Moss & Forman.

'However, she may have signed a prenuptial agreement with a confidentiality clause and would thus be precluded from speaking during or after marriage.'

He went on to explain: 'If there isnt a confidentiality clause and there isnt a prenup in place, then once the divorce is complete, she could if allowable by the law in the jurisdiction she is called to testify in be compelled to testify.'

Page Six reported on Wednesday that sources close to the pair had said that the two were leading separate lives, and had been for some time.

'The problems have been there for a long time, the couple had hoped to stay together during the presidents time in office, but it is getting harder to resolve their issues,' said one source.

'Hes never there.'

The two have been spotted together less and less in recent months, and spent almost no time with one another over the holidays at Mar-a-Lago.

Torn apart: This will be the first time that a child of the president has entered into divorce proceedings while their father held office

Don Jr posted a number of videos to social media during the two weeks that the pair were in Palm Beach which showed him with the couple's children but never Vanessa.

Vanessa was also absent from one of the family dinners and did not attend the annual New Year's Eve gala, with Don Jr. instead taking his son Donnie.

It was also his birthday that night.

Then, in February, it was revealed that Vanessa was at an apartment a few blocks away from the family's residence in Manhattan when she opened a letter addressed to her husband containing a mystery white powder.

In the wake of those reports, the two were seen together on February 13 doing the school run with their two youngest children, Chloe and Spencer.

A week later, the entire family traveled down to Mar-a-Lago for Donnie's birthday.

Don Jr posted a photo of that to Instagram which showed everyone smiling for the camera, writing: 'Happy birthday Donnie. Some birthday cake for my 9 year old little man yesterday. Somehow I hit send then but it didnt go through.'

Just before that trip however, Don Jr spent Valentine's Day with another lady - his daughter Kai.

'Valentines Day selfie with one of my favorite Valentines. Early dinner with my girl Kai,' wrote Don Jr on Instagram.

Vanessa meanwhile was spotted out to eat with her sons Donnie and Tristan.

Donald Trump Jr has yet to comment on the news of his split, but did post a photo of his daughter Chloe sleeping in his bedroom on Wednesday (above)

The couple had been introduced multiple times before going on their first date, with President Trump responsible for two of those introductions.

Vanessa said in a 2006 interview that he twice introduced her to his son at a fashion show in 2003, and she finally agreed to a date when they met a third time at a mutual friend's party.

Vanessa said that she referred to Donald Jr as 'the one with retarded dad' sat the time.

Don Jr proposed to Vanessa, who was a model and actress at the time, with a $100,000 engagement ring back in 2004.

The proposal was captured by the multiple photographers alerted to the fact that Don Jr would be proposing in front of the same jewelry store from which he obtained the ring for a heavily discounted price.

They were married at Mar-a-Lago in November 2005, though those plans were almost derailed due to Hurricane Wilma, which forced the couple to move the wedding from the club's lawn to a more sheltered space by the pool due to the damage done by high winds.

Those nuptials took a backseat in the press however to the fact that the wedding marked one of the rare occasions when Donald and his new wife Melania came face-to-face with his ex Ivana.

Separate lives: Don Jr and Vanessa attend the second day of the Republican National Convention

Pumped: Melania, Lara and Vanessa at the Liberty Inaugural Ball in January 2017

Happy meeting: Vanessa shakes hands with the outgoing president after her father-in-law's inauguration

Girl talk: Vanessa is all smiles with Michelle Obama at the swearing-in ceremony back in 2017

Photos from the event show Donald and Melania smiling in the front row while Ivana looks less than pleased to have her picture taken as she sits next to her mother Marie.

Prior to marrying Don Jr, Vanessa had been linked to Leonardo DiCaprio and had a small role in the film Something's Gotta Give.

Vanessa was very much in the spotlight prior to the couple's wedding, but once the couple began to have children shifted her focus to raising their sons and daughters.

She gave birth to all five of the couple's children in a span of just seven years.

In the wake of her father-in-law's announcement that he would be running for president, Vanessa did step out on the campaign trail a bit, and occasionally post on social media.

Vanessa also may have provided the first clue that she and Don Jr were leading separate lives back in November when she posted a photo of her Christmas tree of Twitter and wrote: I just finished decorating our tree with my kiddies ! We are in the holiday spirit! Christmas will be here soon!'

There was no mention of her husband at all in the tweet.

She last posted a tweet that showed her with Don Jr back in June for President Trump's birthday.

News of the divorce follows a difficult few days for Don Jr, who was campaigning for Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania.

Saccone has not lost that race at this time but is behind Democrat Conor Lamb.James Comey is to embark on a nationwide book tour with tickets going for up to $97 as part of a media blitz to promote his new book.

The former FBI director will supposedly talk about 'good, ethical leadership' during 11 in-person appearances from coast to cost.

He will also do three national TV appearances including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Comey, who was fired by Donald Trump last May, has said that 'A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership', will give his account of his time at the FBI including his dealings with the President.

It is one of the most eagerly anticipated books of the year and could provide evidence of the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia to win the President the election.

The book and tour will also make Comey significantly richer.

Media blitz: To promote 'A Higher Loyalty' which is being published by Flatiron Books, Comey is going on an extensive tour which will start in New York on April 18, the day after the book comes out

To promote 'A Higher Loyalty' which is being published by Flatiron Books, Comey is going on an extensive tour which will start in New York on April 18, the day after the book comes out.

He will make stops in Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami and finally Kansas City.

Among the two dates in New York will be a taping of the New Yorker radio hour for which tickets cost $57 to $97.

A description of the event says that the magazine's editor David Remnick will talk with Comey about 'the 2016 Presidential election, the investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, and more'.

On TV Comey will appear on ABC for a special edition of 20/20 on April 15 and The Late Show on April 17.

Comey will also appear on The View on April 18, where he will be quizzed by hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar among others.

Flatiron Books said that in his talks Comey will 'explore what good, ethical leadership looks like and how it drives sound decisions' - although most audiences will probably want to ask him about Trump.

In a statement Flatiron said: 'Using examples from some of the highest-stakes situations in the past two decades of American government, Comey will share yet-unheard anecdotes from his long and distinguished career'.

Fired: Comey was terminated by Trump - but will be taking his revenge with a book and audiobook, media blitz to promote them and a paid speaking tour

Whilst he was head of the FBI Comey was in charge of the investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign staff and the Russians to win him the election in 2016.

Comey has testified before Congress about his firing and said that in a one on one meeting on January 27 last year Trump told him: 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty'.

The President also asked him to drop the investigation into Mike Flynn, his former national security adviser, and his dealings with Russia.

According to his prepared remarks submitted to Congress, Comey said: 'I didn't move, speak or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed.

'We simply looked at each other in silence.'

The conversation moved on but it came back up again and the President told him once more: 'I need loyalty.'

During a February 14 meeting at the Oval Office, Mr Trump was more explicit and talked about the investigation into Mr Flynn, who had resigned the previous day.

Comey said: 'He then said: 'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.'

'I replied only that 'he is a good guy'. I did not say I would 'let this go.'

Comey wrote that it was 'very concerning' given the FBI was supposed to be independent.

The President fired Mr Comey on May 9 in what his critics say was an attempt to thwart the FBI's investigation into collusion.

But it backfired and the investigation is now being dealt with by a special, independent counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller.

He is also looking into whether or not the President or any of his staff obstructed justice.

Since becoming a civilian Comey has regularly posted on Twitter where he has taken not-so-subtle, jabs at the President, often quoting Biblical verse about integrity and honor.

Comey is being represented by Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn of Javelin, a literary agency founded by former aides to ex-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.The EUs own watchdog yesterday accused Brussels of systemic failings over how former president Jose Manuel Barroso was allowed to walk into a job with one of the worlds biggest banks.

The European Ombudsman called for the post with Goldman Sachs to be reconsidered amid claims the former Portuguese leader used the role to lobby commissioners.

After a year-long investigation, the watchdog questioned why officials working for his successor Jean-Claude Juncker had not properly scrutinised the job, accusing them of maladministration.

The EUs own watchdog yesterday accused Brussels of systemic failings over how former president Jose Manuel Barroso (pictured) was allowed to walk into a job with one of the worlds biggest banks

It also raised concerns about why restrictions were not placed on Mr Barrosos activities, suggesting that fresh limits should be placed on possible future lobbying.

His move to the US investment bank in 2016 after ten years at the helm of the EUs executive arm led to a barrage of a criticism.

Former French leader Francois Hollande said the appointment as a Brexit adviser for the Wall Street firm was unacceptable, while Mr Juncker also raised concerns.

Critics called into question the ethics of the move given the banks role in the Greek financial crisis, which was a highly damaging subject during Mr Barrosos tenure.

Mr Barroso said the report was a personal attack on him and he had not lobbied EU officials.This letter is in response to the letter printed on March 1 from mayoral candidate Barbara Blom.

As a former village clerk (33 years) for the village of Aurora, I take exception to her comments that there has been a lack of action to update the two water problems in Aurora. The village board has been in contact with the Cayuga County Water & Sewer Authority and Department of Health to try to get aid to correct the immediate problem of addressing the algal bloom in Cayuga Lake.

If Ms. Blom had been attending the monthly board meetings, as I have, which are open to the public, she would have learned that the board through the efforts of Mayor Bennett, has joined forces with Wells College and the Inns of Aurora to share cost to do a feasibility study to fix this issue with a carbon filter system.

As for the major reconstruction of a water plant facility, the village board, in particular Mayor Bennett, has been in contact with Assemblyman Finch and Senator Helming and Representative Katko for financial assistance. It is too bad she missed President Gibralters presentation to the village board asking them to investigate how the village could become the owner/operator of a new water facility.Accussed: Izar Hussain, 31, one of the alleged members of a Pakistani grooming gang outside Bradford Crown Court on Thursday

A Pakistani gang sexually exploited a teenage girl, including trying to force her to sleep with a surgeon with a gold card, a court heard yesterday. Ten men are accused of plying the girl with drink and drugs in return for sex during a three-year ordeal.

Now 24, the woman said she reported the abuse, which she claims started when she was 14, to police when she was a teenager. But she says action was only taken when her fiance contacted the BBC after watching a report on the Rotherham child abuse scandal. The woman told the court she would be taken to a house in Bradford where as many as 50 people could be present.

Men would drive from Birmingham, Rotherham, Oldham and London, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The woman said one gang member Saeed Akhtar, 54, told her: Get more girls because my friends are coming up and I dont want my friends thinking I cant get girls.

She added that he was trying to pimp me out. The court heard another defendant, Izar Hussain, 31, nicknamed Billy Jo Jo, arranged for the teenager to have sex with a wealthy surgeon who travelled to Yorkshire from London.

There was a surgeon from far away, who had a gold card with a 10,000 limit. The doctor used to come up and give Billy Jo Jo the card for him to buy himself designer clothes, she told the jury. He would try to get girls to sleep with the doctor for 500. The doctor was 50 and really creepy.

Hussain is accused of getting violent when she refused to sleep with the surgeon. She said he would say: I want sex now. You wouldnt f*** the doctor, you can at least f*** me.

The court heard 50 men were at the house at one point for the Eid festival celebrated by Muslims.

She said her drinks were often spiked and she was brainwashed into believing the abuse was normal. She also became addicted to cocaine. Ten defendants face a total of 20 counts relating to abuse of the teenager between 2008 and 2011.

Accussed: Saeed Akhtar (left), 54, another alleged member of the grooming gang facing prison after the alleged victim, now 24, came forward. Kieran Harris (right), 27, also accused of the abuse that saw the then teenage girl plyed with alcohol and drugs in return for sex

The woman said she and another 14-year-old would be picked up by Basharat Khaliq, 37, outside the childrens home at midnight.

He would buy them alcohol and take them to a hotel, where he shared a bed with them and indecently assaulted them, the court heard. She said: We were 14. He knew how old we were. The court heard he later bragged: They were mine, I found them. The gang would buy in large quantities of cocaine, the jury was told.

Earlier it was claimed she took 22 lines of cocaine in a single night.

The woman said: I got passed on. Each one would pretend to be going out with me and have sex a couple of times, and then it would be another one. She claimed social services files on her dated back to 2008 but the authorities did nothing.

Yasar Majid (left) arrives at Bradford Crown Court for the first day of his trial, accused of sexual abuse with nine other men. Parvaze Ahmed (right) another of the accused after the 24-year-old Bradford woman came forward having seen the Rotherham sex abuse scandal on television

It referenced being groomed and going out with older males in cars and the police and social services doing nothing about it throughout my files, she said.

Rules at her childrens home meant the doors were locked at 10pm and residents not in by midnight would be reported missing.

They used to let us go out. There were rules, but they never stuck to them. Staff knew the girls were having sex with older men, she said.

At 14 she was found by police in a mans car. We were reported missing by the care home. Police took us back to the home. That was the time the police called me a prostitute and let the guy go, she said.

She added that the men made her feel wanted and she thought sex and violence came with the package. Khaliq denies rape and sexual assault. Saeed Akhtar denies rape and causing or inciting child prostitution. Hussain denies rape and attempted rape.

Naveed Akhtar, 42, Mohammed Usman, 30, Kieran Harris, 27, Parvaze Ahmed, 35, and Yasar Majid, 36, all deny rape. Fahim Iqbal, 26, denies aiding and abetting rape. Zeeshan Ali, 21, denies sexual assault. The trial continues.President Donald Trump is considering a plan to fight the nation's growing opioid addiction crisis that would permit federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for some narcotics dealers.

Politico reported Thursday that the option would be available in cases of fatal opioid overdoses  targeting the dealers who sell the drugs.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S.  mostly involving opioids  in 2016. That was a 28 per cent increase from the year before.

Last week the CDC reported a 30 per cent increase last summer in emergency room visits due to illicit overdoses of painkillers like Percocet, OxyContin and Demerol, and the synthetic opioid Fentanyl.

Still, some in Congress and many in the public health field are worried that the White House's ambitious plan could be a budget buster with little chance of actually being implemented as designed.

President Donald Trump is expected to unveil a national opioid strategy on Monday that urges the Justice Department to seek the death penalty in trafficking cases where dealers knowingly sell lethal drugs

Capital punishment like the executions carried out in this Huntsville, Texas death chamber is typically reserved for the most heinous and gruesome murders, but Trump has signaled a willingness to see the category expanded to include drug dealers who sell death in other ways

Of particular concern in the U.S. is fentanyl, a synthetic opioid street drug that's 50 times more powerful than heroin and can be fatal

One version of draft language circulating around the White House calls for capital sentences in 'certain cases where opioid, including Fentanyl-related, drug dealing and trafficking are directly responsible for death.'

Fentanyl, about 50 times stronger than heroin, is the drug that killed music legend Prince in April 26. It's sometimes prescribed to cancer patients, but also made in criminal drug labs and sold on the street.

Trump declared a national opioid emergency in October and renewed it in mid-January for another 90 days.

He broached the death-row-for-drug-dealers idea on Saturday during an evening rally in Pennsylvania, saying it was 'a discussion we have to start thinking about [but] I don't know if this country's ready for it.'

An individual dealer can be responsible for as many as 5,000 deaths but only 'go to jail for 30 days,' Trump said.

'If somebody goes and shoots somebody, or kills somebody, they go away for life and they can even get the death penalty, right?'

Trump suggested last Saturday during a Pennsylvania rally that drug traffickers who sell people the tools of their own overdoses should be treated the same as any other mass-killer, including the ultimate punishment

First lady Melania Trump will go with the president to New Hampshire on Monday; she spoke during the White House Opioid Summit on March 1

Two weeks ago during an opioid summit, he said that 'some countries have a very, very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty' for drug trafficking.

'And, by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.'

'The administration's going to be rolling out policy over the next three weeks, and it'll be very, very strong,' Trump said then.

That rollout appears set for Manchester, New Hampshire, where the president and first lady will travel on Monday 'to further enforce the administration's commitment to combatting the opioid crisis,' according to a statement from the White House.

In addition to new powers for prosceutors, the White House's plan asks Congress to make it easier for Medicaid patients to get inpatient drug rehab care, according to Politico.

The legendary musician Prince died of an overdose of opioids including Fentanyl in 2016

The illicit drug trade is a national cancer as old as America, but overdose deaths are increasing dramatically (shown is an opioid cache recovered by police in San Diego, California during a 2015 raid

A 50-year-old rule bars Medicaid from paying for addiction treatment at hospitals and other large facilities.

The congressional edict was intended to save billions of dollars by discouraging authorities from institutionalizing large numbers of Americans for mental illnesses.

But state governments say it has gotten in the way of substance abuse treatment initiatives.

The Trump administration also wants the Justice Department to keep tighter tabs on Internet sales of opioid drugs.

And the plan will tell the DOJ to seek mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking more often when defendants knowingly distribute potentially lethal opioids like Fentanyl.An accident and emergency department has been inundated by fans of two BBC dramas that have featured harrowing storylines about sepsis.

More than 80 people a day have been turning up at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, fearing they have the condition after it was featured in Call the Midwife and The Archers.

A senior nurse at the hospital said the programmes helped raise awareness of sepsis, which is sometimes referred to as septicaemia or blood poisoning, but also highlighted the 'extreme' side of the condition.

Barbara Hereward, played by Charlotte Ritchie, had a persistent cold which took a turn for the worse in Call the Midwife

The spike in visitors began after an episode of The Archers late last month in which mother-of-four Nic Grundy, played by Becky Wright, died after scratching her wrist on a rusty nail. She developed what she thought was flu before her vital organs failed and doctors confirmed she had blood poisoning.

The theme continued on March 4 when nurse Barbara Hereward was killed off in Call the Midwife. The character, played by Charlotte Ritchie, had a persistent cold which took a turn for the worse.

Taken to hospital, she had a high temperature, red blotches and finally blackened fingers as she succumbed to septicaemia.

Carole Bishop, a clinical nurse specialist at Broomfield Hospital, said: 'Anything that is raising awareness is seen as a good thing because about 60 per cent of the population don't know what sepsis is. The trouble is, they always show the extreme side of sepsis.

'We have seen some really good stories with patients, and their outcomes have been absolutely fantastic because they have been seen, they have been treated early and they have gone home.'

The senior nurse said the extra patients were having a knock-on effect on services. 'It does cause issues with patients in the ambulance bay and obviously trying to move them to the area they need to be,' she explained.

'We get quite a few false alarms but we also get patients that have left it because they don't want to be a nuisance.

More than 80 people a day have been turning up at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, pictured

'They hear on the news how busy we are and they don't want to be a bother but it is those patients who need to come in.'

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition triggered by infection and arises when the body's immune system goes into overdrive, which can affect our organs. It kills 44,000 a year in the UK, with around a third preventable.

Sepsis is notoriously difficult to diagnose until it has spread through the body. Yet it can be controlled with antibiotics if caught early enough. The risk of death rises by seven per cent for every 30-minute delay before being treated.

Last month health chiefs were accused of putting lives at risk by urging parents to take their children to a pharmacist instead of a GP's surgery or hospital if they were suffering a 'minor illness'.

But experts warned that the symptoms of colds or flu were often difficult to distinguish from the early stages of sepsis or meningitis.

Tell-tale signs of sepsis include a high temperature, slurred speech or confusion, extreme shivering or muscle pain, severe breathlessness and mottled or discoloured skin.

Dr Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, said drawing attention to the deadly condition 'can only be a positive measure'.

He added: 'Although dramatised depictions of the condition have exceptional popular reach, they don't preclude the need to educate the public properly. In fact, they highlight the necessity.

'We require a far-reaching national public health awareness campaign that equips people with the facts they need to make informed decisions about seeking medical attention from the right professionals at the right time.

'Earlier recognition and diagnosis of sepsis will not only prevent unnecessary deaths, it will save significant funds for the NHS by protecting patients from deterioration and serious complications.'A New Zealand man has been arrested over one of South Australia's most baffling murders 18 years after the killing.

Robert Sabeckis was gunned down and shot twice in the Gull Rock car park at Maslin Beach, south of Adelaide, early on the morning of January 13, 2000, Adelaide Now reported.

The killer abandoned the 42-year-old's silver Ford Falcon after driving the car east along Tuitt Road and crashing it through a fence before fleeing the scene.

Robert Sabeckis (pictured) was shot twice in the Gull Rock car park at Maslin Beach

On Friday, New Zealand Police announced they had arrested a 43-year-old man on a warrant issued in the South Australia Magistrates Court in January.

South Australia Police intend to extradite the man to face the murder charge.

Proceedings will begin in the Waitakere District Court in Auckland on Friday.

The arrest follows a DNA match after a law change in 2016 allowed access to information on the New Zealand DNA database - this is the first search that hit against a profile held on the database.

In 2009, the State Government offered $200,000 to help solve the cold-case murder.Ricardo Cruciani, 63, was charged with eight counts of 2nd-degree sexual assault and seven counts of 4th-degree criminal sexual contact

A former neurologist in New Jersey accused of abusing seven female patients over the span of two years has been charged with 15 sexual assault charges, according to reports.

Ricardo Cruciani, 63, was charged with eight counts of second-degree sexual assault and seven counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact for assaulting women.

The charges stem from his time as the chief neuroscientist at Capital Health's Institute of Neurosciences at Hopewell Township, New Jersey.

He is also charged with sexually assaulting a number of women in the New York area over the course of 10 years, CBS Philly reports.

He allegedly raped one woman for eight years.

Cruciani has previously pleaded guilty to groping women at a Philadelphia clinic in, according to NJ.com.

Many of the women from New Jersey felt compelled to come forward after reading about the former doctors guilty plea in Philadelphia, the Mercer County prosecutor's office said.

He is accused of sexual assaulting seven women in New Jersey over the course of two years

The charges stem from his time as the chief neuroscientist at Capital Health's Institute of Neurosciences at Hopewell Township, New Jersey (pictured)

The incidents were said to have involved touching by use of physical force or coercion.

Prosecutors added that women involved in one state's case often had to be included in cases for the other states.

The number of women that have accused Cruciani of sexual misconduct over the span of 12 years equals to at least 17 women from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

He has also been accused of assaulting 10 other women in New York and Pennsylvania

Cruciani had worked at Capital Health's Hopewell campus up until late 2015 but had his medical license revoked in late 2017.

He had specialized in rare, complicated syndromes that produce debilitating pain.

"We are deeply disturbed by these allegations and began investigating them as soon as we became aware of them through media reports," a Capital Health spokesperson said in an email.

No evidence of sexual misconduct complaints had been found by hospital personnel who said they are 'committed to investigating all complaints brought forth by patients or our staff.'Russian social media users are mocking the UK in the wake of the attempted murder of a double agent and his daughter on British soil.

The British Government has slapped a string of sanctions on Moscow following the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury earlier this month.

The pair remain fighting for their lives in hospital after being exposed to Novichok.

Police have said 38 people have so far been treated for exposure to the deadly toxin and there are fears hundreds more could be infected.

But both the Russian Embassy and the country's foreign ministry have led the way in trying to play down the incident, posting memes on Twitter.

Russian social media users are mocking the UK in the wake of the attempted murder of a double agent and his daughter on British soil. They have been posting insulting memes

The embassy tweeted a picture of a frosty thermometer, alongside a caption describing how relations between the two countries have gone cold.

This was accompanied by the caption: 'We are not afraid of the cold weather.'

The ministry then posted a video of Britain struggling with the snow of the Beast from the East alongside the hashtag #HighlyLikelyRussia.

The hashtag had already had already gone viral among Russians, who get much of their news from state-approved media companies.

'Jokes' included a picture of the Titanic and a dog surrounded by ripped up paper along with the hashtag #HighlyLikelyRussia.

Many of the tweets targeted Theresa May after she vowed to expel 23 Russian spies from the UK.

The Russian Embassy also tweeted a mocking message, as did the foreign ministry. A social media user tweeted a picture of the Titanic with the caption: 'The Russians did it'

In Russia, many news outlets continue to doubt the UK's assertions that the Kremlin was behind the double poisoning.

One newsreader even went as far as to issue a warning to other 'traitors'.

Channel One News host Kirill Kleimenov said: 'The profession of a traitor is one of the most dangerous in the world.

'It's very rare that those who had chosen it have lived in peace until a ripe old age.

'Don't choose Britain as a place to live. Something is wrong there. In recent years, there have been too many strange incidents with grave outcomes there.'

The probe into the poisonings is now said to be examining CCTV footage of a mystery Russian couple spotted in Salisbury just before the Skripals were attacked.

Police have warned the investigation may take weeks.Jude Laws daughter Iris and fellow model Kelvin Bueno only started dating last year but the Brazilian-born mannequin has risked tarnishing their squeaky-clean reputation by breaking the law.

The 19-year-old shared a video online of himself smoking marijuana on a London street despite knowing the Class B drug is not legal for recreational use in the UK.

In the footage, he says: Its interesting smoking it public nowadays. No one seems to give a s***. Theresa [May], when are you going to legalise it, bruv?

Jude Laws daughter Iris and fellow model Kelvin Bueno (pictured together left) only started dating last year but the Brazilian-born mannequin has risked tarnishing their squeaky-clean reputation by breaking the law

Burberry model Iris is no stranger to drugs. When she was two, she was rushed to hospital after accidentally ingesting an ecstasy pill she found on the floor at a childrens party at Soho House in London.

Maccas grandson steps out for dinner with Reeses girl

Arthur Donald, whose mother is Maccas sprog Mary, enjoyed a night out in London with Hollywood star Reese Witherspoons (pictured) lookalike daughter, Ava

Sir Paul McCartney's grandson appears to be a hit with the ladies  just like the former Beatle.

Yale student Arthur Donald, whose mother is Maccas sprog Mary, enjoyed a night out in London with Hollywood star Reese Witherspoons lookalike daughter, Ava.

The pair, both 18, looked close on Wednesday as they headed to Mayfair restaurant Sketch while gazing into each others eyes. Arthur, who enrolled at Yale University last year after leaving 19,545-a-year University College School in Hampstead, was dressed casually in a dark jacket, jeans and trainers. Ava upped the style stakes in a 450 Claudie Pierlot navy coat.

Lets hope her film-star father, Ryan Phillippe, will approve of her new pal. I dont think shell suffer fools, he once said. Shes going to have high standards.

The pair, both 18, looked close on Wednesday as they headed to Mayfair restaurant Sketch while gazing into each others eyes

Dog-tired? Cressie clings to pal Wilde

Prince Harrys ex Cressida Bonas is forced to spend most of her stage time in her latest play inside a dog costume, so she was clearly delighted that Poldark actress Gabriella Wilde was on-hand after the show to provide some light relief.

Gabriella, 28, draped herself over Cressida, 29, and gave her a reassuring hug (above) as they left the Jermyn Street Theatre where Cressida had been starring in a production of The Dog Beneath The Skin.

Former Burberry model Gabriella, whose real surname is Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, also shares a half-sister with Cressida.Viewers have slammed the BBC after a presenter from a pro-Kremlin TV channel was invited onto flagship political show Question Time.

Afshin Rattansi joined Labour's Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer, the Tory Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness and actor Brian Cox.

And his first act on the show was to label Yulia Skripal - the poisoned daughter of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal - a spy.

Viewers were left aghast by the comment by Rattansi, from RT - previously known as Russia Today - saying he was peddling Russian propaganda, and the Cambridge-born journalist has since been on social media sharing reaction.

Afshin Rattansi's first act on the show appeared to be to label Yulia Skripal - the poisoned daughter of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal - a spy

Viewers criticised the BBC for allowing Rattansi on to the widely-watched political show

Unsurprisingly, the first question was about Salisbury, and a member of the audience asked the panelists how sure they were that the Russian state was behind the poisoning.

In dodging the question, Rattansi questioned British free speech by saying Tory MP Sarah Wollaston was trying to suppress his views by calling for his fellow panelists to boycott the show in a tweet.

Rattansi, in an apparent act of hostility before the programme aired, retweeted the message onto his own profile and then brought it up on the BBC.

While condemning the attack, he appeared to call Yulia Skripal a spy.

He said: 'Obviously everyone condemns the attack. It's terrible for the police officers and those two spies.'

Viewers reacted in horror to his comments and a Twitter user, Dave, said: 'Did the dude from RT just say 'the two Russian spies'? Since when has any source said the girl Yulia was a spy?'

Presenter David Dimbleby rapped Rattansi twice, telling him to honour the question asked from the audience

Rattansi takes a sip of water after being told off for 'trivialising' a serious matter - the nerve agent attack in Salisbury

Cass Blakeman said: 'Two spies?! Was Yulia Skripal a spy?! This fella is going well off piste, reckon he'll boil over before end.'

David Paxton said: 'Did Afshin Rattansi just call Yulia Skripal a spy? Ok. To be expected I suppose.'

Tony Voller said: 'If we needed any further evidence of Russia's disregard for international law, Rattansi just gave it.

'Syria, interference in elections and now Salisbury. And he puts up a smokescreen about free speech and called Yulia a spy. I smell propaganda.'

Presenter David Dimbleby rapped Rattansi twice, telling him to honour the question asked from the audience.

He then said: 'Even the Prime Minister said it's highly likely, so it's not beyond reasonable doubt. I really don't know. We cannot believe our governments any more.'

Afshin Rattansi (right to left) joined Labour's Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer, presenter David Dimbleby, the Tory Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness and actor Brian Cox

Keir Starmer, who as a lawyer before going into politics represented the widow of Alexander Litvenenko, argues with Afshin Rattansi

Chris Grayling was among those to condemn the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, Wiltshire

Labour Keir Starmer, who was a lawyer before going into politics and represented Alexander Litvenenko's widow, stood in defiance with Theresa May.

He said of the poisoning of the Skripals: 'It's appalling and deserves to be condemned without reservation.

'The Prime Minister asked serious questions of Russia, and no answers have been given.'

Afshin Rattansi smiling on BBC's Question Time

Starmer said that this must have been what led her to to concluding the responsibility lies with Russia.

He said he supports the action to ban 23 diplomats, calling it 'an attack on our sovereignty'.

'This is not the first time, it needs to be called out with no ifs and no buts,' Starmer added.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was also bullish in his condemnation of the poisoning.

He said: 'We wouldn't have taken the steps we have if we were not completely satisfied Russia was either behind the appalling attack or refused to give an explanation as to how it (the nerve agent Novichok) left their control.'

Grayling thanked the world leaders from France, Germany and the US for standing by them and added: 'This is completely, absolutely, unreservedly unacceptable.

'It's a violent act that's effected members of the public in a rural English country city. It is absolutely unacceptable and we must stand up to it.

'We cannot, as a Western, democratic society, think about accepting such willfully reckless acts against our nations.'

The Tory minister said the government's conclusions were based on what he described were the findings of the 'best security services in the world'.

Rattansi flippantly replied: 'If they are the finest security services in the world, they should have protected this man when he came over here.'

Starmer immediately shut him down, saying: 'Oh, don't be so trivial over a really serious incident.'

The smirking RT presenter then sheepishly took a drink of water as Dimbleby moved the conversation on.

When asked who else could've been responsible, Rattansi said 16 other countries had access to Novichok and pointed to Putin's upcoming election on Sunday, saying it was terrible timing for him.

Another audience member asked whether the Salisbury incident would lead to a new Cold War.

Actor Brian Cox told the panel: 'I think we are about to enter a new Cold War. I think it's unavoidable. And it's a war based on total greed.

'We've allowed things to get out of hand.'

The chemical weapons attack has sparked a huge clean-up operation around Salisbury

Mairead McGuinness said her colleagues in the Baltics were living in fear, but that it had to be settled with words.

Starmer said what happens next is important, saying Britain missed the opportunity to rebuild its relationship with Russia after the Cold War.

Since then, he pointed to Russia's involvement in the Ukraine, Syria and their attacks on homosexuality.

Rattansi said the steps taken by Theresa May have endangered the national security in Britain.

Who is Afshin Rattansi? The Cambridge-born journalist who in the past accused the US government of funding ISIS in Syria Afshin Rattansi on tonight's BBC Question Time According to his employers RT, Afshin Rattansi is 'the award-winning journalist who hosts RT UK's groundbreaking Going Underground news and current affairs programme'. Before his Russian venture, which he embarked upon in 2013, he was at The Guardian, Channel 4 and the BBC among other media platforms. He also had spells at Bloomberg, CNN and Al Jazeera during his career. Away from mainstream journalism, he has penned books and produced documentaries, including Eritrea: A Nation In Isolation. Rattansi has tweeted in the past accusing the US government of funding ISIS in Syria. Advertisement

Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston was among many to question the BBC's judgement in asking Rattansi of Kremlin-run RT - formerly Russia Today - onto the show.

She tweeted her outrage, saying: 'Seriously, why is BBC Question Time giving a platform to RT, a mouthpiece for Putin?

'Russia has unleashed a nerve agent here in Britain & three people, including a police officer, have been fighting for their lives.

'Hope other panelists walk out in disgust.'

Mairead McGuinness (pictured) slammed Rattansi's suggestion Europe was looking to introduce a hard border in Northern Ireland, asking him: 'Do you know anything about the customs union?'

Brian Cox threw an arm around McGuinness and gave her a hug and she responded by kissing him on the cheek

The appearance comes in the aftermath of British-Russian relations hitting its lowest point since the Cold War after the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

While the rest of the world is blaming the Kremlin, Moscow has denied any involvement.

Theresa May lashed out, deporting 23 Russian diplomats, and heated rhetoric has been thrown back and forth as the Skripals fight for their lives in hospital.

There are also question marks over the unexplained death of Russian dissident Nikolai Glushkov, who was found dead with so-called 'strangulation' marks at his New Malden home in South West London.

Among the sanctions Theresa May has threatened is banning RT from the UK.

Russia retaliated, saying if she went ahead with blocking the network's licences, they would ban all British journalists from entering the country.

'Hashtag Me Too, Brian': Actor Brian Cox is jokingly reprimanded by David Dimbleby for throwing his arm around MEP Mairead McGuinness on Question Time

Question Time took a turn when the panel began to talk Brexit.

Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness slammed controversial RT presenter Afshin Rattansi's suggestion Europe was looking to introduce a hard border in Northern Ireland, asking him: 'Do you know anything about the customs union and the single market? Do you know how it works?'

She then said she was 'hesitant' about coming onto the show, unsure of what welcome she would receive.

McGuinness said: 'I came in hesitation. I thought I wouldn't get much love, but it's warm, which is nice.'

With that, Brian Cox threw an arm around her and gave her a hug and McGuinness responded by kissing him on the cheek.

She then said: 'Well that was rather more than I anticipated.'

As the audience cheered, Dimbleby turned to Cox with a smirk and said: 'Hashtag Me Too, Brian. Me too,' in reference to the campaign against the sexual harassment of women.

Cox responded with: 'That's political correctness for you,' before McGuinness interrupted saying: 'Hashtag You Too.'Joe Biden's son Hunter flew to China on an official visit by his father in 2013 and ended up inking a deal for his hedge fund with the Bank of China within days of the visit.

Hunter Biden accompanied his father aboard Air Force Two on a visit to China, where the vice president met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For the younger Biden, there was also deal-making on the agenda, according to 'Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,' by Peter Schweizer, the Breitbart editor at large who rocked the 2016 with disclosures about Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The book was excerpted in the New York Post.

ACCESS: Vice President Joe Biden flew to Beijing in 2013 along with his son, Hunter. Hunter Biden's firm and ended up inking a deal for his hedge fund with the Bank of China days after the visit

Hunter Biden started a private equity fund along with Chris Heinz, the stepson of Sen. John Kerry.

Kerry, the former secretary of state, was a longtime Senate colleague of Biden's. Heinz is the son of the late Sen. John Heinz, who was the previous husband of Teresa Heinz Kerry.

The book describes a meeting in December 2013 between Hunter Biden, managing partner Devon Archer, and top Chinese government leaders.

A partnering firm, the Thornton group, described the meeting on its web site as involving the biggest fund lenders in China.

Biden, who campaigned for Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania, is a potential 2020 presidential candidate

The meeting took place just hours before the senior Biden met Chinese officials, according to the book.

Ten days later, Rosemont made a deal with the Bank of China valued at $1 billion, and later boosted to $1.5 billion, The Hill reported.

Biden, who turned down a chance to run for president in 2016, citing his eldest son Beau Biden's death, is still a prominent potential 2020 candidate.

When they arrived in China, Biden, Hunter, and his daughter Finnegan were 'greeted by Chinese children carrying flowers,[and] the delegation was then whisked to a meeting with Vice President Li Yuanchao and talks with President Xi Jinping,' according to the book.

'Rosemont Seneca and the Bank of China created a $1 billion investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), a name that reflected who was involved. Bohai (or Bo Hai), the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea, was a reference to the Chinese stake in the company. The RS referred to Rosemont Seneca. The T was Thornton,' according to the book.We should spend a great deal more on the Forces and David Camerons Coalition was at best naive in its defence strategy: there was solid policy and an overdue admission of recent failings in Gavin Williamsons speech yesterday.

But you do slightly wonder what our youthful Defence Secretary would be like at bayonet practice.

The fighting man, when about to stab straw-stuffed exercise dummies, is encouraged by non-commissioned officers to growl and shout and show aggression. Yesterday Mr Williamson, asked what should be done about the Putin threat, went the full Frank Spencer. Russia, he said darkly, should go away and shut up.

You tell em, Pike.

Mr Williamson was speaking in Bristol at the Rolls-Royce plant where they make warplane engines and maybe some other military bits and pieces.

Mr Williamson was speaking in Bristol at the Rolls-Royce plant where they make warplane engines and maybe some other military bits and pieces

Given the warlike uses of Rolls-Royce products, it felt paradoxical to start the mid-morning event with a health and safety announcement from a site foreman but such are the ways of the modern world. Shades of Dr Strangeloves gentlemen, you cant fight in here, this is the War Room.

Mr Williamson, 41, had two aims: to prepare the political ground for greater defence spending and to promote himself as a presence in the Cabinet. His fast rise in politics makes him a new figure for most voters. They may be ready for some freshness  a change from Parliaments staler voices  but that does mean he has territory to make up when it comes to earning the countrys trust.

Uniformed soldiers, sailors and RAF bods were in attendance. That is the great thing about being Defence Secretary. Your stakeholders are so much more glamorous than those attached to other Whitehall departments.

Among them was Royal Marine General Sir Gordon Messenger, DSO & Bar, who led 40 Commando in the Iraq War, ran our ops in Helmand and is now Vice Chief of the Defence Staff.

The general was yesterday in camouflage gear and desert boots (quite possibly the same ones he wore when leading the assault of the Al-Faw peninsula). He is one of those fit, suntanned officers who looks as though he could easily snap an enemy sentrys neck in the crook of his left elbow.

Slender, loping-legged Mr Williamson, for his part, looks as though he might struggle to decapitate a six-minute boiled egg.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a youth forum 'Russia, Land of Opportunity' in Moscow, Russia

No matter. Mr Williamson is a politician, not a warrior. In this era of cyber attacks and Russian chemical weapons, maybe it does not matter if Defence Secretaries look nerdy and sound a touch Alan Bennett. Mr Williamson is not a natural orator but he is slowly improving.

Having spoken of the generational shift in defence (ie Im the new generation?), Mr Williamson spoke of types of hardware that are hallmarks of a serious military nation and argued that soft power only works because hard power stands behind it.

He described his vision of future defence arrangements saying lets not give in to the demons of doubt  instead let us be confident. When Cabinet ministers talk of their vision they may mean ambition. Did he itch to get his hands on some of the International Aid budget? A vulpine smile. I do have great ideas of how to spend an extra 14 billion, he said, but such things were for the Chancellor.

Actually, that is not so. The current spending on foreign aid was set by a parliamentary Act demanded by Nick Clegg. Would it win a Commons majority today? With Labour backbenchers keen to prove their defence beliefs, maybe not.

As for Mr Williamsons go away and shut up remark, this will enter the annals of British arms, a rallying cry to rival Henry V at the gates of Harfleur, Churchill in 1940 and Colonel Tim Collins on the eve of battle in Iraq. Putin, you Siberian boor, you casually murderous Muscovite, you Steppe-gooser, you goral-botherer, Her Majestys Secretary of State for Defence has had enough. Shut up and go and sit in the corner.China self-owned brands more well regarded by consumers than ever

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- A one-week survey conducted before the March 15 (the World Consumer Rights Day) showed that nearly half of the participants think that China's self-owned auto brands have achieved greater improvements in quality. Meanwhile, the German and the Japanese auto brands still enjoy well-regarded reputations among consumers.

The quality gap between China's self-owned brands and multinational auto brands has been narrowed for 7 consecutive years with the PP100 (problems experienced per 100 vehicles) shrunk to 13 points from 396 points in 2000, according to the 2017 initial quality study (IQS) released by J.D. Power, an American-based global marketing information services company.

The quality enhancement can be reflected by the sales performance during the same period. According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), the sales of China's self-owned passenger vehicle (PV) brands reached 10,847,000 units in 2017 with a year-on-year growth of 3%, exceeding 10,000,000 units of annual sales for two consecutive years. This sales performance also accounted for 43.9% of the total PV annual sales in China, increasing 0.7% year on year.

As to the consumers' evaluation of the six mainstream auto brands, the China's self-owned brands won 11% of votes, ranking fourth on the list. The top 3 origins are German brands, U.S. brands and Japanese brands. Thus, the self-owned brands still get a quite long distance to catch up with the three multinational auto brands.

According to the survey, 54% of participants devoted their votes to the German brands for the trusted technical quality and security guarantees. The U.S. auto brands ranked second with 16% of votes by virtue of the modern design and innovative technologies. The second runner-up is the Japanese brands that received 13% of votes by right of the comfortable experience and convenient operation.

Additionally, this survey also enumerated some big quality cases the public concerns about. The Dongfeng Honda's engine defective issue was reprimanded by consumers as expected. Meanwhile, Envision's broken shaft issue and GAC Trumpchi's body framework fracture problem were on the list as well.

According to the figures released by China Consumer Association (CCA), the association's system recorded complaints about auto products (including auto parts) up to 20,474 cases last year, increasing 34.3% over the previous year. The sum of complaints about the after-sales service, the contract and the product quality accounted for 70% of total cases, occupying 30.59%, 22.19% and 20.40% respectively.Senator Joseph McCarthy, pictured, in 1954, held 36 days of televised hearings in an effort to uncover a secret communist plot to undermine the United States

Senator Joseph McCarthy started an anti-communist witch hunt after he delivered a Lincoln Day address in Wheeling, West Virginia on February 9, 1950.

McCarthy had been relatively anonymous during his period in the Senate following his election in 1946, until he claimed there was a secret plot by communists to overthrow US democracy.

During his speech, McCarthy claimed he had a list of communists who had infiltrated the State Department with the aim of undermining US foreign policy.

The Senate established a special committee to investigate McCarthy's claims, but these were soon dismissed as 'a fraud and a hoax'.

Yet, when Kim Il-Sung launched his surprise attack on Seoul in June 1950, public opinion in the United States had shifted.

Communist North Korean forces backed by Soviet fighter pilots surprised the US government.

It was feared at the time that Korea was the first act in an attempted global communist takeover.

This paranoia was fuelled by the conviction of State Department worker Alger Hiss, who was accused of passing secrets to a communist spy ring in the late 1940s.

In 1950, he was convicted of perjury, but this was enough to launch a second investigation.

In 1952, McCarthy was re-elected to the Senate and was appointed chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where he probed allegations of espionage and subversion.

It culminated into televised hearings over the course of 36 days in 1954. The lack of evidence behind any of his claims destroyed the Wisconsin senator's political career and resulted in him receiving an official rebuke.

In total, some 2,000 US government employees lost their jobs as a result of the hearings and his investigations.The cost of a first-time buyer property in London is often astonishing to those who live elsewhere in the country.

But years of rampant house price rises mean that the average first-time buyer price is 423,000 in Greater London, according to Halifax.

And that means that an attractive two-bedroom flat for 400,000 could be considered a good deal, which is why television property star and MailOnline Property expert Sarah Beeny picked this one in south west London as her bargain property of the month.

This two-bedroom flat in south west London's Norbury has been picked by Sarah Beeny as her bargain property of the month

Pictured: Norbury is a town in south west London, and it is 6.7 miles south of Charing Cross

The first-floor flat in Norbury is only five minutes' walk from the town's train station, with direct trains to London Bridge and Victoria stations.

It has a large open-plan living area, along with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Sarah, who is the founded of Tepilo.com, the online estate agent handling the sale, said said: 'This flat is super stylish and the perfect pad for singletons and young couples working in London who are looking for a beautiful and affordable base close to all the action.

'It's in a great area, with easy access to central London and is on the market for just 400,000, which is why I've picked it as my bargain of the month.

'Properties that are this great, this affordable and this ready to move into are an absolute rarity in the capital these days.'

There is a newly decorated hallway and a telephone entry system.

The main living area includes a modern kitchen and dining area, with high ceilings and sash windows.

TV property star Sarah Beeny picks a bargain home every month on MailOnline Property

It also has hardwood flooring and professionally-designed feature lighting, including contemporary wall lights and recessed spotlights in the kitchen.

The modern kitchen has high-gloss white units with soft closing doors and drawers, granite worktops, an under-mounted stainless sink with a chrome Hansgrohe mixer tap and integrated appliances.

The appliances include a Zanussi gas hob and fan-assisted oven, a dishwasher, a washing machine dryer and a fridge freezer.

The property is in a block of flats called Walters House and is on the market for 400,000 via Tepilo.com, the online estate agent founded by Sarah.

Sarah said: 'This is an absolutely fabulous room - so fresh and beautiful - and the bright, clean and contemporary decor transports you to sunnier climes. It's a great entertaining space, with a stunning modern kitchen, generous dining area and a spacious living area to kick back and relax in.

'But what really makes this room stand out are the beautiful windows - all four of them are stunning and allow a huge amount of natural light in, creating a sunny, vibrant and airy living space.'

The two-bedroom Norbury flat is on the market via estate agents Tepilo for 400,000

The large open-plan living area includes a seating area and a kitchen

The modern kitchen has high-gloss white units, integrated appliances and granite worktops

The main bedroom has been recently painted and comes with an ensuite shower room.

Sarah said: 'This is another beautifully designed room that's attractively decorated, has modern features and another great window. The blue feature wall and matching accessories transport me to the Med and are really fashionable right now.'

There is a second bedroom and a main bathroom, which is fully tiled and has a heated towel rail.

The main bedroom has an attractive blue feature wall and matching accessories

The main bedroom has also been recently painted and comes with an en suite shower room.

The flat also has a separate main bathroom, which is fully tiled and has a heated towel rail

The flat is located in a block of flats called Walters House in south west London

The current owners have used white with touches of bright blue throughout the property

Sarah said: 'This property won't be on the market for long. It's such a great apartment in a brilliant spot and I love the way the owners have used white with touches of bright blue throughout to create an inviting, warm and contemporary home.

'It combines all the mod cons you could wish for with beautiful feature windows and high ceilings, giving it a really spacious feel. It's so ready to move into, you could unpack your furniture and have your first meal in the oven within hours of moving in.' The flat is near to local parks, including Norbury Park and Streatham Common.

Other local amenities that sit right on the apartment's doorstep, include supermarkets, shops, bars, and restaurants.

The Norbury flat's main living area has room for a small dining table and chairs

Room for guests: There is a second bedroom that accommodates a double bed

The flat is ideal for working professionals, being near to local parks and Norbury train stationFancy fish and chips tonight? As you unwrap your supper, no doubt youll be tucking into cod, salmon or haddock.

But have you considered dab? Or even megrim?

While these fish varieties may not be on the menu yet at your local chippie, experts believe they should be.

The Marine Conservation Society has updated its Good Fish Guide, suggesting the best fish to eat both in terms of sustainability and boosting the UK fishing industry.

The Marine Conservation Society has updated its Good Fish Guide, suggesting the best fish to eat both in terms of sustainability and boosting the UK fishing industry (file image of dab)

The group says choosing from a wider range of fish and broadening our tastes would take pressure off individual fishing grounds and encourage demand for the most sustainable and local seafood.

While it acknowledges that most of us favour familiar names such as cod, salmon, haddock, tuna and prawns, it has suggested an alternative best choice top ten we might like to try.

The list includes dab caught in the North Sea, hake from Cornwall and herring from the Irish, Celtic and North Seas, south west Ireland and English Channel.

As well as the hake and herring  both certified by the Marine Stewardship Council  some types of sustainably caught mackerel, UK rope-grown mussels and megrim are also on the list.

Megrim is a deepwater flatfish from the same family as turbot and brill. It is joined on the list by Devon brown crab, queen scallops, pollack and Dover sole.

The list includes dab caught in the North Sea, hake from Cornwall and herring from the Irish, Celtic and North Seas, south west Ireland and English Channel

Bernadette Clarke, MCS Good Fish Guide programme manager, said: Although they may not trip off the tongue like cod, mackerel and plaice, these could, and should be, the fish supper of the future.

UK consumers tend to stick to their tried and tested top five  both in taste and familiarity but not always sustainability. Cod, tuna, salmon, haddock and prawns, from the right sources are all ok, but theres so much more to explore and the additions to the best choice list are a good place to start.

We are currently exporting around 75 per cent of fish caught and landed in the UK, but were the ninth largest importer of fish in the world. By choosing more sustainable sources and keeping it local it will help reduce wasting wild caught fish that are discarded dead because they have less value.

By choosing from a wider range well put far less stress on individual fisheries.A new solar panel that works in rain or shine could help provide one solution to the world's energy problems.

The technology, created by Chinese researchers, harvests energy from the sun's rays as well as energy created from the friction of raindrops.

With a gas shortage looming in the UK, and the US being largely dependent on the oil, the technology has the potential to transform the way we produce electricity.

Although its still in its early stages, researchers believe it could also be incorporated into power-generating raincoats that charge the wearer's gadgets during a downpour.

Scroll down for video

A new type of hybrid power cell can quickly switch from harvesting the energy in the sun's rays to capturing the mechanical energy from falling raindrops

The prototype device, developed by researchers at Soochow University in eastern China, works like a normal silicon cell with an extra power generator layered on top.

In the rain, the cell switches over to this 'triboelectric nanogenerator' (Teng), which converts the downward force produced by raindrops into electricity.

Because the plastics used to make the Teng are transparent, the solar cell could still generate energy from sunlight, as well as falling raindrops.

The physics behind the hybrid device involves the transfer of electrons between two conducting materials when they make contact.

When raindrops fall on the cell, they compress the upper Teng layer, generating a current of electrons that flows to an electrode below.

Previously researchers have built solar panels that also capture energy from raindrops by hooking them up to Tengs using a wire and separate electrodes.

A new type of solar panel generates energy from rain as well as sunshine. They could be useful in areas that see little sunshine, such as the UK, which can produce up to 8GW of solar power on sunny days but just 1GW of power on dull days in winter (stock image)

HOW MIGHT SOLAR PANELS ALSO GENERATE ENERGY FROM RAIN? A new type of solar panel cell that generates energy from rain as well as the sun's rays could be used in countries that see little sunshine. A prototype recently developed by Chinese scientists works like a normal silicon cell with an extra power generator layered on top. In the rain, the cell switches over to this 'triboelectric nanogenerator' (Teng), which converts the downward force exerted by raindrops into electricity. Because the plastics used to make the Teng are transparent, the solar cell could still generate energy from sunlight, as well as falling raindrops. The physics behind the hybrid device involves the transfer of electrons between two conducting materials when they make contact. When raindrops fall on the cell, they compress the upper Teng layer, generating a current of electrons that flows to an electrode below. It could be useful in areas that see little sunshine, such as the UK, which can produce up to 8GW of solar power on sunny days - a quarter of the nation's power demand - but just 1GW of power on dull days in winter. Advertisement

The new technology builds on this idea by using a transparent Teng on top of its partner cell with a single electrode shared between the two.

This design also uses the Teng as a protective layer that shields the solar cell from weather damage.

One challenge that still faces the team is that the solar cell and Teng cannot gather energy at the same time.

'We are now designing a fibre-shaped device and expect to weave them together as a fabric,' lead author Dr Zhen Wen told Phys.org.

'My wish is to fabricate clothing that can generate electricity from sunshine and raindrops.'

Some, however, are cynical about how effective the technology will be.

Professor Keith Barnham, at Imperial College London, told the Guardian that the hybrid device gave an important advantage in making it more compact and efficient.

However, he said: 'Wind power is clearly the most effective and complementary power source to PV  and it works equally well in the rain.'

Varun Sivaram, at the Council on Foreign Relations said the power the device generates from falling rain needs to be much higher to start making a difference to a solar panels output.

However, if the researchers are able to refine their design it could help countries increase their use of solar panels to generate electricity and end their reliance on other sources such as oil and gas.

This could be significant for countries such as the UK.

A cold snap next week could leave the country at the mercy of Russian gas suppliers, experts have warned.

Plunging temperatures on Sunday and Monday are likely to send demand for gas soaring across the UK and Europe to heat and light homes.The UK has hit a crucial milestone in its bid to launch spacecraft from British soil by 2020.

The 'Space Industry Bill' due to go into law today will enable launches from UK spaceports to help British firms enjoy quicker and cheaper access to outer space.

Currently UK companies must launch satellites into orbit from spaceports abroad exposing them to substantial costs, delays and bureaucracy.

A number of sites have previously been earmarked as potential Cape Canaveral-style spaceport locations, including Glasgow, Newquay and Llanbedr in north Wales.

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Spaceports, like this artist's rendition, could soon be operational all around the UK. The 'Space Industry Bill' due to go into law today will enable launches from UK spaceports to help British firms enjoy quicker and cheaper access to outer space

The new legislation - which will go into law after it receives royal assent today - lays out a blueprint for rules on safety, liabilities and licensing.

It will be vital if the government is to meet its target of launching the first commercial satellite from Britain by 2020.

Once launched, the space satellites could help provide broadband to rural communities and monitor weather systems as they move around the earth.

They could even help rural health workers who use satellite communications to diagnose and assist patients situated far from specialist health services.

The goal is to up Britain's share of the 400 billion-a-year ($560 billion) global space market from 6.5 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030.

The government estimates it will bring in billions of pounds, create hundreds of jobs and broaden Britain's scientific research.

Six sites have been shortlisted for selection for a spaceport in the UK from a possible eight (pictured) first proposed in 2015. However, since then the government has said they would support rules that would allow a spaceport to be built at any suitable location

WHERE MIGHT THE UK'S FIRST SPACEPORTS BE? The government is set to decide later this year where Britain's first spaceport will be. Six sites have previously been earmarked as potential spaceport locations, including Glasgow, Newquay and Llanbedr in north Wales. Each project has joined forces with space firms such as Lockheed and Martin to bid for funding. 1) Campbeltown Airport (Scotland) 2) Glasgow Prestwick Airport (Scotland) 3) Newquay Cornwall Airport (England) 4) RAF Leuchars (Scotland) 5) Stornorway Airport (Scotland) 6) Snowdonia Aerospace Centre (Wales) Advertisement

This means British scientists will be able to conduct vital experiments in zero gravity which could help develop vaccines and medicines.

Antibiotics grow differently where there is no gravity and so the move has the potential to help scientists conduct revolutionary research.

The flights could also carry out hundreds of vital scientific experiments on medical issues such as ageing and the human body.

Transport Minister Jo Johnson said: 'The Space Industry Bill gives companies the ability to launch satellites from UK soil, putting us at the forefront of the new space race, and helping us to compete as the destination of choice for satellite companies worldwide.'

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is one of four sites in Scotland vying for a spaceport. Pictured is an artist's impression of the Prestwick Spaceport

The new legislation - which will go into law after it receives royal assent today - lays out a blueprint for rules on safety, liabilities and licensing. Pictured is an artist's impression of Campbeltown Spaceport runway

The bill also opens the doors for a British space tourism industry, though the government has said it has no current plans to create the regulatory framework needed for passenger flights.

The government is set to decide later this year where Britain's first spaceport will be, with six sites included in the running.

Each project has joined forces with space firms such as Lockheed and Martin to bid for funding.

Jules Matteoni, operations director at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, one of four possible sites in Scotland, said: 'This means we will be able to offer horizontal launches of orbital and sub-orbital missions for satellite launches, micro-gravity experiments and passenger spaceflight experiences.

Today's bill will be vital if the government is to meet its target of launching the first commercial satellite from Britain by 2020. This image shows an artist's impression of the interior of Glasgow Prestwick Airport's proposed spaceport

Up until now UK companies have been reliant on space ports in other European countries, such as this one in French Guiana

The space sector already employs thousands in the UK and supports industries worth 250 billion to the economy

'As soon as the Space Industry Bill is enacted and a regulatory framework is in place, we will seek to apply for a licence and expect to become the first fully operational, licensed spaceport in the UK and Europe.'

Other possible spaceport locations include Newquay Cornwall Airport, Snowdonia, and Campbeltown Airport, RAF Leuchars and Stornorway Airport in Scotland.

Speaking on today's bill, Lockheed Martin said: 'We fully support the work that the UK government is doing to build an indigenous satellite launch capability that will enable affordable access to space in a timely manner for UK and international customers.'Spotify may be about to take on the smart speaker market.

The music streaming site is testing an in-app assistant, dubbed 'Spotify Voice', that allows users to control their music with their voice.

The trial has sparked rumours that the firm is about to release a smart speaker to take on the likes of Apple's HomePod and Amazon's Echo.

If the rumours are true, it would allow Spotify to put a microphone and potentially camera in every user's home.

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Spotify may be about to take on the smart speaker market. The music streaming site is testing an in-app assistant, dubbed 'Spotify Voice' (pictured), that allows users to control their music with their voice

Spotify Voice can be launched by tapping the magnifying glass icon in the bottom row of tabs on the Spotify app.

Users who have been included in the trial, which is currently only being tested on iOS, will see a microphone icon inside a white bubble in the lower-right hand corner of the screen.

When they tap it, they will get a brief walk through of the feature and be asked to give Spotify access to the phone's microphone.

Once the mic icon is tapped, Spotify Voice will listen and execute the user's command.

Spotify told TechCrunch that the feature is 'just a test for now,' noting only a small percentage of users have access to the functionality.

The company hinted there will be more to share about the project in the future, but declined to elaborate further.

Twitter user Hunter Owens first spotted the latest update and tweeted: 'I spy Spotify laying the foundation for a smart speaker...'

Although the voice-recognition software has only recently been rolled out, speculation is rife about its potential uses. Twitter user Hunter Owens first spotted the latest update and tweeted: 'I spy Spotify laying the foundation for a smart speaker...'

The voice control feature, dubbed 'Spotify Voice' is only available to a select few users on Apple devices and only works in English

Until recently, Spotify relied on the smart speaker hardware of other companies to run its music streaming app.

However, Apple decided to make its HomePod speaker Apple Music-only, cutting out Spotify entirely.

Apple's voice-recognition software assistant Siri does not allow people to make commands inside third-party apps, which means it will also work for Apple Music, but not Spotify.

Spotify has traditionally relied on hardware from other companies to run its app, including products from Amazon (left), Apple (middle) and Google (right). Apple chose to make its HomePod speaker Apple Music-only, cutting out Spotify

Spotify Voice is only available to a few users but reports say that the functionality is good and it is very accurate. Although adept at determining playlists, artists and albums the AI is not yet able to answer more complex requests

Spotify may be exploring the option of developing its own hardware devices, to ensure it can continue to compete.

Spotify first let its plans to create physical products slip through a series of adverts for jobs involved in developing 'connected hardware'.

Three jobs were advertised on the Spotify website in February, looking for people to make products to compete against other smart speakers on the market.

Spotify, based in Stockholm, Sweden, was recruiting a project manager and a senior project manager of hardware production, as well as an operations manager for the development of hardware products.

The job listings, first spotted by Musically, suggest previous rumours of the firm's desire to produce speaker products were bona fide.

WHAT IS SPOTIFY? Spotify is a music, video and podcast streaming service founded on April 23, 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify allows users to create and customise their own playlists and browse content using parameters such genre, artist and album searches. It compensates artists by paying them royalties based on the number of their streams proportional to the number of total songs streamed overall. The company was founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and officially launched on October 7, 2008. Spotify is a music, video and podcast streaming service founded on April 23, 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden. Spotify allows users to create and customise their own playlists and browse content using parameters such genre, artist and album searches It operates using a freemium service model, meaning that its basic features are free with some restrictions and advertisements while additional services are available via paid subscription. The service is available in most of North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Asia. Its available on macOS, Windows and Linux computers as well as on Android, iOS and Windows smartphones and tablet computers. Spotify currently has approximately 159 million users, 71 million of whom use paid subscription services. Its revenue for fiscal year 2017 is believed to be about $4.99 billion (3.63bn). Advertisement

In its advert for Operations Manager, a spokesman said: 'Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organisation for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing.

'We are looking for a passionate and seasoned Operations Manager that will contribute in the creation of innovative Spotify experiences via connected hardware.'

One possible first step into making hardware products for Spotify could be music players, similar to the iPod.

However, in the years since Spotify was officially launched in 2008 it has yet to release such a device.

In a previous advert, the company noted its wish to create a 'category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles.'

Spotify first let its plans to create physical products slip through a series of adverts for jobs involved in developing 'connected hardware'. The product would probably incorporate AI, augmented reality and be voice controlled

ARE PRICES FOR SPOTIFY, APPLE MUSIC AND PRIME MUSIC GOING TO RISE? Music streaming services, like Apple Music and Spotify, could be set to raise subscription prices, following the decision to increase royalties for songwriters and music publishers. Earlier this year, a federal copyright board raised the music streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers by more than 40 per cent to narrow the financial divide separating them from recording labels. The decision stemmed from a long-running dispute that pitted songwriters against steadily growing music streaming services sold by Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon and Pandora. The Copyright Royalty Board's decision will require those services to pay 15.1 per cent of their revenue to the songwriters and publishers, up from 10.5 per cent. Music streaming services could be set to raise subscription prices, following the decision to increase royalties for songwriters and music publishers The music publishers association hailed the ruling, stating that it represents 'the most favourable balance in the history of the industry'. None of the major companies affected by the new music streaming royalties have confirmed whether the shift will prod any of them to raise the prices paid by consumers. The popularity of music streaming services has soared in the past few years as more consumers have embraced paying a monthly or annual subscription fee for unlimited access to tens of millions of songs instead of incrementally buying a more limited amount of music on CDs or in a digital download. Those changing habits have pushed artists, songwriters and publishers to step up their efforts to get a larger cut of the royalties generated from music streaming - a format that didn't even exist when some performers signed their last record deals years ago. The Copyright Royalty Board drew up the new rates for songwriters and publishers after hearing evidence during a trial held in 2017. Advertisement

Since Spotify was founded in 2006, Apple Music and Amazon Music have been the main rivals that have chipped away at the app's dominance.

Facebook launched its own contender back in December 2017, YouTube's 'Remix', rumoured to be launch in March 2018.

Sources said that Remix would include Spotify-like on-demand streaming and would integrate the video element of YouTube.

YouTube is widely regarded as having held back the growth of the music streaming market, as it offers free access to songs but pays artists poorly.A number of internet-connected home gadgets can be hacked in minutes using a simple Google search.

'Smart' baby monitors, security cameras and thermostats were accessed by cyber security researchers who tracked down their access passwords online.

They said that the ease with which criminals or paedophiles can take control of devices in the home is 'truly frightening'.

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A number of internet-connected home gadgets can be hacked in minutes using a simple Google search. 'Smart' baby monitors, security cameras and thermostats were accessed by cyber security researchers by tracking down their passwords online (stock image)

Experts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, examined off-the-shelf internet of things (IoT) devices and quickly uncovered a number of serious security issues.

The IoT is a broad category that refers to devices or sensors that connect, communicate or transmit information over the web.

Sixteen popular brands of IoT connected hardware devices were tested in total.

'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,' study lead Dr Yossi Oren said.

'It is truly frightening how easily a criminal, voyeur or paedophile can take over these devices.'

The team discovered that similar products under different brands often share the same common default passwords.

Consumers and businesses rarely change these passwords when purchased and they could be infected with malicious code for years without them realising.

Researchers examined off-the-shelf IoT devices, including smart baby monitors (stock image), and quickly uncovered a number of serious security issues. They said the ease with which criminals or paedophiles can take control of devices in the home is 'truly frightening'

WHICH SMART HOUSEHOLD GADGETS ARE VULNERABLE TO CYBER ATTACKS? From devices that order our groceries to smart toys that speak to our children, high-tech home gadgets are no longer the stuff of science fiction. But even as they transform our lives, they put families at risk from criminal hackers taking advantage of security flaws to gain virtual access to homes. A June 2017 Which? study tested whether popular smart gadgets and appliances, including wireless cameras, a smart padlock and a children's Bluetooth toy, could stand up to a possible hack. The survey of 15 devices found that eight were vulnerable to hacking via the internet, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. Scary: Which? said ethical hackers broke into the CloudPets toy and made it play its own voice messages. They said any stranger could use the method to speak to children from outside The test found that the Fredi Megapix home CCTV camera system operated over the internet using a default administrator account without a password, and Which? found thousands of similar cameras available for anyone to watch the live feed over the internet. The watchdog said that a hacker could even pan and tilt the cameras to monitor activity in the house. SureCloud hacked the CloudPets stuffed toy, which allows family and friends to send messages to a child via Bluetooth and made it play its own voice messages. Which? said it contacted the manufacturers of eight affected products to alert them to flaws as part of the investigation, with the majority updating their software and security. Advertisement

The team was also able to logon to entire Wi-fi networks simply by retrieving the password stored in a device to gain network access.

'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,' study co-author Omer Shwartz said.

Manufacturers of so-called IoT products - which include physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items that connect and exchange data - rarely protect them from simple cyber attacks, researchers said.

Mr Shwartz added: 'Once hackers can access an IoT device, like a camera, they can create an entire network of these camera models controlled remotely.'

Researchers discovered that similar products such as smart thermostats (stock) under different brands share the same common default passwords. Consumers rarely change device passwords when purchased so they could be operating infected with malicious code for years

'It seems getting IoT products to market at an attractive price is often more important than securing them properly,' Dr Oren said.

IoT users can protect their home devices by only connecting them to the internet if absolutely necessary and using hard-to-guess passwords.

Consumers should also avoid buying second-hand devices, which may already be infected with malware, and only buy from reputable manufacturers, the team said.

'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,' Yael Mathov, another researcher on the project, said.Easter Island and its mysterious history are slowly disappearing under rising seas.

In recent years, waves have begun to reach dozens of ancient statues that are dotted around the island's coast.

Many believe these stone statues, carved between 1100 and 1680, could hold clues as to why and how Easter Island's civilisation collapsed centuries ago.

But the UN has warned they could be engulfed by waves entirely, with sea levels set to rise as much as six feet by 2100.

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Easter Island (pictured) could be swallowed by rising ocean levels as the island's unique cultural heritage comes under threat again. Centuries ago Easter Island's civilisation collapsed for unknown reasons, leaving these mysterious statues dotted around the island

Nicholas Casey, a New York Times correspondent based in Columbia visited the remote island and wrote an in-depth feature on the issues facing it.

Nobody really knows how the colossal stone statues that guard Easter Island were moved into position.

We also don't know why during the decades following the island's discovery by Dutch explorers in 1722, each statue was systematically toppled, or how the population of Rapa Nui islanders was decimated.

Shrouded in mystery, this tiny triangular landmass sits in the middle of the South Pacific, 1,289 miles from its nearest neighbour.

The remains 'could add more data to show it's not a simple or straightforward answer to what happened,' said Jane Downes, a professor of archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland.

However, the landscape is quickly changing and soon these statues could be gone forever, taking with them any clues about what happened to this civilisation.

'You feel an impotency in this, to not be able to protect the bones of your own ancestors,' Camilo Rapu, the head of the indigenous organisation that controls Rapa Nui National Park on the island told Mr Casey.

'It hurts immensely.'

Shown here are the locations of the mysterious stone structures that surround the coast of Easter Island and are now being threatened by rising seas

Studies have revealed low-lying Pacific islands are already feeling the effects of sea level rise.

The tiny Marshall Islands and Kiribati, coral atolls north of Fiji, are at risk of being swamped by rising water.

The Solomon Islands in the south Pacific are of key scientific interest as they lie in a 'hotspot', with sea levels rising higher than the global average.

It is feared the rise in sea levels will cause widespread erosion and inundation of low-lying atolls in the Pacific.

Easter Island has just 6,000 residents and more than 100,000 visitors each year, injecting up to $70 million (50 million) into the economy each year.

The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres).

Many of the most important statues are on the coast.

Three of the main ones - Tongariki; home to a line of monoliths, Anakena; the sandy beach and Akahanga; the ancient platforms - are at risk of being eroded by rising seas, scientists warn.

'I once swam in Ovahe [beach] and the sand seemed to go on for miles,' said Pedro Pablo Edmunds, the Hanga Roa mayor.

'Now, it's all stone.'

WHAT ARE THE STATUES ON EASTER ISLAND AND WHAT DO THEY MEAN? What are the statues? The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between 1,250 and 1,500 AD. All the figures have overly-large heads and are thought to be living faces of deified ancestors. The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres). Nobody really knows how the colossal stone statues that guard Easter Island were moved into position. Nor why during the decades following the islands discovery by Dutch explorers in 1722, each statue was systematically toppled, or how the population of Rapa Nui islanders was decimated. Shrouded in mystery, this tiny triangular landmass, stranded in the middle of the South Pacific and 1,289 miles from its nearest neighbour, has been the subject of endless books, articles and scientific theories. All but 53 of the Moai were carved from tuff , compressed volcanic ash, and around 100 wear red pukao of scoria. What do they mean? In 1979 archaeologists said the statues were designed to hold coral eyes. The figures are believed to be symbol of authority and power. They may have embodied former chiefs and were repositories of spirits or 'mana'. They are positioned so that ancient ancestors watch over the villages, while seven look out to sea to help travellers find land. But it is a mystery as to how the vast carved stones were transported into position. In their remote location off the coast of Chile, the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island were believed to have been wiped out by bloody warfare, as they fought over the island's dwindling resources. All they left behind were the iconic giant stone heads and an island littered with sharp triangles of volcanic glass, which some archaeologists have long believed were used as weapons. Advertisement

Now, rising sea levels are rapidly eroding the coast of the island, threatening dozens of moai statues (pictured) and their platforms which were carved between 1100 and 1680

The 887 statues gaze inland across the island with an average height of 13ft (four metres). It is still not known what happened to the civilisation that built them

Islanders are testing a new sea wall defence system near the Runga va'e sites, thanks to a $400 000 (280 000) grant from the Japanese government.

It remains to be seen how effective this will be and whether islanders will have to move the statues away from the coast to save them in any case.

Officials say they are already considering anchoring carvings to stable stone, or moving them to a museum.

The mysterious island has been the focus of much interest since it was first 'discovered' by the Europeans around 300 years ago.

A study in 2017 found these first explorers who arrived at the island, known indigenously as Rapa Nui, in the 18th century brought South Americans with them.

A study in 2017 found these first explorers who arrived at the island, known indigenously as Rapa Nui, in the 18th century brought South Americans with them. A tourist walks next to a huge statue in Ahu Ko Te Riku (pictured)

The Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, between 1,250 and 1,500 AD. All the figures have overly-large heads and are thought to be living faces of deified ancestors

WHAT WIPED OUT THE EASTER ISLAND CIVILISATION? The collapse of the Easter Island civilisation is often used as a cautionary tale about exploiting the environment. The inhabitants of the island off the coast of Chile are believed to have been wiped out by bloody warfare as they fought over dwindling resources. The Polynesian culture, called Rapa Nui, settled the island around 1,200 AD, and the population is estimated to have been around 15,000 at its peak. But by the time Europeans settled the island in 1722, the population had declined to a couple of thousand. By the 1860s, the entire culture was nearly entirely wiped out, with just over 100 individuals remaining. All the civilisation left behind were the iconic giant stone heads and an island littered with sharp triangles of volcanic glass. Archaeologists have long believed these were used as weapons by the remote location's inhabitants. Recentl scientists have suggested the ancient civilisation did not collapse as it ran out of resources. Some believe the population was actually decimated by the arrival of Europeans - who brought syphilis, smallpox and slavery onto the land. Advertisement

Researchers from UC Santa Cruz analysed bone fragments from the ancient skeletal remains of five people, which were excavated in the 1980s and became part of the Kon-Tiki Museum's collection in Oslo.

Some experts believe the island was inhabited from 300 to 400 AD onward, while others put this date closer to 700 to 800 AD.

Ethnographers, including 20th Century Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, have noted the similarity between the Rapa Nui people and Native American tribes on the landmass' southern continent.

And DNA from South American tribes can be found in the island's modern population.

But, by comparing the five samples, the team now believes this was introduced with the arrival of Europeans on the island in 1722 AD.

Ethnographers, including 20th Century Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, have noted the similarity between the Rapa Nui people and Native American tribes on the landmass' southern continent. Pictured is a view of Moai statues in Ahu Akivi

The mysterious island has been the focus of much interest since it was first 'discovered' by the Europeans around 300 years ago

Dr Lars Fehren-Schmitz, associate professor of anthropology at the university, said: 'We were really surprised we didn't find anything.

'There's a lot of evidence that seems plausible, so we were convinced we would find direct evidence of pre-European contact with South America, but it wasn't there.'

'This study highlights the value of ancient DNA to test hypotheses about past population dynamics.

'We know the island's modern populations have some Native American ancestry, and now we know that early inhabitants did not. So the big questions remain: Where and when did these groups interact to change the genetic signature of Easter Islanders?'

A 2017 study found that European explorers who arrived at the island, known indigenously as Rapa Nui, in the 18th century brought South Americans with them

Exactly who the people were that originally travelled to the island, located nearly 1,300 miles (2,100 km) from the nearest inhabited island and 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from central Chile on the nearest continent of South America, remains a mystery.

Slavery, whaling, mass deportations, and other activities that followed European contact gave rise to opportunities for intermixing that likely left the genetic imprint seen in islanders today.

'The most likely scenario is that there wasn't a single episode,' Dr Fehren-Schmitz added, acknowledging that his results answer one question but leave many others unanswered.

'The story is simply more complicated than we expected.'Nasa will be unable to defend our planet against a doomsday asteroid that could smash into Earth in 2135, a chilling study has revealed.

Researchers found that it might be impossible to stop the space rock - which is the size of the Empire State building - from careering into Earth next century.

Scientists revealed that even their most advanced technology would prove 'inadequate' for deflecting such a space rock, which has been dubbed Bennu.

The consequences would be 'dire' experts have warned, and the asteroid has sparked fears that it could even wipe out life for good.

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Researchers found that it might be impossible to stop the space rock - which is the size of the Empire State building - from careering into Earth next century

Scientists are investigating the possibility of using a specially designed spacecraft to nuke approaching cosmic objects, in hopes that doing so could deflect the threat.

While it could be possible to divert a near-Earth object (NEO) by slamming into it with a so-called impactor, experts say a nuclear explosion may be the best bet when time is running out.

In a new paper, scientists from NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration have laid out a plan for the Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER).

The 8.8-ton HAMMER spacecraft could be used to steer itself directly into a small asteroid, or blow the space rock up using a nuclear device, according to BuzzFeed News.

The team has devised a proposal around a potential impact with the 1,600-foot-wide asteroid Bennu, which is currently the destination for NASAs Osiris-Rex sample return mission.

While Earth isnt at risk of a collision with Bennu any time soon, theres a 1 in 2,700 chance it will slam into our planet sometime next century.

Bennu is also the best-studied asteroid of all the known NEOs, the researchers note.

The two realistic responses considered are the use of a spacecraft functioning as either a kinetic impactor or a nuclear explosive carrier to deflect the approaching NEO, the authors wrote in the study, published to the journal Acta Astronautica.

But, there are several factors that would determine the best approach.

The asteroids size and mass must be taken into consideration, along with the amount of time available before it hits Earth.

Plus, there are always various uncertainties.

Nasa will be unable to defend our planet against a doomsday asteroid set to smash into Earth in 2135, a chilling study has revealed. An artist's impression of an asteroid collision is pictured

The team has devised a proposal around a potential impact with the 1,600-foot-wide asteroid Bennu (far left in the illustration above). While Earth isnt at risk of a collision with Bennu any time soon, theres a 1 in 2,700 chance it will slam into our planet sometime next century

WHAT IS NASA'S HAMMER ASTEROID DEFLECTING VEHICLE? NASA is working on a Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response vehicle, dubbed HAMMER. The nine metre (30 ft) tall, 8.8-ton spacecraft features a modular design that would enable it to serve as a kinetic impactor, essentially a battering ram. It could also be used as a transport vehicle for a nuclear device. Its possible mission is to deflect 101955 Bennu, a massive asteroid around 500 metres (1,640 ft), more than five football fields, in diameter. It weighs around 79 billion kilograms (174 bn lbs), which makes it 1,664 times as heavy as the Titanic, and is circling the sun at around 63,000 mph (102,000 kph). Based on observational data, Bennu has a 1 in 2,700-chance of striking Earth on Sept. 25, 2135. It is estimated that the kinetic energy of this impact would be equivalent to 1,200 megatons, around 80,000 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb. The preferred approach to mitigating an asteroid threat would be to deflect it by ramming a kinetic impactor into it, delivering a gentle nudge large enough to slow it down, but not so large that the object breaks apart. However, recent studies have suggested that the nuclear option may be required with larger objects like Bennu. Advertisement

Whenever practical, the kinetic impactor is the preferred approach, but various factors, such as large uncertainties or short available response time, reduce the kinetic impactors suitability and, ultimately, eliminate its sufficiency, the authors wrote.

By driving multiple spacecraft into the asteroids path, it could be possible to slow the object down and throw it off course to avoid a collision with Earth.

If the conditions arent right to use the kinetic impactor, however, nuking it might be the only option.

If the asteroid is small enough, and we detect it early enough, we can do it with the impactor, physicist David Dearborn of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told BuzzFeed News.

The impactor is not as flexible as the nuclear option when we really want to change the speed of the body in a hurry.

Despite ongoing efforts to catalogue potential hazards in Earths vicinity, scientists have increasingly warned that there are countless large objects that remain undetected. An artist's impression is pictured

Astronomers are hunting for asteroids larger than 450ft as they can cause 'catastrophic damage' Researchers have discovered most of the asteroids that are about a kilometers in size, but are now on the hunt for those that are about 459ft (140m) - as they could cause catastrophic damage. Although nobody knows when the next big impact will occur, scientists have found themselves under pressure to predict - and intercept - its arrival. Artist's impression pictured 'Sooner or later we will get... a minor or major impact,' said Rolf Densing, who heads the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt It may not happen in our lifetime, he said, but 'the risk that Earth will get hit in a devastating event one day is very high.' 'For now, there is little we can do.' Source: AFP Advertisement

Despite ongoing efforts to catalogue potential hazards in Earths vicinity, scientists have increasingly warned that there are countless large objects that remain undetected.

Given the risk of an inevitable impact sometime in the future, the experts say its necessary to plan for the worst.

The researchers will present their proposal at a conference in Japan this coming May.

For now, however, whether or not the HAMMER plan will ever come to fruition remains up in the air.GWMs staff investigated for suspected bribery of RMB 480,000

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In recent days, a bribery case involving a staff from the Great Wall Motor (GWM) has made new progress. According to the judgmental result released by China Judgements Online on March 13, two involved bribers have been judged guilty for committing the crime of bribing a non-state staff. Besides, the bribee from the GWM will be handled in another case.

In accordance with the judgment made by Lianchi Distric People's Court of Baoding, Hebei Province, during the period from 2014 to 2017, Kunshan Aifeng Plastic Material Co.,Ltd bribed the technician Fan from the GWM's interior and exterior units with a total of RMB 480,500, attempting to obtain the GWM's high concentrated black master-batches' sales businesses and enable the technician Fan to promote its products to the GWM.

The two bribers from the plastic material company, Du and Zhuo, confessed themselves guilty. Besides, Du and Zhuo will be sentenced to nine months and eight months respectively in jail, and be imposed penalties with different amounts.

The GWM, a Baoding-based private auto enterprise, is China's largest SUV and pickup manufacturer, boasting a 10-consecutive-year annual sales and profit growth. The strict management system is a notable label of the GWM or its Chairman Wei Jianjun. The heavy fines and severe supervision of internal corruption are called the militarized management by the industry.

Not long ago, Wei Jianjun, chairman of the GWM, and Wang Fengying, the company's president, fined themselves by RMB 3 million and 2 million from annual salaries respectively as self-punishment for the company falling short of its 2017 sales goal of 1,250,000 vehicles.Last year, scientists revealed the discovery of an astounding new form of matter they claimed breaks the symmetry of time.

In time crystals, the atoms follow a repeating pattern in time rather than space, and physicists have dubbed the material one of the first examples of non-equilibrium matter.

But, what exactly what time crystals could be used for has remained somewhat unclear.

The Defense Departments research branch has now launched a new initiative to study time crystals and their potential applications, in a program called Driven and Nonequilibrium Quantum Systems (DRINQS).

In time crystals, the atoms follow a repeating pattern in time rather than space, and physicists have dubbed the material one of the first examples of non-equilibrium matter. An artist's impression is pictured

With the new program from DARPAs Defense Sciences Office, teams of theoreticians and experimentalists will work to drive quantum systems consisting of a large number of particles.

Time crystals cant settle down to a motionless equilibrium, UC Berkeley researcher Norman Yao explained when the discovery was revealed last year.

Just like Jell-O jiggles when it is tapped, the structure of time crystals repeats in time with periodic kicks.

In the new program, the teams will have to develop protocols for stabilizing coherence in such a system, and demonstrate proof-of-principle concepts that achieve a minimum of 10-fold improvement over the standard limits.

This could even be increased to 100-fold.

Particles in a quantum state are very sensitive to their environment. With the slightest disturbance, they can lose their predictable and measurable properties (left). But, figuring out how to achieve quantum coherence (right) could pave the way for ultra-precise technology

A simple illustration of the concept of driving something out of equilibrium to increase its stability is the well-known trick of making an inverted broom stand up on the palm of your hand or on one of your fingertips, said Ale Lukaszew, DARPA program manager.

If you hold your hand still, the broom is unstable and will fall over quickly. But if you drive the broom out of equilibrium by moving your hand around periodically, you can make the broom very stable, so it remains upright indefinitely.

Particles in a quantum state are very sensitive to their environment.

With the slightest disturbance, they can lose their predictable and measurable properties, DARPA explains.

But, figuring out how to achieve quantum coherence could pave the way for ultra-precise technology, from quantum computers and sensors to atomic clocks.

Atomic clocks could be used to measure gravitational fields, which could be very useful in tunnel and cave detection, Lukaszew said. An artist's impression of gravitational waves is shown

As of now, atomic clocks for ultra-precise timing must be kept in special laboratory environments isolated from potential thermal, electromagnetic, and other disturbances.

If we can introduce a periodic drive to enable particles to be packaged close together in small spaces at room temperature, while still retaining quantum coherence, we may be able to reproduce the performance of the best sensors, such as atomic clocks and magnetometers, in small and robust devices for military use, Lukaszew said.

There could be a slew of other potential military uses for time crystals  but, officials cant say what they are.

There might be applications related to measuring things with exquisite sensitivity in time and magnetic field domains, Lukaszew told Gizmodo.

Not a lot of these applications are open for discussion.

WHAT ARE TIME CRYSTALS? While the atoms that make up crystals such as ice or diamond are arranged in a repeating pattern through space, the pattern behind time crystals repeats in time. These strange crystals are made up of interacting atoms that never settle down to thermal equilibrium. Their structure repeats in time as they are kicked periodically, similar to the way Jell-O jiggles when it is tapped. Wouldnt it be super weird if you jiggled the Jell-O and found that somehow it responded at a different period? said Berkeley physicist Norman Yao. Last year, scientists revealed the discovery of an astounding new form of matter they claimed breaks the symmetry of time But that is the essence of the time crystal. 'You have some periodic driver that has a period T, but the system somehow synchronizes so that you observe the system oscillating with a period that is larger than T. But, the researchers explain, repetition alone isnt enough. To hold it all together and make it 'rigid,' the crystal must have stable enough rhythm. Advertisement

Atomic clocks, on the other hand, could have a number of non-classified applications, as a way of measuring time in manner thats far more precise.

The technology could, for one, be used to measure gravitational fields, which could be very useful in tunnel and cave detection, Lukaszew said.

In principle, existing atomic-clocks can keep time precisely enough to measure gravitational field differences over the distance of a few feet, but it could take weeks to process the measurement.

If we can engineer a system that doesnt lose its coherence as fast and can be re-tuned very quickly, we could potentially make those same measurements in half an hour.Dublin is experiencing a drinkers renaissance with cutting edge mixology giving traditional watering holes a run for their money. With unique ingredients and whimsical venues, here are our top 10 cocktails bars in which to wet your whistle in Irelands favourite city.

The ultimate guide to the best cocktail bars in Dublin

Best for gin lovers  Gin Palace

With the biggest gin collection in Dublin, Gin Palace works hard to deliver the perfect combination of flavours to complement the 156 varieties on offer. Gin lovers will want plenty of time to relax in the elegant surroundings while indulging in a taster tray or jumping straight in to a cocktail with truly surprising ingredients, such as jalapeno and chipotle pepper. The bar is open SundayThursday 1200-0000, and FridaySaturday 12000000.

Luas: Abbey Street

Best for meeting real Dubliners  Bow Lane

Those looking to rub shoulders with Dubliners but prefer a cocktail over a Guinness should look no further than Bow Lane. This local favourite is open late and has rapidly gained notoriety as a master class in mixology. Handcrafted cocktails delight with whimsical names and surprising ingredients like house made sherbet and lemonade-tinged ice. The bar is open MondayThursday 17000000, Friday 17000200, Saturday 10300200, and Sunday 10300000.

Luas: St. Stephens Green

The rooftop bar at The Marker Hotel is the perfect spot for a few sundowners

Best for city views  The Marker Hotel

Its worth venturing east of Dublin centre to experience the five-star The Marker Hotel  its rooftop bar affords some of the best city views. Situated within the redeveloped Liffey waterfront area known as Grand Canal Dock, this stylish terrace is considered one of the capitals most glamorous local drinking dens. A favourite on the menu is The Orient Express, an infusion of bergamot, Sichuan peppers, lemon juice and Star of Bombay gin. The bars opening times vary, so check online for timings.

Train: Pearse Station

Best for star spotting  The Liquor Rooms

Opulent and fashionable, The Liquor Rooms may be nestled underneath U2-owned The Clarence, but rest assured the real stars here are the decor and the cocktails. Meander through the warren of sexy spaces playing host to immaculately executed classic cocktails alongside more adventurous tipples. Drinkers should consider channelling some old-school glamour with a perfectly chilled martini before moving on to something more avant-garde, such as the popular pistachio milk based Pistachio Mustachio. The bar is open daily 1700late.

Luas: Jervis

Best for a secret rendezvous  the Vintage Cocktail Club

Tucked away behind an unassuming door, potential patrons must ring the doorbell for entry into this intimate space where thirsty patrons are served a complimentary glass of Prosecco while they await their orders. With a huge selection on the menu, theres something for everyone and unusual ingredients abound, including mushroom infused liquor and coriander tincture. The bar is open SundayThursday 17000130, FridaySaturday 12000200.

Luas: Trinity

Best for combining with decadent bites  Peruke & Periwig

Plush Georgian wood panelling, red velvet and chandeliers evokes yesteryear in Peruke and Periwig. The wigs on display pay tribute to the venues title, named after the 18th century wig makers it once was. Its recommended cocktail enthusiasts visit after 10pm (when diners have departed) to experience serious levels of cocktail mastery. Hair-raising ingredients on the regularly updated menu include Perukes in-house jams and popping candy.

Luas: St. Stephens Green

Try one of the delicious concoctions at the Blind Pig

Best kept a secret  The Blind Pig Speakeasy

Named after police who turned a blind eye during prohibition, the Blind Pig is a secret monthly pop-up speakeasy, located at a central well-known Dublin venue. The brainchild of award-winning mixologist Paul Lambert, the cocktail menu changes regularly and features fanciful ingredients like Ban Poitin (pronounced bawn potcheen)  a once banned spirit based on potatoes and sugar beet  gingerbread syrup and tobacco liqueur. Appropriately, social media is where youll find the location and entry password. The bar is open SundayThursday 18000000, FridaySaturday 1600late.

Luas: St. Stephens Green

Best for first dates  Chelsea Drugstore

The original Chelsea Drugstore featured in You Cant Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones, but thats a phrase unlikely uttered here. Theres a mix for every taste on the menu of this bohemian cocktail bar, where each drink has a mere three adjective description. With prices above the 11 mark, there are more economical cocktails to be found, but the ambience in this ground floor and basement bar more than makes up for it.

Luas: St. Stephens Green

Best for what ails you  Apothecary Bar

In keeping with the pharmaceutical theme, the Apothecary Bar is good for what ails you, and bartenders here are happy to channel doctors from a bygone era. A quick consultation with customers determines just the right combination of rejuvenating ingredients. Near-sighted visitors to this upstairs space in Sams Bar will be provided a magnifying glass with which to peruse the extensive menu. Sams Bar is open Monday 16002330, and TuesdaySunday 16000300.

Luas: St. Stephens Green

Best for your budget  The Exchequer

Winner of the All-Ireland Best Cocktail Experience in 2016, The Exchequer is one of Dublins pioneering night spots. Immensely proud of its mixology reputation, to encourage exploration of its cocktail menu, it runs a cocktail of the week at a reduced price. The bar is open MondayWednesday 12002330, Thursday 12000030, and FridaySaturday 12000130.

Luas: St. Stephens GreenDid you know that camouflage is banned in some Caribbean countries, while drinking alcohol in public in the Ukraine could land you with a hefty fine?

In a bid to help travellers avoid any trouble overseas, the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is highlighting some of the world's lesser-known local laws and customs.

For the party-goers, the government body highlights that indecent behaviour, including mooning, isnt tolerated in Greece and could result in arrest and a fine or a prison sentence.

In Thailand you cant take vaporisers, such as e-cigarettes, e-baraku or refills into the country. These items are likely to be confiscated and you could be fined or sent to prison for up to ten years if convicted

The FCO said it decided to highlight surprising rules found abroad after research showed that one third of 18-to-24-year-olds will be influenced by celebrities when preparing for their holiday this Easter, with almost one in three saying stars inspire their travel destination.

However, many of these destinations have laws that UK travellers aren't used to - and most young Brits don't have A-listers' concierge support when planning trips abroad.

It said fewer than two fifths of young people (38 per cent) currently read up on travel advice before travelling abroad.

Other laws and customs the FCO has highlighted include swearing and making rude gestures (including online) in the UAE. They are considered obscene acts and offenders can be jailed or deported.

In Thailand, you cant take vaporisers, such as e-cigarettes, e-baraku or refills into the country.

These items are likely to be confiscated and you could be fined or sent to prison for up to ten years if convicted.

Meanwhile, over in Spain causing a forest fire is treated as a criminal offence, even if unintentional.

If you're headed to the Caribbean, vet your wardrobe before you go as many countries, such as Barbados, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia ban the wearing of camouflage, including by children

If you're headed to the Caribbean, vet your wardrobe before you go as many countries, such as Barbados, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia, ban the wearing of camouflage clothing, including by children.

Thanks to the uproar caused by actress Amber Heard when she illegally brought her and ex-husband Johnny Depp's dogs into Australia, some celebrity fans might be aware of the quarantine rules there.

They are strict and are designed to keep out pests and diseases that could affect plant, animal and human health, the FCO said. Breaches of these regulations can result in large fines, as Ms Heard discovered.Eddie Redmayne has been seen for the first time since honouring the late Stephen Hawking in a touching tribute following his death.

The British actor, 36, was seen cutting a downcast figure as he strolled in London on Wednesday.

With a parcel tucked under his arm, the star looked casually cool in a plaid shirt and jeans just hours after he penned a touching statement to Stephen - who he portrayed in the 2014 movie The Theory of Everything.

Stepping out: Eddie Redmayne, 36, has been seen for the first time since honouring the late Stephen Hawking in a touching tribute following his death

Happy days: Eddie's sighting comes just hours after he honoured the late Stephen Hawking - branding the scientist 'a truly beautiful mind'

Eddie cut a solo figure as he headed out in the British capital in his casual ensemble, which also consisted of a simple white tee.

Clearly running quick errands, the handsome star cradled a large brown parcel under his arm.

His sighting comes a few hours after he branded scientist Stephen Hawking 'a truly beautiful mind' in a touching tribute following his death.

The world renowned physicist passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 76, and just hours later, Eddie, who portrayed Stephen in 2014 movie The Theory of Everything, paid tribute to the star in a touching statement.

Solo figure: With a parcel tucked under his arm, the star looked casually cool in a plaid shirt and jeans hours after he penned a touching statement for Stephen

Way back when: The world renowned physicist passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 76, and just hours later, Eddie, who portrayed Stephen in 2014 movie The Theory of Everything, paid tribute to the star in a touching statement

The on-screen star said: 'We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet. My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family.'

Eddie picked up the Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of Stephen in the movie, which followed Stephens rise to fame and relationship with his first wife, Jane.

In a post on his Facebook page after the release of the production, the Professor himself praised Eddies work.

He wrote at the time: 'I thought Eddie Redmayne portrayed me very well in The Theory of Everything Movie. He spent time with ALS sufferers so he could be authentic. At times, I thought he was me.

'Seeing the film has given me the opportunity to reflect on my life. Although Im severely disabled, I have been successful in my scientific work.

Supportive: In a post on his Facebook page after the release of the production, the Professor himself praised Eddies work

'I travel widely and have been to Antarctica and Easter Island, down in a submarine and up on a zero gravity flight. One day I hope to go into space.

'Ive been privileged to gain some understanding of the way the universe operates through my work. But it would be an empty universe indeed without the people that I love.'

Stephen was told he had just two years to live at the age of 21 when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease - which confined him to a wheelchair and left him unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser.

The scientist managed to live well beyond the life expectancy placed on him by the disease - which causes the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles - and went on to do groundbreaking scientific research on black holes and relativity.

Happy days: Eddie picked up the Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of Stephen in the movie, which followed Stephens rise to fame and relationship with his first wife, Jane

Starring role: 'Ive been privileged to gain some understanding of the way the universe operates through my work. But it would be an empty universe indeed without the people that I love' (Eddie pictured with co-star Felicity Jones playing his first wife Jane Wilde)

He is perhaps most known for his best-selling book 'A Brief History of Time', which explained the mysteries of the universe in basic terms and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Stephens family confirmed the news of his passing on Wednesday in a statement which read: 'We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years.

'His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He once said: "It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love." We will miss him forever.'Yolanda Hadid might be in mourning.

On Wednesday, the 54-year-old star stepped out in New York City donning an all-black ensemble after Gigi Hadid, 22, called it quits with Zayn Malik, 25.

Despite the dark outfit, Yolanda was all smiles as she headed to her daughter's Manhattan home.

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In mourning? On Wednesday, Yolanda Hadid stepped out in New York City donning an all-black ensemble after daughter Gigi Hadid called it quits with Zayn Malik

Since Gigi's breakup on Tuesday, Yolanda has been there for her daughter to show support every step of the way.

The star wore a slim-fit top tucked into high-waist skinny pants that featured stylish zippers at the ankles.

She wore an edgy motorcycle leather jacket and leather boots with high heels.

The television personality slicked her blonde locks back and carried a fashionable leather purse while sporting aviator sunglasses.

Yolanda was spotted carrying two cups of coffee as she visited her recently single daughter.

Moral support: Despite the dark edgy outfit, Yolanda was all smiles as she headed to her daughter's Manhattan home

Stylish: The star wore a slim-fit top tucked into high-waist skinny pants that featured stylish zippers at the ankles

Good mother: Since Gigi's breakup on Tuesday, Yolanda has been there for her daughter every step of the way

Helpful: Yolanda was spotted carrying two cups of coffee as she visited her recently single daughter

Earlier in the day, The Real Housewives star posted a cryptic message on Instagram, which seemed to allude to her daughter's public breakup.

The image consisted of a screenshot of words written by author C Joybell C, superimposed over a field of sunflowers.

Her post read: 'The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn.

'The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open.'

Yolanda also captioned the image by writing: 'And so it is....... #Life.'

Words of encouragement: Earlier in the day, The Real Housewives star posted a cryptic message on Instagram, which seemed to allude to her daughter's public breakup

Zayn and his supermodel girlfriend broke up on Tuesday after more than two years together. Both the pop heartthrob and Gigi took to Twitter to confirm the news.

His post read: 'Gigi and I had an incredibly meaningful, loving and fun relationship and I have a huge amount of respect and adoration for Gigi as a woman and a friend. She has such an incredible soul.

'I'm grateful to all of our fans for respecting this difficult decision and our privacy at this time, we wish this news could have come from us first. We love you all. xZ.'

Public statement: Zayn and his supermodel girlfriend broke up on Tuesday after more than two years together

Just 11 minutes after Zayn put out his post, Gigi released her own statement on the social media site.

She wrote: 'Breakup statements often seem impersonal because there is really no way to put into words what two people experience together over a few years.. not only in the relationship, but in life in general.

'I'm forever grateful for the love, time, and life lessons that Z and I shared. I want nothing but the best for him and will continue to support him as a friend that I have immense respect and love for. As for the future, whatever's meant to be will always be. xG.'

A comment on the issue: Just 11 minutes after Zayn put out his post, Gigi released her own statement on the social media site

The former lovebirds recently spent a lot of time apart - and were last pictured together in January - as Gigi walked the world's runways for fashion month and Zayn jetted off to Miami to work on new music.

The One Direction vocalist dated the supermodel since November 2015, six months after he broke up with fiance Perrie Edwards, 24.

He reportedly broke off his engagement to the Little Mix star by text in 2015 (a claim he denies).Rachael Ray can now chuckle at the storm of social media scorn she got after being mistakenly thought of as the 'Becky With The Good Hair' Beyonce slammed in song.

'I thought that was hilarious,' said 49-year-old TV chef Rachael to Yahoo!, calling the rumor that she was Jay-Z's mistress 'the most ultimate backward compliment'.

In Sorry, a song from Beyonce's 2016 visual album Lemonade, the pop icon seemed to accuse Jay-Z, her husband, of philandering with 'Becky With The Good Hair.'

Looking back: Rachael Ray can now chuckle at the storm of social media scorn she got after being mistakenly thought of as the 'Becky With The Good Hair' Beyonce slammed in song

Rumors swirled that 'Becky' was Rachel Roy, a fashion designer who once interned at the New York City-based retailer Rocawear, of which Jay-Z is the CEO.

Many members of the Bey-hive, a nickname for Beyonce's legions of dedicated fans, mistook Rachael for Rachel and ferociously denounced the former online.

'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,' said Rachael good-naturedly.

Backdrop: In Sorry, a song from Beyonce's 2016 visual album Lemonade, the pop icon seemed to accuse Jay-Z, her husband, of philandering with 'Becky With The Good Hair'

"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,' said the gourmet, who during this controversy sent a wine bottle over to the similarly attacked Rachel.

Rachael joked that 'the worst thing that had ever happened to [me and Rachel] before this was that our dry-cleaning or our dinner reservations were confused!'

Said she: 'I just felt weird, and [Rachel] 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."

Targeted: Rumors swirled that 'Becky' was Rachel Roy, a fashion designer who once interned at the New York City-based retailer Rocawear, of which Jay-Z is the CEO

What happened: Many members of the Bey-hive, a nickname for Beyonce's legions of dedicated fans, mistook Rachael for Rachel and ferociously denounced the former online

'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.'

She clarified: 'I think it matters to the world, but it certainly doesnt matter to me. Its none of my beeswax. No pun intended!'

Rachael also discussed her thickened hide, saying: 'When a weird anomaly comes along like the Lemonade thing, I guess Im weirdly prepared for it. It doesnt bother me anymore. It used to hurt my feelings.'Nick Robinson feels connected to his recent movie for a personal reason.

On Wednesday, the 22-year-old actor revealed during The Ellen Show that prior to shooting Love, Simon, his brother came out of the closet.

Robinson plays Simon Spier, an American teenager who is secretly gay and on the verge of being exposed to his friends and family by an anonymous blackmailer.

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Significance: On Wednesday, Nick Robinson revealed during The Ellen Show that prior to shooting Love, Simon, his brother came out of the closet

The actor donned a casual ensemble for his appearance on the daytime talk show.

Robinson told the host: 'He came out right around the same time we started filming.

'I think he had been dealing with this for a long time. The timing was sort of coincidental.

'One of the best things that came out of this movie was just being able to talk to him and I think the strength of a film like this is it starts conversations. I hope it can do that for more people.'

The Ellen Show: The actor donned a casual ensemble for his appearance on the daytime talk show

Love, Simon was directed by Greg Berlanti and hits theaters in the U.S. on April 6.

The cast includes Jennifer Garner, 45, Josh Duhamel, 45, and Katherine Langford, 21.

The film recently hosted a star-studded special screening in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Robinson attended the event in a stylish outfit consisting of a hip white patterned collar button-up shirt.

Coming soon: Love, Simon was directed by Greg Berlanti and hits theaters in the U.S. on April 6

Stylish co-stars! The film recently hosted a star-studded special screening in Los Angeles on Tuesday

He donned a brown tailored leather jacket, fitted brown slacks, and brown leather boots.

The actor was spotted hand-in-hand with co-star Langford, as she sported a black strapless dress with a white strip accenting the chest area.

On the same day as his appearance on The Ellen Show, Vulture published an interview in which the star explained that he and Berlanti put a lot of thought into the film before shooting it.

Love, Simon: Robinson plays Simon Spier, an American teenager who is secretly gay and on the verge of being exposed to his friends and family by an anonymous blackmailer

He revealed: 'We'd discussed the concept behind it, how it was something we hadn't seen before. It was a new idea: a mainstream coming-of-age film with a gay protagonist.

'We also discussed the implications of that, how it could potentially be helpful to people. After our conversation, it got me excited about this project and all the people involved. I went back in to audition, we did chemistry reads with the rest of the cast.

'The main takeaway was that everyone involved in this thing was doing it for the right reasons. Greg is a gay man, and he had his personal story. Everyone seemed to have a personal story that they were bringing to this. I think it was a labor of love that made for a great work environment.'He's an avid viewer of Channel 9's reality show Married At First Sight.

However, Kyle Sandilands is certainly not a fan of its sister show Talking Married, which counts former MAFS 'bride' Cheryl Maitland among its hosts.

On his breakfast radio show on Thursday, Kyle slammed Talking Married, branding it 'The worst show I have ever seen in my life!'

'The worst show I have ever seen in my life!' Kyle Sandilands BLASTS Cheryl Maitland's program Talking Married as he says it looks 'like they've shot it inside Coles'

Sharing his viewing experience with co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson and newsreader Brooklyn Ross, Kyle was less than complimentary about the program's production standards.

The 46-year-old radio veteran said he and his girlfriend Imogen Anthony only watched two minutes before they decided they disliked it.

'It's like they've shot it inside Coles and it feels like everyone is on work experience  presenters, cameramen, sound guys, it's the work experience brigade!' he said.

Kyle is one of Married At First Sight's most invested fans and has revealed that he watches it religiously in his underwear.

'I'm hooked on this show big time,' he said. I'm sitting there in my undies watching the show every single night. I'm loving it.'

'It's like they've shot it inside Coles and it feels like everyone is on work experience' Kyle was less than complimentary about Talking Married's production standards

TV talent: Talking Married counts former MAFS 'bride' Cheryl Maitland among its hosts

Kyle and Jackie have had most of the show's stars on their radio program for interviews, and on Thursday they alleged Troy was the only contestant who had asked them for money.

'Troy won't come on!' said Jackie, as the Sydney breakfast radio hosts wrapped up an interview with MAFS couple John and Melissa.

Kyle added: 'Troy's turned into an idiot and now wants to be paid to come on - we told him to shove it in his a**e!

Cash for appearances: Kyle and Jackie have had most MAFS stars on their radio program for interviews and on Thursday they alleged Troy (pictured) was the only one who had asked them for money

'Who does he think he is? Madonna or something?'

Jackie continued: 'He has been such a diva... every one of the Married At First Sight couples are all good, they're all fine to come on.

'But not Troy. Troy wants money.'

Kyle jumped in: ' Anyone want to slap that face every time it laughs?'

It is unclear how much money Troy asked for. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Kyle and Jackie's representatives and Channel Nine for comment.Ryan Gosling is a true gentleman.

The 37-year-old La La Land star assisted his mother-in-law as she climbed into his vehicle on Wednesday after they had an enjoyed a meal at Little Dom's in Los Angeles.

Gosling's partner and mother of his children, Eva Mendes, 44, was not present for the outing.

What a gent! Ryan Gosling assisted his mother-in-law as she climbed into his vehicle on Wednesday after they had an enjoyed a meal in Los Angeles

Flying solo: Gosling's partner and mother of his children, Eva Mendes, was not present for the lunch at Little Dom's in Los Feliz

The Notebook actor was casually clad for his afternoon outing with Eva Perez Suavez.

He was spotted wearing blue khaki pants, a Disney's Haunted Mansion t-shirt, and a jean jacket with a NASA emblem.

On his feet were a pair of Red Wing classic Moc boots.

Two peas! Mendes and her mother Eva Perez Suavez have a very close relationship

Ryan and Eva have been an item since 2011 when they filmed The Place Beyond The Pines.

They share two children togetherEsmeralda Amada, age three, and Amada Lee, age one.

The two actors are considered one of the Hollywood's most private couples.

Casually clad! The La La Land star was spotted wearing blue khaki pants, a Disney's Haunted Mansion t-shirt, and a jean jacket with a NASA emblem

Together forever! Ryan and Eva have been an item since 2011 when they filmed The Place Beyond The Pines

One of the most public statements that Gosling has ever made about girlfriend Mendes, was during his speech at the 2017 Golden Globes.

He gave credit to Eva when he accepted his award for Best Actor in a motion picture musical or comedy.

'I would just like to try and thank one person properly and say that while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I've ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,' he said.

'If she hadnt have taken all that on so that I could have this experience, there would surely be someone else up here other than me today. So sweetheart, thank you.'

Growing family! The partners have two children togetherEsmeralda Amada, age three, and Amada Lee, age one



She's previously admitted to enhancing her features with fillers and plastic surgery.

And it seems as though Married At First Sight's Tracey Jewel has drawn a little too much attention to her large pout, with fans taking to social media to complain about her continuous lip-licking action.

But while 35-year-old told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday that it was a reflex of 'nervousness', News Corp's James Weir had a more scientific answer to the puzzle.

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Why does she do it? On Thursday, Married At First Sight fans were left perplexed and infuriated by Tracey Jewel's constant lip-licking

James revealed on Thursday's The Kyle and Jackie O Show that a plastic surgeon had told him Tracey's had more than just lip injections.

He explained: 'She didn't just get fillers apparently... they've folded her lip out so much that the inner mucosa of the lip is now exposed and usually in life that should be lubricated.'

The former radio producer added: 'So now her body's sending messages to her brain saying, "Lick your lips, your mucosa's dry"'.

Helping to paint a more vivid picture of Tracey's supposed ailment, Kyle Sandilands used the metaphor of a baboon who needed some self-lubrication on his posterior.

The reason why? Journalist James Weir told KIIS FM on Thursday that Tracey is compelled to repeatedly 'lubricate' her lips due to an unfortunate side effect of having cosmetic surgery

James appeared to agree, replying: 'And a tube of Lucas' PaPaw ointment isn't going to help that either, Kyle!'

And it's not the first time Tracey's subconscious habit has raised fans' eyebrows.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, viewers were left both perplexed and infuriated when Tracey continually licked her lips during her serious and confrontational chat with on-screen husband Dean.

'Tracey. Please stop licking your big, stupid lips': Tracey was blasted on Twitter for her unusual habit of licking her lips despite trying to have a serious conversation with her husband Dean

'I am at the point where I can no longer take her voice and lip licking or his narcissism,' tweeted out on.

'When Tracey licks those awful fat infused lips it makes me throw up in my mouth a little,' commented another.

And it wasn't just the mother-of-one moisturising the brim of her mouth, husband Dean seemed to have also caught onto the action.She's The Bachelor Australia alumni who was recently announced as a surprise contestant on Bachelor In Paradise.

And on Thursday, Simone Ormesher showed why she was a choice for the program as she flaunted her cleavage in a photo of her wearing little more than her knickers.

On Thursday, the buxom Brit took to Instagram to share the shot of herself posing on her knees on top of her bed.

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Are you ready boys? Surprise Bachelor In Paradise star Simone Ormesher leaves very little to the imagination as she goes braless in an open cardigan and wears her favourite knickers

The former topless waitress teamed her white Calvin Klein undergarments with a grey woollen cardigan.

Her white knickers appear to be a favourite for Simone, as she has posed in them several times for different pictures.

The blonde beauty accompanied her Instagram post with the caption: 'When you can't decide if your hot or cold'.

Her scant clothing suggests that Simone intended the caption to be humorous.

So nice she wore them twice! her white Calvin Klein undergarments with a grey woollen cardigan. Her white knickers appear to be a favourite for Simone, as she has posed in them several times for different pictures

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.Elizabeth Hurley's nephew has been pictured for the first time since he was stabbed multiple times in a gruesome attack on the streets of south-west London last week.

In a post shared on Instagram on Monday, 21-year-old Miles Hurley is seen wearing a white dressing gown as he poses alongside his pal, a rising rapper known as Romz who is believed to have been attacked with the model.

Captioning the snapshot, which appears to have been taken in a warmly-lit living room, their pal simply wrote: 'MY SURVIVORS. Grateful.'

Pictured: Miles Hurley, right, has been pictured for the first time since he was stabbed multiple times in a brutal street attack in south-west London. He is pictured with rapper pal Romz

Miles is reportedly recuperating at his famous aunt's palatial mansion in Herefordshire, after being discharged from a London hospital.

Elizabeth rushed back to the UK to be by her beloved nephew's bedside after he was stabbed by a gang in an apparent road rage attack on Thursday.

Miles was set upon by thugs and knifed in the back multiple times after overtaking their car moments earlier, leading to a minor collision, police said.

Family ties: His aunt Elizabeth Hurley jetted back to the UK from the US after Miles' harrowing attack, which took place last Thursday. Pictured in April 2015

The model and his friend, also 21, were chased until they pulled over on a road behind Battersea Power Station in south-west London.

Four men then got out of their car and stabbed the pair several times.

One wound narrowly missed severing Miles' spine. Police have said the victims injuries are not life-threatening or life-changing.

Elizabeth, 52, flew back from a promotional tour in the US to be by his side. In an emotional Instagram post on Saturday, the actress branded his attackers animals.

Close: Miles is close to his aunt and they've each been known to share snaps of each other on their respective social media accounts

My 21 year old nephew @mileshurley1 was brutally attacked by four men in London on Thursday night, she said. He was repeatedly stabbed and lost more than four pints of blood.

The deepest wound just missed severing his spine. By some miracle no vital organs were damaged. We are praying that these animals are caught before they maim, or even kill, someone else.

Miles, who is the son of Elizabeth's older sister Kate Curran, is very close to his aunt.

Model: The handsome 21-year-old has made a name for himself as a model, and walked in the Dolce & Gabbana show during Milan Fashion Week Men's in January

The model, who was scouted at 13 and has done shoots for Dolce & Gabbana, took Elizabeths surname after launching his career.

On the day of the attack he had paid tribute to her in a post celebrating International Womens Day, writing: Love & appreciation for all the strong, happy and independent women around me.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Monday that road rage was a line of inquiry.

A spokesman said the stabbing occurred after the victims became involved in a verbal altercation with the occupants of another car following a minor collision.New Zealand rapper Scribe (Malo Ioane Luafutu) was found guilty of methamphetamine possession at Christchurch District Court on Thursday.

The 38-year-old was facing six charges - possession of methamphetamine, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of instruments and three charges for breaching bail.

Judge Raoul Neave dismissed all other charges after police alleged they found the star 'swinging a softball bat, swearing and asking 'whose f**king car is this?' on April 2, 2017, later finding drugs in his possession.

New Zealand rapper Scribe found guilty of methamphetamine possession in Christchurch District Court as five other charges including weapon possession are dismissed

According to the Otago Daily Times, the rapper arrived to court on Thursday smoking a cigarette and had his own 'camera crew entourage' in tow.

Police told the court they responded to the incident on Ollivers Rd, in the inner-city Christchurch suburb of Phillipstown last year.

The 'Not Many' songwriter was allegedly yelling and throwing 'Rashuns chips in the air' - catching them in his mouth.

A resident witnessed the screaming fit from her motor home, telling the court she was parked across a thoroughfare near some Rugby League club rooms.

They reported the area is notorious for youth crime, drug use and fly tipping, and the woman feared for the safety of herself and her male partner.

The 38-year-old was facing six charges - possession of methamphetamine, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of instruments and three charges for breaching bail (pictured is Christchurch District Court, where the rapper stood trial on Thursday)

Scribe was allegedly 'standing on the wheel arch of her car, swearing and yelling' and demanding to know who owned the motor home.

They claimed he was 'tapping' the softball bat against the vehicle.

The witness explained she had permission to use the space by the owner of the property, retreating inside to get the card.

In the mean time, her partner had already called police.

Judge Raoul Neave dismissed all other charges after police alleged they found the star 'swinging a softball bat, swearing and asking 'whose f**king car is this?' on April 2, 2017, later finding drugs in his possession

When police found the rapper, they claim he was in possession of methamphetamine and a pipe.

Back in August 2017, Canterbury police took to Facebook to appeal for public support in tracking down the hip-hop star after he missed his court date.

'Police are currently seeking 38-year-old Malo Ioane Luafutu, who has several warrants to arrest for failing to appear in court and various drug related offences,' they wrote.

'He is also known to go by Jeshua Luafutu, Ioane Luafutu, and Scribe.'

They warned: 'If you see Luafutu, please do not approach him and contact police immediately on 111.'

A post on the rapper's own page appeared to dispute allegations he was 'on the run.'

'There are valid reasons why I missed my court date,' he wrote, 'do I manufacture drugs? No. Do I sell drugs? No. Do I promote drug use? Never.'

Scribe was allegedly 'standing on the wheel arch of her car, swearing and yelling' and demanding to know who owned the motor home. She came out to tell him she had permission to park there

'Have I made mistakes? Most certainly. See it for what it is. A distraction from what's really happening.'

'I'm also a father and how this will effect(sic) my children is all I care about,' he continued.

'No offence to the police but do u need assistance finding me? Where the f... am I gonna hide? I'm Scribe.'He recently hosted the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

And comedian Joel Creasey was announced as host for the Australian version of popular British dating show, Take Me Out, on Thursday.

The 27-year-old called the Channel Seven program, which will air later this year, 'ridiculous fun' in a statement released by the network.

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New gig: Comedian Joel Creasey was announced as host for the Australian version of popular British dating show, Take Me Out, on Thursday

Dubbed 'Australias Crown Prince of Comedy' in the release, Joel marveled over his appointment at the helm of 'the most outrageously funny dating series on television'.

'Take Me Out is just so much ridiculous fun; a hilarious and wild ride. It's like a front row seat to the awkward moment when a guy walks up to a woman at a bar. Pass me the popcorn... and something alcoholic, waiter!' he joked.

'Ive had my fair share of bad dates, and I know how important it is to kick it off right... on national TV, in front of a live crowd! I cant wait to help Australians strike that match and let the love in,' he added.

'Take Me Out is just so much ridiculous fun; a hilarious and wild ride. It's like a front row seat to the awkward moment when a guy walks up to a woman at a bar,' he joked

'I cant wait to help Australians strike that match and let the love in,' he added

Joel took to Instagram after the official announcement was made to let his 93,200 fans know how 'bloody stoked' he was about his latest televised gig.

'Ill be hooking people up left, right and center like the human Tinder I was born to be,' he offered.

'Head on over to takemeoutaustralia.com.au and leave your love life in my perfectly manicured yet extremely irresponsible hands,' he continued.

'Ill be hooking people up left, right and center like the human Tinder I was born to be,' he offered

The dating game show, presented in Britain by comedian Paddy McGuiness, is originally based on an earlier Australian show called Taken Out.

The objective of Take Me Out is for a single man to obtain a date with one of thirty single women.

The bachelor must demonstrate various skills in an effort to impress them and take them out on dates.She is one of Bollywood's biggest stars, with more than a dozen high-budget movies to her name.

And Amy Jackson looked every inch the leading lady at the Asian Film Festival Opening Gala in Mayfair on Wednesday night.

The actress, 25, turned heads on the red carpet as she showed off her incredible physique in a plunging black silky gown.

Stunning: Amy Jackson looked every inch the leading lady at the Asian Film Festival Opening Gala in Mayfair on Wednesday night

The Liverpudlian beauty flaunted her ample cleavage in the wrap-style dress while flaunting her toned pins with its thigh-high split.

She accentuated her leggy frame with a pair of black kitten heels as she posed alongside her handsome pal.

Amy slicked her brunette tresses back in a neat ponytail and enhanced her glamorous look with a brown smokey eye, blush-swept cheeks and a slick of pink lipstick.

Glam: The actress, 25, turned heads on the red carpet as she showed off her incredible physique in a plunging black silky gown while her pal looked dapper in a white tuxedo suit

Amy from Walton, is a virtual unknown on UK shores but in India, she is recognised almost everywhere she goes, thanks to her Bollywood acting career.

Now, the star is hoping to break into mainstream movies, having signed up to a British independent film and having castings in Los Angeles.

Jackson, who have been previously linked to Cheryl's ex Jean Bernard Fenandez-Versini, shot to fame shortly after finishing her GCSEs in her native north-west; the then 17-year-old's modelling photos were spotted by a film director, who claimed to be making a film in Bollywood that needed a young actress.

Busty: The Liverpudlian beauty flaunted her ample cleavage in the wrap-style dress while flaunting her toned pins with its thigh-high split

Back in January, she told MailOnline: 'India wasnt on my radar. Id never even heard of Bollywood, I couldnt dance for toffee and drama was the only class I was completely hopeless in at school so acting was something I never thought was for me.

Despite Amy's high-flying career, her love life has been less sucessful.

After dating renowned Indian actor Prateik Babbar from 2011 to 2012, a year later she began a relationship with Liverpool boxer Joe Selkirk.

A few months in, Selkirk was fined and given a 12-month community order after admitting to assaulting Amy outside a Liverpool hotel. Amy then enjoyed a brief romance with former Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas.

Bollywood star: Amy from Walton, is a virtual unknown on UK shores but in India, she is recognised almost everywhere she goes, thanks to her Bollywood acting career

Speaking about her past romances, she said: 'I am a bad picker of men. But it has taught me lessons and one is to put them in the past and live my life in the moment.

'Last year was the first year I have been single and I have to say I am so much happier for it.

'I went to a retreat in Nepal where there was no talking, no phones, no clocks and I had a personal breakthrough.

You feel you should have everything in your life  a fantastic relationship and a fantastic career.

'Thats what I was trying to make happen, but my relationships were never right even though I tried to make them work.

'In Nepal I had this realisation that you have to let that go. Dont force things that dont work, dont worry about not having something.

'Focus on what you do have and count your blessings.'

Amy has been unlucky in love having dated Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas in 2014 , above left, and Prateik BabbarShe has Irish heritage from her father's side of the family.

And Jenny McCarthy, 45, celebrated her ancestry on Wednesday, roaming around Times Square in New York City dressed as a leprechaun as part of her Sirius XM show in anticipation of Saint Patrick's Day.

Saint Patrick's Day falls on Saturday, the date marked by the death of Irelands most celebrated patron saint.

Top of the morning: Jenny McCarthy, 45, celebrated her Irish ancestry on Wednesday, roaming around Times Square in New York City dressed as a leprechaun as part of her Sirius XM show

The star of both Scream 3 and Scary Movie 3 went with a green theme for the occasion, pairing green trousers with a green waistcoat over a white shirt.

The Tooken actor accessorized with striped clover socks and a green hat.

The ex-girlfriend of Jim Carrey didn't extend herself to dying her hair green, however, as her straight tresses remained a shade of blue for the day.

Big day: Saint Patrick's Day falls on Saturday, the date marked by the death of Irelands most celebrated patron saint

Green with envy: The star of both Scream 3 and Scary Movie 3 went with a green theme for the occasion, pairing green trousers with a green waistcoat over a white shirt

The mother-of-one drummed up enthusiasm for the cultural celebration in her capacity as host of the Sirius XM show Dirty, Sexy, Funny.

She strolled around Times Square engaging with tourists and at one point met street performer The Naked Cowboy.

The Times Square mainstay, whose real name is Robert John Burck, wore boots, a hat and little else as he played his guitar.

At one point he picked up a laughing McCarthy.

Her pot of gold: The Tooken actor accessorized with striped clover socks and a green hat

Feeling blue? The ex-girlfriend of Jim Carrey didn't extend herself to dying her hair green, however, as her straight tresses remained a shade of blue for the day

Jenny is married to New Kids On The Block founding member and brother of actor Mark, Donnie Wahlberg, 48.

Jenny and Donnie, 48, wed in 2014.

It was the second marriage for both of them.

Shredded: She strolled around Times Square engaging with tourists and at one point met street performer The Naked Cowboy

Must be cold: The Times Square mainstay, whose real name is Robert John Burck, wore boots, a hat and little else as he played his guitarShe has been promoting her latest film A Wrinkle in Time in London.

But Oprah Winfrey took a break from her media duties on Wednesday as she was seen returning to her hotel after a night out in the capital.

The 64-year-old legendary broadcast kept it casual in all-black as she continued to promote the science fiction fantasy ahead of its UK release next week.

Casual: Oprah Winfrey rocked a low-key look in all-black as she headed back to her hotel in London after a night out on Wednesday

Oprah kept warm in a black Brunello Cucinelli shawl and skinny jeans as she jumped out of her car, adding even more comfort with black slip-on plimsolls.

The talk show legend kept her dark hair scraped back out of the way and wore thick framed glasses for the low-key outing as she continued her visit to London.

Oprah has been celebrating her role in A Wrinkle in Time, which is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Madeleine L'Engle.

Relaxed: The legendary TV star rocked a loose black wrap with skinny jeans and plimsoll shoes as she continued to enjoy her stay in the capital

Legend: Oprah has been promoting her role in A Wrinkle in Time, which opens in UK cinemas on Friday 23 March

Otherwordly: In the film Oprah plays the supernatural being Mrs Which, and the film is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Madeleine L'Engle

Directed by Ava DuVernay, the film transforms the novel's tale of science fiction, adolescent angst and imagination into a vision of black female empowerment.

Oprah, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon 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.

Speaking at the film's European premiere on Tuesday, 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.'

Advocate: Oprah has spoken strongly about the film's representation of female diversity

Supporter: The talk show legend appears in the epic film alongside Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon, and is lead by newcomer Storm Reid

Early reviews for A Wrinkle in Time have been mixed, and the film struggled against Black Panther in its opening weekend, earning just $33 million in the States.

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.'He cooled rumours of a split on Tuesday after 'refollowing' her on social media.

But Stormzy's girlfriend Maya Jama, 23, is reportedly looking for a new home in South London amid ongoing rumours of relationship woes with the 24-year-old grime artist.

A source told The Sun that Maya has decided to move out as she barely sees Stormzy - real name Michael Omari Owuo, Jr - due to his partying lifestyle.

New digs: Radio 1 DJ Maya Jama is reportedly look for a new home amid rumours of relationship woes with boyfriend Stormzy according to a source from The Sun

The source said: 'Maya and Stormzy are splitting up and she wants to move out.

'She has been ringing estate agents, and her reps and friends have been looking at flats for her.

'They barely see each other because of work, and the flat is full of his mates playing Xbox, smoking and ordering takeaways at all hours.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives of both Stormzy and Maya for comment.

All's well? Stormzy appeared to cool rumours of a split on Tuesday by re-following Maya on social media, just a day after she disappeared from his follower list on Instagram

These reports come just a day after Stormzy appeared to cool rumours of a split by refollowing the Radio 1 DJ on social media.

The grime star had disappeared from Maya's follower list on Monday.

But Stormzy reappeared the following day after prompting speculation of a split with his girlfriend, who he last referred to on social media two months ago as they celebrated their third anniversary.

Uploading a sweet selfie to honour the pair's anniversary, he wrote: '3 years with the love of my life.'

Maya still follows her beau on the photo-sharing app, and he most recently appeared on her page in early February when she shared a video from their trip to Los Angeles.

The pair were last seen together at the BRIT Awards in February, where Maya supported her beau as he picked up the British Male Solo Artist and British Album of the Year gongs.

Date night: The pair were last seen together at the BRIT Awards in February (above)

'The love of my life': Stormzy last posted about Maya in January when he honoured their third anniversary with a sweet selfie (above). Maya still follows her beau on the photo-sharing app

Maya has been dating Stormzy for three years - with the pair first choosing to keep their relationship private, before going public as an item in 2016.

The beauty went on to appear in his music video for Big For Your Boots, and the musician even dedicated his track Birthday Girl to Maya on her 22nd birthday - a gift she gushed would 'last forever'.

Proving the couple to be the real deal, the Shut Up star even admitted he was keen to marry the model in the future.

He told the Sunday Mirror in February: 'I'm still so young but I want to propose, it's going to happen and I will do it right. She is so sick, she is the best.'

Keeping quiet: Maya have been dating Stormzy for three years - with the pair first choosing to keep their relationship private, and going public in 2016 (pictured in June 2017)

Meanwhile Maya recently praised Stormzy for being everything 'a father should be' -with her own dad being in jail for most of her life.

She told the Daily Star: 'The man I look at will always be someone who is supportive and will give a sense of what a father should be a protective, kind, loving person.'

However, she added that she prefers to keep her love life away from the public eye, which is why the couple were reluctant to go public for so long.

'I never wanted my name to be overshadowed by a relationship,' she added. 'I try to keep it as low-key as possible, but what can you do? He's doing amazingly well.'

Stormzy is one of the biggest grime artists of the moment, with his debut Gang Signs & Prayer becoming first grime record to ever top the UK Album Chart back in February 2017.

Meanwhile Maya made her fame as a presenter, formerly appearing on MTV - where she first met her beau - and going on to front ITV game show Cannonball.Bella Hadid is the face of Dior Makeup's lacquer plump campaign.

The 21-year-old supermodel attended the French brand's press party at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood on Wednesday night in a showstopping metallic silver ensemble.

She teamed her futuristic outfit with a pair of kitten-heeled Dior slingbacks.

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Brand babe! Bella Hadid is the face of Dior Makeup's lacquer plump campaign

Bella dropped her keys off with the valet before heading into the Hollywood hotspot for Dior's private event.

Hadid was the guest of honor as she did several interviews with media outlets about the makeup line's new lip ink.

The Vogue cover girl looked effortlessly chic in her silver raincoat that was belted at the waist.

High fashion! The 21-year-old supermodel attended the French brand's press party at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood on Wednesday night in a showstopping metallic silver ensemble

Park it! Bella dropped her keys off with the valet before heading into the Hollywood hotspot for Dior's private event

While Hadid has been single ever since her split from The Weeknd in November 2016, rumors are swirling once again about her 'more than friends' relationship with fellow model Stella Maxwell.

The Sun recently gained info from a source that said the two were seen 'passionately' locking lips at a LOVE Magazine bash three years ago.

The source told the paper: 'Bella and Stella were at a table in the corner but only had eyes for each other.

Pump it up! She teamed her futuristic outfit with a pair of kitten-heeled Dior slingbacks

Jetsetter! The Vogue cover girl recently returned from walking in a slew of international fashion week shows

'They were kissing passionately and looked to be really into it and having a lot of fun.'

However, the insider acknowledged the girls had got away with it due to their lower levels of fame, adding: 'Bella wasn't the star that she is now. She's likely to be far more discreet now.'

This info was released by the UK outlet just before the world learned that Hadid's sister Gigi had called it quits with her boyfriend Zayn Malik.She recently slammed critics of her marijuana use online.

But Paris Jackson seemed in a sober mood as she was spotted out in Los Angeles with a mystery friend on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson sported a Guns N' Roses graphic tee and black leggings as she left the high end 901 Salon.

Stunner: Paris Jackson, 19, was spotted out in Los Angeles with a mystery friend on Wednesday

Daring to impress, the young up-and-coming actress showed off her flair for fashion as she wrapped her one shoulder with a black and white fringe sweater by Willow & Clay.

Her gorgeous gams were thrust on center stage as the beautiful ingenue slipped them into a pair of skin tight pants.

She swept her trademark blonde tresses up in a messy bun allowing her youthful face to shine.

Throwing caution to the wind, the natural stunner went virtually makeup free with a slight dab of pink lipstick.

Mystery friend:The daughter of Michael Jackson sported a Guns N' Roses graphic tee and black leggings as she left the high end 901 Salon with a mystery friend

She carried a beverage as her mystery friend followed alongside as they left the salon together.

The outing comes after romance rumors were ignited between Paris and Cara Delevingne as they were spotted together in London together this month.

And according to The Sun, Paris has visited Cara in Italy and the Czech Republic while she films new TV project Carnival Row, and has enjoyed a number of other city breaks with the model in Europe.

Daring: Daring to impress, the young up-and-coming actress showed off her flair for fashion as she wrapped her one shoulder with a black and white knit coat

Throwing caution to the wind, the natural stunner went virtually makeup free with a slight dab of pink lipstick

The pair are also believed to have bonded over their love of music - with the supermodel fascinated by Paris' father, the King of Pop.

A source said: 'They really hit it off at the MTV Movie and TV Awards in LA in May and have been hanging out since.

'She invited her as guest of honour to her Christmas Burberry X bash in London, before whisking her away to Venice then Prague the weekend after, where they celebrated Christmas early at the markets.

Leggy lady: Her gorgeous gams were thrust on center stage as the beautiful ingenue slipped them into a pair of skin tight pants

MailOnline has contacted both Paris and Cara's representatives for comment.

The unlikely pair first caught attention when they were spotted leaving a nightclub in Dalston together via the fire escape.

The outing came three months after Cara's breakup from St Vincent, while Paris split from boyfriend Michael Snoddy in February last year.She's the controversial Married At First Sight 'villain' known for her picture-perfect persona on social media.

But Davina Rankin shared a less-than-flattering glimpse into her life on the set of the popular reality show this Thursday, taking to Instagram to reveal what really went on behind-the-scenes during her wedding ceremony.

In two throwback photos, the 26-year-old was joined by fellow 'wives' Ashley Irvin, 28, Charlene Perera, 33, and Alycia Galbraith, 29- all of whom were dressed in bridal attire.

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Instagram V Reality? Davina Rankin shared a less-than-flattering glimpse into her life on the set of the popular reality show this Thursday, taking to Instagram to reveal what really went on behind-the-scenes during her wedding ceremony

No so picture perfect! While the first image showed the four stars smiling politely at the camera, the second saw the same gang pulling silly faces.

'Instagram V Reality,' she captioned the shots.

While the first image showed the four stars smiling politely at the camera, the second saw the same gang pulling silly faces.

Dressed in her strapless wedding gown, Davina's bronzed physique shone, however, all attention was on the star pretending to pick her nose.

Here for love or drama? She caused quite the bombshell during her time on Married At First Sight after she cheated on her husband Ryan Gallagher with co-star Dean Well

Ashley promptly commented on the snap, gushing: 'MY FAVOURITES'.

'Hahahaha LOVE these photos so much, they make my heart smile! Good times with some absolute s.t.u.n.n.e.r.s!!!!!!' Alycia added.

What we didn't see! 'Loved spending time with you my little darling  it was love at first sight!! ... for us anyway haha xx' jokingly replied Davina before Matty Lockett's ex-wife responded with: 'When you pinched my bum at the first dinner party, I knew!!'

'Loved spending time with you my little darling  it was love at first sight!! ... for us anyway haha xx' jokingly replied Davina before Matty Lockett's ex-wife responded with: 'When you pinched my bum at the first dinner party, I knew!!'

Davina's post marks the first time that the model has mentioned her stint on MAFS in her social media feed since the show hit screens in January.

Going into lock-down following online backlash for her cheating scandal, the usually active social media star didn't re-surface until earlier this month - where she shared a photo of herself with her friends in Byron Bay.The pizza delivery boy porn routine is a well used trope.

But one Domino's employee confused fantasy with reality when he propositioned adult star Christiana Cinn after a drop off to her hotel.

According to the 28-year-old, the worker used details gleaned from her order to come on to her via text, and even offer her $200 to sleep with him.

Inappropriate: Porn star Christiana Cinn has revealed she was propositioned by pizza delivery boy for $200... and Domino's offered a DESSERT when she reported the sexual harassment

Upon complaining about the sexual harassment to management, she was offered a Cinnamon Twist as compensation.

Cinn, who was the last ever cover star of Penthouse's final issue in 2016, was making an appearance at a show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a fortnight ago when the incident occurred.

An hour after having pizza delivered to her hotel room, she received a text from an unknown number.

'I asked who it was, and he said "Chris, the guy who delivered you pizza." I hadn't given him my number and told him it was inappropriate to contact me,' Christiana told DailyMail.com.

Harrassment: According to the 28-year-old, the worker used details gleaned from her order to come on to her via text, and even offer her $200 to sleep with him

'He then said he was about to offer me $200 but that I was obviously a bouji b*tch, peace out.'

Cinn said she had answered the door to him in sweats and a baggy sweater, with her hair up and no make-up on, and barely said a word to him.

'I wasn't wearing lingerie or anything; it wasn't like I'd just walked off a set,' she said.

Cinn said she was very upset by the texts, and immediately contacted the store.

'It was such an invasion of privacy... this guy had all my information, he could give it to anybody,' she said. 'I didn't feel safe, I had considered switching rooms.'

Upon explaining what happened, she claims she heard the person on the other end tell someone 'Girl you better check your man.'

She then came back on the phone to offer a dessert as compensation.

Fantasy: Cinn said she had answered the door to him in sweats and a baggy sweater, with her hair up and no make-up on, and barely said a word to him

'I was absolutely livid... are you serious?' she said. 'A cinnamon Twist?'

After asking for the district manager's details, he then came back with an even better offer: a cheque for $22 to cover the cost of the pizza.

'I can't believe they thought they could make this go away with a free pizza,' Cinn said.

But after she posted about the incident on social media, she claims to have received a phone call from a blocked number, but this time he wasn't apologising.

'He was super rude, accusatory and threatening,' she said.

'He said "If you don't want to take my offer of $22 I don't know what to tell you."

Claim to fame: Cinn was the last ever cover star of Penthouse's final issue in 2016

Cinn said the district manager even confirmed the delivery boy still worked at the store, and had not been reprimanded.

'He said he'd worked for him for 14 months, that he'd hired him himself, and that he had never had an issue with him,' she recalled.

'She said he instead made excuses for the employee's behavior, claiming he'd "worked a nine hour shift that day".

She said the manager was so mean, so rude and aggressive on the phone while she was out to lunch with friends she was left on the verge of tears.

'The whole episode was so inappropriate,' she said. 'it's sexual harassment, and I can't believe that's how a company would deal with it.

DailyMail.com reached out to Domino's for comment.He bravely went public last month with details of an alleged sexual assault by a leading Hollywood figure.

And on Wednesday night, Brendan Fraser faced the cameras as he attended a special screening in New York of his new FX series Trust.

The former A-lister, 49, looked dapper in a two-piece checked blue suit with a matching shirt and tie.

Back in the spotlight: Brendan Fraser walked the red carpet at a special screening of his new FX series Trust on Wednesday night in New York

The star of The Mummy and George Of The Jungle stars in the drama series directed by Danny Boyle that tells the story of the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, heir to the Getty fortune.

He plays Getty family employee Fletcher Chase who is tasked with trying to track down the kidnappers and rescue the young man.

It's the character played on the big screen by Mark Wahlberg in the recent Ridley Scott movie All The Money In The World.

Donald Sutherland stars as billionaire John Paul Getty, a part played by Kevin Spacey who, after being accused of sexual assault and harassment, was then replaced by Christoper Plummer in the released version.

Leading man: The actor, 49, stars in the drama series directed by Danny Boyle that tells the story of the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, heir to the Getty fortune

Dapper all in blue: His appearance comes after he publicly revealed he had been the victim of a sexual assault in 2003

Veteran star: Also at the event was Donald Sutherland, 82, who stars as billionaire John Paul Getty

Trust tells the story of how John Paul Getty III initially concocted the scheme for his own abduction in an effort to extort money out of his oil-rich family.

It all went wrong, however, when the kidnappers turned on him while his grandfather dragged out negotiations.

Producer Simon Beaufoy said at the TCA winter press tour in January, according to Variety: 'The great mystery is what is lacking in them.'

'They try to fill the big huge hole in each of their souls with money or sex or drugs  there is passed down this lack of empathy, this complete lack of understanding of human emotion.'

Team effort: Trust is directed by Danny Boyle, right, and producer by Simon Beaufoy, left. The British pair collaborated on the Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire

Looking good: The Blacklist star Famke Janssen, 53, showed up to support the screening wearing a stylish black mini dress

Last month, Fraser told GQ magazine that he was sexually harassed in 2003 by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk.

That contributed to a crisis of confidence that along with a steady decline of acting roles, a failing marriage and a growing list of health problems spiraled into depression.

The alleged incident occurred at the Beverly Hills Hotel while they were having lunch.

'His left hand reaches around, grabs my a** cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint,' he told GQ, 'And he starts moving it around. I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry.'

After immediately leaving the luncheon, Fraser told his wife of the interaction but otherwise remained silent for fear of embarrassment and career damage.

In the article, Berk says he wrote a letter to Fraser about the incident but 'admitted no wrongdoing.'

Fraser said that he became depressed and he started telling himself he deserved what had happened to him.

'I was blaming myself and I was miserable - because I was saying: "This is nothing; this guy reached around and he copped a feel". That summer wore on - and I can't remember what I went on to work on next.'

Victim: Last month, Fraser told GQ magazine he was sexually harassed in 2003 by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk

Troubled: The star of George Of The Jungle and The Mummy suffered a decline of acting roles, a failing marriage and a growing list of health problems and spiraled into depression

Fraser also said that the roles he was in took a physical toll on him.

Eventually the injuries he received while performing his stunts required multiple surgeries:

He needed a lumbar laminectomy, a surgery that removes the back portion of a vertebra in the lower back, to create more room within the spinal canal.

He underwent a partial knee replacement, more back surgery involving bolting various compressed spinal pads together and even surgery to repair his vocal cords.

Fraser said he was in and out of hospitals for almost seven years.She was named the face of Dior beauty in May 2016.

And almost two years later, Bella Hadid dressed to impress for luxury label's Dior Addict Lacquer Plump event in Los Angeles at Poppy nightclub and lounge.

Bella, 21, showed off her sculpted midsection in a white crop top with a cross graphic on her upper chest, paired with a patchwork suit.

Strike a pose: Bella Hadid flashed her flat stomach for the luxury label's Dior Addict Lacquer Plump event in Los Angeles at Poppy on Wednesday night

The gorgeous model donned patchwork flared denim trousers with a coordinating blazer, featuring three different shades of blue.

The high waisted bottoms had a fitted waist with baggy legs and a chain accent.

Bella stepped out in pointed black heels and a matching headband with silver rings and earrings.

Racy: The top model went braless under her very skimpy crop top which also flashed her impeccably toned waist

Pretty smile: Bella, 21, showed off her sculpted midsection in a white crop top with a cross graphic on her upper chest, paired with a patterned set

Wow: Bella donned a black headband with silver rings and earrings

Stunner: The gorgeous model donned a patchwork denim flared trousers with a coordinating blazer, featuring three different shades of blue

Bella, who is the younger sister of fellow model Gigi Hadid, styled her brunette tresses loose in waves with the simple headband.

She painted her pout a pink hue with cat eye makeup and rosy blush on her cheek bones.

Actress Alexandra Daddario also attended the Dior bash on Wednesday night, dressed in a see-through gown.

The stunning star flashed her nipples in the sheer gown, which had small polka dots emblazoned all over.

Kiss me quick: The face of Dior stole the show as she flirted with the cameras inside the bash

Sultry: The high waisted bottoms had a fitted waist with baggy legs and a chain accent

Pals: Bella posed with Dior's creative director Peter Philips at the launch night

Strike a pose: Stunning Bella was named the face of Dior beauty in May 2016

The actress' frock featured an off-the-shoulder neckline with a structured bodice that revealed her chest.

Alexandra, 31, wowed in her floor-length look, which had a fitted waist and a lacy sheer skirt.

Beneath the frock, the beauty donned an opaque black bodysuit that started just beneath her chest.

Alexandra carried a clutch in one hand with her short brunette locks sleek and center parted.

Quite an eyeful: Actress Alexandra Daddario also attended the Dior bash on Wednesday night, dressed in a see-through gown

Not shy: Alexandra flashed her nipples in the sheer gown, which had small polka dots emblazoned all over

Incredible: Beneath the frock, the beauty donned an opaque black bodysuit that started just beneath her chest

Cheeky: The actress' frock featured an off-the-shoulder neckline with a structured bodice that revealed her chest

The dark haired beauty painted her pout a glossy red hue with smokey brown eye makeup.

Paris Jackson cut a casual figure in her patchwork denim bottoms, which featured a flared hem and a two-tone hue.

The 19-year-old model and actress flashed a hit of her stomach in a colorful top that had 'positive' emblazoned on the front.

Paris carried a mini Dior logo bag with her blonde locks pulled back, adding dramatic cat eye makeup and pink lipstick.

Natural beauty: Paris Jackson cut a casual figure in her patchwork denim bottoms, which featured a flared hem and a two-tone hue

Pretty: The 19-year-old model and actress flashed a hit of her stomach in a colorful top that had 'positive' emblazoned on the front

Another stunning arrival to the Dior bash was actress Camilla Belle, who dazzled in a gray gown.

The beautiful 31-year-old chose a low-cut strappy satin gown with a fitted waist and a flared skirt.

Camilla paired her calf-length dress with pointed heels and dark lipstick and nail polish.

Perfection: Another stunning arrival to the Dior bash was actress Camilla Belle, who dazzled in a gray gown

What a beauty: The beautiful 31-year-old chose a low-cut strappy satin gown with a fitted waist and a flared skirt

Dazzling: Camilla paired her calf-length dress with dark lipstick and nail polish

She rounded out the edgy look with her dark locks pulled back, adding delicate earrings and a statement ring.

Cara Santana showed off her legs and her midriff in a Dior bralette with a red lacy skirt, adding a bright motorcycle jacket.

She posed alongside her fiance, actor Jesse Metcalfe.

Good choice: Cara Santana showed off her legs and her midriff in a Dior bralette with a red lacy skirt, adding a bright motorcycle jacket

All dressed up: She posed alongside her fiance, actor Jesse Metcalfe

So sweet: Lovebirds Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton beamed while inside the venue

Only eyes for each other: The Stranger Things co-stars couldn't get enough of each other

Fashionable: Natalia, 21, chose a striped pink and black top with a lace skirt, adding a Dior handbag

Natalia chose lacy heels, adding a black jacket to stay warm; pictured with Charlie, 24

Striking: Winnie Harlow looked pretty in her sheer floral dress with sleek locks

Va va voom! The Brit model showed off her long legs in the barely-there statement dress

What a goddes: Lara Bingle chose a cream, gold, blue and green gown that revealed her undergarments

Chic: Atlanta de Cadenet carried a statement handbag with a cream blazer, white cropped trousers and black platform heels

Dressed to impress: Model and designer Draya Michele looked pretty in a black tulle skirt and white corset top

Beauty fans: Blogger Lottie Tomlinson wowed in a chic suit while Walking Dead star Sonequa Martin-Green glammed up in a gorgeous green numberHe's known as one half of the riotous YouTube comedy duo Bondi Hipsters.

But these days, Christiaan Van Vuuren, 35, looks remarkably different to his beanie-wearing persona from the hit series.

Recent pictures of the viral sensation show Christiaan cutting a much more clean-cut look as he enjoys life as with his fiancee Adele Vuko, 32.

New look, who dis? My how you've changed! Bondi Hipster star Christiaan Van Vuuren looks VERY different to his on-screen persona as he juggles work with family life

Unrecognisable: He looks remarkably different in real life to his beanie-wearing persona from the hit series (pictured)

Adele worked with the star on such projects as Soul Mates, Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am and the forthcoming ABC series Sando.

Speaking to Who magazine this week, Christiaan admitted that there is a lot of creative back-and-forth between the couple.

'When we're writing and developing, we fight a lot because at that point in the process, you're judging ideas whereas when you're on set people are looking at you. And there's no wine involved.'

Dream team! Speaking to Who magazine this week, Christiaan admitted that there is a lot of creative back-and-forth between himself and fiancee Adele Vuko, 32

The couple, who share children Felix, 3, and Elke, 1, are planning to walk down the aisle bu the end of the year and Adele revealed Christiaan's proposal was tinged with a hint of awkwardness.

Explaining that the proposal took place at a Chinese restaurant, Adel revealed that upon returning from the bathroom, Christiaan had placed the ring on the table and had started his proposal speech as the waitress stood there, holding plates as the scene unfolded.

'To be fair,' Christiaan said in his defence, 'I had tried more creative ways to do it, but both times the jewellers called and said the ring wasn't ready.'

Chip off the ol' block: Christian, who shares children felix, 3, and Elke, 1 with Adele, also revealed that his son has been following in his comedic footsteps

Christian also told the publication that son Felix had already started following in his dad's comedic footsteps.

'The first joke Felix ever came up with was when I was cleaning his nappy one day. He was probably about 15 months old' Christiaan explained.

He continued: 'I got some poo on my hands and he found that really funny and started calling me Poo Daddy - I would say 'I'm not Poo Daddy, I'm just Daddy. he found it hilarious.'

Christiaan and brother Connor leaped to national attention as the satirical web duo Bondi Hipsters.

With their unique take on youth culture, the pair parlayed their success into a career that saw them create the ABC2 comedy Soul Mates along with writer Nicholas Boshier.The model has spoken about adopting a minimalist sartorial style since becoming the mother of two young boys.

But on Wednesday, Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) ditched her usual black, white and beige hues for a stunning floral flock at a party for Dior in Los Angeles.

The glamorous cosmetics entrepreneur, 30, turned heads in the daring semi-sheer ensemble that left little to the imagination.

Sheer daring! Lara Bingle flaunts busty cleavage and reveals underwear and trim pins in semi-transparent tulle frock at Dior party on Wednesday

The Australian stunner, who hails from the Sydney beach-side suburb of Cronulla, appeared in high spirits in front of the cameras.

Lara could be seen wearing high-waited white underwear beneath her tulle skirt, with colourful patchwork designs attached to the piece.

The trendy number's design had two large hands printed on the garment, drawing attention to her assets and her visible cleavage.

Va-va-voom! The trendy number's design had two large hands printed on the garment, drawing attention to her assets and her visible cleavage

Blonde beauty! The Base founder wore her signature bob in a sleek-straight style, while her makeup appeared flawlessly applied

Her lithe legs were clearly on display in the outfit, as she elongated her pins in strappy black heels.

Lara accessorised minimally with a black choker necklace and silver earrings.

The Base founder wore her signature blonde bob in a sleek-straight style, while her makeup appeared flawlessly applied.

She was also seen posting with fellow Australian model Bambi Northwood Blyth and Canadian fashion model Winnie Harlow.

Gal pals! She was also seen posting with fellow Australian model Bambi Northwood Blyth

Lara is the mother of two young boys, three-year-old Rocket Zot and one-year-old Racer.

She shares the beautiful toddlers with actor husband Sam Worthington, who she married in December 2014.

The Australian model confirmed she was dating the actor in October 2013, and the pair relocated to NYC the following yearShe welcomed her first child, a son named Jack, with her partner Jason Statham last summer.

But Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was enjoying a well-deserved break from parenting duties on Tuesday night, partying at Loulous Private Members Club in Mayfair, London.

The supermodel, 30, looked incredible in a sophisticated, all-black outfit for her rare night on the town.

Glamorous: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was enjoying a well-deserved break from parenting duties on Tuesday night, partying at Loulous Private Members Club in Mayfair, London

Rosie showed off her long legs in a pair of suede thigh-high boots, flashing just a hint of skin in a polka dot print minidress.

The blonde bombshell added a touch of glamour in the semi-sheer dress, which she covered up with a fluffy coat.

The star carried a sparkle embellished clutch bag in one hand and wore her blonde locks down loose.

Leggy: Rosie showed off her long legs in a pair of suede thigh-high boots, flashing just a hint of skin in a polka dot print minidress

Super chic: The supermodel, 30, looked incredible in a sophisticated, all-black outfit for her rare night on the town

Rosie turned heads in her uber glamorous look as she called it a night, heading home in style.

The Rosie and Jason love story goes back to when they first started dating seven years ago.

Rosie gave a rare glimpse into their romance when she discussed details of their romance in an interview with Harper's Bazaar Australia.

Looking incredible: Rosie turned heads in her uber glamorous look as she called it a night, heading home in style

Wow: The blonde bombshell added a touch of glamour in the semi-sheer dress, which she covered up with a fluffy coat

Motherhood duties: Rosie welcomed her first child, a son named Jack, with her partner Jason Statham last summer

She told the publication: 'I have an amazing relationship with my partner. He's by far the greatest influence in my life.'

Although they have been engaged for two years since Jason proposed in January 2016, the couple firmly denied rumours they got married in secret in recent months.

Being a new mum hasn't slowed the former Victoria Secret Angel down as she landed in fifth places on Forbes' annual list of the world's best-paid supermodels in November, with earnings of a staggering $9.5 million in just 12 months.

Stepping out in style: Also spotted at LouLou's on Wednesday night was Liberty RossStephen Bear has continued his crusade against ex-girlfriend Charlotte Crosby to settle alleged financial woes surrounding their joint fashion brand.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday evening, the reality veteran shared a trio of bizarre videos in which he held a puppet, named Philpe, stating the doll was his 'lawyer' and claimed Charlotte's father tried to nab part of his share of the company.

On Monday, after the 28-year-old accused her of owing him money from His and Hers, Charlotte hit back at his claims and revealed her lawyers are now involved hours after he referred to the situation as 'b*****ks' during a fervent rant.

Happy days! Stephen Bear has continued his crusade against ex-girlfriend Charlotte Crosby to settle alleged financial woes surrounding their joint fashion brand

Stephen, 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 before returning to Instagram for a further rant.

After tweeting: '#wheresbearsmoney', he made bold allegations about Charlotte's father Gary having previously also thrown in her mother Letitia.

The enraged star: 'We've got some news for you Gary Crosby - this is what happens when you try and touch Stephen Bear's money....

'At one time you tried to take 1% of my 50% so you lot will be majority shareholders and I told Charlotte at the time but she don't understand businessmen. That's why I say no. Embarrass yourself because tomorrow at 4 he wants it to really blow up.'

Hitting back: Taking to Instagram on Wednesday evening, the reality veteran shared a trio of bizarre videos in which he held a puppet, named Philpe, stating the doll was his 'lawyer' and claimed Charlotte's father tried to nab part of his share of the company

Hitting back: On Monday, after the 28-year-old accused her of owing him money from His and Hers, Charlotte hit back at his claims and revealed her lawyers are now involved hours after he referred to the situation as 'b*****ks' during a fervent rant

In another video, he said: 'I can't believe what's gone on tonight. I've managed to get into the emails, get the Instagram back with me it's principle the mum and dad aint getting money and now im reading articles that it's not even my company...

'Me and Charlotte used to have arguments and she'd say you'll never get one penny alright babe whatever but they truly mean it and it's got to a point where it's Stephen Bear time and all I say is the truth.

'I'll get my money back and everyone who I've ever worked for knows I'll always get my money back. I want fairness. I don't want anything extra I want what I'm owed. You've pushed me to this and it's such a bad move it's embarrassing. Namaste.'

He then added a caption on the next video reading: 'Everyone look at Stephen Bear ... peoples comments will never effect me.

'You play with my money thats when we fall out . And the lesson in life is , like I always said .. You cant trust anyone I havnt even got into second gear yet #payupcharlotteandfamily #hisandhers @hisandhersstore'.

Speaking again - and using his puppet as spoof representation - he went on: 'So phillipe my lawyer has advised me to cease all training on His And Hers Limited as director no more items are being sold. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for where's Bear's money.

Another caption read: 'For now @hisandhersstore will officially stop trading . Philpe, Stephen Bears Lawer has told him to stop until he receives half his money...

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)

'so far Stephen Bear hasnt received 1p from the company. Kind regards, Philipe (Lawyer for Stephen Bear)'.

Earlier in the week, 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.

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)

On Monday, in yet another rage, in an 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.'

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.

Deny: 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 while she is now dating Joshua Ritchie

Accusations: The comments come after the Ex On The Beach star, 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

'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.

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)

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.'They have been plagued by split rumours in the past week.

But Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer silenced whispers of their relationship demise as they stepped out for date night at the Dior Addict Lacquer Plump event in LA on Wednesday.

The actor, 24, and the glamorous 21-year-old looked completely besotted as they put on a cosy display for cameras, before heading home from the bash arm-in-arm.

Say cheese: Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer silenced split rumours on Wednesday night, as they enjoyed a date night at the Dior Addict Lacquer Plump event in LA

Their smitten sighting comes after reports that the pair have gone their separate ways, with a source telling Life & Style: 'Charlie broke it off with Natalia. Shes heartbroken. She doesnt know what went wrong.'

However that couldn't be further from the truth as the young couple proved to be comfortable in each other's company as they laughed and joked together.

Natalia looked typically chic for their date night in a ribbed striped tank, teamed with a Gothic pleated midi skirt of purple and black lace.

She kept co-ordinated from head to toe with a sleek black clutch bag and classic pointed court shoes, and swept her hair into a loose bun to draw attention to her glowing complexion as she posed.

Having a ball: The young couple proved to be more than comfortable in each other's company, as they laughed and joked together at the bash

Date night: They posed for a number of snaps inside, before they were spotted heading home together

Chic: Natalia looked typically chic for their date night in a ribbed striped tank, teamed with a Gothic pleated midi skirt of purple and black lace

Finishing touches: She kept co-ordinated from head to toe with a sleek black clutch bag and classic pointed court shoes

Gorgeous: She swept her hair into a loose bun to draw attention to her glowing complexion as she attended the bash

Meanwhile Charlie, known for his quirky style, kept things more simple in black cropped trousers and a crisp white T-shirt.

Layering a matching black blazer on top, the father-of-one cut a slick figure as he joined Natalia at the glitzy event.

The pair first set tongues wagging at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in May, but confirmed their romance in November when they stepped out hand-in-hand in Paris.

Casual cool: Meanwhile Charlie, known for his quirky style, kept things more simple in black cropped trousers and a crisp white T-shirt

Sleek: Layering a matching black blazer on top, the father-of-one cut a slick figure as he joined Natalia at the glitzy event

Sweet: The pair looked in good spirits as they headed home from the party

Besotted: Charlie was unable to take his eyes off his girlfriend as they headed inside

It is no wonder the pair developed a connection away from cameras, as they play love interests Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers in the hit show Stranger Things.

However, the couple faced fears that Charlie would be unable to return to the States to film the third season back in October, when he was found with cocaine on his person.

The drug was discovered by sniffer dogs on the Yorkshire native at LAX, and he was subsequently denied entry to the country - and forced to miss the Stranger Things series two premiere.

Still going strong: The pair first set tongues wagging at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in May, but confirmed their romance in November when they stepped out hand-in-hand in Paris

Scandal: However, the couple faced fears that Charlie would be unable to return to the States to film the third season back in October, when he was found with cocaine on his person

Setback: The drug was discovered by sniffer dogs on the Yorkshire native at LAX, and he was subsequently denied entry to the country

Drama: He was not arrested or charged for the incident

Say cheese! With the drama far behind them, the pair beamed widely for cameras

At the time, the actor released a carefully worded statement which confirmed he was working to 'rectify' the situation, which did not see him arrested or charged.

Speaking to Flaunt Magazine last week, Charlie admitted the incident had been 'f***ing awful', but confirmed he will be returning to the US in April to film the new series of the hit Netflix show.

Discussing the difficulty of hitting headlines, as someone newly-famous, he said: 'It was hard. Everything happened so fast, and I hadn't come to terms with the fact that I was famous.

'When something steps in from the work you are doing and breaks into your personal life... you feel kind of vulnerable.'She shot to fame as Summer Quinn in last year's big screen Baywatch reboot.

And actress Alexandra Daddario certainly stood out from the star-studded crowd at the Dior Addict Lacquer Plump event in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

The gorgeous star left little to the imagination in her sheer dress as she partied at at Poppy nightclub and lounge.

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Quite an eyeful: Alexandra Daddario certainly stood out from the star-studded crowd at the Dior Addict Lacquer Plump event in Los Angeles on Wednesday night

The stunning star flashed her nipples in the sheer gown, which had small polka dots emblazoned all over.

The actress' frock featured an off-the-shoulder neckline with a structured bodice that revealed her chest.

Alexandra, 31, wowed in her floor-length look, which had a fitted waist and a lacy sheer skirt which showed off her long legs with its sheer detail.

Not shy: Alexandra flashed her nipples in the sheer gown, which had small polka dots emblazoned all over

Incredible: Beneath the frock, the beauty donned an opaque black bodysuit that started just beneath her chest

Beneath the frock, the beauty donned an opaque black bodysuit that started just beneath her chest.

The dark haired beauty painted her pout a glossy red hue for a pop of colour which she teamed with smokey brown eye makeup.

Alexandra's latest project is Netflix' movie When We First Met - a romantic comedy about a time traveling tale about a man who gets put in the friend-zone.

Cheeky: The actress' frock featured an off-the-shoulder neckline with a structured bodice that revealed her chest

Strike a pose: The Baywatch star had a pretty silver lip embellishment painted on her chest at the beauty bash

It was last summer's blockbuster Baywatch which really shot her to fame though.

The in-demand star has also starred in San Andreas with The Rock and they are reportedly working on a sequel.

And she has several more film lined up. She is in post-production on We Have Always Lived In The Castle with Sebastian Stan, Nomis with Henry Cavill and also the film I Am Not A Bird with Carice van Houten.

Pop of colour: The dark haired beauty painted her pout a glossy red hue teamed with smokey brown eye makeupHaving had almost 30 years in showbusiness, television presenter Andi Peters has been prone to the occasional on-air gaffe.

But he really shocked on Thursday when presenting a segment on Good Morning Britain, when the 47-year-old threw soil in a female colleague's hair.

The situation unfolded when Andi was presenting the daily competition from the ITV offices and visited colleagues who are responsible for picking the winners.

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'OMG! He just flicked dirt in that poor womans hair!' Andi Peters shocked on Thursday's GMB as he THREW SOIL at 'embarrassed' colleague's hair in chaotic segment

So embarrassed: The situation unfolded when Andi was presenting the daily competition from the ITV offices and visited colleagues who are responsible for picking the winners

However, he couldn't help but notice a spider plant which was in his eyeline, which he decided to poke around at.

He shouted out to the female colleague closest to him: 'Ive made such a mess of this spider plant, but I think it was a little dry.

'Under-watered. Is that your fault? Get on the case.'

Attempting to clean up the mess he had made, he used a piece of paper to sweep up the soil which had fallen out of the pot.

But it flew across the desk and landed in the lady's hair, leading him to apologise profusely.

Putting his hand to his mouth, he said: 'Oh god, I'm sorry,' before struggling to carry on because he was so embarrassed.

They're not impressed: Twitter went wild over the gaffe which saw the lady's hair covered in soil

As the camera panned back to the studio, Susanna and Kate looked completely shocked as they put their hands to their mouths.

Susanna exclaimed: 'Andi! [Youve] caused chaos at Winners HQ!'

Viewers at home also took to Twitter in their droves to talk about the hilarious scenes, with some saying they found Andi's behaviour rude.

Oh no! Attempting to clean up the mess he had made, Andy had used a piece of paper to sweep up the soil which had fallen out of the pot which landed on the lady

They wrote: 'Yep his just flicked dirt all in that poor womans hair...think he not only needs to say sorry but be thankful many would of smashed that plant over his melon!' [sic].

'That poor woman has a head full of soil @andipeters @GMB poor girl #gmb.'

'#andipeters you were so rude and obnoxious to that lady on #gmb this morning! How embarrassing for her on live tv that you flick dirt over her.

'It wasn't funny and I hope she told you so off air. Sometimes you come across a right idiot!! Calm it down a bit!'

'@andipeters - you are HI-LARI-OUS!!!!!! #andipetersGMB #lorraine #yow.'

'@andipeters I hope you apologise to that young lady that you've just embarrassed on national TV...'

'Shame on you #andipeters on #gmb That poor woman who has just been embarrassed on live Tv with your over exuberance presenting with a pot plant.. A sincere apology would of been better... hope your making an effort now the cameras are off.' [sic]His blossoming romance with Melissa hit a snag last week after the issue of their long-distance relationship was brought to the table.

And John Robertson, 54, has spoken about the candid dinner party conversation with Melissa, admitting it was the most serious talk he'd had with her on the show so far.

'It was a serious conversation and I've never seen Melissa like that,' the father-of-two told TheFix this week.

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'I've never seen her like that!': John Robertson has spoken about his candid conversation with Melissa about continuing their relationship outside of the show and moving closer to her part of Victoria

'She wasn't angry but really like, 'Give me an answer,' he said, admitting his tactic of delaying the crucial conversations was a problem noted by the relationship experts.

The question that gave him strife was whether or not he would be willing to move from his home in Altona, to the Mornington Peninsula- a suburbs two hours away.

He explained that while the distance between them wasn't as large as it could have been, the two hour drive would be an undeniable hurdle that the couple would need to jump over.

Grilled: 'It was a serious conversation and I've never seen Melissa like that,' the father-of-two told TheFix this week

'I think after living with Mel, I thought 'Gee, I could live with someone again. You don't wanna go back to just a weekend relationship. I've had those before. You want to almost see that person three or four times a week,' he told the publication.

John admitted that seeing her just once a week would be difficult for him, adding: 'I'd miss her more.'

On Wednesday's episode of MAFS, the silver-fox was confronted with Melissa's question, asking him if he was prepared to move to her suburb for her.

Loved up: John admitted that seeing her just once a week would be difficult for him, adding: 'I'd miss her more'

Can their romance continue? In a round-about way of answer her, he said: 'I believe love holds no boundaries. But yeah, it's a big ask. It is a big ask for me to move...'

In a round-about way of answer her, he said: 'I believe love holds no boundaries. But yeah, it's a big ask. It is a big ask for me to move...'

Feeling the pressure he reluctantly said: 'Yeah. I'd consider it down the track.'

However in the confessional he said he wanted the best of both worlds have his family, friends and work near him, as well as Melissa.

'That's the hard bit,' he admitted, 'I don't want to make it a choice. So somehow I have to manage to work out how to do both.She recently alarmed her fans after sharing images of her severely bruised legs to social media.

And now former Married At First Sight star Clare Verrall has revealed the truth behind her mysterious health woes.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the 34-year-old said: 'I got the test results back.'

Is everything okay? Former Married At First Sight star Clare Verrall has revealed the truth behind her mysterious health woes

She continued: '[I'm] a bit anemic and my thyroid's gone a bit mental.'

The blonde beauty added that she was 'fine' but thanked her fans for their concern.

'A big thanks to everyone that was worried about my bruises,' she smiled.

Last week, the reality star revealed her severely bruised legs, and said that she was going to the doctors to have an urgent blood test.

Taking to Instagram, Clare shared a startling video of her legs, set to Natasha Bedingfield's song I Bruise Easily.

Clare said the rest of her body had also broken out in bruises and she had a number of marks on her elbow.

'I mean what the f**k?' Clare revealed her bruised legs on social media last week

'I mean what the f**k,' Clare wrote in a hashtag accompanying the video.

Her post read: 'I only know how I got two of these bruises.

'Might be time for blood tests to check my iron levels I think as this is ridiculous! My arms are just as bad, there is an epic one on my elbow.'

Ouch! Taking to Instagram, the reality star shared a startling video of her legs, set to Natasha Bedingfield's song I Bruise Easily

She added the hashtag 'walking disaster.'

Concerned fans and followers commented underneath the post, with one writing: 'You need to see a doctor those bruises are not typical. Blood tests are a must! You poor thing. Please see a doctor today. Especially if you are on any kind of medication.'

Clare immediately replied, informing them she is preparing for a blood test on Thursday.

'Already have the form! Fasting, then doing it tomorrow. I bruise if you touch me at the moment, it's crazy!' she explained.

'Getting tests tomorrow': Clare told Daily Mail Australia that some of the bruises are from her pet dog Dutchy walking over her while she sleeps, while one is from her housemate 'drunkenly' slapping her

Clare told Daily Mail Australia that some of the bruises are from her pet dog Dutchy walking over her while she sleeps, while one is from her housemate 'drunkenly' slapping her.

'Getting blood tests tomorrow. People are telling me to go to hospital, that seems a bit dramatic,' she said.

'I'm always injuring myself! It's getting ridiculous. Amusing. But ridiculous!'

'I'm always injuring myself!' she laughed. 'It's getting ridiculous. Amusing. But ridiculous!'

Clare, who suffers Bell's palsy, is currently on a weight loss journey.

She recently told Daily Mail Australia she'd gone from 70kg to 114kg at her heaviest, and has now shed 15kg.

Clare said that a number of factors had hindered her progress, including recovering from a back surgery in January 2017 after badly damaging three discs in 2015, as well as a second back surgery in December that same year.MAFS star Ryan Gallagher told 'alpha male' Dean Wells to 'fu** off' after he was left humiliated and blindsided from Dean's 'affair' with his TV wife Davina Rankin.

But it appears Ryan and Dean have mended their rocky relationship in the months since filming the social experiment for Channel Nine.

The MAFS husbands appeared chummy on Thursday, as they shared a karaoke boys' night in Melbourne before appearing on The Footy Show.

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No hard feelings then? Former MAFS love rivals Dean Wells and Ryan Gallagher head to karaoke before Footy Show appearance so are they friends now after the Davina 'affair'?

Dean posted a picture of the pair laughing in high spirits, captioning the shot: 'The boys in the karaoke room at @tokosan don't let me rap.'

Fans were quick to comment on the friendly behaviour between the pair: 'Awesome that you are all mates!' and 'Ryan and dean are a bit close.'

One user claimed: 'I though u all had arguments? So its all staged?'

All smiles: The MAFS husbands appeared chummy on Thursday, as they shared a karaoke boys' night in Melbourne before appearing on The Footy Show

'Awesome that you are all mates!' Fans noticed the TV grooms appeared to be mates again

Happy days: Co-star Telv Williams also shared selfies from the night holding Logie awards, as Ryan was seen huddled up next to Tracey and Dean

Dean also shared video content from their trip to the Channel Nine studio, which included a cosy selfie with Dean and his 'wife' Tracey Jewel.

Co-star Telv Williams also shared selfies from the night holding Logie awards, as Ryan was seen huddled up next to Tracey and Dean.

Another bubbly photo of the cast, including Telv's 'wife' Sarah Roza, was captioned by Dean: 'Fun arvo with this gang.'

Last weekend, the pair were also spotted posing for selfies with fans together at a Coogee restaurant.

Setting her sights on Dean! After a lacklustre wedding, Ryan and Davina's marriage went from bad to worse on MAFS and it didn't take her long to start looking for a husband elsewhere

After a lacklustre wedding, Ryan and Davina's marriage went from bad to worse on MAFS and it didn't take her long to start looking for a husband elsewhere.

After the first group dinner party, she set her sights on 40-year-old Dean - who had been matched with single mother Tracey Jewel - and they agreed to begin an 'affair'.

Their betrayal resulted in heartbreak for everyone involved, after Dean promised to leave Tracey for Davina only to change his mind at the last minute.

Split! On Davina and Ryan's third commitment ceremony they both voted to 'leave' the show

Second chance: Dean's TV 'wife' Tracey Jewel trusted Dean on his word about how the 'affair' with Davina played out

Dean's TV 'wife' Tracey Jewel trusted Dean on his word about how the 'affair' with Davina played out.

However, in the upcoming commitment ceremony on Sunday, she will be shown footage that appears to shed light on what was left unsaid and contradict his existing story.

Married At First Sight returns on Sunday at 7pm on NineThis Morning suffered an epic blunder the previous day when Meghan Trainor song All About That Bass was accidentally played in the background of a video tribute to the late Stephen Hawking, who passed away aged 76.

And things went pear-shaped once again on Thursday's edition of the programme when Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were left stranded on a boat in the middle of the River Thames.

The duo's speedboat back to shore ran out of petrol following a tour of the HMS Belfast and they had to be rescued, leaving Alison Hammond to cover for them in the ITV studios.

In deep water! Things went pear-shaped on Thursday's edition of This Morning when Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were left stranded on a boat in the middle of the River Thames after conducting a televised tour of the HMS Belfast

Holly and Phil were celebrating 80 years since the launch of historic warship and were due to be back on dry land following a commercial break.

The segment didn't go quite to plan, however, with the pair cut off as they tried to conduct an interview on the boat.

'Have we got a leak?', Holly was heard saying, before Phil was soaked by a wave. 'You are joking me!', he shouted.

'Is there a bar on this boat?', Holly declared. 'Seriously, Alison might have to do the rest of the show!', Phil added.

Holding down the fort! The duo's speedboat ran out of petrol following a tour of the HMS Belfast and they had to be rescued, leaving Alison Hammond to cover for them in the studios

Stranded: Holly and Phil were celebrating 80 years since the launch of historic warship HMS Belfast and were due to be back in the ITV studio following a commercial break

Cutting back to the studio, a panicked-looking Alison told viewers: 'I can't believe it, we might have to send someone up there to rescue Phil and Holly. Look, the image has frozen. This is comical.'

Alison interviewed actress Amanda Redman in the meantime, doing her best to put their guest at ease in the midst of the chaos.

As the camera panned to Holly and Phil on the speedboat racing back to the South Bank, Alison commented: 'They've come back off the river, apparently they've been saved! Are they actually being towed?

'Bless them, she's soaking wet... Don't panic - they are coming back!'

The perils of live TV: The camera panned to Holly and Phil on a speedboat, racing back to the South Bank

Meanwhile: Alison was interviewing actress Amanda Redman while chaos occurred outside

The pair were then seen drying off behind Alison on the This Morning set, with several crew members blotting their hair and clothing.

As normal service resumed, Holly said, 'My legs are absolutely wet through!'

Phil - who was sitting on a towel - joked: 'I need some dry knickers on!'

Viewers at home were amused by the faux-pas, taking to Twitter in their droves to comment on what they'd just witnessed.

Going viral: Viewers at home were amused by the faux-pas, taking to Twitter in their droves to comment on what they'd just witnessed

One shared: '@thismorning this is hilarious holly and Phil stranded on the Thames.... well done Alison ! Get P & H back soon - dont want them swimming back !'

Another posted: 'I am HOWLING with laughter at #thismorning right now omg Holly and Phil are basically stuck on the River Thames in a boat with no fuel and Allison is taking over the show sensational'.

Fans shared a number of memes, including one of the infamous door scene at the end of Titanic, likening the presenters to Rose and Jack.

This comes just one day after viewers were left stunned when All About That Bass was accidentally played in the background of This Morning's video tribute to late physicist Hawking.

At peril: Fans shared a number of memes, including one of the infamous door scene at the end of Titanic, likening the presenters to Rose and Jack

Awkward: This Morning concluded Wednesday's installment of the programme with a video tribute to the late genius Stephen Hawking - but things went terribly wrong when Meghan Trainor song All About That Bass was accidentally played in the background

The inappropriately placed tune - which boasts lyrics including 'I got all the right junk in all the right places' - suddenly ground to a halt, before the correct voiceover featuring Hawking replaced it.

The segment was played in the last few minutes of the show, with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield declaring they were leaving viewers with a special tribute to the physicist.

This Morning viewers were incredulous at what they had just heard, taking to Twitter in disbelief, although most managed to see the funny side in spite of the tragedy.

One wrote: 'I'm f**king crying this morning just said rip to Stephen hawking then started playing all about that bass by meghan trainor over the top of pics of him lmfaoo (sic)'.

Tribute: The world renowned physicist passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 76

End credits: The segment was played in the last few minutes of the show, with Holly and Phillip declaring they were leaving viewers with a special tribute to the physicist

Shocked: This Morning viewers were incredulous at what they had just heard, but most managed to see the funny side in spite of the tragedy

'Hahahahaha f**k sake this morning showing Stephen Hawkins death and all about that bass start playing', another tweeted.

A third posted: 'as IF @thismorning just played a megan trainor song over the Stephen Hawking tribute montage hahaaaaaa'.

Another commented: 'Only thing @thismorning would of got away with them is if they changed the words to Im all about that space in there tribute to #StephenHawking rather than the f**k up they just did! #ThisMorning'.

Stephen was told he had just two years to live at the age of 21 when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - also known as Lou Gehrig's disease - which confined him to a wheelchair and left him unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser.

Hit song: Meghan's inappropriately placed tune - which boasts lyrics including 'I got all the right junk in all the right places' - suddenly ground to a halt

The scientist managed to live well beyond the life expectancy placed on him by the disease - which causes the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles - and went on to do groundbreaking scientific research on black holes and relativity.

He is perhaps most known for his best-selling book A Brief History of Time, which explained the mysteries of the universe in basic terms and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Stephens family confirmed the news of his passing on Wednesday in a statement which read: 'We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.

'He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years.

'His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He once said: "It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love." We will miss him forever.'They make no secret of their love.

And Mario Falcone and his fiancee Becky Miesner were at it once more on Thursday as they were seen locking lips as they continue their romantic Barbados break.



Their outing comes after Mario revealed he has had 'enough of partying' and is 'ready to settle down' with the Essex make-up artist in an interview with OK!.

Lock lips: Mario Falcone and his fiancee Becky Miesner were at it once more on Thursday as they were seen locking lips as they continue their romantic Barbados break

Making their romance plain for everyone to see, Mario and Becky could not resist getting up close and personal on the crowded boat.

Showing off his famously ripped frame, the hunky star rocked white shorts to complement his tan while standing boldly against Becky's bikini.

In his recent interview, Mario gushed: 'The next ten years are going to be so exciting. Im getting married, then were going to have babies.'

'Im excited about going for weekends away with our families and our children. I had enough of partying in my twenties; Im ready to settle down.

Happy days: Their outing comes after Mario revealed he has had 'enough of partying' and is 'ready to settle down' with the Essex make-up artist in an interview with OK!

The couple have been busy planning their wedding since getting engaged last summer, with reports they are set to have two ceremonies - one in Italy and one in London.

However, Mario has kept coy over the rumours, and told the publication: 'I said at the start that Becky gets the final decision on everything  I want her to have everything she wants. As long as shes happy, Im happy.

The pair have reportedly budgeted for 50,000 for a London wedding, likely to take place at the Savoy, while sources say they've put 30,000 away for the Italian shindig.

Woo! The Essex lad told The Sun: 'This engagement is real  the other one wasn't. It was on national TV and planned. This one is the One'

Despite having previously proposed to ex-girlfriend Lucy Mecklenburgh, Mario has been keen to make the point that his engagement to Becky is for real this time.

The Essex lad told The Sun: 'This engagement is real  the other one wasn't. It was on national TV and planned. This one is the One.

'I love this girl and I want to spend the rest of my life with her'She is the much younger girlfriend of Kyle Sandilands but she has built up quite a following on her own on Instagram.

And Imogen Anthony, 27, drove fans wild once again when she went topless in a very sexy Instagram snap from the Milky Way, in Peru on Thursday.

Famed for causing a stir on social media, the model barely covered her cleavage with her waist-length platinum tresses.

Causing a stir: Kyle Sandilands' girlfriend Imogen Anthony barely covered her impressive cleavage with her platinum locks as she went topless in VERY saucy snap on Thursday

Under the masses of her glossy locks, Imogen got pulses racing as she showed some off serious skin in the sultry social media snap.

Determined to pull off the most dramatic look, Kyle's girlfriend plumped out her pout with striking dark purple lipstick and heavy eye make-up.

She captioned the post, 'Im one of those weirdos that believes in aliens & s**t. Glad I got that off my chest. #wearenotaloneintheuniverse.'

Racy lady! The Instagram sensation has won over the attention of 145,000 followers because of her very sexy snaps

The Instagram sensation laid bare the details of when she first truly fell in love with her phenomenal figure in a candid Instagram post on Wednesday.

She penned in the caption: 'When I was asked to close at Fashion Week wearing nothing but sand, that's essentially when I started truly falling in love with my body... how many provocative pictures did you see of me before then?

'The Maxim shoot or something maybe (actually can't remember what came first can't be f**ked checking timeline) I came to terms with the fact I was never going to be one of those ultra curvy girls with Kardashian style hips and all the rest.'

Posing up a storm: The 27-year-old barely covered her modesty with her arms as her beau Kyle Sandilands, 46, took a VERY steamy nude picture

In recent weeks, her beau Kyle gave an insight into their relationship during an interview with controversial Married At First Sight star Charlene Perera.

He said on The Kyle And Jackie O Show: 'Don't worry, that's nothing to me. My missus called me (and said) 'Stop crying you fat c***'.'

The Imogen and Kyle love story goes back until March 2012 when the couple went public with their affections for one another.They were the only couple to give viewers of hit Channel 4 show Married At First Sight a glimmer of hope.

But series three couple Ben and Stephanie are getting divorced, it was confirmed on Thursday night.

Speaking to Stephen Leng and Lizzie Cundy on their Access All Areas FUBAR Radio show, Ben announced the sad news, which means that every couple who have taken part in the three series of the UK version of the matchmaking show have now split.

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Split: Married At First Sight series three couple Ben and Stephanie are getting divorced, it was confirmed on Thursday night

'Stephanie and I are still friends but I couldnt give her what she wanted and what she needed, and time is of the essence,' he explained. 'And why waste someones time if its not there?'

'It killed me. After the end of the show we were giving it a go, but as my mum said, you dont know someone until you've lived with them.'

Praising his estranged wife, he added: 'Shes a lovely girl and Im still friends with her but I couldnt give her what she needed, or what she wanted. Shes a beautiful girl and a phenomenal person.'

Reflecting on their split, Ben admitted he struggled to adapt to married life with Stephanie - despite the couple living apart immediately after the show.

'I went back to my life, she went back to her life,' he said. 'One of the things I didnt like was when she said "You're my husband," and I was like, "OK, but Ive got to get to know you first."'

Drama: It looked like the couple were headed for a break up when Stephanie was left sobbing in the series finale but they announced at the conclusion that they were staying together

Touching on his first impressions, and their romantic first date, he added: 'I thought she was beautiful, she filled my gaps and I filled hers.

'We were at the top of the mountain when we first met, and thats an amazing first date, but you've got to walk back down the mountain.

'Stephanies a very intelligent girl, and she knew, bless her. We both tried our hardest and I did say to her, "peoples paths are meant go cross, and I met an amazing friend", and I hope that we can still be friends.'

Despite his misgivings about the marriage, Ben admitted he was devastated to call things off - because he was concerned about Stephanie, who desperately wanted to make it work.

'It broke my heart to do what I had to do, I couldnt give someone so lovely and so nice what she wanted,' he explained. 'She was gutted to be totally honest, and she still wanted to try, but it ain't there kiddo.

'I was thinking, "How can you love me?" You cant play with affairs of the heart, can you?'

Looking to the future, Ben admitted he has moved on since breaking off his marriage, but insisted he doesn't want to hurt Stephanie.

'I've had a kiss and a cuddle,' he said. 'At the end of the day, it's about respect for that lady. When I was with her I gave 100% and she gave 110% back because she wanted to work on it.'

Fiery pair: Stephanie and Ben were seen rowing and shouting at each other in the finale, leading fans to believe they would call it quits

THE GRUELLING MATCH-MAKING PROCESS FOR MAFS Married At First Sight receives 1,000s of applications which makes the match-making process a complicated one. A team of experts  including psycho-sexual therapist and psychologist Jo Coker, biological anthropologist Dr Jake Dunn, registrar Cynthia Green, and clinical psychologist Martin Hald  work as a team to pair up people best suited to one another. In order to establish their varying personalities, likes and dislikes and morals candidates go through a series of hurdles so that they can be best placed. Those applying to the show are subjected to workshops, interviews, background checks, various tests and personality questionnaires (some of which can take over 12 hours to complete). Eventually the panel narrows the selection down to 15 candidates with just six paired up with 'dealbreakers' such as smoking used to cut out potential suitors. Advertisement

In this month's finale of Channel 4's Married at First Sight, which matches couples at the altar, it was revealed that one couple found true love, while the other was filing for divorce.

While Harreet, 32, and Richard, 28, ended their marriage thanks to their zero chemistry, viewers were delighted by Stephanie, 32, and Ben's, 36, decision to stay hitched.

Despite a disastrous make or break holiday, the millionaire property developer and police officer decided they wanted to remain married.

In fact, as the show flashed forward to two months later, the couple were still together and said they'd 'fallen in love' with each other and were considering starting a family.

Initially it seemed like there could have been two divorces on the cards with Stephanie filmed sobbing at the table in a romantic restaurant after a row on what was supposed to be the holiday that saved their relationship.

Ben called his new wife 'smothering' after she begged him to be more affectionate towards her.

But at the conclusion of the three-part series, the fiery couple broke the news to the marriage experts that they wanted to stay together.

Stephanie said: 'I cant believe there is somebody in the world who has been matched to me as well as Ben.'

'Ben is literally my future.'

Two months on the couple had decided to live separately, after moving in together for the six week TV experiment, but had said the L word to each other.

'She's an amazing girl and five years time it'd be nice to have a family together. Let's see what happens,' Ben told the camera.

Happier times: When the show caught up the couple Ben even said he'd like to start a family with Stephanie in the near future, while police officer Steph admitted they were in love

Another split: Their series three co-stars Harriet, 32, and Richard, 28, ended their marriage in the show finale thanks to their zero chemistry

The end: Harriet tearfully admitted she couldn't 'force' herself to love Richard

Stephanie and Ben, both disillusioned after a series of toxic relationships, formed an instant bond when they met for the first time on their wedding day.

But after a blissful honeymoon during which they couldn't keep their hands off each other, the newlyweds began to quarrel over minor niggles like being late for appointments, or leaving the TV on during dinner.

The bride also opened up about their dwindling sex life on the show, saying of her new husband: 'He won't give me a cuddle, he won't hold my hand. [Mine] and Ben's sexual intimacy has stopped and it has affected me, 100 per cent. It is making me feel less secure.'

Ben and Stephanie's split means all ten matches from the history of the show have ended in heartbreak.

Around the world though the show, based on a Danish series, has found more success. The US spin off has resulted in three intact marriages (across five seasons), with series one favourites Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner even welcoming a child together last year.

Two couples from the hugely popular Aussie series have remained together, with Zoe Hendrix and Alex Garner from the 2013 run announcing the birth of their daughter two years ago.

Opening up: Ben was talking to Lizzie Cundy and Stephen Leng on their Access All Areas FUBAR Radio show on Thursday nightLove Island star Gabby Allen has discussed the horrific racial abuse she faces due to her romance with her co-star boyfriend Marcel Somerville.

The fitness fanatic spoke exclusively to MailOnline after competing in the Vertical Rush challenge at London's Tower 42, where she joined a host of celebrities running up a staggering 932 steps to raise money for Shelter charity.

As Gabby, who finished in 08:37 minutes, discussed her passion for the homelessness charity's work, the Liverpudlian beauty touched upon her love of fitness - which raced her into first place of the ladies in the challenge - while also discussing the pains of her romance.

Tough times: Love Island star Gabby Allen has discussed the horrific racial abuse she faces due to her romance with her co-star boyfriend Marcel Somerville

Having soared to fame on Love Island last year, Gabby has stayed in the spotlight after finding love with Marcel and previously revealed she had been branded 'dirty' among other cruel slurs in their relationship.

Remaining candid over the issues at hand, she has discussed the horrendous abuse she faces and admits she suffers more than her boyfriend.

She told MailOnline: 'When I first came out, I was so overwhelmed because I didn't think people in this day and age still thought like that people said I was naive but I've always been in a multicultural society so I haven't ever been in that position before.

'This is why I spoke out about it and since then it did die down a lot but things do happen every now and then so if it's bad enough I do call people out on it...

She's winner! The fitness fanatic spoke exclusively to MailOnline after competing in the Vertical Rush event at Tower 42, where she joined a host of celebrities running up a staggering 932 steps to raise money for Shelter charity.

Peace out! Gabby was proud to say she was the first female star to reach the top of the tower

Gabby was clearly traumatised by one incident as she explained: 'Some idiot sent me some very inappropriate pictures about race and stuff and I just thought you're someone's son and someone's boyfriend and you should be so embarrassed...

'If you take time out to try and hurt me and to try and put that out there then there's something wrong with you. If it's that bad I can't ignore it. The worst thing (that's been said) is that you're the genocide of your own race...

'I can't believe people think like that. Like, where do you live? What do you think when you see ethnic people, do you know what I mean? Marcel is so laid back he just hates that i have to deal with it. I get it more than he does. A lot of black people give me s**t and I'm just like no!'

While Gabby was in the Love Island villa, she cried to Marcel about her figure, as she insisted she wished she had big boobs like the other girls - a stance she maintains.

Traumatising: Gabby was clearly traumatised by one incident as she explained: 'Some idiot sent me some very inappropriate pictures about race and stuff'

Struggles: On her boob job: 'I 100% still want a boob job. It still stands that i want a boob job. I've been looking for dates this year to get it done but I'm too busy'

She said: 'I struggle with body image but then I was a dancer. It's always been I have to look a certain way and if you don't look as good as the person next to you you'll starve yourself for a week. I've got better now but it is hard when you see a dodgy shot with a double chin or a bingo wing its not ideal...

On her boob job: 'I 100% still want a boob job. It still stands that i want a boob job. I've been looking for dates this year to get it done but i'm too busy which is making me think is this a sign.

'I'm on the fence - I want it done on one hand I feel it will make me confident and it will make me feel better but on the other hand I feel I have an obligation to the women and young girls out there i would never want anyone to feel you have to get it done but then I'm doing it for myself and i would love to have it. If i got it done and hated it I'd be screwed wouldn't I.

Support: It was clear to see why she feels so strongly about Shelter, as Gabby said: 'There's 300,000 homeless in the UK and when I found out I was shocked'

On Marcel's feelings on the boob job, she said: 'Marcel knows that i feel fine when we're at home but when we're on holiday or something I don't have a lot of confidence and he's for whatever I want to do.

'If I wanted a butt lift he'd support it he just said if it makes me feel good. He always says its your life you shouldn't feel an obligation to other people. It's your life they're not going to feel the benefits are they?'

It was clear to see why she feels so strongly about Shelter, as Gabby said: 'There's 300,000 homeless in the UK and when I found out I was shocked and obviously we see a lot but you don't realise the full extent.

'When there was the cold weather you really see it. There was a man I kept seeing in Oxford Circus and he was so cold it was breaking my heart. I rang my friends and said we have a mission and I thought if i can do anything to raise awareness and raise funds for more facilities and that's what shelter do.

Wahey! She said after the challenge: 'Racing up a sky-scraper is no walk in the park, but being rewarded with such a unique view of London at the top made it absolutely worth the hike'

Speaking about Thursday's challenge, she said: 'To be honest I feel great. Like I got fastest female - 8 mins 30 something which was amazing!

'I think I was relying on my fitness levels to get me through but as we were approaching the end I was thinking shit maybe i should have prepared more. I just kept going and it was so worth it and i kept going on adrenaline massively.'

She said after the challenge: 'Racing up a sky-scraper is no walk in the park, but being rewarded with such a unique view of London at the top made it absolutely worth the hike.

'I'm really passionate about helping end homelessness, so its great to know that completing this epic challenge will raise money to support Shelters fantastic work.'New mother-of-three Jessica Alba might make red carpet looks, acting, parenting, and being a businesswoman appear easy from the outside - but that's not the case.

'I don't have it together at all,' the 36-year-old Golden Globe nominee admitted in the April edition of Redbook.

'I just don't need to use social media as therapy and tell everyone, "Today I f***ed up as a mom." It's none of your damn business. I'm fine if people want to air their dirty laundry online, but people know enough about me.'

'I don't have it together at all': New mother-of-three Jessica Alba might make red carpet looks, acting, parenting, and being a businesswoman appear easy from the outside - but that's not the case

The 36-year-old Golden Globe nominee admitted to Redbook: 'I make mistakes all the time...and sometimes when I get together with my friends, we'll reflect on how we've made similar good and bad decisions. It's like "Yeah, that was humbling." Then you move on and have a glass of wine'

The Pomona-born beauty added: 'I make mistakes all the time...and sometimes when I get together with my friends, we'll reflect on how we've made similar good and bad decisions. It's like "Yeah, that was humbling." Then you move on and have a glass of wine.'

Alba's typical weeknight includes quality time with husband Cash Warren and their daughters Honor, 9; and Haven, 6; as well as son Hayes, 2 months.

'I always try to get home from work for bath time and to cuddle the kids before bed,' Jessica explained.

'After that, Cash and I have dinner together and talk about our days. I need "us" time all the time.'

The Pomona-born beauty added: 'I just don't need to use social media as therapy and tell everyone, "Today I f***ed up as a mom." It's none of your damn business. I'm fine if people want to air their dirty laundry online, but people know enough about me'

'I need "us" time all the time': Alba's typical weeknight includes quality time with husband Cash Warren and their daughters Honor, 9; and Haven, 6; as well as son Hayes, 2 months

The glamorous mompreneur hopes she's teaching her princesses to become fearless.

'I want them to know that you can't give up when it gets hard - when it gets hard is when you learn the most,' the El Camino Christmas actress said.

'You can't teach kids that by just talking the talk - you have to walk the walk and reinforce it with talk.'

In May, the Honest Company founder settled a nationwide class action lawsuit claiming it misled buyers about ingredients in its laundry detergent and dish soap for $1.55M.

'Because my name is attached, the story is clickbait': In May, the Honest Company founder settled a nationwide class action lawsuit claiming it misled buyers about ingredients in its laundry detergent and dish soap for $1.55M

'Not everything is going to turn out exactly the same': Honest has since won the Good Housekeeping Seal for four of its products - the dish soap, laundry detergent, hand soap (pictured), and multi-surface cleaner

This, after recalling 'moldy' baby wipes and 'infectious' baby powder as well as an ongoing 2015 lawsuit over the sunscreen and a dismissed 2016 lawsuit over baby formula.

'Employees who'd worked at consumer product goods brand before Honest told me that when things like that happen at other companies, it's not news,' Alba defended.

'The fact is, when you make hundreds of thousands of products, not everything is going to turn out exactly the same. But because my name is attached, the story is clickbait.'

Honest has since won the Good Housekeeping Seal for four of its products - the dish soap, laundry detergent, hand soap, and multi-surface cleaner.

'I like to go hard': Jessica has been working out twice a day at her second homes - Cycle House and Heart & Hustle gym - to prepare to star in NBC's Bad Boys spin-off with Gabrielle Union (R)

Jessica has been working out twice a day at her second homes - Cycle House and Heart & Hustle gym - to prepare to star in NBC's Bad Boys spin-off with Gabrielle Union.

'I like to go hard,' The Planet of the Apps judge explained. 'That effort level where you're pushing yourself to the limit is almost meditative.'

According to Deadline, the Project Runway guest judge will executive produce and star as LAPD detective Nancy McKenna, a 'married mother of two preteen stepkids, who joined the Army out of high school and spent most of the 2000s working as military police in Iraq and Afghanistan.'

Bad Boys marks Alba's first small-screen role since playing genetically-enhanced supersoldier Max Guevara/X5-452 in James Cameron's cyberpunk series Dark Angel, which ran for two seasons (2000-2002) on Fox.

Rather than original stars Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, the buddy cop TV reboot - co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer - will star Ernie Hudson, Zach Gilford, and Duane Martin.She finally confirmed her new relationship last week.

And Jodie Kidd looked clearly besotted as she headed out with hunky beau Joseph Bates for the 2018 Cheltenham Festival 2018 on Thursday.

Walking arm-in-arm with the creative agency executive, the supermodel, 39, put on a chic display as she flashed a sparkler on her hand - prompting rumours of an engagement. A representative for Jodie has since confirmed she's not engaged.

In love: Jodie Kidd, 39, looked clearly besotted as she headed out with hunky beau Joseph Bates, 32, for the 2018 Cheltenham Festival 2018 on Thursday

Something to tell us? The supermodel put on an undeniably chic display as she flashed a sparkler on her hand - prompting rumours of an engagement

Jodie looked absolutely incredible for the day out as she dressed her slender figure in a sensational cream-coloured coat.

The outerwear was belted in the middle to highlight her tiny midriff and she teamed the look with a pair of stylish wide-leg matching trousers.

The catwalk queen boosted her already statuesque height in a pair of nude coloured peep-toe heels and added a scarf around her neck, which added a pop of colour to her look.

A ring on her engagement finger happened to be the defining feature of her look.

While the sparkler initially prompted speculation that they were set to tie the knot, Jodie's rep has told MailOnline that it was the only finger the ring could fit on.

Chic: Jodie looked absolutely incredible for the day out as she dressed her slender figure in a sensational cream-coloured coat

Slender: The outerwear was belted in the middle to highlight her tiny midriff and she teamed the look with a pair of stylish wide-leg matching trousers

Meanwhile, Jodie proved to be every inch the vision as she sported immaculate waves in her blonde locks.

She opted for a simple slick of make-up for the daytime endeavour and shielded herself from the rays with a pair of cat-eye shades.

Toting all of her essentials in a fringed black bag across her body, Jodie proved to be clearly smitten as she walked hand-in-hand with the Royal Marine turned creative agency exec, 32.

Joseph looks handsome in his fitted three-piece blue suit which he teamed with a light blue shirt and purple tie.

A pair of shiny brown shoes completed the slick look, and he too, opted for a pair of shades.

Wow: The catwalk queen boosted her already statuesque height in a pair of nude coloured peep-toe heels and added a scarf around her neck, which added a pop of colour to her look

Bombshell: Jodie proved to be every inch the vision as she sported immaculate waves in her blonde locks

Beauty: She opted for a simple slick of make-up for the daytime endeavour and shielded herself from the rays with a pair of cat-eye shades

Last week Jodie told the Mail On Sunday her new beau was wonderful and creative.

She revealed Joseph is a vast improvement on Jodies ex husband of four months David Blakeley who she divorced in 2015.

The settled life is doing wonders for Jodie, who has become something of a homebird since buying a village pub in West Sussex.

Jodie and Joseph were seen holidaying in Barbados in October, after she accompanied him on a disaster relief mission to Dominica after Hurricane Irma.

Happy: Toting all of her essentials in a fringed black bag across her body, Jodie proved to be clearly smitten as she walked hand-in-hand with Joseph

Hunk: Joseph looks handsome in his fitted three-piece blue suit which he teamed with a light blue shirt and purple tie

Snazzy: A pair of shiny brown shoes completed the slick look, and he too, opted for a pair of shades

According to the Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare, the duo had previously rowed in kayaks 120 miles down the Gironde, to recreate a World War 2 commando raid.

The model first married internet entrepreneur Aidan Butler in 2005 after a year of romance, but the pair split after 18 months.

She then embarked on a relationship with Argentinian polo player Andrea Vianini, and the pair welcomed son Indio together in 2011, before parting ways two years later.

The blonde went on to tie the knot with author David Blakeley in 2014, but the marriage was collapsed in just four months.They have been filming the very glamorous 22nd series of hit reality show The Only Way Is Essex in sunny Spain.

And reality starlets Georgia Kousoulou, Amber Turner, and Yazmin Oukhellou cut chic figures as they arrived at Barcelona airport on Thursday.

Blonde beauty Georgia, 26, flaunted her radiant complexion and surgically enhanced nose as she went make-up free for the flight back to the UK, with her tresses swept up in to a casual ponytail.

Reality parade: TOWIE star Georgia Kousoulou joined her TOWIE co-stars as the cast headed home from filming in Barcelona, Spain on Thursday (above with beau Tommy Mallet and Liam Blackwell)

Glamour: Amber Turner (L) and Yazmin Oukhellou looked suitably stylish for the flight

She showcased her slender legs and peachy posterior in skintight black leggings, paired with box fresh trainers.

She slipped on a black hoodie with red trim and carried two bags ahead of her flight.

Amber Turner, who is currently embroiled in love drama with ex Dan Edgar, looked sensational in her chic ensemble of a black jumper covered in scarlet embroidery, paired with black skinny jeans which revealed her lean legs.

Forgoing the heels, the smiling star, 24, slipped on tan trainers and wheeled a suitcase in an identical hue.

Fresh-faced: Blonde beauty Georgia, 26, flaunted her radiant complexion and surgically enhanced nose as she went make-up free for the flight back to the UK, with her tresses swept up in to a casual ponytail

Blonde beauties: She showcased her slender legs and peachy posterior in skintight black leggings, paired with box fresh trainers as she chatted with Amber

Style star: Yazmin Oukhellou, 24, looked sensational in black leggings with a red racer stripe down each leg, paired with a furry coat and Louis Vuitton scarf

Chic: Her brunette tresses were teased into a glamorous half updo while her peepers were shielded with round sunglasses

Love: She was joined by long-term beau James Lock, 31, with the loved-up pair gazing into one another's eyes as they strolled through the terminal

Smitten: James and Yazmin looked smitten as they walked along followed by Tommy

Her blonde tresses were styled sleek and straight while a rich palette of make-up including false lashes and pink lipgloss completed her look.

Yazmin Oukhellou, 24, looked sensational in black leggings with a red racer stripe down each leg, paired with a furry coat and Louis Vuitton scarf.

Her brunette tresses were teased into a glamorous half updo while her peepers were shielded with round sunglasses.

Cute couple: Georgia and Tommy looked close as they chatted outside the airport

Confidence: The star looked relaxed as she wheeled her suitcase out

Banter: The group looked comfortable in each other's presence as they walked

Casual cool: Chloe Meadows flaunted her natural beauty with a light dusting of make -up

Animated: Yazmin cracked a beaming smile as she chatted with pals at the airport

Pals: Amber joined a stylish Courtney Green as the group entered the terminal

She was joined by long-term beau James Lock, 31, with the loved-up pair gazing into one another's eyes as they strolled through the terminal.

They were joined at the airport by co-stars including Chloe Meadows, Tommy Mallett, Courtney Greene, Liam Blackwell and Jon Clark.

A number of familiar faces weren't seen filming since seven regulars, including Amber Dowding and Chris Clark, have been axed.

Making an entrance: Amber and Courtney looked relaxed as they headed home after their work trip

Hunky: James (L) showed his chivalrous side by wheeling his love's personalised suitcase while Liam (R) looked a little sleepy

Hunk: Jon Clark looked handsome as he wheeled his suitcase through the airport

Laugh out loud: Tommy and Jon, whose brother Chris was axed from the show, laughed as they checked their phones

Larking about: Tommy playfully kicked his leg in the air as he wheeled his suitcase with Jon

Snappy: The pair took their phones out to take photos of the photographers

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.'

Fun times: Tommy tried to cover up his face as he smiled for the cameras

Homeward bound: Liam looked cool as he left the car listening to musicEva Longoria appears to be due any day now even though she's seven months pregnant.

The 43-year-old actress showed off a very large baby bump during a press session with Anna Faris for their new comedy Overboard on Wednesday.

The wife of Jose Baston glowed as she posed with her male co-stars, including Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez, 56, while wearing a pretty yellow mini dress.

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Big mama: Eva Longoria showed off a very large baby bump during a press session with Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez for their new comedy Overboard on Wednesday

Cute: The looker held onto her large tummy, cradling it with pride as she seemed overjoyed with her pregnancy

The looker held onto her large tummy, cradling it with pride as she seemed overjoyed with her pregnancy.

The restaurant owner also wore pointy pink suede pumps with gold around the ankles.

Her glam look was heavy eye makeup with her hair parted in the middle and soft waves.

Yeah: 'So excited for the @overboardmovie press junket today!' said the TV vet

Happy stars: Here the diva was posed with Faris as they talked about the re-do of the hit 1980s Goldie Hawn comedy

The star also took to Instagram to share a mini video where she was moving her hips while touching her bump.

'So excited for the @overboardmovie press junket today!' said the TV vet.

This comes after the looker talked to InTouch Weekly about becoming a mother at age 43.

The tiny 5-foot-2 star being pregnant, she says that when she finally found out she was pregnant, she wasnt worried about trying to hide it.

Happy birthday lady: On Thursday she talked about turning 43-year-old

'For years theyve been saying it. Id have a burger and: "Evas pregnant! she joked.

'And then they go, "Evas fat!" It was so funny, the one time they dont say Im pregnant, I am!'

She was never worried about children not being in her future.

'Women are having babies later and later, so I didnt have that biological clock ticking pressure,' she said.

'I [also] wasnt with anybody for a while. I think babies are a product of love and partnership.'

She also revealed she does not have her baby room set up.

'Right now Im without a home because Im selling my old house! I dont have a nursery, I havent stocked up on anything. [Soon] Ill be in my new house and I can start focusing! But Im very happy!'They will soon be celebrating their twelfth wedding anniversary.

And Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart continued their loved-up display at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival on Thursday.

In the midst of cheering on at the races, the age-defying model, 46, also showered her other half, 73, with love and affection.

Happy: Penny Lancaster, 46, and Rod Stewart, 73, continued their loved-up display at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival on Thursday

Having fun: In the midst of cheering on at the races, the age-defying model also showered her other half with love and affection

Penny put on an undeniably stylish display for her day out in her plaid outerwear, which she teamed with a crisp white shirt.

The star looked sensational as she dressed to accentuate her slim figure, including a pair of beige coloured trousers which put focus on her lean legs.

She lived up to her beauty icon status with an immaculate blonde blow dry, while her stunning features were enhanced with a glamorous coat of make-up.

Penny accessorised with a number of bangles on her wrists as she clapped along at the races.

Stylish: Penny put on an undeniably stylish display for her day out in her plaid outerwear, which she teamed with a crisp white shirt

Chic: The star looked sensational as she dressed to accentuate her slim figure, including a pair of beige coloured trousers which put focus on her lean legs

Beauty: She lived up to her beauty icon status with an immaculate blonde blow dry, while her stunning features were enhanced with a glamorous coat of make-up

Wow: Penny revealed on Instagram they were celebrating her birthday at the Festival

Penny certainly looked in her element as she put on an incredibly animated display while cheering on enthusiastically.

Her locks effortlessly billowed in the wind as she jumped up and down in the stands.

Rod also looked undeniably snazzy in his three-piece suit which saw him clash prints.

The hitmaker donned a fitted waistcoat and a colourful blazer and bright mustard coloured tie.

Happy: Penny certainly looked in her element as she put on an incredibly animated display while cheering on enthusiastically

Mane attraction: Her locks effortlessly billowed in the wind as she jumped up and down in the stands

Handsome: Rod also looked undeniably snazzy in his three-piece suit which saw him clash prints

The Penny and Rod love story goes back to when the sparks first started flying in 1999 and they went onto get married in Italy, in 2007.

Penny recently revealed her battle with dyslexia and she thanked Rod for his support, even guiding her through a public speaking event which caused her to 'panic.'

She told The Mirror: 'I'm dyslexic  something I've always known and kept secret until I recently got diagnosed. Rod has given me so much confidence.

'Rod has never made me feel in any way like I can't do things. I was asked to read a pledge at a charity event. I was in a panic but he said, 'Go on, Pen, you can do it.

'I could hear him cheering for me and I read out the words. I didnt get them all right but I read them and I felt like bursting into tears afterwards because it was such a big deal for me.'

Looking good: The hitmaker donned a fitted waistcoat and a colourful blazer and bright mustard coloured tie

Long time: They will soon be celebrating their twelfth wedding anniversary

In love: The Penny and Rod love story goes back to when the sparks first started flying in 1999 and they went onto get married in Italy, in 2007

Support: Penny recently revealed her battle with dyslexia and she thanked Rod for his support, even guiding her through a public speaking event which caused her to 'panic'

She told The Mirror: 'I'm dyslexic  something I've always known and kept secret until I recently got diagnosed. Rod has given me so much confidence'

Father-of-eight Rod shares his youngest two kids Alastair, aged 12, and Aiden, aged seven, with his current wife.

Before Penny, Rod was married to Australian model Rachel Hunter, 47, from 1990 to 2006, who he shares son Liam, 24, and daughter Renee, 22, with.

Rod fathered his first child Sarah Streeter, 53, who was raised by adoptive parents, in his twenties with art student Susannah Boffey.

The musician also raises daughter Ruby, 29, with model ex-girlfriend Kelly Emberg, 57. Rocker Rod has his two eldest children Sean and Kimberly Stewart from his first marriage to Alana Hamilton.He joined the cast of the Aussie soap last month, after his sixteen-year stint on Coronation Street.

And fans were quick to shower Ryan Thomas with praise on Tuesday night, after his portrayal of a 'raw and heartfelt' gay sex scene on Neighbours.

The actor's character Rafael was seen enjoying an emotional tryst with David, played by Takaya Honda - which fans branded both 'beautiful' and 'refreshing' on Twitter.

Lead man: Fans showered Ryan Thomas with praise on Tuesday night, after his portrayal of a 'raw and heartfelt' gay sex scene on Neighbours

The scene saw Rafael, who has recently come out, building up the confidence to strip naked and bare his scars from a near-fatal motorbike accident.

As well as his own insecurities, he also encouraged David to cast his aside - as someone who is currently experimenting with his sexuality.

Stood shirtless as he faced his lover, Rafael said: 'I only came out last year. I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed.'

Baring all: The scene saw Rafael, who has recently come out, building up the confidence to strip naked and bare his scars to David, played by Takaya Honda, from a motorbike accident

Before an emotional David added: 'I know what it's like to be self-conscious. It's just you and me here.'

The pair then kissed and the camera cut to the pair in bed, leaving viewers to only imagine the scene.

Viewers immediately took to Twitter to praise the emotionally-charged scene, as well as Ryan and Takaya's acting.

Intense: As well as his own insecurities, he also encouraged David to cast his aside - as someone who is currently experimenting with his sexuality

Reassuring: Stood shirtless as he faced his lover, Rafael said: 'I only came out last year. I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed'

Connection: The pair soon began to kiss passionately

One kicked things off by writing: 'I absolutely loved the implied sex scene tonight! It was just so beautiful. Huzzah for lgbt pride! It's so refreshing to see a gay sex scene!'

While another added: 'Shocked me how emotional I got watching David and Raf's bedroom scene tbh...it was really Raw and heartfelt. Beautiful work guys'

Further fans agreed, chiming: 'Just rewatched that David/Rafael scene, damn that was good' and 'Rafael showing david his scars im gonna cry'

While another added: 'Catching up on this week's Neighbours so far and it's been fantastic. Izzy is great and that David/Rafael scene was..,' followed by praising emojis.

The deed is done: The camera then cut to the pair in bed, leaving viewers to only imagine the scene

'It's so refreshing': Viewers immediately took to Twitter to praise the emotionally-charged scene, as well as Ryan and Takaya's acting

Ryan made his long-awaited Neighbours debut in February, in an hour-long late-night special episode as English tourist Rafael Humphreys - a loner with dark secrets and a score to settle.

Having previously cut his teeth on the ITV soap Coronation Street as Jason Grimshaw from 2000 until 2016, he admitted it was strange working on another serial drama, but largely because of the differences in filming.

'The biggest difference is, OK, it's a lot smaller as they only have 30 cast, which I really like,' he told Press Association.

'I think in (Corrie) we had like 70, maybe more sometimes, so this is half the cast. I love that because you have a real familiarity with characters, so you can always know who you're going to see.

'In Corrie, sometimes, you won't see a character for six weeks and you won't bat an eyelid, but in Neighbours you'll see the same characters all the time.'Kate Bosworth swapped the red carpet glam for casual chic.

The 35-year-old actress kept it comfy and makeup-free on Wednesday while spotted running errands with a male friend.

Usually the fashion risk-taker, the Blue Crush star kept it simple wearing a grey Nike jacket and white pants.

Casual chic: Kate Bosworth dresses down as she runs errands with a male friend in Los Angeles on Wednesday

She paired the easy outfit with black slip-on sandals and a studded black clutch.

The Superman Returns starlet pulled back her newly-dyed red tresses in a messy bun and shielded her eyes with dark sunglasses.

The ageless beauty appeared to get some help from a male friend. Her pal carried two large boxes for the actress.

Friendly aid: The actress' pal carried two large boxes for the beauty, who was comfy in a grey Nike jacket and white pants

Fierce fashion: The red-headed beauty, pictured at the Los Angeles premiere of Tomb Raider, is known for her on-point red carpet looks

Her mid-week look is quite different from her appearance at the Tomb Raider premiere at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Monday night.

The style queen showcased her perfect figure in a little black dress adorned with silver embellishments.

Just last week, Bosworth took to social media to announce that she will join her director husband, Michael Polish, in the upcoming film Tate.

'It is my honor to play Sharon Tate': The 35-year-old shared that she will portray the slain actress in the upcoming film Tate

'I will give everything I have to honor her': The film has received the blessing of Sharon's sister Debra Tate, who will serve as a producer

The 35-year-old will portray the slain actress, after the project has received the blessing of Sharon's sister Debra.

'This picture will only celebrate her life. We will not violate her or exploit her death. It's her time,' she tweeted last Wednesday. 'Thank you Debra Tate for joining us in sharing your sister's life.'

Kate added: 'I will never be her, but I will give everything I have to honor her.'

Working romance: Bosworth and her director husband Michael Polish have already worked on three films together, with the upcoming film Tate becoming their fourth

This will be the fourth movie that the trendy actress and her 47-year-old husband will work on together.

The pair met on the set of Big Sur in 2011 and are said to have been instantly attracted to each other.

The duo married in August 2013 before filming 2014's Amnesiac and 2015's 90 Minutes In Heaven.Advertisement

They landed on the Caribbean island on Monday, and she has shared a number of sizzling bikini snaps ever since.

And Olivia Buckland showed no signs of stopping on Thursday, as she enjoyed another sun-soaked day in Barbados with her fiance Alex Bowen.

The Love Island star, 25, first showed off her impressively slim figure and tiny waist in a neon yellow watermelon-printed two-piece, before sharing an eye-popping selfie ahead of the couple's romantic breakfast.

Feeling fruity! Love Island's Olivia Buckland showed off her stunning tattooed curves in a neon yellow watermelon-print bikini as she enjoyed another day in paradise during her Barbados break on Thursday

Pucker up, baby! The blonde bombshell's hunky fiance Alex Bowen couldn't keep his hands off her as they packed on the PDA while soaking up the sun on the idyllic Caribbean island

The blonde displayed her womanly curves and tattooed figure in the sizzling swimwear - which saw her pose in a plunging yellow bikini, printed with watermelons all over.

Packing on the PDA with Alex as they cooled off in the sea, the couple looked happy and relaxed during their idyllic beach break.

Paired with equally skimpy bottoms, which rose high at her hip in single strings, the reality star then drew attention to her enviably slim waist and tattooed frame, as she smouldered for her followers.

She swept her hair away from her face and added only mascara as make-up, to show off her clear and glowing complexion, but let her dazzling engagement ring from Alex take centre stage as she posed, with one hand across her cheek.

Another day in paradise: The reality star, 25, was joined by her hunky fiance as they soaked up the sun on their winter break

Fun in the sun: The couple looked happy and relaxed as they reclined on sun loungers during their beach day

Life's a beach: The blonde displayed her womanly curves and tattooed figure in the sizzling swimwear - which saw her pose in a plunging yellow bikini, printed with watermelons all over

In good company: Olivia and Alex were joined by Celeb's Go Dating matchmaker Nadia Essex

Not one to shy away from social media posts, the Love Island star also shared a stunning selfie to her Instagram page.

Olivia put on a seriously eye-popping display by going braless in her grey tank top, which plunged low at the chest to flash her cleavage as well as the tattoo at her chest.

Known for her glamorous sense of style however, she still sported a full face of bronzed, contoured make-up despite her balmy climes, as she headed for breakfast with her beau.

Pals: The group made their way across the beach during their latest appearance in Barbados

She's a natural: Nadia went make-up free as she ventured out on the Caribbean paradise island

Love on the rocks: The group made their way across the stony shoreline

Having the bust time: Olivia later put on a seriously eye-popping display by going braless in her grey tank top, as she posed ahead of her breakfast with Alex

Besotted: Alex and Olivia are enjoying a winter getaway in Barbados ahead of their wedding

Olivia and Alex's romance has gone from strength to strength since they left the villa in 2016, with their wedding only six months away.

They met on Love Island in June 2016 and embarked on a whirlwind romance, which saw them get engaged in New York City just before Christmas that year.

The couple readily admit that making their relationship work after the ITV2 show was 'hard work'- but credit their long-lasting romance to the fact they put in the effort to see each other every day after their stint in the villa.

Alex said last year: 'If Olivia has a job I'll go with her, if I have a job she'll come with me. I had a lot of PAs when I first came out.

Still going strong: They met on Love Island in June 2016 and embarked on a whirlwind romance, which saw them get engaged in New York City just before Christmas that year

'But I would spend every night in my own bed. It was such hard work but we made it work, and we're really happy together.

Meanwhile Olivia has been using her Barbados break to give some photo tips to her 1.4million Instagram followers - after they praised her for looking so slim and toned in her sizzling bikini post.

Posting on her Stories on Wednesday, the reality star gave her fans a lesson in angles, captioning a video of herself in another tiny bikini: 'there's no magic tricks. I ain't a magician.

'Angles hunnys, angles. Ok so guys trick for you - tiny waist, big ass sitting down. Thighs do the squishy thing. Get and and you're normal shape.'

Nice and even: Alex and Olivia were seen checking out their tans as they frolicked on the beach together, with the couple also flaunting their array of tattoos

Loved-up: Fans thought Alex and Olivia would be the first Love Island couple to tie the knot, but they were pipped to the post by Jess Shears and Dom Lever, who wed on Valentine's Day live on Good Morning Britain

Chilling out: Alex and Olivia were enjoying their Barbados break with pal and dating expert Nadia Essex, who was also looking stylish in a fuschia bikini with a gold chain on the top

Chilling out: Nadia was seen chatting with Olivia as they strolled along the beach together, following the news of Celebs Go Dating co-star Eden Blackman's second rumoured affair

Alex and Olivia were seen checking out their glowing tans as they enjoyed the sun-soaked getaway, with both making sure their skimpy beach looks showed off their array of tattoos.

Fans originally thought the pair would be the first Love Island couple to tie the knot, but they were pipped to the post by Jess Shears and Dom Lever, who tied the knot in a Valentine's Day ceremony live on Good Morning Britain.

After Jess and Dom's wedding, Olivia appeared to mock their TV nuptials by 'liking' a tweet posted by a fan that read: 'Jess in a bikini & Dom topless getting married on GMB this morning has gotta be the most tragic thing of 2018. Imagine doing whats meant to be the most amazing day of our life dirty like that'

Jaw-dropping: Olivia incredible figure was on full display in the fruit-inspired bikini as she strolled along the beach and rubbed in more sun cream

Get all the spots! Olivia nearly avoided getting sun cream in her eyes as she perched on her sunbed in the Barbados sunshine

Cosy: The happy couple was seen strolling away from the beach together after a day of sunning themselves, with Olivia comfortably wrapping an arm around her fiance

Glamorous: Olivia kept her blonde tresses out of the way in a half-up half-down style, with her sunglasses perched on top of her head

Alex and Olivia have also spoken recently about plans to start a family, after their Love Island co-stars Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan welcomed their first child together.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline in November Alex joked: 'I want to get her pregnant on our wedding night!'

The couple also revealed plans to film their wedding, so fans would get the chance to see their relationship come full circle after first meeting in the Love Island villa.

She said: 'Were in talks about having our wedding filmed as it would be nice to look back on. People saw us get get together on Love Island so it will complete our love story.'

Happy the pair: Ever the gentleman, Alex carried his and Olivia's things as they exited the beach together, placing his arm around the small of her back

Making plans: Fans have been eagerly anticipating Alex and Olivia's wedding, as the couple revealed back in November they were going to film the ceremony so fans could see the pair come full circle from their Love Island rootsShe has jetted off to Barcelona to film series 22 of reality show The Only Way Is Essex with her castmates.

And Yazmin Oukhellou oozed sex appeal as she treated her fans to an array of racy bikini shots on Instagram on Wednesday.

The TV personality, 24, looked every inch the bombshell as she slipped her svelte figure into skimpy two-pieces.

Wow-factor! Yazmin Oukhellou oozed sex appeal as she treated her fans to an array of racy bikini shots on Instagram on Wednesday

In one of the sultry snaps, the ITVBe star appeared to take a short break from her filming duties while showing off her impressively toned appearance in a beige bikini set by Pretty Little Thing.

The London native appeared to have caught a tan while she complemented her radiant complexion with striking bronzer, fluttery lashes and nude lipgloss.

Yazmin styled her raven locks into luscious curls as she knelt on a bed.

Racy: The TV personality, 24, looked every inch the bombshell as she slipped her svelte figure into skimpy two-pieces

She continued to command attention in another image, as she flashed a glimpse of her busty cleavage and toned abs in revealing attire.

The off-white bikini by Bahimi Beachwear was embellished with cross body straps, as well as opulent sparkling studs.

Yazmin casted a smouldering gaze as she accentuated her features with her signature makeup look.

Following her trip, the Newcastle University alum cut a chic figure as she was spotted heading back to the UK at the Barcelona airport on Thursday.

Stylish: The Newcastle University alum cut a chic figure as she was spotted heading back to the UK from her Spain trip with her TOWIE castmembers on Thursday

Yazmin looked sensational in figure-hugging leggings with a red racer stripe down each leg, paired with a furry coat and Louis Vuitton scarf.

Her brunette tresses were teased into a voluminous half updo while her peepers were shielded with round sunglasses.

Yazmin and James put on a loving display as they gazed into one another's eyes while strolling through the terminal.

Sweet: Yazmin and James put on a loving display as they gazed into one another's eyes while strolling through the terminalShe's famed for her regal persona both on and off screen.

So it's no surprise Charlotte Hawkins was a vision in red as she attended the third day of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival on Thursday afternoon.

The Good Morning Britain star, 42, commanded attention in a maroon pleated dress, adorned with sophisticated floral embroidery.

Elegant: Charlotte Hawkins, 42, was a vision in red as she attended the third day of the 2018 Cheltenham Festival on Thursday afternoon

The heavy detailing of her striking frock didn't stop there - as her midi number by Claire Mischevani was embellished with fashion-forward fluffy cuffs.

The Chichester native teamed her ensemble with a pair of suede red heels and an elaborate burgundy fascinator by Sally Ann Provan.

The beaming beauty wore her blonde locks in a graceful updo and stood out from the crowd in glamorous makeup.

Glamorous: The Good Morning Britain star, 42, commanded attention in a maroon pleated dress, adorned with sophisticated floral embroidery

Charlotte's appearance comes after she admitted her motherhood journey hasn't been all plain sailing in an interview with The Mirror on Sunday.

The mother-of-one - who welcomed her mini-me daughter Ella Rose Herbert, three, in 2015 - gave birth to her child when she was 39.

The ITV star described the process of trying to conceive with husband Mark Herbert as a 'stressful time'.

Chic: The heavy detailing of her striking frock didn't stop there - as her midi number by Claire Mischevani was embellished with fashion-forward fluffy cuffs

Beaming: The Chichester native teamed her ensemble with a pair of suede red heels and an elaborate burgundy fascinator by Sally Ann Provan

The TV veteran also spoke candidly about trying for a baby later in life, and how she was 'amazed' she brought her daughter into the world.

Charlotte - who married husband Mark in 2008 - explained: 'We tried for a few years, and I'd got to the stage where I was worried because it just wasn't happening.'

'It was a stressful time but I still look at her now and am amazed at the fact that we created this little being, but it still sometimes scares me thinking how different our life would have been if we hadn't had her.'They've been married for 22 years and are the proud parents of three children.

And Dr Dre made a rare red carpet appearance with his wife Nicole Young, 46, and his daughter Truly, 16, on Thursday as they attended a screening for his documentary miniseries The Defiant Ones in London's Brixton Oval.

The 53-year-old music mogul was supported by his family at the UK screening for his new series, which gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at Dr's partnership with producer Jim Iovine.

Family outing: Dr Dre, 53, made a rare public appearance with wife Nicole Young and his daughter Truly on Thursday as they attended a screen for his docu-miniseries in London

Dre proudly held onto his wife's hand as they walked the red carpet together, while Nicole showed off her incredible figure in a silver mesh-style dress.

Truly also looked stylish as she wore a black mini-dress and ankle boots to contrast with her purple curled hair, as she proudly stood with her dad to celebrate the series' release.

Set to debut on Netflix in the UK on 23 March, The Defiant Ones chronicles the backgrounds of Iovine and Dr. Dre and their record-making partnership.

The series featured interviews with a string of the biggest names in pop including Bono, Eminem, Nas, Ice Cube, Gwen Stefani and Snoop Dogg.

Loved-up: Dre looked happier than ever as he posed with his wife of 22 years and daughter, as they celebrated his miniseries The Defiant Ones, which will hit Netflix in the UK on March 23

Sharp: Legendary music mogul Dre was suited and booted for the red carpet outing, as he takes centre stage in the series that tells the story of his partnership with producer Jim Iovine

Beaming: Both Dre and Nicole couldn't stop smiling on the red carpet, with the raven-haired beauty showing off her enviable pins in a white and silver mesh-style dress

Legend: Dre has established a huge music empire as the founder of Beats Electronics, after rising to fame as a member of the 80s hip hop group N.W.A

The series will also air behind-the-scenes footage of recording and writing sessions with Eazy-E, Stevie Nicks, N.W.A, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen among others, RollingStone.com reported.

Dre first made a name for himself as part of the rebellious hip hop group N.W.A. who broke the mould as one of the early American hip hop groups in the late 1980s.

Since then Dre has gone onto establish a hugely successful career as a record producer, as well as being the founder of Beats Electronics.

His early career was also documented in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton which he also produced with N.W.A. bandmate Ice Cube.

Casual: Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am also put on a casual display as he rocked a green bomber jacket with shorts and leggings

Relaxed: The Voice UK judge rocked his signature round-framed glasses with a green checked beanie hat

Also spotted on the red carpet was Black Eyed Peas star will.i.am, who showed off his eclectic style in a black jumper and green bomber jacket combo.

The Voice UK judge teamed his matching shorts with leggings and trainers to protect against the chilly weather as he joined several other stars on the red carpet.

Will finished off his look with a pair of his signature round-framed glasses and a green checked hat.

Beaming: Star of the series Jim Iovine was joined at the event by his wife Liberty Ross, who commanded attention in a gold sparkly frock

Gorgeous: The English actress added a pop of colour to her bold look with purple strapped heels

Star of the documentary Jim Iovine, 65, was joined on the red carpet by wife Liberty Ross, 39, who also commanded attention in a sparkly gold frock.

Liberty added another pop of colour to her bold look with purple strapped heels, showing off her amazing figure on the red carpet.

In the film, fans will also see Jim's own success with various big-name stars, including John Lennon, Lady Gaga and Iggy Azalea.

Ab-tastic: Model Neelam Gill showed off her incredible figure in a yellow cropped jumper and black tracksuit bottoms as she walked the red carpet

Chic: Singers Ray BLK and Laura Mvula rocked simple but stylish looks as they attended a screening for the seriesThe Good Place star Kristen Bell grabbed breakfast with a male friend at Italian restaurant Little Dom's in LA's trendy Los Feliz neighborhood on Thursday.

The 37-year-old mother-of-two was wearing a blue Lingua Franca 'When There Are Nine' sweatshirt quoting Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

'There is still work to be done,' the 85-year-old birthday girl told the Chicago Sun-Times back in September.

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Mystery man: The Good Place star Kristen Bell grabbed breakfast with a male friend at Italian restaurant Little Dom's in LA's trendy Los Feliz neighborhood on Thursday

'There will be enough women on the Supreme Court when there are nine.'

The Momsplaining host finished off her casual feminist attire with blue skinny jeans, a black cross-body circle bag, and white sneakers.

Kristen's sighting came five days after she shared a rare snap of her two daughters - Lincoln, turning 5 soon; and Delta, 3 - sporting green hair.

'There will be enough women on the Supreme Court when there are nine': The 37-year-old mother-of-two was wearing a blue Lingua Franca sweatshirt quoting Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Headed down Hillhurst: The Momsplaining host finished off her casual feminist attire with blue skinny jeans, a black cross-body circle bag, and white sneakers

'It's powder paint,' Bell - who boasts 8.6M social media followers - explained.

'She goes to a school that celebrates every single holiday from all cultures. Today they celebrated the Holi, a Hindu holiday, also known as the festival of colors. They all wear white and pelt each other with powder paint to celebrate Spring. It's pretty awesome.'

And the Bad Mom's Christmas funnywoman's husband of four years - Dax Shepard - shared a passionate kissing snap of the pair on Saturday.

'It's powder paint': Kristen's sighting came five days after she shared a rare snap of her two daughters - Lincoln, turning 5 soon; and Delta, 3 - sporting green hair

Bell explained: 'She goes to a school that celebrates every single holiday from all cultures. Today they celebrated the Holi, a Hindu holiday, also known as the festival of colors. They all wear white and pelt each other with powder paint to celebrate Spring. It's pretty awesome'

'#Mombshell': And the Bad Mom's Christmas funnywoman's husband of four years - Dax Shepard - shared a passionate kissing snap of the pair on Saturday

The Michigan-born couple - who began their romance in 2007 - have collaborated onscreen in projects like CHIPS, The Boss, Veronica Mars, Hit and Run, and When in Rome.

On Monday, Kristen announced she'll soon reunite with her Frozen castmate Josh Gad to voice a role on Apple's animated musical comedy series, Central Park.

And NBC has already renewed Bell's afterlife sitcom The Good Place - on which she plays deceased saleswoman Eleanor Shellstrop - for a 13-episode third season.

'Olaf really is the best friend ever!' On Monday, Kristen announced she'll soon reunite with Frozen co-star Josh Gad on Apple's animated musical comedy series, Central ParkQueensland's fledgling film industry risks being snuffed out in its infancy unless the federal government increases tax breaks to attract international film companies, the head of Screen Queensland says.

Tracey Vierra says they have been working to get the new Dora the Explorer live-action movie to film in Queensland, but it could fall through because there isn't enough of an incentive to film in Australia compared to other countries, including New Zealand.

The federal government has agreed to one-off arrangements for recent productions such as the Aquaman movie, but is refusing to budge on the Dora film, with a decision due by the end of the week.A toddler wandering alone at night has been rescued by a firefighter just as it appeared she was about to cross a busy Melbourne intersection.

The wayward child, who is about 18 months old, had walked up to 100 metres from her home unsupervised when the firefighter who happened to be driving in the area, rushed to assist.

It appeared the youngster was about to cross the busy a intersection at Ascot Vale about 7pm on Wednesday when the firefighter quickly jumped from his car to assist. The child was reunited with family with the help of police.A high-ranking Finks bikie has been charged after nearly 90kg of illegal drugs, cash, guns, bullets and encrypted mobile phones were allegedly found during police raids in Sydney.

Officers say they uncovered a large stash of what's believed to be MDA pills and powder, cocaine, two firearms, a silencer and ammunition in a storage cage in a residential carpark in Kellyville Ridge on Tuesday.

A 35-year-old man who visited the cage a day after the search was then arrested.

Police later also seized a revolver, encrypted phones, a hydrogen chloride gas cylinder and various documents during raids on a unit at the same complex and a home at Beaumont Hills.

The man, a senior member of the Finks bikie gang, was taken to Riverstone Police Station and charged with large commercial drug supply and 15 firearms offences.

He was refused bail to appear at Blacktown Local Court on Thursday.KEY MOMENTS IN THE SA ELECTION CAMPAIGN

* Jumping the gun. Opposition Leader Steven Marshall chose to officially launch the Liberal campaign two weeks before the writs for the election were issued.

* Labor's launch. A glitzy set-piece event that the Labor hierarchy do so well. The choice of Sia's song Titanium to mark the premier's arrival was inspired. "I'm bulletproof nothing to lose"

* Renewables. In the first week of campaigning, Premier Jay Weatherill promised the state would source 75 per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025, underlying his energy credentials.

* Sally Zou cheque. It dogged Mr Marshall for almost a week with the opposition leader forced to repeatedly state the Liberals had not received a $1.2 million donation from a Chinese businesswoman - not that there's anything wrong with that anyway.

* The ICAC report into the Oakden nursing home scandal, released during the second week of the campaign, damaged Mr Weatherill's chances but cleared two ministers of maladministration.

* Mr Marshall put in a strong performance at the ABC televised debate quizzing the premier on his response to the Oakden scandal and how to tackle the state's brain drain.

* The election commission. The authority in the last week of campaigning found Mr Marshall misled voters on how much his energy policy would save households.

* The last debate. Mr Xenophon is declared the winner of the Sky News-Advertiser People's forum, winning 30 per cent of the 106 undecided voters.Malcolm Turnbull has backed Britain's move to boot out 23 Russian diplomats over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent.

The prime minister declared solidarity with the UK as it completes its investigation into the "heinous" nerve agent attack carried out on English soil.

Mr Turnbull condemned the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances.

"We share the UK's outrage over this targeted attempt to commit murder using chemical weapons," Mr Turnbull said in a statement.

"There is no circumstance that justifies the use of such indiscriminate, abhorrent weapons."

Australia had already conveyed its serious concerns overnight at a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has blamed the attack on Moscow.

Russia denies any involvement in the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who have been critical in hospital since they were found unconscious on a bench in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Wednesday said Australia may consider upgrading sanctions against Russia after the UK concludes its inquiry.Potentially deadly button batteries and dangerous baby walkers are in the sights of Australia's consumer watchdog amid concerns about their safety.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday listed the two on their product hit-list for 2018, alongside quad bikes and Takata airbags.

The ACCC wants to reduce the risks posed by small round batteries, which can kill or hurt a child within hours of being swallowed.

About 20 children end up in emergency departments every week after being exposed to the batteries, the watchdog said, with some dying from their injuries.

It also wants to work with state agencies to improve the safety of baby walkers and toppling furniture, with about 50 children said to be hospitalised weekly because of injuries from them.

The ACCC is also targeting defective Takata airbags, which have killed one person in Australia and 23 worldwide.

The federal government issued a compulsory recall notice for vehicles fitted with the defective airbags earlier this year, but the ACCC says 2.3 million cars are yet to have them replaced.

It is also hoping to improve the safety of quad bikes, which are one of the leading causes of deaths on farms.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims says the watchdog is working to change safety laws in Australia to ensure people are better protected from unsafe products.

"Most consumers are surprised to learn that it is not illegal to sell unsafe products in Australia," he said in a statement on Thursday.

"We want to ensure that the goods and goods-related services supplied in Australia are safe from the outset, and stop injuries and illnesses occurring in the first place."

The commission receives about 10,600 product safety reports each year, including more than 3000 compulsory notices by businesses of deaths and injuries.The Turnbull government's company tax cut plan may stumble if and when it is voted on in the Senate but the prime minister isn't going to give up on it, even if that means taking it to the next federal election.

Malcolm Turnbull confirmed this week the government remains committed to a reduction in the corporate tax rate to 25 per cent from 30 per cent.

"Do you know we're now the equal highest company tax rate in the OECD? How do you compete for investment on that basis?" he argued on ABC TV's 7.30.

The 10-year enterprise tax plan is listed to be debated in the Senate next Wednesday.

The government needs the support of the crossbench to get the legislation across the line with Labor and the Greens against the tax cuts, but the Nick Xenophon Team and One Nation have indicated they too oppose the reductions.

Business groups like the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry continue to argue the case for the cut faced with ever reducing taxes around the world, notably in the US where President Donald Trump has slashed the rate to 21 per cent.

Yet, another survey this week found more than half of Australians are against the reduction, instead calling for an increase in the Newstart allowance or better-regulated energy prices to assist with the cost of living.

As for the businesses themselves, it's hard to argue they are up in arms fearing they won't get a tax cut given the results of a spread of surveys this week.

The highly regarded National Australia Bank survey showed business conditions in February were at their highest in at least 21 years and while confidence eased slightly, this was put down to global financial market turbulence early in the month.

At the same time, the ACCI-Westpac quarterly industrial trends survey - Australia's longest running business survey dating back to 1966 - showed the manufacturing sector continues to expand in the first three months of the year with expectations this strength will be sustained.

Not to be left out, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute small and medium-sized business survey - for which many respondents would already be enjoying the first part of the government's tax plan - showed confidence remaining positive for a third consecutive month.

This apparent upbeat mood comes at a time of the strongest global growth in six years - music to the ears of Australia's commodity exporters.

Furthermore, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development upgraded its global growth forecast to just shy of four per cent for both this year and next after an estimated 3.7 per cent in 2017. This would be the strongest outcome since 2011.

Backing the Australian government's case for a business tax cut, the OECD's upward revision partly reflected the US tax reductions, along with Trump's public spending increases since the Paris-based institution's previous forecast in November.

A separate report by consultants Deloitte expects Asia will again lead the charge in the growth stakes in 2018.

"That's good news for Australia and Australians," Deloitte Access Economics lead partner Stephen Smith says.

But two consumer confidence surveys suggest Australians aren't necessarily getting too fired up about this buoyant outlook.

The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan confidence index dropped 2.5 per cent after last week's Australian growth figures showed the economy had its worst performance in over a year, which dragged the annual rate down to just 2.4 per cent.

And while the monthly Westpac-MI sentiment index rose 0.2 per cent in March, that barely put a dent in the 2.3 per cent drop last month that was associated with a wave volatility in global share markets.

Consumer confidence is a pointer to future retail spending.

But, as the OECD points out, while stronger world growth has been accompanied by solid job creation, wage growth generally remains weak.

As the government frequently argues in pursuit of its company tax cut, wages can only grow if businesses are profitable.

Given the risk to the company tax laws, it's just as well Turnbull is also sticking to his promise of providing personal income tax cuts in the May budget.The NSW government has agreed to release a stack of documents relating to its polarising $2.7 billion stadiums policy within three weeks.

It voted in favour of a motion put forward by the opposition in state parliament on Thursday requiring them to publish all stadium documents within 21 days.

Labor MP Linda Vultz's motion calls on the government to table any document prepared in relation to the demolition, reconfiguration or rebuild of ANZ or Allianz stadiums, as well as any legal advice or correspondence with sporting codes.Treasurer Scott Morrison expects the taxation of multinationals like Google and Amazon - so-called digital taxation - will be a key talking point at next week's G20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting.

He said this was a constant topic of conversation during his recent trip to the US.

"Multinationals should pay their fair share of tax in Australia but they should also pay their fair share of tax in other economies around the world," Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

The treasurer and Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe will attend the meeting in Buenos Aires on Monday and Tuesday.South Australians will vote for Labor when they go to the polls on Saturday because they know the party will fight for jobs, Premier Jay Weatherill says.

Mr Weatherill has visited shipbuilder ASC in Osborne on Thursday to stress he will keep advocating to the federal government for a national shipbuilding authority in Port Adelaide if he is re-elected.

He said the state government has set aside land for the project, which would create jobs in the area, and believes his party's prioritisation of jobs will lead voters to "choose Labor" this weekend.A 13-year-old Victorian boy with a broken arm has been missing for five weeks.

Jackson May was last seen on February 9 in Polydor Crt in Epping at 5am but is known to visit Melbourne's CBD, Flinders Street Station, Werribee and Warrnambool.

Despite going missing on several other occasions, police and his family are concerned for his welfare, saying he requires medical attention for his broken arm.

He is described as 160cm with a thin-to-medium build, brown hair and brown eyes and anyone with information about the teen is asked to contact Epping Police Station.Australia's UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker will have his much-anticipated first title defence and rematch with Cuban star Yoel Romero in June in Chicago.

It looms as a massive couple of months for the 27-year-old Sydneysider, who will represent Australia in wrestling at April's Commonwealth Games.

He will fight Romero at the United Center in the headline bout on UFC 225 on June 10 (Australian time).

Whittaker won the UFC interim title with a five-round unanimous decision over Romero last July in Las Vegas.

The main middleweight champion at that time, Englishman Michael Bisping, who was injured, then lost his title to Canadian Georges St Pierre.

However, he vacated the title after revealing he was suffering ulcerative colitis.

Whittaker was upgraded to the status of full champion, but a first defence against American Luke Rockhold, scheduled last month for Perth, was cancelled after he fell ill.

Romero replaced him and defeated Rockhold in spectacular fashion, but didn't earn the interim title on the line that day, as he came in over the weight limit.

However, 40-year-old No.1 contender Romero - winner of a wrestling silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, has been given first crack at dethroning Whittaker.

The Australian hasn't had a UFC fight since their first bout, which he won despite suffering an injury in that contest, but he qualified last November for the Commonwealth Games team.

New Zealand-born Whittaker is No.11 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings.Social Services Minister Dan Tehan has declared nothing off limits in a Productivity Commission inquiry into the funding of child protection services in the Northern Territory.

The inquiry comes a month after NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he wouldn't co-operate with the process and instructed public servants not to co-operate.

Mr Tehan announced the audit on Thursday after meeting in Darwin with his NT counterparts.

He said Mr Gunner's comments were made during the "environment" of the Council of Australian Governments.

He praised the chief minister's constructive and positive attitude to the audit on Thursday.

"We both agreed that getting this right, so we are getting outcomes on the ground, is just so important," Mr Tehan told Sky News.

He said the review, a recommendation from the royal commission, will identify duplication and inefficiencies and set the groundwork to have a coordinated approach to funding.Hollywood meets Capital Hill for this year's Sydney Writers' Festival with Julia Gillard and Call Me by Your Name author, Andre Aciman, leading the names in the event's line-up.

While Aciman brings the glamour of the Academy Award-winning film, based on his 2007 coming-of-age book, Gillard will provide some insight into power and gender in one of the event's most high-profile discussions at Sydney Town Hall on May 5.

The political intrigue doesn't stop there, with several former senators promoting their memoirs including Jacqui Lambie, the Green Party's Christine Milne and Labor's Sam Dastyari all appearing at various events over the festival's week-long tenure across Sydney.

"Across the 2018 program, our guests will examine power and its adjacent qualities, and its relationship to sex, money, politics, identity, and the state of the world. We'll be making a firm case for literature, stories and public conversation helping resist the pull of a backward-lurching culture," the festival's artistic director Michaela McGuire said.

Aciman will open the festival on May 1 alongside international authors Min Jin Lee (Pachinko) and Alexis Okeowo (A Moonless, Starless Sky) who will each deliver an address on the theme of power.

High-profile human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson will be making an early appearance pre-festival in Sydney's CBD, the week before the event kicks off.

Pulitzer Prize-winners Jennifer Egan and Junot Diaz will be jetting into town to talk about their new work. Egan just recently released historical novel Manhattan Beach, while Diaz has written a children's book, Islandborn.

One man who has been basking in his 15-minutes of fame as "BBC Dad", academic Robert E Kelly, will also appear to talk about his life after that infamous home interview (with cameos from his children) with the British broadcaster.

High-profile Australian authors including Barracuda writer Christos Tsiolkas, Helen Garner, Jane Harper and journalist Peter Greste will also make appearances over the week while reporter Tracey Spicer will talk about her work uncovering sexist abuse in the media on a panel alongside New York Times journalist Jenna Wortham and Washington Post writer Irin Carmon.

*The 21st Sydney Writers' Festival runs from April 30 to May 6 at Carriageworks, The Seymour Centre and various venues across greater Sydney.Today's birthday, March 16: American comedian, actor and filmmaker Jerry Lewis (1926 - 2017).

Jerry Lewis, the slapstick genius who rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, died last year aged 91.

He was born Joseph Levitch in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey.

At the age of 15, Lewis dropped out of school and devised a comedy routine called Record Act in which he mimed and mouthed lyrics to operatic and popular songs. After a disappointing performance at a burlesque house, he became a theatre usher to make ends meet.

In 1945, following a return to the comedy circuit, Lewis met young crooner Dean Martin while they were both performing in New York City.

The two developed a fast friendship which led to the formation of their own music-comedy team.

Their act generally consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around on stage.

The duo became an instant success and in 1949 landed their own regular radio comedy show.

That same year Paramount producer Hal Wallis saw Martin and Lewis perform at the Copacabana nightclub in New York and signed them both to a studio contract.

The two made their big-screen debut in the 1949 film My Friend Irma, earning rave reviews.

Over the next decade, they appeared in 16 films together and made frequent television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour.

But by the mid-1950s their partnership began to fray and the two parted ways in 1956.

Lewis went on to have a successful solo career in Hollywood and became particularly popular in France. His most well-known acting and directing credits include the 1960's films The Bellboy, The Ladies Man and The Nutty Professor.

After years away from the spotlight, he made a comeback to acting in the 1982 film The King of Comedy.

Outside of performing, Lewis was also known for his charity fund-raising telethons and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 2009 he was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars.

The legendary comedian died at his Las Vegas home on August 20, 2017.The widow of a slain political activist will share her personal heartbreak over Cambodia's rapid slide into a dictatorship, at a protest on the sidelines of a special leaders summit in Sydney.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is hosting leaders from the ten-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) this weekend.

Hundreds of Cambodian expats are expected to rally in Sydney on Friday afternoon protesting against Prime Minister Hun Sen's visit to Australia.

Cambodia is on a spiral towards authoritarianism following last year's ban on the main opposition party, the arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha and the forced closure of an English-language newspaper.

The opposition party had been poised to strongly challenge Hun Sen's 33-year rule at the July election.

Ahead of his visit the Khmer prime minister had threatened to beat up any protesters who burnt effigies of him in Sydney.

Protest organisers say they've accepted that as a challenge and aren't afraid.

Bou Rochana, whose husband Kem Ley was murdered in a suspected political assassination, will address the protest at Hyde Park.

She and her five children were granted refugee status and moved to Melbourne last month after 15 months in limbo in Thailand.

Ley was gunned down in 2016 after he had made comments critical of the prime minister's business dealings.

Former foreign minister Gareth Evans, who helped bring peace to war-torn Cambodia in the early 1990s, last week said the "manifestly indefensible" refugee resettlement deal had compromised Australia's response to the Cambodian situation.

Professor Evans said Mr Turnbull needed to be frank when he sits down for a bilateral meeting with Cambodian prime minister.

"The Cambodian government has been getting away with murder," Prof Evans said.

"It's time for Cambodia's political leaders to be named, shamed, investigated and sanctioned by the international community - that remains my opinion today."

Exiled Cambodian opposition MP Mu Sochua said Australia had a legacy in Cambodia and needed to use it to help put democracy back on track.

She called for targeted sanctions against the Hun Sen regime.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop insists Australia intends to press its Southeast Asian neighbours including Cambodia about serious human rights concerns at the leaders summit.An Australian and a Cambodian were killed and a second Australian injured when a landmine was accidentally detonated during a military training exercise west of Phnom Penh, police say.

The Australians were military trainers and another two Cambodian soldiers were also wounded, police in Kampong Speu, 50 kilometres from Phnom Penh, said.

Their names have not yet been released.

Police said the mine detonated at a tank base after the Cambodian who was killed picked up the war-era bomb once it was detected under the ground.

Kampong Speu Provincial Governor Vy Samnang told the Phnom Penh Post it was believed the casualties were shooting at targets around 2pm local time on Thursday when they noticed something on the ground.

"He said they went to pick up the object, a Russian-made bomb, which then exploded," The Post reported.

Cambodia is littered with unexploded ordnance (UXOs), a legacy of three decades of civil war. However, casualty figures have steadily come down over the past two decades thanks to an international effort to rid the country of the blight.

Kampong Speu Provincial Hospital health department director O Vann Then said the three injured people had received "light injuries" to their hands.

"The body of the Cambodian soldier has already been taken out by family while the Australian body is still at the hospital waiting to be taken by the Australian embassy," Vann Then said.

The Australian embassy in Phnom Penh declined to comment. A Cambodian government spokesman was unavailable for comment.

Comment has also been sought from the Australian Defence Force and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.A woman has been charged after a man was stabbed in the back in Cairns.

A 43-year-old man was found with two non-life threatening stab wounds when police arrived at a Westcourt property on Thursday night and he was taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition.

A 34-year-old Westcourt woman known to the man was arrested at the house and is due to appear in Cairns Magistrates Court on Friday, charged with one count of acts intended to do grievous bodily harm.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.A massive search operation will resume at first light for a missing helicopter pilot off Western Australia's north coast.

The marine helicopter had been carrying two pilots when it ditched into the ocean about 30km from the mining export hub of Port Hedland around midnight on Wednesday, with the second pilot found inside a life raft about an hour after the crash.

Seven aircraft and seven vessels searched on Thursday for the trainee pilot, who was reportedly flying the helicopter, and searchers will be assisted by police divers on Friday.Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has hit back at Tony Abbott's criticism of a lack of action against Russia in the wake of the shooting down of MH17.

Earlier in the week, the former prime minister took aim at what he described as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's "disappointing" comments about the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight four years ago.

Mr Abbott said it was "not good enough" for Ms Bishop to argue people should wait for an investigation into how the plane was shot down to conclude before forming views on the evidence.

Asked why more action has not been taken, similar to Britain's expulsion of Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a former spy with a Russian nerve agent, Mr Pyne on Friday said it was quite unfair to conflate the two issues.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced this week the 23 diplomats were being sent home, while cutting high-level contacts with Moscow following the attack.

Mr Pyne says there has been an ongoing investigation into MH17 with the prosecution being led by the Dutch because more than half of those on board were Dutch.

"We have done absolutely everything required of us," he told the Nine Network.

"We have applied sanctions to Russia as a consequence."

Asked about Mr Abbott's criticism, Mr Pyne was quick to point out he was prime minister at the time.

"He didn't expel 23 diplomats," he said.

"Four years later, being an expert on the government's reaction as it should have been four years ago is very easy."

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said Australians should have seen stronger action in the wake of MH17.

"Theresa May has shown strong action in the UK," he said.

"This is the first chemical attack in a Western country for a long period of time and the UK deserves praise for what they are doing; Australia supports it, as we should."

Mr Abbott said it was "absolutely clear" Russia was behind the 2014 attack over eastern Ukraine which killed 298 people, including 38 Australians.

For too long, the Russians have been getting away with murder, he said on Wednesday.

His comments came after New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters claimed there was no evidence Russia was involved in the attack.

It prompted Ms Bishop to state the investigation was ongoing and it was not possible to form a view about the evidence, as it has not been made public.Russia has "no plausible excuse" for the attempted assassination of a former spy in the UK last week, Foreign Minister Julia Bishop says.

She said that Russia was either behind a nerve gas attack on a former spy in the UK, or the country has lost control of its chemical weapons supply.

The foreign minister believes there are global security ramifications for the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripl and his daughter Yulia in the UK last week.

Australia has sent people to Moscow to follow up on the UK's accusations that Russia is behind the attack.

"There seems to be no plausible excuse - either the Russian State was behind it or Russia has lost control of its chemical weapons stockpile," she told ABC on Friday.

"Either way Russia must answer these accusations."

Ms Bishop says Australia will work closely with the UK in the short-term, backing Britain's decision to expel 23 diplomats and cut off high-level contacts with Moscow.

Australia will continue ongoing sanctions, including targeted financial sanctions introduced after threats to the Ukraine in 2014 and trade sanctions and travel bans introduced in 2015.

"We keep our sanctions against Russia under constant review and will continue to work very closely with the United Kingdom and other like-minded partners as the UK's investigation into this horrendous act continues," she said.

But Australia has no plans to introduce a Magnitsky Act, like those in the UK, United States and Canada, which allow sanctions against Russians connected to human rights violations.

Longer term, Ms Bishop believes Australia can play a role in a coordinated international campaign against chemical weapons.Phone jamming technology will be trialled at a NSW prison in an attempt to stop prisoners from using their contraband mobile phones.

Mobile phone jamming, which can stop a phone signal from working, is illegal in Australia but the Australian Communications and Media Authority has allowed Corrective Services to trial the technology at Goulburn Correctional Centre.

The trial will begin in the coming months and will be the second time the technology has been used in a prison following a 2013 trial at Lithgow Correctional Centre.

NSW Corrections Minister David Elliott said the project would be monitored to prevent disruption to signals outside the prison.

"Mobile phones are an important commodity in prisons and possibly inmates organise criminal activities on the outside and also intimidate victims," he said in a statement on Friday.

"The introduction of phone jamming is just one of many examples of how we are investing in the latest technologies to tackle the issue of contraband in our prisons."Women in Australia should celebrate how far they've come since the early colonial years, Lucy Turnbull says.

The prime minister's wife, speaking at a Women in Business breakfast at the ASEAN special summit in Sydney, recalled the days when most people came to the country involuntarily as convicts from the UK.

"Women could be sent to the infamous female factory at Parramatta for not washing their husband's linen or making them breakfast," she said to laughs on Friday.

"I think we have to celebrate how far we've come, but at the same time we recognise that there's a bit more distance to travel."

Ms Turnbull - who co-hosted the event with Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's prime minister and chief executive of wealth fund Temasek - noted the "stronger focus" in Australia and the region on increasing the representation of women in every sector of society and the economy.

Female participation in Australia was at record highs, she said, with 60 per cent of new jobs created in the last year going to women.

Similar increases were recorded among indigenous women.

"The gender pay gap is still there but it's shrinking," Ms Turnbull said.

"It's around 15 per cent now, and we've got to make sure it gets to zero."

The former Sydney Lord Mayor and Greater Sydney Commissioner said girls must be armed with the technology skills and confidence to engage in the "fast-changing, digitising and scientific world".

Ms Ho, chief executive of Singapore wealth fund Temasek, made special note of Sydney's indigenous community - the Gadigal people - during her brief remarks about responsible business.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Turnbull cabinet minister Michaelia Cash were also at the event.

Australia is not a formal member of ASEAN but takes part in the biennial leaders' summit.Zahra Bukar, 13, Fatima Abdu, 14, Fatima Abdulkarim, 15 and Yagana Mustapha, 15, managed to escape the kidnappers in Dapchi

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday visited the northeastern town of Dapchi, nearly a month after Boko Haram militants kidnapped 110 schoolgirls in a chilling echo of the Chibok abduction four years ago.

Buhari was given a red carpet welcome at the Government Girls Science and Technology College, which was attacked on February 19, before meeting parents, teachers and residents.

He told them the military and security services were working around the clock to bring back the girls and vowed to punish those responsible for both Dapchi and the Chibok kidnapping in April 2014.

"This abduction Boko Haram carried out and the one they did before we came to power, in 2014, we will not allow them to go scot-free," said Buhari, who spent 45 minutes on the ground before departing by helicopter.

Some parents were in tears as they begged Buhari to ensure the swift return of their daughters.

Earlier in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, Buhari said he had "no doubt" the Dapchi girls would be rescued or released.

The jihadists are still holding 112 students they abducted from Chibok, which sparked a global campaign for their release. The Dapchi kidnapping has been given less attention.

"I can reassure parents, Nigerians and the international community that we will do all that is within our power to make sure that the girls are brought back safely to their families," he said in a speech.

"There will be no rest till the last girl, whether from Chibok or Dapchi, is released. The girls, like all our citizens, must enjoy unhindered freedom and pursue their legitimate aspirations."

- Mounting pressure -

Similarities have been drawn between both kidnappings, as on both occasions, heavily-armed militants were able to take so many pupils without any resistance from security forces.

Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, was lambasted for his delayed and lacklustre response to Chibok, which happened as Boko Haram rampaged across the northeast, seizing territory.

The Dapchi kidnapping occurred despite repeated claims from Buhari, his government and the military that Boko Haram was a spent force, as a result of a sustained counter-insurgency.

Nigeria's political opposition has called into question the extent of those claims and also urged him to meet parents of the missing Dapchi girls.

His visit to Yobe was part of a tour of a number of states hit by repeated unrest, including deadly clashes between cattle herders and farmers.

On Tuesday, the #BringBackOurGirls pressure group gave the government a seven-day deadline to free the remaining 112 Chibok girls and 110 Dapchi girls or face court action.

The group, which was set up in the wake of Chibok, accused the government of "incompetence and carelessness" and would sue it for criminal negligence if the girls were not freed.

- Kidnappings rife -

Buhari, who is expected to seek re-election next February, said he was aware of "orchestrations by some evil elements to take advantage of the development to score cheap political points".

"The government, under my watch, will continue to maintain normalcy and ensure that incidents of this nature (mass kidnappings) are stopped," he added.

"Be assured that measures are being put in place to achieve these objectives."

Boko Haram has used kidnapping as a weapon of war during its nearly nine-year fight to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.

Women and young girls have been abducted to act as sex slaves and suicide bombers, while men and young boys have been forcibly conscripted to fight alongside the jihadists.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than two million others made homeless in the conflict, which has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the region.A child jumps over a fire in Tehran on March 13, 2018, during Iran's annual fire festival

Four people have been killed and thousands injured during celebrations of Iran's annual fire festival ahead of the Persian new year, an official told state TV on Wednesday.

"Two people died on Tuesday night, in addition to two others killed in recent days," said Hassan Nouri, deputy director of the country's emergency services.

Nouri said some 3,450 people had been injured in this year's festivities.

The fire festival, an ancient Zoroastrian tradition, predates Islam and is celebrated on the last Wednesday of the Persian calendar, which ends this year on March 20.

The tradition remains popular among Iranians, who light and jump over bonfires while singing songs to mark the arrival of spring.

At this year's celebrations, young people set off fireworks as others lobbed gas-filled bottles into fires, causing explosions.

But following police warnings, the number of festival-related deaths and injuries fell this year in comparison to 2017, when 16 people died, Nouri said.Palestinian oud band "Le Trio Joubran," shown performing in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2016, say their collaboration with Roger Waters is a response to US President Donald Trump's Jerusalem move

Rock icon Roger Waters has joined Palestinian artists for a new song billed as a response to the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

To the sound of the oud lutes of Le Trio Joubran, one of the most prominent groups performing Palestinian traditional music, Waters recites verse from Mahmoud Darwish, considered the poet laureate of the Palestinians.

Darwish's poem, "The Red Indian's Penultimate Speech to the White Man," on the surface comes from the voice of a Native American mourning settlements that will permanently alter the land but clearly draws a parallel to the Palestinians and Israel.

"Where, oh white master, are you taking my people -- and yours?" the British rocker recites in the English translation over the lutes and an ambient backdrop.

Waters, best known as a former member of Pink Floyd who conceived the rock opera "The Wall," has long been a passionate supporter of the Palestinian cause and has angered Israelis by leading calls for a cultural boycott.

Le Trio Joubran wrote on Facebook that the collaborative song, entitled "Supremacy," was meant as a response to Trump. They called Jerusalem the "#CapitalOfPalestine."

Trump has broken international precedent by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordering the US embassy's move from Tel Aviv to the holy city.

Israel occupied mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It sees the entire city as its capital.

The Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Washington plans to open its embassy in Jerusalem to mark Israel's 70th birthday in May, delighting the Jewish state but enraging Palestinians who mark Israel's creation as Naqba, or their "day of catastrophe."Activists rally against plans to loosen Wall Street regulations and repeal the Dodd-Frank Act outside of Goldman Sachs headquarters New York on February 7, 2017

The US Senate voted Wednesday to ease banking regulations enacted after the financial crisis that were aimed at protecting taxpayers from fresh economic trauma and new bank bailouts.

In a show of bipartisan support, the upper chamber of Congress voted 67 to 31 in favor of easing some of the regulatory scrutiny imposed on banks in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, while leaving key elements of the law in place.

The measure must now go to the House before it can reach President Donald Trump's desk.

The White House quickly praised the Senate passage of the bill, which it said shields financial institutions from "excessive regulation."

"The bill provides much-needed relief from the Dodd-Frank Act for thousands of community banks and credit unions and will spur lending and economic growth without creating risks to the financial system," press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The Senate vote came 10 years to the day after the collapse of New York-based investment bank Bear Stearns, an action widely seen as marking the beginning of the financial crisis that rocked the global economy.

Democrats were split on the bill, with liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren leading the charge against it and branding the legislation a gift to Wall Street.

Instead of passing what she decried as the "Bank Lobbyist Act," Congress "should be marking the tenth anniversary of the financial crisis by strengthening rules on banks and bankers so Wall Street can never again get away with cheating Americans and crashing the economy," Warren said in a statement.

Supporters applauded the bill for freeing smaller banks and credit unions from onerous regulations aimed at reining in major financial institutions swept up in the financial crisis, and allowing them to focus on community lending.

"Passage of this bill is a big win for Main Street in rural America and our families, farmers, and small businesses," said Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year in North Dakota, a state Trump won overwhelmingly in his 2016 presidential race.New Zealand police say they are investigating a former Russian double agent's claims that an unknown assailant tried to poison him on an Auckland street in 2006

New Zealand police on Thursday said they were investigating a former Russian double agent's claims that an unknown assailant tried to poison him on an Auckland street in 2006.

Boris Karpichkov recounted the incident on British television this week in the wake of the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter that has caused a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow.

Karpichkov was trying to keep a low profile in New Zealand at the time after defecting to Britain following a falling out with his Russian paymasters.

He said he had spotted people following him then a beggar approached him on Queen Street, one of Auckland's main thoroughfares.

"Next what I felt was kind of dust thrown into my face. Then (the) beggar just walked away," he told Good Morning Britain.

Karpichkov said his head soon started spinning and that evening he developed a rash, suffering long-term ill health that saw him lose 30 kilograms (66 pounds) over the next two months.

New Zealand police said they were examining the claims by Karpichkov, who played Russian and Lithuanian intelligence services against one another before fleeing to Britain in the late 1990s.

"Police are aware that Mr Karpichkov was in New Zealand between June 2006 and October 2007. We are currently examining our files to assess what information we may hold about Mr Karpichkov," they said.

"Given the historic nature of this matter it is likely to take some time to complete this assessment."

Karpichkov also claimed on the programme that he was warned ahead of the Skripal attack that they were both on an eight-man hitlist being targeted by Russia's secret service.

Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, were poisoned in Salisbury last week with a nerve agent identified as a Soviet-designed chemical, Novichok.

Britain has described Moscow as "culpable" for the attack, expelling 23 diplomats and suspending high-level contacts in retaliation.Plastic was identified in 93 percent of the samples included in the study, which involved major name brands such as Aqua, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life and San Pellegrino

The world's leading brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny plastic particles that are likely seeping in during the packaging process, according to a major study across nine countries published Wednesday.

"Widespread contamination" with plastic was found in the study, led by microplastic researcher Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia, according to a summary released by Orb Media, a US-based non-profit media collective.

Researchers tested 250 bottles of water in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand and the United States.

Plastic was identified in 93 percent of the samples, which included major name brands such as Aqua, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life and San Pellegrino.

The plastic debris included nylon, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene, which is used to make bottle caps.

"In this study, 65 percent of the particles we found were actually fragments and not fibers," Mason told AFP.

"I think that most of the plastic that we are seeing is coming from the bottle itself. It is coming from the cap. It is coming from the industrial process of bottling the water."

Particle concentration ranged from "zero to more than 10,000 likely plastic particles in a single bottle," said the report.

On average, plastic particles in the 100 micron (0.10 millimeter) size range -- considered "microplastics" -- were found at an average rate of 10.4 plastic particles per liter.

Even smaller particles were more common -- averaging about 325 per liter.

Other brands that were found to contain plastic contaminated included Bisleri, Epura, Gerolsteiner, Minalba and Wahaha.

Experts cautioned that the extent of the risk to human health posed by such contamination remains unclear.

"There are connections to increases in certain kinds of cancer to lower sperm count to increases in conditions like ADHD and autism," said Mason.

"We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies."

- Time to ditch plastic? -

Previous research by Orb Media has found plastic particles in tap water, too, but on a smaller scale.

"Tap water, by and large, is much safer than bottled water," said Mason.

The three-month study used a technique developed by the University of East Anglia's School of Chemistry to "see" microplastic particles by staining them using fluorescent Nile Red dye, which makes plastic fluorescent when irradiated with blue light.

"We have been involved with independently reviewing the findings and methodology to ensure the study is robust and credible," said lead researcher Andrew Mayes, from UEA's School of Chemistry.

"The results stack up."

However, representatives from the bottled water industry took issue with the findings, saying they were not peer-reviewed and "not based on sound science," according to a statement from the International Bottled Water Association.

"A recent scientific study published in the peer-reviewed journal Water Research in February 2018 concluded that no statistically relevant amount of microplastic can be found in water in single-use plastic bottles," it added.

"There is no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of microplastic particles. The data on the topic is limited and conclusions differ dramatically from one study to another."

Jacqueline Savitz, chief policy officer for North America at Oceana, a marine advocacy group that was not involved in the research, said the study provides more evidence that society must abandon the ubiquitous use of plastic water bottles.

"We know plastics are building up in marine animals, and this means we too are being exposed, some of us every day," she said.

"It's more urgent now than ever before to make plastic water bottles a thing of the past."Larry Kudlow may be a trained economist and historian but he represents a departure from the scholarly types normally chosen for the role; he is better known as a TV pundit, having spent 25 years on CNBC

Conservative TV business news personality Larry Kudlow is generally a booster of President Donald Trump's economic policies -- and a man who does not mince words.

The White House on Wednesday confirmed media reports that Kudlow would replace Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs president who stepped down last week as Trump's top economic advisor following an internal battle over trade tariffs.

Kudlow, 70, said Wednesday on live television he too initially opposed blanket tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which the White House announced last week and which have drawn rebukes from Republican lawmakers and sent global stocks reeling.

Instead, Kudlow told CNBC, where he has long been a commentator and host, that he would have preferred to see a "coalition" of major US trade partners confront China to let the world's second-largest economy know "they are breaking the rules left and right."

He said was relieved the Trump administration had agreed to make some exceptions for important US trading partners.

Trump had said earlier on Tuesday that he admired Kudlow but that the two did not agree on all points.

Kudlow will replace Cohn as head of the National Economic Council, a policy body created in 1993 that includes senior officials and experts from across an array of policy areas.

He had once already been in the running for NEC director following Trump's election in November 2016 but the president ultimately chose an investment banker with deep Wall Street experience.

Kudlow may be a trained economist and historian but he represents a departure from the scholarly types normally chosen for the role. He is better known as a TV pundit, having spent 25 years on CNBC.

- A second act? -

His bullish pro-trade ways and comical manner made him a familiar face on the financial news network.

Still, in 2007, just as the US housing bubble was about to burst, he reassured his audience that there would be no recession in the United States.

In the 1980s, he served as White House budget director under President Ronald Reagan and is still a champion of that era's conservative, supply-side economics, which calls for cutting taxes to boost growth -- an ideology the Trump administration has emphatically embraced.

In the private sector, he served as chief economist for the investment bank Bear Stearns from 1987 to 1994.

Two years ago, he supported Trump's presidential campaign, in particular the pledges to renew American infrastructure and cut taxes, becoming an informal Trump adviser in the process.

Married three times, Kudlow has acknowledged undergoing treatment in the 1990s for alcohol and cocaine dependence. He is also a convert to Catholicism.

Kudlow has more than once flirted with running for US Senate from Connecticut but has decided against this.

Visibly moved on Wednesday, Kudlow thanked CNBC, which he said, "gave me a chance after my crash and burn."

"With God's grace, I'll have 23 years clean and sober in the next couple of months," Kudlow said.

"The president and other friends of mine said to me, you have been working 40 years for this. This is the job you wanted," he said. "I said, yes, sir, it is."The meltdowns at the Fukushima plant was the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl

A Japanese court on Thursday ordered the government to pay one million dollars in new damages over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, ruling it should have predicted and avoided the meltdown.

The Kyoto district court ordered the government and power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to pay 110 million yen in damages to 110 local residents who had to leave the Fukushima region, a court official and local media said.

Thursday's verdict was the third time the government has been ruled liable for the meltdown in eastern Japan, the world's most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

In October, a court in Fukushima city ruled that both the government and TEPCO were responsible, following a similar ruling in March in the eastern city of Maebashi.

However, another court, in Chiba near Tokyo, ruled in September that only the operator was liable.

On Thursday, presiding judge Nobuyoshi Asami ordered that 110 plaintiffs who saw their lives ruined and their property destroyed by the disaster be awarded compensation, Jiji Press and other media reported.

Contacted by AFP, a court spokesman confirmed the reports, adding that the ruling denied damages to several dozen additional plaintiffs.

"That damages for 64 people were not recognised was unexpected and regrettable," a lawyer for the plaintiffs said, adding that they would appeal, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Around 12,000 people who fled after the disaster due to radiation fears have filed various lawsuits against the government and TEPCO.

Cases have revolved around whether the government and TEPCO, both of whom are responsible for disaster prevention measures, could have foreseen the scale of the tsunami and subsequent meltdown.

Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed seeking compensation from the government.

In June, former TEPCO executives went on trial in the only criminal case in connection with the disaster.

The hearing is continuing.

Triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami overwhelmed reactor cooling systems, sending three into meltdown and sending radiation over a large area.Surveys show a majority of Filipinos have backed legalising divorce since 2014

For well-off people like politician Pantaleon Alvarez, getting out of a bad marriage in the Philippines is pricey but feasible -- but for the nation's poorest and most vulnerable citizens it is nearly impossible.

That's because heavily Catholic Philippines and the Vatican are the last two places on Earth where divorce is outlawed.

For the nation's 100 million people, the only exit from a union gone wrong is an embarrassing -- and labyrinthine -- process that often amounts to a luxury.

But lawmakers, including Alvarez, have launched a new legislative effort to legalise divorce which activists believe could transform the lives of impoverished women trapped in toxic marriages.

The bill has been propelled forward by Alvarez, who is speaker in the lower House of Representatives and an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte.

In an interview with AFP, he said ending his first marriage cost him a million pesos ($19,200), which is more than triple what an average family in the Philippines makes in a year.

Like thousands of Filipinos, he did it through a civil procedure called annulment, whereby a judge declares a marriage invalid, generally because the spouses had a "psychological incapacity".

Philippines

It requires applicants to undergo a mental exam, testify in court and sometimes even claim they or their spouse entered the union with a disorder like narcissism.

The process can take anywhere from one to 10 years to wind through the creakingly slow and overburdened Philippine court system, costing at least $4,800.

Since 1999 lawmakers have regularly filed a bill to legalise divorce, only to see it languish in committee limbo -- until now.

For the first time ever, House of Representatives lawmakers are poised to approve the bill after backing it in preliminary votes. It would then head to the Senate where it faces opposition from conservative members.

However, the bill enjoys rare bipartisan support, a sign Alvarez says of the urgency of addressing broken marriages.

"It's a badge of stupidity because we are the only nation that does not see the problem," Alvarez, 60, told AFP.

The legislation would allow divorce and exempt poor people from legal fees, listing domestic violence, attempts to engage a spouse in prostitution and irreconcilable differences among the grounds for splitting up.

- 'Not the will of God' -

Not surprisingly, the country's powerful Catholic Church, which counts about 80 percent of Filipinos as followers, has fiercely opposed the bill.

"It is not according to the scriptures, to the will of God and it does not help," Manila bishop Broderick Pabillo told AFP.

The church fought a pitched but ultimately unsuccessful battle in 2012 to halt a law providing free contraceptives to poor couples and teaching sex education in schools.

It has also backed an existing ban on abortion and gay marriage.

Melody Alan says she has endured 14 years of abuse from an unfaithful, alcoholic husband

Surveys show a majority of Filipinos have supported legalising divorce since 2014.

At the same time the number filing for annulments has grown steadily in the past decade, hitting over 10,000 in 2017, according to government statistics.

"Filipinos have become more open. They've been exposed to norms from other countries," said Jean Franco, political science assistant professor at the University of the Philippines.

But with Catholic clergy lobbying and protesting against the bill, its final passage is uncertain.

The country's outspoken leader Duterte, whose own marriage was annulled, has yet to wade into the debate.

Although he spoke in favour of upholding the ban during his 23 years as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he is mercurial on social issues.

A longtime critic of the church, Duterte voiced support for gay marriage in 2015, only to backtrack after securing the presidency in 2016, before endorsing it yet again last December.

He also has plenty on his plate, with international war crimes prosecutors launching a preliminary probe into his deadly war on drugs, which has also aroused the ire of the church.

- 'Strangling, screaming' -

Campaigners say the bill could offer a lifeline to women trapped in violent marriages.

"Divorce is a woman's issue, especially for poor women who are being abused because it could provide them an out legally," Elizabeth Angsioco, national chairwoman of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, told AFP.

Philippine Catholic faithful held a 'Walk for Life' protest in Manila last month

For women like Melody Alan who says she has endured 14 years of abuse from an unfaithful, alcoholic husband, the ban cannot be overturned soon enough.

"He strangled me, pushed me against a wall. I was crying and screaming. I couldn't breathe," Alan, secretary-general of the Divorce Advocates of the Philippines, told AFP.

Alan, 44, said her husband agreed to accept an annulment if she paid for it -- something she could in "no way" afford while raising four kids.

In 2010 she separated from her husband, who now has two children with another woman, but they remain legally married.

"I will file for divorce to get freedom (to say) that this is who I am now," she said. "I can start anew."The purported conversation took place when US President Donald Trump welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House last October

President Donald Trump insisted Thursday the United States maintained a trade deficit with Canada, contradicting official statistics and prodding the northern neighbor as fraught trade talks continue.

The morning Twitter post from the president followed reporting in The Washington Post, which said Trump had boasted of fabricating trade data during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"We do have a trade deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive)," Trump said on Twitter, adding that Trudeau "doesn't like saying that Canada has a surplus."

"But they do...they almost all do...that's how I know."

The United States -- which imports high volumes of raw materials and commodities, including oil, lumber and paper from Canada -- exported $2.8 billion more to Canada than it imported from the country in 2017, the Commerce Department reported this month.

Considering only goods trade, however, the United States did run a $17.6 billion deficit with Canada last year. Trump has in the past discounted services when discussing bilateral trade balances.

Trump last year launched trilateral negotiations with Canada and Mexico to overhaul the North-American Free Trade Agreement, which the president has described as a "disaster," costing US jobs and undermining domestic industrial production.

The talks have been acrimonious, however, with Canadian and Mexican officials rejecting US proposals and prompting worries of an outright US withdrawal.

The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that Trump had boasted to political donors that he had "no idea" if his claims of a trade deficit with Canada were true when he spoke recently with Trudeau.

Trump recalled the exchange with Justin Trudeau in a fundraising speech in Missouri, of which the paper said it had obtained an audio recording.

- 'I had no idea' -

"Trudeau came to see me. He's a good guy, Justin. He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,'" Trump was quoted as saying, imitating Trudeau.

"Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in - 'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed.

"... So, he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.'"

Trump added: "You know why? Because we're so stupid. ... And I thought they were smart. I said, 'Youre wrong, Justin.' He said, 'Nope, we have no trade deficit.' I said, 'Well, in that case, I feel differently,' I said, 'but I don't believe it.' I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, 'Check, because I can't believe it.'"

Trudeau met with Trump at the White House in October of last year, when the conversation purportedly took place.

The Missouri speech also saw the president lash out at US allies and major global economies over trade.

Trump said allies including the European Union, Japan and South Korea, as well as China, had ripped off the United States and American workers.

"Our allies care about themselves," he said. "They don't care about us."

He seemed to suggest that the United States would withdraw troops stationed in South Korea if it did not get its way with Seoul on trade.

Trump criticized other politicians for wanting to keep the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which is being renegotiated at Trump's insistence.

Trump called Mexico "spoiled" and said Canada had outsmarted the United States.Police made a string of cyber-crime arrests in recent weeks

Indonesia is battling a wave of fake news and online hate speech ahead of presidential elections in 2019, as a string of arrests underscore fears it could crack open social and religious fault lines in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

The pluralist nation's reputation as a bastion of tolerance has been tested in recent months, as conservative groups exploit social media to spread lies and target minorities.

Police have cracked down, rounding up members of the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA), a cluster of loosely connected groups accused of using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to attack the government and stoke religious extremism.

Two of the group's most high-profile falsehoods were claims that dozens of Islamic clerics had been assaulted by leftists and that Indonesia's outlawed communist party was on the rise, according to police.

Communism -- and its hallmark atheist beliefs -- remains a taboo subject in Indonesia, where bloody purges under the Suharto dictatorship in the mid-1960s killed half a million suspected leftists.

Gatot Eddy Pramono, the National Police's head of social affairs, has said the group wants to destabilise government and "create social conflict".

Although the Southeast Asian nation has seen Internet hoaxes before -- including smear campaigns against President Joko Widodo during the 2014 presidential elections -- the recent clampdown reflects authorities' mounting unease about their possible impact on election campaigning.

Indonesia will hold simultaneous regional elections in June, ahead of a presidential ballot in 2019.

Last month, the communications ministry announced it was deploying new software to identify fake news websites, while Widodo -- who has battled false Internet claims that he is a communist -- inaugurated a new cyber security agency in January.

- Cyber hoaxes -

Indonesia's problem with internet hoaxes and misinformation campaigns reached fever pitch in the lead up to elections in Jakarta in late 2016 and early 2017, with incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, nicknamed Ahok, bearing the brunt of it.

Ahok -- the city's first Christian and ethnically Chinese leader -- was lambasted by Islamic hardliners after an edited video appeared to show him insulting the Koran.

The allegations drew hundreds of thousands of conservative Muslims onto the streets of Jakarta in major protests, and led to the once-popular Ahok - an ally of Widodo -- being jailed for blasphemy after losing the election to a Muslim challenger.

The Muslim Cyber Army played a pivotal role in disseminating content attacking Ahok and non-Muslims.

"MCA was organising and agitating with this case," said Savic Ali, director of the media department at Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest moderate Muslim organisation.

"There was a clear sentiment about religion in many of its accounts."

The group has at least four ideologically driven clusters that spread inflammatory material with the help of bots -- software programmes that run repetitive tasks -- or by hacking into opponents' online accounts, said Damar Juniarto, Indonesia coordinator for digital rights group SAFENET.

One cluster pushed radical Islam and the establishment of a caliphate, while others supported conservative political and military figures opposed to Widodo.

"They pose a threat to the national election in 2019," Juniarto said.

"What they want to do now, in 2018, is copy what happened in Jakarta in other parts of the country."

- Digital literacy -

Police have pledged to be on high alert for hoaxes, but they have their work cut out.

Some 130 million Indonesians -- about half the population -- spend an average of nearly three-and-a-half hours a day on social media, one of the highest rates in the world, according to data from London-based creative agency We Are Social and social media management platform Hootsuite.

The country was also late to introduce digital literacy programmes, experts say.

"Many Indonesian people maybe think that every article and video on the internet is right," Ali said.

"They don't know it is false."

Indonesia has long been praised for its moderate, inclusive brand of Islam, and it officially guarantees freedom of worship for six religions.

But minorities -- including Non-Muslims and LGBT people -- have been increasingly targeted in recent years and fake news is adding fuel to the fire, SAFENET's Juniarto said.

"This can easily become real segregation and conflict if nobody does anything about it," he added.The border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel is the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops

Israel's military hit Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Palestinians set off two bombs near the border fence, the military said, with no casualties reported.

Israel's military also said it suspected based on surveillance video there was "an attempt" to fire rocket-propelled grenades toward its forces, but nothing was hit.

If confirmed, it would be the first time such weapons were used by Gaza militants against Israeli forces since a 2014 war, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

A security source from Hamas, the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip, said that one Israeli round hit an observation post near the border, causing damage but no casualties.

He said that earlier, shortly after sunrise, there were explosions near the border. Israel said two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated some 100 metres away from the fence on the Gaza side.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts and Israel said it could not say who was behind it, though it held Hamas responsible as the de facto power in the Palestinian enclave.

Israel said the IEDs were detonated "toward" soldiers in a vehicle on the Israeli side of the fence near the northeastern Gaza Strip at around 6:00 am.

"It appears that there was also an attempt to fire RPG rockets toward the force," Conricus said.

"We don't have the final confirmation of that yet, but that is currently our working assumption."

Israel's army then hit what it said were four military positions in the strip belonging to Hamas and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad with tank fire and another with air power, Conricus said.

Israel also warned Hamas not to use civilian protests that occur near the border fence as cover to carry out attacks against its forces.

Beginning on March 30, Gazans are planning to erect hundreds of tents near the Israeli border for a six-week show of support for Palestinian refugees.

On February 17, four Israeli soldiers were wounded by an improvised explosive device on the border, sparking intense military retaliation.

Israel warplanes attacked 18 "terror targets belonging to Hamas" in Gaza in response to the blast, which severely wounded two of the soldiers, and a subsequent Palestinian rocket attack on southern Israel.

The following day, troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near the border, Gaza medical sources said.

The Israeli army said at the time that soldiers fired "warning shots" at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence "in a suspicious manner" but could not confirm Palestinian casualties.

Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. The strip has been under an Israeli blockade for around a decade.The North Korean foreign minister's visit to Sweden could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump

North Korea's foreign minister on Thursday flew into Beijing en route to Stockholm, which could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Sweden's embassy in Pyongyang also represents US, Canadian and Australian diplomatic interests in North Korea, with the country playing a key role in liaising diplomatic talks.

China's foreign ministry confirmed reports that Ri Yong Ho was transiting through the Chinese capital on his way to Sweden, but did not provide any further information.

Swedish authorities said Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom would meet with Ri on Thursday and Friday.

"The discussions will focus on Sweden's consular role as a protective force for the United States, Canada and Australia," a foreign ministry statement said.

Earlier this month, Trump thanked Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven for Stockholm's efforts to negotiate the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested for stealing propaganda material during a 2016 trip to Pyongyang, but who died after returning home.

Ri is travelling with Choe Kang Il, deputy director general of the foreign ministry's North America section, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"We can't rule out the possibility of a contact between the North and the US" during Ri's trip to Sweden, a Beijing source told the news agency.

Yonhap said he was booked on a flight leaving Beijing at 2:20 pm (0620 GMT).

Trump has agreed to a summit proposal relayed by South Korean envoys who met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. But no specific time or venue has been set and North Korea has yet to confirm it even made the offer to meet.The eastern quoll has been re-introduced to the east coast of Australia after a 15-year project to bring feral predators in one area under control

A species of spotted marsupial devastated by foxes has been returned to the wild in mainland Australia for the first time in almost 50 years in a rare and landmark conservation success story.

The eastern quoll -- a furry carnivore about the size of a domestic cat -- disappeared from the mainland in the 1960s but clung on in the island state of Tasmania.

They have now been re-introduced to their native environment on the country's east coast after a 15-year project to bring feral predators in one area under control.

Twenty of the cute critters were released into the Booderee National Park, south of Sydney, this week.

"This is the first time in Australia that a carnivore extinct on the mainland has been re-introduced to the wild," WWF-Australia's head of living ecosystems Darren Grover said Thursday.

"Most of the carnivores lost from the mainland are gone forever, its not possible to bring them back, so this is a rare opportunity.

"For thousands of years eastern quolls played a part in the ecosystem as primarily insect-eaters. It will be fascinating to see what happens when they return to that role at Booderee."

An eastern quoll takes its first steps into the wild

Australian National University researcher Natasha Robinson said the quolls, which tend to live alone, had been fitted with GPS collars so their progress could be closely monitored.

"Over the next three months the eastern quolls will be intensively monitored via GPS tracking and then regularly monitored over three years," she said.

"Foxes, both outside and entering the park will also be monitored and managed with the aim of ensuring fox incursion to the park is very limited.

"This will help us understand how resilient the eastern quolls can be to very low densities of feral predators in the landscape."

Large numbers of eastern quolls were killed in the early 1900s by a mysterious epidemic, and their population was then devastated as foxes spread across south-eastern Australia.

They were last regularly seen in the 1960s in the Sydney region.Public spending cuts have increased social tension and anger towards President Idriss Deby, in power since 1990.

Chad's government and unions have signed a deal to end a strike over austerity measures that has paralysed the public sector for more than six weeks.

The impoverished country, badly hit by a fall in the price of oil exports since 2015, introduced the austerity measures this year to meet the requirements of international donors.

But the public spending cuts have increased social tension and anger towards President Idriss Deby, in power since 1990.

Trade unions called an indefinite general strike in the state sector on January 29 after the government slashed civil servants' pay, and since then the whole public sector has stopped work, paralysing key sectors.

Late on Wednesday, the government and the trade union consortium announced a deal after two weeks of negotiations.

It calls for "the suspension of the strike and the resumption of work" after payments to civil servants, some 31,000 of whom did not receive wages in February.

In 2017, public-sector salaries totalled 376 billion CFA francs, roughly the equivalent of the combined revenue from income tax and customs duties, according to official figures given to AFP.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) opened up a three-year $312 million (254 million euro) credit line last June under a stabilisation programme.

But Chad, where nearly 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, has to make progress in improving state finances in order to gain access to the full amount.An Afghan man managed to escape and kill his Taliban captors

An Afghan man taken hostage by the Taliban made a dramatic escape by stealing a gun while his captors were praying and shooting dead seven of them and wounding 18 others, officials said Thursday.

Awal Khan and a local police officer were kidnapped Wednesday as they were driving in the eastern province of Paktika, provincial deputy security chief Abdul Rauf Masood told AFP.

Paktika is a Taliban stronghold bordering Pakistan.

The officer was killed and 36-year-old Awal taken to a Taliban compound in Gomal district where he was held for hours.

During afternoon prayers, Awal, who Masood said was handcuffed at the time, grabbed a weapon belonging to one of his captors and opened fire.

"Awal Khan sprayed bullets on all of them, killing seven and wounding 18 others," provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Rahman Ayaz told AFP.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to AFP that the group had kidnapped the two men and that Awal had opened fire on the militants, killing three of them.

Awal then fled in a pickup truck belonging to his kidnappers, Ayaz said.

His brother, a local police commander, shared details of the incident with authorities.

The Taliban is often involved in kidnappings of Afghans and foreigners, sometimes holding people for years for prisoner exchanges.President Joko Widodo (C) refused to sign off on the controversial law which could see Indonesians jailed for criticising national politicians

Indonesians could be jailed for criticising national politicians under a new law which came into force Thursday, in what critics slammed as a major step back for the world's third-biggest democracy.

The vaguely worded bill passed the 560-member house last month but has just become official, over the objections of President Joko Widodo who refused to sign off on the controversial legislation.

Widodo does not have veto power over the bill, although it can be challenged at the Constitutional Court.

The so-called MD3 law opens to the door to pressing charges against anyone who "disrespects parliament or its members" but does not set out possible minimum or maximum jail terms.

Indonesia is the third biggest democracy globally behind India and the United States.

Protesters across the Southeast Asian archipelago who blasted the bill could potentially see themselves jailed for such demonstrations in the future, critics said.

"How does the law define disrespect?" said Sebastian Salang from the monitoring group Indonesian Parliament Watchdog.

"It is not clearly explained and could be loosely interpreted as long as it fits the lawmakers' interest to silence critics."

Hundreds of protesters staged a rally outside the Constitutional Court in Jakarta Thursday, calling on it to revoke the legislation.

A spokesman for the court said it had already received three petitions challenging the law, but it could take months before it renders a decision.

Any investigation of a parliamentarian would have to be approved by the House Ethics Council under the new law, which could block probes by Indonesia's powerful Corruption Eradication Commission.

Some observers say the new law would criminalise criticism of the endemic corruption and poor performance among some members of Indonesia's political system.

At least eight lawmakers have been arrested for corruption in recent years, including former house speaker Setya Novanto who is on trial in one of the country's biggest-ever graft scandals.

There have been growing concerns about freedom of speech and human rights during Widodo's tenure.

Indonesia is pushing to clamp down on gay and pre-marital sex as part of a sweeping criminal law overhaul, while the government has used sweeping Internet legislation to arrest people accused of defaming the president and other high-ranking officials online.

Last year, the government issued a decree allowing the country to ban groups that oppose its official state ideology.

Widodo has called for drug dealers to be shot if they resist arrest as the country wrestles with what he has called a drug "emergency".Ankara on January 20 launched a military operation supporting Syrian rebels against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its enclave of Afrin.

Turkey on Thursday said it would oust Kurdish militia from the centre of Afrin in northern Syria "in a very short time", as pro-Ankara forces surrounded the city.

Ankara on January 20 launched a military operation supporting Syrian rebels against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its enclave of Afrin.

Turkey says the YPG is a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

"The circle is closing in around the terrorists. We anticipate that the centre of Afrin will be cleared of terrorists in a very short time, God willing in the coming days," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.

The rebels and Turkish troops closed in on the main city on Wednesday.

Kalin told state broadcaster TRT in an interview that the offensive, dubbed operation Olive Branch, had secured 70 percent of the territory of Afrin district.

The US, which has worked closely with the YPG in the fight against jihadists, has urged restraint and the operation has increased tension between Turkey and its NATO ally.

But following a visit by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last month, the two countries said they would work together to solve a dispute over the control of the YPG-held Syrian town of Manbij.

Turkey has repeatedly warned it could extend its Afrin operation to Manbij, where the US military has a presence, and even further beyond that towards the Iraqi border.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to visit Washington on March 19 but the ministry said the visit had been postponed after Tillerson was fired by US President Donald Trump, who nominated CIA director Mike Pompeo as his replacement.

But Kalin insisted the change would not affect agreements with the US over Manbij that have yet to be made fully clear.

Cavusoglu was quoted as saying earlier this week that Turkish and American officials agreed the YPG would withdraw from Manbij and the two countries' forces would secure the town.

"Just because Pompeo is replacing Tillerson does not mean that the framework agreed on is being abandoned," Kalin said.

The spokesman said Pompeo did not have all the necessary information yet, but Kalin insisted the change was "not serious" and they would lose only "one, two weeks".

The two sides last month said they would set up working groups to solve key issues affecting relations, with the first meetings taking place in Washington on March 8-9.Syrian civilians receive food at a government-run shelter on March 12, 2018 after they were evacuated by the army from areas of Eastern Ghouta recaptured from the rebels

Thousands escaped Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta into government-held territory on Thursday, AFP correspondents on both sides said, the largest numbers since the regime assault on the enclave began.

Residents, most of them women and children, were seen fleeing on foot, in cars and on motorcycles via the town of Hammuriyeh, where the Syrian army had opened a corridor after a late-night advance.

They reached a regime-held checkpoint in Adra with stuffed duffle bags and suitcases.

Syrian troops have seized more than 60 percent of Ghouta from rebel groups since launching their assault nearly a month ago, and have split remaining opposition territory into three pockets.

Late Wednesday, they carried out a fierce bombardment and ground assault on the southern pocket, seizing the eastern half of the town of Hammuriyeh, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

That allowed them to open up a corridor for residents to leave into regime-held territory.

More than 3,000 people fled on Thursday, the Britain-based Observatory said, in "the largest displacement since the beginning of the assault on Ghouta."African migrants protest against Israel's controversial new policy of expelling or imprisoning them

Israel has closed a desert detention centre for migrants as part of a controversial plan for the mass expulsion of thousands of Eritreans and Sudanese who entered the country illegally, officials said Thursday.

Immigration authority spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP that the Holot facility closed the previous afternoon, ahead of a midnight deadline.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January announced implementation of the programme to remove migrants, giving them a choice between leaving voluntarily or facing indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

Since then some Holot inmates have been transferred to the nearby Saharonim prison.

Others who had submitted asylum requests before January 1 were released pending a decision, Haaretz newspaper reported.

Haddad said that 300 had been freed after agreeing to leave the Jewish state.

Those set free were barred from living or working in seven cities with high migrant populations, including Tel Aviv -- where most are concentrated -- Jerusalem and the Red Sea resort of Eilat, she said.

According to interior ministry figures, there are currently some 42,000 African migrants in Israel, half of them children, women or men with families, who are not facing immediate deportation.

Holot, an open facility where inmates were free to leave during the day but had to return at night, was opened in 2013 with the aim of siphoning migrants away from the cities, the immigration authority says.

As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment if returned to their homelands, Israel is offering to relocate them to an unnamed African country, which deportees and aid workers say is Rwanda or Uganda.

Migrants began entering Israel through what was then a porous Egyptian border in 2007. The border has since been strengthened, all but ending illegal crossings.

Israel's deportation or imprisonment plan has drawn criticism from the United Nations refugee agency as well as from some Israelis and rights activists.

Israeli officials say that no one they classify as a refugee or asylum seeker will be deported, though the process of granting asylum has been criticised as extremely slow and biased against claims.

Only a handful of asylum claims have been approved in recent years.Eastern Ghouta has been suffering a five-year siege by Syrian troops that has left its 400,000 residents faced with starvation

The Red Cross said Thursday its president had travelled with a convoy carrying desperately needed food into Syria's rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

Hunger-stricken residents in Ghouta's largest town, Douma, received food aid Thursday from a 25-truck aid convoy, carrying enough supplies to feed 26,100 people for a month.

In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its president "Peter Maurer is travelling with the convoy to see first-hand the process of delivering the assistance and to talk with residents".

A spokeswoman told AFP this was the first time the ICRC chief had travelled with such an aid convoy.

"Over the last seven years the fighting has extracted an immensely painful human toll. We must find a way to lessen the suffering," Maurer said in the statement.

"There are three crucial issues to improve: humanitarian access, the protection of civilians, and the humane treatment of detainees," he said.

"How long will the powers behind the fighting allow it to drag on? A war of vengeance is a war without end; it's one in which everybody loses," he added.

Eastern Ghouta has been suffering a devastating five-year siege imposed by government troops that has left its 400,000 residents struggling to find food and its hospitals crippled by shortages.

Thursday's aid operation came after two consecutive days of medical evacuations from Douma, which saw dozens of civilians bussed out to receive treatment in Damascus.

It also happened as Syria's war entered its eighth year with the regime pursuing a relentless assault on the rebel enclave near Damascus.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted on March 15 seven years ago with protests against President Bashar al-Assad.The Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria (COI) says Syrian government troops and associated militias have repeatedly carried out atrocities

Syrian troops and government-linked militia have systematically used rape and sexual violence against civilians, atrocities that amount to crimes against humanity, a UN-backed inquiry said Thursday.

Rebel fighters have committed similar violations, amounting to war crimes, but at a rate "considerably less common than rape by government forces and associated militia", the Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria (COI) said in a new report.

The findings, submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, are based on 454 interviews with sources that include survivors, eye witnesses and medical workers. The Damascus government has never granted COI investigators access to Syria.

Overall, the report adds to the overwhelming accounts of hellish suffering endured by Syrian civilians during the conflict that has claimed more than 350,000 lives as it enters its eighth year.

A woman from Syria's third city of Homs told COI investigators that in 2012 "government forces entered her home and raped her daughter in front of her and her husband before shooting the daughter and the father", the report said.

"The mother was then raped by two soldiers," it added, in one of many examples of extreme violence.

Checkpoints controlled by the government or its allies, as well as detention centres, were identified as a main areas where sexual violence was perpetrated.

The COI notes that government troops detained "thousands of women and girls" from 2011 to the end of 2017, the period covered in the report.

"During interrogation, women and girls... were beaten with pipes while hanging from the ceiling and electrocuted on their breasts and vaginas," it said.

While women have been the most frequent victims of rape, sexual violence against men and children -- girls and boys -- was also documented.

The COI found that "rapes and other acts of sexual violence carried out by government forces and associated militias during ground operations, house raids, at checkpoints, and during detention formed part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, and amount to crimes against humanity."

In contrast, it found "no evidence of a systematic practice or policy on the part of armed (rebel) groups to use sexual and gender-based violence to instil fear, extract information, or enforce loyalty," even if the opposition members have repeatedly committed sexual violence.

That finding does not apply to the Islamic State group, whose widespread atrocities including sexual violence have been separately documented by the COI.Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday WishesThe hospital blaze was the worst fire disaster in South Korea since 2003

South Korean prosecutors have indicted 12 people over a devastating hospital fire that left 50 dead and more than 100 injured in January, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday.

Fire ripped through the Sejong hospital in the southeast city of Miryang on January 26, sending toxic fumes sweeping through the six-storey building in South Korea's worst fire disaster since 2003.

Those indicted include hospital executives and government officials who were directly or indirectly responsible for the blaze, prosecutors said, according to Yonhap.

The hospital had not undergone a full inspection of its wiring in 26 years, the prosecutors said.

Preliminary inspections after the disaster had suggested possible defects in wiring in the ceiling of what used to be an office pantry.

The hospital had 95 beds but no sprinkler system as it was not large enough to be required to do so under fire-prevention regulations.

While South Korea has risen to become the world's 11th-largest economy, some of its infrastructure was built rapidly and it has a history of preventable disasters.Semi-autonomous Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997

Britain warned Thursday of "increasing pressure" on Hong Kong from an assertive Beijing after a raft of jailings of democracy activists and the disqualification of rebel lawmakers from the city's legislature.

The comments come after President Xi Jinping was given a lifetime mandate as leader, signalling a harder line on any challenges to Chinese sovereignty across its territories.

Since being handed back to China by Britain in 1997 semi-autonomous Hong Kong has enjoyed rights unseen on the mainland, such as freedom of speech and an independent judiciary.

But there are increasing concerns those liberties are under threat.

Britain's foreign secretary Boris Johnson said the denial of entry to Hong Kong in October of British human rights activist Benedict Rogers had fuelled the UK's concern.

"Beijing's involvement in this case has strengthened our view that Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy is under increasing pressure," Johnson said in the UK's regular six-monthly report on the city.

He also emphasised the importance of a free and fair judiciary after the jailings of leading pro-democracy activists on protest-related charges and the ousting from the legislature of four rebel lawmakers after an intervention from Beijing.

Johnson said that while the judiciary "remains in high esteem" it was vital the government was "seen to use the system fairly in all cases".

Hong Kong has come under increased pressure from Beijing since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 brought parts of the city to a standstill.

The rallies failed to win political reform and since then activists have emerged calling for self-determination or full independence from China, infuriating Beijing.

Johnson reiterated Britain's opposition to the notion of independence for Hong Kong, saying it was not a "viable option" within the semi-autonomous deal enshrined in the handover agreement.

However he urged the local government and Chinese authorities to respect the city's mini-constitution.

Plans to bring part of a new Hong Kong railway station under mainland law have been called unconstitutional by critics, who say authorities are bypassing the proper legal procedures to push through Beijing-backed initiatives.

"I believe it is vital that Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy is and is seen to be respected in full, allowing the people of Hong Kong and its authorities to tackle important issues for themselves," Johnson said.Thirty-four people were killed on August 16 2012 when police opened fire on striking miners at the Marikana platinum mine (file picture)

Nine police officers appeared in a South African court Thursday over the deaths of three miners in the days before the 2012 Marikana massacre, when 34 striking workers were shot dead.

They are the first officers to be in court over the traumatic events of nearly six years ago, when police broke up a wildcat strike that had turned violent at the Marikana platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg.

The officers, who were granted bail by the court in Rustenburg, face charges of murder, attempted murder and subverting the course of justice.

The charges arise from killings on August 13 2012, three days before police opened fire on a group of workers shooting the 34 miners.

In documents read out in court Thursday, the prosecution said police fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of striking miners that was trying to prevent other workers from reporting for duty.

"Pandemonium ensued, resulting in the violent confrontation between the police and miners," prosecutors said.

Three miners and two police officers were killed.

The prosecution said the miners had "posed no danger" to the police at the time.

Three days later, 34 miners were gunned down in slayings that were the worst incident of police violence in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Other charges against officers in court on Thursday relate to the failure to disclose a body of a miner in a police van on the day of massacre.

The official inquiry established by then president Jacob Zuma put much of the blame for the deaths on police tactics used to disperse the 3,000 strikers.

Survivors and families of the dead have campaigned for justice, demanding that police officers face the court.

South Africa's new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, last month said he wanted "healing and atonement" over the massacre.

Ramaphosa has been dogged by allegations that he was partly responsible for the slayings.

At the time, he was a non-executive director of Lonmin, the mine owner, and had called for police to take action against the miners.The funding shortfall could see around 700 UN-run schools, like this one in Gaza City, shut down if there is no new funding by summer

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has until the summer to secure new funding after only managing to partially cover a near-half-a-billion shortfall at a summit in Rome, the organisation's head said Thursday.

Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Pierre Krahenbuhl said that the body, which came to the meeting looking for $446 million (361 million euros) after major donor Washington slashed its 2018 funding, received pledges amounting to $100 million.

"It's a first step towards closing the entire shortfall," said Krahenbuhl. "There is an absolute imperative to mobilise the rest of the money.

"We can't go back to our students and say 'this was one step and let's leave it at that'."

Krahenbuhl said the new funds came from Qatar, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, Mexico and India, with an unspecified additional contribution from France pushing the donations "close to the $100 million mark."

The 52-year-old also said that other countries which had not pledged money on Thursday had promised to work towards giving more in the future.

- US won't budge -

But he said there had been no movement from the US, which has cut the $360 million offered in 2017 to a commitment of just $60 million this year.

That leaves UNRWA scrambling for the $346 million it needs to guarantee services until the end of the year.

Krahenbuhl said the funding raised on Thursday would tide the agency for another few months.

"It will take us into the summer," he said.

UNRWA was established after the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, when around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled.

The agency offers vital support for these refugees and their descendants in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, claiming to reach more than five million people.

It employs more than 30,000 people, most of them Palestinians, and relies on the United States for around 30 percent of its funding.

But with the administration of US President Donald Trump drastically cutting its contribution, the jobs and the frontline services it provides are at risk of closure.

The US has frozen two planned payments worth more than $100 million -- one for UNRWA's central budget and one for food aid.

- 'Critical services at risk' -

UNRWA's funding shortfall is likely to affect sanitation, medicine and food security for 1.7 million Palestinian refugees, the UN has warned

The American decision to cut funding came after a Palestinian boycott of Trump's administration sparked by his December recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, with the president pushing them to end that boycott.

On Thursday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that without an injection of funds, "critical services could be reduced or eliminated entirely."

Among the services likely to be affected are around 700 schools in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the region that provide education to over 500,000 students, Guterres said.

It will also affect sanitation, medicine, microfinance and food security for 1.7 million refugees "in abject poverty" or affected by conflict.

"This would have severe impacts -- a cascade of problems that could push the suffering in disastrous and unpredictable directions," he said.Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, escorted by bodyguards, is greeted by police forces of the Islamist Hamas movement upon his arrival in Gaza City on March 13, 2018

Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah survived an apparent assassination attempt in Hamas-ruled Gaza this week when a roadside bomb blew up near his convoy.

The blast came as an October reconciliation agreement aimed at ending a decade-long split between Islamist movement Hamas and Fatah, which dominates Hamdallah's government, edged towards collapse.

Here is what is known about the incident so far and the potential impact it could have:

What happened?

On Tuesday, Hamdallah was beginning a rare visit to the Gaza Strip when an explosion rocked his convoy, leaving him uninjured but lightly wounding six security guards.

The roadside bomb, believed to have weighed around 15 kilogrammes (33 pounds), exploded a few hundred metres from the border with Israel, shortly after Hamdallah's convoy entered the territory. A second bomb failed to explode, officials said.

Who was behind it?

The short answer is that it's not clear -- there has been no claim of responsibility.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas immediately said Hamas was responsible, since it is in charge of security in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing the group of directly carrying it out.

Hamas in turn blamed Israel, which has assassinated multiple Palestinian leaders over the decades.

Other suspects include smaller, more radical Islamist groups that operate in Gaza but are opposed to Hamas.

A senior Hamas official narrowly survived an assassination attempt in October, believed to be the work of jihadists.

The attack could also have been the work of hardline Hamas factions opposed to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas said it had launched an investigation into the attack, detaining a number of suspects.

Why was it a rare visit?

Gaza, with its two million residents, forms a large part of the Palestinian territories.

But since Hamas seized control in 2007, the internationally-recognised government headed by Hamdallah has had only nominal power in the Strip.

Hamas controls the police, security and other government services, while Abbas's administration is based in the West Bank. Its ministers visit only sporadically.

In October, Hamas agreed to hand Gaza back to Abbas's Palestinian Authority in an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal which has since faltered.

Key sticking points include the fate of Hamas's vast armed wing, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008, and the future of tens of thousands of civil servants.

Little progress has been made in recent months.

Does this destroy reconciliation?

Hamdallah's attempted assassination could prove a fatal blow for any remaining hope of a negotiated handover of power.

After the attack, Hamdallah said he still wanted reconciliation. But a senior Palestinian official told AFP that Abbas has suspended all official visits to Gaza for fear of further attacks.

That could further complicate aid programmes in the desperately poor enclave.

Israel has blockaded Gaza for a decade, its economy has slumped and residents currently receive only a few hours of electricity a day.

Western governments for the most part do not communicate with Hamas, so those who want to support Gaza do so through Hamdallah's government.

His visit Tuesday was to open a wastewater treatment facility paid for by international donors.

Does it increase the risk of violence?

Gaza's neighbours Egypt and Israel have expressed concern about the situation in Gaza in recent months, as fears grow that the deteriorating situation could lead to another round of conflict.

Neither has opened its border, however.

This week the US government held a meeting in Washington to discuss the future of Gaza -- without any Palestinian representatives.

It did not invite Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, while Abbas and his officials are boycotting Trump's administration over his controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Global powers are meeting in Rome Thursday to try to raise money for the UN's agency for Palestinians refugees, which faces a desperate shortage after the US froze tens of millions of dollars in funds.

US President Donald Trump is expected to launch a proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace in the coming weeks.

The contents have been kept secret but Hamas has already rejected it, accusing his administration of pro-Israel bias.

Any peace plan would likely be stillborn if it does not find a solution to the issues of Gaza and Hamas.Pedestrians walk past the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square -- one of the more than 700 stores that will close across the US

Toys 'R' Us, the iconic retail chain that has captivated American kids for generations, has announced plans to shut all of its US stores, becoming one of the biggest casualties of the retail shakeout amid the rise of e-commerce.

The debt-plagued company announced in the early hours of Thursday that it has filed a motion for bankruptcy court approval to liquidate its US operations, a move that could hit 33,000 jobs.

"This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years," chief executive Dave Brandon said in a statement.

"I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the company's US operations."

The chain will shutter all 735 stores remaining in the United States, it said in a statement -- down from the 881 it listed just last month. For shoppers, the company says gift cards will be honored for 30 days.

"It's like an end of an era," said one Brooklyn resident, who identified himself as Jorardo, shopping at the store in New York's Times Square.

"It was not all about shopping -- it was about the experience."

The privately-held company says it is exploring a plan to sell 200 top-performing US stores in a package deal with its Canadian division.

That scenario could potentially keep the Toys 'R' Us brand alive, but in a much reduced form compared with its pre-Internet heyday, when it thrilled generations of children with its well-stocked aisles and its friendly mascot, Geoffrey the giraffe.

"The brand name itself still resonates -- it had been the largest specialty toy retailer for years," said Joe Feldman, senior managing director of Telsey Advisory Group, a consultancy.

"It's just that people found that type of product for less money at Amazon and Walmart and Target and so on, and then with $5 billion in debt, it really weighed on them."

- Post-war growth -

Started in 1948 by World War II veteran Charles Lazarus at a single store in the US capital Washington, called "Children's Bargain Town," the company began calling itself Toys 'R' Us in 1957 and went public in 1978 after a period of heavy growth.

It remained a retail force through the 1980s, but its star began to fade in the 1990s as big box stores such as Walmart and Target began selling more toys -- at lower prices.

In 2005, it yielded to the pressure, and was taken private by a consortium of investors that included the KKR Group and Bain Capital -- a move that saddled the company with billions of dollars of debt.

E-commerce dominates toy market

More recently, Toys 'R' Us has been buffeted by the competition from Amazon and other online vendors, which has generated bankruptcies across the retail sector and created a generation of "dead malls" nationwide, amid a shift away from brick-and-mortar to click-and-deliver.

In September, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, hoping to reorganize $5 billion in long-term debt.

Brandon said that for the holidays, the company wanted to continue to "put huge smiles on children's faces."

But the Christmas shopping season came in "well below worst case projections," with operating earnings lagging that of the prior two seasons by $260 million, the company said in a bankruptcy court filing.

Factors contributing to the bad performance included a drop in toy and gift card sales after the bankruptcy filing and the aggressive moves of competitors who priced toys "at low-margins or as loss-leaders; prices at which the debtors could not compete because they rely exclusively on toys for profit," the filing said.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, blamed the company's woes on heavy debt level, a remnant of the leveraged buyout, and poor leadership.

"As the competitive dynamics of the toy market intensified, management failed to respond and evolve. As such, the brand lost relevance, customers and ultimately sales," Saunders said in a note Wednesday.

Analysts said the demise of Toys 'R' Us in the US will be a hit to the toy industry. The company's sales have fallen in recent years, but still came in at $11.5 billion in 2017, including $7.1 billion in the US.

The US toy market, the world's largest, took in $20.7 billion in sales last year, according to NPD Group, a market research group.

"It's a pretty significant share of the market," said Feldman.

"It will benefit Amazon and Walmart and Target," he said, adding that specialty shops could also do better.The North Korean foreign minister's visit to Sweden could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump

North Korea's top diplomat arrived Thursday in Sweden for talks which could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho arrived at Stockholm's Arlanda airport around 6:15 pm (1715 GMT) before being whisked away in a diplomatic motorcade.

The Scandinavian country has longstanding ties with North Korea. Its diplomatic mission in Pyongyang was the first Western embassy established in the country, in 1975.

Sweden's embassy represents US, Canadian and Australian diplomatic interests in North Korea, with the country playing a key role in liaising diplomatic talks.

During his two-day visit, Ri was to hold talks with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, a possible Trump-Kim summit, and the fate of three Americans detained in the North.

International media have speculated that Sweden could be a potential location if a summit were to be confirmed.

Sweden's foreign ministry would not comment on that possibility, saying in a statement only that the talks would "focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia."

"They will also address the security situation on the Korean peninsula, which is high on the (UN) Security Council agenda," it said. Sweden is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

"The aim of the visit is to contribute to the effective implementation of the resolutions" voted by the Security Council against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme, as well as those calling "for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict".

- Historic summit? -

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho will arrive in Stockholm early on Thursday evening

Ri was travelling with Choe Kang Il, deputy director general of the foreign ministry's North America section, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"We can't rule out the possibility of a contact between the North and the US" during Ri's trip to Sweden, a Beijing source told the news agency.

The Swedish foreign ministry said there would not be any press conferences during Ri's visit but that it would publish a statement on Friday evening after the conclusion of talks.

After months of tension and warmongering over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, Trump has agreed to a summit proposal relayed by South Korean envoys who met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

But no specific time or venue has been set and North Korea has yet to confirm it even made the offer to meet.

- 'Cannot be naive' -

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said the rumours that Sweden could possibly host a summit were premature.

"I think it's much too early to speculate about that ... we're not there yet," Lofven told news agency TT.

However, he added: "If the main actors want Sweden to play a role -- facilitate, be a forum or a link or whatever it may be -- then we are ready to do that," he said, referring to North and South Korea, the US, Japan and China.

"This is such an incredibly important issue. We are a country that is militarily non-aligned and have a longstanding presence in North Korea, and with the trust we enjoy we think we can play a role," he said.

Sweden was involved in efforts to secure the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was freed by North Korea in June 2017 but died shortly after returning home

"But it has to be the main actors who decide which role Sweden will play."

"We cannot be naive and think that Sweden is going to resolve these problems," he said.

Jerker Hellstrom, Asia specialist at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) under the defence ministry, said Sweden has "an important role in the Korean peninsula, both as a protecting power and its contribution to the supervision of the (Korean War) armistice agreement."

However, North Korea watchers should not be overly optimistic about the current tone.

"The pause in escalation that we see right now is temporary," he said, noting that Pyongyang will eventually "need to prove its capabilities in the nuclear sphere."

Earlier this month, Trump thanked Lofven for Stockholm's efforts to negotiate the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested for stealing propaganda material during a 2016 trip to Pyongyang, but who died after returning home.

According to a source close to the Stockholm-Pyongyang talks, the fate of three Americans detained in North Korea is expected to be on the agenda.

"We know these consular cases are of great concern to the Americans, and when there are now gestures being made from both sides to defuse tensions, this is something North Korea can consider from its side," the unnamed source told Sweden's newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter.Russia's FSB security service -- the Moscow headquarters are shown here -- is targeted under new US sanctions

Donald Trump's administration on Thursday levied sanctions against Russia's top spy agencies and more than a dozen individuals for trying to influence the 2016 US presidential election and conducting separate cyberattacks.

The announcement follows a lengthy delay that had caused anger on Capitol Hill and raised questions about Trump's willingness to confront Moscow.

The measures target five entities and 19 individuals -- including the FSB, Russia's top spy service; the military intelligence agency, or GRU; and 13 people recently indicted by Robert Mueller, the US special counsel handling a sprawling Russia probe.

Sanctions were also levied against individuals behind a separate Petya cyberattack and an "ongoing" attempt to hack the US energy grid.

Trump has repeatedly denied that Russia tried to sow US political disunity and to tilt the election in his favor, fearing it could call his victory over Hillary Clinton into question.

The president has also decried allegations that his campaign colluded with the Kremlin -- the subject of Mueller's ongoing investigation that has seen several key aides indicted or make plea deals.

"The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia."

Many of the main entities and individuals hit -- including the spy agencies and 'troll factory' boss Yevgeny Prigozhin -- already face assets freezes and travel bans, either put in place under Barack Obama's administration or for actions linked to Russia's actions in Ukraine.

But the decision heaps pressure on Moscow as it faces separate punitive measures for an alleged attempt to kill a Russian-born British informant with a nerve agent west of London.Peter Navarro rose to fame by publishing anti-Beijing diatribes on trade

A senior White House advisor on trade said Thursday that President Donald Trump would soon consider fresh punitive measures against Beijing over its "theft" of US intellectual property.

The warning raises the temperature for currently fraught US foreign relations, in which Trump's aggressive trade maneuvers have taken center stage.

With tariffs recently announced on major imports including steel and aluminum, trade war fears have sent markets tumbling in recent days and left US trading partners torn between conciliation and pushback in response.

"In the coming weeks, President Trump is going to have on his desk some recommendations," Peter Navarro said on CNBC.

"This will be one of the many steps the president is going to courageously take in order to address unfair trade practices."

Chinese officials have warned they are likely to retaliate in kind.

Speaking at a regular briefing Thursday, foreign minister spokesman Lu Kang said: "History has proven that a trade war is in no one's interest."

But he warned: "If an undesirable situation arises, China has the intention of safeguarding its legitimate rights."

The United States has long accused Beijing of forcing US companies to turnover proprietary commercial information and intellectual property as a condition of operating in China.

The office of the US Trade Representative in August launched in inquiry into the matter in August and is due to submit its findings to the White House soon.

The newly ascendant Navarro emerged triumphant last week when former top economic aid Gary Cohn resigned following a bruising internal battle over whether to impose the steel and aluminum tariffs.

Navarro, who rose to fame by publishing anti-Beijing diatribes on trade, is an outlier among more mainstream economists, who believe excessive tariffs will be self-defeating and trade deficits do not pose the threat that protectionists and trade hawks claim they do.

"I don't think...anybody on Wall Street will oppose cracking down on China's theft of our intellectual property," Navarro said.

Trump himself has for decades held nationalist views on trade and opposed globalization.

The United States on Wednesday launched a trade dispute with India at the World Trade Organization over export subsidies.

Officials say the White House is also considering imposing a raft of retaliatory trade measures against China by imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of tech and telecommunications imports.

Documents seen Wednesday by AFP also indicated the United States has proposed WTO reforms that would punish member countries which fail to abide by certain rules -- a move seen as being aimed squarely at Beijing, which the Trump administration says is not a market economy and should not have been admitted the WTO.Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is warning that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow suit -- just days before he arrives in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed told CBS television in an interview, parts of which were released Thursday.

The upstart Saudi royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler, warning he could sweep through the Middle East like Germany's Nazis did at the start of World War II.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," said the 32-year-old heir to the throne.

"Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East."

Excerpts from the interview, which will air in full on CBS on Sunday, came as the Trump administration threatens to end the Iran nuclear deal, which could leave Tehran free to advance its development of atomic weapons.

Iran, under pressure from European powers to assuage US worries about its adherence to the nuclear deal, hit back at the prince.

"These words are worthless ... because they come from a simple mind full of illusions who speaks only bitterness and lies," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

- Stoking Saudi-Iran rivalry -

Prince Mohammed, the son and heir of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Monday ahead of talks with Trump on Tuesday.

The brazen prince, dubbed "MBS", has rocked Saudi Arabia since his father became king in 2015 and named him defense minister.

Last year, he was elevated to crown prince, and is seen as the effective ruler under his 82-year-old father.

US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on May 20, 2017

His moves have shaken up the kingdom -- declaring a liberalization of social mores from the stifling ideology of Wahhabi Islam, and moving to modernize a heavily top-down economy.

But in a move to consolidate his power over rival royals, he also locked up many princes and top businessmen for months to force them to hand over fortunes and accept him as the country's future sovereign.

And he has also added fuel to largely Sunni Saudi Arabia's fight with Shiite Iran.

He has mired the US-backed Saudi military in a disastrous confrontation with Tehran's proxies in a war that has destroyed much of Yemen, and launched a mostly failed effort by Gulf Arab states to isolate Qatar.

Trump however has repeatedly signalled his support for Saudi Arabia, visiting Riyadh in May 2017 on his first foreign trip as the US leader.

His son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner took the lead in building a relationship with Prince Mohammed, reportedly supporting the political offensive against Qatar -- which the US Defense Department opposed.

- Fast-track nuclear energy program -

But even in the United States, the kingdom's new nuclear energy push has raised worries that, as in Iran, it could potentially underpin a weapons program.

Earlier this week, the Saudi cabinet officially put the atomic energy program on a fast track, saying it aims to lessen domestic use of oil to preserve the kingdom's huge hydrocarbon resources for export markets.

By May 12, Trump must decide whether to stick with 2015's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which removed sanctions on Iran in exchange for its pledge to halt its push toward developing nuclear weapons capability.

Trump has repeatedly condemned the JCPOA, and his sacking Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson removed one of the deal's main defenders within the administration.

Tillerson's replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, is an Iran hawk whose arrival could sound the deal's death knell.

"The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind -- or at least it was one of the reasons," Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday.Civilians move from one place to another inside the Syrian Kurdish city of Afrin on March 15, 2018 as people are preparing for the possibility of a Turkish siege of the city

A Turkish-led offensive to capture the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin in northern Syria has forced 30,000 civilians from its main city in 24 hours, a monitor said Thursday.

"More than 30,000 people were displaced since yesterday (Wednesday) as a result of Turkish bombardment against the city," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"They went to areas controlled by the Syrian regime and to the outskirts of the city" under the control of Kurdish militia, the monitoring group said.

On January 20, Turkey launched a major ground and air offensive on the Afrin enclave, with the support of Syrian Arab rebel proxies.

It claims to have now almost completely encircled the region's main city of Afrin.

An AFP correspondent inside the city saw hundreds of families cramming into the back of pick-up trucks and onto tractor-drawn carts as they prepared to leave the city via the only remaining exit.

Those who stayed behind formed long queues outside shops to buy bread and various food goods in preparation for a fully fledged siege by Turkish and allied forces.

Afrin is one of the cantons in the self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomous administration in northern Syria and Ankara is worried by the consolidation along its border of a de facto statelet ruled by a group it considers a terrorist organisation.A woman stands outside the damaged roof of a school dormitory, after it was set fire in November during the unrest

Cameroon's long-ruling President Paul Biya on Thursday convoked a rare cabinet meeting and vowed to push ahead with a military crackdown on English-speaking separatists in the francophone country.

The west African country has had a tortuous colonial history that saw it pass from German rule to French and British hands and the anglophone minority complain of being marginalised by the French-speaking elite.

"The efforts (of the security forces) must be continued, especially to ensure a return of normal economic and social activity," Biya told the first cabinet meeting held since 2015.

On October 1, separatists declared two regions as the self-proclaimed republic of "Ambazonia", marking a turning point for the country's English-speaking minority, which makes up around a fifth of the population.

The 85-year-old Biya has ruled since 1982 and has not said if he will stand for re-election this year

Biya dispatched troops, combat helicopters and armoured vehicles to root out the dissidents, forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

At least 28 soldiers have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP tally, and two state employees have been kidnapped.

The civilian death toll remains unclear, as non-governmental organisations and independent media are barred from the area.

Though the original Ambazonia leaders have dissociated themselves from militant offshoots -- they claim their struggle is peaceful -- there are a growing number of attacks against the government.

The government early this month created a ministry of decentralisation and development during a cabinet reshuffle. Decentralisation has been one of the key demands of separatist moderates, while more radical activists are demanding complete independence.

Biya on Thursday said this was a "rapid response to recurring demands" and added that "necessary measures" would be taken to ensure that peaceful and fair elections will be held this year.

The 85-year-old Biya, in power since 1982, has not yet said whether he will stand for re-election, though his party regards him as "the natural candidate".Yemenis check the damage after a reported air strike by the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 8 - the UN Security Council says the fighting has left 22.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance

The UN Security Council warned Thursday that conditions in war-torn Yemen are worsening and having a "devastating" impact on civilians, with 22.2 million now in need of humanitarian assistance.

The council cited indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas, with large numbers of civilian casualties and damage to civilian structures.

"The Security Council expresses its grave concern at the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, and the devastating humanitarian impact of the conflict on civilians," it said in a statement.

The statement said the UN estimate of 22.2 million people now in need of humanitarian aid was 3.4 million more than last year.

The British-drafted statement was the product of weeks of negotiations with Saudi Arabia, a leading protagonist in the conflict, and other countries, diplomats said.

The statement required the unanimous approval of the council's 15 members, unlike a resolution, which can be passed by a simple majority if it is not vetoed by one of its five permanent members.

It called on all parties to "respect and protect schools, medical facilities, and personnel."

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have hit civilian areas. But the United Nations also has denounced the use of schools by combatants, often as arms depots.

The Security Council condemned "in the strongest possible terms" ballistic missile attacks in November and December on Saudi Arabia by Iranian-backed Huthi rebels.

The United States accuses Iran of supplying the missiles used in the attacks on Saudi Arabia, but the statement made no mention of Tehran.

Tehran has denied the accusations and Russia recently vetoed a US-drafted resolution that sought to condemn Iran for violating a UN arms embargo posed on Yemen.

"The Security Council calls on all member states to fully implement the arms embargo as required by the relevant Security Council resolutions," he statement said.

- Donations sought -

As it has for months with little success, the council renewed a call for aid organizations to be given free access to the country, notably through its ports and airports.

An estimated $2.96 billion in aid is needed this year to meet the country's needs.

A donor's conference is expected to be held soon in Geneva, and the council encouraged member states to contribute.

In the statement, the council acknowledged "the pledge made by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to contribute nearly $1 billion to the UN appeal."

The two countries entered the war in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government after it was driven from the capital Sanaa by Huthi rebels.

"The members of the Security Council reaffirm their strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen," the statement said.The White Cross Monument in South Africa, where each cross marks a white farmer killed

South Africa summoned Australia's envoy to Pretoria Thursday to explain comments by a Canberra minister who suggested "persecuted" white farmers in the country should be offered fast-tracked humanitarian visas.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who has drawn criticism for cracking down on asylum seekers from Asia and the Middle East, said white farmers could be admitted as refugees.

Dutton made the offer in response to Pretoria's vow to enact land "expropriation without compensation" to redress land confiscations of the colonial and apartheid era.

According to police, 74 farmers were murdered between 2016 and 2017 in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest crime rates.

"It was communicated to the High Commissioner that the South African Government is offended by the statements," said foreign ministry spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya in a statement that demanded Dutton retract the comments.

The African Farmers Association of South Africa said it was "offensive for the minister to polarise agriculture".

"He is bringing a racial dimension into a socio-economic issue," said spokesman Neo Masithela. "Transformation has been extremely slow, it is a very emotional issue."

Land is a hugely divisive topic in South Africa, where 72 percent of individually-owned farms are in white hands 24 years after the end of white-minority apartheid rule.

By contrast just four percent of such land is owned by black people, according to an audit cited by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Dutton suggested that white South African farmers could apply for humanitarian visas typically sought by Iranian, Iraqi and Somali asylum seekers.

"If you look at the footage and read the stories, you hear the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance they face," Dutton told Sydney's Daily Telegraph tabloid.

Another Australian cabinet minister, Steve Ciobo, agreed the farmers' situation was "cause for concern".

"Let's be frank, if we see in this case -- people who are being thrown off their land, being persecuted, I've read of people being shot, rapes, all sorts of different things -- then I do believe that there's a role to be played," he told broadcaster ABC.

- New drive to re-distribute land -

South Africa earlier said that the situation described by the Australian ministers "does not exist".

"There is no reason for any government in the world to suspect that a section of South Africans is under danger from their own democratically elected government," said the foreign ministry in an uncharacteristically blunt statement.

The ruling African National Congress announced at its conference in December that it would press ahead with plans to amend the constitution to allow for redistribution of land without compensation to the affected owner.

"We must -- given the history we have had -- work with urgency to significantly and sustainably escalate the pace of land reform," Ramaphosa told parliament on Wednesday.

The government has not yet spelt out exactly how land would be redistributed.

Botched and often violent redistribution of land in neighbouring Zimbabwe under ex-leader Robert Mugabe left many farms in ruins, and the drop in production triggered an economic crisis that still haunts the country.

- 'Scapegoats' -

Campaign group AfriForum, which advocates for its largely white membership, many of whom speak Afrikaans, said farmers had been used as "scapegoats" for South Africa's wider problems.

"It must serve as a warning that South Africa runs the risk to lose even more productive, loyal citizens should their concerns about issues such as property rights not be listened to," said AfriForum's deputy chief executive Alana Bailey.

In October 2017 AfriForum put the murder rate for commercial farmers at 156 per 100,000 in 2016-17 -- well above the national average of 34.1 per 100,000.

But independent fact-checking service AfricaCheck warned that it was impossible to definitively state the murder rate for farmers in South Africa.

"South Africa is a very violent society and many people, not just farmers, experience unacceptably high levels of serious crime," Frans Cronje, head of the South African Institute for Race Relations, told AFP.

"It is futile and self-defeating to get into a conflict about whether farmers are more at risk than other South Africans."

Up to 500,000 white South Africans have left the country in the past 30 years, according to official statistics, with Australia ranking as the top destination.A file picture taken on February 22, 2018 shows African migrants protesting outside an Israeli detention facility for asylum-seekers near Kziot, in the Negev desert near the Egyptian border

Israel's supreme court on Thursday suspended a controversial government plan to deport thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in response to a challenge from those opposed to the move.

The court said in its decision the state was given until March 26 to provide further information and the suspension on deporting them to a third country would remain in place until then.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January announced implementation of the programme to remove migrants who entered illegally, giving them a choice between leaving voluntarily or facing indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

According to interior ministry figures, there are currently some 42,000 African migrants in Israel, half of them children, women or men with families, who are not facing immediate deportation.

As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment if returned to their homelands, Israel is offering to relocate them to an unnamed African country, which deportees and aid workers say is Rwanda or Uganda.

Migrants began entering Israel through what was then a porous Egyptian border in 2007. The border has since been strengthened, all but ending illegal crossings.

Israel's deportation or imprisonment plan has drawn criticism from the United Nations refugee agency as well as from some Israelis and rights activists.

- 'Infiltrators' -

On Wednesday, Israel closed the Holot detention centre for migrants in the southern Negev desert as part of the deportation plan.

Since Netanyahu announced the deportation plan, some Holot inmates have been transferred to the nearby Saharonim prison.

Others who had submitted asylum requests before January 1 were released pending a decision, Haaretz newspaper reported.

Immigration authority spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said 300 had been freed after agreeing to leave the Jewish state.

Those released were barred from living or working in seven cities with high migrant populations, including Tel Aviv -- where most are concentrated -- Jerusalem and the Red Sea resort of Eilat, she said.

Holot, an open facility where inmates were free to leave during the day but had to return at night, was opened in 2013 with the aim of siphoning migrants away from the cities, the immigration authority says.

Israeli officials say that no one they classify as a refugee or asylum-seeker will be deported, though the process of granting asylum has been criticised as extremely slow and biased against claims.

Only a handful of asylum claims have been approved in recent years.

The migrants' presence in Israel has become a political issue.

Religious and conservative politicians have portrayed the presence of Muslim and Christian Africans as a threat to Israel's Jewish character.

Netanyahu has pledged to "return south Tel Aviv to the citizens of Israel", adding that the Africans were "not refugees but illegal infiltrators".

Those opposed to the plan include Holocaust survivors who say the country has a special duty to protect migrants.Princess Hassa bint Salman lived in an apartment located on the ultra-expensive Avenue Foch in western Paris

The sister of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the target of a French arrest warrant for allegedly ordering her bodyguard to beat up a worker at her Paris apartment, legal sources said Thursday.

The warrant against Princess Hassa bint Salman, issued in late December, follows an alleged assault at her apartment on the ultra-expensive Avenue Foch in west Paris in September 2016, sources close to the case told AFP.

The case could complicate Macron's efforts to build up a good relationship with Prince Mohammed, one of the most powerful leaders in the Middle East, who is due to visit Paris in the coming weeks.

The workman says he was hired to carry out some refurbishment at Princess Hassa's apartment and she became angry after he took a photograph of the room where the work was to be done.

He alleges the princess, said to be in her 40s, ordered the bodyguard to beat him, accusing him of taking pictures to sell to the media.

Le Point magazine reported that the princess shouted, 'Kill him, the dog, he doesn't deserve to live."

The workman says he was punched in the face, his hands were tied and he was forced to kiss the princess's feet during an hours-long ordeal. His tools were confiscated before he was allowed to leave.

AFP reported at the time of the incident that his injuries were so severe that he was ordered off work for eight days.

The bodyguard was charged on October 1, 2016 with armed violence, theft, issuing death threats and holding someone against their will.

The Saudi information ministry did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

- Awkward timing -

Macron held talks with the upstart Prince Mohammed in Riyadh in November and is keen to develop trade ties with the world's leading crude oil exporter.

Although dates for his trip to Paris have yet to be announced, he will most likely fly in some time after his visit next week to the United States.

Known by his initials MBS, 32-year-old Prince Mohammed has shaken up Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East since he was elevated to crown prince last year.

He has added fuel to the Sunni kingdom's fierce rivalry with Shia Iran -- going so far Thursday as to say that if Tehran developed a nuclear bomb, "we will follow suit as soon as possible".

And he displayed his clout back in November when he is widely believed to have pressured Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri into a shock resignation.

Macron waded into that crisis, inviting Hariri to Paris for talks. Hariri has since withdrawn his resignation.

Widely regarded as de facto leader under his 82-year-old father King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince Mohammed has presented himself as a champion of moderate Islam.

He has declared a liberalisation of ultra-conservative social mores under Wahhabi Islam and moved to modernise the heavily top-down economy.

He has also spearheaded an anti-corruption campaign in which nearly 400 princes, ministers and business moguls were locked up in a deluxe Riyadh hotel and assets worth tens of billions of dollars confiscated.

But his country's involvement in the war in Yemen has earned heavy criticism in the West, with Macron urging the Saudi king in December to lift a blockade that has strangled supplied to civilians.

His sister Princess Hassa keeps a relatively low profile, but she is lionised in the Saudi media for her charity work and women's rights campaigning.

Her arrest warrant is not the first time Saudi royalty have had a brush with the law in France.

In 2013 French authorities ordered assets to be seized from Saudi princess Maha al-Sudairi, wife of the then interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, over an unpaid luxury hotel tab of nearly six million euros.The attack left four US troops dead

Two Malian militia groups say they have recovered a US military vehicle and weapons that jihadist fighters seized after a deadly ambush of American special forces in neighbouring Niger in October.

The attack, which left four US troops dead, shed light on the scale of the US military presence in the Sahel and became a political issue in Washington.

The claim was made in a statement released on Wednesday by two armed groups, one of which in 2015 signed up to a peace deal with the Malian government pledging to join its fight against jihadists.

They said that in clashes with "the bandits," their fighters had recovered "a car and weapons belonging to the US special forces."

They want to return the equipment to the US authorities "by legal means," said the statement, adding that the fighting took place "on March 11-12."

It was issued by a group called GATIA, the acronym in French for the Imghad and Allies Touareg Self-Defence Force), which is pro-government, and the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA), comprising former rebels.

The US Africa Command (Africom), asked by AFP, said the Pentagon "is aware" of the claim.

"However, at this time cannot verify authenticity of the claims and are looking into it," it said.

The October 4 attack occurred as a unit of 12 American special forces soldiers and 30 Nigerien troops returned from the village of Tongo Tongo, near the border with Mali.

They were attacked by a group of some 50 IS-affiliated fighters equipped with small arms, grenades and trucks mounted with guns.

Four Nigerien soldiers also died. The body of one US soldier, Sergeant La David Johnson, was not recovered until the following day.

The ambush was claimed by a group calling itself the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, led by Adnan Abu Walid Sahrawi, who has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.

A nine-minute propaganda video by the jihadists showed US troops wearing only limited body armour, desperately seeking cover behind an unarmored SUV while coming under heavy fire.

It raised fresh questions as to the nature of the mission and why the soldiers had been left so vulnerable.Syrians civilian evacuated from the Eastern Ghouta enclave pass with belongings through the regime-controlled corridor opened by government forces on the outskirts of the capital Damascus

Russia is "complicit" in atrocities perpetrated by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because of its "deliberate" choice to violate terms of a ceasefire in besieged Eastern Ghouta, the Pentagon said Thursday, in comments hammered home separately by the US national security advisor.

Thousands of civilians poured out of Eastern Ghouta as the capture of a key town brought Syria's government even closer to retaking the devastated rebel enclave outside Damascus.

"The Russians made a deliberate choice not to restrain the Assad regime. Thus, the carnage in East Ghouta continues. Russia is morally complicit and responsible for Assad's atrocities," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told reporters.

"We urge Russia to compel the Assad regime to stop killing innocent Syrians and allow much needed aid to reach the people of East Ghouta and other remote areas. We support our diplomats in their efforts to resolve the conflict with the United Nations-backed Geneva process."

The 15 UN Security Council members -- including the United States -- unanimously adopted a resolution last month demanding a month-long ceasefire. But it has not been respected.

The Russia-backed Syrian army and allied militia began a fierce bombing campaign on February 18 on Eastern Ghouta -- the last opposition bastion near Damascus -- then launched a ground offensive a week later.

Russia, which was among those voting in favor of the UN text, indicated Thursday it would carry on backing Damascus in its military offensive.

"We will continue fighting terrorists, we will finish them off, we will help finish them off in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army is now conducting operations with our support," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The assault on Ghouta has left nearly 1,250 civilians dead, around a fifth of them children.

- 'Enabling atrocities' -

"Russia is either incompetent, committing illegal acts or both. Russia is propping up the Assad regime, not targeting Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists in Syria. Russia could stop the civilian casualties in Syria," said White.

President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, HR McMaster, said separately that "all civilized nations must hold Iran and Russia accountable for their role in enabling atrocities and perpetuating human suffering in Syria."

Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, McMaster said all nations must respond "more forcibly than simply issuing strong statements.

"It is time to impose serious political and economic consequences on Moscow and Tehran," he said without giving more detail, as Washington faces criticism for not following up its words with action.

Along with Moscow, Tehran is the Syrian regime's other major ally.

"Assad should not have impunity for his crimes and neither should his sponsors," McMaster said, adding that Moscow "has done nothing" to encourage Assad to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid, or to respect ceasefire and de-escalation agreements.

On Monday Washington's United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council the US "remains prepared to act if we must."

She recalled -- as did McMaster on Thursday -- that Trump had ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base in April last year in retaliation for a sarin gas attack blamed on Assad's forces.Syrian civilians evacuated from the Eastern Ghouta enclave pass through the regime-controlled corridor

The United Nations is trying to determine how many people have fled the besieged rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta in Syria, a UN spokesman said Thursday amid reports of a massive exodus.

The non-governmental Syrian Human Rights Observatory said that more than 20,000 people have fled Eastern Ghouta, where the town of Hummriyeh which fell Thursday to Syrian government forces.

"The actual number of people who have exited Eastern Ghouta is not known, as is the destinations of all evacuees," deputy UN spokesman Farhan Aziz Haq said.

"The UN has not observed the evacuations, but is visiting collective shelters where some of the evacuees are arriving," he said.

He said they were trying to assess the needs of the shelters, including the Dwier collective center where the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is aiding refugee families.

The World Health Organization is sending in hospital beds, medical equipment and medicine to the center which has medical facilities, water and electricity, he said.

An aid convoy delivered food to some 26,000 people trapped in Douma, the main city in the besieged enclave, he said.

"However, much more is needed, including medical and health supplies, for people in need in Douma and [humanitarian] assistance throughout eastern Ghouta," Haq said.

The enclave on the outskirts of Damascus has been under seige by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad for five years.

Air strikes, rocket fire and shells have slammed into Ghouta for nearly a month as the Syrian army pressed an offensive against the rebels.Spotify, the world's largest streaming company, will go public on April 3

Spotify will go public on April 3 as the world's largest streaming company lists on the New York Stock Exchange.

Paul Vogel, the Swedish company's head of investor relations, made the announcement at the start of a day of briefings to potential funders in New York.

Spotify had announced the long-awaited public listing on February 28 without giving a date.

In an unusual move, the company is not issuing new shares as in a traditional initial public offering.

It instead will directly list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, allowing its founders to maintain control and avoiding the cost of Wall Street underwriters.

"For us, going public has never been about the pomp or the circumstance of it all," Spotify's 35-year-old co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek told the investors.

"So you won't see us ringing any bell or throwing any parties, and despite the enormous respect I have for the New York Stock Exchange in this process, I also won't be on the floor doing any interviews," he said.

Spotify, in a filing to US regulators, said that it had a 42 percent share of the global market in streaming in revenue terms in 2016.

Spotify has voiced confidence that streaming will keep up its fast-paced growth although the company has acknowledged that it has yet to turn a profit.Mugabe said he did not hate his successor but insisted he would not work with him

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe described his departure from office in November as a "coup d'etat" that "we must undo" in his first TV interviews since then, aired on Thursday.

Mugabe, 94, spoke slowly but clearly to South Africa's SABC broadcaster from an office in Harare, dressed in a grey suit, sitting in front of a portrait of himself and his wife Grace.

"I say it was a coup d'etat -- some people have refused to call it a coup d'etat," said Mugabe referring to the brief army takeover which led to Emmerson Mnangagwa assuming power after Mugabe's resignation.

"We must undo this disgrace which we have imposed on ourselves, we don't deserve it... Zimbabwe doesn't deserve it."

In another similarly vehement interview, with Britain's ITV News, the elderly former leader said he had no desire to return to power.

"I don't want to be president, no of course," he said. "I'm now 94."

Mugabe told both interviewers he did not hate his successor President Mnangagwa, 75, but alleged that he had "betrayed the whole nation".

Robert Mugabe

The ousted leader insisted he would not work with Mnangagwa and suggested that his presidency was "illegal" and "unconstitutional".

"People must be chosen in government in a proper way. I'm willing to discuss, willing to assist in that process -- but I must be invited," he said.

Gideon Chitanga, an analyst at the Johannesburg-based Political Economy Southern Africa think-tank, said that Mugabe's intervention was significant "coming at a time of elections".

- 'The man who turned against me' -

Presidential polls are due by the end of August in which Mnangagwa will face his first major electoral test.

"In the back of his mind (Mugabe) still sees himself as part of the problem and part of the solution," said Chitanga.

The military moved against Mugabe after he sacked his then-deputy and heir-apparent Emmerson Mnangagwa, seemingly fearing the nonagenarian was grooming his wife Grace to succeed him

Mugabe's media appearance was apparently organised by the new National Patriotic Front (NPF) party which hopes to unseat Mnangagwa's government in polls expected by August.

Mugabe sent shockwaves through the ZANU-PF ruling party when he recently met with the NPF's leader, retired general Ambrose Mutinhiri.

In response to a widely-shared image of the two, ZANU-PF Youth League supporters chanted "down with Mugabe" at a rally, a rare outburst from the normally disciplined party that Mugabe led for nearly four decades.

Mugabe was forced to quit the political scene he had dominated since independence from Britain in 1980 when the military stepped in and ZANU-PF lawmakers launched impeachment proceedings against their once beloved leader.

Since his dramatic reversal of fortune, he has largely stayed out of public life -- until breaking his silence Thursday.

Despite widespread jubilation following the army's seizure of power, many Zimbabweans are now disenchanted by what they see as a mere changing of the guard at the top of Zimbabwe's authoritarian system.

"It was a coup with a script to turn this into a military state. The people wanted a change of the entire ZANU-PF system -- not just one individual," businessman Munyaradzi Chihota, 40, told AFP as he travelled home.

"The situation has not changed since they removed Mugabe. If anything, we are worse off. (Mugabe) is 100 percent right that this was a military coup, that this country has been turned into a military state -- and that this has to be undone."

Mugabe dominated the country's political landscape since independence from Britain in 1980

The military moved against Mugabe after he sacked his then-deputy and heir-apparent Mnangagwa, seemingly fearing the nonagenarian was grooming Grace to succeed him as president.

The former first lady had cultivated her own factional support base within ZANU-PF known as "G-40" that was seen as hostile to the security establishment -- Mnangagwa in particular.

"I never thought... he would be the man who turned against me," said Mugabe.

"It was truly a military takeover, there was no movement visible unless that movement was checked and allowed by the army."

Evan Mawarire, a pastor who became the face of anti-Mugabe demonstrations last year, tweeted that Mugabe "destroyed our lives".

"Today he appears on foreign media which he banned and claims he must be invited to a transitional process for Zimbabwe #RetireInPeaceBob."

Reflecting on his decades in power, which were marked by catastrophic economic policies, Mugabe remained adamant it had been a success story and any errors "weren't that bad".

"If anything, in comparison to other countries in Africa, we have had greater prosperity here and people have their land," he told ITV News.

However, when questioned about well documented human rights abuses throughout his tenure, Mugabe appeared more acknowledging of reality.

"We have been accused of that and on that side, yes some errors were done."

burs-gw/jj/jtaSaudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit

Iran on Thursday lashed out at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling him a "simple-mind" after the powerful young royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler.

"These words are worthless ... because they come from a simple-mind full of illusions who speaks only bitterness and lies," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

In an interview with CBS television, parts of which were released Thursday, Prince Mohammed also said that if Tehran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," the crown prince said.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," said the 32-year-old heir to the throne.

Shiite Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia are arch-rivals who back opposing sides in regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria.

Prince Mohammed's remarks were aired just days before he due to visit Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.The investigation into Russia's interference in the US election has broadened, with special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly issuing subpoenas for the Trump Organization to turn over documents related to Russia and President Donald Trump's businesses

The special counsel investigating Moscow's influence on the US election has subpoenaed the company founded by Donald Trump to turn over documents related to Russia, a report said Thursday, bringing the probe closer to the president.

For the first time since launching his investigation, Robert Mueller had subpoenas delivered to the Trump Organization in recent weeks ordering it to hand over all documents related to Russia and other issues under investigation, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.

The Trump Organization, an umbrella company including global real estate, hotel, and golf course properties as well as licensing, sales and brand development operations, did not directly confirm the latest subpoenas, and downplayed the Times report as "old news."

"Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests," the company said in a statement.

Asked for comment on the development, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: "We are going to continue to cooperate" with Mueller.

The revelation comes as Mueller, who is also examining Moscow's alleged collusion with the Trump campaign, has appeared to try to broaden his investigation to include the influence that foreign money may have played on Trump's political activities.

Mueller has begun probing efforts by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner to get foreign investors beyond Russia to provide financing for his company during the presidential transition, CNN reported last month.

The special counsel has so far indicted 13 Russians for interfering in the 2016 US presidential race, and six other people including four former Trump aides or staffers.

- 'Red line' -

Trump has warned Mueller against stepping beyond the original scope of his investigation and zeroing in on the Trump family's business transactions.

In an interview with the Times last July, the president said that the special counsel would be crossing a "red line" if he probed his family's finances beyond any relationship with Russia.

But he stopped short of saying whether he would seek to fire Mueller for taking such action.

Among the documents that might be targeted by Mueller are those related to proposals to build a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow in 2015.

Last year a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that the Kremlin had received an email in January 2016 from the Trump Organization's chief counsel at the time, Michael Cohen, asking for support for the project.

The email was never passed to Putin, the spokesman said, and the project never materialized.

On the campaign trail Trump repeatedly denied ties to Russia. In a July 2016 interview with CBS he said he had "nothing to do with Russia whatsoever."

The report of the subpoena came on the day the Trump administration announced it was slapping sanctions on Russia's top spy agencies and more than a dozen individuals for trying to sway the election.A member of the Syrian government forces helps children drink from a water bottle, during a civilian evacuation from the Eastern Ghouta enclave

Syria's besieged Eastern Ghouta region, the last opposition enclave near Damascus, has for nearly four weeks been pounded by regime forces in an assault that has killed almost 1,250 civilians.

Here is a summary of events in Ghouta, besieged since 2013, as 20,000 of its around 400,000 population fled on Thursday, faced with advancing regime troops.

- Battles, bombings, escalation -

In July 2012, a little over a year after peaceful anti-government protests flared into a full-scale uprising, Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels attack the capital from Ghouta.

Regime forces quickly reassert control, but some areas fall to rebel groups, who set up base in Eastern Ghouta.

The region becomes the target of regular bombings and artillery strikes: markets, schools and hospitals are hit.

By 2013, Eastern Ghouta is under a strangulating regime siege, slashing access to food, medicine, and other goods for several years as the government slowly chips away at rebel territory.

Under a May 2017 deal between rebel-backer Turkey and regime allies Russia and Iran, Ghouta is declared one of four "de-escalation" zones.

But the government maintains its blockade and renews bombardment in mid-November, pulverising buildings and streets.

The regime launches an even more ferocious assault on the enclave on February 18, 2018, killing nearly 1,250 civilians, and wounding more than 4,800, while overrunning 70 percent of the territory in just under four weeks.

According to an AFP correspondent in the enclave's main town Douma, the landscape is devastated.

UN chief Antonio Guterres says Eastern Ghouta has become "hell on Earth", while the UN's human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein says Damascus is orchestrating an "apocalypse".

- Malnutrition, siege -

Eastern Ghouta was once the breadbasket of Damascus, providing rich harvests of apricots and vegetables to the capital.

But siege and bombing have sparked crippling shortages of food and medication. Some food is still grown locally or smuggled in, but prices are soaring.

Following the publication of shocking images of severely malnourished children in October 2017, the UN condemns "the deliberate starvation of civilians as a method of warfare".

The following month, the UN children's agency UNICEF says childhood malnutrition levels in the region are the highest recorded in Syria.

"Eastern Ghouta is experiencing a Middle Ages-style siege," France's UN ambassador Francois Delattre said in early January.

The first UN aid convoy in months enters the region on March 5, after the UN ordered a humanitarian truce, followed by a second delivery on March 9 and third on Thursday.

The same day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says nearly 20,000 civilians have fled the enclave in one day, in "the largest displacement since the beginning of the assault on Ghouta."

Using a corridor through Hammuriyeh newly seized by the army, they flee on foot, in cars and on motorcycles to the government-held checkpoint of Adra.

- Chemical attacks and suffocation -

Over the past few weeks the Syrian regime has been accused of carrying out several chemical attacks on Eastern Ghouta, in addition to air and artillery strikes. Dozens of cases of suffocation are reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The regime of Bashar al-Assad has denies responsibility, as it did in August 2013, when it was accused by Washington of a chemical attack on the region and another rebel bastion near Damascus, Moadamiyet al-Sham. The US said more than 1,400 people, including 426 children, died on that occasion.

The US and regime ally Russia reached a last-gasp agreement demanding the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, thereby avoiding American and French air strikes on government positions.

A UN report concludes days later that the evidence from the attack "unequivocally and objectively" proves sarin gas was used.Prime Minister Saad Hariri, March 15, 2018, at a Rome press conference after the meeting "Lebanon, building trust: a viable security for the country and the region". Paris opened a 400 million euro ($492 million) line of credit for Lebanon's army

Lebanon received increased military support from the international community Thursday with France opening a 400 million euro ($492 million) line of credit to the country's army.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri thanked Paris at an international conference held in Rome to drum up money to bolster the armed forces of the country, long a proxy battleground for its bigger neighbours.

"This conference is important because we in Lebanon were the first to oust ISIS out of our soil -- we were able to do it with very little capabilities," Hariri said, referring to the Islamic State jihadist group.

He also condemned alleged interference by neighbour Israel.

"Israel remains the primary threat to Lebanon, its daily violations to our sovereignty must stop," he said.

Hariri said further discussion would be had to clarify the amounts pledged by each of the 40 countries at the Rome II Conference, which will be followed by two further meetings in Paris and Brussels.

France announced earlier in the month that it would provide 14 million euros to Lebanon's army, mostly in the form of anti-tank equipment.At Toys 'R' Us im Times Square, there were plenty of deals to be made, after the company said it would close all US stores

At the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square, in the heart of Manhattan, all is more or less normal -- noisy gizmos for sale drown out the store's background music, and employees stand at the ready.

But the few New Yorkers and tourists browsing the aisles on Thursday are in disbelief that the wonderland of their youth is closing down.

Toys 'R' Us announced that it would liquidate its US operations -- shutting down all 735 stores in a move that could slash 33,000 jobs, and finally falling victim to heavy debts and the internet buying culture.

"It's like an end of an era," Jorardo, a 30-year-old Brooklyn resident, told AFP, saying he has been shopping at the retail chain since he was four.

"It's like a big chunk of my childhood is gone," he said. "It was not all about shopping, it was the experience, going in -- it was the best place to hang out."

"Where does a kid have to go now?" he said, lamenting that the youth of today will not know brick-and-mortar shops, and instead will turn to online retailers like Amazon.

- 'A loss' -

Signs at the Toys 'R' Us in New York's Times Square signal the retail chain's demise

At this three-story shop in one of New York's splashiest neighborhoods, many display cases and shelves sit empty. One employee doodles on a blank sheet of paper.

Roger Malone, who lives in Harlem, ventures into the store, looking for superhero figures from the hit film "Black Panther" for his three children.

"I am going to miss it," he said. "I bring my kids, my daughters, and they love it."

"It's going to be a loss because they are not going to get a physical experience to come into a store."

The chain saw the first signs of trouble in Manhattan in 2015, when the company shuttered its Times Square flagship, which had featured a giant Ferris wheel and huge Barbie dream house.

The firm then opened a smaller store in the area.

- Stiff competition -

Toys for sale at Manhattan's Toys 'R' Us, the latest brick-and-mortar casualty of online retail

Thirty blocks south, at Union Square, the impact of the online shopping revolution is even more acute.

The Babies 'R' Us -- the baby brand launched in 1996 -- store is nothing but a shadow of its former self, with banners boasting discounts up to 60 percent.

Cardboard boxes litter the store, while some areas are vacant, save for a few stray strollers discounted up to 40 percent.

Employees roam the aisles and chat in small groups, but say they have been told to shy away from media.

Brooklynite Vicky came in seeking a discounted stroller, and called it "sad" that the decades-old chain could not stay afloat.

The Babies 'R' Us store will close on March 31.

Started in 1948, Toys 'R' Us was a retail force throughout the 1980s but, facing pressure from larger stores with deeper discounts as well as the online retail boom, it was taken private in 2005 by a consortium of investors that included the KKR Group and Bain Capital.

The move saddled the company with billions of dollars of debt, leading to a chain of events that ultimately resulted in Thursday's motion to liquidate all US operations.

Back in Times Square, the security guard at Toys 'R' Us greeted shoppers with a smile and a cheery "Good morning!" but admitted the future was gloomy.

"I'm waiting to see what happens," said the man, who only gave his initials, AP.Police block a road near a newly installed pedestrian bridge that collapsed in Miami

A newly installed pedestrian bridge over a major road in Miami collapsed on Thursday, killing four people and trapping multiple cars below.

The walkway, which connected Florida International University to a student housing area, went up less than a week before.

"We have located up to four victims. Four deceased," Miami-Dade Fire Chief Dave Downey told a news conference.

Maurice Kemp, the area's deputy mayor, said the search for survivors had not yet been abandoned.

"Miami-Dade county and our partner agencies... have been working feverishly in the search and rescue mode to ascertain how many victims there are and rescue as many as we can," Kemp told journalists.

"We will continue in this mode until we are certain there are no more viable victims, and at some point, we will transition into an investigation and recovery mode, but we're not there yet," he said.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Division Chief Paul Estopinan had earlier said that at least eight cars were trapped when the 950-ton (tonne) concrete bridge suddenly gave way.

The bridge had only installed on Saturday, ahead if its planned opening in 2019.

Emergency personnel searched for victims at the scene of a bridge collapse in Miami

Isabella Carrasco, who said she arrived on the scene just after the collapse, told CNN that some cars were "completely crushed," and there was "just a lot of debris everywhere."

She said she saw one woman get out of a car that was "just nicked" and rescue personnel performing life-saving CPR on another person in the street.

Another shaken driver, Lynnell Collins, told CNN he was about to make a right turn when "the whole thing really just came down."

- 'Whole thing broke' -

"After the whole thing broke, I was freaking out. I got out of my car and me and a few other people were sprinting over there. We started helping people whose cars were at least half crushed and whoever was easily saved."

He said he saw two trucks that were "completely crushed."

"We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge," Florida International University said in a statement.

"At this time we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information."

Miami

FIU had only recently been celebrating the installation of the bridge, which crossed a dangerous, heavily traveled section of highway that students said had been the scene of accidents.

It had been erected using an accelerated modular building method that enabled it to go up in the space of a day.

"We are stunned by today's tragic collapse of a pedestrian bridge," said FIGG Engineering Group, one of the partners involved in the walkway's construction.

"We will fully cooperate with every appropriate authority in reviewing what happened and why," the firm said in a statement.

"In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before."

"Continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU - so tragic," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter.

"Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected," he said.

Bridge collapses in the United States are infrequent despite rising risks associated with aging infrastructure.

The deadliest this century was the 2007 collapse of an eight-lane bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which killed 13 people.VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican admitted Wednesday that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards.

The Vatican's communications office released the photo of the letter on Monday on the eve of Francis' five-year anniversary. The letter was cited by Monsignor Dario Vigano, chief of communications, to rebut critics of Francis who question his theological and philosophical heft and say he represents a rupture from Benedict's doctrine-minded papacy.

In the part of the letter that is legible in the photo, Benedict praised a new volume of books on the theology of Francis as evidence of the "foolish prejudice" of his critics. The book project, Benedict wrote, "helps to see the interior continuity between the two pontificates, with all the differences in style and temperament."

In this photo of a letter released by Vatican Media, retired Pope Benedict XVI praises a volume of books about the theological training of Pope Francis. The Vatican admitted Thursday, March 14, 2018 that it blurred the final two lines of the letter's first page, where Benedict begins to acknowledge that he didn't read the books and doesn't have time to write a theological assessment of Francis as requested. (Vatican Media photo via AP)

The Vatican admitted to The Associated Press on Wednesday that it blurred the two final lines of the first page where Benedict begins to explain that he didn't actually read the books in question. He wrote that he cannot contribute a theological assessment of Francis as requested by Vigano because he has other projects to do.

A Vatican spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, didn't explain why the Holy See blurred the lines other than to say it never intended for the full letter to be released. In fact, the entire second page of the letter is covered in the photo by a stack of books, with just Benedict's tiny signature showing, to prove its authenticity.

The missing content significantly altered the meaning of the quotes the Vatican chose to highlight, which were widely picked up by the media. Those quotes suggested that Benedict had read the volume, agreed with it and given it his full endorsement and assessment. The doctoring of the photo is significant because news media rely on Vatican photographers for images of the pope at events that are otherwise closed to independent media.

Vigano read parts of the letter during a press conference launching the volume, including the lines that were blurred out. A journalist who attended the presentation, Sandro Magister, transcribed Vigano's comments and posted them on his blog. But Vigano didn't read the whole letter. The Vatican didn't respond to a request to see the full text.

Most independent news media, including The Associated Press, follow strict standards that forbid digital manipulation of photos.

"No element should be digitally added to or subtracted from any photograph," read the AP norms, which are considered to be the industry standard among news agencies.

Vigano heads the Vatican's new Secretariat for Communications, which has brought all Vatican media under one umbrella in a bid to reduce costs and improve efficiency, part of Francis' reform efforts. The office's recent message for the church's World Day of Social Communications denounced "fake news" as evil and urged media to seek the truth.

___

This story has corrected the day in the first and fourth paragraphs to Wednesday, not Thursday.JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Democratic consultant says he is filing a new ethics complaint alleging Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens falsely reported how his campaign obtained a donor list from a charity he founded.

The complaint Wednesday from former state Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple also alleges that Greitens' gubernatorial campaign failed to report the receipt of an email list from The Mission Continues. Temple asks the Missouri Ethics Commission to refer Greitens' case to a prosecutor.

The Republican governor originally denied working off a Mission Continues donor list but acknowledged in a consent decree last year with the ethics panel that his campaign received the list. Greitens amended his finance reports to show the list as a donation from a campaign worker.

The Mission Continues has denied providing the donor list.WASHINGTON (AP) - The message to Republicans from the Pennsylvania special election was simple: Almost no one is safe.

Rattled Republicans were hit with a day-after reality check Wednesday after the startlingly strong performance of a fresh-faced Democrat deep in Trump country.

House Speaker Paul Ryan privately warned his ranks that the election, still officially undecided, should serve as a "wake-up call" as the party tries to defend its majorities in Congress this fall. Democrats boasted optimistically of an impending wave, and produced a new list of races that suddenly seemed within reach.

Supporters of Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate for the March 13 special election in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District hold signs during his election night party in Canonsburg, Pa., Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Rattled Republicans were hit with the reality check Wednesday in the startling strong performance of a fresh-faced Democrat deep in Trump country. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Even as ballot counting dragged on with several hundred votes separating Democrat Conor Lamb from Republican Rick Saccone, it was clear the single, short-term contest in western Pennsylvania had sounded the started gun for the battle for control of the House.

Republicans looking for lessons found several. Candidates matter. Campaigns, too. And fundraising. President Donald Trump can't save them, it seems, not even in a coal-and-steel region he carried by nearly 20 percentage points just 16 months ago.

Trump won more than 100 districts nationwide by narrower margins than that, arguably making them comparably competitive now. Democrats produced an updated watch-list Wednesday of GOP representatives they suggested might want to think about retirement.

In Pennsylvania, the tally of absentee ballots ate into Lamb's lead slightly, though analysts doubt Saccone will make up the deficit. Officials have seven days to count provisional ballots, and either side can ask for a recount. The Associated Press has not declared a winner.

"Obviously, this is a very tough environment for Republicans," said Courtney Alexander, a spokeswoman for the Ryan-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, which supports GOP candidates for the House. "Now more than ever, candidates and campaigns matter."

Publicly, Republican officials sought to downplay the outcome as a one-off that won't be replicated as they protect their majority nationwide this fall, especially if voters start to see benefits from the GOP tax bill in paychecks.

They portrayed Lamb, the 33-year-old former prosecutor, as a unicorn-like figure in the Democratic Party whose centrist views - support of gun owner rights, personal opposition to abortion and refusal to back Nancy Pelosi as House floor leader - would not be replicated in other races.

With so many Democrats revved up to run in so many House districts across the country, both sides are expecting a brutal primary season. Republicans are counting on that ending up in their favor, with Democrats nominating more-liberal candidates who won't survive general elections against GOP rivals.

"The primaries bring them to the left," Ryan told reporters, and the prospect of more centrist Democratic candidates like Lamb "is something that you're not going to see repeated."

But Democrats, and many outside observers, say Trump's inability to pull Saccone to victory, after swooping in for a rousing campaign rally days before the election, shows the limits of presidential persuasion and the GOP brand.

Trump still wows the crowds. But the president's supporters are not necessarily a lock for Republican candidates. Saccone stumbled by relying on Trump's coattails and failing to raise enough money to push his own message, strategists said.

House Minority Leader Pelosi told Democrats at the Capitol to forget about Trump and concentrate on their own message of what Democrats can do for voters if they wrest control of the majority this fall.

"We said it over and over: It's not about Trump," Pelosi privately told House Democrats, according to someone who was in the room.

"Just tell people what you have in your heart and in your plan for them," she told the AP later.

The White House insists GOP candidates shouldn't shy away from the president. Trump's people say he boosted Saccone beyond what the Republican could have accomplished on his own.

"Candidates that embrace the president going into this fall we think will have a better prospect," said White House spokesman Raj Shah. Trump's campaigning for Saccone, "turned what was a deficit for the Republican candidate to what is essentially a tie."

But Lamb showed Democrats that there's a path through Trump country by focusing on economic issues much the way Doug Jones did to win the special election Senate seat in Alabama in December.

And Democrats contend the young Pennsylvanian is hardly a "unicorn" with his moderate views and military background. There are plenty of others, they say.

As House Republicans huddled privately at campaign headquarters across from the Capitol, Ryan told them they need to "get to work," fundraise and not take anything for granted, acknowledging the enthusiasm among Democrats.

Republicans have been counting on the GOP tax bill, with follow-up announcements of bonuses or bigger take-home pay, to push voters to their side. But results so far are mixed. They have few other big-ticket accomplishments for the campaign trail, having failed in efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

To promote the tax cuts, the Ryan-aligned American Action Network has poured $30 million into ads in 40 House districts since fall. More spending is expected.

But even in Trump country, Republican lawmakers are "very cautious, concerned," said Rep. Frank Lucas, R- Okla. "They understand that we are in potentially a challenging year. They're cautious in how they're preparing for it, and they're taking it seriously."

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Alan Fram, Bill Barrow, Marc Levy, Steve Peoples and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Follow Mascaro on Twitter at https://Twitter.com/LisaMascaro

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., meets with reporters following a GOP strategy session, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Rattled Republicans were hit with the reality check Wednesday in the startling strong performance of a fresh-faced Democrat deep in Trump country. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A gunman opened fire at a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital, wounding two men before turning the gun on himself Wednesday night, police said.

Birmingham police Lt. Peter Williston said police were called at 6:55 p.m. Police found two victims along with gunman who died of self-inflicted gunshot, Williston said.

Capt. H.R. Watson of Birmingham Fire and Rescue told news reporters that one victim was in critical condition with multiple wounds.

He said authorities are unsure of the shooter's relation to the victims and whether the victims worked at the hospital. He added that police "still have a lot to find out."

Police say the scene is secure and authorities issued an "all clear" alert about 7:45 p.m. after ordering students to shelter-in-place.

Al.com reports paramedics were entering the building through the same-day surgery entrance and being taken to the second floor where the victims were believed to be located.

UAB tweeted late Wednesday that all surgeries scheduled for Thursday at the hospital where the shooting occurred were being canceled.

UAB Highlands is a campus of UAB Hospital, which is part of the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.AMELIA COURTHOUSE, Va. (AP) - Authorities say a Virginia farm worker was killed when he became buried in soybeans.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch cites an Amelia County Sheriff's Office release that says 30-year-old Dustin Lee Arthur was pronounced dead at the scene Tuesday evening.

The sheriff's office said Arthur was wearing a safety harness and was tethered to the grain bin at the time. Amelia County's director of emergency management, Kent Emerson, says rescuers had to create a way to safely enter the bin before digging to find Arthur, who was found deceased.

Emerson said Arthur was killed as farm workers were unloading the grain bin into a container truck. Authorities said Arthur had been trying to free the flow of beans.

___

Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.richmond.comNEW ORLEANS (AP) - Authorities say the son of a Louisiana woman whose body was found has been arrested.

According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, 44-year-old Byron Montgomery was booked Tuesday on second-degree murder and obstruction of justice charges.

News outlets report that the naked and decomposing body of 63-year-old Patricia Davis was found in a ditch on Oct. 31 in New Orleans East.

Sheriff Joe Lopinto says investigators came to believe that Davis was killed at her Marrero home and later dumped in the city.

The case earlier cost a sheriff's office sergeant his job for allegedly lying about his decision to stop deputies from entering the victim's home after they heard screams from inside, a few days before her body was found.

It's unclear if Montgomery has a lawyer.RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - A city council member and her driver were shot to death by two unidentified attackers on a downtown street Wednesday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city where the military was put in charge of police a month ago after a surge in violence.

Rio's Public Security Secretary Richard Nunes said in a statement there will be "full investigation on the assassination" of council member Marielle Franco and her driver.

Two police officials told The Associated Press that two men in a car fired nine shots into the vehicle carrying the 38-year-old Franco and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes. A press officer was injured in the backseat, but survived, the officials said.

People cry on the sidewalk next to scene where council member Marielle Franco and her driver have where shot to death by two unidentified attackers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 15, 2018. An official told The Associated Press that nine shots were fired into the car carrying Marielle Franco and her driver Wednesday night. He says it appears Franco was targeted. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Both officials said it appeared Franco was targeted. The officials agreed to reveal details on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Brazil's Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann said in a statement that federal police would help investigate.

On Feb.16, Brazil's federal government put the military in charge of Rio's local police amid a spike in violence. So far there are no indications of improvement in security in the city.

Franco was an expert on police violence and on Saturday accused officers of being overly aggressive in searching residents of gang-controlled shantytowns.

A member of a leftist party, Franco was known for her social work in slums and she received the fifth most votes among council members elected in 2016. She was in her first term in office. Her party called for a match Friday to protest violence in Rio.

Franco's last post on Twitter called attention to police violence.

"Another homicide of a young man that could be credited to the police. Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many others will have to die for this war to end?" she wrote.

Police officers work on a crime scene as they stand next to vehicle in which council member Marielle Franco and her driver where both shot to death by two unidentified attackers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. An official told The Associated Press that nine shots were fired into the car carrying Marielle Franco and her driver Wednesday night. He says it appears Franco was targeted. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A police officer works on the crime scene where the council member Marielle Franco and her driver where both shot to death by two unidentified attackers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. An official told The Associated Press that nine shots were fired into the car carrying Marielle Franco and her driver Wednesday night. He says it appears Franco was targeted. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon acknowledged Thursday that budget shortfalls have eroded military capabilities, including training and flight hours, but stopped short of blaming those cutbacks for the crash of a U.S. Navy fighter jet that killed both crew members.

Dana White, Pentagon spokeswoman, said the cause of the F/A-18 Super Hornet crash Wednesday off the coast of Key West, Florida, is still under investigation. But she was asked if there was a link between the crash and persistent military complaints about reductions in flying hours and other training cutbacks because Congress hasn't approved the 2018 budget.

"It's important that we not necessarily draw a direct correlation, but it is important that we have stable funding. That has been our message to the Congress and to the American people for the last several months," said White. "Capabilities erode. And things are delayed."

In this March 14, 2018 photo, U.S. Navy personnel respond to a F/A-18 Super Hornet that crashed on its approach to Naval Air Station Key West in Florida. Both the pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, but U.S. Naval Air Forces reported late Wednesday night that both had died. (Rob O'Neal/The Key West Citizen via AP)

Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff, said military readiness is a key priority, but it's not clear how it affected the aircraft or the deaths of the crew. He added, however, that "pilots are going to be flying more and training is going to pick up."

The Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station in Key West around 4:30 p.m. when it crashed into shallow water about a mile (1.5 kilometers) east of the runway.

Both the pilot and weapons-system officer ejected and were pulled out of the water. U.S. Naval Air Forces said late Wednesday that both had died. Their names are being withheld until 24 hours after families were notified, as is usual in cases of military deaths.

April Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, Virginia, said there have been 25 serious mishaps involving F/A-18 Super Hornets since fiscal year 2008. They resulted in four deaths - including the two Wednesday - and the loss of 11 aircraft. The other two fatalities were in 2011.

All 25 were considered "Class A," which means a crew member died or the plane suffered at least $2 million in damage. There were five incidents last year, the most of any year in the past decade, and all remain under investigation. There was one mishap in 2016.

Phillips did not offer an explanation for the spike in serious mishaps in 2017, saying there wasn't "a common cause" or "smoking gun."

Navy Cdr. Dave Hecht, spokesman for Naval Air Force Atlantic, said the squadron took the day off from training Thursday in order to grieve. Other squadrons in Carrier Air Wing Eight were briefed on the mishap and then resumed normal training operations.

Barbie Wilson, who lives near Naval Air Station Key West, said she saw the crash from her pickup while running an errand.

"It looked like it was going to land on the runway and then the whole plane went sideways," she said in a phone interview. "And then I saw fire and it dropped out of the sky."

Wilson said her husband later told her he had heard two loud booms from their house nearby. She said the plane landed upside down in water that's barely deep enough for a kayak.

"It was just a matter of minutes, and there were rescue helicopters," she said. "You can't get to it by boat or car."

Justin Duane Hults, who also lives near the base, said the roar of the jet's engines sounded abnormal right before the crash.

"They were coming in to land like they always do," he said. "But (the engines) got real loud and then really quiet instead of (the roar) being long and drawn out."

He said he later saw rescuers pull the crew from the water.

Hecht said the Super Hornet remains in the water where it crashed and will stay there until the investigation is complete. That investigation will include a review of aircraft maintenance, number of hours flown on the aircraft, physical condition of the aircrew and their activities previous to the accident.

The aircraft crew is based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

President Donald Trump has tweeted his condolences, and Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Miami emailed his condolences to the victims' families.

___

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report from Norfolk, Va.DALLAS (AP) - A judge has dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit filed by the father of a Muslim boy arrested after taking a homemade clock to his Dallas-area school.

The decision Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay of Dallas means that Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed's lawsuit cannot be refiled again based on the same claims. The judge also ordered the family to cover all of the costs of the lawsuit.

The family of Ahmed Mohamed had complained that the Irving, Texas, school district discriminated against the boy, then 14, in 2015 because of his race and religion.

Ahmed was charged with having a hoax bomb. Police later dropped the charge, but he was suspended. His family didn't send him back to the school.

His case drew international attention, and then-President Barack Obama invited him to the White House.ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Jurors at the trial of the widow of a man who shot and killed 49 people at a Florida nightclub heard emotional accounts of what unfolded that evening.

On Wednesday, 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.

Federal prosecutors are trying to link 31-year-old Noor Salman to the actions of her husband, Omar Mateen. First, they must establish that a terrorist act was committed when he killed 49 in June 2016 at the gay club in Orlando; prosecutors said he was motivated by Islamic terrorism.

Susan Clary, spokesperson for Noor Salman's family, Ahmed Bedier, President, United Voices For America, 2nd from left, and the four members of Noor Salman's family, right, address the media Wednesday, March 14, 2018, outside the Federal courthouse in Orlando, Fla. Salman went on trial Wednesday in Orlando. The 31-year-old is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in his attack on the Pulse nightclub in June of 2016. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

"This trial is about what the defendant knew," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Mandolfo said. "The defendant's cold actions gave Omar Mateen a green light to commit these crimes on behalf of ISIS."

Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was killed by police in the hours after the shooting. At the time of the attack, it was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The fatal shooting of 58 people in Las Vegas surpassed it last October.

Prosecutors said Salman knew Mateen was buying rounds of ammunition for his AR-15, helped him spend thousands of dollars before the attack and knew about his plan when he left the house in the hours before the shooting. They also say she lied, tried to mislead FBI agents and had knowledge of her husband's sick fascination with violent jihadist videos and terrorism.

Mandolfo gave several examples of Salman's conflicting statements to FBI agents in the hours after the attack. In one conversation with authorities, before they informed her of any details of the attack, she said, "My husband is safe with guns."

Said Mandolfo: "No one ever told her about guns."

He described a wife who knowingly went to at least two locations with Mateen to "scout" sites of potential terrorist attacks. One was City Place, an open-air shopping center in West Palm Beach. The other was Disney Springs, a crowded dining and shopping area near the famed theme parks, Mandolfo said.

"What would make people more upset, an attack at a club or an attack at Disney?" Mateen asked his wife, according to Mandolfo.

Salman also knew her husband was fascinated with violent jihadist videos, even pulling their 3-year-old away from the screen, Mandolfo said.

The statements she made to the FBI after the attack will be key to the trial, which continues Thursday.

Salman's attorney, Linda Moreno, argued in opening statements that some of the claims are contradicted by cellphone records and other evidence. She said Mateen decided to go to Pulse at the last minute.

"Omar Mateen didn't know where he was going that night," she said. "And if he didn't know, how would his wife know?"

When Salman was questioned by federal agents, she cooperated, said Moreno, adding that her client never asked for a lawyer and consented to a home search. The FBI in their hourslong questioning manipulated and coerced her, Moreno asserts.

"Noor Salman denied any knowledge of Omar Mateen's plans for hours," she said, adding that agents told Salman that she could go to jail and not see her child.

Her attorney said Mateen had a secret life that involved meeting women online and cheating on Salman. Moreno called Mateen "misogynistic." According to court records, Mateen abused Salman, including when she was pregnant with the couple's child, who is now five.

Salman was arrested in 2017 in California, where she was staying with family, and has been jailed since then.

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron said the trial could last three weeks or more.

___

Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

Jean McCann,left, and Melba Underbakke, executive director, Coalition for Civil Freedom, hold a banner outside the Federal Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., during opening statements Wednesday, March 14, 2018 in the trial of Noor Salman. Salman went on trial Wednesday in Orlando. The 31-year-old is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in his attack on the Pulse nightclub in June of 2016. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Christine Leinonen, mother of Pulse victim Drew Leinonen, becomes emotional speaking at a press conference outside the U.S. Federal courthouse in Orlando about the Noor Salman trial Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Salman went on trial Wednesday in Orlando. The 31-year-old is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in his attack on the Pulse nightclub in June of 2016. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iran nuclear deal was in near terminal condition and on life support even before President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Tillerson's dismissal this week may hasten its demise.

As CIA chief and Iran hawk Mike Pompeo prepares to run the State Department, the Trump administration is weighing a speedier withdrawal from the agreement than even the president has threatened, according to two U.S. officials and two outside advisers briefed on the matter. They were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

While such a scenario is unlikely, the fact it is being floated as an option may give U.S. officials more leverage in negotiations with European signatories to salvage the accord by toughening it. Two such negotiating sessions have already been held and a third is set for Thursday in Berlin.

FILE - This is Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017 file photo of CIA Director Michael Pompeo, as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Iran nuclear deal was in near terminal condition and on life support even before President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but his dismissal this week may hasten its demise. As CIA chief and Iran hawk Mike Pompeo prepares to take the helm of the State Department, the Trump administration is weighing whether to withdraw from the agreement earlier than the president has threatened, according to officials and outside advisers briefed on the matter. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Trump, who calls the Obama administration's signature foreign policy achievement the worst deal ever negotiated, has vowed to walk away from the 2015 agreement in mid-May unless Britain, Germany and France join the U.S. in addressing what the president says are its fatal flaws. These include no penalties for Iran's missile work and support for militant groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

The deal that was negotiated by the Obama administration and six other countries limits Iran's enrichment and stockpiling of material that could be applied to a nuclear weapons program. In exchange, Tehran was granted widespread relief from international trade, oil and banking sanctions. Trump's next deadline to extend some of those concessions is May 12, and he has vowed not to do so again unless the Europeans meet his demands.

Any U.S. withdrawal would likely crater the agreement. If the U.S. begins threatening fines and other punishments for sanctions violations, countries around the world are likely to curtail commerce with Iran. That could prompt the Iranians to walk away as well, and perhaps even restart nuclear activities banned under the accord.

An indication of the Trump administration's thinking could come Friday, when the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the European Union and Iran meet for a periodic review at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna.

State Department policy planning chief Brian Hook, who is running the negotiations with Europe, will lead the U.S. delegation to the larger meeting in Austria's capital. Hook, who Tillerson leaned on heavily for policy advice and direction, could meet separately in Vienna with the Iranian delegation head, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi. For his part, Aragchi sees the writing on the wall. He told a parliamentary committee in Tehran on Wednesday that Tillerson's ouster was proof that Trump would pull out and promised that Iran would withdraw if the U.S. does.

In the U.S., Iran deal supporters braced for what they see as the inevitable. Pompeo "is certain to advise the president to withdraw the United States from our obligations under the nuclear agreement," said Diplomacy Works, a group of mainly former Obama administration officials that lobbies for staying in the deal.

Hook had been tasked by Tillerson with getting the Europeans to agree to as many of Trump's demands as possible, with an eye toward selling the president on extending the sanctions waivers. Doing so would buy U.S. negotiators time to deal with elements of the agreement Trump has disparaged - such as its expiration dates on key nuclear constraints - and missile and terrorism concerns.

With Tillerson gone, the emphasis will likely change.

The ex-oilman had waged an often lonely battle within Trump's Cabinet to save the deal. He succeeded for 13 months. But each time Trump faced another sanctions deadline, Tillerson met increased resistance to keeping the agreement alive.

In firing Tillerson on Tuesday, Trump in particular noted his disagreement over the Iran accord. Trump won't have that problem with Pompeo, who has lambasted the deal on a level similar to Trump, making clear the two men are of the same opinion.

Trump said that he and Pompeo "have a very similar thought process" on the deal.

As a congressman, Pompeo vociferously denounced the accord when it was struck.

"The (deal) can perhaps delay Iran's nuclear weapons program for a few years," he wrote at the time. "Conversely, it has virtually guaranteed that Iran will have the freedom to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons at the end of the commitment."

His stance and position with Trump could give Pompeo leverage with the Europeans that Tillerson never enjoyed.

U.S. officials said American positions have hardened over the past several weeks, notably on Iranian ballistic missile testing and the deal's provisions that allow Iran to gradually resume advanced atomic work. Because Iran and the Europeans refuse to renegotiate the nuclear deal, U.S. officials are seeking to create a supplemental agreement with Europe to address these matters.

At Thursday's meeting in Berlin, U.S. and the European officials are hoping to compare draft written proposals and combine points of agreement into a new document that could form the basis of a side deal.

U.S. and European diplomats say they're closer on long-range ballistic missile launches, inspections and new sanctions on Iranian-backed militant groups. Gaps are larger on medium-range missiles that could hit Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states and on the deal's particulars for when advanced atomic work can restart.

The U.S. focus turned to medium-range missiles after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump in Washington earlier this month. Iran maintains that it must have medium-range missiles to defend itself, an argument the Europeans have been sympathetic to.

The differences are even more stark on the sunset provisions, which are codified in the nuclear deal and which the Europeans and Iran regard as inviolable, according to the diplomats. One senior negotiator involved in the talks said last week that Europe is prepared to be "creative" in addressing the provisions but would not budge from opposing any measure that would punish Iran for activity that is otherwise permitted under the 2015 agreement.WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear almost two weeks ago that he would vote against a bill that eases some of the Dodd-Frank regulations put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. He also made clear he wouldn't try to stop it.

As more than a dozen Democratic senators helped Republicans chip away at the Obama-era banking law Wednesday, Schumer largely stepped aside, rather than twist arms. It was a do-what-you-must strategy aimed at allowing some moderate Democratic senators to avoid the wrath of powerful banking interests back home. But it also split the party and, some argued, muddied the party's populist message against President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm election.

For Schumer it was a crucial test of how he intends to shepherd a deeply divided group of Democrats through a difficult campaign year, and beyond. While some of his predecessors might have blocked the vote or tried to hold troops in line, Schumer, a New Yorker unafraid of noisy disagreements, was comfortable with some fights within the family.

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., greets student gun control advocates as they rally outside the Capitol Building in Washington, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Students walked out of school to protest gun violence in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged in response to last month's massacre of 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"When half of our caucus sides with Republicans and the banks, it's impossible to rise above the din and show that we're on the side of the working class," said Brian Fallon, a former top Schumer aide who later advised Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

"You can't blame leader Schumer for not wanting to twist the arms of red-state Democrats against home-state banking interests," Fallon said, "but from the standpoint of the larger party messaging, it's a missed opportunity to not strike a bright-line contrast on behalf of consumers."

The Senate approved the bill Wednesday 67-31.

Schumer put the party on this path last fall when he agreed to allow four Democratic senators - almost all of them up for re-election in states Trump won - to work with Senate Banking Committee Republicans on legislation to ease regulations imposed after the 2008 financial crisis.

Initial talks between Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the panel's chairman, and its top Democrat, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, broke down as Democrats said the changes went too far. But within a month of gaining Schumer's nod, the Democratic senators - Jon Tester of Montana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Mark Warner of Virginia - struck a deal with Republicans. Their compromise sailed through the committee.

Moderates say the changes they have been seeking for years are needed to help small and mid-size banks, particularly in rural regions, that can't afford to keep up with the regulations. But liberals argue it goes too far in lifting requirements on bigger banks that received federal bailout funds.

Seizing the opening for a legislative victory - and a bipartisan bill that divides Democrats - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved it swiftly to the floor. Schumer, GOP aides said, was getting rolled.

The left flank hammered Democrats for cozying up to bankers - Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren named names of fellow Democratic senators in an email blast. But even if the Warren wing tried to filibuster, the GOP majority - with the support of Democrats - had more than the 60 votes needed to overcome a blockade.

About the only option left was the war of words. And it has been explosive.

"This bill wouldn't be on the path to becoming law without the support of these Democrats," Warren chided colleagues in a tweet.

"Calling out members of my own party who are supporting the #BankLobbyistAct doesn't make me the most popular kid on the team. But that's not why I ran for the Senate," she said in another.

Heitkamp shot back Monday that she didn't come to the Senate to "worry about whether we were keeping the caucus together."

"I came here to represent North Dakota, and that's exactly what I'm doing," she told The Associated Press, adding that her local bankers say they'll be able to do more lending if the bill is passed. "It really will make a huge difference for rural America."

Schumer has mostly stood by as tensions flared. At a recent closed-door luncheon, moderate senators - they were taken aback by the directness of the attacks - told Warren she needs to stop.

Schumer did tell Warren to focus her opposition on the substance of the bill, rather than its supporters, according to a person familiar with the exchange. Warren responded that working on these issues was why she ran for the Senate, according to another person familiar with the conversation. Both people requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private conversation publicly.

But Schumer has largely let the caucus handle those disagreements among themselves, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the issues who was not authorized to discuss the private session publicly and requested anonymity. Senators, the aide said, don't want him to micro-manage.

Schumer rose to become party leader after helping Democrats win tough elections in states now dominated by Trump voters when he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee more than a decade ago. At the time, Wall Street money flowed to Democrats as well as Republicans.

Part of his appeal in taking over for retiring Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., after the 2016 election was a promise to stitch together the party's liberal and conservative wings, bringing Warren and moderate Democrats into caucus leadership positions.

Schumer has kept them together more than many expected, especially as 10 Democratic senators run for re-election from Trump-won states. Senate Democrats held the line against GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and put up a fight against the president's nominees. All voted against the GOP tax plan.

Where Reid might have halted the banking bill by pushing more Democrats to oppose it - a strategy that often prevented infighting but left some senators frustrated with inaction - Schumer decided to let the process play out.

The outcome this week, though messy, could allow all sides to claim wins. Liberals take a populist stand that revs up the base and moderates strike a bipartisan compromise for their home-states.

"He's dealing with this little internecine war as good as could be expected," said Jim Manley, a former top Reid aide. "That's an integral part of the playbook. Sometimes a good leader knows there are different ways for members to claim victory."Some 223 employees of the TTC have been fired or left the agency because of an involvement of some type in the notorious scam to defraud the public with phony claims for orthotics. Two years ago TTC spokesman Brad Ross guessed that there might be as many 600 employees involved in some fashion. The racket was discovered in 2014 after a tip from an unknown source. It consisted of an offer from the owner of Healthy Fit, an orthotics business with locations in Toronto and Mississauga, to split insurance fees for nonexistent service with employees making a claim. Claims were submitted for items including compression stockings, sleeves, and orthotics, in addition to therapy services. Ten current and former TTC employees, along with the owner of Healthy Fit, Adam Smith, have been criminally charged in connection with the scam. Smith was previously found guilty of two counts of fraud over $5,000 and was sentenced to two years in prison. Of the 10 TTC employees who were charged, four have pleaded guilty and received a conditional discharge, probation, and community service. More than $82,000 in restitution has been collected from the employees, the TTC said. The charges against the remaining six employees are currently before the courts. The case stands as an example of the widespread capacity of public employees, and no doubt others, to commit fraud and in effect steal from the City.

RelatedKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - United Airlines says it's investigating after mistakenly flying a Kansas family's dog to Japan.

KCTV reports that Kara Swindle and her two children flew from Oregon to Kansas City, Missouri, Tuesday on a United flight.

They went to a cargo facility to pick up 10-year-old Irgo, a German shepherd, but were instead given a Great Dane. Swindle, of Wichita, Kansas, learned Irgo had been put on a flight to Japan, where the Great Dane was supposed to go.

Airline officials in Japan put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City. It isn't clear when the dog will arrive.

The news of Irgo's unplanned odyssey comes as United admits another dog died after a flight attendant forced it to travel in an overhead bin on a Houston-to-New York flight.

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Information from: KCTV-TV, http://www.kctv5.comHAGATNA, Guam (AP) - A 35-year-old man on Guam has been charged with retail fraud for allegations that he stole two cases and 46 cans of corned beef from a market.

The Pacific Daily News reported Thursday that two New Asan Beach Market store employees said they saw the man leaving with multiple cans of corned beef on Feb. 27.

Court documents say the employees saw the man re-enter the store later in the day. The employees say they confronted the man, at which point he ran and escaped.

An employee wrote down the license plate number of the car he was in and police tracked it down.

Police say the vehicle had been involved in another theft case. Officers arrested the man.MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - Iranian naval forces appear to have deliberately halted their provocations of U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf in recent months, a U.S. military official said Thursday.

According to Navy Cmdr. William Urban, spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, there have been no "unsafe and unprofessional" actions by Iranian naval forces in the Gulf since August 2017.

Prior to that, Iranian vessels had periodically made high-speed approaches to U.S. ships that were considered dangerous provocations.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrives in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. 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. (AP Photo/Robert Burns)

Urban declined to speculate on the reason for the change.

"It seems like they've absolutely made a conscious decision to give us more space," he said. "That is definitely a change in their behavior."

Urban spoke to reporters traveling with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who stopped in Bahrain to meet with senior government officials and U.S. military leaders on his way back from Afghanistan.

The last tense encounter between the U.S. Navy and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf was recorded on Aug. 14, 2017, when an unarmed Iranian drone shadowed the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier at night and came close enough to F-18 fighter jets to put the lives of American pilots at risk, the Navy said at the time.

The drone did not respond to repeated radio calls and came within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of U.S. fighters. In a similar encounter Aug. 8, the Navy said an Iranian drone came within 100 feet (30 meters) of an F-18 preparing to land on the Nimitz.

For the first eight months of 2017, the Navy recorded 14 instances of what it describes as "unsafe and/or unprofessional" interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in 2016 and 23 in 2015.

The incidents at sea almost always involved the Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Some analysts believe the incidents are meant in part to squeeze moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration after the 2015 nuclear deal.

Of the incidents at sea last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing and holding overnight 10 U.S. sailors who strayed into the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.

Iranian forces in turn accuse the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes.

Bahrain, where Mattis stopped on Thursday, is a tiny island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia and the home of U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Of Bahrain's approximately 1.4 million people, about half are Bahraini citizens, the majority of them Shiite.

The island has been ruled since 1783 by the Sunni Al Khalifa family. King Hamad, who took the throne in 1999, initially took steps to move the country from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one. The first parliamentary elections since 1973 were held in 2002.

However, the Shiite majority accused the government of treating them like second-class citizens. They joined pro-democracy activists in demanding more political freedoms in 2011, as Arab Spring protests swept the wider Middle East. Saudi and Emirati troops ultimately helped violently put down the demonstrations.

___

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods multinational whose vast stable of brands includes Dove, Knorr and Ben & Jerry's, has opted to have its sole headquarters in the Netherlands rather than Britain, ending a dual structure that goes back nearly 90 years.

The company said Thursday that the decision to pick Rotterdam over London is part of a raft of structural changes that will turn it into "a simpler, more agile and more focused business."

While Unilever made no mention of Britain's impending departure from the European Union, the decision should in practice help it manage the uncertainties of Brexit and is highly symbolic at a time of doubts over London as a global capital.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2000 photo the Unilever European headquarters are seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods multinational whose vast stable of brands includes Dove, Knorr and Ben & Jerry's, says it is basing its headquarters in the Netherlands, ending its longstanding structure of having head offices in both Rotterdam and London. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Many firms with operations across the EU are worried about the potential disruption after Britain leaves the bloc in a little more than a year's time. In a scenario where Britain and the EU fail to agree on the outlines of a future relationship, tariffs could be imposed on a host of products, hobbling supply chains and raising costs for firms.

Unilever, however, argued that the move is driven by its need to simplify its structure. Last year, it vowed to slim down its organization and create more value for shareholders after rebuffing a $143 billion hostile takeover bid by rival Kraft Heinz.

Besides consolidating the headquarters, it will also divide its operations into three divisions - Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment.

"The board believes the move to three divisions and the simplification of our corporate structure will create a simpler, more agile and more focused company with increased strategic flexibility for value-creating portfolio change," Chairman Marijn Dekkers said.

"The changes announced today also further strengthen Unilever's corporate governance, creating for the first time in our history a 'one share, one vote' principle for all our shareholders."

David Cheetham, chief market analyst at XTB, said the reasoning seems "pretty logical" given that the Dutch business represents 55 percent of Unilever's overall share capital and that the shares listed in Amsterdam are more liquid than those in London.

Though the dual headquarters will become a thing of the past, the company's shares will continue to be traded in London. On Thursday, the share price closed down 1.7 percent in London and 1.0 percent in Amsterdam.

"Whilst it is tempting to politicize this decision as a clear and obvious example of waning confidence in post-Brexit Britain, that would be remiss, with the simple facts being that it is purely business-based," Cheetham said.

Unilever made a point of saying that staff levels in both countries would be unaffected by the change. The company employs 7,300 people in Britain and 3,100 people in the Netherlands, out of nearly 170,000 worldwide. The company had sales in 2017 of more than 50 billion euros ($62 billion).

Analysts note that besides streamlining operations, the decision could help insulate Unilever from a hostile takeover of the kind Kraft Heinz attempted - Dutch laws are considered to be tougher than British ones when it comes to takeovers.

Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Eric Wiebes welcomed the announcement, saying it underscored that the Netherlands is an attractive location for big business.

"Unilever is a fantastic company to have here," Wiebes told NOS Radio. "It's a sustainable company that focuses on long-term job creation."

The British government also had a positive take, saying that Unilever was basing its two fastest-growing divisions - Beauty and Personal Care and Home Care - in Britain and stressing that Brexit was not a factor. In a tweet, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said Unilever's decision to base its head office in Rotterdam is "part of a long-term restructuring plan of the company and is not connected to the U.K.'s departure from the EU."

Unilever was formed in 1930 by a merger of the Dutch Margarine Unie and Britain's Lever Brothers. That led to the company's dual identity - with Unilever PLC in Britain and Unilever NV in the Netherlands technically separate companies but operating together thanks to a raft of agreements that allow them to share everything from brands and technology to identical boards of directors.

___

Pan Pylas reported from London.STOCKHOLM (AP) - North Korea's foreign minister met with his Swedish counterpart Thursday after making a surprise trip to Stockholm that has fueled speculation about a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on a direct flight from Beijing and spent several hours at the Swedish Foreign Ministry before returning to the North Korean Embassy.

Ri's talks with Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom are expected to resume on Friday.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and his delegation arrive to the Swedish Foreign Ministry in central Stockholm, Sweden, Thursday March 15, 2018. North Korea's foreign minister is traveling to Sweden Thursday, a surprise move that could be a first step toward a meeting in the Scandinavian country between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Erik SImander/TT via AP)

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973 and is one of the few Western countries with an embassy in Pyongyang. It provides consular services for the United States in North Korea.

"If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Sweden's TT news agency earlier Thursday.

"We shouldn't be naive and believe it is Sweden that solves these problems," Lofven added.

Sweden's foreign ministry said the talks between Wallstrom and Ri "will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," but also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry referred to the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs, saying the U.N. "emphasized the need for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict."

The Swedish ministry said a statement summarizing the talks will be made available Friday.

Ri, a former diplomat in Stockholm and London and an ex-nuclear envoy with experience negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States, was tapped as Pyongyang's foreign minister in 2016.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month, he urged the United Nations not to remain silent about what he called "the U.S. dangerous game of aggravating (the) situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war."

The trip by Ri is being closely watched because there remains a huge amount of preparation that needs to be done and relatively little time before Kim is supposedly planning to sit down for summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim by May. So far, North Korea has yet to publicly comment on what it hopes to gain from the summits, adding an extra element of mystery and skepticism.

Sweden has been rumored as a possible site for the summit between Kim and Trump, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

Senior South Korean officials who traveled to Pyongyang earlier this month and met with Kim say he is willing to discuss the North's nuclear weapons program.

It could suggest a potential breakthrough, or a fallback to the North's longstanding position that it's willing to get rid of its nuclear weapons if the United States guarantees its safety.

In the past, that has meant Washington would have to withdraw all of its troops from South Korea, a condition no U.S. president has been willing to consider.

Niklas Swanstrom of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy said the meeting between the two foreign ministers would only be preliminary to higher-level talks but they could give an indication of North Korea's interests and demands.

"The assumption is of course that (they) will speak a bit about the proposed talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un," Swanstrom told The Associated Press.

He said he did not expect the announcement of a date or location for a Trump-Kim meeting.

___

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho gets on a car on his arrival at the Beijing International airport in Beijing, Thursday, March 15, 2018. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed during a routine briefing that he was on his way to Sweden. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)

CORRECTS DATE North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho, at center facing, and his delegation arrive at Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, Sweden, Thursday March 15, 2018. North Korea's foreign minister is traveling to Sweden Thursday, a surprise move that could be a first step toward a meeting in the Scandinavian country between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Christine Olsson/TT via AP)

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho arrives at the Beijing International airport in Beijing, Thursday, March 15, 2018. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed during a routine briefing that he was on his way to Sweden. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on developments in Syria as it marks seven years of war this week (all times local):

4:55 p.m.

Hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria under Turkish assault are trickling out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive.

This photo released Tuesday, March 13, 2018, by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, shows members of the White Hemets removing a body after airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces, in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, Syria. The Syrian government and the Russian military have set up a corridor outside eastern Ghouta to arrange the evacuation from the area which is home to some 400,000 people. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)

Arab and Turkish TVs broadcast images Thursday of residents leaving Afrin center in cars and on foot.

Lebanon-based Mayadeen TV spoke with distraught residents. Some said they are going to neighboring villages to fetch food and bread. The Turkish DHA TV showed trucks loaded with personal belongings lining the road out Afrin.

Turkish forces intensified their shelling of Afrin on Wednesday, after the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped to totally encircle the town by the evening. Shells slammed into the town center after dusk Afrin Wednesday, killing at least seven people and deepening the fear of a ground assault.

Turkey considers the Kurdish militia in charge of Afrin a threat to its national security.

___

3:30 p.m.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is rejecting calls in Europe for his country to halt its military offensive in a Syrian Kurdish-held enclave.

Erdogan spoke on Thursday at an award ceremony as the European Parliament prepares to debate a motion for a resolution on Syria. Turkish media reports said the resolution would call for an end to the Turkish offensive in Afrin enclave and a withdrawal of Turkish troops.

Addressing the European Parliament, Erdogan said: "Don't get too excited. We won't leave (Syria) until our job is done. You should know this, you should know this."

He added: "Whatever (the European Parliament) says goes in one ear and out the other."

Turkey launched a military offensive into the border enclave on Jan. 20 to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces that it considers to be "terrorists" and an extension of Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey. The main town in the enclave, also known as Afrin, has been besieged by Turkish forces and their allies.

___

3:10 p.m.

Syrian Kurdish officials say a senior Kurdish official who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, has been found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.

The main Kurdish party in Syria said Thursday the death of Omar Alloush is under investigation, and officials suspect foul play.

Alloush, a Kurd, played an important role in building relations between Arabs and Kurds in areas captured from Islamic State group militants. He was a main interlocutor with the U.S-led coalition in implementing its post-IS policy in Syria, including the negotiation of the exit of the last remaining IS militants from the city of Raqqa. He also helped set up the Raqqa Civil Council and others in the area.

Top Kurdish official Fawza Yousef said Alloush's killing is a blow to joint Arab-Kurdish action and social peace following the defeat of IS.

___

3:05 p.m.

Nearly two dozen Syrian civil organizations are calling on world leaders to boycott the World Cup hosted by Russia to pressure it to use its leverage to stop the violence in Syria, now entering its eighth year.

Russia is the main backer of the Syrian government of Bashar Assad. With its military and aerial support, Moscow has turned the tide of the war in favor of Assad at a devastating cost.

Marking the seventh anniversary of the civil war, 22 Syrian organizations that work with refugees, displaced and in opposition areas, appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders to threaten to boycott the 2018 World Cup to "send a clear message to (Russia) that they will face serious consequences unless they use their leverage immediately" with the Syrian leader to stop the bombing.

___

2:40 p.m.

Syrian state-run television says nearly 10,000 civilians have left the besieged, opposition-held eastern Ghouta region - by far the largest exodus so far.

Al-Ikhbariya TV says the civilians are from the town of Hamouriya and crossed Thursday into government-held territory through a humanitarian corridor set up by the Syrian military.

The TV showed footage of men, women and children streaming out of the besieged region, carrying their belongings including clothes, mattresses and suitcases.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which tracks the Syria war through a network of activists says 9,300 have left so far Thursday.

The mass exit came as Syrians marked seven years since the popular uprising that sparked their country's vicious civil war - and hours after Syrian government forces blanketed the town with airstrikes and rocket fire

___

1 p.m.

Syrian state-run TV and pro-government stations are broadcasting footage of civilians streaming out of the besieged town of Hamouria in the opposition-held eastern Ghouta region, heading into government-held territory near the capital, Damascus.

The al-Ikhbariya TV and Lebanon's al-Mayadeen and al-Manar channels say the civilians are eastern Ghouta residents whom government forces have "liberated" from rebel rule.

The broadcasts appear to show hundreds of men, women, and children walking out of the town. Al-Mayadeen showed buses waiting to pick up civilians. Al-Ihkbariya says they will be taken to a center for identification and relief.

Men interviewed on camera praised the Syrian army and President Bashar Assad and said armed groups had humiliated them and held them against their will in eastern Ghouta.

The exodus is a major media victory for the Syrian government.

It appears to be the largest departure of civilianss from eastern Ghouta since the government launched a punishing assault on the rebel-held region more than three weeks ago. More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in government and Russian airstrikes and rocket fire.

___

11:20 a.m.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says a joint convoy bringing aid to thousands of displaced Syrian families has entered the besieged rebel-held region of eastern Ghouta just outside of Damascus.

It says the joint convoy organized with the United Nations and the Syria Red Crescent Society consists of 25 trucks.

The ICRC said in a Tweet on Thursday that "this is just a little of what these families need."

The convoy is headed for the town of Douma, the largest and most populated in eastern Ghouta, according to Douma-based media activist Youssef Boustani.

Previous aid deliveries last week were mired in violence that disrupted its distribution, with shells slamming in the town as the aid workers were inside.

___

10:35 a.m.

Syrian activists and monitoring groups say government and Russian forces are blanketing the besieged rebel-held eastern Ghouta region with airstrikes and rocket fire.

Thursday's bombings come as Syria marks the seventh anniversary of the popular uprising that sparked the country's vicious civil war.

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, says its first responders are not able to reach the wounded in towns in rebel-held eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the assault.

It says one of its rescue workers was killed in an airstrike in Hazeh on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says a column of civilians trying to flee government advances in Hamouria were targeted with shelling early in the day that wounded several people.

It said 26 people were killed in Hamouria on Wednesday.

___

10:30 a.m.

The Russian military says it has extended a "humanitarian pause" in fighting for two days in a part of Syria's embattled eastern Ghouta enclave, just outside of Damascus.

The Russian Defense Ministry says the pause on Thursday and Friday is focused on the town of Douma. It claims the pause has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.

Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying 131 people left the area through the humanitarian corridor on Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin says some 100 people are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.

Russia ordered the daily humanitarian pauses late last month, but few civilians have left. And activists said continued government shelling and airstrikes killed at least 20 civilians on Wednesday eastern Ghouta.MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England (all times local):

6:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump says "it looks like" Russia was responsible for the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, centre, is briefed by members of the police as she views the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill, in Salisbury, England, Thursday, March 15, 2018. May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action following the incident. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

Speaking to reporters after his administration announced new sanctions on Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Trump said the United States is taking the nerve agent attack "very seriously."

Trump spoke to British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday and he says their two governments "are in deep discussions," about next steps.

He added: "It's something that should never, ever happen."

The leaders of the United States, France, Germany, and Britain issued a rare joint statement Thursday condemning Russia for "the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War."

___

6:10 p.m.

Russia's ambassador to the United Kingdom says the Russian Embassy in London is receiving threats against its diplomats.

Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko's told Russian news channel Rossiya-24 on Thursday the embassy is receiving "a mass of messages" and some are from people vowing "to take reprisals on diplomats."

Yakovenko spoke as tensions soared over Britain's decision to expel 23 diplomats in connection with the poisoning in Britain of a former Russian double agent and his daughter.

He said: "There are quite a lot of mentally unbalanced people and people with a criminal past. You can expect anything from them."

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5:25 p.m.

England manager Gareth Southgate says there's "no doubt" that his soccer team should be going to the World Cup despite Russia being blamed for poisoning a former spy in the U.K.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered politicians and royals not to attend the World Cup in Russia after former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious after being exposed to a nerve agent.

But the government has not ordered the national soccer team to boycott the June 14-July 15 soccer tournament.

Southgate acknowledges that it's a "serious matter" and "developing very quickly." But based on the briefings he has received, Southgate says "we are preparing to go to the World Cup. There is no doubt in my mind that is what we should be doing."

England's World Cup campaign opens against Tunisia on June 18 in Volgograd.

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4:15 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is visiting the city of Salisbury to see where former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious after being exposed to a nerve agent.

May met members of the emergency services and health officials responding to the March 4 chemical attack.

May has blamed Russia, expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Moscow.

The British leader saw the bench where the Skripals were discovered - now one of several sites in the city cordoned off with police tape and a forensics tent. Almost 200 troops trained in chemical weapons and decontamination are helping police with the investigation.

May said it was "great to meet some tourists" and see that people still coming in the picturesque cathedral city, 90 miles (145 kms) southwest of London.

___

4 p.m.

The leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Britain say they are united in blaming Russia for a nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal.

In a rare joint statement, President Donald Trump, President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Theresa May say "there is no plausible alternative explanation" to Russian responsibility in the March 4 attack in England.

They say Russia's failure to respond to Britain's "legitimate request" for an explanation "further underlines its responsibility."

The leaders say the use of a chemical weapon is "an assault on U.K. sovereignty" and "a breach of international law."

Britain has expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Moscow over the incident.

Russia is expected to take retaliatory measures soon.

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3:50 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has chaired his security council to discuss tensions with Britain over the ex-spy's poisoning.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies, that the participants in the meeting "expressed a great concern about the destructive and provocative position taken by the British side."

The meeting involved top Russian Cabinet members, parliamentary leaders and intelligence chiefs.

Britain has blamed Russia for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter and responded by announcing the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, the severing of high-level contacts with Moscow and other measures. Moscow has rejected the accusations and said it would retaliate, but hasn't yet announced its response.

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3:30 p.m.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Britain's refusal to produce proof of Russian involvement in the ex-spy's poisoning indicates its absence.

Lavrov said Thursday that Britain apparently hopes to cover up the absence of facts by "fanning anti-Russian rhetoric bordering on hysteria" in an attempt to rally support from its allies.

He charged that while Russia "had no motive" to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal, its foes were seeking to use the incident to try to derail the soccer World Cup hosted by Russia this summer. He also charged that the "provocation with Skripal" helps British Cabinet distract public attention from its failure to win favorable conditions during talks on leaving the European Union.

Lavrov said Moscow expects London to abide by procedures of the international chemical weapons watchdog to investigate.

___

3:30 p.m.

NATO's chief says Britain has not requested any explicit help in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and he sees no need to activate the alliance's collective defense clause.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Thursday that it is important to respond to the nerve-agent attack, blamed on Russia, "in a measured way."

NATO's Article 5 is an all-for-one, one-for-all, clause which rallies all nations in the 29-member alliance to the aid of an ally under attack. It has only ever been used once, by the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Stoltenberg said that Britain has not asked for Article 5 to be activated over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England on March 4.

___

3:25 p.m.

NATO's chief says the use of a nerve agent on a former Russian spy is a threat to international security and allies have offered "practical support" to Britain if it requests help.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England on March 4, blamed on Russia, "is unacceptable. It has no place in a civilized world."

Stoltenberg told reporters that the attack is "a blatant and serious violation of norms and rules that are important for the security of all of us."

He said the attack seems to be part of a "reckless pattern of Russian behavior over many years."

Stoltenberg said he will discuss the attack next week with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

___

3:20 p.m.

Britain's defense minister says the U.K. is building a new chemical weapons research facility to help counter a growing threat from Russia and other states.

Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said in a speech Thursday that Britain had been "naive" about the threat posed by states including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

He said the 48 million-pound ($67 million) Chemical Weapons Defense Center will help "ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defense."

Thousands of front-line British troops will also be vaccinated against anthrax, in light of a growing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat.

Williamson said the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal is an example of how Russia is "ripping up the international rule book."

He said U.K.-Russia relations were "exceptionally chilly," and advised Russia to "go away and shut up."

___

2:25 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says he will take measures in coming days in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

Macron, speaking during a visit to central France Thursday, said British intelligence services shared with French services information that confirms Russia's involvement.

He told reporters "everything seems to indicate Russia's responsibility."

He said he will discuss the issue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a planned meeting in Paris Friday.

Macron did not say if he would maintain a visit to Russia scheduled for May.

___

2:05 p.m.

A Russian expert says the stockpiles of the Soviet-designed nerve agent that Britain said was used to poison an ex-spy have all been destroyed, with U.S. assistance.

Igor Nikulin said that the U.S. funded efforts to dismantle the stockpiles of the Novichok agent at a Soviet-era research facility in Uzbekistan in the late 1990s. The facility in Nukus was used by the Soviet Union in its chemical weapons program.

Nikulin, who has advised the United Nations in the past, said in remarks carried by the RIA Novosti news agency, that "the Americans also took some equipment for producing the gas to U.S. territory."

Russia declared in September that it completed the destruction of Soviet-era chemical weapons stockpiles, an effort that spanned decades.

___

1:40 p.m.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that Moscow will soon respond in kind to Britain's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former Russian spy.

Lavrov, speaking in remarks carried by RIA Novosti news agency, said that Russia will "certainly" expel British diplomats. He said that the move would come "soon," but added Moscow would inform London via official channels before publicly announcing its countermeasures.

Lavrov said British accusations of Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter are intended to distract public attention from Britain's troubled exit from the European Union.

He argued that "boorish and unfounded" accusations against Russia "reflect the hopeless situation the British government has found itself in when it can't meet the obligations given to the public in connection with exit from the EU."

___

12:55 p.m.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman says the accusations of Moscow's involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy have been driven by domestic policy factors in Britain.

Maria Zakharova said Thursday British Prime Minister Theresa May apparently was "aiming to posture as a strong leader" by blaming Moscow for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Britain on Wednesday announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, the severing of high-level contacts with Moscow and other measures. Moscow said it would retaliate, but hasn't yet announced its response.

Zakharova said that Moscow expects Britain to produce evidence to back up its claims of Russian involvement, which she denounced as "unbelievable nonsense." She insisted that Russia has "no motive whatsoever" to poison Skripal and denounced U.S. support for the British claims as a reflection of "Russophobia."

___

12:40 p.m.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says Russia targeted a former spy with a military grade nerve agent to make it clear that those who defy the Russian state deserve to "choke on their own 30 pieces of silver."

Johnson told the BBC on Thursday there was a message in the "smug, sarcastic response" from Moscow after the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter. Johnson says the Russians "want simultaneously to deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it."

Johnson says "the reason they've chosen this nerve agent is to show that it's Russia, and to show people in their agencies who might think of defecting or of supporting another way of life, of believing in an alternative set of values, that Russia will take revenge."

___

12:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed his solidarity with Britain after the poisoning of an ex-spy.

The president's office says in a statement Thursday Macron shares Britain's views that there is "no other plausible explanation" than Russia being involved in the attack, following a phone call with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Macron says Britain has kept France closely informed of the evidence gathered by British investigators and "elements proving Russia's responsibility in the attack".

Macron and May condemn the use of a chemical weapon, the statement said.

They agreed on the importance of European countries and NATO members' unity in the response to this issue.

___

11:50 a.m.

The head of Russian state-funded RT television says British Prime Minister Theresa May is to blame if British media are kicked out of Russia over the poisoning of an ex-spy.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan dismissed accusations that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal. It prompted threats to shut down RT's British operations, among other actions targeting Moscow.

Simonyan told The Associated Press in Moscow that "if we are censored in the U.K., that's going to be it for the British media" in Russia.

She said it would be strange for Russia to be so "reckless and stupid" as to poison Skripal "knowing what outrage it would cause."

Skripal and his daughter are in critical condition in a British hospital after an attack that brought Russian-British relations to a post-Cold War low.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, centre, is accompanied by members of the police as she views the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill, in Salisbury, England, Thursday, March 15, 2018. May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action following the incident. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, centre, is accompanied by members of the police as she views the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill, in Salisbury, England, Thursday, March 15, 2018. May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action following the incident. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a presentation of the NATO annual report at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A man works to untangle the national flag flown from the Russian Embassy, after it became entangled on its staff at the embassy in London, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Britain announced Wednesday it will expel 23 Russian diplomats, the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War, and break off high-level contacts with the Kremlin over the nerve-agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in an English town.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Soldiers wearing protective clothing prepare to lift a tow truck in Hyde Road, Gillingham, Dorset, England as the investigation into the suspected nerve agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal continues Wednesday March 14, 2018. The army cordoned off a road in Dorset on Wednesday as the investigated the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Authorities have cordoned off several sites in and near Salisbury, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of London as part of their probe. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the scheduled Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London, Wednesday March 14, 2018. May is widely expected to announce a range of economic and diplomatic measures against Russia, in response to the nerve-agent on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. (PA via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May stands outside The Mill pub, as she views the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill, in Salisbury, England, Thursday, March 15, 2018. May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action following the incident. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, right, views the area where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill, in Salisbury, England, Thursday, March 15, 2018. May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action following the incident. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A financial scandal is threatening to unseat Africa's only female head of state, the president of the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius.

President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim faces allegations that she bought clothing and jewelry with a credit card provided by a non-governmental group whose Angolan founder has sought to do business in Mauritius and is under investigation for alleged corruption in Portugal.

Gurib-Fakim, whose role is mostly ceremonial, said this week that she "inadvertently" used the credit card from the London-based Planet Earth Institute for "out-of-pocket" expenses of about $27,000, and that she had paid back the money. She said she is the victim of a smear campaign and won't resign, contradicting a comment last week by Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth that she would quit after Mauritius celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence from Britain last Monday.

On Thursday, Jugnauth criticized the president for allegedly breaking her promise to resign and said he would discuss the matter with the Cabinet on Friday.

"I hope that it will be settled very quickly in the interests of the country," said the prime minister, according to L'Express, a newspaper in Mauritius.

A president can be removed through parliamentary votes against him or her and an investigation by a tribunal that allows the president to offer a defense, according to the country's constitution.

Gurib-Fakim, who was appointed as president in 2015, was defiant.

"She is also now ready to take legal action to defend herself against the slanderous accusations that would target her," her office said in a statement. It described the 58-year-old president as a "respected and recognized scientist" who joined the board of the Planet Earth Institute to promote science in Africa, never benefited financially from the position and resigned from the group a year ago.

"She had repaid our Mauritian sister foundation for sums apparently inadvertently used on a credit card issued to her to cover logistical expenses whilst travelling to promote African science, technology and innovation," said the Planet Earth Institute, which is based in London.

The institute's founder is Alvaro Sobrinho, a businessman whose efforts to set up enterprises in Mauritius have come under scrutiny. Last year, the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius noted that Angolan prosecutors had decided not to pursue fraud allegations against Sobrinho. A corruption investigation against Sobrinho is underway in Portugal; he has not been charged there.

Gurib-Fakim was previously a chemistry professor and science faculty dean at the University of Mauritius.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, another female African head of state, stepped down as president of Liberia in January, handing power to President George Weah after an election.

___

Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachrisCLINTON, Mo. (AP) - A woman who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a western Missouri police officer said she didn't know a man in her home had a gun when she let five officers inside and shooting erupted.

The officers went to Tammy Dee Widger's home by mistake in response to a 911 call on March 6. James Waters shot and killed one of them, Ryan Morton, and two other officers were injured.

Widger, 37, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in Morton's death. The charge was added to previous charges because Morton was killed "as a result of' Widger's alleged drug crime, Henry County prosecutors said.

FILE - This undated file photo released by Clinton Police Department shows officer Christopher Ryan Morton. Tammy Dee Widger was charged Wednesday, March 14, 2018, with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Morton. Her rental home was the site of the fatal shooting on March 6. Prosecutors say the murder charge was added because Morton was killed as a result of Widger's drug crime. (Clinton Police Department via AP, File)

In a jailhouse interview with The Kansas City Star, Widger said she thought Waters had slipped out the back of the house in Clinton to avoid police and she didn't know he had a gun. She said she had known Waters since childhood and he had been at her house "off and on" since October or November.

"I didn't know what was going to happen," Widger said. "In the blink of an eye, my life changed. I didn't want this."

Waters then barricaded himself inside the home. By the time officers got to Morton hours later, he was dead, along with Waters.

When police arrived initially, she told them she hadn't made the 911 call but she agreed to let the police into the house to make sure no one was in danger.

Widger said she "kind of got the impression" that Waters was determined not to return to prison, where he had served time for robbery and gun charges. She went inside with the officers and was standing with them when the shooting started. Officers told her to go outside and handcuffed her when she did.

She was originally charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and keeping or maintaining a public nuisance.

Henry County Prosecutor Richard Shields said Thursday he had not read the interview and couldn't comment on Widger's statements.

Widger is jailed on $100,000 bond. She has requested a public defender but does not yet have an attorney.

An investigation continues into the 911 mistake that sent officers to the wrong house, 20 miles (30 kilometers) away. Henry County emergency communications officials have blamed a database error.

Widger told investigators that in exchange for helping Waters distribute methamphetamine, he agreed to pay her bills, according to court documents.

___

Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.comLISBON, Portugal (AP) - Spanish and Portuguese police have intercepted about 2.5 metric tons (2.76 tons) of cocaine in a cross-border operation.

A Portuguese police statement says the operation also led to the arrest of nine men and one woman of various nationalities. The statement Thursday said the suspects are believed to belong to a "vast criminal organization" which smuggled large quantities of cocaine between Europe and Latin America.

It said the police investigation is continuing and further details would be provided later.CAIRO (AP) - Egypt has ordered the release of two freelance journalists who were arrested while preparing a report on a historic tramway in Alexandria.

The defense lawyer for May al-Sabbagh and Ahmed Moustafa, arrested on Feb. 28, says prosecutors ordered their release on bail Thursday. Mohammed Hafez says they were charged with possession of visual and audio equipment with the intent to spread false news.

Egypt has regularly detained and prosecuted journalists as part of a broader crackdown since the 2013 military overthrow of an elected Islamist president. The crackdown has escalated ahead of a March 26-28 election in which President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi faces no serious opposition.

Egypt's pro-government media routinely accuse independent and foreign journalists of portraying the country in a negative light and trying to undermine its stability.RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - A popular Rio de Janeiro councilwoman was shot in the head four times by assassins, police said Thursday, a brazen murder that shocked Brazil and raised questions about the effectiveness of a military intervention in the city.

A police official told The Associated Press that 38-year-old Marielle Franco was killed Wednesday night by perpetrators who appeared to know exactly where she would be sitting in a car with tinted windows. The official revealed details on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

In the attack in the Rio neighborhood of Estacio de Sa, driver Anderson Pedro Gomes was killed and Franco's press officer, Fernanda Chaves, was injured. It happened after Franco participated in an event focused on empowering young black women.

Mourners console each other as they gather in front of City Hall to pay their respects to slain council member Marielle Franco, who received four shots to her head, and her driver who were both gunned down the night before by two unidentified attackers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 15, 2018. Police said the 38-year-old councilor, who was known for her social work in slums, was killed by perpetrators who knew exactly where she was sitting in a car that had blackout windows. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Elected in 2016, Franco was a member of the left-leaning Socialism and Liberty Party known for her social work in poor and marginalized communities, or favelas, and outspokenness against police violence, which disproportionately impacts black residents.

Just last weekend, Franco, who was black, lamented on social media what she alleged were recent police killings.

"Another homicide of a young man that could be credited to the police. Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many others will have to die for this war to end?" she wrote in her last post on Twitter.

Protests were planned in several cities later Thursday, and Franco's party called for a march in Rio on Friday.

Thursday morning, as news of the attack spread, several thousand people gathered in front of Rio's city council. In the afternoon, thousands followed as the coffins were carried to the private funeral.

Human rights organizations and the United Nations offered condolences and demanded full investigations.

The killing comes just a month after President Michel Temer put the military in charge of security in Rio, which is experiencing a spike in violence less than two years after hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The so-called intervention is controversial because it has put thousands of troops on the streets and, at least so far, doesn't appear to be having an impact. It's also being criticized because generals don't appear to have the appetite to take on major components of the violence: endemic police corruption and heavy-handed tactics.

Rio's police force is one of the most deadly in the world. In 2016, 925 people were killed during police operations, according to the think tank Brazilian Public Security Forum. Tallies by human rights groups put the 2017 number over 1,000.

Brazil's Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann said in a statement that federal police would help investigate. That was a subtle way of saying that the government did not think local forces, which would usually be solely tasked with investigating, were up to the task. Rio's police chief quickly refused help.

Gen. Richard Nunes, appointed as Rio's public security secretary, said in a statement there will be a "full investigation on the assassination."

At Brazil's Congress in Brasilia, lawmakers of Franco's party demanded that an independent commission investigate the crime. Some wondered publicly whether Franco might have been targeted by police.

Temer, a political adversary of Franco's, called the assassination "an act of cowardliness" in a video statement to the nation, and also defended the intervention.

Former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff also expressed grief over the incident that dominated news casts.

Security consultant Paulo Storani, a former commander of Rio's elite police force known as the BOPE, warned against jumping to conclusions about the police or blaming the military intervention, which he believes will ultimately be ineffective.

"This is an election year and I fear some might use this cowardly act to score political points," Storani said.

Franco's sister, Anielle Franco, told journalists her family is considering leaving Rio out of fear.

"Our favela is crying, Rio is crying and Brazil is crying today," she said.

___

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

___

Follow Peter Prengaman: twitter.com/peterprengaman

Follow Mauricio Savarese: twitter.com/MSavarese

A man kneels in front of City Hall where people are gathering to pay their respects to slain council member Marielle Franco and her driver who were both gunned down the night before by two unidentified attackers, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A man holds a sign with a message that reads in Portuguese: "Black lives and LGBTs matter. Marielle present" as people gather in front of City Hall to pay their respects to slain council member Marielle Franco and her driver who were both gunned down the night before by two unidentified attackers, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A woman positions a sign with a message that reads in Portuguese: "Stop Killing Us!" on the steps of City Hall where people gathered to pay their respects to slain council member Marielle Franco and her driver who were both gunned down the night before by two unidentified attackers, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)BERLIN (AP) - German prosecutors have indicted a 20-year-old Syrian migrant for plotting a bombing in which they say he hoped to kill at least 200 people.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday the suspect, identified only as Yamen A. in line with German privacy rules, was charged with preparing a serious act of violence.

They said he wanted to emulate attacks by the Islamic State group, and decided by last summer to set off a bomb in a crowd. It's unclear where and when the attack was to take place. He was arrested in October.

Authorities say he had procured chemicals used to make the explosive TATP and other bomb-making materials usually used to build a remote-controlled bomb. They have said they see no evidence he was part of a terror group.McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - A third wrongful death lawsuit has been filed over a natural gas rig explosion in Oklahoma that killed five workers.

Julie Smith of McAlester, widow of Matthew Smith, filed the lawsuit Wednesday.

The widows of Roger Cunningham and Parker Waldridge, also Oklahomans, have filed similar lawsuits over the Jan. 22 explosion.

The lawsuit was first reported by the McAlester News-Capital and names Red Mountain Energy, Red Mountain Operating, Patterson-UTI Drilling and Patterson-UTI Energy.

Patterson-UTI has said it doesn't comment on pending litigation, but is committed to preventing future accidents. An attorney for Red Mountain hasn't returned phone calls for comment.

The explosion near Quinton, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Tulsa, also killed Josh Ray of Fort Worth, Texas, and Cody Risk of Wellington, Colorado.TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The mayor of Iran's capital Tehran resigned after hard-liners criticized him for attending a ceremony in which primary school girls danced, Iranian media reported Thursday.

Mohammad Ali Najafi submitted his resignation to Tehran's City Council and the council was expected to discuss over this issue in April.

Last week, prosecutors summoned Najafi for attending the ceremony in which a group of under-age girls danced in a ceremony held to commemorate International Women's Day.

Council head Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, without elaboration, said Najafi resigned due to illness.

Hard-liners used the case to increase pressure on the U.S.-educated 65-year-old technocrat who came into office in August promising to fight corruption..

Official reports say the municipality had some $10 billion in debt, including $1 billion to contractors, when Najafi took office.

Najafi had taken over from Mohammd Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative politician who briefly stood as a candidate against President Hassan Rouhani in May before dropping out.

Mohammad Reza Aref, a reformist parliament member and former vice president under President Khatami, asked the City Council to review Najafi's resignation and change his decision.

Reformists believe that pressure has been placed on Najafi following his claims of fraud in Tehran's municipal government during Qalibaf's time as mayor.

Parliament member Parvaneh Mafi was quoted by the Hamshahri daily as saying Najafi's "efforts to combat corruption ... may have led to pressures on him and affected his resignation."

Political pressures on Najafi are the result of factional push and pull between hard-liners and moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration.

Iranian hard-liners in Parliament this week tried to impeach three of Rouhani's ministers, but failed.NEW YORK (AP) - Why is just one of every 10 managers at the helm of U.S. mutual funds a woman?

Many reasons may be behind the disparity, but researchers at Morningstar say they have disqualified one as a possibility: performance. After measuring how 11,272 funds have fared since 2003, the researchers found no big, statistically significant difference in performance between those led by men, women or teams of mixed genders.

Madison Sargis, senior quantitative analyst at Morningstar and the lead author of the report, recently talked about the numbers. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

This undated photo provided by Morningstar shows Madison Sargis. After measuring how U.S. mutual funds have fared since 2003, the researchers at Morningstar found no big, statistically significant difference in performance between those led by men, women or teams of mixed genders. Sargis, senior quantitative analyst at Morningstar and the lead author of the report, recently talked with the Associated Press about the numbers. (Morningstar via AP)

Q: Before you began this study, did you have any guesses on what the data would show? I had heard that women are often better investors because they tend to take less risk than men and hold onto their investments for the long term.

A: My initial hypothesis was that we wouldn't see too many differences, on a pure peer-relative performance.

I had read similar research, as to women producing better risk-adjusted outcomes and having lower portfolio turnover. I had also read some research that said men suffer from an over-confidence bias.

Some of the findings do align with that prior research. If you look at the financial crisis, that's really where we see the mixed-gender and women teams outperforming. That lends itself to that other research.

Q: Your paper highlights how bond funds run by women did better than those run by men during the financial crisis, from 2007 to 2009, when risky investments were the hardest-hit. Was the same true for other types of funds?

A: It was also in stocks, but more muted.

Q: So, do you think the stereotype that female investors tend to take less risk than their male counterparts holds water?

A: That argument, we see, correlates to some of our data in the performance study.

Q: There were also other periods where male managers were the better performers, but the overall gap doesn't seem to be that significant between the two genders.

A: When you look at average results, the difference isn't big. Depending on the portfolio, it can be one or two basis points (equal to one- or two-hundredths of a percentage point), which isn't all that different from zero.

Q: Did anything surprise you as you went through the data?

A: When we were looking at the overview of the fund industry, going back to the 90s, women have entered and exited in approximately equal numbers. But you can see huge growth in the number of men in the industry. That's something I hadn't seen in the data before.

Q: So, what do you think is the reason for why so many more fund managers are men than women?

A: The next hypothesis we would tackle is looking at education, to see if that would be an appropriate reason for the disparity. There has been some previous research talking about the pipeline (of female analysts): If we can look at their education history and their credentials, we can see how that all correlates to getting a role as a portfolio manager.

Q: In the introduction to your paper, you start with an acknowledgement that even looking at manager performance by gender is a polarizing topic. What did you mean by that exactly?

A: I've written a little about this topic before, such as looking at the types of roles that women and men have had in the industry. Women were more likely to manage passive index funds than active ones, or socially responsible funds, that kind of thing.

Some of the feedback that we got to that was: "Why does this matter?"

For us, we just hadn't dug deep into it. Morningstar had never done a performance study of this nature before. We had done it by rating but not by gender. We wanted to see if it does matter and if there were differences.HOUSTON (AP) - The Texas family of a bus driver who died when his charter bus veered off an Alabama interstate with dozens of students aboard says it's unlikely he fell asleep.

Alisa Louis said Wednesday that her 65-year-old husband, Harry Caligone, had made the spring break trip to Disney World for years. This year, he had been driving students from Channelview High School near Houston.

About three dozen students and adults went to hospitals after the accident, and nine remained hospitalized Wednesday. Caligone was the only person killed.

Community members attend a prayer vigil in the parking lot of the Bill Neal Center next to Channelview High School, Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Channelview, Texas. The crash of a charter bus carrying a high school band from Florida to Texas left a driver dead and about three dozen people injured in south Alabama. 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. (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Caligone's son, Harrison Guy, told the Houston Chronicle that his father was a responsible driver who wouldn't continue driving if sleepy.

Investigators say the accident happened early Tuesday as Caligone drove to meet a relief driver less than an hour away in Mobil, Alabama.LONDON (AP) - Consumer goods maker Unilever's decision to consolidate its dual headquarters in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, and not in London, comes at a sensitive time for the British capital.

Unilever said the decision was not related to Britain's vote to leave the European Union, which has created uncertainties among businesses about retaining tariff-free access to the bloc's states. But it is another symbolic loss for London and Britain more widely, which has already seen several companies and organizations announce jobs or office relocations.

Here's a look at some key announcements since the June 2016 Brexit vote.

FILE- In this Feb. 9, 2016, file the HSBC bank headquarters building is seen in London. International bank HSBC is moving hundreds of jobs from London to Paris, where it will set up EU headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

-HSBC: moving 1,000 jobs from London to Paris, where it will set up EU headquarters.

-Lloyd's of London: moving 100 jobs from London to Brussels; EU headquarters from London to Dublin, Ireland.

-JPMorgan: "hundreds" of jobs from London to Dublin, Frankfurt, Germany, and Luxembourg.

-Barclays: 150 jobs from London to Dublin, where it will set up EU headquarters.

-Bank of America: moving EU headquarters from London to Dublin.

-UBS: under 1,000 jobs from London to EU offices, including Frankfurt.

-Moneygram: moving EU headquarters from London to Brussels.

-European Medicines Agency: moving from London to Amsterdam, including 890 jobs.

-European Banking Authority: moving from London to Paris, including 180 jobs.NEW YORK (AP) - When Jennifer Emejulu went to see "Black Panther," the New Jersey resident didn't feel like wearing any of the traditional Nigerian clothing she routinely wears for family parties.

She enjoyed seeing photos of those who did come out to see the global blockbuster about the superhero leader of a fictional African nation dressed in their African-inspired outfits, but Emejulu found it a little ironic, too.

"Growing up, we used to get made fun of for being African" by black Americans, says the 36-year-old physical therapist who was born and raised in the United States to Nigerian immigrant parents. "Now ... we're in, we're cool."

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, musician/actress Janella Monae arrives at the premiere of the film "Black Panther," at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film.. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

In the weeks since its release, "Black Panther" has been a juggernaut - holding the top box-office spot, bringing in more than $560 million domestically and $1 billion globally. Featuring a predominantly black cast hailing from the all over the world, it's an American-made film from an African-American director, Ryan Coogler, that's an ode to Africa - set in the fictional, never-colonized and immeasurably powerful nation of Wakanda, with costuming and sets heavily inspired by existing African cultures.

Its central story pits T'Challa, the Black Panther and king of Wakanda, against Erik Killmonger, the son of T'Challa's uncle and an American woman, who was abandoned in America, and touches on how and whether the country's power should be used in aid of black people globally. Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, feels his father's African homeland should arm black people in global uprisings, while T'Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman, questions his country's history of isolationism but doesn't want to see global bloodshed or Wakandan imperialism.

In touching on the questions of what's the connection or displacement among peoples of African descent all over the world, it's put a spotlight on a very real-world issue, one that's been talked about by academics and activists for a century and more and one that's had an impact on how Africans and African-Americans have interacted with each other.

African-American figures including W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X have long invoked a connection between American blacks, descended from those who were forced to come here as slaves and stripped of everything including their cultural heritages, with Africans on the continent and Africa itself, said Jonathan Gray, associate professor at John Jay College in Manhattan.

"For a lot of people who are 'conscious,' there is this tradition where we've tried to discern this connection," he said. "It's an act of diasporic imagination. It's the same act of imagination that allows for a Jew living in Portugal, a Jew living in Brazil and a Jew living in Poland to all think of Jerusalem as their home even though, let's say in 1930, none of them had ever been to Jerusalem."

Some of the context of the need and desire for that connection has been the legalized racism of the systems African-Americans were forced to live under, first slavery and then segregation, for much of the history of the United States, that has made it extremely difficult for most African-Americans to trace their particular ancestries back past a handful of generations in this country.

"If we had been allowed to come here of our own volition and we were able to maintain a sense of identity with where we actually come from with a sense of specificity, there might not be the reaction that people have right now," said Tony Armstrong, 46, an IT consultant in Miami who has done genetic testing to find even a general sense of where his roots in Africa might be.

"We need to know that we don't come from nothing," said Shara Taylor, 34, of Nashville, Tennessee. "We need to know that we came from somewhere, that we didn't just spring from the ground in chains in the United States."

But as much as there's been a push for connection in some corners, there's been plenty of disconnect as well, and even disdain from one group to the other, as stereotypes like those about poverty-stricken Africa or dangerous inner-city America have been absorbed by both groups, and there's a lack of real knowledge of the harsh realities of slavery on one hand and colonialism on the other, experts said.

"We meet and encounter each other through these lenses of mutual ignorance," said Mwatabu Okantah, assistant professor at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. "It makes relating to each other difficult."

Writing for the Huffington Post, Jolie A. Doggett questioned whether black Americans would be welcome if Wakanda were a real place. She was doubtful.

"I found myself having to face the sometimes harsh reality that there is a division within our diaspora that's not going to easily heal," she said.

Funmilola Fagbamila, adjunct professor at California State University, Los Angeles, said, "There are complexities within black identity, between African-Americans and ... specifically black people in Africa where they would say, no, you are not us."

But that has been shifting over time, especially in recent years, and the movie could play a role in opening dialogues, said Melina Abdullah, also a professor at Cal State LA, and chairwoman of Pan-African Studies.

"I think the movie is sparking a conversation and consciousness among people," she said. "The role of black art has always been to kind of awaken us, to get us to think creatively, critically, use our imagination to think about what freedom means."

___

Deepti Hajela covers issues of race, ethnicity and immigration for The Associated Press. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dhajela. For more of her work, search for her name at https://apnews.com

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2018, file photo, Emanuel Lawton, left, and his family dressed in Wakanda-inspired attire arrive to see Black Panther in Silver Spring, Md. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, Chadwick Boseman, star of "Black Panther," poses at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, Angela Bassett, a cast member in "Black Panther," arrives at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, Danai Gurira, a cast member in "Black Panther," arrives at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, Lupita Nyong'o, a cast member in "Black Panther," arrives at the premiere of the film at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2018 file photo, gold and red eyeshadow covers the eyes of Korie Harden, 34, at a "Black Panther" private screening in Grand Blanc, Mich. Featuring a predominantly black cast, the film that is an ode to Africa - with costuming and sets heavily inspired by African cultures - moved many viewers, including cast members themselves, to dress in African-themed garments for their viewing the film.. (Bronte Wittpenn /The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP, File)LOS ANGELES (AP) - The high school dramedy "Love, Simon" has all the makings of a John Hughes classic. But it has one big difference: The protagonist is gay.

The well-reviewed film hits theaters Friday and has already sparked a nationwide debate about why it has taken so long for a major studio to release a film in this genre with a gay romantic lead and if today's "woke" teens even need a story like this.

But even with progress on television, GLAAD's annual Studio Responsibility Index found that in 2016, only 23 major studio releases had any LGBTQ characters. And 10 of those characters were on screen for less than one minute.

This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Nick Robinson in "Love, Simon." (Ben Rothstein/Twentieth Century Fox via AP)

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis says it's about time LGBTQ teen love stories get the big Hollywood release treatment.

Nick Robinson arrives at a special screening of "Love, Simon" at Westfield Century City on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Alexandra Shipp arrives at a special screening of "Love, Simon" at Westfield Century City on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Katherine Langford, left, and Nick Robinson arrive at a special screening of "Love, Simon" at Westfield Century City on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Jorge Lendeborg, Nick Robinson, Alexandra Shipp and Katherine Langford in "Love, Simon." (Ben Rothstein/Twentieth Century Fox via AP)

This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Nick Robinson, left, and Katherine Langford in "Love, Simon." (Ben Rothstein/Twentieth Century Fox via AP)NEW YORK (AP) - David S. Wyman, a leading scholar of the U.S. response to the Holocaust whose "The Abandonment of the Jews" was a provocative, best-selling critique of everyone from religious leaders to President Franklin Roosevelt, died Wednesday at age 89

The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies announced that Wyman died at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts, after a lengthy illness. Wyman was a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The grandson of Protestant ministers, Wyman was in graduate school when he began a long-term quest to learn what was done on behalf of the millions of Jews rounded up and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.

He was best known for "The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-45," which came out in 1984 and sharply intensified a debate that began during the war. Drawing upon private and government records and contemporary media accounts, Wyman found widespread indifference and hostility to the Jews in Europe, even as their systematic extermination was conclusively documented. He faulted religious organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish; mainstream newspapers and movies; and the anti-Jewish feelings of the general public.

The federal government was slow to act, enforcing strict immigration quotas and refusing to bomb the concentration camps; waiting until well after the Holocaust had begun to establish a War Refugee Board, then forcing the agency to rely mostly on private funding. The blame rose right to the top, with Roosevelt, who Wyman alleged was more concerned about angering anti-Semites than about helping the Jews.

"If he had wanted to, he could have aroused substantial public backing for a vital rescue effort by speaking out on the issue," Wyman wrote, calling Roosevelt's inaction the low mark of his presidency. "It appears that Roosevelt's overall response to the Holocaust was deeply affected by political expediency. Most Jews supported him unwaveringly, so an active rescue policy offered little political advantage. A pro-Jewish stance, however, could lose votes."

Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor, praised Wyman for his "courageous, lucid, painful book." And "The Abandonment of the Jews" received several honors, including the National Jewish Book Award, and a nomination from the National Book Critics Circle.

Most scholars accepted his general argument that the U.S had done too little, but some disagreed with individual aspects, such as whether the U.S. could have disrupted or destroyed the Nazi camps. Roosevelt defenders, meanwhile, believed Wyman had failed to appreciate that the president's options were limited.

"FDR well understood that it would be fatal to let the war be defined as a war to save the Jews," historian and Roosevelt biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote in Newsweek in 1994, around the time a television documentary based on Wyman's book aired. "He knew that he must emphasize the large and vital interest all Americans had in stopping Hitler, and that is what he did. And he knew that winning the war was the only way to save the people in the concentration camps."

Wyman's book was credited with helping to inspire the American rescue of hundreds of Ethiopian Jews stranded in Sudan in 1985. John R. Miller, a congressman and later an ambassador for combatting human trafficking, told a Wyman Institute conference that he had given copies of the book to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and his top aides. According to Miller, Bush called "Abandonment of the Jews" a major factor in the U.S. decision to airlift the Jews and eventually bring them to Israel.

Bush later sent the author a handwritten note of gratitude.

Wyman continued his investigations with "The World Reacts to the Holocaust" and "America and the Holocaust," a 13-volume compilation of documents used for "Abandonment of the Jews." He would often invoke the Holocaust as a defense of Israel. "I'd come here and die for Israel if I were ever of any use," he said in 2012 while speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

A book released in 2013, "FDR and the Jews," by Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman, contended that Roosevelt had been judged too harshly and that his actions compared favorably to those of future presidents responding to genocide.

In response, the Wyman Institute published Rafael Medoff's "FDR and the Holocaust: A Breach of Faith," which alleged that Roosevelt had a long history of anti-Jewish actions and opinions. (Ironically, Roosevelt was often the target of anti-Semitic attacks in his lifetime, with some opponents labeling the New Deal programs of the Depression the "Jew Deal").

Wyman was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1929 and recalled his parents imparting "not just tolerance, but a high degree of respect for all different people." He studied history as an undergraduate at Boston University and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1962. He had intended to focus on the Progressive era of the early 20th century until he had an epiphany while walking in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard is located.

"Out of nowhere comes this question: What did the United States do while the Jews were being persecuted and mass-murdered?" he would recall.

Wyman taught elementary school and high school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and was a history lecturer at Clark University and Northeastern University before joining Amherst in 1966 and remaining for 25 years.

In 1950, Wyman married Mildred Smith, with whom he had two children, Jim and Teresa. Mildred Wyman, often called Midge, died in 2003.

____

AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report.BEIRUT (AP) - For Syrians marking seven years of war, their country has never looked as helpless or fragmented.

President Bashar Assad has decimated the rebellion, thanks to massive military aid from Russia and Iran, but foreign powers have carved out zones of influence across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are trapped in besieged areas, and heavy fighting is underway in the suburbs of Damascus and in the north, where al-Qaida-linked militants are clashing with rival insurgents and Turkish troops are battling a Syrian Kurdish militia.

The violence has accelerated even as the United States, Russia, Iran and Turkey worked diplomatic tracks to broker local truces and freeze the lines of conflict over the last year. Those efforts now appear to have been aimed at mapping out areas of influence.

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2012 file photo, Syrian man cries while holding the body of his son near Dar El Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo, File)

"I don't even see Syria anymore," said Zaina Erhaim, a Syrian journalist who left the country in 2016 and now lives in London.

"It's called Syria on the map. But if you can think about an ordinary Syrian who wants to go from Daraa to Idlib, can you think about how many countries or nationalities he's going to be passing to reach there?" she asked.

A short list would include the remnants of Syria's Western-backed opposition, Lebanon's Hezbollah and other Iran-backed Shiite fighters from as far away as Afghanistan, Syrian troops, Russian pilots, al-Qaida-linked jihadis, U.S.-allied Kurdish forces and Turkish tank crews.

Nearly half a million people have been killed in Syria since Arab Spring protests erupted in 2011, after security forces arrested a group of teenagers who scrawled anti-Assad graffiti on a wall in the southern city of Daraa.

A demonstration calling for reforms in Damascus' Old City on March 15 is now widely seen as the start of the uprising. Three days later, security forces opened fire on a protest in Daraa, killing four people and drawing first blood.

The protests spread across the country, and nearly everywhere they were met with batons and bullets. Within months, the protesters began taking up arms and the cycle of bloodshed accelerated.

Today, hopes of democratic Syria seem distant, as the rebellion has splintered and the violence has spawned extremism. The activists who organized the initial protests have been hunted down or driven out of the country, either by Syria's feared security agencies or the jihadis that haunt "liberated" areas.

Around 5 million Syrians have fled the country, with most of them struggling to get by in neighboring countries as donor fatigue worsens by the year.

"The thing that's new is that for most of the Syrians living outside, there's no more hope for return. Syria is no longer on their horizon," said the novelist Dima Wannous, who left Damascus for Beirut in 2011 and moved to London in 2016.

The defeat of the Islamic State group over the past year raised hopes of a broader resolution of the conflict. Instead, the fall of a common enemy has reignited older rivalries and freed up fighters for new battles.

Syria has redeployed its elite forces to the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, where they hope to eliminate the last rebel bastion on the edge of the capital with the aid of Russian air power. Airstrikes and shelling have killed more than 1,200 people in recent weeks despite a cease-fire adopted by the U.N. Security Council. Some 400,000 residents are trapped under a crippling siege, with many spending hours or days at a time crammed into makeshift underground shelters without water or electricity.

In northern Syria, Turkey is battling a Syrian Kurdish militia that it views as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders.

At least 10,000 civilians streamed out of eastern Ghouta to government-held territory Thursday, following a night of massive bombardment. Thousands more fled the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria, after Turkish forces tightened their siege around the town. The chaotic scenes broadcast on state-television reflected the deepening despair of ordinary Syrians.

The U.S., which is allied with both Turkey and the Kurds, has sought to defuse the tensions, to no avail. It isn't the first time the United States, which called on Assad to step down back in mid-2011, has found itself sidelined in Syria.

Hundreds of American special operations forces are deployed across northern and eastern Syria, where they are patrolling alongside a Kurdish-led force to prevent IS from regrouping.

But their footprint is nowhere near the size of Iran's. Thousands of Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan have set up a constellation of bases across the country, part of a corridor of arms and influence stretching from Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea - and Israel's doorstep.

Israel has carried out numerous air raids in Syria to prevent the transfer of arms to Hezbollah, and over the past year it has repeatedly warned against the growing Iranian presence. Syrian air defenses shot down an Israeli jet in February, the first time they are known to have done so since 1982.

Until now, the various foreign powers have been content to leave the fighting to their local proxies, but the risk of a direct confrontation - between Iran and Israel, or even Russia and the United States - has steadily grown.

"Tensions are rising in ways where the trigger becomes much easier to happen," said Maha Yahya, director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center.

Syrians say their own country has become an afterthought.

"Syria has been swallowed up," says Wannous, the novelist. "In Syria you feel you no longer have a place, you no longer have a country."

FILE - In this March 23, 2011 file photo, anti-Syrian government protesters flash victory signs as they protest in the southern city of Daraa, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2012 file photo, Free Syrian Army fighters fire at enemy positions during heavy clashes with government forces, in the Salaheddine district of Aleppo, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed.(AP Photo/Abdullah Al-Yasin, File)

FILE - In this May 9, 2012 file photo, an injured Syrian army soldier, wounded by a roadside bomb, is helped by a comrade, in Daraa city, southern Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman, File)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTEN -- FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2015 file photo, a paramilitary police officer investigates the scene before carrying the body of Syrian 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi from the shore, near the beach resort of Bodrum, Turkey. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (Nilufer Demir/DHA via AP, File) TURKEY OUT

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2014 file photo, thick smoke and flames erupt from an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani, Syria, as seen from a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2016 file photo, shoes of Syrian refugee children lay on the ground at the entrance to a makeshift school in a tent, at a refugee camp in the village of Qab Elias, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2012 file photo, a Free Syrian Army fighter walks through a street in the Amariya district in Aleppo, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2017 file photo, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, center, and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani pose for the media members in Sochi, Russia. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (Kayhan Ozer/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - This file photo provided Feb. 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a plume of smoke while civil defense workers arrive after airstrikes hit a rebel-held suburb near Damascus, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2016 file photo, a Syrian army soldier places a Syrian national flag during a battle with rebel fighters at the Ramouseh front line, east of Aleppo, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2017 file photo, residents walk through the rubble of the once rebel-held Salaheddine neighborhood in the eastern Aleppo, Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. Foreign troops have set up bases across the country, international and regional powers have carved out zones of influence, and military offensives and crippling sieges are driving a surging death toll and new waves of displacement while the world stands paralyzed. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

FILE - In this undated file photo posted on Monday, June 30, 2014, by the Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group, a Syrian opposition group, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, fighters from the Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, north Syria. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. (AP Photo/Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2015 file photo, shows a column of migrants, including Syrians, moving through fields after crossing from Croatia, in Rigonce, Slovenia. For Syrians marking seven years of war this week, their country has never looked as helpless, fragmented and abandoned by the international community. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - The mother of a Michigan teenager who was murdered in 2016 is hoping to give back to those who helped her by performing standup comedy at a fundraiser.

Stacey Hilton told WOOD-TV that Gilda's Club helped her heal after the death of her daughter, 18-year-old McKenna Hilton. She wants to show appreciation by participating in the club's LaughFest fundraiser this year.

"Gilda's Club was the only thing that got me up and got me out and they offer a meal and that was about the only thing I was eating, too," Hilton said.

Hilton will perform with a group of first-time standup comedians Friday in Grand Rapids.

"I want to do something that makes other people laugh," she said. "And see that even though you are grieving, you can still have some laughter in your life and it's OK."

Hilton said she's excited to perform and thinks her daughter would be amused at the idea.

"I think she would be hideously embarrassed but I'm sure she would still be rooting me on," she said.

The festival honors comedian Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989. Proceeds and donations from LaughFest support free emotional health care programs for children and adults living with cancer and grief through Gilda's Club Grand Rapids.

A person walking a dog found McKenna Hilton's body Aug. 18, 2016, in a wooded area near Emerald Lake in Grand Rapids Township. Hilton's half-brother, Savon Schmus, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to between 40 and 100 years in prison in October. Schmus, 17, and McKenna Hilton shared the same father.

___

Information from: WOOD-TV, http://www.woodtv.comSAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A husband and wife in the country illegally were fleeing U.S. immigration officials in a rural California farm town when they lost control of their vehicle and crashed into a power pole, killing the couple with six children, police said.

The deaths Tuesday come as immigrant advocates say federal agents are using unmarked cars to pull over farmworkers in the state's agricultural heartland as part of a Trump administration crackdown in California. State laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities have led to an increasing clash between California and the federal government.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement put on their car's emergency lights to pull over the couple's SUV, according to a statement from the Delano Police Department and the federal agency. Neither the police department nor ICE would address whether the agents were in an unmarked car.

In this March 14, 2018 photo provided by the UFW Foundation, farmworkers hold a vigil in Delano, Calif., for a couple that who died after losing control of their sport utility vehicle and crashing into a power pole as they fled immigration officials in a rural California farm town. The deaths on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, happened as advocates for immigrants say U.S. immigration agents are increasingly using unmarked cars to pull over farmworkers in the state's agricultural heartland as part of the Trump Administration's heightened immigration crackdown in California. (UFW Foundation via AP)

The SUV sped away when the agents got out of their vehicle and then veered onto a dirt shoulder, overturned and crashed into a power pole, killing Santos Garcia, 35, and Marcelina Garcia, 33, the statement said.

They were farmworkers living in Delano, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, and were looking for work when immigration agents tried to stop them, said Diana Tellefson, executive director of the United Farm Workers Foundation.

The Garcias were originally from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero and mainly spoke Mixtec, an indigenous language.

"The fact that they could not speak English or Spanish likely added to the fear they felt when they realized it was ICE stopping them," Tellefson said.

The couple left behind six children, ages 8 to 18, and a 1-year-old granddaughter. Tellefson would not say whether the children are in the country illegally or if they plan to stay in California.

Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants' rights at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said her office in recent weeks has received multiple reports from California's farm-rich Central Valley about immigration agents staking out the roads that farmworkers travel to get to work and pulling them over early in the morning.

Pasquarella said immigration agents are reportedly pulling over farmworkers while in unmarked vehicles.

"As in this case, drivers and passengers stop, after being signaled to pull over, believing the officers to be police, but only come to learn after being approached, questioned, and arrested that the officers are actually ICE," she said in a statement.

ICE spokeswoman Lori K. Haley said the agents first went to the Garcias' home looking for another man wanted for deportation and followed the couple as they drove away. Santos Garcia matched the description of the targeted man but wasn't him, the agency said.

Santos Garcia, who had a 2014 DUI conviction, had voluntarily returned to Mexico three times between 2008 and 2017 and was removed once more in 2017, Haley said.

Marcelina Garcia had no prior encounters with immigration authorities, she added.

"As the officers departed the location of the attempted engagement, they came across the overturned vehicle and immediately dialed 911 for assistance," Haley said.

Immigrants in the country illegally and their families have been on edge as deportation arrests have spiked more than 40 percent under President Donald Trump. His administration has said it targets people with criminal records, but many others are getting picked up.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said 65 percent of arrests from October to December involved criminals, compared with 82 percent during the final full three months of the Obama administration.

San Joaquin Valley farmer Joe Del Bosque said farmworkers are already afraid of driving to work and that if more apprehensions are done on roads leading to farms, it could prompt workers to stay home out of fear.

"I'm fearful that this tragedy is going to make our workers even more afraid," he said.

California produces nearly half the country's fruits, vegetables and nuts, valued at $47 billion annually and employs roughly 325,000 workers. Nisei Farmers League, a growers organization, estimates 85 percent of California farmworkers live in the United States illegally.

Del Bosque said that while he found enough workers to harvest his asparagus this March, he worries there will be a labor shortage in the summer, when there is a huge demand for workers to pick grapes, tomatoes, bell peppers and other produce in the Central Valley.

"This certainly has the likelihood of reverberating through the farm-working community," he added.CRESSON, Texas (AP) - In a story March 15 about an explosion and fire at a North Texas chemical plant, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a missing worker is named Dillon Mitchell. His name is Dylan Mitchell.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Toxic air, explosion risk keeps crews from Texas plant fire

An official says toxic fumes are keeping crews from being able to battle a fire at a Texas chemical plant that injured two workers and left a third unaccounted for

CRESSON, Texas (AP) - Investigators believe a worker dragging his foot along a factory floor sparked a Thursday explosion at a Texas chemical plant that injured two workers and left a third unaccounted for, and fears of another blast amid the toxic chemicals prevented crews from battling the ensuing blaze, an official said.

Nine emergency-rescue and fire departments responded to the blaze at the Tri-Chem Industries plant in Cresson, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Dallas, but were evacuated from the vicinity because of risk of exposure and of another explosion, Cresson Mayor Bob Cornett told The Associated Press.

The worker who dragged his foot while chemicals were being mixed caught fire from the waist up and was airlifted with critical burn injures to a Dallas hospital. Another worker with less severe injuries also was treated at a hospital. Cornett identified the missing worker as 27-year-old Dylan Mitchell.

The state's on-site emergency spokesman, Staff Sgt. Earl Gillum of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the search has gone from a rescue effort to a recovery effort. If Mitchell is still in the wreckage, he is believed to be dead, he said.

Aerial photos showed the plant's metal beams had caved in. After the flames calmed, crews entered the wreckage for another search for Mitchell but found nothing and ended for the night, Cornett said late Thursday. They will resume Friday.

Cornett said Tri-Chem Industries mixes chemicals that are primarily used by the oil and gas industry to drill disposal wells, and that although he didn't know how many of the chemicals at the plant were hazardous, "what was burnt and exploded was quite toxic."

The Environmental Protection Agency deployed an on-site coordinator to help monitor air emissions, spokesman David Gray said.

Cornett said that the wind was carrying black smoke and fumes emanating from the plant away from residents, but that the city could issue an evacuation order if the wind direction changed.

A spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency responsible for coordinating the cleanup, declined to produce a list of the plant's on-site chemicals, telling an AP reporter to file a public information request.

In recent years, Texas leaders have made it increasingly difficult for the public to find out about the chemicals manufactured and stored at such plants.

After a fertilizer plant explosion in the city of West, Texas, killed 15 people in 2013, Greg Abbott, who was then attorney general and is now governor, ruled that state agencies could withhold information about hazardous chemicals because of "ongoing terroristic activity."

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This story has been corrected to ... Editors who used BC-US--Chemical Plant Fire-Texas, sent March 15 and datelined in Cresson, Texas, are asked to use the following story.

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This story has been corrected to ... Editors who used BC-US--Chemical Plant Fire-Texas, sent March 15 and datelined in Cresson, Texas, are asked to use the following story.

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This story has been corrected to ... Editors who used BC-US--Chemical Plant Fire-Texas, sent March 15 and datelined in Cresson, Texas, are asked to use the following story.INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A former Mike Pence aide who was fired from one government job and left another after being formally disciplined wants Indiana voters to send him to Congress, where he would take over for the boss who sacked him.

State records reviewed by The Associated Press show Diego Morales was fired in 2009 by former Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita. Rokita's giving up his reliably Republican House seat to run for Senate.

Morales' campaign didn't respond to several questions from the AP but insisted he served as a "senior advisor" to Pence in the Indiana governor's office. Some Pence aides have defended Morales' use of the title and endorsed his candidacy. However, the campaign acknowledges his work wasn't the same level of others who worked under the eventual vice president.BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, facing a difficult re-election fight in a conservative-leaning North Dakota, says she has heard enough from Hillary Clinton following remarks widely seen as disparaging middle America.

Asked by her radio talk host brother when Clinton will "ride off into the sunset," Heitkamp responded: "Not soon enough."

Heitkamp made the comment Tuesday during an appearance on a talk show hosted by Joel Heitkamp on Fargo's KFGO Radio.

Clinton told an audience in India last week that her loss to President Donald Trump was because of "all that red in the middle" of America that she accused of "looking backwards." She said she won areas elsewhere that are "optimistic" and "moving forward."

Heitkamp is in a tight race with Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer, an ardent Trump supporter who has been considered the GOP's best hope of unseating the first-term senator.

Heitkamp spokeswoman Julia Krieger said Thursday that Heitkamp stands by her radio show comment.

Heitkamp has criticized Clinton before. During the 2016 presidential campaign, after Clinton described some of Trump's supporters as "deplorables," Heitkamp called the remark the "wrong thing to say" and "ill-advised."ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection is looking into concerns by New Mexico's top land manager about whether federal agents can access a milelong stretch of state land along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Federal officials sent New Mexico Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn a letter this month about his concerns over the installation of a border wall, infrastructure and roads on state trust land years ago. The letter released Thursday says the agency is gathering records and plans to meet with Dunn in early April.

Karl Calvo, an assistant commissioner that oversees Customs and Border Protection's facilities and assets, said in the letter that the agency values its relationship with the State Land Office.

Aubrey Dunn, New Mexico State Land Commissioner, stands near a section of the U.S./ Mexico Border where his office says a section of the border wall has ben constructed on state trust land, in Santa Teresa, N.M., Tuesday, March 6, 2018. says the federal government has overstepped its authority and is trespassing on state trust land along the U.S.-Mexico border without compensating the state. Dunn on Tuesday posted signs aimed at blocking border patrol operations along the one-mile stretch of state land. (Josh Bachman/The Las Cruces Sun-News via AP)

"An important part of CBP's strategy to successfully secure the nation's borders includes developing and leveraging partnerships and dialogue with state and local stakeholders to ensure that the unique operational needs of each region are effectively met," Calvo wrote.

The letter was sent to Dunn, who is running for U.S. Senate, after he posted signs and cordoned off the land along the border. Dunn said his office was forced to take action in early March after the U.S. government failed to respond to his previous correspondence.

Dunn contends the federal government never got the needed authorization to access the state land and has not compensated New Mexico for using the property. He has called it a state sovereignty issue and said revenue earned from development or use of state trust land helps fund public education.

"I am confident we can agree upon terms that will enable us to collect revenue for New Mexico schoolchildren and them to manage their national security operations," Dunn said in a statement Thursday.

The debate about installing more fencing along the border heated up recently when a federal judge sided with the Trump administration over a challenge to building barriers in parts of California and New Mexico. There's no timeline for when work might begin to replace fences along a 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch near Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

The State Land Office began researching the effects that construction could have after some Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation aimed at blocking construction on New Mexico trust land. The land office oversees millions of acres, including a patchwork along the state's border with Mexico.

Dunn's staff determined that a parcel between the Santa Teresa port of entry and El Paso, Texas, was initially given to what was then the territory of New Mexico under the 1898 Ferguson Act.

New Mexico officials contend the parcel was never part of the buffer zone established by a 1907 presidential proclamation to ensure federal authorities could patrol along the southern border.

Aubrey Dunn, New Mexico State Land Commissioner, stands near a section of the U.S./ Mexico Border where his office says a section of the border wall has ben constructed on state trust land, in Santa Teresa, N.M., Tuesday, March 6, 2018. says the federal government has overstepped its authority and is trespassing on state trust land along the U.S.-Mexico border without compensating the state. Dunn on Tuesday posted signs aimed at blocking border patrol operations along the one-mile stretch of state land. (Josh Bachman/The Las Cruces Sun-News via AP)SKOWHEGAN, Maine (AP) - A host of Maine's first marijuana-themed radio show says he hopes it educates listeners and breaks down the stigma surrounding pot.

The Portland Press Herald reports "Cannabis Connection" debuted on WFMX last month. Medical marijuana shop owner Dawson Julia and on-air personality Chris Rush host the program, which airs Mondays from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Julia says he came up with the idea for the segment while listening to a radio debate about whether cannabis users can buy guns.

Julia and Rush each week interview a special guest about issues concerning cannabis. The hosts recently spoke with a criminal defense lawyer about civil liberties.

Julia says he believes the show can break down the stigma around weed for those who haven't used it and educate listeners on pot laws.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.comFOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. (AP) - Authorities have released the names of a Canadian couple and an Iowa woman who died after being struck by an SUV on a sidewalk in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Maricopa County Sheriff's officials say 72-year-old Robert Bonta and his 71-year-old wife Karen were killed in the accident Tuesday along with 60-year-old Patti Doornbos of Wever, Iowa.

Doornbos' 60-year-old husband, Ronald Doornbos, suffered a head injury and remains hospitalized in critical condition after multiple surgeries.

The Canadian couple's hometown wasn't immediately available Thursday. Authorities say the couples didn't know each other.

They say charges are pending against the 27-year-old man who was driving the SUV when it jumped a curb and struck the two couples as they waited to cross a street.

Fountain Hills is 32 miles (51 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix.WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump will be traveling to New Hampshire to unveil more of his plan to combat the nation's opioid crisis.

The White House says the president and First Lady Melania Trump will travel to the Granite State on Monday.

Trump had come under fire for being slow to act on the drug crisis but has begun rolling out new plans. He had promised during the campaign to make fighting the epidemic a priority.

At a recent rally, Trump has mused that the United States should institute the death penalty for drug dealers.

This will be Trump's first visit to New Hampshire since taking office. He captured the 2016 Republican primary there but narrowly lost in the general election to Hillary Clinton.SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Eight Republicans have stepped forward before a Thursday evening filing deadline to challenge former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the Utah Senate race, including a state lawmaker who says an "establishment insider" can't fix problems in Washington.

Many of the candidates acknowledge the David-vs-Goliath nature of challenging the famous and popular Romney, but they say someone needs to keep the race to replace Republican Orrin Hatch from becoming a "coronation."

"I think he's just expecting to run away with this thing," Republican candidate Sam Parker said. "There are really motivated individuals who are going to do their best to force their way into the conversation."

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney looks on after filling out paperwork as he declares his candidacy for the U.S. Senate at the state elections office Thursday, March 15, 2018, at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Romney, who filed papers on Thursday to officially become a candidate, is pushing back against the criticism, saying he's working to earn every vote and emphasizing his ties to Utah, where he's made his home after losing the 2012 presidential election

"Almost wherever I go throughout the country, people just assume I'm from Utah," Romney told reporters at the state Capitol after filing his paperwork.

He's known in the state for reviving the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics after a bribery scandal and later becoming the first Mormon presidential nominee of a major political party. About 60 percent of Utah's residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based in Salt Lake City.

Though personally wealthy, Romney said he doesn't plan to use his personal money for his campaign, which he's portrayed as a modest, local operation. He's relying on volunteers to gather voter signatures to get on the ballot, instead of relying on professional, paid workers, like many candidates do. He's made a point to travel to 20 of Utah's 29 counties in recent weeks in a pickup truck, which he sometimes drives himself.

Many of those who have stepped up to challenge Romney have revived attacks he faced in his presidential campaigns, including criticism for his shifting stance on abortion and his signing of a health care law as Massachusetts governor that was used as a blueprint for President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Parker, a banker, said he decided to jump in because he felt Romney wouldn't be a strong, conservative ally for President Donald Trump, who has clashed over the years with Romney.

"I don't agree with a lot of his politics, as much as you can nail down his politics because they seem to change to fit whatever opportunity he's going after," Parker said of his opponent.

Most in the crowded primary are political unknowns, save for state Rep. Mike Kennedy, a Republican from Alpine.

Kennedy, a doctor and a lawyer who has served in the Legislature since 2013, jumped in the race Wednesday and released an online campaign video, where he asked: "Do you honestly think an establishment insider is going to fix the problems in Washington and restore our values?"

Kennedy, who recently helped launch a task force in the state to find ways to prevent school shootings, did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.

Other Republican candidates, who have until 5 p.m. Thursday to jump in the race, include Jeremy Friedbaum and Stoney Fonua, who have both unsuccessfully run for a number of offices over the years, along with engineer Tim Jimenez, attorney Layer Meyers, and Alicia Colvin, who works at a medical device company and describes herself as more of a moderate.

Candidates on the Democratic side include Salt Lake County Council member Jenny Wilson, Mitchell Vice and Larry Livingston.

Romney and some of the GOP challengers will face off in an April 21 Republican Party convention, where they'll try to win votes of several thousand party delegates elected by their neighbors. The winner of the convention, which typically favors more conservative candidates, will face off in a June 26 primary election against any candidates who gather 28,000 voter signatures to earn a place on the ballot, something Romney is doing.

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney smiles as he declares his candidacy for the U.S. Senate at the state elections office Thursday, March 15, 2018, at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney leaves the Utah State Capitol after declaring his candidacy for the U.S. Senate Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney leaves the state elections office after declaring his candidacy for the U.S. Senate Thursday, March 15, 2018, at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney smiles as he declares his candidacy for the U.S. Senate at the state elections office Thursday, March 15, 2018, at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)The Tory chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee has urged the Prime Minister to use the tools at her disposal to expose the wealth of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his family in the wake of the nerve agent attack.

Speaking in the Commons following Theresa Mays statement on the incident in Salisbury, Tom Tugendhat called on the Government to expose him for what he is and not be a useful idiot hiding behind legalism of his crimes.

His comments came as Liberal Democrats leader Sir Vince Cable urged the Government to use its legal powers in relation to unexplained wealth orders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Matt Cardy/PA)

Mr Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) said: May I thank the Prime Minister for her impressive leadership in this matter.

I associate myself actually unusually with the leader of the Liberal Democrats in calling for more use of unexplained wealth orders.

But could I also ask her if she will use the tools at her disposal to expose the wealth of the Putin family.

Three billion dollars (2.15 billion) or more has been stolen from the Russian people by that man.

We should expose him for what he is and not be a useful idiot hiding behind legalism of his crimes.

Mrs May replied: Can I thank him for his contribution and suggestion, can I also say on the unexplained wealth orders, of course those are tools that we do use but we have to use properly in accordance with the rule of law following the due processes that should take place.

Sir Vince said both he and his party fully supported Mrs Mays statement.

He said: Can I ask what is her response to the brave leader of the opposition in Russia Alexei Navalny  who is not allowed to stand in the presidential election  who has said that the most effective action the British Government can take is to use its legal powers such as the unexplained wealth orders against named individuals who are critical to the Putin operation will she act?

Mrs May responded: Can I thank him for the support he has given to the actions being taken by the Government.

Can I also say to him as I said in my statement, that we do of course look at issues around corrupt elites, we look at the issues around criminal finances, we look at using the tools and capabilities that are at our disposal.

The National Crime Agency is continuing on that work.The DUP and Sinn Fein are facing calls to come clean over the scandalous level of secrecy in devolved government.

The head of Northern Irelands civil service David Sterling has said some meetings were not minuted because it was safer not to have a record which might be released following a Freedom of Information request.

Mr Sterling said the two main parties at Stormont had been sensitive to criticism.

Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service David Sterling said some meetings were not minuted over Freedom Of Information fears (Nick Ansell/PA)

SDLP Assembly member Daniel McCrossan said: This is a scandalous contortion of standard practice that was designed to keep the work of ministers secret from the people they are supposed to represent.

On Tuesday, Mr Sterling answered questions at the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) public inquiry at Stormont.

Problems with the botched green energy scheme led to a massive projected overspend and the DUPs handling of the matter prompted Martin McGuinnesss resignation as Stormont deputy first minister more than a year ago.

Mr Sterling said the practice of taking minutes had lapsed after devolution when engagement between civil servants and ministers became much more regular and the pace of life increased.

He added: The two main parties have been sensitive to criticism and I think it is in that context that as senior Civil Service we got into the habit of not recording all meetings on the basis that it is safer sometimes not to have a record that for example might be released under Freedom of Information.

The issue was raised over a meeting between Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) official Fiona Hepper and former minister Arlene Foster about whether to proceed with RHI without cost controls introduced in Great Britain.

There was a difference of opinion between the two about the meeting and no minute was taken.

Mr Sterling said as a general rule engagement between ministers and officials had become more fluid, with more use of emails.

He added: One of the consequences of that is it becomes much more difficult to apply the rigid disciplines of minuting every meeting.

He was pretty confident every other major decision taken during his period in DETI would have had a clear audit trail.

Mr McCrossan said questions must be answered by each and every minister in that secretive Stormont Executive.

He said: Did they instruct or intimate that senior civil servants should not take notes of meetings to protect them from public scrutiny?

Did they have any knowledge that notes were not being taken of key meetings and decisions?

He added: This goes to the heart of the character of those two parties.

They negotiate in secret, they govern in secret, they are terrified of scrutiny.

Any minister who is too sensitive to have their decisions scrutinised by the public has no business being in government.Residents of Salisbury are rallying to raise funds for police officer Nick Bailey, who suffered injures as a result of the nerve agent attack last week.

The Wiltshire Police Detective Sergeant, who joined the force in 2002, is conscious in Salisbury District Hospital following the attempted murder of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The JustGiving page raising funds for Wiltshire Police officer Nick Bailey.

A JustGiving page set up by local mother Katie Doherty has gathered 36 supporters, and nearly 400 so far.

The 33-year-old from East Knoyle, said: I dont know him myself, but I set up the page before his details had been released.

I just really felt for him and his family. At the end of the day he was just out doing his job looking after our community. I appreciate that police are trained for all sorts of situations but I dont think anyone could have expected this, she said.

Our emergency services and our local hospital do such a great job looking after us and I just wanted to say thank you.

She added that she was aiming to raise 6,000 for the sergeant.

At Wiltshire Councils Bourne Hill office, a cake sale took place to raise funds for DS Bailey.

Our amazing Wiltshire Council colleagues are running a cake sale for Nick today, this gesture is true testament to how we all get on in Bourne Hill, thank you so much @drcarltonbrand @wiltspoliceCC pic.twitter.com/KeR8rKYFW2  Supt Chris Chammings (@chrischamms) March 14, 2018

Writing on Twitter, Wiltshire Police Superintendent Chris Chammings said: Our amazing Wiltshire Council colleagues are running a cake sale for Nick today. This gesture is true testament to how we all get on in Bourne Hill. Thank you so much.

In a statement released after the attack, the force said DS Bailey did not consider himself a hero, he states he was merely doing his job.The director of The Theory Of Everything has told how Stephen Hawking quaffed a lot of champagne when he visited the set of the film about his life.

James Marsh said seeing the endurance and bravery of the theoretical physicist was humbling and remarkable.

The film starred Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar for his portrayal, and Felicity Jones, as his first wife Jane.

Felicity Jones, Professor Stephen Hawking, Jane Hawking and Eddie Redmayne (Ian West/PA)

Marsh said Prof Hawking, who was not entirely thrilled about the idea of the film but was typically gracious about it, deemed the film to be broadly true.

He told the Press Association: When he came to our set as we re-created a May ball in a Cambridge college, he quaffed a lot of champagne and gave us his more active blessing.

We showed him the film when it was finished, and then had an agonising wait as he methodically rendered his verdict via his speech device. It took about 15 minutes.

His judgment was generous  he declared the film to be broadly true.

Professor Stephen Hawking at the premiere of the film (Ian West/PA)

He also noted that we hadnt quite got his electronic voice right and wondered whether we would care to use his actual voice. So the finished film does indeed use Stephens signature voice and was all the better for it.

Our film tells the story of his diagnosis and increasingly debilitating illness  and the stark fact of that was that he was given just a few years to live whilst in his early 20s, during the first blush of his courtship of Jane.

So if there is one consoling fact on this sad day, it is the fact of his miraculous longevity.

He lived an incredibly full and productive life, both as a scientist and husband and father.

Marsh said he was not well positioned to address Prof Hawkings contributions to theoretical physics, but added: His mind was preoccupied with the fundamental questions of our existence, our place in the universe and the nature of the universe itself.

In essence, here was a man who could barely move and yet his mind was able to wander the cosmos using the vehicle and language of mathematics.

Every single day must have been a challenge and a struggle to transcend the cruel ravages of his disease. His endurance, his bravery and his productivity were humbling and remarkable. Above all, he was unique in every way.

James Marsh (left) with Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones alongside presenter David Beckham at the Baftas (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Anthony McCarten, who penned the screenplay, added: He was a molecular miracle, both physically and intellectually, and it was one of the great honours of my life to have met him, spent some time with him, and been his cinematic biographer.

He added: His place in history is assured, for his pioneering work on understanding black holes and the early universe, but I will remember him for his bravery, his wit, and the object lesson he delivered every day, that life is what you make it.

Travel well Steve, to your rightful place among the stars. I trust that in death you have fulfilled your lifes ambition, to know the mind of God.Newport in South Wales has been identified as Britains fastest-moving property market, with the average length of time it takes to find a buyer in the city having been slashed by nearly a third over the past year.

Rightmove said last years announcement that tolls on the Severn Crossings will be scrapped at the end of 2018, and interest from buyers coming from more expensive areas such as nearby Bristol where the average asking price is over 300,000, have helped Newports housing market activity to surge.

Estate agents said buyers are able to swap a small terraced home in Bristol for a large detached family property in Newport for around the same price.

Estate agents said buyers are able to swap a small terraced home in Bristol for a large detached family property in Newport for around the same price (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Oldham, Scunthorpe, Rochdale, Wrexham and Dewsbury also appeared on the list of the fastest-moving housing markets.

The website looked at how local housing markets have changed over the past year, including the number of properties available and the number of days it takes to secure a buyer to make the findings.

It found that in Newport, the average time it takes to secure a buyer for a property has fallen from 76 to 52 days  a 32% drop.

Average house prices there have also increased by 7% to reach 175,944.

The increase in demand has led to the number of available properties for sale dwindling by more than a third (37%), Rightmove said.

The Severn Crossings have served commuters driving between Wales and England for over 50 years.

It has previously been estimated that the average motorist could save over 1,400 per year through the scrapping of the tolls.

Rightmoves housing market analyst Miles Shipside said: The average asking price of a property in Newport is almost half that of Bristol so you can see why buyers are making the move into Wales, especially as they know the tolls on the bridges will be scrapped at the end of the year.

However, the demand is clearly taking its toll on the number of properties agents have available to offer buyers on Rightmove, making it very much a sellers market in Newport right now.

Rightmove also quoted the views of local estate agents in its report.

Mark Roberts, director of Roberts Estate Agents in Newport, said: Buyers from Bristol are being able to sell a small terraced house and move to Newport to a four bed detached house for the same price, so I can see this level of activity and the stock shortages continuing for at least another 12 months.

Paul Cleverly, managing director of Pinkmove estate agents in Newport, said good transport links, with the M4 motorway close by, are helping to attract buyers.

He said: From the East are buyers from Bristol, and from the West are buyers from Cardiff.

Nathan James Reeks, Owner of Nathan James estate agents in nearby Caldicot and Magor, said a huge stock shortage is making it tough for local first-time buyers trying to get on the ladder and for those coming from elsewhere.

Here are the top 10 fastest-moving property markets identified by Rightmove, with the percentage change in the number of available properties followed by the current average asking price, the percentage asking price increase between 2017 and 2018, the average number of days it takes to secure a buyer, and the percentage change in the number of days to secure a buyer:

1. Newport, Wales, minus 37%, 175,944, 7%, 52, minus 32%

2. Oldham, North West, minus 35%, 136,977, 5%, 76, minus 24%

3. Scunthorpe, Yorkshire and the Humber, minus 27%, 129,426, 8%, 63, minus 24%

4. Rochdale, North West, minus 28%, 157,648, 6%, 81, minus 22%

5. Leigh, North West, minus 26%, 128,809, 3%, 58, minus 19%

6. Wrexham, Wales, minus 24%, 157,448, 3%, 97, minus 19%

7. Southport, North West, minus 22%, 197,681, 2%, 79, minus 19%

8. Colwyn Bay, Wales, minus 14%, 186,217, 4%, 79, minus 26%

9. Dewsbury, Yorkshire and the Humber, minus 11%, 143,287, 2%, 74, minus 28%

10. Birkenhead, North West, minus 11%, 112,472, 4%, 79, minus 27%The use of food and medical supplies as a weapon of war by the Syrian regime has been branded as utterly abhorrent by two Cabinet ministers.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt issued the joint statement to mark the seven years of conflict which has gripped the Middle Eastern country.

Branding the war as one of the longest and bloodiest in recent history, they highlighted how 400,000 are estimated to have been killed and 13 million left in need of humanitarian assistance.

The two ministers also said Bashar Assads government and his allies bear overwhelming responsibility for the destruction of the country, its infrastructure and the lives of its people.

Despite promises of de-escalation, the violence continues and the civilian death toll continues to rise, the statement adds.

Last month the UK supported UN Security Council Resolution 2401 calling for a ceasefire.

Yet in Eastern Ghouta  which Russia itself declared to be a de-escalation area  the regime, with Russian support, has continued to bombard and besiege the population, turning it into a hell on earth.

"Has there been a ceasefire? No. The violence continues and civilian deaths continue to rise"@AmbassadorAllen addresses the UN Security Council on the failure to implement a much needed ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta pic.twitter.com/na329NY6wz  Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) March 13, 2018

Over 1,100 people are estimated to have been killed there since February 18 alone.

We find it utterly abhorrent that the regime is using food and medical supplies as a weapon of war.

Civilians continue to be deliberately and indiscriminately targeted by military strikes, and despite promises made by Russia to ensure Syria would abandon all of its chemical weapons in 2013, international investigators have confirmed that the regime has since used chemical weapons in four separate attacks  which Russia has gone to great lengths to conceal.

The UK is committed to ensuring that all those responsible for chemical weapons use and other violations of international law in this conflict are held to account.

Eastern Ghouta is home to hundreds of thousands of people who are living in harsh conditions because of the military offensive and lack of food as a result of the crippling government siege.

This week the conflict enters its eighth year after what started as protests against Assads regime in March 2011, ignited into a war that attracted regional and international powers, as well as foreign fighters.

Cabinet ministers Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt have issued a joint statement (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

President Assad said on Wednesday that his countrys war on terrorism will continue as long as there is a single terrorist on Syrian territories.

His government brands all opposition groups as terrorists and has accused European countries, Gulf states, America and Turkey of trying to divide the country.

Both Russia and Iran back Assads government and have helped in his bid to regain control of Syria.

In their joint statement, Mr Johnston and Ms Mordaunt stressed that the suffering will only end when there is a political solution to the conflict.

We will continue to use our position on the UN Security Council to pursue this, as well as to unlock humanitarian access and protect civilians, they said.

The UN is ready to mediate a settlement.

The opposition have declared their readiness for negotiations without preconditions. But the regime continues to obstruct progress.

The international community must commit to a ceasefire and a political process that ends this conflict for good.Britains retaliation over the Salisbury spy poisoning, its ramifications and tributes to Professor Stephen Hawking lead most papers on Thursday.

The Government is awaiting the Kremlins response to Theresa Mays decision to eject 23 Russian diplomats, the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War.

Meanwhile nearly all the papers carry images of Prof Hawking, whose death aged 76 on Wednesday saw an outpouring of tributes from around the world.

What the papers say - March 15

Cold War II reads the headline on the Daily Mirrors front page, the paper saying Britain is braced for Russian president Vladimir Putin to take revenge over the diplomatic exclusions.

The Guardian leads with Russia, but dedicates much of its front page to Prof Hawking, saying the theoretical physicist was the brightest star in the firmament of science.

The Guardian front page, Thursday 15 March 2018: Russia threatens retaliation as May expels 23 diplomats pic.twitter.com/SGJcNkRefu  The Guardian (@guardian) March 14, 2018

The Financial Times highlights that the response has already been faster and more extensive than that seen after the death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, while it describes Prof Hawking as one of the most brilliant scientists of his age.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times, London edition, Thursday 15 Marchhttps://t.co/x7Mi8uOPFr pic.twitter.com/kSK5AEqOhw  Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) March 14, 2018

The Daily Mail focuses on criticism of Jeremy Corbyns comments on the Russia crisis, beneath a picture of a fit and healthy Prof Hawking as a young boy before the onset of motor neuron disease.

The Sun also leads with reaction to the Labour leaders position, saying Mr Corbyn was accused of being Mr Putins puppet.

Tomorrow's front page: 'Jeremy Corbyn was branded Vladimir Putin's puppet last night after failing to condemn Russia over the nerve agent attack' pic.twitter.com/nihnTtw8WV  The Sun (@TheSun) March 14, 2018

Meanwhile The Times leads with Frances view of the crisis, saying the country had undermined Mrs May by accusing her of acting prematurely.

Tomorrow's Times front page: France defies May over Russia pic.twitter.com/vkxkVygQur  The Times (@thetimes) March 14, 2018

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will warn Britain is at a profound moment in its history and will unveil new measures to tackle chemical and biological warfare, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph: 'We must bolster our defences' #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/SIrp9pge1n  The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 14, 2018

The Independent says British soldiers will receive injections to protect them against anthrax, while Mr Williamson will announce a new 48 million facility at the Porton Down chemical warfare lab.

The Daily Express reports on the death of Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian businessman living in London who was a close associate of a fierce critic of Mr Putin.

EXPRESS: Dead Russian was on Putins hit list #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/v1yrS5iEVt  Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) March 14, 2018

And the i dedicates its front page to Prof Hawking.A member of Jeremy Corbyns frontbench team has backed the Government over its mass expulsion of Russian diplomats, saying it would have been easier for us if the Labour leader made it clear he supported the move too.

Mr Corbyn received fierce criticism from Conservatives and some of his own MPs after his team raised doubts about who was responsible for the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

A group of Labour backbenchers said it unequivocally accepts the Russian states culpability for the incident, while Theresa May said it was outrageous that Mr Corbyns spokesman had said there was a problematic history over the use of UK intelligence.

Jeremy Corbyn received fierce criticism from Conservatives and some of his own MPs (Jane Barlow/PA)

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said that it was quite clear that, due to the nature of the chemical weapon used, it had been an act of aggression.

The attack in Salisbury was an appalling act of violence, which we condemn in the strongest terms.



The Russian authorities must be held to account on the basis of the evidence and our response must be both decisive and proportionate.https://t.co/yaI3fXbAAu  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) March 14, 2018

And that is why we are fully supporting the expulsion of 23 diplomats, she told the Daily Mirror.

Ms Griffith said senior Labour figures had been briefed by security services over the attack on Sunday March 4 that left Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fighting for their lives.

Asked if Mr Corbyn had undermined UK security assessments that it was highly likely Russia was behind their poisoning, Ms Griffith said: Looking back, perhaps it would have been easier for us if he had made it clear at the beginning of what he said, just how much we support the expulsion of the diplomats.

It would have been easier and perhaps we would not have had the conversations we are seeing.

Ms Griffiths comments were quickly supported by several Labour MPs.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw said she was spot on, while Kingston Upon Hull North MP Diana Johnson said she fully supported the shadow defence secretary.

The Sun, meanwhile, reported that shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told a London seminar: We utterly condemn this despicable act and support all the measures taken by the Government today.

Mr Corbyns spokesmans comments prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of the leaders senior aide Seumas Milne.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values, while Chuka Umunna said: Mr Milnes comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs.

The Labour spokesman said the Government may have more information.

He told reporters: The Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others dont.

However, also there is a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.

So, I think the right approach is to seek the evidence to follow international treaties, particularly in relation to prohibitive chemical weapons.

Asked if he could rule out the possibility of Russia being framed, the spokesman said the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to the two options set out by the PM.

In the meantime I think it is essential we follow the evidence and what the evidence produces, he added.Ireland believes in equality for all citizens, irrespective of gender, religion, race or sexual orientation, Irish PM Leo Varadkar has said.

The Taoiseach added that his home country championed free speech and Irish people believed in free trade and free enterprise.

Mr Varadkar made the comments ahead of his bilateral meeting with President Trump in the White House on Thursday.

American ideas and American values that spread around the world meant that a young boy growing up in Ireland, with an Indian father and an Irish mother, could dream of one day becoming the leader of his country, believing that the time would come when people would be judged on their principles and their ideals, on the content of their character and the quality of the work, and not on their sexuality or the colour of their skin, Mr Varadkar said.

The Taoiseach said these were Irish values today.

Announcing the formal launch in Washington DC of https://t.co/Mmd4OYh0lt: our plans to double Irelands footprint around the world pic.twitter.com/j8ragWTvCR  Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 14, 2018

We believe in equality before the law for all citizens, irrespective of gender, religion, race or sexual orientation, he said.

We believe in free trade and free enterprise. We champion free speech and freedom of association.

And we are proud to assert that democracy and multi-lateralism are the best way of solving the worlds problems.

Mr Varadkar made the comments at the Ireland Funds Gala in Washington DC on Wednesday night, ahead of his meeting with Mr Trump.

The theme of this gala was the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is travelling to Washington today where she will represent the United Kingdom Government at a number of events to mark St Patricks Day https://t.co/2CgQjHjwHj  Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) March 14, 2018

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley, congressman Peter King, congressman Richard Neal and Bank of America vice-chairwoman Anne Finucane were among the attendees.

They enjoyed a performance by flute player Sir James Galway.

Mr Neal told the attendees that there should be no return to a hard border.

The Taoiseach said the Good Friday Agreement was painstakingly put in place to bridge Northern Irelands divisions.

[It] set us on a path towards lasting reconciliation, he said. In the face of difficulties, we are resolute in our determination to protect all that has been achieved.

He added the influence and encouragement from the Irish in America would continue to be crucial in the coming period.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley at the American Ireland Gala Fund dinner (Niall Carson/PA)

The Taoiseach will hold a bi-lateral meeting with Mr Trump at the White House. Other engagements on Thursday will include an annual lunch hosted by the Speaker of the House at Capitol Hill.

Mr Varadkar will use these opportunities to emphasise the strength of Irish-US relations and to highlight the case of the undocumented Irish.

In the afternoon, the traditional shamrock ceremony will take place as part of the White House Saint Patricks Day Reception.

On Friday, the Taoiseach will be guest of honour at a breakfast hosted by Vice President Pence. He will then head to New York for the final leg of the week-long visit for St Patricks Day.

It will conclude on Saturday, 17 March with the traditional New York Saint Patricks Day programme, including a meeting with Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Saint Patricks Cathedral mass and walking in the Fifth Avenue parade.A flight attendant with long-haul carrier Emirates has been taken to hospital in Uganda after falling out of an open emergency door on a passenger plane that was parked on the tarmac.

Civil aviation authorities in Uganda said the incident happened at Entebbe International Airport.

They issued a statement saying the female flight attendant unfortunately fell off the Boeing 777 which was preparing to fly to Dubai.

Emirates

An investigation is under way.

Emirates said in a statement that the flight attendant unfortunately fell off from an open door while preparing the aircraft for boarding on flight EK730 from Entebbe.

The airline added: We are providing all possible support and care for the affected crew, and will extend our full co-operation to the authorities in their investigation.The Russian military says it has extended a humanitarian pause in fighting for two days in a part of Syrias embattled eastern Ghouta enclave, just outside of Damascus.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the halt on Thursday and Friday is focused on the town of Douma.

It claims the pause has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.

Major General Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying 131 people left the area through the humanitarian corridor on Wednesday.

Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin said 100 people are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.

Syrian government soldiers during the battle against rebels in eastern Ghouta (Sana/AP)

Moscow ordered the daily humanitarian pauses late last month, but few civilians have left.

Activists said continued government shelling and air strikes killed at least 20 civilians on Wednesday in eastern Ghouta.

Monitoring groups added that government and Russian forces were still blanketing the Ghouta region with air strikes and rocket fire.

The assaults come as Syria marked the seventh anniversary of the popular uprising that sparked the countrys vicious civil war.

The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said its first responders are not able to reach the wounded in towns in rebel-held eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the assault.

It said one of its rescue workers was killed in an air strike in Hazeh on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a column of civilians trying to flee government advances in Hamouria were targeted with shelling early in the day that wounded several people.

It said 26 people were killed in Hamouria on Wednesday.A number of Britains most powerful allies have pledged their support as pressure mounts on Russia in the wake of the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

US: Despite an initially lukewarm response from President Donald Trump and the sacking of secretary of state Rex Tillerson who condemned Russias alleged actions, the White House has now said America stands in solidarity with the UK, agreeing that Russia was responsible for the attack.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the US said: This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behaviour in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes.

Soldiers wearing protective clothing prepare to recover a vehicle (PA)

Mr Tillerson was fired on Tuesday, the day after branding Russias actions outrageous, adding: 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.

Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Wednesday that he had spoken with Theresa May offering her Canadas support.

He told reporters: The attack is despicable and it is unacceptable that there would be chemical weapons used against citizens of the United Kingdom.

He added: Russias likely involvement is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be condemned in the strongest terms.

Australia: Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and foreign minister Julie Bishop announced in a joint statement their support for the UKs decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the attack.

They even said that Australia was itself considering joining the UK in taking action against Russia, stating: Australia is considering its responses in support of the United Kingdom, in close consultation with the UK Government and other partners.

Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the attack and promised Theresa May her support in a phone call.

New German foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday it is disappointing that Russia so far doesnt appear to be prepared to help clear up the case.

He said that Germany would consult closely with London, adding and we can fully and completely understand that Britain had to react to this.

France: Britains closest neighbour has been cautious about laying the blame for the attack at Russias door, but said on Wednesday it would consult with the UK to coordinate a response and expressed its confidence in Britains investigation.

The EU: European Council president Donald Tusk has announced he will be putting the poisoning on the agenda of next weeks EU meeting.

He tweeted: I express my full solidarity with PM @theresa_may in the face of the brutal attack inspired, most likely, by Moscow. Im ready to put the issue on next weeks #EUCO agenda.

For real friends, this should be obvious: At a time of fake news spreading, meddling in our elections, and attacks on people on our soil with nerve agent, the response must not be transatlantic bickering but transatlantic unity.

Nato: The North Atlantic Council announced its strong support of the UK in a statement released on Wednesday.

It said: Allies expressed deep concern at the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since Natos foundation.

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.

Allies agreed that the attack was a clear breach of international norms and agreements.Fire doors at Grenfell Tower could only hold back flames for half the time they were supposed to, investigators have found.

In revelations described as shocking by survivors, experts tested an undamaged door from the block and discovered it could only withstand a blaze for 15 minutes  not the 30 for which it was designed.

The Metropolitan Police announced the developments as it continues a comprehensive investigation into the tragedy which left 71 dead last June.

Grenfell Tower in west London (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Three fire doors provided by the same company  believed to be Manse Masterdor  were found to offer less protection than guidelines recommend.

It is understood they were installed in the west London block between 2011 and 2012.

The products in question are no longer on sale, said Synseal, which took over Manse Masterdors trade and operating assets two years after the doors were installed.

Manse Mastedor remained a separate company and was renamed Litchfield Investments Limited in 2014. It is now in the process of being wound up.

Those touched by the tragedy were alerted to the findings in a letter from the Metropolitan Police.

Natasha Elcock, a survivor from the tower and a representative of the bereaved and survivors group Grenfell United said: Its shocking  first the cladding and insulation then the doors. Who knows what else is putting peoples lives at risk?

Its time peoples lives are taken more seriously, and that includes everyone from every walk of life.

Peoples homes must be made absolutely safe for them and their children. The Government should have improved regulations after previous fires. We cant listen to any more excuses.

Grenfell United will not stop campaigning until the lessons of Grenfell are learnt. Nothing can bring our loved ones back but we must make sure a fire like this never happens again.

Kensington and Chelsea Council, which owned Grenfell Tower, said tests were currently inconclusive and urged the Government to act quickly to provide clarity on the situation.

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid is due to make a statement on the subject at 11.30am, it is understood.

Scotland Yard said in a statement: We have previously described that our forensic examination at the scene would be followed by a phase of offsite testing to be conducted by experts on our behalf.

As part of this investigation, experts tested a flat front door taken from Grenfell Tower. The door tested was designed to resist fire for 30 minutes but during the test, it was only found to resist the fire for approximately 15 minutes, a much shorter period than expected.

The forensic examination and testing phase is ongoing and we are not able to comment on the potential impact or otherwise that any test result may have on the overall criminal investigation.

A public inquiry into the fire is running alongside the police investigation, as well as a review into current building regulations.

It is feared that cladding installed on the tower could have also accelerated the spread of the blaze.

A spokesman for Kensington and Chelsea Council added: We understand that tests organised by the Government have found that three fire doors from the same company provided less protection than guidelines recommend, but test results are as yet inconclusive.

Alongside hundreds of councils and landlords across the country, we are seeking further information from the Government on what this means for our residents.A council has extended formal condolences to the grandfather of Ellie Butler, who was beaten to death by her father after being taken from her grandparents care.

Ellie was battered to death by Ben Butler at their family home in Sutton, south London, 11 months after being returned to him and her mother.

Richard Nash, executive head of safeguarding for childrens services at Sutton Council, asked for permission to address her grandfather Neal Gray at an inquest into the six-year-olds death.

He said: Mr Gray, as you know we have spoken on several occasions since Ellies death.

Today gives the first opportunity for the local authority to formally extend condolences to you on the death of your granddaughter and I wish to do that.

Mr Gray, who sat at the front of the hearing, replied: Thank you very much.

Ben Butler battered his daughter Ellie, aged six, to death (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Ellie was placed in the care of her grandparents as a baby after Butler was accused of shaking her.

She was returned to her birth parents in 2012 after a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in the family division of the High Court and died in October 2013.

Mr Nash told South London Coroners Court in Croydon on Thursday that the ruling left no role for the local authority.

He said the court had ordered private social workers should be used and that the door of the familys home was, in effect, firmly closed to LBS (London Borough of Sutton).

He described the decision as disappointing and added: Taking into account all the other evidence the court had sufficient cause, in the view of LBS, to question the safety of Ellie if she was to be placed in their parents care.

The court considered the position that LBS put forward at this time but rejected it.

Counsel for the inquest Adam Wiseman QC questioned Mr Nash on why more was not done by the council to protect Ellie.

If the local authority had reasonable cause to suspect Ellie was at risk of significant harm your responsibility kicks in and Mrs Justice Hoggs ruling doesnt change that, he added.

Mr Nash replied that the threshold was set at a uniquely high level because of the court ruling.

Jennie Gray, mother of six-year-old Ellie Butler, who was murdered by her father (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Butler listened to proceedings via video link from prison, where he is currently serving life with a minimum term of 23 years for Ellies murder.

Her mother, Jennie Gray, who was given a 42-month term for child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, followed the hearing from another prison.

The inquest will examine whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regard to Ellies murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations.

It is expected to conclude at the end of next week.Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to take action to stop workers on public contracts in Scotland having to pay in order to receive wages.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said his party had evidence that workers on the flagship Aberdeen bypass project are among those affected.

He said one worker for a railway electrification project at Shotts for the now-collapsed outsourcing giant Carillion had to pay 100 to get wages.

Nicola Sturgeon during First Ministers Questions (Jane Barlow/PA)

Speaking at First Ministers Questions, he said: Does the First Minister think it is acceptable for workers to be charged up to 100 a week simply to receive their wages?

WATCH: @LabourRichard at #FMQs raises the disgraceful practice of umbrella companies, handed taxpayer funded contracts by the Scottish government, charging workers up to 100 to access their wages. pic.twitter.com/OcPG07p8Na  Scottish Labour (@ScottishLabour) March 15, 2018

He criticised the Scottish Governments action on making work fair and said none of the major outsourcing firms such as G4S, Mitie, Capita and Serco so far have signed up to the voluntary Scottish Business Pledge on fair work practices.

The First Minister said she condemned any company making workers pay to receive wages and urged the firms mentioned to sign up the pledge.

She then hit back at Mr Leonard, urging him to come join in with equipping Holyrood to come up with solutions as she said that many of the problems were due to employment law being reserved.

Ms Sturgeon said: The Scottish Labour Party have long opposed employment law being devolved to this parliament.

So, if the Scottish Labour Party wants to enable this government to take tougher action on practices like that will he join me today, now, in calling for employment law to be devolved to this parliament in order that we can do exactly that?

Mr Leonard said the issued was public procurement, not employment law.

"This is not about employment law," Richard Leonard says after asking questions about employment law. @theSNP would take action if we had powers - but Labour oppose their devolution #FMQs  Dan Paris (@_DanParis) March 15, 2018

He said: Your government is handing over millions of pounds of public money to these companies and they are treating workers shamefully.

Referring to the Aberdeen bypass construction programme, he said: On a contract funded by your government workers have been blatantly exploited.

Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government has gone further than most other governments in the UK in terms of the action on the living wage, zero hours contracts and blacklisting.Leaders of Britain, the US, Germany and France have issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the Salisbury poison attack.

The four allies urged Moscow to provide full and complete disclosure of its Novichok nerve agent programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The statement was issued as Prime Minister Theresa May visited the scene of the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

Theresa May with Wiltshire Chief Constable Kier Pritchard in Salisbury (Toby Melville/PA)

Speaking as she met emergency services and residents of the Wiltshire city, Mrs May said: We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen and despicable act that has taken place on the streets of what is such a remarkable city.

The joint statement agreed by Mrs May, US President Donald Trump, Frances Emmanuel Macron and Germanys Angela Merkel followed speculation of Paris wobbling in its support for Britains response to the March 4 attack, which has seen 23 Russian diplomats ordered out of the country.

A statement of solidarity with the UK was issued by the Elysee Palace afer an early-morning phone call from Mrs May to Mr Macron.

In the joint statement, the four leaders said that they abhor the poison attack and share the UK assessment that there was no plausible alternative explanation other than Russia being responsible.

Theresa May speaks to local officials and members of the emergency services as she visits Salisbury to view the area of the suspected nerve agent attack (Toby Melville/PA)

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, they said.

It is an assault on UK 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 leaders called on Moscow to answer all questions about the Salisbury incident and live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security.

Theresa May met members of the emergency services on her visit to Salisbury to view the area of the suspected nerve agent attack (Toby Melville/PA)

Nato states were briefed by UK National Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels.

The military alliances secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the attack took place against the backdrop of a reckless pattern of Russian behaviour including its interference in Georgia and Ukraine and attempts to subvert democratic elections.

Russia has integrated conventional and nuclear warfare in its military doctrine and exercises, he said.

This blurring of the line between nuclear and conventional lowers the threshold for Russias use of nuclear weapons.

And the blurring of the line between peace, crisis and war is destabilising and dangerous. Natos approach remains firm, defensive, and proportionate.

We do not want a new Cold War. And we do not want to be dragged into a new arms race  But let there be no doubt. Nato will defend all allies against any threat.

We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury. Full statement: https://t.co/Om1uqm9K58  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) March 15, 2018

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned Moscow will expel British diplomats soon after Mrs May announced the biggest expulsion of Russian embassy staff since the Cold War.

Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the final decision on retaliatory measures will, of course, be made by the Russian president, adding: There is no doubt that he will choose the variant that best of all corresponds to the interests of the Russian Federation.

Mr Peskov said Moscow was perplexed by the UK Governments stance, insisting that allegations of Russian culpability were unsubstantiated.

But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the evidence against Moscow was overwhelming.

There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that weve heard from the Russians that to me betokens and indicates their fundamental guilt, said Mr Johnson.

They want simultaneously to deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it. The reason theyve chosen this nerve agent is to show that its Russia, and to show people in their agencies who might think of defecting  that Russia will take revenge.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury. We have responded to that.

Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd was chairing a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergencies committee in London to discuss the latest situation.

And Environment Secretary Michael Gove led a cross-governmental ministerial recovery group looking at support which will go to the people and city of Salisbury in the aftermath of the incident.

Boris Johnson says British people shouldn't be nervous over Russia ex-spy poisoning https://t.co/FxvrNme3ER #r4today pic.twitter.com/FVYxbgIePN  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) March 15, 2018

Mr Johnson said the UKs response means Russias intelligence capabilities in the country had been basically eviscerated for decades.

He confirmed the UK will submit a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for it to carry out its own tests.Student activists from Glasgow University have occupied the institutions Senate Room in solidarity with striking lecturers.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) in 10 Scottish universities are taking 14 days of action as a row over pensions continues, with the action having started on February 22.

The Glasgow University Strike Solidarity members said they were occupying the Senate Room in solidarity with striking members of staff and to remind our university management where their sympathies should lie.

The Glasgow University Strike Solidarity members said they were occupying the Senate Room (Danny Lawson/PA)

They have made a series of demands to university management, including demanding full pay for staff participating in strike action.

The students said they met with the university principal Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli and university secretary Dr David Duncan last month.

In a statement they said: Representatives of our group met with Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli and Dr David Duncan on February 20th with a list of easily met demands  we cannot consider these to have been fulfilled.

We have therefore been forced to escalate our actions in the hope that the management will finally do their duty.

We want the Senior Management to reveal the full extent of their relationship and actions in respect to the UUK by providing notes from meetings and on correspondence, and thereby showing that their stances on the striking staffs actions and demands are as supportive as they claim.

We want full pay for staff participating in strike action  in agreeing to this, Senior Management would concretely demonstrate their full support for the striking members of staff and ensure that staff do not endure hardship whilst exercising their right to withdraw their labour.

They also ask senior Management to commit to full support of any future industrial action undertaken by striking members of staff in response to negotiations and proposed solutions, and call on management to show their full support for the strikers by adequately providing the student body with information about the strike on a national and local level.

The students began their occupation of the Senate Room at 8am and said it was also a show of solidarity with occupying students across the UK.

Earlier in the week UCU rejected a proposal drawn up at talks between the union and Universities UK (UUK) to end the university pensions strike.

A University of Glasgow spokesman said: Around a dozen students entered the Senate Room in the University earlier today.

The Chief Operating Officer and the Deputy Secretary of Court visited them and explained that the Principal has again publicly called for national talks without preconditions as a means of reaching a settlement that is acceptable to all parties.

The Principal also offered to speak to those involved in the action. An email with the latest information on the strike and what this means for students has already been issued to all students and all staff.

The students have been entirely peaceful in their action and the University is satisfied that there is no risk to health and safety.The UK could take further measures against Russia, such as closing UK waters to Russian vessels, following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, but must stop short of the use of military force, a legal expert has said.

Professor Michael Schmitt, an expert in the legality of the use of military force and cyber warfare, said: The Prime Minister has labelled the assassination attempts a use of force.

Under international law, the use of force by one state against another is a violation of the UN Charter and customary international law unless it is done in self-defence or with Security Council authorisation.

Investigators in the Maltings shopping centre in Salisbury, where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill (Andrew Matthews/PA)

But the use of force by the UK in self-defence is not authorised; a military response by the UK would be precluded by the principle of immediacy, which does not allow a military response against an attack that is over.

International law does not permit a victim state to simply retaliate against or punish another state.

As the Russian operation violated international law, the UK is entitled to take what in international law are called countermeasures, such as closing UK territorial waters completely to Russian flagged vessels until, for instance, Russia assured the UK there would be no further such actions, compensated the individuals affected, or apologised.

Such a measure would normally be unlawful, but the fact that it is intended to achieve such purposes makes it lawful.

Prof Schmitt, who is professor of public international law at the University of Exeter, added: What has been done  expelling diplomats  is known as retorsion in international law.

This term refers to an action that is unfriendly but is not unlawful and therefore does not require an unlawful act by another country to justify it.Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has resigned following a crisis over the killing of a journalist.

President Andrej Kiska has accepted the resignation and asked Peter Pellegrini, Mr Ficos deputy prime minister, to form a new government.

Tens of thousands of Slovaks rallied last week to demand the governments resignation over the deaths of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has resigned amid a crisis over the death of Jan Kuciak ( Dano Veselsky/TASR via AP)

Mr Ficos resignation is meant to keep the current three-party coalition in power and avoid the possibility of early elections.

Mr Pellegrini, who is from Mr Ficos leftist Smer Social Democracy, will form the same coalition with the Most-Hid party representing ethnic Hungarians and the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party.

The coalition has a majority in Parliament.A West Indian who became a millionaire businessman after sailing from Barbados 60 years ago and getting a job sweeping up in a Lyons teahouse in London has won the latest round of a cash battle with his American ex-wife.

Margaret Joseph has failed to persuade a Court of Appeal judge that she should get a bigger share of a 10.4 million fortune after her 13-year marriage to 85-year-old Matthew Joseph broke down.

Two years ago a High Court judge concluded that Mrs Joseph, who is in her late 60s and comes from Mississippi, should walk away with 2.4 million.

A former cleaner has won a divorce cash fight (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Mrs Joseph began appeal proceedings and complained that Mrs Justice Roberts, who analysed the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court, had short-changed her.

She said the marital asset kitty should have been split in half.

But Lord Justice Moylan on Thursday dismissed her appeal.

He said Mrs Justice Roberts had made decisions she was entitled to make.

Mrs Justice Roberts heard how the couple had lived near Swiss Cottage, north London, after marrying in 2000.

The judge explained in a ruling how Mr Joseph had built a property business and developed a care home business after travelling to London.

Mr Joseph told how he had been born in Grenada and moved to England 60 years ago to make a life.

He had dreams of a better future in England and began to save for his passage to this country, the judge said in a written ruling on the case.

He flew to Barbados and travelled by boat to Italy.

From there, he travelled overland by train to London.

He found a bedsit in London and secured his first job here sweeping floors at a teahouse run by J Lyons & Co.

Mrs Justice Roberts said Mr Joseph had run two care homes, one in Harwich, Essex, and one in Ringwood, Hampshire. She said neither care home was now operating.

The judge said the Hampshire home had been the subject of a a critical report by the Care and Quality Commission.Leaders of Britain, the US, Germany and France have issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the Salisbury poison attack.

The four allies said it was an assault on UK sovereignty and a breach of international law that threatens the security of us all.

The statement was issued as Prime Minister Theresa May visited the scene of the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

Mrs May said: What is important in the international arena  and we have taken this into Nato, into the United Nations, take it through into the European Union  is that allies are standing alongside us and saying this is part of a pattern of activity that we have seen from Russia in their interference, their disruption that they have perpetrated across a number of countries in Europe.

This happened in the UK but it could have happened anywhere, and we take a united stance against it.

Theresa May with Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Kier Pritchard (Toby Melville/PA)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, declined to lay the blame firmly with Moscow, saying the nerve agent appears to be from Russia either from the state or from a rogue element of the state.

In a joint statement, Mrs May, US President Donald Trump, Frances Emmanuel Macron and Germanys Angela Merkel said they abhor the poison attack and share the assessment there was no plausible alternative explanation other than Russia being responsible.

We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury. Full statement: https://t.co/Om1uqm9K58  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) March 15, 2018

The leaders called on Moscow to answer all questions about the Salisbury incident and live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security.

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, they said.

It is an assault on UK 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.

Theresa May met members of the emergency services on her visit to Salisbury to view the area of the suspected nerve agent attack (Toby Melville/PA)

Mr Trump told reporters at the White House: It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it, adding: We are taking it very seriously.

Nato states were briefed by UK National Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels.

The military alliances secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the attack took place against the backdrop of a reckless pattern of Russian behaviour including its interference in Georgia and Ukraine, and attempts to subvert democratic elections.

We do not want a new Cold War. And we do not want to be dragged into a new arms race  But let there be no doubt. Nato will defend all allies against any threat.

Boris Johnson says British people shouldn't be nervous over Russia ex-spy poisoning https://t.co/FxvrNme3ER #r4today pic.twitter.com/FVYxbgIePN  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) March 15, 2018

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned Moscow will expel British diplomats soon after Mrs May announced the biggest expulsion of Russian embassy staff since the Cold War.

Some 23 diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers have been given a week to leave the UK.

Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the final decision on retaliatory measures will, of course, be made by the Russian president, adding: There is no doubt that he will choose the variant that best of all corresponds to the interests of the Russian Federation.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia should should go away and should shut up.

It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury, he said. We have responded to that.

Theresa May speaks to local officials and members of the emergency services as she visits Salisbury to view the area of the suspected nerve agent attack (Toby Melville/PA)

Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd was chairing a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergencies committee in London to discuss the latest situation.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove led a cross-governmental ministerial recovery group looking at support which will go to the people and city of Salisbury in the aftermath of the incident.

Boris Johnson said the evidence against Moscow was overwhelming.

The Foreign Secretary said the UKs response means Russias intelligence capabilities in the country had been basically eviscerated for decades.

He confirmed the UK will submit a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for it to carry out its own tests.

International community firmly backing UK response to hostile Russian action. Welcome strong Quad (UK/US/France/Germany) statement that only Russia could be behind poisoning. Quad allies right to point out that this is part of a pattern of irresponsible Russian behaviour  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 15, 2018

Mrs May met members of the emergency services and military at Salisburys Guildhall, including Pc Way and Pc Collins, two Wiltshire Police officers who were first to respond to the emergency call.

Pc Collins told the Prime Minister they had believed the incident was a routine call.

Mrs May remarked: You had no idea what you were dealing with. Thank you  what you did was what police do day in and day out.

A routine call and you dont know whats there. You did a great job.Jeremy Corbyn has defended his stance on the Salisbury poison attack after coming under fire after his team raised doubts over whether Russia was to blame.

The Labour leader stressed he totally condemns the attack and said the evidence points towards Russia being responsible.

Mr Corbyn faced criticism after failing to offer his support in Parliament on Wednesday to Prime Minister Theresa Mays decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he condemned the attack (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith publicly backed the mass expulsion on Thursday morning, saying it would have been easier for us if the Labour leader made it clear he supported the move too.

Ms Griffith told The Mirror that Labour was fully supporting the expulsion of 23 diplomats.

Asked if Mr Corbyn had undermined UK security assessments that it was highly likely Russia was behind their poisoning, Ms Griffith said: Looking back, perhaps it would have been easier for us if he had made it clear at the beginning of what he said, just how much we support the expulsion of the diplomats.

It would have been easier and perhaps we would not have had the conversations we are seeing.

Speaking during a visit to Carlisle on Thursday, Mr Corbyn said: I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

The international Chemical Weapons Convention must be invoked and the source of this weapon, which appears to be Russia  either from the state or from a rogue element of the state  must be brought to justice as a result of it.

He added: The evidence points towards Russia on this, therefore responsibility must be borne by those that made the weapon, those that brought the weapon into the country and those that used the weapon.

Mr Corbyn was briefed on Privy Council terms ahead of Wednesdays statement about the intelligence behind Mrs Mays assessment that Moscow was culpable for the attack.

The Labour leader said that in the Commons he had asked questions about the identity of the weapon, questions about the reference to the weapons convention and also the support of other allies, adding: Thats what Oppositions are there for.

Ms Griffiths comments were quickly supported by several Labour MPs.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw said she was spot on, while Kingston Upon Hull North MP Diana Johnson said she fully supported the shadow defence secretary.

Fully support what Shadow Defence Secretary @NiaGriffithMP says in this interview. https://t.co/uBBOup3S2P  Diana Johnson MP  (@DianaJohnsonMP) March 14, 2018

The Sun, meanwhile, reported that shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told a London seminar: We utterly condemn this despicable act and support all the measures taken by the Government today.

Mr Corbyns official spokesman appeared on Wednesday to question the Governments use of intelligence material, telling reporters there was a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.

Asked if he could rule out the possibility of Russia being framed, the spokesman said the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to the two options set out by the PM.

In the meantime I think it is essential we follow the evidence and what the evidence produces, he added.

His comments prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

Great to hear Shadow Defence Secretary @NiaGriffithMP set out on @BBCr4today in clear terms that @UKLabour accepts the responsibility of Russia for the poison attacks and that the evidence is clear. She speaks for our voters, members and MPs - and makes it clear Mr Milne does not  ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) March 15, 2018

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of the leaders senior aide Seumas Milne.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values, while Chuka Umunna said: Mr Milnes comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs.A police inspector has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his detective constable wife, whose body was discovered in a lake.

Darren McKie, 43, changed his plea to admit killing wife Leanne, a 39-year-old detective constable, just before he was due to give evidence at Chester Crown Court on Thursday.

He continues to deny her murder.

Leanne McKie (Cheshire Constabulary/PA)

Mrs McKies body was found in Poynton Lake, Cheshire, on September 29 last year.

McKie, wearing a dark suit, appeared to show no emotion as he entered the guilty plea after the conclusion of the prosecution case.

Judge Mr Justice Spencer told the jury: He now accepts he unlawfully killed his wife, Leanne McKie.

The issue will be whether the killing is not just manslaughter but murder, murder requiring an intent to kill or cause serious harm.

#Breaking Police inspector Darren McKie, 43, has pleaded guilty at Chester Crown Court to the manslaughter of his wife, Detective Constable Leanne McKie, 39, but continues to face trial for her murder  PA Media (@PA) March 15, 2018

Trevor Burke QC, defending, said he would be calling no evidence in the case.

The court has heard the couple, from Wilmslow, had more than 100,000 of debt at the time of her death, including 45,000 on credit cards, 40,000 on loans and 17,000 owed for work carried out on their new house.

Mrs McKie sent her husband a text saying liar on the morning of her death, after discovering he had applied for a 54,000 loan in her name, the jury has been told.

Her body was found at about 3.45am on September 29, and the court has heard a post-mortem examination showed evidence consistent with her having been strangled to death at about midday the day before.

The trial was adjourned until Monday at midday.Worrying numbers of householders may be in too deep with their borrowing, a city regulator boss has told a credit conference.

Jonathan Davidson, executive director of supervision  retail and authorisations at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said credit levels were close to a peak seen in 2008.

He said the FCA would take action against firms whose businesses were based on people being unable to clear their debts.

Some households could be in too deep with their borrowing, a Financial Conduct Authority boss has warned (Chris Radburn/PA)

More can be done to pre-empt future harm to customers, he said, warning: There are a significant number of households that are in so deep that the slightest sign of rough weather could see them in over their heads.

He said it was far from certain that some customers who could just manage to afford loans now would be able to do so in future.

Mr Davidson told the audience: A business model that is predicated on selling products to customers who cant afford to repay them is not acceptable.

We will take action against firms who run their businesses this way.

He said that while most borrowers could still comfortably afford their credit, the industry should think strategically about the issues facing your customers, adding that this was the right thing to do, not only for your customers, but for the future of your businesses.

Mr Davidson said the consumer credit sector, which comprises nearly 40,000 firms registered with the FCA, was part of everyday life, serving around 39 million people, whether it was to help finance a car, a big purchase or to make ends meet towards the end of the month.

He said some arrears and default rates, while still low, were on the rise, begging the question: If were seeing this pattern now, what would happen if there was an economic downturn?

Speaking at the Credit Summit in London, Mr Davidson said: Total credit lending to individuals is currently very close to its September 2008 peak.

The circumstances are different now than 10 years ago, but there are still worrying numbers of householders who may still be in too deep.

For example, one in five mortgages today are interest-only mortgages, many of which were made at the height of the credit boom to borrowers with little equity in their homes and not a lot of disposable income. And they wont mature until about 2032.

Mr Davidson said a number of customers were vulnerable to any changes in their circumstances, and to changes in the external economic environment.

He cautioned: They might be able to just about afford any loans you grant them today, but it is far from certain that they will be able to do so in the future.

Update on our review of the motor finance sector https://t.co/pvKlNrwhs7  Financial Conduct Authority (@TheFCA) March 15, 2018

Mr Davidson highlighted a 9.3% growth in consumer credit over the past year.

He said: This growth has been attracting a lot of attention. Which is not surprising given the link between excessive debt and the last financial crisis.

Credit losses led to the near collapse of many lenders.

Mr Davidson told the industry gathering his sense was that the sector had not reached levels of debt which were likely harmful to lenders.

He continued: You are part of everyday life for most of us and by and large you do a good job for us, your customers.

But we also need to recognise that excessive debt can be as harmful to the borrower as it is to the lender.

The number of motor finance agreements for new and used cars had grown from around 1.2 million in 2008 to around 2.3 million in 2017, he said.

Mr Davidson said: We are also seeing younger people borrowing a lot more relative to their incomes than my, baby boomer, generation. Why is this? Its because of more student borrowing.

Among 25 to 34-year-olds, 19% had no savings, he said.

In the credit card market, more than three million credit cardholders with a total of four million accounts were in persistent debt, he added.

Mr Davidson said: Ultimately, harm coming to consumers means harm coming your way as well  be it through action on our part, or action taken by consumers themselves who vote with their feet.

And a business model based on customers who cant afford to pay you back is hardly a long-term strategy for success.A man who stabbed a Muslim surgeon with a knife outside a mosque has denied he was trying to murder his victim and apologised to the doctor in court.

Ian Rooke, 28, attacked Dr Nasser Kurdy from behind, stabbing him in the neck with a kitchen knife.

Rooke told police he wanted to kill someone and attacked Mr Kurdy as he was the first suitable victim he randomly came across, a jury at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester has heard.

The defendant has admitted the attack but denies he was trying to kill and has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

The jury heard Mr Kurdy was not attacked because he was entering a mosque or because he is Muslim but was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Rooke sat in the witness box and nodded to Mr Kurdy in the public gallery as he apologised for his actions and denied he was trying to murder his victim.

I would just like to apologise to Mr Kurdy and even to my mother, Im really sorry, he said.

Nasser Kurdy at his home following the attack (Pat Hurst/PA)

David Temkin, defending, asked the defendant: Did you intend to kill him?

No, Rooke replied.

The defendant said at the time of the attack he had not taken his anti-psychotic drug in the previous two days.

The medication helps stabilise his mood and prevents paranoia as a result of his personality disorder, he said.

Louise Brandon, prosecuting, said: Im going to suggest you were very much in control of what you were doing that day? Why stab Mr Kurdy?

Rooke replied: I cant explain, I honestly cant, if I could I would.

Rooke pounced as Mr Kurdy, of Syrian Jordanian origin, walked into the Islamic Cultural Centre in Hale, Cheshire, around 5.30pm on September 24, last year.

The 58-year-old, an orthopaedic surgeon at Wythenshawe Hospital, retreated inside the building, grabbed a chair to defend himself and went outside to confront Rooke, but he had fled.

The father-of-three suffered a 5cm wound to the left side of the back of his neck.

The wound had missed his jugular vein and spinal cord by millimetres and Mr Kurdy was taken to hospital for stitches.

Rooke was arrested a short time later a short distance away after his brother told police officers called to the mosque who was responsible.

The defendant has pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to wounding with intent and possessing an offensive weapon, but denies attempted murder.

Jurors were shown the bodycam footage of the officers arresting Rooke.

In it the defendant tells police: I stabbed the guy. Some guy randomly in the street. My intention was to kill the guy.

I have had enough, mate. My mental health issues.

Today has come to my breaking point. I hope I have killed him.

Jurors were sent home on Thursday afternoon to continue considering their verdict on Friday morning.Cambridge manager Joe Dunne will take a late decision over the fitness of Piero Mingoia ahead of their SkyBet League Two clash against Swindon on Saturday.

Midfielder Mingoia has been out of action for Cambridge since December with a groin injury.

Barry Corr (groin) remains sidelined but is closing in on a return and could feature for the Us in their trip to Carlisle next weekend.

Piero Mingoia, right, could feature for Cambridge against Swindon (Chris Radburn/EMPICS)

Cambridge host Swindon without a victory from their last three matches.

New manager Phil Brown will be looking to get his Swindon tenure off to a winning start when his side travel to the Abbey Stadium.

Brown, the former Hull and Southend boss, was appointed as David Flitcrofts replacement earlier this week.

Midfielder Ollie Banks will serve the second match of his two-game suspension but Brown could hand a debut to defender Ryan McGivern after he was snapped up as a free agent.

On-loan left-back Chris Hussey is closing in on a return after a groin injury, but captain Olly Lancashire and Matt Preston (both knocks) are unavailable.Pupils and staff at a school were ordered to stay indoors after part of its roof became loose in strong winds  two years after a wall collapsed during a storm.

Concerns were raised at Oxgangs Primary School in Edinburgh on Thursday about the weather causing flashing to flap about.

Children and workers were told to remain inside until an inspection could be carried out and the site was made safe.

In January 2016, tonnes of masonry fell at the school during a storm but did not result in any injuries.

The collapsed wall at Oxgangs Primary School in 2016 (Andrew Milligan/PA)

A Scotland-wide independent inquiry was then set up to investigate defects in schools built under a public private partnership (PPP) contract.

A City of Edinburgh Council spokeswoman said: A section of flashing on the schools roof was found to be loose this morning and flapping in the wind.

Officers from the council and our PPP provider attended on site immediately and it was made safe.

The health and safety of our pupils and staff is of paramount importance.Jeremy Corbyn has defended his stance on the Salisbury poison attack after coming under fire after his team raised doubts over whether Russia was to blame.

The Labour leader stressed he totally condemns the attack and said the evidence points towards Russia being responsible.

But he also said the possibility the nerve agent attack was carried out by Russian-linked gangsters could not be excluded.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned against allowing a new Cold War (Owen Humphreys/PA)

And he warned Theresa May not to rush way ahead of the evidence  highlighting the way international crises such as the Iraq War had seen clear thinking overwhelmed by emotion and hasty judgments.

Mr Corbyn faced criticism after failing to offer his support in Parliament on Wednesday to Prime Minister Theresa Mays decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith publicly backed the mass expulsion on Thursday morning, saying it would have been easier for us if the Labour leader made it clear he supported the move too.

Speaking during a visit to Carlisle on Thursday, Mr Corbyn said: I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

The international Chemical Weapons Convention must be invoked and the source of this weapon, which appears to be Russia  either from the state or from a rogue element of the state  must be brought to justice as a result of it.

He added: The evidence points towards Russia on this, therefore responsibility must be borne by those that made the weapon, those that brought the weapon into the country and those that used the weapon.

Mr Corbyn was briefed on Privy Council terms ahead of Wednesdays statement about the intelligence behind Mrs Mays assessment that Moscow was culpable for the attack.

Writing in the Guardian he said Labour was no supporter of the Putin regime and the authorities in Moscow must be held to account on the basis of the evidence.

But he warned against a new Cold War of escalating arms spending, proxy conflicts across the globe and a McCarthyite intolerance of dissent.

Confirming Labours support for Mrs Mays actions, Mr Corbyn said: We agree with the Governments action in relation to Russian diplomats.

But he added: Measures to tackle the oligarchs and their loot would have a far greater impact on Russias elite than limited tit-for-tat expulsions.

We are willing to back further sanctions as and when the investigation into the Salisbury attack produces results.

Mr Corbyn said that Mrs May was right on Monday to identify two possibilities for the source of the nerve agent  either Russia authorised the attack or had lost control of the Novichok substance.

If the latter, a connection to Russian mafia-like groups that have been allowed to gain a toehold in Britain cannot be excluded, he said.

Mr Corbyns official spokesman appeared on Wednesday to question the Governments use of intelligence material, telling reporters there was a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.

The Labour leader  who strongly opposed the Iraq War  also referred to the dodgy dossier produced in the build-up to the 2003 invasion.

Mr Corbyn said: There can and should be the basis for a common political response to this crime.

But in my years in parliament I have seen clear thinking in an international crisis overwhelmed by emotion and hasty judgments too many times.

Flawed intelligence and dodgy dossiers led to the calamity of the Iraq invasion.

Ms Griffith told The Mirror that Labour was fully supporting the expulsion of 23 diplomats.

Asked if Mr Corbyn had undermined UK security assessments that it was highly likely Russia was behind their poisoning, Ms Griffith said: Looking back, perhaps it would have been easier for us if he had made it clear at the beginning of what he said, just how much we support the expulsion of the diplomats.

Fully support what Shadow Defence Secretary @NiaGriffithMP says in this interview. https://t.co/uBBOup3S2P  Diana Johnson MP  (@DianaJohnsonMP) March 14, 2018

Ms Griffiths position was supported by several Labour MPs.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw said she was spot on, while Kingston Upon Hull North MP Diana Johnson said she fully supported the shadow defence secretary.

Mr Corbyns spokesmans comments on Wednesday prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

Great to hear Shadow Defence Secretary @NiaGriffithMP set out on @BBCr4today in clear terms that @UKLabour accepts the responsibility of Russia for the poison attacks and that the evidence is clear. She speaks for our voters, members and MPs - and makes it clear Mr Milne does not  ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) March 15, 2018

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of the leaders senior aide Seumas Milne.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values, while Chuka Umunna said: Mr Milnes comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs.North Koreas foreign minister has arrived in Sweden for talks with his Swedish counterpart.

The surprise trip could be a step toward a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on a direct flight from Beijing.

Mr Ri will meet Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom at an undisclosed location on Thursday or Friday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973 and is one of the few Western countries with an embassy in Pyongyang.

It provides consular services for the United States in North Korea.

If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that, prime minister Stefan Lofven told Swedens TT news agency earlier Thursday.

We shouldnt be naive and believe it is Sweden that solves these problems, Mr Lofven added.

Swedens foreign ministry said the talks between Ms Wallstrom and Mr Ri will focus on Swedens consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia, but also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry referred to the UN security councils condemnation of North Koreas nuclear weapons and missile programs, saying the UN emphasised the need for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The Swedish ministry said a statement summarising the talks will be made available on Friday.

Mr Ri, a former diplomat in Stockholm and London and an ex-nuclear envoy with broad experience in negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States, was chosen as Pyongyangs foreign minister in 2016.

In a letter to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres last month, he urged the United Nations not to remain silent about what he called the US dangerous game of aggravating (the) situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war.

Donald Trump has agreed to meet Kim Jong Un (Koji Sasahara/AP)

The trip by Mr Ri is being closely watched because there remains a huge amount of preparation that needs to be done and relatively little time before Mr Kim is supposedly planning to sit down for summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Mr Trump.

Mr Trump has agreed to meet Mr Kim by May.

So far, North Korea has yet to publicly comment on what it hopes to gain from the summits, adding an extra element of mystery and scepticism.

Sweden has been rumoured as a possible site for the summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

Senior South Korean officials who travelled to Pyongyang earlier this month and met with Mr Kim say he is willing to discuss the Norths nuclear weapons programme.A German financier whose marriage broke down after his wife discovered that he was having an affair is waiting to hear whether he has won a divorce battle in a London court.

Three Court of Appeal judges have been asked to make decisions relating to whether Oliver and Catja Thum should fight over money in Germany or England.

Lawyers say judges will have to decide whether a divorce petition launched in England in October 2015 by 47-year-old Mrs Thum, who is also German, should take priority over a petition launched in Germany by Mr Thum nearly three months later.

German financier awaits court decision on divorce battleground (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Mr Thum, who set up a business called Elvaston Capital, based in Berlin, says Mrs Thum is guilty of tactical manoeuvring and kept the fact that she had issued her petition in England secret.

Mrs Thum disputes his allegations.

Lady Justice King, Lord Justice David Richards and Lord Justice Moylan have analysed the case at a Court of Appeal hearing.

They are expected to deliver a ruling in the near future.

The three judges heard that Mrs Thum began divorce proceedings after learning of an affair.

They were told how she had discovered that he had taken his mistress to an office party and on a birthday trip to Rome.

Mr Thum, 46, has asked appeal judges to review decisions made by a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Mostyn had analysed the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London in October 2016.

He concluded that any money fight should be staged in England and said German judges should decline jurisdiction.Star Wars actor John Boyega has said inclusion riders that demand diversity on film sets will upend the secret rules of Hollywood.

The London-born star said it is 100% definitely important top talent use their contracts to insist on the inclusion of women and people from minority backgrounds.

Boyega, who makes his producing debut on his new film Pacific Rim Uprising, said at a London screening of the blockbuster: Its fantastic, we are redefining and reshaping the industry and a lot of the secret rules of Hollywood are unfounded and not lawful and to include that makes our industry better.

John Boyega (Ian West/PA)

The heart of the worlds greatest hero lives on. Gipsy Avenger reporting for duty! #PacificRimUprising pic.twitter.com/Wyjdy2GihP  John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) February 13, 2018

And those who wish to defy it, they are held accountable.

Asked if the riders, touted by Frances McDormand in her acceptance speech at the Oscars, are important to him, he told the Press Association: 100%. Definitely important. The big thing is we are in a world and we want to reflect our world the way we see it and it would be good to expand the opportunities to those who otherwise wont get it, as long as the talent is there.

We should search out for these talented people within those environments and communities. Im happy about that.

Supercharged and ready to go. pic.twitter.com/MIkU4zFqq3  John Boyega (@JohnBoyega) March 12, 2018

Boyega launched Upper Room Productions in 2016 with British talent agent Femi Oguns, the founder of Identity Theatre School, and Boyega said it is important for him to take control of his own projects.

He said: This is the first project for Upper Room and Im very proud of it and the main reason is because as an actor I want to be involved in the process really really early on.

Time to disrupt Hollywood. pic.twitter.com/Qlm6UEVXog  MR FEMI OGUNS (MBE) (@MrFemiOguns) March 13, 2018

You learn so much and producing has taught me so much about being an actor, My impact on a project, seeing it from another perspective, its something I would love to continue and Ive loved doing it so far.

Pacific Rim Uprising, a sequel to 2013s Pacific Rim, sees Boyega star in another big budget franchise film, after the success of Star Wars movies The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi but he said he only signed on after meeting director Steven S DeKnight.

Will staying perfectly still work in this film? #PacificRimUprising is in cinemas March 23. pic.twitter.com/HOjoZjaZ7T  Universal Pictures UK (@universaluk) March 11, 2018

He said: I dont see it the way you see it, massive blockbuster franchises. Its a film, there is a script, there is lines, there is work to do, and you only do it if its worth it.

Films take such a long time and after meeting Steve and speaking to Steve and us having a similar kind of vision, I felt this is the one.

Pacific Rim Uprising is released in UK cinemas on March 23.West Hams next home game with Southampton will have a significantly larger police presence following the crowd disturbances last weekend, but there will not be a partial or total closure of the London Stadium.

The club have been warned a repeat of such scenes could lead to them playing contests with a reduced capacity in the future.

A series of pitch invasions marred Saturdays 3-0 loss to Burnley, while joint-owner David Sullivan was struck on his glasses by a coin after hundreds of angry supporters gathered in front of the directors box.

Fans invaded the pitch during West Hams loss to Burnley (Daniel Hambury/PA)

An emergency meeting of the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) at London Stadium was held by the club, emergency services and local authorities on Thursday night, where plans were put in place to prevent a repeat of ugly incidents at future home games.

West Ham entertain Southampton on March 31 and a series of measures will be implemented for that contest, including more stewards, greater security around the pitch and an increased police presence.

The club have already vowed to issue life bans to those who invaded the pitch and threw missiles, and the SAG insisted that it is satisfied a stadium ban does not need to be imposed yet.

However, it also stated future fixtures will be monitored and a repeat of such incidents could force a rethink on that front.

A spokesperson for the SAG said: The SAG acts as the advisory body to Newham Council in its safety certifying role. Following reassurances that have been given, it is the SAGs view that the council does not need to use the ultimate sanction, which would see capacity reduced at the venue and spectators excluded. The remaining homes games will be closely monitored.

The SAG must make clear that, in the event of future disorder, it would seriously consider advising the certifying authority to take forward this sanction. Playing behind closed doors would be a great shame for the majority of fans who wish to watch and support their team in safety.

The SAG called the trouble at the Burnley match unprecedented and admitted the security team in place were stretched by the sheer number of problems they were forced to tackle.

Its statement said: The London Stadium Safety Advisory Group met today and found that a small minority of spectators from within a very large crowd caused an unprecedented level of disorder at multiple locations across the stadium, which would have been almost impossible for any security team to manage.

Whilst some issues in the security regime were identified, it is recognised that the operation were stretched significantly by the scale and volume of incidents and stopped most attempted pitch incursions successfully.

In response, a series of measures will be introduced for the next fixture including: increased stewarding, enhanced pitch security and a significantly larger police presence.

West Ham said they welcomed the announcement that new measures would be enforced for their meeting with the Saints.The two days that followed the governments announcement that things had returned to normal in Kandy were tempestuous; rains, full of sound and thunder, almost like a catharsis to the horror that had preceded them.



May the rains wash away the racism, was how one commentator put it on Twitter. It would be unbecoming of me not to suggest that this is what we, the majority, want. The lives lost of the two peoples -- one the Sinhalese and the other Muslims, can never be brought back, but mercifully those deaths did not trigger a pogrom.

Instead we saw members of the clergy, from both sides of the divide, work with each other even in areas where pogroms could easily have occurred. Hence last Friday, the day of prayer and reflection for Muslims, passed on peacefully. If only the reactions of the elite and the born-again liberals were as worthy of praise as that.



In Big Match 1983, Yasmin Gooneratne ends with these prophetic lines:

Near the wheels of his smashed bicycle,

at the corner of Duplication Road a child lies dead,

and two policemen look the other way,

as a stout man, sweating with fear, falls to his knees,

beneath a Bo-tree in a shower of sticks and stones,

flung by his neighbours hands

The joys of childhood, friendships of our youth,

ravaged by pieties and politics,

screaming across our screens her agony,

at last exposed, Sri Lanka burns alive.

We need to think beyond this simplistic model which assumes that the panacea to all evil in the world is membership of a particular clique, belonging more often than not to a privileged circle



What is worse than the excesses of the chauvinist, like the administrators of the Mahason Balakaya, is the indifference of those who speak loftily about those sunshine days which they spent with friends from other ethnicities. The joys of childhood, juxtaposed with the showers of sticks and stones we hurl, for me brings up a point of contrast between the milieu to which those two groups belong to the stunted peasantry on the one hand and the obese privileged on the other. I am aware that I am generalising a little here, but my act of generalising is based on a desire to point out that while the fires burn, while racism swings both ways and takes this country closer to its imminent death, the privileged, regardless of ethnic and religious affiliations, continue to remember their sunshine days and reflect on a reality that was true only for their milieu.



If we are to progress, if we are to get rid of racism, if not completely then at least effectively, we need to think beyond the friends we made when we were at school, the harmonious relationships we kept alive in our childhood and the various shops and eateries we frequented which were owned by those who belonged to other races and religions. We need to think beyond the institutions of privilege  at school or elsewhere  which guaranteed an absence of racial disparities and chauvinism. No consensus has ever been reached with respect to the assumption, sustained by quite a number of people here, that membership of esoteric institutions in the longer term does away with racism. Chauvinists and racists tend to house those privileged quarters too, and far from embracing other collectives through the culture of coexistence rooted in these institutions, they tend to turn into renegades and vent out their chauvinist streak in terrible ways.



We need to think beyond this simplistic model which assumes that the panacea to all evil in the world is membership of a particular clique, belonging more often than not to a privileged circle that defines itself by differentiating itself from the rest of the country. The ordinary Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, and Burgher man or woman on the street, who is not a member of and has never been near such institutions of privilege, cannot and will not take notice of those who hail from them when they set about giving vent to their racist rants and raves. Those who suffered from both ends in Kandy, in that sense, neither affirm nor care about the assumptions we make with respect to the link between those institutions and the (supposed) absence of chauvinism which distinguishes them. Racism is real and alive most potently in less privileged, if not unprivileged, cultural spaces, which those who speak in high-heeled (!) terms about the friendships they inculcated at their schools probably arent aware of. Again, I am generalising here for a reason.

Instead we saw members of the clergy, from both sides of the divide, work with each other even in areas where pogroms could easily have occurred and last Fridays prayers passed on peacefully



Simply put, we cannot get out of this conundrum, this clash of civilisations within a larger, homogenous civilisation, if we inculcate in our schoolchildren an attitude of indifference towards such a clash with the excuse, Hey, we learned not to fight with each other over our ethnic and religious backgrounds when we were at school, so why dont you all just shut up, shove it in, and let us guide you?



Such an attitude reeks of ignorance at best and elitism at worst, and it explains why, as a friend of mine put it through a Facebook post the other day, our post-1948 political experience has been marred so much; because in that post-independence era, the country ended up swerving between two pillars of power (the UNP and the SLFP) which were housed by the same privileged, elitist meritocrats who believed (what else?) that membership of privileged quarters was the magic potion that could do away with all evil. Its that attitude which, while clearly dying (and thankfully), has delegitimized any genuine attempt at brokering peace in the eyes of the ordinary Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim.



My friend (and a great friend at that, by the way) Hafeel Farisz, interviewing C.V. Wigneswaran more than a year ago, posed a rather interesting question: Isnt it a fact that from the time of Navalar or Dharmapala or Bandaranaike to Chelvanayagam, and now to you, it was [always] the elite who fought their political battles at the expense and the blood of the common man?

I like Hafeels brash honesty and I have come to appreciate the points he raises and the questions he asks, even if they are derided and vilified by half the country. In this case especially, I appreciate and agree with his question, because its a question that provides its own answer. Because yes, it was the elite, and yes, the same elite that Yasmin wrote about in her poem, as the schoolboys danced away, watched the match in progress, yelled to their hearts content, and celebrated the diversity they had institutionalised in their closed, privileged quarters, while the rest of the country, comprising not of them and me, but of the ordinary Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim farmers and civil servant, burnt.

Racism is real and alive most potently in less privileged, if not unprivileged, cultural spaces

So what have we learned? That the friend I alluded to, with his Facebook post, provided the best answer; that on a superficial level, we have something to blame for everything that is wrong with this country; the exemplary leadership that these elites, hailing from their closeted quarters, unleashed on

this country.



From Bandaranaike onwards, that leadership didnt lead us to the Promised Land. It led us instead to Vaddukoddai, 1983, Aluthgama, and now Digana.THE HINDU, 14th MARCH, 2018- While the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4 may appear to have similarities to the circumstances around the death of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London 2006, the governments rhetoric has been strikingly tougher and more definitive this time.



On Monday night, just over a week after Mr. Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a shopping mall bench, British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for poisoning from a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia under its Novichok nerve gas programme.Sri Lanka needs unity beyond sympathy and solidarity

Strong platform with Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim presence to condemn and challenge extremism need of the hour

The GMOA could have easily addressed and provided a guarantee that there is no such drug or chemical that can make a person permanently barren

What then is their strength? It is their very loud and threatening presence in mainstream media, more than in social media.

In Sinhala Buddhist dominant rural districts, Buddhist monks came a cropper

Post-war Sri Lanka has by now gone through five violent anti-Muslim orgies, orchestrated by extremist Sinhala Buddhist groups-from Aluthgama-Beruwala riots in June 2014, through Mahiyangana, Gintota, Ampara and the still smouldering Digana-Theldeniya savagery in the Kandy District.



These are no conflicts between Sinhala and Muslim communities. There would not have been human stories of Sinhala Buddhist citizens in conflict areas immediately and voluntarily stepping in to provide safety and security to Muslim families and property, if this conflict were between communities

.

Sinhala people have not been part of these savage attacks led by few stray Buddhist monks and other extremist thugs. Distance the people keep with Sinhala Buddhist extremism is evident even in electoral politics.



The JHU (Then led by the trio Champika, Ven. Rathana Thera and Gammanpila) expected to sweep the board at the 2004 Parliamentary Elections by fielding Buddhist monks. The results were disastrous.



Just seven Buddhist monks were elected from four districts with an all island vote percentage of 5.9% that gave two more from the National List.

The JHU (Then led by the trio Champika, Ven. Rathana Thera and Gammanpila) expected to sweep the board at the 2004 Parliamentary Elections by fielding Buddhist monks. The results were disastrous.



In Sinhala Buddhist dominant districts, the JHU polled only 22,826 votes in Galle (94.1% Buddhists), 16,229 in Matara (94.1% Buddhists), 1,538 in Hambantota (96.9% Buddhists), 2,675 in Moneragala (94.4% Buddhists) and 37,459 in Kurunegala (89.1% Buddhists).



Where they gained from were all Sinhala Buddhist trader dominated urban districts; in Colombo (70%) JHU polled 18%, in Gampaha (71.7%) polled 19.4%, in Kalutara (82.9%) polled 10.1% and in Kandy (73.3%) polled 6.7%.



Politically what it says is, in Sinhala Buddhist dominant rural districts, Buddhist monks came a cropper, while in Sinhala Buddhist trader dominant urban districts they fared marginally better.

The JHU thereafter did not contest any election on its own. Nor did it remain intact to contest, splitting into three factions, Champika Ranawaka ending with the UNP.



Buddhist monk Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, the Sinhala Buddhist volcanic figure that dominates Sinhala Buddhist extremism fared even worse. He contested the 2015 August Parliamentary Elections from Kalutara District one year after he led the Muslim riots in Aluthgama-Beruwala, expecting the Sinhala Buddhists to rally round him. With a population of 70.4% Sinhala Buddhists, their all island total was only just 20,377 votes, while their leader Ven. Gnanasara Thera polled a Preference Vote of only 5,727 in the Kalutara District. Clearly, there is no peoples support for these Sinhala Buddhist extremist groups. It is an insignificant 0.18% endorsement they had from mainly Sinhala Buddhist dominated 16 districts.



What then is their strength? It is their very loud and threatening presence in mainstream media, more than in social media.



As an aggressive anti Muslim urban emergence, they have an attraction with the urban middle-class. They are assured financial and logistical support from big time urban trader community for their very openly hostile anti-Muslim campaigns.



Their anti-Halal campaign and this time too with Muslim business and property being targeted, it was more than evident these Sinhala Buddhist extremist violence is an anti-Muslim market war.

It is this market war against Muslims that provide them with urban middle-class professional and academic attraction and support too.

GMOA, as the voice of medical professionals, had the social responsibility of countering this false anti-Muslim propaganda with facts on sterility..it could have easily addressed the media and provided a guarantee...



In this very competitive free market that has always been facilitated by a Sinhala Unitary State, competition is being reduced to ethno-religious divisions.



With Sinhala Buddhist dominance, the political strategy is to eliminate the competitor instead of competing on quality, service and efficiency.



Thus their support base extends from the Sinhala Buddhist trader community to the Sinhala Buddhist middle-class academics and professionals.



One serious negligence of professional responsibility is in the medical profession- its vociferous Trade Union the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA).



For some time now, the Sinhala Buddhist extremism has been accusing Muslim traders and businessmen of using contraceptive medicine when serving Sinhalese that lead to permanent sterility. They alleged such chemicals are even spread on garments and intimate wear sold to Sinhala customers. This was campaigned vigorously through social media and by word of mouth quoting unheard of sources as proof. On February 26, a restaurant in Ampara was stormed by a Sinhala mob and an employee was forced to accept that they mixed such drugs when serving food for Sinhalese. That video went viral on social media.



The GMOA as the voice of medical professionals had the social responsibility of countering this false anti-Muslim propaganda with factual evidence on sterility. The GMOA could have easily addressed the media and provided a guarantee to society that there is no such drug or chemical available that can make a person permanently barren.



Though the GMOA have been vociferous against the ETCA (Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement) that is hardly about health and medicine, and was against SAITM, they have not thought it their duty to step into educate people and avoid an unnecessary, unwanted

violence in society.



They instead remain silent supporters of this anti Muslim campaign.



So are academics. They have not engaged in serious intellectual discourses on politics of racial violence, of majoritarian extremism, that in Sri Lanka is not just racism, but structural racism. It is academics, who should raise issues with national education being a facilitator of structural racism beyond Sinhala language and its use in State administration.



Allegations over Police inaction and STF collusion in Digana, serious concerns about Police inquiries and investigations in Ampara and about pro-Sinhala bias in the legal profession and in the Judiciary- all reflect the depth of structural racism in the country.



These are issues that the academia should have been discussing with due intellectual honesty. The University teachers trade union federation the FUTA could have been the collective platform for such intellectual discourses within the academia and for the undergrad population. The FUTA never stood up to that social responsibility to date. It was also meek and weak in condemning racial attacks against minority communities.



The Sinhala FUTA leadership did not even introduce the Muslim academic representatives who were seated in the head table during the media briefing they held on 12 March, to condemn recent communal violence as they termed it. The FUTA leadership thus played out a pathetic role in addressing the media avoiding their academic and intellectual responsibility in challenging the school curricula and syllabi.



Backed by urban Sinhala Buddhist trader community, such silent and willing compromise by professionals and academics is one major reason that allows space for these small groups to make big noise and create mayhem. It is their synergic effect that allows continued Sinhala Buddhist violence to keep coming back, more violent every time they emerge. Mainstream media and political leaderships then give them undue publicity and prominences, making them look much larger and dynamic than they are in real life.



Any Government with a decent and a civilised approach to politics that has authority over the State, can easily lock them up using law of the land and in the name of peace, unity and stability. ICCPR Act provides necessary provisions if the Government can find a strong backbone to implement the law. Continued emergence of these violent Sinhala Buddhist groups is proof that the Government is unable to command authority. This was what President Sirisena recently told a Sinhala newspaper, where he found fault with the Human Rights Commission (HRCSL). He needs to compromise with security forces and the Police and thus cannot allow HR as in Europe, was what he said.



He forgets as signatory to almost all international conventions and Charters, we are obliged to honour human and civil rights of citizens without bias or prejudice to any ethnicity, religion, caste, gender or employment/livelihood.



The President needs to know the HRCSL is not commenting on European standards, but on civilised human standards, he is held responsible for. It is also evident this unity government of President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe is not going to challenge Sinhala Buddhist extremism.



They are now more concerned about social media and worried about paying compensation to victims. That is made possible and easy for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government with urban middle-class demands for unrestricted social media access than eradicating Sinhala Buddhist extremism. Therefore it becomes necessary for more concerned and politically aware citizenry groups to forge a tri-ethnic national platform to challenge this Sinhala Buddhist extremism, politically and stand for reason and justice to all citizens.



Muslim leaders need to understand that they cannot continue their frictions with and animosities against Tamil people with continued efforts to win the confidence of dominant Sinhala Buddhist politics. On the flip side, Tamil leaders need to know it is this same Sinhala Buddhist extremism that denies them their share of power in a united, single country. Thus they should also understand that they stand to gain, if they can unite with Muslim people in standing strong against Sinhala Buddhist extremism.



Therefore it is now an unavoidable unity the country requires in a tri-ethnic national platform against this Sinhala Buddhist extremism, a violent menace that wrecks havoc on humanity.

A strong national platform with Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim presence is required to condemn and challenge Sinhala Buddhist extremism, while demanding the Government they walk their talk.The state of emergency would remain for as long as President Maithripala Sirisena decides to revoke it upon his return to the country on March 17, Presidential Secretary Austin Fernando said yesterday.

Mr Fernando said the President, in his proclamation of the enforcement of emergency regulations, did not refer to a deadline.

When questioned at the time the President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met with the heads of diplomatic missions, the President said it would be for one week, and it should have lapsed by the midnight of March 13. Yet, in terms of the law, the President himself should revoke the Gazette notification, which he has to do, only while in Sri Lanka. So, we have to wait for his return. Until such time, the state of emergency will remain, he said.

Mr Fernando said the state of emergency had no impact on public life. (Kelum Bandara)Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that he would work towards providing grants not loans anytime possible while giving assistance to the development progammes of Sri Lanka.

He said this during the official meeting between the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Maithripala Sirisena.

The Japanese Prime Minister ensured President Sirisena that he would constantly provide assistance for the Sri Lankan infrastructure development.

Discussions were held regarding the assistance provided by the Japanese government for the development of the Colombo- Trincomalee port.

Japanese Prime Minister also stated that assistance will be provided for regenerating energy resources and would also contribute in developing the high way systems also.

Japanese Prime Minster stated that assistance of special technical programmes of Japan could also be provided to Sri Lanka.

A positive response was given to the appeal made by President Sirisena to provide technical equipment for the development of health sector in Sri Lanka.

Japanese Prime Minister agreed upon giving assistance to disaster management programmes as well as waste disposal systems in Sri Lanka.

Japanese Prime Minister who mentioned the assistance given by Japan in security and Navy activities stated that only Sri Lanka was fortunate to gain this assistance from Japan out of the countries in Indian Ocean.

President Sirisena thanked both Japanese Prime Minister as well as the government of Japan. (Kanchana Dasanayake in Tokyo)HOSPITAL HOAX!!!

There is no other country in the world where MANS INHUMANITY TO MAN is more explicit, more brazenly displayed, than in this BUDDHIST COUNTRY of ours!!!

The first HOAX is the Government promising FREE MEDICINE, FREE HOSPITALIZATION to its citizens.

If that were true, this land would be a paradise indeed. You are admitted FREE, unlike in the schools but God helps you once you get in. It is not the doctors but the nurses and attendants you have to beware of!!!

Apparently, according to their regulations, a patient who is very ill is allowed to keep someone to look after them, but that person has to stay where they are told to stay, not near their patient. When they check on the patient from time to time, they find to their horror that the patient has either vomited or passed urine or, in some cases, is even unconscious without anyones knowledge. WHY? WHY, because the caregiver is not anywhere near the patient and does not know what has happened.

BUT WAIT! There is an alternative, for sure, if you pay Rs. 1,500/- a day you can get an attendant from the hospital, an attendant who is never around but appears mysteriously during visiting hours only, to see how much money they can scrounge and also to get a share of whatever fruits or other items that have been brought for the patient.

Most of the time, whatever has been brought is stolen and either sold or taken to their homes.!! A glaring example of mans inhumanity to man! Can a poor patient who is admitted to a General Hospital out of sheer necessity because they cant afford to get into any other hospital, can they possibly pay 1,500/- a day for a special attendant???

IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, WHO CHECKS ALL THIS INHUMAN BEHAVIOUR? ARE ANY OF THE AUTHORITIES AWARE OR ARE THEY PART AND PARCEL OF IT? Dont these VULTURES REALIZE THAT SITUATIONS COULD BE REVERSED IN NO TIME, THAT THEY COULD WELL BE THE PATIENT WHO NEEDS CARE AND THEY WILL HAVE NO ONE TO GIVE IT TO THEM?

That is not the only injustice meted out - the other horror is when it comes to MEDICINE!!! Medicine is prescribed but most often the unsuspecting patients are told that the medicine is not available and they have to get it from outside.

THE TRUTH IS THAT THE MEDICINE AT THE HOSPITAL IS SOLD AND THE POOR PATIENTS HAVE TO PAY AN ARM AND A LEG FOR SOMETHING THAT THEY SHOULD GET FREE!!! WHO LOOKS INTO ALL THIS - WHO CARES ABOUT THE WORRIES AND AGONIES OF THE POOR PATIENTS???

DOES ANYONE CARE???

CANCER HOSPITAL

If you think the above is bad, wait till you hear this.

IT IS TRULY HORRENDOUS!!!

Having cancer in itself is horrendous but these inhuman vultures carry on as though they or their people are never going to be struck by cancer or any other terrible disease. After a patient has been operated they are asked to come back to the clinic twice a month to check on their progress.

The Sri Lankan vultures have found a way of cashing in on this also. When you go to the Cancer Hospital clinic you have to wait your turn to see the doctor and the wait is endless, BUT if you place Rs, 200/- in the Record Keepers filthy hand, your file miraculously appears at the top of the endless pile of files.

Here again, I ask, what are the authorities doing about this treachery??? The problem of medicine remains the same here as well, irrespective of the fact that these poor patients have a life-threatening illness and desperately need the medicine prescribed.

More often than not they are told the medicine is not available. Amazingly though the medicine IS available at the pharmacy next to the Cancer Hospital!!!

FREE EDUCATION, FREE HEALTH CARE??? - FREE WIFI, OH YES; WE GOT THAT, THE ONLY ONE THAT IS REALLY FREE!!

CHILDRENS HOSPITAL

Surprisingly, the situation at the Childrens Hospital seems to be positive. However, the major drawback is the lack of space, especially when the country is faced with Dengue in epidemic proportions!!!

Three or four children are compelled to share one bed, which is not only uncomfortable for the children but totally unhygienic as well!!! There is a desperate need for another Childrens Hospital.

Instead of concentrating on putting up more high rises, the Government has not addressed the necessity of building another Childrens Hospital. We wonder why issues of national importance are always put on the back burner!!!

FATHER GRANFATHER RAPE CHILD

In todays newspaper, we read that in Meetiyagoda, the father and grandfather no less, have BOTH raped a 7 year-old girl!

This is the Buddhist country we live in, the country that condones such brutality, that allows these perverted swine to get away with such heinous acts of RAPE on THEIR INNOCENT CHILDREN!!!

WHY, WHY, WHY CANT WE BRING IN SOME REAL PUNISHMENT FOR THESE culprits INSTEAD OF JUST SENDING THEM TO JAIL??? WHY CANT WE DO WHAT THEY DO IN SAUDI ARABIA? DISMEMBER THEM! IF IT IS DONE ONCE, NOT ANOTHER COWARD WILL DARE TO RAPE ANOTHER CHILD!!

KEEP READING FOR MORE HORRIFIC EXPOSURES ON THE REALITIES OF BUDDHISM, PERPETRATED IN THIS COUNTRY BY THE SO-CALLED VENERABLE MONKS THEMSELVES!!!

THE VOICEDPA, 14th MARCH, 2018-Angela Merkel has been sworn in as German chancellor before the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin.



Ending with the phrase So help me God, Merkel took her oath of office in front of parliamentary speaker and former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Wednesday.



Merkel had earlier been elected to her fourth term as chancellor by the Bundestag. Merkel garnered 364 of the 688 votes delivered in the secret ballot on Wednesday and was therefore elected as expected in the first round of voting. At least 355 votes were required in the 709-seat chamber. There were 315 votes against her re-election and nine abstentions.



For the first time, Merkels husband Joachim Sauer was present for the vote, as was her mother, Herlind Kasner.



German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had earlier proposed Merkel - who heads the largest party in the chamber, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - as chancellor to the lawmakers in accordance with the constitution.Objective of politicians is not finding solutions, but gaining mileage out of anything

Until leaders develop political will the country would have to undergo state of emergency and curfews

JO argues that UNP orchestrated the riots to prevent the No-Confidence Motion and the anti-Wickremesinghe rebellion in UNP

Muslims seem to be more inclined to believe the UNP theory

Earlier Muslims complained that SLPP supporters harassed Muslims in Kandy and Kalutara Districts for not supporting them.

The very blame-game among the politicians, especially between the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) on the recent attacks against Muslims is an indication that Sri Lankan politicians are not serious about any kind of ethnic strife, leave alone finding solutions to them.



Their objective is not finding solutions, but to gain political mileage out of anything.



Almost all political parties, especially the two main political parties in the country, the UNP and the SLPP claim that the attacks against few Muslim owned shops and mosques in Ampara and hundreds of houses, businesses and mosques in various areas in the Kandy District were orchestrated.

But by whom?



All political parties seem to attempt to use the recent rampage to prove their political credentials or the detriment of the politics of their adversaries.



The UNP argues that the SLPP or the loyalists of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa were behind the attacks, while the SLPP attempts to contend that the Government premeditated the anti- Muslim pogrom.



Interestingly, both groups have their own reasons to put the blame for the crimes on the other.

Muslims had continued to support the UNP at last months Local Government elections, despite more than 1.5 million voters, who supported the party at the last Parliamentary Elections, rejecting it this time.



The SLPP that won the majority of councils had managed to get only 45 percent (or 40 percent according to Minister Champika Ranawaka) of total valid votes and this showed that they could not win the next Presidential Election.



Therefore they as a strategy to pit the Muslims against the UNP had calculated the anti-Muslim attacks, according to the UNP theory.



Expanding the same theory, the senior Tamil columnist D.B.S. Jeyaraj claims that conspirators had set in motion a plan, where the Government would hesitate to take action against the attackers for fear of losing the Sinhalese votes and it would also lose the Muslim votes as well due to its inaction against the rioters.



Whether the attacks were premeditated or not, whether this was really the strategy, this was what really happened.

The belief among the Muslims that no untoward incidents would happen against them under a UNP regime was shattered by the incredible inaction of the law enforcement authorities during the Kandy attacks which lasted for not hours, but days

On the other hand, the unrest started at a time when a No-Confidence Motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was to be handed over to the Speaker of Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya and several UNP local leaders had started to challenge the leadership of Mr Wickremesinghe in the party.

The Joint Opposition, the Parliamentary group loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, argues that UNP orchestrated the riots to prevent the No-Confidence Motion and the anti-Wickremesinghe rebellion within the UNP.



However, the victims of the week- long mob attack, the Muslims seem to be more inclined to believe the UNP theory, in spite of the fact they have lost confidence in the UNP as well due to its inordinate lethargy in quelling the attacks on them.



The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka (MCSL), on the wake of the SLPP sweeping the majority of Local Councils at the February 10 elections wrote to that party complaining about SLPP supporters having harassed Muslims in two places in Kandy and Kalutara Districts for not supporting them.



While Mr Basil Rajapaksa had promised the MCSL to look into the matter, party Chairman Professor G.L. Peiris and General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam had flatly denied the allegation. Despite the MCSL having not gone public with the allegations the SLPP did so with its denials.



Against this backdrop it is natural that the Muslims suspect SLPPs hand in the Ampara and Kandy mayhem.



However, the belief among the Muslims that no untoward incidents would happen against them under a UNP regime was shattered by the incredible inaction of the law enforcement authorities during the Kandy attacks which lasted for not hours, but days.



The frustration is still being compounded with the Governments aversion to probe into the allegations that the police and the STF colluded with the marauding rioters and to take action against the personnel responsible.



President Maithripala Sirisenas announcement that a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) would be appointed to look into the incidents in Kandy, including the lapses on the part of the authorities has not made any impact.



The fact that the Government is not prepared to probe the role played by the Police and the STF is perplexing in the light of several leaders of the very Government including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ministers Champika Ranawaka, Rauff Hakeem, Abdul Haleem and Lakshman Kiriella having complained that the delay in Police actions had contributed to the spread of the attacks. Even the Army Commander did not deny the allegations against the Police when he referred to them while talking to media in Kandy.



This has prompted Executive Director of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) Rajith Keerthi Thennakoon to lodge a complaint on Police inaction with the National Police Commission (NPC).

The Government is said to be going to take action jointly with the Facebook Inc. Officials to filter hate-mongering posts in the social media.



One has to be skeptical about the outcome as the Sinhalese society has already been fed with enough malice, hate and unfounded fear of extinction by the Facebook and WhatsApp users since 2012, the year in which Bodu Bala Sena started its anti-Muslim campaign.



Despite the Government having attempted to enact a law to prevent hate-speech, which was later withdrawn on the grounds that it would curtail freedom of speech, it is ironic that it never thought of filtering social media, which has been far more harmful and sinister than the mainstream media.

The Governments inaction in containing unrest at its initial stages as accepted by the Prime Minister and many Ministers and its aversion to probe that inaction would lead to those elements that unleashed the attacks gaining moral high ground and justifying their acts, hiding behind flimsy arguments such as wanda pethi or Muslim extremism and fundamentalism.



With the entire Sinhalese society, including the Mahanayake Theras, political parties and intellectuals condemning the attacks and the unfounded allegations of sterilization of Sinhalese, those elements are now on the defensive, at least overtly.



However, they have already been given a solace, though unwittingly, by several politicians such as Bimal Ratnayake of the JVP, Co-existence Minister Mano Ganesan and Deputy Minister Harsha de Silva, by dragging the irrelevant Muslim womens attire into the debate.



Majority of Muslim women who wear the Abaya or the face veil worn with it are an innocent lot, who do not know any politics or at least anything happening around them.



The Arabian dress came to Sri Lanka as a result of women going to the Middle East countries in search of employment. That is it.



Had there been any radical or so-called fundamentalist Muslim groups in Sri Lanka they would have responded to the anti-Muslim attacks that had been going on since 2012.



However, it goes without saying that the continuous unrest against Muslims in Sri Lanka has the potential of attracting the attention of dreaded terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East in future while developing a breeding ground for them among the possibly frustrated Muslim youth in Sri Lanka.



The simple truth that has been rejected or overlooked by the authorities is that the main culprit of the hate crimes is the continuation of a culture of impunity.



This time too, there are no assurances that even the so-called leader of the Mahason Balakaya, Amith Weerasinghe whom the authorities describe as the mastermind of the Kandy unrest, would be penalized, despite him being detained.



Until the leaders developed political will within them, at least to accept this fact, the country would occasionally have to undergo declarations of state of emergency and curfews.



Yet, most probably everything would be forgotten in a few weeks as what happened to the war and the recent natural disasters, until the next wave of hate, has a field day.REUTERS, 14th MRACH, 2018- 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 Authoritys reconciliation efforts with Gazas 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.Environmentalists are perturbed about a private company alienating 406 acres from the Muthurajawela sanctuary to construct a housing scheme.

Environmentalist Sajeewa Chamikara of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reforms said the Agrarian Services Department had permitted the private company to construct a housing complex on the recommendation of a senior official of the Department in the Gampaha District.

He pointed out that Rs.32,551 million had been paid by the company to the Agrarian Services Department for 65,102 perches at the rate of Rs.500 a perch.

Mr. Chamikara said the clearing of this wetland, rich in bio-diversity would result in an extensive environmental damage.

Muthurajawela is the largest coastal marshy land in the country spreading over a vast area from Kelani River to the Negombo Lagoon. It is rich in endemic birds and animals and mangroves unique to the area. Muthurajawela had been a smiling tract of paddy fields but due to the flow of seawater through the Hamilton Canal constructed by the British it turned unfit for agriculture, Chamikara said.

He said that the government in 1965 planned to construct houses in Muturajawela for the shanty dwellers in Colombo. However, it was abandoned on the advice of the environmentalists who explained the importance of Muthurajawela as an environmental zone rich in biodiversity.

However the Agrarian Services Department has taken the step to alienate a vast area of 406 acres for a housing scheme regardless of its environmental damage, he said.

He further said the amending environmental and forest conservation regulations for the benefit of the investors under the free economy should immediately come to an end or else the country would soon be a parched-up desert.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday thanked China for its long-term support to Sri Lanka's economic and social development and hoped that China's assistance and aid would benefit more at the grass root level.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe expressed these views following a working consultation with Chinese Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan at Temple Trees.

Sri Lanka attaches great importance to mega-projects cooperation between our two countries and to tackle the practical difficulties listed by the Chinese side, he said.

The Premier will urge the ministerial committee on Hambantota development and the Ministry of Southern Development to coordinate concerned departments to speed up the implementation of pragmatic cooperation such as the development of Hambantota Port and industrial zone, so as to bring real benefit to the Sri Lankan people at an early date.

Ambassador Cheng highlighted the bilateral economic and trade relation, especially major-projects cooperation as the ballast stone of Sino-Sri Lanka relations. In order to strive for early harvest and bring tangible benefit to the citizens of both countries, China stands ready to work with the Sri Lankan side to accelerate the implementation of major-projects cooperation under the framework of the "Belt and Road" Initiative.

He also elaborated on current progress together with difficulties of the mega-projects cooperation between the two countries and called upon the Sri Lankan government to push for practical solutions.

Both sides reviewed the current progress of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and vowed to further promote pragmatic cooperation.Two officials attached to the Department of Ayurveda in Nawinna were nabbed by Bribery Commission sleuths yesterday in the act of soliciting a sum of Rs.50, 000 from an Ayurvedic medicinal producer.

An Assistant Legal Officer at the Department of Ayurveda and another official (member of Sutra Kamituwa) were caught red-handed as they were accepting the bribe at the formers office last afternoon.

Director Bribery Commission Investigation Division SSP Priyantha Chandrasiri told Daily Mirror that these officials had taken the money from an Ayurvedic medicinal products manufacturer promising to renew his manufacturing permit.

An Ayurvedic products manufacturer from Danowita had lodged a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption against the said officials a few days ago.

He had stated that when he had gone to get his permit renewed for the year 2018, the said officials had asked for a sum of Rs.300, 000 to get the process expedited.

The complainant had managed to negotiate with them to get the sum reduced to Rs.250, 000 and was asked to make an advance payment of Rs.50, 000 yesterday.

The issuing of permits to Ayurvedic product manufacturers and their renewals had previously been handled by the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine.

However, the responsibility to issue permits had been vested with the Department of Ayurveda from January this year, SSP Chandrasiri said.

The two accused were to be produced in the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court today (15). (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)Oops....! We couldn't find that...

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Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site.New Delhi: India on Thursday said it will engage with the US to explain its position on export schemes following America's decision to drag India into the WTO against programmes to incentivise shipments, a top official said on Thursday.

America on Wednesday challenged India's export subsidy programmes such as Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), saying these initiatives harm the US companies by creating an uneven playing field.

They have sought consultations with India under the aegis of the global trade body's dispute settlement mechanism.

"The US has asked for a consultation process, we will engage fully in the process and we would make sure that we make our position known to the US. We expect that they would also engage with a positive spirit with an effort to resolve a dispute with a friendly country," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia told reporters here.

Developed countries have raised issues at different forums that as India has crossed the USD 1,000 threshold of the per capita gross national income (GNI) for three consecutive year, it is no longer eligible to give export subsidies.

The secretary said that a clause of WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures provides a period of eight years for graduating countries (crossing the USD 1,000 mark) to phase out export subsidies.

"Our presumption is that India also has a similar period of eight years to graduate out of the subsidy regime and this is what we would be placing before the US. We are hopeful that they would recognise this time-frame and during this time frame, we would commit ourselves and meet our obligations," she said.

There is a confusion over the year from which the eight year period will be calculated. India wants that the reference year should be 2015. She added that India has not violated any WTO norms and it would soon respond to the USA's application. A WTO member country gets 60 days to respond.

According to the US, Indian subsidy programmes harm American workers by creating an "uneven" playing field.

These programs are: Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, Special Economic Zones, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme and Duty Free Imports for Exporters Programme.

Seeking consultation under the aegis of WTO is the first step of dispute settlement process. If the two nations are not able to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultation, the US may request for a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter. India has already lost two cases in WTO, including on poultry and solar sector.

In 2016, India also dragged the US to WTO against the policies of eight American states for the renewable energy sector, alleging that the domestic content requirement norms are inconsistent with global trade rules.

Besides, the country has filed a complaint against American decision to impose high fees on temporary working visas. India's exports to the US stood at USD 42.21 billion in 2016-17, while imports aggregated at USD 22.30 billion during the same fiscal.Mr Shetty had been posted at the branch since March 2010.

Mumbai: The CBI on Thursday registered a fresh case against the PNB employees who were arrested in the multi-crore fraud case after the banks Brady House branch officials detected another fraud committed by the same set of accused.

As per the new case, the two bank employees defrauded their branch office to the tune of Rs 9.09 crore, by issuing two fraudulent LoUs to Chandri Papers and Allied Products.

The accused named in the case are Gokulnath Shetty, retired deputy manager; Manoj Kharat, single window operator; Aditya Rasiwasia and Ishwardas Agarwal, director Chandri Paper and Allied Products, with other unknown persons.

On March 9, PNBs deputy general manager Avneesh Nepalia submitted a written complaint to the Mumbai CBI, alleging that the Mr Shetty and Nr Kharat hatched conspiracy with Mr Rasiwasia, Mr Agarwal and others to cheat the Brady House branch to the tune of Rs 9.09 crore ($14.21 lakh).

The complaint stated that the two employees, who also assisted fugitive Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, had issued two LOUs for the above amount to the company.

The LOUs were issued to SBIs Antwerp branch in Belgium on April 25 last year with payment due date till January 20, 2020.There was no credit limit available for the accused company nor was there any 110 per cent margin retained by the bank as per the bank records, stated a CBI officer.

It was first revealed after it came to the fore that Mr Shetty and Mr Kharat acted at the behest of Mr Modi and Mr Choksi and issued 143 fraudulent LOUs to the tune of over Rs 11,400 crore to Allahabad and Axis Bank branches in Hong Kong.

Mr Shetty had been posted at the branch since March 2010. He was attached with the forex department and was responsible looking after the import section of the branch.Mumbai: Sidharth Malhotras last release Aiyaary saw him and Manoj Bajpayee play soldiers fighting for their county.

Now Sid is back in the zone as he has left to Kashmir for his upcoming biopic on Captain Vikram Batra, a martyr from the Kargil war.

Sidharth has been in touch with Vikrams twin brother, Vishal, who is on board to offer inputs to the story. His girlfriend Dimple Cheema has also helped the team with the research as, besides Vikrams valour, the film will also explore their love story. The team is aiming to wrap up the film by the year-end, a source revealed to Mumbai Mirror.

Prep will include training in horse-riding and shooting. Sidharth will play the double role of Vikram and Vishal, added the source.

The biopic is scheduled to go on floors in June and is tentatively titled Kargil: Sher Shah based on the martyrs code name during the war.Many Telugu films, whether big or small, are heading to Andhra Pradesh, with filmmakers planning at least one event there. Since all the major cities in AP are well-connected by rail, road and air, the stars have also agreed to promote their films there.

Ram Charans upcoming film Rangasthalam is planning its pre-release event at Visakhapatnam on March 18th while Nanis upcoming film Krishnarjuna Yudham has an event planned at Tirupati this month end.

Meanwhile, the audio release function of Nikhils upcoming film Kirrak Party was recently held in Vijayawada, and several film events were held in Rajahmundry, Guntur and Bheemavaram too.

Even the small film Chalo held its success meet at Visakhapatnam some time ago. These functions are new to the people of Andhra Pradesh, so they are attending in large numbers to see their favourite stars, which serves as a good promotion too. But filmmakers are also holding some media conferences in Hyderabad so that they can cover both the Telugu states, says a source.Actor Balakrishna is keen to complete as many films as he can before the elections next year. The actor has already announced the launch of the biopic NTR on March 29 and now, yet another of his films is all set to be launched.

One hears that director Boyapati Srinu had agreed to do a film with Balakrishna, which will be officially launched on June 10, on the occasion of the actors birthday. The duo is reportedly keen to repeat their past successes.

Though the official launch is on June 10, shooting will commence after August once the director completes his present film with Ram Charan, says a source.

Apart from these two films, Balakrishna has also committed to one more film, which may be directed by Puri Jagannadh or Krishna Reddy. The actor has also reportedly told producer C Kalyan to do a film, after the latter incurred heavy losses from the film Inttelligent.New Delhi: In 2017, Oman relaxed its visa rules to attract more tourists by granting Visa on arrival (unsponsored tourist visa) for the Citizens of India, China and Russia who reside in or who hold an entry visa to one of these countries - United States of America, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and Schengen States to enter the Sultanate of Oman.

To further facilitate the process, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) has announced that effective 21 March 2018, visas will only be granted electronically via the URL: https://evisa.rop.gov.om and there will be no more hand-processed visas at the airport effective that date.

"The migration to electronic visas is due to its simplicity and effectiveness, its alignment with modern technology and is in line with the e-government project of the Sultanate. Further, it will save tourists and visitors time so they don't have to wait in long queues at the airport. The system has been thoroughly tested and more than 12,000 users have already benefited from it. The system is considered to be one of the safest and most confidential in the world, having achieved an ISO certification," said Royal Oman Police, Sultanate of Oman.

The e-visa application explains clearly the process of obtaining visas either individually or collectively such as obtaining a visa through a tourism company, in a simplified way.

Additionally, the application clarifies the visa formalities for various groups of countries. In addition, specialists at ROP are available 24 hours a day to provide support. There is an official account of eVisa system on twitter @OmanEvisa where once can seek assistance.

The new e-visa system, coinciding with the opening of the new Muscat International Airport, supports the Oman Tourism Strategy in attracting more tourists and tourism investment into the country, whereby the number of tourists to Oman in 2040 will reach over 11 million by 2040.VATICAN CITY: Finland is the worlds happiest country, according to an annual survey issued on Wednesday that found Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.

Burundi came bottom in the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Networks (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.

Ive joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland, said Brianna Owens, who moved from the United States and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finlands second biggest city with a population of around 280,000.

I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well, Owens told Reuters.

Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot. The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.

One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.

While U.S. income per capita has increased markedly over the last half century, happiness has been hit by weakened social support networks, a perceived rise in corruption in government and business and declining confidence in public institutions.

We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality, less trust, less confidence in government, the head of the SDSN, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of New Yorks Columbia University, told Reuters as the report was launched at the Vaticans Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Its pretty stark right now. The signs are not good for the U.S. It is getting richer and richer but not getting happier.

Asked how the current political situation in the United States could affect future happiness reports, Sachs said:

Time will tell, but I would say that in general that when confidence in government is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality is high and health conditions are worsening ... that is not conducive to good feelings.

For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organizations, official figures and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries. Finland took top honors in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.

The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years. The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born, said Professor John Helliwell of Canadas University of British Columbia.

Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries, he said. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.Hawking believed, if our species had any hope of survival, future generations would need to forge a new life in space. (Photo: AP)

Humans must abandon Earth in next 200 years if they want to survive. It was a stark warning issued by the legendary physicist Professor Stephen Hawking months before his demise at the age of 76.

He believed that life on Earth could be wiped out by a disaster such as an asteroid strike, AI or an alien invasion.

Hawking also warned about over-population, human aggression and climate change that could cause humanity to self-destruct.

Hawking believed, if our species had any hope of survival, future generations would need to forge a new life in space.

Climate change: One of Hawking's main fears for the planet was global warming. Hawkings had warned in July that physical resources are being drained at an alarming rate. Rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, and decimation of animal species. We can be an ignorant, unthinking lot, he had added to BBC.

Hawking warned that Earth will one day look like the 460C (860F) planet Venus if we don't cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The physicist also believed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement has doomed our planet.

Asteroid strikes: If global warming doesn't wipe us out, Hawking believed Earth would be destroyed by an asteroid strike. 'This is not science fiction. It is guaranteed by the laws of physics and probability,' he said.

He further added that to stay on Earth risked facing annihilation.

'Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity. It may also determine whether we have any future at all.'

Hawking was working with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Starshot project to send a fleet of tiny 'nanocraft' carrying light sails on a four light-year journey to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth.

Astronomers estimate that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet existing in the 'habitable zones' of Alpha Centauri's three-star system.

AI could replace humans: Hawking claimed that AI will soon reach a level where it will be a 'new form of life that will outperform humans.' Hawking went so far as to say that AI may replace humans altogether, although he didn't specify a timeline for his predictions.

He had said these during a recent interview with Wired.

He said: 'The genie is out of the bottle. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans.

He also he said the AI apocalypse was impending and 'some form of government' would be needed to control the technology.Police in Spain have launched an investigation involving a woman who allegedly killed a cat by drowning it in her washing machine.

The incident came to light after a 23-year-old waitress posted horrifying footage of the act on Instagram, The Sun reported.

At the time of the crime, the woman was living in a town two hours away from Madrid called Villarrubia de los Ojo.

Media reports say she was trying to get rid of a tomcat attempting to get her female cat pregnant.

"This is what happens to tomcats that have it away with my poor little female cat," she said in the capiton along with the footage she called Gatolavadora, which in English means "Cat Washing Machine".

After a gruelling first spin, the cat was still heard meowing. "Those who say cats have nine lives appear to be right. Son of a b**ch," she is quoted as saying by The Sun.

She then proceeds to add more soap to give it a second wash, after which she shows video of the animal in excruciating pain and close to death.

Close to 300,000 people have signed a change.org petition calling for a punishment for the "psychopath that killed a cat".

If convicted, the Spanish political party PACMA will demand an "exemplary" prison sentence for the woman.Amjad was arrested by the police on Thursday, and some of the stolen property was recovered from him.

HYDERABAD: The city police on Thursday caught a property offender who was allegedly involved in the theft at a gold ornament workshop in Petlaburj, that was reported earlier this month. They recovered property worth `6 lakh from his possession.

Anjani Kumar, the Police Commissioner of Hyderabad, said that Amjad Khwaja Ameen Shaik, 41, from Mumbai planned and executed the heist along with nine others.

Members of the gang conducted a recce of the workshop before the heist.

On March 6, members of the gang barged into the workshop armed with weapons. They took away gold weighing about 3.5 kg, said Mr Kumar.

He said that Amjad had been keeping watch on the activities of Nithai Das, the owner of the workshop who also owns another shop in Mumbai.

Amjad was arrested by the police on Thursday, and some of the stolen property was recovered from him.Commenting on RJDs win, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said, 'An orthodox mentality has been formed after this. This is not only a threat for Bihar, but also for the country. It will become a terror hub.' (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A day after Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) retained the Araria constituency in Bihar bypolls, Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Thursday provoked a huge controversy by commenting the district will become a "hub of terror".

Speaking to news agency ANI, the BJP leader dubbed the result of the bypolls a threat for the state as well as for the nation.

Speaking about the constituency, the Union minister said that it is not just a border area connecting Nepal and Bengal. Commenting on RJD's win, he added, "An orthodox mentality has been formed after this. This is not only a threat for Bihar, but also for the country. It will become a terror hub."

The Araria Lok Sabha bypoll went to RJD with 61,788 votes.

Araria, which fell vacant after the death of RJD leader Mohammad Taslimuddin, witnessed a tough contest with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally BJP trying hard to seize the Muslim-dominated parliamentary seat but ultimately failing. Taslimuddin's son Sarfaraz Alam won the seat for the RJD defeating BJP's Pradip Kumar Singh.

A series of comments from the BJP since then have been assessed by critics as communal.

BJP leader and deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi also made an unsubtle statement in a tweet on Wednesday evening.

"RJD got a lead of 1 Lakh 30 Thousand votes from 2 Minority dominated constituency which led to their victory in Araria," tweeted Sushil Kumar Modi.

Lalu Yadav's wife and former chief minister of Bihar Rabri Devi hit out at the comments of Giriraj Singh and Sushil Kumar Modi.

"The Modi Mania, the cries of Harr Harr Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi have evaporated, so they are fretting," said Rabri Devi.

Calling for Giriraj Singh's apology, Rabri Devi said, "The people of Araria and Bihar have taught it a lesson. They should apologise. People of Araria wont forgive them in 19. Are they terrorists?"

Rabri Devi also accused the BJP of relying on "communal colours and rioting".

This is not the first time that the BJP has resorted to communal vote politics, prompting allegations by RJD and others in the opposition that it was trying to polarise voters. Muslims make up 41 per cent of the electorate in Araria.

While campaigning for the bypolls last week, Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai stoked controversy after he allegedly said, if the RJD candidate Sarfaraz Alam wins the by-election, Araria will become a safe haven for the ISIS.

Also Read: Bihar's Araria would become IS hub if RJD wins bypoll: FIR against BJP leader

(With inputs from agencies)On Thursday, reports surfaced that Class 12 Accountancy paper of the CBSE has allegedly been leaked. (Photo: File/Representational)

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday clarified that the Class 12 accountancy paper was not leaked following reports of paper being circulated on WhatsApp emerged.

CBSE said, There has been no leakage of the question paper. All the seals have been found intact at all the exam centres.

During process of exam, however, at local level some miscreants have tried to play mischief by circulating messages through WhatsApp and social media to disturb sanctity of examinations, the board further added.

CBSE also said an FIR is being lodged and strict action will be taken.

Earlier on Thursday, reports surfaced that Class 12 accountancy paper of the CBSE has allegedly been leaked.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia confirmed the same and said that he has directed officers of the Directorate of Education to lodge a complaint with the examination board.

Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE. Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students dont suffer due to negligence of CBSE, Sisodia said on Twitter.Chennai: A seven-year-old girl was crushed to death after a parked car ran over her after the car was hit by another car driven by a newlywed woman learning to drive in Choolaimedu on Tuesday night.

The deceased child was identified as D. Pavithra, a class 2 student at a private school in Choolaimedu. Her father, Duraivelan is a water can supplier and the family lived on Vanniyar Second Street in Choolaimedu.

On Tuesday, around 10 30 pm, Pavithra was playing outside her home when the incident happened. Preethi (25), a newlywed woman was learning to drive a car on the same stretch. Her husband, Dany Williams (30) was teaching her to drive. While learning the car, Preethi stepped on the accelerator by mistake and lost control of the vehicle, thus, ramming the car into another parked vehicle on the street.

Pavirthra was standing behind the parked vehicle and when Preethis car hit the vehicle, the car moved and Pavithra came under its wheels, a police officer said. Hearing the childs screams, family members and neighbours rushed onto the street. The child was secured and moved to a private hospital nearby where doctors declared her brought dead.

Police secured the childs body and moved it to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital for an autopsy. The deceased child is the youngest child of DuraivelanJayanthi. The couple has an elder son, Yuvanesh (10). Police investigations revealed that Jayanthi and her son were inside the house while Duraivelan was away at work.

Residents cried foul that the stretch being already narrow, it was not advisable to learn car driving there. Police said that the woman got married only a month ago. Anna Nagar Traffic investigation wing booked Preethi under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304 (a) (causing death by negligence) of IPC and arrested her.Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said (Television) Journalists behave as if they have turned 'Popes or guardians overnight. There are limits'. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the electronic media and websites not to feel like the "Pope sitting in the Pulpit and telecast or write anything they imagine containing baseless insinuations.

A visibly upset Chief Justice Dipak Misra, heading a three-judge bench said journalism has descended into a scenario where the media thinks they are "sitting on some pulpit" and can write anything they imagine about anyone. That is not real journalism but irresponsible reporting. (Television) Journalists behave as if they have turned "Popes or guardians overnight. There are limits."

The Bench including Justices AM Kanwilkar and DY Chandrachud was hearing an appeal filed by a web portal against a Gujarat High Court order rejecting relief in the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jay Shah, son of BJP President Amit Shah.

It asked the trial court not to proceed with the trial till April 12.

Also Read: Jay Shah case: SC suspends court proceedings against The Wire until Apr 12

After hearing senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Raju Ramachandran for the portal and its journalists and senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul for Jay Shah, the CJI said I don't want to name any particular electronic media, but the way things have been vilified, it is not responsible journalism.

The CJI observed, The electronic media and websites require to be extremely careful. However, question of gagging the media does not come at all. I have myself rebuffed all attempts to gag the media, but we do expect media, especially electronic media, to become more responsible. They cannot publish anything only because they have some websites."

CJI Misra added "it is not the culture of journalism to write anything and get away with it only because it is published on a website. Are they free to write anything? What they write sometimes is sheer contempt of court. You cannot reproduce anything that comes to your heart and mind. There has to be some basis. You cannot nurture, construct, construe, and create anything. That's not culture of journalism."

The bench further said: "We don't want to name channels but some people think they are Pope sitting in a Pulpit and can pass judgment or deliver a sermon. That is not culture of journalism. Everyone should assume his or her duty to assist the law and feel some kind of responsibility.

The CJI, however, made it clear that his remarks were of a general nature and not connected to the particular case being heard. The oral observations from the Chief Justice began when senior advocate Kapil Sibal said defamation proceedings and gag orders cannot be used to "throttle journalism" To this, Chief Justice asked whether Sibal was contending whether "they (journalists) can write whatever they want?" Sometimes whatever they write amounts to sheer contempt of court."A principal of a Harayana school allegedly raped a class 10 student from his institution on the pretext of helping her to clear the ongoing board exam. (Representational Image)

Sonipat: Not very far from the national capital, Delhi, a principal of a Harayana school allegedly raped a class 10 student from his institution on the pretext of helping her to clear the ongoing board exam.

According to reports, the principal of a school in Sonipat called the girl to his relatives house and then raped her. A dummy student was made to write the exams for the victim, while the accused allegedly raped the girl in a house located near the school.

Reports claim that on March 8, the principal made another student appear for the girls Physical Education exam and raped the victim at a house situated at Gohana town in Sonipat.

The accused has been booked by the police under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Two women have been booked as well since the rape took place under their roof.

Reports quoted the police as claiming that all the three accused are absconding since the night of the incident.

According to reports, father of the student was worried about her daughters academic performance and had approached the principal for assistance.

It was also found that the father was ready to pay Rs 10,000 to the principal apart from the school fees so that he would help his daughter pass the examination.

Thus, the principal instructed the man to leave her daughter at his relatives place on the outskirts of Gohana. He then asked the girls father to leave her there and come back after the exam timings.

The victims father in his complaint said his daughter narrated her ordeal to him when he went to pick her up after the exam. However, the principal and the two women managed to escape in the meantime. A manhunt has been launched to arrest the accused.

Haryana has seen a spike in the cases of sexual violence against women.

The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data says Haryana witnessed 1,187 rapes in 2016, translating into roughly three rapes a day.

(With inputs from agencies)MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, 'It is the prerogative of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose its partners for the development of infrastructure facilities there.' (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

New Delhi: Days after Iran invited China and Pakistan to participate in development of the Chabahar port, India on Thursday said it was the prerogative of the Iranian government to choose its partners for the project.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, during a three-day visit to Islamabad, invited Pakistan and China to participate in the strategic Chabahar Port project, saying it is not aimed at "strangulating" or "encircling" anybody.

Also read: Offered Pakistan, China to be part of India's Chabahar port project: Iran

"It is the prerogative of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose its partners for the development of infrastructure facilities there," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a media briefing.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman was inaugurated four months ago, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. India has been a key partner in the development of the port which is easily accessible from India's western coast and is increasingly seen as a counter to Pakistan's Gwadar Port, being developed with Chinese investment.

"As you are aware, India is supporting the development of Chahbahar Port as a robust and alternate access route to and for Afghanistan and Central Asia," said Kumar, adding significant progress has been made in operationalising the port.

In November last year, India delivered the first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the Chabahar Port.

"Shipment of wheat assistance to Afghanistan through Chahbahar is being successfully carried out since October last year. Four such shipments have been successfully delivered," said Kumar.

He said India's assistance for building Chabahar-Zahedan Railway to realise the full potential of the port and to connect it to Afghanistan and Central Asia was discussed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to New Delhi in February.

"We continue to work with Iran on the full and effective operationalisation of the Chabahar Port," said Kumar.

India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed a trilateral agreement in 2016 to jointly develop the Chabahar port.West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said the government was not treating the issue lightly, as it was unprecedented in the educational institutions of the state. (Photo: PTI)

Kolkata: West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said he will approach school management to find out what prompted them to secure "written admission from 10 students who have allegedly engaged in lesbian practices within school premises.

Chatterjee also went on to add that lesbianism is "against the ethos" of the state.

Responding to queries regarding the incident that took place in south Kolkatas Kamala Girls High School said, In the past, we had never received reports of such incidents in the state's educational institutions. If such an incident (lesbianism) had indeed happened, it would be against the ethos of our state. I will ascertain from the school management what prompted them to secure the written admission from the students."

Acting headmistress from the school on Monday claimed that the students had admitted to indulging in lesbian acts within the school premises.

The school asked the students to confess in writing which they did.

Also Read: Kolkata school 'blames' students of homosexuality, tries to 'correct' them

However, the guardians of all 10 students accused the management of getting the written admissions forcibly.

Earlier this week, the headmistress said that the authorities had received complaints from other students against the ten girls for indulging in lesbian behaviour. Following this they called the students who allegedly admitted to having done so.

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.

According to the headmistress, she called the parents of the children so that the matter could be discussed and the girls brought to the right course.

However, the parents rubbished the claims saying that holding hands, or putting arms around each other's shoulders did not qualify as homosexuality.

Education minister Partha Chatterjee said the government was not treating the issue lightly, as it was unprecedented in the educational institutions of the state.

(With inputs from agencies)Naidu had asked TDP MPs to raise the issue of special status to AP and its revenue deficit during discussions on the Finance Bill in Parliament. (Photo: File)

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief N Chandrababu Naidu who is at loggerheads with the Centre over the demand for special status for state on Thursday said that Prime Minister Modi is trying to repeat in Andhra Pradesh what he has done in Tamil Nadu.

Naidu hit out at Modi saying that the Prime Minister was not giving people of Andhra Pradesh what's rightfully theirs. He also accused the BJP of resorting to using Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against TDP.

In Tamil Nadu, after former chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death, the AIADMK disintegrated into two factions -- Panneerselvam faction and Palanisamy faction.

Politics in Tamil Nadu took a new turn after the two rival factions sealed the deal for a merger which followed the sacking of jailed VK Sasikala from the party and the post of interim general secretary.

Sasikala's nephew Dhinakaran was sidelined after he vowed to unseat the regime.

The merger had come after the meeting of both Palanisamy and Panneerselvam with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

TDP President and AP CM Naidu who held a teleconference with party MPs alleged that the BJP was following 'divide and rule policy'.

Setting the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar poll results announced on March 14 as an example, Naidu said 'there is strong anti-Modi and anti-BJP feeling across country'.

Earlier on Wednesday, Naidu had asked TDP MPs to raise the issue of special status to AP and its revenue deficit during discussions on the Finance Bill in Parliament. He said the MPs should raise the matter as Parliament could be adjourned sine die after passing the bill.

Naidu asked them to step up the fight in Parliament for the state's rights and echo the aspirations of the people.

Telugu film star and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan had on Wednesday charged the Chandrababu Naidu government with converting the state into a 'corrupt Andhra Pradesh' and warned it of repercussions in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

He warned TDP that the 2019 polls would not be as smooth as it was in 2014, when after the formation of his party, he supported the TDP-BJP combine in (then united) Andhra Pradesh and did not contest the elections.

(With agency inputs)Rao was speaking in the Legislative Assembly during the reply to the motion of thanks on the Governor's address by the government. (Photo: PTI/File)

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday said that a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative proposed by him is not a "third front", but a front that unifies the people.

"New method needs to come in India. Some have misunderstood when I said I will go to national politics. They think it is bringing together three or four regional parties...a third front. I am not going for petty politics. There is a big agenda," he said.

"...to unify the people of India on the basic issues that people experienced after 71 years (of Independence). Not a mere political game. I am making it clear. It is not third front or any front. The front proposed by me will come as a front of the people of India," he said.

Recalling that some people had made light of him when he started the agitation for a separate Telangana, he expressed confidence that he would be successful in his new endeavour.

Rao was speaking in the Legislative Assembly during the reply to the motion of thanks on the Governor's address by the government.

Alleging that both Congress and had BJP failed to meet the expectations of people, Rao said earlier this month, he was keen to participate in national politics to bring about a "change".

He had said he was in talks with others to form a platform of like-minded parties.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and former Chattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi were among those who had expressed solidarity with Rao, official sources said.

Rao has also announced plans to hold consultations with experts in different areas, including retired bureaucrats, defence officers and economists.Islamabad has asked High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood to return home for an unspecified time. (Photo: Pakistan Embassy)

New Delhi: Days after Pakistan alleged that its diplomats in India were being "harassed", Islamabad has asked High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood to return home for an unspecified time for consultations.

"Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood would be visiting Islamabad shortly for consultations on matters relating to Pakistan-India relations," Dr Muhammad Faisal, spokesperson, MOFA informed.

Faisal said that India failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation.

However the Indian government sources, reacting to the move said that the consultation is routine process between the embassy and the foreign office, adding that it is nothing unusual, a report in NDTV said.

Pakistan had on Tuesday, summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, according to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Pakistan also accused the Indian officials of intimidating the children of a senior diplomat while they were on their way to school.

The Pakistan high commission alleged that the children were harassed and blocked by Indian authorities while they were on their way to the British School, according to a report in The Times of India.

It said the counsellor's car with his children onboard was hit from behind by another car occupied by Indian authorities.

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.

In reply, government sources in New Delhi said that Indian deplomats in Islamabad were being regularly tailed and intimidated.

Also Read: New low in Indo-Pak ties: Envoys trade 'harassment' charges to them, families

"It's a normal affair for an Indian diplomat to get blocked in the middle of the road," a source said.

Indian Government sources also said Pakistani security agencies are resorting to "aggressive surveillance, violation of physical space and tailing of officers in close and dangerous proximity".

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.During the visits, both Siddaramaiah and Adityanath had indulged in a twitter and verbal duel, mocking each other on the issue of development and governance. (Photo: PTI/File)

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday chided his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath on BJP's performance in the by-elections there, by advising him to spend less time "lecturing" Karnataka on development.

Congratulating Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the "historic victory", he said unity among the non-BJP parties played a key role in the win.

"BJP has suffered a humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM and Dy CM of UP. Congratulations to SP and BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role," he said in a tweet.

"Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," he said.

Adityanath has already made two visits to poll bound Karnataka for campaigning, where elections are due in April/May.

During the visits, both Siddaramaiah and Adityanath had indulged in a twitter and verbal duel, mocking each other on the issue of development and governance.

Gorakhpur was vacated by Adityanath and Phulpur by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, following their election to the Uttar Pradesh state legislative council.

While Praveen Nishad of SP won the Gorakhpur seat by 21,961 votes, party's candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel defeated BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel by 59,460 votes in Phulpur LS bypoll.

JDS state President HD Kumaraswamy, who has entered into an alliance with BSP for the Karnataka assembly polls, congratulated party supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav for the victory in the Uttar Pradesh by-polls.

Stating that regional parties have gained the upper hand in UP and Bihar by-election, the former Chief Minister in a tweet said "there is growing recognition for regional parties in the country. This is the clear example that regional parties alone can protect regional identity and interest."

Lalu Prasad's RJD retained Araria Lok Sabha in Bihar, the results for which was also announced on Wednesday.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said, 'If necessary, we will support the no confidence motion against Centre, whoever may place it.' (Photo: File)

Amaravati: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is likely to snap ties with the BJP and exit the alliance with NDA as early as Friday. The party has also indicated that it may support the YSR Congress Partys no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in Parliament.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said, If necessary, we will support the no confidence motion against Centre, whoever may place it.

Also read: AP special status: YSR Cong gives notice for no-confidence motion against NDA govt

TDP will hold a politburo meeting on Friday and it is expected that the party will take a final call on the issue of exiting from the NDA.

According to a report in The Indian Express, sources have said that a majority of the members including MPs, MLAs and senior leaders have already told Naidu to quitthe alliance.

This is the final option. The CM is livid that instead of resolving issues faced by the state, the BJP is indulging in dirty politics that it played in Tamil Nadu, TDP leader Kambhampati Rammohan Rao said.

Earlier on Thursday, Naidu, who is at loggerheads with the Centre over the demand for special status for state, said that Prime Minister Modi is trying to repeat in Andhra Pradesh what he has done in Tamil Nadu where BJP supported OPS faction against EPS in the AIADMK..

Also read: Modi trying to pit Jagan Mohan, Pawan Kalyan against TDP: Chandrababu

In a teleconference with party MPs, Naidu alleged that the BJP was following 'divide and rule policy'.

He also accused the BJP of resorting to using Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan against TDP.

Naidu further said that instead of addressing the issues raised by the state such as allocating special funds, bridging revenue gap or special category status as promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Modi was using the Tamil Nadu template to pit YSRCP and Jena Sena against TDP.

Referring to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar poll results announced on March 14 in which BJP lost, Naidu said that there is strong anti-Modi and anti-BJP feeling across country.

TDP withdrew its two ministers from the Union Cabinet on March 8 accusing the BJP of not fulfilling its promise to give special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

The party is also evaluating if actor K Pavan Kalyan, who supported the BJP-TDP alliance and who broke his association with the TDP, has been instructed by the BJP to attack the party.

Telugu film star and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan had on Wednesday charged the Chandrababu Naidu government with converting the state into a 'corrupt Andhra Pradesh' and warned it of repercussions in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

(With agency inputs)The trekkers were caught in the forest fire in Kurangani Kozhukumalai hill ranges near Theni, some 500 kilometres away from Chennai. (Photo: File)

Theni: The toll in the devastating fire at Kurangani forests in Theni district has risen to 14 with three more victim succumbing to injuries at hospitals in Madurai on Thursday, police said.

While Divya Viswanathan of Coimbatore district, died at a private hospital, Kannan, a native of Kavundan Palayam in Erode and Anuvidhya of Chennai died at the Government Rajaji hospital, police said.

Of the 14 killed in the fire, 10 are women.

The forest department has suspended forest officer Jaisingh in connection with the incident.

Also read: Theni forest fire: Two tour guides detained, forester suspended

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.

The trekkers after staying at an estate in Kozhukumalai overnight, started their return journey to the plains Sunday morning when they heard of the sudden forest fire and got separated while attempting to find a safe way.

The trekkers were caught in the forest fire in Kurangani Kozhukumalai hill ranges near Theni, some 500 kilometres away from Chennai.

Also read: 10 trekkers killed in massive fire in Theni forest, IAF conducts rescue ops

The hills are in the Western Ghats near Bodinayakanur, about 40 km from Theni.

The police on Thursday registered a case against Peter Van Geit, the owner of the Chennai based Trekking club believed to have arranged the trekking expedition to Kurangani Hills.

He has been charged under IPC 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), police said.

Two persons, including an agent of the club at Erode, have been arrested in connection with the trekking programme.

Officials had on Wednesday said search operations have concluded as all the trekkers have been accounted for.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced a solatium of Rs 4 lakh to each of the families of the deceased, Rs one lakh to the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 to those with simple injuries.Chinese Consul Ma Zhanwu was speaking at a seminar 'China-India Buddhist and Other Exchanges' attended by Chinese and Indian scholars and organised by the Chinese consulate, Kolkata. (Photo: ANI)

Kolkata: Chinese Consul Ma Zhanwu on Thursday called for greater interactions between China and India on the cultural front saying that the ties between the two countries existed even thousands of years ago.

He was speaking at a seminar 'China-India Buddhist and Other Exchanges' attended by Chinese and Indian scholars and organised by the Chinese consulate, Kolkata.

"I heard from scholars that the two countries started commercial and other interactions several thousand years back through the Silk Road and Buddhism was introduced to China through this route. Later on, Indian monks travelled to China through this route and Chinese monks like Hiuen Tsang also went to India by the same road 1,400 years back," Zhanwu said.

"You need to have a relationship based on the principles of peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness and of course, and mutual benefit, the envoy said.

The consul said, there should be more effective use of names like Hiuen Tsang and Rabindranath Tagore to promote closer, stronger cultural ties and more people-to-people exchanges in the future.

"Perhaps his (Tagore's) works are more popular in China than India, if not equally popular," Zhanwu said.

He said a complete set of Tagore's works has been published in China on May 7, in 2017, that elicited very good response from the readers. Tagore's short stories and many of his poems were also very popular among Chinese students and part of school curriculum, he said.

Visva Bharati officiating Vice-Chancellor Sabujkali Sen told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar that the Chinese Consulate, Kolkata, was involved in the revamp of China Bhavan, which had been founded by Tagore 80 years back as a centre for Chinese studies.

"The Consulate has last month given Rs 60 lakh to renovate China Bhavan and always supports the student exchange programme between Visva Bharati and Chinese Universities. This is an important part in furthering people-to-people exchanges," Sen said.

A number of well-known Chinese scholars from different Chinese institutions as well as Indian scholars deliberated on the past of Indo-China exchanges, delving into history, and future possibilities.Dhinakaran had contested and won the RK Nagar constituency Assembly bye-polls last December, under the 'pressure cooker' symbol. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Chennai: Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Thursday launched his political party, named it 'Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam' and unveiled its black-red-white flag featuring image of late leader J Jayalalithaa at Melur in Madurai.

Dhinakaran's party launch is seen as a means to retrieve the ruling party from the clutches of traitors.

Following the launch, Dhinakaran said that his party will win all upcoming elections by using the latest name and party flag. He added that the newly formed party will use cooker symbol until it retrieves the two leaves symbol.

However, Tamil Nadu minister Jayakumar dismissed Dhinakaran's latest move saying, "AIADMK is like a lion and Dinakaran's party like a mosquito on the lion," NDTV reported.

Dhinakaran's new party comes days after the Delhi high court directed the Election Commission to allot any common symbol, preferably the pressure cooker, for his faction of the AIADMK and any one name from the three proposed by the rebel leader.

While seeking pressure cooker, which was a rage in the RK Nagar byelection that he romped home in December last year, he had suggested that Election Commission allot one of the three names  All India Amma Anna Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam, MGR Amma Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam and MGR Amma Dravidar Kazhagam  for his faction.

A political party is needed to retrieve the AIADMK from the clutches of traitors. We need a registered political party to fully retrieve the AIADMK from the present rulers, the rebel leader had said earlier.

The RK Nagar MLAs announcement to launch a political party comes weeks after actor-politician Kamal Haasan floated his party Makkal Needhi Maiam in Madurai. On December 31, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth had announced his decision to enter politics but he is yet to launch a party.

Dhinakaran had won the byelections held in Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in December last year under the 'pressure cooker' symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes.The agency has informed that Virender Dev Dixit 'is absconding and has not joined investigation and efforts are being made to trace him in Nepal,' a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that its efforts to trace self-styled preacher Virender Dev Dixit, who had allegedly confined several women at an ashram in Delhi, have not yielded results so far.

The agency has informed that Dixit "is absconding and has not joined investigation and efforts are being made to trace him in Nepal," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

Officials of Dixit's North West Delhi ashram, from where girls and women were rescued, also told the court that they were not aware of his whereabouts as he does not stay long at one place and keeps moving from ashram to ashram delivering sermons.

The submissions were made before the bench which asked CBI to explore additional steps, including issuing a Look out Circular (LOC) to trace Dixit, who according to the agency could be hiding in Nepal, where also he has set up ashrams or institutions.

The court asked the CBI to file a fresh status report about the efforts made by it to trace Dixit and listed the matter for hearing on May 8.

The bench also said that the ashram should not keep the women and girls locked up in the building or in cages.

The inmates were kept in "animal-like" conditions behind metal doors in a "fortress-like" building surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

Read: Delhi: Godman's ashram sex sanctorum, young girls retained in cages

Meanwhile, Dixit's ashram told the court that it has changed its name from 'Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya' to 'Adhyatmik Vidyalaya' and the requisite modifications have been made on its website, You Tube channel and the building itself, located in Rohini.

Taking note of the submission, the court asked the institute to file an affidavit stating the changes it has made. It also directed it to ensure that all printed material it distributed bore the new name and no material should include the word 'vishwavidyalaya' in its name.

The name was changed on the basis of an earlier direction by the high court.

When the court asked the institute's lawyer about the whereabouts of Dixit, the advocate said the 'leader' never stayed for long at one place and has been going around delivering sermons since 1998 and therefore, no one knows where he is.

To this, the bench asked the lawyer to state the name of one 'leader' who is behaving in this fashion. It asked the committee appointed by it to conduct random inspection of the ashrams run by Dixit in Delhi to ascertain the health condition of the inmates there.

The committee, comprising advocates Ajay Verma and Nandita Rao as well as Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal, was appointed by the court initially to inspect the ashram at Rohini after a PIL was moved before it by an NGO which alleged that girls and women were being illegally confined at the "spiritual university" in Rohini.

Thereafter, on December 22, 2017 the court had directed the CBI to trace Dixit.

The CBI was also asked to investigate the alleged illegal confinement of girls and women at the ashram after the court-appointed committee said the inmates were kept in "animal-like" conditions behind metal doors in a "fortress-like" building surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

At the first hearing of the matter, the court had said that the situation at the Rohini ashram was "similar" to the one in Sirsa, Haryana, without directly referring to the Dera Sacha Sauda case and its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim.A UPSC aspirant has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a minor from northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura area and demanding ransom to pay off his debts. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: A UPSC aspirant has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a minor from northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura area and demanding ransom to pay off his debts, police said.

The accused, Asif Saifi (27), was inspired by Bollywood films and used to recite dialogues from films while making the ransom calls, they said.

Saifi, who completed his MTech, was preparing for the civil services. He was in debt. He had borrowed Rs 4-5 lakh to pay a man who had promised him a government job. The man, however, cheated him, police said.

Desperate to make money, Saifi befriended the 5-year-old victim and found out the phone number of the child's father.

The accused one day took away the child and kept him in a shanty. He used to make ransom calls to the child's parents from borrowed phones, police said.

Saifi was finally arrested from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, they said, adding the child was rescued.Thiruvananthapuram: A young man, who went for rhinoplasty surgery at Meditrina hospital in Kollam, has died. Relatives have accused the hospital of medical negligence. Incidentally, 27-year-old Sooraj Jayakumars case is the first one where a request for euthanasia was placed by his brother Sujith Jayakumar, following the Supreme Court verdict on passive euthanasia.

Sooraj, a Technopark employee who lives at Sreekaryam,.breathed his last on Wednesday around 9.30 am at Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram. His surgeryrhinoplasty with rib cartilage structural reconstructionwas performed at a private hospital on February 27.

Upon a complaint submitted at Eravipuram station, a case under IPC 174 has been charged against the hospital, according to SI M Sujathan. We have not filed a case under medical negligence, yet. The investigation is on, he said. The autopsy is scheduled for Thursday. His relatives say that he fell into a coma because of hypoxia, as his brain did not get oxygen for a prolonged time. We shifted him to another private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, where we were told that most of his brain was already dead. His liver and kidney were also damaged. Except for the heart which was beating, he was 99 per cent gone. They advised us to shift him to a government hospital, as the ventilator cost would be less. At the Government Medical College Hospital, I placed a request with the hospital for euthanasia, but they said that the medical board will have to take a call on that. Before that he passed away, says Sujith. Authorities at Meditrina say that they had tried their best. The patient was sedated, and removed from the ventilator accidentally in the ICU. Since he was being constantly monitored, the doctor and nurse could act immediately. He suffered a heart attack, but was revived. If we were negligent, the patient would have died then and there, says Dr Manju P N, CEO, Meditrina.Supporting the resolution, Stalin said Karnataka has never released the quantum as prescribed in the interim or final award of the tribunal.

Chennai: At a special sitting on Thursday, the Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution asking the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) within six weeks as per the directive of the SC.

Opposition leader M. K. Stalin, Congress' K. R. Ramasamy and IUML MLA K. A. M. Muhammad Abubacker supported the resolution, moved by CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami at the special sitting convened exclusively to discuss sensitive Cauvery issue.

Moving the resolution, Palaniswami recounted the decades old dispute with Karnataka and at one point sought to give entire credit to late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa for notifying the CWDT award in gazette, prompting strong protests from the Opposition benches.

Deputy floor leader of DMK Durai Murugan took objection to Palaniswami's remarks and asked him to refrain from politicising the sensitive issue.

According to the Supreme Court verdict, scheme means constitution of Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC). The Tamil Nadu government has clarified that there was no other way for the Centre than to constitute the two aforesaid institutions and implement the Supreme Court verdict, Palaniswami said, after moving the resolution.

Moving the resolution in the Assembly was one of the key demands of Opposition DMK as part of the state governments efforts to ratchet up pressure on the Centre. Supporting the resolution, Stalin said Karnataka has never released the quantum as prescribed in the interim or final award of the tribunal.

The Centre should constitute CMB within six weeks. If the Centre does not by then, then MLAs should resign en masse. DMK members are ready to resign. I hope that the Centre will not push us to such a situation, Stalin said.

Recalling the February 16 verdict of the Supreme Court, the resolution insisted that the Centre set up the CMB and the CWRC within six weeks.

The House urges the Centre to constitute the board and committee vested with all powers as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the judgment of the Supreme Court within six weeks as directed by the court to effectively implement the final award, the resolution said.HYDERABAD: Popular temples in Telangana got a big boost in 2018-19 budget that was presented in Assembly and Council on Thursday. A huge Rs 550 crore has been allocated for development and giving makeover to five noted temples. Yadagirigutta Temple Development Authority (YTDA) got a major chunk of Rs 250 crore funds. In the previous budgets, YTDA was given Rs 100 crore each year, but this time the quantum was increased.

G. Kishan Rao, YTDA vice-chairman and chief executive officer, thanked the government for increasing budget allocation. He said that they requested government to hike the amount and it was duly taken care of. It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao is personally taking interest in makeover of Yadadri temple, which he wishes to transform along lines of Lord Balaji temple in Tirumala. In the rest of the allocations, Vemulawada Temple Development Authority was given Rs 100 crore, Bhadrachalam Temple Development Authority got Rs 100 crore while Basar Temple Development Authority and Dharmapuri Temple Development Authority Rs 50 crore each.

During his visit to Adilabad district few weeks ago, K.Chandrashekar Rao pledged Rs 50 crore fund in budget to Basar Temple. The objective is to give a big fillip to popular piligrimage centre that is flocked by devotees from states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra etc. for performing prayers to Godess Saraswati. C.S.Rangarajan, heriditary priest in the famous Chilkur Balaji temple appreciated KCR for giving top priority for development of temples in Telangana.New Delhi: Buoyed by the triumphant experimental alliance of the SP-BSP that won the Gorakhpur and Phulpur the Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, hectic parleys have begun in the Opposition camp for stitching together a similar grouping for success in the 2019 general elections. Shortly after the results of the three bypolls were announced on Wednesday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in the national capital. The two leaders are reported to have discussed firming up the Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra.

Speculation is also rife that the Congress is trying to rope in the Trinamul through Mr Pawar, who is scheduled to meet Trinamul chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on March 27-28 in the national capital. So far, the Trinamul chief has not shown any inclination of coming under the Congress umbrella. She has repeatedly spoken of a federal Third Front and reached out to many regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the DMK and the TDP.

Sources said Mr Pawar is also expected to host a meeting of the Opposition parties on March 27. NCP leader Praful Patel said that the Congress and all Opposition parties will invited for the meeting whose contours will be finalised by next week.

Senior political leaders feel that the run-up to 2019 will see a tug of war between the Congress and regional parties over leadership of any Opposition alliance. After the next Lok Sabha election, the Congress is expecting a 2004-like situation when the UPA-led by it came to power. The regional parties, on the other hand, are looking at a 1996 redux when the Congress supported a United Front-led government headed by Janata Dals H.D. Deve Gowda.Chennai: Observing that the acts of the police in arraying as accused and arresting parents and relatives of boys in cases registered on boys and girls going missing, owing to love affair, amounts to a social wrong, the Madras high court has ordered the immediate release of a mother, arrested in connection with a case relating to a minor girl allegedly eloping with her son in Namakkal district.

A division bench comprising Justices C.T. Selvam and N. Sathish Kumar, however, clarified that This court is not to be understood as informing that in no cases, shall relatives of the accused be proceeded against. This court only wishes to impress upon the need for care and caution before doing so.

The bench gave the directive while passing interim orders on a habeas corpus petition filed by Govindaraj, which sought to produce his minor daughter from the illegal custody of a boy before the court and set her at liberty.

Directing the Pallipalayam police in Namakkal district to make all out efforts to trace the missing girl, the bench posted to March 28, further hearing of the case.

The bench said pursuant to the daughter of the petitioner, aged 17, having gone missing, the petitioner has preferred a complaint with the Pallipa

layam police, wherein, initially a CSR was issued on February 13, 2018, and subsequently, a case has been registered on February 20, 2018, informing the daughter of the petitioner as missing. The petitioner alleged that the girl has gone away with a boy of 19 years, the bench added.

The bench said the inspector of police, Pallipalayam police station, presently inform that pursuant to the registration of the case, the mother of the boy has been arrested and she was now housed at Central Prison for Women, Salem.

The inspector of police also submitted that her confession reveals her involvement in the missing of the girl. The inspector of police specifically submitted that the mother of the boy, has so far, not been released on bail, the bench added.

The bench said, As this court notes that all too frequently parents and relatives of boys are without, a second thought, arrayed as accused in cases registered on boys and girls going missing. This court is not to be understood as informing that in no case, shall relatives of accused be proceeded against. This court only wishes to impress upon the need for care and caution before doing so.

The bench directed the Superintendent of Central Prison for Women, Salem, to immediately release the mother in the case registered by the Pallipalayam police on her own bond for Rs 5,000.Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday ordered issue of notice to Press Council of India and the Broadcasting Corporation of India (Prasar Bharati) following a petition filed by former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa.

The petitioner has contended that statements are being made on various public platforms by Congress leaders against him which are per se defamatory and also lower the dignity of courts and interfere in the administration of justice. The former CM asserted that the statements are being given wide publicity in the electronic and print media.

Yeddyurappa has made Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC President Dr G. Parameshwar, Congress leaders Dinesh Gundu Rao, MB Patil, VS Ugrappa, C M Ibrahim and Brijesh Kalappa, and several print and electronic media respondents in the matter.Bengaluru: Far from being complacent despite its good performance on the law and order front, the state government had ordered the police to book habitual offenders under the Goonda Act and even open fire at them if necessary, in the interest of public safety, Home Minister, Ramalinga Reddy said here on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after a senior police officers' meeting, Mr Reddy said the law and order situation in the state was far better than in many states in the country, including Uttar Pradesh , but the government remained on its toes. The police have been instructed to open fire if necessary at habitual criminals and in self defence, he said, adding that the government was also focusing on POSCO cases and narcotics. The police have been asked to get to the root of the narcotics trade in the state instead of merely booking small-time peddlars. Strict action will be taken against those involved in the drug racket, he warned.

Refuting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanaths claim that law and order was deteriorating in Karnataka, he said it was in fact much better than in UP.

When the BJP was governing the state, Bengalurus population was 90 lakh and now it is 1.2 crore. But the crime rate in the city today is still much lower than what it was then,'' he said, adding that the recent by-elections in UP, which the BJP lost badly, was proof that Karnataka was better administered than the northern state.

Moving on, the Minister said some police officers, including those who had served for a long time in the city, had been transferred on the orders of the Election Commission.

In reply to a question, Mr Reddy said he was aware of media reports on the Mandya Superintendent of Police using police personnel as orderlies and he would order an inquiry into the matter.They also claim the state Cabinet often lets off officers of various departments indicted by Lokayukta officials by ordering departmental inquiries against them.

Bengaluru: The state government constantly exonerates officers facing charges of corruption by trashing recommendations of the Lokayukta, taking advantage of loopholes in the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, allege some officials of the anti-corruption body.

They also claim the state Cabinet often lets off officers of various departments indicted by Lokayukta officials by ordering departmental inquiries against them.

All our efforts go to waste if the government shows such a soft corner for corrupt officials. It is a paradox that on the one hand the government talks tough against corruption, and on the other rejects all recommendations made by the Upa Lokayukta seeking action against the corrupt, says a retired Upa Lokayukta, however, adding that the practice is not confined to any one government but has been common among most governments since 1986.

Umpteen number of requests to amend the Lokayukta Act and make it tougher have fallen on deaf ears, he regrets, lamenting that the Lokayukta is now a toothless body with the present government clipping its wings to create the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The Lokayukta lost its powers to punish corrupt officials long ago and now it has been converted to a mute spectator, he says. In fact, on one occasion recommendations made after a through inquiry by the Lokyukta were trashed by the government, which preferred to order a fresh inquiry by a tahsildhar and a village accountant, he recalls, adding,  In Karnataka, the posts of Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta have been reduced to those of lower rank officers of the revenue department. This is an insult

Pointing out that reports exonerating corrupt officials must be discussed in the state Assembly, he deplores that even opposition parties are not interested in such debates anymore.

When contacted, former Upa Lokayukta, Subhas Adi, said a committee comprising retired judges of the high court that he headed was constituted to make suitable amendments to the Lokayukta Act, but it could not give its report after he was targeted by a few legislators.Chennai: Over 25 years after instituting a centre in the name of his mentor C.N. Annadurai, popularly known as Anna, the University of Madras is recognising the leadership role played by former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran by creating a professorship chair in his name.

To establish a legacy of MGR, a proposal with a endowment fund of Rs 25 lakh was given by Saidai Duraisamy, former Mayor of Greater Chennai and founder of Manidhaneyam Free IAS Academy to the university.

The syndicate of the university is likely to approve the decision at its meeting scheduled on Friday. The vice-chancellor will select the professorship from the expert panel submitted by the head of the department. It will be called as "Bharath Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Professorhip Chair".

The duration of the appointment in each discipline shall be for a period of two years with a provision to extend by one year. Further, the university likely to submit a detailed inquiry report on missing answer scripts from Institute of Distance Education (IDE) in the syndicate meeting.

Around 500 answer scripts including the answer scripts related to the examination scam at IDE had mysteriously disappeared from the record room in the first week of March.Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who are the front-runners in the formation of a Third Front at national level, will find it difficult to unite non-Congress and non-BJP parties in their home states, leave alone the nation. At present there are two fronts at the national level, the BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) made up of 13 political parties, and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of 13 political parties.

When the NDA was formed in 1998, it was an alliance of 29 political parties, but now there are only 11. Should the Shiv Sena and the Telugu Desam pull out, that number will be down to nine. At a recent dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, 17 political parties attended. There are some regional parties which are not in the UPA which also attended the dinner. TRS MP A.P. Jitendar Reddy said that it is not correct to say that all political parties that attended the dinner will support the Congress or the UPA.

According to the Election Commission of India, there are 1,760 political parties in the country. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections only 464 parties contested. There are six national parties, 48 state recognised parties and 1,706 unrecognised parties. Strong state-level regional parties have joined either the NDA or the UPA. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao wants the third front to be anti-BJP and anti-Congress.

If there are only regional parties in the Front they will be confined to their states and there will be no chance of transfer of votes. For example, if the DMK in Tamil Nadu and TRS in Telangana are in the Third Front, TRS votes cannot be transferred to the DMK and DMK votes cannot be transferred to the TRS. If there is a national party in the Front then the votes will be transferred among the parties if there is seat adjustment. At the moment, though, the Rao-Mamata Third Front is very much up in the air with no clarity on who will join in.New Delhi/Islamabad: With the Indo-Pak diplomats harassment row worsening, Pakistan on Thursday recalled its high commissioner Sohail Mahmood to Islamabad for consultations but an unfazed India said it was pretty normal for diplomats to go back to their countries for consultations. Pakistan had issued a note verbale recently to India on the matter while India issued a note verbale to Pakistan on the issue last Saturday. But there are indications that New Delhi too could call its High Commissioner for consultations if and when required in case it is deemed necessary.

The ministry of external affairs refused to discuss the incidents that led to the row, saying they will be taken up with Pakistan through established diplomatic channels and not through the media but added that the Pakistani complaints were being looked into. New Delhi however did say that the Indian high commission in Islamabad was facing a litany of issues which have not been resolved for several months.

Both sides have alleged that their diplomats have been harassed in the other country, with Islamabad also saying children of their diplomatic staff have also been traumatised after vehicles ferrying them to school were stopped. Pakistani diplomatic sources claim doorbells are being rung and phone calls being received by their diplomats at odd hours. On Thursday, the Pakistani foreign ministry said, Pakistans High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood would be visiting Islamabad shortly for consultations on matters relating to Pakistan-India relations.

Asked about the developments, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, It is normal and routine for any country to call its envoy for consultations. He added, Consultations by any resident ambassador/ high commissioner with their headquarters is a matter for that country. We of course have no comments to offer on the reports regarding the their high commissioner. Asked about whether India had plans to call its envoy too for consultations, the MEA spokesperson said he was not aware of any such plan but that it could be done as and when required, adding quickly however that there is no linkage to the diplomat harassment row.

Asked about the details in the reported incidents of harassment, the MEA said, We have seen reports of issues raised by Pakistan. We do not wish to respond to these issues through the media but through established diplomatic channels. What I can say is that we are looking into these issues. The Pakistan foreign ministry meanwhile lashed out at India, saying, The deliberate bullying is not confined to a single isolated event, but continues unabated in a series of incidents ... Pakistan can go to any limit for the safeguarding of its diplomats.Chennai: The Madras high court has dismissed a petition seeking direction to the police to detain BJP leader, H. Raja under the Goondas Act for his alleged remarks against Periyar.

Justice M.S. Ramesh, while dismissing the petition filed by Anoor Jagadeesan, President of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kalagam, wondered under what provision such a direction can be issued.

According to the petitioner, H.Raja posted a message on his Facebook page against Periyar. On reading the message, his followers damaged the statue of Periyar in many places, triggering violence in the state.

Condemning the same, the party functionaries of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kalagam, DMK, MDMK, PMK and VCK staged demonstrations.

Youth hurled stones at the BJP party office in Coimbatore. In some places, they also indulged in cutting the sacred thread worn by Brahmins to which H. Raja belongs.

The act of Raja was prejudicial to maintenance of public order. Therefore, Raja should be detained under the Goondas Act, the petitioner said.

When the petition came up for hearing on Thursday, additionalg overnment pleader, D. Raja submitted that H. Raja has already tendered an apology to the public for the Facebook post and there was no violent activities in the state.

Pointing out the petitioner had given his representation to the Commissioner of Police only on March 8 the judge said that even without giving sufficient time to the police to consider his representation, the petitioner had approached the Court.

If there was inordinate delay, the petitioner was at liberty to approach the court in accordance with law, the judge added.He came to city after stealing money from his native place and stayed for a brief time. (Representational image)

HYDERABAD: Mohammed Taufeeq alias Taufeeq Umar, the militant who was killed in a gun battle in Anantanag of Jammu and Kashmir, had stolen `14,000 and gold ornaments from his house, the police said.

Before joining the militant group Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGUH), an outfit with alleged link to the Al-Qaeda, he came to Hyderabad after stealing money from his native place and stayed for a brief time in the city, before heading to Kashmir.

According to police records, Taufeeq was earlier involved in four cases of burglary registered at Aswapuram police station in Kothagudem in 2007 and was acquitted in all the four cases in 2009.

Taufeeq did his schooling from Atomic Energy Central School in Aswapuram at Chandragonda village of Kothagudam between 1994 and 2007. He enrolled for intermediate course in a college but was rusticated after he was arrested in theft cases.

In the subsequent year, hoping that Taufeeq would change and mend his ways, his parents joined him in a Madrasa in Bhadrachalam. He stayed at the institution along with two other roommates who had converted from Koya community to Muslims, a police official said.

Later, he was encouraged to go for jamaat, also referred as a religious group on a mission to understand Islam and its teachings.

In July 2008, Taufeeq joined the KDR Government Polyte-chnic College and studied there before shifting to Rudrampur Polytechnic. He completed the diploma course but with four years backlog.VIJAYAWADA: The Telugu Desam is all set to pull out of its alliance with the BJP-led NDA. The TD politburo is to meet on Friday to make a formal announcement on the break-up, the TD sources said, and added that there was a conspiracy against the TD by a united anti-TD forces. In the teleconference held on Thursday, all TD leaders expressed their support in the decision of pulling out from the BJP-led NDA immediately as the continuance of the alliance would have a drastic negative impact on the TD.

The TD which pulled out of the NDA government on March 7, had set the stage to break its al-liance with the BJP within nine days. It is learnt from sources within the TD, that the party leadership strongly suspects the hand of the BJP behind the criticism of TD by the Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan in his party Formation Day programme. Mr Naidu said this in the teleconference held on Thursday morning and in the Assembly.

After elaborate discussions on the break-up of the alliance, it has made its final decision. Mr Naidu considered the opinions of MPs, ministers, MLAs, MLCs, state office-bearers and district party presidents, and in the teleconference, Mr Naidu expressed his thought about PM Modi being behind Jana Senas action. Mr Naidu also lambasted the BJP saying that it was using foul politics by putting up the Jana Sena and YSRC as shields and said that the BJPs real attitude could be understood from this.

The Chief Minister also made critical comments that there existed an anti-Modi and anti-BJP trend among the public in the country, and the UP-Bihar byelection results were evidential proof of this. Mr Naidu said that it was because of BJPs resistance against the TDs fight for special status that had made Pawan Kalyan read such a speech, which seemed scripted by the Centre.

With this the TD leaders expressed their opinion of breaking alliance with the BJP immediately, and in this regard, Mr Naidu has decided to bring together a meeting of the TD politburo and finalise the decision on break-up. A senior minister said, The politburo meet will be held on the single agenda of alliance break-up, and we have come to a decision that there isnt any benefit in continuing the alliance and we will announce the break-up decision after the meeting.Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday condemned the police attack on agitators in Keezhatoor and the burning down of their agitation pandal allegedly by CPM workers. At a press conference here, Mr Chennithala said the people's agitation was against the levelling of paddy fields for constructing a bypass. The police action against people raising such issues is highly condemnable. While the police was too eager to remove the agitators from the site, it had not taken strict action against CPM workers responsible for burning down the agitation shed. "It is strange that people's agitations were being attacked in this fashion," he said.

"I strongly condemn the strong arm tactics being adopted by the police. This is not Xi Jinping government to brutally attack agitators and silence them. What Buddhadeb Bhattacharya did in Nandigram is being repeated by Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala," he said and urged the government to initiate steps for ending the agitation. "The burning of the pandal was nothing short of fascist act. We will not allow the government to turn Keezhatoor into a Nandigram," he added. The Opposition leader said he was not against any development but the government should take the farmers and local people into confidence before going ahead with such projects.Besides 123 sitting MLAs, the party may recommend names of those who had lost the 2013 elections by a narrow margin.

Bengaluru: State Congress leaders who will be in Delhi to attend the plenary session of the party this weekend, may not find the time to discuss election-related issues with party national president, Rahul Gandhi.

Sources said that since the partys Central Election Committee is slated to meet for two days on March 28 and March 29, Mr Gandhi may not meet state leaders now.

Meanwhile, the state election committee of the Congress is likely to finalise candidates for 130-150 constituencies at its March 26 meeting. In the first meeting held on Wednesday, the election committee did not finalise any candidates, however, it discussed the probables for constituencies represented by Opposition party members. By March 26, the party is hopeful of getting a direction from the central leadership on the guidelines for selecting candidates based on which the meeting will finalise candidates.

Besides 123 sitting MLAs, the party is likely to recommend names of those who lost the 2013 assembly elections by a narrow margin. Party leaders here therefore claim that the election committee will announce candidates for 130-150 constituencies. The Central Election Committee will be assisted by one more screening committee led by party general secretary, Madhusudan Mistry. Mr Gandhi had reportedly told state leaders that the party should finalise candidates well in advance so that they can campaign effectively.Several hours after the dust settled on a rare electoral humiliation of the BJP on Wednesday, a veteran political leader in a private conversation drew attention to an old political slogan  Mile Mulayam-Kanshiram, Hawa ho gaye Jai Shri Ram (Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram have united, and Jai Shri Ram has disappeared). The slogan was a 1993 creation and the occasion was the state Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh when the BJPs juggernaut was halted 11 months after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The verdict generated hope of a revival of secular politics after the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party stitched an unlikely alliance to form a coalition. That famous defeat of the BJP proved that despite the partys emergence as a pivotal force in UP, it could be defeated if its rivals notched a high score on the Index of Opposition Unity (IOU).

The byelection results from three parliamentary constituencies in UP and Bihar and two Assembly seats in Bihar re-establishes the BJPs vulnerability in multi-polar states provided that its adversaries sink their differences and work to defeat the saffron party on a set of common programmes. It proved that unless there is a wave situation, as in 2014, the BJP will always struggle. The poll outcome is a major dampener for the BJP and is a fitting answer to belligerent triumphalists in its ranks who either directly flexed muscles on hapless Lenin statues or justified these acts after the BJPs remarkable victory in Tripura. Besides tempering the mood within the BJP, the byelection results have once again made the roller-coaster ride till 2019 more merrier. Various anti-BJP satraps welcomed the results and this adds to its worries. Barely 10 days ago, K. Chandrasekhar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and chief minister of the state revived talk of a Third Front to act as the vanguard of the anti-BJP camp.

These results underscore a major flaw in the way that the BJP conducts itself following credible victories in new territories. Unless this is addressed suitably by the party, the fault can be fatal. Since the famous Narendra Modi-led 2014 victory, the party has repeatedly faltered in aftermath of victories because of excessive exuberance and unabashed arrogance. The parliamentary victory was followed by gains in Haryana and Jharkhand, where the party had not been in power. Even the victory in Maharashtra was after parting ways with old ally Shiv Sena. Moreover, in elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the party did exceedingly well in the Jammu region. Yet within months, the BJP faced an unprecedented rout in the Delhi Assembly elections. This was followed by a crushing defeat in Bihar when Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar forged a mahagathbandhan with the Congress as part of the bandwagon.

Not just defeats in elections, but the BJP displays deficiency in governance in most states where it assumed power. In Gujarat too, party leaders are yet to fill the vacuum caused by Mr Modis shift to the Centre and the party escaped by the skin of its teeth. BJP governments in Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have not exactly covered themselves with glory, and face massive anti-incumbencies. More worryingly, the byelection results show that the BJP-JD(U) alliance is not working on the ground in Bihar and Lalu Yadavs capacity to defeat the BJP while locked up in jail is a sure indication that besides caste consolidation in his favour, people see his conviction as vengeance for standing up to Mr Modi. However, the worst news for the BJP is from UP  this is possibly the first time that both the sitting chief minister and his deputy failed to ensure victories of party candidates from the seats they had vacated.

Furthermore, Gorakhpur is no ordinary seat and is the citadel of the Gorakhnath Math and the BJP for long. Its early leader, Digvijay Nath, introduced the monastic group to politics and was among early champions of the Ram Mandir agitation in 1949. He contested the first Lok Sabha election from the constituency, polling almost 62,000 votes as Hindu Mahasabha candidate. Since then, the seat was the stronghold of the Mahasabha and three of the Maths chiefs, Digvijay Nath, Avaidyanath and Adityanath, have represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha. In 1989, Avaidyanath joined the BJP and Adityanath held the seat since 1998 till he vacated it last year. After becoming chief minister, Yogi Adityanath spent considerable time in this electoral fortress, even holding the mammoth Deepotsav in Ayodhya on Diwali-eve to be in Gorakhpur on the day of the festival. The defeat here will quell, for the moment, murmurs within the Sangh Parivar of the Yogi being a potential heir to Narendra Modi. A leader who cannot defend or protect his lair is mere hyperbole.

More important, Akhilesh Yadav has declared that the SP-BSP pact will continue for the Kairana parliamentary byelection and beyond. The RJD-Congress-Jitan Manjhi pact in Bihar is reaffirmed, and there is no knowing if Upendra Kushwaha too will cross over. The possibility of state-to-state anti-BJP fronts wherever there are multipolar contests spells trouble for the BJP. Already, evidence is piling of neo-converts to the BJP fold from non-traditional caste groups getting disillusioned and moving back. The BJPs worries are further accentuated not just by the potential rise in IOU score, but also as

Mr Modi retains two strategies as possible options for the 2019 polls.

On the one hand, fringe forces in the Sangh Parivar are still given a free run, suggesting that Mr Modi retains the option of a platform broadly reflective of Hindutva and ultra-nationalism. On the other hand, Mr Modi has not completely abandoned mentioning good governance and egalitarian policies as evidenced in his governments last full Budget. The route to growth cannot be laced with social conflict and sooner or later Mr Modi will have to make up his mind over which issue he will give primacy when making a bid for another term. Mr Modi needs not just a feeble wave but another tsunami-type surge to overcome a possible coming together of Bua-Bhatija combine. Only then can the BJP overcome the challenge of an united Opposition in specific states.One mans terrorist, goes the received wisdom, Is anothers freedom fighter. But this is foggy thinking, the kind of value assumption that justifies whichever side one feels sympathetic towards. The assumption that terrorist violence is a component of most liberation movements and revolutions bears examination.

The largest and most significant of liberation struggles, that of our own subcontinent, was driven by the non-violent agitational campaigns of Mahatma Gandhi and the parliamentary constitutionalism of the Quaid.

Elsewhere, too, national freedom has been attained through agitation (South Africa, Kenya, Ghana), constitutional negotiation (Sri Lanka, Nigeria), armed struggle (Turkey, Vietnam, Algeria, Bangladesh), even military coups detat (Egypt, Libya) and a host of other means. Terror against non-combatants was not a major strategic component of these liberation movements. Terror was successfully employed by the Zionists, but that was a done deal anyhow, and by the Palestinians (notably without success).

Beyond freedom movements, is there a relationship between revolutionaries and terrorists? I have previously likened terrorists to storm crows flying before the winds of incipient revolution. Theres an enormous amount of violence that accompanies revolutions, almost axiomatically. As Mao Zedong said: You cant make an omelette without breaking eggs. But does revolutionary violence deliberately target innocent non-combatants? Is terrorism part of revolutionary strategy?

In the French Revolution, the guillotine was kept busy severing heads. But the French Terror was directed, first, against the functionaries and perceived supporters of the ancien regime and, thereafter, against factions of the revolutionaries themselves.

Pre-revolution Russia witnessed successive bursts of terrorist violence from such groups as the Decembrists, the Nihilists and the Narodnaya Volnya populists. However, both the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions of the Russian Social Democratic Party, which actually conducted the 1917 revolution, were explicit in their denunciation of terrorist methods. The violence of the socialists campaigns against the Kulaks, the purges within the Bolsheviks themselves and the Stalinist purges were after, and not part of, the revolution.

The Chinese revolution comprised the campaigns of an armed revolutionary force  the Red Army  during the 1930s and 1940s. Mao was especially careful to target land barons, warlords and the Japanese, and not the ordinary people, who were thought of as the sea in which the Communists swam like fish. The campaigns of large-scale mass violence, and the later internecine violence of the Red Guards against the Communists themselves during the Cultural Revolution, occurred well after the revolution.

As Lenin said: A revolution is not a pink tea party. In each of these cases, there was violence aplenty against the leaders of the pre-revolutionary tyrannies. Successful revolutions used violence to clean up perceived remnants of the old order, and then resolved factional disputes amongst revolutionaries themselves in that strange process where revolutions seem to devour their own children.

Now, many may consider the violence of revolutions unacceptably wasteful of human life. The point is that, barring occasional aberrant behaviour accompanying the breakdown of a state, we have not previously seen terror against non-combatants being systematically used as part of revolutionary strategy. In fact, it was considered counterproductive and cowardly. Both Lenin and Mao categorically rejected terrorist tactics and denounced the perpetrators of such occurrences.

But, come the media age of the 21st century, and things have changed. Beginning with the spectacular attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in September 2001, which many of us saw happening in real time on our TV sets, terrorist tactics have been the principal component of the campaigns of the so-called Islamist militants  whether the TTP and various Lashkars and Jaishes in Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban, ISIS in West Asia, Boko Haram in West Africa, etc.

Traditional revolutionaries and liberationists eschewed terror tactics against the non-combatants they hoped to lead. But todays religious warriors observe no such niceties. They are uninterested in cultivating democratic support or catalysing popular uprisings. Their methodology is to terrorise local populations into submission, in order to enjoy the power gained from running their proto-states. Simultaneous terrorist actions against the West prompted the emergence there of the likes of Trump, Le Pen, Wilders, Farrage, etc, thereby promoting hatred, divisions and barriers between nations.

Terrorism is not the weapon of the weak, but of the vicious. Such an appreciation is especially significant today, when such asinine mantras as negotiating with the Taliban are doing the rounds of power corridors here and abroad.

By arrangement with DawnThe BJP has lost big time in the March 11 byelections for three Lok Sabha seats and one of two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, states that it rules. Ordinarily, byelection wins and losses would not yield a national trend. But defeats in these two Hindi-heartland states have come on a straight string of humiliating losses in byelections in the BJP-held heartland states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh only weeks earlier, further boosting the BJPs opponents.

The overall message seems to be that the BJP has suffered crushing bypoll defeats in a big way in states where its in power. These setbacks have come when the next Lok Sabha election is just around a year away and could even be held earlier due to political compulsions.

At a time when there is confusion in the ranks of the BJP-led NDA coalition at the Centre, a string of defeats  on the heels of a win that was a near defeat in the Assembly polls in the BJPs stronghold of Gujarat  cannot enthuse potential allies.

Among current allies, the Shiv Sena has already said it wont go into the next election with the BJP. The TDP recently left the Narendra Modi government. Will it now take the next step and quit the NDA? And what about the dissatisfied Akali Dal?

In the recent byelections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress registered convincing victories against the BJP in one-on-one contests. In Sundays bypolls in Bihar, the RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is in jail after conviction in fodder scam cases, won a Lok Sabha and an Assembly seat, decimating the BJP for the Parliament seat and the JD(U) for an Assembly seat.

The Bihar byelections were widely seen as a trial of strength for the newly-formed opportunistic JD(U)-BJP alliance. The JD(U) won the 2015 Assembly polls as an ally of the RJD, but last year dumped its partner to sail with the BJP.

In UP, Akhilesh Yadavs SP and Mayawatis BSP  who had been antagonistic to one another for a quarter century  pooled resources to make SP candidates win decisively. Their last-minute association showed that defeating the BJP in UP is not so difficult after all, and Wednesdays results could goad these two parties in the direction of an alliance for the next Lok Sabha election.

The result also showed that former UP chief minister Mayawati remains the prima donna of dalit politics in the state. In contrast, current CM Yogi Adityanath, the man who was given his post by the BJP brass because he was the monk of Gorakhpur and wears a Hindu holy mans robes, has lost face. He could not make the BJP win in his pocket borough. If hes the fall guy for UP, who will be the fall guy for losses elsewhere?RAT usage in attacks against pharmaceutical organisations indicates that sophisticated APT actors are showing an increased interest in capitalising on the healthcare sector.

PlugX malware is a well-known remote access tool (RAT). It is usually spread via spear phishing and has previously been detected in targeted attacks against the military, government and political organisations. The RAT has been used by a number of Chinese-speaking cyber threat actors, including Deep Panda, NetTraveler or Winnti. In 2013, it was discovered that the latter - responsible for attacking companies in the online gaming industry - had been using PlugX since May 2012. Interestingly, Winnti has also been present in attacks against pharmaceutical companies, where the aim has been to steal digital certificates from medical equipment and software manufacturers.

PlugX RAT allows attackers to perform various malicious operations on a system without the users permission or authorisation, including  but not limited to  copying and modifying files, logging keystrokes, stealing passwords and capturing screenshots of user activity. PlugX, as with other RATs, is used by cyber criminals to discreetly steal and collect sensitive or profitable information for malicious purposes.

RAT usage in attacks against pharmaceutical organisations indicates that sophisticated APT actors are showing an increased interest in capitalising on the healthcare sector. Kaspersky Lab products successfully detect and block the PlugX malware.

Private and confidential healthcare data is steadily migrating from paper to digital form within medical organisations. While the security of the network infrastructure of this sector is sometimes neglected, the hunt by APTs for information on advancements in drug and equipment innovation is truly worrying. Detections of PlugX malware in pharmaceutical organisations demonstrate yet another battle that we need to fight  and win  with cyber criminals, said Yury Namestnikov, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.

Other key findings for 2017 in the research include:

More than 60 per cent of medical organisations had malware on their servers or computers.

Philippines, Venezuela and Thailand topped the list of countries with attacked devices in medical organisations.

In order to stay protected, Kaspersky Lab experts advise businesses to take the following measures:

Remove all nodes that process medical data from public and secure public web portals;

Automatically update installed software using patch management systems on all nodes, including servers.

Perform network segmentation: refrain from connecting expensive equipment to the main LAN of your organisation.

Use a proven corporate-grade security solution in combination with anti-targeted attack technologies and threat intelligence, such as Kaspersky Threat Management and Defense solution. These are capable of spotting and catching advanced targeted attacks by analysing network anomalies and giving cybersecurity teams full visibility over the network and response automation.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Nikolas Cruz, 19, chose to remain silent during a hearing in Broward County circuit court in Fort Lauderdale. (Photo: AP)

Fort Lauderdale: A Florida judge entered a not-guilty plea for Nikolas Cruz, who faces a possible death penalty for a massacre at a high school in February that killed 17 people and triggered a nationwide walkout of students on Wednesday.

Cruz, 19, chose to remain silent during a hearing in Broward County circuit court in Fort Lauderdale.

Judge Elizabeth Scherer then entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf for 17 counts each of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the February 14 shooting spree in Parkland.

Cruz, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and shackled at wrists and ankles, sat alone and kept his head bowed in what is normally the jury box while guarded by a dozen deputies.

Nine relatives of victims of the attack at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School attended the hearing. "Son of a bitch," one said as Cruz was led from the courtroom.

State prosecutors said on Tuesday they would seek the death penalty for the massacre in which 17 students and staff were gunned down. Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott has said he supports the death penalty for Cruz.

Scherer also instructed Cruz to fill out an application to determine if he can pay for his lawyers. After a presentation on Cruz's finances by his lawyers, she said he had roughly USD 37,000 and scheduled an April 11 hearing to determine whether he was indigent.

Scherer also set April 27 for a hearing for attorneys to agree to a trial date.

Cruz's court appearance coincided with students spilling out of classrooms by the thousands waving signs and chanting slogans in a coast-to-coast protest against gun violence prompted by the Florida rampage.

One of the protests took place in Fort Lauderdale near the courthouse, in front of the county's public school offices. About 275 students from a half dozen Broward County high schools, some of whom walked more than 15 miles (24 km), demanded an end to gun violence.

About 40 of the students staged a "die in," laying down on the sidewalk to protest gun violence in schools. Others chanted, "End gun violence. No more silence."Britains Prime Minister Theresa May being briefed by members of the police at the place where former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found critically ill, in Salisbury, England on Thursday. (Photo:AP)

London: Britain and its allies on Thursday pointed the finger directly at Moscow over the poisoning of a Russian double agent, as the Kremlin vowed prompt retaliation against the irresponsible expulsion of its diplomats from London.

The escalating international scandal is unfolding as former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in critical condition after exposure to the Soviet-designed chemical Novichok on March 4 in the English city of Salisbury.

British Prime Minister Theresa May promised a united stance as she visited the scene of the attack for the first time on Thursday, a day after saying Moscow was culpable and expelling 23 Russian diplomats among other measures.

In a rare joint statement, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and the US condemned the attack as an assault on UK sovereignty.

We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russia's failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility, the statement said.

The four leaders called on Russia to provide full and complete disclosure of the Soviet-era chemical programme that developed Novichok, the statement published by the British government said.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Britain's position absolutely irresponsible. He warned that retaliatory steps would soon follow and President Vladimir Putin would choose the option that most suits Moscow's interests. Russia would respond by kicking out British diplomats, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying in Moscow, adding that it would happen soon.Ana Julia Quezada who had been dating Angel for several years had been at the forefront of this civic support group, sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with Cruzs face, often speaking with reporters teary eyed and traumatised. (Photo: AFP)

When eight-year-old Gabriel Cruz went missing in Las Hortichuelas it shook the small southeastern village in Spain to its core.

Cruzs Dominican step-mother was an active part of the large group of people who came together to seek justice until the case was turned on its head, when the boys body was found in the boot of her car.

Hundred of volunteers had been searching for Cruzs body along with his parents Angel Cruz and Patricia Ramirez.

Ana Julia Quezada who had been dating Angel for several years had been at the forefront of this civic support group, sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with Cruzs face, often speaking with reporters teary eyed and traumatised.

Cruz went missing after he left his grandmothers house to go play on 27th February.

Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido announced Sunday that police had found Gabriel's body in her car.

A police spokesman on Wednesday said Quezada, admitted being the perpetrator'.

Quezada attracted widespread hate from across Spain, including online petitions asking for her extradition and pressing for a life sentence following her arrest.

Cruzs funeral on Tuesday drew a huge and deeply saddened crowd which was seen chanting, 'we are all Gabriel'.

Cruzs father offered his gratitude for the support they received. You gave us strength to search for Gabriel, he said.Islamabad: The death toll in Wednesday nights blast near Lahore reached 10 on Thursday as a policeman succumbed to his injuries. Constable Naeem was deployed at the annual congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat when he was injured in the attack. His death brought the toll of those killed to 10. Dozens injured in the attack are being treated at Jinnah Hospital.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said four suspected militants tried to enter the Tableeghi Jamaat gathering, but were stopped by policemen.

One of the men then blew himself up while the remaining managed to flee from the spot. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility and released an image of the suicide bomber.

"Five policemen - two inspectors and three constables - are among nine persons killed in the blast," Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad said on Wednesday. Hundreds of mourners attended the funerals of those killed. Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif and other officials attended the police funerals.While Congress president Rahul Gandhi wants young blood to represent the party, the state election committee on Wednesday decided against an age limit and restriction on fielding family members in the upcoming Assembly polls.



The 43-member committee headed by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief G Parameshwara held its maiden day-long meeting at a resort near Devanahalli.

This means the "one family, one ticket" policy, which Parameshwara had publicly sought, will not apply to the likes of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The chief minister may contest from the Chamundeshwari constituency and field his son Dr Yathindra from Varuna. Over a dozen leaders are said to be lobbying for tickets to their sons and daughters.

During the meeting, it was also decided not to give tickets to corrupt candidates. But there was no clarity on what constituted corruption, who is corrupt and the extent of corruption that is permissible.

Further, candidates who lost by a margin of 25,000 votes in the 2013 election will be considered for a ticket only if surveys show that they can win this time.

"Applications for tickets submitted by all aspirants were discussed. Even survey reports came up for discussion. The list of candidates will be out by the end of this month," Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who heads the party's campaign committee, told reporters.

All 224 Assembly segments have been divided into four divisions, with a team for each division.

Shivakumar heads Bengaluru, KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao Mysuru, former minister S R Patil Belagavi and AICC general secretary B K Hariprasad heads Kalaburgi division.

"Names of three aspirants per constituency will be prepared. They will be shortlisted further after a discussion with the chief minister. High command will take the final call," Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said.

"How many sitting legislators should get tickets will be discussed in another meeting on March 26. So far, we have discussed candidature for 90 Assembly seats where Congress lost last time," said Rao, adding, "Winnability is our only criterion."Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday took a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the BJP's defeat in the by-elections to the Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies.



Siddaramaiah said that he now hopes that Adityanath will stop "lecturing" Karnataka on development.

The duo were recently engaged in a Twitter war, on the issues of development and governance in their respective states.

"BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role. Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," read Siddaramaiah's tweet.

JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy also tweeted welcoming the bypoll results.

"The voters of Karnataka too will take a similar decision. The UP, Bihar results have come as a morale boost to the JD(S), which is working towards gaining a majority. The SP could win in UP because of BSP supremo Mayawati's support. BSP has also supported the JD(S) in Karnataka. With BSP's support, JD(S) is bound to form a government in Karnataka," he tweeted.Orthopaedician Dr Babu B Hundekar (50), who was missing for the last two days, is now believed to have been murdered by his relative over financial issues.



Police sources told DH that Hundekar, a member of the board of directors of Sushruta Multi-specialty Hospital & Research Centre, is believed to have been murdered by his brother-in-law Naveen Mullikgoudar, a real estate businessman, and three of his friends at the victim's house on March 12 afternoon. His body was disposed of at an isolated location on the outskirts of Ingalagi village on Gadag Road the same night.

The police are not sure if the half-burnt body they seized from Ingalagi on March 14 is that of Hundekar's, as the body had been charred beyond recognition. Samples have been sent for DNA analysis to establish the identity, Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner M N Nagaraj said.

Hundekar had lent Rs 60 lakh to Naveen a few years ago. Family sources said the two fought frequently over the repayment of the money. This might have irked Naveen, who along with three others, killed Hundekar, said police officials.

What has further complicated the case is the WhatsApp message that Hunderkar is said to have sent to his friends stating that he would be out of station for two days. On March 12, his father Basappa Hundekar had filed a kidnap complaint with Vidyanagar police and named Naveen as the suspect.Lok Sabha MP and leader of BJP's ally Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Anbumani Ramadoss on Thursday hit out at the Centre for allegedly not adhering to the Supreme Court ruling in setting up of Cauvery Management Board, saying "it is a political game plan".



Taking part in a protest along with AIADMK MPs outside Parliament, he said, "The SC on February 16 clearly directed setting up of Cauvery Management Board in six weeks. This is a dictum from the SC and centre is not ready to set it up."

"We got a verdict after 30 years of legal battle, but Centre is not adhering to it," Ramadoss told reporters, adding, "We see this as a political game plan in the backdrop of elections in Karnataka."Air India's official Twitter account was hacked early in the morning for many hours before being restored, the airline said today. Messages in Turkish language were posted on the official Twitter handle @airindiain, an Air India spokesperson said.



Air India Twitter account hacked. Most likely by usual suspects, from the neighbourhood.

 Pro Turkish posts being shared.

 With Air India due to commence flights to Tel Aviv, could be a reason for...

Cyber attack on AI twitter account.



Attn: @jayantsinha@KirenRijiju pic.twitter.com/tG25m9i1ll  LCA TEJAS (@Leopard212) March 14, 2018





All the malicious contents posted on the handle have been removed and the official handle has now been restored, he said. One of the posts by the hackers read, "Last minute important announcement. All our flights have been cancelled. From now on, we will fly with Turkish Airlines'. Air India has 1,46,000 followers on Twitter.



Mohammad Taufeeq a native of Manuguru of Kothagudem district of Telangana was one among three militants killed in a gun battle with security forces in Hakkora of Anantnag in Kashmir on the intervening night of Monday.



Telangana police confirming the identity of Taufeeq in a statement on Wednesday said: "It is learnt that Mohammad Taufeeq (26) native of Manuguru died in an encounter with the security forces on the intervening night of March 11 and 12 in Hakkora of Anantnag district along with two other Kashmiri militants. He was radicalized into the Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of ISIS. He was not wanted in any of the criminal cases in Telangana state. Further details are being verified'.

Brainwashed by the Jihadis through social media, the young man joined the Kashmir based Terror outfit "Ansar Ghazwatul Hind" (AGH) believed to be an offshoot of ISIS. Taufeeq's father's name is Md Razaak. He has two daughters and a son. Taufeeq came to Hyderabad in 2016 to study civil engineering and was later searching for a job but his family lost touch as soon as he left his hometown.

While Taufeeq has no criminal record his father Razzaq was once booked in a theft case. He was suspended from his job for a while because of the case. Police are also interrogating Taufeeq's family members. Fazli and Owais, the other two slain militants also have left their B.Tech courses midway.A delegation of 57 seers from the Veerashaiva faith met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday morning and submitted a memorandum requesting him to reject the expert committee report on granting minority religion status to Lingayats.

The seers warned Siddaramaiah of staging series of protests against the Congress government if it accepts the recommendations.

The delegation led by Chandrashekhar Shivacharya Swami of Kashi Peetha told Siddaramaiah that the government should declare Veerashaiva-Lingayat as minority religion if it wanted the welfare of Veerashaiva-Lingayat faiths.The proceedings of the Lok Sabha were paralysed for the ninth consecutive day today as several parties, including NDA constituent TDP, continued their noisy protests over various issues, including the PNB scam and special status for Andhra Pradesh.



As soon as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took up the Question Hour, members from various parties trooped into the Well holding placards.

When Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav was responding to the first question on rural housing, the protesting members raised their pitch, drowning his voice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the members of the opposition parties, including the Congress, to return to their seats and allow the House to function.

He said Parliament is the 'maha panchayat' of the country where issues are discussed but the disruptions are not allowing important issues to be raised.

He also thanked the Speaker for trying to ensure smooth functioning. He said the government is open to discuss issues including bank scam, Cauvery water management board and special status for Andhra Pradesh, but the House has to function first and members have to vacate the Well.

As the protests continued, the House was adjourned till 12 noon minutes after it met at 11 am.

While members from the Congress, TMC, TDP, YSR Congress and TRS were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, MPs from the Left were standing at their seats and shouting slogans.

Since March 5, when Parliament had met after a recess, the Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a daily basis. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were yesterday passed by the House without discussion.KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Thursday asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath not to visit Karnataka only to narrate lies as his party has bitten the dust in the by-election.



"The BJP has been defeated in the Uttar Pradesh by-elections. Hence, Adityanath need not come to Karnataka to narrate lies and raking up communal issues. However, he is welcome to visit the state for discussions on development and welfare," Rao said.

The BJP leaders like Shobha Karandlaje, Anant Kumar Hedge and C T Ravi fuel communal violence and divide society on caste lines, Rao charged.

Regarding the controversy over according the status of independent religion to Lingayat faith, Rao maintained that the Congress party did not have anything to do with the issue.A paramilitary CRPF trooper was injured in an ongoing encounter between militants and security forces at Balhama area on the outskirts of Srinagar city on Thursday.



The encounter started after militants made an abortive bid to snatch a rifle from a policeman guarding state BJP leader Mohammad Anwar Khan near Arsh medical institute. The policeman identified as Bilal Ahmad suffered injuries in the attack.



Reports said intermittent firing continued as security forces have cordoned off the area, where two to three militants are believed to be hiding inside a residential house. Clashes erupted in the area as youth took to streets and pelted security forces with stones to disrupt the anti-militant operation.



Eyewitnesses said security forces fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters, triggering further clashes. Reports of similar clashes were received from neighbouring Tral and Murran Chowk of south Kashmir's Pulwama district after news that two local militants were surrounded by the forces in Balhama.



In the initial exchange of fire, one CRPF trooper identified as Pradeep Kumar of 110 Battalion got injured, police said. He was shifted to army's 92 base hospital in Srinagar for treatment.





Hailed from south



The latest encounter comes three days after three militants were killed in south Kashmir's Anantnag district. J&K Police on Wednesday night verified that one of the slain militants was from southern city of Hyderabad, endorsing what 'Ansar Ghazwat ul Hind', al-Qaeda's Kashmir unit, had claimed.



"It is learnt that Md Toufeeq, age 26 years, N/o Manuguru died in an encounter with security forces on night 11/12march in Hakkora of Anantnag district along with two other Kashmiri militants. He was radicalised into Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of ISIS. He was not wanted in any of the criminal cases in Telengana state. Further details are being verified...," J&K DGP Shesh Pal Vaid posted on Twitter.



The Qaeda's Kashmir unit is led by wanted militant leader Zakir Musa.



A teenaged Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police check-post near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, killing 10 people, including six policemen, police said.



According to rescue officials, the blast took place last night close to a police check post, a few kilometres from the palatial residence of the Sharif family, and next to the congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat centre.

"Five policemen - two inspectors and three constables - are among nine persons killed in the blast," Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad told PTI.

Today, one more policeman wounded in the attack on the Raiwind Markaz of the Tableeghi Jamaat succumbed to his injuries. His death brought the toll of those killed to 10.

Around 14 policemen are among 25 injured. The condition of some of them is stated to be critical.

According to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), four suspected militants tried to enter the Tableeghi Jamaat gathering but were stopped by policemen. One of the attackers then blew himself up while the remaining managed to flee from the spot, the Express Tribune reported.

Inspector General Police Punjab Arif Nawaz confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack carried out by a teenaged boy who blew himself up near the check-post.

Deputy Inspector General Police Lahore Dr Haider Ashraf said: "A teenaged boy blew himself up at the check post set up close to the Tableeghi centre where at least 14 or so cops were present".

However, he did not give the exact age of the boy.

He said the "police personnel" were the target of the blast. "The condition of some policemen is critical," he said.

"The body parts of the bomber have also been recovered," the officer said.

It was such a powerful blast that its sound was heard several kilometres from the site. A fireball was seen after the blast at the Nisar Police Check Post.

Abid Hussain, an injured constable, told journalists that he had been deputed at the entry point of the check-post to frisk those passing through the area.

"I saw a young boy who was trying to enter (the venue) and as soon as my colleague stopped him, I heard a powerful blast," Hussain said, adding that he had lost consciousness after that and came to later at a hospital.

Some reports said the Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of the blast and the banned outfit has threatened more attacks on police.

The suicide attack took place a week before the semi-finals of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore.

"The PSL semi-finals will be held in Lahore as per schedule as we have made all security arrangements in this regard," Ashraf said.

Pakistan Rangers quick response force has reached the spot and cordoned off the area along with the police.

President Mamnoon Hussain condemned the attack, saying such cowardly acts could not deter the government's resolve to fight terrorism.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif sought a report from the IGP and vowed to take the terrorists and their facilitators to the task.

This is the first explosion targeting the provincial capital in 2018. Lahore experienced multiple terror attacks in 2017 that killed more than 60 people.Striking a conciliatory tone in a bid to improve relations with BSP supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday signalled that his party was for a 'grand alliance' to take on the BJP in 2019 and asked Mayawati to ''forget'' the past.



''Sometimes we have to forget the past to move forward,'' Akhilesh told reporters here in response to a query on an alliance with BSP apparently referring to the alleged attack on the BSP supremo after her party had withdrawn support to SP, by his party supporters in 1995 though she escaped unhurt.

BSP and SP had contested the UP Assembly polls in alliance in 1993 and had emerged victorious.

Akhilesh also hinted that he was not averse to taking the Congress along in a possible alliance in 2019 to counter the BJP. ''My friendship with Congress will continue....both of us (Rahul and Akhilesh) are young and we have to work together to rid the country of various problems,'' he said.

Congress and SP had contested the 2017 Assembly polls in UP in alliance though it failed to click.

Akhilesh had on Wednesday, soon after the declaration of results of the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha by-polls, where his party registered impressive wins with BSP's support, had driven down to Mayawati's residence to thank her for the support.

The SP supremo said that but for the faulty EVMs, his party would have won by greater margins in the two LS by-polls. He also expressed hope that the defeats would bring about a change in the ''language'' used by the chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

''It (SP-BSP joining hands) was like the coming together of ''ker-ber'' (the banana tree and Indian Plum...the two cannot grow together as one is soft and the other is thorny)....its like friendship between a snake and shrew mouse,'' Adityanath had said.After sizable footprints in Punjab with 20 seats in its kitty just a year ago, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is planning to go the whole-hog to claim the political turf in neighbouring Haryana.



The party decided against contesting the last assembly election in 2014 in Haryana. This time though, raring to test waters in Jatland, talks of son-of-soil and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal contesting from Haryana is doing the rounds. This could be AAP's best bet if it fancies a chance to alter the political canvas in the Jat-dominated state.

With Assembly elections in the state likely to be held ahead of schedule along with the Lok Sabha elections next year, Arvind Kejriwal is expected to announce its party's chief ministerial candidate in the coming week, sources told Deccan Herald.

If that be, it will also clear the dust on whether or not Kejriwal would exit the national capital for Haryana. Kejriwal will sound the poll bugle at a rally scheduled for March 26 in Sirsa where the leader for the coveted post may be announced.



Unlike in Punjab where the party had several prominent leaders who were the face of the party, even though many were dubbed as turncoats, in Haryana the AAP arguably has inconsequential leaders to bank upon. Kejriwal's estranged colleague Yogendra Yadav, who contested from Gurgaon in the last general elections only to settle for the fourth slot, too will no more aid the party political designs in Haryana, which happens to be his home state too.



Despite odds stacked against the party, sources said that the AAP has managed to set up a cadre base in the state that it claims is battle ready. Before its good show in the Punjab assembly elections last year, the AAP had the distinct advantage of winning its lone 4 MP seats from Punjab even as it drew a complete blank elsewhere in the country.



That ground well is missing in Haryana, which is why the AAP, still dubbed as a rookie, appears to be starting early in the race.The next course of action in the Mangaluru pub attack case in which all the accused were acquitted by a court would be taken in consultation with the state's legal team, Karnataka minister Ramalinga Reddy said today.



Rightwing fringe group Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik and several others were recently acquitted for lack of evidence.

"We will take a decision in the pub attack case after consulting our legal team, which includes our Advocate General," the Home minister told reporters here.

Over 30 Sri Ram Sene activists had allegedly barged into a pub on January 24, 2009, in Mangaluru and assaulted some women and men, claiming they were violating traditional Indian values.

The incident had triggered national outrage after the video clip of the attack went viral.

To a query, Reddy said the government is continuing to give police protection to Muthalik "because of the threat he received long back."

Reddy said there has been no progress in the investigation into the M M Kalburgi assassination case.

Kannada writer and rationalist Kalburgi was shot dead at his residence by two unidentified assailants in August 2015.

On journalist Gauri Lankesh murder case, Reddy said, "We will disclose details as and when we get information in this regard."

The 55-year-old Lankesh, known as an anti-establishment voice with strident anti-right wing views, was shot dead at her home on September 5 last year.

On March 9, police had arrested alleged gunrunner KT Naveen Kumar, who was taken into police custody on March 2 for questioning in connection with the case.

Asked about a letter written by Additional DGP R P Sharma to Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha, Reddy said, "It is an illegal letter... I don't want to answer... ask the chief secretary."

In his letter, Sharma had highlighted "serious chink in the armour" of the state's security, triggering a political slugfest with BJP targetting the ruling Congress.The opposition National Conference today said the youth of Kashmir is getting alienated due to the atmosphere of "despondency" and "doom" in the absence of constructive and reconciliatory politics.



NC's working president Omar Abdullah made the remarks at a meeting of party's provincial committee here.

"The current atmosphere of despondency, doom and anxiety in the valley is alienating the youth in the absence of constructive and reconciliatory politics,"

Omar alleged that governance instability, policy inconsistency and the deteriorating law and order situation in the state were all reminders of how the slogan of change raised by the ruling PDP-BJP alliance had proven to be a hoax.

"The ensuing state of instability and chaos in Jammu and Kashmir is a matter of serious concern and should be taken seriously as the consequences of indifference and callousness would be disastrous," he added.

Omar said the brazen patronage to nepotism, corruption and back door entries was an assault on the dignity of hardworking and educated youth who have been rendered hopeless and cynical as the kith and kin of leaders of the ruling dispensation were being given plump government jobs through the proverbial back door.

He also expressed dismay over the confusion and inconsistency at premiere service commissions and recruitment agencies in the state saying the recent intervention by the judiciary should be an eye-opener for the state government and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to provoke a deep introspection.

Omar said it was painful and worrying that cabinet ministers of the state openly attended divisive events and marches that are being held to save the culprits of the heinous Kathua rape and murder case.

"The chief minister is answerable for allowing her cabinet colleagues to ridicule the law of the land and cast aspersions on the state's police, objectivity and investigative abilities," he said.French President Emmanuel Macron has rolled out the red carpet for Indian youths, researchers and entrepreneurs, saying he would be proud if they made France their entry point to Europe and be their "long-time strategic partner".



Macron, who was in India from March 10 to March 12, said both countries worked hard on deciding strategic partnerships in various sectors, including security, energy and environment.

He also termed the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) the beginning of a new achievement.

"I am finishing my trip in India. We are now in Benaras before leaving and flying back to Paris. I just wanted to thank you - Thank you India. Thanks for the three days in Delhi, in Taj Mahal and today in Benaras," he said in his video message before leaving India on March 12.

The video was released today.

He and his wife spent three "marvellous" days here he said, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the very warm welcome.

"We worked very hard, we decided on strategic partnerships, new decisions - from the security, economic, energy and environment points of view. We launched ISA, which is a great achievement at this stage. It was a beginning of new achievements. And I discovered India I have to say," he said.

Macron said he wanted to convey the last message -- choose France.

"Young people and young students, entrepreneurs, academics researchers, Indian leaders - choose France. You are very much welcome.

"I will be very proud to make my country the entry point for you in Europe and to be the longtime strategic partner for you," he said.

The French president said it was an emotional three days, "... to spend hours with young people in Delhi and to be with you in Benaras today."The Haryana Assembly today unanimously passed a Bill which provides for the death penalty to those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 years or less.



After Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Haryana has become the third state where the Assembly has approved the provision of capital punishment for such sexual offenders, the House was informed.

The Criminal Law (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2018, moved by the state's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, was passed on the last day of the budget session.

The Bill was passed unanimously by INLD and Congress members also lending their support.

A few Congress members put forth some suggestions, with senior leader Kiran Choudhary suggesting death penalty and harsher provisions for all rapists irrespective of the age of victims.

"After Section 376-A of the Penal Code, the following Section shall be inserted, namely 376-AA," the Bill stated.

Under section 376-AA, in case of rape of a girl up to 12 years of age, there will be a punishment of death or rigorous imprisonment of not less than 14 years which may extend to imprisonment for life that is for remainder period of persons natural life, according to the legislation.

A provision 376-DA has also been added after section 376-D of the penal code.

Under section--376-DA, if a girl up to 12 years of age is raped by one or more persons constituting a group, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape and will be punished with death or rigorous imprisonment for a term which will not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to life along with a fine.

The Bill also provides for making the existing criminal laws related to other sexual offences more stringent.

The punishment under section 354 of the IPC (Assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) will not be less than two years (earlier not less than one year) but may extend up to seven years (earlier up to five years).

Also, under section 354D (2) of the IPC, those found guilty of stalking will be punished on first conviction with imprisonment up to three years and can be punished on a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for not less than three years, but which may extend to seven years (earlier up to five years).

The new additions also include provisions of fining the convict and any such fine will be paid to the victim.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, during his speech in the House, expressed anguish over recent incidents of rape in the state, which he said had happened in the past as well.

He said voices were raised from various quarters that provisions of "harsher punishment for rape".

"Some members have made some suggestions, which are procedural in nature. Through this Bill, whose intention is that the tough law will act as a strong deterrence, we are taking the first step," he said.

He rejected charge levelled by some opposition members that politics was the reason for bringing the tougher law.

Congress members Karan Singh Dalal and Geeta Bhukkal also gave their suggestions while Women and Child Development minister Kavita Jain said while tough laws will be in place from time to time, there was also a need to bring about a change in the mindset among the people to help stop crimes against women.A day after the RJD won from the Araria Lok Sabha constituency, Union Minister Giriraj Singh stoked a huge controversy on Thursday when he said the Muslim-dominated area would "now become a safe haven for terrorists."



The byelection to Ararai Lok Sabha seat took place on March 11 and the result for the same was declared on Wednesday evening.

RJD candidate Sarfaraz Alam defeated the BJP's Pradeep Singh by around 60,000 votes despite an aggressive campaign by the NDA.

Sarfaraz is the son of former Union minister Md Taslimuddin, whose death necessitated the bypoll.

Apprehending that the district, which has a sizeable population of Muslims (around 40%) have adopted a "radical ideology" (in reference to the election of Sarfaraz), Giriraj said that place "would soon become a hub of terror."

Araria, incidentally, shares its border with both Nepal (in the north) and Bangladesh (in the east).

Similar allegations were made by Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai, too, last week when he said if people voted for the RJD, "Araria would become a hub of the Pak intelligence agency - the ISI."

An FIR was lodged against the Bihar BJP chief on March 10 on the directive of the Election Commission for violating the model code of conduct.

Rabri reacts

Reacting to Giriraj's charge, former chief minister Rabri Devi said the minister's utterances were highly deplorable and an insult to the voters of Araria.

"We strongly condemn Giriraj's statements. Either he should apologise, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi should drop him from his Council of Ministers for trying to divide the society on communal lines," said Rabri here on Thursday.BLACK REPUBLICAN BLOG - The Republican Party is the party of civil rights and the four Fs: faith, family, freedom and fairness. The Democratic Party is the party of the four Ss: slavery, secession, segregation and socialism (Quote By Author Michael Scheuer).Japanese automobile giant Honda has planned to launch six cars in the coming three years in India, as it aims to strengthen sales and extend presence in the Indian market.



"We are looking at six new launches in the next three years. While we will be rolling out the new CR-V, Amaze and Civic in the upcoming financial year, the other cars could be on existing platforms or from new segments. The cars could also be next-gen products of existing models or all-new models," Honda Cars India (HCIL) Senior Vice President (Marketing and Sales) Jnaneswar Sen told DH.

"The second generation Amaze, with a bold new attractive design and premium interiors, will strengthen Honda's position in the mass segment. The all-new 5th generation CR-V and 10th generation Civic will secure a strong presence in the upper segments as well," he said.

The said three offerings were unveiled at the Auto Expo 2018. It must be noted that the Civic is Honda's largest-selling car globally, with 24 million in cumulative sales, while the CR-V will be available for the first time in a diesel trim.

Ready for the future

It was in 1998, Honda began retailing cars in India, with the City. Since then the carmaker has seen steady growth, catering to some of the most competitive segments in the country's market.

Stating that India is one of the largest markets for Honda, Sen said,"The country contributes 23% of Honda's sales in the Asia-Oceania region."

This figure is at par with Indonesia, which is itself one of the largest markets in the region.

During April 2017-February 2018, HCIL registered a cumulative growth of 13%, selling 1,56,452 units, against 1,38,363 units in the corresponding period, last year.

While the company is not present in few segments of the Indian car market, it has garnered significant share in its respective segments. "In the B+ segments and above, we have a 9% share. In the overall market, we have a share of about 5%," he said.

The company has invested Rs 8,641 crore in India till date.

Going forward, the company is eyeing developments in the EV and hybrid space, and has stated to have all technologies in order to tap upcoming opportunities.Stung by Osmania University's last minute cancellation, the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) would henceforth ask host universities to produce support letters from the governor and the chief minister before deciding on the venue for future congresses.



The decision was taken by the ISCA executive council after the original host of the 105th session of the Indian Science Congress declined to host the mega event at the eleventh hour.

Last year on December 21, the university conveyed its inability to host the Congress - scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 3 - citing student unrest on the campus. Such last-minute cancellation happened for the first time in the 104 year history of the Congress.

"The University in Hyderabad damaged us and we are suffering," Ashok Saxena, a Kanpur-based professor and past president of ISCA said here on Thursday.

While 12 Nobel laureates were to attend the event at Hyderabad, none would be coming to Imphal as new dates don't match their calendars.

Three other Nobel winners - Dalai Lama, Mohd Yunus and Hiroshi Amano - initially approached by the organisers are also not coming.

Instead of 12,000 registered delegates, only around 5,000 delegates are expected. The Manipur Science Congress will also not be having its signature plenary sessions where top scientists give lectures on the frontiers of science.

The relative inaccessibility of the venue - Imphal is not on India's railway map - and annual examinations further reduced the participation as college teachers don't get leave to attend the meet and students can't afford their time.

To improve the attendance, the ISCA will allow researchers from Manipur and surrounding areas to be present their papers at the sections and publish them as an additional supplement. This was approved as a special case for this session only.

This is the second time the annual congress would be hosted by a North East university. The 96th session of the Congress in 2009 was held at the North Eastern Hill University in Shillong.

Since March 2017, the border state is headed by a BJP government with N Biren Singh as the chief minister.

Two BJP appointed governors - Padmanabha Acharya of Nagaland and Kesari Nath Tripathi of West Bengal - have confirmed their presence to the Children Science Congress and Women Science Congress respectively.The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed two crucial bills without debate even as Opposition members continued noisy protests accusing the Modi government of riding roughshod in Parliament.



As members raised slogans protesting the passage of the Union Budget without discussion and other issues, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took up the Payments of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill for consideration and passage.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia urged the Speaker to allow a discussion on the bills even as the Congress and other Opposition members raised slogans in the Well of the House.

With members unrelenting in their protests, the Speaker proceeded to pass the Bill without discussions.

Amid the noisy scenes, RSP member N K Premachandran moved an amendment and sought a division, but the Speaker announced that his motion was negatived in a voice vote and put the bill to votes.

The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, that proposes to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of business contract and to reduce the discretion of courts in such matters, too, was passed in a similar manner.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar made attempts to calm the members assuring them the government was open to discussing all issues if the Opposition withdrew their protests and cleared the Well of the House.

As the second bill, too, was passed without debate, some Opposition members tore some papers and threw them around and the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

Later, Congress leaders walked out of the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee chaired by the Speaker to finalise the agenda for the Lok Sabha.

"The government was hell-bent on passing bills without any discussion and is not interested in amicably settling the issues in the House in a democratic manner," Congress leader K C Venugopal said.

The second part of the budget session, which commenced on March 5, has witnessed disruptions daily.

The Opposition has been demanding a discussion on the PNB scam under an adjournment motion that has an element of censure to the government.

The NDA floor managers have offered a short duration discussion but rejected the demand for an adjournment motion.Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Thursday reminded journalists that they cannot write as per their imagination and deliver sermons like the "Pope sitting in a pulpit".



Justice Misra, who is presiding over a bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, came down heavily, particularly on electronic media and news websites, saying what they wrote amounted to sheer contempt of court.

"What we are trying to say is whatever comes to your mind, you can't write. You feel the other person does not have any right... the question of gagging the media never arises. I have myself rebuffed all attempts to gag media, but we do expect media, particularly electronic media, to be more responsible. They cannot publish anything just because they have a website," he said.

"You cannot reproduce anything that comes to your heart and mind, there has to be some basis. You cannot construct, create, nurture and construe anything. That's not journalistic culture," he added.

Justice Misra's observations came on a plea by Rohini Singh and others, challenging the Gujarat High Court judgement which refused to stay the defamation proceedings initiated on a complaint filed by Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah, for publishing an article on news website 'The Wire'.

The bench admitted the petition for consideration and hoped the trial court may not proceed with the matter till the next date of hearing, April 12, before the top court.

The court asked advocate Aishwarya Bhati, representing Shah, to file a response within two weeks. It gave a week's time thereafter to the reporters and editor of The Wire to file their rejoinder.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi and Raju Ramachandran, representing the petitioners, contended the founding editors and ombudsman have been issued process in the case as the article was published on the basis of information available in the public domain.

"Can journalism be throttled like this in a democracy? Are we not supposed to ask questions?" Sibal asked.

Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing Shah, countered him, saying the question is how the facts were twisted to make innuendos against the BJP president and the prime minister.

"It was irresponsible reporting as part of a design to concoct and manufacture a story. They gave a misleading picture. Freedom of the press does not entitle to tarnish the reputation of anyone," he said, maintaining the editors are responsible for any publication.A high-profile citizens' group on Thursday warned against rising "communal divide" in Jammu region promoted by "politically ambitious leaders" and said it could make the situation much "worse".



In a report on its visit to Jammu and Kashmir late last month after rise in cross-border firing between India and Pakistan, the Concerned Citizens' Group (CCG) led by veteran leader Yashwant Sinha also found fault with the Narendra Modi government's handling of the situation in the state, saying people's hopes seemed to have been "dashed".

Besides Sinha, the team included former Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation Executive Director Sushobha Barve and senior journalist Bharat Bhushan.

The report said those who interacted with the group told them that the wider contours of the India-Pakistan conflict had started "impacting individual thinking and perceptions".

Some people even complained that the judiciary in Jammu and Kashmir region are divided, the report said, adding, "Religious divide in the state has clearly been deepened in recent years as communalism has taken deep roots."

"The communal divide in Jammu is being promoted by politically ambitious leaders who are intent on tearing apart the rich and diverse social fabric of the region for their short-term political benefits...Increasingly, the perception is that there is a 'Hindu Jammu' ruled by the BJP and then there is 'Muslim Kashmir' ruled by the PDP," it said.

Many believe that the PDP-BJP government "thrives on communal divisions by promoting polarising voices" to represent the sentiment in Jammu and in the Valley, the report claimed while adding that several people felt that there was a need to contest the separatist narrative as well as the "communal Jammu narrative".

Despair, disappointment

In a scathing attack on the Modi government, the report said Kashmiris thought that Modi would carry forward A B Vajpayee's initiative but the hopes in the Prime Minister "seemed to have been dashed" and that they "feel that he has brought nothing but despair and disappointment".

"In effect, the Modi government's policies have pulled the rug from under the feet of those who did not support militancy, violence and radicalisation. It is this all prevailing desperation which has given rise to militancy and people accepting the use of violence by youngsters," the report claimed.The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that money lenders and pawn brokers would not be entitled to any interest on security deposit made by them for carrying out their business.



"The profession of money lending, may be a trade, but onerous restrictions may be placed on such trade which is definitely usurious," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak said.

These onerous restrictions would be reasonable keeping in view the nature of the trade. The legislature in its wisdom can decide whether it should make it more difficult for people to engage in the business of money lending and pawn broking, the court said.

The top court held as "constitutional, valid and legal" the 1998 amendments to the Karnataka Money Lenders Act, 1961 and the Karnataka Pawn Brokers Act, 1961, providing that the security deposit furnished by the money lenders and pawn brokers shall not carry interest.

The bench said the businesses of money lending and pawn broking are usurious businesses and the government may rightly restrict or even discourage people from entering into such businesses.

The court, however, said Section 7-A and 7-B of the ML Act and 4-A and 4-B of the PB Act are valid from the date of their enactment. "The provisions making these amendments retrospective from 1985 are illegal and invalid," it said.

Not arbitrary

On an appeal filed by Karnataka government represented by Additional Advocate General Devdatta Kamat, the court said the provisions prohibiting payment of interest on the amount of security deposits cannot be said to be arbitrary or violative of Article 14 (equality) of the Constitution.

"A money lender or a pawn broker applies for licence to do this business knowing fully well that the security that he shall deposit shall not earn any interest. He with open eyes accepts the condition which is part of the Acts. Nobody forces a person to engage in the trade of money lending or pawn broking," the bench said.

With regard to applicability of amendments retrospectively, the court said legislature cannot, by way of introducing an amendment, overturn a judicial pronouncement (previous one on validity of the law) and declare it to be wrong or a nullity.The five-decade-old mining industry in Goa is staring at another bout of uncertainty as the Supreme Court order of ban on iron ore extraction in the state came into effect on Thursday night.



The Mines and Geology Department has asked all operational mining lease holders to stop extracting fresh ore by evening, while transportation of ore was also stopped. Mining equipment was moved out of the facilities.

Goa agriculture minister Vijai Sardesai had on Wednesday said the state would face the "biggest" crisis when the ban comes into force.

Another senior Goa minister Sudin Dhavalikar said that Union minister Nitin Gadkari would visit Goa on March 20 and hold discussions with stakeholders in the industry in an attempt to find a solution to the crisis.

The mining and tourism industries are the key revenue earners for the coastal state.

A cabinet committee had decided to urge Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, currently in the US for medical treatment, to file a review petition in the apex court as a last-ditch effort to save the industry.

The state government fears that the sudden stoppage of extraction of fresh ore would result in two lakh people working at mining sites losing jobs.

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 given time till March 15 to mining lease holders, who were granted second renewal in violation of its previous directions, to manage their affairs.The team from Charity Navigator, the nation's largest independent charity evaluator and leading donor advocate, shares their thoughts on emerging nonprofit-sector issues and offers tips to better inform your intelligent giving decisions.

Return to Main Site | Find a Charity | Receive Email Updates | Support Charity NavigatorFormer prime minister and JD(S) national president H D Deve Gowda, on Thursday, said that Veerashaiva-Lingayat faith has a rich history and that there was no need for a separate religion tag for Lingayats, reports DHNS from Hassan.



Addressing media persons here, Gowda alleged that "I don't know why the government has chosen two ministers to fight for the separate religion tag for Lingayats. We did not make any attempt to break the religion. We are in cordial relationship with the seers of Balehonnur, Siddaganga, Suttur and other mutts, and we don't feel any difference between the Veerashaivas and Lingayats. I am not aware of the ongoing debate on according minority status to the Lingayats," he said.A 26-year-old woman from Northeast India has accused a businessman of sexually assaulting her for one-and-a-half years after hiring her as a domestic help.



The woman, from Nagaland, came to Bengaluru in 2015 and landed a job at a beauty parlour in Viveknagar. The parlour is run by Rongsenkala, the wife of the suspect, Wahengbam Lalit Singh.

Singh forced her to quit the job and hired her as a domestic help. Meantime, he started misbehaving with her and sexually assaulted her several times over the past one-and-a-half years, a senior police officer said quoting the complaint. She complained to Rongsenkala but the latter remained indifferent.

The victim somehow contacted a relative who managed to get her out of Singh's house. She later reached her hometown and lodged a complaint with the women's commission there. The commission referred the matter to the Bengaluru police commissioner's office. The case was subsequently referred to the jurisdictional Viveknagar police, the officer said.

Police are yet to arrest Singh and his wife as they were not found in the house where they were living. Police have questioned the victim's friend who facilitated her rescue. Last week, they called the victim to the city for recording her statement. She stated in her complaint that she had not been paid for six months.Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has convened a meeting of state MPs, cutting across party lines, in New Delhi on Friday to discuss the verdict of the Supreme Court on sharing of Cauvery river waters.



The meeting will discuss the state government's next step of action including whether to file a review petition in the Supreme Court, seeking a modification in the verdict. It will also discuss the insistence on the part of neighbouring Tamil Nadu to constitute the Cauvery Management Board.

The Supreme Court last month reduced Tamil Nadu's allocation of Cauvery water from Karnataka from 192 tmcft to 177.25 tmcft.The Congress high command is learnt to have advised its senior leaders to refrain from publicly discussing their sons and daughters getting tickets as that may cause embarrassment to the party ahead of the Assembly polls.



In fact, the party's state election committee deferred discussing the matter till March 26 - after the Rajya Sabha polls scheduled on March 23.

Accordingly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah flatly denied his son Dr Yathindra seeking the ticket to contest from Varuna constituency in Mysuru district that he (Siddaramaiah) currently represents. Other leaders, too, seem to have entered the denial mode.

Science and Technology Minister M R Seetharam, who was said to have been vying for the ticket for the Malleswaram constituency, denied having sought the ticket for himself or his elder son Raksha Ram.

"Me and my son are not ticket aspirants. I will campaign for the party and seek the support of my Balija community. In fact, I've asked my son not to apply for the ticket," Seetharam told reporters.

The party, according to sources, wants to tread cautiously because some seniors want to vacate their own seats to launch their children. For instance, Siddaramaiah himself plans to move to Chamundeshwari so that his son can contest from Varuna. Public Works Ministers

H C Mahadevappa is considering moving to C V Raman Nagar in Bengaluru so that his son Sunil Bose can get the ticket from T Narasipura. Curiously, Urban Development Minister R Roshan Baig has applied to recontest his Shivajinagar seat, for which his son Ruman has also applied, sources said.

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy is said to be keen on getting his daughter Sowmya Reddy the ticket for the Jayanagar constituency, where former Union Minister K Rahman Khan wants his son Mansoor Ali Khan to contest. Given the hectic lobbying, it is learnt that party leaders have been briefed that issuance of ticket to their children should be left to the high command.The work on the proposed eight helipads in the city is set to start soon with the BBMP preparing a detailed project report (DPR).



The Palike plans to build each helipad on one acre of land with well-equipped facilities to help the seamless shifting of patients to the nearest hospital and also to ferry VVIPs, who get stuck in traffic.

To avoid the financial burden, it also plans to take up the project under the private-public-partnership (PPP) model.

Speaking to DH, BBMP mayor R Sampath Raj said he has discussed the matter with the officials of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in Delhi.

"I met the DGCA officials recently to discuss the project. The officials have clarified that no clearance was required to build helipads on the ground level," he said.

"More often, when traffic is blocked for the VIP movements it causes problems to the public. To avoid this, we plan to airlift people like the president, prime minister, any foreign dignitaries, governor or any other key persons visiting the city," he added.

The mayor said the land for the helipads has been identified in all the eight zones and added that tenders to start the work will also be called soon.

The BBMP plans to name the helipads after popular mayors of the city.

On March 8, the city got the country's first heli-taxi service, which flies between Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) and Electronics City. The six-seater Bell 407 helicopter is operated by the Kochi-based Thumby Aviation.The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Navayuga Devanahalli Toll Plaza Ltd (NDTPL) will begin collecting toll for vehicles plying to the Kempegowda International Airport in the next couple of days.



So far, vehicle users were paying a toll only while returning from the airport.

NHAI project director R K Suryawansi told DH that new toll booths would be set up at the entry point. "These booths will become operational in the next two days," he said.

"Since the alternative road is open there will not be much traffic at the toll booths," Suryawansi added.

The NDTPL officials said that they are losing money after the state government opened the toll-free road.

During the initial days, NDTPL had put up booths on both sides. But after hundreds of passengers missed their flights due to traffic jams near the toll plaza, toll fee towards the airport was dropped.

Amarnath Reddy, NDTPL manager, told DH that they are losing at least Rs 20 lakh per day after the alternative road was opened.

Some vehicle users enter the toll road and exit from the alternative road to avoid paying a fee, he pointed out while explaining why they had decided to collect toll at the entry point too.

Reddy said that they are planning to block the road towards Begur from Sadahalli Gate on NH-7 as vehicles can come till the last signal on the toll road and take a right turn to touch the alternative road to reach the airport and the city.

G R Shanmugappa, general secretary, south zone, All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), threatened to block the highway if NDTPL collects toll both ways.

K Radhakrishna Holla of the Bangalore Tourist Taxi Owners Association said there the alternative road is not in a good condition and that the state government opened it in a hurry ahead of elections.

"The alternative road is dangerous and could lead to accidents. Paying Rs 85 to Rs 125 for a 12 km highway beyond BBMP limits is not worth it. There has been a continuous allocation in the budget from 2013-14 to develop roads at Baglur, Thanisandra, Budigere and Hosakote but the quality of the road is very bad," said Holla

Additional chief secretary (PWD) M Lakshminarayana said, "Now people have an option to go on a toll road or no-toll road and they can make a choice. It is left to the people to choose."

When asked about the low-quality of work on the alternative road to the airport, Lakshminarayana said there are various standards and every road cannot be compared to a National Highway.

However, BIAL spokesperson said the alternative road is not yet officially opened but the road was thrown open for traffic after cab drivers held a protest soon after the chief minister inaugurated it.Pavlo Bukin: Ukraine Mastered Production of Large Caliber Artillery Ammunition

(Source: Ukroboronprom; issued March 14, 2018)

Ukraines Artem has manufactured 152mm artillery ammunition, which was successfully tested at the Chernihiv range. This allow Ukraine to deploy its 152mm Hiatsynt towed guns, whose munitions were previously bought from Russia. (UBP photo)

UKROBORONPROM SJSHC "Artem" successfully tested 152 mm artillery ammunition of own production. Thus, Ukraine received own production of large caliber artillery ammunition.



This was stated by Pavlo Bukin, Director General of the State Concern "UkrOboronProm"(UOP), commenting on the results of the tests.



According to him, a new HE projectile is designed to destroy personnel, artillery and firepower of the enemy, as well as fortification structures and objects. It is designed for one of the most far-ranging artillery systems -"Hiatsynt".



Pavlo Bukin emphasized that other UOP enterprises  besides SJSHC "Artem" - are also engaged in ammunition manufacturing, responsible for initiating agents, explosives and blasting powder.



"The cooperation of UOP enterprises allowed us to master artillery ammunition production in the shortest time possible, to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is an important step, increasing the combat capability of the Ukrainian Army," said Pavlo Bukin.



He informed that artillery projectiles, manufactured at the SJSHC "Artem", are waiting for a series of tests under the control of the Ministry of Defense representatives. According to test results, serial production will be launched.



The tests were conducted at the military training ground in Chernihiv. The specified characteristics of the projectiles were confirmed during the tests. Ammunition production takes place within the framework of the target program, approved by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.



-ends-

Russias Baltic Fleet Trains with Bal Anti-Ship Missiles

(Source: Russian Ministry of Defence; issued March 14, 2018)

A Russian 3K60 Bal coastal defense missile launcher on exercise in Kaliningrad, Russias enclave on the Baltic Sea. (RUS MoD photo)

Bal and Bastion missile systems of the Baltic Fleet holds coastal training in Kaliningrad region.



The missile units are involved in tactical, technical and special trainings aimed at improving skills required for detecting surface naval targets, transmitting target data and delivering missile strikes in various situations.



The Bastion coastal missile systems secure defence of the 600-km shore. Receiving order en route, the systems can deploy on combat positions in five minutes. The complex can be located 200 km away from the shore line.



The Bal missile systems specific feature is high manoeuvrability, rapid reposition and short deployment time. The complex can engage targets 120 km away 24-hours a day and in any weather conditions. The launchers can be placed in ambushes 10 km away from the shore line.



-ends-

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Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site.MOSS POINT, Miss. -- Charges of one count of domestic violence against Moss Point Mayor Mario King and his wife Natasha were dismissed on Thursday.

Both parties appeared in the Jackson County Justice Court on Thursday afternoon facing a charges of one count of domestic violence each based on a physical altercation that occurred on October 19, 2017.

Both King and his wife declined to answer questions in court, invoking their 5th Amendment right to self-incrimination.

After limited testimony, Judge Danny Guice III dismissed the case.

King released the following statement after the case between he and his wife were dismissed:

"Natasha and I are thankful that this ordeal is over and we can get back to serving the City of Moss Point. We are thankful for the representation of the sheriff's department, Captain Tracy, the prosecutor, judge, and our attorneys. My wife and I are happy that we can move forward, working together to continue the rejuvenation of our city."

According to the Oct. 20, 2017 police report filed by Natasha, an argument ensued between her and Mario after he arrived home around 1:15 a.m. and text messages were continually coming to his phone.

She said Mario punched her in the right upper arm and said, "I can't (expletive) stand you," according to the police report.

Natasha then hugged Mario to calm the situation, but he instead packed a bag of clothes, went down the hall to his assistant's room (Setonia Cook), woke her up and told her they needed to go somewhere.

King was interviewed by deputies where he told them his wife tried to knock his cellphone out of his hand after he received a notification alert at 1:40 a.m.

He said Natasha scratched him, and investigators took photos of marks on both upper arms and a mark above his right hip bone and the right side of his head.

King at the time denied comment to the Mississippi Press, however, told WXXV-TV that he did not "beat his wife."

The case was handled and investigated by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- With St. Patrick's Day falling on a Saturday this year, downtown Ocean Springs business owners are expecting a large crowd and booming business as the city hosts it's annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration.

Festivities begin at 10 a.m. Saturday with downtown shops and restaurants offering "green" specials and discounts.

But the centerpiece of the celebration is the now-annual pub crawl. Police will close down the western end of Government Street from Washington Avenue to Russell Avenue at 6 p.m. Aldermen previously approved the closing of the street until midnight, with police having the discretion of opening the street sooner if the crowd dissipates.

"St. Paddy's day is a celebration us southerners and Gulf Coast residents are getting more and more excited about," said Mayor Shea Dobson, "so here in Ocean Springs we're doing what we can to spread the fun, have a good time and allow our business owners to have good business while residents and visitors are enjoying themselves."

A few years ago, a particularly rowdy St. Patrick's celebration drew the ire of some business owners, as well as downtown church leaders, prompting both city officials and the chamber of commerce to distance themselves from the nighttime event, going to almost comical lengths to avoid use of the term "pub crawl."

Dobson believes the city has moved past its "pub crawl phobia."

"I think we have," he said. "With the bollards, for example, that helps the police be more effective since they won't have to keep going back and babysitting the barricades. I've spoken with the police and I'm certain they are more than equipped to handle any issues that may arise.

"That's also why we wanted to act quickly to vote to close the street down so the business owners and police could prepare and understand exactly what their roles are, what's expected of them, to make sure it's a safe, fun time."

All of which has business owners like Chris Collier anticipating a good event Saturday night.

"It's really one of the only spring events downtown, so it's important for the downtown restaurants and bars," said Collier, owner of The Office lounge at the corner of Government Street and Washington Avenue.

"We count on it. I'm glad the city and the chamber are behind it again. I think it'll be good. Hopefully the weather will be good and we'll have a good turnout."

As of Thursday afternoon, The National Weather Service forecast was calling for a 20 percent chance of rain Saturday night, with a low around 65.

Collier said having St. Patrick's Day on a Saturday generally results in 50 percent more business than a typical Saturday.

"I think everybody's looking forward to it," he said. "It should be a good time for everyone involved."OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- One by one, 45 seconds apart, the names were read.

The names of each of the 17 victims of the mass murder at a Parkland (Fla.) high school last month were read as Ocean Springs High School students stood silently, many with heads bowed, during a rally held in conjunction with the national school walkout Wednesday morning.

Rather than stage a walkout, student leaders organized the rally, held in the school courtyard, to honor the Parkland victims and alert government leaders to the need to address gun violence.

"Where does it end? Where do we draw the line?" senior Wyatt Miller, one of the event organizers, said to his fellow students. "That was 17 cold-blooded murders."

Banners reading "Enough is Enough" and "Never Again" were hung from the second floor breezeway above the courtyard. Some students held signs with similar sentiments.

"I think students across the nation are fed up with gun violence," Miller said after the rally. "Every year you hear about several mass shootings and many of them directly affect high school students. We don't want to live in fear like that. We don't want to have to go to school afraid we're going to be shot."

Senior Caroline Wiygul and Miller said they hoped Wednesday's rallies and walkouts across the nation would send a message to government officials.

"We wanted to honor the victims of the Parkland shooting and to honor victims of past shootings, but mostly we wanted to send a message to our legislators and our government officials that we are paying attention and want things to change," Wiygul said.

Wiygul also noted she and her classmates are all future voters.

"I'm going to be voting in the November elections," she said. "Most of the seniors will be voting in the November elections and, if politicians don't address gun violence, eventually they're not going to get re-elected. We want them to know that."

Both Miller and Wiygul are members of the Ocean Springs Mayor's Youth Council. They were both asked about their reaction when they first heard the news of the murders at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

"From that moment and for two weeks afterward, I thought about it constantly," Wiygul said. "I was thinking about children who had to watch their best friends' faces blown off. Watch their best friends murdered. Watch family members murdered."

Wiygul also expressed great admiration for the Parkland survivors who have spoken out against gun violence.

"I could not imagine looking at my best friends and having to go through that trauma -- and then (the survivors) having the courage to be able to stand up and lobby for gun control, to talk to senators, to talk to legislators, even after going through that trauma."

Miller noted that Feb. 14 -- the day of the shootings -- was his birthday.

"When I opened my phone (and read the news), it was devastating," he said. "Fourteen high school students dead -- students just like me, like my classmates. And it wasn't that far away from here. It was personal.

"Obviously, that's 17 deaths too many. Whenever I heard about it, I knew something had to change."

Numerous administrators and faculty members stood nearby during the rally, many bowing their heads in silence along with the students as the victims' names were read.

"What we just witnessed is a very powerful experience," said Ocean Springs superintendent Bonita Coleman. "It's tough to stand here and listen to those names called, because as an administrator who always think 'What if it was us in that situation?' We pray every day that never happens.

"But I'm so proud of these students" Coleman continued, "how they organized a very meaningful experience for their classmates. Then all of the students who came out and experienced it with them -- the heads that were bowed, the prayers for families.

"It's powerful beyond words. I'm proud of them. I really am."



A new recreational spot has opened in Kuala Lumpur called 99 Wonderland Park. This new park is located in the Selayang area of KL and surrounds a beautiful lake. The new tourism attraction was officially opened on 14th March 2018 by the Malaysian prime minister.





Currently, as 99 Wonderland Park is a new tourism attraction in the Klang Valley, it will be seeing a huge turn out from locals and also foreigners, especially during the weekends. The park also adopts an open concept which allows visitors to interact with nature and landscape.





The RM18 million park took about two years to be constructed and is located in the border of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.



Update 20th March 2018 - 99 Wonderland Park will only open to tourist and non-Malaysians on the 14th April 2018. This information was obtained by the management of the park.





99 Wonderland Park





Various photos of 99 Wonderland Park





99 Wonderland Park in Selayang has a total area of 8.9 hectares, surrounding the Sri Murni Lake (Tasik Sri Murni) and also the Lakepark Residence.



A total of 23 acres of the recreational park offers attractions, while another 20 acres of the lake is used for the lake attractions.





Open only in the evenings, visitors can start exploring this park from 6.00 pm till 9.30 pm (10.00 pm on weekends), to enjoy the many unique and fun attractions.



You can find natural animal attractions mixed with man-made attractions all over this new recreational park in KL.





There are two main entrances to 99 Wonderland Park, the main entrance which is south of the park and the other which is from the Lakepark Residences. Most visitors will be entering from the main entrance on the south side.





Sections of the park in the day and night





What Can You See At 99 Wonderland Park





This new park offers quite a bit to see and do which is suitable for adults, families and kids. There is a bird island, where are several unique birds that have been brought in from around the world are on display.





With so many different types of birds, you can expect to see peacocks, parrots, flamingos, ducks, swans and pheasants.



Flamingos are highly popular and you can expect many photographers coming here to take photos of these beautiful birds.





A special duck lagoon is an open area where ducks roam freely in this part of the park. An ostrich farm is also where they keep live ostriches for visitors to see. I am unsure if there are any ostrich rides at the moment.





There is also a deer yard, where you can find Samba Deer. An exotic animal enclave also lets visitors see some of the more unique and smaller animals like the South American Mara and Marmoset (Miniature monkeys), and also Meerkats from South Africa. For now, this is not a petting zoo.





Some of the birds and exotic animals are seen at the park





One of the popular places at the park is no other than the Magical Bridge which spans 158 meters across the lake here.



The attraction of this is the Love Locks area where lovers lock a padlock on a chain or gate and then throw away the key, symbolically locking their love forever.





Once the sun goes down, you will see LED lights illuminate trees and sections of the park, providing a fantasy and fairyland feel here.



The best way to enjoy the park is to walk around it and you will come across the many attractions here. Most of them are photo spots, namely to be used for your social media and so on.





Please note that this is a walking park, therefore you will be doing a lot of walking to see this park, and the best way is to take your time to walk around.



For those who have walking issues, please reconsider. Unless you contact the park about a wheelchair service.





Bird Island is seen from above





Kinds of unique birds that can be seen at Bird Square of the park





Attractions at 99 Wonderland Park





The attractions are broken up into different areas around the park and you can find both natural animal attractions and also man-made attractions at 99 Wonderland Park. Remember, you are required to walk around the park to see them. The attractions are;





Animal Attractions

Bird Square

Deer Yard

Duck Lagoon

Exotic Animals

Hatchery and Incubator Room (Bird Island)

Ostrich Farm

Rabbit House

Man-made Attractions

Sky Fountain (Lake area)

Magical Bridge (158 meters and Love Locks)

T-Rex Ring (Mechanical Dinosaurs)

Golden Waterfall (Best at night)

12 Zodiac Zone (200-meter zodiac walkway)

99 Cruise (Cruise around the lake)

Signs showing where everything is located





Facilities at 99 Wonderland Park





While this park opened in March 2018, there are many other attractions and facilities to be opened soon. For food, there are plans to open a Thai and Seafood Restaurant in the main park area.





Drinks and snacks are available at the park from the various kiosk located around the lake. For the Muslims, there is a surau or prayer room available. Several toilets are placed around the park too.





Night view of 99 Wonderland Park





For the patriotic lovers, there is a special I Love BN and Kuala Lumpur structure, and also a 1Malaysia Structure erected at the park. You can get some photos of this at the south entrance of the park.





A souvenir shop and cafeteria will soon be opened and you can then buy souvenirs for friends or loved ones from here.





Soon To Open Activities

Animal Learning Sanctuary

Transformer Open Space

Glass House

Directions to 99 Wonderland Park





Where is 99 Wonderland Park





This recreational park is located in Kuala Lumpur and in the area of Selayang. The nearest popular landmark will be Batu Caves.



From the centre of Kuala Lumpur, it will take you about 20-40 minutes drive one way, depending on traffic.





I recommend you leave before rush hour which starts at about 5.15 pm, hence it is best to leave Kuala Lumpur city just before 5.00 pm. You should take about 22-30 minutes to reach the park if the traffic is smooth.





If you leave at 6.00 pm, be prepared to get caught in the infamous KL traffic jam heading out of the city area. This can easily take you from 40-60 minutes of traffic time.





Google Maps shows it takes 32 minutes during early rush hour from Kuala Lumpur





How to go to 99 Wonderland Park





For tourists, you can easily take a taxi or private car services like Grab or Uber to get to 99 Wonderland Park in Selayang. When you are done, just take the same transport back to Kuala Lumpur.





For those self-driving, you simply need to head on the Jalan Kuching main road towards Selayang and Rawang, passing the Batu Caves.





Once you reach the junction of the old Selayang Wholesale Market (Pasar Borong Selayang), keep left, the park is located by the Lakepark Residence. You can also use Waze or Google Maps to guide you to the park.





For those driving, you can use these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 3.236570 Longitude: 101.664519 and there is ample parking available around the park. Make sure you park in the designated parking area of 99 Wonderland Park.





99 Wonderland Park Layout Map





99 Wonderland Recreational Park Information

Address: Jalan 9/3A, Pusat Bandar Utara, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor

Telephone: +6 03 6138 1899

Website: http://99wonderlandpark.com.my/

Email: enquiry@99wonderlandpark.com.my





Opening Hours:

Mon to Thurs: 6.00 pm to 9.30 pm

Weekends and Public Holidays: 6.00 pm to 10.00 pm

Entrance Fee: Free of charge until 13th April 2018 for all Malaysians with MyKad.

Non-Malaysians: No information yet





*Disclaimer: Photos shown here are from 99 Wonderland Park Facebook and Website.





99 Wonderland Park logo





Who Owns 99 Wonderland Park?





99 Wonderland Park is a unique recreational landmark in Kuala Lumpur owned by JL99 Group, a remarkable Malaysia property developer who believes in giving back to the society.





As this is a totally new tourist attraction in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it is guaranteed that the park will be seeing a lot of visitors over the weekends. If you dislike crowds, it is best to go on a weekday evening.





Conclusion





Due to the proximity of 99 Wonderland Park being close to Batu Caves, tourist can now opt to visit Batu Caves in the late afternoon, and then head to the park by about 6.00 pm.





This way, you can see two attractions of Kuala Lumpur in one go which is well worth it if you plan to visit this part of KL city.Group also promotes steps to deepen capital markets and clear up bad loans

The Vienna Initiative, which helped protect the banking system in emerging Europe during the global financial crisis, has now set its sights on a growth model for the region that drives innovation and boosts productivity.

Its new approach aims to give a fresh impetus to growth in the region and to promote convergence with higher-income EU countries.

At a Full Forum meeting of the Vienna Initiative in London, participants also gave their backing for plans to bolster capital markets in the region, another key condition for delivering more sustainable, robust growth.

They also identified ways to speed up the resolution of bad loans and discussed how regulatory changes were affecting cross-border banking and how any adverse effects could be mitigated.

The Vienna Initiative was launched during the 2008-09 crisis to shore up the financial sector in emerging Europe and to maintain a flow of credit to the economies of the region.

A public-private platform, it brings together international financial institutions (IFIs), European institutions, regulatory authorities from host and home countries alike, as well as major banking groups active in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE).

As the region recovered, its work shifted with the launch of the Vienna Initiative 2.0 in 2012 to address remaining challenges in the financial industry, including the resolution of non-performing loans (NPLs) and the development of capital markets.

The new Vienna Initiative focus on innovation intends to increase levels of such vital investment in CESEE, a region dominated by small firms which may require more access to finance and more market structure.

Capital formation and productivity growth have slowed and the quantity and quality of available capital stock are lagging behind those of more prosperous neighbours (see EIB Investment Report).

Vienna Initiative participants believe that a new, more balanced growth and financing model is needed with a stronger focus on innovation and increased productivity.

A new Vienna Initiative Working Group will investigate the role of various funding sources to support different forms of innovation, with a special emphasis on bank funding. The group will have particular focus on the adoption and adaptation of existing technologies that are new to a firm or local market.

It will also look to strengthen cooperation among IFIs, banks and alternative providers of finance, including the venture capital sector, to meet the investment needs of innovative firms, and to identify market gaps and policy priority areas. The group will present its proposals in April 2019.

Separately, the Vienna Initiative endorsed proposals for the further development of capital markets in CESEE, which are crucial for long-term growth. These proposals are set out in a new report, produced by the Working Group on Capital Markets Union, chaired by the European Commission, and due to be published shortly.

The report stresses that better developed capital markets are essential to finance investments from both domestic and foreign sources.

The comprehensive report makes a thorough analysis of capital markets throughout the CESEE region. It assesses the main challenges for capital market development in selected CESEE countries and offers policy recommendations aimed at realising the potential of local markets in the EU context.

As part of its objective to foster the efficient use of multilateral funding in the CESEE region, the Vienna Initiative has acknowledged the progress made by the working group on financial instruments. The working group summarises the experience of various stakeholders with the financial instruments provided by IFIs, and suggests possible improvements to the existing portfolio of products as well as potential new business areas where further demand for IFI products exists. Its final report will be presented to the Vienna Initiative Steering Committee by October 2018.

At the meeting in London, the Vienna Initiative also welcomed a continuing drop in NPLs in CESEE, which was partly underpinned by the tangible reforms supported by its NPL Initiative.

Looking ahead, the strong European regulatory agenda on NPLs is expected to have positive spill-over effects and to step up the pace of NPL resolution in CESEE countries.

In this context, the Vienna Initiative has endorsed the recently published European Banking Authority (EBA) NPL templates, aimed at improving and standardising information on NPLs available to potential investors, which is expected to help bring a somewhat wider range of international NPL investors to markets in the region.The banks and the market

Speech by Sabine Lautenschlager, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, Lecture at the Florence School of Banking and Finance, Florence, 15 March 2018

Almost ten years ago to the day, the world of finance was shaken by a strong tremor. On 16 March 2008, JP Morgan offered to buy the investment bank Bear Stearns. And it was time. Bear Stearns was in deep trouble: its share price had fallen by two-thirds since the beginning of that year; it was bleeding money; and it was basically shut out of the funding market. At the time, the failure of Bear Sterns was considered a major event. No one knew that the big quake was still to come.

It happened half a year later, on 15 September 2008, when another investment bank failed: Lehman Brothers. It pushed the financial system close to the abyss. Trust evaporated, markets dried up, and around the globe, banks were sent reeling.

All in all, it was the biggest financial crisis in decades. It dragged down the real economy, which fell into what we now call the Great Recession. In the euro area, economic output went down by almost 4.5% in 2009, while unemployment jumped by more than a quarter to 9.6%. Three years later, it reached 12%. In Italy, for instance, output fell by more than 5% in 2009, while unemployment peaked at almost 13% in 2014.

These figures are alarming, but they tell us little about the people who lost their jobs, their homes and their future. Taking all this suffering into account, the crisis turned into a tragedy.

As for its causes, I admit that the story Ive just told is far too simple. Of course, it was not the failure of a single investment bank that caused all this mayhem. The full story is much longer and much more complex.

However, no one can deny that banks played a crucial role. It became obvious that they can pose a huge risk to financial stability and the economy. But at the same its an inescapable truth that we need banks. Or, to be more precise, we need the services they provide.

Why we need banks

Who does an investor turn to when she needs money to start or expand a business, when she needs to hedge risks or wants to acquire another company? Who does a saver turn to when he wants to deposit money? Who does a family turn to when it needs a loan to buy a home? Here in Europe, all of them would most likely turn to a bank. Banks provide a vital service to the economy. Without them, the economy would not work.

All this leads us to a crucial question: how can we ensure that banks reliably serve the economy? Long taken for granted, this has become the holy grail of banking regulation and supervision.

And it has become the ultimate goal of all the relevant reforms that have been undertaken since the crisis. And much has been done. We have revamped the global standards for capital and liquidity  Basel III. Rules for banks are now much stronger than they were before. And the same is true for supervision. Just think of European banking supervision, which was set up in 2014. All this will help to make banks more resilient, so that they can reliably serve the economy.

But there is one thing which neither rules nor supervisors can do. They cannot prevent each and every bank from failing. And in my view, we should not even try to. The possibility of failure is inherent to any kind of business, and it is a core element of well-functioning market economies.

No, it is not the job of supervisors to keep individual banks alive. We, in particular, must not lower our standards to cater for the weakest bank. It would also be wrong to assume that each bank, even the weakest, just needs time to sort itself out. It would be wrong to assume that the local economy just needs to grow for a few more years for the bank to recover. The result would be weak banks that stagger on, zombie-like, barely able to survive in good times. In short: such supervisory forbearance distorts the market and weakens the entire banking system. Supervisors would become part of the problem.

Obviously, we shouldnt overdo it either. If justified, banks should always have reasonable time to comply with new rules and standards. Think, for instance, of the transitional phases for the Basel framework. But the standards themselves should not be weakened.

All this leads us to an interesting conclusion. Obviously, it was a problem that banks failed during the crisis. But taking a long-term view, I would argue that it was also a problem that many weak and under-capitalised banks that did not have a viable business model did not fail. They did not fail prior to the crisis  even though they probably should have  and they could not fail during the crisis either.

But not letting banks fail creates some huge problems further down the road. Lets discuss why banks should be able to fail, but often were not able to do so.

Why banks must be able to fail (but often were not allowed to)

Why was it that in the past banks were often not allowed to fail? The answer is simple: the failure of a bank can trigger a financial earthquake.

Banks engage in maturity transformation: they accept short-term deposits and make longer-term loans. Banks depend on public trust. If that trust disappears, they may suffer a bank run. And that can affect the stability of the whole system. This happens because banks are highly interconnected  either directly or indirectly. The failure of one bank may trigger the failure of other banks.

Such contagion can occur by banks being exposed to each other. When a bank defaults on its debt, creditor banks suffer direct financial losses. But contagion can also be more subtle. The failure of a bank may cause investors and depositors to wonder about the health of other banks. Trust then evaporates and funding sources dry up. Even sound banks might find themselves in the midst of a liquidity crisis. This is what happened in the financial crisis.

Either way, a banks failure can infect the entire banking system. And in this respect some banks are considered to be riskier than others. I am talking about banks that are big, complex, interconnected, and which cannot easily be replaced. Their failure can disrupt financial stability big time. Such banks are systemically important. If they fail, the financial system can grind to a halt. And not only that: the flow of credit stops, investment and consumption stall, and jobs are destroyed. The social costs can be huge.

To prevent all this from happening, governments have repeatedly bailed out systemically important banks with public money. Even medium-sized banks were bailed out for fear of contagion. But the short-term gain of preserving financial stability comes at a great cost in the long term.

The belief that banks would be bailed out whatever the cost created bad incentives. Banks got used to an implicit and costless government guarantee, which kicked in when things went wrong. Sound and prudent management was often considered less important. Banks could boost their profitability by investing in riskier assets. That way, they could reap higher returns, knowing that the risks would be borne by others, by taxpayers.

And neither shareholders nor investors provided the necessary checks and balances. They lacked incentives to monitor banks risks. They often expected outsized returns, knowing that the banks would need to take equally outsized risks to earn these returns. But they didnt care too much; investors too lived in a world where profits were gained by the few but losses were imposed on the many.

Funding costs of systemic banks were too low, which allowed them to grow even larger, making them too big to fail. At the end of the day, banks and their investors had little incentive to act in a sustainable and forward-looking manner.

So banks must be able to fail for all the reasons I just mentioned.

Making banks fail again

Whens the right time?

Against this backdrop, the aim of all the regulatory reforms was not just to make banks more resilient. They also aimed to make banks fail again. But dont get me wrong here. Failure is the least desirable option, of course. Above all, we need healthy and well-functioning banks.

But still, sometimes banks do fail. And to ensure that they can do so in an orderly manner, a European resolution mechanism has been devised. It defines the tools and the institutional set-up. It forms the second pillar of the banking union alongside European banking supervision.

But again, resolving a bank is just the very last resort. Thus, the new framework becomes applicable long before a bank fails. It requires banks, for instance, to draw up recovery plans. In these plans, the banks set out how they would overcome severe crises using their own resources.

Now, recovery plans are drawn up when the going is good. When times are tough, the new framework offers some more tools, including early intervention measures. Supervisors can use them if they see that a bank is about to get into trouble. The idea is to be intrusive and to make the bank officially aware of the supervisors serious concerns. This helps to get the bank back on track.

Early intervention measures can be an important tool to prevent bank failures. In practice, however, it is challenging to use them, for two reasons.

First, because they overlap with some of our standard tools. To give you just one example, asking a bank for a capital plan can be either a standard supervisory tool or an early intervention measure. This overlap is a challenge as it often prevents us from applying early intervention tools. We are bound to use the least intrusive tool, which is always the standard one. We always have to take into account the costs and benefits of our measures.

Assume that the supervisor, as an early intervention measure, asks the bank to draw up a capital plan. The bank might then be required to disclose this request to the markets as it shows that the supervisor is seriously concerned. This might erode trust in the bank and, in the worst case, trigger a bank run. This would bring about the very crisis that the supervisor wanted to prevent in the first place. If an early intervention measure does more harm to the bank than it does good, supervisors might be obliged not to apply the measures.

Instead, they could ask for the same thing, but frame it as a standard tool. In that case, the bank would still have to draw up the capital plan, but would probably not need to disclose the request to the markets. Hence, the standard supervisory tools can be considered as less intrusive than the early intervention tools.

So the overlap between the two tools should be removed. There should be a clearly defined set of standard tools and early intervention measures and a clearly defined escalation process leading from one to the other.

The second reason why it is challenging to use early intervention measures is because those measures are defined in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, or BRRD. And as the BRRD is an EU directive, it has to be transposed into national law. The ECB must thus exercise its powers based on the national transpositions; and these vary from country to country. This creates uncertainty and inconsistency. What we thus need is a harmonised legal basis from which we can apply early intervention measures.

Now, lets go one step further. Imagine our bank gets into more serious trouble. In this scenario, there is one tool that helps to create a bit of breathing space for the bank and the authorities to sort things out  a moratorium. A moratorium allows the authorities to suspend all the activities of a bank for a short period of time. In a sense, it freezes time.

A moratorium helps to manage a crisis in an orderly manner. It gives the bank and its shareholders time to find a solution. This is particularly useful during a sudden liquidity crisis. However, there is a practical problem. Moratoriums are not part of the European toolbox. In some countries they do exist; in others, they dont. And in any case, they are not harmonised. We need harmonised, short-term moratoriums in all euro area countries.

If, for instance, a cross-border bank gets into trouble, the supervisor in that banks home country can impose a moratorium. But what if the bank has a subsidiary in a country where only a court could impose a moratorium? What if the bank has a subsidiary in a country where a moratorium cannot be imposed at all? This is a serious stumbling block for crisis management at European level. This obstacle has to be removed.

Lets return to our bank and assume that nothing helps and that the situation goes from bad to worse. At some point, the bank will have to be declared failing or likely to fail, to use a bit of jargon. This is mostly done by the supervisors, and it is the most intrusive thing we can do. Declaring a bank failing or likely to fail has far-reaching consequences. It is a difficult decision which requires a delicate balancing act.

As long as there is a reasonable chance of the bank recovering, a failing or likely to fail decision would put an undue financial burden on the shareholders. But if the decision is put off for too long, the costs of an imminent failure start to mount up. This would hurt creditors and depositors. In extreme cases, it might even become a threat to financial stability. So, the failing or likely to fail decision must neither be taken too early, nor too late. And in any case, it must be taken with great care.

There are four general cases which call for a failing or likely to fail decision. Some of these cases are quite clear-cut and can be objectively assessed. Others are a bit less clear-cut  particularly when they refer to things that are likely to or might happen in the near future. Thus, there is some room for discretion when determining whether a bank is failing or likely to fail. After all, each bank fails in its own way, so each case is different, and each decision needs to account for these differences. We need to take all facts into account and assess them case by case, and not against a single yardstick. In short, we must be proportionate.

Imagine a bank breaches capital requirements. Then we have to ask how severe that breach is and whether it might just be temporary. If its just a marginal breach which could be healed within a reasonable period of time, it might not be proportionate to declare the bank failing or likely to fail.

We also need to take into account that a bank depends on the markets. So how do they react? A bank in trouble might quickly lose the trust of the markets. This could lead to a bank run, which requires supervisors to act differently.

So, to sum up: failing or likely to fail decisions are not taken automatically but are based on expert judgement. At the same time, they have to be taken case by case and in a proportionate manner. All in all, they are the most difficult decisions a supervisor has to take. And I can assure you that we do not take them lightly.

How to resolve a bank

Imagine that we have declared a bank failing or likely to fail. What happens next? Well, at that point the resolution authority takes over. In Europe, this is the Single Resolution Board, or SRB for short.

The SRB then has to answer two basic questions. First: are there any measures, private or otherwise, that could restore the viability of the bank? If the answer to this question is no, the second question is: should the bank be resolved or liquidated?

And the answer to this question depends on a number of things. The objective should always be to ensure that the financial system is not disrupted. If the bank performs critical functions, these need to be continued one way or another. In addition, measures need to be taken to prevent the bank from infecting other banks or the markets in general. And finally, public funds and the banks insured depositors, for instance, need to be protected. So, it is crucial to conduct what we call a public interest test.

If all these goals can be met by liquidating the bank, then thats what will happen under national insolvency law. And this is something of a weak spot, because these laws still differ significantly across the euro area. A minimum level of harmonisation is thus called for. In particular, the triggers for failing or likely to fail decisions and for liquidations need to be aligned. If they are not, banks that are deemed failing or likely to fail according to European rules might not be deemed as such under national insolvency laws. This is obviously a huge stumbling block to the harmonised treatment of bank failures.

If liquidating the bank has the potential to disrupt the financial system and therefore the public interest test is positive, the bank will be resolved at the European level instead. The SRB has various tools at its disposal for this and they are laid out in the relevant legislation. All these tools ensure that a bank can fail in an orderly manner without disrupting the financial system. And this is the overarching goal.

Who foots the bill?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have talked about the decision to declare that a bank is failing or likely to fail. And I have talked about what happens after such a decision is taken. The next thing I will talk about is money. Bank failures are costly. So who foots the bill?

Not the taxpayers is the first and most important answer I can give you. After all, the main objective of the new framework is to spare taxpayers. Instead, it should be the owners and creditors who bear the losses. I have already explained the reasoning behind this. But how does it work in practice?

The first thing to mention is that banks now have to hold more equity than they did before the crisis. This means that each bank has a larger buffer to absorb losses. And these losses are borne by those who provided the equity, the shareholders. So, higher equity means that the owners of a bank bear a larger share of any losses incurred. At the same time, failure becomes less likely.

And if the bank does fail and needs to be resolved, there is the bail-in. The bail-in is one of the SRBs resolution tools, and it ensures that the burden of failure is indeed borne by the owners and creditors of a bank. The bail-in establishes what you might call a hierarchy of loss-bearers. First in line are shareholders, followed by holders of subordinated debt, followed by other creditors.

The question is, of course: how much can be bailed in? And the answer is: everything! Well, in theory. In practice, there is a safeguard: the Single Resolution Fund, or SRF. The SRF is financed by banks from all 19 euro area countries. It was set up in 2016, and by 2023, it should amount to about 55 billion.

In a resolution, the SRF can contribute up to 5% of the banks balance sheet. But it can only do so after shareholders and creditors have borne losses amounting to at least 8% of the banks total balance sheet. So, shareholders and creditors have to bear a large part of the losses first, and then the banking industry as a whole can step in through the SRF.

The basic idea of bail-in is quite clear. But, as is so often the case, the devil is in the detail. However, I will spare you that particular discussion and turn to three more general questions related to bail-ins.

A bail-in ensures that losses are borne by the owners and creditors of a bank, by those who took the risk and earned the return. So the first question is: what if they were not aware  or were not made aware  of the risks they were taking? For it is sometimes the case that retail investors are among those who are bailed in. These are not professional investors but ordinary people who were trying to build up funds for retirement, for instance. For such people, a bail-in is not just a financial loss; it is a personal tragedy.

We must avoid such tragedies. But we must do so in a way which is in line with the basic idea of bail-in. And this is as much a question of consumer protection as of financial education. In terms of consumer protection, we need disclosure requirements which are clear and easy to understand so that all investors are aware of the risks they are taking. In terms of financial education, we must ensure that all investors have a basic understanding of finance, and in particular of the relationship between risk and return.In both areas, I see a lot of room for improvement in Europe.

And theres more we can do. We could set a minimum threshold of 100,000 for investing in subordinated debt instruments. This too would help to steer retail investors away from risky financial endeavours. Here, we would need a European approach, of course. If each country were to go its own way, the market for the relevant financial instruments would become too fragmented.

The ECB welcomes current proposals which foresee the introduction of non-preferred senior debt instruments and a general depositor preference rule. This would further facilitate bail-ins.

The second question is: what happens if the Single Resolution Fund runs out of money? What if theres a major crisis, and the 55 billion is not enough to cover the losses? Well, in such a situation we would need a common European backstop for the SRF. And we need it quickly, and in any case before 2023, which is when the SRF will reach its target volume. European leaders committed to this when setting up the SRF, and they should stick to their commitment. The backstop could take the form of a direct credit line from the European Stability Mechanism to the SRF. The important thing is that it can provide both solvency and liquidity support.

And now to the third and final question: has public support for failing banks really become a thing of the past? Almost is the answer to this question. And the rules are now such that any public support for a bank in fact triggers a failing or likely to fail decision.

There are a few exceptions, however. One of these is known as precautionary recapitalisation. It allows governments to recapitalise banks using public funds. But the scope for this kind of state aid is very narrow.

First, it is only available to solvent banks.

Second, it can only be used to cover capital shortfalls which were identified in the adverse scenario of a stress test.

And third, it can only be of a precautionary and temporary nature. In other words, it must not be used to cover losses which the bank has already incurred or is likely to incur.

I will highlight just one issue here which relates to the role of the ECB. With regard to the first condition, it is up to the ECB to confirm whether the bank in question is solvent. It has some discretion here, as the European legal framework does not offer a specific definition of solvency. So it is crucial that we have a consistent definition of solvency  a definition that not just covers a point in time but takes a forward-looking perspective. Even if a bank is solvent today, it might not be so in the near future.

In the end, it is the European Commission that grants or denies permission for precautionary recapitalisation, as state aid rules apply. Among other things, this entails burden-sharing. Shareholders, as well as holders of hybrid and subordinated debt, must contribute to reducing the capital shortfall. This ensures that the burden of failure is still borne by those who took the risk and reaped the return.

Spotting problems and keeping them from mounting up

Given the limited time we have, I have given you a very brief overview of what resolving a bank entails. It is a gruesome and complex event, and one which is best avoided, but not at all costs.

To avoid failure, banks and supervisors must spot problems early on and address them quickly.

Since the crisis, stress tests have become an important tool for helping us to do this. Stress tests basically assess how banks would fare in various hypothetical scenarios involving different future paths for the economy and the financial markets.

Usually, there is a baseline scenario, where things develop as expected. And then there is an adverse scenario, where they dont: inter alia, GDP, unemployment and property prices are stressed two years ahead in this scenario. So you can see that the key idea of a stress test is to assess how banks would cope if the going gets tough; its all purely hypothetical, of course.

Stress tests allow us to make a consistent assessment. Each bank has to apply the same scenarios and calculate their impact in the same way. This means that the results can be compared across banks.

And stress tests provide a glimpse of the banks risk management in action. How quickly can it process the scenarios and assess their impact on [the state of] the bank? This is important information about the quality of governance. But the main focus of stress tests is on capital. Do the banks have enough capital to absorb any losses in either scenario? And the crucial question that follows is, of course: what if they dont?

Well, lets take a brief look at the upcoming stress test. This year, the European Banking Authority, EBA for short, will conduct a stress test involving the largest banks in the EU. This test includes 37 banks from the euro area which are directly supervised by the ECB. To obtain a fuller picture, we will, in parallel, stress-test most of the remaining large banks in the euro area, using the same scenarios and methods as the EBA.

In respect of capital shortfalls, the stress test is not a pass-or-fail exercise. The banks do not have to meet certain thresholds. Instead, we supervisors will decide on a case-by-case basis whether banks have a capital shortfall, taking into account their individual risk profiles and their individual capital needs.

At the end of the day, stress tests may deal with hypothetical scenarios, but their results can have very real consequences for the banks. They inform the work of supervisors, and they inform market expectations when the results are published, as they will be in the case of the EBAs stress test. They are also a moment of truth for the banks.

More generally, stress tests help supervisors and banks to spot and remove weak points in banks resilience early on.

If this is not done, problems can quickly mount up. A current example are bad loans, or to use a more technical term, non-performing loans, NPLs for short. Banks in the euro area carry a total of 760 billion in such loans on their balance sheets. And this is an issue.

Having large stocks of NPLs on their balance sheets prevents banks from doing their job. They have a hard time financing our economy. ECB internal research has shown that banks with high stocks of NPLs indeed lend less than others.

It is thus important that banks resolve their NPLs quickly and decisively. And this is not just for the sake of the economy and the greater good. Failing to deal with NPLs also hurts the banks themselves. High levels of NPLs require constant attention. And this takes time and energy. So getting rid of NPLs would enable managers and staff to use their time more productively. They could improve business models, shore up profits and make their bank more resilient.

So, failing to deal with NPLs hurts the economy and of course it hurts the banks. Thats why we consider NPLs a top priority. Getting rid of NPLs by restructuring, working out or selling them requires a joint effort by banks, politicians and supervisors. Banks have to put in place the right strategies and execute them. Politicians have to improve the judicial and legal systems to allow a swift resolution of NPLs.

And we supervisors? Well, last year we published guidance on how to deal with NPLs. On the basis of that guidance, we scrutinise the banks strategies and provide feedback. So we are keeping a close eye on how banks are addressing the problem.

And today, we have published an addendum to our guidance. This addendum will help to ensure that NPLs remain a problem of the past once they have been dealt with. To that end, it lays out how we expect banks to provision for new NPLs. More specifically, it refers to exposures that are newly classified as non-performing as of 1 April 2018. The addendum is not a binding document, but it specifies our expectations and will thus serve as a starting point for our dialogue with each bank.

Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen,

Rest assured that I have not exhausted the topic of my speech. But I may well have exhausted you. So I will conclude quickly and painlessly.

First, banks are important for the economy, particularly here in Europe. That said, it might be good to add a bit more capital market to the mix; but that is a topic for another day.

Second, banks must be able to fail. If they are not, the economy will suffer in the long run.

But if banks fail, they must do so in an orderly manner. If not, financial stability will suffer in the short run. The new European resolution framework helps to make orderly failure possible.

Third, failure is the least desirable outcome, of course. We need banks which are profitable and resilient in the first place. Stronger regulation and supervision can do their bit. In the end, however, it is up to the banks themselves to ensure they lead long and healthy lives.

And with these three messages this long speech comes to an end.

Thank you for your attention.

By Express , Mar. 14, 2018





Theresa May earlier issued Russian President Vladimir Putin 24 hours to respond to claims that Russia was highly likely behind the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia.





The ultimatum has sparked World War 3 fears as Whitehall sources revealed the Prime Minister could launch a cyber attack on Russia in the wake of recent events.

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It was during this period last year that the sky looked like it was falling on the Maryland wine industry.

House Bill 742, which was introduced by Delegate Warren Miller from Howard County on behalf of the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association (MSLBA), threatened the existence of as many as 25 wineries that have their wine made off-site. Maryland Wine Cellars, an off-shoot of Old Westminster Winery, might be the largest of those operations that make wine for other wineries, and the proposed law prompted Drew Baker, one of the principals, to argue against the change.

By the end of the session in Annapolis, that threat had dissipated. This year, the battleground has shifted more to beer and the rules guiding craft breweries in the state, and the ferocity of that debate was captured in this Baltimore Sun story (be aware of the paywall) published Feb. 23.

Here's another albeit critical look at what's unfolding with Maryland craft beer, per pastemagazine.com.

Both issues have drawn the interest of Grow & Fortify LLC, founded a few years ago by Kevin Atticks. It now represents the state's wineries, craft breweries and distilleries. But for whatever angst the debate over the health of the craft brewery industry in the state is causing, it appears that wine this year will remain out of the line of fire.

Contacted recently, Atticks said any legislation involving wine and wineries had been discussed in "very quick, simple hearings." He was hopeful, he said, that at least two of the three bills would pass the House fairly soon.

One would allow wineries an off-site tasting room.

Another would force Maryland wineries to use at least 51 percent of their fruit from sources within the state by July 1, 2022. For 40 years, he said, there has been no requirements, he said. It's an issue that affects wineries in states up and down the East Coast, with the increasing number of producers staying ahead of the quantity and capacity of growers.

Adopting that policy would meet the interest of legislators in building a need for local fruit. Atticks said currently that 80 percent of the states wineries already equal or exceed that threshold of 51 percent. Another 15 percent could reach it over the next four years, he said.

WineAmerica's economic impact study released earlier this year listed the state with 83 wineries.

The third bill, more industry-centric, was connected to wine distribution.Drainage Engineer Don Etler from Bolton & Menk of Spencer, met with the Palo Alto County Board of Supervisors during their regular meeting on Tuesday, March 13, to discuss the final two drainage districts that were severely damaged during the 2014 disaster.

Drainage Districts 84 and 175, are the final two drainage districts that are still in need of repairs from the heavy rains that pummeled the area in June 2014. It was considered a 100-year event. These two drainage districts as well as nine other drainage districts that were denied FEMA funding. Prior to 2014, drainage districts that were damaged within a federal disaster area were submitted separately. Unfortunately, a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) representative compiled all twelve districts into one application, with a cost of $1,230,000. This figured triggered a special review by FEMA. The first review resulted in a complete denial for funding.

With the support of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and the hiring of an attorney to argue the case in Washington, D.C., two appeals have been filed and denied. A filing for Reconsideration has been submitted and is under review by FEMA; however, no decision has bee made at this time.

Should the Reconsideration be approved, 75 % of the total cost will come from federal funding, 10 % will come from state funding, with the remaining 15 % being the responsibility of the landowners.

Drainage District 84, which is in Booth Township, received severe damage and 19 sites were identified as needing repairs. The damages include: Channel Excavation 300 linear feet, Riprapped Banks 1,420 tons, Tile Outlet Pipes 260 linear feet, Surface Water Pipes 538 linear feet plus other miscellaneous work.

The estimated total cost of the repairs is $171,00. If only the land currently located in DD84 is assessed (8,353 acres), then the estimated cost per acre is $20.00. However, there are a couple of drainage districts that are eligible for common outlet, increasing the total acres to 23,580, lowering the cost per acre to $7.00.

Unanimous approval was given (absent, Roger Faulstick), to set the Bid Letting and Hearing for DD 84 on Tuesday, April 27 at12:00 pm at the Election Center.

Drainage District 175, located in Great Oak and Silver Lake Townships, received the most extensive damage in the 2014 Disaster. Seventy-nine sites along the open ditch were identified as needing repairs. Damages included: Channel Excavation 5,520 feet, Riprapped Banks 8,300 tons, Tile Outlet Pipes 200 linear feet, Surface Water Pipes 456 linear feet plus other miscellaneous repairs.

The estimated total cost of the repairs is $652,000. Using only the acres within DD 175 (11,309 acres), cost would be $58 per acre. However, using common outlet acres (27,762 acres), the cost would be $23 per acre.

When was the last time DD 175 was looked at? Supervisor Craig Merrill questioned.

June or July 2014 was the last time it was looked at, Drainage Engineer Don Etler replied.

If no one has looked at it since 2014, I think someone should go out and look at it, Supervisor Linus Solberg stated.

What is the time frame for DD 175 if the construction company goes right away and we pay damages, can we have it done by Fall? Merrill asked.

It might take two months or more, Etler responded. There was no right-of-way purchased during the organization on DD 175, the best thing to do is to let the company begin right away and pay for any damages that occur.

With some little discussion, unanimous approval was given (absent, Roger Faulstick), to set the Bid Letting and Hearing for DD 175 on Tuesday, April 27 at 2:00 pm at the Election Center.

Reclassification is currently underway in both drainage districts.Very important guest blog post originally found on Techzone360.

Last September, a U.K. House of Commons committee concluded that it is too soon to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). Its recommendation comes too late: The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force next year, includes a right to obtain an explanation of decisions made by algorithms and a right to opt-out of some algorithmic decisions altogether. These regulations do little to help consumers, but they will slow down the development and use of AI in Europe by holding developers to a standard that is often unnecessary and infeasible.

Although the GDPR is designed to address the risk of companies making unfair decisions about individuals using algorithms, its rules will provide little benefit because other laws already protect their interests in this regard. For example, when it comes to a decision to fire a worker, laws already exist to require an explanation, even if AI is not used. In other cases where no explanation is required, such as refusing a loan, there is no compelling reason to require an explanation on the basis of whether the entity making the decision is a human or a machine. (Loan companies have to tell applicants what information their decisions are based on whether they use AI or not, but they do not have to explain the logic of their reasoning.)



AI detractors might suggest that an inability to explain some algorithms suggests that they should not be used. But the real problem here is not explaining algorithms, it is explaining correlation. This is hardly a new problem in science. Penicillin has been in mainstream use since the 1940s, but scientists are only now coming to understand why it has been so effective at curing infections. Nobody ever said we should leave infections untreated because we do not understand how antibiotics work. Today, AI systems can recommend drugs to treat diseases. Doctors may not understand why the software recommends a drug any better than why it might help; all that matters is they use their expertise to judge the safety of the treatment and monitor how it works.

So if transparency is not the answer, what is? Monitoring behavior is a far better way to maintain accountability and control for undesirable outcomesand again, this is true regardless of whether a decision is being made by a human or algorithm. For example, to combat bias, transparency can only ensure that an algorithm disregards ethnic markers like skin color, but that would not even come close to covering all the subtle characteristics that are used as bases for racism, and which differ tremendously throughout the world. A better approach is to look for evidence of bias over time and make adjustments as necessary.

In short, policymakers should create technology-neutral rules to avoid unnecessarily distorting the market by favoring human decisions over algorithmic ones. If a decision needs an explanation, this should be so regardless of whether technology is used to arrive at that decision. And if algorithms that cannot be easily explained consistently make better decisions in certain areas, then policymakers should not require an explanation. Similarly, the need for regulators to monitor outcomes is independent of how decisions are made.

Unfortunately, when the GDPR comes into force throughout the EU in May 2018, it will impose unnecessary restraints on AI and stifle many social and economic benefits. The regulation should be amended before that happens. And if EU policymakers refuse to revisit the issue, member states should use national legislation to establish reasonable alternatives for when AI cannot produce a legible explanation and provide legal authorization for the most important uses of AI, such as self-driving cars.

Nick Wallace (@NickDelNorte) is a Brussels-based senior policy analyst with the Center for Data Innovation, a data policy think tank.An HOA ordered a man to clear clutter from his yard.

Instead, he built a sign bashing the HOA.



Richard Stephens erected this sign after his homeowners association told him he had too many decorations in his front yard. (Richard Stephens). Richard Stephens takes great pride in his front yard and says hed like nothing more than to remove the giant, HOA-bashing sign that has dominated it for days. But the Colorado retiree says a message needs to be sent. Particularly this one: If you are considering purchasing a home in Alford Meadows You may want to RECONSIDER  YOU could be the next target of the HOA! For emphasis, the professionally printed red-and-white sign is accented with a drawing of a target behind the word YOU. A neighborhood squabble over nine decorative milk jugs, some planter buckets and an artistic rendering of an early American flag has escalated to a sign-sized war of words that has consumed the Alford Meadows neighborhood in Loveland, just north of Denver. The conflict motivated Stephens to walk into a printers shop and drop $300 on the sign, which is bolted to a frame in the front yard he mows twice a week. The dispute has morphed into a case study of what happens when homeowners clash with the boards set up to maintain exacting community standards and protect property values.

And there seems little chance that this brouhaha will end in a neighborly handshake: Stephens told The Washington Post that speaking through lawyers may be the only way to ensure that his concerns arent swept under the rug.

Well, that and the 32-square-foot yard sign he erected in front of his house.

We tried talking to the members, but they shut me down, the former mechanic with New York state corrections told The Post. Im not a legal scholar. I came here to retire, not to put up with some bulls from a homeowners association.

The controversy started in April, according to correspondence the homeowner shared with The Post. Alford Meadows notified Stephens and his wife that their yard was a little, well, busy.

The letter alluded to additions to the outside of your property, which are growing in number and type.  You have visible from the roads and sidewalks, approximately nine milk churns, thirteen buckets and cans, plus tables, chairs, statue-type items, plus other assorted items, and attached to the side of your house, a star and a painted wooden object.

Colleen Stephens had hand-painted many of the items, including the antique-looking milk cans and a wooden shipping palette that depicted a Revolutionary War-era American flag.

The HOAs letter said it wanted most of the objects gone.

Attached to the letter were pages from the community covenant that lays down the law on lawn decorations.

It goes into exacting detail about the amount of living plant material required in a yard (75 percent) the coloring of rain gutters (muted) and whether residents can have gazebos (nope).

The letter, sent by certified mail, says the Stephenses were welcome to request a hearing. If not, they needed to address the matter in seven days.

Do nothing, the letter said, and the Association has the authority to ensure compliance.

Stephens described the letter as bullying.

The HOA disputes that characterization, saying its doing exactly what it was formed to do: enforce community standards that make Alford Meadows a nice place to live.

The associations attorney, Michael Krueger, said the letter wasnt that different from others the association sends to people who violate community covenants. The HOA tried to address the issue in a meeting with the Stephenses, who walked out when he was told he couldnt record the conversation. Not recording meetings is a uniform policy, of the HOA, Krueger said in an interview.

Krueger said he and the HOA are flummoxed about why this relatively routine matter has exploded.

Its a very minor dispute that frankly I dont think anyone other than the owners know the reason for it becoming so big, he said. Its not political. Its not personal. Its a board of directors that was following its processes  and that was prepared to discuss the matter.

And while intelligent people can disagree on just how many decorative milk jugs crosses into distasteful territory, Krueger said the sign is definitely harmful to Stephenss 387 neighbors, particularly anyone whos trying to sell a house.

Thats why the HOA sent another letter to the Stephenses, telling them their protest sign needs to go.

The Stephens, not the board, made a fairly routine disagreement into a spectacle that appears to be by both design and effect harmful to the neighborhood, the HOA wrote in a letter to residents about the dispute.

But Stephens believes theres more at play than a simple effort to enforce the rules.

In an interview with The Post, he used terms such as personal vendetta and political retribution.

He explained that he is an ardent supporter of President Trump. Many of his neighbors, he said, are not.

In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton won 48.1 percent of the vote in Colorado; Trump received 43.2 percent. Clinton also won Larimer County, which includes Loveland, 46.9 percent to 42 percent.

Before the election, Stephens said, people stole Trump signs from his yard and sent him hate mail.

Dear dbags, one letter began, according to Stephens. It continued: Take your NEW YORK bigotry, hate-filled & mean-spirited ugliness back to the deplorable state that you came from. We dont want you in our neighborhood.

That ship has pretty much sailed, Stephens said.

He doesnt plan to move, and he wont take down the sign until the HOA apologizes and rescinds the violations.

He does, however, plan to discuss the story behind the sign with anyone who stops by for a chat  and, he says, will go to court if necessary.



The debate about yard decorations has escalated into a war of words between a couple and an HOA. (Courtesy of Richard and Colleen Stephens).

Stephens said some of his neighbors have supported his battle against the HOA and others have asked him to take his sign down, including one neighbor who said it was hurting her efforts to sell her house. They talked for a few minutes one day, Stephens said, and when she left she wished me good luck.

Others have criticized Alford Meadows for sinking money from HOA dues into attorney fees to wage a battle over a few milk jugs and planters.

They just want the battle to stop, according to Stephens and the HOA, who both have received messages to that effect.

Krueger said that in taking the debate to the extreme, Richard Stephens has become the antagonist.

This owner is doing what HOAs are derided for from coast to coast, Krueger told The Post. Hes making the neighborhood worse.

James Laumann, the president of HOA-USA, which keeps a directory of HOAs and provides educational resources, said most people never have issues with their community associations; but problems crop up when buyers dont do enough research before moving in.

You are talking about typically the largest investment in someones life, which is their home, Laumann said. And many people buy into a community not really understanding the fact that there is an HOA and that there are restrictive covenants. And everything goes along fine until they realize I cant do such and such. They say its their property, and think they can do what they want.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/23/an-hoa-ordered-a-man-to-clear-clutter-from-his-yard-instead-he-built-a-sign-bashing-the-hoa/?utm_term=.ab7268201734US gave up hope of YPG

Military analyst Rick Francona made evaluations on CNNs live broadcast about Afrin operation said that YPG couldnt resist Turkeys military power.

Turkeys Operation Olive Branch was launched to establish security and stability along Turkeys borders as well as to protect Syrians from the oppression and cruelty of terrorists run US dirty plans conspired in favour of YPG.

US gave up its hope of YPG even though once it was dreaming a sovereign of YPG in the region. Military analyst Rick Francona evaluatived Operation Olive Branch on CNNs live broadcast, took up his countrys position about Afrin.

American military analyst: YPG can not stand up to Turkish power WATCH

Francona didnt give a chance to YPG against Turkeys military power AND expressed that YPG terrorists will have to give up from Afrin. I think there is probably could be a solution to Afrin canton where Kurds are going to have to give up. They can not stand up to Turkish fire power. But i think the real confrontation is going to come when as they try to move further to the east. said military analyst.Bekah Martinez apparently made sure she lands a spot on the 22nd season of The Bachelor by posing her "cheesiest" for the casting call.

The 23-year-old California beauty shared on Instagram her audition photo for The Bachelor which was taken at a time when she thought Peter Kraus would be the winning bachelor. In the photo, Martinez, who is the first one to sport a pixie cut on the show, painted her name and Peter's while wearing an overall jean partly revealing her side boob. At the time, The Bachelor was just about to conclude to pronounce Arie Luyendyk Jr. as the winner.

"These are the lengths my cheesy ass really went to for my Bachelor casting photos #Blindsided#DidntKnowWhatWasComing," Martinez shared in all capital letters.

Martinez added that her posting of the photo is not her way of flirting with Kraus because he was preoccupied with "cuddling with his dog and doing pull-ups."

Age Does Not Matter

Martinez is the second youngest contestant to enter the reality show, but this did not stop her from briefly concealing her true age.

With Luyendyk Jr. winning the show, Martinez said she does not want to do anything with the bachelor. On Twitter, she accused him of sending him a direct message when he was also allegedly sending messages to other contestants.

On Feb. 3, Martinez revealed that Luyendyk Jr. contacted her to say that she has the same birthdate as Tia Booth, whom he went out with on a 2-in-1 date. Luyendyk Jr.'s 13-year age gap with Martinez was a hot topic on the show for some time.

Martinez then tweeted that Luyendyk Jr. was perhaps being friendly, but she could care less. Regardless of her disagreement with him, Martinez landed her dream spot on the show.

The Bachelor Hitting On Other Girls

In a magazine interview, the model-nanny accused Luyendyk Jr. of hitting on other Bachelor contestants even as he was already talking to Lauren Burnham, the one he proposed to at the end of the show.

"And I wasn't the only contestant he was DMing while the show was airing. It wasn't just me and Lauren, there were other women as well. C'mon, dude. You're 36, you know better. You're not oblivious and you know how relationships work," Martinez said.

Martinez slammed Luyendyk Jr. for calling her immature just because she did not like that he was reaching out to the other girls. Kendall Long seconded Martinez that the fact that Luyendyk was still talking to the other girls during post-production was not a good idea at all.

Watching The Bachelor episodes after the filming, Martinez contemplated that she was ultimately deceived by Luyendyk Jr. Long, on the one hand, said that it was fine with her making friends with the winning bachelor now that the show is over.Donald Trump, Jr. and his wife, Vanessa, are expecting to file for divorce. Page Six has exclusively learned that the couple has marital problems.

The Long Road To Divorce

Trump Jr. and Vanessa were married in November 2005. The couple have five children -- Kai, Donald III, Spencer, Tristan, and Chloe, and were found to have been living separate lives. Many officials inside the Trump Organization have gone radio-silent when it comes to the status of this impending legal proceeding.

The Metro found that the couple have not been seen together in over a span of a few months. In fact, the media outlet even reported that Donald III accompanied the eldest Trump son for the family's massive New Year's Eve party at the family's iconic country club, Mar-a-Lago.

"The problems have been for a long time, the couple had hoped to stay together during the president's time in office, but it has been getting harder to resolve their issues. He's never there," said an insider close to the Trumps in a statement to Page Six.

Traveling, Hunting, And Tweeting

A strong reason for the downfall of Trump Jr. and Vanessa's marriage could be the fact that Trump Jr. travels around the world. The 40-year-old divides his travels between working on assignments for the Trump Organization and celebrating his love for hunting. Trump Jr.'s passion for hunting has angered millions of animal activists, especially that he posts all his social media photos of the deceased game, including elephants, following his hunting excursions.

Also, concerns have grown over several of Trump Jr.'s allies following his increasing presence on Twitter. His friends are worried that he is following the same habits as President Donald Trump. Reports have indicated that over the past few months, he went after a survivor of the Parkland, Florida school shooting and also made fun of socialism on Twitter.

An Averted Crisis

In February, the couple faced a turning point in their relationship. While alone in their New York City residence, Vanessa she opened an envelope that contained a suspicious white powder along with a disturbing letter. Although the New York Police Department stated that the white powder was not hazardous, the attack made Vanessa uneasy, and she was forced to head to an area hospital. Eventually, the white powder was revealed to be cornstarch.

The Divorce Files

Trump Jr. and Vanessa are not the only celebrity couple to get a divorce this year. Fox News host Jesse Watters' wife, Noelle, filed for divorce after it was discovered that her husband had an affair with a 25-year-old associate producer. While Watters kept his job at the network, the 25-year-old associate producer was reassigned to Laura Ingraham's The Ingraham Angle.

The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro revealed to a Mexican media outlet that he quietly divorced his wife, Lorenza Newton, in September 2017. The couple was married for nearly 31 years. The couple has two daughters, Marisa and Mariana.

Actor Russell Crowe and wife Danielle Spencer are commemorating their 15th anniversary by getting a divorce. The actor and his ex-wife have decided to team up with Sotheby's for a massive auction that is expected to feature hundreds of treasures from Crowe's film career and rare artwork collection.Laura Dern may have played the mighty Vice Admiral Holdo in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but in real life, she is proving that she is just charming.

Fans are now bringing up The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson's commentary about Dern's seemingly unconscious, albeit cute, habit. They also took it to social media to attach a gif of the 51-year-old saying "pew."

"You can see Laura Dern say 'pew' when she fires the gun, which she could never not do every time she shot it," Johnson said.

In August, Dern shared in an interview with Stephen Colbert just how she handled the part. She narrated how she kept saying "pew" every time she fires her laser gun, just like when she was a kid.

Dern could not contain the happiness and excitement of playing the role in The Last Jedi and for being a part of such a mammoth project.

"They've taken the sound out, I don't think you'll hear that in the movie. I was so excited! I mean, it's Star Wars!" Dern said.

Music-Only Film

Of course, Dern's "pew" made it to the DVD commentary that will be released by March 27. Fans could savor her moment on the music-only version of the film. They will get to see the film without any sound effects or dialogues, but with just a music by John Williams.

To be able to see the wonders of Williams's work, fans would have to get the Disney Movies Anywhere app and link the account they used to get the film. Johnson claims that yes, it would require a little effort, but the content would be worthy.

Kid Inside

Actually, Dern wasn't the first one to take much delight with snatching a big role. Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker, also found it hard to control his inner child from coming out unconsciously because of the Star Wars, saying he was unaware he was even making some sound effects because he was into the scene.

The Canadian actor used to make his own sound effects when he used a lightsaber. This was done constantly and George Lucas, the director, had to instruct him not to do it because, as all other movies, sound effects were added after the shooting concluded and that by a sound engineer.

The same can be said of Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi and who also produced his own sound effects when he used a lightsaber. In an interview, he described not making the sound "difficult."Kim Zolciak-Biermann lashes out online after a robber allegedly stole a number of valuables from her daughter's car in the family property.

The star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta took to Twitter to express her anger, calling the alleged burglar a loser on a recent post.

Hey you loser we got your ass on camera stealing our shit! You are a dumb fuck!!  Kim ZolciakBiermann (@Kimzolciak) March 14, 2018

When someone replied with a criticism of her harsh language, Zolciak-Biermann quickly snapped back.

"Sweetie let me see how you speak when you get robbed," she wrote.

Burglary At Zolciak-Biermann Property

Milton Police Department's Captain C.S. Barstow talked to People and revealed that the police responded to Zolciak-Biermann's call on Wednesday morning. The reality star reported a break-in in one of the vehicles in their Georgia residence.

The break-in was actually into her daughter Brielle's car, TMZ reports.

The officer did not divulge further information on the suspect.

Protecting Her Young

It's likely that incidents like this are what Zolciak-Biermann had in mind when she bought her children various items meant to protect them from harm.

During Brielle's 21st birthday, the mother-of-six presented her daughter with a customized gun. The Glock 43 had flair with a pretty rose gold hue and inside a Princess Elena of Avalor wrapping paper.

Although Brielle was initially shocked and scared at the present, she eventually warmed to the idea of being able to defend herself should something unfortunate happen. The young starlet responded to criticism of her owning a pistol, telling TMZ about her thoughts on guns and gun control.

"I think it's fine to have a gun as long as you're mentally stable," Brielle says, adding that she also believes that rules and regulations need to be stricter than they are at the moment. "I'm moving out on my own, I don't want to live without a gun. I'm scared of my own f**king shadow."

Then, after the tragic school shooting at Parkland, Florida, Zolciak-Biermann and husband, Kroy, impulsively purchased bulletproof backpacks for their kids in an attempt to protect their brood. At the very least, she points out, it's better than doing nothing.

Zolciak-Biermann is mother to Brielle, 21, Ariana, 16, KJ, 6, Kash, 5, and the twin siblings Kane and Kaia, 4.

Last year, the Real Housewives star spoke up about adding to their pack with another baby, telling Us Weekly that she would like to have another son.

"I am just obsessed with my boys," she says. "I'm about to be 40 so I would like to hurry up if we're going to do it, but I definitely think about it a lot."Days after their raucous fight exploded in media, Nick Gordon's girlfriend, Laura Leal, is clearing the name of Bobbi Kristina Brown's ex, citing her bipolar disorder.

It seems that Leal is letting Gordon off the hook, just days after he was arrested for battery. Moreover, she is taking the blame to herself. The woman sent in a letter to the judge in Seminole County, Florida, asking to scrap the order that prohibits him from making direct contact with her.

"I am not in any kind of fear or danger being around him and would like to be able to contact him as soon as possible," Leal said.

Gordon's girlfriend explained she needs his love and that she wanted to talk to him. Furthermore, Leal denounced the police reports made against her beau, saying these were mistaken for something else. She insisted that photos showing her swollen lower lip with dried blood were because it was dry and chapped, far from what the police officers taught.

Big Help

This was what prompted authorities to arrest Gordon on the night of their fight, although he was the one who phoned in responders. But with the recent revelations, Leal is clear about her mission: to get her boyfriend's name free from taint.

Leal divulged she has anger issues, and Gordon has been nothing short of a big help in dealing with her problems. She added she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is serious about finding help for this.

She also held herself responsible for what transpired during the night, saying Gordon should not take the consequences of her wrongdoings. Instead, Leal described him as a "great person," who helped her during her episodes.

Gordon's 911 Calls

This news came a day after Gordon's 911 calls were released. In the audio clips, he can be heard sobbing, all the while, Leal was screaming at the background. In between his statements, he was speechless and at one point admitted he "felt lame" because he let a woman beat him.

It can be remembered that Gordon and Leal went into an altercation recently. Upon reaching their house, responders took in the man after noticing the woman's swollen lips. But in their statement, he said she threw a bottle at him and ripped his shirt off.

Meanwhile, Leal then claimed she picked up Gordon at a bar and on their way home, he pulled her hair and even hit her right cheek. Once at their home, they got into a heated argument. She did not press charges against her man.Ashley Iaconetti and Kevin Wendt are opening up on the reason why they called it quits just weeks after they found romance in Bachelor Winter Games.

Lack Of Spark

Iaconetti admitted that it may seem harsh but the reason for the split was the lack of spark in the relationship. The 30-year old told former The Bachelor star Ben Higgins during Wednesday's podcast episode of Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous, that she and Wendt get along very well. However, she cannot help but feel that there is something missing.

Wendt called Iaconetti's feelings "normal" from his perspective, saying:

"I feel like you get those connections all the time where if you take away our outside world and just put Ashley and me on an island together, we'd probably get along really well. And that's what Vermont was."

However, the Canadian hinted that he was willing to work on the relationship when asked if he too felt that lack of spark as Iaconetti feels. Wendt said that he is the type who does not give up on things easily. He was "still ready to come there again," although he admitted that he and Iaconetti battled with commitments.

Iaconetti broke up with Wendt after he missed out on her 30th birthday because of work. The 34-year-old Wendt said that he wanted to be there for her birthday and that he was really planning on coming out that week to meet her.

"I knew we definitely had an uphill battle. I wasn't 100 percent in yet, but I also knew I wanted to see her again," Wendt explained.

Friend-Zoned

However, as the days passed Wendt gave the split some thought and realized that Iaconetti made the right call in ending their relationship. He acknowledged that breaking up was the way it should be and jokingly accused Iaconetti of putting him on the friend zone.

On a serious note, Wendt agreed that the spark was not fully ignited when he and Iaconetti had the conversations about the future of their relationship. He also does blame her for ending their relationship. Instead, Wendt wishes only for the best for laconetti.

As for Iaconetti, she is speaking up about the split because she does not want The Bachelor fans "villainizing" her ex and the media spreading false stories about their breakup. She also wants everyone to know that she and Wendt are on friendly terms.The wife of American radio personality, Howard Stern, rescues a 3-month-old kitten allegedly placed in a freezer before throwing off of a balcony.

Olive, the kitten, was abused on Feb. 2 by a man named Lucio Lopez. Lopez, 34, said he was upset when the kitten got inside his apartment. It was when the kitten cried in pain that Lopez threw it outside from the balcony.

Lopez then tried to escape but was soon apprehended by the police not far from his residence at 9200 Olive Street. The suspect is charged with one count of animal cruelty.

Following his court arraignment dated Feb. 9 in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court, Lopez was released upon posting bail.

Saving Olive

Upon learning the cat's story from a magazine article, Howard urged his wife, Beth, to perhaps rescue the animal. Beth is known as the author of animal-focused books and a national spokesperson for North Shore Animal League America.

"When I read about Olive I felt physically ill and knew I had to do something to help," Beth said.

Beh immediately contacted her friends at Fontana Animal Services about the adoption process. Olive was already rescued from the man who assaulted her at the time. Beth caught a flight from New York to California over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Beth expressed her gratitude to the men and women of Four Seasons Beverly Hills Hotel for their consideration in accommodating Olive.

Dumped Cats On Farms

A cat rescue organization reported that hundreds of house cats were dumped on farms, which experts say is a dangerous practice. Sandi Lawson, founder of Adopt Me! Cat Rescue, warned cat owners not to leave unwanted cats in barns because farm animals and house pets do not mix well.

The problem with house felines in farms is that farmers have to shell out at least $800 a month to feed them.

"The misconception is that the farmer will look after them, that they'll have mice. That's not what happens. They're city cats, domesticated cats. They don't know anything about the hierarchy that goes on in these barns," said Janice Richard, a volunteer at Adopt Me! Cat Rescue.

Lawson explained that leaving cats in barns would only leave them helpless and sick. Most farmers are not well-educated in animal care, and most of them are financially incapable of seeking vet help.

Unfortunately, many abandoned or strayed cats end up with serious diseases or are heavily starved.Versace is in the public eye once again, thanks to The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Now, the fashion house is taking a stand against fur.

Donatella Versace Takes A Stand

It has been 21 years since Gianni's murder. Following his untimely death, his sister, Donatella, has taken the opportunity to revive the iconic fashion house and change what it stands for, in keeping with the ever-changing modern sensibilities in fashion.

First and foremost, the creative director says the company is ultimately done using animal fur as a staple of their clothing. The user of fur in the fashion industry has drawn continuing criticism from animal rights advocates for so long.

"Fur? I am out of that. I don't want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesn't feel right," she said in a recent interview.

Still, fur products go up for sale on the company website when the interview first surfaced.

Animal rights group PETA heralded her move and shared an Instagram post in support of Donatella's decision. The group, however, urge her to also consider going leather-free next.

Versace's move follows high-profile brands including Gucci, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Michael Kors that have pledged to stop using fur.

Gianni Versace's Murder

Gianni Versace was murdered at the age of 50 in Miami, Florida. Ryan Murphy's hit show chronicles the life of killer Andrew Cunanan, from his dysfunctional relationship with his father to his relation to the growing gay community at the time.

Donatella explained how Gianni's death forced her into a leadership role she had never anticipated, and that she wasn't quite prepared for it.

"One day happy, with nobody to answer to, except for Gianni on the creative part. From that, suddenly to be responsible for everything. And maybe I was not prepared," she explained.

The legendary fashion designer's strong religious faith rubbed off on his sister, however, as Donatella now finds strength in the church. She even played a significant role in a themed exhibition called "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" alongside Vogue's Anna Wintour. It is opening on May 10 at the Met in NYC.

The highly-coveted Versace collaboration with H&M back in 2011 was seen by many as very Gianni-esque. A series of tribute shows were held in his honor for the 20th anniversary of his death. Murphy's show has also brought the conversation back around, even if the Versace family doesn't entirely approve its narrative.If you work in logistics, you understand compliance. The government sets the rules, and we figure out how to follow them. OSHA rules. Labor standards. Tariffs. Gas taxes. The list goes on.

We know how to project these costs, know how to plan for these costs, and know how to run a business incorporating these costs.

President Trump has now introduced uncertainty, announcing tariffs on aluminum and steel. And while he began with steel and aluminum, he quickly escalated the rhetoric to include a threat of tariffs on European autos. Our trading partners have not been silent. Europe is talking about Tennessee whiskey and Harley Davidson.

To make it messier, the President has added unpredictability to the uncertainty. Canada and Mexico are exempted, but what about Australia. There is confusion over Australia. Who knows who else is knocking on the door of the White House.

These ten countries account for about two-thirds of our steel imports:

Canada 16.7% Brazil 13.2% South Korea 9.7% Mexico 9.4% Russia 8.1% Turkey 5.6% Japan 4.9% Germany 3.7% Taiwan 3.2% China 2.9%

Source: Reuters

What is the President up to? Why steel? Why aluminum? What next? Just about a year ago I wrote, Uncertainty Stinks. Then last fall, I followed up with Interesting times. The time for conjecture is over; there is a storm rolling in.

Tariffs and retaliatory tariffs are in play, and they will ripple across the supply chain. Depending on your exposure, you may have a blip to deal with, or you may have to do a complete logistics and sourcing reset.

Even worse, any hope for precision is out the window because we do not know broad the impact will be. Is it just steel and aluminum, or did we just see the start of a global trade war? Are we reacting to a ripple, or will it be a tsunami?

My advice for logisticians: plan for the worst, hope for the best, and start running for the high ground.Ever since Donald Trump became elected President, many celebrities in America have threatened to relocate elsewhere in the world. Actor Matt Damon may be the first one to follow through with this plan.

Multiple news outlets indicate that friends close to the actor are claiming that he and his family are packing their bags and moving to Australia. Apparently, Damon has had enough of Trump and his policies.

"Matt's telling friends and colleagues in Hollywood that he's moving the family to Australia because he's angry about Trump's policies," a source close to the actor stated.

The reports also follow the news that the Bourne Identity actor recently purchased land in Byron Bay, New South Wales, which isn't too far from fellow actor Chris Hemsworth's home.

"Matt's saying the move will not impact his work -- as he will travel to wherever his projects are shooting. He's also telling friends he wants to have a safe place to raise his kids," the source continued.

Others who have threatened to move out of the United States include Jon Stewart, Raven-Symone, Neve Campbell, Lena Dunham, Cher, Samuel L. Jackson, and Amy Schumer. While these celebrities haven't left just yet, Damon leaving may be the ammunition they needed.

Damon's Rough Year

Prior to this latest development in the actor's life, Damon made headlines quite often in the beginning of 2018. The actor caught severe flak from ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver and friend Alyssa Milano for his "poor choice" of words regarding the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The actor tried to defend the allegations against others who have been accused of sexual misconduct, using comedian Louis C.K. as an example.

Damon apologized for his remarks, but the controversy almost cost him a role in the upcoming Ocean's 8 all-female remake.

The Good Will Hunting star was also scrutinized for allegedly knowing of Weinstein's behavior and not doing anything about it.

Recently, Damon and his long-time friend and frequent collaborator, Ben Affleck, announced that they would be adopting an inclusion rider agreement for all future projects, which means actors are ensured of diversity in casting and production. This provision in a contract covers women, people of color, LGBT people, and people with disabilities.

The announcement follows numerous protests and movements that have taken place after multiple men in Hollywood were outed as sexual predators.Younes Bendijma and Scott Disick are tied to the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kourtney Kardashian. However, trouble may be brewing between them.

Younes Bendjima vs. Scott Disick

The two men are positioning themselves to go into a feud. According to Hollywood Life, the 24-year-old model posted a quote that might have been a warning shot to Kourtney's ex-partner and father of her three children.

"Sometimes those who don't socialize much aren't actually anti-social. They just have no tolerance for drama, stupidity, and fake people. You feel me," said Bendijma in a Snapchat story.

However, this is not the first time Bendijma has targeted the 34-year-old reality TV star. Earlier this month, Bendijma and one of his friends posed shirtless on Instagram showcasing their world class physiques on social media.

As the two flexed at an unknown location, Bendijma captioned the photo with a tantalizing remark "You not here and we both know why."

A Roller Coaster Relationship

Bendijma and Kardashian's relationship has been on one wild ride. Kourtney is so smitten by Bendijma that the mother of three posted a gorgeous Instagram post to her 61.6 million followers.

Kourtney wore sharp high heels and a fur coat as she was overlooking Tokyo, Japan's skyrise. Kourtney's stunning photo surfaced days after the couple had to dodge numerous rumors of a split.

"Everything is fine," said an insider that is close to Kourtney and Bendijma told People Magazine.

While the couple started dating near the end of 2016, rumors heavily suggest that Kourtney fears to lose her boyfriend. Several Kardashian insiders have noted that Kourtney is scared about all the female attention that Bendjima receives every time he is on a work assignment. Apparently, the jealousy issue happened while Kourtney was attached to her ex-husband Disick.

Kourtney Kardashian And Scott Disick

While it appears that the eldest Kardashian sibling and her 24-year-old boyfriend are back to being blissfully happy, the heat is on between Kourtney and the father of her children. The exes unfollowed each other on Instagram.

Also, in an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the two were setting new ground rules when it comes to co-parenting their children, namely Mason, Penelope, and Reign.

Kourtney asked Disick to stay out of their old bedroom because it makes her feel uneasy. Meanwhile, Disick noticed the tension and added to the conversation that they should not hug each other. The businessman suggested that they would shake hands while the socialite jokingly suggested that they fist bump.

The former couple ended their relationship in July 2015. Kourtney accepts the fact that Disick is dating Sofia Richie. Initially, she was alarmed that Disick is seeing the 19-year-old when the pair first started their controversial relationship this year.Burt Reynolds made a stirring appearance on NBC's Today. He was supposed to promote his latest film, The Last Movie Star.

Reynolds' Greatest Love

One of the biggest proclamations that Reynolds made during his six-minute interview with anchor Hoda Kotb was that he revealed the ultimate love of his life. To viewers' surprise, he chose his Smokey and the Bandit co-star Sally Field.

"Well, she was 7 when I fell in love with her. She stayed 7 for about 11 years. I wanted her really bad for Smokey and they said, 'Well, she's not sexy,' and I said 'You don't get it. Talent is sexy.' And She got that," said Reynolds to Kotb in a statement that was transcribed by E! News.

Reynolds worked on four films with Field and even admitted in previous interviews that she was the love of his life. The two dated for five years and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas star stated Field will always be his "one that got away."

Clooney As Reynolds?

Another highlight of the interview was Reynolds' bold selection of the actor that he would like to portray him in a future film. Without any doubt in his voice, the All Dogs Go To Heaven voice actor proclaimed that he wanted George Clooney to play out his life's story.

Hoda's Lips And A Divided Twitter

As Kotb and Reynolds speak concluding the interview, the movie icon made an uncanny statement to the veteran NBC News journalist.

"So proud of you for not having your lips larger," said Reynolds in a statement that was transcribed by People Magazine.

Several of the show's viewers visited the show's Twitter page when the interview was posted. Fans were divided into multiple camps. Some fans were concerned regarding Mr. Reynolds' health, while another group of fans stated that the show should have incorporated Reynolds into other segments. Unfortunately, some fans slammed the producers for airing the conversation.

"This interview shouldn't have been aired. Burt Reynolds should only be interviewed by another male. He is nothing but a dirty old man. Poor Hoda! I hate it that he put her through all of that on camera," said a Twitter follower.

The 'Today' Corner

The Today crew is known for making incredible moments such as giving the nation the power to choose the name of their latest puppy with a purpose. However, over several weeks, some of the show's on-air personalities have made some questionable decisions.

Kathie Lee Gifford stated to Andy Cohen during an interview on the media personality's Sirius XM radio channel that she talked about two controversial people she calls longtime friends, Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. While Gifford stated that she does not condone their behavior, she did reach out to them.

Fans were outraged with Kotb and Guthrie on Feb. 15 when they interviewed a survivor, 17-year-old Samantha Grady, from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Guthrie asked Grady a question about one of her classmates and Grady revealed that she passed away during the shooting. The mortified fans took to Twitter to express their outrage.

In January 2018, Megyn Kelly took her feud with Jane Fonda to an outrageous new level as she openly criticized the 9 to 5 actress' history as an anti-Vietnam War activist. She also used one of the nicknames Fonda received during that particular period of her career, "Hanoi Jane." The feud started back in September 2017, when Fonda refused to answer Kelly's question about her history with plastic surgery.

Enstars reached out to 'Today' for a comment.Anderson Cooper and his boyfriend, nightclub owner Benjamin Maisani, have decided to call it quits after nine years of dating.

On Thursday, March 15, Cooper confirmed that he and Maisani have been separated for some time now but that they will remain friends.

"Benjamin and I separated as boyfriends some time ago. We are still family to each other, and love each other very much," the CNN anchor said.

Although the journalist didn't reveal the reason for their split, he did state that Maisani wasn't too fond of his continuous traveling.

The 50-year-old admitted that he is a workaholic as he is currently the host of Anderson Cooper 360 and travels frequently to get CNN coverage.

"I think he's annoyed I travel so much but he also knows how much I like it. He's kind of used to it," Cooper explained.

The journalist further stated that Maisani never asked him to turn down an opportunity to travel and seemed to be understanding that it was a requirement for his job.

Despite Maisani's alleged complaints, the pair was spotted on a vacation together in Tahiti in July 2017. The duo was joined by Bradley Cooper, Andy Cohen, and Diane von Furstenberg.

Anderson And Benjamin's Relationship

Cooper and Maisani were first linked back in 2009. Though Cooper claims that he and Maisani have split for some time now, the pair was seen at a benefit event for the Windward School in New York City on Saturday, March 10.

Following the event, Cooper and Maisani were caught together again just three days later as they left their home in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Their breakup comes amid rumors that the 60 Minutes correspondent has reportedly begun dating a 33-year-old Dallas doctor named Victor Lopez.

Although neither Lopez nor Cooper has confirmed the rumors, the two have appeared in several photos on Lopez's Instagram together. Page Six reports that Lopez's Instagram account has now been made private since the rumors surfaced.

The two were also pictured together as they celebrated Lopez's 33rd birthday in February. Cooper has also reportedly made several trips to Dallas following his decision to part ways with Maisani.Schrunk has big experience at Governors Steer Show Each year a limited number of youth exhibitors (24) in Iowa get to participate in the Governors Celebrity Steer Show at the Iowa State Fair. Kami Schrunk, daughter of Keith and Angie Schrunk 

POW Recognition Day is Friday, Sept. 17 POW/MIA Recognition Day is celebrated on the third Friday of September. The American Legion Auxiliary Unit # 462 of Soldier would like to invite the public to their second annual POW observance It makes my job harder, and there are concerns for officer safety, public safety because of it. Dispatch communication and response time have been affected. The sooner we reach a resolution the better. Armstrong Police Chief Craig Merrill said at Monday nights Armstrong City Council meeting that nine months is too long to wait for the return of his computer.

The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation and Sheriff Mike Martens seized Merrills computer along with other city equipment as part of their investigation of issues with Armstrongs city government.

Merrill said inquiries to Martens did not yield an answer about when Merrills computer would be returned. The city hall computer was returned the day after it was seized.

Council member Dave Grussing, a former investigator, said, Theres no reason to hang on to the computer. Ive worked hundreds of computer forensics investigations. Even if they had to call in an investigator from Des Moines, the download should be done within a day.

Grussing recommended Merrill research the price of a new computer and put in before the Emmet County 911 board, then send the bill to the sheriffs office, and withhold Armstrongs monthly dispatch payment to compensate the city for the expense.

The council also addressed Merrills on-call time. Citizens have made complaints about the city police car as it has been seen at out of town events.

We need to set up guidelines for the use of city equipment on call, said Mayor Greg Buum. We have had it that as long as its located 25 miles from city limits and he can respond in a timely manner, its acceptable.

The council approved Merrills use of the police vehicle while on call with council member Dan Moore dissenting.

Buum said, It will improve response time, allowing [Merrill] to drive immediately to a call instead of driving his personal vehicle back to town to pick up the police vehicle and out to the call.

Iowa Code section 721.2, section 5 states a public officer or employee is prohibited from using property owned by the state for any private purpose and for personal gain, to the detriment of the state or any subdivision thereof.

Multiple messages left for Sheriff Martens were not answered as of press time Wednesday.Lexie Ruter said, As communities grow, people expect to have more and more amenities.

Thats when the rubber hit the road for three individual trails originating in Emmet County. One heads to Terril, one in Swan Lake township, and one heads to Ingham Lake. The trails would be maps and signs to guide bicyclists on county roads with two meeting the Dickinson County trails and one going into Jackson County, Minn.

The committee approached the supervisors to make them aware and to ask for help with signage and publicity for the initiative.

Ruter said county engineer Walter Davis-Oeth has been a huge help in putting together a budget for how much the signs are going to run.

Ruter said she met with Erin Reed, Dickinson County trails manager.

This involves purchasing road route signs from Iowa Prison Industries. Some of these might be arrows attached to existing poles, Ruter said.

The signs would start from the top of half mile hill heading out of town, Ruter said.

Davis-Oeth said he was concerned about liability.

I need to maintain the roads of the entire county equally, not give special attention to bike trail roads, Davis-Oeth said.

Ruter said working with Emmet County was one step in showing a collaboration among the county, city and other entities to obtain grant funding for the project.

Committee member Michelle Ingvall said the committee is working on getting the proper permissions.

The bike trail committee members are: Penny Clayton, Brian Dalziel, Walter Davis-Oeth, Tena Hansen, Roger Hash, Lyle Hevern, Laura Hoffman, Rick Houseman, Dale Husted, Michelle Ingvall, Bob Leifeld, Jeff Rose, and Lexie Ruter.

Ruter said anyone with questions about the bike trail could contact any member of the committee.TORONTO and HONG KONG, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers') today announced the appointment of Datuk Ben Chan to the position of Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific, effective June 1.

Based in the Hong Kong office, Mr. Chan will lead the investment activities in the region for Ontario Teachers'.

"I am thrilled to welcome Ben to the Ontario Teachers'. I am sure that he will make an immediate contribution to our activities, given his long track record as an impactful investor and supportive collaborator with the investment partners that we work with in the Asia-Pacific region," said Jo Taylor, Senior Managing Director International at Ontario Teachers'. "Ben's in-depth knowledge of the region will serve us well as we look to grow our investments in Asia-Pacific, and support our portfolio of international companies looking to expand their footprint and capabilities in that region."

Mr. Chan joins from Khazanah Nasional Berhad, where he was Co-Head of Investments and led their investment activities in China. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales and has over 28 years of international investing experience in public and private equities, investment banking and accounting.

About Ontario Teachers' Ontario Teachers' is Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with C$180.5 billion in net assets at June 30, 2017. The defined-benefit plan, which is fully funded, invests and administers the pensions of the province of Ontario's 318,000 active and retired teachers. It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an annualized rate of return of 10.1% since the plan's founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Ontario Teachers' opened its Asia-Pacific regional office in Hong Kong in 2013, reflecting the global nature of the business and the growing importance of the region to the future of the fund. It also has an office in London which invests in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, which was opened in 2007. otpp.com [http://www.otpp.com ]

Media Contact: Ontario Teachers', Pav Jordan, Investment Communications, T: +1-416-228-6862, E: pav_jordan@otpp.com; Cornerstones Communications Ltd., Harriet Lau/Prudence Lai, T: +1-852-2903-9290 / 2903-9291, E: otpp@cornerstonescom.comThis Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon!

Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page?Noting that booming meat demand among Japanese consumers continues to gain momentum, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) seized the opportunity by introducing new and unique U.S. beef and pork dishes at Asias largest food trade show. USMEFs efforts at Foodex Japan, which attracted more than 80,000 visitors over four days, were funded by the USDA Market Access Program (MAP), the Beef Checkoff Program, the Pork Checkoff and the Texas Beef Council. USMEF is a contractor to the beef checkoff.

Set up inside the USA Pavilion, USMEF shared information and educated food buyers about the advantage of U.S. beef and pork over the products of competitors  many of whom also participated in Foodex.

Japan is one of the largest importers of food in the world and they also pay some of the highest premiums, explained Greg Hanes, USMEF assistant vice president for international marketing and programs. Thats why Foodex is such an important trade show. Exporters from Canada, Mexico, China, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South America were there to try to capture a greater the share of the market.

USMEFs booth included a dedicated area where U.S. red meat exporters could meet one-on-one with buyers, and a special kitchen area allowed USMEF chefs to prepare U.S. beef and pork tasting samples over the course of the event.

Exporters met with hundreds of buyers and representatives of Japans retail and foodservice industries and the samples we served attracted tremendous traffic, said Hanes. This year we were really focused on new trends and menu concepts. We brought in several companies that import food and educated them on these concepts, then let them taste the dishes for themselves. Thats an important step for winning new customers in Japan.

Because the U.S. pork industry sees an opportunity to move more loins in the Japanese market, USMEF highlighted a new dish called pork cheese teji karubi, a Korean-style barbecue dish traditionally made with chicken. USMEF developed the dish using thin-sliced U.S. pork.

Its really taken off, and we got an excellent response to the dish during the show, said Hanes. We are hoping that the momentum carries over and restaurants and retail outlets will continue to pick up on it. This could be really big for U.S. pork loins.

On the beef side, U.S. pound steak was highlighted, along with new gourmet hamburger concepts and a soup made with U.S beef large intestine.

The catchphrase pound steak is all about U.S. beef thick-cut steak, which is something we are trying to establish as a consumer food trend in Japan, said Takemichi Yamashoji, USMEF-Japan director. Typically, steaks in Japan are served in sizes from 6 to 8 ounces. Our idea is to convince foodservice operators and restaurants to serve steaks that are 15 to 16 ounces, which is equal to one pound  thus the pound steak campaign, a way to enjoy the taste and quality of U.S. beef as thick-cut steak.

The gourmet hamburger concept, which has become popular in other Asian countries like South Korea and Taiwan, is also gaining popularity in Japan, said Hanes.

During Foodex, we showed buyers how to grind different cuts of U.S. beef and how to prepare these gourmet hamburgers  then, of course, we gave them samples to taste, said Hanes. This is something that could really move a lot of beef cuts, especially if the idea of grinding their own burgers catches on.

Click here to see more...The first contested failure to prevent case, in which a company sought to rely on having adequate procedures in place, concluded with a small British refurbishment company being found guilty.

Despite now being dormant, it was decided to be in the public interest to try the case and in doing so sends out a strong message that companies of all sizes should be considering whether they have what might constitute adequate procedures in place.

The case is not the typical headline-grabbing events often associated with bribery enforcement action but they give a first glimpse into how prosecutors (and in turn a jury) may assess the adequacy of procedures.

The facts outline that the former managing director of Skansen Interiors paid bribes in two payments to a former project manager at a real estate company totalling 10,000 (about $13,900), as well as another that was not paid, to secure contracts worth 6 million (about $8.3 million) for the refurbishment of offices in London.

In its defense, the company argued that it had adequate procedures in place. The jury disagreed and a guilty verdict was returned.

Skansen Interiors argued that since it operated a localized, domestic-focused business out of a small, open plan office, consisting of no more than 30 staff, it did not require substantial controls. It explained that while it did not have a separate anti-bribery and corruption policy, it had various policies to ensure that business dealings were conducted in an ethical, open and honest way and not paying bribes was simply common sense. They argued that the financial controls that might be expected at a smaller company were in place and company contracts included provisions in relation to bribery.

While the case did not provide companies with explicit guidance on what constitutes adequate procedures, it at least provides some clarity on what are not adequate procedures.

Some of the many lessons that can be learned from this particular case include the need for:

A comprehensive, standalone anti-bribery and corruption policy with a senior individual that is accountable for cascading it across the business

Periodic risk assessments in order to identify business locations, operations and people that may present an increased bribery and corruption risk to the company

A mechanism for those wishing to report suspected wrongdoing in an anonymous and confidential way that is appropriately communicated across the organisation

Robust procedures and controls in place that are proportionate to the potential bribery risk presented to the company

Provision of training that is regular and appropriate to the roles and responsibilities of each employee

Ongoing monitoring activities to identify potential unusual or anomalous transactions, and

Regular review and benchmarking of a companys compliance program against industry good practice, evolving legislation and ongoing enforcement action.

In addition, the decision that it was in the public interest to prosecute a company that had since become dormant sends out a strong message that:

A defense of adequate procedures may not be as straightforward as it seems on paper

The UK Bribery Act is not just for large, multi-national corporations

Just having a policy and some controls does not constitute adequate procedures, and

Companies will still be held responsible for rogue employees even when they have some form of controls in place.

The case serves as a stark reminder of the need for companies of all sizes to periodically revisit their anti-bribery and corruption programs. How would your companys procedures measure up against this benchmark?

____

Annabel Reoch, pictured above, is a Partner and UK Head of Anti-bribery and Corruption investigation and compliance at KPMG in the UK. Shes a qualified Chartered Accountant and an experienced forensic consultant with subject matter expertise in bribery and corruption. She can be contacted here.Murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak (credit Aktuality.sk)A 27-year-old Slovak reporter and his fiancee were murdered in their home in late February. It looked like a professional hit.

The journalist, Jan Kuciak, was working on an investigation for the Slovak news portal Aktuality.sk, in cooperation with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the global network of investigative journalists.

Kuciaks colleagues think he was killed because of his work.

They also think the killers or those behind the killings may have learned what he was working on through his freedom of information requests.

Through a series of stories, he was investigating whether the Ndrangheta, an Italian crime syndicate, had infiltrated Slovakia.

Kuciak obtained much of his information for all of these stories through freedom of information (FOI) requests, the OCCRP said Monday.

Most EU countries have freedom of information laws.

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, the OCCRP said.

Kuciaks editor at Aktuality.sk, Marek Vagovic, said Kuciak was careful with sensitive information. He encrypted his notes, drafts, and evidence.

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 told the OCCRP.

To support Kuciaks FOI requests, he included background about stories he was working on. His editor thinks that could have made him a bigger target.

Kuciak had filed dozens of FOI requests connected to his last investigation. Among the state agencies he requested information from were land registries, agricultural agencies, prosecutors, and courts.

All denied sharing information about journalists request with the subject, the OCCRP said.

In other countries, FOI requests are known to have exposed those asking for information.

Serbias Anti-Corruption Agency, for example, 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, the OCCRP said.

In Montenegro, a journalist working on a story about hotel development in a protected coastal area received a call from a person of interest asking why they were looking into his business dealings. The Ministry of Culture had told the subject about a FOI filing.

A reporting team in Italy investigating waste smuggling received intimidating phone calls from smugglers insisting they stop nosing around their business.'

According to the OCCRP, 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.

____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.The Trump administration Thursday sanctioned five entities and 19 individuals for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections and for cyberattacks.

Among the entities sanctioned are Russian intelligence agencies, including the Federal Security Service, blamed for the 2014 hacking of Yahoo.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday, The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure.

The sanctions block all U.S. property and interests in property of those designated, and U.S. persons cant do business with them.

The Treasury Department said the Russian cyberattacks included NotPetya, attributed last month by U.S. and UK authorities to the Russian military.

This cyberattack was the most destructive and costly cyberattack in history, the Treasury Department said Thursday.

The attack resulted in billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the United States, and significantly disrupted global shipping, trade, and the production of medicines.

The NotPetya attack blocked some hospitals in the United States from creating electronic records for more than a week, Treasury said.

* * *

Here are the entities and individuals sanctioned Thursday, with Treasurys comments about them:

The Internet Research Agency LLC (IRA) tampered with, altered, or caused a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes and institutions. Specifically, the IRA tampered with or altered information in order to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election. The IRA created and managed a vast number of fake online personas that posed as legitimate U.S. persons to include grassroots organizations, interest groups, and a state political party on social media. Through this activity, the IRA posted thousands of ads that reached millions of people online. The IRA also organized and coordinated political rallies during the run-up to the 2016 election, all while hiding its Russian identity. Further, the IRA unlawfully utilized personally identifiable information from U.S. persons to open financial accounts to help fund IRA operations.

Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin provided material assistance to the IRA. Specifically, Prigozhin funded the operations of the IRA. OFAC previously designated Prigozhin under E.O. (Executive Order) 13661, Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine, on December 20, 2016.

Concord Management and Consulting LLC provided material assistance to the IRA. Concord Management and Consulting LLC, which is controlled by Prigozhin, provided funding to the IRA. Concord Management and Consulting LLC was previously designated under E.O. 13661 on June 20, 2017.

Concord Catering provided material assistance to the IRA. Concord Catering, which is controlled by Prigozhin, provided funding to the IRA. OFAC previously designated Concord Catering under E.O. 13661 on June 20, 2017.

Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly Aslanov acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Aslanov acted as the head of the translator project, a department which focused on the United States and conducted operations on multiple social media platforms. He also oversaw many of the operations that targeted the 2016 U.S. election.

Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bogacheva worked for the IRA from at least April 2014 to July 2014. She worked on the translator project.

Maria Anatolyevna Bovda acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bovda worked for the IRA from at least November 2013 to October 2014. She served as the head of the translator project and held other positions within the firm.

Robert Sergeyevich Bovda acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bovda worked for the IRA from at least November 2013 to October 2014. He served as the deputy head of the translator project and held other positions within the firm.

Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Burchik acted as the executive director of the IRA and held the firms second-highest ranking position. He was involved in operational planning, infrastructure, and personnel throughout the firms operations to interfere in the U.S. political system.

Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bystrov acted as the general director of the IRA and served as the head of other entities used by the firm to mask its operations.

Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Kaverzina worked for the translator project and operated multiple U.S. personas that she used to post, monitor, and update social media content for the IRA.

Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Krylova worked for the IRA from at least September 2013 to November 2014, where she served as a director and was the firms third-highest ranking position.

Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Podkopaev was responsible for conducting U.S.-focused research and drafting social media content for the IRA.

Sergey Pavlovich Polozov acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Polozov acted as the manager of the IRAs information technology department and oversaw the procurement of U.S. servers and other computer infrastructure that masked the firms location when conducting operations within the United States.

Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Vasilchenko worked for the IRA from at least August 2014 to September 2016, and was responsible for controlling social media content and posing as U.S. persons or U.S. grassroots organizations.

Vladimir Venkov acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Venkov worked for the translator project and operated multiple U.S. personas that were used to post, monitor, and update social media content for the IRA.

(The entities and individuals above were named in a DOJ indictment (pdf) filed February 16, 2018 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.)

Federal Security Service (FSB), a Russian intelligence organization, knowingly engages in significant activities that undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government. Specifically, the FSB has utilized its cyber tools to target Russian journalists and politicians critical of the Russian government; Russian citizens and government officials; former officials from countries bordering Russia; and U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic, military, and White House personnel. Additionally, in 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two FSB officers for their involvement in the 2014 hacking of Yahoo that compromised millions of Yahoo accounts. OFAC previously sanctioned the FSB under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.

Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence organization, knowingly engages in significant activities that undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government. The GRU was directly involved in interfering in the 2016 U.S. election through cyber-enabled activities. The Russian military, of which the GRU is a part, was also directly responsible for the NotPetya cyberattack in 2017. OFAC previously sanctioned the GRU under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.

Sergei Afanasyev acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of February 2017, Afanasyev was a senior GRU official.

Vladimir Alexseyev acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of December 2016, Alexseyev was a First Deputy Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Alexseyev under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.

Sergey Gizunov acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of July 2017, Gizunov was the Deputy Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Gizunov under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.

Igor Korobov acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of January 2018, Korobov was the Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Korobov under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.

Igor Kostyukov acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of December 2016, Kostukov was a First Deputy Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Kostyukov under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.

Grigoriy Molchanov acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of April 2016, Molchanov was a senior GRU official.

* * *

OFACs March 15, 2018 update to its sanctions list is here.

____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.A manager accidentally filmed himself having sex with a junior colleague after forgetting to hang up his video conference call.

Manager filmed having sex on conference call

The video shows the manager of China's Southern Power Grid having sex with his colleague just five minutes after a call earlier that morning which was attended by employees across five different provinces, the Mirror Online reported.

The footage was first leaked over the weekend but now it has been taken down from all social media by Chinese censors.

However, two employees - a man surnamed Tang and woman surnamed Wang - have been arrested and face defamation charges as well as further punishment for spreading 'false rumours' after sharing the footage.

According to some sites, the manager has been named but he is claiming he is being framed.Cindy Crawford has revisited her 1980s beginnings for her shoot for the new Reserved campaign.

Cindy Crawford,

The 52-year-old supermodel has proved time hasn't changed her influence on the fashion industry as she looks fresh and youthful in the 'I LOVE YOU CINDY' campaign film - shot by Gordon von Steiner - for the Polish high-street brand, and the brunette beauty shows her playful side as she dances through the streets in a bright pink suit.

Speaking to Vogue.com about her favourite outfits from the set, she said: "I loved all the suits we wore for the commercial but I have to say the pink one was my favourite. I love the colour for spring and paired with flats made it look modern and perfect for dancing!"

The 80's style of the campaign video reflects her early modelling years during the era which catapulted Cindy to fame, and she reflected on her favourite memories from the decade.

When asked what her highlight from the 80s was, she said: "Wow, that's a hard question, I was just starting high school in the beginning of the '80s and by the end of the '80s, I was living in New York modelling. Certainly getting my first Vogue cover was a highlight!"

Cindy is wearing a striped white suit on the set of a retro soap with 'Stranger Things' star Dacre Montgomery in one scene, and is exercising in colourful gym gear in another, but the model mum- who raises Kaia, 16, and Presley, 18 with husband Rande Gerber - admits her outfits are much more casual now.

She said: "I live in Malibu so most days find me in jeans, a T- shirt and a leather jacket."

Reserved launched only six months ago in the UK but has already had campaigns with famous faces including Kate Moss, Adwoa Aboah, Jourdan Dunn, Jon Kortajarena and Irina Shayk, and Cindy is happy to be following in their footsteps.

She said: "What Reserved have done with their campaigns has been really smart. I loved Kate [Moss]'s really timeless visual, and then the incredibly current campaign at Christmas with Adwoa, Jourdan and Irina ... I'm happy to be added to this line-up with something that feels nostalgic but is also surprising. I think the brand is keeping people on their toes."Mary Magdalene is indisputably one of the most enigmatic and fascinating female figures in history, remaining an endless source of inspiration for literature, film, theatre, and television. Thats why this week, Universal Pictures will be releasing their compelling new feature Mary Magdalene, starring Academy Award nominees Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in a moving and authentic portrait of the fascinating spiritual figure.

Rooney Mara stars in the titular role of Mary Magdalene

The biblical biopic tells the story of Mary (Mara); a young woman in search of a new way of living. Constricted by the hierarchies of the day, Mary defies her traditional family to join a new social movement led by the charismatic Jesus of Nazareth (Phoenix). She soon finds a place for herself within the movement and at the heart of a journey that will lead to Jerusalem.

In celebration of the films release, weve selected some of the most significant women in history whose compelling stories live on to this day, much like Marys. Wed love to see biopics of these brilliant women up on the big screen in the future!

Joan of Arc

With no military training, Joan convinced the embattled crown prince Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orleans, where it achieved a momentous victory over the English and their French allies, the Burgundians. However after seeing the prince crowned King Charles VII, Joan was captured by Anglo-Burgundian forces, tried for witchcraft and heresy and burned at the stake in 1431, at the age of 19. By the time she was officially canonized in 1920 (!) she had long been considered one of historys greatest saints, and an enduring symbol of French unity and nationalism.

Elizabeth I

She was the daughter of one of the most feared Kings to ever sit on the throne of England  and a Queen whose fierce intellect and courtly charms split the church in two. Elizabeth would become one of Englands longest serving monarchs (she ruled for 44 years) and would restore stability, defining her reign so effectively we now refer to it merely as Elizabethan. She did so without a man by her side. Instead, Elizabeth declared she was married to her kingdom, referring to her subjects once in 1599 as all my husbands, my good people. Over the decades she would become as feared and revered as her father, Henry VIII, with Pope Sixtus V declaring: She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island, and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa, known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. Teresa decided early in her life that she had a religious vocation to serve the sick and poor, and went to India to serve. Her order established a hospice; centres for the blind, aged and disabled; and a leper colony. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work. In December 2015, Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, clearing the way for her to be canonized on September 4, 2016.

Cleopatra

There are many misconceptions about Cleopatra. First and foremost, She wasnt Egyptian. She was a Macedonian. She is also known to be a great beauty, personified by actresses such as Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor. The only proof we have of her appearance are ancient coins which indicate a fairly large, hooked or beaky nose. However, what is unequivocally agreed is that she was captivating. She had great love affairs with Julius Caesar (who made her Queen of Egypt) and Mark Anthony who famously abandoned his duties to be with her.

Emmeline Pankhurst

As synonymous with womens suffrage as the word suffrage itself, in 1999 Time magazine named Emmeline Pankhurst one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, saying: she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back. In 1903 Pankhurst co-founded the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU) with a clear agenda focused on direct action to win women the vote. Deeds not words, was to be our permanent motto, she would later say. These words soon rang true. It was at Holloway Prison that Emmeline Pankhurst would stage her first hunger strike, withstanding violence and abuse to enable all women the right to vote.

Lady Godiva

Godiva, Countess of Mercia (died between 1066 and 1086), was an English noblewoman who, according to a legend dating at least to the 13th century, rode naked  covered only in her long hair  through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Thomas watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

Indira Gandhi

ndira was the first female prime minister of India. She was in power from between 196677 and 198084. Accused of authoritarian tendencies she only narrowly avoided a military coup by agreeing to hold an election at the end of the emergency period of 1977. She was assassinated in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards, in response to her storming of the Golden Temple

-

Mary Magdalene is released in UK cinemas this Friday, March 16 from Universal Pictures.Danny Boyle is working on a script for Bond 25.

Danny Boyle

The 61-year-old filmmaker was recently announced as the new frontrunner to helm the upcoming James Bond movie, which will see Daniel Craig in his final outing as secret agent 007, but it was never revealed whether he would be taking over directorial duties.

However, in an interview with Metro US, Boyle has revealed he is currently working on a script and has an idea for the anticipated 25th film in the franchise.

He said: "We are working on a script right now. And it all depends on that really.

"I am working on a Richard Curtis script at the moment. We hope to start shooting that in six or seven weeks.

"Then Bond would be right at the end of the year. But we are working on them both right now.

Boyle - who won the Best Director Oscar in 2009 for his drama 'Slumdog Millionaire' - is currently working on a musical based around the music of the Beatles for Curtis.

But revealed he has an idea for a story for the iconic British 007 spy but refused to give any spoilers away.

He said: "We've got an idea, John Hodge, the screenwriter, and I have got this idea, and John is writing it at the moment.

"And it all depends on how it turns out. It would be foolish of me to give any of it away."

'Dunkirk' filmmaker Christopher Nolan was originally the frontrunner to helm the upcoming film but recently revealed he would not be the person taking the director's chair.

Sam Mendes helmed the last two instalments in the series, 'Skyfall' and 'Spectre', which were both hailed as two of the best Bond movies of all-time.

Craig, 50, has admitted one of his motivations for slipping into Bond's tuxedo one final time for his fifth outing as the British agent is that he will break the late Sir Roger Moore's record as the longest-serving Bond when 2019 rolls around - the year the film will be released - as he will have been in possession of the iconic part for 13 years.Registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Ani archaeological site, also known as the city of a thousand and one churches, attracts tourists all year round. The ancient city, which houses Islamic architectural works of the 11th and 12th centuries, was added to the World Heritage List on July 15, 2016.

Ani is located in the northeast of Turkey, close to Arpacay district in Kars province, on a secluded triangular plateau overlooking a ravine that forms the natural border with Armenia.

This medieval city that was once one of the cultural and commercial centres on the Silk Roads, is characterized by architecture that combines a variety of domestic, religious and military structures, creating a panorama of medieval urbanism built up over the centuries by successive Christian and Muslim dynasties.

Inhabited since the Bronze Age, Ani flourished in the 10th and 11th centuries AD, when it became a capital of the medieval Armenian kingdom of the Bagratids, and profited from control over one branch of the Silk Roads.

Later, under Byzantine, Seljuk, and Georgian sovereignty, it maintained its status as an important crossroads for merchant caravans, controlling trade routes between Byzantium, Persia, Syria and Central Asia.

In fact, Ani has hosted some 23 civilizations since its establishment and it is also considered to be the first entrance gate to Anatolia from the Caucasus.

The Mongol invasion, along with a devastating earthquake in 1319 and a change in trade routes, marked the beginning of the citys decline. It was all but abandoned by the 18th century.

Have a look at some more photographs of this amazing place

24,950 visitors in two months

Kars Museum Director Necmettin Alp told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Ani is one of the biggest archaeological sites in the eastern Anatolian region and interest increased after it was registered by UNESCO.

There has been a serious increase in the number of visitors. At the end of 2017, our annual visitor number was 41,685. In the first two months of 2018, 24,950 people visited. That is, there is an increase at the rate of 70 or 80 percent, he said. Anis combination of architectural and archaeological features combined with the geography creates a unique beauty.

The whole world should see it

Lale Hamleci, who came from London,said that she travelled on the Dogu Express to see the ancient site.

I recommend that everyone comes here. I saw Ani on the news and I was very curious. I didnt know what to expect but I decided to go, Hamleci said. It was a huge surprise when I went. It was much more perfect, much more beautiful than I expected it to be. I will go again with friends. If you havent seen Ani, you havent seen the world. I saw the world.

Stephen Hargrave, a British citizen, said that he was mesmerized by Ani, but he didnt even know about it until a few weeks ago.

One of my friends advised travelling on the Dogu Express. I came here from Ankara on it. I discovered Kars and Ani, and it was a great experience for me. When I return to London, I will tell everyone that they should see this beauty Hargrave said.

Another visitor Pelin Sen, who came from Istanbul, noted that Ani is much more beautiful than the pictures they saw on social media. There are many places that should be seen in Turkey, and Ani is one of them, she said.

Sources: UNESCO/Daily Sabah

Featured photograph courtesy of PeopleOfArCategory Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

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The administrator has been notified and will resolve the problem ASAP.Fiji has appointed a new Honorary Consul to the Republic of Estonia to strengthen our existing ties and develop new avenues of cooperation.



Mr Vlad Alex Vernygora was officially commissioned to represent Fiji when Estonias Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally recognised his appointment at a ceremony in Estonias capital, Tallinn.



Mr Vernygora - a lecturer in law at the Talllinn University of Technology - has had a strong professional interest in the Asia Pacific and says he is especially keen to promote Fijis interests across a broad front in Estonia and the wider Baltic region.



Estonia itself has embarked on a stronger engagement with Fiji that includes a donation of 100,000 Euros to help finance Fijis Presidency of COP23.



In congratulating Mr Vernygora on his appointment, the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Voreqe Bainimarama, said he was well placed to build on an already solid relationship and explore new levels of political, economic and social cooperation.



The Fijian Government is pleased that we now have an official presence in Estonia and we look forward to working with our new Honorary Consul to take the relationship to another level.



At the start of our current Parliamentary sitting in Fiji, I specifically thanked Estonia - along with our other COP donors  for its generosity in helping to fund our COP23 campaign. And I again take the opportunity, with this appointment, to salute the Estonian Government for its commitment in joining the vulnerable nations in the fight against climate change, the PM said.



While Fiji and Estonia have had diplomatic relations since 2008, Mr Vernygora is Fijis the first Honorary Consul there. He will report to Fijis Head of Mission to the European Union, Ambassador Deo Saran, who said he was confident that the appointment would give Fiji a much higher profile in Estonia and the rest of the region.



-ENDS-

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 14, 2018) - Cliff Grandison, President of Alaska Hydro Corp. (TSXV: AKH) (the Company), reported the receipt and acceptance of the offer of an Investigative Licence for the Forrest Kerr Diversion Project.

The Investigative Licence will allow the Company to occupy Crown land for the investigation of and monitoring for the feasibility of construction of a weir and diversion channel to divert water from Forrest Kerr Creek to More Creek to provide increased flows to the Company's proposed 75 MW More Creek Hydroelectric Project. The Company's prefeasibility study of the diversion indicated that it would add approximately 100 GWh of additional electricity to that already projected from the More Creek Hydroelectric Project, for a total production of approximately 448 GWh annually. The additional cost of the Forrest Kerr Diversion to the More Creek Hydroelectric Project is estimated to be approximately $35 million. Additional revenue is estimated to be approximately $10 million annually. Other than the cost of the diversion, the More Creek Hydro Plant will need no major design change or reengineering to add capacity.

The Forrest Kerr Diversion is expected to increase the More Creek Hydroelectric Project operating capacity from 52% to 68%. This will have a substantial benefit to the rate of return on the invested capital, lower operating cost per MWh and lower unit cost of energy per MWh.

The Company will proceed with a revised and updated More Creek/Forrest Kerr prefeasibility study and commence the preparation of applications for Environmental Assessment Certificates from the Province of BC and the Government of Canada for the Forrest Kerr Diversion.

For further information, please contact:

Cliff Grandison, President

(604) 929-3961

Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking information. These statements may relate to future events or future performance, including receipt of a water licence in respect of the proposed project, receipt of land tenure in respect of lands relating to the proposed project, completion of a preliminary economic assessment, environmental assessments, prefeasibility and feasibility studies and project financing, receipt of TSX Venture Exchange acceptance, receipt of a satisfactory outcome in consultations with First Nations, receipt of applicable permits, anticipated project development timelines and anticipated demand for hydro electricity. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. Any forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein.

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.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATESSAN FRANCISCO (dpa-AFX) - Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) awarded Chief Executive Timothy Sloan $17.4 million in compensation for 2017. It represented a 36% increase from his total pay package in 2016, when he received $12.83 million. Sloan was promoted to CEO in October 2016, shortly after a scandal erupted over the bank's sales practices. Mr. Sloan received $2.4 million in base pay, with a bonus that included shares valued at $15 million. He didn't receive a cash bonus, at his recommendation based on Wells Fargo's 'significant but incomplete progress on addressing compliance and operational risk-management issues,' according to the bank's proxy. Mr. Sloan, along with seven other executives, didn't receive cash bonuses in 2016 and saw reductions of up to 50% in certain stock awards, moves made in reaction to the scandal that affected up to 3.5 million accounts. 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.Media Release

Basel, March 15, 2018

Dufry reports strong Full Year 2017 results with high organic growth

In 2017, Dufry achieved a strong set of results confirming its profitable growth strategy. Turnover grew by 7.0% and reached CHF 8,377.4 million with strong organic growth of 7.4%. EBITDA crossed the one billion mark for the first time and amounted to CHF 1,007.1 million. Dufry generated a free cash flow1 of CHF 467 million in 2017 and cash earnings per share increased by 14% to CHF 6.84.

Dufry recorded a turnover growth of 7.0% in 2017 and reached CHF 8,377.4 million from CHF 7,829.1 million in 2016. Organic growth was very healthy with 7.4% in 2017. Changes in scope contributed -0.3% to turnover growth, while the FX translation effect was marginal at -0.1%.

In terms of business development, 2017 was a successful year for Dufry. The company secured future business by further increasing its retail space, extending important concessions and winning new contracts. The expansion of the gross retail space in 2017 amounted to 30,000 m, with North and Latin America accounting for the largest part, followed by Asia, Middle East and Australia and then Southern Europe and Africa. Moreover, Dufry has already 15,500 m of signed space to be opened in 2018 and 2019.

The synergies from the World Duty Free acquisition were fully reflected for the first time in the 2017 results, amounting to CHF 125 million. This is an important achievement, as the total synergies considerably exceeded the original estimates of CHF 105 million.

In 2017, Dufry saw a strong free cash flow1 generation of 571.0 million, excluding one-offs, a 18% increase versus the CHF 483.8 million record level reported in 2016. Accounting for the one-off items related to the signing of certain contracts in the beginning of the year, reported free cash flow1 came in at CHF 467.0 million. Net debt was reduced to CHF 3,686.9 million on December 31, 2017, while the covenant calculated as net debt / EBITDA of 3.59x secures a comfortable headroom towards the threshold of 4.00x.

Southern Europe and Africa

Turnover reached CHF 1,857.8 million in 2017, from CHF 1,702.3 million one year before. Organic growth in the division was 6.8% in the full year 2017. In Southern Europe, Turkey grew strongly, driven by the return of Russian tourists, while France, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain also posted positive growth. Africa saw even stronger performance with most operations growing high double digits in the year, also benefiting from the opening of new locations, expansions and refurbished shops.

UK, Central and Eastern Europe

Turnover grew to CHF 2,147.4 million in the year, versus CHF 2,088.9 million in 2016, with organic growth in the division reaching 6.3%. The United Kingdom continued with a good performance, despite the higher comparison base in the second half of 2017 due to the annualization of the positive impact seen by the devaluation of the British Pound in June 2016. Other highlights in the division were the operations in Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as Finland.

Asia, Middle East and Australia

Turnover amounted to CHF 809.1 million in 2017, from CHF 770.7 million in 2016. Organic growth in the division for the full year was 5.4%. Most operations in the division contributed to the improvement. In the Middle East, Sharjah, Kuwait and Jordan were positive. In Asia, South Korea saw sales growing, despite a reduction of Chinese travelers to the country. Both Hong Kong and Macau had a comeback and grew double digit in the second semester. Other operations including Cambodia and Bali also performed well, while Melbourne recovered in the second semester, after the implementation of the New Generation Store and the comprehensive refurbishment undergone in the first half year.

Latin America

Turnover went to CHF 1,694.0 million in 2017 versus CHF 1,531.1 million one year earlier. Organic growth in the division was 10.8%. South American countries, such as Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Peru performed well. The same applies to the Caribbean operations with Dominican Republic being the leader in this area. Dufry Cruise Services also posted strong growth driven by the start of operations on a number of new ships.

North America

Turnover reached CHF 1,771.5 million in 2017 from CHF 1,660.9 million in the previous year. Organic growth reached 6.5%, supported by the resilient duty-paid business on one hand and a good performance of the duty-free operations on the other hand.

FINANCIAL RESULTS

Gross profit

Gross profit grew by 8.6% and reached CHF 4,978.6 million in 2017 versus CHF 4,584.1 million in 2016. Gross margin improved by 80 basis points, fully reflecting the synergies achieved from the WDF integration, which was completed at the end of 2016.

Selling expenses

Selling expenses reached CHF 2,430.1 million in 2017 from CHF 2,236.2 million in 2016. As a percentage of turnover, they went to 29.0%, from 28.6% in 2016. Besides the mix changes and the concessions fee increases related to contract renewals, there were two main drivers for the increase: first the increase in the annual minimum guarantees in Spain; second, in several of the operations where contracts were renewed, the new fee levels became effective immediately, whereas the shop performance is impacted during the refurbishment and upgrade phase and the full benefit is only reflected with a time-lag.

Personnel and general expenses

Personnel expenses reached CHF 1,135.0 million in 2017 versus CHF 1,054.5 million one year earlier. As a percentage of turnover they stood flat and reached 13.5% in the year as in 2016. General expenses stood at CHF 404.8 million in the year to December from CHF 362.2 million in 2016, equal to 4.8% of turnover and 20 basis points higher than in 2016.

EBITDA

EBITDA grew by 7.7% and stood at CHF 1,007.1 million (CHF 935.1 million in 2016). The EBITDA margin increased to 12.0% in 2017, compared to 11.9% in 2016.

Depreciation, amortization, impairment and linearization

Depreciation reached CHF 158.9 million in 2017, at similar levels compared to CHF 166.2 million in 2016. Amortization and impairment was impacted by an impairment of a concession from the Nuance acquisition and stood at CHF 423.9 million in 2017, CHF 44.7 million higher than the CHF 379.2 million reported in 2016. Linearization amounted to CHF -58.9 million in 2017. Linearization is a non-cash item related to the Spanish business, varies by quarter and due to seasonality the first semester is typically charged the most.

EBIT

EBIT grew by 53.6% to CHF 418.7 million in 2017 from CHF 272.6 million in the last year. Other operational result (net) generated a positive impact of CHF 53.3 million, mainly related to the release of a provisions accrued in the context of the Nuance acquisition.

Financial result

Financial result, net, reached CHF 216.8 million in 2017 from CHF 215.5 million in 2016. The 2017 result includes CHF 19.6 million non-cash and CHF 22.0 million cash one-off charges related to the refinancing of the bond and bank facilities. As previously communicated, Dufry implemented a number of changes in its credit facilities in late 2016 and during 2017, which will generate interest accumulated cost savings of CHF 50 million going forward compared to 2016 and extend the maturity profile.

Taxes

Income tax reached CHF 91.0 million in 2017, versus CHF 11.3 million one year before. The increase is due to the reduction in the US federal corporate income tax rate, which resulted in a net downward adjustment of CHF 41.1 million in relation to deferred taxes. Nevertheless, going forward the new US corporate tax rate is expected to have a positive impact.

Net earnings

Net earnings reached CHF 110.9 million, 142.1% higher compared to 2016. Net Earnings to equity holders surged to CHF 56.8 million in 2017, versus CHF 2.5 million seen in 2016. Cash earnings, which add back acquisition-related amortization, grew by 13.9% in 2017 and reached CHF 367.9 million versus CHF 322.9 million in 2016. Cash EPS in 2017 grew by 14.0% and reached CHF 6.84, compared to CHF 6.00 in 2016.

Cash flow

Free cash flow reached CHF 467.0 million in 2017, compared to CHF 483.8 million in 2016. Excluding the extraordinary cash outs that Dufry had in the beginning of the year, free cash flow would have been CHF 571.0 million, an 18.0% increase versus 2016.

Debt

Both net debt and leverage reduced as expected with net debt amounting to CHF 3,686.9 million at the end of December 2017 compared to CHF 3,750.4 million one year earlier. Dufry's main covenant, net debt / adjusted EBITDA, stood at 3.59x as per 31 December 2017. When considering the proceeds of USD 714 million from the Hudson IPO done in February 2018, pro forma net debt / EBITDA reduces further to 2.89x.

In 2017 Dufry also took an important step on its financing strategy. Following the early repayment of the USD 500 million Senior Notes with expiry in 2020, executed in December, 2016, the Company issued a new EUR 800 million Senior Notes in October, 2017, and repaid the EUR 500 million Senior Notes in November, 2017. Last but not least, in November, 2017 Dufry successfully refinanced its main bank facilities which now are due in 2022, thus providing a solid foundation for the business in the next years.

Delivering our goals and posting strong results

Julian Diaz, CEO of Dufry Group, commented: "In 2017, Dufry achieved a strong performance and we have delivered good results in all our divisions. We have made good progress in the three defined key areas: accelerating organic growth, increasing cash generation and reducing our debt. Organic growth for the full year 2017 reached 7.4%, which is exceeding our original expectations. EBITDA crossed for the first time the CHF 1 billion mark and our cash flow generation increased by 18%, excluding one-offs. We also achieved our goal to fully reflect the CHF 125 million of WDF synergies, 20% higher than originally announced; and, last but not least, our cash EPS increased by 14% to CHF 6.84.

From an operational perspective, we started with the implementation of the new Business Operating Model (BOM) by launching the BOM process in 19 countries, of which 10 have already passed internal certification reaching the expected efficiencies. We also focused on the ongoing expansion of our retail space adding another 30,000 m gross sales area in existing and new locations across the globe, while at the same time extending existing contracts. Moreover, we continued to execute on our shop refurbishment plan with the renovation of 32,000 m2. Last but not least, we made good progress on our digital agenda by opening the first new generation stores in Madrid, Melbourne, Cancun and Zurich as well as rolling out our digital customer loyalty program RED by Dufry.

Early in 2018, we had two important changes in the Group. First, in January we announced the new simplified group organization with a smaller Global Executive Committee, which will further improve the speed of decision making and thus allowing us to be closer to the market. Secondly, on February 1st, we successfully listed a 42.6% stake of our North American division as Hudson Ltd. at the New York Stock Exchange. Besides further expanding our duty-paid convenience business, the listing aims at evolving the business by expanding into additional opportunity streams such as food and beverage operations and master concessions.

For 2018, our priorities are to complete the BOM process and generate the respective efficiencies, further drive the implementation of our digital strategy, and to accelerate the strategic initiatives to expand outside the airport channels. All these activities will contribute to continue driving organic growth and spend per passenger, which remains a cornerstone in our operational focus. The same applies to cash generation and further deleveraging of our balance sheet. As mentioned on earlier occasions, Dufry's Board of Directors has put a high priority on returning cash to shareholders and as such, intends to submit a proposal to the upcoming general meeting.

The positive market conditions seen throughout 2017 have continued in the first months of 2018 in all divisions with similar organic growth performance as in previous quarters, thus providing a good base for the start into the new reporting year. We will continue to execute on our main initiatives and we will remain focused at operational level in order to further improve our performance going forward."

1 Before interest and minorities

Key Figures Dufry Group

In CHF million FY 2017 FY 2016 Var. Turnover 8,377.4 7,829.1 7.0% Gross Profit 4,978.6 59.4% 4,584.1 58.6% 8.6% EBITDA (before other operational results) 1,007.1 12.0% 935.1 11.9% 7.7% Net Earnings to Equity Holders 56.8 2.5 Cash EPS (in CHF) 6.84 6.00 14.0%

Dufry's 2017 Annual Report is available at the company's website at (www.dufry.com/en/investors: http://www.dufry.com/en/investors).

For further information, please contact:

Renzo Radice Rafael Duarte Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Global Investor Relations Phone: +41 61 266 44 19 Phone: +41 61 266 45 77 (renzo.radice@dufry.com: mailto:renzo.radice@dufry.com) (rafael.duarte@dufry.com: mailto:rafael.duarte@dufry.com) Sara Lizi Karen Sharpes Investor Relations Americas & Communications Div. 4 Global Media & Events Phone: +55 21 2157 9901 Phone: +44 0 208 624 4326 (sara.lizi@br.dufry.com: mailto:sara.lizi@br.dufry.com) (karen.sharpes@dufry.com: mailto:karen.sharpes@dufry.com)

Dufry Group - A leading global travel retailer

Dufry AG (SIX: DUFN; B3 S.A. - Brasil, Bolsa, Balcao: DAGB33) is a leading global travel retailer operating over 2,200 duty-free and duty-paid shops in airports, cruise lines, seaports, railway stations and downtown tourist areas.

Dufry employs over 32,000 people. The Company, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, operates in 64 countries in all five continents.

Social Responsibility

Dufry cares for children and supports social projects from SOS Kinderdorf in Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico, Morocco and Ivory Coast. SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-political and non-demonstrational organization established for orphaned and destitute children all over the world.Regulatory News:

Veolia (Paris:VIE) plans to notify investors of its intention to redeem its deeply subordinated perpetual hybrid debt in Euros and in Sterling issued in January 2013, for respective nominal amounts of 1 billion and 400 million.

These instruments were issued to support the Group's transformation, and were aimed at strengthening its financial structure, being considered as 100 equity in the IFRS consolidated accounts and 50 equity by the rating agencies1

Thanks to the success of the Group's transformation and the improvement of its financial health, Veolia no longer needs these instruments and can save the associated coupon of 68 million per year, while maintaining an Investment Grade rating and significant financial flexibility.

In 2017, Veolia took advantage of extremely favorable market conditions to anticipate this repayment, which is expected to occur on April 16, 2018.

The distribution of this press release in certain jurisdictions may be subject to specific regulations or may be restricted by regulations or laws. In particular, this press release shall not be released, published or distributed in the United States, its territories and possessions, in Australia, in Canada or in Japan.

This announcement does not constitute an offer or solicitation in the United States, its territories and possessions, or in any other jurisdiction.

Veolia group is the global leader in optimized resource management. With over 163 000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions that contribute to the sustainable development of communities and industries. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and to replenish them.

In 2017, the Veolia group supplied 100 million people with drinking water and 61 million people with wastewater service, produced 44 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 45 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE) recorded consolidated revenue of 25.13 billion in 2017. www.veolia.com

1 Moody's and S&P. The latter removed the Equity Content in May 2016, thanks to Veolia's improved financial position, and considered that Veolia did not need it anymore to maintain its credit rating.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005104/en/

Contacts:

VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT

Group Press Relations

Laurent Obadia Sandrine Guendoul

Stephane Galfre Marie Bouvet

Tel.+ 33 1 85 57 42 16

sandrine.guendoul@veolia.com

or

Investors & Analyst Relations

Ronald Wasylec Ariane de Lamaze

Tel. + 33 1 85 57 84 76 84 80

or

Terri Anne Powers (USA)

Tel. +1 630 218 1627AMSTERDAM, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The third edition of Hi South East Asia organised by UBM takes place from 27-29 March, in the Jakarta International Expo alongside CPhI South East Asia

Health ingredients (Hi) South East Asia (27-29 March 2018) being held at the Jakarta International Expo is the gateway to the South-East Asian nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160224/336848LOGO )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653836/UBM_Hi_SE_Asia.jpg )

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539190/UBM_Logo.jpg )



The most recent addition to the Food ingredients (Fi) Global portfolio, Hi South East Asia connects buyers and sellers, enables health ingredient manufacturers to find reliable suppliers, and provides the forum to create connections to enable expansion in this robust region.

An emerging middle class in the South-East Asia region with a higher spending power is creating demand for health-based food & beverages. With strong influences from Western eating cultures including healthier snacking, interest in organic and naturally healthy foods, and a desire for innovative flavours and health benefits, the region is an attractive market for investors, particularly Indonesia which is home to the largest and fastest growing food and beverage market.

Indonesia is projected to be the fastest-growing economy within the ASEAN with an average annual growth rate of 6.0% in 2014-2018. 90% of ingredients used in the Indonesian F&B industry are imported, while Indonesian consumers are willing to spend more on food products that promote health benefits. New emerging economies such as Vietnam and other Indo-Chinese regions are also beginning to open up to the food and beverage market.

"Indonesia has a growing and relatively young population (50% under 30). Consumer awareness of health issues has increased in recent years, and many Indonesian consumers are willing to spend more on health foods."Cheryl Tay, Editor of NutraIngredients - Asia

"South East Asian consumers often are more open to the health benefits of functional foods and nutraceuticals than Europeans."Wolfgang Loersch, Vice President of Breko

With over 1,000 visitors from key health markets expected, Hi South East Asia will be co-located this year with CPhI South East Asia, the region's leading event for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.

Key workshops and conferences will cover the latest topics in the food ingredients and pharmaceutical industry presented by industry experts. Themes include innovative ingredients for better health, the start-up landscape in South East Asia, and an investment forum focusing on investing in innovations.

For further information please visit https://www.hisoutheastasia.com/

Other highlighted features at Hi South East Asia 2018 include:

Hi/CP h I South East Asia Conference , covering the latest topics in the food ingredients and pharmaceutical industry, presented by industry experts. Paid conference.



, covering the latest topics in the food ingredients and pharmaceutical industry, presented by industry experts. Business m atch -making programme , which provides attendees with opportunities to browse potential clients, schedule meetings before the event, and find new business partners.



, which provides attendees with opportunities to browse potential clients, schedule meetings before the event, and find new business partners. Innovation Gallery, showcasing the most innovative and revolutionary products within food ingredients and pharma.

About Food ingredients Global - The trusted route to market since 1986

Food ingredients was launched in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in 1986. Its portfolio of live events, extensive data, digital solutions and high-level conferences are now established throughout the world and provide regional and global platforms for all stakeholders, in the food ingredients industry. Over 500,000 people have attended our shows over the years with billions of Euros worth of business created as a result. With over 25 years of excellence, our events, digital solutions and supporting products, deliver a proven route to market, with a truly global audience.

For more information about the Food ingredients portfolio please visit: http://www.figlobal.com

For more information about press and for press registration please visit: http://www.figlobal.com/hieurope/about/press

About UBM

UBM connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets. Through premier brands such as Routes, CPhI, IFSEC, Ecobuild, Seatrade, and many others, UBM exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across seven industry sectors.

To ensure long term profitability; UBM aims to be a leader in sustainable business, aligning all key business decisions with our sustainability strategy. UBM sees it as fundamental that we are conscious of the impact that our actions have on the environment and the communities in which we operate. UBM strives to manage its impact by ensuring that the principles of sustainability are at the core of all our activities. A cornerstone to our journey towards sustainability is our certification to the ISO 20121 Sustainable Event Management System. UBM is one of the first major organisers to successfully implement and certify our sustainable event management system against the International Standard ISO 20121.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Monique Olijhoek

De Entree 73, Toren A, 1101 BH

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Tel: +31-20-708-1678

Monique.olijhoek@ubm.comBritain will be free to sign trade deals during the Brexit transition period without permission from the European Union after a climbdown by Brussels, The Times has learnt. EU negotiators have accepted the UK's demand that it should be able to pursue an independent trade policy while remaining inside the customs union and single market. It's all change for the Treasury's plans to scrap 1p and 2p coins. Just 24 hours after the idea was floated by the chancellor in his spring statement, No 10 has ...

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.SAN FRANCISCO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global advanced composites market size is expected to reach USD 41.20 billion by 2024, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The industry is anticipated to grow, primarily on account of superior benefits such as reduced weight, fuel efficiency and higher strength offered by the materials.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO )



Rising demand for specialty products that comply with U.S. Leadership in Energy and Environmental design (LEED) standards is expected to propel the demand in construction segment Technological innovations aimed at the development of cost-effective manufacturing processes are expected to drive demand.

The market for advanced composites is characterized by the presence of a large number of regulations. The production process of composite materials is heavily regulated on account of critical nature of their usage. In addition, the usage of such materials is also subject to various regulations related to the strength and performance characteristics, which is likely to affect the growth.

Increasing adoption of composites by the automotive industry coupled with reduced raw material prices, is projected to drive the industry growth over the forecast period. Manufacturing companies are shifting their focus towards the developing economies in regions such as Asia Pacific and Central & South America (CSA), on account superior economies of scale.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Advanced Composites Market Size, Share & Trend Analysis Report By Product (Aramid, Carbon), By Application (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Construction), And Segment Forecasts, 2013 - 2024" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/advanced-composites-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

Carbon is expected to be the fastest-growing segment, in terms of volume, registering a CAGR of 11.9% from 2015 to 2024 owing to its extensive usage in the production of aircraft components such as wings, fuselage, cockpit, and tail surfaces.

The use of s-glass based composites in the construction industry is expected to reach a market revenue of USD 2.52 billion by 2024 on account of the superior stress resistance of the product coupled with longer operational lifetime

by 2024 on account of the superior stress resistance of the product coupled with longer operational lifetime The use of aramid fibers for aerospace and defense application is expected to register a CAGR of 5.8% over the forecast period owing to heightened demand for low weight, high-strength materials for aircraft production.

Key manufacturers operating in the industry lay extensive focus on the production and development of high strength materials for specific applications in a bid to increase the market share.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Earthenware Market - The Global earthenware market is expected to drive on account of increasing generic fashion in home decorations. It is made from ceramic material and is mainly used for decorative purposes.

Geosynthetic Clay Liner Market - The Global Geosynthetic Clay Liner Market size was 118.0 million square meters in 2014 and is expected to witness considerable growth on account of increasing awareness regarding landfill protection.

Tempered Glass Market - The Global tempered glass market was estimated at 2,542.1 million square meters in 2014 and is expected to witness growth on account of rising demand from the automotive sector.

Bioceramics Market - The Global bioceramics market size was USD 12.31 billion in 2014 and is expected to witness significant growth over the next seven years owing to increasing demand from the orthopedic and dental implants sector.

Grand View Research has segmented the advanced composites market on the basis of product, application and region.

Advanced Composites Product Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2013 - 2024) Aramid Carbon Glass

Advanced Composites Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2013 - 2024) Aramid Aerospace & Defense Automotive Construction Marine Carbon Aerospace & Defense Automotive Construction Marine Pipes & tanks Sporting Goods Wind Energy Glass Aerospace & Defense Automotive Construction Marine Pipes & Tanks Sporting Goods Wind Energy

Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2013 - 2024) North America U.S. Europe Germany The UK Asia Pacific China India Japan Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/advanced-materials

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. Thecompany 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: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.comPosted 3/14/18

On March 17, exhibitors and thousands of attendees will descend on Nixa High School for the 23rd annual NIXPO, Nixas premiere business and community expo.The event has grown as one of the top Successful execution of the Columbus2020 strategy with a revenue of DKK 1.2bn, a growth of 2%. EBITDA increased by 3% to DKK 149m, and result after tax increased by 18% to DKK 96m. Release no. 4/2018 Columbus A/S has today published the Annual Report 2017, cf. release no. 3/2018. In 2017 Columbus delivered a revenue of DKK 1.2bn, and EBITDA* amounted to DKK 149m, corresponding to an increase of 2% and 3%, respectively, compared to 2016. The result after tax increased by 18% to DKK 96m. The revenue growth was primarily driven by the emerging cloud business, growth in the services business and acquisitions made in 2016 and 2017. The increase in EBITDA* was primarily due to growth in profitability in the services business, which increased by 19%, but was negatively affected by the development in Columbus' business in the US. Based on the result for the year and cash flow, the Board of Directors proposes that the General Meeting adopts a dividend payment of 10% of the nominal share capital. Management initiatives in 2017 -- Execution of the Columbus2020 strategy -- Execute cloud transition plan -- Acquisitions: -- Tridea Partners -- Offer to buy iStone AB -- Recovery initiatives for Columbus US Succesful execution of Columbus2020 Columbus continued the execution of Columbus2020 as planned. In 2017 Columbus focused particularly on improving customer success and customer loyalty, and during the year the number of loyal customers increased considerably. In 2017, Columbus launched a range of new services within Application Management and Infrastructure Management, which means that Columbus is now able to support the customers' entire applications and IT infrastructure. Cloud market leaders During 2017, Columbus converted the Company's software portfolio into cloud-based solutions and developed new services to support the customers running their applications in the cloud. Today, Columbus is among the market leaders in implementing business application projects in the cloud. Acquisition of iStone On 30 November, Columbus announced an offer to acquire the Swedish IT services company iStone with 600 employees. The acquisition was completed 2 January 2018. The acquisition will grow Columbus' revenue by approx. 50% and position Columbus as market leader within digital transformation in the Nordic region as well as increase global reach significantly. Challenges in Columbus US During first half of 2017, Columbus' business in the US faced market challenges that led to declining sales. The challenge with the US market has continued through Q4 and we experienced sales execution below expectations and unexpected losses on customer engagements of DKK 4m. Overall the challenges in the US business had a negative impact on revenue of approximately DKK 70 million and a negative impact on EBITDA of approximately DKK 31m. During 2017, the US business has adjusted the cost level in order to compensate for the reduced revenue. Financial statements for 2017 The revenue increased by 2% to DKK 1.2bn in 2017. In local currency revenue increased by 3%. EBITDA2 increased by 3% to DKK 149m. Revenue is in the lower end of the announced expectations. The revenue from Columbus' services business increased by 3% to DKK 823m. Service EBITDA increased by 19% to DKK 109m which is in the lower end of the announced expectations. The revenue from Columbus Software decreased by 9% to DKK 83m (2016: 91m). The decrease is due to the cloud conversion, as license sales decreased by 37%. However, sale of subscriptions increased by 7% and own cloud revenue increased by 216% to DKK 6.2m. This development is in line with expectations. Recurring revenue increased from 25% of total revenue to 28%. The increase is primarily due to an increase in sale of Columbus Care which grew by 43% and growth in the sale of cloud based solutions. The development is in line with the announced expectations. EBITDA after share-based payment increased by 6% to DKK 146m compared to 2016 (DKK 139m). Profit after tax increased by 18% to DKK 96m (2016 DKK 82m) and is considered satisfactory. Expectations for 2018 2018 will be focused on growing the business organically with retained profitability while ensuring a successful integration of iStone and other acquisitions. Management will also have high focus on getting the US business back on track. Specific targets for 2018: -- Revenue in the level of DKK 2bn -- EBITDA* in the level of DKK 200m -- Columbus Software in the level of DKK 90m -- 10% dividend on nominal share capital Expected integration and restructuring costs of DKK 10-15m in relation to the integration of iStone and HiGH Software are included in the expectations to EBITDA* for 2018. Columbus increases expectations to acquisition price and contribution from the iStone acquisition At the time of announcement of the iStone acquisition, Columbus expected iStone to deliver revenue in the level of SEK 800m (DKK 600m) and an EBITDA in the level of SEK 41m (DKK 31m) i 2017. Due to a high activity level and a good final sprint, iStone ended the year better than expected. Thus, the preliminary unaudited financial statements for 2017 for iStone show a revenue of SEK 830m (DKK 623m) and an EBITDA of SEK 56m (DKK 42m). At closing on 2 January 2018, the total acquisition price for iStone was expected to amount to between SEK 430m (DKK 323m) and SEK 570m (DKK 428m), of which SEK 230m (DKK 173m) was paid at closing. Based on the preliminary result for 2017 and adjusted expectations for 2018, the total acquisition price is expected to increase to between SEK 514m (DKK 386) and SEK 682m (DKK 512m). The increased acquisition price will be paid over the next three years and is expected to be financed by liquidity from operations. As a consequence of the final sprint and subsequent momentum, iStone is expected to deliver revenue in the level of SEK 840m (DKK 630m) and an EBITDA in the level of SEK 60m (DKK in 45m) in 2018. Updated long-term guidance Columbus has updated the long-term guidance for the next three years. With the acquisition of iStone and HiGH Software Columbus has taken a large step in reaching the financial goals for 2020. With the acquisition of iStone the Company's focus will be to grow the business organically. The ambition is to grow the business at a compounded average growth rate of 3-5% each year. If Columbus makes any acquisitions during the period, expectations will be adjusted accordingly. In 2017 Columbus realized an EBITDA margin of 12%. With the acquisition of iStone, the EBITDA margin for 2018 is expected to be in the level of 10%. Columbus maintains long-term guidance of 11% EBITDA margin towards 2020. "We are satisfied with the result for 2017 where we grew our business while developing and selling a range of new cloud-based solutions helping our customers in the digital transformation. The result has shown that Columbus can deliver on our vision about growth and innovation in a rapidly changing market", says CEO & President in Columbus, Thomas Honore. Investor presentation Columbus' Executive Board will present the results for 2017 at a conference call today at 13:00CET. Please use the following dial-in numbers: Denmark: +45 35 15 81 21 UK/international: +44 (0) 330 336 9411 US: +1 323 994 2083 Conference ID 1227866 It is also possible to follow the online webcast via this link: edge.media-server.com/m6/p/u6fejqs3 A recorded version of the presentation will be available on the website after the webcast has concluded: www.columbusglobal.com. Ib Kune Thomas Honore Chairman CEO & President Columbus A/S Columbus A/S For further information, please contact: CEO & President, Thomas Honore .: +45 70 20 50 00 Translation: In the event of any inconsistency between this document and the Danish language version, the Danish language version shall be the governing version. Columbus' Columbus2020 strategy - towards growth Based on Columbus' strengthened position, as a result of successful execution of the Columbus15 strategy, the company launched a growth strategy in March. The strategy is named Columbus2020 and consists of four interconnected strategic elements. Customer Success - Taking care of our customers for life Columbus' fundamental goal their ERP investments and satisfaction from the is to take care of our by leading them in the customer meet Columbus customers for life. digital transformation of for the first time to Columbus aims to be their business delivering unique widely recognized as a This means that Columbus solutions, high quality strategic business will intensify the focus services and partner that enhances our on creating a unique streamlined project customer's success by customer experience and delivery and support improving the value increase customer 24/7. realization of -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digital Leadership - Accelerate business innovation Columbus helps our methodologies and business business in order to customers in the digital processes that optimizes succeed in the digital transformation of their and improves the economy. Columbus will business. With Digital implementation of develop solutions and Leadership Columbus has ERP-solutions. Secondly, services within cloud, two focus areas. Firstly, Columbus will establish a mobile, social, Columbus will continue to leadership position analytics and Internet strengthen our leadership within Digital of Things that help position within ERP by Transformation. Many companies take investing in new companies are about to or advantage of the companies, applications, in the process of digital opportunities. transforming their -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Process Excellence - Quality in everything we do In Columbus, we constantly quality to our customers. over sales and design of strive to optimize and Our goal is to create the the business solution streamline our business best customer experience to the implementation operations in order to in the industry. The process and lifetime achieve strong sales focal point is quality in support. This means an excellence and deliver everything we do - from intense focus on projects, services and the initial contact with optimizing and support of high customers, streamlining our processes globally. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our People - Attract, develop and retain the best people Columbus' greatest asset providing challenging meeting the customers' is our employees and career opportunities, expectations sets the therefore it is crucial attractive working direction in everything that we attract and conditions and we do. retain the best people in professional and personal This means that Columbus the industry. We want to growth. Columbus want to always strives to attract highly skilled create a customer deliver projects on people by culture, where time, within budget and at the highest quality. Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=668547Consumer products group PZ Cussons updated the market on its trading for the year ending 31 May on Thursday, issuing a profit warning amid tough trading conditions. The FTSE 250 company had reported in January that performance in the first half of the year was constrained by conditions in the UK and Nigeria, and that delivery of the full year result would be dependent on conditions in those markets for the balance of year. On Thursday morning, it said it was now apparent that profit for the full ...

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.PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --REBRAND' revealed the much-anticipated 2018 REBRAND 100Global Awards winners showcase. The list, selected for executed strategy that met strategic goals with relevance, can be seen at www.REBRAND.com and includes:

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654294/REBRAND_Logo.jpg

ACLU unifies identity for better access and reach in new political climate

Ashland accelerates its mission and increases the value of the enterprise

BOOK By Cadillac innovates with a winning member subscription service

Coty Inc breathes new life into its founder's visionary legacy

Fontana Infinity drives sales increase with unique expression of the offer

ENAP builds a unified organizational culture with a strong brand

Hewlett Packard Enterprise enhances its agility and future-focus

Made in Bhutan transforms to leverage inward investment and talent

transforms to leverage inward investment and talent Nest Bank drives increase in brand awareness with dedication to families

NSC Comunicacao strengthens the local community with inspiring content

PNG Air integrates national pride and culture with rise in customers

Siemens emphasizes human-centered focus in products and services

"This year's edition of the REBRAND 100 shows the agility, strength and creativity of many professionals around the world in helping their brands to adapt and stay ahead of a fast changing world," said Nanne Bos, Head of Global Brand Management at ING.

Winners also included Bain Capital, Capgemini, CECONOMY, CTCI, CZ Bank, DFW Airport, Henley, Marche International, MT Hoejgaard, Parkinson's Foundation, Q, RAK Ceramics, SAP, and Yas Island. Projects launched between January 2015 and September 2017 were eligible. The renowned jury of industry experts reviewed the work from 37 industries and 42 countries for this year's program.

"A successful rebrand is like a feel-good story. It walks us through the different stages of a problem, and at the end, it delights us with a fresh and uplifting outcome," said 2018 juror, Fadi Yaacoub, Executive Creative Director, Digital, of the Toronto Star.

Axel Lober, Head of Branding & Strategic Projects, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, noted, "In a rapidly changing business environment, cultural change is pivotal for companies to succeed. Strong brands can support or even drive this change-which turns a rebrand into a much larger opportunity than a simple refresh of colors."2018 juror, June M. Archer, former EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, agreed, adding, "Winning rebrands transcend telling to showing us brand value and why we should care."

The result when smart strategy and design are combined is expressed by Andy Payne, Global Chief Creative Officer of Interbrand, "Brand is recognized as the most powerful lever for delivering strategies that create a better future for customers, employees and stakeholders; ultimately delivering business growth while mitigating risks."

About REBRAND' and the REBRAND 100Global Awards

REBRAND is the world's leading platform for brand transformation insights, case examples, programs, and expertise. Celebrating 12+ years of excellence, its renowned REBRAND 100Global Awards is the most prestigious, juried recognition for repositioned brands, having reached participation from over 61 countries in 40+ industries. Featured in such media as The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg News, articles and books, the results have generated an unrivaled global library of transformed brands for business reference and research.

Contact:

REBRAND

awards@rebrand.comSAN FRANCISCO, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global crop protection chemicals market is expected to reach USD 90.09 billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rapid population growth, which demands high food production coupled with rising awareness regarding food safety is expected to drive demand for crop protection chemicals.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160524/371361LOGO )



The industry is highly competitive owing to the presence of numerous manufacturers spread across the globe. The manufacturers are expected to undergo mergers and acquisitions in order to strengthen their business and widen consumer base. Strong foothold of existing manufacturers such as Bayer AG, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta and BASF in the market is expected to obstruct the growth of new players.

The industry players are expected to shift their focus to produce bio-based chemicals, in order to meet the rising consumer demand for environmentally friendly products. Increasing stringent regulations on the existing hazardous synthetic crop protection chemicals by government bodies such as EPA and OSHA is expected to hamper industry growth over the projected period.

High investments by major players to manufacture crop specific green protection chemicals with low cost is expected to impact the industry positively. The industry has numerous distributors and suppliers which reach the consumers from remote locations, which is likely to boost industry growth.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Crop Protection Chemicals Market Size, Share & Trend Analysis Report By Product, By Application, By Region, Market Dynamics, Competitive Landscape And Segment Forecasts, 2012 - 2022" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/crop-protection-chemicals-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

Insecticides accounted for 37.6% of the global crop protection chemicals market in 2016 owing to their low cost and superior effectiveness against targeted insects on crops

The demand for fungicides is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% over the projected period owing to its ease of application and ability to improve storage quality of harvested crops and fruits

Cotton was the largest application segment for the industry in 2016 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4%, which is driven by high demand from textile and medical industry

North America was the leading market for crop protection chemicals in 2016, with the revenue of USD 18.52 billion , which was attributed to early product adoption and high spending capacity of the farmers in the region

was the leading market for crop protection chemicals in 2016, with the revenue of , which was attributed to early product adoption and high spending capacity of the farmers in the region The Asia Pacific is likely to witness the highest growth, owing to increasing investments by the farmers in India and China to increase crop yield and improve quality of agricultural products in order to meet the rising demand

is likely to witness the highest growth, owing to increasing investments by the farmers in and to increase crop yield and improve quality of agricultural products in order to meet the rising demand The major players in the industry are expected to venture into local markets of the developing economies by acquiring the small-scale companies in order to strengthen company roots in the high potential markets

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Phosphate Rock Market - The Global demand for phosphate rock is expected to witness a high growth over the forecast period owing to the growing consumption in the downstream sector mainly fertilizers and phosphoric acid.

Biorationals Market - The global biorationals market size exceeded USD 1.0 billion in 2015. Increasing adoption of integrated pest management is expected to steer market growth over the forecast period.

Chiral Chemicals Market - The global chiral chemicals market size was USD 39.79 billion in 2015 and is likely to witness considerable growth on account of increasing government focus towards pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Water Soluble Fertilizer Market - The global water soluble fertilizer market size was USD 12.5 billion in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth over the next eight years.

Grand View Research has segmented the global crop protection chemicals market on the basis of product, application, and region:

Crop Protection Chemicals Product Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Herbicides Fungicides Insecticides Others

Crop Protection Chemicals Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Fruits & vegetables Cereals Maize Cotton Rice Others

Crop Protection Chemicals Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the world



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/bulk-chemicals

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. Thecompany 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: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.comWASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ALXN) announced that the pivotal Phase 3 study of ALXN1210, the company's investigational long-acting C5 complement inhibitor, demonstrated non-inferiority to Soliris (eculizumab) in complement inhibitor treatment-naive patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. The study also demonstrated non-inferiority on all four key secondary endpoints. In addition, numeric results for all six endpoints favored ALXN1210. There were no notable differences in the safety profiles for ALXN1210 and Soliris. The company said, since non-inferiority was achieved across both co-primary and all four key secondary endpoints, the protocol allowed for superiority testing. The hierarchical testing order pre-specified breakthrough hemolysis as the first endpoint tested for superiority. Although ALXN1210 did not achieve superiority, a numeric trend in favor of ALXN1210 was observed for breakthrough hemolysis. John Orloff, Executive Vice President and Head of Research & Development at Alexion, said: 'Soliris has established a high bar for efficacy. Achieving non-inferiority on both co-primary and all key secondary endpoints, as well as seeing numeric results in favor of ALXN1210, in such a rigorous study met a very high hurdle. We look forward to regulatory submissions of ALXN1210 in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria in the U.S., EU, and Japan in the second half of 2018.' 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.VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 15, 2018 / Global Cannabis Applications Corp. ("GCAC" or the "Company") (CSE: APP, FSE: 2FA, OTCQB: FUAPF), a leading developer of innovative data technologies for the cannabis industry, announced that is launching Sanna, a proprietary built artificial intelligence chatbot, that will be used by patients to receive medical cannabis information and personalized treatment recommendations, while providing GCAC with valuable product feedback and patient data.

"Sanna was named to blend the Latin word for health, Sana, and cannabis," said Brad Moore, CEO of GCAC. "It was designed with artificial intelligence to deliver highly personalized and accurate analysis of symptoms, treatment plans and knowledge through an engaging user experience. Sanna uses machine learning and natural language processing to interpret and understand what is happening with medical cannabis patients in real time and provide them the best possible information on a global scale."

The Sanna chatbot has been seeded with information from over ten years of customer facing interactions based on the intellectual property from Adolfo Gonzales' highly touted Canna Help Deck (see cannareps.ca). GCAC has an exclusive intellectual property arrangement with Canna Help Deck. Sanna uses proprietary technology and artificial intelligence to simulate a conversation via text interactions to understand a patient's medical profile and provide guidance about medical cannabis and treatment options. All individual records collected by Sanna are stored in a trusted and secure environment, and will be aggregated and processed through GCAC's proprietary machine learning/artificial intelligence algorithm, which will continually enhance the accuracy of the results generated in future versions of the Sanna system. GCAC's algorithm is patent pending.

Sanna will be made available in April 2018 in GCAC's CannaLife App in both iOS and Android stores. App users will be able to ask Sanna about cannabis treatments for their ailments. These conversations will help users in their searches on CannaLife using its custom cannabis search engine to read articles, watch videos and create social posts. Users can share their posts in Cannalife's Communities with other users and on their favorite social platforms including Instagram and Facebook.

Sanna will be available in Prescriptii in late Q2 2018. GCAC's Prescriptii app which is used currently in the Canadian marketplace and is expected to be released shortly in Australia and selected US states, will use the Sanna chatbot to record a patient's experience with medical cannabis over time. Sanna will enable users to understand important longer-term medical questions such as delayed or longer-term responses to ongoing usage, monitoring the effectiveness of different treatments and side effects.

About Global Cannabis Applications Corp.

Global Cannabis Applications Corp. is a global leader in designing, developing, marketing, and acquiring innovative data technologies for the cannabis industry. The Citizen Green platform is the world's first end-to-end - from patient to regulator - medical cannabis data solution. It uses six core technologies: mobile applications, artificial intelligence, reg tech, smart databases, blockchain and digital reward tokens, to qualify candidates for clinical studies. These technologies facilitate the proliferation of digital conversations by like-minded people in medical cannabis. Managed by digital and cannabis industry experts, GCAC is focused on viral global expansion by providing the best digital experience in the cannabis market.

For more information about the Company, please visit online at www.cannappscorp.com, or review its profiles www.sedar.com and on the Canadian Securities Exchange's website (www.thecse.com ) .

To schedule an interview, please contact:

Bradley Moore

Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: 514-5619091

Email: bmoore@cannappscorp.com

For more information, please contact:

Corporate Communications Canada & Europe

Telephone: 1.855.269.9554

Email: info@cannappscorp.com

www.cannappscorp.com

Corporate Communications United States

Hayden IR

Telephone: 1.917.658.7878

Email: hart@haydenir.com

Forward-Looking Information

This news release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of GCAC. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of GCAC. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because GCAC can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. GCAC disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy and accuracy of this information.

SOURCE: Global Cannabis Applications Corp.Table 3: Summary Assays from Atenea 3400 Level - Hanging Wall Split

Width Au Ag Cu Pb Zn Au-Eq. Metres g/t g/t % % % g/t

3.75 0.41 37.37 1.26 0.78 0.29 3.49

3.00 1.01 99.53 0.99 0.56 0.33 4.37

5.45 2.41 86.65 1.13 0.47 0.48 5.85

10.80 3.06 49.37 1.22 0.89 0.89 6.65

8.00 4.66 58.36 1.66 1.96 0.77 9.58

4.90 2.08 65.51 1.56 4.49 2.09 9.12 Weighted A verages 6.0 2.74 63.18 1.33 1.52 0.86 7.00 Length (metres) 70

Project Background

Lupaka's Invicta Gold Project is a polymetallic development project located approximately 120 kilometres north of Lima, Peru. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) was completed on the project by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. March 1, 2018 which evaluated the economic viability of underground extraction of the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources from the Atenea Vein close to the existing 3,400 Level adit (up to 130 metres above the 3400 Level) utilizing a sub-level long hole open stoping mining method supported by initial toll treatment processing options. The PEA has robust economics with the following highlights:

Mineral Resource Statement of 3.0 million tonnes of Indicated Mineral Resources at 5.78 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold equivalent ounces ("Au-Eq.") using a 3.0 g/t Au-Eq. cut-off, and 0.6 million tonnes of Inferred Mineral Resources at 5.29 g/t Au-Eq.

Initial 6-year mine plan (underground) designed on a portion of the mineral resource utilizing the existing infrastructure and minimizing capital start-up costs

Sub-level open stope mining producing ~ 670,000 minable tonnes at 8.6 g/t Au-Eq.* with production of ~ 185,000 Au-Eq. oz (within initial 6-year mine plan)

Average annual pre-tax cash flows of US$10.2 million, average annual after-tax cash flow of US$8.2 million

Annual production of 33,700 Au-Eq. oz, during steady state

Annual payable metal of 26,700 Au-Eq. oz, during steady state

All-in Sustaining Costs of US$575 Au-Eq. oz over initial 6-year mine life, average annual pre-tax operating profit of US$12.3 million

Pre-tax 5% NPV of US$53.6 million

Low capital investment: US$4.3 million in pre-production capital with a payback of less than one year

The PEA considers only part of the reported Mineral Resource (the Atenea Vein close to existing infrastructure) with the objective of generating positive cash flow from a low-cost operation while simultaneously re-investing in and further evaluating the deposit to potentially expand production in the future.

The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Quality Control and Assurance

The analyses for this sampling campaign were carried out by ALS, an accredited laboratory, in Lima, Peru, exercising a thorough Quality Assurance and Control program (QA/QC). As part of QA/QC protocol, duplicates, standards and blanks were inserted into the sample processing stream. The sample locations were mapped, surveyed and photographed for reference. Individual sample channels vary between 0.2 to 2.5 metres wide. Samples were bagged, sealed and delivered to the ALS sample preparation facility in Lima, Peru. Gold was assayed by a 50-gram fire assay and re-assayed for the overlimits, with an AAS finish. All ALS labs are ISO 9000 registered.

Technical Report

Further information about the PEA and the resource estimate referenced in this news release, including data verification, key assumptions, parameters, risks and other factors, will be provided in a technical report prepared following Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument (NI) 43-101 and Form 43-101F1 guidelines for the Invicta Project that the Company will file on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 45 days from March 1, 2018.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this news release.

About Lupaka Gold

Lupaka is an active Canadian-based company focused on creating shareholder value through discoveries and strategic development of its assets in some of the most prolific mining regions of Peru.

Invicta Gold Development Project - 100% owned, the Company's flagship project is an advanced stage gold-copper polymetallic underground deposit located approximately 120 kilometres north of Lima. Over $12 million of capital has been spent by previous owners on development and infrastructure at Invicta, and management expects to commence potential production in the second half of 2018 by using third-party mining contractors and utilizing the existing adit and workings. The Invicta project is fully permitted and community agreements are in place.

The potential underground operation will be focused on underground extraction of Indicated Mineral Resources and Inferred Mineral Resources from the Atenea vein within close proximity to the existing 3400 Level adit (up to 130 metres above the 3400 Level).

Invicta's approved EIA allows for mine production of up to 1,000 tpd, although the current mining plan is targeting 350 tpd.

Cautionary Note Regarding the Invicta Production Decision

The decision to commence potential production at the Invicta Gold Project and the Company's plans for a mining operation as referenced herein (the "Production Decision and Plans") are based on economic models prepared by the Company in conjunction with management's knowledge of the property and the existing estimate of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources on the property, supplemented by the 2018 PEA. The Production Decision and Plans were not based on a preliminary economic assessment, a pre-feasibility study or a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with the Production Decision and Plans, in particular the risk that mineral grades will be lower than expected, the risk that construction or ongoing mining operations are more difficult or more expensive than expected, the risk that the Company will not be able to transport or sell the mineralized material it produces to local custom toll mills on the terms it expects, or at all; production and economic variables may vary considerably, due to the absence of a detailed economic and technical analysis according to and in accordance with NI 43-101.

Josnitoro Gold Project - the Company holds an option to earn a 65% interest on this project from Hochschild Mining PLC. The project is located approximately 800 kilometres by road southeast of Lima in the Department of Apurimac, southern Peru, within the Andahuaylas-Yaury Belt, in which the Las Bambas mine (MMG Limited) and the Constancia mine (HudBay Minerals) are located. Historical work on the disseminated gold zones includes over 170 shallow drill holes and extensive surface trenching, as well as artisanal mining.

About SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc.

SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. form part of the SRK Consulting Group which is an independent, international consulting company that provides focused advice and solutions to clients, mainly from earth and water resource industries. Formed in 1974, SRK now employs more than 1,400 professionals in over 40 offices on 6 continents. Among SRK's 1,500 clients are most of the world's major- and medium-sized metal and industrial mineral mining houses, exploration companies, banks, petroleum exploration companies, construction firms and government departments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Will Ansley, President & C.E.O.

wansley@lupakagold.com

Tel: (416) 862-5257



or visit the Company's profile at www.sedar.com or its website at www.lupakagold.com

Qualified Person

The technical information in this document has been reviewed and approved by Julio Castaneda Mondragon, MAIG, the President of Lupaka Gold Peru S.A.C., a Peruvian subsidiary of the Company, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Castaneda has verified the scientific and technical information, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in this news release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release relative to anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to improvements in the road to the Invicta Project and its anticipated benefits and the timing of completion of the improvements, the timing of the commencement of potential production from the Invicta Project and the generation of cash therefrom, the anticipated methods of production, the receipt of and anticipated use of proceeds of the PLI Financing, the Company's plans and intentions for Invicta, mineral resource estimates, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made that the Company believes are reasonable, including: that the repayment of the PLI Financing is consummated on the anticipated terms, that the supplies, equipment, personnel, permits, and local community approvals required to conduct the Company's planned pre-production and development activities will be available on reasonable terms, that the Company will be able to comply with the delivery and other obligations in the PLI Financing Agreement, that results of exploration activities will be consistent with management's expectations and that the Company will not experience any material accident, labour dispute, or failure of equipment and with respect to the planned mining operations at Invicta; that pre-production mine development can be completed in the time and for the cost projected; that the Company will be able to obtain funding for planned production expenses; that mineralization at Invicta will be of the grades and in the locations expected; that the Company will be able to extract and transport mineralized rock efficiently and sell the mineralized rock at the prices and in the manner and quantities expected; that permits will be received on the terms and timeline expected and that other regulatory or permitting issues will not arise; that mining methods can be employed in the manner and at the costs expected and that such methods yield the results the Company expects them to. However, forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: all of the risks described in this news release; failure of the PLI Financing to complete on the proposed terms or at all, including due to the Company's inability to complete the conditions precedent, the risk that actual results of exploration and development activities will be different than anticipated; that the Company will not be able to comply with the delivery or other obligations in the PLI Financing Agreement and the risk that PLI will enforce its security over the Company's assets, including its mineral properties; that cost of labour, equipment or materials will increase more than expected; that the future price of gold will decline; that the Canadian dollar will strengthen against the U.S. dollar; that mineral resources are not as estimated; unexpected variations in mineral resources, grade or recovery rates; risks related to shipping mineralized rock; the risk that local mills cannot or will not buy or process mineralized rock from the planned production for the prices expected or at all; risk of accidents, labour disputes and other risks generally associated with mineral exploration; unanticipated delays in obtaining or failure to obtain community, governmental or regulatory approvals or financing; and all of the risks generally associated with the development of mining facilities and the operation of a producing mine, as well as the risks described in the Company's annual information form, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information due to the inherent uncertainty thereof. Lupaka Gold does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

APPENDIX A







Figure 1: Summarized Assay Results from Underground Channel Sampling of the Atenea Vein on 3400 Level, Invicta Gold Mine

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2640/33529_a1521087403797_68.jpg





Figure 2: Detailed Assay Results from Underground Channel Sampling of the Atenea Vein on 3400 Level, Invicta Gold MineLOS ANGELES, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

FN Media Group Presents USA News Group News Commentary

In a bold statement, which Elon Musk is known well for, Tesla's leader has pronounced that he is "optimistic" that Tesla will exceed previously released specs of the Tesla Semi Truck, the most promising fully electric truck.

News of improved lithium powered EVs is sending lithium mining companies reeling. Early movers in the lithium mining space continue to gain including QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (TSXV: QMC) (OTC: QMCQF), Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM), FMC (NYSE: FMC), and Nemaska Lithium Inc. (TSX: NMX) (OTC: NMKEF).

Elon Musk's pronouncements about his companies' inventions have often been met with ridicule and puzzlement. But he always walks the talk and delivers novel technologies that revolutionize complete industries.

The new mass cargo transit truck appears to be another of the major advancements that will surpass expectations.

Companies preparing for the increased demand for this new generation of EVs have focused on lithium production and are expanding their efforts to create new supplies including developing new lithium sources and capturing previously untapped resources.

QMC Quantum Minerals Corp. (TSXV: QMC) (OTC: QMCQF) is a junior company headlong into the lithium supply race. The company is focused on Canada's hard-rock lithium sector in a well-known region in Manitoba gaining interest for its favorable mining logistics.

Other existing lithium players who are ramping up the increase the production levels of lithium resources include Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM), the largest producer of lithium, FMC (NYSE: FMC), which has expanding lithium interest in South America, and Australia's Orocobre Ltd. (OTC: OROCF), already expanding its production capacity since establishing production a short time ago.

HOW GOOD WILL THE TESLA TRUCK BE?

From rocketry to mass transportation and perhaps more pertinently to electric vehicles, Musk's confidence in his ability to dazzle with unimaginable technology is now well known. With that in mind,it can be concludedthat his latest pronouncement about the Tesla Semi is no act of empty bravado.

After helping establish the electric family saloon as the car of the future with the Tesla range of EVs, Musk has now set his sights on mass cargo transit.

Musk says that his vehicle will exceed previously released specs of the Tesla Semi Truck hand down.

If this does not turn out to be a truly rare case of false embellishment by Musk, the Tesla Semi will definitely blow other cargo truck companies out of the water.

The specs released at the unveiling event in December 2017 were already pretty impressive:

 Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph with 80,000 lb: 20 seconds

 Speed up a 5% Grade:60 mph

 Mile Range: 300 or 500 miles

 Powertrain: 4 Independent Motors on Rear Axles

 Energy Consumption: Less than 2 kWh per mile

 Fuel Savings: $200,000+

 Expected Base Price (300 mile range): $150,000

 Expected Base Price (500 mile range): $180,000

Even the best diesel cargo trucks would struggle to beat this performance.

With the enormous savings, the company estimated that the truck, expected to hit the roads in 2019, will have a payback time of just 2 years.

As expected with every Musk announcement, doubters creeped out of the woodwork.

Daimler's head of trucks expressed reservations towards this pronouncement, arguing that the listed specs already defied and surpassed the laws of physics.

One cannot bet against Elon and Tesla to prove him and other naysayers wrong. Tesla is currently testing the Semi with a number of partners and the results so far seem to have reinvigorated his confidence in the specs.

Although he did not specify the exact margins or provide an updated list of stats, he insisted that the Tesla Semi will be "something really special."

Musk left the comments as a reply to an article on Elektrek which suggested that DHL would make substantial savings by adopting the Semi into its fleet.

QMC QUANTUM MINERALS READYING TO FUEL DEMAND

If miners for lithium are going to react to the spike in demand, they will need to move now on existing resources.

That's the exact situation for QMC Quantum Minerals, which is fast tracking their current project in the Province of Manitoba, Canada. The mineral region is now ranked as the 2nd most favorable mining district in the world according to the Fraser Institute, displacing Australia and others.

QMC Quantum acquired a known lithium property -the Cat Lake Lithium Property, formerly known as the Irgon Mine in 2016.

Its property is in good company. The location is just 20km from the world class Tanco Mine, which was previously North America's largest and sole producer of spodumene (Li).

A predecessor to QMC drilled 25 holes into the property's Irgon Dike in the 1950s and reported a historical resource estimate of 1.2 million tonnes grading 1.51% Li20 over a strike length of 365 meters and to a depth of 213 meters.

QMC Quantum's geological team agrees with the accuracy of those historical drill results and now started a drilling and assessment program to bring the results up to date. The company just reported samples with greater than 2% Lithium within the property and is expanding the sampling.

Direct to production sources like QMC Quantum Mineral's Cat Lake Project could be vital sources as the entire transport industry is being remade in the form of EVs.

TRAINS, PLANES AND AUTOMOBILES (AND TRUCKS)

The massive market for virtually every type of EV is clearly driving demand and the so called "hype" produced by the likes of Elon Musk are only serving to push it even higher.

With battery technology continuing to usurp the transportation sector at a high rate, there is one commodity that will reap high demand growth; lithium.

Lithium is a critical metal in the construction of li-ion batteries which continue to be the most popular choice in EVs and consumer electronics. The current installed mining capacity of the metal is almost certain to be insufficient to meet future demand growth.

Since mining is a very expensive affair, junior mining companies tend to resist entering the market until the price has risen high enough to guarantee returns on investment.

As such there continue to be a demand-supply mismatch for the next few years making lithium and junior pure-plays a very attractive investment option.

POTENTIAL COMPARABLES

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM)

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A., is a producer of potassium nitrate and iodine. The Company produces specialty plant nutrients, iodine derivatives, lithium and its derivatives, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate and certain industrial chemicals. Its segments include specialty plant nutrients, industrial chemicals, iodine and derivatives, lithium and derivatives, potassium, and other products and services Lithium and its derivatives are used in batteries, greases and frits for production of ceramics. Potassium chloride is a commodity fertilizer that is produced and sold by the Company across the world.

FMC (NYSE: FMC)

FMC Corp. is a Philadelphia-based chemical company which is swiftly ramping up its lithium production. Last year, FMC said it was planning to triple lithium hydroxide production capacity by 2019. The first phase of the plan has already started. FMC management also said that it was not ruling out the possibility to spin-off FMC's lithium segment as a separate publicly owned company. BofAMerrill Lynch recently upgraded FMC stock to "Buy" from "Underperform," increasing the price target to $103.00 from $66.

Nemaska Lithium Inc. (TSX: NMX) (OTC: NMKEF)

Nemaska Lithium intends to become a lithium hydroxide supplier and lithium carbonate supplier to the emerging lithium battery market that is largely driven by electric vehicles, cell phones, tablets and other consumer products. The Corporation is developing in Quebec one of the most important spodumene lithium hard rock deposit in the world, both in volume and grade. The spodumene concentrate produced at Nemaska Lithium's Whabouchi mine will be shipped to the Corporation's lithium compounds processing plant to be built in Shawinigan, Quebec. This plant will transform spodumene concentrate into high purity lithium hydroxide and carbonate using the proprietary methods developed by the Corporation, and for which patent applications have been filed.

For a more in-depth look into QMC you can view the in-depth report at USA News Group: http://usanewsgroup.com/2017/12/12/how-to-play-the-stock-markets-january-effect/

http://usanewsgroup.com

info@usanewsgroup.com



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ALBANY, New York, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Theglobal Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Drugs Marketwas valued at approximately US$ 2.9 Bn in 2016 is projected to register cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 3.2% from 2017 to 2025, according to a new report published by Transparency Market Researchtitled "Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Drugs Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2017-2025". The report suggests that rising incidence of the development of antibiotic resistant strains among all age groups are likely to spur the demand of MRSA Drugs in the coming years (2017 to 2025). As key players introduce novel anti-MRSA agents in developed markets such a North America and Europe, these regions are likely to account for dominating share of the global MRSA Drugs market. Established presence & wide distribution networks of major players and growing market penetration of emerging players are likely to boost growth of Asia Pacific MRSA Drugs market at a CAGR of around 3.7% from 2017 to 2025.

Get PDF Brochure for Research Insights athttps://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1315

Development of Treatment-Emergent Resistance in MRSA-Infected Patients to Restrain the Growth of MRSA Drugs

According to CDC, around 33% of the people carry staphylococcus aureus, also known as staph, in their nose. But over the decades, few strains of staph such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) have become resistant to some antibiotics that once destroyed it. MRSA strains are thus a type of staph that are resistant to beta-lactam antibiotic called methicillin. Around 1% of the population carrying staphylococcus aureus on their nose or skin are infected by MRSA. However, increased practice of prescribing antibiotics, 50% of which are unnecessary and inappropriate, is responsible to give rise to treatment-emergent resistance in MRSA-infected patients. According to the CDC, resistance to tigecycline and vancomycin, which are the effective and potent therapeutic options for severe MRSA infection, has emerged. Such treatment-emergent resistant strains developing in the MRSA-infected patients are expected to restrain the growth of MRSA drugs market during the forecast period.

Request a Custom Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=1315

Lipopeptide drug class to lose the market share

The report offers detailed segmentation of global MRSA drugs market on the basis of drug class, route of administration, and distribution channel. Among the drug class, lipopeptide is poised to account for leading share of the global market during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. However, the segment is expected to lose its market share from 31.6% in 2016 to 30.5% by the end of 2025, owing to the loss of patent exclusivity for daptomycin in 2016, and emergence of generic drug molecules in lipopeptide drug class. Key pharmaceuticals companies such as Pfizer, Inc. involved in the manufacturing of oxazolidinones against MRSA infection, and their strong positioning in the global MRSA drugs market is likely to get boost the growth of oxazolidinone segment during the forecast period.

Oral to Be the Most Promising Route of Administration to Invest In

Various route of administration offered in the report are oral and parenteral. Parenteral route of administration accounted for highest market share of 72.2% in 2016, due to the increased investment in the pharmaceutical sector by key antibiotics manufacturers to boost the production of intravenous anti-MRSA antibiotics. Oral route of administration is expected to get a boost in terms of revenue by 2025, which is attributable to the key companies involved in the R&D of anti-MRSA vaccines.

Request For Discount On This Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=1315

Online Pharmacy to witness significant growth rate by 2025

Rise in number of players in the antibiotic manufacturing industry, along with their widespread distribution channels are estimated to propel the market share of the retail pharmacy segment by 2025. Hospital pharmacy is expected to account for a market share of 51.0% by 2025, owing to the increased number of multispecialty hospitals across the globe, and their improved reimbursement policies. However, online pharmacy is likely to register highest CAGR of 3.4% during 2017-2025, due to rise in e-commerce sales, and improvement in digital sales channels to cater to the rising demand-supply gap for antibiotics.

Asia Pacific to Register Exponential Growth Rate and Offer Huge Incremental Opportunity

Geographically, the global MRSA drugs market is segmented into five major regions, which are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. In 2016, North America accounted for the highest market share in terms of revenue, which is attributable to the investments by U.S. based key players in the R&D of screening tools for MRSA infection. Europe is the second most prominent region in the global MRSA drugs market, which is projected to grow during the forecast period, due to research grants by the public & private players in the European countries to propel the R&D of anti-MRSA antibiotics. However, huge patient pool in the countries of China and India, and uncontrolled consumption of antibiotics in India are estimated to fuel the growth of MRSA drugs market in Asia Pacific with relatively significant CAGR of 3.7% during 2017-2025.

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Key Players such as Merck & Co., Inc., and Pfizer, Inc. are Likely to Continue to Lead the Global MRSA Drugs Market

The prominent players operating in the global MRSA Drugs Market are Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd., The Medicines Company, Theravance Biopharma, Allergan, Merck & Co., Inc., and Pfizer, Inc. Investing in the R&D and clinical trials of unique drug molecules in topical dosage form is the major strategy being adopted by key manufacturers to stay ahead in the rising competition.

Popular Research Reports by TMR:

Drugs of Abuse Testing Market :

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https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/drugs-abuse-testing-market.html Fragment-based Drug Discovery Market:

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Research Blog: https://theglobalhealthnews.com/MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 03/15/18 -- Mason Graphite Inc. ("Mason Graphite" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: LLG)(OTCQX: MGPHF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Paul R. Carmel and Mr. Gilles Gingras to the Company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Carmel will act as the new Chairman of the Board and Mr. Gingras will be appointed to the Audit Committee.

Mr. Paul R. Carmel, ICD.D, is a professional with 30 years of experience in the mining field, having held senior management positions and board directorships with mining companies, investment banks and private equity firms. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Orbit Garant Drilling Inc. and a strategic advisor with G Mining Services Inc. He previously held senior management roles with Richmont Mines Inc. as President and CEO and Desjardins Capital Markets as Managing Director, Head of Mining. Mr. Carmel also previously worked with Minquest Capital Inc., The Sentient Group, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, UBS Securities, National Bank Financial and Inco Ltd. Mr. Carmel holds a mining engineering degree from McGill University.

Mr. Gilles Gingras, CPA, CA, ICD.D, has more than 30 years of experience in accounting, consulting and professional services having held senior positions with Charrette Fortier Hawey and Samson Belair Deloitte & Touche, notably in the technology, manufacturing, mining and food industries. Mr. Gingras was on the Canadian Board of Directors of Deloitte from 2002 to 2010. Since 2013, he is a Director of Geomega Resources and Chairman of its audit committee. Mr. Gingras holds an accounting degree from Laval University.

Benoit Gascon, President and CEO of Mason Graphite commented: "On Behalf of all the Directors, I would like to welcome Paul and Gilles to Mason Graphite's Board. We are very excited to have them bring such a level of experience at this exciting time in the Company's evolution. Having worked in the field for several years in Quebec, they are a strong fit with the management team and the Company."

The Company also announces that it has accepted the resignation of Mr. Tyrone Docherty and Mr. Scott Moore from its Board of Directors. Both have been involved with the Company since its inception and were instrumental in bringing the Company to this stage. On behalf of everyone at the Company, Mason Graphite would like to thank them for their services and wishes them success in their present and future endeavours.

About Mason Graphite and the Lac Gueret Project

Mason Graphite is a Canadian mining and processing company focused on the development of its 100% owned Lac Gueret natural graphite deposit located in northeastern Quebec. The Company is led by a highly experienced team that has over five decades of experience in graphite production, sales, and research and development. For more information, visit www.masongraphite.com.

Mason Graphite Inc. On Behalf of the Board

Benoit Gascon, CPA, CA, President & Chief Executive Officer

Head Office: 3030, boulevard Le Carrefour, bureau 600, Laval, Quebec, H7T 2P5

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.

Contacts:

Mason Graphite Inc.

Simon Marcotte, CFA,

Director Corporate Development

+1 (647) 801-7273

info@masongraphite.com

www.masongraphite.com



For more information relating to local communities:

Luc Veilleux, CPA, CA,

Executive Vice-President and CFO

+1 (514) 289-3582

info@masongraphite.com



Posted 3/15/18

We have a special event that will be at 2 p.m. today. Ressie Peters will celebrate her 102nd birthday. I hope you read this before 2, so you can come on over and help us celebrate. Its not 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.American Green Plans to Manage Nipton for Ten Years and Anticipates Paying Delta Shares to Qualifying ERBB Shareholders as a Dividend

Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2018) - Today American Green, Inc. (OTC Pink: ERBB) has announced that it has agreed to transfer its holdings in Nipton, California to Delta International Oil & Gas, Inc. for consideration totaling more than $7.73 Million.

Under the Agreement, American Green will manage Nipton and associated projects for 5 years with a 5-year option. Delta will seek to acquire additional properties subsequent to the Nipton acquisition. Both parties intend for American Green to manage those properties as well. At closing, Delta will assume approximately $3.73 Million in American Green debt, and issue $4 Million in Delta Series A Secured Convertible Preferred Stock ("Series A Stock"), convertible to 160,000,000 shares of Delta Common Stock. The Series A Stock will pay a 5% annual dividend, in stock or cash and will be secured by a lien against the Nipton properties.

According to David Gwyther, American Green's Chairman, "This transaction will relieve American Green of the on-going expense of improving Nipton. That responsibility will now fall upon Delta, giving Nipton the ability to access cheaper capital through a fully reporting company, including the ability to file registered offerings."

"American Green can now expend less of its energy on capital raising, and focus on implementing the revenue-generating components of Nipton, and its other investments, along with many new, and exciting projects on the horizon," Mr. Gwyther continued.

"I believe that this will be a win-win situation for American Green and our shareholders. After the Series A Stock is fully registered with the SEC, we plan to pay, as a dividend to qualifying American Green shareholders, a portion of the Series A Stock. Qualified shareholders would then be entitled to receive the 5% annual dividend attached to any Series A Stock shares that they acquire through the anticipated American Green dividend," he concluded.

Delta is a current and fully reporting company listed on the OTCQB Exchange. (https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/DLTZ/quote). Escrow is expected to close, with completion of all post-execution document deliveries, within the next 7-10 days. American Green shareholders should expect more news regarding the final deliveries shortly after the closing.

Nipton, established over 100 years ago (www.nipton.com), is one of many towns throughout the United States that has seen better days; maybe the mill or factory closed and took its production overseas, or perhaps the mineral mine went dry. It has been American Green's vision (one embraced by Delta) to use Nipton, California as a revitalization model for other near-deserted small towns across America while retaining as much of the town's and region's natural charm, a directive that is paramount to American Green.

It should be noted here that while some of the initial news stories the Nipton purchase generated in the press indicated the purchaser's intent to immediately begin leasing land to cannabis growers (or even growing cannabis itself,) that is not and never has been the company's intent for the area. Only when, and if, American Green (as manager) and Delta (as owner) receive full approval from the relevant controlling authorities, would Nipton move, responsibly, into the cannabis product development sector. As the Nipton Project develops in the future, the company will continue to interact with all state, county, and, hopefully federal, agencies to ensure it is acting entirely within the requisite legal guidelines in this, and all other projects the company undertakes.

Be sure to visit the company's website at www.americangreen.com and sign up for the company's EMAIL ALERTS to stay current on news. In addition, shareholders and other interest holders are invited to join the conversation about American Green found here: https://otc.watch/groups/american-green-inc-erbb/forum/

Shareholders and interest holders may also stay current with American Green Updates:

Twitter: @American__Green (two underscores), or

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americangreenusa

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americangreenusa/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magicalnipton/

NOTES ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Except for any historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission reports and filings. Certain statements contained in this release that are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created by that Act. Reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Forward-looking statements may identified by words such as estimates, anticipates, projects, plans, expects, intends, believes, be should and similar expressions and by the context in which they are used. Such statements are based upon current expectations of the Company and speak only as of the date made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which they are made.

About American Green, Corp.

American Green, Corp., became, in 2009, one of the first publicly traded technology companies in the cannabis industry. Now, with over 50,000 individual shareholders, more than any other company in the cannabis sector, American Green's mission is to lead the cannabis industry. Leveraging our team of professionals in cultivation, manufacturing, extraction, wholesale, retail, and community outreach, we strive to develop sustainable initiatives, while increasing shareholder value and company profit.

Contact:



American Green, Inc.

Investor Relations

11011 South 48th St.

Phoenix, AZ 85044

480-443-1600 X555PORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Wax Market by Type, and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the global wax market was valued at $9,322 million in 2016, and is projected to reach at $11,780 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 3.4% from 2017 to 2023.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg )



Waxes are a mixture of hydrophobic organic materials that turns into solid state at a temperature of 20C, and melts at temperature higher than 40C up to 140C. Wax offers superior resistance towards temperature. The key sources of producing wax are petroleum, plants, animals, and natural gases. Paraffin/mineral wax, synthetic wax, and natural wax are the three types of waxes available in the market.

Request for Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4576

High adoption rate of waxes in the packaging applications and their superior properties such as heat and water resistance make them suitable for use in hot melts, emulsions, and candles, which act as the major drivers of the global wax market. Moreover, increase in use of wax as a raw material for several cosmetics products boosts the market growth. However, high cost of synthetic and natural wax restricts the growth of the market. In contrast, the augmented use of wax in developing natural cosmetic products is anticipated to offer growth opportunity for the market.

Based on application, the market for wax is divided into candles, packaging, emulsions, hot melts, floor polishes, and others. The candles application was the highest revenue contributor in 2016, accounting for around three-fifths share. This is attributed to increased use of candles in hotels, spa, and other buildings for aromatherapy.

By geography, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. North America generated the highest revenue in 2016, accounting for $2,885 million, owing to development of the cosmetic industry.

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KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

North America dominated the market both in terms of value and volume

dominated the market both in terms of value and volume Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023.

is projected to register the highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023. The LAMEA market contributed one-fifth of the global market revenue in 2016.

U.S. was the highest revenue contributor of the wax market globally in 2016.

China is projected to register the highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023 in the Asia-Pacific wax market.

China and India collectively contributed approximately more than 70% to the Asia-Pacific market revenue in 2016. In the same year, Japan contributed approximately one-seventh of the wax market in Asia-Pacific.

The key players profiled in the report include Dow Corning, Akzo Nobel N.V., Evonik Industries, Arch Chemicals, BASF SE, Hexion Inc., Honeywell International, Lubrizol Corporation, The Clorox Company, and Momentive Performance Materials.

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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.

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Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.comOnline Reputation Management Company Helps Promote a Safer Cyber World Through 5 Student Scholarships

BURLINGTON, ON / ACCESSWIRE / March 15, 2018 / Guaranteed Removals, Canada's industry leader in online image management, is excited to announce that for the first time, it will be offering scholarships aimed at helping students who are looking to make a difference in the cyber community.

Guaranteed Removals is offering 5 scholarships worth $1,000.00 each to students entering or studying a post-secondary education in computer science, criminology, or law. "In today's digital age, it's important that we encourage young adults to make a change in the cyber world. Our scholarship program aims to inspire and help students become future leaders and activists in creating a safer digital space," said Rachel Swiednicki, Public Relations at Guaranteed Removals. We encourage students to follow their passion for helping others in cyberspace, that's why we are offering scholarships to students attending an accredited Canadian and American colleges and universities.

The scholarships are open to students in Canada and the United States. The application is easy; simply complete the online registration form, upload your acceptance letter, and in 500 words or less, tell us why you chose the specific field of study and how you plan to make a difference in the cyber world. "We want to help create a safer online world for people. In our line of work, we help to protect and defend those online, and we want to encourage a new generation to do the same," continued Swiednicki.

To learn more about Guaranteed Removals scholarship program, visit https://www.guaranteedremovals.com/makingadifference.

To apply for a scholarship, visit GuaranteedRemovals.com/scholarship.

About Guaranteed Removals

Guaranteed Removals is Canada's largest and most successful online image management company, helping people defend and protect their image online. Guaranteed Removals has been offering online reputation management services out of its Burlington, Ontario, Canada location. Guaranteed Removals has successfully removed negative content for clients across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand. The company has helped more than 2,500 clients improve their online image. With a team of 34 employees, Guaranteed Removals has assisted businesses and individuals who have been victimized online, to rebuild and restore their online reputation. For more information, visit GuaranteedRemovals.com.

For more information, please contact:

Rachel Swiednicki

Public Relations, Guaranteed Removals

1-866-689-2261 x. 237

Rachels@guaranteedremovals.com

Guaranteed Removals.com

SOURCE: Guaranteed Removals.comVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2018) - Blackrock Gold Corporation (TSXV: BRC) ("Blackrock" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the non-brokered private placement that was announced on February 2, 2018, and March 6, 2018. The private placement was originally intended to raise $800,000 and amended to raise $1,300,000. The Company has issued 13,180,000 (the "Units") at a price of $0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of $1,318,000. Each Unit is comprised of one common share and one half of one share purchase warrant. Each full warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional share in the capital of the Company at a price of $0.20 until March 14, 2020. If during the exercise period of the warrants, but after the resale restrictions on the shares have expired, the Company's shares trade at or above a weighted average trading price of $0.40 per share for 15 consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry time of the warrants by giving written notice to warrant holders that the warrants will expire 30 days from the date of providing such notice. Finder fees of 7% were paid to PI Financial Corp. ($9,450) and Haywood Securities ($1,750). The common shares comprising the Units and any shares issued upon the exercise of any Warrants are subject to a hold period expiring at midnight on July 14, 2018.

Gregory Schifrin, CEO of the Company, says: "We are pleased that our investors and shareholders continue to demonstrate their support for the Company. Demand in this offering was beyond expectations, with support from existing shareholders as well as a host of new investors keen to join the company in its endeavors. Proceeds from the private placement, upon closing and exchange approval, will allow us to get started in earnest on the Silver Cloud Project, and provide general working capital to advance the company and build shareholder value."

As a result of the acquisition of 5,280,000 Units by Belgravia Capital International Inc., a company listed on the CSE, Belgravia Capital now holds 14.82% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company.

Mehdi Azodi, President & CEO of Belgravia Capital said "We are very confident in the board of directors and management team of Blackrock Gold to advance the company's objectives and achieve significant milestones in the near future".

The following insiders of the Company acquired an aggregate of 5,970,000 Units: Deepak Malhotra (250,000 Units), Alan Carter (250,000 Units), and Gregory Schifrin (190,000 Units). These transactions constitute "related party transactions" under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The related party transactions are exempt from the formal valuation requirements of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 pursuant to subsection 5.5(a) of MI 61-101, and exempt from the minority approval requirements of Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 pursuant to subsection 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101. A material change report was not filed more than 21 days prior to closing as contemplated by the related party transaction requirements under MI 61-101 as the insider participation was only recently confirmed.

For further information, please contact:

Greg Schifrin, Chief Executive Officer

Blackrock Gold Corp.

Email: gschifrin@blackrockgoldcorp.com

Phone: 1 - 208-290-1180

Website: www.blackrockgoldcorp.com

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and include any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Company's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance.

Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. These statements, however, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed, implied by or projected in the forward-looking information or statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the ability of the Company to attract financing and the general market conditions of the industry in which the Company operates and the other factors discussed in the sections relating to risk factors discussed in the Company's continuous disclosure filings on SEDAR.

There can be no assurance that any forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date of this document or to revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES

OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATESBEIJING, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today. Hainan Airlines, a unit of HNA Group and mainlandChina'sonly Skytrax Five-Star airline,held a press conference at the Irish Embassy in Beijing, announcing the launch of new direct flight services between Beijing, Dublin and Edinburgh, scheduled to start on June 12. The routes, which are the first direct flights offered from Beijing to Dublin and Edinburgh, will be serviced by an Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft on every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

At a ceremony at the Irish Embassy in Beijing, Hainan Airlines signed cooperation agreements with the Dublin Airport, the Edinburgh Airport, Tourism Ireland and VisitScotland, seeking to play a leading role in deepening economic and cultural ties between China, Ireland and Scotland.

Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney, Irish Ambassador to China Eoin O'Leary, British Ambassador to China Martyn Roper and Hainan Airlines Chairman Bao Qifa, among other guests, were present at the announcement.

The Irish Deputy Prime Minister, Simon Coveney said, "I'm pleased to see that Hainan Airlines will launch the first non-stop service between Beijing and Dublin, providing the convenience of a direct route between the two countries for tourists, students studying abroad and business travellers going to China and Ireland. The new service will go a long way in promoting bilateral relations between the two countries, and further enhance the connection between Dublin and Edinburgh."

The Hainan Airlines chairman, Mr. Bao said, "As a trusted brand and a five-star airline, Hainan Airlines, is guided by its mission of creating a better life for people. The launch of the Beijing-Dublin-Edinburgh route will not only provide convenience for tourists, but also promote multilateral cultural integration, helping to boost the economies of China, Britain and Ireland."

Hainan Airlines' Beijing-Dublin-Edinburgh Flight Schedule:

Flight No. Aircraft Days Departure City Departure Time Arrival Time Arrival City HU749 330 Tuesday/Saturday Beijing 1:30 am 6:00 am Edinburgh HU749 330 Tuesday/Saturday Edinburgh 8:00 am 9:10 am Dublin HU750 330 Tuesday/Saturday Dublin 11:10 am 5:00 am +1 Beijing HU751 330 Thursday/Sunday Beijing 1:30 am 6:00 am Dublin HU751 330 Thursday/Sunday Dublin 8:00 am 9:10 am Edinburgh HU752 330 Thursday/Sunday Edinburgh 11:10 am 5:00 am +1 Beijing

(Note: Specific timetables can be confirmed on Hainan Airlines' official website.)

About HNA Group

HNA Group is a global Fortune 500 company focused on aviation, tourism, logistics and financial serviceswith significant operations globally.Since its founding in 1993, HNA Group has evolved from a regional airline based onHainan Islandin southernChinainto a global company with over$145 billionof assets and over$100 billionin annualrevenues basedon 2017 figures, primarily across America,EuropeandAsia.HNA's tourism business is a fast-growing, vertically-integrated global player with market-leading positions in aviation, hotels and travel services. HNA's Logistics business is a leader in logistics and supply chain management with capabilities in shipping and equipment manufacturing, maritime transportation, third-party payment platforms and project finance. In financial services, HNA is China's largest non-bank leasing company, and a leading provider of a diverse set of businesses in equipment leasing, insurance, asset management, investment banking and credit services.For more information, visitwww.hnagroup.com

About Hainan Airlines:

Founded inJanuary 1993, Hainan Airlines Holding Co., Ltd, a unit of HNA Group, has become one of the three safest airlines worldwide, and one of the nine airlines in the world to be rated Five Star Award by Skytrax. We are devoted to providing passengers with comprehensive flight services. Hainan Airlines' fleet is mainly composed of Boeing 737 and 787 series aircraft and the Airbus 330. Please log on the Hainan Airlines website (www.hainanairlines.com) for more information.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654769/Hainan_Airlines_Dublin_Edinburgh.jpgWASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill to improve school safety and to help schools and local law enforcement coordinate in preventing gun violence in the campus. The House passed the the STOP School Violence Act 2018 by a rare bipartisan vote of 407-10 Wednesday. The Bill will now go to the Senate for vote. It was the first gun-related legislation by Congress after a mass shooting in a South Florida school shook America's conscience. Nicolas Cruz, 19, who was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland for disciplinary reasons, killed 17 people after returning to the campus with an assault rifle on February 14. It triggered fresh calls for gun control, a national boycott campaign, and mass street protests. The State of Florida last week enacted a law banning the purchase of firearms by young adults between the ages of 18-21. The House-passed bill would authorize federal grants of $500 million over 10 years to improve training and coordination between schools and local police and help identify signs of potential violence before they occur. President Donald Trump hailed the passage of the Bill by the House as 'a major step toward securing our schools.' 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.MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - The US Government Thursday imposed sanctions on five Russian entities and 19 individuals, accusing them of Interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential elections and carrying out malicious cyber-attacks. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said these sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia. He announced that the Treasury intends to impose additional sanctions to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system. Mnuchin mentioned the recent use of a military-grade nerve agent in a Russian attempt to murder two UK citizens. The Internet Research Agency LLC, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, Concord Catering, Federal Security Service (FSB), a Russian intelligence organization, and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence organization, are the five Russian entities that the US has punished. 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.Posted 3/15/18

Fair Grove R-10 is among 18 Missouri school districts that received funds from the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce diesel emissions from school buses. The EPA awarded $745,000 to the 18 LONDON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

British American Tobacco (BAT) today published its Annual Report and Sustainability Report - both of which outline the Company's commitment to transform tobacco by offering an unrivalled suite of potentially reduced-risk products that address the varied preferences of today's consumers.

The reports - both titled 'Transforming Tobacco', clearly set out BAT's ambition to lead and shape the transformation of the industry by achieving a triple win: for consumers - who will be offered a range of potentially safer choices; for society - who could benefit from real progress in tobacco harm reduction; and for shareholders - who will own an even more sustainable and profitable business.

Complementing its existing combustible portfolio, BAT now offers a wide range of potentially reduced-risk products, including Next Generation Products (NGPs), comprising vapour and tobacco heating products (THPs), as well as oral tobacco and nicotine products, such as snus and moist snuff.

Commenting on the two reports, Nicandro Durante, Chief Executive, said:

"We recognise that the tobacco and nicotine industry has entered a dynamic period of change and we are committed to leading this transformation. Increased public health awareness, new societal attitudes and rapid developments in new technologies have all combined to create a unique opportunity to accelerate the delivery of our long-held ambition to provide our consumers with less risky tobacco and nicotine choices.

"These two important reports out today, clearly outline our strategy to transform tobacco by building our business based on outstanding products, informed consumer choice and a potentially reduced-risk portfolio. Put simply: more choice, more innovation, less risk."

The Company's commitment to the important role these potentially reduced-risk products will play, is reflected in its aims to generate over 1 billion revenue from NGPs in 2018 and to increase this figure fivefold to 5 billion by 2022.

Since 2012, together with Reynolds American Inc., BAT has invested approximately US$2.5 billion in developing and commercialising its range of Next Generation Products.

Mr Durante added:

"Transforming Tobacco isn't just about harm reduction, though. To respond to evolving challenges and opportunities, we need to continue to focus on the other key areas of our Sustainability Agenda, including sustainable agriculture and farmer livelihoods, and corporate behaviour. These are fundamental imperatives that set the foundations for our business for years to come."

Now in BAT's 16th year of sustainability reporting, the latest Sustainability Report, 'Transforming Tobacco', details the Group's 2017 sustainability performance and how the Company is shaping the future and transforming tobacco to create shared value for consumers, shareholders and stakeholders across its value chain.

Notes to editors

About the reports

To download the Annual Report and Accounts and Sustainability Report, visit http://www.bat.com/reporting

British American Tobacco's Sustainability Report is independently reviewed by its Stakeholder Panel and Ernst & Young LLP provide limited assurance of selected sustainability data. Detailed performance information, including progress against goals, data charts for key performance indicators and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 reporting, can be found online athttp://www.bat.com/sustainability/data.

About British American Tobacco

British American Tobacco (BAT) is one of the world's leading, multi-category consumer goods companies, that provides tobacco and nicotine products to millions of consumers around the world.

It employs over 55,000 people, with market leadership in over 55 countries and factories in 42. Its Strategic Portfolio is made up of its global cigarette brands and an increasing range of potentially reduced-risk products, comprising vapour and tobacco heating products, as well as oral tobacco and nicotine products such as moist snuff and snus.

In 2017 the Group generated reported revenue of 20 billion and profit from operations of 6.5 billion. In July 2017, British American Tobacco p.l.c. acquired the remaining 57.8% of Reynolds American Inc. thatBAT did notalready own, creating a stronger, global tobacco and nicotine company.

Forward looking statements

This communication contains certain forward looking statements, including "forward-looking" statements made within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "believe," "anticipate," "could," "may," "would," "should," "intend," "plan," "potential," "predict," "will," "expect," "estimate," "project," "positioned," "strategy," "outlook", "target" and similar expressions. These include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, amongst other things, our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the economic and business circumstances occurring from time to time in the countries and markets in which the Group operates.

All such forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual future financial condition, performance and results to differ materially from the plans, goals, expectations and results expressed in the forward-looking statements and other financial and/or statistical data within this communication.

Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are uncertainties related to the following: the impact of competition from illicit trade; the impact of adverse domestic or international legislation and regulation; changes in domestic or international tax laws and rates; adverse litigation and dispute outcomes and the effect of such outcomes on the Group's financial condition; changes or differences in domestic or international economic or political conditions; the inability to obtain price increases and the impact of price increases on consumer affordability thresholds; adverse decisions by domestic or international regulatory bodies; the impact of market size reduction and consumer down-trading; translational and transactional foreign exchange rate exposure; the impact of serious injury, illness or death in the workplace; the ability to maintain credit ratings and to fund the business under the current capital structure; the ability to develop and commercialise new alternative products and to do so profitably; and changes in the market position, businesses, financial condition, results of operations or prospects of the Group.

It is believed that the expectations reflected in this communication are reasonable but they may be affected by a wide range of variables that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Past performance is no guide to future performance and persons needing advice should consult an independent financial adviser. The forward-looking statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of preparation of this communication and the Group undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including the Annual Report on Form 20-F filed on 15 March 2018 and Current Reports on Form 6-K, which may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website, http://www.sec.gov, and the Company's Annual Reports, which may be obtained free of charge from the British American Tobacco website http://www.bat.com .

ENQUIRIES

British American Tobacco Press Office

+44(0)20-7845-2888 (24 hours)Regulatory News:

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005988/en/

Carrefour (Paris:CA), one of the global leaders in food retail, announced today it has acquired a majority stake in the start-up Quitoque, leader of meal kit deliveries, and one of the French pioneers in Foodtech.

Created in 2014, Quitoque is the French leader in meal kits delivered at home. Through a subscription system, it offers each week varied and healthy recipes to be prepared at home with local, organic and seasonal products. Quitoque pays particular attention to the quality, freshness and taste of its products by favouring those of French origin. In 2017, the company, which has 60 employees, delivered nearly 3 million meals throughout France. Following the transaction, effective today, Quitoque will remain managed by its co-founders who will continue to develop the company alongside Carrefour.

This investment allows Carrefour to expand its food e-commerce offering. It is fully in line with the Group's ambition of creating an omnichannel universe of reference and becoming the world leader in the food transition for all.

"Carrefour constantly strives to be closer to its customers and to enrich the shopping experience by offering innovative services that simplify everyday shopping. At the crossroads of digital and food, Quitoque will enable us to strengthen our position in the Foodtech industry in order to provide an omnichannel response to new consumer habits through the combination of proximity, convenience and quality" said Marie Cheval, Executive Director Customers, Services and Digital Transformation at Carrefour.

According to Etienne Boix, co-founder of Quitoque: "This transaction confirms the relevance of our model and will enable us to capitalize on Carrefour's strengths to accelerate our omnichannel development".

_______________________

About Carrefour

With a multiformat network of 12,300 stores in over 30 countries, Carrefour Group is one of the world's leading food retailers. Carrefour serves 105 million customers worldwide and posted sales of 88.24 billion euros in 2017. The Group has more than 380,000 employees who contribute to making Carrefour the world leader in the food transition for all, offering quality food every day, accessible everywhere and at a reasonable price.

For more information, visit www.carrefour.com, Twitter (@CarrefourGroup) and LinkedIn (Carrefour).

About Quitoque

Quitoque, launched in 2014 by Gregoire Roty, Etienne Boix and Celine Nguyen, is the French leader in meal kit deliveries. Accompanied since inception by 360 Capital, ISAI, NCI, Sophie Bascher (initial investor), Nicolas d'Audiffret (founder of AlittleMarket) and Sebastien Forest (founder of Alloresto), Quitoque has convinced thousands of homes throughout France thanks to a clear promise: to digitize everyday food shopping. Unlike pure delivery platforms, Quitoque has chosen to internalize the creation of recipes, the sourcing of products and the preparation of meal kits. The mastery of these skills has made it possible to build a quality and tailor-made offer as well as to ensure solid growth.

For more information, visit www.quitoque.fr

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005988/en/

Contacts:

Carrefour

Group Communications

Tel: +33 (0) 1 41 04 26 17

or

Investor Relations

Tel: +33 (0) 1 41 04 28 83

Ripple News UpdateWhen there's blood in the water, sharks come swimming.This thought crossed my mind as I looked at cryptocurrency prices on Thursday morning.You see, regulators the world over are releasing their plans for crypto oversight. What strikes me as interesting is the timing of these announcements; it just so happens that crypto prices are in freefall.The XRP to USD exchange rate, for instance, is down 5.4% in the last 24 hours.Regulators likely consider this a prime opportunity for pushing tighter constraints into the industry. Until now, they were hamstrung by the soaring price of digital assets, which made investors reflexively opposed to.

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.TINTAGEL, England, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Since the President of the United States Donald Trump announced he was willing to meet the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un, speculation over the best location has mounted.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654912/John_Mappin_President_Trump.jpg )



The owner of Camelot Castle TV Network, political commentator and entrepreneur John Mappin, offers his thoughts on the situation.

John Mappin suggests for the leaders to arrange a meeting in Kazakhstan, as its President Nursultan Nazarbayev is known to be a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament. In addition to that, Kazakhstan has excellent relations with both countries, as well as a strategic geographic location with Astana sitting at the epicentre of Eurasia and the CIS.

"Astana would in many ways be the perfect selection of location both due to its safety, its geographical location, its summit facilities, and, perhaps most interestingly, its President's position on nuclear weapons and disarmament," said Mr. Mappin, who became the third British subject to meet with US President Trump and the First Lady Melania.

During the initial conversations with his friends in diplomatic circles the idea was warmly welcomed by both sides: "Few people in the west know that President Nazarbayev is somewhat of a pioneer on the subject of denuclearisation.Early in his presidency in 1991 Nazarbayev removed all nuclear weapons from his nation shortly after its founding and has been a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament ever since."

Mr Mappin and his wife Irina have been fortunate to have excellent relationship with the leadership of Kazakhstan, as well as being keen supporters of Donald Trump since he announced his run for the US Presidency.

"As media owners in the UK, internationally and in Kazakhstan, where we also own newspapers,we see this as an entirely logical solution to the problem of where to hold this historic meeting and we are delighted that the initial response has been so warm."

The entrepreneur pointed out that Astana also has the most wonderful diplomatic facilities, adding that his family helped with the city's media centre construction: "Nazarbayev's presidential palace is completely appropriate for such a meeting and the capital hosts a state of the art media centre that would rival most Hollywood studios."

"President Nazarbayev is an extremely experienced and wise leader, in fact our family owes the President a debt of honour as he once saved the life of one of our journalists who was captured in a war zone. President Nazarbayev took time to personally intervene and secured the freedom of the journalist."

President Nazarbayev met with President Trump on January 16th this year and the meeting went exceptionally well . A US president has never visited Astana to date, so his arrival there would certainly be seen as an honour and a blessing to Kazakhstan.

"Diplomatically Astana is always supportive of any peace idea that could lead to non-proliferation and global disarmament process. As a country that gave up its full nuclear potential in 1991, it is the ideal place to host such meetings," said Mr Mappin, who is currently in Florida, liaising with his US counterparts and friends.

John Mappin's BBC Radio 5 Live interview on the potential meeting between President Trump and President Kim is available here:https://vimeo.com/259598491

About Camelot Castle TV Network

Camelot Castle TV Network is part of Camelot Castle in Cornwall. Camelot Castle is the headquarters for several international media companies. The channel is the brainchild of British Entrepreneur and Media Mogul, John Mappin and his wife Irina who are the current owners of the historic castle based in Tintagel, Cornwall, England. The company is founded in 1999 and currently has three active partners, which John Mappin is part of.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/04/prweb13328923.htm

Contact information:

John Mappin

CAMELOT CASTLE TV Network

+44-777-067-1650

Following its approval by the FDA, SuperSonic Imagine's Aixplorer is gaining recognition amongst hepatologists

Regulatory News:

SuperSonic Imagine (Paris:SSI)(Euronext: SSI, FR0010526814, PME-PEA eligible), a company specialising in medical imaging using ultrasound technology, announced today that it will be installing Aixplorer Ultimate ultrasound systems in the gastroenterology departments of five Auvergne hospitals in France.

The Aixplorer Ultimate ultrasound system features ShearWave Elastography (SWE), which is used to view and measure the stiffness of liver tissue non-invasively, safely and precisely using color mapping. This measurement helps determine the severity of liver fibrosis, making SWE an alternative to biopsies, which are expensive and invasive tests, with a high mortality rate.

The historical region of Auvergne had only two devices to measure liver elasticity, located in Clermont Ferrand and Riom. To free up the hospital units in Clermont Ferrand and Riom and to offer medical service locally for inhabitants of the Allier, Cantal and Haute-Loire departments, Professor Abergel, Head of Gastroenterology at the Clermont Ferrand university hospital, took on a project to provide all of the Auvergne departments with elastography equipment. With the help of a number of hospital departments, biomedical services and the pharmaceutical industry, enough money was raised for five new devices to measure liver elasticity.

The gastroenterology departments at the Estaing university hospital, the Chataigneraie clinic (Puy-de-Dome), and hospitals in Montlucon (Allier), Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire) and Aurillac (Cantal) are now equipped with the latest generation Aixplorer Ultimate ultrasound system.

With the Aixplorer Ultimate ultrasound system, hepatologists benefit from new tried-and-tested clinical indicators such as the measure of liver elasticity using SWE, which improves screening for cirrhosis regardless of the cause (virus, overweight patient, or alcohol abuse). The Aixplorer Ultimate also allows clinicians to quantify liver fibrosis (scarring in the liver) and fatty liver (hepatic steatosis) as well as help diagnose afflictions of the pancreas, liver and bile ducts. This technology broadens the possibilities for hepatologists. Generally, each elastography exam is coupled with biochemical analyses of the blood such as APRI, FIB-4, FibroTest, FibroMetre and Hepascore tests to assess liver fibrosis non-invasively. "Next we aim to work with regional drug rehabilitation centers to try to improve the early detection of cirrhosis", explains Professor Abergel

SuperSonic Imagine recently received FDA approval for its Aixplorer and Aixplorer Ultimate ultrasound systems, as tools to improve clinical care for patients with liver conditions. Since these tools are highly useful for hepatologists and radiologists, the additional approval by the FDA strengthens SuperSonic Imagine's clinical strategy to develop and market non-invasive tools for assessing the severity of liver conditions (liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)). Aixplorer products have appeared in over 130 clinical publications detailing the use of SWE for patients with liver conditions.

Find out more about SuperSonic Imagine and its solutions to improve care for liver conditions during the JFHOD (Journees Francophones d'Hepato-gastroenterologie d'Oncologie Digestive) from March 22 to 25, at the Palais des Congres in Paris at stand no. 23. Technocenter, Thursday, March 22 at 2.30 pm and Echocenter, Friday, March 23 at 9.30 am.

About SuperSonic Imagine

Founded in 2005 and based in Aix-en-Provence (France), Supersonic Imagine is a company that specialises in medical imaging. The company designs, develops and markets a revolutionary ultrasound platform, Aixplorer, which uses UltraFast technology that can acquire images around 200 times faster than conventional ultrasound systems. In addition to providing exceptional image quality, this unique technology is the foundation of several innovations which have changed the paradigm of ultrasound imaging: ShearWave Elastography (SWE), UltraFast Doppler technology, Angio PL.U.S Planewave UltraSensitive Imaging and, more recently, TriVu. ShearWave Elastography allows physicians to visualise and analyse the stiffness of tissue in real-time using a reliable, reproducible and non-invasive procedure. This is an important parameter in diagnosing potentially malignant lesions or other diseased tissue. As of today, over 300 publications have demonstrated the value of SWE in the care of patients with a wide range of diseases. The UltraFast Doppler combines colour flow imaging and pulsed wave Doppler into one simple test, providing physicians with the results of both simultaneously, therefore enhancing the efficiency. The latest innovation, Angio PL.U.S, provides a higher level of microvascular imaging through significantly improved colour sensitivity and spatial resolution, while maintaining exceptional 2D image quality. SuperSonic Imagine has been granted regulatory clearances for the commercialisation of Aixplorer on the main markets. Since April 2014, the SuperSonic Imagine company has been listed on Euronext (symbol: SSI).

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006146/en/

Contacts:

SuperSonic Imagine

Marketing Communication

Emmanuelle Vella

emmanuelle.vella@supersonicimagine.com

+33 4 86 79 03 27

or

FP2COM

Media Relations EU

Florence Portejoie

fportejoie@fp2com.fr

+33 6 07 76 82 83

or

NewCap

Investor Relations EU

Pierre Laurent Florent Alba supersonicimagine@newcap.fr

+33 1 44 71 98 55

or

Pascale Communication

Media Relations US

Amy Phillips

amy@pascalecommunications.com

+1 412 327 9499

LONDON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has said it 'certainly looks like' the Russians were behind last week's nerve agent attack on a former spy.



Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were hospitalized after being exposed to the nerve agent in the U.K.



Trump said Thursday he was in 'deep discussions' with British Prime Minister Theresa May about how to respond to the attack.



'A very sad situation,' Trump said during a White House meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. 'It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it.'



He added, 'Something that should never, ever happen. And we're taking it very seriously, as, I think, are many others.'



A joint statement from the leaders of the U.S., the U.K., France, and Germany also attributed the attack to the Russians, who have denied the allegations.



The statement was released by Trump, May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.



'The United Kingdom thoroughly briefed its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack,' the leaders said.



They added, 'We share the United Kingdom's assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russia's failure to address the legitimate request by the government of the United Kingdom further underlines Russia's responsibility.'



The statement comes the same day the Treasury Department announced new sanctions on several Russian entities and individuals for alleged meddling in the 2016 election and malicious cyber-attacks.



The Treasury mentioned the nerve agent attack in its announcement of the sanctions, saying the attack further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of the Russian government.



(Photo: Gage Skidmore)



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.deNew Cards Offer Opportunity for U.S. Customers to Earn Rewards (Avios) While Traveling to Spain, Ireland and More European Destinations on Iberia and Aer Lingus

Chase Card Services, the leading co-brand credit card issuer in the U.S., in partnership with Avios Group (AGL) Limited, today announced the launch of the Iberia Visa Signature Card with an Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card following later this spring. Both cards offer 3 Avios per $1 spent on Iberia, Aer Lingus, British Airways, LEVEL and OpenSkies, and 1 Avios per $1 on all other purchases.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006248/en/

Iberia Visa Signature Credit Card (Photo: Business Wire)

The announcement builds upon the addition of Iberia Plus and AerClub, the airlines' loyalty programs, as newest Chase Ultimate Rewards point transfer partners in late 2017. Eligible Chase credit cardmembers can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Avios in increments of 1,000 at full 1:1 value meaning one Chase Ultimate Rewards point is equal to one Avios.

New Aer Lingus and Iberia Visa Signature Cardmembers in the U.S. will be able to earn Avios by using their credit cards for travel to any of the cities in Iberia and Aer Lingus' networks, as well as many other destinations with their redemption partners. The cards will also offer customers additional benefits including savings on flights, no foreign transaction fees, lost luggage reimbursement and auto rental collision damage waiver.

Chris Treadwell, Commercial Director at Avios Group (AGL) Limited, said: "We've partnered with Chase on a co-brand credit card with British Airways for more than 24 years and could not be happier to expand our partnership to two more airline partners, Iberia and Aer Lingus. This allows us to offer Avios-earning credit cards to even more customers in the U.S."

Renata Rached, Iberia's head of Loyalty, said: "Through our new Iberia Visa Signature Card, our U.S. customers will now be able to make more of their Iberia flights from our U.S. gateways: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York or San Francisco to any of the 100 destinations we offer in Europe, the Middle East and Africa via our hub in Madrid. We are excited to bring more of Iberia Airlines, and all it stands for, to U.S. customers."

Aer Lingus Chief Operating Officer Mike Rutter said: "Our partnership with Chase allows us to offer rich rewards through the Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card on flights from our 13 North American gateways to Ireland, the UK and Europe, as well as through our partners. More guests will be able experience our award-winning service, while getting access to incredible destinations."

"We are excited to welcome two new partners to our co-brand card business," said Leslie Gillin, Chase Co-Brand Cards President. "Whether customers are looking to travel to see relatives, learn more about their roots, or are planning their summer travel to Europe, they can now do so by earning 3 Avios per $1 spent on the airlines."

Iberia Visa Signature Card Benefits (available now)

3 Avios per $1 on Iberia, Aer Lingus, British Airways, LEVEL and OpenSkies purchases

1 Avios per $1 on all other purchases

$1,000 flight discount voucher, after $30,000 spend in a calendar year

10% off flights purchased on Iberia.com

No foreign transaction fees

Auto rental collision damage waiver

Lost luggage reimbursement

Purchase protection

$95 annual fee

Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card Benefits (coming in spring 2018)

3 Avios per $1 on Aer Lingus, Iberia, British Airways, LEVEL and OpenSkies purchases

1 Avios per $1 on all other purchases

Ticket for a companion when a ticket is purchased in economy class, after $30,000 spend in a calendar year

Priority boarding on flights to and from the U.S.

No foreign transaction fees

Auto rental collision damage waiver

Lost luggage reimbursement

Purchase protection

$95 annual fee

More information about the Iberia Visa Signature Card can be found here. For the Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card, more details will follow after its launch later this spring.

About Avios

Avios Group (AGL) Limited operates the Avios reward currency for the British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus, AerClub, Vueling Club and Meridiana Club, as well as the Avios Travel Rewards Programmes in the UK and South Africa. It is also the currency for kulula.com and Flybe frequent flyers. Millions of customers collect Avios in over 190 countries world-wide. Part of the International Airlines Group (IAG), Avios Group (AGL) Limited is headquartered in the UK, with a global office network in Madrid, Johannesburg and New York City.

Customers can collect Avios when booking cash flights with partner airlines as well as on international hotel stays, car rental and on everyday purchases through partners. Avios can be used for travel rewards including towards flights, hotels and car hire, as well as for days out and leisure experiences.

About Iberia

Iberia is the leading carrier on routes between Europe and Latin America and it flies to 131 destinations in 48 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Middle East and Asia, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and, starting in April 2018, San Francisco. Together with its subsidiary Iberia Express and its franchise partner Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum, it operates about 600 flights each day with a fleet of some 135 aircraft. It offers easy and convenient connections at its hub in T4 in Madrid-Barajas airport. Iberia was the world's most punctual airline in 2016 and in 2017, according to FlightGlobal Incorporating FlightStatss. The airline has recently been awarded the 4th star of Skytrax. The airline is a member of the oneworld alliance that operates more than 14,000 daily flights to some 1,000 destinations in more than 150 countries. For more information, please visit http://grupo.iberia.es.

About Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus operates 63 aircraft on routes to destinations in the UK, Europe and North America and carry 12 million guests per annum. We are Ireland's only 4-Star airline, awarded by Skytrax, the international air transport rating organization.

Our mission is to connect Ireland to the world and to become the leading value carrier operating across the North Atlantic. Our home base is Dublin Airport, the only major airport in Europe to offer U.S preclearance, which enables passengers to save time on arrival in the U.S by completing all the necessary immigration and customs checks prior to departure. Our guests can choose from over 100 routes in Europe or connect to our 12 North American transatlantic gateways from more than 100 cities across the U.S. and Canada, with our partner airlines. Aer Lingus is a member of IAG (International Airlines Group).

About Chase

Chase is the U.S. consumer and commercial banking business of JPMorgan Chase Co. (NYSE: JPM), a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.6 trillion and operations worldwide. Chase serves nearly half of America's households with a broad range of financial services, including personal banking, credit cards, mortgages, auto financing, investment advice, small business loans and payment processing. Customers can choose how and where they want to bank: 5,200 branches, 16,000 ATMs, mobile, online and by phone. For more information, go to Chase.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006248/en/

Contacts:

Chase Card Services

Maria Martinez, 212-270-5692

maria.martinez@jpmorgan.com- Visit in recognition of FINEOS success in North America -

FINEOS Corporation, the market-leading provider of core systems for Life, Accident and Health insurance, today welcomed Minister Michael D'Arcy TD, Ireland's Minister of State at the Department of Finance to its new offices in Atlanta, Georgia. The purpose of the Minister's visit is to raise the profile of Ireland's financial services and fintech capabilities amongst key decision makers in the US. FINEOS was selected for the visit because of its record of success in the US market. Since entering the market in 2003, FINEOS has acquired a dominant position with eight of the top 20 US Life and Health carriers selecting FINEOS products. Customers include the Principal Financial Group, Mutual of Omaha and Assurant. The new Atlanta Office will service and support new customers for FINEOS Claims, Absence, Paid Family Leave and FINEOS Cloud operations.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006285/en/

From left to right, Shane Stephens, the Consul General of Ireland in Atlanta, Sean McWilliams, Market Executive, Enterprise Ireland, Korie Jackson, Consulting Practice Leader, FINEOS, Michael D'Arcy TD, Minister of State and Chuck Johnston, Chief Marketing Officer, FINEOS (Photo: Business Wire)

Speaking on his arrival in the US Minister D'Arcy said, "I am very proud to be here at FINEOS' new Atlanta office and to support an indigenous Irish software success story, which is rapidly gaining market share in the global insurance technology provider space. One of the core objectives of the Government's IFS 2020 Strategy is to strengthen and support our indigenous fintech sector to achieve international success. FINEOS is an excellent example of what can be achieved, having built an extremely impressive track record in North America over the past 15 years. I wish the FINEOS Team continued success as they successfully scale their operations."

Michael Kelly, CEO, FINEOS, welcomed the visit of Minister D'Arcy. "We are honoured to host such a high-profile party to our new offices in Atlanta. As a software exporter committed to the US market, we believe there is huge potential for other IT companies to develop modern, customer-focused technology solutions. We believe our success has come about because we are ultra customer-focused and ensure that everybody-from the insurer to the claimant-has a positive experience of the insurance process".

FINEOS is supported by Enterprise Ireland, the government organisation responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. In the past year, Enterprise Ireland-supported companies opened 59 new offices in the US, an 18% increase over 2016.

FINEOS is a global market leader in core systems with customers in nine countries and has been chosen by eight of the top 20 Group Life, Accident and Health insurers in the US and four of the top five Life, Accident and Health insurers in Australia. FINEOS has many years' experience working with insurers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

About FINEOS Corporation

The FINEOS flagship product, FINEOS AdminSuite, is a cloud based core product suite for Life, Accident and Health carriers. FINEOS AdminSuite delivers full service Policy, Billing, and Claims, providing best-in-class functionality for Group, Voluntary, and Individual administration on a single platform, while also supporting self-admin, full-admin, and TPA models. FINEOS delivers innovative core systems to a global market and has customers, employees, and established bases in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific markets. For more information, visit www.FINEOS.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006285/en/

Contacts:

FINEOS Corporation

Susanne Ryan

Marketing Consultant

+ 353 1 639 9918

susanne.mryan@FINEOS.com

WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Thursday before ending the day roughly flat.



Bond prices spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 2.826 percent.



The choppy trading on the came as traders digested a slew of U.S. economic data, including a report from the Labor Department showing initial jobless claims edged lower in the week ended March 10th.



The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 226,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 230,000.



Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 226,000 from the 231,000 originally reported for the previous week.



A separate report released by the Labor Department showed import prices increased by more than expected in the month of February.



The Labor Department said import prices rose by 0.4 percent in February after climbing by a revised 0.8 percent in January.



Economists had expected import prices to edge up by 0.2 percent compared to the 1.0 percent jump originally reported for the previous month.



The report also said export prices increased by 0.2 percent in February after rising by 0.8 percent in January. Export prices were expected to rise by 0.3 percent.



The Federal Reserve Bank of New York also released a report showing business activity in the New York manufacturing sector grew robustly in the month of March.



The New York Fed said its general business conditions index climbed to 22.5 in March from 13.1 in February, with a positive reading indicating growth in the manufacturing sector. Economists had expected the index to edge up to 15.0.



Meanwhile, a report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed growth in the Philadelphia manufacturing sector slowed in the month of March.



The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity fell to 22.3 in March from 25.8 in February, although a positive reading still indicates growth in the manufacturing sector. Economists had expected the index to drop to 23.0.



Meanwhile, the National Association of Home Builders released a report showing a modest decrease in homebuilder confidence in March.



The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index edged down to 70 in March from a revised 71 in February. Economists had expected the index to dip to 71 from the 72 originally reported for the previous month.



Another batch of economic data may impact trading on Friday, with traders likely to keep an eye on reports on housing starts, industrial production, and consumer sentiment.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.dePosted 3/15/18

Socialism seems to be in vogue in certain places, particularly among professors in our so-called elite universities. Also, millennials seem to like the idea of socialism, although most of them Bill Ford, Peggy Johnson and Mark Wilson join BlackRock's Board of Directors

Adds significant leadership and experience in international financial services and technology

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) has elected William E. Ford, Chief Executive Officer of General Atlantic, Margaret L. "Peggy" Johnson, Executive Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft Corporation and Mark Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of Aviva plc, to the Company's Board as independent directors.

BlackRock takes a strategic approach to board composition and refreshment, balancing deep institutional and industry knowledge with fresh perspectives on key areas of future growth. The three new directors' global perspective and combined expertise in technology, financial services and fast-growing markets, such as Asia-Pacific, reflects BlackRock's current and future priorities.

"We are delighted that Peggy, Bill and Mark have joined BlackRock's Board of Directors, and we are eager to benefit from their guidance and advice," said Chairman and CEO Laurence D. Fink. "Peggy's insights on technology and the innovation economy, Bill's understanding of the changing financial services landscape, particularly as it relates to fintech and China, and Mark's deep experience in financial services in Europe and Asia-Pacific will be a tremendous benefit to BlackRock's management, clients and shareholders."

One third of BlackRock's directors have been newly elected over the past five years. BlackRock considers diversity in gender, ethnicity, age, career experience and geographic location, as well as intellectual diversity in the design and orientation of its Board of Directors. BlackRock has five female Directors.

Abdlatif Y. Al-Hamad and James Grosfeld are not standing for re-election at BlackRock's 2018 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. They have served the Board with distinction since 2009 and 1999, respectively. "Both Abdlatif and Jimmy have been instrumental to BlackRock's success, and I want to sincerely thank them for their passion and dedication to BlackRock during their tenures. Abdlatif has given the board and BlackRock invaluable wisdom and guidance as we have grown in the Gulf region and as a firm globally," said Fink. "I have been learning from Jimmy for close to 40 years, and his advice has helped guide BlackRock from the very first day."

Bill Ford

Mr. Ford is the Chief Executive Officer of General Atlantic, a position he has held since 2007. He also serves as Chairman of General Atlantic's Executive Committee and is a member of the firm's Investment and Portfolio Committees. Mr. Ford is actively involved with a number of educational and not-for-profit organizations. He is a member of the board of Rockefeller University, where he is Vice Chair, and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion initiative. Mr. Ford has formerly served on the boards of First Republic Bank, NYSE Euronext, E*Trade, Priceline and NYMEX Holdings.

Peggy Johnson

Ms. Johnson has been an Executive Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft Corporation since September 2014. She is responsible for driving strategic business deals and partnerships across various industries. Ms. Johnson joined Microsoft from Qualcomm Incorporated, where she served in various leadership positions across engineering, sales, marketing and business development. She most recently served as Executive Vice President of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and President of Global Market Development. Ms. Johnson is a Director of PATH and a Trustee of The Paley Center for Media.

Mark Wilson

Mr. Wilson has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Aviva plc, a multinational insurance company headquartered in the UK, since 2013. Prior to joining Aviva, he worked in Asia for 14 years, including as Chief Executive Officer of AIA Group Limited, a leading pan-Asian company. Mr. Wilson is recognised for his leadership on sustainability issues and is a member of the UN Business and Sustainable Development Commission. In addition, he is a member of the Development Board of the Royal Foundation for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle.

About BlackRock

BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, we provide the investment and technology solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of December 31, 2017, the firm managed approximately $6.288 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com | Twitter: @blackrock | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006424/en/

Contacts:

BlackRock

Investor Relations

Tom Wojcik, 212-810-8127

Tom.Wojcik@BlackRock.com

or

Corporate Communications

Ed Sweeney, 646-856-4968

Ed.Sweeney@BlackRock.comTotal passenger traffic up 6.8% and 6.4% in January and February 2018, respectively

Passenger traffic for full year 2017 up 6.7% driven by record performance in Argentina

Corporacion America Airports S.A. (NYSE: CAAP), ("CAAP" or the "Company") the largest private sector airport concession operator in the world by number of airports, reported today preliminary year-over-year passenger traffic growth of 6.8% in January 2018, 6.4% in February 2018, and 6.7% for the full year 2017.

Passenger Traffic, Cargo Volume and Aircraft Movements Highlights Statistics Jan'18 Jan'17 % Var Feb'18 Feb'17 % Var FY17 FY16 % Var Domestic Passengers (thousands) 3,661.0 3,556.1 2.9 3,264.2 3,144.3 3.8 41,305.8 37,914.4 8.9 International Passengers (thousands) 2,362.7 2,185.4 8.1 2,077.4 1,979.4 4.9 26,898.8 24,601.2 9.3 Transit Passengers (thousands) 897.0 737.0 21.7 707.7 562.1 25.9 8,407.8 9,302.9 -9.6 Total Passengers (thousands) 6,920.8 6,478.5 6.8 6,049.3 5,685.8 6.4 76,612.4 71,818.4 6.7 Cargo Volume (thousand tons) 31.7 26.2 21.0 30.3 27.6 9.7 389.8 360.5 8.1 Total Aircraft Movements (thousands) 74.6 71.6 4.2 64.9 62.9 3.2 851.3 836.6 1.8

Passenger Traffic Overview

Total passenger traffic in January 2018 increased by 6.8% compared to the same period of 2017, primarily reflecting growth of 11.3% in Argentina and 5.6% in Uruguay. In February 2018, total traffic increased by 6.3% compared to the same period of 2017 primarily reflecting growth of 9.1% in Argentina and 7.5% in Uruguay.

During 2017, total passenger traffic increased 6.7% compared to 2016, mainly driven by traffic growth of 14.3% in Argentina, along with increases of 11.7% in Uruguay and 20.6% in Armenia.

The strong performance in Argentina, the Company's main business segment, resulted from the incorporation of new routes, a large number of flights to existing destinations and the entrance of low cost airlines, contributing to increase connectivity throughout the country as well as to international destinations. At Ezeiza airport, Level started five weekly flights to Barcelona, Azul launched 14 weekly flights to several Brazilian destinations and United opened a daily flight to New York. At Aeroparque airport, Amaszonas started 40 weekly flights to neighboring countries Paraguay and Uruguay, and Avianca added more than 30 flights to Florianopolis, in Brazil, and domestic destinations Mar del Plata and Rosario, in Argentina.

CAAP also reported increased activity at airports located in different provinces of Argentina. For instance, Cordoba airport, in the center of the country, became an increasingly relevant domestic hub, incorporating two new airlines during 2017: Air Europa and Amaszonas. This airport also added additional flights to many of its already established domestic routes. Furthermore, operating from Mendoza airport, Sky, Gol and Latam inaugurated new flights to Chile, Brazil and Peru, respectively. Moreover, Latam opened five weekly international routes from Neuquen airport to Santiago, Chile. Top domestic carriers Aerolineas Argentinas and Latam also added new flights to many of their existing domestic routes.

In 2018, Norwegian started four weekly direct flights to London. Additionally, operating from Mendoza airport, Copa opened daily flights to Panama. Furthermore, the low-cost carrier Flybondi started operating in February, serving several domestic destinations, with some flights operated from El Palomar airport. This is the 34th airport in the AA2000 concession, added to serve low-cost carriers airlines and increase capacity in the Buenos Aires area.

In Brazil, passenger traffic at Brasilia airport increased by 4% each January and February 2018, showing signs of consistent recovery from last year's passenger drop as a result of the economic crisis. In addition, the airport added new routes during 2018. In January, Latam opened a new international route to Punta Cana with two weekly fights and Gol has started to sell tickets for daily flights to Orlando and Miami with the new Boing 737 Max, with flights beginning in November 2018. Furthermore, both Gol and Latam added domestic routes to Santarem, Ilheus and Aracaju.

In Ecuador, passenger traffic returned to historical levels, after posting a significant increase in January 2017.

Cargo Volume and Aircraft Movements

CAAP also reported strong cargo volume, up 8.1% in 2017, and increasing 21.0% and 9.7% in January and February 2018, respectively. Argentina was the main contributor to cargo volume growth with increases of 28.0% in 2017 and 23.5% in the first two months of 2018, followed by significant growths in Brazil and Italy during these periods and positive contributions from the majority of the Company's business segments.

Aircraft movements increased by 1.8% in 2017, followed by increases of 4.2% and 3.2% in January and February of 2018, respectively. Growth in the first two months of 2018 was mainly driven by Argentina, which increased by 8.7% during the period.

Summary Passenger Traffic, Cargo Volume and Aircraft Movements Jan'18 Jan'17 % Var. Feb'18 Feb'17 % Var. YTD'18 YTD'17 % Var. Passenger Traffic (thousands) Argentina 3,576 3,212 11.3 3,209 2,942 9.1 6,785 6,154 10.3 Italy 447 438 2.1 408 411 -0.7 855 849 0.7 Brazil 1,853 1,831 1.2 1,479 1,437 2.9 3,332 3,268 2.0 Uruguay 259 245 5.6 220 205 7.5 479 450 6.4 Ecuador 330 352 -6.2 316 319 -0.8 646 670 -3.6 Armenia 189 173 9.1 149 136 9.3 338 309 9.2 Peru 268 228 17.1 267 235 13.6 535 464 15.4 TOTAL 6,921 6,478 6.8 6,049 5,686 6.4 12,970 12,164 6.6 Cargo Volume (tons) Argentina 19,644 15,323 28.2 18,530 15,598 18.8 38,174 30,921 23.5 Italy 886 770 15.1 842 788 6.8 1,728 1,558 10.9 Brazil 4,493 3,689 21.8 4,252 4,019 5.8 8,745 7,707 13.5 Uruguay 2,019 1,977 2.1 1,945 1,902 2.3 3,964 3,879 2.2 Ecuador 3,389 3,158 7.3 3,224 3,329 -3.2 6,613 6,487 2.0 Armenia 892 938 -4.9 1,117 1,619 -31.0 2,009 2,557 -21.4 Peru 387 359 7.8 371 361 2.8 759 720 5.3 TOTAL 31,710 26,214 21.0 30,281 27,615 9.7 61,990 53,829 15.2 Aircraft Movements Argentina 39,185 35,788 9.5 34,795 32,284 7.8 73,980 68,072 8.7 Italy 4,533 4,577 -1.0 4,068 4,192 -3.0 8,601 8,769 -1.9 Brazil 15,753 16,042 -1.8 13,576 13,681 -0.8 29,329 29,723 -1.3 Uruguay 4,535 4,369 3.8 3,447 3,226 6.9 7,982 7,595 5.1 Ecuador 6,230 7,126 -12.6 5,279 6,244 -15.5 11,509 13,370 -13.9 Armenia 1,739 1,568 10.9 1,425 1,217 17.1 3,164 2,785 13.6 Peru 2,609 2,132 22.4 2,279 2,009 13.4 4,888 4,141 18.0 TOTAL 74,584 71,602 4.2 64,869 62,853 3.2 139,453 134,455 3.7

To obtain the full text of this press release, please click on the following link: http://investors.corporacionamericaairports.com

About Corporacion America Airports

Corporacion America Airports acquires, develops and operates airport concessions. The Company is the largest private airport operator in the world by the number of airports and the tenth largest based on passenger traffic. Currently, the Company operates 52 airports in 7 countries across Latin America and Europe (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Armenia and Italy). In 2017, it served 76.6 million passengers. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange where it trades under the ticker "CAAP".

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006518/en/

Contacts:

Corporacion America Airports

Gimena Albanesi, +5411 4852-6411

gimena.albanesi@caairports.com

Ideaya Biosciences, a South San Francisco, California-based oncology-focused biotechnology company, completed a $94m crossover Series B financing.

New investors, including BVF Partners L.P., Perceptive Advisors LLC, Nextech Invest Ltd., GV (formerly Google Ventures), Roche Venture Fund, 6 Dimensions Capital, Boxer Capital of the Tavistock Group, and Driehaus Capital Management, LLC, joined existing investors, including 5AM Ventures, Canaan Partners, Celgene Corporation, WuXi Healthcare Ventures, and Alexandria Venture Investments, in the financing.

Coincident with the close of the Series B financing, Thilo Schroeder, Ph.D., partner at Nextech Invest Ltd., and Edward Hu, M.B.A., founding partner of 6 Dimensions Capital, joined the companys board of directors. Kanishka Pothula, managing director at BVF Partners, Vineeta Agarwala, M.D., Ph.D., venture partner at GV, and Nisha Marathe, Ph.D., investment manager at Roche Venture Fund, joined as board observers.

The company will use the funds to advance its pipeline with a goal of initiating multiple clinical studies in 2019.

Led by Yujiro S. Hata, chief executive officer, Ideaya is pioneering the next generation of biomarker-enabled synthetic lethality therapies for genetically defined patient populations and advancing an immuno-oncology pipeline targeting immuno-metabolism and innate immunity.

FinSMEs

15/03/2018lemon one, a Berlin, Germany-based provider of visual content platform, raised a seven-digit funding round.

Backers included Redalpine Venture Partners.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, build out the team and expand across Europes main cities.

Co-founded in 2017 by Maximilian Schwahn, Lorenz Marquardt, Timur Kayaci, Daniel Dinh, lemon one provides businesses such as major online marketplaces, real estate agencies and food delivery companies with on-demand photos within hours through algorithms that match them with a broad network of photographers.

With lemon one, businesses get tailor-made, high quality visual content for their online presence, without extra effort.

FinSMEs

15/03/2018In addition to seed funding, the blockchain technology incubator will provide Paytomat with technical and legal support, advice on promotion and marketing

March 15, 2018, Tallinn, Estonia and Kyiv, Ukraine  In preparation for the pre-sale to start on April 2nd, Paytomat secures 100,000 WAVES seed funding and becomes a resident of Waves Lab  a focused startup incubator for new projects on the Waves platform. Paytomat is going international with its decentralized system for cryptocurrency payments, and will run the sale of its PTI token this spring.

The cooperation with Waves Lab will provide Paytomat with a number of strategic advantages, such as:

Seed funding: 100,000 Wave tokens to help Paytomat get off to a swift start;

Advisory support: technical architecture review, token economics and market fit, overall ICO advisory;

Additional resources: networking with potential partners, advisors, funds and private investors from across the globe;

Legal advice: consulting on the PTI token model and its legal implications, assistance with the core legal documents;

Promotion: advising on the project communications strategy, help establishing personal connections with key opinion leaders and influencers, endorsement and contacts within the Waves community.

Sasha Ivanov, Waves Founder and CEO, Advisor of Paytomat, said: With our Waves Lab we support the most promising blockchain startups which are working to solve real-world problems. Paytomat bridges the gap between existing cryptocurrencies and their real-life application, bringing benefits to businesses, end users and cryptocurrency creators. They have a powerful team of crypto entrepreneurs and blockchain experts, and I believe they will disrupt the whole payment industry.

Yurii Olentir, Paytomat CEO, said: Were already working closely with Waves Lab experts on a complex audit of Paytomat ICO strategy and long-term planning. Were lucky to be a resident and enjoy the unique networking opportunities this community provides. The Waves Lab market expertise and resources will be a valuable asset for Paytomats successful token sale, and the substantial early funding gets us to an amazing kick-off.

Paytomat will start its public pre-sale on April 2nd, and will run through April 18th. Whitelist registration is open: https://tokensale.paytomat.com/join-whitelist. Join the Paytomat official Telegram for 24/7 support: https://t.me/paytomat. Follow Paytomat Twitter for the latest news: https://twitter.com/paytomat

About Paytomat

Paytomat is a global blockchain-based payment processing system created to help merchants, consumers and crypto core teams find each other and create real life traction for cryptocurrencies as the emerging method of everyday payments. Built as a decentralized autonomous organization and decentralized franchise, Paytomat features a unique loyalty program based on the PTM coin, incentivizing merchants to accept payments in crypto, and PTX tokens, thereby incentivizing customers to pay with crypto. For more information visit https://tokensale.paytomat.com. Media contacts: [email protected]Giving out details about the total flight that IndiGO cancelled the report revealed the airline nixed 17 flights out of Delhi airport and 3 flights out of Mumbai airport.

Budget carriers IndiGo and GoAir on Monday cancelled as many as 65 flights after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded 11 of their A320Neo planes with faulty Pratt & Whitney engines, according to the PTI.

On Wednesday, The Economic Times in a report published a full list of flights cancelled by IndiGo and GoAir. According to the report low cost carrier IndiGo cancelled as many as 48 flights for 18 cities. Its competitor in the domestic market GoAir struck down 18 flights for 8 cities.

GoAir has not cancelled any flight between Delhi and Mumbai, which is not the case with IndiGo, The Economic Times report informed.

Giving out details about the total flight that IndiGo cancelled the report revealed the airline nixed 17 flights out of Delhi airport and 3 flights out of Mumbai airport.

The other cities that IndiGo has cancelled flights from include Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Indore, Jammu, Ranchi, Bhubaneshwar, Nagpur, Patna, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Coimbatore and Cochin, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bhubhaneshwar, Kolkata, Lucknow and Delhi, the report added.

On Monday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Indias aviation regulator, stopped from flying 11 A320neo planes fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines after the ombudsman came to know that some planes had to make emergency landing for engine failure.

In its aftermath, the DGCA swung into quick action and grounded 8 planes of IndiGo and 3 run by GoAir, both the domestic airlines are no-frills carriers.

The PTI report that appeared on Monday said the DGCA has cited safety of aircraft operations and consequently put the break for A320 neo planes 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 had said in a release back then.

After receiving the flak from countrys top most civil aviation authority, both the airlines went on a flight cancelling mode, thus causing a lot of confusion among domestic air passengers. The situation turned panicky too as a substantial number of flights were cancelled by the two no-frills carriers.

On Wednesday, the civil aviation ministry issued a statement saying for the authorities passengers safety was top concern. Union minister Jayant Sinha told the PTI that safety of passengers was paramount for the government and aircraft with Pratt & Whitney engines could be used only after they were considered safe post technical analysis.

Sinha went on to say that we have to give paramount priority to safety. There are 43 such engines in the worldwide, out of which 19 are currently in India, used by IndiGo and GoAir, he added.The United States on Wednesday launched a challenge to Indian export subsidies at the World Trade Organization, saying they hurt US companies.

New Delhi: India will engage with the United States to discuss its concerns on Indias export subsidies and respond within 60 days, the trade secretary said on Wednesday.

The United States on Wednesday launched a challenge to Indian export subsidies at the World Trade Organization, saying they hurt U.S. companies by letting Indian exporters sell goods more cheaply.

India provides exemptions from certain duties, taxes and fees that benefit numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and information technology products, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.N Vaghul elaborated that in 1969 the then RBI governor L K Jha had strongly opposed the nationalisation of banks.

N Vaghul, the founder of ICICI Bank and the pioneer of private sector banking in India, on Thursday, said the Rs 13,600 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam is a blessing in disguise as it gives the government an opportunity to address the larger issues concerning public sector banks. In a detailed interview to CNBC-TV18, Vaghul said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should be the only regulator of banks in India.

Vaghul's comments come a day after RBI governor Urjit Patel, in an emotional speech, said the central bank's powers over government banks are weaker than that over private banks. Patel had also listed out a number of regulatory constraints that prevent RBI from taking tough decisions when it comes to tackling issues at PSBs.

Vaghul, who was at the helm of Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) before it was turned into a full-fledged bank, said that government's ownership of banks was not important. "But the level of control they exercise is important," he added.

In 1985, Vaghul was made chairman and managing director of Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), which is now known as ICICI Bank. He has been credited with transforming ICICI, from a public financial institution to India's largest private bank. After abdicating executive powers in 1996, he became non-executive chairman and served ICICI Bank till 2009.

He also said that in 1969 the then RBI governor L K Jha had strongly opposed the nationalisation of banks. On a question related to the gigantic bad loans and stressed assets problem at Indian banks, Vaghul said that the mess in the banking sector was created because banks have been under the undue control of the government for the past 50 years. Vaghul rued that there has been no improvement in the working of India's public sector banks since they were nationalised.

Furthermore, Vaghul lauded RBI chief Urjit Patel for speaking his heart out about the problems ailing India's sarkari banks. "Urjit Patel has hit the nail on its head," he told CNBC-TV18.

#CNBCTV18Exclusive | Narayanan Vaghul says #PNBFraud blessing in disguise, should open up larger issue of PSU banks' ownership; Govt ownership of banks is not important, but the level of control they exercise is important pic.twitter.com/QYhkKBQeKl  CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) March 15, 2018

According to him, lending to the agriculture and the primary sector was no longer a problem and that the real issue before these banks was the duality of control. "It doesn't make sense for government to continue to own [a] 51 percent [stake] in public sector banks," Vaghul said.

RBI governor Urjit Patel, while describing banking regulatory powers to the audience at the Gujarat National Law University, said that all commercial banks in India are regulated by the RBI under the Banking Regulation (BR) Act of 1949.

Additionally, all public sector banks are regulated by the Government of India (GoI) under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970; the Bank Nationalisation Act, 1980; and the State Bank of India Act, 1955, Patel added.

"Section 51 of the amended BR Act explicitly states which portions of the BR Act apply to the PSBs, [the] most common thread across the omissions being complete removal or emaciation of RBI powers on corporate governance at PSBs," the RBI governor elaborated.Remember When  We have the best natural resources in Michigan and the world knows it; that is why everyone loves our state....

Career exploration helps students become successful adults When I was a child, I didnt have a clue that I could be doing the work that I am...

Remember When  The first known writings and paintings on walls were found in the Chauvet cave in France dating back 30,000 BC,...Those running small and midsize firms rue that the RBI is asking banks to view businessmen, seeking letters of undertaking (LoU), with a doubting eye.

An industry-wide practice that worked well until the end of business hours on Tuesday, which allowed D Dhanasekarans Tiruppur-based textiles firm -- Abi Tex Mills -- import machinery from Oman and boost production, has now gone haywire with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to bar banks from issuing guarantees in the form of letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of comfort. My machinery took a year to be imported and has been installed in the factory for a few months now. But now with buyer's credit cancelled, I am focused on how to make payments instead of my production, Dhanasekaran said.

Calling the RBI move a knee jerk reaction, businesses said they are perplexed by the central banks sudden decision, which came in the wake of the nearly Rs 13,600 crore scam in state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), which involves jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who owns Gitanjali Gems. The central banks move is expected to hit sectors like gems, precious metals, plastics, oil and gas, electronic goods, solar panels and metals, as they constitute the major basket of items that are imported.

Traders in gold and precious metals seemed nonchalant about the RBIs decision. They contend that their industry is not using LoUs or letters of comfort (LoC). It wont impact trade at all. No one was using it besides Nirav Modi and Mehul Choski, said Colin Shah, the vice chairman of the diamond panel at industry lobby Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). Buyer's credit was being availed of by only a couple of large jewellers, said K Srinivasan, Convener, GJEPC. They can mobilise funds from elsewhere. However, expansion activities will be impacted. But again, those who are undertaking these plans with their own funds will not be affected, Srinivas added.

The RBIs decision to discontinue LoUs and LoCs for trade credit for imports into India will impact the jewellery trade and other businesses. But traders ask as to why their business should face the brunt of actions of some jewellers, who cocked a snook at the system. The RBIs decision will change the course of trade finance for importers. Borrowing costs will also increase post the ban on LoCs/LoUs, as importers will have to explore alternatives that could be more expensive as compared to LoCs/LoUs, said Rachit Sharma, deputy general manager, corporate law, at Taxmann.com.

Entrepreneurs running small and midsize firms rue that the RBI is asking banks to view businessmen, seeking buyer's credit, with a doubting eye. "Every individual looking for buyers credit cannot be viewed as a potential scammer. Banking is the backbone of business. What does the RBI want businesses to do to avail funds when they ban buyer's credit overnight?" asked Brijesh Lohia, the managing director of logistics firm Global Ocean Group.

There will be a sudden cash flow crisis and businesses who availed LOU/LOC (popularly known as buyer's credit) against a presentation of import documents will face tremendous heat due to this sudden change. Generally, banks provide non-fund based banking limits against collateral securities that can be used to settle import transactions. The funding can be made by issue of LOU/LOC, where import documents are placed before banks. The cost of finance is very low as it comprises of LIBOR plus one to two basis points. Due to the restriction on issue of LOU/LOC, the cost of funds will shoot up substantially at minimum bank lending rate (BLR), making it unviable to carry out trade due to thin operating margins, Nikunj Turakhia, President, Steel Users Federation of India (SUFI), told Firstpost.

Across India, firms prefer to use buyer's credit instead of letters of credit (LC) as getting the latter is a time-consuming process while the former was available in a couple of days. Also, the rate of interest paid on buyer's credit was much lower than the existing rates, thus making it more appealing. Buyers credit refers to short-term credit available to an importer from an overseas lender, such as banks and other financial institution, for importing goods. The overseas bank usually lends money to the importer based on the letter of comfort, which is a bank guarantee issued by the importer's bank. A letter of credit is a payment mode used in import-export trade to cover third-party risk. If the importer defaults, the bank that he has an account with and has issued the LC to him will pay on his behalf.

Prashant Agarwal, who runs Delhi-based Raj Polymers, said he is surprised by the short-sighed move by the RBI. I have a buyer's credit which is due this month. As it is, the domestic factors in the petro-chemical sector are affecting us. Couldn't the RBI have given us a time-line of three months or more, so that we could then move to other avenues to seek business opportunities?

The sudden decision by the RBI is causing panic in the trader community. Importers will be left with no option now, but to start applying for LCs, said Sanjay Mandavia, an Ahmedabad-based trade finance consultant. "The instrument [buyer's credit] is blamed for taking away the focus from the systemic failure in PNB. Instead, as a solution, the industry is proposing that the RBI bring down the buyer's credit limit from $20 million dollars per import transaction to $1 million."There are a few negative indicators such as the decline of the Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index to a seven-month low of 47.8 in February.

On Sunday, 7 January, the New York Times ran a front page story titled "Rising Anxiety in India is Piercing Modi's Aura of Invincibility". The article discussed the decline in GDP, consumption and consumer confidence and its impact on India and Indians.

A little more than two weeks later, on 23 January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the opening address at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland. In that address, he declared: "According to the World Bank and IMF, our growth rate is going to be steady and high."

The question becomes, as the end of the first quarter of 2018 approaches, whether the Times' more pessimistic or Modi's more optimistic perspective is correct. The answer from the most recent data and trends indicates that the optimistic view will most likely prevail.

Things are not quite as stunningly bright, as in 2014 right after Modi's swearing-in as Prime Minister, when I wrote in an article for Foreign Policy magazine: "It is now Modi's India. And, Modi's India is a place of grand ambitions, great expectations and high hopes." But, it looks like there is a lot more sunshine on the horizon than there are clouds in India's economic future.

Part of the reason for this assessment is that the slowdown in the economy in India was self-induced. It was caused primarily by two governmental policies: demonetisation and the imposition of a Goods and Service Tax (GST).

Scholars and economists will argue whether these two actions were necessary or beneficial. I will leave that debate to them. Looking at where things stand today, it appears that the Indian economy is turning the corner and will continue to grow to position India as a world leader.

There are a few negative indicators such as the decline of the Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index to a seven-month low of 47.8 in February. This is however offset by the fact that India's GDP growth for the last quarter of 2017 was 7.2 per cent -- making it the fastest-growing economy in the world for that time period.

Combine this with projected GDP growth for India in the 7 to 7.8 per cent range in the current and next fiscal years by various groups, and there is considerable cause for optimism.

That optimism is strengthened by three factors: Progress on the ground in India; the country's global and regional economic appeal; and, the "defining partnership for the 21st century" between India and the United States.

Modi highlighted some of the economic accomplishments and plans developed during his tenure in his Davos WEF remarks. Most of them related to initiatives of the Make In India programme, including making India a manufacturing hub; the Skill India programme; and the opening of bank accounts for unbanked people.

At Davos, Modi also mentioned briefly that India is ranked third on the Global Trust Index list of the most trusted governments in the world. This accomplishment cannot be over-stressed. It is important and differentiating because we are living in an era when trust in government and democracy around the globe is in deep decline.

In his Davos speech, Modi also stressed the enormous opportunities that companies have to invest in "inclusive economic development" in India. By all accounts, business leaders from around the globe responded very favourably to his sales pitch. On a regional basis, the success of the India-Asean Summit held as part of this year's Republic Day ceremonies and the potential of India's "Act East" policy speak for themselves.

Finally, there is the "defining partnership" between the US and India. President Obama used this phrase during his first visit to India in 2009 and his administration worked assiduously to strengthen that partnership during his eight years as President.

This year has been a little more worrisome for the partnership. There were concerns about protectionism as President Donald Trump talked about import taxes in January. Then, on 8 March along came Trump's tariffs on aluminium and steel imports and that upset the apple cart.

But probably not a lot, because the level of export of steel and aluminium products to the US is relatively low. The Indian media quoted industry leaders as saying "India will not be impacted much".

There is another reason the impact will be low. That is because the Trump administration sees the chance and the need to increase US exports to India substantially going forward. Getting a fairer balance in the trading relationship was a primary topic of the 2017 US-India Bilateral Trade Policy Forum held in November. It can be expected this will be an area for negotiation moving forward

In summary, the Modi economy has many rays of sunshine. Those rays do not shine uniformly on all though.

There are also a few clouds. These include: An across-the-board need for empowerment of women and enhanced educational opportunities for minorities. As those rays get brighter, one must be brought to focus to dispel those clouds.Governor Patel added that RBI data on banking frauds suggests that only a handful of cases over the past five years have had closure,

The Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel on Wednesday broke his silence on the Rs 13,600 crore Punjab National Bank scam which has been touted as biggest fraud in India's banking history. Patel who was speaking at an event organised at the National Law University in Gandhinagar said that the central bank's regulatory authority over public sector banks was weaker than that over the private sector banks.

Governor Patel added that RBI data on banking frauds suggests that only a handful of cases over the past five years have had closure, and cases of substantive economic significance remain open. "As a result, the overall enforcement mechanism - at least until now  is not perceived to be a major deterrent to frauds relative to economic gains from fraud," said Patel whose full speech has been put up on the RBI's website.

Temptation to engage in fraud at the level of employee or employees is always present, in banks (or in corporations), be it in public sector or private sector. The question then is whether there is adequate deterrence faced by employees from undertaking frauds and enough incentives for management to put in place preventive measures to preempt frauds, according to Patel's speech.

Read full text for Urjit Patel's take on PNB scam here

While defending the RBI, governor Patel said, "Success has many fathers; failures none. Hence, there has been the usual blame game, passing the buck, and a tonne of honking, mostly short-term and knee-jerk reactions. These appear to have prevented the participants in this cacophony from deep reflection and soul searching that can help solve fundamental issues that are the root cause of such frauds and related irregularities in the banking sector, which as I will explain are in fact far too regular."

The central bank in a statement while giving itself a clean chit in the Rs 13,600 crore financial fraud listed out a number of reasons as to why it could not detect the PNB scam at an earlier stage.

Here are the key points:

One, all commercial banks in India are regulated by the RBI under the Banking Regulation (BR) Act of 1949. Additionally, all public sector banks are regulated by the Government of India (GoI) under the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970; the Bank Nationalisation Act, 1980; and the State Bank of India Act, 1955.

Two, Section 51 of the amended BR Act explicitly states which portions of the BR Act apply to the PSBs, most common thread across the omissions being complete removal or emaciation of RBI powers on corporate governance at PSBs.

Three, RBI cannot remove directors and management at PSBs as Section 36AA (1) of the BR Act is not applicable to the PSBs. Section 36ACA(1) of the BR Act that provides for supersession of a Bank Board is also not applicable in the case of PSBs (and regional rural banks or RRBs) as they are not banking companies registered under the Companies Act.

Fourth, the RBI cannot force a merger in the case of PSBs as per Section 45 of the BR Act.

Fifth, PSBs banking activity does not require license from RBI under Section 21 of the BR Act; hence, RBI cannot revoke a license under Section 22(4) of the BR Act as it can in the case of private sector banks.

Sixth, RBI cannot trigger liquidation of PSBs as per Section 39 of the BR Act.

Seventh, in a remarkable exception of sorts, in some cases there is duality of Managing Director and the Chairman  they are the same  implying the MD is primarily answerable only to himself or herself.A Pune court on Thursday remanded Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, in police custody till 19 March.

Pune: A Pune court on Thursday remanded Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, in police custody till 19 March.

The police had on Wednesday arrested Ekbote from his residence, after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

He was produced on Thursday before Special Judge PC Bhagure at the Shivajinagar district court amid a heavy police bandobast.

Public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar argued in the court that the police needed Ekbote's custody to recover a mobile phone through which he had communicated with some people and given directions.

"He is not cooperating with police and claiming the mobile phone is lost. The call detail record (CDR) report shows that there was a communication using that phone, but he is denying the possession of the phone," said Pawar.

She also told the court that Ekbote had organised a meeting at Sonai Hotel close to Perne phata near Koregaon Bhima days before the 1 January event, where he had distributed some pamphlets and given directions to people.

"The police custody is needed to recover the hard disk of the computer and printer which were used to print the pamphlets, mobile phone and police need to find who were those people, whom did Ekbote call and was constantly giving directions to," she said.

Last month, while extending the right-wing leader's protection from arrest, the apex court had asked the Pune rural police to submit a detailed report on the case and allowed them to question Ekbote.

Following directions from the court, he had appeared before the Shikrapur police here for questioning five times.

Yesterday, the police submitted a detailed report before the apex court and sought the "custodial interrogation" of Ekbote, while opposing his bail plea.

The SC accepted the demand for his custodial interrogation and rejected his bail application.

A case was registered against Ekbote and another Hindutva leader, Sambhaji Bhide, for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence that left a man dead near the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial on 1 January.

The incident took place during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Subsequent protests had disrupted normal life in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested RP Infosystems directors Shivaji Panja and Kaustav Ray in an ongoing investigation of an alleged bank fraud case in Kolkata.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested RP Infosystems' directors Shivaji Panja and Kaustav Ray in connection with an alleged bank fraud case in Kolkata, media reports said. Panja is reportedly a close aide of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, CNN-News 18 reported.

CBI arrested RP Infosystems directors Shivaji Panja and Kaustav Ray in an ongoing investigation of an alleged bank fraud case.  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

Days after the Punjab National Bank scam, another bank fraud was reported after Canara Bank moved the CBI with a complaint of fraudulent transactions worth Rs 515.15 crores against Kolkata-based RP Infosystems and its directors.

According to the FIR, on 26 February, 2018 DV Prasad Rao, deputy general manager, Canara Bank had filed a complaint with the CBI in Kolkata alleging that Panja, Ray, Vinay Bafna, directors and Debnath Pal, vice-president (finance) of RP Info Systems cheated Canara Bank and nine other member banks of a consortium to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

Earlier in 2015, Panja was arrested for allegedly duping a Delhi-based company of Rs 18 crore, The Times of India had reported.

After PNB scam, a series of other bank frauds have come to the surface including the Rs 3,695 crore Rotomac scam and Rs 515 crore scam involving RP Infosystems fraud. The total scam/wilful default amount involving different banks will work out to around Rs 26,000 crore.The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 accountancy exam paper has reportedly been leaked on WhatsApp and social media.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 accountancy exam paper has reportedly been leaked on WhatsApp and social media.

According to News18, CBSE's top panel is conducting a review meeting to probe the issue and will eventually decide whether the exam needs to be scrapped altogether.

Another report in The Indian Express quoted sources as saying that the paper had been doing the rounds on WhatsApp and social media since Wednesday.

CNN-News18 also reported that copies of the paper were sent out at around 9.45 am on Thursday. The news channel also reported that CBSE was likely to cancel Thursday's Accountancy exam.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia also tweeted about the alleged leak and said he had asked officers of the Directorate of Education to probe the matter.

Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE.

Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to negligence of CBSE.  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) March 15, 2018

The CBSE board exams for Class 12 began on 5 March.Vansh was admitted in the Fortis hospital in Gurugram for the treatment of a genetic disease.

Gurugram: A five-member panel of medical experts has held the Fortis Hospital in Gurugram responsible for the death of a child during treatment last year.

The Medical Negligence Board headed by Dr SS Saroha and including Dr Rakesh Pathak, Dr DS Yadav, Dr Sanjay Narula and Dr Naresh Kumar was constituted after Sanjeev Sharma, a resident of New Delhi's Ranjeet Nagar, complained to Gurugram's Chief Medical Officer that the hospital was responsible for the death of his one-and-a-half-year-old son Vansh.

Vansh was admitted in the hospital for the treatment of a genetic disease. According to the board's report, the patient underwent a bone marrow transplant (BMT) on 1 May, 2017.

He subsequently suffered from fever and developed complications due to infection.

Sharma complained that the hospital officials told him that the estimated cost of treatment will be Rs 13 lakh but later raised the amount to Rs 27 lakh, but the child could not be saved.

"The hospital was supposed to provide infection-free environment but failed to do so. The hospital also charged money for BMT room but did not provide such environment," Gurugram CMO BK Rajora said.

"Dr Satyaprakash Yadav, pediatric hematologist and bone marrow transplant physician, said in his report in writing that the infection spread due to the negligence of the hospital and that the mortality rate in the BMT was 30 percent," the report read.

Fortis hospital was in the news last year also after a seven-year-old Class 2 student Adya Singh died of dengue on the night of 14-15 September and the hospital charged nearly Rs 16 lakh for the fortnight-long treatment from the family.

Adya died while being shifted to Rockland Hospital in Delhi.

In January, a Fortis doctor was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with Adya's death after a four-member probe panel, headed by Haryana's Additional Director General of Health Rajeev Vadhera, investigated the Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) in Gurugram for charging the child's Dwarka-based family an exorbitant sum and held him guilty.

Later, the licence of the hospital blood bank was suspended and authorities banned the sale of medicines at the hospital counters.The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended the protection from arrest to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case from 20 to 22 March.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended the protection from arrest to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case from 20 to 22 March.

A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice IS Mehta changed the date of hearing after Karti's counsel said that senior advocate Kapil Sibal will not be available on 20 March.

Sibal is representing Karti in the matter.

The Enforcement Directorate counsel Vinod Diwakar said he has instructions from Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta that the ASG has no objection if the date of hearing is changed to 22 March.

To this the bench said, "Since no objection has been expressed by the ED for changing the dates, the petition is fixed for hearing on 22 March."

The high court had on 9 March directed the ED not to arrest or take any coercive action against Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, till 20 March in the money laundering case.

Karti is presently lodged in Tihar jail in connection with CBI's INX media corruption case relating to irregularities in the FIPB clearance given to the firm.

The ED has challenged in the Supreme Court the high court's 9 March order granting interim protection to Karti and it is listed for hearing on Thursday.The Supreme Court on Thursday further extended interim protection to Karti Chidambaram in INX Media case

The Supreme Court on Thursday extended Karti Chidambaram's protection from arrest in the INX Media case till 26 March, according to media reports.

#INXMediaCase: Supreme Court transfers the ED case pending in Delhi High Court relating to adjudication of the probe agency's power to arrest under PMLA to SC, in connection with Karti Chidambaram's role.  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

According to ANI, the apex court has also ordered the transfer of Delhi HC case to itself to examine the validity of a Prevention of Money Laundering Law Act (PMLA) provision. The court will hear the matter on 26 March.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had challenged in the Supreme Court the Delhi High Court's 9 March order granting interim protection to Karti which had extended his interim protection till 20 March.

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court had further extended Karti's interim protection from 20 March to 22 March.

The date was extended after ED counsel Vinod Diwakar had said to the court that he has instructions from Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta that the ASG has no objection if the date of hearing is changed to 22 March.

To this, the bench said, "Since no objection has been expressed by the ED for changing the dates, the petition is fixed for hearing on 22 March."

Karti is presently lodged in Tihar jail in connection with CBI's INX media corruption case relating to irregularities in the FIPB clearance given to the firm.

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.

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.

With inputs from agenciesThe incident occurred at Balhama in Pulwama district, a police official said.

A CRPF personnel was injured in a gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulawama district following a foiled terrorist attack at Bharatiya Janata Party leader Anwar Khan on Thursday, media reports said.

J&K: One security personnel who was injured in an ongoing encounter in Pulwama, identified as CT.Pradeep Kumar of 110 Bn CRPF. He received a bullet injury in his right shoulder.  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

While Khan escaped the attack unscathed, one of his personal security officers (PSO) was injured, the police said.

The Indian Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police are engaged in a gun battle with the terrorist after they cordoned off the area and launched a hunt to nab the militants, TV channel India Today reported.

Speaking to the media, Jammu and Kashmir Police chief SP Vaid confirmed that security forces believe at least three armed militants are holed up in the area. The incident occurred at Balhama in Pulwama district, a police official said.

While Khan escaped the attack unhurt, Constable Bilal Ahmad received a "grazing injury on the leg", the official added.

According to a report in The Times of India, the terrorists attempted to snatch the service weapon from his personal security officers but were foiled.

The official added that the injured policeman was rushed to a hospital, and is in stable condition.

With inputs from agenciesThree militants who attacked a BJP leader on the outskirts of Srinagar, fired upon his personal security officers and attempted to snatch their weapons were killed by security forces on Thursday.

The militants who attacked a BJP leader on the outskirts of Srinagar, fired upon his personal security officers and attempted to snatch their weapons were likely killed by security forces on Thursday, although no official confirmation was forthcoming.

The attackers fled after they were fired upon by the security personnel accompanying BJP leader Mohammad Anwar Khan, and took refuge in a residential home, which was then destroyed by security forces and reduced to rubble. The bodies of the militants have not yet been recovered and the operation is ongoing, sources said.

Khan's security guard was injured in the initial shootout at Balhama area of Khunmoh, 18 kilometers from Srinagar. Eyewitnesses said the militants attacked Khan at Balhama village in Khanmoh area when he was visiting an educational institution, however, they failed to snatch the weapons of the PSOs.

Kashmir police said in a statement that Khan's PSOs repulsed the initial attack while exhibiting extreme caution to avoid any collateral damage, which led the militants to flee. In the said incident, PSO Bilal Ahmad sustained minor injuries, the statement read.

A senior police official said joint team of Indian Army, CRPF and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police cordoned off the area and launched a man hunt to nab the assailants. As soon as the forces attempted to search the area, they came under fire as they approached a building, he added.

As the gunfight raged, hundreds of people of Balhama village assembled near the encounter site and started pelting stones at the forces. They shouted pro-freedom and anti-government slogans, triggering massive clashes. The government forces retaliated by firing tear gas, using smoke shells and pellets to disperse the protesters. The state government decided to reduce mobile internet speed in police district of Awantipora, where Balhama is located.

The militants, according to police sources, were part of the Zakir Musas Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, which has been in headlines since its formation in July. On Sunday, three militants from the same group were killed in the Hakoora-Anantnag area in south Kashmir. One of them turned out to be a resident of Hyderabad who was radicalised into the Islamic State ideology through social media, police said.

The militant killed on Sunday was identified as Mohommad Toufeeq, 26, a resident of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana who followed Islamic State ideology and fled to the Valley last year to join militancy.

It is learned that Mohommad Toufeeq died in an encounter with security forces on the night of 11 and 12 March in Hakoora of Anantnag district along with two other Kashmiri militants. He was radicalised into the Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of Islamic State. He was not wanted in any criminal cases in Telangana state, according to a statement issued by Telangana Police.

The militant group posted a picture with the caption Mohommad Taufeeq with Rehan Khan (Deputy Ameer Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind). Mohommad Taufeeq became the first Mujahid in recent history to make hijrah (migration) to Kashmir and began the work of preaching. His jihadi names were Sultan Zabul Al Hindi and Abu Zarrr Al Hindi, a statement issued by Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind read.

A number of militants from different terror outfits, including the Kashmir Hizbul Mujahideen, have joined the Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind in recent months, thus swelling its ranks. Musa was named the head of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, for the Valley in July, after he parted ways with the Hizbul Mujahideen, comprising mostly local Kashmiris, and threatened to behead Hurriyat leaders (who described the ongoing crisis in Kashmir as a political struggle) in the main city centre of Srinagar, Lal Chowk.The apex court also asked Jay Shah and other who filed the case against The Wire to file their responses within two weeks to the journalists' plea.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Gujarat Magistrate Court notto initiate criminal defamation proceedings against the news portal The Wire and the journalist till 12 April in the Jay Shah defamation case. The apex court also asked Jay Shah and other who filed the case against The Wire to file their responses within two weeks to the journalists' plea.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra observed that the press should be more responsible before publishing. "We are not gagging press but sometimes journalists write things that amount to sheer contempt of court," he said, adding that the media cannot write whatever it feels about anyone.

In February, the Gujarat court had restored the gag order against The Wire, thereby debarring it from publishing any article related to the businesses of BJP chief Amit Shah's son Jay.

The lower court is hearing a civil defamation suit worth Rs 100 crore filed by Jay Shah against the reporters, editors and the company (The Wire) over the article that claimed that his company's turnover rose 16,000 times in one year after the NDA came to power.

The article claimed that the company saw a huge rise in its turnover after the BJP came to power in 2014, and its revenue rose from Rs 50,000 to over Rs 80 crore in one year.

Jay Shah also filed a criminal defamation suit against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and MK Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism.

In his suit, Shah termed the article as "scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory, libellous and consisting of several defamatory statements."

With inputs from PTIThe JNU administration has alleged that the varsity's students union members manhandled the Dean of Students, a charge denied by the students' body.

New Delhi: The JNU administration has alleged that the varsity's students union members manhandled the Dean of Students, a charge denied by the students' body.

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) registrar Pramod Kumar on Tuesday issued a statement along with CCTV footage, accusing JNUSU agitators of manhandling Dean of Students Umesh Ashok Kadam during a meeting.

"While discussions went on, more than 15 agitating students barged into DoS office and became very violent. They continuously shouted slogans, latched door and blocked with a sofa. When DoS tried to go out of office for lunch, they pushed, hurled abusive language and manhandled him," the administration said in the statement.

A police complaint was filed and Chief Proctor was investigating into the issue, the statement said.

A day after the varsity administration made the allegations, the students body denied the them and instead said it was students who were manhandled by the security guards. In a statement, the JNUSU said, "The security guards confined the JNUSU vice-president Simone Zoya Khan along with other hostel presidents in Dean of Students' room during the meeting. Students waiting outside learnt about this and tried to enter the room."

When they tried to talk to guards, more guards were called in and were instructed to physically manhandle students and push them out, the JNUSU claimed. Male guards assaulted girl students, the statement said.

JNUSU also claimed that it has filed a complaint against the security guards in the Vasant Vihar police station.

On 12 March, the JNUSU members and Dean of Students Umesh Ashok Kadam had held a meeting to discuss the issue of fee/mess charges hike at around 12 pm.DMK leader and former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, who was discharged in the 'illegal' telephone exchange case on Wednesday, said justice has prevailed and that he stood vindicated

Chennai: DMK leader and former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, who was discharged in the "illegal" telephone exchange case on Wednesday, said justice has prevailed and that he stood vindicated.

A special CBI court discharged Dayanidhi, his brother Kalanithi and five other accused in the case on Wednesday. Last year, a Delhi court had cleared Dayanidhi, Kalanithi and the latter's wife in the Aircel-Maxis case.

"Once again, justice has prevailed. I stand vindicated for the second time," Dayanidhi Maran said in a statement. He said he has been saying from day one that these cases were "politically motivated and foisted falsely, out of jealousy and business rivalry against my brother and to defame me, my family and my party."

"In both cases, the court has found that there was neither merit nor substance in the allegations levelled against me and discharged me from these cases," he said.

He recalled he had resigned as Union minister when these allegations were levelled against him, so that he could prove his innocence in a court of law. "Now, I stand vindicated," he added.

He alleged lies were spread as news and "I was made to look like a villain". "But truth triumphed in the end. This is a watershed moment for me. I take this opportunity to thank my beloved leader (DMK president M Karunanidhi), party members, family, friends and well-wishers who stood by me during these long and hard years," he said.

Meanwhile, he also met DMK working president MK Stalin after being discharged in the case.

Holding that there was no sufficient material to frame charges against any of them, special judge S Natarajan allowed the petitions filed by the Maran brothers and others seeking their discharge. The CBI had alleged that an illegal private telephone

exchange was set up at the city residence of Dayanidhi Maran during 2004-06, when he was the telecom minister and it was

used for the business transactions involving the Sun network owned by his brother Kalanithi.

The central agency had alleged that Dayanidhi had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer. During the hearing of the discharge petitions, the Maran brothers and others argued that they were innocent and did not commit any irregularities as alleged by the prosecution.The big takeaway from the Adivasi protests is that implementing collective forest rights is of greater importance and priority than individual human rights.

The Adivasi farmers' recent stir at Azad Maidan on Monday was centred around a common demand from the Maharashtra government  to regularise forest farmland policy and transfer ownership of the land to the farmers, thus securing their means of livelihood.

The Adivasi communities living on these forest lands have been cultivating it for decades without the legal land rights as described in the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Recognition of the legal rights of those dwelling on the protected forest land would aid the Adivasi communities by providing them with the basic infrastructure required for farming and sustaining  currently, they cannot construct any water pipeline or reservoir to get or store water.

According to Section 35 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927, there is a provision to convert lands not under cultivation and use, which are barren on the mountains and forests. But there is no scope to say that this section has been used and interpreted properly in this case. The Adivasi communities have been using the lands for many generations. This begs the question: What did the government achieve by converting these lands into forests and prohibiting the Adivasis from using it?

The theory that the move was aimed at sustainable development of the ecology or protecting the land would hold true had there been businesses or other intense activities on the lands. Especially, since the Adivasis only use the natural resources of the land for farming purposes. So, what is the virtue in restricting 1,000 hectors of land, that is just laying there without any use?

Merely declaring the land as forest on the 7/12 extract (an extract from the land register of any district in Maharashtra, which gives complete information about a particular piece of land) and prohibiting non-forest activities is not sustainable development. Presently, the land is sitting idle  awaiting plantation, forestry and other plans. Since the enactment of the Forest Act, it is neither being used by the forest department nor being handed over to the Adivasi inhabitants.

In 2006, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act was passed, allowing the tribal people residing in the area to establish their right to record their name in the 7/12 extract of the land. The Act dictates that after the report of the village Gram Sabha about possession and use of land, an Adivasi person can file a claim for the establishment of forest rights to the sub-divisional level committee.

But, since the introduction of the present law, till January 2018, the state government has only approved only 54,614 of the 3,64,313 claims received. A study of the rejected, pending claims reveals one of the following reasons:

1) Failing to produce a receipt of the penalty from the forest department as evidence of use and possession of the land.

2) Exclusion of land above four hectares in area.

3) Removal of encroachment by forest department while the claim is pending.

4) No actual site inspection in the presence of forest committee.

Now, the government has assured to settle these claims after protests by the farmers and tribals. But when the assurance will translate into actual claim settlements remains to be seen. But, until then, it would bode well to try and understand what exactly forest rights entail.

The Forest Rights Act is one of the laws on the sustainable management of the ecosystem of India and the natural resources of local communities. The official name of the act is Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (acceptance of forest rights) Act 2006 and rule 2008, 2012.

The livelihood of more than 50 percent of those dwelling on land with forest cover and of 15 to 20 percent of those in backward areas is traditionally dependent on livestock. Such tribal communities have been given personal and collective rights of the forest through this Act. In a booklet published by the government, the background and main objectives of the legislation  which can provide a broader vision for implementation  are given as:

This act has been designed for Scheduled Castes and Traditional Nonsensities, whose residuals are not recorded for any rights of theirs, despite the fact that they are still living in forests for generations. The Act provides the right to record ownership and to ensure the nature of various evidence required for it.

Disqualifications include the right to use resources for sustainable use. In order to protect the biodiversity in the area and to maintain ecological balance, the Act has strengthened the development process of the forest area by giving the rights to the community.

At the same time, the Act provides for the protection of the local population and food security. The Scheduled Tribes and other traditional Nunavik have historically faced injustice on their traditional land and inhabited terrain due to the settlement of the British in the colonial period and in the post-Independence period, and due to non-compliance with other policies.

At the same time, the Act provides for the protection of the local population and food security. The Scheduled Tribes and other traditional Nunavik have historically faced injustice on their traditional land and inhabited terrain due to the settlement of the British in the colonial period and in the post-Independence period, and due to non-compliance with other policies. It has become necessary to properly address the insecurity of the long-standing rights of such issues. The purpose of the law is to provide justice to those who have been displaced from their livelihood areas forcibly due to the development schemes of the central and state governments.

The main aim of resolving this injustice by giving due recognition to the rights of forest dwellers, due to their lack of historical rights, has been explained by the above proposal. The sustainable livelihood of Gavasamajas, traditionally inhabitants of forests, and their development is dependent on collective resources that are traditionally used.

Therefore, implementing collective forest rights is of greater importance and priority than individual human rights. But, unfortunately, the entire emphasis of the people and the government machinery is on the individual land (lease) claim.

The best way to generate awareness about such areas and ensuring the involvement of more people is to make everyone familiar with the tenets of the law  on how to set up an area of collective forestry, get the necessary information and documents to create a claim, preparing a study group and starting the process of reading all the revenue/forest records.

The author is an advocate and director of VK Group, an environment and forest consultancy.The ruling AIADMK on Thursday lashed out at the critics of five decades of Dravidian rule in Tamil Nadu, stating that such a rule had ensured the southern state's progress in various social sectors in the last 50 years.

Chennai: The ruling AIADMK on Thursday lashed out at the critics of five decades of Dravidian rule in Tamil Nadu, stating that such a rule had ensured the southern state's progress in various social sectors in the last 50 years.

Presenting the state budget for 2018-19, AIADMK coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said certain critics with "myopic vision" were indulging in "fallacious propaganda" against the Dravidian rule.

DMK founder and late chief minister CN Annadurai heralded the first Dravidian government in Tamil Nadu in 1967, unseating the then Congress regime.

Ever since, only the two Dravidian arch rivalsDMK and AIADMKhave been ruling the state.

Though Panneerselvam did not specify any "critic" of the Dravidian rule, he said he wanted to "send a strong message" that Tamil Nadu had progressed much more than many other states.

He compared the state with BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Rajasthan to drive home the point that Tamil Nadu stood better in many social indicators.

The state has bettered on its below the poverty line (BPL) numbers, and fared better than many states, he said.

While the percentage of persons living below poverty line in Tamil Nadu in 1973-74 was 54.94, it has come down to 11.28 percent in 2011-12 as per the National Sample Survey, Panneerselvam said.

The national average in 2011-12 was 21.92 percent as against the 54.88 percent in 1973-74, he added.

"During the same period, this percentage came down from 48.15 to 16.63 in Gujarat, 54.47 to 20.90 in Karnataka, 61.78 to 31.65 in Madhya Pradesh, 53.24 to 17.35 in Maharashtra, 46.14 to 14.71 in Rajasthan, 57.07 to 29.43 in Uttar Pradesh and 63.43 to 19.98 in West Bengal," Panneerselvam said.

Further, Tamil Nadu's per capita income at current prices exceeded the national average, he said

In a recent NITI Aayog publication, Tamil Nadu stood at third place among all states in the country in health indicators, he said, adding, even in terms of GDP, the state has bettered its rank from No 5 in the 1950s to "the second largest economy" at present.

"All these achievements have been made possible by the social equity agenda provided by the Dravidian movement, without much patronage from the successive central governments, while such patronage has been extended to many other states," he said.

"It is very clearly evident that we have grown in our own efforts and strength. Such political critics should understand that Tamil Nadu is the crucible of socio-economic transformation, which others must emulate," he said.

The AIADMK, founded by late M G Ramachandran and taken forward by his protege, late J Jayalalithaa, has contributed to this enormous growth, Panneerselvam added.Pakistan on Thursday said it has decided to call back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidents of 'harassment' of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday said it has decided to call back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidents of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

"Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad for consultations," he said.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Office had summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks. Faisal on Thursday alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and "continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level)."

He said the Pakistan High Commission shared with the External Affairs Ministry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officers but regrettably no positive action was taken by the Indian side so far.

"The total apathy and failure of the Indian government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so," he said.

He said that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian government.

He claimed that in the latest incident, Indian officials stopped the car of the deputy high commissioner for 40 minutes and harassed the occupants of the vehicle.

"Pakistan will go to any limit to ensure the safety of the staff of (its) high commission in India," he said.

He said India should not drag Pakistan in its electoral politics. Faisal said that Pakistan wants peace in the region and was against an arms race.Khawaja Asif blamed India for violating ceasefire agreement repeatedly on the LoC and said the relationship between the two countries cannot improve.

Pakistan foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif blamed India for violating ceasefire agreement repeatedly on the Line of Control and said the relationship between the two countries cannot improve in such a situation, media reports said.

#India is violating ceasefire agreement time and again on the Line of Control and working boundary. In such circumstances, we are not expecting improvement in relations between the two countries.

~Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif pic.twitter.com/kFLgjB2aY6  Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) March 15, 2018

Responding to a query in the National Assembly, the Lower House of Parliament on 9 March, he alleged India has committed more than 400 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the Working Boundary since January in which 18 civilians have been killed, PTI reported.

"Heavy weapons, including moderates, are frequently being used by the Indian forces on the civilian population on the Pakistani side of the LoC and the Working Boundary," he had said.

Asif said the LoC violations were an attempt to divert the attention from the "deteriorating" humanitarian situation in the Valley. He said that the role of the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) was crucial to ensure peace at the LoC.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Pakistan decided to call back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidents of "harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

On Tuesday, the foreign office had summoned India's deputy high commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.

The Pakistan foreign ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.

Faisal on Thursday alleged that this deliberate bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and "continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level)."

With inputs from PTIIn a terrain as inaccessible as it is harsh, the Kaladan Transit Transport Project in south Mizoram comes at a high cost to human lives and equipment.

Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series on the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project in Mizoram envisioned to provide an outlet to and link the landlocked North East to Kolkata through Myanmar.

Travelling on the Kaladan highway in south Mizoram evokes an opinion that swings to the extreme ends. The road is undeniably among the best in terms of quality but the smooth drive is often interrupted by incomplete and bumpy segments in the entire stretch.

In a terrain as inaccessible as it is harsh, the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project in south Mizoram has battled heavy odds to cover a long distance from the district headquarters in Lawngtlai to a point just three kilometres from the border with Myanmar, which will eventually link the landlocked North East to Kolkata. However, blacktopping of the road has been completed for only 41 kilometres so far.

But all this has been achieved at a high cost to human lives and equipment resulting from a combination of many factors. Situations at times have come to such a pass that the progress of the scheme had remained stalled for weeks due to the dearth of human resources and equipment.

One of the firms engaged in the project has lost as many as 30 workers either due to diseases, accidents or lack of treatment in time. Reaching the civil hospital in Lawngtlai could take at least a couple of hours and even more from the areas near the border.

"The working conditions are hostile in this region. Malaria has taken a heavy toll on the workers in the project," recalled BP Chaurasia, a project engineer of RDS Projects Limited engaged with the construction of the highway. He informed that apart from the loss of human lives, machinery worth crores of rupees have either been damaged or rolled down the hillocks never to be retrieved.

Officials working for the firm narrated interesting details about the hurdles in the project that surface at regular intervals, how they were overcome and about the situations that often spin out of control. Unlike other regions in the North East, southern Mizoram is not afflicted by militancy or demands of extortion by local groups but the distance and lack of accessibility have been hurdles in the smooth execution of the project.

Rains and raw material

The rainy season in the North East allows work for only five months, from November to March, which explains why some projects have faced an inordinate delay in the region. The labour force is usually discharged during the monsoon and asked to rejoin in October. In the past, daily wagers have been reluctant to work for the project in south Mizoram which necessitates a search for new workers from different parts of the country. A workforce of around 2,700 employees including engineers and operators has been recruited by the firms implementing the project.

More than workers, the supply of raw materials like stone, sand and cement has been a constant dilemma for the firms. Cement is sourced from the manufacturing units in Meghalaya located about 400 kilometres away from the construction site. Supply has been erratic and the few transporters willing to carry the item charge exorbitant rates.

Shortage of boulders and sand has been a crippling factor in the project. Separate teams comprising locals have been constituted by the firms to search for the items in the region. Whenever a source like a river or a hillock with boulders is spotted, an approach road is built for the vehicles to reach the spot for transporting the item. Heaps of boulders were seen at different locations near the highway waiting to be crushed and used for construction. Stone dust has been used in many sections of the highway as a substitute for sand.

Spare parts and fuel

A range of expensive machinery is assembled for the construction of a highway, which includes excavators, dozers, graders, pavers, crushers, hot mix plants and weight mix macadams. While most of the equipment has been sourced from Gujarat, some machines like the dozer and grader have been imported.

Equipment that breaks down can be repaired in a short span only if parts are available in Guwahati or Kolkata. But it is often a long wait of many weeks for the imported items since parts have to travel all the way from Singapore and other South East Asian countries.

"About a year ago, a grader had to lie idle for more than three months since no spare parts were available in the country. They had to be imported from abroad at expensive rates," said Rakesh Singh, an operator with an excavator in the highway.

Replenishing the fuel stock is also not easy for the machines and generators supplying power to the office and residence of the employees. Diesel is supplied from the depots in Vairengte where the army's Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School is located some 400 kilometres away from the project. In times of crisis, tankers travel all the way from Guwahati in a long journey that takes as much as three days to reach the construction site.

Read Part 1: Agitating Mizoram landowners, escalating costs, dearth of records stall Kaladan project

The author is a senior journalist in Guwahati and author of Rendezvous With Rebels: Journey to Meet Indias Most Wanted MenRSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday called for using strength and tact to counter 'forces seeking to divide the people' of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and said trouble-makers only understood the language of power.

Nagpur: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday called for using strength and tact to counter "forces seeking to divide the people" of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and said trouble-makers only understood the language of power.

There was need for "shakti" (power) and "yukti" (tact) to ensure that "truth prevails", Bhagwat said. The Indian Army, with its "efforts, sacrifices and dedication", had maintained "shakti", which was needed because trouble-makers "only understand the language of power", he said.

Stressing that Kashmir was an integral part of India, he said the people of the Indian sub-continent belonged to one nation and had the same DNA.

"The Kashmir problem should not be viewed as a problem...The root of the problem is that we have forgotten our unity and that Bharat is one (nation)," Bhagwat said.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the 'Sapt-Sindhu Jammu Kashmir Ladakh Mahotsav' organised by the Jammu Kashmir Study Centre.

"There are (some) forces who say that since our language is not similar, we are not one. This has happened because we have forgotten our roots. Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit, Pakistan, Siachen, and, one may say, the (region) east of Kabul, the area west of the Chindwin river (of Myanmar) up to Kabul, the slopes of Tibet on the China side and south of Sri Lanka are one country," he said.

The people of Akhand Bharat (undivided India) are one, he stressed. "The DNA of the people ... is one," Bhagwat said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mizoram governor Lieutenant General Nirbhay Sharma called for doing away with "pseudo-secularism". "I have observed that...when we work for or talk about the Hindu religion, it is said that it is not secular. We cannot talk about restoration of temples destroyed in Kashmir ... as it is seen as communal," he said.

Questions were raised if improvement work was initiated for the Amarnath pilgrimage, Sharma added. "We need to remove pseudo-secularism," he said.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is of late involved in mediation on the Ayodhya issue, says the best solution to the festering Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute is an out-of-court settlement

New Delhi: Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is of late involved in mediation on the Ayodhya issue, says the best solution to the festering Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute is an out-of-court settlement under which the Muslims gift the land to the Hindus for building a grand Ram Temple.

The 61-year-old spiritual leader, who met leaders of both Sunni and Shia sects of the Muslim community recently, also says that he is not in touch with the government  and that it has nothing to do with his efforts.

Ravi Shankar, who has a global following, denies vehemently that he talked of "bloodshed" in case the Supreme Court rules the title dispute in favour of one community or the other.

"Because it's Lord Ram's birthplace, there is such a strong feeling connected with the place. And since it is not that important place for Muslims and (is) also in a place where there is conflict, namaaz is not acceptable. Anyway, it is not going to serve the purpose; and when it is not serving the purpose of the other community (Muslims), then, it should be gifted," he told IANS in an interview.

Ravi Shankar said that if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the Mandir then there will be heartburn. If it rules for the Masjid, there will again be heartburn.

"So, in either case, there will be discord in society. I want to create a win-win situation, where both communities come together and respect for each is restored, where respect of each is honoured. That is the formula we are suggesting, why not do it?" he said.

The spiritual leader said he was hopeful that an out-of-court settlement could be reached because he has been talking to people in both the communities, and they both agree that there should be a settlement.

"On that only (was) the initiative mooted. It's not that I jumped into it suddenly," he said.

Asked if there were any deadlines for finding an amicable solution ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he said, "No such deadline. I am just saying what would be the best for both communities. Nothing to do with elections, not at all. Only an amicable solution."

Ravi Shankar acknowledged that the temple dispute was a polarising factor all over India and that is why there was a need for all communities to come together.

"It is more relevant to come together and build bridges  and this initiative will build bridges," he said.

Asked about his meetings with leaders of the Shia and Sunni sects of the Muslim community, Ravi Shankar said that both the sects agree that they should settle the matter outside court.

"There is already a Shri Ram Temple existing there (at the disputed site). They all know that it cannot be removed. So, we should sit and talk," he said.

Referring to the first possibility of the court declaring that the site be given to the Hindus based on archaeological evidence that the temple existed long before the Masjid, Ravi Shankar said Muslims would have serious apprehensions about the legal system and lose faith in the judiciary. This could also lead to Muslim youth taking to violence.

Even though the Muslim Personal Law Board and other community leaders say that they will accept the verdict, in the long run the feeling that the court has done injustice will prevail for years.

If the Hindus lose the case and the land is gifted to Muslims for re-construction of the Babri Masjid, it would cause huge communal disturbance all over the country. "Winning this one acre of land, they would, however, permanently lose the goodwill of the majority community," he said.

Ravi Shankar talked about the Allahabad High Court judgement allowing both a temple and mosque to be built there being upheld, and the "fourth option" of a temple through legislation, and said in the letter to AIMPLB leaders that "in all the four options, whether through the court or through the government, the results will be devastating for the nation at large and the Muslim community in particular".

"The best solution, according to me, is an out-of-court settlement in which Muslim bodies come forward and gift one acre of land to the Hindus who, in turn, gift acres of land nearby to the Muslims, to build a better mosque. It is a win-win situation in which Muslims will not only gain the goodwill of 1,000 million Hindus, but it will also put this issue to rest once and for all.

"A palak nama (plaque) will recognise that this temple has been built with the cooperation of both the Hindus and Muslims. It will put to rest the issue for future generations and coming centuries," he said in the letter.

Asked about his reported remarks on bloodshed, Ravi Shankar said, "I have never said that. It's a distortion. I said that we don't want a conflict in this country like what I have seen in Syria."The apex court was hearing a petition in a defemation suit filed by Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against The Wire

The Supreme Court on Thursday criticised news media for "irresponsible" reportage as it observed that some degree of accountability should be maintained.

The apex court was hearing a petition in a defemation suit filed by Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against The Wire for publishing a story on his businesses. The apex court ordered the trial court not to proceed with the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jay Shah till it hears the matter related to the quashing of the case next on 12 April.

While repeatedly clarifying that the court was not commenting on the specific case before it, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra criticised sections of media for baseless publications, containing insinuations, and emphasised the importance of "responsible journalism", media reports said.

The chief justice also said that sometimes journalists write in a way that amounts to "sheer contempt of court".

"I have told many times about Freedom of Speech and Expression. We are not going to gag the media.The question of gagging the media does not arise. But the press should be more responsible," he said.

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits," the chief justice observed. "... they are writing sometimes which amounts to sheer contempt of court," he said.

The bench, also comprising justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, observed that the media should be more responsible and said it cannot write whatever it feels about anyone.

The bench further said: "We don't want to name channels but some people think they are Pope sitting in a Pulpit and can pass judgement or deliver a sermon...that is not culture of journalism", News18 reported.

According to The Wire report dated 8 October 2017, titled The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah, the turnover of BJP president's son's firm had increased 16,000 times in the year after Narendra Modi was elected as the prime minister. The website is facing a Rs 100 crore damage suit, filed by Jay Shah, in October 2017.

Jay Shah maintained that the story is "false, derogatory and defamatory", while The Wire argued that its story was a "straight forward narration" of the "facts available in the public domain" and that it neither "asserted honesty nor dishonesty but held the sequence of events out for public scrutiny," Live Law reported.

However, the Gujarat High Court had observed that the article was trying to "portray" the facts in a certain way and was prima facie defamatory. Therefore, "it would not be appropriate for this Court to quash the complaint at the threshold" and an opportunity must be given to the complainant to establish his case.The death toll in the Kurangani forest fire in the district rose to 12 with one more woman succumbing to her burns at a private hospital in Madurai

Theni: The death toll in the Kurangani forest fire in the district rose to 12 with one more woman succumbing to her burns at a private hospital in Madurai on Thursday, the police said.

The victim was identified as Divya Viswanathan of Coimbatore district, they added.

All the victims belonged to a 36-member trekking team that was caught in the fire in the Kurangani Kozhukumalai hill ranges, near Theni, some 500 kms from Chennai. The team comprised 24 persons from Chennai and 12 from Tiruppur and Erode districts.

The trekkers, including 25 women and three children, had reached the Kurangani hills on 10 March. Three of the team members had opted out of the trek.

After staying at an estate in Kozhukumalai overnight, the trekkers had started their return journey on March 11 (Sunday), when they heard of the forest fire and got separated from each other while trying to find a way out of the forest.

The hills are in the Western Ghats near Bodinayakanur, about 40 kms from Theni.

The forest department has suspended Forest Officer Jaisingh in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, the police today lodged a case against Peter Van Geit, the owner of the Chennai-based trekking club that had organised the trek.

He was charged under section 304 of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), the police said.

Two persons, including an agent of the club at Erode, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Officials had on Thursday said the search operations were called off as all the trekkers were accounted for.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has announced a solatium of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh each to those seriously injured and Rs 50,000 each to those with simple injuries.Telangana police has identified the third militant killed in an encounter in Kashmir's Anantnag as 26-year-old MD Toufeeq, a resident of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana police has identified the third militant killed in an encounter in Anantnag as 26-year-old MD Toufeeq, a resident of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana. Toufeeq is believed to have followed ISIS ideology and fled to the Valley last year to embrace militancy.

Three militants, including Fazli and Owais, both of whom left their B.Tech third year course to join militancy, were killed in the encounter by security forces on the intervening night of March 11 and 12, a development seen as a blow to the attempts by the ISIS to gain ground in the Kashmir valley.

After a request for identification was sent by the Jammu and Kashmir police, the Telangana police released a small press note in which it claimed that the person has been identified as MD Toufeeq, a native of Telangana.

"It is learnt that MD Toufeeq, a native of Manguru, died in an encounter with security forces on the intervening night of March 11-12 in Hakura area of Anantnag district along with two other Kashmiri militants," the statement said. Toufeeq was radicalised into the Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of the ISIS, according to the statement.

It clarified that he was not wanted in any criminal case in Telangana. However, further details were being verified, it added.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) had written a letter to Telangana police citing reports from social media about the third militant hailing from Telangana. While asking them to share the details, the Jammu and Kashmir police had given the name of Mohammed Taufeeq alias 'Sultan Zabul Al Hind'.Two persons, including a woman, were shot dead allegedly by Naxals in Marudanga village of adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan district in Jharkhand on Wednesday

Jamshedpur: Two persons, including a woman, were shot dead allegedly by Naxals in Marudanga village of adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan district in Jharkhand on Wednesday, a senior police officer said.

On being informed about the incident, a police team rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies, Sub-divisional police officer (Seraikela) Avinash Kumar said.

The Maoists also left hand-written posters accusing the victims of being police informers and collecting levy in their name, he said.

While the woman was a resident of that village, the identity of the male victim was yet to be ascertained, Kumar said.

A search operation has been launched to track down the ultras, he said.The office of the USTR said export subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to the companies that receive them and are prohibited under WTO rules.

Washington: The United States launched a challenge to Indian export subsidies at the World Trade Organization on Wednesday, saying they hurt US companies by letting Indian exporters sell goods more cheaply, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.

India provides exemptions from certain duties, taxes and fees that benefit numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and information technology products, Lighthizers office said.

These export subsidy programs harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field on which they must compete, Lighthizer said in a statement.

USTR will ... hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing US rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO, Lighthizer said.

The office of the USTR said export subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to the companies that receive them and are prohibited under WTO rules.

A limited exception to the rule is provided for developing countries until they reach a specific economic benchmark, the USTR office said. It said India was initially within the group of developing countries but surpassed the economic benchmark in 2015.Reacting to media reports claiming that a school in Kolkata had arm-twisted students in to signing a written 'confession' stating that they are lesbians, West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee said, on Wednesday, that lesbianism is 'against the ethos' of the state, according to a NDTV report

West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee has created a controversy, saying lesbianism is "against the ethos" of the state. Chatterjee's remarks came a day after a Kolkata school reportedly forced its students to sign a written confession admitting they are lesbians.

Chatterjee said he had "never" received reports of lesbianism from anywhere in the state. "In the past, we had never received reports of such incidents in the state's educational institutions. If such an incident (lesbianism) had indeed happened, it would be against the ethos of our state. I will ascertain from the school management what prompted them to secure the written admission from the students," Chatterjee said.

He added that the government was not taking the issue lightly, as it was unprecedented in the educational institutions of the state.

Chatterjee said that the school authorities cannot be lenient towards the girls if they are found "guilty" of "indecent" behaviour, according to a report on The Quint.

What asked what is the problem with homosexuality spreading, he was quoted as saying in the report: "It is a problem at the school level. Young teenagers should not explore sexuality among themselves. That is not the culture of Bengal."

Students of the Kamala Girls' High School were allegedly made to sign a "confession" last week that they were lesbians. A heated argument ensued between the acting headmistress and the parents on Monday, followed by a protest on Tuesday.

The parents had accused the school management of "forcibly" obtaining a written admission from their children stating that they were lesbians. "Some students had complained against 10 students of 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 10 students," the acting headmistress was quoted by the news agency IANS as saying, adding that the school had called the guardians to apprise them of the matter with the aim of bringing the girls "on the right course through efforts both at home and in school".

The guardians, however, rubbished the allegations. "If two persons hold hands, or put an arm on each other shoulders, that does not mean they are lesbians," said a guardian.

However, the acting headmistress was later quoted by The Indian Express as saying the matter was blown out of proportion. "It is completely untrue. We had found some students indulging in some mischief and only wanted to take the matter up with their parents. However, there was some miscommunication with the parents. We had called the parents of the students to raise the issue, but somehow they misinterpreted the message. Now all issues have been resolved through a meeting. There was no need for the media to get involved as it was not a serious issue. The matter has been blown out of proportion and I will request all not to sensationalise the matter," she said.

With inputs from IANSThe recent past witnessed three disparate events that raised the same question: How well-prepared is India to meet the threat from China, its northern neighbour?

The recent past witnessed three disparate events within and in the neighbourhood of India that created rumblings in the strategic landscape, and raised the same question: How well-prepared is India to meet the threat from China, its northern neighbour?

The first of these events was in China. A follow-up action, after the 19th Party Congress in 2017, initiated by the ruling Communist Party to remove the constitutional clause that limits the president's tenure to two five-year terms. Thus, setting the stage for Xi Jinpings presidency to go on well beyond 2022. He indicated that he plans to steer the country to achieve its aspiration of being a major player on the world stage, by 2035. Therefore, there is a genuine cause for concern for the world  that it will have to deal with a more assertive and belligerent China. An outcome of 'resurgent nationalism' prevalent in China, due its sustained economic growth and now, the likelihood of continuation of a strong proactive leadership.

With the existing 'bones of contention' of disputed borders and the lingering thorn of the providing sanctuary to the Tibetan leadership and diaspora, India is likely to witness hardening of Chinese stance in dealing with issues of discord and its increased influence in India's neighbourhood/'near abroad'. Second, was the underlying implication in the statement of the COAS General Bipin Rawat, at a recent interactive forum, that China's growth model was worth emulating as it ensured concurrent development of its economic and military power. Saying the unsaid that India was not doing enough to sharpen its 'hard power' in synchronisation with its economic growth.

Thirdly, was the deposition made by the VCOAS to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Defence, that reinforced the statement implied by Rawat, that the budget allocations were woefully short to meet the multiple requirements of servicing the 'ongoing' schemes for enhanced security of military establishments, acquiring urgent military hardware for mitigating the existing deficiencies of the army, infrastructure development along the northern borders and overall modernisation.

These events have drawn attention to the growing asymmetry with China, on all fronts. It demands that the instruments of national power harmonise their actions urgently to meet the challenge of dealing with a strong, belligerent China under an assertive leader. The requirement of suitable modernised military with technologically vibrant surveillance and monitoring systems is a must. But, concurrently there is a need for an effective, enabling surrounding landscape. Shared stability and goodwill with the neighbours will safeguard long-term Indian interests and also ensure that the country is insulated from any mischief that China may try to create in the immediate neighbourhood. Therefore, a quick look at the contours of our future engagements with the South Asian countries is required.

Diplomatically, there is a need to re-examine the existing irritants that are clouding our cultural and historical bonds with the neighbours. The primary need is a change in the attitude and demeanour in engaging with these countries. India has to move from being condescending and start dealing with them as equals. Simultaneously, there is a need to meet the timelines in the completion of our projects in these countries and provide the wherewithal as promised to them, during various levels of inter-State engagement. Thereafter, be largehearted in resolving outstanding bilateral/multilateral issues. It would not be wrong to state that the foundation pillars with all the neighbours are anchored on the issues of connectivity, trade and sharing of natural resources.

Let's take a look at the specifics with each of these countries:

In the case of Bhutan, there is a need to revisit the existing bilateral treaties, to harmonise their tenor with the aspirations of the present populace, while safeguarding the security imperatives of India.

With Nepal, there is a need to quell the growing sentiment, echoed by the actions of the present political leadership, that an 'anti-India' stance is an assertion of Nepal's independence and sovereignty. The transit treaty, road-rail-power linkages that have been on the anvil for long to give accessibility to landlocked Nepal and a balanced engagement with the Madhesis is something that needs urgent attention.

When it comes to Bangladesh, great inroads have been made for a lasting friendship, but the issues like the sharing of water and bilaterals for enhanced trade, IWT and migration need to be looked at on a priority basis.

Sri Lanka and the Maldives have different challenges that relate to their internal politics and India needs to be seen as a facilitator and 'all-weather' ally. New Delhi's policies and engagement with these countries mustn't be clouded by domestic politics.

Myanmar is blossoming after being in isolation for decades and India needs to be extremely sensitive to its aspirations. Not only is the country fundamental for the success of India's 'Act East' policy, but Naypyidaw's willing cooperation-cum-support is essential for resolving the internal dissension that is still afflicting the states in the North East. Better relations with the country are an urgent priority to achieve inclusive economic development of the region. The 'Free Move Regime' accord that exists between the two countries needs to be addressed with great sensitivity, due to the existence of strong traditional cross-border tribal linkages that need to be respected. The talk of border-fencing and other embargoes by interested parties and 'armchair' policymakers needs unbiased analysis.

The case of Pakistan is extremely vexed. The counter-narrative has to address ideological linkages that transcend both sides of the Line of Control. India must be proactive with a long-term, sustained national policy in dealing with Pakistan, that has the concurrence of all the major political parties. The national engagement cannot be captive to the political ideologues of the ruling political party. Diplomatic engagement should therefore be focussed to bring pressure on Pakistan in a constructive way, so that India can arrive at mutually acceptable 'CBMs' and concentrate on the much-needed socioeconomic issues.

On the economic front, there is a need to create strong dependent linkages within the region. With nearly 40 percent of the world population within South Asia, the internal demands/requirements can see shared economic prosperity. The economic model should be 'collaborative' instead of 'competitive'.

The strategic landscape also demands an approach that looks at collaborative security. There is a lot of talk of the emerging strategic quadrilateral between India, the US, Japan and Australia. Multilateral cooperation and engagement is a must, but we have to be conscious that this does not mutate into military blocs, like the NATO and Warsaw Pact. There is a need to develop support linkages with the ASEAN countries  particularly, Indonesia, which due to its geographical location, has the possibility of becoming a maritime anchor in the region. Positive engagement with Vietnam is a good forward-thinking move.

India needs to be proactive in the Indian Ocean, but play a supportive role, without a physical footprint in the military sphere. Economic engagement and exploratory activities have to be dismembered from security issues in the South China Sea.

In conclusion, it is reiterated that India has to be realistic in reading the emerging security dynamics and give priority to building up its kinetic military might. The present apathy of the finance ministry and only lip service in the Ministry of Defence can be devastating for India's security. It all seems to be too little too late.

The author is former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian ArmyA TIFR scientist recounts the experience of watching Stephen Hawking speak to a packed audience during an international conference in India | #FirstCulture

"What do Sheldon Cooper and a black hole have in common? They both suck." - Stephen Hawking, appearing in The Big Bang Theory.

Stephen Hawking will be remembered not just for being a great physicist, but also as the inspirational figure who brought the universe, black holes, space-time, and the future of our planet among other topics into the public consciousness. An iconic doyen of science outreach, he was a gifted communicator, willing to tackle the most difficult and perplexing topics (with an amazing sense of self-deprecating humour) and try to explain them to a lay audience, something quite unusual for a scientist of his stature.

As a physicist, his research into black holes and the origin of the universe pushed the boundaries of cosmology for several decades. Hawking attempted to combine relativity and gravity (that operates at very large distances of our universe) with quantum physics (that describes the workings of nature at the tiniest of length scales) to provide a better understanding of various phenomena in the universe. This led to many dramatic predictions  for example, that black holes could emit some radiation, and given enough time, even evaporate or disappear  with mind-boggling consequences.

Hawking was undoubtedly a celebrity scientist with a larger-than-life persona. Of course it helped that he worked in the field he did  the public has a fascination with ideas seen as esoteric  black holes, space time, the Big Bang etc. However, Hawkings dogged defiance of his crippling medical condition was also a contributor to his fame. An intellectually brilliant mind, unfortunately confined to a wheelchair for life, but still conveying deep conceptual ideas in his now-iconic, computer-synthesized voice made him a universally recognised champion. His never-give-up philosophy and plucky humour were as important as his academic brilliance.

And then, there is the book.

Hawkings A Brief History of Time  a non-technical description about the structure, origin, development and eventual fate of the universe was a masterpiece. With a clear expository style, written for the general public with no prior knowledge of scientific theories, this book first appeared in 1988, before the days of the Internet and social media, and has remained an international best-seller for 20 years. For me, the defining characteristic of the success of this book is not so much the weeks on the best seller list or the X millions copies sold worldwide, but the fact that one can see street sellers hawking this book (a pirated edition perhaps) at traffic signals in Mumbai. How many books by a scientist make it to this level? It is also invariably the singular science book in the midst of the eclectic mix of self-help guides, thrillers, biographies, and rom-com novels in the cart of magazines and books at any railway platform.

Hawkings sense of humour and his love for comedy meant that he was never shy of appearing on TV and video, which also made him accessible to millions more across the world, especially in the Internet age. Not many scientists would agree to appear on Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, and Comic Relief, putting their reputation at stake. But Hawking positively enjoyed his cameo roles in the various sitcoms, delivering some amazing quips showcasing wry British humour. In his last appearance on radio, a BBC 4 adaptation of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, he lent his voice to the guide Mark II, a Prof Hawking character who remarks that Some even read my books". He was always passionate about taking science to the public at large.

In his later years, he spoke and wrote not just about cosmology and astrophysics, but also about his concerns about the future of humanity on a politically and environmentally frail planet at risk from a nuclear war, virus, global warming, or other catastrophic dangers. (Some of his statements on contact with potential alien life of course made for interesting debates on social media). In 2016, Hawking teamed up with the Starmus music festival to setup the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, to recognize the work of those helping to promote the public awareness of science through different disciplines, such as music, arts and cinema.

I saw Stephen Hawking in person only once, during his visit to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 2001 for an international conference on string theory. His public lecture 'The Universe in a Nutshell' was perhaps the only talk in the Homi Bhabha Auditorium for which passes were distributed. Many who didnt get the passes attended his technical lecture at the conference. I remember his talk on AdS-CFT and cosmology in a packed lecture hall, filled mostly with people who understood nothing of conformal field theories, but had come just to see the man  students, people from the administrative sections of the institute, faculty (including me!), among others. Thanks to his visit, ramps for wheelchair access were hurriedly constructed in TIFR, the beginnings of making the campus a little more accessible. While I wasnt present, the story was that at the conference banquet Hawking rocked his wheelchair to the beat of 'Chaiyya Chaiyya', absolutely dil se! Knowing his character, it seems quite believable.

When history looks back on Stephen Hawking, he will be remembered not only for being one of the greatest physicists of his times, but perhaps more for bringing a bit of that physics into millions of homes across the world, and being an inspiration for young and old alike.

Out universe has lost a star of science communication. RIP Stephen Hawking.

Arnab Bhattacharya is the chair of the Science Popularisation and Public Outreach team at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. He tweets @tifrarnab, and can be reached at arnab@tifr.res.inHow Uma Ramakrishnan's name became synonymous with tiger conservation in India

Editor's note: Starting National Science Day 2018, The Life of Science and Firstpost bring you a series profiling Indian women in Science. The challenges in Indian scientific life are many  more so for women taking up this path. This series honours those who beat the odds and serve as inspirations for the next generation of Indian science  a generation that is slowly and surely on its way to becoming gender equal.

***

By Divya Vishwanath

Uma Ramakrishnan | 44 | Molecular Ecologist | National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru

As I stepped into the National Centre for Biological Sciences campus, I could not help but marvel at the sudden burst of greenery before me  a welcome change from the browns and greys dominating the rest of Bengaluru. It was a bright but humid October morning; green leaves glistened, as the morning sun greeted last nights rain. I walked into Uma Ramakrishnans lab and thought how ideal it is to have nature surround you while the foremost thought on your mind is saving the tiger!

Uma is a molecular ecologist working as an associate professor at NCBS. Her team works on the conservation of endangered mammals of the Indian subcontinent such as wild cats, leopards, and macaque monkeys. Today, her name is synonymous with tiger conservation in India.

Umas passion for tiger conservation began when she joined NCBS in 2005. Days after giving birth to her first daughter, she received a call from noted tiger expert and director of Wildlife Conservation Society  India Programme Ullas Karanth. He wanted to know if Uma would work with him to estimate the number of tigers in India without sighting the animals  based only on their genetic identities.

Having recently completed her postdoctoral studies, Uma had not decided what line of research she would pursue. Karanths offer put things in perspective. As scientists in India, if we do not have genetic information on a species that is so much in the public imagination, what are we doing? It is our responsibility to create good data, to understand the species better. Whether this data is incorporated into policy is secondary. But the data should at least exist! Being at an institution like NCBS, which is very privileged with good internal funding, I felt I must take on this responsibility, she said.

Chasing tiger stripes

Subsequently, Umas team estimated the tiger population in Bandipur National Park by genetic sampling while Karanths team used the already established camera trap method. The strong correlation of both their results allowed genetics to feature as an important tool for the national tiger estimate.

Genetic sampling is a non-invasive method to identify tigers. Along forest trails, tigers deposit their faeces (poop) to mark their territories. During field surveys, Umas team collects these faecal samples and extracts DNA from them. They confirm if the DNA belongs to a tiger and not any herbivore or prey it has fed on. Only the samples belonging to a tiger are taken for further analyses. Identities of individual tigers are established based on genome sequences called microsatellite loci. These are tracts of DNA (1-6 or more base pairs) that repeat in an organisms genome; the number of repetitions varies from individual to individual. Using a set of three or more such loci and the number of times they repeat, an individual animals genetic profile is established. The number of unique profiles translates to the number of individuals in that wildlife park. Identical genomic profiles point to the same individual.

Umas team also uses this method to study genetic diversity in tigers. One of their first studies sampled tigers across India and concluded that they have greater genetic variation than wild tigers elsewhere. According to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the number of tigers in India rose from 1,706 in 2010 to 2,226 in 2014. However, due to habitat destruction, connectivity between tiger territories is lost. As a result, tiger populations become isolated into tiny pockets. Lack of mixing between populations leads to inbreeding, further leading to loss in genetic diversity.

The genetic diversity of a species is a marker of its health; the more the genetic diversity, the more equipped the species is to adapt to habitat changes. Loss in diversity can result in lower reproduction rates, faster spread of disease, and increase in cardiac defects in tigers. Umas team is trying to predict if tiger populations are genetically diverse enough to survive the human onslaught on their habitat.

Data speak

Uma and her teams research has had far-reaching impact over the years, especially in relation to the recent increase in man-animal conflicts. In 2013, one of her students worked on the first project on connectivity of tiger populations in central India. The study of tiger samples across six protected areas showed that there was movement of tiger populations across distances of about 650 km; but heavy urbanisation was hindering this movement. This data was presented in court to stay the widening of NH7 for four to five years since it cut across the Kanha-Pench wildlife corridor. The highway has been opened now, construction has started, but a conservation NGO has used the data to push for a mitigation structurean underpass for the animals, which is one of the largest underpasses in the world, Uma said. She stressed that these instances get people thinking about the other dimensions of data.

In another case, Umas team worked with the Karnataka State Police department to identify the origins of 26 leopard skins confiscated during a raid. This one-of-a-kind wildlife forensic approach helped zero in on potential poaching hotspots, and helped convict one of the culprits.

For Uma, on-ground impact is far more satisfying than publishing papers in high impact journals. Our research helps interpret and deconstruct the mysteries of nature and narrates it as a story. Therefore, our papers are read more by non-scientists than they are by scientists, she said proudly.

While the high-altitude Himalayas and the dry forests of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are Umas favourite locations for research, she hopes to extend her work outside the country  especially to South Africa, which practices an interesting system of conservation involving relocation of endangered species. As human population density increases, animals get sequestered into smaller and smaller parks. At some point, connectivity isnt going to exist anymore, and we will have to move animals physically. Then you will have more mixing, which is better for the population. I would like to assess the consequences of this practice from a genetic perspective, she said.

A nurturing childhood

Uma grew up in Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, where her father was a physicist. She was introduced to nature early on, when she went on bird watching trips with students of the Centre for Ecological Studies (CES) at IISc. She claims that although she wasnt the best student in school, her parents always made her feel that she could do anything. After her schooling, she followed her father to Princeton University where he was to teach. She worked in a lab there studying a monkey species called marmoset. This introduced her to the use of molecular tools to study biology and the behaviour of organisms. This was when she realised she wanted to work more in ecology.

With its advanced mathematical and statistical tools and complex data sets, Uma understood that ecology is a quantitative science. So after she returned to Bengaluru, she did her Bachelors course in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Simultaneously, she worked at CES in a lab studying wasps.

After a Masters in biotechnology, Uma spent a year doing fieldwork with elephants at Periyar Reserve and at Mudumalai Forest. This led to a PhD at the University of California, San Diego. Her topic was population genetics and the evolutionary history of mammals. She did two years of postdoctoral work at Stanford University and returned home in 2005. I was obsessed with coming back from the day I landed (in the US). I wanted to work on biodiversity in India.

It was a great decision, because Uma ended up being the first person hired for the Ecology and Evolution department at NCBS. It was an exciting but a slow start, since she was pregnant with her first daughter then. A couple of years later, Uma was up for tenure-track at NCBS. It was around this time that she received the Ramanujan Fellowship. The day after she received her tenure letter, her second daughter was born. She admits those were stressful days. Somehow I never thought of quitting, whatever the hurdle. As an afterthought she adds, Maybe it was the foolishness of youth!

Women in research

The tough balancing act between work and family deters many women scientists. Uma admitted that when her children were younger, there were days when she didnt know if she would make it to work. It is really hard to balance so many things. I have managed to have both: an exciting science career and children. But you have to be mentally prepared that its going to be hard and overwhelming. When she has to travel, Uma does not leave her children for more than 10 days at a stretch. If needed, she takes them along.

As remarkable as her balancing skills sound, there are still days she feels inadequate. I dont feel like I am a good-enough mother, or a good-enough scientist! Thats because you tend to evaluate yourself as only a scientist, or only a mother. And so you never quite measure up.

Are there any hurdles a woman is likely to face during field trips? Uma reassures aspiring ecologists that all will be fine, as long as you focus on the mission at hand, and ensure you have a supportive team.

What the future holds

Uma delights in real and accessible science. She plans to start a lab in Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh, which will enable forest officials to interact with lab personnel and their data. Local students can also witness how laboratory work unfolds. She also organises outreach programmes for students to interact with researchers. She is part of a team that is beginning to relay talks on biodiversity and chemical ecology, followed by live chat sessions for students from 15 colleges in the northeastern states of India. She is passionate about science communication, and has given several talks, many of which are online.

Despite the challenges  liaising with policymakers, regular interfacing with the department, and connectivity  Uma never regrets her decision to come back from the US. Things are easier in the US, but a career there would be much less meaningful to me. I am connected to this land! There is no other option.

Read more from the Women in Science series here.

THELIFEOFSCIENCE.COM is a feminist science media project on a mission to make Indian women scientists more visible and investigate the gender gap in Indian academiaThe BJP may have lost these two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, but the performance of the Congress has been abysmally poor in this by-election.

Immediately after the Phulpur and Gorakhpur bypolls result was announced on Wednesday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted that it clearly showed people had anger against the BJP and they would vote for any candidate who would defeat BJP.

Congratulations to the winners of todays by-elections. Its clear from the result that people are angry with the BJP and would vote for any non-BJP candidate with the potential to win. Congress is keen to rebuild the party in Uttar Pradesh but that would not happen overnight, Rahul tweeted in Hindi.

                                              ,       Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 14, 2018

But, is Rahul Gandhi-led Congress ready to rise to the occasion?

The BJP may have lost these two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, but the performance of the Congress has been abysmally poor in this by-election.

Yet, given the present situation, especially with the results of Phulpur and Gorakhpur by-elections in hand, how good are the chances of Rahul Gandhi rebuilding his party and leading it successfully in 2019?

Once, Phulpur used to be a Congress bastion and none other than the countrys first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was elected Lok Sabha MP thrice from this constituency. After him, it was his sister and ambassador Vijay Laxmi Pandit who represented Phulpur.

But the dismal performance of Congress raises questions about the partys strategy ahead of the 2019 general election.

Will Congress be able to lead the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as in the past? UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, by hosting a dinner for the leaders of the Opposition and non-NDA parties on the evening of 13 March, tried to send a subtle message of strengthening of the UPA by bringing together anti-Narendra Modi forces.

But, whether Congress is in a position to lead the new coalition  if at all it takes shape  under the UPA umbrella is a big question.

The answer perhaps lies in Rahuls tweet  it would not happen overnight. That means the Congress needs to chalk out its strategy both to strengthen the organisation and make itself capable to win seats in 2019 election.

Despite its miserable performance in Phulpur and Gorakhpur bypolls and in spite of its depleting strength in states, Congress can still lead the UPA, provided it performs better in at least four to five states in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

A good performance in Assembly polls will help the party in re-positioning itself during the general election.

The grand old party of India needs to increase its tally in the Lok Sabha from 48 to at least around 100. This will give Congress an edge over the others  its allies  by emerging as the biggest non-BJP party.

Unlike Rahul, who is quite a novice in coalition politics, his mother Sonia still commands respect and trust from leaders of other parties. But thats a different story.

In todays scenario, the objective before every non-BJP party which is not a part of the NDA, is to counter and stop the Modi juggernaut. One after the other, the Modi-Amit Shah duo has been winning one state after the other. The Opposition block needs a strong leadership.

In the face of such a tough challenge, the Congress has to emerge stronger through some smart number games in the Parliament, so that it can lead the coalition.

Political pundits feel that Congress needs to have a proper strategy to achieve the goal. Without a concrete strategy, it looks more like a confused party when it comes to allying with other parties at the state level. The regional parties like Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, Aam Aadmi Party in New Delhi, etc have captured the secular space in the states where Congress had once thrived.

First and foremost, a clarity is needed on part of the Congress on whom it should ally with and with whom it should not. It has to realise its strengths and weaknesses.

During the UP Assembly election in 2017, the Congress joined hands with Samajwadi Party (SP). Both Rahul and the then UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav displayed a strong camaraderie. But after facing electoral debacle, that alliance fell apart. In this bypoll, Congress contested independently and failed to cross even the 10,000-vote mark in both the constituencies. Candidates of competitors, the SP and the BJP, crossed one lakh mark. Had Congress supported SP here, it would have given a good message.

Similarly in Bihar during the Assembly election in 2015, Congress had allied with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) against the BJP. But in this by-election, it contested on its own and was ranked way behind RJD and BJP.

The story was similar in West Bengal. Congress and CPM joined hands to take TMC head on. The outcome was disastrous, and both parted ways.

Secondly, despite winning a couple of by-elections, Congress ought to revamp itself by strengthening its grassroots connectivity. The BJP is way ahead when it comes to reaching out to the last man standing. The party has benefitted from the strong grassroots connectivity of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP. The recent success of the BJP in north eastern states is a case in point. Congress shall have to revamp its frontal organisations, especially Seva Dal.

Thirdly, to win Assembly elections especially in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where it is in a direct fight with the BJP, the Congress will have to revamp and restructure its state-level leadership and put up a united fight. Rahul has to repose trust among voters to bounce back in his support.

Last but not the least, the Congress  under the new leadership of Rahul  has to ensure that no conflict leading to dissent takes place between the old guard and the young blood when it comes to contesting an election. Interest of the party should be at the top. The BJP has been successful in executing it ruthlessly with surgical precision when it comes to electoral politics.

Just surviving is not enough for the Congress, which, at one point of time, had its footprint almost in all the states across the country. It also needs to grow and march ahead.Akhilesh Yadav said his ties with the Congress continue to be good but stopped short of saying if the two parties will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said his ties with the Congress will continue to be good but stopped short of saying if the two parties will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together.

"I cannot comment on what will happen in the future. Our ties with the Congress will continue to be good," Akhilesh Yadav told reporters, a day after the Samajwadi Party snatched two BJP strongholds - Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Gorakhpur and his deputy Keshav Maurya's Phulpur parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh - with the support of the BSP.

He was replying to a question whether the SP will tie up with the Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Akhilesh Yadav said the Samajwadi Party "respects all" and "sometimes we have to shed past baggage". "Our ties are good with everyone," he said, commenting on the BSP's support to the Samajwadi Party in the Uttar Pradesh by-polls.

The former chief minister said the SP's "big win" in the by-polls was the victory of the "Dalits, poor, labourers, minorities and the other marginalised sections of the society".

"The lotus could not bloom in Phulpur... Their arrogance has been defeated. We hope their language will change."Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran (also spelt as Dinakaran) floated a new political party 'Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam' on Thursday.

Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran (also spelt as Dinakaran) floated a new political party "Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam" on Thursday. The party name contains the word Amma which was the name popularly used for late J Jayalalithaa. The party flag also prominently features an image of Jayalalithaa.

ANI quoted him as saying, "We will win all upcoming elections from now by using latest name and party flag, we will also try to retrieve the two leaves symbol, till then will use cooker symbol".

Last week, the Delhi High Court had allowed Dhinakaran's plea for allotment of a common symbol, preferably a 'pressure cooker', and a suitable name of his choice for the AIADMK faction led by him. Justice Rekha Palli directed the Election Commission to do the needful within three weeks after giving Dhinakaran's faction an appropriate hearing.

The court order came on an interim application filed by the Dhinakaran  VK Sasikala faction in their main petition challenging the Election Commission's 23 November order in 2017, which had allotted the 'two leaves' symbol to the group headed by Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Dhinakaran had earlier told the court that he needed a temporary name and symbol for his group to interact with the electorate in the eventuality of elections to local bodies or any other polls held before his claim to the party's symbol was decided. The application sought the allocation of the name and symbol only till the pendency of the main petition, claiming that otherwise the poll panel might declare it as a separate party.

Dhinakaran had won the bye-elections held in Radha Krishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in December 2017 under the 'pressure cooker' symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes.

The Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction had given a list of three names  All India Amma Anna Dhravidar Munnetra Kazhagam, MGR Amma Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam and MGR Amma Dhravidar Kazhagam  seeking that one of them be temporarily allotted to them.

On 4 December 2017, the high court had declined to grant any interim relief to Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction of the AIADMK by dismissing their plea to use the 'hat' symbol in the bypoll to the RK Nagar Assembly constituency. The court had left the decision to the Returning Officer who had allotted the 'pressure cooker' symbol to Dhinakaran for the bypoll held on 21 December, 2017.

The 'hat' symbol was given to the Sasikala-Dhinakaran group by the Election Commission in March, 2017 after it froze the use of the 'two-leaves' symbol to which the group led by Palaniswamy and Panneerselvam had also laid claim. The Palaniswamy-Panneerselvam faction had at the same time been granted the 'electric pole' symbol.

However, on 23 November, 2017, the poll panel had ruled in favour of the Palaniswamy-Panneerselvam faction by allotting the 'two-leaves' symbol to them.

The symbol issue has been lingering since April last in the aftermath of the announcement of the bypoll to Radha Krishnan Nagar constituency in Tamil Nadu following the death of AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa in December 2016.

Earlier, rival factions led by Sasikala and Panneerselvam had staked claim over the symbol. Palaniswamy was then in the Sasikala camp. Later, a large number of legislators led by Palaniswamy revolted against Sasikala.

With inputs from PTITelegu Desam Party (TDP) is also expected to support the motion and the party may even sever ties with the NDA

Bharatiya Janata Party will come under double fire on Friday. As the Andhra Pradesh special status row gathered more heat in Parliament on Thursday, the YSR Congress announced that it will bring in a Motion of No Confidence against the Narendra Modi-led NDA government in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Plus, the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) is also expected to support the motion and the party may even sever ties with the NDA, sources told CNN-News18.

The news channel also reported that a decision on walking out of NDA could come on Friday after the party's politburo meeting.

According to News18, party president Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to other parties to support them in the bid.

In his letter to different political leaders YSRCP's Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote, "If even after this no-confidence motion, central government is reluctant to grant Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, all our party MPs will tender resignation to their seats on 6 April."

Reddy, in his letter, recalled that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given an assurance in the Rajya Sabha while participating in a debate on the bill bifurcating the state that the special category status will be granted to it.

Party MP YV Subba Reddy on Thursday notified the Lok Sabha Secretary-General to move motion on No-Confidence in the Council of Ministers, and has requested that it be included in the list of business on Friday.

For the Speaker to admit a Motion of No Confidence and seek a trust vote, the motion has to have a support of 54 MPs. If accepted, it will be the first no-confidence motion moved against the Modi-government.

The YSR Congress Party has nine MPs in the House, whereas the TDP has 16 MPs. Congress may or may not choose to support the motion. But even if the motion is taken up, the BJP has a comfortable majority in the House and a trust vote would not mean anything politically.

However, the fact the TDP, which is still an NDA ally, has chosen to support the motion means more trouble for the BJP, especially in Andhra Pradesh where regional parties are trying to put the blame squarely on Centre.

Besides, the motion can hand over a political plank to Jagan Reddy in the state in which Assembly polls are due to be held along with the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Speaking to News18, YSRCP MP Vijay Sai Reddy said, "The Finance Bill was passed in Lok Sabha without any discussion. Now, its in Rajya Sabha and it will be passed there in the same way. It is likely the House will be adjourned sine-die. Therefore, we are moving the no-confidence on Friday itself."

TDP ministers had resigned from the BJP-led NDA government, a move which was replicated by BJP ministers in the state on 8 March while putting the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance on notice period.

The move had come after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley failed to produce a breakthrough in his meeting with chief minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu. Jaitley later added the last straw by bluntly rejecting special status category to Andhra in public, but offering a similar economic package to the state.

The BJP has been saying that it is not constitutionally possible for the Centre to use the tag of special status anymore but it can match the benefits by giving economical packages and they are willing to do that. The TDP, however, has argued that the "Centre has not done anything for us in past four years" and they are only asking "what was promised to them and whatever is their right."

Earlier too, TDP had said that it will move the no-confidence motion as a last resort against the NDA government if their demands are not met.

We will continue our fight for justice to Andhra Pradesh. If that doesn't happen, we will muster support from other parties and move a no-trust motion," the TDP president announced at a meeting of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti in Vijayawada on 20 February.

However, since Opposition YSRC has trounced TDP by resorting to move the motion first, the party may now consider completely severing ties with the NDA to avoid allegations that it is siding with the BJP for power.RJD legislators gathered at the main gate of the state assembly and shouted slogans against the NDA coalition in Bihar.

Patna: Buoyed by the bypoll victory in Bihar, RJD MLAs on Thurssday staged a demonstration outside the state assembly demanding resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the ruling coalition's defeat in the by-elections.

The RJD registered emphatic victories in Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad assembly seats yesterday. The BJP was defeated in Araria though it succeeded in winning Bhabhua assembly seat.

The ruling JD(U) suffered a crushing defeat in Jehanabad.

RJD legislators gathered at the main gate of the state assembly and shouted slogans against the NDA coalition in Bihar.

"The results of the bypolls are an expression of public resentment against Nitish Kumar, who betrayed the mandate by walking out of 'Mahagathbandhan'," RJD MLA Bhai Virendra, who led the slogan-shouting MLAs, told reporters.

Leader of Opposition Tejaswi Yadav had last evening demanded Nitish Kumar's resignation.

"The voters have rejected 'double engine' governments of NDA at the Centre as well in Bihar. Hence, Nitish Kumar should tender resignation," he said.

HAM president Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had quit NDA on the bypolls eve to join hands with RJD, was present with Tejaswi Yadav last evening to celebrate the victory at Araria and Jehanabad.

Tejaswi Yadav, who had attended UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's dinner for non-BJP parties on Sunday last, had spearheaded the RJD campaign for the bypolls in absence of Lalu Prasad, who is in Ranchi jail in connection with fodder scam cases.

Nitish Kumar, who had fought the assembly polls of 2015 as part of the Grand Alliance comprising RJD and Congress, walked out of the coalition last year following corruption cases against his then deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

The BJP, which was till then in opposition, offered its support to Kumar following which the latter formed a new government and returned to the NDA.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and state minister Nand Kishore Yadav rubbished the demand raised by RJD MLAs.

"They must remember that we won Bhabhua. Moreover, they should analyse the results of Araria, which comprises six assembly segments. In four of these, BJP candidates had a lead. Massive leads in just two assembly segments tilted the result in favour of the RJD candidate," Yadav told reporters.The first reactions on social media to the name of TTV Dhinakaran's new political party were anything but flattering

The first reactions on social media to the name of TTV Dhinakaran's new political party were anything but flattering. Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam when shortened to AMMK phonetically is very close to a Tamil slang 'Ammuk', that means stashing away. Juxtapose this with Dhinakaran's reputation as someone who did not play the ethical game during the RK Nagar by-election, allegedly paying up to Rs 6,000 for a vote and you get the impression AMMK conveys.

What's in a name, Dhinakaran would argue because of the lot, the only word that matters in that alphabet soup is 'Amma'. Late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's face figures on the party flag that was also unveiled at the public meeting in Madurai on Thursday morning. This is significant because Dhinakaran sees his ability to project himself as the political inheritor to the former chief minister's legacy as his passport to Fort St George. The public meeting in Madurai in that sense, was Act 1 Scene 2 as Scene 1 was played out when he won Jayalalithaa's erstwhile constituency of RK Nagar in December.

At the time Dhinakaran was speaking, Finance Minister O Panneerselvam, in Chennai, was getting ready to present the budget of 'Amma's government'. As he did during Jayalalithaa's time, his briefcase was affixed with the photograph of the late chief minister.

Clearly, both sides are flaunting Jayalalithaa as they know that is all that matters to the AIADMK cadre.

But even as he presented his budget, OPS would have had one eye on Madurai because the crowd that had gathered or been mobilised for Dhinakaran's meeting was massive. Madurai is considered the political capital of Tamil Nadu and the route to political power in Chennai passes through this temple town. For Dhinakaran to put up such a show in the AIADMK bastion, would worry the ruling combine.

Over the past month, Tamil Nadu has become a start-up state. If it was Kamal Haasan last month, it was Dhinakaran today and Rajinikanth may follow suit soon. But what is interesting is that the start-ups are staking claim to different legacies. If Haasan invoked APJ Abdul Kalam's name, Rajinikanth dwelt at length on his closeness to MGR. Dhinakaran has positioned himself as Jayalalithaa's inheritor.

But Dhinakaran's AMMK innings may well be a temporary pitstop. His aim is to take over the real AIADMK which he would hope would happen if the Madras High Court rules against the Speaker's decision on the case relating to disqualification of 18 pro-Dhinakaran AIADMK legislators. If the Speaker's ruling is overturned, it will push the Edappadi Palaniswami government into a minority. Once the state comes under President's Rule, Dhinakaran would hope the AIADMK rank and file will flock to him. This is why it was important to put up an impressive show in Madurai. The optics were meant more for Chennai than Madurai.

What does Dhinakaran's new party mean for the overcrowded political market of Tamil Nadu?

The AIADMK always had a vote share hovering between 35 and 40 percent in elections in Tamil Nadu. Dhinakaran's best bet is to consolidate a significant part of that behind him.

With the AIADMK divided along caste lines, OPS has reason to worry because much of Dhinakaran's support base comes from the Thevar community to which both leaders belong. The rise of Dhinakaran would be inversely proportional to the diminishing clout of OPS. EPS comparatively is sitting pretty as the Gounder community to which he belongs, backs him as it does not wish to cede political clout to the Thevars.

The DMK would look at these developments with concern. Because while both Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth are seen as newbie politicians drawing hugely on star power, both do not know the nuts and bolts of fighting an election. It is here that Dhinakaran will prove a bigger threat because he has the experience, having been mentored by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala, and knows the tricks of the trade.

Will the taint of the bribery charges in the two leaves case and the RK Nagar experience prove to be a dampener? It depends to a great extent on how much the likes of Kamal Haasan are able to influence voters not to sell their votes. But then the past track record of the electorate in Tamil Nadu is such that voters look at the candidates as an ATM at election time.

But while Dhinakaran has ensured all eyes were on Madurai today, the Delhi Police remains the X-factor in his political future. If it proceeds in the case against him, it could put him in more than a spot of bother. Last year, when he spent 40 days in prison in Tihar, he came back looking a hero as the cadre saw him as someone who had dared to take on Delhi unlike EPS-OPS who were treating the BJP as their high command. But another spell behind bars may cripple his political plans.The decision by Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti to drop Haseeb Drabu from her council of ministers is being hotly debated in political circles.

Jammu: The decision by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti to drop Haseeb Drabu from her council of ministers for his remarks at a business meet in Delhi is being hotly debated in political circles  especially what its consequences could be on the state's PDP-BJP ruling coalition.

By doing what she has done, the chief minister has proved that she is prepared to take political risks  and taking her for granted is something her colleagues and allies should learn not to do.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders were aghast after Drabu, who was the finance minister, was quoted as telling a meeting organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi that Kashmir was not a political problem and a conflict state but a "social problem". He said this while seeking investments in the state from businessmen and saying the conditions in the state were conducive to business "where you will find some very interesting opportunities" not just to make money but also to have "a lot of fun and enjoy yourselves".

PDP vice-president Sartaj Madni had said this was something which negated the very existence of the PDP because it is the firm belief of the party that Kashmir is political problem that needed political remedies to resolve.

Interestingly, instead of voices being raised in Drabu's favour by his own party men, leaders of the PDP's coalition unlikely partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seem to be more worried about the decision to drop him.

Some senior BJP leaders have rushed to Delhi to discuss the development and its fallout on the ruling coalition with the central leadership of the party.

How important Drabu had been for the PDP was proved not once, but many times in the past. The late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed trusted him to work out the terms of the agenda of alliance with BJP national secretary Ram Madhav that finally paved the way for the present PDP-BJP coalition.

"Mufti Sahib always loved him and would overlook what some of his party men would say about Drabu Sahib," said a PDP insider, not wishing to be identified.

In a letter released to the media after he was dropped from the cabinet, Drabu expressed sorrow for not being told by the chief minister or her office about the decision to drop him.

"I read it on the website of daily 'Greater Kashmir'. I tried to call the chief minister, but was told she was busy and would call back. I waited, but my call was never returned," he rued.

He also said in his letter that he had been quoted out of context by the media and that he what he had said was that Kashmir is not only a political problem, but that "we must also look beyond this", Drabu clarified.

Sayeed made Drabu his economic adviser during his 2002 chief ministerial tenure and later made him the chairman of the local Jammu and Kashmir Bank. In fact, Drabu became the point man between the PDP and the BJP after the 2014 Assembly elections.

The problem is that many PDP leaders had of late started saying that Drabu was more of "Delhi's man in Kashmir rather than Kashmir's man in Delhi". Drabu is reportedly very close to Ram Madhav, the powerful BJP leader who is in-charge of Kashmir affairs, which many say "cost him his job". It is this image that has been floating around in the PDP that finally cost him his berth in the state cabinet.

While even Mehbooba's political adversaries, including the National Conference president, Dr Farooq Abdullah, have welcomed her decision, her allies in the BJP are not happy at all about her decision.

"What did he say? He said it is a social problem and Kashmir is a society in search of itself. Is this wrong? We don't think this is something for which such a harsh decision should have been taken," a senior BJP leader told IANS, not wanting to be named.

His successor, Syed Altaf Bukhari, who has been assigned the finance portfolio, took a major decision immediately after taking over. Bukhari announced that the decision to replace the old treasury system by the Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) has been put on hold. The ambitious PAO system was Drabu's brainchild.

Bukhari's decision has been welcomed by hundreds of contractors in the state who had been on strike during the last 13 days demanding their pending payments and suspension of the PAO system at least till 31 March.

Would Drabu's ouster be a storm in a teacup or would it have repercussions on the PDP-BJP ruling alliance in the immediate future? Ironically, Drabu's PDP colleagues say it won't be, while the BJP leaders in the state say it would.Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said his son has not sought ticket from the Congress party to contest the 2018 Assembly polls and is yet to decide on it.

Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said his son has not sought ticket from the Congress party to contest the 2018 Assembly polls and is yet to decide on it.

"My son has not asked for ticket....he has not asked, not yet decided. If public wants him to contest, he will contest," Siddaramaiah told reporters at Hosadurga in response to a question.

Asked about giving tickets to children of other party leaders and ministers, he said: "let's see, it is the high-command that decides..."

Speculation is rife that Siddaramaiah who has already indicated that the 2018 Assembly polls could "most likely" be his last election, is keen on fielding his son, Yatindra, from Varuna in Mysuru.

A doctor by profession, Yatindra stayed away from the limelight till his elder brother Rakesh's death in July 2016.

He is now involved in supervising development works in his father's constituency.

Siddaramaiah, who represents Varuna after it became a constituency in 2008 following delimitation, has expressed his intention to contest from his earlier constituency Chamundeshwari.

Making his debut in the Assembly in 1983, Siddaramaiah got elected from Chamundeshwari on a Lok Dal party ticket, from where he has won five times and tasted defeat twice.- T. S. Eliot

Thoughts After Lambeth

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran (also spelt Dinakaran) will launch his political party on Thursday.

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Disqualified MLA and TTV faction propaganda secretary, Thanga Tamil Selvan had offered the welcome address, according to The Times of India . "Only TTV has the command and stature to lead the AIADMK," he had said.

The sidelined AIADMK leader had won the key RK Nagar Assembly seat previously held by Jayalaithaa, as an independent candidate.

#FLASH Amma Makkal Munetra Kazhagam will be the name of my party: TTV Dinakaran. #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/Qj076jOSKx

We will win all upcoming elections from now by using latest name and party flag, we will also try to retrieve the two leaves symbol, till then will use cooker symbol: #TTVDinakaran pic.twitter.com/t042kq9Tp3

"To overcome the hindrance put up by enemies and to bring back the success of revolutionary leader Amma, I am starting this political journey: @TTVDhinakaran " #TTVLaunchesParty https://t.co/hI8FdqCLNS

TTV Dhinakaran says he is starting his political journey "to overcome the hindrance put up by enemies and to bring back the success of revolutionary leader Amma."

Disqualified MLA and TTV faction propaganda secretary, Thanga Tamil Selvan had offered the welcome address, according to The Times of India . "Only TTV has the command and stature to lead the AIADMK," he had said.

The sidelined AIADMK leader had won the key RK Nagar Assembly seat previously held by Jayalaithaa, as an independent candidate.

Dhinakaran launches party latest updates

Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran (also spelt Dinakaran) launched his own political party on Thursday. The party is named Amma Makkal Munetra Kazhagam. At the launch, Dhinakaran said, "We will win all upcoming elections from now by using latest name and party flag, we will also try to retrieve the two leaves symbol, till then will use cooker symbol."

According to NDTV, Dhinakaran will unveil the name and flag of his party in Madurai, where Kamal Hassan also recently launched his party Makkal Needhi Maiam.

Dhinakaran has also urged his supporters to turn up in large numbers for the launch of his party.

"Following the acceptance of our plea in the Delhi High Court, a function to announce the name of the party and introduce the party flag will be held on 15 March at 9 am at Melur in Madurai district," PTI had quoted Dhinakaran as saying in a statement in Chennai.

The Delhi High Court on 9 March had allowed Dhinakaran's plea for allotment of a common symbol, preferably 'pressure cooker', and a name of his choice for the AIADMK faction led by him.

The court order came on an interim application filed by the Dhinakaran-VK Sasikala faction in their main petition challenging the Election Commission's 23 November order last year, which had allotted 'two leaves' symbol to the group headed by Chief Minister K Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Panneerselvam is the coordinator of the AIADMK and Palaniswamy is the joint coordinator. Dhinakaran, who won the RK Nagar Assembly bypoll, held in December last as an independent candidate on the 'pressure cooker' symbol, had earlier told the court that he needed a temporary name and symbol for his group to interact with the electorate in the eventuality of elections to local bodies or any other polls.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The RK Nagar MLA's announcement to launch a political party comes weeks after actor-politician Kamal Haasan floated his party 'Makkal Needhi Maiam' in Madurai. On 31 December, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth had announced his decision to enter politics but he is yet to launch a party.

With inputs from agenciesIn Speaking Truth to Power, P Chidambaram suggest that he would like readers to listen to him rather than exercise judgement | #FirstCulture

The 2014 Lok Sabha election, which was fought on no-holds-barred terms, not only altered the relationship between the government and the Opposition in a fundamental way, but also sent vocal portions of the electorate into a war among themselves. The media (notably broadcast news) was quick to see an opportunity in this, and further deepened the hostility between different sides though gladiatorial debates. As it stands today, these debates, which draw an enormous audience, are largely shouting contests where spokespersons from opposing camps try to prevail over each other, while adding no new perspective to whatever is already known or even surprising us by taking positions which may not have been predicted.

The various sides represented on television are (largely) Hindutva and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and secular politics, the Muslim orthodoxy, the Communists, the military and the government. These debates usually use spokespersons (like Randeep Surjewala from the Congress or Rakesh Sinha from the RSS), but sometimes a leader from one of the warring sides (like Ravi Shankar Prasad from the BJP or Kapil Sibal from the Congress) is positioned in a one-on-one with the anchor. Top Congress leader P Chidambaram is one of the political entities who does appear on TV, and an interface with him is usually announced days in advance. Like many leaders who are part of debates and also contribute columns for newspapers, Chidambaram wrote a column for Indian Express. Speaking Truth to Power is the third collection these columns he wrote for the daily. Since leaders have to stand up for their own groups, there is a limit to the truth they may purvey; the title of Chidambarams book hence uses the word truth disingenuously.

Speaking Truth to Power presents us with a large number of facts duly bolstered by statistics to make a case against the NDA government and Narendra Modi. But readers have become indifferent to such factual/statistical data, because each time the regime changes, there are fresh facts and new statistics available. The government and Opposition, regardless of the regime in power, seem to talk about alternate realities. Rather than look at the political diatribe in the writing, therefore, it is more interesting to look at aspects of the man that emerge.

P Chidambaram is a familiar figure in the public space and most people may have privately hazarded guesses about the kind of person he is likely to be. He is very well-educated (Harvard Business School) and highly articulate, but constantly wears an irked smile  of someone who will not suffer fools but who nonetheless finds himself surrounded by them. But when he arouses intellectual expectations through that smile, they are not always fulfilled and one often finds oneself waiting for more, after an exposition is completed. Among the personages who have endorsed the book (Pranab Mukherjee is one of them), more than one, while duly praising it, has seen disagreement with the author as not being an unlikely outcome. P Chidambaram as political thinker is apparently not someone who has always carried others along.

Speaking Truth to Power begins with a piece dated 1 January 2017, which expresses wonder over whether 2017 will be a happy year: As 2016 draws to a close, the whole country should be celebrating the state of the economy, but there is no joy anywhere. Why are the people sullen, dejected and apprehensive about the immediate future? The proximate cause is, undoubtedly, demonetisation but there are deeper causes. The frowns on the faces of those in the government (and especially of those key officials who have chosen diplomatic silence!) tell a story that is very different from the boast of the fastest growing large economy. It is not an easy matter to gauge from the faces of passers-by on a street their feelings about the government in power  although demonetisation could have been an exceptional moment. But what I find significant here is that Chidambaram is writing for a public  even if it is an educated segment  and telling it how it is feeling, that is, sullen and dejected. It is not only that there would have ben some joy somewhere, but that politicians and statespersons rarely presume to know more about public feelings than the public itself. If they addressed the public on its unhappiness the tone would more likely be: I know you are feeling, the sense being that the public should be the primary judge of how it is feeling; the politician is only appealing to what is there.

One does not catch the sense in his writing that Chidambaram is ever appealing to the wisdom of the public or to its experience, and it is as though he has decided for it what it should feel and how it should conduct itself. Here is how the second piece, dated 31 December 2017, begins: I think every country must reserve a day for laughter. A day may not be sufficient for India, but we could make a beginning. Chidambaram is evidently preparing to mock the government on various issues and is proposing a National Laughter Day' to do so. It does not seem to be a particularly shrewd strategy to me, since what follows the first two sentences are only various news reports pertaining to happenings in government or in the Hindutva domain. One cannot deny that some of these items are ludicrous but a writer cannot begin a piece by commanding laughter from the reader; this carries echoes of the mad monarch from historical fiction who decrees that his subjects must spend the day laughing, or the next one weeping.

People who have enjoyed a great deal of power appear to forget that most of what they have done remains in public memory, and this is especially the case in the age of the Internet when records are retained. Speaking Truth to Power is an inappropriate title because it makes us picture a ragged philosopher (perhaps like Jesus) who speaks out before a figure of power (perhaps like Pontius Pilate) and it is difficult to see P Chidambaram as the ragged philosopher when he held control of the Home and Finance ministries and was one of the most powerful men in Indian politics. Many of the issues raised by him are valid, but the reader immediately recalls how he handled them himself. When he raises the issue of Reserve Bank of Indias autonomy, for instance, we recall the spat between him and RBI Governor Subba Rao, whom he was trying to browbeat. When he raises the issue of Burhan Wanis killing and human rights abuses in Kashmir, we recall the fake encounter killings of 2010 of civilians who were labelled infiltrators'. When he talks about Naxals we recollect that he wanted to use the air force against them. Even the thought of helicopter gunships set loose in Jharkand or Chattisgarh makes us wince.

The difficulty for the Congress Party may be that while it has more leaders with intellectual credentials than the right-wing political parties, most of them are retired hurt; people like Digvijay Singh or Mani Shankar Iyer cannot be trusted to not say the wrong things. It is to Chidambarams credit that he is a more disciplined soldier of the party, even if his name and career in politics have less-than-happy associations in public memory. But this means he is being made to put himself in an embarrassing position here. The writing could not have appeared without High Command clearance and he is not being shielded. If the Congress is trying to assume a soft, humanistic, liberal posture, why pick a known hawk to articulate it?

Leaders like P Chidambaram are people with immense personal stature and when they are made to pen columns or write books as propagandist exercises on behalf of their political parties, they lower themselves, as they should not. Speaking Truth to Power, for instance, contains a political eulogy of Mrs Gandhi which is simply out of place in a book which has not abandoned claims to being political scholarship. Mrs Gandhi may still be admired by sections of the public but these sections are not those Chidambaram is addressing.

Here is another paragraph from the middle of the book about ideology: Ideology is no longer captured by a single word like capitalism or communism. Every party has to craft its narrative taking into account changes in society and in peoples aspirations. Is not Hindutwa an ideology? Does not the BJP audaciously pitch the philosophy of Savarkar, Golwalkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya as a counter-narrative to the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Babasaheb Ambedkar? A question here is whether Gandhi and Ambedkar represented a single narrative. It is a shameful untruth propagated post-Independence that brings Ambedkar and Gandhi under one banner.

P Chidambaram is not a mass leader and his personal tendencies are more aristocratic and elitist than democratic. I have already pointed out indications from his writing that he would like people  even his readers  to listen to him rather than exercise judgement. If it is an open secret that Narendra Modi is authoritarian and does not brook opposition, Chidambaram is apparently not less so. The difference between the two leaders may rest in the fact that Chidambaram is not so much a natural leader as someone who can win the confidence of someone who commands a following.

But it is perhaps also incumbent upon the cause he serves to keep its tallest leaders from exposing themselves (as he unwittingly does in Speaking Truth to Power) because the personal dignity of someone of his stature should not be compromised so casually in the narrow interests of party propaganda.

MK Raghavendra is a film scholar and author of seven books including The Oxford India Short Introduction to Bollywood (2016)Addressing a massive gathering on the occasion of his party's fourth Foundation Day, Kalyan spoke of Andhra pride and Telugu self-esteem, and threatened to launch a fast unto death if special status isn't granted to the state

Guntur: Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan sounded the poll bugle from Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district on Wednesday, saying that his party will contest the 2019 Assembly elections and maintain a safe distance from all established parties of the state: Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, he said he would work closely with the communist parties in the state.

Addressing a massive gathering on Wednesday on the occasion of his party's fourth foundation day, Kalyan spoke of Andhra pride and Telugu self-esteem. He also brought up the issue of special status for the state, and threatened to launch a fast unto death if it's not granted.

The rally offered a sneak peek into what the election manifesto of Tollywood's power star would look like. Kalyan said his manifesto, which would be released on 14 August, would have special status for Andhra Pradesh as its main agenda, followed by the fight against corruption, implementation of pro-farmer schemes, and welfare of girls and youth. Creation of jobs for the state's youngsters featured prominently in Kalyan's agenda, he said.

His party would focus on equal opportunities to all castes in Andhra Pradesh, as also the plight of Muslims in the state. The Jana Sena Party would also highlight the need for development of the state's Rayalaseema region. Kalyan said the government had adequate funds, and would be using them to provide houses and employment for the state's girls and youth.

He specifically mentioned the need to set up business development in West Godavari district and industries in East Godavari. Jana Sena will also focus on the Vishakhapatnam railway zone issue with full intensity, he said, and will pressure the Centre to get this done.

While maintaining a strong tempo throughout his two-hour-long speech, Kalyan categorically criticised the TDP and its leadership, accusing them of spreading lies in the four years it's been in power. He regretted extending support to the "corrupt" TDP, which according to him, is topping the list of corruption in the country.

He specifically picked on Nara Lokesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's son, and said the entire state government is "dipped in corruption".

Kalyan wondered why Naidu was silent on such important issues. He also accused him of maintaining a silence on corruption, sand mafia, atrocities towards people, students and farmers in the state.

The Jana Sena chief asked Naidu why was he silent on the special status issue for the last four years, waking up just with elections around the corner. "Why should anybody support you in 2019? You changed Andhra Pradesh into Corruption Pradesh," he fired.

He also didn't spare the YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, saying he too is silent on many issues and doesn't show enough "seriousness" when it comes to these topics.

Leading up to Wednesday's rally, several YSR Congress leaders had accused Kalyan of acting at the behest of Naidu, accusing the Jana Sena and TDP of collusion.

However, Kalyan insisted he wasn't in politics to gain power and wasn't eyeing the chief minister's chair for himself. He said he was a son of a constable, reminding the audience of his humble beginnings, and said he wanted to work for the people. "The distance from the people to me is of two hearts," Kalyan said to thunderous applause. "People like us enter politics to work for the people, not to eat money."

Accusing parties of distributing money during elections, he asked people attending the rally to take the money from other political parties, but to vote for the Jana Sena.

At the rally, he also launched the Jana Sena's membership drive, simplifying it further by saying interested people only need to give the party a missed call to register as a member. "We will give more weight to the youth and fresh blood to let them enter the Assembly. For us, people are not vote banks; we consider them a family and we'll nurture this with care. If I do not perform please do punish me," the Jana Sena chief said.Pawan Kalyan's entry would certainly make a difference in Andhra Pradesh politics, given his personal charisma. He has clearly distanced himself from the aborted Priya Rajyam experiment led by Chiranjeevi,

Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan has launched a scathing attack on Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. Addressing the party's fourth anniversary meeting at Amaravati on Wednesday, Kalyan accused the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government as being anti-poor and corrupt. By doing so, he also laid to rest political speculation that he was about to join hands with the TDP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

He also didn't spare YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy in his speech. However, his criticism chiefly focused on the BJP-led central government over the denial of special status to Andhra Pradesh. Demanding the promised special status, Kalyan threatened to go on a fast unto death if this wasn't accepted. He also said he would be holding talks with the state's Left Front parties to pressure the Centre to accede to this demand.

Kalyan's political moves give further credence to the speculation that Andhra Pradesh politics is set for the emergence of a Third Front.

Kalyan has in the past been accused of being too soft on the TDP. He enjoyed cordial relations with Chandrababu Naidu, leading the YSR Congress to level allegations that Kalyan is Naidu's secret trump card. This latest political outburst by the Jana Sena chief seems to be aimed at clearing the suspicion that he is acting at the behest of the TDP supremo.

Whatever may be the strategic intentions of the Jana Sena chief, however, Kalyan had never previously made such a caustic attack on Naidu's regime. Even more surprisingly, he even targeted the chief minister's son and the state minister for information technology, Nara Lokesh, calling him "corrupt".

However, the most unpalatable comment regarding the TDP leadership would perhaps be his allegation that Lokesh is involved in the Shekhar Reddy scam. Without confirming these allegations, Pawan even said Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have disregarded Naidu owing to Lokesh's involvement in the scam.

The CBI had arrested industrialist J Shekhar Reddy in connection with the illegal exchange of demonetised currency notes, in contravention of RBI guidelines, back in 2016.



TDP dismisses allegations

Dismissing Kalyan's allegations as wild and baseless, TDP leader Y Rajendra Prasad said the party used to regard the Jana Sena leader as a gentleman, and that even Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu held him in high regard. "But now, he has started speaking in the voice of YS Jaganmohan Reddy," the TDP leader said.



So while it was the YSR Congress accusing Pawan Kalyan of being an "agent" of Naidu, it's now the TDP accusing the actor-turned-politician of being guided by the Jaganmohan Reddy camp.

The Jana Sena leader's outburst could have a few serious ramifications:

Firstly, the political war of words is now between the three main players in Andhra Pradesh: TDP, YSR Congress and Jana Sena.

Secondly, Kalyan has strongly denied being close to the Chandrababu Naidu camp, firmly placing himself in a non-TDP, non-YSR Congress space.

Thirdly, he has taken on the BJP-led central government and launched an all-out battle over the special status row.

And finally, there are unmistakable signs of a Third Front emerging in Andhra Pradesh. The Jana Sena is expected to align with the Left parties, though an alliance can't be said to have been finalised.

Meanwhile the Opposition YSR Congress would love to accuse Kalyan as someone who is in politics only to divide the anti-establishment votebank, thus benefitting the TDP indirectly. Such voices are already being heard form within the YSR Congress camp, as they can no longer directly accuse the Jana Sena chief of being a TDP ally.

Kalyan voluntarily supported the TDP-BJP combine back in 2014, without contesting anywhere. Thus, the TDP-BJP government can't afford to dismiss him easily. Kalyan also made it clear on Wednesday that 2019 will not be similar to 2014, announcing that he and his party would enter the electoral fray in 2019.

Kalyan's entry would certainly make a difference in Andhra Pradesh politics, given his personal charisma. He has clearly distanced himself from the aborted Priya Rajyam experiment led by his brother, popular film star Chiranjeevi, who merged his party with the Congress after getting a substantial voteshare in 2009. By not associating himself with the merger fiasco, Kalyan was able to preserve his identity.



Naidu too has something to worry about. Kalyan's stand has meant the Jana Sena is completely divorced from the BJP, and the loss of voteshare, however small it may be, will hurt. But now, with this possibility ruled out, TDP is worried about the possible fall-out.

While Kalyan can't be described as a leader of any particular social formation, he belongs to the Kapu community, which has a sizeable presence in 40-50 Assembly constituencies of the state. The Kapu factor was a critical component of the TDP's success in 2014. A section of the Kapu population, especially the new and young voters, would certainly walk out of the TDP fold given Kalyan's stand.

Whichever way things pan out, the Jana Sena's political salvo is bound to create tremors in Andhra Pradesh's politics. Kalyan has raised temperatures across parties, though his primary aim was perhaps to announce his action programme on the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh.

The author is a former MLC of Telangana, and editor of The Hans IndiaThe Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm on Thursday amid sharp exchanges between former Union minister from the TDP, YS Chowdary, and the Congress members over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh

Rajya Sabha saw two disruptions on Thursday already and is set to resume at 3 pm after members continued to create a ruckus in the House. The scene was no different in Lok Sabha which saw relentless protests by Opposition even as the government managed to get two bills passed amid the din.

Congress, TDP clash in Rajya Sabha

The Rajya Sabha was first adjourned till 2 pm on Thursday amid sharp exchanges between former Union minister from the TDP, YS Chowdary, and the Congress members over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 under the UPA government.

Chowdary, along with another Telugu Desam Party (TDP) member Ashok Gajapathi Raju, had resigned from the Union Cabinet a few days ago to protest against the alleged "injustice" being meted out to Andhra Pradesh by denying the state special category status.

The TDP is a partner in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but has off late accused the BJP of going back on its words vis-a-vis granting special status to Andhra Pradesh. The Centre, however, has said that it has been providing all the required financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh in various forms.

Minutes after the House met for the day, Chowdary stood up to explain to the House why he resigned from the government, as per Rule 241 of the Upper House's procedures.

As per the said Rule, a member has to read out from the text that he has to submit to the Chair beforehand.

However, in his remark, Chowdary deviated from the text as he blamed the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of going ahead with the bifurcation of Andhra state into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh "hastily, unjustly and unscientifically".

This, and other sharp remarks from Chowdary created a furore in the Congress benches and some of its members came near the Chair's podium to protest against Chowdary's remarks. Amid the ruckus, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the House till 2 pm, which was later again adjourned till 3 pm.

Earlier, the House paid homage to its former member Hamida Habibullah who passed away two days back aged 101 years.

Lok Sabha proceedings paralysed

The proceedings of Lower House were paralysed for the ninth consecutive day as Opposition parties besides the TRS and the TDP, which is a member of the ruling NDA, stormed the Well as soon as it met and continued with their noisy protests over a number of issues, including the PNB scam, special status for Andhra and increase of quota.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned the House till noon and then for the day.

However, the government pushed two bills  The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill  for passage amid this din and the House passed them with a voice vote.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose party members were also in the Well, sought a discussion on the bills.

With continuous protests by different parties making the prospect of any discussion improbable, the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings for the passage of bills.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill was an important piece of legislation as he sought the opposition's cooperation.

The Bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the Central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

Moving the bill for passage, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said it is a very important legislation for employees, especially women.

The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill proposes to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of a business contract and to reduce the discretion of courts in such matters.

Earlier, as soon as the Speaker took up the Question Hour, members from various parties trooped into the Well holding placards. When Union Minister Ram Kripal Yadav was responding to the first question on rural housing, the protesting members raised their pitch, drowning his voice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the members of the Opposition parties, including the Congress, to return to their seats and allow the House to function.

He said Parliament is the 'maha panchayat' of the country where issues are discussed but the disruptions are not allowing important issues to be raised.

He also thanked the Speaker for trying to ensure smooth functioning. He said the government is open to discuss issues including bank scam, Cauvery water management board and special status for Andhra Pradesh, but the House has to function first and members have to vacate the Well.

As the protests continued, the House was adjourned till 12 noon minutes before it was adjourned till Friday.

While members of the Congress, TMC, TDP, YSR Congress and TRS were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, MPs from the Left were standing at their seats and shouting slogans.

Since 5 March, when Parliament had met after a recess, the Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a daily basis. Despite the House being in pandemonium, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were on Wednesday passed by the House without discussion.

With inputs from PTI and IANSCongress president Rahul Gandhi will have to fight the 'image' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the next general elections, an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana said,

Mumbai: Predicting a change in the parliamentary arithmetic of the BJP and Congress in 2019, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said the UP and Bihar bypoll results would give a major boost to the Opposition.

However, the Opposition does not have a formidable leadership to take on the ruling party, it said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will have to fight the "image" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the next general elections, an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana said,

In a stunning blow to the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections, the party on Wednesday lost the bypolls to all three Lok Sabha seats it contested, including its bastion Gorakhpur, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides Araria in Bihar.

The Sena editorial stated that the bypoll results would give a boost to the Opposition, adding that people were now out of their "illusionary world".

"People now realise they have been cheated. However, the opposition does not have a formidable leadership to further ignite the flame of the restlessness among people," the Sena, BJP's ally at the Centre and in Maharashtra, said.

However, the Sena forsees a change in the parliamentary strength of the BJP and the Congress after the general elections next year.

"The party of Modi-Shah (the BJP) has a strength of 280 in the Lok Sabha, while the Congress does not even have 50. If other opposition parties are added, their strength does not even go up to 150. This was the situation in 2014. The situation will surely change in 2019," it said.

"(Congress president) Rahul Gandhi's stature may be increasingly seen. However, that leader cannot be Rahul Gandhi. (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar, (West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief) Mamata Banerjee and (Bahujan Samaj Party supremo) Mayawati continue to be hopeful of becoming the prime minister," it said.

The Sena said Narendra Modi had made an image similar to that of a big screen hero, adding the Congress president will have to fight this image (of Modi).Following the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha by-election results announced on Wednesday, BJP tried to downplay its defeat while Opposition parties were quick to attack the saffron party.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered defeats in Gorakhpur  a seat vacated by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath  and Phulpur, a constituency won by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in 2014, to the alliance of Akhilesh Yadav led-Samajwadi Party and Mayawati-helmed Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Following the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypoll results announced on Wednesday, the BJP tried to downplay its defeat while Opposition parties were quick to attack the saffron party.

Following the unexpected loss, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday that the Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-election results were a "lesson". He cited over-confidence and the inability to understand the pact between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as prime reasons for the BJP's defeat.

The fact that the BJP lost both the seats  Gorakhpur was vacated by Adityanath and Phulpur by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya  was a reason for review, the chief minister added.

"When the candidates were declared, the SP, BSP and Congress were not together. They had not joined hands then. But suddenly in the middle of the election, the SP and the BSP forged an electoral understanding," he told the media from his residence.

The chief minister, who has represented Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha five times, said local issues led to the party's poor performance in by-elections, not the policies of the Centre.

'Results have no bearing on Centre's or state's stability'

The BJP at the national level also tried to play down its defeat saying that people tend to vote on local factors in these elections as their results have no bearing on the stability of either the central or state governments. BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao claimed that voters seem to want to bring some amount of "political equilibrium" by giving encouragement to defeated parties as the saffron party has been winning Assembly elections.

"In General Elections, people vote to elect a government and the BJP has always been the favourite as people want guarantee of good governance which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought to politics. Bypolls have no impact on stability of a government whether at the Centre or state," he said. However, senior BJP leaders such as Amit Shah kept mum about the party's defeat.

Meanwhile BJP's state chief in Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa hit out at the Congress for being "decimated" in the bypolls and said the BJP will ensure a similar fate for the Siddaramaiah-led government in the upcoming Assembly election. He also said in a tweet that in "the arena of opportunistic politics, sworn enemies became allies", referring to the Samajwadi Party-BSP alliance.

The party's defeat, in Phulpur and its bastion Gorakhpur, is likely to send BJP's top brass to the drawing board, as the country's most populous state are central to its strategy for winning the general elections in 2019.

Akhilesh Yadav thanks Mayawati for support

Buoyed by victory in the bypolls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Wednesday it was a mandate against both the central and state governments and the results will give a new direction to the national politics.

He credited BSP chief Mayawati and allies Nishad Party and Peace Party as well as the Left parties for the victory. The Samajwadi Party chief was profuse in expressing his gratitude towards Mayawati, who was once his party's bitterest rival in the state.

"Foremost, I want to thank BSP leader Mayawati for her and her party's support in this important fight," he said. Yadav even drove to the BSP leader's residence and expressed his gratitude to her. While it not known what transpired at the meeting, party insiders believed the two leaders discussed a grand alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Mayawati is yet to

After his party wrested both the seats from the formidable BJP, Yadav also said the elections were a "mandate on both the governments at the Centre and the state...people have come together to bring BJP's burey din (bad days)".

A government that troubles people is pulled down and this government has created problems and led to fear in the people, Yadav added.

Terming the bypolls a victory of social justice, Yadav said the BJP talked about loan waiver for farmers, jobs for the unemployed but GST and demonetisation had created an adverse atmosphere and the Constitution was flouted in a big way.

"No chief minister or party has flouted the Constitution like this...We (Samajwadi Party and BSP) were termed as snake and mole and I was also termed as Aurangzeb...The BJP government has betrayed the people of the country and state in the name of development and nationalism and people have given a befitting reply," Yadav said.

'Clear that voters have anger towards BJP': Congress

Losing no time to take a dig at the saffron party, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said it was clear that people were angry with the BJP and would vote for any non-BJP candidate with the potential to win.

"Congratulations to the winners of today's by-elections. It is clear from the results that voters have a lot of anger towards the BJP and will vote for any non-BJP candidate who has more chances of winning.

"The Congress is keen on rebuilding the party in Uttar Pradesh, but that will not happen overnight," he tweeted in Hindi.

Following suit, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday chided his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath on BJP's performance, by advising him to spend less time "lecturing" Karnataka on development.

Congratulating Samajwadi Party and BSP for the "historic victory", he said unity among the non-BJP parties played a key role in the win.

"BJP has suffered a humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM and Dy CM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role," he said in a tweet.

"Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," he said.

BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role. Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development.  Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) March 14, 2018

Adityanath has already made two visits to poll bound Karnataka for campaigning, where elections are due in April/May. During the visits, both Siddaramaiah and Adityanath had indulged in a twitter and verbal duel, mocking each other on the issue of development and governance.

Other Karnataka ministers also joined in and chastised Adityanath for his party's loss. State agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda, in a tweet, said Aditynath's "negative politics" backfired on his own constituency.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated the winners while tweeting that the "beginning of the end has started".

BJP is not invincible, say CPI, CPM

Following the results announcement, CPM lawmaker Mohammed Salim told PTI, "The Samajwadi Party and BSP coming together has helped the voters express their anger against the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and at the centre. The result is an indicator and it will have its impact in 2019."

He further said, "Both the SP and the BSP had age-old differences between them, but they were kept aside for the sake of democracy and to defeat the BJP and its anti-people policies."

CPI leader D Raja said the results indicated that the BJP is not invincible. Speaking to PTI, he said, "These results would have an impact on the thinking of all the secular, democratic parties so that they evolve a proper electoral tactic, keeping in view the objective of defeating the BJP."

Telagana Rashtra Samithi MP B Vinod Kumar said BJP's loss indicated a growing anti-BJP and anti-Congress sentiment among the masses, reported The Indian Express. He also said that it showed a decline in national parties and emergence of regional parties.

BJP's loss in three Lok Sabha bypolls shows the growing anti-BJP and anti-Congress sentiment among the common man, Telangana Rashtra Samithi MP B Vinod Kumar said.

With inputs from PTIIt was interesting to see Congress leaders and spokespersons appear on TV on Wednesday pleased as punch at BJP's defeat in Uttar Pradesh by-elections. Interesting, because Congress had just been handed a spectacular drubbing in Uttar Pradesh, a state where it once ruled. Its candidates in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies lost their deposits.

It was interesting to see Congress leaders and spokespersons appear on TV on Wednesday pleased as punch at BJP's defeat in Uttar Pradesh by-elections. Interesting, because Congress had just been handed a spectacular drubbing in Uttar Pradesh, a state where it once ruled. Its candidates in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies lost their deposits.

Phulpur, incidentally, is the seat from where Jawaharlal Nehru was elected twice  in 1957 and in 1962, when he defeated Ram Manohar Lohia  and was succeeded by sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit in 1964. Wednesday's results show Congress has been practically wiped out in the key Hindi heartland state, registering over 60 percent erosion in vote share in both seats including the legacy seat of Phulpur.

In 2014, even in the midst of a Narendra Modi wave, the Congress secured over 45,000 votes in Gorakhpur and over 56,000 in Phulpur. Four years on, the corresponding numbers are less than 20,000 in both seats, with its vote share plummeting to 2 percent. To put the figure in perspective, mafia-don-turned politician Ateeq Ahmed secured 48,094 votes as an Independent candidate from Phulpur, comfortably more than double of Congress' tally.

This wasn't an aberration. Despite tying up with the Samajwadi Party, the Congress managed to draw just 6 percent of the popular vote in last year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Akhilesh Yadav could in fact be justified in concluding that he damaged his chances by clasping Rahul Gandhi's hand.

The Uttar Pradesh by-election results reflect a larger trend of consistent erosion in Congress' voter base barring Gujarat, where it failed to capitalise on 25 years of anti-incumbency despite a good fight and Rajasthan, where it handsomely defeated the BJP in three Lok Sabha constituencies. Everywhere else (including in two bypoll victories in Madhya Pradesh) Congress' struggle continues.

It crashed to sub-par performance in North East  a traditional stronghold  polling zero seats in Nagaland, Tripura and failing to form a government in Meghalaya. Its footprint across seven states has now reduced to just one: Mizoram. Congress candidates lost their deposits in recently held West Bengal bypolls and came a poor third in Odisha. It is not only failing to retain own share and base, it is being relegated to insignificance across a wide swath of regions in India, and from Bihar to Tamil Nadu the Congress footprint is being erased in favour of either the BJP or regional satraps.

In contrast, despite the noise in media over its impending demise, BJP has managed to increase its vote share in both Phulpur and Gorakhpur compared to last year when it swept the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, though obviously the quantum of rise wasn't enough to meet the challenge of a grand SP-BSP 'alliance'. As this The Times of India infographic shows, BJP's vote share went up from 35.3 percent in Phulpur to 39 percent, and from 40.2 percent in Gorakhpur to 46 percent this year.

It wasn't clear, therefore, why Congress spokespersons on Wednesday were gloating at BJP's discomfiture, seemingly oblivious of their own predicament. Voting trends indicate that unless Congress manages to quickly stem the rot and engineer a miraculous turn of fortune in upcoming Assembly elections, it will be deemed superfluous (and even damaging) to Opposition's alliance calculus.

In its hour of existential crisis, Congress' reaction was revealing. Self-styled 'UP ke ladka' Rahul brushed aside party's poor performance, raised a toast to the Opposition and insisted that voters are "very angry" with the BJP and will vote for whoever has the best chance of beating them. In his tweet, he also sought more time for a Congress turnaround.

The gloating and triumphalism sit at odds with its electoral prospects, indicating a disconnect between optics and reality. Instead of investing in building the party from ground-up, empowering local leaders, resurrecting grassroots structure, striking strategic alliances, connecting with people, nurturing voter base and taking an ideological stand to differentiate the brand from rivals, the new Congress president seems more focused on symbolism. While that is important, it cannot substitute unsexy, behind-the-scenes organisational work.

At its most vulnerable, Congress is taking recourse to denial. Senior politician Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed that Congress deliberately abstained from campaigning to prevent a division of anti-BJP votes, yet this is at best a half-truth. In reality, the party stands isolated in Uttar Pradesh. The SP wasn't ready to pamper it and is now blaming Congress for fielding candidates in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

The steady decrease in Congress votes as well as vote share shows its poor condition in Uttar Pradesh. It can hardly win any Lok Sabha seat besides Amethi and Rae Bareli, Economic Times quoted an SP leader, as saying. Tellingly, Akhilesh drove to Mayawati's residence to "thank her" post the declaration of bypoll results and even proclaimed that his relationship with Congress "is good", but stayed silent on committing to an alliance for 2019.

It goes to show that if Congress wishes to be a part of the anti-BJP coalition in 2019, it must relinquish all hopes of a leadership role and accept whatever comes its way. In the altered realities of a new equation, Rahul might as well forget all prospects of being prime minister in 2019 even if Narendra Modi fails to return.

The Congress high command is worried. Sonia Gandhi's vituperative attack on Modi  as this columnist previously argued  was a desperate effort to place Congress front and centre of an anti-BJP grand alliance. Rahul followed his mother in tweeting pictures from Sonia's dinner diplomacy.

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

Some key proponents of Third Front, though, are already dropping large enough hints that Congress cannot take such an eventuality for granted. Mamata Banerjee chose to skip Sonia's dinner, sending Sudip Bandyopadhyay (previously arrested by the CBI in connection with a ponzi scheme) instead. Notably, she has committed to attending the dinner floated by Sharad Pawar later this month.

Meanwhile, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao slammed the Congress, terming the party as villain No 1. In Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu sought to distance himself from both the BJP and Congress, and Mamata's discomfiture with Rahul's leadership is well known. With the strengthening of Akhilesh and Mayawati's hands in Uttar Pradesh, the picture of Congress' redundancy in national politics is being reinforced.

In any anti-BJP coalition, Congress punches far above its weight and gets a leadership role not just due to legacy or the endurance of Gandhi brand, but also because of its hold over the ecosystem of power. Successive electoral defeats have slackened its hold and weakened its bargaining power. As regional leaders get over their real and perceived dependence on Congress, the Grand Old Party is getting squeezed into a corner. It remains to be seen if Rahul manages to stage a spectacular turnaround. He has very little to lose.As results of by-elections in two Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh became clear on Wednesday, the ruling BJP held opportunism of Opposition parties responsible for the loss, and cited their last minute alliance.

Lucknow: As results of by-elections in two Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh became clear on Wednesday, the ruling BJP held opportunism of Opposition parties responsible for the loss, and cited their last minute alliance.

The victory in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur LS seats is a minuscule, yet significant achievement for both Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who entered an election pact for the first time after 1993 Assembly polls, which were conducted after sacking of Kalyan Singhs BJP government in the aftermath of demolition of Babri Masjid.

With support from arch-rival BSP, SPs Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel won Phulpur with a margin of 59,613 votes, taking hold of the constituency represented by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya in past. On Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths home turf Gorakhpur, SPs Praveen Kumar Nishad won by 21,881 votes.

In 2014 LS elections, SP had won five seats with 22.35 percent vote share, while BSP could not win a single seat despite polling 19.77 percent votes. Both, SP and BSP, were curtailed to 50 and 20 seats respectively in last Assembly elections held in 2017.

Both regional parties have tasted success because they came together, which implies that caste politics is back in the state, said senior journalist Srawan Shukla. He added that these results indicate that the Modi Wave of 2014 has vanished with the hardline rule of Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Hindu Yuva Vahini founder Yogi Adityanath.

Media reportedly gagged

Earlier on Wednesday, several journalists claimed that Gorakhpur district magistrate Rajiv Rautela stopped them from entering counting centre set up at Gorakhpur University and prevented them from reporting results of the by-election, while allowing only those mediapersons who were his cronies.

While the magistrates office denied Rautela had passed any such diktat, Harikesh Singh, a journalist covering by-election results for a regional web portal, told Firstpost: The media was asked to stay away from the counting centres and come only when they are asked to. He added that Rautelas responses turned even more rude when media queried him regarding the counting process.

Interestingly, Rautela, along with IAS officer Rakesh Kumar Singh, were suspended by Allahabad High Court in December 2017 for promoting illegal mining during his tenure in Rampur district. The court asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary to take disciplinary action against both the IAS officers, but Rautela continues to serve as district magistrate of Gorakhpur, Singh is the district magistrate of Kanpur (Dehat).

Rautela was also under scanner when in his report submitted to the court in the capacity of a district magistrate, he held an oxygen supplying agency and a doctor responsible for deaths of more than 60 children at the BRD Hospital. He is said to be a close relative of Adityanath.

Akhilesh mum on future of alliance

People have taught a lesson to the BJP, said former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav while addressing the media in Lucknow.

BJPs policies have been such that they have harassed the poor, backwards, Dalits and Muslims of the state. They promised moon to the masses, but failed in delivering anything, Yadav said, while maintaining silence on a future alliance with Mayawati-led BSP. He visited the BSP supremos residence later in the evening.

Acche din to nahi aaye lekin bure din dikhane ke liye sab ekjut hue (acche din did not arrive, but they all teamed up to show us the bad days), Yadav said, as he thanked Mayawati for extending support to the alliance.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Mahendra Nath Pandey, said the party will introspect on this loss.

Poor polling percentage could have been the reason, Pandey added.

'SP, BSP back in race for LS polls'

RR Jha, a professor with the political science department at Banaras Hindu University, said the by-election result should not only be seen as BJPs defeat, but also as victory of an alliance between parties that were struggling for survival.

Election performances of both SP and BSP seemed to convey they had lost their political ground in recent past and were fighting for survival. Though experimental in nature, this alliance has brought them back in the race of 2019 elections, said Jha.

Jha is hopeful that the we can attitude of this alliance of regional parties can repeat what Ram Manohar Lohia, along with other leaders, did in 1963, by generating a united Opposition to counter then Congress government at Centre.

This result also reflects the problem with our country, said Jha, explaining how people of Uttar Pradesh supported BJP consecutively in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, but voted it out now as the state government, and prominently their MPs failed to stand true to their expectations.

The BHU professor said the saffron party needs to introspect on its defeat as it has lost seats previously held by its chief minister and deputy chief minister.

Losing Gorakhpur is a huge setback for BJP as it had been a saffron citadel of sorts with Adityanath representing the constituency in the Parliament five times, after three terms of his guru Avaidyanath as MP, said Jha.

This shows the return of caste politics in Uttar Pradesh. BSP and SP have shown that the vote bank of Dalits, Muslims and OBCs is much bigger than the vote bank of BJP, Jha said, adding that the same formula worked for RJD, JD-U and Congress in Bihar. While RJD won Araria LS and Jehanabad Assembly seats, victory on Bhabhua Assembly seat was the only consolation for BJP.

Saurabh Sharma is Lucknow-based freelance journalist and a member of 101reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroot journalistsPope Francis reflects on the power of prayer, starting with the dialogue between God and Moses.

Author: Staff | Source: Vatican News

In his homily at Mass on Thursday morning in the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis reflects on the power of prayer, starting with the dialogue between God and Moses.

Courage and patience, according to Pope Francis, are the two linchpins of prayer, which must be raised up to God in freedom, like children. The Holy Father made the comments in his homily at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday. He took as his starting point the first reading from the Book of Exodus, which tells of the conversation between the Lord and Moses regarding the apostasy of Gods people.

Moses refuses to be deviated

The prophet tries to dissuade the Lord from acting on his blazing wrath against His people, who had forsaken the glory of the living God to worship a golden calf. In Moses bold dialogue, he reminds God of all He had done for his people, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt, and of the faithfulness of Abraham and Isaac.

In this face-to-face encounter, the Pope said, Moses preoccupation and love for Gods people is evident. He is not afraid to tell the truth and does not enter into the deviation game.

God appreciates this, said Pope Francis. When God sees a person who continually prays for something, He is moved.

No tangents. I am with the people, and I am with You. This is intercessory prayer: a prayer that argues and has the courage to speak directly to the face of the Lord, who is patient. Patience is needed in intercessory prayer. We cannot promise someone we will pray for them, pray only an Our Father and a Hail Mary, and then leave it at that. No. If you agree to pray for someone else, you must take this [other] path. And patience is needed.

Patience and constancy in prayer

In daily life, the Holy Father said, unfortunately there are many cases of managers ready to sacrifice an organization in order to save their own interests and to make a profit. But Moses refused to go off on a tangent; he is with the people and fights for them. Scripture, Pope Francis said, is full of good examples of constancy and the capacity to be patient, such as the Canaanite woman and the blind Bartimaeus of Jericho.

Two things are needed for intercessory prayer: courage, or parrhesia, and patience. If I want the Lord to listen to my requests, I must return, and return again, to knock at the door of Gods heart, since my own heart is committed to [this petition]! But if my heart is not concerned for this need, or the person for whom I am praying, neither will it be capable of courage and patience.

To have a concerned heart

Finally, Pope Francis pointed out the path of intercessory prayer. He said it means being concerned for others and willing to fight, strive, and fast for them.

May the Lord give us this grace: The grace to pray before God in freedom, like children; to pray with insistence; to pray with patience; but, above all, to pray in the knowledge that I am speaking with my Father, who will listen to me. May the Lord help us to advance in this form of intercessory prayer.Unlike the General Election or even the state Assembly elections, by-elections are not glamourous, however, their purpose is to fill a political office that has been vacated.

The by-election results in Uttar Pradesh (and to some extent in Bihar) triggered several columnists, political pundits and politicians (well, some of them) to dub the mandate as a dress rehearsal of sorts for the upcoming Lok Sabha election in 2019. The term 'dress rehearsal' was first used in this context by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during camapaigning for these by-elections.

Two constituencies in Uttar Pradesh  Gorakhpur and Phulpur. The BJP lost both high-profile seats which had been won by three lakh-plus margins in 2014 by Adityanath and his deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya. The results of the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh are significant as they come almost a year after the BJP's unprecedented victory in the state Assembly elections.

The BJP had won the two seats in 2014 by big margins of over three lakh votes. The failure to retain the two seats has again showed the BJP's vulnerability in a contest against a combined and determined opposition. Similarly in Bihar, the BJP had been defeated by the Grand Alliance of Janata Dal-United, RJD and Congress in 2015 Assembly elections despite aggressive campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Unlike Phulpur, a constituency which has seen loyalties shift  from the Congress to the Samajwadi Party followed by the BSP and then the BJP which won this constituency during the 2014 General Election, Gorakhpur is a saffron bastion which has remained faithful to the Gorakhnath temple. Before Adityanath, the seat was held by his mentor and the powerful head priest Mahant Avaidyanath. The party had been winning the Gorakhpur seat since 1989 and Adityanath had held it for five straight terms since 1998. A loss at the hands of a resurgent Bahujan Samaj Party-Samajwadi Party combine in the key seat has left the party red-faced.

Common sense dictates that if a ruling government is losing in its state, things are clearly not fine and symbolism is an intrinsic part of politics. Even as several op-eds claiming that the recently-concluded bypolls are a precursor to the Big One in 2019, let's examine by-elections in India and the patterns in which the regular electorate votes.

What are by-elections?

It is safe to say that in India, with the amount of elections we see in a year, there are several which go unnoticed. Unlike the General Election or even the state Assembly elections, by-elections are not glamourous, however, their purpose is to fill a political office that has been vacated. In a way, by-elections are a necessary enabler for restoring stability. Held between regularly scheduled elections, by-elections, or bypolls, are an indicator of the state government's competence. In most of the cases, the ruling government wins the bypolls unless the state isn't happy with the government or candidate, in which case, the voters try to bring in an alternative.

Are by-elections precursor to the Big One?

Since it stormed to power in 2014, a mandate that newspapers still discuss, the BJP has had a good fortune at the state Assembly election, but when it comes to re-election of a representative from a seat that fell vacant, voters have shown a tendency of changing their mind and not opting for the saffron party.

BJP's tally in Lok Sabha down to 274 from 282 in 2014

After winning an absolute majority in 2014 General Election with 282 seats, the BJP has lost seven seats in by-elections held in the last four years. With the loss of the prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats in the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, the party's tally in the Lok Sabha has come down to 274, only two more than the halfway mark of 272 in the 543-member House. In the by-elections since Narendra Modi stormed to power, BJP lost to Congress in four seats; to Samajwadi Party on two seats and to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on one seat. With the win on two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, SP's tally has gone up to seven from five in 2014. Meanwhile, despite the win in Bihar's Araria, the RJD tally remained at four.

Bypoll shocker for BJP

The first bypoll shock for BJP came in from Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam constituency in November 2015. The BJP had won 27 of the 29 seats in the state in 2014. The bypoll on the parliamentary seat was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MP Dileep Singh Bhuria. The Congress's Kantilal Bhuria won the seat against Dileep Singh Bhuria's daughter Nirmala.

The Congress, which had lost in all the 25 seats in Rajasthan in 2014 polls, managed to make a comeback in the state early this year as it won the Lok Sabha bypolls in Alwar and Ajmer. The by-elections were necessitated by the death of BJP MPs Sanwarlal Jat (Ajmer) and Mahant Chand Nath Yogi (Alwar).

The BJP also lost in the by-election to Bihar's Araria Lok Sabha seat to its rival RJD. The polls were necessitated after the death of RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin last year. In Araria, there was a direct contest between Taslimuddin's son Sarfraz Alam and BJP's Pradip Singh.

However, it was not all loss for the BJP in the by-elections. It won the bypolls in Assam, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In Assam's Lakhimpur, a poll was necessitated as the sitting MP Sarbananda Sonowal took over as the CM of the state after the party's win. The party retained the seat in the bypoll. The BJP also won in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol. The election was necessitated as veteran party leader Dalpat Singh Paraste passed away. The bypoll was held just days after demonetisation, when the country was in turmoil, seeking to adjust to the lack of cash in the system.

The BJP also won Vadodara, which has been its traditional stronghold seat. As Prime Minster Narendra Modi retained his Varanasi seat and resigned from Vadodara, BJP won the seat again easily. BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde died in a road accident in June 2014 which led to the bypoll in Maharashtra's Beed. His daughter Pritam Munde easily retained the seat for the BJP. The bypoll in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana is yet to be announced after the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh.

Where incumbent governments won

Punjab: It was a setback for the BJP in Punjab's Gurdaspur in 2017. The bypoll was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MP and actor-turned-politician Vinod Khanna. Congress's Sunil Singh Jakhar, son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar defeated BJP's Swaran Solaria in the constituency by over 1.93 lakh votes.

West Bengal: Bypolls in two seats  Uluberia Lok Sabha seat and Noapara Assembly seat  were won by Trinamool Congress this February. The ruling TMC swept Uluberia Lok Sabha and Noapara Assembly bypolls, with the BJP bagging the second spot in both seats and the CPM being pushed to the third position. Congress came fourth in both seats. In Uluberia, Trinamool retained its seat by receiving 4.74 lakh votes  doubling its 2014 Lok Sabha polls winning margin. In Noapara, it defeated Congress by 63,018 votes. Even in terms of vote share, the ruling party emerged supreme with 61 percent in Uluberia and 55 percent in Noapara.

The BJP's vote has doubled as the party secured slightly over 1.37 lakh votes in Uluberia in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Mainpuri: After a historical mandate in 2014, the first test of BJP's popularity came in August the same year when Mainpuri bypolls were held. Despite securing a 71-seat-win during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP lost to Mulayam Singh Yadav's grand newphew Tej Pratap Singh. Mulayam won the 2014 General Election from the constituency (Mainpuri) for the third consecutive time. But at the same time, Mulayam also won the elections from Azamgarh constituency. On 26 May, he resigned from Mainpuri and retained the Azamgarh seat.

With inputs from agenciesIANS

As part of its "Grow with Google" project, the technology giant has pledged to help one million Europeans find a job or grow their businesses by 2020, the company said in a blog post.

"This commitment goes beyond our previous pledge to help people develop digital skills to ensure that we support trainees as they put those skills to use in building careers and businesses," said Matt Brittin, President (Business and Operations) at Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Launched in 2015 the "Grow with Google" project, has until now trained three million Europeans and more than two million people in Africa in digital skills.

"Grow with Google aims to help everyone in Europe get access to training and products to grow their skills, career, or business, and we'll continue to partner with governments, city councils, universities, private-sector businesses and non-profits through the support of Google.org to achieve this," Brittin said.

In 2016, Google launched an independent research to know whether the digital skills training alone can translate into economic impact and improve prospects for those people who invest their time.

Over 1,90,000 Europeans have found a job or started a business following training on the project.

While more than half a million European businesses have grown their business through new customers or revenue, 32,000 small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have taken on more staff, the research revealed.

As part of the new commitment, in Italy, "Crescere in Digitale", a partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Chamber of Commerce, will activate 5,000 more internships for young unemployed people at SMBs by 2020, which can lead to full-time employment.

In Spain, Google launched a digital skills employment programme with the Government and in Germany they continue to work with Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) on their "Open Roberta programme" teaching young women how to code.Jyoti Singh

Imphal, capital of Manipur is all set to host the annual session of the Indian Science Congress for the first time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the 105th session of the congress on 16 March. Manipur University will host the science congress.

The focal theme for the 2018 Science Congress is Reaching the Unreached through Science and Technology. This year the focus will be on translational science for promoting affordable and sustainable innovation. During the five-day program, the focus will be on various scientific disciplines and how they can connect with the society.

Nobel laureates, Field Medal winners in mathematics and leading scientists will be among those slated to address different sessions at the annual event. Young Scientists Awards will also be conferred during the function. A technology-based startup conclave also will be showcased, inviting top innovators and entrepreneurial researchers.

The highlights of the program include the childrens science congress, which will be inaugurated on 17 March, and the Women's science congress, to be held on 18 and 19 March. In addition, there will be a Science Communicators Meet on 19 March.

It is expected that around 5,000 delegates from all over the country will participate in the event, including students, academicians, members of science and engineering academies, officials of all ministers promoting science and technology and representatives of national science academies of different countries.

The 104th Indian Science Congress was held in Tirupati and the theme was Science & Technology for National Development. Last year Prime Minister in his inaugural speech had observed that some of these important challenges are in the key sectors of clean water & energy, food, environment, climate, security, and healthcare. We equally need to keep an eye on the rise of disruptive technologies and be prepared to leverage them for growth. We need to clearly assess the challenges and opportunities for our technology readiness and competitiveness. This year as the theme suggests, the congress is set to take these thoughts to the next level.

The 105th science congress was scheduled to take place in Hyderabad this year in January but postponed. Osmania University, which was supposed to host the event, had expressed its inability to hold it.

(India Science Wire)tech2 News Staff

Lenovo-owned Motorola is expanding its offline presence in India. The company has announced that it will open 50 new Moto Hub stores in Mumbai and 1,000 stores across 100 cities by the end of 2018.

Moto Hubs are the offline stores that provide Motorola products to customers. The stores will display the entire portfolio of Motorola devices including the Moto E4, Moto e4+, Moto C, Moto C+, Moto G family and Moto MODs along with accessories like on-ear and in-ear headphones, moto shells and covers.

According to a report by GFK, a German market research institute, Maharashtra is the biggest smartphone market in India for Motorola and contributes to 13 percent of the total smartphones retail sales for the company in the country. Mumbai has emerged as the city with the second-largest smartphone selling market, contributing to 42 percent of the sales in Maharashtra. The company also registered an 18 percent QoQ growth in Maharashtra.

Sudhin Mathur, the Managing Director of Motorola Mobility India said "Offering a premium customer experience has been a key pillar of our strategy and strengthening retail footprint in Mumbai is a step further in that direction." He further added that "Moto Hub will offer unique Moto experience to customers in an environment they are familiar with, further helping us engage our customers better."

Motorola recently announced the opening of 25 Moto hubs in Kolkata and 50 Moto hubs in New Delhi. The company has also partnered with Poorvika Mobile stores across 43 cities in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Karnataka.Nimish Sawant

Google India announced new features for the Google Maps product for Indian users. Among the prominent ones were the ability to add a missing place, smart address search and Plus Codes. Regional language navigation was another feature that was showcased, with support for Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam for turn-by-turn navigation purposes.

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.

When asked the need to go for a six character code followed by a city and state name, instead of a purely 10-character code, Krish Vitaldevara, Product Lead, Google Maps Next Billion Users, said that for the Indian market they did not want to insist on a 10-digit code as it is difficult to remember.

"While the technologists wanted it to be 10-digit, as they are all about precision, but as a product manager, we are all about the usability. And we realised after speaking to users that a more feasible solution was having six characters followed by the name of the city," said Vitaldevara.

Plus Codes on the first glance looks like a smarter adaptation of the existing six-digit pin codes. While pin codes cover a much larger area, the idea behind Plus Codes is to stick with a smaller 14 x 14 m area which is identified by an alphanumeric pattern. But Vitaldevara said that Plus Codes were not a replacement for pin codes, but a parallel system which would co-exist with your existing addressing system.

"The thing Plus Codes does is that it gives you a convenient way of sharing your location. There are several scenarios where precision is extremely important. For instance, say if you are lost in a forest on your trek, you can share your Plus Code (even without any data network) which will give a good idea of where you are. In Latin America for instance, they want to use Plus Codes to map the slums. We look at this as a way to empower users," said Vitaldevara. Plus Codes do not require a data connection to work, as long as you have the offline maps downloaded. Plus Codes is an open source initiative and Google has said that it will not be possible for it to come up with all the possible use cases.

Since it is open source, Vitaldevara said that third-party agencies could add in extra characters in case they want to make this more precise. Giving an example of a highrise building, which has multiple floors and many users wanting to add their address, the Plus Code for the location will be the same for someone staying on the first floor, as well as the tenth floor. But if a third party wants the location to be more specific, it could add more characters so that the first floor and tenth-floor residents have unique addresses, despite the same Plus Code.

While the 'Add an address' feature seems interesting, it also leaves a lot of scope for pranks. For instance, if a friend of mine who knows where I live, marks my address as say an Aadhaar registration centre, how would Google rectify that?

"There are two parts to this. As long as the address is correct, we will accept it because it's not like we are exposing the address. Adding an address gives a correct geographically coded location. It is not a publically searchable address, but just for your reference. This is then mapped in the back end to location data such as latitude and longitude. As for dealing with mischief or spam, that is what we have been dealing for a while now and we have good machine learning algorithms that detect such anomalies. In the last two years, we have been able to drop the mischevious addresses by more than 90 percent. There are multiple ways to triangulate information," said Vitaldevara.

The way 'Add an address' differs from the earlier method of adding a business is that the business address is a public one, whereas adding the home address is only meant for the user. This is a means for you to have your own physical address mapped to a location, which is easily navigable by someone who is trying to get to you.

"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," said Vitaldevara.tech2 News Staff

The ongoing Aadhaar hearings resulted in some small solace for Indians, taking the form of an extension on the deadline to link Aadhaar with bank accounts, phone numbers and a few other items. However, the Supreme Court order extending the deadline exempted Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act from this extension.

Section 7 of the Aadhaar pertains to government welfare schemes and essential services like LPG and rations. By allowing Section 7 to stand as is, the SC decision has almost no impact on the state of Aadhaar today. As noted in a previous report, the courts interim order directly affects the constitutional rights of the people.

SFLC.in, a well-respected organisation comprised of volunteer team that includes lawyers and engineers, has been fighting against the violation of rights that Aadhaar in its current form represents. The organisation has now issued a statement on the Supreme Court decision to not exempt Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act from its interim order to postpone Aadhaar-linking deadlines.

The entire statement is as follows:IANS

National carrier Air India on Thursday said that it has "restored" its official Twitter handle after it was hacked.

According to a senior airline official, Air India has commenced its investigation into the matter.

"The official Twitter handle has been restored (after it was hacked). We have commenced our investigation into the matter," the official told IANS here.

Hackers broke into the Air India's official Twitter account early on Thursday, posting messages in Turkish language, including flight cancellation announcements.

They changed the official handle @airindiain to @airindiaTR.

"Last minute important announcement. All our flights have been cancelled. From now on, we will fly with Turkish Airlines," read one of the messages from the hackers.

The group "I ayyAldAzt" claimed to be a Turkish Cypriot Army on their Twitter handle.

"Your account has been hacked by the Turkish cyber army Ayyildiz Tim. Your DM correspondence and important data have been captured," read another tweet before the official Air India Twitter handle was restored.

Air India has 1,46,000 followers on Twitter.While Britain is busy creating a worldwide moral consensus against 'the Russian aggression', Moscow remains unperturbed.

Britain is a sanctuary state. In a tradition dating back to the 18th century, when it gave refuge to the French dissident writer Voltaire, Britain has remained an attractive destination for those fleeing persecution. It gives refuge to the good the bad and the unwanted from across the world. While it opens its doors to many fleeing persecution in their home countries on moral grounds, a lot are given a safe haven with an eye on the future. These second group of individuals, usually belong to the profession of political dissidents, espionage agents and big time oligarchs.

Some of these figures, at times, run long distance political and economic affairs back home. Take the case of Altaf Hussain of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Operating from his base in London. Hussain controls MQM, which, in turn, controls Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.

Britain's tolerance of other countries' dissidents is couched in a clearly defined objective. It takes a high moral position while others hesitate. But not everyone is persuaded by this argument, however. Cynics call it "gesture politics."

In the world of realpolitik it makes sense for a state to give sanctuary to these assorted group of individuals who are despised in their original home country. If they are political dissidents then they serve as an effective wedge against a faraway wayward regime. They serve as bargaining chips when it comes to doing business with those states. Sometimes these dissidents are groomed and made to take over the reigns of power in their respective country at the opportune moment.

The same goes for the spies. Once offered sanctuary they spill out all the national secrets of the state that they previously belonged and served. In the world of diplomatic skullduggery how can a state not entertain the prospect of such prized information that a renegade promises to offer?

Britain like many other European ex-colonial powers has always been a magnate for those fleeing their ill-gotten coffers. In recent years one group, in particular, that has found this island mostly welcoming is the overnight billionaires from all sorts of places  from the ex-Soviet republics to many tin pot dictatorships. It makes good sense to have this lot on-board. They have contributed to the rejuvenation of an otherwise sluggish economy through their high-profile investments, in some sectors.

However, the problem is, there is no such thing as a free lunch. There is always a price to pay for one's actions, even in the life of States. There is always a blowback. There are unintended consequences.

Since last week, we are witnessing the unfolding of a fast-paced drama reminiscence of a Cold War novel. An ex-Russian (now British) double agent and his young daughter, who have been in coma after allegedly been poisoned by Russia. While Moscow has categorically denied its involvement in this episode, the British prime minister, has stressed that there is "no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable" for the attack.

All gloves have come off in the ensuing confrontation between London and Moscow. The Downing Street has already ordered the expulsion of 24 Russian diplomats, which it has identified as undeclared intelligence officers. In its response, Moscow has made it amply clear that it would take fitting symmetrical measures that are completely appropriate for the situation.

While the UK is busy creating a worldwide moral consensus against "the Russian aggression", Moscow remains unperturbed. The bigger question that has kicked into the long grass while this high decibel diplomatic rattle-tattle goes on is the role of ethical behaviour of States.

Should the states not behave more judiciously while offering sanctuaries to individuals who are already tarnished in their home country? Why some states have become attractive destinations for many criminals from the world of finance? Is a given state not exposing itself to accusations of criminality while it is drawn to the ill-gotten money of autocrats and oligarchs? Are they not contributing to the plundering of resources of some faraway state by offering safe haven to many of these unsavory characters? Since the enemy and friendly status is an ever-changing reality in the world of diplomacy how helpful it is to draw strict battle lines when states sit down to conduct their business?

These are difficult questions. How Britain and Russia conduct themselves in their current diplomatic spat and beyond would throw light on some of these questions.Facebook has seen a meteoric rise in Myanmar, a fledgling democracy shaking off 50 years of brutal junta rule.

Facebook today said 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.

Yesterday, 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.Flying in from Mauritius, Ram Nath Kovind was received at the Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo by Prime Minister Olivier Solonandrasan and accorded a ceremonial welcome.

Antananarivo: President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday reached Madagascar, on the second leg of his two-nation state visit to Africa and the Indian Ocean Region.

This is the first ever visit by a President or Prime Minister of India to this country.

Flying in from Mauritius, Kovind was received at the Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo by Prime Minister Olivier Solonandrasan and accorded a ceremonial welcome.

After the delegation-level talks, the president was conferred the Grand Cross of the Second Class by Solonandrasan. This is the highest honour Madagascar bestows on a non-citizen.

On Thursday, the president will interact with members of the India-Madagascar Business Forum, and then address students and the academic community at the University of Antananarivo before leaving for India.Russia said on Thursday it would retaliate very soon for Britains expulsion of 23 diplomats as Moscow and London traded public insults about a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent in England.

Moscow/London: Russia said on Thursday it would retaliate very soon for Britains expulsion of 23 diplomats as Moscow and London traded public insults about a nerve toxin attack on a former Russian double agent in England.

After the first known use of a military-grade nerve toxin on British soil since World War Two, the United States, France, NATO and the European Union gave verbal support to May, though it remained unclear what action the West would take.

London says the Russian state is responsible for trying to kill Sergei Skripala former Russian intelligence officer who betrayed dozens of agents to Britains MI6with Novichok, a lethal nerve agent developed by the Soviet military.

Russia denied any involvement and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused London of behaving in a boorish way, adding that this was partly due to the problems Britain faces over its planned exit from the European Union next year.

Lavrov said Russias response would come very soon but be conveyed to British officials first, an apparent contradiction of an earlier report by state news agency RIA that said Lavrov had promised to expel British diplomats.

In the biggest expulsion of Russian diplomats from London since the Cold War, Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday gave 23 Russians who she said were spies working under diplomatic cover a week to leave London.

The temperature of Russian-British relations drops to minus 23 but we are not afraid of the cold weather, Russias embassy in London said beside the picture of a thermometer surrounded by ice and reading minus 23 degrees Celsius.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia have been critically ill since they were found unconscious on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. A British policeman who was also poisoned is in a serious but stable condition.

May on Thursday visited the normally genteel city where police investigators in chemical protection suits and the army have been removing evidence of the poisoning.

Britain also said it would invest 48 million pounds ($67 million) in a new chemical warfare defence centre at its Porton Down military research laboratory, where scientists identified the nerve agent used against Skripal.

Western response

Britains allies expressed solidarity over the attack.

The White House said it shared Britains assessment that Russia was responsible and supported the decision to expel Russian diplomats.

France, which on Wednesday had said it wanted proof of Russian involvement before deciding whether to take action against Moscow, swung behind Britain on Thursday.

France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with its ally, President Emmanuel Macrons office said in a statement.Likening Iran's leader to Adolf Hitler, Saudi Arabia's crown prince warned in a US television interview that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon

Washington: Likening Iran's leader to Adolf Hitler, Saudi Arabia's crown prince warned in a US television interview that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an excerpt of the interview that aired Thursday on "CBS This Morning."

The 32-year-old Prince Mohammed said he has referred to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "the new Hitler" because "he wants to expand."

"He wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," Prince Mohammed said.

"Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East."

The interview is scheduled to run on CBS's "60 Minutes" show on Sunday, two days before the crown prince's scheduled White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.

His comments come amid concerns over nuclear proliferation in the West Asia and just days after the kingdom put an atomic energy program on a fast track.

Although intended to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, analysts warn the capacity to produce atomic energy could open a pathway to nuclear development for military purposes.

A 2015 nuclear agreement has placed curbs on Iran's nuclear program, but Trump has expressed a desire to scrap it, making its future uncertain.

The Saudi cabinet says its nuclear program will be in "full compliance with the principle of transparency" and meet nuclear safety standards "in accordance with an independent regulatory and supervisory framework."

The country has accelerated plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades, according to officials and analysts, at a cost of around $80 billion.

Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Faleh said in October that the nuclear program would start by building two reactors, each producing between 1.2 and 1.6 gigawatts of electricity.A teenaged suicide bomber on Wednesday blew himself up near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, killing nine people, including five policemen, police said.

Lahore: A teenaged suicide bomber on Wednesday blew himself up near the residence of Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, killing nine people, including five policemen, police said.

According to rescue officials, the blast took place close to a check post, a few kilometers from the palatial residence of the Sharif family, and next to the congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat centre. Around 25 people were also injured in the attack.

"Five policemen  two inspectors and three constables  are among nine persons killed in the blast. Around 14 policemen among the 25 who were injured in the blast. The condition of four policemen is stated to be critical," Rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad told PTI.

He said the Rescue ambulances have shifted the injured to the Sharif medical complex and other nearby hospitals.

Inspector General Police, Punjab, Arif Nawaz confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack carried out by a teenaged boy who blew himself up near the checkpost.

Deputy Inspector General Police, Lahore, Dr Haider Ashraf said: "A teenaged boy blew himself up at the check post set up close to the Tableeghi centre where at least 14 or so cops were present".

However, he did not give the exact age of the boy.

He said the "police personnel" were the target of the blast. "The condition of some policemen is critical," he said.

It was such a powerful blast that its sound was heard several kilometers from the site. A fire ball was seen after the blast at the Nisar Police Check Post.

Some reports said Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed the responsibility of the blast. The suicide attack has taken place a week before the semi-finals of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore.

"The PSL semi-finals will be held in Lahore as per schedule as we have made all security arrangements in this regard," Ashraf said.

Pakistan Rangers quick response force has reached the spot and cordoned off the area along with the police.

This is the first explosion targeting the provincial capital in 2018. Lahore experienced multiple terror attacks in 2017 that killed more than 60 people.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.

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.

Russia denies its involvement in the attempted murder.

Sanders said the attack fits into a pattern of behaviour in which Russia "disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes".

"The US is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again," she said.

House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer said Russia's alleged attacks against dissidents on British soil were "unconscionable" and violate international law.

"I stand in strong solidarity with Prime Minister May and the British government as they take appropriate retaliatory action on Thursday," he said.

"In recent years, Vladimir Putin's Russia has supported violent separatism in Ukraine and Georgia, propped up the Assad regime in Syria, threatened Europe's energy supplies, and tried to hack elections in our country and others. Russian aggression must be met with strength and resolve," Hoyer said.

Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the US should lead a conversation with their NATO allies about a collective response to the act and future acts of aggression.

"Our ally took a strong step today but this likely won't be the last time that Russia tries to silence those who publicly condemn Putin's regime from Western soil," said Sasse.

"Whether it's the consideration of similar Russian expulsions from NATO nations.. or freezing more Russian assets, we ought to make it inescapably clear to Russia that its shadow war will meet a coordinated response," he said.

At the United Nations headquarters in New York, US Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Russia for the alleged use of nerve gas.

"Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: the US stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The US believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the UK using a military-grade nerve agent," Haley said during a special meeting of the UN Security Council convened at the request of Great Britain.

Haley said the US' constant criticism of Russia was not without reason.

"If the Russian government stopped using chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies; and if the Russian government stopped helping its Syrian ally to use chemical weapons to kill Syrian children; and if Russia cooperated with the OPCW by turning over all information related to this nerve agent, we would stop talking about them," said Haley.

"We take no pleasure in having to constantly criticise Russia, but we need Russia to stop giving us so many reasons to do so," she said.

Haley urged the UNSC to hold Russia accountable for the alleged use of chemical weapon.

"The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable," Haley said.

Jonathan Allen, Charge dAffaires of the permanent Mission of Britain to the UN, said the UK concluded that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act because it had previously produced this agent and due to its record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations.

"We saw only two plausible explanations: either it was a direct attack by Russia on my country, or Russia had lost control of a military-grade nerve agent which they had developed," said Allen.

"We requested the Russian government to provide an explanation by the end of Tuesday, 13 March, on how this Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury. They provided no credible explanation which could suggest they lost control of their nerve agent," he said.The United States, on Wednesday, challenged Indian export subsidy schemes at the World Trade Organisation, saying these programmes harm American workers by creating an 'uneven' playing field, officials said.

Washington: The United States, on Wednesday, challenged Indian export subsidy schemes at the World Trade Organisation, saying these programmes harm American workers by creating an "uneven" playing field, officials said.

The US Trade Representative (USTR) argued that at least half a dozen Indian programmes provide financial benefits to Indian exporters, which allow them to sell their goods at a lower cost, to the detriment of American workers and manufacturers. These programs are: the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, Special Economic Zones, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme and Duty Free Imports for Exporters Programme.

"These export subsidy programmes harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field on which they must compete," said USTR Robert Lighthizer. "USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing US rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO," Lighthizer said. The announcement from Lighthizer came while Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale was on his maiden visit to the US. He was scheduled to hold meetings with the USTR.

In a statement, the USTR alleged that through these programmes, India is given exemption from certain duties, taxes, and fees which benefits numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology products, textiles, and apparel.

According to the Indian government documents, thousands of Indian companies are receiving benefits amounting to over USD 7 billion annually from these programmes. The USTR said export subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to recipients. A limited exception to this rule is for specified developing countries that may continue to provide export subsidies temporarily until they reach a defined economic benchmark. India was initially within this group, but it surpassed the benchmark in 2015. India's exemption has expired, but the country has not withdrawn its export subsidies, USTR alleged. "In fact, India has increased the size and scope of these programs," USTR charged.

For example, India introduced the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in 2015, which has rapidly expanded to include more than 8,000 eligible products, nearly double the number of products covered at its inception, it alleged.

Exports from Special Economic Zones increased over 6,000 percent from 2000 to 2017, and in 2016, exports from Special Economic Zones accounted for over USD 82 billion in exports, or 30 percent of India's export volume. Exports from the Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, increased by over 160 percent from 2000 to 2016, it asserted.

Noting that consultations are the first step in the WTO dispute settlement process, The USTR said if the US and India are unable to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultations, it may request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter.

The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady applauded the USTR's decision to challenge through the WTO. "The Administration's decision to challenge India's USD 7 billion worth of prohibited subsidies is a plain and unmistakable signal that we will not tolerate any failure by our trading partners to live up to their commitments at the expense of US manufacturers, service providers, farmers, and ranchers," Brady said. "Today's action highlights the value of ensuring that our trade agreements are fully enforceable through binding dispute settlement. We must continue to hold our trading partners accountable and ensure a level playing field for American workers and businesses," he said.

"In responding to India's prohibited subsidisation of its steel industry in this manner, we prove the significance of the WTO dispute settlement process as a powerful, valuable, and appropriate tool in the administration's toolbox to address unfair practices that hurt our steel workers and companies. I join the administration in calling on India to end its unfair trading immediately," Brady said..          ,          .                      ,     .               "     ...Working from home? Switch to the DIGITAL edition of CLICK HERE to signup now!Big game day will look very different this year as COVID-19 influences eating. Eager as ever to snack their way through Super Bowl Sunday, consumers are predictably... Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic and high stress levels have propelled consumers to reach for comfort foods. According to Israel-based Salt of the Earth, the same events drive... Read MoreEveryone will be sporting 50 shades of green at the 20th annual Town of Fort Myers Beach Saint Patricks Day Parade. Dust off your shamrocks and join in the fun on Saturday, March 17. Come on down and enjoy the Beachs own little patch of Ireland, complete with floats, color guard, neighborhood groups, musical bands, decorated cars, town officials and plenty of beads and green for everyone. And youre likely to meet the man who started it all 20 years ago, Ray Murphy.

The best thing about being Irish is we have so many good qualities  our gift of gab, our sense of humor, said Murphy, the parades founder and chairman. We love our stories and heritage. There is the Irish in all of us and those of us who wish they were, but hey, everybody is Irish at our parade.

The parade will begin promptly at 10 a.m. marching north on Estero Boulevard for 1 mile to the Church of Ascension parking lot. The parade will last for approximately one hour and will conclude at 11 a.m. Dont miss a thing. Plan ahead. Traffic will be stopped on Estero Boulevard between 9:45 and 11 a.m. with assistance from the Lee County Sheriffs office.

We start at Santini Plaza and end at the Church of the Ascension and over the years we have gotten larger and larger, Murphy said. This year we have our Lee County Pipe & Drum Corps Band who have always been with us, the color guards, civic, business and neighborhood groups, floats and musical bands, and everyone favorite the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.

Theres plenty of people to thank for helping to make the day special, Murphy said.

A big thank you to Father Bill Adams for all his help and the Knights of Columbus who will have lots of great things to eat for sale in the Churchs parking lot, Murphy said. After the parade everyone gathers for the beer, soft drinks, hot dogs and corned beef sandwiches and so many other good things to eat. Be sure to hang around.

We couldnt have the parade without the dedicated staff at the Lee County Sheriffs Office and the Fort Myers Beach Fire District, Murphy said. It just doesnt happen, its takes everyone helping out and giving us a hand. We are so appreciative to everyone who participates.

Murphy recalled how this parade began.

It all started 20 years ago with my friend Father Tom Goggin, who asked me to try and start up a Fort Myers Beach St. Patrick Day Parade like they had done in Naples, Murphy said. We thought we could do just as good a parade, so I approached the town council and at that time everyone on the council had a last name that began with O, so they loved the idea.

The first Fort Myers Beach St. Patricks Day Parade had about 30 to 40 people participating and they closed the Matanzas Pass Bridge.

Everyone was giving us feedback about with such a small parade, why did we close the bridge, Murphy said. They werent happy with us. So on the second year, we changed the route to where it is has been for the last 19 years and everyone was much happier.

St. Patricks Day is celebrated internationally every March 17. It is a religious Irish holiday to commemorate Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland that dates back to the ninth century. The first St. Patricks Day Parade actually took place in New York City on March 17, 1762. It was held by Irish soldiers who were serving in the British army, they marched to Irish music to help them reconnect with their Irish ancestry and fellow servicemen. After all these years the parade and celebration has survived and is still a celebratory annual tradition all over the United States, including Fort Myers Beach.

My favorite part of the parade is that for me its a family thing, Murphy said. My parents have been with us since the beginning. Mom (family was Scottish and Irish) and dad (second-generation Irish) are still so happy to be a part of the Irish spirit.

Everyone is always in such a great mood, Murphy said. And they say, What do you think Ray? And I say every year is bigger and better than the last year.Senator Bob Corker, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, released the following statement after Senate passage on Wednesday of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S.2155). The bipartisan legislation, authored by Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and cosponsored by Senator Corker, is targeted toward helping community banks, credit unions, mid-sized banks and regional banks.

Since Dodd-Frank was signed into law in 2010, community banks in Tennessee and across our country have faced an overwhelming and disproportionate regulatory burden.

These reforms are long overdue and not only will help our community banks better serve hardworking Americans but also will ensure small businesses have access to the credit they need. I thank Chairman Crapo for his leadership on this legislation and many of my colleagues for coming together in this bipartisan effort.

Senator David Perdue (R-GA), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, also praised "the most significant bipartisan rollback of financial regulations since Dodd-Frank was enacted:"

He said, This regulatory relief is long overdue. Community and regional banks have been hammered by one-size-fits-all government regulations enacted by Dodd-Frank for nearly eight years. As a result, two trillion dollars are sitting on the sidelines, not at work in our economy today. This regulatory rollback, combined with all the regulatory rollbacks of last year, the historic tax cuts, and President Trumps actions on energy, will continue to revive our economy. This will make a lot more capital available to all of our job creators on Main Street.

"

Senator Perdue said he worked to secure the following provisions in the final bill "to remove burdensome regulations on regional and community banks:"

 Increase Access To Mortgages- The bill exempts community banks and credit unions that keep mortgages on their own books from the CFPBs qualified mortgage rule. Today, many small banks and credit unions lack the staff and budget to comply with the thousand page, one-size fit all CFPB qualified mortgage rule and portfolio lending will help restart mortgage lending in small town America.

 Separate Regional Banks from Hundred Billion Dollar Banks- The current asset threshold for the designation of a systemically important financial institutions (SiFi) is so low it encompasses regional banks, subjecting them to the same regulations and reporting requirements as the largest banks in the world. The bill raises SiFi threshold from $50B to $250B and enhances regulators powers to oversee banks with assets that fall between $250B and $100B.

 Improve Consumer Credit Protections- Creates a new national standard for credit protections so all consumers, regardless of where they live, have the ability to freeze their credit easily and at no cost. In addition, veterans and elderly will have increased access to more credit monitoring resources.

Senator Lamar Alexander said, In my meetings with Tennessee bankers and credit unions, I continue to hear how Washingtons overregulation has meant endless paperwork, less access to home loans for worthy borrowers, and more expensive credit. I support this important legislation to reduce these regulations and help Tennesseans turn to their local financial institution for help buying a home or investing in a small businesses.

He said the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act will:

Increase access to mortgage loans for potential homeowners.

Relieve small financial institutions from burdensome reporting requirements.

Properly tailor regulations to larger financial institutions.

Improve consumer protections for veterans, senior citizens and those who have fallen on tough financial times.

The bill is supported by the Tennessee Bankers Association, the American Bankers Association, Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the Tennessee Credit Union League, the Independent Community Bankers of America and the Chamber of Commerce, it was stated.Ford is planning an SUV-driven product blitz over the next two years that includes a redesigned Explorer, a hybrid-powered Bronco and an all-electric high performance utility currently codenamed Mach 1.

Safety and telematics technologies are also high on the rebooted agenda, which comes as sedan and hatchback sales continue to slump across the industry and Fords stock price remains stuck in first gear.

The product onslaught will result in a lineup of eight Ford SUVs by 2020, all offering at least one hybrid powertrain option. Along with the previously-announced all-electric model and Bronco -- shown on Thursday wearing a dirt-colored sheet that revealed its boxy, possibly two-door profile, but little more  its also adding a smaller, curvaceous SUV that it says will be true off-roader.

The automakers head of global operations, Joe Hinrichs, told Fox News that hes seeing a growth in demand for off-road capable vehicles as more and more people are taking part in adventurous leisure activities. He said Ford has authenticity in the space going back to the original Bronco and is looking to build on that spirit with the new models.

All-new versions of Fords top-selling Escape and Explorer SUVs will debut next year, with a street performance-oriented Explorer ST joining the Edge ST that was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The Edge ST will also be the first to get Fords new Co-Pilot360 semi-autonomous safety system, which comes with five features, including automatic emergency brakes and lane-keeping assist, and will be standard on all newly-introduced Fords that follow it.

Similar safety functions will be added to Fords F-650/750 and E-Series trucks, the latter of which will continue production into the 2020s. Ford will also equip all of its upcoming models with built-in 4G connectivity that will enable over-the-air updates, but hasnt detailed what vehicle systems will be tied to it. Tesla's, for instance, can modify the performance of its cars, while some others can only tweak their vehicles' infotainment systems.

As for sedans and hatchbacks, Hinrichs would only say that the Fiesta and Taurus remain in the lineup today, but wouldnt comment on their long-term prospects. Recent moves by Ford suggest that the midsize Fusion and compact Focus have brighter futures with the brand, with the next-generation of the Focus set to be imported from China improve its viability through lower manufacturing costs.

Pony car fans can rest assured, however, that the Mustang isn't going anywhere soon. There's a new Shelby GT500 with over 700 hp on the way next year that will be followed by a hybrid model Ford says will deliver the performance and torque of a V8.

ARE YOU FOLLOWING FOX NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK?In an embarrassing setback for Vanderbilt family scion Anderson Cooper, CNN announced Thursday that Coopers in-house rival, Chris Cuomo, will be taking over its ratings-challenged 9 p.m. hour.

The shake up  coming as CNN struggles badly in its ratings war with MSNBC  cuts Coopers airtime in half. Cooper will now only host between 8 and 9 p.m. ET.

This move is likely hard for Anderson Cooper to accept. He is the face of CNN and is now being downsized while CNN brass looks for a magic solution, media analyst Jeff McCall told Fox News.

Cooper and Cuomo, who intersected as undergraduates at ultra-exclusive Yale University and later as anchors at ABC News, are both children of enormous privilege and fame. Cooper is the son of socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and part heir to the familys colossal fortune. Cuomo is the son of Democrat icon Mario Cuomo and younger brother of New Yorks powerful governor, Andrew. Both men made the jump to CNN after their careers had foundered at ABC.

CNN will slash Coopers AC 360 into a one-hour program, as opposed to airing from 8 to 10 p.m. Cuomo will shift from CNNs struggling morning show New Day to the 9 p.m. slot, where he will go head-to-head with liberal ratings behemoth Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.

CNN hasnt made changes to its prime-time lineup since 2014 despite regularly finishing behind MSNBC by most measures. CNN finished the month of February as the 12th most watched cable network, averaging 979,000 prime-time viewers. Fox News finished atop the list, averaging 2.8 million, and MSNBC finished second with an average prime-time viewership of 1.8 million.

AC 360 was CNNs only show to finish February among the top 10 most watched cable news programs among the key demographic of viewers ages 25-54, while MSNBC had three and Fox News had six.

When it comes to total viewers, CNN finished even worse with only "AC 360" cracking the Top 25 most-watched cable news shows last month.

Coopers defenders claim the millionaire star is not irked by his demotion.

He is not unhappy at all, a CNN insider told Fox News of Cooper, pointing to the fact that the 9 p.m. hour of AC 360 is frequently bumped for special events and original series.

Mediaite columnist Joseph Wulfsohn told Fox News that cutting into Coopers two-hour block makes sense and that it is shocking they didnt do it sooner, as Maddow regularly dominates the time slot in terms of liberal cable news shows.

This move is basically an acknowledgement by CNN that its highest profile personality, Anderson Cooper, just can't compete at the 9 p.m. time slot with MSNBC or Fox, McCall said. CNN had to do something to shake things up or settle for drifting along in a distant third place for the foreseeable future. It is a bit surprising, however, that CNN is betting on Cuomo, who has failed to generate solid ratings in his morning time slot.

Their privileged backgrounds arent the only things Cooper and Cuomo have in common. Theyre also two of the most anti-Trump personalities on television.

Cuomo, 47, has fully embraced CNN boss Jeff Zuckers anti-Trump programming strategy and his older brother Andrew is known to harbor presidential aspirations.

CNN might believe Cuomo can attract serious news hound viewers who don't want the political advocacy that is so apparent with Maddow and Hannity at 9 p.m. That is unlikely, it would seem, because Cuomo himself is rather partisan in his news anchoring. Nobody will confuse him with Frank Reynolds in terms of being impartial, McCall said, referring to the late and beloved ABC News anchor.

While Cooper is typically sophisticated in his anti-Trump rhetoric, Cuomo attacks the president with more zeal. While co-hosting New Day, Cuomo became known for his bizarre questions and frenetic interviewing style. The result has been frequent combative interviews with members of the Trump administration and its supporters. Cuomo is often accused of bullying Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, who has gamely continued to appear on New Day despite how Cuomo treats her.

Last August, Conway even called him an amateur climatologist when Cuomo insisted on talking about climate change during an interview about Hurricane Harvey disaster relief.

Insiders say that behind the scenes at CNN, Cuomos eccentricities had become a major source of friction at the morning program. Its hoped that things will be smoother in prime time, where he has less airtime and no co-anchors to rankle.

In recent memory, Cuomo has also urged Americans to get woke while denouncing Trumps border wall and referred to a viewer as a lemming during a nasty Twitter spat.

One big difference between Cooper and Cuomo may be salary. Cooper is believed to make more than $7 million a year, while Cuomo is believed to make far less.

At New Day, Cuomo will be replaced by John Berman, a levelheaded Harvard graduate (and also an ABC veteran) who, by all accounts, is easy to work with. A CNN insider described Berman as the opposite of Chris Cuomo.

Why is CNN a retirement home for failed people from ABC News? the insider added.If youre clamoring for more fish nuns, more drunk aliens, and more crystal foxes, then youre gonna wanna check out "Star Wars: The Last Jedis" home video release. A movie this big warrants equally big special features, and thats exactly what you get with "The Last Jedis" digital extras.

Heres a rundown of the 6 deleted scenes every "Star Wars" fan needs to see:

1. Poe: Not Much of a Sewer

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to move copies of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," it is the promise of more Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) scenes. The extras deliver in that department with this cut scene between the Resistance pilot and the ex-stormtrooper, which takes place right after the good guys jump to hyperspace and escape from the First Order and right before Leia slaps Poe with a demotion.

Originally in-between those scenes, we got to see Poe catch Finn up on everything that happened while he was recuperating. This scene is one of two scenes that help underline Finns arc in "The Last Jedi." Here, he flat-out tells Poe that hes not a soldier and he did not sign up to join the Resistance. Poe responds by giving Finn his jacket (although hes not a whiz with needle and thread so the things still a little cut up from Finns lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren back on Starkiller Base).

2. It's Kind of Weird That You Recorded That

After the First Orders second attack on the Resistance fleet, the one that killed Admiral Ackbar and left Leia in a coma, we find Finn clutching the transceiver transmitting the fleets location to the faraway Rey (Daisy Ridley). Finn looks paralyzed, totally inactive, and not even BB-8s cheerful chirps can get him to snap out of it. And then BB-8 does something totally tearjerky: He plays a hologram recording of Reys last words to Finn from "The Force Awakens." This rouses Finn, who also notes to BB-8 that it was weird the droid recorded that private moment. This scene, along with the previous one, show early on that 1. Finn is not a member of the Resistance and 2. He only cares about saving Rey.

3. Caretaker Village Sequence

The one deleted scene you absolutely, positively need to see is this one, because it gives us what we really wanted from "The Last Jedi:" More! Fish! Nuns!

This scene slides in right after Lukes (Mark Hamill) big speech to Rey about the failings of the Jedi, how they let Darth Sidious rise to power right underneath their Force-sensitive noses. It also serves as Reys third test, the one we never got to see in the film. The test is as follows: Rey sees a fleet of ships arriving on shore, and Luke tells her that theyre raiders that show up once a month to pillage the village of the Lanai (a.k.a. the fish nuns). Rey wants to dive in and save them, but Luke responds with some harsh Jedi wisdom: If Rey uses extreme force to save them, then the pillagers will just come back even stronger next month  and Rey likely wont be around to save them next month. Rey doesnt care; she jumps into action, charging into the fray with lightsaber drawn. But when she arrives, she finds something less frightful and morefootloose and fancy-free. She crashes a Lanai party where the fish nuns get down with their fish dudes! Even Chewie and Artoo are in on the action (er, the partying action, not the frisky action). Luke pulls the classic point-of-view line defense when Rey confronts him, and he tells her that the Resistance needs a fighter like her and not an old man like himself.

This scene is great because it includes more fish nuns, obviously, but its also great because it really underlines Rey and Lukes differing mission statements. It sets up their conflict clearly, and it allows Rey to flat-out tell Luke that hes nothing at all like what the man she looked up to and that hes really disappointed her. You get this sentiment from other scenes that were left in the movie, sure, but its kinda cathartic to see Rey actually say those words to her not-quite-masters face.

4. Mega Destroyer Incursion - Extended Edition

By the time you get to Finn and Roses infiltration mission in "The Last Jedi," theres a lot going on and the movie is barreling towards its explosive finale on the salt planet Crait. Thats why the Resisters dont face all that much resistance when they sneak on board, grab Imperial disguises, and go about their mission. Originally, though, the tension was ratcheted way up and writer/director Rian Johnson used Finns history as a stormtrooper to heat things up. After donning their black duds, the trio (which includes Benicio del Toros hacker/traitor DJ) walks across what looks like the First Orders answer to Dunder Mifflin. Just some evil drones in their evil cubicles doing evil! BB-8 even bumps into his evil counterpart, BB-9E.

Then our heroes reach an elevator and, just as you think theyre safe, a squad of stormtroopers gets on one story up. Finn, Rose, BB, and DJ are now in closed-quarters with a handful of stormtroopersand one totally recognizes Finn! The tension gets thick as Finn confronts the leering trooper, and Finn even slides his hand on his holstered blaster, ready for a shoot-out. But just before things can explode, the stormtrooper reveals that hes just impressed to see his old buddy in an officers uniform. Congrats on the promotion, Finn! Shoot-out avoided!

5. Rose Bites the Hand That Taunts Her

The deleted scenes also give us more of Kelly Marie Trans Rose, including this feisty moment that shows an edgier side we dont get to see in the film. This one comes right after DJ sells Finn and Rose out to the First Order, as theyre handcuffed and on their knees in front of General Hux and Captain Phasma. Hux approaches Rose, picking up her necklace and placing it as an artifact from the Otomok system. Basically, Hux is calling out Roses hometown and calling all of them vermin, even hinting that he had a hand in the downfall of Roses colony. Hux taunts Rose by placing his finger under her chinand then she bites it. She bites the poodoo out of his finger! And she doesnt let go, not easily! Hux finally pulls his finger back from her and orders their execution.

You dont lose much plotwise by this scene getting cut, and you still get to see plenty of shades of Rose throughout the film. Still, this deleted moment shows Roses ferocity unlike anything else in the movie. Dont mess with Rose!

6. Phasma Squealed Like a Whoop Hog

When it comes to big adventure movies like the "Star Wars" franchise, character deaths are always big moments. You spend entire movies wondering whether or not a character is going to bite it, because a death either means a character is off the table or the storys going to have to figure out a workaround to bring them back. Thats why this deleted scene is so important, because it puts a new spin on Captain Phasmas (Gwendoline Christie) apparent demise.

The scene takes place after she falls to her presumed death in the movie. Instead of being engulfed in flames, we see cracked-helmet-Phasma clawing her way back onto the platform along with a few stormtroopers. Surrounded and outnumbered, Finn resorts to telling the truth: He tells everyone within earshot that it was Phasma who lowered the shields on Starkiller Base, thus ensuring its destruction. He says that all he had to do was put a gun to her head and she complied without hesitation. Just as the stormtroopers seem to consider turning on Phasma, she takes out all four of them with a succession of blaster shots. But before she can attack Finn, hes grabbed a big ol cannon and blasts her away.

The big difference here is, though, we dont see where she lands! In the film, we see her fall to a fiery death on a crumbling spaceship. In the deleted scene, we just see her get blasted offscreen. The former is way more definitive than the latter! This scene leaves way more wiggle room to bring Phasma back, but its place in canon is totally contradicted by what we see in the final film. Sorry, Phasma, but your best chance at survival has been rendered non-canonical!

This article originally appeared on Decider.comElizabeth Hurleys nephew Miles Hurley was photographed for the first time after being stabbed several times in London last week.

The 21-year-old model was pictured in an Instagram post on Tuesday, five days after being stabbed in a South West London street. In the picture posted on his friends Instagram page, Hurley is seen wearing a white robe standing next to a rapper known as Romz, who was purportedly also stabbed in the attack.

MY SURVIVORS. Grateful, the friend captioned the photo.

Hurley, the son of Elizabeth Hurleys older sister Kate Curran, was stabbed around 8 p.m. on March 8 following a fight with a stranger. A source told the New York Post that the knife missed his vital organs.

ELIZABETH HURLEY'S NEPHEW STABBED 'SEVERAL' TIMES BY KNIFE IN LONDON

Elizabeth Hurley, 52, who was in the U.S. promoting her show The Royals, reportedly flew to London on Friday to see her nephew.

The actress is close to her model nephew. She shared a photo of him on Twitter in 2013 to celebrate his modeling career, captioning the post: Heres my handsome nephew.Harper Lees estate has filed a lawsuit in Alabama over Aaron Sorkins To Kill a Mockingbird Broadway adaption, alleging the plays script strays from the spirit of the novel.

Lee, who died in 2016 at age 89, wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel which was adapted into a successful movie that went on to win three Academy Awards.

Lee signed a contract with producer Scott Rudin about eight months before her death that gave him the rights to adapt her novel for $100,000 and a vow that the script would remain true to the original story, The Washington Post reported.

Rudin employed Sorkin, who is best known for writing The Social Network and The West Wing, to pen the script.

KATY PERRY SURPRISES IDOL CONTESTANT WITH KISS AND HE SAYS HE WAS UNCOMFORTABLE

The Lee estate lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, alleged Rudin and Sorkin have adjusted the novels main characters, Atticus Finch and his children Scout and Jem. The lawsuit also alleged the script changed the novels legal proceedings against Tom Robinson, a black man who goes to trial after he is wrongly accused of raping a young white woman. The suit also argued the script no longer presents a fair depiction of 1930s small-town Alabama.

Carter first saw a draft of the play in September, according to the lawsuit, and she later spoke with Rudin by phone to express concerns about it. She spoke with Rudin in February about the script adding, At times, the conversation was heated, the lawsuit states.

Carter sued after Rudin's attorney responded earlier this month with a message stating extensive changes to the script weren't possible, the suit said.

Sorkins altered script violated the agreement between Lee and Rudin, the suit claims. It asks a judge to enforce a section of the agreement that reportedly states the play won't "depart in any manner from the spirit of the novel nor alter its characters."

Rudin replied to the lawsuit stating he cant and wont present a play that feels like it was written in the year the book was written in terms of its racial politics.

It wouldnt be of interest. The world has changed since then, Rudin told The New York Times.

The lawyers from Lees estates said they became suspicious of Sorkin and Rudins ideas for the script following an interview with Vulture.com in 2013 in which Sorkin hinted he would change the character evolution of Atticus Finch.

ARMIE HAMMER SHARES THROWBACK MUG SHOT ON INSTAGRAM

He becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play, Sorkin said. And while hes going along, he has a kind of running argument with Calpurnia, the housekeeper, which is a much bigger role in the play I just wrote. He is in denial about his neighbors and his friends and the world around him, that it is as racist as it is, that a Maycomb County jury could possibly put Tom Robinson in jail when its so obvious what happened here. He becomes an apologist for these people.

Lees estate contacted Rudin in September stating it was really important the characters in the script were not altered from the novel.

Rudin told The New York Times he believed the lawsuit was without merit.

This is, unfortunately, simply another such lawsuit, the latest of many, and we believe that it is without merit, Rudin said.

His statement also took a jab at the "history of litigious behavior" of Lee's estate, overseen by Carter.

The play is slated to begin previews on Nov. 1 and open on Dec. 13 on Broadway. Jeff Daniels is slated to star as Atticus Finch.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



The Chattery announces The Great Adult Egg Hunt and Hoppy Hour, taking place on Saturday, March 31 from 2-6 p.m. at the Sculpture Fields at Montague Park.The Great Adult Egg Hunt will take place at 2 p.m. at Sculpture Fields at Montague Park. This inaugural event combines the arts, community collaboration and education. Through a creative partnership, local artists are creating one-of-a-kind works of art on evergreen wooden eggs, and adult participants will search for the eggs at Sculpture Fields.The Egg Hunt will conclude the event with a restaurant hop along Main Street to continue to build community and support local businesses. The ultimate goal of the event is to create relationships among artists and adults and promote the Sculpture Fields as a free, interactive public space, while bringing the community together at a culminating event.The schedule is as follows:2-4 p.m.: Adult Egg Hunt at Sculpture Fields4-6 p.m.: Hoppy Hour at various local restaurantsThe Egg Hunt will include tunes from D J M C P R O, and local restaurants and businesses will be selling their products, including ice cream from Clumpies, beer from The Bitter Alibi, food from MOUTHGREMLIN and a pop up shop from Bettieville on MLK.The Great Adult Egg Hunt and Hoppy Hour is sponsored by Papercut Interactive, Elliott Davis, Chambliss Bahner & Stophel, The Tomorrow Building and Yelp Chattanooga.For more information about The Great Adult Egg Hunt, visit www.greatadultegghunt.comOscar-winning actor Matt Damon is denying reports he is heading Down Under with his family because of President Trump.

"Matt has visited Australia several times recently," his rep told the Boston Globe in an email statement sent Thursday. "But he has not bought a house there nor is he moving there."

The news first came on March 3 when Sydneys Sunday Telegraph claimed Damon had reportedly purchased property in Bryan Bay, New South Wales, which is next door to a home owned by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth.

Hemsworth, 34, and Damon recently appeared in the action film Thor: Ragnarok.

However, one source insisted Damon wasn't leaving America behind just for a change of scenery.

Before Damon's rep denied the allegation, a source told Page Six Thursday Damon has been telling friends and colleagues hes moving the family to Australia because he disagrees with Trumps policies.

Matts saying the move with not impact his work  as he will travel to wherever his projects are shooting, claimed the source. Hes also telling friends he wants to have a safe place to raise his kids.

Damon has four children with his wife, Luciana Barroso.

The celebrity news publication also added Damon has freed up his shooting schedule to make the big journey across the globe.Prince Harry is opening up about one of the private visits he has made with his fiancee, Meghan Markle. The 33-year-old royal gave a speech at the Veterans Mental Health Conference in London on Thursday where he revealed some details about a trip he took with his future bride.

I have seen those I have served with suffer, struggling to seek out the help they desperately need. And we know there are more just like them who continue to suffer in silence. And when the individual doesn't or can't reach out for help, it is also their families who suffer; especially their spouses and children, who are left feeling desperate and confused as they try to seek appropriate help for the ones they love, Harry, a veteran himself explained. Some of the stories Meghan and I heard when we visited Colchester Garrison a few weeks ago shocked us to our core.

Watch Prince Harry Make Meghan Markle Giggle Following Liam Paynes Commonwealth Day Performance

Harry also opened up about the problems facing servicemen and women today, with an emphasis on mental health.

Anger, isolation, violence, substance misuse, all stem from the same place  and these are not unique to the military. To truly make a difference to veterans and their families, of course we must help those in need, but we must focus on solving the problem at source, he said. For me, this issue is personal. My time in the Army gave me the strongest respect for everyone who wears the uniform. It is a community I am proud to belong to, and I will always seek out anyway that I can to support it.

Meghan Markle Sings 'God Save the Queen' During Church Service With Queen Elizabeth II -- Watch!

Though Harry and Meghan have made many public appearances together since their engagement last fall, they did not publicly visit Colchester Garrison  a military base in Essex, England. This is the first confirmed report of one of Meghans private visits.

Last month the U.K.s Telegraph reported that the former "Suits" star had visited victims of Londons Grenfell Tower fire.

"Meghan has been regularly making private visits to organizations as she gets to know the U.K. charity sector," a source told the newspaper at the time.

Meghan Markle Wows in White 2 Months Before Royal Wedding

With the younger royals focusing on mental health, Meghan has been seamlessly joining in on the public outings. In addition to attending a Commonwealth Day service with Queen Elizabeth this week, Prince Harrys fiancee has also visited Birmingham, Nottingham, Scotland, and Wales.A Michelin-starred chef in Italy has become the subject of ridicule after he made a couple tweaks to the countrys cherished Neapolitan pizza. The precious pie is made with basic dough, raw tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil, but Carlo Cracco wanted to make a version that was healthy and crunchy, so he broke tradition.

Neapolitan pizza is near and dear to Italian culture, specifically in Naples, where the pie was born. In December, the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo  or pizza-maker  secured a spot on UNESCOs list of intangible world heritage. Nearly two million people signed a petition in support of Naples application, and when it was approved, the city celebrated by handing out free pizza to passersby in the streets.

The cultural phenomenon holds a special place for the nation and now also for the world.

But Craccos rendition has rendered a little backlash. According to the U.K.s Telegraph, he added wholesome grains and cereals to the dough, topped with petal shapes of mozzarella and a heavy tomato sauce. The item  sold at Craccos namesake restaurant in Milans Victor Emmanuel Gallery  will set customers back about $20.

For 16 euros ($20) here in Naples, you can also have zeppole and panzerotti as well as a large beer and still have change, @Mr_Mrk1 wrote on Twitter.

The Neopolitan writer Angelo Forgione allegedly called the modified Margherita a cracked pizza, according to the Telegraph. Another anonymous pizza purist reportedly said, After making his own pizza, they took away not only his other Michelin stars but also his Italian citizenship and his driving license.

In November, it was announced that the "Hells Kitchen" alum had lost a Michelin star at his restaurant, falling from two to one, Food & Wine reports.

But not everyone hates Craccos newest creation. Italian celebrity chef Gino Sorbillo  who is widely considered one of Naples best Neapolitan pizzaiuolos  actually seems to have liked the pie.

Anyone who knows me well knows that in my life I have NEVER talked bad about any pizza. Never! the chef wrote on Facebook. If I like a pizza I say it and will always say it. I like all the pizzas of character.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Meal.A remote farm-to-table restaurant in Freedom, Maine is ditching the harried digital system of accepting reservations and instead turning to a more intimate form of booking  handwritten postcards.



The Lost Kitchen hosts a series of highly in-demand dinners between May and December each year, Food & Wine reports. Last year, chef Erin French received an overwhelming 10,000 calls for reservations at the 40-seat restaurant.

This year, the acclaimed restaurant decided lets not do that again and got rid of the telephone and online reservation systems that had caused the restaurant  and its customers  so much stress in the past.

WAFFLE HOUSE EMPLOYEE'S ACT OF KINDNESS TOWARD ELDERLY CUSTOMER LANDS HER $16G SCHOLARSHIP

After many months of deliberation, the group decided a postcard reservation system was truest to their simple vibe as Mainers.

We prefer human contact over computers and pen & paper over keyboards. Given the chance, we want to give you our full and undivided personal attention. Keeping it small and intimate is part of what makes TLK so magical and something we dont want to stray from, French wrote on the restaurants website.

The restaurant released the new rules for the reservation policy on its website, which requires interested parties to send a 3x5 notecard with their name, mailing address, email address and phone number in a postmarked envelope to the restaurant between April 1- April 10. The restaurant said it will accept cards sent March 31 to account for Easter.

Beginning on April 11th, cards will be selected at random until reservations are complete, the 2018 Reservation Process says.

Realizing we will never be able to serve everyone who wishes to dine here, to get here will take a bit of energy, a bit of patience, persistence and hope. Come to think of it, every really good thing that has ever happened to me in my life has involved all four of these things, French wrote.

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The old-school approach seems to be a hit on social media. On the restaurants Facebook page, fans have been leaving comments calling the move, lovely and a great idea.

French even left a list of other recommended Maine restaurants with more technological means of reserving a spot.People who visited the airports in Detroit, Memphis and Newark, N.J., in recent days may have been exposed to measles, since two international travelers have separately been diagnosed with the highly contagious disease, health officials said on Tuesday.

In the first case, New Jersey officials said a child with measles flew from Brussels, Belgium, to Newark Liberty International Airport, and then took a connecting flight to Memphis.

Officials did not release the exact date when the infected traveler arrived at the cities, but said people who came in contact with the child could develop measles symptoms  including rash, high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes  as late as April 2.

New Jersey residents who may have been exposed to the child will be contacted by local health departments, officials said. People who develop possible symptoms of measles should immediately contact their health care provider.

THOUSANDS OF CHEERLEADERS POSSIBLY EXPOSED TO MUMPS AFTER TEXAS COMPETITION, HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY

Though the disease is highly contagious, officials said children who received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine twice are considered protected for life.

Meanwhile, Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services issued a similar warning in Detroit on Tuesday, after a traveler was diagnosed with measles, the Detroit Free Press reported. The traveler landed in Detroit Metro Airport on March 6 after traveling abroad.

"Anyone who was in customs or baggage claim in the airport's north terminal between 2 and 5 p.m. that day should seek medical attention from their primary care provider if they develop symptoms of the disease," the news release stated.

A measles warning was also issued at a day care in Johnson County, Kan., where three cases of children with measles were reported. The babies were too young to receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Though eight-year-old Layla Sysaknoi of Fresno, Calif. has rocked buzz hairstyles since she was in preschool at Columbia Elementary School, her mother Tara Sysaknoi is calling out a teacher for unjustly sending the third-grader home for her distracting buzz cut.

Layla first began cutting her hair in pre-k after she saw a music video on YouTube made by an 8-year-old girl in tribute to the Sandy Hook school shooting," Tara told Fox News. "This little girl [in the video] had the side of her head shaved with a heart in it. Layla loved it and asked if she could do the same haircut, I allowed her to do so, the 30-year-old mom said.

Over time Layla continued to shave the side of her head with designs and over time she decided she wanted to cut her hair shorter, she added.

STUDENT DENIED BUS RIDE OVER INAPPROPRIATE SHIRT

Finally Layla decided she wanted a "fro hawk" which is what she currently has now. Through the years, her school has never had an issue with her hair nor did her previous teachers, Tara added.

That all changed for the worse on March 5.

Tara claims that soon after Layla arrived at school that day, she received a call from the school office that she needed to pick Layla up as her teacher said her haircut is a distraction and she can't be in class with this haircut,

The mom felt that something was odd about the situation, as Layla had just been transferred to that teachers classroom a week prior due to an incident with her previous teacher.

Informing the office staff that it was ridiculous, Tara soon spoke with Principal Kimberly Hendricks-Brown, who agreed that the dress code policy was ridiculous and agreed to contact the school district.

KYLIE JENNER SLAMMED (AGAIN) FOR BLUSH NAMES 'BARELY LEGAL,' 'VIRGINITY' AND 'X-RATED'

In the meantime, Tara told Yahoo Lifestyle she was given two choices: Layla could either be banned from school or face in-house suspension.

I decided that my child shouldn't be punished for being herself or expressing herself so I did not send her back to school, Tara told Fox News. Shes attended the same school since she was a toddler  why is it a problem now? she further mused to Yahoo.

Keeping Layla home for seven days would have classified her as truant, according to Fresno Unified School District s policies of three or more unexcused absences per school year. Fearing jail time or a fine for her daughters absences, Tara reluctantly sent Layla back to school. She alleges that continuous attempts to reach the superintendent regarding dress code policies have failed, and she has not yet been able to get in contact with them.

According to the school districts dress code, hairstyles which draw undue attention, detract from the educational environment and not acceptable; i.e. unusual designs, colors, mohawks, tails, or unusual razor cuts, are banned.

Tara believes that Laylas hairstyle never would have been an issue if not for a February incident at school in which Layla claimed her male teacher yanked her by her arm and she was scared of him, Tara told Fox News.

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As Layla has been reassigned teachers, her mom says that she no longer fears going to school and loves her new teacher.

However, the battle with the dress code is far from over.

I feel that the incident with Layla's previous teacher was the cause of her hair now being an issue. It's OK for other little boys to cut their hair in a similar style but not OK for her, Tara told Fox News. Or is it that because Layla and I spoke up about her previous teacher is this their way of 'getting us back'? I just dont understand why all of a sudden her hair is an issue.

Fresno School District did not immediately return Fox News request for comment.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Gun control is a contentious issue. It is one thing for a teacher to talk to his or her class about the issue, hopefully presenting both sides of the debate. But a rally on school property, featuring student speeches and attendance by school administrators and teachers, is something quite different.

My daughter is a junior in high school, and her high school participated in Wednesdays National School Walkout. On Monday the principal assured parents and students that the event wouldnt be political, that it would just be a memorial commemorating the 17 people murdered at a Parkland, Florida high school a month earlier.

With her peers jumping at the chance to get out of class, my daughter felt pressure to go. She figured it would be OK, given that the principal promised that the event would just be a memorial for the victims. If she were the only student not to skip class, her teacher wouldn't be able to go. Did she really want to be that lone student? What would her friends think and what might they infer about her political views?

The event turned political, with what appeared to be professionally written speeches mirroring the normal rhetoric that one hears from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergs Everytown for Gun Safety: that respect for the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution doesnt mean we cant have reasonable gun regulations.

Despite the principals promises, no administrator or teacher tried to interrupt the students political rants. My daughter guessed that the speeches had been pre-approved by the school.

The speeches called for background checks on private transfers of guns and banning of assault weapons such as the AR-15. There was no debate, no alternative perspective offered. Something had to be done to save lives, students were told. But nothing was said about removing gun-free zone signs or letting armed staff and teachers defend the students.

Despite the principals promises, no administrator or teacher tried to interrupt the students political rants. My daughter guessed that the speeches had been pre-approved by the school. One wonders how else schools let politics infect their classrooms.

But at least one polling company doesn't think students are particularly onboard with the gun control agenda.

"Young people statistically aren't that much different than anybody else, noted Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport just last month, after the attack in Florida.

You wouldnt have guessed it from the television coverage, but only about 3,000 schools participated out of some 24,000 public and 10,000 private high schools in the U.S. But the media likes giving the impression of nearly universal support for more gun control laws.

What concerned me even more was my daughters fear that I might mention her name or her school. It really bothers me that having certain political views that are held by a large percentage of Americans makes her fearful how others will react if they knew she had been uncomfortable with Wednesdays events.

The media regularly try to shame Americans into giving up guns. We see this when they selectively cover only those polls that show gun ownership is falling or when they claim that 90 percent of Americans support background checks on private transfers, even though gun opponents had a hard time breaking 50 percent of the vote when those initiatives were put on state ballots in 2016.

Just like with the students, if Americans who support peoples right to defend themselves with guns think that they are in a shrinking minority, they will keep their views to themselves.

At my daughters school  and from what I can tell from media reports at schools around the country  the National School Walkout didn't encourage students to think for themselves.

Instead, schools fell into the lockstep of political correctness to endorse one viewpoint on gun control and signaled to students what they should think. Those who disagreed with their peers' speeches would be made to feel out of place.

It was hard to watch the television coverage without getting the feeling that students were simply being used as political props. Parents, who have differing views on many issues, don't send their children to school to be pressured and manipulated in this way.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

When James Madison drafted the First Amendment -- Congress shall make no law  abridging the freedom of speech -- he made sure to use the article the in front of the word freedom. What seemed normal to him and superfluous to moderns was actually a profound signal that has resonated for 227 years. The signal was that because the freedom of speech existed before the government that was formed to protect it came into existence, it does not have its origins in government.

The freedom of speech has its origins in our humanity. It is a natural right. It exists in the absence of government. By the exercise of normal human reasoning, all rational people are drawn to exercise this freedom. Madison understood this. He could have written, Congress shall grant freedom of speech. He did not because that freedom is not Congress to grant or to abridge.

I am presenting this thumbnail sketch of the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the freedom of speech by way of background to a hot dispute now raging off the front pages. The dispute addresses whether the president of the United States can use federal courts to block the exercise of this right. CBS News wants to air an interview with an adult-film actress who alleges a sexual relationship with Donald Trump -- a relationship he denies -- and President Trump wants to prevent the airing.

The actress, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, signed an agreement in October 2016 to accept $130,000 in return for remaining silent about her alleged sexual relationship with Trump, which she claims occurred shortly after the birth of his son Barron, who is now almost 12. The lawyer who negotiated the agreement with Daniels lawyer claimed that he was doing this on his own, that the hush money came from him and not Trump, and that Trump was not his client.

That claim raises profound campaign finance issues, but they are not the point of this piece. The point of this piece is about the freedom of speech.

Daniels, whose present lawyers have sued to invalidate the agreement, recently gave an interview about her relationship with Trump to the CBS News program "60 Minutes." CBS plans to air that interview in the coming weeks, and Trump wants to prevent that from happening. The stated legal basis for Trumps lawyers asking a court to block the broadcast is the existence of the hush agreement, which, in plain words, bars Daniels from discussing anything about her alleged sexual relationship with Trump. Obviously, Trump does not want any allegations from Daniels -- true or false -- to become a topic of public conversation and a distraction to his presidency.

Can the president legally persuade a federal court to enjoin the airing of an interview? In a word: no. Here is the back story.

In 1931, in a famous case called Near v. Minnesota, the Supreme Court generally rejected the concept of prior restraint. Prior restraint is the use of the courts to prevent the media from disseminating materials they already have. The Near case dealt with an anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-African-American newspaper that Minnesota state courts had silenced. The Supreme Court overruled the state courts and held that the freedom of speech presumes that individuals will decide for themselves what to read and hear and the First Amendment keeps the government -- which here includes the courts -- from censoring the marketplace of ideas, even hateful ideas.

Forty years later, in the Pentagon Papers case, the Supreme Court made a similar ruling. There, Daniel Ellsberg, an employee of a contractor to the Department of Defense, stole highly classified documents that demonstrated that then-President Lyndon B. Johnson and his generals had knowingly deceived the American public about the war in Vietnam.

When Ellsberg gave the documents to The New York Times and The Washington Post, the Nixon administration hurriedly persuaded a federal judge in New York to enjoin the Times from publishing the documents. Before a federal judge in Washington could rule on a similar request -- and bypassing the intermediate appellate courts -- the Supreme Court took the case and ruled in favor of the freedom of speech and reinforced the judicial condemnation of prior restraint.

But the Pentagon Papers ruling went a step further than the Near opinion had. It ruled that no matter how a media outlet has acquired matters material to the public interest -- even by theft of top-secret documents -- the outlet is free to publish them. This, of course, does not absolve the thief (though the case against Ellsberg was dismissed because of FBI misconduct), but it makes clear that no court can block the media from revealing what they reasonably believe the public wants to hear.

Now back to the president and the adult-film star. Because whatever Daniels said to CBS arguably speaks to Trumps fitness for office, individuals have the right to learn of it, to hear Trumps denials and to form their own opinions. In Trumps case, he has a bigger megaphone than CBS does -- via his adroit use of social media -- and the volume and ferocity of his denials might carry the day.

But the point here is that individuals can make up their own minds about the presidents character; they don't have to endure the prior restraint of a court's silencing a voice in the debate, even a tawdry voice.

What if the hush money agreement Daniels signed -- and the president did not -- is valid? Could that trigger prior restraint? In a word: no. The Madisonian values underpinning the freedom of speech, as articulated consistently by the Supreme Court, will prevail. Anything short of that would prefer government censorship over personal choices in matters of speech, a preference the First Amendment profoundly rejects.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

The United Nations has once again lost its power to act. Russian President Vladimir Putin has brought back Cold War-era paralysis to the Security Council.

Putins determination to oppose the U.S. and its allies at the U.N. on almost every issue, large or small, means that virtually no meaningful resolution can pass. When a resolution does pass  as with the Security Council-mandated ceasefire in Syria  Putin simply ignores it if he chooses.

The West must come to terms with this new reality and accept that it will now have to act directly in its own interests  without the cover or support of the U.N.

For a while, things were different. The U.N. played an important role in several conflicts over the past three decades. Its resolutions authorized action in 1991 to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion. The U.N. then imposed a strong weapons inspections regime on Iraq, backed by the authorization to use military force, throughout the 1990s.

In addition, the U.N. imposed increasingly harsh sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, helping drive Tehran to accept the nuclear deal offered by the Obama administration in 2014. President Obama's wisdom or folly in signing that deal does not reduce the fact that U.N. sanctions hurt Iran badly enough to help force it to the table.

Those days are gone. The U.N.'s relative effectiveness depended on the willingness of Russia to support or at least accede to Western actions against former Russian clients (such as Iraq in 1990-1992) and potential allies (like Iran in 2006-10, when the sanctions regime expanded dramatically).

Putin has now taken a position of outright opposition to the West, however, and will no longer accept such actions. He will not permit the Security Council to punish his ally, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, for despicable war crimes against his own people. In fact, Russian air forces may well have collaborated in some of those war crimes.

Putin also will not allow the U.N. to pressure Iran to stop the expansion of its own military and proxy forces throughout the Middle East. And he will prevent the world body from taking meaningful action in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon that Iran deems harmful.

An example of this is Russias recent veto of an effort to condemn obvious Iranian violations of sanctions preventing weapons transfers to Yemen's Houthi rebel movement. This effectively removes the U.N. from a theater in which concerted international action is urgently needed. Millions are suffering as a result.

The U.N. has one tooth left with regard to Iran that Putin cannot easily remove  snap-back sanctions linked to the Iranian nuclear program. The Security Council resolution implementing the nuclear deal provides that sanctions automatically return if a signatory to the deal asserts that another party has violated it unless the Security Council passes a new resolution extending the sanctions relief.

Since the U.S. (as well as France and Britain) could veto any such resolution, Putin cannot prevent the reimposition of the full force of pre-deal international sanctions on Iran. This is a strong card the U.S. can threaten to play in addressing the nuclear deals many defects.

Russian aggression toward its own neighbors offers the clearest proof that the days of U.N. authority are gone. Putin invaded Georgia in 2008, has occupied and even annexed portions of it to the Russian Federation  and the U.N. took no meaningful action.

Putin invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine  and the U.N. took no meaningful action. Russia invaded and still supports militarily proxy forces in eastern Ukraine  and the U.N. took no meaningful action.

And Putin could invade the rest of Ukraine tomorrow, or the Baltics or any other state  and the U.N. would likely take no action because Putin would veto any effort to do otherwise.

The sooner Western leaders and elites come to terms with this reality, the better. The U.N. can no longer provide the legitimacy for action against aggression that many look for. It cannot effectively mediate disputes between permanent members of the Security Council. Its resolutions cannot be the litmus test for the legality of actions in defense of international norms or even law in most cases.

Those who oppose aggression and oppression must turn to their own interests and consciences to determine their actions. They must form their own coalitions and rely on their own strength. We can and should aspire to end the enmity that has created this situation, but we can have little hope of succeeding any time soon.

The weakening of the U.N. increases the need for strong alliances. NATO and the bilateral alliances America has with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and its other Asian partners become more vital than ever as the world order frays.

Collective action for the foreseeable future will mean alliance action, not U.N. action. The White House and leaders on both sides of the U.S. political aisle must make every effort now to strengthen and expand alliances rather than allowing economic, social or other disagreements to weaken them.

The worst possible situation for America is a world in which the U.N. is paralyzed and our allies alienated. The world does not need another impotent League of Nations and an isolated America.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

WASHINGTON -- There are many reasons Rex Tillerson's tenure as secretary of state was a failure, from his notorious isolation from his subordinates to his failure to help quickly staff the political appointment positions at State with competent Republicans. But it was his insubordination to the president that assured that he wouldn't be long in his position. With a summit with North Korea in the works, President Trump's decision to oust Tillerson and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo could not have come at a better moment.

Tillerson was completely out of step with Trump's hard-line stance on North Korea, which ultimately brought Kim Jong Un to the bargaining table. Instead, Tillerson's North Korea strategy seemed to be to beg Pyongyang for talks. Speaking at the Atlantic Council in December, Tillerson delivered this embarrassing plea: "Let's just meet. And we can talk about the weather if you want. ... But can we at least sit down and see each other face to face?" He might as well have added: "Pretty please, with sugar on top?"

Trump's critics were constantly griping that the president was undermining Tillerson's diplomatic efforts with North Korea, when in fact the opposite was true. Trump's strategy has been to achieve a peaceful solution by getting Kim to understand that the United States is ready to use force to stop him from deploying a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile capable of destroying an American city. This is the message Trump was trying to send during his address to the South Korean legislature, when he told Kim in no uncertain terms: "The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face."

By projecting weakness to Pyongyang, Tillerson was undercutting Trump's message of strength -- and thus making war more likely. The fact that Tillerson could not seem to grasp this or get on the same page as his commander in chief made his continued leadership of the State Department untenable.

Pompeo, by contrast, is in lockstep with Trump in sending Kim a clear message that, should diplomacy fail, the United States will not hesitate to act. "The president is intent on delivering this solution through diplomatic means," Pompeo told me during a recent conversation at the American Enterprise Institute. "We are equally, at the same time, ensuring that ... if we conclude that it is not possible, that we present the president with a range of options that can achieve what is his stated intention."

The failure to deliver those options is yet another reason Tillerson's tenure at State had to end. Tillerson was working with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to slow-walk the delivery of military options to the president, apparently out of fear that the president might actually act on them. According to The New York Times, after a conference call about North Korea organized by national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Tillerson stayed on the line with Mattis and, unaware the other participants were still listening, complained about a series of meetings the National Security Council had set up to consider military options -- "signs, Mr. Tillerson said, that [the NSC] was becoming overly aggressive."

No one elected Tillerson to make these decisions. They elected Trump. With Tillerson gone and Pompeo at State, McMaster will now have an ally at State who shares his belief that for Trump's warnings to North Korea to be credible, he must have well-developed and credible military options on the table.

As Trump put it, Tillerson had to go because "we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process." Having a trusted adviser at State will be critical to the success of the biggest diplomatic gamble of Trump's presidency: his upcoming talks with Kim.

At AEI, Pompeo told me that the CIA assesses that Kim is a rational actor -- which means that, given accurate information about the president's intentions, Kim should make a rational decision that will not lead to the destruction of his regime. "We're taking the real-world actions that we think will make [it] unmistakable to Kim Jong Un that we are intent on denuclearization," Pompeo said. "We're counting on the fact that he'll see it. We're confident that he will." With Pompeo in office, Trump now has a much better chance of getting that message across to the North Korean dictator.Middle Valley Church of God announced that Pastor Mitch McClure will speak on the topic, 'Let's Get A Little Closer' in the 10:30 a.m. service on Sunday, March 18 . This sermon is part of a sermon series titled 'Moving Towards Victory.' This series focuses attention to the reality that God wants to provide victory in the life of each and every Believer.

Pastor McClure will lead the church in a time of prayer and worship on Sunday, March 18, at 6:30 p.m.

Each Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Sunday school classes are available for all age groupings.

Pastor McClure will continue a new interactive Bible study on Wednesday, March 21 . This Bible study will be interactive and based on the book 'Paradigm' by Jonathan Cahn. The study will compare Biblical events and their patterns to patterns in our society today. The study will be held in the Administrative office building each Wednesday at 7 p.m. All are invited and encouraged to participate in any or all of these services.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Our military men and women are asked to make many sacrifices, but they have always had the right to worship freely. In fact, our service members have been able to turn to military chaplains for spiritual counsel since our nations fight for independence.

Nearly two-and-a-half centuries later, the role that our military chaplains fulfill could look drastically different than what Gen. George Washington envisioned when he created the Chaplain Corps. It has come to my attention that the Navy could soon appoint an atheist chaplain, directly defying the religious foundation upon which the Chaplain Corps is built.

I oppose the appointment of a secular-humanist chaplain, and I have formally requested that the secretary of the Navy and the chief of naval operations reject this application. I am not alone in my request. Twenty-two of my colleagues in the Senate have joined me in this effort.

The appointment of an atheist to an undeniably religious position is fundamentally incompatible with atheisms secularism. Our military chaplains serve under the motto for God and country. Atheism is defined by the absence of a belief in the existence of God.

No one is arguing that atheists do not have the same First Amendment rights of free expression as their neighbors of Christian, Jewish, Muslim or other faiths. This is not the subject of scrutiny. The central question here is how an atheist chaplain can be expected to fulfill a role that, by its very nature, is supposed to serve the religious needs of our service members.

According to Department of Defense guidelines, a religious ministry professional is an individual endorsed to represent a religious organization and to conduct its religious observances or ceremonies. Those who seek to become military chaplains require approval from their denomination or religious organization.

The appointment of an atheist to an undeniably religious position is fundamentally incompatible with atheisms secularism. Our military chaplains serve under the motto for God and country. Atheism is defined by the absence of a belief in the existence of God.

This persons application has already cleared the Navy Chaplain advisory board, putting it one step closer to being approved. Should this impending appointment of an atheist chaplain be made, it would put the very integrity of the Chaplain Corps religious mission at stake.

I hope our Navy leaders recognize that it is well within their authority to create programs outside of the Chaplain Corps to serve humanist or atheist service members. However, allowing a non-religious worldview to be represented among the Chaplain Corps would set a dangerous precedent for the military.

What is to stop future demands for other philosophical preferences to be included in the Chaplain Corps as well?

Todays Chaplain Corps includes leaders from a wide spectrum of faiths. None of these faiths challenge the religious purpose of the Chaplain Corps or the calling of these men and women to serve our troops. This service to God and to our nation, as the Corps motto describes, should not be trivialized.

Military chaplains have earned some of our countrys highest honors, including the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart.

We cannot overlook the many contributions that military chaplains make to support the First Amendment freedoms of our service members and their overall well-being.

The identity of the long-established Chaplain Corps should not be changed for what appears to be a decision based on political correctness. The religious duty of these men and women was apparent before our nations founding and continues to be true today.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Woe are the Democrats. For generations now, theyve been telling the American people that only they, and their cohort of liberals and leftists, understand and truly value women. Because of their special understanding of women, only they can be trusted to do whats right politically for them, they tell us.

Then came Hillary Clinton pulling the curtain back on that dangerously false narrative. At a speech in Mumbai, India, the twice-failed presidential candidate blamed her loss on mindless women who do as their husbands tell them.

Again contemplating why she lost the 2016 presidential race, Mrs. Clinton blamed certain women for not thinking for themselves.

We dont do well with married, white women, she said, because of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should, Mrs. Clinton told the audience.

Its obvious from the last election that the Democrats also didnt do well with married, white men. Yet, Mrs. Clinton doesnt argue that it was Republican women bullying and pressuring their husbands into voting a certain way.

In other words, the leading liberal feminist in the country is pushing the ironic narrative that if youre a woman who does not conform to the liberal narrative, you have no mind of your own and are controlled by the men in your life.

Yet its conservatives who are sexist and reliant on perpetuating gender stereotypes. Got it.

Having come from the left, one of the most constant and appalling demonstrations of sexism in the feminist movement was the degrading and dehumanizing of women with whom liberal feminists disagreed.

One of the most famous public illustrations of this is brought to us by Gloria Steinem, an icon of the modern feminist movement. In 1993, Ms. Steinem declared that then-Senate candidate from Texas Kay Bailey Hutchison was a female impersonator  someone who looks like us but thinks like them, reported the Orange County Register at the time.

Publicly declared from on high by the Supreme Feminist for All Women: You are not a woman at all if you dont think like us.

When this columnist was within the feminist establishment in the 1990s, Ms. Steinems remarks reflected an attitude that was standard operating procedure. Heck, maybe Hillary thought she was doing women who dont fall in line a favor by accusing them of simply being dumb pawns, instead of stripping them of their womanhood entirely.

One of the biggest threats to the liberal feminist movement was for women to see there was a different way to think about the issues, better ways to think about policy and politics. This is why women who do not conform remain such a threat to the liberal status quo.

Knowing what Mrs. Clinton exposes about the inherent sexism on the left, even her allies expressed dismay at the comments. FoxNews.com reported, Clintons former 2008 presidential campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle didnt defend her remarks. Look this was bad. I cant sugarcoat it, Solis Doyle said on HLN this week. She was wrong and clearly its not helpful to Democrats going into the midterms and certainly not going into 2020. 

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is up for re-election, come the midterms in November, in a state Trump won by 19 points, [noted], Those are kind of fighting words for me, because Im partial to Missouri voters, McCaskill told The Washington Post. I think they were expressing their frustration with the status quo,  Fox News reported.

The Washington Examiner noted, What if the notion that womens votes somehow belong to Democrats by default was always the product of leftist self-delusion and nothing more? What if these women voted for Trump of their own accord, in part because like many of the people who actually did vote for her, they were turned off by Clintons obvious and easily detectable insincerity and inauthenticity?

And Liz Peek, a writer and frequent guest on Fox Business and Fox News tweeted: Hillary is supposed to be supportive of women but secretly she thinks they are cowed by husbands & bosses  shame on her. She cant imagine women didnt support her  thats the biggest sign they actually think for themselves.

Hillary Clinton is turning out to be a touchstone for our time, just not in the way she expected. She reminds us almost every day that the left exercises a sexism that this nation has rejected. It also reminds us of the importance of a genuine advocacy for women in this country that instead of punishing women for thinking for themselves, we value and elevate all women, making sure theyre free to make choices that best suit them.

This column originally appeared in The Washington Times.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

U.S. sanctions imposed Thursday on Russian individuals and organizations are a clear sign that President Trump will not tolerate Russian behavior that we would expect from outlaw states like Iran and North Korea. More sanctions will be warranted if Moscow continues its present course.

It seems clear that President Trump had a goal in mind when he developed his administrations approach to dealing with Russia: hold out the prospect of better ties to ensure a lessening of tensions in places like the Baltics, Ukraine and Syria  and perhaps to get cooperation on important issues like terrorism.

I always supported such a plan, since the payoff was obvious. Considering the geopolitical problems America faces across the globe  North Koreas nukes, Chinas challenge in the Asia-Pacific, and an Iran that will stop at nothing to dominate the Middle East  it certainly seemed like smart diplomacy for the president to try to reduce the chances of a second Cold War with Russia.

However, thanks to Russias clear attempt to meddle in our elections, constant troublemaking in Ukraine and Syria, and now a chemical weapons attack on British soil, another attempted reset of U.S.-Russian relations is impossible  perhaps even downright foolish.

Going forward, Russia should be seen as a rogue nation and should be treated accordingly.

To be fair, it always seemed like a confrontation with Russia was in the offing, but thankfully delayed. But now President Trump is learning the hardest of hard lessons: Americas and Russias national interests have diverged to such an extent that a rapprochement, at least for the time being, is clearly not possible.

What happens next is what counts. Moscow is already angry over past sanctions that have squeezed its economy. President Vladimir Putin will certainly look to strike back in some way. We should remember that Russia has many ways to respond in an asymmetric fashion that Washington must be on the watch for.

For example, Moscow could increase its support for separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. And considering Russia has not responded to Americas decision to arm the Ukrainian military with offensive weapons  and specifically anti-tank systems that could prove quite effective  this could be the moment that Moscow decides to surge its support to separatists by sending back in those little green men (disguised Russian troops) to sow more chaos.

Then there is the Syrian civil war. Since Russias support of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad tipped the scales in this brutal conflict, we should not be surprised if Moscow decides to respond in some way here.

With U.S. and Russian warplanes sometimes sharing the skies of Syria, we cant rule out a show of force by Moscow. This could include closely tailing U.S. fighter jets in displays of strength or even shooting down U.S. surveillance drones.

Considering the stakes in Syria  with Russia recently warning America that if its forces ever came under attack by Washington it would respond militarily  this is one flashpoint we must watch carefully.

And then there is North Korea. Senior Pentagon and intelligence officials I have spoken with over the last few months have always feared that if U.S.-Russia relations ever hit a breaking point, the first move Putin would make would be to fully back the North Koreans in their confrontation with Washington.

Putin might decide to help North Korea break the sanctions regime Russia has supported by taking actions such as ramping up efforts to supply the North with oil and natural gas, and even helping Pyongyang launder funds.

Moscow could even go as far as giving North Korea advanced weapons platforms like air defense assets. If that were to happen, Pyongyang would have a powerful weapon to shoot down U.S. or allied forces in the skies if war ever did come to the Korean Peninsula, raising the stakes dramatically.

We should also not discount Russias ability to wreak havoc using cyber means. Considering the midterm elections coming up in November, we should make sure we are ready for another effort by Moscow to sow discord in our democracy. Russia could manipulate trends on social media by using bots on Twitter to hype negative stories and could help disseminate fake news across the Internet.

Thanks to a combination of history, geopolitics, diverging national interests and horrific timing, Russia and America are back at each others throats once more. And considering the fact that both nations hold in their possession thousands of nuclear weapons, one can only hope that this latest breakdown in the U.S.-Russia relationship is not the start of much bigger problems to come.President Trump could be making more changes to his Cabinet this week in the wake of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's firing, multiple sources told Fox News on Wednesday evening.

The potential changes include the departure of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and his replacement by John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Other departures from the administration would include Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Chief of Staff John Kelly.

The sources have cautioned that Trump will make the ultimate decision about all staff changes. However, the departure of McMaster has been described by multiple sources as "imminent."

Kelly would be replaced as chief of staff by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, the sources said, with Energy Secretary Rick Perry replacing Shulkin at the VA. Ray Washburne, the chairman of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, would replace Perry as energy secretary.

After announcing Tillerson's dismissal on Twitter Tuesday, Trump himself hinted that more changes might be forthcoming.

"I've gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year," Trump told reporters at the White House, "and I'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want."

Trump has had a turbulent relationship with many members of his Cabinet. Last summer he began publicly bashing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former close adviser who was the first senator to back his campaign.

Trump has used the words "beleaguered" and "disgraceful" to describe Sessions, who only recently stood up to the president and defended his decision to recuse himself from the inquiry into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. Earlier Wednesday, Vanity Fair reported that Trump has discussed firing Sessions and replacing him with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Tillerson also frequently clashed with Trump, who never forgave the outgoing secretary of state for reportedly calling him "a moron" last summer after grumbling that the president had no grasp of foreign affairs.

Trump's esteem for the Cabinet has faded in recent months, The AP reported, citing two White House officials and two outside advisers. He also told confidants that he was in the midst of making changes to improve personnel and, according to one person who spoke with him, "get rid of the dead weight"  which could put a number of embattled Cabinet secretaries on notice.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke underwent questioning Tuesday by Senate Democrats, who accused him of spending tens of thousands of dollars on office renovations and private flights while proposing deep cuts to conservation programs. Zinke pushed back, saying he "never took a private jet anywhere"  because all three flights he had taken on private planes as secretary were on aircraft with propellers, not jet engines.

Shulkin's days at the VA may be numbered after a bruising internal report found ethics violations in connection with his trip to Europe with his wife last summer, according to senior administration officials. He also has faced a potential mutiny from his own staff: 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.

Perry, after a Senate hearing Wednesday, said he was not interested in changing jobs, adding "I am energy secretary from now until the forseeable future. Happily."

Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.In the wake of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting attack that left 17 dead and another 17 wounded, Florida, a broad patchwork of state-level efforts to reform gun laws have gained momentum across the nation.

Interactive Map: State-level gun reform legislation

A bevy of bills could broadly redefine gun laws across America. Click on your state below to see the latest proposed gun legislation. (Mobile users: Click here to view the map).

In total, 35 states are considering bills that would alter their gun laws. Most of them would expand regulations on firearms, although a few would loosen them. More than 100 bills that would directly impact gun laws have been introduced in the current legislative session. At least a dozen have been proposed in the weeks following the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last month.

This year, there have been 49 "mass shootings" in the United States through February, leaving 50 dead and another 64 injured, according to data compiled by Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced site that counts in its tally any shooting that leaves two or more people wounded or killed.

In the Parkland attack, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a troubled and mentally ill former student, shot up the school with a legally purchased AR-15.

Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who survived the Parkland massacre, has become a vocal challenger of lawmakers who support a gun rights agenda.

Every politician should get the message that if they keep being the NRAs puppets, then theyll never get elected again, Kasky told Fox News. This is not an attack on the second amendment. This is simply a discussion about making buying a weapon of war something that isnt so easy.  If thats too much to ask then this isnt a democracy.

Kasky and fellow students - including Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg - have been thrust into the national spotlight since the Feb. 14 attack, calling for new gun control measures. On Wednesday, many students took part in a nationwide "walkout" aimed at honoring the Parkland victims and pressing Congress.

Gun rights advocates are quick to note that Cruz had been flagged by law enforcement numerous times throughout his childhood. More recently, the FBI failed to act on at least two tips specifically warning that Cruz could shoot up a school. Many gun rights groups believe the answer to school safety lies in stationing more cops in buildings and even arming trianed and willing teachers.

The tragedy has become a flashpoint for reform advocates across the country. Kris Brown, who runs one of the longest-standing gun control groups in the nation, said the Brady Campaign has been working with lawmakers to amend gun laws in the wake of the shooting.

We have chapters across the country and have been very active in educating legislatures in appropriate gun policy and seeking to advance enacting of laws, Brown said.

Since Feb. 14, she said the Brady Campaign  named after Ronald Reagans press secretary James Brady, who was seriously wounded in a presidential assassination attempt - has had 16 new chapters spring up and its social media engagement is up by 5,000 percent.

However, the implications of the Parkland massacre go beyond momentum within her organization; shes seen politicians capitulate on their previously staunch pro-gun stances in the days after the shooting. This reported capitulation is lending momentum to legislative efforts to reform gun laws.

[Florida Gov.] Rick Scott is a big example of that, Brown said. He is undoubtedly running for Senate, and hes usually gone along with everything the NRA has done.

Scott recently signed a surprisingly progressive plan in the weeks following the Parkland shooting. The comprehensive bill will raise the age to purchase firearms to 21 years old, ban bump stocks, create a waiting period of three days to purchase a weapons, arm school employees and allocate millions to fund school security. The bill is a sharp departure from the National Rifle Associations agenda, with which Scott has consistently sided over the years.

But the effect the Parkland shooting appears to have on reform isnt a foregone conclusion to gun rights advocates like Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation.

I cant say that it has had a major impact on it, he said. Of course, in light of any of those tragic instances, somebody will pass a law thats unconstitutional and we will challenge that.

Gottlieb said his organization will mount legal challenges to any law that they believe violates Second Amendment rights, provided there is a plaintiff. Considering the groundswell of support for assault weapon bans or laws to raise the age to purchase a firearm to 21 years old, this may become an onerous task.

There may be common ground between gun-control activists like Kasky and gun-rights advocates when it comes to common sense reforms. Gottliebs group would support extreme risk protection orders, laws that generally mean a persons firearms can be taken away if theyre a risk to themselves or others  as long as due process is built in. There are currently 27 bill in state legislatures across the nation that would, in some capacity, remove firearms from dangerous people.

The urgency of the gun-control movement has been amplified by the voices of the students who survived the Parkland shooting. Their advocacy has sparked wildfire conversation about legislative reform, and state lawmakers are taking notice.

Theyre mad as hell and theyre not going to take it anymore, Brown said. I think the difference is theyve really sparked something in the youth movement and kids across the country are getting up and walking out and demanding change in record numbers.

Map: U.S. states by Flourish teamBoundaries come from the U.S. Census Bureaus cartographic boundary shapefiles, 2016 edition https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/tiger-cart-boundary.html. Points data comes from the GeoNames dataset of cities with populations of above 150,000, http://www.geonames.org/export/.Four Republican senators are calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate the Department of Justice and FBIs actions in the Russia probe before Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over.

In a letter sent Thursday to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the lawmakers wrote that a special counsel is needed to work with the inspector general to independently gather the facts and make prosecutorial decisions, if any are merited.

The four senators are Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa; South Carolina's Lindsey Graham; Texas' John Cornyn; and North Carolina's Thom Tillis.

The senators also released a version of Grassley and Grahams criminal referral earlier this year for Christopher Steele -- the ex-British spy and author of the infamous Trump dossier -- revealing for the first time the basis for the referral.

The senators say that Steele materially misled the FBI by saying he only shared the information in the dossier with business associate Fusion GPS and the FBI, when in fact he was providing information to the news media.

Thus the basis for the warrant authorizing surveillance on a U.S. citizen rests largely on Mr. Steeles credibility, the referral states. The Department of Justice has a responsibility to determine whether Mr. Steele provided false information to the FBI and whether the FBIs representations to the court were in error.

The senators wrote that in light of sworn statements by Mr. Steele in British litigation, it appears that either Mr. Steele lied to the FBI or the British court, or that the classified documents reviewed by the committee contain materially false statements.

The senators also released a February letter from Grassley and Graham to the Justice Departments inspector general asking that he investigate the DOJ and FBIs request for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, Act warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

In that letter, they ask the inspector general to review potential improprieties in the FBIs relationship with Steele, the author of the infamous, unverified dossier used to obtain the Page warrant.

They also ask that the relationship between DOJ official Bruce Ohr and Steele, the disclosure of classified information to the press and the investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn be examined.

We have the utmost confidence in the inspector generals integrity, fairness and impartiality, and trust that he will complete these reviews in a thorough, unbiased, and timely fashion, the senators wrote in Thursdays letter. However, by statute, the inspector general does not have the tools that a prosecutor would to gather all the facts, such as the ability to obtain testimony from essential witnesses who are not current DOJ employees.

Calling for another special counsel, the senators argue: The Justice Department cannot credibly investigate itself without these enhanced measures of independence to ensure that the public can have confidence in the outcome.

Reacting to the letter, Page told Fox News: My central concern remains that the U.S. Government completes essential repairs, following the damage done to America's national security and justice system amidst Washingtons interference in the 2016 election. I remain cautiously optimistic that further disclosure of the facts will help achieve that strategic objective.

Pamela K. Browne contributed to this report.The Department of Justices inspector general could soon release his expected explosive report detailing a more than yearlong review of the FBI and DOJs Hillary Clinton investigation  an effort that has already put top FBI official Andrew McCabe and his pension in jeopardy.

Over the last year, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been reviewing the FBI and DOJs actions related to its investigation into Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Horowitz has told lawmakers he is aiming to release the report in the March, April time period.

On Wednesday, fresh evidence emerged that Horowitz may be winding down his efforts. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering firing McCabe over the findings in Horowitzs review, sources said.

According to the New York Times, Horowitz concludes in his report that McCabe was not forthcoming during the review, which included an examination of McCabe allowing FBI officials to speak with reporters about the investigation into the Clintons.

The FBIs Office of Professional Responsibility recommended that Sessions fire McCabe. If McCabe is fired this week, it could deprive the outgoing deputy director of pension benefits.

McCabes pension kicks in on Sunday, his 50th birthday, so the termination would have to be done by close of business on Friday to stop it.

The Department follows a prescribed process by which an employee may be terminated, DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process.

SESSIONS MULLING FIRING FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR ANDREW MCCABE BEFORE HE RETIRES

Horowitzs investigation is looking at a variety of allegations, including whether it was improper for former FBI Director James Comey to make a public announcement about not recommending prosecution over the Clinton email arrangement.

Horowitz also is reviewing whether McCabe should have recused himself from the probe early because of his familys ties to the Democratic Party. (He did not do so until a week before the election.)

McCabes wife ran as a Democrat for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015, and she received donations from the super PAC of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton ally.

In November, Horowitz said his team has interviewed dozens of people and had reviewed about 1.2 million records in the course of its investigation. But he acknowledged during a congressional hearing last year the classified information involved and necessary security clearances have slowed the process.

Horowitz said his team would look at whether certain underlying investigative decisions were based on improper considerations.

The review is also looking at whether the Justice Departments assistant attorney general for legislative affairs improperly disclosed non-public information to the Clinton campaign and should have been recused. Thats in reference to official Peter Kadzik, who had been an attorney in the past for Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

Horowitz said the review is looking at whether any DOJ or FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public information.

The review has already made a splash.

The inspector generals review uncovered the anti-Trump texts from FBI official Peter Strzok, who called Trump an idiot and texted about an insurance policy against a Trump presidency.

Strzok had been assigned to Robert Muellers special counsel probe, but has since been reassigned.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.The National Endowment for the Arts is pouring tens of thousands of dollars into left-wing art projects including plays about transgenderism and even one award to Rosie ODonnells theater group -- after the celebrity repeatedly slammed the president.

The NEAs first $25 million of grants, first reported by The Washington Free Beacon, includes big bucks to a range of liberal projects.



The Mixed Blood Theatre Company in Minneapolis gets $40,000 to support a play series of new trans theater works. The plays featured on its website include Mermaid Hour: Remixed about exploring the gender continuum through the prism of a pre-pubescent transgender biracial girl."



'Judging by the latest welfare beneficiaries, those elites' tastes remain as degraded as ever, eschewing the good, the beautiful and the true--and anything timeless and transcendent--in favor of soul-killing PC claptrap.'  Sohrab Ahmari

Working class parents Pilar and Bird face the cracks in their marriage, their opposing parenting styles, and their fears as they negotiate their daughters gender transition. Meanwhile, she navigates puberty, her first crush, and the possibility that YouTube holds all the answers, the blurb for the play says.



The Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles picked up a $10,000 grant for a national tour of a new work to deliver a message of acceptance for young people.



Meanwhile Feminist Press in New York, got a $30,000 grant to support the publication and promotion of fiction books. Feminist Press recently published and promoted a volume on Radical Reproductive Justice as well as Johnny Would You Love Me if My D--k Were Bigger.



Hes a slut. He's a nerd. Hes a waiter, bored at work. This is his diary, the promo for the book says.



Additionally, Rosies Theater Kids, founded by ODonnell, was granted $30,000 to back a summer and after-school musical theater training program for young people. ODonnell and President Trump have publicly feuded for years and ODonnell has recently started selling T-Shirts calling Trump a "Rapist, Cheat, Liar, Racist, Con Man, A--hole."



InterAct Inc., meanwhile, received a grant for $10,000 to promote the play Sensitive Guys, which the Free Beacon reports involves female and gender-non-conforming actors [playing] men who like to sit around and discuss male privilege. It notes that it also benefits from the Minneapolis trans theater works grant.



The theater describes the play as a "social satire" on "complicity" and "what it really takes to face the patriarchy."

The New York Theatre Workshop was given a $40,000 grant to support the production of An Ordinary Muslim. This play focuses on a Muslim couple in London and says we will all be forced to confront pressing questions about the nature of belonging and our own internal prejudices about that which is other.



"These NEA-supported projects are good examples of how the arts build stronger and more vibrant communities, improve well-being, prepare our children to succeed, and increase the quality of our lives," said NEA chairman Jane Chu announcing the grants. "At the National Endowment for the Arts, we believe that all people should have access to the joy, opportunities, and connections the arts bring."

But some conservative critics werent impressed by the identity-politics theme of some of the grants.

"NEA grants are a form of welfare for cultural elites, as a Heritage Foundation report famously put it two decades ago," said Sohrab Ahmari, a senior writer at Commentary magazine and the author of the 2016 book "The New Philistines: How Identity Politics Disfigure the Arts."

"Judging by the latest welfare beneficiaries, those elites' tastes remain as degraded as ever, eschewing the good, the beautiful and the true--and anything timeless and transcendent--in favor of soul-killing PC claptrap," he said.

The Democrats are gearing up for the midterms, emboldened by the apparent razor-thin win by Conor Lamb in a Pittsburgh-area district that Donald Trump carried by 20 points.

And they are starting to maneuver for 2020, with the likes of Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Terry McAuliffe and others maneuvering to take the party past Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

And yet, again, here comes Hillary Clinton.

And some Democratic lawmakers are distancing themselves from her latest remarks.

Which, not to put too fine a point on it, takes us back to one of the worst moments of her campaign, going after the deplorables.

It's one thing to attack Trump, the man who beat her in the Electoral College. It's another to denigrate his voters.

Here she is at a conference in Mumbai, talking about how she won the coasts but lost the "middle" of the country:

"I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward," Clinton said. "And his whole campaign  'Make America Great Again'  was looking backward. 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. Whatever your problem is, I'm going to solve it."

Let's unpack that for a minute. Trump voters were looking backward. They don't want black people to have rights. They don't want women getting jobs.

Really? Does Clinton not have a sense of how condescendingly awful that sounds?

Does she believe that's why she lost Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? Not that Trump appealed to struggling working-class voters, but that his supporters resent women, blacks and legal immigrants?

There was more. Clinton suggested white women voted for Trump because of "ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should."

Seriously? While that may have happened in certain instances, does the first female presidential nominee of a major party believe that women are that ... subservient? I sure don't.

Hillary's party is not happy with this latest flashback.

"Even the staunchest Clinton allies as well as longtime advisers say the comments were cringeworthy and ultimately detrimental to Democrats," says The Hill.

Missouris Claire McCaskill told the Washington Post these were "fighting words":

"I think they were expressing their frustration with the status quo. I may not have agreed with their choice, but I certainly respect them. And I dont think that's the way you should talk about any voter, especially ones in my state."

Ohio's Sherrod Brown told the Huffington Post: "I don't really care what she said. I just think that that's not helpful."

Hillary Clinton is entitled to say whatever she wants. She doesn't have to quiet down just because shes frustrating other Democrats.

But this is an unfortunate throwback to the comments she made in the fall of 2016:

"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobicyou name it."

That led some Trump backers to proudly identify themselves as deplorables.

Hillary Clinton blew a winnable election, but she did win the popular vote. Does she want to be remembered for disdaining the middle of the country?The pastor and men of Second Missionary Baptist Church invite Chattanooga and surrounding community to attend the 73rd Annual Mens Day this Sunday at 10:45 a.m., following Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. and the 8 a.m. morning service.

The guest speaker will be the Rev. Dr. Ken L. Ellis, pastor of Northeast Community Church of Norcross, Ga. "Dr. Ellis is a preacher and a teacher who takes seriously the mandate from Jesus Christ 'to go and make disciples,'" officials said.

In addition to his pastorate, Dr. Ellis serves as the clinical chaplain at Phillips State Prison, Georgia Department of Corrections and as an associate professor of Christian Ministry for New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.



Dr. Ellis has served on various committees and study groups dealing with cultural diversity issues, criminal justice and mens ministries. His tenure includes serving as team leader of People Group Evangelism, North American Mission Board; senior chaplain, Federal Bureau of Prisons and minister of education at Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church, Chicago, Il. He is a member of the Georgia Governors Office of Transition and Reentry.



Inspirational music for mens day will be provided by guest vocalist Curtis Drake, Jr., from Olivet Baptist Church and by the special mens day choir, under the direction of music coordinator Paula Coleman.

"The men of Second look forward to seeing you, your family and friends, joining in celebration of 'Staying True to Gods Word,' using Matthew 7:24, while donning a traditional black and white color theme," officials said.

Deacon George Watkins is chairman of the celebration. Rev. Dr. Ernest L. Reid, Jr. is pastor of Second and will bring the 8 a.m. Hour of Power message. The church is located in Chattanooga at 2305 E. Third St. For more information call the church office at 423-624-9097.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.Economic analyst Larry Kudlow has accepted President Trumps offer to become White House National Economic Council director, Fox News has learned.

Kudlow, a 70-year-old conservative commentator, is replacing Gary Cohn who resigned earlier in March. Kudlow told The Associated Press that while he opposes tariffs, he is still in accord with Trumps policies.

In a tweet announcing his selection of Kudlow, Trump said: "Our Country will have many years of Great Economic & Financial Success, with low taxes, unparalleled innovation, fair trade and an ever expanding labor force leading the way."

Read on for a look at Kudlow's background and experience.

Hes a CNBC contributor and commentator

Kudlow has long been a respected business and economics commentator, getting his own CNBC show in 2011. Since then, hes hosted a variety of shows on the network, including: The Kudlow Report and Kudlow & Cramer.

Hes remained with the business news channel as a contributor, colleague and friend to many at the network.

It was on CNBC that Kudlow gained a high-profile platform for explaining, defending and  at times  faulting Trump's economic agenda.

Kudlow has also contributed to the conservative National Review.

Kudlow worked in the Reagan administration

During former President Ronald Reagans first term, Kudlow served as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In a 2016 book that he co-wrote, Kudlow argued former President John F. Kennedys tax cuts had boosted the countrys economic growth. The book, "JFK and the Reagan Revolution," asserted that Reagan's 1980s tax cuts followed the same template.

When Trump's own tax cuts ran into resistance over the higher budget deficits that would result, Kudlow downplayed the risks of debt. He argued on CNBC that Reagan ran even higher deficits to finance tax cuts and military spending  a formula that Kudlow contends helped accelerate growth.

He was a chief economist for a Wall Street firm

Kudlows career began on Wall Street, where he worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Eventually, Kudlow became the chief economist for Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns. The firm was, at the time, a small upstart, according to a profile in the Rochester Review.

During the 2016 election, Kudlow served as an informal adviser to Trump. Hes since praised Trumps tax plan and immigration reform.

Hes battled addiction

Kudlow took a month off from Bear Stearns to enter drug rehab, he told The New York Times in a 1994 interview.

I am willing to share with you my problem, Kudlow said then, adding that he takes full personal responsibility.

His commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings was reportedly a contributing factor in why he ultimately ruled out a Connecticut Senate bid in 2016.

The thought that politics would interfere with my participation in AA, which is a huge part of my life, I just cant take that risk, he told the New York Post in February 2016. This is the hardest decision Ive ever had to make. It took a while, but I made the right decision.

Kudlow has a history degree

Kudlow graduated from the University of Rochester in New York in 1969 with a history degree.

While in college, Kudlow joined the Students for a Democratic Society and became an anti-war organizer, according to The Times. He even traded in his Porsche for a Volkswagen bus, the newspaper reported.

According to The Times, Kudlow avoided the Vietnam War draft because he had asthma.

Kudlow started a masters program in economics and policy at Princeton University, but ultimately never completed it.

He was a Democrat

Kudlow worked on Democratic campaigns in New York following his college graduation. But hes since evolved into a Republican.

If he had entered the Connecticut Senate race, he would have challenged Democratic incumbent Richard Blumenthal as a Republican.

Kudlow sticks to his suits

Known for often wearing pinstriped suits, Kudlow has had the same tailor for 26 years.

Savile Row-trained, New York-based tailor, Leonard Logsdail is credited with consistently styling Kudlow in his narrow-lapelled suits.

Fox News Blake Burman, John Roberts, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.In March 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after a historic 340-day stint on the International Space Station a changed man  his time in orbit had altered part of his DNA.

During his time on the ISS, Scott took part in a study with his twin brother Mark back on Earth. Scientists studied the differences between Scott and Mark, who was also an astronaut at the time. The brothers provided blood, saliva and urine samples, underwent ultrasounds and bone scans, got flu shots and more, all in the name of science.

Researchers recently confirmed the studys preliminary findings, which revealed that part of Scotts genetic makeup actually changed during his year on the orbiting space lab.

ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY: MY INCREDIBLE YEAR IN SPACE AND THE 'CRAZY RIDE' BACK TO EARTH

In particular, scientists highlighted the presence of the so-called space gene in Kelly. Researchers now know that 93 percent of Scotts genes returned to normal after landing, the space agency, explained, in a statement. However, the remaining 7 percent point to possible longer term changes in genes related to his immune system, DNA repair, bone formation networks, hypoxia, and hypercapnia.

Hypoxia refers to an oxygen deficiency in the bodys tissues, and can result in organ damage; hypercapnia is excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream and can harm the respiratory system.

Scientists noted that spaceflight is associated with oxygen deprivation stress, increased inflammation, and dramatic nutrient shifts that affect genes.

ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY: HOW I WENT FROM BAD STUDENT TO SPACE STAR

During a recent interview with Fox News, Scott Kelly explained that his microbiome, the bacteria that live inside the human body, also altered dramatically during his year in space. Mine is completely different to my brothers  mine, of course, is better than his, he quipped.

Scientists also identified significant changes in the telomeres found at the ends of the chromosomes in Scott Kellys white blood cells.

The telomeres are the things that are in our chromosomes that are indications of our physical age, so as we age, they get shorter  mine got longer in space, he told Fox News. So it was a little bit like the fountain of youth  unfortunately when I got back down to Earth they went back down to where they were.

ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY BACK ON EARTH AFTER YEARLONG SPACE MISSION

In their research, the scientists reported that most of Kellys telomeres shortened within two days of his return to Earth.

Like other astronauts, Kelly also experienced a temporary height gain in space.

Ten research groups across the U.S. were involved in the Twins Study. Their findings are extremely useful for NASAs Human Research Program, which aims to keep astronauts safe and healthy in space.

ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY: I COULD HAVE SPENT LONGER IN SPACE

Organizations involved in the Twins Study include Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the University of California.

Kellys year in space is an important stepping stone for the longer missions required to reach Mars. The space agencys goal is to send a manned mission into low orbit around the Red Planet in the 2030s. However, the epic roundtrip journey could take 2-years and scientists are keen to weigh the potential impact of long-term missions on astronauts bodies and minds. Exposure to radiation will also pose a risk to astronauts on Mars missions.

The first American to spend 12 consecutive months in orbit, Kelly spent a total 520 days in space during his NASA career. He retired from the space agency in 2016.

Update: An earlier version of this story said that part of Scott Kelly's DNA had been permanently altered and he was no longer an identical twin, citing NASA's Jan. 31 2018 statement. NASA updated the statement on March 15 to confirm that the Kelly brothers are still identical twins and clarify details of the DNA alterations.

"Mark and Scott Kelly are still identical twins; Scotts DNA did not fundamentally change," it wrote. "What researchers did observe are changes in gene expression, which is how your body reacts to your environment. This likely is within the range for humans under stress, such as mountain climbing or SCUBA diving.

"The change related to only 7 percent of the gene expression that changed during spaceflight that had not returned to preflight after six months on Earth," it added. "This change of gene expression is very minimal."

The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersA Texas state representative came under fire on social media Wednesday over a tweet about famed British physicist Stephen Hawking that some found insensitive.

Just hours after Hawking died, Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican, tweeted: Stephen Hawking now knows the truth about how the universe was actually made. My condolences to his family." Hawking died Wednesday at age 76.

The tweet was seen by some as mocking the world-renowned physicists lifelong work to find the origins of the universe and the fact that he was an atheist.

What an embarrassment you are. Trolling someone at the time of their death is a sign of weakness no matter how you feel about them. You are a jerk," one user tweeted.

Some called on his removal from the Texas House.

At a time like this, and I dont care who it is, and I am sure they care less who you are, but mocking the deceased and his family reveals the smallness of your character. Be better than that, tweeted Rep. Alfonso "Poncho" Nevarez, D-Eagle Pass.

Hawking was known for rejecting the explanation of that a Creator  or God  created the universe.

Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist, the physicist wrote in his book, The Grand Design. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation, Hawking said in an interview with Spanish publication El Mundo. What I meant by We would know the mind of God is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isnt. Im an atheist.

But despite the overwhelming criticism, the lawmaker remained defiant and stood behind his comment.

While many see him as one of the greatest public intellectuals of the last century, and no one disputes that he was brilliant, the fact remains that God exists, Cain told the American-Statesman. My tweet was to show the gravity of the Gospel and what happens when we die, namely, that we all will one day meet the Creator of the universe face to face.

Stephen Hawking was a vocal atheist, who advocated against and openly mocked God, Cain continued. Hawking has said, '[T]here is no god. No one created our universe, and no one directs our fate. And, elsewhere, `Im an atheist.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.

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.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Method of Killing Questioned in Florida Iguana CullLocals have been shocked after something completely unexpected washed up on the beach.

A cow carcass was found on South Mission Beach by Katters Australia Party Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter MP.

Its thought the animal died during the flooding event in North Queensland, Australia and was washed out to sea. It then ended up on the beach which is popular with tourists.

Mr. Katter was with the member for Hill Shane Knuth, visiting the South Mission Beach Surf Club when they made the unexpected find.

Its another graphic illustration of the damage done by the flood waters. Well never know the full damage but Id say its around $20 million worth when you tally up crops, stock losses, property damage, machinery, Mr. Katter said.

We cant stop them but in the instance of little ones where if wed been able to take away a foot or more by going ahead with the North Johnston Transfer it would have helped prevent a lot of damage.

A carcass found on Wongaling Beach was taken to Tully Waste Transfer Station for burial on Wednesday morning, while a second carcass was moved and buried above the high tide line yesterday afternoon due to advanced decomposition.

Mission Beach Community Association secretary Truus Biddlecombe said residents were concerned at the finds.

About 90 percent of houses in the township of Ingham were inundated last week when catchments feeding the Herbert River led to major flooding.

Jake Goldering photographed a crocodile swimming in flood water near Ingham.

He said it was important people remembered crocodiles had an important part to play in the ecosystem.

Theyre not killing machines and just need to be given space, Mr Goldering said.

Many roads throughout the Far North region were closed during the flooding, especially between Tully and Innisfail along the Cassowary Coast.

Member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto encouraging locals and visitors to support businesses hit by flooding in the region.

The region will host the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Street Celebration this Sunday.

With clean up and recovery efforts now underway, Mr. Dametto urged all residents and visitors to keep the tills ringing for businesses hit hard by flooding.

Local businesses have taken a major hit over the past week in being unable to trade and we must do whatever we can to keep our economy going, he said.

Whether its grabbing a feed at an eatery, picking up a pair of stylish heels from a boutique fashion outlet, enjoying a beer at the local pub or hitting the trails on a mountain bike, every dollar helps business get back on its feet.

This story originally appeared in news.com.au.

During his speech at SXSW, Elon Musk once again issued a warning of the need for a colony on Mars, The Guardian reported. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO said that humanity could one day enter a new dark age.

Theres likely to be another dark ages  particularly if theres a third world war, Musk declared, according to The Verge.

Fear of this hypothetical dark age is one of the key factors behind Musks drive to colonize Mars. The moon is an option, but he believes that Mars is far enough away to be unaffected by any war that ravages Earth.

Its important to get a self-sustaining base on Mars because its far enough away from Earth that [in the event of a war] its more likely to survive than a moon base, Musk warned. If theres a third world war we want to make sure theres enough of a seed of human civilization somewhere else to bring it back and shorten the length of the dark ages, he said in response to a question from West World showrunner Jonah Nolan.

SpaceX is currently working on a ship to take humans to Mars, but Musk suggested that not many people would want to go. When asked whether or not he felt a Mars mission was simply a vehicle for the rich to escape, he suggested that it would be akin to exploring Antarctica; namely very dangerous, but exciting for those who did survive. The ship, code named BFR, is expected to go on a test flight in 2019, though Musk admitted that this timeline might be a bit optimistic.

In addition to the looming threat of nuclear war, Musk once again spoke out against the dangers of artificial intelligence. In his speech, he called for stricter oversight of A.I. and warned that it was more dangerous than nuclear weapons. This is certainly not the first time Musk has made such comments. The Tesla CEO appears to be very wary of the risks posed by the rise of advanced A.I.

Mark my words, Musk warned. A.I. is far more dangerous than nukes. So why do we have no regulatory oversight?Whats good for Amazon may not be great for the cities fighting to outdo each other in a bid for its expansion.

Several cities are fiercely competing to woo Amazon for its $5 billion second headquarters, offering millions in tax breaks. However, local residents and activists on the right and left are pushing back against the tech behemoth.

In places like Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Pa. and Washington, D.C. locals are questioning the value of subsidizing a tech company that made over $21 million in profit per day during the last quarter of 2017.

RANDOM, TERRIFYING LAUGHING FROM AMAZON'S ALEXA CREEPS OUT USERS

A group of activists in Atlanta set up a website against bringing Amazons headquarters to the Georgia capital, calling the entire process akin to a televised Hunger Games death-match. The anonymous group also designed fliers that have posted around the city.

In D.C., the Fair Budget Coalition teamed up with local socialist activists to launch ObviouslyNotDC.com, which points out that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is worth over $120 billion, bemoans the negative impact that 50,000 new Amazon employees would have on the districts already-suffering infrastructure and calls attention to the citys housing affordability crisis.

Generation Opportunity, a conservative advocacy group for young people with ties to the Koch brothers, has launched a digital ad campaign with a video that compares Amazons search for a second headquarters toyup, "The Hunger Games."

In Maryland, which has proposed $3 billion in tax incentives for Amazon, Democratic State Senator Rich Madaleno told Bloomberg that he opposes paying the firm to build in his state: Youve got a company that could probably put out the $5 billion without blinking an eye.

YOUTUBE WILL LINK TO WIKIPEDIA TO COMBAT CONSPIRACY THEORIES

At a meeting in Pittsburgh last month to discuss the potential implications of Amazon relocating there, more than 100 residents chanted Whose city? Our city! and said that Amazon would accelerate the gentrification thats already pushing longtime residents out of the city.

Theres a battle already going on in Pittsburgh between the government that supports businesses like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Uber and Google and all these other companies coming into town, and the people who lived here for so long who can no longer afford to live in Pittsburgh or even in the Pittsburgh region, Carl Redwood, adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said. If Amazon comes here, it will accelerate the battle and it wont accelerate it necessarily in our favor.

In New Jersey, where Newark is courting Amazon, Gov. Phil Murphy has ordered an audit of all tax-subsidy programs. His predecessor, Chris Christie, put together a $7 billion tax-break package for Amazon.

A petition launched by urbanist Richard Florida and other academics calling for finalists to get behind a "mututal non-aggresion pact" on tax incentives has garnered over 15,000 signatures.The Doggie-1000-Egg Hunt will be held again this year at the McKamey Animal Center, 4500 North Access Road in Chattanooga. McKamey staff and volunteers are preparing the largest doggie egg hunt (over 1000 eggs) for their 2nd annual event on Saturday March 24, starting at 10 a.m. Early registration is encouraged, beginning at 9 a.m.



According to Volunteer Coordinator Karen Wilson, "This is one of our most popular events for all dogs, from Chihuahuas to Great Danes."

To ensure an even playing field for all dogs, there will be three fields divided according to the size of the dogs. There are individual hunt fields for small, medium, and large breed dogs. Staff will be hiding over 1000 eggs total. The eggs are packed with goodies and treats for the dogs who find them. All dogs must be on a leash at all times and have a current rabies vaccination.



The cost of the event is $5 per dog, or participants can donate kitten, cat or dog food, although kitten food is preferred. The donated food is used for the residents at the McKamey Animal Center, home to over 6,500 homeless animals annually. "Shelters are experiencing an unusually high number of animals this time of the year, and McKamey is no exception. With kitten season also right around the corner, McKamey relies on donations from events such as the Doggie Egg Hunt to care for homeless animals at the shelter," officials said.



For more information about the Doggie Egg Hunt, or about donating to McKamey Animal Center, call 423-305-6500.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.

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.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Woman Texts Wrong Number, Gets Awesome ResponseThis is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," March 14, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter.

ALEXANDER YAKOVENKO, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.K.: Britain has chosen the way of the 24 ultimatum without giving us any access to the facts, to the investigation, and to the samples.

MAY: The United Kingdom will now expel 23 Russian diplomats. They have just one week to leave.

YAKOVENKO: Everything what is done today by the British government is absolutely unacceptable and we consider this a provocation.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: The poisoning with double agent in Britain, his daughter, and the reaction today, diplomats kicked out of Great Britain. Just moments ago the White House weighing in, Sarah Sanders releasing a statement saying "This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert or discredit western democratic institutions and processes. The United States is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again," saying they side with Great Britain on the determination that Russia was behind it.

With that, let's bring in our panel: Steve Hayes, editor in chief for The Weekly Standard; Mo Elleithee, executive director of the Georgetown Institute of Politics, and Steve Hilton, former advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron at host of "The Next Revolution" here on Fox News Channel.

Steve, the action by Great Britain, obviously they had to do something. But the deadline they installed or laid on the ground for Vladimir Putin has largely been disregarded.

STEVE HILTON, FOX NEWS: I agree with the words, they are very nice words, but the actions are frankly pathetic and will make no difference at all. And it's in line with the west's handling of Putin for many, many years now, going back not just in previous British governments where you had a similar sort of poisoning situation with practically no response under the previous Labour Government, but also with the U.S. administration going back to Bush and Obama which have just encouraged Putin's adventurism by basically doing nothing whatever he does, whether that's walking into Crimea or Ukraine or whatever it may be.

This action by the British is just going through the motions, the diplomatic game that you play. It will make absolutely no impact on Putin whatsoever. And we have to just get serious because deterring his adventurism is incredibly important not just in the context of Russia but other dictators around the world like the Chinese who think they can get away with anything because the west does not stand up to them.

BAIER: Mo, just before the show the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, with a strong speech at the U.N. Security Council, this one about Russia aggression.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The Russians complained recently that we criticize them too much. If the Russian government stopped using chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies, and if the Russian government stopped helping its Syrian allies to use chemical weapons to kill Syrian children, and if Russia cooperated with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons by turning over all information related to this nerve agent, we would stop talking about them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: She goes on, Mo, to say the credibility of this council, the U.N. security council, will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable. Is that the talking at least changing from this administration?

MO ELLEITHEE, GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: I don't know. What we are hearing -- I thought that was a very strong speech by Ambassador Haley. I thought her trying to hold the security council accountable in its efforts to hold Russia accountable was a smart move.

But apply her words to her boss, to President Trump, who does not have very much credibility right now in holding Russia accountable. Yes, we need a diplomatic effort. We need to engage the United Nations and the Security Council, but it all rings the president of the United States continues his flirtation with Vladimir Putin and continues to let him off the hook. Statements by the White House press secretary and the U.N. ambassador, no matter how strong they are, do not carry the same weight as statements by the president of the United States who has been silent.

BAIER: OK, this is what the White House says to that. This is Sarah Sanders from a couple weeks ago. Oh, we don't have this. Let me tell you what she says. She says that the actions of the administration, that he's been extremely tough on Russia, helped push through $700 billion to rebuild the military, goes out to say exporting energy to eastern Europe, Russia is not excited about it. Keeps the sanctions in place. And we have Danielle Pletka from AEI, she was asked on "Meet the Press" about the sanctions regime and how this is administration is handling it. She is not a supporter in the campaign of Donald Trump. In fact she was never Trump in the campaign, but here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELLE PLETKA, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Look at missile sanctions, nuclear sanctions, I have never seen an administration move so fast as they did. This oligarch's list, other lists that they put together, in fact they have. This is a process. And I don't want to defend the Trump administration where they don't deserve it, but in this case they have done a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: In other words, actions, are they doing a lot?

STEVE HAYES, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: I think in certain respects, Danielle Pletka is right. They have done a lot. They could be doing more. They have done a lot. They've been arming the Ukrainians. They've taken certain steps that send certain messages.

But I agree with mo. I think this requires a presidential level statement. The administration has thus far tried not to get ahead of where the brits were on this. They wanted our statements to match the Brits statements. As the Brits got more aggressive, the Trump administration has gotten more aggressive.

But there's nothing that takes the place of a presidential statement. We all know that when Donald Trump is unhappy about something, he's very clear about who he is unhappy with why he's unhappy. We could see him, I would say, be tough on this and also add in a statement about continued Russia cyber activities against the United States and its interests around the world, a warning not to attack U.S. backed rebels, forces in Syria. There are many ways in which the president of the United States can send a clear and unambiguous message that he had it with Vladimir Putin, and he hasn't done it.

BAIER: Steve?

HILTON: I would say the most important thing that can be done is to hit Putin and Russia where it hurts, and that is in the field of energy. It is correct to say that some progress has been made on that, but I think actually this administration could go much, much further in helping the Europeans get rid of their dependence on Russian energy. That also, by the way, helps American jobs and industries here.

But if you want to see who is colluding with the Russians, for example, look at Angela Merkel. She is literally about to go ahead with the pipeline that buys all the gas that Putin wants to sell them. That's the kind of thing that actually just makes Putin think it doesn't matter what he does, it doesn't matter about all these words. In the end, he's going to be fine because the Europeans are so dependent on him for energy.

BAIER: For all the aggression that Russia has and for all of the bravado Putin brings to everything he talks about, he's not holding a lot of great cards as far as his own economy and Russia's stance in economic terms.

ELLEITHEE: I think that's right, which is why I agree. The United States has huge opportunity to work with our European allies to put economic pressure on them. We are just not seeing it. We are not seeing it --

HILTON: It is our European allies that are sabotaging that. It's Merkel that is standing in the way of that, not Donald Trump.

ELLEITHEE: But the president of the United States has a role to play here and he is not playing it. When he has the nearly unanimous bipartisan support of Congress to impose economic sanctions on the Russian government --

BAIER: The point is Pletka said it's happening. I think we are going to follow it and maybe we're going to hear and see a different thing from the administration in the coming days, but we will see. Panel, thanks.

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.Alaska Airlines told Fox News that the male senior pilot accused of drugging and raping a female first officer on an overnight trip in June 2017 has been grounded, as new details emerge in Betty Pinas lawsuit against the carrier and infuriated supporters call for a boycott of the airline.

The pilot, identified in court documents and confirmed by the airline as Paul Engelien, is not flying and was taken off the line immediately after learning of the incident, company spokeswoman Ann Johnson told Fox News via email Thursday, adding, It is our policy to withhold an employee from work during this type of investigation."

While declining to comment on the investigation or lawsuit, Johnson said, "What we can say is that we are taking this matter seriously. The safety and well-being of our employees and guests is a top priority."

To date, Pina still employed by and actively working for Alaska Airlines.

AIRPORT SECURITY GUARD CAUGHT STEALING $600 FROM PASSENGER'S LUGGAGE

Attorneys Eric Makus and Lincoln Beauregard, representing Pina in Washington State Superior Court, confirmed to Fox News on March 14 that the 39-year-old Seattle woman had first served a lawsuit against the airline on Feb. 15. As Alaska Airlines failed to answer within 20 days, the lawsuit was filed on March 14 in Seattle's King County Superior Court.

According to the report cited in the lawsuit provided to Fox News, Pina, a distinguished Army helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Afghanistan, alleges that she was assaulted by Paul Engelien, a 50-year-old captain, during a three-day assignment from Anchorage to Seattle to Minneapolis. It was the first time that Pina, who has been employed by the airline since 2016, met the married Nevada resident, who is a veteran with the airline, the suit states.

Engelien is named in Pinas lawsuit, but not as a defendant.

According to testimony in the lawsuit, upon their initial meeting on June 4, Pina and Engelien "got along really well" through a lot of military speak," which made Pina "more comfortable. Engelien soon invited Pina on a hike and asked if shed speak to the daughter of a family friend who was learning to fly. On June 5, the suit alleges Engelien told Pina that the Minneapolis hotel where the flight crew would be staying had a concierge room where "the crews hang out, offering wine and pizza for $11.

UNITED FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHO FORCED DOG INTO OVERHEAD BIN 'LYING,' OWNER'S DAUGHTER SAYS

When Pina arrived, she had her "first glass of wine without any problem, and Engelien then "brought her a second glass of wine to which Pina began "having a hard time keeping her head up and things appeared to be closing in." According to the report, Pina typically feels tipsy after three or four glasses of wine, not two.

Engelien allegedly again took Pina's glass for a refill, and "the next thing she remembers is waking up and being pulled on her right ankle. She then recalls that she said No before rolling over on her side, realizing she was in Engeliens bedroom, and that she was naked from the waist down. She was soon freaked out to find her underwear zipped up inside her purse, as it hit her that she and Engelien had "been in the same bed which had vomit on the sheets as "the other bed [did] not look like anyone had laid on it."

"We're f---ed. We're f---ed, I missed a call from the FODO at 10:47 p.m." she claims she heard Engelien say. The captain received a message stating that a flight attendant had spotted him walking down the hotel hall "with a girl and two glasses of wine" and didn't feel comfortable flying with him.

According to the report, Pina went to her room and realized that "the sickness was not a hangover. After immediately vomiting upon taking her birth control pill the next morning, she felt foggy as her stomach hurt the worst.

When Ms. Pina challenged Mr. Engelien as to what had occurred, he denied any sexual contact, saying, "You were coming on to me pretty hard," the complaint alleges. Pina was then taken off "active flight crew, and only recently returned to full duty. Her attorney Makus told ABC News that she did not file a police report on the assault in Minneapolis but did notify the Air Line Pilots Association on June 7, two days after it allegedly took place.

"To the best of Ms. Pinas knowledge," Engelien is still employed with Alaska Airlines and "remains a threat to other employees," the report states. Further, the lawsuit charges that not only do Engelien's actions as the supervising officer on the flight "constitute violations of Washington Laws Against Discrimination, sexual assault and negligence" but also that Alaska Airlines is liable for his actions.

For her part, Pina is infuriated that Engelien continued to be employed by Alaska Airlines in the wake of her complaint.

Im worried about everything Ive ever worked for, Pina told the Seattle Times of her fears of the incident jeopardizing her 17-year career in aviation. Im not married, I dont have kids. My career has been my No. 1.

Meanwhile, support for the courageous Pina has been growing on social media.

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Unless you publicly deal with your Pilot/Rapist Paul Engelien, I, my family, and all of our co-workers will stop using @AlaskaAir. Support Betty Pina! one user wrote.

Remove the accused "predator pilot" & fix this problem immediately another chastised the airline.

My hope is that by me doing this, it may protect other women, Pina said. How many other victims are out there? I may not be the first case, but I hope to be the last. Its time to take responsibility. The culture needs to change. We cant sweep this under the rug any longer.

The Air Line Pilots Association did not immediately return Fox News request for comment.

Calls and emails to Engelien were not returned.A black man is calling out United Airlines for racial bias after he says a white woman was offered a $1,000 voucher to remove her feet from the tray table.

The airline, however, says it was all a misunderstanding.

Frederick Joseph was traveling from Austin, Texas to Newark, New Jersey when the passenger next to him took off her shoes and placed her feet on the tray table. Upset by the situation, Joseph snapped a photo of the passengers foot on the table in the window seat and tweeted about the experience.

UNITED SENDS FAMILY'S DOG TO JAPAN INSTEAD OF KANSAS BY MISTAKE

Joseph claims he asked the woman to remove her feet because they were near his food and he was trying to eat, but the woman reportedly refused. She says what do you want me to do, the seats are small, Joseph wrote in a tweet.

So Im like I understand, which is why there is room for your feet and legs under the seat in front of you, he continued. So she says this is why I fly first class, and I dont come back here with everyone else.

Joseph goes on to explain that the woman then called over a flight attendant and said Joseph was disrupting her flight and she was just trying to be comfortable. When the flight attendant asked the woman to take at least one of her feet down, Joseph claims the woman asked to be compensated for her troubles and requested a $1,000 voucher the airline had been offering to those forced to take a later flight.

According to Joseph, the flight attendant agreed to provide the passenger with a voucher, but when he asked about receiving one as well, she replied: Sir, we can only make but so many accommodations, and she has agreed to move her feet for you.

After later speaking with the airline, Joseph said the customer service rep assured him the woman received no such compensation. Regardless, he explained he didnt feel as though he was treated with the same respect as the white woman, calling the womans actions the audacity of white privilege.

Joseph ended his thread of tweets by saying he has his opinion and the airline and other passengers have theirs, and he is moving on from the situation.

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In a statement to Fox News, United denied Josephs accusations, saying: At no point was any customer offered compensation for this issue, and weve talked with our customer to clarify this with him, and address his concerns. We want all of our customers to be treated with respect, and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind.After a mix-up with United that resulted in a family's dog being sent to Japan instead of Kansas by mistake, Irgo the German shepherd is returning home.

According to his owners, Irgo will be traveling by private charter Thursday on a nearly 12-hour long flight, leaving Narita International Airport in Tokyo at 10:30 p.m. local time and arriving back home in Wichita, Kansas around 8:25 p.m.

Irgo ended up in the foreign country mistakenly when his owner, Kara Swindle, was moving with her family and pet from Oregon to Kansas.

Swindle was traveling to Wichita with her two small children on a United flight Tuesday. 10-year-old Irgo was being flown on a separate flight the same day, KCTV reports.

DELTA AIR LINES ATTACKED ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TAKING LONGER TO DEPLANE THAN FLIGHT ITSELF

Since Irgo is a large breed, he had to be transported by kennel in the cargo hold of the plane. When Swindle went to pick up her dog from the cargo facility, she discovered Irgo was missing and there was a Great Dane waiting, instead. She learned that the two dogs had been mixed up and her dog had been sent to the Great Danes destination in Japan by mistake.

Swindle told KCTV she has no idea how the mix-up happened, but the airline told her the kennels looked similar. I just want to know where my dog is, she said. They have our paperwork here saying that this is the correct dog, but we know its not. Its just horrible.

The airline reportedly told Swindle that because Irgo was on an international flight, he might have to be quarantined for up to two weeks before he can be flown back, according to KCTV.

At this point, all I can do is be hopeful that my dog is going to be OK and return safely," she told KCTV. "I dont know what else to do at this point. I cant cry anymore. Ive cried too much.

The airline confirmed the mix-up in a statement to Fox News: An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said.

We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened.

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This isnt the first time United has made headlines for an issue involving pet transportation. Earlier this week a dog died on a United flight after the attendant allegedly told the passenger she had to store the pet and its crate in the overhead bin, despite the fact that she had paid $125 to have the pet on the plane with her.Just when you thought spring break couldnt get any weirder, this happened.

College students from across the country gathered this week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to take swigs out of a half-naked female mannequin filled with liquor, with a spigot coming out of its crotch.

'Grab the t**s! Grab the t**s!' people were yelling, photographer Jorge Rodriguez told Fox News. Rodriguez, who was on the Las Olas beach all day snapping pics, said the bizarre behavior escalated as the day went on, including lots of vodka drinking out of Gatorade bottles, twerking, public makeout sessions, and butt grabbing among the students on the sunny, but somewhat chilly 74-degree day.

US NARROWS TRAVEL ALERT FOR MEXICO'S PLAYA DEL CARMEN AMIDST SPRING BREAK SEASON

Rodriguez said law enforcement officials working with police dogs and horses did their best to monitor the scene, making five or six arrests during his time there. And they were just getting started.

An estimated 4 million college students invade Floridas perennial spring break hotspot cities, including Miami Beach, Daytona, Orlando, Panama City Beach and Fort Lauderdale. And while most escape with just a few hangovers to show for their troubles, others are not so lucky.

Ball State University junior Drew Akers was put into a medically induced coma after being injured in a hit and run accident earlier this week in Fort Lauderdale. Troubling video footage has made headlines for a Miami Beach cop punching a man on the ground during his arrest while a nightclub lost its license to operate after abusing a horse during a party stunt.

Though Fort Lauderdale has enacted new measures like banning coolers, tents, tables, noisy speakers and inflatable devices from the beaches through spring break season, in addition to limiting parking, traffic routes and alcohol on the shores, its evident from the photos that the collegians are by no means slowing down their shenanigans.

ALASKA AIRLINES FEMALE CO-PILOT CLAIMS MALE PILOT DRUGGED AND RAPED HER

In fellow spring break hotspot Panama City Beach, Metro reports that over 220 spring breakers had been arrested as of March 13. Nevertheless, Panama City Beach Mayor Mike Thomas told Fox News that his town's strict rules have seriously curtailed illegal behavior in recent years.

We changed the hours of drinking back two hours earlier, bars must close at two, no drinking on the beach in March, no parking overnight on the rightaways, those are just some of them, Thomas said. I know that the arrests are down, and that we are having a very nice spring break.

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Thomas said past city administrations let [the excessive partying] go on too long. The mayor said rowdy students come here fully trained  if theyre a problem at home, they come down here in great numbers and create greater problems.

But Thomas said that in Panama City at least, theyre no longer looking the other way at rabble rousers.

If you chose to act up, and chose not to follow our rules, youre going to jail.

It just wont be tolerated. If thats what kids want, they definitely shouldnt be coming here," Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce President Dan Lindblade similarly told the Sun Sentinel. "The spring break days of the past arent that way anymore.

Shannon, a merrymaker from the University of Tampa, kind of agreed, telling Rodriguez that though shes having a good time, there is not enough loud music, and a lot of cops.

But it turns out some of those cops are also contributing to the merriment. Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Miami Beach Police Department, believes that if you cant beat em, join em.

This year, we refurbished an old lifeguard stand, where we have a sergeant and detective stationed on the weekend to DJ, engage with our community and visitors and remind them of the dos and donts of having a good time, he told Fox News.

Looks like you truly can't stop the party, after all.United Airlines may be soon slammed with more bad news during whats already a tough week, as Texas prosecutors debate possible criminal charges in the wake of a pet dogs death after it was wrongfully placed in an overhead bin during a Houston-New York flight earlier this week.

The New York Daily News reported Thursday that Houstons Harris County District Attorneys Office may review the investigation into the death of Kokito, a black French bulldog owned by Catalina Robledo of New York.

Though Robledo stepped onto the United flight departing Houstons Bush Intercontinental Airport with her pet in a TSA-approved carrier that she should have been allowed to keep at her feet through the flight, as per Uniteds pet policy, the flight attendant misunderstood her and forced her to place the carrier in an overhead bin for the duration of the four-hour flight.

UNITED SENDS FAMILY'S DOG TO JAPAN INSTEAD OF KANSAS BY MISTAKE

Now, it may be complicated for investigators to map out exactly what happened.

We have jurisdictional issues. We dont know if the dog died in Houston or if the dog died in New York or on the way to New York, Carvana Cloud, division chief of Family Criminal Law and Animal Cruelty Division for Harris County District Attorneys Office, told KPRC2 of the case.

We are at the very preliminary stages of the investigation, but it definitely does make it more challenging because it is not something that happened in someones backyard here locally or in someones home, Cloud added.

HOW TO SAFELY TRAVEL WITH PETS

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," seven-year-old Sophia Ceballos, speaking on behalf of her mother Robledo, told ABC 13.

Ceballos said that attempts to inform the flight attendant of the severity of the situation during the flight to New Yorks LaGuardia Airport from were unsuccessful.

On Wednesday, United issued a new statement regarding the tragic chain of events, Fox 31 reported.

We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier. However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin," they said.

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"To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets. This visual tag will further help our flight attendants identify pets in-cabin," the statement added.

Meanwhile, both the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident, New York Daily News reported.Louisiana authorities say a sheriff's deputy has shot and wounded a man at an apartment building.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux told reporters the deputy was at the building Wednesday to serve papers on someone.

State Police Trooper Bryan Lee says the deputy was approached by a man who was bleeding. The cause and extent of the bleeding was not immediately known. The deputy fired one shot during a struggle with the man, who was taken to a hospital. The extent of his injuries wasn't known.

Gautreaux says the unidentified deputy was "mentally shook up" but not physically injured.

Gautreaux says the deputy was placed on administrative leave. Louisiana State Police took over the investigation, as is common in officer-involved shootings.

The identities of those involved have not been released.A teacher at a California high school who accidentally fired his gun during a class, reportedly injuring three students, was not authorized to have a gun at school, officials said.

Dennis Alexander, a teacher at Seaside High School and reserve officer with the Sand City Police Department, was teaching an Administration of Justice class Tuesday when he reportedly pointed his firearm at the ceiling during a lesson and accidentally shot it.

Police told The Associated Press that Alexander had pointed his gun at the ceiling to make sure it was not loaded when the weapon discharged.

OPINION: OUR POLICE NEED BETTER TRAINING. FLORIDA SCHOOL SHOOTING FAILURES MAKE THIS MORE IMPERATIVE

The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District said that Alexander was not authorized to have a firearm at the school because he's not a school resource officer. Authorities were investigating why Alexander had the gun and if officials were aware he intended to bring it to school.

The school district told Fox News in a statement that an immediate investigation determined that there was no immediate threat to students or staff, however one students mother told the AP that her son suffered moderate injuries.

Crystal Gonzales said her 17-year-old son, Fermin, was injured when bullet fragments became lodged in his neck after ricocheting off the ceiling.

"I'm still really upset no one called a nurse or a paramedic to come check on the students," Gonzales said, adding that parents weren't told of the incident and students "just sat there until the bell rang."

The mother said she didn't hear about what happened until her son called her hours later. She said the principal called her cellphone to apologize.

SHERIFF 'DEVASTATED' AFTER STUDENT FINDS HIS FORGOTTEN GUN IN MIDDLE SCHOOL LOCKER ROOM

Alexander was placed on administrative leave from both his teaching job and the police department, where KSBW reported hes been a reserve police officer for 11 years.

The incident came the same day as a school resource officer at a Virginia middle school also accidentally fired his gun while children were attending classes.

Additionally, a county sheriff in Michigan apologized, also on Tuesday, for accidentally leaving his gun in the locker room bathroom of a middle school over the weekend.

RESOURCE OFFICER ACCIDENTALLY FIRES GUN AT VIRGINIA MIDDLE SCHOOL, OFFICIALS SAY

The accidental firings come amid a nationwide debate on the subject of arming school teachers.

Deputy Scot Peterson, of the Broward County Sheriffs Office, was stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, as the schools resource officer on Feb. 14 when a gunman entered a building on campus and killed 17 people.

It was later revealed Peterson never entered the building, despite hearing gunfire.

Fox News Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The 18-year-old sister of Charleston, S.C., church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday for carrying pepper spray, a knife and marijuana in her high school, authorities said.

Morgan Roof also posted on Snapchat a critique of Wednesdays National Student Walkout protest against gun violence, the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., reported.

Your [sic] walking out for the allowed time of 17min, They are letting you do this, nothing is going to change what (the expletive) you think its gonna do? I hope its a trap and yall get shot we know its fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway, Roof posted, Fox 57 reported.

"I hope its a trap and yall get shot."  Comment on Morgan Roof's Snapchat account

No students were harmed in connection with the arrest, Fox 57 reported.

Roof was transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, the station reported. A $5,000 bond carried a judges condition that Roof not return to A.C. Flora High School, the station reported.

The schools principal sent a letter to parents, informing them about the incident, the station reported.

Roofs brother, Dylann Roof, was convicted on federal charges in 2016 and pleaded guilty to state charges in 2017 in connection with the June 2015 murders of nine African-American churchgoers at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.The Hamilton County Health Department reported six more coronavirus deaths on Monday, four male and two female, three black and three white, one between the ages of 41-50, one between the ages of 51-60, one between the ages of 61-70, two between the ages of 71-80 and one over the age of 81. There have been 77 new positive cases since Friday. The total cases in the county now stands ... (click for more)One man is dead and another is in critical condition after a gunman opened fire at an Alabama hospital before fatally shooting himself, police said early Thursday morning.



The episode, WBRC Fox 6 reported, took place on the second floor of the UAB Highlands Hospital about 7 p.m. A gunman reportedly shot two male hospital employees before turning the gun on himself.

"One victim is in stable condition," Birmingham police Lt. Peter Williston said early Thursday morning. "Unfortunately, I have to report the second victim did not survive and was pronounced deceased during surgery," he said.

Capt. H.R. Waton of Birmingham Fire and Rescue told reporters all three individuals involved were critically injured, according to the news station.

He added that officials aren't clear about any connection between the three individuals involved, adding that police "still have a lot to find out."

UAB Highlands is a campus of UAB Hospital, which is part of the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

UAB tweeted late Wednesday that all surgeries scheduled for Thursday where the shooting occurred were being canceled.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Authorities in southwestern Florida said Wednesday that a man who claimed he disposed of missing teenager Natalee Holloway's remains in Aruba was fatally stabbed by a woman he was trying to kidnap.

Police in North Port, approximately 60 miles south of Tampa, said 32-year-old John Christopher Ludwick was pronounced dead at a local hospital after 7 a.m. Investigators say Ludwick attacked the unidentified woman in her driveway and was stabbed in the ensuing struggle.

Authorities said Ludwick and his would-be victim knew each other, but declined to elaborate.

Last year, Ludwick claimed that Joran van der Sloot -- the prime suspect in Holloway's disappearance -- paid him $1,500 to dig up her body in 2010, five years after the 18-year-old vanished on the Dutch Caribbean island.

"The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasnt recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that," Ludwick said at the time. He added that Holloway's skull was burned to eliminate any remaining hair fibers, saying: "It was doused in gasoline in a fire pit in a cave."

NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S MOM SUES NBC'S OXYGEN OVER CLAIMS SERIES FOUND HER DAUGHTER'S REMAINS

Ludwick's story was featured in "The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway," a miniseries that aired this past September on the Oxygen network.

Holloway was declared legally dead in 2012. No one has ever been charged in connection with her disappearance. Van der Sloot is currently serving a 28-year sentence in a Peruvian prison for the unrelated 2010 murder of a young woman in his Lima hotel room.

"We are aware of Mr. Ludwicks history and comments surrounding the disappearance of Natalee Ann Holloway in Aruba during May of 2005, North Point Police spokesman Josh Taylor stated. The correct authorities who are working that case have been notified. Our investigation in this local case is ongoing."

Click for more from Fox13News.com.Native Americans may be the most affected by the opioid epidemic that has spread across the U.S., and federal officials are looking for solutions.

A hearing Wednesday in the nations capital shed light that overdose deaths in Native American communities have skyrocketed in the time the epidemic has swept America.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives saw a fivefold increase in overdose deaths between 1999 and 2015, Dr. Michael Toedt told the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures indicate the increase in that period was higher for Native Americans than any other group, jumping to roughly 22 deaths for every 100,000 people in metropolitan areas, and nearly 20 for every 100,000 people in non-metropolitan areas.

But the statistics, while staggering, may represent an undercount for Native Americans and Alaska Natives by as much as 35 percent, because death certificates often list them as belonging to another race, said Toedt, who is the Indian Health Services chief medical officer.

The hearing in Washington comes as a growing number of tribes file lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors, saying they misrepresented addiction risks.

A few states over on Wednesday Milwaukee County officials filed suit against 13 drug companies on behalf of county taxpayers claiming 336 people died from opioids in the county last year, more than double the number from five years earlier, according to Fox 6 Milwaukee.

Make no mistake, there is blood on their hands and there should be a stain on their conscience, Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun told Fox 6 Milwaukee.

Federal officials, back in D.C., said the opioid epidemic is straining tribal resources.

U.S. Attorney John Anderson of New Mexico said tribal leaders in a northern stretch of the state had called for solutions.

One pueblo police chief described losing a brother and sister to overdoses, he said.

The opioid epidemic knows no boundaries, Anderson said, and so our pueblos are equally affected by heroin and prescription opioids.

Several senators questioned whether a decline in prosecutions in Indian Country cases also had contributed to the crisis.

We need a plan and it cant just be about treating the addiction, said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. It needs to be a plan that gets law enforcement on the ground.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Six people were confirmed dead after a newly installed pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed Thursday, leaving at least eight vehicles trapped under the sprawling wreckage.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Dave Downey told reporters at a news conference that six people were killed after the structure, touted as an "Instant Bridge," collapsed around 1:30 p.m. at the Miami-area university.

Dr. Mark McKenney, of the Kendall Regional Medical Center in Tamiami, said during a news conference that the hospital had taken in 10 patients  two of them in "extremely critical" condition. One person arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest but survived, and a second has a serious brain injury.

The other eight are in stable condition with "bruises and abrasions to broken bones."

A search and rescue operation is underway; authorities are using dogs to search for anyone who may be trapped beneath the rubble.

The Sweetwater Police Department told Fox News, "We're just trying to save lives." Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez called the collapse a "national tragedy."

"Continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU - so tragic," President Trump tweeted. "Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected."

Vice President Pence said he was "saddened by the news," adding that he and Trump will "continue to monitor developments closely."

Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted he was en route to the university "to be briefed by local law enforcement and university officials," and said he would be "in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day."

And Florida Sen. Bill Nelson tweeted that his "heart goes out to the victims and the families affected by this tragic bridge collapse @FIU."

The bridge, projected to be finished in early 2019, was set to link the universitys Modesto A. Maidique Campus to the town of Sweetwater, where an estimated 4,000 students live, The Miami Herald reported. A $14.2 million project, the structure was installed on Saturday, with many celebrating the new construction.

The university called it a one-of-its-kind pedestrian bridge that swings into place.

FIU is about building bridges and student safety. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully, President Mark B. Rosenberg said, according to a tweet by FIU.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in a press release requesting the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) address the "bridge's design, construction, and ultimate failure," stated the bridge was installed on Saturday in just six hours.

DOT said in a statement that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has been in contact with congressional officials and has "offered the full assistance and support of the department for both the immediate and long-term needs the community will have."

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sending a team to investigate the collapse.

Munilla Construction, the company that built the bridge, tweeted earlier Thursday that "the local community gathered" on Saturday to watch the crossing move into place. In a followup tweet, the company called the bridge collapse a "terrible tragedy" and said the family business was "devastated and doing everything we can to assist."

The construction company added it would be cooperating with investigators "in every way."

FIGG Engineering, the company that designed the bridge, said that in their "40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before." FIGG added the company would "fully cooperate with every appropriate authority in reviewing what happened and why."

Construction workers at the scene told WPLG that the bridge was undergoing a "stress test" when it collapsed, but officials have not confirmed that detail.



Fox News' Shira Bush, Chad Pergram and Matt Richardson, along with 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.A Baltimore woman spent nearly half her annual salary to keep her 17-year-old cat alive and purring, ultimately plunging $19,000 into a life-saving kidney transplant.

Im smart with money, Boyd, 44, told the Baltimore Sun. Im very frugal. I drive a used car and wear clothing from consignment stores, and I have no debt at all. The message Id like to get across is that if you save your money carefully, you can spend $19,000 on something that moves you.

Nearly four months ago, Boyd decided to spend 41 percent of her annual salary on surgery for Stanley, who was diagnosed with renal insufficiency in November 2016.

Boyd also agreed to adopt the donor, a 2-year-old tabby named Jay.

Although both cats are doing well post-surgery, Boyd said she would have no regrets if her beloved feline were to tragically die tomorrow  even with the expensive price tag.

Hes on immunosuppressant drugs, so he could get an infection, she said. Anything could happen. If Stan did pass away sooner rather than later, Id know I had done what I could for him. Weve already had a few really good weeks. Hes really happy, and that alone is worth the price.

"If Stan did pass away sooner rather than later, Id know I had done what I could for him."  Betsy Boyd, cat owner

Boyd, who is married and has young twin boys, works as a part-time member of the University of Baltimores creative writing faculty, earning about $46,000 a year. Her husband, Michael Yockel, supported his wifes decision. He is a freelance journalist and stay-at-home dad.

So, Boyd explored her options and got in touch with her vet, who pointed her in the direction of a colleague at the University of Pennsylvanias Ryan Veterinary Hospital in Philadelphia who does kidney transplants.

The surgery was performed Nov. 28, and before long Stanley was showing signs of his old self. Toward the end of May, Stanley will have reached the six-month post-surgical milestone, where his odds of long-term survival drastically improve.

I love all my cats, but Stanley is the only one who acts like a human being trapped in a cats body. Hes so vocal and communicative. He maintains eye contact better than any cat Ive ever known. When Im at work, he waits at the window or front door for me to come home, just like a dog.

According to the ASPCA, indoor cats live on average between 13 and 17 years, but Boyd believes Stanley can live much longer.

Knowing Stanley as I do, she said, I think hes one of those cats who could make it to age 25.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A man and a woman, who were believed to be undocumented, died after their vehicle crashed while they fled from federal immigration officials in California on Tuesday, police said.

Marcelina Garcia Profecto, 33, and Santo Hilario Garcia, 35, initially stopped after a vehicle flashed its emergency lights to pull them over, but fled once they saw federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) exit the vehicle, police in Delano, Kern County, posted on Facebook.

The driver sped off and lost control shortly after driving onto the dirt shoulder, where the vehicle overturned and struck a power pole, police said.

Delano police were called to the scene before handing over the investigation to the departments traffic division because of the severity of the collision, police said.

The couple were pronounced dead at the scene. They leave behind their six children between ages 8 and 18, Fresno's Fox 26 reported.

At least 26 farm workers in Kern County have been detained this month through immigration enforcement raids in the area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The state of California has been a key battleground in the national debate on immigration, with the Trump administration seeking to tighten rules and construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, in the interest of public safety -- and liberal Democrats looking to create "sanctuary" communities where immigrants can live with less fear of deportation and the breakup of families.

"Once the family realized it was ICE, they got scared, more than likely, and took off," United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez said, according to the Times. "Now six children are left without any parents as a result of these aggressive actions by ICE."

Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants rights at the ACLU of Southern California, blamed ICE for the crash, faulting inhumane tactics and the fear it provokes in hardworking people who stand to lose everything if they are deported, the Times reported.

The investigation is ongoing.A former Kentucky police officer involved in two cases that wrongfully imprisoned three men for a combined 55 years could now be investigated.

The Courier Journal reported Wednesday that Louisville Metro Council Public Safety Committee Chairwoman Jessica Green is calling for the state to investigate former Metro police Detective Mark Handy. If the full council approves Green's measure, the city would formally ask the Kentucky attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to review Handy.

In January 2017, Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine's office told police there wasn't enough evidence to criminally charge Handy. Federal prosecutors also declined saying their investigation was limited to possible perjury in one civil lawsuit.

Handy retired in February as a Jefferson County deputy sheriff. His attorney did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment.

___

Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.comA bridge collapse Thursday at Florida International University left at least four people dead, officials said. Florida Highway Patrol confirmed to Fox News that there were multiple fatalities after the "Instant Bridge" collapsed just before 2 p.m. at the Miami-area university. Eight vehicles were trapped under the wreckage.

Local, state and national politicians and lawmakers were soon responding to the news, calling for prayers and saying they were closely monitoring the situation as it developed.

Here's what they've said.

President Donald Trump

"Continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU - so tragic," the president tweeted Thursday night. "Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected."

Vice President Mike Pence

"Saddened by the news of the bridge collapse at @FIU," Vice President Mike Pence tweeted shortly after Trump. "Our prayers are w/ the victims & their loved ones. @SecElaineChao has been in contact w/ elected officials & @NTSB is sending a team to investigate. @POTUS & I will continue to monitor developments closely."

Rick Scott

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he spoke "with Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez about the pedestrian bridge collapse at FIU," adding that he would "be in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day."

A tax cut highlight event that Scott was slated to participate in was canceled in light of the news.

Bill Nelson

"My heart goes out to the victims and the families affected by this tragic bridge collapse," Florida Senator Bill Nelson tweeted. Nelson said he asked "Sec. of Transportation (Elaine) Chao to start an immediate investigation and assist the university as it is going through this tough time."

Marco Rubio

"Terrible news coming from Miami as a pedestrian bridge has collapsed at @FIU and multiple deaths are reported," Florida Senator Marco Rubio tweeted. "We will pray for the victims and the entire Panther community."

Rubio, who said he was an adjunct professor at the school for 10 years, labeled the collapse a "horrifying tragedy."

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tweeted that the university community required prayers. "My alma mater, @FIU, needs your prayers today for the victims of the horrible bridge collapse and the university community," she wrote. "Every Panther mourns this afternoon."

Mario Diaz-Balart

"Shocked and distraught by the horrific SW 8 Street bridge collapse," Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart tweeted. "Praying for the victims, and for our first responders who are searching for survivors." Balart said that he was contacted by Chao and said he was "grateful" for her "concern and support at this time."

Carlos Curbelo

"My staff is on the ground to assist with federal coordination and will continue to be available to any constituents affected and in need of support," Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo tweeted. "As soon as immediate needs have been met, we need to get to the bottom of what happened today and ensure it never happens again."

Tom Perez

"Sending my thoughts to everyone affected by today's bridge collapse in Miami, and eternally grateful for the courage and heroism of our first responders, who continually put themselves in harm's way for the sake of their neighbors," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez tweeted.The Signal has announced three new shows for May. They include Breaking Benjamin with 10 Years, Aaron Watson and Machine Gun Kelly.

Breaking Benjamin with 10 Years will be in concert on Thursday, May 3. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $39 in advance, $43 day of show and available at Songbirds Guitar Museum, online at thesignaltn.com or by phone at 877-4FLY-TIX. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Aaron Watson will perform Thursday, May 10. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of show and are available at Songbirds Guitar Museum, online at thesignaltn.com or by phone at 877-4FLY-TIX. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Review for Aaron Watson:

Aaron Watson isnt interested in what someone else thinks he should do. But instead of getting lonely as he sidesteps expectations, hes gaining followershundreds of thousands of them. Delivered with a warm smile and fueled by a wild spirit, Watsons rebellion echoes the land that helped make him.

Watson remains strikingly similar to the people that still dot his native West Texas. Theyre a rugged people, proud of home but humble and hardworking, the first to help a neighbor but also fiercely independent. And Watson is unquestionably one of them.

Ive always considered myself an anti-rock star, Watson says, his drawl cracking slightly as he grins. People dont like me because Im a rock star. People like me because Im just like them.

Throughout his 17-year career that spans a dozen albums and more than 2,500 shows throughout the U.S. and Europe, 39-year-old Watson has stubbornly and sincerely identified with the everymaneven as hes proven to be the exception to the rule.

The latest evidence of Watsons homespun singularity is Vaquero, an ambitious 16-song set of character-driven storytelling, level-headed cultural commentary, and love songs for grown- ups that promise to further solidify his status as one of todays finest torch-bearers of real country music.

Machine Gun Kelly will perform Tuesday, May 15. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 day of show. They are available now at Songbirds Guitar Museum, online at thesignaltn.com or by phone at 877-4FLY-TIX.An Indiana woman dubbed Grandma Stinker was arrested Wednesday after police -- tipped off she was getting drugs shipped to her by her son -- found marijuana, methamphetamines and narcotic prescriptions at her home, authorities said.

Debra Ferguson was arrested after an unidentified person called police saying the 58-year-old was receiving regular shipments of marijuana from her son, Eric Anderson, FOX19 reported. The shipments would be addressed to Grandma Stinker and would be sent from Andersons Yuba County home in California to Fergusons Aurora home in Indiana.

Police arrived at Fergusons home and soon found a package with about 1.5 pounds of marijuana, officials said.

Investigators, however, found much more than marijuana when they searched further.

"Officers discovered numerous narcotic prescription medications packaged for delivery along with multiple packages of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, packaging supplies, cell phones and an undisclosed amount of cash," Aurora Police Chief Josh Daugherty told FOX19.

Ferguson was charged with dealing in methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, corrupt business influence, conspiracy to deal marijuana, dealing in marijuana, dealing in a narcotic drug, possession of a narcotic and maintaining common nuisance.

Police issued a warrant for Fergusons son on charges of corrupt business influence, conspiracy to deal marijuana and dealing in marijuana.A Nobel Prize-winning Purdue University chemistry professor appeared confused when police discovered him wandering alone on an Illinois road near the dead body of his wife, just hours after the couple was reported missing in Indiana.

The Ogle County Sheriffs Office said deputies found the body of Sumire Negishi, 80, and the couples car Tuesday at Orchard Hills Landfill, outside Rockford, shortly after they found Ei-ichi Negishi, 82, walking in a daze.

The sheriffs department said they are investigating Sumire Negishis death but foul play was not suspected. They said they would not discuss autopsy results.

Ei-ichi Negishi has been hospitalized.

The couple was reported missing Monday from their home about 200 miles away in West Lafayette, Ind.

DYLAN ROOFS SISTER ARRESTED ON WEAPONS, DRUG CHARGES

The couples family released a statement to WTHR claiming the Negishis were attempting to drive to Rockford International Airport but may have veered off the road. They also said Sumire was battling Parkinsons disease.

We are devastated by the loss of our beloved wife and mother, Sumire Negishi, who was near the end of her battle with Parkinsons. She was traveling with her lifelong partner and husband, Ei-ichi Negishi, who was apparently suffering from an acute state of confusion and shock, the statement read. The car was stuck in a ditch and determined to be non-functioning and [Ei-ichi] appeared to be searching for help."

Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, released a statement expressing his condolences to the Negishi family.

US FORCES AMBUSHED IN NIGER AGAIN, MILITARY SAYS

Purdue University and the world have lost a dear friend in the death of Sumire Negishi, he wrote. Throughout a lifetime of love and loyalty, she supported her husband in a career of tremendous contributions to science and to the teaching and training of subsequence generations of top scientists.

"It appears that the Parkinsons disease from which she has been suffering and the mental confusion that age can bring to the most brilliant minds combined to produce the recent tragic events. That these phenomena are so common does not make their consequences any less cruel, Daniels continued.

Ei-ichi Negishi won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010 for the "development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling," according to a press release by Nobel Prizes and Laureates.

"This chemical tool has vastly improved the possibilities for chemists to create sophisticated chemicals, for example carbon-based molecules as complex as those created by nature itself," the statement read.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A Northern California man was reportedly arrested Sunday after authorities found more than 100 dead hawks and other birds on his 80-acre property.

Authorities went to the property after receiving a tip, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Someone reported that a person was firing a gun at what appeared to be a hawk. Wildlife officials toured the property and said they found hawks scattered throughout.

Property owner Richard Parker, 67, was booked into the Lassen County jail on charges including take of birds of prey and take of migratory non-game birds protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, authorities said. The website of the county jail did not show whether Parker had a lawyer to comment on the charges.

Birds of prey are broadly valued by farmers and others for helping keep down rodent populations. State law bars killing them. All of the birds appear to have been shot, Foy said. Most were red-tailed hawks, but other birds killed included an owl, at least one magpie songbird, and North America's largest hawk, the migratory ferruginous hawk.

Capt. Patrick Foy, a member of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the paper that the findings were like nothing hes ever seen.

Ive been doing this for 21 years and some of us have been around in excess of three decades. We all kind of looked at each other and said weve known of nothing close to this many raptors involved in a poaching case, Foy told the paper.

Authorities are still working to determine the types of birds that were killed because each comes with a different potential penalty, the report said. Killing one raptor, the report said, can result in six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

David Bess, chief of law enforcement for the state wildlife agency, called the scale of the raptor killings "unprecedented" for California.

It could take years for the local raptor population to recover, Bass said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.More than 150 animals living in squalid conditions were rescued this week from a muddy, feces-ridden backyard farm in Washington state.

The Hooved Animal Rescue called it one of the worst cases of animal abuse theyve ever seen.

When we put fresh water down for them, they just scrambled for that water, Kathy Bailey, president of Hooved Animal Rescue of Thurston County told Q13FOX. I dont know how long it has been since they had fresh water. It was heartbreaking to see that.

Officials on Sunday reported to the property, where they found goats housed in stalls filled with feces and several miniature horses with severely overgrown hooves living in the muck and mud.

There was a dog that was kept in a kennel that was filled with feces and urine, Bailey said. The food was thrown down on the feces for the dog to eat. The water bucket had old straw and feces on it and the water inside was full of algae.

She said the majority of the animals need to get X-rays done and be nursed back to health.

Many have sores from being bitten by live, rain rot and many [of the miniature horses] are stallions who will need to be gelded before being adopted into homes, Bailey added.

Hooved Animal Rescue said it took in one horse, 23 miniature horses and 10 goats, while animal services rescued 19 animals, including three rabbits and six domestic birds. The Thurston County Sheriffs Office removed more than 100 chickens, turkeys, ducks and doves.

The property owners have not been officially charged and Thurston County Animal Services plans to refer at least 19 charges for second-degree animal cruelty. Additional charges could be added depending on the outcome of a full investigation, Q13FOX reported.

The rescue says it will take at last $15,000 to start nursing the animals back to health.An Indiana-based neo-Nazi leader  who sued Donald Trump after being accused of shoving a woman at a 2016 campaign rally  now faces charges of battery and strangulation after allegedly assaulting his wifes stepfather.

The latest dispute reportedly stems from Matthew Heimbach's alleged affair with the stepfather's wife.

Heimbach, 26, was charged Tuesday with one count of battery, a misdemeanor, and one county of domestic battery, a felony, online court records show. He was reportedly arrested on preliminary charges of battery.

He is the leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party, an organization regarded as a hate group because of its white supremacist rhetoric. Heimbach was a key figure in promoting the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August last year.

The charges of battery come after a confusing love triangle went sour. Heimbach allegedly attacked his wife's stepfather, Matt Parrott, after the stepfather confronted Heimbach over Heimbach's alleged affair with the stepfather's wife, Louisville news station WHAS-TV reported.

Heimbach is married to Parrotts former stepdaughter from another marriage.

Until the alleged assault, Parrott served as a spokesman for the Traditionalist Worker Party. He told the Daily Beast that the dispute was a white trash circus, and the group is no more. The groups website is no longer active.

According to a police report, Parrott  together with his former stepdaughter  caught Heimbach and the stepfather's wife having sex inside a trailer. Heimbach allegedly choked the stepfather into unconsciousness.

Parrott called police Tuesday to report the scuffle. At Heimbach's home, a local police officer was said to have heard Heimbach telling his own wife to his own wife to send the police away and tell them everything is fine. He was also heard yelling at her.

After police arrived, the wife told an officer that Heimbach pushed her and grabbed her face  all in front of the children. Her cheeks were red around the mouth area, read a report from one officer.

Heimbach is known for countersuing Trump last year after he was sued by another party over an alleged assault at Trumps campaign rally. Heimbach claimed he attacked people based on Trumps order to remove disruptive persons.

But the arrest Tuesday may have dire consequences for a case in a Kentucky court, as Heimbach ultimately pleaded guilty last year to charges of second-degree disorderly conduct at a 2016 Trump rally and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

The prison sentence was waived, but Heimbach was put on a two-year probation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A conservative tenured law professor at the University of Pennsylvania has been removed from teaching required first-year law courses for comments she made about black students in her classes.

Law school dean Ted Ruger said professor Amy Wax spoke disparagingly and inaccurately about the performance of black students during a September 2017 interview with Brown University economics professor Glenn Loury on the downside of affirmative action.

Heres a very inconvenient fact, Glenn, Wax told the host. I dont think Ive ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class, and rarely, rarely in the top half. I can think of one or two students whove scored in the top half of my required first year course.

Wax also talked about Penn Laws closely guarded secret that Penn Law Review has a racial diversity mandate.

Although Ruger has defended Wax before, he wrote a letter to the Penn Law community to state Waxs claims are false.

"Black students have graduated in the top of the class at Penn Law, and the Law Review does not have a diversity mandate. Rather, its editors are selected based on a competitive process," he said. "And contrary to any suggestion otherwise, black students at Penn Law are extremely successful, both inside and outside the classroom, in the job market and in their careers."

A Penn Law spokesman told Fox News Wax has not been demoted or sanctioned in any way. She has tenure at the university and will retain her salary and her seniority. She will continue to teach a full course load of electives but will not be teaching a mandatory first-year law school course.

Wax has made provocative statements before, claiming Anglo-Protestant cultural norms are superior to others. She also claimed in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed last year that America should return to the bourgeois culture of the 1950s. In that article, she condemned "the single-parent, anti-social habits, prevalent among some working-class whites," ''the anti 'acting white' rap culture of inner-city blacks" and the "anti-assimilation ideas gaining ground among some Hispanic immigrants" and said they were not suited for a "First World, 21st-century environment."

In a lecture defending the op-ed, Wax warned against the backlash she had received, adding, at one point, Ruger admitted to her there is only one acceptable view on immigration at Penn Law.

She read a quote someone wrote about her situation: What happened to Amy Wax can happen to you. There is nothing stopping anyone from coming after you. If you say something deemed unacceptable, with public shaming and unreasoned condemnation, once you are labeled a hater, a xenophobe, a racist, or a white supremacist, that label will stick and nothing else will matter in this internet age.

Jonathan Zimmerman, an education history professor at Penn who has previously defended Wax, told Inside Higher Ed he disagrees with her on a number of issues but found the universitys reaction chilling.

Is there any achievement gap among law students? Zimmerman asked. Id like to know the degree to which there is or isnt, and the deans statement is creatively ambiguous, what the lawyers among us might call nonresponsive.

Another Penn professor, Marybeth Gasman, the director for Penn Center for Minority-Serving Institutions told Inside Higher Ed it was apparent Wax did not have data and instead relied on false anecdotes to make her claim.

Wax did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A California police dog took a few lumps for the team after jumping into action Wednesday to help officers make an arrest.

Fountain Valley police Officer Bill Hughes, and his German shepherd K9 partner named Perro, were en route to a training session when they saw a suspect running from a Riverside police officer, the Orange County Register reported.

Hughes and his furry companion got out of their vehicle and rushed to assist the officer, who had the suspect on the ground.

At one point, he had one cuff only but his hand was free, Fountain Valley police Sgt. Kham Vang told the paper. Due to the fact he was resisting, Perro was used to control the suspect but the man kept resisting.

The suspect punched Perro several times and also attempted to choke the dog, the paper reported.

The man was eventually subdued and handcuffed. The suspect was booked on several felony charges, police said.

Perro was checked out by a veterinarian, and aside from a minor injury near an eye was deemed A-OK!, the paper reported.

Click here for more from the Orange County Register.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.A Georgia man convicted of raping and killing several older women, and who was known as the "stocking strangler," was executed shortly after 10:30 p.m. EDT Thursday.

The office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Car said 67-year-old Carlton Gary was executed at the state prison in Jackson. He was the first inmate executed by Georgia this year.

Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the scheduled execution, but offered no explanation for rejecting the request.

Gary was initially scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. EDT. But that time passed as his case was before the nation's highest court.

Police said Gary was arrested in May 1984 when a gun stolen during a 1977 burglary in an upscale neighbor of Columbus -- where all but one of his victims lived -- was traced back to him.

Prosecutors said Gary attacked nine elderly women from September 1977 to April 1978. Seven of them died. However, he was only charged and convicted for three counts each of malice, murder, rape and burglary for the deaths of 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff.

The victims were all older white women who lived alone and were sexually assaulted and choked -- usually with stockings, prosecutors said during his trial. All but one of the Georgia victims lived in the Wynnton neighborhood, and all lived near Gary's home at the time of the crimes.

Gary's lawyers have argued in a clemency petition and in filings before state and federal courts that evidence that wasn't available to his trial attorney proves he's not the "stocking strangler."

Perhaps most compelling, they have argued, is that DNA from sperm found on clothing taken from one of the victims' homes was later found to belong to someone other than Gary. This is especially significant, they contend, because the woman survived the attack and dramatically identified him at trial.

Bodily fluid testing on semen found on Thurmond's body and on stains on Scheible's sheets also likely exclude Gary, his lawyers argue, adding DNA testing that could have confirmed that could not be done because the samples were contaminated at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab.

Additionally, they say, bite mark and fingerprint evidence relied upon by the prosecution was problematic and a shoeprint found at one of the crime scenes doesn't match with Gary.

But the parole board, the only authority in Georgia with the power to commute a death sentence, on Wednesday declined to spare his life after holding a closed-door hearing to listen to arguments for and against clemency.

Appeals filed by Gary's attorneys were still pending Thursday morning before the Georgia Supreme Court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state has argued in court filings that the evidence Gary's lawyers present as new has already been considered by the courts and that his convictions and sentence have repeatedly been upheld by state and federal courts over the past three decades.

Gary filed a handwritten motion Thursday in federal court asking a judge to postpone his execution and appoint a new attorney for him. Gary wrote that he has met with an attorney only once since his motion for new trial was denied in September and hasn't seen his attorneys since his execution date was set about three weeks ago.

His attorneys haven't consulted with him on legal strategy and that he "should have had knowledge of and input into all motions and presentations involving him in these matters," he wrote.

Gary's attorneys did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. The state has filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the request.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.College Republicans at the University of California, Merced campus said they were harassed last week after setting up a provocative anti-illegal immigration display.

The conservative students said others on campus threatened them with violence and the administration not only failed to do anything about it, but condemned them as well.

The College Republicans incurred the wrath of several students after they set up a table on campus to promote an anti-illegal immigration agenda in the famously liberal state. The table had signs with slogans such as I Love Undocumented Firearms and ICE ICE Baby, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It also had a phone number for federal immigration authorities.

Students at the school, which prides itself for having a large number of students who are illegal immigrants, reacted angrily. A gaggle of student protesters confronted the Republican student group, chanting things such as immigration, not deportation. The exchange grew so heated, police were eventually called.

And the attacks against the group didnt end there, the students said.

10 screenshots and Ill punch him, one opposing student wrote on Snapchat.

When I walk by and I see ICE, ICE Baby, I want to sock you all in your face, another protester told the College Republicans in a video posted on YouTube.

Members of the group said that, instead of trying to protect them, UCM Chancellor Dorothy Leland, a strong supporter of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and sanctuary campuses, condemned them.

It troubles me to think that some in our Bobcat family would wish harm upon [undocumented students] and that through their speech, they would deliberately introduce added stress and anxiety into their fellow students lives, Leland said in the statement. UC Merced remains committed to doing everything in its power to enable our undocumented students to pursue their education.

The chancellor boasts that the college has the most undocumented students on campus of any UC schools. She claims the College Republicans violated UC Merceds Principles of Community, saying the signs were clearly intended to create an unwelcome environment for our nearly 600 undocumented students.

But members of the College Republicans say they were the ones who were actually subjected to "an unwelcome environment."

Free speech is the foundation of an open society. A university is where someone challenges their beliefs by being exposed to differing ones, UCMCR President Harrison Duran told Campus Reform. ICE maintains order and ensures that the rights of citizens do not come after the rights of those from a foreign nation.

UCM spokesman James Leonard defended the chancellors statement. He said the provocative signs by the College Republicans were not trying to start up peaceful discussions on campus  but instead were hateful messages intended to intimidate and inflame students on campus.

Many members of our campus community are concerned that some recent actions went beyond the expression of political views and rose to the level of direct threats to individuals, Leonard told Fox News. Any claims of direct, personal threats  by anyone, against anyone  will be investigated by campus administration to determine whether the Code of Student Conduct was violated.Faculty and staff from Cleveland State Community College attended the National Association of School Heads High Impact Practices conference in Los Angeles.

Representatives from CSCC were able to meet with student success experts and staff from other higher education systems to collaborate on evidence-based strategies that will increase access and success, especially for low-income students and students of color.

CSCCs Early Childhood Education Program was one of seven programs in the state of Tennessee was that chosen as a NASH recipient. Campuses were selected based on their ability to work with large numbers of underserved students and faculty engagement in HIPs.Just days after the poisoning of a Russian double agent and his daughter in Salisbury with a military-grade nerve agent, the United Kingdom on Thursday will reportedly announce plans to construct a nearly $70 million chemical weapons defense center.

In a planned speech on Thursday, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson will emphasize that "the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from others," the BBC reported.

The new facility, which is set to be sited at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory in Wiltshire, will "ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defense," Williamson will say.

That lab helped identify the nerve agent used in the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, which Williamson will reportedly call "shocking and reckless" in his speech.

"We know the chemical threat doesn't just come from Russia but from others."  British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson

Williamson is also expected to announce that thousands of British troops will receive an anthrax vaccine.

NORTH KOREA EXPERIMENTING WITH ANTHRAX ON ICBMS

Traces of anthrax antibodies were discovered in the system of a North Korean soldier who had defected to South Korea at some point in 2017, a local South Korean television station reported.

And there have been reports North Korea is beginning tests on mounting anthrax onto intercontinental ballistic missiles that would strike the U.S.

The announcement comes as relations between Britain and Russia plunged this week to a chilly level not seen since the Cold War.

Prime Minister Theresa May this week expelled 23 diplomats, severed high-level contacts and vowed both open and covert action against Kremlin meddling after the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter.

May told the House of Commons that 23 Russians diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers have a week to leave Britain.

RUSSIA PROMISES RETALIATION FOR EXPULSION OF DIPLOMATS

"This will be the single biggest expulsion for over 30 years," May said, adding that it would "fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability in the U.K. for years to come."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.American forces in Niger were the targets of yet another terrorist ambush, a December attack disclosed by U.S. Africa Command on Wednesday -- the latest revelation coming amid the fallout from a deadly October ambush and as lawmakers increasingly question the U.S. mission in the African country.

U.S. Africa Command said the Dec. 6 ambush, in which 11 ISIS fighters were killed and no U.S. or Nigerien troops were injured, happened in the Lake Chad Basin area during a mission to set the conditions for future partner-led operations against violent extremist organizations in the region."

A combined force of Nigerien and U.S. military members came under fire from a formation of violent extremists, Africa Command said in a statement to Fox News. We assessed 11 enemy killed in action, including two wearing suicide vests, and one weapons cache destroyed during this mission.

An official that spoke to the New York Times on condition of anonymity said it was one of the first major forays for U.S. troops back into the field since the Oct. 4 ambush.

The official said Green Berets were assisting Nigerien troops on a multiday operation in early December near Diffa, a city near the countrys border with Nigeria. Their goal was to clear a potentially hostile area so the Nigeriens could set up a base there, but it is not clear if that base was ever built, the New York Times added, citing the official.

The attack was not mentioned in testimony to Congress this month by Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of Africa Command, but a senior House Republican aide told the New York Times that lawmakers were made aware of it in December, shortly after it happened.

The incident followed an October attack in which four U.S. soldiers were killed after their convoy in Africa was hit by rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire.

About 50 Islamic extremists ambushed the group of U.S. and Nigerien troops in that attack, wounding two additional Americans and killing 10 Nigeriens.

The team reportedly was in unarmored trucks when the ambush occurred on a return route from the capital city of Niamey. The group was ambushed by ISIS-affiliated militants traveling by vehicle, and the terrorists were likely tipped off by local villagers.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said air support wasn't requested for the attack area until an hour after the ambush began. It took two French Mirage fighter jets 30 minutes to respond to the request, and the jets werent overhead until two hours after the battle started.

After the deadly ambush made headlines, several lawmakers expressed concern with decisions leading up to the attack -- while others in Washington admitted being surprised there were any U.S. troops in Niger.

Dunford also said following the attack that the military still needs to investigate several matters, including: whether the U.S. had adequate intelligence and equipment for its operation, whether there was a planning failure and why it took so long to recover the body of Sgt. La David Johnson.

The 25-year-olds body wasnt found until two days after the ambush. Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson 39; and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29, were the others killed.

Brig. Gen. Donald C. Bolduc, a former United States Special Operations in Africa commander, told the New York Times on Wednesday there have been around 10 instances of American troops and their partners being attacked in Niger and West Africa between 2015 and 2017, wth those engagements resulting in no American casualties.

U.S. forces have been in Niger for more than 20 years and a joint special operations task force was created by the U.S. in 2008.

In 2011, U.S. and French forces set up a counterterrorism force in the country, led by the French, with 4,000 troops and 35,000 Nigerien troops. There are now 800 U.S. troops in Niger and 6,000 U.S. troops within 53 countries in Africa, according to Dunford.

But the presence of American soldiers in Niger has reignited a debate about the Authorization for Use of Military Force  a public law enacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At issue is whether the law gives the president the authority to take action against all terrorist organizations, not just Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.American authorities have asked three medical experts to determine whether a 99-year-old Minnesota man can travel to Poland to face trial on charges that he was involved in Nazi war crimes during World War II.

Ukrainian-born Michael Karkoc, who lives in Minneapolis, was identified by The Associated Press in 2013 as a former commander of an SS-led Nazi unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians during the war.

Poland asked the U.S. to hand over Karkoc for trial last July. It was not immediately clear when Karkoc would be examined to determine his fitness to traval.

Karkoc's family denies that he was involved in any war crimes. On Thursday, his son, Andriy Karkoc, issued a statement saying: "My father was, is and remains innocent. We look forward to his complete exoneration."

Prosecutors from Poland's National Remembrance Institute claim that evidence shows that American Michael K.  whose last name they haven't released in line with Poland's privacy laws  was a commander of a unit in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion that raided eastern Poland's village of Chlaniow in July 1944, killing 44 people, including women and children.

The investigation was opened after The AP published a series of stories establishing that Karkoc commanded the unit, based on wartime documents, testimony from other members of the unit and Karkoc's own Ukrainian-language memoir. The AP also established that Karkoc lied to American immigration officials to get into the United States several years after the war.

German prosecutors also opened an investigation into Karkoc after The AP's 2013 stories. In 2015, they concluded there was enough evidence to pursue murder charges, but shelved their investigation, deciding Karkoc was unfit to stand trial based upon medical reports from his own doctors.

Andriy Karkoc reiterated that Thursday, saying his family provided copies of his father's physical and mental health records to the German government in 2015, and the Germans suspended their investigation based on those records. He said the records were also provided to the director of the U.S. Department of Justice Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section.

Karkoc said as of Thursday, the family hasn't heard from anyone at the Polish Embassy, the State Department or the Department of Justice.

State and Justice both said it's their policy not to comment on specific extradition requests.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Last year's formation of a crescent-shaped strip of sand that jutted into the Atlantic Ocean off the point of Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina may no longer exist -- but that's not stopping a Virginia man who claims he's the rightful owner of the sliver of land.

The National Park Service disclosed Tuesday that Shelly Island, which first appeared in the spring of 2017 along North Carolina's Outer Banks, did not make it into the new year after hurricane season and winter storms redistributed the sand.

"It is not completely surprising that the sandbar existed for less than a year," the National Park Service said. "Due to the dynamic nature of the area off Hatteras Island, sandbars appear and disappear frequently. The only surprise is just how quickly a sandbar the size of Shelly Island (approximately 27 acres at its largest size) disappeared."

But a man who filed a deed for ownership last year said the island is still there.

My land is in the exact SAME spot. It cannot ever move. Metes and Bounds exist for this exact reason, Ken Barlow told the Charlottes Observer in an email, referencing the system used to legally describe land. I was on the point last Saturday and used my hand held GPS and my trucks GPS to confirm my land is above the water line and was blending with the point just as I predicted. My land will always be there.

The Mechanicsville, Virginia resident claims he owns the island because North Carolina is a race statute state, which means the first party to record a deed owns the property. Barlow wanted to keep the island out of the National Park Service and its policies, which he claims are incompetent.

He filed a deed on Aug. 7, which was then disputed by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, according to the Observer.

The dispute over the sandy strip never made it further in the courts, though, now that the island appears to be gone.

NORTH CAROLINA OFFICIALS RESCUE AT LEAST 5 FROM NEW OUTER BANKS ISLAND

North Carolina state officials told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that no private citizen can own such a sandbar or island, as state law says the title to any island formed in navigable waters shall vest in the state. If the now-underwater sandbar ends up merging with nearby Cape Point, then ownership goes to the park service, according to the newspaper.

NASA released satellite photos on Saturday showing the short-lived life of "Shelly Island," noting the reasons for the island's formation are "complex and not entirely clear."

"Coastal scientists have speculated that weather conditions were just right in 2017," NASA said. "Winds were strong enough to stir up the waves and currents that carry sand alongshore from the more northerly barrier islands toward the cape. Then winds became calm enough for that sand transport to be halted by obstacles such as circular currents within Hatteras Bight and the expansive shoals of the cape. Sand accumulated, an island grew, and tourists flocked to the area to witness the spectacle."

While "Shelly Island" may have had a unique formation, its demise is "somewhat clearer," according to NASA.

NEW ISLAND APPEARS OFF NORTH CAROLINA COAST, TOURISTS ROWING OVER DESPITE WARNINGS

"Erosion occurs all of the time on barrier islands, but it was especially acute in the fall when it was fueled by a series of hurricanes, including Irma and Jose in early September, and Hurricane Maria later that month," the agency said. After making it through hurricane season, winter storms continued to "batter what was left of the island and wash it away."

Barlow told the Times-Dispatch all he wanted to do was claim ownership out of his "disdain" for the park service, and ultimately wanted to name it Hatteras Island Veterans Park.

The island is wide open for anybody to use it, he told the newspaper. Its never going to be shut down for birds, turtles, whales, dolphins, anything.A 37-year-old woman was charged with felony murder Wednesday in connection with last weeks shooting death of a Clinton, Mo., police officer.

Authorities said Tammy Dee Widger did not directly kill Officer Ryan Morton, but was being charged in connection with his death because the shooting resulted from a drug-related crime for which Widger was previously charged, the Kansas City Star reported.

Clinton is about 76 miles southeast of Kansas City, Mo.

Morton was killed inside Widgers Clitnon home after he and four other officers went there March 6 in response to a 911 call. Authorities later determined that the officers had gone to the wrong address.

When the officers arrived at Widgers home, she told them that she hadnt called 911 and that nothing was wrong, but the officers entered anyway, because they were responding to an emergency call, authorities said.

Thats when James Waters, 37, who was inside the home, opened fire on the officers, authorities said.

Morton was mortally wounded and four other officers escaped, but officers were not able to get medical attention for Morton because a gunfight continued with Waters, authorities said.

Hours later, when a police SWAT team entered the home, they found Morton and Waters both dead.

While executing a search warrant on the property, police found Widgers purse, which they said contained what appeared to be marijuana, methamphetamine and pills, Kansas Citys Fox 4 reported.

Authorities said Widger admitted assisting Waters in distributing methamphetamine, and she was charged accordingly, the station reported.

Widger appeared in court March 8 in connection with the drug charge and remained in custody on a bond raised to $100,000.

She is scheduled to return to court April 6, the Star reported, noting that no attorney had yet been appointed to her case.

Mortons funeral was held Monday in Clinton, with thousands of law enforcement officers and military members in attendance, the newspaper reported.From the waters of Maryland to those of the Amazon, famed fisherman Bernard Victor "Lefty" Kreh reeled in 126 species of fish and new generations of fishing enthusiasts.

The Baltimore Sun reports Kreh died in his sleep of congestive heart failure Wednesday afternoon. He was 93.

A member of three fishing halls of fame, Kreh cast his line on every populated continent, fishing alongside presidents, Ernest Hemingway, Fidel Castro and greats of other sports. In addition to authoring 32 books and columns for The Miami Herald and The Baltimore Sun, he designed a fly celebrated on a U.S. Postal Service stamp.

A Maryland fishing trail bears his name, as does a strain of anthrax. While working at Fort Detrick, he was the sole survivor of accidental exposure to the virus.

___

Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.comYemen has displaced civil war-shattered Syria as the world's worst humanitarian crisis - where the situation could get even worse if a bill proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders to end U.S. involvement in the conflict becomes law.

That's according to critics of the call by the Vermont senator and former Democratic presidential candidate to disengage the U.S. from the ongoing conflict between Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, who have waged a three-year, scorched-earth war against a Saudi-backed Sunni government.

The controversial U.S involvement in Yemen, in support of the Saudi effort, could end as early as next week if the bipartisan bill introduced late last month by Sanders and Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) can be forced to a floor vote, as its backers anticipate.

Sanders argues the Obama adminisration in 2015 deployed U.S. forces to support the Saudi coaltion without consulting Congress. And that makes ongoing U.S. efforts there an "illegal" war, Sanders maintains.

The Saudi-led war in Yemen has created a humanitarian disaster in one of the regions poorest countries, Sanders wrote on Facebook. The chaos in Yemen has also been strategically disastrous for the U.S., providing fertile ground for extremist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, and creating new opportunities for Iranian intervention.

The Saudi-led coalition, which receives military support from the United States, is accused by much of the international community of waging an arbitrary aerial and ground campaign against civilians across its border. The U.S. also supports the Saudi-led coalition by assisting with logistics such as air refueling.

But others argue Sanders view fails to acknowledge the destruction may only worse should the U.S withdraw - and thereby heighten Irans power and influence in the already-tumultuous region.

The U.S is assisting to stop an Iranian-Hezbollah base, so the question is whether we prefer whether we want Iran to have that capability, said Ryan Mauro, national security and defense analyst for the Clarion Project. Mauro cautioned there could be severe economic consequences if Iranian influence is given a freer hand.

The downside of halting support for our allies in the Yemen war is that the war will continue, with heavier civilian losses if the cutoff of U.S. intelligence leads to greater collateral losses in Saudi air strikes, while Washingtons reputation as a dependable ally will be damaged, added Jim Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern sffairs at the Heritage Foundation. The ending of U.S. participation in the naval quarantine will result in fewer interceptions of ships carrying Iranian arms to the Houthis and a greater risk that Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia will escalate the crisis.

Phillips also cautioned a U.S. withdrawal could enable the Houthis to increase the threat they pose to civilian shipping, the U.S. Navy and the navies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the Red Sea.

The U.S should continue its diplomatic, logistical and limited military support for the Saudi-led coalition that supports the internationally recognized government of Yemen, he said.

The Houthi rebels  who control the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and have forced the legitimate Yemen government to operate from Aden  are accused of relentlessly firing artillery into cities, planting landmines, and recruiting child soldiers.

The Iranian government denies providing direct military support to the Houthis. But that claim that is dismissed by the U.S., which is said to have intercepted Iranian long-range missiles fired over the Yemeni border.

While the debate over involvement and finger-pointing continues, there is no doubt the proxy conflict is taking its toll on civilians.

The situation continues to deteriorate, and the longer it lasts the more fragmentation will occur. Yemen has replaced Syria as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, Dominick Stillhart, operations chief of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Fox News. Health services are down, water and sanitation systems have been severely affected. There are difficulties importing fuel.

ISIS, SQUEEZED OUT OF IRAQ AND SYRIA, NOW 'REGROUPING' IN LIBYA, ANALYSTS SAY

AMERICA'S ROLE IN YEMEN WAR MUST END, US LAWMAKERS DEMAND

This war has killed more than 10,000, displaced over two million and seen the return of preventable diseases like cholera and more recently, diphtheria. That normally preventable bacterial disease has affected over 500 and led to several deaths, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and fears have been raised that it will spread like wildfire as conditions crumble across the country.

The war has stopped the wheel of the economy and there is income, only the military system gets money. Most people cant get food to get enough strength for the day, Ahmed Aladhmed, a 36-year-old living in Marib city, told Fox News. This war destroyed my country.

A total of 22.2 million people, just over 75 percent of Yemens population of 29 million, are now in dire need of humanitarian assistance  a figure that has climbed some 1.5 million in just the last six months.

Locals are begging in the streets, and a lot of the humanitarian relief packages that the U.N. agencies and other NGOs provide are sold on the black market, explained Hebah, a 35-year-old in Aden. The majority of Yemeni are extremely poor and cant access health care services. Diseases, starvation, is killing us.

For the likes of Fahmi Albaheth, a 32-year-old aid-worker who visits various cities across Yemen, its the unseen scars that are the most haunting.

People have lost hope and that is the worst thing. The war causes serious psychological illnesses for children, women and even adults, she said. Children need special care to recover from the fears caused by the war, because children are the future of this country.It's a warning that has been echoed on stages across the globe for centuries: "Cave Idus Martiae" or "Beware the Ides of March."

William Shakespeare coined the phrase in his tragedy Julius Caesar."

According to the play, a fortune-teller whispered the words to Caesar, the dictator of the Roman empire, before he was assassinated -- stabbed 23 times by a group of his own senators led by brothers-in-law Cassius and Brutus in 44 B.C.

"Not only did Shakespeares words stick, they branded the phrase with a dark and gloomy connotation that will forever make people uncomfortable," History.com said in a post online. "The great poet...could not have imagined the life it's taken on the 500 years since."

Shakespeare may be the reason why the line is famous today, but the Ides of March -- a date on the Roman calendar that coincides with March 15 -- has been significant long before Shakespeare's early 1600s play.

What does 'Ides of March' mean?

To ancient Romans, "Ides" translated to "middle." So the phrase actually means "middle of the month," which falls on the 15th day of the month in March, May, July and October and the 13th day of the other months.

What occasion did the Ides of March initially mark?

The Ides was used to mark the first full moon of the month.

In the olden days, the Roman calendar was divided into three parts -- the "Calends," "Nones" and "Ides" -- to identify special lunar events.

The "Calends" signified the "start of the new moon cycle" on the first day of the month, according to online calendar Time and Date. "Nones" came next, about a week into a new month, to mark the half moon. Lastly, "Ides" marked the full moon.

"Each day was referred to by how many days it fell before the Calends, Nones or Ides. For example, March 11 would be known as Five Ides to the Romans because it is four days before the Ides of March (March 15)," Time and Date reports.

What else?

In the U.S., the Ides of March used to indicate Tax Day.

From 1918 to 1954, Tax Day fell on March 15. Congress moved the date up a month -- to April 15 -- in 1955 to "give IRS employees a break," according to the Tax History Project, a website set up more than 20 years ago by tax analysts that provides information on the history of American finance. It has remained that date ever since.

What happened to Caesar?

As previously mentioned, March 15 marks the death of Caesar. The brutal murder was reenacted in Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's iconic tragedy.

Caesar was assassinated by as many as 60 men in a meeting hall next to Pompeys Theatre, where the Roman citizen army reportedly gathered before marching to battle.

"Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war on March 18 and had appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Empire in his absence," History.com explains. "The Republican senators, already chafing at having to abide by Caesars decrees, were particularly angry about the prospect of taking orders from Caesars underlings."

Roman Senator Cassius concluded the only way to rid Caesar of his power over the Roman people was to kill him. He came up with the murder plot and enlisted Brutus, Caesar's trusted protege and friend, to assist him with the execution.

Hence, in the play, Caesar's famous last words were, Et tu, Brute? or "And you, Brutus?" surprised his friend was taking a role in the act.

What are people saying about the Ides of March?

The hashtag #IdesOfMarch began trending early March 15, with several well-known organizations commenting on the date.

"'Beware the Ides of March' (Act 1, Scene 2). #Onthisday (15 March) in 44 BC, #JuliusCaesar was murdered, stabbed 23 times by a group led by Cassius and Brutus," Shakespeare's Globe tweeted, with a sarcastic meme attached.

The Globe followed-up the tweet with a photo of a bottle of Caesar dressing being stabbed with a knife.

"Beware the Ides of March! Julius Caesar was assassinated #onthisday in 44 BC. This coin was issued by his betrayer Brutus," the British Museum in London tweeted, along with knife emojis.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston shared a picture of a special coin, explaining, "Julius #Caesar was assassinated by his own senators #onthisday in 44 B.C. This coin commemorates the act, with a portrait of #Brutus on the front and "Eid Mar," or #IdesOfMarch, emblazoned on the back along with two daggers and a liberty cap."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.The 2018 Armed Forces Day Parade will be held Friday, May 4, at 10:30 a.m. The parade will feature the United States Coast Guard theme, All Coast Guard, All the Time.

This year marks the 69th consecutive year for the annual tribute to Americas Active Duty and Reserve military personnel. The parade date was moved from the traditional Armed Forces Day to allow the JROTC and school bands a chance to participate.

Currently, Chattanooga is one of only a handful of cities in the nation to honor the defenders of our freedom with an Armed Forces Day Parade.

"In order to ensure we have a patriotic, well orchestrated, safe  as well as legal  parade, the committee has established certain conditions that must be met in order to be granted permission to participate in the parade," said Bill Norton, parade chairman.

Applications should be sent to bill@metroservicesinc.com by March 31.next Image 1 of 2

prev Image 2 of 2

The Latest on developments in Syria as it marks seven years of war this week (all times local):

10:35 a.m.

Syrian activists and monitoring groups say government and Russian forces are blanketing the besieged rebel-held eastern Ghouta region with airstrikes and rocket fire.

Thursday's bombings come as Syria marks the seventh anniversary of the popular uprising that sparked the country's vicious civil war.

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, says its first responders are not able to reach the wounded in towns in rebel-held eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the assault.

It says one of its rescue workers was killed in an airstrike in Hazeh on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group says a column of civilians trying to flee government advances in Hamouria were targeted with shelling early in the day that wounded several people.

It said 26 people were killed in Hamouria on Wednesday.

___

10:30 a.m.

The Russian military says it has extended a "humanitarian pause" in fighting for two days in a part of Syria's embattled eastern Ghouta enclave, just outside of Damascus.

The Russian Defense Ministry says the pause on Thursday and Friday is focused on the town of Douma. It claims the pause has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.

Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying 131 people left the area through the humanitarian corridor on Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Vladimir Zolotukhin says some 100 people are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.

Russia ordered the daily humanitarian pauses late last month, but few civilians have left. And activists said continued government shelling and airstrikes killed at least 20 civilians on Wednesday eastern Ghouta.At least 5,000 people have rallied in Lithuania's capital to demand an early parliamentary election after lawmakers failed to impeach one of their own for his reported ties to Russia.

A protester at Thursday's demonstration, Andrius Kazlauskas, said the small Baltic nation's parliament deliberately didn't reach the 85 votes needed to impeach Mindaugas Bastys.

Parliament's probes concluded that Bastys had communicated with Russian lobbyists and acted against Lithuanian interests. Lithuania's secret service said Bastys had personal relationships with people representing Russian state nuclear monopoly Rosatom.

Bastys resigned on Wednesday, but has denied any wrongdoing. There is no indication he is the subject of a criminal investigation.

Protesters said Bastys' resignation didn't change their grievances because they think the current parliament is the core of a bigger problem.Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, is a man in a hurry. Only 32 years old, hes been shaking up a country long seen as an oasis of stability in the Middle East.

MBS, as hes called, will be visiting the White House on March 20, but many still wonder who is this figure promising to move the kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the 21st century? Is he a crusading reformer who will bring about meaningful change, or just another leader with a taste for extravagance and a willingness to crush those who get in his way? Or maybe a bit of both.

Born Aug. 31, 1985, Mohammed bin Salman is the eldest son of King Salmans third -- and favorite -- wife, Fahda bint Falah bin Sultan. He has a bachelors degree in law from King Saud University in Riyadh.

In 2008, he married royal cousin Princess Sarah bint Mashhoor bin Abdulaziz, and the couple have two sons and two daughters: Prince Salman, Prince Mashhour, Princess Fahda and Princess Nora. Sarah is MBS only wife.

Bin Salman served in various capacities at the royal court and then, in 2015, was elevated to minister of defense when his father became king upon the death of half-brother Adbullah. Not yet 30, MBS wielded tremendous power, and became a prime mover of the reform many thought necessary for the Kingdom.

In 2016, he unveiled Vision 2030 -- his plan to modernize Saudi Arabia. In June 2017, his father chose him to be crown prince, replacing his cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, which put MBS next in line to be king. Its generally understood he is, at present, the power behind the throne.

The change going on in the Kingdom the past few years has been as breathtaking as Mohammed bin Salmans ascent. Hes reined-in the religious police who enforced strict rules of public behavior, given more freedom to women -- they can start their own businesses and will soon be permitted to drive. Bin Salman has also re-opened movie theatres and even allowed the countrys first Comic Con convention.

Its all part of a plan to forestall disaster, says Karen Elliott House, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines -- and Future. As she explained to Fox News, previous rulers were like watching a silent movie over and over-- they were old men, seen, not heard who kept things as they were, while MBS is like an IMAX movie on perpetual fast forward.

House notes that the Kingdom cant count on oil revenues to continue to pay for its lifestyle. Two-thirds of Saudis work for the government and havent learned to manage for themselves. Meanwhile, approximately 70 percent of the country that is 30 years old or less will grow up under vastly different circumstances, and MBS wants them to accept responsibility for their lives.

While these young are learning to fend for themselves, MBS is living in splendor. His personal wealth is in the billions, and his self-indulgent lifestyle has been widely noted in media.

For instance, in 2015, he purchased the lavishly furnished Chateau Louis XIV in France for more than $300 million, making it the worlds most expensive home. In recent years he also bought a 440-foot yacht, the Serene, for about $500 million, and spent $450 million on a Leonardo da Vinci portrait of Jesus Christ, Salvator Mundi.

Even as the purchases pile up, MBS has been ruthless in rooting out corruption in his own country, especially among the moneyed classes. He was behind the 2017 purge -- a campaign where government officials, business people and even members of the royal family were arrested in a corruption crackdown. Many were confined and interrogated in the sumptuous Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh.

Hundreds were swept up in the investigation. You have a body that has cancer everywhere, the cancer of corruption. You need to have chemo, the shock of chemo, or the cancer will eat the body, said MBS, The Washington Post reported.

Though the official explanation was corruption, the move has been seen as an attempt to seize billions in assets from the rich as well as consolidate the crown princes power.

MBS attacks on traditional ways, and his tough stance on the well-connected, have earned him powerful enemies. But among his natural constituency -- the young people in the country who make up the majority -- he seems to be popular.

He also has a fan in the White House. Regarding the anti-corruption purge, President Trump tweeted, I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing. Some of those they are harshly treating have been milking their country for years!

As to what he is like in person, while he has his detractors, many who meet him are impressed. Gerald Feierstein, director of Gulf affairs at the Middle East Institute and former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, tells Fox News he was one of the first U.S. officials to meet with MBS after his appointment as Defense Minister. He met him several times overall, and his impression was someone who does not come across...as arrogant or boastful . . . In a one word description, I would characterize him as self-confident.

Karen Elliott House would agree. She remembers him from earlier days, when he was an adviser to the royal court. Back then, she says, he knew what was expected of him: Those of us who saw him [before his elevation] saw a tall, slim, silent young man who was seen and not heard.

But since his father became king, and MBS became the powerful figure he is today, he has been more open in revealing his personality and, according to House, comes across as dynamic: He is unlike any other Saudi I have ever met in his energy, confidence, informality and willingness to take risks.

So it appears Mohammed bin Salman may have the character to see his reforms through, but the jury is still out on whether or not hell succeed. This will likely be a topic of great interest in his meeting at the White House, and will continue to be of great concern to the world at large.North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho is making a rare and surprise visit to Sweden amid speculation that Stockholm might be the location of the planned summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Sweden is the diplomatic liaison between the U.S. and North Korea. Swedish officials have offered their country as a possible summit site.

Talks "will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," the ministry said in a statement, but they also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

"If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Sweden's TT news agency.

Niklas Swanstrom of the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy said such a meeting would only be preliminary to higher-level talks but they could give an indication of what North Korea's interests and demands may be.

"The assumption is of course that (they) will speak a bit about the proposed talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un," Swanstrom said, noting relations between the two Koreas "have improved significantly" in recent weeks.

The visit comes as South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha arrived in Washington. She was to meet with former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but will now meet with his one-time deputy John Sullivan in the wake of his dismissal. A summit is also planned for the end of next month between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

North Korean state media has yet to confirm that either summit is taking place.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Spanish and Portuguese police have intercepted about 2.5 metric tons (2.76 tons) of cocaine in a cross-border operation.

A Portuguese police statement says the operation also led to the arrest of nine men and one woman of various nationalities. The statement Thursday said the suspects are believed to belong to a "vast criminal organization" which smuggled large quantities of cocaine between Europe and Latin America.

It said the police investigation is continuing and further details would be provided later.Saudi Arabia will build a nuclear bomb "as soon as possible" if regional rival Iran succeeds in developing its own long sought-after nuke, the Saudi crown prince said Thursday.

The Kingdom's next leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said in an interview with CBS that his nation does not necessarily want to acquire nuclear weapons.

But without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," bin Salman said.

Despite a centuries-long power struggle between the nations, bin Salman claimed Iran is not a rival to Saudi Arabia" -- but the remark was not intended as an olive branch.

Its army is not among the top five armies in the Muslim world, he said. The Saudi economy is larger than the Iranian economy. Iran is far from being equal to Saudi Arabia.

The heir to the throne also likened the reign of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei to that of Adolf Hitler during the rise of Nazi Germany, a comparison he's made in the past.

He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler, who wanted to expand at the time, bin Salman said. Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I dont want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.

The interview, which is scheduled to air on Sunday, is the first with a Saudi leader for a U.S. television network since 2005.

Bin Salman, the heir apparent to King Salman, is scheduled to visit the White House on March 20 for a meeting with President Trump.

Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump looks forward to discussing how to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, as well as how to advance common security and economic priorities.

Trump visited Saudi Arabia last year on his first foreign trip as president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Nicaragua National Police on Wednesday released a photo of the suspect in the killing of a New York nursing student who fled the U.S. to the Central American country shortly after the woman's death.

Orlando Tercero, 22, was arrested Tuesday by the Nicaragua National Police in connection with the death of Haley Anderson, 22, a fellow nursing student at Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York system.

The office of District Attorney Stephen Cornwell in Broome County, N.Y., confirmed Tercero's arrest, Fox 40 reported.

In the photo, Tercero is seen surrounded by four armed police officers wearing masks. He appears to be bleeding from his lip and is wearing bandage above his left eye.

Tercero was named a person of interest after authorities found Andersons body in his off-campus apartment. Police believe Tercero fled the U.S. via New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to his native Nicaragua, where he has family.

Andersons roommate said the two had only "hooked up" and were never a proper couple, adding that Tercero had "never got over his obsession with her."

After discovering Anderson's body last Friday, authorities ruled her death a homicide. Tercero allegedly told his sister he had "done something bad," and was a "disgrace to the family," the New York Post reported.

Terceros attorney told the New York Post that his client is being detained by Nicaraguan authorities while matters are being further investigated.

Nicaraguan officials say they do not know if Tercero will be extradited to the U.S. to face charges.All seven military personnel aboard a U.S. Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter were killed Thursday in a crash in western Iraq near the Syrian border, U.S. defense officials told Fox News.

It's the first deadly aviation crash for the U.S. military in the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since American involvement began in 2014. But U.S. Central Command said in a statement the crash "does not appear to be a result of enemy activity."

"This incident is under investigation," the statement said.

The Pave Hawk is a modified version of the Black Hawk helicopter.

"This tragedy reminds us of the risks our men and women face every day in service of our nations," said Brig. Gen. Jonathan P. Braga, director of operations, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. "We are thinking of the loved ones of these service members today."

An accompanying U.S. helicopter immediately reported the crash and a quick reaction force comprised of Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition members secured the scene.

"We are grateful to the Iraqi Security Forces for their immediate assistance in response to this tragic incident," Braga said. "Iraqi Security Forces continue to demonstrate their professionalism, capabilities and flexibility as we continue the fight towards a lasting defeat of [ISIS]."

Names of the fallen will be released by the U.S. Department of Defense after next of kin have been notified.

President Trump tweeted his condolences Friday to the seven people killed in the crash.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the brave troops lost in the helicopter crash on the Iraq-Syria border yesterday. Their sacrifice in service to our country will never be forgotten," Trump wrote.

The incident marked the second aircraft crash for the military in two days.

A U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet jet crashed off the coast of Key West, Florida, on Wednesday, killing both a pilot and a weapons systems officer.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.Chattanooga kicks off April with a new event, ARTBURST, a month-long celebration of art, artists, and the blooming of color in spring. Each week features events designed to stimulate the senses and bring new energy into the city including outdoor art exhibitions, artful yoga, art walks and bike rides, unveiling of several new public artworks, and more.

The vibrancy of the visual arts in Chattanooga is one of the ways that makes our city so unique, said Katelyn Kirnie, Director of Public Art for the city of Chattanooga. ARTBURST offers numerous reasons to get out and have some incredible, one-of-a-kind, and colorful art experiences throughout the city.

ARTBURST anchor events include: Chattanooga Film Festival (April 5-8); Spring in the Park + Sculpture Burn with John Henry and Andrew Nigh (April 7); Art in Bloom (April 7); Rooted in Color (April 12); Creating Resurgence with Albert Paley (April 12); Art on the Riverwalk with Isaac Duncan III (April 14); 18th Annual 4 Bridges Art Festival (April 21-22); and the Art120 Art Car Parade (April 28).

Its exciting to see this kind of attention brought to the efforts of the local arts community, said Isaac Duncan III, local artist, and president of Mid-South Sculpture Alliance. We have access to world-class art all around Chattanooga and it's important that we showcase how accessible it is and how much it adds to the quality of our lives.

ARTBURST is a collaboration between Public Art Chattanooga, ArtsBuild, Humanaut, and the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau. Organizers anticipate that ARTBURST will grow each year as the arts community builds awareness of the arts in Chattanooga.

Community members and organizations can share their ARTBURST events to the online calendar HERE by selecting the Artburst category.

Visit artburstchatt.com and follow #ArtBurst on social media to keep up with all things ARTBURST and share your own colorful experiences.The transcript of a recent government summit shows how President Kagame openly reprimands senior officials, who take it lying down.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda may divide opinion, but both his friends and foes agree on certain things  that he is tough, wants things done his way, and hates being contradicted. In power for almost 24 years and counting, he is often described as the CEO of Rwanda Inc.

President Kagames single-mindedness is reflected in Rwandan society more broadly. There is no real political opposition to hold the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) accountable. Freedoms of expression, assembly and association are restricted. And the media and civil society are submissive to the state.

His strong will is also apparent in how he talks to and about his perceived opponents. In 2014, for example, Kagame famously warned that dissidents will pay the price wherever they are. Meanwhile, at his swearing-in ceremony last year, following elections in which he officially won almost 99% of the vote, he hit back at international critics, commenting that attacks on our character only make us stronger.

Kagames uncompromising approach, however, is not only reserved for adversaries. Until recently, the evidence was mostly anecdotal, but it is now clear that the president takes a similar tone in how he treats his own officials, lecturing and even humiliating them openly. From 26 February to 1 March, the government held its annual National Leadership Retreat. The transcription of Kagames opening speech, translated from Kinyarwanda and published by the pro-RPF website Taarifa, offers illuminating reading.

At the meeting of 300 government officials, Kagame welcomes the room before listing various problems such as childrens poor nutrition and health. He then asks the district mayors: Do you see what Im talking about or do you not?Let someone answer me, or else you will not leave here until you respond.

When they try to answer, Kagame interrupts them, warning: We are going to have a fight these days, get prepared for that. But before that, I will first have a fight with ministers. They are no stronger than me. I will fight them as well.

And fighting he does, tackling one minister after another. He confronts Francis Kaboneka, Minister of Local Government, on avoidable diseases, asking You also know how many times I talk to you about it? When Kaboneka brings up about problems of citizens mindsets, Kagame interjects. Mindset for citizens or leaders? I think you are not good as well.

He then turns to Agriculture Minister Gerardine Mukeshimana. Have we run out of food? he asks, adding I will also fight with you, and you know it. Next up is Infrastructure Minister James Musoni. He barely says ten words before the president cuts him off. What kind of cowards should we be? he asks. That cowardice has consequences.

Kagame continues on this track as he publicly questions and reprimands official after official. He complains that There is no follow up, no questioning, no accountability for ones duties. He responds to ministers promises to change with you are late!. And he abruptly interrupts his colleagues over a dozen more times in the course of the excerpt.

In this opening address at the leadership retreat, President Kagame successfully identifies some inefficient and impractical approaches taken by senior officials. He is also mostly preoccupied with key issues that affect the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. He pushes his ministers on the education of poor children, on hygiene, malnutrition and the doctoring of data. On housing, he presciently warns that: if those issues come back after one year or more, it is no more the problem of those people only, it is about us all.

All of this is to his credit. But it is impossible not to be alarmed at how Kagame interacts with high-ranking government representatives. It confirms the notion that even in the highest circles of power in Rwanda, the president  and the president alone  knows best.

At the start of his address, Kagame says that the purpose of this retreat is to evaluate ourselves. This clearly applies to everyone else in the room  those who are fallible  but not himself. Kagame does not congratulate a single office-holder on any measure, but instead tells them all that they have failed in their duties.

It is not just Kagames behaviour, however, that is remarkable. As they are berated and endlessly interrupted, no official  many of them experienced, skilled, and eternally loyal individuals  dares to defend themself, stand up to the president, or walk out. It is hard to say to what extent this is due to a loss of self-worth or mere fear.

The revealing transcript of the summit shows how Kagame reigns supreme over the Rwandan state. One only wonders whether he will take a similar approach to chairing and trying to reform the African Union, a forum in which his interlocutors will be fellow heads-of-state, including some similarly assertive dictators.The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Knoxville attorney Shelby Ward, on behalf of Heartwood and Tennessee Heartwood, jointly filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday, alleging that the Forest Service is illegally endangering the soil, forests, and waters of the Cherokee National Forest and hiding those risks from the public.

At stake is Tumbling Creek, a cold-water trout stream running through the mountains of southeast Tennessee into the Ocoee River, popular with local families for fishing, wading, and picnicking. "Deliberately ignoring the disastrous effects of nearby timber sales on similar soils and slopes, the Forest Service recently decided to allow heavy commercial logging along the creek," said officials.

For nearly four years, conservation groups said they tried to dissuade the Forest Service from taking risks on publicly-owned lands, with pictures, examples, and monitoring data to show what could go wrong.

Dismissing legitimate citizen concerns is the most egregious aspect about this risky, ill-advised logging project, said Sam Evans, staff attorney and Leader of the Southern Environmental Law Centers National Forests and Parks Program. The public came forward and said, we dont want to see these kinds of erosion problems on our lands ever again, but the agency simply refuses to learn from its mistakes. They are sweeping literal dirt under the rug.

In the 3,700-acre project area near Tumbling Creek, the Forest Service is proposing to sell 534 acres of timber for commercial logging, exposing steep slopes and erosive soils. Conservation groups are worried that soil loss will keep trees from growing on those slopes, as was the case with a recent logging project a dozen miles to the west of Tumbling Creek, and that sediment runoff will harm one of the healthiest watersheds and streams in the area, said conservation group officials.

Its not that we just disagree with the Cherokee National Forest leadership about this project; its that they refuse to consider any science or data that might require them to do things differently, said Davis Mounger, cofounder of Tennessee Heartwood. This pattern of dodging our concerns has damaged the forest time after time, and they have left us with no other options.

The Ocoee District of the Cherokee National Forest offers recreation, scenic value, and economic benefits. In addition to recreation on Tumbling Creek itself, the area boasts whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River, mountain biking on the Tanasi and Brush Creek trails, and long scenic hikes into the iconic Big Frog Wilderness.

The public asked for a hard look at impacts from similar logging projects, without which there was too great a risk to move forward with this project as planned, said Anne Passino, staff attorney for SELC. The streams near Tumbling Creek are among the last clean waterways in the area--the few spared from sediment pollution--and are a special place for fisherman, local communities and families who visit this area to create memories.

"The mismanagement of comparable projects in the Cherokee National Forest containing similar slopes with erosive soils have left mountainsides barren, stripped of topsoil and, as a result, unable to support native plant and animal life. The impacts to hunting, fishing, and other recreational opportunities hurt local economies for surrounding communities. And when the Forest Service does attempt to remediate damaged areas, it uses taxpayer money that could be better spent on maintaining roads and trails for access to public lands," said conservation officials.

Local citizens have attempted to raise awareness around timber sales in the past and have condemned the taxpayer dollars wasted trying to remediate them.

The Forest Service is cutting out the public from the decision-making process that impacts our lands, said Axel Ringe, conservation chair for the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club. The agency should at least explain what it has learned from recent mistakes and why it believes they wont happen again. This lack of transparency makes it impossible for us to trust that logging along Tumbling Creek will be any different than previous projects.Voice of the People I can drive on the left lane of Ind. 49 and not have to deal with the truck traffic any more. I dont think I know you Jim Ton but apparently youre the one that made this happen. My life is a little better now....

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...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.The government says it will support farmers who practice minimal or no-till cultivation after the UK leaves the EU.

Defra secretary Michael Gove made the announcement at a Prosperity UK event in London  although there are no details of what that support would entail.

See also: Defra urged to explain soil improvement plan

The prosperity of the UK economy  and in particular the food economy  depended on a sustainable approach, particularly towards the landscape, he said.

We have to move away from our current system, which lacks effective incentives for long-term-thinking, to one that promotes investment in our shared future, said Mr Gove.

That will mean we pay farmers to improve the quality and fertility of their soil.

Compaction

That means we want to reverse the trends of the past which have led to compaction and run-off, and which have polluted our rivers and choked our fish.

Supporting farmers who practice min or no-till cultivation would not only be better for rivers and watercourses, Mr Gove told listeners on Thursday (15 March).

It will also help to control and reduced carbon emissions, it will reduce demand for chemical inputs and it will provide a richer habitat for insects and invertebrates, he added.

Mr Goves comments come days after Defra was urged to explain how it would incentivise farmers to improve soil health  but details remain scant.

Better support

Defra minister George Eustice has previously pledged that soil will be at the heart of the governments agricultural policy post Brexit.

Echoing earlier speeches, Mr Gove said it was important to provide better support for our farmers and land managers who maintain, restore, or create precious habitats for wildlife.

The stewards of precious natural assets which Britain has a special role in conserving need improved support in the future, he added.

That will be at the heart of our environmental, agricultural and economic policy post Brexit.Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 92F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then windy overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 73F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph, becoming NNE and increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 60%.One of Australias biggest real money casinos is facing some stiff disciplinary measures because of improprieties with some of its pokies machines. Citing a recent report from The Guardian, the Melbourne casino has been notified that it may be in breach of the Gambling Regulation Act through the practice of blanking buttons on some of the machines. This removes certain gambling options from the machines to cause a possible disadvantage for Aussie players.



The report goes on to state that the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation stated that Crown should have sought approval from the commission before it went ahead and conducted a three-week trial involving 17 separate pokies machines. Acting as Victorias watchdog, the penalties could be as severe as a possible suspension of Crowns gambling license. The response to these allegations has been met with the claim that Crown did not need approval for this test run, which was conducted in March and April of 2017. The direct quote from the company went onto state, The commissions view is that the trial involved varying a gaming machine type and certain games in a manner that required the commissions prior approval. Crown Melbourne has recently provided a detailed submission of its position to the commission, which Crown Melbourne understands the commissions currently considering.



Going back to last year, it was also reported that an independent MP Andrew Wilkie did compile evidence that was presented to the federal parliament. The gathered evidence was based on the statements from three informants. They alleged that Crown Casino deliberately altered poker machines by removing certain gambling options. On Monday, March 5, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation announced that it has commenced the process of disciplinary proceedings against the casino operator. In a short statement from the commission its stated, These proceedings relate to the use of blanking buttons on certain electronic gaming machines on the casino floor. An investigation into this matter was already underway prior to claims being tabled into parliament. Wilkies response to this latest development was positive and he went on to state, The casino obviously has a case to answer about the blanking of buttons and Im sure that the truth will come out when the commission finalizes its inquiries.



There was also some video evidence that was also submitted by Wilkie last year that adds to the allegations that Crown Casino allowed cannabis to be smoked in gaming rooms. He also eluded to the idea that the casino knowingly avoided money laundering rules. This was all part of an ongoing PokieLeaks campaign to bring to light any illicit practices in the Australian pokies industry as well as online casinos for Aussie players. The report mentions that former senator Nick Xenophon was part of this effort.



Going back to last year when some of these allegations started to surface, Crown Resorts Ltd released a statement to ASX denying any allegations of tampering.

The actual results of this investigation have the potential to rock the entire Australian casino industry as it pertains to real money gambling depending on the severity of any disciplinary action the commission might pursue.The city is now collecting photographs from friends and family of those who lost their lives for a digital memorial.Donald Trump is seriously considering turning one of his jokes into reality.

Earlier this week he was speaking to a crowd of marines in San Diego, when he called outer space a "war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea".

"I said 'maybe we need a new force. We'll call it the Space Force.' Not really serious," he told the crowd, who laughed.

"And then I said, 'What a great idea. Maybe we'll have to do that.' That could happen. That could be the big breaking story."

He called the proposed Space Force "vital to ensuring America continues to lead the way into the stars".

With Mr Trump's reputation for flip-flopping on issues, it would probably come as no surprise that just last year, his administration nixed plans for the Air Force to form a spinoff 'Space Corps'.

"I oppose the creation of a new military service and additional organisational layers at a time when we are focused on reducing overhead and integrating joint warfighting efforts," Air Force and Secretary of Defense James Mattis said at the time.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which the US and Russia (as the Soviet Union) both signed, bans most military activities in space - including using and testing weapons of mass destruction and establishing military bases.

Russia operates its Space Forces as part of the Russian Air Force. Its publicly stated focus is defence against incoming missiles.

Newshub.New Zealand rapper Scribe has been found guilty of possessing a Class A drug but has been dismissed of five other charges.

Scribe, whose real name is Malo Ioane Luafutu, turned up for his judge-alone trial at Christchurch District Court on Thursday with his own camera crew.

Scribe was in court facing six drug, weapons and breach of bail charges.

He was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine and dismissed of three breach of bail charges, possession of an offensive weapon, namely a bat and possession of instruments.

He has been remanded on bail and will appear for sentencing in May.

The chart topping hip-hop artist was allegedly seen in the Phillipstown area of Christchurch swinging a softball bat and swearing while asking whose car was parked in the path of a driveway.

He also allegedly threw Rashuns chips in the air and caught them in his mouth.

A Phillipstown resident said she was in her motorhome playing cards when she heard a man screaming "whose f**king car is this?".

Scribe appeared in the Porirua District Court in August last year after being the subject of a police appeal after he failed to appear in Christchurch District Court on drug and weapon charges.

Newshub.Mark Your Calendar for November: American Baptist Home Mission Societies Announces Space for Grace 2018

Contact: Susan Gottshall, Associate Executive Director of Communications, American Baptist Home Mission Societies, 800-222-3872 ext 2119

susan.gottshall@abhms.org



VALLEY FORGE, Penn., March 15, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Building on the highly successful Los Angeles Space for Grace national gathering in 2015, American Baptist Home Mission Societies will sponsor Space for Grace 2018: "Thy Will Be Done," Nov. 14-16, 2018, in Philadelphia, featuring author and theologian Walter Brueggemann as keynote presenter.



Faith leaders, community service leaders, social justice advocates and others seeking God's leading for creating social transformation are invited to the national conference, which will span 2 days at Loews Hotel in the heart of one of the top 10 largest cities in the United States.



In this urban setting, "Thy Will Be Done" will provide opportunities for refreshment and renewal, along with opportunities to connect with passionate speakers, workshop leaders and fellow participants, around critical issues facing Christians todaymission engagement, discipleship, and worship and church transformationthrough discussion, sharing and hands-on participation.



Brueggemann, an ordained United Church of Christ minister, is considered one of the most influential Bible interpreters of our time. Currently the William Marcellus McPheeters professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga., he holds doctoral-level degrees from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and St. Louis (Mo.) University. He has authored more than 100 books. His most recent book, "Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out," was published last month. In this Bible study for adults, Brueggemann explores the injustice that follows when some societal voices are coerced into silence because of control by the voices that dominate today's conversations.



For updates and more information as it becomes available, visit abhms.org > Events > Space for Grace or call 800.222.3872, x2394.



American Baptist Home Mission Societies partners with American Baptists to promote Christian faith, cultivate Christ-centered leaders and disciples, and bring healing and transformation to communities across the United States and Puerto Rico.

American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with over 5,200 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God's mission around the world.

In the latest of a rash of persecution incidents in Algeria, a judge on Thursday (March 8) sentenced a pastor to a fine and a suspended prison sentence under a law that prohibits causing Muslims to doubt their religion, sources said.



In Frenda, Tiaret Province, pastor Nordine B. was ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 dinars (US$868) and received a three-month suspended prison sentence, the pastor confirmed to Morning Star News in an email.



Prosecutors had sought a six-month prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 dinars (US$434), another Algerian pastor confirmed to Morning Star News in an email. His name is withheld for security reasons.



"The pastor of the church of Tiaret was convicted of proselytism," the pastor said. "He will appeal, so the verdict is not final."



Algerian News outlet Algerie Part last week reported a Christian leader as saying the charge against Pastor Nordine was ridiculous, as the only evidence police presented was the fact that he was carrying Christian books.



The charge was based on Algeria's controversial Law 03/2006, commonly known as Law 06/03, according to Algerie Part. The prosecutor's requested prison sentence and fine, like the judge's actual prison sentence and fine, was less than that stipulated by the 2006 law, which calls for a prison term of two to five years and a fine of 500,000 to 1 million dinars (US$4,343 to US$8,687) for anyone who "incites, constrains, or utilizes means of seduction tending to convert a Muslim to another religion, or using for this purpose the institutions of education, health, social, cultural, or educational institutions, or other establishment, or financial advantage; or makes, stores or distributes printed documents or films or other audiovisual medium or means intended to undermine the faith of a Muslim."





Christian leaders say the charge was unconstitutional, citing the Algerian constitution's Article 42, which guarantees freedom of belief, opinion and worship.



"The situation for Christians here is very critical," the unnamed pastor in Algeria told Morning Star News by email. "We ask, why this relentlessness of the authorities on us?"



Rash of Persecution

The case follows several instances of harassment of churches and Christians in the past three months that has raised concerns of a government campaign against Christianity, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC).



In Oran Province in northwest Algeria, the unnamed church pastor told Morning Star News that three churches have been closed. On the pretext that they didn't have state approval, police sealed shut a church in Oran city and a church in nearby El Ayaida on Feb. 27, he said, adding that another area church in Ain el-Turk was closed on Nov. 9.







"Officials gave us a period of three months to regularize our situation, but they did not respect this deadline," the pastor told Morning Star News. "The same day I received the forms to file to register as an association, the police were ordered to seal the two places of worship in Oran city center and El Ayaida."



Authorities later came to a site where members of the Oran city center church were worshipping and stopped the service, he said.



"We filed a letter of appeal at the level of the provincial security services, and we informed them that the church registration file is ready," he said. "It is expected that the judge will give the order for a general meeting, but so far there has been no response."



A Christian-owned bookshop in Oran city also was forcibly closed in November, and police visited a church training center in Boudjemaa, in Kabylie Region, and stopped activities, MEC reported.



"The affected churches are all affiliated with the legally recognized Protestant Church of Algeria [l'Eglise Protestante d'Algerie, or EPA)," MEC reported. "EPA questions the motives behind the inspection visits and believes that the accusations leading to the church closures have been unfounded."



The World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Commission said in a press statement that Algerian authorities in November formed a committee of officials from various agencies to inspect churches for compliance with safety regulations, but that it is also questioning whether churches have permits for religious activities.



"The committee has accordingly ordered several churches, two Bible schools, and a Christian-owned bookshop to close down," the Feb. 26 statement read, adding that the restrictions have also led to an increase in arrests of Christians.



"We call on the government of Algeria to ensure that the religious freedom of Christians is safeguarded in accordance with international law," said Godfrey Yogarajah, deputy secretary general of the WEA. "We also call on the government, in keeping with the country's constitution, to take all steps necessary to guarantee the freedom of worship for all religious groups in the country."



Arrests

In December three Christians from Tizi Ouzou were arrested in Chlef, 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Algiers, where they were to meet colleagues at a cafe, MEC reported.



"Police entered the cafe, found they were in possession of Christian literature, and took them to the police station, where they were investigated at length by the national gendarmerie," MEC reported. "A local newspaper known for its hostility to Christians described the incident as a 'foiled evangelism attempt,' falsely accusing the Christians of working under the cover of humanitarian activities and of alluring young Muslims to convert by means of financial and travel inducements."



The three visitors were released but could face proselytism charges, MEC said. That same third week of December, two churches in Kabylie Region's Bejaia Province received a visit from officials from the municipality, the ministry of religious affairs, the fire brigade, the national gendarmerie and the intelligence department, according to MEC.



The officials told church leaders the visits were inspections for safety regulations. The two buildings are used by eight congregations.



In the southern Algerian town of Ouargla, another church received an order from the provincial governor to cease all religious activities following a building inspection on Dec. 14, MEC reported. Officials said the church lacked authorization to use the building for worship and failed to comply with safety requirements. They told church leaders to obtain permission from the ministry of religious affairs.



The officials said that worship activities at the church, which has been active for 10 years, can resume only three months after obtaining permission, according to MEC.



Algeria's population of 35.4 million people is more than 97 percent Muslim and .28 percent Christian.



Deportation

In December Algeria also deported a French Christian without explanation. Louis Martinez of the French Reformed Church had left Algeria on a trip and was returning on Dec. 13 when authorities stopped him at the Oran airport and deported him, according to MEC.



Martinez and his wife had lived in Algeria for several years and had just been issued a new residency permit valid for 10 years, according to MEC.



Manager of a private French-language school, Martinez was known as a close friend of a local church.



"The authorities gave no reason for his deportation," MEC reported. "His wife was subsequently able to settle their family and business affairs in Algeria and has recently also left the country. Algerian church leaders note that this deportation is consistent with a wider pattern of denial of visas for church visitors, which seems to be part of a policy whereby the Algerian authorities are restricting the ability of Algerian churches to partner with outside entities."



Algeria ranked 42nd on Christian support organization Open Doors' 2018 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

A Christian human rights lawyer in China died under suspicious circumstances after checking himself into a hospital with minor stomach pain, prompting many to suspect he was murdered by the Chinese Communist Party, whom he often opposed.



Persecution watchdog China Aid reports that Li Baiguang was declared dead by physicians in China's eastern Jiangsu province on Feb. 26 despite a previous record of clean health.



Li went to the hospital for a minor stomach ache and was declared dead hours later. The hospital alleged that he had liver problems and that he bled to death, but Li was previously healthy.



The unclear circumstances surrounding Li's death, China Aid said, indicate he was murdered by China's Communist Party, which "has a history of either neglecting the medical conditions of human rights activists until they succumb to them or declaring previously healthy people dead."



The organization references the untimely deaths of of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiabo, pro-democracy activist and Christian Yang Tianshiu, and prisoner of conscience Peng Ming. Their untimely deaths, the group said, demonstrates that the Chinese government is "taking an active hand in the deaths of those who stand for liberty."



Li, who attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., with ChinaAid President Bob Fu and a delegation of Chinese human rights activists just before his death, was frequently targeted by the for his activism.



A few months ago, he was kidnapped by Chinese officials in Zhejiang province, beaten, and forced to leave the area on the threat of dismemberment for defending farmers whose land was illegally taken by the government.



In the past, Li represented numerous illegally arrested Chinese pastors and received the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for his efforts to advance human rights and religious freedom in China, notes China Aid.



Li's death sparked a national outcry, with many human rights activists calling on China to allow an honest investigation into his death.



"We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of China's most courageous, pro-constitution lawyers," Fu, who remained a close friend and co-worker Li for more than a decade, said. "He was treated violently last year and was threatened a number of times recently by the Chinese regime. He has been a bold and compassionate human rights lawyer, always ready in defense of the persecuted and vulnerable. Like in the sudden death of [Nobel Peace Prize laureate] Dr. Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese regime should be held totally accountable. The whole world should demand that the Chinese government give a full, independent, and transparent account on what caused Dr Li's sudden death."



U.S. Representative Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), released a statement regarding the case, saying, "I am deeply saddened and mourn the death of Li Baiguang. Dr. Li was a father and a husband, a lawyer and scholar, and he was a committed Christian who used his legal skills to defend the poor and oppressed in China-he will be missed. Dr. Li was truly one of China's best and brightest--committed to the rule of law, to human rights, and to a more peaceful and prosperous U.S.-China relationship."



Smith said there are "many unanswered questions about his death and these questions should be answered."



"Given that so many human rights lawyers have been disbarred, detained, disappeared, and tortured since 2015, the family should be allowed to undertake a truly independent medical investigation and get answers about Li Baiguang's untimely death," he said. "I urge the Chinese government to recognize that such an investigation is in its best interests. At this time my prayers are with his family, particularly Xu Hanmei and Li Qingxin, Dr. Li's wife and son."



As reported, Liu Xiaobo, a renowned Chinese Christian activist and Nobel Peace laureate, died a "premature death" at age 61 under guard in a hospital in July.



Liu had been serving an 11-year jail sentence for demanding an end to one-party rule when he was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer in May, only after the illness was virtually beyond treatment, according to The Guardian. After his cancer diagnosis, Liu was granted medical parole. However, he remained in First Hospital of China Medical University, still a captive of the Chinese government, after authorities refused his dying request to be allowed to travel abroad for treatment.



News of Liu's death sparked widespread condemnation; Marco Rubio, who earlier begged the Chinese government to allow Liu to seek treatment outside of China, called the news "beyond tragic."



"There should be an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Dr. Liu's death, his treatment in detention, the timing of the diagnosis of his late-stage liver cancer, and countless other questions that need to be answered, he said. "The Chinese authorities complicit in his unjust imprisonment and death should be immediately sanctioned and their assets frozen under the Global Magnitsky Act."

On a clear night over the coast of northern Europe, airline passengers are treated to a remarkable sight in the waters below. Red navigation lights shine out into the darkness from more than 3,700 wind turbines in vast arrays out at sea. After nearly three decades of technological development and investment, Europe today boasts more than 80 industrial-scale offshore wind farms.Passengers on flights over the East Coast of the United States will enjoy a similar view, and sooner than most realize. That's because the offshore wind industry is quietly setting down domestic roots and readying itself to supply cost-competitive, clean, renewable electricity to the U.S. market.Massachusetts set an example for the rest of the nation when it passed major renewable energy legislatio n in 2016. Among other provisions, the law requires utilities to procure a combined 1,600 megawatts of power from offshore wind by 2027. The first of those procurements are expected to be approved in April.Massachusetts is far from alone. States along the East Coast are advancing similar initiatives to secure power from offshore wind projects. New Jersey and New York just set significant procurement goals, with several other states following suit. And the federal government has continued to designate and lease the areas of ocean necessary to construct these projects.At the local level, the arrival of this new, technologically intensive industry in America has the potential to be an economic game-changer.In Europe, the industry now accounts for 84,000 jobs, and there is every reason to think that jobs figure, in time, will repeat itself here in the United States. That's why in New Bedford, Mass., we have devoted considerable time and energy to assess and understand what the offshore wind opportunity looks like at the ground level from a municipal perspective.New Bedford has much to offer the industry. It certainly helps that we have the closest industrial port to the nation's largest offshore wind energy reserves. In fact, according to the Department of Energy, about 25 percent of all those reserves lay in an area just off our coast.But the core competitive advantages valued by the industry extend far beyond simple geography. As the nation's top-grossing commercial fishing port, there's already a strong foundation in New Bedford of maritime industries and ocean-science research institutions to support new growth.The key, of course, will be ensuring that the emerging offshore wind sector develops in a way that doesn't impinge on existing economic assets, such as our fishing fleet, but does take advantage of the industrial and research assets that already exist.Infrastructure is an equally important factor. It surprises many to learn that our port is unique in all of North America in that it is already home to the nation's first purpose-built marine terminal for offshore wind. The specialized terminal is designed to support the enormous weights of turbine components that typical port facilities cannot accommodate. New Bedford will make good use of the terminal to stage the nation's very first industrial-scale wind project to be built off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, just 25 miles away.A concerted, community-wide effort is also well underway so that local students, our labor force and our businesses are prepared to meet the needs of the industry. Equally important is the long-term strategic land-use planning we are doing to maximize our role in the generation of offshore wind projects that will follow. In short, New Bedford is doing everything it can to position itself as an ideal location for the industry to build its future.And we are using history as our guide. In the 19th century, New Bedford emerged as the epicenter of the first truly global energy industry: whaling, which produced the oil that illuminated homes and businesses until late in the century. So it makes perfect sense that today we should be working to reaffirm New Bedford's historical title, "the city that lit the world," by pursuing the opportunity presented by offshore wind.We think that smart, forward-thinking public- and private-sector leaders all along our coasts ought to be exploring how they might contribute to the emergence of this new industry. The more thinking, planning and interaction with the industry now, the sooner we all will reap the benefits of a clean, renewable energy source and jobs generator.A generation from now, passengers on U.S. airline flights may gaze down on lights flashing out silently from turbines in the ocean darkness below and wonder what all the excitement was about. But right now there's good reason to be excited.Black children often travel farther to school and face longer commute times than their white and Latino classmates, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.In cities including Denver, New York City and Washington, D.C., black children are more likely to leave their own neighborhood in search of a high-quality school, according to the study , which examined urban school districts that operate school choice programs.Children living in Washington D.C. wards 7 and 8, with the highest concentration of black residents, had the longest commutes to school in the city. In Denver, the commute made by black children was more than 40 percent longer than their peers.And of the cities studied, only in New Orleans did white students face longer school commutes than their black peers. In Detroit, black and Asian students both shared the distinction of facing the longest commute times.And while affluent white students had the shortest commute times, it was affluent black students -- and not their poorer black peers -- who tended to travel farther to attend school.The Urban Institute study is the latest research measuring school choice and the travel necessary for choice programs through the lens of race and class. A 2015 study in Chicago revealed that more than a third of the citys poor children traveled more than four miles to school. For wealthy children, the average commute was less than two miles.While the Urban Institutes study doesnt measure the impact of long commutes on academic performance, one earlier study did. In a 2015 report, Johns Hopkins University professor Julia Burdick-Will found that children enduring extended commutes in the city of Chicago may be more likely to drop out of school.Longer commutes are also less predictable, which can cause students to be late for school. That's true for students whose parents drive them to school as well as for students who use buses or public transportation.The report profiled one Washington, D.C., 12-year-old, India Sigure, who was able to enroll in a higher-performing school through the city's school choice program. But India's daily trip to school averaged 60 minutes each way, and was sometimes as long as 90 minutes. Arriving before the first bell was a challenge, and the long commute was taking a toll; ultimately, India's family withdrew her from the school and enrolled her in a school in her own neighborhood.Besides just being late, commutes can cause stress that comes out in academics, because it comes out in behavior, Amy Quinn, co-founder and director of teaching and learning at Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School , an elementary school in Washington, D.C., said in a statement released Wednesday.Ohio's new Down syndrome abortion ban is on hold after a federal judge in Cincinnati sided with abortion providers who claimed the ban was unconstitutional.U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking the new law from going into effect next week while the case continues. Black wrote in a 22-page order that House Bill 214, which was signed by Gov. John Kasich in December, violates Supreme Court opinions that say a state can't prohibit a woman from making the decision to end a pregnancy before the fetus is viable."Here, Ohio's new law wrongfully does just that: it violates the right to privacy of every woman in Ohio and is unconstitutional on its face," Black wrote.The Ohio law bans abortions after a prenatal screening or test shows the fetus likely has Down syndrome. Doctors who perform an abortion, with knowledge of a possible Down syndrome diagnosis, could be convicted of a fourth-degree felony, punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine.Supporters of the law said it ended discrimination against unborn children with the genetic anomaly. Ohio does not keep statistics on reasons women seek abortion or whether aborted fetuses had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Nationally, abortion rates after learning of a possible Down syndrome diagnosis likely range from 50 to 85 percent, according to a 2012 survey of abortion studies.The ACLU of Ohio sued the state in February on behalf of Preterm Cleveland, Planned Parenthood of Ohio Southwest Region, Women's Med Center of Dayton, Dr. Roslyn Kade and Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio. They argued the law would force Ohio women to travel out of state for abortions or force women to continue pregnancies against their will."This law does absolutely nothing to support people with disabilities -- it's just another ploy to make it nearly impossible for Ohio women to get the care they need," Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement Wednesday. "We are committed to making sure this unconstitutional law is never enforced and today's ruling brings us one step closer."Three other states have passed similar laws, but none have taken effect. Laws are on hold in Indiana and Louisiana pending court challenges.Black cited Indiana Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who wrote that as long as a woman has a right to choose to terminate a pregnancy, the state cannot "examine, let alone prohibit, the basis or bases upon which a woman makes her choice."Attorneys for the state argued that Supreme Court decisions upholding a woman's right to abortion only applied to her right to choose whether to have a child, not a "particular child."Black disagreed."The state cannot dictate what factors a woman is permitted to consider in making her choice," Black wrote. "The state's attempt to carve out exceptions to a categorical right where none exist fails as a matter of law... The state's argument that a woman must make this choice from behind a veil of ignorance, oblivious to the circumstances of the child she is carrying, finds no support in the law."Black also rejected state attorneys' claim the law prevents discrimination and protects the Down syndrome community."The state's interest in potential life -- whether couched as anti-'discrimination' or otherwise--does not become compelling until viability," Black wrote.How Local Officials Respond

Where is the Support?

The weakest link in any local voting system is that one county clerk whos been on the job for three days and opens up an email file that could take down the whole system.The head of every U.S. intelligence agency says Russia attempted to penetrate elections systems nationwide during the 2016 presidential election, and will try again during this years midterm elections.In a decentralized election system with more than 10,000 separate jurisdictions, the onus for security is on local officials.That keeps me awake at night, said Nancy Blankenship, the clerk for Deschutes County, Oregon.Blankenship, like thousands of other county clerks, is the chief elections official for her area. Its not so much the threat of foreign hackers changing votes that concerns Blankenship  Oregon is not only a vote-by-mail state, but also does its ballot counting without an internet connection  its the possibility that hacking could undermine public confidence in the system.There are three major local cybersecurity threats during elections, said Maurice Turner, a senior technologist at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C.:Hackers could break into statewide, online voter registration databases to either steal personal information or change names, addresses or party affiliation to create confusion and discourage participation on Election Day.Hackers could attack a county website, taking it offline so that people could not see results after polls close.Hackers could take over social media accounts to broadcast false results from official sources, or announce falsely that polls are closing earlier or later than normal.As election officials conduct primaries and prepare for the midterms in November, they must understand and meet security challenges so voters are confident in the election process, Turner said.We know we have an adversary that has a known interest and capability to make that threat a reality.All it takes is one clerk clicking on a link in one apparently legitimate email for a hacker to penetrate a county or state system. So-called phishing attempts  where hackers might gain passwords, usernames or personal information through unwitting officials  are becoming more and more sophisticated, Turner said. Its a race between local information technology departments and hackers.Most people respond to phishing very well, Turner said. But there will always be a small number of people who will click on the links regardless of their training. And once an intruder breaks into the system, they may linger for several days or months.Despite the threat, many local officials are confident in their ability to keep a voting system safe from hackers.Sara May-Silfee, the director of elections for Monroe County, a community of 170,000 in eastern Pennsylvania, said she knows her county is secure, even if her state was one of 21 states targeted by Russian hackers in 2016.I cant even begin to tell you how theyd hack us, she said. Nothing is hooked up to anything. How could anybody hack us? Im not worried about anything. Sometimes it seems like a lot of hullabaloo.A potential breach by hackers has never been brought up in Election Day training for Monroe County, said Andi McClanahan, who has served as a judge of elections for her ward for the last six years.The issue has never been spoken about, she said, which now Im thinking is problematic with the current issues we are facing.While hacking attempts failed in Pennsylvania, they were successful in Illinois, as hackers in 2016 accessed registration data for as many as 90,000 voters. Officials, though, say the hackers did not erase or modify any records.Adam Weiner, who served as a poll worker in his South Loop neighborhood in Chicago during the 2014 midterm elections, said if a voter roll had been compromised by hackers, it would have ground everything to a halt.It was just not questioned that the data there was accurate, Weiner said. If we cant trust the list, how can people vote?David Bjerke, the director of elections and general registrar of voters for Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb, said if registration information is changed, voters should still cast provisional ballots, because officials can verify the eligibility of voters by going back to check paper registration records. Voters, he said, should check their registration status well before Election Day. And if the option is available, they should vote by mail or vote early so they can discover a potential problem with time to spare.According to U.S. officials, Russian hackers have not changed ballot counts. And as more systems move toward paper ballots and away from digital voting machines, the risk of hackers manipulating vote counts decreases.At no time was the voting process from a tabulation or count perspective in jeopardy, said Chris Chambless, the supervisor of elections for Clay County, Florida. People hear there was an attempt to change the results of the election. And that was never in play.But Chambless, whose county outside of Jacksonville has sophisticated network security, is still concerned about zero-day malware, viruses so new that security systems cannot detect them. Florida also was targeted by hackers in 2016.For more than a year now, after designating election infrastructure as critical, the federal government has begun working with states to assess the security of their voting systems. But officials say they need more resources to get cybersecurity experts in offices, to increase audits and to update equipment.A bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate, which would provide $386 million in federal grants to state election security, has stalled. The bills author, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, said in February that more than 40 states rely on a voting system that is at least a decade old.The U.S. State Department has not spent a dime of the $120 million it was allocated after 2016 to fight Russian election meddling. And for his part, President Donald Trump has not told intelligence agencies to stop Russian attempts to target U.S. election systems.So, many local and state leaders are tackling security alone. Travis County, Texas, which surrounds Austin, brought in academics to develop a system that encrypts votes and stores them in a secure database. The system would allow for efficient auditing. Similar programs are in place in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and California is looking to replace its aging equipment.Local election officials now need to be cybersecurity officials. But they have always had to be wary of misinformation campaigns.In Bend, Oregon, Blankenship never thought she would have to fend off Russian hackers. But she has been concerned about misinformation for the last 15 years.It doesnt necessarily need to come from another country, she said. It could come from another candidate to a voter who doesnt have the time to see whether the information is valid or not.Thats not new, thats politics.Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation.As students across the country walked out of classrooms on Wednesday to protest gun violence, Democrats who control the Illinois Senate continued to push firearm restrictions, including bills to limit assault weapon purchases.The action came one day after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed legislation that would have established new state licensing requirements for gun shops, but an attempt to override him was put off until April.Still, some lawmakers sought to seize on the calls for tougher gun regulations in the wake of the February high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and the slaying of Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer. They began the day with a bipartisan walkout in solidarity with students, departing the ornate Senate chamber to gather outside the Capitol. There, they tearfully read victims' names, and some held hands during several moments of silence."This doesn't need to happen, it shouldn't happen," said Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake. "We must do more to protect our children from being gunned down at school."An hour later, lawmakers voted to ban the sale and possession of bump stocks and trigger cranks, devices that are used to speed up the rate at which a gun can fire. The House approved the bill weeks ago, but the Senate changed it to also allow towns and cities to enact local assault weapons bans. That power was repealed in 2013 as part of the state's concealed carry law.Republican state Sen. Dale Righter of Mattoon called those changes a "poison pill" that shows Democrats don't want to work together to find common ground on gun control. Democratic state Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago countered that GOP lawmakers regularly clamor for allow local governments to make their own decisions. Raoul is one of eight Democratic attorney general candidates.Four Republicans joined Democrats for a 37-16 vote for the bump stocks ban, sending it back to the House for further review.Democrats also got help from two Republicans to ban the sale of assault weapons and .50-caliber rifles to people under 21. That bill also returns to the House after the Senate made changes aimed at preventing weapons in question from being taken away from people who already own them. Opponents contended young adults under the age of 21 should not have their Second Amendment rights infringed.The only guns bill advanced Wednesday that would now head to Rauner's desk would put in place a 72-hour waiting period for those seeking to buy assault weapons, a "cooling off" period that's already law for handgun purchases. It passed by a 43-15 vote with no debate.Left for another day is Democrats' attempt to override Rauner's veto of a new licensing and regulatory system for gun shops. The governor rejected the bill Tuesday, saying federal officials already license retailers.State Sen. Dan Harmon, D-Oak Park, said he could not call an override vote Wednesday because the governor's office did not officially file veto paperwork with the Senate. He said that means the 15-day countdown to a deadline to act has yet to begin, so lawmakers can try when they return to the Capitol on April 10. The governor's office, though, said it filed the veto paperwork with the Secretary of State's office as it has many times before.The state constitution says the governor should file his veto with the chamber where the bill got started unless lawmakers aren't in session. In that case, a veto must be filed with the Secretary of State. The Senate was in session Tuesday and Wednesday.Lawmakers are taking several weeks off for next week's primary election and an annual spring break. That would buy Harmon time to build more support for an override, particularly among suburban Republicans who may be more inclined to vote in favor than their counterparts from Downstate. When first approved, the bill got 30 votes in the Senate. Harmon needs 36 votes to overturn Rauner.Rauner on Wednesday called the student walkouts an appropriate way to honor the memory of those killed in Parkland, while disputing the suggestion that his veto of the licensing bill was politically motivated."We took the time to study that particular bill, we reviewed the detail of it, and we determined that it really created a massive level of expensive, onerous bureaucracy and really did virtually nothing to increase public safety," Rauner said.Description

GIS  15 March 2018: The Mauritian Cybercrime Online Reporting System (MAUCORS), aiming at coordinating and resolving social media incidents efficiently, was launched today by the Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden, at Le Meridien Hotel in Pointe aux Piments.

On this occasion, a cyber drill exercise for Top Management of organisations was also organised by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU) in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) of Geneva.

In his address, Minister Sawmynaden highlighted that the launching of the MAUCORS and the Cyber Drill exercise are indications of the commitment of the Ministry to further boost the level of cybersecurity in Mauritius, which is in line with Governments vision to position the country as the leader in the field of cybersecurity within the region. Mauritius, he said, has made immense progression in the field of cybersecurity adding that as per the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Cybersecurity Global Index 2017, Mauritius is ranked first in Africa and sixth in the world.

According to the Minister, social media is a rich repository of valuable personal data which can be easily exploited by cybercriminals to conduct illegal online activities. He pointed out that the growing use of social media in the country has led to a rise in cybercrimes on these platforms. The common types of social media incidents that are reported to the CERT-MU and the Cybercrime Unit are namely, compromise of accounts; fake profiles; posting of derogatory contents; sextortion; sexting, and ransomeware, he added.

The MAUCORS, he emphasised, is one of the key initiative under the National Cybercrime Strategy that sets out to combat cybercrime in Mauritius. Mr Sawmynaden underscored that this online system will facilitate the reporting of incidents such as online harassment, hacking, phishing, cyberbullying, sextortion, identity theft, cyber stalking, online scams and frauds. It will also serve as a tool to analyse social media incident trends that could be used as an input to carry out risk profiling, he added.

As regards the cyber drill, Minister Sawmynaden pointed out that the ITU is supporting partner countries to transfer knowledge in conducting cybersecurity drills. On this score, he pointed out that this high level simulation exercise will enable to raise awareness on incident response and assess organisations preparedness to resist cyber threats.

MAUCORS

The MAUCORS is a secure channel which has been developed by CERT-MU for reporting cybercrimes. It will be hosted at the Government Online Centre with secure infrastructure and it will allow relevant stakeholders namely the CERT-MU, the Mauritius Police Force, the Data Protection Office and the I nformation and Communication Technologies Authority to log into the system and investigate on incident reported and take respective actions accordingly.

Cyber Drill for Top Management

A representative from the ITU, Professor Dr. Marco Gercke, provided assistance for the cyber drill. The cyber attack scenarios comprised targeted attack against Government employees; malware/ransomware; attacks against Ministries/Government agencies; attacks against critical infrastructure; and attacks against integrity of data.Description

GIS  15 March 2018: The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Mauritius with residence in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Mr Harald Gehrig, called on the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, yesterday afternoon at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

Discussions focused on the development of the Mauritian economy, reinforcement of bilateral relations and political cooperation between Germany and Mauritius, ways to boost investment flows towards Mauritius as well as future development-related projects for Mauritius.

The meeting with Prime Minister Jugnauth was an interesting one, indicated the German Ambassador Gehrig in a statement. During the meeting, he presented the congratulations of the Chancellor, the President and the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Prime Minister for the 50th anniversary of Mauritiuss accession to Independence. The German Ambassador also commended the evening festivities held on Monday 12 March 2018 to mark the special event.'I'd had two glasses of wine with my dinner guest that night at their house and I came home and it all happened outside my house.

"I am embarrassed by it".

The 74-year-old was kept in The Alfred Hospital for observation overnight on Monday.

"You shouldn't wear a knee brace and Cuban heels at the same time but I've done it before", he quipped.

A witness told the Herald Sun he helped the Uber driver call an ambulance.

The 74-year-old politician and former radio broadcaster fell out of the auto on St Kilda Rd, knocked unconscious and taken to The Alfred Hospital for checks, the Herald Sun reported.

"The next thing I knew, I was in the Alfred Hospital with lots of tubes coming out of me and metal studs on me for the heart and stuff". "I'm feeling fine", he tweeted on Wednesday night.

He was well enough to fly alone to Canberra on Wednesday for a War Memorial event.

Senator Hinch said he would undergo some tests today with concerns it may have been his heart that contributed to the fall.

Derryn Hinch has vowed not to stop drinking despite suffering a brain trauma after two glasses of wine.

"I'm eternally grateful for it".

Senator Hinch said he didn't drink for five years leading up to his transplant and for one year following it.

"Until I'm lying on the slab for the last time, I'm here to live my life the best I can".

Senator Hinch was released from hospital but will return for further tests.

He will be fitted with a heart monitor for 24 hours as doctors test whether he blacked out before the fall.

"If I feel like having a glass of wine, yes I will".Description

GIS  15 March 2018: A half-day workshop focusing on A Computational Model for Flooding in Mauritius was held this morning at Cyber Tower 1 in Ebene, at the initiative of the Mauritius Research Council (MRC). Some 120 participants from the public and private sectors were present. The Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden, as well as the Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, also attended the workshop.

In his address, Minister Sawmynaden highlighted that in recent years, Mauritius has experienced an increase in flooding events across the island during the rainy season resulting in considerable material damage. With the development of high performing computers and advances in computational modelling techniques, he said, computational simulations are increasingly being used as an additional tool to reach a better understanding of flood events, to estimate inundation extent in terms of area and depth, and even predict the effect of flood mitigation strategies.

He pointed out that it is the first time that a computational model for flooding is being used which has been adapted by the MRC for the Mauritian context. He also dwelt on the importance of leveraging emerging IT techniques for the socioeconomic development of the country. This simulation, he added, is increasingly being used in other countries such as in USA, Europe, and China to anticipate floods so as to mitigate their effects.

Speaking about innovation, he underlined the need to transform the country into innovative Mauritius. Innovation, he underlined, demands an education system that empowers the child. He underscored that innovation will make the world a better place for the younger generation. He also recalled that Government is continuing with the digitalisation of emerging sectors. He announced that 100 open data sets will soon be released for free.

For his part, the Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, Mr Bodha, pointed out that the rain pattern has changed and that the computational model for flooding initiated by the MRC will greatly help in flood prediction and mitigation. He recalled that Mauritius is one of the most vulnerable countries as regards the impacts of climate change and hence the need to master the terrain, predict what can happen and take mitigation measures so that lives can be saved.

Minister Bodha underpinned that Rs 60 billion will be injected over the next five years in infrastructural projects. He appealed to the population to be more responsible and accountable for their actions especially with regard to keeping drains clean and unblocked and responsible construction practices. We need to have a pattern of behavior so that we can preserve the system that we already have, he concluded.

Computational Model for Flooding in Mauritius

Today, flood effects on the built environment can be modelled accurately using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The MRC has recently initiated a program involving application of CFD techniques to assist in developing solutions to address the consequences of the flash floods which the country has been facing lately. This initiative is in line with the Councils endeavor towards leveraging on latest emerging technologies to foster socioeconomic development of the Republic of Mauritius.

The objectives of the workshop were to disseminate the results of a flood model adopted by the MRC which has been calibrated and validated by means of four case studies in flood prone areas. The workshop showed participants the methodology, validation strategy and simulation results obtained in these four flood prone areas. The simulations closely reproduced the real flood effects observed in the regions under investigation.

This model could thus be used as a flood assessment tool by the concerned authorities to assist in predicting and mitigating the flood effects in the country. This tool can also provide an indication of flood prone areas across the country. The resource persons were Mr F. Shamutally and Mr Z. Soreefan from the MRC.Description

GIS  15 March 2018: To achieve long-term change, we need to create a shift in the thinking of the future generation by changing the way we socialise them so that we will build a society that has greater recognition for gender equality. We should instil the idea that men and women are entitled to equal rights and that womens rights are human rights. Both should have balanced responsibilities at home so that both can have the chance to have an equal role in society and in the economy.

The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Outer Islands, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo made this statement this morning at the opening ceremony of the third edition of KIP Leading Women Programme 2018, held at Eureka House in Moka. Several women professionals occupying executive positions in different organisations are attending this two-day leadership programme. The programme is an initiative of the KIP Centre for Leadership, run in partnership with the prestigious GIBS University of Pretoria.

According to Vice-Prime Minister Jeewa-Daureeawoo, 2018 is a special year for the country given that it is celebrating its 50th independence anniversary and it is an opportune moment to take stock of all the progress achieved during the last five decades, including the contribution of women. She pointed out that the involvement of women in the economic development of the country started in the 1970s with their growing presence in the manufacturing sector. As from 1980, she added, their presence and contribution increased as Mauritius made significant progress in terms of womens rights and the reform of the Code Civil brought about the emancipation of women.

Speaking about the evolution of womens rights in Mauritius, the Vice-Prime Minister underscored the key role that the setting up of the Ministry had in entailing profound changes in the status of women. Today, she pointed out, women have charted their way in every sector of the society, with a high representation in the Judiciary wherein they constitute 50 % of judges and 70 % of magistrates and have reached top grades in the Public Sector.

Mrs Jeewa-Daureeawoo emphasised that gender diversity at the workplace greatly contributes to better decision-making. Initiatives such as the KIP leadership programme, she stated, will help women to bridge gender issues at work and provide them with the tools to break barriers. On that score, she underlined that the issue of gender parity is still persistent in the private sector regarding women taking up leadership roles. Furthermore, she deplored the persistent gender gap in the society wherein discrimination in the form of stereotypes, violence, oppression, difficulty in accessing leadership roles, bearing most responsibility of children still pervades to the detriment of the progress of women.

It is crucial at this point, she emphasised, to focus on creating the workplace of the future which recognises that employees have other commitments that extends to the office walls. As long as the responsibility of home and family is placed predominantly on women, they will find it harder to reach positions of leadership, she said. Measures to help employees reconcile with personal and professional life, such as flexible working arrangements or the creation of day-care facilities can help to alleviate this pressure, added Mrs Jeewa-Daureeawoo.Monday, March 26: 2:30  4 p.m. at 2100 Building, 2100 24th Ave South, 98144

Thursday, March 29: 6  7:30 p.m. at Neighborhood House High Point, 6400 Sylvan Way SW, 98126

Saturday, March 31: 10  11:30 a.m. Phinney Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., 98103

Los Angeles seeks participants for its 2018 DataLA Summer Academy

Washington, D.C., Office of the Chief Technology Officer publishes annual report on open data

Seward County, Neb., works to attract public-private investments in broadband infrastructure

Seattles Technology Matching Fund is now open for applications from community and nonprofit groups for grants of up to $50,000 in service of work that improves digital equity.The city is seeking applications for projects that increase access to free or low-cost broadband, empower residents with digital literacy skills, and ensure affordable, available and sufficient devices and technical support, officials announced in a press release. City funds for these grants are to be matched by contributions from the community, which could come in the form of volunteer labor, materials, professional services or return funding.Three workshops have been set up to help those who are interested in applying. The workshops, which are free, aim to provide an overview of the grant program, to explain the application process, and to guide attendees as they compile a successful application. The classes, however, are not required for applicants, although first-time participants are encouraged to attend.The classes will be offered in Seattle at the following dates and locations:This marks the 21st consecutive year for the fund, which likely ranks as one of the longest-running digital inclusion efforts in the country. This year, Seattle also upped its financial contribution for the program when its city council voted to award as much as $430,000 through it. Officials have estimated that this year the fund will help more than 6,000 residents of underserved or underrepresented communities in Seattle gain access to technology and digital skills.Los Angeles is seeking participants for its 2018 DataLA Summer Academy , a 12-week internship program that gives participants first-hand experience with the city working in analytics, app development and communications out of city hall.Successful applicants for the program would work with the Mayors Data Team , which is actively engaged in implementing a civic data strategy that is among the most successful and influential by any local government in the country. Interns with the team will work directly with city departments to support innovative strategies and data-driven methods for addressing ongoing issues in Los Angeles. In a medium post announcing the Summer Academy, now in its second year, coordinators wrote that work would focus on policy topics ranging from sustainability to public safety.Positions are available in three areas: analytics and data science; app development and UI/UX (user interface/user experience); and storytelling, which involves drafting data stories that can be shared through the citys communication channels.The application deadline for the program is April 8, and lists of minimum and preferred qualifications are available here. Successful applications will also have the opportunity to work with the citys GeoHub platform , which since it was first launched in 2016 has in particular drawn praise and admiration from throughout the wider gov tech sector.The Washington, D.C., Office of the Chief Technology Officer has published its annual report on open data as well as its first enterprise data set inventory and report The enterprise data set inventory lists 79 local government agencies in the nations capital record 1,640 enterprise data sets. This, officials report, is nearly 80 percent of the 99 agencies that were asked to report, which is certainly a high number for interagency collaboration. As part of this report, all 69 mayoral agencies worked with the CTOs office to identify and record enterprise data sets, while only 10 of the citys 30 independent agencies participated.There is myriad information about open data in Washington, D.C., now available online as part of the citys annual data report, and interested parties can also see the analysis methods via the Districts Enterprise Dataset Inventory GitHub report.This is all a lot to take in, but whats most striking is the number of data sets that D.C. has, the percentage of which have been made open and the categorizations they fall into. All of that information is available via the report in easy-to-read graphs. There is also a section of lists that make it easy to see progress that has been made from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018, specifically how many new data layers have been published in those periods.Transparency advocacy group Sunlight Foundation praised the publication in a tweet , specifically noting that it had pushed for an open by default data policy, and that tech leadership had not only delivered but displayed information about the policy prominently on the report.Seward County, Neb., a rural area west of Lincoln, Neb., that is home to roughly 17,000 residents, is leveraging public-private partnerships to attract investments in broadband infrastructure. A blog published by the Nebraska Information Technology Commission detailed the work this month, quoting a number of local stakeholders that recognize the importance of fiber to communities. In fact, Jonathan Jank, president and CEO of the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership, described fiber-optic service as a fifth utility, equating it to sewer, water, electric and natural gas. Jank also noted that availability of high-speed connections is a valuable tool in attracting companies to the area.The blog details a series of governmental options for raising money to bolster infrastructure in the service of economic development, as well as ongoing efforts in Seward County to work with providers to explore more ways to connect residents of rural communities. This is a pressing issue in Nebraska, as it is in many states with extensive rural areas.In fact, even states with exceedingly healthy tech ecosystems in their cities often struggle to connect their rural areas, with California, Colorado and Oregon all having explored legislative measures to remedy such gaps.Colorado, for example, is currently looking to fill a GIS technician position that would be aimed in part at helping to provide an ongoing assessment of broadband deployment throughout the state In the Nebraska blog, Jank offers advice for any community interested in improving connection speeds, saying, If you are not engaging your chamber of commerce and your economic development organizations in these broadband conversations, you should be. This is critical to the economic vitality of our state and so I would just make that general encouragement to talk with those professionals in and around your community.(TNS)  LOS ANGELES  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.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 students 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 it was that 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.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 the first step.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 percent of computer science majors are men. Of the 1,780 doctorates granted in the field in 2015, just 1 percent went to black students, 1.7 percent to Latinos and less than 19 percent to women, according to the Computing Research Association.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.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.That diversity helped draw in junior Luis Figureoa, who was intimidated because his high school in San Luis, Ariz., didnt teach 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 Donald 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.(TNS) - A long-standing dispute over flood control versus wildlife protection along the Missouri River hit a milestone with a court ruling that says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers caused flood losses for property owners.In a ruling unsealed Tuesday, a Federal Claims Court judge agreed with plaintiffs who sued the federal government, claiming that the Corps' policies favored wildlife protection over their economic interests.A second phase of the case will look at whether the property owners are entitled to any compensation from the government. Still, they considered the first step a major victory."Today is the day the plaintiffs have patiently waited for and have fought for during the past four years," attorney R. Dan Boulware of the Kansas City-based law firm Polsinelli said in a statement.The lead plaintiff among 372 farmers, landowners and business owners over six states is Roger Ideker of Ideker Farms in St. Joseph."As a farmer and landowner who has experienced substantial losses from these floods, I'm extremely pleased with this outcome," Ideker said in a statement. "It rightfully recognizes the government's responsibility for changing the river and subjecting us to more flooding than ever before."The public affairs office of the Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington did not immediately return a call.A volunteer for the Missouri Chapter of the Sierra Club, who has followed the arguments in the lawsuit, said the plaintiffs wrongly think their interests in flood protection supersede all other considerations in river management."Now they are asking for taxpayers to pay for their damages and forgo any other use of the river," said Caroline Pufalt of St. Louis. "(They say) recreation doesn't matter. Fish and wildlife don't matter. You need to do everything to protect us from flooding."The Sierra Club was not a party to the lawsuit.The plaintiffs estimate their flood losses at more than $300 million going back to 2007. The court ruled that the Corps changed its flood management after 2004, in response to wildlife protection pressures, and made flooding worse.But the court ruling was not a complete victory for the property owners. It did not find the government responsible for severe 2011 flooding. The Corps said flooding that year was unavoidable.The basis of the lawsuit is the Fifth Amendment prohibition against the government taking private property without compensation.The 259-page ruling, by Senior Judge Nancy B. Firestone in Washington, follows a complex trial that began in Kansas City before moving to Washington and included testimony from more than 95 witnesses and more than 3,250 exhibits. More than 20 million documents were produced in the first phase.Her ruling said recurrent flooding in the Missouri River Basin will continue under current management systems as drainage of land along the river is impeded by higher water.The river is 2,341 miles long from Three Forks, Mont., through Kansas City and on to St. Louis, covering over 530,000 square miles.The river was naturally wide and shallow, meandering across the floodplain and providing a variety of habitat for wildlife. Flooding was fed by rainfall in the Plains and mountain snow melt.In the early 20th century the federal government determined the river should be controlled to aid human settlement and economic development. That was achieved and regulated with a series of dams and reservoirs.The Missouri River Basin is now controlled by six main dams with a storage capacity of 73.1 million acre-feet. It became fully operational in 1967 and is the largest reservoir storage system in the United States.Under federal law the river is to be managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is to capture and release water by balancing flood control, navigation, water supply, irrigation, power, recreation, water quality and wildlife preservation.The plaintiffs argued that the Corps changed management policies, reducing the emphasis on flood control in favor of returning the river to a more natural state to provide additional spawning and breeding areas for threatened species.The Corps has been under pressure for decades to better protect troubled species, such as the pallid sturgeon, but it denied changing the rules enough to cause unanticipated flooding.Based on expert testimony, the court found those changes after 2004 did cause water levels "to rise higher than they would have risen without these changes and that this rise ... has led to more flooding or more severe or longer flooding than would have occurred had these changes not been made by the Corps."U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, issued a statement saying steps need to be taken in the wake of the court ruling."I hope this decision is the first step in a new direction for the Corps," he said. "I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure the river is managed in a way that prioritizes flood control, while balancing other interests."2018 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.)Visit The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) at www.kansascity.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS) - A pedestrian bridge under construction at Florida International University collapsed Thursday, just days after crews had dropped an elevated 950-ton span in place in a project that was intended to give students a safe route across the busy roadway.The bridge gave way suddenly while the traffic light for motorists on Tamiami Trail was red, so the concrete span fell on top of a row of stopped vehicles.A woman who was stopped at the light and was heading westbound said the structure fell without warning. The woman, who asked that her name not be used, said it was immediately clear to her that several people were dead.Motorists scrambled out of their cars to help. She said one girl was seated in the front of a car whose rear was crushed by the bridge. The girl was pulled out unscathed by rescuers.From a block away, it looked like the northernmost concrete pier that supported the bridge collapsed to the side.The bridge crashed across six lanes of heavily traveled Tamiami Trail, crushing a still undetermined number of cars and killing a still unclear number of people. Police on the scene said at least six people could be dead.The Florida Highway Patrol reported five or six cars were trapped under the bridge. Miami-Dade County police said at least eight cars had been crushed under the walkway, which had not yet been opened to student traffic.At least eight people had been transported to the trauma center at Kendall Regional Medical Center, according to a source close to the hospital. The condition of the patients was not yet known.Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez said he believed there were multiple people trapped. He wouldnt venture to guess at the number because first responders were having trouble getting to the vehicles. South Floridas WSVN-TV reported that television news helicopters were ordered to back off so rescuers could listen for sounds from survivors.The collapse was clearly a major failure of a project not expected to be completed until early 2019. There was no immediate explanation for what might have triggered the collapse, which occurred shortly before 2 p.m. EDT.MCM Construction Management, which is building the bridge, posted a message to the companys Facebook page after the collapse promising a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong.BDI, the engineering firm responsible for monitoring the structure, said the company would release a statement regarding the bridge collapse later Thursday.FIU spokeswoman Maydel Santana-Bravo issued a statement, even as rescue crews were still working the scene.We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater Bridge, she said. At this time, we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information. We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene. We will share updates as we have them.FIU students are on spring break this week, but traffic was expected to be heavy with the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair nearby scheduled to open Thursday afternoon.Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued a statement that he had spoken with Perez, whose agency dispatched homicide detectives to the scene, which occurs during all mass casualty events.Scotts office said the governor would visit FIU Thursday to be briefed by police and university officials on the collapse.White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said President Donald Trump was aware of the deadly pedestrian bridge collapse and would offer whatever support is needed to local officials.Touted as an instant bridge, the 950-ton pedestrian walkway was installed in a single morning at Southwest 109th Avenue on Saturday, intended eventually to link FIUs Modesto A. Maidique Campus directly to the small suburban city of Sweetwater, where the university estimates 4,000 of its students live.Before Saturdays installation, FIU said the pedestrian bridge used an innovative approach under which a 175-foot section of the overall 320-foot long bridge was fabricated by the side of the Trail while support columns were erected in place.Over a few hours on Saturday morning, the 950-ton span was lifted off the ground by a mechanical transporter, swung into position across the Trail, then lowered into place over the support columns.That reduced to a minimum the time the trail had to be closed to traffic, and minimized risks to workers and people in the vicinity, FIU said.The universitys engineering school has an accelerated bridge program that works on techniques to speed up bridge construction. The program consulted with builders, designers and engineers early in the process, but was not closely involved in the pedestrian bridge program, a spokeswoman said last week.There were as yet no stairs or ramps to the bridge, which was scheduled to be opened early next year.Designed as a cable-supported bridge, the $14.2 million bridge project was a collaboration between MCM Construction, a prominent Miami-based contractor, and Figg Bridge Design, based in Tallahassee. Figg is responsible for the iconic Skyway bridge across Tampa Bay.Figg issued a statement Thursday saying the company was stunned by the collapse and promising to cooperate with every authority investigating the collapse.In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before, the companys statement said. Our entire team mourns the loss of life and injuries associated with this devastating tragedy, and our prayers go out to all involved.MCM and Figg are part of a consortium that has mounted a legal challenge of the Florida Department of Transportations award of the Interstate 395 reconstruction project to a rival team, holding up the plan for months.A citizen panel judging the 395 bids on aesthetic grounds overwhelmingly preferred Figgs design for a signature bridge over Biscayne Boulevard, a key element in the project. But MCMs team alleged that FDOT changed the scoring method to favor the other teams submission. Figgs design for a bridge suspended from cables features two support towers that resemble dancers.Students and faculty have long been clamoring for a bridge at the 109th Street crossing, where students on foot have to get across seven lanes of jam-packed traffic that divide the campus from Sweetwater. Though FIU provides shuttles, many students prefer to walk. In August, FIU undergraduate Alexis Dale was hit and killed by a motorist while crossing the intersection.(Herald staff writers Howard Cohen, Douglas Hanks, Alex Harris, David J. Neal, Charles Rabin, Jennifer Staletovich and Martin Vassolo contributed to this report.)2018 Miami HeraldVisit Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS)  In the latest snafu to snare the Santa Fe Parking Division, dozens of parking tickets issued over several months have been deemed invalid and tossed out after the city realized battery flaws had caused some 280 meters to malfunction.Nobody is going to have to pay a ticket that was issued on a broken meter if it wasnt their fault, city spokesman Matt Ross said Tuesday.Ross said the city already has canceled 78 parking tickets.If somebody reports that they got a ticket [on an inoperable meter], we can look at the ticket number, the time that it was issued and we can go back into our monitoring system and check, Ross said. If it was issued on a broken meter or a meter that wasnt working at that time  obviously, were going to make it right.Ross said the problem points to solar-charged batteries that power the parking meters, not the meters themselves.Over the last several months, the calls have been kind of growing and as they grew  this was calls and feedback from the public  staff was evaluating whether or not the issues were with the charging mechanism or if it was the battery itself that was at fault, he said. Eventually, they got enough calls that they realized there was a larger problem at hand.Ross said parking staff conducted a systematic check of the meters and found 280 had battery flaws, most of which were located in the downtown area. The city operates an estimated 1,300 on-street parking meters, and the vast majority are downtown.As customers called in to alert us to the issue, we acted to cancel any tickets that were issued while a meter was broken and order replacements from the manufacturer, he said. All 280 faulty batteries have been replaced at no cost to the taxpayer  since it was a manufacturer error that caused the problem.Its unclear why parking enforcement officers issued tickets to motorists parked on meters with faulty batteries.It couldve been a range of different things, Ross said. It couldve been that [the motorists] put money in and then walked away and then the meter shut off after that happened. Thats probably the most likely scenario.Parking Director Noel Correia, who is out of the office this week, did not return messages seeking comment.Most of the meters are just over a year old. The city upgraded more than 1,100 coin-operated parking meters to meters that also accept credit and debit cards in late 2016. At that time, only about 200 parking meters accepted various forms of payment.The faulty batteries are the latest problem for the Parking Division, which has been a regular source of public criticism that started with the citys decision to raise parking rates in July 2016 from $1 an hour to $2 an hour for the first two hours.The rate increases, which were proposed as the city grappled with a $15 million budget deficit, angered residents, visitors and downtown merchants  some of whom berated former Mayor Javier Gonzales during a heated meeting at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.(TNS)  After salary debates turned heated last month, Des Moines County Information Technology Director Gina Erickson will resign.Erickson reports directly to the Des Moines County Board of Supervisors. She submitted her resignation letter Sunday to the board's chairman, Jim Cary. Erickson declined to provide further comment beyond her letter. She said her attorney advised her to wait to comment until after her county-requested exit interview."I find it sad that it has come to this, but I no longer feel that this position serves the best interest of myself or my family and I believe it's time for me to move on," Erickson wrote in her resignation letter. "Contrary to what is probably believed, this decision has absolutely nothing to do with a monetary decision, but more based on trust and principal [sic]."Cary declined to comment when called Wednesday.In this year's county budget hearings, Erickson pushed for a salary increase for herself and for increased payment for IT employees who work on-call hours supporting local emergency services and various county departments. Talks included budgeting more for overtime pay and paying home internet bills of the IT staff members.Requested IT department raises were among several budget cuts supervisors oversaw during the year's budget process. Erickson noted that differences between her own pay and other IT directors in the state is greater than existing differences with other department heads.Erickson's drafted fiscal 2019 budget document included a 27.8 percent salary increase. Erickson included the figure to show supervisors the discrepancy between her salary and comparable counties and never intended it as a serious suggestion, she said. She eventually requested a 9 percent raise plus a $6,000 stipend for serving as the county's Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act officer.In the final work session on the subject, Erickson's debates with Supervisor Tom Broeker grew particularly fiery. Broeker accused her of holding the budget process "hostage" for her requests.During that meeting, Erickson said Budget Director Cheryl McVey misled her into cutting requested raises out of last year's budget, and that this year McVey was telling other staffers that IT salary requests were keeping other departments from getting raises. Erickson said there was "backstabbing" taking place in the county government.McVey denied Erickson's charges.Erickson worked for Des Moines County for 24 years, and served as IT director for 13. Her last day will be March 23.A Facebook post she wrote Monday said she is starting a new job March 26.Her letter said she has already begun training other staff to handle her administrative duties.(TNS) State Sen. Scott Wiener plans to amend his California net neutrality bill on Wednesday to make it as comprehensive as the policy the Federal Communications Commission recently voted to repeal.The revised SB822 asserts Californias authority to require Internet service companies to treat all Web traffic equally, not only to protect consumers right to binge-watch Netflix programs, but also to ensure the state can continue to provide online-connected emergency notification alerts, electric grid management programs and smart transportation systems.The reality is that in 2018, the Internet is at the heart of our democracy and at the heart of our economy, Wiener said. And government has the responsibility to protect full and open access to the Internet as opposed to letting a handful of large companies decide who can access what.The San Francisco Democrat introduced the bill Jan. 3 in reaction to the FCCs Dec. 14 vote to overturn Obama-era regulations that required Internet service companies to treat all Web traffic equally. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said the order, scheduled to take effect April 23, is a return to a light-touch regulatory scheme that enabled the Internet to develop and thrive for nearly two decades. Opponents of Pais action fear that Internet providers could charge some companies more than others, or introduce extra charges for faster service, though many broadband providers have denied such intentions.The initial draft of Wieners bill contained only sparse language stating an intent to enact net neutrality regulations. Since then, Wieners office has worked with legal scholars and groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union to draft the details.Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon has also introduced a net neutrality bill that the Senate has already sent to the Assembly, but it may not be heard until June. Meanwhile, Washington state lawmakers earlier this month became the first in the nation to enact a net neutrality law, set to go into effect in June.The Wiener bill is more comprehensive than the others and would match the level of protection of the FCCs 2015 net neutrality rules, at least within California, said Barbara van Schewick, a Stanford Law School professor. Van Schewick provided feedback to Wieners staff on some of the legal technicalities of the proposed bill.The FCC has said individual states dont have the authority to pass their own net neutrality rules. However, Wieners bill asserts the state has broad powers to protect residents safety, life, public health (and) public convenience, and that almost every sector of the economy is dependent on the open and neutral Internet.That includes police and other emergency services, which increasingly rely on broadband and wireless connections to alert citizens. The bill also seeks to protect transportation, government services, voting, education and environmental monitoring.In addition, it directs the states electrical grid operators to evaluate whether a lack of net neutrality rules could hurt the power system when smart energy devices become more integrated in the future.The bill would cover cable and telephone companies that deliver service to any customer in the state, not just companies that have contracts with state agencies.We believe we have a strong argument that California under our police powers has the ability to protect consumers, Wiener said. This is a comprehensive and aggressive bill in terms of protecting net neutrality. Were trying to adopt the protections that the FCC abandoned.However, Broadband for America, which represents AT&T, Comcast, Charter Communications and other Internet providers that opposed net neutrality rules, said individual state laws governing an Internet that crosses all state lines will eventually cost consumers more.Creating a maze of competing state rules to govern the Internet is the wrong approach to creating long-term policies for the Internet of the 21st century, spokesman Rob Tappan said in a statement. Competing regulations from state to state would increase compliance costs for businesses, lead to higher prices for customers and curb investment in the expansion of high-speed broadband infrastructure, which would most impact rural and other underserved communities.(TNS)  ANNAPOLIS, Md.  Big Brother may always be watching, but if a Frederick County lawmaker has his way, at least that wont lead to you being forced to get implanted with a microchip.Sen. Ron Young (D-District 3) testified in support of Senate Bill 944 before the Senate Finance Committee. The bill would prevent employers and the state government from requiring or coercing anyone to be implanted with an identification device.The premise of Youngs bill may sound like the plot of a science fiction film, but proponents say it addresses a very real issue. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of RFID chip implants in humans since October 2004.There are no known instances of Maryland entities using microchips, according to an analysis from the Department of Legislative Services. However, the Wisconsin self-serve snack kiosk company Three Square Market became the first U.S. company to offer RFID chips to employees in 2017, according to the analysis. The implanted IDs allow employees to open doors, make break room purchases and log in to computers.Its proactive legislation. To our knowledge, Maryland has no organization that is implanting its workers right now, but new technologies are providing new means of monitoring workers, Young said.He said that the chips have been used in Sweden to track medical records, allow access to public transportation, and more.As of the start of this year, several U.S. states, including California, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, have prohibited the mandatory implantation of a chip.If Youngs proposal is passed into law, it would allow someone who was mandatorily implanted to sue those responsible, leaving them to face a civil penalty of up to $10,000 plus an additional $1,000 for each day the chip remains implanted.Nothing in the bill stops someone from being voluntarily microchipped, Young said.If you want to put one in so your wife can check where you are, thats up to you, he joked.Joanna Diamond, speaking for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, but also testifying on behalf of the Libertarian Party of Maryland, said the proposal was an important way to stay ahead of technology.The invention of new technologies is going to continue. We know this. But its also clear that the development of these technologies outpaces our capacity to regulate or legislate around this technology, she said.Sen. J.B. Jennings (R-Harford) raised concerns about how the bill could affect the medical community, asking if a pacemaker would become a banned device. Diamond stressed that the proposal is meant to apply to corporations and the government, so it shouldnt affect medical care providers.Young said that he had changed his bill to clarify that nothing about it would change laws regarding guardianship of children or dependent adults.Committee Chairman Sen. Thomas M. Mac Middleton (D-Charles) said that someone with Alzheimers disease may opt into an ID implant to help be reconnected with loved ones in case of emergency, and that would possibly require a guardians consent.The House Health and Government Operations Committee heard testimony earlier this week, but has not yet voted on a cross-filed bill from Delegate Dana Stein (D-Baltimore County).A similar bill was voted down by the House Economic Matters Committee in 2008.A auto bomb went off on Tuesday outside a supply post belonging to a Yemeni security force backed by the United Arab Emirates in the southern port city of Aden, killing at least three people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Six soldiers were killed on Tuesday in an incident of suicide auto bombing in the southern port city of Aden, local police said.

Forces backed by the United Arab Emirates were sent to the area after the explosion and a search operation was launched.

IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency.

But it also hosts jihadists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, who have both claimed attacks in the city in recent years.

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.

The rebels are in control of the capital Sanaa and most of northern Yemen. The fighting further intensified in 2015, when clashes broke out between the present Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi's government forces and Former Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh loyalist forces.

The United Nations has listed Yemen as the country of world's number one humanitarian crisis, with 7 million Yemenis on the brink of starvation and cholera causing more than 2,000 deaths.(TNS)  In the first courtroom challenge of the New Orleans Police Departments use of sophisticated crime-fighting software, a judge on Wednesday granted a convicted Central City gang lord the chance to prove his allegation that a Palantir Technologies program spit out exculpatory information on him that was never revealed to his attorneys.Criminal District Court Judge Camille Buras set an April 3 court date to rule on subpoenas that attorneys for Kentrell "Black" Hickerson will be seeking to reveal how Palantir's program, called "Gotham," has been used in New Orleans -- and particularly in the case against Hickerson and 19 other suspected "3NG" gang members.Buras stopped short of setting a hearing date over the dispute, but she agreed that Hickerson's lead attorney, Kevin Vogeltanz, could add the argument to Hickerson's pending motion for a new trial.In a legal filing last week, Vogeltanz claimed that police used Gotham to build the 2013 indictment of alleged 3NG members. The Orleans Parish District Attorneys Office should have disclosed that to Hickerson, as well as the softwares role in analyzing whether the gang existed at all, Vogeltanz said.Vogeltanzs motion hinged on the Feb. 27 article from The Verge that first brought the citys use of Gotham to public attention. Citing former Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, the article said that the NOPD used Gotham to zero in on gangs like 3NG.However, the article did not elaborate on whether or how Gotham was used to build the 3NG case in particular.The top gang prosecutor for the District Attorneys Office said in court that he had no objection to Buras considering Vogeltanzs motion  but he dismissed Palantirs role in the sprawling 3NG investigation.The state of Louisiana wants full transparency, Assistant District Attorney Alex Calenda said. All (Palantir) does is take 15 to 16 law enforcement databases and aggregate information thats already accessible to law enforcement and compiles this information in a concise manner, rather than have a detective go through the 16 databases.Vogeltanz said that if the software produced a negative report on Hickersons gang connections, or even a total absence of Hickersons name in a report on 3NG, that should have been turned over to the defense before trial.Calenda said he was unclear what Hickersons lawyer was alleging.Buras said she had an idea: He is looking for any Palantir/Gotham report that shows Mr. Hickerson was not connected to the 3NG case, or the absence of his name, which perhaps might undermine the testimony of officers at his trial, she said.Calenda called the idea that Palantir analysis spurred the 3NG investigation revisionist history. The case began the old-fashioned way, he said, with a detective hidden inside an abandoned house in Central City taking pictures of drug dealers.Hickerson, 38, was convicted of racketeering and drug conspiracy counts after a 10-day trial in Burass courtroom two years ago. Prosecutors and former gang allies said he committed or directed a series of killings in a battle over turf around Third and Galvez streets.At trial and afterwards, however, Vogeltanz argued that authorities had created the idea that 3NG was a gang. He pointed to testimony from a key cooperating witness, Tyrone Knockum, who cast doubt on the gangs cohesiveness.Is it a bona fide gang or is it a group of people that grew up around each other and hang around with each other? Vogeltanz asked.Its a group of people that grew up around each other, Knockum said.In March 2017, Vogeltanz filed a motion for a new trial based on testimony from the separate federal trial of 10 alleged 39ers gang members that the government promised leniency to Knockum if he testified for the state.The new allegations about Palantir were made in a motion to supplement that earlier bid for a new trial - a motion that Buras granted Tuesday.After the hearing, a District Attorney's Office spokesman issued a flat-out denial that Palantir was used against Hickerson."The NOPDs Palantir software played no role whatsoever in Mr. Hickersons indictment and prosecution. Furthermore, any claim that the NOPDs Palantir program contained exculpatory evidence to Mr. Hickersons defense is without merit," said Ken Daley.(TNS)  Allegheny County elections officials countered reports Wednesday of alleged irregularities in the 18th Congressional District special election held the day before  including the claim that voting machines at several polling places had technical glitches that supposedly switched some voters' choices in favor of Democrat Conor Lamb.The National Republican Congressional Committee called for an investigation into possible voting machine calibration issues and other alleged problems it suggests may have violated typical elections rules and procedures.All of these claims are incredibly troubling, and they all point to issues with transparency in some of these polling locations, NRCC spokesman Chris Martin told the Tribune-Review. We want to ensure that all of these claims are investigated to ensure that every legal vote that was cast counts.The Washington, D.C.-based NRCC  the GOP's chief fundraising committee dedicated to getting Republicans elected to Congress  pumped more than $3 million into efforts to defeat Lamb and improve Trump-backed Republican Rick Saccone's chances at winning.As of Wednesday, Saccone unofficially trailed Lamb by 627 votes  a margin of 0.27-percentage point.We are aware of issues being raised by the Republican Party and the Rick for Congress campaign regarding yesterday's PA-18 special election, Allegheny County Elections Division Director Mark Wolosik said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. We have not received notice of legal action being taken by any party or campaign at this time.The NRCC plans to pursue possible legal recourse once all ballots are counted, Martin said.More than 250 provisional and military ballots are slated to be counted starting Friday. Overseas military ballots are not due until Tuesday.The results won't be officially certified until April 2.Our primary concern is making sure that every legal vote cast is counted, and that includes provisional and military ballots, and then we'll determine what the next steps are, Martin said. All legal options are on the table at that point.Wolosik countered the claim that voting machines at several Allegheny County polling places possibly had calibration issues that caused some voters who wanted to select Saccone to inadvertently cast a ballot for Lamb.The county received no such reports or complaints during Tuesday's election, Wolosik said.Additionally, once someone selects the candidate who they wish to vote for, the voting machine goes to another page where the voter is asked to review who their vote will be cast for and has the option to return to a prior page and change that selection, Wolosik added. If the confirmation page is correct, they confirm and they cast their ballot.There are numerous opportunities to correct an error, or to notify the poll workers of problems with a machine.Wolosik dismissed a second allegation that GOP attorneys had been wrongfully denied the right to observe the tabulation of ballots at the county's election warehouse on Pittsburgh's North Side.Two people showed up at the warehouse without the signed authorization required by the election code, Wolosik said.One left and one stayed, Wolosik said, and the one who stayed was immediately sworn in and given full access to the process once he provided the required authorization  a handwritten note signed by Republican Committee of Allegheny County Chairman D. Raja. Raja did not immediately return a call for comment.The NRCC accused the county of violating elections code by depriving the campaign of the right to have counsel present during the computation reporting process, according to a letter dated Wednesday from Rick for Congress campaign attorney Kathleen Gallagher to Allegheny County Solicitor Allan Opsitnick. The letter argued that attorney Russell Giancola was permitted only after complying with the county's unprecedented and inappropriate preconditions.Pennsylvania Department of State spokeswoman Wanda Murren dismissed a third claim that the state's polling location website had been confusing voters as to whether they lived in the 18th District relevant to Tuesday's election. New, renumbered districts drawn by the state Supreme Court are set to take effect in May.Polling locations for individual voters will not change.Murren said voters can find where their polling place is located by using the agency's voter-registration website , but the site does not specify the congressional district in which they live.That information is available every day, Murren said. There was some confusion because some people thought because they got information about their polling place, they could go there to vote.The NRCC sent letters to the district's four counties  Allegheny, Washington, Westmoreland and Greene  requesting that officials confirm they are complying with elections' equipment preservation requirements  namely, impounding all voting machines until the election is certified.By late Wednesday, officials from all four counties told the NRCC that they had, indeed, complied and impounded their machines, Martin said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  Sad news for ComicCon Asia 2018 attendees  Stan Lee can't fly to Manila for the event.

The event organizers made the announcement on social media Thursday citing the 95-year-old superhero creator's health concerns.

"His management team and ComicCon Asia have mutually decided to cancel his agreed appearance at the forthcoming ComicCon Asia 2018," the post read.

Prior to the announcement, ComicCon Asia confirmed reports that the comic book genius is battling with pneumonia.

Passes to the Stan Lee Q&A, photo, autograph, VIP photo, VIP autograph, and Excelsior events will be refunded. Eventgoers may email the organizers at payment@comiccon.asia.

ComicCon Asia 2018 will still push through on March 24 and 25 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City. The original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" Black Ranger Walter Jones, local musician and comic book enthusiast Yael Yuzon, and various comic book artists will be at the event.US crude oil exports grew to an average of 1.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2017, the second full year since restrictions on crude oil exports were removed, according to figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Crude oil exports in 2017 were nearly double the level of exports in 2016. Increased US crude oil exports were supported by increasing US crude oil production and expanded infrastructure.





US crude oil exports went to 37 destinations in 2017, compared with 27 destinations in 2016. Similar to previous years, Canada remained the largest destination for US crude oil exports, but Canadas share of total US crude oil exports continued to decrease, down from 61% in 2016 to 29% in 2017. US crude oil exports to China accounted for 202,000 b/d (20%) of the 527,000 b/d total increase. China surpassed the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to become the second-largest destination for US crude oil exports in 2017.

Many European nations are among the top destinations for US crude oil exports, including the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, France, and Spain. India, which did not receive US crude oil exports in 2016, received 22,000 b/d in 2017, tying with Spain as the tenth-largest destination.

Crude oil now makes up 18% of total US petroleum exports, making it the third-largest petroleum export after hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL) and distillate fuel.

Increasing US crude oil production and expansions of US pipeline capacity and export infrastructure facilitated increased crude oil exports. US crude oil production reached 9.3 million b/d in 2017, a 0.5 million b/d increase from 2016. Several new or expanded pipelines came online in 2017 to move crude oil from producing regions, primarily the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico, to the US Gulf Coast. On the US Gulf Coast, recently expanded crude oil export infrastructure in ports such as Corpus Christi and Houston, Texas, and in ports along the Mississippi River in LoUSana allowed larger volumes of crude oil exports.Israeli lawmakers have approved regulations that will require owners of old, heavy-duty, diesel-fueled engines to install particulate filters. The regulations were passed by the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on 12 March 2018; theyll go into effect on November 1, 2018. Those who are required to install the filters but do not do so will be unable to renew their vehicles license.

The main principles of the regulations:

Owners of old, heavy diesel vehicle are required to install diesel particulate filters (DPFs). Those who are required to install filters and do not, will not be able to renew their license.

Vehicles defined as polluting will be marked with a sticker during their annual vehicular license test, and ultimately, will not be allowed to enter low-emission zones in Israel.

Every vehicle license will include a rating, in accordance with its impact on air pollution. The rating system is as follows: Clean (electric vehicles); Reduced pollution vehicle; Normal; Polluting vehicle (those that do not meet Euro 4 standards).

Diesel vehicles will receive a reduced pollution rating once a particulate filter has been installed.

Implementation of these regulations is expected to reduce vehicular air pollution in Israel by 30%.

The diesel program is part of the Ministry of Environmental Protections Clean Car Revolution, which also includes funding for cities that create low-emission zones, support for transportation companies that acquire electric buses, encourage the purchase of hybrid taxes, and more.

Alongside the regulations, the Ministry will launch a program that includes two main elements:The standoff between the House and the Senate within the Wyoming Legislature has helped curb potential cuts proposed to education spending, however a final estimate as to how much funding for schools across the state could get remains unclear.

Pete Brandjord, Sweetwater County School District No. 2s business manager, said estimates from the Legislative Service Office state House Bill 140, which focuses on school finance, would result in a reduction of $135,000 for the school district. However, Brandjord said full impacts of the bill wont be known until later.

Rep. Joh Freeman, D-Green River, attended the school boards meeting Tuesday night and spoke about the intense debate that has taken place in Cheyenne.

This is an early evening for the legislature this year, Freeman said while pointing to a clock on the wall. Ive been going out to my car after 10 (p.m.)

Freeman said the biggest problem the state faces is it isnt receiving money from the traditional sources it has relied on, such as coal lease bonuses.

Freeman said the Senate thought it could cut its way through a $380-million deficit while members of the House opted to redirect funds and use reserve funding to close the gap.

It was hotly contested between the House and the Senate, he said.

The education debate resulted in Freeman posting his first protest vote in the House, voting against Senate File 29. The file includes computer science as part of the core curriculum and Hathaway Scholarship requirements. Freeman said he supports teaching computer science, but does not support the fact it was approved without providing funding to districts to provide materials and training for teachers at a time when the Legislature seeks cuts to education spending. The file passed.

The Legislature reconvened Wednesday to further debate and approve the states budget.

Board member Corina Tynsky expressed her disapproval with how the Legislature continues to threaten education funding.

Whats going on in the Legislature is really sad, she said.A 45-year-old Green River man died in a two-vehicle crash near Bairoil Monday afternoon.

According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, Thomas Nisbet died after his 2002 Toyota Camry collided head-on with a tractor-trailer combination on U.S. 287 South. Nisbet is being investigated for improper use of seatbelt and driving while impaired at the time of the collision.

The WHP was dispatched to milepost 29 on U.S. 287 at 1:15 p.m.

According to the WHP, Nisbet was traveling southbound when his vehicle crossed over the center line, into the northbound lane when his vehicle crashed. The driver of the tractor-trailer combination, 67-year-old Norlin Davis of Battle Lake, Minn., was not injured in the crash.

The crash is the 13th highway fatality in Wyoming for 2018. At this time in 2017, 15 highway fatalities were reported, compared to 10 in 2016 and 18 in 2015 during the same period.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Many motorists usually ask what is the best fuel for their car. As with some things in life, there is really no hard and straight answer for this one.

To simplify matters, let's focus on octane ratings. That's because one will find a number of these when making a trip to your friendly gas station. Take Petron fuels as an example. Petron stations usually offer regular, mid-grade, and premium or high octane. These are also known in our market as 91, 95, and 97-octane or higher (such as Petron Blaze 100 Euro 6), respectively.

In layman's terms, a gasoline's octane rating is its ability to resist premature ignition, also known as engine knocking. The higher the octane rating, the higher the resistance is to knocking. This is why high-performance cars usually need the premium stuff to keep them performing at their peak. Moreover, engine knocking (or that pinging or knocking sound coming from the engine bay) can actually be harmful. Being a detonation that's out of timing, it can put a hole in the pistons even after a short span of continuous knocking.

But how does one know the octane rating, you ask? It is usually found in the vehicle's owner's manual. If it says to simply go with regular fuel, then do so. If, on the other hand, your car's manual recommends using mid or high octane fuel, then try to use this type of fuel as much as possible. The operative word here is recommended, which means that while you can use lower octane gas, it is advisable to go with the good stuff if possible.

Using lower octane fuel won't damage your car's engine, thanks to modern technologies such as a knock sensor. This piece of kit will retard ignition to avoid knocking. This, however, will also reduce engine performance and tend to increase fuel consumption as the engine will need to work harder.

But if your owner's manual says that high octane fuel is required, then you have no choice but to treat your car to a sumptuous meal each time you fill up. Of course, such fuel will help bring out the best in that high-performance engine you've got under the hood.

So the next time you fill up, check to see which fuel is best to use. It could just be the thing you need to bring out the best in your car.This time the new Chamber CEOs position was filled by someone who was already working at the Green River Chamber of Commerce.

Lisa Herrera, was announced as the new Chamber CEO, which is effective immediately, according to a press release stated.

Lisa has stepped up a multitude of times as the interim CEO, Chamber board chairman Angela Shutran said. We felt she was the best pick for us.

Shutran said Herrera not only acted as the interim CEO after Rebecca Briesmaster resigned, but she acted as the interim CEO after Irene Parsons was terminated from the CEO position.

It was during this time that Herrera played a pivotal role in maintaining the day-to-day operations of the Chamber, the release states.

The press release states Herrera has worked for the Chamber for the past four years as the Chambers finance manager and will bring her experience, event planning and membership-management knowledge to the leadership role.

The selection committee was impressed with her passion for Green River and the community. Her promotion was the end of a rigorous review of other qualified applicants, the release states.

I thought it was a great search, Shutran said.

The board believes Herrera will add energy and talent to the position, which will give the Chamber momentum it needs to serve Green River and the community, the release states.

I think the board is just thrilled to have Lisa, Shutran said.

One of Herreras first tasks will be to hire someone to replace her as the finance manager. Shell also have to work closely with the new marketing director.

Shutran said Herrera has roots in Green River because she is a third generation Green River resident.

She definitely has the heart of Green River, Shutran said.

The Chamber board of directors and the Hole in the Wall Gang are going to welcome Herrera to her new position at a Chamber mixer March 23, at 6 p.m.

Beverages and hors doeuvres will be served. The public is welcome to attend the mixer and meet or reintroduce themselves to Herrera.Drugs will be destroyed

Since October, the Sweetwater County Sheriffs Office has accumulated a stockpile of drugs from 19 felony drug arrests made within the county.

The stockpile, which consists of 1,138.44 pounds of marijuana, 3.56 pounds of methamphetamine, 302 grams of liquid THC, 115.69 grams of heroin and 49 grams of cocaine, will eventually be destroyed.

According to Det. Dick Blust, public information officer for the sheriffs office, said the stockpile has a street value of more than $5 million.

He said the sheriffs office uses source websites such as http://www.hightimes.com, http://www.priceofweed.com and http://www.rehabcenter.net to determine the street prices of various drugs they seize.

According to Blust, the drugs are kept in what he describes as a  special, solidly-secured lockdown facility. After a case involving drugs is closed and a verdict for the defendants involved is reached, Blust said the sheriffs office prepares a destruction order request and sends it to the Wyoming Attorney Generals Office.

Once a hard-copy of the approval is received, a district court judge reviews the authorization for a signature and the destruction request is filed with Clerk of District Courts office.

The drugs are then incinerated, either at the Solid Waste District No.1 landfill south of Rock Springs or through the Sweetwater County Bomb Squads ammunition and fireworks disposal trailer. The ashes resulting from incineration are then buried.

Blust said the bomb squads trailer is a mobile, propane-fueled burning unit that generates approximately 900 degrees of head while burning.

The unit was purchased with grant funds by the Region 4 Regional Response Team, through the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 14)  The House of Representatives passed on second reading the bill postponing anew the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.

From the original schedule of May 14 this year, the bill seeks to reschedule the local polls to October 8, the second Monday of the month.

Bill sponsor Sherwin Tugna, who also chairs the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, said the lawmakers want the elections postponed to give the Commission on Elections (Comelec) longer time to prepare for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.

He added they also want the elections postponed so it can be held simultaneously with the anticipated plebiscite on charter change.

"I-move to October 2018 and at the same time magkaroon po ng plebisito or referendum yun atin pong pag-shift from unitary to federal form of government," Tugna said.

[Translation: Move the elections to October 2018, at the same time as the plebiscite or referendum on our shift from unitary to federal form of government.]

ACT Teachers Party-list Representative Antonio Tinio, however, pointed out that the Comelec itself said that it is ready to hold the barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections this May.

"Napakalinaw naman po ng pahayag ng Comelec na 100 percent handang handa sila na ituloy ang barangay at SK elections ngayong mayo. Sa katunayan nagastos na po nila ang signipikanteng bahagi ng 5 billion pesos na budget na nilaan para sa eleksyon na 'to," Tinio said.

[Translation: It's very clear that the Comelec said they are 100 percent ready to push through with the barangay and SK elections in May. In fact, they've already spent a significant amount of their P5 billion budget for this election.]

He adds, the Comelec even said during a hearing that they will have difficulty holding the elections in October because it will be held almost simultaneous with the filing of Certificates of Candidacy for the 2019 elections, and simultaneous with the preparations of the local and national elections.

Tinio also noted that there is still no assurance that a plebiscite on charter change will be conducted in October, hence, the election postponement has no basis.

Congress only has three session days left before it adjourns on March 24. Both the House and Senate will resume their sessions on May 14, the supposed date of the local elections.

If the two Houses of Congress fail to pass the bill, the Barangay and SK elections will proceed as scheduled.

Around 42,000 barangays nationwide will vote in the upcoming polls. The barangay elections were last held in October 2013.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 14)  Students who avail of free tuition must render services to be determined by their universities, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) announced Wednesday.

"They are now being paid for by taxpayers' money and it is their responsibility to give back to their community or give back to the nation," CHEd Officer-in-Charge Prospero De Vera III said.

When asked about the type of service that must be rendered, De Vera cited library assistance as an example, but clarified it is up to the schools to decide. He also assured the work would not be tedious or get in the way of academic requirements.

"It's not something that will be overwhelming or people should be afraid of," he said.

The return service system was provided under the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, or Republic Act 10931, which will be implemented this coming school year.

The rules assure Filipino undergraduates attending state universities, colleges, and CHEd-recognized local universities and colleges are waived of tuition and school fees as long as:

They pass or meet the admission and retention policies of the institution;

They have no previous undergraduate degree; and

They are not overstaying.

CHEd will also cover entrance exam fees for applicants to the schools covered by the law.

Students who also qualify as coming from the "poorest of the poor" can also apply for additional subsidy, whether they are studying in public or private schools.

RA 10931 also provides for free technical and vocational education for those who do not wish to go to college.

However, De Vera reminded that although tuition to the schools would be free, admission would still be stringent.

"We are telling them to maintain and be strict about their admission and retention requirements. RA 10131 should not be used as a license to accept everyone that applies because if they do that, you compromise quality," said De Vera.

Nonetheless, he believed the P40 billion allotted for free tuition in the next school year would be a big held for students across the country.

"Because the biggest obstacle to access in higher education -- which is cost -- is now borne by government, there is now no reason why our students coming from poorer households... will not anymore dream they can go to college," he said.

CNN Philippines correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.One less diner for Manhattan. Photo: Shanna Ravindra

They couldnt lasso enough customers: Downtown diner Silver Spurs will close its last location on March 29, bringing an end to its nearly 40-year reign as Manhattans premier lightly Western-themed diner. The La Guardia Place greasy spoon was the Spurs second, and last, location; the first, on Broadway and 9th, closed in 2013 after its lease expired. Its just one more diner biting the bust.

Jeremiahs Vanishing New York reports that a reader tipped him off to Silver Spurs final demise, and that manager Kiki Bourekas blames the shuttering on a dip in business. Bourekas says shes been there since this location opened 22 years ago, but that 2 years ago things started going south. They simply werent getting enough customers, and at some point had to stop staying open 24 hours a day on weekends because there wasnt enough business.PQRs arrabbiata pizza al taglio. Photo: Melissa Hom

Despite the enduring Neapolitan-pie digression of the last 15 years or so, New Yorkers still like their pizza by the slice. They just do. No point in debating it. They like mobility. They like to eat pizza on the move like Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. Of course, they like sitting down to a whole pie every now and then, but if they had to choose between the two, if they had to decide one or the other for the rest of their lives, theyd take the slice every time. Its much the same situation in Rome, where the regular, pizza al taglio, is a crisp rectangular pan-pie piece snipped with scissors and sold by weight (tagliare means to cut; al taglio means by the piece). Just like here, its portable street food for the people eaten any time of day, and just like here, it varies widely in quality.

The most famous contemporary purveyor is Gabriele Bonci, whose masterful dough and inspired toppings have attracted the likes of Anthony Bourdain and the baker Pam Yung to his al taglio mecca Pizzarium, and who recently opened his first American outpost in Chicago.

Before there was Bonci, though, there was Angelo Iezzi, the man who revolutionized pizza dough and pizza-making by taking a contrarian, science-based approach to the status quo, and founded a school to spread the gospel. And at 6 p.m. tonight, Iezzi establishes a Stateside presence in Yorkville, where he has partnered up with San Matteo owner Fabio Casella to open the new pizza al taglio slice joint PQR.

Margherita D.O.C. Photo: Melissa Hom

Iezzi is little-known here, but regarded as a pioneer in his hometown, where he runs a popular pizzeria called Angelo & Simonetta and is the president of the Associazione Pizzerie Italiane, which has branches around the world. (It seems that anyone whos anyone in the world of Italian pizza is also the president of one pizza association or another and also the leader of a pizza school.) In a nutshell, Iezzis dough-making breakthrough came when he discovered that long, cold fermentation combined with high hydration led to pizza that was easy to digest. Its hard to imagine today, but when he set about the practice in the late 1980s, he says, it was seen as outrageous and un-Italian and possibly dangerous: The local health department even tried to shut him down.

Hes one of the pizza gods, says Casella, who met Iezzi in Rome while searching for the ultimate pizza flour, in hopes of upgrading the dough at his two Upper East Side Neapolitan pizzerias. With Iezzis input, Casella noticed an immediate improvement in the texture and digestibility of his pies. They were crisper, lighter, and more flavorful. He sent his nephew Raffaele Volpe to train with Iezzi, and when the apprentice returned, he asked his uncle to open a Roman pizza al taglio slice joint next.

PQR, short here for Pizza Quadrata Romana, is a narrow space with stools up front and a small dining room in the back. A display case holds between 8 and 12 variously topped pizzas a day, from a classic Margherita D.O.P. to one with grapes, goat cheese, and prosciutto. Theres also an Amatriciana slice, and what talk on the street (or at least talk coming out of Casellas mouth) is saying will be a signature: a pizza plank split in half, stuffed with porchetta and topped with thinly sliced potatoes. In addition to the pizzas, which, unlike in Rome, will be sliced into uniform squares ($4.50 to $10) rather than sold by weight, there are fritti like potato croquettes and the rice balls called suppli; Casella expects his wine-and-beer license to arrive in a month.

Iezzi flew into town for the opening, and will be leaving a couple of deputies behind to run the show along with Raffaele Volpe. Before [me] pizza was heavy and boring, Iezzi says, attributing his doughs delicately crisp crust and undulating hole structure to the methodology thats spelled out on a chalkboard behind the counter: 96 hours fermentation, 80% hydration, extra virgin olive oil, buon appetito.

Heres a look at some of the pies in the rotation.

Stracchino cheese, pancetta, and pink peppercorns. Photo: Melissa Hom

Potato-crusted and porchetta-stuffed. Photo: Melissa Hom

Grapes, goats-milk cheese, and prosciutto di San Daniele. Photo: Melissa Hom

Crema di zucca, pancetta, and provola. Photo: Melissa Hom

The shop has a rotating roster of 8 to 12 pizzas. Photo: Melissa Hom

1631 Second Ave., nr. 85th St.; 646-449-0889Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  Prosecutors say a speech delivered by Senator Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV is enough proof to charge him with inciting to sedition.

This was the decision made Thursday based on a complaint filed by several lawyers who said Trillanes' October 3 privilege speech allegedly urged soldiers to kill President Rodrigo Duterte.

RELATED: Lawyers set to file criminal cases vs. Trillanes for alleged remarks to kill the President

The resolution filed at the Office of the City Prosecutor in Pasay City quoted Trillanes saying, "So ito ngayon sagot. Kung makikita 'to ng mga sundalo, M60 machine gun ang gagamitin sa yo. Marami-rami ito, mauubos magazine kung 40 million hinahanap mo, Mr. Duterte."

[Translation provided: So here's the answer now. If the soldiers could see this, they will use the M60 machine gun on you. These are many. The magazines will be emptied if you're looking to P40 million, Mr. Duterte.]

According to the Revised Penal Code, a person charged with inciting sedition is someone who "without taking any direct part in the crime of sedition, should incite others to the accomplishment of any of the acts which constitute sedition, by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, cartoons, banners, or other representations tending to the same end."

According to the resolution, Trillanes said his privilege speech was covered by his "parliamentary immunity as a Senator."

It added, "He argues that any statement made by a Senator in a privilege speech before the Senate Floor, even if assuming for the sake of argument that the same are libelous or seditious as the complainants are claiming, cannot be the basis of a criminal or civil action before the courts of justice."

Trillanes had moved to have the complaint dismissed, saying there was not enough evidence to support it.

City prosecutors however, disagreed saying the speech was not covered by parliamentary immunity.

It said, under their jurisdiction "the privilege of speech and debate enable the legislator to express views in the interest of the public without fear of accountability to support his statements with the usual evidence required in the court of justice."

It added two requirements must be met for such privilege to be used: remarks must be made while legislature is in session, and they must be made in connection with the discharge of official duties.

They said that while the first requirement was met, the second was not.

"To say the least, the speech was purely an attack to the President and his family," they said.

The prosecutors explained a video of the speech was uploaded YouTube, a rally was staged, and various other statements and releases led them to believe that Trillanes sought to sow the the seeds of sedition in people's minds.

Trillanes responded to the case, saying, "Hindi gaya ni Duterte na duwag humarap sa kaso, haharapin ko ito."

[Translation: Unlike Duterte who is too cowardly to face a case, I will face this.]

View image on Twitter

He added, "Maliwanag na baluktot at panggigipit itong kasong ito na nakabase sa privilege speech ko sa Senado na bukod na sa merong constitutionally guaranteed immunity from suit, ay wala akong inincite na kung sino to do anything. Kung ang pakay nito ay takutin ako para umatras ako sa pagpuna kay Duterte, well, sabi ko nga dati pa, lalo pa akong ginaganahan tumayo laban sa mali at masama."

[Translation: it is clear that this case is crooked and is based on my Senate privilege speech which besides having constitutionally guaranteed immunity from suit, is that I am not inciting anyone to do anything. if their purpose is to scare me into retreating from calling out Duterte, well, as I've said before, I am more encouraged to stand against wrongdoings and evil.]

Presidential Spokespeson Harry Roque said they respect the findings of the Pasay City Prosecutor.

CNN Philippines senior digital producer Pia Garcia contributed to this story.Foundation Stone Laid For South Sudans First Juvenile Reformatory Centre

The United Nations Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, Mr. Moustapha Soumare, and the Minister of Interior, Hon. Michael Chienjiek Geay, today laid the foundation stone for the establishment of South Sudans first Juvenile Reformatory Centre (JRC) in Juba.

By Charles Kay



JUBA, 15 March 2018 [Gurtong]-The project is part of the ongoing technical cooperation between the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the National Prisons Service of South Sudan (NPSSS).



The project will result in the conversion, renovation, and refurbishment of one of Juba Central Prisons buildings into a fully functioning JRC. The project will be implemented by the South Sudanese NGO, Charity Aid for Development and Emergency (CADE).



For the first time in South Sudan, the JRC will allow 90 children to be safely and securely housedseparate from adult offenderswhile awaiting trial or serving their sentences.



Providing a separate living environment for children not only complies with international best practices, but also provides a more conducive environment for children to receive the support necessary to successfully reintegrate into society, Said Mr. Moustapha Soumare.



Addressing the gathering, Mr. Soumare stated that UNMISS Rule of Law and Child Protection Units stand ready to partner with the government and the NPSSS to address issues related to juvenile detention and rehabilitation.



He also promised UNMISS support to continue advocating for the much-needed vocational skills and education training programmes that will assist the children to fully reintegrate into society.



Mr. Soumare hoped that establishing this facility in Juba will serve as a model that can be replicated in other parts of the country.



The Minister of Interior thanked UNMISS for its continuing support and underscored the importance of continuing to partner to achieve the shared vision of a safe, secure, and humane juvenile justice system.



The JRC is an important milestone on this path, said honorable minister Michael Chienjiek.

He added that the initiative will be replicated in prisons throughout the country to reduce cases of prolonged and arbitrary detention.



UNMISS Rule of Law Unit is providing technical assistance to justice sector partners to develop legal reforms to reduce the number of persons in detention.

CEPO Urges State Leadership To Prioritize Peace And Civilian Protection

Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) a leading civil society organization operating in South Sudans Yei River State is urging the new leadership of the State to ensure prioritizing peace, stability and civilian protection.

By Daniel Friday Martin



YEI, 14 March 2018 [Gurtong]-In a statement extended to Gurtong on Wednesday, CEPO says its high time for the State leadership to speak the language of peace, reconciliation and above all consolidate efforts for stability with all stake holders, protection of civilians, observation of human rights and unhindered access for delivery of humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable people trapped in the rural villages of the State.



In a special way, we want to extend our thanks and appreciations to the new State leadership in Yei. We equally want to call on the leadership to work towards restoration of peace, stability, protection of civilians and provide a smooth path way for delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people in need the statement partly reads.



CEPO says the people in the state have suffered enough in the last two years saying the year 2018 should be a year for people to start re-building their livelihoods.



Yei is a well-known breadbasket for South Sudan, we call upon the state to engage in meaningful and amicable dialogue with the armed opposition groups so that the local population can be allowed to go freely to their farm areas and begin building their food security reliance through involvement in agriculture the statement added.



CEPO expresses commitment to work towards supporting peace efforts observation of human rights across the state and participate collectively with other actors in the development of Yei River State at different levels.



 As a civil society organization, we want to say, the expectations and demands of the people are huge, but together, lets join hands to address their most important needs.  it added.



Central Bank Launches 4 Year Strategic Plan To Improve Financial System

The Central Bank of South Sudan today launched a four year strategic plan aimed to reform the economy of the country by 2022.

By Charles Kay



JUBA, 15 March 2018 [Gurtong]-The plan is expected to help in banking activities among others explore initiatives to achieve efficiency gains in all the work processes.



In attendance during the launch were, the First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai, Vice president, Dr. James Wani Iga, TNLA Speaker, Anthony Lino Makana, Governor of South Sudan bank, Rago Othom Ajak among other dignitaries.



Governor of the bank of South Sudan Ajak, says the plan is aspiring to foster and ensure price and financial stability, through excellent regulatory frameworks.



He added that one way to achieve the objectives is by promoting transparency, accountability, professionalism and efficiency.



In this strategic plan, we have clearly identified strategic focus area to underscore our commitment to peruse excellence in discharging our mandate. These are regulatory excellence, operational excellence, service excellence, institutional transformation and strategic partnership, Othom Rago Ajak said.



The First Vice President during his remarks urged central bank to cooperate with the countrys institutions as it can effectively assist in the implementation of the strategic plan.



He urged the central bank to recruit members from the national institutions and universities.



I should reiterate that gone are the days when recruitment was done for the sake of accommodation, time for closeness or sister or brother is gone, said Taban Deng.

Meanwhile, Dr. James Wani Iga, South Sudans Vice President called for the independence of the bank to allow it to operate freely.



To what extent do we interfere in the function of the central bank, there are many definitions of independence, In both theory and practice? Partial independence is one and we can adopt that.



This is the first-time central bank is launching such a strategic plan since its establishment as an independent national financial institution from Sudan central bank.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  Former President Benigno Aquino III on Thursday called for the dismissal of an election complaint against him in line with the dengue immunization program.

"Ang nararapat na hantungan ng ganitong reklamo ay ang basurahan. Inaasahan po nating gagawin ng COMELEC (commission on Elections) ang tama, at iyan ay i-dismiss ang reklamo sa lalong madaling panahon," Aquino said in a press briefing.

[Translation: This complaint should be junked. We expect the Comelec to do the right thing, and that is to dismiss the case as soon as possible."]

The former president filed his counter-affidavit before the Comelec during its preliminary investigation on his administration's alleged poll offense.

Aquino and former Cabinet officials are accused of violating the Omnibus Election Code when they approved the immunization program within the 45-day ban on using public funds ahead of the elections.

Aquino said the purchase order for the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia was released on March 9, 2016, or 16 days before the election ban that began March 25.

The immunization program was rolled out on April 4, 2016, a few weeks before the May 9, 2016 polls. Dengvaxia was administered to over 800,000 students in a school-based government immunization program.

TIMELINE: The Dengvaxia controversy

The Omnibus Election Code prohibits the "release, disbursement or expenditure of public funds" 45 days before a regular election or 30 days before special election.

Garin: Ban doesn't cover health programs

Former Health Secretary Janet Garin, however, said the government's immunization program, including the Dengvaxia purchase, is not covered by the election ban.

"When we inquired we were told na 'di kailangan ng exemption on the health programs," Garin said.

Aquino added, "The job of protecting the people's health cannot be held in abeyance by elections."

Garin and former Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad also appeared before the Comelec preliminary probe.

Aquino cries harassment

Aquino said there may be an agenda behind the election complaint.

"Klaro namang harassment lang ang punto. Tama marahil ang sinasabi ng iilan na di katarungan ang layunin dito, kundi ang magpapansin para ma-appoint sa puwesto," Aquino said.

[Translation: "This is clear harassment. What the others are saying may be true that the purpose is not for justice, but to be appointed to the government."]

Without naming names, he noted some VACC are now occupying government posts.

In January, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed VACC Chairman Dante Jimenez to the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission. The VACC also filed an impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and a criminal complaint against detained Senator Leila de Lima. Both are Duterte's critics.

The VACC denied claims politics was behind the complaints.

The Dengvaxia mess

Under Aquino's watch, the government administered Dengvaxia, the world's first dengue vaccine.

Vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur later announced the vaccine had potentially severe dengue risks for those who have had no dengue history. But it noted there were no reported deaths from Dengvaxia, and that it remains safe.

Public panic prompted the Health Department to suspend the immunization program and the Senate to investigate the P3.5-billion vaccine purchase.

Experts from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital on January 2 reported three out of the 14 child deaths they examined were caused by "dengue shock syndrome." The children had taken Dengvaxia. Experts added two of the three deaths may be caused by vaccine failure.

Aquino and Garin are facing mass murder and plunder charges. They both denied irregularities in the Dengvaxia purchase.

CNN Philippines' AC Nicholls contributed to this report.by

Disclosure: In any review for a product or service, products or compensation may have been provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Guidelines. Please see Disclose and "Terms of Use" tabs for more information.

From its peaks and craters to the picturesque beaches, Hawaii is one of the best places to live. Moreover, your family will enjoy all that the island has to offer when it comes to exploring.

Here are some things that you need to know:

Climate

Thanks to the trade winds, the temperatures in Hawaii average about 85 degrees all year round. However, the landscape in this place varies depending on where you are. For instance, the west side of Oahu is drier than the east side. The North Shore is mostly made up of a rocky shoreline and many surfing events take place there, while Central Oahu is mostly a farmland.

Traveling to Hawaii

Moving to this state is more complicated than your average Permanent Change of Station because you have to plan everything, including the shipping of cars and pets in advance.

Unaccompanied Baggage

Service members who are relocating to Hawaii are usually allowed to ship a few household goods before they send their regular shipment. Known as the express shipment, this shipment will count towards your household weight limit and usually includes things like clothing, small appliances and kitchen items. You should take this opportunity to ship outdoor kids toys and scuba gear for yourself.

Depending on where you are moving from and the moving company you will use, unaccompanied shipments might arrive after the HHG shipment, so you should be ready.

Vehicle Shipping

When it comes to cars, the military usually pays to ship just one car to Hawaii. Also, check with your shipping company whether it is possible to ship motorcycles with your other household goods. When it comes to shipping a second vehicle, you can either pay out of pocket or sell it. You can ship your car to Hawaii with Executive Auto Shippers for example, if you are willing to pay out of pocket.

Pets and Lodging

If you want to move to Hawaii with your pets, you should look at Hawaiis website for animal quarantine regulations. If your pet qualifies, you can pick it up from the airports quarantine station and take it home. However, if your pet does not qualify, it will have to complete the standard quarantine time of 120 days before you take it home.

You also have to look for temporary housing that allows animals before you get a house. Remember that fees and weight limits might apply, so be sure to double check.

Housing

You will get a house depending on whether you are in the army, navy, coast guard, air force, or Marine Corps. You should also consider living off base as long as there is a reasonable commute to your military base. The most popular off-base places to live include Salt Lake, Hawaii Kai, Ewa Beach, and Windward Side.

Schools

If your children are of school-going age, the best place that you can start is by contacting a School Liaison Officer from your branch. This person can help you to register your child. Although there are no DoD schools in this state, Hawaii has many good charter, public, and private schools.

If you prefer homeschooling for your kids, there is a large homeschooling community at this place. Before your child can be enrolled in any school, he/she should submit a negative tuberculosis test.

The Beaches are Amazing

Lanikai Beach  known for its beautiful blue water and white sands, this beach is ideal for boogie boarding and sunbathing. Moreover, your kids can surf here thanks to the low surf.

Hanauma Beach  this is the most popular spot for snorkeling on the island. You can pay several dollars for a shuttle ride down the hill to the parking lot.

Packing up your whole life to start over afresh is never easy, even if you have a new job assignment. Hopefully, the above tips will make your move much smoother and easier on you and your family.State House to honor Hawaii wounded warrior Brian Kolfage

What: House Resolution honoring Brian Kolfage

When: March 16th, 12:00 noon

Where: Hawaii State Capitol, House Chamber

Note: Brian Kolfage will be available for interviews at a reception to follow in Conference Room 325 in the State Capitol

News Release from Office of Rep Bob McDermott, R-Ewa, March 14, 2018

Brian Kolfage, the most severely wounded combat survivor in the history of the United States Air Force, a Purple Heart recipient and a 1999 graduate of Kaimuki High School, will be honored on the floor of the Hawaii House of Representatives on Friday, March 16 at Noon.

Kolfage lost both of his legs and his right hand as the result of a rocket attack in the Iraq War in 2004 and was awarded a Purple Heart. After 11 months of treatment at Walter Reed Hospital he resumed his Air Force career as a Base Security Manager at Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona.

Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords named him to her Veterans Advisory Committee and Brian was her special guest at the Presidential State of the Union Address in 2012. A Pat Tillman Scholar Award winner at the University of Arizona, Kolfage went on to earn a degree in architecture in 2014.

In 2014 Brian was honored with the George C. Lang Award, given by the Wounded Warrior Project for his outstanding work with wounded veterans. A mentor and motivational speaker, he and his wife Ashley continue to make regular trips back to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit with newly wounded vets to offer them hope and inspiration.iStock / Thinkstock(PIKEVILLE, Ky.) -- Kentucky police have arrested a man who was wanted for questioning relating to the shooting death of a police officer earlier this week.



Pikeville Police Department Officer Scotty Hamilton was shot and killed in the line of duty late Tuesday night in Pike County, Kentucky. Investigators later obtained an arrest warrant for John Russell Hall, 55, of Pikeville, for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Investigators want to question Hall about Hamilton's death, according to a press release from the Kentucky State Police on Thursday morning.



Kentucky State Police arrested Hall without incident around 11 a.m. ET in the Stoney Brook area in the Betsy Layne community of Floyd County, according to officials.



Earlier, when Hall was still at large, police warned he should be considered "armed and dangerous."



Hamilton and Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Martin were patrolling the Hurricane Creek area in Pike County on Tuesday night when they came across a suspicious vehicle. The officers spoke with the people inside the car and then assessed the area around a nearby residence for other possible subjects, according to police.



Hamilton and Martin were separated while canvassing the area. Shortly after, Martin heard gunshots and found Hamilton, who had been shot to death. The officer was pronounced dead at the scene by the Pike County Coroner's Office, police said. He was 35.



Hamilton was a 12-year veteran of the Pikeville Police Department. He leaves behind a wife and a 9-month-old daughter, according to Pikeville's 911 public safety director Paul Maynard.



The killer was not located at the scene and authorities have been actively searching for possible suspects ever since, police said.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  A total closure of Boracay.

This is the recommendation of the Environment, Tourism and Interior departments after assessing the island's condition.

After their coordination meeting on Thursday afternoon, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu cited several reasons for the recommendation:

poor sewerage system on the island causing contamination of the beach;

inefficient solid waste management; and

illegal structures in forestland, wetlands, and easement.

"Based on the aforementioned circumstances and for public health and public interest and general welfare, I recommend to the president the closure of the Boracay island as tourist destination effective one month after it's declaration," Cimatu said.

Interior Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Ano said they will initially recommend to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) the declaration of a state of calamity in Boracay, which will facilitate the release of rehabilitation funds, and the island's total closure.

The NDRRMC will then forward the recommendations to the President.

Ano said they may tackle the issue in the Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Once the President approves this, he will determine the period of closure.

Ano said they will give establishments on the island a 30-day notice before the implementation of the closure.

"Kasi pag nagkaroon na ng state of calamity, there are added authorities to the national government to intervene or to Make effort and intervention to fast-track the rehabilitation of saving Boracay," Ano said.

Cimatu, meanwhile, said ideally, the closure would be seven to eight months, but the President has the final word.

Dirty water

Cimatu said during their monthly monitoring since 2016, there is high concentration fecal coliform in the Bolabog beaches at the eastern portion of the island.

Based on the latest water testing on March 6-10, 2018, the fecal coliform content in the area was 45 times higher than normal.

"Initial investigation revealed sewer line is insufficient and excess waste water spill over to the drainage system... The drainage empty its untreated wastewater to the Bolabog beach which is frequently used by tourists for kite boarding sports," Cimatu said.

He added there were cases of tourists complaining of skin diseases.

The Environment Department said 195 establishments in the island are not connected to the sewer lines.

And with the expected influx of tourists in Boracay in the coming months, Cimatu said the situation will worsen.

"We will look further into the culpability of water concessionaires Boracay Island Water Company and Boracay TUBI system, as well as Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority and the local government of Malay (Aklan)," Cimatu said.

Illegal dumpsite, structures

The Environment Department also reported that the island generates up to 115 tons of garbage daily, but only 30 tons are collected.

The centralized materials recovery facility was converted into an open dumpsite.

So far, 937 structures in the forestland and wetlands, and 102 structures in easement areas were identified as illegal.

"That's illegal. More effort has to be made by LGU (local government unit) with the assistance of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) in resolving the problem," Cimatu said.

The upgrade of the sewerage system including sewer lines, installation of solid waste management facilities, removal of illegal structures, and road widening will be done during the closure.

Tourism setback

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo admitted the island's closure will be a major setback in the tourism industry since around 17,000 tourists visit the island every day.

Teo said they have already spoken to airlines to allow rebooking of flights without charges.

Also, the DOT will ask establishment owners to refund bookings that will be hit by the closure.

"We have to sacrifice. At the end of the day, it is for the good of Boracay. But we already talked to airlines. We met with the airlines and we told them to divert your flights to other destinations para naman makapunta, ma-promote naman ang other destinations," said the Tourism Secretary.

Teo is optimistic the industry will recover soon after they finish the rehabilitation.

But some residents and establishment owners in Boracay are not happy with the looming temporary closure of the Island.

On Saturday, residents and business owners will switch their lights off as a sign of protest.

The protest is organized by Boracay United, a group of businesses and other associations in the island.

The lights off will run for eight minutes beginning at 8:08 p.m.

Officials asked for understanding and called for sobriety.

Tourism Undersecretary Kat De Castro said while they respect the sentiments of affected individuals, they are asking for understanding as the government's action will be for the better of Boracay Island.

"If they are doing the lights off, I think, this is to send a message to the national government on how Boracay will look like if ipasara siya. But then again, please, please, please... Ang issue natin sa Boracay is not simply the closure if it all but the water and the sewage problem," said De Castro.19 States Take On Videographers Refusing to Shoot Gay Weddings

by Matt Reynolds, Court House News, March 14, 2017

ST. LOUIS (CN)  New York, California and 17 other states filed a brief with the Eighth Circuit arguing against a Minnesota couple who claim they should not be forced to make wedding videos for gay couples because of their religious beliefs.

In December 2016, Carl and Angel Larsen and their media production company, Telescope Media Group, sued Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and Kevin Lindsey, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, alleging they faced fines of up to $25,000 and 90 days in jail for running afoul of the states anti-discrimination laws.

Minnesota is regarded as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly states in the nation and created provisions under the Minnesota Human Rights Act to protect gay and transgender citizens from discrimination in public and at businesses.

Commissioner Lindsey said at the time that the Larsens lawsuit was part of a pattern of nationwide litigation that is now aimed at eroding the rights of LGBTQ Minnesotans.

The couple had proposed posting a statement on their business website that would make clear their religious beliefs that marriage should only be between a man and woman.

Last year, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis likened the statement to a white applicants only sign. The judge dismissed the Larsens claim that state anti-discrimination law violated their right to freedom of expression and free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.

Posting language on a website telling potential customers that a business will discriminate based on sexual orientation is part of the act of sexual orientation discrimination itself, Tunheim wrote.

The couple appealed to the St. Louis-based Eighth Circuit last October.

Ten states  Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia  filed a brief in support of the Larsens.

On Tuesday, 19 state attorneys general answered by filing a friend-of-the-court brief defending the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the constitutionality of the states anti-discrimination law.

Free speech and personal beliefs do not give business owners the right to discriminate, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. Our coalition of attorneys general will continue to fight to protect New Yorkers and all Americans who are entitled to equal protection, no matter who they love.

The coalition of attorneys general argue that states have created laws to prevent discrimination against the LGBTQ community, including at businesses, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings have found that requiring businesses to comply with anti-discrimination laws is not unconstitutional.

Granting an exemption to those businesses would curtail anti-discrimination laws, according to the brief filed with the Eighth Circuit.

Many Americans would face exclusion from a host of everyday businesses or, at the very least, the ever-present threat that any business owner could refuse to serve them when they walk in the door  simply because of their sexual orientation, or their race, religion, or gender, the 32-page brief states.

The attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington joined the brief. Massachusetts State Solicitor Elizabeth Dewar is designated counsel of record.

Conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom represents the Larsens and has filed five similar lawsuits on behalf of businesses and churches.

The group also backs Colorado cake maker Jack Phillips in the closely watched U.S. Supreme Court case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Phillips refused to design and make a cake for a gay couple who came into his store, arguing he is an artist who strives to honor God in all aspects of his life. The nations highest court is expected to issue a ruling this summer, at the end of the current term.

Carl Larsen said in a statement on the Alliance Defending Freedom website that he and his wife believe marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman and that marriage exists to put Gods goodness on full display to the world.

We want to tell the stories of couples who agree with this reality, he said.

Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Jeremy Tedesco said in a statement that the Larsens should not face fines and jail time, even if they dont comply with Minnesota law.Thursday, March 15, 2018 Lawsuit: UPW Prison Guards 'Take Down' Pregnant Prisoner

By Robert Thomas @ 2:54 PM :: 4050 Views :: Law Enforcement, Life Appellate Lessons: Even When You Frame Your Issues Well, "Your" Case Isn't Really Yours by Robert Thomas, InverseCondemnation, March 14, 2018 A slight divergence from our usual fare today, because we're looking at a tort case. A tort case? Yes, because this one has lessons for our appellate practitioner colleagues. The lesson: when you are in a court of last resort, "your" case isn't all yours, and even if you have framed your issues carefully, sometimes the court may go where you made clear you didn't want it to go. Here's the set up. The largest part of the Hawaii Supreme Court's jurisdiction is discretionary review of decisions of the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Five Justices sit on the court. Our rules of appellate procedure do not specify how many you need to convince in order for the court to "accept" certiorari (we call it "accepting" review, not "granting" cert). The coconut wireless reports, however, that it takes three votes to review a case. Maybe that's correct or maybe it isn't, but it's the assumption we operate on. It also takes three to win on the merits. Seems like easy math. So how do you get a case like Castro v. Melchor, No. SCWC-12-0000753 (Haw. Mar. 13, 2018), in which three Justices agreed that the term "person" in Hawaii's wrongful death statute does not include a stillborn fetus, yet the court ended up affirming the court of appeals' upholding of a verdict awarding wrongful death damages for the loss of a stillborn fetus? The court's fractured opinions in the case give us insight on how it exercises its certiorari jurisdiction. The case was one of those that seems destined for a law school Torts casebook. A woman incarcerated in state prison was seven months pregnant, got "taken down" by prison guards, and as a consequence of her treatment and subsequent medical care, the baby was stillborn. She sued various State officials and officers for damages, raising claims for herself and on behalf of her stillborn daughter. The trial court rendered a verdict in both's favor, and awarded the plaintiff damages for her own losses and for damages sustained by her stillborn daughter. The State appealed to the Intermediate Court of Appeals, arguing that Hawaii's wrongful death statute limits recovery for "the death of a person," and that the fetus did not qualify. The ICA disagreed, concluding that, for "policy reasons," the statute allowed recovery, even though it "did not make an explicit ruling" on the question. The court affirmed the trial judgment. The State applied to the Supreme Court for certiorari. It expressly avoided presenting the question of whether a fetus is a "person" under the statute, instead choosing to frame the issues more generically. According to the Supreme Court's majority opinion : Petitioners present two questions in their application for certiorari: A. Whether the award of loss of enjoyment of life damages for a stillborn fetus was error. B. Whether the award of $250,000 damages to the estate of Briandalynne Castro was error when there was no evidence presented to justify that monetary amount. This case thus presents the narrow question of whether the estate of a stillborn fetus may recover loss of enjoyment of life damages under Hawaiis survival statute, HRS  663-7. Slip op. at 20 (footnote omitted). The court accepted certiorari. If the State's wish to avoid the fetus = person issue wasn't understandable, during oral argument, it clarified it "did not intend for this issue to be a part of their case on certiorari." Concurring opinion at 6. "[T]hey had deliberately chosen not to challenge the ICA's interpretation of [the statute]." Id. A total of four Justices, however, were willing to tackle the merits. Two Justices (Chief Justice Recktenwald and Justice Wilson) concluded the plain text of the statute was not clear, but that the legislative history demonstrated that it intended for a stillborn fetus to be considered a "person" for purposes of wrongful death recovery. Slip op. at 24. Two others (Justices McKenna and Pollack) concluded the plain language of the statute clearly excluded a fetus from the term "person," and would have reversed. Dissent at 16. So even though the State did not directly challenge the foundational issue of whether a fetus qualifies as a person -- and indeed expressly avoided the question -- four Justices were willing to address the question, even though they disagreed on the analysis, resulting in a 2-2 split on the merits. Not surprisingly, both the majority and the dissenting opinions are written like majority opinions. Which leaves the fifth vote, Justice Nakayama. Her concurring opinion took a different tack. On the merits, she agreed with the dissenters -- a fetus isn't a "person" -- although for slightly different reasons. Thus three Justices agreed there's no recovery for the wrongful death of a fetus. So how did we end up with the court affirming the ICA's contrary opinion? Justice Nakayama voted to affirm because the State didn't raise the issue in its application for cert. The Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) held that "a claim may be brought pursuant to [Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS)]  663-3 for the death of a viable, unborn fetus." Castro v. Melchor, 137 Hawaii 179, 191, 366 P.3d 1058, 1070 (App. 2016). On certiorari, neither party challenged the ICAs holding on this point. Accordingly, for this procedural reason alone, I agree with the Chief Justice insofar as he does not address the ICAs holding that a wrongful death claim may be brought on behalf of a stillborn fetus that was viable before death, and affirms the ICAs holding on the matter. Additionally, I believe that Justice McKenna should not have addressed the ICAs holding on this point on the merits. Therefore, inasmuch as I am constrained in affirming the ICAs decision with respect to its interpretation of HRS  663-3, I am compelled to join the Chief Justice in affirming the ICAs judgment on appeal. Concurring opinion at 1-2. She therefore concluded that the court should have never addressed the issue, because the State didn't challenge it (given her analysis of the merits, in the immortal words of Justice O'Connor, " maybe they should have "). So there you have it: three votes going one way on the merits, but also four Justices willing to address the merits (and then splitting), even though the Petitioner asked them not to. Only one Justice was willing to say that the State should be held to its decision to not present the question of whether a fetus is a "person," and her opinion is worth quoting at length: I believe that upon consideration of the principles underlying our adversary system, and our role as a neutral arbiter therein, our discretionary authority should be used sparingly in circumstances where the interests of justice demand us to consider questions that the parties have not presented. A fundamental underpinning of the adversary system is the principle of party presentation. Greenlaw v. United States, 554 U.S. 237, 243 (2008). Under the principle of party presentation, courts rely on the parties to frame the issues for decision and are assign[ed] . . . the role of neutral arbiter of matters the parties present. Id. Put differently, the adversary system is designed around the premise that the parties know what is best for them, and are responsible for advancing the facts and arguments entitling them to relief. Id. at 244 (quoting Castro v. United States, 540 U.S. 375, 386 (2003) (Scalia, J., concurring)). Consequently, courts generally hesitate to consider issues not raised by the parties both because our system assumes and depends upon the assistance of counsel, and because of the unfairness of such a practice to the other party. United States v. Pryce, 938 F.2d 1343, 1353 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (Silberman, J., dissenting) (citations omitted). A decision by this court to employ its authority to consider questions other than those presented by the parties contravenes the foregoing bedrock principles upon which the adversary system rests. Concurring op. at 3-5. We have one question and one final thought on this topic. Our question is whether the court should even have considered the case on the merits, given the State's framing of the issues. Once it became clear at oral argument that the State expressly was asking the court to not consider the issue -- we can't imagine that in doing so, the State was conceding that a fetus is a "person" and opening itself up to more liability, and was only arguing that the lower courts got the evidence wrong in this case because otherwise why would it have sought cert review? -- should the court have dismissed the application for cert as improvidently granted? After all, if the State was not challenging the foundational issue, what was left of importance for the Supreme Court to consider? As a result of moving forward, we have doctrinal confusion (to put it mildly), with no doubt in our mind that there's an open field in the future for the State or some other alleged tortfeasor to ask the court to consider this issue again. Our final thought is that even though you as an advocate may think that "your" case is yours to define, in the end it really isn't, and the court (especially a court of last resort) can pretty much do what it wants with your case and address issues that you'd prefer not to, even those which you expressly withhold or are not presented. See this example from takings law. Even issues that neither you nor the lower court even considered (as in this example ). That doesn't mean you shouldn't frame your issues carefully, just don't be surprised if a court has a different approach. PDF: Castro v. Melchor, No. SCWC-12-0000753 (Haw. Mar. 13, 2018) (Nakayama, J., concurring)Turku, the most populous city and administrative centre of the region, has introduced a number of measures to support its businesses and consolidate the growth, including several education-related projects aimed at increasing the number of skilled technology workers in South-west Finland.

South-west Finland is experiencing a robust, sustained period of economic growth that is estimated to create some 30,000 new jobs in the region in the years to come, writes Tekniikka&Talous.

The projects seem to already have borne fruit: the number of applicants to upper-secondary vocational programmes in the field of mechanical engineering rose by 42.5 per cent between 2016 and 2017. The Turku University of Applied Sciences, similarly, has started to develop its instruction and infrastructure in the field of technology.

What is important is building education paths and expanding cross-institutional studies in the field of technology with Abo Akademi University, the University of Turku and the Lappeenranta University of Technology, says Vesa Taatila, the rector of the Turku University of Applied Sciences.

Stepping up joint research efforts and international co-operation is equally important, he adds.

A joint, nationwide marketing campaign has also been launched to attract talent to and increase the visibility of South-west Finland.

We are calling attention not only to the open jobs, but also to the quality of life  how it is possible to live a bit better, how easy the daily life is and how everything is nearby, tells Saara Malila, the director of communication at the City of Turku.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi SuomiPTT on Tuesday revealed that it expects the national economy to grow by 2.8 per cent in both 2018 and 2019, allowing almost 90,000 unemployed job seekers to join the ranks of the employed. The Finnish economy beat the expectations of most forecasting agencies last year by expanding by 3.0 per cent.

The Finnish economy will continue its stout growth at least until the end of next year, predicts Pellervo Economic Research (PTT).

The growth will be driven especially by the upbeat outlook for the world economy and its impact on Finnish exports.

The Helsinki-based, independent economic research centre reminds that the world economy is currently enjoying its first sustained upturn since the most recent financial crisis, an upturn that is expected to continue until next year.

Finnish exports, meanwhile, are forecast to grow at an annual pace of roughly six per cent in 20182019, driven particularly by continuing investment activity. PTT points out that investments in equipment and machinery have increased by over ten per cent for two consecutive years, while the competitiveness pact and continuing wage moderation have bolstered the competitiveness of Finland.

PTT believes the biggest shadow looming over the world economy to be the trade war rhetoric of US President Donald Trump.

It reminds that while product-specific import tariffs would have a negative effect primarily on the United States, the escalation of possible counter-measures could thwart the stout economic growth.

The EU should not raise its own import tariffs. It would be smarter to let the United States have its tantrum alone and continue promoting global trade with other countries, views Janne Huovari, the head of forecasting at PTT.

The steadfast economic growth has also had a positive impact on employment in Finland. The ranks of the employed grew by 25,000 in 2017, and are expected to grow by more than 50,000 in 2018 and 35,000 in 2019, putting the government within reach of its employment rate target of 72 per cent.

PTT attributes the positive development to both global economic growth and recent policy measures.

It also reminds that the development has yet to have a notable effect on the unemployment rate. This, it gauges, is not an indication that structural unemployment is becoming an obstacle to growth, but rather that the number of job seekers entering the labour market has been so high that it has prevented the unemployment rate from decreasing.

Finlands unemployment rate is forecast to fall to 8.0 per cent in 2018 and to 7.4 per cent in 2019.

The improving employment situation, combined with wage increased in a number of sectors, will boost the real purchasing power of households by 2.6 per cent  more than ever before in the 2000s. Household consumption is consequently expected to increase by two per cent in both 2018 and 2019.

PTT also urges policy makers to resist the temptation to use the positive developments as an excuse to draft a generous election-year budget.

Although the current fiscal policy can be regarded as too relaxed in light of the rapid growth, Finland still has some catching up to do. It will be stringent enough to refrain from increasing expenditures and reducing taxes in the election-year budget, says Huovari.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Jussi Nukari  LehtikuvaAN artist who attached lights to Henley Bridge without permission has criticised council bosses for failing to repair long-standing damage to its stonework.

Clive Hemsley has been ordered to remove the lights that he fixed to the historic crossing by Oxfordshire County Council, which is responsible for its upkeep.

But Mr Hemsley, of Hart Street, Henley, says the council should be more concerned about damage to the stonework where the Grade I listed bridge has been hit by passing boats.

Several large hamstone tiles are missing from the inside of the central arch, exposing the metal pins underneath, while the fluted stone cladding on a south-facing pier near the Henley Royal Regatta headquarters has been scraped off.

The first damage is believed to date back to 2016, when a 65ft Dutch barge named Skylark Song struck the crossing as it was travelling downstream. This was one of at least three collisions in six years.

Meanwhile, two columns are still missing from the bridges northern balustrade after it was hit by a lorry during last years Henley Royal Regatta. The hole is covered by two red plastic crash barriers tied together with rope.

The county council last carried out repairs to the bridge in 2011, a year after it was hit by a cruiser. This cost about 200,000.

Mr Hemsley said he had noticed the damage while attaching the two strings of 800 LED bulbs and this had concerned retired historian Robert Drayton, who advised him on the installation

Mr Hemsley said: Ive written to the county council asking a number of questions but havent had a reply yet. I think this is something Wokingham Borough Council and English Heritage need to be involved in as well.

Our historian was embarrassed by it and said the damage should have been attended to a long time ago. Were talking about big pieces of steel and nails jutting out as well as large areas of stone missing so I think we deserve answers.

Henley is a global brand and it really isnt excusable for the bridge to be in this state. Id argue my lights make it less likely for this to happen in future as the last collision happened at dusk, when its harder to see where youre going.

Mr Hemsley says he cant remove the lights, which are secured with putty and electrical tape, for several weeks as the river is now flowing too high and fast to carry out the work safely.

He could also face action from South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority, which is investigating whether the lights constitute unlawful development on a listed building.

Mr Hemsley says consent is not needed as the lights are not a permanent fixture.

He said: A barrister friend of mine said that you can put up a structure for 28 days without needing permission. Its a temporary structure as you can easily remove the putty with a spray.

The lights are not an eyesore as you can hardly see them in the day and they look amazing at night. We should be promoting our historic architecture, not destroying it.

More than 1,800 people have now signed a petition urging the authority to let the lights remain.

Henley Mayor Kellie Hinton, who is among the signatories, has said it would be an absolute travesty if they were removed without the stonework being repaired.

The county council has discussed the issue with Mr Hemsley and says it would happily consider permitting a lighting trial but only under its supervision and with the formal consent of the town and district councils.

A spokesman said the repair works were in the pipeline and had planning permission but a traffic management plan was needed for the repairers to work in safety. This could include the closure of at least one lane on the bridge.

The repair also had to be done using a lime mortar because of the bridges historic status and this couldnt be used below 5C.

He said: There is no link between accidental damage caused by vehicles and installing lights on a listed structure without consent.

Henley Bridge is a Grade I listed structure and clearly any such installation would require not only our permission but also listed building consent from the district council. We did not give permission.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  Senator Grace Poe and bloggers questioned Communications Secretary Martin Andanar why Facebook pages of the government are not scrubbed of hateful comments.

"There's no room for hate speech. Kahit saan naman walang lugar para magsabi tayo ng mabantang salita," Poe said during the third Senate hearing on the proliferation of fake news online.

The comments on the Facebook page of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, for example, has several hateful and threatening messages. Some comments are against Rappler, while some comments are calling "dilawan" - or people who support the Aquino administration - as mass murderers for the Dengvaxia mess.

Facebook executives said they have taken down posts and comments reported to be abusive and spiteful, but bloggers Tonyo Cruz and Inday Varona said the problem on social media - which they said is the chosen venue to attack a person's beliefs, race, sexual orientation, or disability - lies with the government.

"I think it is ultimately the responsibility of government to have clear rules. It's absurd na magsusumbong tayo sa Facebook on hate crime dito sa Facebook page ng gobyerno o FB page ng Presidente," Cruz said.

Poe asked Andanar and Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Banaag to remove hateful comments on the Facebook page of PCO.

The Communications Secretary defended the agency.

"I am one with everyone here who is against hate speech, but I am also not for censorship," he said.

Andanar added, "In 2016, we deleted comments. But we were questioned why, so damned if you do, damned if you don't."

But he also clarified that if someone wants to ask the PCO to take down hateful and threatening comments, they can do so.

"If mayroon pong magrereklamo, at makakapagdala ng screenshot ng hate speech na ito sa aming tanggapan, tatanggalin namin," he said.

Stricter rules vs govt officials?

Poe and Roque discussed the possibility of imposing stiffer penalties for government employees and officials who are found spreading misinformation.

Roque, who attended the hearing as a private lawyer and not the President's spokesperson, said penalizing someone over fake news is not precise because only the public can determine what is true and what is false.

"If we're going to penalize fake news who will judge if what is fake news and what is news.... because the current framework now is that the public should be allowed to decide what is true from what is false," he said.

But Poe believes otherwise as she eyes stricter penalties for people in the government who are guilty of spreading fake news.

"Pero ikaw bilang opisyal ng gobyerno may responsibilidad ka rin na pag alam mong hindi makatotohanan, huwag mong ilabas," said the Chairman of Public Information and Mass Media Committee.

The senator said government officials should be held to a "higher standard," as compared to ordinary citizens.

"There are certain things that are expected of us because we've waived that certain right because we are serving the people and we have to be able to be transparent," she said.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is ironing out policies on social media use. Part of it is that the government will only have one official social media account but government agencies can create several accounts based on specific programs.

Facebook for its part is now conducting trainings for all sectors, including students, in determining false news and assisting in safety measures and critical thinking.

This was the last hearing on fake news and a committee report is set to come out soon.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  Legal experts believe the decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court must go through the Senate -- but presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo disagrees.

"Ang paniniwala niya diyan [The President believes], since he is the one charting the foreign policy, hindi na kailangan [it's not needed]," a view Panelo supports in an interview on CNN Philippines' The Source.

President Rodrigo Duterte decided to pull the Philippines out of the international tribunal, a month after it announced a preliminary examination on extrajudicial killings in the country.

Related: Duterte: PH to withdraw from ICC

In an unsigned three-page statement that Panelo said was a "digest" of a 15-page position paper, Duterte argued that the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, was not binding because the Philippines did not document it in the Official Gazette.

Related: Roque defends PH withdrawal from ICC

Some legal experts argued that pulling out of the ICC would not be that easy.

"The ICC was ratified by the Senate. Withdrawal, as a constitutional matter, requires a similar concurrence," former Solicitor-General Florin Hilbay said in a tweet.

Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Ade Fajardo likewise said the withdrawal "should undergo the same scrutiny, diligent study, and debate that the country's prior decision of entering into the Rome Statute went through."

The announcement of withdrawal came after Malacanang initially welcomed a probe by the ICC.

Senators split

Senate President Koko Pimentel has since thrown his support behind the move, even saying the President was right to pull out of the ICC.

When asked whether the Senate had a say in the withdrawal, Pimentel answered, "Wala... That's why dito sa new treaties we are ratifying, meron kaming provision nilalagay that withdrawal will require (a) two-thirds (vote). But itong Rome Statute ratification... walang ganun."

[Translation: None... That's why in new treaties we are ratifying, we have a provision that withdrawal will require (a) two-thirds (vote). But this Rome Statute ratification... doesn't have that.]

However, other senators, including Majority Leader Tito Sotto, believe the decision has to go through the Upper House first.

"Depende doon sa pinasa namin, tingnan natin 'yung treaty kasi ang pinapasa namin, may nakalagay doon kapag nag-withdraw ang Executive department, kailangan may concurrence ng Senate," said Sotto.

Sen. Joel Villanueva also advised the President to "reconsider and face the process of the ICC."

"It sends a wrong message to the international community on the political state of the country," said Villanueva.

Opposition senators Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes condemned the move. They argued that the withdrawal will not affect pending cases against Duterte for up to a year.

"Instead of trying to desperately evade his international obligations and escape accountability for his actions, President Duterte should just recognize the ICC processes and accord it due respect," said Hontiveros.

"This is but a political move by Duterte because he knows that there is no way out for him in the ICC," said Trillanes. "Hindi niya ito kayang takutin gaya ng ginagawa niya sa mga korte natin [He can't scare them like he does our courts]."

Trillanes, alongside Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, was one of those who filed a communication against Duterte at the ICC.

Under the Rome Statute, leaving the court "shall not affect any cooperation... in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings" prior to the effective date of withdrawal.

The Statute also provides that, unless specified otherwise, withdrawal shall only take effect one year after the receipt of notification from the member state.

Panelo: ICC examination is off

However, Panelo argued that because the Rome Statute was supposedly never published on the Official Gazette, it was "not binding" to begin with.

He added that as far as the government was concerned, the preliminary examination was off.

He also slammed the court for announcing the examination, which he said violated Duterte's rights to due process and presumption of innocence.

"It should not have been announced... Ordinary people will never know the difference between preliminary examination and investigation," said Panelo.

However, the court clarified in its announcement that an examination did not entail an investigation.

"I, as prosecutor, must consider issues of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interest of justice in making this determination," ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in February.

Related: ICC to begin preliminary examination on PH killings

The ICC has yet to release a statement on Duterte's move for withdrawal.

CNN Philippines correspondent Cecille Lardizabal contributed to this report.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who lobbied for the Philippines' membership into the International Criminal Court in 2011, backs the President's decision to withdraw from the international tribunal.

"Yes, it saddens me, because our membership to the ICC perhaps is my single most important achievement as a member of civil society, but I agree with the President. Hindi naman po pupwede na isantabi ang soberanya (We cannot set aside our sovereignty)," Roque said in a press briefing on Thursday.

Roque, who was also a human rights lawyer, however said he does not regret supporting the membership in ICC.

"I believe there must be end to impunity but when I lobbied for Philippine membership into the ICC, it was because I knew it cannot be a substitute for domestic courts. Importante nga lang po na magkaroon tayo ng alternatibo kung hindi na gumagana ang mga lokal na hukuman," Roque said.

[Translation: It is important that we have an alternative if our domestic courts are not working anymore.]

The Presidential Spokesperson said the ICC violated the "principle of complementarity," which is the reason why the Philippines agreed to become a party in the Rome Statute which governs the international tribunal.

"Ang ICC po, hindi po yan ang court of first instance. Yan po ay binuo ng mga kasapi ng ICC, kasama na ang Pilipinas, para maging court of last resort. Gagalaw lang po dapat ang ICC kapag ang mga lokal na hukuman ay hindi gumagana," Roque said.

[Translation: The ICC is not a court of first instance. This was formed by members of the ICC, including the Philippines, to become a court of last resort. The ICC should only make a move when the domestic courts are not working.]

The ICC said in February it will conduct a preliminary examination on the administration's war on drugs. The ICC clarified it is not an investigation, but a process of determining whether there is sufficient basis to proceed with an investigation.

Roque then said the President welcomes the preliminary examination "because he is sick and tired of being accused of the commission of crimes against humanity."

READ: Int'l Criminal Court to begin preliminary examination on PH killings

However, Roque said recent criticisms from the United Nations changed the President's mind.

"As far as the President is concerned, there is like concerted effort on the part of lobby groups to influence UN officials to indict and convict the President in the court of public opinion," Roque said.

Recently, United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the President should see a psychiatrist after the government asked a Manila court to declare more than 600 people as terrorists, including a UN special rapporteur.

"With that statement, the President is convinced that there must be some kind of conspiracy on the part of pressure groups and UN officials to shame him," Roque added.

Although the Hague-based international court is independent of the ICC, the Palace spokesperson said there is a perception the ICC is allied with the UN.

"In fact, the withdrawal mechanism is deposited in the UN Secretary General. Although the reason why it's not part of the UN of course, is not all member-states of the UN agreed to become part of the ICC," he said.

Roque said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea has already received instruction from the President to notify the UN Secretary General of the Philippines' intention to withdraw.

According to Article 127 of the Rome Statute, "a state may, by written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, withdraw from this Statute. The withdrawal shall take effect one year after the date of receipt of the notification, unless the notification specifies a later date."

Roque said the case against the President may continue if the preliminary examination will lead into a preliminary investigation within a year.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 15)  A lawmaker says along with the need to have a more stable power supply in the country, this should be clean, cheap, and effective.

Speaking to CNN Philippines On the Record Thursday, House Minority Floor Leader Danilo Suarez said while more power plants ensure a better supply of energy, they are also concerned with the supply benefiting all sectors concerned.

"The more plants then it's better for the consumer. Because you can just imagine, pag kokonti ang planta, nag-conk out, itataas nila ang presyo nila. Tatama sa consumer," he said.

[Translation: The more plants, then it's better for the consumer. Because you can just imagine, if there are too few plants, if it conks out, they will raise prices. It will affect consumers.]

Effectivity, Suarez said, means that it should be cost-oriented on the part of the generating plant.

Suarez said they are asking the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to focus on making energy cheap and and clean.

"And it can be achieved," he said, saying that there are some power applicants who are securing the necessary permits to fulfill the rerquirements.

However, Suarez admits it is not easy to put up a power plant as it could take years.

He added, he was keen on revising the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), so investors who want to set up more power plants won't find it so tedious.

In 2017, Suarez filed House Resolution No. 1161, calling for an investigation into seven power supply deals which are pending.

The agreements, Suarez said in the resolution, would reduce the transmission congestion in Luzon which causes intermittent power outages.

ERC Commissioner Josefina Magpale-Asirit define power supply agreements (PSA) as "contracts entered into by the electric utility and the generation company."

These contracts, she said, allows for the drawing of energy from generation companies to be supplied to consumers.

On the issue of power supply agreements (PSA), ERC Commissioner Josefina Magpale-Asirit said these agreements undergo a public hearing at least once in the area where the public utility will be located, and then intervenors, oppositors, or those who are against its establishment must be heard as well.

The cost to put up a power plant can hamper how fast PSAs can be approved.

Magpale-Asirit added, "We are also allowed, if it is asked for, to give provisional authorities. Unfortunately, provisional authorities and approvals are not exactly acceptable perhaps to lenders of these power plants, so they would like to have a final approval on the rate that can be imposed on to ensure the return, and the ability of the debtor to be able to pay them back."

A coal-fired power plant can cost around 1 billion to put up, Suarez said.

"Wala naman tayong negosyante na kayang maglabas ng ganiyan. They have to borrow. And yung sinasabi ni Commissioner na pwede silang magbigay ng provisional, it's not bankable," he added.

Watch part two of On the Record: State of the Power Industry on March 22, 9 p.m. on CNN Philippines(CNN)  Reindeer jerky, anyone? Finland is the happiest country in the world, according to the latest World Happiness Report.

Norway, last year's winner, came in second place in the 2018 report. It's followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.

The World Happiness Report was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations on March 14, days before World Happiness Day on March 20.

The report ranks countries on six key variables that support well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

"The top five countries all have almost equally high values for the six factors found to support happiness, and four of these countries -- Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland -- have been in first place in the six World Happiness Report rankings since the first report," said report co-editor John Helliwell, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia.

"In a division with such excellent teams, changes in the top spot are to be expected," he said.

Finland also had the happiest immigrants, a special focus of this year's report.

Differences among the top five countries are small enough that jostling among the top five is expected every year.

The Netherlands came in sixth place this year, followed by Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

In the 2018 list, the top 10 countries shifted spots compared with the 2017 report, but none dropped out of the top 10 list (which means there were no new entries this year).

Happiest immigrants in the world

The 10 happiest countries were also 10 of the top 11 spots in the rankings of immigrant happiness. (Mexico, which came in 24th place in the overall rankings, placed 10th in the immigrant happiness rankings.)

"The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born," said Helliwell in a news release.

"Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries," said Helliwell.

"Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose."

The United States' ranking is dropping

The United States landed in 18th place, dropping four spots from last year.

"Governments are increasingly using indicators of happiness to inform their policy-making decisions," said economics professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of Columbia University's Center for Sustainable Development and report co-editor.

"US policymakers should take note. The US happiness ranking is falling, in part because of the ongoing epidemics of obesity, substance abuse and untreated depression."

Other major powers didn't crack the top 10 rankings, either. Germany came in 15th place, while the United Kingdom was 19th.

Japan came in 54th place, Russia came in 59th place and China came in 86th.

People in Burundi are unhappiest with their lives, according to the survey of 156 countries, followed by Central African Republic (155), South Sudan (154), Tanzania (153) and Yemen (152).

It began with Bhutan

The tiny country of Bhutan, which came in 97th place, brought attention to happiness as a metric for its people. Its prime minister proposed a World Happiness Day to the United Nations in 2011, which created an international focus on happiness.

One year later, the U.N. General Assembly declared March 20 as World Happiness Day, recognizing "the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives."

This report is the sixth to come out since 2012. The rankings of the world's happiest countries came from an analysis of data from surveys in 156 countries taken from 2015 to 2017. The analysis of immigrant happiness was based on surveys of 117 countries covering the years 2005-2015.

This story was first published on CNN.com, This is the world's happiest country."Lewis Merrill and the 7th Cavalrys fight against terror in the postCivil War South.

In March 1871, U.S. Army Major Lewis Merrill received orders to leave the plains of Kansas with Company K of the 7th Cavalry and head for Yorkville, a small town in the northwestern part of South Carolina. It was nearly six years since the end of the Civil War, and Merrills instructions were vague but urgent. He was ordered to exert all moral influence possible to put a halt to the wave of terror that had been unleashed against the states African-American population and white Republican officeholders. He could use the troops under his command to assist civil authorities in making arrests, but beyond that he could not employ force on his own except as a last resort, and then only to protect from mob violence civilians who had already taken shelter within his camp.

On his way east Merrill stopped in Louisville to see his commander, Maj. Gen. Alfred Terry. Merrill told him frankly that all he knew about outrages by the Ku Klux, today commonly referred to as the Klan, was what he had read in the newspapers. The stories, he said, seemed incredible on their face. There had been accounts of midnight beatings and hangings; of black schoolhouses and churches burned; of a thousand disguised men silently taking over an entire town, seizing eight African-American males from the jail and stringing them up; there was the story of an African-American state senator pulled off a train in broad daylight and shot repeatedly by a Ku Klux Klan gangwhich then rode off, with no one trying to stop them. Although those men were not disguised, all the witnesses claimed they had either not seen the men or had not recognized them. There were revelations of a state of intimidation so complete in some counties that every elected Republican official, white and black, had resigned his office under threat of death.

Surely, Merrill said to General Terry, such stories must be enormous exaggerations. Terry replied, When you get to South Carolina you will find that the half has not been told you. That was Merrills introduction to the six years he would spend waging one of the U.S. Armys first wars of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism.

From 1867 to 1877, more than 3,000 African Americans and their white Republican allies would be killed in terrorist violence in the South. Among them were at least 60 state officeholders and political leaders, assassinated in carefully planned killingssenators, state representatives, county supervisors, judges, prosecutors, justices of the peace, sheriffs, constables and mayors. Several Southern governors and members of Congress barely escaped assassination as well.

To those who fought the ultimately losing struggle against this tide of violence, there was little doubt as to its political significance at the time. The war still exists, in a very important phase here, Adelbert Ames, the military governor of Mississippi, reported to General William T. Sherman in 1869. The murders taking place were not the usual events of ordinary times, Ames wrote; they were nothing less than an attempt by white Southerners to regain through terror and guerrilla warfare what had been lost at Appomattox.

The political aims of this terrorist insurgency would become all the more manifest by the end of this turbulent decade; by the time of the state elections of 1874 in Louisiana, 1875 in Mississippi and 1876 in South Carolina, white paramilitary forcesby then well mounted, heavily armed (typically with the latest model of 16- shot Winchester repeating rifles, which could fire one shot per second), thoroughly drilled, sometimes uniformed, commanded by ex-Confederate officersplayed a decisive role in ousting the Reconstruction governments, effectively ending black suffrage and securing conservative white home rule to the South for a century to come. During the South Carolina election in 1876, to cite the most notorious case, white rifle clubs instigated several premeditated massacres in which probably several hundred African Americans were killed, and which would prove a decisive factor in intimidating voters and carrying the election that fall.

Yet for a variety of reasons the military dimension of the struggle for Reconstruction has generally been relegated to little more than a footnote in the history of this epoch. The first accounts of Reconstruction, dominated by the Southern viewpoint and eager to portray the South as the virtuous victim of vindictive Northern oppression, tended to ignore the violence altogether, or at least minimize its political significance. Later historians corrected these distortions, but still tended to emphasize the political and economic dimensions of Reconstruction while ignoring the significance of the violence that took placeoften casting it as an expression of primitive racist anger or of traditional Southern patriarchal notions of honor.

But the fight for Reconstruction was every bit a military struggle. The political fortunes of the Reconstruction programprotecting the freedman from violence and economic exploitation, breaking the political monopoly of the old planter aristocracy and modernizing the Southern states educational, legal and tax systemsrose and fell according to the success or failure of the struggle on this unconventional battlefield. When supported by mobile tactics, good intelligence and a shrewd application of psychological warfare, the U.S. Army achieved some significant initial victories that were instrumental in advancing the political goals of Reconstruction around 1871 and 1872. Likewise, when hampered by hesitant generalship, a lack of cavalry for mobility and a loss of the military initiative, the counterterrorism effort foundered, and white conservative paramilitaries unleashed the resurgent wave of murder and intimidation that ultimately brought the fight to its decisive end by 1877.

Lewis Merrill was arguably one of the most successful and clear-sighted of the officers who fought this counterinsurgency war. From a modern perspective it is striking how many of the issues Merrill faced, and the solutions he conceived, would anticipate the insurgency and counterinsurgency wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Perhaps most striking about Merrills approach to the situation once he arrived in Yorkville in March 1871 was how well he grasped the political and psychological dimensions of the military challenge he faced. He quickly discovered that, as General Terry had predicted, the reality was far worse than he could have imagined. He began compiling meticulous files, and soon accumulated evidence of 400 beatings and six murders in Yorkville and surrounding York County. He discovered that most of the leading whites of the county were participants and ringleaders in the Klan outrages. And he realized that any action he took not only had to be militarily effective, but must be seen as legitimate.

Merrills unusual background helped prepare him for this unconventional level of political-military war fare. During the Civil War he had raised his own volunteer cavalry regiment, Merrills Horse, in Missouri. Early in the war he was brevetted a brigadier general, and ordered to clear Rebel guerrillas out of the northeastern part of the state. The guerrillas operated behind Union lines, robbing, kidnapping and murdering pro-Union civilians and often killing the Union prisoners they captured. Merrill tried arresting Confederate sympathizers 1,500 of themand releasing them once they had sworn an oath of loyalty. I cannot point to one single in  stance in which they have faithfully kept their promise, he reported.

So, in September 1862, he convened a military commission and tried 22 Rebel guerrillas who had committed particularly gruesome murders, all after having been arrested at least once before and released on their oath. They were convicted and sentenced to death. When a 70-year-old pro-Union civilian was kidnapped from the area, notice was given that unless the man was released unharmed, 10 of the condemned guerrillas would be executed at once. The abducted man was murdered; the 10 prisoners were then shot by firing squads.

The men of the surrounding communities whom Merrill believed to be the secret leaders of the guerrilla bandsthe havent done nothing men, as he called them, who always managed to escape arrest and punishmentwere summarily banished from the region. After that, northeast Missouri became considerably more tranquil. The necessity of penetrating the surface of the insurgency and finding the power behind it was a key lesson Merrill would take away with him.

In this kind of war, Merrill learned to use spies and subterfuge as well as the more orthodox cavalry tactics he had learned as a cadet and a second lieutenant at West Point and then Fort Riley in Kansas. He learned to doubt supposed deserters who came into his own lines with tales to tell. One time he had the officers of his staff befriend a Confederate prisoner and get him drunk to ensure he was speaking the truth.

When Merrill arrived in Yorkville in 1871, one of his first endeavors was to start quietly spending money to recruit informers. He then summoned the leading citizens of the town to a meeting, where he described in minute detail recent Ku Klux raids, making it clear that they could do nothing without him learning of it. He implied strongly that there were informers in their own ranks, and that they could trust no one among themselves.

Merrill expressed gentle amusement when one of the men asked for the names of the guilty parties so that they might see them brought to justice. The major responded that he was sure the names were as well known to them as they were to him. He added that he could have them arrested within the hour, if given the authority. This would prove to be an important psychological gam bit.

Merrill had been impressive in seizing the initiative and quickly altering the dynamic of the situation through the use of good intelligence and adroit psychological warfare, all without resorting to military force. It is one of those intangible but terribly important factors in military successforcing the enemy to react to you rather than reacting to the enemy.

Merrill spent several subsequent months patiently laying the groundwork to demonstrate that the local courts, still controlled by white conservatives, were totally unwilling and incapable of acting to halt the violence. He would turn over evidence, swear out affidavits himself and publicize the subsequent attempts by the prosecutor and judge to secretly pressure him to let the cases quietly drop.

He also faced new challenges, notably a large number of desertions from his own ranksall but openly encouraged and abetted by the local white population, which would hide and assist deserters, and was always happy to keep the troops well supplied with whiskey. The poor quality of available troops and the lack of training for a delicate mission is a constant theme that runs through Merrills reports during this period.

The decisive action came at the end of the year, and here again Merrill shrewdly played the psychological and propaganda angles. When presidential authority to make the arrests finally came in November 1871, Merrill used his cavalry to ensure not only that scores of arrests could be made nearly simultaneously the same day, before word could spread, but also that it could be done in broad daylight, seizing the wanted men in town or at their businessesthus preempting any accusations of men being torn from their families with a knock on the door in the middle of the night, standard bugbears of American notions of despotic regimes.

The arrests were, to be sure, far from a complete success, and subsequent policies of leniency and pardons and the swift withdrawal of troops from the area undermined gains that had been achieved. But they did have a temporary calming effect, and moreover the show of resolve and military force in breaking the Ku Klux gave strong moral encouragement to the larger fight for Reconstruction.

In 1871 eight companies from the 7th Cavalry had ultimately been sent to South Carolina, totaling about 400 men; they joined some 500 infantry troops already in the state. The contrast with 1876, when the South Carolina state government faced a resurgent white terrorist threat, would be painfully evident. In the fall of 1876, there were again approximately 1,000 U.S. troops in the state, but none of them cavalry. That in itself resulted in a huge loss of initiative, for even when there was the will to intervene to halt violence, the U.S. troops had to march on foot, often against well-mounted white rifle clubs. In the case of the Ellenton massacre in October 1876, a detachment of the 18th Infantry did arrive in time to prevent what would have certainly been the slaughter of several hundred black state militiamen who had been surrounded by armed members of white rifle clubs. But many other blacks had already been killed in the preceding days, before the U.S. troops could intervene.

Moreover, there was no one with Merrills initiative on the scene at that point. Local commanders interpreted their orders narrowly, to mean that they could only act to halt bloodshed once it had begun, not preempt it. That placed the Army in the position of passively allowing the rifle clubs to strike when and where they chose. No attempt was made to infiltrate the clubs or disarm them. This lack of initiative was probably the most crippling blow to any hopes for quelling the insurgency. Propaganda about federal bayonets interfering in the elections so cowed the commanders that they mostly ordered their troops to stay away from polling places altogether on election day. In places like Edgefield County, many of the polls were actually commandeered by armed white rifle clubs, which turned away black voters. As even one conservative white historian conceded in the 1920s, South Carolinas election of 1876 was little more than a ratification of the seizure of power by the rifle clubs in the previous months.

Lewis Merrill had found himself fighting a similar losing battle against the so-called White Leagues in Louisiana in 1874, hamstrung by restrictive rules of engagement, vastly outnumbered and forced on the defensive, unable to regain the initiative because he was continually reacting to attacks by the White Leaguers. Time and again it would be his reaction to a provocation that would get the attention and outcry, while the provocation would be forgottenwhich was one of the perils of having to react.

None of this, of course, was warfare as most military men, or most historians, understood it. The violence used by Southern white conservatives in Reconstruction was sporadic and circumscribed, almost always stopping short of anything resembling open warfare. Most Army officers would rather have been fighting the Indians than engaging in what they derisively termed constabulary duty, and the Army itself was eager to put the entire episode behind it once Reconstruction came to an end. One is hard pressed even today to find more than the most cursory reference in unit histories and official Army histories to the role played in Reconstruction by units such as the 7th Cavalry.

Only with the benefit of more recent historical analysis is it possible for us to grasp what a few farsighted men like Merrill grasped at the time: This was war, but one fought with very different rulesand the ways in which the violence was disguised or played down by its perpetrators was a calculated part of its political purpose and effectiveness. As recent insurgency studies have pointed out, a key characteristic is that warfare of this kind is inevitably conditioned by both negative and positive objectives. Negative objectives, by definition, can be achieved only by restraining or limiting the use of military force. The principal negative goal of white Southern conservatives was to avoid any steps that would cross the line of provoking, and politically justifying in the eyes of the nation, an overwhelming military response by the federal government. They knew they could not win an open traditional military confrontation.

The positive objectives pursued by the Southern white terrorist groups likewise correspond to what, from a modern perspective, are easily recognized as classic terrorist objectives, in which the response that it sought to provoke was as important as the act itself. One basic aim of the Southern white terrorists was simply to demoralize their opponents and undermine their confidence in the ability of their own political leaders to offer them protection at the most basic level their lives and property.

At an equally basic level, random and sporadic acts of brutal terror were a form of blackmail that could be used to effectively pressure a more humane opponent to capitulate. Republican Governor Daniel Chamberlain all but gave up attempting to conduct his campaign for reelection in South Carolina in 1876 after hundreds of Democrats repeatedly showed up at Republican political meetings openly and heavily armed, demanding equal time to speak. I yielded to them simply because I was not willing to take the responsibility of a massacre, Chamberlain later explained.

By provoking Republican governors to call for federal troops for protectionbut by avoiding acts so provocative that they would trigger a truly crushing response, or which would swing national sympathies decisively against themthe instigators of terrorism achieved several purposes. They could portray the Republican governments as clinging to power only by being propped up by federal bayonetsthe phrase that appeared probably a thousand times in the Southern Democratic newspapers of the day; they were able to increase a sense of victimization in the South and tap into deeply felt American uneasiness over military involvement in domestic civilian affairs; and they increased the color-line identity of the political parties, adding to the considerable social pressure already exerted on white Republicans to place racial loyalty ahead of political loyalty.

If Reconstruction became a for- gotten chapter in the U.S. Armys history of counterinsurgency warfare, it was only one among several from this early era. The same attitude of disdainful forgetfulness was evident toward the lessons learned from both the Mexican War of 1846-48 and the military government that briefly administered California prior to state hood in 1850instances in which the Army was also called on to perform civilian duties. In neither case were occupying commanders asked to prepare manuals from their experiences, and their invaluable innovations in occupation and military government largely vanished from the Armys history.

Some of the lessons they learned would have to be reinvented in the Philippines, and again in World War IIand arguably again even today.

Stephen Budiansky is the author of The Bloody Shirt: Terror After the Civil War (2008).

Originally published in the June 2009 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.



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.Following sell-out runs in both Dublin and London, David Irelands black comedy 'Cyprus Avenue' returns to the Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre in April.

It will then transfer to the MAC in Belfast and then to The Public Theater in New York for an extended summer run.

Cyprus Avenue  directed by Vicky Featherstone  is a co-production between the Abbey Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre, London. The play won Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and James Tate Black Prize for Drama in 2017.

Starring Stephen Rea as Eric Miller, Cyprus Avenue takes one mans identity crisis to the limits to uncover the modern day complexity of Ulster Loyalism.

Gerry Adams has disguised himself as a new-born baby and successfully infiltrated my family home.Eric is a Belfast Loyalist. He believes his five-week old granddaughter is Gerry Adams. His family keep telling him to stop living in the past and fighting old battles that nobody cares about anymore but his cultural heritage is under siege. He must act.

Without prejudice were nothing! If we dont discriminate, we dont survive!

Stephen Rea won Best Actor for his portrayal of Eric at The Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2017. He will be joined by some of the original including cast members Chris Corrigan and Amy Molloy.

The Abbey Theatre is thrilled to be bringing David Irelands explosively funny and provocative Cyprus Avenue back to the Peacock Stage and on tour to The MAC in Belfast and The Public Theater its co-production with Londons Royal Court Theatre, said Abbey Theatre Directors Graham McLaren and Neil Murray in a joint statement.

As Britains relationship with Ireland and its borders falls under ever increasing, post-Brexit scrutiny, its return could not be timelier."

It will run from 30 April  19 May 2018 and tickets can be purchased via the website abbeytheatre.ie or booking office 01 87 87 222The former president and first lady of the United States are in advanced negotiations with streaming service, according to reports.

The New York Times reports that former President Obama is currently talking to Netflix about the idea of producing a series of high-profile shows.

Sources told the NYT that the former US president and his wife are in advanced negotiations with the streaming service.

The number of episodes and format of the shows has yet to be decided, but Obama has made clear does not intend to use the programmes to directly respond to criticism by his successor, Donald Trump.

Obamas senior adviser, Eric Schultz, told the New York Times: President and Mrs Obama have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire. Throughout their lives, they have lifted up stories of people whose efforts to make a difference are quietly changing the world for the better.

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As they consider their future personal plans, they continue to explore new ways to help others tell and share their stories.

The paper said one possible idea could see Obama moderating debates about hot-topic issues in America, such as healthcare and climate change. Another programme could feature the former first lady discussing topics such as nutrition, which she championed in the White House.

Obama also appeared in the debut episode of David Lettermans Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which began in January.Their announcement comes after almost twenty-four school shootings so far this year in the States.

As the #MarchForOurLives movement sweeps across America headed by the passionate teens who witnessed the Parkland school shooting last month in Florida, there has been an increase of celebrities and musicians vocalising their support for the movement and calling on the state to implement gun laws.

Fall Out Boy are the most recent band to show their frustration towards these increasing counts of gun violence. The concert will be held on the 23rd of March at The Anthem in D.C. and will be headlined by the group. Other acts that will be taking part so far include G-Eazy. More will be announced over the next few days.

All proceeds from the anti-gun concert will go towards 'Everytown for Gun Safety' and 'Giffords Courage', both organisations dedicated to gun law reform and the projection of voices dedicated to the cause.

this is the time for action. join us in the fight against gun violence for the Stay Amped benefit show at The Anthem in D.C. on 3/23, the night before @AMarch4OurLives. proceeds go to @Everytown + @GiffordsCourage - tickets go on sale Wednesday at 10am https://t.co/qzdO1Lqzrx pic.twitter.com/PjOa0UOLTT  Fall Out Boy (@falloutboy) March 12, 2018

The benefit will take place the night before the 'March For Out Lives', a nationwide march that will aim to "end the epidemic of mass shootings". The Parkland shootings were the tipping point for many Americans and since the tragedy, discourse surrounding the issue of gun reform has lit up social media and news sites across the world.

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Six key policies that save lives from gun violence:

1. Background checks

2. Child access prevention

3. Concealed carry permitting

4. Keeping guns away from domestic abusers

5. Extreme risk protection orders

6. Regulating military-style weapons

Learn more: https://t.co/IsRCFP1975 pic.twitter.com/7vBDaZjCS8  Giffords (@GiffordsCourage) March 11, 2018Born in 1939, Garech de Brun was one of the most important patrons of Irish culture for many years...

Garech de Brun, the founder of Claddagh Records, has died. A member of the Guinness family, de Brun became one of the most important supporters and benefactors of Irish traditional music and poetry, via the label which released some of the most extraordinary and compelling Irish music of the 20th Century.

De Brun was central to the formation of The Chieftains in 1962. Legend has it that he asked his friend, the uileann piper, Paddy Moloney, to form a group for a one-off album on Claddagh Records. It was the beginning of one of the most important phenomena in the history of Irish music, as the collective went on to record a huge number of extraordinary and brilliant records.

In a statement, President Michael D Higgins paid tribute to de Brun.

"The passing of Garech de Brun will be heard with great sadness by all those interested in the performance and recording of Irish music, song and poetry, the President said.

A member of the Guinness family, for most of his life, De Brun lived at his house Luggala in Co Wicklow. There, he played host to many of the leading lights of the Irish cultural renaissance, including the great composer Sean ORiada, members of The Chieftains and actors and poets like Jack MacGowran and John Montague.

More recently, he was the subject of a superb Sunday morning interview by Miriam OCallaghan for her weekend radio show, in which the renowned film-maker, and fellow Wickliow resident, John Boorman, and Paddy Moloney also participated.

He was a great character, Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said. I interviewed him in his Rathfarnham home, Woodtown Manor, many years ago, and found him immensely charming, as well as intellectually engaged and committed. A true bohemian, there was always a playful twinkle in his eye. But the most striking thing, for me at the time, was his immense love of Ireland , and of Irish music, literature and art.

"He had wanted to be part of the Irish creative community, and with that in mind, he formed Claddagh Records, which played a hugely important part in archiving some of the greatest Irish works  including, for example, Jack MacGowran reading Samuel Beckett, which is such a rare and wonderful thing. And then, of course, there was his work with The Chieftains, which led on to so many great musical adventures.

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I listened to his recent interview with Miriam OCallaghan, and there was a marvellous sense of fun about him still, as well as great camaraderie with John Boorman and Paddy Moloney. But I was most impressed by the rigorous intellectual honesty which Garech displayed during the interview.

"Without rancour, and acknowledging the wonderful good fortune that his circumstances in life had bestowed on him, he made the extraordinary, and deeply impressive statement that he wished he had never been born. That sort of honesty is such a rare thing that it will have shocked a lot of listeners. But it was enormously courageous to acknowledge those feelings, in such a public way."

Garech de Brun was also a friend and patron of Dublin-born artist Francis Bacon. In 2017, he appeared in the BBC documentary Francis Bacon: A Brush with Violence.

One of his younger brothers, the legendary socialite Tara Brown  recently celebrated in a superb book by Irish writer, Paul Howard  is often cited as an inspiration for The Beatles' song A Day in the Life.With the recent surge of popularity in everything vintage, its no surprise that vinyl has made a major comeback. As millennials and generation z alike are tearing apart their parents attics to search for their original pressing of Led Zepplin II, Ballybofey doom outfit Graveyard Dirt have newly released their catalog on vinyl. Formed in 1994 by members Kieran OToole, Paul Leyden and Tony Barr, Graveyard Dirt are an outstanding example of the doom genre that never quite made it big. In a genre that is somewhat populated with bands that seem to lack a certain amount of musical individuality, Graveyard Dirt are far superior. What separates their music from the others is a talented ear for melody, and taut quality-driven songwriting - with catchy hooks that will have you humming to yourself long after. There is an immediate defining quality to their sound, beginning with their demo Of Romance & Fire.

This was really just us trying to capture the three tracks on a shoestring budget with no recording experience. 6-7 hours in a local studio where the producer wasn't too aware of that style of music at all, says guitarist Kieran OToole.

For a first recording as a newly formed unit with little to no experience, Of Romance and Fire has a professional and tight sound. Originally released in 1995, it is now available on 10 vinyl. Raw opener The Serenity of Night immediately grabs your attention, while songs The Funerals Essence and Embrace the Dark better encapsulate GDs trademark sound - with gloomy, crushing guitars mixed with thoughtful melodies. Apart from a slightly off-kilter sound in the vocal mix, it is an astonishing demo and secured the band with a German label at the time of release. Unfortunately, the deal fell through, and Graveyard Dirt disbanded thereafter.

Fast forward ten years, the band joins forces again with new drummer Gary Sweeney to record what would have been their release for the German label. Using their own equipment to record the guitars, bass and vocals, and a local studio to record the drums, Shadows of Old Ghosts sounds crisp and more balanced in the mix. The EP highlights the bands influences in My Dying Bride and the brutality of Entombed. Opening track Rise...Fallen Skies is another exercise in atmospheric doom, resembling the crumbling ruins pictured on the cover of the EP. A Tearless Lament is the best of the bunch, with beautifully haunting melodies, a cracking vocal performance, and an outro 1986 Metallica could have penned. Finishing with brooding Sabbath-esque number Gathering Storm, the band makes their mark in the genre. Originally released in 2007, the EP has been re-released on 12 Vinyl and is well worth your while.

After the release of Shadows of Old Ghosts the band secured a one album deal with Ashen Productions based in Austria. They released their first full length album For Grace and Damnation in 2010 and followed up with the EP My Scourge, My Plague in 2015. Sporadic rehearsal time has plagued the band in the past, causing long periods between releases and performances. However, 2018 will see a change in this, with plans to re-enter the studio to record another full length album.

As a couple of our members have to travel considerable distances to rehearse we tend not to rehearse as often as we would like to...but that's always been the case with us. So this year I'd like to think we'll reverse that trend a bit, concentrate on new material and return to the studio.

This recent re-emergence of vinyl has provided opportunity for bands like Graveyard Dirt to re-introduce their brand excellent Irish metal music to new audiences and bring new ears to the genre. Of Romance & Fire and Shadows of Old Ghosts are available on vinyl from Sentinel Records - www.sentinelrecords.com

AdvertisementBrothers Harry and Alfie have just finished touring around the States supporting Gabrielle Aplin in 13 different shows and they're coming home to release their brand new EP.

Hudson Taylor are about to head out across the country to meet their fans at a string of record store signings and acoustic sessions. The appearances coincide with the release of their new five track 'Feel It Again' EP, which is released on CD and digital on Friday March 23rd. Their current single 'Run With Me' has over one million plays on Spotify.

Here are the dates and locations of their meet and greets:

Friday 23rd March: Tower Records, Dawson Street, Dublin 5.30pm

Saturday 23rd March: Golden Discs, Blanchardstown Centre 1pm

Golden Discs, Dundrum Town Centre 5pm

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Sunday 24th March: Rollercoaster Records Kilkenny, 1pm

Golden Discs, Whitewater Shopping Centre, Newbridge, 4pm

Thursday 29th March: Golden Discs, Patrick Street, Cork 4pm

Saturday 31st March: [email protected], Shop Street, Galway 1pmIt is with great sadness that Hot Press has learned of the death of the legendary Irish piper, Liam O'Flynn

The great Irish uileann piper Liam OFlynn has died.

Liam was one of the finest and most influential Irish pipers of his generation. He became known nationally in the 1970s when he joined forces with Christy Moore, Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine to form Plenty. The groups emergence marked a vital shift in the way in which folk music and traditional tunes could be intertwined and related. OFlynn was vital to that vital innovation.

He worked with Tara Records on a number of projects, including ShaunDaveys epic The Brendan Voyage.

Like Christy Moore and Donal Lunny, Liam was originally from Kildare. He learned the uileann pipes from the master, Leo Rowsome, beginning at the age of just eleven years. He quickly developed a reputation as a special talent, which was confirmed by his pivotal role in Planxty.

In an extraordinary career, he also worked with international luminaries like Emmylou Harris, Mike Oldfield, The Everly Brothers and Kate Bush, as well as Enya, Sinead OConnor, Mary Black and the Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney.

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What Planxty did was ground-breaking, Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said. Most people had become familiar with the uileann pipes through The Chieftains, but its integration into songs and its use to create atmosphere, gave it a much wider resonance  to the extent that it is now a fully integrated element in the way in which Irish music is understood and is played.

"Liam OFlynn was a musician through and through. He was generally a quiet, thoughtful man and his lovely, intricate individual style of playing reflected that. His contribution, not just with Planxty but later in the more symphonic pieces and the film soundtracks he worked on, was immense. I think we can say with complete conviction that Ireland is a better place as a result of what this great musician did, and what he created, in his life and in his work. He will be greatly missed.

Liam was part of the Andy Irvine 70th birthday celebration gig in Vicar Street in 2012, which yielded a live album released in 2014. The compilation album Between The Jigs and the Reels was released in 2016.

Sheila Pratschke, the Chair of the Arts Council has spoken of Liams importance to teh tradition: "Liam O'Flynn has left behind him an incredible legacy of music through his recordings, his careful support of other musicians and artists and his dedication to transmission of the great heritage of Irish music to future generations.In the midst of their seven live shows at the NCH, The Gloaming have shot to the third spot on their opening week.

The Gloamings shows at the National Concert Hall have become an event not to be missed with each annual residency selling out quicker than the previous one, and indeed faster than new shows can be added. Their debut performance at the hall in 2011 is a gig that will always be remembered as the one that sold out before they had written or rehearsed any music.

The musicians of The Gloaming came together seven years ago to explore the possibilities of Irish contemporary music, and have since gone from strength to sparkling strength. What began as an experiment has turned into something truly compelling, enthralling and thrilling.

Elsewhere in the Charts, The Greatest Showman enjoys yet another week at the top of the Charts, while Ed Sheeran comes in at second with Divide.

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Picture This, Dua Lipa, Post Malone, Niall Horan and Camile Carbello all remain high too.The production includes archive footage and previously unheard testimonies surrounding events at two separate funerals in Belfast, 1988.

The conflict in Northern Ireland has been examined and re-told in a great many ways. But acclaimed and accomplished filmmaker Vanessa Engles, who has been creating documentaries for the BBC since 1988, now sets out to describe the violent events that occurred in Belfast city surrounding two different funerals that took place only three days apart.

For background into the focus of the documentary, one needs to look into the 'funeral murders' themselves.

It began with the SAS murders of three IRA members on a mission in Gibraltar on the 6th of March. A vehicle owned by one of the men, loaded up with bombs intending for attacking the Royal Anglecian Regiment was later discovered in the area. As a result, a loyalist named Michael Stone launched his own assault at the triple funeral that took place ten days later, killing three people including an IRA member called Kevin Brady and injured sixty others.

Three days later, the funeral of Brady subsequently held much tension, anger and upset amongst IRA supporters - and these strong feelings led to the beating and killing of three British army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes. Upon driving to the funeral cortege, they were mistaken to be SAS members planning to launching another attack against the IRA and the crowd acted violently in their grief.

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When speaking about the hour-long production that seeks to explore such a dark and violent period in Northern Ireland's history, Engle stated that The film is in its own terms a document of historic importance, given that the conflict in Northern Ireland witnessed some of the most cataclysmic events to have taken place in the UK since the Second World War. But beyond its value as a document of historical record, it also has contemporary resonance, thirty years on from the funerals in showing how enduring conflict arises when groups of people have politically polarised views.

Featuring archived footage and audio that will be heard for the first time in over thirty years, the show is set to air at 9:00pm, the 19th of March on BBC Two.Walton Goggins, who plays the villain in Roar Uthaugs reboot of Tomb Raider, is old school. No, not Lara Croft videogame old school , seriously old school.

My experience with videogames began and ended with Pac Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga! the actor laughs. I grew up at a time when video games really werent a part of my culture  and we couldnt afford it. So, I never played Tomb Raider. But when I shared the news of my role with my nieces, nephews and godchildren, all of a sudden I became iconic in their eyes!

However, like many actors who avoid reading or watching the source material of an adaptation, Goggins believes his lack of familiarity with the famous game was beneficial to his performance.Microsoft Reportedly Readying New Surface Solution

Microsoft is reportedly getting ready to introduce a new version of its Surface solution. The company is expected to unveil the new offering in the first half of this year. However, its unclear when the second-generation Surface Hub will be available to customers.

Zdnets Mary Jo Foley writes: Microsoft has yet to deliver an optimized version of its Microsoft Teams group-chat service on the Surface Hub, but supposedly it's in the works. I'm also hearing an OS refresh for the first-generation Surface Hub is coming, which could provide V1 users with at least some of the new functionality that will be part of Surface Hub V2.

Microsoft hasn't said anything about specific features likely to be part of the next-generation Surface Hub. However, the company has hinted that Cortana integration, automatic transcription, and advanced scheduling capabilities could all figure in its conference room of the future scenarios.

The company introduced Microsoft Surface Hub in 2015. Its a large touch screen designed for videoconferencing and whiteboard sessions. And its pricing begins at $8,999.

Microsoft Surface Hub is a first-of-its-kind collaboration device designed to unlock the power of the group with the best digital tools to brainstorm and create together. And with Windows 10, Surface Hub provides a platform to build amazing large-screen apps for group productivity, such as the already-builti-n custom Office and Skype for Business apps. In both 55-inch and 84-inch models, it features advanced technology for the modern workplace and the flexibility to turn any room into a collaboration space, enabling productivity where people come together to get things done, from large conference rooms to informal huddle spaces.

Cisco offers a similar whiteboard solution in the form of Cisco Spark Board. It came out with that solution early in 2017.

Edited by Mandi Nowitz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.Today, the National Park Service announced its decision to augment the Isle Royale, Michigan wolf population with 20 to 30 animals within three years. New wolves will restore necessary ecological balance to Isle Royales forest ecosystem, by controlling the islands swelling moose population, which is causing great harm to its forests. The HSUS strongly supports the NPS decision.

With the loss of Isle Royales ice bridges due to climate change, wolves could not reach the island. This spelled disaster not only for the parks environmental health, but doomed its overabundant moose population to slow, cruel starvation, said Nicole Paquette, vice president of wildlife at the Humane Society of the United States. The two wolves left on the island are too inbred to successfully reproduce; its been heartbreaking to witness the harm that lack of genetic diversity has caused on Isle Royale.Kennebunk Post

Extensive work on the steeple, the Aaron Willard Jr. clock and the weathervane of the 1824 building is complete.Mayor Linda Tyer has activated a part of the contract requiring Spectrum to hold a public hearing.

Pittsfield Schedules Public Hearing With Spectrum On Cable Changes



The city welcomed Izinna Lytle as the first black woman in the Police Department. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The city is invoking a clause in its contract with Spectrum to get answers about changes to television local offerings.

Mayor Linda Tyer has scheduled a public hearing for Monday, March 19, at 6 p.m. at the Berkshire Atheneum with the cable company. The company has encrypted its signal and has changed the community television station channels.

A clause in the city's contract with the company allows for it to call a public hearing with the company to address such matters.

Last week the community television's three channels -- Access Pittsfield, CityLink, and Pittsfield ETV -- were moved from Channels 15, 17 and 18 to 1301, 1302 and 1303. That is coupled with the company moving to an encrypted digital signal requiring residents to get cable boxes.

That change is happening throughout the Berkshires and many residents have voiced frustration with the move. City Councilor Kevin Morandi has also requested that Spectrum representatives attend a City Council meeting as well.

"I know they don't have to come here but I think we should still hold their feet to the fire," Morandi said.

Morandi is particularly concerned with senior citizens who can no longer watch cable on their existing televisions without renting the box from the company. Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell said he's hearing reports of the company's local office running out of cable boxes.

"Even if they have the boxes, to try to get one at their office is like trying to get into a New York deli at noontime," Connell said.

The public hearing has been billed mostly to talk about the changes with Pittsfield Community Television stations but Tyer encouraged the councilors to raise any issues they are hearing.

Spectrum officials were not available to attend Tuesday's council meeting. But the councilors will still ask them to appear in the future.

The council also approved four items related to the Berkshire Innovation Center. The center had been a city project for years and now that is switching to the nonprofit Berkshire Innovation Center Inc. With that, many previous agreements such as leases or acceptance of grant money had to be switched from the city to the organization.

"There were some complicated structures in place that make this awkward and unwieldy," Tyer said. "We're just unwinding and rescinding the prior structure so the city's obligations are very simple."

The move also relinquished liability the city would have to repay the grant funds should the innovation center fail. It also takes away the city's requirement to borrow for construction before the grant funds are distributed.

Izinna Lytle was also appointed to the Police Department. Lytle is the department's first black woman on the force.Hoosac Valley High School students release 17 balloons into whipping snow to commemorate the 17 students and faculty killed last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the state of Florida. PreviousNext

Students in Adams, Pittsfield Memorialize Florida Shooting Victims



Hoosac Valley students wait in the atrium for the National School Walkout. CHESHIRE, Mass.  Nearly 100 students walked out of Hoosac Valley High School on Wednesday morning in the bitter cold to hold a ceremony in remembrance of the 17 killed during last month's school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

"There have been far too many deaths related to gun violence and we are here to demand that something of this magnitude never happens again," organizer Gigi Daley said after she asked her fellow students to gather around her. "Far too many lives have been taken and it is up to our generation to demand change, to make a difference and to make our voices heard. We have the right to go to school and feel safe doing so."

Daley was accompanied by a group of juniors and seniors who read the names of those killed during the shooting. The group then released 17 balloons into whipping snow for the 17 killed last month.

Hoosac Valley was one of thousands of walkouts and protests held at schools across the nation. Most lasted 17 minutes to mark the number of deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Students at Stoneman Dougls soon became the voice of a movement looking to curb gun violence, particularly in schools; a march on Washington, D.C., is planned on March 24. At Mount Greylock, hundreds of students marched outside to share their thoughts about safety and gun violence; at Drury High School, the students held a "walk-in" with administrators and Mayor Thomas Bernard.

Daley said the Hoosac students decided to organize the event to show that the school community stands with those affected by gun violence

"I think that we needed to do something instead of just sitting around doing nothing. That is not OK," she said. "I hope it just shows that even though we are a smaller school that we can still do something."

The event stemmed directly from the students and there was no teacher or administrative involvement. At 10 a.m., students neatly gathered in a line in the school's atrium and solemnly walked through the doors.

Organizer Brittany Green said the shooting sent shockwaves through high schools throughout the country and moved students to take action. She said students can and are making a difference.

"I feel like a lot of times students aren't taken seriously and people think we can't make a change or do anything because of our age but that is not true," Green said.

After the balloons were released, students heard a poem by Victoria Tatro that was followed by the singing of "Amazing Grace" led by students Hanna Koczela and Kayla Garabedian.

The group then finished out the 17 minutes with a moment of silence before convening inside.

"We just wanted to say thank you to all of the students and teachers and the public who came and were respectful," organizer Elizabeth Levesque said. "They really listened to our voices and not just ours but the nations."

 iBerkshires Staff Writer Jack Guerino

BArT Students March to Raise Awareness on Gun Laws

BArT students gather at Adams Town Hall. ADAMS, Mass.  At Berkshire Arts and Technology Public Charter School, a majority of the students marched to Town Hall holding signs that expressed sentiments like "Fear should not be here" and "Thoughts and prayers don't stop bullets."

Before the clock hit 10, an announcement over the loud speaker asked students to remain quiet for a moment of silence, and they were then instructed to meet outside to begin their walk to Town Hall, located down the street from the school.

As students walked through the snow holding up their signs, cars passing by showed their support with honks. The protest was to raise awareness about gun laws and to show support for the victims lost in the Parkland, Fla., shooting exactly one month ago.

Ruth Bristol, a junior at BArT, spearheaded the event.

"We have a serious problem. We are trying to raise awareness for stricter gun laws," she said.

Ruth stood in front of the student body and gave a short introduction to two student speakers. Mia LaFrazia spoke first, saying, "School shootings have been happening for years and years, yet nothing has been done. Private sellers don't even have to have background checks or an age minimum in some states."

The second speaker was Abby Mullany, a sophomore, who also gave a speech on gun violence. "How many of us will have to look down the barrel of a gun before something is done?"

Faculty members joined the cause and walked alongside their students. Alla Chelukhova, a history teacher, felt very moved by the student-organized event.

"This is very important to me. I am Russian. I have traveled in the world where people would introduce themselves to me, hear my accent, and say 'Oh, you're Russian. Kalashnikov.' And this breaks my heart because this is not the contribution I would like my people to make to the world."

Chelukhova was one of the only faculty members carrying a sign.

Some students decided to not participate in the walkout. Among them was senior Trinity Peets.

"It's not really going to change anything. It's been 20 years [since the Columbine (Colo.) High shooting] and nothing has happened. That's why I didn't walkout," she said.

 iBerkshire Intern Ashlyn MarcilThe 'gas station' at Canal and Eagle streets has been operating as just a kiosk for years.

North Adams Planners Say No-Gas Gas Station Has to Go



The planners approved two new business operations and an amendment to the Norad Mill plan. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The gas station that no longer serves gas will have to shut down the cigarette kiosk it's been running.

The Planning Board on Monday had enough of the stalling related to the redevelopment of the corner of Eagle and Canal streets.

"They are still operating their kiosk," said Chairman Michael Leary. "Obviously, there is no permit for that."

The owners of the site have been given years to come up with a plan to resume operations at the former BP gas station at the corner of Canal and River streets.

A new company, Boon Properties LLC, has been on the agenda since December for a special permit application for new construction  but no plans were submitted. The application was postponed several times at the request of the owner but that ended on Monday.

The board voted to deny the application without prejudice.

"The last contact we had was with the new partnership with this property," Building Inspector William Meranti told the board. "We met at the site with contractors, myself and the director of the Fire Department. Since that time we've heard nothing. Plans were discussed  then nothing."

Boon Properties bought both Eagle Street station and the Getty station on State Road from Summit Distributing LLC in late summer 2014. The BP station had long been without gas, its tanks and pumps removed, and at one point was ordered to shut off the lighted sign that was showing gas prices at 0.000.

Two years ago, plans were proffered by Summit that made it through the Conservation Commission and the Planning Board. The kiosk and the pump canopies were to be demolished and and a new 1,400 square-foot convenience store built in the northeast corner with new pumps. The company later came back saying it was scaling down the project but never submitted new plans.

The Getty station was also proposed for a makeover , with Summit getting plans approved to demolish the current convenience store and build a new 4,000 square foot building back in 2015. The pumps had already been shut off at that point and the construction never occurred. The convenience store continued to operate for a couple more years but is now closed.

The board has frequently brought up the kiosk as a being out of compliance and has pushed for the owners to come forward with a plan and queried the city solicitor on the legality of its operation. A gas station has been operating at that corner for more than 40 years. The site had been location of the Eagle Mill, which burned in 1971.

In other business, the Planning Board approved a special permit for Melanie St. Pierre to give art lessons at 151 Eagle St. St. Pierre said she planned to do day and evening classes for children and adults.

"They come, build a project, learn new skills and get to take it home," she said. St. Pierre said she was in the process of getting permits for an overhanging sign. Her hours would be from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., although she only expected to have classes at night twice a week.

Candace Wall, a licensed mental health counselor, was approved for offices in the Norad Mill to operate from 9 to 5. Wall said she can offer individual psychotherapy to adults, workshops, including self-care skills, and consultation to businesses seeking organizational change.

The board also approved an amendment to the Norad Mill plans for a reception area on the third floor. The 3,500 square-foot space would have a preparation area with counter and handsink, but no cooking facilities. Owner David Moresi said restaurants or caterers would cook off-site and serve there. The space would be available for small groups, such as bridal showers, or for use by tenants for receptions or meetings. It can hold up to 50 people.

Signage for the new Museum of Dog was approved but a flag banner for DeMarsico's Wine Cellar in the Norad Mill was put on hold. Moresi said he was not aware of the banner and planners wanted more information on how often it would be placed outside. They decided to ask the DeMarsicos to come to the next meeting.

Edited on March 15 to clarify plans for rebuilding the BP station were approved by the Planning Board.The three-person New Ashford School Committee, left, meets Wednesday night with their superintendent, business manager and special education director.

New Ashford School Committee Wants Another Negotiation on LES Tuition

NEW ASHFORD, Mass.  The School Committee on Wednesday night voted to accept a tuition agreement to send its seventh- through 12th-graders to Mount Greylock Regional School but asked its chairwoman and its superintendent to try again to negotiate a lower tuition rate to be able to continue sending its younger students to Lanesborough Elementary School.

The three-person committee agreed to recommend that the town approve at town meeting the increased rate of $14,477 for its middle and high school students, contingent upon some clarifications in the language about special education students and transportation costs.

But after nearly two hours of fielding questions and listening to impassioned pleas from a current Mount Greylock student and several parents of students in town, and after acknowledging that the town likely would not approve such a large budget increase at town meeting, the committee decided not to accept the $17,314 per-pupil rate set for Lanesborough Elementary. That figure is nearly double the current tuition rate New Ashford pays to send its kindergarten through sixth-graders to Lanesborough.

The new Mount Greylock Transition Committee earlier this month agreed to set a split rate next year in the new school district  $14,477 for New Ashford and Hancock students attending Mount Greylock Regional School and $17,314 for New Ashford students attending Lanesborough Elementary.

School Committee member Jennifer Welch, also the mother of two current Lanesborough Elementary students, said she was under the impression that the Transition Committee had wanted New Ashford to come back with a figure the town could afford in an effort to assure the district that it could count on the revenue attached to the town's students as it developed its own budget.

"They were expecting us to come back with a figure. They were expecting us to negotiate," she said.

But Peter Dillon, superintendent of Shaker Mountain School Union 70, which comprises New Ashford, Hancock and Richmond, said he was not optimistic that any new negotiations would be welcome. While the Transition Committee might have been willing to negotiate further on its own, it has decided to honor the decision the Lanesborough School Committee made last spring to charge New Ashford the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education per-pupil rate, despite his efforts to broker a better deal for the small town.

"We made what I thought was a compelling argument that it should be phased in," Dillon said. "They said it was their obligation to honor the previously negotiated rate.

"It's my deeply held belief that the Lanesborough piece of this is not going to change," he said. "My sense is it's very clear they are not budging."

The New Ashford School Committee decided, however, that it should make that argument again, authorizing a counter-offer of $12,477, which represents a $3,500 per-student increase, for this year, with step increases over the next two years to reach the DESE per-pupil rate by the end of a three-year contract.

"I think this shows a good faith," Welch said.

While it appeared the majority of the residents who attended Wednesday's meeting approved of trying again to negotiate with the Transition Committee, Dillon shared information he had gathered about three other options for the town's kindergarten through sixth-grade students.

One was the town of Hancock, which has its own elementary school and also tuitions its older children into Mount Greylock. Dillon said Hancock would charge New Ashford $10,000 per student. Dillon said this was the option that makes the most sense geographically, and Hancock's principal, Jay Merselis, who attended the Wednesday's meeting, said he would be happy to talk more with the town about what his school could offer.

"We would welcome you with open arms," he said.

Dillon also received preliminary estimates from both North Adams for $11,945 per student and Pittsfield for $13,316 per student. Neither of these options seemed to garner much enthusiasm, so Dillon said he would focus on getting more solid numbers from Hancock for "extras" the town might have to pay for over and above the $10,000 per student, including helping fund the addition of a full-time nurse at the school to assist with a New Ashford student with medical needs.

The committee decided to set another meeting after it has more information about possible negotiations with the Transition Committee and more detailed numbers about Hancock so that it could prepare a budget in a timely manner to present to the Select Board in advance of town meeting.

They also discussed when to approach the Mount Greylock School Committee  once it is past its transition phase  about having New Ashford join the district.Palestinian Leadership Prepared to Prolong the Misery of its People

The Fellowship | March 15, 2018 Embed from Getty Images

Writing at the Gatestone Institute, Bassam Tawil says that the enemy of a viable Israeli-Palestinian peace plan is not Israel, or the U.S.  its Palestinian leadership, which continually and cynically puts its own interests before the best interests of its people:

Not only are Hamas and Abbas wholly shirking their responsibility to their people, they also are prepared to foil any attempt by outsiders, in this case the US, to work towards ending the crisis in the Gaza Strip. Why would any Palestinian or Arab reject an offer by anyone, even if it were the devil himself, to extend an arm of help to Palestinians in dire need?

The answer, again, is twofold: First, Hamas and Abbas are too busy ripping each other to shreds over money and power to take notice of their peoples misery. Second, the two Palestinian leadership parties actively desire a continuation of the crisis: it enables them to rake Israel over the coals at various international forums. The relationship between Abbas and Hamas is bad on an epic scale, but when it comes to incitement against Israel, they are best buddies.The Enemy Lurks in Tunnels and Towers

The Fellowship | March 15, 2018 The Enemy Lurks in Tunnels and Towers

The last war that Israel faced in Gaza brought a new threat  terror tunnels. And now as Israel prepares for the next skirmish on its southern border, JNS Yaakov Lappin tells us that the IDF will face a new kind of ground combat  one that will involve civilians and general chaos:

Since Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip more than a decade ago, it has built, trained, and armed a terrorist-army and guerilla force, and planted it in high-rise buildings, underground bunkers, and tunnels, in the midst of the civilian population.

Israel and Hamas have engaged in three large-scale conflicts and numerous smaller-scale flare-ups over the past ten years, and, as the IDF looks ahead to the future, it is preparing new ways for its units to operate in this urban warfare jungle, if the need arises.

The Israel Defense Forces recently held a war exercise for its infantry commanders to prepare them for the challenges of combat in Gaza.

The drill, held by the Givati infantry brigade, played out over a number of areas, including the southern city of Ashkelon, where officers simulated fighting in and around tall residential towers.

In Gaza, such multistory buildings double up as military bases for Hamass armed wing. The terror group uses them as command posts, lookouts and firing positions for its cells. Such buildings will, in the IDFs assessment, be used as positions by Hamas cells armed with shoulder-fired missiles, sniper rifles and additional heavy firepower.

The exercise showed the commanders how to operate in such an environment, as well as served to teach them how to train their own soldiersUnilever, one of the UKs best known corporate giants, has announced it will be consolidating its legal headquarters in Rotterdam, dealing a sharp blow to Britains status as a European business hub ahead of Brexit.

The consumer goods giant, which is the UKs third largest company and has up until now been based in both the UK and the Netherlands, on Thursday said that it was shaking up its corporate structure. Under the changes it will operate three divisions. Its beauty and personal care division, as well as its home care division, will be based in London, while its food and refreshment division will be based in Rotterdam.

Unilever said that it also intends to simplify from its current structure of being two legal entities, transforming into one legal entity that will be incorporated in the Netherlands.

The company said that the decision reflects the fact that the shares currently listed in the Netherlands account for approximately 55 per cent of the groups combined ordinary share capital and also trade with greater liquidity than the ones listed in London.

However, the maker of Dove soap, Marmite and Ben & Jerrys ice cream will continue to have its shares listed in the capital, as well as in Amsterdam and New York, following the changes. Unilever also said its employment of 7,300 people in the UK and 3,100 people in the Netherlands will be unaffected by the changes.

Unilevers board is fully committed to delivering long-term performance and sustainable value for shareholders, said chairman Marijn Dekkers.

The board believes the move to three divisions and the simplification of our corporate structure will create a simpler, more agile and more focused company with increased strategic flexibility for value-creating portfolio change, he added.

Unilever, which was formed in 1930 through a merger between Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and UK soap-maker Lever Brothers, last year already announced it was reviewing its dual-headed corporate structure in the aftermath of it fending off an attempted $143bn takeover from Kraft Heinz.

As one of the largest companies in the UK, the group is a major contributor to the economy.

In addition to its London headquarters, it has three global research facilities at Port Sunlight in Merseyside, Colworth in Bedfordshire, and Leeds, as well as manufacturing sites and distribution depots all around the UK.

Unilever has annual UK sales of around 1.8bn, and many of its products  including Persil, Dove, Magnum, Flora, Marmite and Lynx  are market leaders.

In the lead-up to Thursdays announcement, Unilever reportedly met with the governments of both the UK and the Netherlands. The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is a Unilever veteran himself.

Although the company did not specifically cite Brexit as a reason for its move, the decision is expected to bruise Theresa Mays government with just a year to go until the UK is due to quit the trading bloc.

Asked about the announcement, a government spokesman welcomed Unilevers continued commitment and its promise to protect jobs.

Its decision to transfer a small number of jobs to a corporate HQ in the Netherlands is part of a long-term restructuring of the company and is not connected to the UKs departure from the EU, the spokesman said.

In an interview with Reuters, Unilevers chief financial officer implied that it was not clear yet whether Unilever would remain part of the FTSE 100 benchmark index of the UKs largest publicly listed companies after the move.

If Unilever were to drop out of that index, shares could fall as a result of some investors being forced to sell their holdings.

We will continue with the premium listing in the UK, which means the full UK corporate governance requirements will apply to the company, Chief Financial Officer Graeme Pitkethly told the agency.

What we cant determine is index inclusion; index inclusion is different to your listing. Because of confidentiality we havent yet engaged with the index providers and it is up to the index providers to determine who is in their listing or not in their listing.

Shares in Unilever ended the day down 1.7 per cent on the London Stock Exchange.Experts have called on the Government to explain why there were more than 10,000 additional deaths in England and Wales in the first few weeks of 2018.

An editorial published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) showed that during the first seven weeks of the year, there were 93,990 deaths.

But in the same period over the previous five years an average of 83,615 people died.

The authors from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University of Oxford have called on the Government and health service bosses to urgently investigate and explain the rise.

This rise of 12.4 per cent, or 10,375 additional deaths, was not due to the ageing of the population, the editorial read.

The data, collected weekly by the Office of National Statistics also excludes that these deaths were all caused by this years exceptionally high flu levels.

Deaths from respiratory conditions, a large group including pneumonia and flu, was not unusually high, it added.

The authors said that the deaths, the equivalent of an extra person every seven minutes in the first 49 days of 2018, are the result of sustained underfunding and should be taken more seriously by the Government.

To cope with anticipated pressures, the NHS was advised to cancel all non-urgent care in January, amounting to tens of thousands of planned operations, to free up capacity.

While Theresa May said the NHS was better prepared for the winter than ever before, doctors warned that patients were "dying prematurely in corridors".

However the cancellations may have averted an even bigger crisis, the authors said.

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These additional deaths are very bad, we havent seen figures like this before, but its quite possible that if that care hadnt been made available youd be looking at something worse than this, Professor Danny Dorling told The Independent.

This is why it needs to be looked into, because if thats true: if failing to cancel appointments would have meant more deaths, then its even more serious. These seven weeks were warmer than average, but this is what happens if you dont increase funding for the NHS as you used to and social care funding is also bad.

When numerous things in society are going wrong, you reach a crunch point in winter, regardless of temperature or flu, in the NHS.

The editorial comes after a senior health official acknowledged that mortality was over and above what is expected.

During a Science and Technology Committee hearing last week, Professor Paul Cosford, medical director at Public Health England, said: One of the things we monitor is the increase in mortality on a week-to-week basis over and above what we would normally expect for this time of year.

We know that there has been a period of about four weeks or so during which that mortality has been higher than we would have expected.

[In] week six [the week ending February 11] there is about 11,300 or so deaths in an average year in that week but we have had probably about 12,400 to 12,500.

So it is that sort of increase over a defined period.

The editorial concludes: We and others have already called for an urgent investigation by the House of Commons health select committee.

We did this because the Department of Health and Social Care is not taking the slowdown in improvements in mortality seriously.

The figures for this year make the case for an investigation both stronger and more urgent with each passing day.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: We are absolutely committed to helping people live long and healthy lives, which is why the NHS was given top priority in the Autumn budget, with an extra 2.8 billion, on top of a planned 10 billion a year increase by 2020/21.

Along with Public Health England, we will consider this and other new research in this area.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.

Some believe Stonehenge marks the ritual passage through the underworld (Alamy)

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 forwards

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 comprising 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.

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.

The merkhet, an ancient timekeeping instrument (Getty)

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.

Recommended Millennials are taking career advice from their star signs

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 heliacal 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.

Daniel Brown is a lecturer in astronomy at Nottingham Trent University. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)Londons air ambulance is now being called to more stabbings and shootings than road accidents for the first time in its history, statistics show after two other men were murdered in one night.

Officials said penetrating trauma was the most common cause for the helicopter to be dispatched, totalling 560 incidents and overtaking trauma from car and bike crashes.

Dr Gareth Grier, the lead clinician the London Air Ambulance charity, said: Sadly, through 2017 the number of missions where a patient has been stabbed or shot has risen.

It is not unusual now for our teams to perform open chest surgery for stab wounds twice in a single day. This would have been unheard of a few years back.

His warning came after two young men were murdered in separate attacks overnight.

In the first incident came at 9.30pm on Wednesday, when a 20-year-old man was shot dead as he sat in a car in Walthamstow.

DCI Andrew Packer said: At this early stage, it is believed that the victim was in a stationary vehicle which was approached by a number of suspects before shots were fired.

"These shots have fatally wounded the victim and left his family and friends devastated. We are doing everything we can to find the culprits."

 Met Police Chief: Police will use stop-and-search powers "properly" over knife crime

An hour later, an 18-year-old victim was chased by a gang of attackers and stabbed in Chadwell Heath.

An ambulance took him to hospital but he died just under three hours after police were called.

One man has been arrested in connection with the murder, while police appeal for witnesses to come forward.

They are just two examples of a wave of violence sweeping the capital, where 80 people were stabbed to death in 2017 and the New Year was seen in with four murders in a 24-hour period.

New laws have been introduced aiming to crackdown on knife possession  seeing anyone caught carrying the weapons twice automatically jailed  but police have been appealing for help to tackle the underlying issues driving the deadly trend.

Knife crime has risen by 21 per cent across England and Wales to a six-year high, with almost 37,000 offences recorded by police in the 12 months to September.

The statistic was revealed on the same day the number of police officers hit a record low, with the Police Federation accusing the Conservatives of losing control in the fight against crime.

Forces have been announcing swingeing cut-backs as the Government continues to refuse blanket funding increases, seeing the Metropolitan Police close many police stations and merge its 32 policing boroughs into 12 command units to save 325m.

The London air ambulance is itself a charity and relies on donations to respond to incidents 24 hours a day, sending advanced trauma doctors by helicopter of rapid response car.

Since its inception in 1989, road traffic collisions have been the biggest cause of call-outs but stabbings and shootings made up 31 per cent of the total in 2017  up 12 per cent.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 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PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. 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There were 533 call-outs after road crashes, 412 falls from height and 292 others, including incidents on train lines and suicides.

A total of 1,797 critically injured patients treated in the year, as well as those injured in major incidents including the terror attacks in Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park.

Hackney was the busiest borough, followed Newham and Westminster, while the busiest postcode areas were SE1 in Southwark, CR0 in Croydon and NW10 in west London.

Dr Grier said the air ambulance gave people the best possible chance of survival with procedures including open chest surgery at the scene and emergency procedures to stop blood loss.

Jonathan Jenkins, CEO of the London Air Ambulance charity, said the statistics show the scale of vital work costing 10m a year.

Whilst we all hope that it will never be us, trauma can sadly happen to anyone, she added.

Police are appealing for information over the stabbings in Chadwell Heath and Walthamstow and requesting witnesses to come forward.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, tweet police @MetCC, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.An alleged member of banned neo-Nazi group National Action had an image of murdered MP Jo Cox captioned "Chat s**t. Get banged", a court heard.

Jurors also heard from an expert during the trial of three men, including two serving British soldiers, that the proscribed group adopted the words of her killer as their slogan.

Thomas Mair murdered the Labour MP for Batley and Spen on June 16 2016, and during his court appearance shouted "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain".

Recommended Jo Cox honoured with plaque in House of Commons

At Birmingham Crown Court, where three men deny being members of the banned far right group, jurors heard National Action had used his words in its online literature.

Prosecution expert Prof Matthew Feldman, co-director of the Centre for Fascist, Anti-fascist and Post-fascist Studies at Teesside University, said the group used the slogan on its "Google banners" and website.

He added there was no suggestion Mair was ever connected to National Action.

Prof Feldman said: "The influence went the other way. He (Mair) was arraigned and said 'death to traitors, freedom for Britain' and it was a statement placed on the (group's) Google banners for the search engine Google.

"If you put in National Action, that phrase would come up immediately and was the banner of the nationalaction.info website."

Prosecuting QC Duncan Atkinson asked: "Beyond adopting the words of Thomas Mair as its Google banner, did National Action - through Twitter - express support?"

Prof Feldman replied: "I've seen a number of statements that would see Thomas Mair as somebody at the vanguard or forefront of the fight against people seen as so-called race traitors."

He added that support for Mair's actions from "individuals" of the group had in part led to the decision of Home Secretary Amber Rudd to ban National Action outright in December 2016.

Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 33, of Powys, and fellow Royal Anglian Regiment soldier Private Mark Barrett, 25, of Dhekalia Barracks, Cyprus, deny being members of the banned group, along with a 23-year-old male, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

That male is also accused of three counts of possession of documents likely of use to terrorists, and one of distributing a terrorism handbook.

LCpl Vehvilainen, who has admitted possession of a CS gas canister, is also accused of one count of possession of a terrorist manual - the Anders Breivik manifesto - and two charges of stirring up racial hatred with web forum posts.

Describing the group's operation, Prof Feldman said it was founded in August 2013 by Benjamin Raymond and Alex Davies and was "overtly national socialist or neo-Nazi".

He said it had practised "violent rhetoric", holding demonstrations in cities and towns including Liverpool, York and Newcastle.

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 academic said it targeted recruits aged 15-29, and estimated that before its ban, membership had been "between 70 and 100".

Prof Feldman also drew attention to the "unmistakable" similarity between the National Action logo and that of the inter-war "brown-shirts", the infamous SA paramilitaries employed in Nazi Germany.

The jury was then shown an image of murdered MP Mrs Cox, apparently downloaded by the 23-year-old male from Facebook in 2017.

Speaking about the organisation, he said: "As far as I can tell it's a very secretive group and gave a great deal of autonomy to regional organisers to recruit into the group."

He added that since their ban, "similar" groups had emerged using National Action-type tactics and marketing, holding demonstrations "as far south as Southampton (and), as far north as into Scotland"

Press AssociationTwo men needed hospital treatment after being seriously assaulted by a gang in South Lanarkshire.

The first attack happened in Tiree Way, Cambuslang, when a 40-year-old man was assaulted by a group of men at 7.30pm on Sunday.

The victim was taken by ambulance to Hairmyres Hospital where he was treated for his injuries before being released.

Recommended Foreign nationals guilty of serious crimes vanish on release from jail

In a separate, unrelated, attack later on Sunday, a 32-year-old was walking on a footpath at Ross Place, Rutherglen, at 9.45pm when he was approached by a group of men who attacked him.

He was taken by ambulance to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride where he was treated for his injuries. He has since been released.

Police said the attackers were all wearing dark clothing.

Detective sergeant Ronnie Douglas, of Police Scotland, appealed for any witnesses to the incident or anyone with information to contact 101.

PAThousands of people have signed a petition demanding Prince Harry and Meghan Markles wedding receives no funding from British taxpayers.

Almost 15,000 lent their signatures to the petition, set up by campaigning group Republic, which is also calling on the Government to publish a report into much the event will cost the public purse.

"A royal wedding is a private, personal event, dressed up as a national occasion, states the petition, which was launched last month. That lets the royals use the wedding as a PR exercise and to expect the taxpayer will pay a large part of the costs.

The exact details of royal wedding funding are shrouded in secrecy, but we do know - at the very least - that expensive road closures and policing will be required. And we know local councils and the taxpayer will end up footing the bill.

Taxpayers should not be funding a private wedding, no matter who is getting married.

Prince Harry and Ms Markle are set to marry at St Georges Chapel, in Windsor Castle  where the Prince was christened  on 19 May.

 Meghan Markle ignores royal protocol by hugging a woman that gave her a compliment

Kensington Palace announced earlier this month 1,200 members of the public will be among a crowd of 2,640 allowed into the castle grounds to witness the wedding day.

It said the royal family would pay for the celebrations, though that is unlikely to include security costs.

For the 2011 marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the taxpayer was estimated to have contributed as much as 20m for thousands of additional police officers.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures Show all 55 1 /55 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2017 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the Invictus Games in Toronto, Canada. The Invictus Games is an international sport event for wounded, injured and sick (WIS) servicemen and women, both serving and veteran. It was created by the Duke of Sussex and aims to use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding of all those who serve their country Invictus Games Foundation/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures November 2017 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pose for a photograph in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace following the announcement of their engagement AFP/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures November 2017 Meghan Markle shows off her engagement ring AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures December 2017 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend Christmas Day Church service at Church of St Mary Magdalene in King's Lynn Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan during a visit to Reprezent 107.3FM in Pop Brixton. The Reprezent training programme was established in Peckham in 2008, in response to the alarming rise in knife crime, to help young people develop and socialise through radio Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2018 Meghan Markle greets well-wishers on arrival at Cardiff Castle for a day showcasing the rich culture and heritage of Wales AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2018 The couple watching a dance performance by Jukebox Collective during their to Cardiff Castle AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures February 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walk through the corridors of the Palace of Holyroodhouse on their way to a reception for young people in Edinburgh. The reception celebrated youth achievements, marking Scotlands Year of Young People 2018, an initiative that aims to inspire Scotland through its young people: celebrating their achievements, strengthening their voice on social issues and creating new opportunities for them to shine AFP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures February 2018 Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William at the first annual Royal Foundation Forum in London. Under the theme 'Making a Difference Together', the event showcased the programmes run or initiated by The Royal Foundation Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2018 Prince William, Kate, Meghan and Prince Harry attend a Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2018 Meghan Markle greets well-wishers after a visit to one of Belfast's most historic buildings, The Crown Liquor Saloon, a former Victorian gin palace, now run by the National Trust. It was the Royal couple's first joint visit to Northern Ireland AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures April 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle meet participants as they attend the UK team trials for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 at the University of Bath AFP via Getty Images Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Meghan Markle and her mother, Doria Ragland arriving at Cliveden House Hotel the night before her wedding to Prince Harry Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Royal fans sing for the television in Windsor the day before the Royal wedding AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, during her wedding AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stand facing each other hand-in-hand before Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby during their wedding ceremony AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 Prince Harry kisses the Duchess of Sussex, as they pass through the Cambridge Gate into the grounds of Windsor Castle at the end of their carriage procession AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2018 The newly married royals leave Windsor Castle after their wedding to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures June 2018 Queen Elizabeth II sitts and laughs with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex during a ceremony to open the new Mersey Gateway Bridge in the town of Widnes in Halton, Cheshire Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures June 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan return in a horse-drawn carriage after attending the Queen's Birthday Parade, 'Trooping the Colour' on Horseguards parade AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures July 2018 Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge watch the RAF flypast on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, as members of the Royal Family attend events to mark the centenary of the RAF Chris Jackson/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures July 2018 Meghan and Prince Harry kiss after the Sentebale Polo event that was held at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures August 2018 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet the cast and crew of "Hamilton" backstage after the gala performance in support of Sentebale at Victoria Palace Theatre Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2018 Meghan meets 7-year-old Matilda Booth during the annual WellChild awards at Royal Lancaster Hotel in London Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan meet 98-year-old Daphne Dunne during a meet and greet at the Sydney Opera House during an official 16-day Autumn tour visiting cities in Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan meet a koala named Ruby and its koala joey named Meghan after the Duchess of Sussex during a visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry looks on as his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is hugged by student Luke Vincent of Buninyong Public School following the couple's arrival at Dubbo Regional Airport in Dubbo AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Harry and his wife Meghan watch aboriginal dances at Victoria Park in Dubbo AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet with lifeguards at South Melbourne Beach. BeachPatrol is a network of volunteers who are passionate about keeping Melbourne's beaches and foreshores clear of litter to reduce the negative impact of litter on the marine environment and food chain, and provide a safe environment for the public to enjoy their local beach Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan join a circle during a "Fluro Friday" session run by OneWave, a local surfing community group who raise awareness for mental health and wellbeing, at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach AFP Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 The British royals kicked off their shoes and donned tropical garlands on Bondi Beach AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan visit an exhibition of Tongan handicrafts, mats and tapa cloths at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre in Nuku'alofa, Tonga Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan laying a wreath at the National War Memorial in Wellington, New Zealand Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2018 Prince Harry and his wife Meghan visit Redwoods Tree Walk in Rotorua AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures November 2018 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at a service marking the centenary of WW1 armistice at Westminster Abbey Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures February 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, visit the Kasbah of the Udayas near the Moroccan capital Rabat AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan speak on stage during WE Day UK 2019 at The SSE Arena in London Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures March 2019 Meghan and Prince Harry react as they are presented with baby gifts by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Janice Charette, at Canada House, during an event to mark Commonwealth Day, in central London AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 A congratulatory banner message circling the BT Tower reading "Congratulations Harry and Meghan It's a Baby Boy!" AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 Footmen Stephen Kelly and Sarah Thompson set up an official notice on an easel at the gates of Buckingham Palace on May 6, announcing the birth of a son to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 Pround parents pose with their newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle. The Duchess of Sussex gave birth at 5:26 on 6 May Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures May 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan walk away after posing for photographs with their newborn son AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures June 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan join the New York Yankees in their clubhouse and receive gifts for Archie ahead of their match against the Boston Red Sox at the London Stadium. The historic two-game series marked the sport's first games ever played in Europe and The Invictus Games Foundation was selected as the official charity of Mitel and MLB London Series 2019 Invictus Games Foundation/Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures July 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan meet cast and crew, including US singer-songwriter Beyonce and her husband, US rapper Jay-Z as they attend the European premiere of the film The Lion King in London AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dance as they arrive for a visit to the "Justice desk", an NGO in the township of Nyanga in Cape Town, as they begin their tour of the region. Their first official family visit in the coastal city AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan pose with members of "Waves For Change" NGO at Monwabisi Beach outside of Cape Town. "Waves For Change" NGO fuses surfing with child-friendly mind and body therapy to provide mental health services to vulnerable young people living in challenging communities AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The royals arrive to visit the oldest mosque of Cape Town in Dorp Street in Bo Kaap district AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The Duchess of Sussex visits Auwal Mosque on Heritage Day with the Duke of Sussex during their royal tour of South Africa. Auwal Mosque is the first and oldest mosque in South Africa and for the Muslim community, this mosque symbolises the freedom of former slaves to worship Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan hold their baby son Archie as they meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah at the Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures September 2019 The British royal couple were on a 10-day tour of southern Africa -- their first official visit as a family since their son Archie was born AFP via Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2019 Prince Harry and Meghan meet Graca Machel, widow of the late Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Duke last met with Mrs Machel during his visit to South Africa in 2015 Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures October 2019 Meghan and Prince Harry attend a roundtable discussion on gender equality with The Queens Commonwealth Trust (QCT) and One Young World at Windsor Castle Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures December 2019 Prince Harry holding his son Archie. The photo was used on Instagram to wish their followers a happy new year SussexRoyal/PA Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2020 Duke and Duchess of Sussex depart Canada House in London after visiting to show thanks for the warm hospitality and support they received during their recent stay in Canada Getty Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  in pictures January 2020 Front page headlines, from UK daily papers, reporting on the news that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, plan to step back as "senior" members of the Royal Family AFP via Getty

If Harry and Meghan want to turn their big day into a public event, they need to pick up the bill  all of it, the Republic petition continues.

The Palace claims the wedding will be funded by the royal family, but royal funding blurs the lines between private income and public money. So, whether it's the cost of policing paid for directly by us, or costs of the wedding ceremony, paid for by the royals, the taxpayer still ends up paying.

Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, told The Independent the petitions success showed anger was greater than ever over public spending on the royal family at a time of squeezed budgets.Russia says it will "soon" expel British diplomats in response to Theresa May's announcement that 23 "undeclared intelligence officers" posing as Russian diplomats would be ejected from the UK.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was unacceptable for Britain to blame Russia for the poisoning of the ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

Asked if Moscow was ready to kick out British diplomats in retaliation, Mr Lavrov said "Absolutely. Soon," according to the RIA news agency.

Follow live fallout from the UK-Russia row

And in an apparent criticism of the way Ms May unveiled a series of measures against Russia in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Lavrov said Russia would first inform the British government first about an retaliatory action before revealing them to the wider public.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on 4 March in the centre of Salisbury and remain critically ill in hospital. Ms May says tests showed a Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok was used in the attack, and that Russia was therefore "highly likely" to be responsible.

In comments on Thursday morning, the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson expanded on Ms May's statement, saying the evidence of Russian guilt was "overwhelming" because only Moscow had access to the poison and also a motive for harming Mr Skripal.

Ratcheting up the rhetoric, he told the BBC: "There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that we're heard from the Russians that to me betokens their fundamental guilt.

"They want to simultaneously deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it."

Mr Johnson said the attack was a way for Putin to send a message to anyone considering taking a stand against it that 'You do that, you are going to die'.

Russia has taken umbrage to the way Ms May announced the UK's position, first giving Moscow a 24-hour deadline in which to explain how the poison came to be used in southern England.

On Wednesday evening, Moscows ambassador to the UN said Russia does not speak the language of ultimatums and will not be spoken to in that language either.

Their response demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events, Ms May said in her statement to Parliament.

They have treated the use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.

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

France, which on Wednesday had said it wanted proof of Russian involvement before deciding whether to take action against Russia, appeared to change its position on Thursday, saying it agreed with the assessment of its NATO ally Britain.

"France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation (than Russian involvement) and reiterates its solidarity with its ally," President Emmanuel Macron's office said.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said on Wednesday that Washington believed Moscow was responsible for the attack, adding it was a crime worthy of UN Security Council action.

Any effective Security Council action seems highly unlikely, however, given that Russia, like Britain and the United States, is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the body.

Russia has repeatedly said the UK is refusing to provide a sample of the nerve agent used in Salisbury, initially saying it would not respond to Ms May's ultimatum until this condition was met.

Mr Johnson said the UK would send a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons for independent assessment.Traders describe it as a "ghost town" and mothers refuse to take their children into the centre as fear continues to pervade Salisbury more than a week-and-a-half after a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned.

While Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in critical condition, residents are staying away from the once teeming Wiltshire city to avoid the perceived threat of the "military grade" Novichok nerve agent.

Police said a total of 38 people had been treated for some degree of exposure to it and some residents are unwilling to risk their lives or those of their children.

 Novichok developer: hundreds in Salisbury could be poisoned in years to come with 'no cure'

Vicky Bleaney, who runs a mother and baby group in Salisbury, told The Independent many mothers were too anxious about the attack to venture into town at all.

There are lots of mums who are really worried and stressed out and are not going into Salisbury at all," she said.

Mother to a two and a three-year-old herself, she added: "I think they are panicking because not a lot is known."

The anger stemmed from a lack of communication from local authorities, she said.

Lots of mothers are upset and angry. They want more information. Nothing has been said about what to do with babies, she added. I feel really sorry for the local businesses here. My husband runs a small business and I know how hard it can be but equally I wouldnt want to put my own children at risk. Children are obviously more vulnerable than adults to such chemicals.

(Maya Oppenheim (Maya Oppenheim)

However, she insisted that some mothers remained unperturbed by the unusual events of 4 March and they were going into town regardless.

Mothers were firmly divided into two camps, she said, adding that she had not been into town since it happened but that was more to do with laziness than fear.

As police work round the clock to investigate the attempted murder in the city, some stores in the Maltings shopping centre remain closed, giving some streets an eerie feel.

Traders told The Independent sales had plummeted in the wake of the attack.

Party Seasons, a fancy dress shop just metres from police tape that surrounds the bench where Mr Skripal and his daughter were found passed out, said sales were down by 75 per cent.

We only made 5.95 until 1.30pm yesterday, Berenice Marsh, the shop's manager said. The customer bought some latex balloons and a balloon pump.

The walkway is closed so we are losing customers walking past. Im not sure the stall out there is doing well on fruit and veg but who wants to buy fruit and veg when theres been a nerve agent around. I think a lot of people are avoiding town. If I didnt work here I wouldnt come in.

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. 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In fact, Ms Marsh said she was so frightened earlier this week that she was forced to shut up an hour early.

It was very scary actually, she said. It had got dark and it was raining and you had all the helicopters flying low. It was at the time they decided to close the car park off at Sainsburys.

I was waiting any minute for the army to come across the square when I thought Im out of here. It felt like the start of world war three.

She said she had encountered a number of customers who were too frightened to go into the supermarket.

Mr Skripal's car had been found in there, she said, "so I suppose people think it might have contaminated stuff."

 Theresa May orders biggest expulsion of Russian spies in 30 years in response to Salisbury poisoning

She added: Town has been shut down. Its one place being cordoned off after another. People say Skripal used to go to Sainsburys a lot. I do recognise him but I don't know where from. I dont know if he came in here. I dont think he threw many parties."

Victoria Marsh, her 32-year-old daughter who also works at the shop, said locals were infuriated by the dearth of information being provided by authorities.

There is a real sense of frustration here about the lack of information being given, she said. There is no proper hotline and people dont even know the symptoms they should be looking for.

The pair said the attack was all anyone was taking about and rumours and conspiracy theories were abounding.

But while some voiced fear at the nerve agent attack, others nonchalantly got on with their day-to-day routines, apparently oblivious to the lines of police tape and figures in hazmat suits. Shoppers marched by as policemen in fluorescent coats hopped from toe to toe to keep warm.

Connor Sawyer, a 21-year-old who works at a One Stop shop a couple of miles from the city centre, remained unflustered as he browsed the predominantly empty shops. However, he said others were less calm

The city is a ghost town. It feels very eerie, he said. One customer has been refusing to come into town because she is so scared. She did what she called her market shop, in other words, her big shop, at One Stop.

Connor Sawyer (Maya Oppenheim)

He laughed at Public Health Englands advice exactly a week after the attack, that people should wash their clothes to avoid potential prolonged exposure to the nerve agent.

The advice to wash your clothes came a little late," he said. "Ideally, you would have thought people would have washed their clothes by then."

Elsewhere in the town, talk of the spy attack dominated, with passersby openly pondering how such an incident could have presented itself in so-called sleepy Salisbury.

I heard people talking about it in the bookies, bakeries, and in Tesco, added Edward Felps, an 87-year-old who taught on the postgraduate course on education at Bristol University. For people outside here, the event has suddenly brought Salisbury into sharp focus. I think people here are excited by it. A bit of glamour has rubbed off.Toxic air in the UK is now a national health emergency responsible for 40,000 early deaths and 20bn in economic costs each year, MPs have warned.

The Governments approach to reducing air pollution amounts to little more than box-ticking because ministers have failed to show the national leadership required, a highly damning joint report by four parliamentary committees found.

The unprecedented inquiry involving almost 40 MPs said it was unacceptable that successive governments have failed to protect the public from the health risks associated with air pollution.

They said: Air pollution is a national health emergency, resulting in tens of thousands of early deaths and costing billions of pounds in health impacts each year.

It is unacceptable that successive governments have failed to protect the public from poisonous air. A step change in Government policy is now needed to address this.

The joint report was compiled by four select committees: Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Environmental Audit, Health and Social Care, and Transport.

They called on the Government to introduce a range of measures to urgently get a grip on the problem.

It said a Clean Air Act should be tabled to toughen existing legislation and make clean air a legal right.

The report also called for vehicle manufacturers to be made to contribute to a clean air fund and criticised plans to ban the sale of conventional petrol and diesel cars by 2040 as lacking sufficient ambition. The deadline should be brought forward to match other countries more ambitious targets, MPs said.

Paris has said it will ban both petrol and diesel cars by 2030, while Rome has outlined plans to stop diesel cars from entering the city centre by 2024.

In the UK, only 5.6 per cent of current new cars are low-pollution alternatively fuelled vehicles.

The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Show all 10 1 /10 The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Ukraine The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Bulgaria Rex Features The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Belarus The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Russia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Armenia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Bosnia and Herzegovina REUTERS The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Georgia The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Hungary DigitalGlobe The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths China The worst countries in the world for air pollution deaths Moldova

The Governments plan for improving air quality has been the subject of several successful legal challenges by environmental campaigners who argued it did not go far enough.

In their report, the MPs said: We do not believe the latest air quality plan will deliver improvements at a pace and scale proportionate to the size of the challenge. The High Court agrees. Significant improvements to the plan, and to the Governments wider approach to air quality, are needed to protect the public from toxic air.

Suggesting ministers have been guilty of placing political considerations ahead of genuine action to improve air quality, they called on the Government to place the protection of public health and the environment, rather than technical compliance or political convenience, at the centre of air quality policy.

More support, including financial resources, needs to be given to the 45 local councils in areas where pollution levels breach legal limits, they said.

Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said: The Governments latest plan does not present an effective response to the scale of the air quality catastrophe in the UK. We are concerned that the Government is treating air quality as a box-ticking exercise. Real change will require bold, meaningful action.

Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: Ministers have failed to address the polluted air in our choking cities. We need a new Clean Air Act to ensure the Government remains accountable for failures to achieve air quality commitments after the UK leaves the EU.

The Government must ensure that after Brexit our air quality standards are as good as or better than the level we enjoy as a result of our membership of the EU.

A government spokesperson said: "By ending the sale of conventional new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040, the UK is going further than almost every other European nation.

"Air pollution has improved significantly since 2010, but we recognise there is more to do which is why we have a 3.5bn plan to reduce harmful emissions. We will set out further actions through a comprehensive clean air strategy later this year.

"We will carefully consider the joint committee's report and respond in due course."People warning that the Northern Ireland peace process is at risk because of Brexit are almost encouraging violence, Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed

The leading Tory Brexiteer condemned what he called the cynical approach of critics warning the threat of a new hard border could bring a return of the Troubles.

Once you start proposing that violence may be a consequence of something, youre almost encouraging violence, Mr Rees-Mogg said.

Recommended Mogg admits he was wrong to claim Corbyn voted against Ireland deal

The comment came in an interview with Parliaments The House magazine in which he said Theresa May was being generous in agreeing to work with the EU to find a solution to the border controversy.

I think theyre the stick in the muds in this and have come up with a solution that is wholly impossible for the United Kingdom to accept  that we should take Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom, Mr Rees-Mogg said.

And he added, provocatively: Why dont we suggest to them that the Republic of Ireland comes out of the single market and customs union and accepts our regulations? Its an equally logical suggestion.

The publics second favourite to succeed Ms May  according to a recent poll in The Independent  also called for a tougher response to growing Russian aggression.

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

There should be a permanent establishment of British troops in the Baltic, instead of the current rotation of military forces under Nato.

I think we should look at having a permanent establishment there, to make it absolutely clear to Putin that the Nato guarantee is inviolable and the Baltic states will be protected and that we will view any further cyber attacks as requiring a response in kind, Mr Rees-Mogg said. You have to stand up to bullies  Russia is a bully.

He also called for the Prime Minister to be more robust in her response to the finding that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

We must respond vigorously and make it quite clear to Russia that behaviour in this way will not be tolerated meekly by the Western world, he said.

Just expelling a few diplomats isnt enough. It needs to be tougher action than that. We need to look at hitting Russia financially.

The Russians have a lot of assets in London and some of the Russians with assets are linked to Putin. If you can establish a trail and show it is his money then you should go after that and freeze his assets.David Davis has said he is willing to live with accepting a shorter Brexit transition period than the UK originally wanted.

The comments from the Brexit Secretary come ahead of a meeting with his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, in Brussels on Monday for the next round of high-level talks.

It is expected they will discuss the transition, the period after Brexit in which the UK will be bound by EU rules despite being outside the bloc.

Theresa May has called for an transition period- of around two years after Britain formally leaves the bloc on 29 March 2019.

But Mr Davis told BBC2s Newsnight he could live with the proposed arrangement ending in December 2020 if that would help secure a better deal. Brussels has previously said the transition should not go beyond 2020.

Mr Davis said the Governments priority is to secure an agreement on the transition phase at next week's EU heads of government summit, adding: That is more important to me than a few months either way.

Recommended Irish PM dismisses plan to register to cross border after Brexit

So, I'm not bothered too much about the question of whether it is Christmas 2020 or Easter 2021.

Asked if he could live with the transition ending in December 2020, Mr Davis said: I would live with that. We are still in the middle of a negotiation. Frankly, what I would not do is delay the decision in order to get a month or two more.

Mr Davis downplayed concerns expressed by arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg that Britain would be a vassal state during the transition. He said most EU laws take two years to pass, which is three months longer than the proposed transition timetable.

Mr Davis said: It is not going to be a big material issue. But we want to have in place, and we will have in place, is a joint committee which will oversee any issues like this that come up and a duty of good faith, good faith on both sides so neither side is disadvantaged. So, we won't fall into Mr Rees-Mogg's interesting definition of our position.

Mr Davis said his team had been working flat out in discussions with the EU, mainly in Brussels, adding: That will continue through this weekend, and I shall join them on Sunday, and we'll have another meeting with Michel on Monday."Emmanuel Macron has said he will unveil measures against Russia in response to the poisoning of the former spy Sergei Skripal on British soil in the coming days.

The French president spoke with Theresa May on the phone on Thursday morning about progress of the investigation in the nerve agent attack, which the British Government says was carried out by Russia.

The apparent about-face comes after a muted response from France, with one spokesperson having said yesterday the country would wait until the elements are proven instead of relying on fantasy politics.

But in a statement issued on Thursday morning, a spokesperson for Mr Macron said: Since the beginning of the week, the United Kingdom has kept France closely informed of the evidence gathered by British investigators and evidence of Russias responsibility in the attack.

France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with its ally.

Speaking separately to reporters in western France, Mr Macron himself added, according to the Reuters news agency: Everything leads us to believe that responsibility is in fact attributable to Russia, Macron told reporters in western France.

I will announce in the coming days the measures that we intend to take.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: President Macron said that France completely shares the UKs assessment that there is no plausible explanation other than that Russia was responsible for the attack and he once again expressed his full support for the UK as a close and strong ally.

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 Prime Minister and the President reiterated their condemnation of the use of all chemical weapons and said they would continue to cooperate closely in this area.

The Prime Minister thanked the President for his ongoing support, including at Nato, the United Nations Security Council and in the OPCW, and they agreed to remain in close contact as the situation developed and in the run up to the March European Council meeting where this would be discussed.The Defence Secretary hinted at further measures to punish Russia, as he told Vladimir Putin to go away and shut up rather than expel British diplomats in retaliation.

Gavin Williamson talked tough as rumours grow that Russia is poised to order home UK embassy officials in both Moscow and St Petersburg in response to Theresa Mays expulsion of 23 Russian spies.

It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury, he said in his first major speech since his appointment.

We have responded to that. Frankly, Russia should go away, it should shut up - but if they do respond to the action that we have taken we will consider it carefully and we will look at our options.

The comment came in answer to a question about whether Britain was considering a military response if relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.

Asked if Britain and Russia were entering a new Cold War, Mr Williamson replied: Relations aint good are they?

And he added: It is often described as a cool war that we are entering into. I would say its feeling exceptionally chilly at the moment.

Mr Williamson denied he had criticised steep defence cuts since 2010, but said Britain now had to invest in hard power to meet the growing threat from Russia and elsewhere.

The assessment, at the start of the decade, that state-based threats no longer existed had been naive, he argued.

There were state-based threats, but they were not as obvious as they are now, Mr Williamson said. The common belief at end of the Cold War that world would become a better and safer place was no longer the reality".

The speech came as the Prime Minister visited Salisbury to speak to emergency services, members of the public and local businesses and receive a briefing from Public Health England.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd was chairing a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee in London to discuss the latest situation.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned the Kremlin will expel British diplomats soon after Ms May announced the biggest expulsion of Russian embassy staff since the Cold War.

In his speech, Mr Williamson announced a multimillion-pound investment in a new specialist chemical weapons defence centre at the secret Porton Down facility.

And, after the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, British troops will also be vaccinated against.

If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury, Mr Williamson said.Jeremy Corbyn has warned against a "McCarthyite intolerance of dissent" after prompting fury from Labour MPs for raising doubts on Moscow's role in the poisoning of a former Russian spy.

The Labour leader said the "evidence points towards Russia" being responsible for use of a deadly nerve agent on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which has left the pair critically ill in hospital.

However he refused to condemn Moscow for the incident and later urged ministers not to "rush way ahead of the evidence", repeating controversial comparisons to the "dodgy dossiers" that led to the Iraq War.

It comes amid a shadow cabinet revolt as two frontbenchers broke ranks to say Russia bears full responsibility for the attack, and as backbench pressure ramped up, with nearly 20 Labour MPs backing a parliamentary motion "unequivocally" supporting Theresa May's stance.

Speaking on a visit to Carlisle, Mr Corbyn said: "I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

He added: "The evidence points towards Russia on this, therefore responsibility must be borne by those that made the weapon, those that brought the weapon into the country and those that used the weapon."

Mr Corbyn used a separate article in The Guardian to double down on his stance, saying: "To rush way ahead of the evidence being gathered by the police, in a fevered parliamentary atmosphere, serves neither justice nor our national security."

He said: Labour is of course no supporter of the Putin regime, its conservative authoritarianism, abuse of human rights or political and economic corruption... However, that does not mean we should resign ourselves to a new cold war of escalating arms spending, proxy conflicts across the globe and a McCarthyite intolerance of dissent.

Repeating comments from his spokesman linking the case to the Iraq War, he said: "There can and should be the basis for a common political response to this crime.

"But in my years in parliament I have seen clear thinking in an international crisis overwhelmed by emotion and hasty judgments too many times.

"Flawed intelligence and dodgy dossiers led to the calamity of the Iraq invasion. There was overwhelming bipartisan support for attacking Libya, but it proved to be wrong."

Earlier, Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith said Labour was "fully supporting the measures which the Government is taking including the expulsion of the 23 diplomats.

Asked why Mr Corbyn had not said that, she told the Today programme: Well some us perhaps speak in different ways, and perhaps I speak in a more plain speaking way.

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

But he has made it very clear in the subsequent statement that we are fully supportive of the Governments actions, because we accept what the Prime Minister has said and that Russia is responsible.

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Smith also tweeted his support for a newspaper article that said Mr Corbyn was eager to exonerate a hostile power.

A survey for Sky News found widespread support for Ms May over Russia, with 69 per cent backing her compared to 31 per cent supporting Mr Corbyn's approach.

The Prime Minister shared a fist bump with a member of the public on a visit to Salisbury on Thursday as she visited the city for the first time to show her support for residents and emergency services staff.The Shadow Cabinet has publicly split over Jeremy Corbyns stance on Russia, with one frontbencher contradicting the leader and another backing an article that said he looked eager to exonerate a hostile power.

Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith and Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Smith both spoke following backbench anger over Mr Corbyns Commons appearance on Wednesday.

After the Labour leader refused to blame Moscow for the Salisbury attack involving a Russian-made nerve agent, Ms Griffith said the frontbench position is that Russia bears responsibility.

Mr Smith took to social media to throw his weight behind an article that said Mr Corbyns position was dispiriting and that he had effectively urged the Prime Minister to acquiesce to Russia.

The Labour leaders Commons appearance was followed by a briefing from his spokesman Seumas Milne, who said that accepting the Governments assessment that Russia is to blame is problematic because of what happened with intelligence ahead of the Iraq War.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme, Ms Griffith said she sought to realign Labours position with the Governments, saying: We very much accept that what the Prime Minister said, that this was a very sophisticated agent and that Russia is responsible for this attack, and therefore we are fully supporting the measures which the Government is taking including the expulsion of the 23 diplomats.

Asked why Mr Corbyn had not said that, she added: Well some of us perhaps speak in different ways, and perhaps I speak in a more plain speaking way.

But he has made it very clear in the subsequent statement that we are fully supportive of the Governments actions, because we accept what the Prime Minister has said and that Russia is responsible.

Pushed on why the leader had not taken that position when he spoke, she said: The important thing is, that is our position now. That very strongly is our frontbench position.

The row over the 4 March attack involving a Russian-made Novichok nerve agent that left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in a serious condition, is set to deepen today with Moscow planning how it will retaliate against Ms Mays actions, which also include asset freezes and new powers to tackle people planning hostile activity.

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

Ms Griffith went on to dismiss claims by Mr Milne that the situation was comparable to the way intelligence was presented on weapons of mass destruction ahead of the Iraq War.

She said: I think this situation is very different. We have two people, the attempted murder of two people, plus a police officer seriously ill and clearly other lives endangered.

We have very clear evidence, thats what we need to be talking about now, we need to be looking at this particular situation.

Owen Smith, who once challenged Mr Corbyn for the leadership but was later taken into the Shadow Cabinet, tweeted his support for an editorial in The Guardian.

It said: The leader of the oppositions response to the Prime Minister was dispiriting. Jeremy Corbyn invited Ms May to acquiesce to Russias requests that a sample be sent to Moscow for verification  on the supposition that the Kremlin might then honestly try to match it with its own stores.

He sounded too keen to find another explanation for the use of the nerve agent Novichok in the attack.

It added: Mr Corbyns reluctance to share Ms Mays basic analysis of the Salisbury incident made him look eager to exonerate a hostile power.

Mr Smith said: This Guardian Editorial is absolutely right on Russia  and the resolute, united strength we need to demonstrate in our response.

A Labour spokesman said today: The Government has laid out two alternatives, that Russia is either directly responsible or culpable because it lost control of this nerve agent.

Yesterday, we agreed that the evidence overwhelmingly points to those two alternatives. The Russian authorities must be held to account on the basis of the evidence and our response must be both decisive and proportionate.

But on Wednesday in the Commons, Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Home Affairs Committee, was among those who differentiated herself from the leaders position.

She said Russias actions must be met with unequivocal condemnation, while long-time Corbyn critic John Woodcock said: This is a day for the House to speak as one for the nation, and Ms May will be reassured to hear that a clear majority of Labour MPs, alongside the leaders of every other party, support the firm stance which she is taking.

Labour MP Pat McFadden earlier told the chamber: Responding with strength and resolve when your country is under threat is an essential component of political leadership.

There is a Labour tradition that understands that and it has been understood by prime ministers of all parties who have stood at that despatch box.

That means when chemical weapons are used, we need more than words, but deeds.

Backbenchers Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Stephen Doughty also made comments supportive of Ms Mays stance.

Labour backbencher John Woodcock tabled an early day motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Ms May in the Commons.

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of Mr Milne.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values. Chuka Umunna said: Mr Milnes comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs.

But responding, Mr Milne was defiant, saying: In these kinds of crises there are often initial reactions which arent necessarily later backed up by reality or fact.

I think Jeremys record in relation to judgement on internationally related crises is probably better than anyone else in the House of Commons, he has proved to make the right call time and again over the last 15 to 20 years, in particular when many others made the wrong call, and those calls have disastrous consequences.The frontrunner to become Labours next general secretary was involved in giving work to someone who had previously been suspended by the party for antisemitism, The Independent understands.

Jennie Formby, a senior figure in Britains biggest trade union, was a line manager of Vicki Kirby, who was taken on by the Unite union last year.

Ms Kirby was suspended by Labour in 2014 over a series of Twitter posts in which she claimed Jews have big noses, are responsible for slaughtering people, and called Adolf Hitler a Zionist God.

The revelation is likely to raise fresh questions for Ms Formby days ahead of the 20 March meeting of Labours National Executive Committee (NEC), where the partys next general secretary will be appointed  with one Labour MP telling The Independent she should be quizzed over the decision during her interview for the job.

Unite sources said Ms Formby would have had to approve Ms Kirbys appointment, and would almost certainly have directly recruited her for the job, though Unite said the role was allocated after a joint decision by a number of officials.

Ms Formby is the regional secretary in Unites South-east office in Slough. Ms Kirby is understood to have worked as a regional officer in the same office. Unite documents shown to The Independent state that regional officers report directly to the regional secretary.

The Independent contacted Ms Formby for a comment but had not received a reply at the time of writing.

In a series of posts between 2011 and 2014, Ms Kirby made a number of offensive comments about Jews.

In one, she wrote: We invented Israel when saving them from Hitler, who now seems to be their teacher.

Another said: What do you know about Jews? Theyve got big noses and support Spurs lol.

And she joked: That awkward moment when you realise youve taken this whole Im a Jew charade too far.

One tweet said: Point about Jews is that they OCCUPY Palestine. Used to live together, now slaughter the oppressed.

Another message said: Who is the Zionist God? I am starting to think it may be Hitler. #FreePalestine.

She also expressed hope that the jihadi Isis group would attack Israel.

Ms Kirby is understood to have worked as a stand-down regional officer for Unite  a temporary appointment used to fill a gap when an employee retires or is off work with an illness.

A Unite source said: Those appointments [of stand-down officers] are absolutely at the discretion of the regional secretary.

Formby would have got permission to appoint a stand-down and thats how it will have happened. Its entirely at the regional secretarys discretion who they appoint.

The source added: She will have definitely had to sign off Vicki Kirby working for her at the South-east region. Shes the regional secretary so shes in charge of all hiring of any staff anyway, and a stand-down regional officer isnt appointed by the executive council, it is the regional secretary. She would have directly recruited her.

The idea she knew nothing about it is nonsense. Not just that, but it was very clearly her commission. Nobody gets appointed as a stand-down officer without the regional secretary approving it. That is 100 per cent clear.

A screenshot of Unites internal email server, given to The Independent, shows Vicki Kirby as being employed as a regional officer in the unions Slough office, which is led by Jennie Formby

Ms Kirby was also photographed attending a Unite training course in October 2016 on how to teach children in schools about the benefits of trade unions.

A Unite spokesman said Ms Kirby had repeatedly apologised for her remarks and had been appointed by the union following a procedure involving lay members and other officials.

He said: Vicky Kirby made appalling antisemitic remarks on Twitter for which she was rightly sanctioned by the Labour Party. She has repeatedly apologised publicly and privately for those remarks, which Unite condemn unreservedly. She has been fully reinstated into the Labour Party.

Ms Kirby has never been an employee of Unite, although she did two months temporary organising work for the union after she had been reinstated into the Labour Party. Ms Kirby has consistently expressed her heartfelt regret about her comments and had attended training courses to assist with her wider understanding of the offence her remarks had caused.

Such appointments are not the prerogative of the regional secretary in any case but are made following a procedure involving lay members and other officials. Any attempt to suggest otherwise is a smear against Jennie Formby, whose opposition to antisemitism is a matter of record. Ms Kirby has not been employed by Unite since.

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

Despite the tweets, Ms Kirby was quietly readmitted to the Labour Party sometime between 2014 and 2016 after being issued with a warning and forced to resign as a parliamentary candidate.

She was suspended again in March 2016 after an outcry from MPs at the fact she had been readmitted and was acting as vice-chair of Woking Labour Party. She is also reported to have been active in the Momentum group.

She is believed to have since been readmitted by Labour for the second time. A party spokesperson said they could not comment on the membership status of individuals.

Labours general secretary is the partys most senior member of staff and plays a key role in overseeing the enforcement of rules and the response to allegations of wrongdoing, including antisemitism, by members.

Ms Formby is widely seen as the frontrunner to take over the role, and is believed to have the backing of Jeremy Corbyn and his top team. Currently vice-chair of Labours NEC, she is a long-term supporter of Mr Corbyn and is close to Unites general secretary, Len McCluskey.

John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, tweeted his support for her candidacy last week, saying: Im delighted [Ms Formby] is standing for Labour general secretary. Shes a fantastic organiser and fighter for justice who weve campaigned with for years. Shes the person with the skills to deliver Jeremys vision of a members-led mass party to get him into Downing St.

 Corbyn: We will not tolerate anti-Semitism or other racism

Ms Formby was previously Unites political director but moved to become South-east regional secretary in 2016.

She is one of five people on a long list agreed by senior party officials on Wednesday. This is expected to be reduced to three candidates who will be interviewed by the NEC.

Her main rival, Momentum founder and chairman Jon Lansman, dropped out of the race last weekend. Reports suggest Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell had urged him not to stand against Ms Formby.

Labour MP John Mann, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, said the decision to employ Ms Kirby was hugely inappropriate.

He told The Independent: An appointment like that breaks all the true traditions of the trade unions.

We need to see more due diligence. Such a person would be hugely inappropriate either in a trade union or employed by the Labour Party.

Suggesting Ms Formby should be quizzed on the matter by Labours NEC, he said: If she ends up as general secretary she will need to demonstrate she fully understands equal opportunities employment, because someone who discriminates against Jewish people should not be working for such an organisation.

These are questions people will want to ask at her interview and they will need to be convinced.

He added: We need to be certain in the Labour Party that nobody who holds antisemitic views gets any position of any kind either in party of in affiliated trade unions.

The general secretary has got the leading role in ensuring that happens.

The latest claims come days after the Labour Against Antisemitism (LAAS) group suggested Ms Formby had questions to answer over reports she had opposed an investigation into antisemitism in Labour being carried out by Baroness Royall on the grounds that the Labour peer was a supporter of Israel.

If the reports were true, LAAS claimed, Ms Formby would have acted with antisemitic intent.

That prompted a strongly-worded response from Unite, which said in a statement: Jennie Formby voted for [Lady Royalls] appointment, and argued for her inquiry to be properly resourced by the party.

Ms Formby is a lifelong opponent of antisemitism and all forms of racism. LAASs smears have no place in Labours democracy of political culture.

It added that the accusation against Ms Formby was a malicious smear and a lie motivated by hostility to anyone who supports the struggle of the Palestinian people for justice.Leaders of the four biggest powers in the Western world have taken the unprecedented step of issuing a joint demand that Russia should fall into line following the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

The US, France and Germany backed Theresa Mays assessment and issued a unified statement that they believe Moscow was behind the release of a Russian-made Novichok chemical weapon in the Wiltshire city.

Donald Trump also announced new sanctions to punish Russia for meddling in elections and cyber attacks, heaping pressure on Vladimir Putin and making clear the West is taking any misconduct seriously.

Natos leading council was on Thursday night set to be briefed on the Salisbury incident, which left ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter and a British police officer all in a serious condition, while across the Channel demands for a joint-EU response gathered momentum ahead of next weeks European summit.

Downing Street said the quad of Western nations would now continue to work together to increase pressure on Moscow in a bid to rein in what the nations called irresponsible Russian behaviour.

The statement was a boost for the Prime Minister, with some doubting whether White House and Elysee Palace administrations that are both trying to build links with Russia would give full-throated support to her position.

But after frenetic diplomatic activity, including telephone calls between the Prime Minister and the other leaders, the statement came saying that Ms May, Mr Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel abhor the attack that took place.

 Donald Trump: It 'looks like' Russia responsible for nerve agent attack

Statements from the quad countries have come before but only at foreign minister level, in July 2017 on Irans space launch and on Syrias use of chemical weapons at the end of last year.

But the leaders coming together for the first time said in their statement: The United Kingdom briefed thoroughly its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack.

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War. It is an assault on UK sovereignty The UK, US, France and Germany

We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the UK Government further underlines its responsibility.

We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury. Russia should in particular provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The nations highlighted that the Salisbury attack was the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, adding that it was an assault on UK sovereignty, a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law.

 Theresa May: 'We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen, brazen act and despicable act'

Arguing that the incident threatened the security of us all, the group said: Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behaviour.

The US move to impose new unilateral sanctions on Russia served further to underline how the Salisbury attack has become a lynchpin, off which the West is pushing Russia harder over its international activities.

Nineteen people and five Russian organisations were targeted by Washingtons measures in what amounts to the most significant action against Moscow since Mr Trump took office.

The sanctions will block those affected from travelling to America, freeze any assets they have in the country and bar US companies from working with them.

Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Show all 20 1 /20 Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is pictured with a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin aims at a whale with an arbalest to take a piece of its skin for analysis on the Olga Bay, some 240 kilometres north-east of Nakhodka on August 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin plunges into the icy waters of lake Seliger during the celebration of the Epiphany holiday in Russia's Tver region AFP/Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (top) takes part in a judo training session at the "Moscow" sports complex in St. Petersburg, on December 22, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi on August 30, 2015. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin fishes in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (L) and the leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov (R), also known as the Surgeon, ride motorcycles on August 29, 2011 at a bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia. Putin described leather-clad bikers as brothers and boasted of the "indivisible Russian nation" after roaring into a biking rally on a Harley Davidson. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears glasses as he visits the Technology Park of the Novosibirsk Academic Town in Novosibirsk on February 17, 2012. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin holds a pistol during his visit to a newly-built headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow, 08 November 2006. ?Some countries are seeking to untie their hands in order to take weapons to outer space, including nuclear weapons,? Putin said at the Chief Military Intelligence Department on Wednesday. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin sits inside a T-90AM tank during a visit to an arms exhibition in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil on September 9, 2011 Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears a helmet and the uniform of the Renault Formula One team before driving a F1 race car on a special track in Leningrad region outside St. Petersburg on November 7, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin guides a boat during his vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin hunts fish underwater in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is seen at the Russian boxing team training club after casting his vote for the Russian Presidential election, 14 March 2004 in Moscow. Putin coasted to a landslide victory with 69.0 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, according to the first exit poll aired on Russian television moments after voting ended across the country's 11 time zones. AFP/Getty Images Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport, 16 August 2005. President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. After a health check, Putin donned a flight suit and took the commander's position in the strategic bomber, which was piloted by Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, Russian media reported. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? A picture released on March 6, 2010 shows Vladimir Putin look through binoculars in the Karatash area, near the town of Abakan, during his working trip to Khakassia, on February 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin measuring a polar bear on the island Alexandra Land, part of the Franz Josef Land archipalego in the Arctic Ocean. Putin, better known in the West for his tough-guy image, expressed concern for the fate of Arctic polar bears threatened by climate change. "The polar bear is under threat. Their population is currently only 25,000 individuals," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin carries a hunting rifle during his trip in Ubsunur Hollow Biosphere Reserve in Tuva Republic in this undated picture released on October 30, 2010 by RIA Novosti news agency. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider while flying with cranes as he takes part in a scientific experiment as part of the "Flight of Hope", which aims to preserve a rare species of - cranes on September 5, 2012. At the helm of a motorized hang glider that the birds have taken as their leader, Putin made three flights - the first to get familiar with the process, and two others with the birds. AFP/Getty

In Washington, 40 US Congressmen signed a letter to Ms May pledging full support in tackling the Kremlin over Salisbury.

The Prime Ministers security adviser Mark Sedwill was set to brief the North Atlantic Council  Natos principle political body  on Thursday evening about developments in the Skripal investigation.

Former Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said ahead of the meeting that anything short of full solidarity with the UK will be considered a victory by the Kremlin.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, will meet with EU leaders next week to discuss the Salisbury incident, but calls for a unified approach are already building.

 Vladimir Putin approached by BBC reporter to ask about Sergei Skripal poisoning

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel called on Mr Tusk to coordinate a response from the 28 member states of the European Union.

The leaders of Canada and Australia have already offered their backing for the UKs position on Salisbury.

London was nonetheless braced for the Russian response to Ms Mays dramatic announcement on Wednesday that she would expel 23 diplomats from the countrys UK embassy, who she claimed were part of an espionage network.

Ms May, who personally visited Salisbury on Thursday, also used a statement in the Commons to announce asset freezes and new powers to detain people suspected of hostile activity.

 Theresa May fist bumps a fan in Salisbury on visit for Russian ex spy attack

The Russian Tass news agency reported that Vladimir Putin will personally choose the retaliatory measures Moscow takes against the UK following Ms Mays announcements, with tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions likely.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: A final decision [on retaliatory measures] will, of course, be made by the Russian President. There is no doubt that he will choose the variant that best of all corresponds to the interests of the Russian Federation.

He said that Russia is perplexed and does not comprehend the British leaderships stance and insisted the accusations are unsubstantiated.A police response unit has arrived on the parliamentary estate after a suspicious package has been found.

It is unclear at this stage whether the package is linked to packages received by four Muslim Labour MPs in the past few days.

A spokesperson for the Parliamentary authorities said: The Met Police are currently investigating a suspicious item of mail in the Palace of Westminster. We cannot provide any more details at this stage.

The Metropolitan Police added: Police were called at 10:14hrs on Thursday, 15 March to reports of a suspicious package delivered to an office at the Palace of Westminster.

Specialist officers are on scene and the package is being assessed. London Ambulance Service is on scene. A woman is being assessed as a precaution.

It comes after a staff member for Ealing Central and Acton MP, Rupa Huq, was taken to hospital as a precaution after opening post containing an irritant substance, while the parliamentary office of Manchester Gortons MP, Afzhal Khan, was evacuated after he was sent a suspect package.

Recommended Four Muslim Labour MPs sent suspect packages and threatening letters

Two people were also taken to hospital as police assessed a package sent to the office of Mohammad Yasin, MP for Bedford and Kempston, on Monday.

His colleague Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said she opened a threatening letter on Monday calling for attacks on Muslims.

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Ms Ali said: MPs are no strangers, and certainly ethnic minority and Muslim MPs, are no strangers to threats from extremist groups, but the level of far-right violent threats and far-right activity has become very worrying.The confrontation with Russia following the nerve agent attack in Salisbury may escalate, with Britain prepared to take further punitive measures if necessary.

Senior government sources say that plans are already in place for a further round of sanctions if Moscow continues with what they term as brutal and aggressive actions.

Security officials hold that the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was ordered at the highest levels of the Kremlin and the belligerent attitude taken by Vladimir Putins administration over the issue means that tensions are likely to continue rising.

Recommended Theresa May to expel 23 spies from UK in response to Salisbury attack

Twenty-three Russian diplomats have been expelled by the UK. It is believed a B list is already in place details others to be thrown out if Moscow reacts in a disproportionate way to the measures announced by Theresa May in the Commons.

The British Prime Ministers approach, the officials maintained, was calibrated, calm and firm and designed to highlight to the international community the gravity of what had occurred and the need for a robust response.

Although we have announced this response, further options remain on the table. Economic, diplomatic, legislative and security capabilities can all be brought to bear if needed, said a senior Government official. If we dont feel that what we have done thus far is having the required effect in the short, medium and long term  a change of behaviour from the Kremlin  we will look at them again and revise them.

Investigations may be launched against individuals leading to possible charges of financial crimes and new legislation will be considered to counter espionage. There is no question of the UK launching cyber attacks on Russia, but existing measures to combat fake news and propaganda will be stepped up.

Mentioning Mr Putin by name, Ms May described the Salisbury attack as  unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK. Jeremy Corbyn faced criticism, including from some Labour MPs, for not endorsing this stance and suggesting that parties other than the Russian state could have been responsible for the act.

Mr Corbyns spokesman, Seumas Milne, later appeared to compare the intelligence assessment of the Salisbury attack to the false reports of Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction used to justify the invasion of Iraq by George W Bush and Tony Blair.

I think obviously the Government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others dont said Mr Milne. However, also theres a history in relation to WMD and intelligence which is problematic to put it mildly.

It is understood, however, that as a privy councillor, Mr Corbyn was given a briefing on the intelligence in the Salisbury attack. A security source said that he was given the same information as received by the National Security Council on Tuesday morning before the Government made its decision on the measures to be taken.

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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

But there was also demand for evidence from some of Britains Western allies. Ms May had claimed that the Government had their full backing and this was echoed by the Foreign Secretary with Boris Johnson tweeting: International community standing in solidarity with UK against Russian aggression.

The French government said it wanted firm proof of Russian involvement in the poisoning before it took action in solidarity with the UK. President Emmanuel Macron and French officials have declined to hold Moscow responsible so far; government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said France was waiting for definitive conclusions and evidence that the facts were completely true before taking a position.

Matteo Salvini, who may become Italys next prime minister following the recent election responded to the alleged culpability of the Russian state with we see and hear a lot of fake news and that in 2018 you dont go around poisoning people. However he added that if there were concrete proof of Moscows culpability then wed change our relationship with Russia.Donald Trump has offered his strongest support yet for Theresa May, saying that the US shares the UKs assessment that Russia was behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

In a statement that followed a significant US intervention at the United Nations in support of Britains position, the White House said it backed the Prime Ministers decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

But French support was more equivocal with Emmanuel Macrons spokesman declining to blame Russia in the same way until it had seen more evidence, though a later statement said Frances support was unquestionable.

The row over the 4 March attack involving a Russian-made Novichok nerve agent that left ex- spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in a serious condition, is set to deepen today with Moscow planning how it will retaliate against Ms Mays actions, which also include asset freezes and new powers to tackle people planning hostile activity.

In a statement he White House stated: The United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom.

The United States shares the United Kingdoms assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the United Kingdoms decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response.

This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behaviour in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes.

Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Show all 20 1 /20 Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is pictured with a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin aims at a whale with an arbalest to take a piece of its skin for analysis on the Olga Bay, some 240 kilometres north-east of Nakhodka on August 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin plunges into the icy waters of lake Seliger during the celebration of the Epiphany holiday in Russia's Tver region AFP/Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (top) takes part in a judo training session at the "Moscow" sports complex in St. Petersburg, on December 22, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi on August 30, 2015. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin fishes in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin (L) and the leader of the Night Wolves biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov (R), also known as the Surgeon, ride motorcycles on August 29, 2011 at a bikers' festival in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia. Putin described leather-clad bikers as brothers and boasted of the "indivisible Russian nation" after roaring into a biking rally on a Harley Davidson. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears glasses as he visits the Technology Park of the Novosibirsk Academic Town in Novosibirsk on February 17, 2012. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin rides a horse during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in Southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin holds a pistol during his visit to a newly-built headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow, 08 November 2006. ?Some countries are seeking to untie their hands in order to take weapons to outer space, including nuclear weapons,? Putin said at the Chief Military Intelligence Department on Wednesday. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin sits inside a T-90AM tank during a visit to an arms exhibition in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil on September 9, 2011 Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin wears a helmet and the uniform of the Renault Formula One team before driving a F1 race car on a special track in Leningrad region outside St. Petersburg on November 7, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin guides a boat during his vacation in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin hunts fish underwater in the remote Tuva region in southern Siberia. The picture taken between August 1 and 3, 2017. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin is seen at the Russian boxing team training club after casting his vote for the Russian Presidential election, 14 March 2004 in Moscow. Putin coasted to a landslide victory with 69.0 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, according to the first exit poll aired on Russian television moments after voting ended across the country's 11 time zones. AFP/Getty Images Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport, 16 August 2005. President Vladimir Putin took off from Moscow for a supersonic flight in a cruise-missile carrying Tupolev-160 bomber jet, the latest in the Russian leader's action-packed public appearances. After a health check, Putin donned a flight suit and took the commander's position in the strategic bomber, which was piloted by Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel in charge of navigation, Russian media reported. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? A picture released on March 6, 2010 shows Vladimir Putin look through binoculars in the Karatash area, near the town of Abakan, during his working trip to Khakassia, on February 25, 2010. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin measuring a polar bear on the island Alexandra Land, part of the Franz Josef Land archipalego in the Arctic Ocean. Putin, better known in the West for his tough-guy image, expressed concern for the fate of Arctic polar bears threatened by climate change. "The polar bear is under threat. Their population is currently only 25,000 individuals," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Vladimir Putin carries a hunting rifle during his trip in Ubsunur Hollow Biosphere Reserve in Tuva Republic in this undated picture released on October 30, 2010 by RIA Novosti news agency. Getty Vladimir Putin's Photo ops  Russia's Man of Steel? Russian President Vladimir Putin pilots a motorized hang glider while flying with cranes as he takes part in a scientific experiment as part of the "Flight of Hope", which aims to preserve a rare species of - cranes on September 5, 2012. At the helm of a motorized hang glider that the birds have taken as their leader, Putin made three flights - the first to get familiar with the process, and two others with the birds. AFP/Getty

French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Wednesday that it was too early to decide on retaliatory measures as Russian involvement was yet to be proven.

But amid reports that Frances backing for Ms Mays approach was wavering, an Elysee source said: Frances solidarity with the UK is unquestionable.

The United States shares the United Kingdoms assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter The White House

President Macron denounced as early as Tuesday the Salisbury chemical attack as unacceptable and assured Prime Minister May the UK had Frances full support. Both leaders will discuss the matter yet again this Thursday.

Since the beginning of this week, the UK has briefed its allies thoroughly, and France in particular, that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, accused Russia of a crime worthy of action by the UN Security Council, as she backed Britains attempts to punish Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.

In an urgent meeting called by the UK Ms Haley told the Security Council the US believes Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent.

She said: Alone, Russias crime is worthy of this councils action, but this is not an isolated incident. The assassination attempt in Salisbury is part of an alarming increase in the use of chemical weapons.

She added that American officials take no pleasure in constantly criticising Russia, but it must account for its actions.

On Wednesday Ms May moved to dismantle a Russian spy network in the UK, expelling 23 embassy officials in the biggest number of diplomatic expulsions since the Cold War.

The dramatic decision to remove undeclared intelligence officers came alongside measures to freeze Russian assets, cut off high-level communication with Moscow, pass new anti-espionage powers and isolate Vladimir Putin at the UN.

It is believed that the Government has already drawn up a B-list of further Russian officials to be expelled if the reaction from Moscow to the measures announced by Ms May are deemed to be disproportionate.Theresa May will visit Salisbury on Thursday in the wake of the nerve agent attack that local traders complain has left the citys centre like a ghost town.

The Prime Ministers spokesman confirmed she would visit the city, which was the scene of the incident ten days ago involving a Russian-made novichok nerve agent.

Shopkeepers in Salisbury complain that fears over the nerve agent attack have seen residents abandon the streets hitting sales.

Ms May is also seeking to build on her statement in the Commons, which saw Tory MPs push aside months of division over Brexit to unify behind their leader, while Labour MPs fell out over Jeremy Corbyns refusal to blame Russia for the attack.

Ms Mays spokesman said she would speak to emergency services, members of the public and local businesses and would also receive a briefing from Public Health England.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd was also chairing a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergencies committee in London to discuss the latest situation.

Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Michael Gove chaired a cross-governmental ministerial recovery group looking at support which will go to the people and city of Salisbury in the aftermath of the incident.

 Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson: 'Frankly, Russia should go away, and should shut up'

The PMs spokesman said subjects discussed included the clean-up of affected areas, while adding that the issue of compensation to businesses will be looked at in the usual way.

The Independent has reported how traders described the city as a ghost town and mothers refuse to take their children into the centre as fear continues to pervade more than a week-and-a-half after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned there.

They remain in critical condition and residents are staying away from the once teeming Wiltshire city to avoid the perceived threat of the military grade nerve agent.

Police said a total of 38 people had been treated for some degree of exposure to it and some residents are unwilling to risk their lives or those of their children.

The visit comes after Ms May dramatically announced in the House of Commons that she would expel 23 Russian diplomats, who she accused of being spies, along with a string of other measures.

The political trouble she got into following her delayed and then less-than-successful visit to the site of the the Grenfell Tower fire will also have played on the minds of her advisors.

Conservative MPs gave her approach broad support yesterday in a show of political unity, but Mr Corbyn's refusal to blame Russia for the attack in the same way saw his backbenchers going against their leader in the Commons, with two frontbenchers following suit this morning. Close Theresa May orders biggest expulsion of Russian spies in 30 years in response to Salisbury poisoning

The fallout from the UK's response to Russia is rumbling on after Theresa May announced her decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, delivered a major speech in which he told Russia it should "go away and shut up".

Labour frontbenchers openly contradicted their leader after he faced criticism for his response to the Prime Minister's statement.

Nia Griffith, the Shadow Defence Secretary, and Owen Smith, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, both expressed clear frustration at their party leader's position.

Internationally, the US expressed its full support for the UK but France was more cautious, saying there was still a need to establish the facts.

As it happened...The Rwandan government has banned mosques from using loudspeakers during the call to prayer in the capital city Kigali.

The effort to reduce noise pollution is part of a programme of improvement called Kigali City 2040 to make it Africas top business and tourism powerhouse within the next 22 years.

Reforms to education, business, immigration and the landscape of the city have already altered its appearance.

Many measures have been popular, but the ban on loudspeakers  accused of disturbing residents  has been more controversial.

Muslims have largely complied with the ban but have criticised the move, saying they could have just lowered the volume.

I have found that they have begun to respect it and it has not stopped their followers from going to pray according to their praying time, Havuguziga Charles, a local official from Nyarugenge, told the BBC.

The efforts are not just focussed on the Muslim community. Last month around 700 churches were closed for failing to comply with building controls and for noise pollution.

The government continues its clampdown on what it deems to be substandard churches across the country citing preachers deceiving their congregation with misleading sermons as the primary reason, AFP reported.

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 ultimate aim is to transform the country, with Kigali at its centre, into a knowledge-based middle-income country.

Technological advances remain central to the plans and the latest government project, launched in May 2016, has led to extensive fibre-optic infrastructure throughout the capital.

Public transport has also seen dramatic changes with wifi now available throughout the bus network. It is no surprise that the World Bank said Rwanda was the second easiest place on the continent to do business.

Thus far the environmental sustainability of the capital has been lauded as exemplary, with dramatic measures taken by an authoritarian government including a ban on plastic bags and mandatory community clean-ups.

Green funds have also been introduced to turn wetland into urban recreation and tourism parks.On an evening last June, Alaska Airlines co-pilot Betty Pina had a glass of wine. Then came a second glass, brought to her by the captain she was paired with for a three-day assignment.

The next thing Ms Pina remembers is finding herself in a vomit-soaked bed, naked from the waist down, she alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the airline.

Ms Pina, a 39-year-old military veteran, says Alaska Airlines allowed the captain to drug and rape her and subsequently failed to hold the captain accountable after she reported the incident to airline officials more than half a year ago. The captain, according to the lawsuit, is a veteran pilot who is still employed by the airline.

How many other victims are out there? I may not be the first case, but I hope to be the last, Ms Pina told the Seattle Times. Its time to take responsibility. The culture needs to change.

Her suit against the airline comes as more women, emboldened by a national conversation about sexual harassment and assault, have come forward with charges against powerful men in numerous fields leading to their sudden falls from positions of power. The captains grossly abusive actions epitomise the necessity and purpose of the #MeToo movement, the lawsuit says.

According to her account detailed in the lawsuit, Ms Pina first met the captain on 4 June, at the beginning of their assignment, while flying together to Anchorage. They then flew from Anchorage to Seattle to Minneapolis. During the Anchorage to Seattle portion of the trip, the captain mentioned a concierge room at their designated Minneapolis hotel that would offer food and drinks to the flight crew.

When the crew arrived at the concierge lounge, Ms Pina drank a glass of wine. The captain then brought her a second glass. While Ms Pina usually doesnt feel intoxicated until she has three or four glasses, she struggled to lift her head up and felt the walls closing in around her, the lawsuit says. The captain tried to refill her glass, she said.

Ms Pina then remembers waking up and realising she and the captain had been in the same bed. The blankets, partly wet from vomit, had been moved toward the end of the bed along with her pants, according to the lawsuit. Ms Pina pulled her pants on without her underwear and stumbled to the bathroom, where she vomited.

She also heard the captain say something about missing a call from the duty officer. The officer, Ms Pina later learned, was trying to inquire into the captains fitness for duty, as a flight attendant saw him walking down the hall with a woman and two glasses of wine, according to the lawsuit.

While The Washington Post generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault, Ms Pina has spoken publicly about her case. The Washington Post is not identifying the captain because he has not been charged with a crime.

As she searched for her phone, Ms Pina found her purse on the nightstand, which was zipped up. Upon unzipping it, she was shocked to find her underwear inside.

Thats when I knew Id been assaulted, she told the Seattle Times. The newspaper reported:

In the first foggy hours after the incident, Ms Pina said she was racked by confusion and sickness  and the fear of losing a 17-year career in aviation that shed dreamed about while growing up in Kansas.

Im worried about everything Ive ever worked for, she said. Im not married, I dont have kids. My career has been my number one.

Ms Pina and the captain could not be immediately reached by The Washington Post. Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan also could not be immediately reached, but told the Seattle Times that the airline is investigating and takes the accusations seriously.

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 next morning, Ms Pina was still sick, exhibiting signs that were unusual for a hangover, according to the lawsuit. She continued to throw up and her muscles and stomach hurt.

When Ms Pina confronted the captain about what had happened, he denied any sexual contact, and said, You were coming on to me pretty hard, according to the lawsuit.

Ms Pina told the Seattle Times that she first reported the alleged rape to her union representative on 7 June, two days after the encounter. A day later she told an Alaska human resources official that she had been sexually assaulted. Ms Pina was placed on paid leave and not to discuss the details of the investigation.

At first, she didnt feel comfortable reporting the alleged rape. But she changed her mind after discovering a handprint bruise on her left thigh, she told the Seattle Times.

In July, Ms Pina met with a lawyer hired by the airline to probe her case, who focused on whether the captain and Ms Pina had violated the companys policy prohibiting alcohol consumption 10 hours before a scheduled flight, the Seattle Times reported. The lawyer was able to acquire footage from the hotels security camera that showed the captain forcibly trying to kiss Ms Pina in an elevator, according to the newspaper.

[The lawyer] said I was incapacitated, that it took 18 to 20 minutes to get from the elevator to the room and this whole time hes trying to get me into the room and Im trying to put up whatever fight I can, Ms Pina told the newspaper.

Ms Pina returned to active duty in January. She and her attorneys served the airlines with a legal complaint detailing her allegations in mid-February, largely relying on official summaries of Ms Pinas formal statements to investigators. The airline didnt take any corrective action, the lawyers said, so they formally filed suit on Wednesday in King County Superior Court, seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

She still fears she might be forced to fly with the captain again and believes he remains a threat to other employees.

Im infuriated that hes still working there, Ms Pina told the Seattle Times.

The Washington PostEmergency response teams are searching for victims buried in the rubble after a pedestrian bridge near Florida International University (FIU) in Miami collapsed, killing at least four people.

Footage from the chaotic scene showed cars crushed underneath the 950-ton bridge, as first responders dug through the wreckage for survivors. Eight vehicles were trapped when the bridge  still under construction  collapsed on top of them, according to Florida Highway Patrol officials.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Dave Downey said four people had been killed and nine had been taken to the hospital. Kendall Regional Medical Centre told NBC they were treating 10 victims of the collapse: Two in critical condition and eight with minor injuries ranging from bruises to broken bones.

Recommended Death penalty sought for alleged Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz

It was also unclear what had triggered the collapse of the bridge, which had only been erected on Saturday and was set to open in 2019.

Cique Philips, a student transferring to the school, was on the fourth floor of a nearby parking garage when the collapse happened.

The sound was thundering," he told The Independent. "Like an extremely loud boom.

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

Emergency response teams brought in dogs to help sniff out survivors, and asked television helicopters to keep clear of the area so they could hear cries for help.

"We're working our way into the pile trying to create holes that we can actually physically see," Miami-Dade Fire Department Division Chief Paul Estopian told reporters.

The university said in a statement that it was "shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding on campus".

"At this time we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information," the statement said. "We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene."

More than 100 firefighters responded to the scene, according to Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez. The police department will take over the homicide investigation after the search and rescue mission concludes.

Florida Governor Rick Scott tweeted that he had spoken with Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez about the collapse, and would be in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson told Fox News he had heard that anywhere from six to 10 people had died. Marco Rubio, a second Senator from Florida, called the news "terrible" and said he would pray for the victims

President Donald Trump was also briefed on the situation, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

"Continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU - so tragic," the president tweeted that evening. "Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying this evening for all who are affected."

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would send a team of 15 people to investigate the collapse.

The bridge crossed Southwest 8th Street near 109th Avenue, and was in high demand from students living the neighbouring suburban city of Sweetwater. It was intended to give Sweetwater residents safe passage over the busy street separating them from campus.

The bridge was constructed using innovative new technology, which was thought to lower the risk to workers and pedestrians. The entire 174-ft walkway was installed in one fell swoop on Saturday, when a special crane picked it up, moved it, and lowered it into place. A number of community members came out to watch the installation.

The entire project cost approximately $14.2m, according to a fact sheet on FIU's website, and was funded by a grant from the US Department of Transportation.Two undocumented farmworkers died in California while fleeing immigration agents who were pursuing the wrong person.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrived in the early morning at a house they believed belonged to a Mexican citizen who had previously been deported. When a man exited the house and got into his vehicle, the agents turned on their emergency lights and pulled him over.

But the driver sped away, according to ICE and the Delano Police Department, crashing into a power pole and flipping the vehicle over. Both 35-year-old Santo Hilario Garcia and 33-year-old Marcelina Garcia Profecto were pronounced dead at the scene.

While Mr Garcia had a history of migrating between Mexico and the US - ICE said he was voluntarily returned to Mexico three times, which is distinct from deportation, and was removed from the US in 2017 - ICE said he was not the man agents were looking for.

The accident occurred in Kern County, a hub of a vast California agricultural industry that relies heavily on immigrant labour. A March report estimated that there are around 58,500 undocumented immigrants in Kern County out of a statewide population of around 2.6 million people who are in the country illegally.

At a news conference following the crash, United Farmworkers president Arturo Rodriguez said the couple had set out looking for work and left six children behind. He said they became very scared because of their legal status.

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

Its extremely sad when you see the women and the men who work so hard every day to harvest our fruits and vegetables being abused and exploited, Mr Rodriguez said, adding that when they get here theyre abused and exploited, theyre terrorised, theyre intimidated, like happened in this particular case.

Fulfilling a campaign promise, Donald Trump has overseen a sharp rise in arrests of unauthorised migrants, including those who have not been convicted of crimes. (Mr Garcia had been convicted of a DUI).

 Donald Trump: 'if you dont have a wall system, were not going to have a country'

Critics of the crackdown say the increase has been driven in part by an increase in collateral arrests, or situations when ICE agents arrest people other than the immigrants they set out to find and arrest. ICE says it does not collect separate data on collateral arrests.

Breaking from an Obama-era policy that focused immigration enforcement on people who had committed violent crimes or posed public safety threats, the Trump administration has said no immigrants are exempted from deportation.Three men  including the owner of a company that submitted a bid to build President Donald Trumps border wall  bombed a Minnesota mosque in an attempt to drive Muslims out of the United States, according to a federal complaint.

The three men from rural Illinois were arrested and charged on Tuesday after one of them said that they were responsible for bombing the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in a Minneapolis suburb last summer.

Michael McWhorter told federal agents that the trio did not intend to kill anyone, but wanted to scare Muslims out of the country and to show them hey, youre not welcome here, get the f*** out, according to the complaint filed Tuesday.

The bombing on 5 August 2017 did not result in injuries or deaths. Still, it amplified fears throughout Muslim communities in Minnesota, where many Somali migrants have settled. A Pew Research Center survey released in July 2017 found that 75 per cent of American Muslims felt there was a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the US.

Muslim leaders criticised Trump for not condemning the bombing, prompting Sebastian Gorka, at the time a White House national security adviser, to defend the Presidents silence.

Theres a great rule: all initial reports are false, Mr Gorka said in August, citing a number of alleged hate crimes ... that turned out to actually have been propagated by the left.

The federal complaint, however, makes clear that wasnt the case with the predawn bombing of the mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Michael McWhorter, 29, told investigators last week that he and the others each had specific roles in the bombing.

McWhorter said Michael Hari, 47, was the bomb-maker and driver and Joe Morris, 22, was responsible for breaking one of the centres windows, he said.

McWhorter said he himself threw a homemade PVC pipe bomb into the building. According to the court documents, Mr McWhorter described the explosive as a huge a** black powder bomb.

The three men have been charged with arson, the US Attorneys Office in Minnesota said in a news release. It is unclear if the men will face additional charges; a spokesperson for the US Attorneys Office did not immediately responded to a call seeking comment.

Attorneys for Hari and Morris, who appeared in federal court in Illinois on Tuesday, were not immediately available, either. No attorney has yet been listed for McWhorter, whose initial court appearance has not been scheduled.

McWhorter also admitted that the mosque bombing was part of a larger spree of illegal activity, according to the federal complaint.

The three men tried to bomb an Illinois abortion clinic three months later, he said, but their device didnt explode. Court records say a secretary at the Womens Health Practice in Champaign, Illinois, came to work one morning in early November to find a smashed window, broken glasses and a PVC pipe bomb inside a surgical room.

The following month, McWhorter said, the trio also robbed an Indiana home they believed belonged to a Hispanic drug dealer. Armed with automatic weapons, McWhorter and the others posed as police officers executing a search warrant but did not find any cash, he told investigators. He said they also robbed three Walmart stores in Illinois.

While the court documents largely revolve around McWhorters statements, perhaps the most compelling figure in the federal complaint is Hari, the alleged bomb-maker and driver.

According to public records, Hari owns a business called Crisis Resolution Security Services, which last year submitted a design proposal for Mr Trumps wall along the US-Mexico border. A four and a half minute YouTube video presentation posted in April called it The Great Western IBW (International Border Wall), which would be made of stone bricks reminiscent of the Great Wall of China.

The wall, a video narrator said, would follow existing highways and would not be built right on the border, to avoid disrupting private property. It would be made with 26ft concrete walls sitting on a 30ft packed earth berm. Its top would be a 22ft wide pedestrian roadway. It also would have arched bridges guarded by border security officials.

The cost, the video claimed, would be nearly $10.9bn (7.8bn)  cheaper than the Trump administrations estimates.

The wall will be culturally significant, a powerful architectural statement of the determination of the American people to defend their nation and its Anglo-Saxon heritage, western culture and English language, the narrator said, adding: The wall exists to protect the economic rights of the US population and to protect our way of life from other people who have different value systems. This proposal defends and values border property rights of US citizens. The wall embodies patriotic value for ages.

Build that wall, the narrator said as the video ended. Make America great again.

Hari, a former sheriffs deputy, told the Chicago Tribune in April that he foresaw his proposed wall as a possible tourist destination.

They can use it for patrolling, but its more for the public, he said. People can go up there, walk it or bicycle it. Were probably the only ones who have submitted a proposal making it recreational.

The federal investigation into Hari and the other two men began in December after a confidential source gave authorities several pictures of guns and bomb-making materials that allegedly belonged to Hari.

There was also a picture of a book that included instructions on how to create thermite, a powder mixture that explodes when ignited and is used in incendiary bombs, court records state.

Another source who previously worked for Hari told investigators that Morris and McWhorter had talked about the mosque and abortion centre incidents while they were all drinking one night. Morris claimed that Hari was going to pay them $18,000 for their participation in the mosque bombing, court records say. McWhorter also told investigators that the three of them had planted explosive devices at the property of a man identified as JO in an effort to get that person in trouble.

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

On 19 February 2018, ATF received an anonymous tip about a possible terrorism threat involving JO who had been buying wierd [sic] chemicals like nail polish remover and battery acide [sic], the tipster wrote, according to court records.

The tip, laden with misspellings and a racial slur, further said:

i thought he was making meth because he has science things like beakers too but he said no it is for a n***** schredder and he has four big black suitcases in his shed and a little greay bag and they are full of stuff like pipes and caps and wires nails and he told me to watch the news this week ... i am afraid someone will get hurt is someone doesnt do something i also sent something about it to the newspaper so if you just blow it off like you did that school schooter kid in florida the press will know you got a tip so you better check it out ...

McWhorter told investigators that Hari was the one who sent the tip.

JO and his wife told authorities that they did not know anything about the devices discovered on their property and they believe Hari had placed them there. Investigators found a pipe bomb attached to a small green propane tank  similar to tanks that Hari owned, court records state.

The Washington PostA man who claimed he dug up and cremated the body of missing teenager Natalee Holloway to help his murder suspect friend has himself been killed while attempting to kidnap a woman, police have revealed.

The violent death of John Ludwick is the latest strange development in the hunt for Natalee, who was last seen getting into a car after leaving a nightclub at 1.30am on May 30 2005, the day she was due to fly home from a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba.

Dutchman Joran van der Sloot remains the prime suspect in the case, but has never been charged with Natalees murder or disappearance.

He is, however, a convicted murderer, after being jailed for killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez in Lima, Peru, on May 30 2010, the fifth anniversary of Natalees disappearance.

Ludwick, 32, appeared to offer a new lead in the case last year when he was shown on a TV documentary claiming that in 2010 he had helped his friend van der Sloot dig up and then dispose of Natalees body.

Ludwick was shown confessing that after van der Sloot offered him $1,500, he crushed up Natalees bones and took them, mixed with dog remains, to a crematorium where he paid a worker $200 in cash to let him cremate what he said was his pet.

John Ludwick (Oxygen/NBC Universal)

In an extraordinary twist last month, however, the veracity of Ludwicks claims were effectively questioned by a lawsuit launched by Natalees mother who accused the documentary makers of producing a pre-scripted pre-planned farce whose broadcast was "outrageous".

Beth Holloway said the series had been acted out by a number of paid participants, including Ludwick.

His death will now make it even harder to establish whether his claims as aired in the documentary were true.

Police in North Port, Florida, said that just before 7am on Wednesday morning Ludwick went to the home of a woman who had once been his roommate and who had spurned his attempts to start a romantic relationship.

North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor told WFLA: As shes getting out of the car, there he is. He wanted the keys to her car. What he had plans for after that is yet to be determined but it was certainly a very scary situation."

Mr Taylor, however, revealed that the woman fought back, grabbing Ludwicks knife and stabbing him several times. Ludwick ran off, bleeding heavily, but was found a few blocks away and later died.

Mr Taylor said the woman would face no charges.

"From every ounce of evidence we have so far, said Mr Taylor, She was a victim in this case.

"This gentleman had some ill intentions, she wasn't going quietly, and it ended very bad for him.

Mr Taylor could not say if any connection exists between Ludwicks apparent failed attack and Natalee's disappearance, but he added: When you look at this particular case, attempted kidnapping of a young girl, you go whoa, it seems eerily similar.

It is understood that local detectives have contacted the FBI.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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In August 2017 Ludwick featured in The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a documentary mini-series which followed Natalees father Dave Holloway and his private investigator as they followed up new clues about what might have happened to the teenager.

In the series broadcast on Oxygen TV, Ludwick was shown explaining that he had crushed up Natalees unearthed bones so they werent recognisable as human, burning the skull to get rid of hair fibres.

He was filmed saying that after dog remains were added to the mix, he went to the crematorium and claimed his pet had died.

Ludwick was shown on the documentary saying that he and van der Sloot had then borrowed a fishermans boat and scattered the ashes at sea.

In the documentary series, his evidence was depicted as leading to the discovery of four bone fragments, which were tested to see if they came from Natalee, who lived in Mountain Brook, Alabama.

The credibility of what Ludwick said in the documentary was, however, cast into doubt by the lawsuit filed by Natalees mother Beth, who is divorced from Dave Holloway.

In her lawsuit, Ms Holloway accused Oxygen Media and production company Graden Media of pretending to report on the progress of an investigation as it was happening, when in fact everything had been pre-scripted, making the series a pre-planned farce, whose broadcast was outrageous.

In her lawsuit Beth Holloway claimed that at a point when the series portrayed Ludwick as being covertly recorded, he had already signed a non-disclosure agreement [and] was a paid participant in the series and aware at all times that he was being taped for publication.

The claims in the lawsuit have, however, been denied, with Oxygen issuing a statement defending the documentary and saying: We were disappointed to learn of the complaint and its inaccurate depiction of how the series was produced, and we want to reiterate our deep compassion and sympathy for all members of the Holloway family.

The documentary series was developed by a production company in close collaboration with Dave Holloway and his long-time private investigator. The show followed his continued search to find answers about his daughter Natalee from a lead he had received. We had hoped, along with Mr Holloway, that the information was going to provide closure.

In October 2017 Oxygen revealed that only one of the four bone fragments had been found to be human and its DNA did not match that of Natalee.

Joran van der Sloot initially claimed that he left Natalee drunk and sleeping on a beach, but has since made  and then retracted  a series of claims, including that he got a friend to dump her dead or unconscious body in the sea and even that he sold the teenager into sex slavery.California has appointed an unauthorised immigrant to an official state post, a first that also functions as the states latest act of defiance against Donald Trump.

State Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat who is running for the US Senate on an anti-Trump platform, announced that 33-year-old attorney Lizbeth Mateo would serve as a member of the California Student Opportunity and Access Program Project Grant Advisory Committee. The appointment is unpaid.

While Donald Trump fixates on walls, California will continue to concentrate on opportunities, Mr de Leon said in a statement.

Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Ms Mateo came to Los Angeles with her parents when she was 14. She said in a statement that her experience as an undocumented, first-generation college student would inform her work.

While undocumented students have become more visible in our state, they remain underrepresented in places where decisions that affect them are being made, Ms. Mateo said.

Dominated politically by Democrats who are sympathetic to immigrants, California has a long history of both shielding from deportation and offering new rights to immigrants in the country illegally.

Inside California's largest detention centre Show all 9 1 /9 Inside California's largest detention centre Inside California's largest detention centre Backs turned: Adelanto faces complaints that it does not allow inmates sufficent visits Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre Barbed issue: the facility is the focus of protests by immigrant rights groups Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre Aliens: ICE agents are empowered to round up suspected illegal immigrants Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre World class: the facility is run by private operator The Geo Group Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre Limbo: people have gone on hunger strike to protest prolonged imprisonment Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre Colours: inmates wearing blue have no or minor criminal conviction  the rest wear orange or red Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre Domino effect: according to ICE, arresting criminal aliens is a priority that predates Trumps presidency Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre Uncertainty: Around 240 of the detainees at Adelanto are women Reuters Inside California's largest detention centre An ICE detainee rests his hands on the window of his cell in the segregation wing at the Adelanto immigration detention center, which is run by the Geo Group Inc (GEO.N), in Adelanto, California, Reuters

In recent years, the state has passed laws allowing undocumented immigrants to secure drivers licenses and to practice law. After the latter measure passed, the California Supreme Court ruled in favour of an undocumented immigrant named Sergio Garcia who had been fighting for a law license.

Governor Jerry Brown last year signed a so-called sanctuary law that bars law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless federal agents have a warrant or immigrants of interest to ICE have been convicted of serious crimes.

 California Governor Jerry Brown: 'we know the Trump administration is full of liars'

The law, specifically crafted to counteract the Trump administrations crackdown on illegal immigration, has prompted a legal challenge from the Department of Justice and frequent denunciations from Mr Trump.

California sanctuary policies put the entire nation at risk, the President said this week during his first visit to California since taking office. Theyre the best friend of the criminal.

State elected officials have been similarly vocal in denouncing the Trump administration. Mr Brown last week decried the federal government going to war against California and slammed the administration as full of liars.Donald Trump's eldest son is getting a divorce.

Vanessa Haydon Trump filed paperwork seeking an uncontested divorce from Donald Trump Jr on Thursday. The two have been married since 2005 and have five children together.

After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways," the couple said in a statement. "We will always have tremendous respect for each other and our families. We have five beautiful children together and they remain our top priority. We ask for your privacy during this time.

The day before, New York gossip outlet Page Six reported Mr and Ms Trump were headed for a split, noting that they had been living "separate lives" of late. Two sources told the paper that Mr Trump appears to have changed recently, and friends are concerned about him".

The pair recently made headlines when a package of white powder was mailed to their residence in New York City. Ms Trump, who was the first to open the package, was rushed to the hospital as a precaution. The contents were later deemed nonhazardous.

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 couple first met in 2003, when Donald Trump spied the future Ms Trump  then Vanessa Haydon  at a fashion show. The pair engaged in awkward conversation and didn't hit it off right away, Ms Trump later told the New York Times. It wasn't until six weeks later, when a mutual friend introduced them at a birthday party, that the sparks flew.

The couple were married in 2005 at the elder Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort  the same place he married his wife, Melania, that same year.

Life became more complicated for the pair after Mr Trump's father was sworn in last year. To avoid conflicts of interest, Donald Trump left control of his flagship company  the Trump Organisation  to his two sons. The younger Mr Trump now leads the organisation with his brother, Eric.

And while he is supposed to remain separate from the White House as an employee of the Trump Organisation, Mr Trump has nevertheless found himself embroiled in a number of his father's political scandals.

This summer, for instance, the New York Times reported that Mr Trump had arranged a meeting with Russian sources who promised to provide "dirt" on Hillary Clinton during his father's campaign.

Mr Trump has said the meeting was innocent, and denied ever colluding with a foreign government.A Republican senator has come out against Donald Trumps nominees for secretary of state and CIA director, throwing into question whether the president's picks will make it past their confirmation hearings.

Senator Rand Paul told reporters he would oppose the nomination of Mike Pompeo for secretary of state and Gina Haspel for CIA director, hinting he might go as far as to stage a filibuster during their hearings. Mr Paul took issue with the nominees support for the Iraq War, as well as their ties to enhanced interrogation techniques  techniques the senator and many others refer to as torture.

People complain sometimes about the filibuster; they complain about trying to obstruct. I think the debate over whether or not America is a country in favour of torture or not is an important one, Mr Paul said. Im going to do everything I can to block them.

Mr Pompeo and Ms Haspel must pass a simple majority vote in the Senate in order to be confirmed. Republicans currently hold a slim 51-49 majority in the upper chamber  meaning that if all Democrats vote no on the confirmations, the GOP will have little room for intra-party defection.

Mr Pauls vote is especially important, as he serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee is required to vote on Mr Pompeo's nomination before it moves to the full Senate.

 Rex Tillerson fired: Trump has 'total confidence' in new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr Paul accused Ms Haspel of being a direct participation in interrogation and finding gleeful enjoyment at the suffering of someone who was being tortured.

Ms Haspel, the current deputy director of the CIA, has previously been tied to controversial interrogation techniques. Among other things, the CIA veteran oversaw an American black site prison where detainees were waterboarded and subjected to other harsh questioning methods, according to a Senate report.

Mr Pompeo, meanwhile, has criticised the Obama administration for shutting down the black site prisons, and expressed support for so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

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

A number of other politicians and activist groups have spoken out against the nominations, which were spurred by Mr Trumps decision to fire Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called Ms Haspel a central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history and called on the CIA to declassify and release every aspect of her involvement with the interrogation programme.

Republican Senator John McCain has also signalled some opposition to Ms Haspel, saying she should divulge the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation programme. Mr McCain was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters he was not urging his fellow Democrats to oppose Mr Pompeos or Ms Haspels nominations at this point. Fourteen Democrats, including Mr Schumer, supported Mr Pompeos nomination to CIA director last year.

Mr Schumer said he was he was reserving judgment for Mr Pompeos confirmation hearing, slated for April.

"I'm not taking a position until we hear from him, but there are lots of outstanding questions," he said.Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization in the ongoing investigation into alleged collusion between members of President Donald Trump's 2016 US election campaign team and Russian officials.

This is the first publicly known time the investigation has been taken directly to Mr Trump's business, the New York Times reported.

The White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "There was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. For specific questions about the Trump Organization I would refer you to them". The administration and Mr Trump have repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing in the matter.

It is unknown what the exact scope of the subpoena is and why Mr Mueller issued it in the first place, implying that the umbrella organisation that oversees many of Mr Trump's businesses may not have cooperated with a request for the documents. The Trump Organization has cooperated in the past with the House and Senate intelligence committee investigator's when they have requested documents in the past.

Sources close to the matter told the paper, however, that the subpoena was delivered in "recent weeks" and did ask for documents related to Russia. A source told CNN that the reason for the subpoena was to "clean up" and "to ensure that all related documents are handed over to the special counsel," the outlet reported.

An attorney for the Trump Organization Alan Futerfas said in a statement that the subpoena is "old news and our assistance and cooperation with the various investigations remains the same today."

 Sam Nunberg on why he is ignoring an apparent subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller

The newspaper had reported that the subpoena could relate to documents to a time period prior to Mr Trump's 2015 announcement that he would be running for President. The documents the company provided to investigators thus far have reportedly related to the time period since the announcement.

News about the order comes as Mr Mueller appears to be expanding the investigation beyond alleged collusion between Trump campaign team members and Russian officials to include what role, if any, foreign money could have played in the election and Mr Trump's campaign.

Mr Mueller has questioned an adviser from the United Arab Emirates called George Nader who has ties to aides of Mr Trump in the last few weeks.

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

Recent witnesses have reported they were asked about possible real estate dealings by the company in Moscow, which could have prompted the subpoena as the company has said there were no property deals made in the country.

As the New York Times reported also: "a longtime business associate of Mr Trumps emailed Mr. Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen" in 2015 "at his Trump Organization account claiming he had ties to" Russian President Vladimir Putin and "said that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Mr Trumps presidential campaign".

It was never built but Mr Trump had signed a nonbinding letter of intent.

The subpoena news also comes on the heels of a new set of US sanctions on 19 Russian nationals for alleged election meddling. The list includes Mr Putin's personal chef and the 13 individuals indicted last month by Mr Mueller for conspiracy to defraud the US".

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement that the individual financial assets sanctions were proof "the administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure".

Mr Trump also came out against Russia for the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, who remain in critical condition after being exposed to a "military-grade" nerve toxin. The incident also prompted Prime Minister Theresa May to cut off high-level contact with Moscow and expel 23 Russian diplomats from the UK.Three New Jersey students wrote an opinion piece directed towards the National Rifle Association (NRA) titled: We wont let you win. From, teenagers.

Darcy Schleifstein, Zachary Dougherty and Sarah Emily Baum helped organise the states National Walkout school protests taking place across the country today as students take a stand against gun violence in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting where 17 people died on 14 February.

The students warned the powerful gun lobby in their New York Times piece that they are Generation Z, the generation after millennials...We outnumber them by nearly one million and may be the largest cohort of future American spenders since the baby boomers.

Recommended Dunblane survivors pen emotional letter to Parkland students

The students mentioned that gun control reform, and at least the banning on assault-style weapons like the AR-15 one used in Parkland, should have happened after the 1999 Columbine, Colorado school shooting and certainly after 20 six and seven-year-old children and six adults were slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

The difference now is that the students involved are old enough to have a voice thanks to social media and a slew of mass shootings devastating communities around the country.

The teenagers warned that they wield enormous influence in family spending. Estimates put the spending power of Generation Z at close to $44bn, according to Forbes.

Survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting have been out in full force since the mass shooting that killed 14 of their classmates and three adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, participating in a series of passionate on-camera media appearances, tweets, and protests.

 Florida student Emma Gonzalez passionately calls for gun control at rally after school shooting

The three New Jersey students felt the need to band together behind the efforts of their peers in Parkland.

A group of students, known as Teens for Gun Reform, staged a lie-in on the square in front of the White House on 19 February and the Parkland survivors have planned a March for Life in Washington on 24 March, which thousands of people are expected to attend. They have already garnered more than $2m from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, and George and Amal Clooney.

The opinion piece mentioned that many of those students and their peers across the country are also close to turning 18, the voting age in the US.

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

Not only will they be able to flex their muscle at the ballot box later this year in the crucial midterm elections for House of Representative candidates, many will vote in their first presidential election in 2020.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA spent $3.2m in lobbying in 2016, a little over $1m in campaign contributions to Republican candidates, and over $54m in "outside spending," which is money spent "against candidates" who do not favour gun ownership rights. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is one of the largest recipients of NRA funds.

Nearly half of the organisation's registered federal lobbyists have also been government employees at some point.

However, they noted that this is not a political issue: this is about protecting this nations children, whether they are related to you by blood, or whether they are children you have taught or nurtured, they wrote.

We have to work ourselves to end senseless killing, not just for our sakes, but for the sakes of future generations of Americans, they said.Republicans are struggling to explain what could be an embarrassing result in a Pennsylvania congressional race between Democrat Conor Lamb and the Donald Trump-backed Rick Saccone  in a district the President won by 20 points in 2016.

In a stunning show for Democrats, after absentee ballots were counted Mr Lamb is 627 votes ahead out of slightly more than 226,000. Military and an unknown number of provisional ballots are still being counted, but essentially 100 per cent of votes are in.

Mr Lamb, a first-time candidate and former prosecutor, was declared the apparent winner by NBC News and gave a sort of victory speech early on Wednesday morning, but an official announcement has not been made as yet. A recount or a legal challenge are possible.

Recommended Pennsylvania election too close to call

It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it, Mr Lamb told cheering supporters. However, before his rival claimed victory Mr Saccone told his supporters: Its not over yet... Were going to fight all the way to the end.

Mr Saccone and Mr Lamb are competing for the seat vacated by Republican representative Tim Murphy, who resigned amid a personal scandal in October. The Pennsylvania 18th district as it is currently defined will not last past the midterms in 2018  the current map was recently struck down for being biased towards Republicans. But the race remains a powerful symbol of what could happen in the November midterms  with Republicans trying to hold onto majorities in both chambers of Congress, the House and the Senate.

Mr Saccone was blessed with the full force of the White House in the weeks before the election, making appearances with everyone from Vice President Mike Pence to President Trumps son, Donald Jr. That is indicative of the races importance, at least for momentum and moral.

House Speaker Paul Ryan attempted to explain the phenomenon by calling the special election a race between two conservatives, and painted Mr Lamb as pro-life, pro-gun, anti-Nancy Pelosi [House Minority Leader] conservative. Privately, though, Mr Ryan was far less optimistic and he is said to have warned colleagues that however slim Mr Lambs lead is, the election results should serve as a bit of a wake-up call for the party. Mr Ryan is pushing his party to fundraise and fight, even in reliably conservative districts for the November 2018 midterm elections.

Whether Mr Lamb, a 33-year-old Marine captain from a political family, wins the seat or not, it is a blow to Mr Trump, who endorsed Mr Saccone, a former diplomat to North Korea. The President swept into Pennsylvania with one of his semi-regular Make America Great Again rallies on Saturday, looking to give Mr Saccone a boost. Mr Trump promised that if Mr Saccone was put into the House, he would vote for us all the time.

As for Mr Saccone, the 60-year-old university professor and air force veteran had clearly hitched his wagon to Mr Trumps star power, having previously claimed he was the regions Mr Trump before Trump was Trump.

I ran on that agenda in 2010. Its the same agenda  its the peoples agenda. The President just nationalised it, he said to a local Pittsburgh radio station, referring to his priorities of repealing and replacing Obamacare, reducing government spending, increased support for the military, and protecting the Second Amendment.

 'Keep America Great': Donald Trump announces new campaign slogan

Mr Saccone has won over many of the more rural counties that border West Virginia, but Mr Lamb won the more populated and suburban Allegany county, which was enough to give him the smallest of leads. The district, encompassing suburban and rural areas around Pittsburgh in four counties, has been so reliably Republican in recent elections that Democrats have sometimes failed to even field a candidate in past years.

The election, even if not a win for the Democrats, is an embarrassment to Mr Trump, having previously backed defeated Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. The President wholeheartedly endorsed the 71-year-old Mr Moore during that special election last year, even after several women came forward to detail alleged sexual misconduct and harassment by the former district attorney when he was in his thirties and they were teenagers. Mr Moore denied all the allegations made against him.

The scandal ultimately brought out voters to place Doug Jones in the seat that had not seen a Democrat in more than 25 years.

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

Steel is back, Mr Trump had repeatedly claimed at his weekend rally, an important slogan for the region once dominated by steelworkers. He touted it to show voters in the district that his administrations 25 per cent tariff on imported steel would be a way to help them, despite the near-universal criticism of the policy from Republicans and world leaders alike. Again, Mr Trump was found making the end of the campaign more about him than the man he was there to support.

However, the Presidents claims are not indicative of the regions employment and incoming companies, many of which are more focused on green energy and technology thanks, in part, to the influence of the nearest large city, Pittsburgh.

As with Alabama, this special election garnered millions of dollars in outside contributions and support.

Conservative groups spent upwards of $10m, according to the New York Times. In a sign of growing Democrat confidence, former Vice President Joe Biden, originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, came out to support Mr Lamb as the contest neared its end.Democrat Conor Lambs apparent victory in Pennsylvania - in a district Donald Trump won by more than 20 points - should leave Republicans fearful of a possible electoral wave against their party later this year, experts have said.

As officials considered seeking a recount in Pennsylvanias 18th congressional district, where its candidate, Rick Saccone, should have been an easy winner, Republicans across the country were trembling at the message the result carried: that Democrats can win seats even in conservative areas if they have the right candidate.

The Pennsylvania outcome will reverberate nationally and locally. Nationally, Republicans will need to work to avoid more retirements, wrote Dave Wasserman, of the Cook Political Report, a respected non-partisan analysis site.

Filing deadlines have passed in only a handful of major states, including California, Illinois, Ohio and Texas. Theyll also need to research and test for effective lines of attack against potential Democratic nominees.

Democrats believe that with Mr Trumps approval at a record low and with a similarly record number of candidates from its party preparing to run in November, they have an excellent opportunity to regain control of at least one of the houses of congress.

The Republicans currently hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate and a 24 seat lead in the House. Democrats believe the enthusiasm among its supporters, allied with that they claim is widespread dissatisfaction with Mr Trump, will result result in a wave, or even a tsunami, in its favour.

Recommended Pennsylvania proved this week that the Republicans are cooked

Let it be known that the Blue Wave of 2018 began in Pennsylvania, said Jack Hanna, that state's Democratic chairman. And this is only the beginning of the wave.

Mike Doyle, a Democratic congressman from a neighbouring district, told the New York Times Mr Lamb had benefited from buyers remorse among supporters of Mr Trump, and he had tailored his message to the conservative-leaning area.

This guy has made a lot of promises that arent being kept, Mr Doyle said of the President.

 Donald Trump: It 'looks like' Russia responsible for nerve agent attack

But some experts also warned it too still too soon to say whether the result that played out in Pennsylvania will be repeated in other conservative areas across the country in November.

After all, many had expected the youthful Democrat Jon Ossoff to win the special election held last June in the Georgias 6th Congressional district but he was defeated by Republican Karen Handel, despite Mr Trump having performed less well there then he did in Pennsylvania. In other races, Democrats lost contests they had similarly expected to emerge as winners.

Kelly Ditmar, a professor of political science at New Jerseys Rutgers University, said the message all Republicans ought to have taken away from the race, was how they could best take on Democratic challengers in November. She said she believed the Democrats had a better chance of taking the Senate than the House, but said it was too early to say it would definitely happen.

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 lot depends on what happens between now and the elections. For example, if Trump is able to claim some sort of his victory if he meets the North Korean leader, that could have have an impact, she told The Independent.

She said another takeaway from the race, was the importance of good candidates. Most analysts from both parities believed Mr Lamb was a stronger candidate than Mr Saccone, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran who struggled to raise funds.

Republican Speaker Paul Ryan was among those who criticised Mr Saccones campaign.

In order to win in a tough environment we need good candidates who run strong campaigns, Mr Ryan said, according to USA Today.

The Rick Saccone campaign was a joke. If we had even a serviceable candidate in this race, it would have been easy.

Mr Wasserman said the message the Republican leadership would also be taking away was that they were going have to "help more of its candidates than it had expected to". Doing so, he said, would cost money, time and resources.A Republican senator opposed to gun control has been mocked for being willing to file legislation to protect animals on planes after a dog dies after being placed in an overhead locker.

Senator John Kennedy, like many Americans, was outraged when he learned that an English bulldog puppy had died after after his carrier was in an overhead storage bin on a United Airlines flight this week.

I will be filing a bill tomorrow that will prohibit airlines from putting animals in overhead bins, Mr Kennedy tweeted. Violators will face significant fines. Pets are family.

Recommended Florida shooting inspires walkouts across US

Twitter users were quick to slam Mr Kennedy for the timing of his announcement, which occurred the same day that thousands of students nationwide walked out of school to protest gun violence and honour victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

How about we ban assault weapons first, one person responded to Mr Kennedys tweet.

Another person wrote: I commend you for quickly introducing legislation to avoid same horrible tragedy, after a dog died on an airline. I hope it passes. It would be nice if you and your colleagues would pass legislation to avoid same horrible tragedy after 17 kids and faculty were killed at a school.

After the Parkland shooting last month left 17 people dead, Mr Kennedy said what the US really needed is more idiot control instead of more gun control.

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 Louisiana Republican also wrote a letter to the president of United Airlines, J Scott Kirby, demanding information on how many animals have died recently while in the airlines care.

[Pets] should not be treated like insignificant cargo. Frankly, they shouldnt be placed in the cargo hold much less an overhead bin, Kennedy wrote in the letter to Kirby. This pattern of animal deaths and injuries is simply inexcusable. For many people, pets are members of the family.

According to Roll Call, more than 500,000 animals flew in 2017, nearly 140,000 of them on United flights. Of the 24 that died, 18 were on United flights. Delta and American each reported two animal deaths.

Beginning next month, United will issue brightly coloured bag tags to customers travelling with in-cabin pets, the company has said.The parents of a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer have sued Fox News over a retracted report claiming their son leaked documents to WikiLeaks before his death.

Saying Joel and Mary Rich had become collateral damage in a political war to which they are innocent bystanders, the lawsuit accuses Fox of running a fiction that sought to push a conspiracy theory from the fringe to the front pages and screens of the mainstream media

They published, republished, and publicized the sham storywhich they knew would be covered again and again, and republished, here and around the worldpainting Joel and Marys son as a criminal and a traitor to the United States, the complaint says.

Months after Seth Rich was killed in Washington, DC, Fox News ran a story saying that Mr Rich had leaked thousands of internal DNC emails to the anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks, whose steady drip of leaked emails shaped the 2016 presidential campaign. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had cryptically referenced Mr Rich's murder during the campaign.

Fox News ultimately pulled the story from its website, saying it failed to meet a high degree of editorial scrutiny. But in the days after the storys publication, the claim that Mr Rich had collaborated with WikiLeaks was amplified by Fox contributors and hosts like Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich.

Despite being completely false, the lawsuit says, the story endured and was quoted, referenced, and republished widely even after Fox ran a correction.

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

Fox continued to exploit the sham story because it was good for ratings, the lawsuit says.

A spokeswoman for Fox News declined to comment on the litigation. She pointed the Independent to the networks effort to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Rod Wheeler, a paid commentator and private investigator who looked into Seth Richs death, claiming Fox News had fabricated quotes from him in its story.

Along with Fox News and Malia Zimmerman, the reporter who pursued the story, the lawsuit names Ed Butowsky, a frequent Fox News guest and Trump supporter who reached out to the Riches and paid for Mr Wheeler to investigate their sons death.

 Sean Hannity makes painful u-turn on whether Donald Trump wanted to fire Robert Mueller

The lawsuit alleges that Mr Butowsky worked with Fox News to have Mr Wheeler plausibly corroborate the sham story based on the fringe conspiracy theory, reaching out to Fox News executives and exchanging drafts of the story with Ms Zimmerman.

In an interview with the Independent, Mr Butowsky called the lawsuit frivolous and baseless. He confirmed that he connected the Riches with Mr Wheeler and that he paid for the detectives services but rejected the notion he had a hand in the piece Fox News ran.

I didnt write a story and I didnt participate in writing it, so its very difficult for me to understand how Im even involved, Mr Butowsky said.

Ms Zimmerman could not be reached for comment.Donald Trump reportedly boasted at a fundraising dinner about making up facts in a meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

The US President admitted he told Mr Trudeau America had a trade deficit with its North American neighbour when he actually had no idea if it was true, according to an audio recording obtained by The Washington Post.

Trudeau came to see me. Hes a good guy, Justin. He said, No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,  Mr Trump allegedly said to guests at the fundraiser in Missouri.

Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  Donald, we have no trade deficit. Hes very proud because everybody else, you know, were getting killed.

So, hes proud. I said, Wrong, Justin, you do. I didnt even know... I had no idea. I just said, Youre wrong. You know why? Because were so stupid And I thought they were smart. I said, Youre wrong, Justin.

He said, Nope, we have no trade deficit. I said, Well, in that case, I feel differently, I said, but I dont believe it. I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, Check, because I cant believe it.

In 2016, the US had a trade surplus of $12.5bn with Canada, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

 Donald Trump: current Mexico border wall is 'lousy'

Well, sir, youre actually right, Mr Trump continued. We have no deficit, but that doesnt include energy and timber And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. Its incredible.

The comments emerged just hours after Mr Trudeau said he trusted the billionaire.

In terms of commitments that hes made to me, in conversations weve had about things that matter, he has been consistent with me, the prime minister told Bloomberg.

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

According to The Post, Mr Trump went on to launch an attack on the European Union, Japan, South Korea and China for their trade practices, and again described the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) as a disaster.

The 71-year-old also appeared to threaten to pull troops out of South Korea unless it gave the President what he wanted on trade, the newspaper reported.

We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them, Mr Trump said. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Lets see what happens.

Our allies care about themselves. They dont care about us.

The White House has been contacted for comment.The White House has named Larry Kudlow, a conservative media analyst who was an informal economic adviser to President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign, as the next head of the West Wings National Economic Council.

The announcement that Mr Kudlow would replace outgoing adviser Gary Cohn was made in a simple statement delivered to the press by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Larry Kudlow was offered, and accepted, the position of Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Security Council, Ms Sanders said in the statement. We will work to have an orderly transition, and will keep everyone posted on the timing of him officially assuming the role.

The outgoing director of the council, Mr Cohn, resigned this month amid a heated debate in Washington over Mr Trumps plan to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, which Mr Cohn opposed alongside much of the Washington establishment.

Still, while the timing of Mr Cohns suggestion implied that those taxes had created to great a distance between the President and a tariff-skeptics, Mr Kudlow himself was less than enthused about Mr Trumps steel and aluminium plans.

Shortly after the tariffs were announced, Mr Kudlow lent his name to a column warning the President that could hurt millions of American manufacturing jobs, and consumers, even if they provide a brief spike for the two industries in question.

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

Steel and aluminium may win in the short term, but stele and aluminium users and consumers will lose, that column, written with conservative economists Arthur gaffer and Stephen Moore, read. In fact, tariff hikes are really tax hikes.

The President has acknowledged those differences, and said during a Tuesday meeting with reporters before the nomination was confirmed that he would welcome differing opinions in his White House.

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, Mr Trump said. I want to have a divergent opinion  we agree on most.

The choice was warmly received by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who know Mr Kudlow from his time as a cable news analyst, and as a regular attendee of Republican conferences.

Couldnt be more pleased, Rep Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said of the appointment when asked by CNN. He is somebody that House Republicans are extraordinarily comfortable with.The Trump administration has announced sanctions against 19 Russians - including an individual known as Vladimir Putins chef - for their alleged role in trying to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

In the most significant response yet from the US to Russias alleged role in meddling in the election since Donald Trump became president, the US Treasury announced the names of the Russians whose assets were being frozen and whom Americans were prevented from doing business with. Among the names were the 13 individuals indicted last month by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller for conspiracy to defraud the United States. The US also accused Russia of being behind a cyber attack on the energy industry and other, similar sectors.

The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.

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 names of the 19 Russians were added to the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Controls list of specially designated individuals, or SDNs. It means their financial assets are blocked and that Americans are prohibited from doing business with them.

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Barack Obamas government accused Russia of trying to interfere in the election, to the benefit of Mr Trump. Mr Trump denied the suggestion, as did Russia, but Mr Obama went ahead and expelled 35 Russian diplomats accused of spying.

Russia did not respond at the time, apparently after conversations with former general Michael Flynn, the man who would briefly become Mr Trumps national security adviser.

In this instance, Thursdays sanctions, which came at the same time the Trump administration added its name to a collective statement with Britain, France and Germany on Thursday denouncing Russia for its apparent role in a nerve gas attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK, Russia vowed that it would respond in turn.

 Russian exile appears on TV with bodyguards claiming he's on Vladimir Putins 'hit list'

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow was preparing retaliatory measures, Reuters cited the Interfax news agency as saying.

Mr Ryabkov said the Kremlin was responding calmly to the new sanctions and taking this in our stride. But he said Russia had begun preparing retaliatory measures.

He also suggested the Trump administration timed the sanctions to come ahead of this weekend's presidential election in Russia.

Among the 19 Russian individuals named in the latest round of sanction was Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, who has been nicknamed Putins chef, because of his close relationship with the Russian president. Mr Prigozhin was among the 13 individuals indicted by Mr Mueller in February.

In addition to the 19 individuals, the sanctions listed five organisations and groups, including the Internet Research Agency, a so-called troll farm based in St Petersburg, and which Mr Progozhin allegedly controlled. The new sanctions also include Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and six individuals working on behalf of the GRU.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security Department claimed the Russian government was behind a hacking operation has affected the USs nuclear, aviation, water, construction and manufacturing sectors.

The Associated Press said the Computer Emergency Readiness Team said the operation targeted smaller American commercial facilities. The operation is said to have resorted to various methods, to try to compromise legitimate user accounts, gather user credentials, and target industrial control systems and their networks.

A US government alert to industry said the hackers deleted activity logs to try to cover their tracks. The alert said the hackers also used created administrator accounts on local machines that were disguised to appear legitimate. The NotPetya attack that cost billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the United States.A Minnesota woman who fatally shot her boyfriend in a stunt they hoped would go viral on YouTube has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Pedro Ruiz, 22, had asked Monalisa Perez, 20, to shoot him with a gun from about one foot (30 cm) away. He thought the 1.5in (4cm) book he was holding in front of his chest would stop the bullet from hitting him. Instead it killed him as the couple's three-year-old daughter witnessed the incident and Perez was pregnant at the time with their second child.

Perez had pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and her sentence is a result of a plea bargain. A trial may have resulted in ten years in prison with a $20,000 fine.

The mother of two will serve an alternating sentence for the first six months - 10 days in jail and 10 days out - in the US state of South Dakota where she now resides.

The remaining 90 days of her prison sentence will be served at home in confinement.

She will also serve 10 years probation and is permanently banned from owning a firearm.

 Logan Paul explains why he uploaded the controversial suicide video

The sentencing is below the normal minimums for the crime in Minnesota but prosecutor Norman County Attorney James Brue said "the reality [is] that this foolish stunt was dreamed up, planned and executed by Pedro Ruiz, and the defendant wrongfully and tragically relied on his assurances that the stunt was safe.

Perez had told investigators in the wake of the 26 June incident that Mr Ruiz had been trying to get her to fire the gun for a while. Mr Ruiz had shown her a book he had shot with the same gun to demonstrate that the bullet did not go through the entire volume.

11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Play in the background One of the YouTube apps most frustrating shortcomings is the inability to play music videos in the background or when youre phones locked. There is a way around this, but only on iOS. Open the YouTube website in Safari, play a video and then press your iPhones home button. After that, launch the Control Centre by sliding up from the bottom of the screen and tap play. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Loop videos YouTubes looping option on desktop is really useful, but nowhere near as easy to find as it should be. To loop a video, right-click it while its playing and select Loop. Even if you have Autoplay enabled, your video will replay itself as soon as it finishes. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Enable Dark Theme YouTube recently introduced a black-and-red Dark Theme on the desktop, which is much easier on your eyes than the regular version of the site. Enable it by clicking the account symbol, selecting Dark Theme and turning Activate Dark Theme on. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Simplify YouTube Another alternative YouTube user interface is available to access at youtube.com/tv. Its a really simple, no-frills UI thats incredibly easy to navigate. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Try out new features You can test upcoming and experimental features early by signing up to YouTube TestTube. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Read When you want to watch a YouTube video but dont have your headphones and dont want to disturb anyone around you, turn on Captions. Theyre also really handy if youre trying to watch a video in a foreign language. Transcriptions, meanwhile, break down exactly when certain things take place, so you can skip to the part you want to watch accurately and easily. In the More tab under the video title, launch the dropdown menu and select Transcript. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Use shortcuts You can lean back in your seat and control YouTube videos with your keyboard if you want to. J and L let you rewind and fast-forward 10 seconds, K is pause/play, M is mute/unmute and the 0-9 keys let you jump through various stages of the video, from 0 per cent to 90 per cent. On the app, you can fast forward or rewind 10 seconds by double-tapping the right or left side of a video. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Limit data use If youre on a limited mobile data plan, there are easy ways to save yourself some money. In Settings on the YouTube app, hit General and enable Limit Mobile Data Usage and disable Autoplay. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Keep things private Unless you make them private, other people can see your Liked videos, your saved playlists and subscriptions. If you want to hide them, go to Settings and Privacy. You can also clear or pause your History. On either desktop or the mobile app, go to History and select Clear All Watch History or Pause Watch History. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Make sharing clearer Sometimes you want to share a video with a friend, but want them to watch a specific part, rather than the whole thing. Instead of sending the timestamp through as a separate message, make the video automatically play from the right place. Just pause it at the right moment, click the Share button, tick the Start At box and copy the URL. 11 YouTube features you didn't know existed Get nerdy Stats for Nerds shows you technical data for YouTube videos, including video format, audio format and bandwidth. On desktop, you can find the info simply by right-clicking the video player and selecting Stats for Nerds. On mobile, you have to enable it first in General Settings. Once thats done, open a video, hit the menu button in the top-right corner and tap the Stats for Nerds option.

Part of the sentence is that she is not allowed to financially gain from the video of Mr Ruizs death.

She and Mr Ruiz had posted a series of nearly 20 videos to YouTube featuring mostly harmless pranks: Mr Ruiz climbing a tree and falling from a branch, Perez feeding him a doughnut covered with talcum powder instead of powdered sugar, eating the worlds spiciest pepper.

The young couple had dreamed of what they could do with an audience of 300,000 subscribers or more. Many YouTube stars have turned their fan base into a profitable business through product advertising and sponsorship.Not long ago, I was given the opportunity to preview and review CuriosityStreams Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places 2. This whimsical-yet-scientifically-based adventure through the solar system and beyond took viewers along for the ride as Hawking, in his spaceship of the same name, explored Earth and its place in the cosmos  and ended on a cliffhanger.

Stephen Hawkings Favorite Places is one of Hawkings last works; in honor of his life and legacy, CuriosityStream is making the entire series, including its previously unaired final episode, free for all viewers. The series will remain free through Friday, March 23 on CuriosityStreams website.

John Hendricks, founder of the Discovery Channel and CuriosityStream, shared this statement on March 14:

While we are mourning the passing of the epically brilliant Stephen Hawking, we are comforted by the fact that his profound insights into the workings of our Universe will live on and will inspire and inform future generations of humans who simply long to understand. At CuriosityStream, we will always be grateful that Stephen Hawking passionately shared his enthusiasm for the wonders of the Universe with his fellow humans. His dedicated and tireless work on television projects that took viewers to the furthest reaches of his mind and the cosmos he sought to deeply understand are treasured gifts to humanity. Although Stephen Hawking demonstrated a remarkable optimism about our capacity to understand the Universe, he also cautioned us about the fragility of our human condition as we currently remain bound to a small planet subject to meteor strikes and other natural and manmade catastrophes. In the end, he urged us all to get on with the quest to explore and populate worlds beyond our origin. He will always remain a towering figure in the history of human thought and inspiration.

I highly recommend taking the time to watch this short three-part series. Each episode is just under half an hour, and can fit easily into even a busy day. Its fun, its visually stunning, and it will leave you with both a sense of wonder and humility about humanitys unique place in the cosmos, and how we have come to understand it  and how much more we still have to learn. In addition to the brilliant mark he has left on the field of cosmology, Stephen Hawkings other legacy is work such as this, which takes us to the edge of human understanding and never flinches. Im grateful to have the opportunity to finish this series for myself, and to share it with you through the generosity of CuriosityStream as well.





Facebook has played a determining role spreading hatred of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, according to a UN human rights team probing an alleged genocide of the ethnic minority.

Investigators said the social media platform had turned into a beast into the south-east Asian country, where more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state into Bangladesh since a military crackdown on insurgents last August.

The UN human rights chief said last week he strongly suspected acts of genocide had taken place, but Myanmars national security adviser demanded clear evidence.

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said Facebook had substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissention and conflict against Rohingya Muslims.

He added: 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.

UN Myanmar investigator Yanghee Lee said Facebook was a huge part of public and private life in the country, and the government used it to disseminate information to the public.

Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar, she said, adding the website 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, added Ms Lee.

Im afraid that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally intended.

Facebook said there was no plate 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 spokesman said. This work includes a dedicated Safety Page for Myanmar, a locally illustrated version of our Community Standards, and regular training sessions for civil society and local community groups across the country.

Of course, there is always more we can do and we will continue to work with local experts to help keep our community safe.

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

EArlier this week Myanmars government 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 spokesman Zaw Htay claimed reports presented by Mr Darusman and Ms Lee lacked credibility.

The report of the Fact-Finding Mission, chaired by former Indonesian Attorney-General Mr 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 missions members were barred by Myanmars government from entering the country, so its researchers interviewed refugees and others in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand.

Ms 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.

Recommended Harrowing stories from pregnant Rohingya refugees revealed by midwives

Mr 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, he told the Associated Press.

He said Myanmar would also no longer cooperate with Lee because she has made biased, one-sided and unfair accusations against Myanmar.

Ms 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 communitys 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 deputy headmaster of a prestigious private school has reportedly been sacked after he cut a pupil's hair for not meeting grooming guidelines.

Dubbed the Dumbledore of Trinity, Rohan Brown worked at the all boys Trinity Grammar school in Sydney, Australia, for more than three decades.

He was sacked for allegedly contravening disciplinary procedures after he cut the student's hair ahead of a school picture because it did not meet its grooming guidelines.

Headmaster Michael Davies said the school takes seriously its duty of care to students, staff and the wider community in a statement.

Students have protested his departure and demanded that he be reinstated. Some wore brown armbands to show their support for him.

A letter penned by 50 former pupils also raised concerns about the direction it has taken.

In recent years, the schools executive leadership has made clear its intention to change the schools vision and direction, the letter, published by Australian broadcaster ABC News, said.

This has seen a dramatic shift from Trinitys position as a non-selective, not-elite school, dedicated to holistic personal development, to an institution focused on exceptional performance defined by Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) excellence, growth and profit.

At a public meeting the student community passed a no-confidence motion against the current headmaster and has threatened legal action if the entire council did not resign and reinstate Mr Brown.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Three members of the schools governing body have also stepped down, although they stood by their decision to fire Mr Brown.

This behaviour was, in the unanimous view of the council, unacceptable and incompatible with the values of Trinity Grammar and with contemporary community standards, they said in a joint statement.

While we acknowledge the commitment and passion of those in the school community who object to the councils decision, we are confident that we and the council will be vindicated in the action we took.White farmers in South Africa could be given fast-track visas to Australia on humanitarian grounds because they need help from a civilised country like ours," a government minister has said.

South Africas parliament passed a motion last month that could allow the seizure of land from white farmers without paying them compensation.

Australian Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton said white farmers deserve special attention due to the horrific circumstances they face.

Mr Dutton was commenting on a documentary about violent rural crime in South Africa. Australian media has alleged white farmers are being murdered at a rate of more than one a week.

I do think, on the information that Ive seen, people do need help and they need help from a civilised country like ours, he told the Daily Telegraph.

We want people who want to come here, abide by our laws, integrate into our society, work hard, not lead a life on welfare, and I think these people deserve special attention and were certainly applying that special attention now, he added.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

But South Africas foreign ministry dismissed Mr Duttons comments.

That threat does not exist, it said. There is no reason for any government in the world to suspect that a section of South Africans is under danger from their own democratically elected government.

We regret that the Australian government chose not to use the available diplomatic channels available for them to raise concerns or to seek clarification, it added.

South Africas ruling African National Congress (ANC) aims to change the constitution to allow for land expropriation without compensation to address racial disparities in land ownership that persist more than two decades after apartheids demise in 1994.

Spurred by the rise of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the ANC adopted a resolution in December to redistribute land to black South Africans without compensation.

Parliament then backed an EFF motion last month seeking to change the constitution to allow for this. A committee will report back to the chamber by 30 August.

Together, the ANC, the EFF and other small opposition parties could muster the two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional change, but it is not clear when, or if, a vote will take place.

 South African President Jacob Zuma announces resignation

The government denies that whites are deliberately targeted and says farm murders are part of South Africas wider violent crime problem.

Speaking to parliament on Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said South Africa was not heading down the road towards the type of violent and chaotic seizure of white-owned farms that triggered economic collapse in Zimbabwe nearly 20 years ago.

"We cannot have a situation where we allow land grabs, because that is anarchy," Mr Ramaphosa said. "We cannot have a situation of anarchy when we have proper constitutional means through which we can work to give land to our people."

Additional reporting by ReutersThousands of Czech protesters took to Pragues main square to challenge the countrys President after he attacked the media.

As he was sworn in for his second five-year term last week, Milos Zeman used his inauguration speech to accuse public broadcaster Czech Television and other journalists of favouritism and bias.

Mr Zeman, who has been in office since 2013, blasted the press for criticising his anti-migrant and pro-Russia rhetoric.

He previously prompted controversy after he brandished a replica gun with the words for journalists inscribed on it during a press conference.

Demonstrators light their mobiles as they protest against Milos Zemans attack on the public broadcaster Czech Television at Wenceslas Square (MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images)

Around 4,000 people attended the rally in the capitals Wenceslas Square on Wednesday, according to the protests organisers.

During the protest against Mr Zeman and the countrys Prime Minister, Andrej Babis, demonstrators waved flags, lit up their mobile phones and jingled their keys  a gesture used during the countrys communist era, when it came to symbolise the unlocking of doors and was used as a way of telling the communists to leave.

The square was previously the site of huge demonstrations against what was then Czechoslovakias communist government.

On Thursday, students from 200 schools across the Czech Republic gathered in further protests.

Students sing the Czech national anthem as they gathered in further protests (EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK)

It comes after Slovakias Interior Minister resigned following the biggest street protests the country has seen in decades over the death of Jan Kuciak, an investigative journalist.

Mr Kuciak was investigating fraud cases involving politically-connected businessmen in Slovakia, which split from the Czech Republic 25 years ago.

Mr Zeman has previously referred to journalists as manure and hyenas and joked with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, that some journalists at an event needed to be liquidated.

Press freedom is becoming a contentious issue in the Czech Republic, as ownership of the media becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy individuals.Despite cold weather and long, dark winters, Finland is the happiest country in the world, according to a United Nations (UN) report.

The Nordic nation topped a list of 156 countries ranked in the World Happiness Report on factors such as life expectancy, social support and corruption.

Finland emerged as the happiest place even though its relatively little sun and low temperatures are often blamed for high rates of depression.

It vaulted to the top from fifth place in last years report, nudging Norway down into second.

Burundi was named the least happy country. The east African nation is one of the poorest in the world, and has been plagued by ethnic violence and political turmoil for decades.

The UK remained in 19th place, while the US slipped four places to 18th.

For the first time, the annual report published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network also evaluated 117 countries by the happiness and well-being of their immigrants.

In 2015, more than a million migrants entered Europe, and a few thousand made it to Finland, a relatively homogenous country with about 300,000 foreigners and residents with foreign roots out of a population of 5.5 million.

Finlands largest immigrant groups come from other European nations, but there also are communities from Afghanistan, China, Iraq and Somalia.

John Helliwell, a co-editor of the World Happiness Report and professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia, noted that all the countries in the top 10 scored highest both in overall happiness and on the happiness of immigrants. He said a societys happiness seemed to be contagious.

The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born, Mr Helliwell said. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.

Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland View of Tampere from Pyynikki tower Getty Images/iStockphoto Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland Pyynikki tower in Tampere Tiia Monto Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland Tampere is famous for it's Finnish dougnnuts Getty Images/iStockphoto Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland Tapere view from Pispala to Pyhajarvi Alamy Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland Boats in the winter by a lake in Tampere Getty Images/iStockphoto Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland Kaleva Church in the early winter morning Shutterstock / Estea Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland The Workers' Hall in the Lenin Museum in Tampere where Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin met former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin for the first time in 1905 AFP/Getty Images Tampere, Finland: Citybreak in pictures Tampere, Finland Inside the Lenin Museum in Tampere AFP/Getty Images

Europes Nordic nations, none particularly diverse, have dominated the index since it first was produced in 2012. Denmark was placed third this year and Iceland fourth.

I think the basics are quite good in Finland... our politics and our economics, said Sofia Holm, 24-year-old resident of Helsinki, the Nordic countrys capital. We have the perfect circumstances to have a happy life here in Finland.

Inari Lepisto, 28, also of Helsinki, added: Its a great thing to live in the happiest country although its snowing and we are walking in this wet snow. Yes, we have many things that make me happy.

Rounding out the top 10 were Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

Meik Wiking, chief executive of the Copenhagen-based Happiness Research Institute, said the five Nordic countries that reliably rank high in the index are doing something right in terms of creating good conditions for good lives.

He said the happiness revealed in the survey derives from healthy amounts of both personal freedoms and social security, which outweigh residents having to pay some of the highest taxes in the world.

Briefly put, [Nordic countries] are good at converting wealth into well-being, Mr Wiking said. The finding on the happiness of immigrants shows the conditions that we live under matter greatly to our quality of life, that happiness is not only a matter of choice.

The United States was 11th in the first index and has never been in the top 10. The report cited several factors to explain its falling ranking.

The US is in the midst of a complex and worsening public health crisis, involving epidemics of obesity, opioid addiction, and major depressive disorder that are all remarkable by global standards, the report said.

It added that the sociopolitical system in the United States produces more income inequality - a major contributing factor to unhappiness - than other countries with comparatively high incomes.

The US also has seen declining trust, generosity and social support, and those are some of the factors that explain why some countries are happier than others, said Mr Wiking.A French baker was fined 3,000 (2,650) for working too hard after he kept his bakery open seven days a week during the summer of 2017.

Cedric Vaivre, 41, broke the country's labour rules by keeping the only bakery in the town of Lusigny-sur-Barse open to serve tourists.

Locals and Christian Branle, the town's mayor, have defended the owner of Boulangerie du Lac.

"In a tourist area, it seems essential that we can have businesses open every day during the summer," Mr Branle told L'Est Eclair. "There is nothing worse than closed shops when there are tourists."

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The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. 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Mr Vaivre is yet to pay his fine in the hopes it will be lowered or cancelled.

Nearly 2,500 people have signed a petition supporting him.

"You have to have some common sense, we are in an area where there is not a lot of competition... let people work if visitors expect the service," Mr Branle, the town's mayor, said in an interview with broadcaster 13 heures de TF1.

Two decrees in the local department dating from 1994 and 2000 ban bakeries from opening seven days a week.

While exceptions can be made and Mr Vaivre's bakery was exempt from the laws in 2016, the arrangement was not renewed last year.

In 2015, four other French bakers were also fined for opening every day of the week.Britain, the US, Germany, and France issued a joint response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal on Thursday afternoon, condemning Russia for the "first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War".

But on Thursday morning and through Wednesday France had initially appeared more hesitant to line up behind Theresa Mays version of events, with Emmanuel Macrons government taking a more careful approach.

On Wednesday Benjamin Griveaux, a spokesperson for the countrys government, said it was too early to decide on retaliatory measures against Russia, as its involvement was yet to be proven.

We don't do fantasy politics. Once the elements are proven, then the time will come for decisions to be made, he told a press conference shortly after Theresa May announced she would be expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning.

The response apparently raised eyebrows in Westminster and elsewhere, where Theresa Mays analysis and approach has received stronger support. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Nato chief, told the BBC that anything short of full solidarity with the UK will be considered a victory by the Kremlin.

The French government then put out another statement, this time as an Elysee source, which said: France's solidarity with the UK is unquestionable.

President Macron denounced as early as Tuesday the Salisbury chemical attack as unacceptable and assured Prime Minister May the UK had France's full support. Both leaders will discuss the matter yet again this Thursday.

Since the beginning of this week, the UK has briefed its allies thoroughly, and France in particular, that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack.

Saying youve been told something was highly likely, is of course, not the same as saying you believe it is true.

The French statement also contrasted with what the White House was saying at the time, with an unequivocal condemnation of what it said was Russian involvement: The United States shares the United Kingdoms assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, a spokesperson said.

Donald Trump's administration is widely regarded as being close to Russia, so why were they ahead of France in condemning the attack? Key to understanding the different French response is the strategy taken by Emmanuel Macron to Russia and Vladimir Putin and the background to the two leaders relationship.

Mr Macron has always been keen not to isolate Russia on the international stage. He is making his first presidential trip to Russia in May, and has engaged directly with Mr Putin over Syria in a way that some other Western leaders have not, asking the president to help open humanitarian corridors and mooting the return of peace talks.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the House of Commons on her government's reaction to the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury (Parliament TV handout via REUTERS)

Last month the two leaders had a comprehensive discussion over the telephone in which they pledged to cooperate more closely, including on Syria. They have also tried to put the Ukraine conflict behind them. Mr Putin visited France in May of last year.

Diplomatically, preventing a leader from becoming isolated is a fairly standard approach to preventing the escalation of a conflict. But there are also increasingly important economic ties between the two countries, too.

Russian state media outlet RT reported earlier this month that trade between the two countries is booming, having risen by around a fifth in 2017 despite sanctions. France buys minerals from Russia, while Russia buys chemicals, machinery, and food from France.

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

Russian ambassadors are also keen to note that French investment in the Russian economy is growing, having reached more than $14 billion, while Russia's direct investment in France is $3.2 billion, according to figures put out on RT.

More straightforwardly, French scepticism of the claims of British intelligence is nothing new, as anyone who remembers the run-up to the Iraq war will know. But for France, the stakes of alienating Russia are simply higher.

Britains economic relationship with the country mostly involves Russian big money coming to London, a relationship that doesnt seem likely to be endangered by anything Theresa May says about Vladimir Putin. This is arguably not the case for France, explaining its initial caution  even if after international pressure, it lined up behind its allies.

This article has been updated to reflect the joint statement on ThursdayA Russian businessman has appeared on television apparently flanked by bodyguards and claimed he fears for his safety following the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal.

Sergei Kapchuk, a former regional deputy in Sverdlovsk, claimed he was in line to be killed, as two men in dark suits and sunglasses glowered in the background.

Mr Kapchuk appears on a Russian embassy list of people wanted for alleged crimes in Russia and he suggested that others  unnamed UK media agencies  considered it a death row list.

In an interview with the TV Rain channel, he referenced the death of Nikolai Glushkov in New Malden, south-west London. Police are treating the death of Mr Glushkov, an associate of leading Vladimir Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, as unexplained.

Nikolai Glushkov was the first one to be assassinated and I will be the 12th, sorry 11th now. I am not happy about it, Mr Kapchuk said.

Mr Kapchuk goes by the name Windsor in the UK, according to news reports from 2017, and his Facebook profile lists him as director general of Royal Apartments, a short-let company based in Chelsea.

On Companies House he is listed as the director of three more firms based at the same address plus one in Kensington.

Last year, the Russian embassy in London published the names of 22 people it said were fugitives from justice in their home 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

Mr Kapchuk was charged with large-scale fraud in collusion through abuse of power under Article 159 of Russias criminal code, it said. Mr Glushkov also appeared on the list, charged with embezzlement.

But Mr Kapchuck told TV Rain his personal file had been deleted from Interpols database and that furthermore my data files were deleted from all criminal wanted lists from all over the world.

There was no evidence he had committed wrongdoing, he said, but added the Russian embassy had declined to remove him from the list.A Russian runway was left covered with gold bars after a plane lost its cargo during takeoff.

As it was taking off from Yakutsk in Siberia, the aircraft's hold opened and 200 bars of the precious metal fell onto the tarmac.

As it gathered height, the cargo door became damaged due to the shifting of cargo and part of the cargo was scattered on the runway, Russias Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The plane quickly returned to the airport and the area was sealed off to avoid people looting the scene, local media reported.

172 bars have been found weighing around 3.4 tonnes, the area's interior ministry told TASS state news agency. Only part of the gold fell out  altogether there were around nine tonnes in there.

The gold is believed to have come from the nearby Kupol mine, a combination underground and open pit gold and silver mine in the Bilibinsky District of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia.

A spokesperson for the company who owned the cargo told local media none was missing.The British Government has declared it has the full backing of its international allies in the confrontation with Russia. There will, we are told, be a united front in the robust retaliation which will follow against Vladimir Putin.

We will have to wait to see whether this is indeed the case. Previous expressions of international solidarity following the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, in which the Kremlin was again held culpable, eventually came to nothing much at all.

The initial reaction from the West was hardly universally encouraging. On Wednesday Benjamin Griveaux, spokesman for Emmanuel Macron, was almost withering when asked about Russian culpability. We dont do fantasy politics. Once the elements are proven, then the time will come for decisions to be made, he said just hours after Theresa May had accused Moscow of carrying out an assassination attempt, and announced the expulsion of 23 Russians under diplomatic accreditation.

After another telephone call from Ms May on Thursday morning, the Elysee Palace issued a statement saying: Everything leads us to believe that the responsibility [for the attack] is attributable to Russia. Mr Macron will, it said, announce measures in the coming days. One obvious and effective step would be to cancel his visit to Russia due to take place in two months time. That would certainly be a statement of disapproval to President Putin. One should not, however, hold ones breath on that happening; we are more likely than not to see Mr Macron shaking hands with Mr Putin in Moscow.

In Italy, Matteo Salvini, who may become the next prime minister following the recent election, responded to the allegations of Moscows involvement by suggesting we see and hear a lot of fake news and that in 2018 you dont go around poisoning people.

The French President may take further steps against the Kremlins propaganda outlets, like Russia Today and Sputnik. There is, however, an element of self-interest there, since during the presidential election last year his campaign was relentlessly targeted by fake news sites and hackers while Moscow backed Marine Le Pen and her Front National.

The US stridently supported the UK at the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, with ambassador Nikki Haley talking of exposing Russias crime. She added: If we dont take immediate measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used  they could be used here in New York or in any cities of any country that sits on this council.

Ms Haley, however, has become well known since her arrival at the UN as someone who competes in floridness of language with the man who appointed her to the post, Donald Trump. Her diatribes have seldom been followed up by firm action, be it in Syria, Ukraine or North Korea.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump  who has furiously tweeted about Muslim terrorist attacks, real and imaginary in the West  was remarkably silent on the Salisbury poisoning. He almost had to be dragged to make a statement, finally coming out with: It sounds like they believe it was Russia... I would certainly take that finding as fact. He wanted to stress, however: If we get the facts straight we will condemn Russia  or whoever it might be.

Later, asked if he thought the Russians were behind the attack, he was a bit more forthright: It sort of looks like it. Ive spoken to the Prime Minister and we are in discussions. A very sad situation, it certainly looks like the Russians are behind it. Something that should never happen, we are taking it very seriously, as I think are many others.

Mr Trump would not be drawn on Vladimir Putins possible connection to the attack. The US President, who has criticised people around the world at the drop of a hat, is yet to say a single bad word, since he got to the White House, about Mr Putin. This has inevitably fuelled speculation on just how bad is the stuff the Kremlin may have on the US President.

The US Treasury has just announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and organisations, including the FSB and GRU intelligence agencies and the Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg. But these are for Russian interference in the US presidential election. Mr Trump has repeatedly tried to downplay this interference. He remains under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller over his links to the Kremlin.

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

On Thursday there was a joint statement by the leaders of Britain, the US, France and Germany condemning the attack. The statement described it as an assault on UK sovereignty, and went on: It threatens the security of us all. The United Kingdom thoroughly briefed its allies and it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack.

After Ms Mays Commons statement on Wednesday, Iain Duncan Smith raised the issue of the Nord Stream 2  a project involving Berlin and Moscow in which a pipeline will take Russian gas to Germany.

Germany maintains that the 10bn project will buttress Europes energy security by ensuring steady gas supplies at a time when the continents energy resources are dwindling. But Poland and some eastern Europe states are deeply concerned that it will give Moscow great and dangerous strategic leverage over Europe.

The pipeline, said Mr Duncan Smith, will provide Moscow unparalleled ability to bully Ukraine and eastern European countries while making Russia very rich. Can the Prime Minister ask the German government to withdraw from the project as part of the concerted action, he asked.

All Ms May could offer in response was that Nord Stream 2 has been discussed with European allies in the past. We shall, again, have to wait to see just how far solidarity of the allies reaches in Britains new Cold War with the Kremlin.Russia does not speak the language of ultimatums and will not be spoken to in that language either, Moscows ambassador to the UN has said.

Vasily Nebenzya was speaking after Theresa May announced Britain would expel 23 Russian spies from the UK over the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent in Salisbury.

The British Prime Minister laid the blame firmly on the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain critical in hospital.

Their response demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events, Ms May said in her statement to Parliament.

They have treated the use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.

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 UKs deputy UN ambassador, Jonathan Allen, told a special meeting of UN Security Council that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had been asked to verify its analysis that Moscow was behind the attack.

In response, Mr Nebenzya said Russia denied any involvement involvement in the attack.

We were given an ultimatum and requested in 24 hours to admit that we committed a crime. In other words, confess, he said, according to the BBC.

We do not speak the language of ultimatums. We do not use that language with anyone. And we will not allow to be spoken to in that language either.

He added: We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event.

Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account.

Mr Nebenzya also accused British authorities of using propaganda war tools and having other motives than establishing the truth behind the poisoning of Mr Skripal.

In comments tweeted by the Russian Mission at the UN, Mr Nebenzya said the UK was dragging the case to the UN Security Council, ignoring its international commitments because the OPCW will not be convinced by its arguments.

It said: Incredible things are happening behind our eyes. The process of replacing the presumption of innocence with the presumption of guilt is taking place. Moreover, this criminal law principle is transferred into international relations.

The authorities of #UK are not interested in finding the truth about the Skripal case, they have other motives. They are using #propaganda war tools to influence an uninformed and impressionable public. There are no facts, only allegations about the 'Russian trace'."

Vasily Nebenzya, Russias UN ambassador, speaking at the UN Security Council (Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The United States has offered Britain its full support.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said: "The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent. Dozens of civilians and first responders were also exposed.

If we dont take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used. This is a defining moment.

The 23 Russian diplomats, identified as undeclared intelligence officers, have been given a week to leave the UK. It is the largest mass expulsion since 31 diplomats were kicked out in 1985 following the defection of double agent Oleg Gordievsky.

Jeremy Corbyn drew criticism for his stance on the attack after his spokesman said the history of information from UK intelligence agencies is problematic and refused to say whether the Labour leader accepted the Russian state was at fault.

The spokesmans comments prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Ms May in the Commons.Some 23,000 people were evacuated from a town in central Italy after an unexploded 500lb Second World War bomb was accidentally dug up.

Construction workers in Fano uncovered the British-made explosive on Tuesday during the construction of a drain on the towns seafront.

Officials ordered the overnight evacuation of every resident within a 1.1-mile radius of the metre-long bomb  around a third of the towns population.

Bomb disposal experts from the Italian Navy transported the device two miles out to sea on Wednesday. It will remain where it is for 144 hours, after which experts will carry out a controlled explosion.

That is the maximum time required to see if the device explodes on its own if its time-delayed trigger was accidentally activated during the excavation.

The bomb was discovered on a construction site in Fano (EPA)

Thousands of soldiers took part in the overnight operation, during which trains and air traffic in and around the city were suspended, according to The Local.

Massimo Seri, Fanos mayor, praised the armys special work and said the town was now out of danger. Residents were allowed to return home on Wednesday, though schools remained closed.

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 unearthing of Allied bombs is an occasional event in Italy. Allied forces dropped hundreds of thousands of explosives on Italy during World War Two, many of which failed to explode.Civilians in Eastern Ghouta have begun to flee to government-controlled areas as fighting intensifies in the besieged rebel enclave of Damascus, a heavy blow to opposition forces on the same day Syria marks the seventh anniversary of its bloody civil war.

Thousands of people carrying blankets and suitcases streamed along a dirt road out of the Eastern Ghouta town of Hammouriyeh in footage broadcast by a pro-government TV channel on Thursday.

The army said it has now reclaimed 70 per cent of the districts rebel-held towns and farms, carving up the area into three pockets as it pushes on with a final ground assault.

They are burning Ghouta to the ground, said Anas al-Dimashqi, a media activist and resident of Kafr Batna, as first responders reported intense Russian and Syrian air strikes on several towns which now mark the edges of the besieged zone.

Monitors said around 12,000 people had crossed over into government territory  the first significant movement of people out of the area in six years.

We are afraid for them, said student Mahmoud Bwedany, who said he did not want to leave for fear of the uncertainty of what will happen to him if he crossed the siege barriers.

Were afraid for their lives and how they might be treated.

At the same time civilians fled Hammouriyeh, a third shipment of desperately needed aid reached Douma city, in the heart of the opposition-held enclave.

 Scenes of devastation in Syria after deadly shelling and airstrikes and eastern Ghouta

The International Committee of the Red Cross convoy carried enough food for 26,000 people for one month, although as with other shipments, government inspectors removed several items, including medical supplies, before the 25 trucks were allowed to move.

While around 100 people were medically evacuated from the region on Tuesday, Damascus and Moscow have effectively ignored a 25 February UN resolution demanding a cessation in hostilities.

The exodus of people comes almost a month after Syrian President Bashar al Assads forces launched the ferocious assault on the district of rebel-held towns and farms.

Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian woman and children run for cover amid the rubble of buildings. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Smoke rises from buildings following the attack on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascu. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian man carries a child injured. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured child receives treatment following bombings on several areas of eastern Ghouta. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A child reacts inside a hospital after relatives were injured in the bombing. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense group extinguishing a store during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A wounded 12-year-old Syrian boy, cries as he receives treatment at a make-shift hospital. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrians carry a wounded man. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured man covered with blood at a medical point. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures People sit a medical point in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense running to help survivors. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA

The area is supposedly one of four de-escalation zones created in May 2017 in an agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran to quell fighting between rebel forces and the regime, but Mr Assad says al-Qaeda backed fighters in the area are not covered by the deal.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in air strikes and shelling since 18 February and at least 6,000 injured in one of the worst episodes of violence in Syrias civil war to date.

Illegal napalm, chlorine and barrel bomb munitions have all been dropped on the area, locals say, although Damascus and Moscow deny the claims.

Eastern Ghouta has been besieged by government forces since 2012, but in recent months the siege has been tightened, leaving the estimated 393,000 civilians inside with dwindling food and medical supplies.

Many families have taken to their basements and tunnels previously used for smuggling to try and avoid the bombs and rockets. Many are ill from lack of food and the damp conditions, local doctors say.

 Boris Johnson suggests the UK could strike Syria in response to Assad's attack on eastern Ghouta

Rebels in Ghouta have retaliated with some of the worst rocket attacks on Damascus in years.

15 March marks the seventh anniversary of the Syrian civil war. What was once a peaceful uprising against an authoritarian ruler has morphed into a multi-sided conflict that has drawn in proxy powers, left 500,000 people dead and more than 10 million homeless.

Opposition factions in Eastern Ghouta have vowed to keep fighting but as in several other episodes of urban warfare in Syria it is likely they will be forced to accept an amnesty which will see fighters and their families bussed to northeastern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold.Saudi Arabia will develop a nuclear bomb if its arch-rival Iran does so, the kingdoms 32-year-old Crown Prince has said, raising the spectre of nuclear conflict in a Middle East already consumed by war.

Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we would follow suit as soon as possible, heir to the throne and Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman told American CBS News in an interview preview aired on Thursday.

The comments come after a recent joint statement from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain condemning Iran for supposedly continuing to develop nuclear ballistic missiles.

Relations between the two Middle Eastern powers are at a low ebb thanks to their difference in position on several regional issues, including the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars. Diplomatic relations were severed in 2016.

 Massive PR billboards appear before Mohammed Bin Salman's UK visit

Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme as part of a landmark deal reached with world powers in 2015. The United Nations agency monitoring Tehrans nuclear activity, which issues quarterly reports on the topic, has so far not identified any violations.

In the sit-down with Norah ODonnell for CBSs Sunday programme 60 Minutes, the powerful Crown Prince also doubled down on earlier comments comparing Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to Adolf Hitler before the Second World War.

[Khamenei] wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time, he said.

Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel Show all 4 1 /4 Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel 20597.bin HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel 20596.bin HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel 20598.bin HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images Saudi Arabia opens its first women-only hotel 20601.bin HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images

Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realise how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I dont want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.

Riyadhs policy on Irans nuclear capabilities appears to have been the same for several years: high ranking royal and ex-diplomat Prince Turki al Faisal told Nato officials in 2011 that we cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we dont. Its as simple as that.

The existence of an Iranian nuclear arsenal would compel Saudi Arabia to pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences.

Earlier this week Riyadh announced the creation of a new atomic energy programme as part of Vision 2030, the kingdoms ambitious effort to wean itself off dependence on oil following a plunge in global oil prices in 2015.

The new policy would limit all nuclear activity to peaceful purposes in line with international law, a statement from the cabinet on the Saudi state news agency said.

 Government attacked over Saudi arms sales

MbS, as the prince is known, is currently in Washington DC on the fourth and final leg of an international diplomatic tour also taking in Cairo, London and Paris.

It is his most high-profile trip since his appointment as heir to the throne last June.

In his short tenure, the prince has already brought sorely needed social and economic reforms to the deeply conservative country, including lifting the driving ban on women.

His critics, however, say the arrests of more than 300 members of the Saudi elite in an anti-corruption crackdown amounted to an extrajudicial attempt to consolidate his power base and stifle the opposition.

In his role as Defence Minister, MbS involvement in the civil war in Yemen has also been widely criticised.The White House has hosted a multilateral summit on the future of the Gaza Strip as planned despite a Palestinian refusal to attend over US President Donald Trumps stance on Jerusalem.

A total of 20 countries as well as the EU and UN attended the Wednesday meeting to discuss the humanitarian crisis engulfing Gazas two million residents after more than a decade of Hamas rule and crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, however, refused to send a delegation, in a display of continued anger over Mr Trumps decision last December to recognise the contested city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

 Protests break out in Gaza following Trump's reaction to UN vote

Palestinians claim the eastern side of the holy city as a capital in their own vision of statehood.

The conference was also expected to reveal details of the Trump administrations peace plan for the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict - again without input from Palestinian groups.

Unconfirmed reports say the US plan is to propose Abu Dis, a town outside Jerusalem, as an alternative capital of a future Palestinian state. Palestinians would not hold full passports or control their own airspace or borders under the proposals.

No further information was given at the talks.

Gaza blackout Show all 10 1 /10 Gaza blackout Gaza blackout A Palestinian man works at his workshop as he fixes mobile power generators in Gaza City, July 9, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout Palestinians pray in a makeshift mosque lit by battery-powered lights during a power cut in Gaza City, July 18, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout A Palestinian vendor sells fruits and vegetables during a power cut in a makeshift shop lit by battery-powered light in Beit Lahiya town, in the northern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout A Palestinian woman is seen from the window of her kitchen as she uses a candle light to prepare food during a power cut in Beit Lahiya town, in the northern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout Buildings are seen at night in Gaza City, July 18, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout Buildings are seen at night during a power cut in Gaza City, July 18 REUTERS Gaza blackout A Palestinian woman washes dishes in her kitchen as she uses a candle light during a power cut in Beit Lahiya town, in the northern Gaza Strip, July 13, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout Members of a Palestinian family prepare food on a fire on a beach during a power cut in the northern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2017. REUTERS Gaza blackout Palestinians make food during a hot weather on a beach during a power cut in the northern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2017 REUTERS Gaza blackout A Palestinian woman holds her child as she walks out of her house lit by a torch during a power cut in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 3, 2017. REUTERS

Critics, including Palestinian Liberation Organisation diplomat Saeb Erekat, called the Washington DC summit an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause into a series of humanitarian issues.

Gaza has suffered from an effectively collapsed economy, chronic lack of drinking water and electricity and several rounds of fighting with Israel since militant organisation Hamas seized control in 2007, leading to an Egyptian-Israeli blockade of its borders.

Relations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have improved since the rival Palestinian bodies signed a reconciliation deal in October last year, but major disagreements remain.

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The US made swingeing cuts to its foreign aid budget in 2018, including gutting $466m in funding for for the UNs Palestinian agency, UNRWA.

On Thursday at a donors conference in Rome other countries from the world promised to make up the shortfall by $100m.

A very important first stop was reached today, but a long way is in front of us, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters.

If UNRWA did not exist, if its services were not provided, the security of the region would be undermined, he added.At first its a speck on the landscape, a barely tangible tangerine blur beyond tufts of alpine shrubs. I try not to get too excited. My first wolf sighting turned out to be a rock flecked with ginger moss  the perfect camouflage for the worlds rarest canid. This time, however, it seems to be the real deal. Its moving, at least.

Look, Eyob, our guide, whispers, as if the creature might hear us from 100 feet away. I roll down the car window and scan across boulders and bushes with my binoculars. Finally, I land on my target  a male Ethiopian wolf, slinking across the plateau. White-socked legs and a tail tipped in black contrast with the rich copper hue of his coat. He is strikingly beautiful  like an especially elegant fox.

There are fewer than 500 Ethiopian wolves remaining in the wild, with the majority found here on the Sanetti Plateau in Bale Mountains National Park. Its a long slog from the capital, Addis Ababa. Theres no airport, so the only option is a 200-mile or eight-hour drive. The route skims past the lakes of the Rift Valley, through villages with tuk-tuks and spearmint houses, and alongside endless fields of wheat and teff (used to make injera, the ubiquitous spongy flatbreads).

Its well worth the effort. The area is home to some of Ethiopias rarest and most fascinating wildlife. Endangered black-maned lions have been spotted in Harenna, a cloud forest carpeting the slopes below the plateau. Sage-like colobus monkeys stare behind snowy white beards, while tiny Bale monkeys hide among the bamboo.

There are fewer than 500 Ethiopian wolves in the wild (Ella Buchan)

At the heart of it all, Bale Mountain Lodge has chalets discreetly arranged around a forest clearing. My treehouse room gazes across moss-draped branches to Mount Gusharelle, plunging to a meadow where cows and donkeys graze by a trickling stream. Theres an embarrassment of beauty here, and the lodges owners aim to make it easier to discover. The wolves are the big draw, of course. But another spectacle fascinates me  the areas unique honey harvest. Tubular hives are handwoven with bamboo and smoked with beeswax, to better attract the queen, before being placed high in tree canopies, away from honey badgers. The lodge organises tours to witness the harvest, which happens around June and December. But you can have a guided walk to the hives at any time of year.

As the sun begins to dip, I follow beekeeper Said deeper into the forest. Fig trees and bushes of giant heather, clothed in velvety moss, twist their gnarly branches as if frozen mid-dance.

En route, Said stoops to gather handfuls of moss and lichen, wrapping the bundle with twine and lighting it to create a makeshift torch for smoking out the bees. Barefoot and equipped with a single rope, he shimmies around 20 feet up a huge Hagenia abyssinica tree to reach one of his hives, wafting his torch before reaching in to retrieve the honeycomb.

Bale Mountain Lodge has chalets discreetly arranged around a forest clearing

Generations have been gathering honey like that, lodge owner Guy Levene tells me later over a glass of hot wine by the fire pit. After coffee, which grows wild here, honey is the second biggest source of income for the 600 or so families who live within the forest. The abundance of endemic blossoming trees and flowers in this region produces complex, fragrant varieties. Levene is keen to help beekeepers make more money and possibly export the honey. In Rira, a village halfway between the lodge and the Sanetti Plateau, the Slow Food Foundation has founded a cooperative of local beekeepers, focusing on improving safety and quality.

The relationship between man and nature is complex here, and delicate. Rira is just outside the national park, yet other villages lie within its borders. Conservationists are working to help relocate families, concerned their presence is a threat to the wolves. The graceful creatures are already the most endangered of all African carnivores, at risk from diseases such as rabies and habitat encroachment. Agriculture and grazing animals have overtaken swaths of land, forcing the wolves to ever higher altitudes.

Despite their rarity, the wolves are pretty easy to spot on the open landscape of the Sanetti Plateau. When not hunting giant mole-rats, which are endemic and abundant here, the wolves doze among bouncy white heather. At this early hour, when a chilly mist still shimmers in the air, they are awake and on the hunt.

The park is home to some of Ethiopias rarest wildlife (Ella Buchan)

Further down the dirt path, a female emerges from her makeshift heather bed, ears pricked. The animals are even more majestic up close. She fixes us with bright amber eyes before dipping back behind the flowers. The wolves are retreating for their afternoon naps. Its our cue to leave.

We stop in Rira to try the local honey. Its a deep golden colour, fragrant and citrussy. Mopping up the syrup with ambasha flatbread, Eyob tells me about his friend Biniam, a conservationist dedicated to the wolves. In 2015, fire broke out on the mountainside and was spreading towards the plateau. Biniam fought to battle away the flames, staying when others ran for cover. The fire burnt out and the wolves survived. Biniam did not.

He sacrificed his life for the wolf, says Eyob. He always said he would die for them. They are such beautiful creatures.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Ethiopian Airlines flies daily from Heathrow to Addis Ababa from 573 return.

Bale Mountains National Park is around an eight-hour drive from Addis Ababa. Various tours including driver and guide can be booked with Dinknesh Ethiopia Tour.

Staying there

Accommodation at Bale Mountain Lodge starts from 140 per person, per night, on an all inclusive basis. One activity per day (for example walks to see the honey or visit local coffee-growing villages) is included. Wolf tours are also included, though you'll need to pay a driver (around 35).Balkan countries fare badly in this years UN World Happiness Report, prompting a rather memorable headline in the regional press: Balkans Not Very Joyful, says the UN.

The two worst Balkan offenders were Bosnia and Herzegovina in 93rd position  ranking well below Libya and dictatorships such as Turkmenistan and Belarus  and Albania which, in 112th position, narrowly beats Iraq.

But when asked my two favourite countries in the world, I will always put Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania at the top of that list. And Im not  I dont think  a misery tourist.

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To many in Britain, the word Balkans conjures up brutalist, rotting tower blocks, tragic histories and intractable wars. On a recent trip back to London from Sarajevo, where Im currently based, I was asked more than once whether I had become a war correspondent.

But so much time has elapsed since the conflicts of the early Nineties, and the Balkans  bar the more obvious destinations like Dubrovnik and Split  have the potential to bring a lot more joy to tourists.

The landscape that made Sarajevo so vulnerable to siege now makes it one of the most beautiful capital cities on Earth. Its a city of twinkly hills, stunning minarets and imposing Austro-Hungarian architecture. And yes, there is sadness behind the cliches of a mini Istanbul, of East meets West  ethnic politics mean that, while mosques and churches still stand side by side, the country is becoming more segregated. But theres also the simple joy of exchange. Unlike in more obvious tourist destinations, the people of Bosnia genuinely want to tell you their stories, and hear yours in return. Political torpor aside, theres still a feistiness to the city, a terribly dark sense of humour, a real readiness to laugh and pour another rakia in the face of catastrophe.

Sarajevo is one of the most beautiful capital cities (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Albania may score lower than occupied Palestine in the World Happiness Index, but you dont get that impression on the ground. Some of my fondest travel memories come from this mysterious country  isolated almost entirely from the world under Enver Hoxhas dictatorship. I remember staying for a week in a fortress (Kruje Castle) eating home-cooked food every evening within the fifth-century walls. Further north, in the mountains of Theth (one of the best undiscovered hiking destinations in Europe), I was happily foiled in my attempts to go walking by a local family who summoned me over to drink their homemade rakia, explained the history of the Accursed Mountains, then introduced me to the neighbours.

Theres something about the Balkan countryside which moves me in a way the ordered hillsides of Tuscany or the famous vistas in the south of France never could. The little-known train route from Bar, on Montenegros Adriatic coast, to Belgrade is one of the most stunning train journeys I have ever taken. Spanning 12 hours, 435 bridges and 254 tunnels, I found myself sitting in an old-fashioned dining car, feeling like a character in a Cold War film. And I defy anyone to take a train in the Balkans without being offered half your carriage mates picnic and a few stories, whether spoken or mimed.

Theth is Europes best undiscovered hiking destination (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Of course there is always the danger of romanticising places too much. These countries have deep, ingrained problems, which explain their rankings on the World Happiness Index: strikingly high youth unemployment, extravagant political corruption and, in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Dayton Agreement  which ended the war but has made political progress almost impossible.

However, as the value of the pound falls and cities such as Venice and Barcelona experience chronic overcrowding, the appeal of the Balkans can only grow. The joy here isnt to be found in ticking off the obvious. Yes, there will usually be a tower block peeping out of your photos. Yes, the provision for vegetarians sometimes involves the chef picking the meat bits out of the stew. No, you wont find many boutique hotels to check into on Foursquare.

But these countries free your mind and allow you to experience joy in a way that obvious destinations simply dont. Because youll come without preconceptions, meet some of the least dour people on the planet.Heres a tax dodge for you. To avoid paying VAT on food and drink, buy a first-class rail ticket with a train operator that provides sustenance. Your journey from A to B is zero-rated, and anything that goes with it (meals, alcohol, even a bed on the sleeper trains) escapes the normal 20 per cent tax, too.

Virgin Trains provides an excellent example. As a first-class passenger from Manchester to London, you can choose from dishes such as sustainably sourced smoked haddock and basmati rice, served with a spicy tomato sauce along with free booze. Standard class passengers queue up at the on-board shop to pay 6 for a can of lager and a savoury snack pack. Philip Hammond collects 1 from them but nothing from you.

Thats the same Chancellor who, last November, heralded a new railcard for those aged 26 to 30, giving 4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares. As it turns out, the 26-30 Railcard is giving only 20,000 young people a third off their rail fares, while leaving millions more furious.

Since January 10,000 young travellers have taken part in the rail industrys trial of the digital discount card in Greater Anglia. This week the same number of Railcards went on sale online nationwide. Travellers aged 26 to 30, from Penzance to Thurso, were poised to sign up for the closest thing they will see to free money this year.

Predictably, the website buckled under the strain. Most applications ended in fruitless frustration, and all the 26-30 Railcards had gone by teatime. Nigel Harris, editor of Rail magazine, described the fiasco as classic gesture politics that backfired horribly.

Virgin Trains promptly launched an avocard stunt, offering discounts to anyone aged 26 to 30 carrying an avocado (which must be presented at the ticket office, and carried on the journey). Fruitful for trips to Liverpool Lime Street, but not to Appleby, Peartree, Plumstead or Strawberry Hill because it is valid only on the West Coast main line. And it expires on Tuesday.

Looking further ahead, the Rail Delivery Group said: We will consider carefully the unprecedented demand weve seen as part of this trial. Unless and until the organisation representing train operators and Network Rail decides to make the railcard available in unlimited quantities, the following absurd scenario will recur.

Booking three days ahead, the Advance fare for this weekends prime Friday evening train from Manchester to London, the 19:30, stood at 39.50. Thats what a card-less young person would pay.

Stretching out on the same train, enjoying sustenance and free wifi along with a first-class seat: holders of Senior Railcards. Many of them are in well-paid employment  otherwise they would have opted for standard class along with the squeezed middle who are neither young nor old enough to qualify for cheaper deals.

Yet with one-third off their travel (and their tax-free food and drink), the over-60s are actually paying a few pounds less than standard passengers: 36.95 when bought three days in advance.

That looks to me more like an age-related raffle than sensible pricing. A good transport network must have options for passengers with a wide range of incomes. But it is perverse to charge some well-to-do travellers significantly less than they could or should pay for fast, safe and very comfortable travel.

Time to remove arbitrary age boundaries. Some say Britain needs a national railcard, where you signal your loyalty to train travel by paying a substantial sum in return for a year of discount tickets. In Switzerland, almost every rail user has a Halbtax card which gives 50 per cent off and costs 185 Swiss francs (140) annually. But the unintended consequence, as the Swiss have discovered, is that it disenfranchises occasional users and hapless foreign visitors. There are now calls for the card to be scrapped and for Swiss rail fares to be halved all round instead.

Britain needs complete reform of rail ticketing, too. The fares system is already chaotic enough without the complexity added by railcards. Want to buy a walk up off-peak ticket from Edinburgh to Lancaster? While the fare is 39.50, there is no need to pay so much. Obvs, as a millennial might say: just ask for one to Preston instead, 20 miles further down the line, and you save 5.50. Which will almost buy you a can of lager and a savoury snack pack. Including VAT.Pet owners will be forced to pay for a health certificate every time they take their animals into Europe in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the government has warned.

Certificates costing 55 a pop will have to be purchased by owners whose animals have had a blood test showing they have been successfully vaccinated against rabies; these tests must be carried out three months before the date of travel. The certificates will only be valid for 10 days from the date of issue until entry into Europe.

These stricter rules would replace the current pet passport scheme that means pets only have to be checked 21 days before travel and can travel multiple times while their rabies vaccination, which lasts for three years, is still valid.

Chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss said that pet owners travelling after 29 March 2019 should consult with their vet as soon as they can.

However, the above changes will only apply in the event of a no-deal Brexit. So what are your rights at the moment when it comes to flying with animals, and is an airline responsible for ensuring your pet arrives safely?

Travelling with assistance animals

Firstly, theres a big distinction between pets and assistance animals. The latter are specifically trained to assist a disabled person and can be taken in the cabin, provided they meet airlines criteria and are fully trained.

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British Airways, for example, carries recognised assistance dogs free of charge in the cabin of all flights as long as they are certified by an organisation that is a full member of Assistance Dogs International (ADI) or International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF), the accrediting bodies for assistance dog organisations worldwide.

Many organisations recommend only accepting assistance dogs on flights of 10 hours or less. However, BA accepts them on longer flights if travellers can confirm that their dog can handle it.

It is your responsibility to take care of your dogs needs, cabin crew wont be able to offer any assistance to the dog during the flight, says BAs website.

Travelling with emotional support animals

Theres also a big difference between assistance animals and emotional support animals. Emotional support animals are used in animal assisted therapy to improve the physical, social, emotional and cognitive condition of patients. Most emotional support animals are dogs and cats; however parrots, horses, elephants, lizards and monkeys have also been used. One woman even attempted to take an emotional support peacock on board a flight earlier this year, but was refused.

The key to acceptance is a strongly worded letter from a medical professional stating that the wellbeing of the pets owner is at risk if they are separated from their pet, according to pettravel.com.

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The most common reason is mental anxiety or depression and a letter from a psychiatrist will generally suffice.

However, although emotional support animals are accepted by US airlines, they are not recognised by most international airlines  exceptions include Air France, Lufthansa, Japan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

Emotional support dogs that are not recognised as assistance dogs by the ADI or IGDF are not allowed to travel in the cabin, says BA. In this case, please book your dog to travel as a domestic pet.

Even US airlines are having to rethink their policies. Delta Air Lines has now tightened the rules on who can take emotional support animals on flights after a sharp rise in on-board incidents, including urination, defecation, biting and mauling.

As of 1 March, the American airline has required extra documentation outlining passengers need for a support animal, plus proof of the relevant training and vaccinations, 48 hours before a flight.

Travelling with pets

Although it is quite common for pets to travel in the cabin of US aircraft, particularly on internal flights, its not something that happens much in Europe.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told The Independent: Under European regulations EU airlines are allowed to carry pets of up to 8kg in the aircraft cabin, however, it is up to the discretion of each individual airline as to whether they do indeed allow it.

As far as we are aware no UK operator allows pets to travel in the cabin (other than assistance dogs).

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Instead, some UK airlines carry pets in the hold for a fee. Dogs, cats or ferrets being flown into the UK require a pet passport and must be microchipped and vaccinated against rabies.

However, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, owners will be required to purchase a health certificate on every separate trip to the EU, despite the fact rabies vaccinations last for three years.

Together with other treatments such as tapeworm medicines, the British Veterinary Association estimates total costs would be around 100-150 for owners per trip.

Leaving the EU with no agreement in place could lead to owners facing longer waits to get their pet cleared for travel and higher costs for the required vaccination, treatments and health certificates each time they leave the UK, BVA president Simon Doherty warned.

Neither Ryanair nor easyJet currently take pets in the hold, and only allow assistance animals on board. BA transports pets in the hold via its sister company IAG Cargo; it has a last on, first off policy for animals, meaning the minimum of noise and disruption, and features an online tracking tool for nervous owners. Fees and required pet-carrier size depend on the animal, so passengers are advised to get in contact with the airline prior to the flight.

For those flying with airlines that do carry pets up to a certain size in the cabin, they should be secured in a carrier and put under the seat  never in the overhead bin.

Pettravel.com recommends ensuring your pet has all the right kit to increase the chances of it travelling safely in the hold. It advises getting a sturdy pet crate with adequate ventilation, waterproof bottom, spring-locked door, disabled wheels and no handles (except for smaller crates).

The advice goes on: Size your pets crate generously: the airline rules for pet air-travel require that your pet be able to stand up erect and turn around in the crate. Do not compromise on your pets comfort. Give them room to stretch.

Use metal hardware! More and more airlines are requiring metal hardware instead of plastic fasteners to secure both halves of the crate. We strongly suggest that you take that extra step whether your airline requires it or not.

Cable tie the door and crate corners. Adding cable ties to the door and corners of the crate will add an extra level of protection for your pet. Although spring locks are hard to get open, it has happened, and the results can be serious.

It concludes: Attach a large water bowl. It is important to keep your pet hydrated when flying. If you have a larger dog, get a large pet-crate bowl. Fill and freeze the night before travel for dripless hydration.

Is it safe to fly with your pet?

Animal deaths on flights, though tragic, are relatively rare. According to DoT statistics, 26 animals died while being transported on planes in 2016, a rate of 0.5 per 10,000 animals transported. When animals do die in flight, in can be due to temperature-control failure, poor ventilation or rough handling.Positive news that the poaching crisis that wiped out a third of Africa's elephants may be slowing could drive catastrophic complacency, a leading conservation organisation has said.

Space for Giants warned that overall populations across Africa continued to decline as natural birth rates were still below death rates driven by criminal ivory smuggling networks.

Most tusks were destined for China, but the government there shut down all legal trade at the start of the year, raising hopes that demand would drop and the elephant slaughter would end.

In East Africa, poaching levels were back to pre-crisis levels, the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) said in its most recent report. Poaching across Africa dropped for the fifth straight year, the same research found.

But in central Africa and new hot-spots like northern Mozambique, huge numbers of elephants were still being killed. Forty tonnes of ivory was seized worldwide in 2016, the most on record.

We can't say this loud enough: the job of beating the poachers is not yet done. Max Graham, CEO of Space for Giants, said There have been some incredible successes and we'll rightly cheer those. But I'm worried we're taking our foot off the pedal, and that could be catastrophic for elephants, their landscapes, and the economies that conservation drives.

President Ian Khama of Botswana and senior delegations representing the presidents of Gabon, Kenya, and Uganda will attend a high-level summit opening today in Botswana co-hosted by the Tlhokolmela Trust and Space for Giants.

It aims to celebrate progress against poaching while inking new deals to keep up the pressure against the gangs.

The Summit, gathering as it does leaders from countries that together hold more than half of Africa's remaining elephants, could not come at a more urgent time, Graham said. I'm very excited that we're in Botswana, which is such a byword for effective conservation, and I'm excited to get down to the hard work really to make a difference for today, for tomorrow and forever.

The Summit will be held in Kasane in Botswana in the heart of one of Africa's last remaining great elephant habitats. There are more than 220,000 elephants in the area where Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet.

The European Union is expected at the Summit to confirm a 1.4 million new project with Space for Giants and the Tlhokomela Trust to train and mentor a new force of rangers sharing operational intelligence and resources across this Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.

Delegations from China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, UN Environment, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the National Geographic Society will attend.

Other participants include Maj Gen Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo, director of Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks; Mike Chase, CEO of Elephants Without Borders; Grace Gabriel, Asia regional director for IFAW; Pat Danbe of De Beers; Laura Turner Seydel of the Captain Planet Foundation; actress and campaigner Alice Eve, and actress and United Nations Environment Goodwill Ambassador Nadya Hutagalung.

The Giants Club is an initiative of Space for Giants. It aims to effectively protect half of Africas elephants and their landscapes by 2020 by uniting the political will, technical know-how, and financial muscle to achieve that goal.

In East Africa, Space for Giants has, with other key partners, supported efforts led by the Kenya Wildlife Service to drive an 84 per cent drop in poaching and reduce Human-Elephant Conflict in Laikipia County that was costing subsistence farmers more than 700,000 a year.Unilever  the consumer goods behemoth behind Marmite and Persil, Magnum and Ben & Jerrys, Flora spread and Dove soap  has just dealt an almighty blow to Britains status as a business hub, whether intentional or not.

After months of deliberations, the UKs third biggest company, a stalwart of our stock index, has announced that it has chosen Rotterdam over London as the location for its new consolidated headquarters. Up until now it had been jointly based in the UK capital and the Dutch port city. By mid-morning on Thursday, even Wikipedia had cottoned on that such peaceful hybrid existence was history.

The firm itself was quick to defend the decision and dispel inevitable accusations that it had been fuelled by anything happening in March 2019. Let me categorically say that this had nothing to do with Brexit, chief executive Paul Polman told reporters. We think both countries are highly attractive investment climates and we will continue to invest in both countries as a result of this.

But actions  especially in the brutal world of corporate strategy  speak louder than words, and despite his best efforts to set the record straight, Polman has served up a timely reminder of whats at stake as we hurtle towards the EUs exit door.

Unilevers products are mainstays of the British home. It claims that its best known brands can be found in 98 per cent of households across the country. The Marmite row that ensued in 2016 over price hikes as a result of the tumble in the pound left scores of Brits with the bitterest taste in their mouths. Many perceived a part of our cultural heritage to be under attack. So how must they feel about a grand building, in a prime location on the river Thames with an unobstructed view of Westminster, no longer being deemed an appropriate HQ for one of our corporate crown jewels?

Operationally at least, Unilever has assured us that this move will change very little. Yes, a small number of jobs could be relocated to the Netherlands, but it stipulated that the 7,300 people working for Unilever in the UK, and the 3,100 people in the Netherlands, would be unaffected by the changes.

Polman wasnt the only executive to stress the groups unfettered commitment to this country, but we shouldnt underestimate the lemming effect. Might smaller companies in the process of choosing a location for their headquarters look to Unilever for guidance? Its not unthinkable. Might crucial investors perceive Unilevers move as a further sign that Brexit is compromising the UKs value as a country to do business? I can certainly see it happening.

If theres one thing that being a business journalist has taught me, its that the truth is often far less important than the impressions and the off-the-record chatter. Who might be next? is being asked in conference rooms and corporate canteens across London, Brussels and beyond.

Other companies with a foot in two countries include Royal Dutch Shell and Eurotunnel. Both already have a nod to the trading bloc in their name. And what could this mean for the potentially colossal initial public offering of Saudi Aramco which the capital has been so desperate to win? Anything at all?

The next 12 months may well shed light on some of those questions. For now, though, perhaps we can distract ourselves by tucking into our toast and Marmite. In 1990, quintessentially Swiss Toblerone came under the ownership of Kraft foods and its now owned by consumer giant Mondelez. Fortunately, despite US ownership, it tastes just as sweet. And sometimes, thats all that matters.For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browserA fun new flavor of comedy is coming to Mass Ave. Second Saturdays: Storytelling, Comedy, Music gives Hoosiers the chance to enjoy a night of music, beer and creative storytelling while supporting adult literacy in central Indiana. At this event, a special guest will tell true stories and local comedians will improvise funny scenes. We spoke with Meredith Hylton of Indy Reads books to learn more about Second Saturdays.

Recorder: What inspired you to launch Second Saturdays?

Hylton: One of our retail associates came to us from out in California, and he was actually managing an improvcomedy theater out there. He helped produce a show with a live storyteller, and based on suggestions from the audience they spontaneously tell a story that inspires the improv comedy show that follows. We said, Why not try it out here as a fundraiser for our literacy organization. We would love to create a series; this is the first one and we want to try a second. I was like, Yes, lets bring something new tothe avenue and make this store relevant. We want to get the word out about our programming by having a fun event.

Can you tell me more about your literacy and language proficiency programs?

Indy Reads Books is a nonprofit bookstore, which is pretty neat. We are a program of Indy Reads, a nonprofit adult and family literacy organization that provides free literacy classes for adults in central Indiana. Our bookstore is all based on community donations from people who bring in used books.

What can people who come out to Second Saturdays expect to experience?

This event starts a little bit before the store closes. You can come in, it will be a seated thing, and we will have a guest storyteller. The audience will be asked to give a suggestion, and the storyteller will tell a story. Trained comedy theater people will come on stage and do a comedy show. Afterwards, Sun King has graciously donated beer to help with fundraising. We will have a DJ on site who will play fun house tracks, and there will be time to mingle with people in the community. Our dream is to make it every second Saturday.

What do you hope people who come to Second Saturdays learn about Indy Reads?

I hope that people see that Indy Reads Books is trying to draw the community in, be relevant in the community and to get that message out in a fun way.

Contact reporter Keshia McEntire at 317-762-7853. Follow her on Twitter

@Keshiamc12Elmon Myers turned 104 on Monday. Two days later, Bernice Bohannon turned 108.

Both say clean living is the prescription for a long life.

I worked with my dad, Myers said. I minded him good. I done what he said all my life, and if I didnt mind him, hed put a stick on me so we got along fine. Whenever I listened to him I came out on top.

Myers graduated from Crispus Attucks High School in 1936 and was featured in the documentary, Attucks: The School That Opened a City. He went into construction with his father and later built 28 houses in the city. Hes a member of Trinity CME church. Myers is the last survivor of his 16 siblings. He fathered three children, Eleanor Nelson, Louis and Donald, who is deceased.

Im just so amazed, Nelson said. Hes our treasure. Hes just amazing.

Myers rarely missed a Sunday service until he began living in a nursing facility, but that hasnt affected his faith. He continues to pray, even trying to get on his knees to pray although hes unable to do so. One night, nursing home employees thought he fell out of bed because he tried to pray on his knees, Nelson said.

My niece says thats the legacy he leaves with her: He still tries to get down and say his prayers, Nelson said.

In Myers eyes, its real simple: live a good life, and stay with Jesus.

Let Him lead and guide you in the way He wants you to go, Myers said. That way youll be on the right road. If you have a hard question ask him, wait on him. Hell know the answer and love him and do the right thing. You come out on top every time.

While reaching 100 is still an amazing feat, the number of centenarians has grown in recent years. According to postcensal population estimates for 2010-14 from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number increased from 50,281 in 2010 to 72,197 in 2014. Better healthcare is one contributing factor to higher life expectancy, states a report by the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

Bohannon credits her long life to not drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes and just being herself. She still cooks and sews  shes a seamstress by trade and is currently working on a quilt. Her nephew Kenneth White said she recently whipped up some smothered pork chops.

Shes an amazing lady, White said. Shes just hilarious.

Bohannon grew up sharecropping and attending a two-room schoolhouse in New Castle, Kentucky. It was in that schoolhouse where Bohannon met her future husband, Buford. After Buford received her fathers permission the two married when she was 16andhe was 18. The couple immediately moved to Indianapolis, where Bufords sister lived. They were married for 53 years before he died.

When asked about changes shes witnessed throughout her lifetime, a role reversal of sorts came to mind.

I never thought I wouldve had a white aide come and clean for me, Bohannon quipped, referring to the nurse aide who comes to assist her. When I came to Indianapolis in 1926, I was working for them.

Like Myers, Bohannon came from a large family as well. Her mother and father had 10 children. After her mother died, her father married a woman who had seven children, and they had five more. A half brother is still living. She has three children, six grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

Im just blessed to still have her around, granddaughter Robyn Dobbins said. I come here from Washington state every year for her birthday, and we talk every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (PST), 4:30 p.m. (EST).

Contact Editor Oseye Boyd at 317-762-7850. Follow her on Twitter

@oseye_boyd.

Elmon Myers (Photo/Curtis Gyunn)You Feed Them Missional Food Pantry isnt your typical food pantry. Instead of simply giving patrons bags of groceries and sending them out the door, You Feed Them Missional Food Pantry treats each visit as a trip to the grocery store, where patrons choose specific items.

A lot of times, with pantries, clients throw away half the things, said Lydia Davis, minister and organizer of the pantry located at Barnes United Methodist Church. The pantry celebrated its first anniversary on Thursday. Theyre doing the grocery shopping. They get to select the foods they would feed their families.

Thats not the only way You Feed Them Missional Food Pantry differs. In addition to food, each visitor receives prayer and has an opportunity to share any hardships, goals or discuss any other concerns. Christ care ministers listen, help patrons find services or help with job searches, and most importantly, offer an opportunity to accept Christ.

Were working on how can we holistically help a person, Davis said. Were only open once a month. The rest of the month Im working on what are these requests from people, building that relationship. They come back for that. My goal is to continue partnering with community resources and other agencies for their help.

The pantry served 670 people, 203 people accepted Christ as their savior and three were baptized in the first year, Davis said.

You Feed Them Missional Food Pantry is modeled after Faith, Hope and Love Communitys missional food pantry, where Davis received training.

Sisters Tara and Barbara Billingsley say serving as Christ care ministers allows them to demonstrate Christs love in a gentle and nonjudgmental way. Everyone who visits the pantry isnt initially receptive to prayer or the other services offered. The Billingsley sisters instead pray silently and over time, theyve seen some walls of resistance come down.

We love them, Tara said. God loves them. Some of them dont even know that they are loved, that they mean anything.

Before becoming a Christ care minister, Barbara says she didnt like praying in public. Shes no longer hesitant about doing so and her prayer life has strengthened.

All Ive ever wanted to do is be a servant, Barbara said. To bring a smile to them means so much to me.

Contact Editor Oseye Boyd at 317-762-7850. Follow her on Twitter @oseye_boyd.

You Feed Them Missional Food Pantry is open 6-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday at Barnes United Methodist Church, 900 W. 30th St.On her 25th birthday on March 15, Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt and producer Karan Johar surprised fans with two of Bhatts looks from her forthcoming film Raazi. The film is based on Harinder Sikka's novel "Calling Sehmat," about a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani man during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. (Karan Johar/Twitter photo)Amitabh Bachchan developed pain in his back and neck while shooting for his forthcoming film Thugs of Hindostan due to heavy costumes. The actor has resumed shooting after treatment. (Amitabh Bachchan/Twitter photo)The Edmonds Community College Board of Trustees March 2 announced that Clark State Provost Amit Singh will be the next president of the college. The Indian American educator has more than 20 years of experience in higher education. (edcc.edu photo)We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formIndian American data analyst Yogesh Chawla advanced to the general election of the District 6 board of Dane County in Wisconsin. Chawla, with 37.4 percent, finished second to Pam Porter. The two will face off April 3 in the general election. (Yogesh Chawla/Facebook photo)Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar during a program in Srinagar on March 10. Shankar has said that Muslims should gift the land in Ayodhya for the Ram Temple in exchange for a gift a land for a bigger mosque. (IANS photo)INTERVIEW: LME modifying technology to allow for multiple contract launches this year, CEO says

The London Metal Exchange is modifying its technology to allow it to launch multiple contracts at once, something it plans to do at the end of the year, according to the exchanges chief executive officer (CEO). The exchange is looking at, among others, a cash-settled lithium contract in order to tap into the trend towards electric vehicles (EVs).9/11: Israel Didnt Do It; The Plan Was Co-Led by U.S. & Saud Governments



By Eric Zuesse



- To judge by articles and reader-comments about 9/11, many Americans who think that the 9/11 attacks werent done by the Sauds working in conjunction with the U.S. Government, think that those attacks were done by Israels Government working in conjunction with Americas Government. I wrote the only critical analysis of the main evidence that is cited for the Israel-did-it argument , and found the argument to be based on false timelines and misrepresentations of what was in the FBI files.

March 15, 2018 " Information Clearing House

The Wikipedia article, "Responsibility for the September 11 attacks , mentions only Saudi Arabia in its section Financing the attacks. None of the proponents of the Israel-did-it hypothesis includes any coherent documented evidence that Israel financed the operation. And even the U.S. court that (based upon pressures from Israel and from the Sauds) ruled Iran to have caused 9/11, offered no evidence , that Iran, instead of Irans enemy the Saud family, was the main funder of the 9/11 attacks. None of the 19 alleged 9/11 terrorists was Iranian; none was even a Shiite, at all; 15 of them were Saudis, and all 19 were fundamentalist Sunnis; Al Qaeda is (so far as is known) a 100% fundamentalist-Sunni organization. (Furthermore, a google-search for shiite member of al qaeda produces: No results found for shiite member of al qaeda. Not even one such person has been publicly cited.) No real evidence exists that any of the money for the 9/11 attacks came either from Shias, or from Jews (nor from Israels Government).



9/11 was a well-planned operation, whatever it was. Substantial money paid for it, but little if any of that came from either Iran or Israel. It all came from fundamentalist-Sunnis.



non-Sunni people who could have been involved in planning the operation would have been George W. Bush and his friends. One of his close friends happens to have been Bandar Bush  Saudi Prince Bandar, who was the Saud familys chief geostrategist, and a longtime buddy of Bushs, and And, if all of the money was fundamentalist-Sunni, then the only-Sunni people who could have been involved in planning the operation would have been George W. Bush and his friends. One of his close friends happens to have been Bandar Bush  Saudi Prince Bandar, who was the Saud familys chief geostrategist, and a longtime buddy of Bushs, and whom the FBI found to have been personally funding at least two of the 19 hijackers, right up to 9/11



And, then, there are the hypotheses that the U.S. Government wasnt complicit in allowing the attacks to occur. 9/11 was just failures by CIA, FBI, etc. That Wikipedia article ignores all evidence indicating complicity by the White House, but some of this evidence will be cited and linked-to here:



"Politico Reports Bush Knew 2001 Terror-Attack Was Imminent and Wanted It evidence that he did). , I headlined on 17 November 2015, about this article in Politico , which had provided the evidence, but without analysis of it (and especially with nothing at all to the effect that Bush wanted serious terrorism in the United States by Al Qaeda to happen  just thethat he did).



This shows, as clearly as can be, that extremely few Americans had basic intelligence  a basic ability to reason logically from the best existing evidence regarding a given matter. The best existing evidence made unequivocally clear that Bush was either catastrophically stupid or else catastrophically evil (or both), but his job-approval numbers just soared, instead of shrank. This was an enormous failure of our schools to teach basic critical-thinking skills, and also a failure by Americas press to control in the right way the public discussion about what had happened, a failure by its editors and producers, their failure to demand a focus on the key question: Which of the two possibilities  fool, or fiend  is the U.S. President and Commander-in-Chief? After a catastrophe like this, there needs to be accountability; but, instead, Bushs job-approval soared. Nobody was asking: What type of catastrophic leader is this? Not the media; no one. All U.S. institutions of supposed authority failed.



Accountability was thrown out the window immediately. That question wasnt asked at all (except perhaps by some fringe component of the U.S. public, whose submitted op-eds and other commentaries to the press were being rejected en-masse by editors and producers  hidden from the public by them).



How can a country such as this be a democracy? The public arent prepared to function as a democracy, and the Establishment (as represented by the leaders and chief stockholders in the news media) have no interest in helping them to function as a democracy. What does this suggest  perhaps a country whose Establishment is so profoundly corrupt as to do everything they can to prevent there being accountability for the people at the very top of the nations power-structure? (The intense corruption happens also within states, too, not merely at the federal level .)



What the Politico story documented is that President Bush had instructed his staff to keep away from him the key intelligence officials (except, of course, in situations where they couldnt have in-depth private discussions with him about what the facts are and what the options and likely consequences are for him in order to address the emerging situation). That, alone, means his complicity. (One might speculate that he hadnt instructed Condoleezza Rice to block such private access to him, but in that case he would have fired her for having done so. She suffered no repercussions from enforcing his deniability  Bushs entire life was instead a repudiation of accountability, a rejection of any The buck stops here.) Bush, clearly, needed to preserve deniability. He was, clearly, an evil man, even if he wasnt necessarily a stupid one  and he was nobodys fool.

March 15, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Australia's Home Affairs Minister is investigating how to bring white South African farmers to Australia on humanitarian grounds.

White farmers facing violence in South Africa "deserve special attention" from Australia, Peter Dutton said.

He said he had watched television footage and read articles that convinced him the farmers needed help, and had ordered his department to investigate how to bring the farmers to Australia.

He had "hope" some of the farmers could be settled in Australia, declaring: "We have the potential to help some of these people that are being persecuted."

Violence on South African farms is a racially charged political issue.

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Afriforum, a rights group that mainly represents the views of the white Afrikaner minority, says white farmers are murdered at four times the rate of other citizens, but these figures cannot be independently verified and have been challenged.

Mr Dutton said he wanted to explore whether the farmers could access visas or humanitarian programs.

"People do need help and they need help from a civilised country like ours," Mr Dutton told News Corp.

"There are existing visa categories where we can accommodate people and we're just looking at the moment as to what might be feasible and hopefully we'll make an announcement in due course."

Another federal Cabinet minister, Steve Ciobo, agreed the farmers should be given special attention by Australia, arguing the situation in South Africa was "cause for concern".

"Let's be frank, if we see in this case - people who are being thrown off their land, being persecuted, I've read of people being shot, rapes, all sorts of different things - then I do believe that there's a role to be played."

Labor senator Kim Carr said he was pleased the Government had "taken an interest" in humanitarian migration programs.

"We want to make sure we have a non-discriminatory migration policy and I trust that's what this government is seeking to maintain," he said.

"Our human rights record ought be second to none in the world. It should be done on a non-racial approach to immigration."

But the South African Government has dismissed fears expressed by Mr Dutton for the safety of the farmers, saying its citizens are not in danger.

Afriforum expressed gratitude to Mr Dutton for acknowledging the attacks on white farmers.

But deputy chief executive Ernst Roets said most South Africans would prefer to stay on home soil.

"We would like to solve the problem in South Africa. So we don't necessarily think the solution is for everyone to leave the country," he said.

The Australian Government should engage with South African officials, Mr Roets said.

Mr Dutton said the farmers could make a contribution to Australian life.

"The people we're talking about want to work hard, they want to contribute to a country like Australia," he said.

"We want people that want to come here, abide by our laws, integrate into our society, work hard, not lead a life on welfare and I think these people deserve special attention and we're certainly applying that special attention nowMarch 15, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Overseas, the United States is engaged in real wars in which bombs are dropped, missiles are launched, and people (generally not Americans) are killed, wounded, uprooted, and displaced. Yet here at home, theres nothing real about those wars. Here, its phony war all the way. In the last 17 years of forever war, this nation hasnt for one second been mobilized. Taxes are being cut instead of raised. Wartime rationing is a faint memory from the World War II era. No one is being required to sacrifice a thing.

Now, ask yourself a simple question: What sort of war requires no sacrifice? What sort of war requires that almost no one in the country waging it take the slightest notice of it?

Americas conflicts in distant lands rumble on, even as individual attacks flash like lightning in our news feeds. Shock and awe campaigns in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, initially celebrated as decisive and game changing, ultimately led nowhere. Various surges produced much sound and fury, but missions were left decidedly unaccomplished. More recent strikes by the Trump administration against a Syrian air base or the first use of the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal, the MOAB super-bomb, in Afghanistan flared brightly, only to fizzle even more quickly. These versions of the German blitzkrieg-style attacks of World War II have been lightning assaults that promised much but in the end delivered little. As these flashes of violence send Americas enemies of the moment (and nearby civilians) to early graves, the homeland (thats us) slumbers. Sounds of war, if heard at all, come from TV or video screens or Hollywood films in local multiplexes.

We are, in fact, kept isolated from Washingtons wars, even as Americas warriors traverse a remarkable expanse of the globe, from the Philippines through the Greater Middle East deep into Africa. As conflicts flare and sputter, ramp up and down and up again, Americans have been placed in a form of behavioral lockdown. Little more is expected of us than to be taxpaying spectators or, when it comes to the U.S. military, starry-eyed cheerleaders. Most of the time, those conflicts are not just out of sight, but meant to be out of mind as well. Rare exceptions are moments when our government asks us to mourn U.S. service members like Navy SEAL William Ryan Owens, killed in an abortive raid President Trump ordered in Yemen in early 2017 in which children also died (though that was something just about no one here even noticed). While the military has been deploying and striking on a global scale, weve been told from the very first moments of Washingtons self-proclaimed war on terror to go shopping or to Disney World and let the experts handle it.

We have, in short, been sidelined in what, to draw on the lexicon of World War II, might be thought of as a sitzkrieg, the German term for phony war.

A bizarre version of blitzkrieg overseas and an even stranger version of sitzkrieg at home could be said to define this peculiar American moment. These two versions exist in a curiously yin-yang relationship to each other. For how can a nations military be engaged in warfare at a near-global level -- blitzing people across vast swaths of the globe -- when its citizens are sitting on their collective duffs, demobilized and mentally disarmed? Such a schizoid state of mind can exist only when its in the interest of those in power. Appeals to patriotism (especially to revering our troops) and an overwhelming atmosphere of secrecy to preserve American safety and security have been remarkably effective in controlling and stifling interest in the countrys wars and their costs, long before such an interest might morph into dissent or opposition. If you want an image of just how effective this has been, recall the moment in July 2016 when small numbers of earnest war protesters quite literally had the lights turned off on them at the Democratic National Convention.

To use an expression I heard more than a few times in my years in the military, when it comes to its wars, the government treats the people like mushrooms, keeping them in the dark and feeding them bullshit.

The Fog of Phony War

Prussian war theorist Carl von Clausewitz famously spoke of the "fog of war," the confusion created by and inherent uncertainty built into that complex human endeavor. As thick as that fog often is, in these years the fog of phony war has proven even thicker and more disorienting.

By its very nature, a real war of necessity, of survival, like the Civil War or World War II brings with it clarity of purpose and a demand for results. Poorly performing leaders are relieved of command when not killed outright in combat. Consider the number of mediocre Union generals Abraham Lincoln cycled through before he found Ulysses S. Grant. Consider the number of senior officers relieved during World War II by General George C. Marshall, who knew that, in a global struggle against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, subpar performances couldnt be tolerated. In wars of necessity or survival, moreover, the people are invariably involved. In part, they may have little choice, but they also know (or at least believe they know) why we fight -- and generally approve of it.

Admittedly, even in wars of necessity there are always those who will find ways to duck service. In the Civil War, for example, the rich could pay others to fight in their place. But typically in such wars, everyone serves in some capacity. Necessity demands it.

The definition of twenty-first-century phony war, on the other hand, is its lack of clarity, its lack of purpose, its lack of any true imperative for national survival (despite a never-ending hysteria over the terrorist threat). The fog it produces is especially disorienting. Americans today have little idea why we fight other than a vague sense of fighting them over there (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Niger, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, etc.) so they wont kill us here, to cite George W. Bushs rationale for launching the war on terror. Meanwhile, with such a lack of national involvement and accountability, theres no pressure for the Pentagon or the rest of the national security state to up its game; theres no one even to point out that wherever the U.S. military has gone into battle in these years, yet more terror groups have subsequently sprouted like so many malignant weeds. Bureaucracy and mediocrity go unchallenged; massive boosts in military spending reward incompetency and the creation of a series of quagmire-like generational wars.

Think of it as war on a Mobius strip. More money shoveled into the Pentagon brings more chaos overseas, more imperial overreach, and undoubtedly more blowback here at home, all witnessed -- or rather largely ignored -- by a sitzkrieg citizenry.

Of course, for those fighting the wars, they are anything but phony. Its just that their experience remains largely isolated from that of the rest of us, an isolation that only serves to elevate post-traumatic stress disorder rates, suicides, and the like. When todays troops come home, they generally suffer in silence and among themselves.

Americas New (Phony) National Defense Strategy

Even phony wars need enemies. In fact, they may need them more (and more of them) than real wars do. No surprise then that the Trump administrations recently announced National Defense Strategy (NDS) offers a laundry list of such enemies. China and Russia top it as revisionist powers looking to reverse Americas putative victory over Communism in the Cold War. Rogue powers like North Korea and Iran are singled out as especially dangerous because of their nuclear ambitions. (The United States, of course, doesnt have a rogue bone in its body, even if it is now devoting at least $1.2 trillion to building a new generation of more usable nuclear weapons.) Nor does the NDS neglect Washingtons need to hammer away at global terrorists until the end of time or to extend full-spectrum dominance not just to the traditional realms of combat (land, sea, and air) but also to space and cyberspace.

Amid such a plethora of enemies, only one thing is missing in Americas new defense strategy, the very thing thats been missing all these years, that makes twenty-first-century American war so phony: any sense of national mobilization and shared sacrifice (or its opposite, antiwar resistance). If the United States truly faces all these existential threats to our democracy and our way of life, what are we doing frittering away more than $45 billion annually in a quagmire war in Afghanistan? What are we doing spending staggering sums on exotic weaponry like the F-35 jet fighter (total projected program cost: $1.45 trillion) when we have far more pressing national needs to deal with?

Like so much else in Washington in these years, the NDS doesnt represent a strategy for real war, only a call for more of the same raised to a higher power. That mainly means more money for the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and related defense agencies, facilitating more blitz attacks on various enemies overseas. The formula -- serial blitzkrieg abroad, serial sitzkrieg in the homeland -- adds up to victory, but only for the military-industrial complex.

Solutions to Sitzkrieg

Of course, one solution to phony war would be to engage in real war, but for that the famed American way of life would actually have to be endangered. (By Afghans? Syrians? Iraqis? Yemenis? Really?) Congress would then have to declare war; the public would have to be mobilized, a draft undoubtedly reinstated, and taxes raised. And those would be just for starters. A clear strategy would have to be defined and losing generals demoted or dismissed.

Who could imagine such an approach when it comes to Americas forever wars? Another solution to phony war would be for the American people to actually start paying attention. The Pentagon would then have to be starved of funds. (With less money, admirals and generals might actually have to think.) All those attacks overseas that blitzed innocents and spread chaos would have to end. Here at home, the cheerleaders would have to put down the pom-poms, stop mindlessly praising the troops for their service, and pick up a few protest signs.

In point of fact, Americas all-too-real wars overseas arent likely to end until the phony war here at home is dispatched to oblivion.

A final thought: Americans tell pollsters that, after all these years of failed wars abroad, they continue to trust the military more than any other societal institution. Consistent with phony war, however, much of that trust is based on ignorance, on not really knowing what that military is doing overseas. So, is there a chance that, one of these days, Americans might actually begin to pay some attention to their wars? And if so, would those polls begin to change and how might that military, which has experienced its share of blood, sweat, and tears, respond to such a loss of societal prestige? Beware the anger of the legions.

Faith in institutions undergirds democracy. Keeping the people deliberately demobilized and in the dark about the costs and carnage of Americas wars follows a pattern of governmental lying and deceit that stretches from the Vietnam War to the Iraq Wars of 1991 and 2003, to military operations in Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere today. Systemic lies and the phony war that goes with them continue to contribute to a slow-motion process of political and social disintegration that could result in a much grimmer future for this country: perhaps an authoritarian one; certainly, a more chaotic and less democratic one.

Societal degradation and democratic implosion, caused in part by endless phony war and the lies associated with it, are this countrys real existential enemies, even if you cant find them listed in any National Defense Strategy. Indeed, the price tag for Americas wars may in the end prove not just heavy but catastrophic.

William Astore, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and history professor, is a TomDispatch regular. He blogs at Bracing Views.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power, as well as John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turse's Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Copyright 2018 William J. AstoreTrump, May, Merkel and Macron Issue Joint Statement Blaming Russia for Sergei Skripal Poisoning By Adam Bienkov Four world leaders have issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the former double agent who fell ill with his daughter in England.

The leaders say there is "no plausible alternative explanation" to Russia being to blame.

The statement follows days of diplomacy by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and comes amid a meeting by NATO to discuss the crisis. LONDON  The leaders of United States, Britain, France, and Germany have released a joint statement condemning Russia for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in England last week. US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that there was "no plausible alternative explanation" than that Russia was to blame for the attack. The leaders called on Russia to "live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council," adding that Russia's actions "threaten the security of us all." The statement marks a significant ramping up of tensions with Russia and comes as members of the NATO military alliance meet to discuss the crisis. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter It came after several days of diplomacy by May following initial reluctance by the French and US governments to publicly blame Russia for the incident, in which Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by what was identified as a Russia-developed nerve agent. On Wednesday, May announced that Britain would expel 23 Russian diplomats from the UK in response to the attack. Britain is also set to freeze the accounts of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and suspend all high-level contact with the Russian government. On Thursday, UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia should "shut up" and "go away" and suggested that Britain was in a "chilly" war with the country. The joint statement in full "We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK, on 4 March 2018. A British police officer who was also exposed in the attack remains seriously ill, and the lives of many innocent British citizens have been threatened. We express our sympathies to them all, and our admiration for the UK police and emergency services for their courageous response. "This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War. It is an assault on UK 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 United Kingdom briefed thoroughly its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russia's failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility. "We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury. Russia should in particular provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behaviour. We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security." This article was originally published by " Business Insider " - The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House. ===== In case you missed it: U.S. had access to ''Novichok,'' formula since 1999 : Does anyone believe that they were unable to reproduce it? Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. We ask that you treat others with respect. Take a moment to read the following - Comment Policy - What Or Who is Information Clearing House and Purpose and Intent of this website: It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section.By Paul Craig Roberts

March 15, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Russians are having a difficult time comprehending their Western enemy or even understanding that Russia has an enemy that seeks the destruction of Russia.

Has it occured to Russia that it is very strange that the UK, a country of no military significance, a country that could be completely destroyed forever in a few minutes by Russia, would concoct false charges against the Russian government, announce these charges publicly without providing any evidence whatsoever, bring the unsupported charges to the UN, issue an ultimatum to Russia, dispel Russian diplomats and seize Russian assets on the basis of mere allegations, all the while refusing any evidence and any cooperation with Russia, as required by law, in the investigation of the charges?

Russians, both government, media and youth brainwashed by American propaganda and the Washington-funded NGOS that the Russian government permits to operate against itself in Russia, seem to think that the many accusations and threats issued against Russia are some kind of mistake that can be rectified by recourse to evidence and law. Apparently, after all these years the Russians still do not understand that Washington and its vassals have no interest whatsoever in facts or law.

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At the UN the Russian ambassador, in response to the evidence-free accusation by the UK prime minister that the Russian government had used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to kill two people on an English park bench, went through all the legal reasons, including the requirement of collaboration with Russia in examining the evidence, to establish that the UK acusation was in violation of law and unsupported by any evidence.

Why do the Russians think the British government cares a hoot about law or evidence? Are the Russians really this brainwashed about the West?

The British government of Tony Blair cooperated with the George W. Bush regime in propagating the lie that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This lie was used to invade and to destroy Iraq and to leave the country 15 years later in chaos.

The British government also supported the lies about Gadaffi in Libya and participated in overthrowing the Libyan government. The British government also supported the lie that Iran had a nuclear weapons program. There was never any evidence, but evidence was of no interest. An agenda was in motion, and the agenda was independent of evidence.

Although the British Parliament voted down British participation in Obamas planned invasion of Syria, the current British government supports the lie that Assad is using chemical weapons against his own people.

By now one would think that Russians, both government, media, and public, would understand that all the West is capable of is to lie. The purpose of the lies is to demonize Russia and to set up Russia for military attack.

But somehow Russians cant get the message. Russians think it is all some kind of mistake that facts and legal processes and diplomacy can clear up. Please just listen to us, we can clear up all the misconceptions! As if the West cares. Washington wants the misconceptions. That is why Washington creates them.

The inability of Russians to understand the West, which Russia stupidly wants to join, is the reason that World War 3 is near at hand.

What if, instead of reciting the legal process and the law governing it that the UK PM refused to follow before publicly accusing Russia without the presentation of any evidence, the Russian UN Ambassador had simply said: If the UK exists tomorrow, it will be due entirely to the forbearance of the Russian government.

By relying on law, about which no Western country gives a hoot, the Russian UN ambassador permitted Washingtons French puppet and other of Washingtons European puppet states to say that they supported the British charges against Russia despite the absence of evidence. Perhaps the Russians noticed that none of those European governments required any evidence that Russia was responsible. All that was required was the accusation.

In the exceptional, indispensable Western World ruled by Washington, accusation alone is proof of Russian mendacity. When British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn asked PM May if she actually had any real evidence that Russia had tried to kill the former British double-agent, Corbyn was shouted down not only by the corrupt Conservatives but also by members of the Labour Party that he heads. How much more evidence does Russia need that facts are not important to the West?

Will Russia wake up? Or will its demented desire to be part of the West leave Russians unprepared for Washingtons nuclear strike, which is coming.

What if the Russian government simply told Washington: If you or your terrorist mercenaries attack Syrian forces, we will eliminate your presence in the Middle East and Israel as well. This is something that Russia can do at the drop of a hat.

What would the British and Washington do, other than wet their pants? Clearly, they would get the message and decide that peace is a better idea.

The Russian government simply does not understand that Washington regards Russian appeals to diplomacy, law, facts, evidence, as signs of extreme weakness and lack of confidence. Washington and its puppet states do not need any facts. They have an agenda. By calling for facts, the Russians show their weakness.

The Russian display of weakness encourages Washingtons aggression. Does Russias desire to be a part of the West exceed its desire for national survival?

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are

The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West

How America Was Lost

The Neoconservative Threat to World OrderWhile MSM Screams About Eastern Ghouta, US Bombs Kill Over 100 Syrian Civilians

By Brett Wilkins 129 civilians, including 83 women and children, were killed by coalition bombing last month. - Continue

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US Wants Inter-Korean Thaw Undermined

By Stephen Lendman Washington treats all sovereign independent countries, on its target list for regime change, naked aggression its favored strategy. - Continue

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The Zionist Tango: Step Left, Step Right

Must read - By Gideon Levy I can tell you in the United States, as an Israeli, we dont have a bigger enemy than the Jewish lobby. - Continue

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How Russiagate Helps the Israel Lobby

By Ali Abunimah Nothing could suit Israel and its lobby better. - Continue

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A Stalinist Purge In America?

By Paul Craig Roberts The US military/security complex and the Democratic Party intend to purge Donald Trump from the presidency. - Continue

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Manufacturing Consent

The 5 Filters of the Mass Media Machine

Watch According to Noam Chomsky, media operate through 5 filters: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy. - Continue

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Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis

Watch The Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. - Continue

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United States: The Political Economy of Massacres

By James Petras The Politics of Wars: Massacres Abroad as All American Heroism. - Continue

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Freedoms Perversities

By Lawrence Davidson Just what does freedom mean? Well, it means what the powerful and the influential say it means. - Continue

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The Italian Job: Unlikely Alliance Could Become Reality

By Pepe Escobar As Italy's traditional parties scramble to rise from the debris, two extremes  populist Five Star and far-right Lega  may eye coalition. - Continue

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Syrian army liberates parts of Ghouta

Russia says some rebels in Syria's Ghouta ready to leave with families: agencies

Russian military says helps evacuate 13 civilians from Syria's Ghouta

US aid ends up with extremists : Analysts alarmed over Pentagons 60,000-strong Syrian rebel force

US Planning to Disintegrate Syria, Not Fighting ISIS: Russian FM Lavrov

Iraq: Tens of Islamic State militants killed as attack repulsed, west of Mosul

Two killed in Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen: residents : Air strikes killed a woman and a young girl in northern Yemen on Wednesday

Coalition: Israel, Myanmar must go on blacklist : Security forces from Israel, Myanmar and Afghanistan should be on a U.N. blacklist for killings and other violations of children's rights.

Unwelcome visit: Pressure mounts on Theresa May to question Saudi human rights abuses

PM: Theresa May says alliance with Saudi Arabia has saved hundreds of lives

UK partly responsible for Yemen civilian deaths, says Labour

Jeremy Corbyn accuses UK military of 'directing war' by Saudi Arabia in Yemen

Sen. Chris Murphy: The U.S. Is Exporting Violence & Killing Civilians in Illegal War in Yemen

Legal Scholars Trash Pentagon's Effort To Prevent Senate Debate On Yemen War

Highly Classified Israeli Army Systems Revealed Online : Official document posted on internet mentions two Israeli army systems whose existence had never been made public

Watch: Netanyahu Gives Paratroopers Red Beret to Rep. Steve Scalise : Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA 1st District) an IDF Paratroopers red beret, in appreciation of his support for Israel.

Schumer and Dems outdo Trump at AIPAC theres no peace because Palestinians dont believe in Torah

Congressmen call for foreign agent tag for Al Jazeera as it digs into pro-Israel lobby

Israeli army erects checkpoints to collect Palestinians' personal details

Third Netanyahu confidant turns against him , to hand over recordings

Why Pakistan has troops in Saudi Arabia  and what it means for the Middle East

In historic first, Air India cleared for Israel flights over Saudi Arabia

Netanyahu attacks Iran and says Trump still set to abandon nuclear deal

Boko Haram kills 10 in Nigerian attacks: militia

Taliban key commander among 4 killed in Afghanistan

Afghan official among 2 killed in suicide bombing

Pakistan: US kills at least 20 alleged terrorists in Kunar

Seoul: North Korea says it has no reason to possess nuclear weapons if it has security guarantee

Putin Praises Trump, Says US Political System Eating Itself

Ukraine begins seizure of Russian energy giant Gazprom's assets, citing Stockholm court decision

Watch: Police officer hospitalised as Scotland Yard reveals nerve agent was used in Russian spy case

UK Tabloid Presents Text of 8th Grader as Proof of Anti-Spy Conspiracy: British media believes Moscow has been caught red-handed, as an investigation into the alleged poisoning of a Russian ex-spy gets underway in the UK

Russia: Efforts to link us to ill ex-agent in UK designed to spoil ties

EU Rejects UK Trade Demands and Says Brexit Means Losing Out

Brain prize winner calls Brexit a 'disaster' for the NHS and science

EU tells Trump trade wars are 'easy to lose,'

European Commission Drafts $3.5 Billion Package of Potential US Tariffs: Report

18 trade partners urge US to reconsider tariffs

Non-partisan group predicts Trump tariffs would cost 146,000 jobs

White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn Quits

Wall Street should be afraid of what Trump does next after Cohn's departure

Google Is Quietly Providing U.S. With AI Technology for Assassinations

"Manufacturing Consent" 25 Years Later: Edward S. Herman (co-author with Noam Chomsky of "Manufacturing Consent')

Boy Allegedly Interested in ISIS Charged With Bringing Smoking Bomb to School

Trump Administration Sues California Over Immigration Laws

Jeff Sessions comes to Sacramento with a warning, and tensions explodeSpeaking today at maiden edition of Ripples Nigeria Dialogue in Lagos, former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi said many Nigerians will stop shouting over what senators earn, if he reveals what Governor earn. The statement sent a lot of ripples through the Nigerian social media sphere and Nigerians reacted thus:

Politicians campaign based on problems that are on ground, so why do they get into office and starts complaining about the problems they met, what did they expect to meet? what did they promise to do doing the campaign?  Peter Obi#RipplesDialogue  FAVOUR ONYEOZIRI (GCFR) (@Rouvafe) March 15, 2018

None of you knows what a governor earns, quote me anywhere if you know you wont be here, he said. It is something you cant imagine. You just know the one of senators, and you are shouting, but what if you know that of the governors? Peter Obi  Moroco (@ibrahimu14) March 15, 2018

The Dialogue is put together by the Ripples Centre for Data and Investigative Journalism, (RCDIJ) in partnership with Ripples Nigeria. Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, were among dignitaries billed to speak at the maiden edition of the Ripples Nigeria Dialogue.President Muhammadu Buhari speaking during a townhall meeting in Damaturu, Yobe state capital on Wednesday, said his government acted immediately it learnt of the kidnap at Dapchi far better than how is predecessor responded.

Recall that former President Goodluck Jonathan was accused of not responding to the Chibok incident on time because he felt it was the antics of the opposition.

Nigerians have faulted this statement saying Jonathan was voted out because of his incompetence and Buhari should stop the blame game else be ready to be voted out in 2019.

President Muhammadu Buhari @MBuhari 's tour was supposed to be of empathy and condolence instead it has turned into show of incompetence.

Can someone tell PMB he was not voted to drag title of incompetence with Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan?

He should leave GEJ alone!  Aisha Yesufu (@AishaYesufu) March 14, 2018

Those who brought Buhari out of his hiding place in Aso Rock should return him. The other day in Benue he said he didnt know IGP disobeyed his order. Today in Yobe, he said he performed well than Jonathan over Dapchi. This old man! So he is now in competition of abduction  Adeyanju Deji  (@adeyanjudeji) March 14, 2018





What do you think???A lot of people listened to President Buharis speech during Ghanas 61st Independence celebrations. However, not many, including controversial celebrity Afia Schwarzenegger, were impressed.

The President of Nigeria said Nigeria will help Ghana fight corruption. This didnt go down well with citizens from both countries as everybody knows corruption especially within political office, is what has relegated the Giant of Africa to the background with poverty ravaging its people.

Anyway, while reacting to Buharis speech, Afia Schwarzenegger called out Buhari and directed him to Mathew 7:3-5.

She wrote:

Thiz is BigSisterAfrica

Buhari!!!!!! you have 20 secs to grab a bible n read this Mathew 7:3-5. NB: All speeches must be well scrutinized before reading out to the public.

According to the passage where she directed the Nigerias president to read from:

Matthew 7:3-5 King James Version (KJV) 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye.

In other words, Afia Schwarzenegger thinks President Buhari is a hypocrite for saying Nigeria will help Ghana fight corruption. The Ghanaian OAP wants the Nigerian leader to tackle corruption first in his country rather than attack others for their small flaws while ignoring Nigerias massive ones.

President Buhari was the guest speaker at Ghanas 61st independence anniversary. And in his speech to the country people of Ghana, the Nigerian president had mentioned that Nigeria will assist Ghana in fighting corruption.

This statement angered a lot of Ghanaians and some even instructed President Buhari to tackle the snake that swallowed money in his country first and then later come to Ghana to help them fight corruption.Punch

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said his administrations response to the February 19 abduction of 110 pupils of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, was better than the response of the last administration to a similar abduction in Chibok, Borno State.

Vanguard

PORT HARCOURT Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said the failure of Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to relocate to Benue State as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, showed that the president was losing control of his security chiefs, even as the Chief Security Officer of the nation.

The Sun

Senator Babafemi Ojudu is the Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Muhammadu Buhari. He recently declared his intention to run for the governorship of Ekiti State. He speaks on how he plans to win the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and ensure that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is defeated. Thisday

Two riot policemen attached to the military Special Task Force (STF) on security in Plateau State and scores of civilians were killed in a sporadic gun duel between suspected Fulani herdsmen and security agents wednesday morning at Rafiki, Dong and Maifarin-mota villages in Bassa Local Government Area of the state.

Daily Times We generated over N38bn for FG in 2017  Immigration boss The Comptroller General (CG) of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammed Babandede, has said that the NIS has generated more than N38billion between January and December 2017 from passport revenue, address verification fee, non refundable administration fee, e-pass among others. Daily Trust

National Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Uche Secondus, on Wednesday said the party was coming up with Generation Next programme for repositioning youths to take over leadership in 2019.

Tribune

SPECIAL Assistant to Former President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri said on Wednesday that President Muhammadu Buhari lied by claiming that he handled the Dapchi Girls kidnapping saga better than Jonathan handled the Chibok girls kidnap. The Nation Buhari: we will bring back Dapchi, Chibok girls safely It was a tearful scene yesterday in Dapchi, the Yobe State community where Boko Haram snatched away 110 girls on February 19. The HeraldAmercian Pop star Rihanna is excited about the love she has received from a Childrenss dance group named Dream Catchers from a little corner in Ikorodu, Lagos Nigeria.

Rihanna had posted a video of the children dancing which she captioned when I found out that I was the first female artist to cross 2 billion worldwide streams on Apple Music! God is too lit!!!!. That post has since gotten over 2.5million likes.

However, in yet another post, Rihanna also posted a new photo of the same kids who had shared a photo of them carrying a poster which read Thank you, Rihanna, we love you. This is in response to the popstar sharing their video to which they were dancing to Nigerian star, Wizkids latest release Nowo.

An emotional Rihanna yet again, reposted the kids pictures which she claims had personally made her day.

Source  36NGAt the laser and infrared spectrometer: Prof. Peter Vohringer (left) and Steffen Straub in the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at University of Bonn. (c) Photo: Barbara Frommann/Uni Bonn

Every day, nature shows humans how to elegantly bind carbon dioxide from the air and transform it into a much-needed raw material. Plants perform photosynthesis with their green leaves when exposed to light. Oxygen and the much-needed energy and nutrient supplier sugar are created from carbon dioxide and water with the help of sunlight.

Scientists have been striving to mimic this model for a long time, for instance in order to use carbon dioxide for the chemical industry, says Prof. Dr. Peter Vohringer from the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry of the University of Bonn. What makes the concept hard to implement is that it is very difficult to push carbon dioxide into new partnerships with other molecules.

With his team, the physico-chemist has now discovered a new way of generating a highly reactive variant of the inert and hard-to-bind greenhouse gas. The researchers used a so-called iron complex: The center contains a positively charged iron atom, to which the constituents of the carbon dioxide are already bound multiple times.

The scientists shot ultrashort laser pulses of ultraviolet light onto this iron complex, which broke certain bonds. The resulting product was a so-called carbon dioxide radical, which also forms new bonds with a certain radicality.

Such radicals have a single electron in their outer shell that urgently wants to bind permanently to another molecule or atom. It is this unpaired electron that distinguishes our reactive radical anion bound to the central iron atom from the inert carbon dioxide and makes it so promising for chemical processes, explains lead author Steffen Straub from Vohringer's team. The radicals could in turn be the building blocks for interesting chemical products, such as methanol as a fuel or urea for chemical syntheses and salicylic acid as a pain medication.

Spectrometer shows molecules at work

With their laser and infrared spectrometer, a large apparatus in the basement of the institute, the scientists watch the molecules at work. The spectrometer measures the characteristic vibrations of the molecules, and this fingerprint allows them to identify the bonds between different atoms. The formation of the carbon dioxide radical within the iron complex changes the bonds between the atoms, which reduces the frequency of the characteristic carbon dioxide vibration, explains Straub.

With forensic instinct, the scientists were able to prove that the laser pulses really do produce the reactive carbon dioxide radical. First, the team simulated the vibrational spectra of the molecules on the computer, then compared the calculations to the measurements.

The result: Simulation and experiment were indeed an excellent match. Like a molecular motion picture, the spectrometer took snapshots in the unimaginable temporal resolution of millionths of a billionth of a second. On the basis of the spectra, which correspond to the individual images of a film, it can thus be revealed  essentially in slow motion  how the iron complex deforms under pulsed laser illumination over several stages, the bonds break up and finally the radical is formed.

Our findings have the potential to fundamentally change ideas about how to extract the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to produce important chemical products, says Vohringer. However, suitable catalysts would still have to be developed for industrial use because laser pulses are not efficient for large-scale conversion. Nonetheless, our results provide clues as to how such a catalyst would have to be designed, adds the scientist. The current study fits in with the multidisciplinary key profile areas on sustainability as well as matter research at the University of Bonn.

Publication: Steffen Straub, Paul Brunker, Jorg Lindner, and Peter Vohringer: An Iron Complex with a Bent, O-Coordinated CO2-Ligand Discovered by Femtosecond Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy, Angewandte Chemie (DOI: 10.1002/ange.201800672) und Angewandte Chemie International Edition (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201800672)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Peter Vohringer

Molecular Physical Chemistry Group

Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Tel. +49(0)228/737050

E-mail: p.voehringer@uni-bonn.deThis is the target chamber (front) and ultra-high intensity laser (back) used in the micro-scale fusion experiment at Colorado State University Credit: Advanced Beam Laboratory/Colorado State University

Nuclear fusion, the process that powers our sun, happens when nuclear reactions between light elements produce heavier ones. It's also happening  at a smaller scale  in a Colorado State University laboratory.

Using a compact but powerful laser to heat arrays of ordered nanowires, CSU scientists and collaborators have demonstrated micro-scale nuclear fusion in the lab. They have achieved record-setting efficiency for the generation of neutrons  chargeless sub-atomic particles resulting from the fusion process.

Their work is detailed in a paper published in Nature Communications, and is led by Jorge Rocca, University Distinguished Professor in electrical and computer engineering and physics. The paper's first author is Alden Curtis, a CSU graduate student.

Laser-driven controlled fusion experiments are typically done at multi-hundred-million-dollar lasers housed in stadium-sized buildings. Such experiments are usually geared toward harnessing fusion for clean energy applications.

In contrast, Rocca's team of students, research scientists and collaborators, work with an ultra fast, high-powered tabletop laser they built from scratch. They use their fast, pulsed laser to irradiate a target of invisible wires and instantly create extremely hot, dense plasmas  with conditions approaching those inside the sun. These plasmas drive fusion reactions, giving off helium and flashes of energetic neutrons.

In their Nature Communications experiment, the team produced a record number of neutrons per unit of laser energy  about 500 times better than experiments that use conventional flat targets from the same material. Their laser's target was an array of nanowires made out of a material called deuterated polyethylene. The material is similar to the widely used polyethylene plastic, but its common hydrogen atoms are substituted by deuterium, a heavier kind of hydrogen atom.

The efforts were supported by intensive computer simulations conducted at the University of Dusseldorf (Germany), and at CSU.

Making fusion neutrons efficiently, at a small scale, could lead to advances in neutron-based imaging, and neutron probes to gain insight on the structure and properties of materials. The results also contribute to understanding interactions of ultra-intense laser light with matter.

###

The paper is titled Micro-scale fusion in dense relativistic nanowire array plasmas. The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and by Mission Support Test Services, LLC.This content is from: Corner Office

The firm has taken a stake in Essentia Analytics, which has made a business out of helping active portfolio managers get a handle on their behavioral biases and generate better returns.PLANTATION, Fla. - March 15, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Cheddar, a leading post-cable network, announced today the launch of "Crypto Craze," a 30-minute weekly cryptocurrency trading show sponsored by TradeStation, a leading online securities broker and futures commission merchant.

"Crypto Craze" will air on Cheddar Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET, live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

"Crypto Craze" will explore trading and investment strategies in the dynamic world of cryptocurrencies. Prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and other digital assets were quite volatile in 2017, and piqued interest from investors, particularly millennial investors who make up a large portion of Cheddar's target viewing audience.

In addition to covering tokens like Bitcoin, "Crypto Craze" will examine all things crypto, including blockchain technology, mining, ICOs, the ever-changing regulatory climate, opportunities and risks, and other issues that form the rapidly expanding universe of crypto. Viewers will hear from analysts, traders, legislators and others, as well as learn how to use TradeStation's platform to monitor cryptocurrency prices and trade Bitcoin futures contracts.

"Crypto Craze" is the second Cheddar show sponsored by TradeStation. Last summer, Cheddar premiered "The Long and the Short," a 30-minute weekly stock trading show sponsored by TradeStation. Airing Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ET, "The Long and the Short" explores both near- and long-term potential trading strategies for millennials.

"We're excited to sponsor Cheddar's new 'Crypto Craze' show," said John Bartleman, President of TradeStation Group, Inc. "TradeStation has been at the forefront in offering our customers the ability to trade Bitcoin futures on the CFE and CME exchanges. 'Crypto Craze' is another opportunity to showcase our award-winning* trading platform while exposing a new generation of investors to these products and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency markets."

"The 'Crypto Craze' is real and it's here to stay," said Jon Steinberg, founder and CEO of Cheddar. "Cheddar's new show will give viewers real-time metrics with in-depth analysis of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, regulation and initial coin offerings. It won't be the old guard telling you about a phenomenon they don't understand. The 'Crypto Craze' cuts through the noise and tells you what matters in the world of cryptocurrency."

"Crypto Craze" is solely educational and informational, is not intended to give investment or trading advice or recommendations of any kind, and neither TradeStation nor Cheddar will be giving any such advice or recommendations. Not all products are suitable for all investors.

* Visit TradeStation.com/Awards for more information.

About TradeStation Group, Inc.

TradeStation Group, Inc., through its principal operating subsidiary, TradeStation Securities, Inc., offers the TradeStation analysis and trading platform to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. The TradeStation platform offers electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom equities, options and futures trading strategies. TradeStation Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Monex Group, Inc., one of the largest online financial services providers in Japan.

TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, NSCC, DTC, OCC & CME) is a licensed securities broker-dealer and a registered futures commission merchant (FCM), and a member of major stock, options and futures exchanges in the United States. The company's technology subsidiary, TradeStation Technologies, Inc., develops and offers strategy trading software tools and subscription services, and hosts the TradingApp Store.

About Cheddar

Cheddar is a live Post-Cable Network focused on covering the most innovative products, technologies, and services transforming our lives. The network covers this news through the lens of the companies and executives driving these changes. Cheddar broadcasts from Post 10 on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange and the glass corner of the Flatiron Building inside the Sprint store. It is available on Sling TV, Amazon, Philo, Twitter, Pluto TV, 60% of smart TVs in the U.S., Vimeo and Facebook. The company was founded by Jon Steinberg, President and Chief Operating Officer of BuzzFeed from 2010 to 2014. Its investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Raine Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Amazon, AT&T, Ribbit Capital, Altice USA, and The New York Stock Exchange.

Media Contact:

TradeStation Group, Inc.

Jodi Fronczke

+1-954-652-7268

JFronczke@TradeStation.com

Cheddar

Melissa Rosenthal

Melissa@Cheddar.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VANCOUVER, British Columbia - March 15, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc. (CSE:AKE) (XFRA:A49) (OTC:ATLEF) (the "Company" or "Atlas Cloud") is pleased to announce the closing of the previously disclosed acquisition of MKH Electric City Holdings LLC, a Washington State company. The transaction includes a 6,600-sq. ft. facility ("The Grant County Data Centre") which is currently being upgraded to industrial-scale cryptocurrency mining standards.

The facility, located in Electric City Washington, is less than five kilometers from the Grand Coulee Dam which impounds a sizable portion of the Columbia River. Due to its location, the facility significantly benefits from electrical provisioning at approximately $0.03/kWh, one of the least expensive commercial rates in the world. Atlas Cloud's energy consumption dedicated to digital currency mining for this individual location is 3.0 megawatts ("MW"), supplied by the Grant County Public Utility Department with the ability to upgrade to 5.0 MW.

The Grant County Data Centre, utilizing 80% of the current 3.0 MW of dedicated power, can host up to 1,700 Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) mining servers. A second phase (an additional 2.0 MW) is expected to be completed in 2019, increasing total energy dedicated to digital currency mining to 5.0 MW. Atlas Cloud is fully funded to complete Phase 1 and 2 of the Grant County Data Centre.

The capital acquisition represents a $300,000 USD investment. Infrastructure costs and related expenses aimed at completing the data centre are budgeted up to $2,600,000 USD.

About Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc. (CSE:AKE) (XFRA:A49) (OTC:ATLEF)

Atlas Cloud Enterprises Inc. is a growth oriented, CSE-listed company focusing on the business of providing co-location and backup/redundancy IT, telecom equipment and cloud computing. Atlas Cloud will provide customers with secure power access, cooling and bandwidth to ensure co-located, back-up or Cloud systems have minimum risk of failure. Furthermore, Atlas is focused on the blockchain sector and digital currency mining. Atlas Cloud aims to become the lowest-cost producer for digital currency mining and blockchain infrastructure. Atlas Cloud owns a facility which, it intends to use for digital currency mining, in Electric City which currently offers a dedicated energy source of 3.0 MW and is seeking to significantly expand its operations with the development of additional low-cost energy facilities.

On behalf of the Board,

"Fred Stearman"

Fred Stearman, President & Director

Contact

Atlas Cloud Investor Relations

+1(604) 343-8661

info@atlascloud.ca

www.atlascloud.ca

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including but not limited to, the future business operations of Atlas Cloud. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in the news release are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company does not undertake any obligations to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

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With parents and investors urging Apple to do more about smartphone addiction among kids, Apple has updated its website to add a Families section to it. The page highlights the various parental control tools offered by Apple which parents can use to reduce smartphone addiction among their kids.

Apple highlights that various parental control features in iOS will always keep parents up to date on what their kids are doing. They can even place restrictions like preventing them from installing or deleting apps, making in-app purchases, restrict them from downloading content not meant for their age, and more. The company also highlights the Kids section in the App Store which is curated by Apple especially for children, with each and every app being reviewed to ensure they do exactly what they claim.

While you cannot control the browsing habits of your kids, you can definitely control the content shown to them. You can restrict the adult content shown to your kids or even better, limit them to a set of websites as specified by you.

Apple also highlights how parents could use the Find my iPhone function to always know where their kids are giving them peace of mind. You can even set alerts when your kids reach a specific place or leave a specific area. You can even keep a tab on their location history using the service. Then, Apple highlights how using Family Sharing, parents can share the content purchased by them with their kids. This way, every member of the family can enjoy the content already purchased without having to buy it again. The same also stands true for Apple Music subscription where under its family plan, you can add up to five family members.

Apple highlights plenty of other features and even recommends some of its products like the Apple Watch with LTE for parents if they want even greater peace of mind. If you are a parent with a kid who is always on their iPhone or iPad, you should definitely check out Apples new mini-website.

 AppleRight now, Apple and Google are facing heavy lawsuits in France, as both companies are targeted for abusive commercial practices.

The charges are being brought forward by Frances Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who has already claimed that Apple does not treat developers and startups in France fairly. For its part, Apple has stated that it has strong relationships with developers in France, and that the devs in France have earned more than 1 billion euros, collectively, since the launch of the App Store.

Here is Apples statement, as was noted today by MacGeneration:

We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France, who have earned 1 billion euros on the App Store. Many of these talented developers founded their companies with one or two people and then saw their teams grow to offer their applications to users in 155 countries. This was only possible thanks to Apples investment in iOS, development tools, and the App Store. Apple has always defended the confidentiality and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications. We are fully prepared to share our history in the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding. In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers realize their dreams and support French students in their learning of the code through our coding program.

Here is Le Maire on the matter:

I learned that when developers develop their applications, and sell to Google and Apple, their prices are imposed, Google and Apple take all their data, Google and Apple can unilaterally rewrite their contracts, Le Maire said in an interview with RTL radio. All that is unacceptable and its not the economy that we want. They cant treat our startups and developers the way they do. I will therefore be taking Google and Apple to the Paris commercial court for abusive trade practices, Le Maire said.

Our Take

It stands to reason that Apple (and Google) will be fighting this until its resolved. Le Maires complaints here arent exactly crystal clear, considering he seems to suggest that the prices for apps that developers create are imposed by either company, but that has to only relate to the 30% cut that both take from sales, rather than either company actually imposing prices.

[via MacRumorsImage courtesy of Singapore Design Week

A MARCH OF DESIGN  Singapore Design Week

National Design Centre

05  18 March 2018

Now into its 5th edition, the Singapore Design Week (SDW) 2018 will run from 05 to 18 March 2018. The annual SDW brings together a collection of local and international design activities in Singapore. Organised by the DesignSingapore Council, the SDW is open to the design community, businesses, design students, public sector officers and the general public.

As one of Asias premier design festivals, SDW champions design thought leadership by bringing the design, business, and public policy worlds together to answer how they can intersect better to bring about needed innovation and solutions to build businesses, engage communities and enrich peoples lives. It is a hub where the best design talents and businesses from Singapore and Asia converge to be showcased to the world; and a platform where Singaporeans and visitors can experience the value of design through delightful activities. Through SDW, the Council hopes to enhance the synergy among our design partners, and in turn boost Singapores profile and attractiveness as a global city for design. This years feature conference is the inaugural Brainstorm Design. This event, from 6 to 8 March, is organised by Time Inc, on a three-year partnership with Dsg, with support from the Economic Development Board (EDB). Led by the editorial teams of TIME, Fortune and Wallpaper*, Brainstorm Design will bring together global thought leaders in the business, public policy, and design communities to discuss how design can help build businesses, improve sustainability, engage communities and enrich peoples lives.



Image courtesy of Singapore Design Week

Brainstorm Design is expected to attract more than 200 leading international design talents, as well as C-suite executives, including chief design officers, design practitioners, Fortune 500 senior executives, government leaders, decision makers in private and public sectors, and advocates of design thinking. They will hear from more than 50 speakers including Airbnb Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Joe Gebbia, Changi Airport Group CEO Lee Seow Hiang and Heatherwick Studio Founder and Design Director Thomas Heatherwick.

SDW will once again be anchored by SingaPlural 2018  this time at the National Design Centre (NDC), the nexus for all things design  from 5 to 18 March. Organised by the Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC) and supported by Dsg, SingaPlural will bring creatives, including Gabriel Tan Studio and Rx co-lab, and brands such as Ewins, Formica and Kvadrat to explore the concept of play as an important experimental process that precedes design work. The showcase is curated by design studio Produce, which recently won the INSIDE World Interior of the Year 2017 award at the World Architecture Festival.



Image courtesy of Singapore Design Week

Another exhibition not to be missed will be Wallpaper* magazines iconic Handmade 2018 exhibition, in partnership with Dsg. Since 2010, Wallpaper* has commissioned the best creatives and manufacturers to create original, one-off luxury items for its annual showcase. For the 2018 edition, Wallpaper* had invited young Singaporean designers to submit their concepts for an open call for the Next Generation Designer in July 2017; the winner will be announced soon. Six established Singapore-based designers have also been commissioned for the show. The seven Singapore pieces will debut at Gillman Barracks from 8 March, before being exhibited in Milan in April during the Milan Design Week.

SDWs long-standing trade show, the International Furniture Fair Singapore (IFFS), will for the first time, partner Chantal Hamaide, founder and chief editor of French design magazine Intramuros to design the focal point of IFFS  the Piazza. Expect an exclusively-styled pop-up showroom showcasing internationally-renowned and up-and-coming brands in the global furniture, lighting, homeware and lifestyle accessories markets.

more. www.designsingapore.orgTHE wife of Woody from ska band Madness was escorted from a pizza restaurant by police after she refused to pay for her meal.

Siobhan Fitzpatrick, 35, staged a three hour sit-in at Pizza Express, in High Street, Beckenham, because she did not believe the service was up to scratch.

Police removed the drummer's wife when she and her friend Paula Nalton, 31, of Kings Hall Road, were accused of abusing staff after drinking two bottles of wine in the afternoon.

Mrs Fitzpatrick, of Wickham Road, Beckenham, told News Shopper: "The service was awful. Paula ordered a salad starter and the main course came out just five minutes later. We are just standing up for our consumer rights."

The two mothers totted up 48.50 on their lunchtime blow-out, which they were having with their children aged six years and eight months old.

Mrs Nalton said: "I called the manager an ignorant pig and he called the police on us."

Pizza Express operations director Simon Blayden said: "This has all come from a relatively minor service issue. They would not pay and refused to leave. The police were called when they started abusing staff."

Siobhan's husband, Daniel "Woody" Woodgate, who was recovering from tonsillitis, had to leave his sick bed to get his wife from the restaurant just before she was removed at 3.30pm on February 25.

He said: "It was madness, absolute madness. We have been around the world and know what good service is. I think a place such as Pizza Express should have accepted they had offered a poor service and let the women off the bill."

He added: "But it was nice my girl was mad at the manager rather than me for a change."

Neither of the women were charged by the police.A HIGH-FLYING student was moments from death after being stabbed three times and beaten around the head on a bus while passengers looked on.

The 17-year-old A-level student was knifed in the back three times and beaten with a baton by a gang of about 10 youths on a 202 bus heading from Crystal Palace to Blackheath.

He dragged himself off the bus in Kirkdale, Sydenham, and staggered home before collapsing with a punctured lung.

His mother says she is horrified and angry her son almost died in the street and no-one stopped to help him.

About six other passengers are thought to have been on the bus as the gang stole the boy's mobile phone, bus pass and a trainer before getting off at the junction of Wells Park Road and Kirkdale.

The victim, who has applied to study psychology at a London University, left his blood-soaked seat and made for his home, where his mother called an ambulance.

She said: "I can't believe this has happened to my son. He's not the type of kid to carry a knife or get involved in gangs. He's just a normal boy.

"Now I feel I never want him to go out again. It's hard to think there were people who saw him and did nothing. My son was minutes away from dying in the street."

Lewisham's robbery squad is appealing for anyone who was on the bus, or saw the incident, on February 24 at about 8.30pm, to come forward.

A police spokesman said: "This was a very vicious attack and the victim was seriously injured. He is very poorly. I would ask anyone who saw anything to contact us. We believe about six people could have been on the bus and we would particularly like to speak to them."

Call police on 020 8284 5133 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 with information.WE WILL NEVER FORGET Residents of Jamestown gather Saturday at East Ferry to remember the Americans who were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks 20 years ago in New York City, Washington, D.C, and...

Town considers broadband utility The town is soliciting a request for proposals to determine the cost and design of a municipal broadband utility. The councilors unanimously approved the motion at their Sept. 7 meeting....

District nabs states top librarian The top librarian in Rhode Island is now the newest face for local students in Jamestown. Michelle Steever was hired as the districts librarian following the retirement of Lisa Casey....CSS Faculty Job in Tech Valley CSS Academy

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but NOBODY vetted Barack Obama after Barack Obama politicized his own mother's cancer

for his own political gain during the 2008 democratic race, and then again in the presidential debates.

Did Barack Obama tend to his own mother in any personal way

during her last couple of years of life, when she was dying of cancer in Hawaii?





If I am wrong, or can be proven wrong about my concern, then I will stand corrected.

But until then, the timeline I have been able to put together shows that Barack Obama

chose to finish writing his book instead of being with his mother.

With apologizes to the filmmaker for politicizing his film,Or, did Barack Obama CHOOSE to fly over Hawaii, where his mother was dying of cancer,so he could go to Bali to finish writing his book about his sperm donor father?Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.JURIST Guest Columnist Louis Rene Beres of Purdue University discusses the true nature of President Donald Trumps relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin

I like chaos.  United States President Donald Trump, March 4, 2018

Credo quia absurdum. I believe because it is absurd. In the very best case scenario, President Donald Trump is merely incompetent, fundamentally incapable of meeting minimal intellectual and emotional expectations of the American presidency. In the worst case, he is acting consciously on behalf of his Russian counterpart, expressly driven by Vladimir Putin to sow chaos and eventual capitulation in the United States.

Significantly, however, even the second case explanation need not imply any hatred or disloyalty toward Mr. Trumps own country. It suggests only that Mr. Putin has such overwhelmingly damaging personal information at his disposal that Donald Trump no longer maintains any rational alternative to collaborating against core American national interests. Following such more-or-less plausible extrapolations from ordinary logic, the people of the United States can now choose to examine all pertinent evidence with appropriate care and attention, or they can continue to assume that even an outrageously objectionable US president may nonetheless be sane and/or uncorrupted.

If they should choose the latter, they could commit a very familiar human error in reasoning, a fallacy, siding lazily with blind faith over science and truth. Undoubtedly, Sigmund Freud would have called this behavior a textbook example of wish fulfillment, the very same term he used to explain religion. All the more so, perhaps, because Mr. Trump now continues to express his fierce admiration for foreign dictators and strongmen in general, and to impose selective tariffs that would specifically undermine the US aerospace and defense industry.

If, however, the American People should opt instead for a properly systematic assessment, they might then offer their imperiled country a seemingly last chance to be taken seriously, and also to remain recognizably decent before the wider community of nations.

In the very early years of German National Socialism, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, speaking proudly against science and truth, intoned ominously: Intellect rots the brain. From the beginning, US President Donald Trump has deliberately surrounded himself with subordinates who routinely oppose any capable iterations of measured analytic thought. Even when his highest-level appointments have become downright caricatural or cartoonish  e.g., when his appointees are selected precisely because they oppose the objectives and interests of the federal department to which they are being directed  the public reaction somehow stops palpably short of any needed incredulity.

Certain other fundamental questions ought now arise. Exactly what kind of American democracy stands solidly against human rights both inside and outside of its own borders, rights expressly guaranteed to all by the sacred founding documents of the United States?

(By their definition, the rights assured by the Declaration of Independence and Constitution can never be confined to only the people of the United States. This is because both documents were conceived by their authors as the indisputable codification of a pre-existing Natural Law. Although generally unrecognized, the United States was expressly founded upon the Natural Rights philosophies of the 18th century Enlightenment, especially Locke, Hobbes, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Thomas Jefferson, an American president before Donald Trump, was well acquainted with the classic writings of political philosophy, from Plato to Diderot. In those early days of the Republic, it is presently worth recalling, an American president could not only read serious books, but could also write them.)

The only correct answer, in this case, is a nation that is willing to violate not only relevant international law, but also its own domestic or municipal legal rules. This is because international law, whether customary or codified, has long been unambiguously incorporated into the supreme law of the United States.

When President Trumps executive orders direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expand his coercive program of expedited removal (of selected immigrants, to their inhospitable countries of origin), he is frequently in violation of the legal principle known as non-refoulement, as codified (inter alia) at Article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Automatically, owing to the prior incorporation of international human rights law into US law, these very serious violations extend as well to the authoritative immigration laws of the United States.

Similar and intersecting legal issues must now be raised with regard to this presidents explicit country preferences concerning future immigration to the United States. When Mr. Trump openly urges reduced immigration from shithole countries, which just happen to be in Africa and Latin America or the Caribbean, and calls instead for refugees from places like Norway, it is a thinly disguised retrogression to Third Reich-type criteria. In essence, and without any conspicuous subtlety, President Trump has been nudging America toward an immigration posture of pure blood, an inherently egregious stance that would openly prefer pure (read Aryan type) immigrants to all others.

The fact that such crude and inhumane presidential thinking is allowed to pass as merely coarse, prejudiced, foolish or narrow minded misses a very key antecedent point. It is that determinedly racist stereotypes are integral to President Trumps core persona, and thus help fashion his actual policies. In this connection, one need now be reminded that despite Americas codified and customary legal obligations to oppose genocide-like crimes in Syria  obligations discoverable, among other sources, at the 1948 Genocide Convention  Mr. Trump chooses to stand silently by the overtly murderous Syria policy of his never-criticized counterpart (master?) in Moscow.

Under absolutely no circumstances, it should be obvious, would this American president ever stand up against crimes of war and crimes against humanity where they have first been authorized by Vladimir Putin. For the United States, this stunningly unique presidential unwillingness means opposing our interests and our ideals at the same time. For us, moreover, this can signify nothing less than abandoning our indispensable rights and corresponding privileges for the sake of maintaining a contemptible and potentially catastrophic American presidency.

Going forward, when we should sometime look back at what we had once allowed, what will be the excuse for our de facto complicity with such plainly defiled American governance? Will it be that the apparent facts of Mr. Trumps cooperation with Vladimir Putin were just never sufficiently clear or compelling? If so, then we may all soon have to learn to love chaos.

Louis Rene Beres, an Emeritus Professor of International Law at Purdue University, received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1971. Dr. Beres is a widely published author on the topics of philosophy and jurisprudence, and his writings have appeared in books, monographs, and law reviews. Dr. Beres is an international expert on nuclear weapons and has also served as a security consultant for the US and Israeli governments.

Suggested citation:Louis Rene Beres, Trump and Putin: Whats Really Going On?, JURIST  Academic Commentary, Mar. 14, 2018, http://jurist.org/forum/2018/03/Trump-Putin-Benes.php

This article was prepared for publication by Sean Merritt, an Assistant Editor for JURIST Commentary. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.orgThe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed [complaint] a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Thursday for its arbitrary detention of asylum seekers.

All of the plaintiffs named in the case are asylum seekers fleeing persecution, torture or death in their home countries. All of them have also passed fear screenings, meaning that their fear of persecution in their home countries has been determined to be credible by a US asylum officer. After passing this screening, an individual seeking asylum is entitled a hearing before an immigration judge in order to adjudicate the claim. Typically, several months pass before an asylum seeker receives a decision on their asylum claim. During this time, it must be determined whether the asylum seeker should be detained or released in the meantime. Those who do not pose a flight risk or a danger may receive parole while awaiting their decision.

According to the Parole Directive released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website], absent exceptional overriding factors, an asylum seeker who has established a credible fear of persecution should be granted parole  if the individual (a) establishes his or her identity to the satisfaction of DHS; and (b) presents neither a flight risk nor danger to the community. This Parole Directive is still in effect today.

However, since the Trump administration took office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] field offices in Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Newark and Philadelphia have denied parole in virtually all cases. Therefore, they are now violating the Parole Directive, and the ACLU has filed suit against them.The US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio [official website] on Wednesday granted [order, PDF] a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Ohios recently proposed HB 214 [text, PDF], a bill which criminalizes the performance of an abortion procedure where a womans decision to terminate her pregnancy is partly or wholly motivated by a diagnosis of Down syndrome of the fetus.

Under the bill, a physician who performs or attempts to perform an abortion following a diagnosis of Down syndrome will be committing a fourth-degree felony and will have his or her physicians license to practice revoked. The law would also open up these physicians to civil liability for damages sustained by the abortion or attempted abortion. However, the bill does not subject a woman who undergoes an abortion procedure under these circumstances to a criminal violation.

The ACLU, Planned Parenthood [advocacy websites] and the Gerhardstein & Branch [official website] law firm challenged [JURIST report] the law on Fourteenth Amendment [PDF, GPO backgrounder] grounds, arguing that the bill undermines [physicians] mission to honor and support the decisions theirs patients make, whether it is to continue or end a pregnancy. Judge Timothy Black agreed concluding:

As the top law enforcement official in the nation, United States Attorney General, Jefferson B. Sessions III, forcefully reminded the country recently, in a different context: Federal law is the law of the land.  And federal law is crystal clear: a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability. Here, Ohios new law wrongfully does just that: it violates the right to privacy of every woman in Ohio and is unconstitutional on its face.  Because H.B. 214 prevents certain women from choosing to terminate a pregnancy pre-viability, and because the States interests are not strong enough to support a prohibition of abortion or the imposition of a substantial obstacle to the womans effective right to elect the procedure, H.B. 214 is unconstitutional.

In so concluding, the court rejected the states suggestion that Planned Parenthood v. Casey only applies to women who accidentally become pregnant or that a womans right to choose only applies to the question of whether she can have a child as opposed to the right to decide whether to have a particular child. The court added that a womans right to choose to terminate her pregnancy pre-viability is categorical and that the State cannot dictate what factors a woman is permitted to consider in making her choice. The States attempt to carve out exceptions to a categorical right where none exist fails as a matter of law  The States argument that a woman must make this choice from behind a veil of ignorance, oblivious to the circumstances of the child she is carrying, finds no support in the law.

The plaintiff and its attorneys welcomed the judgment [press release] stating: The court rightfully saw through Ohio lawmakers thinly-veiled attempt to criminalize abortion and interfere in a womans personal health decisions. We are committed to making sure this unconstitutional law is never enforced and todays ruling brings us one step closer.[JURIST] The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria [official website] released a report [text, PDF] on Thursday condemning the pervasive sexual and gender-based violence that has occurred over the past six and a half years in the Syrian conflict.

The report, entitled I lost my dignity: Sexual and gender-based violence in the Syrian Arab Republic, was written after UN workers interviewed more than 450 Syrian survivors, lawyers, healthcare practitioners and other affected individuals concerning the use of such violence between March 2011 and December 2017.

The report details the systemic raping, torture, and other acts of sexual violence perpetrated by government forces and affiliated militant groups at checkpoints, in detention centers, and during interrogations. The report also condemns the use of similar tactics by ISIS forces during the peak of their power in Syria.

The report states:

During the height of its power, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) discriminated against women, girls, and sexual minorities as a matter of policy. Stoning of women and girls on charges of adultery and executions of homosexuals were recurrent in areas under ISIL control, as were forced marriages of Sunni women and girls to ISIL fighters.

In their conclusion, the UN experts stated that the use of unauthorized courts by Syrian militant groups to justify the execution of sexual minorities constitute the war crime of murder, and seriously contravene international human rights norms, including the right to life, liberty, and the security of person.

Karen AbuZayd, a Commissioner for the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, has said [UN press release] that, More must be done to address the physical and psychological harm that survivors of sexual and gender-based violence have endured, and to combat perceptions of shame or guilt that often compounds their suffering.

The UN is now calling on the parties to the conflict to curb the use of such practices and to aid in the reintegration of survivors back into their respective communities.Two people have been arrested in connection with the death of an undercover police officer who was hit by a truck in Louisiana.

Baton Rouge area news outlets report that the victim was 41-year-old Christopher Lawton. Lawton, who was killed Monday night, was a reserve police officer and a firefighter in the city of Zachary.

Authorities report that 33-year-old Albert Franklin of Zachary faces charges including first-degree murder and hit-and-run; 30-year-old Ashley Chaney of Baker faces an obstruction of justice charge.

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said the officer who was killed was working undercover with another Zachary police officer searching for a suspect wanted on felony drug charges. Lawton was struck by a U-Haul truck driven by a feeling suspect outside a Walmart in Baker.Mythbuster said: It was over 300 killed, and wounded, y'all.



Anyway, the Russians have been meddling for decades, so this is no surprise. Yet President Obama was made aware in 2014 (and there are articles about the Russian troll farms back in 2013), and did nothing until December 2016, weeks after Hillary lost. This entire nonsense that the Democratic Party, lead by their handlers in the MSM, has dragged the nation through is a big lie.



And this:



Nancy Pelosi attacked Trump's selection of Tillerson because he [Tillerson] was too close to Putin. Now she attacks the removal of Tillerson. Priceless. Click to expand...

Y'all are so sweet to have such compassion for Russian mercenaries, like your king, who bends over both backwards and forwards to refrain from ever saying anything even slightly harsh about Russia or Putin.On topic, Tillerson, former head of Exxon Mobil which is or was neck-deep in Russia, looked like a plant, but he showed character by seeing Putin for who he is and what he is, and reacting accordingly.DJ showed his lack of character by not seeing Putin for who he is and what he is, and reacting accordingly, by his firing Tillerson.And you two, or rather, y'all?MEDFORD, Ore. -- 22-month-old Blake Crawford has a rare, undiagnosed neurological disorder. His mom, Samantha, said she noticed he wasn't reaching certain milestones like his twin brother, Brandt and took him to the doctor.

"We noticed he needed some help and something wasn't right so we looked into it. He actually has an undiagnosed neurological disorder. We still don't have an exact answer," said his mother, Samantha Crawford.

They've seen doctors across the county, from Boston to Stanford, California. So far Blakes family knows his brain is smaller than what it should be at his age. He can't stand or walk and can't see very well. Although doctors still don't know what Blakes disorder is, his mom remains positive.

"It's been hard but it's been amazing. It really is so special and beautiful and they have such a good bond. It's really made me a stronger person. It's made our families so much closer. I mean he's perfect so it's been amazing," Crawford said about her son.

She reached out to Sparrow Clubs for some help. Wednesday, Grace Christian Elementary School has adopted Blake as a Sparrow. Kindergarten through 5th grade students will do about 250 hours of community service collectively. Each hour of community service is equal to $10 that will go to Blake and his family.

"It's amazing. It's so cool to see all the kids here and see all of the support. Just the Sparrow Club just what its about is awesome. We're really happy to be a part of it," Crawford added.

She said Blake has quite a journey ahead of him, but hopes Sparrow Clubs can make it easier.

"Just seeing him reach for things, smile more, play, and interact with his brother more and more each day. It's really beautiful and amazing and I really appreciate every second of both of my boys."YREKA, Calif.  The vehicle of a woman found dead and headless in Washington has been recovered near Yreka, California. Jacob Gonzales, a person of interest in the womans death, is now wanted for the theft of her vehicle, as well as unlawful possession of a firearm.

A 1 million dollar warrant has been issued for Gonzales arrest. Authorities believe that he may be trying to reach Las Vegas.

The Island County Sheriffs office began looking for a silver 1998 Honda Civic 2-door after they determined that Gonzales vehicle, a 1990 Mitsubishi Montero, was no longer in his possession. The Honda Civic belonged to victim Katherine Cunningham.

The Civic was found along I-5 near Yreka, California by California Highway Patrol. The vehicle has since been impounded and will be delivered back to Island County as evidence in the original case.

According to the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office, Cunninghams vehicle was actually recovered and impounded well before the womans body was found in Island County on March 3. California law enforcement were contacted by the Island County Sheriff's Office later.

Gonzales is now wanted on felony charges (though still a person of interest in Cunninghams murder) and is considered armed and dangerous.

The Island County Sheriffs Office has requested anyone with information regarding the Gonzales whereabouts contact them immediately, but do not approach him.

Contact your local law enforcement agency and/or Detective Ed Wallace via the ICOM dispatch center at 360-679-9567 or tips@co.island.wa.us

CLICK HERE for our initial article on the case.The executors of an Ontario man's will are in a dispute with the Canadian Cancer Society over their request that a major portion of a multimillion-dollar bequest to the charity be directed towards research into pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest of all malignancies. Jason Clark, left, and Walter Viner pose with a picture of the late Bob Clark in Kingston, Ont., on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars HagbergBritain's Queen Elizabeth leaves after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 12, 2018. Organised by The Royal Commonwealth Society, the Commonwealth Service is the largest annual inter-faith gathering in the United Kingdom. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, pool)Lynell Anderson, researcher with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., and Melissa Hunt, executive director of the Kelowna Child Care Society, stand together for a photo at the Kelowna Child Care Society. Anderson and Hunt are praising recent investments in child care by the provincial government, but are advocating for increased wages for early-childhood educators.A city sign shows plans for an RV campground on KLO Road farmland in this file photo from 2016. The city's bylaw for agri-tourist campgrounds was declared invalid this week by the B.C. Supreme Court.Federal Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr speaks during the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade's annual Energy Forum, in Vancouver on November 30, 2017. Carr says Ottawa is determined to see the Trans Mountain pipeline expanded, despite an interprovincial dispute on whether the project should go ahead. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckU.S. President Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech in Missouri on Wednesday that he made up facts about trade in a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a recording of the comments obtained by The Washington Post. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is greeted by U.S. President Donald Trump as he arrives at the White House in Washington, D.C., on October 11, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickA day after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh denounced all forms violence in a statement posted to the NDP website, a video has surfaced showing him participating in a seminar on Sikh sovereignty where a fellow panellist says violence can help achieve independence. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh speaks during the Federal NDP Convention in Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangA building that housed Michael Hari's business is seen Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Clarence, Ill. Hari, a former sheriff's deputy accused of being the ringleader in the bombing of a Minnesota mosque emerges in court documents as a sometimes-threatening figure with anti-government views who also wrote books and attracted others into his shadowy group. Hari, allegedly intended for the attack to scare Muslims into leaving the U.S. He and two associates were charged Tuesday, March 13, 2018m with traveling some 500 miles from rural Clarence, Illinois, about 120 south of Chicago, to carry out the Aug. 5, 2017 pipe-bomb assault on the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)Family and friends of victims hold hands as they watch an arraignment hearing for Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Cruz is accused of opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, killing 17 people. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)FILE - Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is assisted off the tarmac at the Kennedy Space Center by his caregiver, Monica Guy, as he is applauded by members of the flight crew after completing a zero-gravity flight, Thursday, April 26, 2007, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said early Wednesday, March 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove, File)Berikut beberapa tips bermain togel singapore.. Jika Anda adalah pemain lotre pertama yang menemukan trik untuk melakukan lotre di Singapura, berikut adalah beberapa trik paling populer. Karena ada bandar taruhan online, bermain game lotere jauh lebih berpengalaman. Taruhan taruhan online adalah layanan perjudian virtual.

Bermain permainan togel melalui layanan taruhan online memiliki banyak fitur. Ini dimulai dengan mudah, nyaman, mudah, nyaman, dan nyaman. Jadi, pemain Indonesia sekarang bermain lotere secara online.

Anda dapat mendengar suara bermain lotere dengan kontrak online. Yang harus Anda lakukan adalah mendaftar dan setoran Anda akan dimulai. Tentu saja, dalam proses yang sederhana dan mengganggu, Anda dapat langsung menggandakan dana Anda dalam taruhan lotere dengan taruhan online.

Dengan sistem taruhan online. Kenyamanan berarti dalam hal ini, tetapi tidak ada hubungannya dengan kenyamanan. Meskipun demikian, gamer dapat melakukan hal-hal lain seperti lelucon untuk ditangani.

Trik bertaruh Togel Singapura menggunakan teknik diversifikasi taruhan

Tentunya, inilah impian setiap pemain lotere di dunia. Untuk menggunakan permainan lotere online ini, Anda harus mahir dalam lotere. Salah satu teknik yang dapat digunakan adalah penggunaan teknik diversifikasi taruhan.

Diversifikasi taruhan berarti Anda telah terdaftar untuk berbagai jenis taruhan. Alasan menelepon adalah karena jenis perjudian ini memengaruhi peluang Anda untuk menang. Apakah ada peluang kehilangan semua modal Anda saat bermain lotere dengan bandar taruhan online?

Trik lotere Singapura untuk menunda diversifikasi taruhan juga sangat sederhana. Misalnya, Anda sudah menjadi anggota taruhan online dan Anda memiliki saldo 100.000 di akun perjudian online Anda. Dengan modal yang Anda pegang, Anda bisa membaginya menjadi beberapa jenis taruhan.

Pada musim gugur, dia bermain di pasar lotere Singapura. Musim gugur ini, permainan lotere online menawarkan satu atau dua suguhan steak besar. Misalnya, saya pernah mendengar taruhan dalam kategori umum, yang menempati urutan kedua di pasar lotere Singapura.

Saya tidak mengelola semua ibu kota dalam 2d musim gugur ini. Karena ini adalah taruhan utama, Anda bisa kehilangan setengah dari jumlah taruhan Anda di Jenis Taruhan 2d Lotere Singapura. Bandar judi lotere online memungkinkan Anda untuk memasang taruhan yang sama pada jenis taruhan yang berbeda.

Maksimalkan keuntungan Anda dengan memilih taruhan yang tepat

Anda dapat mendengar tentang taruhan tertentu melalui Trik Lotere Singapura di atas. Bahkan jika Anda tidak beruntung, kemungkinan kehilangan semua modal Anda dijual. Jadi teknik ini bekerja dengan sangat baik saat bermain game online.

Teknik ini juga harus digunakan oleh bandar taruhan online yang baik. Bahkan jika Anda bermain lotere online di Singapura, pastikan Anda mendapatkan layanan taruhan terbaik. Jangan tertipu oleh bandar judi lotere online atau bandar judi lotere online yang tidak memenuhi syarat.

Ini termasuk dealer lotere online yang menawarkan hubungan dan kesepakatan terbaik. Tentunya hal tersebut menjamin kenyamanan dalam hal pelayanan yang terbaik. Anda pasti bisa melihat lebih banyak dan bermain dengan lebih tenang. Bagaimana Anda bisa lebih tertarik dengan pengangguran?

Penawaran langsung dalam bentuk bonus atau diskon dari partisipasi dealer lotere online. Ketika datang ke taruhan online, berbagai hak alami telah muncul. Karena bonus adalah salah satu pengaturan publik saat bermain.

Sebagian, topik diskon kurang menguntungkan. Semakin banyak diskon yang Anda perhatikan, semakin banyak prinsip yang ada daripada Anda. Anda dapat melakukan trik, bermain, bermain, dan berdagang lotere di Singapura.You think what the DCCC has done-- is doing -- in undermining Laura Moser is unique? It isn't. It's been fairly standard operating procedure since 2006 when Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer decidedshould determine who Democratic nominees should be, not local Democratic voters. The only thing unique about the Laura Moser incident was how incompetently it was handled and how embarrassingly public it became.

More "normal" DCCC interference in local primaries is better illustrated by how they're trying to destroy another progressive , Levi Tillemann, for another corrupt New Dem from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Jason Crow, in the Denver suburbs (CO-06). The Republican incumbent, Mike Coffman, is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country. Hillary beat Trump 50.2% to 41.3% in this district, which has a D+2 PVI. It is ready to flip from red to blue and there is no need for a corrupt, conservative Democrat as a nominee.

Levi Tillemann, who Blue America has endorsed today, asked if we remember in 2016 when Washington insiders confidently predicted an overwhelming victory for Democrats up and down the ticket? "Well," he reminded us, "that didnt happen-- we lost, up and down the ticket. Remember how Democratic insiders spoke confidently about 'viability' and tried to stigmatize candidates who challenged the establishment? It turns out those 'viable' candidates werent so viable after all. That broken system got us to where we are today." Levi is confident that we can fix it. "First, we must stand for our progressive agenda; Second, we must push back against the backroom Washington dealers who got us here." This is a guest post from Levi:

Lets start with the progressive agenda. Before I decided to run, I spent months listening and heres what I heard people say: too many workers are being squeezed by the modern economy; hard work should mean a good life; the excesses of extreme capitalism and inequality are threatening the American Dream; things need to change. I agreed.





Like you, I believe

 Universal healthcare is a right

 Americans deserve a living minimum wage of at least $15/hr

 The future of our planet and the U.S. economy requires a transition to renewable energy by 2035

 All Americans must be treated equally before the law

 Donald Trump is a criminal (and Democrats need to fight to remove him from office)

Voters are crying out for an economic and social agenda that delivers economic justice and equal opportunity for all. Progressives demand that these policies address the crushing inequality in America today. Im committed to fighting for that agenda in Washington.





But well never get there if we dont push back against Washington insiders. Lobbyists and establishment politicians are trying to slow-walk our fight for equality. They peddle half-truths, influence and big money donations on behalf of candidates and causes that dont represent you. Those candidates fit the Washington mold-- and thats not a good thing. They will go with the flow and wont stand up for whats right when it really matters. If we keep sending that type of person to Washington, theyll keep rigging the system against us. Thats exactly whats happening in CO-06.





In CO-06 the DCCC decided they wanted a white collar criminal defense lawyer (who has represented payday lenders, fracking companies and defended scammers who have targeted senior citizens) to represent us. What weve seen is a textbook case of Washington working to rig a primary. Despite our opponents crippling weaknesses as a general election candidate, the DCCC is determined to inflict their candidate upon primary voters by creating facts on the ground.





This has been going on for more than a year (they have supplied him with staff, data and hundreds of thousands in donations). Last November, the DCCC brought these efforts into the open by designating our opponent as a Red to Blue candidate. The DCCC has now embedded full-time field staffers with our opponents campaign, they share polling data with him and help secure endorsements. They traffic in lies, rumor and innuendo about our progressive campaign.





Thats not only morally wrong, its not going to help us win a general election. The DCCC has deployed its strongarm tactics here before... and they dont work. Lets take a look at the DCCCs losing record over the years.





The 2014 Bloodbath





In 2014 one of Colorados most impressive leaders, Andrew Romanoff was the Democratic nominee against Mike Coffman. Leading up to the general election, the DCCC committed to funding Romanoffs advertising costs during the last weeks of the election. But the DCCC reneged on their promise -- leaving Andrew high and dry. The DCCC cut the legs out from Romanoffs campaign and didnt spend a single cent on the promised advertising. In other words, the DCCC allowed the GOP and Mike Coffman to demolish Romanoffs good name and record via TV and radio. Andrew had no way to fight back. Why? Because he trusted the DCCC. The result was an electoral bloodbath.





The DCCC knows best?





In 2016, the Democratic nominee for CD-6 was Colorado State Sen. Morgan Carroll. Morgan was an extremely qualified, intelligent and charismatic candidate whose campaign was also tanked by the DCCC. The DCCC wanted to tie Coffman to Trump and that was the entirety of their plan: Tie Coffman to Trump.





An astute politician with local knowledge, Carroll knew this wasnt the silver bullet. She had a plan to defeat Coffman that was issues driven and focused on aggressive field outreach. But the DC insiders at the DCCC demanded that Senator Carroll follow their orders and threatened to withdraw financial support unless she did as they said. In the face of those threats, Carroll felt she had no choice but to accept the dictates of unelected, unaccountable DC insiders. Coffman won the election in another landslide.EUGENE, Ore.  Instead of participating in the walkout, students at Monroe Middle School in Eugene showed support for the victims of the Parkland, Florida school shooting in a different way.

On Tuesday, students and staff wrote messages on 17 giant white ribbons, one for each of the victims of the shooting. Everyone will have a chance to sign them before putting them on display.

The principal said theres a lot of confusion about the walkout with some even thinking it was a school activity. He said he thinks the safest place for students is in the classroom. But, they wanted to give them a way to express themselves.

On Wednesday, they will hang the ribbons up in the courtyard of the school.

At the end of the week, the signs will be taken down and mailed to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

The middle school is also holding stand up on Wednesday. Students are encouraged to walk up to others and stand up for them, promoting kindness.SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- The city of Springfield is looking for donors to help light up the downtown area.

This is a part of Springfields helping light downtown donor program. Businesses and community members can donate $500 to cover the maintenance and operation costs of the street lights for as long as they last.

The lights are reused and repurposed from San Diego. They use LEDs that cut back on energy use and they cost less to maintain.

The street lights should last at least 14 years.

Donors will receive a plaque to put on a street light of their choosing. Click here for more information.SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - On Thursday, March 15, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce held a High School Career Connect event. The goal of the event was to give students the opportunity to learn tips on writing resumes and attending interviews, as well as give them the opportunity to network with local businesses.

Local businesses have said that Lane County is coming up on a major labor shortage. Many employers are going to see a big group of older workers retire soon, and then they'll be short-handed. The community has started to reach out to high school students in order to provide them with the opportunity to be a part of some of these companies.

"This is where the workforce is, so we've got to come here and talk to them and let them know that we're available to help them with their goals," said Mark Harrington, a recruiter and skills trainer with Chambers Construction.

Harrington said he's attended several events like this, and every time he comes back with a pile of applications. He believes these events are important in introducing students to the idea of joining the workforce right out of high school, and that every time he attends one of these events he feels the students are more than capable of doing so.EUGENE, Ore., -- Students at South Eugene High School organized and participated in a walkout Wednesday, to honor the victims lost in the Parkland, Florida school shooting and to push for gun reform.

Hundreds of students walked out and at least a hundred community members watched and cheered students on from the sidewalk.

The walkout lasted 17 minutes, to pay tribute to the 17 victims lost in the Flordia shooting.

Students who organized the walkout said they hope they can start a larger conversation about gun control and school safety. They said it was an example of how students can create change and have a voice in their community.

During the event, organizers even set up a voter registration booth. They hope by encouraging students to register to vote they can play an active role in the decision-making process.

"I think we can all empathize with what is happening in our nation and we need to focus on creating change here first," Maya Corral, a student who helped organize the walkout, said.

Community members showing their support agreed it was time for a change and said students shouldn't have to be afraid when they go to school.

Connie Newman, a community member whose children went to South Eugene, said it was time to get the amount of gun-related incidents in the country under control.

Larry Lewin, a retired 4J teacher, said he believes the walkouts are a good way for students to bring awareness to the issue and he thinks Wednesday's walkout was a positive start.

"Shooting after shooting nothing happens, but now when students speak up it is going to be harder to ignore their voices," Lewin said. "So this is a potential, this is a start and I want them to know the elders recognize this. We have been trying for years and now with their new energy, we have a chance to make a difference here."

Walkouts happened all over the country and are part of a national movement.ROSEBURG, OR. -- The Student Government at Umpqua Community College showed their support for the students walking out on Wednesday as part of the #March4OurLives.

They set up their "Be the One" booth, with orange ribbons and bracelets for anyone to wear.

They want anyone to feel they can "Be the One" to stand up against violence in schools and make a difference, because they feel enough is enough.

"Its going to take everybody as individuals to stand up and say no to this and to show our support and our care to others and reach out to others to make the change, said Student Body President Byronna Thomas.

Another member of the student body government said it's about more than just gun control.

To stand in solidarity, and to stand-up for something that, quite frankly, should be common sense. You know, we dont want  I have two children, and I worry every day when they go to school that theirs might be next, said Robert Mountainspring-Wood.incumbents are asking him to come to their districts and campaign with them! The Republicans had a military vet with a mustache running as well... and on Tuesday his red, red district swung 20 points blue and he lost to some mediocre woos Democrat named Conor Lamb in 2018's first mega-upset... first of many in all likelihood. Republicans are looking for a reason they got creamed. My Washington Examiner. "Frustrated by Saccones performance, some Republicans have gone so far as to zero in on his mustachioed appearance. 'It's a porn stache,' said one Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist. 'He should have lost the mustache.'" Tell it to Randy Bryce. Women of all ages seem to swoon over his mustachioed everyman appearance. And, unlike Saccone-- or for that matter Lamb-- Bryce has something to say, something voters pay attention to... and find relatable. The most powerful political brand of 2018 belongs to Randy Bryce, the iron worker, single dad, caring son and veteran running against Paul Ryan in southeast Wisconsin: IronStache. He's raised over $5,000,000 in small contributions and he's so popular among ordinary working folks thatare asking him to come to their districts and campaign with them! The Republicans had a military vet with a mustache running as well... and on Tuesday his red, red district swung 20 points blue and he lost to some mediocre woos Democrat named Conor Lamb in 2018's first mega-upset... first of many in all likelihood. Republicans are looking for a reason they got creamed. My favorite excuse was in the. "Frustrated by Saccones performance, some Republicans have gone so far as to zero in on his mustachioed appearance. 'It's a porn stache,' said one Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist. 'He should have lost the mustache.'" Tell it to Randy Bryce. Women of all ages seem to swoon over his mustachioed everyman appearance. And, unlike Saccone-- or for that matter Lamb-- Bryce has something to say, something voters pay attention to... and find relatable.





The PA-18 race was pretty simple. The Republicans spent $10,000,000 to make the election about Nancy Pelosi. You don't think so? This is what voters in Allegheny, Washington, Westmoreland and Greene counties were seeing for the last six weeks:













and this:













and, when they wanted to get out of the gutter (a little), this:













The Atlantic, Senor Trumpanzee attributed Lambs success to the fact that he "sounds like a Republican." But Trump, more than the DCCC, more than the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, and far more than Lamb's campaign, made the PA-18 election about Trump. Trump-- who can't help himself, made the special election (in a district he had won by over 19 points) all about him. Tuesday was a referendum on Trump and Trump lost-- BIGLY! Trump is a fool -- and he won't listen to anyone. He's president so he believes everyone under him is also stupider than him, because... they're under him. In remarks delivered at a private fundraising event for Missouri right-wing nut Josh Hawley on Wednesday and obtained by, Senor Trumpanzee attributed Lambs success to the fact that he "sounds like a Republican."





After the GOP spent millions painting Lamb as a Frankenstein monster made up of pieces of Obama, Pelosi, Bernie, Pocahontas and... did we mention Pelosi?, Trump told the Hawley supporters that "The young man last night that ran, he said, 'Oh, Im like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything. He ran on that basis," Trump said. "He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, 'Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.'"





Actually, what Lamb sounds like is exactly what he is, a wishy-washy Blue Dog Democrat with no political courageousness. He's not a Republican; he's from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. And he doesn't sound like Trump at all, although they agree-- to some degree-- on a few issues.

[T]he day after Saccone lost by a razor-thin margin against Lamb, a square-jawed Marine veteran who was careful not to make anti-Trumpism the central tenet of his campaign, Trumps Twitter feed was empty of any mentions of the race. The president did return to one familiar self-congratulatory mode: He argued at the Hawley fundraiser that his last-minute rally for Saccone on Saturday in Moon Township had been an overall success, saying that it boosted the candidates vote total.



We had an interesting time because we lifted [Saccone] seven points up. Thats a lot, Trump said. And I was up 22 points, and we lifted seven, and seven normally would be enough, but well see how it all comes out. Its, like, virtually a tie. (It was not exactly clear what Trump was basing his conclusion of a seven-point boost on.)



He also attempted to downplay the races significance. Its actually interesting, because its only a congressman for five months, Trump said, referring to the fact that the district will likely be redrawn ahead of the midterm elections in November"... Trump may have attributed Lambs success to the seemingly conservative message in his campaign, but he also cautioned that Lambs party affiliation would take priority in Washington, despite his pledge not to back Pelosi for speaker. The bottom line is when he votes, hes going to vote with Nancy Pelosi. And hes gonna vote with Schumer, Trump said. And thats whats gonna happen, and theres nothing he can do about it. So it doesnt matter what he feels, it doesnt matter.



Speaking of which... this morning Mike Allen started the day with a warning that Pelosi could be in trouble after the Democratic wave sweeps her party back into power in November. He wrote that "Top Democrats" tell him that "if they take back the House in November, a restoration of Speaker Nancy Pelosi is no longer guaranteed."

 In fact, some well-wired House Democrats predict she will be forced aside after the election and replaced by a younger, less divisive Dem.

 Conor Lamb, 33, won his U.S. House race in Pennsylvania this week after saying he wouldn't vote for her for leader-- a new template for moderates.

 Pelosi has hung in through the minority, and remains the party's most consistent fundraiser. As for whether she'll return as Speaker, she has just said that it's up to the members. (Her allies note that she has never lost a leadership vote.)

 But others have their eye on the gavel, and many members want a younger, newer face. Her No. 2 and longtime rival, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, 78, covets the job but is three months older than she is.

 Pelosi is more likely to be the bridge to a younger generation. A possible successor, who works the caucus behind the scenes, is Rep. Joe Crowley of Queens, N.Y., who turns 56 tomorrow.

 Another possible candidate who's getting buzz: Rep. Adam Schiff, a fellow Californian who has a sky-high profile as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, investigating Russia's role in 2016. One Democratic source told me that Pelosi hears footsteps: She used to be retributional. Now shes more inclusive.

 Pelosi allies see some of the criticism as sexist, and say she has always been inclusive of all parts of the caucus' diversity, including newer members.

 Pelosi told the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a retreat in Baltimore last week: "Every morning, I don a suit of armor, eat nails for breakfast, and go fight inequality."

 President Trump plans to invoke her frequently in midterm speeches, and Republicans already use her image to raise funds. And in campaigns this fall, many Dems challengers will be put on the spot about whether they'd vote for her as Speaker. One scenario, from a Pelosi ally:

 "She could win the caucus vote [for Speaker] easily but lose the floor vote."

 "[I]f Dems win the majority by, say, a 10-vote majority, and 15 newly elected Dems have committed not to vote for her [like Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania] for leader of the party, ... she could lose the floor vote for Speaker. That would give the House to the head of the Republicans."

 "She would never let that happen, and she would bow out to someone else."

 "[S]hes the best vote counter this generation has ever seen. So shell know this scenario well in advance, and will figure out a way out that will preserve her legacy." Be smart: If there's a post-election coup against Pelosi, Crowley is the likely winner because Schiff and the others would scramble the field and Joe is acceptable to all factions.

 One knowing Dem says: "My guess is Crowley is the next Dem Speaker/Leader. Hes the fresh face that the majority of the caucus yearns for ... Hes a spring chicken by congressional standards, at 55 years old.""This is a weblog that is truly welcome in blogtopia  a new blog doesn't seem to be frantically trying to score points for any party. That does NOT mean it's afraid to take a stand or be critical....You really can't predict exactly where The Debate Link will come down on all issues. It's not chanting anyone's mantra." -- The Moderate Voice "[A]n emerging genius in legal scholarship and commentary." -- Jim Chen "It's on my 1st cup of coffee rss feed." -- Hanno Kaiser "I heart this blog.... he referenced Wittgenstein, and it was entirely appropriate and non-pretentious." -- kath.A.rine "[F]unny, thoughtful, acclaimed ...." -- The CoreMASON CITY, Iowa  Many people will have to make alternative plans Thursday night due to Community Kitchen in North Iowa being closed.

According to Community Kitchen, a leak was discovered at 7 a.m. and covered the floor in about a half inch of water after a pipe broke.

They say around 300 gallons of water spilled, prompting the building to be closed Thursday.

Joe Coile of Mason City says he doesn't rely on the community kitchen, but uses it as more of a social time.

"I don't plan my meals around it, I don't depend on it that much, it is just nice to have," he said. "I go here a lot for social."

Community Kitchen plans to reopen Friday.ROCHESTER, Minn.- Dozens of construction companies in Rochester are looking to hire new candidates. We spoke to some employers, they tell us the construction industry is the place to grow and work.

Wendy Brackey works for Ulland Brothers. She says not everyone is built for four years in school.

I know a lot of people...good people...smart people who just wasn't built for college.

Brackey said construction positions allow people to train and immediately start working.

However, she also adds that with construction jobs no one really wants to do the work.

I had a guy work for 2 days and he decided it wasnt for him...then we had a hard time filling that position.

Brackey said career fairs are a great idea because shes able to meet the applicants face to face.

For those who missed the Construction career fair, click here.CRESCO, Iowa  A man accused of killing his wife is pleading not guilty.

34-year-old Brian Fullhart is charged with 1st degree murder and going armed with intent. Authorities say he shot and killed his wife, Zoanne, on February 28 and then threatened police officers when they tried to arrest him.

Law enforcement was called to 700 South Elm Street in Cresco around 1:22 am on March 1 after a report of shots fired. Police say Fullhart barricaded himself inside the home but was eventually arrested around 6:45 am. Zoanne Fullhart was found dead inside the home.

No trial date has been set.OSAGE, Iowa- The Osage School District's project is inching closer to being started, and on Thursday they will be opening the project up for bids.

Those with the district say they scaled the project back from what they originally wanted to do, which allowed them to fund the project without raising taxes.

Thursday the school district will open the project up for bidding, allowing interested companies to weigh in.

Those who live in Osage say they are excited to see the project moving forward.

It will expand the Osage School District, said Amber Morehead. It will help kids that are in the school district right now and give them a bigger opportunity.

Those with the district say they will be voting on a company to build the project at the March 19 board meeting.ROCHESTER, Minn. - Across the county on Wednesday, high school and college students walked out of class at 10 A.M. for seventeen minutes. The seventeen minutes are in honor of the seventeen students and staff members killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, exactly one month ago. This was a part of a coordinated national effort in support of stricter gun-control regulations.

In Rochester, John Marshall High School and Century High School students participated in the walk-out. There were also community members protesting gun violence at the schools.

At the end of the seventeen minutes, students returned to class.

There are more national demonstrations planned for the near future. The March for Our Lives rally for school safety is scheduled for March 24 at the nation's capital. More school walk outs are coordinated for April 20, on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.Mason City, Iowa  A 24-year-old Mason City woman is being held on $20,000 cash bond and a 24-year-old man is being held on $10,000 cash bond after a search warrant resulted in a plethora of drugs being found.

Taylor Bublitz has been charged with two counts of possession of a prescription drug, six counts of possession of a controlled substance, controlled substance violations and failure to affix a tax stamp.

Colby Thompson has been charged with failure to affix a tax stamp and a controlled substance violation.

Authorities say a search warrant was executed at 850 12th St. SE in Mason City on Feb. 22. Both Bublitz and Thompson list that as their home address.

According to court documents, Bublitz was found to be in possession of 217 grams of marijuana, a gram of cocaine, Alprazolam, Clonazepam, Clonidine, Trazodone, Morphine, Hydrocodone and Oxycodone.

Court documents say Thompson was in possession of 217 grams of marijuana.

Bublitz and Thompson are being held in the Cerro Gordo Jail.Lithium and cobalt are fundamental components of present lithium-ion batteries. Analysis by researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) shows that the availability of both elements could become seriously critical. Cobalt-free battery technologies, including post-lithium technologies based on non-critical elements such as sodium, but also magnesium, zinc, calcium and aluminium, represent possibilities to decrease the dependency and avoid the criticality of lithium and Co. supplies in the long term. The researchers present these results in the journal Nature Reviews Materials.

Full text: press release 027/2018

as, le, 14.03.2018(Kitco News) - Amid reports that cryptocurrency mining attacks are multiplying by the dozen, Toronto Universitys The Citizen Lab released data showing that Egyptian government has been reportedly hacking into its citizens computers to mine digital currencies.

The Citizen Lab revealed a scheme called AdHose, in which Egyptian government or government-linked entities redirected Internet users to websites infected with malware that mined the Monero cryptocurrency without the users knowledge.

On a number of occasions, the middleboxes were apparently being used to hijack Egyptian Internet users unencrypted web connections en masse, and redirect the users to revenue-generating content such as affiliate ads and browser cryptocurrency mining scripts, said the report, which was published on Friday.

One of the modes within the AdHose scheme was to force malicious ads or websites on Egyptian users.

It is unclear how many people were impacted by this. AdHose is likely an effort to covertly raise money, the report added.

Similar tactics were reportedly used in Turkey and Syria, but in those instances, malicious software was said to be employed to spy on citizens.

Similar tactic was also used to block access to a number of websites, including Al Jazeera, Reporters Without Borders and HuffPost Arabi, according to the report.

The Citizen Lab report comes at a time when cases of forced cryptocurrency mining are skyrocketing.

An internet company Cyren Security Lab released its own findings two weeks ago, stating that there was a 725% increase in the number of websites running crypto mining scripts from last September to January 2018.

Cyren added that the main currency used by the mining scripts was Monero. This digital currency was created only in April 2014 and uses mining to create new coinage.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted 67 to 31 on Wednesday to ease bank rules, bringing Congress a step closer to passing the first rewrite of the Dodd-Frank reform law enacted after the 2007-2009 global financial crisis.

The draft legislation now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives where majority Republicans say they want to add more provisions to ease financial regulations.

The bill would ease tight restrictions on small banks and community lenders and includes a number of other provisions beneficial to all but the largest U.S. banks.

Reporting by Pete SchroederThe 30th Harbin Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Expo concluded on March 11. However, its host site will reopen to tourists on April 1 following repairs and maintenance.

This years expo ran for 82 days starting on Dec 20, 2017, and received a total of 400,000 tourists from home and abroad.

The expo included a 3D lightshow telling the story of Harbins winter activities and the history of the snow sculpture expo.

The expo was held on Harbin Sun Island, a 5A scenic spot on the northern bank of Songhua River.

Sun Island is the only wetland scenic area located in the center of the city, covering an area of 38 square kilometers.

It has been designated a National Scenic Area, and a State water recreation destination. It has also been granted the China Habitat Environment Award and named by the Council of the United Nations as a Model United Nations FOUN Ecological Island.

Its unique natural beauty is well known. Tourists can enjoy waterfalls, blooming flowers, migrating birds, and a diverse range of local customs.

Tourists enjoy the ice in front of a huge snow sculpture at the 30th Harbin Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Expo.[Photo/Chinanews.com]

Tourist view black swans at Harbin Sun Island scenic spot.[Photo/Chinanews.com]

A 3D light show takes place at the 30th Harbin Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Expo.[Photo/Chinanews.com]

(Kitco News) - Gold is truly a gift from the heavens, especially in eastern Russia after gold bars fell from a cargo plane Thursday.

According to Russian media reports, about 3 tons of gold fell from a plane and on to the runway as it was taking off in the eastern city of Yakutsk. The gold belonged to Chukotka Mining and Geological Company, a subsidary of Kinross Gold.

The cargo plane was carrying a total of 9.3 tons of gold and other precious metals. The cargo door didn't close properly because of a damaged door handle. According to the reports, airport authorities recovered 172 gold bars.

With gold prices hovering around $1,316 an ounce, the spilled gold is valued at more than $115 million.

Nobody was hurt in the incident.BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Ombudsman called on the EU executive on Thursday to review whether its former president, Jose Manuel Barroso, ought to be working for Goldman Sachs after complaints that he was harming the EUs image.

The recommendation from the blocs ethics watchdog follows a year-long inquiry triggered after Barroso, a former Portuguese premier who led the European Commission for 10 years until 2014, joined the London arm of the U.S. investment bank in mid-2016.

Barroso has complained of discriminatory behavior toward him. The Ombudsman said in a statement that her opinion had been influenced by new revelations that Barroso met a senior commissioner on Goldmans behalf last October despite having given an undertaking not to lobby his former employers in 2016.

With the EU reeling at that time from Britains vote to quit, Barrosos successor Jean-Claude Juncker said he disapproved of his move to an institution criticized by some for its role in the financial crisis that plagued Europe.

But Juncker at first said he could not obstruct Barroso taking the job as an 18-month cooling off period to avert conflicts of interest had lapsed.

However, Juncker doubled that period for future incumbents and referred Barrosos case to the Commissions internal ethics committee to examine whether Barroso had breached a lifetime obligation for ex-commissioners to behave with integrity.

That committees subsequent ruling that Barroso suffer no loss of EU pension or other entitlements due to his new job was based, the Ombudsman said in her report, on a promise not to lobby the Commission on behalf of his new employer - a promise, she said, Barroso breached in his October meeting.

There was no immediate reaction from the Commission. It has the power to ask the EU court to cut the pensions of former commissioners who breach treaty obligations to act with integrity but such a step would be unprecedented. The Ombudsman Emily OReilly recommended that the Commission consider asking Barroso to commit to refrain from lobbying it for some years.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion, a White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday, clarifying a tweet last week from President Donald Trump.

Last Wednesday, Trump tweeted that China had been asked to develop a plan to reduce its trade imbalance with the United States by $1 billion, but the spokeswoman said Trump had meant to say $100 billion.

The United States had a record $375 billion trade deficit with China in 2017, which made up two thirds of a global $566 billion U.S. trade gap last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

China reported its 2017 U.S. trade surplus as $276 billion, also about two thirds of its reported global surplus of $422.5 billion.

The White House spokeswoman declined to provide details about how the administration would like China to accomplish the surplus-cutting goal - whether increased purchases of U.S. products such as soybeans or aircraft would suffice, or whether it wants China to make major changes to its industrial policies, cut subsidies to state-owned enterprises or further reduce steel and aluminum capacity.

In a Thursday editorial, widely-read Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said the United States was trying to play the victim.

If the U.S. wants to reduce its trade deficit, it has to make Americans more hard-working and conduct reforms in accordance with international market demand, instead of asking the rest of the world to change, it wrote.

Once a trade war starts, capable countries wont bow to the U.S. China has tried hard to avoid a trade war, but if one breaks out, appeasement is not an option.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said history showed that trade wars are in nobodys interests, but that China would protect its legitimate rights if something happens we dont want to see.

We believe that China and the United States can use friendly consultations to resolve our disputes. We have the good faith to do it this way, Lu said.

The U.S. request comes as the Trump administration is said to be preparing tariffs on imports of up to $60 billion worth of Chinese information technology, telecoms and consumer products as part of a U.S. investigation into Chinas intellectual property practices.

It is also unclear if the requested $100 billion reduction would address U.S. complaints about Chinas investment policies that effectively require U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese joint venture partners in order to gain market access.

The issue is a core part of the probe being conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision seldom invoked since the World Trade Organization was founded in 1995. Trade experts have said tariffs imposed as a result of the China intellectual property probe may fall outside of WTO rules.

U.S. TARGETS INDIAN SUBSIDIES

But Washington showed on Wednesday that it has not abandoned the global trade body, launching a WTO legal challenge to Indias export subsidies for domestic companies, including producers of steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and IT products.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said India had failed to remove the subsidies as required by WTO rules after the country reached certain economic benchmarks.

The United States is expected to invoke a national security exception to WTO rules in imposing import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum announced by Trump last week.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told lawmakers on Wednesday his department would soon publish procedures for product-specific exemptions from the steel tariffs for items that are not available from domestic producers or in short supply. The procedures are due by Sunday.

Anne Forristall Luke, president of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, said the group would be pressing very hard for an exemption from tariffs for high-strength wire rod used to make cord for steel tire belts that is not produced by U.S. mills.

The largest sources for the material are Japan and Brazil, she said, adding that U.S. tire producers will lose business to foreign competitors if their steel costs rise.

We are working this from the product side and the country side. We think we have a very good case, she told Reuters.Government urged to overhaul trade policies



By Kim Jae-kyoung



The Korean economy faces a rocky road ahead, with its exports expected to dwindle in the coming years, due to a "triple whammy" from abroad.



These are: a trade war initiated by the United States, China's policy shift toward "quality growth" from the old quantitative growth model, and the emergence of larger multilateral trade pacts.



These three forces are combining to make a significant shift in world trade order, which many believe will have an overarching effect on Korea's trade and economy.



First, Korea has become the fall guy of Donald Trump's protectionist measures.



Although the Trump administration's tariff measures do not target Korea, the country is more vulnerable to such attacks. Besides, U.S. trade actions are also expected to affect the renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).



"While China is the nominal target for many of the Trump administration's trade actions, South Korea has been hit harder," Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) based in Washington, told The Korea Times.



"The U.S. administration has pushed to renegotiate the KORUS FTA. On trade remedies, estimates indicate the effect of the steel tariffs will impact South Korea almost twice as much as China."



He said if the U.S. takes on China more directly Korea could be impacted as well due to the ties between the three economies.



What is more worrisome is that more punitive tariffs on cars and other products are expected, given that pro-free trade National Economic Council chief Gary Cohn resigned last week while hawkish economist Peter Navarro has a greater say in the White House.



Cohn opposed the steel tariff measures until the last moment but Trump sided with Navarro who has played an important role behind the scenes in a national defense review that has led to the recent tariff actions.



"It is true that Trump has finally taken a step in the direction of being aggressive on trade issues," said Antonio Fatas, a professor of economics at INSEAD's Singapore Campus.



"Given the resignation of Cohn, we might see more of this in the future."



Second, China, Korea's biggest trading partner, has ditched its aggressive growth strategy and has decided to pursue "quality growth" by bolstering efficiency and innovation.



At a media briefing on March 9, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said as the Chinese economy seeks quality development, it will depend less on stimulus to boost growth.



To this end, China plans to focus on boosting innovation, improving efficiency and deepening multilateral regional economic and trade cooperation.



This means Chinese firms will further move up the value chain, threatening Korea's leading manufacturing and technology firms.



"China is a large and fat growing economy that will challenge South Korea at a level it could not do earlier," Fatas said.



"The only way to fight this is to continue running and innovating to stay ahead. There is no magic bullet here."



Thirdly, against Trump's protectionism, a growing number of countries, most notably Japan and China, seek to expand their economic fronts abroad by forming multilateral trade agreements.



The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the revived version of TPP, is a case in point.



On March 8, the multilateral trade pact was signed in Santiago, Chile, by 11 countries _ Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.



Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Munoz said the signing of the agreement is a strong signal "against protectionist pressures, in favor of a world open to trade, without unilateral sanctions and without the threat of trade wars."



The problem is Korea is not agile and swift in responding to this trend.



Korea's Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said Monday the country will make a final decision in the first half on whether to join the CPTPP, which represents 500 million people and account for 13.5 percent of gross world product (GWP).



"Korea chose not to join the TPP which is now the CPTPP. Hence it's on the outside, looking in, of Asia's most forward-looking trade pact ever," said Sean King, senior vice president of Park Strategies in New York.



"It should take a good hard look at the CPTPP before it's too late."



Analysts said President Moon Jae-in should review the nation's trade policies from scratch and come up with strategies to boost domestic demand and diversify its export destinations.



"South Korea will always be dependent on trade, but reducing that dependence by raising domestic consumption can help smooth the disruptions in difficult times," Stangarone said.



"China and the U.S. account for 40 percent of Korean exports. Helping Korean firms export to a more diverse range of countries would help reduce Korea's dependence on any one market."

American voters are divided over whether U.S. President Donald Trump should meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without concrete steps to dismantle the regime's nuclear weapons program, a survey showed Wednesday.

The poll by Politico and Morning Consult was conducted after Trump Thursday agreed to meet with Kim to discuss the North's denuclearization.

Trump has said he will hold the summit before the end of May, which would make him the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader.

Forty-one percent of those surveyed said the two leaders should meet without preconditions, compared to 36 percent who said they should meet only if Kim makes prior concessions on his nuclear program.

Twenty-four percent had no opinion.











North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was seen at an airport in Beijing on Thursday, raising the possibility that his trip might be aimed at contacting U.S. officials ahead of a planned summit between the two countries.

Ri was spotted at the Beijing international airport earlier in the day. He is said to be on his way to Sweden where he is scheduled to hold a foreign ministerial meeting.

His next destination has not been independently confirmed.

His overseas trip raises the possibility that he might be seeking contact with U.S. officials to discuss details related to a summit proposed by President Donald Trump last week. The North has not responded to the proposal.

Sweden has been frequently used as an unofficial communication channel between the U.S. and reclusive North Korea. (Yonhap)Presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok, left, and Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will lead a committee preparing for the inter-Korean summit slated for April. / Yonhap



By Kim Bo-eun



Cheong Wa Dae signaled Thursday that it will focus on preparing for the upcoming inter-Korean summit, unveiling a preparation committee studded with key officials.



Presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok will lead the committee and Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will assume an assisting role in preparing for the meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the truce village of Panmunjeom in late April.



Other committee members include National Security Office (NSO) chief Chung Eui-yong, presidential chief of staff for policy Jang Ha-sung, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Defense Minister Song Young-moo, National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Suh Hoon and Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination Hong Nam-ki.



The committee will be divided into three sub-units, one to prepare the agenda for the summit, one to promote it and one to organizing the meeting.



Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, presidential chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan and NIS senior director Kim Sang-gyun will each head the subcommittees.



"The committee was simplified compared to the one created for the 2007 summit, in order to deal swiftly with issues that arise," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.



Im, Cho and the three subcommittee heads will meet three to four times a week, and a meeting of all committee members will take place once a week or every other week.



The first committee meeting will take place today. The date of the summit has yet to be fixed.



Chung reported to President Moon the details of his visits to Beijing and Moscow on his return to Seoul.



He met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to brief them on meetings he had with Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump last week.



"The Chinese and Russian administrations welcomed the positive developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula and the mood of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation," Chung told reporters upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, Thursday.



Suh, who accompanied Chung to Pyongyang and Washington last week, visited Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to deliver details of the meetings.



In Kim Jong-un's meeting with Chung, Suh and other South Korean envoys, the North Korean leader stated the regime's willingness to give up its nuclear program as long as its security was guaranteed. Kim also expressed his willingness to talk with the U.S. leader on denuclearization.



Trump accepted Kim's invitation, and a summit between the two is slated to take place in May.



Inter-Korean relations have made progress this year, after Kim Jong-un expressed Pyongyang's intention to take part in the PyeongChang Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and its participation was arranged. Tensions were high on the peninsula in 2017, due to North Korea's nuclear and missile tests.



The upcoming inter-Korean summit will be the third to take place since the Korean War. The first took place between the late President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-un's father Kim Jong-il in 2000, followed by a second between President Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il in 2007.



The Koreas agreed to hold the third summit in a meeting between Kim Jong-un and the South Korean envoys in Pyongyang last week. The meeting, Kim's first with South Korean officials since he took power in 2011, took place after his sister Kim Yo-jong invited Moon to Pyongyang for talks, during her visit to the South for the Olympics.



By Nam Sang-so





While the whole country was in a festive mood after the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, a healthy boy was born of a Korean emigrant at Hirano District in Osaka, Japan.



The father, a ranch hand, named his third son Akihiro in Japanese or Myung-bak in Korean, meaning bright and know-well. The boy's mother was a Christian who taught her children the importance of being honest.



When the Pacific War ended in August 1945, the Lee family, barely surviving American B-29 bombings, decided to return to Korea, boarding a small smuggler ship in October. The family was composed now of four boys and three girls. The boat was shipwrecked off Tsushima Island on its way to Korea, and they survived but lost all their belongings.



When Akihiro was born in 1941, I was in the second grade at Nishiawaji elementary school, not far from Hirano District. My parents too had emigrated to Japan in 1929 and my father and Akihiro's father being Koreans might have known each other.





Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Rain likely. High 73F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.Last March, an adult woman and teen came forward claiming David Reding, sexually molested them for years.

According to the Sherman Police report, the minors said the abused started when they were three or four years old. One claimed she was abused about a hundred times.

"The abuse we're talking about spanned for about a four to five period of time for each of the two victims," said Grayson County Assistant District Attorney Bi Hunt.

According to the police report, Reding admitted to having sexual contact with the two until they were both ten years-old.

Reding told investigators "stupidity" was the reason for doing it.

He pleaded guilty, a relief to the families involved.

"After consulting with the victims and family multiple times, it was decided it would be too traumatic for the victims to have to relive what had happened to them," Hunt said.

He got 20 years in prison.

"Mr. Reding plead to aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indeceny with a child," Hunt said.

He's eligible for parole on his 86th birthday and will have to register as a sex offender for life.Milan, March 15 - Carabinieri police on Thursday arrested a 25-year-old Colombian man suspected of attacking a couple and raping the woman on the outskirts of Milan on Monday night. The man, who lives in the city, was arrested by police in the night between Wednesday and Thursday. He is suspected of attacking the couple and threatening them with a knife before raping the 19-year-old woman and beating her 22-year-old boyfriend. The man then allegedly fled in the couple's Fiat Punto car. The attack occurred in the same street, Via Chopin, in the Ripamonti southern area of Milan, where on June 4, 2005, a similar attack and rape were reported. Five Romanian nationals, including two minors, were convicted for the crime to sentences of up to five years in jail.Rome, March 15 - 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Thursday that he had spoken to League leader Matteo Salvini about the Speakers of the new parliament and told him the Lower House Speaker should be a member of his anti-establishment group. "Just after 20:00 yesterday I had a telephone call from Matteo Salvini," Di Maio said on the M5S blog. "I'm pleased to tell you what we said because I want everything to take place in the maximum transparency. He said that he has called for "the presidency of the Lower House to be assigned to the Movement" as it is "the country's top political party".Rome, March 15 - The election of the parliamentary Speakers is not linked to the formation of a government in Italy's hung parliament, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) reiterated Thursday, saying it was claiming the Speakership of the Lower House. "We reiterated to the political forces that we ant to indicate the Speakers detaching these nominations from the issue of the government and making sure they are names that represent the popular will that made the M5S the top political force in the country, and we have seen that the (centre-left) Democratic Party (PD) and the League are open to this," said M5S Lower House Whip Giulia Grillo. She was speaking after talks on the Speakerships, the first task of the parliament that will sit on March 23. She conducted the talks with M5S Senate Whip Danilo Toninelli. Giulia Grillo is not a relation of the M5S's founder, comedian Beppe Grillo. Giulia Grillo added: "It is only right that the Speakership of the House should got to the M5S. She said they had asked for the House official because they wanted debate on scrapping parliamentary 'vitalizi' pensions to start off in the lower chamber.LAHAINA  With some regrets, but with much excitement about the future, Barnes & Noble Bookstore has left Lahaina.

The excitement is that they are keeping their doors open, but in Kahului.

We are so grateful to the Lahaina community for all of their support and outreach, said Jenifer Neale, Barnes & Noble community business development manager.

Because the West Side community wrote letters, signed petitions and made phone calls to Barnes & Nobles corporate office, we are on Maui to stay. The community outpouring has been amazing.

The store has been truly loved by West Side residents and tourists alike. For many years, Barnes & Noble has supplied the island with an unparalleled selection of books, magazines, gifts, music, movies and toys, besides great food.

The staff has constantly given one-on-one advice and recommendations to book enthusiasts of all ages.

The new Barnes & Noble Bookstore grand opening was Monday, March 12. Located in Maui Marketplace at 270 Dairy Road in Kahului, the bookstore will continue to provide book fairs for Maui schools, story times for keiki and a platform for local authors to present their books to the community.

In addition, the community can look forward to Barnes & Nobles holiday activities and special appearances by musical artists.

Our passionate booksellers are excited to share the love of books on the island of Maui, said Neale. However sad it is for us to be leaving Lahaina, remember, we are just a phone call away. We will continue to build rewarding partnerships with the entire island.

Barnes & Noble Inc. reported that the new location is temporary, and the company is searching for a permanent home on the island.

Our dedicated team of booksellers in Maui is really excited to open the doors of this new location in Maui Marketplace to the community, said Jim Lampassi, vice president, real estate development.

We invite everyone in Maui to stop by and browse our specially curated selection of books and products. The outpouring of support from the community as we tirelessly worked to find a new store in the area was heartwarming, and we cant wait to continue to serve our loyal customers on the island.

We would like to thank our broker, Roger Lyons of CBRE in Honolulu, for helping us to identify an appropriate short-term lease until we find a more permanent location, and Petco, the previous occupant of the space, who we are subleasing it from, added Lampassi.

The Maui Friends of the Library Bookstore is now the only bookstore on the West Side. Located in the Wharf Cinema Center, the store carries used books (from donations) and new Hawaiian titles.LAHAINA  The Lahainaluna High School Foundation announced that during this scholarship season, it will be administering 67 scholarships, including renewals, for a total award amount of $138,000.

Lahainaluna seniors can apply for all scholarships through a common application form available on the LHSF website and through the schools College and Career Counseling Center.

This is the foundations 17th year awarding scholarships. The application deadline is Tuesday, April 3.

This year, there will be four inaugural scholarships: the $1,500 Eugene Baybado (LHS Class of 64) Memorial (two awards), $2,000 Class of 1968 50th Reunion Scholarship, and the $1,000 Sammy Kadotani Service Award.

An anonymous donor just presented LHSF with a $1,000 scholarship for a student who plans on becoming a teacher. The scholarship is named the Andrew Kutsunai Scholarship in honor of Kutsunai for his exemplary service as a former LHS teacher and his service to the foundation as a board member, creating and building the scholarship program.

In addition, the foundation will be offering multiple one-year scholarships (up to $4,200) to the University of Hawaii Maui College. Details will be released soon.

Continuing their support for this important program in the amount of $500 scholarships are Mark & Judy Ellman, Bonnie Ann Fijal Memorial, Ilocandia Filipino Store, Lahaina Fish Co., Lahaina Hawaiian Civic Club, Holly and Rob Manning-Homes & Land Magazine of Maui, Mint Green House, RVN Restaurant, and Valley Isle Community Federal Credit Union.

Scholarships for $1,000 will be provided by 5A Rent-A-Space, Maureen Setsuko Ariyoshi Memorial, Luly Baker, Bank of Hawaii-Lahaina Branch, Boss Frogs Dive & Surf, Central Pacific Bank-Lahaina Branch, Ebrahim Gabbay M.D. Memorial, Blackie Gadarian Vocational (three awards), Ka Ipukukui A Mau Pio Ole I Ke Kauaula, Kaanapali Land Management Corp., Sgt. James Kusuda Memorial, Lahainaluna Boarders Association, Lahainaluna High School Foundation (four scholarships), Na Hoaloha Ekolu (plus renewals), Alfredo Fred Sarian Memorial, Sentry Tournament of Champions, Territorial Savings-Lahaina Branch, The Masters at Kaanapali Hillside-Blaze Kalilikani Memorial, TS Restaurants  Dukes Beach House, Hula Grill, Kimos and Leilanis on the Beach (four scholarships), Maui County Federal Credit Union (five awards), Shelton Ohana (plus renewals) and the Kelsi Kaahui & Chanse Uyeda Memorial.

Other scholarships include the $1,500 Kiiko and Juan Cabanilla Sr.; $1,500 Roy and Betty Sakamoto (plus renewals); $1,500 H & K Takenaga Legacy; $2,000 Kihachiro J. Hotta Memorial Endowed; $2,500 Steven R. Strong, M.D., Memorial; $5,000 Makana Aloha Foundation (plus renewals); $10,000 Shigeru & Toyoko Ichiki Endowed (plus renewals); and $20,000 Front Street (renewal).Steps to protect Hawaii in the future

Hawaii is experiencing coastal hazards. Cumulative impact of development is affecting quality of life. Decide what really matters and act accordingly.

Sea-level rise and waves demand life-changing realities. Seawalls displace problems to surrounding areas. Consider removing some structures, including high-rises that are too close to the shoreline. Resort reductions will also help mitigate traffic issues.

Rebuilding reefs is one protective measure. Land-based pollutants are contaminating the ocean. Even common household goods are factors affecting the environment. Regulating products imported to the islands would make an immediate impact.

Control Hawaiis population with moratoriums on development and downsizing the military. Transitioning from complete reliance on the visitor industry to include agriculture is essential.

Food growth rather than population increase resolves multiple problems. Sustainable agriculture and vegetation remediation enriches the overall environment. Irrigation helps prevent saltwater intrusion that undermines the shoreline.

Healthy and prosperous living from mauka/mountain to makai/ocean is possible.

MICHELE LINCOLN. Lahaina



Keep the highway open until the entire bypass is complete

To those officials who are planning the new Lahaina Bypass and road use changes, when the new extension of the bypass opens and you follow that by closing Highway 30 northbound at that location, seems to me that you open one lane and close one lane. How in the world that relieves our traffic problems is a mystery to most people who have the ability to think through an issue.

Yes, I heard about the beach park plans to deal with beach erosion. Okay, pave the cane road, which is inland enough to allow work on the beaches.

Keep Highway 30 open until all three lengths of the bypass are completed, and please find an engineer who can design a traffic circle go-around.

Money can be found if the government officials want to find it. West Maui and our tourism is the life blood of Maui, and you are messing with this, gentlemen. Be careful  there are unintended consequences that nobody has considered.

BRIAN EGAN, Lahaina



Control immigration through visas

Donald Trump may or may not know that somewhere between a quarter and a third of illegal immigrants in the U.S. come by airplane. They arrive on a visa and overstay their visas.

You could build a properly functioning entry/exit visa for a lot less than the cost of a wall. You could have enforcement at the workplace.

Donald Trump cant be bothered because the wall has now become a part of his ego. He doesnt care whether it works. He just wants to do it because he said he would do it.

RON LOWE. Santa Monica, CA



Tort reform needed to improve healthcare

A new West Maui hospital has been the hope of many of us for a long time. After years of frustration, we will have our hospital.

But there is a problem. Just as a church is more than a building, so too is a hospital. Unlike the outcome in the movie Field of Dreams, with its premise that if you build it, they will come, we will need more than a building to birth a hospital.

For our hospital to function as intended, we will need a myriad of competent medical staff, not limited to but inclusive of medical doctors. Unfortunately, our state is not creating a welcoming environment for physicians.

Malpractice insurance costs have skyrocketed in great part because of the astronomical financial awards that courts have assessed against those in the healthcare profession.

Doctors have been pleading for tort reform for years. It is time to listen and act upon this need. Many in our legislature hail from the legal profession and have professional leanings that reflect a disservice to physicians, and therefore to the healthcare needs of the general populace.

Without the protections offered through tort reform, physicians are likely to minimize their risk by eliminating certain procedures. Some choose to give up their practice altogether. Currently, Hawaii has a large physician shortage, estimated to be between 800 to 1,000 doctors. This creates overwork for our current doctors, which can generate burnout and early retirement, exacerbating the physician shortage.

While physician assistants and nurse practitioners function admirably in their expanded scope of practice, it is imperative that we retain existing MDs and work to attract new ones. We face a financial challenge competing with Mainland job offers for our doctors. We need to offset that with a favorable working environment that includes new tort reform.

If elected as your new senator, I will fight for tort reform to help support doctors whenever possible. It is time doctors are permitted to serve their patients without fear of huge lawsuits above the limits of their insurance. If we continue to allow healthcare providers to leave our shores, soon we as patients will have no recourse but to travel off-island for treatment.

I look forward to helping improve the healthcare network of our islands as your elected servant.

CHAYNE MARTEN



Tighter scrutiny needed for service/therapy dogs

Better nip it in the bud, Maui County. Dont ignore it like youve done with the abusive make-up vendors all over Front Street, or illegal B&Bs, or the way-too-late now bypass. Im seeing people trot into shops, stores and restaurants (and my own dermatologists office in Kihei last week), dogs in tow.

We were in Prescott last December; they have obviously had a problem. There were signs all over stating: Do NOT try to pass your dog off as a service or therapy dog. Many added, Unless you have a valid certificate, we will ask you to leave.

I love dogs (cats not so much), but I also know that not everyone loves my dog like I do. I dont want to pet your pet; I dont want it licking my feet or slobbering on me. I dont know if your dog has fleas or is going to pee on the floor in front of me.

Trained service dogs are necessary and invaluable for those who need them, but too many are abusing the privilege. I question the management skills of any place I go into and see dogs all over, let alone the usefulness of our county government. Hello Elle and Angus!

PENNY WEIGEL, Lahaina



Front Street in ten years

Well folks, heres a glimpse into the future of what Front Street will look like in ten years: The Banyan Tree, courthouse, harbor, Pioneer Inn, Baldwin House and Wo Hing Temple will still be standing, surrounded by every single retail store on both sides of the street selling overpriced cosmetics.

There will be no restaurants, galleries or boutiques  only cosmetics stores. It will be impossible to walk down the sidewalks of Front Street, because all of the employees of these cosmetics stores will be permanently standing outside their stores hawking and accosting any visitor brave enough to walk the gauntlet. As the town becomes a ghost town, old-timers will look back and recall the good old days when there were only six of these stores.

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUESTAOL has discontinued the AOL DESKTOP version, which prevents members from getting their e-mail. Going online to find an AOL tech support number to call is a fatal mistake. Dont do it. Ill tell you how to fix it.

Bill, the owner of Throckmorton Auto Repair, called me up and said he couldnt get his AOL e-mail. He logged on to Google Search to find a support number and called the first number listed at aol.com/support. They told him he was number 21 in line, so Bill decided to call another support number.

He scrolled down the list, found another AOL Technical Support number and dialed it. Someone answered immediately with a foreign accent, and Bill eventually let him take control of his computer. That person downloaded a virus in the background and then asked Bill to pay $160 to remove it.

Bill, sensing a couple of RED FLAGS flying, instantly turned off his computer and hung up the phone. A very smart move, Bill! But the tech called him back demanding the money.

Now that AOL has discontinued its desktop version, people will have to open up Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Microsoft Edge and type in www.aol.com to get their e-mail. They can make it a bookmark, or place it in their favorites, or make a shortcut icon to place on the desktop. My last Lahaina News article tells you how to do that.

So, this is what you need to do so you wont get scammed. When searching for a website on Google, you will see a list of similar names. Lets use Microsoft, for example. A long list of Microsoft Tech Support sites appears on your computer screen, which becomes confusing. Which one should you choose? The trick is to look closely at the website address. If it says www.microsoft.com/INDIA, youre in a heap of trouble. If it only displays MICROSOFT.COM and nothing else, go for it.

If you get a message alert from Adobe that wants you to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player, make sure it only says www.adobe.com. Also be sure to scroll down the page, because Adobe sometimes wants to install McAfee virus software, and youll need to uncheck that box.

Okay, heres another valuable trick that will help you better your Google search. Lets say you live one mile from the Lahaina sewage plant and want to search online for a good air purifier.

Open up Google.com, click on the Tool Button on the top right, and choose Anytime. Past Hour, Past Year. Now you can see the most recent websites posted, so you wont be going back to a 2013 company in Stinksville, N.Y., that went out of business.

All kinds of rumors swirling about Apples new iPhone selection coming out later this year. A new larger, six-inch iPhone makes it much easier to read e-mails and website content. You may ask yourself if you really need a Notebook or iPad anymore.

Last, but important, beware of the new scam in which callers pose as Maui Electric, demanding you pay them money or your electricity will be turned off. Just hang up on them!

Send your computer-related questions to mauimist8669@yahoo.com.WAILUKU  Beginning this month, the county Planning Department will start to charge fees when it has to repeatedly review building permit applications.

Building permits are typically routed to a variety of departments for them to check compliance with their individual codes and rules. Most building permits are routed to the Planning Department for review for compliance with land use laws.

The department estimates that only ten percent of the building permits it receives are approved on their first review.

Twenty percent require a second review, and the rest  70 percent  require three or more reviews.

A new fee structure approved by the Maui County Council and enacted into law in January allows the department to charge for these additional reviews.

The first review is free; the second will cost $250, the third will cost an additional $500 and any additional reviews will be an additional $1,000 each.

In return, the dsepartment must be diligent in providing the applicant with the additional information needed for it to approve a permit in order to minimize the additional reviews needed.

If the department does not catch a needed item on one of its reviews and does not inform the applicant, then no charge will be assessed for the additional review of that item.

The repeated reviews of building permits is one of the main reasons that we do not get through our permit reviews as quickly as the public would like, said Deputy Planning Director Michele McLean.

We hope that this fee structure will be a deterrent to incomplete or inadequate plans. It also puts the burden on us to make sure that our first review is complete and thorough, and that we inform applicants clearly of what we need to give our approval. This will benefit all applicants overall and will improve the departments efficiency in processing.

Based on the number of permits that the department reviews, and that only ten percent are approved on the first pass, the department estimates that the new fee structure could generate more than $700,000 annually if it does not have a deterrent effect.

We are not looking for a revenue source; we are hoping that this will improve the quality of the plans that we receive so that we can approve many more permits on our first review, which means that we can get to all of our reviews more quickly, McLean added. We have tried other ways to accomplish this, and hopefully this one will work.

The department did not begin charging the fees immediately after the bill was passed (Ordinance No. 4794, which took effect on Jan. 9, 2018), because it wanted to have a clear process in place and make sure that the public was informed.

When we tell an applicant that more information is needed, we will be thorough in describing everything that we need, and will also inform them of the fee structure for additional reviews, said McLean.

That should limit the third and fourth reviews; we should be able to approve most permits on the second review if applicants provide everything that we tell them we need.

For more information contact Deputy Director McLean at michele.mclean@mauicounty.gov.

In related news, Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa signed a proclamation that accepts the Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report that was prepared by the Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission and released in December 2017, as mandated by the State Legislature.

The proclamation acknowledges that climate change is real and directs County departments to use the Report in their plans, programs and capital improvement decisions, to mitigate impacts to infrastructure and critical facilities triggered by sea level rise.

It also calls on the Planning Department to propose rule changes to the Maui, Molokai and Lanai Planning Commissions to include sea level rise in their shoreline setback calculations.

As the mayor noted in his recent State of the County address, Maui County was the first county in the state to adopt shoreline setback formulas that include annual erosion hazard rates.

This means that when it comes to all county plans, especially the Maui County Hazard Mitigation Plan and our community plans, all of them need to take into consideration the Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaption Report, he said.

Planning for these changes means we may have to relocate infrastructure and critical facilities out of hazard areas, which means we may have to ask the council for the funds to make these capital improvement decisions. This heightened attention on how sea level rise impacts Maui County has the potential to affect communities, culture, history and natural resources and cannot be taken lightly.

We appreciate the leadership that the mayor has shown in issuing the proclamation and in supporting changes to the shoreline setback formula, said McLean.COLUMN: Recent streak of crime, rancor, complicity spell doom for decency What in the hell is going on? Granted, in the last 18 months  with the pandemic as a reason or an excuse, depending on your perspective  life has taken...

This Sept. 11, will revisiting the past reset our present? Two decades after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, there are distinct perspectives for those looking back on a day that stopped a nation in its tracks. Many of those who...President Bako Sahakyan visited U.S. Congress. (video)

On 14 March Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan visited the U.S. Congress. The President met with a group of members of the foreign affairs committee, discussed issues related to the Artsakh-US relations, the Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict settlement and regional trends. Subsequently, a reception devoted to the 30th anniversary of the Artsakh Movement was held in the Congress. In his speech the President highlighted the meetings organised in the supreme legislative body of the United States, noting that they too enhanced the degree of responsibility in the course of carrying out hard and painstaking work, further deepening and developing bilateral relations. "I am optimistic - it will be definitely so, for we consider the United States a friendly country, a state which has become second homeland for millions of Armenians. I am optimistic because we have here devoted, sincere and honest friends, who have been standing by Artsakh for many years, supporting our people, providing objective information about our country worldwide. We rate high our friendly ties, considering them precious assets", stressed the Artsakh Republic President in his speech. Bako Sahakyan noted that the support rendered by the American people to Artsakh was greatly acknowledged in the Republic of Artsakh, with the House of Representatives, the Senate, our congressman and senator friends having a special place and role in this process.. The President accentuated Washington's considerable contribution in maintaining peace and stability in our region, in peaceful and just solution of the Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict. "Cementing and deepening ties with the United States of America have always been and will remain among the fundamental directions of our foreign policy", underlined President Sahakyan. The President handed in Artsakh Republic high state awards to a group of U.S. congressmen and senators for supporting Artsakh and their tangible contribution to the development of Artsakh-the USA relations.The Farsi language is a poetic language, says Masud Valipour, owner of Ketabsara Persian Calligraphy and Books in Westwoods Persian Square. He gestures along the stores walls where turquoise, jade, maroon and marigold canvases are alive with Valipours sweeping black calligraphy.

Ketabsara carries classic and contemporary poetry, novels and political texts in Farsi (as well as a few books in English), but Valipours calligraphy art of lines of Persian poetry in Farsi is the shops main draw.

Valipour has developed his own ornate style of the Farsi calligraphy scripts nastaliq and shikaste, through which he seeks to embody the meaning behind a line of poetry through color, composition and artistry. He estimates that roughly 40% of his customers cannot read Farsi at all, but fluency in the language isnt required to appreciate his calligraphy. (He includes a translation with each canvas). Even for Farsi readers it may be difficult to read his paintings. While the verses themselves  and their meaning  are his initial inspiration for a painting, the finished piece is something more: a way to experience poetry at a glance, to have it physically embodied, a colorful reminder on the wall.

Calligraphy paintings by Masud Valipour (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times )

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A line by Rumi, alas, that you are the veil upon your own treasure, winds down a rich, golden canvas, while another, that which is of the sea is going to the sea, it is going to the same place which it came, washes across pure, teal blue. The text on a 40-by-90-inch painting Valipour worked on for nearly three months translates roughly to its more pleasurable to journey once inside of myself than to circle 100 times around the world. When I say [that quote] to the Americans, they love it, he says.

Masud Valipour demonstrates his calligraphy. (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times )

Valipour opened Ketabsara on Westwood Boulevard in 1991; he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s from Iran. There he owned a small book and art supply store. He devoted years to teaching himself calligraphy, particularly in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

My city was the center of the war  close to the Iraq border, he explains. I had nothing, almost.  [Calligraphy was] almost the only thing I had time to do. After moving to the United States he continued to practice privately, taking the occasional order until 2001, when he began selling his work at the shop regularly.

Ketabsara Persian Calligraphy and Books (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times )

He still accepts commissions (customers often commission him to adorn canvases with their names), but because the work he creates of his own volition bears lines by beloved, ancient Persian poets, certain standards must be met. They say: Do you take orders for anything? I say, Not for anything. And they say, What do you mean? And I say, What do you mean? he jokes. Valipour admires Hafez and Rumi among other Persian masters and is quick to point out that while readers may associate the latter with introspective work, his Letters were politically engaged. Politics is like salt, he says  without it, life, people, even poetry, lacks flavor.

Masud Valipour demonstrates his calligraphy. (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times )

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The specific lines of poetry that Valipour uses in his work all come from the same, remarkable source: his memory. How many poems does he have memorized? Maybe thousands? he ventures, a fraction of the couple of hundred thousand poems he estimates that hes read over a lifetime. The store contains dozens of paintings hanging and stacked against the walls, each one bearing a unique phrase significant or moving enough to have stuck with him.

Valipour uses a bamboo reed when creating his formal work. In Farsi we write right to left, he explains, and yet Valipour, should the composition necessitate, may write left to right  or even upside down.

Artwork and books at Ketabsara Persian Calligraphy and Books (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times )

One day a lady came in and said, Hey what happened in your life that a bunch of colors and poetry and creativity came out from you? And I said Thats a good question. He attributes the deepening of his approach to a moment of inspiration: the birth of his daughter. 17 years, 1 month and 11 days ago.

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Nowruz (also spelled Nerwoz or Noroz) begins on March 21. Nowruz translates to new day in Farsi and celebrates the arrival of spring, rebirth and renewal.

The birth of a child is the ultimate new day. No matter the poem hes illustrating, Valipours calligraphy serves as a reminder. When I started to do it, particularly on the canvas, he says, I started to sign my calligraphy by [my daughters] name. He points to the small signature on a painting. Thats not my name, he says, its her name.

Masud Valipours tools. (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times )

agatha.french@latimes.com

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@agathafrenchyHes Las Vegas longest-running headliner, so its hard to imagine Frank Marino not performing center stage. That said, the superstar drag queen and diva was originally studying to be a doctor.

While working as a junior pharmacist, fate intervened, in the form of a makeup counter at his pharmacy. Marino soon found himself mastering cosmetic arts and winning a drag contest dressed as his idol, Diana Ross.

I wanted to be Diana Ross, but I couldnt sing and I wasnt black, so that put a damper on things, Marino joked. He instead decided to perfect his Joan Rivers impersonation.

19-year-old Marino found himself backstage at one of Joan Rivers shows. Then, one night he met the head of the production An Evening at La Cage. Pia Zadora then brought the show (and Marino) to the Riviera in Las Vegas, where starred for 25 years.

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Eight years ago, Marino moved his act to whats now the Linq Hotel and Casino. He created Frank Marinos Divas Las Vegas  a celeb-studded show that celebrates iconic divas both past and present. Marino updates the show with new artists, but says the shows home at the Millennial-friendly resort isnt the only reason he s showcasing younger acts.

Its hard to update a show when you work for someone else, said Marino. Really, all of these thoughts and ideas I had when I worked for La Cage, the only difference is now I get to utilize them.

For every contemporary chart-topper, Marino likes to add a classic to the act  he recently introduced an Adele and Barbra Streisand mash-up. Marino plans to debut a Beyonce act this month while also working on a Ladies of the 80s segment with Pat Benatar and Tina Turner.

Marino insists the show has something for everyone. Even if you dont like Joan Rivers, chances are youll like some of the comedy Im performing, Marino said. If you dont like one of the dresses Im wearing or one of the stars, theres going to be another one shortly  we have 17 acts in the show.

As entertaining as Divas Las Vegas is for the audience, Marino has the most fun. I know its cheesy, Marino said, but the hour and a half I do this show is my favorite time of day.

For tickets, visit www.caesars.com/linq/shows/frank-marinos-divas-las-vegas

-Heather Turk, Custom Publishing WriterForeign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

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Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

Transformation and trust are important for success in modern banking. Artak Hanesyan

UCOMS LEVEL UP 1700 REGIONAL TARIFF PLAN USERS TO RECEIVE MORE THAN THOSE IN YEREVAN

Joint statement

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

Covid-19: 163 new cases in Armenia

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Armenia: Remarks by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the press point with Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan

The United States Welcomes Azerbaijans Release of Armenian Detainees and Armenias Actions to Facilitate Demining

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International aviation: Council greenlights signing of major agreements with four countries

With UCOMs level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Netflix, Duolingo and Zoom

Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

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Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

International election observers to Armenias early parliamentary elections held press conference

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The European Union in Armenia calls all parties to contribute to a peaceful Election Day to celebrate democracyBen Greenfield is a self-styled mens fitness guru who makes a point of his willingness to undergo just about any indignity in search of improved sexual performance.

That quest is what brought him last August to a Florida clinic where he underwent liposuction to produce a solution of his own stem cells. The idea was to inject them subsequently into his male member in the expectation that the result would be male enhancement and a better sexual experience.

Greenfield told me he thinks the $8,000 procedure worked, although he acknowledged that he may be unable to distinguish its results from all the other male enhancement methods he has been experimenting with.

Unscrupulous actors...have seized on the clinical promise of regenerative medicine. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb

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Greenfields yarn has been shooting around the internet with great vigor lately. That owes much to his own account, published in January in Mens Health magazine, and perhaps even more to an article about him last month on Gizmodo and his appearance in late January on a podcast with the testosterone-fueled stand-up comedian Joe Rogan.

His story raises a number of issues that medical and health regulators should examine very closely. Thats because the marketing of stem-cell treatments for a panoply of medical ailments already has become infected with unscrupulous hype, in the words of Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Gottlieb made the remark last August, when he announced a new enforcement campaign aimed at unscrupulous actors who have seized on the clinical promise of regenerative medicine  in order to make deceptive, and sometimes corrupt, assurances to patients based on unproven and, in some cases, dangerously dubious products.

A select few, he said, often motivated by greed without regard to responsible patient care, are able to promote unproven, clearly illegal, and often expensive treatments that offer little hope, and, even worse, may pose significant risks to the health and safety of vulnerable patients. These so-called treatments run afoul of the FDAs legal and regulatory framework governing this new field.

Gottlieb understated the case when he referred to a select few. Hundreds of clinics hawking unproven treatments have sprung up across the country to offer stem-cell interventions, as biologist Paul Knoepfler of UC Davis and bioethicist Leigh Turner of the University of Minnesota documented in 2016.

The targets of this hype are desperate patients suffering from conditions such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis  and erectile dysfunction. As weve reported at length, theyre especially vulnerable to practitioners offering scientifically unproven, but hugely expensive, treatments.

Sexual performance appears to be a new frontier for the stem-cell promoters. But it wouldnt be surprising that they see it as a potential gold mine. U.S. Stem Cell, the Florida company that performed Greenfields liposuction and prepared the stem-cell cocktail he had injected, estimates the market for erectile enhancement and dysfunction treatment at more than $4 billion annually.

That company has issued three news releases about its role in Greenfields treatment for erectile enhancement, which began in August last year.

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The money-losing firm identifies itself as a research and development company, but in the nine months ended Sept. 30, the latest period for which figures are available, it spent $12,242 on R&D and $3.6 million on marketing, general and administrative expenses.

The company has conducted its activities largely in Florida thus far, but it has ambitions to expand. Last month, American Stem Cell Centers of Excellence, a firm associated with U.S. Stem Cells CEO, Michael Tomas, and its chief science officer, Kristin Comella, opened a facility in Glendale that will use U.S. Stem Cells products and services.

The Sunrise, Fla., clinic was the target of a blistering warning letter in August from the Food and Drug Administration, which accused it of marketing stem cell products without FDA approval and doing so in a way that could be putting patients at risk. The FDA letter said its inspectors had found 14 significant objectionable conditions at the clinic, ranging from flawed record-keeping to failure to perform adequate testing to ensure that the substances it was injecting into patients were free from contamination.

Comella, who also serves as the clinics chief science officer, replied with a truculent letter asserting that it wasnt subject to FDA regulations on good manufacturing practices because it is not manufacturing a drug  an interpretation with which the FDA disagrees. She said the facility met sterility standards for clinics. Thats where matters apparently stand at the moment.

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Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine alleged that the injection of stem-cell material into the eyes of three patients at the clinic in Sunrise had resulted in the patients blindness or seriously degraded vision.

The clinic is a partly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Stem Cell Inc., a public company also located in Sunrise, which said in a public disclosure that as of last November it was the clinics 33% owner. The company said in public disclosures that two lawsuits involving eye treatments had been settled and it had been served with a third, though it wasnt entirely clear that the lawsuits involved the same cases mentioned in the NEJM.

U.S. Stem Cell said in December that it discontinued the use of its stem-cell procedure for macular degeneration, the eye malady affecting the three patients in the NEJM article, after adverse events were reported.

Like many other clinics in the burgeoning stem-cell field, U.S. Stem Cell offers treatments that havent been shown to be scientifically valid and often arent covered by health insurance.

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Comella told me by email that the firms clinics have shown positive results in treating orthopedic conditions (tendon/ligament injuries, osteoarthritis); degenerative conditions (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes); neurological conditions (multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury); autoimmune (rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns disease, colitis, lupus) conditions and more. She said treatment also is available to any male patients interested in increased libido.

When I asked if the company could cite scientific studies or trials validating the treatments, the company replied that the medical procedures performed by physicians do not go through double blind studies of the sort required by the FDA for drugs. For medical procedures using stem cells and tissues from the patients own body, there is nothing to bottle and sell therefore no pharmaceutical company would ever pay for that trial.

Ill take that as a No.

As for Greenfield, his Ill try anything taste for self-experimentation is reminiscent of the masochism that made Johnny Knoxville and his fellows big TV and movie stars back around the turn of the century. (The show and movies, it may be recalled, were entitled Jackass.)

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Indeed, Greenfield, a triathlete and adventure junkie, told me that having spent the last couple of decades of my life doing some of the most masochistic endurance events on the face of the planet, I think my filter is a little more porous when it comes to what I might risk doing to my body.

He said he first met Comella at Paleo f(x), an Austin marketing fair for health-and-wellness marketers. When I decided to do stem cells for this Mens Health article I was doing, she was one of the people I thought of. He underwent liposuction at the Sunrise clinic, but had the extract mailed to him months later and underwent the injections at an independent clinic near his home in Spokane.

Is it likely that a conventional clinic would be eager to participate in a self-experiment by a patient who couldnt cite a medical condition needing treatment? Certainly the FDA would be hard-pressed to accept this sort of procedure as a legitimate clinical trial.

But does the FDA have to stand by as the stem-cell treatment industry expands? Plainly the answer is no. Commissioner Gottlieb has said hes intent on bringing bad actors to heel. He should act fast, before they multiply any further.

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Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.CNN morning co-anchor Chris Cuomo is moving to prime time.

The cable network announced Wednesday that Cuomo will take over the 9 p.m. Eastern hour starting in the spring. Anderson Coopers program, AC360, which usually airs from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern, will be cut back to an hour.

The new show Cuomo Prime Time will go head-to-head against the two highest-rated programs on cable news  MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show and Fox News Channels Hannity.

CNN, which typically runs third in the time period against that competition, tested out Cuomo in the hour in January and saw a lift in ratings.

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CNN said in a statement that the program will feature Cuomos signature in-depth one-on-one interviews that test politicians and newsmakers on their positions, as well as analyses of news of the day and the latest breaking news.

Cuomo, 47, has been co-anchor of CNNs New Day since 2013, when he joined the network after a long run at ABC News that included stints on Good Morning America and the newsmagazine 20/20.

John Berman will replace Cuomo on the program, joining co-anchor Alyson Camerota.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglioFive years ago, a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin boarded an $80-million yacht with the intent of trying to fool the vessels navigation system and stealthily push it off course.

Once the yacht was off the coast of Italy, the team  with the knowledge and permission of the vessels owner, a wealthy individual who doesnt want to be named  used a briefcase-sized device to slowly drown out legitimate GPS signals and take control of the ships guidance. It worked. Using the false signals, the team gradually turned the ship while its chart display continued to show it traveling in a straight line.



For the record: A photo caption in a previous version of this story said the opportunistic navigation antenna used in a test was developed by Aerospace Corp. The organization actually developed software for the project, not the antenna.

Since the U.S. developed the Global Positioning System, or GPS, in the 1970s, the nation has become increasingly reliant on this satellite-based method of determining position, time and velocity. Today GPS is used to do everything from calling an Uber and navigating about town to time-stamping financial transactions and dropping guided bombs.

That growing reliance could be a problem, especially if the 30 GPS satellites or their ground stations ever went down, experts say. And that has led a number of government organizations and companies to start thinking about how to fortify the system and whether other signals could be used to supplement or back up the ever-ubiquitous GPS.

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In December, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told The Times in an interview that theres not a military mission that doesnt depend on space, and that the Air Force practices as if it didnt have GPS.

Earlier last year, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the future global threat of electronic warfare attacks against space systems, such as military satellite communications and GPS satellites. Coats noted that both China and Russia have discussed development of new electronic warfare capabilities.

For robustness, you really need multiple sources, said Michael OConnor, chief executive of Satelles, a Herndon, Va., company that has developed a new time and location signal beamed from a separate constellation of satellites that can be used as an alternative or backstop to GPS. Any one source is vulnerable.

Developed by the U.S. military and offered without charge, the first GPS test satellite launched in 1978. From the beginning, the system was intended for both military and civilian use, with separate signals for each.

GPS was such a technical marvel that everyone homed in on using it, said Dave Tremper, program manager in the strategic technology office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

GPS satellites send radio signals to receivers on Earth embedded in a car or other object. Using atomic clocks on the satellites, the signal indicates when it was transmitted. The receivers calculate location based on the time the transmission was sent and the time it was received. By combining data from at least four satellites, the receiver can pinpoint where it is.

Over the years, the U.S. military has made improvements and changes to the system.

The civilian signal, which had been intentionally made less precise than the military signal, was expanded and its accuracy improved. New encrypted military signals were added, as was a new frequency largely for use by the Federal Aviation Administration. Satellites with better technology, precision and resiliency to attacks were launched to replace the old.

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These new satellites, known broadly as GPS Block II, have a design lifespan ranging from 7 years to 12 years. A new generation of satellites known as GPS III, which will have a 15-year lifespan, are under development.

But all of those improvements did not change the fact that there was still just one largely universal system used by the U.S. Other countries and regions have since developed their own versions of GPS, including the European Galileo system and Russias GLONASS, which can be used free of charge.

(Los Angeles Times )

Industry experts say GPS is susceptible to a few different forms of attack. One is jamming, in which a GPS receiver is blocked from receiving any information from a satellite. But another, more dangerous concern, is spoofing. As with the UT yacht experiment, a receiver can be fed a false GPS signal, misleading it about its position.

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During that experiment, none of the equipment on the yachts bridge ever set off an alarm, which would have happened if the team tried to jam the GPS signals, said Todd Humphreys, an associate professor in the aerospace department at UT Austin who led the experiment. The teams spoofing was so subtle that the automated systems could not detect that anything was wrong, he said.

Another possibility is a cyber attack against a GPS ground station that could take out the entire system.

Redundancy has kind of gone away, Tremper said. We end up now with this single point of failure.

To combat that, government and industry researchers are developing systems and algorithms to collect many different sources of data that could help determine a users position, assist with navigation or establish the time. Together, those various data sources can be used to double-check the answer given by GPS  or, in the absence of GPS, potentially might be enough to triangulate a location.

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One of those data sources could be Satellite Time and Location, also known as STL, a signal delivered by Satelles that can determine position and time independent of GPS.

The service, which began in 2016, was integrated onto a commercial network of satellites operated by Iridium Communications Inc.

Iridium is known for one of the most spectacular bankruptcies ever; it failed in a grand bid to create a mass market for satellite phones, but was reborn as a niche service. Today its so-called constellation of 66 satellites orbits 476 miles above the Earth, closer than the location of the GPS satellites. That proximity yields a stronger signal, according to OConnor of Satelles.

He said the company works closely with wireless carriers, the U.S. government and a company that fortifies position, navigation and timing sources for businesses.

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GPS is integrated into much more of our lives than people realize, OConnor said. Its built into our critical infrastructure.

At DARPA, researchers are working on a project called Adaptable Navigation Systems that would rely on sensors to collect other signals, such as those from mobile networks or commercial satellites. That information would then be translated by the algorithm, fused together, and a location and time would be determined. The 8-year-old program has been tested in the field on vehicles ranging from Navy destroyers to Army Humvees.

(Los Angeles Times )

Technology being tested in El Segundo by Aerospace Corp. could eventually pull in even more diverse data sources, such as signals from television antennas, radio stations or even visual imagery, and match those to a location.

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A few months ago, a couple of engineers from Aerospace Corp. strapped a specialized antenna on the roof of a car and set off through the streets of El Segundo to see if they could accurately pinpoint their location without using GPS.

As the pair drove around, they checked a laptop in real time to see if their so-called opportunistic navigation sensor was picking up radio signals that could be used to triangulate their position. Then they compared that dot to the one determined from GPS data.

At one point, the two signals were off by about 65 feet. But at another, the two navigation dots almost exactly overlapped.

The next test of these advanced algorithms, known as Sextant, could incorporate an accelerometer or a visual sensor that could rely on scenery to help navigate, said Randy Villahermosa, executive director of innovation at the nonprofit corporation, which operates a federally funded research and development center focused on space programs for the U.S. Air Force.

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Potential applications for a system like Sextant could extend beyond defense to include navigation for autonomous vehicles, he said. Aerospace Corp. does not sell its products commercially.

Industry officials have estimated that the market for GPS products along with alternatives is already worth a few billion dollars; future uses, such as driverless cars and drones, could dramatically drive up demand.

But it may not be worth it for everyone to switch to a commercial alternative. Just as the original market for Iridiums satellite phones was undercut by cheap cell service, so businesses may decide to continue taking their chances with GPS.

Each company must determine whether its products require such critical timing that being fooled for even a second would pose a significant risk, said Doug Loverro, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for space policy and former executive director for the Air Force Space Commands Space and Missile Systems Center.

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I think it depends upon how critical your use is, and whether or not youre in an industry or situation where you have a high risk of being spoofed, he said.

The opportunistic navigation antenna and the laptop used for field testing of a GPS alternative sensor called Sextant. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunagaWells Fargo & Co. gave multimillion-dollar raises to some top executives in 2017, a year that saw the San Francisco bank continue to deal with the fallout from its unauthorized accounts scandal, ultimately leading to additional strict sanctions from federal regulators.

Chief Executive Timothy Sloans compensation package totaled $17.6 million, a 35% increase from the $13 million he received in 2016, according to documents filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last year was Sloans first full one as CEO. He took over the top spot in late 2016 after former CEO John Stumpf resigned after the bank acknowledged in September 2016 that it might have created millions of unauthorized accounts and agreed to pay $185 million in fines to regulators.

John Shrewsberry, the banks chief financial officer, made $11.9 million last year, up from $9.3 million in 2016, according to the annual proxy filing. Avid Modjtabai, a senior executive vice president in charge of the banks payments and online initiatives, made $10.6 million, up from $9.3 million in 2016.

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The banks human resources committee, which reviews executive pay, said it believes the 2017 compensation for top leaders was reasonable and appropriate, the filing said.

Like other public companies, Wells Fargo this year was required by a new rule to disclose not only the pay granted to top executives but also the pay of the average worker  and to report the ratio of that pay to the CEOs total compensation.

The companys median employee made $60,446 last year. That means Sloan made 291 times as much as the median worker.

For all three executives, the vast majority of their compensation comes in the form of stock awards. Sloan, for instance, took home a salary of $2.4 million and stock awards estimated to be worth $15 million assuming the company meets certain financial goals.

Those awards, while granted in 2017, will vest over several years and can be increased or decreased based on the companys financial performance, while their value could fluctuate with the stock price. So the executives could ultimately earn substantially more or less than the figures reported to the SEC.

Wells Fargo shares are down from a recent high, following a stinging enforcement action from the Federal Reserve announced last month. They closed at $56.63 on Wednesday, down 1.6%.

The Fed, in one of its last acts under now-former Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen, ordered the bank last month to cap its growth and improve its corporate governance to address what Fed officials called widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns.

The action came after a year of new revelations, many of them discovered or acknowledged by the bank itself, about bad practices that went beyond the creation of unauthorized accounts.

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The bank last year said it had forced some auto loan customers to pay for unneeded auto insurance policies and charged improper fees to some mortgage borrowers. The bank remains under investigation by federal regulators over practices in its wealth management division and other matters.

james.koren@latimes.com

Follow me: @jrkorenOn this day in 1962, President Kennedy laid out in a speech to Congress the framework for a consumer bill of rights and the crucial role the federal government must play in protecting those rights.

Kennedys call to arms is now marked every March 15 as World Consumer Rights Day, which seeks to advance guidelines for consumer protection backed by the United Nations.

Yet over half a century later, the current occupant of the Oval Office, President Trump, a wealthy businessman, is aggressively pursuing policies that undermine each of Kennedys declared rights.

So its worthwhile asking: Is it too late to change course? Have corporate interests prevailed?

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I put those questions this week to a number of experts.

The consensus was that theres still hope. But to achieve genuine reform, with consumer rights receiving anything more than lip service, will require a sea change in policy making.

I think we can still make progress to establish better rules, said Emily Rusch, executive director of the California Public Interest Research Group. But right now were definitely playing defense.

Kennedy saw which way the wind was blowing when he gave his speech 56 years ago.

Just as his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, warned a year earlier against the acquisition of unwarranted influence ... by the military/industrial complex, Kennedy sensed that the American public remained under threat by corporate interests.

If consumers are offered inferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are unsafe or worthless, if the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened, and the national interest suffers, he said in his speech.

Kennedy proposed four basic consumer rights:

The right to safety: To be protected against the marketing of goods which are hazardous to health or life.

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The right to be informed: To be protected against fraudulent, deceitful or grossly misleading information, advertising, labeling or other practices, and to be given the facts he needs to make an informed choice.

The right to choose: To be assured, wherever possible, access to a variety of products and services at competitive prices. And if a market lacks competition, regulations to assure satisfactory quality and service at fair prices.

The right to be heard: To be assured that consumer interests will receive full and sympathetic consideration in the formulation of government policy.

Moreover, Kennedy understood that such rights need to be overseen and vigorously defended.

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The federal government  by nature the highest spokesman for all the people  has a special obligation to be alert to the consumers needs and to advance the consumers interests, he said.

It was a stance no less bold than the speech hed give a few months later in which he called for America to place a man on the moon. And some of Kennedys ideas reached a degree of fruition.

A Consumer Product Safety Commission was created in 1972. A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established in 2010. Both agencies, however, are only as effective as the people leading them.

Trumps pick to run the product safety commission, Ann Marie Buerkle, has served as acting chairwoman since February 2017. She failed to win confirmation by the U.S. Senate last year amid concerns she was too cozy with the industries shed oversee.

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Trump re-nominated her in January.

The financial protection bureau is in a state of flux as Trumps interim director, White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, reduces oversight of banks, payday lenders and other firms. We have committed to fulfill the bureaus statutory responsibilities, but go no further, he declared last month.

Experts say that while Kennedy recognized a need to protect consumers, Trump is more concerned with protecting businesses.

The Trump administration is absolutely decimating consumer rights, said Prentiss Cox, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota. Weve never really seen another administration thats so blatantly hostile to the idea of the government protecting consumers.

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He told me change is possible, but theres no question that corporations exert even more influence over politicians now than they did during Kennedys time. Both Republicans and Democrats, he said, are beholden to corporate interests.

Consumer advocates try to remain positive, but theres a sense that the country is now so far down the road of corporate control, it would be all but impossible to implement a consumer bill of rights as sweeping as what Kennedy envisioned.

President Kennedys dream of a consumer bill of rights dims with every day that goes by, said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League. The unraveling of generations of consumer rights and protections is unprecedented in this administration.

There are glimmers of hope. Even as its being crippled by the Trump administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau still maintains (for now) a complaint database that fulfills, to some extent, Kennedys right to be heard.

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There are disclosure laws at the state and federal levels that facilitate consumers right to be informed  about data breaches, for example, or a credit cards terms and conditions.

Overall, I would say things are better than they used to be, said Jeff Sovern, a professor at St. Johns University School of Law in New York. But under this president, the government is not keeping Kennedys commitment to protect consumers.

He added: I could imagine Trump first endorsing a consumer bill of rights, and then walking it back after he spoke to lobbyists and members of his administration, which unfortunately may be the same thing at this point.

In Kennedys time, consumer spending accounted for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. His consumer bill of rights was motivated by a recognition that if an unfair or unfriendly marketplace prompted consumers to curtail spending, the consequences for the overall economy would be disastrous.

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Today, consumer spending represents almost three-quarters of the economy, making Kennedys concern of even greater importance.

As all of us are consumers, these actions and proposals in the interest of consumers are in the interest of us all, Kennedy said.

He added that the voice of consumers is not always as loudly heard in Washington as those of businesses, and that politicians share an obligation to protect the common interest in every decision we make.

Fifty-three years later, shortly after announcing his run for the presidency, Trump boasted that it was easy for him to buy favors from politicians. When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do, he said.

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Putting that more concisely at a campaign rally a few months later, he said: When I want something, I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass, OK? Its true. They kiss my ass.

Camelot no more.

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.If a person wants to drive for Uber or Lyft but doesnt have a car, both ride-hailing companies steer them toward rental cars.

If a driver doesnt feel like getting behind the wheel when it rains, both companies sweeten the deal by offering additional pay.

If a drivers car isnt wheelchair accessible, should Uber and Lyft then encourage them to drive a vehicle that is more accommodating?

Thats the question at the heart of two lawsuits that attorneys from Disabilities Rights Advocates, a nonprofit advocacy group, filed in recent weeks against Lyft and Uber.

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The lawsuits, filed in California Superior Court in Alameda County, allege that both companies have failed to adequately extend their services to passengers who use wheelchairs, and that it is completely within their power to rectify the issue. Neither lawsuit seeks monetary damages; both call on the companies to change their current practices.

These ride-sharing companies have tried to put out this myth that theyre just middlemen who help the real businessmen and women  the drivers  connect with their customers, and thats just not true, said Melissa Riess, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.

The companies, Riess says, exercise huge amounts of control over both drivers and riders, everything from what kind of vehicle the driver drives, to what condition its in, to the fares they charge, and how they communicate with their rider.

If they can use that control to serve Uber and Lyfts interests, they can exercise that control to create conditions where wheelchair-accessible service is a reality, Riess said.

Both companies currently offer wheelchair-accessible rides through their apps, but the lawsuits describe these efforts as inadequate.

Customers who want to book a wheelchair-accessible Uber ride can select UberWAV from the ride-hailing app, but the lawsuit against that company calls the feature a sham because such rides in the San Francisco Bay Area are rarely available. Wheelchair users also inevitably end up paying more for their rides because cheaper options such as UberPool and UberPool Express are not available to them, the suit says..

The lawsuit against Lyft is similarly critical of its access mode, which, instead of connecting a passenger with a wheelchair-accessible Lyft ride, sends the rider a text message with a link to a website listing phone numbers for paratransit, public transportation agencies, and local taxi companies around the country, the lawsuit read. Almost a quarter of the links do not work, or are to websites that are irrelevant to people needing accessible transportation.

In a statement emailed to the Times, a Lyft spokesman said the company has partnerships and programs in place to provide wheelchair-accessible vehicle access in various parts of the country, and we are actively exploring ways to expand them nationwide.

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An Uber spokesman said that the company is continuously exploring ways to facilitate mobility and freedom via the Uber App for all riders, including riders who use motorized wheelchairs.

The taxicab industry has faced similar lawsuits that resulted in wheelchair-accessible mandates at some cab and limousine companies (around 10%  or roughly 230 vehicles  of Los Angeles LA Yellow Cab fleet is wheelchair-accessible, for example). Neither Uber nor Lyft have such mandates.

While many technology companies enjoy lighter regulation than the industry incumbents against whom they compete, even the newest of start-ups may have trouble skirting disability law without facing legal action, according to Thomas Cooke, a professor at Georgetowns McDonough School of Business.

Companies slapped with such lawsuits tend to quickly move to resolve them because no one wants the extremely negative publicity that would come from prolonged litigation, Cooke said.

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As both companies stand to influence the future of transportation  whether its through ride-hailing, self-driving vehicles or even passenger aviation  disabilities rights advocates are hoping the courts will force them to serve everyone.

Both firms are already facing wheelchair-accessibility lawsuits in other parts of the country, with cases in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

This is an industry where people with disabilities are being left behind, said Rebecca Williford, another attorney representing the plaintiffs. The further down the road ride-sharing goes without including people with disabilities, the harder it will be to fix.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

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Twitter: @traceylienWere standing on the same stage where Oklahoma! premiered, says British director Michael Grandage, gesturing at the flooring beneath his feet inside the historic St. James Theatre on West 44th Street. Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner did The King and I on this stage.

Grandage pauses for a moment, thinking about what he has just said. He glances out at the house with its golden ceiling and 1,710 bright red seats, which will soon be filled with Frozen ticket-holders.

Now were about to go on, what will that feel like? What will it be like? Grandage asks. I mean, Im going gray. You cant think about it.

To flop with material as pathologically beloved as the 2013 movie Frozen, which went on to win an Oscar for best animated feature and to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, would be more than egg on the face. It would be a cream-pie facial.

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Everything that happens in this piece happens in those beautiful, relatively short, five-act pastoral comedies like Twelfth Night and As You Like It. Frozen, the musical director, Michael Grandage

Happily, Grandage refuses to fret about the pressure. On this abnormally sunny and warm winters afternoon, he appears downright relaxed while walking around backstage, pointing out the tiny green bike that Young Anna rides in Act I and talking about how the snow on the roof of Oakens Trading Post is inflatable to save room in the theaters cramped wings.

More than a few heads were turned when Disney announced in fall 2016 that it had chosen as its Frozen director not a veteran of Broadway musicals but one of Britains most prolific interpreters of Shakespeare. Grandage, known for his skill at parsing the taut drama and raucous comedy of the Bard, would be directing a live-action version of a movie that single-handedly revived the market for pretty princess dresses.

Grandages 2010 Broadway production of John Logans Red did win six Tonys, including awards for director and play. He also led New York productions of The Cripple of Inishmaan and Evita, but Frozen is his first original musical.

Where others saw a question mark, Grandage spotted an opportunity. He viewed the Hans Christian Andersen-based fairy tale  about two sisters trapped in a kingdom imperiled by perpetual winter thanks to a crucial lack of communication  as completely Shakespearean.

Everything that happens in this piece happens in those beautiful, relatively short, five-act pastoral comedies like Twelfth Night and As You Like It,  he says, reclining in a seat toward the front of the auditorium.

Dressed in black with close-cropped, salt-and-pepper hair, his voice intense and theatrical, he leans into his words as he talks, as if trying to keep up with this own racing thoughts. He laughs easily, but he doesnt come at his work lightly. Not even if the work is a Disney musical.

Its important for a director to approach material, no matter how timeworn, as if it has never been staged before, he says.

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 Twelfth Night was a new play once. Hamlet was a new play. There was a moment in the history of the world when that play was being done before an audience for the first time ever, and nobody knew what was coming next, he says. You have to come at it as if youre telling the story fresh, because if you dont, youll start to direct in shorthand.

The philosophy informed his approach to the shows most famous song, that epic ballad of female empowerment. Let It Go was a bona fide pop culture phenomenon when the movie came out, one that inspired singalongs at Royal Albert Hall and sparked a whole genre of think pieces dissecting its siren-like draw.

In the film the tune is sung by Idina Menzel, but in the musical, its belted out with proud ferocity by the icy-blond actress Caissie Levy in a sequence that includes one of the lavish productions most eye-popping costume changes.

Whereas some directors might have focused on getting an actress to squeeze every last drop of melodic power out of the notes, Grandage was more interested in mining the lyrics in search of character development.

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We went through, beat by beat and word by word, and found a through-line emotionally and intellectually, says Grandage, squinting his brown eyes in concentration. In letting it go, she can narratively take us  to a place where we watch a woman who has been disabled quite seriously by her own powers transform into a woman who is using them to free herself and her imagination in order to understand who she is.

Caissie Levy, who plays Elsa, left, and Patti Murin, who plays Anna, take their bows. (Disney Theatrical )

This type of communication with a director is not as common as one might think, says Levy, who has performed in a number of Broadway shows, including Les Miserables, Wicked and Hair.

Michaels whole thing is about finding truth, she says. He wants to hear from us. He always has time to sit down and talk about it.

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Thats a sentiment echoed by Levys costar, Patti Murin, who plays Elsas sister and comedic foil, Anna.

I dont think Ive felt like more of an actor in my career, Murin says. He just has this way of pulling things out of you. Its not that you didnt know you could do it. You just havent had a chance to do it yet, or someone hasnt dug that deep into your skill set to allow you to do it.

Irrelevance is the bugaboo that drives Grandages contextual deep dives. If a production is not relevant  politically, socially, intellectually, philosophically  if it does not speak to the times we are living in, then it becomes what Grandage calls museum theater.

Thats where the criticism of theater comes into play, and Ill be the first to support it, he says. Even old stories can be given a new interpretation that contributes to the now, or helps form the now, or creates a zeitgeist.

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He stops to catch his breath, rocking forward in his seat and beating his hand on the table to mark each subsequent word: I think theater at its best can do all of that. I am passionate that theater can quite literally change the world.

Can Frozen do all of that?

Grandage is sanguine.

Its been a year and a half, and Im feeling that were representing the best of ourselves, he says of a process that included a run at the Buell Theatre in Denver in late summer followed by five months of prep work for the Broadway production. During that period, about 30% of the show was changed for clarity and emotional impact.

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Michael had all this pressure on him to bring his theatrical vocabulary to this thing we knew really well in our heads, recalls songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Denver was about giving him and Rob [choreographer Rob Ashford] space to have a first draft.

That space was an unusual luxury for Grandage, whose team emerged with a new beginning and a new ending, having silenced most of the questioning voices in their heads.

When the show catapults out of previews into opening night March 22, Grandage is indeed prepared to let it go. His focus will be his next project, Martin McDonaghs The Lieutenant of Inishmore, opening in summer in London.

He admits that in the past, shows that he thought likely to succeed have failed, and vice versa. It happens to everyone, even Disney, he says.

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What we all learn to do is just get the show up, see how it is, see how it reacts with an audience, see if theres good word of mouth, see if the message spreads, and then youve either got something that will live on, or youve got something that will last a natural course and just come to an end, he says. And we dont know what weve got yet, and we wont know until we get it up.

jessica.gelt@latimes.com

@jessicagelt

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Taylor Mac on gay history, Hamilton and his 24-hour shows at the AceJennifer Lee hustles down 8th Avenue at a breakneck pace, her eyes clear and sharp behind fashionable frames. Time is elusive, she says  it leaps away just when she thinks shes caught up to it.

As companions Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez nod in sympathy, Lee adds, Every day Im thinking, Where am I going? What am I doing? Dont let me mess up.

Dont mess up is an apt mantra for this trio behind the live-action version of Frozen, scheduled to open at the historic St. James Theatre on Broadway on March 22. Jennifer wrote the book for the new show, and Robert and Kristen wrote the music and lyrics.

All three are fully aware of the burden of expectations that comes with Frozen. The musical is Disney Theatrical Productions biggest potential hit since The Lion King, which after more than 20 years is Broadways third longest-running show in history. Its also the highest-grossing show of all time, having earned $8.2 billion worldwide.

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Im keeping my expectations low and my hopes high, Kristen says as the group bundles into the basement-level dining room inside Joe Allen Restaurant a few days before previews.

Im keeping my expectations low and my hopes high. Kristen Anderson-Lopez

The room is dim and cozy, with brick walls and white tablecloths. The rhythmic clacking of ice on metal as the occasional martini is shaken at the old-school bar is the soundtrack for the giddy banter around a circular table.

If the three writers went back in time and presented their younger selves a notecard containing the time-stealing word they would say the most in their lives, never in a million years would they have believed it would be Frozen.

But that word has shaped their lives since 2012, when they first joined forces on the animated film, which Lee wrote and co-directed and for which Robert and Kristen penned the music. The project became a colossal blockbuster of unexpected proportions for Disney, winning an Oscar for animated feature, selling nearly $1.3 billion in tickets worldwide and becoming the domestic markets highest-grossing movie with a female director at the helm  a distinction Lee held until Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman eclipsed her record.

Turning a bona-fide Disney franchise into a more nuanced Broadway musical proved a fresh challenge that the writers embraced with gusto.

Kristen makes a series of exaggerated emotional faces as she mimes typing furiously on a keyboard, pretending shes the shows lead characters.

Im writing down what I would say, and Im pretending and Im feeling it and Im writing it down, she says breathlessly of her work ritual.

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I just think shes gotten a really horrifying email, jokes Robert, who is also her husband.

Lee bursts out laughing, plopping her spoon back in a bowl of split pea soup. Soon, everybody at the table is giggling like children, seemingly unable to control their mad excitement.

Even within the context of their current nerve-wracking existence, this is no ordinary day.

A week after sitting down at Joe Allen, Robert and Kristen will fly to Los Angeles to vie for their second Oscar, for the song Remember Me in Disneys Coco. (They win.)

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The pair won their first Oscar for the earworm anthem Let it Go, from the film Frozen. The song  played with feverish repetition in minivans around the world  has since earned a place in the timeless-show tune canon, having gone double-platinum and selling more than 10.9 million copies in 2014 alone.

Lee is on her own roller coaster of an adventure as co-writer of her first live-action film, A Wrinkle in Time, Disneys $100 million-plus bet on director Ava DuVernay and star Oprah Winfrey.

With the premiere of Frozen, the musical, this high-profile dream team is on the cusp of launching their Next Big Thing, and freezing up is not an option. So, no pressure, right?

They say they are striving to stay present in each moment to savor their mounting accomplishments. They know what its like when things go wrong and they know this perfect storm of professional achievement could veer south at any moment.

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Part of the challenge of this is that the songs people know, they know really well, and then theres the vast majority of the score that they dont know yet. Robert Lopez

Part of the challenge of this is that the songs people know, they know really well, and then theres the vast majority of the score that they dont know yet, says Robert.

The Frozen movie soundtrack has what only can be described as a rabid fan base, with children, tweens, teens and adults belting out numbers in the shower and putting up countless  often crushingly cute  covers on YouTube. There were seven songs in the film. The musical boasts almost three times as many, and because songs are the cornerstone of any successful musical, the execution of these numbers is of crucial importance. Their reception will make or break the show.

The writing process began in September 2015, and a first-draft of the musical was due nine months later.

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Bobby and I had a studio in our basement, and we went down there and didnt come out until May, Kristen recalls.

We moved offices during that time, I dont know how we did that, Robert says.

We had to move offices because we were gonna kill each other, shoots back Kristen.

We had one room that we were working in and we were starting to get a little bit Robert hesitates, staring playfully at his wife. Stir crazy.

Lee laughs at their tete-a-tete. She is in the unusual position of being the third wheel, and she handles it well. The three share a symbiotic working relationship honed over the six years they have been collaborating intimately on all things Frozen.

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They talk daily through every step of development, with bits and pieces of stream-of-consciousness monologues that Lee writes for the shows two princesses, Elsa and Anna, inspiring lyrics for Kristen, and the music seeding ideas for dialogue in Lee.

Ill say to Bobby, Remember that little thing you played, can you just play it for two or three minutes and send it because Im writing and I can hear her and feel her when you do that, Lee says. Or Ill play something Kristen sings on a loop, so its a lot of back and forth.

As much as children love Frozen, with Elsa and Anna princess dresses littering countless playroom closets like so much blue-silk flotsam, the process of bringing the story to the stage required heavy-duty work boots.

Those nine months that Bobby and I were in the basement expanding this into a big, emotional, lush musical, we took it as seriously as if we were adapting War and Peace, says Kristen. This was not looked as, OK, now lets just fluff it up.

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Adding, not padding. Deepening, not cheapening, says Robert, repeating a phrase that Kristen coined during the process.

The idea was to plumb the depths of the story  about an ice queen who mistakenly casts her kingdom into perpetual winter, and the plucky little sister who saves the day  for the messy, beating human heart within.

Its been quite a journey for Frozen writer, film screenwriter and co-director Jennifer Lee. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times )

Were approaching the stage show as a singular piece of art, For me, Frozen wasnt fully realized until this show. This is what it was made to be. Jennifer Lee

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Were approaching the stage show as a singular piece of art, says Lee. For me, Frozen wasnt fully realized until this show. This is what it was made to be.

Lee is also in development as writer and co-director for Frozen 2, the animated sequel to the original film, and she says her work for both that and the musical got a huge boost when the movies head of stories brought in his psychologist wife, who basically psychoanalyzed her as both Elsa and Anna for what amounted to three-hour sessions for each character.

She pushed me to a place of revealing all these things about them, Lee says. I was shocked how easy it was to distinguish Elsas issues from Annas, and thats really a testament to these guys and the work we did every day.

As creators, the three are remarkably amenable to making changes and are not opposed to killing darlings when necessary, says director Michael Grandage. The renowned British director is known for his cunning adaptations of Shakespearean classics starring the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jude Law, and as such he is particularly enthralled to be working with live writers.

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Its wonderful to turn to somebody and say, What am I missing? Can you make that a bit more clear? and they say, Yes, and then they run off and the next day something arrives and you put it in, says Grandage. Thats one of the greatest things that can happen for a director.

In this case, that something included a brand new beginning and ending.

The collaboration among Grandage, Lee, Robert, Kristen, production designer Christopher Oram and choreographer Rob Ashford is distinctly darker than the films fare. Even the set is somewhat somber, framed by a hulking Nordic-wood arch and populated by gloomy rooms and dim hallways. Jagged ice shoots out of the wings and the stage floor like an existential threat, and icicles hang from just about everything.

Elsa is a brooding figure, often appearing alone onstage and struggling with a gift she has been made to feel deeply ashamed of by an ingrained patriarchal order.

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There are hints of themes mined by the Times Up movement as well. In one telling scene, Elsa, played by seasoned Broadway actress Caissie Levy, is being chased by men wielding weapons. She is distraught, and her pursuers are menacing and chanting ominously.

The scene is the gateway to the new song Monster, in which Elsa contemplates suicide with lyrics like All this pain, all this fear began because of me / Is the thing they see, the thing I have to be? / A monster, were they right? Has the dark in me finally come to light? / Am I a monster full of rage, nowhere to go but on a rampage.

Whether or not Monster proves to be a tour de force on par with Let It Go remains to be seen. (How many anthems do you need in one musical? Robert asks with mock plaintiveness.) But the new song certainly helps achieve the depth of character that the creators hoped to bring to the stage.

The goal, says Kristen, is to inspire audiences to say, This isnt for little girls buying costumes, this is for me. This will help me look at my own life and adult choices and how they resonate with early childhood trauma and why Im choosing the partners Im choosing.

Elsas journey, after all, is marked by fear and shame, she says. The young snow queen has a completely secret life, and she wishes for something else  to be free from judgment and the oppressive expectations of others.

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With the musical, we were able to stop time and go into her head and unpack what the song would be for a girl whos not allowed to want something, Kristen says.

Lee relished this process, which went far beyond a toe-dip and amounted to an icy plunge into her characters psyches.

We could go deeper to have a woman confront the idea of having caused a storm, and wondering if she is bad and wrong and whether she deserves to be here, she says.

Musical theater just might be the ideal vehicle for that kind of exploration, because as the old industry adage goes: When you can no longer say something, sing.

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jessica.gelt@latimes.com

@jessicagelt

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4:40 p.m. March 15: This article was updated with a more specific earnings estimate for The Lion King.Japan does not automatically come to mind when the subject is Jasper Johns. The artist entered the popular imagination with his paintings of the American flag in 1950s, and he will never cease to be identified with them.

When the Broad museum opened its sublime Johns retrospective, Something Resembling Truth, last month, the museum performed a momentary face job on the buildings pockmarked skin with a giant projection of one of the artists flag painting, its surface transformed into a canvas-like fleshy texture that seemed like a patriotic act of American can-do.

It was, of course, something only resembling the truth. Where the essence lies in Johns is that what you see is what you get, yet these are not necessarily the same thing. That makes him not only our greatest artist but also our most mysterious.

Japan comes to mind, after all, and it came to mind front and center Wednesday night in the second of pianist Adam Tendlers three programs at the Broad examining Johns relationship to music. The series, which concludes on April 18, is called Cross-Hatched, after another series of iconic Johns images. This concert, though, was Usuyuki: Johns in Japan.

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What does come to mind automatically when Johns and music are in the same breath is John Cage, a composer Tendler has specialized in. He is the first to my knowledge to play Cages Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano from memory. Wednesdays program was Cage-centric, in that it began and ended with Cage works related to Japan or to Jap, as the composer called his close friend. In between were striking pieces by Japanese composers with whom Johns came into contact with or heard performed during a residency in Tokyo, which he visited with Cage, in 1963 and 1964.

At the time, the Japanese avant-garde was in what came to be known as Cage shock. We cant know what Johns exactly encountered at Japanese performances because much of the music Tendler uncovered requires the performer to assemble each work anew for each outing, often with vague instructions harder to follow than anything from Ikea. Cage was the source for this as well.

Toru Takemitsu, Japans most famous composer (though not yet at that time), is known for both his voluptuousness and his precision. But in Corona, the pianist has only a graphic score (which slightly resembled the logo of the Yamaha piano he played) from which to figure cagey ways of exploring vibration, intonation, articulation, expression and conversion. Each has a color associated with it, and appropriate lighting was projected on the walls of the lobby in front of the Johns exhibition, where the concert took place. For the conversation, Tendler placed an old cassette Walkman with distorted recordings of Japanese speech on the piano strings.

The keys were struck from afar by long objects such as a yardstick, umbrella, fishing rod, rake, squeegee and a broom.

The composer and pianist Toshi Ichiyanagi and his wife at the time, Yoko Ono, had come under Cages spell in New York in the late 1950s, and they hosted Cage in Japan in 1964. While Tendler spent much of the concert exploring inventive ways to attack the piano, its keys and its strings in Ichiyanagis Music of Piano 3 and 4, he made his Japanese piano sound like its legs were nowhere near the ground.

In Onos Lighting Piece, he held a lighted cigarette light above the strings, like an offering. In her Wall Piece for Orchestra to Yoko Ono, he repeatedly banged his head against the side of the nearby escalator. For Takehisa Kosugis Distance for Piano, the keys were struck from afar by long objects such as a yardstick, umbrella, fishing rod, rake, squeegee and a broom just like the kind Johns liked to paint.

In 1964, around the time of Cages trip to Japan, he wrote 0'00" " with the instruction to amplify the performance of any dedicated action (one he used to catch on his correspondence while also performing); Tendler opened the program by using it to wrap a wedding gift.

The tiny Haiku pieces consist of alluring pings gone before you can quite grasp them. Electronic Music for Piano, a 1964 work very much in the Japanese spirit, is a set of enigmatic instructions for manipulating sound and silence. Tendler offered a focused six-minute study in sonority and its absence. A new recording released last week by pianist Tania Chen and Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore goes on for a fascinatingly contentious 70 minutes.

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Tendler ended with Cages Cheap Imitation, a rewriting of Saties opera Socrate to accompany a dance by Merce Cunningham for which Johns designed the costumes. In a seemingly impossible feat, Tendler memorized the meandering half-hour score and played it with entrancing musicality, if perhaps less plainness than Cage imagined.

Ghostly video of the Cunningham company from 2011 played on the walls. But it was Tendlers sensuous solemnity that best encompassed a Japanese sensibility (although Asia had nothing to do with it), the careful luminosity of Johns painting and, somehow, the sense that hitting a piano with a broom and your head against the wall is a proper prelude to playing the keys with utmost sensitivity.

I was put off by Tendlers overly romanticizing Sonatas and Interludes during the 2012 Cage centennial. Hes grown into a remarkable and insightful musician.

mark.swed@latimes.com

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Has MOCAs firing of the chief curator triggered a museum identity crisis?

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Taylor Mac on gay history, Hamilton and his 24-hour L.A. extravaganzaThe unexpected firing of Helen Molesworth, the Museum of Contemporary Arts highly respected chief curator, didnt just shock the art world. It raised the question of a full-blown institutional identity crisis.

For almost 40 years, a MOCA point of pride has been that it was founded by artists.

But now many wonder if MOCA can continue to champion itself as an artists museum.

Im not sure how MOCA will recover from this, said artist Analia Saban, whose work is represented in MOCAs permanent collection. She believes it is an artists museum, but theres a recent history over the last six or seven years of artists saying they dont feel heard.

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Artist Lari Pittman, who said the museum was losing one of Americas gifted young curators, resigned from the MOCA board earlier this year, noting an irreconcilable divide between Molesworth and MOCA Director Philippe Vergne.

Artists never stand by directors, they stand by curators, Pittman said. Im an artist and I stand by Helen.

When asked if the museums board of trustees stands by Vergnes decision, MOCA did not respond Wednesday.

The firing, first reported by The Times on Tuesday, prompted a statement from MOCA that said Vergne and Molesworth were parting ways because of creative differences. But artist board member Catherine Opie told The Times that Vergne said he had terminated Molesworth on Monday for undermining the museum.

When asked if the museums board of trustees stands by Vergnes decision, MOCA did not respond Wednesday. Molesworth also did not reply to requests for comment.

Pittman pointed out that its extremely rare for a museum director to fire a chief curator, but MOCA has done it before. In 2012, then-Director Jeffrey Deitch forced out the highly respected Paul Schimmel.

It doesnt bode well for the institution, Pittman said.

Molesworths departure comes at a weighty time for museums, which are increasingly scrutinized for democratic representation of artists, particularly women and people of color, said Nizan Shaked, a professor of contemporary art history, museum and curatorial studies at Cal State Long Beach. She cited two recent Molesworth-curated exhibitions, both popular and critically acclaimed: Kerry James Marshall: Mastry, featuring the work of an African American artist, and the retrospective of Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino.

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This is a moment when we see a split in art institutions between those who are willing to defend democratic principles and those who allow self-interest and money to influence content, Shaked said, citing worries that museum trustees, not curators, are determining programming.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the recent MacArthur Foundation fellow whose work addresses Afrocentric themes and whose mural  (Country/City/Town/Ancestral Village) now adorns MOCAs Grand Avenue exterior, also echoed the significance of Molesworths inclusive vision and the Marshall exhibition.

On my numerous visits to view that seminal show, I noticed more black museum-goers than I recall ever seeing there, Akunyili Crosby said. Which bespeaks the importance of seeing oneself reflected and represented in art. I believe Helen understands this.

Whether a rift will grow between MOCA and the artists it champions will hinge on the museums response to a growing backlash. Several art world figures said that the lack of transparency over Molesworths firing made them wonder whether Vergne acted alone or made the decision in concert with  or under pressure from  the board to whom he reports.

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MOCA Director Philippe Vergne (John Salangsang / BFA.com )

I think Philippe and Helen are both brilliant, and I cant help but feel like theres something else behind this and that shes taking the fall for bigger problems in the institution, Hammer Museum chief curator Connie Butler said. I dont think it has only to do with Helens curatorial agenda. Its a tremendous loss for Los Angeles and heartbreaking for MOCA.

Pittman said he was perplexed by Vergnes decision.

Im surprised by Philippes recklessness, Pittman said. That is not his character, hes always been thoughtful and would look for counsel from many people. So Im not only surprised, but it raises suspicion. I dont feel its as autonomous or absolute as it might seem.

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Artist Sandeep Mukherjee, whose work is in MOCAs permanent collection, said the latest turmoil reflects larger problems at the institution.

I think its just the same group of people  the director, the board, even Helen, supporting the same white male artists, and diversity is a token there, Mukherjee said. Its very predictable and cliched. They fall way short.

The museum has been mired in waves of internal drama since the mid-2000s. Faced with financial crises, the museum drew on its endowment to stay afloat, and by 2008 it nearly collapsed when the $38.2-million endowment had plummeted to $5 million.

Philanthropist Eli Broad came to the rescue, pledging $15 million for exhibitions over five years, plus up to $15 million for the endowment.

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In 2010 MOCA heralded the arrival of a new director, Deitch, a New York gallerist, though the optimism didnt last long. Deitch was a divisive force at the museum, clashing with Schimmel and spurring artists Opie, Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha to resign from the board. Deitch resigned in 2013.

The following year was to be a major turning point for MOCA. Not only was Vergne appointed in January, with Molesworth arriving in September, but the museum announced it had hit a $100-million fundraising target. As a show of support for Vergne and the start of a new chapter at the museum, Opie, Kruger and Baldessari rejoined the board.

But Vergne and Molesworth reportedly had differing visions for MOCAs programming. It was unconventional for Vergne, formerly chief curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, to assume lead curator roles for a retrospective of sculptor Carl Andre last year and a survey of multimedia artist Doug Aitken in 2016. Critics have noted Andre and Aitken are both white men.

This year, artist board member Mark Grotjahn declined to be MOCAs gala honoree, citing concerns about a lack of diversity among past honorees  all straight white men. Pittman, who is Latino and gay, resigned from the board.

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There was a time there that we all felt MOCA was finally out of its crisis mode, Shaked said. And this just seems like the second wave of crisis. The crack was Lari Pittman leaving the board, and now this, Helen leaving. This is a crater.

deborah.vankin@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @debvankin

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For the Record

8:20 p.m. This article has been updated to fix a typographical error in the reference to Ed Ruscha.Azerbaijani side doesn't lead OSCE mission to its front-line positions

On March 15, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh Republic), the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the ceasefire regime on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, to the south-east from Kuropatkino settlement of the Martuni region, press service of the Artsakh Ministry of Foreign reports. From the positions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) Mihail Olaru (Moldova) and Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), as well as staff member of the Office of the CiO Personal Representative Martin Schuster (Germany). From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE CiO Ognjen Jovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Personal Assistant to the CiO Personal Representative Simon Tiller (Great Britain). The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. However, the Azerbaijani side did not lead the OSCE mission to its front-line positions. From the Artsakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the Republic of Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.Years ago, in a quiet German forest, a gravedigger for fallen soldiers stilled his spade and said: In these bones, you see what war is like. I know war now. Ill tell you what it is. War is young men killing other young men they do not know on the orders of old men who know one another too well.

That sentiment lingers through Journeys End, a nuanced and forbidding British film set on the front lines of World War I, which killed around 17 million people, many of them young soldiers marched into hopeless battles by misguided generals. The story, adapted from a 1928 play by R.C. Sherriff, is a meditation on duty and folly and a glimpse back to a time before Kevlar vests, laser-guided missiles and public concern over high casualty counts.

British soldiers in trenches on the Western Front  Germans forces are camped 60 yards away  listen and crouch as shells drop in the dark distance. Cigarettes are passed, rats scurry, mud squishes, gas masks dangle and flares pop overhead like apparitions. The claustrophobic drama, which opens Friday in Los Angeles, centers on 2nd Lt. Raleigh (Asa Butterfield), untested and brimming with good cheer, and the man he reveres, Capt. Stanhope (Sam Claflin), who has seen too many bodies and downed too much whiskey.

Theyre there to defend a front line that was indefensible. Your job was to be sacrificed, said Saul Dibb, the films director. The storys about the psychological aspect of your waiting for your impending death. It was a chance to look far deeper into characters and the strange intimacy between men, the tenderness, and how men deal with fear. This is men at war with themselves.

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The film has already opened in England, where the Guardian praised it as forthright, powerful, heartfelt. The newspaper added: The first world war is one of the 20th centurys oldest, grimmest tales of futility and slaughter. Dibb and his excellent cast put new passion into it.

Reminiscent of the unsparing poetry of Wilfred Owen, and the opposite of jingoistic war films, Journeys End is more mournful than thunderous. It knows that courage is most poignant when its humble and that honor is best marked by humility. The movie is punctuated by requisite British wit as in the small tragedy that fruit ration tins contain apricots instead of pineapples. Officers cling to refinement  they wear ties in their crumbling, candle-lighted bunker  and reflect on the coming ravages across a terrain of poison gas, carbines and corpses.

World War I was a gruesome collision of old and modern Europe, a conflict fought with advanced weapons  mortars, hand-held flamethrowers and machine guns  that shook the continent with mass killing. Much of the fighting was done from trenches, compressing the battlefield as soldiers stood and fired through barbed wire and mist, as if mice in a maze, and waited for onslaughts. The war nearly wiped out a generation of working- and upper-class men.

I have had so very much out of life, a lieutenant  a schoolmaster before the war  writes to his wife on the eve of an attack. But all these youngsters dont know how unlucky they are. How new they are to their very existence.

The scene echoes with a middle-aged mans lament and the stiff-upper-lip English resolve so ingrained in the mythology of last centurys wars. The moment is truthful and eerily quaint, even as one knows that todays soldiers and their countrymen are more questioning of the duties placed upon their armies in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The soulfulness in the lieutenants letter has nobility to it, said Dibb, a sense that youre withholding your feelings for the sake of other peoples feelings. What died in that trench was deference.

In his poem Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen captures the scouring, cruel loss of vanquished men:

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

 Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

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Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,

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The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

Director Saul Dibb on set of Journeys End (Richard Pohle/Good Deed Entertainment )

Like the Academy Award-nominated Dunkirk, about British soldiers trapped by German forces on the French coast during World War II, Journeys End, written by Simon Reade, creates layers of tension through music. Composed by Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir and British composer Natalie Holt, the score is rueful and ominous, like a phantom floating through a winters dusk. It propels a film whose action lies not in relentless battle scenes but in the ticktock of anticipating an attack.

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We wanted to permeate the film with this terrible sense of foreboding, to make it very clear from the start that these were dead men walking, said Dibb, who has also directed The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley, and Suite Francaise, the tale of German soldiers occupying a French village during World War II, with Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas. He noted that more than 700,000 soldiers died in the three-month Spring Offensive in 1918.

Class distinctions reverberate throughout the story. The officers, as was consistent with a British pecking order based on lineage and wealth, were from the nations best schools and breeding. The lower-ranking soldiers came from working-class lives of fewer polished syllables. Capt. Stanhopes courage and tenacity bridged the class gap; he was respected by those in his own rank and those above and beneath him.

It was a fine line, Dibb said in making class distinct in the film but not allowing it to distract from the deeper camaraderie shared among the men. We didnt want to make the officers feel alienated to an audience by their class, which can happen with the British upper middle class. Most of the actors who play the officers all went to state schools, so theyre playing officers, but theyre not of that class themselves, and I think that helped bridge the gap a little bit.

The human cost and national calculation of war resonate through Journeys End. They are the same universal themes that Owens World War I poetry, still studied in schools across England, personified. Dibb said Owen, a soldier killed one week before the armistice that ended the war in 1918, is not cited in the film, but the movie seeks to embody the air of honor and loss articulated in his verse.

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They are beautifully put poems, but a righteous anger runs through them, said the director. Theres a bittersweet tone where theres so much humanity and beauty in something so wasteful.

See the most-read stories this hour 

Twitter: @JeffreyLAT

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

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Guillermo del Toros dark, innocent and mystical imagination propels his filmsAs an exploration of the intractable conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories, In the Land of Pomegranates joins a long cinematic lineage. Like most of its forebears, it offers a few rays of hope along with profoundly dispiriting observations. What sets Hava Kohav Bellers documentary apart is the intense colloquy at its disheartening heart: a series of discussions among young Palestinians and Israelis during a retreat in Germany.

Theres nothing feel-good about the group conversations, their bristling tension captured in intimate footage during the 2007 edition of a program called Vacation from War. Sitting in the same room, twentysomethings raised in political turmoil parse the difference between terrorist and retaliatory and express shockingly divergent points of view on the Holocaust. The searching complexity of the participants words is undeniable, but whether they truly see each other in a new, humanizing light is uncertain. And Beller never suggests otherwise.

The New York-based director  born in Germany, raised in Israel  spent a decade gathering material for the film, and as it leaps back and forth in time, it can feel disorganized and overlong. She intercuts the roundtables with a quartet of portraits, some more revealing than others. At its most hopeful, the film traces a story of medical diplomacy, involving a young Gaza boys life-saving surgery by an Israeli doctor. At its most searing, it illuminates the seeds of hatred and the depths of suffering and mistrust.

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In the Land of Pomegranates

In Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles

Not rated

Running time: 2 hours

Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

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calendar@latimes.comItzhak Perlmans musical gifts with violin and bow are legion, so any documentary on him is sure to be fortified with performance pleasure. Whats especially appealing about Alison Chernicks Itzhak, however, is how much time we spend with his personality, which radiates joy about art, thoughtfulness when he reflects on his life as the polio-surviving prodigy who made good, happiness around loved ones, and passion for teaching.

Less a standard biography run-through than a sprightly tagalong (with attendant archival clips), Chernick tries to keep up with the living legend as he travels the world performing and accepting awards. Trips to Israel spark rich conversations about the Jewish peoples history with the violin as an instrument of survival, struggle, and spiritual emotion, and Perlmans own upbringing there as the son of poor Polish immigrant parents who gave everything for his talent.

At home in New York, he relishes Shabbat dinner with his extended family, zips around on his scooter, rehearses with musicians (from classical to Billy Joel), kibitzes with friends and showers attention on students at Juilliard and the summer residency program he started with his wife of half a century, Toby.

In fact, Tobys ebullient, fiercely intelligent and supportive presence is the movies other affirming force: as a portrait of a marriage forged in respect, love and companionship, Itzhak is in its casually wonderful way proof that life is rarely lived as a virtuosic solo.

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Itzhak

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Royal, West L.A.; Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino; Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena

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calendar@latimes.comWriter-director-editor Joseph Martins edgy crime dramedy Us and Them has something to say, but it says it with perhaps too much pizzazz. Part of a long tradition of incendiary, punk-influenced British social satires, the picture will undoubtedly resonate with some politically engaged filmgoers, though its more a showcase for rising star Jack Roth than a resounding triumph for Martin.

Roth plays Danny, a working-class kid who ropes his buddies into an act of extreme civil disobedience. They invade the home of a posh capitalist and spend several hours threatening his family, on camera, as a warning to the rich that ordinary British citizens are fed up.

Martin breaks the story into chapters and jumps around in time to provide backstory and footnotes to the moments of eruptive violence. He sets all this to a soundtrack that veers from classical music to the Damned.

The gimmicky structure and style is more distracting than effective, and it mostly fails to compensate for an underdeveloped plot. Martins stealing from the right filmmakers  including Guy Ritchie, Stanley Kubrick, Mike Leigh, Danny Boyle and Ben Wheatley  but lacks their command.

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What he does have is Roth, whos absolutely riveting, especially once Danny begins to realize that not only has he failed to think through his plan but that hes also allowed his rage to be exploited. Dannys more of an idea than a character, but like his father, Tim, Roth already shows a knack for humanizing a thesis statement.

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Us and Them

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes.

Playing: Monica Film Center, Santa Monica

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calendar@latimes.comIf youve ever dreamed of having stylist-turned-designer Rachel Zoe pick out looks for you, heres your chance, but you might have to call out of work Thursday afternoon for the experience.

Zoe will be on hand for an event at the Bumble Hive in Los Angeles, which is open to people who have the social-dating-and-business-networking app downloaded to their phones. Following a scheduled talk about entrepreneurship, Zoe will share styling tips and then help women who want to dip into the spring 2018 offerings from Zoes eponymous brand, which, she said, will be on-site and instantly shoppable.

This season was inspired by all of the multi-hyphenate women in my life that always need to look their best, said Zoe, adding that the pieces will feature feminine prints and carefree yet bold silhouettes. A happy hour will follow all of the fashion moments. Entry is free.

Rachel Zoe X Bumble, 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, at the Bumble Hive, 8441 Melrose Place, Los Angeles, shoprachelzoe.com, bumble.com

Milly X Fred Segal

New York-based women's brand Milly will open its West Coast pop-up at Fred Segal in West Hollywood on March 22. Milly

New York fashion brand Milly will unveil its new pop-up space at Fred Segals Sunset Boulevard store on March 22. For the six-week pop-up, shoppers will find the labels signature vibrant colors, sexy draped dresses and knife-pleat textures  all from its womens spring/summer 2018 Wildflower collection.

Michelle Smith, Milly co-founder and creative director, said she curated an exclusive capsule for women, pulling from pleated dresses, bustier tops, tanks and hoodies from Millys extensive collection of daytime looks, eveningwear and swim offerings. (Milly also has a childrens line.) Dresses at the pop-up will go from $400 to $700; tops are $200, while hoodies, tanks and T-shirts go from $80 to $120.

Smith, who trained at the Paris ateliers of Dior and Hermes, said she thinks of the Milly brand as fun and irreverent and with a Californian vibe.

Milly X Fred Segal pop-up, starting March 22 for six weeks, at Fred Segal, 8500 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, www.milly.com

Rodarte

A Rodarte T-shirt is an example of what will be available at the L.A. label's two-day sample sale. Rodarte

Details are deliberately being kept secret for a sample sale Thursday and Friday by hip Los Angeles brand Rodarte, which has legions of devoted  and if the moment calls for it, well-heeled  followers. We asked, but Rodarte representatives werent sharing what the brand will sell, what sizes will be offered, what the discounts will be like or where the sale is being staged. (Just know, a Rodarte dress might cost several thousand of dollars or more at retail. For example, a pink polka-dot flocked tulle ruffle gown from the labels spring/summer 2018 collection was selling for $12,888 on MatchesFashion.com earlier Thursday.) However, if youd like to find out more details, you have to pony up your email address by sending a message to info@rodarte.net.

Nicky Hilton X Tolani

Mommy-and-me offerings  this one is in silk  are the foundation of a new fashion collaboration between Nicky Hilton and Tolani. Nicky Hilton X Tolani

If thats not enough fashion activity for the week, start the weekend with a trunk show at Kitson Kitross in Los Angeles. Thats where Nicky Hilton will show her new fashion collaboration with the Tolani brand. Youll find tunics, strapless dresses and easy-wear printed shorts, and heres the hook: Every piece will be available for young girls and their mothers, aunts, grandmas or guardians. Prices are $89 to $139 for girls and $175 to $275 for women.

Nicky Hilton X Tolani trunk show, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Kitson Kitross, 115 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, tolanicollection.com

image@latimes.com

For fashion news, follow us at @latimesimage on Twitter.

UPDATES:

CORRECTION

8:22 a.m.: A previous version of this story said the Milly pop-up shop at Fred Segal in West Hollywood was opening Friday. The pop-up shop will open March 22.

This article was originally published at 7 a.m.The California bullet train will have another slow segment of track as part of a new cost-savings measure, state rail authority documents reveal.

Technical documents attached to the authoritys 2018 business plan show that it no longer plans to have dedicated tracks designed for speeds of up to 220 mph over a 30-mile stretch south of San Francisco.

Instead, the system would operate between San Jose and Gilroy at 110 mph on ground-level tracks on or adjacent to an existing right of way owned by Union Pacific. The route would make 32 highway crossings, requiring sophisticated barrier gates and sharing a corridor that carries freight and commuter rail.

The decision is the third compromise the rail authority has made for money or politics that would create slower sections of track, each incrementally adding travel time to an alternative form of transportation promised to link Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours.

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In this case, adding several minutes to the trip is estimated to save about $1.7 billion, a significant sum for a project critically short of funding. The 2018 business plan, released last week, acknowledged there is not enough money to build a partial operating system from San Francisco to Bakersfield by 2029.

The original design for the San Jose to Gilroy segment had lengths of costly elevated track and would have taken significant private land. A rail authority spokesperson said the new plan also will minimize community disruption and environmental impacts.

Whether the new plan succeeds hinges on whether Union Pacific agrees to allow use of its right of way, according to the documents. It is unclear whether the railroad company will go along  and if so, at what cost.

There is no formal agreement in place regarding the 2018 business plan or its contents, said Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs, though the parties regularly discuss the states evolving plans.

In a 2010 letter, Union Pacific warned the rail authority it would not agree to allow the high-speed rail system to use any part of its right of way or to be so close to its tracks that it would impair safety or its freight movements.

Frank Vacca, the rail authoritys chief of rail operations, said the state is making progress from Union Pacifics original position and hopes he can have an agreement by the end of this year.

The rail authority has for half a dozen years been cutting deals that would nudge up travel times.

In 2012, the rail authority agreed with political leaders in the Bay Area to eliminate a controversial elevated viaduct through wealthy Peninsula communities. Instead, over a 50-mile stretch from San Jose to San Francisco, the system would share existing tracks owned by Caltrain, a commuter service operated by a local joint powers authority.

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Several years ago, the rail authority said it would share about 11 miles of right of way, if not tracks, with the Metrolink system between Burbank and downtown Los Angeles.

In total, there are about 91 miles of rail above ground that involve shared track or right of way that will restrict speeds to about 110 mph. Even that speed is questionable.

Grady Cothen, an attorney and former chief of safety regulations at the Federal Railroad Administration, said in an interview about the California project with The Times last year that 110 mph speeds are unrealistic in dense urban areas.

In statements to the public, rail officials have also suggested they would not run trains at full speed through urban residential neighborhoods.

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Tunnels are another area of restricted speed. In 2016, the rail authority said in a technical document that it would save money by reducing the diameter of tunnels, which would necessitate slowing trains to about 200 mph. In one curved section of a Southern California tunnel, train speeds would be as low as 130 mph, according to a 2014 technical document. In total, there are 45 miles of tunnels planned for the system, according to the business plan.

Of the roughly 434 miles of track between Los Angeles and San Francisco, 136 miles  nearly one-third of the total  could have at least some speed restrictions.

Exactly how much time the San Jose to Gilroy slow section would add to a trip is not disclosed in the documents. At 110 mph over 30 miles, the passage would take an additional eight minutes compared with 220 mph. But Vaca, the rail official, said the speed reduction only amounts to three to four minutes, because the original design for the route had some curved sections that also slowed the speed.

The authority is legally required under the 2008 Proposition 1a bond act to design its system to get a train from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes, though it is not required to operate trains on that timetable. Vaca said the system will beat that design requirement with some time to spare, though he did not disclose the exact travel time that the rail authoritys model now predicts.

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Outside rail experts say it is improbable that the rail would ever meet the 2 hour 40 minute trip time in actual operations. In the business plans supporting documents, the rail authority lists a timetable example that shows the fastest full-length trip would be 3 hours and 30 minutes. Trains with more stops would take 4 hours and 5 minutes. Nonetheless, Vaca said he is confident that a one- or two-stop train will make the trip in under three hours.

Issues of cost, speed, ridership and fares are intertwined in a project facing mounting political and financial challenges. Internally, the rail authority is undergoing a management shake-up with the arrival of new Chief Executive Officer Brian Kelly and several other key executives, who are trying to restore credibility as the price tag rises and construction falls further behind schedule.

In one of his early acts, Kelly ordered an immediate review of the authoritys new cost estimates, which price the project at $78.3 billion with the potential to fall as low $63.2 billion or rise as high $98.1 billion. In the business plan itself, Kelly ordered a further assessment of the reasonableness of the cost estimates and the ranges.

Such cost estimates are supposed to take into consideration every yard of concrete and every pound of steel needed for construction, as well as many other factors  a laborious task that can take one or two years for a team of estimators.

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An authority spokesperson said the cost estimates were developed before Kelly took over the project on Feb. 1 and the new review is aimed at making sure the cost range includes factors that could increase or decrease costs.

Among those factors could be the electrical power grid in the Central Valley, which the business plan revealed may not have enough juice in some areas to operate the electric trains.

As a result, the rail authority is in discussions with PG&E, the electric utility that serves the area, to build new transmission lines, the plan said. The authoritys spokesperson said those discussions have been going on for five years and involve who will pay for it.

ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com

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Follow me on Twitter @rvartabedianEuropean Court of Human Rights to examine case of "Iravunk" newspaper (video)

The European Court of Human Rights has started examining the case of "Minasyan and others against the Republic of Armenia". The suit is related to the article "They serve the interests of international homosexual lobbying: black list of enemies of nation and state " published by the "Iravunk" nespaper, in 2014. In the article the newspaper presents "black list consisting of sixty people", urging to stop any contacts with them, not to tolerate, as well as to fire them. On June 16, 2014, individuals appearing in the "black list" appealed to the First Instance Court, claiming that the newspaper abused the right to freedom of expression and insulted them. Citizens demanded an apology, payment of AMD 5 million as compensation for moral damages and to print a denial. However, the Armenian courts did not satisfy the suit, considering that the journalist used his right to freedom of expression. Advocate Nvard Piliposyan mentioned that Armenia violated fair trial rights. "Our state, in the face of the courts, did not properly evaluate the calls for hatred and considered freedom of speech. We could not raise this issue anywhere except for the international instances."Professional trappers have been called in to catch a coyote that bit a 5-year-old boy and then aggressively approached a student at the Cal State L.A. campus Wednesday night.

The boy was walking with his father on campus about 6:30 p.m. when the incident took place, said Lt. J.C. Healy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

He bit me! the boy cried out to his father, Healy said.

The father chased away the coyote and took his son to get medical attention. The boy suffered a single puncture wound in the leg.

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A cellphone video posted to Twitter showed the coyote running after the boy along a paved path.

Warning signs are posted on the Cal State L.A. campus. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

About an hour after the incident, a coyote aggressively approached a student on campus. The woman called for help, and when police responded, they saw several coyotes in the area.

Soon after, gunshots were heard, followed by howling. Students were alarmed, worried it might be a school shooting.

At least one officer with the Cal State L.A. police force shot a firearm at the coyote, Healy said.

Police believe the animal was struck but escaped into the hills.

Department of Fish and Wildlife officials are in the process of getting the animals DNA from the boys pants, Healy said.

Officials plan to rely on the expertise of the trappers to catch the offending coyote and euthanize it. They intend to use a mix of traps, firearms and electronic sounds that mimic the sound of an injured rabbit.

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Its unfortunate, but we cannot afford to have this animal be out there, Healy said. The next attack could be worse.

He urged the public to keep its distance and never feed wildlife such as coyotes.

We bank on the fact that animals fear humans, Healy said. That keeps them far away, but when you feed them, you break down that barrier and create bad habits.

Students walk the campus at California State University, Los Angeles. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

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My friend recorded this @CalStateLA. Not sure if its the kid that was bit though  pic.twitter.com/xvWHPJ8KJS  Jorge Sanchez (@Daddy_Jorgie) March 15, 2018

esmeralda.bermudez@latimes.com

@LATBermudezUSC names retired aerospace executive Wanda Austin as acting president, announces Nikias departure By Harriet Ryan USC appointed a retired aerospace executive as interim president and laid out a detailed plan for selecting a permanent leader Tuesday, ending speculation about whether outgoing President C.L. Max Nikias might remain in the post. Nikias, embattled over his administrations handling of a campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing patients, relinquished his duties after a meeting of USCs board. The trustees tapped one of their own, Wanda Austin, an alumna and former president of the Aerospace Corp., to temporarily run the university. The trustees also approved the formation of a search committee and the hiring of firm Isaacson, Miller to coordinate the selection of a successor. A second search company, Heidrick & Struggles, will also advise trustees. Read More Facebook

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Ex-student sues elite Brentwood School after teacher is charged with sexually abusing him By Richard Winton A former student sued the elite Brentwood School on Monday in the wake of a female teacher being charged with repeatedly having sex with the minor, alleging that other faculty members encouraged the unlawful behavior and failed to report it to authorities. The lawsuit accuses the private school, whose students include the children of many of Hollywoods elite and L.A.s powerful, of acting negligently and allowing Aimee Palmitessa to abuse and batter the teenager sexually. The suit alleges that the student was abused in summer 2017 after one of the schools counselors offered words of encouragement to the then-17-year-old, identified in the suit as only John Doe, to engage in an illegal relationship with the teacher. Read More Facebook

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Civil jury vindicates fired Montebello school executives in whistleblower case By Howard Blume The Montebello school district is in dire straits  at risk of insolvency and under apparent criminal investigation. An outside audit in July found some teachers earning more than $200,000 a year, as well as improper raises, excess paid vacation time and inappropriate overtime, sick leave and car allowances. Fixing the district and pinpointing blame could take time. Read More Facebook

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L.A. schools fall short on safety measures, new report warns By Howard Blume After the mass shooting at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Los Angeles school officials reassured parents that much had been done to keep local schools safe. California had tougher gun laws, after all, and the school district paid close attention to students mental health. But a new report issued Monday by a panel convened to take a close look offers some cause for concern, flagging inconsistent campus safety measures, thinly spread mental health staff and inadequate coordination between the school district and other public agencies. With the stakes this high, we must strive to do better, said L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, who assembled the panel. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school district says more are graduating, but rate may not show it By Howard Blume The L.A. Unified School District has hopes of continuing its winning streak this year with another record graduation rate, but the official numbers may not show it. A senior district administrator warned the board Tuesday that graduation rates were likely to decline 2% to 3% across the state, even though L.A. Unified is likely doing better than ever in producing graduates, he said. The issue is that the state will now count high school students who transfer to adult school as dropouts, said Oscar Lafarga, who heads the districts office of data and accountability. Previously, schools treated these students as though they had simply enrolled in another high school, he said. Read More Facebook

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Betsy DeVos to California: Not so fast on that federal education plan By Joy Resmovits Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (Erik Lesser / European Pressphoto Agency) In April, Californias top education officials breathed a sigh of relief. After months of debate and back-and-forth with Betsy DeVos staff, they had finalized a plan to satisfy a major education law that aims to make sure all students get a decent education. The state focused on aligning its plan to fulfill the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act with Californias Local Control Funding Formula, which gives extra money to districts to help students who come from low-income families, are in the foster system or are English learners. But this week, DeVos team said not so fast. Jason Botel, the U.S. Department of Educations principal deputy assistant secretary, sent California education officials a letter asking for more information in such areas as measuring student progress, graduation rates and English learners. In an unsigned statement, the California Department of Education declared itself surprised and disappointed because officials thought  after a meeting with federal officials in Washington  that they were on the right track to get approval. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act plan will be up for discussion once again at the July meeting of the State Board of Education. The U.S. Department of Education has already approved most state plans. Every Student Succeeds is the Obama administrations 2015 replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. Facebook

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L.A. school board sets a new goal: prepare every grad to be eligible to apply for Cal State or UC By Sonali Kohli Last month, Los Angeles school board president proposed a spate of highly ambitious mandates aimed at ensuring that every district graduate be eligible to apply to one of the states public four-year universities by 2023. By the time the L.A. Unified school board unanimously approved the resolution Tuesday, the original language had been watered down. The goal is no longer that in five years 100% of students meet the long list of benchmarks, which include not just college eligibility for graduates but first-grade reading proficiency and English fluency by sixth grade for all students who enter the district in kindergarten or first grade speaking another language. The original college-readiness goal, for example, called for 100% of all high school students to be eligible to apply to one of the states four-year universities. Now the goal seems to offer more wiggle room: Prepare all high school graduates to be eligible to apply to a California four-year university. Read More Facebook

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We have been hurt. More women say they were mistreated by USC gynecologist By Richard Winton USC student Anika Narayanan says she vividly recalls her first appointment with Dr. George Tyndall at the campus health center, alleging that he made several explicit comments during an examination she felt was inappropriate and invasive. When she came back for a second visit in 2016 after a nonconsensual sexual encounter, he allegedly chastised her, she said in a civil lawsuit and at a press conference Tuesday. He asked me if I had forgotten to use a condom again,  said Narayanan, 21. At one point, she said, Tyndall asked if I did a lot of doggy style,  she said. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unified gives inspector general brief contract extension By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday extended the contract of Ken Bramlett, its inspector general, by three months, though his job is far from secure and questions remain about the future direction of his watchdog office. Board members also unanimously promoted Vivian Ekchian, who had been the runner-up for the superintendents job, to deputy superintendent  the districts No. 2 position. Both moves had elements of peacemaking between different factions on the board. Read More Facebook

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USCs handling of complaints about campus gynecologist is being investigated by federal government By Harriet Ryan The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into how the University of Southern California handled misconduct complaints against a campus gynecologist, the latest fallout in a scandal that has prompted the resignation of USCs president, two law enforcement investigations and dozens of lawsuits. In revealing the inquiry by the departments Office of Civil Rights, officials rebuked USC for what they alleged was improper withholding of information about Dr. George Tyndall during a previous federal investigation. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has been criticized for taking a less vigorous approach to examining sexual misconduct than predecessors, called for a systemic examination of USC and urged administrators to fully cooperate. Read More Facebook

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Judge to sentence woman and her boyfriend for the murder of an 8-year-old that led to L.A. child welfare reforms By Marisa Gerber A woman and her boyfriend are expected to be sentenced Thursday for the torture and murder of an 8-year-old boy whose killing in 2013 provoked public outrage, prompted sweeping reform of Los Angeles Countys child welfare system, and led to unprecedented criminal charges against social workers who handled the childs case. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her son, Gabriel. A jury decided last year that her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 37, should be executed. When paramedics arrived at the boys Palmdale home in May 2013, Gabriel had slipped out of consciousness. He had a fractured skull, broken ribs, burned skin, missing teeth and BB pellets embedded in his groin. A paramedic would later testify that every inch of the boys small body had been abused. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unifieds spending out of step with similar school systems, task force says By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school district is out of step with similar school systems, spending more on teachers pay and health benefits and less on activities that could enhance student learning, according to a new report by an outside task force. The L.A. Unified School District Advisory Task Force did not make specific recommendations, but instead posed a series of questions it said the district needs to answer to make sure its funding is aimed at providing a full opportunity for all students to succeed. What were trying to say is: Lets put the data on the table. Lets look at the truth. Lets be transparent and here are the numbers, said task force member Renata Simril. This is not to say that  we should cut teachers salaries. Read More Facebook

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Top USC medical school official feared dean was doing drugs and alerted administration, he testifies By Paul Pringle A former vice dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine testified Tuesday that he feared the schools then-dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, could be doing drugs and expressed concerns about his general well-being to the universitys No. 2 administrator before Puliafito abruptly left his job in 2016. Dr. Henri Fords testimony at a hearing of the state Medical Board marks the first suggestion that any USC administrator had suspicions about Puliafitos possible drug use before he stepped down. A Times investigation in 2017 found Puliafito led a secret second life of using illegal drugs with a circle of young criminals and addicts. Puliafito testified about his behavior at the hearing Tuesday, saying he took drugs with one young woman on a weekly basis. Ford said that he decided to alert USC Provost Michael Quick after receiving reports in early 2016 that Puliafito was partying in hotels with people of questionable reputation, and that he came to worry about his mental stability. Read More Facebook

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Why L.A. Unified may face financial crisis even with a giant surplus this year By Jessica Calefati With more than half a billion dollars socked away for next school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District hardly seems just two years from financial ruin. Its a scenario that is especially tough to swallow if youre a low-wage worker seeking a raise or a teacher who wants smaller classes. But budget documents show that todays $548-million surplus cannot be sustained  and that even basic services face steep, seemingly unavoidable cuts because of massive problems barreling the districts way. Theres a disconnect between the rosy short-term picture and what we know is coming, said board member Kelly Gonez. Read More Facebook

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We have failed: Top USC officials try to reassure students amid gynecologist scandal By Joy Resmovits Top administrators at USC are reaching out to students in the wake of misconduct allegations against the universitys longtime gynecologist, acknowledging failings and vowing reforms as they try to address growing outrage over the revelations. Several USC deans have sent out messages trying to reassure students and faculty that the university is committed to changing. We have failed, wrote Jack H. Knott, dean of USCs Sol Price School of Public Policy, in a May 24 letter. What happened is antithetical to everything we know is right. Read More Facebook

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Rick Caruso is named chair of USCs trustees, vows swift investigation of gynecologist scandal By Thomas Curwen The University of Southern Californias board of trustees has elected mall magnate Rick Caruso to be the new chair of the board, giving fresh leadership as the university navigates a widening scandal involving a longtime campus gynecologist. The move marks the latest effort by USC to address the case, which has sparked a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and dozens of civil lawsuits. More than 400 people have contacted a hotline that the university established for patients to make reports about their experience with Dr. George Tyndall. In his first act as chairman, Caruso announced that the white-shoe L.A. law firm OMelveny & Myers would conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the gynecologists conduct and reporting failures at the clinic. He set an ambitious timeline for the review, pledging it would conclude before students return for the fall semester. Read More Facebook

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UC Berkeley students persistence helps win more liberal rules for in-state tuition By Teresa Watanabe Ifechukwu Okeke thought shed be a shoo-in for in-state tuition when she was admitted to UC Berkeley for fall 2016. She had moved to the United States from Nigeria in 2012 to go to Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. By the time she got her acceptance to transfer to UC to study molecular and cell biology, she had lived in California four years. She had a California drivers license, bank account and rental records as proof. UC Berkeley, however, ruled she was a nonresident  which meant she would have to pay nearly $27,000 more. Read More Facebook

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State medical board calls former County-USC doctor a sexual predator, suspends his license By Matt Hamilton A UCLA cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after state regulators described him as a sexual predator who assaulted three female colleagues when he was working and training at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Read More Facebook

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Global California 2030' aims to get more students learning more languages By Joy Resmovits Tom Torlakson (Andrew Seng / Associated Press) Outgoing state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Wednesday announced a new statewide effort to encourage students to learn more languages. Called Global California 2030, its goal is to help more students become fluent in multiple tongues. Torlakson said that by 2030, he wants half of the states 6.2 million K-12 students to participate in classes or programs that lead to proficiency in two or more languages. By 2040, he wants three out of four students to be proficient enough to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy. Torlakson announced the initiative at Cahuenga Elementary School, which offers a dual-language immersion program in English and Korean. Californias public school students speak more than 60 languages at home, and 40% come to school with knowledge of a language other than English. Torlakson called his plan a call to action that invites parents, legislators, educators and community members to pool resources to expand language offerings in schools and get more bilingual teachers trained. He said the state already is working with Mexico and Spain to expand a teacher-exchange program. Fluency, the plan argues, can help students succeed economically  and language acquisition can help their overall critical thinking. The initiative builds on Proposition 58, a ballot initiative passed in 2016 that undid an earlier requirement that English learners be taught in English-immersion classes unless their parents signed waivers. Torlakson recently visited Mexico and met with that countrys education secretary. They later signed a pact to increase collaboration, particularly in language education. This [Global California 2030] is great follow-through on Toms part and very important, Patricia Gandara, a UCLA education professor who hosted the Mexico meeting, said in an email. It hands over a plan to move forward in an area in which California has a unique advantage, but must seize the opportunity. Facebook

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Jury convicts man of murder in 2015 slaying of UCLA student found inside her burning apartment By Marisa Gerber A jury on Tuesday convicted a man in the 2015 slaying of a UCLA student found dead inside her burning apartment  a gruesome stabbing case that led to a fierce rebuke of the police response amid concerns that the killing could have been prevented. The panel deliberated for about six hours before finding Alberto Medina, 24, guilty of murder, arson, burglary and animal cruelty. On Sept. 21, 2015, firefighters found the charred body of Andrea DelVesco inside her apartment after responding to the complex a block from campus. The 21-year-old student  an Austin, Texas, native known to her sorority sisters as a fearless giver who befriended others with ease  was stabbed at least 19 times, authorities said. Read More Facebook

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LAPD begins sweeping criminal probe of former USC gynecologist while urging patients to come forward By Adam Elmahrek The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating 52 complaints of misconduct filed by former patients of USCs longtime campus gynecologist as detectives launch a sweeping criminal probe into the scandal that has rocked the university. LAPD detectives also made an appeal for other patients who feel mistreated to come forward, noting that thousands of students were examined by Dr. George Tyndall during his nearly 30-year career at USC. More than 410 people have contacted a university hotline about the physician since The Times revealed the allegations this month. Tyndalls behavior and practices appear to go beyond the norms of the medical profession and gynecological examinations, said Asst. Chief Beatrice Girmala. We sincerely realize that victims may have difficulty recounting such details to investigators. We are empathetic and ready to listen. Read More Facebook

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At L.A.'s only school for the deaf, parents want leaders who speak the same language By Anna M. Phillips Ever since her son was 6 months old, Juliet Hidalgo has been bringing him to the Marlton School, a low-slung building in Baldwin Hills that for generations has been a second home for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Los Angeles. Marlton staff taught Hidalgos brother and sister, both of whom are deaf. The school was where her deaf son learned to make the signs for milk and food. Hidalgo had planned to enroll her daughter, taking advantage of a popular program that allows hearing children to learn American Sign Language alongside their deaf siblings. But after more than a decade of involvement, she and other family members are considering withdrawing their children. They are not alone. Read More Facebook

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Fueled by unlimited donations, independent groups play their biggest role yet in a California primary for governor By Ryan Menezes An unprecedented amount of money from wealthy donors, unions and corporations is flowing into the California governors race, giving independent groups  unrestricted by contribution limits  a greater say in picking the states chief executive than ever before. The groups have already spent more than $26 million through Thursday, the most ever spent by noncandidate committees in a gubernatorial primary, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance reports. California elections have always been expensive, and the future is even more expensive, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former state Republican leader. The stakes are very real. Read More Facebook

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2 hurt in Indiana middle school shooting; suspect in custody, authorities say By Associated Press Authorities say two victims in a shooting at a suburban Indianapolis school are being taken to a hospital and the lone suspect is in custody. Bryant Orem, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, said in a news release that the victims in Friday mornings attack at Noblesville West Middle School are being taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and their families have been notified. He says no other information is available about the victims. Orem said the suspect is believed to have acted alone and was taken into custody. No additional information about the suspect was made public. Read More Facebook

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For new L.A. schools chief Austin Beutner, some key unions are giving no honeymoon period By Howard Blume In the less than two weeks since Austin Beutner took charge of Los Angeles schools, unions representing teachers and administrators have staged a job action and a protest. Theyve made it clear that they will not give the new superintendent the traditional honeymoon period, and they are bashing him for his wealth and lack of experience running either a school or a school district. Beutner is a billionaire investment banker with zero qualifications, local teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told members in a phone alert urging them to participate in a Thursday afternoon rally in Grand Park. The board is saying that billionaires who made their money blowing institutions up and making money off it know best  not the education professionals who have dedicated our careers to working with students. Read More Facebook

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Pressure grows on Board of Trustees amid USC gynecologist scandal By Paul Pringle USCs large and powerful Board of Trustees is coming under growing pressure to provide a stronger hand as the university faces a crisis over misconduct allegations against the campus longtime gynecologist that has prompted calls for President C.L. Max Nikias to step down. Allegations that Dr. George Tyndall mistreated students during his nearly 30 years at USC have roiled the campus, with about 300 people coming forward to make reports to the university and the Los Angeles Police Department launching a criminal investigation. USC is already beginning to face what is expected to be costly litigation by women who say they were victimized by the physician. So far, the trustees to whom Nikias reports have expressed sympathy for the women who have come forward and launched an independent investigation while also publicly backing the president. Read More Facebook

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UC regents approve leaner budget for Janet Napolitano By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents on Thursday unanimously approved a leaner, more transparent budget for President Janet Napolitano, moving to address political criticism over the systems central office operations. The $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 reflects spending cuts of 2%, including reductions in staffing, travel and such systemwide programs as public service law fellowships, carbon neutrality and food security. Napolitano shifted $30 million to campuses for housing needs and $10 million to UC Riverside to support its five-year-old medical school. She also permanently redirected $8.5 million annually to help enroll more California students, as required by the state. Read More Facebook

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USCs Academic Senate calls on university president to resign after a series of scandals By Matt Hamilton The body that represents USCs faculty called on President C.L. Max Nikias to resign Wednesday in the wake of relevations that the universitys longtime gynecologist faced years of accusations of misconduct by students and colleagues at the campus health clinic. The Academic Senate took the vote late Wednesday afternoon after a fiery town hall meeting attended by more than 100 faculty members, many of whom voiced outrage over Nikias and the Board of Trustees leadership. The vote came a day after the trustees executive committee stood firmly behind Nikias, saying it has full confidence in his leadership, ethics and values. At the town hall meeting, Senate President Paul Rosenbloom said he did not think Nikias or Provost Michael Quick committed wrongdoing but that the university president deserved criticism for a lack of transparency. Read More Facebook

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Californias public universities on the way to getting a big longed-for boost in funding By Teresa Watanabe The University of California and California State University systems are poised to get major funding boosts that will help them enroll thousands of additional state students and eliminate the need for tuition increases in the coming school year. A key Assembly budget panel on Wednesday approved $117.5 million in new funds for the UC. A Senate panel approved a similar sum last week. The same committees recently approved even more funding for the Cal State system. Read More Facebook

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UC regents to scrutinize Janet Napolitanos office budget in a step toward stronger oversight By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents this week plan to scrutinize the budget of President Janet Napolitano, whose office came under political fire last year for questionable spending and murky accounting. Regents will vote on the proposed $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 during their two-day meeting, which starts Wednesday, at UC San Francisco. They also will discuss state funding, financial aid, online education and transfer student policies. Board Chairman George Kieffer said regents are stepping up to exert stronger oversight of the presidents office after a blistering state audit last year found financial problems including an unreported $175 million budget reserve. Read More Facebook

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State legislative panels approve major funding boost for Cal State By Teresa Watanabe Cal State students protest against a tuition increase outside the chancellors office (Irfan Khan) After months of intensive lobbying, Cal State University has convinced two key legislative panels to approve funding to enroll nearly 11,000 more students, hire more faculty and expand housing aid to those without shelter this fall. An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved $215.7 million more for Cal State, adding to Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $92.1 million general fund increase. A Senate budget panel approved a similar increase last week. The extra funding  which went beyond Cal States own request to the Legislature of $171 million  is still subject to final budget negotiations with Brown. But the actions by the Senate and Assembly panels amount to a demand from Democrats that the governor hike higher education spending. Cal State University is the workhorse undergraduate university serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who heads the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. We need more graduates for the California workforce and higher education is the ticket to the middle class. Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White hailed the actions, but said it was too soon to celebrate. The CSU has a singular focus on helping students earn high-quality degrees sooner, and the entire university community has rallied to reinforce that message to our states lawmakers, he said in a statement. The actions taken thus far by the Assembly and Senate are promising and show that our message is being received, but there is still work to be done. Funding for the University of California was not taken up Tuesday as originally scheduled. McCarty would not comment on sticking points but said he was confident that a resolution would be reached this week. Were looking to provide resources above whats in the governors budget, but negotiations are ongoing, he said in an interview. State per-student funding is not what it once was, leaving both Cal State and the UC in a tough financial squeeze. Both systems raised tuition last year after a six-year freeze on higher costs. For this year, Cal State had asked for funding to enroll an additional 3,621 students, but both the Senate and Assembly panels approved three times that amount. Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, turned away 32,000 eligible students last year because its campuses werent able to accommodate them. The panels asked that at least $50 million of the extra funding be used to hire more tenure-track faculty to help boost graduation rates. The Assembly panel also approved one-time funding of $5 million to ease hunger on campuses and $14 million for rapid rehousing pilot projects at three campuses, offering needy students rental support and short-term case management. Other items approved include $5 million to support the CSU Long Beach Shark Labs research on sharks and beach safety and $2 million for equal employment opportunity practices. This post has been updated to include comments from Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White. Facebook

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Faculty members call for USC president to step down: He has lost the moral authority to lead By Matt Hamilton Two hundred USC professors on Tuesday demanded the resignation of university President C. L. Max Nikias, saying he had lost the moral authority to lead in the wake of revelations that a campus gynecologist was kept on staff for decades despite repeated complaints of misconduct. Read More Facebook

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Gun battle, negotiations lasted 15 minutes before Texas school shooter was apprehended, sheriff says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Minutes after a school shooter opened fire in an art class last week, killing 10 people and wounding 13, including a local police officer, fellow officers returned fire in a protracted gun battle before isolating the suspect, the local sheriff said Monday. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset praised first responders as well as Santa Fe Police Officer John Barnes, who was working as a resource officer at the school the day of the shooting. Their actions, he said, prevented the attack from spreading to other classrooms and potentially claiming additional victims. As officials continue to probe last Fridays shooting at Santa Fe High School, students are worried about returning to the scene of the attack when classes resume next week. Read More Facebook

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6 women sue USC, alleging they were victimized by campus gynecologist By Richard Winton Six women filed civil lawsuits Monday alleging that a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California sexually victimized them under the pretext of medical care and that USC failed to address complaints from clinic staff about the doctors behavior. One woman alleged Dr. George Tyndall forced his entire ungloved hand into her vagina during an appointment in 2003 while making vulgar remarks about her genitalia, according to one of the lawsuits. Another woman alleged that Tyndall groped her breasts in a 2008 visit and that later he falsely told her she likely had AIDS. A third woman accused the doctor of grazing his ungloved fingers over her nude body and leering at her during a purported skin exam, the lawsuit states. The wave of litigation comes as USC continues to grapple with the scandal, which legal experts said could prove costly to the university as scores of former patients come forward about their experiences with the gynecologist. Read More Facebook

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Fatalities reported in Texas high school shooting; suspect arrested, officials say By Associated Press Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle are citing unnamed federal, county and police officials following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m. The Associated Press has not been able to confirm the reports. The school district has confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but said it wouldnt immediately release further details. Assistant Principal Cris Richardson said a suspect has been arrested and secured. Read More Facebook

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This student followed the new L.A. schools chief on his first-day tour L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner is greeted by Van Nuys High School principal Yolanda Gardea. (Melissa Barales-Lopez) Melissa Barales-Lopez, a senior at Garfield High School followed Supt. Austin Beutner on his first day on the job, as he toured a variety of programs around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Heres what she took from the experience. LAUSD students and staff alike are looking for a personal champion, someone who will address and improve the difficulties afflicting their education.  What LAUSD students need is someone whos willing to listen and learn, someone who can understand the current issues affecting their schools and act to efficiently amend them, someone who can unlock the full potential of LAUSD students and enable them to reach their goals. During the entirety of his first day, superintendent Austin Beutner did indeed demonstrate a willingness to learn. Posing questions to teachers and students, Beutner engaged with the student communities he encountered to gain a better comprehension of the minutiae and nuances that distinguish each school inside an overwhelmingly large district. From inquiries about Grand View Boulevard Elementary Schools dual language program to questions regarding the services of LAUSDs after-school program, Beyond the Bell, Beutner revealed he has a lot to learn about the system. But, Beutner also showcased a willingness to tackle challenges head-on on his first day. Read More Facebook

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USC let a gynecologist continue treating students despite years of misconduct allegations By Matt Hamilton For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern Californias student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous with distinctive jet black hair, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndalls exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. The complaints began in the 1990s, when co-workers alleged he was improperly photographing students genitals. In the years that followed, patients and nursing staff accused him again and again of creepy behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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On his first day as L.A. schools chief, Beutner plans a day of visits across the district By Howard Blume L.A. Unifieds new superintendent, Austin Beutner, will kick off his first day of work on Tuesday with a choreographed tour of the nations second-largest school district, from the San Fernando Valley to Carson. His day is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. at a school bus depot and end more than 12 hours later at a parent meeting at Garfield High School. Along the way, Beutner is expected to be joined by school district administrators, L.A. Unified board members and the vice president of the union that represents school bus drivers. Though he will be covering a lot of ground, Beutners tour has him skipping Tuesdays school board meeting, when board members are expected to discuss labor negotiations in closed session. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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Why a handful of rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as governor By Ryan Menezes California voters have seen a barrage of sunny television ads in recent weeks touting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas record on finances, crime and education, aired by Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018. But the group is, in fact, largely funded by a handful of wealthy charter-school supporters. Together they have spent more than $13 million in less than a month to boost Villaraigosas chances in the June 5 primary  at a time when his fundraising and poll numbers are lagging. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, jump-started the group with a $7-million check, by far the largest donation to support any candidate in the election. Their efforts are part of a broader proxy war among Democrats between teachers unions  longtime stalwarts of the party  and those who argue that the groups have failed low-income and minority schoolchildren. Read More Facebook

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Talking schools with L.A. Unifieds new superintendent By Anna M. Phillips Al Seib / Los Angeles Times ( Incoming L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner talks to students at Belmont High School.) Austin Beutner, who officially starts Tuesday as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is taking on a famously difficult job at a particularly difficult time. The school board is divided and did not back him unanimously. The nations second-largest school district has deep-seated problems, including declining enrollment, lagging academic achievement and rising pension and healthcare costs that eat away at its budget. The 58-year-old former investment banker and former L.A. Times publisher has years of experience in the financial world but none as an educator. Earlier this week, he sat down with the Times education team to discuss the challenges facing the district, which has about 60,000 employees and 500,000 students in traditional public schools. He did not talk about his plans  saying repeatedly, stay tuned  but he spoke in broad terms about his mindset in approaching the tough decisions ahead. Read More Facebook

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Suspect detained, authorities search campus after reports of armed man at Palmdale high school By James Queally One person has been detained after a report of an armed man at a Palmdale high school sparked a massive law enforcement response Friday morning. The suspect was spotted at 7:05 a.m. on the campus of Highland High School in Palmdale, according to Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. The person was detained in a nearby parking lot, according to Nishida, who did not know whether that person was an adult or juvenile. Deputies at the scene are clearing the school methodically, and students will be transported home via school buses once the campus is deemed safe, Nishida said. Read More Facebook

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The education of Bertha Perez: How a UC Merced custodians disenchantment led to a political awakening By Robin Abcarian Its the third day of a three-day strike, and UC Merced custodian Bertha Perez is taking a break from a picket line at the universitys unremarkable entrance, an intersection with stop lights. Photos from other UC campuses this week have shown big crowds of striking service workers  members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  marching and chanting pro-labor slogans as they try to force the University of California back to the negotiating table. But here, at UC Merced, whose handful of big buildings rise from a flat expanse of farmland, the picket line is tiny, maybe two dozen workers and a few students. Its not a big-city-style show of force. Then again, a union sympathizer is banging relentlessly on a snare drum, so its noisier than youd expect. Read More Facebook

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Ref Rodriguez resigns from teacher credentialing commission By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez appears during a court appearance. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez has resigned from the states Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which oversees the integrity and quality of Californias teachers. Rodriguez faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. Separately, his former employer, a charter school organization, has accused him of improperly authorizing checks to a nonprofit under his control. Rodriguez has denied wrongdoing. Rodriguezs resignation from the state body was effective May 4, days after he cast a crucial vote as part of a narrow majority that voted to authorize contract negotiations with Austin Beutner to become superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District. Beutners first official day on the job is Tuesday. Rodriguez remains in his $125,000-a-year position on the Los Angeles Board of Education. The mission of the state body is to ensure integrity, relevance, and high quality in the preparation, certification, and discipline of Californias teachers. Critics had questioned Rodriguezs continued service on the commission, given that teachers can be suspended from work if they face criminal charges. They also can lose their jobs for lapses in personal behavior, such as excessive drinking, with the potential to affect their performance. Police in Pasadena arrested Rodriguez on a Friday afternoon in March for public drunkenness. He was not charged in the incident and has apologized. The state commission reviews teacher discipline cases and can take action to remove a teachers credential to work in a California classroom. The commission has 15 members. Rodriguezs departure was disclosed in a one-sentence announcement on the agencys website. Facebook

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School board members request for restraining order against blogger is rejected By Priscella Vega An Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a school board members petition for a permanent restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger. Attorney Jeffrey W. Shields filed the petition on behalf of Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, 46, who alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, has threatened her on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members. Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He also contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog posts and Facebook comments too seriously and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues. Read More Facebook

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Deal with workers averts one-day strike that could have shut down L.A. schools By Howard Blume Los Angeles school district and union officials announced a contract agreement Tuesday night that averted a one-day strike planned for next week. The pact, which runs through June 2020, removes one labor problem from the desk of incoming Supt. Austin Beutner  whose first day on the job would have coincided with the strike. Plenty of other challenges remain. Read More Facebook

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UC labor strike expands with show of support from more unions By Teresa Watanabe Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of Californias largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. Read More Facebook

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We are humans too: Voices of UCLAs striking custodians, hospital aides and imaging technicians By Joy Resmovits Demonstrators parade in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it wont meet the workers demands. The strikers said they wanted better pay, more equity in the allocation of work, stable healthcare premiums and an end to the universitys use of contract workers. These are their stories. Read More Facebook

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Massive UC workers strike disrupts dining, classes and medical services By Joy Resmovits A massive labor strike across the University of California on Monday forced medical centers to reschedule more than 12,000 surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, and campuses to cancel some classes and limit dining services. More than 20,000 members of UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, walked off their jobs on the first day of a three-day strike. They include custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Two altercations involving protesters and people driving near the rallies were reported at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, police took a man into custody Monday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd, hitting three staff members. They were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released, said Lt. Kevin Kilgore of the UCLA Police Department. Read More Facebook

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Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers By Teresa Watanabe Sen. Kamala Harris (Chris Dekmas) California Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled plans to deliver UC Berkeleys commencement address this weekend in support of UC workers who are on strike over wages and health benefits. Due to the ongoing labor dispute, Sen. Harris regretfully cannot attend and speak at this years commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, said a statement from Harris office issued Monday. She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future. They are bright young leaders and our country is counting on them. UCs largest employee union, the 25,000-member American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees Local 3299, launched a three-day strike Monday and had earlier called for a speakers boycott. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement. The union is asking for a multiyear contract with a 6% annual pay increase while the university is offering 3% annual increases over four years. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address instead, the university announced. About 5,800 students are expected to participate in the ceremony Saturday. Facebook

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School mural depicting Trumps bloody, severed head sparks controversy By Gary Warth A Chula Vista school mural that depicts the bloody, severed head of President Trump on a spear sparked a controversy that prompted officials to cover it and issue a response distancing themselves from the work. The statement also said the artist will alter the painting. We understand that there was a mural painted at the event this past weekend that does not align with our schools philosophy of non-violence, read the statement from MAAC Community Charter School director Tommy Ramirez. We have been in communication with the artist  who has agreed to modify the artwork  to better align with the schools philosophy. Read More Facebook

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New blackface incident at Cal Poly prompts calls for state investigation By Kim Christensen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials have asked the state attorney generals office to investigate after a new photo of a white student in blackface surfaced on a fraternity groups private Snapchat. I am outraged, Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said in a video address Friday to the campus. These vile and absolutely unacceptable acts cannot continue. We must not allow these acts to define us as an institution. Armstrong said the latest photo was intended to imitate an incident last month in which a white member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was photographed at a party wearing blackface. Read More Facebook

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More than 50,000 UC workers set to strike this week but campuses will remain open By Teresa Watanabe More than 50,000 workers across the University of California are set to strike this week, causing potential disruptions to surgery schedules, food preparation and campus maintenance. The systems 10 campuses and five medical centers are to remain open, with classes scheduled as planned. UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Read More Facebook

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New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to listen, learn and take action By Howard Blume New Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved Wednesday that hes a quick learner even without an education background. Like countless public officials before him, he appeared at an important event  his first speech and news conference  with a photogenic background of students. His message  that he would put those students first  seemed heartfelt if hardly original. Nor was it a huge surprise that he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the districts academic performance and stabilize its finances. As an introduction, Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered little flash, but that was partly the point. Read More Facebook

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In a school lockdown, one student takes stock of the stressful scene (Phalaen Chang) At the beginning of lunch one day late last month, Duarte High School, Northview Middle School, and California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley were advised by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department to go into lockdown mode due to police activity in the immediate area. Phalaen Chang, a junior at the California School of the Arts, wrote a series of notes on her iPhone while she sat in a room with her classmates. By the time the lockdown ended an hour later, she wrote, she knew which of her friends would hold open the door for others, be the ones calming others down, be the ones barricading the doors. She knew that all of them have the potential to be such strong people. Read More Facebook

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Tale as old as time: L.A. Unified superintendent pick follows a historical pattern of outside-the-box choices By Joy Resmovits Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, superintendent from 2006-2008. (L.A. Times file photo) L.A. Unified has long gone back and forth between picking insiders and outsiders to run the nations second largest school district. The choice of Austin Beutner, announced Tuesday, places the district squarely back in the outsider camp  months after a consummate insider, Supt. Michelle King, announced that she had cancer and would not return to the job. Check out this timeline of former L.A. superintendents to see how the school board members have changed their minds, sometimes favoring leaders who come from the world of education and sometimes executives from elsewhere, recruited to shock the system into change. At one point, the district hired someone from the military  retired Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, who served as superintendent from 2006-2008. In hiring Brewer, board members had opted for a non-educator  largely because they sought a fresh thinker, unwedded to the bureaucracy, unafraid to make bold, even unorthodox moves, reads a 2008 Times story. Facebook

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Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools By Howard Blume Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest school system. His selection was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates. The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system. Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unifieds top job. Read More Facebook

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Hearing delay gives both sides more time in Ref Rodriguezs potential trial By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez and his attorneys will have more time to prepare their defense against charges of political money laundering, a judge ruled Monday. The preliminary hearing in the case had been scheduled to begin May 9, but that date will now be pushed back to July 23 per the ruling from L.A. Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil. Rodriguez, 46, faces three felony charges of conspiracy, perjury and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nations second-largest school system. Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the boards seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak. The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise. Read More Facebook

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Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado continue national debate on money for schools By Michael Livingston Following the lead of teachers who walked off the job in other states in recent weeks, thousands of teachers and their supporters took to the streets in Arizona and Colorado for the second day in a row to demand better pay and more funding for education. Read More Facebook

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Three decades before the #MeToo movement, UC San Diego led the way against sexual assault By Teresa Watanabe When Nancy Wahlig first started her fight against sexual assault, one company was marketing a capsule for women to stash in their bras and then smash to release a vile odor. Because of the very nature of society, the only person who can prevent rape is the woman herself, read a 1981 advertisement for the Repulse rape deterrent. Ideas about how to prevent sexual violence have come a long way since then, and Wahlig has helped lead that evolution on college campuses. In 1988, she started UC San Diegos Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), the first stand-alone program at the University of California. Today, she remains the systems most senior specialist. Read More Facebook

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Andres Alonso withdraws from consideration for L.A. schools job By Howard Blume Andres Alonso, believed to be one of three remaining finalists to lead the Los Angeles school system, has withdrawn from consideration. The remaining known candidates in the confidential search are former investment banker Austin Beutner and interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian. Alonso, 60, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he had notified the L.A. Unified School District on Monday. The exit of Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, seems to solidify the front-runner status of Beutner, who also was a former L.A. Times publisher and a Los Angeles deputy mayor. He held each of those positions for about a year. Read More Facebook

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Heres why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children By Karen Kaplan The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among American children continues to rise, new government data suggest. And that may be a good thing. Among 11 sites across the U.S. where records of 8-year-olds are scrutinized in detail, 1 in 59 kids was deemed to have ASD in 2014. Thats up from 1 in 68 in 2012. Normally, health officials would prefer to see less of a disease, not more of it. But in this case, the higher number is probably a sign that more children of color who are on the autism spectrum are being recognized as such and getting services to help them, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More Facebook

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UC shelves tuition increase for now, in hopes of getting more state funding By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase next month, shelving the plan for now in hopes that state lawmakers will come through with more funding. Raising tuition is always a last resort and one we take very seriously, UC President Janet Napolitano said Thursday in a statement. We will continue to advocate with our students who are doing a tremendous job of educating legislators about the necessity of adequately funding the university to ensure UC remains a world-class institution and engine of economic growth for our state. Last week, Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said the 23-campus system no longer would consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year. But unlike Cal State, UC officials have not taken a tuition increase off the table entirely. Read More Facebook

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A chemical spill, unchecked eyewash stations, poor training: Audit details Cal States lax lab safety By Joy Resmovits In May 2016, two bottles tumbled off a poorly supported shelf and broke, leading to a chemical spill in a Sacramento State University lab. The liquid got onto one students legs and soaked anothers feet. Five employees cleaned up the mess, even though no one knew for sure what it was and whether it was dangerous. They called fellow employee Kim Harrington, their union representative, to let her know what happened. Read More Facebook

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After blackface incident, minority students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo say they dont feel welcome By Hailey Branson-Potts Aaliyah Ramos was walking through the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus last year when a prospective student approached her. Ramos was the only black person, the young woman said, that she and her mother had seen that day. They asked about the quality of education and the diversity of the student body. Ramos, a mechanical engineering student, didnt want to sugarcoat the truth: Cal Poly long has been predominantly white. But she told the young woman  who also was black  that she didnt want to discourage her from applying, because that wouldnt help with diversity at a school where only 0.7% of students are African American  the lowest percentage of any university in the California State system. Read More Facebook

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El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills wins the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon By Carlos Lozano El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills has won the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon, officials said. The winner was announced early Saturday at a ceremony in Frisco, Texas. More than 600 students from the U.S., Canada, China and the United Kingdom gathered there over the last three days to compete in the 37th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon. Congratulations to El Camino Real Charter High School for another impressive victory, said Vivian Ekchian, interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Your academic stamina and competitive spirit to win is remarkable. The entire L.A. Unified family is so proud of you. Read More Facebook

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Anticipation mounts as L.A. school board meets over superintendent selection By Howard Blume L.A. schools superintendent candidate Andres Alonso got an endorsement Friday, but Austin Beutner and Vivian Ekchian also have supporters. (Elizabeth Malby) The Los Angeles Board of Education is reconvening in closed session Friday at noon as anticipation mounts about the choice of the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. The presumed front-runner is former investment banker and philanthropist Austin Beutner, but interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso also are in the running. Most district insiders appear to be rooting for Ekchian, who has spent her entire career in education within the school system. After her 10 years as a teacher, her roles have included head of human resources, chief labor negotiator and regional administrator for campuses in the west San Fernando Valley. Shes managed the district since September, when then-Supt. Michelle King went on medical leave and chose Ekchian to fill in for her. King, who is battling cancer, never returned and announced her retirement in January. Numerous influential civic leaders have urged  and pressured  the board to select Beutner. Also lending their weight have been advocates for charter schools, which are independently operated, growing in number and competing for students with district-operated campuses. Four of the seven board members  enough to control the outcome  were elected with major financial support from charter supporters. Beutner has two ongoing connections with the L.A. Unified School District. The first is his leadership of an outside task force that is making recommendations on how to improve the school system. The second is his charity, Vision to Learn, which supplies glasses to low-income students. The charity and the school system are in a dispute at the moment over who is responsible for delays in providing services to students as part of a $6 million contract, half of which is paid for by L.A. Unified. Unlike Ekchian and Buetner, Alonso, who currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has no deep-seated local constituency, but the prospect of his selection has generated some excitement. While in Baltimore, Alonso was recognized for pushing for progress at low-performing schools, and for being willing to take strong action. While in Baltimore, he also weathered a test-score cheating scandal and occasionally rocky relations with the teachers union. But by the time he resigned, after six years, he and union leaders seemed to be working together without rancor. Leaders of some community groups have split from the pro-Beutner camp. They worry that Beutners approach to confronting the districts financial problems could shut out their voices or involve severe economic cutbacks that would undermine programs that are helping students. Some prefer Ekchian; some Alonso. Theyve been reluctant to speak out publicly because theyll have to work with whoever is selected, but they have tried to get the ear of board members. On Friday morning, one leader of a community group decided to come out in favor of Alonso. L.A. Unified has the opportunity to bring in an instructional leader of color with a history of success, said Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, which works on behalf of low-income students and families in South Los Angeles. If we have a shot at that, we should go for it  because its in the best interests of our kids and of our community. Retana said his statement was not meant to criticize Beutner or Ekchian but to alert board members that there also is community support for Alonso. Facebook

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Cal State leader shelves proposed tuition hike: Its the right thing to do, but its not without risk By Joy Resmovits Cal State, the nations largest public university system, will no longer consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Friday. The decision is a bet that Sacramento will come through in the end. If Cal State loses that bet, it could mean cuts to campus programs. White said in an interview that Californias economy is strong enough that families should not be shouldering the burden of higher college costs. Read More Facebook

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L.A. students to participate in national walkout activities on Friday By Joy Resmovits (Los Angeles Times) Students are taking to the streets again Friday to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Starting at 10 a.m., students at many schools will spend 13 seconds honoring the 13 people  12 students and one teacher  killed on that day in Littleton, Colo. After that, theyll participate in a host of different activities. Within L.A. Unified, one school is having an open-mic event for students to talk about school violence, and lawmakers are visiting campuses to hear students thoughts. According to a central hub for organizing the protests  written by the students of Ridgefield High School in Connecticut  the walkouts are intended to drive the political change necessary to curb school violence. The day is also a time for students to interact on an elevated platform they have never had before, the site states. It is a day of discourse and thoughtful sharing. Bringing together communities and students to get a national discussion rolling. Organizers have suggested using the event to convey the importance of curbing gun violence to legislators. They are encouraging students to push legislation that would ban assault weapons and tighten up rules around who can buy guns and how. Over 2,500 schools nationwide are expected to participate. In L.A., some students  at campuses including Eagle Rock High School, the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts and Bravo Medical Magnet  plan to walk out. Students from various schools expect to join area marches, including those in Santa Monica and Huntington Park. Other schools are hosting career days and voter registration drives. At 1 p.m., students plan to start a rally in front of L.A. Unified headquarters. For the record: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 teachers and one student were killed in the Columbine shooting. The opposite is true: twelve students and one teacher died. Facebook

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Stabbing of popular student devastates South El Monte High School; teen friend suspected in slaying By Sonali Kohli When administrators at South El Monte High School called Jeremy Sanchezs parents to say he never showed up for class Wednesday, his father began to worry. It was unusual for the 17-year-old junior to miss school, so his father filed a missing persons report and assembled two of Jeremys close friends to look for the popular student-athlete. Their search took them to a scenic stretch of the San Gabriel River Trail, where one of the friends  a 16-year-old boy  made a tragic discovery. Among the bushes in the riverbed near Thienes Avenue and Parkway Drive was Jeremys body, punctured with stab wounds, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read More Facebook

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Racist fliers spark outrage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo By Alene Tchekmedyian Soon after Neal MacDougall arrived on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus Tuesday, the professor noticed university police standing outside a restroom near his office. A racial slur against African Americans had been scrawled in red marker on a stall wall. Later, he discovered a series of racist fliers pinned up next to his door. Someone had also slashed posters hed hung outside his office supporting students in the country illegally. The discovery was the latest controversy on the prestigious campus  which the president said is less than 55% white  that MacDougall said demonstrates a culture of racism at the university. Last week, photographs emerged of white fraternity members, including one in blackface, flashing gang signs. Read More Facebook

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The superintendent waiting game, paying for L.A.'s College Promise, Princetons slave history: Whats new in education By Joy Resmovits Acting LAUSD superintendent Vivian Ekchian is a finalist for the permanent job. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In and around Los Angeles: The L.A. Unified school board spent 10 hours interviewing and discussing candidates for superintendent. When they adjourned after 10 p.m., they said they would reconvene on Friday. Who is paying for Mayor Eric Garcettis much-touted College Promise, a program that promises two years of community college for LAUSD grads? In California: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would boost K-12 education funding for black students. When the cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest rate of child poverty. Nationwide: The families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never occurred. Princeton will name two spaces  an arch and a garden  after slaves who lived or worked on the campus. Facebook

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L.A. school board meets privately with finalists and debates choice for school district leader By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education adjourned late Tuesday after spending more than 10 hours interviewing candidates and trying to reach a decision on who would be the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. When the meeting finally recessed at 10:11 p.m., a spokesman announced only that the school board would reconvene Friday at noon. Going into the days meetings, there were apparently four finalists, according to sources who could not be named because they were unauthorized to speak. Read More Facebook

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Two Sandy Hook families sue Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never happened By David Altimari Families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed lawsuits in Texas against controversial radio host Alex Jones for continually claiming the massacre never happened. Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner died in the massacre, filed separate lawsuits late Monday in Travis County, Texas. The lawsuits allege that Jones defamed the parents by constantly calling them crisis actors and insisting the shooting was a false flag operation; they also claim Jones accusations have led to death threats against the Sandy Hook families by Jones followers. Read More Facebook

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Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying By Howard Blume Austin Beutner has emerged as a leading contender to run the Los Angeles school district, with backers saying he is smart enough and tough enough to confront its financial and academic struggles. Though he does not have a background in education, the former investment banker has in the last year examined some of the districts intractable problems, serving as co-chair of an outside task force with the support of then-Supt. Michelle King. Sources inside and outside the school district said Beutner appears to have more support on the seven-member board than other finalists, and his name could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Challenge at Chicago school construction site: Watch for 38,000 unmarked graves By Nereida Moreno A 15-year effort to build a school in Chicagos Dunning neighborhood is underway with an unusual complication: Construction workers are taking careful steps to avoid disturbing human remains that may lie beneath the soil. The $70-million school is to be built on the grounds of a former Cook County Poor House, where an estimated 38,000 people were buried in unmarked graves. Among the dead are residents who were too poor to afford funeral costs, unclaimed bodies and patients from the countys insane asylum. There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place, said Barry Fleig, a genealogist and cemetery researcher who began investigating the site in 1989. Its a spooky, scary place. Read More Facebook

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Oklahoma teacher walkout winds down despite lawmakers failure to meet demands By Washington Post Oklahomas largest teachers union has announced an end to a walkout that has drawn thousands of educators out of classrooms and to the state Capitol demanding greater investment in the states schools, which have endured the nations steepest funding cuts. The announcement Thursday from the Oklahoma Education Assn. does not necessarily end the protests at the Capitol, as teachers not affiliated with the union vowed to stay longer. Instead of a walkout, the union and school districts across the state have said they plan to send delegations of teachers to Oklahoma City to keep the pressure on lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters have also promised to push education issues to the forefront of November elections, when the state chooses a new governor. As school districts begin to reopen, the protests may lose steam. The Legislature is not in session Friday, and observers are waiting to see what happens Monday, when lawmakers return. Read More Facebook

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Most Californians are worried about school shooting threats and oppose arming teachers, survey finds By Joy Resmovits Hamilton High School student Aiyana Dabriel holds a sign during a March 14 walkout in support of the Parkland shooting victims. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Most Californians are worried that a school shooting like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., in February could shed blood closer to home, a new survey found. Some 73% percent of adults and 82% of public school parents said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about school shootings. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,704 adults in the state by phone just after the March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. Latino and black respondents were significantly more likely to be concerned about school violence than white or Asian respondents, the institute found. Two-thirds of adults and public school parents said they opposed letting more educators carry weapons in school. The response differed across party lines, with 86% of Democrats and 69% of independents voicing their opposition, while 60% percent of Republicans said they would support a measure to arm educators. The poll, which had a margin of error of 3.2% in either direction, also asked Californians about school funding, educational issues in the governors race and the impact of immigration enforcement on students. You can find the full results here. Facebook

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Californias largest virtual charter school network agrees to contract with its teachers By Anna M. Phillips Nearly four years after teachers at Californias largest online charter school voted to unionize, they have reached a deal to increase pay and create job protections, according to a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. The contract, which is still tentative and subject to ratification, is a victory for the teachers union. Although charter schools are publicly funded, most are privately managed and their employees arent protected by labor contracts. Under the terms of the contract  the result of years of negotiation and legal wrangling  approximately 500 teachers working for California Virtual Academies will no longer be at-will employees who can be dismissed for almost any reason. Their average salary will rise to just over $45,000, according to union estimates, a figure that remains far below the norm for traditional public school teachers. Still, it is an improvement over the previous average of $38,000. The accord also places a limit on the number of students each teacher is responsible for monitoring in online homeroom classes. Were very satisfied with the gains we made, said teacher Brianna Carroll, president of California Virtual Educators United. I think were going to see some extraordinary changes in our schools. According to Carroll, teachers at California Virtual Academies  better known as CAVA  had grown frustrated with the organizations foot-dragging and were making preparations to go on strike when CAVAs leadership agreed to the deal. CAVA and K12, the Virginia-based for-profit company linked to its schools, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking for comment. The network currently operates nine virtual charter schools across California. In 2016, the charter network agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims of false advertising, misleading parents and inadequate instruction. The state attorney generals office had also accused K12 of controlling the charters for its own financial benefit. Neither CAVA nor K12 admitted to wrongdoing in the settlement. A year later, the state imposed a $2-million fine on CAVA after an audit found that it had misspent public funds. The network disputed the findings. Facebook

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School board approves a new formula for funding high-need schools By Sonali Kohli L.A. schools will soon get more money if they are located in neighborhoods with such problems as high levels of gun violence and asthma. The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new formula to determine how to dole out some funding to schools, based not only on the characteristics of the student populations but on the traumas that affect the communities around campuses. The new formula will be applied to $25 million in funding next fiscal year and about $263 million annually in future years  a small part of the districts $7.5 billion annual budget. Read More Facebook

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Protesters demand Ref Rodriguez resignation outside school board meeting By Sonali Kohli Students, parents, teachers and UTLA marching outside the board meeting chanting "Ref resign" pic.twitter.com/W0LRWZSIXY  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 A few dozen parents, students and teachers marched outside the Los Angeles Unified School Board meeting Tuesday, some calling for board member Ref Rodriguez to resign the week after news broke that he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena bar and restaurant. Rodriguez was not cited or charged in that incident, but was held for more than five and a half hours before being released. The school board member faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. He is accused of getting more than two dozen people people to donate to his campaign for his school board seat with the understanding that he would reimburse them. He stepped down from his post as school board president after he was charged last fall, but he did not give up his seat on the board. He has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, perjury, and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May. He cant give his full focus to our students, said Rebecca LaFond, a Highland Park parent whose three children marched with her as she chanted, Ref resign. One daughter marched in front of her, using a drum stick to hit the bottom of a gallon-size empty water jug. Our kids deserve someone who has the utmost ethical standards representing them, LaFond said. The protests continued into the board meeting, where some addressed Rodriguez directly, calling on him to step down during public comment portions of the meeting. Rodriguez, through his chief of staff, declined to comment. Some parents outside the board meeting did not know about the charges against Rodriguez but came out to protest the possibility of sharing their school campuses with charter schools. Protesters also oppose colocation  not all of the parents are here to ask Ref Rodriguez to step down pic.twitter.com/1Co8zQ9zSi  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 Cynthia Martinez said her son, who goes to Christopher Dena Elementary School in Boyle Heights, has been bullied in the past by students from a charter school sharing the campus. She said she didnt know who Rodriguez was. Some parents and teachers are worried about losing computer labs, robotics rooms and fitness centers if they are required to share their campus with charter schools, said Ilse Escobar, a parent community organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles. The issues of Rodriguez and colocation are related, Escobar said. Rodriguez is part of a majority on the school board elected with financial backing from charter school supporters, and many parents, she said, feel that the school board is compromised if he is a part of it. Staff reporter Howard Blume contributed to this post. Facebook

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Delaine Eastin tries to gain momentum in the California governors race, one voter at a time By Seema Mehta Delaine Eastin was a sophomore in high school when a drama teacher urged her to try out for a part in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She hesitated until he told her: This is a metaphor for your whole life. If you never try out, you will never get the part. Eastin auditioned and won the role. Decades later, the advice sticks with the former state schools chief, this time in her unlikely run for governor. Despite calls for more women in leadership roles in state politics following sexual misconduct allegations in Sacramento, Eastin has been largely overlooked in the race, lagging far behind her Democratic rivals in fundraising and the polls. Read More Facebook

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Arizona high court rejects in-state tuition for DACA recipients By Associated Press Young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by President Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday. The unanimous ruling will affect at least 2,000 students attending the states largest community college district and hundreds more at other colleges and the states three public universities. The Maricopa County Community Colleges District and state universities said they would begin raising tuition immediately for the coming school year. Read More Facebook

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New York high school students injured when bus strikes overpass By Associated Press A charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip Sunday night struck a bridge overpass on Long Island, seriously injuring six passengers and mangling the entire length of the top of the bus. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, according to New York State Police. One of the six injured passengers had very serious injuries, said State Police Maj. David Candelaria. Thirty-seven other passengers suffered minor injuries. Read More Facebook

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Some good news for California in national student test scores By Joy Resmovits National test scores for fourth- and eighth-graders were generally flat from 2015, but eighth-grade reading scores showed some improvement. Every two years, the nations fourth- and eighth-graders are tested in math and reading  and newly released results from last years tests give California at least a little reason to be pleased. The 2017 results  out Monday night  were mostly flat nationwide compared with 2015, though the average score in eighth-grade reading went up. But while that improvement largely came from the increased scores of the highest-performing students, California eighth-graders showed some reading progress from the lowest levels to the highest. Read More Facebook

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Under state control, Inglewood school districts financial picture worsened By Anna M. Phillips When Eugenio Villa agreed to return to the Inglewood schools for a second tour last summer, he knew the district remained one of Californias most troubled. Inglewood Unified had been nearly insolvent when it was taken over by the state Department of Education in 2012. Six years later, its enrollment was still declining. Its school buildings were tired  some edging into decrepitude. Its test scores and graduation rates were still below the state average. And the public was out of patience. Still, Villa, who had signed back on as the districts chief business official, was shocked at what he found when he arrived in June 2017. Two years earlier, he had left the school system on what he thought was firm ground. Read More Facebook

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Charter school group drops two lawsuits against L.A. Unified By Howard Blume A charter schools advocacy group last week announced that it would end two long-running lawsuits in which it was seeking more classroom space and construction money from the Los Angeles school district. The decision, the California Charter Schools Assn. said, reflects better relations between charter schools and the L.A. Unified School District. But the move also suggests that the litigation, which already contributed to significant gains for area charters, was unlikely to produce much more. It takes time, money and effort to litigate, said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the charter group. Maybe its better to see if we can find the time and opportunity for collaboration. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez is arrested on suspicion of public intoxication By Richard Winton Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez was arrested recently on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena restaurant, the latest trouble for an elected official who faces political money-laundering charges. Pasadena police took Rodriguez into custody on March 16, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Officers arrested Rodriguez at about 4:30 p.m. at the Yard House restaurant and bar at the Paseo Mall and held him in jail for more than five-and-a-half hours. Rodriguez was ultimately released without being cited or charged, Derderian told The Times. Other details about the arrest were not available, she University of California regents voted Thursday to increase tuition for nonresident students at a time of surging enrollment and constrained state funding.

They approved the increase by a 12-3 vote despite eloquent pleas from numerous students, including those from California.

To try to soften the blow, regents promised to rescind the increase if they managed to successfully lobby the Legislature for more money. They also unanimously voted to ask the state to restore financial aid for needy nonresident students, a benefit eliminated in 2016.

The 3.5% increase would boost the supplemental tuition that nonresident students pay by $978  from $28,014 to $28,992 for the 2018-19 school year. If regents end up raising the base tuition  which is what in-state students pay  nonresidents would have to absorb that increase, too.

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UC officials say the $35 million they expect to raise from the increase will help reduce class sizes and support more academic support and counseling.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, an ex-officio regent who is running for governor, wanted Thursdays vote to be delayed while lobbying efforts to get more money from the state continued.

Once again, were letting them off the hook by making a decision prematurely, Newsom said.

He voted against the increase, as did regents John A. Perez and Paul Monge.

But UC President Janet Napolitano said the notion that the Legislature would provide more money for nonresident students was illusory.

Reality has to intrude here, she said.

Napolitano urged regents to approve the increase, with admissions decisions coming later this month. She said families need to know what their college costs will be and campuses need to know whether they can count on the revenue.

After the January regents meeting, UC students, faculty, administrators, alumni and regents launched a unified push to lobby the Legislature for an additional $140 million this year. They did so in part to bring in the $70 million needed to avoid a proposed 2.7% tuition increase for California students, and regents held off voting on that increase until May in hopes of success. The rest of the money would be used to ease overcrowding, repair aging facilities and enroll more California students.

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But UC budget officials, in a presentation after the tuition vote, said billions of dollars more are needed for new classrooms, dorms and labs, deferred maintenance, salary increases and the hiring of more faculty to lower class sizes, as well as to cover escalating pension and health costs. UC spending per student has dropped by 31% since 2000 because state funding has not risen to fully cover the additional 90,000 students enrolled since then.

The regents, meeting at UCLA, acknowledged that they needed to find longer-term solutions to their budget woes  and some suggested they should do so in a cost-saving, high-tech way that would radically reshape the UC experience.

Regents Peter Guber and Lark Park asked Thursday whether UC could afford to stick with the age-old model of educating students in campus buildings and housing them in campus dorms.

I dont know that five years at a college to finish a college degree has to be all five years in brick and mortar at the school, Guber said. That seems a little asinine to me in the world were living in right now.

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Park said new ideas were imperative given fiscal realities.

Students, faculty and chancellors pushed back against any major replacement of face-to-face learning with online instruction. Napolitano suggested a deep dive into UCs current online education efforts at the May meeting.

Myriad financial pressures, years in the making, led to the current controversy over nonresident students. When the state cut one-third of the UC systems funding after the 2008 recession, campuses scrambled to make up the lost revenue by recruiting higher-paying out-of-state and international students.

From fall 2009 to fall 2017, the number of nonresident undergraduates nearly quadrupled, to 37,217 from 9,552, while the number of Californians rose from 167,900 to 179,530, according to UC data.

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The growing number of nonresidents sparked a political backlash. Legislators ordered a state audit  which contended that UC officials had harmed California students by enrolling so many from out of state  and then directed UC officials to eliminate financial aid for nonresident students and place a cap on their numbers.

Just before the vote Thursday, regents Park and Sherry Lansing added the amendments to lobby for more money to rescind the tuition increase and seek state approval to reinstate their eligibility for financial aid. During public comments, they had heard nonresident students stories of hardship.

Ashraf Beshay, a fifth-year UCLA biology student from Egypt, told regents that an economic collapse in his country had devalued its currency, effectively sending the cost of his UC education soaring from $50,000 to $120,000.

The higher costs have forced him to go to school part time, he said, and his father recently sold his car to pay his education bills.

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Other students, from China, said they had to overload their schedules to graduate in three years to save money.

Dont treat us as ATM machines, one said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

Twitter: @TeresaWatanabe

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UPDATES:

6:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from regents and information about UC finances.

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from students.

This article was originally published at 11:50 a.m.A University of California regents committee on Wednesday approved a tuition increase for nonresident students, despite their pleas that it would cause them hardship.

The proposed 3.5% tuition increase would boost the supplemental tuition that nonresident students pay by $978  from $28,014 to $28,992 for the 2018-19 school year. The increase would raise nearly $35 million.

UC officials say nonresident tuition dollars have helped pay for more courses at UCLA, academic support and advising at UC Berkeley and programs to raise graduation rates at UC San Diego.

The full Board of Regents, meeting at UCLA, will vote on the proposal Thursday.

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During the public comment session before the full board Wednesday, Ayesha Haleem, a UCLA student from Pakistan, told regents she was fearful of violence in her country in coming to California but now was scared that rising tuition would force her to return. She also said that she and other international students enrich the campus.

International students are not just cash cows, said the junior studying political science and international development studies. The amount of cultural capital we bring from all around the world should be looked upon when the UC makes this decision.

Other students objected to treating nonresident students differently than Californians since all contribute to their campuses. Rigel Robinson, a UC Berkeley student government leader from Missouri, said many nonresidents  including him  have ties to California and plan to stay here after graduation. His great-grandmother was the first woman to graduate from UC Berkeleys agricultural college, he said, and his father attended UCLA.

California has always been my home, he said.

Two California gubernatorial candidates also spoke about proposed tuition hikes at the meeting Wednesday. State Treasurer John Chiang urged regents to delay action until 2019. Delaine Eastin, a former state superintendent of public instruction, urged regents to challenge the state to reinvest in higher education. Eastin, 70, said she paid only $82.50 a semester in tuition as a UC Davis student. That would be about $650 in todays dollars.

Eastin and Chiang came to the meeting at the request of UCLA students.

Later, Nathan Brostrom, UCs chief financial officer, told finance committee members that the Legislature does not favor breaks for nonresident students. The UC system nearly quadrupled the number of nonresident students between 2009 and 2017  they numbered 37,217 last fall  to replace revenue lost to budget cuts following the 2008 recession.

The growing numbers sparked a political backlash. Legislators ordered a state audit, which found that UC officials had harmed California students by enrolling so many nonresidents  a conclusion that university officials sharply contest. UC officials have eliminated financial aid for nonresident students and placed a cap on their numbers.

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We got treated quite hostilely by legislators on the nonresident issue, Brostrom said.

The finance committee approved the proposal with little discussion. That prompted students to disrupt the meeting by standing up and chanting, UC, UC, can you see? We dont want your tuition fee.

In other matters, committee members approved multiyear plans for supplemental tuition levels for various graduate and professional degree programs, which the full board will vote on Thursday.

Regents also heard presentations on UCs efforts to comply with the state auditors recommendations by reviewing the salary levels of top executives and improving the budget practices of the office of President Janet Napolitano.

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Regents also plan to discuss the UC systems costs and financial aid programs Thursday.A hunter who sparked outrage last year after he shot and killed a deer with a bow and arrow has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge.

Michael Jackson Rodriguez entered his plea Tuesday to one misdemeanor count of possessing fish or wildlife taken unlawfully, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. Under the negotiated plea deal, a judge sentenced Rodriguez to three years of summary probation and 30 days of community service.

Rodriguez must also surrender all hunting licenses and is prohibited from hunting while on probation. He also has to pay a $1,000 fine to the state Fish and Game Preservation fund and must also give up his seized property  which includes a bow, arrows and remains of the deer  to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to the prosecutor.

Rodriguez was accused of killing a deer with a bow and arrow in a Monrovia neighborhood on Sept. 14. It is illegal to shoot a deer or discharge a deadly weapon within 150 yards of a home.

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Monrovia police said they were notified after homeowners Chuck and Robyn Tapert saw Rodriguez on their surveillance camera. The video shows an archer shooting a deer in a forested area next to the Taperts house, followed by the deer running away down the street. The deer then died.

I couldnt believe it. Im like, Youve got to be kidding me, Chuck Tapert told CBS Los Angeles last year. Somebody took a shot at a deer right in front of our house in a residential neighborhood?

Officials were inundated with calls from people upset by the video, which spread across social media.

Rodriguez told CBS L.A. that he first shot the buck in the forest, hitting it near the spine, but the buck didnt die. He followed the deer into the residential neighborhood so he could kill it.

I was following up a wounded animal and taking him out so he wasnt suffering anymore, Rodriguez said.

brittny.mejia@latimes.com

Twitter: @Brittny_MejiaEnvironmental and consumer groups urged the city Wednesday to pick a new watchdog to monitor the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, arguing that Fred Pickel had failed to fight for the interests of local ratepayers.

Pickel was appointed six years ago to serve as a ratepayer advocate monitoring the DWP, a job that was created by voters after a City Hall clash over rate hikes. His term ended more than a year ago, but he has continued to work on an interim basis while an appointed committee decides who should hold the job.

At a news conference Wednesday, Consumer Watchdog faulted Pickel for backing rate hikes and supporting a new contract for utility workers that raised salaries, along with other decisions that the nonprofit group argued had ended up costing ratepayers.

It was joined by the environmental group Food and Water Watch, which criticized Pickel for deeming a controversial project to tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta affordable for L.A. households.

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No one has stood up for ratepayers when these decisions are being made, said Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court, who has long been critical of Pickel. He argued that Pickel seemed to see his job as crunching numbers analytically and reporting back to DWP, not standing up for the public against DWP.

Pickel declined to comment specifically Wednesday on the criticisms made by the two groups, saying that he wanted the reports on his website to provide the record of his work.

In the past, he has tracked utility spending and labor costs and recommended changes to speed up utility hiring and contracting, saying that the sluggish pace had caused problems during and after the disastrous rollout of a new billing system.

Jack Humphreville, who sits on a committee that tracks DWP issues for neighborhood councils, argued that Pickel deserves to be reappointed. He said Pickel had been willing to take unpopular stands at City Hall and saved Angelenos money by providing careful analysis that led the department to seek a smaller rate hike than it had initially suggested.

Humphreville said that at times he wished Pickel were more aggressive, but if he criticized everything they did, theyd shut him out.

More than two years ago, outside consultants who scrutinized the DWP concluded that the ratepayer advocate job was stuck in a no mans land, as it is neither a regulator nor a truly independent adviser. They did not criticize Pickel personally, but warned that his office faced continuous political pressure from city and utility officials.

Besides calling for Pickel to be replaced, Consumer Watchdog argued that the office he leads should be overhauled and given more power to investigate problems within the utility.

City appointees have also been urged by another coalition, which includes community groups, environmentalists and the labor union that represents most DWP employees, to expand the ratepayer advocate role to assess whether programs will improve environmental sustainability, provide good jobs or serve previously underserved ratepayers.

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To decide who should serve as ratepayer advocate, the city has convened a selection committee whose members were appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Council President Herb Wesson and Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who heads a council committee focused on energy and environmental issues.

This is an open and competitive process, said Rafael Prieto, a legislative analyst working with the committee. Its ultimately up to the committee to decide who they want to recommend.

That committee has not met since December. The group stopped holding meetings after one of its members resigned: Humphreville, who was initially chosen by Wesson as a member of the committee, said he stepped down last year to attend to family issues. Wesson spokeswoman Vanessa Rodriguez said Wednesday that the council president had been reviewing resumes since January and hoped to choose a replacement by the end of the week.

Once that position is filled, the committee will resume the ratepayer advocate review process, Garcetti spokesman Alex Comisar said in a written statement.

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The last time Los Angeles chose a ratepayer advocate, it took nearly a year before the city had appointed a committee, gotten its recommendation and made a final decision.

Pickel, who holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ran his own consulting company, was chosen by that committee and unanimously voted in by the City Council. Garcetti, a councilman at the time, said the public would have somebody on our side when the DWP sought rate increases.

We disagree with these criticisms, Comisar said in a statement Wednesday, in reaction to the Consumer Watchdog statements on Pickel.

Consumer Watchdog has repeatedly taken aim at Pickel in recent years. The ratepayer advocate vouched for a legal settlement over faulty bills that Consumer Watchdog vociferously opposed.

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When Pickel penned the official argument in favor of a ballot measure that would have overhauled the way the DWP was governed, Court complained that he had not included that it would also make it easier for him to be reappointed to a second term and double the minimum budget of his small department. That ballot measure ultimately failed.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlpertReyesFor a while, Vincent Neill and his family parked their weathered RVs on a stretch of roadway in Canoga Park, where the kids had friends down the street.

But then business owners began to complain, he said. So Neill, his wife and their seven children relocated their caravan of vehicles to a Chatsworth manufacturing zone.

Then a new set of signs went up on that curving street, banning bulky vehicles from parking there between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

We got evicted by the red zone, Neill said.

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So the family moved again, this time to another industrial street about a mile away. And Neill said others soon followed: By February, as many as a dozen RVs were regularly stationing themselves on a single block of Irondale Avenue, a nagging frustration to nearby businesses and a stark reminder of a simmering crisis.

As dilapidated campers have become rolling homes for the destitute, they have become another battleground over blight, nuisances and the rights of the poor in Los Angeles. Facing complaints about trash, clogged roads and other hazards, the city has banned them from remaining overnight on street after street, but has often ended up merely moving the problem.

People stop and talk among a collection of RVs on West 94th Street near LAX in an area that had become a community. Police cleared and closed off the area in January. (Luis SInco / Los Angeles TImes )

Across Los Angeles, it was illegal to live in a vehicle until a federal court struck down that citywide ban four years ago. L.A. then passed a new law that barred vehicle dwellers from spending the night near homes, parks and schools, but allowed them to park and sleep on a scattering of streets in industrial and commercial districts, marked in green on city maps.

But even those roads can be off limits if the city has posted street-by-street signs banning overnight parking. More than a year after the new law went into effect, the City Council has gradually clamped down on where RVs  the most obvious manifestation of people sleeping in their vehicles  can legally park for the night.

A Times analysis found that since the ordinance was approved, lawmakers have voted to ban oversize vehicles from parking overnight on more than 300 street segments from Chatsworth to San Pedro. Some of the banned areas span only a short block, while others extend as long as three miles.

Not all of the new restrictions have been triggered specifically by RVs. Many areas with new limitations on parking were already prohibited for vehicle dwellers. But lawmakers say that the rise in homelessness  and people living in their vehicles as a result  has helped drive the demand.

Scores of streets have gotten new signs in the San Fernando Valley neighborhoods represented by Councilwoman Nury Martinez, who voted against the new law allowing parking in commercial and industrial areas.

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Its easy to stand up and say, Allow people to live in their cars, when the issue is not going to be as prevalent in their district as it will be in mine, Martinez told the Daily News.

Businesses and residents have frequently pushed for such rules, complaining that commercial and industrial streets have been inundated with bulky vehicles. The council has also imposed street-by-street restrictions in some areas that ban vehicles of all sizes from parking overnight.

RVs line the street in an industrial area of Los Angeles. The city allows them in a few streets in industrial and commercial districts. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times )

At a recent meeting at City Hall, Chandra Mosley and other members of the View Heights Block Club pleaded for new restrictions on trucks and RVs parking in their South L.A. neighborhood. Mosley said the street across from her church had become an eyesore over the last year, cluttered with trash and sewage dumped by people living there in campers and buses. Some neighbors have seen drug deals as they pass, she added.

Even walking down the street to pick up my newspaper Im getting complaints, said Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who represents neighborhoods in the western San Fernando Valley including Woodland Hills and Canoga Park. We dont want our neighborhoods to become campsites.

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But simply banning RVs on more and more streets is untenable, Blumenfield said.

Los Angeles has been slow to provide safe parking locations for people living in RVs and other vehicles to legally spend the night.

So when the signs go up, the blocky vehicles sometimes move just a few streets away, spurring complaints from a new set of neighbors. That was what happened when new signs went up on some streets in Chatsworth, including the curving road where Neill and his family had once parked.

When they cleared them out over there, they all landed over here, said Michelle Jurgaitis, general manager of Classic Cosmetics Inc., which abuts Irondale.

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Jurgaitis said she felt for families living in the RVs but lamented that some vehicle dwellers had strewn the business property with needles and excrement. Workers have had to park far away in the early morning because the street was lined with boxy vehicles, she said. And Jurgaitis said the small shop on their manufacturing site had been losing customers.

Across Los Angeles, it was illegal to live in a vehicle until a federal court struck down that citywide ban four years ago. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Tiems )

Irene Shaffa, who owns another nearby business, said workers had become fearful of taking walks at lunchtime and waited to make sure everyone was picked up safely before they left. The shabby state of Irondale had even spurred her company to fly employees out of state for important meetings.

We deal with a lot of major corporations and we will not bring them to our warehouses. Its embarrassing, Shaffa said last month.

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Neill said that when he first moved his RVs onto Irondale, it was empty and tranquil, just his family and a woman parked down the street. But other RVs followed and some of their occupants were bad news, the 45-year-old Neill said. He worried about the men who sat around drinking or dumping sewage in the gutters. Tools and other belongings had been stolen from his family, Neill said.

Once you get to a good location, all the riffraff moves in behind you, he said.

Last year, real estate broker Scott Caswell gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition urging Councilman Mitchell Englander to address blight, unsanitary conditions, property theft and business disruption in the area. Caswell said some businesses in the industrial area had threatened to move or demanded more security as it became a de facto RV park.

It just became horrible out here, Caswell said. In one case, he said, a nearby building on Nordhoff Street was broken into while it was being sold and stripped of copper wiring. Weve got to solve the problem. We cant keep pushing it around.

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Before the new rules went into effect across the city, many council members had already declared specific areas off limits to RVs or other vehicles to park overnight.

Beyond the city limits, some neighboring cities impose stiffer restrictions than Los Angeles: Calabasas, for instance, allows oversize vehicles to park on public streets only if they get a parking pass that lasts up to 72 hours  and the temporary passes are meant only to allow residents and their out-of-town guests to park next to their own homes or businesses.

As more and more streets are off limits to RVs for overnight parking in Los Angeles, only a few religious congregations are now hosting safe parking programs in their lots.

The city of L.A. passed a law that barred vehicle dwellers from spending the night near homes, parks and schools, but allowed them to park and sleep on some streets in industrial and commercial districts. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles TImes )

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The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority put out a call last year for nonprofits to operate such programs and provide vehicle dwellers with supportive services, but it did not get any eligible proposals. Agencies said they werent able to take on a new kind of program, authority spokesman Tom Waldman said.

Frustrated that little has happened, Councilman Mike Bonin has called on the city to examine which of its own properties could be offered up for such programs.

The city should have moved faster, said Bonin, who represents coastal areas. What I hear from folks is, Were willing to do it, but if the city is really interested, why isnt the city doing it themselves?

Early in March, the number of RVs had dramatically dwindled on Irondale, with only a handful remaining on a cool and sunny morning.

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Down the street, there was a new sign banning overnight parking on the entire block. It had been installed in late February, part of a new set of restrictions backed by Englander.

The street-by-street rules are meant to protect economic growth by preserving one of the few remaining light industrial zones in Los Angeles, said the councilman, who has also raised concerns about unsafe and unsanitary RVs being rented out to the poor.

Englander added that he was working with local groups to establish a safe parking program in his district, but it is unclear exactly when that will happen.

After the new signs went up, Neill and his family were nowhere to be seen on a March morning on Irondale. One of his former neighbors said they had just moved to a nearby street.

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My next move is to the desert, once they move us out of here, said Dave Weber, a 60-year-old who said he had started living in his RV after he had brain surgery and lost his job as a truck driver. He used to park in Granada Hills, he said, before new signs went up there. Its probably only a matter of time.

Times staff writer Gale Holland contributed to this report.

emily.alpert@latimes.com

Twitter: @AlpertReyesNathanael Pickett had recently moved into the El Rancho Motel in Barstow when he was approached by a San Bernardino County deputy who suspected him of trespassing.

A confrontation between the two escalated and Pickett, 29, was fatally shot. On Wednesday, a federal jury awarded Picketts parents $33.5 million in damages, finding that the deputy had detained their son unreasonably, delayed medical aid and was negligent when he used deadly force, according to federal court records.

The jury deliberated about two hours in the civil case, weighing conflicting versions of the November 2015 encounter, before returning the verdict. The sum, which experts say is among the largest in police shooting cases, includes $15.5 million in compensatory damages and $18 million in punitive damages.

The county tried to sell a story to the jury about how the incident happened that the jury realized, through the presentation of evidence, was not true, said Dale K. Galipo, an attorney representing Picketts parents. The large award, he said, is a signal that members of our community are no longer willing to tolerate these unjustified police shootings.

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In a statement, Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said the agency strongly disagrees with the outcome.

Our attorneys, the department and the county will be discussing appealing the jurys award, she said.

In a brief filed in court last month, attorneys for the county said Deputy Kyle Woods was on patrol when he saw Pickett looking back at him several times as he crossed a street. When Pickett disappeared, Woods surmised he had jumped a fence into the motel parking lot and followed, jumping it himself.

When Woods approached, Pickett gave the deputy a false name  he spelled his last name Piggett  and appeared to be under the influence because he was twitching and had a white coating on his tongue, the filing said.

Woods tried to detain Pickett, but he ran, the filing said. During an ensuing scuffle, the county argued, Pickett mounted the deputy and punched him multiple times.

Woods felt he was losing consciousness, pulled out his gun and said: Stop, Im gonna shoot you, the filing said. The county argued that Pickett grabbed the gun, prompting Woods to open fire in fear of his life.

Galipo disputed the deputys version of events, pointing to video captured by motel security cameras as well as photos of Woods taken an hour after the incident.

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Despite saying that he was punched in the face more than 10 times, Woods had no visible injuries, Galipo said. The video recording doesnt show Pickett throwing any punches and witnesses didnt see Pickett grabbing the deputys gun, he added.

It was a made-up story, Galipo said, adding that the deputy waited 28 days before giving a statement about the incident. The jury realized it was all made-up.

Galipo said Woods, who sheriffs officials said still works for the agency, was involved in a second on-duty shooting of an unarmed person this January, which the jury didnt know about. In that case, the man survived.

Jody D. Armour, a professor at USC Gould School of Law, was struck by the large sum, especially the amount awarded for punitive damages. The verdict should send a message to the agency to improve training and hiring practices, he said.

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The jury was convinced that there was clear and convincing evidence that the officer was not merely negligent and unreasonable in killing the victim, but that his behavior was egregious, that it was characterized by malice, Armour said. I remember $5-, $7-, $8-million awards, but nothing in this area.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

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March 15, 6 p.m.: This article was updated to include security footage of the incident.

This article was originally published on March 14 at 8:50 p.m.A rookie San Francisco police officer who was on his fourth day on the job when he fatally shot an unarmed carjacking suspect has been fired.

Police Chief Bill Scott fired Officer Chris Samayoa three months after he fatally shot 42-year-old Keita ONeil, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday.

ONeil, who died at a hospital, was suspected of assaulting a California Lottery employee and stealing a van that belongs to the agency on Dec. 1.

Police chased the van and another SUV seen traveling with it to an area of public housing, officials said.

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After the brief pursuit with police, ONeil abandoned the stolen vehicle in the citys Bayview area 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 passengers seat while the cruiser was still moving. The video then shows him open the side door and fire a single shot through the window as ONeil runs by in the opposite direction. ONeil was not armed.

The Police Department confirmed Samayoa was fired but declined comment, saying it was a personnel matter.

Samayoas firing drew outrage from the citys police union, which said he was fired for doing what he was trained to do.

This was a needless action as any taken by someone wearing the uniform of our chief, union president, Marty Halloran, wrote in a statement.

The shooting remains under investigation by the departments internal affairs division, the homicide bureau and the San Francisco district attorneys office.Taron Hovhannisyan: They admit that the layout of the forces is not the way the want (video)

"The report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has always been incomplete in terms of the South Caucasus," expert Taron Hovhannisyan said during a press conference. "In April 2017, the Armenian side stated that they had received 'Igla-S ' weapons, but this was not included in the published report, I strongly suspect that the experts who published the report speak Armenian and Azerbaijanian and that this region is in the center of their attention." According to the expert, it was not right to compare the two armies with the military budget. "Comparing millions is not right, as we get weapons at different prices, for example, we have a special agreement with Russia on purchasing some weapons, whereas Azerbaijan does not have an arrangement at all; the layout of the forces is not the same as it might seem." Taron Hovhannisyan also touched upon recent military exercises held in Azerbaijan. "The scenario of this exercise is very interesting, rather than those held in the past, it is counterproductive, according to the scenario the Armenian side has occupied the defense spots of the Azerbaijani side and they are trying to take it back. This way, I think, they admit that the layout of the forces is not the way the want. " Coordinator of the Razm.info military news website, Karen Vrtanesyan, noted that the money for aqcuiring weapons has dropped in Azerbaijan. "It is observed that with the oil price fluctuations in Azerbaijan the military budget is changing, the current indicator is much lower than, for example, it was in 2013-14." Karen Vrtanesyan did not exclude the possibility of military action in Azerbaijan on the background of the election campaign. "I do not rule out the possibility of some actions, but there will be no large-scale action, of course, no matter what the outcome of the elections will be."The United Nations says a donor conference has produced nearly $100 million in new pledges to help fund the U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees this year after the U.S. slashed its aid.

But the U.N. is still running about $346 million short for 2018, and officials warned that critical services could be scrapped if the money doesnt come through.

Jordan, Egypt and Sweden hosted the emergency donor conference in Rome on Thursday to try to make up for the shortfall. Jordans foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said the conference was a very successful beginning but that more fundraising was necessary.

In addressing the funding conference, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the relief agency was facing the greatest funding crisis in its 68-year history after the U.S. administration slashed tens of millions in aid.

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The agency, the oldest and largest U.N. relief program in the Middle East, provides healthcare, education and social services to an estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Cutting sanitation, healthcare and medical services in already poverty-wracked and conflict-ridden areas would have severe impacts  a cascade of problems that could push the suffering in disastrous and unpredictable directions, he warned.

The Trump administration announced in January it was slashing $65 million this year. But the agency said the actual cut was about $300 million because the U.S. had led the agency to believe it would provide $365 million in 2018.

The U.S. had been the agencys largest donor, supplying nearly 30% of its budget. In announcing the cuts in January, the U.S. State Department said it wanted reforms at the agency, which Israel has strongly criticized.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who along with his counterparts from Jordan and Sweden co-hosted the meeting, said the agency had already undertaken measures to streamline and rationalize its activities. But he said there is a limit to its ability to do so given the enormous sustained needs faced by 5 million people.

It is vital and it is necessary to address these very basic services, but also to provide dignity for multitudes of Palestinians and to [protect] many of them from the potential threats of radicalization and terrorism, he told reporters.

The agencys chief, Pierre Kraehenbuel, said expectations in the region were high that donors would step up.

The message to the Palestinian refugees has to be that they are not forgotten, he said.In a small town, death and killing are often visible parts of life, especially for farm kids. They might hunt deer. Their families might breed cattle for slaughter.

But feeding an ailing puppy to a snapping turtle?

On March 7, according to local news accounts, a junior high teacher in Preston, Idaho, did just that in front of several students at his school. Details about the incident remain fuzzy, as officials have declined to talk about it. But the outrage that followed was predictable.

A local animal rights activist, Jill Parrish, called it a cut-and-dried case of animal cruelty and filed a complaint to the sheriffs department, which launched an investigation.

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National uproar ensued, with the animal rights group PETA calling the teacher a bully who should not be allowed near impressionable young people.

People in Preston, a community of 5,354, were also outraged  that everybody else was making such a big deal about the puppy.

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 2,500 people had signed a petition to Prestons school board expressing their support for the teacher, Robert Crosland.

Two of the three kids present were mine, wrote one parent, Farahlyn Hansen, in a Facebook post supporting Crosland that has been shared more than 200 times. She did not respond to messages seeking comment.

NONE of the kids were upset or traumatized, Hansen wrote. They do not need counseling. They saw the physical state of the very young puppy. It was sick, wouldnt accept food, and was dying. All of the three kids that were there felt Robert did the humane and right thing. My children work on farms, they understand life and death.

Other petitioners also expressed their support for Crosland  a beloved teacher who had taught science to many of Prestons students  praising his character and skills as an educator.

Four of my kids have had him for a science teacher, wrote Amanda Palmer. They loved their science class, each having their own great experience with Mr. Crosland. I support him 100%. I hope that he will be here to teach my daughter next year.

He has not only taught my kids but now he is teaching my grandkids, wrote Dixie Baird. He is an amazing teacher. He leaves an everlasting impression on his students.

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Some petitioners directly supported Croslands act itself.

Do we really live such a sheltered life that it destroys our faith in humanity to see an animal eat another animal? one wrote. This happens all over the world folks. Animals eat each other. Humans do it to. We just typically pay someone to do the dirty work for us.

Worldwide even people eat dogs, cats, and other meat food sources, wrote another. Sounds to me like this man is a dynamic teacher, teaching kids the greatness of life as well as some of the harsh realities. Keep up the great work. You are the kind of teacher our society needs.

The Preston School District issued a statement saying the regrettable feeding occurred well after students had been dismissed and was not a part of any school directed program and that officials were taking steps to ensure that this type of action could not be repeated.

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But, the district also added, 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.

Crosland did not respond to a message seeking comment. In an email, Supt. Marc Gee wrote that at this time the district does not have further comment on the topic until the local prosecuting attorney and police have finished their investigation.

Franklin County prosecutor Vic A. Pearson recused himself from the investigation, citing an unspecified conflict of interest.

Pearson did not respond to a request for comment, but he issued a statement asking the public for patience: The volume of calls being received by both law enforcement and my office is hindering our ability to complete what needs to be done to reach the end goal of justice in this case.

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The law does not appear to be on Croslands side.

Idahos statutes on animal abuse forbid the intentional and malicious infliction of death on animals and needless suffering and unnecessary cruelty. Euthanasia is required to be humane.

I dont see any exemptions under our states animal cruelty codes to indicate that it was OK for a person to kill a puppy by allowing another animal to eat it, said Jeff Rosenthal, a veterinarian and the chief executive of the Idaho Humane Society.

Whether its food animal production, research, companion animals, theres a fundamental responsibility to avoid any unnecessary suffering of an animal, he said.

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If this was a person who took a puppy and ripped it apart, he would clearly be guilty of animal cruelty; if he took a puppy and drowned it, he would be guilty of animal cruelty, Rosenthal said. I dont think it was necessary to teach anything to these children that was gained by feeding a live puppy to a turtle. We dont teach hypothermia in physiology class by putting kittens in a freezer.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Matt Pearce is a national reporter for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @mattdpearceOklahoma plans to start carrying out executions with nitrogen gas, a method that has never been used in the U.S. but that some states have already approved amid difficulties with lethal injections.

At a news conference Wednesday, Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Mike Hunter and Corrections Director Joe M. Allbaugh said that over the next few months the state would develop a protocol for using nitrogen.

They did not give a date for finalizing the protocol or for the first execution. There are 49 inmates on death row in Oklahoma, including 16 who have exhausted the appeals process, Hunter said.

The last U.S. execution in a gas chamber was on March 4, 1999, in Arizona using cyanide. German national Walter LaGrand was put to death for taking part in the 1982 murder of a bank manager.

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In recent years, Oklahoma and other states have struggled to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections, the most common execution method but one that has increasingly faced scrutiny.

In 2015, a state court put a moratorium on executions in Oklahoma after a series of botched executions, including one in which an inmate convulsed for 43 minutes before dying and another in which the wrong drug was administered.

As inmates and groups opposed to the death penalty have gone to court to challenge lethal injection on the grounds that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, manufacturers of some of the drugs have refused to do business with states.

In one prominent case, McKesson Corp., a medical supplier that sold the muscle relaxer vecuronium bromide to Arkansas, said last year that the state had bought the drug under false pretenses. The company said the drug was intended for medical use only.

In 2015, Oklahoma legislators made a contingency plan in case lethal injection was found to be unconstitutional or the drugs became unavailable. They passed a law allowing the state to execute people by nitrogen hypoxia, in which a person is deprived of oxygen as nitrogen is inhaled.

We can no longer sit on the sidelines and wait on the drugs, Hunter said Wednesday. Using inert gas will be effective, simple to administer, easy to obtain and requires no complex medical procedures.

Dale Baich, an attorney representing 20 death row prisoners who have sued the state over its execution procedures, criticized the states announcement.

This method has never been used before and is experimental, he said in a statement. Oklahoma is once again asking us to trust it as officials learn-on-the-job, through a new execution procedure and method. How can we trust Oklahoma to get this right when the states recent history reveals a culture of carelessness and mistakes in executions?

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Concerns about executions have helped drive the number to historic lows in recent years and sent several states looking for alternatives to lethal injection.

Mississippi legalized using nitrogen gas last year but hasnt yet used it. In Alabama, state legislators have also voted in support of using nitrogen gas. In Nevada and Nebraska, there have been pushes to use fentanyl in executions. In Utah, the firing squad has been legal since 2015.

Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Oklahomas role in the history of the death penalty could inspire more use of nitrogen gas. The state was the first to pass a law allowing lethal injection in 1977. Texas and dozens of other states followed.

I expect that if Oklahoma goes forward with this, there will be more states, said Dunham, whose nonprofit is based in Washington, D.C., and is critical of the death penalty.

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Dunham said the state would also need to make a case in court that it could no longer obtain lethal injection drugs before turning to nitrogen gas.

If the attorney general doesnt do that, I expect the death row prisoners would seek a judicial review to determine if lethal injection is not available, he said.

Even if Oklahoma prevailed, Dunham said, it would take at least six months for the first execution because of current court restrictions on the death penalty.

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

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Jaweed Kaleem is The Times national race and justice correspondent. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

More national headlinesGood morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Thursday, March 15, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

A national day of walkouts

At Hamilton High School, the protest began with a young man and a bullhorn. Ari Elkins, a senior, stood on the front lawn of his Palms school and in a voice both firm and loud, cried out: No more silence! End gun violence! Seconds later, hundreds of his fellow students came pouring out the buildings double doors. Calm and defiant, they joined tens of thousands of students on Wednesday in a historic national walkout, exactly one month after a gunman stormed a Parkland, Fla., school and killed 17 people. Los Angeles Times

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Big deal in San Diego

Two days after President Trump blocked Broadcom in its hostile takeover bid of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm, the Singapore company is officially withdrawing its $117-billion bid. Broadcom Ltd. said Wednesday that it was disappointed as it withdrew its proposed candidates for the board at Qualcomm Inc., but that plans to move its headquarters to the U.S. will move forward. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Driverless cars. Internet-connected homes. Robots. None of these futuristic technologies can advance without a faster wireless infrastructure. Thats the promise of 5G, the fifth generation mobile network being developed by Qualcomm. Los Angeles Times

Shasta problems

The Trump administration is advancing a colossal public works project  heightening Shasta Dam, which is specifically banned under California law. But it would be a windfall for Westlands Water District, which has friends high in the administration and in Congress quietly pushing it forward. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

New museum alert! The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially broke ground in Los Angeles Exposition Park and is expected to be completed in 2021. It will house George Lucas personal collection of fine and popular art, a mix that includes the original Darth Vader mask and other Star Wars ephemera as well as Norman Rockwell paintings. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Frank Gehry has been tapped to design a Colburn School extension and concert hall in downtown L.A. Los Angeles Times

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And: The unexpected firing of the Museum of Contemporary Arts highly respected chief curator didnt just shock the art world. It raised the question of a full-blown institutional identity crisis. Los Angeles Times

Homelessness: As the U.S. homelessness crisis reaches new heights, [The Guardian] spoke to people in L.A., Oakland and Seattle about their shelters. The Guardian

Plus: Who would live within a few feet of freight trains speeding along railroad tracks? Transients and homeless people.. Orange County Register

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

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Novel legal strategy? Stormy Daniels Newport Beach lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has a very explicit legal strategy for his client. He has taunted Trump, saying the president had to know that Daniels was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to cover up her alleged affair with him. Los Angeles Times

Whats up in Newport? Columnist Steve Lopez visited Tuesday to test the water on how locals feel about Trump. Los Angeles Times

Plus:Times reporter Benjamin Oreskes spent the night in an expensive hotel in downtown Los Angeles and inside Trumps security bubble. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

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Silicon Valley bombshell: Theranos Inc.s 15-year odyssey to revolutionize the blood-testing business began with huge promise but has been engulfed by ignominy. Federal regulators filed civil securities-fraud charges Wednesday against the company, founder Elizabeth Holmes and a former Theranos president, alleging they raised more than $700 million from investors while deceiving them about the capabilities of the companys technology. Wall Street Journal

Plus: Buried within the SECs legal complaint, filed in federal court in San Jose, are indications that there may be many more companies just like Theranos still collecting money from investors, writes columnist Michael Hiltzik. Los Angeles Times

Big crash: Two people are dead after their SUV flipped over in Delano while they were apparently fleeing from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, police said. Los Angeles Times

Hmm: A teacher at a Monterey County high school accidentally fired a gun in a classroom Tuesday afternoon during a lecture on public safety awareness, authorities said. Los Angeles Times

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Scary: While thousands of students walked out of school Wednesday in California and across the country to demand stricter gun laws, San Leandro Highs protest was preempted by graffiti threatening to shoot up the school. San Francisco Chronicle

THE ENVIRONMENT

A new fight: The Trump administrations chief environmental regulator signaled a coming showdown with California, warning the state wont dictate the future of ambitious automobile fuel economy regulations enacted by the Obama administration. Bloomberg

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

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Change is coming: Walt Disney Co. announced Wednesday that it is restructuring, combining its international media business and its streaming content into one unit and creating another unit to house its consumer products business along with Disney Parks and Resorts. Los Angeles Times

Yum: When farm-to-table comes to your own front yard. Los Angeles Times

Interesting debate: Should this Silver Lake service station be preserved? Curbed LA

Fun read: A former teenage mall rats ode to the Westside Pavilion. Los Angeles Magazine

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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: partly cloudy, 64, Thursday; rainy, 60, Friday. San Diego: partly cloudy, 60, Thursday and Friday. San Francisco area: rainy, 54, Thursday; rainy, 52, Friday. Sacramento: rainy, 53, Thursday; rainy, 55, Friday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Joan Duryee:

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When I was 6 in 1960, my father got a job in L.A. We moved from Chicago and lived in an apartment in Westchester for about six months. Then my parents bought a new model home in the city of La Puente (now Valinda) in the San Gabriel Valley. My dad negotiated flex hours due to too much traffic. He was supposed to work 8 to 5 but got it changed to 9 to 6. He was home every night at 6:30. I attended the local Catholic school, where my classroom overlooked sheep grazing and we had 42 students in every class. You had better do what the nuns told you or it was double trouble at home. It was a young community where many bonds were made. I am still close friends with a gal I met in third grade. I rode my bike all around Valinda after homework every day with no worries. My dad purchased a boat in Santa Barbara and then moved it to Dana Point, which was a brand-new harbor. His was the second boat there. I remember there not being much around there to do, as opposed to the established city of Santa Barbara, where my friend and I roamed the streets and beaches all day long with no supervision and of course, no cellphones.

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.Gina Haspel, President Trumps choice to take over the CIA, is a well-respected figure within the intelligence community, by most accounts. But she is inextricably tied to two very dark elements of the spy agencys past: She ran a secret, post-Sept. 11 overseas black site where detainees were subjected to torture, and she participated in the willful destruction of 90 videotapes of some of those interrogation sessions.

Her role in those shameful moments in American history must be central to the questioning she faces during the Senate confirmation process. She must not be confirmed unless she clearly and convincingly explains her actions and involvement, and unless she unequivocally repudiates future use of torture by CIA agents and their proxies.



For the record: This editorial states that Gina Haspel was present at a secret CIA site in Thailand when suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded there. Recent news reports have raised questions about whether Haspel was at the site at that time. There is no dispute, however, that she subsequently oversaw the facility or that another detainee was waterboarded while she was in charge.

Haspels involvement in the willful destruction of evidence of torture is as much an assault on the law as the torture itself was on its victims.

This would be vitally important under any circumstances  but it is especially so given the ignorant pronouncements of the man who selected her. During the campaign, Trump emphatically endorsed waterboarding and other inhumane practices. Torture works, he said at one point. OK, folks? You know, I have these guys  Torture doesnt work!  believe me, it works.

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But it doesnt, as psychologists and interrogators have come to recognize. Information gained under torture often is fabricated, for obvious reasons. And even if torture did elicit reliable information, that would hardly justify the use of inhumane and morally repugnant techniques that violate U.S. and international laws and treaties, including the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and spent a lot of time overseas for the agency, including stints in Central Europe, Turkey and Central Asia (much of it covert). In 2002, she was present at the CIAs secret site in Thailand when Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times and at one point seemed on the verge of death, with water bubbling up from his lungs. He was revived and tortured again, details of which are contained in the executive summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligences still-classified 2012 report on the CIA and its torture programs. (The entire report ought to be released so the American people can be fully aware of what was done in their name.)

After Haspel was promoted to oversee the black site, another detainee was waterboarded at least three times; American officials slapped his head, threatened to rape his mother and brought a gun and a power drill into the interview session.

Despite the immoral nature of the CIAs actions at the dark sites, the agency, and Haspel, were at least operating under a dubious stamp of approval: Government lawyers had told them they could. But Haspels later involvement in destroying videotapes documenting waterboarding at several interrogation sessions was without sanction. Haspel, as chief of staff to the head of the agencys counter-terrorism operations, wrote a memo that ordered the tapes destruction, even though she and her boss had been instructed to preserve the material as possible evidence in an ongoing investigation. Her boss, Jose Rodriguez, was later reprimanded by the agencys inspector general. Haspel was not; the Justice Department decided not to press criminal charges.

Haspels involvement in the willful destruction of evidence of torture is as much an assault on the law as the torture itself was on its victims. It is worrisome, to say the least, that the president wants to put in charge of the agency someone with a history of overseeing torture, and then of destroying evidence of what occurred. Is Haspel a different person now? Did she believe in what she was doing at the time, or was she just following orders in a post-9/11 moment of fear? Thats unknown, at least to the public. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking minority member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, intervened in 2013 to try to keep the CIA from appointing Haspel head of clandestine operations. But Feinstein recently has tempered her opposition and said she plans to meet privately with Haspel before deciding whether to oppose the nomination.

Heres a clear line: The Senate needs unequivocal assurances from Haspel that she knows torture is indefensible  and that even if Trump were to order the resumption of these odious and rightly illegal practices, she would refuse to comply. If senators cant get that commitment from Haspel, then the decision on whether to approve the appointment is an easy one: no.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookLast week, when the Trump administration sued California over its so-called sanctuary laws, Gov. Jerry Brown and Atty. Gen. Xavier Beccera made it clear that Sacramento would resist any effort to force the state to take on federal immigration enforcement responsibilities. Instead they would do all they could to protect families, communities and business from the disruptions caused by deportations.

From immigrant rights to climate policy to minimum wage to making it easier to vote, the state functions as the epicenter of progressive opposition to Washington. Indeed, California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon greeted (or perhaps, bemoaned) the election of Donald Trump with a next day statement declaring that the state would not be dragged into the past. We will lead the resistance to any effort that would shred our social fabric . . .

This radical embrace of inclusion stands in contrast to the Golden States less-than-generous past.

California foreshadowed the nations current anti-immigrant turmoil in 1994, with Proposition 187, a ballot measure intended to strip public services from anyone in the state illegally. Demographic anxiety and economic fear bubbled beneath the restrictionist measure: The decline in good-paying manufacturing jobs in the state between 1990 and 1994 was nearly the same as the decline in (now Trump-sympathetic) Michigan between 2007 and 2011.

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Even as the economy was sinking, one business model was on the rise: profiteering from political polarization. Local talk radio fanned the anti-immigrant (and anti-tax) flames in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Thousands of immigrant marchers protested 187, some carrying flags of Mexico, El Salvador and other Latin American countries. The middle ground crumbled.

California has been through the anxious, mean-spirited and divisive rhetoric and policy-making now gripping Washington.

California likely had to pass  and come to regret  Proposition 187 before the states reactionary paroxysm could end. The measures draconian policies, caught up in court battles, never went into effect. But the bruising debate it generated wore on, until social and economic realities began to make it clear that dividing the population by race and nativity was doing more to extend the states problems rather than solve them.

First, demographic change slowed and the shock of it waned. California had received roughly half of the nations immigrants through the 1970s and 1980s, but the share of state residents who are foreign-born has been more or less stable since 2000. As immigrants settled in, more Californians came to see them as neighbors rather than interlopers. Many immigrants naturalized, adding voters to the electorate who were sympathetic to the plight of newcomers. And the U.S.-born children of immigrants stuck to the state: About 60% of whites between the ages of 25 to 45 who were born in California still live in California, but that figure is 80% and 82% for Latinos and Asians in the same age group.

Second, California reformed old political rules. Term limits were viewed by conservatives as a way to reduce the power of incumbent Democrats, but forcing older politicians out of office also paved the way for the rise of firebrands like de Leon, who cut his political teeth organizing against Proposition 187. Meanwhile, a push for citizen- rather than party-led redistricting did what it was supposed to do: produce more winners who are in line with the majority in the state, two-thirds of whom now support protections for immigrants and disapprove of President Trumps performance in office.

The states civic engagement quotient also rose. New labor unions emerged to fight for worker benefits; minority groups advocated for shifts in policing; and environmental justice groups insisted that reducing air pollution in low-income communities was just as important as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As many of these groups went from protest to power, their votes helped make it easier to raise state taxes, to pass sentencing reforms (and shrink the prison population), and to steer education resources to students with the most need.

Finally, the states economic and business calculus shifted. The ways low- and high-skilled immigrant labor could help lift most boats was proved academically and in peoples lives. The loss of manufacturing hit Southern California hard, but Silicon Valleys rise began to fill the gaps. It also moved business dynamism northward, toward the historically more liberal Bay Area. The tech sector has proved suspicious of unions, but it is open to immigrants, to diversity (at least in theory), and even to government interventions to promote greener industries.

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The state remains challenged by big issues. These include a stinging housing crisis, embarrassing income inequality and continuing criminalization of black and Latino youth. But California has ranked in the top 10 for job growth in the last two years; more than half of the nations venture capital gets invested in California; and the state boasts the worlds sixth-largest economy.

California has been through the anxious, mean-spirited and divisive rhetoric and policy-making now gripping Washington. Were here to say that theres no need to repeat our mistakes. Building bridges rather than walls has paid off: California is a state of resistance, but its also a state of resilience, and the nation would do well to take notice.

Manuel Pastor, a sociology professor at USC, is author of the forthcoming State of Resistance: What Californias Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for Americas Future.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand FacebookTo the editor: If the students who walked out of the classes on Wednesday really want to make a difference regarding gun violence, they should spend their time encouraging their older siblings and neighbors  and their parents  to vote. And when the students reach 18, they should vote too. (L.A. students join nationwide walkouts and actions to remember Parkland victims, push gun control, March 14)

Young adults are less likely to cast their ballots than older voters. Public awareness campaigns regarding gun control are great, but every deadly shooting captures the publics attention.

The problem is that there are too many legislators who are beholden to the gun lobby. Electing different legislators is the only effective action.

Every soon-to-be American voter can play a role in our electoral process. As adults, we should be encouraging the students to participate in electing gun-sensible legislators.

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Andrew Caster, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Who speaks for the students who did not walk out  those who either felt they didnt know enough to protest, or those who knew enough to realize not walking out was the statement they wished to make?

Who speaks for them? Certainly not anyone swimming in the mainstream of the here and now.

Who speaks for those with traditional values? For the patriotic whose patriotism has been somehow diminished in the eyes of their peers? Who speaks for those who understand that the biggest fear of our Founding Fathers was a centralized government capable of crushing liberty?

Who speaks for the student who knows that the 2nd Amendment is our last line of defense against an abusive government?

Heres to those students who remained quietly in their classrooms while their peers walked out to tilt at windmills.

Steve Beck, Glendora

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The writer is a social science teacher.

..

To the editor: It is with great enthusiasm and support that I observe the emerging activism of our Generation Z. I wholeheartedly support those young peoples engagement and get on their feet participation.

I was a teenager in the 1960s and always felt there was much left to be done in this great social experiment. It is my fervent hope that this younger generation brings to fruition what its initial efforts portend.

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Thomas Saiza, Santa Monica

..

To the editor: Students walked out on Wednesday to remember their peers who died in school shootings and to push for common-sense gun control for all of us.

Common sense will tell you that the only way to stop mass shootings is to eliminate the weapons and accessories that are capable of firing mass quantities of bullets. No other solution, or combination of solutions, will achieve that goal.

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Wayne Widner, San Pedro

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookTo the editor: As Native Californians, we are saddened by the skirmish involving a rich man in Northern California who owns property next to Martins Beach. (With Supreme Court challenge, tech billionaire could dismantle beach access rights  and a landmark coastal law, March 6)

When we were little girls growing up in Corona, our father took us to Corona del Mar on weekends. Beyond the majesty of the waves, the beach experience encompassed families, cheerful voices, nubby towels, umbrellas and sand between our toes.

It is selfish to purchase property that is adjacent to a public area and then to attempt to restrict access. It can be comparable to buying a house next to the Hollywood Bowl and then filing a lawsuit to stop the noise.

In other states, portions of beaches can be private areas. However, California is different. The beach is available to all. It is a scandal that one billionaire wants to change the law allowing all Californians to use this bountiful, natural resource. There are no words that can properly express our anger over this.

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Rosemary W. Goodell, Baton Rouge, La., and Jennifer W. Merchant, Riverside

..

To the editor: Years ago, I took a trip along Californias coast with several friends visiting from France.

After seeing Hearst Castle, we pulled our car onto a bluff overlooking the ocean. There was nothing on the beach below us except sand. We had a clear view up and down the coast as far as we could see.

Our French friends were amazed, saying that there were only a few places in France where they would have been able to see the coastline as we were doing. There, much of the coast is privately owned, and the public does not have access to it.

I became acutely aware that day how privileged we in California are and how important it is to continue working to preserve this.

John Snyder, Newbury Park

..

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To the editor: Income inequality becomes more stark every day. Middle and low income earners struggle to find healthcare, become homeowners, attend college and retire securely.

Now, taking a walk to the beach is for the wealthy too. How immoral, how selfish does a billionaire need to be? How short-sighted?

Today were sad, but soon the anger will follow.

Christina Hosmer, Laguna Niguel

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Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookTo the editor: The March 12 article Garcetti still struggling to expand the number of female firefighters would have us believe that the reason that we have so few women as firefighters in the Los Angeles Fire Department is a need for more aggressive recruitment programs. That is not the reason at all.

The basic problem is that firefighters are required to have more upper body strength than most women have  or, for that matter, than most men have.

Firefighters going into a burning building have to wear heavy insulated clothing, carry a radio and carry a heavy air tank on their backs. On top of this, they are expected to have enough reserve strength to drag an unconscious person to safety.

Over the years, promising female candidates have been given extensive strength training programs to get them through the physical agility tests they must pass, and some of them successfully get through. But later on, many of them go out on disability because of back and other injuries.

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Larry Pearson, Burbank

..

To the editor: I have an answer for Fire Commission President Delia Ibarra, who said, We need to figure out if there is anything we can do with policies and practices that can improve our retention rate without sacrificing any of the quality.

What she did not say is that firefighters need brute strength to lift and carry equipment and victims in fires, and women are not as strong as men. It is that obvious and simple.

Elizabeth Norling, Long Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookGavin Newsom releases ad that highlights his push to allow same-sex couples to marry By Phil Willon A new ad from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom features Phyllis Lyon, who with her partner, Del Martin, received the first marriage license after Newsom vowed to allow same-sex couples to marry when he was mayor of San Francisco in 2004. The current lieutenant governors push for marriage equality thrust him into the national spotlight and he has emphasized that effort to portray himself as a bold, progressive leader. Facebook

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Failed California housing bill was not a bad idea, Gov. Jerry Brown says By Liam Dillon Gov. Jerry Brown (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Earlier this month, high-profile housing legislation that would have allowed for four- to five-story apartments and condominiums near transit stops failed to advance in the state Legislature. But had it reached his desk, would Gov. Jerry Brown have signed it? Maybe. I think that was not a bad idea, Brown said of Senate Bill 827 at a meeting with business leaders from the Bay Area Council on Monday afternoon. The bill, written by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), attracted national attention and a maelstrom of opposition in part because it would have eliminated single-family zoning near transit stops in favor of apartments or condominiums. Brown said that a relative of his who lives in West Portal, a low-density neighborhood in San Francisco, told the governor he was horrified by the bill. Brown also lamented dramatically rising housing costs. He said he bought his first house in Los Angeles in 1973 for $75,000 at a time when his salary as secretary of state was $35,000. Now, he said, buying a house for a little over twice ones annual salary is virtually impossible anywhere in the state. FOR THE RECORD

May 1, 9:32 a.m.: This post originally misstated the year Brown purchased his house as 1970. It was 1973. Facebook

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John Cox begins California barnstorm with the delivery of gas tax repeal signatures By Javier Panzar Gubernatorial candidate John Cox, left, and Assembly candidate Bill Essayli load boxes of signatures for the gas tax repeal initiative. (Francine Orr) GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox strolled up to the stack of 12 boxes in front of the Los Angeles County registrar-recorders offices in Norwalk on Monday and placed his hands on top of his partys hope for success in 2018. The boxes, stacked four across and three high, contained 211,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees. Cox says the effort has gathered more than 940,000 signatures from registered voters to put the measure on the ballot  far more than the 585,407 signatures that are required. The aim: to bring out the partys base to the polls this November and help candidates in tough congressional and legislative races down the ticket. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in November found 54.2% of registered voters surveyed said they would repeal the tax and fee hike, but a survey a month earlier by another group said a majority would vote to keep the higher taxes. Cox was flanked by Bill Essayli, a former federal prosecutor who is challenging Democratic Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside in the June primary. Cervantes voted for the gas tax and Essayli plans to use that vote against her. He even launched his campaign at a 76 gas station in Norco. This is a central issue in my campaign, he said. Cox also submitted signatures in San Diego on Monday and is headed to Bakersfield, Fresno and Sacramento, as well as Shasta and Butte counties in coming days. We are going all across the state, Cox said. The whole state is paying this tax and the whole state wants it gone. Facebook

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All Californians would be able to serve on state boards  even people in the U.S. illegally  under new bill By Jazmine Ulloa Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) State lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation that would allow all Californians to serve on state boards and commissions regardless of immigration status. Senate Bill 174, by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), comes as the state is locked in a broader legal battle with the Trump administration over state immigration laws and his call for mass deportations. Lawmakers point to what they say is the states own discriminatory history as their basis for introducing the legislation. The proposal would amend an 1872 provision that was first adopted to exclude Chinese immigrants and other transient aliens from holding appointed civil positions. At the time, antipathy toward the Chinese had been building in California, though, Chinese immigrants opened hundreds of businesses across the state and would play a critical role in building the transcontinental railroad. The Senate bill would delete the phrase transient aliens from the government code and make clear that any person, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, can hold an appointed civil office if they are at least 18 years old and a resident of the state. That would allow any Californian to serve on hundreds of boards and commissions that advice in an array of policy areas, including farm labor, history and employment development. Californias two million undocumented immigrants are a source of energy for our state, Lara said in a statement. It is shocking to read the words of fear and exclusion that are still in California law but belong in historys trash can. Facebook

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Tony Mendozas fundraising dries up after resignation amid harassment inquiry By Patrick McGreevy Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). (Steve Yeater / Associated Press) Political contributions to Tony Mendoza, who resigned from the state Senate under pressure amid sexual harassment allegations, have nearly dried up. New documents he filed with the state in his bid to reclaim the seat he once held show that his support has eroded. As a result, five other candidates for the 32nd District senate seat in the June 5 election have raised more than Mendoza so far this year. With the June 5 election approaching, Mendoza has reported raising just $7,750 in cash from six supporters during the nearly four-month period from Jan. 1 to April 21. Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia, went on a leave of absence from the Senate Jan. 3 and resigned a month later under the threat of expulsion from colleagues. An investigation ordered by the Senate found a pattern of unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior based on testimony from six women. Mendoza has denied wrongdoing. Last year, Mendozas reelection campaign raised $412,600, or an average of about $34,000 per month, from more than 350 supporters. Most of Mendozas 2018 total was contributed by the political arm of the Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16 on Jan. 22, a month before Mendoza resigned. Mendoza also reported that his campaign loaned $125,000 this year to his legal defense fund. That left him with $446,600 in his campaign account at the end of April. Mendoza is running against eight Democrats and two Republicans. Democrat Bob J. Archuleta, a Pico Rivera city councilman, raised the most, $210,000, during the period. On Monday, Mendoza suffered another setback when the State Legislative Womens Caucus endorsed Democrat Vicky Santana, a member of the Rio Hondo College Board. Facebook

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Newsom and Villaraigosa affairs coming to TV ads in California By Phil Willon An independent political committee backing Republican John Cox for governor released an ad blasting both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for their past sexual affairs. The California Deserves Better ad, which was first reported by Politico, criticizes Newsom for having an affair with a woman on his staff in 2005 while he served as mayor of San Francisco. It also goes after Villaraigosa for having an extramarital affair with a television reporter in 2007 while he was mayor of Los Angeles. The ad, which begins airing on Fox stations in the states top media markets Monday, links Newsom and Villaraigosa to the men accused of sexual impropriety in the #MeToo movement, including movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and disgraced Today show veteran Matt Lauer. Powerful men are finally being held to account, punished for inappropriate sexual conduct with women over whom they exercise power, the ad begins. Newsom and Villaraigosa think the rules shouldnt apply to them. The independent campaign committee, called Restore Our Values, already has raised more than $100,000, said Leigh Teece of Emeryville in Northern California, co-founder of the group. Teece, the CEO of a nonprofit that helps line up students with professional mentors, said the campaign will actively support Cox. She called him a true conservative and noted that he supports cutting taxes and opposes Californias sanctuary state policy. John is a business person who has demonstrated integrity, Teece said. Facebook

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Was that Cisneros in the voicemail? Dispute is latest espisode of Democratic infighting in crowded primary races By Christine Mai-Duc Gil Cisneros speaks during a forum at Fullerton College in January. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) With less than five weeks to go before Californias primary, insults and accusations are flying with abandon in the most crowded races Democrats hope to ultimately win. The latest example of this is in the 39th Congressional District, where a half dozen Democrats are vying for a chance to replace Rep. Ed Royce, whos retiring. Its one of several California contests where Democratic leaders are already worried that divisions could ultimately split votes and shut Democrats out of key pickup opportunities. In that race, millionaires Gil Cisneros and Andy Thorburn are going negative  about going negative. Cisneros was recently elevated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees Red to Blue program in hopes it would serve as a signal to Democratic activists and donors that his campaign was the most viable. But both Cisneros and Thorburn have poured millions into the race, which promises to be a knock down, drag out fight through June 5. At the center of the latest controversy is a voicemail, allegedly left by Cisneros on Thorburns home answering machine earlier this month. The recording, which the Thorburn campaign turned over to media outlet The Intercept, lasts less than 10 seconds. Hi Andy, its Gil Cisneros. Im gonna go negative on you, a mans voice is heard saying. Cisneros campaign manager Orrin Evans denied the candidate made the call, posting a cease and desist letter to The Intercept on Twitter. The letter, sent by a Cisneros campaign attorney, called the voicemail fabricated and demanded that the story be taken down, calling it defamatory. It gave the publication until 3 p.m. Friday to take down the story before they pursue all legal rights and remedies. An attorney for The Intercept, in a letter to Cisneros, said the publication confirmed with multiple sources familiar with Mr. Cisneros that his voice was on the recording, and that it stands by its reporting. Thorburns camp says it flatly rejects Cisneros denial, and that the timing of a negative website filled with unflattering background on Thorburn, released three days later, suggests it was him. Track the California races that could flip the House According to The Intercepts report, Cisneros campaign manager did not respond to initial inquiries about the voicemail, calling its questions ridiculous. In a follow-up statement Friday, Evans said called the episode a dirty, desperate trick by the Thorburn campaign and said they are readying to pursue legal action for defamation and false light against both him and the publication. It sounded like him to me! said Thorburns wife, Karen, in a statement released by the campaign. She was the one who first heard the voicemail, they said. Thorburn campaign manager Nancy Leeds called Cisneros threats Trump-like tactics and accused the candidate of trying to harass and intimidate anyone who stands in his way. Its not the first time candidates from the same party have clashed in the lead-up to the June 5 primary, and its all but certain to not be the last. Cisneros sued two of his opponents, Thorburn and Sam Jammal, over their ballot descriptions until they had to change them. Earlier this month, Democrat Bryan Caforio asked his opponent, Katie Hill, to sign a pledge rejecting the use of independent expenditure committees, entities that neither of them can legally coordinate with, in the race to unseat Rep. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster). Hill refused and called the attempt hollow and likened it to political theater, while Caforio accused her of empty campaign promises. Facebook

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California Politics Podcast: The money raised in the race for governor hints at a race thats now red hot By John Myers With less than six weeks before election day, the cash raised in the California governors race mirrors the overall dynamics: one major front-runner and a heated race for second place. This weeks podcast episode offers a glimpse into those cash reports and how the Republican field seems more settled in a new statewide poll than the battle between Democrats. We also examine the reasons why a nationally talked-about housing bill in Sacramento was killed by the Democratic authors own allies. Im joined by Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Liam Dillon. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher. Facebook

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L.A. County politician sexually assaulted woman when she was 16, lawsuit claims By Dakota Smith A woman sued an unnamed politician in Los Angeles County on Friday, alleging the man sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager after he gave her an unusual-tasting drink. The politician, identified as John Doe, was in his early 40s and a public figure at the time of the 2007 assault, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The man is an elected official today and lives in Los Angeles, said attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing the woman identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe. Bloom declined to say what branch of government the man represents. Read More Facebook

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Villaraigosa touts his working-class upbringing, accomplishments as mayor in first TV ad By Phil Willon Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa released his first TV ad in the governors race Friday, touting his record and accomplishments as mayor of Los Angeles when up against the economic downturn during the recession. The 30-second television spot opens with a sweeping shot of Los Angeles and cuts to Villaraigosa sitting on a bus. In kindergarten, my sister and I took three buses to get to school. As mayor, I remembered that, Villaraigosa says into the camera. And despite the recession, we built more new schools and rail lines than any city in America, added 200,000 living wage jobs, built 20,000 units of affordable housing and nearly doubled graduation rates. Campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino said the ad will air statewide over the next week at a cost of approximately $1 million. The commercial will being airing Saturday. Two Democratic rivals in Californias race for governor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang, also launched ads this week, signaling the biggest ramp-up of the campaign as the June 5 primary approaches. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican John Cox. One recent poll has Villaraigosa trailing both Cox and Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach. Chiang has been stuck in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. Last week, an independent expenditure group called Families and Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor, funded largely by a trio of wealthy charter school backers, launched a spot in support of the former mayor of Los Angeles. That ad campaign is focused on increasing Villaraigosas chances of coming in second in the June 5 primary and moving on to the general election. Villaraigosas ad, titled Three Buses, emphasizes the struggles he faced growing up in East Los Angeles and addresses one of his central campaign themes  that hes the candidate best suited to help working-class Californians. I know how far a bus can take you, Villaraigosa says in the ad. Facebook

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein wont participate in pre-primary debate By Sarah D. Wire (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call) California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will not participate in a proposed pre-primary debate because there are too many candidates in the race, her campaign spokesman said Thursday. Political activists with the group Indivisible Los Angeles said they had a venue and date  May 5  reserved for a debate with four of the Senate candidates. But they said if Feinstein does not participate, it will be canceled. Feinstein faces 31 primary opponents in her bid for a fifth full term representing California in the Senate. Feinstein staffers initially said she had a prior commitment on May 5 in San Francisco. When organizers offered to let her campaign pick another date, her campaign said it wasnt fair for the group to invite only some of the candidates when there is such a big field, said Tudor Popescu, volunteer community organizer with Indivisible Los Angeles. The invited candidates, all Democrats, were Feinstein, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, political action committee director Alison Hartson and lawyer Pat Harris. They were selected based on fundraising and poll numbers. There are 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats, nine independents and 2 third-party candidates running for Senate on the June ballot. Indivisible Los Angeles is still hoping Feinstein will pick another date, Popescu said. Feinstein spokesman Jeff Millman pointed to a San Francisco Chronicle endorsement of Feinstein, which indicates that she told the editorial board she would be willing to have a debate ahead of Novembers general election. Senator Feinstein looks forward to debating her opponent in the general election, Millman said in an email. Feinstein holds a substantial lead in both fundraising and in the polls. Front-runners in statewide races have routinely declined to debate their challengers, knowing that its free publicity for candidates who dont have the cash to increase their name recognition on their own. De Leon spokesman Jonathan Underland said the state senator has done candidate forums before, but planned to attend the May 5 debate only if Feinstein did. We basically said well clear his calendar 100%, well clear his calendar if Feinstein shows up, Underland said. Wed love to make it happen, but we want her to be there. Facebook

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NRA, Olympic shooter sue California over its restrictions on ammunition sales By Patrick McGreevy Olympian Kim Rhode is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the NRA and its state affiliate against California. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) The National Rifle Assn. and its state affiliate have filed a fourth lawsuit against California over its gun control laws, this time challenging new restrictions on the sale and transfer of ammunition. The NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. filed a challenge in federal court to a requirement that ammunition sales and transfers be conducted face to face with California firearms dealers or licensed vendors, ending purchases made directly from out-of-state sellers on the internet. The lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California also challenged a requirement starting next year for background checks for people buying ammunition. The lawsuit was filed in the name of Kim Rhode, a six-time Olympic medal-winning shooter, and others. It challenges Californias new ammunition sales restrictions as a violation of the 2nd Amendment and the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. Restrictions on ammunition purchases were included in Proposition 63, approved by voters in 2016, and in bills approved by the Legislature. As a result of these laws, millions of constitutionally protected ammunition transfers are banned in California, Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. Californias law-abiding gun owners are sick of being treated like criminals and the NRA is proud to assist in this fight. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, defended his initiative and vowed to fight the NRA lawsuit. We wrote Proposition 63 on solid legal ground and principle: If youre a felon banned from possessing guns in California, then you should not be able to purchase the ammunition that makes a firearm deadly, Newsom said in a statement. California voters said loudly and clearly that guns and ammunition do not belong in the hands of dangerous individuals  but once again, the NRA has prioritized gun industry profits over the lives of law-abiding Californians. Facebook

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Republicans hope to ride a gas-tax repeal to victory By Patrick McGreevy In a Central Valley barn decked out in red, white and blue, dairyman and state Senate candidate Johnny Tacherra drew cheers from a crowd of fellow farmers when he said he opposes the California Legislatures hike on gas taxes and vehicle fees. I would not have voted for that. It is not the time to be voting on (raising) the gas tax, said Tacherra, a Republican running against Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, who voted for the tax increase last year. Three hundred miles away the same week, a campaign mailer arrived at homes in Orange County from an Assembly candidate with a message blaring from the cover in bold type: Republican Greg Haskin  tough enough to stand up to Jerry Brown and repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Treasurer John Chiang launches ad in governors race touting his record as a fiscal steward By Seema Mehta In his first television ad in the governors race, state Treasurer John Chiang touts his record on fiscal issues as California faced the recession. Some thought we were done, Chiang says in a voiceover in the 30-second spot he released Thursday, with images of him standing seriously at a lectern and complimentary headlines about his work as controller and treasurer. But I knew better. I made the tough calls. And brought California back from the brink of financial disaster because you trusted me to manage our economy. Chiangs campaign is spending about $500,000 to air the ad in Los Angeles and San Diego in coming days. That buy is dwarfed by seven-figure purchases for ads supporting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican businessman John Cox. Chiang has been mired in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. His ad, called Quiet Storm, tries to portray Chiang as a progressive who is effective and can move policy in Sacramento. Chiang points to his work challenging Wells Fargo before arguing that he could accomplish what doubters say is impossible to improve the states healthcare, housing and schools. I say, we got this, Chiang concludes. Facebook

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Been ignoring the race for California governor? Thats OK, in some ways its just starting By Mark Z. Barabak On a recent trip to Iowa, Eric Garcetti  the mayor of Los Angeles and a possible 2020 White House contestant  raised eyebrows with a bit of exuberant outreach. Los Angeles and Iowa, Garcetti insisted, have a ton in common, and he didnt simply mean both are inhabited by carbon-based life forms needing oxygen to survive. Urban or rural, farmer or fashion plate, all of us harbor the same hopes and dreams, the mayor suggested, and if it wasnt a terribly original thought it also wasnt the most egregious sort of political pandering  like, say, ordering that every home in Los Angeles be powered by Iowa-produced ethanol. Read More Facebook

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California voters should expect to decide on an $8.9-billion water bond in November By Liam Dillon (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A proposal to borrow $8.9 billion for improvements to Californias water quality systems and watersheds and protection of natural habitats is eligible for the statewide ballot in November, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced in a press release Wednesday. Padilla said the measure, which is backed by agricultural interests, had exceeded the 365,800 valid signatures it needed to qualify for the general election ballot. The bond measure will appear on the ballot unless proponents withdraw it by June 28, the release said. The bond is one of many voters could decide on in 2018. A $4-billion bond for parks and water infrastructure improvements will appear on the June 5 ballot. State lawmakers approved it last year. Facebook

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They came for Darrell Issa. They stayed with their inflatable chicken, blue wall and signs for political therapy By Christine Mai-Duc (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) A mother of two turned ringleader of the resistance and more than a hundred of her faithful followers gathered on Tuesday morning outside Rep. Darrell Issas office in a northern San Diego County suburb. Across the street was her foil, a wedding DJ in a red Make American Great Again cap, setting up hefty speakers for an upcoming war of words. For about 65 weeks the deep divide in America played out along this 100-yard stretch of road in Vista. Here, at 10 a.m. every Tuesday, passersby found signs, chants, songs and, if they were lucky, sometimes a 20-foot-tall inflatable chicken with a Trump-esque coif. Theyd also glimpse the state of the body politic in 2018, a time when shock has turned to anger and post-2016 calls for reconciliation have morphed into grudging acceptance that each side might be better off in their respective corners. Or in this case, their sides of the street. On Tuesday, the anti-Issa, anti-Trump contingent fought this particular battle for the last time, declaring it their final protest at the congressmans office. They said they planned to use their energy to knock on doors and get out the vote, with an occasional protest on the side. Their pro-Trump rivals vowed to show up wherever they do. Read More Facebook

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Efforts to regulate bail companies have some unlikely allies: bail agents By Jazmine Ulloa Jane Un, chief executive and founder of Abba Bail Bonds, works with a client. ( Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) In recent years, the seriousness and number of official complaints related to the bail industry in California have significantly increased while bail agents and bounty hunters face limited oversight, putting vulnerable communities at risk of fraud, embezzlement and other forms of victimization. This year, as Gov. Jerry Brown has pledged to work with lawmakers in a push to overhaul how courts assign defendants bail and to better regulate bail agencies, even some who profit from the court practice admit its time for regulation. These bail and bail-recovery agents could become unlikely allies, saying they advocate for change because theyve seen the system abuse the poor. Read More Facebook

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California voters: Get ready for an onslaught of television ads By Seema Mehta After a sleepy campaign, California voters are now being bombarded with television advertisements in the governors race, an onslaught that is expected to ramp up in coming weeks. The ads most frequently seen on television are those promoting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the race, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is trying to secure the second spot in the June primary. Newsoms campaign and an outside group backing Villaraigosa are spending seven figures weekly on these efforts, according to filings with the California secretary of states office and a media buyer who asked not to be identified in order to freely discuss the ads. Other gubernatorial candidates are expected to hit the airwaves soon, the media buyer said. State Treasurer John Chiang has reserved a half-million dollars in the coming days in the Los Angeles and San Diego markets, and Villaraigosas campaign has requested availability in at least five of the states biggest TV markets. The GOP candidates in the race, who will be seeking the state Republican Partys endorsement at its convention next weekend, have been much less active. Businessman John Cox in recent weeks has been spending about $90,000 per week, but doubled that this week in Los Angeles and added small buys on KFI-AM radio and cable in markets including Fresno, Bakersfield and Salinas. State Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach, who has been scooping up Republican Party endorsements across the state, has yet to make a notable television or radio buy, though he and Cox have received some attention as commentators on Fox News. Facebook

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Republicans ready to turn in signatures for ballot measure to repeal California gas-tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A Chevron gas station in Sacramento shows prices last year. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Republican activists said Tuesday that they have collected at least 830,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees, more than enough to qualify the measure for the November ballot. The activists need 585,407 signatures of registered voters to qualify the ballot measure. Because signatures are still being processed and counted by the campaign, backers hope to have 900,000 by the time they begin turning them in to the counties on Friday, according to Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member and organizer of the drive. The breadth and depth of voter anger over the car and gas tax hikes is just amazing, said DeMaio, who hosts a radio talk show. We are seeing Democrats, independents and Republicans sign the petition and volunteering to carry the petition, people from all walks of life. The initiative targets a law approved in April 2017 by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown that is expected to raise $5.4 billion annually for road and bridge repairs and improvements to mass transit. The money comes from a recent 12-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax, a 20-cent increase in the diesel fuel excise tax and a new annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 for cars valued at under $5,000, to $175 for cars worth $60,000 or more. The petition drive raised more than $2 million with significant contributions from the California Republican Party and Republican members of Congress from California, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Reps. Ken Calvert of Corona and Mimi Walters of Irvine. Republicans hope the issue will help their candidates for office in this years election and hurt Democrats who support the higher taxes. I think this is going to put Democrats in real bad spot, DeMaio said. A spokesman for Brown declined to comment until the signatures are filed. DeMaio said there were approximately 20,000 volunteer petition circulators who brought in more than 250,000 signatures, with the rest collected by paid circulators who received $1 to $2.50 per signature. Its a pretty comfortable margin [of signatures] that we have been able to hit here, DeMaio said. Opposition will grow, he said, as more Californians get their annual vehicle registration notice. The repeal campaign hopes to raise $5 million for the campaign to pass the constitutional amendment, which would not only repeal the increase in the gas tax and vehicle fees but require future increases to be submitted to voters. We know that Gov. Brown and his cohorts are going to spend an amazing amount of money to mislead voters, DeMaio said. But I feel pretty confident that we will repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Rep. Duncan Hunter sets up trust to raise money for legal expenses amid ongoing criminal investigation By Morgan Cook Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, has filed paperwork to establish a legal expense fund amid an ongoing federal criminal investigation into misused campaign cash. Hunter filed the required paperwork March 27, seeking a rarely granted Legal Expense Fund through which members of Congress under investigation or being sued in connection with doing their jobs or running for office can raise money for their legal expenses. Such funds are administered by an independent trustee and allow donors to give above the maximum amount they can contribute a candidates campaign. Hunter has spent more than $600,000 of campaign money on lawyers. Read More Facebook

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Kamala Harris says she wont take corporate donations anymore By Sarah D. Wire (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press) California Sen. Kamala Harris says she will no longer accept money from corporate political action committees. In an interview with WWPM-FMs The Breakfast Club, in New York that aired Monday, the senator said she wasnt expecting a question at a town hall this month about whether she would accept money for corporations or corporate lobbyists. At the time, Harris said it depends, but she said on Monday that she had reflected on the matter and changed her mind. Money has had such an outside influence on politics, and especially with the Supreme Court determining Citizens United, which basically means that big corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing a campaign, right? Harris said. Were all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation. So Ive actually made a decision since I had that conversation that Im not going to accept corporate PAC checks. I just  Im not. You can watch the video of the interview here. (Harris corporate money comments come about 30 minutes in.) Harris wouldnt be on the ballot for a second Senate term until 2022, though its widely believed that she is planning a presidential bid in 2020. Other potential 2020 presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have also ruled out taking corporate PAC money. Soon after Mondays show aired, Harris campaign sent out a fundraising request noting her new stance. As corporate PACs continue to corrupt our politics and twist Congress priorities at your expense, were going to focus on raising money from small-dollar, individual donors like you, the email says. Facebook

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With money tied up in court, California lawmakers try again with new plan to spend $2 billion on homeless housing By Liam Dillon A man sleeps on the sidewalk in front of the Union Rescue Mission in the skid row neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) A measure to spend $2 billion on housing homeless Californians could be on the November statewide ballot. State Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) is pushing the idea to deal with what he said was a burgeoning humanitarian crisis whose epicenter is here in California. De Leons new measure is a do-over for a 2016 plan passed by the Legislature to redirect $2 billion toward building homeless housing from a voter-approved 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires that funds mental health services. A Sacramento attorney sued over that decision, arguing that the move violated constitutional rules on approving loans without a public vote and that lawmakers shouldnt take money away from mental health treatment. The case remains active in Sacramento Superior Court and its unclear when, or if, the state will be able to spend the $2 billion. De Leons Senate Bill 1206 would put the $2-billion loan on the ballot in November, freeing up the money if voters approve the measure. De Leon said had he been able to predict the 2016 plan would end up in court, he would have sought a ballot measure at the time. We thought this was like apple pie and baseball and puppies, De Leon said. Who would oppose the idea of repurposing the dollars to build immediate housing as a permanent solution for homelessness? Obviously with a crystal ball, had I anticipated the litigation, I would have worked to place it on the ballot. De Leon noted that the 2016 plan had bipartisan supermajority support in the Legislature, something his new bill also will need to get on the ballot. Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) is a coauthor of the plan. SB 1206 is scheduled for its first hearing in the Legislature on Wednesday. Should De Leons measure be approved, it will join a crowded list of housing issues before voters in November. Californians will decide on a separate $4-billion bond to help finance new low-income housing and home loans for veterans. De Leon said hes not worried those two measures will compete against each other because voters are aware of the scale of the states housing problems and the proposed homeless housing bond redirects existing dollars instead of raising taxes. Once [voters] know that the impact on their pocketbook is not existent, Im confident that theyll join me and my colleague John Moorlach in support of this measure, De Leon said. Facebook

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California lawmakers say too many former felons are being denied professional licenses By John Myers Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) along with supporters of bills to allow more former felons to receive professional licenses. (John Myers/Los Angeles Times) A trio of California Assembly members urged colleagues on Monday to pass legislation that would prohibit state commissions and agencies from rejecting a professional license for those who were once convicted of less serious crimes. We cant say we want to rehabilitate people, and then block them from getting the jobs that they need when theyre released, said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). That leads to more recidivism and to more crime. The bills, scheduled to be heard in Assembly committees Tuesday, would ban the use of arrest or conviction records as the reason for denying a professional license. The bill would not apply to Californians who served time for any of the offenses on the states list of violent crimes. The authors, all Democrats, said that a government-issued professional license is required for some 30% of all jobs in the state. Their bills would change the licensing process at the California departments of Consumer Affairs and Social Services and agencies that certify emergency medical technicians. The bills would block prior convictions from leading to the delay or denial of a license unless that crime is directly related to the profession the person intends to pursue. Two of the bills also specifically say convictions less than 5 years old could continue to play a role in licensing decisions. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that keeps private sector employers from inquiring about a job applicants conviction history prior to an offer of employment. Advocates joined the lawmakers at a press conference in Sacramento to point out that limits on awarding licenses should focus only on those whose prior criminal activity could pose a threat to consumers. Continuing to hold people back for crimes that are 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 years old does not actually make sense if youre looking at public safety, said Jael Myrick of the East Bay Community Law Center. One of the proposals, Assembly Bill 2293, seeks to make it easier for ex-felons to get a license allowing a job with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection  the same agency that often uses prison inmates to battle blazes around the state. If a person is good enough to risk their life fighting fires for the state of California as an inmate, said Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Grand Terrace), their previous actions should not prevent from having a job utilizing the skill set that they learned. Facebook

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Assembly speaker rebukes building trades union after it targets Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia By John Myers ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) The decision by a politically powerful labor group to openly campaign against an embattled Los Angeles-area lawmaker drew a sharp rebuke on Friday from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. The Lakewood Democrat lashed out hours after the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California filed paperwork for a political action committee to defeat Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens). Garcia, whos seeking her fourth term, took an unpaid leave of absence in February following allegations of sexual misconduct. She has denied the reports and an Assembly investigation remains underway. Rendon didnt criticize the labor group by name, insisting instead that the decision was driven by oil and gas industry interests. This is a thinly veiled attempt by Big Oil and polluters to intimidate me and my members. It is an affront to my speakership, Rendon said in a statement. We are proud of the work that the Assembly has done to increase jobs and wages while defending our environment. We will vigorously defend the members of our caucus from any ill-advised political attack. A statement from the labor group, which sparred with Garcia last year on her effort to link new climate change policies with a crackdown on air pollution, said it had decided to reverse past support for her. The Trades have thousands of hard working members in Garcias district, and we look forward to lifting up another Democrat in the 58th Assembly to better represent them and their families, said the statement. The political action committees campaign finance filing on Friday listed nonmonetary in kind contributions from Erin Lehane, a public affairs consultant aligned with the building labor group. Lehane said she had begun researching Garcia in November. In January, a former legislative staffer accused her of groping him in 2014. Lehane, who identified herself as a spokesperson for the labor groups political action committee, said on Friday that she believed Garcias hypocrisy threatened a movement that will dictate how much harassment and abuse my daughter will face in her work life. Garcia, who has been an outspoken advocate for women in the #MeToo movement, has complained that her political opponents helped fan the flames of the accusations. Through a campaign consultant, she declined to comment on Friday. Rendons critique came on the heels of a full-page ad in The Times on Friday, partly paid for by the Trades Council, that criticized well-funded ivory tower elites who push proposals that hurt the oil and gas industry. We are the real jobs that fuel the real California economy, read the advertisement. Facebook

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Legal tiff breaks out over independent committees ad backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor By Phil Willon An attorney representing Gavin Newsoms campaign for governor is demanding that California television stations cease airing an ad by an independent political committee supporting his Democratic rival Antonio Villaraigosa. Attorney Thomas A. Willis, in a letter to the stations, said the ad is false and misleading and violates California law because it uses snippets of video footage from Villaraigosas own campaign ads. Willis called that illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC. Under California law, advertisements made by entities other than a candidate are presumed to be coordinated  and thus not independent expenditures  when the advertisement replicates, reproduces or disseminates substantial parts of a communication, including video footage, created and paid for by the candidate, the letter states. A representative for the independent expenditure committee  Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor  fired back. Attorney Brian T. Hildreth says those allegations have no merit and accused the Newsom campaign of being misleading. Hildreth sent a letter to the television stations in response, urging them to ignore the Newsom campaigns accusations. He said the Newsom camp appears to intentionally misrepresent the law and that the video use was permissible. He said only six seconds of video from Villaraigosas campaign ads was used, which is well within the legal limits. The independent committee is sponsored by the group California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The ad is airing on broadcast and cable stations statewide. The committees ad is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and as mayor of Los Angeles when there was a drop in crime. Facebook

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Governors race snapshot: Californians are generally upbeat but not focused on the campaign By Mark Z. Barabak Armand Werden, a 29-year-old community college student who works the taps at Dust Bowl Brewery in Turlock, said the state is on the upswing. (Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times) As California chooses a new governor  one of just a handful in the last 40 years not named Jerry Brown  the state seems to be enjoying something unusual in these tumultuous political times: a feeling of relative contentment. Not to say things are perfect. Still, more than 100 random interviews conducted over the length and breadth of the state  from Redding in the north to Santee in the south, from the Pacific coastline to the edge of the Sierra Nevada  found most saying things are looking up, at least so far as Californias direction is concerned. Read More Facebook

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Sierra Club backs Gavin Newsom for California governor By Phil Willon Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with members of the public following a debate at USC in January. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The Sierra Club endorsed Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in the race for California governor, with officials in the established environmental group praising the Democrats record on climate change and clean energy. He has a proven record for leading on environmental protection, public health and clean energy, Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, said in a statement released by the Newsom campaign. He understands that we are feeling the effects of climate change and that California must reduce carbon emissions and reach 100% renewable energy to achieve our climate goals. Phillips said the Sierra Clubs extensive network of volunteers will campaign for Newsom as the June 5 primary approaches. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also praised the Democrat, saying he will protect California from Donald Trumps attacks on our clean air and water. The Sierra Club joins a series of other influential groups in California that have backed Newsom. The California Medical Assn., the powerful state doctors lobby, announced its endorsement of Newsom on Thursday. The California Nurses Assn. and the Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful labor unions in the state, also support Newsom. Newsom is the races front-runner in polls and fundraising. A poll released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 26% of likely voters backed Newsom. John Cox, a Republican from Rancho Santa Fe, was favored by 15% of likely voters and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, by 13%. Facebook

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Californias GOP House members are taking their challengers more seriously and the numbers show it By Christine Mai-Duc For much of last year, consultants and campaign managers for some of Californias most vulnerable Republican incumbents maintained a bullish tone on the prospect that the GOP would hold the House in this years midterms. The National Republican Congressional Committee insisted that longtime Republican incumbents in California had built up reputations as effective champions of local issues that would help them weather a flood of Democratic enthusiasm. Since then Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) have decided not to seek reelection and the NRCC has opened a West Coast headquarters in Orange County. Read More Facebook

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California officials say Pentagon has confirmed National Guard funding despite Trump threat By John Myers (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) The awkward dance between Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government over the National Guard jerked back toward discord on Thursday, when Trump said he would refuse to pay for a new deployment of troops  just hours after his administration said otherwise. And a few hours later, California officials said they had received written confirmation from the Pentagon that the mission would indeed be funded. Trump had earlier called Browns decision to approve 400 troops for a mission focused on combating transnational crime and drug smuggling a charade in a tweet. We need border security and action, not words! the president wrote. Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy up to 400 National Guard Troops to do nothing. The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Browns charade. We need border security and action, not words!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2018 A spokesman for Brown pointed to a tweet written Wednesday night by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, thanking the California governor for his efforts. Trump was meeting on Thursday with Nielsen at his Mar-a-Lago estate not long after his tweet was posted. A tweet later posted by the California National Guard said that almost three hours after Trumps comment, the state received written confirmation from the Pentagon to fund the mission as outlined by Brown the day before. In short, nothing has changed today, said a subsequent Guard tweet. Just spoke w @JerryBrownGov about deploying the @USNationalGuard in California. Final details are being worked out but we are looking forward to the support. Thank you Gov Brown!  Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 19, 2018 Brown was the last of the nations border governors to respond to Trumps insistence earlier this month that National Guard troops were needed to assist with immigration-related duties at the U.S.-Mexico border. And he has consistently refused to allow California troops to engage in any mission related to federal immigration law. This will not be a mission to build a new wall, Brown wrote last week to Nielsen and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. Exactly what the California operations will cost remains unclear, as state officials have said it will depend on decisions made once the mission begins. The funds would not be transferred to the state, but instead would be paid directly by the Department of Defense. Trump has critiqued California several times over the past few days, often writing tweets that embrace the actions by some cities and counties to join his administrations lawsuit against the states sanctuary immigration law. He made similar comments to reporters on Thursday afternoon. If you look at whats happening in California with sanctuary cities  people are really going the opposite way, Trump said. They dont want sanctuary cities. Theres a little bit of a revolution going on in California. 2:26 p.m.:This article was updated with additional information from the California National Guard and with remarks from Trump. This article was originally published at 9:51 a.m. Facebook

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Gay conversion therapy services would be banned under measure advancing in California By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The California Assembly voted Thursday to add gay conversion therapy to the states list of deceptive business practices, following a debate that focused on the personal experiences of several lawmakers and hinted at potential lawsuits to come. It is harmful and it is unnecessary, Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), the bills author and one of the Legislatures most vocal LGBTQ members, said of the practice. Low, who told Assembly members that he explored conversion therapy as a teenager and suffered depression over his sexual orientation, insisted that the bill would be limited to efforts that involve the exchange of money. Theres nothing wrong with me, he said in an emotional speech on the Assembly floor. Theres nothing that needs to be changed. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, has become the focal point of intense debate on social media. Some religious groups have said that such a law would be a violation of their constitutional rights, while advocates insist the provisions are narrow and theres no credible evidence that the services work. One key part of the debate centers on whether Assembly Bill 2943 would stretch beyond businesses that charge for these programs and extend to printed documents, even Bibles. An analysis by the Assembly Judiciary Committee says the bill would apply only to services that purport to change a persons sexual orientation and offered on a commercial basis, as well as the advertising and offering of such services. Lawmakers who spoke in support of AB 2943 also made clear that they believe those kinds of services have been discredited. This is fraudulent, it should not be occurring, said Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton). But you can still try to pray the gay away, if you like. Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), who said the bill addresses a difficult issue, nonetheless said that its important to ensure laws dont tamper with religious freedom. We have to think about the legitimate experience of people who have gone through conversion therapy and said this was a good thing for them, Gallagher told his colleagues. California law already bans the use of conversion therapy by mental health professionals on those under age 18. Lows bill would expand the states efforts beyond minors. It would join a list of commercial activities deemed unfair or deceptive acts or practices and therefore banned under state law. Facebook

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Gavin Newsom gets backing from doctors group, despite differences over single-payer healthcare By Melanie Mason Gavin Newsom speaks at the California Democrats State Convention in San Diego on Feb. 24. (Kent Nishimura) Californias doctors are siding with Gavin Newsom in the governors race, even though they dont see eye-to-eye on a defining issue of the campaign: single-payer healthcare. The California Medical Assn., the state doctors lobby and a political heavyweight, announced its endorsement of the lieutenant governor on Thursday. Gavin is a lifelong champion for health care in California, and we know he will continue to fight for pragmatic solutions to our most crucial health care challenges, including working to achieve universal access and tackling our states physician shortage, CMA President Theodore M. Mazer said in a statement. Newsom has made his support for state-financed healthcare a centerpiece of his campaign, and he earned the early backing of the most ardent single-payer supporters, the state nurses union. The doctors, meanwhile, oppose the nurses bill, SB 562, which emerged as a flashpoint in the healthcare debate last year. The CMA said the bill would dismantle the healthcare marketplace and destabilize Californias economy. Newsom has said SB 562 should advance in the Legislature, but also said it has open-ended issues that still need to be addressed. The doctors group is also battling with another prominent Newsom endorser, the Service Employees International Union, over a new measure that would impose price caps on an array of medical services paid for by commercial health insurers in the state. The SEIU is a leading sponsor of the proposal; the doctors fiercely oppose it. Newsom and the physicians group have a history of political alignment. Newsom was the first statewide official to support Proposition 56, a 2016 tobacco tax pushed by the CMA that raised revenue in part to increase money for doctors who saw Medi-Cal patients. That year, the association also endorsed two initiatives championed by Newsom: Proposition 63, which imposed new gun control measures, and Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. Facebook

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Independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor hits the airwaves with first ad By Phil Willon Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the 2018 California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego in February.. (Denis Poroy / Associated Press) A well-financed independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosas bid to be Californias next governor released its first television ad Thursday, praising his record for working with Republicans and as a candidate for all of California. The ad, which is to air statewide on broadcast and cable stations, is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and mayor of Los Angeles, including on education and a drop in crime while he was at City Hall. To move California forward, we need to help more Californians get ahead, the ad says. Thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools and new career training programs. The independent expenditure committee behind the ad campaign, Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018, is sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The committee is spending seven figures per week on the ad buy, said Josh Pulliam, a political consultant for the committee. As mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa clashed with teachers unions, starting with his failed attempt to take political control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. His fight with those unions continued after he left office in 2013. Money has poured into the committee this month from wealthy charter schools supporters: Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, donated $7 million, and Los Angeles billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad donated $1.5 million. On Wednesday, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan donated $1 million. The independent expenditure committee is expected to provide a boost to Villaraigosas campaign. Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has a major advantage in fundraising over all other candidates in the race and has received the backing of the California Teachers Assn. and other education unions. A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll also showed Villaraigosa lagging in third place in the race, trailing Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox. The candidates who finish in the top two in the June 5 primary will advance to the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation. Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown says Trump administration will fund his National Guard mission  without immigration duties By John Myers (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown formally mobilized 400 California National Guard members Wednesday for transnational crime-fighting duties, thus preventing any effort by President Trump to have the troops focus on immigration enforcement on the Mexican border. The governor announced that federal officials have agreed to fund the plan he announced last week  a mission to combat criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers in locations around California, including near the border. The order Brown signed makes clear that the troops will not be allowed to perform a broader set of duties as envisioned by Trumps recent comments. California National Guard service members shall not engage in any direct law enforcement role nor enforce immigration laws, arrest people for immigration law violations, guard people taken into custody for alleged immigration violations, or support immigration law enforcement activities, the order read. The cost of the mission, a spokesman for Brown said, will be paid directly by the federal government. No initial estimate has been made, as the exact amount will depend on exactly how the troops will be used. Though the duties of California Guard members were outlined last week, the state had been waiting for an agreement by federal officials to pay for the operations. Since that time, the president has taken Brown and the state to task over its decision to avoid any immigration-related duties at the border. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW! There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018 Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border, Trump tweeted Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to Browns announcement. On Tuesday, Brown told reporters in Washington that his plan was consistent with a safer border. That sounds to me like fighting crime, the governor said. Trying to catch some desperate mothers and children, or unaccompanied minors coming from Central America, that sounds like something else. The order Brown issued Wednesday after returning from a brief trip to talk climate change in Toronto and to speak to a national trade union and visit with reporters in Washington is set to expire at the end of September. It specifically says no Guard service member may participate in a mission that would exceed the mission scope and limitations related to transnational crime activity. It also says troops cannot help build any new border barrier. 5:27 p.m.: This article was updated with information related to the cost of the Guard mission and Browns trip to Washington. This article was originally published at 5:13 p.m. Facebook

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California bill aims to end practice that keeps workplace misconduct cases out of court By Melanie Mason A California bill would prohibit employers from requiring workers to use private arbitration to settle disputes, a practice that critics say shields improper workplace conduct from public view. The bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) would bar businesses from making employees, when they are hired, waive their future rights to take any harassment, discrimination or other claims to court. Arbitration can be a highly effective dispute resolution method when both parties can choose it freely, when both parties are equal, Gonzalez Fletcher said at a news conference on Wednesday. It is far less successful when the more powerful party forces the other to accept those terms, especially as a condition of employment. Forced arbitration has come under increasing scrutiny since the #MeToo movement, with high-profile figures such as former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson pointing to the practice as shielding workplace abusers from public disclosure because arbitration resolutions often include nondisclosure agreements. Last year, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress to end mandatory arbitration in employment agreements. Gonzalez Fletcher said she was pursuing an unusual tool to draw attention to the issue  a subpoena issued by the Legislature to compel testimony from a worker bound by a nondisclosure agreement as a result of arbitration. The Legislature has subpoena power but it is rarely used. The bills sponsors believe lawmakers last issued a subpoena in 2001 while investigating price manipulation by Enron. Gonzalez Fletcher said she has requested Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) to issue the subpoena to require Tara Zoumer, who sued the company WeWork in 2016 for overtime pay, to testify before the Assembly Judiciary Committee next week. Zoumers suit was moved to arbitration and resolved. She is now subject to a nondisclosure agreement and could face a financial penalty for speaking publicly about her case. A spokesman for Rendon said the subpoena request is under consideration. Business groups oppose the bill, AB 3080. The California Chamber of Commerce has dubbed it a job biller, claiming it would dramatically increase legal costs for businesses. Banning such agreements benefits the trial attorneys, not the employer or employee, the group said. The bill must first advance from the Assembly Labor Committee on Wednesday. Facebook

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At least 240 House lawmakers want a vote on immigration. California supporters say they arent ready to force one By Sarah D. Wire Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock), flanked by Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) and Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) speak about DACA legislation (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Rep. Jeff Denham says at least 240 of the 430 current House members have signed onto his resolution to hold votes on four immigration bills, and he hopes House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and President Trump are paying attention to the show of support. But, the Republican from Turlock and his allies said Wednesday that they are not yet willing to commit to forcing Ryans hand through a little-used procedural move called a discharge petition; they acknowledged theres no guarantee that all of 47 Republicans and 193 Democrats House co-signers will back them up if they try to force the issue. Im sure that it is something that will be discussed in the coming weeks. You should not need a discharge petition. When you can show the overwhelming majority of the House, the support of it, you should not need a discharge petition, but it is something we would talk about in the future, Denham said. It is far too early to talk about next steps. Ryan said last week that he opposes Denhams effort, saying its a waste of time for the House to vote on bills the president might veto. Denhams resolution would prompt debate and votes on four very different immigration bills: one favored by the Trump administration, one preferred by Democrats, one bipartisan proposal and another immigration bill of Ryans choice. Whichever got the most votes would move forward to the Senate. All four bills would help Dreamers to differing degrees and include varying levels of border security or immigration enforcement. For example, the Trump-backed bill would also dramatically reduce legal immigration, while the Democrats would only deal with legal status for Dreamers. Democrats say they dont expect the show of support will sway Ryan. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said Tuesday night she expects Ryan will have to be forced into allowing a vote. It doesnt matter how many signatures we get. We could have every signature, technically, except his, on the floor of the House and... if he doesnt want to, it doesnt happen, Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands), who gathered the Democratic co-sponsors for Denham, also wouldnt give a deadline for House leaders to act, but said the co-sponsors are only willing to wait weeks not months. We do want to give them an opportunity to bring up the rule and to use whatever process they want, Aguilar said. They do have options, but I think they need to understand that we have options too. Facebook

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Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer endorses Kevin de Leon in his insurgent bid against Sen. Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta Tom Steyer, left, and California state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). (Getty Images; Los Angeles Times) Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer is endorsing state Sen. Kevin de Leon in his insurgent challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and did not rule out funding an outside effort to boost De Leons chances. I think hes the kind of young progressive that reflects California and would be a very strong advocate for our state nationally, Steyer said in an interview on Tuesday, pointing to De Leons efforts on issues such as immigration, climate change and gun control while he was the state Senate leader. I know him well and hes a friend. We share a lot of values. Steyer, who flirted with running for the Senate seat, did not criticize Feinstein as he has in the past. Sen. Feinstein has been an outstanding public servant who has dedicated the bulk of her adult life to the service of our state and the country, he said. These are two strong, very good Democrats. I just believe Kevin is the true progressive and he reflects something we need representing California going forward. I have nothing bad to say about Dianne Feinstein. I have a lot of good to say about Kevin de Leon. De Leon faces enormous odds as he tries to oust Feinstein, who has served in the Senate for a quarter-century, is well known to the states voters and has daunting leads in polls and fundraising. But De Leon has gained notable endorsements, most recently from the 2.1-million-member California Labor Federation last week. Campaign finance reports released this week show that Feinstein has more than $10 million in the bank, while De Leon has just more than $670,000. Feinstein, a multimillionaire and one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, has already lent her campaign $5 million and could easily write another check. But Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager, could write a larger one. He is among the largest Democratic donors in the nation and has already committed more than $50 million to push for the impeachment of President Trump and to register young voters. He was noncommittal when asked if he would fund an independent expenditure group on behalf of De Leon. I dont have any concrete plans for that, he said. Read More Facebook

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Californias largest pension fund sends next years invoice to state government: $6.3 billion By John Myers The California Public Employees Retirement System building (Max Whittaker / Getty Images) As part of a shift toward less optimistic expectations for investment returns to pay for government worker pensions, board members of the California Public Employees Retirement System voted Tuesday to require an almost $6.3-billion payment from the state budget in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The action, which could receive final approval on Wednesday, reflects a gradually higher annual contribution to public employee pensions by the state and from local governments across California. In 2016, CalPERS approved a half-percentage point decrease in its official estimate of the long-term investment return on its $353.3-billion portfolio. That shift was designed to happen over several years, in hopes it would lessen the financial shock of shifting more of the costs onto government employers. The highest costs are also, in part, a reflection of increases in the size of the states payroll. The states CalPERS payment will be about $450 million more than the total paid in the current fiscal year and more than double what it was only a decade ago. CalPERS board members voted on Tuesdays staff proposal with little discussion, save for a question about the increase in contributions also required from workers hired after a pension overhaul that took effect in June. It seems like it will be a ding on peoples salaries, said Theresa Taylor, the chairwoman of CalPERS finance committee and a member of SEIU Local 1000, the union that represents some 96,000 state employees. The $6.299-billion payment required from Californias state government must now be factored into the budget crafted by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in late June. Brown had already assumed a similarly sized payment in his budget proposal unveiled in January. In February, a coalition representing city governments warned about the effects of rising pension costs under the expectations of less money from Wall Street investments. The report issued by the League of California Cities projected an average increase of more than 50% in annual pension payments made by the states largest cities over the next seven years. A CalPERS staff report notes that the net return on all of the funds investments for the fiscal year that ended in July was 11.2%. But expectations on profits over the next 30 years remain significantly more modest, and theres long been a robust debate about how to properly set those future expectations. The lower the rate of projected investment return, the larger the share of pension costs that must be covered by taxpayers and some employees. Overall, CalPERS officials believe the system has assets to cover 71% of its long-term obligations. Facebook

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California warns legal pot sellers not to participate in unlicensed 4/20 events By Patrick McGreevy Marijuana on display at a dispensary in Los Angeles. ( (Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images)) The state issued a warning Tuesday that businesses holding licenses to sell marijuana could face penalties if they participate in unlicensed temporary events away from their stores, including on Friday, April 20, which has become an annual celebration for counterculture groups. The warning was issued ahead of 4/20 by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. Since Jan. 1, the bureau has issued more than 700 state licenses to sell marijuana for medical or recreational use. The bureau has issued 47 temporary event licenses to groups that are limited to holding the marijuana celebrations on county fairgrounds that have authorized such events with city approval. Any bureau licensee participating in an unlicensed cannabis event may be subject to disciplinary action, the warning said, adding that lawful participation by bureau licensees in any temporary cannabis event that allows sales and/or consumption is dependent upon issuance of the appropriate licenses from the bureau. While many Californians have been issued medical approval to sell or use marijuana, the law does not allow them to participate in unlicensed events, also referred to as Proposition 215 events after the ballot measure that legalized medical pot two decades ago in the state. Participation in such events may lead to civil penalties for unlicensed commercial cannabis activity, the warning said. Meanwhile, a survey of some 1,000 marijuana users that was released Tuesday by the firm LendEDU found that the average 4/20 participant plans to spend $71 on marijuana to celebrate the unofficial holiday, and about 35% of respondents are planning to take off work Friday. Facebook

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California police groups shift position on officer discipline records, now consider support for making some of them public By Liam Dillon Los Angeles Police Department recruits at a graduation ceremony in April (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Some major law enforcement groups signaled Tuesday they are willing to support making part of police officer disciplinary records public, a dramatic departure from their past positions. Local and national attention on police shootings and misconduct has led law enforcement organizations to reconsider their blanket opposition to proposals that would give public access to some internal disciplinary investigations of officers. Were going to be open to supporting efforts that would allow for some records to be released, said Ryan Sherman, a lobbyist with the Riverside Sheriffs Assn. Debate over secrecy provisions in officer disciplinary files came during a legislative hearing on Senate Bill 1421 from Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). Skinners bill, which advanced out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, would require public disclosure of all internal officer shooting investigations and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. Currently, all police discipline information is confidential outside of a courtroom in California, which has some of the nations strictest standards against public disclosure. Unfortunately, the fact that we have such strict restrictions on any access to public records has affected certain communities trust towards our law enforcement, Skinner said during the hearing. Prior to Skinners effort, other have tried to loosen these rules, some of which date back 40 years. Most recently in 2016, a bid by then-Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) failed in a Senate committee. In debate two years ago, no major law enforcement groups indicated they would accept changes to state laws that would make individual internal investigations public, saying they were essential to protect officer privacy and safety. But Tuesday, Sherman and other lobbyists including those representing the states largest police labor organization, signaled they might be willing to entertain changes. They said they were negotiating with Skinner on the bills details. Law enforcement groups still have major concerns about SB 1421 as written. Ed Fishman, an attorney for the Police Officers Research Assn., told legislators that the bill would wrongfully expose police officers who acted within departmental policy to invasions of their privacy. It has unintended consequences that are extreme and will hurt the public, Fishman said. Tuesdays hearing featured testimony from many who have had relatives killed by police officers in recent years advocating for the bill. Senators on the Public Safety Committee also gave public rebukes to law enforcement lobbyists, criticizing them for a lack of diversity and insensitivity to concerns raised by communities of color. I think that you are completely and utterly out of touch with the realities of how those you are representing are perceived by major segments of California, said Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles). You are not going to be able to continue to lobby your way out of it. The bill faces at least one more committee hearing in the Senate before reaching the floor. It will have to pass both houses of the Legislature by the end of August. Facebook

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Newest member of the California Assembly arrives ready to work on criminal justice issues By John Myers Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove prepares for the oath of office from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon with her husband, Austin Dove. (California Assembly Democrats) Two weeks after winning a Los Angeles special election, the newest member of the California Assembly says she hopes to focus on reforms to the states criminal justice system during her time in Sacramento. Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) took the oath of office on Monday, filling one of three vacant seats representing Los Angeles County in the lower house. The Democrat, a former community college trustee and legislative staffer, thanked her mentors in remarks from the Assembly rostrum. So many women, and in my life so many black women, have paid in giving me the kind of morals and integrity and grit that is required to fight on behalf of people that you know, and people that you dont know, she said. Kamlager-Dove won handily on April 3, receiving 70% of the votes cast in the 54th Assembly District which encompasses communities west of downtown Los Angeles, from Crenshaw to Culver City and as far north as Westwood. She will serve the remaining eight months of the term of former Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, who resigned last year citing health concerns. She has said she hopes to focus her attention on poverty issues and on reform of the states criminal justice system. I think we have an opportunity to really push the needle in terms of how we look at rehabilitation, how we look at incarceration, and how we look at changing the lives oftentimes of poor men and women of color, Kamalager-Dove said on Monday in a video released by Assembly Democrats. Facebook

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Survivors of violent crime raise their voices in California to call for a new approach to criminal justice By Jazmine Ulloa Aaliyah Smith marches with her cousins. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Her father, uncle, a cousin and two older brothers. Those are some of the family members 16-year-old Aaliyah Smith has lost to gun violence. Then there are her friends. Jermaine Jackson Jr., 27, was shot and killed in 2016 while he painted over graffiti in San Francisco. Toriano Tito Adger, 18, was shot there a year later at a bus stop. He called Smith, who was nearby, and warned her to run. She made it inside a library moments before the crack of gunfire. Last week, Smith was among hundreds who gathered in Sacramento for annual National Crime Victims Rights Week events, where calls were issued for a new approach to criminal justice and public safety in California, one that puts survivors at the center of policy. But a debate is brewing over what that entails. Read More Facebook

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California expects $14 billion in tax payments this month By John Myers State workers handle income tax returns at the California Franchise Tax Board offices. (Laura Morton / For The Times) Gov. Jerry Browns proposed state budget is built on what taxpayers might find an audacious assumption: almost $14 billion in tax payments in the month of April, an average of $83 million collected per hour on every business day of the month. Most of that money will come from the taxes Californians pay in advance of Tuesday nights filing deadline for income tax returns. If history is any guide, the rate of payment could quadruple by weeks end. While tax rules have shifted some of the payment schedules to other months, April remains a vitally important month to the fiscal health of state government. The state controllers office reports more than 15% of all personal income tax revenues in 2017 were collected in April. In the recession years of a decade ago, tax revenue predictions were frequently off the mark by hundreds of millions of dollars. The last two state budgets have seen significant windfalls of personal income tax revenue, thanks in part both to an improving economy and to the continuation of a temporary surcharge on the wealthiest taxpayers  extended by voters in 2016. In the budget plan he sent to lawmakers in January, Brown projected a $6.1-billion windfall and proposed using a sizable amount to top off Californias rainy-day fund ahead of schedule. The independent Legislative Analysts Office reports that through the end of last week, the months income tax tally stood at $3 billion, slightly ahead of projections. By the end of the current week, a single days total could be almost that large. Lawmakers began reviewing the governors $190.3-billion spending plan during the winter, but few decisions are made until they get a look at Aprils tax revenues. The governor will release a revised plan based on the new data next month; lawmakers are required to send him a completed budget no later than June 15. Facebook

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Feinstein war chest tops $10 million while Kevin de Leon struggles to keep pace By Sarah D. Wire Sen. Dianne Feinstein widened her already-massive fundraising advantage in the run-up to Junes primary, raising twice as much in the first quarter than her strongest Senate challenger has sitting in the bank. Feinstein raised $1.3 million between January and March, bringing her war chest to just over $10 million as Californias U.S. Senate race begins in earnest, according Federal Election Commission reports. Former state Senate leader Kevin De Leon, the best known of the more than 30 people who will appear with Feinstein on the June primary ballot, raised just $575,991 in that same period, bringing his cash on hand to $672,331, according to his quarterly FEC report. Read More Facebook

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Trump has met his match, says Gov. Jerry Brown in promoting climate action on a quick trip to Canada By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Gov. Jerry Brown told a Canadian audience Monday that he believes President Trumps efforts to reverse course on climate change policy are a momentary deviation as others in the United States seek limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Thats very temporary, I can assure you, Brown said at a joint event in Toronto with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. The governors quick international trip, announced only late last week, comes as Wynnes Liberal Party faces a stiff challenge in Junes election from the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its leader, Doug Ford. Critics of Wynnes party have called for Ontario to pull out of the Western Climate Initiative, a cooperative agreement between three Canadian provinces and California on efforts to limit greenhouse gases. Brown sought to link the efforts of Canadian conservatives with Republicans in the United States who oppose existing climate change programs. In contrast, he told the audience, several GOP lawmakers voted last summer to renew Californias cap-and-trade program. I would say to the conservatives of Canada, wake up and see what your friends in California are doing, he said. The Democrat took particular notice of Trumps efforts to shift away from climate change policies from the administration of former President Obama, as well as a push by the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel Californias strict limits on automobile emissions. If Trump tries to change that, well have litigation well beyond his term in office, Brown said while also noting Chinese government efforts to produce more low-emissions vehicles. Between California and China, Trump has met his match. What hes saying is not going to happen. Many of the governors remarks, though, were aimed at the tough political situation in which Wynne finds herself with seven weeks to go before Ontarios parliamentary elections. Dangers abound, but success is right in our hands, Brown said. So dont blow it! Facebook

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California voters are getting to know the states attorney general through his aggressive stance challenging Trump By Patrick McGreevy Less than two months from his first statewide election, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra has become adept not only at challenging President Trump but at using the bully pulpit of his office to raise his profile with voters. The aggressive effort may help boost the former Los Angeles congressmans chances at winning a full term in office this fall, almost two years after he was appointed to replace Sen. Kamala Harris in 2017. Appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Becerra took office as attorney general four days after Trumps inauguration. Thats afforded him an opportunity to get in front of Californians  and potential voters  on an array of issues including immigration, healthcare and the environment. Read More Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown forms commission for 2020 census outreach By Melanie Mason In an effort to make sure California has a strong showing in the next national census, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday established a state commission to prepare outreach for the decennial count. It is vitally important for California to do everything it can to ensure that every Californian is counted in the upcoming census, Brown said in a prepared statement. The commissions formation comes on the heels of a Trump administration plan to ask about citizenship status as a part of the census. State officials fear that such a question, which has not been asked in a census since 1950, could chill participation among California residents. That could result in the state losing billions of dollars in federal funds and a seat in Congress. The 23-member panel, appointed largely by Brown as well as picks by legislative leaders, comes from private- and public-sector backgrounds, including civil rights groups, religious institutions and educational institutions. Facebook

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Garcetti kicks off Iowa visit with 2020 on his mind and a hardhat on his head LA Mayor - and 2020 prospect - Eric Garcetti makes his Iowa debut at the Carpenters Union Training Center. Fearlessly flaunts the never be photographed in head gear/safety glasses rule. pic.twitter.com/14bUOPXMvF  Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) April 13, 2018 Facebook

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Asm. Rocky Chavez takes the lead in race to replace Issa, while Doug Applegate slips By Joshua Stewart A new poll shows that Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chavez has taken a clear lead over 15 other candidates running to replace Rep. Darrell Issa in Congress and has overtaken Democrat Doug Applegate, the previous frontrunner. In a SurveyUSA poll by 10News and The San Diego Union-Tribune, Chavez, R-Oceanside, has support of 16 percent of likely voters, putting him ahead of Applegate, a lawyer, who was favored by 12 percent of voters and is in second place. The top two vote-getters in June, regardless of party, will proceed to a November runoff election. Competing with Applegate for the No. 2 spot is Democrat Mike Levin, also a lawyer, with support of 9 percent of voters. Several other candidates were right at his heels. Democratic Businessman Paul Kerr and Board of Equalization Member Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, were tied for fourth at 8 percent each. Read More Facebook

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Pro-Kevin de Leon group launches ad castigating Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta A group that is supporting Kevin de Leons bid for the U.S. Senate launched a blistering ad against Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday, questioning her progressive principles and tying her to President Trump. The ad buy from A Progressive California is minuscule  $10,000 to air it in Los Angeles for one day on CNN and MSNBC during programming such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews and Anderson Cooper 360. The minute-long ad features news clips about Feinstein not getting the California Democratic Party endorsement earlier this year, as well as footage of Feinstein saying that Trump can be a good president and appearing to share a laugh with Trump. That moment actually came during a White House meeting in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting when the president suggested an assault weapons ban should be included in a bipartisan bill to expand gun background checks. It also features extensive clips of de Leons speech at the state partys convention. De Leon, who just ended his final term as leader of the state Senate, announced last year he would run against fellow Democrat Feinstein as she seeks her fifth full term. Feinsteins longtime political advisor dismissed the ad, noting the size of the buy. Its not really a buy, said Bill Carrick. Ten thousand dollars in cable in L.A. Poof, its gone. Still, he said he planned to have the campaigns lawyers review the ad to see if it violates campaign law that limits what outside groups like A Progressive California can do. Such groups cannot coordinate with campaigns or candidates, and are limited in how much their messages can support a candidate. Ann Ravel, the former chair of the Federal Election Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said if the ad was in a state race, she is certain that the state commission would open an investigation into potential coordination with de Leons campaign because of the messaging and the types of footage in the ad. But the bipartisan federal commission cant agree on how to enforce the federal regulations, she said. The problem is [outside groups] understand that given the lack of very strong enforcement at the federal level, theres the ability to stretch the law, she said. A spokeswoman for the FEC declined to comment. Dave Jacobson, a spokesman for A Progressive California, disputed the suggestion that the ad violated campaign law. This frivolous allegation shows that Sen. Feinstein is afraid of the public seeing an ad which showcases her own words, that Donald Trump can be a good president, he said. Facebook

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Dispute over money emerges in campaign to repeal Californias gas tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A motorist prepares to gas up her vehicle in San Rafael, Calif., in 2015. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) A proposed initiative to repeal hikes to Californias gas tax has been caught in the middle of a dispute involving Republican rivals in the governors race. Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor, decided in January to drop plans for his own initiative and said he would urge supporters to sign a separate petition being supported by several Republican members of Congress. Then last week, the committee Allen formed to finance his ballot measure reported a $300,000 contribution from PISF Inc., a Novato, Calif., real estate firm. Now, an organizer of the still active Give Voters a Voice committee is urging the Allen committee to immediately donate their funds in support of the ongoing signature gathering efforts. There is only one gas tax repeal measure currently in circulation and that is the measure sponsored by the Give Voters a Voice Committee, said Dave Gilliard, a consultant to the group. PISF Inc., he said, gave to repeal taxes aAlexander Iskandaryan:If this format demolishes or disappears, we will hardly be able to create another format (video)

"The work of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict should not be underestimated," said political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan during the "Prospects for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.Local and International Perspectives" international conference adding that the Minsk Group was also unique because Europe, US and Russia were working together for the resolution of the conflict. "If this format demolishes or disappears, we will hardly be able to create another format. It's not an extraordinary format, many things fail to happen, but that format seems to me to last for at least a few years. " The Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Republic of Armenia noted that the settlement of the conflict had never been easy and they supported the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at promoting a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict based on Madrid Principles. "We consider this project as an opportunity to engage in discussions on ways to promote peace between the society and decision-makers." Other participants of the debate also agreed that there was a consensus between the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "There are some nuances, tactical differences, but there are no differences between the positions of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries in the final settlement of the conflict," said Thomas de Waal, senior fellow with Carnegie Europe. Professor of International Relations at Oxford University Neil Macfarlane highlighted the RF factor in the region and especially in the NK conflict. According to him, Russia had a great influence and had strengthened its positions. "In the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, the supplement of weapons to the two sides creates a complication of security dilemma. Continuity of conflicts is favorable to Russia, it benefits from the unstable situation; the potential of internal conflicts is appropriate." Negotiations on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict will not be effective without a sustainable ceasefire. "Azerbaijan implements a consistent and well thought-out strategy aimed at keeping peace talks at the same time using pressure on the Armenian side with military equipment. The tactics to negotiate and simultaneously fire are effective in this case," said Alexander Iskandaryan. According to him, negotiations would not be easy, but it should always be remembered that the alternative was war.It all happened in less than a minute. Three police officers arrived outside a small house with a chain-link fence near the University of Arizona campus in Tucson. They were responding to a check welfare report of woman hacking at a tree with a knife. They saw a young woman emerge from the house holding a large kitchen knife and walk down the driveway toward Sharon Chadwick, who owned the home.

The officers called out, Drop the knife! but Amy Hughes did not acknowledge them and kept walking. Cpl. Andrew Kisela dropped to his knees and fired through the fence, hitting her with four shots. Hughes was wounded but survived and later sued Kisela, claiming unreasonable seizure and an excessive use of force.

But the Supreme Court will decide whether she can take her claim before a jury. Lawyers for the Police Department have appealed a 9th Circuit ruling that allowed Hughes to sue, arguing her case should be tossed out because there is no proof of a constitutional violation.

And they stand a good chance of succeeding. In recent years, the justices have regularly shielded police from being sued, even when officers wrongly shoot innocent people in their own homes.

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They have done so by extending a rule adopted in the 1980s that gave government officials qualified immunity from being sued over constitutional violations unless they did something that the court already had clearly defined as illegal and unconstitutional. It is not enough to cite the words of the Constitution, such as its ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. To bring a claim before a jury, the injured plaintiff must show the officer had obviously and unquestionably violated a recognized and specific right. In practice, this rule has served as a broad shield to prevent cases from proceeding.

It is a trend that has long drawn the ire of civil rights lawyers, who say it denies victims the right to hold officers accountable for an excessive use of force, particularly when cases dont result in criminal prosecution or disciplinary action. But in the past year, the precedent also has come under attack from University of Chicago law professor William Baude, a prominent conservative legal scholar, and from the libertarian CATO Institute for what it called the courts unlawful assault on civil rights and police accountability.

Baude, a former clerk for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., contends the high court has concocted an immunity doctrine for the police that is not based on the law or history. Its an unlawful invention, a judge-made doctrine, and it seems to be getting worse in the Supreme Court, he said last week.

At issue in this debate is one of the nations most important but little-known civil rights laws. Shortly after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to extend the Constitutions legal protections to all Americans, including newly freed slaves. One provision said that any person who acts under color of any law and who deprives someone of any rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution shall be liable to the party injured. It includes no exceptions and gives no officials immunity.

The law remains on the books and is known to lawyers as Section 1983 of the U.S. Code. But since the 1970s, the high court has been unwilling to follow the law as it is written. It held that judges and prosecutors are immune from such suits. And more recently, the justices have said the police cannot be sued unless it is beyond debate they have violated clearly established law.

Three years ago, the justices tossed out an excessive-force lawsuit brought by a mentally ill San Francisco woman who was shot in her private room in a group home. A social worker had reported Teresa Sheehan was not taking her medication, but when two officers tried to force their way into her room, she reacted angrily and told them to get out. A few minutes later, they pushed the door open again, and when Sheehan grabbed a bread knife, they shot her five times.

The Supreme Court said they were entitled to immunity. This legal shield gives officers breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments, said Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. It protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.  The Constitution is not blind to the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments, he added. (Sheehan later won a settlement from the city based on a separate claim arising from the Americans with Disabilities Act.)

Clark Neily, a vice president at CATO, says the all but the plainly incompetent standard is one that protects police from misconduct that would send someone without a badge to jail. Would you wish to be treated in a hospital that held its doctors to that incredibly low standard?

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Last year, the high court overturned a $4-million verdict against two Los Angeles County deputies who fired 14 shots at a couple sleeping in a shed behind a house in Lancaster. The officers did not have a search warrant, but they were in the area looking for a wanted man. When they pulled back the curtain to the shed, Angel Mendez reached for a BB gun. Both he and his wife were shot several times, and Mendez lost his leg.

The 9th Circuit Court, based in San Francisco, has been less willing to shield the police from such suits. Its judges allowed Sheehan to sue the officers who shot her, and they upheld the verdict for Mendez because the officers barged into the shack unannounced. But the Supreme Court disagreed, saying the officers reacted reasonably because Mendez was holding a gun. The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, Alito wrote.

UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz, an expert on police misconduct litigation, faults the court for refusing to set limits for the police. When the Supreme Court announces new rules, police departments pay attention, she said. But repeatedly, the court has blocked suits that could establish clearer rules. This may encourage a shoot first, think later policy, she said. She noted that while lawsuits are brought against individuals, officers never pay out of their own pocket. Liability claims are paid by the departments that employ them.

Often in recent years, the high court has issued short, unanimous decisions, without hearing arguments, to reverse rulings that allowed injured plaintiffs to sue the police. On Friday, the justices will meet privately and consider Arizonas appeal in Kisela vs. Hughes.

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A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit refused to give the officer immunity from Hughes excessive force claim. The judges said Chadwick, the Tucson homeowner who was supposedly threatened, said Hughes was composed and non-threatening. Multiple witnesses attest that Ms. Hughes never raised the knife as she neared Ms. Chadwick.

Vince Rabago, a Tucson lawyer who represents Hughes, said two officers reacted calmly, but not Kisela. There was no crime reported. No impending danger. This was to check on the welfare of this woman, he said. Chadwick was shocked at how fast it happened. She was saying, Hey, calm down. And the police officer fires his gun. Officer Kisela since has been dismissed from the University of Arizona Police Department for reasons unrelated to the shooting, Rabago said.

The 9th Circuit concluded that while some key facts are in dispute, a rational jury could find that [Hughes] had a constitutional right to walk down her driveway holding a knife without being shot.

Lawyers for Arizona said the court should summarily reverse the 9th Circuit and dismiss the lawsuit. Qualified immunity exists to protect the public from unwarranted timidity on the part of public officials, they said. In this case, Corporal Kisela was concerned about the safety of an unarmed individual being threatened by another person wielding a knife and ignoring officers instructions to drop the weapon. If the decision below is allowed to stand, the public will, indeed, want for protection.

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The justices may act on the appeal as soon as Monday.

Last year, Justice Clarence Thomas cited law professor Baudes criticism of the courts approach to these cases. In the appropriate case, we should reconsider our qualified immunity jurisprudence, he wrote.

Baude says he is hopeful that Thomas is not alone. With increased public awareness of the problems of police misconduct, I do think it is the right time to rethink this area of the law, he said. But whether other members of the court will agree, I dont know.

Major questions before the Supreme Court this year 

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david.savage@latimes.com

On Twitter: DavidGSavage

UPDATES:

12:45 p.m.: This article was updated with more details about Kiselas dismissal.

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This article was originally published at 4 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

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Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings  one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook

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Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook

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U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook

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Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook

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He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect  despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook

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Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram  which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal  claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook

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It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook

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New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook

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Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.  #Georgia  Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook

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U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook

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Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook

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Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook

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Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook

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Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution  something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm  U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush.



The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T  Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY  LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook

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Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook

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Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

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Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook

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Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook

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James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump  as recently as Tuesday  continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along  that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right  to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook

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Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

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Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook

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Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops  You really are our heroes, he said  as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water  we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook

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Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook

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Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see.  James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook

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Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes  he last won reelection by a 14-point margin  suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook

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Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook

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Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January  eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook

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Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook

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Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook

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Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook

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Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election  again, in blowout fashion  but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook

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Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook

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Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes  which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook

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Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook

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Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook

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GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10.  Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook

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Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook

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Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook

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Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook

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Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook

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CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook

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Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks  Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank  when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while  including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook

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Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook

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ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook

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Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters...  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook

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Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press  President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook

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Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there  the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day  and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event  a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook

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Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children  the older ones are 5 and 2  about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals  her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican  she the race felt mPresident Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort has asked a federal judge to dismiss some of the criminal charges he faces, arguing that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III exceeded his legal authority in bringing criminal cases unrelated to the presidential election.

Manafort filed a motion Wednesday night in U.S. District Court in Washington, one of two federal courthouses where he faces trials this year, saying that Muellers team simply dusted off old allegations related to his lucrative consulting work for the Kremlin-backed government in Ukraine from 2006 to 2014.

Defense lawyer Kevin Downing asked the judge to dismiss charges in Washington because they simply have no connection to the Trump campaign or to possible coordination between Trumps aides and a Russian hacking and social media effort during the 2016 race, the chief focus of the Mueller probe .

Manafort made similar claims of prosecutorial overreach in a separate civil lawsuit that is pending against the government. But the Justice Department order appointing Mueller last May gave him authority to prosecute any matters that arose or arise directly from the investigation, not just charges related to the campaign or Russia.

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Once a prominent Republican operative and a high-flying international consultant, Manafort faces five criminal counts in Washington and another 18 in Virginia for what prosecutors alleged was a complex scheme to hide tens of millions of dollars from U.S. tax authorities. The charges include conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion through 2017.

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges and rejected an offer to have the two cases consolidated in one jurisdiction. He is scheduled to go on trial in July in Alexandria, Va., and in September in Washington.

In an order made public Tuesday, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III found that Manafort was a substantial flight risk. He ordered him confined to house arrest pending trial.

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.

Most charges were dropped against Manaforts former business partner and his deputy in the Trump campaign, Richard W. Gates III, after Gates agreed to plead guilty to two counts and to assist the Mueller investigation.

Downings filing also argued that the charges against Manafort are unfair because he had cooperated with an earlier FBI investigation focused on recovering assets in Ukraine. The court papers said Manafort voluntarily met with prosecutors and FBI agents in July 2014, a year before Trump had announced his candidacy.

In that interview, Mr Manafort provided a detailed explanation of his activities in the Ukraine, including his frequent contact with a number of previous US ambassadors in Kiev and his efforts to further US objectives in Ukraine on their behalf, the motion says. But the [Justice Department] did not prosecute Mr Manafort for that conduct.

The motion says Manafort has been forced into a game of criminal procedure whack-a-mole against a special counsel whose massive resources he cannot possibly hope to match.

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Muellers office said it had no comment in response.

joseph.tanfani@latimes.com

Twitter: @jtanfaniThe Russia investigation has landed squarely in the sleek black Manhattan skyscraper where President Trump made his mark as a freewheeling real estate developer more than three decades ago.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III reportedly issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization in recent weeks, seeking an array of documents, including some related to Russia.

It wasnt immediately clear if the subpoena represents a broader inquiry into the presidents business dealings before or during his White House bid. Trump had mounted a failed attempt to build a hotel and condominium complex in Moscow  an effort his lawyer said was abandoned in January 2016, seven months after Trump entered the presidential race  and he staged the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Russia.

Mueller is seeking to determine if anyone from Trumps team cooperated with Russian efforts to meddle in the presidential race, and his investigators have asked witnesses about a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 between a Kremlin-backed lawyer and three of Trumps top aides  his eldest son Donald Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

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In a statement, a Trump Organization lawyer said the company has been cooperating with Muellers team since last summer. It did not confirm receiving a subpoena, which was first reported by the New York Times.

Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests, said Alan S. Futerfas, a lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. who is also representing the company. This is old news and our assistance and cooperation with the various investigations remains the same today.

The subpoena may represent more of a mopping-up operation than a new avenue in the investigation.

A source familiar with the process said Trumps campaign also received a subpoena from the special counsels office after it had voluntarily turned over documents, a sign that prosecutors may be trying to ensure they didnt miss anything important in the process.

Although Trump long has been a celebrity, with his name emblazoned on high-rise condominiums and hotels around the globe, he has carefully shielded his financial dealings from outside scrutiny. He even has disputed how often his companies have filed for protection from bankruptcy  six times in all.

He refused to reveal his federal tax returns during the campaign, breaking a tradition for presidential candidates, and he told the New York Times last year that it would be a violation if Mueller probed his finances.

Look, this is about Russia, he said. My finances are extremely good. My company is an unbelievably successful company.

Robert S. Mueller III, shown in 2013, is seeking to determine if anyone from Donald Trumps team cooperated with Russian efforts to meddle in the presidential race. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press )

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The new focus on Trump Tower comes at a delicate time for the White House.

The presidents lawyers are in sensitive negotiations with Muellers team, who want to question Trump in a face-to-face interview, a potentially key step in the case. Prosecutors generally leave high-profile interviews until the end of an investigation.

There are ongoing discussions that have become more focused, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The presidents lawyers declined to comment. We dont discuss conversations weve had or not had with the special counsels office, said Jay Sekulow, one of the presidents personal lawyers.

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Legal experts have said its unlikely that Trump will be able to avoid an interview with Mueller, and the president has publicly expressed an eagerness to do so. I would love to do it, he said in January.

The White House has shed several senior officials this week and U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, who upset Trump by stepping aside from the Russia investigation because he had worked with the presidents campaign, could be on the chopping block.

Mueller is overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein because Sessions stepped aside. But replacing Sessions could allow Trump to exert more influence over the investigation  assuming his nominee could pass Senate confirmation.

Republicans have generally warned Trump against firing Sessions, a former four-term senator from Alabama who still enjoys strong support from the party.

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White House lawyer Ty Cobb has repeatedly assured Trump that the case could be winding down soon, lifting a cloud over the president. But the recent flurry of activity from prosecutors suggests that isnt so, said a Republican lawyer familiar with the case.

Its pretty clear that this is not wrapping up, the lawyer said. The president shouldnt be relying on the hope that this will end soon.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

joseph.tanfani@latimes.comPresident Trumps nominee to lead the spy agency that conducts electronic surveillance and cyberespionage around the globe warned a Senate committee Thursday that the government should take stronger action to prevent Russian interference in future U.S. elections.

Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone thus joined Americas current spy chiefs in urging the administration to boost cyberactivities to block the computer hacking and other digital tactics that U.S. intelligence agencies say Russian operatives used in an effort to help Trump win the White House in 2016.

Unless the calculus changes, we should expect continued issues, Army Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone told the Senate Intelligence Committee at his confirmation hearing.

If confirmed, Nakasone would replace Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers as head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. He thus would helm the sprawling systems tasked with intercepting foreign communications, protecting U.S. government secrets, disrupting adversaries online activity and conducting digital warfare.

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The Senate hearing took place as the Treasury Department announced new sanctions on 19 Russians and five companies, accusing them of meddling in the 2016 election, destructive cyberattacks and targeting critical infrastructure, including efforts to infiltrate the U.S. electrical grid and water systems.

The group includes 13 Russians who were indicted on criminal charges last month by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The new sanctions mark the strongest action the Trump administration has taken against Moscow, and they come after the president has faced widespread criticism for failing to condemn the Russian election meddling, or to order a clear response, since he took office.

Rogers, who is retiring as head of the NSA, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 27 that Trump had not directed the NSA to take more aggressive actions to counter Russia, or given them additional authorities to do so.

I believe that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that theres little price to pay here and therefore I can continue this activity, Rogers said.

Everything, both as the director of the NSA and what I see on the Cyber Command side, leads me to believe that if we dont change the dynamic here, this is going to continue and 2016 wont be viewed as something isolated, he added. This is something that will be sustained over time.

Trump used tougher language than usual when asked about Russian meddling during a March 6 press conference with the Swedish prime minister.

Whatever they do, well counteract it very strongly, he said.

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The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that a Russian-backed intelligence operation hacked and leaked e-mails from senior Democrats, and used bots, stolen identities and social media tools to try to help Trump win in 2016. Muellers investigation is focused, in part, at determining if anyone in Trumps campaign or transition assisted the Russians. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.

The shift in command at NSA comes as the U.S. government, financial institutions and crucial infrastructure face a growing daily onslaught of digital threats from Russia, North Korea and other foreign adversaries, as well as individual hackers. The attacks cost billions of dollars a year.

Nakasone drew broad support on the Senate panel, and his confirmation by the full Senate appears all but certain. Unlike most intelligence agencies, the NSA traditionally is led by a senior military officer.

Youve been nominated at a very pivotal time, said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. This is a tremendous opportunity and this is a tremendous challenge. I think youre the right person at the right time.

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Nakasone grew up in St. Paul., Minn., and attended St. Johns University and the University of Southern California. He has served at military posts in South Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. He currently leads cyberoperations for the Army.

Trump announced last year that he wanted to elevate Cyber Command to place it on equal footing with other major military commands, such as those that supervise U.S. military operations in the Pacific and in the Middle East..

In addition, national security officials are considering splitting the NSA and Cyber Command. The Obama administration established Cyber Command in 2009 to organize offensive digital operations for the military, but it shares leadership and headquarters with the NSA at Ft. Meade, Md.

Nakasone had a separate confirmation hearing on March 1 in the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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He warned that panel that cyberthreats had grown exponentially in recent years from adversaries conducting exploitation of our network, to the harnessing of social media platforms for false messaging, to targeting our elections, to destructive attacks.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Twitter: @chrismegerian

UPDATES:

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10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details and reaction.

7:50 a.m.: This article was updated with Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasones comments at his confirmation hearing.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.The Trump administration is pushing forward with a colossal public works project in Northern California  heightening the towering Shasta Dam the equivalent of nearly two stories.

The problem is that California is dead-set against the plan, and state law prohibits the 602-foot New Deal-era structure from getting any taller.

But in these times of unprecedented tension between Washington and California, the states objection to this $1.3-billion project near the Sacramento River is hardly proving a deterrent. The Trump administration is pursuing the project with gusto, even as it seeks to make deep cuts in popular conservation programs aimed at Californias water shortages.

The project promises a big payoff for water interests with close ties to the administration. A former lobbyist for one of the biggest of those interests, the politically connected Westlands Water District, holds a key administration post with power over the flow of federal money.

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And to ease the projects path, senior Republican members of Congress, led by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, are maneuvering to slip an amendment into a must-pass budget bill this month without hearings or other public scrutiny. The measure would ensure that Westlands, which would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a heightened dam, would not be required to help pay for it. McCarthy says such projects that increase the states water storage capacity are absolutely critical.

The sudden momentum behind heightening the dam  a plan the federal government only a few years ago put on the shelf amid concerns it was incompatible with state environmental laws  threatens to trigger a constitutional conflict that tests the states authority over what gets built on federal land within its borders.

Under California law, this is an illegal project, said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael). The Trump administration would have to abrogate a century of federal deference to state laws on California water to go ahead with this.

California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird wrote to congressional leaders this week, urging them to reject the Trump administrations plan to spend $20 million in 2019 on design and other preconstruction activities at Shasta Dam.

The Shasta Dam enlargement project would inundate several miles of the protected McCloud River in violation of state law, Laird wrote. The McCloud is among the pristine California waters protected by the 1972 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which prohibits the state from supporting any projects that disturb such rivers.

The dam-heightening proposal has been bitterly fought in California for decades. The Central Valley farms served by Westlands are eager for the tens of thousands of acre-feet of water it could generate for their land. The farms, many of which grow water-intensive crops such as almonds, are among the first water users to see their allocations reduced in times of drought or when water is redirected to preserve the habitat of threatened and endangered species. They are in a long-running dispute with the government over the amount of water they are entitled to receive.

Investing in new infrastructure at Shasta will create a needed and significant new water supply for Californias families, farmers, cities and environmental resources, said Marlon Duke, a spokesman at the Bureau of Reclamation, the division of the Interior Department overseeing the construction push. He acknowledged that Californias law may prohibit allocation of state money to fund the dam, but said the bureau planned to move ahead.

In the middle of this dispute is David Bernhardt, the former Westlands lobbyist who is now the No. 2 official at the Interior Department.

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His appointment was forcefully opposed last year by conservationists and Democrats, who argued Bernhardt has big conflicts of interest for too many matters before the department. In accepting the post, Bernhardt said he would relinquish his law firm partnership to guarantee he would not financially benefit from any of his actions in Washington.

But his critics are unsatisfied. Hes the poster child of this special-interest revolving door between Interior and Westlands, Huffman said of Bernhardt, who returned to work at the law firm representing Westlands after his last tour as a high-ranking Interior Department official during the George W. Bush administration. Once Bernhardt leaves his latest government job, he will walk back out the door to a very lucrative payday, Huffman said.

Bernhardt did not respond to a request for comment. The Interior Department said in a statement that its ethics officers had reviewed Bernhardts agreement with the department and advised that it does not require his recusal from decisions on Shasta Dam.

Whether the Trump administration would ultimately be able to pour concrete without buy-in from Sacramento remains to be seen. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act could prevent California from issuing any of the permits required for building. Water experts interviewed said they could think of no time in recent history that the federal government moved forward with such a mammoth public works project inside Californias borders without the states blessing.

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Yet the Trump administration has shown itself willing to break with such conventions. Weve seen a strong willingness by this administration to disregard or try to overturn state law in a number of circumstances, said Doug Obegi, a water attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. This is a case of them wanting to preempt state law so they can flood a Wild and Scenic River for their project.

Environmentalists and fishing industry groups say federal findings that some wildlife could benefit from the project are undermined by government scientific studies showing it would create serious problems, particularly for salmon. The Golden Gate Salmon Assn. is among the groups rallying against a bigger Shasta Dam.

The project is also staunchly opposed by the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, which already suffered the destruction of most of its land, including homes and ancient burial sites, when the dam was completed in the 1940s. A raising of the dam, tribe officials say, would inundate much of the sacred ground it has left.

But Westlands has gained the support of some prominent Californians, particularly as periodic droughts have forged bipartisan support for building more water storage in the state. Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is among those who have championed heightening Shasta Dam in the past. Her office did not respond to questions about the Trump administration plan.

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The Bureau of Reclamation has been working on this proposal for decades, said Tom Birmingham, general manager of Westlands. Westlands Water District supports efforts by the Department of the Interior and members of the California congressional delegation to move forward.

The growers in the water district are positioned to profit handsomely from a bigger dam. As Bernhardts agency pushes for the $20 million to jump-start the project, Westlands allies in Congress are working to exempt it from a new federal law that requires state agencies to share in the costs.

That would help Westlands in two ways. It would allow the project to move forward despite Californias refusal to allocate a single cent toward it. And it would save Westlands from having to honor its offer to cover the required state share; federal taxpayers would front the entire cost.

The plan is taking shape in the form of a budget amendment McCarthy is scrambling to tack onto whatever spending package Congress approves next week to avoid another government shutdown.

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If weve learned nothing else from the past years of catastrophic drought in our state, perhaps we now all agree that increasing storage capacity to capture water during wet years for use in dry years is absolutely critical, McCarthy said in a statement. It is my hope that the State of California and my colleagues in the Senate recognize the benefits of enlarging Shasta and will be a constructive partner.

In the case of the state, that is unlikely.

McCarthy does, though, have a very willing partner in the Trump administration, even as his push for the federal government to take on the full cost of making the dam taller seems at odds with President Trumps agenda.

Trump has been calling for beneficiaries of big federal projects to use more of their own money to get them built.

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evan.halper@latimes.com | Twitter: @evanhalper

sarah.wire@latimes.com | Twitter: @sarahdwirePresident Trump was only out of Washington for 36 hours this week, for an overnight trip to California and, on Wednesday, to St. Louis. He returns to even more tumult than hed left, largely the fallout of his own actions on his way out of town.

Besides creating heightened uncertainty throughout his top ranks about the standing of major advisors, even speculation about a purge, Trump also confronts elevated concerns in his party for its congressional majorities after Republicans apparently lost a special election in which he was an underlying issue.

Trump set much of the new round of chaos in motion on Tuesday morning with a tweet announcing the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, followed by his comments to reporters as he left the White House for California suggesting he might replace other Cabinet secretaries.

Among those widely reported as possible short-termers are U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, national security advisor H.R. McMaster, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

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 President Trump visited California for the first time as president March 13.

MORE: Full coverage of Trumps visit 

Trumps chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, had only disclosed his resignation last week, and on Wednesday the White House announced that he would be replaced by Larry Kudlow, a former Reagan administration official and conservative television commentator who has informally advised Trump since his campaign.

In his comment on Tuesday that suggested more upheaval to come, Trump told reporters, Im really at a point where were getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want.

Yet the president has sent conflicting signals over what exactly he does want. Last week, he said, I like conflict. I like having two people with different points of view. After firing Tillerson, however, he said he needed somebody on his own wavelength.

Political allies are expecting more changes, seeing them as part of a pattern for Trump, who as a businessman and a presidential candidate liked to shuffle players around.

I see this as Trump asserting himself, said Michael Pillsbury, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who advised Trump during the transition and remains in regular contact with the administration.

Jason Miller, a former campaign aide, said: Trump is sending a clear message that if youre not pulling your weight, youll be shipped out.

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The president is realizing he was slow-walked by people around him. And now hes taking matters into his own hands and doing what he said he was going to do when he took office in the first place, Miller added.

When asked on Wednesday whether Shulkin would be the next to go, Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah would say only that he had not heard that for certain. The V.A. chief is the subject of internal investigations of his management as well as media reports of serious dissension among his aides.

The president has confidence in his entire team, Shah told reporters aboard Air Force One. When he does not, you guys will know about it.

The ouster of Tillerson, who will remain at the State Department until the end of the month, comes at an unsettling time. Trump has agreed to a risky face-to-face meeting with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, and has rattled allies both by his proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and by his slow and tepid response to Britains charge that Russia poisoned a former spy and his daughter on British soil.

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Tillersons firing came a day after he joined Britain in blaming the Russians and warning of reprisals. Trump stood silent on who was to blame for two days. On Wednesday, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said the United States stood with Britain, yet the White House had no response to match British Prime Minister Theresa Mays expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, a reminder of Trumps failure to act on Russias election meddling.

In a statement late Wednesday, the White House expressed support for Britains actions, but announced no responses of its own against Russia.

Trump faces greater challenge on the domestic front after the candidate he endorsed in a Pennsylvania congressional district, Republican Rick Saccone, apparently lost a close special election on Tuesday to Democrat Conor Lamb. Trump had carried the region by 20 percentage points in 2016.

Republicans were publicly dismissive of the close special election, which they might contest, saying that Saccone wasnt a good candidate and Lamb ran a pro-Trump playbook on policy, as one senior White House official said, declining to be named discussing electoral politics. Shah, the spokesman, argued that Trumps campaigning for Saccone at a Saturday rally in western Pennsylvania prevented an even worse showing for Saccone.

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Contrary to the White House characterization of Lambs positions, the Democrat ran against Trumps agenda on healthcare and taxes.

Clearly one of the messages is candidates matter, said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who is the third-ranking lawmaker in the Senate. Secondly, we need to take a message.

If history proves a guide, the defeat is likely to further weaken Trumps sway in Congress, where many GOP lawmakers had already been losing confidence in his ability to stick to a position on legislation or carry candidates to victory.

For Republicans already fretful about their prospects in the midterm elections  fearful of losing control of the House if not the Senate, too  the apparent loss in Pennsylvania was widely seen as a particularly ill omen.

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As Trump bragged about a humming economy during the event at Boeing in Missouri, Democrats nationwide were seeing signs of the potential to capitalize on the new energy of young people and suburban women spurred into activism after last months mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

Students around the country marched out of their schools on Wednesday, hoping to put pressure on Trump and lawmakers to buck the National Rifle Assn. and back new limits on guns. Trump had promised to do so before retreating earlier this week. The activists are planning larger protests and marches for March 24.

Even so, the degree of concern among Republicans varies by candidate and region. In California, for example, where Trump is deeply unpopular and was greeted by protests on Tuesday during his first visit as president, most Republicans stayed away from his public appearances.

But in St. Louis on Wednesday, Trump met an enthusiastic crowd of supporters at the airport and shouts of Keep it up! when he arrived at a Boeing plant for a roundtable promoting his tax cuts. Missouri Atty. Gen. Josh Hawley, who is among Republicans vying to challenge Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in Novembers midterm election, was among the greeters. Trump singled him out for doing a fantastic job.

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In contrast to his sharp critique of blue-state California on Tuesday, Trump said Missouri was very good to me in the election.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Cathleen Decker contributed from Washington. Bierman reported from Washington. Bennett reported from St. Louis.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

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brian.bennett@latimes.comThe Trump administration on Thursday announced sanctions against 19 Russian individuals and five organizations for meddling in the 2016 election and for other destructive cyber-attacks still targeting the U.S. electrical grid and water systems.

While the sanctions were the strongest against Russia to date by this administration, President Trump declined to personally criticize Russia directly for its attacks against the country, or even mention the sanctions, when he briefly met with reporters after the Treasury Departments announcement.

He simply acknowledged, only when asked by reporters, that he agreed with British Prime Minister Theresa May that Russia was culpable for a separate nerve-agent attack March 4 in Salisbury, England, that targeted a Russian-born double agent and his adult daughter and injured other British citizens.

It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it  something that should never, ever happen, Trump said, adding, Were taking it very seriously.

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The poisoning in Salisbury was a very sad situation, the president added, as he sat down to meet with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

The presidents comment was far less condemnatory on the poisonings than a separate statement that his administration issued on Thursday with Britain, France and Germany. That joint statement called Russias use of the military-grade nerve agent a clear violation of international law and said that Moscows failure to respond to Britains charge further underlines Russias responsibility.

Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behavior, the four nations said, presumably in reference to Russian aggression against Ukraine and in Syria, its annexation of Crimea and its past attacks on other Russian expatriates in foreign nations.

Trump has not criticized Russia for its election meddling, which included spreading fake news stories and hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons campaign chief, according to the U.S. intelligence community. He has, however, repeatedly criticized the federal investigation of that interference, and possible Trump campaign involvement, as a witch hunt.

Yet the new Treasury sanctions echo indictments in that inquiry. They include measures against 13 individuals and three entities, including the Internet Research Agency, that have been charged as part of the ongoing Russia investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The sanctions also target six other individuals and two entities that are described as cyber actors operating on behalf of the Russian government.

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said the new sanctions are part of a broad effort to address ongoing nefarious attacks by President Vladimir Putins government.

The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, Mnuchin said in a statement.

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A national security official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe intelligence matters, that Russian military hackers were behind both the destructive NotPetya malware attack last year that did billions of dollars in damage across Europe and the United States  disrupting shipping, banking and medicine production  and attempts to infiltrate U.S. electrical grids, nuclear facilities, aviation and water services that are long-term and still ongoing.

The United States and Britain last month jointly blamed Russia for the NotPetya attack, which the Treasury Department on Thursday called the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history.

One of the most prominent individuals sanctioned was Yevgeniy Prigozhin, founder of the Internet Research Agency, the sanctioned entity based in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is a close associate of Putin known in Russia as Putins chef because of his lucrative government catering contracts.

According to Muellers indictment, the Internet Research Agency created fake social media accounts to sow discord during the 2016 presidential campaign, orchestrated pro-Trump rallies from afar and hired actors to dress as Hillary Clinton in cages at demonstrations, among other provocations.

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Many of the new sanctions were issued to comply with a bipartisan law passed by Congress last summer that required the Trump administration to add sanctions to those imposed by the Obama administration in late 2016. Trump signed the law reluctantly, with a statement that he believed the legislation was seriously flawed, and his administration is months late in meeting the laws deadline for action.

In Congress, lawmakers of both parties endorsed the sanctions, though Democrats and some Republicans complained that the administrations actions were tardy and should go further.

Vladimir Putin is trying to put the West on the defensive, and he doesnt much care whether he puts innocent lives at risk, Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas who speaks regularly to Trump, said in a statement praising the sanctions. He called for more steps against Russias reckless actions.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican who is friendly with Trump but has criticized the presidents friendliness toward Putin, said of Putin, His aim is to disrupt every aspect of our lives  right down to having the ability to shut off the power in Americans homes or businesses.

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Typical of Democrats reactions was a statement from Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who said the new sanctions are long overdue and just a first step.

Unless we impose a real price, Russia will continue to try to undermine our democracy and threaten our critical infrastructure, Brown said in a statement.

Mnuchin, in the Treasury announcement, suggested additional sanctions are coming  to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.

Some lawmakers have called on the Trump administration to press the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to respond collectively to Russias use of a military-grade nerve agent. Republican Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and John McCain of Arizona, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Trumps national security advisors urging them to press NATO countries to expel some Russian diplomats, as Britain did on Wednesday, and freeze more Russian assets.

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The United States has not taken such action unilaterally, though on Wednesday the White House endorsed Britains expulsions.

The administrations sanctions come three days after Republicans in control of the House Intelligence Committee announced that they were closing the panels investigation into Russian meddling and that they had found no evidence of collusion between Trumps campaign and Russians. Democrats disputed that conclusion and complained the panels work was incomplete.

Although Trump has been reluctant to blame Russia for election meddling, he has suggested that the government would take steps to prevent interference in the upcoming midterm election. Whatever they do, well counteract it very strongly, he said during a March 6 news conference.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders demurred on Thursday when asked at her briefing whether Putin is a friend or foe of the United States. She said Russia will have to decide whether to be a good actor or a bad actor, adding, Were going to be tough on Russia until they decide to change their behavior.

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Top intelligence officials have said Russian political interference remains an ongoing problem as the midterm election approaches, with control of Congress at stake.

In repeated hearings on Capitol Hill, the presidents top national security advisors have testified that Moscow is poised to use similar tactics. They have also told Congress that the president has not directed them to take any action in response.

I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that theres little price to pay here and therefore I can continue this activity, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the outgoing director of the National Security Agency and leader of the U.S. Cyber Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this month.

During a confirmation hearing Thursday, Trumps nominee to replace Rogers, Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, echoed those concerns. Unless the calculus changes, we should expect continued issues, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Times staff writer Cathleen Decker contributed to this report.

Twitter: @ByBrianBennett

brian.bennett@latimes.com

UPDATES:

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3:15 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with new details and quotes.

9:50 a.m.: This article has been updated throughout with new details.

This story was originally published at 7:35 a.m.Promising to build on the Affordable Care Act, a coalition of influential interest groups announced a new legislative push Thursday for a patchwork of measures that aim to make healthcare in California cheaper and more accessible.

Advocates touted a slate of proposals, including expanding Medi-Cal access to adults without legal status and increasing subsidies to those buying insurance on the Covered California exchange, as priorities for this legislative session.

This uniquely Californian campaign seeks not just to protect our progress, but advance an aspirational agenda that is achievable without the need of approval from a hostile federal government, said Anthony Wright, executive director of the advocacy group Health Access California, at a Capitol news conference.

The ability to act independently of the federal government is a key contrast from the single-payer proposal, Senate Bill 562, which has consumed much of Sacramentos healthcare debate in the last year. That bill would rely on permission from Washington in order to establish a sweeping system that covers all Californians healthcare costs, including those who would otherwise be on Medicare or Medi-Cal.

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Single-payer healthcare would take years to develop in California, legislative report says 

Wright said he did not see a tension between the approach taken by his coalition, which includes labor unions, community health organizations and immigrant rights groups, and that of single payer proponents.

This is entirely complementary with other efforts that are on different tracks and different timelines, he said, arguing that success of these incremental measures now could lay the groundwork for single-payer in the future. If that window of opportunity opens up at the federal level, we will be better positioned if we can get to universal coverage, if we can get to cost controls, if we can get to improvements in these key consumer protections.

The California Nurses Assn., the sponsor of SB 562, praised elements of the package  notably the expansion of Medi-Cal to immigrants who are in the country illegally  but said its proposal also would have extended healthcare coverage to that population.

Overall, it would be less fragmented to do a comprehensive approach like SB 562 that actually solves the problem without scrambling to push piecemeal legislation, some of which only reinforce the existing profit-focused insurance system, said Chuck Idelson, spokesman for the nurses union.

Proponents dont yet have a cost estimate for the proposal but rough estimates would total in the billions of dollars. Wright said they would seek money in the budget but did not rule out proposing new taxes to pay for the proposals.

Californias uninsured rate plummeted from 17.2% in 2013 to 6.8% currently after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Of the remaining 1.8 million Californians uninsured, more than half are immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Advocates successfully pushed Gov. Jerry Brown to expand Medi-Cal to children without legal status, but were unsuccessful in an attempt to extend that coverage to young adults last year.

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Immigrants are an integral part of our state and shape our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and communities, said Cynthia Buiza, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center. With Health4All, California has an opportunity to remove barriers on healthcare based on immigration status.

The Medi-Cal expansion got an endorsement Thursday from the California Medical Assn., the influential lobbying group for the states doctors. The association also backed other components of the plan, including establishing a state-level mandate to purchase insurance to replace the federal requirement repealed last year.

The scope of the package touches nearly every aspect of the healthcare system, from health plans to prescription drugs. Some measures are holdovers that were introduced last year, but failed to advance. Other elements are still to be fully fleshed out, including the form of subsidies offered to make insurance on the individual market cheaper, and the possibility of crafting a public option to ensure more options on the Covered California market.

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Some components of the package include establishing quality assessments for Medi-Cal managed care plans, regulating health plan mergers and maintaining a $250 cap on prescription drug co-pays.

Other measures take aim at actions by the federal government that advocates say undermine the Affordable Care Act. One bill would ban the availability of short-term insurance plansthat do not have to meet requirements under Obamacare, which have been encouraged by the Trump administration. Another bill would bar work requirements for Medi-Cal, a policy pursued by several other states, including Kentucky, with the blessing of the White House.

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Follow @melmason on Twitter for the latest on California politics.Shavarsh Kocharyan: The fact that they try to make some conclusions after the April war is welcomed

Deputy foreign minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan welcomes the statement of Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly, according to which Russia will not continue supplying weapons to Azerbaijan with the same scale it did before the 2016 April war. "The fact that they try to make some conclusions after the April war is welcomed." Shavarsh Kocharyan was well aware that Russia was the country with the largest supply of weapons to Azerbaijan in 2013-2017. "The impression from this statement is that some conclusions are made by Russia." Does the deputy foreign minister believe the statement of his Russian collegue? "There is no believe or disbelieve in foreing policy. I state that the statement is welcomed." Shavarsh Kocharyan also touched upon military exercises held in Azerbaijan, noting that we should always be ready for any provocation by Azerbaijan.A state assemblyman wants to create a new felony offense to penalize organized retail theft, a crime some have called an unintended consequence of a 2014 ballot initiative that reduced drug possession and some theft crimes to misdemeanors.

Under Proposition 47, a theft crime has to involve $950 worth of property in a single incident to rise to a felony. That threshold, some retailers have said, allows members of organized crime rings to steal from multiple stores, or from the same store numerous times a day, without facing tougher punishment.

Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) first proposed a change last year by asking voters to amend Proposition 47  which passed with 60% approval  making it a felony to steal $950 worth of property in a year. But after much debate, his legislation was shelved in February in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Now its chairman, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), is pushing a bill of his own to tackle the problem.

His legislation would make it a crime to work with others to steal goods or buy stolen goods with the intent to sell, exchange or return the merchandise. Under the proposal, organized retail theft would fall under a category of crimes known as wobblers, meaning prosecutors are able to charge them as misdemeanors or felonies depending on severity.

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Jones-Sawyer said his bill, unlike the previous proposal, would address concerns from store owners without stepping back from the overall goal of the voter initiative: to stop counties from incarcerating people for minor or petty crimes that are sometimes tied to mental health or drug abuse issues.

Criminals are going to get together and figure out loopholes. It doesnt escape me that is happening, and I am very sensitive to that, Jones-Sawyer said. But I also am very concerned [that] we dont do a shotgun method, where we just lock up everybody.

Jones-Sawyer said he worked on Assembly Bill 1065 in meetings with Gov. Jerry Brown, retailers and law enforcement, and it has the support of the California Retailers Assn., several police and sheriff associations and at least six district attorneys.

Supporters said they wanted to make sure to punish serious crime rings, not homeless people or parents struggling to feed their families.

Right down the middle is how we crafted this bill, Jones-Sawyer said.

How pervasive organized retail theft is and whether it has been exacerbated by Proposition 47 is unclear. The National Retail Federation found that 95% of merchants across the U.S. reported losses from coordinated theft, according to its 2017 survey, the latest available. But it released no statewide data.

Meanwhile, the property crime rate in California was down 3.3% in 2016, though it remained above the national average, according to the latest available data analyzed by the Public Policy Institute of California. Of those crimes, 64% were larceny thefts, 19% were burglaries and 17% were auto thefts.

Bill Dombrowski, president and chief executive of the California Retailers Assn., said there was too much conflicting evidence to blame the voter initiative.

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I am not ready to go there, he said.

But he added that retailers had long been asking lawmakers for an organized theft statute.

Over the last few years, the retail industry has seen an increase in shoplifting and theft across the country, he said. At the same time, California has historically been the retail theft capital of the country.

But not all lawmakers who have urged changes to Proposition 47 support the Jones-Sawyer legislation, which would create a new criminal offense altogether. Cooper and supporters of his original proposal contend that organized retail theft as defined in Jones-Sawyers bill would be too difficult for prosecutors to prove in court, requiring them to show both conspiracy and a defendants intent.

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Cooper argues that the legislation is meant to distract from his efforts to put the issue before voters in a larger debate over the direction of crime and punishment in California. His original bill had been sponsored by the California Grocers Assn., the California Police Chiefs Assn. and Crime Victims United of California.

Now the language from that effort is part of a broader proposed voter initiative to expand the list of crimes classified as violent felonies used to determine which California prison inmates are eligible for early parole under a 2016 ballot measure, Proposition 57. Cooper and supporters are working to collect signatures in hopes of qualifying the measure for the November ballot.

In a statement, Cooper said his office had tried to partner with the California Retail Assn. but the organization instead co-sponsored legislation that will have little effect on the growing problem of serial retail theft.

AB 1065 ignores the damage serial theft is having on small business owners, especially on the small family owned stores that serve our most vulnerable neighborhoods, Cooper said.

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Dombrowski said Cooper has a different crime and punishment agenda.

As an industry we dont really want any part of that fight, he said.

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

Twitter: @jazmineulloa

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ALSO

Californias mentally ill inmate population keeps growing. And state money isnt enough to meet needs, lawmaker says

Prop. 47 got thousands out of prison. Now, $103 million in savings will go towards keeping them out

More California inmates are getting a second chance as parole board enters new era of discretion

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Updates on California politicsAlarmed that Californias fledgling legal marijuana industry is being undercut by the black market, a group of lawmakers proposed Thursday to reduce state taxes for three years on growing and selling cannabis to allow licensed sellers to get on their feet.

With many California license holders claiming they cant compete because of high state and local taxes, the new legislation would cut the state excise tax from 15% to 11% and suspend a cultivation tax that charges $148 per pound.

Criminals do not pay business taxes, ensure consumers are 21 and over, obtain licenses or follow product safety regulations, said Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), one of five legislators pushing the bill. We need to give legal businesses some temporary tax relief so they do not continue to be undercut by the black market.

California voters approved the 15% tax when they passed Proposition 64 in 2016, allowing legal growing, distribution and sales of marijuana for recreational use and requiring state licenses for the continued sale of pot for medical purposes. License holders began growing and selling pot on Jan. 1.

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Californias licensed pot sellers want the state to crack down on illegal competitors >>

Legal growers say the excise and growers taxes are a burden on top of local taxes adopted by cities and counties, as well as a sales tax that is as high as 9.2% in some counties. Combined, taxes can raise the price of marijuana sold legally by up to 45%, according to the Fitch credit rating agency.

That is a major disadvantage, industry leaders say, especially when the state soon will begin charging a $1,000 license processing fee.

The temporary suspension of state taxes will help level the playing field, between the legal and underground marijuana markets, according to Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the cannabis trade group California Growers Assn.

This a huge step in the right direction, Allen said. Right now, thousands of California businesses are struggling with one-time costs of regulatory compliance. These businesses are at a significant disadvantage to unregulated operators who are continuing to operate in the unregulated market and are not incurring their costs.

Californias pot regulator warns 900 marijuana shops that they must stop operating without a state license >>

Although the 15% tax was set by Proposition 64, the Legislature is not required to go back to the ballot to reduce the assessment. The ballot measure allows the Legislature to amend the tax by way of a two-thirds vote as long as it furthers the intent of the proposition, which Lackey and others say their proposal will do by reducing the black market.

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The tax reduction should give the legal pot industry new vigor, said Beau Whitney, senior economist at New Frontier Data, a data analytics firm focused on the cannabis industry.

The new legislation will lower the overall price for consumers at the register, which will also reduce the differential between illicit and legal prices, he said.

Updates from Sacramento 

Financial experts have estimated the legal industry could bring the state coffers $1 billion annually in tax revenue, though Gov. Jerry Browns estimate for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is $643 million.

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While the new legislation could blast a hole in the governors budget projections, a spokesman for Brown declined Thursday to comment on the bill, saying the governor typically does not comment on pending legislative proposals.

Companies getting state licenses to grow, distribute and sell marijuana under tough regulations are making significant investments in establishing operations and deserve help, said Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), another leading author of AB 3157.

The bill, Bonta said, would lower tax burdens during the current transition period, keeping customers at licensed stores and helping ensure the regulated market survives and thrives.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

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Twitter: @mcgreevy99Hard-liners who want to deport all immigrants living here illegally should visit a California farm at harvest. In fact, thats especially a good idea for President Trump.

The president might learn a thing or two about undocumented farmworkers and the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform by watching, for example, peach picking on a sweltering summer day in the San Joaquin Valley.

A crop harvest cant be postponed until theres a labor force large enough to handle the job. When its ripe, the crop must be gathered or it rots.

We all know that, but mostly in an abstract way. We dont stand in the boots of a farmer worrying at dawn whether enough field hands will show. Theyre mostly undocumented and often leery of possible raids by federal immigration agents.

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Ive seen in the Salinas Valley lots of lettuce left in the field because of a lack of work force, says Jamie Johansson, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Theres definitely a worker shortage, adds Johansson, who farms olives and citrus in Butte County. Its become more difficult over the last 10 years.

Thats true for several reasons, not just Trumps raids.

Illegal immigration has slowed, not only during the Trump presidency but also under Barack Obamas. Theres an attrition of the labor pool, says Tom Nassif, president and chief executive of the Western Growers Assn.

The Mexican economy has been improving and Mexico itself is importing farmworkers from Central America, Nassif says. Plus, farmworker parents hold higher ambitions for their children and increasing numbers are going to college  many of them the so-called Dreamers.

Moreover, the California economy has greatly improved and there are jobs in construction and restaurants that beat farm work.

Its getting worse every day, Nassif says. Were seeing shortages of 25% to 40%, depending on the crops and times of year. Fruit trees and row crops that rely heavily on hand labor are particularly vulnerable, he says.

Farmers should pay more, critics charge. But theyre paying $15 to $18 an hour, Johansson says. And citizens cant be lured at any wage.

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More from George Skelton 

Trump is making California agriculture nervous because of his roundups of undocumented immigrants and newly imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Theres concern about retaliation by foreign countries against California farm products.

Trump was down on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego on Tuesday ogling huge prototypes of a $25-billion wall designed to keep out immigrants. But in California, farmers are trying to get more of these workers into the country and keep them here.

Ironically, Trumps immigration and tariff policies are creating jitters especially in the California farm belt, which gave the Republican his strongest support in this blue state that voted lopsidedly for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Ten Central Valley agriculture counties sided with Trump over Clinton.

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Theyre culturally Republican, more conservative, veteran GOP consultant Rob Stutzman says of farm belt voters. They view the ruling and elite classes in coastal cities differently than they see themselves. Its a different, harder life in the valley.

There are distant danger signs for Republicans, however, even in the farm belt. Among new voter registrations, only 22% are Republican and 29% are Democrats, according to Paul Mitchell, who heads Political Data Inc. More important, 40% are independent, shunning both parties, and 43% are Latino.

Economics professor Daniel Sumner, who heads the UC Davis Agriculture Issues Center, says the biggest immediate problem for California farmers with Trumps immigration and tariff policies is uncertainty.

The rhetoric makes people nervous, Sumner says. Workers may leave California for places they feel are safer, like in the Midwest.

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Coverage of California politics 

The 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% on aluminum not only may spur foreign retaliation against Californias $25 billion worth of annual agriculture exports, but will probably raise prices on farm machinery, Sumner adds.

A tomato harvester is made of steel, the agriculture economist says. You may have an old one wrapped in bailing wire and are planning to buy a new one that costs $300,000. Then you find out its going to be $320,000. That means one piece of expensive equipment doesnt get sold. And the whole economy operates less efficiently.

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Trump has exempted Canada and Mexico from the steel tariffs, at least initially. Sumner wouldnt be surprised if he doesnt soften the tariffs further when countries start to retaliate.

Almost never does a president say, Gee, I was wrong. You win. Youre tougher than I am, he says. (And certainly not Trump.) What they do say is, We achieved our objective. And that may well happen here.

But even if Trump ultimately backs down, California agriculture could be hurt in the meantime.

These things have consequences, Sumner says. People start buying from somewhere else. That can happen just with rhetoric, and thats the worry.

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California agriculture is looking for legislation that will provide legal documentation for current workers and bring them out of the shadows, Johansson says.

But thats seen as amnesty by many hard-liners and is politically toxic.

I see it as common decency, Nassif says. Theres no question the vast majority of field workers are falsely documented. Id say of 500,000 farmworkers in the state, 70% are falsely documented.

Falsely documented is a polite word for phony papers. Give them real ones.

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Trump should book an August educational tour of dusty Central Valley farm fields. And leave his immigration agents at home.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on TwitterAs soon as three Osprey tiltrotor military aircraft and two U.S. Marine helicopters used during President Trumps California trip landed at Hollywood Burbank Airport Wednesday morning, local emergency responders commenced a safety drill.

Dozens of officials from airlines, first-aid nonprofits, the Burbank and Glendale city councils and the Airport Authority gathered at the adjacent B-6 Parcel to observe airport safety personnel perform a triennial full-scale exercise.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires all airports to undergo an emergency exercise every three years to ensure that assigned safety personnel and the mutual aid agencies that support them are prepared to quickly and safely respond to major events.

This is to give those other agencies an opportunity to get reacquainted with the airfield and to be able to work together with our firefighters and the other agencies, said Frank Miller, executive director of Hollywood Burbank Airport.

Several fire agencies, including Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Los Angeles, as well as the airports own firefighting unit, participated.

In the two years between each major exercise, the participating agencies come together to discuss their plans on how to respond to an airfield incident.

This years simulation involved an airplanes nacelle, the housing that contains an engine, exploding after a fuel leak.

Airport safety personnel took a little over two minutes to respond in their bright lime-colored aircraft rescue and firefighting trucks. Firefighters using a built-in hose atop of the safety trucks quickly doused the nacelle fire while three other trucks circled around to the left side of the plane to assess damages.

Minutes later, fire engines, trucks and ambulances from Burbank, Los Angeles, Glendale and Pasadena responded. Burbank firefighters helped the injured passengers  played by actors in realistic makeup  off the plane and assisted them to the triage site.

Im watching how the units respond and how the commanders network at the command post, said Hollywood Burbank Fire Chief Tom Lenahan.

Lenahan, who recently took the helm of the airports fire department after serving over 30 years mainly with the Burbank Fire Department, has been involved in numerous emergency exercises at Hollywood Burbank, but this was his first opportunity to see how an incident plays out from the airports perspective rather than the citys point of view.

One of the BUR fire departments main jobs in an airfield emergency is to create an entryway for safety personnel from assisting agencies.

Lenahan said his staff is trained to respond to aircraft emergencies, as well as fires or incidents at the airport.

Although our expertise is [airport rescue and firefighting], were still an all-risk agency, he said. Theres still structures on the airport that were responsible for, and theres also the terminal. My firefighters have to still be good at [airport rescue and firefighting], but they have to also be good at handling structure fires and providing medical treatment.

Hollywood Burbank Police Chief Ed Skvarna directed his units to create a perimeter around the site to ensure that no one left or entered the area until the rescue and investigation had ended.

Were a security force that sets up a perimeter around the aircraft and holds everything static so that the investigators can come on to an uncontaminated possible crime scene, Skvarna said.

After about an hour, the drill was completed and deemed a success.

Were trying to solve these problems in advance before they happen for real, so when it does happen we can revert back to our training, Skvarna said.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpioA new sauna in Burbank uses color light therapy, or chromotherapy, to heal clients bouts with depression, insomnia or anxiety. Or, it may just raise the heartbeats of those who are physically injured and cant work out at a gym or those who are disabled.

About a month ago, longtime local resident Jeannette Tashjian opened Burbank Infrared Sauna, where clients spend 30 minutes sweating inside cedar wood saunas as tranquil music plays and they burn an estimated 600 calories by the time its over.

Infrared saunas heat the body directly through light, whereas a traditional sauna warms air to heat the body.

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Burbank Infrared Sauna owner Jeannette Tashjian in one of her sauna units at her new business. (Raul Roa / Burbank Leader)

Before clients begin their session, Tashjian will work with them to determine which color light may be most beneficial for them. For example, blue may help address insomnia, while purple may reduce anxiety, she said.

Individuals enter the sauna privately, or couples can sign up for a session together. Children must be accompanied by a parent.

Its everyones own personal experience, she said.

Born and raised in Burbank, Tashjian describes herself as a retired ballerina, retired massage therapist and retired physical therapist.

She was looking to take on something new a couple of years ago when she was seeing up to 60 patients daily.

I knew I needed to transition and find something I believed in  and serve a client-patient base. This was such a beautiful transition. It was a win-win situation for my personality, what I believe in, what I stand behind holistically, she said.

An infrared sauna unit at Burbank Infrared Sauna. (Raul Roa / Burbank Leader)

While Burbank has its nooks and crannies of holistic places Tashjian said, referring to massage businesses, vitamin stores and colon hydrotherapy offices, she said she wanted to add infrared sauna into the mix.

The infrared sauna is often operated at lower temperatures than a traditional one, and a session at Burbank Infrared Sauna can begin at 135 degrees Fahrenheit and finish at 150.

Once a client has been acclimated and been a regular sweater, we can go up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, if tolerated and desired, she said.

Clients can also be exposed to the heat seven days a week. However, Tashjian cautioned, You have to stay hydrated.

Some studies have shown that people with rheumatoid arthritis reported reduced pain and stiffness after using an infrared sauna. Other studies have found some benefit for people with high blood pressure.

Tashjian said the saunas may help with other ailments, including digestive or respiratory issues.

Opening a business that offers holistic therapy makes what I do worthwhile, she said.

kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorriganRe: Permits are an undo burden, Mailbag, March 10. Jane Harrison made several good points in her letter regarding residents paying for permits. I just got my new ones, three at $30 each or $90 for the next three years. I have no problem with that since we requested permit-only parking some years ago but were only granted two-hour parking restrictions.

My complaint is that the senior daycare place on a nearby corner seemingly got many of their employees handicap placards so they are allowed to park for several hours at will. Even their minibus parks and flouts the regulations at times. This blatant act of taking advantage of the system should be eliminated, and the city could collect from fining these questionable end-runs around the restrictions.

Gary Glasser

Burbank

--

For those who may be following my Burbank legal case regarding the misdemeanor charge against me for the crime of walking my bicycle across the public Mariposa Street bridge, which at the time was empty of any other traffic, it has been scheduled for a jury trial on the morning of March 28 at the Burbank Courthouse, 300 E. Olive Ave.

If found guilty I could receive a jail sentence of up to six months, all because the bullies from the nearby Rancho neighborhood insist that bicycles are a threat to their horses, despite the fact that nobody can cite a single incident where a bike was involved in an accident with a horse in the 80-year history of the bridge. The neighborhood horse bullies, however, were able to flood a Burbank City Council meeting in early 2016 with shouting members of their posse to demonize bicyclists and intimidate the council members into voting this ridiculous law into existence.

This is a trial that I can say with confidence will be totally unique, as Burbank stands alone in all the world as a place where someone can get in trouble with the law for being safely in possession of their own bicycle on a public space. I found from an internet search that there used to be laws prohibiting women from possessing bicycles in Saudi Arabia and North Korea, however several years ago those laws were changed, thus making my upcoming trial in Burbank truly a one-of-a-kind legal event.

Doug Weiskopf

BurbankNewport-Mesa Unified School District officials unveiled a new Learning Resource Center for the Corona del Mar High and Middle School campus Wednesday.

The estimated $2-million project transforms the existing 6,000-square-foot library near the campus aquatic center.

The library now contains about 5,000 books in print  far fewer than the 30,000 it used to, officials said. Most of the remaining books are fiction titles.

School officials said about 22,000 titles from the librarys old collection hadnt been checked out in years, likely because most student research has shifted online.

The Learning Resource Center, which received district approvals in 2015 and broke ground in July last year, also features a more open floor plan, with work desks and study rooms for small or large groups. There also is space for college counselors to meet with prospective students.

Saunders + Wiant Architects of Newport Beach designed the facility.

Nathan Hesson demonstrates a digital whiteboard in the multimedia room at the new Learning Resource Center at the Corona del Mar High and Middle School campus Wednesday. (Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer )

About $1.5 million for the project came from the CdM Foundation, which supports the campus and has been working toward getting the center for about five years. The district chipped in the remaining $500,000.

The foundations president, Ellie Campbell, said the center is the largest project in the groups history.

This is a big moment for the CdM Foundation and CdM students, she said. Im so excited to be standing here today.

Supt. Fred Navarro said the project is the largest the district has done in partnership with a foundation.

Its an amazing accomplishment, this incredible space, Navarro said. This one is the best example of what we have  that is current.

District trustee Karen Yelsey called the facility conducive to learning in the 21st century.

If this isnt a state-of-the-art facility  I dont know what is, she said.

Wednesdays ribbon cutting included a performance by CdMs madrigal choir and a certificate of recognition from Newport Beach Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield.

Kenneth McManaway and his daughers Charlotte, 2, and Claire, 4, visit the multimedia room during Wednesdays unveiling of the new Learning Resource Center at the Corona del Mar High and Middle School campus. (Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer )

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZintCosta Mesa Sanitary District officials want the Orange County district attorneys office to prosecute a contractor the district alleges poured cement into the sewage system.

Residents reported Feb. 27 that an employee from Luna & Sons Concrete Inc. had used a wheelbarrow to dump what appeared to be cement down a manhole in front of 1625 Sandalwood St. in Costa Mesa.

Sanitary district staff and Costa Mesa police investigated and found evidence that the contractor had done so, according to district General Manager Scott Carroll.

The districts incident report includes statements from two witnesses along with pictures showing that someone had used a pickaxe to remove the manhole cover.

A call seeking comment from Luna & Sons was not immediately returned Thursday.

Sanitary district board members voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the district attorneys office to prosecute Luna & Sons on allegations of violating the districts operations code, which states its unlawful to dump unauthorized materials into the sewer system.

Carroll said the offense would be a misdemeanor. The district also hopes to recover $1,882 in costs it incurred because of the incident, Carroll said.

Though its not uncommon for people to discard things into the sewer system  Carroll recalled discovering a bowling ball there once  he said its rare to catch the perpetrators.

Carroll thanked the residents who reported the Feb. 27 incident.

If it wasnt for our residents, we would never have known this happened, he said. Were thankful to them for being our additional eyes and ears out there in the community.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoneyA Fountain Valley High School student is accused of stabbing a teenage girl at Edison High School and committing two sexual assaults in Huntington Beach, including one at Edison, authorities said.

Michael Meer, 18, of Huntington Beach was charged Tuesday with one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object and one count of mayhem, all felonies.

He also is facing misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a child younger than 18 and touching an intimate part of another person, along with a possible sentencing enhancement on allegations of inflicting great bodily injury, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

Huntington Beach police said Meer, who previously attended Edison High, was seen rollerblading on the campus at 21400 Magnolia St. between 5 and 6 p.m. Friday, hours after school had let out for the day.

Police allege he skated past a teenage girl and stabbed her in the back with a knife. She was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.

Police also allege that he skated up to another teen girl on campus and sexually assaulted her.

Authorities believe Meer also sexually assaulted a 39-year-old woman Feb. 28 while she was walking near the parking lot of a gym on Atlanta Avenue in Huntington Beach. Police say he was rollerblading then as well.

Meer was arrested Friday near Edison High and was booked into Orange County Jail in Santa Ana with bail set at $500,000, according to jail records.

He is expected to be arraigned April 6.

Police do not believe Meer was familiar with any of the victims before the incidents.

Authorities suspect there may be additional victims. Anyone with information about the cases is asked to call Eric Wiseman, an Orange County district attorney supervising investigator, at (714) 347-8794.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN

UPDATES:

5:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 4:15 p.m.Crescenta Valley High School students joined their peers across the United States Wednesday in a walkout to denounce gun violence and call on lawmakers to enact gun-control legislation.

Around 200 students streamed onto the school field, chanting for reforms and carrying signs adorned with messages like Were Done Taking Bullets for Congress and Enough is Enough. Many wore orange, a color associated with gun reform activists, who have adopted it in part because hunters wear it as a safety precaution.

And now video of the lap by CVHS students #NationalWalkoutDay pic.twitter.com/EzkbDDMx2G  Andy Nguyen (@Andy_Truc) March 14, 2018

The nationwide student movement emerged in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

During the local event, Crescenta Valley students read the names of the people killed in the shooting and released 17 doves, symbolizing each of the lives lost.

Zach Johnson, senior class vice president, said that, although Parkland is 3,000 miles away from La Crescenta, today they are our neighbor and family.

We stand with them and students all across the country to say enough is enough, the 18-year-old said.

Johnson later said thoughts and prayers werent enough from lawmakers, who he urged to take actual steps toward tamping down gun violence and school shootings.

He said actions like the walkout will hopefully galvanize politicians into passing gun-control legislation.

He attributed the lack of action to lawmakers caring more about checks from the National Rifle Assn. and getting reelected rather than preventing bloodshed.

Johnson called on his classmates to write their representatives and head to the polls to hold politicians accountable.

We will not be silenced any longer, he said. We will continue to call you out on your [expletive] until you act like representatives that represent us.

Students at Crescenta Valley read the names of the Parkland shooting victims as they release doves #nationalwalkoutday pic.twitter.com/GmQBeUsGfy  Andy Nguyen (@Andy_Truc) March 14, 2018

CVHS Senior Class VP Zach Johnson with a message to Congress #nationalwalkoutday pic.twitter.com/vnlhjJPkxp  Andy Nguyen (@Andy_Truc) March 14, 2018

Eighteen-year-old Divya Parthasarathy recounted an experience she called one of the worst in her life. The high school senior was at a mall in Memphis, Tenn., when gunfire erupted outside in December.

Parthasarathy and her family dived for cover as multiple shots were fired.

I was with one of my best friends, and we were holding each other, shaking, crying and fearing for our lives, listening to each gunshot, she said.

No one should go through a similar experience, especially at a school, she said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) praised the Crescenta Valley students and those around the country in a statement read during the walkout.

Your activism gives me hope for the first time in a long time that we will pass meaningful and sensible gun legislation, he said. I encourage you to keep up this pressure; politicians are paying attention.

Schiff said he was proud to see students advocating for reform and their right to feel safe at school.

Other Glendale Unified schools held walkout events. Hoover High students marched onto their field and released balloons. Rosemont Middle School staged a die-in.

Kristine Nam, a district spokeswoman, said the events went off safely and without a hitch.

Were proud of the kindness and respect displayed on our campuses, she said.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucIn a show of solidarity with the campaign, the activists held up pictures showing the excessive use of tear gas by Manamas security forces against peaceful anti-government protesters.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Activists taking part in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Brazil have voiced their support for an initiative by SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, which calls on the Brazilian government to halt its sale of tear gas to Bahrains security forces.



In a show of solidarity with the campaign, the activists held up pictures showing the excessive use of tear gas by Manamas security forces against peaceful anti-government protesters.



According to SALAM, more than 40 Bahrainis have died over the last seven years as a result of suffocation or injuries sustained by tear gas canisters being fired at civilians at close range.



The group also cited data by Physicians for Human Rights, which asserts that the use of tear gas in Bahrain during an 18-month period between 2011 and 2012 was unprecedented.



The Brazilian defense company Condor Non-Lethal Technologies has supplied Manama with over 20 types of different weapons in recent years.







/257An El Cajon man was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison Wednesday for the 2013 beating death of an 84-year-old relative in a Glendale apartment.

James Sanchez had been accused of using a hammer to beat his uncles grandfather to death over an argument involving the 26-year-olds fiancee. Sanchez pleaded no contest to the murder on Oct. 19, 2017.

Court testimony from 2015 revealed that, on several occasions, Ruben Sanchez accused the fiancee of stealing money he hid around his apartment in the 1800 block of West Glenoaks Boulevard.

The three had lived together for some time but the latest accusation led the younger Sanchez to argue with his non-blood relative. He and his fiancee, Anita Guadarrama, moved out of the apartment and into the home of a friend in El Cajon on Nov 15, 2013.

Several days later, Jose Garcia was awakened in the early morning by thudding sounds from the apartment below. Garcia is James Sanchezs uncle and lived in the unit above the elder Sanchez.

When he went to go check on his grandfather, Garcia found Ruben Sanchez covered in blood but still breathing.

He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died of his injuries.

Testimony given by an officer from the Glendale Police Department revealed that Ruben Sanchez had been severely beaten and had over a dozen circular-shaped wounds on his head.

It was revealed in court that on the previous night, James Sanchez went to Glendale after telling Guadarrama he was going to pick up a paycheck. When he returned, he made a passing reference to hitting his relative with a hammer and tossing the tool onto the roof a doughnut shop.

Guadarrama in turn called police and informed officers of Sanchezs confession. He was arrested in El Cajon on Nov. 19, 2013.

Officers were able to recover a hammer caked in blood from a doughnut shop, according to police testimony. Cellphone records and surveillance footage also showed James Sanchez was in the area at the time of the murder.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucA small but dedicated group of La Canada High School students led hundreds of their fellow Spartans Wednesday morning in a passionate call to action against gun violence, casting their lot with countless other schools participating in a nationwide walkout.

Activists with the Womens March organized events to begin at 10 a.m. and last 17 minutes to honor the 17 victims of the school shooting that took place one month earlier at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.



For the record: An earlier version of this story misspelled a LCHS seniors last name. It is Ethan Crane, not Krane.

While Wednesday morning protests centered on remembrance, other events planned for March 24 and April 20 will focus on lobbying legislators for stricter gun control laws and participating in antiviolence demonstrations.

The La Canada High protest was organized entirely by students, many of them members of the non-school affiliated club Activism USA, who planned the event around speakers, chants and songs but also provided ways for students of all ages to make their voices heard.

Its kind of like our Vietnam  students are getting involved in something they think needs to be changed, said LCHS senior Jack Weirick, who founded Activism USA. My goal is to get these kids out of their comfort zones and start speaking for themselves, regardless of their partisan beliefs.

Worried about kids incurring unexcused absences to leave their classrooms, and potentially the campus, high school administrators extended a morning break to run from 10 a.m. to 10:24 a.m. As a result, hundreds of kids gathered on the quad to check out the action.

On the sidewalk fronting campus, two dozen parents and elementary school students, technically not authorized to be on campus, held up signs and posters supporting gun control. LCHS senior Abi Lidar addressed the crowd, speaking through a megaphone.

I know that it feels scary and unsafe to speak out, but violence will never win against cohesive, united people action, she said. Taking action can mean something as simple as joining a social media movement. Online engagement may seem trivial while we watch tangible actions occurring on Capitol Hill, but by using our social media voice, were garnering the attention of media and of lawmakers.

A large banner sign let students and faculty write messages to be delivered to the local office of U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank). There, LCHS freshman Samira Iqbal picked up a marker and wrote: Too many lives have been lost. Its time for a change.

Iqbal said she was glad to see hundreds of students out on the quad, listening to speakers and talking about the issues. She hoped politicians would see student walkouts across the nation as a call to action to advocate for more gun control.

Just because were not old enough to vote doesnt mean we shouldnt have a voice about whats going on, the 14-year-old added. Were the next generation, so we should be able to create what we want the world to be like when were older.

Nearby, student organizers manned a table with a number of laptops where students could pen swift letters to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and even register and pre-register to vote.

Senior Max Kinsel, 18, sat down and was registered in just a few clicks. He said while he supports some gun limitations  against automatic weapons and rules that allow 18-year-olds to purchase rifles  he supports Americans 2nd Amendment rights.

I think every person has a right to own a gun, a handgun at least, Kinsel said. [But] 18-year-olds shouldnt have rifles. Were still young and too immature to handle those kinds of weapons.

Organizer and LCHS senior Ethan Crane, 18, said the protest was intended not to embrace any partisan ideal but to give students a voice and a sense of personal empowerment.

Later Wednesday, students planned to attend a 5:30 p.m. candlelight vigil at Memorial Park. On March 24, Activism USA members are chartering a bus for anyone who wants to join them at the March For Our Lives demonstration in Downtown Los Angeles. On April 20, students will lead a march from campus to Memorial Park in remembrance of the 1999 Columbine school shooting.

What were doing here is the start of something big, and its not going to happen right away, Crane said. Well have to keep pressing our demands from next week to the next. But vigilance now is important, because the more we wait, the more lives will be lost.

To learn more, follow Activism USA on Facebook or on Instagram at ActivismUSA.

sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardinePlans for a small-format Target store in La Canadas Town Center scored a bulls-eye Tuesday, when the citys Planning Commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit and made necessary allowances for off-site sales of alcohol.

With a set of 36 conditions in place, ranging from prohibiting truck deliveries during non-peak hours to implementing a shopping cart control policy, commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the project (Commissioner Mike Hazen was absent), asking for a six-month update on parking and traffic conditions.

The 45,865-square-foot project  which sprang from discussions 18 months ago between executives of the Minnesota-based retail giant and Los Angeles property owners of the former Sport Chalet store, IDS Real Estate Group  has moved swiftly since the lease was signed last August.

La Canadas Design commissioners had mainly complimentary things to say about the appearance and preliminary design for 995 Town Center Drive during a Jan. 21 meeting. Tuesdays planning commission hearing drew two supporters and no opponents.

Commissioners were briefed on a parking utilization study conducted in December, which recorded parking lot usage during weekday and weekend peak hours and projected future needs with the Target store in place.

Community Development Director Robert Stanley said the Town Center shopping area offers 507 parking spaces, including 170 spots on the mezzanine and roof of the main retail store building  more than the Downtown Village Specific Plans requirement, which asks that businesses provide 10 spaces for every 1,000 square feet of developed space.

Still, according to the study, the weekday peak hour of 7 p.m. had an estimated demand of 513 spots, while a 6 p.m. weekend peak hour could require up to 548 spaces.

Theres a deficit there, Stanley acknowledged.

Suggestions to bridge the gap included IDS implementing a traffic management plan among its retail tenants and possibly brokering a deal with city officials for weekend use of 32 spaces located in between the Target store and the newly bought La Canada City Hall directly to the east.

Stanley said city officials were hesitant to make promises, since a portion of the new City Hall building would be leased out to occupants who could ostensibly require parking on weekends and evenings, but would know more after the six-month review period.

Stanley also discussed a traffic study that indicated the store would incur a net increase of 1,937 daily vehicle trips into the Town Center area, including 166 more daytime trips on weekdays and 172 additional daytime weekend trips. Despite that, the traffic study determined there would be little to no negative effect on the areas already busy intersections, he said.

John Dewes, a regional development manager for Target Corp., explained how small-format stores began as a way to break into dense urban areas like Manhattan and San Francisco but quickly showed promise in suburban areas with a lot of customers but no way to support traditional big-box formats.

He said Target officials have wanted to build in La Canada Flintridge for the past few years and view the incoming small-format store not as a place where shoppers would spend an hour or two, but rather 15 or 20 minutes.

The idea is theyre here to just do some infill, quick convenience, in and out, Dewes told commissioners, adding the 170 spaces on the buildings roof and mezzanine levels would be more than sufficient for this style of shopping. Thats double what we have at any of our other small-format stores.

After some discussion and modifications to the list of conditions, commissioners had no problem giving the project a green light.

Putting a small-format Target in this location is well thought out, it fits our community, and I think its an incredible net benefit, said Commission Chair Rick Gunter, addressing Dewes. I know that my family will have pent-up shopping needs that we will be sure to share with you the moment you open.

Store officials have indicated theyre preparing for a grand opening sometime this fall.

sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardineYou may have hiked Half Dome, photographed Horsetail Fall and even slept in a tent cabin, but have you seen Shakespeare in Yosemite?

That is the question.

In honor of Earth Day (April 22) and Shakespeare, A Midsummer Nights Dream will be presented in Yosemite National Park for free.

Shakespeare scholars Katherine Steele Brokaw, a professor at UC Merced, and Paul Prescott, a professor at Englands University of Warwick, have adapted the play to fit the backdrop of Yosemite.

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The pair stumbled upon the parks Lower River Amphitheater while walking through Yosemite Valley one day. Both had the same thought: Wouldnt it be magical to perform Shakespeare here?

As in the 2017 production of Shakespeare in Yosemite, the production uses the park as a backdrop for performances. (Shawn Overton )

In their production, Hippolyta and Theseus and their friends, including four lovers and a disgruntled mother, head to Yosemite National Park to get married.

When disagreements and passions lead the lovers to escape into the backcountry, they encounter the wonders of the natural world.

The play also has an environmental edge.

All the costumes and props will be made from used and recycled materials, Brokaw said. And we plan to construct the fairy wings out of trash thats been left in the park to really emphasize the ways in which all of us are responsible for the problems of the natural world, and its up to us to fix them.

The cast includes Lisa Wolpe, founder of the Los Angeles Womens Shakespeare Company; and Devon Glover, a.k.a. the Sonnet Man, a hip-hop artist known for reworking Shakespeare into rap.

Its a thrill to perform in Yosemite National Park, Brokaw said. To be doing Shakespeares beloved comedy  with all its comedy and poetry and love  with a terrific cast in front of Half Dome: How does it get better than that?

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The free, 90-minute production is open to all park visitors.

Performances will be held:

 2 p.m. April 20 to 22 at the Lower River Amphitheater and

 5:30 p.m. April 20 and 21 at the Half Dome Village Amphitheater

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For more information, visit Shakespeare in Yosemite.

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The gorgeous and the grim in Dublin, Ireland

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravelWeekends are precious  hey, there are generally only 52 of them each year. With that in mind, I optimized one of mine in January by getting far, far away from it all on a mini cruise in the Gulf of California, a wild, pristine body of water off eastern Baja.

(Los Angeles Times )

I saw sea lions, dolphins, thousands of seabirds, millions of stars and not a single Mexican resort or umbrella drink. It was heavenly. But it wasnt inexpensive. The three-night adventure cruise  called an expedition trip because it was aboard a small ship that can maneuver into coves and shallow waters where large cruisers cant go  cost $1,990 a person, double occupancy. I also paid $230 round-trip for airfare from LAX to Cabo San Lucas. But everything else was included: excursions, accommodations, meals, activities and travel from Cabo to La Paz, where the round-trip cruise departed. And I have plenty of memories. No souvenirs, because there werent any shops along the route. But who needs another striped blanket or decorated margarita glass?

THE BED

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National Geographic Sea Bird ship in Baja Mexico, home for the cruise. ( Jeff Litton )

My Base Camp Baja trip, the Lindblad Expeditions cruise in alliance with National Geographic Expeditions, was aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird, a vessel that dates to 1982. Its 164 feet long (by comparison, Royal Caribbeans new Symphony of the Seas is 1,188 feet) , carries only 62 passengers (6,680 for the Symphony) and has none of the bells and whistles of large cruise ships no pools or late-night buffets or even TVs in the staterooms. The cabins are spartan, and none is larger than 120 square feet. The ship was built so long ago that it has no balconies, but my cabin, on the second of three decks, opened to an outside hallway and had two windows. It also had a small but comfy bed. The combination toilet-shower stall was so tight that when I opened the bathroom door, it slammed into the bed. But creature comforts arent the attraction of an adventure cruise. You lack the amenities, said fellow passenger Randy Malcolm of San Diego, but you get to see places youd never see any other way.

THE MEALS

The cruise was a combination adventure-wellness trip featuring yoga and meditation classes along with hiking, kayaking and snorkeling. Meals reflected the wellness theme and had a healthful, clean-and-lean bent. Smoothies followed yoga each morning; a breakfast buffet usually included eggs as well as fruits, vegetables, oatmeal and yogurt. For lunch, a salad bar and sides; at dinner, an entree, often seafood, and healthful sides. Desserts were available, as was alcohol, which was included in the fare. About a third of the 40 cruise participants enjoyed spending the evening in the ships lounge taking advantage of free spirits.

THE FIND

Snorkeler and sea lion at Los Islotes in Baja. (Jeff Litton )

Our journey took us to uninhabited islands, including starkly beautifulIsla Espiritu Santo, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island, which some consider the most beautiful in the Gulf of California, has dozens of bays whose white sand beaches and waters are full of marine life. We kayaked and snorkeled in its turquoise waters, spotting sea lions, manta rays and sea turtles. We also hiked through its red rock country, passing a forest of giant cardon cactus, a relative of Arizonas saguaro that is classified as the largest in the world. The cardon grows as tall as 60 feet, its prickly arms providing homes for desert birds and insects. Lindblad guides accompanied us on our hikes and other excursions, putting nature and conservation into context. A photographer also gave tips on what and how to shoot photos, then met with us back on the ship to help us edit them. In the evening, we returned to the Isla Espiritu Santo for a sunset barbecue.

THE LESSON LEARNED

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Guests roast marshmallows for smores on the beaches Espiritu Santo. (Kyle Furey )

My mini-cruise offered a sampling of the activities that would be available on an extended expedition trip. This type of cruise caters to adventure-seeking travelers whose bucket-list trips include seeing, say, penguins in Antarctica and turtles in Ecuadors Galapagos Islands, cruises that usually last at least 10 days and often are as long as 21. I learned what its like to sail with 40 people instead of 4,000. And I found that adventure cruisers have different goals: learning about conservation, history, geology and becoming a part of nature.

Base Camp Baja voyages will be offered later this year on the National Geographic Venture, a new ship. The four-night sailings will depart Dec. 22, 26 and 30 and Jan. 3 and 7 in 2019. Rates for those cruises will start at $2,650 a person, based on double occupancy. The ship is wheelchair accessible, but the trip is designed for guests who do not have mobility challenges.

ALSO

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travel@latimes.com

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@latimestravelMarielle Franco, a hard-charging City Council member, had become the face of resistance in Rio de Janeiro as she defended the citys marginalized communities, stood up for human rights and railed against a police force she believed was overly aggressive.

She was at it again Wednesday, urging supporters at a rally shed organized to push for better treatment of black women.

Hours later, she was dead, gunned down along with her driver as they traveled through the citys downtown.

Francos death reverberated across the city and beyond as thousands of people gathered at rallies, expressed their outrage on Twitter and wept openly in public. Several human rights organization suggested the shooting was political and was an attack on those who push for improved rights in Brazil. Activists urged authorities to investigate the slaying as an assassination.

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Thousands accompany the coffin of slain councilor Marielle Franco in Rio. (Antonio Lacerda / EPA/Shuterstock )

Police said two men fired nine shots into Francos car and sped off. Francos driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, was also killed. A press officer sitting next to Franco in the back seat was injured.

Civil Police Chief Rivaldo Barbosa declined to release details of the shooting and said no motive for the attack has been established.

Franco, an outspoken defender of human rights since a stray bullet killed a friend during a shootout between police and drug traffickers in 2005, grew up in the Mare complex of favelas, or slums, where violence and police incursions are frequent. Franco defied the odds and won the fifth-highest vote count of any city councilor when she was elected in 2016.

A member of the leftist Socialism and Liberty Party, Franco was embraced by many for speaking out forcibly for favela residents. During her almost 15 months in office, she presented 16 bills, two of which became law  one regulating motorcycle taxis, an important means of transportation in Rios favelas, and one targeting City Hall contracts with social health organizations, which are often subjects of corruption investigations.

Councilwoman Marielle Franco (Mario Vasconcellos )

The day before her death, Franco sent out a tweet questioning the action of police in a homicide.

Another homicide of a young man that could be credited to the police. Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many others will have to die for this war to end? she wrote.

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Her party also pointed to her vocal disapproval of a particular military police unit, which she called the battalion of death.

Marielle had just denounced the military polices brutal and truculent operation in the Iraja region of the Acari community, the Socialism and Liberty Party said in a statement. We demand an immediate and rigorous investigation of this heinous crime. We will not keep quiet!

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also condemned the killings.

Bullet holes in the car Councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver where riding in when they were killed. (Marcelo Sayao / EPA/Shutterstock )

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This is a chilling development and is yet another example of the dangers that human rights defenders face in Brazil, said Jurema Werneck, Amnesty Internationals Brazil director.

As a member of Rio de Janeiros State Human Rights Commission, Marielle worked tirelessly to defend the rights of black women and young people in the favelas and other marginalized communities, Werneck said.

Last month, Franco was named rapporteur of a special commission that was to serve as a watchdog over a controversial federal intervention in Rios public security.

Brazilian Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann said he spoke to the general in charge of the intervention, Walter Souza Braga Netto, after Francos death, and said federal police would help local authorities investigate the shooting.

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The federal government last month put the military in charge of Rios police force amid a jump in violence. So far there are no indications of improvement in security in the city.

Thousands turn out for the arrival of Brazilian councilwoman Marielle Francos coffin (Antonio Lacerda / EPA/Shutterstock )

Protests and memorials were quickly arranged in Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia and other urban centers, hashtags such as #MarielleFranco, #MariellePresente and #NaoFoiAssalto (It wasnt a robbery) began to trend on Twitter, and Brazilians adopted a new online rallying call: Marielle, present, now and forever!

Another dead black woman, wrote Adriana Vasconcellos on a Facebook event page for the protest in Sao Paulo. They kill us in every way, when they murder our children, when they arrest and murder our husbands, when they silence us. But we will not keep quiet. We will keep screaming, denouncing and fighting.

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Langlois is a special correspondentThe leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Britain said Thursday they are united in blaming Russia for a nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal.

In a rare joint statement, President Trump, French President Emmanual Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May said there is no plausible alternative explanation to Russian responsibility in the March 4 attack in England.

They said Russias failure to respond to Britains legitimate request for an explanation further underlines its responsibility.

The leaders said the use of a chemical weapon is an assault on U.K. sovereignty and a breach of international law.

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Britain has expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Moscow over the incident.

Russia is expected to take retaliatory measures soon.

British Prime Minister Theresa May visited the the city of Salisbury on Thursday to see where former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious after being exposed to a nerve agent.Slightly more than four years ago, Stephen Hawking, the famed physicist who died Wednesday, described what was happening in Syria as an abomination, one that the world is watching coldly from a distance.

It was finally time, he wrote, to say no more.

Yet more is what has come to Syria, which has become an emblem of man-made misery in a conflict that marked its seventh anniversary Thursday.

The crisis, which began as part of the Arab Spring uprisings, disintegrated into a hellish civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands. The United Nations gave up tracking the numbers years ago, though some war monitors say roughly 500,000 people have been killed.

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Hundreds of thousands more have been wounded, and more than half the countrys prewar population of 22 million has been displaced, igniting a refugee crisis that has hardened anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe. Some of the countrys most historic cities and sites have been pummeled into wastelands of jagged masonry and rusted rebar  the detritus of lives destroyed in campaigns where siege tactics and indiscriminate attacks have become the norm.

In ways, the conflict has redefined what is permissible in wartime.

It has also become an internecine proxy war that has reshaped alliances and helped reopen the doors to the Cold War era. And it has come at the expense of the people all sides claim to want to protect.

The Syrian conflict has shown the moral bankruptcy and cowardice of the international community. It has exposed the incompetence of the Security Council and the U.N., said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics, in a phone interview Wednesday.

Syrian government forces deploy in the captured town of Beit Sawa in the east Ghouta region. (AFP/Getty Images )

Syria now has become a battleground for regional and global powers, who are basically trying to grab as much territory as possible in order to maximize their interest, he said.

Of the latest wave of cease-fires, one, Resolution 2401, was unanimously voted into place by the United Nations Security Council in February. A few days later, it was followed by a daily truce ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the top ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

They were broken almost before they began.

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In Afrin, a Kurdish-dominated enclave in the countrys northwest, Turkish troops working alongside Syrian rebels all but ignored the cease-fire and pressed their campaign (euphemistically called Operation Olive Branch) to dislodge the U.S.-allied militias that Ankara views as a proxy for a Kurdish separatist movement in its own territory. More than 200 people have been killed, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitor based in Britain.

In east Ghouta, a network of suburbs near Damascus and home to an estimated 350,000 people, the weeks-long assault on the rebels there continued unabated despite widespread condemnation by world powers.

The rebel-held enclave has endured the full gamut of the wars horrors. In 2013, it was the site of a deadly sarin gas attack that killed hundreds and the target of a years-long government siege.

But that has been eclipsed by the no-holds barred assault this year that has forced residents to seek shelter underground, where they pack by the hundreds in basements to escape the rain of mortar shells, artillery and bombs. The number of dead surpassed 1,000 people this week, as loyalist troops clawed back chunks of rebel-held areas and uprooted thousands.

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Elsewhere in the country, the armies of three countries  the U.S., Russia and Turkey  and the special forces of a few more share a battleground with hundreds of rebel and militant factions fighting pro-government, Iranian-backed militias.

In between them stands the U.N., which has been taken hostage as it scrambles to balance the interests of member nations, said Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat and former special envoy to Syria.

During the Cold War, the U.N. was paralyzed because of the disagreements between the major powers, Brahimi said Wednesday. As far as Im concerned were back with the conditions of the Cold War, and the U.N. finds it more and more difficult to act.

Even when aid is delivered, the U.N. as well as other aid groups are criticized for favoring one side over another, said Ali Zaatari, the U.N.s humanitarian coordinator for the country.

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We have a problem in that all parties want us, as humanitarians working in Syria, to absorb and accept their view of the conflict in a bid to draw legitimacy.

And the fighting has raged on, said Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahomas Center for Middle East Studies, in full view of the world.

Syria has engaged a great deal of the worlds attention in the last seven years, Landis said. The problem is that no one really cares about Syria the country, its that they care about the geographic position of Syria and they want leverage.

They care about Syria, but not the Syrian people.

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For many Syrians, the different sides fade into irrelevance when stacked against the horrific toll of the war.

Displaced children from the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northern Syria, which is nearly surrounded by Turkish-led forces (Nazeer al Khatib / AFP/Getty Images )

We believe that the Ghouta is precious for you, Ward Mardini, a pro-opposition activist in the area, wrote to the rebel commanders in Ghouta on her Facebook page. But were tired and the situation demands a realistic solution that stanches the waterfall of blood.

Yet no side seems willing to stop.

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Through its Kurdish allies, the U.S. controls about 30% of Syria, which it views as a necessary buffer against an Iranian-led power crescent stretching from Tehran to Beirut. Assads government, which has shown no interest in negotiations, still vows to reclaim all of Syria.

The biggest winners are perhaps Iran and Russia; their support for Damascus, credited for having kept Assad in power and turning the tide of the war in his favor, means they will lead the charge in a reconstruction bonanza that will require an estimated $250 billion. Iranian and Russian firms have already netted electricity, gas and oil contracts.

But even that has become another battlefield; part of a strategy, Landis said, where no one is allowed to win.

That has been the guiding thread over the last seven years, he said.

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No one has cared enough to win, but nobody wants to lose.

Bulos is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @nabihbulosThe attack took place in the suburb of Raiwind in Lahore, the main town of central Punjab province, near a mosque hosting a religious congregation of some 60,000 people.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - At least nine people were killed and 20 wounded late Wednesday when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a police check-post in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, officials said.



The attack took place in the suburb of Raiwind in Lahore, the main town of central Punjab province, near a mosque hosting a religious congregation of some 60,000 people.



"At least nine people, which included five police and four civilians, have been killed.... Circumstances show it was a suicide attack," Haider Ashraf, a senior police official in Lahore, told reporters.



At least 20 people were wounded in the attack which targeted the police check-post, he said.



Jam Sajjad, a spokesman for the emergency services, confirmed the death toll.



Punjab's chief minister Shahbaz Sharif said: "The martyred policemen are our heroes. Their sacrifices will not go in vain".



The bombing was claimed by the outlawed Tehreeke-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group in a statement sent to AFP, in which the terrorists threatened more attacks on police in retaliation for killing their "associates" in Punjab.



The group was also behind the massacre of more than 150 people at a Peshawar school in December 2014 and the October 2012 shooting of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.







/257Meeting with the Chairman and members of the Assembly of Experts this morning, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, called God's assistance and accompaniment a certain, reassuring and exhilarating promise for the front of Truth.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The Chairman and members of the Assembly of Experts met with Ayatollah Khameneithe Leader of the Islamic Revolutionthis morning March 15, 2018.



Meeting with the Chairman and members of the Assembly of Experts this morning, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, called God's assistance and accompaniment a certain, reassuring and exhilarating promise for the front of Truth.



Pointing to the bright future of Iran, he asserted: "The condition for the realization of this divine promise lies in the duties performed by scholars, officials of the government, and education and media systems in promoting faith in the society, and their practical commitment to piety (taqwa) avoiding aristocratic tendencies, while maintaining hard-work and perseverance.



Pointing to the politically crucial of the Assembly of Experts, and its special position, he added: "At the same time, the Assembly represents prominent scholarly aspects; and it is indeed a living symbol of politics and religion combined."



Referring to Iran's resistance in confronting the major political, financial, military, security and cultural invasion by the enemies, Ayatollah Khamenei stated: Well, some people are unhappy with this situation and think that the Islamic Republic of Iran has started a war, however, this view reveals lack of knowledge; because, the mere nature of the Islamic Revolution and religion based government, its goals and ideals--including monotheism, social justice, confronting oppression, and supporting the oppressed--makes the enemies of the religion fight against us.



According to many verses of the Quran, the Front of Truth has always been exposed to invasion by the Front of Falsehood throughout history.





/257Yemeni army forces have shot down a Saudi-led reconnaissance drone in flight over a border area in the kingdoms southern region of Asir.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Yemeni army forces have shot down a Saudi-led reconnaissance drone in flight over a border area in the kingdoms southern region of Asir.



According to the al-Masirah television network, the Yemeni air defense units downed the unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to the Riyadh-led coalition on Wednesday night over the al-Ulab border crossing between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.



Meanwhile, Yemeni snipers killed a Saudi soldier in the Saudi southwestern border region of Jizan.



Moreover, Yemens artillery unit targeted Saudi forces in Hamezeh village in Jizan region, inflicting damage on them.



Saudi forces, on the other hand, launched airstrikes on residential areas in Tuhayat District in Hudaydah Province, in which a woman and two children were critically injured.



Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.



At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabias military campaign against Yemen. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.



The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.







/129Investigators are confident an Allentown woman found stabbed to death at home was killed by her husband, who then committed suicide, according to the Lehigh County Coroner's Office.

Lwam Tesfamariam, 26, was pronounced dead at 4:22 p.m. Tuesday in a Valley View Apartments unit at 402 S. 15th St. in Allentown, city police and Coroner Scott Grim said Wednesday. She was pronounced dead at home, according to Grim, and police said she was found in bed in Apartment 1109.

Her husband, 35-year-old Ambes Weldeabzgh, also of Allentown, was then pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at a home in the first block of South 13th Street in the city, according to Grim.

"The Allentown Police Department and the Lehigh County district attorney are satisfied that Mr. Weldeabzgh was responsible for the death of Ms. Tesfamariam," the coroner said in a news release.

The deaths remained under investigation by the coroner's office and police department with assistance from District Attorney Jim Martin and the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force.

Investigators say Tesfamariam was killed some time after 11:30 p.m. Monday at the South 15th Street apartment.

Tesfamariam died of sharp-force injuries with possible asphyxiation, and her death was ruled homicide.

Weldeazbzgh's death was a hanging, according to police. His death was ruled suicide, Grim said.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Plans for a $37 million Hotel Bethlehem expansion expected to draw an additional 70,000 visitors to Bethlehem's downtown got revived Thursday afternoon.

The board tasked with overseeing Bethlehem's City Revitalization and Improvement Zone voted 5-0 to include the hotel in the city's nearly 130-acre zone.

The short meeting was in sharp contrast to the last time the board met in December, when the hotel's managing partner, Bruce A. Haines, pulled the expansion plans from consideration in the middle of a CRIZ board meeting.

Haines was upset that members of the CRIZ authority were not ready to approve the project for inclusion in the lucrative tax zone, and said he was not feeling the love.

After the unanimous vote, authority board Chairman Jim Broughal quipped, "My only hope is that Mr. Haines now feels the love."

Broughal thanked city Director of Community and Economic Development Alicia Miller Karner, member Joe Kelly and board solicitor Valentino DiGiorgio for working tirelessly to reach an agreement that's acceptable for all.

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.

Reached by phone following the meeting, Haines joked he was feeling the love from Bethlehem and said he plans to sign the agreement.

"We're moving forward, so hopefully I have the support of the city and all the parking issues have gone away," Haines said.

The agreement approved Thursday allocates 1.1 CRIZ acres to the hotel's expansion and gives the hotel two years to deliver on all of the terms outline in the deal

Plans call for the hotel to 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.

Next, Haines plans to begin negotiations with the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority to obtain a piece of authority-owned land for a new, one-way private drive -- possibly named Haines' Way -- 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.

"We've got to determine how much property we need to acquire," Haines said.

Redevelopment authority Executive Director Tony Hanna said his agency is open to selling the land to Haines. But first the exact property needs to be identified and undergo several assessments.

The sale would be contingent on the project obtaining all the necessary approvals and require the redevelopment authority board and Bethlehem City Council to sign off.

The terms of the deal

The CRIZ agreement approved Thursday requires Hotel Bethlehem to obtain city land development approval for a project "substantially similar" to the one described in its application to the city, addressing earlier concerns raised by some CRIZ board members.

The resolution also formally spells out that the hotel would provide a minimum of 50 public parking spaces in its own garage on at least 300 days each year. The hotel would charge at or above the rate the city charges in its parking authority-owned garages.

Authority board Vice Chairwoman Ann McHale questioned if the 50 public spaces would be reserved in the new garage or the hotel's overflow lot.

Hotel Bethlehem controller Larry Mulligan said it was his understanding they'd be in the deck, which Kelly echoed.

The agreement also 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 Kelly had said made him nervous.

With the CRIZ designation in hand, Haines said he plans to renew his search for investors in the project, saying some of his potential initial partners have moved on to other projects due to the delays.

The CRIZ authority and the hotel have not agreed on how much of the generated increment will go to the expansion versus the authority. Thursday's agreement sets a range of 80 percent to 95 percent. To lock down investors, Haines said, he will need to know that final figure.

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. Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez backed the hotel expansion and two other projects for inclusion in 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 authority board will have to move on the Long Street decertification in the near future, Karner said. And city council soon will consider a zoning amendment for CRIZ properties that impacts the hotel expansion.

The hotel will have to submit land development plans to the city planning commission.

Once all of the terms in Thursday's agreement have been met, the city will apply to the state for inclusion in the CRIZ.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Bethlehem police arrested six people in the past two weeks in scams that targeted elderly people and involved tens of thousands of dollars, Chief Mark DiLuzio said.

Two other arrests were made last month as well, DiLuzio said.

On Feb. 20, an elderly man in Arkansas received a call that said his grandson was involved in a crash and arrested on a drunken driving charge, DiLuzio said. The caller said the grandson needed $5,000 and requested it be mailed to 517 Dakotah St. in Bethlehem, DiLuzio said. The victim did as asked, DiLuzio said.

A few days later, the victim received another call stating the woman his grandson hit in the crash was pregnant and the baby died, DiLuzio saud. Due to more serious charges, the victim was asked for another $5,000, and it was paid, DiLuzio said.

Six people -- Yahair Delcarmen Diaz, upper left; Vincent Anth Sorrentino, upper center; Reynaldo J. Garcia-Martinez, upper right; Dariel Abreu-Jose, lower left; Guillermo Fanjul, lower center, and Christian P. Santana, lower right -- were charged by Bethlehem police in a scam to defraud grandparents in Arkansa and Texas. (Courtesy photos | For lehighvalleylive.com)

On Feb. 24, another call asked for $2,000 for bail but this time the victim contacted the Chicot Sheriff's Office in Arkansas, DiLuzio said.

Working with the sheriff's department in Arkansas and U.S. postal inspectors, a drop was set up at the home in Bethlehem and the following two people were arrested on a charge of conspiracy to commit theft by deception:

Yahaira Delcarmen Diaz, 32, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Bail was set at $15,000 and was posted Feb. 28. Her preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 2:30 p.m. March 26 in District Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez's courtroom.

Vincent Anth Sorrentino, 28, of Johnson, New York. Bail was set at $10,000 and was posted March 4. His preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9:30 a.m. April 4 in the same court.

On Monday, an elderly person in Texas received a similar phone call that their grandson was in a DUI crash and needed $6,100 for bail, DiLuzio said. It was requested the cash be mailed to 406 Pawnee St in Bethlehem, DiLuzio said. The victim sent the money, the chief added.

A few days later, another $14,000 was requested, with the same pitch that a woman in the other vehicle was pregnant and the baby died, DiLuzio said. The victim contacted the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department detectives, DiLuzio said.

Working with the Texas sheriff's department and the postal service, a drop was set up at the Bethlehem home, the chief said.

This time four people were arrested when they came to pick up the package., DiLuzio said. They face the same charges as the other two.

Reynaldo J. Garcia-Martinez, 27, of the Bronx, New York. He was freed March 13 after 10 percent of $15,000 bail was posted. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. March 27 in Matos Gonzalez's court.

Dariel Abreu-Jose, 24, of New York City. He was freed Tuesday after posting 10 percent of $35,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. March 27 in Matos Gonzalez's court.

Guillermo Fanjul, 39, of the Bronx, New York. He is being held in lieu of $35,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. March 27 in Matos Gonzalez's court.

Christian P. Santana, Palisades Park, New York. He is being held in lieu of $35,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. March 27 in Matos Gonzalez's court.

Charges are also being filed in Arkansas and Texas, DiLuzio said. Federal charges are pending, he added.

"These scams or frauds prey on the elderly citizens in our society," DiLuzio said in the news release. "If you are elderly and you receive a call like this or any call requesting cash money, please contact the Bethlehem Police Department. If your loved one is in trouble somewhere, we can verify that for you.

"If you are a caregiver or family member taking care of someone elderly, and they receive a call like this, please contact the Bethlehem Police department. Never send cash in the mail to anyone."

For more information on these or other scams, contact Detective Sean Molony, the department's crime prevention officer, at 610-8650-7187.

"Together, let's put these predators that prey on our elderly in a prison where they belong," DiLuzio said.

Attorneys for Diaz, Sorrentino and Fanjul couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Court papers didn't show attorneys of the other three.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Pennsylvania prosecutors are dropping all assault charges against members of a now-closed Penn State fraternity in the hazing death of a pledge, sparing defendants the most serious allegations any had faced.

The attorney general's office announced Thursday that it will continue to pursue involuntary manslaughter charges against five former members of Beta Theta Pi in the February 2017 death of 19-year-old pledge Tim Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey. But those don't carry the lengthy prison sentences that some of the assault charges did.

The state is now handling the case on referral from a new county district attorney.

A judge had thrown out the most serious charges in September but the county prosecutor at the time refiled them, including eight felony counts of aggravated assault.

Prosecutors are still reviewing the case, which involves 26 defendants.The Lehigh Valley held steady in 2017 as the fifth-busiest metro area in the Northeast, a region led by New York-Newark-Jersey City.

And with a gross domestic product of $39.1 billion, the Lehigh Valley set a record in terms of total economic output.

"The Lehigh Valley's economy has never been better. Yes, never," said Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. "It's the largest in our history, surpassing those good ole days of Steel."

Cunningham shared the economic milestones Wednesday evening during the annual meeting of the LVEDC at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. Looming outside the windows, the massive blast furnaces harkened back to the days of Bethlehem Steel Corp.

The blast furnaces went cold in 1995, followed by the closure of Bethlehem Steel's flagship plant 20 years ago this month, noted Cunningham, who was 32 years old at the time and three months into his tenure as Bethlehem mayor.

"With all the change of two decades, it's hard to remember that economy," Cunningham said in prepared remarks. "Some in this room came of age after it was gone. For them, it's always been history."

With a much more diverse economy of 2018, the Lehigh Valley region is better off today than when the steel mill roared, Cunningham asserted.

"Our air is cleaner, as is the river, jobs are safer, our economy is more diverse, our downtowns are vibrant again, technology has improved and expanded health care, our manufacturing base and the economy," Cunningham said in his presentation. "The economy and population are growing as new businesses and people come here or start here."

Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp., kicks off the group's annual meeting March 14, 2018, at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com)

That all-time high GDP makes the Lehigh Valley the 65th largest economy in the United States, Cunningham said, citing U.S. Department of Commerce data.

"More economic output is generated here than in the entire states of Vermont and Wyoming," he said. "If the Lehigh Valley were a country we would be the 87th largest in the world."

At $7.9 billion, finance, insurance and real estate comprise the Lehigh Valley's biggest industry sector, followed by $6.9 billion in manufacturing and about $5.3 billion each in professional/business services and education/health care.

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton's fifth-place rank, for a second consecutive year, in Northeast metro areas' economic development is according to Site Selection, a magazine that reports on new development in every major region and state in the nation. The report looks at number of projects, investments and jobs.

With 18 projects, the Lehigh Valley bested the metro areas of Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls and Rochester in New York, Providence-Warwick in Rhode Island-Massachusetts and the Pennsylvania regions of Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton and Lancaster.

"You only need to take a look at the names that make up that Top Five list to see what an exceptional accomplishment this is," LVEDC board Vice Chairman Dan McCarthy said in a presentation prepared for Wednesday's meeting. "The Top Five are: New York City, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and the Lehigh Valley."

The Valley's next-biggest economic sectors, ranging from $2.3 billion to $1.6 billion, are -- in ranked order -- retail, information, transportation and warehousing, and arts, accommodation and food service.

Health care and social assistance comprise the Valley's biggest jobs sector, with 55,830 positions, or 17 percent of the region's workforce. Second is retail, with 34,380 jobs, followed by manufacturing, at 32,388. Transportation and warehousing was the fastest-growing sector in 2017, reaching nearly 28,000 jobs -- about 10,000 more than five years ago.

Median income is up 4.1 percent over the last five years, with median household income reaching $60,000, according to the LVEDC. The unemployment rate is 4.8 percent with 345,000 people in the region's workforce, 92,000 of whom travel into the Lehigh Valley from Berks, Schuylkill, Carbon, Monroe, Bucks and Montgomery counties.

"One of our biggest challenges is keeping pace with demand for land, labor, skills and new infrastructure," Cunningham said in his presentation. "The market has added 20 million square feet of industrial space in the last five years for an inventory of 116 million. There is an additional 5 million under construction today.

"With a vacancy rate under 5 percent, the Lehigh Valley is now second in the world in industrial rent growth above 10 percent a year."

The Valley's urban centers are continuing to draw investment, with 25 companies moving into the three cities during the last five years, bringing 2,315 jobs.

"This New Lehigh Valley is being fueled by our abundance and wide-range of colleges and universities, which conferred nearly 10,000 degrees during the last academic year, including about 2,500 from community colleges," Cunningham said. "Fifteen percent of the total community college degrees in Pennsylvania came from the Lehigh Valley. We are a center of innovation. More than 5,000 technology patents have been issued to Lehigh Valley companies and workers since the year 2000."

Looking ahead, land-use and road issues remain a concern, according to Cunningham.

"They are all solvable through smart planning, farmland preservation investments and increased funding to widen and improve roads and intersections, along with increasing the use of rail to move freight," he said. "It will just take a little time --- as it did with the resurgence of our cities."

Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. 2017 Annual Report by Anonymous arnc2g2N on Scribd

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Pennsylvania prosecutors are dropping all assault charges against members of a now-closed Penn State fraternity in the hazing death of a pledge, sparing defendants the most serious allegations any had faced.

The attorney general's office announced Thursday that it will continue to pursue involuntary manslaughter charges against five former members of Beta Theta Pi in the February 2017 death of 19-year-old pledge Tim Piazza.

But those don't carry the lengthy prison sentences that some of the assault charges did.

The state is now handling the case on referral from a new county district attorney.

Piazza, from Readington Township, was a Hunterdon Central Regional High School graduate.

Piazza died of a fractured skull and other injuries two days after drinking at the pledge ceremony and falling down basement stairs.

Prosecutors said he consumed 18 alcoholic beverages in less than an hour-and-a-half inside the Beta Theta Pi house in State College prior to his death.

Authorities initially charged 18 students in Piazza's death.

A judge in early September threw out the most serious charges -- involuntary manslaughter and felony aggravated assault -- against eight defendants. But prosecutors refiled all 16 of those charges.

Prosecutors are still reviewing the case, which involves 26 defendants.

Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Older Slate Belt residents knew Lisa A. Shafer as a friend, a bingo caller, a gun club caretaker and person they could trust for financial advice.

They now know her as an alleged thief who bilked the Pocono Slate Belt Shooting Association and her mostly retired friends out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Pocono Slate Belt Shooting Association is on Lake Minsi Road in Upper Mount Bethel Township. (Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com)

The 50-year-old Wind Gap woman was arraigned Thursday on dozens of counts of theft, forgery and fraud. The amount she is charged with taking from the club, its insurance company and friends, plus the amount she reportedly told a grand jury she took from friends, totals more than $430,000.

Club President Carey Clark said he went to police in 2016 after he found out the club's real estate taxes were unpaid. The further he dug, the worse the finances looked.

"It was a mess," he said.

Court records say Shafer wrote out more than $75,000 in checks to herself using club funds dating back to 2008, when she and her husband were named caretakers and moved in to the club-owned home. The clay bird trap shooting club is in the 700 block of Lake Minsi Road in Upper Mount Bethel Township.

She allegedly pocketed most of the $98,000 payment the club received from lead reclamation from bullets found on club grounds. She kept suspicious club members off her trail by creating a fake law firm and fake state revenue officer, both of which she claimed signed off on investigations clearing her of wrongdoing back in 2012, court records say.

She allegedly told a Northampton County grand jury in 2017 that she used the money for personal expenses and gambling. Records say she gambled heavily at the Mount Airy Casino Resort.

"She advised she had free rein and at one point she just felt like (the funds were) hers and it got out of control," the court records say.

Records say she bilked several friends out of money, all of whom were over 60 years old.

She convinced club member Peter Gheller of Bangor to invest more than $50,000 in her made-up investment firm, court records say. She allegedly told the grand jury she took $70,000 to $75,000 from him.

She convinced widower John Duvall to sell his home, move in with her and give her power of attorney, records say. He cleared $163,000 from the sale of the home in Washington Township, Northampton County, records say. Records say Duvall met her at a bingo club where Shafer called the numbers. He wound up living with her in a motel in 2015, according to police.

She allegedly bilked more than $28,000 out of Patrick Donahue of Upper Mount Bethel Township from 2014 through 2016. She told him the money was capital for a scheme to buy shotgun shells and supplies from a sporting goods company going bankrupt. She allegedly told him she would sell the goods for a profit. She didn't have a license to sell gun supplies and never bought the supplies anyway, the court records say.

Lisa Shafer's home on Taft Street in Wind Gap. (Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com)

She allegedly charged $15,000 on a credit card belonging to Lester Harris of Polk Township, Monroe County. He was a gun club member and gave her permission to use the card to make purchases for the club, but she ran up charges for herself, records say.

She allegedly convinced Donald Menecola of Washington Township, Northampton County, to write her a check for $9,300 to buy targets for the club. Shafer allegedly told the grand jury she took $41,000 to $42,000 from Menecola.

She allegedly took $8,000 to $10,000 from Brett Hardenstine between 2012 and 2014. He moved in with her at the caretaker house, handed over his paychecks to her for years and as club president authorized her to make purchases on behalf of the club, according to court records. He lives in Barrett Township, Monroe County, records say.

Shafer allegedly used the credit card of Staci Horne of Upper Mount Bethel Township to buy more than $6,000 worth of clay targets without permission. Horne previously gave Shafer her the credit card number so she could buy shotgun shells for Horne's sons, records say.

Shafer also allegedly put in bogus insurance claims for more than $28,000 on behalf of the club. The claims with Nationwide Insurance were for shooting traps that weren't damaged, records say.

Clark said he narrowly beat out Shafer in a vote for club president in 2016. Otherwise she may have gotten away with taking even more money. Prosecutors empaneled a grand jury to gather evidence about the scope and depth of Shafer's alleged schemes. It took two years of thorough investigating and testimony to build the case, Clark said.

Pennsylvania State Police at Belfast and the Northampton County Detective Bureau investigated the thefts, with assistance from the office of Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.

Shafer is charged with eight counts of theft, seven counts of receiving stolen property, five counts of criminal use of a communication facility, two counts of forgery, two counts of access device fraud and single counts of insurance fraud and unlawful use of a computer.

She was arraigned Thursday by District Judge Alicia Zito and sent to prison in lieu of posting $50,000 bail.

Shafer had charges dismissed in 2016 after she was accused of assaulting her elderly roommate at their home in the 100 block of Taft Street in Wind Gap. She allegedly scattered kitty litter around the home, took kitty litter hardened with urine and shoved it in the roommate's face and hit the roommate with a chair.

The dispute was allegedly sparked by a disagreement over how to keep a checkbook, police said at the time. She also allegedly threatened to stab the roommate if he didn't do her laundry.

Simple assault and terroristic threats charges were dropped. Shafer pleaded guilty to summary harassment and paid a fine.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.LifestyleofPeace.com - What is truth? Who is God? What is the meaning of life? On this blog we explore the interactions between Christianity and topics like culture, politics and philosophy. The word says we must love God and love others. Jesus Christ is God come to us; He is alive. God will call all of us to give an explanation of how we lived. Trust in Jesus and receive forgiveness; a new life. Stand for the truth. Glorify Christ in how you live. A new world awaits.Stock Market News

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Broker tips: Hammerson, Tesco, Imperial Brands 15-03-2018 14:47



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Market buzz: NEX receives approach from CME, Unilever picks Rotterdam 15-03-2018 07:23



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Thursday newspaper round-up: Trade deals, pennies, BT, Aviva, cars 15-03-2018 06:50



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukFrom the earliest civilisations right up to the start of the Industrial Revolution, humans used sheer muscle power, organisation skills and ingenious mechanics to lift weights that would be impossible to handle by most power cranes in operation today.

The most common tower crane used in construction today has a lifting capacity of some 12 to 20 tonnes. For quite a few construction projects in ancient history, this type of crane would be completely inadequate.

The majority of stones that make up the almost 140 discovered Egyptian pyramids have a weight of "only" 2 to 3 tonnes each, but all of these structures (built between 2750 and 1500 BC) also hold stone blocks weighing 50 tonnes, sometimes more. The temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak contains a labyrinth of 134 columns, standing 23 metres (75 feet) tall and supporting crossbeams weighing 60 to 70 tonnes each. The 18 capital blocks of Trajan's column in Rome weigh more than 53 tonnes and they were lifted to a height of 34 metres (111 feet). The Roman Jupiter temple in Baalbek contains stone blocks weighing over 100 tonnes, raised to a height of 19 metres (62 feet). Today, to lift a weight of 50 to 100 tonnes to these heights, you need a crane like this.

Occasionally, our forefathers lifted even heavier stones. The gravestone of Theoderic the Great in Ravenna (around 520 AD) is a 275 tonne stone block that was lifted to a height of 10 metres. The temple dedicated to Pharaoh Khafre in Egypt is made up of monolithic blocks weighing up to 425 tonnes. The largest Egyptian obelisk weighed more than 500 tons and stands more than 30 metres tall, while the largest obelisk in the Kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia (4th century AD), raised up to a similar height, weighed 520 tonnes. The Colossi of Memnon, two statues of 700 tonnes each, were erected to a height of 18 metres and the walls in the Roman Baalbek temple complex (1st century BC) contain almost 30 monoliths weighing 300 to 750 tons each.

Only the most powerful contemporary cranes could handle stones of this weight (see the picture on the left, specifications here).

Raising construction materials to impressive heights seemed to be no problem either. The Alexandria lighthouse (3rd century BC) stood more than 76 metres (250 feet) tall. The Egyptian pyramids rise up to 147 metres. During the Middle Ages some 80 large cathedrals and around 500 large churches were built with a height of up to 160 metres - out of reach for all but the most recent top model crawler cranes (picture above, right).



Human lifting power



Considering the type of cranes that would be needed today, one wonders how our forefathers were able to lift such impressive weights without the help of sophisticated machinery. The fact is, they had advanced machinery at their disposal. The only difference with contemporary cranes is that these machines were powered by humans instead of fossil fuels.

Basically, there is no limit to the weight that humans can lift by sheer muscle power. Nor is there a limit to the height to which this weight can be lifted. The only advantage that fossil fuelled powered cranes have brought us, is a higher lifting speed. Of course, this does not mean that one man can lift anything to any height, or that we can lift anything to any height if we just bring enough people together. But, starting more than 5,000 years ago, engineers designed a collection of machines that greatly enhanced the lifting power of an individual or a group of people. Lifting devices were mainly used for construction projects, but (later) also for the loading and unloading of goods, for hoisting sails on ships, and for mining purposes. (picture credit).

The advantage that fossil fuel powered cranes have brought us, is a higher lifting speed



Initially, the lifting speed of lifting machines was extremely low, while the amount of man power required to operate them remained very high. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, however, just before steam power took over, human powered lifting devices became so elaborate that one man could lift a 15 tonne truck in no time, using only one hand.

Mechanical advantage

Any lifting device has a certain mechanical advantage (MA), the factor by which it multiplies the input force into an output force. A lower input force must always be applied over a greater distance than the greater output force travels, and the ratio of the distances is the velocity ratio (VR). In theory, the mechanical advantage (MA) = the velocity ratio (VR), so that in a machine with a mechanical advantage of 2 to 1, the input force is half the output force but must be exerted over twice the distance. In practice, friction always reduces the ideal mechanical advantage of a machine. (source).

Ramps & levers

Although some think that the Egyptians had more sophisticated lifting machinery at their disposal (illustration below), most historians agree that the Egyptians made use of only the most simple lifting devices: inclined planes (ramps, illustrations below, on the right) and levers (the principle of a seesaw or teeter-totter, illustration on the right). Ramps were (probably) also used to raise obelisks.

By moving an object up a ramp rather than completely vertical, the amount of force required is reduced at the expense of increasing the distance it must travel. The mechanical advantage of an inclined plane equals the length divided by the height of the slope. The mechanical advantage of a lever is the distance between the fulcrum and the point where the force is applied, divided by the distance between the fulcrum and the weight to be lifted.

While the methods of the Egyptians offered a considerable mechanical advantage over simply pulling up the load vertically by means of a rope, the required man power remained very high: not only to tow or flip over the stones (it must have taken around 50 men to tow a 2.5 tonne stone block), but also to build and later remove the enormous earthen ramps.

Historians estimate that the workforce to build a pyramid consisted of 20,000 to 50,000 men, sometimes more. While a structure like that could be built today in a few years time with power cranes and a small workforce, most pyramids took decades to complete.

Birth of the crane: the pulley

The first cranes appear in Greece from about the late 6th or early 5th century BC. The Romans, more eager to build large monuments, adopted the technology and developed it further. The earliest cranes consisted of a rope passed over a pulley. Before it found an application in the lifting of objects, the single pulley was used from the 8th or 9th century BC onwards for drawing water from wells (the shaduf). A single pulley offers no mechanical advantage in itself, but it changes the direction of pull: it is easier to pull down instead of haul up. Pushing vertically upwards with one hand generates about 150 Newton, while pushing vertically downwards with one hand generates about 250 Newton (source).

Gradually, the mechanical advantage of cranes was increased with additional technology. A major improvement from the 4th century BC and still in use today, is the compound pulley: a combination of single pulleys in a block. The mechanical advantage equals the amount of pulleys used.

A crane with a triple pulley (a "Trispastos") has two pulleys attached to the crane and a free pulley suspended from them. It offers a mechanical advantage of 3 to 1. A crane with five pulleys in a similar arrangement (dubbed a "Pentaspostos") offers a mechanical advantage of 5 to 1.

Using a compound pulley a man can lift more than he is otherwise able to. If a single man pulling a rope can exert a force of 50 kg, he can raise (or lower) 150 kg using a Trispastos and 250 kg using a Pentaspostos. The same goes for the rope. A rope with a tensile strength of 50 kilograms can be used to lift (or lower) 150 kilograms if 3 pulleys are used, and 250 kilograms if 5 pulleys are used.

A crane with five pulleys allows you to lift five times more than you are otherwise able to - but the rope has to be pulled over five times the distance



The downside of the compound pulley is, again, distance and thus lifting speed. Lifting a load 3 metres using a Trispastos will require pulling the rope for 9 metres, lifting a load 3 metres using a Pentaspastos will require pulling the rope for 15 metres.

Images: John Spirko.

In theory, any number of pulleys can be used, but because of friction ancient systems were limited to five pulleys. If more lifting power was needed, rather than increasing the number of pulleys within each block, the Romans used two or more 3- or 5- pulley sets, with different gangs working each (a "Polyspastos"). Of course, every rope could also be pulled by several men at once. The power loss due to friction for Roman (and medieval) cranes is estimated to be 20 percent at most (source).

Winches and capstans



Another improvement was the introduction of the windlass (or winch) and the capstan, which both substitute for the pulling of the rope. They were invented around the same time as the compound pulley. The only difference between the winch and the capstan is that the former has a horizontal axle and the latter has a vertical one.

Both use handspikes or levers inserted into slots on a drum to gain a mechanical advantage in circular rotation, given by the radius of the handspike to the radius of the drum or axle. The mechanical advantage of a winch is the radius of the axle to the radius of the handspikes. Therefore, an axle of 5 centimetres (2 inches) with handspikes 30 centimetres (1 ft) long has a mechanical advantage of 6 to 1. A man operating the winch can thus lift 6 times more than he would when just pulling a rope. However, to wind up 1 metre of rope the handspikes would need to be turned 6 metres.

The treadwheel crane remained in use until the end of the 1800s



Combined with the compound pulley, winches or capstans already offer impressive performance. One man operating a Pentaspostos and exerting a force of 25 or 50 kilograms at the winch described above can lift a load of 750 to 1500 kilograms (25 or 50 kg x 6 x 5 = 750 or 1500 kg), while the Egyptians needed 30 to 60 men to haul up a 1500 kilogram stone block up a ramp.

Just like ropes, winches and capstans can be operated by multiple people (winches by two people, capstans by many more). Capstans can also be operated by draft animals. Four men operating a capstan with a similar mechanical advantage as the winch described above, each exerting 25 to 50 kg of power, can lift - ignoring friction - 3 to 6 tonnes (100 or 200 kg x 6 x 5 = 3000 or 6000 kg). However, in both examples, for every metre the load is raised, they will have to pull in 30 metres of rope.



Treadwheels

An even more powerful lifting aid than the winch or capstan was the treadwheel. It was first mentioned in 230 BC and it remained a very important element of cranes up until the second half of the 19th century. Treadwheels, which usually had a diameter of 4 to 5 metres, have a greater mechanical advantage than winches or capstans, because of the larger radius of the wheel compared to the radius of the axle. Moreover, the power generated by a person's arm and shoulder is replaced by the greater power of a person walking (not running) within the wheel. A treadwheel with a wheel radius of 7 feet (213 cm) and a drum radius of 0.5 feet (15 cm) has a mechanical advantage of 14 to one. This concerns a treadwheel with a diameter of 456 centimetres: 2 x 213 cm radius of the wheel + 2 x 15 cm radius of the drum (diameter = 2 x radius). (source).

With a mechanical advantage of 14 to one, one man in a treadwheel operating a Pentaspastos and exerting a force of 50 kilograms could thus lift a load of 3500 kilogram or 3.5 tonnes. That's about 70 times more than he could lift with a simple pulley.

Some cranes (especially the harbour cranes from the middle ages and onwards) were equipped with two treadwheels attached to the same axle, bringing the total lifting power of a human powered crane to some 7,000 kilograms or 7 tonnes. Because many treadwheels were also wide enough for two people walking side by side, a crane with two treadwheels could be powered by 4 people, which brings the maximum lifting power at 14 tonnes - comparable to that of a common modern tower crane. Even taking into account a loss of 20 percent due to friction, this is still 11.2 tonnes. (picture credit).

A large treadwheel gives a mechanical advantage of 14 to 1



Of course, a mechanical advantage of 14 to 1 also meant that the men had to walk 140 metres inside the wheel to lift a load to a height of 10 metres. If they walk 5 kilometres per hour, the load would be lifted at a speed of 0.35 km/h or almost 6 metres per minute (the velocity of the wheel divided by the velocity of the load = radius of the wheel divided by the radius of the drum).(source).

Lifting towers



While the lifting capacity of a ancient treadwheel crane is impressive, attentive readers will have noticed that Roman buildings contained stone blocks that were considerably heavier than that. The Romans also shipped a few dozens of obelisks from Egypt and re-erected them in their cities - the heaviest of these weighing more than 500 tonnes. How did they manage this with 6 or 12 ton cranes? Basically, in the same way that we handle very heavy loads, by combining multiple lifting devices.

One method was to build a gigantic lifting tower powered by multiple capstans on the ground. Although the mechanical advantage of a capstan is considerably lower than that of a treadwheel, they could be powered by much more people and so less machines would be needed. Moreover, they allowed for the auxiliary power of draft animals.The method of lifting towers is briefly mentioned by some Roman authors, but detailed information about it comes from an engineer who lived 1000 years later: Domenic Fontana, master builder of the Vatican.

In 1586, Pope Sixtus V decided that the 344 ton obelisk at the Circus Maximus had to move to the square in front of the newly built Saint Peter's Basilica. A mere 256 metres further, but nevertheless the huge stone had to be lowered, transported, and erected again.

Fontana documented the undertaking extensively in his 1589 book "The movement of the Vatican obelisk". By then, lifting materials, devices and methods had hardly changed since Roman times, so we can assume that the Romans raised the same stone in a similar manner.

The job was done using a wooden construction 27.3 metres tall, ropes up to 220 metres long, 40 capstans, 800 men and 140 horses (when lowering the obelisk the workforce consisted of 907 men and 75 horses). While the whole undertaking took more than a year - including the transport of the obelisk (on rollers) and the assembly of the tower, the capstans and other lifting machinery - the stone was erected in just 13 hours and 52 minutes. As a result of this successful operation, many more obelisks were moved around Rome, one of these weighing 510 tonnes.

The obelisk was raised using a wooden lifting tower 27.3 metres tall, ropes up to 220 metres long, 40 capstans, 800 men and 140 horses



The spectators watching the event were ordered not to speak or make any noise under the penalty of death, and police were used to enforce the orders. Silence was crucial in maintaining communication between those monitoring the ropes and pulleys at the top of the tower and those on the ground operating the capstans. The signal to bein turning was given by a trumpet; the signal to stop was given by a bell. (source).

The reinvention of Cranes in the Middle Ages



Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the use of elaborate cranes in Europe largely disappeared for more than 800 years. Cranes operated by winches are again recorded from the late 12th century onwards, large treadwheel cranes only reappear in the 13th (France) and 14th (England) centuries - a bit later than windmills and waterwheels.

Compared to Roman times, very little technical information was written down during the Middle Ages. Most of our historical knowledge comes from paintings and from illustrations in manuscripts. Below, a fragment of "The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563).

Luckily, a few treadwheel cranes have been preserved, all of them in the attics of churches and cathedrals. Large cranes were an absolute necessity in the building of the gothic churches in the late Middle Ages, buildings that were much higher than even the tallest Roman monuments. Furthermore, the working area on these sites was rather limited compared to Roman conditions, and both factors led to a different use of cranes.

Gothic churches and cathedrals

Most probably, cranes were installed inside the building, initially on the ground, and moved upwards (and also sidewards) as the construction work proceeded, being dismantled and reassembled multiple times. When the church was finished, some of these cranes were left above the vaulting and below the roof where they might come in handy for repairs. (illustration below, source).

One of these treadwheel cranes, in Britain's Canterbury Cathedral, was used for a renovation project in the 1970s (picture on the right, source). It dates from the late 15th century, could accommodate one to two labourers and has a diameter of 4.6 metres. Medieval illustrators sometimes depicted cranes mounted on the outside of the walls, but this was done probably because it made better paintings - the walls of gothic churches and cathedrals were generally too thin to support a heavy crane and its load.

Another well described medieval lifting device is the large treadwheel slewing crane that stood on top of the 157 metre high Cologne Cathedral in Germany for almost 450 years (on the right, source). It was erected in 1400 and dismantled only in 1842. The crane housed two treadwheels, was 15.7 metres high and had a 15.4 metre long jib which could traverse the entire working area - basically functioning like a modern tower crane.

Harbour cranes

A new development in the Middle Ages was the stationary harbour crane, powered by treadwheels. It was not used by the Greeks or the Romans, possibly because they had a large enough reservoir of slave labour at their disposal. The Roman standard shipping container, the amphora, was rather small and could easily and rapidly be loaded and unloaded using a human conveyor belt and a ramp (source).

Harbour cranes first appeared in Flanders, Holland (illustration on the right, source) and Germany in the 13th century, and in England in the 14th century. They were more powerful than cranes used in construction, and equipped with not one but two treadwheels having a larger diameter of up to 6.5 metres.

These more potent "engines" were not so much aimed at heavier loads but rather at higher lifting (and lowering) speeds. In loading and unloading goods, speed was more important than in construction, where the tempo was dictated by the slow progress of the masons and carpenters.

Built by millwrights

Dockside treadwheel cranes were frequently capped by a wooden roof to protect the mechanics and the workers from the rain. These permanent structures had much in common with windmills, and they were most probably built by the same craftsmen.

Analogous to post windmills and tower windmills, there were post cranes and tower cranes: the former were wooden structures which pivoted on a central vertical axle, the latter (mostly built in Germany) were masonry towers with only the cap and the jib arm rotating.

Harbour cranes were not adopted in Southern Europe and their total number in the whole of medieval Europe was rather limited compared to the number of windmills: about one hundred large harbour cranes have been discovered (source). Around a dozen of them are still standing.

The most powerful harbour cranes had two treadwheels, each walked by 3 to 4 men



The most powerful treadwheel harbour cranes were built in the London docklands in the 1850s, having two treadwheels of up to 3 metres wide, each walked by 3 to 4 men (source). These are not to be confused with the even wider treadwheels used in 19th century prisons, where the men walked on the outside of the wheel. The two images above show medieval harbour cranes from Bruges. The crane in the large picture is a late model, built in 1765 and demolished in 1886 (source). The small picture shows a similar crane from the 1500s (source).

More flexible cranes



Today's cranes can turn their jib 360 degrees (slewing) and move the load horizontally along the jib. Initially, most cranes used in medieval construction work were only capable of a vertical lift. The load could only be manipulated laterally by the crane master on the ground, using a small rope attached to the load. Dockside cranes introduced the slewing crane, of which the first evidence appears in the 14th century.

Slewing became a common feature of construction cranes in the 1600s (illustration on the right), which shortened work cycles considerably.

The first crane that allowed a horizontal movement of the load appeared in a 1550 book of Georgius Agricola, but a real-world version was only launched in 1666 by Frenchman Claude Perrault. A trolley was moved along the whole length of the jib by means of a complicated rope system in which two ropes were wound and unwound via a spindle attached to the trolley. (source).

Let's not forget that Greek and Roman cranes were capable of very limited horizontal movement, too, by lowering or raising the masts a bit. Moreover, the Greeks already designed a kind of slewing crane, which was a lifting device as described earlier but resting only on one mast, directed and kept in balance by extra men on the ground holding ropes.

Safety mechanisms (to prevent plummeting loads and sudden reverse rotation of the treadwheel or capstan) were introduced only in the late eighteenth century.

Iron cranes



In the 19th century, three important innovations appeared. The first one was the use of iron instead of wood structures and gearings, which made cranes stronger and more efficient. The first cast iron crane was constructed in 1834. That same year, the wire rope was invented, a much stronger alternative to the natural fibre rope or the metal chain. Finally, in 1851, the third game-changing innovation appeared: the steam-powered crane. With the arrival of steam power, any load could be lifted at any speed, as long as the engine was powerful enough. (source)

Wire rope was soon in widespread use, but the other two innovations only caught on slowly. Wood, sometimes combined with iron, continued to be the material of choice for many cranes well into the twentieth century, especially in regions where timber was plentiful. And while more and more steam cranes appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century, hand-powered cranes kept being sold and used in large amounts. A book on crane technology, published in 1904, still devoted half of its pages to manually operated cranes. Bicycle cranes were sold, too (picture on the right, source).

Logically, it was also this era that produced the most powerful muscle powered cranes ever designed: those composed of iron structures and gearworks, using wire ropes, but not yet powered by steam. One peculiar example of this intermediate technology is shown above: a 1843 hand driven gantry crane for transferring carriages. Equally interesting, though made entirely of wood, are these early 1900's treadwheel cranes in the Netherlands, used to haul up boats over land (picture below).

A book on crane technology, published in 1904, still devoted half of its pages to manually operated cranes



The best example, however, are the dockside cranes of William Fairbairn, patented in 1850. Fairbairn riveted together two iron plates, creating an arch-shaped jib that was far more stable and practical than the previous straight wooden or iron jibs. Fairbairn steam cranes became very well known and some of them have been preserved.

Most powerful hand crane ever

Much less known, however, is that for a short time these powerful cranes were sold as hand powered machines. Because Fairbairn described these cranes in detail in the 1860 edition of his book "Useful information for engineers", we know exactly what the - impressive - mechanical advantage of their gearings was.

The first hand-driven Fairbairn harbour cranes were intended to lift weights of up to 12 tons to a height of 30 feet (9 metres) above the ground, and to sweep this load round over a circle 65 feet (20 metres) in diameter (illustration on the left).

Next, a 60 ton crane was built for the new docks at Keyham, which could lift loads five times heavier up to heights of 60 feet (18 metres) and over a circle 104 feet (32 metres) in diameter.

It is this "colossal crane", probably the most powerful hand driven crane ever built, that is described in detail by Fairbairn:

"The chain passes round 4 pulleys, two moveable and two fixed, in the end of the jib. It is then conducted down in the interior of the jib over three rollers to the barrel, which is also in the tube near the ground. On each side of the crane a strong cast iron frame is fixed for receiving the axles of the spur wheels and pinions."

"Four men, each working a winch of 18 inches radius, act by two 6 inch pinions upon a wheel 5 feet 3.75 inches diameter, this in turn moves the spur wheel, 6 feet 8 inches diameter, by means of an 8 inch pinion, and on the axle of the former the chain barrel, 2 feet in diameter, is fixed."

"Hence the advantage gained by the gearing will be W/P = 18 x 63.75 x 80 / 6 x 8 x 12 = 158 or taking the number of cogs in each wheel W/P = 18 x 95 x 100 / 12 x 9 x 10 = 158 and as this result is quadrupled by the fixed and moveable pulleys, the power of the men applied to the handles is multiplied 632 times by the gearing and blocks. Two men are sufficient to move round the crane with 60 tonnes suspended from the extreme point of the jib."

A mechanical advantage of 632 to 1 means that each of the four men had to apply a force of only 23.7 kilograms in order to lift a weight of 60 tonnes - and this while operating a winch instead of a more efficient treadwheel.

The most powerful crane in the world today (since September 2009) has a lifting capacity of 20,000 tonnes. If it would be equipped with a gear system offering the same mechanical advantage as that of the above described Fairbairn crane, a weight of 20,000 tonnes could be lifted by 1,265 men each exerting 25 kilograms of power. This is comparable to the workforce that was required to lift the 340 tonne obelisk in the 16th century. And of course, there is no doubt that we could further improve upon the 19th century gearwork and make the mechanical advantage even higher.

We could lift anything without fossil fuels. Nevertheless, apart from their use by some hardcore ecological architects, human powered cranes have completely disappeared, even for the lightest of loads. We prefer lifting things with power machinery and we run (not walk) on a treadmill in the gym to keep in shape.

 Kris De Decker (edited by Vincent Grosjean)

We prefer lifting things with power machinery and we run (not walk) on a treadmill in the gym to keep in shape

Sources (in order of importance)

Low-tech Magazine makes the jump from web to paper. The first result is a 710-page perfect-bound paperback which is printed on demand and contains 37 of the most recent articles from the website (2012 to 2018). A second volume, collecting articles published between 2007 and 2011, will appear later this year.

Read more: Low-tech Magazine: The Printed Website.Cambridge-born Matt Damon is so fed up with President Donald Trump that the Oscar winner is buying a home in Australia for his family.

Well, that's what The New York Post claimed in a report on Thursday that is disputed by the 47-year-old actor's spokeswoman, Jennifer Allen.

"Matt's telling friends and colleagues in Hollywood that he's moving the family to Australia" because the liberal activist actor disagrees with Trump's policies, the Murdoch-owned newspaper reported on Thursday.

Its unnamed source added, Damon wanted a safer place to raise his family. Damon and his wife, Luciana Barroso, have four children.

However, Damon's rep denied there was any truth to the report.

"Matt has visited Australia several times recently," Allen wrote in an email to the Boston Globe, "but he has not bought a house there nor is he moving there."SPRINGFIELD - MGM Springfield unveiled new details and some changes being proposed at its $960 million casino on Thursday, ranging from its plans for a free downtown shuttle bus system to a desire to have more table games and fewer slot machines to address millennial customer preference.

The details were shared with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission at its meeting in Boston.



MGM Springfield officials also asked for the commission's patience as it works with the city on a proposal to partially fund the restoration of the historic 31 Elm Street building at Court Square under its commitment to provide market rate housing downtown. That proposal is complex and uncertain, but MGM has agreed to provide $11 million to the project that includes market rate housing, if that project is able to succeed and move forward.

City officials and MGM have agreed that preservation of the Elm Street building is a critical component for the revitalization of downtown.

MGM is asking the commission to allow another year's time, until March 1, 2019, to make a firm commitment to the 31 Elm project, and in the meantime, pursue a "Plan B" to meet its requirement to provide at least 54 units of market rate housing, MGM officials said.



Meanwhile, MGM and Gaming Commission officials praised the continued progress of the MGM casino project, which is scheduled to open in September of 2018.



"The stars are aligned for really a wonderful opening and we are incredibly excited," MGM President Michael Mathis said.



The revealed new details and changes to the project included the following:





MGM Springfield and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority are negotiating a "no fare" circular shuttle bus system in the downtown that would involve electric-powered, no-emissions buses that would stop at MGM and many tourist destinations and hospitality sites such as hotels. It would operate Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

MGM is proposing a shift toward more table games, poker and interactive 'high-tech slot play, and away from the traditional, smaller slot machines. The resulting number of gaming site "positions" for patrons would decrease from 3,657 set forth in its agreement to 3,324 positions, but a study has shown that patrons want the change and more interactive play, MGM officials said.

In restoring the historic State Armory building on the MGM casino site, MGM plans to activate it as "a flexible multi-use event, food and beverage and retail space." In the plans to activate the Armory and outdoor plaza, MGM is considering programming such as a pop-up nightclub, Halloween haunted Armory, comedy club, holiday marketplace and beer yoga, MGM General Manager Alex Dixon said.

MGM said that its intentions back in 2014 was to allow public parking in its garage in the final stage of its construction, but that plan is now not feasible, said Seth Stratton, vice-president and legal counsel. There are still safety and security issues and elevator work needed before the garage can open to patrons and the public, he said.

There will be a significant focus on public art both inside and outside the casino buildings that will feature local, state and national artists. It will include larger outdoor sculptures, paintings, artifacts in partnership with the Springfield Museums, lithographs, and wall murals.

The commission will consider approving any significant proposed changes at future meetings.

In other updates, MGM officials said that a building it owns at 101 State St., at the corner of Main Street, will continue to be used primarily as a commercial office building for non-casino uses. The tenants include law offices, government agencies and insurance offices.

A ground-floor tenant, Focus TV, remains a tenant, but is expected to be eventually replaced by a retail use, Stratton said.

A "state-of-the-art" day care center set to be operated by HCS Head Start, is under construction and will be ready to open in early September, Stratton said. MGM has asked for commission approval of the design.A Chelsea man faces a potential life sentence in federal prison after he admitted in U.S. District Court in Boston Wednesday

that he was part of a large-scale methamphetamine distribution operation that transported large quantities of the drug from California to the streets of Boston.

Russell Ormiston, 51, is one of 11 people arrested in Nov. 2016 in connection with the scheme.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ormiston entered guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and to possess with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of the drug.

Investigators allege that Ormiston and his co-defendants transported methamphetamine from San Diego, California to Boston, then sent the proceeds from the sale of the drug on local streets back to California to be laundered.

The charge of distribution and possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute carries a minimum sentence of 10 years with a maximum of life in prison.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 13, 2018.Attorneys for the defense and prosecution in the child sex trafficking case involving an Attleboro woman are asking the sentencing be delayed.

Jennie Lemay, 54, had been scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in New York Thursday, but both sides want it pushed out to April 18, the Attleboro Sun Chronicle reported. She faces a 10 year to life sentence.

Defense and prosecution attorneys said they need more time to submit sentencing memoranda to the court.

Lemay admitted simulating sexual acts with an 8-year-old boy a number of times during videos chats with a New York City Police sergeant.

The sergeant, Alberto Randazzo, was fired from the police force and was convicted of receiving child pornography and conspiracy after he admitted convincing five women, Lemay among them, to sexually exploit children during internet chat sessions.

Randazzo is now serving a 28-year sentence in federal prison.

Lemay was convicted on the trafficking charge in September of 2017 and has been held in in federal prison since that time.A tow truck driver from North Andover was struck and killed in a collision between multiple vehicles on Interstate 495 Wednesday night.

The 41-year-old tow truck driver was struck while responding to a crash on I-495 southbound in Andover Wednesday night. In that initial crash, two vehicles collided and no one was injured, according to a statement by Massachusetts State Police.

As the North Andover driver was loading one of those vehicles on his flatbed shortly before 11 p.m., he was struck by a Pontiac car. State Police say the North Andover man was standing on the left side of his truck in the breakdown lane when he was hit. The Pontiac, which also struck cars involved in the earlier crash, was then hit by a Hyundai SantaFe.

The North Andover driver was transported to Saint's Memorial Hospital in Lowell where he was declared dead. The driver of the Pontiac car, a 28-year-old woman from Lawrence, was transported with serious injuries. Another tow-truck operator, who was on top of the flatbed during the crash, was transported and suffered minor injuries.

The incident marks the second fatal crash on I-495 in Andover this week. Overnight from Sunday into Monday, 48-year-old Derek Frechette, of Sturbridge, was killed when his truck veered off the roadway on I-495 northbound and rolled over in a wooded area in Andover.

State police say the crashes are under investigation. The southbound side of I-495 was closed for about 2.5 hours during the response and cleanup Wednesday night. The victim has not yet been identified by police.A tow truck driver struck killed in a collision between multiple vehicles on Interstate 495 Wednesday night has been identified.

Daniel Coady, 41, of North Andover was struck while responding to a crash on I-495 southbound in Andover Wednesday night. In that initial crash, two vehicles collided and no one was injured, according Massachusetts State Police.

As Coady was loading one of the vehicles on his flatbed shortly before 11 p.m., he was struck by another. State Police say Coady was standing on the left side of his truck in the breakdown lane when he was hit. The Pontiac, which also struck both cars involved in the earlier crash, was then hit by a Hyundai SantaFe.

Coady was transported to Saint's Memorial Hospital in Lowell where he was declared dead. The driver of the Pontiac car, a 28-year-old woman from Lawrence, was transported with serious injuries. Another tow-truck operator, who was on top of the flatbed during the crash, suffered minor injuries.

Coady worked for Coady's Garage & Towing Service, which has locations in Boston, Cambridge and Lawrence.

Interstate Towing, a Chicopee-based towing company, wrote a tribute to Coady following his death.

"Dan Coady lost his life doing what he loved last night Struck by a vehicle as he was working an accident on 495," the Facebook post reads. "Dan was a great Dad and husband. Died doing what he loved. Please keep them in your thoughts as we lost another good one in the Towing/Recovery family."

The incident marks the second fatal crash on I-495 in Andover this week. Overnight from Sunday into Monday, 48-year-old Derek Frechette, of Sturbridge, was killed when his truck veered off the roadway on I-495 northbound and rolled over in a wooded area in Andover.

State police say the crashes are under investigation. The southbound side of I-495 was closed for about 2.5 hours during the response and cleanup Wednesday night.HOLYOKE- It was like Christmas in March for 45 young people in Holyoke Wednesday, complete with falling snow flurries as Robert "The Bike Guy" Charland and his police entourage made a stop at the Morgan School.

With police cruiser lights flashing, they arrived at the school with two truck loads of bicycles in all sizes and colors with a group of anxious school children watching the bikes being rolled into their gymnasium wondering which one had their names on it.

The bike giveaway was a reward for students doing well in the school's Personal Behavior Intervention Program as teachers signed them up for one of the bikes.

Charland and his non-profit Pedal Thru Youth collect the bikes and refurbish each one, checking the safety and operation and sometimes adding some new paint making them as good as new.

As of Wednesday, they have delivered 426 bikes to children in the area with delivery to several other schools scheduled.

He delivers the goods thanks to donations and the help of volunteers and police officers from Holyoke and Springfield Police departments, along with a Massachusetts and Connecticut state troopers. AMR Ambulance Company and AAA towing.

Each child not only received a bike but they also got a new bike helmet from AAA, and a safety kit from AMR.

Massachusetts State Trooper Brandon Andrews offered some tips on bike safety and Connecticut State Trooper Brin Warenda explained the proper way to put the helmet on, so that it stays on.

For one grateful youngster, this was her first bike and the smile on her face was all the proof that Charland and all his volunteers needed to see as that is why they work so hard to ensure they can add as many smiles as possible to young people across Western Mass.

Charland said anyone wishing to donate to his bag program may contact him through his Facebook page.A longtime Boston lawmaker called for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to investigate the leader of the House over the use of non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements.

Rep. Angelo Scaccia, a Hyde Park Democrat whose lengthy tenure has earned him the title of dean of the House, ripped House Speaker Robert DeLeo for the repeated use of non-disclosure agreements, noting that public money was spent to ensure employees' "silence."

DeLeo's office said in a statement that since 2010 there were 33 employees who were offered a "small severance payment in exchange for executing a written agreement."

Scaccia's remarks, which included quotes from the lyrics the Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence," came during a floor debate on proposed sexual harassment rules. House leaders pushed the change after a review of internal rules.

State Rep. Diana DiZoglio, a Methuen Democrat, took to the floor and broke her own non-disclosure agreement surrounding an incident when she was a State House staffer. DiZoglio alleged that she signed the non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreement "under duress" because it was tied to severance pay.

Agreements like that are "silencing" tactics, DiZoglio charged.

DiZoglio's bid to bar non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements died after a 21-131 vote.

But DiZoglio received support during the debate from Scaccia, who blasted DeLeo's office for a history of non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements.

Addressing DeLeo from the House floor, Scaccia said, "You've been getting away for too long in this House with the sound of silence."

DeLeo's office released a statement noting that House leaders tapped outside legal counsel and conducted an "independent review" of its entire human resources apparatus.

"The review revealed deficiencies in our current function and those deficiencies were rectified with today's vote," DeLeo's office said, referring to the new rules. "As part of that review, counsel met with the Attorney General's office to discuss best practices. The review did not identify any reason to notify the AG or as for a review, nor did anyone raise a reason to do so today."

Healey's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Material from State House News Service was used in this report.Yet another Worcester restaurateur is facing charges in connection with the drug money laundering case against Kevin A. Perry Jr., the former owner of the Usual and Blackstone Tap eateries.

Christopher Slavinskas, a co-owner of the Hangover Pub on Green Street, was charged in February with lying to the Drug Enforcement Administration about hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money allegedly hidden in a storage locker by Perry, who is currently in federal custody.

"The defendant informed federal investigators that he concealed $200,000 of known drug proceeds and did not spend any of those proceeds when, in fact, the defendant concealed at least $330,000 and personally spent a portion of those drug proceeds," the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office alleged in an information.

Slavinskas is scheduled for a plea hearing on March 29.

Slavinskas was business partners at the Hangover Pub with Joseph Herman, the former manager of The Usual, according to state corporate filings. Herman was also the co-owner of the Chameleon, the restaurant opened by Perry's wife Stacey Gala after her husband was arrested and The Usual closed.

While Herman was listed on the organization filing of the Hangover Pub's LLC, owner Jay Gray said the business parted ways with him before the restaurant opened and well before any allegations surfaced about The Usual. Neither Gray nor the Hangover Pub have been implicated in the investigation, according to public court records.

"The Hangover Pub is not affiliated with Joseph Herman in anyway nor did he ever invest or own any part of the company. When we filed as a new business Jospeh Herman was going to be a manager for the business. However two months after filing with the state, and three months prior to opening we both mutually agreed to part ways and have no future involvement with each other," Gray wrote in an email. "

Chris Slavinskas is currently listed on our liquor license as the owner and operator and if any crime violates his duties as owner a change will be made at that time."

Both Herman and Gala were indicted for money laundering in February after allegedly retrieving over $200,000 of Perry's drug money from a storage locker and using it to open The Chameleon. Perry pleaded guilty to money laundering and fentanyl distribution in October.

Herman is also facing charges of making false statements to federal investigators and attempting to tamper with a witness for allegedly trying to cover up the crime.

The charge against Slavinskas is the latest chapter in a legal drama that has forced the closure of three new entrants into Worcester's dining renaissance -- The Usual, the Blackstone Tap and The Chameleon. The Chameleon closed in November, three months after federal investigators first interviewed Herman about Perry's drug money.

Perry, who had served time for conspiring to manufacture ecstasy in 2005, opened The Usual in 2016 with Herman as the restaurant's manager. But he was arrested in March of 2017, with federal authorities alleging he had recovered his drug money after leaving prison and used it to fund his restaurants and his wedding to Gala.

Perry's arrest, and subsequent forfeiture demands by the government, led to the closure of The Usual. But while Perry was in custody, Herman and Gala allegedly went to a storage locker containing more hidden drug money and took $200,000 that they used to open The Chameleon.

Federal investigators learned about the alleged scheme through an witness, identified in Herman and Gala's indictments only as "C.S." -- Slavinskas' initials. Reached by phone, Slavinskas would not comment on the case and his attorney Michael Callanan did not return a request for comment.

C.S. allegedly worked with Herman to remove over $200,000 from the storage locker. C.S. was later summoned to testify to a grand jury about the case; Herman is accused of attempting to tamper with his testimony.

Slavinskas is also listed as a co-owner with Herman of a Worcester business called Restaurant Consulting, LLC, according to state corporate records.Dozens of people who work in the Massachusetts House have signed non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements since 2009, a state representative who experienced harassment said.

"These silencing tactics have no place in this House," said Rep. Diana DiZoglio, D-Methuen, speaking on the House floor on Thursday. "They cover up misdeeds by politicians and others and allow perpetrators to move from one victim to the next."

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, said there have been 33 agreements executed with employees who were terminated from the House. None related to sexual harassment.

DiZoglio, who first told her story to Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, said House leaders silenced her when she faced sexual harassment in 2011.

DiZoglio, then 26, was a legislative aide when she attended a late-night party in DeLeo's office. At one point, she and Rep. Mark Cusack, D-Braintree, went into the empty House chamber. DiZoglio said on the House floor that a House investigation confirmed that nothing inappropriate happened between them.

But DiZoglio told the Globe she was harassed repeatedly by State House gossip - she was called names and propositioned, and people speculated about her sex life.

"People were constantly talking about me and not in a good way," DiZoglio said on the the House floor.

DiZoglio said she requested a transfer to another office from the speaker's office, but was unsuccessful. Her boss told her to look for another job. She received a severance package, but only as long as she signed an agreement that she not disparage the House.

"With my money running out quickly I didn't feel like I had another option so I signed under duress," DiZoglio said.

After leaving her State House job, DiZoglio ran and won a House seat in 2012.

DiZoglio said she was breaking the nondisclosure agreement because, "I just want this awful practice to stop. "

DeLeo disputed DiZoglio's account. The speaker said this is the first time he or his staff heard about the harassment DiZoglio experienced, and she did not mention harassment when his office investigated the late-night incident in 2011. DeLeo said DiZoglio's supervisor unilaterally terminated her "not consistent with House procedures." DeLeo said there was nothing preventing DiZoglio from speaking to the press.

"Mr. Speaker, we might differ on our remembrance of past occurrences," DiZoglio said to DeLeo. "I'm not here to argue about the past. Today is about the future."

Lawmakers on Thursday were debating new internal rules require the hiring of an equal employment opportunity officer, who would be in charge of investigating complaints and providing additional training for members and staff. The human resources office will be expanded, and there will be a new director of employee engagement.

DiZoglio's bid to end the use of non-disclosure agreements died on a 21-131 vote.

The proposed rules pushed by House leaders establish a new process that offers both public and private methods for disciplining a House member, depending on the situation, with provisions assuring confidentiality and banning retaliation.

It recommends instituting mandatory annual training for members, staff and interns and commissioning a multi-year survey on sexual harassment.

Rep. Marjorie Decker, D-Cambridge, who brought the rules to the floor, said with the passage of the rules, Massachusetts will be a pioneer in establishing a model of government that takes "responsibility proactively, creating and ensuring safe environments for everyone in this building."

Decker said the rules would put the House on the forefront of being a legislature that "says there will be consequences when members or staff violate the rules."

This story was updated with DeLeo's comments. This is a breaking news story. Following MassLive.com for additional coverage. MassLive.com reporter Gintautas Dumcius contributed.WESTFIELD - More than 300 people gathered in prayer Wednesday night at St. Mary's High School, which is expected to close at the end of the school year due to declining enrollment.

Meanwhile, supporters have appealed directly to Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield to keep the school open.

Students and parents who attended Wednesday's vigil said being able to pray at school is one of the reasons they chose St Mary's. Other supporters included parishioners of St. Mary's Parish, alumni, staff and members of the community, including state Rep. John Velis, who said he attended Westfield High School but wanted to show his support for St. Mary's.

"St. Mary's is part of the DNA of Westfield," he said. "They are part of the moral fabric of this of community."

Velis said he was inspired by the group.

"I was taken aback at how positive people were," he said. "They are clearly a strong-willed group who gathered in prayer and were positive about their collective goal of keeping the school open."

The candlelight vigil was organized by teacher Larry Santos, who, along with several students, led the group in prayer.

The group offered prayers for each other and included Rozanski and the Rev. Frank Lawlor, St. Mary's pastor, in their prayers, despite the order to close coming from the two local church leaders.

"For Bishop Rozanski and Father Frank, that God will grant them strength, humility and courage to do what is best for our St. Mary's family," they prayed.

Parish and diocese officials say enrollment has dropped from 166 to 83 over the last decade, and only nine students signed up to join the freshman class next year. The closing affects only the high school, not St. Mary's prekindergarten and elementary school.

St. Mary's school board member Richard Labrie met privately with Rozanski Wednesday morning and said he felt "hopeful" after their hour-long conversation.

"I asked him for a year for us to create a plan for the high school to become financially solvent and viable enrollment-wise," Labrie said. "He agreed to consider it."

Labrie said he was "cautiously optimistic" that Rozanski would approve the request. Labrie said he spoke to Rozanski about the board not being allowed to recruit students from other communities. He also told Rozanski that the community was blindsided by the announcement that the school would close.

"I told him parishioners have not yet been informed," he said.

A letter signed by Lawlor, which was read Monday night when he announced the closing to families, began arriving in parishioners' mail yesterday afternoon. Labrie said Rozanski was unaware that this was not something most school families and parishioners had on their radar.

Tonight, a group of people plan to attend a public "listening session" with Rozanski in Springfield.

At a gathering Tuesday, supporters were informed that the Holyoke St. Patrick's Parade had reached out to St. Mary's to march this Sunday, but the offer was rejected. School families said they still intend to march and about 200 people have committed to doing so.

More information on efforts to keep the school open are available in the Facebook group Save Saint Mary's High School.Diana DiZoglio, a Massachusetts lawmaker from Methuen, says she plans to shed some light on the climate inside the State House as lawmakers consider a bill on sexual harassment.

She told the Boston Globe she will give a speech as House lawmakers consider a bill on sexual harassment.

She will talk about the top lawmakers pledging a different climate "silenced her when she was harassed seven years ago," the Globe said. The newspaper reported that House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, said his office didn't know that she had been harassed until the Globe's inquiry.

House lawmakers are considering a bill after House counsel, working with outside lawyers that included former Attorney General Maura Healey, reviewed sexual harassment policies.

The recommendations include expanding the human resources office and creating a new director of employee engagement. An equal opportunity officer would be tasked with investigating complaints.

In February, DiZoglio filed her own separate bill, banning non-disclosure and forced arbitration agreements.

DiZoglio was a State House aide in 2011 when a House court officer found her and state Rep. Mark Cusack, D-Braintree, in the House chamber while a party was happening in DeLeo's office.

At the time, rumors were rampant about what had occurred. But DeLeo's office said that nothing illegal or improper happened in the chamber. DiZoglio told the Globe that despite that, she was harassed about the incident and told not to discuss the matter.

She later left the State House and a year later announced her candidacy against a state representative in her district. She won the Democratic primary with 52.6 percent of the vote, going on to win the general election with 63 percent of the vote.

Voters have returned her to the State House two additional times since then, and she is up for re-election later this year.

Reporter Shira Schoenberg contributed to this report. Material from State House News Service was used in this report.WESTFIELD - City councilors and school committee members this week will take up a proposal to renovate Franklin Avenue School.

The city formally withdrew its approved project for a 600-student school at Cross and Ashley streets at the recommendation of the Massachusetts School Building Authority last week.

"Our needs have changed," said Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski. "We no longer need a 400- or 600-student school."

The Westfield School Committee recently approved redistricting the city schools, creating elementary schools for kindergarten through fourth grade, one school for grades five and six, and one school for grades seven and eight. Doing this allowed room for students who had attended Russell Elementary School after Juniper Park School closed to come back to the city and eliminated the need for a large school.

There are approximately 450 fifth-grade students in the schools, so moving them created room for more students in each school, said school committee member Cindy Sullivan.

Sullivan stressed that the needs in 2018 are different than they were in 2009 when the city submitted its plan for a new school to the School Building Authority. The building of that school was held up when neighbors challenged the project and took the city to court.

Mayor Brian P. Sullivan said Wednesday that the state deadline for applications is April 6. In order to meet the deadline, city council will be asked to take up the request during its Thursday meeting. Councilor Ralph J. Figy, Ward 2, said it would be sent to the Legislative and Ordinance Committee for discussion.

Cindy Sullivan said the school committee is poised to vote on the subject during its next meeting March 19.

"With the new information we received from the latest study, it is clear that we need changes from the original design," said school committee member Ramon Diaz. "The reasons to build a new school have not changed, however, at this point, it makes sense to put all options back on the table and re-evaluate what is the best option for our children and our city."

The mayor said if the Franklin Avenue proposal is approved by city officials this month, he expects a fairly quick response from the School Building Authority given its knowledge of the needs of the city schools. If the proposal gets the green light, the next step is for the School Building Authority to work with the city on a feasibility study.

Czaporowski said the study would include exploring renovating and expanding Franklin Avenue School as well as exploring all other options for building a new school to accommodate approximately 320 students.

"We are starting all over, and it makes sense because things have changed," Czaporowski said.

What has not changed is the need to close Abner Gibbs Elementary School. Figy said the building is more than 100 years old and has had numerous systems failures and cannot meet Americans with Disabilities Acts codes. It also cannot accommodate technology updates and doesn't have enough electrical outlets to accommodate more technology.

"We spend about $100,000 a year on maintenance and repairs at Abner Gibbs," Czaporowski said.

Despite that, Figy said students at Abner Gibbs still receive a great education.

"But imagine what it could be," he said.

Franklin Avenue School also has needs, including a new boiler system and roof and more space. Czaporowski said there is room on the property to add onto the building, but the study will show if it would encroach on the armory next door.

A feasibility study will take some time but will give the city its best option. Czaporowski said the Cross Street site is still on the table.

"Everything is on the table," he said.

Cindy Sullivan said the bottom line is that Westfield students - particularly in the downtown neighborhoods - need a school.

"These students need a better school, and they deserve it," she said.An engineering firm that worked on the design and build of a Miami pedestrian bridge that collapsed Thursday also worked on Boston's Zakim bridge.

FIGG Bridge Engineers, in partnership with Munilla Construction Management, designed and was building the brand new pedestrian bridge at Florida International University, according to a previous news release issued by the university.

The bridge collapsed Thursday afternoon, crushing cars that were driving beneath it.

Several people have died, according to The Associated Press.

FIGG Bridge Engineers, a firm that provides engineering, consulting, and construction engineering and inspection services for major bridge projects, also worked on Boston's Zakim Bridge.

On its website, FIGG calls the Zakim "the crown jewel of Boston's downtown." The bridge was dedicated in 2002.

FIGG completed the design of the bridge, which is one of the most recognizable parts of Boston's skyline, with another Boston firm, HNTB Corporation.

"Recognized as the widest cable stayed bridge in the world at 183', the bridge carries ten lanes of traffic," the website reads. "The bridge is asymmetrical in both directions and is a hybrid steel and concrete design that has been honored with 15 awards, including the American Society of Civil Engineers 2004 OPAL Award."

MassDOT said Thursday that it is confident in the safety of the Zakim.

"We have a robust inspection program for the Zakim Bridge and are fully confident in the safety of the Zakim Bridge and all Commonwealth of Massachusetts bridges, as we follow federal standards for regular inspections," MassDOT said in a statement. "While the cause of the Miami pedestrian bridge collapse is unknown, the design of this pedestrian bridge is not similar to the design of the Zakim Bridge and is unique to the project site characteristics at its location in Miami."

FIGG says it has studied, designed or built bridges in 39 states and six nations.

Other bridges FIGG has worked on include the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys, the Penobscot Narrows Bridge in Maine and the Clark Bridge in Illinois.

The collapsed Miami bridge had a 950-ton span that was just installed on Saturday. The bridge's construction was not yet complete. The main part of the 174-foot span was assembled by the side of the road while support towers were built at either end.

The $14.2 million bridge crossed over a busy seven lane road, which divided the university's campus from the city of Sweetwater.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.To call Maura Healey an activist attorney general would be an understatement.

The Massachusetts AG takes pride in aggressively positioning her office on issues she believes are important to the overall society, especially involving health and safety. Two recent setbacks have nonetheless shown that Healey enters these frays with no guarantee of victory.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Hillman denied Healey's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed against her over her crackdown on "copycat" assault weapons. Hillman said gun shops have fair questions about whether Healey gave them fair notice, adding that they have a "plausible claim" that Healey deprived them of property without due process.

This ruling does not mean Healey is defeated. It does mean she still has to win.

Another U.S. District Court ruling received less attention but is also noteworthy and brought more definite results. Judge Nathaniel Gorton dismissed Healey's lawsuit that challenged new Trump's Administration rules making it easier for employers to avoid providing insurance that covers women's birth control.

In some ways, the ruling could be termed a mild surprise. It came after judges in California and Pennsylvania, in two separate cases, issued preliminary injunctions blocking the Trump Administration from enforcing the rules.

Gorton said there was "no doubt" that in those two cases, employers planned to take advantage of the exemptions. He said that was not nearly as clear in Massachusetts, which passed a law requiring employer-sponsored health plans to cover birth control without co-pays.

Gorton said that law gave Massachusetts women reason to believe they were less likely to be affected by the federal rules. To his reasoning, Healey's right to sue on their behalf was removed.

Healey is far from the only attorney general pushing back against major lobbies and Trump Administration regulations. States have begun taking an activist role in challenging these dictums, sometimes by coordinating their opposition, and, in other cases, taking on the federal government in solitary style.

Healey's willingness to challenge Trump's rules have created a national reputation for the Massachusetts AG. To her allies, she's a fearless advocate for human and consumer rights. To others, she's a liberal politician disguised as a prominent member of the legal community, using her position to advance an agenda, rather than adhere to the law.

However these cases wind up - and Healey says she is not throwing in the towel on the birth control coverage - the attorney general is leaving an unmistakable mark on Massachusetts government. That does not mean she will win whenever she takes on Trump, the gun lobby or other foes. But it does make each case a litmus test of just how far a state attorney general's office can stretch its influence, especially when going up against policies that play to a national stage.One useful tool of political correctness is that it allows lawmakers to occupy their time with pointlessness under the auspices of social concern.

The latest example comes from State Rep. Michelle DuBois, a Brockton Democrat whose ignorance or disregard of history is only partly responsible for her plea to remove the name of the General Hooker Entrance to the Massachusetts State House.

Looking for a way to attach her name to the very legitimate cause of fighting sexual harassment, DuBois has chosen to treat an American hero with the respect grade schoolers show when mocking a classmate because his name sounds funny to them.

A little history: Born in Hadley in 1814, General Joseph Hooker rose to the rank of major general in the Union Army during the Civil War, which he re-entered after coming out of military retirement when the war broke out. Known as "Fighting Joe," he once continued leading his men after his horse had been shot out from under him.

Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in defense of Washington, D.C., Hooker was later appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to command the Army of the Potomac. His outstanding career is all too often judged by a memorable defeat to Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville, Virginia.

Now, 139 years after his death, a representative from Hooker's home state wants a hero known only as the guy whose name happens to carry double meaning to people who can't resist tasteless humor.

DuBois claims the sign leads to teasing because of the slang use of "hooker" to describe prostitutes. That probably does happen. She can take credit for whatever increase in such teasing occurs, now that attention has been drawn to a sign most Massachusetts citizens didn't even know about.

She also said removing the sign is "not a priority for me." Given the importance of the movement to give women their rightful respect, that implies the sign removal is really not that important. Then why bring it up?

DuBois says it's because the "#MeToo it's not all about rape and harassment but also women's dignity." She also said teenage boys have been heard to tease teenage girls about the name.

That's not right, but anyone who thinks taking down a sign will really address that attitude in meaningful ways is looking for cosmetic, crowd-pleasing answers to a profound problem.

Even Governor Charlie Baker, who should know better, fell into the trap. "I think many people consider (General Hooker) to be part of the team that delivered freedom for slaves in this country," Baker said. "But the name over the building itself obviously carries with it a connotation ..."

Why do people consider Hooker a part of the freedom team that ended slavery? Because it's true, regardless of DuBois' peculiar contention that the sign is "misrepresented as respect for a long dead general" - which, of course, is exactly why the sign is there.

What's misrepresented in this manufactured issue is the meaning of Hooker's life and the reason he deserves not just a sign, but probably an entire building. Pity those in the Nutmeg State who think their state should honor Thomas Hooker (no known relation to Fighting Joe), the founder of the Connecticut Colony and a 17th Century champion of expanded religious freedom and democratic government.

If we are serious about fighting the objectifying of women, we can start by focusing our attention in meaningful ways. This is not one of them.

The trap of political correctness is that dissenters to any idea are labeled opponents of worthy causes - in this case, the eradication of rape and sexual harassment and yes, the advancement of women's dignity. This is a serious issue that needs to be treated seriously.

Yes, Joseph Hooker is a long dead general. But his contribution to American history and democracy should not be forgotten - even though our disinterested approach to our own history, as expressed even by politicians these days, is causing that to happen.

Taking his name off a sign will change nothing beyond making the champions of political correctness feel better about themselves. Women deserve the highest dignity and respect, but so does a general who fought for American freedom when those very principles were most threatened.Senator Edward Markey says Massachusetts gun laws are a model for other states. He may be right.

The "Making America Safe and Secure Act," appropriately abbreviated to "MASS Act" because it would empower the Department of Justice to hand out $100 million in grants over the next five years to states that model gun laws on on those in the Bay State.

Markey's proposal flies in the face of conventional wisdom that much of the country views Massachusetts as a far-left enclave that's out of step with the national mood. His response is that the Bay State's tough laws are working where looser regulations elsewhere are not.

At the heart of the proposal is the state's 2014 reform by which law enforcement authorities can suspend, revoke or deny gun licenses. The gun lobby and its allies oppose these regulations as Second Amendment violations, but Markey's response is that Massachusetts has the lowest gun death rate in the United States.

The tighter laws in Massachusetts are working, but whether America wants to follow suit is another story. When Republican Mitt Romney ran for president, he downplayed his term as Massachusetts governor as much as possible.

For instance, Romney rarely brought up the state's progressive health insurance policy, presumably because he knew so many Americans were opposed to President Obama's national Affordable Care Act. Any measure promoted by Massachusetts liberals faces a tough sell in the South, Midwest and West.

Thirty states voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. The red complexion of America's political map, reflected by Republican control of every level of government, make it unlikely that Markey's call will be heeded.

In normal times, a gun-law recommendation from Massachusetts would be a recipe for rejection by other, more conservative parts of the country. But school shootings have galvanized support for tighter restrictions.

The nation is at a crossroads on gun control, and if there is any chance for a Massachusetts liberal to hold an audience, it may be now. If Markey's proposal is attacked by the gun lobby and rebuffed by conservatives, he'll be accused of grandstanding, but giving more power to police might resonate in some areas where citizens want law enforcement to operate in a more favorable climate.

Would the nation go along with taking its cue from the arguably most liberal state in America? Not likely, but times are changing in the gun debate. Even if other states don't go as far as the Bay State has done, they might be more inclined to listen.During these weeks following yet another mass shooting, many have asked whether this unspeakable tragedy could have been prevented. Indeed the shooting in Parkland, Florida demonstrated that an individual often displays warning signs before carrying out a shooting. Crucial legislation that is currently under consideration in the State House could help prevent these tragedies from continuing to happen here in Massachusetts; it would have prevented the campus shooting I survived in 1992.

The "Extreme Risk Protective Order" (ERPO), known as bill H. 3610, establishes a civil process for police to temporarily remove guns from individuals posing a significant danger to themselves or others. Notably, family members, who are often the first to identify warning signs, can initiate the request for an order. Another critical role of ERPO is reducing gun deaths by suicide, which is typically an impulsive act. Currently, suicide claims over 600 lives in Massachusetts each year. This number could be reduced, as was demonstrated in a peer-reviewed study that found under Connecticut's ERPO law an estimated 5-10 percent of gun removals resulted in an averted firearm suicide.

I urge you to call and ask your State House Representative to support this important legislation that could save the lives of individuals residing in Massachusetts. Additionally, if you are interested, join the Western Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America to advocate for this and other life-saving gun safety laws.

Anne Thalheimer, HolyokeRobert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, has reportedly ordered the Trump Organization to hand over documents, including those relating to Russia.

Sources briefed on the matter told The New York Times that Mueller recently issued a subpoena demanding that the Trump Organization produce all documents related to Russia and other topics relating to his investigation.

The newspaper reported Thursday that while neither the breadth of the subpoena nor the reason why Mueller issued it instead of asking for the documents was clear, it is the first known time the special counsel has requested documents directly tied to President Donald Trump's businesses.

News of the subpoena came amid reports that Mueller is broadening his probe to also look at how foreign money may have impacted Trump's political activities, the Times noted.

White House officials and a lawyer representing the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the Times reported.

The Trump Organization already voluntarily provided a range of documents on conversations and meetings from Trump's real estate business to investigators examining Russian election meddling, CNN reported in January.

A source told the news outlet Thursday that the subpoena sought to "clean up" and ensure that the special counsel's office received all related documents.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more information becomes available.BOSTON -- Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday released a $1.4 billion bond bill that would authorize spending on climate change preparedness and environmental protection.

The money would be allocated for a range of projects, from planting trees to repairing dams.

"To build a sustainable and resilient Commonwealth, we must make strategic investments in climate resiliency and environmental protection across the state and shorelines," Baker said in a statement.

The bill includes authorization for $300 million to respond to the impacts of climate change -- $170 million to repair dams and seawalls and help coastal communities, and the rest split between grants to communities and implementation of a statewide plan to adapt to climate change.

Another $297 million will be given in grants and funding for environment-related community projects. This includes tree planting, transportation investments and "community investment grant programs" for municipalities and planning agencies.

Another $270 million would be spent to support state environmental programs such as hazardous waste cleanup, monitoring of air and water quality and the restoration of rivers, streams and lakes.

There would be $580 million authorized to invest in deferred maintenance for recreational resources such as parks and beaches, including money to expand state trail networks.

Brad Campbell, president of Conservation Law Foundation, said in a statement, "Governor Baker deserves high praise for this bond bill, which gives communities urgently needed resources to reduce climate risks, encourages the use of nature-based solutions, and begins the critical review of state policies and practices that do not currently account for climate change."

Environmental groups have criticized Baker for not living up to his campaign promise to commit 1 percent of the state budget to environmental programs.

In an election year, the bill will let Baker defend his environmental record. But because the money would be borrowed, it would not have an immediate impact on the state's operating budget.

Before the bill was released, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren questioned whether the bill would do anything to fight climate change or move the ball forward on wind, solar and other energy technology. He also questioned Baker's decision to file a bond bill rather than actually allocating new money.

"Without new revenue, any money Gov. Baker puts toward this bill has to come from somewhere else in state government," said Warren spokesman Kevin Franck.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Massie called Baker's bill "too little, too late."

The bill must still go through the legislative process in order to become law. Any bill that appropriates money must be acted on first by the House, then the Senate.

Baker announced the bill in Scituate, days after the third nor'easter to hit the state in two weeks.

Auditor Suzanne Bump took advantage of the storms to write a letter to lawmakers urging them to do more to help municipalities improve their water infrastructure.

"The pounding we've taken from two '100-year' storms in a matter of weeks is a grim reminder that climate change is happening right now and with a greater severity than has been previously predicted," Bump wrote. "The Commonwealth's lack of preparedness to meet this imminent threat is all too clear, and we must collectively act to ensure our cities and towns are equipped with the resources to prepare for the challenges of climate change."

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Senate is considering its own environmental bill, an ambitious effort that would set new environmental and regulatory standards, set the stage for carbon pricing, prohibit residents from being taxed for new natural gas pipelines and eliminate a cap on reimbursements for solar projects, among other policies.

Separately, a group of advocates for renewable energy are pushing a bill that would move Massachusetts to using 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Ben Hellerstein, state director for Environment Massachusetts, organized a briefing at the Statehouse Thursday "to show policymakers that businesses and institutions and communities throughout Massachusetts are already leading the way to 100 percent renewable energy. Now it's time for the state to do that as well."

Andy Ellis, chief security officer for Akamai Technologies, said the cloud service provider commits to buy energy for a set number of years from renewable sources near its server facilities. In exchange, Akamai gets renewable energy credits from the projects, which have financial value.

"Our goal is to have 50 percent of our power offsite produced by renewable sources in the locations where we're consuming it by 2020," Ellis said.

Jim Boyle, chairman and CEO of the Sustainability Roundtable, which consults with companies about procuring renewable energy, said businesses are investing in renewable energy because "it makes great business sense."

"It's strategic to capture the best possible competitive position in a rapidly changing energy market," Boyle said. "My hope is that the policy leaders in the Statehouse will recognize what global businesses recognize, that this is the greatest business opportunity of our age and that public private partnership is needed."Rise Up Western Massachusetts Indivisible, the local chapter of a progressive grassroots organization, will bring dozens of Springfield-area residents to Washington D.C. for the upcoming March for Our Lives anti-gun violence rally.

RUWMI officials announced that they plan to take up to 50 local residents via bus to the March 24th event, which is being organized by the students and families impacted by last month's deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The bus will leave from 66 Lyman St. in Springfield around 2 a.m. on March 24 and arrive at the National Mall in Washington around 10 a.m. -- two hours before the march's noon start time.

They will depart Washington around 6:45 p.m. and are expected to arrive back at Lyman Street just after 2:30 a.m. on March 25, according to organizers.

Western Massachusetts residents looking to sign up for the trip, which costs $125 per person, can do so online at Rallybus.net.

Those who are unable to attend but wish to sponsor Western Massachusetts marchers can also do so through the group's GoFundMe page.

As of Thursday afternoon, the group had raised more than $700 -- enough money to send six marchers from Western Massachusetts to Washington, organizers said.

The March for Our Lives effort seeks to bring attention to gun violence -- particularly mass shootings in schools -- and to demand that lawmakers take action to prevent future firearms-related deaths.

In addition to the Washington event, sister marches are planned for Pittsfield, Springfield, Northampton, Amherst, Worcester, Boston and other places across Massachusetts.

All of the events, which organizers described as "an independent, student-led initiative," are set to take place at noon on March 24, in conjunction with the national march.

Students from Longmeadow High School, Sabis International Charter School, East Longmeadow High School, Springfield Central, High School of Commerce and Westfield High have helped organize the Springfield March for Our Lives rally, which is set to begin outside City Hall and end in Riverfront Park.

The March for Our Lives rallies will come just over a week after students across the country participated in walk-out demonstrations to bring attention to the issue of gun violence.BOSTON - The City of Boston's Public Improvement Commission held an initial hearing on Thursday regarding the name change of Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park.

Two members from the Red Sox legal counsel presented their petition for the change to a panel of five members of the Public Improvement Commission.

"Our petition is an effort to work toward inclusion at Fenway Park," Red Sox senior vice president, special counsel and government affairs David Friedman said. "As stewards of this franchise for the past 16 years, our ownership group had striven to ensure the ballpark is welcoming to all fans regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. We believe the name emblazoned on the front door of the ballpark and the entrance to the front office holds great importance and symbolism for fans, guests, employees, the City of Boston, and the world."

Friedman, alongside Laura Martin, a Red Sox special assistant, government and neighborhood affairs, asked the commission to grant the restoration of Yawkey Way to Jersey Street. They confirmed that all abutters on Yawkey Way have signed the petition for change.

A member of the Public Improvement Commission asked if the Red Sox had plans to change the Morse code inscribed on the scoreboard inside Fenway. The Morse code has the initials of Jean and Tom Yawkey.

Friedman said it's not part of the current petition but something they're considering for the future.

The commission also requested that Red Sox ownership be present at the next hearing considering the proposal was first suggested by principal owner John Henry.

After the petition from the Red Sox, the commission opened the floor to the public.

Six people took the podium to speak for and against the name change, including former Red Sox pitcher Jim Lonborg.

Rev. Ray Hammond, of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain and a trustee of the Yawkey Foundation, was the first to take the podium. Hammond spoke on behalf of Yawkey and the positive impact the Yawkey Foundation has had on the city.

"Granting this petition will perpetuate the false narrative that unfairly tarnished the legacy of a man whose giving in life and death has benefitted hundreds of thousands in the greater Boston community," Hammond said. "Granting this petition will tarnish the Yawkey name not only at Fenway Park but throughout Boston."

Walter Carrington, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and former commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, spoke of an investigation into the Red Sox in 1959 regarding the club's hiring of black staff and the treatment of the club's first black player, Pumpsie Green.

"Now when I go to Fenway Park I have the same kind of feeling I had when I was working for the federal government and on streets in Virginia named for Robert E. Lee; I have that same feeling when I approach Yawkey Way," Carrington said. "So I hope the commission will approve the petition of this new ownership of the Red Sox, which I think is doing a very good job in their attempts to erase the memory of Yawkey."

Lonborg, who played for the Red Sox from 1965-71 and currently resides in Scituate, asked the commission to consider Yawkey was a changed man from his early years owning the team.

"One of the things I would like to offer is that people change," Lonborg said.

"I understand a lot went on early in the history," Lonborg said. "But I personally saw the change in Mr. Yawkey."

As a new item proposed to the commission, the purpose of the hearing on Thursday was to initiate the conversation and gather feedback from the community. Another hearing will be held by the commission at Boston City Hall on March 29 to continue the discussion.

The commission noted that those not in attendance could offer options on the name change by emailing PIC@boston.gov.

--

Follow MassLive.com Red Sox beat reporter @jcmccaffrey on Twitter. She can be reached by email at jmccaffr@masslive.com.Flathead County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) is happy to announce that it has signed agreements with Cenex Harvest States (CHS), a Fortune 100 company. Under the agreements CHS will lease 10.9 acres in the new Glacier Rail Park  a rail-served industrial park on the northeast edge of Kalispell with an additional half acre for a fueling center. The site for grain elevators, a fertilizer facility and new local corporate offices will allow CHS to consolidate their three distinct business locations in the center of Kalispell to one central location zoned for heavy industry.

Additionally, CHS will construct a new fueling station at the intersection of Montclair Drive, East Oregon Lane and Flathead Drive. Included in the agreements between the two entities is FCEDAs plan to buy the three properties in the center of Kalispell from CHS after the companys new facilities are built and the company has relocated to the Glacier Rail Park. This is expected to take place in early 2019.

The agreements are one more step toward the Kalispell Core and Rail Redevelopment vision that was initiated by the City of Kalispell in partnership with FCEDA to develop a rail-served industrial park for Flathead County and move the City of Kalispell closer to the goal of removing the train tracks from the center of downtown Kalispell. The project was first launched in 2012 and is partially funded by a $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from the US Department of Transportation. Overall the project is expected to bring approximately $40 million in direct infrastructure and new facility construction over approximately three years. Additional new development in the Kalispell Core Area is expected once the rail is removed and the new pedestrian trail and linear park are constructed. In the summer of 2018 the City of Kalispell will begin community outreach as the design for the trail and linear park begins in earnest.

The Glacier Rail Park is currently under construction. Road and utility improvements throughout and around the Rail Park are underway, including a new traffic signal and turning lanes at the intersection of US Highway 2 East, Woodland Park Drive and Flathead Drive. All surrounding roads will be built for heavy truck traffic. These upgraded roads and utilities will benefit not just Glacier Rail Park, but also the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. Road improvements on Highway 2 will allow for left hand turning lanes in all directions smoothing the flow of traffic.

In addition to the new CHS Facility, Northwest Drywall and Building Supply will be located there as well. FCEDA will work with Mission Mountain Rail to provide team track services within the Rail Park to companies located throughout NW Montana that require the ability to load or unload materials from rail cars on an occasional basis. FCEDA is actively searching for one more company requiring up to 10 acres and rail service to lease or purchase property in the Rail Park. For more information about the Glacier Rail Park project can be found on its website at http://www.kalispellcoreandrail.com.

Questions concerning the development of Glacier Rail Park can be addressed to Jerry Meerkatz, President/CEO of FCEDA at 406-257-7711 x 4 or [email protected].Leigh Ann Valiton watched a customer meander the aisles of the Blackfoot Commercial Co. in Ovando https://ovandomontana.net/ . Valitons store, attached to her inn, is open until 7 every evening, but it was 10 p.m., and she showed no sign of leaving. The customer, Faye Cunningham, from New Zealand, filled her basket with frozen burritos, energy bars, chips and a Mountain Dew.

Cunningham was competing in the Tour Divide Race http://tourdivide.org/about , a 2,735-mile mountain bike race that stretches from Banff, Canada, to the Mexican border. The route enters Montana in Glacier National Park and meanders south, paralleling the Continental Divide.

Ovando sits at mile 550 and has become a staple stop for riders. "You always hear about the accommodations. Its certainly known," Cunningham said as she finished filling her basket. "Its totally cool to come here."

Micah Drew/Seeley Swan Pathfinder

http://missoulanews.com/news/how-ovando-is-capitalizing-on-bicycle-tourism/article_c04b79ca-27cb-11e8-837a-7b66673e4b9a.htmlCombined, Ford and GM plan to offer 34 full electric models in the next five years.

Everyones saying it: The future of driving is electric. The big-name car companies have plans to start giving Tesla some tough competition. Jaguars I-Pace electric SUV will be on sale soon, and Porsche is teasing a new concept Mission E Cross Turismo, which looks like an SUVd Panamera (in a good way). And normal cars for regular people are going the same way.

Jack Stewart

https://www.wired.com/story/even-more-evidence-that-electric-cars-could-save-the-planet/A Missoula-based digital mapping company announced it has raised $20 million, part of which it will use to expand its Bozeman office.

The company, onX https://www.onxmaps.com/ , received the round of funding from venture capital firms Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Next Frontier Capital  which itself announced it recently closed a $38 million fund  as well as NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke.

By Lewis Kendall Chronicle Staff Writer

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/missoula-mapping-company-to-expand-bozeman-office-with-million-fund/article_ef6f3688-3bfd-5163-ae8b-dfed14810901.htmlPrime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets with President of the Senate Scott Ryan (R) and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tony Smith of Australia on March 15th (Photo: VNA)



The Australian legislators welcomed the PM, his spouse and the Vietnamese delegation on their official visit to Australia, describing the visit an important hallmark in 2018 when the two countries are celebrating the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

They spoke highly of the results of the talks between the two PMs, especially the signing of a Joint Statement on the establishment of the Vietnam-Australia Strategic Partnership and other important cooperation deals in education-training, science-technology and agriculture, saying these created breakthroughs in the relations between the two countries as well as ratcheted up cooperation in specific areas.

Vietnam treasures and wants to deepen the relations with Australia via all channels, including the parliamentary one, the PM told these leaders, suggesting their bodies to pay heed to pushing the cooperation between the law-making agencies of the two countries to match the freshly - established Strategic Partnership.

The Australian leaders hailed the outcomes reached during the official visit to Australia by Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan in November 2017 and said they will visit Vietnam at the earliest possible time.

The Senate and the House of Representatives always support and provide maximal assistance to the development of Vietnam-Australia relations, they stressed.

Senate President Scott Ryan highlighted the role of nearly 300,000 Vietnamese-Australian people to the growth of Australia and said he will continue working to support the Vietnamese community in their integration into the local society and making wealth so they will make continuous constructive contributions to the respective countrys development as well as the bilateral ties.

House of Representatives Speaker Tony Smith, for his part, showed his impression at the strong tourism cooperation between the two countries, citing the figure of nearly 500,000 Australians having visited Vietnam in 2017.

PM Phuc agreed with the two leaders that education cooperation continues the spotlight in the two countries cooperation as evidenced by nearly 30,000 Vietnamese students currently studying in Australia plus 60,000 Vietnamese alumni of Australian universities and colleges, and thousands of Australian students taking part in exchange programmes in Vietnam under the New Colombo Plan.

By accelerating education cooperation, the two countries are working together to build a foundation for their future, he underscored.

Earlier on the day, PM Phuc visited the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an independent agency of the Australian Federal Government responsible for scientific research in Australia, and attended an exhibition on renovations and creativity there.

The Vietnamese leader welcomed the sound partnership between the organization and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, noting that the two countries, with their supplementary strengths, shall cooperate to make the best use of opportunities brought by Industry 4.0. He also suggested the CSIRO continuing assisting Vietnam to develop green, organic and high-tech agriculture./.PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (sixth, right, front) poses for a group photo during his visit to the Australian National University. (Source: VNA)



Talking with the ANU leaders, lecturers and students, the PM highlighted Vietnams dynamic economy, saying the country has set up trade ties with over 230 countries and territories worldwide and signed 12 free trade agreements (FTAs).

Vietnam has also joined many international organisations such as the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), he said.

The leader highly valued Australias support for and cooperation with Vietnam, especially in education, high-tech agriculture and climate change response, adding that the two countries have also cooperated in many multilateral forums and engaged in many regional trade and investment agreements, with the latest being the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Vietnam and Australia have also shared view-points on issues on keeping peace and ensuring regional security, including the East Sea matter, PM Phuc said.

He also informed the ANU leaders, lecturers and students that during his ongoing visit to Australia, the two sides will officially elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership.

Responding to ANU Chancellor Gareth Evanss question regarding Vietnams business environment, the PM said the Vietnamese Government has continuously improved the domestic business environment, which has been recognised by prestigious organisations like the WB and the World Economic Forum.

Mentioning prospects for educational cooperation between Vietnam and Australia, he expressed his hope that the ANU will expand its connection with Vietnamese educational facilities to exchange experience and students.

We are ready to create the best conditions for the ANU and other universities of Australia to step up educational collaboration with Vietnam, he stressed.

He noted that the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training is scheduled to sign a cooperation agreement with the Australian Department of Education and Training for 2018-2023.

Following the talk, PM Phuc had a round-table with leaders of the ANU, during which he emphasised the fruitful relationship between Vietnam and Australia, particularly in education and training.

He noted that about 30,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Australia, the highest number of Vietnamese students in a foreign country, saying the figure reflects the confidence of Vietnamese students and their parents in Australian universities.

Besides, up to 60,000 Vietnamese graduates from Australian educational facilities have returned home to serve the nation, the leader added.

PM Phuc said apart from cooperation in trade, investment and other areas, the affiliation in education-training should be intensified after the two countries elevate their relationship to a strategic partnership.

Later the same day, PM Phuc met with the Vietnamese Embassys staff and representatives of the Vietnamese community in Australia.

The leader asked the embassy and the overseas Vietnamese to contribute more to enhancing trade ties between Vietnam and Australia, surpassing the present figure of USD7 billion.

The Party and State always consider the Vietnamese community abroad an integral part of the nation, he said, noting his hope that the OVs will unite and look towards the homeland.

The 40-member club of Vietnamese scientists in Canberra also made debut on this occasion./.US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink in an interview with CPV Online News (Photo: P.H)



Reporter: In comments to press right after taking office, you mentioned that this is a perfect time for you to work in Vietnam. How has this perfect time been realized so far?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: It has been fantastic actually. It is a tremendous honor for me to be the U.S Ambassador in Vietnam. I often say that Vietnam is one of our most important relationships in the world. So I have the honor of working to expand this relationship. I have been here for four months and it has been quite busy. During that time, we have had important visits like US President Donald Trump last November, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis in Janua and most recently the visit by USS aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to Da Nang city on March 5th. Right before Tet, there was also a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Vietnam State President Tran Dai Quang which reaffirmed their shared commitment to strengthening the US - Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. So, you can see the high-level engagement between the leaders of our two countries is on an unprecedented level and our cooperation is stronger than ever.

Personally speaking, my family and I are so happy to be here. I am here with my wife and my two children, Mia and Joe. Everywhere we go, people are so welcoming, and its the warmth that we really appreciate. So both professionally and personally, I couldnt be happier to be here.

Reporter: 2017 witnessed many important events in the US - Vietnam relationship, one of which was the visit of US President Donald Trump to Vietnam last November. How do you evaluate its results and impacts on the bilateral relationship?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: President Trumps visit was a tremendous success. The US President was happy with everything on the ground and I believe that our Vietnamese partners were happy with the outcome as well.

It is a case for success for a several reasons. First of all, the US President travelled to Da Nang city, participated in APEC, and gave a very important speech at the APEC CEO summit on the USs Indo-Pacific strategy. In that speech, the President laid out very clearly that the US is committed to peace, security, stability, and prosperity in the Indo - Pacific region and we are working to develop strong and independent partners.

During his State visit to Hanoi, President Donald Trump had very productive meetings with all Vietnams top leaders, including Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, State President Tran Dai Quang and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

If you want to see all the great things that have been achieved during the visit, lets look at the bilateral press conferences between US and Vietnam Presidents or the joint statements. You will see that the bilateral cooperation in the US - Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership is now at an unprecedented broad level, in trade, security, people-to-people relations, war legacies issues, and so on.

I think it is tremendous what our two countries are able to do together, and we share common interests that will further advance our partnership to new heights.

Reporter: In your opinion, what opportunities and challenges are US - Vietnam relations facing now?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: Opportunities far outweigh challenges, for sure. It is thanks to the positive momentum as I mentioned above. Our security cooperation will continue to expand because we have common interests in a peaceful and stable Indo - Pacific region, including the East Sea.

We are also supporting Vietnams first peace-keeping deployment in South Sudan. So, I think we will continue to see the bilateral security cooperation on the rise. Meanwhile, our economic and trading relationship obviously remains incredibly important. Vietnam was the US fastest growing export market in 2016. Trade has increased considerably during the last years, and virtually all major American companies are doing business in Vietnam. Overall, optimism is what I think about the future of our partnership, despite a few challenges.

Reporter: Speaking of maritime security, could you share your viewpoint as the US ambassador to Vietnam towards the East Sea disputes, which have drawn great international attention so far?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: The US has three pillars in its maritime strategy in the region, including the East Sea. The first pillar involves diplomatic efforts to promote a rule-based order and peaceful resolution of disputes in the East Sea. We are working together with our like-minded partners in the region, including countries in ASEAN such as Vietnam.

The second pillar focuses on developing the capacity of our partners in the region, including countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, and others, so that all countries can contribute to the regional peace and security. They can understand what is happening in the maritime domain and take steps to advance and protect their interests, which we think will contribute to the regional stability.

The third pillar involves US military operations. We can demonstrate that the US and all countries can freely navigate anywhere international laws allow.

We hope that this three-pillar strategy will help maintain peace and stability, freedom of navigation, and free flow of commerce in the East Sea and thats in our common interests.

Reporter: As a diplomat with diverse experience in handling Asian affairs, you definitely have many advantages. How do you intend to take advantage of these strengths in your diplomatic mission in Vietnam?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: I have had the privilege of living most of my adult life in Asia, specifically in Japan and China. When I used to work at the National Security Council, I was responsible for the entire Asia - Pacific region. During that time, I had the chance to work very closely with Vietnamese partners. I hope as ambassador that I can leverage that regional experience, understand what our shared objectives are in the region, what common challenges we are facing, and hopefully build on our relationship and work with our Vietnamese friends to promote our partnership to the next level.

US Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink confirms that opportunities far outweigh challenges in Vietnam - US relations (Photo: P.H)



Reporter: Can you share with us the top priorities during your term in Vietnam? In other words, what areas would you like to focus your efforts on during your diplomatic mission here?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: Here is how I would summarize what American objectives and Americas primary policy is with our Vietnamese partners.

We want to be your partner of choice in supporting the development of a strong, prosperous and independent Vietnam. Thats our goal because we believe not only the US and Vietnam, but the entire region is stronger if we have a network of partners who are all strong, successful, independent, and growing with happy people enjoying lives in a secure environment. So, that is our fundamental priority that drives everything we do.

Specifically, there are some top priorities: 1) security, 2) economics and trade, 3) humanitarian and legacyof war issues, and 4) people-to-people ties. However, these do not represent everything we do here because we also do great work on health, environment, energy, and much more.

On security issues, we cooperate on maritime issues and international issues of common concern. We work to develop the capacity of our Vietnamese partners - the Vietnamese Coast Guard for example.

On trade, we are looking forward to developing free, fair, and reciprocal trade with Vietnam. Many of Americas leading companies are investing here in Vietnam, creating thousands of jobs, helping the economy develop. That kind of beneficial investment and two-way trade helps us both.

On people-to-people ties, our relations are incredibly strong. There are some 30,000 Vietnamese students studying in the US. We also have over 1,000 American students here as well. We hope to see more students studying in both countries as exchange students, and more tourists coming to the US and Vietnam to travel.

We also continue to work on legacy of war issues like the fullest possible accounting of mission personnel, unexploded ordnance, and dioxin remediation.

These are just a few examples. As I mentioned earlier, we focus on the future - things we can do together. We still spend a great deal of time and effort to make sure that we address issues in the past. The more we interact, the more we understand each other, and the stronger our relationship will be.

Reporter: How was your first Tet in Vietnam? What has impressed you the most during the Tet holiday?

Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink: I was impressed by a few things. First of all, we had a great Banh chung (sticky rice cake) making event. That was really wonderful. As I mentioned earlier, it was very complex, and I was asking questions like how could people learn how to make this. The only conclusion I could reach is that it took thousands of years of knowledge and drawing on your great and rich culture.

Another thing I love about Tet is that it is time for family reunion. It was so wonderful to see people celebrate Tet with their families, and that really moved us.

During the Tet holiday, I had the chance to take my family to Hoi An, a beautiful city - one of the most beautiful places I have been. In the coming time, there will be more activities that are similar to Banh chung making event, and I hope through activities like that, I can learn more about Vietnam, Vietnamese people, and your great culture.

Reporter: Thank you very much!Overview of the requiem (Photo: VNA)

At the event, Mr. Pham Van Khue, Head of the VinaBudh, emphasized the significance of the requiem and the necessity to learn about and respect the historical event, in which 64 Vietnamese soldiers sacrificed their lives to protect the sovereignty of the nation.

In addition, Dr. Giap Van Chung, a famous translator translating Hungarian literature works, talked about his 10-day visit to Truong Sa last summer as a representative of the overseas Vietnamese community in Hungary.

He affirmed that to protect and preserve the sovereignty of the nation, no sacrifice is useless.

Journalist Dunai Peter, who was a correspondent of a large daily newspaper and MTI - Hungarian News Agency Corporation in Vietnam in 1981-1984 and published a book about Vietnam in 1986, shared about his days in Vietnam, especially a working visit in the northern border region with other foreign reporters. Witnessing the devastation of the war, he expressed his admiration before the bravery of Vietnamese soldiers.

At the requiem, the participants lit 64 candles to commemorate the martyrs./.Ambassador Vu Dang Dung and Mayor of Katowice city Marcin Krupa (Photo: baoquocte.vn)





Slaskie province is evaluated to have the leading economic development potential of Poland in the field of agriculture and industry, especially strength in food processing from meat for export to Europe. The province is also an entrepot among Poland, Europe and Asia. Meanwhile, Katowice city is Polands industrial centre with more than two million people. It is also the second largest and developed city of Poland after the capital Warsaw. This is also considered an special economic zone of the province with the strength of information technology, education and training.

At the working session, Ambassador Vu Dang Dung introduced some main features about Vietnams socio-economic development situation in recent years, and the cooperation strength and capacity of Vietnamese businesses in the European market, especially Poland.

He also highlighted some results during Polish President Andrzej Dudas official visit to Vietnam in November 2017 and orientation to carry out the cooperation agreements signed during the visit, including the establishment of a twinned relationship between Katowice and Ho Chi Minh ity.

During the working visit, the Ambassador also visited and worked with the organizing board of the 10th European Economic Congress (EEC) in Katowice, which will take place on May 14th - 16th, 2018.

On behalf of the ASEAN Committee in Warsaw (ACW), Mr. Dung discussed economic cooperation opportunities among ASEAN, EU and Poland. Mr. Wojciech Kuspik, Head of the organizing board, expressed his readiness to coordinate with ASEAN countries representatives to well organize the discussion in the framework of EEC, and said that Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will attend the event.

From now, the organizing board and ACW will regularly exchange to unify the theme and content of the program and preparations./.At the meeting (Photo: CPV) So said representatives from the Central Steering Committee on Voluntary Blood Donation during its 20th meeting held on March 13th in Hanoi.

According to the committee, the amount of blood collected is often higher and higher year by year, with the average growth of 8.5% each year, and with an increasingly high amount of blood collected from voluntary donors, from 71.6% in 2008 to 91% in 2017.

Le Gia Tien, Head of the Committees Office, said the rate of population who donate blood increased year by year, at 0.61% in 2008 to 1.6% in 2017.

During the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said that the safety in blood transfusion in Vietnam had been recognized internationally. However, the health sector will continue to invest in good quality equipment and machines to make blood donation effective, he went on to say.

Recently, the Central Steering Committee on Voluntary Blood Donation has discussed major solutions serving blood donation, including proposing the Prime Minister issue a directive on voluntary blood donation, creating a legal framework for blood donation; and developing the number of blood donors, fulfilling the target of having at least 2% of the population donate blood and 100% of blood donors to be voluntary./.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ANN ARBOR, MI - Packard Square has rebranded as the much-delayed multi-use development in Ann Arbor approaches competition.

Renamed The George Ann Arbor, the apartment and retail complex is nearing completion with many of the 1 to 3-bedroom units now being marketed online, with real estate companies like Zillow and Apartments.com as luxury apartments with prices ranging from around $1,600 to $3,500.

The project at 2052 Packard St., first proposed to city officials in January 2011, did not get underway until 2014 at the former Georgetown Mall property on Ann Arbor's south side.

Problems quickly began piling up at the project site about two miles from downtown Ann Arbor, as electrical workers went on strike and the general contractor was fired around the same time the developer first said Packard Square would be complete.

Ann Arbor-based real estate management company McKinley, Inc. was placed in control of the property in October 2016 through a court-ordered receivership, prompting further court dates as the original developer Craig Schubiner fought for control of the project and contractors sought payment for services rendered.

The 249 apartments at The George are just now being marketed at prices ranging from $1,611 to $3,495.

Real estate site Zillow has 20 listings, with square footage from 476 square feet to 1,480 square feet.

Amenities at The George include a fitness center with Peloton bike, massage and yoga rooms, movie theater fitted with surround-sound system, 75-foot outdoor swimming pool, demonstration kitchen and electric car charging stations in the underground parking garage.

"Every component of The George was hand-selected with your comfort and lifestyle in mind," reads a description on Zillow. "The latest technological conveniences along with an incredible variety of amenities make The George where you'll want to call home."

McKinley has not yet announced any plans for retail tenants in the roughly 24,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor level of The George, facing east toward Packard Street.

McKinley is listed as the leasing agent on Zillow, though the Ann Arbor company's website does not include the apartment complex in its listings.

Tours of the completed apartments can be scheduled through The George's website.

It was unclear whether some or all of the apartment units were complete, and if McKinley will continue to market and lease the apartments as part of its court-ordered receivership.

The developer of Packard Square attempted in September 2017 to send the project into bankruptcy proceedings in an effort to regain control of the project, a request later denied by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.

Representatives of Packard Square LLC and McKinley Inc. could not be reached for comment.

McKinley officials in December 2016 met with community residents to discuss the future of the Packard Square development.

Matt Mason, senior vice president in commercial real estate at McKinley, said at the meeting that receivership prompts foreclosure proceedings, with the property's title transferring to the original lender after a six-month redemption period for the owner or developer.

The original lender, California-based Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, remains in control of the project and has been supplementing McKinley's work to complete the project formerly known as Packard Square with several multi-million-dollar payments since receivership went into effect.

At the time, around 20 people had apartments at Packard Square on reserve through deposits. That number had dropped from 50 as construction delays and contractor changes continued on the project through 2014 to 2016.ANN ARBOR, MI - High school students are teaching each other how to recognize signs of depression, and it's making teenagers more comfortable talking about mental health issues.

That's according to a study published earlier this month in "Psychiatric Services," a peer-reviewed medical journal, on the effectiveness of a Peer-to-Peer Depression Awareness Program designed by the University of Michigan Depression Center.

The UM Depression Center launched the Peer-to-Peer Depression Awareness Program - known as P2P - in 2009 at Ann Arbor Public Schools' five high schools. The program has expanded over the years to 13 high schools in Washtenaw and Oakland counties and is being piloted in nine middle schools this school year.

The data in the study comes from the 2015-16 school year, when 121 students from 10 different high schools were trained on understanding depression, effective methods for reaching and listening to their peers and implementing depression awareness campaigns at their schools.

Students have the freedom decide what will work best in their schools, and past campaigns have included videos, posters, assemblies and confidential systems for students to share their concerns about a peer.

The study compared pre- and post-campaign questionnaires completed by 878 students, including 49 P2P team members who had been through the depression awareness training.

Here's a recap of the findings, according to a press release from the UM Depression Center.

Students were more likely to say they:

feel confident identifying the signs of depression in themselves or others;

would ask for help if they had depression symptoms for more than two weeks;

understand that depression runs in families and cannot be controlled through "willpower";

feel confident in their ability to help friends access mental health services;

would feel less embarrassment about being seen going to school social worker's or psychologist's office;

would seek help from other sources such as a teacher, clergy, helpline or coach if they were having a personal or emotional problem; and

are comfortable discussing mental health with other students at school.

They were also less likely to say a hypothetical new student with depression at their school would make them feel uncomfortable or that they would stay away from such a student.

The study found students who designed and led the P2P campaigns were more likely to feel comfortable talking about mental health issues with their peers by the end of the campaign and more confident that they could identify signs of depression and help friends access mental health services.

"Depression often starts early in life, so our efforts should match that. Providing education and advice on recognizing depression and anxiety, and de-stigmatizing it, begins in the schools," said Dr. Sagar Parikh, the study's lead author and associate director of the Depression Center, in a press release. "Our center has worked with the schools to deliver programs by students, for students, in the name of student health. And our research evaluation of the programs shows it is well-received and very helpful."

Nationwide, about 7.5 percent of teens have experienced depression in the last year, according to recent research. Depression is linked with alcohol and drug use, smoking, poor academic performance and problems with parents and peers. Depression and these other behaviors are also linked with suicidal thinking, attempts and death by suicide.

Related: Dying for success: Anxiety driving teen suicide rate to record high

The manual for the Peer-to-Peer Depression Awareness Program is now available online for free for any school to use. Stephanie Salazar, who holds a master's of public health and runs the P2P program, is accepting inquiries from schools that want to implement the program, and she hopes to collect more pre- and post-campaign data to measure the effects.

"As the program continues to grow, we hope that the manual will help others to develop similar programs in their schools in order to help students to reach their peers with these important messages in effective and meaningful ways," said Salazar, who also is a co-author of the new paper.ANN ARBOR, MI - A retired Ann Arbor police officer accused of fatally strangling his ALS-suffering wife with a breathing tube will undergo a competency evaluation.

Judge Darlene O'Brien on Thursday, March 15, ordered Kent Neigebauer to be evaluated by the Center for Forensic Psychiatry to determine criminal responsibility and whether or not he's competent to stand trial.

Neigebauer, 66, told police he "went insane" and killed his wife, who was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the time, according to court documents.

Neigebauer appeared Thursday in the Washtenaw County Trial Court in a wheelchair for the second time. His Ann Arbor-based attorney Dan Geherin has said Neigebauer suffers from a bad back.

Geherin told Judge O'Brien there was going to be a motion for attorney substitution, but the matter wasn't elaborated on during the hearing.

Judge O'Brien adjourned the case until May 17, but said that date could be moved up depending on how quickly the forensic center can get the report finished.

Neigebauer was bound over to circuit court on one count of open murder Jan. 16.

Police say Neigebauer confessed that he strangled and killed his wife, Marcia Neigebauer, at their apartment in the 5000 block of Plum Hollow Drive in Pittsfield Township when he called 911 around 10:52 a.m. on Nov. 19.

Neigebauer was in disbelief when officers arrived at the couple's apartment, according to court records. He asked several times if his wife was dead, according to the records.

Detectives found Marcia Neigebauer unresponsive in the living room area of the apartment with a breathing tube and a scarf around her neck, the records indicate. Police believe she was strangled with the breathing tube, according to the records.

She was the former owner of the DeLano Mansion Inn in Allegan on the state's west side, according to the Allegan County News.

The Ann Arbor Police Department confirmed that Kent Neigebauer retired from the force in 2004.

Neigebauer remains in jail with no bond.FLINT, MI -- A former emergency manager for Highland Park and Muskegon Heights schools has been named as the interim Flint Community Schools superintendent.

Gregory Weatherspoon was unanimously approved by the Flint Board of Education Wednesday night to fill the role effective immediately after former superintendent Bilal Tawwab was placed on administrative leave just one day ago.

Assistant Superintendent Sherri Merriweather and general counsel Gwendolyn A. de Jongh were also placed on leave March 13.

Merriweather has been replaced by Durant-Tuuri Mott Elementary School principal Shelly Umphrey, who was replaced by Angela Ascencio, a math instructional specialist at DTM.

Board President Diana Wright told reporters Merriweather and de Jongh had submitted their letters of resignation, effective at the end of the 2017-18 school year.

When questioned about the decision on Tawwab, Wright commented "As soon as Mr. Tawwab gave his non-renewal request, it's the responsibility of the board to begin to develop a transition plan. As a result of that, we began to see who's out there."

Tawwab recently informed the school board he would not seek renewal of his contract following the 2018-19 school year. He served as the district's superintendent since July 2015 after moving over from Detroit Public Schools.

Wright declined to comment on what she thought of Tawwab's performance as superintendent.

The district is currently working on a separation agreement with Tawwab and will continue to pay Merriweather and de Jongh through the end of the current school year.

Weatherspoon was the first choice available to the district to fill the position, Wright said. She noted Weatherspoon's talent will be able to help the school district as it transitions and seeks out a new leader.

Flint Board of Education President Diana Wright on administration changes Posted by Roberto Acosta Journalist on Wednesday, March 14, 2018

"It was important we had someone who has experience, who can hit the ground running," said Wright.

His educational career in 1972 as a teacher in Lansing. He retired in 2012 after spending seven years as superintendent of Cassopolis Public Schools.

Weatherspoon also served 16 years as a principal and administrator with the Lansing School District and as a consultant to the Michigan Department of Education.

He most recently served as interim superintendent at Benton Harbor Public Schools in southwest Michigan.

"My goal is working with disadvantaged kids because I'm one of them kids," said Weatherspoon, adding he was contacted last week by the Michigan Department of Education regarding his availability and then contacted separately by the school district.

He admitted he needs to become more well-versed on the issues facing the district, hoping to get into classrooms soon and find out where he may be able to assist in the new role that Weatherspoon expects to fill for at least four to six months as the board seeks a full-time replacement for Tawwab.

"You can't just go to college and come to a Flint or Benton Harbor, some of these devastated communities," he said. "You've got to be able to have some buy in, some understanding. It's a selection process. It's very difficult."

Newly appointed interim Flint Community Schools Superintendent Gregory Weatherspoon Posted by Roberto Acosta Journalist on Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Weatherspoon's agreement with the district runs through June 30, with automatic extension periods of 60 days at the rate of Tawwab's pay. Tawwab received $165,000 in base salary.

The contract may be terminated by either side with 14 days' notice. Weatherspoon, who lives in Lansing, will also receive a car allowance and hotel stays for up to two nights each weekin the Flint area, at $100 per night.

Wright said the district will immediately begin the search for a new full-time superintendent. Weatherspoon will not seek the job past his interim superintendent role.FLINT, MI -- The new chief for Flint Community Schools says he took the job knowing that the district needs help.

Interim Superintendent Gregory Weatherspoon told reporters Wednesday, March 14, that state officials reached out to him about the opportunity to lead the district.

"They knew the district was in trouble," Weatherspoon said. "When you hear from state superintendent's office, in the positions I've been in before since being a superintendent, it's been a crisis situation."

The Flint Board of Education selected Weatherspoon as its interim leader Wednesday night during a special meeting.

Weatherspoon said six schools within the Flint School District were going to be added to the list of the state's lowest-performing districts.

Despite Weatherspoon's claims, the Michigan Department of Education said it has no knowledge of its staff seeking out Flint School District's new interim superintendent.

Michigan Department of Education Spokesman Bill DiSessa said Thursday, March 15, the MDE had no knowledge of anyone at the MDE contacting Weatherspoon about the position.

Weatherspoon told reporters after Wednesday's meeting that he was contacted by the MDE last week and said it has a list of distressed districts across the state. He was asked about his interest in the job.

"You'll see veteran superintendents, like myself, come in to help out, either as a consultant or as an interim (superintendent)."

The Michigan Department of Education isn't saying much about what schools may be named to the state's watch list for poor academic performance.

"We're not releasing the names of the new Partnership districts and schools at this time," DiSessa said.

Partnership agreements provide a roadmap for the state's lowest-performing schools, according to the state. The goal is to improve performance by giving struggling districts more support, but it also gives the state the ability to shut down schools that don't improve.

"I don't know them," Weatherspoon said of the schools being named partnership districts. "I just know that there's six. That's how much I don't know."

The Flint School District has had a myriad challenges in recent years, including financial woes, declining enrollment and struggling academic performance.

In 2016, the district said it was able to climb out of its nearly $22 million deficit.

Once the largest district by far, Flint schools became the fourt- largest district in Genesee County with 4,553 students, according to the fall count date. Officials refused to release count totals until the figures were verified by the state -- a month later.

The Flint School District had just 15.3 percent of its students in grades 3-8 combined who received a score of advanced or proficient on the English language arts portion of the 2017 M-STEP.

Weatherspoon was unanimously approved by the Flint Board of Education on Wednesday, March 14, to fill the role effective immediately after former Superintendent Bilal Tawwab was placed on administrative the day before.

Assistant Superintendent Sherri Merriweather and general counsel Gwendolyn A. de Jongh also were placed on leave March 13.FLINT, MI -- A Michigan Department of Education investigation into allegations of improper spending by Flint Community Schools has revealed no wrongdoing by the district.

The investigation was launched following a pair of anonymous letters sent to the MDE, the first coming in August 2017 and a second following a short time later.

William DiSessa, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education, said an MDE team visited the district in fall 2017 to interview district staff and examine district records.

Allegations included claims employees were being paid for workshops they did not attend and using grant funds earmarked for a different use to provide bonuses to the employees.

Some "policy and communications issues" were noticed, but DiSessa noted there was "nothing improper" and no action was taken against the school district.

Bilal Tawwab, who has served as the district's superintendent since July 2015, notified the Flint Board of Education last month he would be stepping down from the position after the 2018-19 school year.

But the district announced Tuesday, March 13, it has placed Tawwab, assistant superintendent Shawn Merriweather and general counsel Gwendolyn A. de Jongh on administrative leave pending a special board meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday night

The board is expected to name to appoint an interim superintendent during the meeting, per a statement from board president Diana Wright.

Wright added the district will take "appropriate steps" to begin the search process for a permanent replacement, but she could not be reached for further comment on why the officials were placed on leave.ALGOMA TOWNSHIP, MI -- Plainfield and Algoma townships are joining Michigan's lawsuit against Wolverine World Wide, bringing a new demand to a legal action meant to force the company to pay for cleanup related to its toxic dumping.

Township officials want the Rockford shoemaker to pick up the multi-million dollar tab for extending municipal water to homes where drinking water wells are contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from Wolverine's tannery waste dumped decades ago.

On Wednesday, March 14, the townships filed the legal documents to join the federal lawsuit brought by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in January.

The extension is the only "viable long-term remedy" for providing long-term clean water to residents, the townships said in the legal filing.

Wolverine's installation of whole-house filtration units is a temporary fix because the systems require monitoring and filter replacements, the townships argue. As a result, homes would have deed restrictions related to contaminated water that would lower property values.

Plainfield Township spent months trying to negotiate a deal with Wolverine to cover the project costs in hopes of starting main extensions this year, but the company walked away from the table last month.

Wolverine, which has already spent millions on bottled water and filtration systems for hundreds of homes, said it wouldn't make any commitment until the resolution of the DEQ case, which is being paced to encouraged a settlement.

The company also faces more than 100 individual lawsuits and counting from local residents, and three class action filings advancing health and property values claims.

Wolverine's attorney, John Byl, argued that Plainfield's water system hasn't been officially chosen as the best long-term solution and that other options like digging deeper wells or other filtration systems exist.

Wolverine isn't opposing the townships joining the federal lawsuit, the company said in an March 14 email to MLive/The Grand Rapids Press.

Does this mean Wolverine is now willing to consider the funding the water extension project?

When pressed, the company pointed to a blog post that said this: "Wolverine Worldwide has consistently said that all options remain on the table related to resolving the water quality issues facing our community, and that it is open to a comprehensive solution based on the right data and involving all necessary parties."

The Plainfield Township board voted Feb. 26 to join the lawsuit, and the Algoma Township board did the same on March 12.

Although Algoma doesn't have a water plant like Plainfield, joining the legal fight puts Algoma in the conversation about how best to resolve the water contamination issue for residents, said Kelly Sheeran, Algoma's deputy supervisor.

"It's a 100 percent that we can advocate for half of our township that is having to live with this issue," Sheeran said.

She declined to say if Algoma plans to address the issue by building its own water system to supply residents.

Plainfield's municipal water system supplies water to some parts of Algoma, although most residents are on well water, Sheeran said.

So far, Algoma has spent more staff time than money on the issue in a quest to keep residents informed of developments on the township's website, Sheeran said.

"We want to make sure that residents feel informed and they feel like they have someone to call when they have questions," she said.

Not counting Plainfield's municipal system, an area search for Wolverine dump sites has turned up more than 550 wells with detectable PFAS levels so far. More than 100 are above the Environmental Protection Agency's health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOS and PFOA. The chemicals have been linked to a host of health care issues, including cancer and thyroid problems.

PFAS chemicals were developed to make products resistant to oil and water. Wolverine used 3M Scotchgard, a stain and water repellant was loaded with PFAS, for decades to waterproof shoes such as its popular Hush Puppies.DORR TOWNSHIP, MI - David Amerson, 36, was considered the favorite son and favorite uncle in their family, brother Dustin Amerson said.

However, relatives were not bitter about this. In fact, they loved him more for it.

"Everyone loved him because he was always the first person to help," Dustin Amerson said.

David Amerson was found dead Monday, March 12, in a wooded area behind his home, Allegan County Undersheriff Mike Larsen said. Larsen said no foul play is suspected in Amerson's death.

Police officially issued a missing person report on Sunday.

Allegan County Sheriff Frank Baker said in an email the department would be conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Dustin Amerson said he thinks anywhere from 130 to 200 people showed up to help search for David after he went missing.

He said his brother's employer, Weller Truck Parts Reman Center, even shut down a plant to send people to help search. After Amerson went missing, the company offered a $10,000 reward for information.

A company representative declined comment.

David worked at Weller Truck Parts Reman Center for 11 years, before which he worked for a lawn service company.

Though he had not worked at the lawn service company as long, the company also sent people to aid in the search, his brother said. Dustin Amerson said a group of refugees joined in the search as well. The refugees are neighbors his brother had helped with tasks around their homes, he said.

He said his brother was always helping others.

David fixed the rotting doors at his church when they were falling off, Dustin said. He was very active in his church and the only times he would miss a service were when he was sick or on vacation with their family, he said.

When not at church or with the family, David was an introvert and rarely spoke, his brother said.

He said David was methodical and saved his money.

With family, however, David was gregarious. Even in candid family photographs, David is always smiling.

Dustin said David was the favorite son, always helping their parents. The other kids didn't feel second-rate, he said, but appreciated David doing it so they could focus more on their own families.

"He chose to dedicate his life to his family," Dustin said.

David always brought treats for his nieces and nephews, even after their parents told him to stop bringing sweets.

David had recently been trying to finish the basement of his home so he could sell it and go buy "his 10 acres of paradise," Dustin said. The family showed up that Saturday to help him and realized he was missing, Dustin said.

In a Facebook post, Dustin wrote "20 nieces and nephews weep - for David, 8 brothers and sisters are broken - for David, A mother and father's hearts are left with a hole - for David."

Visitation for David will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 17, at Grand Rapids Baptist Church on 4525 Stauffer Ave. SE in Kentwood. It will be followed by a memorial service at noon.NEWAYGO COUNTY, MI -- A 31-year-old woman reported missing this week has been found safe in Texas.

Michigan State Police said Becky Miler of Newaygo was found safe in Del Rio, Texas. She left the state voluntarily and no safety concerns were identified, according to police.

Miller was reported missing Wednesday, March 14. Police said she was last seen Sunday, March 10, in Mecosta Township. She did not show up for work or contact her family members afterward.

She was believed to have been with John Kempisty, 44, from Newaygo County. Police determined she was not with Kempisty, but rather a Texas resident.

Miller's family has been notified of her safe location.

State police were assisted in their investigation by Meceola Central Dispath, Val Verde County Sheriff's Office, and the Texas Rangers.OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- One person died and another was critically injured after a car went across the Lake Michigan Drive median east of Allendale and struck another car.

The near head-on crash happened about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 14 on Lake Michigan Drive just east of the Grand River bridge near 26th Avenue.

Ottawa County sheriff's Sgt. Matt Wildfong said a female in the westbound vehicle, which crossed the median, died in the crash. The person, believed to be the driver, may have been ejected from the vehicle.

A female passenger in the same vehicle was critically injured and taken to an area hospital.

The scene of a fatal collision on Lake Michigan Drive east of Allendale on Wednesday, March 14

The driver of the eastbound car had injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Wildfong said.

Police and firefighters closed the eastbound lanes of Lake Michigan Drive for an extended period to investigate the crash.

Wildfong said it's not clear what caused the westbound driver to go across the median. The car slid somewhat sideways before colliding with the eastbound vehicle, he said.HOLLAND, MI -- Helen Zeerip cared for several young foster children before she realized many of them face a dismal future.

A quarter of the children raised in foster care end up on the streets within a few years after transitioning into adulthood because they lack a support system.

"I did foster care for 14 years and I had no clue they were ending up homeless," Zeerip said.

She started the nonprofit Grant Me Hope nearly 4 years ago to help children in foster care get adopted before they age out of the program.

Her inspiration -- and the name of the nonprofit -- came from the words of a foster child featured in an educational video she was required to watch to renew her foster care license.

The boy shared he had been told by his siblings that once he reached a certain age, he would become unadoptable.

"He paused and looked real sad, and said 'no one should steal your hope,'" said Zeerip. "That hit me as so wrong. I thought he was so right. Nobody should steal your hope."

Using video

She came up with a way to help after hearing about a California TV station airing videos of foster children in need of forever homes. The exposure resulted in several adoptions. She wanted to try the idea in Michigan.

Working with the nonprofit, Pathways MI, and videographers at Fusion Graphic Consultants, she created videos of foster children WZZM-13's Catherine Behrendt agreed to air weekly on her show, "Take 5 and Company."

"Helen didn't have to sell me on her idea at all," said Behrendt. "As an adoptive parent myself, I know the joys of creating or expanding a family through adoption."

Viewer response to The Grant Me Hope vignettes of foster kids telling their stories has been overwhelmingly positive.

"Even if they are not in a position to adopt themselves, they often share our stories on their social media accounts, tag someone they know, or just offer a bit of encouragement to the children or to those who want so desperately to help them find a loving family," she said.

Since the first video aired in January 2015, there have been adoptions of the foster children featured, Zeerip says.

But it's difficult to say how many have there have been since the state doesn't track the data, says Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services.

"These types of videos are among the tools we have as we work to find loving, permanent homes for children in foster care," Wheaton said.

A phone call

Last month, Zeerip received a touching call from a Detroit man that left her in tears.

He told Zeerip he and his wife were adopting a child featured in a video they saw on WXYZ-TV, Channel 7.

While the process took longer than expected, the teen was finally moving into their home the following week.

The love he felt for his new son reminded him of the depth of emotion he felt when his three daughters were born, he said.

"This is huge we are getting him adopted," said Zeerip, noting the young man was now about 17.

Zeerip and her husband, Craig became foster parents when the youngest of their three children was 3 years old. After getting their foster license, they began caring for young children, and ones with medical issues.

Like she preaches, the Allegan couple adopted two children out of foster care, who are now 12 and 16. Their three oldest children are now 19, 23 and 27.

Zeerip balanced foster motherhood with running the family's Holland-based trucking business, Teddy's Transport, and volunteering with several community organizations.

Craig and Helen Zeerip adopted two children out of foster care, who are now 12 and 16. Her three oldest children are now 19, 23 and 27.

Raising awareness

Last year, Zeerip was honored for her adoption advocacy when she was named a Angels in Adoption honoree by U.S. Senator Gary Peters, D-Mich.

Zeerip looks for opportunities to speak to groups and educate people about the need to adopt foster children. While adoptions are usually costly, adopting a child in foster care is free because most legal fees are waived.

Grant Me Hope has three goals: Educate the public about the plight of foster children; recruit more foster families to reduce the number of children placed in institutions and get as many children adopted as possible.

In Michigan, there more than 13,000 children in the foster care system. While many will eventually return to their families, more than 1,000 are waiting to be adopted.

Zeerip describes foster children as "innocent victims of circumstances that are beyond their control."

They often become wards of the state because they were abused or neglected by their parents. In some cases, their parents died and there aren't any relatives who can take them in.

Foster kids are are less likely to graduate from high school or college, and more likely to experience unemployment, according to the Casey Foundation.

One reason adulthood is tougher for former foster kids is because they are five times more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

Zeerip hopes to raise awareness and financial support for the organization's efforts with its first Grand Rapids fundraiser, Celebrating Hope. The March 29 event will be held at the English Hills Country Club, at 1200 4 Mile Road NW, Grand Rapids. Tickets for this event are $50 per person, $90 per couple and $450 for a table a 10. More information is at grantmehope.org.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - As the nation's opioid epidemic rages, Grandville police Chief Dan Steere recalled the heroin scourge that hit his town in 2004.

The supplier, Kevin Obi, is still serving a 25-year prison sentence in the overdose death of Nora Lares, 21. A Grandville teen also died of an overdose that year. Many teens were left addicted.

"It popped up in Grandville, a fairly well-to-do community, great people - all of the sudden," Steere recalled Thursday, March 15.

"Many of them are still fighting this today."

Now, he and others are waging an uphill fight against heroin, working to educate parents and their children on the dangers of even trying the drug, which quickly grabs hold of users and destroys lives.

"It's a demon, very difficult to throw," Steere said.

He hopes many turn out Monday, March 19, for a presentation, "Heroin and the Opioid Crisis from a National, State and Local Perspective," at Grandville High School Auditorium.

The program starts at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.

Among the speakers: U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge, Dr. Jeanne Kapnega, president of Families Against Narcotics, Mary Deboer, whose son, Matt McKinney, 17, died over a heroin overdose in 2004, state police Lt. Chris McIntire, and Grandville police Officer Jon Steffes and Lt. Al Roetman, assigned to the Kent Area Narcotics Team, who will talk about drugs in West Michigan.

The key to ending the epidemic, which often starts with use of prescription opioids, is keeping kids from starting in the first place.

"Teenagers are going to make the occasional bad choices. They can't afford to make a poor choice with opioids," Birge, the federal prosecutor, said at a press conference Thursday, March 15, at the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He said he wanted to work to keep people off drugs. For those who distribute the drug, a crime that carries harsh, mandatory prison terms, "you should consider yourself a target," Birge said.

He called the opioid epidemic a "healthcare challenge" and a "societal problem" as well as a criminal-justice issue.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is bringing additional resources to West Michigan, including agents who will conduct undercover operations. Others will look at records of doctors and pharmacies prescribing or providing excessive amounts of opioids, Bruce McColley, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA office in Detroit, said.

"The DEA has recognized there has been a growing issue in this region," he said.

The concern, too, is the use of fentanyl, a potentially lethal synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin. It can be bought on the "dark web" of the internet from laboratories in China, he said.

Roger Bearup, superintendent of Grandville schools, said families in all communities are invited to the program.

"Our job is to educate our kids on this because it is such a huge epidemic and once it grabs a hold of you it grabs a hold of you and it does not let go," Bearup said.

Kapenga, the doctor, said: "This is the worst manmade epidemic know to mankind, as declared by the (Center for Disease Control)."

She said the problem is getting worse in Kent County every year. She said that 137 heroin deaths occurred last year, with cases still pending.

"We are well past the state of a crisis situation here."

She said that addiction needs to be treated as a "scientific-based medical disease that deserves treatment."

In her role as president of Families Against Narcotics, she said she just got a 2 a.m. text from a distraught woman who grandson died of an overdose.

"The problem is here, it's right here in Kent County, and it's right now," she said.PARK TOWNSHIP, MI -- A 46-year-old Zeeland man has been arrested for allegedly restraining a woman inside her Park Township home and demanding money, police said.

Ottawa County sheriff's deputies said the man was arrested the afternoon of Wednesday, March 14 at his Holland Township workplace.

The home invasion occurred about 4:40 a.m. at a residence in the 16000 block of Riley Street in Park Township.

Police said a man entered the home with a weapon and demanded money from a 54-year-old female resident. She was placed in restraints before the man fled the home.

Deputies said the woman was not hurt and managed to free herself and call 911.

Police used a tracking dog and believe the man left the area in a vehicle parked near the home. Detectives developed leads that pointed toward the Zeeland man.

He is to be charged with home invasion, assault with intent to commit armed robbery and false imprisonment, police said.

The man is expected to be arraigned Thursday, March 15.OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- Police have released the name of the driver killed in a head-on crash Wednesday, March 14, east of Allendale, in Tallmadge Township.

Ottawa County Sheriff's deputies said Tiffany A. Clay, 32, of Grand Haven Township, was killed when she crashed the 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt she was driving.

The crash occurred around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday on Lake Michigan Drive just east of the Grand River bridge near 26th Avenue.

Investigators determined that Clay's vehicle was westbound on Lake Michigan Drive when it crossed the grassy median and struck another vehicle. Clay died, and her front-seat passenger -- a 29-year-old Grand Rapids woman -- was critically injured and taken to an area hospital.

Police said the driver of the eastbound vehicle, a 25-year-old Benton Harbor man, had injuries not believed to be life-threatening. He was transported to Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in serious condition.

All three people involved in the crash were wearing seat belts, according to police.

The crash remains under investigation. Police said it's not clear what caused the westbound driver to cross the median. Her vehicle slid somewhat sideways before colliding with the eastbound vehicle.

Assisting The Ottawa County Sheriff's Department on scene was Tallmadge/Wright Fire and Rescue, and Life Ambulance.Actress Melissa Gilbert, who lives in Howell, Michigan, isn't hiding what she thinks of President Donald Trump's Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Speaking to TMZ, Gilbert called the Holland, Michigan native a moron and said she needs to be removed from her position. This comes in response to a recent interview DeVos gave on "60 Minutes" where many believe she failed to answer the tough questions.

DEVOS PRESSED ON '60 MINUTES' INTERVIEW

TMZ caught up with Gilbert in New York City. "I think she's a moron. She needs to be removed as quickly as possible. She doesn't even know what's going on in the school system in her own state. In my state. It's infuriating. I have friends who are teachers who are mind boggled by her."

Gilbert, who you know from "Little House on the Prairie," also once dabbled in politics. She won the Democratic primary in Michigan's 8th Congressional District in 2016, but had to drop out of the race due to health issues.

DEVOS GOES ON OFFENSIVE AFTER '60 MINUTES' INTERVIEW

Gilbert is married to actor and Lansing native Timothy Busfield.LANSING, MI - Michigan would become the 39th state to allow online voter registration under bills the Senate passed on Thursday.

Senate Bills 425-429 change law to give voters the option to register online and update related references in Michigan election law. They charge the Secretary of State with setting up an online voter application. To use it, people would need a valid drivers license or state ID card. It would go into effect 90 days after the bill was signed.

The bills passed the Senate on a 35-1 vote.

"I'm hopeful that people will utilize it. They can already change their address online, if you're moving change your auto-registration address, your voter registration online... so we have it ready to go, and hopefully people will use it and feel secure," said Sen. Judy Emmons, R-Sheridan, the lead sponsor of the bills.

Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren, also spoke in support of the bills, saying that he's been introducing similar ones for years.

"I'm happy to see it pass. I think it's a good thing, people want some efficiencies in our voter registration," Bieda said.

Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, was the lone Senator who voted against the bill. He said the 2016 elections exposed issues and vulnerabilities in the system that should be addressed first.

"My issue is that our primary concern needs to be voting integrity," Colbeck said.

Emmons said she looked at best practices in other states and is confident proper controls are in place.

"We were all concerned about security. Everyone always is worried about hacking. But we think that we have safeguards in place," Emmons said.

The bills have earned support from groups like American Civil Liberties Union Michigan and the Michigan election reform alliance.

"Voting modernization has been taking place across the country, in states that are liberal and conservative - but so far, Michigan has lagged behind. With passage of these bills, Michigan will join 38 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing qualified voters to register online," wrote ACLU Michigan Policy Strategist Merissa Kovach in testimony submitted to the Senate Elections Committee.

The policy is also supported by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson.

"Thirty-eight states offer online voter registration tools," Johnson said in a press release. "Michigan is uniquely positioned to do the same because the Secretary of State's Office oversees both driver licensing and elections, which provides a secure database that makes it easy to authenticate a voter's address, identification and signature against their driver or state ID information."

The House is also considering a similar set of bills, House Bills 5548 and 5549, which were up in the House Elections and Ethics Committee on Thursday.

Whichever set ends up prevailing would need the approval of the full Senate, full House and a signature from Gov. Rick Snyder to become law.LANSING, MI - As the Michigan Senate met to pass legislation aiming to prevent scandals like the Larry Nassar sexual assault at Michigan State University on Wednesday, university Interim President John Engler worked to stall it behind closed doors.

Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said Engler had come to the capitol at his request on Wednesday, and they had discussed the package of bills spearheaded by Sen. Margaret O'Brien, R-Portage.

"MSU has a different perspective on what Senator O'Brien was doing and I urged him to go along with Senator O'Brien because it's, our caucus believes, the right direction," Meekhof said.

Ultimately the Senate ended up passing an amended version of the legislation on wide margins.

Engler was one of several individuals and interest groups who did not register concerns publicly during the committee process, but instead worked privately with Senate Republicans to address their biggest concern: a bill that originally would have extended the civil statute of limitations on sexual assault and made that extension retroactive back to 1993.

"President Engler met with the Senate Majority Leader to talk about the package, specifically asking the Senate to slow down and take more time to examine the fiscal implications to the state that some of the bills would have in opening up the liability window," said MSU spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant.

The meeting didn't sit well with Nassar victims like Rachael Denhollander, whose story first drew attention to Nassar's abuse.

MSU'S spokesman says I have no business expressing concern that MSU's president personally tried to kill legislation to protect children from abuse, because I am talking about something I know nothing about. This is how MSU treats sexual assault survivors. https://t.co/GoOwtMxHpf  Rachael Denhollander (@R_Denhollander) March 15, 2018

The Senate, after considering the last-minute input from individuals like Engler and groups like the Michigan Catholic Conference and Michigan Chamber of Commerce, made changes to the bill. The version it passed took the retroactivity back to 1997, limited it to the sexual abuse of minors and created a period during which older claims would have to be filed.

Asked if the changes had won Engler over, Meekhof said they had not.

"I wouldn't say that, no. There were pieces of it he liked, but he didn't care for it that much," Meekhof said.

In the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education on Thursday, Engler said he supported the portions of the bill that widened who had to be a mandatory reporter and increased penalties for mandatory reporters who did not report child abuse. Asked why he hadn't testified while the bills were in committee, Engler questioned when the meeting had taken place.

"No one knew. No one had the bills," said Engler, who formerly served as Senate Majority Leader.

The bills were introduced the morning of Feb. 27 and went through the Senate Judiciary Committee that afternoon.

Engler said the committee "clearly didn't send out perfect bills." There were problems lawmakers later tried to fix, he said, but didn't completely, in his view.

Larry Nassar was a serial molester who, often under the guise of medical treatment, sexually abused hundreds of women and girls while employed at MSU for nearly two decades. He currently is serving a 60-year sentence for the possession of child pornography, which if he lives through it, will be followed by a state sentence for 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct he pleaded guilty to.

Engler's opposition comes at a time when Michigan State University is being sued by many of Nassar's victims, some of whom were abused more than two decades ago.

The bills passed by the Senate head next to the House of Representatives, where House Speaker Tom Leonard, R-DeWitt, said they would be referred to the House Law and Justice Committee. The chair of that committee is Rep. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Twp., who is helping lead an inquiry into what went wrong at MSU and aims to also develop policy based off the results of that inquiry.On the same day students around the country walked out of class to commemorate victims of the Parkland, Fla. shooting and demand change, lawmakers in the U.S. House made their first effort since the shooting to address school safety.

Members of the U.S. House voted 407-10 Wednesday to approve the STOP School Violence Act, sponsored by Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., and supported by dozens of cosponsors, including Michigan U.S. Reps. Paul Mitchell, R-Dryden, Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, Fred Upton-R-St. Joseph, and Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp.

The bill provides for $50 million per year in Department of Justice grants for training members of school communities and nearby law enforcement as well as other school safety measures, such as physical improvements to school security systems, threat assessment and intervention initiatives and the development of anonymous reporting systems.

The legislation - passed the same day students in Michigan and across the nation staged walkouts and called for changes to U.S. gun laws with stricter control - makes no mention of firearms or their use in schools. Many lawmakers called the bill a "first step" in ongoing discussion about school safety.

In Michigan, students at Kalamazoo Central High School took an early stance on gun control following the Parkland shooting one month ago that ended with 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

An online petition started to demand gun control started by the high school's students has garnered nearly 240,000 signatures. The petition caught the eye of former President Barack Obama, who praised the students for their leadership. Several K-Central students traveled to the state Capitol to rally for changes in gun laws.

On Wednesday, they joined all 26 of Kalamazoo's public schools as well as students throughout the state and country in walking out of school to commemmorate the Parkland shooting victims and call for action to prevent future school shootings.

"We're all here standing together," said Talia Edmonds, a KCHS senior. "We are one of thousands of schools who are walking out today to make our voices heard."

Upton, who represents Kalamazoo and other areas of Southwest Michigan, said in a statement that he's spoken with students, parents and teachers throughout his district and considers Wednesday's vote in the House as a common-sense step towards change.

"When we send our kids off to school, we expect them to arrive back home safely," he said in a statement. "This bipartisan legislation addresses flaws in the system that fail to prevent violence in school."

Of Michigan's Congressional delegation, the only lawmaker to vote against the STOP School Violence Act was U.S. Rep. Justin Amash.

He retweeted a statement from the House Liberty Caucus on why the plan should be opposed, which said the bill "endangers the right to due process, encourages the continued blurring of school discipline and criminal justice through school policing, and undermines federalism."

Among those applauding the legislation's House passage were President Donald Trump. His administration said in a statement that the bill was an "important step towards keeping students safe" and said strengthening laws to help law enforcement, addressing mental illness and developing strategies for preventing violence in schools is critical.

Kildee posted on social media Wednesday that he thinks more can be done. In an interview with ABC 12 that he shared on Twitter, Kildee said the most important thing Congress can do immediately is to ensure all gun purchases are submitted to background checks.

"We really want to make sure we're preventing guns getting into the hands of people who might actually not be able to manage that weapon themselves, or get themselves or somebody else hurt," Kildee said.

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar said the legislation gives states and school districts the resources and flexibility to help create a safe learning environment, and U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, said the bill will give school and law enforcement officials the tools and training they need to be proactive against threats.

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, said in a statement the STOP School Violence Act isn't the final answer to school safety.

"Our nation's schools must be a safe place where students can focus freely on their education," he said. "There is no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving the goal of safety in our schools. However, we must act on every level to ensure our students remain safe as they receive their education."State Superintendent Brian Whiston, who's battling pancreatic cancer, announced Wednesday he's planning to go on medical leave within the next 30 to 60 days, but said he's "praying for a miracle" that will enable him to return to work.

Whiston, who was appointed state superintendent in 2015 and announced his cancer diagnosis in January, said his "prognosis isn't good." He said the timing of his illness is "frustrating" because he's eager to see the results of efforts he and his colleagues at the Michigan Department of Education have developed to improve schools and increase student achievement.

Those efforts include a revised state assessment system, a partnership model for low-performing schools, and any array of strategies included in his "Top Ten in Ten" plan, which aims to make Michigan a top-performing education state in ten-years.

"It takes time to get the vision, and then it takes time to implement the vision, and I think we're just coming to that point where you're going to see these things - are they working or aren't they working," he said. "I'm deeply disappointed I'm not going to be here for that part of the process."

Once Whiston goes on leave, the State Board of Education will be tasked with naming an acting superintendent. Whiston, who has the right to return from his medical leave at any point, said he's recommending that the board choose chief deputy superintendent Shelia Alles to fill the position.

Whiston was tapped by the state board to serve as state superintendent in 2015, and officially started in his position that July. Prior to that, he was the superintendent of Dearborn Public Schools, a position he held since 2008. He also spent 10 years as director of government and community services for the Oakland County Intermediate School District.

Prior to his announcement Wednesday, the state board conducted its annual evaluation of Whiston, and approved a one-year extension of his contract. State Board Co-President Cassandra Ulbrich praised Whiston's work and leadership at MDE.

She pointed, in particular, to the creation of the "Top Ten in Ten" plan, a broad set of strategies aimed at turning Michigan into a top-performing education state within the next decade. She also praised his effort to bring the state School Reform Office, which is tasked with turning around Michigan's lowest performing schools, back into MDE.

Gov. Rick Snyder moved the SRO back into MDE last year.

In 2015, Snyder pulled the office from MDE, which was then under the leadership of State Superintendent Mike Flanagan. Frustrated with the office's performance at MDE, he placed it under the control of the Department of Technology, Management and Budget, which is part of Snyder's administration.

"In a relatively short amount of time, he has been able to move the culture in a large institution, which we all acknowledge is not an easy thing to do," Ulbrich said, in reference to Whiston. "It takes true leadership, true talent, to be able to establish something as important as a vision and a list of goals to go along with that vision and get literally everyone on board at every level of the organization."

As state superintendent, Whiston leads MDE. He also advises lawmakers on education policy and funding needs and is responsible for implementation of laws and policies passed by the Legislature and the State Board of Education.

Whiston wants to work another one to two months so he can wrap up work on a few priorities, but he said he'll only do so "If I can be effective."

"If I can't be effective, I'm going to step away sooner," he said.

His immediate priorities include pursuing a federal waiver that would permit up to 5 percent of school districts statewide to develop and administer an alternative assessment as opposed to the M-STEP, the state's standardized test.

He also wants to examine how schools are held accountable for performance of students whose primary language is not English. It takes five- to seven-years for such students to become proficient in English, and "yet we're holding them accountable in a year or two," he said.

"We would like to stretch that into two or three," Whiston said.

State Board Co-President Richard Zeile said Whiston's work has been "outstanding" and has helped the members of the eight-person state board - which is evenly between Democrats and Republicans - find common ground.

"He has that sense of pacing that helps everyone get on the same page and identifies the common ground," he said. "There's some passionate people with some differing views in this business and on this board, and he has just done a remarkable job of bringing constructive corporate action out of all that."

Michigan's education system has faced criticism in recent years over lagging performance on state and national assessments.

A recent report by Education Trust-Midwest, for instance, showed Michigan's third-graders "showed the greatest decline in third-grade reading compared to other states participating in the same assessment consortium, despite nearly $80 million of targeted state investment to improve reading outcomes."

Despite such trends, Whiston said he's confident about the future of Michigan's schools. He said, for instance, the number of college programs in high schools has grown from 24 to over 130 during his tenure as state superintendent.

"I'm not going to sit here and bury my head in the sand and say we don't have problems - we do," he said. "I just disagree with people who say we're ... in a crisis. I think there's a lot of good things going on, where a lot of kids are being prepared, and there's a lot of great teachers who are moving kids forward."PITTSFORD, MI - Pittsford Area Schools are closed Thursday, March 15, due to a handgun and destructive device found in a student's locker.

The school went into hard lockdown at 1:43 p.m., Wednesday, March 14, after school officials, acting on a tip, searched a student's locker and found the weapons, according to a statement from the Hillsdale County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies detained the student, a 13-year-old boy, and questioned him with one of his parents present at the school, police said.

While searching through the student's possessions, police found a destructive device and removed it from the building, police said.

The Michigan State Police Bomb Squad and a K-9 unit was called to the scene to dispose of the device and search the school for any additional devices. No additional devices were located, police said.

The student was arrested and turned over to the Hillsdale County Probate Court System, police said.

Police obtained a search warrant for the boy's home and collected additional evidence. The incident remains under investigation, police said.

All Pittsford Area Schools events for Wednesday evening were canceled, per the superintendent.JACKSON, MI - Michigan State Police have been investigating an allegation of misappropriation of funds or financial improprieties within the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.

The investigation was completed last week and Detective 1st Lt. Tom DeClercq has an appointment next week to present the findings to the state Attorney General's office, the lieutenant said Thursday morning, providing the first glimpse into the nature of the inquiry.

DeClercq, of the Lansing-based First District Special Investigation Section, would not comment on what the investigation revealed or provide any details or specifics.

It will be up to the attorney general's office to determine whether the case warrants any criminal charges.

DeClercq would not say who or what agency reported the accusation, which was specific to Sheriff Steven Rand. Jackson County leaders have said, in a statement, they contacted the state police and the attorney general's office when sheriff's Lt. Tommy Schuette came to them in January with a list of concerns about Rand. County Administrator Mike Overton has hardly deviated from or elaborated on the statement, saying it could jeopardize the work of the state police.

The state police have said the investigation is separate from the allegations contained in the lawsuit filed last month on behalf of Schuette. It contends Rand created a hostile work environment, harassing Schuette for his hearing loss, and the county retaliated against Schuette for opposing and reporting Rand's conduct.

Schuette's lawyer, Jim Fett, released recordings collected by Schuette of Rand making offensive comments, especially toward women, in command staff meetings. He calls the chief circuit judge a "scatter-brained c---", discusses the creation of a pornographic murder film involving a female court employee and demeans a woman job candidate by demanding Schuette detail her appearance.

Rand has apologized repeatedly for his statements. He is confident the state police will find no criminal activity within his department, he earlier said. "I have got, frankly, some of the best people working here that simply wouldn't allow that."

Rand's recorded derogatory remarks, however, have moved the Jackson County Board of Commissioners and the Jackson City Council to call for his resignation and to petition the governor to remove Rand from office.

The attorney general's office received in late February a request from Gov. Rick Snyder's office to review the claims and determine whether they meet the legal definition of misconduct in office.

As late as Thursday, Rand said he intends to remain sheriff. He is undergoing training and rebuilding trust, he said.

For a full listing on stories addressing the lawsuit, the criminal investigation and the reaction among local politicans, click here.ALLEGAN COUNTY, MI -- A man who led police on vehicle chases in both Indiana and Michigan was finally apprehended late Wednesday after state police disabled his fleeing vehicle.

Police took Anthony Blatz, 44, and his wife into custody about 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 14 after a state police trooper used a "pit" maneuver to stop a the vehicle.

Police did not name Blatz in a news release about the pursuits late Wednesday, but earlier in the day said he was the suspect.

Blatz fled police in Indiana earlier Wednesday as they tried to arrest him for two counts of larceny and a probation violation.

He later was spotted in Lawton in a vehicle and a trooper gave chase until the suspect's vehicle crash on M-40 near First Street in Paw Paw. The driver and his wife fled the vehicle and police could not locate them.

Several hours later, police said the suspect and his wife got a ride from two people in a car from Indiana.

Soon after, about 4 p.m., troopers took notice of the other car because of its Indiana plates. Police then attempted a traffic stop and the driver stopped.

Police said Blatz was in a passenger seat and pushed the driver out of the vehicle. He then got into the driver's seat and fled north on M-40.

Van Buren County sheriff's deputies and troopers pursued the vehicle until it was immobilized just inside Allegan County near 102nd Avenue.

Police took the suspect and his wife into custody. No one was injured in the pursuits.KALAMAZOO, MI -- Criminal charges could be filed in some of nearly 200 rape cases that long have gone unprosecuted in Kalamazoo County.

A team of five people from the Michigan Attorney General's Office, the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office and the YWCA Kalamazoo have served on a team to look at previously untested rape kits, some up to 30 years old. Their goal is to see if further action can be taken now that the rape kits have been tested.

The five-person team assembled in Kalamazoo includes advocates available to help victims of these sexual assaults, Prosecutor Jeff Getting said.

According to a 2016 audit by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety topped the list in Kalamazoo County with 113 untested rape kits. The Western Michigan University Department of Public Safety had 40 untested kits in its evidence room and the Portage Department of Public Safety had 16. Other departments had fewer than 10.

In 2015 the Legislature appropriated funding to the attorney general to assist local prosecutors in investigating and prosecuting cases arising from previously untested sexual assault kits throughout the state. State funds of $144,216 have financed two temporary sexual assault kit special investigators in Kalamazoo County. The nearly 200 rape kits now have all been tested.

"They've attempted to prioritize those cases that involve more serious allegations and were in danger of lapsing because of the statute of limitations," Getting said.

"We have not yet charged any offenses out of those investigations, although we have identified several cases that are actively being investigated and may result in charges being authorized," he said.

Getting declined to predict how many cases may result in charges being authorized.

"We've also been able to identify many cases where there were untested rape kits that we've been able to close because the suspects were previously prosecuted, some in which the suspects were deceased, some because the victims were not interested in pursuing charges," the county prosecutor said.

Again, Getting declined to say how many.

"This project has been very beneficial in allowing us to have a second look at these investigations and the process with how we are handling those sexual assault kits and the investigations involving them," he said. "I anticipate there will be multiple prosecutions arising out of these investigations."

Getting said he's glad his office will be able to pursue those cases and have the opportunity to provide justice for the victims, even if it is overdue.

In 2009, more than 10,000 untested rape kits were found in a Detroit police storage warehouse. After that discovery, money was appropriated to test those kits, and in 2015 another $1.7 million was appropriated by the state Legislature to test nearly 2,000 previously untested kits in the 82 counties outside of Wayne County.

The AG's office has worked with county prosecutors to hire special assistant attorneys general or investigators to work in local prosecutors' offices to investigate and prosecute any cases that result in the investigations of the previously untested kits.

In Kalamazoo County, the kits had been maintained by local police agencies, which, Getting said, should be applauded for maintaining them for all these years even though they hadn't been tested.

There are several possible reasons the kits hadn't been tested, Getting said, including having no suspect to compare them to, a victim being uncooperative with the investigation, or other evidence available so they didn't have to submit the kit for testing.

"What we've found in some instances across the state, even though the suspect in case 1 was unknown, there was overlap in these investigations that was previously not recognized," Getting said.

Once all the untested kits were tested, police have been able to identify links throughout multiple cases, according to the prosecutor.

"The project has shown us there's value in testing all of these kits, even if there's other evidence that would establish as suspect's guilt," Getting said. "By testing the kits we can sometimes link other sexual assaults to that suspect where we didn't realize the connection before."KALAMAZOO, MI -- Efforts to make Western Michigan University a "university of choice" regionally, statewide and nationally will be headed by a new vice president.

The newly created position of vice president of marketing and strategic communication will lead the Office of University Relations and "help Western Michigan University realize its strategic goals by advancing an enhanced image of the university regionally, nationally and beyond, as a university of choice," WMU said on its website.

The results of enhanced branding will increase diversity, quality and quantity of Western's student population, strengthen its national rankings and increase awareness of the university as a "vital resource locally, regionally and nationally," it said.

A 14-person search committee led by Ed Martini, associate dean of Extended University Programs, was given an "aggressive timeline and will bring finalists to campus before the end of the semester," President Edward Montgomery said in an email to the campus community.

"This new position will ... work collaboratively with all university entities to fully integrate and advance institutional marketing, branding and communication efforts, both internally and externally," Montgomery said.

The vice president of marketing and strategic communication will be a member of Montgomery's cabinet, which is the university's senior leadership team. WMU currently has seven vice presidents serving in areas from student affairs to business and finance, Executive Director of University Relations Cheryl Roland said.

Communication efforts currently fall under Roland and Vice President for Government Affairs and University Relations Greg Rosine. Rosine will focus solely on governmental affairs and Roland will retire at the end May, she said in an email.

Roland has served as university spokesperson for nearly 12 of her 30 years in the Office of University Relations.

In his letter to the campus, Montgomery thanked her for her "years of exceptional service."

"[Roland's] skill, knowledge and dedication have been at the core of university relations through thick and thin," Montgomery said. "Her leadership will be deeply missed."MUSKEGON, MI - Plans for condominiums with boat slips at the Hartshorn Marina may soon come to fruition at a property on West Western Avenue as a development company makes its final push to buy the land from the city of Muskegon.

The city accepted a purchase offer from Smith Equities in May 2017, which stated the company's intent to buy the land at 1000 W. Western Ave. for the asking price of $249,000. The property is located between the marina and Fricano Place.

That agreement expired in November 2017 as Smith Equities did its due diligence to create a formal purchase agreement.

On March 5, the company - under the newly formed Harbor West LLC - sent a letter of intent to purchase the property to City Manager Frank Peterson. The letter was meant to notify Peterson and city leaders that Smith Equities was still interested in the purchase under the tenets of the original agreement with minor changes, Peterson said.

Muskegon's City Commission accepted the letter on Tuesday during its regular meeting. The vote was unanimous.

Smith Equities and the city of Muskegon have until May to negotiate the final terms of the agreement, but Peterson said there was little else to hammer out.

"This is what we've all pretty much agreed will be in the purchase agreement," he said. "The purpose of this letter was to make sure we're all on the same page."

The development company envisions a condominium community where residents can walk "out your unit right to your boat," John VanFossen of Smith Equities told city commissioners in 2017.

A site plan provided to commissioners on Tuesday details 23 condos built across the sprawling lakeside development, complete with a fenced-in club house and pool area, lush landscaping and access to the city-owned marina.

A site plan provided to commissioners on Tuesday details 23 condos built across the sprawling lakeside development, complete with a fenced-in club house and pool area, lush landscaping and access to the marina.

The working agreement also details several upgrades to the marina's dock and other utility improvements at the city's expense. An earlier version of the agreement required Smith to maintain the marina, as well. Both of those points may or may not stick, Peterson said.

"That's not entirely off the table," Peterson said. "We're just now working on what those upgrades would look like and we hired a consultant to look into it about eight months ago. We were anticipating doing an upgrade anyway because the docks, bathhouses and other amenities are all outdated."

If the agreement is approved, the city of Muskegon will most likely start marina improvements beginning this summer. Dock improvements will be a bigger task, Peterson added, saying those won't be done until sometime in 2019.

An existing Lakeshore Trail segment and boat launch access drive will most likely be closed and relocated to the west side of the development, which is currently being used as access to Fricano Place.

If the development proves successful, Smith could be interested in developing more former lakefront industrial property to the west, VanFossen said.

All prospective condo owners would have the right of first refusal for marina slips at Hartshorn, Peterson said, which may cause some jockeying for space with long-term slip lessees.

"We have about 100-plus slips, along with transient slips, moors and a basin, so in the grand scheme of things, I don't think there will be a problem," Peterson said. "We also have a lot of turnover, so some of the jockeying will be about what type of slips they'll be able to lease, not whether they'll be able to get one."

The property adjacent to Hartshorn Marina previously was a parking lot for the former Shaw Walker manufacturing facility across West Western. That facility is now the ongoing Watermark development.

Several significant portions of the Shaw Walker building have been demolished since Smith offered to buy the property.LAKELAND, Fla. -- Four more players have been sent to minor-league camp, trimming the Detroit Tigers roster to 37 players with two weeks left until Opening Day.

The Tigers reassigned infielders Harold Castro, Kody Eaves and Edwin Espinal and outfielder Jason Krizan.

None of the four are on the 40-man roster and none were expected to make the Opening Day roster.

Krizan, 28, has been in the Tigers system since being drafted in the eighth round in 2011. He spent most of last season playing for Triple-A Toledo.

Castro, a 24-year-old native of Venezuela, has spent most of the last three seasons playing for Double-A Erie.

Both Castro and Krizan were minor-league free agents this winter but chose to re-sign with the Tigers.

Espinal, a 24-year-old Dominican, spent his entire career in the Pirates system before signing a minor-league deal with Detroit this winter. He primarily plays first and third base.

Eaves, 24, was a 16th-round pick in 2012. He hit well last year in Erie and followed it up with a solid performance in the Arizona Fall League.[March 14, 2018] TUV Rheinland: Wireless Lab in Sweden Receives Accreditation COLOGNE, Germany and LUND, Sweden, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global testing service provider's Swedish national subsidiary, TUV Rheinland Sweden AB, has had its wireless lab in Lund audited and accredited as a certification institution by the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (SWEDAC). This allows the company to carry out full compliance testing as an independent testing organization. "The lab in Lund, Sweden is a further milestone with which we can build up our global commitment in the field of wireless technologies, bringing us another step closer to fulfilling our TUV Rheinland Wireless Strategy 2020. With this successful accreditation, SWEDAC has now confirmed our expertise in the field of wireless," explains Stefan Kischka, Vice President of Wireless/Internet of Things at TUV Rheinland. Full range of wireless testing options TUV Rheinland has expanded its worldwide wireless network with the wireless laboratory acquired in 2017. In addition to Sweden, TUV Rheinland also operates comparable IoT labs in Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, the USA and the Netherlands. Lund is the first of the TUV Rheinland European wireless labs to specialize in IoT products. "In this laboratory, we offer our customers the entire range of wireless testing options, such as Sigfox, LoRa, ZigBee, 3GPP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Thread. The lab is also equipped with OTA chambers and SAR systems and even offers eCall testing," adds Anders Nordlof, Managing Director of the national subsidiary TUV Rheinland Sweden AB. eCall testing eCall is the abbreviated version of "emergency call". From March 31, 2018, manufacturers across the EU must install this automatic emergency call system for motor vehicles in all new car models and in new light-duty commercial vehicles. In the event of an accident, the vehicle sends a relevant notification to the emergency services, helping to initiate rapid rescue operations. "We see major potential in this development. As a state-of-the-art lab, which is TUV Rheinland's first in the world to offer eCall testing, we are continuing to expand our market position," states Nordlof. For more information, visit www.tuv.com/wireless. TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group employs 19,700 people around the globe. Annual revenue is more than EUR1.9 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all industrial sectors and areas of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, and oversees projects, processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, the company operates a global network of approved labs and testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com SOURCE TUV Rheinland Singapore Pte Ltd

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\broadband-stimulus's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Canada and New Brunswick to make significant investments that will improve the lives of Canadians $673 million available for projects that build prosperous communities and transition to a clean growth economy FREDERICTON, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ - The governments of Canada and New Brunswick are working together to make long-term infrastructure investments to create economic growth, build inclusive communities and support a low carbon, green economyleading to a higher quality of life for all Canadians. Today, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and the Honourable Brian Gallant, Premier of New Brunswick, announced the signing of a bilateral agreement that will provide more than $673 million over the next decade in federal funding dedicated to infrastructure projects under the Investing in Canada plan. The projects supported through this agreement will be cost-shared with the provincial government, municipalities and other partners. This new funding will see the Government of Canada make unprecedented investments in public transit, green infrastructure, recreational and cultural infrastructure, and rural and northern communities infrastructure. These investments will have benefits for people in communities across the province, including: Faster commute and travel time for more people, and easier movement of goods for businesses

Cleaner air and water

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Smarter and more efficient cities

Sustainable water management

Enhanced public parks, recreational facilities and other spaces that make communities great places to live

Better transportation and digital infrastructure for people living in remote communities Across Canada, more than $33 billion in federal funding will be invested through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories. Provinces and territories will develop three-year plans that will provide information on how they will implement their infrastructure projects. Quotes "Long-term investments in infrastructure are key to building a strong Canadaconnecting people, creating good jobs for the middle class, and building our economy and our communities for the future. We are pleased to reach a new agreement with New Brunswick to invest in infrastructure projects that will benefit communities of all sizes for years to come. Collaboration and partnership have been at the heart of the success of our Investing in Canada plan and we will continue to work with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous communities, stakeholders, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast." The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities "Your government's multi-year economic growth plan includes investing in New Brunswick's infrastructure to create jobs. Infrastructure investments help stimulate the economy and improve the quality of life of New Brunswickers." The Honourable Brian Gallant, Premier of New Brunswick Quick facts Under the Investing in Canada plan, the Government of Canada is investing more than $180 billion over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and Canada's rural and northern communities.

plan, the Government of is investing more than over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and rural and northern communities. Under the first phase of the plan, Infrastructure Canada has approved nearly 3,500 projects across Canada worth a combined investment of more than $8.4 billion .

worth a combined investment of more than . As part of the Plan, Infrastructure Canada will deliver $33 billion over the next decade through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories under four funding streams:

over the next decade through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories under four funding streams: $20.1 billion for public transit;

for public transit;

$9.2 billion for green infrastructure;

for green infrastructure;

$1.3 billion for community, cultural and recreational infrastructure; and

for community, cultural and recreational infrastructure; and

$2.4 billion for wide-ranging infrastructure needs in rural and northern communities

for wide-ranging infrastructure needs in rural and northern communities This marks the third new long-term infrastructure bilateral agreement the Government of Canada has signed with provincial and territorial partners. Related product Backgrounder Canada and New Brunswick to make significant investments that will improve the lives of Canadians

$673 million available for projects that build prosperous communities and transition to a clean growth economy Under the $180 billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan, the Government of Canada is signing new bilateral agreements with all provinces and territories, which will see more than $33 billion in federal investment towards significant infrastructure projects across the country. The objective of these investments is to transform the way Canadians live, move and work in four priority areas: Public transit;

Green infrastructure;

Community, culture, and recreation infrastructure; and

Rural and northern communities. New Brunswick Funding Allocations The table below shows the allocations for New Brunswick by funding stream from 2018-2028 which amounts to $673,217,569.



Funding Stream Allocation Expected Outcomes at Project Completion* Public Transit $165,202,662 to build new urban transit networks and service extensions that will transform the way Canadians live, move and work. Improved capacity of public transit infrastructure

Improved quality and safety of existing and future transit systems

Improved access to public transit systems Green Infrastructure $347,151,232 to support greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions; enable greater adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change and climate-related disaster mitigation, and ensure that more communities can provide clean air and safe drinking water for their citizens. Increased capacity to manage more renewable energy

Increased access to clean energy transportation

Increased energy efficiency of buildings

Increased generation of clean energy

Increased structural capacity and increased natural capacity to adapt to climate change impacts, natural disasters and extreme weather events

Increased capacity to treat and manage wastewater and stormwater

Increased access to potable water

Increased capacity to reduce or remediate soil and air pollutants Community, Culture and Recreation Infrastructure $46,230,038 towards community, culture and recreation infrastructure to build stronger communities and improve social inclusion. Improved access to and increased quality of community, cultural and recreational infrastructure for Canadians, including Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable populations Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure $114,633,636 to support projects that improve the quality of life in rural and northern communities by responding to rural and northern specific needs. Improved food security

Improved and more reliable road, air and marine infrastructure

Improved broadband connectivity

More efficient and reliable energy

Improved education and health facilities that benefit Indigenous peoples (specific to Truth and Reconciliation Commission) * Outcomes will be obtained through projects which will be communicated in more details as they are announced. The bilateral agreement will allow the Government of Canada and New Brunswick to agree on shared results as well as a method of reporting on results on a regular basis. The bilateral agreement supports the following long-term results: Increase the rate of economic growth in an inclusive and sustainable way;

Improve environmental quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resiliency of communities;

Improve mobility in Canadian communities;

Make Canadian communities more inclusive and accessible; and

Manage infrastructure in a more sustainable way. Under this new bilateral agreement, the Government of Canada will not only make significant investments in Canadian communities, but also open the door to unique and innovative project ideas that meet the agreed-upon outcomes. These new ideas will contribute to the long-term sustainability of our infrastructure. In order to ensure our partners consider opportunities to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or better adapt to climate change during the project development stage, a new climate lens will be applied for certain projects. Additionally, partners will also report on how larger projects are creating job opportunities for a broader array of Canadians in the construction industry and related sectors through a new Community Employment Benefits framework. For information on cost-sharing, please see Infrastructure Canada's website. Associated links Government of Canada's $180-billion+ Investing in Canada plan: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html *New*  Investing in Canada plan project map: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gmap-gcarte/index-eng.html Federal infrastructure investments in New Brunswick: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map-carte/nb-eng.html Twitter: @INFC_eng

Web: Infrastructure Canada SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\broadband-stimulus's Homepage ]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.Incorporating environmental, social, and governance analysis into an investment process can help uncover hidden risks or provide an early warning signal of risks that investors may be underappreciating. Sustainalytics' recently published report, "10 for 2018: ESG Risks on the Horizon," examines ESG-related risks that are becoming more material in 10 industries and how companies within those industries are addressing these issues. Here are a few of the findings.

Risk for Oil and Gas Firms: The Transition to Low-Carbon Energy

While global demand for fossil fuels will continue over the short run, changing patterns of energy consumption driven in part by carbon regulation are likely to have major impacts on the profitability of oil and gas firms. Investors are pressing for greater transparency, as evidenced by majority shareholder votes last year at Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) asking for climate-risk disclosures. The Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures has issued recommendations for reporting, which gives companies the opportunity to demonstrate to investors that they understand the risks and have a credible strategy for addressing them.

Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH) capacity has risen to more than 50,000 berths from around 30,000 before the acquisition of Prestige, making the company an increasingly relevant competitor in the cruise industry. Capitalizing on decades of consumer analytics and best practices across brands, Norwegian can nimbly cater to changing trends, in our opinion. Additionally, we view its freestyle cruising as a differentiated product, catering well to an older demographic, who may want to take their families on holiday, and millennials, who want increasing options. While this experience differs from traditional cruising, the lack of switching costs among cruise brands constrains Norwegians economic moat to narrow instead of wide. With the inclusion of Prestiges brands and global diversification, we think the company could fortify its moat through increasing brand awareness and scaling costs.

Our long-term thesis continues to evolve as Norwegian has returned to the Asia-Pacific market after a 15-year hiatus. This aids the companys focus on itinerary scarcity (redeploying capacity to new markets and diversifying duration of itineraries) and should prevent Norwegians products from becoming commodified. We already viewed the companys capacity as scarce relative to its peers, as the Norwegian brand will have only 17 ships in operation by the end of 2020, and the differentiated product (freestyle cruising), along with Prestiges tilt to high-net-worth consumers, carves out a differentiated base of consumer demand than many of its peers.The following is our latest Fund Analyst Report for Vanguard 500 Index (VFIAX). Morningstar Premium Members have access to full analyst reports such as this for more than 1,000 of the largest and best mutual funds. Not a Premium Member? Gain full access to our analyst reports and advanced tools immediately when you try Morningstar Premium free for 14 days.

Vanguard S&P 500 is a compelling option for exposure to U.S. large-cap stocks. This fund gains a leg up over most of its category peers by efficiently tracking a broadly diversified and representative benchmark at a low cost. It earns a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold.Conventional Conforming Changes in the Primary Markets

Rumors continue about companies going out of business, scaling back, or being sold. But lets talk about progress in pushing forward transitional licensing, and that the Senate passed a bill that would exempt 85 percent of banks and credit unions from certain regulatory requirements, according to a CFPB analysis of 2013 data. The package contained several MBA-supported priorities including: SAFE Act Amendments to create a transitional authority to originate loans, consumer protections for Property Assessed Clean Lending (PACE) loans, relief from HMDA reporting requirements for some institutions, and a partial fix to TRID. The Senate bill repeals many of the new reporting requirements, exempting small lenders making 500 or fewer mortgages a year from the expanded data disclosure. The Mortgage Bankers Association estimates that expanded data would still be collected on 95 percent of loans. A version of the bill now goes to the House of Representatives.

Conventional Conforming Updates from Agencies, Investors, and Lenders

Fannie Mae published an updated version of its Annual Statement of Eligibility for Document Custodians (Form 2001). The form should be submitted by email, instead of by the U.S. Postal Service, and all supplemental data should be included in the embedded document. Also, Fannie made minor wording updates, including differentiating between custodial agreement types. For additional information, contact your Single-Family Custody Operations analyst.

Freddie Macs Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide Bulletin 2018-4 extends the suspension of all foreclosure sales in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for two more months through May 31, 2018. This extends relief announced in prior Guide Bulletins to help borrowers continue to receive the assistance they need.

As part of Fannie Mae's commitment to detecting and preventing mortgage fraud, it has posted a new Mortgage Fraud Trends presentation with statistics regarding what is currently happening in the market. Fannie will continue to update this presentation regularly so bookmark the page.

Fannie Maes Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2018-02 introduced significant improvements to Fannie Maes HomeStyle program. Many of the updates are effective immediately and some will be effective with the release of DU Version 10.2 which rolls out the weekend of March 17th. Plazas HomeStyle guidelines will be updated on March 13, at which time Plaza will accept loans that meet Plazas updated guidelines.

Wells Fargo Funding has expanded its policy for condominium (condo) projects involved in litigation by adding four additional types of acceptable litigation on its Conventional Conforming and Non-Conforming loans.

Word has it that MGIC and NMI tightened some underwriting. Last year, Fannie Mae eased guidelines on loans with debt-to-income ratios (DTIs) above 45%. Historically, exceptions were needed to qualify these high DTIs, but Fannie Mae started accepting loans more automatically. Freddie Mac still does not allow such loans. Both MGIC and National MI have limited these automatic high DTI approvals to loans with FICO scores of 700 or higher (click here for MGIC and here for NMI).

If you sell loans for cash, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be offering a new business opportunity with its introduction of a 10-year mortgage product. With the implementation of the Single Security coming in Q2 2019, Lender will have access to distinct pricing specifically for a 10-year mortgage that can help with best execution decisions. Youll no longer receive pricing for a 15-year mortgage, as you currently do, when you deliver a 10-year loan. Loans with special characteristics, such as high LTV ratios and super-conforming, will also receive distinct 10-year pricing for cash executions. Get more information about this coming opportunity in the Single Security Initiative Market Adoption Playbook.

The Fannie Mae Selling Guide 2018-02 announcement has been updated to include changes to the following: HomeStyle Renovation, HomeStyle Energy, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery. Age of Document Requirements for Loans Impacted by a Disaster. Compliance with Laws and Responsible Lending and Miscellaneous Selling Guide Updates.

Freddie Mac Home Possible and Home Possible Advantage transactions are eligible for purchase by AmeriHome starting Thursday, March 1, 2018. These programs provide the following: Primary Residence Transactions Secured by 1-Unit SFRs, PUDs, and Condominiums. Standard Conforming Loan Amounts. Purchase and No Cash-Out Refinance Loans. Home Possible LTVs to 95%. Home Possible Advantage LTVs to 97% and CLTVs to 105% with a Closed-End Affordable Second. No Minimum Borrower Contribution, Cash-On-Hand Allowed. Accessory Unit and Subject Property Rental Income Permitted. Lower-than-standard, cancellable mortgage insurance options for loans with LTVs greater than 90%.

Please note that the FHLMC transfer process noted in the January 22, 2018 UCD Requirements alert has been resolved. Effective March 12, all loans submitted must be transferred to Pacific Union via FHLMCs Loan Closing Advisor. All other reminders below are still in effect. The UCD mandate which had been put on hold in September 2017 is effective now and mandatory as of January 31, 2018. Pacific Union now requires the following elements for UCD processing from our Correspondent Lenders: All Lenders must register with both GSEs. The Lender must create a UCD XML file from the final Closing Disclosure (CD). The Lender must upload that UCD XML to both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and receive the appropriate response. For Fannie Mae, the Lender must transfer the UCD XML to Pacific Union, as well as get a Successful UCD Findings Report from FNMA. For FHLMC, the Lender must receive a Successful UCD Feedback Certificate. The Lender must submit those responses in their Legal Package upload to Pacific Union.

Freddie Mac Servicer updates bulletin 2018-2 announced charge-off recommendations, document custody, Guide Forms 16SF, Annual Eligibility Certification Report, and 1107SF, Seller/Servicer Change Notifications and additional updates and reminders. The changes announced in this Bulletin are effective immediately unless otherwise noted. Servicer update Bulletin 2018-3, announced updates related to Eligible Disaster Areas impacted by recent disasters, Cash payups for Mortgages with low loan balances, Condominium Unit Mortgage Credit Fee in Price and Guide Form 442, Appraisal Update and/or Completion Report.

Freddie Mac/Capital Markets Cooperative (CMC) Alliance is offering an exclusive set of benefits that help lender remain competitive in the mortgage market by offering high-level capital markets executions that have historically been limited to only those mortgage bankers with large volume and high levels of expertise. CMC leverages its nationwide network of Patron members to help maximize profitability. To learn about membership benefits, read the recent Alliance Spotlight article.

ditech Approved Correspondent Clients should be aware that for all other conventional loan products with a DTI greater than 45% and a credit score less than 700 the ability to obtain mortgage insurance may be restricted based upon the MI provider used.



Capital Markets

Anyone originating FHA & VA loans should know that Ginnie Mae announced the issuance of its mortgage back securities totaled $36.41 billion in January, down slightly from $37.67 billion in December. $34.61 billion was in Ginnie Mae II MBS and $1.795 billion was in Ginnie Mae I MBS. According to Ginnie Mae, the total outstanding principle balance of all issuance rose to $1.924 trillion from $1.786 trillion in January 2017. For the first quarter of Ginnie Maes fiscal year 2018, issuance was $117 billion comparted to $147.7 billion and $109.5 billion for the same period in FYs 2017 and 2018 respectively. Ginnie Mae continues to support homeownership for veterans and millions of homeowners throughout the country especially since issuance dramatically increased in 2009 and throughout the recession.

The long-term trend in rates is higher, but that doesnt mean they cant go down in the short term. Lackluster economic data, headlined by weak February Retail Sales assisted Treasuries toward their third straight higher close Wednesday. January Business Inventories that came in expected at +0.6%, which points to inventory growth outpacing sales growth  normally not a big deal, but it does weigh down 1st quarter GDP forecasts somewhat. And there is increasing conjecture that well see three rate hikes from the Fed this year from the potential four that some Fed speakers had touted.

Looking to today, Import Prices were +.5%. We have had weekly Initial Claims (226k, as expected), Continuing Claims (prior 1870K), March Empire Manufacturing (expected 15.0), and March Philadelphia Fed Survey (as expected at 22.3). Later this morning, we will have the release of the March NAHB Housing Market Index, expected to remain at 72, Weekly Natural Gas Inventories, and January Net Long-Term TIC Flows. At 2pm ET, the NY Fed will report MBS purchases for the week ended March 14, which are expected to total $3.2 billion, as compared to $3.4 billion last week. The day starts with rate little changed versus Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays: agency MBS prices are unchanged and the 10-year is yielding 2.82%.



Employment and Products

Center Street Lending needs a customer-focused Vice President of Sales to lead a nationwide sales team. Responsibilities include sales strategy, sales management, growing the sales team and increasing monthly production. The ideal candidate understands wholesale and retail sales, customer motivation, has a track record of successfully developing and implementing growth plans and knows how to inspire a sales team. The position is based in their headquarters in Irvine, California. Center Street Lending has built a reputation as a premier private money, portfolio leader focused on residential real estate entrepreneurs and customer obsession. Established in 2010, Center Street Lending has consistently and profitably grown year over year, with volume doubling in 2017. Contact Center Street Lending at jobs@centerstreetlending.com if you are interested in joining their growing team.

The StoneHill Group, Inc., a Veteran owned, nationwide provider of Mortgage Quality Control and Outsource Services, has two exciting opportunities available for experienced Mortgage sales and marketing professionals for the position of Regional Business Development Manager. These positions: one in the Western and one in the Central regions of the U.S., will be responsible for promoting the Company and its service offerings through the development, growth and maintenance of Client relationships as well as the creation & deployment of sales and marketing campaigns in these respective geographies. The ideal candidates will have a minimum of 5 years documented success selling QC, Underwriting, Fulfillment or other third-party mortgage related services to the mortgage banking community, have extensive industry contacts and reside in the Western or Central portions of the country respectively. To review the full job description and to submit a resume, please visit The StoneHill Group, Inc. Careers Page. If you have questions, contact Michael Cranford.

Aggressively growing its Northwest Region, Envoy Mortgage has recently opened a new branch in Bellingham, Washington adding to its 150+ branches nationwide. The Bellingham branch is being led by Paul Grant. With over 15 years of management, finance and mortgage expertise, Paul is an ideal selection to head Envoys newest branch. Joel Cambern, Regional VP, is actively recruiting loan originators and branch managers to further expand the Northwest region. Envoy Mortgage offers excellent compensation and employee benefits. A strong operational support system with underwriting centers throughout the country, digital tools designed to help you meet your career goals and a culture that cant be beat are just a few of the benefits working at Envoy. For Envoy career opportunities in Washington, visit www.envoymortgage.com/joel-cambern/ or call Joel at 425.440.0515.

I continue to be bullish on local and regional lenders to gain market share from large lenders. Smaller and mid-size organizations can use their nimbleness to get systems launched quickly and efficiently, mostly in part due to tech companies providing low-effort deployment and customizable digital mortgage solutions. Maxwell is a great example. Maxwell is the leading digital mortgage solution for independent mortgage companies and TPOs alike. Theyre scaling quickly, having facilitated $7B in origination volume in the last year. Its incredible to see how a user-focused experience can take the industry by storm! Automated doc collection, verifications, smart 1003, text and email notifications, realtor updates, dynamic team collaboration, and more. I almost wonder how we lived without a tool like this! The team at Maxwell has told me they are closing mortgages 45% faster than the industry average and reducing underwriting turns by 25%. Learn more about it here.

FinLocker, a financial data and analytics company, recently issued a press release announcing the approval of their second patent supporting proprietary leading-edge digital vault functionality. FinLockers re-usable financial locker for consumers, manages financial data that can be used for loan transactions such as mortgages, auto, student, small business, and more. The FinLocker platform dramatically reduces lender costs, data errors and processing timelines through patented technology. The first patent protects innovative control of consumer financial information and data access in a digital workflow-enabled system. This most recent patent covers multi-source information management of data and documentation, with capabilities to retrieve, store, update and analyze data housed in digital vaults, inclusive of access rules and transparent consumer controls. FinLocker advancements in secure financial data management and analytics enable lenders to create a true customer for life/lender for life relationship.DVJ Insights / Novio Research Name First Netherlands MD

Marieke van Echtelt has been appointed for the newly created role of Managing Director of full service agency DVJ Insights and its data collection agency Novio Research, in the Netherlands.



Founded in 1996 as a music research specialist, DVJ now offers a broader range of services, with an emphasis on branding, communications, media and shopper research. The company has its own panels in Europe, as well as virtual shopping and packaging research facility MediaLAB. For the past decade, van Echtelt worked at STER (the ad sales house responsible for the Dutch public broadcaster), latterly as Manager of Strategy and Innovation, in charge of a team of around eighteen staff.



In her new role, van Echtelt will oversee the management team responsible for growth strategy. Commenting on the appointment, DVJ Insights CEO Lucas Hulsebos said: 'The rapid growth of DVJ Insights and Novio Research demand more structure and organisation, as we continue our drive towards innovation and added value. The size of the company determines the need for a new position like this one. Marieke's arrival also coincides with our move to a larger office building. From our new work space, we're looking forward to the future and we are also very happy to have Marieke on board'.



Web sites: www.dvj-insights.com and www.novioresearch.com .



A Michigan Technological University alumnus will lead the worlds largest and oldest St. Patrick's Day parade on March 17: the New York City St. Patricks Day parade.

Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Don Makay will lead the parade for the second time with his unit, the 69th Infantry.

It is an honor to lead the soldiers of the 69th, who not only represent a diverse group of young men and women who have volunteered to defend the country, but represent a long-standing tradition of immigrants who came, built this country, and were willing to fight and sacrifice for this country, he says.

The 69th Infantry formed in 1848 as a New York State Militia regiment (now part of the New York Army National Guard and the second-oldest surviving Army regiment), of entirely Irish descent. The regiment began providing military escort for the parade in 1853 and has led each year.

Makay says the group, while no longer all Irish, includes many immigrants, with soldiers coming from across the world to serve and protect the United States.

A 1999 Michigan Tech graduate, Makay received his bachelors degree in scientific and technical communication and an associate degree in electrical engineering technology. He was a member of Michigan Techs Army ROTC and says that was a life-altering opportunity.

"It not only surrounded me with great leaders, it inculcated a sense of values and allowed me to hone and cultivate leadership traits at a young age. Michigan Tech gave me an opportunity to practice the art of leadership, which was crucial in preparing me for the demands that were soon to follow." Don Makay '99

When the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred, Makay and his fellow soldiers were quickly put to the test. Many of the lessons and examples I learned during ROTC set the stage for a very demanding requirement to lead troops.

A Life of Service

Makays Michigan Tech education and time at ROTC shaped his career path. Michigan Tech has one of the best ROTC programs and the most challenging academic environments, he says. The leaders I met at ROTC saw my potential and they were talented at challenging me to do my best.

His Tech experience helped prepare him for his first job after graduation: platoon leader of 40 soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

We prepared for and deployed to Kosovo, a province of old Yugoslavia that had been struggling against a tyrannical regime, ethnic cleansing and a revolution" he says. "My job was to help reduce violence and enforce peace in the villages we were assigned, which included military operations in the mountains on the border of Macedonia to stop smuggling.

He subsequently deployed five more times as a combat infantry officer, including multiple tours leading soldiers and programs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Throughout his 13-plus years of service, Makay says his career highlight was to fight for what I believe, to perform my duty and lead soldiers during this challenging time. Politics aside, the fight of our generation was the fight against terrorism, and the reward was simply to serve when needed.

Makay is also the recipient of this years Humanitarian Alumni Award. He received the award for his work to help create the Iraqi Hope Foundation in 2008. Makay says the program was an ambitious effort, but was disrupted when ISIS advanced and occupied a large portion of the northern territory of Iraq. With many lessons learned, and a renewed sense of security and stability in the region, the organization is in the re-planning stages and Makay is excited about its future.

His advice for current and future students: Life is not inherently fair or easy. It is made so by people who are willing to work and fight for it. If life seems fair or easy, do not take it for granted. Someone, somewhere is fighting to keep it that way. If you want to make the world a better place, serve something bigger than yourself. Serve first, talk later.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university, home to more than 7,000 students from 54 countries. Founded in 1885, the University offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, and social sciences. Our campus in Michigans Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway and is just a few miles from Lake Superior.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 Boys and Girls Club of Volusia and Flagler counties are taking a stand against human trafficking. Now the organization is using a new course to teach students and parents how to identify the signs.

Boys & Girl Club teaches families to ID human trafficking

More than 600 human trafficking cases reported in Florida

Club wants to implement across other Volusia, Flagler orgs

Eighteen years at this Boys and Girls club in DeLand, Althea Ross-Chavers said she loves the children at the club like her own.

"I just want to protect them and keep them safe," said Althea Ross-Chavers, unit director.



Ross-Chavers said they're specifically trying to keep the children safe from anyone trying to lure them into human and sex trafficking.

Thats why the club now has a human trafficking activist, Jan Edwards from Paving the Way, to teach the children all about identifying the signs.

"Its happened in our own backyard, and its something that we as a Boys and Girls Club have become aware of, and were trying to educate our kids and parents how to not fall into that," said Joe Sullivan, CPO.

Sullivan said they once thought this only happened to those coming from foreign countries. Just months ago club leaders said this happened to one of their own club kids.

"This was a child that Ive been knowing a long time, and I didnt see the signs because I really didnt know what signs to be looking for. I knew some things were happening, but human trafficking that wouldve been my last choice," said Ross-Chavers.

She said now they're learning about what to do.

"Its scary because in real life it can happen to anyone," said Tavahny Gardner.

Twelve-year-old Tavahny Gardner watched the first video of the course and heard from people who experienced it.

"Its helping us to become safe, watch out for the people thats dangerous," said Gardner.

Last year more than 600 human trafficking cases were reported right here in Florida, and that's an increase compared to the year before when 560 cases were reported.

"Were praying that this will save a life that a child would take it seriously," said Gardner.

Ross-Chavers said she hopes this will make a change so children and parents won't mistake modern day slavery for love.

"They dont see it as human trafficking. They see it as being loved by someone, being given things that they didnt or werent able to receive from home," said Ross-Chavers.

The four-week course started at the DeLand club last week, and the organization is planning to implement this in other clubs across Volusia and Flagler counties later this spring.

"Sad to say but good to say that we can be a voice for the community. Thats another part of my mission now -- I just want to save my babies," said Ross-Chavers.Spectrum News is covering the trial of Noor Salman, who is accused of helping her husband, Omar Mateen, carry out the attack at Pulse nightclub in June 2016. The attack, in which Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, killed 49 people and injured another 53.



Keep up with the latest updates from Spectrum News reporters at the federal courthouse in downtown Orlando. Cameras are not allowed in federal court, but we have a team at the scene:

Live updates

Live Blog LIVE UPDATES: Noor Salman TrialJeremy Wade searches for answers in the most remarkable rivers, lakes and seas on the planet to reveal the secrets of these extraordinary places.

Tuesdays from 9pm AEST.By PTI

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has said restrictions imposed on social media after the communal riots in the island's central hills will be lifted within the next few days, as the government faced flak for not lifting the blockage despite improvement in the situation.

The government imposed a state of emergency last week and blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media sites following anti-Muslim violence in Kandy and Ampara districts.

IN PICS | A look back at the violence that shook the island nation

The government restricted the use of social media after police claimed that they were being used to spread hatred against the minority community.

Sirisena, addressing Sri Lankan community in Japan yesterday, said that the temporary ban on Facebook following the riots will be lifted within the next few days.

He said that even though there is room for any medium for the benefit of the society, there is a need for a certain approach to control the destruction cause to the society by some vicious elements using these mediums, the Colombo Page reported.

"Mobile phones, computers, the Internet and social media were created for the benefit of the human kind and utilising these technologies we can get the knowledge of a world, but unfortunately some section of the society in Sri Lanka use these resources to destroy the country," he pointed out.

President Sirisena said it is expected to introduce a new programme on the proper usage of such resources and emphasised the imperative need for the citizens as well as the government to fulfil their responsibilities.

The Sri Lankan government is facing flak over continued shutdown of several social media sites even though anti-Muslim violence in the island's central hills has eased.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Youth Affairs and Southern Development Minister Sagala Ratnayaka criticised the government for continuing the ban on social media saying that blocking Facebook and messaging apps in long term is not an option in present times.

Ratnayake said the social media ban makes a negative impact on a wide range of industries.

"Apart from the general frustration it creates, such blanket bans will take a heavy toll on economy and hamper IT, E-commerce and tourism sectors.

What the government must promote is responsible use of social media, with necessary checks and balances," Ratnayaka said in a statement.

"Blocking Facebook and messaging platforms long term is not an option, in this day and age.

Social Media must start functioning so that the economy doesn't suffer.

Therefore access to Social Media must be unblocked as soon as possible and the Government must set in place a system to curtail hate speech and fake news," he added.

However, UNP, the dominant partner of the ruling coalition, said it would not fight against the social media blockage.

Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando said although the UNP was not in agreement they have decided "to keep quiet".

Fernando said the blockage through local service providers on Facebook and other social media were necessary to prevent an escalation of the anti-Muslim riots that left three people dead and arson attacks against over 200 houses and businesses in Kandy district.

Fernando said the UNP was against Sirisena's order to block the Lankaenews website since last November, but the party understands that Sirisena has reasons to do so.

"We are in a joint national coalition. So our two parties are together. Just because the other party decides (on something wrong) we are not going to be barbaric and fight each other," he said.

A state of emergency was declared in Sri Lanka on March 6 for 10 days to rein in the spread of communal violence between the majority Sinhala and minority Muslims in the country's scenic Kandy district.

Violence, triggered by the death of a Sinhalese man at the hands of a mob, erupted in the Theldeniya area of the central hill district popular with tourists.

The government deployed thousands of troops to restore peace and protect the minority Muslims and their property.

The area is currently peaceful and no attacks have been reported since Thursday.By AFP

MOSCOW: Moscow warned on Thursday it was preparing to retaliate against the "irresponsible" expulsion of its diplomats from London, as Britain urged its allies to take a stand against Russia over the poisoning of a former spy.

The escalating international scandal is unfolding as former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in critical condition after exposure to the Soviet-designed chemical Novichok on March 4 in the British city of Salisbury.

Britain on Wednesday said it would expel 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts over the poisoning, which it has blamed on Russia.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia could be directly responsible or may have "lost control" of the nerve agent. She had given Moscow until midnight Tuesday to disclose details of the Novichok programme to the international Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday also said he would announce unspecified "measures" in the coming days, condemning the attack in the "strongest possible terms." His office earlier backed Britain's claim that Russia is behind the attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Thursday slammed Britain's position as "absolutely irresponsible".

READ: UN chief condemns use of nerve agent in poisoning of Russian ex-spy in Britain

He warned that retaliatory steps would soon follow and President Vladimir Putin would choose the option that "most suits Moscow's interests."

Russia would respond by kicking out British diplomats, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying at an event in Moscow, adding that it would happen "soon."

Russia has rejected demands by Britain to explain how Novichok was used on British soil, accusing May of resorting to populism and using Russia as a scapegoat.

May's statements that Moscow is behind the poisoning are "completely crazy accusations against Russia, our entire country, our people," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists Thursday.

Moscow has mostly shrugged off the measures announced by May, ridiculing the prospect of the termination of high-profile visits.

Zakharova further accused Britain of refusing to "grant access to Russian citizen (Yulia) Skripal" or to work with Moscow through the OPCW and give Russia access to the poisonous substance.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the BBC however that Britain is "entirely in conformity" with OPCW procedures and is sending a sample of the nerve agent to the watchdog for examination.

'No other explanation'

Britain on Wednesday called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the incident, winning the support of the United States as US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia was "responsible for the attack".

NATO allies also expressed support for Britain following the first use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II.

READ: Twitter diplomacy: Russia, UK spar online over ex-spy's poisoning

In a joint statement by its 29 member states, the alliance said the attack was a "clear breach of international norms and agreements" and called on Russia to fully disclose details of the Novichok programme.

President Donald Trump has demanded Moscow "provide unambiguous answers" to explain what is believed to be the first nerve agent attack in Europe since World War II.

Johnson further appealed to international partners to "stand with us against Russia" in a Washington Post editorial, saying the poisoning is "part of a pattern of reckless behaviour by" Putin showing "reckless defiance" of international rules.

He accused Moscow of using assassinations to send a signal to dissidents that "we will find you, we will catch you, we will kill you."

Putin, who is standing in presidential elections Sunday, has not yet commented on Britain's measures. His spokesman said the poisoning row had no effect on the campaign.

WATCH VIDEO: UK's response not enough, says widow of Litvinenko

Besides expelling the diplomats, suspending high-level contacts and cracking down on Russian criminals and dirty money, Britain is expected to announce additional military spending on chemical weapons defence.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to give a speech Thursday announcing a 48 million (54 million euro) investment in a new cutting-edge chemical weapons defence centre to counter international threats, British media reported.

Russia argues that it has destroyed all of its chemical weapons and that its military chemical programme has been shut down since the mid-1980s.

Russian chemist Vil Mirzayanov, who worked in the chemical weapons programme until 1992 and had exposed the Novichok agents prior to leaving for the United States, however claimed Moscow stored the substance and its authorities "are still keeping it in secrecy."

Mirzayanov said Russia was likely behind the attack, though adding that it was also possible that somebody used the Novichok formula published in his book to synthesise the chemical.



By AFP

BRATISLAVA: Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico offered Wednesday to resign, under pressure from the opposition for his handling of a scandal over the killing of a journalist investigating political corruption.

"Today I have offered my resignation to the president of the republic" Andrej Kiska, Fico said in a public address. "If the president accepts it, I am ready to resign tomorrow."

Fico, 53, has been struggling since February with a scandal over the killing of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.

The killing had sparked protests against Fico's government, with tens of thousands of Slovaks turning out for rallies.

The prime minister's three-party coalition government was facing a no-confidence vote by lawmakers scheduled for next Monday.

Interior minister Robert Kalinak had already resigned two days ago in a bid to save the government from collapsing.

CLICK BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO

But a minor member of Slovakia's three-way governing coalition, the Most-Hid party, raised the pressure further, calling for early elections.

Kiska had also called for early elections -- or sweeping government changes -- earlier this month.

Fico has resisted the call for snap polls. He warned the country could "plunge into chaos if the current opposition takes power".

Slovakian daily Sme reported that Fico's Smer-SD party may field deputy prime minister Peter Pellegrini, 42, as a candidate to succeed Fico.

Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, both 27, were found shot dead on February 25 at their home near the capital Bratislava.

Police said Kuciak's death was "most likely" related to his investigation on ties between Slovakia's top politicians and Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia.

The murder and Kuciak's article, published after his death, sparked a wave of anti-government sentiment in Slovakia, an EU and NATO member of 5.4 million people.

Fico's close aide Maria Troskova was alleged to have links to one of the Italians named in Kuciak's story.

The EU urged Slovakia to swiftly investigate the murder.

"The top priority for all of us must be to carry out an independent and thorough investigation of the facts and bring those responsible to justice," the EU's security commissioner Julian King told MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

"We call upon the Slovak authorities to do this quickly."

The killing of Kuciak and Kusnirova raised fresh concern about media freedom and corruption both in Slovakia and Europe.

It followed the assassination in October of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who had denounced corruption in Malta.Who is The Newport Daily News Athlete of the Week for Sept. 13-19?

sportsFile photo taken on April 16, 2013 shows British physicist Stephen Hawking attending an activity at California Institute of Technology, the United States. Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at age 76, a family spokesman said on March 14, 2018. The professor died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Cambridge, the spokesman said. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

LONDON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking died peacefully at home in the British university city of Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday at the age of 76, his family spokesman said.

"We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today," his children Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years," his family said. "His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world ... We will miss him forever."

Tributes have poured in following the announcement of Hawking's death. British Prime Minister Theresa May said Hawking was a "brilliant and extraordinary mind -- one of the greatest scientists of his generation."

"His courage, humour and determination to get the most from life was an inspiration...His legacy will not be forgotten," she added.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, said "We have lost a colossal mind and a wonderful spirit. Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking."

Professor Stephen Toope, vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge, described Hawking as a "unique individual" who would be remembered with "warmth and affection."

"His exceptional contributions to scientific knowledge and the popularisation of science and mathematics have left an indelible legacy. His character was an inspiration to millions," he said.

Meanwhile, NASA tweeted "Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity."

Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak said "Stephen Hawking's integrity and scientific dedication placed him above pure brilliance."

Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said "We lost a great one today. Stephen Hawking will be remembered for his incredible contributions to science -- making complex theories and concepts more accessible to the masses."

Hawking, a legendary figure in the modern history of physics, is known for his work with black holes and relativity, and has authored several best-sellers on science, despite being bound to wheelchair after contracting a motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21.

He broke new ground on the basic laws which govern the universe, including the revelation that black holes have a temperature and produce radiation, now known as Hawking radiation.

At the same time, he also sought to explain many of these complex scientific ideas to a wider audience through popular books, most notably his bestseller A Brief History of Time, according to an obituary posted on the University of Cambridge's website.

Professor Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009, after which he worked as director of research at the Cambridge University Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics until his death.

Professor Hawking once wrote on his website that he had had motor neurone disease for practically all his adult life, which did not prevent him from having a very attractive family and being successful in his work.

"I have been lucky that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope," said Professor Hawking, who, with his fierce intellect coupled with his illness, came to symbolize the unbounded possibilities of the human mind.

Hawking was born on Jan. 8, 1942 in Oxford, growing up in London and St Albans. Despite the fact that he was always ranked at the lower end of his class by teachers, his school friends nicknamed him "Einstein" which seemed to have encouraged his interest in science.

"Physics and astronomy offered the hope of understanding where we came from and why we are here. I wanted to fathom the depths of the universe," Hawking once said.

The ambition brought him a scholarship to study physics in Oxford, where he graduated with a first-class honors degree before going to the University of Cambridge as a PhD student of cosmology.

Hawking's influential books included The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime, with George Ellis; Superspace and Supergravity, with M. Rocek (1981); The Very Early Universe, with G. Gibbons and S. Siklos; and General Relativity: an Einstein centenary survey as well as 300 Years of Gravitation, with W. Israel.

However, it was his popular science book A Brief History of Time that took Hawking beyond the academic world and made him a household name. The book was published in 1988 and became a surprise bestseller, remaining on the Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

A film called The Theory of Everything was released in 2014, telling the story of Hawking and his first wife Jane based on her book. The film was met with worldwide acclaim and Eddie Redmayne, who played Stephen Hawking, won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Actor.

At his 75th birthday celebration, Hawking said "It has been a glorious time to be alive and doing research into theoretical physics. Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 50 years, and I'm happy if I've made a small contribution."

"So remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet ... Be curious, and however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up," he said.

8

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[ Editor: meng ]Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Periods of rain. High 66F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low near 55F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.Wang Yang is elected chairman of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, March 14, 2018. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Wang Yang was elected chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body, Wednesday afternoon.

Wang was elected at the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee by more than 2,100 political advisors.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, shook hands with Wang amid warm applause after the election result was announced.

Wang was born in March 1955 in Suzhou of east China's Anhui Province. He began his first job in June 1972 and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in August 1975.

He received a university education at the Central Party School, and holds a Master of Engineering degree.

Wang had worked as worker, teacher and Party and government officials in Anhui until 1999, and later held Party and government posts in central and local organs, such as Party chiefs of Chongqing Municipality and Guangdong Province, and deputy secretary-general of State Council.

He has been Vice Premier of the State Council since 2013.

At the first plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee last October, Wang was elected member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Altogether 24 vice chairpersons and 300 Standing Committee members were also elected at Wednesday's plenary meeting.

Xia Baolong was elected secretary-general of the CPPCC National Committee.

The newly elected chairman and vice chairpersons are aged 64 on average.

Among the vice chairpersons, 11 are CPC members. Four are from ethnic minority groups and two are women.

The Standing Committee members are aged 59.3 on average, 65 percent of whom are not CPC members.

A total of 33 Standing Committee members are from ethnic minority groups, and 39 are women.

On Wednesday morning, the session's presidium adopted 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, a draft report on the examination of proposals, and a draft political resolution on the first session of 13th CPPCC National Committee.

It was decided that all the drafts would be submitted to Thursday's closing meeting for approval.

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 conclude Thursday.

3

1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Reporter

Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee).BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The overall leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) should be guaranteed and strengthened in the deepening reform of Party and state institutions, a senior Chinese official wrote in the People's Daily on Wednesday.

"The overall leadership of the Party is the fundamental guarantee for deepening the reform," wrote Yang Xiaodu, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

China on Tuesday unveiled a massive cabinet restructuring 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.

The move aims to build a government able to satisfy the needs of the people, and the State Council would have 15 fewer entities at ministerial or vice-ministerial levels if the plan passed.

Yang wrote that leadership of the CPC was the most essential attribute of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the greatest strength of this system, therefore it is necessary to improve the Party's ability to govern and lead.

He said that apart from the overall leadership of the Party, the reform also requires law-based governance with clear functions and responsibilities, world-class forces with Chinese characteristics and mass organizations for bridging and serving the general populace.

"Only in this way, can the reform promote coordinated actions and resultant forces among the people's congresses, governments, political advisory bodies, and supervisory, judicial and prosecutorial organs, people's organizations, enterprises, public institutions and social organizations, under the unified leadership of the CPC," Yang wrote.

"To carry out the reform, efforts should be made to improve the system for upholding overall Party leadership and optimizing the structure and functions of government institutions.

In the meantime, the reform should also focus on promoting coordinated reforms of institutions in the Party, the government, the military, people's organizations and enterprises as well as improving the setup of institutions at local levels."

Yang stressed that the reform of the Party and state institutions provided the fundamental institutional guarantee for the Party's long-term governance and ensured the long-term stability of the country.

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]by Xinhua writer Wang Jian

BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- China is showing the world how a "new type of party system" can work in the best interests of the people.

While attending a panel discussion at the ongoing session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), President Xi Jinping called the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) "a new type of party system."

Combining the Marxist political party theory with Chinese reality, China created the "new type of party system" which is mainly carried out through the CPPCC.

The first session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC has brought together over 2,000 national political advisors from various political parties, people's organizations, and people of all ethnic groups, as well as from all sectors of society. They have been conducting extensive discussions on the country's political, economic and social issues to pool their wisdom for decision making.

REPRESENTS ALL, SERVES ALL

When attending meetings and discussions of the session, national political advisor Duan Minglong wears a round emblem embroidered with colorful threads on his chest.

"It was made by my aunt before I traveled to Beijing. It's a symbol of the sun that brings good luck, as our Jingpo people worship the sun god," said the 29-year-old of Jingpo ethnicity from southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Duan also sees the emblem as a reminder for him to represent and be a voice for Jingpo ethnic people and people from remote Wangzishu township, where he works as a judicial officer.

As a grassroots judicial staff member, he often visits the villagers' homes, mediating disputes and spreading legal knowledge.

However, it is not easy to reach many villagers' homes on rainy days.

"There are no cement roads in some places. Sometimes I have to walk in ankle-deep mud," he said.

During the session, Duan made a suggestion to improve rural roads, which was echoed by many other political advisors from underdeveloped areas.

Talking about his young age, Duan said part of the reason why he was chosen to be a national political advisor was probably due to his background as a non-CPC member from an ethnic group with a population of less than 150,000. Of the 2,158 members of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, only about 40 percent are from the Communist Party of China (CPC). All 56 ethnic groups are represented.

The members are from all walks of life, including farmers, factory workers, officials, entrepreneurs, experts and scholars, as well as religious leaders.

"It's a system that represents different levels of society, so the country is more able to make policies that work best for its people," said Fred Teng, president of the America China Public Affairs Institute and a specially invited overseas observer of the session.

PARTIES UNITE

Before attending the session, political advisor Yu Minhong visited a private school in Beijing's suburbs, where most of the students are children of migrant workers who work as couriers, vegetable growers and care workers in the city.

"The school is poorly equipped and staffed, and the parents have to spend 2,000 yuan (316 U.S. dollars) on tuition fee every year, which is a big burden for many," said Yu, chairman and CEO of education company New Oriental and a member of the China Democratic League (CDL).

Yu proposed pushing to readjust the allocation of education funding so that children of migrant workers can enjoy equal access to compulsory education.

"I get so worried when I see rural children suffer," said Yu, who was also born to a farmer family.

Since 2008, when Yu became a member of the CPPCC National Committee, he has been traveling around the country to understand the educational conditions of the rural areas.

One of China's eight non-communist parties, the CDL mainly consists of intellectuals working in the fields of culture, education, science, and technology.

"'Working relentlessly for state affairs, focusing on the well-being of the people' has been a tradition for the CDL," said Ding Zhongli, chairperson of the CDL Central Committee.

Unlike a one-party system or Western-style competitive and confrontational multiparty politics, China's multiparty cooperation and political consultation system allows the ruling party and the participatory parties to work jointly for the nation, he said.

Led by the CPC, the non-communist parties have been involved in campaigns related to health care, education, regional economic integration and poverty reduction.

Statistics show that since 2016, the non-communist parties have conducted 166 supervisory investigations into poverty reduction work and offered 567 suggestions to CPC committees and governments at different levels.

During the past five years, the non-communist parties invested in nearly 2,000 poverty-reduction projects, donated a total of 2.31 billion yuan in the form of money or material, and organized training that benefited some 399,000 people.

IT WORKS

"The sweetest thing for a political advisor is realizing that your proposals really worked to make a difference," said national political advisor Hu Guozhen, vice governor of Qiandongnan Miao-Dong Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Hu recalled that at the session of the CPPCC National Committee in 2015, she put forward a proposal calling for the integration of rural and urban healthcare insurance schemes.

At the beginning of 2016, the country announced the decision to merge the two separate schemes for more equal access to basic health care.

In the 2014 session, she asked for more government subsidies on afforestation in rural areas. Later on, she was informed by the State Forestry Administration that the subsidy increase had been incorporated into the 13th Five-Year Plan.

"Now the subsidy on the state-owned forests has been increased from eight yuan to 15 yuan per mu in my hometown," she said.

Since 2010, Yu Minhong has submitted several proposals on improving rural teachers' income.

"I'm glad to see that the country has launched some policies to improve their incomes and other conditions," he said.

As many of the members are experienced officials, experts and professionals in different fields, they are in a good position to make proposals and offer wisdom on state affairs to the CPC and the government.

Wan Gang, vice chairperson of the CPPCC National Committee, said that over the past five years, a total of 29,378 proposals had been submitted by the CPPCC National Committee members, and 99 percent of them had been handled as of Feb. 20 this year.

"Most of the proposals have either been taken up or gradually put into practice," Wan said.

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Ukrainian MP Nadia Savchenko has returned to Ukraine, according to the 112 Ukraine television channel.

"There was a very good flight, and I met a lot of good people on my way - Ukrainians who are forced to go and earn money abroad," Savchenko told a 112 Ukraine correspondent on Wednesday evening.

When asked whether she was in Russia and where she flew from, Savchenko advised the journalist to check the flight timetable. It turned out that Savchenko arrived in Ukraine on flight from Munich. Savchenko declined to make further comments.

On Thursday, Savchenko plans to give a briefing in Kyiv, according to her Facebook page.

Earlier, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that Savchenko had been summoned for questioning to the Security Service of Ukraine due to an investigation into the criminal proceedings against Volodymyr Ruban, the head of the Officer Corps Center for Prisoner Release.

Later, he said that if Savchenko fails to come for questioning to the SBU, he will be obliged to submit a motion to the Verkhovna Rada on the removal of parliamentary immunity from her, criminal prosecution and arrest.Oleksandr Yanukovych, son of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the owner of the MAKO Group, has dismissed himself from the post of the head of the supervisory board of private joint-stock company MAKO Holding (Donetsk), the holding company of the group, in relation to the liquidation of the supervisory board.

The company said in the information disclosure system of the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market on Wednesday that the decision was made by Yanukovych as the holder of 100% of shares in the company on March 13, 2018.

He also replaced director general of MAKO Holding: Viktor Zhytnyk, who earlier was director of other companies, replaced Albert Volobuyev, who headed the company since April 2014. Zhytnyk was appointed for three years.

The MAKO Group incorporated 12 enterprises in Ukraine, the Netherlands and Switzerland as of late 2012.

The core businesses of the group are development, construction, finances and coal industry.

The Interior Ministry of Ukraine said on April 18, 2014 that Oleksandr Yanukovych has been put on the wanted list in Ukraine. Law enforcers lost track of him on February 23, 2014 in Kyiv. Oleksandr Yanukovych is charged under part 2 of Article 366 (forgery in office which caused grave consequences) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.The Constitutional Court (Con-Court) yesterday reserved ruling in a legal challenge to governments decision to bar expatriate Zimbabweans from voting from their foreign bases in the forthcoming key 2018 vote.



Leading the full Con-Court bench of nine judges, Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza reserved ruling in the matter after hearing arguments from lawyers who represented the parties.

This comes after Chief Justice Luke Malaba gave the green light to three Zimbabweans living outside the country to file the application on the right to vote.



At the last scheduled sitting, the Con-Court deferred the hearing because the court record was not bound and the papers not paginated.



The Con-Court heard that judicial review application lodged over whether government has the power to bar Zimbabweans not resident in the country from voting in the 2018 presidential, parliamentary and municipal polls.



Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) acting chair Emmanuel Magade, Zec, Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and Attorney-General Prince Machaya are cited as respondents.



According to the application filed by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), acting on the instructions of Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, the applicants argued that the countrys Constitution, which came into force in 2013, guarantees the right to vote for all citizens.



Human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, who is in self-imposed exile in South Africa, Sibonile Mfumisi, also resident in South Africa, and Darlington Nyambiya, who is living and working in the United Kingdom, are the applicants.









The applicants argued that Section 67 (3) of the Constitution states that: Every Zimbabwean citizen who is of or over 18 years of age has the right to vote in all elections and referendums to which this Constitution or any other law applies, and to do so in secret. Daily NewsTHE South African government has suspended an immigration official and her three supervisors at the Beitbridge Border Post after a video of her scrolling her smart phone as Zimbabwean travellers waited to be served, went viral.



The video started circulating on social media networks on Tuesday attracting widespread criticism from Zimbabweans who shared their frustrations over delays at the South African entry point.





In the video, the immigration official is seen chatting and viewing pictures on smartphone while processing Zimbabwean travellers passports.





So engrossed on her smart phone, the immigration officer stamps one passport, opens another and stamps it before receiving a gate pass.





Instead of stamping the gate pass, the absent minded official opens the same passport and stamps it for the second time.





The Beitbridge Border Post is the busiest entry and exit point on the continent with nearly 19 000 people crossing daily during peak periods.





The protests against the immigration official were so widespread that they attracted the attention of South Africas Home Affairs Minister Mr Malusi Gigaba who also posted the officials video on his Twitter account.

In a statement later in the day, Home Affairs Director-General Mr Mkuseli Apleni said the official had been suspended as her actions were against the departments work ethic policy.

Of major concern to me is the fact that the official is dealing with security documents without paying attention to detail and rather preoccupied with her cellular phone. To this end, we have commenced with disciplinary measures against the official and the three supervisors, Mr said Apleni.





Zimbabweans have in the past complained of ill treatment at the hands of South African immigration officials who deliberately delay serving them and sometimes harass them.

Cross-Border Traders Association president Dr Killer Zivhu said he was not shocked with the behaviour of the immigration official as it has become the order of the day at the border.





This is not something new. That is what they always do. They chat in front of their clients whether verbally or on their phones, be it on WhatsApp or any other platform. They do this even when there are long queues of people waiting to be served, said Dr Zivhu.

He said his association has engaged the Zimbabwean officials so that they could engage their





South African counterparts but the initiative has not yielded results.

Dr Zivhu said engagement at Ministerial level between the Zimbabwean officials and their South African counterparts could solve the problem.





Zimbabwe and South Africa are working on establishing a one-stop border post at Beitbridge as part of measures to improve efficiency. ChronicleiPhones of the Future

May Keep Tabs on

Your Mental Health(Newser)  The Vatican admitted Thursday that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards, the AP reports. The Vatican's communications office released the photo of the letter on Monday on the eve of Francis' five-year anniversary. The letter was cited by Monsignor Dario Vigano, chief of communications, to rebut critics of Francis who question his theological and philosophical heft and say he represents a rupture from Benedict's doctrine-minded papacy. In the part of the letter that is legible in the photo, Benedict praised a new volume of books on the theology of Francis as evidence of the "foolish prejudice" of his critics. The book project, Benedict wrote, "helps to see the interior continuity between the two pontificates."

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The Vatican admitted Thursday that it blurred the two final lines of the first page where Benedict begins to explain that he didn't actually read the books in question. He wrote that he cannot contribute a theological assessment of Francis as requested by Vigano because he has other projects to do. The Vatican didn't explain why it blurred the lines other than to say it never intended for the full letter to be released. In fact, the entire second page of the letter is covered in the photo by a stack of books, with just Benedict's tiny signature showing, to prove its authenticity. The missing content significantly altered the meaning of the quotes the Vatican chose to highlight, which were widely picked up by the media. Those quotes suggested that Benedict had read the volume, agreed with it, and given it his full endorsement and assessment.

(Read more Vatican stories.)(Newser)  Nikki Haley came out strong against Russia and in support of the United Kingdom on Wednesday following the nerve agent attack that left a former Russian spy and his adult daughter in critical condition in England, CNN reports. "The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack," the US ambassador to the UN told the Security Council, adding the White House "stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain." "Time and time again, member states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance," Haley said. "Now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member. The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable."

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It was by far the most forceful statement out of the Trump administration. Rex Tillerson had said Russia was "clearly" responsible for the attack on Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia but was shortly fired by Trump, NBC News reports. When asked about Tillerson's firing Tuesday, Trump said "as soon as we get the facts straight" the US would "condemn Russia or whoever it may be." According to Business Insider, former US diplomats have expressed confusion about why the White House hasn't done more to back its ally Great Britain, which has expelled 23 Russian diplomats. Nicholas Burns calls it "judgment day" for Trump. "Will he support Britain unequivocally on the nerve agent attack?" the former US ambassador to NATO says. "Back NATO sanctions? Finally criticize Putin? Act like a leader of the West?" (Read more Nikki Haley stories.)(Newser)  Were putting a for sale sign on everything, the Wall Street Journal quotes CEO David Brandon as telling Toys R Us employees Wednesday. The company, which started as a baby furniture store following WWII, will be closing or selling its over 700 US stores, putting up to 33,000 jobs at risk. NPR reports the writing has been on the wall for Toys R Us for some time, despite accounting for around 20% of all US toy sales in 2017. The toy-seller has been unable to put much of a dent in the nearly $8 billion of debt it largely acquired in a 2005 buyout, according to the Washington Post. It filed for bankruptcy in September and announced it was closing 182 stores in January. "The last six months have been pure hell," the Journal quotes Brandon as saying.

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Toys R Us has been hurt by competitors with better deals like Amazon and Walmart, and Brandon says sales during the most recent holiday season were "no short of devastating." Brandon says shoppers who failed to support Toys R Us in the past year "will all live to regret what's happening here." A group of toy makersto which Toys R Us owed over $21 million when it filed for bankruptcyis seeking to buy up to 400 stores to continue operating under the Toys R Us name. Brandon says "all anyone has to do is offer one dollar more" than what liquidation firms are offering. Employers were told store closures would be spread out over months. Toys R Us will reportedly pay employees at least 60 days of salary and benefits. (Read more Toys 'R' Us stories.)(Newser)  A woman who fired a handgun aimed at her boyfriend, whose only protection was a thick book, will serve just 180 days in jail following his June death. A Minnesota judge approved a deal in which 20-year-old mother of two Monalisa Perez pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in exchange for 180 days, to be served in 10-day increments, reports the West Central Tribune. She'd faced a maximum of 10 years in prison, per USA Today. But prosecutors emphasized it was Pedro Ruiz's idea to attempt the stunt in the hope of entertaining Perez's YouTube subscribers. Though he apparently believed he'd survive, 22-year-old Ruiz was killed when the .50-caliber bullet went through the hardcover encyclopedia and into his chest at the couple's home in Halstad.

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"This foolish stunt was dreamed up, planned, and executed by Pedro Ruiz, and the defendant wrongfully and tragically relied on his assurances that the stunt was safe," Norman County prosecutor James Brue said, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which notes the Desert Eagle pistol was a foot from Ruiz when fired. The judge decided Perez's sentencewhich also bars her from owning a firearm and profiting from the incident or resulting video, which hasn't been uploadedcan be served in South Dakota, where she now lives with her two kids fathered by Ruiz. Two of Ruiz's aunts say Perez's sentence is too short. "You took him away from us," one told Perez in court, per the West Central Tribune. "This comes from the heart, where you shot him." (Read more Minnesota stories.)The Supreme Court in the occupied Crimea at a session on Wednesday, March 14, changed the verdict against Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh, excluding from the charges the point that he acquired ammunition, the Crimea.Realities media outlet has reported.

According to the report, Judge Timur Slezko excluded from the charges the point on acquisition of ammunition, and therefore the verdict was changed to three years and five months of imprisonment in a low-security penal colony.

At the same time, the court refused to satisfy the requests to call in witnesses who were not questioned during the judicial investigation, as well as to conduct additional examinations, request additional documents and audio recording made by the court.

As reported, Ukrainian farmer Balukh was arrested on December 8, 2016 in his house in the village of Serebrianka of Rozdolne district of Crimea temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities charged him with possession of ammunition.

In January 2018, Crimea's Rozdolne District Court sentenced Balukh to three years and seven months of imprisonment in a low-security penal colony and to a fine of 10,000 Russian rubles.(Newser)  "We Can't Stop" is Miley Cyrus' third biggest hit, according to Billboard. And Marie Claire considers it one of her five best songs. A new lawsuit, however, claims it's not exactly hers. Jamaican artist Flourgon (real name Michael May) is suing Cyrus, Sony Music, and RCA Records for $300 million, alleging a line in the 2013 song"We run things, things don't run we"rips off a prominent lyric from Flourgon's 1988 hit "We Run Things," per Forbes.

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That line goes, "We run things, things no run we." Maywho is also suing songwriter Theron Thomas, among otherscites an interview in which Thomas describes the influence of Caribbean culture on his music as evidence that the alleged theft was deliberate. Without the influence of Flourgon's song, "the entire theme of 'We Can't Stop' would be hollow in sound and impact," states the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New York, per CNN. (Read more Miley Cyrus stories.)(Newser)  Two aviators were killed Wednesday afternoon when a Navy fighter jet crashed near the Naval Air Station Key West. The AP reports that the F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land when it crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway. The pilot and the weapons system operator ejected but did not survive. Witnesses say there was an explosion before the crash. "I saw the fire and then it just dropped," local woman Barbie Wilson tells the Miami Herald. "In the air, I saw fire." "Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible @USNavy," tweeted President Trump. The Navy says the plane was on a training flight and the crash is being investigated. (Read more Super Hornet stories.)(Newser)  President Trump on Wednesday gave fundraisers a little insight into his negotiating tactics when face to face with fellow world leaders. The Washington Post has audio from Trump's fundraising speech in Missouri in which the president recounts a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "Trudeau came to see me. Hes a good guy, Justin," said Trump. "He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please.'" Trump said he countered, "'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didnt even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.'" By the Post's account, Trump insisted that the US runs a trade deficit with Canada, though the Office of the United States Trade Representative says the US actually runs a trade surplus with its neighbor.

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Trump told the fundraisers that he "sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out. I said, 'Check, because I can't believe it.'" He continued: "''Well, sir, youre actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesnt include energy and timber.  And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year.' Its incredible." (The question of whether we have a trade deficit or surplus with Canada is actually a thorny one; Bloomberg explains.) Another part of the speech that caught the attention of CNBC is Trump making an apparent threat to withdraw US troops from South Korea over trade issues. The key quote: "We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them," Trump said. "We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let's see what happens." (Read more President Trump stories.)(Newser)  Two experienced mountain climbers trying to tackle a new route in Alaska were presumed dead after climbing ropes that matched their gear were found in a crevasse, authorities said Wednesday. George "Ryan" Johnson, 34, of Juneau, and Marc-Andre Leclerc, 25, of Squamish, British Columbia, were reported missing after they failed to return from a climb March 7 on a seven-peaked mountain not far from Alaska's capital city. Rescuers had to wait until Tuesday for the weather to clear to fly to Mendenhall Towers, a mountain that rises nearly 7,000 feet over the Juneau Ice Field, about 12 miles north of Juneau. They found an intact anchor rope at the top of an ice chute on one peak and saw two climbing ropes in a crevasse midway down the same peak, reports the AP.

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Megan Peters, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers, said it wasn't clear what went wrong because no one saw what happened. "We know they made it to the top. We know they set anchor," she said. "Whether they were taken out by an avalanche, whether their rope failedI mean, anything could happen." Officials won't be able to recover the bodies right away because of avalanche danger. Johnson and Leclerc had been flown to the mountain and planned to ski out to an area to be picked up. Leclerc was considered a gifted climber. Outside magazine called him "one of the best young alpinists in the world," and his biography on the website of a sponsor, Canadian outdoor equipment company Arc'Teryx, says he completed several ascents in Canada and Patagonia.

(Read more mountain climber stories.)(Newser)  As the US and other nations line up with Britain and accuse Russia of poisoning a former spy, Moscow remains defiant. Russia has promised to retaliate against the UK for penalties including the expulsion of 23 diplomats. "The response will come very quickly, I can assure you," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, per NPR. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin said Putin himself will decide on the response. The threat comes as the US, the UK, Germany, and France issued a joint statement saying it is a virtual certainty that Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, given the use of the Russian-produced nerve agent novichok, reports the Guardian. It called on Moscow to explain the toxin's presence and answer all questions surrounding the attack.

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"This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War," said the joint statement. "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." Russia continues to deny any role. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, blamed Russia on Wednesday, and President Trump seems to agree with the assessment. "A very sad situation," he said. "It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. Something that should never, ever happen, and were taking it very seriously." (Also Thursday, the US hit Russians with sanctions over meddling in the US election.)(Newser)  A man prepared to defend in court his claim of ownership of a tiny island off the coast of North Carolina remains undeterred despite said island having, by all appearances, ceased to exist, the Charlotte Observer reports. "My land will always be there," says Ken Barlow of Virginia, adding, "I will NEVER relinquish what I own to the National Park Service. I will defend that property with the necessary force to repel invaders." According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Shelly Islandso named for the thousands of shells found by tourists who visited itformed off Cape Hatteras National Seashore in spring 2017 and grew to a mile long and 450 feet wide. Barlow paid $26 and filed a Quit Claim Deed for Shelly Island in August, mostly to keep it out of the hands of the "incompetent" National Park Service, which he's mad at for restricting seashore access to protect wildlife.

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Barlow's claim was immediately contested. North Carolina law states ownership of any island in navigable waters "shall vest in the state." Barlow says he disagrees with that law. "I own it. It is clear. The story is over," Barlow told WAVY in September. It may be a moot point. Later that month, multiple hurricanes battered Shelly Island, sinking it below the water. The disappearance of Shelly Island was confirmed by NASA satellite photos and announced by Barlow's hated National Park Service on Tuesday. Barlow says at least part of his Shelly Island merged with nearby Cape Point. But even if that's true, WNCN reports Cape Point is under federal control, and officials say that means whatever is left of Shelly Island is owned by, you guessed it, the National Park Service. (A tech CEO has claimed uninhabited land between Egypt and Sudan for himself.)(Newser)  Fourteen current and former senior US officials tell NBC News that Saudi Arabia's crown prince has been hiding his mother from his father, King Salman, for more than two years. The officials say intelligence shows that Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, initially placed his mother under house arrest at a palace over concerns that she opposed the idea of the king appointing MBS crown prince and might seek to prevent him from doing so. King Salman did indeed appoint his son crown prince in June, stripping his nephew of the title; MBS was quick to consolidate power. (This week, it was reported that MBS had seized executive control of businesses linked to people he recently had arrested.) The officials say that over the past two years, MBS has kept his father from seeing his mother, using various excusessuch as claiming his mother is getting medical treatment.

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The 32-year-old MBS, who revealed in a recent interview that Saudi Arabia would develop a nuclear bomb if Iran did, will be meeting with the US president next week. As NBC reports, he'll likely be touted as "a reformer who's expanded women's rights" in Saudi Arabia, but the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said his treatment of his mother proves the lengths he'll go to to ensure he is the country's next king. US officials have also told NBC that, based on interactions with King Salman, he may not be "consistently lucid"; they say he has told those around him that he misses his third wife, but he does not appear to know where she is. The Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington denies that she is separated from her husband. See NBC for more. (Read more Saudi Arabia stories.)(Newser)  A man who said he helped to dispose of Natalee Holloway's remains is dead after he tried to kidnap a Florida woman. John Christopher Ludwick, 32, attempted to kidnap her as she got out of her car in her North Port driveway Tuesday; she fought back, and in the course of the struggle Ludwick was stabbed. He fled, officers found him in a nearby wooded area, and he eventually died at a hospital, WFTV reports. Ludwick was friends with Joran van der Sloot, the person last seen with Holloway at an Aruba bar in 2005 and the main suspect in the 18-year-old's disappearance. In an episode of The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway that aired last year, Ludwick said Van der Sloot paid him $1,500 to dig up Holloway's body and that the two then destroyed the remains together.

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"The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasn't recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that," Ludwick said on video, per Oxygen. "The only thing that got burned was the skull to burn the hair fibers. It was doused in gasoline in a fire pit in a cave." In a Facebook post, the North Port Police Department says it is "aware of Mr. Ludwick's history and comments surrounding the disappearance of Natalee Ann Holloway in Aruba during May of 2005. The correct authorities who are working that case have been notified." A police spokesperson tells USA Today Ludwick and the woman in Tuesday's case were once roommates and he desired a romantic relationship, but she didn't. The spokesperson says the woman managed to get Ludwick's own knife from him and stab him in the abdomen with it. She will not be charged. (Read more Natalee Holloway stories.)(Newser)  A Broadway production of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is still set to open this year despite a lawsuit filed by the estate of the author, an attorney for the producer said. Jonathan Zavin, who represents Scott Rudin's Rudinplay Inc., said Thursday the adaptation is scheduled to go on stage in December in New York "to the best of my knowledge," per the AP. Lee's estate filed a federal lawsuit this week in Alabama over the play, arguing that screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's script wrongly alters Atticus Finch and other characters from the book. The lawsuit, which includes a copy of a contract signed by Lee and dated about eight months before her death in February 2016, contends Sorkin's script violates the agreement in its portrayal of Finch, the noble attorney who represents a black man wrongly accused of rape in Mockingbird.

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Filed against the theater company of New York producer Scott Rudin, the complaint cites an interview with the online publication Vulture in which Sorkin was quoted as saying the small-town lawyer would evolve from a racist apologist at the start of the show to become "Atticus Finch by the end of the play." Such a change during a play could fit with the character evolution shown between the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mockingbird and Lee's first draft of the novel, finally released in 2015 as Go Set a Watchman. But the lawsuit contends the script would violate the contact by changing Finch and other characters and adding still more people who aren't in the novel. It asks a judge to enforce a section of the agreement that states the play won't "depart in any manner from the spirit of the Novel nor alter its characters." (Lee's "strikingly opaque" will has been unveiled.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionSanctions against Russia to remain in place until it returns Crimea to Ukraine

Crimea-related sanctions against Russia will remain in place until it returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine, U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Heather Nauert has said in a statement on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"We reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Crimea is part of Ukraine and our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine," she said in a statement on March 14.

It notes that "four years ago this week, Russia held an illegitimate, fabricated 'referendum' in Ukraine in a futile attempt to legitimize its purported annexation of Ukrainian territory" and "Crimean residents were compelled to vote under scrutiny by heavily armed Russian troops."

"Russia's claim that Ukrainians made a free choice in that sham 'referendum' has always lacked credibility," reads the statement.

The Department of State said that "Russian occupation authorities have subjected Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, pro-Ukrainian activists, civil society members, and independent journalists to politically motivated prosecution and ongoing repression, while methodically suppressing nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets."

Nauert said, while commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the peninsula, that he "reiterated Russia's false claims to Ukrainian territory in another open admission that the Russian government disdains the international order and disrespects the territorial integrity of sovereign nations."CBS News President David Rhodes says that a "60 Minutes" interview with Stormy 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.The Ukrainian side in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) has said that the "spring truce" is not observed in occupied Donbas and continues to insist on the withdrawal of illegal armed groups, weapons and equipment from the military operations zone.

"Despite the declared 'spring truce' the security situation remains alarming. As in the previous 'Christmas truce,' first there was a decrease in the number of ceasefire violations. According to the UN, no civilian deaths were recorded in Donbas in January-February 2018, but stable peace has not been ensured," Darka Olifer, spokeswoman for Ukraine's second president Leonid Kuchma, who represents the country in the TCG, wrote on her Facebook page after the TCG's work on Wednesday, March 14.

She said that 29 shelling attacks from the side of Russia and illegal armed groups were recorded from March 5 to March 12. At the same time, nine weapons proscribed by the Minsk agreements were used, in particular, 80mm and 120mm mortars.

"For the sake of comprehensive peace on the territory of the Donbas, the Russian Federation must influence militants operating in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions and cease the supply of equipment, weapons, fuel and mercenaries through an uncontrolled section of the Ukrainian-Russian border, ensure unhindered access for OSCE SMM employees to the entire area of the occupied Donbas, including border areas, and withdraw all illegal armed formations, armament and equipment from Donbas," Olifer said.

She said that compliance with the whole package of the Minsk agreements was "the key to further settlement of the situation in Donbas."Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community.

Submit hereThe Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.

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Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer.New Delhi:

Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt, who won the hearts of the audience with her bubbly avatar in Karan Johar's Student Of The Year in 2012, is turning 25 on March 15.

In her showbiz journey of around six years, the diva has clearly proved that she is an exception when it comes to acting, versatility and dedication.

In fact, Alia made sure to leave the critics awestruck with her debut as Shanaya in SOTY. And over the years, the actress has been consistent in giving nuanced performances everytime she hits the silver screen.

Despite her young age of 25, the Highway actress has made sure to leave the audience wanting for more and not disappoint her fans.

Indeed, post her debut with Student Of The Year, the Bhatt girl has come a long way and has been doing an excellent job when it comes to career growth.

In her first performance as Shanaya in SOTY, Alia played the role of a glam-doll who would give instant nostalgic trips to Kareena Kapoor as Poo from K3G. Many Bollywood critics had typecasted her as the starkid who would be the new agirl-next-doora of tinselville.

But, two years later, Alia floored all the critics when she acted as Veera in Imtiaz Ali's Highway. The movie showed the actress as a sexually assaulted girl. Highway became a table turner for Alia as it was hard to imagine the glam-doll essay this serious role with such perfection. She indeed became everyone's favorite and since then there's been no looking back for her.

Besides, Alia also shed off her glamorous avatar for Anurag Kashyap's Udta Punjab, where she played the role of a Bihar migrant. This made her excel in the art of versatility as she immersed every bit of herself into the skin of the character. Her role of Mary Jane in Udta Punjab, which dealt with the sensitive issue of substance abuse, is considered to be one of the most challenging roles in Alia's career and she portrayed it with much gravitas.

The stylish diva also got back in her girl-next-door, bubbly avatar in movies like 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and once again managed to win the audience's hearts. She was seen playing roles which the youth could easily relate to.A

And then her performance as Kiara in Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi made her a brand in the industry. Her natural acting and the way she played the role completely justified her character of a young, independent and misunderstood woman who is struggling to get in peace with her past.

In each of her performance, her expressions, body language and acting speak volume about her talent.

Although Alia is often considered a product of nepotism in the industry, given that she is the daughter renowned filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, her zeal and dedication have proved that it is sheer talent, dedication and hardwork that makes one stand out. Moreover, her enthusiasm to step out of her comfort zone and experiment with different types of roles and give everything her best effort makes her a director's actor in every sense.A

Talking about her dedication, one would laud her for her professional approach as Alia will be working on her birthday this year despite the fact that it is a milestone birthday for her as she is turning 25 years.

The actress is currently shooting in Bulgaria for Ayan Mukerji's upcoming directorial Bhramastra opposite Ranbir Kapoor and given the busy shooting schedule, the actress will spend her birthday on the sets itself.

Alia will also be seen in Meghna Gulzar's upcoming directorial Raazi opposite Vicky Kaushal. She will essay the role of a Kashmiri spy in the movie who marries a Pakistani man during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

On her 25th birthday, we wish Alia more success as she continues to impress viewers with her work in the coming years.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Assamese film Rainbow Fields which is based on Nellie incident in the state is all set to release in Mumbai. The film helmed by National award-winning director Bidyut Kotoky depicted the plight of the children who grew up during the unfortunate massacre of February 1983 in Assam.

The award-winning film was premiered in the Indian Panorama category of the 48th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

The movie also got recognition at Kids First, Catoosa County Film Festival, Bangladesh Children Film Festival and New York Winter Film Awards.

Bidyut Kotoky in a statement said, "In the film, a famous film director, on hearing the news of his childhood friend's death, goes back on a soul-searching journey to his native village and has to confront the unresolved vestiges of a terrible childhood accident, before he loses his last chance for redemption and closure.

"It's been 35 years since Nellie in Assam saw one of independent India's worst acts of violence, leaving about 1,800 people dead in a single day. Our film deals with the underlying effects of the violence witnessed in the state since that incident and how it has severely impacted the minds of children who have grown up with it," Kotoky added.

The film which is produced by KR Harish and Trilok Malhotra features Victor Banerjee, Nakul Vaid, Dipannita Sharma, Nipon Goswami, Naved Aslam and Nikumoni Barua in key roles.

Rainbow Fields has several talented child actors who have given top-notch performances.

Check out the trailer of the film right here.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Mumbai:

There is no better time to be reflective than on one's birthday and that's what superstar Aamir Khan, who turned 53 on Wednesday, did.

The actor said he has several bad habits and being obsessive in nature is one of them.

"One bad habit that I have is I am a very I obsessive personality I think that's a problem," Aamir, who flew from Jodhpur to celebrate his birthday with the family, told reporters here.

"That's not your habit that's your personality," quipped wife Kiran Rao.

Kiran said she would not want to change anything in the actor though she often complains about certain things to him.

"I keep telling him everyday that 'You don't spend time with me', 'You smoke a lot', 'You are always on phone'. But if I actually had to change him, I don't think I would be as happy to see that. I am very happy the way he is."

She believes Aamir's good qualities outdo his bad ones.

"The things that I like the most in him are his sensitivity and intelligence for which I married him. The deep understanding that he has of people, his love for people and his sense of caring and empathy for people, I think those are the qualities that most attracted me to him.

"Also his incredibly sharp mind his ability to understand ideas, I really hope he doesn't change," she said.

Aamir returned the compliment to Kiran, a filmmaker in her own right, calling her a major force in his life.

"Kiran has been someone who has been a major force in my life and I think ever since Kiran has come into my life, I feel there is a change in me. Earlier, I used to very serious. There is a sense of joy and energy in my life," he added.

Kiran said she was sure that the actor, who was in Jodhpur for the shooting of "Thugs of Hindostan", would come home to celebrate his birthday today.

"I had this plan to go there (Jodhpur) and surprise him but yesterday he called me and said I will come so I thought at least I would go till the airport to surprise him," she said.

The actor said his son Azad gave him a handmade birthday card and a dart board.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Mumbai :

aDabangg Khana Salman Khan will be back again with another action-packed thriller flick on Eid this year with aRace 3a. The third instalment of the franchise will be directed by Remo DaSouza.

The star took his Twitter handle to share the teaser of the upcoming flick and captioned it aOn your marks.. Get Seta Goa.

Salman and team is currently in Abu Dhabi busy shooting for some high-octane action scenes. As per media reports, the actor has again collaborated with Hollywoodas action co-ordinator Tom Struthers.

After Tiger Zinda Hai, the two has reunited for aRace 3a. aTom has been roped in to choreograph the stunt sequences for the action-packed climax of the Remo DaSouza directorial. The team is currently camping in Abu Dhabi and will shoot the high-octane scenes over the next month-and-a-half, says a source.

Produced under the banner of Salman Khan Films, the movie also features Bobby Deol, Jacqueline Fernandez, Saqib Saleem, Daisy Shah and Anil Kapoor in pivotal roles.

The movie also features TV actor Narendra Jha, who passed away on Wednesday due to cardiac arrest.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Ukrainian MP Nadia Savchenko has said that during meetings in Strasbourg she received information about the possible release of Ukrainian hostages within three months after Russian presidential elections scheduled for March 18.

"In the last few days I was in Strasbourg, in the European Parliament, where I spoke about the release of our captives and political prisoners from Russian prisons... I received a vivid hope that this issue will be resolved during three months after presidential elections and before the start of sporting events in Russia," Savchenko told journalists in Kyiv on Thursday.

At the same time, she stressed that "not only captives, but also political prisoners" would return to Ukraine.

Savchenko also said that she did not hold talks on the release of Ukrainians directly with the Russian authorities, did not visit Russia after the trial of Stanislav Klykh and Mykola Karpiuk, and was also not familiar personally with Ukraine's special representative on humanitarian issues within the Trilateral Contact Group, leader of the Ukrainian Choice - The Right of the People public movement, Viktor Medvedchuk.New Delhi:

Angelina Jolie's love life has always been an interesting topic of discussion. While the lady hogged the headlines post her split with Brad Pitt, her love life is also creating a buzz as it is reported that Angelina is planning to walk down the aisle again.

According to the media reports, Jolie is preparing to get married for the fourth time and this time to a businessman she has been dating for a year now. In fact, Jolie was reportedly introduced to this new guy by George Clooney's wife Amal.

Reportedly, the actress has been dating the new guy of her life post split with Pitt in 2016. It is also said that Angelina is quite serious about her relationship and is head over heels in love with the mystery man.

"Angie's so in love that she was the one to propose," the insider was quoted as saying to a popular magazine.

The reports further suggested that the Unbroken actress is now in a rush to get her divorce finalised with Pitt so she can get married to her beau.

"Angie's so in love that she was the one to propose," the insider said. "Angelina can't wait to wed and says she's never been this in sync with someone before. Her goal is to ultimately settle in London with him and the kids. She's sure husband No. 4 will be her final husband," the source added.

It is also reported that Angelina's six children will also be involved in the actress' fourth wedding.

Besides, it is also suggested that the lady is in no mood to have her ex-husband Brad Pitt in the guest list for her fourth wedding.

"He will probably be left off the wedding guest list, but Brad's told pals that Angie deserves happiness even if it's not with him. He's just thrilled about her getting ready to sign off on the divorce so that he can get on with his life as well," the insider was quoted as saying.

On the other hand, People magazine has rubbished the reports of Angelina Jolie's fourth wedding and claimed that the actress is not dating anyone.

"She isn't dating anyone and won't be for a very long time. She is focused on her children and their needs," a source was quoted as saying.

We wonder what Angelina Jolie has to say in this regard.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

After vandalising his statue, a saffron cloth was scarfed to the bust of social reformer and Dravidian movement icon EV Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, in Tamil Nadus Namakkal district on Thursday.

Apart from Periyar, the busts of former Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers CN Annadurai and MG Ramachandran were also scarfed with the saffron cloth.

Tamil Nadu police has launched a probe to nab the miscreants behind the act.

Earlier on March 7, a statue of Periyar was vandalised at Tirupattur in Vellore following a Facebook post by BJP national secretary H Raja advocating the removal of the social reformers carving. The post was later removed from his wall.

Referring to the demolition of Lenins statue in Tripura after BJPs landslide victory in the state Assembly polls, Raja in his post said, Today it is Lenin in Tripura, tomorrow in Tamil Nadu (it will be) casteist Periyars statue.

Tamil Nadu: Saffron cloth found tied to busts of former Tamil Nadu CM's CN Annadurai and MG Ramachandran and Dravidar Kazhagam founder Thanthai Periyar in Namakkal. Police investigation on. pic.twitter.com/WQX57T57Rh  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Imphal:

Security forces apprehended a drug peddler and seized banned drugs worth Rs 11.96 crore from his possession in Manipur's Tengnoupal district, an Assam Rifles release said.

The drug peddler was apprehended by the security forces at a check post on Tuesday night, the release said on Thursday.

Also Read: Drug peddler falls in Bengaluru Police net after he files IT return to avoid suspicion

Later, the drug peddler along with the seized drugs was handed over to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials in Imphal, the release said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A bill advocating the death penalty for those guilty of raping girls below 12 years of age was passed on Thursday in The Haryana Assembly.

Haryana is now the third state to pass such a bill, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh being the others. This will require amending provisions under Section 376 which relates to rape, Section 354 (assault against a woman) and 353D (2) (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Earlier in February, the Haryana government had agreed to a proposal to bring in a law that would have a provision awarding to the death penalty to those who are guilty of raping girls aged 12 years or less.

In case of rape/gang rape of a minor up to 12 years of age, death punishment or rigorous imprisonment of not less than 14 years which may extend to life imprisonment was decided by the Cabinet.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said in January that his government is set to bring in such a law. "We will enact a law to provide for capital punishment for those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 years or below.

Besides, we will make a request for setting up fast-track courts for dealing with rape cases to ensure speedy justice to the victims," Khattar had said in January.

On March 9, Rajasthan Assembly passed a bill in which rigorous punishment, including the death penalty, can be awarded to those who are found guilty of raping girls below the age of 12. Earlier on December 4, a similar law was passed in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Crime against women in India is another form of sickness that is not finding its way to stop in any way. After celebrating Women's day on March 8 and appreciating their achievements this is what a school principal has done to a class 10 student on the pretext of helping her clear her class X board exams.

A class 10 student was allegedly raped by school principal after promising that he would help the girl to clear her board exams. The principal, who is also the owner of the school on the outskirts of Gohana town in Sonipat, made a dummy student write her physical education paper on Tuesday while he raped the girl in a nearby house.

Police officials booked the principal and two women under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act on Tuesday night. The women were booked for criminal conspiracy as the rape took place in their house. All three are absconding since Tuesday night.

Going into Details On March 8, the principal called father and his daughter to a school on the outskirts of Gohana. The principal then asked father to leave and daughter at his relatives place. He said another girl would write your daughters exam, The Times of India quoted the students father as saying. He was supposed to pick up his daughter from the scheduled place after the exam was over.

When the victims father came to pick her, she told him about the sexual assault. Her father also added that while he was talking to his daughter, the accused and the two women escaped the house.

A case has been registered on the complaint of the girl's father. The father was ready to pay Rs 10,000 to the principal as part of the deal to help his daughter clear the exams.

"Soon after recording the statement of the survivor, we registered a case and a team of counselors were asked to help the girl," Deswal said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Indian Air Force has taken a decision to induct 324 Tejas fighter jets with an underlying objective to strengthen the depleting squadron strength.

The IAF decision comes in the wake of reports that suggest the Indian Air Force requires at least 42 fighter squadrons to deal with the threats posed by China and Pakistan. At present, there are only 31 fighter squadrons with 18 jets in each, which came as a serious concern for IAF.

Reportedly, the force is ready to set up 18 Tejas squadrons if the agencies involved in its development, including the DRDO, Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, will deliver upgraded Mark-II fighter jets.

For over three decades, the Indian Air Force (IAF) maintained distance from Tejas fighter jet, citing the aircraft is not combat-ready. The IAF remained unhappy with the quality and capability of Tejas fighter jet even after the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was given an approval. In an unprecedented move, the IAF has declared that it will induct 324 indigenously-built Tejas fighter jets.

The IAF has agreed to buy 123 Tejas fighters which procurement cost would come to around Rs 75,000 crore from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

However, the remaining 201 Tejas Mark-II jets should be entirely new fighters. According to a report in Times of India, the IAF has demanded the jets with better avionics, radars, enhanced weapons carrying capacity and powerful engines.





For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Militants on Thursday attacked BJP leader Anwar Khan in Khanmoh area of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. While Khan escaped the attack unhurt, his personal security officer (PSO) was injured in the incident.

According to a police official, the militants started firing indiscriminately upon Anwar Khan but he somehow managed to escape the attack but his PSO constable Bilal Ahmad received bullet injuries on the leg.

The injured constable was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he is said to be in stable condition.

Also Read | 'It's routine': India on Pakistans move to call back envoy over alleged harassment

Following the attack on the BJP leader, security forces have launched cordon and search operations (CASO) in the Khanmoh area in Pulwama district.

According to the sources, two to four terrorists are holed up in the area and security forces were trying to nab them.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Thursday evening will address a rally at Chandigarh with the slogan aSanvidhaan Bachaao, Aarakshan Bachaaoa.

The rally is being organised to pay homage to BSP founder, late Kanshi Ram, on his birth anniversary.

According to a senior BSP leader stationed in Delhi, party workers and leaders from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana will be attending the rally.

The rally has become a matter of discussion in political arena as major announcements for a agrand coalitiona can be called by the BSP supremo.

The BSP rally has gained importance as Samajwadi Party (SP) with help of Mayawatias support bagged the two high-profile Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday which had been won by a margin over 3 lakhs in 2014 by Adityanath and his deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Also read : UP Bypolls: We underestimated SP-BSP alliance, says Yogi Adityanath



Nagendra Singh Patel of SP emerged victorious in Phulpur with a margin of 59,613 votes. While, Pravin Nishad won Gorakhpur, a seat held by the saffron party since 1989, by 21,881 votes.

In the rally, it is believed BSP will raise pro-Dalit issues like reservation, abolished government jobs meant for Dalits and atrocities against the marginalised.New Delhi:

During the 26/11 attacks, many lost their lives, many lost their loved ones and many lost the jewels of our country.

A aI donat want to die an ordinary death. When I go, the whole nation will remember mea these were the words that young Sandeep Unnikrishnan uttered to his father when he joined National Security Guards (NSG) as a part of the Special Action Group and on the infamous November 26, India lost a jewel. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnanas wish was fulfilled.

While fighting the terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba at Taj Hotel in Mumbai, Major Unnikrishnan was wounded badly by the cross firing, while leading a team of 10 commandos of NSG to vacate the Taj Hotel.

Major Unnikrishnan rescued 14 hostages and even helped his co-commando to get some medical help before breathing his last breath.

"Do not come up, I'll handle them" shouted Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and these were his last words as per his colleagues.

He had a dream of joining Indian army and even donned a crew cut during his school days. A good athlete and a natural leader, he was an unselfish, determined and a calm person.

Major Unnikrishnan was awarded the Ashok Chakra, India's highest peacetime military decoration awarded for valor, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield.

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's father, a retired ISRO officer stated that India needs many "Major Unnikrishnans" and he has taken a vow to "create more majors like my son".

March 15 is the 41st birth anniversary of Late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and every citizen of this country should know about the martyr who died for them.

1. He loved watching movies and was a member of the school choir.

2. He was a good athlete and excelled in every sport he played.

3. Unnikrishnan joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) in 1995.He was a graduate of the 94th course of NDA. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts.

4. He was the part of Oscar squadron (No.4 battalion).Major Unnikrishnan was selected for National Security Guards after having served in different locations of Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan for the Indian Army.

5. He was the topper of the aGhatak Coursea, the toughest course of the Army.

6. He was martyred at the age of 31, in the horrific 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

7. He was awarded the Ashok Chakra, on 26 January 2009.

8. Major Unnikrishnan's funeral was held with full military honors.

Twitter world was full of tributes for the braveheart of India:A

Paying tributes to the proud son of India, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His bravery, service & spirit of sacrifice will always inspire us. pic.twitter.com/dy0vcMpSz3

a Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) March 15, 2018

Remembering the brave-heart, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His valour & sacrifice for the nation will always be remembered. pic.twitter.com/DyQcCoObPk

a Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) March 15, 2018

Saluting Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His bravery and sacrifice in action during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks will always be remembered. pic.twitter.com/aqbwzwvXQB

Remembering braveheart, martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His valour, courage and spirit will always remain an inspiration YA pic.twitter.com/qhlGAV0MhV

a Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag)A March 15, 2018

Paying tribute to Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary, an epitome of valour & courage which will inspire generations to come. pic.twitter.com/1Uu3YgjLlp

a ShivrajSingh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) March 15, 2018

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in order to bring together anti-BJP parties ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The effort came hours after BJP's defeat against the combined force of the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's BSP at Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

According to reports, Rahul met the veteran leader at his residence and is expected to forge an alliance to challenge the BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, in the 2019 general elections. Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya was also a part of the meeting.

There are also reports that both Rahul and Pawar will meet Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her Delhi visit later this month.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi met NCP Chief Sharad Pawar yesterday evening. (file pics) pic.twitter.com/4RovVuA72r  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh bypolls: Deposits of Congress candidates seized but party president Rahul Gandhi happy with results

Earlier, on Tuesday, leaders of 20 opposition parties got together 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 elections. Leaders of NCP, RJD, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK and Left parties attended the dinner among others.

While BJP has just lost two of its vital parliamentary strongholds in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, Shiv Sena has decided to go alone in the Lok Sabha election, 2019. Hence, BJP is expected to have a tough time in Maharashtra too.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has termed their defeat as a lesson to the party which would do an introspection.

Rahul and Mamata did not take much time to praise the glorious win of the oppositions, while RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav called for a Grand Alliance at the national level to take on Narendra Modi-led BJP.

Also Read: Sonia Gandhi hosts dinner for 17 Opposition leaders at 10 Janpath

RJD defeated the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), an NDA ally on Araria Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. They had the backing of the Congress in the Bihar Lok Sabha election.

On the other hand, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao is trying to reach out to party leaders for anti-congress, anti-BJP alliance, a move, which is supported by Mamata Banerjee.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said he intends to submit a motion to the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday with the request to strip unaffiliated Ukrainian MP Nadia Savchenko of parliamentary immunity.

"Today, as Ukraine's prosecutor general, I will submit a motion to the Verkhovna Rada on bringing to justice, detaining and arresting people's deputy Savchenko," Lutsenko said from the rostrum of the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday.

He stressed that the investigation has irrefutable evidence that Savchenko was plotting terrorist attacks, in particular, explosions in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada.

"The investigation has irrefutable evidence that Savchenko personally plotted, personally recruited and personally gave instructions on how to carry out a terrorist attack here in this [parliament] hall. [She planned] to destroy two seat boxes in parliament with two grenades, shell the dome of the parliament from mortars, and finish those who would survive from automatic weapons," Lutsenko said.New Delhi:

An atypical study led by a group of Canadian researchers has found that therapy sessions with specially trained dogs at educational institutions may help students reduce stress during the exam and boost their well-being.

"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 Emma Ward-Griffin, a psychology research assistant from the University of British Columbia (UBC), in a statement.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia conducted the study on 246 students, who took part in a drop-in-therapy dog session at their university campus. The students cuddled and played with seven to twelve dogs during the conclave.

Scientists asked the students to fill out questionnaires before and after the therapy session, and again about 10 hours later.

The study showed that the well-being of those students was comparatively better than a control group, who did not spend time with those dogs. Students, who spent time with doggies reported remarkable reductions in their level of stress. They also looked happier and way more energetic after spending times at the therapy dog session.

Also Read: Studies say genes play an effective role in depression affected people

Talking about the latest findings, study co-author Stanley Coren said, "The results were remarkable."

"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," Stanley stated further.

While earlier studies suggest that female students could benefit from therapy dog sessions more in comparison to male students, the latest study led by Emma Ward-Griffin found that the session is helpful for all irrespective of their genders.

Although some of these positive feelings, happiness and satisfaction did not last long, the stress-busting effects were significant. Hence universities all over the world should offer such therapy session to their students at times of increased stress during examinations.

"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 senior author Frances Chen.

Also Read: Are you feeling suicidal? Anaesthesia drug ketamine may reduce those thoughts in no time

"Even having therapy dogs around while students are working on their out-of-class assignments could be helpful," she added.

The study is published online in the journal Stress and Health.New Delhi:

Pakistan has summoned its High Commissioner in India back home for a meeting to discuss recent matters to do with the alleged harassment of diplomats.

Islamabad has asked its envoy to India, Sohail Mahmood, to head back for an unspecified time. India and Pakistan are in the middle of a major diplomatic row with both nations accusing each other of harassing their diplomats.

While Pakistan some days ago issued a demarche to India saying it was becoming difficult for its diplomats to function in Delhi, sources here said the present round of hostility was initiated by an ISI raid on a residential complex under construction for Indian diplomats in Islamabad. The ISI is Pakistan's spy agency.

A group of 7-8 men raided the residential complex last month and disconnected the electricity and water supply to the property which is owned by India.

Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, met the Pakistan foreign secretary on February 16 to strongly protest such "multiple acts of hooliganism" against Indian staff and property.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Islamabad:

Pakistan and Russia on Wednesday discussed defence and security relations and held talks on various global and regional issues of mutual interest, the Foreign Office said.

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua elaborated on Pakistans improved security situation and ongoing counter-terrorism efforts, the Foreign Office said.

She also expressed satisfaction at increasing military and technical cooperation between Pakistan and Russia.

Russias deputy secretary National Security Council Mikhail Popov expressed deep appreciation and acknowledged Pakistans contribution and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and also recognized the need for joint efforts for peace, security, and stability in the region, the Foreign Office said.

Also Read: UK expels 23 Russian diplomats; suspends high-level contacts with Moscow

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Saudi Arabiaas crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, on Thursday warned that if Iran will make nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons, his country too will follow the suit.

The crown prince, while giving an interview to a US television, said, aSaudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.a

The 32-year-old prince said he had referred to Iranas supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as athe new Hitlera because ahe wants to expanda.

The prince said, aHe wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time. Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.a

The interview is scheduled to be aired on CBSas a60 Minutesa show on Sunday, two days before the crown princeas White House meeting with US President Donald Trump. His warning comes amidst the concerns in the Middle East over nuclear proliferation.

The kingdom had put an atomic energy program on a fast track in the recent days, and the crown princeas warnings come as a big threat to Iran. A 2015 nuclear agreement had placed curb on Iranas nuclear program, but President Trump had expressed a desire to fight against it.

The cabinet of Saudi had said that its nuclear program will be in afull compliance with the principle of transparencya and will also meet the nuclear safety standards ain accordance with an independent regulatory and supervisory framework.a

The officials and analysts said the country plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades at a cost of $80 billion. The Energy Minister of Saudi, Khaled al-Faleh, had said in October that the nuclear program will start by building two reactors, each producing 1.2 to 1.6 gigawatts of energy.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The United States on Wednesday challenged Indian export subsidy schemes at the World Trade Organisation, saying these programmes are detrimental to the interest of American workers by creating an "uneven" playing field, officials said.

The US Trade Representative (USTR) argued that at least half a dozen Indian programmes provide financial benefits to Indian exporters, which allow them to sell their goods more cheaply to the detriment of American workers and manufacturers.

These programs are: the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, Special Economic Zones, Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme and Duty Free Imports for Exporters Programme.

"These export subsidy programmes harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field on which they must compete," said Lighthizer. "USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing US rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO," Lighthizer said.

The announcement from Lighthizer came while Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale was on his maiden visit to the US. He was scheduled to hold meetings with the USTR.

In a statement, the USTR alleged that through these programmes, India is given exemption from certain duties, taxes, and fees which benefits numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology products, textiles, and apparel.

According to the Indian government documents, thousands of Indian companies are receiving benefits totaling to over USD 7 billion annually from these programs.

The USTR said export subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to recipients.A limited exception to this rule is for specified developing countries that may continue to provide export subsidies temporarily until they reach a defined economic benchmark.

India was initially within this group, but it surpassed the benchmark in 2015. India's exemption has expired, but India has not withdrawn its export subsidies, USTR alleged.

"In fact, India has increased the size and scope of these programs," USTR charged. For example, India introduced the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in 2015, which has rapidly expanded to include more than 8,000 eligible products, nearly double the number of products covered at its inception, it alleged.

Exports from Special Economic Zones increased over 6,000 per cent from 2000 to 2017, and in 2016, exports from Special Economic Zones accounted for over USD 82 billion in exports, or 30 per cent of India's export volume. Exports from the Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme, increased by over 160 per cent from 2000 to 2016, it asserted.

Noting that consultations are the first step in the WTO dispute settlement process, The USTR said if the US and India are not able to reach a mutually agreed solution through consultations, it may request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to review the matter.

"Today's action highlights the value of ensuring that our trade agreements are fully enforceable through binding dispute settlement. We must continue to hold our trading partners accountable and ensure a level playing field for American workers and businesses," he said.

"In responding to India's prohibited subsidisation of its steel industry in this manner, we prove the significance of the WTO dispute settlement process as a powerful, valuable, and appropriate tool in the administration's toolbox to address unfair practices that hurt our steel workers and companies. I join the Administration in calling on India to end its unfair trading immediately," Brady said.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.The Verkhovna Rada has supported motions of Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and agreed to bring Opposition Bloc member Yevhen Bakulin to criminal responsibility, to his detention and arrest.

Some 274 MPs voted at a plenary session on Thursday to bring him to account, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

For the parliament's consent to detain and arrest Bakulin, 252 and 240 parliamentarians voted respectively.A high court scrapped a lower court ruling Wednesday, acquitting an elevator maintenance company chairman and two others over an elevator accident in 2006 that killed a 16-year-old boy in Tokyo.

SEC Elevator Co Chairman Takao Suzuki, 74, President Hiroshi Nishimura, 58, and Kunio Nemoto, 71, who headed a maintenance section of the company, had previously been given suspended prison terms.

"There is no evidence showing that an abnormal abrasion of the braking system, the cause of the accident, had already occurred by the time an SEC worker checked (the elevator) on May 25, 2006, before the accident," Presiding Judge Yasuhiro Akiba at the Tokyo High Court said in handing down the ruling.

The ruling came after the acquittal of a maintenance official at Schindler Elevator KK, the producer of the elevator, was finalized in February.

On June 3, 2006, Hirosuke Ichikawa died after being wedged between the elevator and the elevator shaft at a housing complex in Tokyo's Minato Ward when it suddenly began to ascend while the doors were wide open. He was getting off the elevator at that time.

The Tokyo District Court in September 2015 ruled the three defendants had overlooked the abnormality that led to the accident and sentenced Suzuki and Nishimura to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, and gave Nemoto a 14-month term, also suspended for three years. - Japan TodayOn Thursday, March 15, at 11.30, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host "Presentation of New Residential Complex Greenville Park: Comfortable Business Class Square Meters in Format of WORK. LIFE. BALANCE Concept." The participants will include project manager of Greenville Park Orest Sarakhman, commercial director of the NEST company Ilya Velychko, the architect of the residential complex Greenville Park ("YUNAKOV ARCHITECTS" studio) Serhiy Yunakov (8/5a Reitarska Street). Accreditation is required by phone: (067) 992 3839, e-mail: tasia_r@ukr.net.United Airlines says it's investigating after mistakenly flying a Kansas family's dog to Japan.

They went to a cargo facility to pick up 10-year-old Irgo, a German shepherd, but were instead given a Great Dane. Swindle, of Wichita, Kansas, learned Irgo had been put on a flight to Japan, where the Great Dane was supposed to go.

Airline officials in Japan put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City. It isn't clear when the dog will arrive. - Japan TodayThe announcement was made within the framework of the Vietnam Online Business Forum (VOBF) 2018, which was opened on Wednesday morning by the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM).

Developed by the VECOM since 2012 and published annually, the Vietnam E-business Index is a useful quantitative tool for identifying e-commerce development across the country, as well as in each locality.

According to the VECOM, Vietnam's e-commerce growth in 2017 was estimated at over 25%, among the fastest in the world, and the rate is expected to be maintained during 2018-2020.

The growth rate in several specific fields was very spectacular. Specifically, in the online retail sector, statistics from thousands of e-commerce websites showed a high revenue growth rate at 35% last year. An indirect survey of certain delivery companies showed a 62-200% growth in delivery service revenues.

In the field of payments, information from the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) shows that domestic online card transactions in 2017 increased at roughly 50% compared to 2016, while the value of transactions was up 75%. Regarding online marketing, several affiliate marketing companies recorded a growth rate of between 100-200%.

The Vietnam Online Business Forum 2018 attracted the attention of the business community. (Photo: infonet.vn)



In tourism, the rate of bookings through online travel agencies increased sharply, reaching 30%. If combined with the two-digit growth rate of tourism revenue, it is estimated that the growth rate of online travel revenue is at over 50%.

The Vietnam E-business Index 2018 also shows that e-commerce continues to grow rapidly throughout the country and Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi continue to play a pioneering role, creating a huge difference between Vietnams two largest cities and the rest.

Based on this data, the VECOM recommended developing strong policies and solutions to promote the role of e-commerce in the two economic centres in both ends of the country, while supporting other localities in creating rapid and sustainable development for the whole nation.

Gathering organisations and individuals that have a great influence in online business, VOBF provides opportunities for agencies, businesses, and individuals to exchange their views on new trends in e-commerce, emerging technologies, and innovative business ideas.

In its second installment, the annual event will take place in the two major cities of Hanoi on March 14 and HCM City two days later.After intense negotiations, the CPTPP was finally signed on March 8 in Chile. Without the United States, the economic size of the CPTPP is not as large as that of the TPP, but for Vietnam, the trade pact is anticipated to open valuable new export opportunities to Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Australia.

These countries are also important foreign investors with strengths in many fields for which Vietnam is attracting investment. But more importantly, a long-term benefit of the CPTPP is the push for institutional reforms at home to create an open and transparent business environment.

After signing, the CPTPP will be presented to the National Assembly for ratification before it officially comes into force. Therefore, from the date of signing to the date it comes into effect, there is yet time for domestic enterprises to make the necessary preparations in order to take the best advantage of this trade deal.

But experience from the international integration process, especially the implementation of free trade agreements, in recent years shows that most domestic enterprises are rather ill-informed about integration commitments or expect too much from the opportunities, while failing to anticipate all the challenges facing them.

For example, Vietnam officially became a member of the ASEAN Economic Community in late 2015 but after two years of participation in this huge market, many Vietnamese enterprises are now paying a high price for their lack of preparation. Many exports to ASEAN are falling, while imports from the region are growing and domestic enterprises are being overwhelmed by their foreign competitors even on home ground.

The pressure on both the export and domestic markets is the greatest challenge to Vietnamese enterprises during the international integration process. Adjusting the business mindset to the new context and converting the pressure from competition into a driver for innovation are urgent requirements for Vietnamese enterprises.

To capitalise on opportunities and overcome challenges, Vietnamese enterprises have no way but to proactively inform themselves of the finer details of the CPTPP, and get a thorough grasp of integration commitments so that they can formulate appropriate business strategies to adapt to changes in the business environment and the strict requirements set out by their partners.

An innovative and creative mindset with sound business sensibility and diligent preparations are what domestic enterprises should equip themselves with if they want to succeed on the global playing field.The affirmation was made by Gellert Horvath, Co-Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) at the launch of the EuroCham Whitebook on trade and investment issues and recommendations.

He stressed that the agreement will not only bring about more opportunities for Vietnams sectors to develop but will also help to improve the countrys investment environment and raise the quality of its export products.

He also reaffirmed the EUs commitments to supporting Vietnam in the countrys modernisation and integration into the world economy.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue spoke of his appreciation for the contributions made by the European business community in boosting trade and investment activities in Vietnam over recent years.

As two-way trade grew impressively to US$50 billion in 2017, from less than US$4 million in 2000, Vietnam and EU need a new and more comprehensive agreement to fully unlock the potential cooperation between the two sides, he said.

The signing, ratification, and implementation of the deal will also send a message to the world about Vietnam and the EUs joint determination to create and maintain an open environment for trade and investment, he added.

According to the Whitebook 2018, its 10th edition, Vietnam is an attractive destination for foreign direct investment. The publication also made positive forecasts for the time after the EVFTA is approved and implemented, as it will create tremendous momentum for both Vietnam and the EU.

Accordingly, the EVFTA will promote Vietnam's growth and development across all areas and sectors, improve the legal framework, business environment, reduce tariffs, and boost exports to the EU. The trade deal will not only benefit the business community but also make a positive impact on social welfare, wages, and living standards for the people.CLIFTON PARK, NY -- The obvious question: Should Pastrami Pilsner be served alongside light rye or dark rye?

"Marble" is the answer from the man who created it -- Jeremy Cowan, founder and CEO of Shmaltz Brewing Co. of Clifton Park, just north of Albany. "We believe in rye diversity."

Cowan and his brewery are serious about beer, but have always taken a light-hearted approach to its marketing. Shmaltz is known for introducing a high level of "shtick" to its beers. It's primary line is called He'Brew (the Chosen Beer), and beers include Hop Manna IPA, Slingshot Lager, a complex beer called Funky Jewbelation and Messiah Nut Brown Ale (once billed as "the beer you've been waiting for.")

Pastrami Pilsner may have some shtick, but the beer itself is no gimmick.

It's brewed with kosher salt, cracked black pepper, mustard seed, ground caraway seed and a bit of horesradish. It uses some smoked barley malt and a little bit of rye, plus other malts for a rye bread character.

"It's got a little heat from the horseradish, but not overpowering," Cowan said. "When you taste it, you'll think of pastrami. You'll want pastrami."

What you won't find in the beer is any cured or brined meat.

"No pastrami was harmed in the making of this beer," the folks at Shmaltz say.

Pastrami Pilsner was initially brewed as a draft-only beer in collaboration with Barcade, a popular Brooklyn craft beer bar that now has six locations on the East Coast.

It's now available in 4-pack bottles and draft, and will be sold in 30 states (The initial bottling run took place on Jan. 14 -- National Pastrami Day).

Shmaltz has been making beer since 1996, but until 2012 its beer was made under contract at other breweries, notably Saratoga Brewing Co. in Saratoga Springs.

Its brewery and tap room in Fairchild Square in Clifton Park is big enough for it to make other lines of beer, like the 518 Craft series for Upstate New York and the Alphabet City line for New York City. It also makes beer for other breweries under contract.

Among the other new beers coming from Shmaltz this year are the 2018 version of the barrel-aged Funky Jewbelation, Hop Mamma IPA (brewed with apricot, peach and habanero), and the new No Shtick Variety Pack (No Shtick Double IPA, Hop Manna IPA, Messiah Nut Brown Ale).

In the 518 line for Upstate distribution, Shmaltz recently released a beer called Foggy Goggles. It's an unfiltered "hopped up" pale ale, Cowan said.

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.The Registrar, Joint Admissions, and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, on Thursday said that there will be no rescheduling of the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam for any student like it did last year.He said that reports have also indicated that some parents had allegedly negotiated with some private coordinators who assured them of success at all cost during the UTME.Oyolede said candidates whose thumbs were not recognised for verification by the biometric machines, and that such candidates might have registered illegally.He disclosed said that the board had arrested some operators of illegal UTME registration centres set up to defraud applicants.They were using something they call team viewer which will definitely give biometric problem because these candidates were not physically captured at the authentic centre.We would not be held responsible for that and there wont be any form of rescheduling for anybody, I did that last year out of ignorance.The registrar described the general conduct of the UTME nationwide as highly successful and attributed the success to use of improved modern technology which has prevented most illegal acts people were used to.The registrar made the remarks at the boards headquarters in Bwari, Abuja, when a suspected impersonator arrested by officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps was paraded for attempting to write the UTME for his brother.According to the civil defence corps officials, the mother of the boy, who claimed to be a prophet, directed the boy to sit the examination for his brother.The boy was arrested at the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, Air Mas Computer Centre Madalla in Niger.Oloyede said, Parents need to disassociate themselves from this type of shameful attitude.It is against any type of parenting that you want to inculcate the spirit of deceit into your children; I think even bad people do not want to be succeeded by bad people.The woman should have just said she is a mother and not that she is a prophet; you are doing something shameful, do not bring God into it at all.No religion would allow for a mother to tell one of her sons to go and write exams for the other.If someone is unfortunate to be corrupt, he or she should ask God to terminate it at his own level, but conscious efforts at transmitting that culture to the next generation is very painful.The registrar also frowned at those hiding behind religion to commit crimes including examination malpractice.One said he is a Catholic priest; theres another one from Abia and now, this mother said shes a prophet, people in Nigeria just use religion to exploit others.They go to churches, establish centres in the name of helping the church only to use them for their selfish purposes, he said.He explained that the board was able to detect, through the use of technology, that most of the cabling issues at CBT centres, were pre-arranged.Their intentions are to help people not knowing that we now have a device that monitors every computer system in every centre, via a code.We are able to detect now, people who are able to write the exams, answering 180 questions in just 12 minutes.We also have three to four persons who wrote the examinations on the same computer at a session not knowing we have the identity of every computer.The Registrar stated that it was in view of the latest developments that the board could not release some results on Wednesday.Oloyede disclosed that the board had identified 14 centres across the country involved in malpractice and assured that the operators would be prosecuted.NAN also reports that the ongoing 2018 UTME, which commenced on March 9, is scheduled to end on Saturday, March 17.Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, who is facing corruption charges, yesterday, begged the Federal High Court in Abuja to allow him to seek medical attention in the United Kingdom, saying he has lost sensation in his lower limbs.Metuh who was brought before the court in a wheelchair for continuation of his trial, said he was suffering from spinal cord related ailment.He was wheeled into the courtroom to continue his defence to the seven-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against him and his firm, Destra Investment Limited.EFCC had alleged that he had before the 2015 Presidential election, received N400 million from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, without executing any contract.At the resumed proceeding yesterday, Metuh through his lawyer, Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN, applied to be allowed to travel to the United Kingdom for medical treatment.Metuhs lawyer told the court that my clients health had badly deteriorated in the past two months, a situation he said would require urgent medical attention from his doctors in London. My client has lost sensation in his lower limbs.He tendered as an exhibit, a letter from one Dr. Adrian T. H. Kasey, a Neurosurgeon at Wellington Hospital in London, which he said emphasized the need for Metuh to be treated urgently.The former PDP spokesman predicated his application on section 33(5) and 6(b) of the 1999 Constitution.However, trial Justice Abang requested both the prosecution and defence lawyers to address him on whether the court could grant Metuhs request considering that he previously dismissed two similar applications on May 25, 2016 and in February, 2017.Justice Abang who noted that Metuh had yet to appeal both rulings, noted that issues Metuh raised in his present application dated February 23, were the same thing he relied on in the two dismissed applications.Responding to the issue raised by the Judge, Etiaba, SAN, said: The court has the requisite jurisdiction to grant the application which is necessitated by fresh facts and circumstances that are not involved in the two previously dismissed motions.The court can undertake an independent assessment of fresh materials that are placed before it so as to determine whether or not it should accede to the request to save Metuhs life.Relying on a Supreme Court decided case-law in Nnadozie vs Mbagwu, reported in 2018 NWLR, part 1074, Etiaba urged the court to consider the fresh facts and deteriorating health of the defendant, and grant the application.However, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, asked the court to refuse Metuhs application.The EFCC lawyer maintained that the court had become funtus-officio in the matter having in two earlier rulings, dismissed the same request.After he had listened to both sides, Justice Abang adjourned his ruling till Thursday.The court earlier in the proceeding, refused an oral application Etiaba made pursuant to section 266(b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, praying for Metuh who sat inside the wheelchair while on the dock, to be granted leave to be absent in court while the lawyers exchange arguments on his request to seek medical attention abroad.Though he refused the application, Justice Abang said Metuh was at liberty to leave the courtroom on his own, there will not be any issue out of it, the Judge held.It will be recalled that Metuh was on February 9, brought to court in an ambulance, after Justice Abang threatened to revoke his bail and commit him to prison if he failed to appear for his trial.The threat followed Metuhs absence in court on two successive dates, though his lawyers tendered reports indicating that he was hospitalized at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu where he was referred to by Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital Nnewi.Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and his fourth wife, Jennifer Douglas, have auctioned their jointly owned luxury mansion located in ...

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and his fourth wife, Jennifer Douglas, have auctioned their jointly owned luxury mansion located in the posh neighbourhood of Potomac, Maryland, U.S.





According to the report, the property gained international notoriety in 2005 after it was searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in connection with a bribery scandal involving disgraced former U.S. Congressman, William Jefferson.

Premium tines reports that the seven-bedroom cream-coloured single family brick house on 9731 Sorrel Ave, Potomac, Maryland, was originally listed for $3.25 million on Zillow and other online real estate websites on January 25, 2018 but was eventually sold for a pending offer of $2.95 million on February 26, 2018 after an online auction. .

The couple bought the 7,131 square feet house in December 1999 for $1.75 million. The Atikus never lived in the mansion since Mr. Abubakar left office as vice president in 2007.

Paul Ibe, the spokesperson for Mr. Abubakar, told Premiumtimes that the sale of the mansion was voluntary and strictly an investment decision. Abubakar has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the Jefferson corruption saga that led to the search of his home.





In an interview with the BOSS newspaper last December, he explained he had made attempts to visit the U.S. but was turned down for administrative reasons.















The first Australia visit by PM Phuc since his assumption of office also affirms Vietnams active contributions to promoting the ASEAN-Australia strategic partnership in a substantive and effective manner.

Established in 1973, the friendship and cooperative ties between Vietnam and Australia have witnessed fine developments, especially since the two countries exalted their relationship to a comprehensive partnership in 2009 and signed a declaration on enhancing the Australia-Vietnam comprehensive partnership in 2015.

The fine political relationship is marked by reciprocal high-level visits between the two countries leaders, thereby helping to promote the bilateral relationship in a broader and deeper manner. Australia considers Vietnam as a key partner in ASEAN and highly appreciates Vietnams role in ASEAN.

Economic, trade and investment cooperation is a bright spot in the Vietnam-Australia relationship. Australia is Vietnams eighth largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching nearly US$6.5 billion in 2017, up 22.2% against 2016. To date, Australia has invested about US$1.8 billion in 412 projects in Vietnam, ranking 20th among more than 120 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Australia is one of the largest providers of non-refundable ODA with over AUD110 million delivered each year since 2010.

The two countries have also forged a strong cooperation in education, with about 30,000 Vietnamese students currently studying in Australia. Security and defence cooperation has also become more diverse. Cooperation in tourism, labour, transport, industry, agriculture, and culture is also developing and bringing many practical benefits to the two countries peoples. Vietnam and Australia cooperate effectively within regional and international cooperation frameworks such as the United Nations, the East Asia Summit, and APEC.

As Vietnam and Australia are celebrating the 45th anniversary of diplomatic ties, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs visit will turn a new page in the bilateral relationship, which is scheduled to be upgraded to a strategic partnership.

During the visit, the two countries leaders will discuss and outline orientations and measures and sign cooperative agreements to strengthen and further deepen the fine friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Australia, meeting the interests of the two countries peoples.

ASEAN-Australia relations were established in 1974. Australia was the first country to establish dialogue relations with ASEAN in all three major areas, political, economic, and socio-cultural cooperation. In 2014, the two sides held a commemorative summit to mark the 40th anniversary of ties and upgraded it to a strategic partnership.

Taking place in Sydney, the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit is the first summit between the two sides to be hosted by Australia at the proposal of Australian PM Malcom Turnbull, aiming to reaffirm Australias commitment to fostering its strategic partnership with ASEAN in the new period.

Under the title Enhancing regional security and prosperity, the summit includes plenary meetings and retreats to discuss the major orientations in developing the ASEAN-Australia relationship, along with many other important events. On the basis of a fine bilateral relationship with Australia, Vietnam pledges to make proactive, active, and responsible contributions, along with Australia and other ASEAN member countries, to guarantee the success of the summit, thereby outlining the important development orientations for the ASEAN-Australia relationship in the new period.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs official visit to Australia and attendance at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit aims to continue the implementation of Vietnams foreign policy of diversification, multilateralisation, and active and proactive international integration.

The visit also affirms that Vietnam attaches special importance to and wishes to enhance the bilateral relationship with Australia, participate in regional cooperation activities in a proactive and responsible manner, and shape the future of the ASEAN-Australia relationship for peace, stability, and development in the region and the world at large.Femi Fani-Kayode, on Wednesday reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis claim that he responded better to the adoption of school girls than...

Femi Fani-Kayode, on Wednesday reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis claim that he responded better to the adoption of school girls than the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Buhari said Jonathans administration was slow with their response to the abduction of Chibok girls unlike his administrations swift reaction to a similar abduction of girls from Government Science Secondary Scchool in Dapchi, Yobe State.





According to Buhari, while his government swung into action immediately after the abduction, the last administration looked the other way when the Chibok girls were abducted in 2014.





Reacting to the statement, the former Minister described Buhari as a failure over his inability to protect Nigerians.





In a tweet, Fani-Kayode challenged Buhari to stop blaming Jonathan and do his job.





He wrote: My response to Dapchi was better than GEJs response to Chibok-Pres. Muhammadu Buhari.



Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis statement that his adminis...

Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday reacted to President Muhammadu Buharis statement that his administration responded better than the immediate past government to the February 19 abduction of 110 students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State.





Buhari had said Jonathans administration was slow with their response to a similar abduction in Chibok, Borno State.





According to Buhari, while his government swung into action immediately after the abduction, the last administration looked the other way when the Chibok girls were abducted in 2014.





However, Omokri, in a series of tweets rubbished the statement by the president.





The United States, US-based Pastor said more security agents guarded Buharis son, Yusuf while he was in a hospital than those attached to the school the girls were abducted from.





According to Omokri, Buharis son, Yusuf, alone had more guards guarding him than the entire guards attached to Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi at the time of the kidnapping, yet the President has the guts to say he handled Dapchi better than Jonathan handled Chibok.



Lawmakers of the House of Representatives have declined requests to disclose their salaries and running cost.

Lawmakers of the House of Representatives have declined requests to disclose their salaries and running cost.





Most members of the House of Representatives expressed fury when TheCable contacted them over the issue.





Recently, Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central, disclosed that apart from the basic monthly salary of N750,000, each senator gets N13.5 million as running cost.





Sabi Abdullahi, spokesman of the senate later confirmed his claim, adding that 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.





Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the lower legislative chamber, refused to clarify what his counterpart at the senate said.





Democracy is not only about lawmakers why should I disclose what I earn as a lawmaker, Namdas said.





Im not talking about the running cost of lawmakers. I cant talk on that for lawmakers in the house of representatives because we have done that before. Why should I disclose it? If you think it is a public information, then go to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).





Do you know the salary of a minister? Is he not a public official? Why are you bothering on our own? Democracy is not about only legislators.





I cannot say this is what I earn because you dont know the salary of a minister, and they are public officials too. But if a member of the House of Representatives says he earns this amount, then I can clarify.





When told that the public is interested in knowing the earning of the lawmakers, he said: If people are asking questions, let them be asking. It is natural for them to ask questions.





The people dont want to know about legislators alone. They also want to know about the executive and judiciary. So, why are you only asking the legislators?





Jerry Alagboso, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker from Imo state, claimed feigned ignorance of his earnings.





Asked to give details of the earnings of lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber, he said: I dont know anything about that (the earnings).





When probed further, the lawmaker fired back in anger: Why do you have to ask me about that? Go and meet the clerk of the national assembly.





He ended the conversation abruptly.





In his response, Abubakar Garba, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Adamawa, said I am not supposed to talk about that.





Aina Akinola, also a PDP lawmaker, from Ekiti state, directed TheCable to Namdas  he (Namdas) is the image maker of the house. Go and talk to Namdas. He is the person you should talk to.



Enyinnaya Abaribe, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator from Abia state, has taunted President Muhammadu Buhari by asking him to take ...

Enyinnaya Abaribe, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator from Abia state, has taunted President Muhammadu Buhari by asking him to take responsibility for just one thing.





He said this on Thursday while contributing to a debate on a motion sponsored by Attai Aidoko, senator representing Kogi east.





While moving the motion, Aidoko said suspected herdsmen invaded some villages in his constituency and killed 30 people on Wednesday.





Abaribe lamented that killings in the country had become an everyday occurrence.





The Abia senator wondered if the executive has taken responsibility for the attacks across the country.





The commander-in-chief of Nigeria is in charge of security and when the commander-in-chief says I dont know what happened, then we have to worry if our security is actually in the right hands, he said.





But let us go from there and also bring to the fore another aspect which the senate leader mentioned. He said the security forces are overstretched. We agree but distinguished Senator Marafa told us here that information was given to the same security people, the governor was dancing arambakoso somewhere else and left states security. Is that not what you said?





It is not a question of having enough people, it is a question of not acting on the intelligence that you have. I cant blame them for actions because the president says I dont know. So, Mr President, let us beg this president to take responsibility for one thing; its not everything that you dont know. We need to be safe in Nigeria.





On his part, Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, said the issue of insecurity in the country is still being treated with kid gloves.





We have not shown the needed efforts to combat this problem. We are still treating the issue of security with kid gloves. If you see the gory pictures of people that are maimed  if we cannot show capacity, do we want to continue complaining? he asked.





It is the poor that is dying. Let us for once call on Mr President, call on governors of these respective states who are the chief security officers of those states.





Thereafter, the senate urged Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police (IGP), to arrest those behind the killings.



President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday opened the N50bn Sunti Golden Sugar Estate in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State.Addressing guests at the inauguration, Buhari called on private investors in the country to partner with the government in creating investment opportunities.He said the coming of the sugar factory was timely, as Nigeria has made her way out of recession and we have showed considerable progress.He said, We are looking inward to our natural endowment and deposit. We are focusing on agriculture and other non oil sectors.The mill, as I was told, cost the company N50bn, and its expected to produce 100,000 metric tons of sugar yearly.It 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.While commending the company for creating job opportunities for Nigerians, the President said, Flour Mills has shown commitment to Nigeria all through the good times and bad times.Buhari also reiterated the benefits and economic possibilities of the River Niger, saying, It has been long overlooked; it is time to explore and harness the benefits for commerce and investment.He assured Nigerians that his administration would continue to create enabling business environment and improve security and infrastructure across the nation.Earlier, the Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, said the agriculture sector was getting the needed attention it requires to generate employment and accelerated income growth.While calling on investors to visit Niger State, he said the lands were under-cultivated and needed more companies to partner with the state.The Chairman, Flour Mills Nigeria, John Coumantaros, in his remarks, said the estate would set the country on the path to become self-sufficient in sugar production.Coumantaros said, The sugar estate would feature 17,000 hectares of irrigable farmland and a sugar mill that processes 4,500 metric tons of sugarcane per day.At full capacity, the estate is expected to produce one million tonnes of sugarcane, which roughly translates into 100,000 metric tons of sugar yearly.The Senate on Thursday decried spate of violence in the country and urged the Federal Government to deploy security agencies to Kogi to forestall alleged killing of people by suspected herdsmen.Specifically, the upper chamber said that the security machinery should be sent to Omale and Dekina Local Government Areas in the state.The resolution followed the adoption of a Point of Order by Sen. Atai Aidoko (Kogi-West) at plenary over alleged killing of 32 persons in the two local government areas on Wednesday.Raising the order, Adoko said that 20 people were killed in Ogane-Enugu community in Dekina while 12 other lives were lost in Agbejukolo and Agbenema communities in Omale local government area.He said in spite of continued condemnation of killings in many parts of the country, perpetrators of this dastardly act have not been arrested.I want this Senate to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to direct security agencies to bring the situation under control by arresting the perpetrators and ensure that they are prosecuted.This killing is taking another dimension as the killers also amputate peoples hands.In his contribution, Leader of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, said that it was time that the chamber worked closely with the Executive to enhance the effectiveness of security agencies in combating crime the country.Noting that security agencies in the country were overstretched, Lawan expressed worry that the number of policemen guarding the communities was inadequate.According to him, in a population of about five million, you have only 300 policemen guarding the society, and in the same situation, over 300 bandits would attack the people.On his part, Sen. Dino Melaye urged government at all tiers to demonstrate needed capacity to combat insecurity.We are still treating the issue of security with kid gloves. If you see the gory pictures of people that are maimed and we cannot show capacity; do we want to continue complaining?It is the poor that is dying. Let us for once call on the president and the governors of these respective states who are the chief security officers to ensure the protection of lives and property of citizens.The Federal Government must display capacity to sincerely quell the insecurity threatening the country.Unfortunately, since the incidents happened in Kogi, the state government has not come up with any official statement or taken an action, Melaye said.Sen. James Manager blamed the situation on non-arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.According to him, society has evolved and there is law and order; when somebody who commits a crime is caught, he should be punished to serve as deterrent to others.The immediate solution to this problem is to arrest and punish offenders otherwise people will continue to kill.We are tired of observing one minute silence for these killings; if punishment for offenders is not done, those who cannot protect the society should resign, Manager said.Sen. Adamu Aliero called for the implementation of recommendations of the National Security Summit recently organised by the Senate.He said it would go a long way in addressing the security challenges confronting the country.According to him, the meeting with security agencies three weeks ago revealed that the police are overstretched and there was need to recruit more hands as well as increase the funding.In his remark, President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, condemned the killings and said that it was unacceptable.The Senate would work towards finding solutions to insecurity in the country.Let us be patriotic because this situation is unacceptable, he said.Wole Soyinka, renowned playwright and Nobel laureate, has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over his inability to get justice for victi...

Wole Soyinka, renowned playwright and Nobel laureate, has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over his inability to get justice for victims of clashes between farmers and herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents.





Delivering the keynote paper at a dialogue organised by Ripples Centre for Data and Investigative Journalism in Lagos on Thursday, Soyinka said what we need now is justice and not sympathy.





He said rather than visiting the affected areas, Buhari should speak to peoples security needs, and bring perpetrators to book.





I get impatient when I hear things like Buhari has failed to go and sympathise with the people of Benue, with the people of Nassarawa, with the people of Dapchi or wherever, he said.





Who needs sympathy? Is it sympathy that will reorder their broken lives? Is sympathy the issue? We are speaking here of one commodity that is fundamentally human deserving, justice.





There should an internal measure to avoid repeat. We are speaking here of a president that will respond with massive action and not showing up at the arena of human desecration to shed any unjust tears, but give orders that the bloodthirsty terrorists are brought to book.





Soyinka said failure on the part of government has been the reason the country is yet to get over the security challenges.



The House of Representatives resolved on Thursday that having passed a vote of no confidence in the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, it would no longer accord him the recognition of addressing him as honorable minister.The lawmakers also noted that in other climes, passing a vote of no confidence in a minister was enough grounds for the President to sack him, adding that the House did not need to stress it.In a resolution in Abuja, the House observed that Fayemis decision to engage PricewaterhouseCoopers, a globally discredited firm, to conduct a technical audit on Ajaokuta Steel Company, meant that he was bent on concessioning the firm.To stop Fayemi, the House proposed to amend the Privatisation Act immediately by expunging ASC from the list of public assets in the schedule that can be privatised or concessioned by the Federal Government.It also sought to further amend the Act by removing the powers of the National Council on Privatisation as the authority to decide on which firms should be on the schedule.A Superior Court judge in Newark on Wednesday took away subpoena and investigatory powers from the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board but said it could still conduct oversight of the police department.

Mayor Ras Baraka called Judge Donald Kessler's oral decision "a setback to criminal justice reform in America and to the critical need for citizens to have complete trust that incidents of police misconduct will be dealt with fairly, appropriately and impartially."

"For now, our CCRB will continue to move forward using its power of oversight, but Newark will appeal the court's decision," the mayor said in a statement.

The board was conceived following a damning report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2014 that found Newark police failed to provide sufficient constitutional reason for about 75 percent of pedestrian stops and that despite hundreds of citizen complaints from 2007 to 2012, just one complaint of excessive force was sustained.

It was designed to provide additional civilian oversight of a beleaguered police department that federal investigators found routinely engaged in acts of excessive force and violations of residents' constitutional rights.

The creation of the 11-member board to review police misconduct allegations was met with resistance from police unions.

The Fraternal Order of Police challenged the civilian review board's subpoena powers in court, arguing it violated state statute, an officer's due process rights and the attorney general guidelines.

The unions later obtained an injunction in December 2016 to prevent the board from exercising its investigatory power.

Since then the board has largely reviewed changes in police department policies but has not conducted any investigations, a city official said.

The official said Kessler ruled that any investigations by the civilian board would violate due process rights; Newark police already have an internal affairs department to handle such complaints.

The unions argued the board's investigative powers undermine the police department's disciplinary process.

"The FOP has said since day one that the powers given to the proposed CCRB by executive order were far too broad. We are not against reform or transparency, but it has to be within the confines of the law," James Stewart Jr., president of the FOP said in a statement. "We always said we would lay our cards on the table and let a judge decide the issue based on the merits of the case and today he made reference to many of our points in his decision."

The ordinance allowed the civilian board to investigate misconduct and issue disciplinary recommendations to the police director.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsSeton Hall University student Rawda Abdelmenan was in line at the South Orange Performing Arts Center on Feb. 24 when she was stopped from entering and her backpack was searched.

Abdelmenan, a Muslim student who wears a hijab, said she was confused as she watched others attending the student production of "Steel Magnolias" enter carrying similar bags without being searched.

The conversation that she says unfolded next only elevated her concerns, though theater officials dispute her account and called it a misunderstanding.

When she asked house manager Tom Cogan why he singled her out, Abdelmenan said he cited protocol and explained that "no one else is a threat."

Another manager told the Seton Hall senior, who is pursuing a speech pathology degree, needed to be checked due to "things that have been happening in our country," the 22-year-old alleges.

"My peers were walking in casually and I was pulled out of line. In a college town, I don't think a book bag is supposed to be that big of a deal," she said. "Because of everything that's been happening in the media, maybe that's why he thought I was a threat, because I'm not only a Muslim, I'm veiled."

SOPAC, which is funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, denies that Cogan made the "threat" comment and that the other manager, Alicia Whavers, referenced current events in America.

The theater investigated the incident, and found that Cogan checked the Jersey City native's "large bag" because the theater has a strict no food or drink policy, Director of External Relations Dee Billia said.

"I don't think she understood that's why he was asking her," Billia said. "She felt singled out because of that, she was very upset, which we regret very much."

Since the incident, Abdelmenam has met with SOPAC executive director Mark Packer to talk about updating policies, providing bias training to the community and to "make amends for what occurred," according to a letter Packer wrote to editor of The Setonian.

"(We) recognized the hurt and embarrassment a member of the staff unwittingly caused a patron. For that, we offer Ms. Abdelmenam out heartfelt apology and thank her for courageously working directly with us on a corrective action plan that will strengthen us as a welcoming community institution and elevate the level discourse around this important issue," Packer wrote.

The student agreed that SOPAC has been proactive in making changes.

"I always think, it doesn't have to be a Muslim who's profiled. It can be anybody and it's such an unfortunate situation to be in," she said. "It's important because it opens your eyes to incidents that happen over and over again that no one is saying anything about."

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsJOINT STATEMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

BETWEEN

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

AND

THE GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA

15 March 2018



1. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1973, Vietnam and Australia have built strong and substantive relations on the basis of mutual respect and interest. Converging security and economic interests and deepening people-to-people links anchor our bilateral relationship and cooperation.

2. The Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership, announced in 2009 and enhanced in 2015, underlines the concerted efforts of the governments and peoples of the two countries to advance bilateral relations.

3. Recognising that 2018 marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Australia, we jointly decide to elevate the bilateral relationship to the level of a Strategic Partnership, on the occasion of the Official Visit to Australia by H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Vietnam.

4. In declaring a Strategic Partnership, Vietnam and Australia pledge our commitment to deepening ties based on respect for the United Nations Charter, international law and each others sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and respective political systems. We will enhance mutual trust and understanding to strengthen the bilateral relationship and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region. In particular, we commit to work intensively to ensure that our region remains peaceful, resilient and shaped by the rules and norms that have prevailed for decades.

5. The Vietnam-Australia Plan of Action 2016-2019 remains in effect and will be renewed on the signing of this Joint Statement.

Bilateral Cooperation

Political cooperation

6. We commit to deepen bilateral political cooperation including through frequent high-level exchanges between the Communist Party, Government and National Assembly of Vietnam, and the political parties, Government and Parliament of Australia.

7. To reflect better the modern and dynamic relationship, we will strengthen political engagement through annual ministerial meetings aimed at maximising opportunities to exchange views, ideas and initiatives on strategic issues. These regular and high-level exchanges will be complemented by existing bilateral meetings, which include the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue, Vietnam-Australia Human Rights Dialogue, Vietnam-Australia Consular Consultations and Vietnam-Australia Agriculture Forum.

8. We commit to strengthening bilateral political engagement on foreign and regional issues through the establishment of an annual Foreign Ministers Meeting.

9. We pledge to expand high-level official contacts to advance the already strong cooperation in economics and trade, foreign affairs, defence, security, law and justice, science, technology, agriculture, innovation and education, and other areas such as labour and tourism.

Economic cooperation and development

10. We commit to deepen the bilateral trade and investment relationship and pursue more open trade and investment through global and regional economic integration.

11. Building on the complementary nature of the two economies, we will promote market access and trade facilitation measures for both sides, including for agricultural and seafood products.

12. We welcome the establishment of an annual ministerial-level Economic Partnership Meeting to identify opportunities to expand trade, investment and development cooperation, and for sustained economic reform. Superseding the Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee, this new economic forum will facilitate discussions among key ministers responsible for trade, investment, development and planning, and drive synergies among the different facets of our economic links.

13. We acknowledge the importance of strong commercial and business-to-business engagement in underpinning our trade and investment relationship. We encourage positive business engagement and building understanding of our respective economic complementarities, including through two-way business and trade missions.

14. Australia recognises the significant achievements of Vietnam in reducing poverty and its aspirations to develop its economy further. Vietnam appreciates Australias long-standing bilateral and regional official development assistance. We commit to an economic partnership that will assist Vietnam to achieve its socio-economic and development aspirations, placing an emphasis on economic reform, human resource development, private sector engagement, climate change, gender equality and innovation.

15. We will continue building a mutually beneficial agriculture partnership, including joint research and technical assistance projects to improve the capability and competitiveness of Vietnams agriculture sector and promote international standards and reliable supply chains.

16. We will also further strengthen our mutual interests in energy, resources, the blue economy and environmental cooperation, and in responding to climate change.

Defence, law and justice, intelligence and security cooperation

17. We confirm our increasing strategic relations and shared regional interests and reaffirm our commitment to closer defence, law and justice, intelligence and security cooperation, contributing to the peace, stability and development of the region.

18. We reaffirm our commitment to an annual Defence Ministers Meeting to facilitate high-level dialogue on defence matters underpinned by the Memorandum of Understanding for Defence Cooperation signed in 2010. These exchanges will be an opportunity to explore further defence cooperation, including in education and training, maritime and aviation security, peace keeping training and support, counter-terrorism, war legacy issues and other areas.

19. We welcome the cooperation between Australian and Vietnamese police, maritime and border authorities, and mutually decide to strengthen further security and law enforcement cooperation, including through an annual Security Dialogue at Vice-Ministerial level and greater exchange of intelligence and information sharing, and capacity building.

20. We commit to continue strengthening bilateral cooperation and participation in regional efforts to address traditional and non-traditional security threats, especially transnational crime, including people smuggling and human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, cybercrime, and in recovering the proceeds of these crimes.

21. We will strengthen bilateral and regional cooperation between and among maritime policy-making, administration and law enforcement agencies through dialogue and coordination, practical cooperation and capacity-building activities.

Education, science and technology, labour, social affairs and cultural cooperation and people-to-people links

22. We emphasise the strengthening of the people-to-people aspect of the relationship, particularly the two-way flow of youth and students. We strongly support Australian and Vietnamese students to study in Vietnam and Australia, including through the New Colombo Plan, and Australian and Vietnamese scholarships.

23. We reaffirm the significance of our education, training and research relationship and the large Vietnamese alumni of Australian education institutions. We reaffirm support for education policy dialogues to enhance institutional linkages and the transnational delivery of education (including by taking advantage of advances in communication technologies) and expand student, academic, researcher and professional mobility.

24. We will promote cooperation in the areas of vocational education and social affairs, including striving towards gender equality, and note opportunities for labour mobility through Australias skilled migration program.

25. We will continue to promote and expand mutually beneficial cooperation on science, technology and innovation; strengthen connectivity between research institutions; and encourage technology transfer, expert exchange and information sharing on science, technology and innovation.

26. We recognise the role of social and peoples organisations in both countries in fostering good relations, friendship and understanding between the Vietnamese and Australian people.

27. We recognise the success of the Vietnamese community in Australia and highly value its contribution to bilateral relations. We highlight the role of young people in building mutually beneficial networks of influence among future leaders and entrepreneurs.

28. We commit to promote the effective implementation of the Vietnam - Australia Work and Holiday program.

29. We welcome the rapid increase in visitor numbers to both countries and associated growth in aviation and tourism, and will look for opportunities to enhance cooperation in the tourism sector.

30. We reiterate the importance of cultural cooperation in promoting mutual understanding between people of our two countries and are committed to developing further cooperation between Vietnam and Australia in this area.

Regional and International Cooperation

31. We will work closely to preserve the open, inclusive and rules-based regional order, which underpins regional peace, security, stability and increasing prosperity. We share the goal of reinforcing and developing regional and international institutions to promote our common political, economic and security interests.

32. We support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which has brought harmony and coherence to our region. We will continue to develop the Strategic Partnership between ASEAN and Australia and commend the historic ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, including a suite of practical initiatives for enhanced cooperation.

33. We emphasise ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture and resolve to work together to strengthen ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), with ASEAN as the driving force. In this regard, we affirm the importance of the EAS as the premier leaders-led regional forum for dialogue and cooperation on strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern.

34. We pledge to continue to work together to address regional and global emerging issues, including: terrorism; transnational crime; cybercrime; people smuggling and human trafficking; environmental protection; climate change; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU); energy security; maritime safety and security; food and water security; infectious diseases; quality infrastructure; narrowing the development gap; digital economy; and supporting economic growth, promoting trade and investment liberalisation, and enhancing regional and sub-regional connectivity and sustainable prosperity in the region.

35. We will strengthen our cooperation in the areas of sustainable development, environmental protection and management, responses to climate change and resilience to natural disasters consistent with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

36. We reaffirm our commitment to promoting security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight, and the rule of law, including the observance and implementation of international legal obligations in good faith; and to the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and through the appropriate ASEAN-led mechanisms. In this regard, we remain concerned about the situation in the South China Sea and affirm our commitment to continue working actively together to promote peace and stability in the region. We reiterate the importance of the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the early conclusion of an effective and binding Code of Conduct (COC) between ASEAN and China, consistent with international law.

37. Building on the significant outcomes of the 25th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, we commit to further our cooperation in promoting regional economic integration, and free and open trade and investment through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans - Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and APEC, as well as supporting the rules-based multilateral trading system.

Signed in Canberra on 15 March 2018 in duplicate, in Vietnamese and English, each being equally valid.Supporters are rallying around an award-winning Gloucester County teacher charged with creating a false public alarm after he posted a message on Facebook about an alleged threat against his school last month.

Paul VanHouten (File photo)

Paul A. VanHouten, a teacher at Williamstown Middle School, was charged Feb. 16 after he commented about a YouTube video supposedly created by a student at his school.

The arrest came days after a gunman killed 17 at a school in Parkland, Florida, and as threats of violence were reported at several schools around New Jersey and the nation.

VanHouten allegedly posted under the alias Samuel Clemmens, saying "Rumor has it that there is a student in our Middle School who posted very similar threats of gun violence on YouTube just like the teen in Florida. Nothing said about it at the BOE meeting."

Police acknowledged an investigation of a social media post at the time and said there was no credible threat to students at the school. In a Facebook post, the department later stated that the incident was "dealt with by school officials in the appropriate manner."

Police charged VanHouten with creating a false public alarm with his social media comment, saying that he "perpetuated an unvetted rumor."

The post VanHouten referenced "was previously handled by the school administration, with (VanHouten's) posting lacking factual information that the defendant should have known would cause public alarm," according to his criminal complaint.

VanHouten admitted that he made the post in question, according to police.

His backers have created a Facebook page, Stand with Paul VanHouten, to offer support for the popular educator. The page had 249 likes as of Thursday afternoon.

A letter on the page praises VanHouten and says he was simply upset that the district "chose not to notify parents of a threat that was being investigated."

Efforts to reach organizers of the group were unsuccessful Thursday.

The letter urges supporters to turn out for his April 12 court appearance.

"If convicted, he stands to lose his job as a beloved teacher for over 30 years. Our children are the ones who are losing out," the letter continues. "As for the child who made the threat, he was suspended for 10 days and life will go on as normal.....hardly seems fair."

Officials have not confirmed that a student was identified as posting a threatening video to YouTube.

VanHouten remains suspended from his job pending the outcome of his criminal case.

The 51-year-old science teacher has worked for three decades in Monroe Township and was recognized as a 2016 All-Pro Teacher, an honor bestowed by the Philadelphia Eagles. A story about the honor noted that VanHouten also performs volunteer work at the school and around his community.

VanHouten did not return a phone message left at his home on Thursday afternoon.

His attorney, Robert Agre, declined to comment on the matter, noting that he had yet to receive discovery in the case.

Monroe Township Schools Superintendent Chuck Earling declined to discuss the situation, citing the ongoing criminal case.

While local police and the county prosecutor's office would not comment on the matter, Monroe Township Police Chief John McKeown took to Facebook Thursday afternoon to chastise parents, teachers and students for "spreading gossip, rumors and hearsay."

"We waste countless hours investigating misinformation," he said

Any potential threat against local schools is addressed in a collaborative process between police and school officials, he noted.

"The police department does not disclose information on the existence or substance of investigations to satisfy the public's curiosity. We will promptly disclose information that is necessary to ensure the safety of our community. "

Last night a post was made on Facebook regarding a video on YouTube. The post referenced a video allegedly made by a... Posted by Monroe Township Police Department (Gloucester County, NJ) on Friday, February 16, 2018

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.Any Washington Township resident who patronizes a local bar or restaurant and has a little too much to drink won't have to risk being arrested or rose, hurting or killing someone else trying to get home.

The new "Washington Township Saves Lives" program in the Gloucester County town will provide them with a free, safe ride.

"If one life is saved, the program will be a huge success," said Washington Township Chief of Police Patrick M. Gurcsik of the partnership with Uber announced Wednesday.

Sixteen restaurants and bars are taking part initially in the Washington Township program.

Patterned after successful programs in Evesham and Voorhees, Washington Township's is being paid through local contributions to the Washington Township Saves Lives Foundation. No taxpayer money is being used, officials say.

By using an Uber app that can be downloaded free on a cell phone, the person in need of a safe way home can summon the rideshare service.

The free rides will be available 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday through Sunday, according to officials.

The program will begin on Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, in the township.

"We know that when people have a safe, reliable way to get a ride home, they make smarter choices and instances of drunken driving are reduced," said Craig Ewer, spokesman for Uber of New Jersey.

Those who want to take advantage of the free rides, must live in Washington Township and patronize one of the 16 bars or restaurants taking part in the program.

"The statistics are staggering and the danger is real," said Washington Township Mayor Joann Gattinelli about drunken driving and the carnage it can cause.

"I truly believe with this program there is absolutely no excuse to get behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol."

In the fall of 2015 the unique program with Uber debuted in Evesham Township and a couple of months later it expanded to Voorhees. Both programs are funded through private donations like Washington Township's will be.

Evesham Township Mayor Randy Brown said since the program was enacted, there has been an 80 percent decrease in the number of drunken driving arrests. Uber has given 6,000 people rides home since the Save Lives program -- the first of its kind in the U.S. -- was introduced there.

Washington Township is hoping for similar results.

Officials said Wednesday in 2017 police made 114 DUI arrests, 53 of which involved a motor vehicle crash.

P.J. Whelihan's Pub and Restaurant in Washington Township donated the initial $2,500 to get the program off the ground.

"We thought it was important ... for us to provide a safe ride home," said General Manager Bobby Dabrowski.

At Wednesday's press conference announcing the initiative, Joseph W. Devine, president of the New Jersey Division of Jefferson Health, said his organization would donate $2,500 as did Steven Benvenisti representing Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Benvenisti, a member of the state and national board of directors of MADD, knows first-hand the impact a drunken driver can have on the lives of others. While a college student he was struck by a drunken driver and so critically injured he was not expected to live.

The Washington Township bars and restaurants taking part in the Washington Township Save Lives program include:

Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar, Brunswick Zone, Divot's Bar and Restaurant at Wedgewood Country Club, Greenwood Park Bells Lake Community Club, House of Brews, Knights of Columbus Home Association of Washington Township, Otts on The Green, Outback Steakhouse, PJ Whelihan's, Ruby Tuesday, Terra Nova, TGI Friday's Restaurant, The Village Pub, The Whitman Diner, Whitman Square Men's Club and Yoshimoto.

Officials hope as word and popularity of the Washington Township Saves Lives program spreads, more restaurants and bars will take part and contribute to fund it.

Signs will be placed in the 16 participating businesses to alert patrons of the service.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsLooking to expand its vast holdings in New Jersey to include more addiction treatment and mental health services, Hackensack Meridian Health announced Thursday it was exploring a partnership with Carrier Clinic in Somerset County.

The two entities signed a "letter of intent" to explore how they may work together at a time when deaths from opioid overdoses remain at a record high, CEOs from both companies said in a prepared statement.

"The opioid crisis is unprecedented in its scope and intensity and this partnership would enhance our efforts to be part of the solution,'' John K. Lloyd, Co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, said in a statement.

"It would also deliver a team-based care approach to behavioral health patients who too often received fragmented care which doesn't yield the best outcomes.''

For the 12-month period from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017, 2,284 people died of an overdose in New Jersey, a 34.7 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, according to the CDC. Only Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Ohio saw more significant increases.

Carrier Clinic, a century-old institution in the Belle Mead section of Montgomery, offers the full scope of inpatient, outpatient and residential treatment -- giving New Jerseyans fewer reasons to seek care outside the state, the CEOs said.

"This plan will create exceptional, comprehensive care at a time of great need for expanded, enhanced, and innovative behavioral health services,'' said Donald J. Parker, president and CEO of Carrier Clinic.

"Hackensack Meridian Health and the Carrier Clinic have announced a letter of intent between the organizations to explore the Carrier Clinic joining Hackensack Meridian Health. Part of the due diligence is determining exactly what structure would emerge," Hackensack Meridian Health spokeswoman Mary Jo Layton said. "There are different options ... and they are all being explored."

Carrier's facilities include a licensed 281-bed capacity hospital; the Blake Recovery Center, a licensed 40-bed inpatient and outpatient detox and recovery facility; East Mountain Youth Lodge, which can house up to 91 residents ages 13-18; and East Mountain School, a fully-accredited school for 120 middle-school and high-school students.

Carrier Clinic employs nearly 1,000 people.

Teaming up with Carrier would bolster Hackensack Meridian's growing portfolio of mental health services, the announcement said. It recently added 37 inpatient beds to its 150-bed capacity, and is starting two new psychiatry residency programs in July.

"It continues our commitment to fully integrate behavioral health into our network for the benefit of our patients," said Robert C. Garrett, Co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health.

The agreement is just the latest announcement in a long line of mergers and acquisitions in New Jersey's hospital landscape over the last decade. Hackensack and Meridian were two separate entities until their merger in 2016.

Last week, Virtua Health, which owns three hospitals in Burlington County announced it was exploring an agreement to acquire the two hospitals in the Lourdes Health System in Camden and Burlington.

NJ Advance Media Stephen Stirling contributed to this report.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Two Hudson County men were arrested Wednesday in Jersey City after a traffic dispute turned violent, police said.

Around 2:30 p.m., Port Authority police on duty near the Holland Tunnel were alerted by a passerby that two men were fighting at a traffic light at Jersey Avenue and 12th Street, Port Authority police spokesman Joe Pentangelo said.

When police arrived at the location, they found both men were out of their vehicles in the middle of the roadway, assaulting each other, Pentangelo said.

The two combatants were separated, at which point officers noted that one of the men -- Yosef Wisniewski, 53, of Hoboken -- had a laceration to his left ear, while the other man -- Aidan A. Murray, 60, of Jersey City -- had lacerations to his left cheek and right ear, Pentangelo said.

Both men were treated for their injuries, but declined to go to a hospital, authorities said.

Wisniewski was charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct, while Murray was booked on charges of aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.JERSEY CITY  The school board may vote on a deal tomorrow intended to end an eight-month contract dispute with the public-school district's teachers and avoid the first Jersey City teachers' strike in 20 years.

A contract offer by the district is "under the final stages of synthesis," and the board will discuss and vote on it at its Thursday meeting, according to Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas. The teachers have worked under an expired contract since Sept. 1.

It's not clear whether teachers will welcome the deal under review by the nine-member school board. Ron Greco, president of the Jersey City Education Association, signaled during a rally today that absent a deal tomorrow, teachers will strike. The protest attracted about 400 teachers and supporters to City Hall after a clamorous march down Grove Street.

"If the Board of Education does not vote to accept our contract, game over," Greco said to loud cheers and whistles from the crowd.

Tensions are running hot on all sides. One school board member stormed out of a closed-door meeting on Monday night, leaving the board with no quorum. Mentions of Mayor Steve Fulop and Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles at today's rally elicited enthusiastic boos. In a text to The Jersey Journal after Monday's meeting, Thomas said he's "dealing with gremlins" (he clarified later to say he meant people "keen to wreak chaos").

Teachers are seeking lower health care costs. Chapter 78, New Jersey's 2011 law that revamped public pensions and health benefits, has left them taking home less in pay than they were 10 years ago, they say.

Officials with the 29,000-student school district are claiming an empty pocketbook, saying it could face a $65 million budget gap for 2018-19 even under a plan to raise school taxes this year by 2 percent, the legal maximum without requiring voter approval.

"Our health care costs are nearly the same amount that we're getting from our tax levy," Lyles said at Monday's meeting. "That's $110 million."

Thomas told The Jersey Journal in an email that the projected budget deficit and soaring insurance costs "have made our options difficult."

"I have always mentioned that there are elements on both sides who are scrappy and pushing for a conflict," he said. "I urge calm and composure on both sides while we are navigating what could well be the final passages of this labyrinth."

Fulop became a target of teachers when police officers last month ticketed motorists who were honking in support of a teacher protest outside School 4 (the city says it ticketed five drivers). The JCEA has painted Fulop as a hypocrite for espousing liberal causes like earned sick leave but not taking the teachers' side in this dispute, a line of attack used by Dickinson High School math teacher Liz Donnelly at Monday's meeting to titters of delight from teachers in attendance.

"Our so-called progressive, Democratic mayor, Mayor Chris Christie, no, I mean, I mean Mayor Trump, oh jeez, I mean Mayor Flip Flop, oh no no no, Mayor Fulop portrays this city as moving forward and welcoming yet Mayor Fulop refuses to stand with Jersey City educators," Donnelly said. "If Mayor Fulop took a stand and voiced his opinion, like he does about everything else, and he encouraged the super, the board, his lawyers and our board members to give us Chapter 78 relief, I think we'd be in a better place."

Fulop said in a statement from his spokeswoman that he believes "a successful negotiation" is in the best interest of residents and students. A third-party arbitrator may be needed, he said.

"While I am sympathetic to the teachers who have been affected and we all hope for a fair resolution, I don't think teachers resorting to name calling is a good representation of the JCEA or a good example for the students they teach on how to deal with issues they may not agree with," he said.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.HOBOKEN  Staff at Our Lady of Grace Church thought they received a suspicious package in the mail on Wednesday, but they were instead greeted by a pleasant surprise.

The contents? A baby Jesus statue that had apparently been stolen from the church nearly 90 years ago.

The Rev. Alex Santora, who writes The Jersey Journal's "Faith Matters" column, said the package was delivered via USPS with a tracking number but no return address information. He called the shipping company and learned only that the package was shipped from a person in Crystal Springs, Florida. The shipper had not provided a name.

The pastor of the church called the Hoboken Police Department and Emergency Service Unit officers responded to inspect the package with a heat detection device. Nothing suspicious appeared to be in the box, the package was opened, and Jesus was found with a note attached.

The shipper wrote in a letter dated Jan. 2, 2018, that the statue was stolen from the outside nativity display of the church in the early 1930s, when the sender's mother was about 12 years old.

"It came into (my mother's) father's possession somehow, and I don't know why he didn't return it," the Florida resident wrote. "Instead, he gave it to my mother after she was married and she too kept it until her passing when it came to me. Knowing the story, I felt it should be returned to the rightful owner and you will find it enclosed."

Santora, who had never even heard about the statue being stolen, said the church will likely use the figure in its nativity set inside the building this Christmas.

"I think its encouraging to see that even after decades people do the right thing," he said.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.BAYONNE -- Two men who robbed an Avenue E Deli last year have been apprehended, authorities said.

Earlier this week, police arrested Meshach Whager, 29, of Newark, and Tione C. Davis, 35, of East Orange, and charged them with the Dec. 8, 2017 deli robbery.

On the morning of the crime, two women working at Deli Delight at 732 Ave. E told police that a man clad in black and wearing ski mask entered the store at 5:30 a.m. and threatened them with a black handgun, police said.

Both woman dropped to the floor for safety while the man grabbed $120 from the cash register and fled the scene, authorities said.

Police immediately reviewed security camera footage, which showed a second man in black remaining outside the deli as a lookout. Both were then picked up by a white two-door Honda Accord, authorities said.

Detectives then sent out a memo to law enforcement throughout the state inquiring if any agencies had received reports resembling the Deli Delight robbery. They immediately received a response from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detectives, who told them that they and other counties throughout northern and central New Jersey have investigated similar incidents.

Bayonne police maintained communication with police departments in Morris Plains, Middlesex Borough, Springfield, and the Morris County Prosecutor's Office -- all of whom had reported similar incidents.

About a week after the robbery -- on Dec. 19 and 20 -- Davis and Whager were arrested by the Morris Plains police following a vehicular incident. There, police recovered a handgun matching the description of the weapon used in the Deli Delight robbery.

The two men's cellphones were also recovered, which Bayonne police used to check for data that could corroborate their involvement in the Bayonne robbery. Through a communications data warrant, police learned that cellular data placed them in the area of the Deli Delight robbery on the date and time the incident was reported, police said.

A search warrant was also issued that showed Whager had access to a white two-door Honda Accord belonging to a female companion of his, police said.

Both were charged with the robbery and on March 13 and 14, respectively, Whager and Davis were arrested.

"This was a great job done by all involved, including numerous outside agencies. -- the result being two armed and dangerous criminals off the streets and no longer able to threaten lives in Hudson County and other counties," said police Lt. Eric Amato.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY  A judge will decide tomorrow if the Jersey City teacher charged with molesting four boys in a classroom will remain incarcerated through the course of his prosecution.

The detention hearing for Sean Lora, 42, of Bayonne, will be held at 1:30 p.m. before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.

The School 7 teacher was arrested March 7 and charged with criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of two 11-year-olds, a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old for allegedly touching their genitals through their clothing, officials said.

Lora, who taught English as a second language at the Heights school, is also charged with a second count of endangering the welfare of the 13-year-old boy for allegedly showing him pornography, officials said.

At tomorrow's hearing, DePascale can order Lora to remain behind bars if he determines the defendant is either a risk for failing to appear for future hearings, is a danger to the community, or is risk of obstructing his prosecution with regard to witnesses. Alternatively, the judge can opt to release him with conditions of supervision pending trial.

On March 6, the principal of School 7 called the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Special Victim's Unit after the 12-year-old and one of the 11-year-olds told a teacher that Lora had shown the 13-year-old pornography while touching the boy at the teacher's desk earlier that day, the complaint said.

The principal told SVU detectives there were seven students in the classroom at the time and all were still at the school. When investigators spoke to the students, the three other alleged victims said Lora had done similar things to them, officials said.

Lora was arrested the next day. When he made his first appearance on the charges, the state moved to detain him.

The Jersey City school board on Tuesday voted at its caucus to suspend Lora with pay. A school district attorney said Lora cannot be suspended without pay because his case has not been resolved.

All of the charges against Lora are second-degree offenses, which carry a possible prison term of five to 10 years in upon conviction. He is represented by Anthony Carbone.

The Jersey Journal's Terrence McDonald contributed to this report.JERSEY CITY -- Family members of the Monica Montone gasped with relief when her husband, a former Jersey City police dispatcher, was convicted today of strangling his wife inside their County Village home in 2014.

"I lost my breath for a second when he said guilty," said Jose Garcia, the brother of Monica Montone, 34, whose husband, Kevin Montone, 37, was convicted of killing her on Aug. 18, 2014.

The brother said that hearing the verdict was like "That massive shock when I heard she was dead. It was that same feeling. It will always be there but at least these last years of waiting with this hanging over our head -- we can finally get past that part."

Montone was also convicted of possession of heroin and endangering the welfare of the couple's now now 6-year-old son because bags of heroin were found scattered in their home within the child's reach.

Montone, who still faces an unrelated robbery charge, showed no emotion upon hearing the verdict. After the jury was dismissed and the April 20 sentencing date set, he quickly removed his tie and belt. He put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed and was led from court by sheriff's officers to await sentencing.

On Aug. 18, 2014, a man sounding distraught called 911 from the home asking for an ambulance, and emergency responders found Monica Montone dead there. Kevin Montone was taken into custody on drug charges that day and a neighbor told The Jersey Journal he appeared to be laughing uncontrollably while being placed into a police car.

It was said at trial that when the couple's son was evaluated at the Jersey City Medical Center later that day, he said "Mommy and daddy were fighting. Daddy hit mommy. Mommy did not wake up. Mommy died and daddy was crying."

Montone was charged with murder in December 2014 after the medical examiner ruled that Monica Montone died of asphyxia due neck compression and that the manner of her death was homicide.

Monica Montone had drugs in her system when she died and the defense argued that she died of an overdose and that there was no homicide.

The prosecution and defense each put their own forensic pathologists on the stand during the trial. The state also presented friends of the victim who said she confided to them that her husband was physically abusive.

Once charged with murder, Kevin Montone posted a $250,000 bail. Almost 10 months later, he was charged with robbery after authorities said he grabbed a woman's purse on Sept. 15, 2015. People came to the woman's aid and held Montone.

Montone's bail on the murder charge was then raised to $300,000. A $50,000 bail was added for the robbery charge and he has remained in custody ever since.

A city spokeswoman previously said that Kevin Montone was fired from his job as a dispatcher "for cause" in 2013.

Meanwhile, Garcia described her sister as charismatic and a born saleswoman who worked for Wells Fargo. He said she was very outgoing and was loved by everyone. He said her family thought she could do better than Kevin Montone but they were nice to him out of respect and love for her.

A number of Monica Montone's family members were in court to hear the verdict and Garcia said emotions ranged from anger to relief.

"Whatever the verdict, we can never see my sister again," he said.

The brother thanked prosecutors and detectives, saying his sister was not able to fight for herself "but they fought for her and they won for her."

The case was handled by Hudson County assistant prosecutors Linda Claude-Oben and Kevin Roe.

Montone will be sentenced by Hudson County Superior Court Judge Patrick Arre in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.In the spirit of celebrating being Irish, the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre in Journal Square will be screening the classic John Wayne-Maureen O'Hara picture "The Quiet Man," which will be shown digitally at 7 p.m. on St. Patrick's Day.

Set in the 1920's, "The Quiet Man" tells the story of Sean Thornton (John Wayne), a retired Irish-American prizefighter who decides to buy a home in a small Irish village from which his family emigrated.

In the village he meets and falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara), a fiery-tempered local woman who is a bit past the customary time to get married. What follows is a series of events that make Thornton realize that the customs of dating and marriage are much different in Ireland than in the U.S.

The movie has something for everyone. From the extraordinary Irish countryside, which was shot on location, to the performances of Wayne and O'Hara, the movie serves as a love letter to Ireland's most captivating self-images, myths, and humor.

This was in no small part thanks to Irish-American director John Ford, who considered the film amongst his most personal work and was not shy about his love for Ireland.

If you're out having a pint and want to catch a film that captures Irelands beauty and character, then stop by the Loew's for this piece of cinema history. It will be screened tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Admission for the movie is $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and kids.

The Landmark Loew's Theatre is located at 50 Journal Square Plaza in Jersey City.Through the competition, the organising committee would like to encourage and honour good people and good deeds, the silent sacrifice of doctors, active social activists, and pioneers in TB prevention and control, in addition to mobilising the whole of society to joint hands and resources towards the goal of ending TB in Vietnam in the near future.

The contest is open to anti-TB officials, physicians, patients, relatives of patients, caretakers of TB patients; journalists, correspondents, and editors from national press agencies; Vietnamese citizens and overseas Vietnamese living and working in and outside the country; and foreigners living and working in Vietnam.

The entries should be presented in the form of articles, or videos/reports that reflect many facets of the fight against TB. The organising committee encourages the entries to focus on the following contents: outstanding examples of overcoming difficulties in TB treatment; memories and lessons learnt from TB patients, their relatives, and caretakers; the outstanding efforts made by TB-related officials in raising public awareness on TB and reducing the stigma toward TB patients; community-based initiatives on effective TB prevention and control; and Vietnams achievements, difficulties, opportunities and challenges in TB prevention and control.

All articles submitted to the contest should not exceed 1,500 words in length and should be enclosed by a representational photo of good quality, while a series of articles should not exceed five episodes. The articles and photos can be either in soft copies, discs or hard copies.

Meanwhile, a video/report should be a maximum length of 10 minutes, enclosed by its title, comments and subtitles to reflect the content of the story. Contestants can send the files directly via email or upload the videos to the YouTube social network and send the link to the organising committee.

Entrants must take full responsibility for the authenticity of the contents of their submissions, as well as the issues of copyright and intellectual property. The deadline for submission is January 1, 2019.

The awards ceremony is scheduled to be held on March 24, 2019.JERSEY CITY  The City Council last night defeated a measure reauthorizing a contract with a law firm the city says handles "special or complex" public-records requests.

The action was the first time in recent memory the council has voted down a contract sought by Mayor Steve Fulop, who has six allies on the nine-member council. The defeated measure would have approved another $50,000 for a previously authorized contract with West Orange law firm Arleo & Donohue.

The opposition was led by Ward E Councilman James Solomon, who said he voted no after the city declined to provide him with the specific Open Public Records Act requests the law firm is reviewing.

"I'm concerned that this is not a good use of city dollars, that they're not doing what they say they're doing," Solomon told The Jersey Journal.

The measure failed last night 1-5-2. Solomon was joined in opposition by council members Rolando Lavarro, Rich Boggiano, Michael Yun and Jermaine Robinson. Daniel Rivera voted in favor. Mira Prinz-Arey and Denise Ridley abstained. Joyce Watterman was absent.

Requests for comment from the city spokeswoman and from Arleo partner Tim Donohue were not returned.

Invoices obtained by The Jersey Journal in 2016 indicate Donohue was the lawyer overseeing the firm's work with the city. Donohue, who specializes in white collar criminal defense, is the attorney hired in 2014 by Fort Lee to represent its mayor, Mark Sokolich, after the public first learned the extent of the George Washington Bridge lane closures scandal.

The Jersey City council first approved the Arleo contract in October 2014 for $20,000. It was reauthorized in March 2015 for $10,000 and again in October 2016 for $50,000.

The specific nature of the contract has shifted over time, but it has often appeared to focus on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The city sued the bi-state agency in May 2014, claiming the Port Authority owed a massive bill for unpaid taxes. The two parties settled this week.

The initial resolution approved by the council said Arleo would "advise the city of Jersey City with the coordination of responses to information requests." The first reauthorization said the requests were specifically "related to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey toll lane diversions." The next resolution referred to just "information requests related to the Port Authority."

That's what a resolution seeking a third reauthorization said when it went before the council on Feb. 28. The administration withdrew it from consideration, retitled it to remove the reference to the Port Authority and asked the council to vote on it last night.

The city has a staff attorney who handles OPRA requests.

In 2016 the city spokeswoman characterized the number of requests related to the Port Authority as "excessive." Corporation Counsel Jeremy Farrell told the council at its caucus on Monday that he believes the city used Arleo for three requests last year.

"We don't use this for every request," Farrell said. "We only use it when it's special or complex."

During the caucus Solomon asked Farrell if he could see the requests the city sent to Arleo. Farrell said he would tell the councilman the kinds of requests Arleo reviews but would not provide the specific requests.

OPRA requests themselves are public documents. The Jersey Journal has asked the city for all OPRA requests filed by the Port Authority from 2013 to the present. On Tuesday the city asked for an additional two weeks to respond.

The Jersey Journal asked a Port Authority spokesman if he could share how many OPRA requests the agency filed with Jersey City and what information it is seeking. The spokesman declined to comment.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY  A New York man has admitted to fatally striking a woman with a vehicle while she sat at a bus stop outside her job in North Bergen last year.

Olvy Torres pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death for the Sept. 26 wreck that killed Luisa Valdez, 59.

Authorities say Torres, who was 36 at the time, jumped the curb on River Road near Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center, plowed through a bus stop, and hit Valdez. He left his car at the scene and took off on foot. He was arrested a few days later after an "enormous amount of pressure" from the public resulted in his surrender to authorities.

Valdez worked for 27 years at the Harborage, a nursing home next to and affiliated with Palisade Medical Center.

During the investigation, police recovered $500,000 in cash, bags of diamonds, and a motorcycle inside a Bergen County apartment in Torres' name. He was subsequently charged with money laundering.

Torres additionally pleaded guilty to second-degree money laundering before Judge John Young on Monday. The charge was originally a first-degree crime, which could have landed him in jail for up to 20 years.

The state is expected to ask for Torres to be sentenced for seven years for the crash and five years for money laundering. Those sentences would run concurrently.

Authorities also charged Melissa Coda and Yesenia Suriel with second-degree conspiracy to commit money laundering during the probe. They pleaded guilty to a third-degree offense and are both likely to be sentenced to probation.

Torres' sentencing is scheduled for May 18.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.BAYONNE -- The city council Wednesday night temporarily extended the contract of Geoff Santini's animal control company "on a hold over, emergency basis" through April 18.

The add-on resolution, which was not on the original agenda for the Council meeting, will continue the city's relationship with New Jersey Animal Control and Rescue for at least another month. At that time, the Council will award a new animal services contract and "put this issue to bed once and for all," said Bayonne Law Director John "Jay" Coffey II.

"On April 18, I hope never to say the words 'animal contract' again," he said during Wednesday's meeting. "Over the next 25 to 30 days we will be fleshing out...who the provider is going to be."

"(But) how that's effectuated I can't say right now," he added.

The council has faced heavy pressure from impassioned residents over the city's relationship with the company. The contract with NJACR, which was awarded in December 2015, expired in November. Last night's decision allows the city to issue payment for services the company provided the city from December through April 28.

The decision to temporarily extend the control comes on the heels of an NBC4 New York investigation alleging Santini rarely shows up to his other job as the North Bergen Housing Authority's security director, and that he instead spends most of his time on his animal control business. Santini has since been suspended from his position in North Bergen.

The Garfield City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to rescind Santini's contract "pending further review," according to northjersey.com.

Santini did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Bayonne has received animal control bids from NJACR and Liberty Humane Society, which was the city's provider from April 2014 until it was replaced by NJACR.

City officials had been pushing the issue back as they deliberated on which company best fits the city's needs. The decision was postponed earlier this year and officials signaled they would vote on the issue Wednesday night.

Residents have argued that Santini's company lacks the resources necessary to meet the city's needs, and has not been entirely transparent in its record keeping.

Its time to rally again. Two years ago animal welfare professionals, pet owners, and community activists stood... Posted by Bayonneanimalcontrol.com on Saturday, March 3, 2018

"Bayonne's reputation is on the line," said Carla Harrilal, a resident who urged the council to select LHS. "We want transparency, we want reliability, we want assurance, and we want the best for Bayonne."

City officials did not outright say whether they will or will not consider Santini's company, in order to legally protect "the city of Bayonne's collective rear-end," Coffey said at the meeting.

But sources within City Hall say the recent investigation into Santini's business "uncomplicates" the matter.

Residents were not particularly thrilled with the city's legal protection, however.

"I think you are creating a liability for the city, after all of this, (by) keeping him on," said Bayonne resident Megan McNally. "I wish you would have rescinded his contract over a year ago when you started getting complaints."

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.A second 13-year-old has been arrested in connection with online threats to schools in Bayonne, Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis said in a Facebook post last night.

The "copycat" threat was made in a message on SnapChat on March 5 and referenced an earlier threat to schools that was made on Twitter, Davis said, citing a Bayonne police statement. The SnapChat threat "was meant to indicate that All Saints Catholic Academy would also be included in the attack referenced in the earlier message," Davis said.

The 13-year-old, a Bayonne resident, was charged with false public alarms and terroristic threats, the mayor said.

"The Bayonne Police Department, along with other partnering law-enforcement agencies, have been continuing their investigation into the online threats made against our schools," Davis said. "I want to reassure all students, parents, faculty, and citizens of Bayonne that we are committed to identifying all the actors responsible for these threats."

Davis said this threat was also investigated and it was determined that there was no validity to the threat. Detectives also seized evidence related to this incident, David said.

The investigation into other online threats are still under investigation.

On March 5 a 13-year-old was charged with making copycat threats, also similar to the initial threat posted on Twitter March 2. He was also charged with false public alarms and terroristic threats.Students across New Jersey on Wednesday, including in Hunterdon County, joined a national movement meant to honor the lives of those killed in the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and as a way to call for gun law changes and increased safety precautions at schools.

The movement, dubbed the "National School Walkout" happened simultaneously at schools across the country. Students in New Jersey set up various protests, marches, memorials, and ceremonies running from 10 to 10:17 a.m. Students at Hunterdon Central, Voorhees and Delaware Valley Regional were among those in Hunterdon County taking part in the national school walkout.

The following came from Voorhees students and the Delaware Valley Regional High School district.

From students at Voorhees High School:

Students at Voorhees High School gathered in the gym on Wednesday to attend a student-run walkout to honor the students from Parkland Florida who lost their lives on Feb. 14. They were also there to demand action by Congress to keep schools and communities safe across America.

The efforts were spearheaded by Bella Hanley, Annalise Rodgers, Nick Fabbroni, Laura Chen, Abby Thompson, Natalie Bavos-Chen, Emily Ryder, Julia Silberman, Benji Beard, and Lyra Tomljanovich.

Each of these students talked about the changes that need to be made in schools and government, read the names of the victims of the shooting in Parkland, and had a moment of silence commemorating them. Tables were set up along the side of the gym with forms for voter registration and templates for letters to government officials.

After the crowd was done filling out forms and writing letters, the principal, Ron Peterson, talked about safety at Voorhees and gave a brief question-and-answer session regarding the subject.

From the Delaware Valley High Regional School district:

Most of the Delaware Valley High School student body walked out of their classrooms and into the Hutchins Gym in conjunction with a national demonstration against gun violence.

But at Del Val, students were not so much walking out, as they were walking in - to a forum that outlined the national deadlock: anti-gun fear vs. the right to bear arms.

The walkout was organized by Maya Forman, a senior from Kingwood Township. She worked with the administration, whose primary concern was that if students walked out of the school building, they could be at risk of the very danger that sparked the walkout.

So the roughly 500 participating students - of an enrollment of just over 800 - left their classrooms at 9:30 and went to the gym and sat in the bleachers. No one went outdoors.

In the gym, five minutes of silence were observed in memory of the 17 people who died in the Feb. 14 shooting. Then Maya called students one at a time to take the microphone and speak their piece.

Most of the two dozen students who spoke expressed fear of continued school shootings and demanded tighter gun control. Voter-registration forms were laid out on a nearby table.

Rachel Baransky, a senior, said that at age 12, when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, "I thought, surely legislators would create some kind of protection for us, to help us feel safe in school again. But still, after 7,000 more children no longer living since Sandy Hook because of gun violence, I am still waiting."

I am nearly as old as the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. In my lifetime, we have legalized same-sex marriage, taken down Osama Bin Laden, and even managed to take laundry-detergent pods off the market once kids started to try eating them. So why, after all the tears wept, all the flowers cut for funerals, all the marriages that will never be had, the prom dresses that won't be bought, the driver's licenses that won't be given, and of course, all the bloodshed and lives taken, can we not produce some kind of regulation on weapons that can kill more people in a minute than my heart can produce beats?

"Eighty-two percent of weapons used in mass shootings are bought legally. The assault rifle used in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting was part of that 82 percent. To me, that statistic is frightening, and it calls for change.

"The thing is, those in protest are not asking for much: Regulation on military-grade, assault weapons that ordinarily many people don't have. Better mental health services. Thorough background checks. And at least an attempt to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not be wielding them. Students, if you hear something, and it doesn't feel right, report it. Let's help keep each other safe. And furthermore, let's all spread kindness, and love one another. It may not end the problem, but compassion is key to a better future, for certain."

Freshman Jordan Clapp said she wants to be a teacher, but her parents are asking her to rethink it because of the danger. Sophomore Sarah Nerwinski told of a recent visit to Scotland where she was informed that because of gun control that country simply doesn't have school shootings. Other students, at least one of them weeping, told of their daily fear for their loved ones and themselves, and outrage that so little is being done about it.

However, sophomore Kyle Doremus said Americans need guns "to defend ourselves against other people and even against our own government," citing the American Revolution, and also for hunting. "I refuse to believe that taking guns out of people's hands is going to resolve the issue," he said. Tyler Machado, a senior, said, "Guns are not the problem; people are."

More than one student said the AR-15, the semi-automatic rifle used in the Parkland shooting, is not an assault rifle. The "AR" stands for Armalite Rifle.

Senior Jacob Konnecke said that anti-depressants have been a critical factor in many school shootings, calling their use a "prescription for mass shootings." Another student endorsed arming teachers or stationing police on campus because the response to an attack must be instantaneous.

At the end of the session, after the lunch bell had diminished the audience to about 80 students, Maya said, "We have been coined Generation Columbine" by the news media after a mass murder in 1999, and the shootings continue with alarming frequency.

"It is the very thing that plagues our minds every time we have a lockout drill, every time we look around a classroom to find where the best place to hide would be," she said.

Politicians are unresponsive, she said, so contact them "and to stir up a fuss so that they can no longer ignore us. We can't let this end after today." She pressed for more school resources to help troubled students, and rigorous background checks for gun buyers.

In closing, she said, "Generation Columbine should not listen when we are told we don't understand, or when we are told we are too young and foolish to make a difference. We know what pain is. We know what it is like to attend school and be told that we might be a victim ... we can take this pain and make it our motivation to push for change. When we allow ourselves to be silent, we are allowing violence to continue, so yell louder."

Afterward, Principal Adrienne Olcott said, "I am so proud of our students! Their opinions were divided, but they were united in respect and courtesy. And that's really something to cherish these days."

Submitted by students at Voorhees High School and the Delaware Valley Regional High School district.A 20-year-old motorcyclist was arrested when he crashed into a police car after eluding an officer who attempted to stop him Wednesday on Route 1 in South Brunswick, authorities said.

Anthony Bennett (South Brunswick police)

Anthony Bennett, of Newportville, Pennsylvania, was riding south on Route 1 without a visible license plate when an officer tried to pull him over at 5:04 p.m., South Brunswick police said in a statement.

The officer gave chase onto New Road, but called off the pursuit after Bennett accelerated to a speed of more than 80 mph, according to police.

Bennett drove around for 10 more minutes before police located him headed on east on New Road back toward Route 1, police said.

He struck a patrol car as the officer pulled his vehicle out of the Kendall Park Rescue Squad near the intersection of New Road and Aldrich Road, Chief Raymond Hayducka said.

Bennett was charged with eluding a police officer and issued several motor vehicle summonses. He was treated for minor injuries at Princeton Medical Center in Plainsboro and then brought to the Middlesex County jail in North Brunswick.

Bennett, who was driving with a suspended license, bought the unregistered, uninsured motorcycle earlier in the day in Perth Amboy, police said.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Two black sheriff's officers who say their superiors and colleagues used racial slurs toward them - including one officer who called them "dumb Negroes" - have settled their lawsuit.

The Middlesex County officers, Lonnie Hooper and Shamir Tyson, agreed to end the discrimination suit for $550,000 on Feb. 23 as the case was set to go to trial, according to records and documents provided by Middlesex County officials.

As part of the deal, the county is also on the hook for roughly $250,000 in legal fees for the officers' attorney after three years of litigation, according to the Office of the Middlesex County Counsel.

Neither side admitted any wrongdoing, according to the settlement.

Although few details from the suit were immediately available, the original complaint obtained by NJ Advance Media provides a handful of examples of the discriminatory language allegedly said to or in front of the officers:

One officer, on several occasions, sang the Batman theme song with the words "black man"

A superior often greeted the officers saying, "What's up my [n-word]?"

And another officer said numerous times, "You black people," "You Negroes, you're lucky to have a job," and "dumb Negroes."

The suit alleged a hostile work environment and said the list in the complaint "is not meant to be all inclusive but merely is stated as examples."

Mark Mulick, the attorney for Hooper and Tyson, declined to comment when reached Tuesday.

The defense attorney, Jennifer Passannante, did not return calls for comment.

The settlement payout to the two officers was covered by the Middlesex County Insurance Fund and the county's excess insurance carrier, according to the counsel's office. The county will pay the attorney fees.

A judge previously approved a protective seal for the lawsuit, prohibiting the release of certain confidential information.

However, on Wednesday, a supervisor in Somerset County Superior Court's civil division told NJ Advance Media the entire case was sealed and could not release the documents without permission of the attorneys.

Both sides have since approved the release of documents not deemed confidential, according to the supervisor, but as of publication, NJ Advance Media has not reviewed the public files.

Hooper joined the department in 2007, state pension records show. It was unclear when Tyson joined the department. He was not listed as an active employee, according to a records request for payroll data last May.

In another discrimination suit that was also brought against the sheriff's office in 2015, Joseph Iko, a retired officer, was awarded $885,000 by jury in October last year.

That entire case was under a protective seal and could not be reviewed by NJ Advance Media. Iko's attorney did not approve the release of any documents, according to the civil supervisor.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at 732-372-2078 or at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us.

nj.com/tipsDreamstime

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By Spencer Kent | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

We made it, New Jersey. Peak flu season has finally ended. But it was a rough one.

The vaccine was ineffective, emergency rooms were swamped and three children died from flu-related illness. But the worse is over and new flu cases have continued to plummet in recent weeks.

As New Jersey battles back from this nasty flu season, what lessons can be learned from potentially the worst influenza season in the state's history? How did it get so bad?

And is there anything health officials, hospitals and emergency departments can do to prevent  or at least reduce  such viral havoc from occurring in the future?

Don't Edit

First, what are the latest numbers?

There were only 825 new flu cases this past week  the lowest amount of new cases in a weekly reporting period in about two months, signaling that New Jersey is successfully beating back this viral brute, according to the latest data from the New Jersey Department of Health. It's the

There were more than 22,600 flu cases total this season, and many medical professionals in New Jersey have been left weary from this years outbreak, which could end up rivaling the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to some experts.

However, we wont officially know just how bad this season was compared to previous years until mid-May, when the state Department of Health compiles and analyzes all the data from this season, giving its final assessment.

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Why was this season so bad?

There were three main issues that caused this flu season to get so out of hand.

Well break those down first and then provide three measures that health experts in the state believe could help combat the flu more effectively in the future.

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The H3N2 virus was wicked

The first issue was the particularly nasty flu strain that dominated this season  the H3N2 virus, a wicked shapeshifter that was constantly mutating, attuning itself to the latest vaccine, making it one of the most complex and mercurial viruses to combat.

H3N2 is also associated with more severe complications, particularly for young children and people 65 and older. Society has also had less exposure to H3N2, which leaves peoples immune systems more vulnerable to it.

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via GIPHY

A lousy vaccine

The second issue was the flu vaccine. Though it did better against other strains of the flu, this season's vaccine was only around 25 percent effective against H3N2. Though vaccines are notoriously deficient in combating H3N2, many health officials say that some protection is better than nothing, and that even if you get the flu, the vaccine will lessen your suffering.

The strain that seemed to cause the most problem was the H3N2. We know traditionally that (H3N2 cases) have been more virulent and more likely to result in higher hospitalization rates, said Dr. Margaret C. Fisher, a world-renowned pediatric infectious disease expert and chair of the pediatrics department at Monmouth Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health facility.

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Chaos in emergency rooms

The third issue was the massive amount of people with flu-like symptoms flooding emergency rooms. It caused a major problem for hospitals around the state. By mid-January, the deluge became so intense that some hospitals began setting up makeshift triage areas inside their facilities to help protect staff and patients.

Dr. Christopher Freer, chairman of emergency medicine for Saint Barnabas Medical Center and system director of RWJBarnabas Health Emergency Services, said he hadn't seen a surge like this in at least 10 years.

Youre seeing an extra 40 to 50 patients on top of 280 patients. We had makeshift spots, opening up hallways  we didnt want anyone in the waiting room, Freer said.

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So what can we do about it?

Thats the question  what can you do about something thats been around for millions and millions of years and that has become a master at outsmarting even our best and brightest in the medical field?

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Telemedicine to reduce emergency room visits

The massive influx of patients at emergency rooms this season has some health experts proposing the use of telemedicine to diagnose potential flu patients remotely. The technology is being increasingly used at hospitals throughout the state  including to diagnose strokes  and Freer and Fisher agreed that it could greatly reduce admissions and visits during peak season.

You can dramatically shorten the time  they (emergency room staff) can see the patients and intervene immediately, Fisher said.

However, Fisher emphasized that though there are fantastic uses for telemedicine, it shouldnt replace primary care doctors, which should be the first place to visit rather than the emergency room.

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A 'universal' flu vaccine

This brutal flu season is a sign that a universal flu vaccine is needed more than ever. The way vaccines are made currently goes back decades, and comes with major drawbacks.

It takes five to six months to make and relies on an educated guess by scientists based on cases from the previous year. Its hit or miss. And this year it missed big time, especially against H3N2.

Fisher thinks we could be in reach of a universal vaccine. And, a few research groups and biotech companies have made headway in recent months in developing this universal solution against influenza A strains, which H3N2 falls under, according to a report by Forbes.

Best-case scenario, the vaccine would protect against all strains of influenza A, requiring only one injection for a lifetime of protection.

I think we are getting closer to a universal vaccine, which would be ideal, Fisher said. However, she later added, Its got to be hugely hard (to make), or wed have it already.

However, Freer is more skeptical.

You think we're going to eradicate every virus? he said. They are smart. They have been around for millions of years. He said the flu will find a way and that the best we can do is manage it.

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Remember to Take 3 actions to fight flu this season. 1. Get a Vaccine in shot or mist form. 2. Wash your hands. 3. Take antivirals if prescribed by your doctor if you get the flu.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention

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Get more kids vaccinated, and earlier

A little less exciting than the first two, but a more aggressive awareness campaign to get more kids vaccinated, and earlier, could be the most important measure to better combat the flu. Why?

Because kids are Petri dishes for the flu. And, its a much more tangible action that can be done in the near term.

The vaccine is never anywhere close to 100 percent effective, Fisher said. This year, the good news was it was more effective in younger children  and we know they are the ones that transmit. If we can do a better job of vaccinating children, we can make an impact and decrease influenza in all ages, because they are the majority of people transmitting it around.

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Further reading:

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Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have information about this story or something else we should be covering? Tell us. nj.com/tipsWhat will your Toys 'R' Us gift card be worth after the company shuts down its U.S. stores?

Bupkis, nada, zilch, diddly squat, abso-freaking-lutely nothing.

Use it or lose it, as the cards will only be honored for the next 30 days, a Toys 'R' Us spokeswoman confirmed in an email.

The beloved toy retailer told employees on Wednesday that it will sell or close all 800 of its remaining U.S. stores.

The chain struggled after filing for bankruptcy in September and returning disappointing sales numbers over the holidays.

To our loyal customers: Weve seen an amazing outpouring of love and support in recent days and we truly appreciate it. Our stores are open for business, ready to bring joy to children wherever we can, and to help new and expecting parents navigate raising a family.  ToysRUs (@ToysRUs) March 9, 2018

This week, as news of the closings seemed imminent, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer wrote to the Federal Trade Commission, asking the chairwoman to ensure the company would still honor them in the liquidation.

Shoppers with gift cards also took to social media to look for answers on how long they would be honored.

The message is clear now: 30 days.

So drive over to your local Toys 'R' Us, sing the jingle, say farewell to Geoffrey and shop till that gift card balance drops.

had a $6 toys r us gift card. came and bought a sloth. now taking name suggestions. pic.twitter.com/IjPnfOiLdS  its uhhhh meg (@TrueeMeg) March 13, 2018

Need someone to blame for this loss? Read our story on what killed the country's favorite toy store.

Jessica Remo may be reached at jremo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaRemoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.If you're looking for a place to go for a drink in New Jersey ... where will you have the most choices?

I guess it all depends on how you measure it.

Per square mile? If that's your criteria, jerseypride.com says that Hoboken's your place, and the Huffington Post confirms it: "The quaint little town once held the Guinness Book of World Record for having the most bars per square mile." That was around 2011, though; it seems to have since been beaten out by Oswego, N.Y.

By population? A ranking on roadsnacks.net says that Wildwood has the most bars per capita in New Jersey followed by Atlantic City and Asbury Park.

MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey

New Jersey doesn't even scare the top of the list when it comes to bars per capita as a state; eater.com's stats show us ranked 29th, with North Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin and South Dakota leading the way.

As you scroll through the photos in this and past galleries I've posted on New Jersey bars and taverns, some other questions might arise, such as which bar had the most barstools crammed into the smallest amount of floor space? That might just have been Littman's Tavern in Newark. Were there and are there places that didn't have bars? The most recent tally by, ironically, funnewjersey.com shows that 32 of the state's 565 municipalities are still alcohol-free, the 21st Amendment notwithstanding.

Here's a gallery of places to go to hoist a glass from days gone by in New Jersey. Didn't see a personal favorite? Click on the links to the following galleries - there's a good chance you'll find it there.

Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.The money will be spent on building classrooms at Vu A Dinh primary school in Dak Drong commune, Cu Jut district, Dac Nong province, and at Tri Thuy primary school in Tri Hai commune, Ninh Hai district, Ninh Thuan province.

It will also be used for the construction of a health infirmary in Cong Hai commune, Thuan Bac district, Ninh Thuan province, and purchase of medical equipment for health centres in Cho Lach district, Ben Tre province, and Moc Hoa district, Long An province.

At the signing ceremony, Japanese Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City Kawaue Junichi said that as a leading provider of non-refundable aid for Vietnam, Japan will work for the sustainable development of the Southeast Asian nation.

He expressed his hope that once completed, the five projects will help improve living conditions of residents in those provinces.

The contracts are part of Japans Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) Programme, which sponsored 174 projects, mostly in education, health, agriculture and rural infrastructure, across 26 southern Vietnamese provinces between 1995 and 2016. Total funding amounted to over US$13.87 million.As this April 4 marks the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, Tenn., the civil rights leader's life and legacy will be honored at colleges and universities across New Jersey.

At South Orange-based Seton Hall University (SHU), Dr. King's spirit is kept alive through the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Program. Established in 1970, it is the oldest and most prestigious servant leadership program at SHU, and one of the earliest such programs in the United States. Though it was originally created as a university scholarship, it has evolved and broadened its vision to meet modern-day challenges. Currently, the MLK Leadership Program provides partial tuition scholarships to exceptional students, while providing them with invaluable management and leadership development opportunities. MLK Scholars learn how to oversee programs and events from design to implementation, and also are required to conduct research on issues regarding values, equality of access and social justice.

The Rev. Dr. Forrest Pritchett, director of the MLK Leadership Program, shared how the university intends to pay homage to Dr. King this April.

"Here at Seton Hall, we are planning to hold multiple activities to commemorate that tragic event," he said. "Our tentative plan would start with an afternoon mass celebrating King's life. This would be followed by a community reception. We are looking to retain a King family member or an associate of the King family to deliver an address in the early evening after the reception. We plan to show the film 'Selma' on multiple occasions to highlight the anniversary. We will conduct discussion groups after the film. Many academic and administrative units of the university will be cooperating in these ventures."

In southern New Jersey, Rutgers University-Camden will host a lecture, "The Assassination of Martin Luther King: A Perspective from 50 Years Later," at 11:30 a.m. on April 4. The talk will be delivered by Wayne Glasker, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University-Camden.

Speaking with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., center, when he visited Monmouth College in 1966 were, left, William G. Van Note, college president from 1962 to 1971; and Michael Dadd '68, who was the president of the college's student union council in 1966.

Recalling Dr. King's Galvanizing Vision

Dr. Webster B. Trammell Jr., who graduated from Monmouth University (then Monmouth College) in 1970 and serves on its Board of Trustees, recalled hearing Dr. King speak when the Nobel Peace Prize winner visited the school in 1966.

Raised amid the farmlands of Cream Ridge, Trammell said he was one of between 40 and 50 black students at the college at the time. Though he didn't know much about King, he recognized that the civil rights leader's visit to campus, which was organized by the student government association as part of its lecture series, was met with both anticipation and trepidation.

"The place was packed; it was standing room only," Trammell recalled. "I left with a feeling of 'Wow, there's something happening in this country that I didn't understand, but now I have a better understanding of it. This guy's got a lot to say about race relations.' What impressed me was: He wasn't putting down white people, nor was he suggesting that black people overturn things. He was talking about people getting along together, about finding a way people could prosper together."

Trammell said initially, local politicians and members of the school's board were worried that King would be a "rabble-rouser," but were won over, and found themselves "listening rather than simply hearing." Polite applause at the beginning of King's speech turned to "warm applause" by its conclusion, Trammell said.

"By the end, he had people embracing his message," he said. "He had a way of coming across as not offensive, not threatening, not hostile, and he sucked you into his message. It wasn't about him, it was about what he was saying. It was a very beautiful event with nobody shouting or yelling. It was nicely done."

Trammell commended the school's student government and administration for showing "a great deal of courage on their part to invite him on campus, to allow that to happen, and make the facility available."

"I'm proud that I was there," Dr. Trammell said. "Monmouth changed my life. The college was open to discourse, dialogue and freedom of discussion. It was probably an experience that shaped my future in a lot of different ways. Though I might not have realized it at the time, I'm much more appreciative of it now."

The Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Program at Seton Hall University provides partial tuition scholarships to exceptional students, while providing them with invaluable management and leadership development opportunities.

Carrying Dr. King's Message Forward

MLK Scholar and SHU Class of 2004 graduate the Rev. Ryan Faison, M.Div., who serves as college and young adults pastor at Christ Church in Montclair and Rockaway, explained that Dr. King's message is one that needs to be remembered daily.

"While we commemorate 50 years since Dr. King's murder, we are living in the stark reality of crimes that are still incited and initiated by racial animus," he said. "In our day, demanding justice cannot be limited to a hashtag, a donation or participation in select events. The collective 'we' have the responsibility to make sacrificial decisions that shed light on systemic injustices for long-lasting change.

"Such change demands our decision to engage our political, economic, justice and other power structures in our society. While change may be considered an affront to those who have benefited from the status quo, the generations before us and to come deserve no less," Faison said. "If we are going to be bridge builders for social justice and racial reconciliation, we will not build with eloquent words alone. It will require our sweat and tears to take up our tools and build that which will last."

-- Liz Alterman

For more news about New Jersey Education,

.By Philip Bump

Losing is hard, particularly when you think you're going to win. Democrats are viscerally aware of this in the wake of the 2016 election. Since then, though, Republicans have had to cope with that disappointment. Sure, they eked out a few narrow wins in places that usually vote Republican (like Georgia's 6th Congressional District last year), but they've now also suffered two defeats in places that usually vote Republican by a lot.

The first was Roy Moore's loss in the Alabama Senate special election in December. That one was easy to wave away: The guy was accused of sexually accosting underage girls! Moore was one of the most politically damaged major-party candidates in modern political history.

But then there was Tuesday night in Pennsylvania. Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate for the 18th Congressional District, was a state legislator and a veteran running in a district that backed President Donald Trump by nearly 20 points 17 months ago. And Saccone appears to have lost, too, albeit only by a few hundred votes.

Republicans have mastered the art of spinning overwhelmingly bad special election results by focusing on wins vs. underperformance in House races (treating as nonexistent a House race in California that the Democrats won), ignoring losses at the state level and treating Roy Moore (justifiably) as an outlier. Saccone is harder to dismiss.

One effort focuses on how moderate Democratic candidate Conor Lamb's positions were. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan called Lamb a conservative, implying that Lamb wasn't really a Democrat, so, therefore, this isn't really a Democratic victory.

Someone needs to tell the Republican Party opposition research team about that.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny spoke with people at the White House who pointed to one silver lining: Hey, at least the race was close. This, of course, ignores the fact that there was a 20-point shift to the Democrats from November 2016. The difference between Republicans doing 20 points worse and doing 25 points worse is a subtle one.

Republicans at the White House are pleased tonight with the narrow margin of PA-18. "This isnt a blowout  for now, well happily take it, GOP official says.  Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) March 14, 2018

Many Republicans, including Ryan, have sought to isolate the president from the implications of that shift, insisting that his visit to the region Saturday helped turn a relatively easy Democratic win into a narrow one.

On CNN Tuesday night, former Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller put it this way:

"Well, I think they're going to be pointing to the fact of the big Trump bump that Saccone got on the home stretch," Miller said. "The fact that they closed the five-point gap, and you talk about some of the other things the Trump folks did behind the scenes: There was a robo-call from the president yesterday."

That argument was reiterated on Fox News's "Fox and Friends" Wednesday morning.

"Last week, it looked like Mr. Lamb was going to win by six points," host Steve Doocy said. "So something drew it closer together, if you believe in polls. Maybe it was the president's visit and the visit from the Trump family."

Maybe! Or maybe these are generous misreads of the polling.

So last week there was indeed a poll from Monmouth University that had Lamb up by six points. But the pollsters were very careful to qualify their findings.

Every pollster makes assumptions about who will turn out to vote in an election that is then used to weight the survey results. Talking to half Democrats and half Republicans may seem fair, but if three-quarters of voters in the district are usually Republican, an even partisan split means that your survey is too heavily Democratic. (Poll nerds: Yes, this is oversimplified to make the point.) In a special election in a weird political year, it can be hard to predict who's going to turn out to vote.

So Monmouth included three results in its report. One was its model based on how Democratic voting has surged in past special elections since 2016. Another model looked at a lower predicted turnout, more in line with past midterm elections. A third looked at even higher turnout, akin to a presidential race.

The six-point lead was for the Democratic-surge scenario. In a lower-turnout model, Lamb only led by two points.

So what did turnout actually look like? In an email, Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray explained that their low-turnout model would mean about 210,000 people voted and their surge model (the six-point one) would mean about 240,000 votes. As of this writing, about 230,000 votes were cast.

In other words, based on the turnout, Monmouth's poll would have shown a smaller-than-six-point advantage for Lamb. And on top of that, the poll had a margin of error of about five percentage points.

Murray explained that their surge model incorporated assumptions based on those past special elections. Had Monmouth's model used only individual voter history and data from the survey itself, they would have given Lamb a two-point lead.

But Murray also noted evidence that Trump helped shift things slightly to Saccone. In the more Republican part of the district, the results were close to what Monmouth modeled in its poll's Democratic-surge scenario. In the more Democratic parts, including in Allegheny County, Lamb underperformed, relative to that scenario.

"Trump's visit may have countered the extra Dem surge we postulated was possible," Murray wrote, "but the outcome was pretty close to what we showed using a standard turnout model." Trump might have had some impact - but he didn't shift the race by five points.

Saccone didn't run as strong a race as he could have: He was beaten on fundraising and outperformed on messaging. As a candidate, he was middle-of-the-road but hardly in Roy Moore territory. Even a narrow win for him would have been bad news for Republicans nationally, given how red the district was in 2016.

So the best spin at hand? Saccone at least didn't get walloped, and maybe Trump's visit helped tug the final results slightly back to the middle.

But there's a flip side to that. Democratic enthusiasm in 2018 - enthusiasm which is largely responsible for tugging a 20-point Republican district to the left - is primarily a function of Trump's unpopularity with everyone besides fervent Republicans. Monmouth showed that voters were split on Trump: 49 percent approved of his job performance, and 49 percent disapproved. Most Lamb backers disapproved of Trump strongly. That gets a little lost in defenses of how Trump aided Saccone at the end of the race.

Putting it another way: If Trump weren't in the White House, Saccone quite probably wouldn't have been trailing in polls in the first place.

Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York City. Find him on Twitter at @pbump. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.Power companies are the behemoth utilities that are easy to hate, especially when you are sitting in a cold, dark house with no electricity.

That certainly was the case for hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents who were left powerless after a string of nor'easters hit the state with strong winds and drenching rain.

The initial inconvenience often turns to frustration and anger as the power outages drag on for hours and then days.

Gov. Phil Murphy called the recent situation "completely and wholly unacceptable" and ordered the state Board of Public Utilities - which oversees the power companies - to examine "what went wrong and see if all preparedness measures were taken."

All this grousing is nothing new.

Similar outcries were heard when Hurricane Irene made a beeline for New Jersey in August 2011. Almost 930,000 homes and businesses across the state lost power. Some customers were without power for more than a week.

All the criticism of the power companies' response to the Irene outages resulted in the BPU holding public hearings to improve service for the next big storm. (Sound familiar?)

That next storm was not long in coming.

A year later, Superstorm Sandy ravaged New Jersey with such fury that 2.8 million utility customers lost power at the peak of the storm and it took more than two weeks to fully restore power.

Again, there was pressure on the utility companies to do something.

In 2014, Public Service Electric & Gas, the state's largest utility company, received approval from the BPU for a $1.2 billion infrastructure upgrade and Jersey Central Power & Light announced it would invest more than $250 million to prevent outages.

So, you would think New Jersey should be able to weather a nor'easter or two without plunging into the dark ages of past hurricanes.

But the reality is that as long as there are power lines vulnerable to heavy snow and falling trees, we are going to continue to have similar mass outages with future storms.

But that does not let power companies off the hook.

When a storm is coming, electric providers have to be prepared with crews ready to roll.

It's equally important for power companies to listen to their customers and provide them with accurate information about the duration of outages. There is nothing more frustrating than getting the runaround from your power company.

Ratepayers cough up a lot of money for reliable electric service. And when nothing happens when a switch is flicked on, a homeowner or business owner has every right to be upset and not to be kept in the dark.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- When federal lawmakers from New Jersey and New York met with President Donald Trump last September, they left the White House believing he supported the Gateway Tunnel project.

Now that Trump would rather shut down the federal government than fund Gateway, those same officials want to return to the White House to see if they can get the president to change his mind again.

"We've got to do a further full-court press with Trump himself," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist. "The president was very much for this just last fall and now for reasons that we are not aware of is against it."

Smith and other lawmakers from the two states met at their request with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to urge him to keep the $900 million previously approved for Gateway in legislation funding the government through Sept. 30.

The Gateway project involves replacing the Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River and building a new tunnel under the Hudson River so the existing tubes can be shut down to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

"I hope the president will recognize the importance of this project to the entire nation and i want to work in a cooperative way with the White House to make sure this is included," said Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist. who arranged the meeting with Ryan. "I hope and expect that this will be in the bill and the bill will be signed into law."

Helping their case is the fact that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-11th Dist., are among the lawmakers writing the spending bill.

And Ryan said he wouldn't stand in the way of including the money, though told the lawmakers at the meeting they needed to overcome Trump's objections.

"He told us to try to work it out everywhere we can," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.. "See if you can find a way that's acceptable to the president."

King said he will try to speak to Trump on Thursday when they both attend the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol.

Ryan also is facing pressure from others besides Trump to keep the Gateway money out of the spending bill.

Including the money "would delay or halt the completion of dozens of other worthy transit projects around the country," said 10 House Republicans, led by Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., in a letter sent to Ryan Wednesday.

Among those signing the letter was Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., head of the Freedom Caucus, comprised of the more conservative House Republicans.

Budd spearheaded the unsuccessful effort last September to remove the $900 million from the House spending bill.

Besides Smith and Lance, the other New Jersey lawmakers attending the Republican-only meeting were Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., and Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist. Three other New Yorkers joined King.

Last September, Trump met with a bipartisan group of Congress members, plus Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Lawmakers walked away saying they expected Trump to move ahead with Gateway.

Trump's transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, told the House Transportation Committee earlier this month that Trump only was being "cordial."

Chao has insisted that the two states were putting up less than 5 percent of the money for Gateway even though their agreement with the federal government reached under President Barack Obama's administration involved a 50-50 cost split with Washington.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.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: Margaret Haughery.

The icon: Margaret Haughery.

The legacy: When Margaret Haughery died in 1882 at the age of 69, the headline on her front-page obituary in The Daily Picayune consisted of but one word: "Margaret." She was that well-known, and that beloved, after decades of caring for the orphaned, the overlooked and the underprivileged people of New Orleans, with her bakery on New Levee Street (now South Peters Street) providing funding and food for her good works. That earned her nickname "the Bread Woman of New Orleans," as well as a statue at the corner of Camp and Prytania streets -- not to mention the enduring affection of an entire city.

The artist: D. Lammie Hanson.

The quote: "She never had upon her hand a kid glove, and she never wore a silk dress, though she earned by hard labor many thousands of dollars. But no woman has been borne to the tomb within the limits of New Orleans who was more generally respected and loved." -- The Daily Picayune, Feb. 12, 1882, upon the death of Margaret Haughery

Explore more of D. Lammie Hanson's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St.

She was born Margaret Gaffney in Tully, Ireland. Her family immigrated to Baltimore in 1818, when Margaret was 5 years old.

Source: The Times-Picayune archive

More on 300 for 300:A site near the former Avondale Shipyard has been chosen for a $70 million vegetable oil processing facility that will create 39 new jobs. Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana Economic Development announced the deal Wednesday (March 15) with Fuji Vegetable Oil.

The average annual salary for Fuji's new hires in Jefferson Parish will be $77,000.

Fuji's new facility in Avondale will import and refine palm oil from sources in the Pacific, according to LED. Its fats and oils are used in a variety of industries and products, including desserts, infant formula, frying fats and soaps. The company is headquartered in Osaka, Japan, and has another U.S. processing facility in Savannah, Ga.

"After searching along the Gulf Coast and the Eastern seaboard, we felt Jefferson Parish provided the best location and, more importantly, best partners and future employees for the continued success of our business in the U.S," Fuji Vegetable Oil president Andrew Bunger said in a statement from Louisiana Economic Development.

The state estimates Fuji's Avondale facility will create another 48 indirect jobs.

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

Louisiana Economic Development began discussions with Fuji in August 2016. To bring the project to Jefferson Parish, the state offered the company $250,000 for site improvements adjacent to the shipyard. Fuji is also expected to use the state's Quality Jobs program, which offers up to a 6 percent rebate on as much as 80 percent of its workforce payroll. The company will also qualify for an industrial property tax exemption once its capital investment is made.

The Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission coordinated meetings between Fuji representatives and parish leaders and offered tax incentive guidance to the company. Fuji will use JEDCO's Conference Center on the west bank for its hiring and job training processes.

"The food cluster is a priority of the Jefferson EDGE, the economic development strategic plan for Jefferson Parish. Fuji's decision to locate in Jefferson Parish is indicative of our success in elevating opportunities for food-related industries," JEDCO president and CEO Jerry Bologna said in a statement.

According to LED, Fuji plans to start work on its processing plant by late 2018. It will be built just upriver from the shipyard site, near the IMTT terminal. Hiring will follow in 2019, and the facility should be finished by early 2020 with commercial operations starting soon after.New Orleans Police arrested 37-year-old Enoch James Tuesday (March 13), accusing him of sexual battery and molestation of an 8-year-old relative.

On Nov. 27, 2017, the girl's mother notified police that her daughter had potentially been sexually abused in September, according to an arrest warrant affidavit for Campbell, sworn by NOPD's Bianca DeIrish. The girl had reported the abuse to a school counselor.

The mother acknowledged to police that the girl had told her earlier in the year that a relative had inappropriately touched her in bed. The mother did not believe the daughter initially, since the girl did not cry, but later confronted the relative, who said that "he was only showing what she would experience if she had a boyfriend when she was older," according to court documents.

The mother identified the relative as Enoch James, a registered sex offender who lived with her in her Iberville home for around two months. Detective DeIrish confirmed that James was a registered sex offender currently six months into his 8-year probation for failing to register, according to NOPD.

James was also booked in December 2017 and January 2018 on rape allegations involving a different victim, confirmed Ken Daley of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office.

The new allegations related to the 8-year-old came as James was being held on bond at the Orleans Justice Center for the previous allegations.

Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly used the word "charges" in lieu of "allegations."A Baton Rouge grand jury reviewing the cases against 10 men who were facing criminal charges for the death of an LSU freshman last year has indicted four of the men for their involvement, according to prosecutors Thursday (March 15).

Matthew Alexander Naquin, 19, of Boerne, Texas was indicted with negligent homicide for the Sept. 14 death of Maxwell Gruver. Patrick Forde, Sean Paul Gott, and Ryan Isto were indicted on hazing charges, according to a news release from the District Attorney's office in East Baton Rouge Parish.

In a released statement, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore's office stated the grand jury was unable to reach a consensus on the hazing charges against the remaining men arrested last year. The grand jury was also unable to reach a consensus on an obstruction of justice charge against Zachary Castillo. Moore's office previously declined pressing criminal charges against Sean Pennison.

Baton Rouge Police said Gruver of Rosewell, Ga., was involved in a hazing event at Phi Delta fraternity in September where members forced him to drink during a ritual testing their fraternity knowledge. One Phi Delta Theta pledge told authorities Gruver was "made to" take at least 10 to 12 "pulls" of 190-Diesel as other pledges drunk lesser amounts of the liquor. After members found Gruver "unresponsive" on the fraternity couch around 11 a.m. the next morning, he was taken to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge.

A coroner's report stated Gruver died from "acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration." The 18-year-old's body had a blood alcohol level of .495, which is more than six times the legal limit for those 21 and older to drive.

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Although the grand jury also heard evidence relating to the fraternity's role in the case, Moore's office stated the grand jury was unable to reach a consensus on whether the Phi Delta Theta Chapter at LSU committed the hazing.

Negligent homicide is a felony crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years, with a possible fine of $5,000. The maximum penalty for hazing is 30 days in jail and a $100 fine.

. . . . . . .

Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles.A 43-year-old man was arrested on a second-degree rape charge Friday (March 9), almost 24 years after police say he raped a woman in an abandoned building in the Desire Area and almost eight years after a warrant for his arrest was signed, according to court documents.

About 10:30 p.m. on June 19, 1994, a 35-year-old woman was walking home in the Desire Area when a man approached her and threatened to shoot her if she did not follow him. The man took her to an abandoned building in the 3200 block of Law Street, raped her repeatedly and forced her to perform oral sex on him, authorities said.

As soon as the man fled the crumbling building, the woman called police from a nearby store, according to court documents.

On Feb. 13, 2006, the NOPD sex crimes unit received a report confirming Alvin Celius was a match to the DNA recovered from the rape kit the victim took almost 12 years earlier, according to court documents. At the time, Celius was in state prison serving time for a burglary conviction, according to Ken Pastorick, the communications director for the Department of Corrections.

However, another 4-1/2 years passed between the time Celius' DNA linked him to the already 12-year-old case and the day Celius' warrant was signed on August 19, 2010. Celius was released from prison in May 2010 and was on parole when the warrant was signed, according to Pastorick.

It wasn't until Friday - over seven years after that warrant was signed - that police arrested Celius with the help of U.S. Marshals in Caddo Parish, according to NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney.

Although NOPD declined to comment on the timeline of the investigation, Looney said Celius was located and arrested after the case was recently "reviewed" by the District Attorney's office and the NOPD's cold case and sex crimes units.

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"We are glad to say that even after a prolonged period of investigation, including periods when the case seemed to have run cold, law enforcement ultimately made an arrest in this incident and cleared the case," NOPD Communications Director Beau Tidwell said.

Based on online court records, it appears Celius was accused of one count of aggravated rape in June 1994 in connection to a separate incident but was never indicted on the charge. No details were immediately available but based on records it appears the rape was reported in April 1994 and Celius was arrested on June 22, 1994 - three days after he raped the woman in the abandoned building on Law Street.

The District Attorney's office spokesman Ken Daley said he could not comment Wednesday because the case is still open.

Celius was booked into Orleans Justice Center jail Friday on one count of second-degree rape. He appeared in court Saturday, where Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell set his bond for $30,000 and assigned a public defender to his case.

Celius is listed under the name Elvin Celius in Department of Corrections records, according to Pastorick. State records show he was in and out of prison in Louisiana between October 1995 and June 2016 after being convicted of various burglary charges. According to court records, Celius has never been convicted of rape charges in Louisiana.

Note: This story was updated to clarify the location of the rape.The Vietnamese pavilion covers 80m2 and is located at the centre of the fair, attracting the interest of numerous visitors, businessmen, and travellers from Russia and other countries.

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Ngo Duc Manh, MITT 2018 is a prestigious tourism fair. It provides a good opportunity for Vietnam to promote the image of the country and its people as well as to develop tourism and attract more international visitors to Vietnam.

At the event, the Vietnamese delegation promoted the Vietnam  Timeless charm slogan and announced tourism products expected to draw many Russian tourists, including sea and islands tourism, medical tourism, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) tourism, and ecotourism.

The Vietnamese pavilion at the exhibition

The delegation also introduced new contents of Vietnams tourism development strategy and sought greater cooperation between Vietnamese businesses and travel firms, along with news agencies of Russia and other countries.

The VNAT sees Russia as a key market for potential tourists. Vietnam is viewed as a safe and friendly destination with sandy beaches, sunny weather, and high-end resorts, with a rich culture and diverse gastronomy that can attract Russian visitors. Vietnam aims to welcome one million Russian tourists by 2020.

The VNAT said it aims to serve between 15 and 17 million foreigners and 78 million domestic travellers this year, with the total revenue expected to hit VND620 trillion (US$27.28 billion), up 21.35 % year on year.By Jonathan Bullington and Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office will not renew its agreement with Palantir Technologies, the data collection and analysis company whose use in the city's crime-fighting efforts recently raised issues of privacy and transparency.

Landrieu's office confirmed by email Wednesday (March 14) that the agreement would not be renewed. It expired Feb. 21, and had been extended three previous times since first drafted in 2012.

"This technology is no longer being utilized in day-to-day operations, and therefore, will not be renewed," Landrieu press secretary Craig Belden said in an email.

Officials with Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.

Palantir's relationship with New Orleans sparked controversy when an article in The Verge reported that the Silicon Valley tech firm, founded by a group that included billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, had been operating in the city for six years with little public knowledge.

Some in the city's criminal justice system said they were leery of Palantir's involvement in New Orleans. Of particular concern to some was the use of Palantir as a tool that could aid investigators both in connecting suspected gang members to others in the community, and in identifying people deemed at high risk of either committing gun violence or being the victim of it.

The potential involvement of Palantir in gang investigations has already led to arguments for a new trial in high-profile Central City gang case.

On Wednesday, an Orleans Criminal District Court judge agreed to consider a defense attorney's argument related to the possible use of Palantir software in Kentrell Hickerson's case, according to court records and Hickerson's attorney, Kevin Vogeltanz. Hickerson, 38, was convicted in May 2016 of conspiracy, racketeering and other gang-related charges after a trial during which prosecutors accused him of being a leader of the 3-N-G gang.

Hickerson, who was sentenced to 100 years in prison, has accused prosecutors of suppressing analytic evidence obtained through the use of Palantir, arguing he had a right to view the evidence if his name surfaced as being affiliated with a gang, or if his name was absent from any analytic data related to 3-N-G.

Ken Daley, a spokesman for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, said in a statement Wednesday, however, that Palantir "played no role whatsoever in Mr. Hickerson's indictment and prosecution." Vogeltanz said Wednesday after the court hearing he planned to subpoena records related to analytic evidence in his client's case obtained through the use of the software, and Judge Camille Buras set an April 3 hearing in the matter.

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Ben Horwitz, New Orleans Police Department's Director of Analytics, acknowledged in a previous interview that Palantir had been used to create a "risk assessment" database of about 1 percent of the city's population who are more likely to be perpetrators or victims of gun violence.

Horwitz said the database could be used to target individuals ripe for social interventions or as potential participants in NOLA For Life call-ins, in which suspected gang members are warned of the potential consequences of continued violence and offered social services and support.

The risk assessment database can also "help hold together criminal conspiracy cases," and guide detectives toward potential leads in their investigations, Horwitz said. The software was used by detectives investigating crimes that had already occurred, Horwitz said, as opposed to predictive enforcement measures, like stopping or surveilling individuals based on their status as someone at a high risk of being involved in violence. Much of that kind of analysis, Horwitz added, is not solely reliant on Palantir's technology.

Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell will not consider renewing the contract with Palantir after she takes office in May, her spokesman Mason Harrison said in an email. He previously said Cantrell's public safety committee, which advises her as she transitions into the mayor's office, would look into the matter, but said Wednesday, "Given that the (Landrieu) administration has opted not to renew the city's contract with Palantir, use of this particular model of policing will no longer come under review."

In Hickerson's motion to add Palantir-related claims to his existing motion for a new trial, which cited The Verge article, Vogeltanz writes that the existence of 3-N-G as a gang or criminal enterprise was "hotly contested" in his case. His client denied the gang existed or that he was a member, Vogeltanz noted, pointing out that the prosecution's witness, Tyrone Knockum, described the men indicted in the 3-N-G case as "a group of people that grew up around each other," when he testified at trial.

"Hickerson had the absolute right to view and traverse the Gotham-created analytical evidence concerning any alleged 3-N-G gang affiliation (or lack of affiliation) because the existence (or absence) of bona fide gang or criminal enterprise is the threshold element of Mr. Hickerson's conspiracy, racketeering and gang-affiliated charges," the motion states.

Vogeltanz wrote in the motion the amount of Brady violations, which refers to claims of prosecutors withholding potentially exculpatory evidence, "shocks the conscience and amounts to an independent violation of Mr. Hickerson's substantive due process rights."

Daley said the use of NOPD's Palantir software by NOPD "has been grossly exaggerated by defense counsel clearly running out of ideas on how to win an unwarranted new trial for a convicted killer and street gang leader." He added that police actively investigated Hickerson for his gang involvement nearly a decade before the NOPD began using Palantir. Vogeltanz notes in his motion the city first contracted with Palantir in 2012, and Hickerson's trial was in 2013.

Regarding claims that the City of New Orleans had a secret relationship, Landrieu's office pointed to information on the city's NOLA For Life website and in a 2016 NOLA For Life report that identifies Palantir as a partner in the effort to "increase analytical capacity at NOPD."

"There's a potential risk for abuse, particularly with no independent verification of how these tools are used," Ursula Price, deputy monitor in the Independent Police Monitor's office, previously told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.When chef Nina Compton and her husband, Larry Miller, decided to open a second restaurant, they had only one, clear idea: it would be different from Compere Lapin, their first restaurant in the Warehouse District.

"The concept is it's a Nina Compton concept," said Miller. "We wanted to find the right space, and then we would put the menu around that space."

The space they found is on the ground floor of the Bywater's Rice Mills Lofts building, where Mariza used to operate. Compton and Miller live upstairs.

On Thursday (March 15), they'll open Bywater American Bistro along with their chef/partner Levi Raines.

The name, Miller said, plainly states what the new restaurant is about.

"It's three words that mean a lot to us," he said. "It's Bywater, which is where we are. It's American, which doesn't narrow you down. And it's bistro, so it will be more casual."

The opening menu includes crab fat rice, pork belly with juniper and apples, pickled shrimp with buttermilk and trout roe and duck crepinettes with braised cabbage. Unlike at Compere Lapin, which ranks among critic Brett Anderson's top 10 restaurants for 2018, at Bywater American Bistro the influence of Compton's native St. Lucia are harder to find.

The bar here is big. And the menu of appetizers, cheeses and charcuterie are designed to feed those who want a drink and a snack instead of a meal.

Compton first came to New Orleans as a contestant on the locally shot season of Bravo's "Top Chef." She placed second and was voted "fan favorite."

When she and Miller, who were working in Miami at the time, were ready to start their first restaurant, they moved to New Orleans. Compere Lapin, which blends Caribbean flavors with Italian cuisine and Compton's own creativity, opened in 2015.

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Miller and Compton, who have lived in the Rice Mills Lofts since coming to New Orleans, noticed how many Bywater restaurants have closed in recent years. That was one reason they wanted their second place to be in this neighborhood.

"We got tired of people closing restaurants around here," Miller said. "If you make great food and serve it well, in a friendly manner, then people will come."

Opened: March 15

On the menu: Pickled shrimp with buttermilk and trout roe ($14); hogs head boudin ($10); crab fat rice ($13); duck crepinette with red cabbage ($26); half chicken with Dijon vinaigrette ($20) (see a PDF of the full menu)

Need to know: For now, Bywater American Bistro is dinner only. But brunch will soon be added.

Hours: Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m.

Bywater American Bistro: 2900 Chartres St., New Orleans, 504.605.3827

***

Got a tip? Know some restaurant news? Email Todd A. Price at TPrice@NOLA.com or call 504.826.3445. Follow him on Twitter (@TPrice504) or join the conversation at www.facebook.com/groups/wherenolaeats.The signing ceremony was attended by Minister and Chairman of the Office of the Government Mai Tien Dung, who is accompanying Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during his visit to Australia.

Under the three-year document, Luke Nguyen will be in charge of improving the quality of meals on Vietnam Airlines flights and creating eight new regional specialties for the business class. He will also give consultations on the airlines current 50 business-class menus in 2018.

The food magician will popularise Vietnamese food to international friends via cultural and trade exchange programmes in various countries.

At the event, Executive Vice President of Vietnam Airlines Le Hong Ha said that the cooperation with Nguyen aims to elevate the art of Vietnamese cuisine. It is of significance as both nations are celebrating 45th anniversary of their diplomatic ties this year, he noted.

He expressed his hope that Vietnam Airlines and the chef would contribute to bolstering the cultural cooperation and other connections between the two countries.

Luke Nguyen, for his part, wished to bring Vietnamese tastes to tourists in all of the five continents and thanked Vietnam Airlines for giving him an opportunity to have closer connection with his homeland.

Inviting the Vietnamese-Australian chef to become its food ambassador is part of Vietnam Airlines strategy to improve its service quality and passengers experience, aiming to become a five-star airline in the near future.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.Cornerback Delvin Breaux became a free agent Wednesday when the New Orleans Saints declined to offer him a tender.

It didn't take long for the 28-year-old New Orleans native to draw interest from other teams as the Denver Broncos were bringing him in for a visit and physical according to a report from Denver Broncos reporter Mike Klis.

The report says the Broncos likely will sign the former McDonogh 35 standout if he passed the physical. Denver is looking for depth at the position after trading starter Aqib Talib to the Los Angeles Rams.

Breaux is coming of two straight seasons in which he suffered a broken fibula after having a breakout 2015 where he snagged three interceptions.

The Saints signed cornerback Patrick Robinson, a former first-round pick of the franchise, Wednesday to bolster their secondary, which already features the NFL's defensive rookie of the year in Marshon Lattimore and Ken Crawley, who is coming off the best season of his young career.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang holds a regular press conference in Beijing, on March 14, 2018. [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

China on Wednesday expressed condolences over the passing of renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking, praising him as an outstanding scientist.

Stephen Hawking reportedly died peacefully at home in the British university city of Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday at the age of 76.

China expressed deep condolences at the passing of Hawking and extended sincere sympathies to his family, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

"Hawking made a great contribution to science and humanity," Lu said, noting that he also struggled with a disease.

Lu said Hawking had been to China three times and Chinese leaders had met with him. Chinese scientists and science fans had pleasant communication with him, he added.

"Hawking was concerned with China's development and spoke highly of the scientific and technological progress that China had made," the spokesperson said.

Lu said Hawking was very fond of Chinese culture, and had realized his wish to reach the Great Wall, with the help of his assistants.The robot equipped with high-definition video surveillance systems and can turn around 360 degrees. [Photo: moutaichina.com]

China's leading alcohol brand Kweichow Moutai has trialled using an intelligent robot for security inspections.

The robot is equipped with high-definition video surveillance systems and can turn around 360 degrees. It follows set routes and reports information on warehouse environment, temperature, and fire and smoke alarms.

Moutai said the intelligent patrols will help the company reduce production costs and increase inspection efficiency.

The trial is one of the projects jointly launched between Moutai and Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, to increase Moutai's intelligent information development on logistics, production, and management.

Distilled in the town of Maotai in southwest China's Guizhou Province, Moutai is considered the country's national liquor.Chinas first peacekeeping helicopter detachment concluded the transport of soldiers and cargos of the Senegalese peacekeeping in-fantry battalion affiliated to the Sector North of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) on March 4.

A helicopter of Chinas first peacekeeping helicopter detachment. (Photo from the PLAs official website, 81.cn)

It is reported that the Chinese helicopters, to conduct the mission for troop rotation, shall fly over the rebel-controlled areas in South Su-dan, where UN peacekeeping helicopters were once attacked. The Chinese helicopters of the detachment flew nearly 150 hours, trans-porting about 40 tons of cargos and 800 Senegalese peacekeepers in total.

China has grown into the largest source of peacekeeping personnel among the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the second largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget since join-ing UN peacekeeping operations in 1990.

Helicopters usually play a significant role in various peacekeeping operations because of its quick transit of personnel at lower risks than conventional transport vehicles.

A pilot of the Chinese peacekeeping helicopter detachment is in peacekeeping operation. (Photo by the Chinese peacekeeping heli-copter detachment)

A helicopter of Chinas first peacekeeping helicopter detachment arrives in Khartoum, capital of Sudan. (By Li Yida from Peoples Daily)

Chinas first peacekeeping helicopter detachment holds oath-taking rally. (Photo from the PLAs official website, 81.cn)

Chinese peacekeepers prepare for the flight. (Photo by the Chi-nese peacekeeping helicopter detachment)An increasing number of second-tier cities in China are joining a battle to win more talents by introducing a plenty of attractive policies.

University graduates look for jobs at a job fair in east Chinas Zhejiang province, March 2. An increasing number of graduates now choose to work in Chinas second- and third-tier cities, which roll out preferential policies to attract them to contribute to the cities development. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)

Nanjing, capital city of east Chinas Jiangsu province, announced on March 6 that it will offer a subsidy of 1,000 yuan ($158.12) for job seekers from other places, as a plan to attract more university graduates for the citys development.

In order to realize the goal of building itself into an innovative city with global prominence, the city has rolled out a series of measures, including lowering threshold on household registration and providing house rental and entrepreneurship allowances.

Nanjing is only one of those craving for talents. Since the beginning of 2017, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Chengdu and some other second-tier cities have rolled out package of policies .

The second-tier cities invitation to the young talents comes out when bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai are imposing strict restrictions on housing purchases and household registration.

The new trend will not only help lessen the burden for first-tier cities, such as high population density and over-concentration of talents, but also help the second-tier cities develop and prosper by receiving more talents.

China saw the largest influx of overseas returnees in the past few decades. In 2017, the country embraced 600,000 overseas returnees, much more than the total number of students going abroad that year.

Development is the top priority, talents are the primary resources, and innovation is the primary driving force, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed at a panel discussion with deputies from Guangdong province at the first session of the 13th National Peoples Congress in Beijing, capital of China on March 7.Chinas culture is exerting a growing influence on the rest of the world, according to a Chinese report showing increased understanding of Chinese vocabulary and concepts outside of China.

Foreign students learn to write Spring Festival couplets during the Chinese New Year. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)

More Chinese words are being used in the English language, said the report released by China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration.

Kongzi (Confucius), chunjie (Spring Festival), zhongqiu (Mid-Autumn Festival), Shaolin (the name of a branch of martial arts) and gongfu (kung fu), are among the top 100 list as the most-recognized Chinese words.

The report came from surveys of eight major English-speaking countries including the US, the UK, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Canada and Singapore.

A series of buzz words and concepts emerged after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, according to the report, citing the Chinese Dream, Belt and Road, community with a shared future for mankind and anti-corruption.

Listed as two of the top 10 most popular words by the report, the economic terms renminbi and yuan have been incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary.

Chinas economic and scientific development has contributed to world innovation of language and vocabulary related to the economy and science, the report explained.

Chinas mobile payment service platform Alipay was included in the top 100 list, while words standing for Chinas high-tech development such as change (lunar probe), wukong (dark matter detection satellite) and gaotie (high-speed rail) have also received broad recognition .

Students from Ecuador and Malaysia (second left and second right) communicate with a Chinese student (first left) at a middle school in Anyang, Central Chinas Henan Province on September 20, during the China (Anyang) International Conference of Chinese Characters. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)

Culture-related words accounted for the largest percentage of the list, including traditional Chinese festivals Chunjie and Chongyang, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month when Chinese pay respect to seniors.

The report showed that Chinese words previously translated into English have now been replaced by pinyin. Some foreigners, for instance, prefer jiaozi to dumpling.

Foreign businessmen in Yiwu, eastern Chinas Zhejiang Province learn Chinese. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)

Foreigners display paper-cut works they learned from a folk artist in Dongying, Shandong Province on December 23. (Photo from Peoples Daily Online)The US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are, in essence, a kind of trade protectionism in the guise of national security, Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on March 9, expressing Chinas firm opposition to its decision.

A worker is working at an aluminum production plant in central Chinas Anhui province on Aug. 3, 2017. (Photo from CFP)

The statement came after the US President Donald Trump signed proclamations to impose hefty tariffs on imported steel and aluminum amid mounting dissent from business groups and trading partners around the world.

The majority of steel and aluminum imported by the US was for civilian use and by no means impairs its national security, stressed Wang Hejun, head of trade remedy and investigation bureau at the Ministry of Commerce.

China strongly opposes the US plan, as its abuse of the national security provision is a wanton sabotage of the multilateral trade system represented by the World Trade Organization, said Wang, adding that such kind of abuse will undermine the normal international trading order.

China will take strong measures to defend its legitimate rights and interests after assessing the losses caused by the US measures, stressed Wang, adding that China has expressed its position and concerns, and lodged solemn complaints to the US side through multiple channels.

What the measures damage is not only the interests of other countries, but also that of the US, Wang pointed out, stressing that it has incurred complaints from US congressman, industrial associations, as well as businesses.

The first phase of a coal and gas fueled power generation program is put into use in in Xinyu, southeast Chinas Jiangxi province, Jan. 17, 2018. (Photo from CFP)

China urged the US to respect the multilateral trade system and revoke the policy as soon as possible, Wang said.

The tariffs, 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum, will take effect in 15 days after the announcement by Trump on March 8 at White House.

The latest protectionist policy has drawn fierce resistances from both the US and international community. The EU, Brazil, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, France, the UK and Australia have all vowed to take countermeasures against it.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker responded that the EU will react firmly and commensurately to defend its interests.Soldiers who are to be demobilized consult at a job fair held in Shanghai in 2012. Photo: VCG

China's plan to establish a ministry of veteran affairs as part of its institutional restructuring, announced on Tuesday at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), will help boost the overall motivation and loyalty of the Chinese army as external military friction increases, experts say.

The new department, if passed, will mainly be responsible for the management and resettlement of retired and demobilized soldiers and officers, honoring the dedication and spirit of veterans, and guide work on the support of military personnel and their relatives, NPC secretary-general Wang Chen said at the session.

There are over 57 million veterans in China, and the number has been growing by several hundred thousand each year, according to authorities.

"If veterans aren't respected or properly resettled, how do we talk about the dignity of our military? The establishment of a new ministry will tackle this issue and make it easier to manage veterans," Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.

The news will also boost the confidence of in-service Chinese troops as military tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan Straits and India continue to rise. China is facing an increasingly complicated geopolitical environment. The South China Sea, for example, is still one of the most complicated conflict zones in the world, requiring the Chinese navy to be prepared for all possibilities.

India's recent plans to strengthen its military also means China should remain alert. Calls for the Chinese mainland to unify Taiwan by force have also increased domestically.

"Without having to worry about their life after retirement, soldiers will put all of their efforts into training and thus enhance the military's overall combat capability. Those who are stationed in rough or difficult areas, or at the country's border, will protect their country with more loyalty," Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times.

Song echoed this statement. "Growing military tensions mean that soldiers have to be respected. Only thus can they better protect our country," he said.

The move is the latest step China has taken in recent years to boost the welfare and sense of honor among its troops. The report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), for example, highlighted protection of the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families and vowed to "make military service an occupation that enjoys public respect."

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, in his report on the work of the government this month, also mentioned taking substantive steps to see demobilized military personnel resettled into new jobs. Experts believe the new ministry will further enhance the social and political status of Chinese military.

"The status of Chinese soldiers isn't just reflected in their pay, but also pride and social recognition. The establishment of the new ministry will solve this key issue," Song said.

Overlapping responsibility

Currently, welfare for demobilized soldiers and officers is managed collectively by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission.

"The overlapping responsibility of these departments has resulted in ineffective management of the veterans' welfare," Song said.

Apart from a new ministry, some NPC deputies are suggesting a new legal system to be established to provide legal basis for the veterans' welfare. So far, the veterans' resettlement is regulated by several administrative regulations, with less enforcement potency.

China's changing economic landscape over the past few decades also made it more difficult to provide stable jobs for demobilized soldiers. Assigning soldiers with jobs at State-owned enterprises or public institutions after they are discharged used to be a major method for China to settle its veterans.

"However, due to reforms within State-owned enterprises after the reform and opening up, the number of city-level State-owned enterprises declined, as did their ability to absorb ex-servicemen," Gao Xiaobing, vice minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in a press conference this February.

Discontent veterans

Indeed, petitions and even protests made by demobilized soldiers unsatisfied with their retirement benefits have not been rare in the past few years, posing threats to social stability.

In 2016, thousands of ex-servicemen, most in their 40s or 50s, gathered in front of the headquarters of the Central Military Commission (CMC) on Chang'an Avenue, six kilometers west of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, demanding better pensions.

Most of these veterans served in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for over 10 years, were demobilized between 1993 and 2001, and were assigned jobs in enterprises that ended up bankrupt or being merged, demonstrators told the Global Times at that time.

In 2014, hundreds of veterans who served in wars or conflicts after the Korean War (1950-53) or in China's nuclear experiments demonstrated outside the office of letters and calls of the CMC and PLA General Political Department in Beijing, asking for better retirement benefits.

China's recent reforms to downsize the PLA Army have also put pressure on the resettlement of discharged soldiers.

In order to pacify its army, China has been gradually enhancing welfare for ex-servicemen in recent years. In 2017, a new regulation stipulated that over 80 percent of demobilized soldiers should be assigned jobs in administrative organs, public institutions or State-owned enterprises.

In 2015, China asked its State-owned enterprises to reserve at least 5 percent of their vacancies for demobilized soldiers. The government also provides tax exemption for soldiers who start their own businesses.

As for older veterans, the government launched a project called "Action Zero Clearing" this February, promising to examine the situation of all soldiers who were demobilized after 1978 and who met the criteria to be handed jobs. Those who did not get the jobs were promised that they will be resettled.

Growing pride

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Chinese soldiers have enjoyed a relatively high social status due to their contributions to the liberation of China and efforts in maintaining peace in the country.

But as China entered a period of rapid economic growth following the reform and opening up, the influence and importance of the army gradually dwindled. This was aggravated by corruption charges against top military officials.

"Having enjoyed peace for a long time, the public lowered their awareness of the importance of national defense. As a result, the attractiveness of military professions diminished and soldiers are less proud of their jobs," a 2015 article on PLA Daily said.

In recent years, however, as military tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan Straits and India reignited people's attention to national defense and patriotic passions, the social status and image of Chinese army soldiers grew.

A series of patriotic films depicting heroic feats of Chinese troops abroad, such as Operation Red Sea and Wolf Warrior, also boosted the image and reputation of Chinese troops, especially among youth.

This February, a video showing a woman scolding a man who asked a soldier to give up a seat to him on a bus went viral on Sina Weibo, receiving over 60,000 likes.

In the video, after a man asked a soldier to give up a seat, the woman pushed the soldier back down on his seat, saying, "Don't you see he's wearing a military uniform? When there's a war, won't you depend on them to save you? When there are disasters, aren't they the first to go for your rescue?"

In the comment section, most netizens praised the woman's courage and expressed their admiration for Chinese soldiers.Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party candidate, Salim Were alias Papa has been declared winner of the Makerere guild presidency elections.

Isaac Kenneth Isabirye, the Makerere University guild electoral commission chairperson declared Were winner on Wednesday evening. Were garnered 3,202 votes beating his Uganda Young Democrats rival Edward Ssemakula Kinene who polled 2,267 votes.

Papa Were celebrates his election victory

Silver Kent Lwamaza came third with 1,528 votes followed by Andrew Julian Taliwaku with 1,380 votes, Frederick Chiluba with 776 votes, Samuel Nuwataho 146 votes and Henry Turyasingura 123 votes.



A total of 10,725 students participated in the polls, which attracted 15 candidates. Isaac Kenneth Isabirye, the Makerere University guild electoral commission chairperson described the electoral process as peaceful, free and fair.



Shortly after being declared winner, Were, who was dressed in a red overall and head gear, with words "Togikwatako" waved the Uganda flag to thousands of students.

The fourth-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine student briefly addressed his supporters at the guild office where he vowed to challenge the university administration.



Were, told his supporters that his first task will be to challenge the suspension of Ronald Ainebyoona, a law student on Monday.



Ainebyoona was subsequently arrested and locked up at Wandegeya police station for alleged forgery and bribery. Last year, Were staged a lone demonstration and marched to parliament with his mattress to protest against lifting of the presidential age limit.There couldnt have been a better time to sell Uganda. The 4th World Customs Organisation (WCO) conference sitting at Serena hotel in Kampala has gathered at least 1,000 delegates from 169 countries.

And President Museveni used the chance to charm delegates not just about the countrys tax regimes but also a tourism gem Uganda has become.

President Museveni addressing delegates at the 4th World Customs Organisation (WCO) conference

Uganda is one of the three spots in the world right on the equator but on the high altitude. The other spot is near Mount Kenya and the Ecuador, Museveni told delegates. Please do your customs conference, but dont miss on human contact and tourism so that you have a story to tell when you go home.

World Customs Organisation is an independent intergovernmental body representing more than 182 customs administrations across the globe and collectively processes 98% of the global trade.

This is the first time the conference has been held in Africa  previous meetings were held in South Korea, Spain, and Cancun Mexico. It attracts tax experts, civil society, academia and traders. The conference being held in Uganda is hosted by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).

A tourism pitch was handy as Ugandas tourism sector has become such an important part of the countrys purse that billions of shillings have been spent to hire public relations firms to market the country abroad. Tourism earns the country about $1.4bn annually, dwarfing coffee receipts and diaspora remittances.

They [conference organisers] will give me the attendance list and will interact with each of you later, Museveni said amid cheers. Apart from the customs conference, dont miss out on the tourism, president pitched.

Uganda is right on the equator but on the high altitude side. When you go out, the climate is mild. Even if you dont work hard, you can survive. You find somebody here who does nothing but very fat, he said in a brag about the countrys favourable climate.

The president said Africa had missed the industrial revolution that most western countries witnessed because of slave trade and colonialism. He added, however, that continent now was more united and Africa will not miss again. It will be part of the global trade on equal terms, Museveni said.

Dickson Kateshumbwa, URA commissioner for customs, picked the moment and told delegates to book for their next holiday in the country and spend on the local goods available.

Think about investing in Uganda, he said.

This years conference focused on the Authorised Economic Operator  an instrument used to give most tax compliant firms a privilege to import or export their products without much customs checks.

This has advantage of reducing clearing time with companies making enormous savings. URA Commissioner General Doris Akol said at least 51 firms in Uganda have been granted the AEO privilege and they account for at least 28 per cent of the countrys international taxes.

A high proportion of customs revenue is paid by people on the AEO, Akol said. We have seen a lot of people especially those trading across the region express a lot of desire to join the programme.

She said they tax body was doing assessments to see if they deserve to be given the privilege.

Africa and Uganda in particular share of global trade remains very small. The continent accounts for just about 2 per cent of global trade. To gain fully from the WCO programmes, the continent must increase its share in global production.

amwesigwa@observer.ugThe bathroom was one of the few places that technology had not been very successful in infiltrating, but with Japanese smart toilets gaining in popularity around the world, this last bastion is about to fall. And if youre wondering what makes smart toilets so special, just check out the smartest of them all, the Toto Neorest NX2.

Quite frankly, theres not a lot this toilet cant do. It automatically lifts the seat as you approach it, and if you program it too, it can even heat up the toilet seat instantly, so that you dont get those harmless but annoying goose-bumps on your legs when you sit on it. Once youve finished your business, you dont need to use toilet paper to clean yourself, as the Neorest is more than happy to do it for you with gentle beams of purified water. And since leaving you with a wet behind just isnt very practical, the smart toilet also features a built-in dryer.

Theres no need to grab a can of deodorant and spray it all around you to neutralize bad odors as the Neorest NX2 also features its own deodorizer. Totos proprietary Tornado Flush has been completely redesigned to not only be more effective in eliminating waste from the bowl, but also clean the surfaces most difficult to reach. The NX2 uses ionized eWater+, which is basically electrolized water with cleansing and antibacterial properties, and if that doesnt get everything perfectly clean, the Actilight ultraviolet light technology definitely will. Youll never have to clean this thing, at least not on the inside, because it cleans itself.

And you never even have to touch its lid, as it comes down as soon as you step away from it.

But the worlds most advanced smart toilet isnt cheap. Youll have to shell out around $11,000 for this throne when it hits the US market, this summer. Worth it? Hell yeah, now if only I could afford it.UK's Tulchan Group is part of Unilevers media team handling todays announcement that the consumer products giant is consolidating its headquarters in Rotterdam.

Since its formation in 1930, Unilever maintained dual headquarters in Rotterdman and London.

CEO Paul Polman denied the decision to choose Holland over the UK had anything to do with Brexit.

Unilever, which was owned by two separately owned compaiesa Dutch NV and UK PLCexpects the streamlined corporate structure to result in a more agile company with a single class of shares, offering more flexibility for mergers, demergers and acquisitions.

In 2017, Unilever consolidated its food division in Holland. The company plans to keep its beauty & personal care unit and home care business in the UK.

Tulchans Jonathan Sibun, former deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph, works the Unilever business.

He advised Unilever in its successful 2017 effort to fend off a $143B takeover bid by Kraft Heinz.

Larry Kudlow

Once long-time CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow settles in as head of the White House National Economic Council, replacing former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn, Donald Trump will have some serious competition for cable TV tube time.

To survive the White House, Kudlow must avoid the path taken by another one-time Trump confidante, Steve Bannon, a guy who knew how to work the media.

The 70-year-old pinstripe suited Kudlow, ex-chief economist at Paine Webber and Bear Sterns and a veteran of Ronald Reagan's administration, is a cable TV superstar.

Will he be comfortable in playing the role of Trumps TV surrogate?

Cable TV shapes Trumps worldview. One senses that Trump knows little or even cares about Kudlows economic philosophy. But he likes the way Kudlow looks on TV, just as he thought Rex Tillerson was Hollywood central castings idea of a Secretary of State.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page notes that Kudlow has been critical of slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum. It warns that the new economic chief may have to counter Trump to hold the line on new bursts of spending, special pleading by industries, and above all a wave of trade protectionism.

The WSJ editorialist says Kudlow is less than a brawler than Cohn and wonders how such a nice guy will fare in the Trump Hall of Knives.

But The ghost of Bannon is a bigger threat to Kudlows second tour of the White House.

Bannon, whom Trump referred to as My Steve during the campaign for the vital role that he played in putting Team Trump on track, eventually tumbled to Sloppy Steve.

The campaign strategists fall from grace began with the Time magazine cover that hailed him as The Great Manipulator. The accompanying Is Steve Bannon the Second Most Powerful Man in the White House? reportedly didnt sit well with Trump, who is not one to share the media spotlight.

Michael Wolffs book Fire and Fury completed Bannons downfall. As Trump put it, When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.

Can Kudlow keep his ego in check and thrive as Trumps cable TV publicist? He could always give Bannon a call for some pointers.An AI-powered mobile app that opens up new ways for media and brands to discover user-generated video has been launched as the (Un)Official Video App of SXSW 2018 at this weeks South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX.

Produced by Finnish video platform company BCaster, the app allows any user with a smartphone to upload video content to a web-based search interface, where it can then be accessed by media or brands looking for influencers and user-generated content.

BCasters technology employs artificial intelligence to identify faces, brands, emotions or specific objects in any uploaded content. That information is then used to create an interface with a map-based view that lets users search for and play back the desired user-generated media.

The app employs blockchain technology to create a provenance record for each piece of content and to ensure that images have not been altered or faked. A blockchain ID is inserted throughout each piece of video, which means the clip is handled as one entity, automatically revealing any modifications made.

After several pilot tests, BCaster is now in discussions with NHK, Japans national broadcasting service, and German publisher Axel Springer.BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Having swapped his overalls for a suit and tie, Qi Songyu boarded a train to Beijing.

Qi, an automaker technician, is a new deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature.

The 13th NPC is holding its first session in Beijing. Of the nearly 3,000 deputies, three out of four are new faces.

More than 15 percent of the deputies are workers and farmers, up 2.28 percentage points from the previous NPC. Professionals number 613, with their share growing by 0.15 percentage point to 20.57 percent.

Qi, 44, is a maintenance worker from northeast China's Jilin Province, part of the country's old industrial base.

He won voters' heart as he converted a key-cutting machine into a sharpener to recycle the used blades, tools for auto electrode repair. The invention helps save 2.3 million yuan (363,000 U.S. dollars) every year for his state-owned employer, FAW Car Co., Ltd.

Qi submitted three suggestions to the session, including raising the wages of skilled workers. He said under the current salary system, workers are paid based on their posts.

"Workers' skills vary even if their posts are the same," said Qi, adding that a differentiated pay system should be introduced to encourage quality workmanship and innovation.

NPC deputies are members of the highest organ of state power in China and are elected by secret ballot at people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities ahead of the NPC.

During an NPC session, deputies submit motions and suggestions as well as review and vote on legal documents and personnel changes.

Unlike legislators in the West who make a career of politics, NPC deputies work part-time and many of them are ordinary citizens, including workers, farmers, teachers, artists and even street cleaners.

Deputy Gao Xiangqiu is a farmer and entrepreneur from northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

She has organized 170 households to plant peppers and invited professionals for technical advice. The annual income per household increased by 20,000 yuan last year.

"I suggest the government offer policy support for bean farmers, as well as trial plantation of high-protein beans," she said.

With its vast tracts of fertile farmland, Heilongjiang is known as the country's "grain barn," with beans among its major products.

Many deputies proposed methods of developing agriculture as the country strives for rural revitalization, a concept proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

A package of policies was unveiled in the first central document of the year to see a strong agricultural sector, a beautiful countryside and well-off farmers.

Duan Jun, one of the 45 migrant worker deputies, proposed upgrading seats on slow trains so that migrant workers, who sit for long hours on slow trains, could have a comfortable journey.

Although spacious and comfortable high-speed trains have connected large parts of China, migrant workers with meager pay prefer slow trains as the ticket price is only about a quarter that of a second-class seat on a high-speed train traveling the same distance.

China has 286 million migrant workers.

Film director Jia Zhangke was born in north China's Shanxi Province, known as the country's "coal capital." Last year, he organized the first international film festival in Pingyao, a World Cultural Heritage site in central Shanxi.

"Many have identified Shanxi with coal, neglecting its history of thousands of years," said Jia, now a tourism ambassador for the province.

He suggested developing the cultural industry to detach Shanxi from traditional coal mining in order to fight overcapacity and pollution.

Another suggestion related to pollution reduction was proposed by Li Shufu.

Li, chairman of leading Chinese auto brand Geely, suggested more government support for clean energy vehicles as well as market access for methanol-fueled cars to reduce car exhaust.

While many parts of China are limiting cars for better air, Gesang Degyi has been thrilled to see more vehicles in her hometown in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Gesang Degyi, 40, is a primary school teacher from the border county of Medog, where there was no asphalt road until 2013.

"I have witnessed the great changes over the past five years in my hometown, with transportation and school conditions greatly improved," she said. "My suggestion is about balanced development in border areas."

Gesang Degyi is one of 400-plus ethnic minority deputies to the 13th NPC and the only deputy of the Moinba minority, one of the smallest ethnic groups in China.

According to China's electoral law, NPC deputies should be elected in proportion to the population, urban and rural regions alike. A deputy might represent several hundreds of thousands of people.

However, each of the country's 55 ethnic minorities is entitled by law to have at least one deputy to the NPC.

Over the past five years, deputies to the 12th NPC submitted 2,366 motions and 41,353 suggestions, said Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC, on Sunday.

Hundreds of the motions have been adopted or are being deliberated, he said in a work report.

At the ongoing first session of the 13th NPC, new deputies have a chance to meet and discuss how they will fulfill their duties in the next five years.

"An NPC deputy should speak for the people. I can feel the responsibility -- it's huge but an honor," Gesang Degyi said.Nile Rodgers Produces Posthumous George Michael Groove Fantasy

This spirit of collaboration became the hallmark of his career, though Rodgers is slow to call it a key to his success. Niles says that he doesnt have a specific magic formula, as most of his collaborations occur by happenstance. From meeting Sam Smith while working with Disclosure: He was sitting in the corner like he was just some dude. to bumping into HAIM at the Brit Awards and starting a battle of the bands, Rodgers has just gone with the flow, and let the music be his guide. When asked why he still works as hard as he does, Rodgers replied, I just love it man. Ive never worked with anybody that just sucked. With collaborators ranging from Sister Sledge to Swedens own DJ Avicii, Rodgers says that a classical or technical musical background is required for hitmaking and that inspiration can come from anywhere.

He recalled the inspiration for the Diana Ross song and eventual LGBT anthem, Im Coming Out coming from watching drag queens performing as The Boss. He reminded the crowd that Freak Out began as a protest record under a must less FCC-friendly title. Nile always saw music as a unifying force for celebration, resistance and overcoming of struggle. Disco was the music of celebrating the end of the Vietnam War. It brought together every race, creed, color and sexual orientation to celebrate life and touched souls. That celebration was revolutionary to Rodgers, even more than speeches or marches. To see people from every walk of life unified in celebration of life was affirming for Nile. To him, these songs were as much about protest and important as Say It Loud (Im Black and Im Proud) as they were embraced by all for a time, even if they were seen by frivolous by some. Even a frivolous song can move the soul and spirit.

READ: Nile Rodgers Scrapped A Song About Prince After His Death

When Nile was a pretentious jazz snob, his first music teacher reprimanded him for calling a song silly. He was in his first cover band and the set list called for Sugar, Sugar by The Archies, which the young Rodgers regarded as beneath a musician of his caliber. To Nile, this top 40 hit single wasnt real music. It was simple and easy and not worthy of his time. His music teacher, like any good educator, used this as teachable moment. He reprimanded young Nile and said that Any song in the top 40 is a good composition because it touches the souls of millions of strangers. Nile wrote Everybody Dance with this in mind.

The ability to touch the souls of millions of strangers is something Nile Rodgers doesnt take lightly or for granted and perhaps that is his ultimate secret. To take the job of soul stirrer as seriously as one can, while keeping the groove moving.



Micah Young can be found weekly with his inebriated cohorts holding your hand through the foolishness and fuckery of your timeline on The Brown Liquor Report.Here are the winners! Here are the winners!

Thousands of people entered our big summer competition from 1 July to 31 August this year. Were you one of the winners? Find out below! Thousands of people entered our big...A joint FAO and World Bank report says proper water management is needed to overcome scarcity and social tension

At least two people were killed and six wounded when a bomb went off at a crowded market in Baghdad on Tuesday, police ...

The issue of water, sanitation and disasters must be urgently addressed if we hope to make sustainable development a realityEgyptian expats will not be able to vote in the upcoming presidential elections in five countries due to unstable conditions, deputy foreign minister Hamdi Loza told Al-Ahram Arabic on Wednesday.

Loza said Egyptians residing in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and the Central African Republic will not be able to vote due to wars or violence taking place in those countries. The ministry would not accept endangering Egyptian citizens lives given the obstacles to securing the voting process, he said.

The deputy minister did not give any information about how many Egyptians might be affected.

Expats are set to vote at Egyptian embassies around the world from 16 to 18 March. The domestic vote will take place from 26 to 28 March.

A total of 139 diplomatic missions will be supervising the elections worldwide, Loza said last week in an interview with Al-Ahram daily, calling on Egyptians abroad to participate in the presidential elections.

There are no official figures on the number of Egyptians abroad who are eligible to vote; however the total number of eligible voters in the main national voter databass is 59 million eligible voters, according to National Elections Authority statistics.

Short link:

An Egyptian teenager who was violently assaulted last month in the UK died on Wednesday, the Nottingham Post website said.

Eighteen-year-old Mariam Moustafa Abdel Salam, a Central College student in the city of Nottingham, was attacked outside a shopping mall by a group of women on February 20 and fell into a coma following the incident.

"She died in Nottingham City Hospital today (Wednesday, March 14)," the news website said.

A 17-year-old female suspect had been arrested by police on suspicion of "assault occasioning grievous bodily harm," but was later released on conditional bail, the website added.

It said a post-mortem examination is set to take place.

"Our investigation is ongoing and extensive enquiries have already been completed," Detective Chief Inspector Mat Healey, of Nottinghamshire Police, was quoted as saying

He urged witnesses of the incident, which took place outside the intu Victoria Centre, or anyone with information that might be of help to investigators to come forward.

Egypt's foreign ministry said late on Wednesday that the Egyptian consulate in London will follow up on legal measures to punish the culprits and hold accountable those who showed negligence in providing necessary medical care to the teenager.

The ministry said it has been in touch with the girl's family and is taking necessary procedures to send her body home.





Short link:

SEND IN THE GOATS SEND IN THE GOATS  Glinda, one of several goats from Lets Goat Buffalo in Orchard Park from Sept. 8 through Sept. 10. The goats were at the Birdsong Preserve...

BOE meeting spirals out of control as mask debate rages on Tuesdays board of education meeting marked one of the most contentious in recent memory, as the issue of masking children during the school day was once again on the minds...

Art festival, health fitness business expo set for this weekend Two long-awaited gatherings will finally occur in Orchard Park this weekend as one mega event for the community to enjoy. The Orchard Park Chamber of Commerce will present the Orchard...Ambassador Khaled Rizk, Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Egyptians Abroad, said that the ministry is following up on investigations into the death of Maryam Moustafa, an Egyptian teenager who died on Wednesday after being violently assaulted last month in the UK.

"The ministry is waiting on medical reports on Maryam's condition upon entering the hospital and the forensic report on the cause of her death to seek the legal procedures in case of negligence," he said.

Eighteen-year-old Mariam Moustafa Abdel-Salam, a Central College student in the city of Nottingham, was attacked outside a shopping mall by a group of girls on 20 February and fell into a coma following the incident.

During a phone call with DMC channel morning TV program, Rizk affirmed the hospital is thought to have been negligent in treating the victim.

According to Rizk, the hospital released Maryam without proper treatment after her arrival, which caused her condition to deteriorate.

Rizk stressed that all Egyptian diplomatic missions are working closely to preserve the victim's rights and bring the responsible to justice.

"Despite her critical condition after the assault, Maryam was held for 5 hours at the hospital's emergency unit before being released. Upon returning home, she went into a coma hours later and was transferred back to the hospital," Maryam's father said during a phone call with Al-Hayah TV channel on 3 March.

According to the father, Maryam was assaulted and severely beaten by a group of girls on the street.

"She escaped into a bus but the attackers followed and beat her again and then she went into a coma and was transferred to the hospital," he said.

Nasser Kamel, the Egyptian Ambassador in London, said that the treatment of the British hospital "raises questions" and legal procedures are to be sought in case of medical negligence.

According to the Nottingham Post's website, a 17-year-old female suspect had been arrested by police on suspicion of "assault occasioning grievous bodily harm," but was later released on conditional bail.

The Nottingham Post said that a post-mortem examination is set to take place, while Detective Chief Inspector Mat Healey, of Nottinghamshire Police, said that investigation is ongoing and extensive inquiries have already been completed.

He urged anyone with information, including witnesses of the incident, which took place outside the intu Victoria Centre, to come forward.

On Wednesday evening, Egypt's Foreign Ministry said that the Egyptian consulate in London is following up on legal measures to punish the perpetrators and hold accountable those who showed negligence in providing necessary care to the teenager.

The ministry said it has been in touch with the girl's family and is taking necessary procedures to return her body home.

Short link:

Updated: March 22, 11:49 a.m.

The James Comey appearance at Revolution Hall completely sold out before noon on Thursday, the day they went on sale, according to an email from Powell's Books.

In the epic drama that is American politics of the last two years, James Comey is a tricky and crucial character. There was that fateful pre-election letter about Hillary Clinton's emails. The firing that led to the current Mueller investigation.

And now Portlanders will get a chance to see him, in real life, when he comes to Revolution Hall in April in support of his forthcoming book, "A Higher Loyalty."

The book is scheduled for release on April 17. The manuscript has been handled with extreme secrecy, according to a report from Politico.

"Flatiron Books," Politico wrote, "has implemented a password-protected electronic system so that only those involved in the project have access to it," instead of the usual practice of circulating manuscripts.



"The project is stored under a code name," Politico added, and, "At warehouses that will ship out copies of the book, workers are being asked to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to people familiar with the procedures."

Comey will be in Portland on April 21. Tickets will cost $40 before service charges and include a copy of the book.

According to a release from Powell's Books, who will be hosting the event, Comey will share "his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his long and distinguished career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions."

Tickets go on sale on Thursday, March 22, through Revolution Hall and Ticketfly.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyackerPortland mom Danielle Pacifico-Cogan has called school district officials. She's filed public records requests. She's gone to school board meetings. She's done all of this because she is fearful for her fourth grader and his classmates.

Her son attends Pioneer, a school for students with significant disabilities. Students who go there don't get to learn alongside peers without disabilities, but they do get highly customized services from educators with specialized skills, and she's found it works best for her child.

In November, the district decided to oust Pioneer from its building so that a larger program for gifted students can have the space.

District leaders have implied Pioneer's educational offerings are sub-par as justification for the move, but they haven't stated outright what they feel is wrong.

"If this move is actually a good move, if it is better for Pioneer students, why don't they have a forum and say 'This is why we think it's better. Why don't we tell you about it and answer your questions?'" Pacifico-Cogan asked. "They haven't talked to us about anything and I don't see this happening with parents at Lincoln or Laurelhurst or Duniway or Alameda. They wouldn't get away with it."

She's worried. She read in The Portland Tribune that Franklin High's brand-new design seemed to treat students with disabilities as an afterthought. If that happened, despite years of planning, how careful will district officials be when it considers her son's learning environment?

And so, Pacifico-Cogan and other parents who have children in Pioneer, along with Pioneer teachers, have asked again and again for information and a chance to be part of the conversation about the students' future.

"Portland Public School leaders have been unwilling to talk about any of this, presumably because the plan is both inexplicable and inexcusable," wrote Pioneer parent Lisa Jensen in a recent opinion piece the appeared in The Oregonian/OregonLive. "Despite many requests for a conversation about these issues, district officials have yet to reach out to the Pioneer community as a group to discuss our concerns. Instead, district officials send out a steady stream of misinformation, treating Pioneer parents and staff like opponents, not partners."

Oregon's largest school district has long struggled with communication and trust. Most infamously, officials tamped down parents' fears about lead-in-drinking water only to find lead in spring 2016 yet keep the worrisome results secret for weeks.

Since that scandal, the message from a newly-elected school board has been to expect change, accountability and transparency.

But, at a January school board meeting, Harry Esteve, the district's director of strategic communications and outreach, acknowledged to the board there had been a "gap" in communications with Pioneer families. He explained why: District leaders wanted to let the decision to relocate Pioneer to two or three smaller sites "settle" because he emotions were high.

Pacifico-Cogan said when she talked to Deputy Superintendent Yvonne Curtis, who was hired in December, Curtis told her that, while parents usually would be included in conversations, her impression was Pioneer families and teachers had been hostile.

Curtis said she hadn't meant to imply families were hostile. Pacifico-Cogan had asked her to send a particular administrator, whom Curtis declined to name, to talk to families, Curtis said. Curtis said she felt that wouldn't be productive for that person to go alone and told Pacifico-Cogan that.

"I wasn't going to send the one administrator out because it sounded to me that they just wanted to tell this one administrator why they were angry with them," Curtis said. "What I said is I really wanted to plan a process where we could have a dialogue that could be more constructive."

So why hasn't that happened yet?

Curtis said she hasn't yet felt prepared enough to do so. "I wanted to wait until I might have a viable solution and I don't have a different solution right now," she told The Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday.

Curtis said Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero asked her to examine the issue. As a result, she said, she's been exploring other possible buildings for Pioneer and hasn't ruled out letting Pioneer stay put, she said.

The result, she acknowledged, has been no meeting to offer constructive dialogue with Pioneer families and staff.

Pacifico-Cogan said so far parents have chased down officials for answers, attended meetings where questions were not answered, or been handed edicts from central office.

"It is disingenuous to describe these activities as engagement," she said. "Community engagement is a two-way conversation, not telling people a decision has been made without their consent."

The situation has also been awkward for families at Access, the program for highly gifted students that will be housed in the Pioneer building next school year, several Access parents have said.

Access families often feel misunderstood. They bristle at being painted as privileged and able to get attention other families can't command. Many families in the program have horror stories of a neighborhood school that couldn't meet their child's needs. To get into Access, students must not only be highly intelligent but also prove they need a special school. Many Access students are both highly-gifted and have a disability.

The difference in the treatment of Access and Pioneer has been stark. When district officials planned to break up Access into multiple locations, parents and students complained. They told Guerrero, just weeks into the job, that he had misunderstood their school -- and he apologized and changed the plan.

Pioneer's complaints feel to affected families and teachers as if they have fallen on deaf ears. Even the original announcement they were being displaced undercut them, as Access families were told they were getting Pioneer's building before Pioneer faculty and families were told they would lose it.

All of that has fueled Pioneer families' and teachers' concerns that the district is discriminating against students with disabilities in favor of children who are gifted and talented.

It's all part of tricky political puzzle Portland Public Schools must solve quickly and at a time when many key staffers are new. The relocation of Pioneer is one domino in a master plan to open two new middle schools by August. Those schools are critical to the district's effort to fix inequities. The district has several K-8 schools that can't offer robust programs because of low enrollment. Meanwhile, other schools are overcrowded and need relief. The district blames its experiment with K-8 schools for this problem, thus new middle schools are seen as a fix.

As it stands, the district plans to split Pioneer between two and possibly three sites that are all former elementary schools: Grades K-5 and one K-8 class would go to Applegate in North Portland and the remaining students in grades 6-12 would go to Rice in Northeast. Columbia, which once operated as a Pioneer campus, in Northeast Portland is also being considered as a way to keep at the middle school grade students in one spot.

 Bethany Barnes

Got a tip about Portland Public Schools?

Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.comYou know what happened at the Oscars. Now it's time to see the results of the CotYs, the 2018 Contractor of the Year awards from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.

Portland area builders racked up awards in the Northwest region for kitchen, bath and whole house projects.

Neil Kelly Co., a design and build remodeling company based in Portland, received awards for three kitchen projects in different budgets: $60,001 to $100,000, $100,001 to $150,000, and over $150,000. The company also earned recognition for a historical renovation that cost under $250,000.

Cornerstone Builders of Beaverton will take home three awards at the April 20 ceremony, for a kitchen that costs between $30,000 and $60,000, a residential interior remodel over $150,000, and an addition for a new master bathroom that cost less than $100,000.

In one winning project, the homeowners wanted a functional, attractive and timeless style that wouldn't look dated in a decade. Cornerstone Builders' design crew eyed an existing bump-out addition in the back of the house and had it removed to create a new space with well-placed windows that draw in natural light and frame forested views.

The new master bathroom has a soaking tub with a classic claw foot and the walk-in shower has Carrera marble.

A modern convenience: There's an espresso machine in the pull-out linen closet.

An extreme splurge: To avoid having the house's temperature being just right for one person but too cold or hot for someone else, each room has an individual heating and cooling system.

Other 2018 CotY Northwest regional winners include Craftsman Design & Renovation of Portland. The company received a regional award for a bathroom improvement that cost between $75,001 and $100,000, a basement project that was more than $100,000 and an entire house remodel that cost between $250,000 and $500,000.

Tom Miller Remodeling of Portland was honored for an entire house that cost under $250,000.

An impartial panel of industry experts judged the entries based on problem solving, functionality, aesthetics, craftsmanship, innovation and degree of difficulty. Regional winners will learn if they received a national award at the April 20 ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina.

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



Kate Brown ousted the state librarian Tuesday in a move that surprised and angered many librarians and library supporters around Oregon.

The governor decided that State Librarian MaryKay Dahlgreen "fell short of clear and timely expectations from legislators," spokeswoman Kate Kondayen said. Brown gave Dahlgreen the option to transition out of her position, but she chose to be fired instead, Kondayen said.

The governor has not yet chosen a replacement, her spokeswoman said.

Ann Malkin, the chair of the Oregon State Library Board of Directors, said that the board and librarians throughout the state thought Dahlgreen did a great job.

"We hate to lose her expertise and her leadership," Malkin said.

Malkin was surprised to receive a call from the governor's office that informed her of the decision to remove Dahlgreen. Malkin expected that the board would have input, the chance to advocate for Dahlgreen or at least a heads up on a major decision like that.

"People talk a lot about transparency in government, and I think when you make major decisions like this, that it's good to do this in an open forum where people have a chance to bring forward information and maybe educate people about the role that person has played in the organization and how she has performed her job duties," Malkin said.

A State Library employee since 1996, Dahlgreen was chosen as state librarian in 2012 after serving as interim head.

Until 2015, board of directors for the State Library had the power to choose the agency's director. That year, with the support of the state library board, the Legislature gave that power to the governor.

Brown submitted Dahlgreen's name for reappointment by the Oregon Senate this year. But she subsequently withdrew it.

"The governor strongly supports the mission of libraries, and believes that a strong leader in the State Library is key to effectively drive its partner programming across the state," said Kondayen said in a statement. "The governor's office will work to recruit a highly qualified candidate that can deliver on the clear and reasonable expectations for the State Library and the various educational programs it oversees."

Before Dahlgreen, 62, started working for the Oregon State Library, as its youth service specialist, she worked in the King County Library System in Washington and at the Albany Public Library.

As state librarian, Dahlgreen succeeded Jim Scheppke, who served for two decades. The person first chosen to replace Scheppke was fired and pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery for lying about his credentials. Dahlgreen, who hadn't originally applied for the position, decided to submit her name and won.

The State Library performs three primary functions: as a research arm for other state departments; as a funder and consultant to libraries around the state to make sure they are up-to-date with research and trends; and as the distributor of audiobooks and braille books for people with vision impairment or physical obstacles to holding a print book.

Scheppke announced his retirement in 2010 and left in 2011 after lawmakers' started focusing on reworking how the State Library managed funds and served its roles mounted. Dahlgreen oversaw the state of a revamp of the Oregon State Library, which included closing a public reference room in order to focus more on assisting state employees in other departments with research needs.

There are currently 40 full-time positions with three managers plus the State Librarian.

The State Library board of directors, who are all appointed by the governor as well, will have a say in the replacement, said Malkin, who is also involved in the Deschutes County library system. She said she is focused on the future because the position is too important to get mired in politics.

But the perceived secrecy around the decision concerns many librarians.

Buzzy Nielsen, the director of Crook County Library and president of the Oregon Library Association, said he lost some trust in the new appointment process. He signed a letter the association sent to Brown to express disappointment in Dahlgreen's termination.

The Oregon Library Association officially endorsed the new system as part of a raft of changes. Dahlgreen also supported it, according to Nielsen. He said that they wanted the State Library to be treated similar to most other state agencies, which have governor-appointed heads.

"We didn't want the State Library to be the ignored agency," Nielsen said. "We wanted it to have the respect of other agencies."

He said that most librarians in the state were supportive of the changes at the State Library and approved of Dahlgreen's leadership. A senator's dislike of the speed of the changes points to a possible ignorance of how the State Library and local library systems work, he said.

"They have been making these changes that the state Legislature has been wanting them to do," said Nielsen. "There's only so fast that these changes can be made."

This is the seventh department chief to be ousted since Brown took office in 2015.

State schools chief Salam Noor was forced out by Brown in November. Michael Jordan, the state's chief operating officer and an ally of former Gov. John Kitzhaber, resigned less than a month after Brown took office. Two directors of the state's human services agency, Erinn Kelley-Siel and Clyde Saiki, have stepped down as Brown sought to deal with ongoing problems in the child welfare program.

Brown ousted the director of the state Employment Department, Lisa Nisenfeld, in January 2016 after a state audit was critical of the agency. Dick Pedersen, director of Oregon's environmental regulatory agency, stepped down amid outcry that his agency failed to regulate toxic air emissions.

The governor fired Lottery director Jack Roberts last year after he allegedly refused to reinstate an employee accused of harassment. (The employee was later found to have harassed subordinates and lied to an investigator.) And in August, Oregon Health Authority director Lynne Saxton resigned after revelations the agency drafted a plan to smear a Portland health care provider.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbargerSALEM  A movement to ban assault rifles in Oregon was launched in a Portland church Thursday, with clerics saying youths  many of whom have been protesting for gun control  will drive the campaign.

Interfaith religious leaders in Portland said they aim to get enough signatures on petitions to put a ban on assault weapons before voters, in the November election, in a statewide ballot.

There has been some movement in just a few other states in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people, including:

In Delaware, Gov. John Carney on Feb. 23 called for state lawmakers to ban the sale of assault-style rifles, saying military-style weapons like the rifle used in Florida have no place in the hands of civilians. Legislation is now being drafted.

In California, legislation is proposed that would expand the definition of an assault weapon to include most semi-automatic rifles bigger than a .22. But that would require them to be licensed like assault weapons, not banned.

In Oregon, the campaigners must gather over 88,000 signatures by July 6, and they're counting on youths who have demonstrated for gun control to help.

"Young people in this country are crying out. This is the moment in time where we need to step alongside them as adults and do our part with them," said Pastor Mark Knutson of the Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland.

While a person must be at least 18 to vote, even a 14-year-old can go out and seek signatures, Knutson told The Associated Press over the phone.

"This is going to be a youth campaign," said Knutson, who will be one of the three chief petitioners of the ballot measure.

Rev. Alcena Boozer, a former high school principal and pastor emeritus of St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church; and Rabbi Michael Cahana, of Congregation Beth Israel, are the other two chief petitioners. The treasurer is Imam Muhammad Najieb, director of the Muslim Community Center of Portland and a Marine veteran.

The anti-assault-rifle campaign was launched with a news conference at the Augustana Lutheran Church, which Knutson said is fitting. He recalled the civil rights campaigns of the 1950s and '60s, and how churches played a role, including one in Alabama where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached.

"The civil rights movement started out at Dexter Avenue Baptist church in Montgomery," Knutson said. "Good things come out of unexpected places."

-- The Associated PressJathina Campos

Updated March 15 at 12:42 p.m.

A 24-year-old woman says port police used excessive force against her during an altercation captured on video at Portland International Airport.

Jathina Campos says she suffered a black eye, a chipped tooth and bruises in the Feb. 24 incident. She acknowledges she tried to kick the Port of Portland police officers, who were trying to detain her.

The three officers took her to the ground, secured her hands and feet, carried her to a holding cell and placed her on the floor, according to the woman and police reports.

Both incidents were captured on airport security video obtained Wednesday by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

[Disclaimer: An earlier version of the video showed the incidents at a slightly higher rate of speed than which they actually occurred.]

"I just don't want this to happen to anyone else," said Campos, a Brooklyn native and bartender at the Multnomah Whiskey Library. She moved to Portland in August 2016.

Port of Portland spokeswoman Kama Simonds said police are reviewing the incident but that Campos was drunk and disorderly.

"When Port of Portland police arrived at the security checkpoint Ms. Campos appeared impaired to a point where she was unable to care for herself," Simonds said in an email. "Port Police attempted to take her into protective custody for a civil detox hold, when she assaulted an officer."

Campos acknowledged she had consumed several drinks before she arrived at the airport that night.

Her scheduled flight to Florida was not until the next morning and a TSA agent told Campos she wouldn't be allowed to go through security screening until after midnight, police reports said.

She argued with the agent, who called police, the reports said.

Officers said Campos was cursing and smelled of alcohol when they arrived, they wrote in their reports.

The video footage, released by Campos' lawyer, John Schlosser, appears to show Campos having a heated conversation with officers outside the airport's Pendleton store.

The officers said they told her they were going to place her in a detox holding cell for the evening, which Campos and her lawyer claim never happened.

The officers then tried to grab her.

Once they put their hands on her, Campos said, she reacted in defense.

She tried to kick one of the officer's legs, video shows, and that's when the officers took her down. She landed face-first.

"This is why black people hate cops," Campos screamed from the ground, the police report claims. She was eventually placed in a wheelchair and carted off.

Campos is Latina. Schlosser said he believes the response by police was motivated because of her ethnicity. "It is unlikely that such an incident would have happened if she was white," he said.

After Campos was on the ground, police said, she continued to struggle with officers and tried to head butt one of them. They then placed her in a hobble restraint, which fastens a person's legs to their wrists with a cord.

Video shows four officers carrying Campos toward a holding cell. At one point, eight officers surround her while she's on the ground near the cell.

Campos was booked into Multnomah County Jail on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, a felony, as well as attempted assault and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

Her mugshot shows a black eye and laceration across her forehead.

Prosecutors later reduced the assault charge to attempted assault. She was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

Schlosser said he and his client are considering filing a civil claim against the Port of Portland.

"I'm definitely not going to be quiet about it," Campos said. "What police did was not acceptable."

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 II @shanedkavanaughUpdated: March 16, 8:33 a.m.

A 17-year-old student at Franklin High School was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, menacing and second degree disorderly conduct, after posing for a picture on Snapchat with a handgun in his waistband in a classroom on Tuesday afternoon, according to Portland police and an email sent to the "Franklin Community" by Franklin principal Juanita Valder.

"The photo was sent by Snapchat to another Franklin student, who then reported it to us," Valder wrote in Wednesday's email. "We immediately reported the incident to our Student Resource Officers."

Portland Police later arrested the student at his home. The school isn't releasing identifying details about the student due to confidentiality laws, but Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Sgt. Chris Burley said Thursday that the student was a 17-year-old male.

The email was sent on the same day that Portland students joined students across the state and country in a walkout, honoring the 17 people killed in a school shooting last month in Florida and demanding stricter gun laws.

"Given recent events," Valder wrote. "I understand that it is alarming and shocking that one of our students would bring a gun into our school."

"We place student safety as the highest priority at Franklin," she continued, "and we are thankful that one of our students took the "see something, say something" credo to heart and reported the photo."

The student was arrested and taken into custody at a personal residence, Burley said, after police were informed about the report of the Snapchat.



"A handgun was also located and seized as evidence," Burley said over email. "The juvenile male suspect was lodged at the Donald E Long Juvenile Detention Home."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyackerThe president's statements came during the Armed Forces' 27th intellectual seminar.

"The price paid by every martyr is the pillar that keeps Egypt standing," El-Sisi said, stressing that the Army and police are battling for the sake of God against "the defamers of religion" with "righteousness on our side".

"We said six years ago that the Armed Forces, the police and the state promised the people of Egypt they were ready to die for their sake and so that our country will live," El-Sisi said.

The Armed Forces' 27th Intellectual Seminar is attended by Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi, Army Chief of Staff Farid Hegazi, as well as top army and state officials.

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A judge on Wednesday sentenced a Southeast Portland woman to 45 days in jail for hitting a neighbor on the head with a beer bottle during a confrontation that began when she yelled the n-word at the neighbor's children.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jerry Hodson told Brenda Mae Glenn, 54, that he hopes she realizes that the slurs and her violent behavior could have a lasting impact on her victims. He said that's especially the case for the children, ages 4 and 11.

Glenn and the other family lived in the same apartment complex.

They welcomed you into the community, Hodson said. You treated them in a disrespectful (way) and one of the lowest ways possible. ... Theres no place for that sort of conduct in our society.

Glenn stood and listened to the judge but didnt offer any comment or statements about the assault.

She turned herself in to the jail on March 7, a day after The Oregonian/OregonLive published a story about how she was wanted for failing to show up to her original sentencing hearing Feb. 22.

On Wednesday, the judge also sentenced Glenn to two years of probation, 32 hours of community service and evaluations to assess her for drug, alcohol and mental health problems.

She will be ordered to treatment if its determined necessary. The judge urged Glenn to embrace alcohol treatment. Police said she appeared to be intoxicated at the time of the September 2016 attack.

The encounter unfolded after neighbors reported that Glenn, who is listed in court papers as Native American, kept calling the two children bastards and the n-word while they played in the courtyard of their complex.

An African American neighbor, Ola Mae Keyes, called police. Police responded and told Glenn to stop, but she kept at it, according to the prosecution.

Thats when Keyes and the childrens mother, Tierra Dizer, confronted Glenn and told her to stop, Keyes testified. Dizer also is African American.

Glenn shoved Keyes and swung a reusable grocery bag with a beer bottle inside at Dizers head. Dizer suffered a goose-egg-sized bump on her forehead from the bottle's impact.

Hodson found Glenn guilty of felony fourth-degree assault and misdemeanor second-degree disorderly conduct.

-- Aimee GreenTech companies make a game of naming their conference rooms. Some name the rooms for favorite beers, or superheroes, or nearby mountains and rivers.

At McAfee's big new office in Hillsboro, the conference rooms are named for the company's enemies.

Stuxnet, Mydoom, Nimda and CodeRed are among the most famous viruses to afflict computers. The Hillsboro site is one of the company's top threat research centers, responsible for finding new incarnations of viruses and developing technology to inoculate computers against them.

One of the best-known names in online security, McAfee has had an Oregon presence for years. But the company sold to Intel for $7.7 billion in 2010, ceding its brand as Intel sought a way to integrate security software with its computer chips.

Intel gave up last year, spinning McAfee back out as an independent, privately held business and restoring the original name. (Intel retained a 49 percent stake in the business.)

McAfee's new headquarters are in Silicon Valley, but it retained a vital research site in Oregon, which moved off of a nearby Intel campus at the beginning of this year.

"We never, never considered moving out of Oregon," said Chatelle Lynch, a McAfee vice president in charge of human resources. "It's very key to our engineering infrastructure."

McAfee chose Lattice Semiconductor's former headquarters for its Oregon office. (Lattice moved to downtown Portland in 2015 but still has a small engineering site in Hillsboro.) McAfee has more than 91,000 square feet for 375 employees, with room to add a few hundred more.

McAfee bought foot-powered scooters for employees to ride around the office and installed auto bays so its researchers can study threats to carmakers' technology. The site has walled off a "Live Virus Testing Lab" for assessing especially caustic viruses, and a "Megalab" where researchers can study exploits on dozens of devices.

"We want to have a space where ethical hackers can picture themselves working," said Steve Povolny, McAfee's head of advanced threat research. "The buildout of this lab gives us a footprint to be able to hire locally at this site."

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699A day laborer who killed a retired Washington County worker with a shovel outside the victim's under-construction home in 2016 was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison.

Michael R. Troxell, 29, pleaded guilty in Washington County Circuit Court to first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon in the February 2016 killing of Abdul Jamil Kamawal, 68, at the property near Tigard. Troxell was initially charged with murder.

Circuit Judge Jim Fun ordered Troxell to three years of post-prison supervision, to participate in mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, to have no contact with Kamawal's family and to pay $5,000 in restitution.

Kamawal and Troxell didn't know each other, but Troxell began working on Kamawal's family property the week of the killing, according to the county sheriff's office. Troxell reported directly to Kamawal while working at the site.

It's still not clear what led to the killing. The sheriff's office said there were no other witnesses.

According to motions filed by Troxell's attorneys, Troxell was "suffering from an undiagnosed delusional disorder and was profoundly mentally ill" when he killed Kamawal. He had been exhibiting symptoms of mental distress to people that included his relatives and apartment complex manager in the months leading up to the killing, the court papers said.

Fun found Troxell unable to aid in his own defense in August 2016 and ordered him to receive treatment at the Oregon State Hospital, court records show. He was found able to proceed with the case in August 2017.

Troxell was diagnosed by a state hospital psychologist as being on an unspecified schizophrenia spectrum, having another psychotic disorder and substance use disorders that include methamphetamine and alcohol, according to a July 2017 evaluation report.

Abdul Kamawal

Troxell hit Kamawal in the head with a shovel outside the home in the 7500 block of Southwest Cedercrest Street and covered his body under a pile of hay, court records show. Kamawal, who retired in 2007 as a survey technician from the county's land use and transportation department after 22 years, lived with his family at another home nearby.

Police arrived within 10 minutes of someone calling 911. Troxell was found still in the area.

Troxell told police that Kamawal requested to be killed, and claimed Kamawal talked about being a bird and having his feathers plucked, according to court documents.

Troxell said Kamawal provided a hammer to hit him with, court records show. Troxell is described as having an "unusual demeanor" while being initially spoken to and "laughing at inappropriate times." Troxell made similar and other "strange and delusional statements" when he was later interviewed by detectives, according to memos by defense attorneys Seth White and Dylan Potter.

Kamawal was a fixture in the Portland-area Muslim community. He immigrated from Afghanistan and was also a board member of Southwest Portland mosque Masjed As-Saber, where he organized camps, planned community events and had other duties, friends and former colleagues told The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2016. It's the largest mosque in the state.

He also founded two nonprofits that helped rebuild communities in Afghanistan.

Rebecca Woolington of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyEgyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis if an unprecedented shortfall in funds at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is not tackled.

Egypt, along with Jordan and Sweden, is co-hosting an emergency donor conference in Rome on Thursday to try to alleviate the shortfall, triggered by the US decision to cut part of its funding to the Palestinians in January.

Speaking at the event, Shoukry warned of instability and "a real humanitarian crisis unless concerted efforts are made by the international community to find a quick solution.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) provides health care, education and social services to an estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

It is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states, with the US being the largest contributor.

Washington had cleared only $60 million in funds for UNRWA for 2018, a drop from $360 million in 2017.

Shoukry said Thursday that a threat to UNRWA would "open the door to an extraordinary wave of instability" around the world and "undermine the prospects for a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

He urged Washington to "continue to carry out its humanitarian and moral responsibilities towards Palestinian refugees in accordance with its international responsibilities as a superpower and as a key player in the peace process."

The agency on Thursday secured pledges of nearly $100 million from countries around the world, but still faces a massive challenge to deal with its severe budget shortfall of an estimated $446 million.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl had warned his agency would run out of funds in May.

The countries who have pledged to fund the organisation included France, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, Qatar, Norway, New Zealand, South Korea, Mexico, Slovakia and India, he said.



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Thursday 15 March 2018 12:59pm



Director of Pacific Development Dr Tasileta Teevale

University of Otago research has revealed what works and what doesnt when it comes to the success of Pacific students, and highlights the need for a tailored university preparation programme.

Director of Pacific Development Dr Tasileta Teevale says the New Zealand first-year tertiary student population is diversifying, with Pacific students making up a significant proportion of the group.

In the last decade, the percentage of Pacific people with a bachelors degree or higher rose from 5.4 per cent to 8.9 per cent. However, it remains substantially below that of other ethnic groups, namely New Zealand Europeans at 20.7 per cent and Maori at 9.9 per cent.

These figures indicate that educational disparities exist for Pacific students in New Zealands tertiary education sector and there is a need to address this gap, Dr Teevale says.

In a study, just published in the Journal of Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association, she and co-author Assistant Research Fellow Alapasita Teu, explored the experiences of 116 first-year Pacific students at the University of Otago, to identify the enablers and barriers that contributed to academic achievement.

They found students who succeeded in their first year of study used Pacific-centric student support services; had family members who had been to university before; and had different study habits, learning strategies and expectations when compared with their peers who struggled to achieve.

This study found a suite of tools that Pacific students use to succeed at university and we wanted to share these tools with prospective Pacific students, families and communities.

We hope Pacific students realise that university is an option post-high school and that New Zealand universities have people and services in place to help them achieve and succeed, she says.

As first-year academic success is a strong predictor of university completion, Dr Teevale recommends focussing on first-year transition interventions to address the social and academic adaptations that Pacific students need for success in their studies.

She believes there is a place for a Pacific-centric short university preparation programme. Such a programme would encourage and normalise help-seeking behaviour, and work to reduce any stigma attached to help-seeking behaviours for Pacific students.

There is also the potential for a pre-degree programme to address Pacific families engagement and capacity building, so that they are better able to provide their children with the family support required.

At the institutional level, she believes cultural competency training for university staff who work and engage with Pacific students, as well as curriculum development to ensure academic content includes aspects of the Pacific world, would be beneficial.

Such measures are likely to increase Pacific students understanding of and transition into the university environment, and raise awareness among non-Pacific students of their diverse realities.

An important part of the study is that it tells tertiary institutions what parts of their services were perceived by first-year Pacific students to be useful and contributing to success in their studies.

We think this is immensely useful feedback to those institutions who strive to meet the needs of their growing proportion of diverse student communities.

Identifying and addressing the factors that impede academic success for minority students in higher education is a global priority, particularly for countries experiencing rapid changes in university population diversity, she says.

The University of Otago launched its Pacific Strategic Framework in 2013 which articulates its commitment to meeting the needs of its Pacific student body.

Meeting diverse student needs, makes good business and societal sense, Dr Teevale says.

Publication details:

What Enabled and Disabled First-year Pacific Student Achievement at University?

Tasileta Teevale and Alapasita Teu.

Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association

For more information, please contact:

Dr Tasileta Teevale

Director Pacific Development

University of Otago

Tel 3 479 8604

Email tasileta.teevale@otago.ac.nzThe head of Egypt parliament's human rights committee said Thursday that contacts are being made with the foreign ministry so that a parliamentary delegation can visit England to investigate the death of Egyptian teenager Mariam Abdel-Salam, who was violently assaulted in the country last month and died on Wednesday.

"We are in contact with the Egyptian foreign ministry and with Egypt's ambassador to the UK, Nasser Kamel, and a number of local and Arab human rights organisations, to help this delegation to England as soon as possible," said Alaa Abed.

Abed revealed that a number of Egyptian and Arab human rights organisations have shown wide solidarity with "the Mariam case," blaming rampant racial discrimination and medical negligence for her tragic death.

"I want to go there not just as head of the Egyptian parliament's human rights committee but also as a lawyer who wants to investigate this crime in a country that claims to be a beacon of democracy and respect for human rights," said Abed.

In a statement issued to parliamentary reporters Thursday, Abed said as many as 13 Arab and Egyptian human rights organisations are preparing a "dossier" on violations against Egyptian nationals in the UK and other countries.

"These organisations, for example, include the National Organisation for Human Rights, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and the Egyptian Centre for Free Democracy Studies," said Abed.

Abed indicated that "the dossier includes a list of Egyptians who were killed in mysterious circumstances in England, including actress Souad Hosni, former ambassador Ashraf Marawan, and college student Mariam.

"We want to take this dossier to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to expose the repeated violations of human rights in the UK," said Abed.

Tarek Radwan, head of parliament's foreign relations committee, also confirmed to reporters that MPs are in coordination with the foreign ministry to send a delegation to the UK to follow up on the recent killing.

Mahmoud Badawi, a lawyer and a legal expert, told reporters that "many Egyptians were killed in the UK, with the British authorities not doing enough to investigate or unravel the mystery of their deaths," adding that "it is clear that medical negligence, rampant racial discrimination, and violence in the UK were the major reasons behind the killing of many Egyptians in England."

The 18-year-old college student was attacked by a group of women outside a shopping mall in Nottingham on 20 February and fell into coma following the incident.

She was released from hospital after coming out of the coma, but died on Wednesday.

Egypt's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the Egyptian consulate in London will follow up on legal measures to punish the culprits and hold accountable those who showed negligence in providing necessary medical care to the teenager.

The ministry said it has been in touch with the girl's family and is taking necessary procedures to send her body home.

Margaret Azer, deputy chairman of the human rights committee, also said in a statement Thursday that the committee will spare no effort in investigating the tragic crime.

"We will follow all the legal measures necessary to hold criminals accountable because the crime of killing Mariam demonstrates a new example of complete and flagrant violation of human rights in Britain," said Azer.

We will see how human rights organisations in the West, particularly the London-based Amnesty International and the New York-based Human Rights Watch, will react to this crime."

"We know that they will do nothing, because they are just busy issuing flawed reports on human rights conditions in Egypt and Arab countries," said Azer, adding that "if a British or a western national was killed in Egypt, we would see an army of western organisations issuing reports on human rights conditions in Egypt."

The death of Mariam raises a lot of question marks about medical negligence and carelessness in British hospitals, particularly towards Arabs and Muslims."

Sherine Farag, a member of the human rights committee, also denounced in a statement "the brutal assault which led to the killing of Egyptian student Mariam Abdel-Salam."

It is not just brutal attack on Mariam which led to her tragic death on Wednesday, but it is also medical negligence and indifference in the British hospital where she was supposedly receiving treatment," said Farag.

"There are a lot of doubts that the medical staff in the British hospital  Nottingham City Hospital  refrained from doing enough to help Mariam evade death," said Farag, adding that "we are here face-to-face with a crime of medical negligence and deliberate carelessness."

Farag's statement also said the repeated assaults against Arabs and Egyptians in England raise questions about respect for human rights in the UK.

"Most of the criminals go unpunished or the British authorities are not doing enough to arrest perpetrators of these crimes and hold them accountable," said Farag's statement.

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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Thursday discussed with his French counterpart a planned visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Cairo in the coming months.According to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated during the meeting on the sidelines of a summit on UNRWA that Le Drian will visit Egypt soon to prepare for the French president's visit to the country.

Shoukry and Le Drian also discussed recent developments in the region, especially in Libya, where the Egyptian foreign minister showcased Egyptian efforts to unify the Libyan army, as well Egypt's evaluation of the political process in the war-torn country.

Shoukry also discussed with his French counterpart the results of Egypt's talks with different parties and powers in Libya in order to amend the political agreement there and to implement the plan of the UN special envoy Ghassan Salame in order to reach elections.

The two officials also discussed the situation in Syria where they expressed their increasing concerning about the developments in Eastern Ghouta and the ongoing Turkish military operation in Afrin and how they complicate the chances for a political settlement.

Shoukry also discussed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with Le Drian, as well the Egyptian-European relations, and the results achieved by the militarys Operation Sinai 2018.



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Metsa Tissue Installing New Converting Line at Zilina Mill

March 15, 2018 - Metsa Tissue announced that it is installing a new tissue converting line at its Zilina mill in Slovakia.

According to Metsa Tissue, the project has started and the new converting line for consumer tissue products will be operative by the end of 2018.

The total value of the investment is approximately EUR 10 million.

The demand for tissue papers grows steadily in all market areas, and with this investment we want to strengthen our capacity and market position especially in the Central Eastern European markets, said Christoph Zeiler, SVP Consumer Continental.

At Zilina mill we produce Tento and Mola tissue products for consumers, as well as Katrin tissue products for the away-from-home customers. In addition to this, we also produce tissue products for our customers' own brands, Zeiler explained. Tento has a strong market position in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia, and the new converting line supports our strategic intention to continue growth in high-quality multi-ply tissue products.

Zilina mill manager, Lubomir Kotulac, added, This investment is very positive news to our mill, and a sign of Metsa's will to further develop the Zilina mill. The new converting line helps us to stay competitive and operate efficiently also going forward, which is a good sign not just to our mill but to the whole Zilina community.

Metsa Tissue is a leading tissue paper products supplier to households and professionals in Europe and the world's leading supplier of baking and cooking papers. To learn more, please visit: www.metsatissue.com .

SOURCE: Metsa TissueAl-Mawloudah by Nadia Kamel, Al-Karma Printing House, 2018.

But maybe one day when you are older and wiser, you will come to realize that a human life is made of so many contradictions; this is not just about me. Maybe if you poke some people around you and you get them to share a bit, they would show the many contradictions that they have live with and have carried throughout their lives."

This is the message that Nayela Kamel, born Mary Elia Rozenthal, wanted to leave her grandson Ali with as she approached the end of a life that unintentionally celebrated diversity and survived many difficult crossings.

The tale of this woman is recounted in the recently published novel Al-Mawloudah. Born ("mawlouda" in Arabic) Mary, she eventually became Nayela Kamel when she met, loved and married Saad Kamel.

The book stands comfortably in the overlap of biography, memoir and novel and is written from Mary/Nayela's own account.

It was Nadia Kamel, the eldest daughter of Nayela, who wrote the book upon the volumes of notes and recordings that she had collected through endless chats with her mother for over 10 years.

Born in the heart of Cairo to a Jewish father of Turkish-Ukranian origin and an Italian mother, neither of whom who bore Egyptian citizenship, Mary grew up in a mixed religious and cultural community of Egyptians with diverse foreign origins.

Like her own grandmother who converted to Judaism to marry a husband with whom she had five sons, one of whom was Elia, Mary's father, Mary herself went through the uneasy path of religion, cultural, and political crossings -- not just for love and marriage but for life in general.

It was very early on in her life that Mary had to struggle to reconcile her contradicting parts. She stood by her angry mother to convince the administration of the Italian school in Cairo to let her enroll, although she carried no documents to prove her Italian nationality. With her mother pressing that her daughter was Italian by birth, Mary had only ever thought of herself as Egyptian until that point. She was "of course, Italian. We speak Italian at home" -- something that was only partially true.

A little over a decade later, Mary went to jail for her Communist affiliations. There too, she had to deal with prisoners and inmates who saw her in so many different lights  even if the original indictment gave her the nametag of "Communist.

Mary fell in love with Saad Kamel before her imprisonment and, once out, they married, forcing her to leave her familiar lower-middle class life and diverse community in Boulaq to join a Muslim upper-middle class household in Dokki.

She also had to leave her life of politics and play for the more standstill role of pregnant wife and mother. Meanwhile, her mother in law and own mother varyingly disapproved of how she raised her daughter.

And like her grandparents, who chose to be baptized as Christians a few years after their marriage, Mary chose to convert to Islam, most probably for the convenience of social integration to convert into Islam, taking the name Nayela Kamel. She kept this conversion from her parents for the rest of their time in Egypt. Later they went to Italy in the midst of high anti-foreign sentiment that came with the consequent establishment of Israel in 1948 and the 1956 and 1967 wars.

Religion was perhaps the first, biggest and best-hidden contradiction that Mary-Nayela had to live through. Next was her association with the Rosenthal family, some of whom had left for Israel. For a woman whose entire passion was strictly reserved for Egypt, she now would not be fully taken for Egyptian.

As Al-Mawloudah reveals, Mary-Nayela had taken this Israeli association away from the space of alert consciousness. She was busy with life, with politics, with love and with disappointments.

Her father would go on the trip to visit his family and relatives at the Jewish Ally neighbourhood in old Cairo and he would come back and carry greetings but Mary-Nayela would respond with an unintentionally abrupt kind remark. She would do so to in response to greetings sent in the letters of family members living in Israel, including direct cousins whose company she had enjoyed in her younger years.

Only at a later age did she yearn for a hug from her dear cousin with whom she had parted years before. It was perplexing. As Mary-Naeyla says to her grandson Nabil, who was born to the younger daughter of the Kamels, Dina, and the son of a Palestinian couple, Nabil and Safaa Shaath, it almost seemed contradicting.

The story of Mary-Nayela is essentially about her own recollections as shared with her own daughter.

Kamel, speaking at a book signing and discussion that was recently organized by Diwan Book Store, said that what she produced is the outcome of a very rich experience, holds all the stories, but not necessarily the exact facts because ultimately this what she was recalling and our recollections are inevitably the byproduct of our memory."

The author said that she was not worried about the labeling of her text as memoir, biography or novel. What was of concern for her was to share the story of her own parents and their contribution to public life before it was too late for their story to be told.

It was the story, she said, that her mother wanted to be told.

Kamel told her mothers story almost but not entirely in her mothers words and language. I had to adapt her own style to the requirements of writing, she said.

Al-Mawloudah is only partially about the life of one woman of Egypt; it is not just that.

It is also the documentation of an oral history of Egypt's foreigners, Jews and Communists; of the inhabitants of Cairo, the consecutive rules of Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat and of course of the latter's dramatic visit to Jerusalem and the subsequent peace process.

Above all, it is a story told from the heart with a great deal of passion.

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Global Demand for Wood Drove Pulpwood Prices Higher in 2017 Pulp manufacturers in many countries have seen their wood costs go up during 2017, with the biggest increases in US dollar terms occurring in Western North America, Europe, Russia and Australia. March 15, 2018 - Global demand for wood was strong in most key markets around the world in 2017 due to the trade of softwood reaching an all time high and pulp production up 3.2% over 2016, according to a report from Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ). The following are excerpts from WRQ's report: Global Timber Markets The Global Sawlog Price Index (GSPI) increased to US$76.34/m3 in the 4Q/17, up 1.0 percent from the 3Q/17. This was the fourth consecutive q-o-q rise, with the GSPI being up 9.8 percent in one year. Sawlog prices have gone up universally in US dollar terms in 2017, with the biggest growth occurring in Eastern Europe, the Nordic countries and in Western North America. Sawlog prices in Europe were generally lower in the 4Q/17 (in Euro terms) after having reached a two year peak in the 3Q/17. In the 4Q/17, the European Sawlog Price Index (ESPI) fell 1.2% from the previous quarter. Global Pulpwood Prices Pulp manufacturers in many countries have seen their wood costs go up during 2017, with the biggest increases in US dollar terms occurring in Western North America, Europe, Russia and Australia. The Global Softwood Fiber Price Index (SFPI) increased for the third consecutive quarter in the 4Q/17, and was 4.0% higher than in the same quarter in 2016. Year-over-year, wood fiber prices have gone up the most in Western Canada, Sweden, Spain, Russia and Chile. Hardwood fiber prices have also trended upward over the past year with the Global Hardwood Fiber Price Index (HFPI) reaching its highest level in almost three years during the 4Q/17. Global Pulp Markets Pulp production was up throughout the world in 2017 with the total production reaching just over 53 million tons, or 3.2% more than in 2016. The biggest increase from 2016 was seen in Western Europe where output was up +5.1%. Prices for market pulp reached new record highs in early 2018 when softwood market pulp (NBSK) prices in Europe averaged over $1000 per ton. Global Lumber Markets Trade of softwood lumber reached an all-time-high in 2017 as demand for wood was strong in most key markets around the world. An estimated 126 million m3 of softwood lumber was shipped from forest- rich countries such as Canada, Russia, Sweden and Finland to markets with high consumption of lumber, including China, the US, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. US softwood lumber production in 2017 reached the highest level seen in ten years, with the biggest increase in the southern states. The strong market for lumber in the US led to record high lumber prices in both the US and Canada in late 2017 and early 2018. Finnish softwood lumber production reached a ten-year high in 2017. The higher production was driven by expanding lumber exports, particularly to China. Over the past two years, prices for imported softwood lumber to China have been steadily rising and reached the highest levels in three years in early 2018. The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) lumber markets grew fast from 2007 to 2015, reaching a peak in 2015. Since then, import volumes have fallen by over 20% to an estimated nine million m3 in 2017. Although lumber imports to Japan fell in the 4Q/17, the total volume for the year was up slightly for the second consecutive year. Global Biomass Markets Global trade of wood pellets has grown quite substantially over the past five years, from 11.8 million tons in 2013 to 18.3 million tons in 2017 with Europe being the dominant market. Most of the investments in pellet production over the past five years have been in the US South, while investments in Canadian capacity have been limited. Wood Resources International, publisher of the Wood Resource Quarterly, is an internationally recognized forest industry-consulting firm. For further information visit: www.woodprices.com . SOURCE: Wood Resources International LLCCher, our Trump-hating mom who is continually the best part of our Twitter timelines, is collaborating again with famed fashion designer Bob Mackie, reports Billboard. Mackie will be designing costumes for The Cher Show, a musical about Cher's illustrious life and career. Some of Cher's most memorable getups were originally designed by Mackie, like that sheer black beaded gown that she wore to the Oscars in 1988 when she won her Best Actress award.

We've got a first look at some of the costume sketches that will be gracing the stage. In true Mackie form, he's bringing back the "naked" tulle dresses that made him and Cher famous in the 1980s. He's also resurrecting Cher's iconic hippie looks, with her long, straight hair and striped bell bottoms, and doubling down on his signature heavily beaded pieces.

Last year, Mackie told VogueVogue that "not everything I made for Cher was provocative," referencing her nearly-naked looks. "She never looked vulgar in anything because she had such an incredible body and she carried it wellshe wore it like she was wearing a T-shirt and jeans." Even today, Cher continues to dazzle in outfits that shock and surprise, helping us to remember that fashion has no age of expiration.

While Cher herself won't be acting in the musical, the beloved icon will be played be three different actresses, each at different parts of her life. The score will, of course, center around her discography, and will be set in her goddess-level pysche. It opens in Chicago in June 2018 before heading to Broadway in New York City.Keegan-Michael Key recently went viral on Twitter for his enthusiastic reaction when his longtime collaborator and friend Jordan Peele won Best Original Screenplay for Get Out.

Now, the Comedy Central collaborators are teaming up again to make a Netflix animated stop-motion movie called Wendell and Wild. The film, which will be directed by Coraline director Henry Selick, follows two demon brothers who team up to fight their nemesis and get out of Hell. Variety reports that Peele is co-writing the script with Selick and Clay McLeod Chapman. Peele will also co-produce via his production company, Monkeypaw.

From 2012 to 2015, Key and Peele worked on the popular eponymous comedy show, famously creating Obama's "anger translator," a character who expressed the emotions that the then-president was secretly feeling. Key, who played the character, even joined Obama on stage at The White House Correspondents' Dinner.



The duo clearly have great chemistry, charisma, and talent, and we can't wait to see what they come up with together.

Photo 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In February Patently Apple posted a report titled "Europe's Antitrust Commission says that Apple's acquisition of Shazam may have an Adverse Effect on European Competition." The report noted that the EU antitrust enforcer had said that based on preliminary data provided by the seven countries, the deal may have a significant adverse effect on competition in Europe."

We're learning today that Reuters has learned that the EU antitrust authorities will decide by April 23 whether to clear Apple on the purchase of British music discovery app Shazam. The news has yet to be published on the EU Commission's Antitrust press release news.

Apple sought EU approval for the deal on Wednesday, according to a filing on the EU competition agency's website. The move had been expected after seven European countries including France, Italy and Spain asked the Commission to take charge of the case.

Yesterday Patently Apple posted a report titled "With the Threat of U.S. Tariffs aimed at Europe, France prepares to sue Apple and Google for the sake of 'Justice.'" With the EU forcing Apple to pay billions of Euros to Ireland and yesterday's news of a new lawsuit against Apple business practices, it's hard to see the EU giving Apple a break on the Shazam deal.

The anti-American business sentiment runs high at the European Commission and it would a surprise if they gave Apple a break in April or any time in the foreseeable 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.Select a Category About Me Anti-Catholicism Atheism & Agnosticism Baptism and Sacramentalism Bible and Tradition Blessed Virgin Mary Books by Dave Armstrong C. S. Lewis Calvinism & General Protestantism Catholic Apologetics Catholic Apologists Catholic conversion Catholic converts Christmas Church (Ecclesiology) Church History Conversion and Converts Development of Doctrine Eastern Orthodoxy Ecumenism & Christian Unity Eucharist & Liturgy Fathers of the Church French Translations G. K. Chesterton Hell Hell & Satan Hell & Satan & Last Things Heresies & Comparative Religion Holistic Health Inquisition & Crusades & Scandals James White Jews & Judaism & Old Testament John Calvin John Henry Newman Liberal / Modernist Theology Life Issues Literary Resume Lutheranism Mariology Martin Luther Music Orthodoxy Papacy & Infallibility Personal Page Philosophy & Science Political & Ethical & Moral Issues Protestant Persecution & Intolerance Protestantism Purgatory Purgatory & Penance Romantic & Imaginative Theology Saints & Purgatory & Penance Salvation Salvation & Justification Satan & Last Things Sexuality and Gender Issues Spanish Translations Traditionalism vs. Radical Catholic Reactionaries Traducciones al espanol / traducao para portugues Trinitarianism & Christology Uncategorized

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The reason for my leeriness is simple: I no longer trust in the slightest the judgment of conservative Catholics on almost any issue or figure since they have been so wrong about so much so many times for so long and the closer their judgment approaches unanimity, the more certain it is to be visible-from-space wrong. The passionate enthusiasm about Peterson therefore fills me with foreboding, especially because he is, in fact, not a believer, but a Jungian who has a certain cultural empathy for the Faith, but not the Faith itself. In the words of Bp. Barron:

I have shared just a handful of wise insights from a book that is positively chockablock with them. So do I thoroughly support Jordan Petersons approach? Well, no, though a full explication of my objection would take us far beyond the confines of this brief article. In a word, I have the same concern about Peterson that I have about both Campbell and Jung, namely, the Gnosticizing tendency to read Biblical religion purely psychologically and philosophically and not at all historically. No Christian should be surprised that the Scriptures can be profitably read through psychological and philosophical lenses, but at the same time, every Christian has to accept the fact that the God of the Bible is not simply a principle or an abstraction, but rather a living God who acts in history. As I say, to lay this out thoroughly would require at least another article or two or twelve. On balance, I like this book and warmly recommend it. I think its especially valuable for the beleaguered young men in our society, who need a mentor to tell them to stand up straight and act like heroes.

Understand: I have no particular animus against Peterson himself. He strikes me as somebody who is on a search and I pray that his search leads him to Jesus and his Holy Church. Using Intentional Discipleship lingo, he seems to me to be somebody who is somewhere between Curiosity and Seeking in his approach to Jesus and the Christian tradition. Should he choose to seek entry into the Church, I will gladly welcome him to the altar and I pray God send him wise catechists who instruct him in the Faith and that he receive the sort of space and peace to truly internalize the Churchs teaching. He may, for all I know, be another Apollos and God knoweth we need committed, loving, orthodox lay evangelists.

No. What troubles me is not Peterson, but the Catholics who a) cannot tell the difference anymore between Right Wing Culture War blather and the Magisterium, who b) often elevate Right Wing Culture War blather above the Magisterium, and who c) therefore clutch Right Wing Culture War celebrities to their breasts as prophets sent by God whose musings and opinions are held to be of greater worth than the actual Magisterium. Indeed, I actually witnessed one well-known Catholic suggesting that it might be best for Peterson to become Orthodox rather than enter the Church of the horrible Pope Francis. That kind of diseased culture warrior approach to the Faith is poison. But this sort of stuff appears to me to be what is happening with Petersons odd Catholic cultus with some frequency and I think it is as bad for both his fanboi as it will be for him if he winds up getting fed their bushwah.

I have other reservations about him as well, particularly the warm relations he appears to have with the Alt-Right

but I cut slack to those who stand outside the Christian tradition and who are still seeking and sorting things out that I do not cut to people who claim to be Real Catholics[TM]. Other interviews I have seen with him suggest that he may be fairly oblivious to the Alt Right, so Ill withhold judgment on that one. But I do suggest Catholics assume Bp. Barrons sensible stand and take what may be useful from Peterson without turning him into the next Celebrity Culture War Folk Hero Prophet. That didnt go well even with the baptized Maciel, Euteneuer, or Corapi. It is less likely to go well with the non-Christian Peterson.

One final note: Bp. Barrons last line evokes a poignant grief with me in the wake of Parkland: I think its especially valuable for the beleaguered young men in our society, who need a mentor to tell them to stand up straight and act like heroes.

It is the conservative Catholic subculture that is forever mocking Millennial snowflakes, complaining that These Kids Today dont stand up straight and act like heroes. I hear this constantly from conservatives. The younger generation is self-absorbed and (a favorite word over at CRISIS!!!!!!!!!) effeminate.

And yet, here are the Parkland kids, courageously bouncing back from witnessing the bodies and brains of their friends and teachers torn to hamburger and splattered on the walls in gruesome horrors to equal anything witnessed on Omaha Beachand instantly choosing to turn that trauma into action for the sake of others. I can think of few greater examples of heroism and selflessness and standing up straight and acting like heroes in recent years. And they are being joined by thousands and thousand of other young people who are saying, not just for themselves alone but for the sake of all their neighbors, Enough!

And who are their most steadfast opponents, willing even to slander them as liars and crisis actors? Working passionately to defeat everything they seek to do? Mocking their tears as Dinesh DSouza did? Waving them away as just stupid kids. Conservative Christianists who (I witnessed it with my own eyes from *priests*) bent over backwards to slander them and any who defend them.

Millennials and Gen Z get a terrible rap from my own Generation Narcissus. Weve been given a gift in them we do not deserve. Our prayers are being answered and it pains me that so often we do not see it. More than this: it is *non*-Christians or damn liberals who are on the obvious right side of this question more often than not. My friend Andrew March remarked in our conversation the other day that one of the Righteous thought it would be a great idea to accuse Emma Gonzalez

of being a lesbian. Because, you know, hair. Andrews sensible response was What does that have to do with anything? Shes right about this.

This stunning contrast between prolife Christianist eagerness to saying anything, no matter how stupid, in order to land punches on brave kids who were, barely a fortnight ago, watching the massacre of their friends only makes me ponder the baffled puzzlement of Augustine, who shared my incomprehension of the mystery of Gods choices when he said, So many sheep without, so many wolves within.*As the world celebrates the World Water Day on 22 March the Ahram Online republishes the latest issue of the UNChronicle (Vol. LV No. 1 2018). The Quest for Water focuses on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water for all. This issue of the United Nations digital magazine marks the launch of the International Decade for Action, Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028.

One of the first resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on the location of the headquarters of the Organization, gives the United Nations exclusive rights over the subsoil of land conveyed to it, and in particular the right to make constructions underground and to obtain therefrom supplies of water. That was, in many ways, a metaphor for the rights of we the peoples who had constituted the United Nations and their legitimate claim to the fertile wealth of the land that was their home. It was also a metaphor in another sense, a reminder that no matter how vast the visible, the invisible can too be attained.

Water is visible in Juba, South Sudans capital on the southern edge of the Nile, but just shy of its city limits, in the community of Munuki, wells are dug deep into for invisible, and often contaminated, drinking water. UNMISS, the UN Mission in South Sudan, created a wholly new hydrosystem in the area, bringing clean water to the surface with the turn of a tap. An ocean away, in Vietnam, the UNICEF Tap Project encourages patrons in restaurants to donate a dollar or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, creating funds to bring the same water to children denied its access. Just west, the National University of Singapore devises a drainage block to improve water harvesting, and to create a much larger base flow that is required for beautification of urban canals as part of the World Intellectual Property Organizations WIPO Green database.

Arc north to Tashtak, in Kyrgyzstan, where children had to cross the countrys busiest road to fetch water from nearby villages; every few weeks a child was struck and injured by a car or truck. Despite contributions from every resident of Tashtak, a project to put standpipes in the street was still short of the total needed. UNHCR then stepped up to fill the funding gap under the peacebuilding project, supported by the UN Peacebuilding Fund; the refurbishment took about seven months to complete and provided 12 standpipes throughout the village which now provide clean, fresh water to about 800 people.

These vignettes, of how each UN office or agency has its contribution to make to a universal need and, like our cover, quest for water, find echo in this issue. When the General Assembly requested its President to convene a working-level dialogue to discuss improving the integration and coordination of the work of the United Nations on the water-related goals and targets under its sustainable development pillar, it decided that it shall be ad hoc, informal, inclusive, open-ended and interactive. We hope this issue too is informal, inclusive and open-ended. And that, with your shared thoughts and responses on the Water Action Decade and Sustainable Development Goal 6, it will be interactive as well.

People are saying that the next war will be about water, President of the General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak said at a gathering of students at Seton Hall University, a member of the United Nations Academic Impact, a few months ago. Lets make sure there will be no next war and lets make sure that we treat water the way it deserves.

Lets.

*Ramu Damodaran is Editor-in-Chief of the UN Chronicle and Chief of the United Nations Academic Impacta vibrant network of more than 1200 academic and research institutions around the world which are committed to supporting United Nations goals and ideals.

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Iran Signs $4 Billion Oil Deal With Russian Firm

03/15/18

Source: RFE/RL

Iran has signed a $742 million deal with Russian state-owned energy firm Zarubezhneft to boost production at two oil fields in the country's west. Zarubezhneft and Dana Energy, a private Iranian company, will jointly develop the Aban and Paydar fields in Ilam province near the Iraqi border, to boost production from 36,000 to 48,000 barrels of oil per day.



photo by Islamic Republic News Agency

Zarubezhneft will provide 80 percent of the financing for the project, while Dana will cover the rest.

"Increasing the production from these two fields will bring some $4 billion dollars to Iran" over the coming years, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh said at a signing ceremony in Tehran on March 14.



Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh

(photo by Islamic Republic News Agency)

National Iranian Oil Company head Ali Kardor said it was the country's first such deal with a Russian firm.

"On the political front, relations with Russia are at the highest level, but in the economic sphere, they have not yet reached" the same level, he said.

Iran and Russia have strengthened their relations in recent years. Russian oil firms, hit by sanctions from the West over Moscow's aggression in Ukraine, have sought to garner business from Iran.

The deal comes as a U.S. threat to withdraw from Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers has prompted caution among Western oil firms seeking to do business with Iran.

The deal with Zarubezhneft was Tehran's second deal with a foreign energy firm since the accord was signed.

The first deal was clinched in July, when a consortium headed by France's Total defied pressure from Washington and signed a $4.8 billion agreement with Tehran.

The nuclear deal imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief. However, some U.S. sanctions remain on Iran, including those barring Tehran from using the U.S. dollar in business deals.

Based on reporting by AP and AFPMen Detained at Women's Rights Rally in Iran Remain Behind Bars After Female Detainees Released

03/15/18

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

The women who were detained at a womens rights demonstration in front of the Iranian Labor Ministry in Tehran on March 8, 2018, have all been released but five male demonstrators remain behind bars. The last of the female detainees were freed from Gharchak Prison in the city of Varamin after posting bail on March 12, a source with knowledge about the cases told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).



Women celebrate their release from Gharchak Prison on March 12.

The remaining male detainees-Ali Salem, Javad Abbas Tavalloli, Peyman Chehrazi, Ali Afsoongar and Mehrdad Ghazi-are in the Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) in the city of Fashafouyeh, near Tehran.

The water [at GTP] is undrinkable and the detainees have to buy mineral water from the prison store but the store doesnt accept cash, the source told CHRI.

You have to have a special prison bankcard that takes at least a week to get issued, added the source. So, during the first week, if the new prisoners want better water or food, they can only rely on prisoners who have been incarcerated for a longer time and thats not easy under the conditions in this prison.

Judicial authorities have promised the families that the five men will be released by March 16, the source told CHRI.

Police and security forces quickly broke up the gathering in front of the Labor Ministry on March 8, International Womens Day, arresting more than 80 women and men that day according to the Telegram channel of the events organizers.

Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said on March 11 that the police arrested the demonstrators because they did not have a permit to hold a rally. However, all Iranian citizens are allowed to hold peaceful demonstrations according to the Constitution.

The police executed a judicial order and arrested a number of people at the gathering... because forming a gathering requires a permit and it should not be mixed with anti-state activities, which police have the authority to confront, Dowlatabadi said.

The judicial officials statement violates Article 27 of Irans Constitution, which states, Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.

Outspoken Parliamentary Deputy Speaker Ali Motahari, a conservative, spoke out against the harsh treatment of the protesters.

Naturally, if the protesters had resorted to destructive actions, it would have been a different story, Motahari told the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) on March 11. But we heard the gathering was peaceful and no violence took place. Therefore, given the fact that the gathering was not violent, we will look into this matter and ask appropriate questions of the responsible officials.

An eyewitness said the police became violent with the womens rights campaigners as soon as they got close to the Labor Ministrys headquarters located on Tehrans Azadi (Freedom) Street.

We were in the alley by the Labor Ministry at a quarter to 12 when agents on motorcycles attacked and arrested the guys, said an unnamed eyewitness in a post on the organizers Telegram channel on March 8.

They hit Zohreh Asadpour and I saw that she had a bloody lip, added the eyewitness. Each of us tried to help the detained. Zohreh was trying to separate someone. Every time the people were dispersed, they would start shouting slogans in another corner.

A statement that the organizers were hoping to read at their rally called for an end to the widespread and institutional discrimination against women in Iran, especially in employment and higher education.

We are a group of women who have gathered on March 8 to mark International Womens Day by honoring the memory of women who have ceaselessly fought for their rights since the [1905-2011] Constitutional Revolution until today and express our dissatisfaction and objection to the terrible and degenerating condition of women and the suppression of our human and social rights, said the statement.

Referring to the anti-compulsory-hijab Girls of Revolution Street movement, the statement also called for the official recognition of the right to choose clothing, which women today are demanding as an obvious basic right and the end of violent reactions to protesters against the forced hijab and stop treating them like theyre criminals.

Since January, at least 30 women and men have been arrested for removing their headscarves in various cities across Iran.

Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has also described the anti-compulsory-hijab protests as small and insignificant and accused the protesters of being tricked by foreign countries without providing any evidence for his claim.Former Chief Executive of the Ghana COCOBOD, Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni has been sued at the Accra High Court for allegedly for causing financial loss to the state.



The State has leveled a total of 27 charges against Dr. Opuni along with Businessman cum Chief Executive Officer of Zeera Group of Companies, Alhaji Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Ltd.



A copy of the writ sited by Peacefmonline shows that the trio are charged with wilfully causing financial loss to the State, defrauding by false pretence, contravention of the Public Procurement Act, corruption of public officer, money laundering among other various offences.



Per the Particulars of Offence regarding Count One, Mr Opuni, between January 2014 and November 2014, abetted Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Ltd to defraud COCOBOD of the sum of GHC 43,120,000.



According to the suit, Mr. Agongo and Agricult Limited falsely obtained the amount between 2013 and November 2014 by representing COCOBOD to supply Lithovit Follar Fertilizer from Germany for application by farmers on cocoa for the 2013/2014 cocoa season.



The suit said Mr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni between November 2014 and November 2015 in Accra in the Greater Accra Region, abeted Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited to defraud Ghana COCOBOD of the sum of Ghc 75, 289, 314.72.



Stephen Kwabena Opuni on the 10th of October 2014 in Accra, agreed to permit your conduct as the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD to be influenced with an amount of Twenty Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (Ghc25,000) from Seidu Agongo.



The state in the suit believes that the CEO of COCOBOD "failed to satisfy the prescribed conditions for single-sourced procurement". The state also concluded that Seidu Agongo and Agricult "sold misbranded fertilizer contrary to section 114(1(b) of the Plants and Fertilizer Act, 2010 (Act 803)".



Seidu Agongo is also accused of selling "adulterated fertilizer" contrary to section 114(1)(c) of the Plants and Fertilizer Act, 2010 (Act 803).



In fact, the state accuses Seidu Agongo of "manufacturing the fertilizer in commercial quantities without registration", contrary to the law.



It could be recalled that the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) froze the assets of the COCOBOD CEO as part of its investigations into an alleged scandal involving Dr. Opuni.



He was accused of exploiting and mismanaging the cocoa sector and was relieved of his post on January 12, 2017.



The Republic vrs Dr. Kwabena Opuni's case is set for hearing on Friday, March 23, 2018.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe prying lenses of mynewsgh.com unmasked former Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts, Mr Kobby Acheampong who has gone quiet ever since his party went into opposition barely a year ago.



At a recent party event, Mr Kobby Acheampong was spotted in an NDC T-shirt with an overgrown beard as though he was renowned Muslim Cleric making it impossible for party foot soldiers to recognize him.



Mynewsgh could not help but question the former Deputy Interior Minister who since his party lost power went into hibernation just like other vociferous party functionaries who hitherto appeared on radio and television talk shows.



He said: It is deliberate I want to disguise myself. Cant you see it was difficult for you to recognize me, he responded.



It is unclear why he has decided to disguise himself at a time his party has revealed it is undergoing registration and restructuring of its structures based on recommendations of the Kwesi Botchwey led committee.



Mr Kobby Acheampong, was the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Cape Coast North Constituency who also served as a former Deputy Minister of Interior.



His name rings a bell for referring to Mr. Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, former General Secretary, New Patriotic Party(NPP), popularly known as Sir John as Cocoase Kruaseni  to wit a villager.



Mr Acheampong told Sir John that his long stay in Kumasi has affected his way of thinking and his commentary on relevant national issues and described Sir John as an ignoramus and admonished him to broaden his horizon in order to make relevant contributions to national discourse.



Aside from that, he was also reported to have had a brawl with personnel of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) now MTTD when he was arrested for over speeding on the Accra-Cape Coast Road.



The Deputy Interior Minister denied over-speeding but confirmed he was insulted by one of the men when he tried to advise them claiming that one of the 8 police personnel in the process called him stupid.

Source: mynewsgh.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoAudio Attachment: Listen to Kweku Baako Jnr.

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has asked critics lambasting the Akufo-Addo administration over the decision to evict traders and artisans close to the President's private residence to stop playing on the "keyboard of people's emotion".



According to him, the critics have been clouded by their sentiments and so cannot see the logic in the government's action.



Explaining to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Kokrokoo on Peace FM, Kweku Baako stated that there is absolutely nothing wrong with relocating the squatters because the status of Nana Akufo-Addo has changed.



He recounted that it is prudent for Nana Addo as President to have his security revised, thus a good call if the National Security apparatus, after their security evaluation, believes the people around the President's private residence should be relocated.



Mr. Baako therefore advised the critics to reconsider their arguments saying "sentiment is not the substitute for Science. And the Science here is that the National security apparatus will take its time, assess the place; even the mere fact that the man has become President, itself; triggers a new security dynamic in that environment. But beyond the fact its his status should trigger a new security dynamic, consistently national security does evaluation of the environment and of the situation, not just in that corner but also within the nation.



He pointed out that all previous Presidents worked from the presidency, they have always almost lived in their own residence of choice.



The President "stays there partially or are they suggesting we should barricade him there?" he rhetorical quizzed, adding that "even there is a law, that law will not be able to prevent the president from visiting his private residence".



What he believed should engage the minds of these critics, is the "process of relocation", particularly the compensation being handed outoto the affected occupants.



How to manage the process of relocation is keythats what we should look at. But the security consideration is non-negotiable, he said.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Featured VideoThe opposition National Democratic Congress [NDC] says they are solidly behind a beleaguered member about to stand trial for causing financial loss to the state; former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Stephen Opuni.



The partys National Organiser, Kofi Adams noted that We (NDC) wont allow them (NPP) to go ahead with their scheme to destroy the man (Opuni).



Dr. Stephen Opuni, together with businessman and CEO of Zeera Group of Companies, Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited, have been slapped with with 27 charges of defrauding by false pretence, contravention of the Public Procurement Act, corruption of public officer, money laundering among other various offences.



The two individuals and a company, according to the state, connived to defraud the state of GHC 43, 120,000.



The case will be up for hearing at the High Court in Accra on Friday, 23rd March 2018.



Dr. Opuni had his assets including his accounts, frozen by the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) in February 2017.



Speaking on NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie, Mr. Adams said Its just a calculated attempt to tarnish the big mans image but we wont allow them to go ahead with their scheme to destroy the man. We want him to know that we are solidly behind him and we will make sure that he comes out victorious.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video*As the world celebrates the World Water Day on 22 March the Ahram Online republishes the latest issue of the UNChronicle (Vol. LV No. 1 2018). The Quest for Water focuses on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water for all. This issue of the United Nations digital magazine marks the launch of the International Decade for Action, Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028

Water plays a crucial role in the development of mankind. From time immemorial people have settled near water, which has always been a source of life and well-being. Humanity has praised and glorified it as a sacred resource for thousands of years.

Today, due to rapid population growth, economic development and other challenges that impact the natural resources, the value of water has increased dramatically.

In my statement at the First Asia-Pacific Water Summit in 2007, I noted that ...the world development trends suggest that the cost of water might exceed the cost of oil, gas, coal and other natural resources essential for the sustainable future of each country and region. Numerous studies conducted over the past 10 years proved, with facts and figures, the accuracy of that statement and encouraged the international community to focus on addressing water issues.

As an essential resource for sustainable development, water has been included in numerous documents and strategies for development at the regional, national and global levels. As a result, various aspects of water issues were incorporated into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Such an accomplishment was made possible thanks to the hard work and tireless efforts of various stakeholders.

I am pleased and proud that my country, the Republic of Tajikistan, has made and continues to make a substantial contribution to this process. From 2000 to 2016, at the initiative of Tajikistan, the United Nations General Assembly adopted seven resolutions on water. Among them are International Year of Freshwater (2003);1 International Decade for Action, Water for Life, 2005-2015;2 International Year of Water Cooperation, 2013;3 and International Decade for Action, Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028;4 which deserve special attention. Throughout this period, Tajikistan has repeatedly provided a platform for discussing global water issues.

We continue pursuing this course by actively promoting water issues identified in the 2030 Agenda. As a member of the High-level Panel on Water, Tajikistan, in cooperation with other panel members, has proposed a number of initiatives and is advancing them by demonstrating political leadership and commitment. The recently published outcome document of the Panel calls for further mobilization of efforts of all stakeholders, especially political leaders, in the adoption and implementation of measures aimed at ensuring the sustainable use and management of water resources. The Friends of Water group, established at the initiative of Tajikistan in 2010, currently comprises 51 United Nations Member States, making a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion of water-related issues, as well as to the adoption of relevant decisions within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly.

Tajikistan has also been an important player in solving water problems at the regional level. About 60 per cent of water resources of the rivers in Central Asia (the Aral Sea basin) are formed in Tajikistan, and our country generously shares this vital resource with our neighbours. Tajikistan is a co-founder of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea and its two commissions, the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) and the Interstate Commission on Sustainable Development (ICSD), which provide platforms for discussing urgent transboundary water issues in the region.

In Central Asia, where the water source mainly originates from within the territories of the two upstream countriesKyrgyzstan and Tajikistanand the lions share of this water is used by the downstream countriesKazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistanintergovernmental water cooperation is the key not only for addressing water problems and issues of social and economic development, but also for ensuring peace, stability and security.

Water cooperation acquires even more significance today against the backdrop of the ever-increasing impact on the region of challenges such as climate change and population growth. For instance, in Central Asia in the 1960s per capita water supply was equal to 8.4 thousand m3 per year, while today it has experienced a fourfold decrease, accounting for up to 2.1 thousand m3 per year. This amount exceeds the global indicators by almost eight times.

Meanwhile, the population growth rate in the region, at more than 2 per cent per year, is among the highest in the world, and freshwater resources are steadily depleting.

According to experts, the Central Asian glaciers, which are the main source of water for the rivers in the region, have been diminishing on average by 0.6 to 0.8 per cent per year in terms of glacial area, and by 0.1 per cent per year in terms of ice volume. The current situation demands that urgent measures be undertaken to adapt to the dramatic effects of climate change and to promote the sustainable management of water resources in the region. This can be achieved only through the coordinated actions of all countries involved in constructive regional cooperation, with due consideration to their respective interests, the improvement of the institutional and legal framework, and a significant increase in investment in infrastructure.

The introduction of integrated water resources management (IWRM) at both the regional and national levels is an essential component of this process. Tajikistan has already begun reforming its water sector, taking into account the basic principles of IWRM, including the introduction of basin water resources management. To this end, in 2015, the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan adopted the Water Sector Reform Programme for the period of 2016-2025. It is aimed at improving the legal framework and institutional mechanisms, developing infrastructure and creating a relevant base of implementation tools, including database and information systems, scientific and research works, capacity development and other water management tools.

In Tajikistan, where over 95 per cent of electricity is generated by hydroelectric power stations, water and energy are closely interrelated. Development of agriculture is also primarily based on the use of water resources, since more than 80 per cent of agricultural products are produced through irrigation.

It is also important to note the negative impact of climate change that causes water-related disasters such as floods and mudflows. Providing the population with access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation remains the top priority for the water sector. This issue is especially urgent in rural areas, where over 70 per cent of the countrys population lives. Accordingly, water, among other key issues, is given priority in the National Development Strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan for the Period up to 2030. To systematize all water-related goals and objectives of sustainable development, the country is currently drafting its 2030 National Water Strategy. A new draft of the Water Code of the Republic of Tajikistan that accounts for current trends and requirements has been introduced and is currently under consideration. The human right to safe drinking water and sanitation is given priority in these documents.

Numerous studies and analyses of the impact of global challenges such as climate change, population growth and urbanization have been done. It is clear that these challenges will affect global demand for fresh water. By 2030 it will increase by 50 per cent, creating a 40 per cent deficit in available freshwater resources.

According to various institutions and experts, over 844 million people in the world still do not have access to safe drinking water, 1.8 billion people drink water from sources contaminated by faeces, and 2.4 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation. It is projected that by 2050, 2.3 billion more people will be living in regions with increased stress on water resources.

A significant impact of climate change is manifested in the form of water-related natural disasters. Between 2000 and 2016, due to floods and landslides, over 107,000 people died. According to preliminary estimates, by 2050, the value of assets that will be subject to risk because of floods, may amount to $45 trillion. One of the serious consequences of such phenomena is the destruction and disabling of various infrastructure of the national economy.

There are many other problems and challenges that exacerbate the current situation and undermine our efforts to achieve the SDGs. These trends will persist in the coming decades and humanity needs to take all necessary measures to address them.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, and the Paris Agreement have already laid a solid foundation for further advancement of water issues at various levels. However, political will, mobilization of efforts of all stakeholders and adequate approaches and tools are required for their successful implementation.

In our view, a number of issues must be taken into consideration before further steps are made in this direction.

1. Financing. The financial and economic crises of recent years continue to negatively affect the efforts of Member States to ensure adequate financing for the water sector. In this regard, support of initiatives aimed at improving financing for the water sector, including the use of existing global investment funds, such as the Green Climate Fund, is essential and timely. This is especially relevant for developing countries. It is estimated that an investment of $15 to $30 billion in improving water management in developing countries could yield an immediate economic gain of up to $60 billion. In this context, increased funding for the water sector from the state budget acquires special significance. It should also be noted that despite a steady increase in the share of official development assistance (ODA) in the water sector, the total amount allocated for ODA remains unchanged and has not exceeded 5 per cent since 2005.

2. Investment and infrastructure. Modernization of existing infrastructure and the building of a new one, as well as the integration of new technologies, will undoubtedly play a key role in ensuring reliable regulation and effective use of water resources, therefore making a significant contribution to improved water security. For example, the construction of large and medium-sized reservoirs and hydropower plants allows for a reliable regulation of run-off during climate variability, generates inexpensive and environmentally sound electricity, protects territories and population from mudflows and floods, assists in mitigating the effects of drought and significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. A properly designed infrastructure project can help resolve an entire range of problems. The private sector can play an important role in this process by creating public-private partnerships and other mechanisms.

3. The transition to green growth  and the nexus approach. As a renewable source of energy, water significantly contributes to ensuring green growth, which presupposes that the economy will gradually refuse to use non-renewable sources of energy. Today, hydropower accounts for about 20 per cent of the worlds electricity production. Meanwhile, available resources and opportunities can allow to significantly increase this number. An integrated approach is necessary for addressing the issues of population growth, such as an increase in food and electricity production, and meeting other needs. For this reason, the transition to integrated water resources management and the application of the nexus approach are essential to achieving these goals.

4. Involvement of all stakeholders. The establishment of a multilateral partnership mechanism involving all stakeholders in the discussion of water-related issues will ensure balanced decisions, with due consideration to everyones interests. Women can play a vital role in this process.

5. Transboundary cooperation issues. The development of water diplomacy is a key tool for resolving intergovernmental water-related issues. A total of 145 countries are located in international river basins, and the well-being of their populations depends on the availability of well-established water cooperation. Lack of such cooperation poses serious risks and costs, leaving many problems unresolved, which has a negative impact on the economic and social situations in countries that share common river basins.

The outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), The future we want, identified improved water resources management as the basis for achieving sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development included an SDG dedicated to water. As a logical continuation of these ideas, the Republic of Tajikistan made a proposal to declare the period from 2018 to 2028 as the International Decade for Action, Water for Sustainable Development, which was unanimously supported by all United Nations Member States. The Decade will provide an important platform for political dialogue and the exchange of information and experience, becoming an important tool for promoting the achievement of internationally agreed goals and targets related to water resources, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda.

We are confident that the international community will take advantage of the opportunities provided by the new International Decade for Action and address water-related issues at all levels, including the achievement of the water-related goals and objectives of sustainable development.

*Emomali Rahmon is President of the Republic of Tajikistan and Member of the High-level Panel on Water.Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

It's a time of reckoning for embattled state Rep. Nick Miccarelli, the Delaware County Republican who's been accused of sexual assault by two women, one of them a fellow lawmaker.

On Wednesday, Pennsylvania House Republican leaders turned over the results of their inquiry into the accusations to the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, further ratcheting up the already considerable political and legal pressure on Miccarelli.

The move comes on top of the lawmaker in the case, Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Luzerne, obtaining a restraining order against a man she had formerly dated.

The other woman in the case, a Harrisburg political consultant, has chosen not to make her name public.

As PennLive's Jan Murphy reports, the details of the findings were not made public in accordance with House policies.

In a statement, House GOP leaders said that witnesses were interviewed and materials reviewed as part of the caucus' investigation into a joint complaint filed by Toohil, who has chosen to make her name public, and the other woman in the case.

In a statement, Miccarelli's spokesman said the suburban Philadelphia lawmaker and his legal team were "in the process of reviewing the State Republican Caucus report. Upon an in-depth analysis of the findings in the report, we will issue an additional statement."

Miccarelli has maintained his innocence and resisted repeated calls, including another this week by House Majority Leader Dave Reed, that he resign.

But here's the issue for Miccarelli: There's now a pending criminal probe by the Dauphin County DA's office. Separately, a Luzerne County judge, today, will hold a hearing on that protection-from-abuse order obtained by Toohil.

Unlike other lawmakers, such as Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, who was accused of genuinely loutish behavior and pressured (and similarly resisted calls) to resign, Miccarelli's actual ability to do his job is now in serious doubt.

Toohil's PFA bars Miccarelli from being in her place of work.

In this case, that's the Pennsylvania Capitol, where both were elected to represent the voters of their district. Miccarelli was a no-show for session week, working out of his suburban Philly office.

So unless a judge modifies the terms of that PFA and allows an elected lawmaker to execute the core responsibility of his job - making laws - it's hard to see how Miccarelli hangs on much longer.

And with the Miccarelli case, the Capitol's #MeToo movement seems to have reached something of a high-water mark. This is the highest-profile case to date, involving actual allegations of criminal behavior.

Credit Toohil and the other woman in the case for this much too: By pursuing the course they have, they've also smartly short-circuited arguments by the movement's critics that the accused in the case isn't being provided with due process.

There's every indication that is happening in the Miccarelli case. And while he can maintain his innocence for as long as he wants, there will be a point of reckoning for him today on whether he can effectively continue to do the job that his voters elected him to do.

And that's a separate matter from legal due process. You can receive a fair hearing in court, as one observer noted. That doesn't mean you get to keep your job.

The rest of the day's news starts now.

National Republicans are looking to impound voting machines ahead of an expected recount in #PA18, The Post-Gazette reports this morning.

Meanwhile, Libertarian Drew Miller, who got more than 1,300 votes in the #PA18 race, is having something of a moment. Is he a spoiler? You betcha. Is he proud? You betcha.

Gov. Tom Wolf says Philly School Reform Commissioner Bill Green is ineligible to run for Congress. Green is ... ahh ... undeterred, The Inquirer reports.

BillyPenn has five things for you to know about the Temple/Penn State match in the NIT.

As long as there is a Susquehanna, there will be Instagrams of the people by the river. Here's today's #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day:

A new Morning Call/Muhlenberg poll finds growing support for stronger gun-control laws in Pennsylvania.

And here's a look at how central Pennsylvania students observed National School Walkout Day on Wednesday:

Central Pa. students on National Walkout Day 37 Gallery: Central Pa. students on National Walkout Day

WHYY-FM profiles the Philly neighborhood where the city's black middle-class residents have put down roots.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale called for additional transparency from Pennsylvnaia's state-related universities, WJAC-TV reports.

The air wars in the GOP gubernatorial primary continue. Paul Mango is out with a new one hitting rival Scott Wagner on taxes.

There's plenty of pitfalls for Capitol Hill staffers who do campaign work, The Hill reports.

More Democrats are likely to disavow Nancy Pelosi after Conor Lamb's win in Pennsylvania, Politico reports. But will she care if the Dems flip the House in November?

What Goes On.

The House Education Committee holds a 9 a.m. session on school-safety measures. You'll find them in 140 Main Capitol.

What Goes On (Nakedly Political Edition).

State Sen. Tina Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, holds a 5:30 p.m. reception at The Pyramid Club in Philly. Admission runs $500 to $5,000.

WolfWatch

Gov. Tom Wolf announces the creation of a school-safety task force during a 10 a.m. event at an elementary school in scenic Wynnewood, Pa., this morning.

Heavy Rotation.

Here's some new music from

The Vaccines

to get your Thursday morning off to a noisy start.

Thurdsay's Gratuitous Hockey Link.

Pittsburgh dropped a 4-3 decision in overtime on the road against the Rangers on Wednesday night.

And now you're up to date.Representatives from Amazon spent a day and a half in Philadelphia recently as a part of the company's search for a second headquarters, according to a Philly.com report.

Mayor Jim Kenney told Philly.com a site-selection team met with officials involved in the city's proposal. No elected officials met with the Amazon team, and Kenney declined to share any details of the meetings.

Denver, Washington, D.C., Dallas and Austin have already been visited by Amazon, as the company scouts its HQ2 project. Philadelphia was one of 20 finalists for the second campus. No such visit has been set for Pittsburgh, according to the Post-Gazette.

Amazon promises to invest more than $5 billion and expand its second headquarters to accommodate as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. In addition, the chosen location and its surrounding area stand to reap the benefit of tens of thousands of additional jobs from its construction and operation.Travon Johnson agreed to watch his girlfriend's baby Saturday night so she could attend a concert.

But soon he became jealous of her night out, Harrisburg police said.

That's when he allegedly took off with the 1-year-old girl, police said. The mother reported her child missing about 7 a.m. Sunday. Johnson spent Sunday hiding out with the baby and calling her mother and threatening to hurt the child, police said.

Travon Johnson

"He was mad and he wasn't giving the kid back," said police Lt. Terry Wealand.

Johnson warned the mother that if police became involved, he would harm the child. During the call, police said, the mother could hear her daughter crying in the background.

The standoff spanned nearly 12 hours as officers searched for the missing pair.

"It was tense," Wealand said. "It was like something out of a bad movie. We were all wondering: 'How is this going to end?"

As it turned out, Johnson arranged to drop off the child to his relative who arranged to get the baby back to her mother about 6:45 p.m. Sunday.

The baby had suffered bruises and swelling to her face, apparently from being repeatedly struck by Johnson, police said. She was taken to a hospital and treated. The baby did not suffer any broken bones.

"She was pretty banged up," Wealand said. "But she's going to be okay."

It's unclear exactly when the injuries were inflicted on the baby's face and head as Johnson did not admit to causing the injuries.

Police and prosecutors said the situation could have turned out much worse.

According to criminal charges filed against Johnson in recent months, he allegedly was capable of brutal violence.

In September, he allegedly punched, kicked, bit and choked his sister in her home for something she said that "irritated," Johnson. The sister said Johnson beat her with a crutch she had been using, and threatened her and another brother with a large knife.

When she called 911, Johnson allegedly threated to return and shoot her for calling police. He has previously pistol-whipped her, the sister told police.

Johnson avoided police for a few weeks before he was arrested in October in connection with the assault on his sister. Police allegedly found him with a gun he wasn't allowed to have and illegal drugs, according to court records. He spent two months behind bars on those charges before posting $200,000 bail through a bondsman on Dec. 11.

On Feb. 3, Johnson allegedly threatened another sister who asked him to leave her home. She said he pointed a gun to her head and said, "I will (expletive) kill you (expletive!)"

Two days later, he allegedly pointed a gun at the head of a boy he didn't know after the boy "stared" at him on the street near Reily and Cameron streets. The boy was walking home from a store with his brother.

Johnson allegedly stole the boy's phone and $30 and later pointed the gun at his mother's face and threatened to shoot her when she confronted him over the incident. Johnson then allegedly got into physical altercation with the boy and they all ended up inside the store arguing.

Police used video surveillance from the store to identify Johnson as a suspect.

Police had already been looking for Johnson in connection with the February crimes when he allegedly kidnapped the baby.

Police arrested him about 4:45 p.m. Monday in the 300 block of Crescent Street, an area he was known to frequent. Police said he had a gun with him that had been reported stolen in Harrisburg.

He now faces new gun charges and additional charges of kidnapping of a minor, aggravated assault, concealing the whereabouts of a child, terrorist threats, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Kidnapping is classified as a first-degree felony, which represents the second most serious crime classification in Pennsylvania, behind first-degree murder.

The magisterial district judges denied bail for Johnson, noting he is a "danger to society."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Sean McCormack, who prosecutes much of the county's crimes against children, said he couldn't discuss the particulars of this case. But he pointed out that domestic violence in general is about control.

"The abuser uses whatever methods they can to control their victim," he said. "As a comparison, there is a correlation between domestic violence and animal abuse. Many times an abuser will attack or kill a victim's pet because by doing so they know they are deeply wounding the victim by attacking something they care deeply about."

UPDATE: This article was updated to add comments by Sean McCormack.Purdue Pharma, maker of the top-selling opioid OxyContin, is funding things such as public service warnings about the danger of opioids, free naloxone for police to use to save overdose victims and pill collection boxes.



But how should it be regarded: as an honest effort to do the right thing? Or a tactic to avoid being held fully accountable and having to pay much more?



An article by Kaiser Health News this week takes a look at the situation, writing: "After years of aggressively promoting OxyContin as a safe and effective way to combat pain, the company is -- equally aggressively -- recasting itself as a fundamental player in the response to a crisis that many experts say it helped to create. Such efforts come amid hundreds of lawsuits claiming that Purdue fueled the opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing OxyContin, as well as new government efforts to regulate opioids."



KHN spoke to grass-level beneficiaries of Purdue Pharma donations who viewed them as badly-needed things that make a difference and were untroubled by the source. Some were unaware the donation came from Purdue Pharma.



But others have taken offense, including a mother of young man who died of an opioid overdose who told KHN, "It's sickening. It makes me feel sick. I hold Purdue personally responsible for this epidemic. It's blood money at this point." The mother was reacting to a Purdue Pharma-sponsored radio ad warning of the dangers of opioids.



An advocate for people struggling with addiction said the Purdue Phama efforts don't come close to offsetting the damage resulting from opioids. "They're spending millions of dollars to do this when they owe billions," he said.



The company in 2007 pleaded guilty to misleading doctors and patients about the addictive potential of OxyContin, according to the KHN article.



However, a Purdue Pharma spokesman told KHN: "Pointing fingers isn't a way to get the resolution we need. Pointing to one company and one product that never constituted more than 3.6 percent of total prescriptions really misses the mark."



KHN noted the Purdue Pharma public service announcements all end with the statement, "We want everyone engaged to know you have a partner in Purdue Pharma. This is our fight, too."





Opioids were blamed for about 42,000 deaths in 2016. That includes deaths from legal opioids such as OxyContin as well as illegal opioids such as heroin. Even the heroin deaths are being tied to OxyContin and other prescription opioids, with the belief being that most people addicted to heroin began with a legal opioid, often a legally prescribed one.



Purdue Pharma is branching off into other medications, but OxyContin still accounted for 82 percent of its revenues in 2017, down from 94 percent in 2012, KHN reported.WILLIAMSPORT - A judge has restored the pension of a Williamsport police officer found guilty in a corruption case.

Centre County Senior Judge David Grine found there was insufficient evidence to show former Lt. Thomas H. Ungard Jr. committed the crimes through his public employment.

The judge reversed the April 12, 2017, decision of the city Police Pension Board forfeiting his pension. Grine was assigned to hear Ungard's appeal because the Lycoming County judges recused themselves.

Ungard said Wednesday he would withhold comment until the time for the city to file an appeal has expired.

Grine rejected Ungard's argument he was not a public employee when he coordinated the activities of the Lycoming County Drug Task.

But he agreed with Ungard that neither his employment as a police officer nor drug task force coordinator put him in a position to commit the crimes.

Ungard was found to have placed false dollar amounts on forms when he obtained title of two forfeited vehicles from lawful owners.

READ MORE: Ex-Williamsport cop convicted in 2011 ordered to begin serving his sentence of probation

He argued during a Jan. 9 hearing anyone could commit that crime, not just a public official.

Ungard represented himself at the trial in which the jury found him guilty of two counts of tampering with public records and one count of obstruction of justice.

On Oct. 12, 2011 he was fined $750 and placed on 18 months' probation, but has served only one day due to his continual appeals.

Then Attorney General Tom Corbett traveled to Williamsport to announce charges against Ungard and then Cpl. Dustin Kreitz that were based on a statewide grand jury presentment.

The presentment followed an investigation that began after a pickup truck forfeited by a drug dealer was used by then Chief John McKenna in June 2006 to pull Ungard's boat to Canada on a fishing trip.

Ungard joined the force in May 1993, was suspended with pay July 15, 2006, and terminated April 24, 2014.

READ MORE: Convicted Williamsport cop vows to fight pension forfeiture decision

The attorney general's office withdrew most of the charges against Kreitz and in January 2012 he pleaded guilty to a count that as a public official he failed to report receipt of big-screen television from the drug task force, a misdemeanor for which he was fined $350.

Kreitz sought reinstatement to the force but reached an agreement with the city that allowed him to retire with a pension and health insurance benefits.UPDATE: Starting location changed to Clipper Magazine Stadium for March 24 march in Lancaster.

Rallies and protests sparked by the shootings that killed 17 students in a Parkland, Fla. school haven't ended with the student walkouts that took place across the country Wednesday.

At noon on March 24, the "March For Our Lives" rally organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland will take place in Washington, D.C.

Permit requests have been approved for the anti-gun-violence rally that The Washington Post reports could bring as many as 500,000 people to the nation's Capitol.

Hundreds of "sibling" "March For Our lives" events will take place across the country on that same day, including several in central Pennsylvania.

The organizers behind "March For Our Lives" are rallying in support of "a comprehensive and effective bill to be immediately brought before Congress" to address gun issues, according to the organization's website.

Several buses from central Pennsylvania have been chartered to take people to the march, including buses leaving from the Harrisburg Mall in Swatara Township and from 53 E. Mcgovern Ave. in Manheim Township, according to the website, Rallybus.net. Buses are also departing from the Carlisle and Gettysburg areas, according to the website.

Local events on March 24 include a "March for our lives" being held at noon on the steps of the Capitol, on Third Street in Harrisburg.

In York, a "March for Our Lives" will be held at 10 a.m. at the old courthouse on Market Street.

And in Lancaster, a "March for Our Lives" will be held at noon at Binn's Park, 100 N. Queen St.

Cumberland Valley students are also planning a rally at 2 p.m. this Sunday at High and Hanover streets in Carlisle to demand action against gun violence in schools.Lt. Gov. Mike Stack already was facing stiff competition from six challengers within his own Democratic party heading into the spring primary.

But now, he's facing a legal challenge that will decide whether his name will appear on the spring ballot at all.

The petition filed in Commonwealth Court this week aims to knock Stack off the ballot and out of the race because it claims he used an inaccurate address for his residence on his nominating petitions. The development was first reported by the news site Billy Penn.

Stack listed his mother's home in Philadelphia as his residence on his nominating petitions filed earlier this month, according to the legal challenge filed against him.

But the challenge noted that he had previously changed his permanent address in 2015 to the Lt. Governor's mansion located in Fort Indiantown Gap after he was inaugurated.

"It is a material defect to file a candidate affidavit knowingly listing an address that is not the candidate's residence," the challenge said., "and the nomination petition is therefore invalid."

Lt. Gov. Mike Stack

Stack previously has said publicly that he maintains his voting registration at his mother's home, which his spokesman called the "Stack family home."

The instructions for the nominating petition, however, state that "residential address pertains to where [the candidate] actually resides"; it does not reference where the candidate is registered to vote," according to the challenge.

"In the face of the clear instructions," the challenge said, "Stack signed a Candidate's Affidavit, swearing that he resides at his mother's home, despite previously stating through a spokesperson that all of his furniture and belongings have been moved to the Lieutenant Governor's residence."

Stack's campaign spokesman, Marty Marks, told PennLive Thursday that government officials are allowed under Pennsylvania law to maintain their original "hometown" addresses for voting registration during a term of service that requires them to move elsewhere.

But that's not the same thing as establishing a residence as defined on the nominating petitions, according to attorneys who specialize in election law.

Complicating things is the fact that Stack and his wife sold another Philadelphia home they owned in February 2016, one year after Stack took office and moved into the state-owned mansion.

"I think Mike Stack has a problem," said Linda A. Kerns, a Philadelphia attorney and registered Republican who practices election law. "The problem here is he sold his house...Once he sold his previous home, unless he took action to establish a domicile at his mother's home, I think he has an issue here."

Kerns said any legal trial over the matter would be very "fact-specific."

Stack would have to produce various forms of proof that he had established the "family home" as his personal home through things like move-in dates, how many times he returns there and whether he intends to go back there permanently and live with his mother after his term ends.

"Stack simply cannot claim that because the house had been owned by members of his family for years, that he resides there," Kerns said. "Once he moved out of his mother's home as an adult, he established a new domicile."

Stack's campaign spokesman, Marty Marks, said Stack circulated his petitions with his "permanent address," which has functioned as the "Stack family home" for 41 years.

Marks also pushed back on the allegation that Stack ever had listed the lieutenant governor's mansion as his permanent address.

"He might have listed that as his mailing address," Marks said. "But he lists the family home as his address on his driver's license and law license."

Further muddying the residency question are a series of hotel receipts from Philadelphia that Stack tried to get the state to reimburse him for in 2015 and 2016.

According to Philly.com, Stack asked the state to reimburse him for $4,210.69 for hotel stays and incidental expenses in Philadelphia between January 2015, when he was inaugurated, and February 2016, when he sold his house.

Stack then reimbursed the state for $1,892.93 for lodging and meals during three trips to the city in the first four months of 2015, according to Philly.com, because he had not yet changed his address to Fort Indiantown Gap.

Stack's challengers are likely to argue if Stack's "home" was in Philadelphia, then why would he need to stay in a hotel?

Marks declined to address this question and other specific questions about Stack's prior home that he sold in 2016.

"We will address it in court," he said of the additional questions.

One of the key issues in this legal challenge is going to be: "What happened after he sold his home," Kerns said. "How many times did his head hit the pillow at his mom's house? Mike Stack wouldn't have a problem if he never sold his other house. But once he sold that, he had to establish a domicile. I think he's going to have an uphill battle."

Another election attorney in Philadelphia, Larry Otter, disagreed and said "residential challenges are pretty tough," because government officials often don't change their residences to their work location.

"It's not as simple as it sounds," he said of legal challenges to residency. "It's not that cut and dried."

Karen Balaban, a Harrisburg attorney who specializes in election law, agreed and said it's hard to prove residency.

"Someone who's a state employee is allowed to maintain two residences," she said. "So unless theres something more in that lawsuit I don't see them prevailing."

Some people might question: why would Stack even use a "family home" address, when a safer route against petition challenges may have been to list the lieutenant governor's mansion? It is a statewide race after all.

But Kerns said he may have wanted to present himself to the large Philly voting base as a native. Meanwhile, Stack's team maintains he did so because it is his home.

Marks called the legal challenge against Stack a "nuisance challenge filed by a candidate who clearly doesn't understand Pennsylvania law or have a lot of respect for the use of taxpayer money."

Although three Philadelphia residents are named as filing the legal challenge against Stack, sources told the news site Billy Penn that the campaign of his newest Democratic challenger, Nina Ahmad, was behind the legal maneuver. Her campaign officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE: This article was updated to include Balaban's comments.This post was updated at 10:34 p.m. with some comments from Theresa Latini.

A prominent Lutheran seminary with two campuses in Pennsylvania is having a stormy moment of reckoning over the early-career, "conversion therapy" work by its first-year president.

That moment reached a climax at the United Lutheran Seminary Wednesday, with the school's board of trustees voting to end the Rev. Theresa F. Latini's tenure as president.

Latini, who answered some questions from PennLive via email Wednesday night, called the board's action unfair.

"I have been scapegoated by an historically divided institution resistant to unification," she wrote, "and have been given little chance to respond to the accusations against me."

United Lutheran Seminary is the modern-day result of a merger between longstanding seminaries in Gettysburg and Philadelphia. The jointure was approved in January 2016, and took effect this fall.

The controversy stemmed from Latini's work in the 1990s, according to this report on Philly.com, as director of One By One, a Pittsford, N.Y.-based organization that believed and taught that sexual orientation change is possible.

That information, the news site reported Wednesday, was made known to the seminary's board chairman during a presidential search process last year.

But the chairman, the Rev. J. Elise Brown, did not share that information with the rest of the board's selection committee, which subsequently hired Latini last summer.

As word of Latini's past leaked out in recent weeks, students, alumni, faculty and staff have pushed back against the presidential search process, the lack of transparency surrounding it, and related issues.

The pushback continued through a board "listening session" in Philadelphia last week, and culminated in Wednesday's actions.

The vote count on Latini's termination was not immediately available.

But besides Latini's departure, four school trustees tendered resignations at the start of Wednesday's meeting. Four others, including Brown, resigned at its close, the school reported Wednesday night on its Web site.

That shake-out leaves the board with 14 continuing members. Here's an extended excerpt from the board's announcement:

"This decision (regarding Latini) was made based on the board's concern that the ongoing controversy surrounding her naming as president made it extremely difficult to overcome the issues related to trust as the president of this institution.

"With the understanding that there is much work to be done in healing... the board recognized that her ongoing tenure would present a significant obstacle to moving forward.

"We recognize that this decision will not satisfy many of our constituencies, but our responsibility as a board is to make decisions that we believe will best strengthen and sustain ULS. Through prayer, thoughtful discussion and active listening, we have reached the conclusion that ending our relationship with Dr. Latini will be the most positive approach to our process of healing and to the health and well-being of ULS...

"These were very tough decisions to make, and we can assure you, they were not made lightly. We are aware that many of you will applaud our choices, while many others will be bitterly disappointed.

"We ask you all to be mindful that these issues are complicated and multi-faceted and, as such, there can be no 'one right or true answer.' We affirm that all points of view are valid and meaningful, and we ask that you recognize on good faith that we did our best to take all into full account as we endeavored to find the best answer for ULS."

A board spokesman said there would be no further comment from the school at this time.

James Dunlop, the bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, will serve as acting president of the seminary while the board is rebuilt and a search for an interim president begins.

The synod is the regional body for the denomination, encompassing 234 churches through South Central Pennsylvania.

Former United Lutheran Seminary President Theresa Latini

Latini, whose presidency started with the schools' jointure, came to Pennsylvania from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Mich., where she served as associate dean of diversity and cultural competency and a faculty member.

The ousted president, for her part, has renounced her work in the conversion therapy field, which she said was influenced by her "fundamentalist upbringing."

According to Philly.com., Latini, 47, was involved with One By one from 1996 through 2001.

She noted in a letter to the school community that she has worked vigorously in the last 12 years for full inclusion of gays, lesbians and transgender persons in the church.

She also apologized, in her missive to the school community dated March 13, for how this part of her past came to light.

But she had also clearly hoped to stay.

"I had been eager to help this newly-combined organization to flourish," Latini said in her email to PennLive.

"However, given the long-standing, historic divisions between the predecessor schools and what I believe to have been a politically-based whisper campaign against me and other members of the board, it became clear that certain parts of the organization were not going to stand behind me and that I could not be effective as president."

Latini also sent this email to trustees after Wednesday's vote, a copy of which was obtained by PennLive:

"I was saddened to learn today that the Board of Trustees has elected to terminate me as president of United Lutheran Seminary.

"Since I became President in July 2017, I have poured every ounce of myself into leading this newly-consolidated and profoundly polarized school to overcome the longstanding divisions that have been, and continue to be, the primary impediments to building a vibrant and sustainable institution.

"I have enjoyed my association with wonderfully talented students, staff, and faculty who share in the mission of educating faithful, creative public leaders for service in congregations and communities. To them and to all of you, I offer my best wishes and, as always, my prayers."

The episode is the latest in a long string of aftershocks as major American religious institutions continue to wrestle with and acclimate to fast-moving shifts in attitudes regarding issues of sexual orientation.

Many denominations are still in their first generation of openly welcoming gays and lesbians as full participants in church life, just as the nation is in its first generation of legalized, same-sex marriage.

Conversion therapy, in particular, aims to suppress same-sex attraction and change one's sexual orientation.

It has been rejected by groups including the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association as not only ineffective, but also psychologically harmful.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with which United Lutheran Seminary is affiliated, is the largest of North America's Lutheran denominations. It has called for full participation in church life by gays and lesbians in 1991, and has ordained ministers of all sexual orientations since 2010.

The denomination, according to the Washington D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, gives individual churches and their pastors autonomy in deciding whether or not they want to celebrate same-sex marriages.Lititz police are looking for a 43-year-old Lancaster man accused of attacking a woman during a domestic violence incident.

Robert David Rampolla is charged with simple assault and terroristic threats stemming from an incident at around 2 a.m. on the first block of North Broad Street. The victim told police Rampolla punched her and struck her head against the dashboard of a vehicle.

She also said Rampolla threatened to kill her. She was treated for injuries sustained in the attack, police said.

Anyone with information as to Rampolla's whereabouts is asked to contact Lititz police at 717-626-6393..

Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the Syrian government on Wednesday at a checkpoint they were manning near the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, a monitor said

"The air strikes targeted a checkpoint on the only road leading from Afrin to regime-controlled territory to the southeast," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Of the 10 fighters killed, eight were from the nearby regime-held town of Nubul, the Observatory said.

Ankara and allied Syrian rebels have waged an offensive against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), who control the Afrin enclave, since January 20.

The enclave is bordered to the north and west by Turkey but also lies adjacent to government-controlled Syrian territory.

Pro-Turkish forces have seized several border areas and have almost fully encircled the city of Afrin.

The road that was bombed on Wednesday is the only official way out of the town, and while it has not been fully captured by pro-Turkish assault, it is within firing range.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said some civilians were trying to escape from Afrin along smuggling routes avoiding the main road.

Around 350,000 people live in the city, including families displaced from other parts of the enclave.

Turkey has killed dozens of pro-Damascus fighters backing the YPG in Afrin.

Short link:

By Sarah Stitzlein

In scenes unprecedented in previous school shootings, the past few weeks have been marked by students taking to the streets, to the media, to corporations and elected officials in protest over gun practices and policies.

Sarah Stitzlein (The Conversation, photo)

Responses to these teens have been mixed. Some have celebrated their passion. Some concluded that the students are immature and don't yet fully grasp longstanding issues with the Second Amendment. Some questioned the voices and perspectives of the teens.

Still others see the protests as an inappropriate use of time that might be better spent reaching out to loner students who may be prone to future acts of violence.

Some schools have even threatened to take disciplinary action against students for engaging in protests during school hours. This has prompted universities like my own to promise students that disciplinary actions that stem from peaceful protest will not be held against them when they seek college admission.

What schools should do

Immediately after the Parkland shootings, some scholars urged society to consider "the nature of education and schooling in American society." Indeed, we need an educational response to the shootings.

This response should account for the purposes of our schools within American democracy and offer students opportunities to learn, even in the face of tragedy. As the author of a new book on how schools can get students to become more civically engaged, and a 2012 book on how schools can cultivate the skills necessary for political dissent, I contend that the student protesters that have emerged in the wake of the Parkland shooting offer insight into a worthwhile response.

While seldom acknowledged, students have a right to engage in political dissent and, more significantly, the entitlement to an education that nurtures their ability to do so. In the 1969 landmark Tinker case, the Supreme Court ruled that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

But, the court held, it is reasonable to limit protest activities that interfere with the opportunity for others to learn.

The right to dissent is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, but rather is a civil right that arises out of how we understand good citizenship and thriving democracy.

Dissent allows for a proliferation of views on the good life. It sparks conversation and ignites change to better align practices and policies with the wishes and needs of the people.

It keeps democracy vibrant.

Dissent is an American tradition

Often, we think of student protest as a type of public self-expression that should not be hindered as long as it meets certain criteria, like not preventing other children from learning. In America, our democracy requires the consent of the governed.

Our Declaration of Independence even says that when we are not in agreement or when our well-being is in jeopardy, we have a duty to speak up. It's the American way and has been from the time the nation began.

It is only with the opportunity and capacity to dissent that we can determine if our laws and systems guiding us are good or just. Further, in order to invoke our right to dissent, citizens have to know how to dissent, which calls into play the role of schooling.

As a scholar in the philosophy of education, I would argue that our children, as burgeoning citizens, are entitled to such an education in our schools.

The tools and skills of dissent

There, they should learn the skills of dissent, including consciousness-raising, coalition building, persuasion, public demonstration and pursuit of traditional government avenues for change.

This type of instruction is happening in some schools, but not systematically enough across all schools, as courses in civics and social studies have been cut in order to focus on testing and such. Students receive even less of this kind of instruction in poorer schools.

And, our students must learn about the responsibilities of citizenship that correlate with their right to dissent.

This includes learning how to evaluate the justice of laws, how to distinguish effective dissent from simple rabble-rousing, and how to protest in ways that do not unduly infringe on others.

The Conversation

Teaching children how to dissent in response to a violent situation that they feel threatens their well-being is aligned with the purposes of democratic schooling.

Indeed, a flourishing democracy depends on such an informed and active citizenry who will speak out when they find laws to be unjust.

Sarah Stitzlein is a professor of education and affiliate faculty in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. She wrote this piece for The Conversation, where it first appeared.Editor's note: This story has been updated to add reaction from both parties.

A judge Thursday granted a state lawmaker's request for a protection from abuse order against her legislative colleague, state Rep. Nick Miccarelli.

As a result of an agreement reached prior to the proceeding, senior Judge Jeffrey Smith ordered a three-year PFA against Miccarelli, a five-term Delaware County Republican, but will allow him to return to work at the Capitol.

Miccarelli is barred from possessing firearms except for when needed for his duties with the Army National Guard.

That allows Miccarelli to resume his legislative duties, including participating in House sessions, while a criminal investigation into sexual assault and domestic violence allegations against him is under way by the Dauphin County District Attorney's office.

Miccarelli, 35, has denied the allegations by state Rep. Tara Toohil, who requested the PFA, and another women whose name had not been publicly disclosed. No charges have been filed against Miccarelli.

The temporary PFA ordered Miccarelli to steer clear of Toohil, which prevented him from participating in this week's House sessions.

Miccarelli's attorney, Joseph Podraza, said Miccarelli set out Thursday to achieve his freedom to go back to the Capitol and enter an admission of no wrongdoing

"I feel, I feel vindicated. I'm looking forward again to going back to the Capitol. I can't say it's been an enjoyable process but I look forward to vindicating myself one day at a time."

Toohil was dating Miccarelli in 2012, and alleged in her petition for the PFA that Miccarelli had threatened her with a gun in 2012 and drove 100 mph while threatening to crash his car with her in it.

She was granted a temporary PFA on Friday and told reporters on Monday she believed her safety was threatened because she broke her silence by filing for the restraining order. She said she felt, as a public official, that it was her duty to come forward for the protection of other women.

Rep. Toohil reacts to PFA hearing decision Posted by PennLive.com on Thursday, March 15, 2018

After Thursday's hearing, Toohil's lawyer, Jarrett Ferrentino, said: "Representative Miccarelli agreed to a protection from abuse order today after being accused of very, very serious abuse allegations. I don't know on what planet that would seem to be vindication. Here's how this works. No one is above the law. Not even the men and women that make the law. Right now, there is an order in place that he is to have no contact with Ms. Toohil. And that is exactly what we wanted and that's what we achieved."

The findings of a House investigation into Toohil's allegations as well as a rape allegation by another woman, who has not chosen to make her name public, has been turned over to the county DA's office.

House GOP leaders, Gov. Tom Wolf, and some House Democrats have called on Miccarelli to resign. He has filed paperwork to seek re-election this year to his House seat.

After the hearing Thursday, Miccarelli said: "I have a feeling what transpired in here today might hopefully give them some reason to reconsider."

Check back to PennLive for more details on the hearing.The outcome of

that bars two Republican state lawmakers from having personal interaction with each other left each claiming a victory of some sort.

Rep. Nick Miccarelli, of Delaware County, felt vindicated. Luzerne County Rep. Tarah Toohil, who asked for a protection from abuse order against Miccarelli, has a "greater sense of safety and some calm."

In separate news conferences following the hearing at the Luzerne County Courthouse, an attorney for Miccarelli said his client got what he wanted out of the agreement despite now being the subject of a three-year protection from abuse order that bars him from having non-official contact with Toohil.

The two lawmakers were dating in 2012. It was during that time that Toohil alleges Miccarelli threatened her with a gun and threatened to kill them both by crashing his car, among other domestic violence claims.

As part of the consent agreement, Miccarelli attorney Joseph Podraza said his client set out to achieve his freedom to go back to the Capitol to carry out his legislative duties unimpeded, and to get on the record that he is innocent of the allegations.

"Some of the other terms were going to be meaningless in the long run to the representative," he said. The other terms included restricting his access to firearms to only when he is on military duty, along with having no personal contact with Toohil, which Miccarelli said he hasn't had for years.

Miccarelli said he is happy to be able to get back to work at the Capitol and attend legislative session and committee meetings.

"I feel vindicated. I'm looking forward again to going back to the Capitol. I can't say it's been an enjoyable process but I look forward to vindicating myself one day at a time," Miccarelli said.

Toohil's attorney seemed taken aback that Miccarelli would feel vindicated.

"Representative Miccarelli agreed to a protection from abuse order today after being accused of very, very serious abuse allegations. I don't know on what planet that would seem to be vindication," said attorney Jarrett Ferrentino.

Having Miccarelli barred from having contact with Toohil was their goal "and that is exactly what we wanted and that's what we achieved," he said.

Between the limits placed on contact between the two and the additional security measures put in place at the Capitol, Ferrentino said his client has a better sense of security and calm. Saying that while fear has no expiration date, "there has been incidents that justified us coming here and asking for the PFA."

Toohil, who plans to issue a statement at a later time, let her attorney handle reporters' questions, but did say, "We are very pleased with the outcome and got everything we were coming here today and we are safer today and that's what we were trying to do take care of our safety, my safety."

When asked about Miccarelli statement that years had passed since his relationship with Toohil, Ferrentino replied that Toohil remains "absolutely still fearful."

The sexual assault and domestic violence allegations that Toohil, and a Harrisburg political consultant who has chosen not to be named, was the subject of a House investigation for a harassment policy violation. The findings were turned over to the Dauphin County District Attorney's office, which has a separate investigation underway.

Toohil's attorney say the report indicates that the women's claims are credible. Podraza said point blank, "that's false." He said the process the House used to conduct its investigation had people being questioned "in a vacuum" without an opportunity for rebuttal and that kind of process tends "to get wrong results."

In the midst of that House GOP investigation, the chamber's Republican leaders called on Miccarelli to resign.

About that, Miccarelli said, "I have a feeling what transpired in here today might hopefully give them some reason to reconsider."

Joel Frank, one of Miccarelli's attorney, is also general counsel to the State Republican Party. The party issued a statement Thursday saying no money from the state committee was being used to pay for his representation of Miccarelli.

Further, it said the party was not made aware that he was representing the lawmaker and that he has since "FILE- In this March 15, 2017, photo, people stand in line at a United Airlines counter at LaGuardia Airport in New York. A dog died on a United Airlines plane after a flight attendant ordered its owner to put the animal in the plane's overhead bin. United said Tuesday, March 13, 2018, that it took full responsibility for the incident on the Monday night flight from Houston to New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)Larry Kudlow, a longtime fixture on the CNBC business news network who previously served in the Reagan administration, is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. President Donald Trump has chosen Kudlow to be his top economic aide. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Barn Hammer Brewing Company Head Brewer Brian Westcott, left to right, University of Winnipeg Associate Professor and Chair of Classics Dr. Matt Gibbs, and Barn Hammer Brewing Company Owner Tyler Birch pose for a photo after they teamed up to recreate an ancient beer the old-fashioned way at Barn Hammer Brewing Company in Winnipeg on Tuesday March 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David LipnowskiWater to Syria's Afrin town has been cut for a week, the United Nations said on Wednesday, after Turkish troops seized the main dam and water plant in the region.

Ankara launched an offensive nearly two months ago against the town, to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces that control the northern region near Turkey's border.

The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said the fighting has forced thousands of people to flee their homes within the Afrin region and towards government territory.

After the dam northeast of Afrin town changed hands, "local workers were unable to access the dam controls to pump water. The water supply has been cut off," OCHA said. Residents have relied on untreated water from boreholes and risk contracting diseases, it added.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said the Turkish army took control of the dam on Maydanki lake and a water pumping station last week.

"Water has been fully cut off because of the Turkish army's control over it," said Birusk Hasaka, the YPG spokesman in Afrin. "Civilians are depending on wells to get water, and they are not enough and not good for drinking unfortunately."

Since the start of Syria's conflict in 2011, the YPG and its allies have set up three autonomous regions in the north, including Afrin. Their territorial grip expanded as they seized vast territory fighting Islamic State militants with U.S. help.

Washington's support for the Kurdish forces in that battle has infuriated Turkey. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish PKK which has waged a decades-long insurgency at home.



Short link:

Sherri Reeve leaves provincial court in Dartmouth, N.S., on Thursday, March 14, 2018, after a publication ban was placed on the names of two undercover police officers who may testify in her bid for compensation for marijuana plants she says police destroyed. Judge Theodore Tax ordered the ban during a hearing into Reeve's application to be compensated for the alleged destruction of her medical marijuana plants and growing equipment following a September 2014 police seizure. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael TuttonNorth Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho arrives at the Beijing International airport in Beijing, Thursday, March 15, 2018. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed during a routine briefing that he was on his way to Sweden. (Minoru Iwasaki/Kyodo News via AP)Global powers will gather in Rome on Thursday to discuss the future of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which faces an unprecedented crisis after the US froze tens of millions of dollars in funding.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) only has enough funds to keep schools and medical services open until May, its commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl told AFP.

US President Donald Trump's administration has so far committed only $60 million to the agency this year, down from $360 million in 2017.

He has frozen two planned payments worth more than $100 million -- one for UNRWA's central budget and one for food aid.

Trump continues to pressure the Palestinians to end their boycott of his administration sparked by his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

A major funding drive launched by UNRWA after the US freeze has raised little new money and diplomats are not optimistic about getting major pledges in the Italian capital.

UN officials want European countries to step in to fill part of the gap but are especially looking at Gulf Arab countries.

Fear is rife about the future of the organisation that employs more than 20,000 people across the Middle East, the vast majority Palestinians.

UNRWA was established after the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948 when around 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled.

It offers vital support for these refugees and their descendants in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza, providing services for more than three million people.

This includes education for around half a million students, with nearly 30 percent of its funding coming from the United States.

In January, Trump tweeted "we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect," accusing them of walking away from peace negotiations.

Two weeks later his administration confirmed it would hold back tens of millions in aid to UNRWA, saying it wanted the rest of the world to pay more.

Krahenbuhl labelled it the agency's worst ever financial crisis and launched a major funding drive, turning the front page of its website into a call for donations.

Senior officials travelled around the world to push for funds, with UNRWA aiming to find nearly half a billion dollars in new money.

But since the launch of the "Dignity is Priceless" campaign, the only new funding was a $900,000 grant from Kuwait, though European countries have brought forward donations planned for the summer.

Private donations ran only into the "hundreds of thousands," Krahenbuhl said, calling it "not groundbreaking." UNRWA did not respond to multiple requests for a more specific figure.

The UN Central Emergency Response Fund released $30 million for UNRWA on Tuesday to keep the agency's food aid programme afloat.

Krahenbuhl played down concerns the world was not stepping up to fill the gap.

"It takes a lot of political dialogue for these things to move forward, especially in light of the size of the shortfall," he told AFP.

"States were planning to contribute $20-25 million to UNRWA and suddenly see a shortfall that has increased by $300 million. It is quite natural you will not have one single state that will come forward and close that shortfall."

But UNRWA employees face deep concerns about the sheer size of the gap.

Nicola Jones, of the Overseas Development Institute think tank, said she expected UNRWA leaders to be "really concerned" by the slow pace of new funds.

"They really did try to have a high profile public awareness campaign about the cost of withdrawing funding and I think it is clearly extremely disappointing that it hasn't been fruitful."

The Rome conference, co-hosted by Sweden, Egypt and Jordan, will seek fresh momentum.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will attend, his office confirmed on Tuesday, while Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield is expected to represent the United States.

"When any agency depends on a single donor it is a vulnerability," said Sweden's ambassador to the United Nations, Olof Skoog.

"Sharing the responsibility more equally is therefore reasonable, but we expect the United States to stay committed."

Hugh Lovatt, Israel/Palestine analyst at the European Council of Foreign Relations think tank, said European countries were wary of being seen to bridge the funding gap for fear of vindicating Trump's attempts to cut international aid funding.

Trump is due to announce his proposal for new Israel-Palestinian peace talks and Lovatt said all countries were waiting to see what vision it proposes for UNRWA.

He expected Europeans in Rome to make a "concerted effort to corner the Americans and convince them to reconsider."

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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More big bundles of old fishing nets will soon be on their way from Dutch Harbor to

Denmark to be remade into high end plastics. It will be the second batch of nets to leave Dutch for a higher cause and more Alaska fishing towns can get on board.

Last summer a community collaborative put nearly 240,000 pounds, or about 40 nets, into shipping vans that were bound for a Danish clean tech company called Plastix. The company refines and pelletizes all types of plastics and resells them to makers of water bottles, cell phone cases and other items.

It seems so unreasonable and not log...Guyana-Exxon PSA: Outrageous and appalling Editorial by Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 03 15 2018 The controversial Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) signed between the Guyana government and ExxonMobil has been in the headlines in this and other publications for months. Since the contract was released to the public, it came under intense and relentless scrutiny from experts, politicians and Guyanese from all walks of life.



The criticisms were so unrelenting that the President was prompted to say that while there is no prospect for a review of the contract, the matter was engaging the attention of Cabinet. Such confusing remarks have infuriated many, but others were hopeful that there was a chance that the government would convince ExxonMobil to renegotiate the contract.



After the glaring flaws in the contract were duly exposed, one would have thought that the government would be humbled and listened to the people, acknowledged its shortcomings, and let the nation know that its failure to get a better contract was because of ExxonMobil's refusal to renegotiate the 1999 contract signed by the PPP government.



Oil was not discovered when that contract was signed, but with the discovery of oil in 2015, the government should have forced ExxonMobil to negotiate a totally new and fairer agreement. ExxonMobil would have either agreed to renegotiate the contract or leave. Choosing the latter option would have allowed the government to engage other oil companies.



This government does not have any experience in negotiating an oil and gas contract with a multinational such as ExxonMobil, which has a wealth of experience in contract negotiations, and cleverly used that to exploit the poor negotiating skills of the government negotiators. Consequently, the paltry two percent royalty and the meagre US$18 million signing bonus which the government managed to squeeze from ExxonMobil is negligible.



Since the discovery of oil, ExxonMobil stocks have increased significantly on the global exchange. One estimate put the amount at between US$16 billion and US$22 billion.



It is clear that ExxonMobil has benefited immensely from the contract, which states that the laws of Guyana are ancillary, because they are inconsistent with the rules of international customs and laws with regards to the petroleum industry. That said, numerous calls from prominent individuals and oil experts, including the petroleum adviser to the President, Dr. Jan Mangal, to renew the contract, have been rejected. The Minister of State has said that the contract is final and will not be subject to any changes. This shows that inclusionary democracy in Guyana is a farce. The truth is, oil does not belong to the government, it belongs to the people.



The forfeiting of Guyana's oil and gas resources to the US oil giant amidst the loud and growing concerns of an uneasy public is now being tempered by the prudent pronouncement by the Minister of Natural Resources, who said that the government will hire an overseas firm to guide and advise it on how to market the unassigned oil blocks.



While this will appease many, others believe that it came too late. Instead of hiring a foreign company to market the unassigned oil blocks, the government should assemble a bipartisan committee to do so. It is hard for anyone to believe that a government with so many lawyers would accept such a contract.



History will judge this government harshly for not heeding the words of one of our late presidents who said: We have seen in Guyana and in other underdeveloped countries how foreign extractive industries prosper while the native population remains poor and destitute. We must get the large share of the cake; otherwise what is the difference between Guyana and a colony. What would we tell our children .Assistance we shall accept, partnership we shall welcome, but the show must be ours, we will dictate the priorities and the directions, we shall rely primarily on us That is self-reliance.

Story from Kaieter News



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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsGaza's Islamist rulers Hamas widened an investigation Wednesday into a bomb explosion that targeted Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah as he made a rare visit to the strip a day earlier.

The interior ministry in Gaza said it had launched a "high-level investigative committee" into the bomb attack, which was a further blow to faltering reconciliation talks between Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah party.

It said a number of suspects were being questioned after the roadside bomb targeted Hamdallah's convoy shortly after he entered Gaza, leaving him uninjured but lightly wounding six guards.

It did not provide further details on the investigation Wednesday or release the identity of the suspects.

"The door is open to anyone who wants to participate in the investigation," Tawfeeq Abu Naim, the head of the Hamas security services in Gaza, said in a statement.

Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas's internationally recognised government more than a decade ago but agreed in October to hand power back.

Yet the deal has all but collapsed, with the two sides accusing each other of responsibility, and Tuesday's explosion further exacerbated tensions.

After the attack, Abbas said he held Hamas responsible as the de facto power in the strip, though stopping short of directly accusing the group of carrying out the bombing.

Hamas shot back, saying such rapid accusations were unhelpful before in turn pointing the finger of blame at Israel.

Other potential suspects include smaller, more radical Islamist groups that are opposed to Hamas but operate in Gaza, or a Hamas splinter group.

There has been no claim of responsibility.

Hamdallah said the attack would not end his government's commitment to continue with reconciliation and again called on Hamas to hand over all power in Gaza.

"We are talking about internal security -- the police and the civil defence," he said. "Without security there won't be a government."

Salafist suspects?

Jamal al-Fadi, a political scientist in Gaza, told AFP the aim of the attack was to "sabotage any chance for reconciliation."

He said potential suspects are those that have an interest in maintaining the split.

"It could be a group that split from Hamas for ideological reasons, such as a militant Salafi group," he said.

In October, Abu Naim, the Hamas security chief who issued Wednesday's statement, was wounded by a car bomb after leaving a mosque.

Hamas officials privately admit the assassination attempt was by Salafists, rather than Israel, and like Tuesday's attack the explosion was relatively small.

The UN envoy to the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, condemned Tuesday's attack and called on Hamas to hand over control in Gaza to the recognised government.

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."

Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 while the Jewish state maintains a crippling blockade of Gaza.

Hamdallah travelled to Rome Wednesday for a meeting of international donors aimed at raising funds for the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, which is facing desperate shortages after the US froze tens of millions of dollars in aid.

The White House held a conference on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza on Tuesday, but no Palestinian officials attended.

They have refused to meet with President Donald Trump's administration since he broke with longstanding US policy in December by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

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Clarity on Petrotrin's path in 6 months

By TT Guardian



PORT SPAIN

Petroleumworld 03 15 2018

There should be clarity in six months on what the options are for state-owned, struggling Petrotrin.

This was confirmed by Energy Minister Franklin Khan in the Senate yesterday in response to questions from United National Congress Senator Wade Mark.

Khan said given the company's serious financial position, an early report is expected by Petrotrin's board on its restructuring plan. A transition team comprising board members and engagement of other third parties is underway to seek a new management team, Khan said. He said that mandate is for six months and in that time there should be clarity on Petrotrin and what the options are.

Khan said one of the recommendations of the Lashle restructuring report is to split Petrotrin into business units - Refining/Marketing and Exploration/Production.

Another stakeholder view is that Exploration/Production needs sub-dividing into Exploration (Land/Marine) which includes solely Trinmar operations. Also, the union (OWTU) wants a Human Resource Division and they're even saying Petrotrin's Augustus Long Hospital should be a separate business unit, he said.

Khan said Petrotrin has long tentacles in the south west peninsula and Government will take serious cognisance of the impact of any decision on residents' lives.

He said there was also room for compromise with the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU).

Petrotrin's future won't have a smooth ride unless we have OWTU's engagement. We're conscious of that and are working assiduously to bring that to fruition, he said.



Gazprom to reduce trading manpower in the west as Kremlin retreats from abroad

By Christian Lowe



MOSCOW

Petroleumworld 03 15 2018

Russian gas giant Gazprom will cut hundreds of jobs at its overseas trading and export offices, including Britain, and move them to St Petersburg, according to two sources familiar with the plan, which comes at a time of rising tensions with the West.

One of the sources said the decision reflected a broader trend of Russian state firms retreating from the West as part of President Vladimir Putin's drive to repatriate capital to reduce exposure to sanctions and also shore up the domestic economy.

In Russia, this story can be sold as a job creation exercise on home turf. This is useful, especially ahead of the presidential election, said the source, referring to the vote on Sunday that Putin is widely expected to win.

The reorganisation comes as relations between Russia and Britain, where Gazprom has the largest trading office by far, have hit a new low after Prime Minister Theresa May said Moscow was to blame for the attempted murder a former Russian double agent in an English city.

However the jobs decision was taken earlier this year, long before the spy scandal erupted, according to the sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Gazprom, which has its headquarters in St Petersburg, said it was too early to comment on numbers and moves. The company last month that it planned to reorganise its overseas trading and export operations but gave no details.

This work is aimed at strengthening the company's position abroad, a spokesman said.

Gazprom's overseas trading and exports divisions employ around 2,000 people, with the bulk of them - around 1,000 - in London. It also has offices in locations including Paris, Houston, Singapore and cities in Germany. Not all employees are traders, as they also include finance and logistics specialists.

The reorganisation will see the number of people more than halved, while about the same number of people will be hired in St Petersburg from where many trading operations will be executed, according to one of the sources who did not give more specific details about where the cuts would happen.

Since setting up Gazprom's trading offices in London in 2005, Gazprom has hired dozens of top traders from rival companies such as Total and Gunvor.

REPATRIATING CAPITAL

Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 triggered a series of U.S. and EU sanctions against the Kremlin and its companies, and ties have worsened further after Russia was accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Russian state banks such as VTB and companies such as Rosneft have since scaled back their presence in the West, while some of Putin's closest allies such as businessman Gennady Timchenko have sold their assets in the West and repatriated capital to Russia.

The West has repeatedly accused Putin of using Gazprom as a economic and political weapon after the gas behemoth cut supplies to Ukraine, thus disrupting deliveries to Europe. Moscow denies that charge.

Europe gets a third of its gas from Russia, and Gazprom has spent 15 years on building a mighty trading division to help it further boost that share.

The plan to move Gazprom's trading headquarters from London to St Petersburg was first considered by the company's management in 2015 but it was put on ice due to concerns about an exodus of people and the difficulties of raising credit for a capital-intensive operation, according to Gazprom sources.

The last time Gazprom's marketing and trading division published its results, for 2014, it said it made a net income of $613 million and a return on equity of 41 percent while staff costs stood at $162 million. The unit has not published results since.



Brazil to be carefull on U.S. tariff threat -Temer

By Reuters



SAO PAULO

Petroleumworld 03 15 2018

President Michel Temer said on Wednesday that Brazil will respond with caution to planned U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum to avoid hurting ties with its second-largest trade partner.

But if talks fail, the president emphasized, Brazil will not hesitate to take a complaint to the World Trade Organization.

Temer urged Brazilian steel producers and their U.S. clients to work together in lobbying the U.S. government and Congress to modify the tariffs announced last week by President Donald Trump.

We have to treat our relations with the United States with great care, because they are our biggest trade partner after China, Temer said, speaking at the opening of the World Economic Forum on Latin America.

If there is no friendly solution. Brazil will join other countries in filing a complaint at the WTO.

Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes said at the same event that he has written to the U.S. Trade Representative requesting a meeting on the tariffs.

The government said last week the tariffs will strongly hamper Brazilian exports to the United States and are incompatible with U.S. obligations toward the WTO.

Brazil said it would not rule out retaliation if the WTO ruled against the U.S. tariffs.

U.S. coal producers that export coal used to make Brazilian steel are one potential ally in lobbying for an exemption.

Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA , which sells 6 percent of its output in the U.S. market, shrugged of potential tariffs on Wednesday and said it would sell more on the domestic market as Brazil's economy picks up, and look to export more to China.



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 Middle East on Jerusalem.

US President Donald Trump reversed decades of US policy in December, when he decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. This incensed Palestinians and other US allies.

The administration is also putting the final touches on a Middle East peace plan, and US 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 US 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.

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.

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Councilwoman Cherelle Parker chaired the meeting on how marijuana will affect employment laws in Philadelphia. Read more

Pennsylvania's recently launched medical marijuana program may have unintentionally created a minefield that employers and patients across the state have only begun to navigate:

Patients who use marijuana could end up losing their jobs as a result.

At a fact-finding hearing in Philadelphia City Council on Wednesday, a panel of lawyers, business interests, and medical professionals hashed over the murkier employment issues stirred up by the law.

The upshot: Patients currently have few  if any  workplace protections. And until a lawsuit is filed, it's unlikely that patients will know how strong those protections might be.

The murkiness results from the difference between state and federal law. Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016, and last month commercial dispensaries in the state began distributing the medicine. However, under federal law, all forms of marijuana are considered illegal Schedule 1 substances with a high potential for abuse and no medical applications.

Pennsylvania law contains a provision that explicitly bars employers from firing or otherwise discriminating against patients solely because they're participating in the program. That provision is untested. There are no court decisions in Pennsylvania that have interpreted it.

Complicating matters, the City of Philadelphia  and many private businesses  must comply with the federal Drug Free Workplace Act.

"And under the law you can fire [someone] if they fail a drug test," said Josh Horn, the co-chair of Fox Rothschild's Cannabis Law practice, who testified at the hearing. "An employer has no obligation to accommodate someone if they use cannabis during work hours."

But there's a sizable loophole, noted Pedro A. Rodriguez, director of the city's Office of Human Resources.

"The [state law] does not require that employers conduct mandatory drug tests," Rodriguez said.

Employers can institute zero-tolerance policies for workers in "safety sensitive" positions. Those jobs would include any that require driving, the use of machinery, or public safety, he said.

State law prohibits medical marijuana patients only from handling certain chemicals, operating high-voltage electricity, and performing duties at heights or in confined spaces, said Horn.

"A patient can't perform work that could be life-threatening," Horn said in an interview.

The city's drug and alcohol policy prohibits all city employees from possessing or using drugs or alcohol while on city property, Rodriguez said. And official policy negotiated with three of the city's unions  AFSCME, District Council 33, and District Council 47  requires employees to disclose to the city if they are on any medication that may alter their ability to operate machinery or motor vehicles.

"As you can see, balancing federal and state law with the medical needs of our employees is not easy, but we welcome the opportunity to be a part of this important conversation," Rodriguez said.

Traces of marijuana may remain in a patient's system for up to 30 days and drug tests can't distinguish whether it was consumed during work hours, said Samira Harris, a nurse at Albert Einstein Medical Center and a member of the board of the Pennsylvania Association for Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

"Medical professionals should never be at work while under the influence of any prohibited substance," Harris said. "But what about a medical professional who is also a patient, who only uses medical marijuana during their off hours?"

Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, who said she backed the state's medical marijuana program, said she had called the hearing as a way of providing guidance to the city and business "because the law is vague."

"There are potential unintended consequences that the legislation could have on employers and employees," Parker said. "It's important that the private sector drive this. Now the work really begins."The United States Traffic Network updates road conditions for millions of radio listeners. The company has now been rescued by its top executives. Read more

An Australian company threw in the towel on the U.S. radio and television market by selling the money-losing United States Traffic Network in Malvern to the subsidiary's top executives.

The deal is a quick and dramatic reversal for Sydney-based GTN, which entered the U.S. traffic-data market in 2016 by acquiring United States Traffic Network, formerly Radiate Media.

The United States Traffic Network provides traffic updates  and on-air traffic personalities such as Bob Kelly at Fox29  for 1,000 radio stations and 50 television stations, reaching 160 million Americans. It employs 250 full- and part-timers, including 85 at the Malvern headquarters.

Though advertising revenues at the traffic network grew over the last year, they weren't growing fast enough. And so the network ran up millions of dollars in losses.

GTN top executives warned Australian investors on Feb. 28 that it was exploring options that included "renegotiation or cancellation of station contracts, reorganization or liquidation" of the traffic network. GTN added that it "may cease operations in the United States."

GTN CEO William L. Yde III said this week in a statement in Australia "we are extremely disappointed that our effort in the United States market was unsuccessful. While there were affiliate and revenue successes along the way, revenue was not increasing quickly enough to make USTN a viable business in the near future."

Exact terms of the management buyout were not disclosed. But GTN's statement said that the consideration for the network was "nominal." GTN also said that it forgave a $47 million internal company loan that had been used to fund the network's operations.

Ivan "Fly'n Ivan" Shulman, who launched his career as an on-the-road and in-the-air traffic reporter at an Atlanta classic rock station, is leading the buyout and called traffic the "beachfront property" of radio.

The traffic network would not become roadkill in the traffic-update business, Shulman said. He had a plan to turn around the company, which he declined to disclose for competitive reasons.

United States Traffic Network skipped a $4 million payment to its largest customer, Bala Cynwyd-based Entercom Communications Corp., the nation's second-largest radio operator, as part of a revenue-sharing agreement in late 2017.

Entercom executives said last week that the company was having "financial issues" and that it was renegotiating its deal with USTN.Dan Lagreca grinds a section of a proof test machine at Chant Engineering Co. Inc. in New Britain. Chant is a among a growing number of Philadelphia-area businesses with fewer than 50 employees that are taking advantage of going the self-insurance route for health coverage. Read more

Chant Engineering Co., a Bucks County manufacturer of large-scale testing equipment, had endured years of double-digit percentage increases in health insurance costs.

But in 2014, spurred by the new regulations under the Affordable Care Act, the family-owned company in New Britain with 50 full-time employees adopted a version of self-insurance  something that historically had been used by companies with hundreds or thousands of employees.

Since moving to self-insurance, Chant has seen its annual increases fall to around 8 percent from a range of 13 percent to more than 20 percent, said Tina Alvarez, Chant's human resources director.

"We don't see ourselves switching back. That's for sure," Alvarez said.

Chant sets aside a specified amount of money each month to pay its doctor and hospital bills rather than paying a premium to an insurer such as Independence Blue Cross, which would pay claims and keep any extra money, but also would be responsible for any shortfall. Chant's exposure to a shortfall is limited by specialty insurance that covers claims beyond a set maximum.

Chant, an early adopter of self-insurance for small businesses in the Philadelphia area, moved from a fully insured Aetna plan to a product offered by Benecon Inc. of Lititz, Pa., which still uses Aetna's network. The plan covers 39 employees.

This form of insurance is taking off in the region, brokers said. Since April 2016, Aetna, which has a major presence in Blue Bell, has signed up more than 1,000 companies in the five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania area to its version of the small-group health coverage, including a surge for this year, after companies were quoted big increases from Independence Blue Cross, according to brokers. Aetna fully insures about 2,500 small companies in the region.

ACAs effect on the insurance market

The Affordable Care Act caused changes in the insurance market that drove the development of self-insurance for businesses with 50 or fewer employees. Before that landmark law, insurers could set prices based on the health of a group, which meant that healthier groups got lower prices. Plus, an employer could weaken benefits to keep price increases in check.

But the ACA mandated that the only factors insurers could use to set prices for groups were age, tobacco use, and the employer's location. In addition, rates had to be set based on the broader community, so it didn't matter how little health care a particular group used. Essential benefits and affordability requirements meant that employers could no longer reduce benefits to get a price they could afford.

Self-insurance plans offered an escape from what one broker called the "choking" costs of ACA regulations because they were exempt from many ACA rules.

That means there is also a downside from a broader societal perspective of small businesses moving to self-insurance. "You're siphoning off the good risks by letting them go self-insured, which leaves everyone else in the insured pool sicker, paying higher premiums," said Paul Fronstin, director of the health education and research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington.

As self-insurance for small businesses gains popularity, the Trump administration is pushing for an expansion of association health plans, which would allow small businesses to band together to buy insurance that would also have a lighter regulatory burden than ACA plans, but Fronstin said he did not think that association plans would cut into the momentum of self-insurance for small business.

Such plans sold by Aetna, Benecon, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare have not had a big impact on Independence Blue Cross, the region's largest insurer, said Thomas Cox, an employee benefits consultant and partner at iSolutions Inc. in Audubon, Montgomery County.

But that could change.

"I don't know what Blue Cross' answer will be on this, but the reality is Blue Cross doesn't want to touch this with a 10-foot pole," said Cox, a 30-year veteran of the employee benefits industry. "They're going to be basically attacking their own book of business if they offer this, because all their good risk would flip over to this."

In New Jersey, self-insurance for small business has been slower to take off, an Aetna executive said. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey said it has 55 percent of the small-group market in the state. A comparable figure was not available from IBC.

An IBC official pointed out that self-insured plans are also exempt from the ACA's health-insurer fee, which adds 4 or 5 percent onto a group's price, making fully-insured ACA plans more expensive.

A surge in self-insurance

Angela Meoli, Aetna's president for Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia, said Southeastern Pennsylvania has been one of the best markets for what it calls Aetna Funding Advantage, especially last year. "We had higher-than-expected volumes, which put pressure on our underwriting teams, our enrollment teams," she said.

Among the selling points of the new self-insurance plans is the possibility of getting some money back at the end of the year if claims are lower than expected. However, Lauren C. Stuart, executive vice president at Tycor Benefit Administrators Inc. in Berwyn, tamps down her clients' expectations.

"For a small company spending $500,000 on health coverage, half of that money is for administrative expense, claims adjudication, and stop-loss insurance. That money is never coming back," said Stuart. Tycor, with 20 employees, is in its second year of self-insurance with Aetna.

For small employers, there can be more to the switch than saving money.

Tom Reisch, owner of Tommy's Automotive, a repair shop in West Chester with six employees on its health plan, said he was able to add dental and vision and improve overall coverage with the money he saved by switching to Aetna Funding Advantage from IBC last June.

Reisch doesn't contribute to the newly offered dental and vision, but, even so, "the deduction from everybody's paycheck is less than it was before," he said.

Chant Engineering has taken advantage of opportunities to customize its plan and analyze usage.

"We felt like for preventive care that mammograms, including the new 3D mammograms, should be covered 100 percent," Alvarez said. "You can really determine what you want to cover, what you don't want to cover, and at what levels you want it covered."

David Alan Rech, president and CEO of Scribe Inc., which employs 50 and has offices in Philadelphia, Allentown, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said his company was looking at a 20 percent increase from IBC when the book producer switched to Aetna Funding Advantage last fall.

Still, the broad socio-economic implications are not lost on Rech.

"Insurance is about aggregating risk," he said. "In an ideal situation, you would aggregate the risk across the entire population. What you're doing is maintaining an imbalance by allowing this kind of thing. On the other hand, I have a business to run and I have to make payroll every two weeks and I have to be able to pay my bills every month. You have this conflict."

How Self-Insurance Works

Self-insurance is essentially traditional insurance deconstructed into its components, which are:

A pool of money to pay claims (supplied by the employer).

A network of providers with contracts that determine prices (which could be provided by a company such as Aetna).

A third-party administrator, which processes claims.

Stop-loss insurance, which covers claims over a maximum amount.

Additional features that make self-insurance attractive to small businesses are the possibility of getting money back if the entire claims pool is not used and the ability to make equal monthly payments, even as claims vary.City council member Helen Gym speaking in support of "Fair Workweek" legislation at City hall, Philadelphia on February 13th, 2018. Gym is considering legislation to require more employers to set regular schedules for workers, a move bound to upset some business leaders. Read more

As if poverty-skirting wages don't cause enough stress, most service workers in the Philadelphia region labor under unpredictable schedules that trigger a host of ailments and insecurities, according to a study.

About 100,000 people, most of them in part-time jobs, toil in the retail and food service sectors in the region.

Irregular hours cause many who work for hourly wages to suffer financial hardship, according to an ongoing national study, called the Shift Project, conducted by two California researchers. Workers' weekly take-home pay, already low, fluctuates dramatically. They are less likely to pay their bills. Planning for child care and other family responsibilities becomes much harder. They report more psychological distress and poor sleep quality.

"Just in time" scheduling represents a huge trend with many retail stores and restaurants now using it to match staffing with consumer demand, said Kristen Harknett, a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco who conducted the study with her research partner, Daniel Schneider, of UC-Berkeley.

Employees receive schedules a few days in advance and may have their shifts changed or added at the last minute. About 30 percent of the Philadelphia service workers surveyed said they were expected to keep their schedules open and remain available for work.

"Companies are already under a lot of pressure to back away from some of these practices, to not rely on on-call workers and give more notice," Harknett said. "Several cities are contemplating changes."

Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, and the state of Oregon have passed legislation that requires companies to give employees advance notice of their work schedules. Some require larger retailers and restaurants to offer some payment to their hourly workers when shifts are eliminated on shorter notice.

Philadelphia City Council member Helen Gym and others in City Hall are reviewing those ordinances and considering whether to propose legislation that would require employers to give their workers more consistent schedules and more advance warning if their shifts change.

"We're actively looking at that, but there is not a specific timeline," said Gym's spokeswoman, Melissa McCleery.

Harknett, formerly a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, returned to Philadelphia this week to meet with members of City Council.

Businesses, however, typically don't want additional regulations. And several business groups are poised to oppose such legislation, arguing that it will tie employers' hands and lead to lost jobs.

In many ways, the experience of workers in Philadelphia resembles those in other cities, Harknett said. "The same aspects of instability play out all over the country," she said.

Harknett and her research partner, Schneider, say they have surveyed more than 40,000 shift workers nationwide in big-box stores, the big retail apparel chains, and fast-food chains.

Harknett's Shift Project collected survey data by placing ads on Facebook between August 2016 and June 2017. Ads were targeted at people who identified themselves as working for large retail and food employers.

Of the 687 workers surveyed in the region, the median hourly wage was $10.71. About 40 percent made less than $9, far under the living wage estimated to be $24.90 for a single parent with one child.

According to the study, the majority of retail and restaurant workers in the Philadelphia region  77 percent  would like to have a more stable and predictable work schedule. Having more regular shifts, Harknett said, would make it easier for respondents to hold a second job.

An irregular work schedule sometimes causes extra stress and makes it hard to meet caregiving responsibilities for more than 70 percent of the shift workers, according to the study.Add Philadelphia to the list of cities visited by Amazon scouts in connection with the company's planned second headquarters.

An Amazon.com Inc. site-selection team recently spent about a day and a half in Philadelphia, where they met with officials involved with the city's proposal to the company, Mayor Kenney said in an interview Wednesday after a presentation to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's real estate membership group.

No elected leaders, including Kenney, met directly with the Amazon team, he said. He declined to share any other details that he knew about the visit, including its timing.

Other cities to have confirmed visits from the technology and e-commerce giant concerning its headquarters project, nicknamed HQ2, include Denver, Washington, Dallas and Austin.

Jessica Calter, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which has been managing the Philadelphia's interactions with the Seattle company since the city was named among 20 finalists for the second corporate campus, declined to comment on the selection process.

"We continue to be excited to be one of the 20 cities moving forward in the Amazon HQ2 selection process, which continues to benefit the city and region," Calter said in an email.

Amazon declined in an email to comment beyond a standard statement concerning site visits: "Amazon is working with each HQ2 candidate city to dive deeper on their proposals and share additional information about the company's plans. We're excited to visit each location and talk about how HQ2 could benefit our employees and the local community."

The visits are part of the second phase of Amazon's site search that began with its selection, announced in January, of the 20 locations it planned to consider for the headquarters project after reviewing 238 proposals from throughout North America. It has said it will choose in 2018.

The company's plans call for spending more than $5 billion on the new corporate campus, where up to 50,000 people will be employed. It has said it could eventually put 8 million square feet of offices at the site, an amount of space equal to almost 6 Comcast Center towers.

Philadelphia's bid to Amazon centers on sites in University City and the South Philadelphia Navy Yard. All could satisfy its need for 500,000 square feet of space in 2019, the city said in its bid to the company.

Bill Luff, founder of the commercial property consultancy CRE Visions, said data on educational attainment and business climate can go a long way toward helping a company vet potential sites for relocation or expansion, but on-the-ground visits such as the ones now being paid by Amazon to candidate cities can be a deciding factor.

"There's a familiarization that takes place that goes way beyond any of the submitted information and goes way beyond the real estate transaction aspect," he said. "It becomes, 'Hey, what's the feel of this city like?' "At Ben Franklin Technology Partners office at the Navy Yard, the staircase is a whos who of start-ups it has invested in. Read more

PIDC, Philadelphia's public-private economic development agency, has added a seasoned investment partner for the next round of its StartupPHL seed fund: Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

StartupPHL Seed Fund II will launch with $3.5 million  $1.75 million each coming from PIDC and Ben Franklin, with additional investors possible, the groups announced Thursday. Their target is $5 million.

Seed Fund II will make investments averaging from $150,000 to $200,000 in young technology companies in Philadelphia. More information on the fund and requirements for applicants can be found at sep.benfranklin.org.

In Seed Fund I, 12 start-ups received more than $6 million from PIDC and its then-co-investors  Josh Kopelman and his First Round Capital. Kopelman is also board chairman of Philadelphia Media Network, which operates the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com.Over the next several years, the United States will face widening skills gaps  one of the most massive among blue-collar workers.

Two million manufacturing jobs are expected to go vacant through 2025, according to the Manufacturing Institute's most recent skills gap study completed in 2015. Meanwhile, nearly three-fourths 70 percent of construction firms asked reported having a hard time finding qualified labor last year and expect the problem to persist or worsen this year, according to the Associated General Contractors of America's 2017 construction survey.

One Michigan workforce development consultancy with a growing Philadelphia presence is bridging the divide. Over nearly four decades, privately-held EDSI (Educational Data Systems, Inc.) has made a business out of helping to place disadvantaged and laid-off workers in jobs, and assessing company needs and finding qualified hires.

"We run programs throughout the country to help people better their lives," said Roe Falcone, EDSI regional director of operations. She heads up welfare-to-work programs and other government- and nonprofit-funded retraining efforts that cover the Philadelphia area out of Chester, Pa. The $50 million company with 650 employees operates in 10 states.

Last summer, EDSI brought one of its latest ventures to Philadelphia. As part of the PennAssist: Bridging the Gap program, it created a three-week construction boot camp to prepare 44 participants for apprenticeships.

Jose Miguel Morales Jr. was a Philadelphia vo-tech graduate who had dropped out of college and had an interest in becoming an electrician. The boot camp, said the 22-year-old from Tacony, was a chance to get a union job. "I jumped at the opportunity," said Morales, who is working as an apprentice electrician on the Lincoln Square project at Broad and Washington streets.

While the bulk of EDSI's work involves public-sector contracts, like the boot camps, it also provides services to the private sector  making it unusual in the field of workforce training.

Ken Mall, EDSI's managing director of workforce consulting, works with private companies, often in the manufacturing industry, "to help define what their skills needs are today as well as what they might be in the future."

One tool EDSI uses is its proprietary Skilldex, a Web-based system that identifies the skill needs of employers, especially those short on workers. Then job seekers are assessed against task-specific profiles. Skilldex matches job seekers to employers as well as highlights gaps and ways to close them through training programs.

Several trends have made the hunt for qualified workers all the worse, according to Mall. The graying of the workforce  read baby boomer retirements  has generated even more hard-to-fill openings. On top of that, increased automation and technology-heavy advanced manufacturing are proving challenging for current employees. "We see the technology gap still getting bigger," Mall said.

But the largest lack of skills is not necessarily technical know-how. It's basics  reading, writing and 'rithmetic.

"A blue-collar worker needs to know how to read a computer screen nowadays," Mall said of the persistent problem.

In addition to the 3 Rs, employers want hires with problem-solving skills and the ability to work in teams and resolve conflicts.

Companies, Mall said, tell him that "if we can hire somebody who can meet basic requirements for reading and writing and math, and can show some problem-solving skills and is dependable, show up to work on time every day, we will teach them the technical skills."

To meet these needs, EDSI began developing boot camps in 2016 and partnering with local workforce development agencies, employers and unions. The two- to four-week training sessions are intense, focused programs that give participants skills, including industry-relevant math and writing, to succeed on the job.

"People coming into our doors have completely different educational levels, completely different skill sets," Falcone said. "The boot camp can meet a lot of people where they are and help get them where they need to be."

This year, Philadelphia-area boot camps will focus on manufacturing, healthcare and customer service  industries, like construction, that are struggling to find enough qualified applicants, according to Mall.

At the Construction Boot Camp, Morales spent full days learning about the various trades that work a construction site and practicing soft skills, such as teamwork and good work habits. He also was exposed to technical information and relevant construction-site math problems. A capstone project focused on career goals.

"But honestly," Morales said, "one of the best things I appreciated about the program was that they allowed me to network with a lot of important people." The boot camp organizes panel discussions with industry folks, such as union and apprenticeship program leaders and owners of construction companies.

Said Falcone, "We're really ensuring that individuals go to work better prepared."Estimator David Gyurina works at a standing desk in one of the newly renovated open offices at The Drexel Building in Philadelphia, PA. on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. Clemens moved into the Drexel Building in 1995 but expanded to a new floor last year as the companys volume of work increased. The floors open design is meant to encourage interaction between employees. Read more

When Clemens Construction Company expanded to a second floor in the historic Drexel Building on Walnut Street last year, the project was a lot like the preservation work the firm does elsewhere in the region.

"A lot of the work that we do is taking old buildings and making them modern and safe while still maintaining the historic look and feel," said Communications Director Lindsey Pouppirt.

While the firm has been headquartered in Center City since its founding in 1979, Pouppirt said the new second-floor space was designed with a modern, open floor plan in the nearly century-old building.

"The thing about Philadelphia is we have so many historic buildings," she said. "There's a definite demand by developers and users to inhabit these historic buildings, but of course no one wants to work in a crappy, falling-down building."

Having a downtown location near the urban infill projects and historic sites where Clemens works was important to the firm. "The types of projects that we work on here are very iconic and quintessential Philadelphia projects," she said.

Health Union co-founders Olivier Chateau and Tim Armand realized quickly that their company, which creates online communities for people with chronic health conditions, needed to make the switch from a virtual office to a brick-and-mortar space.

Deciding to open downtown was easy, Armand said. "We never even discussed it. Of course it was going to be in the city  it was a no-brainer."

Clemens, Health Union and Think Company were among several Top Workplace honorees whose senior leadership described their downtown locations as integral to their success.

"When we envision the future of our company and who's working here and what it feels like for them, it was very clear that we needed to be downtown," said Think Company CEO Russ Starke.

The design company first opened in Conshohocken and expanded to the Packard Grande building on South 15th Street in 2014. A second expansion in the Philadelphia Building on Walnut Street opened last year. Starke said the company relies on its historic office spaces to maintain client relationships.

"As soon as they get off the elevator [in the Packard Grande], they literally gasp," he said. "It's an experience to come and work in those spaces."

Given that so many of the company's clients are in the city, Starke said the location makes meetings easier. Clients from out of town find visiting the Center City offices preferable, too.

"They want to get the Philly experience," Starke said. "They always want to know where we're getting lunch  that's a high point for them."

At Slalom Philadelphia, General Manager Amy Loftus said the consulting firm, with headquarters in Seattle, relies on proximity to its clients. Their location at Two Logan Square makes them neighbors with several.

"In some instances, it's just going down our own elevator bank, or it's walking up to Market Street," she said.

Noah Ostroff, who recently opened Keller Williams Philadelphia, a Realty office on South Broad Street at Bainbridge Street, said the location just outside Center City is ideal for clients as well as agents.

"The city is the hottest part of the region right now," he said. "It's where everybody wants to be."

Branch Manager Tom Matera who oversees AnnieMac Home Mortgage's newest branch on North 5th Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue agreed.

"To do business in Philly, you have to have an office in Philly. People want to know you know the neighborhood and you know what's going on," he said.

The former warehouse also allowed him to be creative with the space, and to focus on making the office more like the coffee shops many agents preferred to work from.

"We decided we wanted to be like Starbucks or La Colombe."

Ostroff's space is approximately 11,000 square feet  much of which is open-concept. It includes small sitting areas geared toward the kinds of collaborations he says results in deals.

Like many other employers, he said the space is meant to evoke a Silicon Valley atmosphere. Meeting areas are reserved via iPads and Apple TVs are present in every conference room. Now the space is a hub for the agents who work there as well as the ones who attend monthly training sessions.

Health Union designed its Bailey Building space with public-facing activities in mind as well, installing bleachers for town hall events like the ones it hosted for Philly Tech Week last year.

"The space plays a role in our culture," Armand said.

He said features like custom furniture and art lend themselves to attracting the right hires.

"It's a point of differentiation for us when going to hire people," he said. "The type of culture that we're trying to create, the kind of people we're trying to attract are going to be drawn to a Center City location."

Among the elements appealing to the millennial population he said the company seems to attract are proximity to public transportation and other cultural attractions.

Starke said Think Company employees were similar in that regard.

"A lot of the folks who want to work for a company like ours, they're dug into the city in a great way," he said. "They want to live there and they want to work there."

At Slalom, Loftus said about half the employees live in Philadelphia, but all of them like taking advantage of the city's amenities.

"They like the ability to walk to the office or hop on the bus and have a really quick trip," she said.

Pouppirt said Clemens employees have a sense of obligation that working in the city brings.

"Ultimately it's about making the city a better place. There's a definite feeling of pride and identity for the city of Philadelphia," she said.This combination photo shows, top row from left, film producer Harvey Weinstein, former Amazon Studios executive Roy Price, director James Toback, New Orleans chef John Besh; bottom row from left, fashion photographer Terry Richardson, New Republic contributing editor Leon Wiseltier, former NBC News political commentator Mark Halperin, former Defy Media executive Andy Signore. In the weeks since the string of allegations against Weinstein first began, an ongoing domino effect tumbled through not just Hollywood but at least a dozen other industries. Read more

The headlines may focus on the undoing of important men over allegations of sexual harassment, men in Hollywood, Congress, media outlets and other high-profile industries. But everyday workplaces also are grappling with implications of the #MeToo movement.

Employees are talking about the issue of sexual harassment in the office or on the shop floor, asking questions around what's acceptable behavior and what's not, and in some cases, feeling more comfortable to report concerns.

On the surface, that might seem like an HR headache to manage. Human resource and legal experts, however, call the national and local spotlight on sexual harassment an important moment  one that businesses should not ignore.

"I think that it creates opportunity," said Linda Hollinshead, a partner at Duane Morris in Philadelphia who practices in employment law and does harassment prevention training. "The fact that we're talking about it on a regular basis has to be a good thing, has to be a positive for workplaces and awareness."

In the weeks since last October when the #MeToo hashtag went viral and a flood of boldface names, starting with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, faced allegations, Hollinshead has seen an uptick in calls from clients. Some want to update policies that haven't been reviewed in a while; others want to move training  their #MeToo training, as some say  that usually occurs later in the year to the first quarter.

"It's more of a priority," she said, adding Duane Morris recirculated its policies. Companies are saying that "we wanted to remind employees that we are thinking about it too."

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that more than one-third of the 500-plus HR respondents to a January survey reported at least one employee had made a workplace sexual harassment allegation in the last year. Thirty-six percent of the group of nearly 200 HR professionals noted an increased in allegations. Out of that group of nearly 200 HR professionals, 36 percent noted an increase in allegations. The most commonly reported complaint is verbal harassment, including unwanted sexual advances, says the survey.

In addition, almost half of organizations either plan to make changes to their sexual harassment prevention training this year or already made changes last year. Common changes included adding workplace civility components (49 percent), tailoring training (47 percent) and incorporating information into employee orientation (46 percent).

"We're seeing better HR policies, better enforcement and better training in the age of the #MeToo movement," said Bettina Deynes, SHRM's interim chief human resources officer and vice president of human resources and diversity. "The understanding is that sexual harassment is no longer acceptable and has to be eradicated from the workplace."

Too often, she said, "training has been a check-the-box thing. But that's not effective."

Instead, experts advise employers to offer frequent programs that not only focus on awareness through specific scenarios but also make clear how to report concerns. Never exempt anybody, even executives. Make policies that cover a broad range of behavior  other types of harassment, as well as discrimination and retaliation, going beyond the narrow legal definitions.

Hollinshead, for one, cautions against zero-tolerance policies that overlook nuances. Sometimes a hug between a manager and team member is appropriate; other times, not.

"It's easy to say, thou shalt not," she said, "but it's not realistic in some of these gray areas."

At the nonprofit SPIN, based in Northeast Philadelphia, the current climate has provided an imperative to take a more proactive stance on the issue, said Adam Hymans, director of strategic communications for the provider of services to children and adults with autism and other disabilities in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley regions.

The group revised its policies to "empower employees to come forward," according to Hymans. That includes a 24-hour hotline to report sexual harassment directly to the head of HR instead of through a supervisor. SPIN also has updated training for all employees on what they should expect from positive, professional relationships, he said.

"By discussing the shades of harassment, from inappropriate remarks to pervasive bullying and physical harassment, we give employees a language to understand and talk about their experiences," Hymans said. The annual training also will be incorporated into on-boarding activities.

Why make these changes now? "When our employees feel safe, supported and empowered to do their best, the people we support can thrive," he said. "The #MeToo movement provided us the perfect opportunity to refresh and revisit our policy."

The Turnersville AutoMall held "reinforcement training around proper workplace behavior" for about 80 managers and supervisors in December "to re-energize focus and ensure everyone had the proper sensitivity to the issue," said Ryan Sowell, area human resources manager for the business. It plans to repeat the program more often.

The SHRM research underlines the challenges companies face. Even though most workplaces (94 percent) have a sexual harassment policy  an important tool to prevent and address inappropriate behavior  a companion survey of non-management employees revealed that more than one in five of the 1,223 asked was not aware of it.

"Organizations need to make sure employees understand the policy," Deynes said, "that they're familiar with different types of harassment, not just sexual harassment, that they understand there is a confidential, non-retaliatory manner to bringing the situation forward to HR or leadership."

Still some complaints appear to be going unreported. While 11 percent of non-management employees said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment last year, more than three-fourths did not report it. Why? In some cases, the victim feared retaliation or believed no action would be taken.

According to Deynes, policies on books and regular training are only first steps. "The organization really has to create a culture where people feel safe," she said. "It really has to commit to enforcing those policies, that no one, the so called high-value or high-profile employee, is exempt, and really be very open about why this type of behavior will not be tolerated."

At MassMutual, Greater Philadelphia, sexual harassment policies and training, along with other HR issues, have gotten increased attention as a result of the Bala Cynwyd-based company's rapid growth, said vice president of marketing Cynthia St. Pierre.

#MeToo has further increased awareness around how to behave in the workplace, she said, and that gives her a lot of hope, especially for her own 2-year-old daughter's future.

"The conversations that I'm hearing in our offices are positive," St. Pierre said. "That's wonderful. They really generate more conversation and ideas and thoughts and interaction  and change."Ali Perelman (right) is the executive director of Philadelphia 3.0, a reform group that held workshops over the past year to teach newcomers to run for committee person. U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (left) leads the Democratic Party. Read more

Are anti-establishment progressives and reformers on the verge of taking over Philadelphia's Democratic Party in some neighborhoods? Or were they just handed a major defeat?

The answer depends on whom you ask.

Insurgents were dealt a blow when they learned last week that, contrary to what many expected, there hasn't been a surge in candidates running for a key role in the city's Democratic machine.

At the same time, there are signs that newcomers may be chipping away at the old guard in certain areas. New figures also suggest that some veterans are stepping down as beginners enter the ring.

Hundreds of residents, including many millennials, attended workshops this year to learn how to run for committee person. The low-level post sounds unsexy but packs a big punch: Committee people elect the city's powerful ward leaders, who in turn select the party chairman and hold sway over many local elections. They also work to generate voter turnout.

The 3,300-plus committee seats don't normally attract much attention, but interest in them surged after the 2016 election. A high school senior even decided to campaign for one of the spots. Some political insiders wondered whether a groundswell of newcomers could oust longtime ward leaders, and perhaps even threaten U.S. Rep. Bob Brady's decades-long grip on the local party.

But only 3,267 Democrats are running for committee person this year  just five more than in 2014, according to preliminary data from the City Commissioners' Office. No, a zero isn't missing in that number.

Many longtime Democrats see the flat trend line as proof that Philadelphia 3.0, a dark-money nonprofit that was the brainchild of business leaders and whose goal is to help create a "more competitive city and a local government," failed in its campaign to encourage first-time candidates to campaign for committee person. Other groups, such as Reclaim Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Democratic Progressive Caucus, also supported new candidates.

Louis Agre, Democratic leader of Northwest Philly's 21st Ward, said Philadelphia 3.0 acted as if "there would be an onslaught."

"They must have spent all of this money, and it doesn't seem like they did anything," he said. "They fell short of their goals.  You can call them Philly 0.3."

Some organizations that pushed outsiders to run for the spots were underwhelmed. Joe Driscoll, an activist in the city's Democratic Progressive Caucus, said he is "shocked" more aren't campaigning.

"It's disappointing," he said. "We've been working on this for well over a year."

So what happened? Is the Democratic machine stronger than some thought? Has the grassroots enthusiasm among Democrats been over-hyped? Or is it more complicated than that?

Though there hasn't been a citywide boost in the number of candidates running for committee person, there have been spikes in several individual neighborhoods: Thirty-three of the city's 66 wards experienced an increase. Many are located in gentrifying areas in South Philadelphia and the river wards.

Jon Geeting, director of engagement for Philadelphia 3.0, also said the citywide data are misleading because several longtime committee people are retiring at the same time that newcomers are running.

Only 47 percent of the people campaigning for committee posts are incumbents who won in 2014, according to an unofficial analysis by the City Commissioners' office.

"We're extremely excited that this movement has empowered so many new candidates to run," said Geeting. "The candidate mix is almost exactly split 50-50 between challengers and incumbents."

However, these figures do not take into account the number of incumbents appointed by ward leaders since 2014, or how many of the new candidates were recruited by ward leaders.

Still, the data beg the question: Are the city's wards following the nationwide trend of decades-long politicians calling it quits? Though he said he will remain leader of Philadelphia's Democratic Party, Brady is not campaigning again for Congress. Democratic State Reps. Curtis Thomas and Bill Keller are also retiring at the end of this year.

Driscoll said some old-guard committee people may have bowed out after they learned they were being challenged by newbies. Often, there is no competition in these races. "I think we discouraged folks who have been committee people for a long time and don't do anything and don't want to do anything," he said.

Agre disagreed that the retirements are unusual: "There is always turnover."

Brady did not respond to a request for comment.

One of the neighborhoods that saw a boost is South Philly's Second Ward, where Philadelphia 3.0 leader Ali Perelman lives. She was in charge of the group's efforts there to recruit candidates for committee person, which led some political insiders to speculate that she might be running for ward leader. (She has denied those rumors.)

"We're feeling good," said Geeting. "In all the wards we were most interested in, incumbents make up between 30 and 40 percent of the total candidates."

Ed Nesmith, Democratic leader of the Second Ward, said he has not decided whether he is running for reelection. His family is urging him to step down after many years of service, he said.

"If I decide to run, I will win," he added.

Geeting would not identify the other wards targeted by Philadelphia 3.0. He and Perelman filed only about 40 petitions for committee candidates, but said about 220 others trained by 3.0 submitted their paperwork themselves.

Reclaim Philadelphia, a left-wing organization founded by former staffers for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, also handed in several petitions in the Second Ward. It would not disclose the number of members who are campaigning.

Agre speculated that "Reclaim has a better shot at being a player at the table than 3.0."

He also pointed out that the city's wards that underwent the biggest increase in committee candidates are located in the Northeast, where groups such as 3.0 don't appear to have centered their operations. Political insiders said the swell there is likely due to disagreements among different factions within the Democratic establishment.

A field director for Elizabeth Fiedler, a former WHYY reporter campaigning to succeed Keller, filed a number of committee petitions in South Philly as well.

Larry Ceisler, a longtime political observer working in public relations, suggested that the spike in committee candidates in some neighborhoods may have little to do with the battle between "Old Philly" and "New Philly."

"We're in a politically charged environment right now," he said, "because of Trump, because of Black Lives Matter, because of #MeToo, because of a number of movements."

Mustafa Rashed, a Philadelphia-based political consultant, said that even in an era of increased activism, many voters still don't understand what committee people do or why they're important.

"A lot of work still needs to be done to educate people," he said.

Driscoll agreed: "It's a difficult thing to promote and explain why you should run for these seats." But, he added, about 800 people told his group they would run for committee person  and at least 200 did.

"That's an incredible feat," he said, even though "the numbers overall are disappointing."The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped for a constructive and sober approach to relations between Russia and the United States following the firing of Rex Tillerson as U.S. Secretary of State.

U.S. President Donald Trump fired 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.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was unlikely ties between Moscow and Washington could get any worse.

"In any case, there's hope for constructive and sober relations," he told reporters.

Short link:

Meek Mill's mother, Kathy Williams, holds a poster of her son during a panel about criminal justice reform at the University of Pennsylvania's Irvine Auditorium Read more

Once Meek Mill's prison sentence is up, the rapper says he plans to leave the City of Brotherly Love for the Empire City of the South.

Mill, 30, discussed a potential move to Atlanta in a new interview with Rolling Stone  his first jailhouse interview since Judge Genece Brinkley sentenced him to two to four years in jail in November for probation violations. In the wide-ranging talk, Mill discusses his thoughts on corruption in the criminal justice system, as well as his non-Philly future.

"There's brothers locked down that did nothing to be here but piss off people like Brinkley. I want to speak on this system and what it does to black people  on both f sides of the fence," Mill said. "Trust me, I'm gonna say something about that. And then, I'm gonna move to Atlanta."

Brinkley previously sent Mill to prison on gun and drug convictions about a decade ago. In the time since, she has ordered him back to jail twice for violating the terms of his probation; once in July 2014, and again last year. As an anonymous Philadelphia attorney told Rolling Stone, Brinkley's treatment of Mill is not out of the ordinary for her.

"She's a sadist," the unnamed attorney said. "She puts long-tail probations on young black men, then jerks them back to jail for small infractions."

Mill, however, could get out of prison before his two-to-four-year sentence is up. As District Attorney Larry Krasner's office said in a motion filed in Common Please Court, "there is a strong showing of likelihood of [Mill's] conviction being reversed" following allegations that the rapper was convicted in 2008 on false testimony from arresting officer Reginald V. Graham. Graham was included on a recently released list of "tainted" police officers deemed unfit to give testimony in court by the District Attorney's Office.

"In the event [Mill's] conviction is reversed  the risk of an unjust or disproportionate sentence having been served exists," the motion reads. "That risk increases as long as [Mill] remains in custody."

However, as an Inquirer report notes, Mill's "freedom is by no means assured," as the decision whether to release him is up to Brinkley.

Mill's mother, Kathy Williams, 55, meanwhile, pleaded for her son's release from prison at an event at the University of Pennsylvania in support of the rapper on Wednesday.

"I pray that God gives Judge Brinkley the wisdom to make the right decision and allow my son to return home to his family," Williams said.President Trump is reportedly once again interested in plucking Fox & Friends weekend host Pete Hegseth from Fox News and adding him to his administration. Read more

On Wednesday, President Trump turned to the world of television for the latest addition to his staff, selecting longtime CNBC personality Larry Kudrow to replace outgoing Gary Cohn as the head of the White House National Economic Council.

But the president might not be finished plucking talking heads quite yet.

Fox & Friends weekend co-host Pete Hegseth, who was reportedly among Trump's top candidates to be Veterans Affairs Secretary during the transition, is once again being rumored to run the department, this time as a possible replacement for the agency's current secretary, David Shulkin.

According to Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich, Hegseth is among the frontrunners to replace the embattled Shulkin, a longtime Philadelphia resident and Obama administration holdover who used taxpayer dollars to pay for his wife to go to Europe and faces allegations that he used a member of his security detail to help him purchase and transport furniture from Home Depot.

Neither Hegseth nor Fox News responded to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, Trump called Hegseth in the middle of a meeting with a surprised Shulkin and asked the Fox & Friends host to analyze new legislation that would impact the VA, according to a report by Axios' Jonathan Swan. The two have reportedly spoken often during Trump's first year in office, and Hegseth dined with the president in the East Wing in October.

Hegseth, a Princeton University graduate, is an Army veteran and a former leader of right-leaning veterans groups. He withdrew from the Senate race in Minnesota in 2012 after failing to secure an endorsement from state Republican leaders.

If hired, Hegseth wouldn't be the first Fox & Friends host to land a job in Trump's administration. The president hired former Fox & Friends anchor Heather Nauert as a spokeswoman for the State Department in April 2017. Now, thanks to the dismissal of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and under secretary Steve Goldstein, she is now the fourth-highest-ranking official at Foggy Bottom.

Trump also reportedly considered replacing former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer with Kimberly Guilfoyle, the co-host of The Five. Former Fox News commentator and syndicated talk show host Monica Crowley declined a job as the senior communications director for the National Security Council after it was reveled she plagiarized sections of her 2012 bestselling book, What the (Bleep) Just Happened?

CNN shakes up its lineup

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, one of the network's most prominent personalities, is having his evening airtime cut in half to make room for a new 9 p.m. show anchored by Chris Cuomo that will launch in the spring.

After a test run in January that saw a slight lift in the ratings for CNN, the network will place Cuomo Prime Time head-to-head against television's two most popular cable news programs: The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and Hannity on Fox News.

Cuomo, the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and brother of the current governor, Andrew Cuomo, will be replaced on New Day by longtime anchor and correspondent John Berman. Alisyn Camerota will remain on New Day as Berman's co-anchor. CNN didn't release the exact date when the new lineup will begin, and didn't announce a replacement for Berman, who currently anchors the network's 9 a.m. timeslot.

Recently, CNN has struggled to keep up in a ratings battle with Fox News and MSNBC. Maddow and MSNBC dominated the ratings on Tuesday night during coverage of a closely watched special election in western Pennsylvania, drawing a total prime time audience of 2.858 million viewers, according to Nielsen. CNN finished a distant third with 1.612 million viewers.

Sinclairs latest must-run segment spins Pa. special election

The apparent victory by Democrat Conor Lamb in a western Pennsylvania House district that Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2016 is somehow good news for the president.

That's the take offered by Boris Epshteyn, the chief political analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group who was an adviser on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. During a morning spot on Sinclair-owned Fox 45 in Baltimore, Epshteyn painted Trump as the real winner of the election, arguing that Lamb's win would have been larger if the president hadn't traveled to the district to rally for Republican candidate Rick Saccone, referring to it as a "Trump bump"

"Saccone was down by about six points going into the final weekend. Now it's tied. I don't see how this is a negative for the Republicans," Epshteyn said. "I see it as a positive."

The pro-Trump spin continued in Epshteyn's latest "must-run" segment all Sinclair stations are forced to air, in which the Trump supporter said the unlikely victory in a deeply conservative district wasn't an "indication of a Democrat wave for the midterms in November." He also reminded viewers that Trump "was not on the ballot."

Epshteyn's largely partisan commentary garners little interest online (the latest has fewer than 50 views), but they remain influential to hundreds of thousands of viewers due to Sinclair's decision to require its 173 television stations in nearly 80 markets (including several in western Pennsylvania) to run his segments nine times a week.

Other regular "must-run" segments include commentary from former Sinclair VP Mark Hyman and Terrorism Alert Desk segments that almost exclusively focus on stories involving Islam.Stephen Trzeciak, a critical care doctor, and Brian Roberts, right, an emergency physician, talk at Cooper University Hospital, where both work. They are studying how compassion affects health care. Read more

Stephen Trzeciak's obsession with compassion started with his son's seventh-grade cultural geography assignment three years ago.

The son asked the father, a critical-care doctor at Cooper University Hospital, for help with a speech that would count for half his grade. Trzeciak saw a father-son bonding opportunity. Then he read the formidable question his 12-year-old was expected to answer: What is the most pressing problem of our time?

His son had made a good start, but Trzeciak knew young Christian's heart wasn't in the topic he'd picked. If he didn't really believe this problem was important, his classmates wouldn't either, Trzeciak advised him. His son gave it more thought, picked a different problem and won his audience.

That wasn't the end of it for Trzeciak, though. A "research nerd," his own work had centered on topics like surviving blood infections and heart attacks or life after intensive care. Important, yes, but these things were not, Trzeciak admitted to himself, the most pressing problems of our time. What could he be more passionate about?

After months of mulling, he concluded the biggest problem in medicine was obvious: "We have a compassion crisis."

Burnout, characterized by depersonalization of patients and emotional exhaustion, was rampant in medicine. It was affecting quality as well as how patients felt about their care. At its core, he thought, the problem started with the emotional connection between health professionals and their patients. What was needed was for someone to bring science to the study of compassion and its impact on medical quality and cost.

"Why waste another moment of my career working on anything else?" Trzeciak thought. "This is what I need to do right now."

He has spent the years since Christian's assignment poring over more than 1,250 research abstracts and papers, trying to answer the question Does compassion really matter? The available evidence is that it does and that there isn't enough of it in health care. (He suspects there isn't enough of it in a lot of other places, too, but that's not his "wheel house.")

Last fall, Trzeciak, Anthony Mazzarelli, a physician who just became co-president of Cooper University Health Care, and Brian Roberts, a Cooper emergency physician, laid out their case for a new area of study, Compassionomics, in an essay in the journal Medical Hypotheses. It is obvious that health-care providers "ought" to be compassionate, they wrote. That's a moral imperative rooted in the art of medicine. But the team said that compassion may also be "an evidence-based intervention with measurable beneficial effects belonging in the science of medicine."

Cooper is just starting its first compassion studies. The team will look at how caregiver compassion affects PTSD among critically ill patients, at whether compassion training  yes, you can train people to be more compassionate  affects the development or course of provider burnout, and at how to model costs related to compassion training. Burnout "just fuels the compassion crisis," said Trzeciak, who has been invited to speak at TedX Penn next month.

A system that works against caring

James Doty, a neurosurgeon, founded the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research 10 years ago. It remains the nation's only academic center devoted to the topic, he said, but growing numbers of researchers are studying compassion. "I think it's a very hot topic," he said.

Doty edited The Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science, which was published late last year. The center, whose interest in compassion goes well beyond medicine, will host its third conference on compassion in health care in March 2019.

Doty said compassion can have a powerful effect on both patients and medical professionals, but the roots of burnout and depression are deeply embedded in a system that can work against caring. The values of professionals, who entered their fields to help, often clash with those of the commercial, profit-seeking health institutions they work for.

"They feel that what they signed up for is not what they got," he said.

Mazzarelli is also interested in the role of organizational culture. He wants to test the impact of more compassionate leadership.

Trzeciak said there's already evidence that very little of the time doctors spend with patients  less than 1 percent  is devoted to expressions of empathy or compassion. Empathy, he said, is feeling another's pain. Compassion goes beyond empathy to include taking action to help.

>> READ MORE: A Jefferson surgeon talks about his straitjacket  and recovery from depression

There's also evidence that patients are more likely to follow doctors' instructions and doctors are less likely to order unnecessary tests when there is a compassionate relationship. Doctors who are burned out are more likely to make mistakes. These relationships all potentially affect the cost of care, an area that Trzeciak thinks needs more study.

"Ultimately, payers drive change in health care," he said.

Leaning in

When Trzeciak, 47, was in medical school, students were told not to get too emotionally invested in patients because it would raise the odds of burnout. "I can't find any data to support that," he said. "But there is compelling data to the contrary."

Most studies, he said, found an inverse relationship between compassion and burnout. That doesn't mean that lack of compassion causes burnout. It does mean that the association is ripe for more study.

Trzeciak isn't suggesting that compassion is a substitute for a solid grounding in science. "If a physician doesn't technically know what they're doing, there is no amount of compassion in the world that's going to make up for that," he said. "Clinical excellence is the primary driver of health-care outcomes."

Once he started diving into the data on compassion, Trzeciak had to admit that he needed to make some changes in his own approach to patients. After 20 years of meeting people on the worst day of their lives, he had "every symptom of burnout." Much of what he read suggested he'd get better if he tried various forms of what he labeled "escapism," stuff like nature hikes.

But, to him, the data said that "leaning in, rather than escapism, is good for the provider."

He had been especially impressed by a 1999 Johns Hopkins University study on the impact that scripted, videotaped expressions of compassion had on cancer patients. If doctors spent just 40 seconds saying they and patients were on this difficult journey together, patients had less anxiety.

Trzeciak decided to do an experiment on himself. He would give his 40 seconds of compassion to patients every chance he got. "I connected more. I cared more, not less," he said. "That's when the fog of burnout began to lift, so it changed everything for me, too."Bette Popiel knew the breast MRI she wanted to detect possible tumors hidden by dense tissue wouldn't be covered by Medicare, so she would have to pay cash.

She called a handful of providers, found the best price, and booked the appointment.

But what began as an exercise in smart shopping turned into a cautionary tale when Popiel received a bill for thousands of dollars more than what she had been told to expect. Even the savviest of health-care shoppers struggle to navigate the system.

"Lesson learned," said Popiel, 66, of Thornton, in Delaware County. "Keep volumes of notes of everyone you speak to and always get the quoted price in writing."

Popiel has denser than average breast tissue, which is difficult to see through on a mammogram, the standard screening for breast cancer. Doctors often recommend patients with dense breasts have a second scan, such as an ultrasound or MRI to detect abnormalities that may have been obstructed.

Popiel's doctor wrote a script for the breast MRI, but she knew it wouldn't meet Medicare's coverage requirement of being medically necessary. She had had one in the past and wanted the peace of mind the scan would offer, she said.

After receiving a $6,000 quote from a Main Line Health provider, Popiel settled on a nearby facility that is part of the Crozer-Keystone Health System.

Crozer quoted a cash price of $351 for a breast MRI, plus an $88 reading fee, Popiel said.

She had the scan on Aug. 18 and felt reassured after learning the MRI had shown no abnormalities.

Her good mood changed when she received the bill in early September: $4,650.

The bill showed that Popiel had paid $351 up front, but indicated she still owed $4,299. The reading fee had been billed separately.

"I called right away," Popiel said.

The billing department assured her the mistake would be corrected and she'd be sent a new bill.

Another bill came, and then a third  both seeking $4,299 and each more aggressively worded than the last.

"We have been unsuccessful in our attempts to reach you and discuss your outstanding balance," read the bill that came in November.

After informing Popiel of Crozer's financial assistance program, the message on her bill continued, "Unless payment is received or you contact our Patient Accounts Office within 30 days from the date of this letter, your account may be assigned to a collection agency."

Sean M. Fitzpatrick, a vice president and the chief financial officer at Crozer, said the health system works with patients to correct errors and resubmit bills to their insurers.

"Our goal is to minimize surprises," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "However, if something unexpected happens, like a bill that's higher than anticipated, we work with patients to investigate and resolve the issue."

Popiel said she appreciated that Crozer seemed committed to resolving her issue every time she called, but after a few months, she was getting weary.

"I want to get this resolved," Popiel recalled thinking as the bills kept coming. "I don't want this to go to collections and mess up my credit."

She had no idea it would ultimately take four months to get action on her problem.

Risking your credit score

Damaged credit is a fear that often discourages people from fighting medical bills.

When the dispute drags on for months, patients may have to make a decision between what looks to them like overpaying for a health-care service or risking their credit rating if the bill is sent to a collection agency for further action, said Liz Weston, a certified financial planner and columnist for the personal finance website NerdWallet.

"Medical debt can really hurt your credit," she said. "Staying on top of that process, when the bills are bouncing back between the insurer and provider, is important."

FICO, the most commonly used credit agency, has updated its formula to lessen the impact that medical debt has on an individual's credit rating, Weston said.

A credit rating is intended to assess the likelihood that a borrower will default on a loan. Research has shown that borrowers with medical debt are less likely to default than borrowers with other kinds of debt, such as unpaid credit card bills.

But many banks and lending institutions are still using old versions of FICO's credit score that count the failure to pay for a medical crisis just as they consider unpaid vacations or spa visits on a credit card.

Though it may sound counterintuitive, Weston said, unpaid medical bills can be most damaging to people with very good credit.

"The higher your score, the farther you have to fall if anything goes wrong," she said. "If you've already defaulted on a bunch of loans, what's one more?"

Get it on paper

Popiel said she felt confident in her ability to continue fighting her bill because Crozer had been responsive to her calls. The error was eventually corrected and Popiel credits Crozer with upholding the price she originally was quoted.

She said she brought the bill to Philly Health Costs, a health-care price transparency project of the Philadelphia Inquirer and 6ABC Action News, because she worries about people who don't think they can fight or who don't realize they've been overcharged.

"There are plenty of seniors who would just pay the bill and it breaks my heart," Popiel said.

Too often, patients decide against disputing an incorrect charge because they have no idea how to go about contesting a bill. "They just pay it," said Adria Gross, a New York-based patient advocate. "They don't want to get into this."

Many patients, especially seniors, fear that fighting a charge will negatively impact their care, or that their doctors will no longer want to see them, she said.

Gross has four words of advice for avoiding a messy fight: "Get it on paper."

It was Popiel's diligent record-keeping that got her the MRI at the price she was promised, exactly the advice offered by the Inquirer's partner in the price project, Clear Health Costs.

She had written down the name of everyone she spoke to and recorded every call. She even knew the name of Crozer's electronic system used to code and price services. Popiel had everything except a written quote from Crozer.

She won't make that mistake again.

Please share your medical billing experiences with the Inquirer through our online tool at philly.com/healthcosts.Bill Cosby exits the Montgomery County Courthouse, after a pretrial hearing in the sexual assault case in Norristown, PA, Tuesday, March 6, 2018. JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff Photographer. Read more

In a move likely to broaden the scope and extend the length of Bill Cosby's upcoming retrial, a judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors can call as witnesses five women who have accused him of sexual misconduct in years past.

At last June's trial, which ended with a hung jury, only one woman was permitted to testify in addition to Andrea Constand, the central accuser.

But the ruling by Judge Steven T. O'Neill could transform the April 2 retrial from a he-said-she-said case to one about a pattern of sexual misconduct spanning decades by the celebrity once revered as "America's Dad."

More than 50 women have accused Cosby of sexual assault or misconduct, citing alleged incidents that stretch from 1965 through the 1990s. Several have sued him, but Constand's assertion  that he drugged and molested her in his Cheltenham home in 2004  is the only one to lead to criminal charges.

Before the trial last year, O'Neill had rejected Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele's request to present a parade of 13 accusers to the jury in a bid to show that what happened to Constand followed a pattern of predatory behavior by Cosby.

Instead, the judge allowed testimony from just one, Kelly Johnson, who said the entertainer drugged and sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Defense lawyers attacked her credibility on cross-examination and focused on inconsistencies in her story.

This time, Steele not only renewed his witness request but expanded it to 19 women, pointing to the way the defense attacked Constand and Johnson at the trial.

At a hearing last week, Cosby's lawyers asked O'Neill to block the witnesses. They said testimony from additional women, along with the #MeToo movement, could create unfair prejudice against Cosby.

O'Neill's ruling did not specify which of the 19 women can take the witness stand, but said the prosecution can use evidence of "five prior bad acts of its choosing."

Prosecutors must notify the court and defense lawyers by Monday whom they will call to testify.

"We're reviewing the judge's order and will be making some determinations," Kate Delano, a spokeswoman for Steele, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

While the judge will instruct the jury about the legal purpose of the "prior bad acts" witnesses, the jurors themselves will determine how  or whether  the other accusers' testimony factors into their deliberations. After the deadlock in June, some jurors in that case said Johnson's testimony played little or no role in their deliberations.

"I didn't really think anything of her," juror Bobby Dugan told the Inquirer and Daily News days after the mistrial. "I didn't really see that as being part of this case."

The five women who testify can also expect grueling cross-examinations from Cosby's defense team as it seeks to discredit their allegations. Tom Mesereau, Cosby's new lead defense attorney, has said he plans to share details of Constand's confidential settlement of a civil lawsuit against Cosby to show "just how greedy" she was.

After the ruling, Cosby's spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, said in an email that prosecutors' attempts to include more accusers "shows [they] are desperate and this is a very weak case."

Cosby, 80, faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault, charges that could send him to prison for a decade. Jury selection is scheduled to begin March 29.Councilwoman Cindy Bass introduced a resolution, passed Thursday, to investigate how DHS wound up contracting with two foster care agencies that discriminate against LGBTQ people. Read more

The city announced Thursday that it had stopped two faith-based agencies from placing foster children after learning the organizations discriminate against LGBTQ people.

The Philadelphia Department of Human Services has ceased foster-care intake with Bethany Christian Services and Catholic Social Services, pending an investigation by the Commission on Human Relations.

The restriction follows an Inquirer and Daily News report that the city-funded agencies will not work with LGBTQ people or same-sex couples interested in becoming foster parents, a stance that likely violates city contract rules. The organizations do work with LGBTQ youth.

DHS spokeswoman Heather Keafer said the 233 children already placed with families through the organizations would remain in those homes but new placements with the organizations would stop.

"Our goal is to minimize placement disruptions (moving children between foster homes), and to ensure that a child's ability to reunify with their family of origin or to continue an adoption process is not delayed because of a placement disruption," Keafer said in a statement.

Also on Thursday, City Council passed a resolution to investigate the contracting policies at DHS.

A same-sex couple who approached Bethany Christian Services about becoming foster parents were turned away in October. Catholic Social Services told the Inquirer and Daily News it also does not work with LGBTQ people interested in being foster parents, though it knew of no inquiries from same-sex couples.

Together the agencies have received about $3 million in foster care reimbursement funds from the city each year.

Councilwoman Cindy Bass introduced the resolution, which calls on the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to "investigate policies on contracting with social service agencies that discriminate against prospective LGBTQ foster parents."

Philadelphia contracts prohibit discrimination against individuals based on sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation, as does the city's 1963 Fair Practices Ordinance.

The nonprofits, which have contracted with the city since the late 1990s, have long operated under religious restrictions. Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said Catholic Social Services' stance is a "well-established and long-known one in our relationship with DHS."

As the need for foster parents has grown nationwide and with the legalization of same-sex marriage, similar issues have been reported around the country. The ACLU is involved in a lawsuit against the State of Michigan in which Bethany and Catholic Social Services are the two organizations cited for refusing to work with same-sex couples. Michigan has a law that protects faith-based foster care and adoption organizations. Pennsylvania has no such law.

Keafer has said DHS welcomes individuals regardless of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion or neighborhood. Foster parents need not be married nor own their homes.

DHS has said it is evaluating its contracts with all 26 foster care agencies as well as consulting with the city's legal department on whether the denials violate city contract law.

The department is in the midst of a recruitment push to add 300 qualified foster parents.The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said Wednesday that it would not oppose Meek Mill's release from prison on bail because it has questions about whether the rapper's conviction from a decade ago would withstand his most recent appeal efforts.

In a motion filed in Common Pleas Court, prosecutors said, "There is a strong showing of likelihood of [Mill's] conviction being reversed," based on allegations that the 2008 conviction was secured thanks to false testimony by arresting officer Reginald V. Graham. Prosecutors also cited the fact that Graham  the sole government witness at Mill's trial  was included on a recently disclosed list of police whom the District Attorney's Office had deemed too untrustworthy to testify.

"In the event [Mill's] conviction is reversed  the risk of an unjust or disproportionate sentence having been served exists," said the motion, filed in response to an appeal by Mill's attorneys. "That risk increases as long as [Mill] remains in custody."

The filing delivered Mill the most tangible reason for optimism yet in his four-month quest to secure his release, and it offered the first indication that he may have a powerful new ally in District Attorney Larry Krasner, a self-styled reformer who was sworn into office in January.

Still, Mill's freedom is by no means assured. The decision lies with the judge who imprisoned him, Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley, whom the rapper's backers have spent months attacking with accusations of ethical improprieties while petitioning the court to have her removed from the case.

Mill's attorneys, Joe Tacopina and Brian McMonagle, said they were pleased with Krasner's motion and hoped it might soon trigger Mill's release.

Mill's mother, Kathy Williams, who had spoken tearfully at an event supporting Mill the previous day at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement Wednesday: "I pray that God gives Judge Brinkley the wisdom to make the right decision and allow my son to return home to his family."

Mill, whose legal name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, has been incarcerated since Brinkley sentenced him in November to two to four years for violating the terms of his probation from the 2008 drug and gun conviction. The judge's decision ran counter to recommendations from prosecutors and the rapper's probation officer at the time  and it immediately sparked a wave of public backlash, with athletes and celebrities joining fans and activists in calling the sentence overly harsh.

In the four months since Mill, 30, was sentenced, the District Attorney's Office has taken no position on repeated requests from his lawyers to free him while he appeals the sentence. Krasner's filing Wednesday took a slightly stronger stance, saying prosecutors would not oppose Mill's bail request.

In efforts in and out of court to secure his release, Mill's legal team has targeted Brinkley, the probation sentence, and the legality of his original conviction.

The focus has shifted in the last month toward his 2008 trial, as lawyers have accused Graham of lying under oath to ensure that Mill was put behind bars. They also lined up another retired narcotics officer, Jerold Gibson, who in sworn statements has said he can back up that claim. Gibson also has agreed with Mill's contention that Graham and other officers beat him during his arrest.

Mill's lawyers also included a sworn statement from another ex-officer, Jeffrey Walker, who has accused Graham of stealing money during unrelated drug arrests in 2005.

Both Gibson and Walker face potential credibility issues of their own  a situation prosecutors highlighted in their filing Wednesday while discussing the difficulty of evaluating their claims.

Gibson, former son-in-law of former Gov. Tom Corbett, was fired from the Police Department in 2013 and later sentenced to six months to a year in jail, after he was caught in an FBI sting stealing from suspected drug dealers.

Walker pleaded guilty to similar federal theft charges in 2014 and later served as the government's star witness in a case against six of his former colleagues on a police narcotics field unit. The jury, in acquitting those officers in 2015, largely rejected his testimony.

Still, federal prosecutors stand by Walker's account. His past testimony has also factored into court rulings overturning hundreds of convictions tied to the unit's past arrests as well as the city's decision to dole out millions to settle lawsuits stemming from the officers' conduct  a fact that prosecutors noted in their motion Wednesday.

While saying they were "not in a position to accept or reject the allegations" made by Gibson or Walker, prosecutors said the officers' claims represented "new and important information relating to the integrity of the original conviction"  information that was not known at the time of Mill's trial or subsequent court proceedings, including his sentencing in the fall.

They also cited the fact that Graham later was placed on a list of so-called untrustworthy cops  a list developed under former District Attorney Seth Williams but not disclosed to defense attorneys until last month.

Graham's inclusion on the list did not relate to Mill's case  it was over unrelated corruption allegations  but prosecutors noted that once he was added to it, the District Attorney's Office did not notify Mill's lawyers during any of the several probation hearings in the months after.

It was not immediately clear how Brinkley might react to the filing. Due to judicial conduct rules, she is barred from commenting on cases in which she is presiding.

A hearing is scheduled for April 16 to consider Mill's latest appeal. He remains incarcerated at a state prison in Chester..

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday at Britain's request to discuss the poisoning of a Russian former double agent in England

Britain will brief council members during the open meeting at 1900 GMT on the nerve agent that left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition, the British mission to the United Nations said.

Prime Minister Theresa May is due to outline Britain's response to the March 4 attack during a parliament session in London later Wednesday.

May has declared that it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the attack, either directly or it had "lost control" of the nerve agent Novichok, developed by the Soviet Union.

Russia has denied any involvement.

Short link:

On Friday, May 5, 2017, Centre County DA Stacy Parks Miller speaks about the Beta Theta Pi hazing investigation and the charges brought against 18 people. Timothy Piazzas parents Jim and Evelyn Piazza stand with her in the Centre County Court annex in Bellefonte, Pa. ( DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer ) Read more

Members of a Pennsylvania State University fraternity will not face felony aggravated assault charges  among the most serious  in the death of a sophomore pledge, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has decided.

But some members of Beta Theta Pi continue to face a misdemeanor count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Tim Piazza, and others will be charged with hazing, reckless endangerment, furnishing alcohol to minors, and other offenses under papers filed by the attorney general in court on Thursday.

The attorney general's decision is the latest turn in a deadly hazing case that drew national attention and spurred the university to crack down on Greek life. Piazza, of Lebanon, N.J., died last February after falling down the stairs at a fraternity party following an alleged booze-fueled hazing ritual. He languished on a couch for hours before anyone called for help.

In part, the attorney general's decision sides with a ruling made last summer by Centre County Judge Allen Sinclair, who threw out aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter charges against eight members of the fraternity.

But the Attorney General's Office also differed with Sinclair and sided with former Centre County Prosecutor Stacy Parks Miller in that it kept the involuntary manslaughter charge against four fraternity members: Beta Theta Pi president Brendan Young of Malvern and members Daniel Casey of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., Gary Dibileo of Scranton, and Luke Visser of Encinitas, Calif.

"We will seek justice for the Piazza family," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "My office is committed to holding every responsible individual accountable for their actions, consistent with the law and the evidence in this case."

Parks Miller expressed disappointment with the decision. "I am sorry for the Piazza family the AG is not behind the charges that we carefully chose to file based upon the extreme facts of this case," she said in an email.

"We believed the facts showing recklessness were extreme in Tim Piazza's case, warranting the aggravated assault charge, and we were ready to fight for the right outcome. While the attorney general may have a different approach now, I remain hopeful and confident in their dedication to the other charges moving forward."

Aggravated assault was charged as a first-degree felony, which can carry up to 20 years in prison, while involuntary manslaughter was charged as a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries only up to five years.

In total, the Attorney General's Office filed charges against 11 members who are scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing next week. Three other members waived their preliminary hearings and were bound over for trial.

Twelve other members also face charges, but the Attorney General's Office has not made a determination in their cases.

"Our review is ongoing," Shapiro said in the statement. "These charges represent one part of our investigation, and we will have further information to release as our review moves forward."

Also differing from Parks Miller, the Attorney General's Office did not charge the local fraternity group, noting in papers that it "consists only of alumni, and does not or has not consisted of the chapter or active members of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity as of the dates of the events included in the above referenced complaints."

Center City attorney Tom Kline, who represents Piazza's parents, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, said he was not disappointed by the decision.

"They are going to refile involuntary manslaughter charges against a number of them, and that's significant," Kline said. "And there are 26 individuals who are facing hundreds of charges."

Parks Miller initially filed charges against 18 members of the fraternity last May. She refiled aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter charges against members in October after Sinclair threw them out, following a multi-day preliminary hearing. She also then added charges against more members.

Parks Miller lost a bid for reelection last fall, and new District Attorney Bernie Cantorna asked the Attorney General's Office to take over the case, saying he had a conflict of interest.

Other fraternity members charged by the Attorney General's Office on Thursday include: Joseph Sala of Erie; Michael Bonatucci of Woodstock, Ga.; Nicholas Kubera of Downingtown; Jonah Neuman of Nashville; Lars Kenyon of Barrington, R.I.; Michael Angelo Schiavone of Yardley; and Parker Jax Yochim of Waterford. The Attorney General's Office said it would continue to pursue cases against three other members who previously waived their preliminary hearings: Edward J. Gilmartin of Scranton; Ryan K. Foster of Bedford, Mass.; and Craig A. Heimer of Port Matilda.

Rocco C. Cipparone Jr., a Haddon Heights attorney who represents Bonatucci, said he was pleased that the attorney general also decided against charging his client with aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter. Bonatucci is charged with reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit hazing, and other offenses.

"From the beginning, I believed those charges were not factually or legally appropriate," he said. "I'm glad the Attorney General's Office sees it the way I do in that respect."At a private fundraising event in Missouri Wednesday night, President Trump broke his silence on why he thought Democrat Conor Lamb was able to secure an apparent victory in a highly watched special election in a Western Pennsylvania congressional district that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2016 election.

"The young man last night that ran, he said, 'Oh, I'm like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything.' He ran on that basis," Trump said, according to an audio recording obtained by The Atlantic. "He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, 'Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.' "

>> READ MORE: Republicans seek answer to Trump drag after special-election setback in Pa.

Both the Washington Post and Politico also obtained copies of the recording, made during a closed-door fundraiser for Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley.

Trump was repeating talking points many Republicans had offered throughout the day on Wednesday, in an attempt to explain how a GOP stronghold like Pennsylvania's 18th District could end up electing a Democrat for the first time since Michael Doyle's victory in 2000.

>> READ MORE: How a recount would work in tight Lamb-Saccone race

"Both of these candidates, the Republican and the Democrat, ran as conservatives, ran as pro-gun, pro-life, anti-Nancy Pelosi conservatives," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters.

Throughout the campaign, Lamb largely ran as a moderate Democrat on both issues, opposing a GOP-proposed 20-week ban on abortions and calling for a stronger system of background checks for people purchasing firearms. Lamb avoided making Trump a central part of his campaign, but criticized Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare and called the GOP tax bill a "giveaway" to wealthy Americans, opinions that put him at odds with the president.

"We didn't need to add a penny to our debt to have the tax cut for our working and middle-class people," Lamb said during a debate with Republican Rick Saccone.

>> READ MORE: Pa. 18 congressional district results: Lamb says 'we did it.' Saccone says it's 'NOT over'

Trump held a rally for Saccone days before Tuesday's election. While the visit ultimately didn't help the Republican win, Trump still took credit for helping narrow the loss.

"We had an interesting time because we lifted [Saccone] seven points up. That's a lot," Trump said. "And I was up 22 points, and we lifted seven, and seven normally would be enough, but we'll see how it all comes out. It's, like, virtually a tie."

Jonathan Lemire, a White House reporter for the Associated Press, called the president's assertion "laughable," pointing out on MSNBC Thursday morning that there's no way to spin Republicans losing a seat Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016.

"There are real questions about what President Trump's coattails, what his impact will be, as we head towards the midterms," Lemire said on Morning Joe. "My wife's family is from Westmoreland County that is Trump country. And the fact that there is now a loss here, even a narrow one, is worrisome to the White House despite what they're saying publicly."

Amber Phillips, a reporter for the Washington Post's The Fix, also called Trump's comments "laughable," pointing out that they still didn't explain why his Republican opponent, who said he was "Trump before Trump was Trump" during the campaign, lost the election.

"All other things being equal, wouldn't a Republican running in a Republican district do better than a Democrat allegedly pretending to be a Republican?" Phillips wrote. "If Democrats can beat Republicans at their own game, well then, Republicans still should have a lot to worry about."

Paul Begala, a CNN political analyst and former advisor to President Clinton, said there's one main lesson Republicans should take away from the results in western Pennsylvania: Trump can't save their elections, even if they represent a Trump district.

"The Pennsylvania special election shows that Trump can do something to the Democratic vote: Put it on steroids, and he can't do much for the Republican candidates," Begala wrote. "He doesn't provide a lot of air cover."GREELEY, Pa.  An AR-15 semiautomatic rifle sits perched on a rack, higher than all the other things that decorate Justin Moon's office in the Poconos.

He built the rifle himself, and it rests above his diplomas from Harvard and the University of Miami and shelves jammed with thick economics textbooks and business guides. Last week he sat at a desk beneath it, discussing a dead-serious plan to make that black gun even more ubiquitous in America.

"I mean, every American should really have an AR," Moon said. "It's America's rifle."

Moon, 47, is a son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the controversial Unification Church in South Korea, but makes a living as a firearms manufacturer. Kahr Arms, which he founded in 1995, makes tens of thousands of pistols and rifles each year from facilities in Minnesota and Massachusetts, including a semiautomatic version of the Thompson submachine gun, the "Tommy Gun" that mowed down Chicago gangsters in the 1920s.

Moon canceled plans to build a plant in New York state, where his headquarters were located, after more restrictive gun-control measures were passed there in 2013 that expanded bans on military-style weapons and limited magazine sizes. He looked to Pennsylvania, which he described as "very gun-friendly." In 2015, local and state elected officials helped him cut the ribbon on his new headquarters and retail store in a 620-acre industrial park he purchased off a winding road in Pike County.

"I think I share the values of many Pennsylvanians," Moon said. "I fish, hunt, camp, you name it. Pennsylvania has a strong rural population with strong values. They love America. They love freedom."

Last month, Moon's brother, Pastor Hyung Jin "Sean" Moon, brought worldwide attention to rural Pennsylvania when he encouraged couples to bring their AR-15s to a marriage blessing at his World Peace and Unification Sanctuary Church in Newfoundland, about 20 miles from Kahr Arms. The Bible references Jesus ruling with a "rod of iron," and Sean Moon believes that rod is the AR-15, which is not made from iron.

"His reading of [the Book of] Revelation and the rod of iron makes sense to me," said Justin Moon, a church member.

Next to his office is the Tommy Gun Warehouse, his retail store, where many of his brother's followers came shopping before the marriage blessing. Moon stood in front of a wall of AR-15s, only a few of which bore the "Greeley" stamp. But soon, when the adjoining manufacturing plant is fully fired up, Moon said, he'll roll out a "Thompson AR-15," priced just under $700, in larger numbers. He currently employs 25 people in the office, store, and web shop.

"I'm going to make a standard AR-15 with my brand on it," he said. "The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America. It's the most common rifle in America."

The NRA estimates that eight million Americans own an AR-15. It has also been used in five of the six deadliest mass shootings in the nation in the last six years, most recently in the Parkland, Fla., massacre.

Moon said he follows state and federal firearms laws but does not support age restrictions, limitations on specific guns, or even bans on the bump stock, an attachment that uses a semiautomatic rifle's recoil to fire even faster  the reason why Stephen Paddock was able to kill so many people in Las Vegas last year. In fact, Moon believes the Founding Fathers intended the Second Amendment to evolve with the times, that citizens should be allowed to own any firearms they can literally carry in order to match the government's firepower.

"We should have the right to have the same arms the military has as soldiers," he said.

Moon donates to candidates, organizations, and causes countrywide that support the Second Amendment, and his politics have no middle ground.

"It's not a secret. I support the Republican Party. I'm conservative. I'm not a liberal. Never pretended to be," he said. "I would be one of the deplorables, clinging to gods and guns. That fits me pretty well."

A Hillary Clinton bobblehead, dressed in prison garb, sits on a shelf in a Kahr meeting room, next to a bobblehead of the man to whom she lost.

Moon, a married father of seven, came to the United States from South Korea when he was 3, and although he embraces his heritage, the American dream is dearer to him.

"America is the greatest and the freest nation on earth, and I hope it stays that way because I want my kids to grow up in a free nation with opportunity," he said. "Koreans do well in America because they work hard and take advantage of opportunities. They don't go on welfare."

Moon's hatred of communism and socialism has direct roots in North Korea, where his father was imprisoned in a labor camp for five years, accused of being a spy for the South Korean government.

"Socialism is basically making the whole country a prison," he said. "In a prison, everyone is equal. They get the same cell, same food; they get the same health care, and only the government employees have guns."

Sun Myung Moon later became a self-professed messiah and started the Unification Church in 1954. Though it has been called a cult by its detractors, it considers Sean Moon's church a "breakaway group," and Unification Church officials said last month that firearms play no part in its doctrine.

While in Miami's MBA program, Justin Moon drew up plans for a small, powerful pistol that became the Kahr K9. The prototype was an instant hit, Moon said, and he started producing the guns in 1995. According to a 2011 New York Daily News article, Kahr sold 5,000 K9s to the New York Police Department for off-duty use, though it later ordered its officers to stop carrying the gun because the trigger was too light.

Pennsylvania is home to dozens of gun manufacturers, some of which make just a handful of guns, according to statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. One Northumberland County manufacturer specializing in smaller rifles made for younger shooters sold just over 49,000 firearms in 2016. Moon has purchased several other manufacturers over the years, combining many of them into the parent company Saeilo Inc. ATF statistics show Saeilo produced 40,274 pistols and 9,086 rifles in 2016. Those guns were made in Minnesota and Massachusetts, but production of AR-15s will soon ramp up in Greeley.

"They sell a lot, and they manufacture a lot," said Edwin Gragert, a member of the Delaware Valley Democratic Club, which protested the Sanctuary Church's weeklong festival last month.

Gragert lives in Milford, 14 miles from the Tommy Gun Warehouse, and he happens to have a master's degree and doctorate in Korean and Japanese history. He knows the Moons well. He said he believes Sean Moon's doctrine is dangerous and frets that his brother will be manufacturing AR-15s here in the Poconos.

"This glorification of assault rifles has no place here," Gragert said. "These weapons are designed to shoot people."

Moon returned to his office after discussing the AR-15s, and two women shuffled past rows of handguns in glass cases in the Tommy Gun Warehouse, stopping to grip models an employee recommended for personal protection. The women were surprised at how light some were and described one as "sexy." They lived together in the Poconos, and in the wake of a recent nor'easter and subsequent power outages, they were troubled by reports of break-ins. One of the large TVs on a store wall was set to Infowars, a right-wing media outlet that peddles conspiracy theories.

"We live alone in the woods," said Evie Ascencio, 62. "There's no one around, and it would take police 30 minutes to respond to something."

Outside, Justin Moon's modified Jeep sat in the snow flurries, complete with a rooftop tent, propane tank, and a spine board, capable of barreling through whatever he thinks is coming.

Sean Moon has a Jeep just like it.Former Philadelphia police officer Michael Long, at left, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty against Cranberry the dog, at right. Read more

A former Philadelphia police officer has pleaded guilty to dumping an emaciated dog in a trash bag at Wissahickon Valley Park in November 2016.

Michael Long, 34, of the 8200 block of Michener Avenue in East Mount Airy, entered a negotiated guilty plea to a single count of cruelty to animals March 9 and was sentenced to serve a year of probation, according to court records. He was also ordered to never own a dog again.

The dog Long abandoned  which Pennsylvania SPCA officials named Cranberry because she was found so close to the Thanksgiving holiday  has found a loving, fur-ever home and is doing well, according to a PSPCA news release.

Long, an 11-year veteran of the department, is among 29 people who are named on a list of current and former city cops whom prosecutors have tried not to call in court because of the allegations of impropriety against them. Long was put on the list because of the animal-cruelty charge.

Cranberry, a pit bull, was found in a garbage bag with just her head sticking out by good Samaritan Barbara Adam, who was out walking her own dog in Wissahickon Valley Park. Adam carried Cranberry a mile to a nearby street.

"There was so much sadness in her eyes," Adam said.

She flagged down another good Samaritan to wait with Cranberry as she called PSPCA Humane Law Enforcement. Those officers took Cranberry  who was little more than skin and bones at the time  in for medical care.

PSPCA officials worked with the Philadelphia Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit to investigate and bring charges.

A sheet that was wrapped around Cranberry allegedly helped lead authorities to Long.

After his arrest in March 2017, Long was suspended from the department for 30 days with the intent to dismiss. A police spokesman confirmed Thursday that Long had been fired.

"While we may never know why this brutal crime was committed, we have an admission of guilt, and perhaps most importantly, Cranberry's life was saved," Nicole Wilson, PSPCA director of humane law enforcement, said in a news release. "We are proud to report that she now lives in a safe home where she is loved and will never be the victim of such cruelty again."Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner listens to a question during a news conference at his office in Philadelphia, PA on March 15, 2018. DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer Read more

Offer shorter prison sentences in plea deals. Decline certain classes of criminal charges. And explain, on the record, why taxpayers should fork over thousands of dollars per year to incarcerate people.

Those are some of the instructions that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has outlined for the office's 300 prosecutors  perhaps the boldest set of policies yet of his busy two-month tenure, and in line with his campaign promise to reduce the number of people behind bars.

"Pennsylvania's and Philadelphia's over-incarceration have bankrupted investment in policing, public education, medical treatment of addiction, job training, and economic development  which prevent crime more effectively than money invested in corrections," Krasner wrote in a memo this month to prosecutors that was obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News. "Over-incarceration also tears the fabric of defendants' familial and work relationships that tend to rehabilitate defendants who are open to rehabilitation and thereby prevent crime."

Krasner highlighted one element of the memo at a news conference Thursday: the requirement that prosecutors, when asking a judge to sentence a defendant to prison, specify how much it will cost taxpayers to keep the person behind bars.

Taken in full, the five-page document  which also addresses policies around plea offers, diversion programs, and some charging decisions  is likely to impact thousands of criminal cases in the state's busiest prosecutor's office and one of the nation's most violent cities.

Criminal justice experts said some of the guidelines appeared to be unprecedented, a blend of research and practices touted by reform advocates but perhaps never made so explicit in writing by a top prosecutor.

"The fact that he has put this in a policy paper  I think is a really big step," said Meg Reiss, executive director of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "I personally have not seen it this concrete in one document."

Locally, it was not immediately clear how other criminal justice stakeholders might react. Judges ultimately decide what punishment gets imposed, and some have pushed back in some other scenarios in which Krasner's office has sought more lenient sentences. A prosecutor's office does not have the ability to change the system unilaterally.

Richard Long, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, declined to offer an opinion on the new practices. "The people of Philadelphia elected DA Krasner, and he has the authority to set policy within his office," he said.

David Heckler, a Republican and former Bucks County judge, district attorney and state legislator, said some of the proposed changes seemed "inappropriate" and could harm the city's safety, despite Krasner's assertions to the contrary.

"If I were an assistant DA in Philadelphia, I'd tender my resignation," Heckler said. "If you take an oath as an ADA, whatever the words, it has to be essentially to endeavor as best you can to protect the people of your jurisdiction and to uphold the law. And I think those directives are inconsistent with that duty."

In his memo, Krasner, a Democrat, justified the shift by noting the city's prison population has grown disproportionately large without significantly impacting public safety, "wasting resources in corrections rather than investing in other measures that reduce crime."

At Thursday's news conference, he said: "A dollar spent in incarceration should be worth it."

To that end, the memo  first reported Wednesday by Slate  says assistant district attorneys must explain at a sentencing hearing why they are seeking a prison sentence of a particular length, and must spell out how much that term will cost taxpayers. The cost of imprisoning a criminal  estimated by Krasner's office to be at least $42,000 annually  is roughly equivalent of the salary for a teacher, police officer, or other city employee, the memo says.

Additionally, prosecutors seeking to add probationary sentences to the end of a defendant's prison term should limit their requests to 12 months or less, according to the memo. "Any remaining probation," it said, "is simply excess baggage requiring unnecessary expenditure of funds for supervision."

In some crimes, the memo said, prosecutors now are instructed to make plea offers that include proposed sentences below "the bottom end" of the sentencing range listed for each crime under state guidelines. If an assistant district attorney thinks a defendant deserves a higher sentence, the memo says, he or she must get approval from a unit supervisor.

Krasner said the new requirements  which do not apply to homicides or other violent crimes  should not pigeonhole prosecutors into seeking lighter sentences. Rather, he said, the policy will force them to be more thoughtful about penalties they seek.

"It is our feeling that the ADAs will be more careful in what they recommend," he said.

Heckler, the former prosecutor, said the policy seemed to imply that sentences must conform to a certain vision regardless of the facts of the case.

"To across the board say that you're going to go below the standard ranges in every case is making some kind of ideological decision that does exactly what sentencing is not supposed to do," Heckler said.

Krasner said that was not the intention of the policy. And Reiss, of the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution, applauded him for developing a policy that she said appeared to be "bringing [research] into the actual practice" of running his office.Amber Graziano, of Ridley Park, has been charged with reckless endangerment and drug offenses. Read more

A 29-year-old home-care worker has been charged with endangering her 74-year-old patient after overdosing on heroin while at work, Upper Darby police said.

Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood told the Delaware County Daily Times that the patient, who is wheelchair-bound, saved Amber Graziano's life by calling 911 after she found the home-care worker unconscious about 8:30 p.m. Monday.

A police officer who responded to the house found what appeared to be heroin near Graziano and administered Narcan, police said.

Graziano, of Ridley Park, was charged with reckless endangerment and drug offenses.

She was jailed after not posting bail, which was set at 10 percent of $35,000, according to her court docket sheet.

A preliminary hearing has been set for March 29.This Nov. 8, 2017 photo released by NBC shows Matt Lauer on the set of the "Today" show in New York. NBC News fired the longtime host for "inappropriate sexual behavior." Read more

Allegations of sexual harassment have been leveled against men from some of the nation's most powerful institutions  Congress, Hollywood, the news media  and with each accusation, the women are getting the benefit of the doubt.

Even before explicit details emerged about the alleged actions of Matt Lauer, who was fired by NBC on Wednesday, social media users had presumed his guilt. Like others before him, he was quickly relegated to the long list of prominent men whose reputations were forever changed.

So, after decades of doubting accusers, have the scales finally tipped in favor of the females?

Experts say no.

Mary Ebeling, director of women's and gender studies at Drexel University, said she believes the firings of powerful men  including Lauer from NBC  are less about the institutions looking out for women and more a result of institutions looking out for themselves.

"One of the things that I have found very frustrating in watching all of this unfold is that it seems it's not about getting justice for the survivors and victims of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace," she said. "This is about scoring political points and institutions protecting themselves.

"If workers in hotels were getting the same kind of swift justice, or farm laborers, then I would say, 'Yeah, OK, accusers are finally being believed.' But I don't see it."

Edith Pearce, a Philadelphia attorney who represents victims of workplace sexual harassment, said she often still hears the same questions: Why did they put up with harassment for so long? Why didn't they come forward sooner?

"To a degree, that is still blaming the victim," she said.

The movement to call out sexual harassment started in October after The New York Times exposed allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, resulting in his firing. The story led to the viral hashtag #metoo and helped convince many women  and some men  to come forward with their own experiences of sexual abuse or harassment.

Among the prominent individuals who have since been accused: actor Kevin Spacey, who was let go from the Netflix series House of Cards; anchor Charlie Rose, who was fired from CBS; U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.), who on Monday apologized amid allegations he had groped women.

On Wednesday, Minnesota Public Radio also announced it had fired Garrison Keillor, former host of A Prairie Home Companion, amid allegations he touched a woman's bare back.

Earlier in the day, news of Lauer's behavior from NBC shocked fans of the Today show in the Philadelphia area.

"Never did I ever think I'd see the headline 'NBC: Lauer Fired For Inappropriate SEXUAL Behavior," one person wrote on Twitter. Another said of Lauer's alleged sexual misconduct: "My mom is crying because she really thought he was different."

NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack sent a memo to employees informing them of Lauer's termination, noting the Today show host was fired following a serious review of a "detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace."

The complaint was the first of its kind against Lauer, Lack told employees, but the network had reason to believe it wasn't an "isolated incident."

Variety reported later Wednesday that Lauer had previously flashed a female colleague and given another a sex toy.

Philadelphia attorneys Jared A. Jacobson and Franklin J. Rooks Jr., who handle sexual harassment cases, said efforts to quickly respond and bring attention to allegations are good. But the treatment of victims  and victim-blaming  still remains an obstacle in many cases, they said.

They recalled one case in which they said a hospital worker complained about a coworker inappropriately grabbing her, only for supervisors to normalize the coworker's conduct and insist he was just being himself.

"As long as people are people," Rooks Jr. said, "sexual harassment will be there."North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will begin a rare two-day visit on Thursday to Sweden, which represents the United States diplomatically in the isolated country, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.

Sweden, which is not a member of the US-led NATO military alliance, has been mentioned as a possible location for a mooted face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Ri will hold talks with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom on the security situation on the Korean peninsula and Sweden's representation of the United States, which has no embassy in North Korea, the ministry said.

In its statement, it noted that the UN Security Council had unanimously condemned North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programmes and demanded the "complete, verifiable and irrevocable elimination of these programmes".

"Sweden fully supports the Security Council resolutions. The aim of the visit is to contribute to the effective implementation of the resolutions," the ministry said.

Since Trump's surprise announcement last week that he was willing to meet North Korea's Kim, speculation has mounted over what location might be chosen to host what would be the first-ever meeting between serving leaders of the two countries.

Kim has yet to publicly confirm his readiness to meet Trump.

Short link:

On a day when tens of thousands of students across the county walked out of classes to protest gun violence, the sister of mass killer Dylann Roof was arrested in South Carolina for carrying a knife and pepper spray on school property.

Morgan Roof, 18, a student at A.C. Flora High School in Columbia, was charged Wednesday with two counts of carrying weapons on school property and possession of marijuana, according to records at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center where she was taken.

Students at the school became alarmed Wednesday at her Snapchat post disparaging National Walkout Day, which was being held in response to a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead. Roof's post said she hoped "it's a trap and y'all get shot" and "we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway," authorities told local news outlets.

The Richland County Sheriff's Department confirmed to The State newspaper that Morgan is the sister of Dylann Roof, who is on death row at a federal prison in Indiana for fatally shooting nine black members of a Charleston church during a Bible study in 2015. Roof, a self-described white supremacist told authorities that he targeted a historic black church in hopes of starting a race war. A month after the killings, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds, ending its 54-year presence at the Capital.

In December 2016, a jury convicted Roof on 33 federal hate crime charges in connection with the killings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was sentenced to death in January 2017. Four months later, he pleaded guilty to state charges  nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder charges and a related weapons charge. A deal with prosecutors allowed him to avoid a second death penalty trial and be given a sentence of life in prison without parole.

After Wednesday's incident, Morgan Roof is not allowed to return to school, WLTX-19 reported.

"A student used social media to post hateful messages," Susan Childs, the school's principal, said Wednesday in a statement to parents. "The posting was not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate. That student was dealt with in a swift and severe manner as the posting caused quite a disruption."

A second student was also arrested at the school this week for allegedly having a loaded magazine, The State reported. A Smith & Wesson .380 handgun was recovered on school grounds with information provided by students, authorities told the news outlet. The student, who was not identified, was released to the custody of his parents, the newspaper said.

The principal's statement did not mention the arrests. On the second matter, she wrote: "In an isolated incident yesterday, administration was notified that there was possibly a weapon on campus. Through diligent work from the Assistant Principals and the School Resource Officers, an unloaded weapon was recovered. The investigation of this matter involves law enforcement as well as school officials. "

Gov. Henry McMaster said on Twitter that "we owe a debt of gratitude to all involved" for acting quickly and decisively.

"Potential tragedy was avoided at AC Flora High School. In two separate incidents, students and educators reacted quickly to reports of suspicious activity and behavior to their Richland County Sheriff's Department school resource officer."MOSCOW  The United States and two major European allies formally backed Britain's claims of likely Russian links to a chemical toxin attack against a former spy, calling it the "first offensive use of a nerve agent" in Europe since World War II.

The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled another step in mounting international pressure on Russia over apparent ties to the assault.

The statement said the nations shared the view of British investigators of Russian ties to last week's attack against a former double agent and his daughter

There was no "plausible alternative explanation," the statement added, noting that Russia's "failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further underlines its responsibility."

"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," said the statement, released by the office of the British prime minister.

"It threatens the security of us all," it added, without spelling out any possible further reprisals by Britain and its allies.

The next move in the deepening standoff could come from Moscow.

Russia promised Thursday to respond "very soon" to Britain's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The British move was taken in response to the use of an alleged Russian nerve agent against a former Russian spy on British soil last week.

"The answer will come very soon, I assure you," Lavrov said. "You know that we as polite people will first communicate this response to our British colleagues."

Russia has been relatively slow to react to British Prime Minister Theresa May's announcement on Wednesday that Britain would take action against Russia after Moscow ignored an ultimatum to explain how an alleged Russian nerve agent came to be used in Britain.

Moscow responded to the ultimatum with scorn and sarcasm, ultimately blowing off May's demands. Meanwhile, officials and pundits in Moscow have issued a steady stream of denials and counterclaims, a tactic that has continued through Thursday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin had met with members of his national security council Thursday for a "detailed discussion" on the situation with Britain. "Extreme concern was expressed in connection with the destructive and provocative position taken by the British side," he said.

Lavrov reiterated earlier comments that the allegations were "boorish and unfounded." The actions taken by the British "go beyond the limits of elementary rules of decency," he said, while asserting that Russia has attempted to handle the situation in a civilized manner.

When asked how Britain might respond to any retaliation, Britain's Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said that Russia "should go away, it should shut up."

He was taking questions after a speech announcing a $67 million investment into a new chemical weapons defense center.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned what he said was a "reckless pattern of Russian behavior over many years."

"We do not want a new Cold War, and we do not want to be dragged into an arms race. An arms race has no winners. It is expensive, it is risky, it is in nobody's interest," Stoltenberg said. He said that any response to the chemical attack ought to be "proportionate, measured and defensive."

Russia has also asked for access to the poison and its victims, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his daughter, 33-year-old Yulia Skripal.

They are both reported to be in comas after being found slumped on a park bench in the quiet town of Salisbury, near Stonehenge, on March 4. Skripal, a former Russian double agent, was jailed in Russia in 2006 for selling state secrets to British intelligence for 10 years, but he was released in 2010 as part of a high-profile spy swap.

Despite Russia's constant and rigorous denials, the United States and France have fallen in behind Britain in support its conclusion that Russia was involved the use of the nerve agent on the Skripals.

"France agrees with the U.K. that there is no other plausible explanation," President Emmanuel Macron's office said in a statement following a phone call between Macron and May.

Macron himself said France would take measures of its own in coming days against Russia.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has called on Britain's allies to take a united stand against what he described as the "first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II."

Writing in The Washington Post, he said that "all responsible nations share an obligation to take a principled stance against this behavior," which he characterized as part of a larger pattern of "reckless behavior" by Putin. The nerve agent, Novichok, was selected for a reason, he said.

"In its blatant Russian-ness, the nerve agent sends a signal to all who may be thinking of dissent in the intensifying repression of Putin's Russia," Johnson said. "The message is clear: We will find you, we will catch you, we will kill you  and though we will deny it with lip-curling scorn, the world will know beyond doubt that Russia did it."

Analysts said that Britain was bracing itself for a tit-for-tat response from Russia.

"They are not going to take this lying down and we should expect that. If you're not prepared to take a few blows, you shouldn't make any punches. The question is, where does it stop?" said James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.



Adam reported from London. The Washington Post's James McAuley contributed from Paris.Bobbie London wants answers.

The Parkesburg resident has been trying for a month to find out the truth about what happened to her son, Christopher Gilchrist, who died at Graterford Prison on Feb. 14. London says a coroner informed her that Gilchrist was on 24-hour suicide watch at the time, though the Department of Corrections (DOC) has not confirmed it. Gilchrist, who was 31, used a sheet and towel to hang himself, according to the Montgomery County Medical Examiner's Office.

"I don't understand how someone on suicide watch has the time to get that much done," London said.

Gilchrist's death was one of four suicides at Graterford in a span of five weeks, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. By comparison, the entire DOC has counted seven suicides per year on average since 2000.

Graterford Superintendent Cynthia Link has retired, DOC spokeswoman Amy Worden confirmed, though she would not provide Link's retirement date. According to news reports from last fall, Link had expected to stay on and assume the role of superintendent of SCI Phoenix, the facility built to replace Graterford and expected to open June 30.

Asked if she could confirm or deny a connection between the suicides and Link's retirement, Worden responded: "There are 17,000 employees at DOC. People retire from the DOC every day."

Laurel Harry, who was superintendent at Camp Hill state prison, is Link's interim replacement.

The move makes Link the second superintendent in a month to leave the DOC abruptly; the superintendent and deputy at Waymart state prison in northeastern Pennsylvania were replaced in February. Claire Shubik-Richards, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said reports on Link had been generally positive.

"We observed her being truly responsive to inmate concerns, truly caring about the people whose lives were spent under her charge and a reasonable, thoughtful person who was, we observed, respected by staff and respected by incarcerated people," Shubik-Richards said.

The DOC has, in recent years, implemented numerous reforms to support the growing proportion of its population with serious mental illness, and has created suicide-prevention committees at each state institution. Those committees are meant to monitor compliance with policies, run training exercises and recommend policy updates.

Worden said in an email that DOC staff uses a suicide "checklist" to evaluate all new commitments to the system.

At least two of the inmates who took their own lives this winter were new arrivals at the prison, a factor that the DOC identifies in its policies as a trigger for increased risk of suicide.

Joan Porter, an official visitor with the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said she has often heard that newcomers are particularly at risk for self-harm. "I'm told that when young guys come in and have to face the reality of their situation, it is not uncommon for them to contemplate suicide," she said.

Porter had also heard that Gilchrist  locked up for aggravated assault in Chester County had been on suicide watch at the time of his death. But what that means can vary.

DOC policy describes three types of observation for suicidal inmates. The most serious version requires checks every 10 minutes and the elimination of any items that could be used for self-harm. Less restrictive variations allow for approved clothing and other items based on a clinician's approval, and reduce frequency of monitoring to as little as once per half-hour.

"Usually, when you're on a suicide watch, you're in a glass cage and you don't even have clothes, so I don't see how that's possible," said Angus Love of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, which with the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania sued the Department of Corrections over its treatment of mentally ill inmates. A settlement included a number of new suicide prevention policies; the final compliance report on that settlement, issued this January, described DOC facilities as in only partial compliance when it came to suicide prevention.

A representative of the Montgomery County Medical Examiner's Office said he could not release information about whether Gilchrist was on suicide watch. Worden said that she also could not confirm the circumstances of Gilchrist's death, and that the recent deaths at Graterford remain under investigation. The spokeswoman for the local Troop K of the Pennsylvania State Police, which investigates prison deaths, referred questions to the DOC.

London said her son should have been on suicide watch.

She had received an alarming letter from her son in January. In the letter, he told her he'd rather die than live another day in prison.

"I called up there. I said, he's not well. He's got suicidal ideation," she said. "I was told, 'We take this seriously. We'll look into it.'"

Gilchrist had attempted suicide previously, she said, and had spent time on a mental-health unit. His diagnoses included major depression and anxiety disorder, said London, who is a nurse.

"I'm not trying to blame anybody," she said. "I just don't want it to happen to somebody else."Radnor Township police escort Kevin Gaughan from the Radnor Township Police Department on Thursday, March 15, 2018. Gaughan is accused of a fatal hit-and-run on March 6, 2018. Read more

A Paoli man has been charged in connection with the hit-and-run accident that killed a pedestrian in Radnor on March 6.

Kevin Gaughan, 30, arrived at the Radnor Police Department about 11 a.m. with his West Chester attorney, Robert Donatoni. He is accused of driving a vehicle that fatally struck Frederick Gitterman, 69, of Delaware County. Gitterman was crossing the busy commercial strip along the 500 block of East Lancaster Avenue when he was hit shortly after 8 p.m. The driver was passing through a green light and had the right of way, officials said.

Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland called Gaughan a "cold-hearted perpetrator" who hit Gitterman, "leaving him to die in the middle of the road."

"All he had to do is stop and help, and we wouldn't be here," Copeland said. Instead, she said, he drove home and 24 minutes after striking Gitterman, called his insurance company to report that a street sign blew into his vehicle and caused serious damage, Copeland said.

Gaughan faces charges that include leaving the scene of a fatal accident and insurance fraud. If convicted, he faces a potential sentence of up to 20 years. The prosecutor said officials confirmed that Gaughan was on his way home from work on the night of the accident. Although the accident remains under investigation, police said it does not appear that alcohol was involved.

Dressed in a dark suit and orange tie, Gaughan, a tax preparer, declined to answer questions as he walked past reporters to enter the police station and again as he left with his hands cuffed at his waist, with officers at both sides, and was put into a marked cruiser.

Shortly afterward, he was brought to Newtown Square for his first appearance in District Court, where bail was set at $500,000. Judge Lee Hunter allowed Gaughan to post bond and remain free with home monitoring. He was ordered to turn in his passport.

Gaughan did not speak in court other than to answer questions posed by the judge. He cried as his attorney spoke about the accident.

Police said Gitterman was walking to his car after having dinner at the nearby Harvest Seasonal Grill on Lancaster Avenue when he was hit. Gaughan slowed down after hitting Gitterman, but was then seen driving off to the west, police said. His vehicle turned southwest onto Paoli Pike toward West Chester.

Investigators quickly built a case using surveillance cameras in the area and vehicle parts they found at the accident scene that are specific to a late-model white GMC Yukon.

Last Friday evening, police announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Shortly afterward, they received a tip about a damaged vehicle at a body shop that matched the description of the SUV police described. Gaughan was identified as the SUV's owner.

According to his Facebook page, Gaughan is employed by a tax firm in Bryn Mawr. He has posted pictures of himself with his wife, whom he married in 2015, and of the couple with their young daughter, who is almost 2.

Gaughan grew up near Scranton and graduated from Lock Haven University, his attorney said. He also attended Philadelphia University and was working toward obtaining credentials to be a certified public accountant, he said.

An obituary for Gitterman identified him as a Philadelphia native who attended University of Wisconsin and later the University of California Berkeley School of Law, where he received his law degree.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Congregation Beth Yeshua Messianic Synagogue, 7501 Haverford Ave.Student leaders helping to organize Philadelphias March for Our Lives. From left to right: Ethan Block, 16; Jana Korn, 21; Andrew Binder, 18. Read more

"March for Our Lives," a student-led event against gun violence happening March 24 in Washington, was launched by survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., but has quickly spread to spawn hundreds of "sibling marches" in cities across the world, including Philadelphia.

Philly's event will start around 9:30 a.m. March 24 at Fifth and Market Streets, leading the thousands expected to attend through Old City and onto Lombard Circle along Christopher Columbus Boulevard. Speakers include Sen. Bob Casey (D, Pa.), Mayor Kenney and Jami Amo, a Columbine High School massacre survivor, as well as other activists and representatives from other groups.

>> READ MORE: Live updates from the marches in Philly and D.C.

>> READ MORE: What you need to know about this weekend's March for Our Lives

About 20 people  adults and students  are helping to organize what could turn into a massive event. Organizers of the Women's March on Philadelphia have also provided advice.

But there are four main organizers spearheading the effort: A Philadelphia woman passionate against gun violence, a University of Pennsylvania senior nearing the end of her college career, a 16-year-old high school sophomore with lacrosse practice to balance, and a high school senior already involved in politics.

Here's more about them.

Romaine Wright, 35, corporate trainer and consultant

Romaine Wright, a 35-year-old corporate trainer and consultant from Philadelphia's Logan section, is serving as the main point of contact for the three student leaders. Her role is to give directional advice, communicate with the city to iron out logistics, and organize other meetings necessary for planning.

Wright said she doesn't have any experience in putting together an event like the march, but volunteered to help in the hope of stirring change. For Wright, who was a student at Central High School when the Columbine High School massacre happened, the issue isn't just about school shootings but about a larger conversation on gun violence in Philadelphia. It's an issue that has touched her own life.

"I've had multiple friends and relatives become victimized by gun violence," she said. "I was in high school for the first funeral of a friend of mine who was shot."

>>READ MORE: Philly teens to Florida teens: Would you have stood in solidarity with us? | Helen Ubinas

Wright said she's using the march to help spur the conversation in Philly while also staying true to the initial cause.

"We don't necessarily see a lot of mass school shootings in Philadelphia, but gun violence is such a prevalent issue in Philadelphia, so helping people understand why this march is important for this city is something I've been actively promoting [as] an idea," Wright said.

Jana Korn, 21, University of Pennsylvania senior

The march is not the first time that Jana Korn, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in urban studies, has become socially active. Korn has been a part of Penn Democrats since her freshman year, and was approached by anti-gun groups to get involved in the march after having helped organize a moment of silence on Penn's campus for victims of this year's mass shootings.

"I guess I balanced whether it was better to encourage Penn students to go down to D.C. or stay in Philly," Korn said. "And I ultimately decided that the most progress that is going to get made is at the local and state level."

Korn's role in the march is mostly focused on student outreach, working closely with high schoolers as well as other students at Temple, Villanova, and Drexel Universities, as well as Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster.

"Philadelphia has shown that it really cares, and it has a voice that needs to be heard," Korn said.

Korn plans to move to Massachusetts to work as student organizer after graduation.

>>READ MORE: 'I don't want to be shot': Thousands of Philly-area students participate in national school walkout

Ethan Block, 16, Hopewell Valley Central High School sophomore

Ethan Block, a 16-year-old sophomore at Hopewell Valley Central High School in Mercer County, said the activism he saw from the shooting survivors at Stoneman Douglas inspired him to get involved with the Philadelphia march.

He said he's only recently started developing a deep interest in social and political issues, and exploring ways to get involved in New Jersey politics. Wright connected Block with the other student leaders, and now he's helping to recruit other high schoolers to attend the march.

"We want to continue the conversation because the last thing we want is for this march and movement to fade into the background," Block said. "This is a very serious issue, and we've delayed it for far too long."

>> READ MORE: How schools reacted to students walking out to protest gun violence

Block is on his high school's lacrosse team and is involved with Future Business Leaders of America. The busy high schooler said he's grateful the student-led march is giving his generation a strong platform to be heard.

"I've always wanted to be a part of something like this," he said. "I'm perfectly fine with being swamped with all this work."

Andrew Binder, 18, Unionville High School senior

It was only natural for Andrew Binder, an 18-year-old senior at Unionville High School in Kennett Square, to help plan Philadelphia's "March for Our Lives."

Binder is the chair of the High School Democrats of Pennsylvania, captain of the speech and debate team, an editor of his school paper, and an Eagle Scout. He's been reaching out to schools in the Philadelphia area to share ways they can get involved in the March.

Binder said he's passionate about stopping gun violence, addressing the opioid epidemic, preserving the environment and, having a grandmother from Colombia, protecting DACA.

"The vast majority of high school students are not thinking about political issues on a daily basis  but this is one that really resonates with them," Binder said.

For him, the march is "about transforming all the energy behind this issue into tangible change" and as much about mental health reform as it is about gun reform.

"We need to take a stand," he said. "We need to show solidarity with the victims and make sure this doesn't happen again."

Binder plans to study economics and political science in college and is awaiting admissions decisions.Former Vice President Joe Biden appears during a rally for Southwestern Pennsylvanias Conor Lamb on March 6. On Thursday he endorsed two Democratic congressional candidates from the Philadelphia suburbs. Read more

WASHINGTON  Continuing his push into high-profile congressional races, former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed two Democratic candidates in the Philadelphia suburbs Thursday: Chrissy Houlahan of Chester County and Andy Kim from Burlington County.

Biden's backing arrived on the heels of his support for Democrat Conor Lamb in a nationally watched special election in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and as Democrats attempt to build on their momentum in critical suburban battlegrounds that could determine control of the House this fall.

While Biden's endorsements of fellow Democrats are not surprising, they also come as he stirs speculation about his future as a possible 2020 presidential candidate. Biden, 75, has cast himself as a son of Scranton who can reach the working-class swing voters who have fled his party. He is also scheduled to visit Capitol Hill next week to speak with the Democratic Blue Collar Caucus, said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), the group's co-chairman.

Houlahan is aiming to oust Rep. Ryan Costello in Pennsylvania's Sixth District, while Kim is challenging Rep. Tom MacArthur in New Jersey's Third, which includes much of Burlington and Ocean Counties. Both are considered among the potentially most competitive races in the country. There has been speculation that Costello might choose not to run again.

Biden cited both Democrats' ties to national security, much as he did in praising Lamb's service in the Marines.

"Chrissy Houlahan is an Air Force veteran, business leader, and former teacher, and she is precisely the type of public servant we need serving in Congress," Biden said in a news release issued by the Houlahan campaign.

In a release from the Kim camp, Biden said, "Andy's family story embodies the American story. His parents grew up poor and worked their way to America for a better life.  Their son worked hard and decided to devote his life to service." Kim was a national security adviser in the Obama administration.

Republicans anticipating difficult campaigns have attacked Houlahan's previous business practices and questioned Kim's independence from his party's left wing.

"It's disappointing that former Vice President Biden would support greedy Chrissy Houlahan," emailed Costello campaign spokeswoman Andrea Bozek, who reiterated accusations that workers were mistreated while the Democrat helped lead the T-shirt company And1. "He knows Pennsylvania families deserve better."

A spokesman for MacArthur said that like Biden, the GOP representative has won respect for an "ability to work in a bipartisan way to solve problems."State Rep. Nick Miccarelli talks with the media after a hearing at the Luzerne County Court House in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday, March 15, 2018. Read more

Toohil obtained a temporary protective order last Friday, saying Miccarelli was a danger to himself and others. "He has threatened to kill me and kill himself before," Toohil wrote in her application.

In court papers filed Thursday before a hearing on whether to make the order permanent, Miccarelli's lawyers moved to block Toohil's testimony. They characterized her accusations as "the vengeful words of a former lover with an agenda." Toohil, they wrote, wanted to punish Miccarelli because she believed he was responsible for circulating an embarrassing 2013 YouTube video featuring old images of her at a table with a bong and what appears to be marijuana.

In any case, the parties agreed on a protection order lasting for the maximum term. Bradford County Senior Judge Jeff Smith announced the agreement.

"I feel vindicated," Miccarelli said after the proceedings. "I look forward to going back to the Capitol. I'm just happy to be going back to work."

"I don't know on what planet that would seem to be a vindication," said Toohil's lawyer, Jarrett Ferentino. "Here's how this works: No one is above the law, not even the men and women who make the law."President Trump boasted in a fund-raising speech Wednesday that he made up facts in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether or not that was the case.

"Trudeau came to see me. He's a good guy. Justin. He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,' " Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio obtained by the Washington Post. "Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed. 

"So he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know.  I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.' You know why? Because we're so stupid. . . . And I thought they were smart. I said, 'You're wrong, Justin.' He said, 'Nope, we have no trade deficit.' I said, 'Well, in that case I feel differently,' I said, 'but I don't believe it.' I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, 'check because I can't believe it.'

'Well, sir, you're actually right. We have no deficit but that doesn't include energy and timber . . . And when you do we lose $17 billion a year.' It's incredible."

The United States trade representative office says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada.

Trump launched a blistering attack against major U.S. allies and global economies, accusing the European Union, China, Japan and South Korea of ripping off the United States for decades and pillaging the American workforce. He also described the North American Free Trade Agreement as a disaster and heaped blame on the World Trade Organization for allowing other countries to box the United States in on trade.

He also seemed to threaten to pull U.S. troops stationed in South Korea if he didn't get what he wanted on trade with Seoul, an ally. He said the country had gotten rich but United States politicians never negotiated better deals. "We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them," Trump said. "We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let's see what happens."

"Our allies care about themselves," he said. "They don't care about us."

Trump's rare comments that laid bare his approach to arguing trade facts with foreign leaders show how he might try to engage with numerous other heads of state in the coming weeks. Trump has said he will impose tariffs on steel and trade imports as soon as next week, a steep increase in duties that could impact some of the U.S. government's biggest trading partners.

Trump said countries can request exemption from these tariffs but only after direct negotiations with him. And the audio from the fundraiser shows how difficult these discussions might prove.

In his 30-minute speech to donors in Missouri, Trump heaped praise on himself while ticking through a list of U.S. allies that he said were actually taking advantage of the United States.

The president did not mention his abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet, or the personnel turmoil that is swirling in Washington, or special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation into Russian meddling, or reports of his affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels  and his lawyer paying her off.

While his White House picked up the pieces after a Republican lost a special election in a western Pennsylvania congressional district that Trump won by 20 percent in 2016, and pollsters said the results showed how Trump was dragging down the Republican party, Trump took none of the blame. He said that the candidate, Rick Saccone, would have lost even bigger without him. And he said the Democrat, Conor Lamb, won the seat because he was "like Trump" but that he would vote with Pelosi.

Trump was in Missouri to raise money for Josh Hawley, who is taking on incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. He called McCaskill "bad for Missouri, and bad for the country." But he barely spoke about Hawley. Instead, he talked about Trump  even bragging about his 2016 election win.

Trump described his decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un through the prism of making history and besting his predecessors while lamenting his media coverage, questioning the United States allies and labeling his presidency as "virgin territory."

"They couldn't have met" with Kim, he said, after mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. "Nobody would have done what I did."

"It's called appeasement, please don't do anything," he said of other presidents.

"They say, maybe he's not the one to negotiate," he said, mocking a voice of a news anchor. "He's got very little knowledge of the Korean Peninsula. Maybe he's not the one. . . Maybe we should send in the people that have been playing games and didn't know what the hell they've been doing for 25 years."

The thru-lines of his meandering speech were simple: Trump was tougher than all the rest, and that the United States was not going to be laughed at or taken advantage of.

He accused Japan of using gimmicks to deny U.S. auto companies access to their consumers, said South Korea was taking advantage of outdated trade rules even though its economy was strong, and said China had single-handedly rebuilt itself in the back of its trade surplus with the United States.

"It's the bowling ball test. They take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and drop it on the hood of the car," Trump said of Japan. "If the hood dents, the car doesn't qualify. It's horrible," he said. It was unclear what he was talking about.

He said he didn't even want Japan to pay the tariffs but to build more automobiles in the United States, which he said Japan would do if tariffs were imposed. There is no evidence of such a possibility as of now.

His comments were among his most protectionist to date and didn't identify a single benefit the United States receives from its trading relationships.

The so-called free-trade globalists, he said, are against his trade moves because "they're worldly people, they have stuff on the other side." Gary Cohn, the president's top economic adviser, recently quit over the tariffs and was derisively labeled by his critics as a "globalist."

Trump mocked other politicians for wanting to keep the NAFTA, calling Mexico "spoiled" and saying that Canada had outsmarted the United States. "The best deal is to terminate it and make a new deal," he said.

Above all, he cast his presidency in historic proportions, saying he was attracting so much media criticism because he was doing so well. He seemed fixated on his media coverage, with much of his story-time about North Korea focused on how the media covered it, even talking about a specific CNN segment with Erin Burnett.

He said the news media was criticizing him for "conceding" a meeting with Kim.

"They were afraid of being blown up. Then all of a sudden, they say, let's not meet," he said of reporters.

While Trump said some decry his rhetoric and think his bellicose and mercurial tendencies could bring the United States into a war, he explained why he taunted the North Korean president as "Little Rocket Man." He said the South Koreans told him that Kim Jong-Un was agreeing to meet because of the tough United States sanctions and that they promised to not do any nuclear tests or missile launches until a meeting occurred. That comment could not be verified.

"He's going to get us in a war," he said, again mocking a news anchor. "You know what's going to get us in a war? Weakness."

He said Republicans needed to run on their tax bill this year, but he was determined to not call it "tax reform," as many other Republicans have done. He said Democrats would not appoint judges that Republicans like while reversing tax cuts and taking away guns, an unproven claim.

He implicitly rebuked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) for not changing the rules of the Senate where only 51 votes were needed on all legislation, saying more Republicans were needed because the current leadership would not act and no one could explain why the current status quo made sense.

Trump criticized judges in the Ninth Circuit, saying that his presidency would reshape the judiciary and change courts such as that one. He said he planned to pick 145 judges and gave a "thanks" to Obama for leaving so many vacancies.

At the end of the day, the event, as it usually is with Trump, was about marketing. He said Republicans needed to run on tax cuts because they were very "popular."

"Do me a favor, don't call it tax reform, it hasn't worked in 45 years," Trump said he told others. "You say, you're reforming taxes, that means taxes could go up."

"I actually said, let's call it the Tax Cut Cut Cut plan," Trump said. "I actually did."

He added: "They thought it sounded a little hokey and called it something else. I liked the first one better."The leaders of France, Germany, Britain and the United States issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning a chemical attack on a Russian former double agent in England and blaming Moscow for it.

Moscow has denied any responsibility for the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Britain has expelled 23 Russian diplomats, and Moscow is expected to retaliate.

"We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK, on 4 March 2018," the statement said.

"This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.

"It is an assault on UK 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 four nations called on Russia to provide full and complete disclosure of its Novichok nerve agent programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

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Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican from Chester County, has told GOP leaders he may not run for reelection this fall. Read more

WASHINGTON  After a stunning apparent special election defeat in the state's southwest, Pennsylvania Republicans face another headache: U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello's potential retirement.

Costello, of Chester County, has warned GOP leaders that he may not run for another term in the House, according to four sources familiar with the conversations, leaving party officials worried about fielding a candidate in a highly competitive district that could flip to Democrats.

The concerns about Costello's future have swirled for weeks, dating to when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court redrew the state's congressional map and made his district, the Sixth, more favorable to Democrats.

Costello is collecting signatures for a potential campaign, but is closely watching the GOP legal challenges attempting to block the new map and restore his old district lines. He raised his doubts about his political future before Tuesday's election, but the apparent Democratic victory that night in a deep-red district outside Pittsburgh added another warning sign for Republican incumbents.

If he joins other Republicans in retiring, Democrats would likely become the favorites to pick up his seat. The race is already seen as a top-tier contest, even with Costello involved, and Democrat Chrissy Houlahan is one of her party's top recruits.

Costello is less than a week away from a Tuesday deadline to file petitions to get on the primary ballot and has not made a definitive statement about his plans. If Costello were to decide not to run now, the GOP would have little time to find a replacement candidate.

"He has not said," Val DiGiorgio, the chairman of the state Republican Party and the Chester County GOP, said Wednesday. "All I know is he's out there, he's raising money, and he's collecting petitions. I'm proceeding under the perception that he's ready to fight for his district."

On Thursday morning, the Chester County GOP sent out an email promoting two events to gather signatures for Costello's reelection bid.

But Costello has answered indirectly when asked if he will seek reelection.

"I said I was circulating petitions," he wrote to the Inquirer and Daily News on Wednesday.

He has pointed to planned fund-raising events, but in response to questions about his campaign has mostly focused on attacking Democrats on the state Supreme Court, calling their new congressional map "racist" and arguing for impeaching and disbarring some of the justices.

The Democratic-controlled court ruled that the old Pennsylvania map was drawn to unconstitutionally favor Republicans.

Republican leaders sounded out at least one alternative candidate in case Costello quits, but that person turned them down, two Republican sources said. They, like others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Republicans are already facing stiff headwinds heading into the fall midterm elections, with Democrats targeting several districts in the Philadelphia area. Reps. Pat Meehan of Delaware County, Frank LoBiondo of South Jersey, and Charlie Dent of Allentown, are all retiring, opening opportunities for Democrats.Adrianne Gunter sits on the steps outside her Philadelphia apartment holding a steel cane that helps her get around due to her Multiple Sclerosis. Gunter waited 878 days for a federal administrative law judge to decide that she is disabled and may apply for benefits. During her wait her Multiple Sclerosis worsened and she continued to be unemployed and dependent on her mother. The Social Security Administration has since added more judges to the Philadelphia offices to help decrease the backlog of cases. Jose F. Moreno/Staff Photographer Read more

A federal administrative law judge signed a letter this week ruling that Adrianne Gunter's multiple sclerosis has left her too sick to work, qualifying her for the government assistance known as Supplemental Security Income (SSI)  three months after she finally got a remote hearing via TV hookup and more than two years after she applied.

In total, it took the Social Security Administration 878 days to decide Gunter's case from the time she requested an appeal of her routine denial of benefits. The agency's goal is 270 days. After receiving the decision in a letter dated Monday, she will be able to apply for the federal aid for those who are poor and disabled, blind, or elderly.

The Philadelphia Office of Disability Adjudication and Review has one of the worst averages for decision times in the country: 756 days. Not far behind is the South Jersey office, with a 736-day average decision time as of Feb. 23, according to the latest SSA data.

The story of Gunter's wait for a hearing was part of an Inquirer and Daily News report in January that showed Philadelphia had the longest average delay in the country  26 months  for SSI appeal hearings. More than one million people in the United States are stuck in a backlog of appeals that the Social Security Administration has called a "public service crisis."

Since January, Social Security has added eight judges to the two Philadelphia-area offices, for a total of 23 administrative law judges. Four area congressmen also wrote to Nancy Berryhill, acting commissioner of the agency, asking her to address the sometimes years-long delays for residents seeking hearings.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, whose district includes parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, met with Berryhill last week and said that the administration started a prehearing conference pilot program in Philadelphia in an attempt to alleviate the backlog. According to Boyle, Berryhill said a big reason for the pileup is that appellants often don't learn they have a right to an attorney until their scheduled hearing. The prehearing meeting is designed to happen months before the hearing, giving them time to find a lawyer.

"No numbers yet, but they said anecdotally that it's improving" the situation, Boyle said after meeting with Berryhill. He said he plans to follow up in three months.

Since Gunter had her hearing in December, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Chicago have tied Philadelphia for the dubious honor of longest wait time, but the wait was down to an average of 25 months as of February.

Jennifer Burdick, the Community Legal Services attorney who represented Gunter in her appeal, said Social Security started having the prehearing meetings last year. Burdick said the conference serves as a check-in point with the person appealing an SSI denial, in which the hearing officer will also ask the claimant for updated medical paperwork.

"A lot of our clients have been waiting for two years for a hearing and have no money, do not have stable housing, and are moving around a lot," Burdick said, adding that they often don't notify Social Security of moves and therefore don't receive requests for documents prior to the hearing.

"Logically, they needed to do something earlier. If you are going to have people wait two years," it's good to have a check-in as part of the waiting period, Burdick said.

The Social Security Administration has not responded to questions about the details of the pilot program.

Boyle said Berryhill also committed to increasing the number of administrative law judges at the Philadelphia area offices, though she didn't specify numbers. Boyle also said Social Security will try to increase the number of appeal decisions made by senior staff attorneys to avoid the need for a formal hearing with a judge.

The agency also has started having more video conferences, such as the one Gunter had.

Gunter got her decision in three months after the hearing, though many in Philadelphia wait much more longer that, according to lawyers who work on SSI appeal cases. For Gunter, the next chapter is filing for benefits  a maximum of $750 a month  and waiting for the government checks.

In the letter sent Monday, the administrative law judge who decided Gunter's case said that Gunter had been disabled since June 6, 2016, a date he chose based on his review of medical records. The disability designation will allow Gunter to apply retroactively for 19 months of government benefits.

"Now I can help with the family and start contributing again," Gunter said Wednesday. "That very idea gives me a little bit of relief. I really don't like feeling like a burden."

Gunter applied for SSI on May 8, 2015, but said that June 2016 was "when things really started to fall apart" for her. That's when she was prescribed a cane to help her balance and could hardly do any household chores.

Gunter plans to continue living with her mother in their West Philadelphia apartment.

"I don't feel stable at all in order to live by myself," she said.Republican Rick Saccone thanks supporters at a party in McKeesport, Pa., to watch the returns for the special election in the 18th Congressional District. Read more

For Republicans, this week's special election in Pennsylvania's 18th District  a district President Trump won by 20 points  should have been a lay-up. Republican Rick Saccone's apparent loss to Democrat Conor Lamb is a worrisome indicator for the midterms. But it doesn't mean it's all over for 2018. Simply put, we Republicans should have nominated a more compelling candidate.

A conservative woman would have had a particular advantage in the district, one of several high-profile seats vacated by male politicians with sex scandals.

Take for example Debbie Lesko, a conservative Arizona state senator. She emerged late last month from a crowded primary to replace Rep. Trent Franks  who was forced to resign after propositioning multiple female staffers. Her main opponent was a married minister with a sexting scandal. With so much attention on creepy men in politics, it's great to have a woman representing Republicans in the Arizona Eighth.

And in last year's blockbuster special election for the Georgia Sixth, Karen Handel fended off a tsunami of outside spending to improve on President Trump's performance in her district  the only Republican to do so in a congressional special election, and the only woman we've run for special election.

Back in Pennsylvania, our off-year judicial elections resulted in victories on the Republican side for women candidates exclusively.

With so much hand-wringing about the GOP's hemorrhaging educated women, female candidates have provided the antidote in key races.

But it's not just women we need running. To shed the stereotype  at times well earned  that we are the party of old, white, straight men, Republicans should aim to elect a diverse roster in every state across the country. To attract voters who are swinging away from us and for whom diversity is a key value (especially young voters), we need candidates who look more like America as a whole.

Many conservatives are justifiably wary of becoming mired in the navel-gazing obsession with identity politics that has become the raison d'etre of the left. Our focus is on individuals and the choices we make; a person's ability to rise above his circumstances transcends any identity factor.

But if our values are universal, there's no reason our representatives should be overwhelmingly white, straight, and male. Candidates who reflect our nation's diversity would demonstrate the broad appeal of our philosophy  and help us expand our base and win more elections.

Take black voters, arguably the least served by Democrats and decades of ill-begotten policies. For most, the polling day decision comes down to turning out for Democrats or not at all.

It's not helpful for conservatives to denounce these Americans as "voting against their own interests" when our party has largely ignored black voters, mostly living in cities, for decades.

We shouldn't be so reductive as to assume that black voters will only listen to black candidates. But offering more representation would help. And, if we increased our share of the black vote to 15 percent from the single digits we've come to accept as normal, the GOP would put Pennsylvania out of reach for Democrats  as well as major swing states like Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Michigan. In doing so, we'd have spread our message farther afield than most would envision today.

Asian voters should represent a natural constituency for us. Hispanic voters have consistently supported certain Republican candidates. And a growing number of LGBT Americans have "come out" as conservatives  with far more who have tired of progressive groupthink but aren't being actively engaged and retained by the political right.

All of these groups deserve more engagement from Republicans, and they deserve a party that is willing to field candidates that look like them.

Individual races across the country provide hope. In Michigan, black businessman and veteran John James is challenging entrenched Democrat Debbie Stabenow for the Senate. In Tennessee, Arizona, and South Dakota we have accomplished women running for Senate and governor. In Southern California, Young Kim may help our party survive a blue wave if she can hold on to retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce's seat. More and more candidates are stepping in who are nonwhite, who are women, who are gay and lesbian.

But what we're lacking, as a party, is a strong, visible effort to recruit and elect such candidates  and a consensus that diversifying our leaders will help our party.

Conservatives will not be able to preserve our country and its values without appealing beyond our older, whiter, and straighter voting base. Part of the solution is running a more diverse slate of candidates.

If our values appeal to everybody, our representatives should look like everybody.

Albert Eisenberg is a Philadelphia-based political consultant who has worked on LGBT and urban issues from the right. @Albydelphia.Election officials say Democrat Conor Lamb, right, beat Republican Rick Saccone by fewer than 1,000 votes in Pennsylvania District 18, where President Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in the 2016 election. Read more

Republicans are pushing back on the outcome of a tightly contested election in Western Pennsylvania, where results have shown Democrat Conor Lamb beat Republican Rick Saccone by just 627 votes.

The election in Pennsylvania's 18th District, a GOP stronghold that President Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points during the 2016 election, has set off alarm bells for Republicans as midterms near.

Lamb has declared victory multiple times, while Saccone has claimed the race is "far from over."

[Read the story: Trump: Democrat Conor Lamb won Pa. 18 special election because he's 'like Trump']

The GOP is mulling legal action and considering trying to get the votes recounted, according to the Associated Press.

Here's how the process of counting votes  and requesting a recount  works in Pennsylvania.

Election officials first review the votes

As is standard procedure, county election officials will review the votes beginning 9 a.m. Friday. Essentially, they're making sure the number of votes cast lines up with their records.

This process could be completed by the end of Friday or extend into early next week.

Military and overseas ballots are still being accepted through next week

These ballots can be accepted until Tuesday, March 20; in other words, until a week since the election. On Wednesday, March 21, officials will review these ballots to make sure the number lines up correctly with their records. This process could be completed by the end of Wednesday.

As of a day after the election, the four counties in the Pittsburgh-area district reported they had about 375 uncounted provisional, military and overseas ballots.

To trigger a recount

According to Pennsylvania state law, an automatic recount is triggered if a candidate wins a statewide election by less than 0.5 percentage point. However, that law doesn't apply to elections in individual districts, such as District 18.

In this case, three voters in a precinct have to file petitions alleging that fraud or an error occurred. The county board of elections would then examine the vote totals produced by each voting machine, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The newspaper also said that votes cast by paper must be tallied again by hand or by a different type of electronic machine than the one used in the first counting.WASHINGTON  White House officials have told key Republican leaders on Capitol Hill that President Trump is open to cutting a deal in a forthcoming spending bill to protect young immigrants from deportation in exchange for border wall funding, according to four GOP officials briefed on the talks.

The offer could represent a significant shift for Trump, who in January insisted on much broader immigration restrictions in exchange for any protections for "dreamers"  the young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, some of whom have been protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that Trump canceled in September.

Now, with the DACA cancellation tied up in the courts and no clear path for stand-alone immigration legislation, the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said Trump is warming to a simpler deal that would allow his administration to quickly start work on a U.S.-Mexico border wall  a centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign.

One idea under consideration is a three-year extension of the DACA program in exchange for three years of wall funding, a GOP official said. This official said the talks, which are being led by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and legislative affairs head Marc Short, were fluid.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement later Wednesday that the administration opposes a "three for three" deal, which some moderate Republicans already have floated.

Instead, Shah said, Congress ought to include wall funding in the upcoming spending bill as a matter of course.

"Separately, we have never stopped working to negotiate an immigration reform package that addresses DACA, stops illegal immigration, and secures and modernizes our legal immigration system," he said.

But Democrats have made clear that they are unwilling to agree to any wall funding absent protections for dreamers, and the upcoming spending bill is probably the last chance for Trump to lock in a deal ahead of the November midterm elections. And if Democrats retake the House, it will be even more difficult for Trump to demand wall funding.

A deal could come together quickly: Congress must pass a spending bill before a March 23 deadline, and congressional negotiators hope to release draft legislation as soon as this week.

Democratic aides familiar with the ongoing spending talks said that Republicans have not yet formally proposed any immigration deal and that they are skeptical about whether lawmakers of either party would warm to the idea before the deadline.

News of the White House offer generated mixed reactions Wednesday.

"With everything else that's going on, I just don't see . . . the DACA issue being resolved in the next week," said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R., Texas) who has backed broader immigration cutbacks. A key Senate Democrat, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, was similarly skeptical: "I'm not thrilled about including anything for a temporary fix."

But Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wisc.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said he is open to a short-term deal: "If the president supports that, I certainly won't object."

Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) said a Trump offer could not be discounted entirely: "He's totally unreliable, but I am grasping at straws to find something to help 780,000 DACA people who run the risk of deportation."

On Tuesday, Trump looked at prototypes for a border wall that have been erected in San Diego and, in remarks there, repeated bold and unproved claims about the plan's benefits.

"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 it's going to cost."

Trump's willingness to make a deal comes as congressional leaders had all but given up on acting to protect dreamers before November's midterm elections. Democrats, who forced a three-day government shutdown in January over the issue, have moved on to other fights, while Republicans have shown little urgency to finding a solution  especially since the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's bid to accelerate the pending judicial review of DACA's cancellation.

But Trump's desire to build a wall could get talks moving again.

The immigration framework he issued in January called for $25 billion in wall funding, alongside changes to immigration law that would curtail two key pathways for legal immigrants by ending the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which distributes 50,000 visas a year through a lottery system, and by scaling back family-based immigration rules. In exchange, Trump proposed offering legal status and an eventual path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million dreamers, going well beyond those protected under DACA.

But the White House proposal never gained bipartisan momentum  with Democrats rejecting the legal immigration cutbacks even as they conceded funding for a border wall  and it won only 39 votes in a Feb. 15 Senate test vote. A bill that would preserve the $25 billion in wall funding but set aside most of the legal immigration cutbacks won 54 votes, short of the 60 necessary for passage.

The outlines of the deal that Trump is now willing to explore are much narrower, said the officials familiar with the offer: a two- or three-year extension of the DACA program, which now protects about 690,000 immigrants, coupled with an unspecified amount of border wall funding  hewing to a framework that some GOP moderates explored in the aftermath of February's failed Senate votes.

A three-year DACA extension could essentially take immigration off the congressional agenda until after the 2020 presidential election by removing the threat of deportation for the young immigrants covered by the program.

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) declined to address the discussions. "We aren't negotiating the [spending bill] through the press," she said.

Ryan told reporters Wednesday that he would not discuss specific aspects of the spending bill but said: "Our goal is to get this done as fast as possible. Stay tuned."

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.

The cutbacks on legal immigration emerged as key elements for some Republicans on Capitol Hill, where Trump allies such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and members of the House Freedom Caucus called the restrictions a key element in moving toward a "merit-based" immigration system  a term Trump has frequently repeated in his tweets and at public appearances.

It is unclear whether House conservatives would back a narrower deal. But it may not matter: congressional leaders do not expect many conservative hard-liners to vote for any spending bill, let alone one that would extend protections for dreamers without major new immigration restrictions.

One prominent bloc of House conservatives opposed any short-term deal Wednesday: The Republican Study Committee said in a tweet that its members "are united behind" a much broader immigration bill written by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas).Trustees of United Lutheran Seminary voted Wednesday to fire the school's president after news that her past as director of a group that promoted ministries claiming to change the same-sex orientation of gay men and women shook the campus community, according to a statement posted on the seminary's website.

The Rev. Theresa F. Latini, who led the group OnebyOne, a so-called conversion therapy organization, for five years starting in 1996, will be replaced by Bishop James Dunlop, of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Dunlop will serve as acting president of the school which has campuses in Gettysburg and Philadelphia.

Conversion therapy, also known as reparative therapy, is a treatment program that purports to turn gay men and women straight. It has been discredited by major mental health organizations that say that the treatment is ineffective and can inflict psychological and emotional harm.

Latini had long ago repudiated the group and changed her mind about conversion therapy. She had since worked to advocate for LGBTQ inclusion.

Latini said in a statement that she was "saddened" that the board had elected to terminate her.

"I have poured every ounce of myself into leading this newly-consolidated and profoundly polarized school to overcome the longstanding divisions that have been, and continue to be, the primary impediments to building a vibrant and sustainable institution," Latini said in her statement.

But news that Latini had once led the organization angered students, faculty, and staff at the school, an LGBTQ-affirming seminary. The campus community also was upset about the board's handling of presidential selection process and the way officials failed to disclose Latini's connection to the group until after rumors began circulating at the school.

Four members of the board resigned prior to the meeting held Wednesday when Latini was terminated. Four additional members resigned after the meeting. The board's statement said that the seminary needed new leadership in the wake of a controversy that has shaken confidence in school officials. A search for new board members and a new president will begin immediately.

Latini was hired last year to lead the new seminary, a merger between Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.

During the presidential selection process, Latini revealed her connection to the conversion therapy group to the Rev. J. Elise Brown, then chair of the board of trustees and a member of the selection committee. Brown did not tell her fellow selection committee members about Latini's leadership of the group.

Brown did not reveal the information to the selection committee and the board until a meeting in December. By that time, however, news of Latini's past view had already surfaced.

Brown, who earlier resigned her post as chair of the board, explained in a Facebook post that she had tried to research OnebyOne, but came up empty. She was among the board members who resigned prior to Wednesday's meeting.Maayan Kaplan, 16, center, was one of over 1,000 Central High students who walked out of class to protest gun violence Wednesday. Read more

Happy Thursday, Philly. Anyone else ready for some warmer spring temperatures? I can't change the weather for you (though I, too, would like to put away the hats and gloves). But I can tell you all about yesterday's National School Walkout in our region, good news for Meek Mill fans, and a 320-year-old Philly bridge that needs a makeover. Maybe the morning news will put some spring in your step?

If you like what you're reading, tell your friends it's free to sign up for this newsletter here.

 Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

 READ MORE: Students across the region join National School Walkout

Thousands of students from across the Philadelphia region, from Center City to Cherry Hill to Allentown and beyond, joined Wednesday's National School Walkout to protest gun violence.

Organizers called for the protests to last 17 minutes in memory of the victims of February's Parkland, Fla. shooting. Students held moments of silence in their honor, chanted "The NRA is not okay!" or held signs reading "Enough is enough!" as they left their classrooms and gathered for rallies.

Though many local schools encouraged their students to join the protest, others threatened disciplinary action for participants. Nationally, the vibe of the protests ranged from angry to somber, hitting closest to home at schools that have experienced recent gun violence themselves.

 READ MORE: Frankford Avenue bridge built in 1697 to get a little TLC

Ever passed over the Frankford Avenue Bridge spanning Pennypack Creek? Then congratulations, you've used the nation's oldest active stone bridge.

As one might imagine, the 320-year-old structure has seen its fair share of wear and tear. So, PennDot is spending a hefty sum to restore its masonry and reinforce its structure.

Yes, that means the historic bridge will close for a few months. But the revamp will hardly be the most interesting event on the structure's resume.

 READ MORE: DA Larry Krasner wont oppose Meek Mills release

Good news for Meek Mill fans: the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said Wednesday it would not oppose Meek Mill's release from prison on bail.

Why the sudden change? Prosecutors said in a new filing, "There is a strong showing of likelihood of [Mill's] conviction being reversed." That's because of allegations he was convicted in 2008 on false testimony by arresting officer Reginald V. Graham.

Graham  the sole government witness at Mill's trial  was included on a recently disclosed list of police whom the District Attorney's office deemed too untrustworthy to testify.

What you need to know today

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

We want to see what our community looks like through your eyes. Show us the park that your family walks through every weekend with the dog, the block party in your neighborhood or the historic stretch you see every morning on your commute to work.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we'll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

Thats Interesting

Opinions

"Lamb combined the politics of 2018 with the appeals of a much earlier era, when blue-collar districts tilted Democratic and unions could help deliver their members against anti-labor Republicans."  Columnist E.J. Dionne on how the special election in western Pennsylvania highlights weaknesses in the GOP.

After a poisoning attack on an ex-spy in Britain, columnist Trudy Rubin writes that unless President Trump openly backs U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and endorses retaliation against Moscow, Putin will assume he can murder at will.

Writer Marybeth Hagan's power was out for five days and nights after this month's nor'easters. She writes that Peco workers who helped turn it back on are everyday heroes.

What were reading

Your Daily Dose of | Bibliophilia

Book lovers, rejoice! Shakespeare & Co., the super-bookstore and well-known Manhattan hangout, is coming to Philly.Martin W. Field, 87, of Villanova, a developer of apartment buildings and hotels in the Philadelphia area, New York, and Florida, died Sunday, March 11, of liver failure at his home.

Mr. Field developed the Presidential Apartments and the City Line Holiday Inn along the Philadelphia-Bala Cynwyd border, and the Valley View Apartments and Valley Forge Hilton in King of Prussia.

In June 1964, the Inquirer reported the "topping out" of the first building at Valley View, Mr. Field's high-rise development on a 35-acre site near Valley Forge National Historical Park.

"Instead of the evergreen tree usually affixed to the framework by structural steel erectors as a good luck charm, a colonial flag flies from the top of the nine-story structure in keeping with the area's historic past," the Inquirer wrote.

Mr. Field also operated hotels in Palm Beach, Fla., and New York City, including the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Hampton Inn near LaGuardia Airport, and the Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Early in his career, he was the driving force behind many of the housing developments near King of Prussia, as well as condominiums and a hotel in Clearwater Beach, Fla.

His family assisted him in his business. Son Stephen P. Field now operates his father's hotels.

At least two of the hotels  the Crowne Plaza and the Holiday Inn at JFK  were at one time jointly administered by a bankruptcy judge and two Field-controlled companies, LaGuardia Associates LP and Field Hotel Associates LP. The arrangement was part of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Field also encountered difficulty meeting debt payments on the Valley Forge Hilton, but was permitted by a bankruptcy judge to restructure the debt.

The son of Sylvan and Hannah Field, Mr. Field grew up in Northeast Philadelphia. He graduated from Central High School and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1951.

Mr. Field married June Kramer in 1954. The couple had a daughter, Laurel Field Marcus, a fashion writer, and son Stephen. June Kramer Field died at age 37 of cancer in 1971.

In 1974, Mr. Field married artist Kathleen Pregenzer. The couple have a son, Alexander Ryan Field, a musician. Kathleen P. Field became an influential figure on the Main Line social scene and a patron of the arts. The couple enjoyed collecting art and antiques from around the world and used them to decorate their home. She died in 2013.

Mr. Field knew how to enjoy life and loved entertaining.

"An art collector and bon vivant who traveled the world, he will be remembered on the Main Line for his fabulous parties and entertaining," said son-in-law Joel R. Marcus. "He was truly a man bigger than life in all seasons."

A sailing enthusiast with a fierce competitive spirit, Mr. Field participated in several high-profile races in the mid-1970s. His yacht, The Magic Twanger, raced in Florida and England, and from Annapolis, Md., to Newport, R.I.

"He was so alive," Laurel Marcus said. "He loved beauty and art and dining. He always had a twinkle in his eye."

As a father, he was "a generous dad and a good provider," said Stephen Field. "He loved his kids, no question."

In addition to his children, Mr. Field is survived by five grandchildren, two brothers, and his companion, Carole Isen.

Memorial services will be at 11 a.m. Friday, March 16, at Joseph Levine & Sons Memorial Chapel, 4737 Street Rd., Trevose, Interment is private.Philadelphia Public School Superintendent William R. Hite (left) and Mayor Kenney talking before the Be an Attendance Hero program at Hartranft Elementary School. Read more

As Philadelphians consider a tax increase for our schools, we must remember this truism: In education, money matters. It pays for teachers, and specialists, and principals, and books, and buildings. It provides intensive resources to the children who have the highest needs. It is why our wealthier suburban neighbors regularly raise their taxes, and why schools in states like Massachusetts perform so well.

We have the evidence in Pennsylvania. In the middle of America's great recession, using stimulus funds as a backstop, the commonwealth finally took steps toward more fully funding our public schools. The results were immediate: Among each cohort of students, including in Philadelphia, achievement scores increased.

Full funding, however, never came. Instead, in 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett cut $851 million from education funding, with the poorest schools bearing the largest cuts.

The result was as predictable as it was devastating. Communities across the commonwealth raised taxes, but for many it was not enough. By the time the cutting was over, 27,000 people disappeared from the public education workforce. Achievement scores plummeted.

In Philadelphia, a "doomsday budget" became austere reality. Amid bloodless calls to "live within its means," the School District let go teachers, counselors, assistant principals, central office administrators, and support staff. As a result, class sizes ballooned and 23 schools closed. Teachers became janitors, while principals learned how to administer insulin to students with diabetes. By any measure, the quality of education suffered.

In recent years, with regular tax increases, Philadelphians have provided a needed measure of stability and modest investments for our schools. Professionals have returned and programming has increased.

Even with the added local funding, however, the depth of our underfunding remains unconscionable, with the district likely underfunded by approximately a billion dollars each year. As a result, class sizes remain too large. Teachers pay for supplies out of their own pockets. Billions of dollars' worth of repairs are needed for an aging set of buildings. And the hardest-to-reach children miss the intensive intervention they need to help them fulfill their potential, because we cannot afford it. Stability, in other words, should never be confused with sufficiency.

Meanwhile, another reckoning looms on the horizon, with the district facing budget deficits averaging $200 million per year, placing the small gains our schools have made at risk.

After kissing babies or cutting ribbons, opposing tax increases is the easiest thing for a politician to do. Rather than succumb to this siren call, however, the mayor and City Council are asking Philadelphians to pay a tax increase to keep doomsday at bay. And they are doing so in the year before their possible reelections.

In considering the mayor's proposal, we must overcome two arguments. Each has at least a vein of truth, but neither will solve the crisis we face.

First is that we should demand "efficiencies" before increasing school funding. In a district already cut to the bone, these calls are the equivalent of demanding a hungry child prove her pockets are empty of crumbs before offering her a meal, well knowing that no amount of scraps there will adequately fill her stomach.

Second is that education is the state's responsibility, and low-wealth communities have already done more than their share. I know this argument well, because as a member of the team pursuing a landmark school-funding case against the commonwealth, I make it regularly. But litigation is slow and uncertain. And in our courtrooms, the plaintiffs face the same obstacles that advocates confront in the halls of the Capitol: an intransigent legislature, which passionately argues that education is not a fundamental or important right, and which has no intention of fixing this problem.

In other words, the state cavalry is not coming anytime soon. In the meantime, only Philadelphians can save Philadelphia. The question for all of us is whether we are willing to do so.

There is a fundamental debate at the center of all this. It pits those who are willing to invest in every student as a future fellow citizen against those who do not want to pay for another family's child, using the specter of "government schools" and "urban" kids as bogeymen.

Philadelphians will not be spared from such a debate. For whether the money is routed through Harrisburg or City Hall, the fortunate among us will have to pay if we want quality schools. When it comes to education, there are no easy shortcuts or miraculous new efficiencies.

As citizens, we must hold on to the recent gains we have made with everything we have, by our fingernails if necessary. This tax increase, which will not provide the growth that Philadelphia students deserve, will at least ensure that the recent gains we have made are preserved.

For all our children, returning to doomsday is not an option.

Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg is an attorney at Public Interest Law Center. dackelsberg@pubintlaw.orgOn Monday 12 March, The American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted Lubna S. Olayan, CEO and deputy chairperson of Olayan Financing Company, to present the Nadia Younes Memorial lecture at Moataz Al-Alfi Hall at the university's New Cairo campus.

Olayan became the first woman to join the board of a publicly-listed Saudi company when elected to the board of Saudi Hollandi Bank (now Alawwal Bank) in 2004, where she currently serves as vice chair.

She also chairs the UK-based Alfanar, the first venture philanthropy organization working exclusively in the Arab world.

Her lecture, titled A Vision for the Rising Arab Generation, tackled the main challenges that face today's Arab youth, the opportunities that lie ahead of them, and the action that needs to be taken.

The lecture is part of the Nadia Younes Memorial Fund, named for the Egyptian United Nations official who was killed in the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August, 2003 while serving as chief of staff UN secretary general to Iraq.

Paying tribute to Younes, Olayan said, She combined a great intellect and a passion for our region, a passion that I truly share. I am also struck by her keen interest in many other challenged regions around the world.

Present at the lecture were Ibrahim El-Moallem, the chairman and founder the worlds leading Arabic publishing house, former Foreign Minister and former Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, among many others.

In welcoming Olayan and honouring the memory of Younes, AUC President Francis J. Ricciardone remarked how Youness commitment to serving the global community stands as an example to inspire the upcoming young leaders.

Olayan was also welcomed by Younes' family and by student Omar Zaki, recipient of the Nadia Younes Award for Public and Humanitarian Service.

It is also a privilege for me to be here at AUC, a true center of excellence, said Olayan. AUCs role is important not only in Egypt but throughout the Arab world.

She also addressed many challenges that have faced the Arab countries, like the negative effects of colonization, high unemployment rates and high economic inequality. We can spend hours debating how we got here, she said, but what is now needed is action.

Olayan shared lessons she has learned as businesswoman in regards to finding ways to best utilize the region's resources.

She pointed to Singapore as an example of a country that suffered from colonization, poverty, limited natural resources and high population growth, yet still managed to develop into a major player in the global economy.

Some Gulf countries adopted a similar model, she noted, diversifying their economy, boosting research and development and targeting education, in particluar Dubai under Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashed and Saudi Arabia under its ongoing reforms.

For my part I remain optimistic, she concluded. "We can educate our youth and prepare them for the job market and at the same time educate them to value a society where mutual respect and tolerance exist amongst all citizens, residents and visitors, regardless of social class, religion or gender.

Short link:

Westminster Choir College, New Jersey's iconic cultural institution, faces an existential crisis because its steward is attempting to sell it. If this sale occurs, it will likely close a chapter in American musical history. One of the world's leading music schools, Westminster has for nearly a century educated many preeminent musicians, seen its celebrated ensembles participate in history-marking events, and brought endless joy to audiences worldwide.

Westminster choirs have performed with the world's greatest conductors, from Toscanini to Bernstein, from Stokowski to Nezet-Seguin. The music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and newly appointed director of New York's Metropolitan Opera is himself a product of Westminster training.

Yet New Jersey-based Rider University, with which WCC merged in 1992, plans to sell Westminster and the valuable 23acre property it occupies in Princeton to a Chinese business. The proposed sale, conducted in a secretive process, has provoked outrage and lawsuits, as well as calls from prominent figures in the world of music and politics for Rider to reconsider its plan.

The buyer is a for-profit entity called Kaiwen Educational Technology Co. Ltd., which until January traded stock under the name of Jiangsu Zhongtai Bridge Steel Structure Co. Ltd. A holding company controlled by the Chinese state owns a controlling stake in Kaiwen.

Kaiwen has no experience in higher education and less than two years' experience operating for-profit K-12 schools in Beijing, making it ill-suited to continue the nonprofit educational mission of Westminster Choir College. If Westminster were to fail, Kaiwen would own Westminster's prestigious name, a property and facilities already zoned for education, and student residences just blocks from Princeton University. I believe this would make it the perfect spot for the company's existing business strategy, which includes for-profit high schools for Chinese students who seek admission to Ivy League colleges.

Kaiwen claims it will pay Rider $40 million for Westminster, create a nonprofit corporation in New Jersey, and continue Westminster's educational purpose through this new 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation. However, in the company's own "Notice of Signing an Agreement on the Intention of Overseas Investment," the company states the purpose of acquiring Westminster is to increase its corporate profitability  a goal fundamentally opposite of the nonprofit status it claims it will seek.

The sale is the subject of lawsuits brought by key Westminster stakeholders, including students, parents, donors, and alumni, who allege the university engaged in a fraudulent and secretive process to divest itself of WCC in violation of the merger agreement. In addition, Princeton Theological Seminary, which has rights involving the Princeton property the school sits on, has challenged the sale. Furthermore, there is pending arbitration by the Rider professors' union regarding the Rider administration's violation of its bargaining agreement with regard to the improper layoff of Westminster's unionized faculty

Rider's actions have taken a toll on the WCC community. Current students are concerned about graduating. Prospective students are wondering whether they should turn elsewhere. Donors and alumni are worried. Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who spoke on behalf of preserving Westminster Choir College, said, "There have to be other solutions.  Westminster is a jewel."

When Rider merged with Westminster, it gained its assets and reputational value at no cost  a reputation that helped the then-Rider College attain university status. I believe that Rider has no right, either legally or morally, to a windfall from selling Westminster. If Rider's president and board of trustees conclude the university's mission is no longer compatible with that of a world-renowned arts institution, they should seek a partner for Westminster on the same basis as when Rider acquired it  a no-cost transfer.

A diligent search for such a partner that includes meaningful input from all Westminster stakeholders would produce a legitimate partner. At the least, Rider should return Westminster to the independent status it had prior to the merger. Westminster Choir College should be preserved, not sold. Gov. Kean's "jewel" deserves no less.

Joel Phillips is a professor of composition and music theory at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, coauthor of three widely used textbooks published by W. W. Norton & Co. in the Musician's Guide series, and a former chief reader for the Advanced Placement Examination in Music Theory.Philadelphia sees a shooting, on average, every 6 hours. That makes it one of Americas most dangerous cities. Read more

I am an emergency medicine physician working in a Level 1 trauma center in Philadelphia  a city that sees a shooting, on average, every six hours. That makes it one of America's most dangerous cities.

In this city, I see a lot of trauma. You can imagine why I don't often talk about my job with friends and family outside the medical community. The grisly environment of the emergency room, and stories of people experiencing the worst days of their lives, just doesn't seem like good dinner-table conversation.

I don't talk about the countless victims of gun violence I've seen, predominantly black and usually far too young. I don't talk about how these victims are brought in, riddled with bullet holes hidden underneath layers of bloody clothes. I don't talk about the grown men and women I've treatedtheir blood pressures dropping, crying out for family, saying they feel as if they're going to die.

Many times, they are right.

Many times, they do.

I don't talk about the trauma surgeons, sweating underneath lead aprons and layers of personal protective equipment, cutting open chests in the emergency department  there's no time for the operating room, the patient would die in the elevator. I don't talk about the eerie silence after time of death is called, as monitors are turned off and tubes are disconnected. I don't talk about helping load yet another dead victim of gun violence into the van of the medical examiner. I don't talk about the brave nurses, techs, and doctors who are allowed little time to reflect and mourn. The next "GSW"  gunshot wound  is already on the way in.

I don't talk about the families, especially the mothers, who must now come to terms with unspeakable tragedy. I hear their screams of sorrow from all corners of the department, wrestling with the eventuality of burying their own children. I see the look in mothers' eyes when they're told they can see, but they cannot touch, their deceased loved ones.

Doctors are trained to move on, but we are shaken, too. The faces of the deceased, and the screams of their families, haunt me as I lie awake late at night, as sleep eludes me. They haunt us all.

But my silence is nothing compared with that of our lawmakers  of both parties  whose "thoughts and prayers" are shallow excuses for inaction. They cling to religion to comfort themselves and others. We can only hope that one day St. Peter will laugh in their faces as he gently nudges them out of the clouds. Heaven is already too full with the young victims of gun violence.

We need to talk about the AR-15, a modified military rifle designed to kill as many people as possible. That was the gun used to kill three adults and 14 children in Florida on Feb. 14. An AR-15 has no purpose in the defense of a home. It has no purpose in hunting. Its only role is in the hands of trained and uniformed military or law enforcement personnel.

To be sure, reducing gun access for those with mental-health issues is a start. But make no mistake: The scourge of gun violence in this country is about guns. As Parkland high schooler and survivor Emma Gonzalez bravely said, "He wouldn't have hurt that many students with a knife."

A physician goes through a decade of training and multiple background checks before being allowed to prescribe a controlled substance that could be deadly. But in many states, firearms can be purchased in days.

A physician prescribes proven and tested treatments, but the same standard is not expected of our lawmakers. Too many ignore the evidence in front of them  refusing to acknowledge that the states with the most gun laws also have the fewest gun deaths.

The evidence tells us: All gun purchases should undergo a standard background check. Criminals convicted of a violent crime should be barred from future gun purchases. The sale of semiautomatic and large-capacity assault weapons should be forbidden. And if you're too young to buy a beer, you should be barred from buying a deadly weapon. Yet, time and time again, these solutions are ignored.

As someone sworn to save lives  regardless of our background or beliefs  I wonder: Are reasonable solutions to gun violence too much to ask to save the lives of children?

I know, for a fact, that I will see another victim of gun violence soon. I'll assess the patient, examine the urgency, and use every possible solution to save that life. It would be malpractice to do otherwise.

Lawmakers should look at the scourge of guns the same way. Because with their inaction, our lawmakers coldly condone a crisis that only they can fix.

Dr. Gregory Siegel is a senior emergency medicine resident physician working in Philadelphia.The Egyptian Culture Minister Ines Abdel-Dayem has approved independent theatre company The Storm to travel for a performance at the 17th Slavija International Theatre Festival which is taking place between 9 and 16 March in Belgrade, Serbia.

The head of the Foreign Cultural Relations Department at the ministry, Hisham Mourad, said in the department's official press statements that the ministers approval comes within the framework of the joint cultural exchange between the ministry and many Eastern European countries; theatre and the movement arts are the most important components of this exchange, he said.

In addition, it is an attempt by the ministry to encourage the independent companies to take their performances outside Egypt.

The company will participate in the festival with a perforance entitled The Visit, which is directed by Mohamed El-Jamasi, and is an adaptation of the Greek writer Lola Anagnuskys book The City.

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Top left to right: Wyoming Arts Council Arts Education Specialist and Poetry Out Loud Coordinator Tara Pappas, State Treasurer Mark Gordon, State Auditor Cynthia Cloud, State Champion Lauren Haiar of Sundance Secondary School, Runner-up Kailee Behunin of Lander Valley High School, Third Place Georgia Wages of Buffalo High School, Executive Director of the Wyoming Arts Council Michael Lange, Wyoming Poet Laureate Gene Gagliano, and Director of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources Darin Westby.

Wyoming's 13th Annual Poetry Out Loud State Competition took place Monday night in Cheyenne. High school students from across the state competed for a $200 prize, a $500 stipend for their school to purchase poetry books, and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete at the National Finals.

Lauren Haiar of Sundance Secondary School became Wyoming's 2018 State Champion. Haiar also won in 2017, making her a two-time champion. She will go on to represent Wyoming at the National Finals in Washington D.C., April 23-25. State Runner-up was Kailee Behunin, Lander Valley High School, and third place went to Georgia Wages, Buffalo High School. Mataya Sipe, Kaycee High School; Chase Marple, Western Heritage Lutheran Academy in Rivertson; Charles David Dechert, Fremont County Homeschool Group; Rachael Carver, Worland High School; and J.D. Whisler, Moorcroft High School all took home honorable mentions.

Courtesy of the Wyoming Arts Council Bottom: State Champion Lauren Haiar of Sundance Secondary School will represent Wyoming at the National Finals in Washington D.C. from April 23-25.

Judging criteria included physical presence, voice and articulation, dramatic appropriateness, evidence of understanding, and overall performance. Judges were Colorado poet Adrian Molina, Wyoming poet Matt Daly, Wyoming's Poet Laureate Eugene Gagliano, and University of Wyoming student and past Poetry Out Loud State Champion Sara Ellingrod. On Tuesday, following a morning of poetry workshops for the participants and chaperones, State Treasurer Mark Gordon announced the results at an awards ceremony held in the lobby of the Barrett Building.

Poetry Out Loud is a program that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and performance. Developed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud is a free contest for high-school students (grades 9-12) in both public and private schools. It serves every state and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. The Wyoming Arts Council is proud to support and administer this program in the Cowboy State.

Participating schools included Sundance Secondary School, Lander Valley High School, Buffalo High School, Kaycee High School, Western Heritage Lutheran Academy, Fremont County Homeschool Group, Worland High School, and Moorcroft High School.Brian L. Sawyer was born in 1959 at Long Beach, California but grew up in Kelso, Washington. He was the son of a Navy man, and grandson of a Federal Guard. Serving his county was not a new thought.

After graduating high school in Washington, Sawyer took a year off trying to decide what he wanted to do. One morning he woke up at his grandfather's house and announced he was enlisting in the United States Air Force. At nineteen years of age, Sawyer entered into the Air Force and headed to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. After graduating from basic training, Sawyer went to tech school in northern Texas at Goodfellow Air Force Base.

His next assignment lead him to Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. At Lowry, he would complete his training for his job as target intelligence. "This was back in the day, before computers," Sawyer stated. "We had these photos that would be in sections and we would use special glasses to see in 3D to measure. Now it is all done with computers and satellites." he added.

When the time came for Sawyer to step back in civilian life, he headed back to California and became a licensed fumigator for the state. "Yes, I worked in the rat race for 10 years, until I had enough!" Sawyer stated. "Then I went to Montana, and worked for nearly 20 years as a small engine mechanic." he added. The small town draw had held him long enough and he headed overseas with Halliburton driving truck and other duties in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Sawyer would stay in Afghanistan for three years. He was in the first 300 DOD (Department of Defense) workers to head of there. "By the end of the first year, we had lost 100 of the original guys that went over with me. They headed back to the states, as it was not their job of liking." Sawyer said, shaking his head. "I lasted three years, and that was enough.

Courtesy Brian Sawyer Sawyer with two trophies from one of his favorite past-times.

Returning to the states, he would meet the love of his life, Linda Marlene Franks of Oregon. They would marry and through his job find themselves in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming.

"The military was a good life. It gave me direction and discipline. The experience, training and job security can't be beat." he said. "I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for direction, a good path of experience that can't be beat." Sawyer added.

I love what I do, and now I am a driver master trainer, OSHA trainer, and an instructor for CPR with the Red Cross.

Thanks for serving and sharing your story Brian Sawyer.Legislative Package Will Expand Air Service, Improve Broadband, Provide Workforce Training, Support Blockchain & Virtual Currency & Encourage Entrepreneurialism and Innovation

Cheyenne, Wyo.  The Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives gave its final approval this week to a series of legislation in support of ENDOW (Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming), a 20-year initiative to make lasting and meaningful gains in diversifying and growing Wyomings economy.

I am pleased with the legislative work on ENDOW this session, said Wyoming Governor Matt Mead. The passage of these bills makes it clear the Legislature sees the importance to take action on recommendations the ENDOW Executive Council made in its December report. I appreciate the work of the Legislature and the Executive Council. This work provides the impetus needed to move ENDOW forward.

Last year, Governor Matt Mead worked with the Legislature to pass a bill authorizing ENDOW. The ENDOW Executive Council recently released ten preliminary recommendations to address barriers to, and opportunities for, economic diversification. Members of the legislature worked together to craft legislation, reflective of these recommendations, to address air service, broadband connectivity, workforce training, blockchain technology, computer science education, entrepreneurial opportunities and international marketing of Wyoming products.

The message from the Legislature is loud and clear: Wyoming is open for business, said Senate President Eli Bebout. ENDOW is an important vehicle for working collaboratively with the private sector to bring forward recommendations that support a diverse and thriving economy. Its essential that Wyoming has the policies and infrastructure in place that will help develop new business sectors while supporting existing ones.

The Wyoming Legislature has worked tirelessly to bring the ENDOW initiative to fruition. We are totally committed to diversifying Wyomings economy. There is no question Wyoming's people are our greatest resource, said House Speaker Steve Harshman. This work that has created ENDOW has given us the opportunity to invest in this resource  our people  while creating a pathway for new industries to thrive.

House and Senate leadership both reiterated their commitment to working with the Governor and the Executive Council in the interim to ensure that ENDOW generates measurable results for the people of Wyoming.

Among the measures passed was legislation to help grow and expand air service across Wyoming while driving down costs to taxpayers. Senate File 40, Commercial air service improvement, would support the Wyoming Department of Transportations (WYDOT) 10-year Commercial Air Service Plan (CASP) to create a reliable and affordable option for air service in Wyoming. CASP would enable the WYDOT Aeronautics Division to contract with one airline to provide commercial air service to a major hub airport, such as Denver or Salt Lake City. Local communities and the state would be able to determine the fares, flight times and potentially share in the profits.

The Wyoming Legislature has been an incredible partner for ENDOW and a great champion for making lasting and meaningful gains in diversifying Wyomings economy, said ENDOW Co-Chair Greg Hill. The package of bills passed this session help eliminate some of the barriers to attracting business and set the stage for new industries to take root and flourish right here in Wyoming.

To ensure Wyoming citizens have the skills they need to meet the workforce needs of existing and emerging industries, ENDOW recommended and legislative leadership championed a bill to provide a sustainable source of workforce training funds to target long-term economic diversification successes. Senate Fill 119, Workforce development-priority economic sector program will establish a dedicated fund for workforce training in priority economic sectors.

Other ENDOW measures passed by the legislature include:

Senate File 29, Education-computer science and computational thinking, will add computer science to the state educational program  making Wyoming the first state in the country to require its schools to offer computer science education.

Senate File 100, Economic diversification-broadband services, will establish a broadband coordinator position, a broadband advisory council and a Wyoming broadband grant fund to help ensure every community in Wyoming has the opportunity to connect with the world through reliable high-speed internet.

Senate File 118, Kickstart Wyoming-economic diversification, will build out Wyomings entrepreneurial network by establishing a dedicated organization to provide capital access funds for startups.

Senate File 108, Economic diversification and development, will expand the states agriculture marketing program and provide for an international trade representative to promote and sell Wyoming products.

House Bill 70, Open Blockchain Tokens Exemptions, House Bill 101, Electronic Corporate Records, House Bill 126, Limited Liability Companies-Series, and House Bill 19, Wyoming Money Transmitter Act-virtual currency exemption and Senate File 111, Property taxation-digital currencies will all help drive a new industry here in Wyoming  virtual currencies and blockchain technology  positioning Wyoming to be a national leader in this growing field.

The ENDOW Executive Council is scheduled to meet in Jackson on March 21 at the Snow King Grand View Ballroom from 4-6 p.m. The Executive Council will be finalizing the House of ENDOW template to better explain the process of the initiative; receive reports from the five economic engine subcommittees; and discuss next steps in advance of their May public meeting slated for May 10-11, 2018 in Riverton and Lander.The conference comes but once a year, and when it does, it brings good beer. It's time for the 49th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), a geology-focused meeting of planetary scientists, taking place (as it has for the last several years) in The Woodlands, Texas, north of Houston. This year, I'll be attending for the entire week, plus the weekend beforehand, to immerse myself in up-to-the-minute science from missions present to long past.

I'm trying to organize collaborative notetaking!

If interested and attending LPSC, please see the end of this post.

About LPSC

For information on #LPSC2018, here are some handy links:

Livestreams

Two events will be Livestreamed here:

Monday 1:30-2:15 CDT (18:30-19:15 UT) Award presentations followed by Masursky Lecture by Linda Spilker: "Cassini's Amazing Discoveries"

Monday 5:30-6:30 CDT (22:30-23:30 UT): NASA Headquarters Briefing

Workshops

I will be presenting at (so far) two events:

Planetary Scientist Workshop: Sharing Science with the News Media

Wednesday, 12:00 to 1:15 PM, Shenandoah

Planetary scientists attending LPSC are invited to this free workshop, where they will learn techniques and suggestions for communicating with the press, by the press. Science journalists David W. Brown and Emily Lakdawalla will share tips and provide insight on giving interviews and sharing your science with the press. Bring your lunch and join us! No registration is required, but you can submit an indication of interest form to receive further details about this event.

Communicating Your Science Effectively

Thursday, 12:00 to 1:15 PM, Grogan's Mill

Want to improve your oral presentation skills? Need tips on how to effectively design a poster? Then this workshop is for you! The Next Generation Lunar Scientists and Engineers will be hosting a workshop on how to effectively communicate your science. Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society will speak on how to give better conference talks, and Paul Byrne from NC State will discuss strategies for poster design. The presentations will be followed by an open Q&A and discussion time. All are welcome!

Guest bloggers wanted

Every year, I ask for volunteer guest bloggers to cover sessions that I'm unable to attend. If you're interested in guest blogging, contact me! Here's a little bit of guidance for planetary.org guest bloggers. I'm particularly seeking help with the following sessions, which I will be unable to attend due to conflicts:

Monday morning: 4 talks about physics of boiling water & CO2 sublimation in Mars downslope movement

Tuesday afternoon 3:00-3:45, Waterway 4: Three talks on Ceres' Occator crater

Wednesday afternoon: second half of the Apollo 17 session

Thursday morning: Galilean Satellites session

Thursday afternoon: Astrobiology II session

Thursday afternoon: Pluto

Any developments of interest to the public in cosmochemistry or meteorites or solar system origins

Collaborative notetaking

This year, I'm going to try something new: I'm going to spearhead a collaborative notetaking effort. I understand that this is something that students do in academic classes these days and it sounds like a super idea to help each other make the most out of a conference. I'm setting up Google documents for each of the sessions, and would like to invite people to pour notes into them -- either taking notes in the document live during the session, or pasting your notes into them later. If you're attending and interested in participating, even for just one session, contact me and I'll give you access to the documents. I will eventually make all the notes public. Help me out with this experiment!A temporary exhibition highlighting 120 years of archaeological excavations in Deir el-Barsha in Minya will open Thursday evening at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

Under the title Life in Death: The Middle Kingdom at Deir el-Bersha, the exhibition will be officially inaugurated by Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany, Belgiun Ambassador to Egypt Sibille de Cartier and German Ambassador Julius Georg Loew.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, KU Leuven University in Belgium and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany.

The event will be attended by the head of the Belgium-Germany Archaeological Mission, a number of ambassadors to Egypt from foreign counties, Egyptian members of parliament and top officials at the antiquities ministry.

Elham Salah, Head of the Museums Sector at the ministry, told Ahram Online that the exhibition will be on display for 30 days and will showcase 70 artifacts from the discoveries at Deir Al-Bersha, which were previously spread throught the museums various galleries or concealed in its basement.

The artefacts will for the first time be displayed together, she pointed out, revealing that the objects include the distinguished funerary collection from the tomb of Sepi III.

Among Sepi III's artefacts are the rectangular box coffins, inscribed with religious funerary texts, known as coffin texts, which helped the deceased to travel through the afterlife.

Also among the displaed items are wooden models found in the tomb, which often depicting activities from daily life such as making food and drink.

The aim of such models was so that the deceased could enjoy these activities in eternity.

Trays found in the tombs of Sepi I, Sepi III and Nehri I will also be on display. These trays, Salah said, are unique as they are made of painted cartonnage, consisting of a layer of gypsum.

The individual offerings on these trays are also made of cartonnage, painted in intricate detail, allowing for the easy identification of objects.

Sabah Abdel-Razek, General-Director of the Egyptian Museum, said that the site at Deir Al-Bersha is located 280 km south of Cairo and is best known as the burial place of the Middle Kingdom governors of el-Ashmunein (c. 2055-1650 BCE).

The governors built elaborately decorated tombs high on the North Hill of the Eastern Desert cliffs, while important officials were buried in tomb shafts in the vicinity of their lords.

The earliest excavations at Deir el-Bersha began in 1897 when the French Egyptologist Georges Daressy began exploring the site on behalf of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. His most spectacular find was the intact burial chamber of Sepi III.

The first Egyptian Egyptologist, Ahmed Kamal, continued to work at Deir el-Bersha from 1900-1902. He excavated several of the elite shaft tombs on the North Hill, including those of Amenemhat and Nehri I.

During their expeditions, she explains, Daressy and Kamal discovered an impressive collection of exemplary Middle Kingdom funerary equipment, such as wooden tomb models and decorated coffins.

The majority of these objects are kept in the Egyptian Museum and many will be on display in this exhibit.

In 1915, American Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner excavated for two months at Deir el-Bersha. His most important discovery was the nearly intact tomb of governor Djehutinakht IV or V.

Since 2002 KU Leuven University has resumed excavations at this site, reinvestigating several of the areas where these prior excavations took place.

KU Leuven University has also collaborated with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz since 2009 on excavations of five large tomb shafts in front of the tomb of governor Djehutihotep, most of the contents of which are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

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Police were called to Seaside High School in Seaside, CA, on Tuesday afternoon after a report that a teacher accidentally fired a handgun in a classroom full of students.

The teacher was identified as Dennis Alexander, a reserve police officer for Sand City, according to a press release from the Seaside Police Department. Alexander was believed to have been providing instruction related to public safety awareness when he fired a single shot from a semi-automatic handgun into the ceiling.

According to Seaside Police Chief Abdul D. Pridgen, a student was struck in the neck by debris or a fragment after the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling. The student was not seriously injured. Pridgen said class resumed after the incident was brought under control.

Alexander has taught the course in the past but Pridgen said he doesnt know if hed ever brought a live firearm to the school before. An investigation is ongoing and Pridgen said the police department will handle the situation like any other investigation, the Monterey Herald reports.Embed from Getty Images

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Irving (TX) ISD, the city of Irving and several individuals by the father of a teen who was arrested after bringing to school a homemade clock that was mistaken for a bomb.

The federal lawsuit had alleged that Ahmed Mohamed's civil rights were violated in September 2015 when Irving police officers took him into custody at MacArthur High School and charged him with making a "hoax bomb." The then-14-year-old was also suspended from school for three days.

The charge against Ahmed was later dropped. The boy and his family have since moved to Qatar.

U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay on Tuesday ordered that the suit be "dismissed with prejudice" and that "all relief requested by plaintiff is denied."

Lawyers for Ahmed Mohamed did not return calls for comment from the Dallas Morning News Wednesday.

In a statement released Wednesday, the city of Irving said that it is "extremely pleased by the court's ruling, which supports the justifiable actions taken by the officers in the matter. We remain committed to ensuring the safety of all Irving residents and schoolchildren."Kentucky police have arrested a man who was wanted for questioning relating to the shooting death of a police officer earlier this week.

Pikeville, KY, Officer Scotty Hamilton was shot and killed in the line of duty. (Photo: Facebook/scottyhamilton41)

Pikeville Police Department Officer Scotty Hamilton was shot and killed in the line of duty late Tuesday night in Pike County, Kentucky. Investigators later obtained an arrest warrant for John Russell Hall, 55, of Pikeville, for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Investigators want to question Hall about Hamilton's death, according to a press release from the Kentucky State Police on Thursday morning.

Kentucky State Police arrested Hall without incident around 11 a.m. ET in the Stoney Brook area in the Betsy Layne community of Floyd County, officials told ABC News.A man who recently pleaded guilty to almost slicing a Salt Lake City police officer's ear off has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against that officer claiming he used excessive force first.

Leon Dane Hall (Photo: Salt Lake County Jail)

Leon Dane Hall, 25, of Salt Lake City, filed a civil lawsuit in federal court Monday against Salt Lake City officers Conrad Leong, Tyler Bang, Cody Wilkes, Miles Southworth, and Livsey Harrison, claiming his constitutional rights were violated when police used "unlawful detention and brutal, violent use of force and excessive force against Mr. Hall when no force at all was necessary and the physical altercation was instigated by one of the officers," reports the Deseret News.

On Feb. 2, 2016, Salt Lake police responded to reports of a man banging on doors at the Pauline Apartments late at night. Officers originally claimed Hall refused to give them his name or personal information. When the officers attempted to take him into custody, Hall resisted and shouted for the officers to stop touching him, according to charging documents.

As they attempted to push Hall into a patrol car, he began swinging at them and screaming. The officers attempted to bring Hall into compliance by using their batons on his chest and legs as he yelled "Stop!" and "Help!" the charges state.

As Hall and an officer fell to the ground during the struggle, Hall pulled out an 18-inch cast-iron lawn ornament with jagged edges and swung it at officers, nearly severing officer Bang's ear. It eventually took five officers to arrest Hall.

On Monday, Hall claimed it was the police who escalated an otherwise peaceful situation and unlawfully detained him and used excessive force.

He is seeking about $1.8 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.Its fish fry season! Every year, my family gets together up north and we fry fish for breakfast along with scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. It is the best meal of the day. Back in Rochester, I love trying out all the different places dishing up a fish fry on Fridays. Here is a run-down of places you can find a traditional fish fry. Then decide for yourself who is frying the best fish.

American Legion, Post 92

The American Legion takes their fish fry Friday so seriously, they call it "Fry-Days." From 5 to 7 p.m., you can choose from multiple options, including two fish pieces, one fish and four shrimp, or seven shrimp for $11. Each meal comes with a baked potato or fries, coleslaw, and a roll. Come for the food and stay for the live music, which starts at 7 p.m. every Friday.

Charlies Pub and Eatery

The fish start frying at Charlies at 4:30 p.m. on Fridays. Featuring homemade tartar sauce and fish fried (or battered) to perfection, Charlies is the place to go to gather with friends, a cold one, and all you can eat cod for $12.99.

Pappy's Place

Pappys offers both lunch and dinner portions of their fried North Atlantic Cod. For lunch, grab a couple pieces of fish and mashed potatoes. For dinner, its all-you-can-eat, along with a soup or salad bar, and your choice of a side. Their special Friday fish fry is $11.99, and you wont leave hungry.

Brothers Bar & Grill

Along with a fantastic beer selection, Brothers Bar & Grill is also home to a great fish fry. Diners can have their Haddock fillets broiled or hand-battered and fried ($9.80-11.55). All fish plates are served with the classic fish fry combination: fries and coleslaw.

Canadian Honker

This well-known and highly frequented Rochester staple offers an all-you-can-eat spread of batter-fried walleye and shrimp all night for only $19.99. You also get your choice of potato and soup or salad. Canadian Honker always has live music on Friday nights from 7:30 to 10 p.m., making it a great atmosphere in which to enjoy your crispy and buttery fish.Back when St. Patrick roamed Ireland explaining gospels with shamrocks and banishing snakes, people were already sipping whiskey. The monks who lived on the Emerald Isle loved the stuff so much they christened it uisce beatha, or "water of life."

Today, the spirit is having a moment. Across the globe, craft and micro distilleries are popping up, offering daring new varieties of whiskey.

"Whiskey is probably the most hyped its ever been in its life," said Lucus Danckwart, chef-at-large, intro-level sommelier, and whiskey enthusiast. "For hundreds of years, it was regional beverages. But now that (theres) such an international market, everythings out there, everyone wants something very new and avant-garde and different, its a playground right now. People are doing whiskeys that have never been done before."

Whiskey has a litany of offshoots: ryes, bourbons, scotches, etc., but youre leafing through this magazine in search of St. Patricks Day fun. So here is a quick primer on Irish whiskey.

Irish characteristics

Irish whiskey is known for its sweetness, smoothness, and complexity. As opposed to Scotch, which originates just a couple hundred miles away and is known for a smoky flavor, Irish whiskeys traditional triple distillation process removes some of the more abrasive qualities of the liquor, rendering the final product smoother and more approachable.

"You see different things with Irish whiskey," said Richard Hubbard, store manager at Andys Liquor Crossroads, 1201 S Broadway, Rochester. "Theyre using wine casks or sherry casks to age some of that. Its pretty common for Irish whiskey to use sort of a sherry finish for a barrel. It does tend to give it that sweetness."

What to try

While Jameson is the most ubiquitous Irish whiskey, thanks mainly to marketing, its not the most representative of the style. Why? Its a blended whiskey, which means several whiskeys are blended together, as opposed to single malt whiskeys.

"Its not one that I would sit and drink neat," said Hubbard. "Id classify it as more of a mixer. It just doesnt have quite the complexity."

For a single pot whiskey, Hubbard recommends Redbreast, which contains plenty of complexity, thanks in part to being aged in sherry casks, giving it a distinctive reddish glow. Hubbard prefers the 12 year over the 15 year. At The Half Barrel, 304 1st Ave. SW, Rochester, theyve got five varieties of Redbreast to try out, and thats just scratching the surface of their Irish whiskey selection.

"Overall, weve got 30 to 40 different Irish bottling options of the 500 whiskeys that we have," said Chris Fierst, co-owner of Half Barrel.

When it comes to whiskey first-timers, Fierst swears by Tullamore Dew. Compared to Jameson, its less expensive, more approachable, sweeter, and has plenty of vanilla and honey notes to taste.

As far as high-end bottles go, theyve got a Jameson Vintage Reserve, which goes for $65 a shot, and a Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy Edition. The latter "is one of the best Irish whiskeys Ive had," said Fierst.

How to drink it

Let the fight over neat or on the rocks go; there is no right or wrong way to drink whiskey. "Its all about what your palate can register," said Danckwart.

Diluting whiskey with ice or water means youre thinning out your drinks alcohol content, making it easier for your palate to taste what youre drinking. Its easier to distinguish a complex flavor profile when the burn of alcohol is lessened.

"I always take mine on the rocks, because from first sip to 15 or 20 minutes later, you can actually taste it and itll evolve and itll change. At the end of it  you get a lot more out of it," said Danckwart.

That doesnt mean you cant drink it neat or mixed, though. "I drink all my whiskey that I have at home neat," said Hubbard. "In the summertime, Ill drink whiskey and ginger ale, whiskey and lemonade. Bourbon and lemonade is one of my favorite things."

So no matter how you drink your whiskey, we say slainte.St. Patricks Day is a great time to enjoy Irish whiskey. If you prefer to shop local, you might think youre out of liquor luck. But fear not: RockFilter Distillery makes three types of whiskey you can enjoy on Paddys Day, or any day.

RockFilter Distillery opened in Spring Grove in 2017. Christian Myrah, founder and head distiller, grows the grains on his farm in Spring Grove, which are then sent to Schechs Mill in Caledonia to be ground. The mill is the oldest operating water mill in Minnesota that still grinds using its original millstones. The grains are turned into one of three types of bourbon, and distributed in bottles and cocktails at the distillery. All in all, none of the materials ever stray far from Spring Grove.

The cocktail room is open Thursday through Saturday, and is well worth a visit. One recent Friday, my husband and I ventured south to try out the local liquor. The place was packed within 30 minutes of opening.

Though a bit small, the cocktail room has a great atmosphere bolstered by a first-rate playlist. Here is a small sampling of the tunes we heard while sipping on whiskey and an old fashioned:

Come On Eileen," "Whip it," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and "Africa."

My husband is the resident whiskey drinker at our house, and he was quite pleased with the flight, especially after an ice cube opened up each of them a bit. I had the old fashioned, and, as with the flight, found it more enjoyable after a bit of the ice had melted, but thats my personal preference.

The support for RockFilter was great to see. Waiting in line, I spoke with a few people who were visiting from out of town. All had heard great things about the new distillery and were eager to try the drinks. A popular option was the Smoked Mary, which got rave reviews.

Then again, the entire distillery, from grain to glass, gets a rave review from me.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on Egyptians to participate in large numbers in the upcoming presidential elections in order to continue building the nation, speaking at a meeting with top security officials at the interior ministry on Wednesday.

Citizens should participate in the upcoming vote, scheduled for 26 to 28 March, to express their free will, regardless of political orientation, and to contribute to the building of the nation and to maintaining its freedom, safety and stability, the president said.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, Defence Minister Sedqi Sobhi and acting Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel, as well as top armed forces and interior ministry officials, and took place at the interior ministrys headquarters in New Cairo.

During the meeting, which was partially televised, the president reviewed a detailed report on security measures over the last four years.

He also reviewed the interior ministrys role in Operation Sinai 2018, a military operation launched last month to tackle terrorism in north and central Sinai, as well as other areas of the country.

A report presented by security by Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar stated that the countrys security situation is improving following years of instability, chaos and weak security.

On counter-terrorism efforts, the ministry launched a large number of precautionary operations, eliminating 992 terrorist hideouts and arresting 19,108 terrorist elements.

The ministrys security operations prevented a large number of terrorist attacks during the last four years, the minister said.

According to Abdel-Ghaffar, terrorist attacks were down 85 percent in 2017 compared to the previous four years.

The number of terrorist attacks registered in 2017 was 22, in comparison to 481 attacks in 2014, the minister said, praising the efforts and sacrifices of the security forces.

The ministry also carried out efforts on pursuing economic entities and establishments that financially assist terrorist organisations.

On countering criminal activity in the country, the ministry eliminated 205 dangerous criminal hideouts and arrested 134,681 criminal suspects, as well as 5,157 criminal gangs, the minister said.

Interior ministry forces also foiled 615 illegal migration attempts during the past four years.

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If you read last weeks Egyptian newspapers you will find them filled with articles about Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.

Of course, it was only natural for the Egyptian press to cover His Excellencys visit to Egypt. It was marked by banner headline news, from the princes announcement that he intended to extend his Neom city project into Egypt, to his visit to the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo and his meeting with Pope Tawadros II, marking a major precedent in Egyptian-Saudi relations.

Between these two high points, the princes meetings with Egyptian officials were filled with good news.

According to news reports, all this generated considerable positive energy among the Egyptian people and I imagine that the same applies to the Saudi people, as well.

The media was also more effusive than usual on such occasions. Newspapers were filled with columns and commentaries welcoming the crown prince warmly and, more importantly, optimistically, with numerous forecasts of a brighter future for Egyptian-Saudi relations.

A markedly unique feature of this visit was the approximately three-hour long meeting with the crown prince arranged by Saudi Ambassador Ahmed Al-Qattan who regularly invites Egyptian intellectuals, writers and media journalists to his Riyadh Al-Nil political and literary salon, a tradition he sustained from the Wednesday assemblies hosted by his predecessor, Ambassador Hisham Al-Nazer.

While the speakers at the Riyadh Al-Nil gatherings, which are held at the ambassadors residence, are Egyptian, numerous Saudi intellectual and officials have attended them from time to time.

On this occasion, it was attended by 32 Egyptian figures. Most of these were regular salon participants but others were talk show celebrities who had to arrange their busy schedules so that they could meet the prince and then rush off to the TV studios to meet their broadcasting deadlines.

Their attendance helped create a convivial atmosphere for the prince, as he knew all of them apart from the ones relatively new to celebrity status. The problem was how so many people would be able to speak with the prince or ask him a question.

I believe that all of them had tried to obtain an exclusive interview with him, as they would all be aware of the impact created by the interviews granted to columnist Thomas Friedman, Bloomberg news and major representatives of the Western press.

The eagerness to interview Mohamed bin Salman had to do, above all, with the fact that he has become the symbol of a major development: the modernisation of Saudi Arabia.

He has introduced reforms in the kingdom that no one in the world had ever imagined possible.

Many other countries in the world have undergone sweeping reform processes.

However, they generally had to do with the economy, politics or changes in the political-economic elites. In this case the sweeping reform includes, on top of the foregoing, the cultural and religious dimensions. From the journalistic perspective, the dosage is overwhelming.

Egyptians date the modernisation of Egypt from the beginning of the reign of Mohamed Ali in 1805.

Since then, the process has gone through various phases and many ups and downs, reaching its most recent stage under President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, who has been more radical in his approach with respect to both the economy and society and, specifically, societys relationship with religion, the Copts and women.

In Saudi Arabia, the task is at once more difficult and more complicated in view of the kingdoms conservative history.

Perhaps it was no coincidence, therefore, that the prince opened his remarks by addressing the need for Islam to retrieve its authentic benevolent principles which advocate horizons that are expansive, open and illuminating, rather than ones that are closed, confining and oppressive.

He offered a convincing narrative of how the Arab and Islamic world reached its current pitiful state.

In this history, 1979 marked a crucial turning point. That was the year of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iranian Revolution and the occupation of the Kaaba by terrorists.

In that year, Egypt struck a kind of truce with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups that would ultimately assassinate President Sadat. In Saudi Arabia, there was a general move towards embracing the ideas of such groups and restricting society.

If 1979 marked the shift towards such trends, do 2017 and 2018 mark the shift to the era of major transformations in the reform direction?

In these two years, Prince Mohamed bin Salman said, Egypt attained stability and bolstered development, the so-called Islamic State was defeated and the Iranian regime failed to achieve its ends in Yemen, as the legitimate Yemeni government now controls 90 per cent of the country.

The crown prince, through his youthful energy, eloquence, logic and diplomacy, if necessary (when the competition began over which speaker would get to speak first), succeeded in remaining a focal point in that large audience of 32 Egyptians eager to speak.

But this was also natural. Firstly, the audience was delighted by the princes story of change in the kingdom.

Secondly, his positive testimony concerning the change in Egypt was heartening.

Thirdly, his assessment of Egyptian-Saudi relations inspired enthusiasm.

Fourthly, he was vigorously upbeat, not just about the present, but also about the future.

This latter point is very important. The prince spoke, not of poverty management, but of wealth management.

Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia were wealthy in their resources, he said. He did not see an Arab region that was a victim of conditions characterised by failed states, Iranian domination of Arab capitals and foreign penetration into Arab lands.

Rather, he saw a region in the process of transformation in the framework of an Arab consortium binding Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Iraq, through a gradual and wise reconstruction process.

The prince, in short, sees the cup that is half full. He points to the money, energy, water, oil, gas and other assets above and below ground that we possess and that, with capable and effective leadership and management, will turn the balance of powers in favour of the Arab moderates, reformers and builders.

The crown prince also puts things in their proper perspective. The situation with Qatar is not the crisis that Doha says it is. The matter does not merit more than one official to handle it, one who ranks lower than a minister!

There was much in the crown princes remarks that gave me great pleasure, personally. His assessment of the Qatari situation was much as I have described it in this column on a number of occasions.

His depiction of the current Arab order confirms that the concept of a Concert of Arabia is no longer just a writers dream but an idea that is being translated into practical steps and programmes.

All of this comes as good news in a world that has grown accustomed to so much bad news.

Under such a state of optimism, the imagination soars, hopes multiply, dreams thrive and expectations rise. That is all very good, but only if we know how to rally a backbone of popular opinion behind it and safeguard it from despair and fear.

Intellectual elites have the ability to sustain the positivity and the ideas and strategies it generates.

Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salmans visit to Egypt was propitious, not least because his meeting with a group of Egyptian elites opened many eyes to a reality changing quickly in a positive direction.

The writer is chairman of the board, CEO, and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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My conservative cousin from New York (for a few more months) filed this dispatch on criminality in Andrew Cuomos inner circle.

Tuesdays conviction of Andrew Cuomos close associate Joe Percoco deals a sharp blow to the Governors 2020 Presidential hopes and may even jeopardize his reelection prospects this year. Percoco was Cuomos executive deputy secretary and longtime confidant. He was found guilty of soliciting and accepting bribes from top management of two companies with state business. This was quite a downfall for Percoco, a man so close to the Cuomo family that Andrew had once referred to him as his fathers third son.

The companies who paid the bribes  Competitive Power Ventures, an upstate NY a clean natural gas provider, and COR Development, a Syracuse real estate firm  were integral parts of Cuomos effort to revive the moribund Upstate New York economy via crony capitalism initiatives or, as he would put it, public-private partnerships. Instead of jump-starting a depressed economy, these programs have brought a corruption circus.

Up next is the trial of Cuomo crony Alain Kaloyeros, former President of the State Universitys Polytechnic Institute. Hes charged with bid rigging in connection with Cuomos Buffalo Billion Initiative, a grab bag of tax gimmicks and giveaways that has spectacularly failed to revive the sagging economic fortunes of upstate New Yorks largest city.

Cuomo now wants an additional half billion in an effort to jump-start the project which some wags in the press have renamed the Buffalo half billion initiative. Or as the great Everett Dirksen might have put it Well Mr. Cuomo a billion here, a billion there and pretty soon youre talking real money.

Before these scandals hit, the Governor faced a somewhat formidable primary challenge from the far Left of his party. Sex And The City co-star Cynthia Nixon has thrown her hat in the ring. Nixon is close to Bill de Blasio. Her wife, Christine Marinoni, was an official in his administration until she resigned to avoid conflicts with Nixons campaign.

The Mayor and the Governor are fierce rivals. Nixon could mobilize the left wing of the party that turns out in large numbers for Democratic primaries in the Empire State. Last time out a virtually unknown law professor [Zephyr Teachout] running to Cuomos Left garnered 34 percent of the primary vote.

With her greater name recognition and excellent speaking skills, Nixon could really give Cuomo a run for his money. Doug Muzzio, a respected authority on New York election and a Professor at City Universitys Baruch College, opined before Percocos conviction that Nixons vote total in a primary against Cuomo could easily top 40 percent.

Democratic alternatives to Cuomo and Nixon? Well, theres Reverend Al Sharpton acolyte and State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Just about every New York Democratic politician feels forced to kiss the ring of this vile man but Schneiderman has taken it to extremes. He pledged to make the Attorney Generals office an annex of Al Sharptons House of Justice. Thats one pledge hes honored.

The fact that Sharpton is an anti-Semite and Schneiderman is Jewish doesnt appear to bother the Attorney General. During the 1991 Crown Heights pogrom, Sharpton shrieked to a crowd  if the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come to my house. Sharptons bigotry extends beyond Jews to other ethnic groups  Greek homos stole civilization from Africans.

Despite all this tumult, I wouldnt put much hope in a strong GOP challenge to whichever Democratic nominee emerges. Donald Trump is very unpopular in New York City and its suburbs. This is where most voters reside.

The Republican field is weak. The frontrunner, State Senator John DiFrancisco, is a lackluster campaigner who has ethical issues of his own. In the Senate he supported a bill that increased medical malpractice legal fees while serving as a practicing attorney at a firm specializing in these types of actions.

2018 is shaping up to be a grim election year for New York State Conservatives. What else is new?New York Times reporters Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman break the story that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for documents. They say that some of the subpoenaed documents are related to Russia, but they dont know what documents Mueller has subpoenaed. They have taken their information from two people briefed on the matter, so the story is at least one remove from anyone with personal knowledge. Despite the reporters ignorance of the breadth of the subpoena, Schmidt and Haberman assert that the subpoena applies to all records related to Russia and other topics he is investigating[.] This is another way of saying they dont know what documents Mueller has subpoenaed.

The reporters note that the Trump Organization has typically complied with requests from congressional investigators for documents for their own inquiries into Russian election interference, and there was no indication the company planned to fight Mr. Muellers order. They quote Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas: Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests. This is old news and our assistance and cooperation with the various investigations remains the same today.

The Times reporters try to create something out of nothing here: The Trump Organization has said that it never had real estate holdings in Russia, but witnesses recently interviewed by Mr. Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow. They appear to dispute the assertion that the Trump Organization has never had real estate holdings in Russia because witnesses recently interviewed by Mr. Mueller have been asked about a possible real estate deal in Moscow.

Did the real estate deal come to fruition? Apparently not. Even so, they purport to contradict this or at least raise a question of fact about it: In 2015, a longtime business associate of Mr. Trumps emailed Mr. Trumps lawyer, Michael Cohen, at his Trump Organization account claiming he had ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and said that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would help Mr. Trumps presidential campaign. Indeed, Mr. Trump signed a nonbinding letter of intent for the project in 2015 and discussed it three times with Mr. Cohen.

Only in Timesworld does the latter point about a nonbinding letter of intent to build a Trump Tower that was never built contradict the former point about the Trump Organizations lack of real estate holding in Russia. Beyond the reported fact of the subpoena to the Trump Organization, if it is indeed a fact, every sentence is pumped in to inflate their lack of knowledge into a story.

Schmidt and Haberman also drag in a quote from a Trump friend who advised him that doing the deal for a Trump Tower in Russia would make him president. They link to the story where the friend explains that it would show him to be a great dealmaker, but leave the implication hanging that something more nefarious was meant.

If accurate, Schmidt and Haberman have a legitimate story in the subpoena of the Trump Organization by Mueller. The rest of their story is low-grade piffle.Today students were excused from classrooms all across America to participate in demonstrations in favor of firearms bans of one sort or another. These were anything but spontaneous actions organized by children. Rather, the anti-gun demonstrations were condoned, if not sponsored, by school administrations that are almost universally liberal. And the teachers unions played a part too. The National Education Association issued a statement that included this:

Since the horrific shootings in Parkland, Florida, students across the country have launched an inspired movement to demand long overdue action on school safety and gun control. NEA, its affiliates, and members throughout Florida and the nation, support these calls to prevent further school massacres.

Ironically, the demonstrations in favor of school safety featured, in some instances, attacks on non-conforming students. At one Minneapolis high school, two students stood apart from the throng calling for more gun control. One of them carried a sign that said Blame the Culture, Not Guns. The other carried a Donald Trump banner. He was cursed, pursued, knocked down and beaten up by pro-school safety demonstrators. School officials, who purport to be so concerned with the safety of their students, did nothing to intervene.

It is fair to say that school administrators and teachers organized childrens demonstrations on behalf of the Democratic Party. Today, the Democratic National Committee sent out an email fundraising on the students gun control protests:

Today at 10 a.m. students across the nation walked out of their classrooms for 17 minutes. They did it in remembrance of the 17 innocent lives that we lost at Stoneman Douglas and to call for gun legislation that will make us all safer. As a high school student, I once walked the halls and sat in the classrooms at Stoneman Douglas.  With todays walkout, we not only honor those who were lost  we also come together with new resolve to end these tragedies once and for all. I will not allow my high school to simply become another statistic, and Stoneman Douglas students are leading the fight to ensure that it does not. Today I hope you will stand with them. Add your name to demand Congress pass common-sense gun legislation to keep us all safe from gun violence.

***

Yasmine Taeb

Stoneman Douglas Alumna

DNC Member P.S.  Last week Floridas GOP-controlled state legislature and governor signed new gun restrictions into law. But they also provided funding to help train and arm school staff members. The only way to actually make us safer from gun violence is by voting Republicans out, and in the meantime we have to put pressure on our elected representatives. Add your name to demand Congress take action on gun violence.

Beyond the contemptible enlisting of uninformed children in a political cause, todays demonstrations were disgusting because they represented a massive passing of the buck. The demonstrations were, ostensibly, on behalf of school safety. But who is responsible for the security of our schools? The administrators who run the schools. If they believe that crazed shooters represent a serious threat, it is up to them to do something about it.

Sending kids out on the playground or the street with signs about gun control does absolutely nothing to make schools safer. There are, however, practical measures that administrators can take. They can secure schools the same way many thousands of office buildings are secured, with locked doors and controlled entry. There are few office buildings one can enter with a rifle under ones arm. They can dispose of the idiotic gun free zone concept, which acts only as an invitation to any potential murderer. They can hire one or more armed guards. They can encourage teachers to be trained in firearms use and to obtain carry permits. These measures, unlike pointless demonstrations in favor of banning random categories of semi-automatic rifles, would actually make schools safer.

But, for whatever reason, most public schools apparently are not taking such steps. Instead, they are using silly demonstrations by ignorant children to deflect attention from their own dereliction of duty.

UPDATE: This photo, via Twitchy, illustrates how clueless todays demonstrating kids are:

Short answer: ask your principal. But the moral is that no one should take advice from people who have no idea what theyre talking about.Russias attempted murder of former Russian spy Serge Skripal and his daughter Yulia on British soil is an act of war, isnt it? Austin Bay takes up the question here. I take it that if its not, it may be close enough for government work.

Someone remind me. What did President Obama do about Irans attempted assassination of the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington, DC. Whatever it was, I think he followed up by secretly delivering pallets of cash to Tehran. It must not have been that big a deal after all.

The Russian attack is said to have been committed by use of a binary Russian nerve agent. The nerve agent is Novichok, with respect to which the Washington Poste Will Englund has an interesting backgrounder here.

Prime Minister May called for the response of Vladimir Putin to provide an explanation or face extensive retaliatory measures. According to May herself speaking in Parliament yesterday, Putin has responded with sarcasm, contempt, and defiance. It has certainly served him well so far, and not just with May. Im embedding the Posts video on the case below.

Prime Minister May has expelled 23 Russian spies working under diplomatic cover. She has given them a week to leave. That hardly seems proportionate to the offense. She threatens more, but I wonder what would be proportionate to such a state sponsored act and at the same time exact a price steep enough to deter the Russians. To ask a Russian question about a Russian menace, what is to be done? One thing that is not to be done is turn to Jeremy Corbyn for advice.President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday that his office and the Defence Ministry share a vision of how the Polish army's command structure should look in the future and this consensus will help the country in facing current challenges.

The head of state made the comment as he addressed the annual briefing of Defence Ministry officials and top military commanders. Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak also took part in the meeting.

President Duda said he was "pleased that we are working very well with Minister Mariusz Blaszczak." He also thanked the defence minister and his staff for "giving a totally new quality to this collaboration."

The president said that a special team comprised of his officials and Defence Ministry experts is working on the future form of the Polish army's command and control structure.

Both sides share "a common vision" of how this arrangement should look, the head of state declared.

In the president's view, this agreement will help Poland face up to present challenges, notably "the unpredictable policy of the Russian Federation."

Andrzej Duda said that Russia is demonstrating a willingness to use military force and break international law as it pursues its aims. This approach "is dangerous to us, to all of Russia's neighbours and to the whole international community," he added.

Against this backdrop, Poland will continue to contribute to the maintenance of order in Europe and globally, the president said. For this purpose, Warsaw can use its membership of NATO and the European Union, as well as its temporary position on the United Nations Security Council.

Since last year's defence-policy briefing, Poland has achieved numerous successes, President Duda noted. For example, US President Donald Trump visited Warsaw and gave assurances America would honour its NATO commitment to collective defence of its members. Meanwhile, Warsaw took steps to increase defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030.

"A year from now, there will be even more successes, in terms of the armed forces and relations with allies," the head of state said. (PAP)"I wish to extend our best wishes for the wellbeing of the Hungarian People and for your own prosperity", President Andrzej Duda wrote

Telegram of congratulations from the President of the Republic of Poland

Mr Andrzej Duda

to the President of Hungary

Mr Janos Ader

on the occasion of the National Day of Hungary

Dear Mr President,

On the occasion of the National Day, marking the 170th anniversary of the Hungarian Spring of Nations, on behalf of the Polish Nation and my own behalf, I wish to extend our best wishes for the wellbeing of the Hungarian People and for your own prosperity.

HUNGARIAN VERSION>>>

The Polish-Hungarian friendship boasts long and glorious traditions which contribute to the common European heritage. Our brotherhood stood as a unique example of lasting bonds of solidarity between two friendly Nations in Europe. In our memory, those bonds are manifestly evidenced by the developments which unfolded 170 years ago, when the Poles lent their support to the Hungarians during the Spring of Nations.

I welcome with great satisfaction the prospect of upcoming Day of the Polish-Hungarian Friendship to be celebrated in Veszprem. I am confident the occasion will provide an excellent opportunity to emphasize particular ties that exist between Poland and Hungary.

On a day so important to you, Sir, and to your Compatriots, please, accept our assurances of friendliness and our best wishes for your success and prosperity,

with my high consideration,

Andrzej Duda

President of the Republic of PolandStudents in schools across Dearborn and Dearborn Heights stood with others across the country for 17 minutes Wednesday by taking part in the National School Walkout in protest of gun violence in schools.

The walkouts lasted 17 minutes and were meant to be peaceful demonstrations to call attention to gun law reform and also honor the 17 lives lost in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

PHOTOS: Dearborn, Heights students take part in National School Walkout

The teens walked out of school at 10 a.m. to make their voices heard about the ongoing mass shootings that have plagued schools around the nation. Some students carried signs bearing the names of Parkland victims and most schools observed a moment of silence for the teens killed in the shooting.

Schoolwide assemblies and prayer vigils also were planned at local high schools as part of the movement organized by the Womens March Youth Empower as a way to demand that Congress reform Americas gun laws.

Students at Annapolis and Crestwood high schools in Dearborn Heights, were part of the walkout, along with Dearborn and Fordson high schools and Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, among others. Divine Child High School students took part in a prayer service inside the school gymnasium.

DHS students call for empathy, inclusion

Dearborn High School students spoke about the need for empathy and inclusion as part of the change that they want to see in addition to legislation to decrease gun violence.

The walkout, staged in front of the school, featured 10 student speakers, as well as students holding posters with photos of each of the 17 victims of the recent Parkland shooting.

Senior Malak Wazne, 18, said she was touched to see so many of her classmates join in unity to send a message calling for an end to school violence.

It was a beautiful sight to watch our school come together, Wazne said. I saw tears in a lot of students eyes. We are the future of America.

Wazne said society needs to change its lack of empathy.

We must tear down the barriers that we have built in silence, she said. Our voices can and will make a difference. Without the youth, the conversation on gun violence would not be this prevalent.

Wazne said students realize that if they want change, they must initiate it.

We will make a difference by expressing our empathy to a point that passions will be found and developed, and serve society, she said.

She added that students need to remove the emotional barriers that isolate other students.

We wonder why schools can be so dark, she said. Together we must tear down these walls around our emotions that we have built in silence.

Senior Adam Bazzi said the student turnout was much larger than he expected.

It feels good to know I have a school that is working toward a common goal, Bazzi said. Even though we may all be different in our ways, we all want the same thing, and that is change.

He said the students wanted to emphasize that the lives lost to gun violence in schools were not just numbers.

They are people  they are kids like us, he said. I think about if I lost one of my best friends at school to a shooting, or God forbid, one of my siblings gets shot. We need kids to realize that without empathy, without caring for others, nothing can get done.

Student says vigilance, not more guns, is key

Bazzi said he hopes people realize that arming more people is not a solution.

Throwing more guns into the mix doesnt help, he said. We dont need weapons in our school, and we really dont need weapons anywhere.

A vigilant public will help improve school safety, he added.

We look at the Douglas tragedy and we see that the student who ended up shooting the school, there were reports about him; people made comments and suggestions that this person needs help, he said. It is up to us as students to be able to report it to administrators and to get help for people who really need it.

Bazzi said he was bullied when he was younger, and he tries to make sure students never feel left out.

I think that this is one step toward including everyone, he said. Were all together, and we are willing to change and work together for this common goal.

Teens hope lawmakers hear their voices

David Boettger, a junior at Dearborn High School, was among those students who walked out Wednesday morning because he felt obligated to bring awareness to legislative reform.

It is the very least that I can do to honor the 17 students who were innocently slain in Parkland, Florida, Boettger said. Quite frankly, these events should have never occurred. I am walking out of school to show the importance of the lives of my classmates, my teachers, and myself. I think that this walkout will highlight the strength of the students and influence legislators to make schools safer for all.

The teen said he was appreciative that school Supt. Glenn Maleyko and the Dearborn Public Schools administration allocated time for students to exercise their First Amendment Right.

Regardless of this, myself and many other students would walk out no matter the consequence, he said. Our lives matter and I cannot accept this loss of innocent lives without action.

Julie Wozniak, a DHS senior and member of the Young Progressives Club, said she helped organize the walkout for several reasons.

First, our lives are in the hands of Congress as we speak, Wozniak said. There have been 25 fatal (not even including where no one died) school shootings since Columbine in 1999, and enough is enough. Its time for Congress to act, and pass gun legislation banning the sale of bump stocks, requiring intensive background checks, mental health screenings, and proper gun safety tactics including training and locks for weapons.

Wozniak said Its sad to think that anyone who is 18 and not even old enough to buy alcohol can walk into a store and buy a semi-automatic weapon.

We are standing up for what we believe in, and we will make our voices heard, she said. We may not all be old enough to vote, but soon enough, we will be the ones running for Congress and making change, and so its our duty now to fight for what we believe in and use our freedom of speech to do so.

Those 17 victims in Parkland did nothing to deserve to die that young, and neither have we. As it happened to them, it could just as easily happen to us.

Annapolis students focus on change

About half of Annapolis High Schools students walked out of their classrooms as part of the larger National School Walkout.

They flooded out holding signs with the names of 17 victims killed in Florida exactly one month ago, along with slogans like Never Again and We are Students, We are Change.

As waves of her peers lined up on the Annapolis practice field across the street from the school, one student stared at the group and whispered to her friend, People are definitely listening. The group stood outside for 17 minutes of silence surrounded by police and teachers there for supervision and a few supporting community members.

Since the walkout was silent at Annapolis, an assembly was scheduled for the afternoon during which presentations about the victims, bullying and mental health, knowing the signs of distress and reaching out, a call for action, and information on threats were made. The student council also bought ribbons to bring attention to the walkout and its causes, which 500 Annapolis students took.

While many walkout participants country-wide are calling for gun reform, the Annapolis student council organized its event around a common thread  ending gun violence and honoring Parkland victims.

Student council leaders speak out

Several students got together before the walkout to talk about what taking part in it meant to them.

Senior Nicole Cann talked about the climate of fear that is present today due to the ongoing violence in schools across the country.

The threats are ridiculous, all the time, Cann said. We have police officers here every once in a while, which is great  but when you see it, it is a little frightening. It is concerning. You hear a door slam in the hallway and perk up a little bit. It has been very anxious and on edge a lot lately.

Student council member Tanner Bonner said he hopes the walkout will show students that they have a voice and create awareness, telling the community that the trend of school shootings is not OK.

We understand that when youre talking about 700 students, not everyone has the same perspective, Bonner said. We wanted to maximize the effectiveness by giving people resources, saying how people can reach out in whatever ways they feel because in such a polarized political climate, we need to work together.

The whole significance of the Parkland incident is that the students have a voice that is louder than it ever has been. We really want to reflect on what the survivors are doing and honor their message, their drive to make the rest of the world aware about how serious of an issue this is.

While violence plaguing schools has become almost a daily reality, Bonner said, people have to stop accepting it without taking action.

Its completely unacceptable that we  have grown so accustomed to these incidents that theyve just become facts and statistics, he said. Every year something like this happens, and we just say, Oh, thats happened last year. People are dying. Thats not OK. It is crazy talking to adults who didnt grow up during this time, and we were just born into this, right after Columbine.

Teens say bullying contributes to violence in schools

Senior Piper Fujita also talked about the importance of bringing an end to bullying in school  an issue that can lead to a feeling of isolation for some students who may then act out violently.

It is less about what we personally believe and more to let everyone know the resources they have, Fujita said. We really want to stress at the assembly that no matter how we think the problem should be solved individually, we are all working toward the same goal.

The event was important to sophomore student council member Aleksandra Kole because she believes it will serve to impress the severity of the situation on some students who dont take it seriously.

This is a tragedy, Kole said. This is something we should talk about because this is happening so constantly. We decided to talk to teachers and administration to figure out what we can do to get this message across to students because most of them dont consider it a serious issue, and they deem it a joke. By doing an event like this, it spreads the message that this is happening, and it could have been us.

She said she decided to walk out because she was scared the next victim could be her or someone she loves.

I was scared it could have been me, she said. I have a sister here, and if I survived and she didnt, I feel like that was something couldnt live with as a human being. That happened to them (Parkland students), and theres stuff we can do as teenagers because this is happening constantly and becoming popular.

The only break in silence during the walkout came when freshman Sadie Ziembowicz moved out of the line and gave a small speech about gun reform.

Thoughts and prayers arent bulletproof, Ziembowicz said. Two hundred seventy-three children die a year due to accidental gun shooting and the number of incidents will only rise if we choose to arm teachers. A handgun stands no chance against an AR-15. During an active shooting situation, first responders may mistake a teacher for the shooter. If we let teachers carry guns, we are going to have students of color being shot by racially biased teachers.

She added that the protest was meant to be political, not silent.

Their intention of it being silent was to hush our political views, she said. People are in line right now saying it wasnt supposed to be political, but it was organized as a political protest. I decided to speak out because I knew that nobody else would. The entire protest isnt anti-gun, it is anti-gun violence. It is student safety.

At O.W. Best Middle School, between 150 and 200 students walked out. In Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, almost all middle and high schools took part in some way.

Im so incredibly proud of our student council members for organizing this event based on the theme of honoring the lives that were lost in Parkland, Florida, last month, said Jennifer Mast, superintendent of Dearborn Heights District No. 7.  Most of the students stayed respectful of that and did not make this about their individual beliefs.

Multimedia journalist Andrea Blum contributed to this report.While all eyes have been focused on the purging of the Islamic State (IS) group in the Middle East and preventing its members from reaching Europe, this group has been very active expanding on the African continent since 2016.

The bombing of the French Embassy and army headquarters in the West African state of Burkina Faso earlier this month delivered a message that has been consistently sent over the past few years but that has been just as consistently ignored by the international community.

The message says that IS and Al-Qaeda are gaining ground and recruiting new members in Africa and that this can no longer be ignored.

The deadly bombing in Burkina Faso was so shocking at least in part because the country has traditionally been far from the centre of terrorist activities.

The earlier bombing in Mogadishu in Somalia in October 2017, which resulted in the killing of at least 655 people and the injuring of 303 others, did not lead to retaliation despite the massive casualties.

These casualties made the Mogadishu bombing the third-worst terrorist attack in history, though readers of the western media may be forgiven for not knowing this, since much-smaller attacks in European cities generally occupy world headlines for weeks, unlike what took place in Somalia.

There is a widespread belief that the massive casualties that result from such attacks are somehow normal when they happen in Africa because civil wars and political conflicts are thought to be endless on that continent.

This notion has led many western pundits to ignore the impacts of these horrific attacks as long as they happen far away from the West. However, in truth they will sooner or later affect the West due to mass migration and modern methods of transportation.

Some countries have reacted to the threat of terrorism in Africa, such as Egypt, France and the United States.

But these three are almost the only countries that seem to take the escalating phenomenon seriously, offering assistance ranging from military training and financial aid to the governments of countries afflicted by terrorist activities to military operations, such as those that have been carried out by France and the US.

Egypt was one of the first countries to warn about the escalating activities of terrorists in the Middle East and Africa, and it called upon the international community to unite to nip this danger in the bud. Egypt is currently training the Nigerian air force and assisting it in maintaining military redeployment aircraft such as the CH130 Hercules.

This assistance aims to help the Nigerian government to fight the IS-affiliated Boko Haram group that has been wreaking havoc in the north of the country. Egypt also announced during the African Security Conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2016 that it would provide military training at Egyptian facilities for 1,000 African army officers to assist them in counter-terrorism efforts.

Starting in 2014, France has also been carrying out military operations in Africa, in this case Operation Barkhane, from its headquarters in Ndjamena, Chad, in order to assist the Sahel countries of Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger in combating IS and Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups such as Nusrat Al-Islam, Ansar Dine, Morabitoun and Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb that have been attempting to establish a foothold in the region. With 3,000 French troops stationed in Chad, Frances ongoing Operation Barkhane is one of the most important efforts to eradicate the spreading menace of Al-Qaeda and IS in Africa.

From its military base in Mogadishu, the US has conducted military training programmes for Somali forces to fight Al-Shabab group terrorists and has extended operations across Africa.

Many of these have been clandestine, despite their numbering 3,500 missions per year.

A video released this month by IS showing the brutal killing of four soldiers in Niger last October has shed light on the depth of US operations in Africa, which have involved covert operations in some 20 countries.

Despite dozens of ongoing US missions in Africa, these rarely reach the pages of the daily newspapers.

Africa is becoming a hotbed for terrorist groups that have been spreading their venom in already poverty-stricken and war-torn areas of the continent. The miseries of the African countries are starting to be become problems for the European and Western countries as well, as the terrorists continue to expand their operations on the continent.

One result has been the mass migration of African refugees who have been fleeing their homes in search of safer countries, most often in Europe. African jihadists are also likely to move their operations to western countries once they gain strength in Africa, using the continent as a launch pad for attacks on Europe and the Americas.

The terrorist groups are attempting to mimic their early successes in Iraq and Syria by trying to control large areas of the African continent.

They aim to replicate their dream of establishing a caliphate in the heart of the continent in order to compensate for their losses in Iraq and Syria.

Despite the efforts exerted by the countries mentioned in this article, these will be far from sufficient without full-scale support from the United Nations in the war against terrorism in Africa.

In a global war against terrorism, no country can afford to sit idly by while others are doing the work on its behalf because it too could soon find itself in the sights of terrorists.

The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Seminar on Socio-economic and spiritual philosophy

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Seminar on Socio-economic and spiritual philosophy of Ananda Marga, Udaipur, India

A seminar on socio-economic and spiritual philosophy of Ananda Marga was conducted on 10 and 11 March, 2018 at Ananda Marga, Jagrti, Udaipur diocese, India. Organizer Indersingh Rathore told that seminar was inaugurated by lighting lamp and garlanding photograph of propounder of Ananda Marga Shrii P.R.Sarkar by G.L. Verma, O.L. Sharma and Ac. Lalitkrishananda Avdhoot on Saturday morning. In the first class on Saturday, trainer Dr S. K. Verma (President, SMRIM) discussed Intuitional knowledge in Vedas, and what is Brahma. In the evening second class on the topic 'The place of sadvipras in social cycle' was taken where he told that PROUT based socio-economical system can only help from getting rid of harms arising from capitalism and communism and for establishment of PROUT, role of moralist Sadvipra people is the most important. Five Yama and Five Niyama, 16 points, 15 points and social norms of Ananda Marga were also discussed to lead a healthy and balanced life.

The next day Dr Verma discussed the topic 'Stance of salvation and how to attain it'. He told that permanent liberation from all kinds of natural bondages is called salvation and abhidhyan, anudhyan, pranidhan and madhu vidhya help in attaining salvation. He told that in real sense progress and salvation is possible only in spiritual field not in physical or mental fields. Meditation fulfilling all such requirements could only be told as highest level of meditation. Collective Tandava dance, Kaushiki dance and yogic postures were practiced and learnt by new attendees. More than 50 pepole around Udaipur participated in Seminar.

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Your Comments ! Share Your OpenionToday, newspaper journalism faces many challenges in terms of financing, which in turn has caused fewer newspapers to be published.

One factor contributing to the rising costs of publication is the rising cost of paper, which has been increasing annually by 10 per cent. Combined with the costs of printing and distribution, this means that the modern newspaper industry is in dire need of additional financing.

Newspapers have had to compensate for their added costs by relying on an unprecedented number of advertisements. However, while publications that rely on advertising for funding can become more independent, they can also lose them their independence if they depend on just a few big advertisers or sponsors.

If such publications print material not favoured by their sponsors, the latter can easily pull their advertisements.

In the 1920s and 1930s in Egypt there was a newspaper called Al-Siyasa, literally Politics, published by the Liberal Constitutionalist Party of the time.

As its name implies, it dealt mostly with the political landscape of Egypt in the period, and according to the late historian Yonan Labib Rizk it had a virtual monopoly on the best journalists in the country. It transformed young members of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party, most of whom came from aristocratic backgrounds, into political activists.

Al-Ahram itself was founded in 1876, and like many other newspapers it faced the challenge of financing early on, forcing it to report on rulings from the local and mixed courts (which dealt with the affairs of foreigners in Egypt), since these were of interest to its readers.

However, as well as providing the newspaper with its bread-and-butter, the court reports were also mandatory for Al-Ahram to publish. They were a reflection of the wider society.

The great Egyptian journalist Ahmed Bahaeddin used to say that when I travel to foreign countries, the first thing I do is read the newspapers, and especially the classified ads, as these can speak volumes about the social and economic situation of the country.

The same thing could be said of the court reports that appeared in the early editions of Al-Ahram.

Many important changes took place during the rule of khedive Ismail in the late 19th century, and Al-Ahram reflected many of them by giving advertising space to consumer products such as medicines, alcohol and tobacco, formerly only of interest to Europeans.

There were also many advertisements for furniture and novelty products in Al-Ahram at this time, these being designed to appeal to the new social classes that had developed interests in European goods, or at least goods that might have been more appealing to Europeans.

They appealed to the new class of effendis, for example, meaning the growing professional classes, and to urban businessmen and landowners in rural areas. Such readers made up a new class of consumers, and they both advertised their goods and services in Al-Ahram and consumed those advertised by others.

Like all advertising, this early newspaper advertising was designed to appeal to basic desires, and the early copies of Al-Ahram are full of advertisements for new medicines, sometimes endorsed by peculiar physicians. Some of them were claimed to strengthen male virality, or cure female infertility, for example.

Such advertisements also show how society at that time was adopting new ways of doing things on the path to modernity. The traditional kobya pens used by government bureaucrats at the time were increasingly being abandoned in favour of the Hilal-brand typewriters advertised in Al-Ahram in 1907, for example, by a foreign company run by someone called Stephano Mobardi, a foreigner, in Alexandria.

Egypt at the time was undergoing significant urbanisation, and this was mirrored in advertisements in the newspapers of the time. Many carried advertising for cement, for example, from companies such as Ougst in Alexandria and Cemento in Cairo.

The first railways were built in 1854, the same year that saw the building of the famous Shepheards Hotel, the first modern hotel to be built in Egypt, in Cairos Opera Square.

This new construction even helped Egypt to become a tourist hub during the reigns of the khedives Ismail and Tawfik, and after the beginning of the British occupation in 1882 more foreigners started to reside in Egypt, many of them gaining more rights than Egyptians.

Eventually, the countrys insurance companies started to realise the importance of advertising, with advertisements for policies covering fire or theft beginning to appear in the late 19th century.

The companies in question dealt in Arabic, showing how far Egyptian business had matured. Such advertising also transformed the owners and editors of some publications into millionaires.

Newspaper advertising further developed when printing became possible in colour, particularly in magazines.

After the nationalisation of the newspaper industry in the 1960s, publications started to carry state advertising, printing advertisements from companies taking part in the construction of the Aswan High Dam, for example, among them Arab Contractors.

These eventually helped that company to become well-known in Africa and across the Arab world.

But the management of the newly nationalised newspapers still needed to find new sources of funding to develop the publications. Al-Ahram started its Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and a microfilm centre that made electronic archives for state industries.

A major problem facing newspapers today is finding new sources of advertising revenue. Since advertisements are reliant on new ideas, perhaps our young people can come up with more innovations, which can then be advertised in the newspapers.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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After 12 months of threats and bellicose rhetoric that had almost pushed both the United States and North Korea to the brink, the world awoke Thursday, 8 March, to a historic announcement from Washington, delivered by South Korean National Security Director Chung Eui-Yong, that President Donald Trump had accepted an invitation by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to hold a summit meeting.

The announcement sent shockwaves not only within the United States but also throughout the world.

The South Korean senior official had been in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and held a meeting with Kim Jong-un who extended the highly unexpected invitation.

The South Korean delegation flew to Washington to brief the American president and other senior officials in the administration on the content of their talks with the North Korean leader, including his willingness to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea against security guarantees, to be agreed upon through negotiations among the concerned parties.

In the meantime, the North would be ready to halt further missile testing while not objecting to regular military exercises between the American and South Korean armies in South Korea.

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said Friday, 10 March, such a summit in case it takes place  would be remembered as a historic milestone in establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.

President Moon is scheduled to meet Kim Jong-un in the Demilitarised Zone between the two Koreas in April. It would be the third meeting of its kind.

The first two had taken place in 2000 and 2007 in Pyongyang with Kims father, the late Kim Jong-il, who had passed away in 2011.

It would be the first for his successor son, as well as a first for the incumbent South Korean president, who was elected last May, and is considered a progressive move from the South Korean left.

His two predecessors who had met Kim Jong-il were conservatives bent on confronting the North. President Moon has adopted a completely different approach in dealing with Kim Jong-un, and it has paid off.

He persisted in his efforts to reduce tensions and brinkmanship on the Korean Peninsula despite the fact that President Trump once accused him of appeasement.

President Moon had previously served as chief of staff for former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun from 2003 to 2008, a time when Seoul followed what was known as the Sunshine Policy that aspired to engage North Korea in an extensive dialogue, accompanied by humanitarian aid and joint economic projects.

The South Korean president has watched, ever since his election last year, tensions rising to dangerous levels between Washington and Pyongyang with the risks of miscalculation by either party that could lead to total war on the Peninsula that would devastate the two Koreas.

Last September, President Trump warned North Korea of fire and fury.

Last August, President Moon reiterated that no one shall take military action on the Korean Peninsula without South Koreas consent, and stressed that his country will prevent war, whatever it takes. Diplomatically speaking, Seoul has not totally surrendered the future of the two Koreas to the United States.

Upon assuming office, the American president made clear his determination to work for the denuclearisation of North Korea.

In fact, the first overseas trip for General James Mattis, the US secretary of defense, was to South Korea, early last year.

On the other hand, Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state, had stressed, back then, that the policy of Strategic Patience adopted by the Obama administration vis-a-vis the nuclear and missiles programmes of the North Koreans was over.

A position that, surely, led Kim Yong-un to test and perfect the capabilities of his country in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

By the end of 2017, Pyongyang announced that it has the capacity to target the United States with such missiles.

With the spectre of a nuclear confrontation on the horizon in North East Asia and mounting American pressures on China to rein in North Korea, China adopted a very clever approach, both towards the Americans and the North Koreans.

Last April, President Trump had invited Chinese President Xi Jing Ping to his winter mansion at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Among the questions discussed was the ambitious North Korean nuclear programme. The American objective was to enlist China, the closest ally to Pyongyang, to exercise pressures on the North to accept the idea of denuclearisation.

The Chinese realised that failing a positive reaction from Kim Jong-un and the continued testing of ICBMs capable of reaching the United States and its closest allies in North East Asia, South Korea and Japan, Washington under Trump would not hesitate to resort to the use of force to bring North Korea to heel.

Some American officials even spoke of annihilating the North to bring to a tragic end to the regime in Pyongyang  prospect that runs counter to the national security interests of China, best served by North Korea being a buffer to South Korea and the 28,000 American soldiers deployed in the South.

If North Korea disappeared, these American troops would be stationed close to Chinese borders.

For Beijing, there is no other alternative but to secure North Korea and avoid a devastating American attack on the North.

This explains why the Chinese government voted last year for strident sanctions against Pyongyang in the UN Security Council that targeted, among other things, the export of oil to North Korea and the banning of purchasing coal from the North, a main source of hard currency for the North Koreans.

The Chinese have also grown wary of the intentions of their North Korean allies. However, throughout the exchange of threats between the Americans and the North Koreans, China advised caution and favoured diplomacy as the means to work out political differences between the two belligerents.

It has made its official position quite clear that China would back North Korea if it would ever come under a military attack, but would not support the North in case it would be the aggressor. Mr Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, said the summit would be an important step in the right direction, and called on the US and North Korea to engage in a dialogue sooner rather than later.

China on Friday, 9 March, urged President Trump and Kim Yong-un to show political courage to reduce tensions. It is a very reserved reaction that reflects the high stakes associated with a historic and an unprecedented summit between an American president and a North Korean leader.

From 1953, the year the Korean armistice had gone into effect, no such meeting has ever taken place. The risks of failure associated with it are great, but the opportunities are greater. Its a risk worth taking for the sake of international peace and security.

Of course, in both the United States and Japan, there is a sense of foreboding as to the true intentions of Kim Jong-un. Mike Pence, the US vice-president, in a statement published Friday, 9 March, said Our resolve is undeterred and our policy remains the same; all sanctions remain in place and the maximum pressure campaign will continue until North Korea takes concrete, permanent and verifiable steps to end their nuclear programme.

Representative Ed Royce (R-California), chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, stressed in a statement 9 March that the United States can pursue more diplomacy as we keep applying pressure ounce by ounce.

He added: Remember, North Korean regimes have repeatedly used talks and empty promises to extract concessions and buy time. North Korea uses this to advance its nuclear and missile programmes. We have got to break this cycle.

Hawkish Republicans in the Senate, like Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, is of the same opinion, saying that as the Trump administration begins to work through the important details of such a meeting, we must continue to apply more pressure to the regime in Pyongyang. He believes that scepticism and caution are critical as these discussions continue.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasised, in his initial reaction to prospect of an American-North Korean summit, that Pyongyang had used past instances of diplomacy to quietly develop its nuclear capabilities and missiles.

He went on to say that talks for the sake of talks are meaningless and should never loosen sanctions just because North Korea is open to talks. He added that Pyongyang has to show concrete actions towards denuclearisation by committing to abandon its nuclear programmes via complete verifiable and irreversible means.

The summit, if it happens, should not be seen as a venue for negotiations, but a historic opportunity to see if the United States and the two Koreas are ready to end the state of war between the North and South, and what conditions are conducive to such an end.

I am afraid discussing the denuclearisation of North Korea, dissociated from transforming the armistice into a peace treaty between Seoul and Pyongyang, would be a non-starter.

Although China would be absent from the American-North Korean summit, if and when it takes place, it would remain a driving force in any future developments concerning peace and security in North East Asia.

Last Friday, 10 March, Chinese President XI Jinping had a phone call with President Trump. The former hailed the positive attitude shown by the latter to reach a peaceful solution to the question of the Korean Peninsula, according to the official Chinese news agency.

The White House, in a readout on the phone call, said the two leaders agreed to keep sanctions on North Korea in place until Pyongyang agrees to disarm its nuclear weapons in a verifiable and irreversible manner.

The question is not, solely, about the true intentions of the North Korean leader in proposing a summit with his American counterpart, but rather, will the United States honour its commitments in any future historic deal with the North?

Will the United States accept the reunification of the two Koreas and the complete withdrawal of its troops from the peninsula?

The North Koreans should hedge their bets on the summit.

The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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MUMBAI, India, SINGAPORE and GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colorado, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

- Combination Provides Diverse Customer Revenue Base, Global Service Offering and Market Differentiation -

- Meaningful Scale with Combined 2017 Revenues of Approximately $700 Million[1] -

- STARTEK to Issue Shares in Consideration for Aegis -

- STARTEK to Receive Cash Investment of $10 million at $12 per share -

Aegis Global, a portfolio company of Capital Square Partners (CSP) and a global outsourcing and technology services company focused on customer experience management, and STARTEK, Inc. (NYSE: SRT) (STARTEK), a provider of business process outsourcing services, has entered into a definitive agreement for a strategic transaction to create a combined company.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120710/NY37889LOGO )



Under the terms of the agreement, STARTEK will issue CSP 20.6 million shares of its common stock in exchange for all the outstanding common stock of Aegis. Concurrently, CSP or an affiliate will further increase its investment in STARTEK by purchasing 833,333 primary shares of STARTEK common stock at closing at $12 per share, representing a $10 million investment[2] . STARTEK common stock closed at a price of $10.53 per share on March 14, 2018.

Post transaction, CSP is expected to own approximately 55% of the combined company, and STARTEK shareholders are expected to own approximately 45% of the combined company. CSP will also have the right to appoint a majority of the combined company's board of directors.

Aegis Global CEO Sandip Sen, commented: "This marks the return of Aegis into the United States and Philippines, a capability that will allow us to deliver enhanced value to global customers. Combining with STARTEK's expertise and valued long term client relationships, including the recent strategic opportunities in e-commerce, allows us to accelerate our growth and value creation for customers, employees and shareholders as a public entity listed in the NYSE."

STARTEK CEO Chad Carlson, commented: "I am very excited for the STARTEK and Aegis employees, who will soon be a force in the global BPO industry in what I am certain will be a fun and rewarding family environment; for the clients of both STARTEK and Aegis, who will now have a global customer engagement partner to support their customer journey; and for the combined shareholders of Aegis and STARTEK. I'm especially happy for the STARTEK shareholders who have been patient throughout this journey as we have worked to differentiate, diversify and grow your company. It gives me great comfort that STARTEK's shareholders will now have an opportunity for their patience to be rewarded with an investment in a global player with differentiation, scale and almost unparalleled diversification in the BPO industry."

Sanjay Chakrabarty and Bharat Rao, Managing Partner's of CSP, stated, "It is uniquely rewarding for both companies' shareholders to realize the benefits of greater scale, diversity, access to new markets, and operating synergies that this combination provides. The combined company will also be able to significantly leverage automation, Artificial Intelligence and other technology-led innovations to deliver exponential value to customers globally."

Aegis generated approximately $388 million of revenue with $38 million in adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP measure) in 2017[3]. STARTEK generated approximately $293 million of revenue, a $1.3 million net loss and $13 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2017[4]. Following the closing of the transaction, the top three customers of the combined company will represent 30% of the total revenue in 2017. The combined capital structure is expected to include approximately $180 million of debt.

Aparup Sengupta, Chairman of Aegis, stated, "The combination of Aegis and STARTEK will create a global enterprise with over 50,000 employees and operations in 12 countries across five continents. The biggest beneficiary in this combination will clearly be our clients, who will enjoy the advantages of our new global reach including some of the world's most rapidly growing markets, multi-lingual offerings, and the institution of operational best practices across the globe."

The companies' integration plans and leadership structure are nearing completion and will be announced in connection with the preparation and filing of STARTEK's proxy statement to solicit stockholder approval of the combination transaction.

This transaction has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies, and is expected to close no later than the third quarter of 2018, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval and approval of the transaction by STARTEK shareholders.

Key shareholders of STARTEK (reflecting ownership of approximately ~30% of its outstanding common stock) have agreed to support and vote in favor of the transaction.

Shearman & Sterling acted as legal counsel for Aegis. William Blair acted as STARTEK's financial advisor and Jenner & Block LLP acted as STARTEK's legal counsel.

About Aegis

Aegis is a leading outsourcing business solutions partner to global corporations in the telecom, technology, media, Banking Financial Services and Insurance, travel and logistics, Retail and e-commerce and public sectors. 40,000+ Aegis experts across 44 centers worldwide deliver customer lifecycle management, technology services, back office services and social media analytics to power superior business results for clients. Visit http://www.aegisglobal.com to learn more about solutions for global enterprises and their customers.

About STARTEK

STARTEK strives to be the most trusted BPO service provider delivering comprehensive contact center and customer engagement solutions. Our employees, whom we call Brand Warriors, are enabled and empowered to promote and protect our clients' brands. For over 30 years, these Brand Warriors have been committed to making a positive impact for our clients' business results, enhancing the customer experience while reducing costs for our clients. With the latest technology in the BPO industry and our STARTEK Advantage System, our Brand Warriors instill customer loyalty through a variety of multi-channel customer interactions, including voice, chat, email and IVR. Our service offerings include sales support, order processing, customer care and receivables management and customer analytics. For more information, please visit http://www.STARTEK.com.

About Capital Square Partners

Capital Square Partners is a private equity fund manager based in Singapore, and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It primarily invests in buyouts and control investments across multi-geography cross border businesses, with deep sector expertise and focus on TMT, Business Services, Healthcare, and Consumer sectors. It has made a number of investments in the Technology Services and BPO sectors, and has extensive operational expertise in these areas. Additional information on CSP can be found at http://www.capitalsquarepartners.com.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The matters regarding the future discussed in this news release include forward-looking statements as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are intended to be identified in this document by the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "objective," "outlook," "plan," "project," "possible," "potential," "should" and similar expressions. As described below, such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause STARTEK's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks relating to our reliance on a limited number of significant customers, lack of minimum purchase requirements in our contracts, the concentration of our business in the communications industry, lack of wide geographic diversity, maximization of capacity utilization, foreign currency exchange risk, risks inherent in the operation of business inside and outside of the United States, ability to hire and retain qualified employees, increases in labor costs, management turnover and retention of key personnel, trends affecting companies' decisions to outsource non-core services, reliance on technology and computer systems, including investment in and development of new and enhanced technology, increases in the cost of telephone and data services, unauthorized disclosure of confidential client or client customer information or personally identifiable information, compliance with regulations governing protected health information, our ability to acquire and integrate complementary businesses, compliance with our debt covenants, ability of our largest stockholder to affect decisions and stock price volatility.

[1] Aegis financials based on unaudited LTM results through 12/31/2017 as reported under IndAS. Note, financials are preliminary and may be updated in the anticipated proxy filing related to this transaction.

[2] The number of shares to be issued and the amount of the cash investment are subject to potential adjustment based on relative net debt of the parties.

[3] Aegis financials based on unaudited LTM results through 12/31/2017 as reported under IndAS. Note, financials are preliminary and may be updated in the anticipated proxy filing related to this transaction. EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP financial measures.

[4] Refer to STARTEK's announcements to the NYSE on its website at http://www.startek.com for a reconciliation to its reported GAAP results.



Media Relations of Aegis

Danveer Bhasin,

Vice President - Global Marketing and Strategy, Aegis

Phone: +91-99301-35788;

Email: [email protected]

Investor Relations of STARTEK

Sean Mansouri or Cody Slach

Liolios Group, Inc.

+91-949-574-3860

[email protected]



SOURCE Aegis LimitedBirkle brings more than 15 years of experience in the STM industry and will lead Converis during its next phase of expansion

PHILADELPHIA, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Data company Clarivate Analytics has announced the appointment of Caroline Birkle as the General Manager of their leading research information management system, Converis. Converis supports universities, research institutions and funding agencies in collecting and managing data across the research life cycle. Birkle will join Converis on April 16th 2018, based in Karlsruhe, Germany and will manage an international team across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia.

Converis is part of Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation and is part of the Scientific and Academic Research Group alongside industry leaders like Web of Science. Built with the research community in mind, Converis is used by faculty, librarians and research managers globally to showcase the outputs and impact of research. Converis offers seamless integration with data, platform and products from Clarivate Analytics, such as Web of Science, InCites and Derwent Innovation Index, as well as a number of third-party products.

Birkle will join Clarivate Analytics from Thieme Chemistry in Germany, where she is Managing Director and has overall P&L responsibility for global electronic publications, leading an international team including editorial, production and software development. Previously, Birkle held publishing positions with the Royal Society of Chemistry and Thomson Reuters before moving to Holtzbrinck Publishers, where, as Vice President, she led Business Intelligence for STM (including Nature and Macmillan Science & Education) and coordinated the integration of Macmillan and Springer Nature, pre- and post-merger.

Caroline Birkle incoming General Manager, Converis said:

"The research landscape is changing at an unprecedented rate, with technological opportunities creating a pace within the research life cycle that is exhilarating and challenging. The opportunity to join Converis and work together with research offices globally, creating meaningful solutions that address industry needs, is one I am really looking forward to. I am proud to be joining this highly skilled and entrepreneurial team working within one of the industry's most exciting and dynamic business groups."

Annette Thomas, CEO Scientific and Academic Research Group, Clarivate Analytics said:

"I am delighted to welcome Caroline to our growing team; with her deep understanding of the research market, commercial and strategic acumen, as well operational and transformational experience, she is ideally suited to lead Converis during its next phase of growth and expansion. Converis currently supports a wide variety of customers in more than 20 countries and it's our intention to significantly evolve and strengthen its position in the market by integrating more data and by providing a more streamlined product offering. Caroline's experience will benefit us tremendously as we expand, and accelerate innovation and growth."

About Converis

Converis is a world-leading research information management system that supports the complete research lifecycle to manage complex research teams and projects in a unified flow. Converis benefits key stakeholders along the research lifecycle, including administrators and research managers (e.g. Research Office, Library and Graduate School), researchers, graduate students, and different organizational units. Converis is part of Clarivate Analytics and for more information, please visit https://clarivate.com/products/converis/.

About Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.

Related Links

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SOURCE Clarivate AnalyticsBANGALORE and GURGAON, India, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

DC Analytics helps digital brands to track and attribute TV campaigns for free

Performance TV pioneer DCMN has released its attribution technology DC Analytics (dcanalytics.com) to the public, offering the tool free to use and making the company's expertise in ROI-driven TV campaigns available online.

Combining the latest in attribution technology with DCMN's hands-on expertise in growth marketing and media buying, DC Analytics helps marketers track and optimise their TV campaigns with a focus on ROI. It works by correlating spot data from TV networks to traffic on a web or mobile presence, in order to measure the impact of media placements, right down to the individual spot level.

Until now, the technology has been used internally for DCMN clients, undergoing several iterations and improvements since 2010. Now, DC Analytics is completely free to use and available to anyone outside the DCMN client base, with all marketers able to sign up online to start tracking their TV campaigns.

DCMN Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, Matthias Riedl, said, "Our ultimate goal is to be the Google Analytics of the TV world. With the generalised data we gain from the campaigns running on the DC Analytics platform, we are also able to constantly improve the product and build on our portfolio of marketing automation and analytics technologies."

He further commented, "We're in the process of designing and developing exciting new tools that link up to the DC Analytics platform and make media planning and buying even simpler for marketers - so stay tuned."

"With DC Analytics, DCMN is disrupting the advertising scene in India. This technology not only offers today's marketers an opportunity to access and analyse the impact of their TV spots, but also to ensure they are spending their marketing budget where it really counts," says Bindu Balakrishnan, Country Head - DCMN India.

Since its founding in 2010, DCMN, a pioneer of performance TV campaigns in Europe, has helped more than 170 digital brands to scale their businesses with ROI-optimised TV campaigns. To date, DCMN has run over 500 TV campaigns using the DC Analytics technology.

DC Analytics is capable of running campaigns worldwide. Campaigns are currently live across Europe and in India, South Africa, the U.S., Australia and Canada.

Marketers can visit dcanalytics.com to sign up for free. After integrating the tracking code and uploading the TV schedules, they will start receiving meaningful insights on their campaign's performance.

About DCMN:

DCMN is a full-stack growth specialist that executes campaigns across all media with services spanning right from creation and production, media planning and buying, to campaign optimization with our one-of-a-kind in-house technology. Launched in 2010 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany, DCMN has local offices in India, USA, UK, South Africa and France. The organisation is a global player with a local playbook, having an international team and drawing from the support of over 190+ marketing, tech and strategy experts operating across the globe. DCMN counts more than 170 digital brands in its portfolio, including Indian brands CARS24, EaseMyTrip, Fynd and more.



Media Contact:

Ankita Mitra

[email protected]

+91-9620997207

Corporate Communications Manager - India

DCMN



SOURCE DCMNAccording to the new market research report on "Digital Inspection Market by Technology (Machine Vision, Metrology, and NDT), Offering, Dimension, Vertical (Manufacturing, Electronics, Oil & Gas, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Power, Food & Pharmaceuticals), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023" , published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to grow from USD 19.66 Billion in 2018 to USD 27.84 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.2% between 2018 and 2023. The growth of this market is driven b by technological advantages over traditional methods and increasing consumer awareness.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )





Browse 72 market data Tables and 41 Figures spread through 170 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Digital Inspection Market - Global Forecast to 2023"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/digital-inspection-market-132791733.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Digital Inspection market for metrology to hold the largest share of the market during the forecast period

Metrology accounted for the largest share of the market in 2017 and is expected to hold the largest share during the forecast period. The demand for metrology is driven by the rising need for accurate inspection of 3D data used for the modeling and analysis of 3D models, growing focus on quality control, inability of traditional measurement devices to address several manufacturing issues, and growing automation and in-line metrology.



Digital Inspection market for 3D to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period

The digital inspection market for 3D is expected to grow at a higher CAGR between 2018 and 2023. 3D helps overcome the limitations of 2D techniques and offers added advantages to manufacturers to inspect beyond 2 planes of a product and volumetric height, allowing for 100% inspection and detection of defects in a product. With increasing demand for product quality, 3D digital inspection is replacing 2D, as the former allows manufacturers to diagnose issues such as metal bridging, foreign materials, and construction defects in 3D planes and in high-speed environments.

The Americas to hold the largest share of the digital inspection market during the forecast period

The Americas held the largest share of the market in 2017 and is expected to dominate the market with the largest share between 2018 and 2023. This is because of the presence of major players operating in verticals such as automotive, aerospace & defense, public infrastructure, and energy and power in the US. This region is emerging as an important hub for the manufacturing and power generation verticals. Growing automation in almost all industrial verticals is generating a huge demand for digital inspection systems in the Americas.

Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=132791733

Major players in the digital inspection market include General Electric (US), MISTRAS Group (US), Olympus (Japan), Hexagon (Sweden), Cognex (US), Nikon (Japan), Zetec (US), FARO Technologies (US), Basler (Germany), OMRON (Japan), Carl Zeiss (Germany), Mitutoyo (Japan), GOM (Germany), National Instruments (US), and Keyence (Japan). Key innovators in the market are iPromar (Singapore), FPrimeC Solutions (Canada), Shinning 3D Tech (China), Zebicon(Denmark), and SUALAB (South Korea).

Know more about the Digital Inspection Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/digital-inspection-market-132791733.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.



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SOURCE MarketsandMarketsHO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- To ensure unparalleled benefits to its valued cardholders, VP Bank Finance Company Limited (brand FE CREDIT) has launched EasyPay - one of Vietnam's largest programs, allowing cardholders to purchase a whole range of goods and services with just one swipe and convert into a 0% interest installment payment plan within the card limit itself.

This program empowers first time card users and category entrants to enrich their lifestyles with a single swipe with no underwriting, no waiting and therefore no inconvenience. FE CREDIT, the leading consumer finance company and one of the largest Card issuer in Vietnam, has holistically constructed this program with three unique benefits:

Easy Tenures : Not just 3 and 6 but also 9 and 12 months tenure options.

Easy Choices : Not just electronics and white goods but also travel, fashion, beauty and many such choices.

Easy Reach: Always within reach. EasyPay is available in 1400 merchants across Vietnam and growing. Explore more on fecredit.com.vn/thanhtoandedang/

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180315/2080232-1

Mr. Kalidas Ghose, CEO of FE CREDIT shared, "As a market leader, FE CREDIT believes in pioneering relevant benefits, to be the issuer of choice for our cardholders. EasyPay is another example of this endeavor."

Mr. Nimish Dwivedi, Credit Card Business Center Director of FE CREDIT continued, "Our aim is to make life Easy and Enriching for first time card users that make up our rapidly growing base. EasyPay grants our customers access to a whole new lifestyle powered by 0% interest through just one swipe. This is another example of a seamless experience that we always strive to deliver."

About FE CREDIT

A pioneer in Consumer Finance, FE CREDIT has established a solid foundation to become the market leader of the unsecured consumer loans & credit cards market. FE CREDIT currently provides consumer finance services such as personal loans, two-wheeler loans, consumer durable loans and credit cards. FE CREDIT has served nearly 7 million customers, co-operating with more than 7,000 partners across 11,000 Points of Sale (POS) nationwide.

For more information, please contact:

Marketing Center FE CREDIT - VPBank Finance Company Limited

Address: Level 2, REE Tower Building, No. 9 Doan Van Bo, Ward 12, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City

Phone: (08) 3911 5212

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.fecredit.com.vn

SOURCE VPBank Finance Company LimitedPORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Wax Market by Type, and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the global wax market was valued at $9,322 million in 2016, and is projected to reach at $11,780 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 3.4% from 2017 to 2023.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg )



Waxes are a mixture of hydrophobic organic materials that turns into solid state at a temperature of 20C, and melts at temperature higher than 40C up to 140C. Wax offers superior resistance towards temperature. The key sources of producing wax are petroleum, plants, animals, and natural gases. Paraffin/mineral wax, synthetic wax, and natural wax are the three types of waxes available in the market.

Request for Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/4576

High adoption rate of waxes in the packaging applications and their superior properties such as heat and water resistance make them suitable for use in hot melts, emulsions, and candles, which act as the major drivers of the global wax market. Moreover, increase in use of wax as a raw material for several cosmetics products boosts the market growth. However, high cost of synthetic and natural wax restricts the growth of the market. In contrast, the augmented use of wax in developing natural cosmetic products is anticipated to offer growth opportunity for the market.

Based on application, the market for wax is divided into candles, packaging, emulsions, hot melts, floor polishes, and others. The candles application was the highest revenue contributor in 2016, accounting for around three-fifths share. This is attributed to increased use of candles in hotels, spa, and other buildings for aromatherapy.

By geography, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. North America generated the highest revenue in 2016, accounting for $2,885 million, owing to development of the cosmetic industry.

For Purchase Inquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/4576

KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

North America dominated the market both in terms of value and volume

dominated the market both in terms of value and volume Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023.

is projected to register the highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023. The LAMEA market contributed one-fifth of the global market revenue in 2016.

U.S. was the highest revenue contributor of the wax market globally in 2016.

China is projected to register the highest growth rate from 2016 to 2023 in the Asia-Pacific wax market.

China and India collectively contributed approximately more than 70% to the Asia-Pacific market revenue in 2016. In the same year, Japan contributed approximately one-seventh of the wax market in Asia-Pacific.

The key players profiled in the report include Dow Corning, Akzo Nobel N.V., Evonik Industries, Arch Chemicals, BASF SE, Hexion Inc., Honeywell International, Lubrizol Corporation, The Clorox Company, and Momentive Performance Materials.

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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.

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SOURCE Allied Market ResearchGrowth opportunities in the market are likely to be driven by higher compliance rates and unit volume growth of low-cost substitutes

SANTA CLARA, California, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's latest analysis, North American Above-the-neck Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market, Forecast to 2022, finds that the industry generated revenues of $1,1 million in 2017, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% to reach $1,3 million by 2022. The fastest growing segments are expected to be eye and face protection, followed by head and ear protection, due to the rise of high-risk industries and increased worker safety regulations. The report provides an assessment of disruptive trends; drivers and restraints; market share; competitive environment for players such as Honeywell, 3M, Kimberly-Clark Professional, Moldex and MSA; and revenue forecasts across head, eye, ear, and face protection.

"High-risk industries such as oil and gas and sectors like laser eyewear will experience a significant development as PPE protection is considered essential to support worker safety," said Arun Ramesh, Visionary Science Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "Compliance and adoption will be boosted as regulatory bodies increase their scrutiny of safety practices and providers direct their investment toward educating end users on workplace injuries."

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/2be

Fragmentation, stratification, and consolidation are forcing manufacturers to rethink their business strategies. To position products competitively in the marketplace, Ramesh recommends participants focus on providing affordable products with clear value-addition. This strategy can be achieved through close collaboration with end users in the design and product development stages.

Further strategic imperatives for success and expansion include:

Investing in research and development to develop products that go beyond checking the boxes of fit, form, and function and that cater to millennials ;

to develop products that go beyond checking the boxes of fit, form, and function and that cater to ; Encouraging an entrepreneurial environment with close collaboration with end-users in the ecosystem;

with close collaboration with end-users in the ecosystem; Advancing the interoperability of PPE by designing products that can withstand high-risk and rugged environments;

by designing products that can withstand high-risk and rugged environments; Bringing to the market products that meet stringent safety regulatory standards ; and

; and Focusing on products that come equipped with smart PPE features such as situational awareness, augmented reality features and location sensing.

Growth in the market is likely to be driven by commoditized products and specialty products. "Product innovations such as two-way radio communication, prescription eyewear with anti-scratch and anti-reflective coatings, and welding helmets with continuous variable controls are gaining adoption in the PPE market," noted Ramesh. "Furthermore, the entry of millennials in the workforce is creating demand for fashionable eyewear that comes equipped with non-metallic or non-conductive frames and wrap style."

North American Above-the-neck Personal Protective Equipment Market, Forecast to 2022 is part of Frost & Sullivan's Visionary Science Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

North American Above-the-neck Personal Protective Equipment Market, Forecast to 2022

K1F9_39

Contact:

Francesca Valente

Corporate Communications  Americas

P: +1 210 348 10 12

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

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SOURCE Frost & SullivanInaugural awards celebrate women's achievements and contributions to the advancement of the supply chain and logistics

MINNEAPOLIS and DALLAS, March 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HighJump, a global provider of supply chain solutions, today awarded five women with its first-annual Top Women Leaders in Supply Chain awards at its user conference, Elevate. The honorees were selected based on their exemplary work within their own companies while driving innovation forward for the industry overall.

According to Gartner, in a survey conducted with AWESOME, "women currently account for 50% or more of the professional workforce in advanced economies and roughly 40% of the supply chain workforce." (Gartner, 2017 Women in Supply Chain Survey, Dana Stiffler et.al, May 5, 2017). Yet, women hold less than a quarter of leadership positions in the industry. HighJump is dedicated to seeing these numbers grow. The new awards, given out during the Women Leaders in Supply Chain Luncheon, exemplify HighJump's commitment to recognizing and fostering the growth of female leaders.

This year's Women Leaders in Supply Chain award recipients include:

Marilize Redelinghuys, IT executive, Mr. Price Group: Redelinghuys led the move of two, non-automated facilities to a single, 56,900 square-foot largely automated facility in South Africa in under 4 months.

IT executive, Mr. Price Group: Redelinghuys led the move of two, non-automated facilities to a single, 56,900 square-foot largely automated facility in in under 4 months. Angelina Twardawa , owner, founder and manager, Angie's Transportation : After losing everything in a fire, Twardawa had her business, which she founded at 19, running again in less than 24 hours.

, owner, founder and manager, Angie's Transportation After losing everything in a fire, Twardawa had her business, which she founded at 19, running again in less than 24 hours. Lynn Dermott , partner/senior vice president, products, DMLogic: Dermott co-founded DMLogic in 2007. She has participated in close to 100 WMS projects in 15 countries over the course of her career.

partner/senior vice president, products, DMLogic: Dermott co-founded DMLogic in 2007. She has participated in close to 100 WMS projects in 15 countries over the course of her career. Victoria Brown , research manager, supply chain strategy and execution, IDC: Brown is a standout analyst in the supply chain space and serves the Council of Supply Chain Professionals (CSCMP).

research manager, supply chain strategy and execution, IDC: Brown is a standout analyst in the supply chain space and serves the Council of Supply Chain Professionals (CSCMP). Joanne Gulnac , general manager transport & profit systems, HighJump : Gulnac has 18 years in the supply chain software industry, her four most recent as a business leader.

Honorable mentions include Jane Smith, business development manager, Core Management Logistics; Alesandra Quintao, DC manager/supply chain manager, Lojas Renner; Luzia Juana Oliveira da Silva, logistics manager, HPE Automotores do Brasil Ltda; Seatta "Sam" Layland, president and co-founder, Hyperlogistics Group, Inc.; and Maria Torrent-March, logistics director, Europa Worldwide Logistics.

"HighJump's Women Leaders in Supply Chain honorees exemplify an unrivaled commitment and tenacity to advance the industry," said Chad Collins, CEO at HighJump. "It is a privilege to have these women as part of the HighJump family, and part of our team enabling the supply chain of the future."

HighJump Elevate is March 11 -14, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. In its 12th year, the annual user conference brings together more than 700 supply chain professionals from across the globe. Along with learning about the latest advances for HighJump's unique line of solutions and professional services, attendees are provided with networking and educational opportunities to accelerate their businesses.

Further information about HighJump 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.

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]

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Related Links

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SOURCE HighJumpMediation is a method of settling disputes by amicable means and is defined as an alternative way of resolving disputes between the parties through a third party called a mediator to reach an appropriate settlement.

This mediator plays an essential role in providing an appropriate atmosphere for discussion between the parties to the dispute, identifying points of disagreement and agreement between them to reach the best solutions that maintain the continuity of their relationship.

Mediation differs from arbitration and litigation in that it can be more effective since the final objective is not limited to the mere application of legal texts, but also extends to maintaining the working relationship between the parties, especially with regards to business cases.

Unlike litigation and arbitration, the parties have a major role in drafting the settlement agreement. The mediators role is limited to building and maintaining a shared understanding between the parties so that they can reach the right solution. In mediation arrangements there is no loser and no winner, unlike in arbitration and litigation.

The idea is to find a win-win solution.

Mediation also adds value to disputes, especially those related to corporate-governance conflicts.

The settlement of corporate disputes by amicable means ensures a balance between the interests of the parties concerned, including employees, the board of directors and shareholders.

Mediation in corporate-governance disputes can thus become a management tool and strive for conflict prevention rather than conflict resolution.

Some countries have laws regulating mediation, particularly in the settlement of investment disputes.

The most recent development in this area came in October 2012 when the International Bar Association (IBA) adopted new rules for investor-state mediation.

These rules were drafted by the IBA subcommittee on state mediation and comprise 12 articles designed for the mediation of investment-related differences or disputes involving states and state entities.

They were followed in 2014 by both the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Mediation Rules and the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) Mediation Rules in Sweden.

There is no doubt that the length of time a case takes to be settled, especially in investment disputes, is one of the most important factors for measuring the competitiveness of the investment climate in any given country.

The use of amicable mechanisms to resolve disputes between investors, including arbitration, mediation and conciliation, increases Egypts competitiveness, for example, in attracting foreign investment.

Furthermore, some states make recourse to mediation a pre-condition for commencing litigation in the first place (mandatory mediation), without preventing the parties from exercising their rights of access to the judicial system.

It was for these reasons that the Egyptian Investors Dispute Settlement Centre, housed at the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), was established in 2009 to settle disputes between investors through mediation according to international practices and comparative legislation, as well as through the recommendations of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

This centre gives Egypt a significant advantage, as it allows it to maintain and attract the foreign investment that will contribute to its development.

The GAFI is also playing a pivotal role in protecting the interests of foreign investors seeking opportunities in Egypts economy and seeing it as an export hub to the Arab world and Africa. It has a well-trained and qualified staff, and its employees can facilitate investment procedures, or help resolve disputes between investors, in order to help create an investment climate in Egypt in accordance with the international standards.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

Short link:

NEW DELHI, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Blockchain Foundation of India (BFI), launched in December 2017, is rising to become one of the most influential organizations in the Cryptocurrency Industry in India.

The foundation was launched with the aim of connecting all blockchain-based startups and their CXOs, government bodies and blockchain enthusiasts at one single platform, to inspire, participate and collaborate in each other's success in this growing industry.

Manav Singhal, one of the founder's of the Blockchain Foundation & CEO of Velix.ID , said, "It has only been a few months since we started with humble beginnings. The kind of people - leading thought leaders from across industry verticals - that have joined BFI shows the rise in interest in blockchain technology and its utility for solving challenging problems across all industry verticals, especially in a developing country like India. The response to BFI has been amazing and we are receiving lot of interest from the community and industry to join us in our journey towards the growth of blockchain technology in India."

The Foundation (BFI) has members from some of the leading business corporations across the globe. The board members include Ashutosh Chadha - Group Director at Microsoft India; Dipankar Chakrabarti - Executive Director at PwC; Padmaja Ruparel - President of Indian Angel Network; Kunal Patel - Advisor at Yes Bank; Zach Piester - Co-founder, Intrepid Ventures; Rahul Dubey- Executive Vice-President, Yes Bank; Subhrangshu Neogi - Director Head of Group Marketing & Brand, Religare; Prabhakar Reddy - Investor, Accel; Hari Srinivasan- IT Director, British Telecom ; Satendra Singh - Head of Strategy and Business Development at Nokia; Anil Menon- CEO, CMS Computers Ltd. (India); Bindisha Sarang- Senior Assistant Editor, Firstpost; Ashish Gilotra - Vice-President, AuthBridge Research Services; Shravan Chaute -Deputy Manager, ICICI Bank; Kapil Vaswani - Researcher, Microsoft India; Jasmine Gorimar -Sr. Commercial IT Lead, GSK, and many other esteemed members from reputable organizations.

The current members of the Foundation also include several influencers from the Crypto-community including Mohit Kalra, CEO of Coinsecure; Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-founder & CEO, Unocoin; Hesham Rehman, CEO & Co-founder of Bitxoxo. Founders of some budding blockchain startups, such as CoinDelta, WandX and BuyUCoin, are also a part of the foundation.

BFI Website: https://www.blockchainindia.com

For queries, please contact: [email protected]

Media Contact:

Neer Varshney

[email protected]

+91-8105080685

Blockchain Foundation of India



SOURCE Blockchain Foundation of India (BFI)The report " NMP (N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone) Market by Application (Petrochemicals, Electronics, Paints & Coatings, Agrochemicals, Pharmaceutical) and Region (Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East & Africa, South America) - Global Forecast to 2022" published by MarketsandMarkets, the NMP market size is projected to grow from USD 572.5 Million in 2017 to USD 795.8 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period. NMP is used in petrochemicals (butadiene recovery and extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons), electronics (lithium-ion battery production, semiconductor device fabrication, and wire enamel coating), pharmaceutical, and other industries. Other applications include adhesives & sealants, dyes, inks, plastic, rubber, cosmetics & personal care products, and industrial & household cleaning reagent.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 60 market data Tables and 27 Figures spread through 95 Pages and in-depth TOC on "NMP (N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone) Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-market-52143523.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Petrochemicals segment is projected to be the largest application of the NMP market from 2017 to 2022.

The petrochemicals application segment of the NMP (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) Market includes butadiene recovery and extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons, such as Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene (BTX). NMP is also used in lube oil purification. The demand for NMP in the petrochemical industry is growing due to its high solvency and low degradation rate as compared to other chemicals. NMP faces competition from other polar aprotic solvents, such as acetonitrile, furfural, sulfolane, and dimethylformamide. APAC and the Middle East & Africa are increasing the production of BTX, thereby fueling the demand for NMP during the forecast period.

Get PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=52143523

Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing market for NMP.

Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing market for NMP. China is expected to be the largest market for NMP in the Asia Pacific region. China, Japan, and South Korea are leading manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries in the world. These countries are likely to increase their battery production capacities to meet the rising demand from the electric vehicle industry across the globe. China and India are the leading manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals and are increasing their domestic production of these products to meet their rising domestic as well as international demand. The growing production of lithium-ion batteries, pharma products, and agrochemicals in countries such as China, India, and South Korea is expected to fuel the demand for NMP in the region during the forecast period.

Key companies operating in the NMP market are Ashland (US), Balaji Amines (India), BASF (Germany), Lyondellbasell (US), and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Japan).

Know more about NMP (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-market-52143523.html



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SOURCE MarketsandMarketsOPET ranks second in terms of market share in the fuel retail industry thanks to its approach of improving the customer experience and its outstanding and innovative services.

LONDON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the fuel retail industry, market research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan recognized OPET Petrolculuk A.S. (OPET) with the 2017 Best Practices Award for its approach of improving the customer experience and its outstanding and innovative services. Frost & Sullivan announced, "OPET increased its market share through a wide network of fueling stations and value-added services based on consumer needs while developing innovative services for its customers by leveraging technology."

OPET General Manager Cuneyt Agca said receiving an award from a globally prestigious organization like Frost & Sullivan meant a great deal to the company. "We've been voted the leader in customer satisfaction in our industry for the last 12 years. We're happy to keep our leadership as the first brand that comes to mind in satisfaction surveys, which is an outcome of the importance we attribute to customer satisfaction. We're going to continue satisfying our customers with our results-oriented, long term, inclusive social responsibility projects and our high-quality products," Agca commented.

Frost & Sullivan market analyst Hikmet Cakmak said the following: "OPET has leveraged technology to develop value-added services for customers, while using data insights to improve its market share. In addition, OPET's focus on social responsibility projects has allowed the company to make a material contribution to the well-being of the region. OPET's Clean Toilets Campaign is a massive public undertaking with nation-wide hygiene training in schools and various institutions as well as improved sanitation in the company's filling stations. For these reasons, OPET Petrolculuk A.S. has earned Frost & Sullivan's 2017 Best Practices / Customer Service Leadership Award in Turkey's fuel retail industry."

OPET has dedicated time and resources to additional customer value-added services, such as fast customer response. On the call center side, OPET employs computer telephony integration and dynamic interactive voice response solutions, which are linked to OPET's own loyalty and station automation systems, to ensure quick customer response times. The company provides service with a 100-agent call center to handle customer concerns and issues. Field teams can access real-time customer complaints through the company's online portal while dealers can communicate with the headquarters with speed and efficiency via a dedicated portal.

In early 2017, OPET launched the Smart Fueling system, wherein customers register their vehicles through SMS, mobile app, or Web site to link their registration plates with the required fuel type, which enables faster, automated service and helps eliminate fueling mistakes at the pumps. Capturing all fuel transactions, the company uses its customer relationship management infrastructure to segment customer data based on their contribution to its revenue, measured in total spending, per-visit purchases, and spending trends, to provide better targeted customer service. Furthermore, OPET has embarked on a novel digital campaign through partnerships with other brands. Customers can use numeric codes printed on partner brands' product packaging to obtain free fuel.

With the Clean Toilets Campaign that has been going on since 2000, OPET managed to spread clean toilets and toilet hygiene and make them permanent starting with its own filling stations. Personal hygiene training was given to 9.5 million people during the campaign that has been conducted across Turkey for 18 years. The campaign received an invitation from the Turkish Standards Institution which was impressed by its success in large-scale awareness-building in sanitation and hygiene supported with school seminars and partnership with numerous public and private organizations. The standards promoted by the campaign were made mandatory by the Ministry of the Interior in sanitation facilities in work places and restaurants along with public toilets. The concept of Clean Toilets became identified with the OPET brand as a result of this campaign.

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 OPET Petrolculuk A.S.

In the fuel distribution industry, OPET is engaged in the fields of retail, commercial and industrial sales, storage and international trading as well as mineral oils and jet fuel through its subsidiaries. Noted for its innovative products and services, rapidly expanding network of filling stations, and approach to social responsibility that makes a difference, OPET is the only domestic company among the industry's major players. The unchanging leader in customer satisfaction in Turkey's fuel distribution industry, OPET has more than 1,500 filling stations including those under the SUNPET brand. Boasting a storage capacity in excess of 1 million m3 which gives it a solid competitive advantage, OPET is also hailed as the company that puts technology to best use in the fuel industry.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, collaborates 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, Frost & Sullivan has 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]

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SOURCE Frost & SullivanMUMBAI, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Social Beat, one of India's leading digital marketing solutions companies, announced their rebranding to give the company a fresh identity and perspective, with the same bold promise of ensuring ROI via digital marketing.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654715/Social_Beat_Logo.jpg )



The new brand identity launched, symbolises the progressive vision of the company. From the choice of contemporary fonts to the colours used, every aspect of the logo is an embodiment of the values, culture and innovative methods used by the company for business results.

"With our promise of 'ROI-driven Digital Marketing', Social Beat today is a powerhouse of talent, creativity, strategy and innovation to meet the business objectives of the brands that are entrusted to us. Our expertise with video content, as well as platforms such as Influencer and 22 Languages makes us the ideal digital marketing solutions partner for brands and businesses as they seek to engage with audiences in both urban and rural markets. Our new logo is a direct expression of this professionalism, capabilities and focus on results," said David Appasamy - Head of Brand and Strategy.

According to Mr. Suneil Chawla, Co-founder of Social Beat, "As we progress from being a startup to a meaningful player in the digital ecosystem, it is time we open doors and charge head-first towards a phase of rapid growth and impactful creativity. The rebrand is the first step towards this objective."

The new brand identity was designed by the in-house creative team, led by Panisa Shah, Creative Head, Social Beat. After weeks of brainstorming and ideation, a design approach that is minimal, contemporary, clean and business-like was developed. Apart from the new logo, the company has also re-launched their website with a simple yet captivating UX.

"We developed a minimalistic, contemporary logo with clear-cut edges and a bold, yet refined design language that is a reflection of our distinctive identity. We wanted to capture our passion, energy, creativity and professionalism in a memorable way," added Panisa.

Every component of the logo has a rationale of its own that throws light on the values, ethics and passionate spirit of Social Beat.

Solid colours with a rock-solid approach: The colour strategy behind the logo was to combine the enthusiastic vibe of orange-red with the reliability and expertise of royal blue. "A typical day at Social Beat is replete with fresh ideas and vibrant minds working towards reinforcing our clients' trust and confidence in us. So we chose a vibrant red to represent our passion, creativity and energy; while royal blue represents our dependability and trustworthiness," said Panisa on the choice of colours in the new logo.

Bettering the lettering: The company opted for an uppercase, clean, sans-serif font to portray the professionalism they offer with their promising and dignified image.

Forward is the way to go: The forward arrows represent the result-driven business generation approach and the progressive vision of the company.

Energetic, enthusiastic and youthful: The strategically placed flash symbol symbolises the energetic and dynamic nature of the team, driven by fresh ideas and new-age concepts.

Strategy comes full-circle: The circle encompassing the logo stands for the holistic digital marketing solution that Social Beat offers to each of its clients.

Abhishek Kumar, Head of Social Beat, Bangalore, sees the relaunch as a step towards having a clear brand differentiation in the market. "We have re-envisioned our brand identity to accelerate towards our goal of becoming amongst India's top digital marketing solutions companies. This new identity resonates with our USP of delivering ROI to our clients by being a holistic digital marketing solutions provider. It's a brand new identity but the same bold promise," he stated.

Video Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvbfnl-o_1M

About Social Beat:

Founded in 2012, Social Beat is one of India's leading digital marketing solutions company, enabling businesses to build their brands and achieve business results via the digital medium.

Social Beat is a Premier Google Partner, recommended Facebook agency and a member of Facebook India SME Council and a trusted online expert with offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. Our expertise with video content, as well as platforms such as Influencer and 22 Languages makes us the ideal digital marketing solutions partner for brands and businesses as they seek to engage with audiences in both urban and rural markets. The 80-member team of digital experts offers integrated digital marketing solutions including UX, web development, social media marketing, content marketing, video production, Search Engine Optimisation, digital advertising, influencer marketing and impactful language content.

In 2017, Social Beat bagged two awards at the Social Samosa 'Best Social Media Brands' and was the only agency recognised by Google India for innovation in both, Search & Display Advertising.

With focus verticals of real estate, retail, FMCG and BFSI, Social Beat has over 150 clients including TVS Motors, Mahindra Lifespaces, CavinKare, Murugappa Group, Sterling Holidays, House of Hiranandani, Brigade Group, Forum Mall, Specsmakers, Chola Finance, Casagrand, FundsIndia, Klay Schools, Mphasis, Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre, Motherhood and TVS Logistics amongst many others.

Media Contact:

Vikas Chawla

[email protected]

+91-9940193825

Co-Founder

Social Beat



SOURCE Social BeatVietnam healthcare market has shown healthy growth during 2012-2017 at a CAGR of 10.8% driven by rise in healthcare expenditure and incline in Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country. The UHC brought over 81.7% of the Vietnamese population under Health Insurance by 2017. Furthermore, rise in number of health care facilities and consumption of generic drugs aided in market growth during the last five years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130909/638322 )



Vietnam Hospital market recorded growth at a CAGR of 7.8% during 2012-2017, driven by government's investment in private health care sector and liberal foreign investment policies. Private clinics are known to be operating at only 50 to 60% of their capacity, or even as low as 20% in certain areas in Vietnam as compared to almost 120-160% bed occupancy rate in public hospitals. Major Private Hospitals in Vietnam included Vietnam France general Hospital, Hoan My Private General Hospital, Phu Tho Private General Hospital, Trien An Private General Hospital and Hong Ngoc Private General Hospital.

Clinical laboratories market was driven by rise in incidence and prevalence of communicable and non-communicable disease in the country. The market witnessed a decline in growth during 2016 due to low hospital budget allocated towards laboratories and slow economic growth of the country; however, bounced back in 2017. During the period 2012-2017, clinical laboratory market grew at a CAGR of 12.2%. Public hospital labs are the largest segment in terms of volume of tests conducted as well as revenue. They are preferred due to high quality standards and cheaper associated cost. Medic Lab, VietLife and Hoan My were some of the largest independent clinic chains to be operating in Vietnam.

The pharmaceutical market recorded growth at a CAGR of 14.4% during 2012-2017, driven by rise in self-medicating culture and OTC drug sales. About 90% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are imported by domestic companies. The country is increasingly turning towards use of locally produced generics. Sanofi, Hua Giang Pharmaceutical, GlaxoSmithKline, Traphaco, AstraZeneca, Pyempharco Novatis are some of the leading players in Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market. Number of domestic drug manufacturers is expected to rise to 230 by 2022. Nutritional and metabolism health supplements especially for skin care, anti-aging, eye health and digestive health was the largest selling therapeutic drug segment. The number of health supplement products recorded in the market was over 7,000, doubling from 2011. Foreign players are more active in non-herbal segment whereas domestic companies are better positioned in herbal supplement segment.

About 90% of all medical devices sold in Vietnam were imported. Local producers are limited in number and have only been able to supply basic medical supplies such as consumables, hospital beds and rubber health products. The medical devices market recorded growth at a CAGR of 7.8% during the period 2012-2017 driven by liberal imports and surge in Orthopedic and Prosthetic medical equipments. Public hospitals, clinics and health centers were the largest purchasers of medical equipments and preferred advanced medical devices.

According to the report by Ken Research titled "Vietnam Healthcare Market Outlook to 2022 - by Hospitals & Clinics, Clinical Laboratories, Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Segment", rising public and private expenditure on healthcare facilities and increased emphasis on domestic production of generic drugs and medical devices will the overall market.

Key Topics Covered in the Report:

Vietnam Healthcare Market Size by Hospitals & Clinics, Clinical Laboratories, Pharmaceutical and Medical Device

Vietnam Hospital Market Size

Market Segmentation By Single and Multispecialty Hospitals By Public and Private Hospitals By Region By Outpatients and Inpatients

Comparative Analysis of Major Hospitals in Vietnam Hoan My Group Phu Tho General Hospital Franco-Vietnamese Hospital Hanoi French Hospital Trien An Private General Hospital Hong Ngoc Private General Hospital

Vietnam Hospitals Future Outlook and Projections by Revenue

Vietnam Clinical Laboratory Market Size

Vietnam Clinical Laboratory Market Segmentation By Type of Laboratory (Independent Clinical Lab, Hospital Labs and Physician Office Labs) By Public and Private Hospital Labs By Type of Tests (Lab test, X-ray, Ultrasound, CT Scan)

Investment Model for Setting up a Diagnostic Laboratory

Comparative Analysis of Major Independent Diagnostics Labs in Vietnam Medic Lab VietLife Hoan My

Vietnam Clinical Laboratory Market Future Outlook and Projections By Type of Laboratory (Independent Clinical Lab, Hospital Labs and Physician Office Labs)

Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market Size

Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market Segmentation By Therapeutic Segments (Metabolism and Nutritional Medicine, Cardiovascular, CNS, System Infection, Oncology, Respiratory, Musculoskeletal and Others) By Generic and Patented Drug By OTC and Prescription Drugs

Comparative Analysis of Major Players in Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market DHG Pharma Traphaco Pymepharco Ha Tay Pharmaceutical Mekophar Domesco Imexpharm OPC Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical Market Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market - Trade Scenario

Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market Future Outlook and Projections By Therapeutic Segments (Metabolism and Nutritional Medicine, Cardiovascular, CNS, System Infection, Oncology, Respiratory, Musculoskeletal and Others) By Generic and Patent Drugs By OTC and Prescription Drugs

Vietnam Medical Devices Market Size

Vietnam Medical Devices Market Segmentation By Application (Orthopedic and Prosthetic Applications, Diagnostic Imaging Equipment, Paraclinical Equipment, Emergency Medical Equipment, Operation Room Equipment and Others) By Material (Textile Products, Electronic Products, Plastic Products, Rubber Products and Others) By Equipments (Consumables, Diagnostic Imaging, Dental Products, Orthopedic and prosthetics, Patient Aids and Others) By End User (Public hospitals, Local Private hospitals, Foreign Owned Hospitals and Medical Education, Research Institution and Others)

Comparative Analysis of Major Players in Vietnam Medical Devices Market Major Domestic Companies Japan Vietnam Medical Danameco Armephaco Major Domestic Companies GE Healthcare, Vietnam Terumo BCT Philips, Vietnam

Medical Devices Market Vietnam Medical Devices Market Future Outlook and Projections By Equipments (Consumables, Diagnostic Imaging, Dental Products, Orthopedic and prosthetics, Patient Aids and Others)

Vietnam Healthcare Market Future Outlook and Projections

For more information on the market research report, please refer to below link:

https://www.kenresearch.com/healthcare/general-healthcare/vietnam-healthcare-market-report/142714-91.html

Related Reports by Ken Research

Vietnam Clinical Laboratory Market Outlook to 2022 - by Labs (Hospital Labs, Independent Labs and Physician Office Labs) and Type of Tests (Lab Test, X-Ray, Ultrasound and CT Scan)

Vietnam Pharmaceutical Market Outlook To 2022 - by Generic and Patented drugs, by Prescribed Drugs and OTC Drugs and Therapeutic Drugs (Metabolism and Nutritional Medicine, Cardiovascular, Central Nervous System, System Infection, Oncology, Musculoskeletal, Respiratory)

Vietnam Medical Devices Market Outlook to 2022 - By Equipments (Consumables, Diagnostic Imaging, Dental Products, Orthopedics and Prosthetics, Patient Aids and Other Medical Devices)

Contact Us:

Ken Research

Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing

[email protected]

+91-1244230204 ext. 26



SOURCE Ken ResearchAt a ceremony at the Irish Embassy in Beijing, Hainan Airlines signed cooperation agreements with the Dublin Airport, the Edinburgh Airport, Tourism Ireland and VisitScotland, seeking to play a leading role in deepening economic and cultural ties between China, Ireland and Scotland.

Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney, Irish Ambassador to China Eoin O'Leary, British Ambassador to China Martyn Roper and Hainan Airlines Chairman Bao Qifa, among other guests, were present at the announcement.

The Irish Deputy Prime Minister, Simon Coveney said, "I'm pleased to see that Hainan Airlines will launch the first non-stop service between Beijing and Dublin, providing the convenience of a direct route between the two countries for tourists, students studying abroad and business travellers going to China and Ireland. The new service will go a long way in promoting bilateral relations between the two countries, and further enhance the connection between Dublin and Edinburgh."

The Hainan Airlines chairman, Mr. Bao said, "As a trusted brand and a five-star airline, Hainan Airlines, is guided by its mission of creating a better life for people. The launch of the Beijing-Dublin-Edinburgh route will not only provide convenience for tourists, but also promote multilateral cultural integration, helping to boost the economies of China, Britain and Ireland."

Hainan Airlines' Beijing-Dublin-Edinburgh Flight Schedule:

Flight No. Aircraft Days Departure City Departure Time Arrival Time Arrival City HU749 330 Tuesday/Saturday Beijing 1:30 am 6:00 am Edinburgh HU749 330 Tuesday/Saturday Edinburgh 8:00 am 9:10 am Dublin HU750 330 Tuesday/Saturday Dublin 11:10 am 5:00 am +1 Beijing HU751 330 Thursday/Sunday Beijing 1:30 am 6:00 am Dublin HU751 330 Thursday/Sunday Dublin 8:00 am 9:10 am Edinburgh HU752 330 Thursday/Sunday Edinburgh 11:10 am 5:00 am +1 Beijing

(Note: Specific timetables can be confirmed on Hainan Airlines' official website.)

About HNA Group

HNA Group is a global Fortune 500 company focused on aviation, tourism, logistics and financial services with significant operations globally. Since its founding in 1993, HNA Group has evolved from a regional airline based on Hainan Island in southern China into a global company with over $145 billion of assets and over $100 billion in annual revenues based on 2017 figures, primarily across America, Europe and Asia. HNA's tourism business is a fast-growing, vertically-integrated global player with market-leading positions in aviation, hotels and travel services. HNA's Logistics business is a leader in logistics and supply chain management with capabilities in shipping and equipment manufacturing, maritime transportation, third-party payment platforms and project finance. In financial services, HNA is China's largest non-bank leasing company, and a leading provider of a diverse set of businesses in equipment leasing, insurance, asset management, investment banking and credit services. For more information, visit www.hnagroup.com

About Hainan Airlines:

Founded in January 1993, Hainan Airlines Holding Co., Ltd, a unit of HNA Group, has become one of the three safest airlines worldwide, and one of the nine airlines in the world to be rated Five Star Award by Skytrax. We are devoted to providing passengers with comprehensive flight services. Hainan Airlines' fleet is mainly composed of Boeing 737 and 787 series aircraft and the Airbus 330. Please log on the Hainan Airlines website (www.hainanairlines.com) for more information.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654769/Hainan_Airlines_Dublin_Edinburgh.jpg

Related Links

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SOURCE Hainan Airlines Co., LTDPROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- REBRAND revealed the much-anticipated 2018 REBRAND 100 Global Awards winners showcase. The list, selected for executed strategy that met strategic goals with relevance, can be seen at www.REBRAND.com and includes:

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654294/REBRAND_Logo.jpg

"This year's edition of the REBRAND 100 shows the agility, strength and creativity of many professionals around the world in helping their brands to adapt and stay ahead of a fast changing world," said Nanne Bos, Head of Global Brand Management at ING.

Winners also included Bain Capital, Capgemini, CECONOMY, CTCI, CZ Bank, DFW Airport, Henley, Marche International, MT Hjgaard, Parkinson's Foundation, Q, RAK Ceramics, SAP, and Yas Island. Projects launched between January 2015 and September 2017 were eligible. The renowned jury of industry experts reviewed the work from 37 industries and 42 countries for this year's program.

"A successful rebrand is like a feel-good story. It walks us through the different stages of a problem, and at the end, it delights us with a fresh and uplifting outcome," said 2018 juror, Fadi Yaacoub, Executive Creative Director, Digital, of the Toronto Star.

Axel Lober, Head of Branding & Strategic Projects, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, noted, "In a rapidly changing business environment, cultural change is pivotal for companies to succeed. Strong brands can support or even drive this changewhich turns a rebrand into a much larger opportunity than a simple refresh of colors." 2018 juror, June M. Archer, former EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, agreed, adding, "Winning rebrands transcend telling to showing us brand value and why we should care."

The result when smart strategy and design are combined is expressed by Andy Payne, Global Chief Creative Officer of Interbrand, "Brand is recognized as the most powerful lever for delivering strategies that create a better future for customers, employees and stakeholders; ultimately delivering business growth while mitigating risks."

About REBRAND and the REBRAND 100 Global Awards

REBRAND is the world's leading platform for brand transformation insights, case examples, programs, and expertise. Celebrating 12+ years of excellence, its renowned REBRAND 100 Global Awards is the most prestigious, juried recognition for repositioned brands, having reached participation from over 61 countries in 40+ industries. Featured in such media as The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg News, articles and books, the results have generated an unrivaled global library of transformed brands for business reference and research.

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SOURCE REBRANDHARTFORD, Connecticut, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that it will open its next Technology and Innovation Hub in Hartford, Connecticut and hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2022.

The Connecticut Technology and Innovation Hub will have a special focus on insurance, healthcare and manufacturing. It will bring Infosys closer to its Connecticut clients and serve as the global hub for Infosys' InsurTech and HealthTech efforts. Infosys' investment in Connecticut is a continuation of the company's commitment to accelerate innovation for American enterprise by amplifying top local talent with the best global talent and shrink the IT skills gap in the marketplace.

"Today marks yet another landmark day in Connecticut's economic development efforts, at a time when our investments are bringing new life and vigor to our Capital City," Governor Dannel P. Malloy said. "I am thrilled to welcome Infosys to Connecticut and congratulate them on their decision to establish a Technology and Innovation Hub in Hartford. Connecticut's tremendous assets and talent pipeline continue to attract high caliber companies to the state, and I look forward to the value that Infosys will bring to our business community."

"We are excited to announce the expansion of our presence in Connecticut and to create 1,000 technology jobs in the state," said Ravi Kumar, President, Infosys. "This investment will further strengthen our ability to serve clients' needs throughout the New England region and expand the local workforce to help our clients compete in the rapidly digitizing insurance, healthcare and manufacturing sectors. Hartford's position as the Insurance Capital of the World, paired with Connecticut's world-renowned academic institutions, will place Infosys in close proximity to valued clients and accelerate the recruitment of highly-skilled local talent."

"Connecticut is a hub for health care innovation, and these capabilities are a key part of Cigna's global growth strategy," said Mark Boxer, EVP and Global Chief Information Officer at Cigna. "We are continuously looking at technology-led innovation to simplify the healthcare experience for consumers and improve our engagement and alignment with healthcare providers, employers, and other stakeholders. We are pleased that Infosys has chosen to plant a flag here in Connecticut, and proud that we had a role in advancing employment in the region. We look forward to working with them as part of our technology journey."

"Stanley Black & Decker is excited to welcome Infosys to Hartford and Connecticut," said Jim Loree, Stanley Black & Decker's President and CEO. "This is a great win for the state. With Infosys' expanded presence and focus on attracting and training top local talent, Infosys will strengthen Connecticut's innovation ecosystem and help to develop the technology workforce of the future."

The Hub will include insurance and healthcare labs that focus on smart underwriting, claims fraud, IoT and Cloud, and will employ cutting-edge data security and data-sharing features to help Infosys clients comply with all applicable privacy laws while promoting innovation. Infosys will also leverage the Hub to train its employees and develop pioneering techniques with agile, development operations, cloud and information security projects.

Infosys inaugurated its first Technology and Innovation Hub in Indianapolis, Indiana and has already announced a Technology and Innovation Hub in Raleigh, North Carolina and a Design and Innovation Hub in Providence, Rhode Island.

As part of Infosys' commitment to boosting American innovation and helping to create the workforce of the future, Infosys Foundation USA has provided multiple grants for classroom technology and computer science training to teachers and schools. To date, more than 4.7 million students; 13,000 teachers and 21,000 schools across America, including over 3,500 students, 35 teachers and 24 schools in Connecticut, have benefited from computer science training and classroom equipment funded by Infosys Foundation USA. This includes grants for professional development for teachers, hands on workshops for students, and new technology and teaching aids for classrooms, with an emphasis placed on serving underrepresented groups such as women, African-American, Latino, urban, rural and autistic groups that will gain greater access to computer science and maker education.

For more information, please visit: https://www.infosys.com/american-innovation/Pages/in.aspx

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

Media contacts:

Asia Pacific

Sarah Gideon

Infosys, India

+91-80-4156-3998

Sarah_Gideon@infosys.com

EMEA

Margherita Di Cerbo

Infosys, Europe

+44-2075-162-748

Margherita.DiCerbo@infosys.com

Americas

Chiku Somaiya

Infosys, USA

+1-408-375-2722

Chiku.Somaiya@infosys.com

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Infosys LimitedEgypt has been at war against terrorism since 26 July 2013 when then defence minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi asked for popular authorisation to continue this fight. Needless to say, he received authorisation from the population, and he has been engaged in the fight ever since.

However, the fight against terrorism in itself is not new, even if the terrorist challenges the country faces today are largely unprecedented.

The threat of terrorism remains similar to what it was in the 1980s and 1990s in terms of the aims of the terrorists despite the changes in their tactics and operational capacities.

Yet, a crucial point that is sometimes forgotten is the fact that terrorism is a manifestation of a more profound societal problem: radicalisation.

This radicalisation, specifically Islamist radicalisation, has been all too familiar for years, and organised Political Islam in Egypt has long shown a tendency for both radicalisation and violence.

It has worked on the fault lines of Egyptian society, creating an anti-state discourse that is false in its content but influential in its reach.

The result of this discourse has been an Islamist current that breeds discrimination, notable during the year the Muslim Brotherhood spent in office in Egypt when the group placed itself above every other component of society.

The state is now facing threats from terrorist organisations in Sinai.

In order to counter these, the government has launched a Comprehensive Operation in the peninsula that brings together for the first time the efforts of all the security institutions for the common purpose of combating terrorism.

The operation has been successful in delivering positive results, but what it cannot do is counter potential rather than actual terrorism.

While terrorism is a clearly manifested security threat, radicalisation is more subtle. As a result, there must be a clear distinction between strategies designed to counter terrorism and those required to counter radicalisation.

Among the incubators of radicalisation are prisons.

Terrorists who are arrested and sentenced to prison terms may try to use the time they spend behind bars to radicalise new victims and to attract new members to their organisations.

Countering radicalisation in prisons and creating a suitable environment for radicalised prisoners to revise their views has been tested successfully in several countries, including in Egypt.

Prison-based deradicalisation programmes have been successfully piloted in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Singapore, Iraq and Pakistan. Egypt also had a very successful experience of what was called the revision of radical Islamist prisoners in the 1990s.

Similar deradicalisation programmes need to be developed today, and the Ministry of Interior needs to be more aware of the degree of radicalisation taking place inside prisons.

Prisoners doing time for their involvement in terrorist attacks must be segregated from those doing time for minor offences or for affiliation with terrorist organisations.

Despite the importance of countering radicalisation in prisons, detention centres and jails are not the only places where radicalisation should be countered.

A deradicalisation discourse must be introduced into school curricula as well. Under the heading of citizenship, school students need to be introduced at a young age to concepts like diversity, equality, coexistence and nationhood.

If Egypt manages to institutionally instill such a deradicalisation discourse in its school system, then positive outcomes should be tangibly realised.

In the search for appropriate deradicalisation strategies, Egypt must also adopt a more diverse, multi-sectoral approach to security.

While improved security is often enough to counter the threat of terrorism, a human-security approach may be more effective in countering radicalisation.

Security measures, inclusion strategies, and development policies all need to be combined to bring about a cumulative human-security approach to countering radicalisation.

The Muslim Brotherhood in particular has promoted violent radicalisation, either in ideology or in practice. Such ideas need to addressed independently from the criminalisation of the Brotherhood as an organisation.

There is a difference between banning the radical activities of the Brotherhood as an organisation and countering its negative influence on society in terms of radicalisation.

Egypts fight against terrorism will not be concluded overnight, and the states long-term counter-terrorism strategy must address the root cause of the problem, which is radicalisation.

Comparative experiences have shown that countering radicalisation requires the involvement of, and the coordination between, multiple state institutions.

The present Comprehensive Operation in Sinai is doing just that, but only in a way that involves hard security.

The subtle security challenge that Egypt is facing now is how to design a similar comprehensive operation to counter potential terrorism and stand up against processes of radicalisation.

The writer is a senior researcher at the Egyptian Studies Unit of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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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 13 : The Indian government will soon unveil a plan for issue of patent registrations in the shortest possible time towards further streamlining the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime in the country, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday.

Declaring that India was "fully committed" to the IPR regime, the minister said that it was in the country's interest as among the foremost knowledge economies to have a robust IPR system that is enforced effectively.

"We are working on bringing a plan by which patent registrations will be issued in the least possible time. The announcement will be made in the next few weeks," Pradhu said here while inaugurating the National Conference on Counterfeiting and Role of Enforcement Agencies.

"Enforceability of law is extremely important, it is a critical part of IPR because its violation is a completely different kind of crime..it is a moral, as well as intellectual crime.

"India is fully committed not only to the IPR regime, which has been accomplished, but also to enforcing it and successful prosecution of cases."

Noting that Indian enforcement were more familiar with other kinds of crimes and economic offences like bank frauds, Prabhu said the Commerce Ministry would help the police by creating modules online for undertaking systematic investigation of IPR infringements.

"We will provide you with modules on how to enforce the law. We should call a meeting of DG Police and other law enforcement officials and prepare a module a module for implementation that could be put online," he said.

He said a robust IPR regime is necessary to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) that is crucial for the country's development.

"Investment to achieve 9-10 per cent growth will not happen without FDI, which comes with technology and that means a license. So, there is this IPR linkage to FDI which has to be protected."New Delhi, March 14 : The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday, minutes after it reassembled at 2 p.m., without transacting any business amid a ruckus by government ally TDP and the AIADMK members over various issues.

Members from the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As soon as the House reassembled in the afternoon, some Telegu Desam Party and AIADMK members trooped near the Chair's podium holding placards.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien repeatedly asked the agitating members to go back to their seats, but they did not relent.

Kurien then adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, the proceedings of the Upper House were adjourned till 2 p.m. amid vociferous protests by the members of the TDP, AIADMK and some other opposition parties over various issues.

As soon as Zero Hour began, members from the TDP and the AIADMK trooped near the Chairman's podium holding placards and shouting slogans.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu urged the agitating members to allow the House to function but the members were on their feet.

When the members did not relent, Naidu adjourned the House till 2 p.m.

When the House had met for the day, the members mourned the death of renowned scientist Stephen Hawking and former member V.P.M. Swamy.

The House also paid tributes to the troopers who lost their lives in the Sukma Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday and the trekkers who were killed in a forest fire in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.

Members from the TDP and other opposition parties have been creating a ruckus over issues ranging from the PNB bank fraud by fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi to the constitution of the Cauvery Water Management Board and special status to Andhra Pradesh.Washington, March 15 : The White House "did" inform Rex Tillerson about US President Donald Trump's decision to sack him as Secretary of State beforehand, a top official has said.

White House Spokesperson Raj Shah said Tillerson was informed earlier on last Friday. US Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein, however, had said on Tuesday that Tillerson "is unaware of the reason" for him being dismissed.

"I wouldn't speculate on what Tillerson's perspective was but I would just say he was informed of the president's decision on Friday," said Shah on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Republican senator Rand Paul said on Wednesday that he would oppose Trump's nomination of Jina Haspel to replace Mike Pompeo, the current CIA chief, accusing her of having shown "joyful glee" during the torture of terrorism suspects.

"To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of the CIA?" Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I mean, how could you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA? To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling."

Paul also announced to try to block the nomination of Pompeo to succeed Tillerson.

Shah responded by saying that Pompeo, Trump's new pick for Tillerson's job, will "make a fabulous secretary of state. He'll receive broad bipartisan support."

Pompeo's deputy and successor Jina Haspel reportedly has played a direct role in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition program," under which captured militants were handed to foreign governments and held at secret facilities, where they were tortured by agency personnel.

Asked about Haspel's controversial history, Shah only said "her background will be evaluated like all people's backgrounds are during the confirmation process."

Trump on Tuesday announced Pompeo to replace Tillerson, and Haspel would lead the CIA team in the future.Washington, March 15 : An F-18 jet of the US Navy has crashed near Key West in the US state of Florida, the Navy said.

Both pilots were able to eject before the crash on Wednesday, search and rescue efforts are underway, according to Naval Air Forces Atlantic spokesman Dave Hecht, Xinhua reported.

The jet, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 213 from the state of Virginia, experienced a mishap near the Naval Air Station Key West in the area of Chica Key, according to authorities.United Nations, March 15 : Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has said Britain's allegations that Moscow was responsible for a nerve attack were "completely unacceptable."

"The Russian Federation thinks it is completely unacceptable to launch unjustified accusations as contained in the letter from Theresa May dated March 13 to the Secretary-General of the United Nations," Nebenzya said on Wednesday at a UN Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the UK on March 4, Xinhua reported.

"We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event. Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account," he added.

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen said hundreds of his countrymen had potentially been exposed to the agent.

He said Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, were poisoned with "Novichok," which he insisted is a weapon that cannot be manufactured without the use of the highest-grade state laboratories.

"This was no common crime," he said. "It was an unlawful use of force."

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity" with the UK, following the nerve agent attack against the former Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week.

The US believes that Russia "is responsible for the attack" on the two people using a military-grade nerve agent, Haley added.

Russia dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition.

British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from Britain and will freeze Russian state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

Britain will also suspend all planned high-level bilateral contacts with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the poisoning incident.Beijing, March 15 : A consumer rights group has withdrawn a public interest suit against Chinese tech firm Baidu after the company removed its apps' "snooping" functions.

A court in east China's Jiangsu province had accepted a lawsuit filed by the Jiangsu provincial consumer rights protection committee against Baidu in January.

The committee accused Beijing Baidu Netcom Science and Technology Co. Ltd. of ignoring an instruction to remove some functionality from Baidu mobile and browser apps which monitor users' contacts and activity, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

The committee began an investigation in July last year into "snooping" by 27 app developers.

Except for Baidu, the other 26 firms all took measures to remove or optimize functions to adhere to the committee's instructions.

The apps violate consumers' rights by passing on their personal information, often directly resulting in telemarketing calls and telecom fraud, the committee said.

The committee said Baidu's modified apps went online in February. The committee withdrew its suit as Baidu had removed improper functions.New Delhi : On Sunday, January 7, the New York Times ran a front page story titled "Rising Anxiety in India is Piercing Modi's Aura of Invincibility". The article discussed the decline in GDP, consumption and consumer confidence and its impact on India and Indians.

A little more than two weeks later, on January 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the opening address at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland. In that address, he declared: "According to the World Bank and IMF, our growth rate is going to be steady and high."

The question becomes, as the end of the first quarter of 2018 approaches, whether the Times' more pessimistic or Modi's more optimistic perspective is correct. The answer from the most recent data and trends indicates that the optimistic view will most likely prevail.

Things are not quite as stunningly bright, as in 2014 right after Modi's swearing-in as Prime Minister, when I wrote in an article for Foreign Policy magazine: "It is now Modi's India. And, Modi's India is a place of grand ambitions, great expectations and high hopes." But, it looks like there is a lot more sunshine on the horizon than there are clouds in India's economic future.

Part of the reason for this assessment is that the slowdown in the economy in India was self-induced. It was caused primarily by two governmental policies: demonetisation and the imposition of a Goods and Service Tax (GST).

Scholars and economists will argue whether these two actions were necessary or beneficial. I will leave that debate to them. Looking at where things stand today, it appears that the Indian economy is turning the corner and will continue to grow to position India as a world leader.

There are a few negative indicators such as the decline of the Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index to a seven-month low of 47.8 in February. This is however offset by the fact that India's GDP growth for the last quarter of 2017 was 7.2 per cent -- making it the fastest-growing economy in the world for that time period. Combine this with projected GDP growth for India in the 7 to 7.8 per cent range in the current and next fiscal years by various groups, and there is considerable cause for optimism.

That optimism is strengthened by three factors: Progress on the ground in India; the country's global and regional economic appeal; and, the "defining partnership for the 21st century" between India and the United States.

Modi highlighted some of the economic accomplishments and plans developed during his tenure in his Davos WEF remarks. Most of them related to initiatives of the Make In India programme, including making India a manufacturing hub; the Skill India programme; and the opening of bank accounts for unbanked people.

At Davos, Modi also mentioned briefly that India is ranked third on the Global Trust Index list of the most trusted governments in the world. This accomplishment cannot be over-stressed. It is important and differentiating because we are living in an era when trust in government and democracy around the globe is in deep decline.

In his Davos speech, Modi also stressed the enormous opportunities that companies have to invest in "inclusive economic development" in India. By all accounts, business leaders from around the globe responded very favourably to his sales pitch. On a regional basis, the success of the India-Asean Summit held as part of this year's Republic Day ceremonies and the potential of India's "Act East" policy speak for themselves.

Finally, there is the "defining partnership" between the US and India. President Obama used this phrase during his first visit to India in 2009 and his administration worked assiduously to strengthen that partnership during his eight years as President.

This year has been a little more worrisome for the partnership. There were concerns about protectionism as President Donald Trump talked about import taxes in January. Then, on March 8 along came Trump's tariffs on aluminium and steel imports and that upset the apple cart.

But probably not a lot, because the level of export of steel and aluminium products to the US is relatively low. The Indian media quoted industry leaders as saying "India will not be impacted much".

There is another reason the impact will be low. That is because the Trump administration sees the chance and the need to increase US exports to India substantially going forward. Getting a fairer balance in the trading relationship was a primary topic of the 2017 US-India Bilateral Trade Policy Forum held in November. It can be expected this will be an area for negotiation moving forward In summary, the Modi economy has many rays of sunshine. Those rays do not shine uniformly on all though.

There are also a few clouds. These include: An across-the-board need for empowerment of women and enhanced educational opportunities for minorities. As those rays get brighter, one must be brought to focus to dispel those clouds.

(Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington DC. The views expressed here are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net)Moscow, March 15 : Despite the anti-Russia propaganda, US tourists to Russia increased by 25 per cent in the first nine months of 2017, the chief of Russia's Tourism Agency said on Thursday.

Russia's border authorities recorded the increase compared with the same period of 2016, Oleg Safonov, head of Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, told the Izvestia daily in an interview.

"The anti-Russia propaganda only arouses great interest among American citizens for our country," Xinhua quoted Safonov as saying.

Safonov also explained why the anti-Russia propaganda helps. "American citizens are told various stories about what is going on in Russia, no wonder they want to come and see everything for themselves."

Safonov said American tourists are not disappointed by what they see in Russia. They see a "modern, peaceful and developed country", he added.New Delhi : Farmer suicides have been taking place across India for years now, and studies of rural distress reveal the deeply-rooted, tenacious causes, such as lack of irrigation, fragmentation of land, unsuitability of seeds and inadequate sources of credit.

Despite the democratically-elected governments that claim to represent a country where over half the population is dependent on farming, agriculture has been consistently ignored at a steep cost to farmers' lives. Remedies have been tried -- the state waived loans to small and marginal farmers ahead of elections and such sops were criticised after elections for disrupting credit discipline among the borrowers.

The crisis provided an opportunity to try more adventurous "remedies"; farmers were cornered into using expensive, genetically-engineered seeds, even when these added heavily to the cost of cultivation of crops like cotton, further indebting them. Although this generated hope, which helped the governments get re-elected, none of the remedies worked. The question remained: Why did farmers commit suicide, bringing a bad name to "popular" governments?

So it became prudent and necessary for the state that other causes for the suicides were invented, such as alcoholism, depression, vices, etc. Farmers were blamed for being ambitious, extravagant, adventurous, lazy, cowardly, and too emotional. Camps were set up to help them cope with life's stresses, charities were organised and advice was dispensed. Additionally, the state found the usual way of containing the situation; not all farmer suicides would be recognised as such. There were rules to dying; only those deceased farmers who had unpaid bank loans in their names or in the names of their families, and had land in their names or in the names of their families, were considered to fall in the "farmer suicide" category.

These "correct" suicides of the farmers, verified through this process, earned them compensation money, which was given to their widows. Once again the state expected that such monetary relief would make the farmers, and voters in general, appreciate the kindness of the politicians and re-elect them. And once again, it was not a remedy. The question still persisted: Why did farmers commit suicide despite such "generosity" of the state?

Again, it became imperative for the state to find other reasons to explain why it failed to contain farmer suicides. It was believed that the compensation itself encouraged farmers to kill themselves; that the Rs 1 lakh might have increased the toll, and that farmers who died due to other reasons were shown as farmer suicides. But the state knew the truth, because the compensation procedure ensured that each farmer suicide was investigated in depth. The state was aware that farmer suicides happened because of one essential reason -- the farmer's sense of fairness and responsibility was hurt by his continued inability to repay debts.

This explanation was in stark contrast to the ease with which the state and politicians tried arbitrary solutions to farm distress and blamed farmers for their own deaths. It was an inconvenient truth that would have shifted the guilt to the state and was, therefore, never told. Meanwhile, the question continued: Why did farmers commit suicide, denting the image of every charismatic Prime Minister of the country and every dynamic Chief Minister of the state?

Farmer suicides reflect the crisis brewing through several phases of structural transformation of the rural sector. The first phase, from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, focused on land reforms, irrigation, and objectives like supply of credit, which are yet to be uniformly achieved. The second phase was the Green Revolution, during which the implications for distribution of resources, and economic and social development were ignored, and agricultural development was measured through productivity. The last phase was the period of economic reforms and globalisation, which only widened and deepened the inequalities.

During this time, and under the aegis of politically-correct pro-farmer governments, agriculture had become particularly difficult in rain-fed areas due to a fall in public investment in irrigation and infrastructure, and in technological research and innovations. Maharashtra presented the contradictory picture of extreme agricultural failure along with high non-agricultural growth. This disparity was sharpest in western Vidarbha, where the farmer was entirely at the mercy of the weather, the market, and the state's indifference.

The wide regional as well as inter-district differences suggest the study of the region as a unit, like Vidarbha, which displayed the severe impact of farm neglect. Further, owing to the intensity and length of the farm crisis, the study of Vidarbha mapped the diversity of conditions and the common factors for farmers' distress, such as indebtedness, rising costs of cultivation, declining returns, and inadequate policy support.

The region also indicated how small and marginal farming could not be sustained without substantial public infrastructure support, and that the solution had to include initiatives of both policy and civil society. In what might be true for the entire nation, agricultural distress in Vidarbha was also worsened by the opportunism of the political class that used the crisis in blame-games instead of meaningful and timely interventions.

The neglect that the farmers face through their lives has no witnesses, except perhaps, their wives. They knew how the state ignored their husbands while they were alive, how their desperate applications for welfare were dismissed, how many times their husbands visited the collectorates for relief, how much money was spent appeasing local officers like tehsildars, gram sevaks, panchayat members, talathis, etc. The wives had seen their husbands lose faith, and found the empty pesticide bottles that had ended their lives. These were the caring mothers who rescued the memories of their fathers for their children, shielding them from the painful facts.

These were the grieving women who, within days of a suicide, convinced the state of the good mental condition of their husbands, signed documents attesting to the "truth", and accepted the meagre cheques. But for the state, they did not exist. After all, what did the widows of farmers know about agriculture, crop management, bank loans, private debts, land documents, health bills, power connections, panchayat politics, children's education? The short answer was -- everything.

(Kota Neelima is the author of "Widows of Vidarbha", on the state of farm widows across the country. The views expressed are personal. Excerpted from the introduction of the book)Chennai, March 15 : Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday presented a deficit budget for the year 2018-19.

Holding the Finance portfolio, Panneerselvam presented a budget that projected a revenue deficit of Rs 17,491 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 44,481 crore.

He said the total revenue for the state, including transfers from the central government, were estimated at Rs 176,251 crore for the next fiscal.

The expenditure for the next fiscal is estimated at Rs 193,742 crore.

Panneerselvam said the fall in tax revenue growth has been significant in 2017-18, owing to the reduction in commercial and state excise tax.

According to Panneerselvam, the economy would pick up the next fiscal and the signals are there in the growth of the gross state domestic product (GSDP).

He said the government's total debt is expected to be Rs 3.55 lakh crore next fiscal end, which will be 22.29 per cent of the GSDP.New Delhi, March 15 : The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned for the day soon after it met at 3 p.m. after multiple earlier adjournments, amid a ruckus by the TDP and AIADMK members who thronged near the Chair's podium shouting slogans and displaying placards.

The Congress blamed the "allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" for not allowing the house to function.

The upper house was scheduled to take up the Finance Bill and two Appropriation Bills for discussion and returning to the Lok Sabha. However, the Bills could not be taken up in the house as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the AIADMK members created pandemonium.

The TDP is a partner in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) while the AIADMK is friendly towards the BJP and is with the government for all practical purposes.

The TDP members have been agitating over the alleged "injustice" meted out to Andhra Pradesh by the Centre by not giving it special status, while the AIADMK has been demanding the constitution of a Cauvery Water Board to look into the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked the agitating MPs to go back to their seats, saying if the House was not in order he would have to adjourn it and the responsibility for the house's failure to pass the Finance and Appropriation Bills would lie with "those who are shouting slogans".

"The responsibility for not taking up the Finance Bill is on you," Kurien told the MPs who had gathered near his seat before adjourning the house for the day.

Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the house was expected to function but "the allies of the BJP" were not allowing it to.

Earlier, TDP member and former Union Minister Y.S. Chowdary sought permission to complete the statement he was making in the morning under Rule 242 on why he resigned from the government.

However, Kurien said it was appropriate that Chowdary seek the Chairman's permission the next day as it was the latter who had aborted his statement in the morning.

Chowdary had blamed the earlier Congress-led UPA government for rushing with the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 "hastily, unjustly and unscientifically", which led to an uproar in the house.

Naidu then adjourned the upper house till 2 p.m.Moscow, March 15 : Russia will also expel UK diplomats "soon", Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, in response to the expulsion of 23 Russian envoys by Britain.

Lavrov in an interview to Sputnik news agency said that the expulsions would "definitely" happen.

Britain on Tuesday ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats believed involved in espionage-related activities, in the first wave of measures against Moscow for a nerve gas attack on a former double agent.

British Prime Minister Theresa May also outlined a range of other steps, including a halt to high-level meetings with Russian officials and calling off a planned visit to Britain by Lavrov.

May repeated the conclusion of British investigators that Russia had either deployed or lost control of dangerous nerve agents used in the attack -- targeting former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal-- and said Russia's defiant response has "demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events".

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dubbed the UK claims in the Skripal poisoning case as "insane".

Britain is refusing to cooperate with Russia in the case, Zakharova said, adding that Moscow sent to London four diplomatic notes to hold talks on the issue but received only "non-committal replies".

"Russia has officially expressed readiness to work, using all the mechanisms and tools of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), but London has been unwilling to cooperate with us within the legal framework, and the trend is only growing," she was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.

"We are again officially calling on Great Britain to provide all the materials on the incident, as they call it, with the spread of chemical weapons on UK territory," Zakharova said.

She also said that the UK had been "pushing" Russian diplomats out of the country via visa mechanisms for several years.

"Thus, Moscow has no doubt that London has launched an anti-Russian campaign... Britain's attitude showed that the Russophobic hysteria had reached a new level," Zakharova said.Hong Kong, March 15 : The streets near Hong Kong's Legislative Council building were on Thursday lined with red, green and blue vehicles as dozens of taxi drivers staged an anti-Uber protest.

A total of 42 taxis were lined up bumper to bumper on the streets for the protest that aimed to pressure the government to ban the ride-hailing Uber service, Efe news agency reported.

Some drivers sat in their cars while about 50 others joined a picket near the Council office where they hung up green and red banners demanding the government get rid of Uber, whose allegedly unlicensed vehicles threaten the livelihood of regular taxi drivers.

During their speeches some strikers said "Uber go back to America".

The protesting drivers expect the Transportation Department to reply to their demand by next week, and depending on the response the taxi unions might stage larger strikes.

Thursday's strike, which lasted from 8.30 a.m. until noon, had little effect on Hong Kong's transportation network because there are tens of thousands of taxis in the special administrative region.

Major cities around the world have witnessed anti-Uber protests by taxi drivers since the app and service were launched in 2009.

Taxi drivers complain that Uber presents unfair competition for tightly regulated traditional taxis.New Delhi, March 15 : All public sector banks (PSBs) will have to link their SWIFT systems with their respective Core Banking Solution (CBS) systems by April 30 as a measure to prevent frauds like the recent one perpetrated on Punjab National Bank (PNB), it was announced on Thursday.

The state-run banks also decided to speed up the process of taking out "cyber insurance", among other decisions that were taken here at a workshop of senior PSB officials on risk management.

The Rs 13,540 crore fraud on PNB by accused diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, involved using Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued in favour of the accused by bank employees who misused their access to PNB's SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) electronic messaging system used for overseas funds transfers.

None of these fraudulent transactions were registered on the bank's internal transaction messaging system, the CBS, enabling the fraud to go undetected for long.

Briefing reporters here following a three-day workshop, State Bank of India Deputy MD and Risk Officer M.S. Shastri said the banks have decided to restrict SWIFT transactions to between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.

He also said that following an audit by each PSB of their LoUs and Letters of Comfort (LoCs) transactions, which systems were scrapped by the regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) earlier this week, it had been reported at the workshop that there are no more fraudulent transations on this account since the PNB fraud.

LoUs are bank guarantees through which a bank allows customers to raise money from another Indian bank's foreign branch as short-term credit.

"LoUs and LoCs have been a system peculiar to India," Shastri said, adding that traders who have been doing business through these two instruments will now have to shift their transactions to Letters of Credit and Bank Guarantees, which would increase the cost of credit.

The banks are in the process of establishing their Cyber Security Operations Centres "wherever not in place to monitor all IT assets," he said.

Improving risk and ethical awareness among staff and strengthening Know Your Employee (KYE) "through technological intervention" are some of the areas identified to strengthen operational risk management, he added.Kathmandu, March 15 : The US-Bangla Airlines has suspended flights to Kathmandu for an indefinite period following its passenger plane crash at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport which left at least 51 people dead earlier this week.

The airline headquartered in Dhaka said in a statement on Thursday that they have stopped operating the Dhaka-Kathmandu-Dhaka flights temporarily.

A passenger plane of Bangladesh's private US Bangla Airlines crashed and burst into flames while landing at Nepal's international airport with 71 people onboard.

Amid rumours of miscommunication between the pilot and the air traffic control causing the accident, the Nepali government formed a panel to initiate an investigation into the crash.

"At this stage, we have no further information concerning the circumstances of the accident and US-Bangla is not in a position to speculate on the cause of this tragedy," the company has said on its website.

The US-Bangla Airlines said it will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation of all associated government agencies. To facilitate the cooperation, it established an emergency response centre at its headquarters in Dhaka.

The rescued Nepali and Bangladeshi passengers were undergoing treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu.New York, March 15 : Good grades and proper schooling may help in protecting victims of childhood abuse from indulging in criminal behaviour in adulthood, a study says.

The emotional and sexual abuse that some kids endure during their childhood can lead them to commit crimes later in life. But when they achieve good grades in childhood and complete their academics, the likelihood of indulging in criminal behaviour declines significantly.

"Child abuse is a risk factor for later antisocial behaviour," said Todd Herrenkohl, Professor at the University of Michigan in the US.

"Education and academic achievement can lessen the risk of crime for all youth, including those who have been abused (encountered stress and adversity)," Herrenkohl added.

However, for some children who are weak in academic performance and get suspended in grades seven to nine, the offending habits and antisocial behaviour tends to stay with them even later in life, the researchers said.

The study, published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, noted that the primary prevention of child abuse is a critical first step to reduce antisocial behaviour at the transition from adolescence into adulthood.

Researchers followed 356 people from childhood (ages 18 months to 6 years), school-age (8 years), adolescent (18 years) and adulthood (36 years).

Parent-child interactions measured various types of abuse and neglect, and responses also factored educational experiences and criminal behaviour against others or property.

Parent reports and self-reports of the team showed criminal and antisocial behaviour among the childhood abuse victims.

"Strategies focused on helping school professionals become aware of the impacts of child abuse and neglect are critical to building supportive environments that promote resilience and lessen risk for antisocial behaviour," Herrenkohl said.Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram who was arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case, being taken to be ... Image Source: IANS

Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram who was arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case, being taken to be ... Image Source: IANS

New Delhi, March 15 : The Supreme Court on Thursday extended, till March 26, the interim protection from arrest granted to Karti Chidambaram by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media money laundering case.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud also transferred to itself the cases pending before the Delhi High Court relating to adjudication of Enforcement Directorate's (ED) power to arrest an accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and also a plea filed by Karti Chidambaram seeking protection from arrest by ED in the case.

The bench's order came after taking into note that several high courts in the country have given conflicting views on interpretation of Section 19 (power to arrest an accused under PLMA) of the PMLA and that it would deal with the issue of interpretation of the section.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central government, had referred to the orders passed by different high courts, including Delhi and Bombay, on the issue.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court extended Karti Chidambaram's protection from arrest in the ED case from March 20 to March 22.

The court was hearing plea filed by ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation against the high court order giving relief to Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, from arrest in the case.

In interim relief to Karti 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.

On March 8, the top court had asked him to approach the high court seeking quashing of summons issued by the ED.

The probe agencies approaching the top court said Karti Chidambaram has abused the law to get relief from the high court.

Mehta said that high court's granting of relief would encourage persons, facing similar summons from ED in money-laundering cases, to move the high court under the Constitution's Article 226 and blunt the probe.

"There are over 1,000 plus cases where we (ED) have reached the stage of section 19 throughout the country. Even if the larger bench of the Delhi High Court gives a finding (in the power to arrest an accused under PMLA), it will not bind other courts. So this court has to give a finding on it, otherwise people will come to Delhi High Court for ad-interim protection and we will not be able to do anything," he said.

The bench said it would not go into the merits but interpret the provision related to ED's power to arrest under PMLA and deal with the issue whether high courts could grant such relief under Article 226 which deals with high court's power to issue writs and orders.

Appearing for Karti Chidambaram, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that the cases under investigation by the CBI and the ED were identical and since he had been extensively interrogated by the CBI, it was not necessary for the ED to take him into custody.

He further argued that the ED had lodged an enforcement crime information report (ECIR), which is not an FIR, and hence issuance of summons to appear before the agency was illegal as well as breach of his client's fundamental rights.

The agencies, however, contended that Karti Chidambaram had challenged the constitutional validity of the provision permitting ED to arrest on the basis of ECIR and as long as this was not declared unconstitutional, it must continue to operate.

Karti Chidambaram, arrested on February 28, is in jail till March 24 in the case lodged by the CBI.

The CBI had 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.Gurugram, March 15 : A five-member panel of medical experts has held the Fortis Hospital in Gurugram responsible for the death of a child during treatment last year.

The Medical Negligence Board headed by Dr S.S. Saroha and including Dr Rakesh Pathak, Dr D.S. Yadav, Dr Sanjay Narula and Dr Naresh Kumar was constituted after Sanjeev Sharma, a resident of New Delhi's Ranjeet Nagar, complained to Gurugram's Chief Medical Officer that the hospital was responsible for the death of his one-and-a-half-year-old son Vansh.

Vansh was admitted in the hospital for the treatment of a genetic disease. According to the board's report, the patient underwent a bone marrow transplant (BMT) on May 1, 2017.

He subsequently suffered from fever and developed complications due to infection.

Sharma complained that the hospital officials told him that the estimated cost of treatment will be Rs 13 lakh but later raised the amount to Rs 27 lakh, but the child could not be saved.

"The hospital was supposed to provide infection-free environment but failed to do so. The hospital also charged money for BMT room but did not provide such environment," Gurugram CMO B.K. Rajora said.

"Dr Satyaprakash Yadav, pediatric hematologist and bone marrow transplant physician, said in his report in writing that the infection spread due to the negligence of the hospital and that the mortality rate in the BMT was 30 per cent," the report read.

Fortis hospital was in the news last year also after a seven-year-old Class 2 student Adya Singh died of dengue on September 14-15 night and the hospital charged nearly Rs 16 lakh for the fortnight-long treatment from the family.

Adya Singh died while being shifted to Rockland Hospital in Delhi.

In January, a Fortis doctor was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with Adhya Singh's death after a four-member probe panel, headed by Haryana's Additional Director General of Health Rajeev Vadhera, investigated the Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) in Gurugram for charging the child's Dwarka-based family an exorbitant sum and held him guilty.

Later, the licence of the hospital blood bank was suspended and authorities banned the sale of medicines at the hospital counters.New Delhi, March 15 : The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered real estate major Amrapali Group and its home buyers to meet on Saturday and arrive at a consensus on the status of its various housing projects nearing completion.

A bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice U.U. Lalit said the meeting will be held on March 17 at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Court consultation room and, thereafter, a joint statement on the development of the meeting would be filed before the court.

There was an urgent need for consensus between the Amrapali Group and home buyers to identify projects that were nearing completion, mid-way and those nowhere near completion, said the bench, adding that it wants that home buyers get their flats at the earliest and refund of money is not the solution to the problem.

On February 22, the court had directed the real estate group to finish the remaining work on 19 towers in its Leisure Valley housing project in Greater Noida.

The Amrapali Group had earlier submitted a comprehensive proposal on how it planned to deliver 42,000 flats to its buyers in various projects.

Earlier, the Group, facing insolvency proceedings initiated by the creditor bank for not repaying the loans, had told the court that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over possession of flats to over 42,000 home-buyers in a time-bound manner, and the properties were needed to be developed with the help of co-developers.

The Amrapali Group has liabilities of about Rs 3,000 crore towards authorities and owes over Rs 1,000 crore to about 10 banks, and it needs about Rs 3,000 crore to complete its ongoing projects.

The apex court has been hearing a batch of pleas filed by home buyers who have sought quashing of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order admitting insolvency proceedings against Amrapali Group.

Buyers belong to the low and middle-income groups and must be granted equal protection as other stakeholders -- financial and operational creditors, the home buyers' plea had said.London, March 15 : The alleged poisoning of an ex-spy in Britain which has been pinned on Russia was the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II and there is "no plausible alternative explanation" than Russian culpability, said the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and the US in a joint statement on Thursday.

Former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in critical condition after they were targeted by a substance believed to be a Novichok nerve agent developed by Russia, an attack that Britain and France said was undoubtedly carried out under Russia's orders, the BBC reported.

"It is an assault on UK sovereignty and any such use by a State party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law," read the statement, which was signed by French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump.

Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the incident. May on Thursday visited the site of the attack in Wiltshire. "We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen, brazen act and despicable act," she said.

Moscow denied any involvement in the attack and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that his country will also expel UK diplomats "soon" in reprisal.

The police officer who found Skripal and his daughter was also hospitalized and dozens of others who were in the area in the southern English city of Salisbury were urged by British authorities to wash the clothes they were wearing.

France, Germany and the US backed Britain's previous statements that there was no other explanation for the presence of the nerve agent and highlighted that Moscow's refusal to respond to May's demands for an explanation were further proof of its responsibility.

In the declaration, the leaders urged Russia to answer all questions related to the attack and fully disclose any information regarding the Novichok series of nerve agents to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The leaders said the situation was particularly concerning due to a past actions by Russia, most likely referring to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian FSB officer who defected to Britain and was in 2006 poisoned with polonium, a highly radioactive substance.

"We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security," the joint statement said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy called the decision to expel its 23 diplomats "unacceptable, unjustified and short-sighted".

The Embassy has also suggested on its Twitter feed that the UK may have the capacity to manufacture the nerve agent used in Salisbury.Chandigarh, March 15 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday apologised to former Punjab Minister Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging the latter's involvement in drug trade in the state, following which the SAD leader said he will withdraw his defamation suit.

The Chief Minister withdrew his allegations and an application regarding the same was filed in a trial court in Amritsar, where a defamation case filed by Majithia against Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal on May 20, 2016, is being heard.

"This proves that they were raking up the issue to tarnish my image and harm me and gain politically," the former Punjab Minister, who is the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal, told reporters here.

"I will withdraw the case, which I had filed for what is right and for my own and my family's honour."

Majithia said another Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan too had submitted his offer of regret.

In the letter, Kejriwal said: "In the recent past, I made certain statements and allegations against you regarding your alleged involvement in the drug trade. These statements became a political issue.

"Now, I've learnt that the allegations are unfounded. Hence, there should be no politics on such issues.

"Because of my allegations made against you at various political rallies, public meetings, TV programmes, print, electronic and social media, you filed a defamation case against us in the Amritsar court.

"I, hereby, withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologise for the same," the letter read.

A statement quoting Majithia said: "It's human nature. Mr Kejriwal has displayed great courage to admit his mistake and move on. I thank him for this gesture. However, I want all politicians who seek votes on the basis of lies to realise what they are doing. This is not good for our society."New Delhi, March 15 : Amnesty International India on Thursday launched an interactive data website 'Halt the Hate in order to draw attention to alarming number of alleged hate crimes against marginalised groups in the country.

The website documents hate crimes against Dalits, Adivasis, members of racial or religious minority groups, transgender persons, and other marginalised people which are reported in mainstream English and Hindi media, the rights group said in a release The first step to ensuring justice and ending impunity for hate crimes - where people are targeted because of their membership of a particular group - is to highlight their occurrence, said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India.

"Our website aims to draw attention to some of these crimes by tracking and documenting them. Many of these incidents are deeply disturbing: Dalits have been attacked for merely sporting moustaches, and Muslims lynched for transporting cattle. Dalit women have been branded as witches, and raped and killed.

"Unfortunately, the extent of hate crime in India is unknown because the law - with some exceptions - does not recognise hate crimes as specific offences. The police need to take steps to unmask any potentially discriminatory motive in a crime, and political leaders must be more vocal in denouncing such violence," he said, as per the release.

The website documents alleged hate crimes from September 2015, when Mohammad Akhlaq was killed in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, for allegedly killing a cow.

Cow-related violence and so-called 'honour' killings were among the common instances of alleged hate crimes, it added.

Uttar Pradesh was the state with the most such incidents in 2016 and 2017.

In 2016, 237 alleged hate crimes were recorded and Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat recorded the most incidents.

"The data on our website is just a snapshot of alleged hate crimes in India. Many incidents are not reported in the media. While criminal investigations have been initiated in some cases, too many have gone unpunished. Authorities need to do much more to ensure justice for victims and their families," Patel said.Amaravati, March 15 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that his TDP was ready to support no-confidence motion against the BJP-led NDA government while the party's politburo on Friday is expected to take a decision on pulling out of the alliance.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president told the state legislative assembly that the party is ready to back the no-trust motion.

The TDP had last week pulled out its two ministers from the Central government over the demand for special category status to the state.

If TDP quits the NDA, it would be the first party to leave the coalition since it came to power at the Centre in 2014.

YSR Congress Party, the principal opposition party in Andhra Pradesh, on Thursday submitted a notice to move the no-confidence motion against the NDA government in Lok Sabha. The party alleged that the Central government has gone back on the commitment made in the Parliament that Andhra Pradesh will be accorded the special category status.

Without naming YSR Congress, Naidu said in the state assembly that TDP would back no-confidence motion moved by any party to pressurize the Central government.

He made it clear that the TDP will not compromise against the state's interests. "We are ready to go to any extent to fight for the state's interests," he said.

Interacting with TDP MPs and later addressing a public meeting, Naidu slammed actor politician Pawan Kalyan for his bitter attack on the TDP. The Jana Sena chief at a public meeting on Wednesday alleged that TDP betrayed the people. He also made allegations of corruption against the TDP government.

Launching a counter attack, Naidu said instead of joining him in pulling up Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not fulfilling commitments made to the state, some new parties were trying to weaken the TDP for their narrow political interests. He said he would expose in a day or two those who compromised against the state's interests.

"He saw no corruption for four years and now suddenly he is seeing corruption," Naidu said referring to Pawan Kalyan's allegation.

During his interaction with TDP MPs, Naidu learnt to have remarked that BJP is trying to use some parties to politically destabilize Andhra Pradesh like the way it did to Tamil Nadu.New Delhi, March 15 : The Trinamool Congress on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of "murdering" Parliament by way of avoiding and bypassing parliamentary scrutiny of government legislations.

"The BJP is murdering Parliament. In this BJP regime, only nine out of 74 bills passed have been scrutinized by a Parliamentary committee. In contrast, from 2009 to 2014, 66 out of 116 bills passed were scrutinised by Parliamentary committees," Trinamool legislative party leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the Modi government got the Finance Bill passed in the Lok Sabha without any discussion.

Earlier, it got the controversial triple talaq bill passed in the Lok Sabha during the winter session after a very brief discussion or accepting any amendments moved by some of the members.

In the Rajya Sabha, the government has persistently refused to refer the Bill to a Select Committee of the House for closer scrutiny despite insistence on the same by almost every opposition party.

On Thursday, in the Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien asked the agitating members to give him "five minutes to dispose of the business", which included the Finance Bill and two Appropriation Bills that were listed in the day's business for discussion and returning to the Lok Sabha.

However, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad objected to the Chair's remarks saying no Bill should be passed in five minutes without a discussion on it.

The Rajya Sabha however has no powers to move or amend any money bill on its own and it is the Lok Sabha's prerogative to accept or reject any amendments moved by the upper House on any money bill.Kolkata, March 15 : Vedanta and Tata Steel are "not ineligible" to bid for the insolvent company Electrosteel Steels, the Resolution Professional (RP) of the debt-laden company told the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday.

Electrosteel Steels, which owes lenders Rs 11,309 crore, had been referred to the Tribunal following a push from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in June last year.

"The resolution professional has come to a decision that both Vedanta and Tata Steel are not ineligible under the norms of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code," RP's counsel Anindya Mitra, said appearing before the Kolkata bench of the Tribunal.

Through an affidavit, the RP, Dhaivat Anjaria, also informed the court that he had considered both the proposed resolution plans of the two resolution applicants and placed its before the Committee of Creditors (CoC).

In fact, Anjaria had received bids from Vedanta, Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors, Tata Steel and Renaissance Steel in January this year for the city-based insolvent steel maker.

The Abhishek Dalmia-led Renaissance Steel, alleged that the Vedanta and Tata Steel were not eligible to bid for the Electrosteel Steels as per the Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Advocates appearing for the two companies contested the arguments.

Renaissance moved the tribunal, asking it to prevent the RP from proceeding on further negotiations with Vedanta, the highest bidder, till the issue of eligibility of the Anil Agarwal-led company and Tata Steel is determined.

Renaissance's counsel Sumant Batra, on Thursday, contended before the bench that the 'short' affidavit filed by the RP was without 'clarifications' on the eligibility issues of Vedanta and Tata Steel.

"He avoided the main issues in his replies," Batra said.

After hearing arguments from all the parties in the case, the judge reserved his order.Kolkata, March 15 : In a bid to enthrall the people of Kolkata with a taste of authentic Italian art from the Renaissance period, a unique exhibition of famous Italian painter Raphael's works was inaugurated on Thursday as part of the multifarious events on occasion of the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations.

The exhibition entitled 'Opera Omina- Raffaello', organised by the Italian consulate here, exhibits life size digital renditions of 35 paintings by Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance period, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino including masterpieces like 'Madonna with a child' and 'the transfiguration' at the Indian Museum here.

"I thought Kolkata would be the right place for the exhibition for getting more people to see and appreciate it. We would also hold a concert tomorrow (Friday) where Italian musicians will play the Renaissance music to take the visual experience of the painting exhibition to another level. There would be a seminar on geographical indications in Kolkata in April and whole week of Italian cuisine in November," Italian Consul General Damiano Francovigh said.

"The aim of such exhibitions is to give the local visitors a first hand exposure of those great Italian art forms. We hope that they will be willing know and explore more about the cultural heritage by visiting Italy," he said.

The Italian Consul General said the calendar event to celebrate the friendship between the two countries were planned during Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni's meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi towards the end of last year.

Stating that the century old relation between the two countries needs to be celebrated more often, Francovigh said similar events on various aspects like art, culture, food, business etc would also be held in Delhi later this year.The Printing Industries Association of Australia (PIAA) is assessing parties for how they will affect print, having published a political scorecard for the upcoming South Australia state election occurring this weekend.

The PIAA says it has created the comparison so members can evaluate the parties and their corresponding policies for themselves. The scorecard runs through each party's position on energy, education, taxation and the economy and infrastructure.

Andrew Macaulay, CEO of the PIAA says, PIAA advocates for good policy for our industry, regardless of political party. We have engaged every main party about the key policies they bring to the election and determined how they may impact our industry.

To provide practical information that is easy to digest, we compiled an election scorecard. It provides our own top-level policy objectives, what each Partys policy is, and subjectively measures how favourable those policies are towards industry.

[Related: PIAA urges caution with new safety standard]

We have talked to our members and asked them about what are the most important issues and policy positions to them. The top priorities for printers right now are energy, infrastructure and education. We also talked to the different parties and asked them what their policy was on those issues and some of them had good policy, some of them did not have an answer.

South Australia needs reliable energy, it needs to be consistent and to have lower costs. This is the biggest issue for South Australians, the reliability and cost of electricity. Politicians need to step up and stop playing around in this area. They are creating third world problems in a first world country and it is costing the economy jobs.

VET training is a major issue in for the industry in South Australia, the government killed it a couple of months ago. The Greens got the highest rating there because they are planning to reverse that policy action by Labor. The current government says it will reinstate it, but they the ones who cut it.

SA also has massive unemployment. The industry needs workers and the training needs to be there for skills that employers need, and for people looking to switch industries.

[Related: PIAA: printers should demand energy action]

Businesses need reliable VET training. The PIAA is working hard in this area, we had a victory recently for the industry in Tasmania, with their apprentices now going to Holmesglen. We are chasing VET training now in SA and are engaging with the federal government at this moment.

Good infrastructure is also key to businesses and the economy.

Among other issues the PIAA prioritised were tax, which it says need to be a reduced burden on small business with lower compliance costs and infrastructure with the government and companies buying local and upgrading transport in both urban and regional areas.

We have had positive feedback from SA printers on the scorecard. I had a happy call from a member this morning thanking us for laying out the policies clearly and they said it would help them address their local member.

The election takes place on March 17. SA voters can download the PIAAs election scorecard here.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at [email protected]

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletterStartup Challenge contestants made their pitches to the panel. With Signet's approach to company investment and growth, Startup Challenge was the ideal platform to showcase the area's newest ideas and to seek future partnership opportunities.

The idea for Startup Challenge was born out of a collaboration between Signet, LLC,, the business law firm of Brennan, Manna & Diamond and Launchpad. The Signet team strategically chose Gainesville as its inaugural location based on the firm's history in the local area and throughout north Florida. Additionally, Signet's real estate arm, Signet Real Estate Group, developed and owns Infinity Hall at Innovation Square through a partnership with the University of Florida, which serves as a living learning community for UF's entrepreneurial-focus students. This community houses several innovative and entrepreneurial programs from UF as well as Signet-sponsored incubator, Launchpad.

"Over the past few years, our partners at Launchpad have built solid relationships with the local startup community and have helped many new companies succeed. With Signet's approach to company investment and growth, Startup Challenge was the ideal platform to showcase the area's newest ideas and to seek future partnership opportunities," says Signet CEO Kenneth Krismanth.

Startup Challenge is one of several events and organizations in Gainesville aimed at fostering business growth and collaboration for entrepreneurs and start-up companies that were created locally. The final pitches were made on February 20th in front of a packed house at the Hippodrome Theatre to a group of business people and budding entrepreneurs, many of whom were UF students.

Among the panel of judges responsible to award cash prizes were members of Signet's leadership team, including Chairman Anthony Manna, CEO Kenneth Krismanth, Jason Perry, President of Signet Real Estate, and Dane Grey, President of Elite Parking.

Anthony Manna shared a few words of advice and encouragement with the event contestants. "It's not enough to work hard," said Manna. "It's not enough to be smart. You have to have a plan that someone is going to buy into," Manna said. "Everybody in this room can be an entrepreneur. Don't ever let anybody tell you can't do it."

Shuchi Vyas, entrepreneur and founder of GuestBox, was selected as the first-place winner. Shuchi developed GuestBox, a company geared towards providing high-end food, toiletries and skincare items tailored to individual hotels, Airbnb and other hospitality businesses. GuestBox was born out of Signet's own Launchpad, a business incubator located on the ground floor of Infinity Hall.

Second place and winner of $2,500 was awarded to BehaviorMe, a virtual reality simulation of everyday actions that therapists can use to aid autistic children. A $1,000 student prize was awarded to peer to peer textbook marketplace company Outsider Technologies.

In addition to the cash prizes, Signet will provide Vyas' GuestBox with the opportunity for funding and consultation from its executives. Signet hopes to geographically expand the Startup Challenge into new markets as the contest continues to grow.

About Startup Challenge

The Startup Challenge brings together the brightest minds from across Gainesville, Jacksonville, and more to collaborate and compete for cash prizes and bragging rights as North Floridas best startup. Learn more at startupchallenge.org.

About Signet, LLC.

Signet brings an innovative, unconventional approach to global investment that embodies creativity and forward thinking to achieve long-term success. With leadership and expertise in the areas of project structuring, capital formation, operational investment and management, we tailor strategy and resources to meet each unique opportunity. Boundless in ideas and tactics, Signet has spent 20+ years crafting collaborative partnerships that advance initiatives in real estate, diversified manufacturing, health and wellness, emerging technologies, investment banking and finance. Learn more at signetllc.com.Buyatab Online Inc., a leading provider of online digital gift card solutions ("eGift Cards"), is pleased to announce that Matias Marquez, Buyatab's founder and COO will be speaking at Flourish- The Branded Currency Conference. This year's conference will be taking place on April 9-11 in Chicago, Illinois.

In this session, Mr. Marquez will discuss how technology has generated innovation in digital gifting. Through examples and anecdotes, he will explore how the use of branded currency, in the form of mobile payments and digital/mobile gifting, are currently being adopted by consumers and will describe what we can expect to see in the future.

Who: Matias Marquez, founder & COO, Buyatab Online Inc.

What: "Lets get digital: Mobile Technology and its impact on Branded Currency"

Where: Hyatt Center Chicago Magnificent Mile, Grand Ballroom A&B

Presented by K+H Connections, Flourish aims to connect industry experts to create conversations around the growth of branded currency. This conference will feature specialist in the fields of retail, fraud, security, processing, point-of-sale, loyalty, rewards and eCommerce, aimed to educate attendees on how branded currency programs can benefit their own strategic initiatives and programs. To learn more, visit https://www.flourishcon.com/

About Buyatab

Buyatab is a leading provider of advanced online gift card infrastructure solutions for medium- and large-sized businesses. Buyatab provides a seamless solution for gift cards to be purchased from a merchant's online properties (website, mobile site, Facebook page, etc.) and delivered to recipients via email or text message, leveraging the rapid growth in mobile device and social media use, and with full compatibility to mobile wallets such as Apple Wallet. With clients in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, Buyatab provides eGift Card services to merchants in a wide variety of sectors, including retail, hospitality, restaurant, shopping, hotel and others.

http://www.buyatab.comFor years I was against getting into the product procurement business. I had seen so many resellers doing business in a less-than-honorable manner and I simply didn't want Afidence to be associated. But Timbelo was able to bring the level of trust we strive to achieve to these services.

Afidence Inc., an award-winning business, and IT solutions company, has announced the acquisition of two divisions of Timbelo Inc. - the product procurement division and the IT recruiting division. Providing clients with unbiased, real-time business and IT solutions built on a foundation of integrity and quality, Afidence is thrilled to now offer these additional services to their clients.

Timbelo Inc., a certified, 100% women-owned, diverse supplier of business solutions and acquisitions, was created by Barbara E. Hogan in 2016. Barbara is also the Co-Owner of Afidence and founded the new company to address a specific question, "Why can't we bring integrity to the product sales industry?", and she has done just that.

At the core of the acquisition is Timbelo's industry-changing product procurement service which revolves around empowering clients through quality and integrity. Timbelo doesn't push products on clients based on backroom vendor deals. Instead, they work with each client to ensure they are getting the right products to meet their needs, at the best possible price, backed by pricing transparency that no other company offers.

"For years I was very much against Afidence getting into the product procurement business. I had seen so many resellers doing business in a less-than-honorable manner and I simply didn't want Afidence to be associated to that part of the industry," explained Bryan Hogan, President/CEO & Co-Owner of Afidence. "But Timbelo was able to bring the level of trust and transparency we strive to achieve to these services and that makes them a perfect fit for our clients."

The addition of product procurement and IT recruiting to Afidence will not only give clients more options and services, but it will also simplify their processes with confidence.

Timbelo Inc. will continue to empower people and organizations to achieve their goals for success by providing quality and honest business advisory services. Additionally, Barbara E. Hogan will continue her public speaking engagements as a panelist, moderator, and interviewer.

About Afidence

Afidence is a technology consulting and services firm launched in 2010 with a goal to earn trusted relationships by surrounding their clients with clear, transparent, and honest solutions unmatched in the IT Industry. Afidence serves over 80 active clients in the Cincinnati-Dayton region, extending into 30 states and 15 countries. Headquartered in Mason, Ohio, Afidence also maintains support offices in Miamisburg, Ohio.Ron Fish, a former Marine officer and pilot who has been a practicing intellectual property attorney for forty years specializing in high-tech electronics and software production, has completed his book The Tupi Field: A Carrier Battle between the US and China over Oil: a fast-paced military thriller pitting two superpowers against each other in the quest for fossil fuels.

Ron shares, If you liked the flavor of Top Gun, you will love this military action thriller. It has aircraft carriers, stealth jets, SEAL and Force Recon teams, stealth submarines, and lots of air-to-air combat between US F/A-18s, F-35s, F-22s, and Chinese Su-30MK2 Flankers. It is a hoot to read.

Published by New York City-based Page Publishing, Ron Fishs thriller is a must-read for military action aficionados.

Readers who wish to experience this gripping and potent work can purchase The Tupi Field: A Carrier Battle between the US and China over Oil at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional New York-based full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and the like. Its roster of accomplished authors and publishing professionals allows writers to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.TEKLYNX Enterprise Product Manager Nick Recht Im honored to be named a 2018 Food Logistics Champions: Rock Star of the Supply Chain because it reflects TEKLYNX commitment to the advancement of the global food supply chain.  TEKLYNX Enterprise Product Manager, Nick Recht

TEKLYNX International, the worlds leading barcode and RFID labeling software developer and solutions provider, today announced Enterprise Product Manager Nick Recht has been named a 2018 Food Logistics Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain by Food Logistics. The distinguished list, featured in the March 2018 issue of Food Logistics magazine, recognizes influential individuals in the food and beverage industry whose achievements, hard work, and vision have shaped and attained milestones in safety, efficiency, productivity and innovation through the global food supply chain.

Im honored to be named a 2018 Food Logistics Champions: Rock Star of the Supply Chain because it reflects TEKLYNX commitment to the advancement of the global food supply chain, states Recht. We partner with food and beverage companies around the world to ensure our barcode and RFID labeling solutions help them label smarter, print faster and operate more efficiently.

A TEKLYNX team member since 2009, Recht was instrumental in the companys growth and success of its premier enterprise-level label management solution, TEKLYNX CENTRAL. Recht has partnered with large enterprises throughout the food industry to integrate labeling operations into their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Today, TEKLYNX CENTRAL adds value to supply chains at some of the largest food companies worldwide.

TEKLYNX is the only barcode labeling solutions provider to offer subscription licensing  allowing food and beverage manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to start using TEKLYNX for a low cost of entry  while offering a portfolio of tiered solutions that are designed to grow with companies over time. To view the 2018 Food Logistics Champions: Rock Star of the Supply Chain list visit foodlogistics.com and to learn more about TEKLYNX barcode labeling software solutions visit teklynx.com.

About TEKLYNX International

TEKLYNX International is the worlds leading barcode and RFID labeling software developer and solutions provider. An industry innovator for over 30 years, TEKLYNX helps companies operate smoothly and efficiently by implementing labeling solutions that streamline operations while staying ahead of industry-specific compliance and emerging regulations. TEKLYNX is world-renowned for its customer service; offering flexible purchase options, unparalleled service and support, and a comprehensive product offering that grows with companies over time. With operations in the United States, Europe, Japan, Latin America, China and Singapore, more than 630,000 companies in over 120 countries look to TEKLYNX integrated software solutions for their standard of success. Learn more by visiting teklynx.com, LinkedIn, Twitter @Teklynx, and Facebook.com/TEKLYNXInternational or call 888-629-4444.Company is proud member of National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM)

Golden, CO (TBD). The National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM) held their annual conference at the Marriott Sawgrass Resort in Ponte Vedra Beach last month, February 24-27. For the fifth straight year Gary McKinley, owner of Craters & Freighters of SW Florida, exhibited for Craters & Freighters Franchise who proudly supports the organization. This year at NASMM, Craters & Freighters presented their services and held a raffle for booth visitors giving away a new iPad mini to one lucky attendee. Roslyn Smyth from "A Family Friend for Seniors, LLC" out of Longwood, FL won the iPad.

The National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM) is the leading membership organization for Senior Move Managers in the United States, Canada and abroad. NASMM is recognized for its innovative programs and expertise related to Senior Move Management, transition and relocation issues affecting older adults and their families.

Craters & Freighters has been providing expert senior and logistic services for over 27 years and has over sixty brick and mortar locations throughout the United States. They are ever mindful of the struggles and emotions families and loved ones undergo during these transitional times by offering complete single source services of pick-up, packaging, shipping, insurance and delivery for both domestic and international clients.

Senior Move Managers have the unique profession of not only managing and organizing an entire move, but to also ensure items are delivered in perfect condition to their clients' new home or to family members throughout the country. Often times they call on moving, retail pack and ship stores or parcel shipping companies to assist with moving everyday belongings, but these are not always the right fit. Craters & Freighters fill the needs of clients during the stressful times in downsizing or estate liquidations.

For more information about NASMM, visit https://www.nasmm.org/index.cfm

The next NASMM event is located in San Diego, March 7th - 10th 2019.

About

Craters & Freighters was founded in June 1990 to meet the needs of businesses and consumers for specialty freight handling. For over two decades, Craters & Freighters has been meeting America's custom shipping needs with consistent, high quality professional packaging, crating and worldwide transportation services. We are looked to by both consumers and businesses to protect their assets with our unique range of services.

The company serves consumers and businesses in all sectors including furniture, heirlooms, antiques, telecommunications, electronics, medical equipment, aerospace, biotechnology, and heavy machinery. With Expertise that Delivers, the company dominates the specialty freight industry.Were just happy to give clients an affordable way to take pest Management problems into their own hands with scientifically- designed products that work!

Cities across the nation continue to be high-risk centers for bedbugs, roaches, rats, mice, and other pest infestations. These pests pose a real risk of biohazards, disease, and unsafe living conditions. This costs businesses and property management companies thousands of dollars with only moderate success in containment and elimination of these pests. Without regular preventative measures, buildings are only opening their doors to a later infestation.

Sleep Tight Supplies, the newest partner company of the Sleep Tight Group, offers an informed and strategic approach to pest control and containment solutions by taking a proactive approach to eliminate the threat of these pests through its wide selection of preventative supplies. The Sleep Tight Group offers a three-pronged approach to pest control and prevention. Through the use of careful multifaceted Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies, the Sleep Tight Group provides property managers and businesses with powerful pest management solutions all under one roof. This includes a supply store specializing in bedbug, roaches, rodents, and other pest prevention equipment and traps.

Sleep Tight Supplies provides a cheaper and more effective alternative to pest control. Instead of paying thousands for a new mattress, a strategically-designed mattress cover with a scientifically proven bug-stop seal can save properties from expensive refurbishing costs. This is only one example of the effectiveness of Sleep Tight Supplies line of products.

Step one is being informed and educated about the problem. Step two is effective preventative measures and supplies. Step three is pest control and elimination. We work with clients to have the first two steps in place so theyre less likely to need the third. - Brad Bishop of Sleep Tight

Pest control products offered through Sleep Tight Supplies include hybrid zippered mattress covers (as low as $29.99), slim glue boards, sprays, powders, mouse traps, and an array of the latest protective measures available on the market. By implementing just a few of these products, hotels, hostels, apartments, shelters, motels, and businesses are better equipped to identify, contain, and prevent future risks of infestations.

Were just happy to give clients an affordable way to take pest management problems into their own hands with scientifically-designed products that work! - Brad Bishop of Sleep Tight

Together with Sleep Tight Pest Control and Sleep Tight Biohazard, the California-based conglomerate offers a unique and valuable asset for anyone that owns residential or commercial property. Sleep Tight Supplies operates out of its home office in San Francisco, California, but sells to clients across the United States. Same-day shipping is available for local purchases, and free standard shipping for nationwide purchases.

For more advice or information about pest control products best for your needs, friendly staff members are available by calling the office Monday-Friday from 9:00am  5:00pm PST. Otherwise, feel free to browse Sleep Tight Supplies line of pest control products at http://www.sleeptight.com.

About Sleep Tight Supplies

The success of Sleep Tight began in 2002, when it attained 100% bedbug eradication in San Franciscos most high-risk neighborhoods. This involved intensive community commitment to learning, collaborating and installing the best pest control methods for bedbugs, roaches, rodents, and other pests.

Today, the Sleep Tight Groups management continues this legacy for cities across the US with its partner company Sleep Tight Supplies. Sleep Tight Supplies offers products that are designed based on years of experience and education into how bedbugs, roaches, rodents, and other pests have adapted to human habitation.Today at the 2018 National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference, Pearson and Labster announced their partnership that will empower high school students by providing access to Labsters award winning, game-based virtual simulations. The partnership comes in tandem with the release of the newest edition of Pearsons Miller & Levine Biology textbook, and the simulations are set to be rolled out to millions of students across the U.S. over the next few years.

Pearson and Labster will demonstrate the integration during NSTA at the Pearson booth #222 on March 15 and 16. A demo is also available at pearsonrealize.com.

The Miller & Levine Biology package will include access to a selection of Labster simulations that will be available to students with the purchase of the textbook and have been specifically designed to compliment their biology curriculum. Labsters simulations have been proven to increase both learning and student motivation using elements from computer gaming combined with the psychology of learning and its the goal of this partnership to ensure students stay in school and pursue careers in the field of science.

Partnering with Labster underscores our continued commitment to improving outcomes for learners by providing greater access to uniquely effective and innovative digital learning experiences that increase engagement and achievement, said Bethlam Forsa, Managing Director, Pearson Learning Services.

A huge part of Labsters mission is to empower as many students as possible by providing them with access to high quality learning materials and to transform the education space through the innovative use of new technologies. Our partnership with Pearson is set to help us do just that, as over the next few years, we will provide millions of students with access to our simulations, including those who could benefit from it most, said Mads Bonde, Labster Co-Founder and CEO.

In a study published in Nature Biotechnology, gamified laboratory simulations were compared to traditional teaching methods and researchers observed a 76 percent increase in learning outcomes by using a gamified laboratory simulation compared to traditional teaching and a 101 percent increase when used in combination.

Labster provides an easily accessible way for students from all over the world to experience science. The tech company is made up of learning psychologists, game designers, biologists and teachers who work in collaboration in order to achieve the highest level of motivation and learning outcomes for students.The simulations can be accessed anytime, and from anywhere, and are currently being utilized by top tier Universities internationally.

For more information, visit pearsonschool.com/millerlevine.

About Pearson

Pearson is the worlds learning company, with expertise in educational courseware and assessment, and a range of teaching and learning services powered by technology. Our mission is to help people make progress through access to better learning. We believe that learning opens up opportunities, creating fulfilling careers and better lives. For more, visit http://www.pearson.com.

About Labster

Labster is a company dedicated to developing fully interactive advanced lab simulations that are designed to stimulate students natural curiosity and highlight the connection between science and the real world. Founded in 2012 by Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde and Michael Bodekaer, the company has already received more than $20 million in grant funding and investments. Students of all ages can access Labsters virtual labs for a reasonable monthly subscription. The company has customers at over 150 institutions in 25 countries, including ETH in Zurich, MIT and Imperial College. http://www.labster.comThis is further recognition of our commitment and dedication to our customers. The awards reinforce how we partner with a focus on our customers, develop lasting relationships and continued success, stated David Longshore, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for Creation Technologies.

Creation Technologies has once again been recognized by our customers by achieving top honors in three out of five categories for Responsiveness, Technology and Value by EMS Provider with revenue of over $500 million. CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Editor-in-Chief, Mike Buetow, presented the awards to Creation Technologies President & CEO Bhawnesh Mathur at the San Diego Convention Center on February 27, 2018 during the IPC APEX EXPO.

Sponsored by CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, the Service Excellence Awards (SEA) for Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) providers honors companies that excel in the critical area of customer service and acknowledges companies that receive the highest customer service ratings, as judged by their own customers. EMS companies submit a list of their customers to survey and rank in the categories of Dependability and Timely Delivery, Technology, Responsiveness, Manufacturing Quality, and Value.

This is further recognition of our commitment and dedication to our customers. The awards reinforce how we partner with a focus on our customers, develop lasting relationships and continued success, stated David Longshore, Chief of Sales and Marketing Officer for Creation Technologies.

Thanks to all Creation team members for their continued efforts in serving our customers.

For more information on the 2018 Service Excellence Awards, please visit: http://www.circuitsassembly.com/ca/editorial/service-excellence-award/12400-sea-winners.html

About Creation Technologies

Creation Technologies (http://www.creationtech.com) provides total product lifecycle solutions including turnkey design, rapid prototyping, manufacturing and fulfillment to its customers around the world. Since 1991, Creation has been focused on making it easy for OEMs to say yes to their customers.

The company of approximately 3,000 people operates ten manufacturing locations, two design centers and two rapid prototyping centers in the USA, Canada, Mexico and China. Its OEM customers are in the Industrial & Instrumentation, Medical, Communications, Transportation, Aerospace, Defense & Security, and Energy & Environmental markets.USAFAs mission to educate, train and inspire men and women to become officers of character melds nicely with the Societys emphasis on excellence and service," said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd.

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi will install its 347th chapter at the United States Air Force Academy today. Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, Phi Kappa Phi is the nations oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society.

The installation of the United States Air Force Academy chapter comes after a thorough chartering process and approval from the Societys board of directors. To be eligible, an institution must be a regionally accredited four-year college or university with an established reputation of excellence and an expressed commitment to upholding the values of the Society.

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is pleased to welcome the United States Air Force Academy to its community of scholars, joining its peers at the U.S. military and naval academies, said Society Executive Director Dr. Mary Todd. USAFAs mission to educate, train and inspire men and women to become officers of character melds nicely with the Societys emphasis on excellence and service.

Officers elected by the chartering group to serve the newly installed chapter include President Dr. Maxine Ann Fawcett-Yeske, President-elect Lt. Col. David Buchanan, Secretary Dr. Katherine Bates, Treasurer Dr. Dale Peterson, Awards & Grants Coordinator Dr. Sonia Esquivel and Public Relations Officer Dr. Hal Taylor.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 under the leadership of Marcus L. Urann who had a desire to create a different kind of honor societyone that recognized excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the Society has chapters on more than 300 select campuses in the United States and the Philippines and inducts approximately 30,000 new members each year. Membership is by invitation only to the top 7.5 percent of juniors and the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students, along with faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

About Phi Kappa Phi

The Societys mission is "To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others." Since its founding, more than 1.5 million members have been initiated into Phi Kappa Phi. Some of the organization's more notable members include former President Jimmy Carter, NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, novelist John Grisham and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley. The Society has awarded more than $15 million since the inception of its awards program in 1932. Today, $1.4 million is awarded each biennium to qualifying students and members through graduate fellowships, undergraduate study abroad grants, member and chapter awards, and grants for local and national literacy initiatives. For more information about Phi Kappa Phi, visit http://www.PhiKappaPhi.org.Top Exhibitors at HIMSS 2018 Human interpretation of tonality is currently the most accurate judge of sentiment. Our team ensures that customers receive the most valid and contextual media intelligence possible, by having dedicated analysts address the nuances that software currently cannot.

Premier media intelligence provider, Fullintel, published a media analysis report today on this years Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference & Exhibition (HIMSS18). Held last week in Las Vegas, this years event drew over 45,000 attendees. With nearly 1,300+ vendors exhibiting a wide variety of technological products through almost 300 education sessions, the conference unveiled solutions to some of todays greatest challenges in the health information and health technology spaces.

Fullintels media analysts covered every session on current innovations and challenges, recapping and summarizing the conference using quantitative, graphical representations. As per the report, Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Dive registered the most coverage this year, publishing 210 and 102 articles on the show, respectively. Additionally, Fullintel media analysts curated more than 7,000 stories from both traditional and social media to study the complete impact of the press pickup across multiple mediums. Stories were scored across numerous facets, such as prominence, tonality and key message inclusion. The media coverage report also includes the analysis of more than 400 million online impressions collected from various global sources.

The report highlights the top 8 exhibitors who registered the greatest impact in the media, and also includes information on top individual journalists covering the event. The analysis report also presents top quotes from industry leaders and influencers who have created the most impact this year, analyzing the sentiment of their statements.

Human interpretation of tonality is currently the most accurate judge of sentiment explains Fullintel Co-Founder and President, Andrew Koeck. Our team ensures that customers receive the most valid and contextual media intelligence possible, by having dedicated analysts address the nuances that software currently cannot. A copy of the report can be downloaded from this link.

About Fullintel

Fullintel is a media intelligence company offering comprehensive media monitoring, event monitoring, executive news briefs, media coverage reports and competitive analysis to some of the largest organization in the world. For more details, visit https://www.fullintel.com/Employees engaged in a productive meeting Were excited to bring practical experiences to the next generation of industry professionals

Two brands within the Guitar Center enterprise will launch a comprehensive music industry internship program at the Music & Arts corporate office in Frederick, Maryland.

The program is designed for college students interested in gaining experience in the music business industry. Opportunities are available in the marketing, digital marketing, sales operations and merchandising departments.

This internship program is a welcomed addition to our business model, said Kurt Witt, director of merchandising at Music & Arts. Were excited to bring practical experiences to the next generation of industry professionals.

In addition to daily tasks and responsibilities within the office, interns are required to present a final project about a relevant topic of potential impact to their respective departments. Each capstone presentation will have the potential for implementation following the internship.

Not only is the internship program poised to prepare students for the music business industry, but it also brings students valuable connections to the industrys top vendors such as Yamaha, Vandoren, Conn-Selmer, Fender and more.

Students can apply for an internship during the following semesters:



Fall Semester: September-December

Winter Semester: January-April

Summer: May-August

To learn more about this program, please visit MusicArts.com/Careers.

About Music & Arts

Since the 1990s, Music & Arts has expanded nationwide through organic growth and a series of acquisitions and mergers with other music dealers. In 2005, Music & Arts joined forces with American Music to become the largest band and orchestra instrument retailer in the United States.

Music & Arts now comprises 150+ retail stores, 120+ educational representatives, and 300+ affiliate locations. Based in Frederick, Maryland, the company of trained musicians offers friendly service and everything musical for students, parents, and educators.

About Woodwind & Brasswind

Backed by over 35 years of experience, Woodwind & Brasswind offers a fast and convenient way to find all the band & orchestra instruments and accessories you need in one place.

Woodwind & Brasswind offers more than 65,000 musical products. The company carries a full range of woodwind instruments such as saxophones, clarinets, flutes, oboes and bassoons plus woodwind accessories such as saxophone reeds, clarinet reeds, ligatures, mouthpieces and more. We also have a wide selection of brass instruments including trumpets, trombones and tubas as well as marching brass, plus accessories like brass mouthpieces and mutes. Woodwind & Brasswind also carries orchestral strings, sheet music and method books, drums, guitars and classroom instruments.If you have a clean compliance record, dont settle for a problematic broker-dealer just to avoid the inconvenience of a broker-dealer change. Switch up to a broker-dealer that has the same high-quality standards you do.

In his latest article, Guilt By Association, independent broker-dealer recruiter Jon Henschen discusses the issue of clean advisors at dirty broker-dealers, and encourages financial advisors to do their homework to avoid guilt by association.

Henschen opens his discussion by pointing out that financial advisors routinely perform risk assessments for their clients portfolios but often ignore the downside of being an advisor with a clean compliance record who is tied to a broker-dealer with problematic compliance and financials. He cautions that compliance issues at the broker-dealer level are an area of concern rarely explored by advisors, but they should be. For example, advisors should know if their broker-dealer is home to a high number of advisors with numerous compliance or credit disclosures.

According to Henschen, as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) drills down on anything and everything, a broker-dealer in poor standing with FINRA can make life more difficult for all its advisors  even if they have a spotless record. Its an issue of guilt by association.

To explore this issue, Henschen turned to securities attorney Jim Eccleston of Eccleston Law and asked, If you are an advisor with a clean compliance record, but you are at a broker-dealer that has a high percentage of advisors with multiple marks on their compliance records, what impact directly and indirectly does that have on an advisor with clean compliance? Eccleston shares several perspectives:



First, a firm in poor standing with FINRA will need to endure additional regulatory sweeps and audits. Depending upon the subject matter, these may or may not involve the clean advisor.

Second, in defending those regulatory audits, the firm will expend additional time and financial resources, which ultimately will be passed on to all advisors.

Third, if the firm needs to sacrifice a few lambs to please the regulators, morale will be affected and possible management turnover will affect the stability and predictability of the firms operations.

To assist financial advisors in their due diligence, Henschen provides tips on how to check a broker-dealers record using BrokerCheck (https://brokercheck.Finra.org/).

He also discusses the fact that what constitutes a problematic advisor can differ, noting that for FINRA, most anyone with anything on his or her record is viewed as problematic. However, there also are advisors with multiple serious disclosures showing a pattern of client abuse, and yet some broker-dealers seem to have no issue with such registered reps if these advisors have high enough production numbers.

Next, Henschen offers the recruiting perspective, listing the criteria used as a guideline to discern what constitutes problematic:

Any disclosures that show serious negligence or financial abuse toward clients such as churning, borrowing money from a client, forging a client signature or selling away with products not approved by broker-dealer such as a viatical contract

Multiple marks where fines were paid, reflecting a pattern of guilt but not including disclosures over market loss

Multiple disclosures regarding credit issues over the last five years (credit issues caused by divorce or medical hardship not as serious)

Disclosures showing multiple terminations from prior broker-dealers, or permitted to resign situations

Another measure used to evaluate broker-dealers is to use the industry average.

FINRA requires broker-dealers to keep track of the compliance and history of their advisors through a Registered Representative Composition Report. The intent of these reports is to make the broker-dealer aware if they are above the industry average in any of the 10 categories that broker-dealers are required to track.

When FINRA audits broker-dealers, they will examine the Registered Composition Report to see if the firm is above the industry average in any of the 10 categories. Its rather common for broker-dealers to come under heightened scrutiny by FINRA when they are above the industry average, especially if they rank poorly in multiple categories.

FINRA also ramps up the pressure on broker-dealers by auditing them more frequently or restricting their growth until they bring their numbers more in line with industry averages. A broker-dealer in good standing with FINRA will be audited once every two years, whereas a more problematic broker-dealer will be audited once a year.

Henschens article also comments on evaluating broker-dealer by size. When doing a compliance review of a broker-dealer using FINRA broker check, small- and mid-size broker-dealers are the easiest to analyze. These also are the most important firms to check as they have less of a capital cushion or deep pocket access and thus are more vulnerable.

If you view the advisors in a large broker-dealers home state, you tend to find a higher concentration of advisors with multiple marks that are oftentimes required to be under heightened supervision. This is because its easier and less expensive for a broker-dealer to perform heightened supervision on representatives within their home state than it is on those outside their borders.

Problematic advisors at the larger-broker dealers tend to be revealed by a high frequency of press articles noting large fines being paid due to non-complaint advisors. (Perform a Google search on the broker-dealers name). FINRA BrokerCheck also will reveal representatives that have been barred from the industry. If you see numerous advisors at your broker-dealer that have been barred, this is a major red flag that your BD is likely rogue in the eyes of FINRA.

Henschen closes by remarking that examining the compliance history of advisors at a broker-dealer is one of three risk assessment activities that advisors should perform as proper due diligence.

The other two assessments involve looking at the broker dealers compliance history and at its financials. Reviewing this information gives a clear picture as to whether a clean compliance advisor needs to be concerned about being susceptible to additional legal risk, broker-dealer expenses (such as higher E&O insurance rates) and additional administrative policies/procedures above what FINRA normally requires.

If a broker-dealer has poor financials, there is a risk that it will close its doors due to a net capital violation, leaving advisors with frozen client accounts and a two- to three-month unexpected disruption to find a new broker-dealer.

Henschens final advise to financial advisors is this: If you have a clean compliance record, dont settle for a problematic broker-dealer just to avoid the inconvenience of a broker-dealer change. Switch up to a broker-dealer that has the same high-quality standards you do.

Jon Henschen is President of Henschen & Associates, an independent broker-dealer recruiting firm located in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota. With more than 20 years of industry experience, Jon is a staunch advocate for independent financial advisors, and is widely sought after by both reps and broker-dealers for his expertise and advice on independent broker-dealer topics. He is frequently published and quoted in a variety of industry publications, including ThinkAdvisor, Investment Advisor Magazine, Wealth Management Magazine, Financial Advisor IQ, Financial Advisor Magazine, Investment News and others. For more of his published work, visit Jon's website.Erie Art Gallery is calling for entries that embrace and celebrate the female artist and her voice. Women are standing up all over the world and finding their special moment of empowerment, their truths, and their stories. In this open art call, we are asking for your interpretation of the feminine voice.

Open to all local, domestic, and national professional and amateur female and female-identifying artists. All art mediums will be considered in this call for submissions, from photography, sculpture, ceramics, fabric, mixed media, digital, video, and audio. Also all paintings and drawings including, oil, acrylic, pastels, ink, graphite, etc.

Please email Brad Ford for any questions. info@erieartgallery.com

http://www.erieartgallery.com

The Erie Art Gallery is an inspired and innovative community hub, which will inject art and activate the area. We want to support the ongoing betterment of Downtown Erie. Together with the Erie people connect with art, artists, ideas and each other.

Jurors:

Cat Palmer  Salt Lake City

Born and raised in Orange County, California, Cat Palmer developed her insatiable romance with photography at 15 years old, against the backdrop of Los Angeles a place teeming with racial divides, cultural diversity, and economic inequality. her world view further evolved as she immersed herself in the streets of Mexico, developing a new obsession that would plague her art, forever human empowerment.

Her empowerment themes have been: self-esteem, peace, self-reliance, i am human, theres no place like home, peace to the middle east, age of aesthetics in defying societies definition of beauty, super hero women, i have a secret, keep the politicians out of our VAGINA, transgender visibility and a series with an orwellian theme.

Alison Stinely  Norfolk Virginia

Alison Stinely was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania. She received her BFA in Painting from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and her MFA in Painting from Indiana University located in Bloomington, Indiana. She is an Assistant Professor of Painting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Alisons work has been shown in many juried and invitational exhibits nationally. She has also been the recipient of many awards and honors and is a two time winner of the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. Her solo exhibition Nocturnal Emissions was featured on Hi-Fructose.com and her work Rib Meat has been featured in issue 198 of Juxtapoz Magazine. Her work is in many private collections both domestically and abroad.

Jhenah Telyndru  Ithaca New York

Jhenah holds an MA in Celtic Studies from the University of Wales, Trinity St. David, as well as a BA in archaeology. She is the founder of the Sisterhood of Avalon and serves as Academic Dean and lead instructor of the Avalonian Theological Seminary. Jhenah teaches four day retreat experiences around North America and the UK, and facilitates pilgrimages to sacred sites in the British Isles and Ireland through Mythic Seeker Tours.

She is a frequent presenter and guest speaker at academic conferences, religious symposia, Womens Spirituality gatherings, and Pagan festivals. A priestess in the Avalonian Tradition, Jhenah has been dedicated to the work of Avalon for almost 25 years, and has been active in the Goddess Spirituality movement since 1986.QuerySurges new BI Tester add-on The testing process becomes a manual one, which increases the workload for testers and making it prone to mistakes.

QuerySurge, the premier automated data testing solution for big data & data warehouses, recently launched its new BI Tester add-on to provide a successful approach to solving the problem of testing the data embedded in Business Intelligence reports.

The Challenge of Testing Business Intelligence Reports

The use of Business Intelligence (BI) & Analytics is growing rapidly. According to analyst firm Gartner, by the end of 2020, the market for BI & Analytics is forecast to grow to $22.8 billion. But a loss of confidence in the data in a report can squash a whole project. And the validation and testing of data in these systems is challenging.

The typical approach is to validate calculations on the reports to the data in the data store, said Matt Moss, a senior data testing expert on the QuerySurge team. Many BI reports make use of Flash and other technologies that create problems for traditional test automation. So the testing process becomes a manual one, which increases the workload for testers and making it prone to mistakes. And most BI tools manipulate the source data, which makes it even harder to manually test.

The Solution is QuerySurge's BI Tester add-on

QuerySurges BI Tester add-on provides a successful approach to solving the problem of testing the data embedded in these BI tools.

BI Tester supports:



Business validation of your reports

Full regression testing of your BI data

Migration testing from one BI vendor to another

Upgrade testing from one version to another

Comparison of reports between 2 servers

Passing of parameters to a report

Querying of report metadata

QuerySurges BI Tester add-on compliments QuerySurges fully automated end-to-end solution for testing from data sources through the Big Data lake to the Data Warehouse/Data Mart to the BI and Analytics reports.

Support for IBM Cognos or Tableau

QuerySurges latest release provides connectors to IBM Cognos and/or to Tableau. Retrieve data from reports and validate that data against a source or target data store: The QuerySurge team is currently working on an upcoming release that will include additional BI vendors, including Microstrategy, SAP Business Objects and Microsoft Power BI, among others.

About QuerySurge

QuerySurge is the software division of RTTS, the premier pure-play QA & Testing organization that specializes in test automation. With headquarters in New York City, RTTS has been providing consulting & training to 700+ companies since 1996. The team of experts at RTTS developed QuerySurge to address the unique testing needs in the Big Data and Data Warehousing spaces while providing both real-time and historical views of your datas health.

For more information on QuerySurge, visit http://www.QuerySurge.com.

For more information on RTTS, please visit http://www.rttsweb.comDKC Knives Releases New Model: The Handcrafted Damascus Steel "ALLIGATOR" Foldable Pocket Knife This is everything I could have hoped for and more. Its beautiful. I will cherish it forever as its my first pocket knife. I would recommend this to anyone. And I plan on buying more in the future.

DKC Knives, known for their beautiful handcrafted Damascus steel knives, has just released it's newest addition to their custom made line. The "ALLIGATOR" is a beautifully handmade foldable luxurious knife made for performance and functionality. The knife was artfully handcrafted, with a Damascus steel handle, with a sharp Damascus blade that can cut precisely. The 4.5 inch blade has the distinct finish of Damascus steel, making for a one of a kind treasure. One review from an Amazon customer raved, "This is everything I could have hoped for and more. Its beautiful. I will cherish it forever as its my first pocket knife. I would recommend this to anyone. And I plan on buying more in the future." Each "ALLIGATOR" knife is equipped with a leather seethe and sharpening stone. DKC Knives is proud to announce the new "ALLIGATOR" as one of the best selling luxury artisan knives.

DKC Knives has a variety of unique engraved Damascus steel knives that are sleek, elegant, and durable. DKC Knives is a USA based custom handmade knife manufacturer that has a variety of knives that make perfect gifts for men as well as women. Damascus steel knives are coveted by knife collectors around the world for its distinct patterns. Even if youre not a knife collector, most people appreciate the beautiful craft of a handmade knife. Its truly a piece to admire. So if youre looking for a gift for a special occasion, DKC Knives provides a unique service of helping you find the right knives for your group or loved one. Owner of DKC Knives, Paul Gordon, explains, One of the great things about finding a company like DKC Knives is that we have over 350 models. Once you see how much he likes the first knife, you will now know what to buy for him for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and other occasions for the rest of his life. Many customers own over 50 pieces of our collection...its that nice.

Today Damascus steel knives are coveted by knife collectors around the globe. DKC Knives are affordable and of high quality. Gordon reiterates that, "DKC Knives was founded with a mandate to bring reasonably priced handmade Damascus folding pocket knives, and fixed blade hunting knives to the public at very reasonable costs. Today DKC Knives can be purchased for a relatively modest cost of $60 to $300". DKC Knives has a growing list of collectors that own many of the company's models.

DKC Knives makes it full knife collection available direct to the public through it's on line web site http://www.dkcknives.com. While both men and women buy and collect knives, the DKC line up has been a tremendous hit with women wanting an incredible gift for their husband, boyfriend, or a special loved one. "Knives are a guy thing, no doubt about it," said Gordon. "But we see more and more women building up large collections of knives. Its not uncommon to see many customers coming back and purchasing multiple sets of knives because of the unique characteristics each knife brings. Knives are works of art and can be enjoyed for a lifetime and be handed down to younger generations. So dont stress any further for the perfect gift, DKC knives is your answer.

DKC Knives is based in Castro Valley California. The company website is http://www.dkcknives.com. DKC Knives can be follow on Facebook as well as Instagram. Interested parties can sign up for the company newsletter at http://www.dkcknives.com and get updates on new knife releases.The Holiday Inn Express & Suites La Jolla- Beach Area, operated by Pacifica Host Hotels, completed a major renovation April 20th and is now accepting guests to enjoy new accommodations and amenities.

The La Jolla based hotel operates under the Holiday Inn Express brand, a hotel flag under the Intercontinental Hotel Group that caters towards both business and leisure travelers. The renovation included the construction of an entirely new 3-story wing, adding 17 additional room keys and a fitness center. In addition to the new wing, the pool area was refinished and upgraded with new furnishings, along with a complete remodel of both the lobby and breakfast room areas. Existing guest rooms also received updates including new flooring, case goods, televisions, soft goods, and bath fixtures.

With these upgrades, the hotel plans to capitalize on the growing demand for accommodations in the greater San Diego and La Jolla markets. The property is located in a desirable area of La Jolla- a short five minute walk from Windansea Beach. The new wing of the hotel features guest rooms with views facing out towards the Pacific Ocean.

Guest expectations, especially in La Jolla, are on the rise. We are pleased to bring a better hotel product to the area to meet guest expectations and offer more lodging options than ever before. The renovation also puts us at the forefront of the Holiday Inn Express brand, offering a classic mix of amenities with fresh room designs and layouts.  Wendy Molton, General Manager, Holiday Inn Express & Suites La Jolla  Beach Area

For more information, or to book a reservation, visit the Holiday Inn Express & Suites La Jolla- Beach Area website at http://www.hiexlajolla.com.

Pacifica Host Hotels, a division of Pacifica Companies, is a hotel management and ownership company based in San Diego, CA. Pacifica Host owns and operates over 40 hotel and resort assets in 5 states across the United States. Partnering with strong brands like Marriott International, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Wyndham International, and Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Pacifica Host is a leader in the hospitality industry boasting the rank of the 35th largest hotel management company in the U.S.if this is any indication of how our government is going to deal with ARC and BP going forward, we should all be very concerned. Laurie Thom YPT Chairman

The Yerington Paiute Tribe (YPT) has submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to demand records and correspondence from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the Department of the Interior (DOI), The Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP) and the office of the Governor of the State of Nevada, regarding the United States EPAs decision to defer the Anaconda Mine Site in Yerington, Nevada. By agreeing to a deferral, it appears that the EPA has effectively turned over its responsibilities to the State of Nevada, including its trust duties owed to the Yerington Paiute Tribe. The Tribes FOIA requests includes all correspondence and communications these governmental entities have had with the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARC), a subsidiary of British Petroleum (BP) and the company responsible for the Anaconda Mine Site and the environmental damage suffered by the Tribe and Mason Valley Community.

The EPAs decision to defer the Site to the State of Nevada came as a surprise to the Tribe, which was not notified of the decision until the day it was made. The EPA Policy on Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribes states that the EPA recognizes the federal governments trust responsibility, which derives from the historical relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes as expressed in certain treaties and federal Indian law, and that the EPA ensures the close involvement of tribal governments and gives special consideration to their interests whenever EPAs actions may affect Indian country or other tribal interests. Moreover, that Policy calls on the EPA to consult on a government-to-government basis with Tribes when EPA actions and decisions affect tribal interests, and that such [c]consultation is a process of meaningful communication and coordination between EPA and tribal officials prior to EPA taking actions or implementing decisions that may affect tribes.

The EPA did not consult on a government-to-government basis prior to entering into the deferral agreement with the State of Nevada. The Tribe believes that the United States ignored its own policies in favor of catering to ARC, BP, the State of Nevada and other business interest to the detriment of the Tribe, particularly where that agreement removes committed funding and oversight by the Tribe.

Deferral of the Site was under consideration purportedly as a way to save taxpayer dollars by accepting private funding and removing the burden of funding from the US Government and taxpayers. The actual amount of money saved through deferral of the Site is debatable. The United States had already incurred nearly $30 million in expenses relating to the Site, but agreed to settle with ARC and BP a mere $3.5 million dollars. One of the Tribes goals through FOIA is to ask why the United States apparently gave away nearly $27 million in taxpayer money to ARC and BP, and how these governmental entities can be trusted or afford to ensure that the Anaconda Mine Site  and the Tribes land is properly and fully cleaned up. Yerington Paiute Tribe Chairman Laurie Thom stated that, if this is any indication of how our government is going to deal with ARC and BP going forward, we should all be very concerned.Shmoop's AP Test Prep has yielded proven results nationwide, and we want to keep delivering those results as the exams change and grow.

The College Board recently updated all three of its AP History exams to better align with emerging historical scholarship and feedback from history teachers, and to ultimately produce a more streamlined and accessible exam. The militarist and imperialist causes behind WWI might still throw students for a loop, but hey, at least the AP Euro rubric makes sense.

Shmoop (https://www.shmoop.com), a digital publisher known for its award-winning test prep and online courses, has followed suit by revising its AP European History, World History, and U.S. History test prep resources. All the elements that made these products tick in the first place are still aroundfrom AP-compliant diagnostic tests and practice exams, to detailed answer explanations, to a comprehensive review of key topicsincluding but not limited to a rundown of Henry VIII's dating history.

To that mix, Shmoop has added revised language from the updated tests: streamlined rubrics, new key concepts, and an updated set of history disciplinary practices that gives superfluous skills like "synthesis" and "periodization" the boot. Never again will students be asked to shoehorn in a reference to the Romans in an essay about Versailles. (Not all roads lead to Rome.) Their prep features new practice questions and review content to reflect key concepts and themes that have been added to the AP World History and AP Euro History dockets. Like, say, the end of the Cold War, which was heretofore overlooked on the AP World exam. What's that saying about those who forget history?

Leaving no stone unturned, Shmoop has also revised its practice tests to reflect the new time limits, question distributions, and skills distributions. Now students will have five extra minutes on that Defenestration of Prague prompt to plan, outline, and wonder why chucking people out of windows was such a choice political statement.

"As soon as we learned that College Board was revising its history exams, we set to work on updating our exam prep resources," says Ellen Siminoff, president and CEO of Shmoop, "Shmoop's AP Test Prep has yielded proven results nationwide, and we want to keep delivering those results as the exams change and grow."

AP students and teachers can subscribe to Shmoop for a low monthly rate, while schools and districts can get hefty discounts by contacting sales(at)shmoop(dot)com. Either way, users gain access to Shmoop's virtual classrooms and state-of-the-art analytics, so they can track their own or their students' progress. That way, everyone will be in optimal shape for test day, and not contemplating another Defenestration of Prague.

About Shmoop

Shmoop offers hundreds of thousands of pages of original content. Their Online Courses, Test Prep, Teaching Guides, Learning Guides, and interactive Study Tools are written by teachers and experts and balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous concepts. Shmoop sees 16 million unique visitors a month across desktop and mobile. The company has won numerous awards from EdTech Digest, Tech & Learning, and the Association of Educational Publishers. Launched in 2008, Shmoop makes the magic happen from a labradoodle-patrolled office in Mountain View, California.

AP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.Desiccant dehumidification rental and Temporary power services have been in increasing demand during the past few years in our San Francisco Bay Area market. With earthquakes, wildfires and flooding events we have been meeting our commercial clients needs by adding large scale drying and property restoration tools, equipment , and personnel to our service matrix.

Large properties such as high rise buildings , Home owners association and other government agencies have relied on Allied Restoration's 24/7/365 emergency service capabilities to navigate disasters when they strike.

Many of our Commercial clients have been taking advantage our new program (Allied Partners Vendor Program) with gives them access to volume discounted pricing, priority service response in peak service demand times and concierge service where we cater to their unique needs.

If you would like to learn more about our APVP clients agreements contact us to today to set up a complementary site walk and services overview. Contact Misty McCuen at (415) 529-5637 or office(at)fixaflood(dot)com

Water Damage Restoration Service San Francisco

Allied Restoration Company is Your San Francisco Damage Response Team! Our 24/7 response team is awaiting your call. Contact us today at 415-529-5637.

We understand how important it is to get your life and your property back to original condition as quickly as possible. With the trusted experts at San Franciscos Allied Restoration Company, our service professionals will restore your structure to its original condition. We offer:

Flood Water Extraction: We remove as much of the water from the flooring as possible. We work to quickly dry the damaged flooring to prevent further water damage and possible mold growth.

Demolition/Reconstruction of Damaged Areas: We provide professional and safe services for demolition and reconstruction zones. We can assess the safety of a given area and determine the best course of action.

Drywall Removal: Our team can provide thorough removal of old or damaged drywall for complete renovation purposes.

Flood Repair: Flood damage can be catastrophic at its worst. Our team can be dispatched right away to respond to even the most disastrous of floods.

Dehumidification: A necessary step in complete water damage recovery, Allied Restoration Company can restore humidity levels of an area after catastrophic floods.

Raw Sewage Cleanup: We can provide safe and efficient sewage cleanup services that minimize the threat of contamination.

Fire & Smoke Damage Repair: Offering complete fire remediation services, we can help speed up recovery after major fires. We also provide the removal of smoke residue, a necessary procedure in fire recovery.

Restoration and Reconstruction: Allied Restoration Company can turn back the clock on weathered and damaged property. No matter the cause, our team can provide a complete assessment of the damage and present restoration solutions for even the most damaged property.

Home Deodorization: We offer services to combat offensive odors from fires, sewage spills and other catastrophes. We combine these options with other restoration processes to ensure complete recovery.

Mold Testing Services: Our air testing services can accurately determine the extent of mold growth in a building, locating each site where spores are being released.

Mold Remediation Services: Based on the findings of our tests, our team will thoroughly remove all mold from the site. We will also conduct post-remediation testing to make sure the problem doesn't resurface.

Allied Restoration Company: Were There When It Matters

When disaster strikes your home, your familys lives are disrupted. You want everything back to normal quickly. Allied Restoration Company is here to provide Peace of Mind amidst the disruption. Our trained professionals are fully prepared and equipped to handle water damage, fire and smoke damage, sewage spills and mold damage in basements, bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and other areas. We will dry and clean everything from documents to carpets to prevent the formation of mold. We are a full service restoration company in San Francisco with a 24/7 response line ready for your call. Contact us at 415-529-5637 for more information or to schedule an appointment for your restoration needs.FACTON, the leader in Enterprise Product Costing (EPC), today announced that President North America Ruediger Stern will speak on product costing at the annual Spring Conference for the Institute of Management Accountants Detroit chapter.

Ruediger Sterns topic is How Costing Trends Impact Costing and Quoting. In this presentation, Stern will discuss how costing and quoting will be impacted by emerging trends such as mobility in automotive manufacturing.

The Institute of Management Accountants is a worldwide association of accountants and financial professionals in business with more than 100,000 members. It has a strong representation among manufacturers in automotive and related industries. Founded in 1919, IMA is one of the largest and most respected associations focused exclusively on advancing the management accounting profession.

Stern commented, Major trends in the automotive industry, including autonomous vehicles and mobility, will have a significant impact on manufacturing and business operations. The additional operational complexity from new processes will require extensive collaboration across business functions, starting with estimating and quoting new business. At the IMA Spring Conference, Ill be discussing best practices for estimating and costing functions in this new environment.

FACTON will also be exhibiting and sponsoring the event. Details on the IMA Detroit Spring Conference are online at: http://bit.ly/2HhzvRx.

About FACTON

The FACTON EPC Suite is the leading Enterprise Product Costing (EPC) solution for the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering and electronics industries. Its specific solutions offer robust answers to the requirements of executive management and individual departments within the enterprise. FACTON EPC enables standardized, enterprise-wide costing independent of location and department for maximum product cost transparency throughout every phase of the product life cycle. Businesses accelerate their costing, achieve pinpoint cost accuracy and secure their profitability.

FACTON was founded in 1998 and has locations in Potsdam, Dresden, Stuttgart and Detroit. Hasso Plattner, founder and chairman of the supervisory board of SAP AG, has supported this innovative company since 2006. The international portfolio of customers includes Ford Motor Company, Henniges Automotive, Fisher & Company, DURA Automotive Systems, Airbus, Mahle Behr, MANN+HUMMEL, Porsche and other renowned manufacturers.

Press Contact:

Valerie Valentine | Marketing Manager | FACTON Inc. | Phone: (248) 761-2255 | valerie.valentine[at]facton.com | http://www.facton.com/enRob Mueller, NASA Senior Technologist, considers the challenges of building on Mars -- and potential solutions. The Innovation Summit is a key component the innovation infrastructure driving Turners long-term strategy and it supports the goal of making Turner an ever-better builder and an ever-stronger partner to its clients

Turner Construction Company held its fourth Innovation Summit at the iconic Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event brought 200 Turner employees together with business and thought leaders, to present and discuss research, exchange ideas, collaborate, and promote a culture of creativity, and continuous improvement.

Showcasing innovative technologies, processes, and practices that are reshaping our company, our industry, and the world, the 2018 Summit included a creativity-building exercises, and technology demonstrations from visionary thought leaders.

During opening remarks at the Summit, Turner President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Davoren, encouraged people to think differently and search far and wide for innovative solutions. He encouraged participants to bring back ideas back to their job and share them with their colleagues, saying, Be a leader when it comes to learning, innovation and continuously improving. This will grow your stature within the company and make Turner a better company.

Blue Origin Orbital Launch Director Scott Henderson discussed their companys approach to radically transform space travel and achieve their vision to someday see millions of people living and working in space.

NASA legend and Apollo 13 Commander, Captain Jim Lovell delivered the Summits keynote address, including a firsthand account of his storied career in the space programhe crewed three missions before the fateful Apollo 13, including Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8and reflections on leadership, problem solving, creativity, and taking decisive action.

Liz McCartney and Zack Rosenburg, co-founders of SBP -- a disaster relief, resilience, and recovery organization, and this years recipient of the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovationdiscussed their approach to shrinking the time it takes to get families back home, and into a sense of normalcy, after a disaster. And Turners Lean Managers led a collaborative work session with SBP to explore approaches to further reduce the time and cost of rebuilding.

Winners of Turners annual Innovation Award Program presented Virtual and Augmented Reality-based solutions implemented on Turner projects. The teams developed applications of this cutting-edge technology, including for design visualization to inform better decision making; creation of virtual mock-ups for construction; and immersive, real-world physics-based safety training to name a few.

The program also included featured presentations on ecosystems of innovation from Terry Howerton, chief executive officer of venture development firm TechNexus; on robotics from Jeff McGrew, co-founder of Because We Can, an architecturally driven design-build studio; a project team from HOCHTIEF presented their unique approach for managing logistics on a large transit tunnel project in an urban environment; and the emerging economy of space from Rob Mueller, NASA Senior Technologist.

Together with the Innovation Award Program, the Turner Prize for Innovation, and a number of other innovation and improvement-related initiatives held throughout the year, the Innovation Summit is a key component the innovation infrastructure driving Turners long-term strategy, said Jim Barrett, vice president and chief innovation officer. It supports the goal of making Turner an ever-better builder and an ever-stronger partner to its clients."

About Turner Construction Company

Turner is a North America-based, international construction services company. Founded in 1902, Turner first made its mark on the industry pioneering the use of steel-reinforced concrete for general building, which enabled the company to deliver safer, stronger, and more efficient buildings to clients. The company continues to embrace emerging technologies and offers an increasingly diverse set of services. With an annual construction volume of $11 billion, Turner is the largest builder in the United States, ranking first in the major market segments of the building construction field, including healthcare, education, sports, commercial, and green building. The firm is a subsidiary of HOCHTIEF, one of the worlds leading international construction service providers. For more information please visit http://www.turnerconstruction.com.Pacific Office Automation has experienced continued growth over the last seven years, causing company leaders to take a closer look at office plans to accommodate this growth.

With big plans for growth in 2018, Pacific Office Automation (POA) has already relocated four of its 24 branches into new, larger office spaces. The Phoenix and Salem, Ore. offices both outgrew their spaces in the last year, so these were the first to expand. Offices in Denver and in the Bay Area have also recently moved and doubled in size.

Pacific Office Automation has experienced continued growth over the last seven years, causing company leaders to take a closer look at office plans to accommodate this growth. In Q4 of 2017, the office solutions leader purchased and renovated a historic building in the heart of Oregons capital to open up more space for its growing Salem branch.

Around the same time, the company also acquired Trans-West Network Solutions in Phoenix, which added 35 new employees to the already growing branch. With plans to hire another 15-20 employees in 2018, the Phoenix branch recently relocated to a new facility, doubling its footprint from 32,000 to 65,000 square feet.

As a growing company, we needed more space, especially for our Phoenix branch. The four locations we relocated have doubled in size, so it was necessary, said POA president Doug Pitassi. Our IT infrastructure is growing, and with the addition of a telephony company along with our existing cloud services, VoIP and managed print services, expanding these branches felt like the natural next step.

The expansion of these branches is just the beginning of a new season for Pacific Office Automation. As the office solutions provider continues to hire ambitious employees, theyll continue to provide the products and services they know bestprinters, copiers, print management, IT and more. Stay tuned for additional office expansions and openings of POA locations across the West Coast.

About Pacific Office Automation

Pacific Office Automation (https://www.pacificoffice.com) is a leader in managed printing solutions and document management software. Since 1976, POA has grown to become the industrys largest independent dealership with 24 locations throughout Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho and Colorado. The company is also one of the largest independent distributors, carrying brands such as Sharp, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Lexmark, Xerox, Muratec, Canon and HP copiers, printers, faxes and multifunctional devices. POA believes in providing custom print solutions that are fast, efficient and secure so customers can confidently say, Problem Solved.

###Recently named a Top Architect by Mountain Living, JLF Architects works with Big-D Signature to create timeless, exquisitely crafted homes (photo by Audrey Hall). The firm was also recently recognized by Country Living for The Coolest Living Room Youve Ever Seen.

Mountain Living magazine recently recognized JLF Architects, with offices in Bozeman, Montana; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and Park City, Utah, as one of the top architects in the West for 2018. Each year the magazine presents a list of designers and architects in mountain territories who they rank as top in their professions, taking into consideration the work, as well as recommendations from clients, vendors, professional organizations and readers.

We are pleased to present an exclusive guide to the most talented and influential architects and interior designers at work in the West today, stated the editors of Mountain Living in the introduction to The ML List: Top Architects & Designers 2018. The magazine extends the recognition to both trendsetters and traditionalists who are shaping architecture and design in mountain regions throughout the U.S.

JLF Architects is no stranger to designing and building in the Mountain West and beyond, and is a 2016 winner of Mountain Livings prestigious Home of the Year honor. The firm is known for creating legacy homes for its clients while maintaining the fundamentals of landscape and craftsmanship over the past four decades, remaining grounded in honest materials and respect for regional context, scale, comfort and simplicity. As a master team of passionate architects working in collaboration with the skilled builders at Big-D Signature, they consistently turn vision into reality and build houses that will stand the test of time.

Its an honor to be recognized by Mountain Living in the company of our peers in the mountain region, says JLF Architects principal Logan Leachman.

In addition to the recognition from Mountain Living, the firm was also recently recognized by Country Living for what that publication described as The Coolest Living Room Youve Ever Seen," and by House Beautiful, which featured another JLF-designed Wyoming house  made of reclaimed wood and stone from an 1890s dairy farm  that the media outlet said will Knock Your Socks Off.

JLF Architects is one of 21 architects from communities across Montana honored in the 2018 ML List, which encompasses firms from eight different mountain states and Canada. The complete list of architects and interior designers is available on the Mountain Living website, http://www.mountainliving.com.

About JLF Architects:

Building timeless structures rooted in integrity and simple elegance, Jackson Hole, Park City and Bozeman-based JLF Architects applies distinctive solutions and materials to create place-based houses marked by the influences of landscapes from the Rocky Mountains to the Eastern Seaboard. Their award-winning perspective is powered by inspired design and an exacting eye for placement, an ethos that stems from a unity of nature, beauty, balance and imagination. JLF Architects has established a genuine alliance with Big-D Signature, built over 17 years of working together, to create a streamlined design-build process that benefits clients. The JLF Architects and Big-D Signature design-build team unites passionate architects with dedicated builders to enable the collective imagination of visionary artisans working with visionary clients. For more information visit http://www.JLFArchitects.com.

Media Contact: Seabring Davis, Word PR + Marketing, seabring(at)wordprmarketing(dot)com, 307.734.5335VanillaSoft officially announced its participation in Sales Innovation Expo 2018 today, Europes biggest show for Sales leaders.

We are aggressively expanding our existing customer base in the UK and Europe, said David Hood, CEO of VanillaSoft, The sales landscape is evolving worldwide, and companies recognize the growing importance of engaging prospects quickly and consistently throughout the sales process. Traditional CRM offerings have failed to do this. VanillaSoft is the leader in the rapidly growing category of sales engagement.

VanillaSoft is sponsoring multiple keynote theatres and numerous speaking opportunities at the Expo.

David Hood himself will be speaking on the topic What can you learn by studying 25,000,000 sales leads, based on joint research conducted with the Telfer School of Management from the University of Ottawa. He will address findings that directly influence sales engagement success, including elements such as Speed-to-Lead, persistence, and sales cadence.

The Expo will feature industry leaders and innovators talking about issues related to a wide variety of hot topics including prospecting, lead generation, sales techniques, CRM, sales engagement, artificial intelligence, GDPR, and much, much more.

The show is taking place in London, England on March 21st and 22nd at ExCeL London. Attendees of the show will be able to find VanillaSoft at booth 1910 during the event.

About Sales Innovation Expo

Europes leading event showcasing the future of the sales industry is coming to Londons ExCeL in March.

Taking place on the 21st and 22nd, Sales Innovation Expo will bring all the ideas, products and solutions needed to transform your sales performance under one roof.

Boasting 200 cutting-edge exhibitors, 35 interactive masterclasses and 95 expert-led seminars - around 3,000 professionals will attend what is the standout show for the worlds most ambitious performers in the sales sector.

For more information and to grab your free ticket, click here. If you're interested in exhibiting at the show, contact Eddy Lawrance (Event Director).

Twitter

LinkedIn

About VanillaSoft

VanillaSoft, the industrys most successful sales engagement platform, helps sales development teams engage over 10,000,000 contacts every month. Used standalone, or in combination with existing traditional CRM systems, VanillaSoft empowers sales reps to respond to new leads within seconds, interact with leads more consistently, across more channels, and generate more qualified sales opportunities. Globally, thousands of users employ VanillaSofts queue-based sales engine and intellective routing to implement sales cadence automation resulting in substantial gains in speed-to-lead, persistency, productivity and revenue-per-rep. VanillaSoft is a privately held company based in Plano, Texas, USA. To learn more, visit http://www.vanillasoft.com.YASH Technologies, a leading application and infrastructure management services organization, today announced that it has strengthened its expertise in Microsoft technologies by achieving gold competencies in Cloud Platform, Application Integration and silver competency in Cloud Productivity. With the addition to the existing Gold competencies; Collaboration and Content and Application Development, YASH is uniquely-positioned to help Microsoft customers enable cloud transformation into a digital enterprise.

YASH demonstrates best-in-class ability and commitment to meet Microsoft customers evolving needs in todays mobile-first, cloud-first world, and distinguishing itself as a managed cloud partner within a select group of Microsofts apex partners. A portfolio of competencies showcases that YASH Technologies is committed to focusing on in-demand, business solution areas, along with ensuring it can meet the evolving needs of our mutual customers.

To earn a Microsoft competency, partners must successfully complete exams (resulting in Microsoft Certified Professionals) to prove their level of technology expertise and, for gold competencies, designate these certified professionals uniquely to one Microsoft competency, ensuring a certain level of staffing capacity. Partners must also submit customer references that demonstrate successful projects and pass technology and/or sales assessments. For gold competencies, partners must also implement a yearly customer satisfaction study and, for many competencies, meet a revenue commitment.

Being a long-standing partner for Microsoft, YASH has been powering customers with deep expertise in Microsoft technology, productivity, analytics tools, and market-leading solutions to digitally transform their businesses. With the gold competency in Cloud Platform, YASH will architect premier solutions for customers to achieve optimal efficiencies, agility, flexibility and actionable business insights for powerful decision making.

Speaking at the occasion, Hari P Vyakarnam, Vice President, Global Alliances, YASH Technologies, said, We take our relationship with Microsoft to next level with this achievement. In todays rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are looking for right technologies and trusted partners to help accelerate their digital transformation. Armed with a world-class Microsoft digital COE, an expert talent pool of Microsoft specialists, strategic & technical expertise in Microsoft technologies and tools, we are empowering our global customers to reinvent their businesses through Microsoft cloud-first, mobile-first enterprise solutions.

As a tier 1 cloud solution provider partner of Microsoft, YASH will leverage its cloud capabilities, along with the signature support of Microsoft, to deliver efficient and optimized solutions to its customers.

By accomplishing a portfolio of competencies, partners demonstrate the true commitment to meeting customer technology needs today and into the future, said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. These partners proficiency and expertise in Microsoft technology is instrumental in helping our mutual customers continue to drive innovative solutions.

All 17 Microsoft technology competencies differentiate a partners specific technology capabilities, helping customers find qualified solution providers with expertise in discrete areas quickly and easily.

The Microsoft Partner Network helps partners strengthen their capabilities to showcase leadership in the marketplace on the latest technology, to better serve customers and to easily connect with one of the most active, diverse networks in the world.

About YASH Technologies

YASH Technologies focuses on enabling its customers to succeed and drive IT Business Transformation. As a leading technology service and outsourcing partner for large and fast-growing global organizations, the company leverages technology and flexible business models to enable innovation and business value throughout each customers enterprise. YASH customer-centric engagement and managed services delivery framework integrate specialized domain and consulting capabilities with proprietary methodologies and solution offerings to provision application, infrastructure and end-user-focused Right-Sourcing services. Headquartered in the U.S., with delivery and sales centers globally, YASH serves its customers across six continents. YASH is an SEI CMMI (Level 5) and an ISO 9001:2015 certified organization.

For more information about YASH Technologies, please visit http://www.yash.com or email info(at)yash(dot)comTan at the Islands, a tanning salon in Lake Forest is celebrating their 11th anniversary by providing a 20% discount on all of their products and services. According to a company representative, We have been helping the citizens of Orange County for more than a decade now, and we cant think of a better way to repay their loyalty than by offering this significant discount on all of our products and services.

The 20% discount applies to the companys tanning bed services, spray tanning services, red light services, body wrap services and all retail items, including tanning lotion, jewelry and clothing.

Tan at the Islands offers four tanning bed types: the Ergoline Ultra 600 Turbo, known as the Ultra Bed, the Ergoline Express, the Ergoline Premium, and the Leg Tanner. For spry Tanning, the location provides Versa Spa services and airbrush spray tanning. Clients can also take advantage of the discount for the companys Red Light anti-aging therapy and infrared body wrap services.

Tan at the Islands is well known in the community for quality and friendly service. According to a spokesperson, We are most passionate about providing a comfortable and clean facility for our clients. In fact, one could say we are obsessed with the cleanliness of our facility and our equipment. We believe that this emphasis on cleanliness and friendliness, as well as our quality and popular services is why we are still here after 11 year.

Tan at the Islands is located at 23628 El Toro Road in Lake Forest, California. To learn more about Tan at the Islands, visit the website at http://www.tanattheislandsoc.com or call 949.699.2826 to speak with a company representative.Atopic dermatitis is an important public health issue because of its impact on quality of life and the socio-economic burden associated with the disease.

World Allergy Organization (WAO), together with its member societies around the world, will host World Allergy Week from April 22-28, 2018. The theme and educational focus will be: Atopic Dermatitis: An Itch that Rashes.

Atopic dermatitis, also referred to as atopic eczema, is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease and is characterized by dry, itchy skin. It affects all ages, but most commonly starts in infants and children before five years of age, according to Elham Hossny, MD, PhD, of Ain Shams University Childrens Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. The overall prevalence of atopic dermatitis is 2-5%, and about 15% in children and young adults. [1,2]

There can be a natural progression of allergic diseases that often begin early in life, known as the atopic march. [3] It is often associated with other allergic conditions such as food allergy, hay fever, and asthma in individuals who have allergic hypersensitivity, or atopy, said Dr. Hossny.

Because of the role that allergy can play in atopic dermatitis, it is important to obtain an accurate diagnosis and receive care from an allergist or dermatologist, according to Motohiro Ebisawa, MD, PhD, of Sagamihara National Hospital, in Sagamihara, Japan. In most atopic individuals, we often see atopic dermatitis first and usually in patients in their first months and years of life. Early intervention may help to prevent or modify the atopic march.

During World Allergy Week 2018 experts plan to provide information to the general public, as well as physicians, about atopic dermatitis, focusing on optimal care of the patient, but also touching on the economic aspects of the disease. Atopic dermatitis is an important public health issue because of its impact on quality of life and the socio-economic burden associated with the disease, said Ignacio J. Ansotegui, MD, PhD, of Hospital Quironsalud Bizkaia in Bilbao, Spain, and President of the World Allergy Organization.

We have gathered experts to discuss atopic dermatitis in a webinar to be held on 25 April 2018. Topics will include diagnosis, treatment options, including new therapies, the association with food allergy and the atopic march, and the importance of skin care, said Paul Greenberger, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Many of the World Allergy Organizations 99 member societies from around the world plan to participate in World Allergy Week 2018. They will offer patient education events and share knowledge in physician workshops, along with other community activities to increase awareness of atopic dermatitis and optimal care of the patient.

For more information about World Allergy Week 2018 and atopic dermatitis, visit: http://www.worldallergyweek.org. To find a member society of the World Allergy Organization in your country or region, visit: http://www.worldallergy.org/about-wao/member-societies.

___________

References

[1] WAO White Book on Allergy, World Allergy Organization, 2013 Update, Sections 2.4, 4.2, 6.1. [2 Eczema (E), Atopic Eczema (AE), and Atopic Dermatitis (AD), Ulf Darsow, Kilian Eyerich, Johannes Ring, WAO Allergic Diseases Resource Center

[3 The Allergic March, Ulrich Wahn, WAO Allergic Diseases Resource Center

http://www.worldallergy.org/professional/allergic_diseases_center/allergic_march/

About the World Allergy Organization

The World Allergy Organization (WAO) is an international alliance of 99 regional and national allergy, asthma and immunology societies. Through collaboration with its Member Societies WAO provides a wide range of educational and outreach programs, symposia and lectureships to allergists/immunologists around the world and conducts initiatives related to clinical practice, service provision, and physical training in order to better understand and address the challenges facing allergists/immunologists worldwide. (http://www.worldallergy.org)

World Allergy Organization

555 E. Wells Street, Suite 1100

Milwaukee, WI 53202-3823 USA

Tel: +1 (414) 276-1791 Fax: +1 (414) 276-3349

Email: info@worldallergy.org Website: http://www.worldallergy.orgThe Meatball Chronicles LA

Santa Fe Actorvist Debrianna Mansini of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad will be in Los Angeles this June to do the LA Premiere of The Meatball Chronicles and to advocate for New Mexico congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grishams Bipartisan Anti-Lunch Shaming bill HR 2401 and Senator Tom Udalls senate Anti-Lunch Shaming Act, S.1064. Grisham is currently running for Governor of New Mexico, the first state to ban Lunch Shaming last year in 2017. California also banned the practice of Lunch Shaming as of January 1st, 2018 after public pressure and hard work by Childrens Defense Funds Marian Wright Edelman and CA Senator Robert Hertzbergs SB 250.

Mansini will partner with Hollywood's Chef Hunter of Hunter and Charlie's Restaurant throughout The Meatball Chronicles LA run to create theme menu selections including Debriannas spinach bread, sauce from a recipe passed across generations and of course meatballs. The team will host a kitchen table talk luncheon on June 9th with local stakeholders and Hollywood Fringe patrons to first raise awareness of the issue while also taking action to demand that congress end lunch shaming once and for all across the United States.

Debrianna Mansini has been seen in both film and television in; Hell or High Water, Crazy Heart, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul, to name a few. She is also an actor, creator, and co-writer of the web series Cyphers and the upcoming Reaction 21. She is a New York trained actor with a passion for activism. "I believe deeply in using my skills to promote community and consciousness." The Los Angeles premiere of her original show The Meatball Chronicles June 2nd at The Broadwater Second Stage (6320 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, 90038) in Hollywood.

The Meatball Chronicles follows one woman through humorous and sometimes heart wrenching meals that align with stories of her childhood, her relationships with men, and in particular, her complicated relationship to her mother. Mansini crafts this piece in a way that transcends her own story into universal themes that anyone who has a family can love. As she kneads the dough and thickens the sauce through each Italian recipe, the stories associated with those recipes reveal the complex ways that families cope, laugh, grieve, and show their love through food. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/spgPcrCxSI0

The Meatball Chronicles opens at The Broadwater Second Stage (6320 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, 90038) on Saturday, June 2nd at 5 PM, Wednesday, June 7th at 7 PM, Saturday, June 9th at 11 AM, Sunday, June 10, 8 PM, Wednesday, June 13th, 5 PM. Tickets for the play are $15$ and available at: http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/4847

Media Contact:

anitaleeagain@gmail.com - sjkukerpr@gmail.com or 818-416-1628Attorney Neil T. O'Donnell I was proud and honored to be a participant in the Deposition College. It was a wonderful opportunity for less experienced trial lawyers to gain hands on experience in how to prepare and conduct depositions at all levels.

Attorney Neil T. O'Donnell from O'Donnell Law Offices was recently a faculty member at the American Association for Justice (American Trial Lawyers) Deposition College. The Deposition College was a three (3) day seminar geared at preparing other attorneys on deposition strategies and skills.

Attorney O'Donnell stated "I was proud and honored to be a participant in the Deposition College. It was a wonderful opportunity for less experienced trial lawyers to gain hands on experience in how to prepare and conduct depositions at all levels."

Attorney O'Donnell is a long standing Top 100 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, Pennsylvania Super Lawyer, Best Lawyer as well as a member of the Luzerne County, American and Federal Bar Associations, National Trial Lawyers, Northeastern Pennsylvania Association for Justice (Past President) and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyer's Association.

About O'Donnell Law Offices

O'Donnell Law Offices is a personal injury law firm located in Kingston, Pennsylvania, providing legal services for all of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The firm has successfully represented numerous individuals who have been seriously injured or lost a family member due to an accident, defective product or medical mistake. For more information on the firm, visit http://www.odonnell-law.com or call 570.821.5717....until technologies are widely available that provide these crucial capabilities, major pharma companies will continue to sit on the sidelines of regenerative medicine development.

Today, in the March issue of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, an editorial article written by Dr. James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. addresses the question of why major Pharma companies have largely steered clear of projects to develop regenerative medicines. Sherley, who is the founder and director of stem cell biotechnology tools company Asymmetrex, acknowledges the most recent investments of primarily smaller biopharmaceutical companies in CAR-T and other immune cell therapies. However, he maintains that more general involvement of major pharma companies in the development of regenerative medicine therapies leaves much to be desired.

Sherley attributes the reticence of Big Pharma to wade into regenerative medicine fully to the new disciplines ongoing failure to achieve two essential production capabilities. The first is a means to manufacture the therapeutic factor, adult tissue stem cells; and the second is a means to quantify them. These fundamental capabilities are the foundation for the pharmaceutical industrys successful development of all previously approved and marketed pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. Sherley argues that until technologies are widely available that provide these crucial capabilities, major pharma companies will continue to sit on the sidelines of regenerative medicine development. CAR-T cell therapies, which can be quantified with highly specific immune cell biomarkers and are increasing their manufacturing capabilities steadily, are noted as a validation of this attraction to Big Pharma.

Leading a stem cell biotechnology tools company, Asymmetrex, Sherley did not contribute his article idly. Asymmetrex was founded with a business focus on manufacturing expanded, natural adult tissue stem cells. Though this effort is currently not the major focus of the company, it holds several patents for methods for selective expansion of therapeutic adult tissue stem cells that are relevant to Pharmas first technology requirement for becoming more engaged in regenerative medicine development.

Asymmetrexs current main business development focus is the second Pharma requirement. The company markets a contract service for specifically counting adult tissue stem cells. The counting technology has wide applications for regenerative medicine. Some examples are counting tissue stem cells in experimental studies; determining the dose of tissue stem cells in treatment samples; early, less expensive detection of stem cell-toxic drugs, which cause chronic organ failure; discovery of stem cell-activating drugs, which could accelerate wound healing; and monitoring and optimizing the production of tissue stem cells during expansion and manufacturing trials. Moreover, the last application example is synergistic with Pharmas need for effective manufacturing capability.

Todays article relates how two major previous developments in stem cell medicine misled Pharma by appearing to have both required capabilities, but failing in a third fundamental for any good medicine, which is safety and therapeutic efficacy. Embryonic stem cells could be quantified and produced, but their tumor-forming properties made them unsafe for introduction into the body. Induced pluripotent stem cells had similar safety prohibitions. However, because they posed no moral or ethical concerns like embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, have undergone significant commercial development. Yet, in the final analysis, also like embryonic stem cells, their biological limitations preclude efficacy as long-term tissue-renewing cells in the body.

Sherleys solution for all of these complications is for Big Pharma to take a closer look at the tissue stem cell production and quantification technologies available from Asymmetrex. Both of the two essential development capabilities are in practice; and they were developed both for and with natural, safe and efficacious, adult tissue stem cells.

About Asymmetrex

Asymmetrex, LLC is a Massachusetts life sciences company with a focus on developing technologies to advance stem cell medicine. Asymmetrexs founder and director, James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. is an internationally recognized expert on the unique properties of adult tissue stem cells. The companys patent portfolio contains biotechnologies that solve the two main technical problems  production and quantification  that have stood in the way of successful commercialization of human adult tissue stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug development. In addition, the portfolio includes novel technologies for isolating cancer stem cells and producing induced pluripotent stem cells for disease research purposes. Asymmetrex markets the first technology for determination of the dose and quality of tissue stem cell preparations (the AlphaSTEM Test) for use in stem cell transplantation therapies and pre-clinical drug evaluations.EA Markets is pleased to announce that George Goeke, SVP & Treasurer, of AT&T Inc. and Reuben Daniels, Managing Partner, of EA Markets will be participating in the Dallas TEXPO 2018 conference titled The Art of Treasury and Finance. The topic of conversation will be The Art of Building and Maintaining Bank Relationships, and is scheduled for Monday, April 9th at 9:45am in room Houston A at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.

The TEXPO conference has been held annually for 36 years and is the premier regional treasury and finance conference in the southwest. In 2018 the conference will be hosted by the Dallas Association for Financial Professionals. Please visit TEXPOs website at http://www.texpoconference.org to learn more.

About EA Markets LLC

EA Markets is an independent investment bank focused on arranging capital. EA has raised over $100 billion dollars in debt and equity financing for public corporations and private equity portfolio companies. Our corporate finance professionals are highly experienced in executing syndicated loans, direct placements and securities underwriting transactions. Visit EAs website at http://www.eamarkets.com for more information.The lists are designed to help patients find doctors who provide superior results in the city of Beverly Hills. - Cosmetic Town Senior Editor

Cosmetic Town, an online plastic surgery and information community based in Los Angeles, is continuing their series of articles to help patients find the best doctors in Beverly Hills for certain procedures. As part of this publishing initiative, they recently published a list of the best Beverly Hills Doctors for Lip Enhancement on their website.

According to the senior editor of Cosmetic Town, Beverly Hills is widely regarded as the most popular destination for plastic surgery in the United States due to its reputation for treating movie and television stars that live in the surrounding area. Patients travel from all over the United States to augment and improve the appearance of their lips.

The senior editor added, Lip enhancement can be performed via several techniques. Some of the most popular choices include fat transfer from another area of the body, lip implants, a lip lift and fillers injected into the lips. The technique chosen depends on the overall health of the patient as well as the desired final results.

When choosing the doctors on the list, a number of steps were followed by the Cosmetic Town staff. The senior editor said, The first step found our staff focusing on the field of cosmetic surgery. They also used an intelligent algorithm to choose the doctors. In addition, consumer research was performed in order to determine the amount of patient satisfaction with the doctors. Finally, the number of articles the doctors have written as part of their continuing efforts to educate the public regarding their medical specialty was analyzed by our staff.

The senior editor said none of the doctors had any influence on the final decision of which doctors made the list. The senior editor stated, Cosmetic Town does not accept compensation of any type from doctors that make the list. Our lists are not a sales tool. The lists are designed to help patients find doctors who provide superior results in the city of Beverly Hills."

About Cosmetic Town

Cosmetic Town is an online cosmetic medicine publication that also features doctors who were endorsed and highly recommended by their peers. This reliable and streamlined database allows users to easily navigate the website and access the information they need with just a click of a button. Users can also stay informed and get the latest news on plastic surgery by reading the regularly updated news section. Visiting the forum page is also another way for users to stay engaged and keep each other up to date.A+ Dental Care delivers Smiles to Roseville! Everyone at the office was very polite and professional! I felt #1 to them!

"The Day of Giving is a great opportunity for me and my team to give back to our community. The Day of Giving event is a reminder that there is a need for dental care in our community [and it] allows us to give back to those less fortunate who may have obstacles accessing dental care. All the patients we see are very grateful for all we do. My team and I look forward to participating in future Day of Giving events. Thank you to the Smiles for Everyone Foundation for organizing this event." - Dr. Abdon Manaloto

On Saturday, March 10, volunteers throughout the A+ Dental Care offices in the Sacramento area gathered at the Roseville office on Coloma Way to provide free dental services to the low-income, under-insured local community. With 6 providers, 3 hygienists, and many support staff volunteering their time, the team was able to provide care for more than 60 individuals, amounting to over $40,000 in donated dentistry. Procedures include cleanings, extractions, fillings, and sealants.

Volunteer providers include the five A+ Dental Care partners: Dr. Chris Cooper, Dr. Tim Herman, Dr. Abdon Manaloto, Dr. Kayla Nguyen, and Dr. Flaviane Petersen; as well as Dr. Lee Lo.

Patient Stories

Johny Comilang is a disabled veteran who is paralyzed on his left side and bound to a motor chair. He was very enthusiastic when scheduling his appointment, and maintained his great attitude throughout his time at the office. He said, "Everyone at the office was very polite and professional! I felt #1 to them!" The A+ Dental team was able to provide Johny with great dental care after not having been to a dentist in over two years.

Mark Jones is currently staying at the Gathering Inn, which is a non-profit organization that provides housing and support services for those who are working to get back on their feet and become active members of the community. Mark is overcoming a tough past and is very grateful for programs like this, which helps him move forward from the obstacles he has faced. Despite his past, and only having 4 teeth left, Mark has the most positive outlook on life, and was very appreciative of the care that the team provided for him.

The next Smiles for Everyone Foundation Day of Giving will be held at Bright Now! Dental in Lorain, Ohio on March 24, 2018.

About A+ Dental

A+ Dental Care is a rapidly growing group dental practice owned and operated by Herman Dental Corporation and affiliated with the dental support organization, Smile Brands, Inc. Since 1975, A+ Dental has been delivering quality care to Northern California residents. With five convenient locations, A+ Dental Care provides comprehensive general and specialty care to patients in the greater Sacramento area including the communities of Roseville, Lincoln, Rocklin and Folsom. Their mission is to create long-term patient relationships by making dental visits convenient, affordable and stress-free. A+ relies on Smile Brands to provide world-class business support services so they can focus on delivering highly personalized patient care. Learn more at http://rosevilledentist.com/.

About the Smiles For Everyone Foundation

The Smiles for Everyone Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of delivering smiles for everyone by providing free dental care for those in need, both at home in the U.S. and around the world. Since 2011, the Smiles for Everyone Foundation has delivered over 14,000 smiles and $12 million in donated dentistry. The foundation currently supports programs which provide free dental care to those in need in Cambodia, Ghana, Laos, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Thailand and the United States. For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.smilesforeveryone.org.

Contacts:

A+ Dental Care

Dr. Tim Herman

tim.herman@aplusdentalcaregroup.com

916.784.1144

Smiles for Everyone Foundation

Crystal Strait

crystal.strait@smilesforeveryone.org

714.824.5037It's a perfect platform and partnership for helping merchants get real business value out of something that was traditionally only used for collecting payments.

TruRating, a technology company specializing in point-of-payment customer feedback solutions for online and brick-and-mortar businesses, announced today a partnership with Poynt, the maker of the world's first smart terminal. TruRating will join Poynt's Apps Marketplace, where merchants can select innovative solutions that enhance business operations beyond payments.

TruRating, which provides easy-to-understand insights via an online dashboard and mobile app, will be the first app for the Poynt Smart Terminal related to customer feedback. Other apps currently in the Poynt marketplace allow merchants to oversee employee timesheets, conduct advanced sales reporting or create and manage gift card programs, among other high-value capabilities.

"Poynt has built a beautiful terminal that's all about connecting merchants and consumers, which is exactly where TruRating comes into its own," said Georgina Nelson, CEO, TruRating. "Using the simple yet extremely intelligent Poynt marketplace, merchants can gain access to representative feedback from all their customers simply by activating on the terminal. It's a perfect platform and partnership for helping merchants get real business value out of something that was traditionally only used for collecting payments."

TruRating was launched in 2014 by Nelson, a former lawyer who wanted to help businesses get better insights by giving a voice to the "silent majority" of consumers who never give reviews. Using the 0-9 keypad at checkout, customers provide a quick response to one question, which produces an industry-leading 88 percent response rate. This validated customer feedback data is fed back to merchants in near real-time.

For SMBs using Poynt, TruRating offers the chance to compete against larger enterprises with more resources to devote to big data and customer experience. Business owners can better support their teams while effortlessly increasing revenue -- in some cases up to an eight percent increase within days of switching on TruRating.

Poynt was started in 2013 by Google Wallet founder and former PayPal executive Osama Bedier to revolutionize the payment experience for merchants and their customers. Poynt's terminals offer merchants big and small access to a public apps marketplace, custom apps capabilities, terminal management, secure payment options (including chip, mag-stripe and NFC options like AliPay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay), remote monitoring and reporting via web and app, and wireless connectivity via 3G, Wi-Fi or ethernet.

"Customer feedback is no longer a novelty, it's a necessity," said Praveen Alavilli, head of app ecosystem and platform at Poynt. "TruRating allows merchants to get the pulse of their customers and make every experience a perfect ten, ensuring return visits and reducing the likelihood of negative public reviews. The best part is that merchants are able to capture this valuable information at a point of interaction no customer can miss -- when they pay! We're so pleased to offer TruRating to our merchants."

Following a successful pilot program, TruRating is now live within the Poynt ecosystem. To learn more about how TruRating can help your business, visit http://www.trurating.com/business.

About TruRating:

TruRating is a customer feedback solution for retailers, hospitality and service businesses that utilizes real-time, validated customer feedback at the point of payment. Asked just one question as they pay, a large majority of customers are happy to respond by rating from 0-9 on the keypad. With this industry-leading 88 percent response rate, TruRating's innovative technology platform gives business owners the real-time data they need to make better decisions. Founded in the UK by CEO Georgina Nelson in 2014, TruRating has since expanded operations to Australia, Canada and the United States, and is live in two additional countries, Ireland and New Zealand. Learn more about the ratings revolution at http://www.trurating.com.

About Poynt:

Poynt's mission is to fix a broken commerce infrastructure by bringing developers, distributors and merchants together on an open platform. Founded in 2013 by Google and PayPal veteran Osama Bedier, Poynt is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and is backed by Matrix Partners, Oak HC/FT Partners, Stanford-StartX Fund, Webb Investment Network, NYCA Partners, and Google Ventures. Find out more at http://www.poynt.com.Showpad, the world's most powerful sales and marketing success platform, has been named to the Inc. 5000 list recognizing the fastest-growing private companies in Europe for the second year in a row. Showpad landed the number 528 spot on the prestigious list, with a 986 percent revenue growth from 2013 to 2016.

In its fourth year, Inc. 5000 Europe ranks the fastest-growing, privately held companies in the European continent. Companies are ranked based on percentage growth of their annual revenue over a three-year period and must have generated at least 2 million in revenue in 2016.

Founded in 2011, Showpad bridges the gap between sales and marketing to drive more revenue faster with a better buyer experience, intelligent sales content and impactful analytics. The companys rapid growth has been fueled by the expansion of its customer base, which includes more than 1,000 companies across the world, an industry-leading rate of retention and a proven ability to scale.

Were thrilled to have been ranked so highly in the Inc. 5000 Europe list, said Pieterjan Bouten, CEO and co-founder of Showpad. This is another proof point of the global need for a solution that empowers marketing and sales to sell the way buyers want to buy and our ability to capture this market. Our strength in Europe puts us at a significant advantage - not only for attracting new customers in Europe, but for expanding our global customer base, especially among compliance-minded corporations. We view our European headquarters and customer base as a differentiator as we continue to grow in this region and around the world.

In the past year, Showpad has made several strategic hires across the globe, opened up a North American headquarters in Chicago and crossed the 1,000 customer threshold. Additionally, Showpad recently secured $25 million in additional Series C funding from Insight Venture Partners to continue its global expansion.

Scaling is one of the hardest things to do well in business, added Louis Jonckheere, CPO and co-founder of Showpad. As organizations recognize the growing need for sales and marketing alignment, the space is becoming very competitive. At Showpad, weve built a solid foundation with an incredible product and the leadership and tools necessary to execute on our vision and continue scaling.

For more information about Showpad, visit http://www.showpad.com.

About Showpad

Showpad is the SaaS platform for sales and marketing success. Bridging the gap between sales and marketing, Showpad enables companies to drive more revenue faster by empowering sales and marketing to sell the way buyers want to buy. Showpad delivers a better buyer experience, intelligent sales content and a scalable analytics-powered platform thats smarter than traditional sales enablement. Founded in 2011, with headquarters in Ghent and Chicago and offices in London, San Francisco, and Portland, Showpad has more than 1,000 customers in 50 countries. To learn more about Showpad, visit http://www.showpad.com or follow Showpad on Twitter and LinkedIn.NW Cyber Camp 2018 "We believe that it is extremely important to encourage and inspire young women to participate in STEM-oriented education and pursue careers in technology, said Peggy Miller, chief executive officer of PacStar.

EnergySec, a non-profit energy sector security consortium, today announced that registration is now open for NW Cyber Camp 2018. The cybersecurity camp, sponsored by PacStar, is a week-long summer camp designed to give students hands-on, introductory experience to cybersecurity principles and policies. NW Cyber Camp, formerly known as PDX Cyber Camp, has expanded to five simultaneous camps, including a girls-only camp, that will be held in five separate locations throughout Oregon during the week of July 16 through July 20, 2018.

Taught by leading industry professionals and cybersecurity educators, the cybersecurity camps will teach cybersecurity principles, help students gain confidence and learn valuable skills, and prepare them for a future career in technology. The girls-only camp will feature female guest speakers and instructors to provide an inclusive and tailored program for young women interested in STEM careers.

With the increase in cyber attacks and data breaches across the country, cybersecurity continues to be one of todays hottest technology career paths, said Charlie Kawasaki, chief technology officer of PacStar (Pacific Star Communications, Inc.) and co-founder of NW Cyber Camp. In fact, there is a critical shortage of trained cybersecurity professionals. Oregon has more than 3,000 unfilled cybersecurity job openings and there are approximately 285,000 unfilled cybersecurity job openings in the U.S. By encouraging our youth to pursue future careers in cybersecurity, we are enabling a win-win scenario for these students as well as the companies that will benefit from their expertise.

NW Cyber Camp 2018 is designed for students interested in learning about cybersecurity, but who do not have experience or prior training in this field. Camps will include guest speakers from industry-leading companiessuch as IBM, McAfee, Iovation, and Cylancewho have deep experience in cybersecurity fields and insight into careers in cybersecurity in IT security, network security, and software engineering. There will be an evening networking reception on Thursday, July 19 where students and parents can talk one-to-one with local cybersecurity professionals and businesses to discuss career opportunities and potential internships.

PacStar continues to be a proud supporter of this years NW Cyber Camp and were actively involved in ensuring the ongoing success of the girls-only camp. We believe that it is extremely important to encourage and inspire young women to participate in STEM-oriented education and pursue careers in technology, said Peggy Miller, chief executive officer of PacStar. Weve also been extremely pleased over the years to see the strong growth of the camp and its expansion into new regions throughout Oregon which will allow more students to receive this valuable training. As a leader in advanced communications systems, PacStar understands how important cybersecurity is for our own customers safety and security because their lives depend on highly secure equipment and systems.

Students interested in learning more about this cybersecurity and the many exciting career opportunities in this growing field are encouraged to apply early before the camps fill up: https://www.nwcyber.camp/.

Camp Details



Girls Only, Franklin High School, 5405 SE Woodward Street, Portland, OR 97206

Co-Ed, Center for Advanced Learning, 1484 NW Civic Drive., Gresham, OR 97030

Co-Ed, Mentor Graphics, 8005 Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, OR 97070

Co-Ed, Central Oregon Community College, 2600 NW College Way, Bend, OR 97703

Co-Ed, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330

NW Cyber Camp 2018 is made possible by several leading companies including Title Sponsor PacStar. Additional sponsors include Platinum Sponsors Galois, HP, IBM, Iovation, McAfee, and PKI Solutions; and Gold Sponsor Cylance. NW Cyber Camp 2018 is a program organized and managed by EnergySec., Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on securing critical technology infrastructures. For more information about the camps and to apply, please visit: https://www.nwcyber.camp/We are thrilled to be a part of the truly global Sothebys International Realty brand, through our active participation in sales and marketing within our network. Our commitment to excellence is well reflected in this incredible success that was reached in 2017.

Sothebys International Realty Affiliates LLC reported that in 2017 its affiliated brokers and sales professionals achieved approximately $108 billion USD in global sales volume, the highest annual sales volume performance in the history of the brand.

In 2017 we witnessed the expansion of the global economy, said Philip White, president and chief executive officer, Sothebys International Realty Affiliates LLC. The Sothebys International Realty brand is in 69 countries worldwide, so we were well-positioned to both contribute to and benefit from that growth. The success of the global economy, coupled with our strategic goals, yielded outcomes better than we could have ever anticipated in 2017. We look forward to carrying that strength into the new year.

On Hawaii Island, MacArthur Sothebys International Realty saw significant increases overall, resulting in a 25% rise in local and global business for 2017  exceeding overall sales for the Big Island which showed an increase of 15% in 2017.

Living in Hawaii, the most remote islands in the world, being connected to the rest of the nation and the world is powerful, said Megan MacArthur, Partner and Executive VP of MacArthur Sothebys International Realty. We are thrilled to be a part of the truly global Sothebys International Realty brand, through our active participation in sales and marketing within our network. Our commitment to excellence is well reflected in this incredible success that was reached in 2017.

Global Growth

The Sothebys International Realty brand also reported growth across its global network. At year-end, the network totaled nearly 950 offices and approximately 22,000 sales associates worldwide.

In the United States, the Sothebys International Realty brand achieved over $96 billion USD in sales volume in 2017 and added six independently owned and operated residential real estate firms to its network and 58 new offices. This past year witnessed continued significant growth by the brands existing affiliate companies through talent attraction as well as mergers and acquisitions, most notably increasing the brands market presence in the San Francisco Bay Area; Castle Rock, Colorado; and in Southern Florida and Key West. The brand also entered several key new markets last year, namely: Roseville, California; Avalon and Stone Harbor, New Jersey; the Central and Western Adirondacks regions of New York; Greater Greenville, South Carolina; and southeast Wisconsin.

Outside the United States, the Sothebys International Realty brand achieved over $12 billion USD in sales volume in 2017 while continuing to expand into key markets. In Europe, the brand grew its presence in Spain into the coastal cities of Valencia and San Sebastian, and in Belgium to Antwerp and Waterloo, as well as expanding to the Greek island of Rhodes. The brand also sold the rights to the Asian countries of Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka to establish a future presence, and grew within India to include the key markets of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Goa and Kolkata.

Reaching the Consumer

The Sothebys International Realty brand website, sothebysrealty.com, saw another record year with nearly 27 million visits, a 25% increase year-over-year, with 60% of visitors coming from outside the United States and 17.5% of traffic being from new users.

An exclusive alliance with the Nikkei, the most influential news publication in Japan, was launched in 2017. The alliance enables the brand to generate Japanese buyer interest through the Nikkeis digital platform which reaches over 29 million monthly readers. The Sothebys International Realty brand is the first real estate brand to present property listings outside of Japan to readers of the Nikkei, giving Japanese consumers access to residential real estate offerings in nearly 70 countries and territories.

In 2017, the brand launched a dedicated effort to establish meaningful connections with the emerging affluent consumer, said Kevin Thompson, chief marketing officer, Sothebys International Realty Affiliates LLC. Data from sothebysrealty.com indicates that we are already well-positioned among this demographic, showing that nearly half of the traffic coming to the site was from the 25-to-44-year-old age group. As personalization has begun its reign over the luxury mindset, the consumer journey has also experienced a shift; it is our mission, as a preeminent luxury residential real estate brand, to continue to identify and execute new and authentic ways to connect with discerning clients.

Other Achievements

The Sothebys International Realty brand was the No. 1 real estate brand represented in two of the six categories that comprise the 2017 REAL Trends/The WallStreet Journal The Thousand for the second year in a row. The brand claimed 46 of the top 250 sales associates in the REAL Trends Individual Sales Volume category, more than any other real estate brand, and had the highest combined individual sales volume from sales associates in the same category. In addition, the Sothebys International Realty brand had the most individuals represented in the Individual Average Sales Price category.

MacArthur Sothebys International Realty is proud to join the Sothebys International Realty brands affiliated companies and sales associates raising more than $500,000 USD for New Story, the brands charitable partner and a certified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, by the end of 2017. The funds raised will go directly to the construction of new homes in Mexico. The highlight of the partnership came at the brands Global Networking Event, where affiliates of the Sothebys International Realty brand pledged funds for over 150 homes in just 32 hours.

About MacArthur Sothebys International Realty

For over 29 years, MacArthur Sothebys International Realty has served the Big Island of Hawaii as a boutique luxury real estate company offering the best in customer service, exclusive Sothebys International Realty marketing, advertising, and referral services designed to attract well-qualified, distinctive buyers to the companys property listings. In addition, the company and its clients benefit from an association with the Sothebys auction house, which promotes real estate referral opportunities with auction house clientele. Property listings from MacArthur Sothebys International Realty also are marketed on the sothebysrealty.com global website, as well as on the companys local website, bigislandreale.com.Dr. Rudolph Bustos, Program Director, Homeland Security This new concentration stresses critical infrastructure protection, disaster management, healthcare, and transportation concerns and is based on contemporary situations and solutions, stated Dr. Rudolph Bustos, Department Chair, Homeland Security.

Trident University International (Trident) is excited to announce another academic program improvement. Starting in the April 23rd Fastrac session, the Bachelor of Science in Homeland Security program will offer a concentration in Emergency Disaster Management.

Housed in Tridents College of Health and Human Services, the BSHLS-EDM is designed for both military and civilian students who want to learn how to prevent and react to natural and human-caused events like hurricanes, earthquakes, toxic spills, and national security matters.

This new concentration stresses critical infrastructure protection, disaster management, healthcare, and transportation concerns and is based on contemporary situations and solutions, stated Dr. Rudolph Bustos, Department Chair, Homeland Security. Students learn from experienced professionals who perform this work on a daily basis.

Career paths under the homeland security umbrella are projected to grow significantly in the near future. From 2016-2026, the need for emergency management directors is expected to increase by 8% and information security analysts is projected to increase by 26%.

The faculty in this program bring a mix of experience from the military, academia, and the private sector. Dr. David Alegre is a military veteran with experience in weapons of mass destruction protection planning, and Dr. Paul Persaud currently serves as the Program Director, Paterson Division of Health for the State of New Jersey.

The launch of this new concentration is part of Tridents desire to deliver the most relevant curricula to its students. In 2017, the Master of Science in Homeland Security introduced two new concentrations: Emergency Disaster Management and Logistics.

About Trident University

Founded in 1998, Trident University International (Trident) is a leading online postsecondary university serving adult learners. Trident uses the EdActive learning approach, which employs case-based learning in an online setting to teach real-world relevant critical thinking skills to enhance the lives and careers of students. Trident offers high-quality bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs and certificates, led by a qualified faculty team, over 80% of whom have doctoral degrees. Trident is regionally accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and has over 30,000 alumni, including more than 22,000 with a military affiliation. The University has received multiple acknowledgements from Military Times and Military Advanced Education & Transition for their dedication to military-affiliated students. Visit http://www.trident.edu, Tridents Facebook page, or call at (855) 290-0290 to learn more about Trident's wide range of educational options.Crimson Cup Vanilla Cherry Coffee Soda At Crimson Cup, our commitment to innovation delivers delicious new drinks to delight our customers on a regular basis. Our seasonal menu ushers in spring with four new drinks on the lighter side.

Columbus coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea is celebrating the return of longer days and warmer weather with four new brew bar drinks: Bourbon Barrel Maple Cocktail, Vanilla Cherry Coffee Soda, Blood Orange Ginger Spritzer and London Fog. During Brew Bar Happy Hours from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, the company is offering $1 off the regular price of these and other brew bar drinks at Crimson Cup Coffee Houses in Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Tallmadge, Ohio.

At Crimson Cup, our commitment to innovation delivers delicious new drinks to delight our customers on a regular basis, said Founder and President Greg Ubert. Our seasonal menu ushers in spring with four new drinks on the lighter side.

In addition to the new drinks, the company continues to offer fan-favorite Maple Cinnamon Latte, which combines local Ohio maple syrup and fresh cinnamon with its award-winning Wayfarer Blend espresso. A 10-ounce serving costs $4.25.

Our Ohio made Bourbon Barrel aged maple syrup was such a hit, we couldnt part with it just yet! said Regional Coffeehouse Manager Kim Popson. To make our Bourbon Barrel Maple Cocktail, we combine Bourbon Barrel Maple syrup with our frothy Cocoa Nib Nitro cold brew, then add milk, shake with ice and strain into a 10-oz. cup. The drink sells for $4.50.

Vanilla Cherry Coffee Soda combines Ethiopian Nitro cold brew with cherries, vanilla and soda water. Served over ice in a 16-oz. cup, the drink sells for $4.25.

Blood Orange Ginger Spritzer starts with award-winning Wayfarer Blend cold brew, slightly sweetened with blood orange and ginger simple syrups and topped with soda water. Served over ice in a 16-oz. cup, the drinks sells for $4.25.

For tea lovers, London Fog combines Earl Gray Lavender hot tea with a touch of vanilla and perfectly foamed milk. A 16-oz. drink sells for $4.00.

Ohio coffee lovers can experience these limited-edition drinks, while supplies last, at Crimson Cup Coffee Houses at 4541 North High Street in Clintonville, 2468 Northwest Boulevard in Upper Arlington and 116 Tallmadge Circle in Tallmadge, Ohio. During Brew Bar Happy Hour from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, all drinks made at the brew bar are $1 off.

About Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea

Columbus, Ohio coffee roaster Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea was Roast magazines 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Since 1991, Crimson Cup has roasted sustainably sourced specialty and craft coffee in small batches, which it sells directly to consumers and as wholesale coffee beans. The company also teaches entrepreneurs to run successful coffee houses through its coffee franchise alternative program, which includes a coffee shop business plan. Crimson Cup coffee is available through a community of more than 350 independent coffee houses, grocers, college and universities, restaurants and food service operations across 36 states, Guam and Bangladesh, as well as the companys own Crimson Cup Coffee Houses. To learn more, visit crimsoncup.com.Growing up in British Columbia, Canada, Vee Konkin enjoyed hearing her aunt Mankiya tell stories about her life. Inspired by these stories, Konkin wrote the biography entitled Mankiya: A Memoir (published by iUniverse) about her aunts life.

Written using notes she had collected over the years listening to her aunts tales, the book shares Mankiyas life and struggles, especially her experience with immigrating to Canada in the late 1800s. The book begins in Russia before moving to the Isle of Crete and on to Saskatchewan and ending in southern British Columbia. Konkin describes an illness her aunt contracted as a result of a midwifes mistake and how Mankiya had to cope with mishaps and skin grafts to parts of her body. Konkin also details how her aunt endured comments from strangers about her looks and missing thumb because of her sickness.

Konkin hopes that her aunts story help readers realize, how lucky we are to be living today, medicine wise and not struggling with immigration and living conditions like the first immigrants to Canada.

Mankiya

By Vee Konkin

Softcover | 5 x 8 in | 244 pages | ISBN 9781532021442

E-Book | 244 pages | ISBN 9781532021459

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Vee Konkin grew up in the southern British Columbia in the Kootenay area, went to school there and worked there all her life. She has traveled to South America, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, much of the United States of America, many of the Caribbean Islands, a lot of Canada and, recently, to China. Konkin and her spouse spend most of their time in the summer at lake and winters in Yuma, Arizona, enjoying her retirement years.

iUniverse, an Author Solutions, LLC, self-publishing imprint, is the leading book marketing, editorial services, and supported self-publishing provider. iUniverse has a strategic alliance with Indigo Books & Music, Inc. in Canada, and titles accepted into the iUniverse Rising Star program are featured in a special collection on BarnesandNoble.com. iUniverse recognizes excellence in book publishing through the Star, Readers Choice, Rising Star and Editors Choice designationsself-publishings only such awards program. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, iUniverse also operates offices in Indianapolis. For more information or to publish a book, please visit iuniverse.com or call 1-800-AUTHORS. For the latest, follow @iuniversebooks on Twitter.Quality Tools That Go To Work With You

Richard Apodaca, Director International and Arun Sharma, Country Head-India, received visitors at the 3 day event, whom were eager to learn about Uniwelds product display. This year, there were interactive demos which attracted a continuous stream of visitors throughout the exhibition. The display which attracted much attention was the brazing demonstration with the Capn Hook tip. The patented Uniweld Capn Hook 5 flame tip provides a wraparound flame for even heat distribution around the copper tubing, thus ensuring a properly heated joint. The 40 flame angle flows onto the copper tubing and away from sensitive areas, thus minimizing the chances of burning adjacent components.

The EZ Turn Challenge was also present, which invites HVAC/R technicians to connect a standard hose to an access valve under a pressure of 500 PSI. They then compare the process to connecting an EZ Turn hose under the same pressure and evaluate the difference for themselves. They were pleased with the absence of refrigerant leak as they connected the EZ Turn hose to the access valve and impressed by the ease with which one could connect the EZ Turn hose to a high pressure system.

Visitors were also invited to work with Uniwelds Smartech line which include the award winning USMAN5 Digital manifold and the most recently introduced Smartech member, the UVG digital vacuum gauge. The feature most liked by visitors on the USMAN 5 included the ability to view all critical data on a single screen view on their smart phone or tablet, as well as the ability to send real time performance data reports. Other favorable comments were also received included the EZ Access T Fitting located on the low pressure hose for connecting a micron gauge and providing a method for simplified charging and purging of refrigerant. The most commented features on Uniwelds Smartech UVG digital vacuum gauge included its compact size, as well as the ability to be notified when the vacuum gauge is contaminated with oil.

Rounding out the high profile products, was Uniwelds UEK1 Swage Expander which includes 6 heads ranging from 3/8  1-1/8 O.D. Also available are 1-3/8 and 1-5/8 expander heads. The compact size and the ease of operation were the features most like by the technicians visiting the Uniweld booth.

The 2018 ACREX event was deemed a tremendous success by exhibitors and visitors alike. ACREX is estimated to have had over 50,000 visitors in 2018, which exceeded expectations. Next years exhibition will be held in Mumbai.

Uniweld Products, Inc. has manufactured quality HVAC/R tools at its factory located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida U.S.A. since 1949. Refrigeration manifolds & hoses, vacuum pumps, tubing tools, nitrogen kits, cutting torches, welding handles, cutting attachments, pressure regulators, pressure gauges, cutting tips and welding tips are among the products manufactured at Uniweld's factory in Fort Lauderdale. Uniweld... Quality Tools That Go To Work With You."Slimani Fatiha, Head of Smart City Algiers, "We aim to help stimulate new international partnerships, and knowledge exchange on sustainable City development and high tech investment."

Smart Cities Global Technology & Investment Summit 2018 has been announced to take place in Algiers, hosted by Smart City Algiers, on June 27-28, to assess global Smart City growth strategies and partnership opportunities with a special focus on Africa and Emerging Markets.

The international event, which is under the Patronage of His Excellency, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the President of the Algerian People's Democratic Republic, and produced in partnership with global events business TMT Finance, will feature a 2 Day Global Leadership Summit, Business Exhibition and Gala Dinner.

The Mayor of Algiers, Mr. Abdelkader Zoukh said: We are really honoured and delighted to be hosting such an important Smart City Global Summit in Algiers this June. As well as giving us the opportunity to welcome other international Government representatives, technology leaders, business executives and investors to our city, we aim to help stimulate new international partnerships, and knowledge exchange on sustainable City development and high tech investment.

Technology provides a fantastic opportunity to improve the lives of all our Citizens through smart, connected investment into infrastructure and services. We are committed to harnessing that force to boost growth for our City and others across the region and globally.

The Summit and Exhibition, which will and take place at CIC Alger (Centre International de Conferences Alger), will feature over 4000 Delegates including International City Mayors, Government Ministers, Smart City Investment Heads and Industry CEOs and CIOs from Telecoms, Tech, Infrastructure, Finance, Energy, Security and other sectors.

Governments role in stimulating new technology and Smart cities investment will be a key focus of the event agenda, with eight key Smart City investment themes featured over 50 sessions: IT & Telecoms Infrastructure; Data & Technology; Finance and Economy; Governance and Partnerships; Safety & Security; Mobility; Sustainability and Society.

Separate dedicated streams will also focus on new technology investment opportunities. Specifically two key themes will be highlighted, given their strategic importance to the success of Smart City projects in emerging markets: A startups and innovation ecosystem development stream and a diaspora stream focused on reverse brain drain strategies as a way to fast track innovation and technology development.

The Smart City Algiers project will also be in focus at the event. The "Algiers Smart City" project has focused on crafting a pragmatic execution strategy that blends in the best synergies in terms of tech startups enablement, industry and government partnerships, and the leverage of leapfrog technologies Commented Dr Riad Hartani, Strategic Technology Advisor, Smart City Algiers. This is potentially seen as a template that could provide a baseline for cities in emerging markets in particular".

Smart City Global Technology and Investment Summit, is organised by global news and events business TMT Finance, and hosted by Smart City Algiers in Algiers from June 27-28 at the CIC Alger Conference Centre. Visit the website for more information http://www.smartcityalgiers.com

Contact: Smartcity(at)tmtfinance(dot)com

About TMT Finance: TMT Finance is a leading news and events provider for telecom, media and tech investment and financing globally.Brush Groundbreaking The old school has served its purpose but its time to move on to better things

On a sunny day in March, students from Thompson Primary School, Beaver Valley Elementary School, Brush Middle School and Brush High School celebrated and participated in the ground-breaking event for the new Brush High School/Middle School Campus. In addition, representatives from GMCN Architects, Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP), Cooperative Strategies, the state BEST program and Colorado Land Board were in attendance to help break ground.

Located in rural Colorado, Brush School District received a BEST grant to address the health, safety, security, and educational deficiencies in their current Middle School and High School. The project will construct a new middle school and high school complex on the site of the old high school, and re-purpose and renovate portions of the old high school building. The project will consist of roughly 129,000 sf of new construction and 42,000 sf of renovation.

All of the students coming forward will have the benefits of a new school, said Dr. Bill Wilson, District Superintendent. The old school has served its purpose but its time to move on to better things.

Wilson encouraged students, faculty and staff of Brush School District to move that dirt as they approached the shovels at the ground-breaking.

Were ready to get things started and deliver a new school to this deserving community, said AP Senior Project Manager, Ryan Anderson. The students were so excited to kick off this project and their positive energy at the ground-breaking reaffirms why AP loves to be part of K-12 construction projects.

The Brush High School/Middle School Campus is expected to be complete in early 2020.Alex Robbio, President and Co-founder of Belatrix, attended the event ceremony It's very encouraging for Argentina to see so many SMBs that have reached global scale and impact, and that put a strong focus on developing people and talent.

Belatrix Software, a leading software development company, has been recognized as one of the top small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in Argentina at an award ceremony in Buenos Aires. More than 150 people attended the prestigious event, which was organized and hosted by the influential Argentine newspaper, La Nacion, together with HSBC. The aim of the event was to support SMBs in Argentina, which have a global reach and impact.

Belatrix was selected in the highly competitive technology segment of the award ceremony, together with companies in fintech, satellite communications, and technology services.

At the ceremony, the CEO of HSBC spoke about how SMBs are the engine of economic growth in the country, and that they are often at the forefront of the latest business and technological developments.

The nomination follows what has been a year of growth and award successes. Belatrix recently inaugurated its new offices in Bogota, Colombia, which followed on from moving to new headquarters in Mendoza, Argentina. In November and December of 2017, the company was recognized as a great place to work in both Colombia and Peru respectively.

Alex Robbio, President and Co-founder of Belatrix, attended the event, along with Belatrix's VP of Global Marketing, Fernando Gonzalez. Commenting on the event, Alex Robbio said that, It's very encouraging for Argentina to see so many SMBs that have reached global scale and impact, and that put a strong focus on developing people and talent. We were delighted to participate in the event.

About Belatrix Software

Belatrix Software helps companies thrive in the digital world. Organizations partner with Belatrix to turn ideas into high quality, innovative software based on highly-tuned Agile development processes. Customers use Belatrixs digital transformation services to create best-in-class software products, lower time to market, and gain competitive edge. Belatrixs dedicated labs, focusing on UX, continuous delivery, mobile, DevOps, and QA automation, help organizations become digital leaders.

Belatrix's clients include both established Fortune level and emerging, venture backed firms. Some of the firm's clients include Disney, Adobe, AOL, PwC, Fluor, and Shutterfly. Belatrix is a South American company with offices in Florida, New York, San Francisco, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Bogota and Lima. For more information, visit https://www.belatrixsf.com.

Press contacts: Fernando Gonzalez Aguirre press(at)belatrixsf(dot)com"Partnerships make organizations stronger. We're proud to join with Intelex and their clients, to implement and support fresh, current and relevant Environmental Safety and Health eLearning content." - Cathy Light, CEO, Lideranca Group

Announced today, Lideranca Group and Intelex Technologies Inc., the world's leading EHSQ software company, joined forces to elevate new solutions around eLearning and compliance with the Environmental Health Safety and Quality sector, including risk management.

Partnerships make organizations stronger. We're proud to join with Intelex and their clients, to implement and support fresh, current and relevant Environmental Safety and Health eLearning content," explains Cathy Light, CEO, Lideranca Group.

According to KPMG's, "The Compliance Journey: Boosting the Value of Compliance in a Changing Regulatory Climate,"CCOs report that they address compliance infractions in a timely manner and with appropriate disciplinary actions, almost 4 in 10 CCOs (39%) do not consider (or do not know if their organization considers) employee adherence to compliance policies and procedures as a factor in performance ratings and compensation decisions.

Leading a new breed of compliance programs, the partnership will better serve companies large and small, that are looking to minimize environmental impacts and align their growth with better processes and strategies.

Our newly-established partnership with Lideranca Group, Inc. will offer a best in class solution for delivering and tracking compliance training, said Kristen Duda, Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships of Intelex. "Together, we'll take our customer's EHSQ programs to the next level.

Lideranca Group is a workplace and workforce improvement company and is a global authorized partner for Skillsoft.

About Lideranca Group

Lideranca Group is a unique consulting firm that applies the principles that have made some of Silicon Valleys most famous companies so successful  helping new and mature organizations navigate the waters of disruption or expansion. Applying a proven 6-step Lifecycle Value Framework to all client engagements, the Groups unique process ensures clients receive maximum value at every stage of the engagement  from discovery to implementation  all while measuring and analyzing results. Learn more at http://liderancagroup.com.

About Intelex

With more than 1,000 clients and 1 million users, Intelex Technologies Inc. is a global leader in environmental, health, safety and quality (EHSQ) management software. Since 1992 its scalable, web-based platform and applications have helped clients across all industries improve business performance, mitigate organization-wide risk, and ensure sustained compliance with internationally accepted standards (e.g., ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and OHSAS 18001) and regulatory requirements. Intelex is one of North Americas fastest-growing tech companies, the recipient of Waterstones Most Admired Corporate Cultures award, Aon Hewitts best employer award, and previous repeat winner of Deloittes Best Managed Companies award. For more information, visit http://www.intelex.com.David Farbaky urges homeowner's to choose wisely! Aloha Restoration, on the other hand, does it all

This month, local water removal and remodeling experts Aloha Restoration, Co. launches the first of a series of television commercials! For those local to Lake County, Illinois, the commercial aired this week and the series runs through the end of the new year. Featuring Aloha Restoration, Co.'s President and CEO, David A. Farbaky, the advertisement will air on major networks such as ESPN, the History Channel, TLC, LMN, Discovery Channel, and more.

David Farbaky, also the President and CEO of local roofers and siding contractors Aloha Construction, Inc., says "Honestly, I never thought I'd be in front of the camera myself, but I felt the urge and need to deliver our message directly and personally. While I'm no actor, I can talk all day about the unique value proposition of our company [vs. theirs]."

Without revealing too much about the future commercials, Farbaky says the core message is centered around Aloha Restoration, Co. being a full-service group of contractors. Farbaky adds: "When people reach out to our competition, they don't realize they aren't going to get their property back to pre-disaster condition. If you call for help with mold removal, water mitigation, or fire restoration; that is all you will get. If they gut drywall, they won't put the wall back up or even paint it. You'll have to find other contractors for that. Aloha Restoration, on the other hand, does it all."

For more information, please see their Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwqU5Vt0ouc&feature=youtu.be

ABOUT ALOHA CONSTRUCTION, INC. & ALOHA RESTORATION, CO.

Aloha Construction, Inc. is a family-owned company of bonded and insured General Contractors providing services for all of Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. They proudly assist those in Lake, McHenry, Cook, and DuPage counties via their Lake Zurich location and in the McClean, Peoria, Washington, Tazewell, and Champaign Counties via their Bloomington office.

Specifically servicing the entire Lake County area, their newest division Aloha Restoration, Co. is a local home remodeling and clean up company that specializes in mold removal & remediation, water mitigation services, fire damage restoration, and home remodeling of all kinds.

To learn more about Aloha Construction, Inc. please visit their headquarters website or call 847 540 7711 for a free expert inspection.

To learn more about Aloha Restoration, Co. please visit their new website at https://aloharestorationco.com or call 847 865 5664 for a free in-home assessment.

Aloha Construction, Inc. & Aloha Restoration, Co. are both fully licensed, bonded, and insured.Land Trust Alliance logo Congress must act now. The time for debate has ended. Every day that Congress delays action, taxpayers are being bilked out of millions of dollars.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Internal Revenue Service data revealing the cost of abusive conservation easement tax shelters. The following statement can be attributed to Andrew Bowman, president of the Land Trust Alliance:

We know now that abusive conservation easement tax shelters are nothing more than a get-rich-quick scheme. The numbers revealed in The Wall Street Journal demonstrate the egregious extent to which a few people are profiting at the expense of honest taxpayers.

I was flabbergasted to learn that tax deductions reported to the IRS from 2010-16 totaled $230 billion. That number might change, but it is now indisputable that the problem is huge and inaction by our government is not an option. As taxpayers, we should be outraged and insist that Congress immediately pass pending bipartisan legislation to kill these abuses.

Congress must act now. The time for debate has ended. Every day that Congress delays action, taxpayers are being bilked out of millions of dollars.

We affirm today our support for the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act. Introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson of California, a Democrat, Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, a Republican, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a Republican, and Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, a Democrat, this legislation would prevent abuse of charitable donations while keeping important incentives in place for honest philanthropy. The bill allows landowners of modest means to conserve their lands on their terms for the benefit of communities across America. It will not stand in the way of reasonable deals or partnerships put together to advance conservation. It will simply end this abhorrent profiteering.

It's past time for bold action. Congress and the IRS have all the information they need to crack down on the people behind these schemes. The Land Trust Alliance, our 1,000 land trust members and their 4.6 million supporters will be watching to see what actions our government takes to end this abuse of federal tax policies intended to encourage true charitable giving.

More information will be available at http://www.landtrustalliance.org.

About the Land Trust Alliance

Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization that works to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America. The Alliance represents 1,000 member land trusts supported by more than 200,000 volunteers and 4.6 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and operates several regional offices. More information about the Alliance is available at http://www.landtrustalliance.org.

# # #The former head of the regulatory body Stephen Opuni was fired last year after numerous industry concerns of lack of transparency. His assets were frozen while an investigation was conducted.

Documents signed by Chief State Attorney Evelyn Keelson showed that Opuni awarded false fertilizer contracts, including one to a company called Agricult Ghana, although he knew the company could not deliver on despite being paid by Cocobod.

The CEO of Agricult Ghana, Seidu Agongo, has also been charged for colluding with Opuni and for money laundering.

An Accra High court will take their pleas on March 23 after which it will set a date for a trial to begin.

Though Opuni's case keeps making headlines in Ghana, he has declined to comment.

The biggest opposition party in Ghana has however described the charges being pressed against the former CEO as politically motivated.

The new management of Cocobod said last November it had initiated reforms to clear debts of up to 19.6 billion cedis ($4.45 billion), which it said resulted from bloated contracts and wasteful expenditure by Opunis administration.With President Donald Trump's decision to swap out Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for CIA director Mike Pompeo, the status quo in the Middle East could quickly disappear.

Tillerson had been known to tow a cautious line in his foreign policy approach, leading many to criticize his ineffectiveness, but Pompeo has been much more vocal on his hardline approach to global policies, particularly regarding Iran.

One of the biggest issues in the Middle East, Pompeo has compared Iran to ISIS and called the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions in exchange for limiting the country's nuclear capabilities, a disaster.

Trump said Tillerson's departure had much to do with his views on the Iran deal, leaving experts to believe significant change is on the horizon.

Pompeo's tough-talking rhetoric on Iran has experts questioning what the future of the Iran deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limits Iran's uranium enrichment, will look like.

While the deal is still in place, President Trump decertified the deal in October and has threatened to pull the US out of the deal if its "flaws" weren't fixed.

Andrew Miller, Deputy Director for Policy at the Project on Middle East Democracy said on Twitter that Pompeo's appointment could have "significant consequences" in the Middle East.

Trump may have chosen Pompeo to be his mouthpiece

Shanahan believes Pompeo's appointment is part of Trump's efforts to bring in officials who share, not challenge, his views.

According to Shanahan, Pompeo's role in the administration is not to advance policy, but to provide a united front for Trump's foreign policy.

"In the current environment, policy unity is the most Pompeo can accomplish. Trump doesnt want a Secretary of State whos diluting his message," Shanahan said.

Shanahan said that while Tillerson played "good cop to Trumps bad cop" on Middle East issues, Pompeo and Trump will likely serve as bad cop and worse cop in future policies.

Still, with recent budget cuts and many state positions yet to be filled, Shanahan says Pompeo will ultimately lead to more of the same.Russia's Defence Ministry called UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson a "vulgar old harpy" on Thursday, after he said the country should "shut up" and "go away."

"The extreme level of the intellectual impotence of the head of the British Ministry of Defence Gavin Williamson was clearly demonstrated today by his rhetoric  of a vulgar old harpy," the ministry said in a statement, according to a translation provided by the BBC's Hannah Bayman.

Relations between Russia and the United Kingdom have dropped to perhaps their lowest since the end of the Cold War, after the UK  backed by allies including the US, Germany, and France  accused Russia of being behind the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.

Russia has angrily denied the allegations and ridiculed Britain in increasingly colourful language.

Earlier on Thursday, Williamson appeared to go off-script, departing from typically measured diplomatic language to say: "Frankly, Russia should go away, it should shut up."

Russia has responded in kind, insulting the British politician's intellect and claiming Britain is a hub of "fake scandals."

Alongside the juvenile insults, more serious diplomatic measures are also being taken. Prime Minister Theresa May has expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the UK, and Russia has vowed retaliation.Saudi Arabia has confirmed its plans for nuclear energy for the first time since a US-Saudi delegation discussed the project earlier this month.

The Ministry of Culture and Information said in a statement to Business Insider that its new policy on nuclear energy would ensure that "all nuclear activities will be restricted to peaceful purposes, within the framework defined by international legislations, treaties and conventions."

The statement added that the country remained "committed to complying with the principles of transparency in regulatory and operational aspects, and conforming to nuclear safety and security standards."

A nuclear energy plan was initially approved by the Saudi government in July 2017 but finalized details on the number of proposed energy plants or global partners have not yet been disclosed.

This is the first time Saudi officials have acknowledged plans to advance their nuclear program following a meeting with the US earlier this month.

US Energy Secretary Rick Perry led an inter-agency delegation that met with Saudi officials in London to discuss the nation's "civil nuclear program," a spokesperson for the Energy Department told Bloomberg.

A potential deal could involve up to 16 reactors across the next 25 years, and cost upwards of $80 million, Bloomberg reported.

The big question at the negotiating table was reportedly whether a US-Saudi deal would require aBullet took to Facebook to tag such artistes as hypocrites on the basis that they were the same artistes who vehemently proclaimed their love for the departed songstress at her one week memorial event held last month, and was therefore expecting them to perform at her upcoming tribute concert gratuitously.

"Some of our Ghanaian artistes are very hypocrite, you came to Ebony's one week observation because the numbers were there and again it was being telecast live on air so some of you came there to use the platform.

Now you're asking me to pay you for her tribute concert. I thought you loved her as you claimed on stage at her one week. This is pure hypocrisy. Big thanx to every artistes who has decided to support us. We are grateful," his post read.

Ruff Town Records, in collaboration with the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGHA), Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and Kasapreko Company Limited, will organize the said tribute concert for the late Ebony Reigns on the eve of the day slated for her final funeral rites.

The event will be held at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra, and according to organizers, it is being held to honour Ebony who has contributed sufficiently to the progress of Ghana's music industry.

The artistes confirmed to grace the stage include Sarkodie, Becca, Stonebwoy, R2Bees, Edem, Kofi Kinaata and Efya. The others are Samini, Kwabena Kwabena, Teephlow, among others.The FDA has been on the issue since the shocking deaths were reported earlier this month.

Samples of the food which the deceased ate were taken to the FDA Quality Control Laboratory on Monday 5 March 2018 for analysis of which part of the samples were sent to the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).

After several tests, the FDA later found the presence of chlorpyrifos, a toxic substance commonly used in pesticides in the samples of the banku and dough.

A statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FDA, Delese Darko, said laboratory results from the GSA on the 13th of March, 2018 indicated the presence of Chlorpyrifos in the banku and okro that was consumed by the six deceased persons.

The statement added that the FDA is not mandated to determine the cause of death. This can only be established after a pathological investigation.

According to Mr. Darko, the FDA will forward the findings to the Public Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service for further action.

Earlier in March, some four persons died at Akakpokope, a village in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, after consuming popular delicacy, banku and okro soup.

Reports suggested that the victims belonged to two separate families who coincidentally seemed to have eaten the same meal.

The incident sparked uproar across the nation after two others also died later, bringing the number of deaths to six.Challenging Heights joined forces with the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Navy, the Department of Social Welfare, and its international partners, Abolish Slavery Now, to storm the Volta Lake to rescue children who were being trafficked.

A total of 14 minors  two girls and 12 boys between the ages of 8 and 16  were found to have been trafficked and were being forced into labour on the lake.

Some of the communities where the children were rescued include Alhaji Akura, Kafaba Number 3 and Efutu.

All the children would go through rehabilitation, and subsequently be re-united with their families, in communities in the Central region.

This development has come as a big shock to many Ghanaians who never envisaged such an act going on on the Volta Lake.

Challenging Heights has been spearheading the fight against child trafficking, as well as calling for policies and national advocacy in the interest of minors in the country.

The organization has also often collaborated with the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to engage in rescue missions when children are being forced into labour.

In 2017, 91 children made up of 74 boys and 17 girls, who were being forced into labour on the Lake Volta were rescued by the organization.

Since its establishment in 2003, Challenging Heights has so far rescued over 1,600 children from the Lake Volta.Starr News reports that illicit sex trade is on ascendancy in the area as both the young and old engage in commercial sex activities for a living.

The report further suggests that about thirty (30) commercial sex workers between the ages of 20 to 40 are currently being accommodated in the brothel which has been uncovered near Volta House.

Residents in the community are unhappy about the development, especially as most of these commercial sex workers are not indigenes but rather come from areas such as the Krobo, Swedru, and parts of Accra.

The menace has become very rampant in the community, with the said brothel operating both day and night.

Charges for a sexual bout reportedly range between Ghc10 and Ghc60, depending on whether the customer wants a short time or overnight stay.

Residents of Suhum are unhappy with the situation and have called on the Police and Suhum Municipal Assembly to shut down the brothel.

According to them, the presence of the brothel is having a negative impact on the youth of the Suhum Township, as the place is flooded with prostitutes.

In an interview with Starr News, the Municipal Chief Executive for Suhum, Margret Darko, said she was not aware of the existence of the brothel."Opuni will go to jail and I will make sure he pays dearly for his crimes. If we refuse to jail him, Ghanaians will vote against us in the next four years and so we need to get corrupt officials like him away from the country" Kennedy Agyapong said.

Former COCOBOD Boss Charged With 27 Counts Of Financial Loss

According to him, Dr Opuni may have been removed from office, his deals had cost the country dearly and therefore "it is time we make him pay for his bad deeds".

The maverick politician made the revelation in January 2017.

Dr Opuni was given up to the end of Friday, 13 January, to vacate his office.

The letter said Dr Opuni "ceases to hold office as CEO of Cocobod upon assumption of office of President Nana Akufo-Addo."

Speaking on Adom TV, he noted that, "Opuni went to his office on Tuesday at 1 am and started shredding documents.

"He again went there on Wednesday at 2:00 am to do the same thing and I will expose him. Why is he doing that, is it because he knew he would be sacked" he said.

"What he forgot was that he already took a snap shot of those documents and we will deal with him drastically" the NPP fire brand added.

27 charges against Opuni

However, on March 14, 2018, the state has filed a case of causing financial loss against him.

Charged along with Dr Opuni is one Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited.

A total of 27 charges have been leveled against them.

READ MORE: Former COCOBOD CEO faces 27 charges for causing financial lossBut Tillersons departure deprives the White House of the person most experienced in efforts to reach out to North Korea. As the CIA director, Pompeo has focused more on the threats posed by Pyongyang.

Pompeo will not be able to establish contact with the South Korean foreign minister, let alone his North Korean counterpart, until the Senate approves his nomination  a process that officials on Capitol Hill said could take several weeks. The White House has not yet even completed the paperwork to begin that process, the officials said.

Adding to the confusion is the lack of official confirmation of a meeting from North Korea. Kims offer was relayed to Trump by two envoys from South Korea who had recently visited him in Pyongyang. But a U.S. official said Wednesday that the United States and North Korea had still not conferred directly about the meeting through the various diplomatic channels they use.

The radio silence from Pyongyang has sowed doubts among some North Korea experts about whether Kim even made the offer  or, at least, whether he pledged to refrain from testing missiles and to put his nuclear weapons program on the table in a negotiation with Trump.

What is nagging at me is that these alleged promises or concessions from Kim Jong Un seem so out of character for North Koreas 34-year-old leader, Jung H. Pak, a former CIA analyst who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institutions Center for East Asia Policy Studies, said in an essay posted on the Brookings website.

Even if the South Koreans faithfully relayed Kims offer, the muddled aftermath of Trumps surprise announcement illustrates how little control he has over the momentum behind the diplomatic opening. The leaders of North and South Korea are scheduled to meet at the end of April, setting the stage for the Trump-Kim summit meeting a month later.

The president, and now Pompeo with him, are flowing into an initiative that has been driven by the Koreans, said Philip D. Zelikow, who served in the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. A lot of the key spadework on this is going to unfold before Pompeo is on the job.

Zelikow, who has been involved in back-channel negotiations with North Korean representatives over the years, said that they have seized the strategic initiative for the meeting, which would give them an advantage in setting the time, place and agenda for the encounter.

They are trying to delay and defuse the danger of a war, Zelikow said. The best-case scenario is that there would be some agreement on principles that would guide future negotiations.

Trumps national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, traveled to New York on Monday to brief members of the U.N. Security Council about the presidents decision to meet with Kim. McMaster said the invitation vindicated the presidents strategy of imposing maximum pressure on the North.

But he also counseled caution, according to a person who heard him speak, laying out the possible hurdles and reaffirming that the sanctions needed to be kept in place. Matthew Pottinger, the National Security Councils senior director for Asia, offered the diplomats a litany of reasons previous negotiations with North Korea had failed.

Two obvious candidates to consult on talks are no longer available to the White House. Joseph Y. Yun, a Korean-born U.S. diplomat who negotiated with Pyongyang for the return of a detained American, Otto F. Warmbier, resigned from the Foreign Service. Victor D. Cha, a Korea expert in the Bush administration, was on track to be ambassador to Seoul before the White House pulled the plug on his nomination.

Even inside the White House, some officials express regret that Cha was blocked. Among those now under consideration for the post, according to a person briefed by the White House, are two retired generals who commanded troops in South Korea: Walter L. Sharp and James D. Thurman.

With no ambassador in place and the State Department in flux, Pottinger and his staff are handling much of the preparations for the meeting. But the National Security Council is itself on edge, amid persistent rumors that McMaster might soon depart.

Even in a hawkish administration, Pompeos statements about North Korea have been hard-line. Last summer, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, he came as close as any official in calling for the removal of Kim.

The thing that is the most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over North Koreas nuclear arsenal, Pompeo said.

From the administrations perspective, the most important thing we can do is separate those two. Right? he continued. Separate capacity and someone who might well have intent, and break those two apart.

Pompeos CIA background could help him assess the authenticity of the North Korean offer. But with no diplomatic experience, he will not be able to offer Trump much advice on how to handle Kim or how to approach a complex negotiation.

Given all those limitations, said Jeffrey A. Bader, a former Asia adviser to President Barack Obama, Trump should consider appointing a special negotiator to take charge after his initial meeting with Kim.

They got two months to pull this together, Bader said. They dont have language from the horses mouth on North Koreas offer, dont have clarity on a plausible U.S. objective, dont have a venue, dont have a date  and theyve got no experienced negotiator.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.Her headache lies in neutralising a curse placed on her following an agreement she had with individuals who facilitated her trip to the country.

The Edo lady had quickly jumped at the offer not minding a clause which requires her render a payment of 30,000 equivalent to over N13m. This has motivated sleepless nights and a fear of the unknown.

In a bid to seek help, she took an online video broadcast to express concerns about earlier agreement with her trafficker who declined her request to cancel their deal based on an order from the Oba of Benin, canceling a former understanding they had.

Bella who seemed tired of working as a prostitute sought the use of social media to to render an appeal to her boss following the latter's refusal.

She blamed corruption and poor governance in Nigeria as a reason why the citizens are leaving the country.

Rescued Libya returnee narrates how friend's girlfriend was raped to death by Libyans

Omo Harry, a 40-year-old Libya returnee revisited the horror he went through alongside his company while embarking on a dangerous trip to Europe.

In order to escape the hardship known to Nigerians in their country, Harry and his friend Denis who was accompanied by his girlfriend, Rita, left the shores of Nigeria in April 2016, but what lied ahead was far more grievous, which ensured the death of the latter, the only woman in their group.

The 40-year-old man told the Vanguard News in an interview his experience in the hands of Libyan human traffickers.

"My friend, Denis, said I could travel to Europe if I could raise at least N500,000. He told me that he was also trying to raise same amount for an agent that would facilitate it.

I had to sell all my property, including the parcel of land I acquired at Ogudu Bale area of Ogun state. But I could only raise N350,000 at the end.

Denis was able to raise N300,000 while his girlfriend, Rita, had N250,000. The agent said he would complete the money but that we would pay him the balance when we got to Libya. When asked how, he said he would introduce us to someone, who would get us a job and that after paying his balance, we would proceed to Europe.

We bought gala, garri and bread and also bought two bags of sachet water as advised by the agent and left Lagos for Kano.

On arriving the border between Kano and Niger, the agent told us to bring N7000 out of the money with us.

As we approached the border, a Customs officer came, collected the money from us and asked us to wait until he gave the directive for us to cross thorough a bush path.

Finally, we arrived Qatrun, the first state in Libya. We were taken to a connection house. In that connection house were tranke which are camps where migrants who do not have the needed amount to continue the journey are kept.

On the first day at the Tranke, we were welcomed with good food. But at night, they began a roll call and separated those who had completed payment from those who hadnt. Of course, myself, Denis and Rita were in the disadvantaged group.

At this point, the agent was nowhere to be found. In fact we were all confused as to what to do next. At this connection house, the head is called Capon. We also had OC Torture.

The Capo collects relatives number and demand money for captives to continue their journey. It was at that point that I got to know that Rita did not tell her parents she was traveling.

When she was given the phone to speak with her mother, we overheard her crying.

Ritas parents sent N150,000, which covered three of us. We thought we were free, not knowing that the horror had only just begun.

From Qatrun, we were moved to Sahba, in Western Libya, where the main tranke called Ali ghetto is located. It is close to the University of Sahba. It was a place of no return.

From there, you are expected to pay another sum to cross to another connection house in Inias, from where you will embark on the sea trip to Europe.

When they demanded for more money, Rita said she would like to go back home. But they insisted that she must pay before going back.

Immediately we got there, they collected our international passports and tore them. They said they dont allow people to embark on the sea trip with anything except the clothes on them. In my excitement, I called my people in Lagos and they sent N150,000.

Unfortunately, it could only take me , as Denis and Rita did not have money to cross the second huddle. Instead of leaving them behind, I kept my money and decided to wait until their relations could send money to them.

Ritas parents called to say that they had no money. Immediately the call was received, Rita was chained to an iron rod where White Libyans came and took turns to rape her.

This continued for two weeks without food . In one of the instances, Denis stood up to challenge one of the men but he had his ear chopped off with a hot iron rod that was plugged to a socket.

On the day she died, five boys first came, had their turns with her and left. At that point, she could only stare into space.

Ten minutes later, another set of young men came to have their turn. It was when the third person was on her that she was discovered to be motionless. Her body was there for two days before it was removed," the narrator recounted.

ALSO READ: Emotional Libya deportee kneels on airport tarmac to thank GodThe MP directed a letter to the legislature on Wednesday, March 14, 2018, according to reports.

This is following widespread condemnation of his video comment which saw him give a backing to wife beating.

Kindly accept my most sincere and unreserved apologies honourable members and the general public and more particularly the women," writes Twinamasiko who revealed that he detests all form of violence against women .

His new reaction was captured in a report compiled by AFP.

ALSO READ: Senate member boldly supports wife beating

Before making a U-turn, the parliament member had earlier expressed what he thinks should be the right handling of a woman which involves occasional hits in order to keep her in check.

His attitude reflects the mentality of some cultures in Africa where the female society members are seen as objects.

This factor has inspired a movement of feminist, especially in Nigeria, where women are beginning to seek more involvement in government.

The way to a man's heart is sex according to this beauty

In a bid to educate Instagram followers about the values and misconceptions about sex, a woman Angel Christopher has dropped a bomb-shell - the way to a man's heart is sex.

She shared the submission on personal page on Saturday, February 17, 2018.

Her post saw her attempt to redirect notions about sexual intercourse which is believed to be unholy according to Christopher who encouraged creativity in bed.

The woman backed up the Bible's position about faithfulness in marriage and painted feisty pictures about what the experience should feel like when it concerns sex.

"A lot of people dont associate sex with God  they associate it with Satan and darkness, as if sex is not holy.!!

"The bible is explicit when it comes to sex. Sex is holy within marriage, and there is no prescribed style.

"Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the missionary position is the only sexual style. Not discussing sex in a marriage is a bad thing.

"Women wake up from your slumber, if he's not doing the styles with you, he's definitely doing it with someone else, gone are those days when they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, now is the way to a man's heart is how you respect and satisfy him in bed.

"Men love sex!!!! #Gudnyt," writes Christopher.

The writer's submission is a reflection of a Nigerian society that has placed a high value on men.

ALSO READ: Zambia forbids sex dolls in country

Societal norms have put women at the receiving end of harm facilitated by members who feel a need to service the dictates of culture.

This has ensured the existence of a movement of feminist who have passionately preached for more right and freedom to women.He was killed alongside a school staff Akintunde Fadugba, following a discharge of stray bullets fired by six hoodlums on Opayemi Street, Abule Ijesha.

Punch News confirmed that the attack occurred on Friday, March 9, 2018.

Fadugba was reportedly relaxed at a nearby barbing salon close his residence when he was shot. This happened around 11 PM, about the same time the second victim was shot dead.

The latter who was sick was making his way back to his house following a visit to a pharmacy.

I was with a food vendor around 11pm when I saw three motorcycles. While they were approaching a church, they put off the light of the motorcycle. Two persons were reportedly on each motorcycle.

Two men came down and one of them, a tall guy, started shooting. The drug dealer was directing him.

When I saw them, I ran to Martins Street. Two men faced Martins Street, while two others headed towards Odenike Street, shooting.

The UNILAG worker was outside a barbers when he was shot. They saw the light of a pickup truck arriving in the community and fled. They thought it was a police van.

As they were leaving through Fatai Kadri Street, Rasaq (Akokia), who had been hiding, thought they had gone. As he came out from hiding, they shot him and he fell into the gutter. He was a final year student at UNILAG," says an eyewitness, Sunday Ebah in a chat with Punch.

Other observers including two retailers and a community leader, Mr. Omolaja Johnson, all had similar accounts expressing their concerns over the recent attack in the community.

A drug dealer who is reportedly responsible for the incident deliberately launched the night-time assault.

Johnson confirmed that the suspect visited the community with his gang years after he was banished for his negative influence on the youths.

The police has began a manhunt for the hoodlums according to its spokesperson, SP Chike Oti.

Disobedient Nigerian teenager shot dead at UK cinema

Kelvin Odunuyi, a Nigerian teenager who lives in the United Kingdom, has been shot dead in front of a cinema in the United Kingdom. He is suspected to have been killed in an ongoing gang war.

The mother of the deceased, 19, has expressed devastation over the death of her child who disobeyed an instruction prohibiting him from visiting Wood Green, an environment known for widespread violence.

Odunuyi met his end at the Vue Cinema located in the area on Thursday, March 8, 2018, shortly after his refusal to follow parental guidance.

"He was a lovely jovial boy. He was clever and loved by all who knew him. He had everything going for him.

"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 it was wrong place at wrong time. 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," says Afishetu Oniru, the mom of the departed youngster.

According to reports, no arrest has been made in connection to the killing of Kelvin Odunuyi who had aspired to become an expert in oil services.

To help him achieve this goal, his parents reportedly enrolled him at the Fulneck School situated in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, a prestigious school where a sum of N12m was paid as tuition fees.The woman who was captured writing with a marker has received the attention of admirers who were full of praise following a super human display that saw her scribbling a mathematical problem on a board.

Her show of commitment and passion for the teaching profession made her a good example for some Twitter users who used her for emphasis on how a disability shouldn't mean the end for one who is physically impaired.

Comments shared via the hashtag #GhanaTrueHero contained the emotions of her admirers.

ALSO READ: Crippled thief strikes again at book launch

Though not as knowledgeable as Madam Enyonam, a crippled man in Calabar, Cross River State, Effanga Francis Umoh, has chosen the path of hard work over crime as exhibited by his relationship with some market woman.

Meet poor crippled old man who cures diseases by smoking weed

In Calabar, Cross River State, a crippled waste collector, Effanga Francis Umoh, has found better result from smoking weed.

An elderly Umoh told Vanguard News that he has had no reason to visit the hospital due to a consumption of the drug substance.

This has saved him from the challenge of visiting the hospital - a venture that will have cost money he does not have in abundance.

He survives on payment made to him by market women who have been serviced by his waste disposal activity.

Umoh had an air of pride while describing his dedication to his occupation despite hindrances caused by his physical challenge. He attributed it as a personality common with individuals from his ethnic group.

I am an Efik man and we do not beg for alms in any circumstance because we are a proud nation.

"So I will rather work than bring shame to my people," says Umoh who was captured sitting on the floor in a picture.

ALSO READ: Tramadol user goes mad in LagosHis family were earlier thrown into a state of concern following his absence from home.

Olaniyan, who had earlier informed them of an intention to spend the night at the Ojodu Police Station following a visit to Lagos had changed his mind without due notification.

This sent them into a state of panic resulting in the conclusion that he had gone missing in the care of the police. The undergraduate explained how he came to be temporarily missing in a report filed by Punch News.

I went to Lagos and it became dark that day. I could not return to Osogbo. I decided to go to the Ojodu Police Station to pass the night.

"One of my female friends called me and I told her that since I could not make it back to Osogbo that day, I would pass the night at the Ojodu Police Station.

After speaking to her, I changed my mind. I looked for a space at a shopping complex and passed the night there.

"The following morning, I got a free ride to Ilorin. When I got to Ilorin, I started doing a menial job to raise money.

I had to work to raise money because I had used my school fees for MMM and lost the money. I did not deliberately mislead the public. My friend that released the information online later called and said I should return home.

She said DSS operatives were on her trail. She said she would commit suicide if I didnt return. Because of that threat, I left Ilorin and went to one of our neighbours, who is a retired officer of the DSS.

"The man, after listening to my story, led me to the DSS office. I am sorry for whatever embarrassment that misinformation might have caused the police," Olaniyan revealed while being presented to newsmen following his recovery.

ALSO READ:Nigerians lost N18b in failed Ponzi scheme

According to reports, the undergraduate last paid his school fees when he was in his second year in school.

The recovered student who is now in his fourth year at the university is reportedly among a number of students who are owing the institution over N1bn in tuition fees.

Woman makes a run for it after losing customers N4.5m to MMM

Artisans and motorcyclists have been left heartbroken after a woman identified simply as Ogochukwu, fled her residence after losing the sum of N4.5m, belonging to them, to the defunct Ponzi scheme, MMM.

The suspect who resides on Anuoluwapo Street in Ejigbo area of Lagos State is reported to have fled to Anambra State leaving her customers helpless and in tears.

Punch reports that her customers contributed the sum to Ogochukwu through a daily savings scheme popularly called Ajo.

She is reported to have invested the Ajo money in the defunct ponzi scheme in the hopes of making profit.

According to the reports, Ogochukwu secretly moved her family members out of the house and is now nowhere to be found.

The problems began when Ogochukwus customers approached her to collect their money in other to pay school fees.Two of Nigerias most followed Instagram models have told their followers that they will be launching a premium service.

Subscribers will have to pay 15000 naira weekly to gain access to the service; in return, they will be able to view nudity, sex toys and of course, le..n sex (which we will assume is a shabby attempt at finding a discreet way to write lesbian sex).

According to the advertorial posted via their Instagram stories, the models will host the live sessions on their Instagram profiles.

In the last few years, perhaps as a result of a general drop in the cost of data, use of the social media platform, Instagram, has risen exponentially.

Instagram edge over most popular social platforms is that it is visual-based, meaning that even though you may need to read captions, the main attraction is the photo or video.

This singular characteristic has made it almost perfect for models who have used its many opportunities to promote their wares

While us commoners may be satisfied to just share photos of that time when your savings were enough to take you to you to Intercontinental hotels, Instagram models (for lack of a better term) are amassing followers, selling sex (or the idea of it) and reaping thousands of dollars by posting angles and features squeezed into jeans and spandex.

10 dollars for live cam

Outside Nigeria, models have, for a while, begun to sell premium services to their followers for sizeable subscription fees.

Depending on who youre sending 15 dollars to via Paypal, the models can have live cam shows where they fiddle with their bodies, play with sex toys, or if they are considerate, have actual intercourse.

Models have used this model, very successfully. And this is possible because prior to Instagram, there was a culture of paying money for live cam sex.

In the years when Yahoo was the final frontier, sex workers, sorry, models, would post adverts inviting interested persons to join their live cam sessions via Messenger or other chat platforms, or in some cases, via a link.

Many porn stars started their careers this way, by amassing large followings via live cam, and then making the transition to web and in few cases, stardom.

That culture does not exist here, so at first glance, it may appear that the chances of our Nigerian models finding success are as slim as the iPhones they will be streaming these videos from.

But its not that simple.

It's sex we're talking about

If Bobriskys foray into premium content showed anything, it is that there are Nigerians who will pay for what they want, regardless of how overpriced it is.

More so for sex than anything else.

ALSO READ: The economy of sex in Lagos City

Sure, we have a strong culture of bootlegging and if theres a cable we can connect to the back of the phone thatll us see it without paying, well find it.

But its sex were talking about.

These models have sizeable followings too, one with over 68,000 followers.

Instead of trying to convince an entirely new selection of people, they have a pool of familiar people to choose from.

Some of these will convert into paying followers by default.

All of this is conjecture, of course.

Either way, sex now sells on Instagram for 15k naira a week.The majority of Nigerias most notorious armed robbers held their reigns of blood and terror in the 70s and 80s, during an era where, despite a country covered in camouflaged green, crime and lawlessness were rife.

The transition to civilian rule was buoyed by a feeling of hope among the people that the desperation and the impression that only the fittest could survive, characteristic of the decades gone by, would come to an end.

Boy, were they wrong.

At the turn of the millennium, all was far from perfect with Nigeria. The country was smarting from religious riots in the North and public outcry in the wake of the Odi Massacre.

For Anambra, though, their pain had a flavour that was all their own, like their famous okpa di oku.

"Nwamama"

Okwudili Ndiwe, a 22-year old, also known by the name, "DericoNwamama" or simply, "Derico", had risen from a random street urchin to become the leader of a ruthless armed robbery gang that was synonymous with blood and loss in the eyes of the people.

At the height of his notoriety, traders could hardly display their wares with any illusion of permanence for fear that the cries of "Derico" would rent the air and begin another chapter where some would lose their livelihoods and others, their lives.

It was no different at night; many would say they could only sleep with one eye open because Derico would come when he would, night or day.

ALSO READ: Five ways a foreign accent can make your life easy

Whether out of the desire to make big scores or just a sheer absence of fear, Derico would rob the biggest and most secure banks, carting away millions of Naira and leaving bodies as his token.

He and his gang would lay in ambush, waiting for luxurious inter-state buses to rob. In December 2000, it is said that Derico attacked a 59-seater bus at the popular Upper Iweka. After robbing the passengers, they decided to kill all the passengers. Only four would survive.

After operations, he would often boast of his invincibility, that no man could kill him.

At the height of his reign, it was estimated that Derico killed over 100 people, including police officers.

Dericos main stomping ground was the markets of Onitsha, but he would also take his bloodthirst from Nnewi to Nkpor, to the villages of Umuleri and towns in Ihiala.

No one was safe. Not even the governor, for the uproar of the people and the physical testaments to his atrocities, made it clear that this was a matter to be troubled by.

The peoples fear of Derico made room for rumours about his person and his methods. Urban legends quickly sprung up; some claimed that he was no human and could not be gunned down by a bullet.

What was known was that Derico did not live where he worked. The media suggested at the time, that he resided in the countrys capital, in far away Abuja, an entire 450 kilometres from Anambra.

Derico only showed up when he wished to operate. After launching terror, it was onwards to Abuja.

It was said that, for a while, he maintained a hideout in the town of Umuleri as well as in neighbouring Agbor in Delta State.

It was while here that he would send threatening messages to the police for killing his affiliates and members of his gang.

Ironically, it was when he killed one of his most infamous affiliates that the pendulum began to swing away from him.

Anambra's new king

Before Derico became notorious, the local police described one Chiejina as the states deadliest armed robber. Like Derico, Onitsha was his stomping ground and naturally, their paths soon crossed.

Perhaps because they saw more opportunities in collaboration, the two began to work together in a sense, sharing intelligence and scheduling attacks. Their relationship proved fruitful for a while, but Dericos blood-lust became too much for Chiejina.

The two began to clash over territory and their approach to the fine art of robbing people for their money.

One day, while they were having a particularly loud spat, Derico pumped Chiejina with a rain of bullets.

Anambra could now make do with one crime lord, an amoral gang leader who was barely a few years into adulthood.

ALSO READ: That infamous crippled thief has struck again

Months after his reign of terror began, the people of Anambra were spent. Governor Mbadinuju was under heavy pressure to explore options outside the Nigerian Police.

Midway through 2001, the Anambra Division of the Nigerian Police began Operation Derico to capture the elusive armed robber. To put it simply, it was unsuccessful.

Derico and his gang had an expansive cache of weapons that gave the police a run for their money. He was also notorious for gunning down police officers; some reports claim that he murdered as much as 25 of them.

Torn and running out of options, Governor Mbadinuju, with the support of governors from neighbouring states, brought in a paramilitary force to tackle the spate of crime in the area.

The End is Nigh

They were called the Anambra Vigilante Service, or as they are more commonly known, the Bakassi Boys.

In the final days of his reign, Derico became more daring.

In June 2001, he launched an attack on a local police station to secure heavy weapons for a planned raid on a bank in Asaba, the capital of Delta State.

He also began to work with other gangs to execute more daring robberies.

In tandem, the Nigerian Police and the Bakassi boys turned the heat up on him.

Audaciously, on one occasion, operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad Division of the Nigerian Police Force and the Bakassi Boys left for Abuja where they carried out a raid on Dericos residence.

The objective escaped but two of his most notorious lieutenants were killed and his cache of weapons seized.

Desperate, Derico began to move sporadically.

It was during one of his trips that the Bakassi Boys got wind of his location and mounted an ambush that led to his arrest.

On the 3rd of July 2001, the vigilante group heard that Derico was on his way from his hideout in Agbor to Onitsha.

The boys lay in waiting at the end of the Niger Bridge for his commute. Soon enough, at the Bridge Head, Derico was identified in a commuter bus and subsequently arrested.

The Nigerian Police requested that he be released for investigation and prosecution but with no trust and assurance that he would meet what he deserved, the Bakassi Boys refused.

Six days after Derico was captured, the Bakassi Boys drove, singing and chanting defiantly, from their base to the popular Ochanja Market Junction.

As shouts of approval and celebration tore through the air, the Bakassi Boys leapt out of their vehicles and unveiled their prize catch; Derico.

Few had seen the robber or even knew what he looked like, but what they saw, a body cut deep by machetes and beaten into a sad pulp, was not what they expected.

The Bakassi Boys had built a fearsome reputation for savagery with their treatment of captured armed robbers and suspects. Many expected Derico would meet a similar fate before them was evidence that they were on the money.

"My name is Oddy, alias Derico"

After a crowd had gathered, one of the senior commanders of the Bakassi Boys addressed them about the groups intentions.

He spoke about how they were not in the state for politics but to restore law and order.

Then he handed the microphone to Derico.

The once-feared robber was feeble under the weight of pain. Once defiant, he was noticeably weak in body and spirit. In that place of desperation where pride seems to exist no more, he made a final attempt to protest his innocence.

There are no certain accounts of what he said but something along these lines has been quoted not once or twice.

My name is Oddy, alias Derico, alias Nwa Mama. I appeal to you, the good people of Anambra State, please dont kill me, I dont like evil. It was when I killed Chiejina (another suspected robber) that people thought Im a strong guy.

After shouts of derision filled the air, it is said that Derico, perhaps sensing the end was nigh, began to out his sponsors and protectors.

He claimed that he had been protected by a member of the National Assembly while on the run. He also fingered a member of the States House of Assembly and a Local Government chairman as his sponsors in the state.

With the din of the crowd growing stronger, the Bakassi Boys did what they had come for.

As quickly as the first shouts had filled the atmosphere, a machete landed on Dericos neck. His severed head rolled onto the ground as blood trooped in spurts from his arteries.

A visibly excited crowd shouted its approval and soon descended into songs in praise of the Bakassi Boys.

It is said that Dericos body was chopped up and set on fire.

This chase and capture of Derico inspired Lancelot Imasuen's 2001 movie, Issakaba described as Nigeria's greatest action film.

What followed

The aftermath of Dericos death brought much trouble for the Bakassi Boys. The Police was aggrieved that Derico had been killed despite its calls that he should be transferred to their custody.

Few days after his death, a number of the Bakassi Boys were captured and held by the police for their roles in the mob killing of Derico.

It took the governors intervention and massive public outcry for the Bakassi Boys to be released and the chapter on Dericos life and death to be closed.

Much can be said about the mob culture in Nigeria, especially as mob killings still continue in 2018.

Depending on which side of the circle you stand on, it also shows the peoples mistrust of local law enforcement in a country where detainees are released for the right amount of money and crime hardly ever happens without police complicity.

Even more can be said about Derico and the conditions that influenced his choices.

We can speak of the poverty and the absence of opportunities that was characteristic of any young man in his shoes.

Yet, what we will remember is the terror he unleashed, his daring confidence in his weapons and amulets and mostly, a lack of restraint that put power and the ability to wield it at the centre of his methods.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!Speaking to newsmen on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, the former governor urged the state chief executives to see the possibilities in cultural festivals for tourism and investments.

Orji Kalu and Masqurade Tourism

I am, however, not happy that our states in the eastern flank are not exploring opportunities in masquerade festivals. I am sure that a well-organised festival of masquerades in the South East will attract investments and tourists and help grow economies of the states. It is the same with Durbar festivals in the northern flank of Nigeria, Kalu stated.

The former governor identified the Calabar Carnival of Cross River State as one area that culture had demonstrated great impact on the economy of a state, regarding tourism. He said, that is a huge number that goes with its economic potentialities and because of the success of the carnival, many other states in the southern flank of Nigeria are developing their versions."

Although statistics were not readily available on the financial impact of the carnival to the state government, he mentioned that the two million visitors that Governor Ben Ayade said attended the 2017 edition of the carnival was a huge number in any economy.

In Igbo culture, the masquerade embodies the spirit and human worlds. The mystique surrounding the masquerade is the key components of the Igbo culture.At least that's what they look like in this new photo shared by a weddings photography company on social media.

Big H weddings share a warm, happy photo of the couple, full of smiles an in an embrace as their wedding day approaches. According to reports, the couple will tie the knot in a white wedding on Saturday March 17 2018. There also will be a ceremony preceding that on March 15.

Engagement & reactions

Damilola and Seun's engagement was only announced formally on Valentine's day 2018 by the bride's father through his social media accounts.

An announcement which drew some criticism from popular OAP and social commentator, Daddy Freeze and other social media users.

The criticisms were centred around the couple's different religions. It would turn out to not be an issue afterall, as the groom is reportedly a Christian as opposed to what was earlier thought.However, it is important to note that it takes extra carefulness to keep the business running in other to avoid a hazardous situation; because the risk of fire explosion is common due to the high inflammable nature of liquefied natural gas.

Be that as it may, the above risk can be checked by indulging in safety practices which include constant checking of cylinders and hose to avoid unknown leakage.

Also, it should be a thing of law that under no circumstance should any form of fire be allowed to come within the vicinity of operation.

That being said, we shall proceed to what you need to take into consideration before venturing into the business.

Here are five things you should know before starting a cooking gas business

1. Good location

Location plays a very vital role in the progressiveness of the business. And the worst mistake you will ever make is to site your business in a location where your target customers cant be found.

Know where the numbers of people using gas cookers are higher than those using kerosene stove and situate your business in that locality..

At the same time, it should not be too close to residential buildings due to the hazards associated with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

2. Build your gas station/buy cylinders

When it comes to this, it is how big you intend to start that counts. If youre starting as a major distributor, you will have to build your own mini gas station. But if youre starting as a retailer with a cubic store, then gas cylinders will have to take the place of gas station.

However, you should remember to structure wherever youll be using in such a way that where the gas cylinders will be kept for filling is safe and a bit distant from where cash transactions will be made.

3. Employ skilled staffs

Cooking gas business is not the type of business only you can do all by yourself. The burdensomeness in it wont make it possible.

However, you can always find competent hands to hire if you really want to make the business work.

Employ a technician, a cashier as it will help foster the growth of the business.

4. Find out the necessary license and obtain it

It is always stressful to obtain the necessary license when it comes to this business; so stressful it is that people tend to give up the process sometimes.

However, it is advisable that you meet an oil and gas consultant who will guide you through the whole process in other to make it less stressful.

5. Advertise your business

People will patronize you if they know that your business exists. And one of the quickest ways to make your business known is through advertisement.Mr Joseph Kwaji, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), said in a statement in Maiduguri that the incident occurred on Wednesday when two suspected female suicide bombers tried to infiltrate the area in the night.

He disclosed that the suicide bombers detonated the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) strapped to their body and killed themselves only.

He said, however, that nine other persons sustained injuries caused by the blast.

On March 14, at about 20:25 hours, two female suicide bombers in an attempt to infiltrate into Alikaramti area, after Giwa barrack, were intercepted by security operatives on duty.

They hurriedly detonated the IEDs strapped to their body killing themselves and injuring nine others, the PPRO said.Abaribe made the comment while contributing to a motion by Senator Attah Aidoko on the killings by suspected herdsmen in Kogi East senatorial district on Thursday, March 15, 2018.

Abaribe, an Abia lawmaker, bemoaned President Buharis perceived aloofnessover importance matters as security.

We have a president that says that 'I did not know my IG followed order. I didn't even know when this happened.' Every little thing he doesn't know, Abaribe said.

He was interrupted by the Senate leader, Ahmad Lawan, who described his contribution as a deviation from the matter under consideration.

ALSO READ: Buhari just indicted himself in Benue

Senate President Bukola Saraki sustained the point of order while cautioning Senator Abaribe not to deviate from the matter.

Abaribe continued

I am keeping my contribution to security. The commander-in-chief of Nigeria is in charge of security and when the commander-in-chief says I don't know what happened. Then we have to worry if our security is actually in the right hands.

But let us go from there and also bring to the fore another aspect which the senate leader mentioned. He said the security forces are over stretched we agree but distinguished senator Marafa told us here that information was given to the same security people, the governor (Abdulaziz Yari) was dancing 'arambako' somewhere else and left state's security.

It is not a question of having enough people, it is a question on not asking on the intelligence that you have. I can't blame them for actions because the president says I don't know. So president, let us beg this president to take responsibility for one thing. It is not everything that you don't know so that we can be safe in Nigeria, he added.

The Senate urge the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and all security agencies to arrest the perpetrators and stop the gruesome killings and ensure they are prosecuted in court without delay.

Lawmakers also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to send relief materials to displaced victims.The reduction was announced by the state government after the decision was reached at an executive council meeting on Thursday, March 15, 2018.

The state's Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Ashade, disclosed the decision at a press briefing at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa after the meeting. He said the government consulted relevant stakeholders to arrive at a downward review of the original rates in the new law.

According to the state government, commercial fee charge is reduced by 50%, while owner occupier third-party fee is reduced by 25% and the owner-occupier fee charge is reduced by 15%.

The review means that commercial property owners with properties valued at N20 million will now pay N45,600 per annum instead of the original N91,200.

The 25% reduction in the property occupied by owner and third party and property used for industrial and manufacturing purposes categories now means that properties valued at N20 million will be expected to now pay N23,040 instead of the earlier N30,720.

The category of owner-occupied properties will be expected to now pay the government N7,752 for a property valued at N20 million, instead of the original rate of N9,120.

According to the review, the penalty regime for late payment of LUC has also been waived completely. Therefore, LUC payers who have received their bills will no longer be penalised for late payment of bills issued in 2018.

Other rates and reliefs remain unchanged and will be implemented as stipulated by Law. These include 40% general relief, 10% for 70 years and above, 105% for properties owned by persons living with disability and 10% for properties that are 25 years.

Owners of property across all categories will now be allowed to make payments by installments while those who have paid the original amount will be awarded tax credits to the extent of the excess amount paid and carried forward to 2019.

Properties that are exempted from the operation of the law are government-owned properties, and other properties used for public, religious and charitable activities.

Speaking on the review, Ashade said, "The Lagos State Government, in its desire to build world class infrastructure and improve the well-being of its citizens reviewed the Land Use Charges payable by all property owners. This exercise was received with mixed feelings by various interest groups who expressed serious concerns.

"In line with this administration's tradition of inclusive governance and civic engagement, and as a Government that is committed to the welfare of its citizens and understands the importance of continuously engaging the populace, we undertook extensive dialogue with various stakeholders on the Land Use Charge (LUC) revised Law and its implementation.

"Consequently, we received a wide range of responses from our dialogue with various stakeholders on the amended LUC Law 2018.

"The stakeholders included the Organised Private Sector, Nigeria Bar Association, Real estate investors and developers, Landlord and Resident Associations, Community Development Associations, Civil Society Organisations, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI), Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers and several other professional groups."

Lagos Land Use Charge Law 2018

On January 28, 2018, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed the Land Use Charge Law 2018 to repeal and replace the Land Use Charge Law 2001 which consolidated and replaced all the state and local government taxes payable on property in the state. Governor Ambode signed it into law on February 8, 2018.The President was in Benue state on March 12, 2018,on a 1-day official tour.

Suspected Fulani herdsmen have constantly attacked several villages in Benue state, leaving many people dead and properties destroyed.

According to Vanguard, Tahav Agerzua, the Special Adviser, Media & ICT to Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom said that they expected the President to address the threat issued by herdsmen.

He said The President was in Benue but failed to address the situation on ground. Some set of people issued a threat six months back to kill Benue people.

These people did not just execute this threat by killing hundreds of people, they also destroyed property worth billions of Naira and displaced over 170,000 people.

ALSO READ: Fayose mocks Buhari over comment about IG of police

The Benue people were expecting the president to tell them why these people, who issued these threats have not been arrested.

Police IG disobeyed Buhari

While in Benue, Buhari said that he was surprised at the revelation that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, did not spend 24 hours in Benue, when he directed him to relocate to the state and remain there till peace was restored, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.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, Buhari said as he showed up at a gathering of farmers, herdsmen, government officials, senators and members of the House of Representatives in Benue this week.

Idris was deployed to Benue at the height of the herdsmen killings. His brief was to keep the peace and rein in the killers.

Bitter words

However, Benue Governor Samuel Ortom accused the nations police chief of taking sides once he touched down in the State. Days later, Ortom and the police boss were exchanging bitter words on internet pages.

IGP Idris has now positioned himself not only as the mouthpiece of those who are killing Benue people, but indeed as their shield. Little wonder herdsmen still proudly carry sophisticated weapons and willfully terrorise innocent people in the State without being arrested, Ortom alleged in a statement.

We wish to place it on record that contrary to the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that the Inspector-General of Police should relocate to Benue to ensure that the killings stop, the IGP spent only one day in Benue and left for a destination where only he could tell. No one has seen him in Benue since that day, Ortom added.

There are reports that Idris was at a birthday bash in neighbouring Nasarawa at a time he should have been keeping watch over Benue.

Downplay

Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, did try to downplay what was a clear case of insubordinatiofrom the nations police chief.

Its in the public domain that he (IGP) went from Benue to Nasarawa but nobody knew that he did not spend a night in Benue, Adesina said.

Im aware of it but I did not know the length of time he stayed in Benue before moving to Nasarawa.

"There were in the realm of allegations until the key stakeholders mentioned it yesterday. There were just allegations as far as Im concerned.

Even now, there are still in the realm of allegations until we hear from the IGP", he added.

Summon

On Tuesday, March 13, 2018, Buhari summoned his police chief to explain why he disobeyed his orders.

President Buhari today summoned the Inspector-General of Police to explain his flouting of the presidential order to remain in Benue State. The President has also asked for a comprehensive report on Police Operations in the affected States after which further decisions will be made, a statement from the presidency read tersely.

This is hoping that during his meeting with Buhari, IGP Idris is told in clear, unmistakable terms that his services are no longer required. We expect the presidency to begin shopping for a replacement for the recalcitrant police boss before the meeting.

The position of IGP is a sensitive and serious one. Idris hasnt really been stellar on the job since he succeeded Solomon Arase in June of 2016. His reign has been a controversial and scandal strewn one. At one point, Idris was accused of engaging in extra-marital affairs with female officersas a pre-condition for handing them promotions.

Idris has also been accused of corruption and soliciting bribes

He was also embroiled in the controversy of attaching luxury cars to the First Lady--in violation of the nation's laws.

A police boss should be above board or at least pretend to be. Idris courts controversy at every turn.Buratai, in a remark at a security stakeholderss meeting on Thursday in Wukari, Taraba State, said that restoring moral values to youths was crucial to addressing crime and increasing rate of insecurity in the society.

The neglect of cultural and moral values is largely responsible for the security issues bothering Nigeria today. The first step toward a saner society is to restore these ideals, Buratai, who was represented by Brig. Gen. Bello Mohammed, Brigade Commander, 23 Brigade, Yola, said.

He decried the disregard for the traditional institution and the failure of the legal system over the years, saying that the situation had encouraged impunity, religious intolerance and massive abuse of drugs leading to insecurity in many parts of the country.

Buratai regretted that criminals were gradually outnumbering innocent and law abiding citizens, urging traditional rulers and other stakeholders to preach peace and ensure peaceful coexistence among the people.

Speaking earlier, the Aku Uka of Wukari, Dr. Shekarau Angyu, had lamented the neglect of the traditional institution in Nigeria.

The traditional rulers are given big palaces and luxury vehicles, but they have no specific roles to play.

Much as we want to assist security agencies in tackling security challenges in our domains, we often get a bit lost because we have no particular duty. Government must push for specific roles for traditional rulers in the statutes, he said.

He called on ward, village and district heads to be very vigilant and report suspicious persons to the relevant security agencies.We have listened attentively to the president and have a lot of faith and hope in all that he has said which gives us more confidence in the rescue of the girls, Manzo said.

He said that they would heed to the presidents advice to remain steadfast and prayerful for the safe rescue of the girls.

Maimuna Usman, mother of one of the girls, said President Buhari is a man of his words, we have no doubt in his words that efforts have been intensified to rescue the girls.

I have a lot of confidence in the president, his coming gave us more consolation and hope for the safe return of the girls, Usman said.

Mohammed Ali, a guardian of one of the abducted students, said that the Buhari Administration had rescued many Chibok girls who were abducted by Boko Haram during the previous administration.

Ali said the Buhari administration had also successfully secured the release of the university of Maiduguri lecturers as well as 10 women that were kidnapped in a raid by the insurgents on Damboa Road, near Maiduguri.

It is gratifying that the Buhari administration is employing negotiation to rescue the girls, this gives us more confidence in seeing our daughters, he said.The soldiers had been responding to reports of a clash between at Rafiki Village when they moved in to settle the dispute.

According to a statement signed by Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, on Thursday, March 15, the herdsmen shot at the soldiers and killed two of them.

Brig-Gen Chukwu also revealed that troops discovered 23 dead bodies at Mararaba Dare shortly before Rafiki Village while conducting a search.

Seven suspects have already been arrested in connection with the clash as one AK-47 assault rifle with 26 rounds of 7.62mm special and one locally made single barrel loaded with 15 rounds recovered by troops.

The statement read, "Troops of 3 Division Garrison Jos Plateau State arrested 7 suspects and recovered weapons in the clash between Miango community and herdsmen at Rafiki Village on Wednesday 14 March 2018.

"The troops responded to distress calls to the clash reported by locals. As troops moved in to settle the dispute, the herdsmen opened fire on troops convoy. 2 soldiers paid the supreme price. 7 suspects were arrested in connection with the clashes.

"While conducting search, troops discovered 23 dead bodies at Mararaba Dare shortly before Rafiki Village and many civilians were wounded. 2 other soldiers wounded are receiving medical attention at 3 Division Military Hospital and Medical Services. They are stable.

"Weapons recovered include one Ak 47 assault rifle with 26 rounds of 7.62mm special and One locally made single barrel loaded with 15 rounds. Troops have intensified patrol within the general area to forestall further break down of law and other."

Herdsmen attacks in Plateau

25 people were killed in an attack carried out by suspected herdsmen in Dundu village, Kwall District, also in Bassa LGA, on Monday, March 12.

Monday's attack followed another recent attack that left more than a dozen people dead. Ganda village of Daffo District in Bokkos LGA and Miango village in BassaLGAwere reportedly attacked by herdsmen in the early hours of Friday, March 9, leaving at least 11 people dead.Josiah also said that the union had issued 30 working days ultimatum, which started on March 5 to the Federal Government, to accede to the health workers demands or they woukd down tools.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that five affiliate unions of JOHESU participated in the rally to press for the immediate implementation of the agreement signed with the Federal Government.

NAN reports that JOHESU comprises National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP) Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWUN) participated in the mobilisation rally.

Others are Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI) and Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria.

JOHESU members are demanding for good salary structure, payment of outstanding salaries, uniform allowances, among others.

Josiah said that the Federal Government had on Sept.30, 2017 entered an agreement with the unions to implement new salary structure within five weeks, which had yet to be implemented.

He said that the situation was really disturbing to the union members, saying we have been patient for five months.

Some other health professionals demanded for the same salary structure and it was approved within 15 days.

The main reason of this mobilisation rally is to inform members of the public about the position of things and need to fight for our rights.

We discovered that the Federal Ministry of Health wants to implement No Work, No Pay in order to threaten our members.

Every member should free themselves from fear of no work, no pay and be ready to fight for it.

We are going to all the teaching hospitals and medical centres to inform all our members correctly on why they should fight for their rights, he said.

Josiah said that members of the public ought to know that we care for them, especially people who could not afford the bills of the private hospitals for treatment.

This is the main reason we demand that Federal Government should improve the hospital by providing more equipment infrastructure and manpower.

We always consider our patients before embarking on any strike that is why we gave the Federal Government long time ultimatum to implement our demands.

Nobody can fight for us; we can only fight for ourselves by claiming our rights.

We noticed that the gap between the medical doctors salary structure and that of other health professionals is too wide, which we consider is totally unfair to health sector, he said.

Also at the rally, Mrs Florence Ekpebor, the National Secretary, JOHESU urged the Federal Government to keep to the agreement of the adjustment of salary structure.

Ekpebor said that government should not wait for us to embark on strike before meeting our demands.

We have tried by waiting for five months, that is why we are mobilising our members to educate them on the next step.

We expect government to attend to every issue raised in the health sector and not by separating one association from another.

There is nothing we can do because our members can no longer exercise patience.NAN reports that the Lagos State Government on Thursday buckled under pressure, announcing a downward review of its new Land Use Charge (LUC) that had been widely criticised.

Several groups, including the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Nigeria Bar Association, Ikeja Branch had kicked against the hike in the charge, approximated at 400 per cent.

In the downward review announced on Thursday, Commercial Property Owners, were granted 50% discount.

Property Occupied by Owner and Third Party & Property used for Industrial and Manufacturing Purposes were given 25% discount.

Owner-occupied Property also got 15% discount, while penalty regime for late payment of the LUC was waived completely.

According to the state government, some other rates and reliefs, apart from those cited, however remain unchanged and will be implemented as stipulated by Law.

Also, owners of property across all categories will now be allowed to make payments by installments.

Those who have paid the original amount will also be awarded tax credits.

Reacting, Braimoh, the spokesman for House, said democracy in its simplest and most widely accepted description is the government of the people, for the people and by the people.

In any democratic experiment, the people are sovereign and their will reigns supreme.

As a populist, people-oriented government therefore, due considerations must be accorded the will of the people without materially impeding the fast tracked developmental programs earmarked by government.

Ambode runs a welfarist regime of social engineering whereby the needs, yearnings and aspirations of the people are well articulated, aggregated and evaluated.

 This is such that the greatest happiness goes to the greatest number of the people  he said.

According to him, any policy or program of government must be benchmarked against the will of the people and it must pass the peoples happiness test.

Governor Ambode has demonstrated ultra-high level of statesmanship and public spirit by hearkening to the peoples call.

It is however hoped and believed that the love, kindness and admiration reposed in the people by their populist Governor will be recognized and reciprocated.The minister said that his ministry would assist in the area of technical know-how, technology and institutional capacity to enable the proposed university to stand on a firm footing.

According him, the present administration is giving priority to knowledge-based economy.

He said: Upgrading of the institute to the status of a military university is a welcome development at this stage of the nations development.

The Federal Government will continue to support any initiative that will enable Nigeria to utilise science and technology to solve her problem.

With this kind of orientation, Nigeria will in no time be self-sufficient and becomes an industrial hub in the foreseeable future.

Onu commended the military institution for keying into the ongoing technological revolution and thinking ahead of its time.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Major-General Mathias Efeobokhi, said that the university would serve as a solution centre for the technological and other operational problems of the military and the nation.

Efeobokhi said that the institution would create the critical mass required for research, innovation, testing and development of military equipment in a 21st century setting.Obi spoke at a policy dialogue session organized by Ripples Nigeria on Thursday, March 15, 2018 at the Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos.

The dialogue had as its theme: Rebuilding Trust in a Divided Nigeria.

You all were shouting N13.5million monthly and N200million for constituency projects. If I tell you what Governors take home, you wont be able to take it, Obi said with a rigorous shake of the head.

Tell us! the audience yelled.

Again, Obi shook his head as he paced the podium, lips zipped for a minute.

He told his audience that an American lawmaker takes home a paltry N50million annually.

Waste in government

Obi who was head of Fidelity Bank before his foray into politics, also painted a disturbing picture of the waste culture in government circles.

As Governor, my convoy wasnt more than four vehicles. I didnt understand why I had all those cars following me. So one day, I put an end to all of that. You have all these vehicles running around and creating confusion!

There was a fuel dump in government house. And I asked them, what is the fuel dump for? And they said the fuel dump is a contingency plan for when there is petrol scarcity. Shut it down, I ordered. If there is petrol crisis, well join the queues like everyone else.

They also told me that they were going to buy bulletproof cars. Bulletproof cars for what? Anyone who wants to kill you, if you alight from that car, hell still kill you.

And then you have all these motorbikes riding ahead of the convoy. If we dont have the outriders ahead of the convoy, wont the convoy get to its destination?, he asked rhetorically and visibly irritated.

The former bank to hand car keys to his son, impressing it upon the young man to work harder and purchase his own car so hell appreciate the value of a car and avoid crashes.

Debt free

Enumerating what else he did to eliminate official waste during his spell as Governor, Obi said; I did not borrow one kobo as Governor. Go and find out from them if Im lying.

During my time, I asked them why the Governor of Anambra should have a house in Abuja. I shut the house and the idea down.

When I first assumed office as Governor, I had this ambulance following my small convoy around with two Doctors and I asked why. 'In case theres an accident', I was told. Well, if theres an accident, Ill be taken to a hospital like everyone else. Stop following me around!

"Those who know my house in will tell you that even till this moment, I dont have anyone manning the gates of my house. You can just drive in as a visitor. No one will kill you if you are doing the right thing.

Obi also lamented that the Nigerian system is tailor-made to frustrate anyone with the best of intentions.

Followership

I keep telling people that if they bring the best leaders from the west here, they will fail. The problem with Nigeria isnt not too young to rule or too old to rule. We just want people with capacity. We want creators of wealth not people who share money.

Followership is even worse. We have become insanely complacent. A comedian joked the other day that we now have a situation where political leadership is now merging with comedy. We have lawmakers who are comedians. But governance should be serious business, he said.

It isnt the first time Peter Obi would be regaling an audience with tales of how prudent he was as Governor. Hes a regular face at seminars and talk-shops these days; espousing the virtues of frugality and parsimony.

They are those who wonder why hes suddenly found his voice outside of the gleaming corridors of power.

Even if we did it wrong yesterday, cant we correct it today?, he asks in his defense.

Blame game

Potshots were also aimed at incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. Obi doesnt get why the incumbent is still blaming his predecessor for Nigerias woes.

He campaigned to solve problems and hes now telling us about the rot he met there. What were you expecting to meet there? That is why we elected you and you campaigned to fix problems, right?

Soft spoken Obi oversaw affairs as Governor of Anambra State from March 17, 2006 to November 2, 2006; from February 9, 2007 to May 29, 2007; June 14, 2007; and from February 6, 2010 to March 17, 2014.The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said this in Abeokuta.

The suspect had on Monday stormed the primary school at breaktime and hacked to death two pupils: Mubarak Kalesanwo and Sunday Obituyi, who were in kindergarten class.

He was said to have fled the scene immediately after he carried out the deadly act.

Oyeyemi, however, said the suspect was arrested on Wednesday around Agodo community, through the combined effort of policemen attached to Ogbere Area and local hunters.

The manhunt for the suspect, Oyeyem said, followed the order by the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu.

Oyeyemi explained that the suspect who was found in a bush initially resisted arrest and tried to attack the policemen with a machete.

In compliance with the Commissioner of Police order, the Area Commander mobilised policemen and local hunters for the manhunt of the suspect.

Their efforts paid off on Wednesday, when the suspect was seen in a bush around the community.

While they wanted to arrest him, the suspect who was brandishing a sharp cutlass, attacked them, consequent upon which he was shot and injured in the leg.

He was later taken to hospital for medical treatment.Speaking during a dialogue session organized by Ripples Nigeria in Lagos, Soyinka said if the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) could earn the terrorist organization tag from the Buhari led federal government, there is no reason why the Miyetti Allah (umbrella body of herdsmen in Nigeria) shouldnt be slapped with a similar label.

Our Minister of Defence shot himself in the mouth when he made excuses for the herdsmen by saying what do you want them to do when squatters are sitting on their land? It is very shameful that the Minister of Defence is still serving in Buharis government, Soyinka said.

In an hour long speech which he titled from Miyetti to Haiti; Notes from a solidarity visit, Soyinka couldnt hide his disgust over what he considers excuses being made for the marauding herdsmen.

Lake Chad

The drying up of the Lake Chad has been blamed for the violent inclinations of the herdsmen, but Soyinka is having none of it.

When I read of untenable explanations like Lake Chad is recedingwater is drying up.I dont want to hear of all these ridiculous excuses. Nature has been kind to us. We dont have earthquakes in Nigeria, Soyinka lamented.

The Nobel laureate said during a visit to an earthquake ravaged Haiti, herdsmen had no sticks nor AK-47s. He wondered why the herdsmen roaming Nigeria have been allowed to bear arms.

"I used to wonder whether to call them Fulani herdsmen or not. But now I can call them Fulani herdsmen because they have identified themselves as Fulani herdsmen", Soyinka said.

Soyinka also took on Buhari for attending a wedding in Kano just days after terrorists abducted 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State.

Soyinka has been very critical of the Buhari administration and its handling of the security challengebedeviling the country, in recent times.Speaking at a Ripples Nigeria dialoguesession in Lagos with the theme:Rebuilding trust in a divided Nigeria, Soyinka said the Nigerian Twitter user is the reason US President Donald Trump called the country a shithole country.

Just look at what goes on in Nigerian twitter. You are complaining that When I saw the danger that this man was going to become, the dangerous commodity he would turn out to be, I said I was going to tear my green card if he became president.

And then what happened? Nigeria Twitter, all of you launched an avalanche of hate speech on me. Do I want to see you hanged? No. I want to see you shamed. If Trump calls you shithole, dont complain. You have not earned the right to feel insulted.

Where does Trump go to first when he wakes up in the morning? Twitter. Who dominates Twitter? Nigerians. Who puts out fake news like Trump? Nigerians. Trump is the king of fake news like Nigeria Twitter users.

I actually want to see some of you hanged. All I do these days is laugh kwakwakwa"

Hate speech

Soyinka also said the national assembly would be wrong if it puts forward a hate speech bill for the presidents assent.

The bill was prepared by Senator Sabi Abdullahi and it proposes death by hanging for purveyors of hate speech.

Pundits believe that the bill is targeted at Nigerias growing army of keypad warriors.

Nobody will dare hang anyone for hate speech. They just want to silence people. And I shouldnt feel sorry for some of you, but I do.

Promise

In the wake of the US presidential election of 2016, Soyinka fell out with Twitter Nigeria after he was criticized for not ripping apart his green card in the event of a Trump win, like he had promised.

If in the unlikely event he does win, the first thing hell do is to say [that] all green-card holders must reapply to come back into the US. Well, Im not waiting for that, Soyinka had said at the time.

The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up, he had added.

As Trump swept the electoral college to emerge president on the morning of November 9, 2016, Nigerians flooded the internet to remind Soyinka of his pledge.Lawan stated this while contributing to a motion by Senator Godswill Akpabio on the court ruling to prevent the Senate from overriding President Buhari's decision to reject the 2018 Electoral Act amendment.

Senator Akpabio told lawmakers that the decision of the Court would interfere with their job by trying to prevent them from amending the electoral act.

The issue really is not the bill itself, it has to do with due process and parliamentary functions, Akpabio said.

Im worried about the separation of powers as enshrined in our constitution. Can the court really rule an injunction, expatriate or otherwise, to stop the parliament from carrying out its constitutional duties? Ive looked through the Nigerian constitution and in my view, I dont think it is right for the court to interfere in the affairs of the parliament particularly when we see in the process of making legislation. We cannot be stopped by an injunction, he added.

Similarly, Lawan described the court ruling as undemocratic.

His words: I agree completely with the fact there is separation of powers and interdependence of various arms if government. The evolution and development of our democracy is at stake here, we should through all our institutions take actions and measures that will only enhance the development of democracy and especially our presidential system.

I believe that the matter at stake does not require any court intervention, this is democracy at work. I dont believe in that amendment, I voted against it, I will vote against it tomorrow but it is left for me to talk to my colleagues to see it the way I see it or if you want me to abandon my position, talk to me and that is how our democracy will develop.

I believe that the courts should hands off what we do in the National Assembly. When we finally have a law and the courts feel it is against the constitution then they can come in and interpret, I agree with minority leader and I believe that the courts should be very careful.This promise was made by the agency's Comptroller General, Muhammad Babandede, while he was speaking during an operational review meeting with Zonal Coordinators and State Comptrollers on Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

At the meeting, which took place at the agency's national headquarters in Abuja, Babandede directed Comptrollers of Command to prevent non-Nigerians passing through the borders to interfere with the country's elections.

He said, "For avoidance of doubt, Nigeria Immigration Service retrieved several voter's cards. In 2017 alone, we retrieved 299 and the chairman of INEC came here and commended us for retrieving voter's card from non-Nigerians.

"Please continue to do that good job at the borders when people are crossing or when you come across migrant who has committed offence.

"It is our responsibility in 2019 to ensure that non-Nigerians do not participate in our election. They must not vote and they must not be voted. This is very clear.The community at a rally in Agege agreed that Ambode should be re-elected to continue in office as Governor of Lagos State.

Also, Rt. Hon. Obasa and Honourable Ogundimu were called upon to return as the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, and member representing Agege Constituency 2 in the state House of Assembly respectively.

Those in attendance are: Vice Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos West Senatorial District, Chief Funsho Ologunde; APC chieftain and member of the Governor's Advisory Committee (GAC), Professor Tunde Samuel; Iyaloja General for Lagos State, Chief (Mrs.) Folashade Tinubu-Ojo.

According to Chief Ologunde, "Ambode has turned Lagos to a construction site and Agege community has been one of the major beneficiaries of the current administration in the state. Both Obasa and Ogundimu have been playing the needed supportive roles for the Governor. Therefore, for this good work to continue, I urge you all to support our Governor, Speaker and Ogundimu for another term in office."

The communique confirming the endorsement for the trio, signed by prominent people in Agege was later read by former Chairman of the local government and former member of the state House of Assembly, Hon Rotimi Adeshina.

Ambode is digging a hole for himself

Jude Egbas, an Editor at Pulse, in an article is of the opinion that Governor Ambode is facing a reputation crisis in Lagos over outrageous and unreasonable taxes--only a couple of months before a major re-election battle. And the feedback from the streets should worry him and the APC.

According to him, residents of Lagos have been railing against the infamous Land Use Charge which is essentially a property tax. The Land Use Charge Act of 2018 repeals a similar law of 2001.

"The 2018 Land Use Charge is a 400 percent tax increase on landed property in the nations commercial capital.

"Lagosians will also be paying all manner of taxes on cars, boreholes and water treatment plants. There is also the increase on vehicle toll fares at the Ikoyi-Victoria Island-Lekkiaxis of the State," he added."We can see the light at the end of the road that will lead us to the end of armed conflict with the National Liberation Army (ELN), to build a lasting and stable peace," said the head of the government delegation Gustavo Bell.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who is due to leave office in August, is trying to conclude a peace agreement with Colombia's last active rebel group, similar to the one he signed with Marxist guerrillas FARC in November 2016, which has since transformed into a political party.

However, the latest round of talks are being held against the backdrop of a more hostile political context in Colombia, after hardline conservatives opposed to making peace with the rebels gained ground in legislative elections Sunday.

Santos announced Monday that the talks would resume following the rebels' unilateral ceasefire during the 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, following a series of attacks on police stations that left six people dead and dozens more wounded.

The ELN "will continue talking" and "does not reject peace," said its leader Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, according to a statement released by negotiators.

In a separate development not affecting the ceasefire, at least six people were killed and two wounded in a clash between ELN forces and a drug trafficking gang in northeastern Colombia, the army said Thursday.

The firefight displaced six families and was sparked by a turf war over several municipalities in the department of Norte de Santander, on the Venezuelan border, it said."In the president's speech the sentence 'I hope that Afrin will have completely fallen by the evening' should be understood as 'the encirclement will have been completed by the evening'," said a presidential source in a message to media, asking not to be named.

"We have got a little bit closer to Afrin. I hope that Afrin will, God willing, have completely fallen by the evening," Erdogan said in the speech.

Afrin city is the key target in Turkey's seven-week operation Olive Branch launched on January 20 and aimed at ousting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin region of northern Syria.

A YPG spokesman accused Erdogan of "daydreaming" in the speech.

The Turkish army and its Syrian allies, who had been looking to complete the encirclement in a two-pronged movement from the east and the west, had Afrin city surrounded on Monday, the army said on Tuesday.

"The routes used to the east by the terrorists to enter and go out of the region will be closed today or tomorrow, God willing," Erdogan added in the speech.

Turkey regards the YPG as a terror group and a branch of a Kurdish militant movement in Turkey that has waged an insurgency for decades.

But the YPG has been a key ally of the United States in the fight against jihadists in Syria and Turkey's operation against it has raised tensions with Ankara's NATO allies in Washington and Europe.

Erdogan has repeatedly said that after taking Afrin, Turkey's offensive would expand to key border towns controlled by the YPG right up to the Iraqi frontier.

These would include Kurdish-held towns such as Manbij where US forces have a presence, raising the risk of a confrontation with Turkey's NATO ally.

"We will cleanse Manbij and then in the same way will cleanse east of the Euphrates right up to the Iraqi border," he said.

Erdogan also raised the prospect of a cross-border operation in northern Iraq where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades long struggle against the Turkish army, has its rear bases.Siemens was a publicly traded company in the United States at the time.

Eberhard Reichert, 78, of Munich, Germany pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which criminalizes bribing foreign government officials to win business.

He has yet to be sentenced.

In a landmark case, Siemens in 2008 settled with US and German officials. It pleaded guilty to paying bribes in more than 20 countries around the world and paid $1.6 billion in fines and the return of ill-gotten gains.

Reichert was one of nine individuals charged in 2011 by the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for their roles in the bribery scheme.

Andres Truppel, the former chief financial officer of Siemens Argentina, pleaded guilty under the same indictment in 2015 but has yet to be sentenced.

"Eberhard Reichert tried to sidestep laws designed to root corruption out of the government contracting process," Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.

"Today's plea should be a warning to others that our office is committed to bringing corrupt criminals to justice, no matter how long they run from the law."

Reichert, who left Siemens in 2001 after 37 years with the company, had served as technical manager for projects in Siemens' business services arm.

In 1998, Argentina awarded Siemens a $1 billion contract to develop identity cards but terminated the project three years later.

Reichert admitted Thursday he had participated in a decade-long scheme to pay tens of millions of dollars in bribes to Argentine officials.

Siemens had committed to paying nearly $100 million in bribes to Argentine government officials, members of the political opposition and candidates for office, according to federal prosecutors.

US officials have said bribes were paid up to and including the president but former president Carlos Menem has reportedly denied wrongdoing.By midday more than 1,000 people stood under the tropical sun outside City Hall to remember Marielle Franco, 38, who was murdered late Wednesday.

More than 30,000 people had signaled their intention to attend another rally later in the day.

The attack, coming despite army intervention to control Rio's soaring crime rate, sparked immediate outrage around Latin America's biggest country.

Franco, who as a black woman stood out in the region's male and white-dominated politics, was hit by several bullets after the attacker pulled up next to her white hatch back in central Rio and opened fire.

Her driver was also killed and an aide was injured before the assailant or assailants drove off, without attempting to rob their victims.

Police said they were investigating whether this was a targeted assassination.

President Michel Temer called Franco's killing "an attack on democracy and the rule of law," and promised full help from the federal authorities.

Amnesty International demanded a rigorous probe focusing on "the context, motive and responsibility" for the killing.

Social media lit up with calls for demonstrations outside City Hall and elsewhere in Rio.

"March against black genocide! WE ARE ALL Marielle Franco," said the appeal for the main protest planned later Thursday. It drew pledges from some 32,000 people to attend, with tens of thousands more expressing interest.

Police critic

Franco, 38, was born and raised in a network of favelas, or slums, called Mare, one of the city's most violent areas.

A member of the leftist Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), she got the fifth highest vote count in Rio's 2016 council elections.

She had also become a leading voice against the excesses of Rio's police force, which is routinely accused by major human rights organizations of extrajudicial killings, falsifying evidence and corruption.

Just a day before her death Franco blamed police for the latest shooting death of a young man in a favela, where police, shadowy militias and heavily armed drug gangs wrestle for control.

"Another killing of a young man that could be chalked up to the police." she tweeted. "Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many more will have to die for this war to end?"

A few days earlier she tweeted about a poor neighborhood, Acari, where she said the local police unit acted as a death squad.

They're known as "the death Battalion. They come to carve up the population! They come to kill our young!" she said.

Police also take extraordinarily high casualties in what officers compare to a war, with Rio state losing 134 officers in 2017.

Suffering Olympic city

Franco's killing comes as the recent military takeover of security in Rio appears to be showing few positive results.

The city has been mired in violence for decades but the security situation has worsened dramatically since the end of the Olympic Games in 2016.

Last month, Temer ordered the military to take command of Rio city and state police.

Generals are now in charge of nearly all branches of the local security services and soldiers and heavy equipment regularly deploy to support police during sweeps of favelas, where gangs of traffickers are often in control.

The military intervention has sparked widespread concern, including from the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, who said soldiers "are not specialized in public security or investigation."According to CNN, the bridge which was located at Florida International University collapsed during lunch time.

Rescue officials have requested that helicopters around the area be withdrawn, so they can ascertain if there is anyone calling out for help.

Juan Perez, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department also said "The next few hours is going to be a rescue mission.

Though it is not clear if some people are still trapped under the debris, reports say eight cars were found under the rubble.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue also put out a statement that it is working to find survivors and secure the bridge.

A student at the University of Miami, Isabella Carrasco, who narrowly survived the incident, said "We heard a loud bang behind us ... and we looked back and the bridge had completely collapsed.

Doctors and medical students ran to the scene from a nearby building and started giving medical attention to victims, she added.

The Governor of Florida, Rick Scott is expected to visit the be on the school's campus to speak with local law enforcement and university officials, CNN reports.

Florida ShootingFico, 53, has been struggling since February to get on top of the scandal sparked by the killing of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.

He has come under heavy pressure from the opposition party, and also faced street protests in which tens of thousands of Slovaks demonstrated against the government.

The prime minister's ruling three-party coalition was facing a no-confidence vote by lawmakers scheduled for next Monday.

The liberal opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) had submitted the motion, arguing that "with Fico in government, an objective investigation into the double murder is impossible."

Interior minister Robert Kalinak had already resigned two days ago in a bid to save the government from collapsing.

But a minor member of Slovakia's three-way governing coalition, the Most-Hid party, raised the pressure further, calling for early elections.

Most-Hid's chief, Bela Bugar, said Wednesday evening that he "appreciated" Fico's decision and "hoped the situation will calm down".

Nevertheless, Fico laid down three conditions for his resignation.

President Kiska -- who had similarly called for early elections, or at least sweeping government changes -- should respect the outcome of the 2016 parliamentary elections; respect and uphold the coalition agreement that forms the basis of the current government; and accept that Fico's Smer-SD party would put forward a candidate to replace him, the prime minister demanded.

Fico has resisted the call for snap polls, warning the country could "plunge into chaos if the current opposition takes power".

Slovakian daily Sme reported that Fico's Smer-SD party may field deputy prime minister Peter Pellegrini, 42, as a candidate to succeed Fico.

Political analysts said that president Kiska had no other choice but to accept Fico's resignation.

The head of state "has himself called for a government shake-up," said Jan Baranek of the think-tank, Polis Slovakia.

"A new prime minister should calm things down to a certain extent," he said.

Grigorij Meseznikov, analyst at the Institute of Public Affairs in Bratislava, agreed.

"He shouldn't force someone to remain prime minister. On the other hand, he has to take into account the current government's slump in credibility."

It was up to Kiska to judge whether the current coalition was in a position to keep the government running, Meseznikov said, adding that "early elections would be the best solution."

A recent poll by the Focus institute found that 62 percent of Slovaks were in favour of Fico's resignation, while only 13 percent felt he should stay.

Fico is in his third term as prime minister and has been in power since 2012. He is known abroad for his anti-immigrant stance.

Mafia ties?

Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, both 27, were found shot dead on February 25 at their home near the capital Bratislava.

Police said Kuciak's death was "most likely" related to his investigation on ties between Slovakia's top politicians and Italy's 'Ndrangheta mafia.

The murder and Kuciak's article, published after his death, sparked a wave of anti-government sentiment in Slovakia, an EU and NATO member of 5.4 million people.

Fico's close aide Maria Troskova was alleged to have links to one of the Italians named in Kuciak's story.

The EU urged Slovakia to swiftly investigate the murder.

"The top priority for all of us must be to carry out an independent and thorough investigation of the facts and bring those responsible to justice," the EU's security commissioner Julian King told MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

"We call upon the Slovak authorities to do this quickly."

The killing of Kuciak and Kusnirova raised fresh concern about media freedom and corruption both in Slovakia and Europe.Vice Chancellors Committee on Tuesday said the institutions are unable to meet the basic salary needs of their workers and other obligations.

This means, the committee said, that they require immediate intervention, failure to which is highly likely to affect learning, even as lecturers downed tools protesting delayed implementation of 2017s collective bargaining agreement.

ALSO READ: Karua makes fresh demand to CJ Maraga over Waiguru petition

Universities have huge financial challenges. We are unable to pay statutory deductions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund, National Social Security Fund and the Kenya Revenue Authority, committee chairman Francis Aduol told the National Assemblys Education committee.

Prof Aduol said public universities had turned to part-time lecturers to reduce the wage bill, who have not been paid since 2014.The DPP moved to to the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn an earlier High Court decision that blocked investigations on Joho's academic qualifications.

The Mombasa Governor had sought to block DPP, the Inspector General of Police and the DCI from investigating him, stating that the probe was meant to harass him and threaten him over his political position.

Mombasa High Court Judge Erick Ogola ruled that the probe was meant to discredit the governor, adding the investigations were untimely.

Justice Ogola noted that the timing was suspect given that the governor had faced a similar investigation in 2013 which was concluded in court.

However, Mombasa assistant DPP Alexander Muteti has told the Court of Appeal that the judge misdirected himself by assuming that the investigation against Joho was politically instigated.FRENCH LICK, Ind.  Purdue@WestGate was named top economic development project of the year at the recent Radius Indiana annual stakeholders meeting. More than 100 regional stakeholders submitted over 50 nominations to Radius Top 10 Economic Development Projects of 2017.

Greg Deason, senior vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation and director of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue University, said recognition as the top economic development project of the year exemplifies the high level of support from the Radius Region.

Radius stakeholders and regional partners in southwest Indiana will be anchors to our success as we replicate initiatives from the Foundry, Office of Technology Commercialization, and Purdue Polytechnic at WestGate, Deason said. Purdues mission as Indianas land-grant university is to help Hoosiers live happier, healthier lives by cultivating ideas to economic impact.

Radius Indiana is an economic development organization representing eight counties in Southwest Central Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange and Washington.

The fact that over 100 community leaders in our region voted for the arrival of the Purdue Foundry and Purdue programs as the top economic development achievement of 2017 speaks to the high regard in which we all hold Purdue, said Jeff Quyle, Radius Indiana president. People are excited to have the Purdue brand here in our community as a new partner in our economic development work.

Two WestGate honorable mentions also made the list: the Purdue Foundry @ WestGate Firestarter and the expansion of Alion at WestGate@Crane Technology Park. BrightVolts move into the Battery Innovation Center in the park ranked third in 2017 economic development projects.

About Purdue@WestGate

Purdue@WestGate is an economic development accelerator formed by the partnership between WestGate Authority, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC Crane), Purdue University and Purdue Research Foundation. The Indiana-based collaboration combines strengths to advance educational, research and development and technology commercialization across Indiana and elsewhere. Purdue@WestGate offers tools for startups, entrepreneurial experts, programs, educational opportunities and workforce development to help southern Indiana businesses grow and thrive. For more information about the resources available to businesses, visit Purdue@WestGate.

About Radius

Radius Indiana is a regional partnership representing eight counties in Southwest Central Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange and Washington. Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging our diverse assets to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business. As a results-driven regional leader in economic development, Radius Indiana works to increase employment, investment and quality of life within region.

Writer: Sarah K. Miller, 812-863-2754, skmiller@prf.org

Sources: Greg Deason, 765-588-5251, GWDeason@prf.org

Jeff Quyle, 812-277-9778, j.quyle@radiusindiana.comOpinion

Ryan Bridge: The Govt's COVID-19 messaging is all over the shop - do lockdowns stop when enough Kiwis are vaccinated?Man sentenced to 20 years for Russian MPs murder denied parole

 RIA Novosti

10:59 15/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 15 (RAPSI)  The Zubovo-Polyansky District of Russias Republic of Mordovia has dismissed a request for parole filed by Mikhail Kodanev sentenced to 20 years in prison for organizing the murder of the State Duma lawmaker Sergey Yushenkov, the courts press service has told RAPSI.

In March 2004, the Moscow City court convicted Kodanev and his accomplice Alexander Vinnik of infringement on a political figures life and ammunition trafficking and sentenced them to 20 and 10 years in prison respectively. Vinnik, who was suffering from lethal disease, was the only defendant who pleaded guilty and showed up other criminals.

According to investigators, in February 2003, Kodanev paid Vinnik $50,000 for organizing the killing of Yushenkov, one of the leaders of the Liberal Russia party. Kodanev allegedly ordered the murder because he wanted to head the party and misappropriate its financial assets.

The State Duma lawmaker Yushenkov was shot three times in the back and died later of his wounds in Moscow on April 17, 2003.Ukrainian Prosecutor General seeks arrest of Nadezhda Savchenko

 RIA Novosti, Stringer

15:30 15/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 15 (RAPSI)  Ukraines Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko signed a recommendation for arrest and detention of lawmaker Nadezhda Savchenko and submitted it to the Verkhovna Rada for approval, Lutsenkos spokesperson Larisa Sargan announced on her Twitter account on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Lutsenko accused Savchenko of plotting a terror attack in the house of parliament, local media reported. According to investigators, she personally planned, recruited people and gave them instructions to commit the terrorist act in the Verkhovna Rada premises with the use of combat grenades, Ukraines Prosecutor General stated.

Savchenko is suspected of involvement in organizing a coup in Ukraine allegedly plotted by Vladimir Ruban, the chief of the Officer Corps Centre for Prisoner Release NGO. He was arrested on March 8. He allegedly planned to commit several terrorist attacks in Kiev.

In March 2016, Ukrainian retired officer Nadezhda Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in prison for involvement in the murder of two Russian journalists and illegal border crossing. A court in Donetsk, a town in southern Russia, has established that Savchenko was responsible for conducting concealed observation and directing mortar fire in an attack against a roadblock held by militias of the self-proclaimed Lugansk Peoples Republic and a group of civilians there, including three Russian journalists, near the village of Metallist, the Lugansk Region, on June 17, 2014. The attack killed Two Russian television journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin.

Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned Savchenko. In late May 2016, Russia and Ukraine proceeded with the exchange of convicts between the countries, allowing Savchenko to return to Ukraine.Russian Supreme Court found no violations over TV broadcast of Oliver Stones Putin

 RIA Novosti, Mikhail Metsel

18:35 15/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 15 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russia has not found television broadcast of the documentary movie "Putin" by prominent filmmaker Oliver Stone to be in violation of election campaigning regulations, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.

The court dismissed an administrative lawsuit filed by Nikolay Rybakov, who represents interests of presidential candidate Grigory Yavlinsky, against a certain part of the provision concerning the television broadcasting set forth by the Central Election Commission.

According to the provision in question, television and radio media should provide objective information on candidates and take balanced and neutral approach towards all of them, as well as provide to them equal amount of airtime. Mass media, the regulation reads, are also free to cover the events of the electoral campaign and the activities of the candidates.

The contested part of the Election Commissions provision reads that these rules should be in force until February 17, when the promotional phase of the campaigning officially begins.

The applicant believes that the provision of the Commission puts candidates in unequal positions in terms of informing the electorate about their activity. Rybakov noted that from February 12 till February 14, during the election campaign, one of the largest federal Russian TV channels, Channel One, broadcasted the movie in question. According to the applicant, the broadcast of a movie about actions of the incumbent President violates the rights of other candidates.

Basing on the above arguments, he asked the Court to rule the provision of the Commission suspended as in this case it would be possible for Yavlinsky to have access to as much time on federal television as the time spent during broadcast of Putin.

Although the Commission earlier recommended to postpone broadcast of the remaining parts of the movie until after the elections are finished, the Commission did not find the movie to be a promotional material.

During the hearings, a representative of the Commission, Sergey Sakharov, stated that the provision did not restrict the right of the candidates to hold promotional events. According to Sakharov, the broadcast of the movie was not a promotional effort since in fact the promotional period started on February 17.Azerbaijan extradites defendant in case over attack against Russian soldiers in Chechnya

 RIA Novosti, Vitaly Ankov

14:59 15/03/2018

MOSCOW, March 15 (RAPSI)  Azerbaijan has extradited Said-Khusin Takayev, a defendant in a criminal case over activities of an organized criminal group, including an attack against Russian soldiers in Chechnya, the press-service of the Prosecutor Generals Office has stated.

According to investigators, Takayev was a member of the gang. Allegedly, in 2000-2003, he was in Chechnya where he attacked representatives of regional authorities, Russian servicemen conducting anti-terrorist operations and local population.

In 2013, he was put on the wanted list and arrested in absentia.

On February 9, 2018, he was tracked to Azerbaijan and the Prosecutor Generals Office asked Azerbaijani authorities to extradite the defendant. The request was granted on February 14.Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada.

Search Real EstateBy Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/14/2018



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

and World of Dance will be returning to NBC this summer with brand new seasons.NBC has announced the thirteenth season of will premiere Tuesday, May 29 from 8-10PM ET/PT, immediately followed by the debut of Season 2 of World of Dance from 10-11PM ET/PT. Heidi Klum , and Howie Mandel will return as the judges of , with Tyra Banks reprising her role as host.Last season, crowned 12-year-old singing ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer from Oklahoma City, OK, its $1 million winner over runner-up, Angelica Hale. Season 12 was the reality talent competition's most-watched season ever.As for World of Dance, executive producer Jennifer Lopez will return to sit on the judging panel alongside Derek Hough and Ne-Yo. Jenna Dewan Tatum will also come back to the show to fulfill her role as host and mentor of the contestants.World of Dance's inaugural season was very successful and ended with French hip-hop duo Les Twins being crowned champions over runner-up, Eva Igo, by only one-tenth of a point.World of Dance gives individual, duo, trio and groups of dancers the platform to show off their talents and compete for $1 million.Based on ratings, World of Dance was last summer's No. 2 show on broadcast television, right behind .World of Dance was also the most-watched new summer alternative series on the broadcast networks in 10 years, according to the network.In addition, NBC also announced American Ninja Warrior and Running Wild with Bear Grylls will be returning with new seasons this summer. Both shows will premiere back-to-back on Wednesday, May 30 beginning at 8PM ET/PT.By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 03/15/2018



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

auditioner Benjamin Isaac Glaze doesn't feel like Katy Perry necessarily crossed the line when she decided to give him his first kiss on the lips.As shown on Sunday night's premiere of on ABC, Ben told the judging panel during his audition he had never kissed a girl before but was waiting to be in a relationship for that special moment to happen.Katy then asked Ben for a kiss on the cheek, and when he obliged, she quickly turned her head and planted one on him.Ben admitted to The New York Times on Wednesday that the kiss was unwanted -- which then sparked criticism, in light of the "Me Too" movement, that he was disrespected and had a sexual act forced on him.But Ben later insisted on Instagram, "I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry .""I would like to clear a few things up for anyone who is confused, concerned, or angry. I am not complaining about the kiss from Katy Perry at all, doing a few news reports and being interviewed by many different reporters has caused some major questions," Ben captioned a photo slideshow of his meeting with Katy and fellow Idol judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan "The way certain articles are worded is not done by me, and my true intentions are not accurately represented in every article you read about the situation. I am not complaining about the kiss, I am very honored and thankful to have been apart of ."In The Times published Wednesday, Ben was quoted saying his on-screen kiss with Katy "was a tad bit uncomfortable."Ben was quoted saying, "I wanted to save it for my first relationship. I wanted it to be special... Would I have done it if she said, 'Would you kiss me?' No, I would have said no."After Katy kissed him on the lips and cheered in victory, Ben needed to drink a glass of water before he could sing Nick Jonas 's 2015 single "Levels."But Ben -- a 19-year-old cashier at the time of his audition -- doesn't blame Katy for his lackluster performance."I should have picked another song to sing and calmed myself down regardless of the kiss. I should have been able to perform under pressure... I am thankful for the judges comments and critiques," explained Ben, who comes from a conservative family."My main goal is to reach people through the universal love of music and not cause strife or anger against anyone or about any situation! Please take into consideration that I don't believe my views have been appropriately communicated through the media!"Ben unfortunately did not advance to Hollywood, but once he returned home to Oklahoma, his friends reportedly assured him the kiss "didn't really count" because it was not a romantic situation with a woman he really cares about."That's what a real first kiss is," he told The Times earlier this week.,



We're sorry, this article is not currently available'Theres no scope for a fictitious hospital.'

'We are trying to provide services for risk mitigation and fraud prevention.'

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.

Kunnal Prem, below, chief executive officer of the Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB), tells Mayank Jain on what theyre doing.

What are your objectives?

In the early 2000s, the industry had opened up and Irdai (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India) was collecting a lot of data.

At that point, the chairman of the regulator felt data from both life and non-life insurance had to be handled in a more efficient manner.

Thats when Irdai promoted this body, in 2009. It was made a non-profit society in 2012.

The objective was to support the industry with sector-level data and provide key inputs to the regulator to assist in policy making.

The regulator, under the mandate of the IRDA Act, advised all insurance companies to submit data in specific formats on policy and claim levels.

How is this data on policies and claims being used?

First, we are a central repository of data.

If the regulator wants data while making a policy, we provide it.

We, thus, support the regulator in its work. We also provide benchmark rates for the industry.

We have to give back insights to the people providing us the data, the insurance companies.

We provide them insights through services, reports and customised data.

Each insurance company has own data but they would not be privy to what is happening at the sectoral level.

We provide this. A company would also like to know how it fares in terms of sector parameters.

Are these paid services?

Some are annual reports, given free of cost. And, bespoke reports that insurer companies ask us for, which are charged.

These reports are based on specific products or regions they are looking to analyse.

How much demand do you see for this data, with insurance penetration still very low?

Data is very important in all sectors, not only this one.

It serves a lot of purposes for insurance companies.

In life insurance, we look at the death experience or mortality, and see how and when people are dying.

We look at companies strategy, their product profile, claims experience or any leakages and assist the regulator to fix these.

Also, for instance in motor insurance, a lot of vehicles get registered every day.

When you match the vehicle registration with motor insurance, you get a mapper of uninsured vehicles.

This is given to law enforcement agencies and this also helps to create the needed insurance.

Both the government and law enforcers are committed to get this data through the exchange of information on registered vehicles.

IIB is also building a database on hospitals. What is the aim?

This initiative is called ROHINI -- Registry of Hospitals in the Insurance Network. Irdai issued guidelines in July 2016, mandating all hospitals in the insurance network.

Hospitals are provided a unique identification number, with the geographical coordinates.

So, hospitals under the system can service cashless, reimbursement and other claims with their insurance providers.

Initially, about 32,000 hospitals were on-boarded free on the network.

Later, it was stated they should renew their subscription every year, paying a small fee.

After feedback, we switched to a once in three years renewal. We now charge a hospital Rs 2,750 for three years.

If a hospital doesnt have this unique ID number, it cant service insurance clients?

This is something Irdai has to look into.

We are only a registering authority here but the guidelines hold that anyone who supports insurance claims must be registered with the ROHINI database.

As of now, the project also needs to be enhanced quite a lot.

We need to provide value to the hospitals and stakeholders.

We need to transfer records digitally, to help faster processing of claims.

Theres a lot of scope for fraud, which can be reduced by working entirely on this digital platform.

In its present state, ROHINI is only being used for registration, generating the unique number and for hospitals to participate in the insurance claims system.

One could say it is like an Aadhaar (the citizen identification system) for hospitals -- theres no scope for a fictitious hospital.

How many hospitals are due for renewals currently and why are they not renewing their ROHINI subscriptions?

Around 40 per cent of hospitals have renewed their subscriptions.

Total hospitals on-boarded have gone up to 38,000.

Everyone in the insurance network is registered.

Renewal is the problem. We have done a lot of follow-up on those not renewing their subscription.

We have eased the process to once in three years. Insurance companies and TPAs (third-party administrators) are making their effort.

Frankly, hospitals should also understand the value they are getting from registering. We are working on enhancing our value proposition.

Are you also looking to align with ModiCare (new government scheme for health insurance) in some way?

We have some data on the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) but there are data sharing issues with all government departments.

There is an initiative by the ministry of health and family welfare, where they are trying to create a common repository of all health are facilities.

We have been asked to be part of the group. Deliberations are going on.

Is IIB covered by the Right to Information Act?

No. We operate under Irdai.

What are your future plans?

The industry needs a lot of real-time services.

We have proposed some; one service has been implemented.

If someone approaches an insurance company with a vehicle claim, the company has to depend on their word on whether he has taken a claim before or not.

We help the industry to understand, using identification, if there has been a claim or not.

This helps them to avoid giving no-claim bonuses to the wrong parties.

Many leakages take place because of wrong declarations.

We are trying to provide services for risk mitigation and fraud prevention.

Frauds, both organised and unorganised, are increasing across the country, across insurance products.Airline pares capacity on routes like Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Bengaluru on weekends, uses freed up slot at Mumbai to fly Amritsar, Patna, Varanasi

Jet Airways is introducing weekend-only flights from metros, a first in India, to overcome slot constraints and maximise revenue growth.

The airline has reduced capacity on routes such as Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Chennai on weekends.

The airline is utilising the freed up slots at Mumbai to operate flights to Amritsar, Patna and Vadodara.

The move is a part of its strategy to increase revenue amid intense competition and yield pressure. An airlines yield is the average revenue per passenger.

For the first time, we are introducing weekday-weekend patterns. We studied the traffic pattern and recognised that on heavy business-oriented metro routes, the traffic and unit revenue drops on weekends.

"There are non-metro routes where people tend to travel on weekends, and deploying capacity on those routes offers a better opportunity to increase revenue, said Raj Sivakumar, the airline's senior vice-president in charge of network and revenue management.

Mumbai, the main hub for the airline, faces a slot crunch while other metro airports such as Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru too have a shortage of slots.

The airline will be operating weekend-only flights on 22 routes from Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and other cities.

A combination of weekend flights, unique routes and overall capacity rationalisation will lead to an increase in unit revenue, Sivakumar added.

In the first nine months of 2017-18, the airlines capacity increased 8.5 per cent while the revenue growth was 5 per cent as airfares remained under pressure.

Jet Airways posted revenue of Rs 18,936 crore in the April-December period while net profit declined 63.5 per cent to Rs 315 crore in the same period.

Sivakumar expects the revenue to grow faster than capacity, in domestic and international markets.

He added it was too early to comment on the impact on fares in light of the grounding of Airbus A320Neos by IndiGo and GoAir.

Jet Airways has 82 Boeing 737 planes which it operates on domestic and short international routes.

In the next financial year, it will add eight planes.

All the inductions will be the fuel efficient Boeing 737 Max variant. It plans to explore international routes such as Mumbai-Nairobi and Bengaluru-Hong Kong in the winter schedule.

Our strategy is to grow in the domestic market. We have identified focus markets such as Chandigarh, Indore, Guwahati, Pune, Coimbatore.

"Our plan is to increase connectivity to these cities from other metros and non-metros.

"The other focus is on developing a mini hub in Guwahati and we will connect it to other cities in Northeast India and metros, he said.

The airline is adding 144 weekly flights, including industry-first direct flights from Mumbi and Delhi to cities in North East such as Aizawl, Imphal and Jorhat.

Photograph: Amit Dave/ReutersFrom farm to kitchen: Nestle reveals the secret behind the production of Maggi.

Arnab Dutta reports.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters

Whether in lunch boxes or during a late night-binge, Maggi has been a constant companion for many. But, the method of preparing the two-minute instant noodles was kept a secret, even when Maggi was banned in 2015, raising speculation over the quality of ingredients in its production.

Not any more.

As the iconic brand turns 35 this year, maker Nestle has opened the lid.

Now, Maggi lovers can watch the entire process of these are prepared in the factory, moving Nestle a step further towards engaging with consumers by highlighting the safety aspect. The firm has launched a campaign that aims to explain the noodles' journey, from farm to kitchen.

To begin, there are two promotional videos.

The first is a proposed television campaign, kuch achha pak raha hai (something good is cooking).

The second one takes consumers through a Maggi production unit, where the instant noodles pass through eight stages before getting packed in the retail form.

In 2015, questions were raised over alleged use of carcinogenic elements in the Maggi masala (tastemaker). A video to be released soon will apparently open the secret.

It is a big change.

A firm that had kept the doors of its Maggi factories closed for years, opened these for the first time to this publication in December 2015, after Maggi was back on retail shelves.

Since then, Maggi has regained much lost ground and Nestle believes the time is ripe for further engaging with consumers.

Many, including Nestle India's current chairman and managing director, Suresh Narayanan, believe the ban was a crucial point in Maggi's journey since 1983.

It also had wider implications for the instant noodles market. According to data from the World Instant Noodles Association, the world's fifth-largest market had shrunk 40 per cent in 2015.

The brand began with one variant and later diversified into sauces, pastas and masalas.

Demand abroad pushed Nestle India and its partners to export to the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

At its peak in 2014, Maggi clocked 29.6 billion in sales, garnering 77 per cent of the 3,600 crore Indian instant noodles market. That was around 30 per cent of Nestle's India's sales.

Following its re-entry, while Maggi's market share has grown steadily from zero in November 2015 to 50 per cent in April 2016, Nestle has focused on the health aspect and launched over half a dozen new variants.

The salt component in noodles is down by a third over the past decade and the plan is to further cut it by 10 per cent in the next two years.

Today, the 'ready to cook and cooking aid' category, primarily Maggi products, contributes 27 per cent to Nestle's sales.

While the worst is probably behind, concerns remain.

Globally and in India, consumption of instant noodles is down.

All major markets, including China, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam,India and the US, have witnessed falling sales since 2012.

Thus, Nestle's bet on a healthier Maggi, with low-risk ingredients and varieties, seems a step in the right direction for the brand.'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.'

'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

The Muslim Personal Law Board and the Imarat-e-Shariah (Patna) have organised a political rally, 'Deen bachao, Desh bachao conference', to issue a clarion call that Islam is in danger, in Patna's Gandhi Maidan on April 15.

Such mobilisation has already been done in Jaipur, Malegaon, Godda, Darbhanga and various other places.

This is a dangerous game being played out, after what they did in 1986 in the wake of the Shah Bano verdict, inflicting injuries upon Indian secularism by subverting the institution of the Supreme Court of India.

Left historian Sumanta Banerjee said it right in his interview with Ajaz Ashraf on Scroll.in, 'When we raise questions about Hindu fundamentalism, we need to do the same regarding Islamic fundamentalism. There are reformist movements among the Muslims but, sorry to say, the Congress compromised with the mullacracy.'

This move by the clergy, therefore, needs to be resisted very strongly by not just Muslims, but also by all those political parties which stand for secularism, and by all civil rights groups.

Here's why.

In 1986, having denied maintenance to 70-year-old Shah Bano, outfits like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board never sought to find out ways of taking care of such deserted, destitute, hapless, divorced women.

Since the board argues that the State cannot interfere in the community's affairs, it became incumbent upon the board to have created an endowment or any welfare mechanism to take care of such women.

For over three decades, between 1986 and 2017, the clergy did not feel any moral responsibility for this.

But unlike in the Shah Bano case, this time, in the Shayara Bano case, the MPLB was a respondent (no 7) before the Supreme Court where it took the stand that 'it was not for the judiciary to decide matters of religious practices such as talaq-e-biddat, but for the legislature to make any law on the same.'

The Supreme Court verdict came on August 22, 2017, outlawing talaq-e-biddat or instant talaq. The board welcomed the judgment sheepishly, but didn't issue a fatwa against the practice.

Since the board had taken the stand that such issues needed to be resolved through legislation, they should have brought out a draft bill for public debate. They did not do so either.

For almost four months, between August 22 and December 15, 2017, the date when the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill was moved in the Lok Sabha, the board did not carry out any activity like awareness campaigns and mass mobilisation.

But once the bill criminalising talaq-e-biddat was moved, these forces suddenly became hyperactive.

Even now, a highly uninformed, in fact misleading, emotive mobilisation is underway.

Rather than publicising the lacunae of intent and implications (whatever they see) in the Bill, and rather than coming out unambiguously against the un-Quranic talaq-e-biddat, they are defending and safeguarding it shamelessly.

Quite arrogantly, they have not brought out a model nikahnama. The one they had proposed to bring in was to have merely an option to volunteer that talaq-e-biddat won't be exercised.

On February 3, 2018, The Times of India (Lucknow) reported that the model nikahnama will be on the agenda of the AIMPLB plenary at Hyderabad the next day. However, this was dropped, despite the fact that they were not going to call for a complete prohibition.

The Union government's Bill presented in the Lok Sabha on December 15, 2017, provides for 'matters such as subsistence allowance from the husband for the livelihood and daily supporting needs of the wife... and of the dependent children'.

The board, even while completely rejecting this Bill, is not proposing how to address all these pertinent issues.

Here it needs to be added that under the old provision about 'vagrants' in the 1898 Code of Criminal Procedure, courts had time and again held Muslims to be liable for their pauper wives/ex-wives who were abandoned or divorced for the simple reason that the provision in question was one of criminal and not civil law.

This was reiterated in 1974 Code of Criminal Procedure as well.

The Muslim leadership may have been justified in 1986 had they led a protest against the sweeping remarks (in the judgment) about 'obscurantist Muslim law' without questioning the relief given to Shah Bano and other similarly situated women, which basically reiterated the position that had held the field at least since 1898.

Quite importantly, talaq-e-biddat is prohibited in many Muslim majority countries, and most Muslim sects disapprove of it. Yet, this regressive patriarchy is sought to be perpetuated by the clergy.

This is certainly a serious assault on secularism, something they inflicted in 1986 as well with the cry of 'Islam in danger', when the secular parties were complicit in it.

A closer look at the political history of the Indian Republic clearly suggests that every political formation and its leadership need frightened Muslims.

The political formations pursuing politics in the name of secularism secured Muslim votes en bloc by frightening them with communal violence.

Providing protection from such violence was demonstrated to be a special favour to the religious minorities. This went almost without any judicial trial against the rioters, politicians and the partisan police officers.

In the post-Congress era, the single caste/dynasty-based regional formations did the same. Muslims were not allowed to concern themselves beyond protection from communal violence.

To sustain and perpetuate this politics, the Muslim leadership counselled its constituency to remain concerned solely with religio-cultural and emotive issues, through which regressive patriarchy was also perpetuated.

In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued, over a period of time, revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism per se.

This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now. This partly explains why and how, the BJP and its affiliates have now become a hegemonic political force.

Backed with State power, now Hindutva rabble-rousers openly lynch Muslims, and then mocking at every rule of law, video-graph it, circulate it.

This demonstrative lynching and other victimisation is also a kind of statement, throwing a challenge to the political formations thriving on Muslim votes, sort of saying, 'Look! This is what we are doing to your consistently loyal voters, and if you have the political guts then come out to act and save your support base!'

Silence and inaction, not even the tokenism of statements, are the response of most of such political parties and leaders these days.

It seems, gone are the days of politics of minorityism, and Muslims are now being projected to be an electoral liability.

The party talking of Muslims stands to lose Hindu votes.

In such a dismal scenario, when even these 'secular' political formations are looking the other way, term it as a wilful failure of secular parties and of the State machinery, there arises the Owaisi kind of politics, trying to spread beyond a pocket of Hyderabad, to parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, etc.

With his training in law from the West, he articulates the grievances of minorities, cleverly couched in Constitutional language.

This at a time, when the hegemonic political force, armed with State power, disdains such provisions of the Constitution as an undue favour to the minorities (what they call appeasement), and as victimisation of the majority.

But the Owaisi brand of politics too, ironically, thrives on fear of minorities.

How does he articulate his politics? That Muslim issues cannot be addressed by any party howsoever pretending to be secular, implying that a 'Muslim' party alone can take care of Muslim concerns.

Since the Owaisi kind of politics also needs a scared minority, he, too would align with all the regressive forces and tendencies within the community, just as the Congress and the post-Congress regional forces did, as Owaisi did a few weeks ago by hijacking the MPLB.

Therefore he refuses to raise the issue of gender and caste-based justice.

Political opportunism requires a consolidated community living in perpetual fear. Hence, it helps him downplaying heterogeneities within the community.

All right-wing politics needs a consolidated community. Fear takes away reason.

Pushing politics beyond the logic of mere protection, and thereby raising the issues of gender and various layers of social justice, will require much more complex skills of management and mobilisation.

This will also ask for broadbasing and democratisation of the political party he runs as his own personal fiefdom. Why should he then shun the convenience of an opaque deal with a handful of representatives and demagogues!

Recall the recent expose of such a deal made by Salman Nadvi, a cleric on the MPLB executive, with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on the Ayodhya issue.

The AIMPLB has only 'dissociated itself' with Salman Nadvi. They are not taking a categorical position as to whether the act of entering into such a deal on a sub judice matter like Ayodhya, was appropriate and fraught with political-institutional implications.

Thus, mere hospitality to the MPLB at Hyderabad (in early February 2018, when it held its 26th plenary) has fetched Owaisi many supporters across the country to the extent that thousands of Muslim women are out on the streets demanding the perpetuation of their own subjugation. These women are not presented with a draft bill proposed by the AIMPLB.

On the command of the clergy, now supported by Owaisi, the un-Quranic, instant triple divorce (talaq-e-biddat), is being demanded by them to be safeguarded in the name of Shariat which was enacted only in 1937, but is being paraded as divine. Something which most Muslim majority countries have done away with!

The West-educated barrister is shamelessly championing this regressivism, just as many modern-educated liberal Muslims, in 1986, had either sided with the Congress or kept mum on the regressivism that was done in the case of legislation against Shah Bano's judicial victory.

How cunningly Owaisi maintains his silence on the unscrupulous underhand deal made by one of the MPLB executives, Salman Nadvi! This in itself testifies something significant about his politics.

Notably, no big rally has been organised by the clergy or by Owaisi against lynching. They won't ever bring out such big rallies on the issues of artisans, farm distress, education, healthcare, employment, etc.

The saffron forces would then tell their constituency: 'Look here, despite our hegemony, these Muslims are not prepared to be stationed in their place; they are still craving for political power as equal citizens, rather than being contented to live with whatever little we would be offering to them.'

The BJP gets yet another testimony to convince its constituency that the majority is in perpetual threat of the minority. Thus, an Owaisi is too useful for the BJP. Both fatten each other; each derives sustenance from the other.

Yet, the liberal-pluralists across the communities and groups seem to stay contented with one thing: Failure of the incumbent right wing regime on agro-economic fronts will eventually bring back the centrist forces to power. They may well be grossly mistaken in this smug understanding.

Cynical exploitation of the idea of secularism during these many decades has eventually shifted the Indian polity right-ward. In the distant future, even if an election would throw them out of power, their presence in the legislatures would most probably remain quite significant.

So, is there a way out?

One way is both Muslim liberals as well as the other liberal, progressive, Left, voices admit to their past follies.

They should launch a massive campaign against the misadventure of the extremely dangerous mass mobilisation of the MPLB to perpetuate misogynist practices like talaq-e-biddat.

They should come out with whatever reasonable amendments they wish to propose in the Bill that was introduced on December 15, 2017.

Quite clearly, pandering to, or tolerating minority communalism/conservatism, cannot help them fight majority communalism.

Will they wake up?

Well, at the moment, it seems least likely!

Professor Mohammad Sajjad is at the Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University, and is the author of two books: Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours and Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur since 1857.A Pune court on Thursday remanded Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote, one of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, in police custody till March 19.

The police had on Wednesday arrested Ekbote from his residence in Pune, after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

He was produced on Thursday before Special Judge P C Bhagure at the Shivajinagar district court amid a heavy police bandobast.

Public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar argued in the court that the police needed Ekbote's custody to recover a mobile phone through which he had communicated with some people and given directions.

"He is not cooperating with police and claiming the mobile phone is lost. The call detail record (CDR) report shows that there was a communication using that phone, but he is denying the possession of the phone," said Pawar.

She also told the court that Ekbote had organised a meeting at Sonai Hotel close to Perne phata near Koregaon Bhima days before the January 1 event, where he had distributed some pamphlets and given directions to people.

"The police custody is needed to recover the hard disk of the computer and printer which were used to print the pamphlets, mobile phone and police need to find who were those people, whom did Ekbote call and was constantly giving directions to," she said.

Last month, while extending the right-wing leader's protection from arrest, the apex court had asked the Pune rural police to submit a detailed report on the case and allowed them to question Ekbote.

Following directions from the court, he had appeared before the Shikrapur police here for questioning five times.

On Wednesday, the police submitted a detailed report before the apex court and sought the 'custodial interrogation' of Ekbote, while opposing his bail plea.

The SC accepted the demand for his custodial interrogation and rejected his bail application.

A case was registered against Ekbote and another Hindutva leader, Sambhaji Bhide, for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence that left a man dead near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial on January 1.

The incident took place during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Subsequent protests had disrupted normal life in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.The reverses suffered by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha and assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Thursday triggered urgent calls by rival parties to forge an united opposition front to take on the saffron party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

As Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati led the opposition charge urging people not to let the BJP to come to power again at the Centre, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav indicated his party was keen on burying the hatchet with the BSP, saying sometimes past incidents have to be forgotten. Mayawati also said the BJP may go in for early general elections.

Addressing a rally in Chandigarh, Mayawati said her party supported the SP candidates in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha bypolls in order to defeat the BJP.

In a stunning blow to the BJP on Wednesday, the party lost bypolls to all the three Lok Sabha seats it contested, including its bastion Gorakhpur, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides Araria in Bihar.

While BJPs estranged ally Shiv Sena said the results will give a boost to the opposition, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party said it showed that a united opposition can defeat the BJP-led regime. The NCP termed the BJPs defeat as a shape of things to come.

The results of the by-elections in UP and Bihar will give a boost to the opposition, an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana said, adding that people are now out of their illusionary world.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in New Delhi in a bid to step up efforts to put up an united front against the BJP ahead of the 2019 polls, sources said.

The sources said that Gandhi met Pawar at the latters residence on Wednesday night but no details were available.

Enthused by his partys strong showing in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls, Akhilesh Yadav declined to respond to a volley of questions on SPs future course of action on stitching any pre-poll alliance. No one can say anything about the future, Yadav said when asked about the possibility of the bitter rivals--the SP and the BSP--coming together again. The SP won both the seats with BSPs backing.

Speaking to reporters in Lucknow, Yadav also said that his partys ties with Congress too continued to be good.

On Wednesday, in a scene which seemed unimaginable only till the recent past, Yadav had rushed to the residence of the Mayawati shortly after his candidates emerged victorious and thanked her.

Following SPs win in the bypolls, there has been much speculation about UPs two biggest regional parties joining hands to take on a formidable BJP in the 2019 general elections.

Buoyed by bypolls victory, the RJD MLAs staged a demonstration outside the Bihar assembly, demanding resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the ruling coalitions defeat.

The RJD registered emphatic victories in Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad assembly seats. The BJP was defeated in Araria though it succeeded in winning Bhabhua assembly seat. Kumars Janata Dal-United suffered a crushing defeat in Jehanabad.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the bypoll results are a victory of the united forces for social justice.

There was no division of votes and the BJP could not benefit from such a split. In the 2019 general elections, when the division of secular votes will not be there, the BJP will be defeated. What happened yesterday will impact the general elections, Malik, a former Maharashtra minister, said in Mumbai.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said BJP is sinking.

We can see BJP is sinking ... It is sinking quite fast, the BJD leader said when asked to comment on the BJPs performance.

The CPI said fielding a common opposition candidate against the BJP would be the best strategy to defeat the lead party of the ruling NDA in the next Lok Sabha elections.

CPI General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said it is possible to adopt such an approach in most of the states.Rebel All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dinakaran on Thursday floated a new political party, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, named after late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

IMAGE: TTV Dinakaran on Thursday floated a new political party, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, named after late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Photograph: PTI Photo

From today onwards, we will function with a name to retrieve the great movement of AIADMK from the betrayers, Dinakaran told a gathering on the occasion, challenging the ruling dispensation in the state.

Dinakaran and his followers often use the word betrayers to refer to the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy, O Panneerselvam.

Announcing the name of the new party, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, roughly translated as Ammas party for peoples development, thrice to a thunderous applause at Melur, Dinakaran said it was a party of the followers of Puratchi Thalaivi Amma (revolutionary leader Amma).

This party will function in the name of Amma... The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam will capture power in Tamil Nadu, he said.

Before announcing the party name and unveiling its flag, Dinakaran traced their background.

He recalled that the original party name -- AIADMK -- and its two leaves symbol were frozen by the Election Commission, following a plea by the betrayers -- Panneerselvam and E Madhusudanan -- in March, 2017.

IMAGE: Dinakaran launched his new party along with its flag on Thursday. The flag is black on top and red below with white in the middle. The black and red colours are politically significant in Tamil Nadu and they feature in the flags of the two Dravidian majors -- the AIADMK and the DMK -- as well. Photograph: PTI Photo

Subsequently, though the name AIADMK-Amma was allotted to the faction led by him, eventually it could not be used since the poll panel had allotted the party name of AIADMK and the two leaves symbol to the unified factions of Palaniswami and Panneerselvam last November, Dinakaran said.

How long can the 1.5 crore cadres work without a name?, he asked, adding that for the last four months, the party workers had faced difficulties in securing permissions from the authorities for party events in the absence of a party name and flag.

Under such circumstances, Dinakaran said he approached the Delhi high court, which directed the EC to allot the pressure cooker symbol and a party name of his choice to the AIADMK faction led by him.

Even during last Decembers RK Nagar bypoll, which he won hands down with the pressure cooker symbol, We made the rising sun (DMKs symbol) lose its deposit, and the two leaves (ruling AIADMK) managed to scrape through, Dinakaran added.

Regretting that party general secretary VK Sasikala could not be with them on the occasion, he said he was announcing the name of the party with her greetings and permission.

Later, Dinakaran hoisted the new party flag on a 100-foot pole.

Party flag and Ammas legacy

Dinakaran, who has the support of several dissident AIADMK workers and leaders, said the new outfit would capture power in the state and unveiled its flag, which features the image of a smiling Jayalalithaa.

The flag is black on top and red below with white in the middle.

The black and red colours are politically significant in Tamil Nadu and they feature in the flags of the two Dravidian majors -- the AIADMK and the DMK -- as well.

Making a pitch for the welfare legacy of late Jayalalithaa, Dinakaran said the people of Ammas constituency (RK Nagar) gave us a thumping victory (in the bypoll).

Earlier also he had said the people of RK Nagar had chosen him as the successor to the late leader.

IMAGE: Crowds thronged as D inakaran and his followers launched the new party. Photograph: PTI Photo

AIADMK mouthpiece Dr Namadhu MGR had on Wednesday refrained from using the word party and instead, used organisation to refer to Dinakarans outfit.

A name of the organisation, a flag and a symbol were needed till the AIADMK and the two leaves symbol, nurtured by Amma, were retrieved, Dinakaran had said, according to the party daily.

Former state ministers V Senthil Balaji and P Palaniappan, senior leaders such as S Anbazhagan, disqualified MLAs and Dinakaran loyalists, including P Vetrivel and Thanga Tamil Selvan, were among those who took part in the event.

Speakers at the meeting lambasted the Palaniswami-led regime and alleged that it consisted of betrayers.

Vetrivel presented a veera vaal (the spear of valour seen in the hands of Lord Muruga) to Dinakaran, before the latter announced the name of the party.

Dinakarans style

Clad in a white shirt, Dinakaran, in his characteristic simple Tamil, used popular phrases pioneered by late leader MG Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) like Ungal veetu pillayai (I am your son) to connect with the people.

Like Jayalalithaa, he welcomed the party workers, saying, MGR-in rathathin rathamana udanpirappukaley, roughly translated as you have mixed with my blood, you are my brothers.

The phrase, originally coined by party founder MGR, had a magical effect on the workers.

After MGR passed away, Jayalalithaa had added MGRs name as a prefix to the phrase.IMAGE: DMK leader Kanimozhi, with members of DMK and AIADMK, stages a protest over the formation of Cauvery Management Board during the budget session of Parliament in New Delhi on Thursday. All Photographs: Shahbaz Khan/PTI Photo

Lok Sabha

Opposition members tore papers and threw them around as relentless protests by them and other parties disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha for the ninth day on Thursday, but the government managed to get two bills passed without debate amid the din.

The proceedings of House were paralysed as opposition parties, along with ruling National Democratic Alliance partner Telugu Desam Party the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, stormed the Well as soon as it met and continued with their noisy protests over a number of issues, including the Punjab National Bank scam, special status for Andhra and increase of quota.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned the House till noon and then for the day.

However, the government pushed two bills -- The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, for passage amid this din and the House passed them with a voice vote without debate.

Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose party members were also in the Well, sought a discussion on the bills.

With continuous protests by different parties making the prospect of any discussion improbable, the Speaker went ahead with the proceedings for the passage of bills.

Opposition members were seen tearing papers and throwing them around in protest as the second bill was passed beforethe Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

IMAGE: BJP president and Rajay Sabha MP Amit Shah with Bhupender Yadav.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill was an important piece of legislation as he sought the opposition's cooperation.

The Bill notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and proposes to empower the central government to notify the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

Moving the bill for passage, Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said it is a very important legislation for employees, especially women.

The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill proposes to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of a business contract and to reduce discretion of courts in such matters.

Protests began in the House as soon as the Speaker took up the Question Hour in the morning, with members from various parties trooping into the Well holding placards.

When union minister Ram Kripal Yadav was responding to the first question on rural housing, the protesting members raised their pitch, drowning his voice.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the protesting members, including the Congress, to return to their seats and allow the House to function.

IMAGE: TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad, dressed as a Muslim, protests demanding special status for the state of Andhra Pradesh.

He said Parliament is the 'maha panchayat' of the country where issues are discussed but disruptions were not allowing important issues to be raised.

He also thanked the Speaker for trying to ensure smooth functioning and said the government was open to discuss issues including bank scam, Cauvery water management board and special status for Andhra Pradesh, but the House has to function first and members have to vacate the Well.

As the protests continued, the House was adjourned till 12 noon minutes before it was adjourned till Friday.

While members from the Congress, Trinamool Congress, TDP, Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samiti were in the Well raising slogans and holding placards, MPs from the Left were standing at their seats and shouting slogans.

Since March 5, when Parliament had met after a recess, the Lok Sabha has seen disruptions on a daily basis. Amid the din, the Finance Bill and the appropriation bills were passed on Wednesday by the House without discussion.

Rajya Sabha

Uproarious scenes by the Opposition and the TDP seeking a probe into India's largest Rs 12,700 crore banking scam and special status to Andhra Pradesh disrupted Rajya Sabha proceedings for the ninth consecutive day on Thursday.

The House was adjourned for the day in the afternoon after witnessing two adjournments earlier in the day.

Minutes after the Upper House reassembled at 3 pm, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien who was in the Chair rose to his feet and urged the opposition to take up the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bills as members from TDP, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress trooped into the Well raising slogans and carrying placards.

"Please listen to my request...There is Finance Bill... Appropriation Bills...If you don't consider (them), Rajya Sabha will beocme irrelevant. I will dispose (these) in five minutes," Kurien urged the members.

To this, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said "No Bill can just be finished in five minutes."

However, as the slogan-shouting continued, Kurien adjourned the House for the day, saying "I will have to adjourn the House and the responsibility of not discussing or taking up Finance Bill is on the shouting members."

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved a statutory resolution to approve a notification of March 1 which seeks to increase the basic custom duty on chickpeas, falling under a

tariff item of the Customs Tariff Act from 40 to 60 per cent.

IMAGE: BJP MP Hema Malini.

When the House had met at 3 PM, former minister TDP MP YS Chowdhary, who was earlier allowed by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to make a statement under Rule 241 on the reasons for quitting the Union cabinet, said he wanted to complete his statement.

However, Kurien did not permit him, saying "I am not denying your right...The point is, the statement was allowed in the morning and it could not be completed...on what ground (that) I am not aware...You can request the honourable Chairman tomorrow (on Friday)."

Soon after it met for the day, the Upper House was adjourned till 2 pm amidst protests by Congress members over Chowdary's remarks against the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance regime over the division of Andhra Pradesh.

When it reassembled at 2 pm, Deputy Chairman Kurien adjourned the House within five minutes after the opposition members trooped into the Well raising slogans.

Kurien tried to pacify the agitating members saying the government was ready for discussion on the issues they were raising and they should return to their seats.

He tried to take up a short duration discussion on the scams in public sector banks, saying the notice for the short duration discussion 'has been admitted and the government is ready for discussions on it'.

However, as the members continued their protests, the Deputy Chairman adjourned the house till 3 pm.

Earlier, the Congress members had trooped into the Well raising slogans after Chowdhary said the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was carried out in a 'hasty, unjust and unscientific' manner.

Chairman Naidu said the former minister had been allowed permission under Rule 241 to make a statement on the reasons for quitting the Union cabinet.

Two ministers of the TDP -- Chowdary and Ashok Gajapathi Raju -- had quit their posts after the party pulled out of the government over the issue of special status to Andhra Pradesh.

Chowdary began by thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party leader N Chandrababu Naidu for giving him an opportunity to be part of the Cabinet and then went on to say that he was making the statement to set the perspective right and 'separate truth from propaganda'.

He said the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was done in a 'hasty, unjust and unscientific manner' by the government of the time.

The comment drew a sharp reaction from the Congress MPs who shouted in protest and started moving into the Well.

Naidu asked Chowdary not to deviate from the approved text of the statement and anything he said beyond it would not go on record.

But this did not satisfy the Congress members who moved into the Well with some holding placard supporting a special package for Andhra Pradesh. Naidu said the House was not a place to play politics and adjourned it till 2 pm.

Earlier the House mourned the death of its former member Hamida Habibullah. A qualified nurse who served in the military hospital in Lucknow till World War-II and had started the famed NGO SEWA, Habibullah died on March 13 at the age of 101 years.Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tendered an apology for levelling charges of involvement in drugs trade against Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia following which the latter has decided to withdraw the court case against him.

Disclosing this on Thursday, Majithia claimed he was grateful that truth had won and Kejriwal had realised his mistake.

The SAD leader added that since the Aam Aadmi Party leader had tendered his apology, he did not want to pursue the defamation case filed against him.

Drug abuse was a major issue in the high-octane Punjab assembly elections last year and Kejriwal, who was leading the AAP charge, accused Majithia, then a minister in the state government, of being involved in narcotics trade.

However, in his apology to Majithia, the Delhi chief minister said he had learnt that his allegations were unfounded.

In the recent past I made certain statements and allegations against you regarding your alleged involvement in drug trade. These statements became a political issue. Now Ive learnt that the allegations are unfounded. Hence there should be no politics on such issues. I hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologise for the same, Kejriwal said.

Talking to reporters, Majithia said he had accepted the apology.

I thank Kejriwal for showing greatness in seeking apology for his remarks made against me. I have told my lawyers that from our side, this case ends as Kejriwal has sought apology. I have asked my counsels to withdraw the defamation case. Person makes mistake and with the grace of God, if I have the ability to forgive and I will forgive, the SAD leader said.

Majithia had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and Ashish Khetan in May 2015 accusing them of tarnishing his image by alleging his involvements with drug trade.

I had said from the beginning that either he will say sorry or he will go to jail. Sending someone to jail is not my intention, it was to protect my honour, he asserted.

The Delhi chief ministers apology had affirmed that politics of smear campaigns would never succeed, he said.

It is indeed a historical moment that a sitting chief minister has submitted a written apology in court withdrawing all statements he made against me besides regretting the damage caused to my esteem as well as hurt caused to my family, friends and well wishers. In todays day and age, we are bound to commit mistakes. It is human nature. Kejriwal has displayed great courage to admit his mistake and move on, said Majithia.

The SAD leader said although it was very torturous journey for him as he battled the allegations. The AAP, however, did not benefit as their candidate lost his security forfeited in my constituency, he said.

Majithia said the entire controversy had taken a toll on his mother, whom he lost, because she could not understand this kind of politics.

My wife also went through a difficult phase, I thank the almighty that this chapter has ended and truth has prevailed, he said.

If my two little kids were asked in school that your father does such things, you can imagine what could have been my position. What answer I could have given to them, he said.

AAP leader Ashish Khetan had apologised as well, he added.

Meanwhile, the AAP said that Kejriwal was facing dozens of civil and criminal cases related to defamation, putting hoardings or posters during election campaigns, violation of Sec 144, public protests etc in Delhi and other parts of India like Varanasi, Amethi, Punjab, Assam, Maharashtra, Goa and many other places.

Most of these cases require personal appearance in court. These cases have been foisted by our political rivals to de-motivate us and keep our leadership busy in these legal matters. The decision to amicably sort out all such legal cases is a strategy as devised by the legal team of the party. The political cases in Delhi have been put on fast track forcing MLAs and ministers to virtually attend cases on daily basis in courts at Delhi and other states, spokesperson of AAPs Delhi unit Saurabh Bharadwaj said.India on Thursday termed as routine Pakistan calling its high commissioner home for consultations after alleging that its diplomats and their families were harassed and intimidated.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Indian high commission in Islamabad was also facing a litany of issues which have not been resolved for several months by that country.

In latest escalation of tensions between the two countries, Pakistan on Thursday said it has decided to call home its envoy in India Sohail Mahmood for consultations after repeated incidence of harassment of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

It is pretty normal and routine for any country to call its envoy for consultations, Kumar said during his weekly media briefing while replying to a volley of questions on the issue.

Frankly, I am a bit surprised as to why this question is posed to me. Consultations by any resident ambassador/high commissioner with their headquarters is a matter for that country. We of course have no comments to offer on the news reports regarding the Pakistan high commissioner, he said.

The spokesperson said India was looking into the issues being raised by Pakistan.

He said India has also asked the Pakistan government for immediate resolution of the issues being faced by its mission in Islamabad so that the safety and security of Indian diplomatic mission and its diplomatic and consular officials are assured.

In Islamabad, the Pakistan foreign ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing harassment, intimidation and outright violence from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.

Kumar said the Indian high commission was also facing lot of issues and India has already taken them up through diplomatic channels.

We would like our Mission to function normally, without any obstruction or harassment, in keeping with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, he said.

In Islamabad, Pakistan foreign office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats, their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

We do not wish to respond to these issues through the media but through established diplomatic channels. What I can say is that we are looking into these issues, Kumar said.

Asked whether India was also asking its envoy in Islamabad to come to Delhi for consultations, he indicated that there was no such move.

The Pakistan foreign office spokesperson alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here, and also with the Indias ministry of external affairs at the highest (level).

He said the Pakistan high commission shared with the external affairs ministry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officers but regrettably no positive action was taken by the Indian side so far.

Official sources said Indian mission staffers in Islamabad have been severely harassed and intimidated and that harassment has been a new normal for them.

They said the Indian high commissioners car was recently stopped by Pakistani agencies in the middle of a busy road to prevent him from attending an event.

The sources said water and power supply to residences of Indian staffers have been cut intermittently in the last few months.

The sources said India has been asking Pakistan to ensure that both high commissions are allowed to do their job in an atmosphere free of harassment and intimidation.

Photograph: Mohsin Raza/ReutersIMAGE: NCP president Sharad Pawar with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge at a dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Photograph: COurtesy @INCIndia/Twitter

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar to step up efforts and put up an united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2019 general elections, sources said on Thursday.

The meeting with the NCP leader comes amid the party's poor performance and loss in the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Gandhi met Pawar on Wednesday night within hours of the BJP's defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

The meeting took place at the latter's residence, they said.

It has been learnt that they discussed efforts of putting up a joint opposition front against the saffron party, the sources in the Congress said.

The meeting comes a day after United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner for opposition leaders, which was attended by leaders of 20 parties including the Congress.

The Congress chief is also likely to meet Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee soon.

Banerjee is expected to attend a joint opposition meet being hosted by Sharad Pawar on March 28, the sources said.

The call for putting up a common front by the opposition in the 2019 elections came after BJP's yesterday defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the constituencies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The Congress, which had also contested the bypolls independently and had not supported the SP-BSP combine, drew a drubbing after both its candidates lost their security deposits.

Gandhi also highlighted the contribution of BSP founder Kanshi Ram today and lauded his efforts in bringing the downtrodden and lower castes into the political mainstream.

He described Ram as a social reformer on his birth anniversary. Gandhi said in making such efforts, Ram left an indelible mark in society.The chief justice, while repeatedly stressing that he was not commenting on the case before it, also said that sometimes journalists write in a way that amounts to 'sheer contempt of court'.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked a Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against the news portal The Wire and its journalists.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Jay Shah and others, who have filed the complaint against the scribes, to respond within two weeks to the plea filed by the journalists against the Gujarat high court's order, refusing to quash summons issued against them by the trial court.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, observed that the media should be more responsible and said it cannot write whatever it feels about anyone.

The chief justice, while repeatedly stressing that he was not commenting on the case before it, also said that sometimes journalists write in a way that amounts to 'sheer contempt of court'.

"I have told many times about Freedom of Speech and Expression. We are not going to gag the media.The question of gagging the media does not arise. But the press should be more responsible," he said.

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits," the chief justice observed. "... they are writing sometimes which amounts to sheer contempt of court," he added.

The Gujarat high court had on January 8 rejected a petition filed by the news portal, seeking quashing of a criminal defamation case filed against it by Jay Shah over an article related to his company.

The high court rejected the petition on the grounds that the article, The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah, is per say 'defamatory' and the trial court should proceed with the case.

Jay Shah had moved the lower court alleging criminal defamation by the petitioners after the article published by the website claimed his company's turnover grew exponentially after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.

After the suit was filed on October 9, 2017, the court initiated proceedings against them under Code of Criminal Procedure Section 202 (to inquire into a case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding).

The suit has been filed against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and M K Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism. The foundation publishes The Wire.

Jay Shah has separately filed a civil defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against the website over the article.

Jay Shah had rejected the charge made in the article, insisting the story was 'false, derogatory and defamatory'.

IMAGE: From left, Rohini Singh, M K Venu, Monobina Gupta, Siddharth Bhatia and Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire.There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour with respect to fight against terrorism, United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has said.

Mattis said that there are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping the US' ongoing efforts against terrorism and have been for some time.

"There have been changes in Pakistan's behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced)," Mattis told reporters travelling with him to Afghanistan, according to the transcripts released by the US Department of Defence.

"There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction," he said.

In January, the Pakistan government issued a fatwa signed by more than 1,800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Mattis said that despite the apparent changes in Pakistan, he'd still like to talk to people dealing with the border issues and intelligence and their impression of the situation.

"One of the reasons I want to go in is actually talk to the people who are dealing with the border issues right now, dealing with intelligence and what they're seeing. And then go back and talk with our intelligence agencies in Washington, DC, and put together an assessment of this," Mattis said.

"There is a number of things that have been going on, but I want to talk to people here and see the reality and how they see it and go back and talk to intelligence agencies and get a full assessment of where we're at," he said.

Responding to a question on Taliban, Mattis said the US has to set the conditions where the Taliban realise they cannot win with bombs.

"At that point, setting the conditions for the diplomats to sit down, and the leadership to sit down and try to get this out of the violence and into the diplomatic stance," he said.

Mattis, however, said that while the US tries to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, it will still ramp up the military pressure on it.

"..you need to have that door open, even as you increase the military pressure and say this is not going to work. You know, to just be setting off bombs," he said.

The Defence Secretary said that the US needs to lead and provide the substance for the reconciliation effort.

"..it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That would be a bridge too far right now to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government," Mattis said.

In Kabul, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussed the South Asia strategy and the US' commitment to Afghanistan.

Pentagon's chief spokesperson Dana White said that Mattis praised Ghani's recent offer to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions.

"He noted Ghani's diplomatic approach achieved a level of international support not possible with military action alone. Secretary Mattis offered his full support to the Afghan-led reconciliation process, aimed at achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan," White said.

At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks to 'save the country' while offering security and incentives like passports to insurgents who take part in the negotiations.

During the meeting, Mattis emphasised that the peace offer does not eliminate the need for offensive operations against the Taliban, and noted the importance of continued Afghan National Defense and Security Forces progress on the battlefield.

"The two Afghan leaders also reinforced that the recent Taliban peace offer without preconditions was genuine, and they are ready to embrace all who are willing to reconcile," White said.

IMAGE: US Defence Secretary James Mattis. Photograph: Dondi Tawatao/ReutersThe United States on Thursday threw its weight behind the United Kingdom in the case of a 'reckless' nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter, saying it shares the British assessment that Russia is responsible for the attack.

It also said that the UK's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the alleged attack was a 'just response'.

"The US stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the UK. The US shares the UK's assessment that Russia is responsible for the reckless nerve agent attack on a British citizen and his daughter, and we support the UK's decision to expel Russian diplomats as a just response," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats -- in the 'single biggest expulsion' in more than 30 years -- and suspended high-level bilateral contacts, saying Moscow was 'culpable' of the nerve agent attack.

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.

Russia denies its involvement in the attempted murder.

Sanders said the attack fits into a pattern of behaviour in which Russia 'disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes'.

"The US is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again," she said.

House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer said Russia's alleged attacks against dissidents on British soil were 'unconscionable' and violate international law.

"I stand in strong solidarity with Prime Minister May and the British government as they take appropriate retaliatory action today," he said.

"In recent years, Vladimir Putin's Russia has supported violent separatism in Ukraine and Georgia, propped up the Assad regime in Syria, threatened Europe's energy supplies, and tried to hack elections in our country and others. Russian aggression must be met with strength and resolve," Hoyer said.

Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the US should lead a conversation with their NATO allies about a collective response to the act and future acts of aggression.

"Our ally took a strong step today but this likely won't be the last time that Russia tries to silence those who publicly condemn Putin's regime from Western soil," said Sasse.

"Whether it's the consideration of similar Russian expulsions from NATO nations.. or freezing more Russian assets, we ought to make it inescapably clear to Russia that its shadow war will meet a coordinated response," he said.

At the United Nations headquarters in New York, US Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Russia for the alleged use of nerve gas.

"Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: the US stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain. The US believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the UK using a military-grade nerve agent," Haley said during a special meeting of the UN Security Council convened at the request of Great Britain.

Haley said the US' constant criticism of Russia was not without reason.

"If the Russian government stopped using chemical weapons to assassinate its enemies; and if the Russian government stopped helping its Syrian ally to use chemical weapons to kill Syrian children; and if Russia cooperated with the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) by turning over all information related to this nerve agent, we would stop talking about them," said Haley.

"We take no pleasure in having to constantly criticise Russia, but we need Russia to stop giving us so many reasons to do so," she said.

Haley urged the UNSC to hold Russia accountable for the alleged use of chemical weapon.

"The credibility of this council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable," Haley said.

Jonathan Allen, Charge dAffaires of the permanent Mission of Britain to the UN, said the UK concluded that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act because it had previously produced this agent and due to its record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations.

"We saw only two plausible explanations: either it was a direct attack by Russia on my country; or Russia had lost control of a military-grade nerve agent which they had developed," said Allen.

"We requested the Russian government to provide an explanation by the end of Tuesday, March 13, on how this Russian-produced nerve agent could have been deployed in Salisbury. They provided no credible explanation which could suggest they lost control of their nerve agent," he said.

IMAGE: A police officer stands at a cordon around the bench where former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found after they were poisoned, in Salisbury, on Wednesday. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/ReutersThe results of the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar do not bode well for the Congress as the strengthening of regional outfits may weaken the grand old partys chances of leading a joint opposition front for the 2019 general elections.

Political observers feel that unless the Congress reclaims some states from the Bharatiya Janata Party and retains Karnataka in the assembly elections slated to be held later this year, its chances of leading such an alliance may weaken further.

The Congress, however, feels that the victory of the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine in Uttar Pradesh is an aberration and it is the only party with a pan-India presence capable of cobbling together and leading a coalition to defeat the BJP.

The Congress was left out of the SP-BSP combine in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls, where the alliance elbowed out the BJP in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths bastion of Gorakhpur and his deputy Keshav Prasad Mauryas constituency in Phulpur.

While on the one hand the Congress is seeking to put together a joint Opposition alliance to take the BJP on in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, regional parties are hoping to forge a united front without the Congress as another alternative.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has already taken the lead in this and has been in touch with leaders of other regional parties, such as Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress.

The Congress is also carrying on with its efforts to keep the Opposition together. Party leader Sonia Gandhi hosted a dinner recently for all non-BJP parties, an event that was attended by leaders of 20 Opposition parties, including the Congress.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said it was now crystal clear that the people of the country had given its no confidence to the Modi brand of politics, driven by rhetoric than reality and guided by headline management than the countrys management.

Naturally they are looking at alternatives. Opposition political parties are driven by the pressure and will of Indias people to save the essence of Indias foundational values and come together to defend them despite disagreement of politics and conflict of interest at times, he said.

The Congress was the only natural party with a pan-India appeal which could stitch the coalition together in the fight for Indias foundational and civilisational values, he said.

Surjewala was not unduly worried about the party losing ground in the states -- its two candidates lost their deposits in the UP bypolls -- and said this was an aberration.

There will be some aberrations like we saw yesterday, yet the umbrella or the path to tread upon will be laid by the Congress, so that everyone can walk ahead hand-in-hand together, he said.

Another Congress leader, former Union minister S Jaipal Reddy, said the idea of a third front as propagated by Rao was merely a stunt to befool the people.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, however, had said on Wednesday that the verdict of the bypolls showed the anger of the people against the BJP and that they would vote for any non-BJP candidate who had the potential to win.

Gandhi also said the Congress party was keen to rebuild the party in Uttar Pradesh but that would not happen overnight.

The Congress is keen on rebuilding the party in Uttar Pradesh, but that will not happen overnight, he tweeted in Hindi on Wednesday.

A senior Congress leader from Uttar Pradesh and a former minister feared that after the bypolls, regional parties SP and BSP might think the Congress was irrelevant in the state.

He said if this idea gained ground, the bargaining power of the Congress could take a severe hit and the party may be given just 5 to 6 seats out of a total of 80 in the state in an electoral arrangement for the next Lok Sabha polls.

The fate of the Congress is now totally in the hands of these two parties. And neither will want the Congress to contest in more than 5-6 seats out of a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the former minister said.

The SP and BSP have their own vote banks and will not want the Congress to be strengthened as they fear that it could eat into their constituencies.

In the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress contested in only 103 of the 403 seats while the SP fought from 298.

The situation is not very different in other states such as Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where regional players are seeking to flex their muscles and will demand a greater pound of flesh from the Congress.

In Karnataka, the BSP and regional outfit Janata Dal-Secular have already tied up and in states such as Maharashtra and West Bengal, the NCP and the TMC would want to dominate the electoral arrangements.

The Congress, poll analysts said, can strengthen its position only if it wins Karnataka and later states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where it is in a direct contest with the BJP.TAJIKISTAN: Conscientious objection appeal to UN Human Rights Committee?

Publisher Forum 18 Author Mushfig Bayram Publication Date 27 February 2018 Cite as Forum 18, TAJIKISTAN: Conscientious objection appeal to UN Human Rights Committee?, 27 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa3edd4.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

27 February 2018

TAJIKISTAN: Conscientious objection appeal to UN Human Rights Committee?

Prisoner of conscience Daniil Islamov is preparing to appeal for the last time to Tajikistan's Supreme Court against a six-month jail term for refusing compulsory military service. If this appeal is rejected, he is likely to appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee.AZERBAIJAN: Extra prison term for Koran micro-discs

Publisher Forum 18 Author Felix Corley Publication Date 16 February 2018 Cite as Forum 18, AZERBAIJAN: Extra prison term for Koran micro-discs, 16 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa4a3d4.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

16 February 2018

AZERBAIJAN: Extra prison term for Koran micro-discs

A Court added 10 weeks to prisoner of conscience Taleh Bagirov's 20-year prison term for having micro-discs of the Koran in his cell. The Supreme Court rejected Sardar Babayev's appeal against a three-year prison term for leading mosque prayers while having foreign religious education. Six months after a Court ordered compensation for illegal imprisonment, two Jehovah's Witnesses have received nothing.RUSSIA: Two criminal trials, three criminal investigations

Publisher Forum 18 Author Victoria Arnold Publication Date 20 February 2018 Cite as Forum 18, RUSSIA: Two criminal trials, three criminal investigations, 20 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa4b2c4.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

20 February 2018

RUSSIA: Two criminal trials, three criminal investigations

The criminal trial of Danish Jehovah's Witness Dennis Christensen, accused of "continuing the activities of a banned extremist organisation", began in Oryol after nearly nine months' detention. Investigators launched three similar criminal investigations against Jehovah's Witnesses in Belgorod, Kemerovo and Oryol. Arkady Akopyan is on trial for inciting religious hatred.RUSSIA: Property sell-offs, alternative service denials follow Jehovah's Witness ban

Publisher Forum 18 Author Victoria Arnold Publication Date 19 November 2017 Cite as Forum 18, RUSSIA: Property sell-offs, alternative service denials follow Jehovah's Witness ban, 19 November 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa4f394.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 December 2017

RUSSIA: Property sell-offs, alternative service denials follow Jehovah's Witness ban

Following the Supreme Court ban on all Jehovah's Witness activity  in force since July - Regional Justice Ministry branches are preparing to sell off their confiscated property. Military call-up offices have denied several army conscripts the option of alternative civilian service. Jehovah's Witnesses experience increased law enforcement harassment, plus vandalism and violence.AZERBAIJAN: Fines follow police raids on worship

Publisher Forum 18 Author Felix Corley Publication Date 15 December 2017 Cite as Forum 18, AZERBAIJAN: Fines follow police raids on worship, 15 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa51004.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

15 December 2017

AZERBAIJAN: Fines follow police raids on worship

Azerbaijan continues to raid religious communities meeting without state permission, and large fines are normally then imposed. After one such raid an Aliabad Baptist has been told he must pay a fine of over three months average salary by the end of 2017.UZBEKISTAN: No books allowed, Bible ordered destroyed

Publisher Forum 18 Author Mushfig Bayram Publication Date 13 December 2017 Cite as Forum 18, UZBEKISTAN: No books allowed, Bible ordered destroyed, 13 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa65694.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

13 December 2017

UZBEKISTAN: No books allowed, Bible ordered destroyed

Uzbekistan still searches homes and fines people for meeting and having religious literature, claiming in one case to look for a gun. After one person admitted to reading Christian books at home, their home was raided and Bible confiscated. Elsewhere, a Bible was destroyed.RUSSIA: Falsified "evidence" helped convictions?

Publisher Forum 18 Author Victoria Arnold Publication Date 11 December 2017 Cite as Forum 18, RUSSIA: Falsified "evidence" helped convictions?, 11 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa66344.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

11 December 2017

RUSSIA: Falsified "evidence" helped convictions?

Apparently falsified testimonies may have helped jail two Russian Muslim prisoners of conscience, Forum 18 has been told. A representative of publishers who formerly published Russian translations of theologian Said Nursi's works has, without success, appealed to the General Prosecutor's Office to investigate.BELARUS: Maltreated, fined for offering religious literature

Publisher Forum 18 Author Olga Glace Publication Date 6 December 2017 Cite as Forum 18, BELARUS: Maltreated, fined for offering religious literature, 6 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa675f4.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

6 December 2017

BELARUS: Maltreated, fined for offering religious literature

The court in Lepel has repeatedly fined local Baptists since mid-October for singing and offering Christian books to passers-by near the town market. After detaining two church members, police injured the face of one and put handcuffs so tightly on another that his hands went numb. Their complaint is with the Investigative Committee.TAJIKISTAN: Nine long jail terms  for what?

Publisher Forum 18 Author Mushfig Bayram Publication Date 4 December 2017 Cite as Forum 18, TAJIKISTAN: Nine long jail terms  for what?, 4 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5aaa68f34.html [accessed 21 September 2021] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 December 2017

TAJIKISTAN: Nine long jail terms  for what?

At least nine Muslim men  including an imam and a well-known heart surgeon - are known to have been jailed as prisoners of conscience since August in the northern Sogd Region in three separate cases. All received five years or more jail terms. Officials refused to explain what they had done wrong.Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.President Donald Trump is seeking to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports and the US will target the technology and telecommunications fields, Reuters reported Wednesday citing two people at the administration who had discussed the issue.

As CIA Director Mike Pompeo, considered tough on China, will take up the position of US secretary of state, Washington may step up its aggressive policy on trade with China. Tensions will likely flare up in Sino-US relations.

China has to brace for trade wars both in strategy and mentality. Beijing needs to give Washington head-on blows in a similar manner and must not be soft.

The Trump administration believes it can overwhelm China and gain far more returns than losses by imposing tariffs. Over one year in office, Trump's foreign policies have worked smoothly except for on the Korean Peninsula. When visiting other countries he was exceptionally received and brought back promises of investing in the US and buying more American products.

Having not suffered from his tough approach to foreign policy, Trump must think all his actions have been vindicated. Thus he kicked out a few globalists from his team such as Rex Tillerson and Gary Cohn and brought in more hawkish officials.

Washington has to understand that Trump would deploy his "I dare do anything" image better as a bluff, but not really mean it.

If the US indeed wages a worldwide trade war, it will find itself in an awkward position.

The US is still the world's most developed country, topping others in a multitude of sectors from technology to finance. Its trade deficit is not the only index to measure US economic and social development.

If the US wants to reduce its trade deficit, it has to make Americans more hard-working and conduct reforms in accordance with international market demand, instead of asking the rest of the world to change. It's unreasonable to play victim.

By hanging tough, Trump wants to gain as many benefits as possible for his country so as to appease his voters and win re-election. He has done well at this until lately.

But he shouldn't invoke confrontation. Once a trade war starts, capable countries won't bow to the US. China has tried hard to avoid a trade war, but if one breaks out, appeasement is not an option.

Since the countries that the US targets are more resilient politically, the Trump administration is likely to end up as the first to collapse.

The Trump administration will pay dearly if its toughness causes the US to suffer heavy losses. Its only resource in support of toughness compared with previous administrations is Trump's personality, which is not widely welcomed. Beneath his aggressive demeanor is a brutal reality.

China won't allow itself to be trampled upon. Perhaps it is China's destiny to struggle with the US only in order to teach Washington a lesson. In which case, so be it.A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.An army group of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) demobilized thousands of soldiers and officers and assigned hundreds of troops to visit the border regions as part of the military reform.

The 81th Army Group of the PLA's Central Theater Command said that "military officers and soldiers responded shortly after receiving the order more than 10,000 moved to other stations, thousands were demobilized; and hundreds were assigned to visit the border regions," according to a video shown on tv.81.cn, a television station affiliated with the PLA.

The headquarters of the 81th Army Group is based in Zhangjiakou city, Hebei Province, 200 kilometers from Beijing.

The military reform is aimed at removing outmoded armed forces and administrative offices, and downsizing non-combat personnel to improve the military structure and realize rational allocation, Xu Guangyu, a retired major general, told the Global Times.

According to 81.cn, a news site under the PLA, the provincial military command in Central China's Hubei Province accomplished their goal of demobilizing non-combat personnel by the end of February, marking the first provincial military command to accomplish the goal in the year.

The report said that military officials provided incentives to encourage these people, such as promotions and preferential policies to get a hukou (household registration) after demobilization.

Xu added that the government has been trying to issue preferential policies for demobilized personnel and veterans.

China unveiled a plan to restructure the government on Tuesday, and plans to set up a new ministry devoted to veterans' affairs.

The move is meant to protect the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families, improve the service and management system of demobilized military personnel, and make military service an occupation that enjoys public respect, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday proposed creating a "Space Force" as a new branch of U.S. armed forces.

In a speech to military personnel at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego in the state of California, Trump said his new national strategy recognizes that space is a domain of war, just like land, air and sea.

"We have the Air Force, we'll have the Space Force," he said.

"I said, maybe we need a new force, I call it Space Force. I was not really serious, but now I'm thinking that's a great idea. We're making a Space Force. Tremendous," said Trump, noting that his country is going to lead again in space.

"Our service members will be vital to ensuring America continues to lead the way into the stars," he added.

"I'm talking the largest military buildup since Ronald Reagan, and one of the largest buildups in the history of our nation," said the U.S. president.

Trump told thousands of troops that his government will give them the largest pay raise in over a decade, drawing loud cheers.

Trump examined prototypes for his long-promised wall along the border with Mexico earlier Tuesday amid protests and growing tensions with California, marking his first visit to the most populous U.S. state since assuming office.

Trump is the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to skip a visit to California during the first year in office.Confusion Reigns over Potential Mask Exemption Form

Wyalusing Area School District parent Dustin Latini, standing, was among one of several parents who spoke at Mondays school board meeting regarding the new mask mandate implemented by PA Gov....

Bluegrass Fans Enjoy Beautiful Day of Music at Wyalusing Festival

The Springville based duo Dave Cavage and Josh Sudigala entertain bluegrass fans at Grovedale Winery. Photo by David Keeler Danny Stewart and his wife, Christa, who promoted and booked bands...

Elk Lake Fire Co. Remains Out of Service

The Elk Lake Volunteer Fire Company will remain out of service for a little while longer, according to Dimock Township Supervisor Ron Teel. Members of the fire company met with...BEIRUT, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army on Wednesday issued a warning for remote control drone owners urging them to get licenses for flying their vehicles and for drone photography.

The Army Command-Guidance Directorate warned in a statement against the "threats of flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Lebanon's territories, mainly military centers and sensitive locations without a license issued by the Guidance Directorate."

The statement said any drone flying illegally without meeting the requirements "will be brought down and owners will be legally prosecuted," citing "serious risk to the official institutions, the security and public safety."A TEENAGER who was caught in possession of a knife and drugs has been fined.

Charles Parkin Smith (18), of Church Lane, Dinnington, was caught by a police sniffer dog while he was on Carver Street, Sheffield, in January.

He admitted possession of cannabis and a lock knife at Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

Mrs Yvonne Wragg, prosecuting, said a sniffer dog patrolling Carver Street had reacted to Parkin Smith and he was searched.

They found a Swiss Army lock knife in his coat and cannabis in his back trouser pocket.

Miss Annette Thomas, mitigating, said Parkin Smith had never been before the courts before or been in trouble with the police.

Parkin Smith was fined 150 and ordered to pay 115 costs for possession of the knife.

There was no separate penalty for the cannabis charge.

THOMAS Rotherham College has been told it needs to improve by government inspectors, who found students were not progressing as expected.

The Moorgate Road colleges overall effectiveness was rated as requires improvement following an Ofsted inspection in mid-January.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare was the only area to be rated good at the 1,548-pupil college, which converted to an academy last November.

Malcolm Fraser, lead inspector, said: Leaders, managers and teachers are not held to account sufficiently for their own performance and for the outcomes for students.

Consequently, actions to bring about the necessary improvements identified in the colleges self-assessment have not yet been effective.

Governors have been distracted by their considerable work in securing the sustainability of the college through joining a multi-academy trust.

As a result, they do not provide sufficient challenge to leaders to ensure that the urgently needed improvements to A-level outcomes are made.

Achievement rates on A-level qualifications declined significantly in 2016/17 compared with previous years, he added.

The report, published this week, said the proportion of students gaining their A-levels was declining and too many students were not progressing.

But the inclusive college was praised for its culture of respect and inspectors said students received effective advice and guidance.

The colleges tutorial programme and enrichment activities were praised for enabling them to develop a good awareness about life in modern Britain, how to keep themselves safe and healthy, and how to protect themselves and others from the risks of radicalisation and extremism.

The colleges current interim principal, Dr Stephan Jungnitz, took up the post in January after Dr Richard Williams retired after 11 years at the helm.

The college announced this month that its first female headteacher, Shirley Brookes-Mills, will take over as principal in June.

Mr Fraser added: Governors are well qualified and commit a great deal of their time to securing a sustainable future for the college.

The colleges membership of the Inspire Trust from November 2017 is a well-considered strategic approach with the ambition to improve quality and secure continuity of high-quality education from the age of three to 19 for the communities that the trust serves.

In a statement the college said Ofsted had identified many positive areas and it recognised the challenges highlighted.

The college said action had already been taken prior to the inspection to address areas of improvement.

Dr Jungnitz added: These recommendations have come at just the right time as the college has just appointed a new principal.

We are confident that this years, and next years outcomes, will be on the way to good, if not outstanding.GOLDNET.MARKET - We want and are working to provide business with the opportunity to develop a lot of activity areas Today, almost all jewellery companies have their own wholesale websites, online stores, and social media pages. But a year ago, GOLDNET.MARKET, the first jewellery wholesale marketplace appeared in Russia, a new effective tool for the jewellery market...

Platinums rare nature gives it additional value and appeal Huw Daniel is the CEO of Platinum Guild International, overseeing market development activities in China, Japan, India and the USA, on behalf of the platinum producers of South Africa. Before taking up this role in 2015, Huw ran PGI USA for 12 years...

Marco Carniello: We want to continue to be the engine boosting the jewellery industry Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) is a leader in Italy in the organisation of trade fairs and one of the main operators in the trade fair and conference sector at European level, with structures in Rimini and Vicenza, as well as further sites in...

There is a significant need for smart and technological financial solutions in the diamond industry MDPS, the Israeli start-up Fintech company from the Mazalit Group is gearing up to enter the diamond industry soon. Zeev Maimon, the CEO of MDPS is also the Founder / CEO of MAZALIT, a B2B payment platform designed and dedicated to the global diamond...Botswana Diamonds said it has commenced drilling on the Ontevreden kimberlite pipe, which is part of its Vutomi Joint Venture in South Africa.

The company said the five hole drilling programme seeks to confirm the size, provide an understanding of the internal geology and enough samples to enable both petrography and microdiamond analyses.

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, said Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling.

The drilling is to discover diamonds.

The kimberlite pipe at Ontevreden was discovered in July 2017.

The kimberlite pipe was close to Petra Diamonds now mothballed Helam Mine, which yielded a grade of 267cpht and a diamond value of US$145/ct at a +1mm bottom cut off.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished



CARAT+, the Worlds Premier Diamond Event, welcomed the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) as its main partner for the 2018 edition.

CARAT+ takes place on 6, 7 & 8 May 2018 at Antwerp Expo in Antwerp, Belgium.

United by a shared commitment to Antwerp as the Diamond Capital of the World, AWDC will host a series of unique events before and during CARAT+ 2018 to highlight the citys world-renowned diamond heritage and expertise.

Ari Epstein of AWDC, says: AWDC is proud to be the newest and main partner of CARAT+ We expect the second edition of CARAT+ to be another giant step forward in their objective to become the worlds premier diamond event.

Launched in 2017, CARAT+ attracted more than 3,000 visitors and 130 exhibitors in its first year alone.

Partners and sponsors who have joined CARAT+ for the 2018 edition also include ABN AMRO; motor company, Bentley; security expert Brinks; Brussels Airlines; insurance broker Driesassur; the worlds foremost authority in gemology, GIA (Gemological Institute of America), and industry media specialist Rapaport.



Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels



Japan will on Friday release final January numbers for industrial production, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

In the previous reading, industrial production was down 6.6 percent on month and up 2.7 percent on year.

New Zealand will provide February figures for non-resident bond holdings; in January, the figure was at 60.0 percent.

For comments and feedback contact: 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.Indian stocks are likely to open on a negative note on Thursday, tracking overnight fall on Wall Street and the resultant weakness in Asian .

The decline in the U.S. market was due to rumors that there could be a rate hike as early as next week and on concerns about an imminent trade war.

Reports that U.S. has challenged Indian export subsidies schemes at the World Trade Organisation, saying these programs harm American workers by creating an "uneven" playing field, is likely to weigh as well.

The market is expected to react positively to the World Bank's report that says India's GDP growth rate will return to 7.5% in two years' time.

IT stock Wipro will be in focus after the company signed an agreement to sell its hosted data center services to the U.S.-based hybrid IT services provider Ensono Holdings for $405 million.

UltraTech Cement has increased its bid for Binani Cement Ltd. to about Rs.6,600 crore from Rs.6,200 crore.

Havells India signed an agreement with Hyundai Electric for manufacturing magnetic contactors.

Yes Bank and Fortis will be in focus after the former acquired 17.31% stake in Fortis Healthcare Ltd. following invocation of nearly 9 crore pledged shares last month.

On Wednesday, the BSE benchmark Sensex had declined 21.04 points or 0.06% to settle at 33,835.74. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty50 ended down 15.95 points or 0.15% at 10,410.90.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis China's latest move to establish a ministry for veteran affairs will not only boost welfare for veterans but also increase in-service soldier motivation.

 Pension problems for veterans have led to social instability in recent years.

 The social status and image of the Chinese army has grown in recent years as China boosts its national defense.

Soldiers who are to be demobilized consult at a job fair held in Shanghai in 2012. Photo: VCG

China's plan to establish a ministry of veteran affairs as part of its institutional restructuring, announced on Tuesday at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), will help boost the overall motivation and loyalty of the Chinese army as external military friction increases, experts say.

The new department, if passed, will mainly be responsible for the management and resettlement of retired and demobilized soldiers and officers, honoring the dedication and spirit of veterans, and guide work on the support of military personnel and their relatives, NPC secretary-general Wang Chen said at the session.

There are over 57 million veterans in China, and the number has been growing by several hundred thousand each year, according to authorities.

"If veterans aren't respected or properly resettled, how do we talk about the dignity of our military? The establishment of a new ministry will tackle this issue and make it easier to manage veterans," Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.

The news will also boost the confidence of in-service Chinese troops as military tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan Straits and India continue to rise. China is facing an increasingly complicated geopolitical environment. The South China Sea, for example, is still one of the most complicated conflict zones in the world, requiring the Chinese navy to be prepared for all possibilities.

India's recent plans to strengthen its military also means China should remain alert. Calls for the Chinese mainland to unify Taiwan by force have also increased domestically.

"Without having to worry about their life after retirement, soldiers will put all of their efforts into training and thus enhance the military's overall combat capability. Those who are stationed in rough or difficult areas, or at the country's border, will protect their country with more loyalty," Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times.

Song echoed this statement. "Growing military tensions mean that soldiers have to be respected. Only thus can they better protect our country," he said.

The move is the latest step China has taken in recent years to boost the welfare and sense of honor among its troops. The report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), for example, highlighted protection of the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families and vowed to "make military service an occupation that enjoys public respect."

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, in his report on the work of the government this month, also mentioned taking substantive steps to see demobilized military personnel resettled into new jobs. Experts believe the new ministry will further enhance the social and political status of Chinese military.

"The status of Chinese soldiers isn't just reflected in their pay, but also pride and social recognition. The establishment of the new ministry will solve this key issue," Song said.

Overlapping responsibility

Currently, welfare for demobilized soldiers and officers is managed collectively by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission.

"The overlapping responsibility of these departments has resulted in ineffective management of the veterans' welfare," Song said.

Apart from a new ministry, some NPC deputies are suggesting a new legal system to be established to provide legal basis for the veterans' welfare. So far, the veterans' resettlement is regulated by several administrative regulations, with less enforcement potency.

China's changing economic landscape over the past few decades also made it more difficult to provide stable jobs for demobilized soldiers. Assigning soldiers with jobs at State-owned enterprises or public institutions after they are discharged used to be a major method for China to settle its veterans.

"However, due to reforms within State-owned enterprises after the reform and opening up, the number of city-level State-owned enterprises declined, as did their ability to absorb ex-servicemen," Gao Xiaobing, vice minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in a press conference this February.

Discontent veterans

Indeed, petitions and even protests made by demobilized soldiers unsatisfied with their retirement benefits have not been rare in the past few years, posing threats to social stability.

In 2016, thousands of ex-servicemen, most in their 40s or 50s, gathered in front of the headquarters of the Central Military Commission (CMC) on Chang'an Avenue, six kilometers west of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, demanding better pensions.

Most of these veterans served in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for over 10 years, were demobilized between 1993 and 2001, and were assigned jobs in enterprises that ended up bankrupt or being merged, demonstrators told the Global Times at that time.

In 2014, hundreds of veterans who served in wars or conflicts after the Korean War (1950-53) or in China's nuclear experiments demonstrated outside the office of letters and calls of the CMC and PLA General Political Department in Beijing, asking for better retirement benefits.

China's recent reforms to downsize the PLA Army have also put pressure on the resettlement of discharged soldiers.

In order to pacify its army, China has been gradually enhancing welfare for ex-servicemen in recent years. In 2017, a new regulation stipulated that over 80 percent of demobilized soldiers should be assigned jobs in administrative organs, public institutions or State-owned enterprises.

In 2015, China asked its State-owned enterprises to reserve at least 5 percent of their vacancies for demobilized soldiers. The government also provides tax exemption for soldiers who start their own businesses.

As for older veterans, the government launched a project called "Action Zero Clearing" this February, promising to examine the situation of all soldiers who were demobilized after 1978 and who met the criteria to be handed jobs. Those who did not get the jobs were promised that they will be resettled.

Growing pride

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Chinese soldiers have enjoyed a relatively high social status due to their contributions to the liberation of China and efforts in maintaining peace in the country.

But as China entered a period of rapid economic growth following the reform and opening up, the influence and importance of the army gradually dwindled. This was aggravated by corruption charges against top military officials.

"Having enjoyed peace for a long time, the public lowered their awareness of the importance of national defense. As a result, the attractiveness of military professions diminished and soldiers are less proud of their jobs," a 2015 article on PLA Daily said.

In recent years, however, as military tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan Straits and India reignited people's attention to national defense and patriotic passions, the social status and image of Chinese army soldiers grew.

A series of patriotic films depicting heroic feats of Chinese troops abroad, such as Operation Red Sea and Wolf Warrior, also boosted the image and reputation of Chinese troops, especially among youth.

This February, a video showing a woman scolding a man who asked a soldier to give up a seat to him on a bus went viral on Sina Weibo, receiving over 60,000 likes.

In the video, after a man asked a soldier to give up a seat, the woman pushed the soldier back down on his seat, saying, "Don't you see he's wearing a military uniform? When there's a war, won't you depend on them to save you? When there are disasters, aren't they the first to go for your rescue?"

In the comment section, most netizens praised the woman's courage and expressed their admiration for Chinese soldiers.American lawmakers were highly skeptical about the digital currency community during a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on cryptocurrency and Initial Coin Offerings, with one of them calling the softmoney "a crock".

The hearing was held a week after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said there were potential unlawful online trading platforms for trading digital assets.

Companies issue ICOs to raise capital for businesses and products. There have been $2.6 billion ICOs so far this year, according to the latest research from Autonomous Next.

Members of Congress raised concern about nefarious uses for bitcoin, and a lack of investment protections for digital currency investors.

A few members of the panel made inflammatory statements, evoking backlash on social media.

"Cryptocurrencies are a crock ... they help terrorists and criminals move money around the world. They help tax evaders. They help startup companies take the money and commit fraud," said Rep. Brad Sherman.

The Democratic Rep. from California accused the cryptocurrency community of using the term ICO to "lie to the public and convey the image that is like an IPO."

"They stole the intellectual property and trademark of legitimate investing and applied it to a fixed, fraudulent gambling scheme of no social benefit," Sherman said.

He added that bitcoin undercuts the U.S. dollar as a source of the Fed's $50 billion revenue.

On the other side, Rep. Tom Emmer gave a full-throated defense of the . The Minnesota lawmaker is a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.

He opined that Congress better not attempt to draft a regulation on cryptocurrency, a subject it does not understand. "Access to capital is something Democrats and Republicans should celebrate."

In prepared statements, industry participants sought to ease officials' concerns.

Rep. Bill Huizenga, the chairman of the Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment Subcommittee, concluded the two-hour hearing by saying he believes "this is probably hello and not goodbye."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsBusiness activity in the New York manufacturing sector grew robustly in the month of March, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed in a report on Thursday.

The New York Fed said its general conditions index climbed to 22.5 in March from 13.1 in February, with a positive reading indicating growth in the manufacturing sector. Economists had expected the index to edge up to 15.0.

The bigger than expected increase by the headline index was partly due to a notable acceleration in shipment growth, as the shipments index jumped to 27.0 in March from 12.5 in February.

The new orders index also rose to 16.8 in March from 13.5 in February, indicating a modest acceleration in the pace of new orders growth.

Meanwhile, the report said the number of employees index edged down to 9.4 in March from 10.9 in February, suggesting a slight slowdown in the pace of job growth in the sector.

The New York Fed also said the prices paid index inched up to 50.3 in March from 48.6 in February, while the prices received index crept up to 22.4 from 21.5.

Looking ahead, firms remained optimistic about the six-month outlook, although the index for future business conditions fell to 44.1 in March from 50.5 in February.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsCircle, a blockchain-based payment app provider, announced that it is expanding access to its crypto investment app to most states in the United States.

The Boston-based startup will provide access to its Circle Invest mobile app to users in all states except New York, Minnesota, Hawaii and Wyoming.

The Circle Invest app is available in the App store and Play Store.

Users can transact cryptocurrencies for free as the app charges no commission or trading fees.



The app makes money out of the spread between the buy and sell price. Circle says users can expect a spread of 1.5-2 percent.



Late February, Circle acquired the US-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, thus distinguishing itself from rival commission-free crypto trading apps such as Robinhood, which does not have an exchange.



Currently, Circle Invest supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin.

The startup founded in 2013 by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville is funded by investors including Goldman Sachs, venture capitalists such as Jim Beyer and Accel Partners.

Other products of the start up are Circle Pay app and Circle Trade trading desk.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Technology NewsThe U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill to improve school safety and to help schools and local law enforcement coordinate in preventing gun violence in the campus.

The House passed the the STOP School Violence Act 2018 by a rare bipartisan vote of 407-10 Wednesday.

The Bill will now go to the Senate for vote.

It was the first gun-related legislation by Congress after a mass shooting in a South Florida school shook America's conscience.

Nicolas Cruz, 19, who was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland for disciplinary reasons, killed 17 people after returning to the campus with an assault rifle on February 14.

It triggered fresh calls for gun control, a national boycott campaign, and mass street protests.

The State of Florida last week enacted a law banning the purchase of firearms by young adults between the ages of 18-21.

The House-passed bill would authorize federal grants of $500 million over 10 years to improve training and coordination between schools and local police and help identify signs of potential violence before they occur.

President Donald Trump hailed the passage of the Bill by the House as "a major step toward securing our schools."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsThe Swiss stock market ended Thursday's session with a small increase, following two days of losses. After a weak start, the market spent much of the day in negative territory, but managed to turn positive in the afternoon.

The late recovery was driven by early gains on Wall Street and some positive U.S. economic data. Traders also reacted positively to the news that President Trump has appointed Larry Kudlow as his new economic advisor.

The Swiss Market Index increased by 0.11 percent Thursday and finished at 8,878.98. The Swiss Leader Index climbed 0.66 percent and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.68 percent.

Index heavyweight Roche dropped 3.3 percent after the stock began trading on an ex-dividend basis.

Dufry sank 6.2 percent after it reported results for the full year 2017. The travel retailer's profit was far below expectations due to a higher tax burden.

Vifor Pharma jumped 5.2 percent after it released its first full year report since Galenica split into two independent businesses. Sales for the year were roughly in line, while profit came in slightly better than expected.

Swiss Life advanced 2.0 percent, Baloise climbed 2.1 percent, Zurich Insurance rose 1.5 percent and Swiss Re added 1.4 percent. Julius Baer increased 1.9 percent, UBS gained 1.6 percent and Credit Suisse added 1.0 percent.

Lonza and Richemont also finished higher by 1.6 percent each. Swatch also rose 1.4 percent after falling by more than 2 percent yesterday.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisPresident Donald Trump has said it "certainly looks like" the Russians were behind last week's nerve agent attack on a former spy.

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were hospitalized after being exposed to the nerve agent in the U.K.

Trump said Thursday he was in "deep discussions" with British Prime Minister Theresa May about how to respond to the attack.

"A very sad situation," Trump said during a White House meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. "It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it."

He added, "Something that should never, ever happen. And we're taking it very seriously, as, I think, are many others."

A joint statement from the leaders of the U.S., the U.K., France, and Germany also attributed the attack to the Russians, who have denied the allegations.

The statement was released by Trump, May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The United Kingdom thoroughly briefed its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack," the leaders said.

They added, "We share the United Kingdom's assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the government of the United Kingdom further underlines Russia's responsibility."

The statement comes the same day the Treasury Department announced new sanctions on several Russian entities and individuals for alleged meddling in the 2016 election and malicious cyber-attacks.

The Treasury mentioned the nerve agent attack in its announcement of the sanctions, saying the attack further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of the Russian government.

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group are scheduled to resume peace talks on Thursday. The negotiations were interrupted on January 10, after the end of a bilateral ceasefire.

The Colombian negotiating team announced peace talks resumption through Twitter.

Santos announced on Monday that the government would resume peace talks in response to the unilateral truce attended by the rebels on the occasion of Sunday's legislative elections.

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 Brazilian competition regulator (Cade) acquitted the automakers Volkswagen, Fiat and Ford in a suit filed by the National Association of Auto Parts Manufacturers (Anfape) for alleged abuse of intellectual property rights on industrial designs of spare parts.

The association filed the charges in 2007 arguing that the three automakers improperly exercised their intellectual property rights over auto parts designs to prevent independent manufacturers from producing and selling those goods.

The automakers replied that there are no legal restrictions on the exercise of registration rights for different and that there was no unlawful conduct.

Cade's counselor Mauricio Bandeira Maia dismissed the charges stating that "the mere exercise of exclusive rights independent of the markets does not provoke the conviction of the automakers."

On November 22, 2017, the rapporteur of the case, counselor Paulo Burnier, voted for the conviction of the automakers, considering that there had been an abusive exercise of intellectual property rights, with adverse effects on the competitive dynamics of the country, which would have caused damages to consumers.

The counselor Joao Paulo de Resende and the chairman Alexandre Barreto followed Burnier's vote, while counselors Polyanna Vilanova, Cristiane Alkmin J. Schmidt, and Paula Azevedo followed Maia's decison.

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 Brazilian government may push the "transfer of rights" review deadline to May, according to Solange Guedes, Petrobras' director of exploration and production. The current deadline ends this month.

The "transfer of rights" is a system that has given Petrobras the right to explore and produce up to 5 billion barrels of oil and gas in the Brazilian pre-salt layer in exchange for a company reimbursement to the federal government. Contract values, however, are under review, as oil prices fell from almost US$ 100 to about US$ 50 a barrel since the signing of the agreement.

Petrobras argues that the government should pay the company to make up for the difference. Analysts say that one way the Brazilian government could solve the dispute would be to pay Petrobras with extra oil from the "transfer of rights" area.

The government, however, argues that he owes nothing to Petrobras and should receive more payments from the company.

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.British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it is "highly likely" that Russia is responsible for the attack and she announced several reprisals, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from Britain.

The British Foreign Office said it has called for the "urgent meeting" of the Security Council to update members on the investigation into the nerve agent attack.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench and rushed to the hospital, where they remain in critical condition. Several other individuals were sickened.

Britain will brief members of the UN Security Council Wednesday on an alleged chemical weapons attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the accusations as part of a "Russophobic campaign."

In a letter dated March 13 to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seen by VOA, the British prime minister said there are only two possible scenarios: "Either the Russian state has attempted murder on British soil using a chemical weapon, or Russia has lost control of its stockpile of nerve agents."

May, who also sent the letter to the president of the U.N. Security Council, goes on to say that, "No country except Russia has the combined capability in chemical warfare, intent to weaponize this agent, and motive to target the principal victim."

British officials say the chemical nerve agent used in the attack is known as Novichok, which was developed by the Soviet Union and inherited by Russia.

"The use of nerve agents under any circumstances is unacceptable and its use by a state would constitute a serious violation of international law," said a spokesman for the U.N. chief. "While the secretary-general is not in a position to attribute responsibility, he strongly condemns the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hopes the incident will be thoroughly investigated."

The British prime minister also demands in her letter that Moscow immediately provide "full and complete disclosure of the Novichok program" to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) monitoring group.

She said the attack is a crime and a challenge to the rules-based international order and must be addressed with the support of the international community.

France added more kindling to a growing commercial dispute between Europe and the United States, announcing Wednesday it would sue American tech giants Google and Apple over allegedly abusive business practices.

After peanut butter, cranberries and bourbon, Google and Apple are the latest American icons in Europe's crosshairs. Speaking to French radio Wednesday, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire accused the two U.S. companies of unilaterally imposing prices and other terms on French startups.

Google and Apple may be powerful, Le Maire said, but they should not be able to treat French startups and developers the way they currently do.

France has taken legal action against the companies before. But this latest dispute comes amid a potential trade war, as Washington prepares to slap tariffs against steel and aluminum imports.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha heads to Washington on Thursday as scheduled despite the surprise dismissal of her U.S. counterpart Rex Tillerson earlier this week.

The Foreign Ministry confirmed that Kang's three-day visit will go ahead as planned because the two allies need to maintain close consultation over diplomacy with North Korea and hairy economic issues.He then returned to his home in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul around 6:30 a.m., after more than 21 hours of questioning. Neither supporters nor opponents showed up when Lee left home, seen off only by a handful of aides, or arrived at the prosecutors' office.

Ex-President Lee Myung-bak was interrogated on corruption charges at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office until Thursday morning.

Lee is suspected of having taken bribes worth W11 billion, including W6 billion that he forced Samsung to pay in U.S. legal fees for DAS, an auto parts company nominally owned by his brother, in 2009 (US$1=W1,065).

The bribes also include W1.75 billion he allegedly pocketed from the National Intelligence Service's secret funds while in office.

Prosecutors suspected that as the real owner of DAS, Lee amassed slush funds worth W30 billion.We also met Carlos Correa online  he reached out through Instagram. Carlos is a champion Colombian freediver who teaches locally and competes internationally. We invited him for sundowners, discovered mutual friends (the crew behind Evolve Freediving), and had a memorable evening getting his insights into Colombia, the local marine life, and freediving spots. Similarly, a cruising buddy we met in Puerto Rico was back visiting his family in Cartagena: who needs an excuse for drinks at a (were not hip enough to be here!) bar near the Old Town? Soaking in the sophisticated vibe with Paulo a couple of cruisers-turned-expats making a life in Cartagena, they apprised us about life today in this historic city.

Back in Santa Marta, it was Colombian/Venezuelan couple Hannah and Luis  fellow regulars enjoying sunset from the patio  who added assistance, information, understanding and enjoyment. They live in town and offer captained charters from their sailboat. You can even have Carlos come along and provide a freediving lesson! Hannah helped us get propane fills (angling hard for a local price), ferried cruisers to the Costco-like Makro shop inland (and loaned her member card) along with other local orientation. Stretching beyond our cruising community in new locales enriches our lives for more than the short term: I hope we'll keep in touch with these wonderful humans for the long term.

Road trippingTokyo is also considering a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Japanese media reported Wednesday. Japanese officials apparently worry that Tokyo could be left out of the negotiation process as both the Korean and U.S. presidents gear up for meetings with Kim.

Tokyo will explore the possibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meeting Kim "as it considers adopting a new way of dealing with the North," Kyodo News said quoting Japanese government sources. "If we're to resolve the abduction issue, direct dialogue with the top -- Mr. Kim Jong-un -- is essential," a Japanese government source told Kyodo.

He was referring to North Korea's bizarre campaign in the 1970s and 80s to abduct Japanese citizens and use them to train spies. Tokyo believes that several of them are still alive in North Korea.

Japan is happy to discuss the North's nuclear and missile programs through Washington but wants to discuss the abduction issue directly with Pyongyang. Abe will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington in April.

Back in 2004, then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi flew to Pyongyang, where he met with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters, "Japan will consider what actions we should take from the standpoint of what is most effective to seek a comprehensive solution to the nuclear and missile issues."

Tokyo has supported maximum pressure on North Korea, but Trump's abrupt decision to meet Kim has sown some confusion. Japanese officials were apparently taken aback because Trump simply notified Abe after he made his decision but left him out of the process.

Abe told South Korean National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon on Tuesday that he respects President Moon Jae-in's "leadership" in moving toward dialogue. But whether Kim has any interest in meeting Abe remains to be seen.

Dear Editor,

I refer to your recent article and also the other letter to editors regarding Samoa Airways.

It was the right move for Samoa to back its own national carrier, the timing was right and we need a change for our people  it was too expensive to fly here and no tourist would come here.

Unfortunately the renewed airline did not mean renewed airline operations as well. I can see thats not the case. Same old, same old.

I see and blame the management team for its loss as reported by Samoa Observer last week.

The downfall that will bring Samoa Airways down is its weak management and how there are no new things coming from the airline.

Even its own staff dont believe in it. Just last week dropping my son off to fly back to Australia, we could hear the Samoa Airways staff laughing to people about the aircraft and how they would prefer to fly Air NZ.

The C.E.O. is invisible, we never see him speaking on behalf of the airline, its either Minister Lautafi or the P.M. We know what happened the last time the P.M. referred to airline C.E.O., the C.E.O. sent the reporter back to the P.M.

Who the world runs a business he cant answer questions about?

Jacinda Ardern doesnt speak on behalf of Air New Zealand, why is our P.M. speaking on behalf of the national carrier?

At the beginning, they said the government wont be involved in running the airline, thats not what Im seeing.

The marketing is a big fail. There is nothing new or exciting about anything coming out of the airline.

But then again the person managing this area for Samoa Airways was with S.T.A. for many years and didnt do anything exciting there so why would he start now? Please Samoa Airways do something new to entice new passengers and then you wont have only 30 people on your flight to Australia.

Its basic people, market and sell, sell, sell to boost passenger numbers and not just same plane photos on Facebook.

Clearly something is not right there, I hope the people in the key positions do something fast otherwise this airline is going down and Samoa will be left in even worse position than started.

Where is the Board of the Airline and what are you doing to keep these people accountable?

Konosenet

Concerned that Fish Rots from headA 23-year-old female is in custody on the charge of attempted murder.

Police Spokesperson, Auapaau Logotino Filipo, confirmed this yesterday.

He said the matter was reported to them on 11 March 2018.

Auapaau said the victim was a 17-year-old male.

The hospital reported a male being held at the hospital because of his severe injuries, said Auapaau.

The victim is suffering from severe injuries on his shoulder, neck as well as his face.

The victim is still at the hospital because of the severity of his injuries.

Auapaau said the accused woman will appear in Court for mention on 26 March 2018.WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Papua New Guinea police said Wednesday that an earthquake last month killed at least 125 people and forced another 35,000 from their homes.

The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary said major relief efforts are underway in the central region where the magnitude 7.5 quake struck on Feb. 26. The official death toll rose from 55 last week and police said it could rise further.

The region is remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries have been slow to filter out. Strong aftershocks have continued to rattle the area.

Police said 80 people were killed in Hela province and another 45 in Southern Highlands province. They said those forced from their homes were staying in care centers set up across the region.

Many schools in the region remain closed and landslips continue to block roads.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Kaiglo Ambane said authorities are making progress with clearing roads and collecting data on deaths.

"So far, there are no problems with security in the Southern Highlands province," Ambane said in a statement, adding that there were security personnel in Hela but more were needed.

Papua New Guinea, home to 7 million people, is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia. It sits on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire," the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic activity occur.Selection for the post hit yet another snag last month, when the White House abruptly dumped Victor Cha, who had already been granted agrement by Seoul, over a policy disagreement.

Former U.S. Forces Korea commander James Thurman and Ed Royce, the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, are being mentioned as candidates for U.S. ambassador to Korea, a post that has been vacant for over a year, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Thurman and Royce were part of the U.S. delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, which was headed by President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka.

"White House officials are 'talking about' the pair, although no decision has been made yet," the Hong Kong daily quoted a source as saying.

"Having an ambassador who understands both the Korean and U.S. militaries would be very useful," the daily added, referring to Thurman. "Particularly if diplomacy proves ineffective and the U.S. again has to consider taking military action against Pyongyang."

Another former USFK chief, Walter Sharp is also being mentioned as a candidate. "It appears that Trump prefers a former military man or known hawk as the next ambassador," a diplomatic source said.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  The former student charged with killing 17 people at a Florida high school last month remained silent in court Wednesday and had a not guilty plea entered on his behalf as police released more recordings that captured the terror of the Valentine's Day slayings.

Nikolas Cruz, shackled and wearing red jail clothes, sat in the jury box with his head bowed and said nothing during the brief hearing. Because he refused to announce his plea, the judge entered it for him on each of the 34 counts he faces.

His attorney Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill reiterated that Cruz would plead guilty if prosecutors waived the death penalty, which they refused to do.

Cruz is accused of carrying out the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that also wounded 17 people in a case that has reignited a national debate about gun control and school safety. It also prompted a nationwide walkout of thousands of students Wednesday, who showed solidarity with the Parkland students a month after the shooting.

As Cruz sat in the courtroom, more details of the shooting emerged as the Coral Springs Police Department released recordings of 911 calls and police radio traffic.

In the recordings, students and dispatchers were uncertain about the shooter's location and how to hide from him.

Some were frightened the gunman would return to their location when asked if they could perform CPR on the wounded.

"Please, please, please, there are people here. They are bleeding. They are all going to die," a teenage girl calling from Room 1216 said through tears and heavy breathing. "There's a lot of people around us that are injured, people that are injured, people that are bleeding. He is upstairs now."

Moments later, the girl starts screaming "They are coming in, oh no!" before discovering it was police officers who were entering the room.

A teacher from Room 1216 also called for help and told the 911 operator that a student had been hit in the chest, and wasn't breathing.

"He's twitching. There's blood all over," she said.

At one point, the operator warned that the shooter was still in the hallway, advising the teacher to keep the students still. "Stay down, he's by your room, OK. Everyone be quiet."

The police radio recordings showed that the Coral Springs police officers were the first to enter the school building after confirming that Broward County Sheriff's Office deputies had not gone in.

As they clear each of the building's three floors, the officers describe seeing shell casings on the floor and bullet holes in the windows.

They warned that the suspect may have changed clothes after they reported finding a camouflaged jacket, ski mask and backpack on the first floor.

On the third floor, officers said they found an AR-15 with a magazine still attached.

The officers found wounded victims and bodies, and they prioritized evacuating the wounded before allowing other students and teachers to leave. On the third floor, they said they shattered windows in some locked classroom doors because terrified students would not open doors.

Cruz was arrested a few blocks away from the school.

His next hearing is scheduled for April 11.For such a small country, there really is never a dull moment.

What from the most interesting - and at times bizarre political statements - to everyday events that continue to baffle the mind given their contradictory nature to what this country claims to stand for, its all happening.

For sure, they might be tragic, bizarre, corrupt, downright annoying but whether we agree or not, the truth is that there is always something on the horizon.

Take for instance another interesting development that is unfolding at Motootua as we speak. It has something to do with the much talked about merge between the National Health Services and the Ministry of Health.

On the front page of the Samoa Observer on Wednesday, it emerged that a certain section of the health sector is not happy with a plan by the Government to slash the salaries of doctors working at the hospital as part of the merge.

The story goes on to say that both Samoa Medical Association (S.M.A.) and the Samoa Medical Council (S.M.C.) are alarmed by it. The President of S.M.A., Lauano Dr. Herbert Peters, confirmed they were aware about the plan and that they were consulting the Ministry of Health, through the Minister of Health, Tuitama Dr. Leao Tuitama. 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.

But Motuopuaa Dr. Aisoli Vaai, who is the Chairman of the Samoa Medical Council, was more forthcoming.

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.

The former Member of Parliament went on to say this is one of the reasons Samoa continues to lose doctors, leading to a chronic shortage of 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.

Motuopuaa said the plan, if its true, 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.

We couldnt agree more with Motuopuaa. Coming from a doctor and a politician, he would know exactly what hes talking about and he makes a number of valid points.

Keep in mind there are always two sides to a story. Now when Minister Tuitama was asked for a comment, he strongly rejected the report about the salaries. Instead, he accused the National Health Services of spreading false rumours as part of a conspiracy to sabotage the merge.

Yeah you heard it right. According to the Minister, there is an internal revolt to sabotage the merge.

Bizarre? Yeah we think so too but lets hear him out first.

All this false information is being spread around, Tuitama said. It is the present management that has been spreading the false information that the salaries will be slashed once they come under the P.S.C. I can tell you there is no plan for that.

So who is responsible for the rumours? Well according to the Minister, it is the National Health Services.

There are people here who are trying to sabotage the efforts of the Government in implementing the merge, said the Minister.

Several attempts to get a comment from the N.H.S. have been unsuccessful.

It would be great to hear what they have to say about this. Keep in mind that rumours normally begin from some element of truth. Which means rumours dont exist without a reason. There must be a reason and until we hear from N.H.S., it would be hard to make a judgment call on what the Minister is saying here.

And here is another thing, isnt the Minister of Health also responsible for N.H.S? Why is he fluffing about then in terms of dealing with the N.H.S if what he is saying is the truth?

But like we said earlier rumours begin from some element of truth.

The most challenging part of the merge is that when there are changes, it will always create doubt, admitted the Minister. There is fear they will lose their jobs and their salaries will be slashed. These fears are being exploited by the saboteurs who expand on them to create more fear so that people will stand up and reject and rebel against the merge.

Well we hear you Mr. Minister.

But lets wait and see what N.H.S has to say. So stay tuned!A friend of Samoa and former Ambassador of Japan in Samoa, Tuimaugaoalii Kazumasa Shibuta, is leaving the country with many fond memories of his time here.

Finishing up his five-year tenure in Samoa, the Japanese career diplomat was a popular figure among the international bureaucrats here in Samoa.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer, he revealed that not only was it the end of his tenure in Samoa, he is also retiring his diplomatic hat for good.

I am very happy to retire here in Samoa as a last place for me, said Tuimaugaoalii. My term is already completed and when I return to Japan Im going to my second life of no obligations. Also I can say anything, anything! - I will be a free man.

So no more work but I have a lot of time and I will use this time to spread information of Samoa to my friends and the public of Japan.

Tuimauga said in a heartfelt response that he has enjoyed his time in Samoa immensely and that he will take back with him the experiences and lessons he has learned from the culture and traditions.

I have learnt lots of things from Polynesia and from Samoa, he said.

One of them is very important especially for Japan. The unification of the family and the people are becoming lost in Japan however I learnt the importance in the unification of the family and community in Samoa so I want to spread this important idea in Japan.

In Japan there are a lot of people standing in the train and nobody has eye contact and they avoid looking at each other.

In Samoa when I meet people, they look you in the eye and talk to you. I think this is something special to this area, in Asia and Europe people are cool but in Samoa people are very warm and that is a very important idea.

Known for his quick grasp of some aspects of the Samoan formal language, Tuimauga expressed that becoming familiar with the Samoan language was a challenge during his tenure as the Ambassador.

But he considered it one of the most poetic languages he has ever come across,

I have to say, the Samoan language is a very unique language. Samoan is very soft, it is my first time to hear the sound and there are lot of vowels, it means its coming from the heart.

You dont have the ka sound in your language, it is a very heavy sound. Your sound ga is very soft - this is sound is coming from your spirit. Also your tradition, when I hear you talking it sounds like a song or a poem, its very soft and very unique.

In a passionate statement, the former Japanese Ambassador wanted to encourage Samoa to reach its potential and imparted some sound business development advice for the agricultural sector.

He was particularly impressed with the development of whiskey from talo which he had sampled recently.

You have a lot of potential product here in Samoa because of the strong sun, a lot of water and very unique soil that produce. You have an advantage to make such a product in essential oils and flavours.

How about this taro whiskey? Its good! he said.

This is very interesting and you should promote unique ideas and unique products from Samoa. I hope you will be more challenged to produce new products and to understand what the market is interested in.

So please announce to all producers to work together, not only just the mosooi but the breadfruit and also they produce the talo whiskey. I tested the whiskey and its good, really good -this is the first ever taro whiskey in the world.

He had a message for specific groups in the agricultural sector about the potential for producing and exporting mosooi essential oils (ylang ylang)

I ask the S.R.O.S to work harder, he said. I would like to ask through the media that the farmers and also S.R.O.S to produce more quantity and higher quality because now the essential oil of ylang ylang is one of the most valuable essential oils in the world market.

In one last get-together with the media in Samoa and perhaps with any media, the long time diplomat shined at his best and demonstrated that sometimes the key to having a successful career is having a sense of humour as a way to connect - no matter what the language.

At 63 years of age which is the retirement age in Japan, the energetic and likeable Tuimaugaoalii left one last pearl of wisdom for Samoa to shed light on how one can stay younger for longer.

In my country - there is a saying that crazy doesnt get old. So, if you get stressed you will get oldbut crazy never gets stressed.

Tuimauga said that he looks forward to leaving behind bureaucratic life and getting back into connecting with the local people in his home of Japan.

The former ambassador said that he will miss the friends they have made in Samoa but that he is determined that on his return to Japan he will resume playing and watching rugby with his Samoan friends who are living in Japan.An incident at Avele College where a student attacked a teacher has taken an interesting twist.

This time, the schools Deputy Principal has been charged for being party to an offense.

A teacher accused of beating a student has also been charged with assault.

The developments were confirmed by Police Spokesperson, Auapaau Filipo Logoitino, yesterday.

The Vice Principal and Teacher will appear before Court on 3 April 2018.

We must understand that a law is a law, Auapaau said.

There are other options to look at when dealing with problems within families, schools, churches and every areas of life.

We must also understand that when it comes to problems like this, we need to have patience so that everything would fall in place at last.

The charges follow a complaint lodged by the families of the two students allegedly assaulted by the teacher.

A family member of the students, who spoke to Samoa Observer, explained the incident erupted as a result of the students reacting to what the teacher had done to them.

It is alleged one of the students received a beating from the teacher involved because of his uniform while the other student was because of his hair cut, the family member who only wanted to be identified as Xat told the Samoa Observer.

The students told their Village Council that they were embarrassed when they were scolded by the teacher in front of other students during the school assembly.

It is alleged one of the students was punched in the face by the teacher and he fell on the ground.

They told the Village Council that the teacher had cut the other students hair during the assembly.

Following this incident, the students caught up with the teacher and attacked him, which involved the throwing of stones.

When the stone missed the teachers head, the teacher chased the students and caught one of them. This was when one of the students was beaten.

The school has declined to discuss the details of the case.A group of history buffs at Camp Pendleton rebuilt an antique wagon from the late 1800s that stands at the entrance to the nearly 200-year-old Rancho Santa Margarita Ranch House, a National Historic Site on the Marine Corps base.

The 19th-century wagon goes back to Camp Pendletons pre-base days when the area was one of the largest cattle ranches in California.

The wagon was originally a gift in 1987 from a group of local horseback riding enthusiasts, the Padre Junipero Serra Riders  Las Tortugas to the bases commanding general in appreciation of the bases efforts to preserve the areas heritage.

The group rode across Camp Pendletons backcountry and participated in equestrian events on base that often included an old-fashioned barbecue at the ranch house.

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The Padre Junipero Serra Riders  Las Tortugas and others gather for the dedication of the original wagon in 1987 at the Rancho Santa Margarita Ranch House. ( Courtesy Padre Junipero Serra Riders  Las Tortugas )

The ranch house was home to prominent early settlers in the 1800s and early 1900s, such as Pio Pico, the last governor of Alta California, the Forsters, Floods and ONeills and later 35 Marine Corps generals starting with Maj. Gen. Graves Erskine in 1947 and continuing to Maj. Gen. Michael R. Lehnert in 2007.

The wagon is a reminder of the rich history of the land known today as Camp Pendleton, said retired Marine Col. Richard Rothwell, president of the Camp Pendleton Historical Society.

But after three decades of exposure to sun and rain, the wagon became dilapidated and was an eyesore.

The nonprofit Camp Pendleton Historical Society put together a proposal in 2015 to replace the wagon with a similar one from the same period. The effort was spearheaded by retired Marine Col. Jim Williams, who was the nonprofits vice president at the time and had connections with local riding groups and historical societies.

Wagons like this have ties with the bases history, particularly the Ranchero days when the base was a thriving cattle ranch, said Williams, a member of the Portola Riders, an Orange County-based horseback riding group that retraces some of the trails of the Portola Expedition. In 1769, Gaspar de Portola led an expeditionary force through Camp Pendleton.

The proposal was researched and written by the nonprofits secretary, Bill Parsons, a retired San Diego County sheriff. The groups events chairman, Mike Lewis, a retired Marine master gunnery sergeant, was in charge of finding the replacement.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Andrew Brochu heard about the groups efforts and offered to build a similar wagon of that period. Brochu was experienced in blacksmithing techniques used in wagon-making.

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He had worked on a museum-quality restoration of an antique circa 1860s horse-drawn buggy and had reconstructed a Civil War-era cannon carriage that had been on display at the ranch house, but was moved to the Marine Corps Mechanized Museum on base.

Brochu worked with the skeleton of an 1894 Studebaker wagon he and Lewis found in El Cajon.

To preserve the historical accuracy, Brochu refurbished the chassis, repaired the existing parts and reconstructed replacement parts from scratch for those that were destroyed.

The wagon had to be placed on a concrete platform to protect it from termites, but visitors might notice that it is not permanently attached. If it had been, then the gift of the wagon from the Camp Pendleton Historical Society to the base would have been considered real property and would have required approval by the Under Secretary of the Navy, which likely would have taken well over a year.

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The Studebaker wagons proved to be of great value in numerous military operations, such as the Civil War and were used in the early ranching days of the Camp Pendleton area, Brochu said.

The wagon is slated to be dedicated in a ceremony April 2 at the Rancho Santa Margarita Ranch House.Oceanside wants residents to sound off about a proposed half-cent sales tax hike that could be on their ballot in November.

The city is conducting an online survey to learn more about what people think of the proposed tax measure. If approved by voters, it would boost the citys 7.75 percent sales tax to 8.25 percent.

The online survey is designed to offer people an inviting way to share their opinions and questions, Assistant City Manager Deanna Lorson said in an email.

Consisting of eight multiple-choice questions and one written comment section, the brief survey on the citys website, www.ci.oceanside.ca.us, is designed to give an overview of residents priorities and questions.

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Its part of the citys outreach program designed with the help of Encinitas-based consultant True North Research. The firms work showed about 64 percent of likely Oceanside voters would support a sales tax increase if they were made aware of how it would improve their safety and quality of life.

Revenue from the new sales tax would be used to boost the citys general fund, which pays for police and fire services, parks and recreation, street maintenance and other basic services.

The citys income has failed to keep pace with its population growth, city officials have said, and theyve considered the ballot measure as a possible solution for several years.

Without a tax increase increase, the consultants report states, Oceanside faces a $4 million deficit in fiscal 2020-21 just to maintain existing services and facilities.

The nonprofit San Diego County Taxpayers Association promised Monday it would carefully examine the Oceanside tax measure, if it gets on the ballot.

Our Association has supported sales tax increases in the past, but only when our analysis shows the city balances its budget, maintains adequate reserve levels, and actively works to reduce its unfunded pension liability and other debt, association President and CEO Haney Hong said in an email.

We look forward to working with the City of Oceanside to ensure that local taxpayers are represented and informed through this process, Hong said.

So far only a handful of people have completed the survey, but city officials are encouraging more people to take part.

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We just launched the outreach program, Lorson said. As the responses increase, if we do see substantial participation or some over-arching trends, we may share some kind of public update down the road.

It is not scientific and shouldnt be viewed as quantifiable, because its made up only of self-selected respondents, she said. Its not designed for numerical results, and it shouldnt be used in general to draw broad conclusions.

If voters approve the proposed ballot measure, it would be the first city sales tax in Oceansides 130-year history.

The City Council has until Aug. 10 to decide whether to place the measure on the November ballot, and approval requires a two-thirds vote, or four of the five council members. In the citywide election, the measure needs a simple majority, which is a single vote more than 50 percent of the votes cast, to pass.

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Informational presentations on the proposal are planned over the next few weeks to several city commissions and groups such as Visit Oceanside, the citys tourism agency.

Quality-of-life issues are important to our community, Leslee Gaul, Visit Oceansides president and CEO, said by email. This could be a mechanism for ensuring those issues are taken care of for our citizens  (and) in generating economic development and creating a community where people want to live, work and play.

So far, the agency has taken no position on the measure, she said, but a presentation is scheduled for the boards meeting in April.

California has a basic statewide sales tax of 7.25 percent, and San Diego County residents also pay an additional half-percent tax to fund transportation-related improvements.

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Most other North County cities have the same sales tax rate as Oceanside. Vista voters approved a half-cent increase in 2006 that boosted its tax to 8.25 percent.

Del Mar voters approved a 1 percent hike in 2016 that gave it an 8.75 percent rate, the highest in the county.

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philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehlThe nonprofit San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild, which traces its roots back to the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, may have strong ties to the past, but its not stuck in it.

Every year, it casts a wide net in search of the next generation of artists by holding a juried exhibition thats open to artists worldwide.

That exhibit, titled Connections, kicks off May 31 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.

The deadline to enter is April 2. Its open to San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild members and nonmembers.

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This years juror is Ariel Plotek, curator of modern and contemporary art at the San Diego Museum of Art. For more about eligibility, go to sdmaag.org

San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild: Call for Artists: Deadline: April 2 at 11:59 p.m. Entries to be considered for 2018 exhibition: Connections. May 31-June 30. Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road, Poway. sdmaag.org

Twitter: @outdoorlivingsd

michael.rocha@sduniontribune.comProsecutors are investigating three cryptocurrency exchanges on suspicion of buying Bitcoin with money they stole from customers' accounts.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office searched the exchanges from Monday to Wednesday, a spokesman said.

Executives and staff are suspected of diverting money from customers' accounts to their own and spending it buying cryptocurrencies at other exchanges.Can you guess which Southern California city has a John Wayne Day on the birthday of the late actor and staunch conservative?

Clue: Its the same city that has a statue of former President Ronald Reagan.

Youre disqualified if you live in Newport Beach, which I visited Tuesday to test the water on how locals feel about President Trump. The president had just arrived at the Mexican border to inspect the prototypes for his big beautiful wall, and he wasnt on the ground long before he poked a stick in California Gov. Jerry Browns eye.

I think Governor Brown has done a very poor job running California, said Trump, who made a crack about high taxes and said once again that we are totally out of control here.

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I can think of a dozen things Id like to say about Trump judging anyone elses job performance, but Im not going to. California literally rained on Trumps parade Tuesday, relieving me of the need to mark turf.

Instead, Im going to remind myself that while almost 9 million Californians voted for Hillary Clinton in a blowout, nearly 4.5 million voted for Trump. In Newport Beach, Trump had dissenters. But in most neighborhoods of the affluent community, Trump prevailed by a comfortable margin, even though Clinton won Orange County  which is much bluer than it once was  and became the first Democrat to do so since the Great Depression.

On Balboa Island, under skies as gray as the shrunken California Republican Party, I found a 94-year-old gent strolling near the water. Sy Kimball said he once owned a convalescent home where John Waynes mother was a resident.

Reagan was a good man, Kimball said.

I asked what he thought Reagan would make of Trump, and Kimball didnt have to think for long.

Trumps more like Reagan than any president weve had, said Kimball, who told me exactly what he likes about the man who currently calls the White House home.

If he says hes going to do it, hell do it, he said.

Well, thats not true. But Kimball was such a genial guy, I wasnt going to argue with him.

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Its gotta be tough for older Californians to adapt to the kind of changes that have transformed the state. Between 1952 and 1988, Republicans won all but one presidential election. And we used to have Republican governors and statewide office holders rather than Democratic domination, so on tough issues, there was a healthy back and forth.

Were too polarized now, with extreme and inflexible views on both sides of the aisle. President Reagan, for instance, signed a bill that made nearly 3 million illegal immigrants eligible for amnesty, and as governor, he signed an abortion rights bill.

Fox News would ridicule and destroy a man like that.

So let me repeat the question, this time for Patti Stern, president of the Newport Harbor Republican Women:

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What would Reagan make of Trump?

I have no idea, and its a very different country, said Stern.

Shes right about that. The country is much more diverse, for one thing, and Trump used that as a wedge from the first day of his campaign.

Immigration is the primary topic of discussion this month, said the February newsletter for Sterns group. Stern, in her message to members, advocated for Trumps wall and his immigration policies.

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If we elect Republican officials who refuse to acquiesce to the Democrats kowtowing to their base, many of whom are here illegally and are breaking our laws, it will slow down illegal crossings, Stern wrote.

That same newsletter carried a warning about a report that millennials are increasingly turning away from capitalism and toward socialism  and even communism as a viable alternative.

Hey, its Trump who seems to be in love with Vladimir Putin. Why no mention of that?

On March 22, the Republican Women will host a visit from Juanita Broaddrick, who has alleged that President Bill Clinton raped her in 1977, when he was Arkansas attorney general.

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If its true, theres no defending Clinton.

But what does Stern have to say about allegations against Trump, who was heard on tape talking about how he grabs women, and who has given rise to the career of stripper Stormy Daniels, who says they had an affair?

Im not going to be discussing that, said Stern.

Getting back to immigration for a moment, I spotted three landscapers working in a Balboa Island yard and asked the crew chief what he thought about Trumps visit.

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Its not good, he said, telling me that he and the other two are all undocumented, and the idea of Trump being in the state was a little unsettling.

He didnt want to get in trouble with his boss, but he said he and his buddies get $11 an hour, or $16 if they drive the company truck. Legal residents make a few dollars an hour more, but complaining means losing your job.

California has exploited immigrant labor throughout its history, which is why immigration policy operates on a wink and a nod. Too many people benefit from it, including agri-business, the hospitality industry and homeowners who like cheap goods and low wages, otherwise we would have stopped sending mixed messages long ago.

A couple of miles away, I stopped at a house with an American flag and a sign that said Buy American. I called to see if anyone was home, but there was no answer. A woman named Nancy came by, walking her dog, and when I told her about the landscapers Id spoken to, she agreed that immigration can be complicated.

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Thats one reason she and her husband are big supporters. Its an issue crying out for someone to take charge.

Yes, she said, she thinks Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels and is trying to cover it up, and yes he says stupid things, and yes he has issues of moral character.

But she still likes what she sees.

As taxpayers, we feel like our economy is going down, she said, which is a curious argument from a physical therapist married to a physician and living near the beach in one of the most expensive ZIP Codes in California.

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So many people are here that arent part of the system. They get free schooling, they get free food. Somebody has to stand up to them.

Thats basically why were Trump supporters. We feel like everybody should have to pay their taxes and abide by the law, and its not fair that our kids, when they apply to schools  a white male has no prayer of getting into any California school because its all illegals who get first dibs, and then its out-of-state students.

Some readers, Im sure, will cheer those sentiments.

For those who were depressed by them, I met a woman in her 20s two blocks away. She said she and the young people she knows, for the most part, dont hold those views.

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The past cant hold.

The future is theirs.This is the time of year when thousands of shimmering, silver fish flop onto San Diego beaches in a strange nocturnal mating dance.

Grunion runs, among Californias most stunning natural phenomena, start this month. Some of the early rounds of beach-going fish are expected to make their appearances on shore between Saturday and Tuesday.

In terms of what triggers the spawning, what the grunion are waiting for is when the tides are at their highest, at the full and new moon, said Danny Beckwith, an education specialist at Birch Aquarium at Scripps in La Jolla.

For four days after a high tide, grunions surf to shore on breaking waves. Females wriggle into the sand tail-first and bury their eggs; then males curve around them to fertilize the eggs. As the next round of waves wash in, the fish float back to sea.

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I call them the original surfers, said Karen Martin, a professor of biology at Pepperdine University, who studies grunions. Theyre the first ones who learned how to ride in on waves.

The eggs incubate in the sand, where warmer temperatures and higher oxygen levels hasten their development, Martin said. To keep hatchlings from being crushed in their sandy burrows, grunions have evolved an environmentally cued hatching system thats triggered only when the eggs wash out to sea.

Anywhere from dozens to thousands of fish may show up during spawning season, and lucky late-night beachgoers can view the ritual between March and August each year. Grunion fishing is allowed, but in April and May -- peak spawning season  the fish are off limits to anglers.

April and May are closed season, Martin said. People cant catch the fish, bother or disturb them on shore. Thats the period when the best runs will occur, with the highest number of fish on the beach. Thats to give them a chance to reproduce without human interference.

During March, and starting again in June, anglers can fish for grunions, but only with their hands. No nets, buckets or other gear is allowed, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which publishes schedules of expected grunion runs, along with other fish facts. People over 16 need a fishing license to participate, and while theres no bag limit, it is illegal to waste them.

Humans arent the only ones hunting grunion, though. On land, predators ranging from raccoons to rats to shorebirds dine on the snack-sized fish. In the ocean, theyre prey for young white sharks and marine mammals. Some bigger fish will even follow them ashore.

Shovel-nosed guitar fish will ride in, surf the wave, and be munching on the grunion, and then wash back, said Melissa Studer, project director for Grunion Greeters, a citizen science group that works with Martin and other researchers to track spawning events.

Volunteers with Grunion Greeters patrol Southern California beaches for grunion runs and report their observations on the website, grunion.org. The six-inch-long, silvery-blue fish hold a special allure, she said.

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Theyre somewhat mysterious, Studer said. Its wildlife, so its fairly unpredictable, its a fish out of water, so right there thats intriguing. To be able to see the life cycle, see the spawning, the fish coming out of the water, the males curling around them, I think, its rewarding for people to see that. And a lot of volunteers are motivated by participating in real science and their protection.

The fish can be found as far south as Baja, and recent warmer waters have allowed the fish to colonize areas up to San Francisco and Tomales Bay, Martin said.

Southern California, however, is ground zero for grunion runs. The fish can appear at just about any San Diego beach during the spawning periods. Experts say theres no predicting where theyll turn up on a given night, but note that grunions prefer wide, flat, sandy beaches, with little noise or activity.

Birch Aquarium offers guided visits of spawning areas, and includes demonstrations of grunion hatchlings emerging from their eggs in a vial of seawater, Beckwith said.

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If you go on your own, tread carefully, Beckwith said, as sound and vibrations can deter grunions from spawning. Dim your flashlights, or use red lenses to keep the lighting low. Ultimately, grunion sightings depend on being in the right place at the right time, experts said.

You have to be persistent and lucky, thats the best solution, Martin said. But San Diego is a wonderful location, with lots of great beaches.The United States and two major European allies on Thursday formally backed Britains claims that Russia likely was responsible for a chemical toxin attack against a former spy living in England, calling it the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II.

The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled a further ratcheting of international pressure on Russia that has been mounting since former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found comatose on March 4.

In the statement, the four leaders said they shared the view of British investigators that there is no plausible alternative explanation for the attack. They added that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further underlines its responsibility.

Prime Minister Theresa May had asked Moscow to explain how Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia, came to be used in the town of Salisbury. She posited that either Russia was directly involved or it had lost control of a chemical weapon. Moscow responded to the ultimatum with scorn and sarcasm, ultimately blowing off Mays demands.

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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, the four leaders said their statement, released by Mays office.

It threatens the security of us all, they added, without spelling out any possible further reprisals by the United Kingdom and its allies.

Asked by reporters on Thursday whether Russia was behind the attack, President Donald Trump said, It looks like it.

I spoke with the prime minister, and we are in deep discussions - a very sad situation, Trump said. It certainly looks like the Russians are behind it, something that should never, ever happen. He added that his administration was taking the attack very seriously.

The next move could come from Moscow.

Russia would respond very soon to Britains retaliatory decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

The answer will come very soon, I assure you, Lavrov said. You know that we, as polite people, will first communicate this response to our British colleagues.

In Britain, May received widespread support for her decision to expel the 23 Russians believed to be involved in espionage and to suspend high-level meetings between British and Russian officials. The left-leaning Guardian wrote in an editorial that May was right to set out a measured retaliatory response. The right-leaning Daily Telegraph said the prime minister could have gone further, but nonetheless praised her response as commendably robust.

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Analysts said that while May did announce concrete measures, she was also holding back in the event that Britain wanted to escalate its response later on.

The British government will want to have weapons in the armoury, said James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. You got to keep your powder a little bit dry.

On Thursday afternoon, May made her first appearance in Salisbury since the attack, speaking there with officials and residents.

We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen, brazen act and despicable act thats taken place on the streets of what is such a remarkable city, she told the BBC.

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Officials and pundits in Moscow have issued a steady stream of denials and counterclaims, a tactic that has continued through Thursday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin met with members of his national security council Thursday for a detailed discussion on the situation with Britain. Extreme concern was expressed in connection with the destructive and provocative position taken by the British side, he said.

Lavrov reiterated earlier comments that the allegations were boorish and unfounded. The actions taken by the British go beyond the limits of elementary rules of decency, he said, while asserting that Russia has attempted to handle the matter in a civilized manner.

Russias deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Interfax later Thursday that Russia ceased development of new chemical weapons immediately after joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was signed in 1993. He also insisted that neither Russia nor its predecessor, the Soviet Union, developed a nerve agent called Novichok, and he dismissed the accusations as an attempted pretense for the United States to delay the final destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles.

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Russia declared last year that it had completed destruction of its chemical weapons stockpiles and chided the United States for lagging behind. Both sides were expected to meet a 2012 deadline for complete destruction of the weapons, but both overshot. The United States has said it intends to complete the process by 2023. Novichok was believed to have been developed in the late 1980s, as the Soviet Union was negotiating the convention, to skirt the agreements requirements.

Russia has also asked for access to the poison and its victims, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, 33-year-old daughter. Both are reported to be in comas.

Skripal, a former Russian double agent, was jailed in Russia in 2006 for selling state secrets to British intelligence for 10 years, but he was released in 2010 as part of a high-profile spy swap.

When asked how Britain might respond to any retaliation, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said that Russia should go away; it should shut up.

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He was taking questions after a speech announcing a $67-million investment in a new chemical weapons defense center.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the defense alliance stood ready to provide support to Britain. He condemned what he said was the first offensive use of a nerve agent on alliance territory since NATOs foundation.

So far, Britain has held back from triggering NATOs one-for-all, all-for-one collective defense clause that would activate a coordinated military response from the 29 member nations. NATO officials have suggested that the nerve agent attack probably does not rise to that level. But the alliance is engaged, Stoltenberg said. A British national security adviser planned to brief NATO ambassadors on Thursday, and Stoltenberg will meet Monday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Russia is responsible for a blurring of the line between peace, crisis and war, Stoltenberg said, calling the Kremlins behavior destabilizing and dangerous.

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President Emmanuel Macron said France would take measures of its own in coming days against Russia.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called on Britains allies to stand united against the nerve-agent attack.

Writing in The Washington Post, he said that all responsible nations share an obligation to take a principled stance against this behavior, which he characterized as part of a larger pattern of reckless behavior by Putin. The nerve agent, Novichok, was selected for a reason, he said.

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In its blatant Russian-ness, the nerve agent sends a signal to all who may be thinking of dissent in the intensifying repression of Putins Russia, Johnson wrote. The message is clear: We will find you, we will catch you, we will kill you - and though we will deny it with lip-curling scorn, the world will know beyond doubt that Russia did it.

Analysts said that Britain was bracing for a tit-for-tat response from Russia.

They are not going to take this lying down, and we should expect that. If youre not prepared to take a few blows, you shouldnt make any punches. The question is, where does it stop? Nixey said.

Bodner reported from Moscow. The Washington Posts Michael Birnbaum in Brussels, James McAuley in Paris and Philip Rucker and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.A French judge has issued an arrest warrant for a Saudi princess accused of ordering her bodyguard to beat up a workman who had taken photographs of her Paris home.

Hassa bint Salman, the sister of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the Saudi throne, flew back to Saudi Arabia after the alleged attack in September 2016, claiming diplomatic immunity. She allegedly called the workman this dog and ordered him to kiss her feet.

French media reported Thursday that police now want to question Hassa, 43, about the assault of the painter and decorator, who alleges that she flew into a rage after he took photographs in her apartment on the chic Avenue Foch, near the Arc de Triomphe.

The alleged victim says he took the photographs on his cellphone to ensure he could return everything in the apartment to its correct place after he had finished the work.

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The princess accused him of taking pictures to sell to the media. She is accused of ordering her bodyguard to hit the 53-year-old painter over the head before tying him up and keeping him prisoner for several hours.

According to French media reports, the unidentified workman told detectives that he was punched in the face and that his hands were tied before he was forced to his knees to kiss the royals feet. He said the princess had told her bodyguard, You must kill him, this dog. He doesnt deserve to live.

He was allowed to leave later, but without his tools.

The princess was reportedly taken into custody immediately after the incident but was released after two hours after the Saudi Embassy in the French capital told detectives she had diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

At the time, the incident made headlines in France and the United Kingdom. The Telegraph newspaper in Britain described the incident as terrifying for the workman.

The French newsmagazine Le Point pointedly reported that French security guards were not permitted to carry guns but that foreign heavies had special authorization.

The princess guard appeared before a French magistrate in October 2016, where he was formally put under investigation  the equivalent of being charged  on suspicion of armed violence, theft, issuing death threats and holding a person against his or her will. He told the court that he had used the minimum force necessary to immobilize the workman after hearing the princess shout. The guard was never named, and it is unclear whether his case ever came to court.

Agence France-Presse said the arrest warrant, issued in late December, was in the French spelling of the royals name, Hussat Ben Salmane. The information emerged Thursday in a news brief in Le Point and was immediately picked up by French and international media.

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News of the arrest warrant comes as her brother, heir to King Salman, has been assuming a larger international profile. On March 7, the prince arrived for a three-day visit in the United Kingdom, where he met with Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth II. He is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House this month.

Willsher is a special correspondent.Just five days after it was installed, but not yet open to the public, a 950-ton pedestrian bridge at Miamis Florida International University collapsed onto a busy highway Thursday afternoon, killing at least four people, fire officials said.

Eight vehicles were trapped beneath the fallen concrete and nine victims were pulled from the debris, fire officials said. The victims conditions were not released by authorities.

Search-and-rescue teams raced to hunt for survivors who might be buried in the rubble, drilling into the debris and using search dogs and special microphones. A doctor reported that his hospital treated 10 people injured in the collapse, two with critical injuries.

The main focus is to rescue people, said Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez.

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Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Division Chief Paul Estopinan said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that officials could not say how many people might be trapped in the debris. I can assure you that our teams are still in rescue-and-search mode  to try to locate any viable patients.

Estopinan said more than 100 technicians would work overnight to move aside concrete in their search. Cranes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment were moved to the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board said it would send investigators to inspect the failed bridge.

Were working our way into the pile to create holes so we can physically see, Estopinan said.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said on Twitter that he was actively monitoring this tragic situation while abroad on business.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people affected by this tragedy and with the first responders who are on the scene, Gimenez said.

Florida International University has a student body of about 54,000, according to the schools website. Students are on spring break this week. The school set up a center on campus for family and friends of the victims.

The 950-ton, 174-foot pedestrian bridge was assembled by the side of the highway and moved into place Saturday to great fanfare. The $14.2-million span connected the university campus and the city of Sweetwater. Though it stands above a busy eight-lane highway, it was not yet open to foot traffic.

We have a national tragedy on our hands with the collapse of this bridge, Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez said at a news conference.

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In a statement, the university said, We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge.

I have spoken with Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez about the pedestrian bridge collapse at FIU. I will be in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day.  Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) March 15, 2018

The span, formally known as the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge, was built by MCM and designed by FIGG Bridge Engineers, according to the university.

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It was built as a rapid span installation, in which the bridge was prefabricated, then swung into place before its central support tower was built. On Thursday, all that remained standing were the pillars on the south side of the bridge.

FIGG Bridge Engineers said in a news release Thursday that it was stunned by todays tragic collapse and that our deepest sympathies are with all those affected by this accident.

The firm said that in its 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before. Our entire team mourns the loss of life and injuries associated with this devastating tragedy, and our prayers go out to all involved.

MCM, also known as Munilla Construction Management, said in a tweet: Our familys thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy.

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U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican who represents the area, called the university the heart of the entire South Florida community.

Curbelo said he was extremely disconcerted by the collapse. As soon as the immediate needs have been met, we need to get to the bottom of what happened today and ensure that it never happens again.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) were on their way to the scene. Rubio, who says he has taught at the university for the last decade as an adjunct professor, tweeted that he was praying for victims and the first responders working to save them.

The road under the collapsed bridge is heavily used by so many people in Miami, the senator tweeted. This is such a horrifying tragedy.

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Trischitta writes for the Sun Sentinel. Times staff writer Michael Livingston and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

6:25 p.m.: This article was updated to report that at least four people were killed in the bridge collapse.

3:12 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting.

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12:50 p.m.: This article was updated with the number of vehicles crushed in the collapse.and additional details.

12:12 p.m.: This article was updated with reports of multiple injuries.

This article was originally published at 11:35 a.m.He fits the district.

Thats the moral of Pennsylvanias election in which conservative Democrat Conor Lamb appears to have flipped a GOP congressional district that Trump won by 20 points.

In our 49th Congressional District, a traditional Republican stronghold leaning blue in the Age of Trump, the question is the same: Who fits now?

To my eye, weathered by 30 years covering North County elections, seven filed candidates have a realistic chance to win or place in June and go on to compete in November for the honor of representing Darrell Issas congressional district, stretching from Dana Point to Del Mar.

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Three pro politicians -- Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, Board of Equalization chair Diane Harkey and Supervisor Kristin Gaspar -- are Republican contenders.

Notably, none of the Democrats -- Doug Applegate, Michael Levin, Sara Jacobs and Paul Kerr -- has held office.

Skeptical of early polling, heres how I handicap the chances of individual candidates finishing in the money in June. (Yes, campaigns matter. The betting line could change as strokes get shorter.)

Rocky Chavez (55%): The retired Marine colonels Assembly district roughly traces the 49th in San Diego County. Huge advantage. A former Oceanside councilman, Chavez is a champion of veterans in a vet-rich district. Hes a moderate Republican on many scores, including immigration and climate change. Possibly a better candidate in the general election than in a red-meat primary, he checks key boxes.

Mike Levin (45%): An O.C. environmental lawyer and Democratic activist, Levin is the apparent party favorite. He comes off as an energetic, well-prepped, tough-talking partisan. At a League of Women Voters forum, he shouted: Are you with California or are you with Trump? Because I say there is no middle ground! With that hard edge, however, Levin could be a more effective candidate in the primary than the general.

Kristin Gaspar (45%): The first-term supervisor is running from a safe seat. (Subtext: Nothing to lose if she loses and name ID to gain.) A thirtysomething political star without rough edges, shell have to work to get better known north of Encinitas, where she was the citys first elected mayor. Shell have to answer the question of why shes running for Congress after barely one year as a supe. (Is there any good answer?) Still, shes capable, personable and a youthful contrast to the other Republican contenders.

Diane Harkey (40%): A former Dana Point mayor and assemblywoman, Harkey has Issas blessing, which is a mixed blessing in the general but helpful in a primary. Remember, scoring, say, 19 percent of the vote could get you into the general election. A fixture in Orange County, Harkeys an expert in banking and tax law. A financial scandal involving her husband could haunt her, particularly in a rough one-on-one general election.

Doug Applegate (35%): The retired Marine colonel lost a squeaker to Issa but, since then, he hasnt raised a lot of money. He could strike Democrats and independents as yesterdays news. Nevertheless, many voted for him once. They might again.

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Sara Jacobs (25%): When Issa was running, the granddaughter of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs had a lane to become the youngest congresswoman in history. With Issas retreat, her path is harder. She can appeal to millennials and women sick of men dominating Congress. (Fortunately for Jacobs, Democrat Christina Prejean, a young attorney and Air Force vet dropped out of the crowded race.) If Jacobs knocks on thousands of doors and listens, if she doesnt rely on TV ads, she could fit the district in a fresh way.

Paul Kerr (20%): A Rancho Santa Fe businessman, Kerr has run TV ads sharing his lifes story. He entered the Navy when he was 17, worked minimum-wage jobs, made a success of his life. He believes hes uniquely capable of understanding the travails of working-class families. Its a long, but passionate, shot at glory,

So there it is, an early betting line for the regions most compelling primary, which is saying something in light of Rep. Duncan Hunters precarious re-election in the deep-red 50th Congressional District.

The regions three Democratic districts look like snoozers, but the two GOP districts will be among a hundred or more contested races that will determine if the 116th Congress is fit to represent the United States in the turbulent Age of Trump.

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Logan Jenkins is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at lbjenkins5437@gmail.comA 28-year-old Chula Vista man turned himself in to police Wednesday afternoon and admitted he was driving a car that hit and killed a 62-year-old pedestrian earlier in the week, authorities said.

The man, Guillermo Jimenez, was arrested on suspicion of hit and run and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in connection with Sundays fatal hit-and-run crash. The county Medical Examiners office identified the victim as Rogelio Medrano Arellano.

Police said Arellano died after he was hit by a car on Moss Street near Fourth Avenue around 9:45 p.m.

A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for Arellanos family  which identified the victim as Roger Arellano  said he was heading out to go to work he was struck and killed.

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Police said they are still looking for the vehicle involved in the crash, a charcoal gray 2008 3 Series BMW, a two-door coupe with the California license plate 7NPH453. The vehicle likely has significant damage to its right front fender, headlamp and passenger side mirror, police said.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation but police believe distracted driving may have been a significant factor. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the car or information about the collision is asked to call police at (619) 476-5321.

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA report published on March 8, International Women's Day, cast the spotlight on the widespread abuse of women and girls in North Korea. Titled "Us Too: Sexual Violence Against North Korean Women and Girls," the report was produced by the London-based Korea Future Initiative based on the testimony of some 40 female North Korean defectors.

The organization said it underwent an unexpectedly arduous process because the women simply had no concept of terms like "sexual assault," "harassment" and "abuse," requiring staffers to explain the concepts in detail before they could gather any information. Many of the women did not even realize that rape is a crime. This alone suggests how rampant abuse is in North Korea and serves as circumstantial evidence for the authorities' indifference.

One female North Korean defector who settled in the U.S. said, "There is no concept of human rights among North Koreans. They have no concept of the violation of women's rights. Even victims of rape try to hide what happened to them and do not speak out about it or seek justice."

According to personal accounts, North Korean women are routinely subjected to rape and sexual violence, which are a "chronic malady" in the North. Not only is it pervasive in state institutions, but it is also prevalent across society. Even women apparently regard such abuse as just normal male behavior.

North Korea often claims that women enjoy equality and the impoverished state is a "heaven for women." But in reality, men in power "screw the ass off women," according to one salty comment. One North Korean defector said that she was raped by an official in charge of assigning home when she went to his office, and allocated a house in return.

Rapes of juveniles in concentration camps and detention centers are an "everyday affair," according to the accounts. People who see the crimes pass by pretending not to see anything and often such abuses are not even perceived to be wrong. Another woman said, "In North Korea, a woman's goals cannot be achieved without being raped or selling her body."The driver of a car that led Border Patrol agents on a chase down Interstate 15 last August hit speeds of up to 110 miles per hour and repeatedly swerved across traffic lanes before smashing into a guard rail, killing three occupants and injuring a fourth, according to an official report of the crash.

The report by the California Highway Patrol blames the driver, Israel Caballero, for the Aug. 10 crash that killed Caballero, 15-year-old Gloria Lopez Lopez and 20-year-old Raul Quiroz Quiroz. A fourth passenger, a 22-year-old man from San Juan Bautista, Mexico, was injured and survived.

Caballero lost control of the car at the West Bernardo Drive exit of the freeway, plunging into a ravine below. Border patrol agents had attempted to pull him over farther north, at Deer Springs Road in Escondido, but Caballero took off. The report cites excessive speed and unsafe lane changes as the cause that led to the crash.

The heavily-redacted report, obtained under a the state Public Records Act request, sheds little new light on the circumstances that triggered the pursuit.

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The Border Patrol initially said a license plate check conducted by two agents, identified for the first time in the report as Agent Juan Aguayo and Agent Richard Hagan, revealed the car was linked to a homicide and smuggling suspect.

An agency spokesman later said Caballero was a suspected human smuggler and that the entire event was connected to a smuggling incident  but that no one in the car was a homicide suspect. Its unclear what attracted the attention of the agents in the first place. The Border Patrol previously said the agents had a raised level of suspicion about the vehicle but did not say what that was.

The CHP report blacks out sections that detail the events leading up to the chase. Both statements from the agents are redacted, as is the statement from the lone survivor, as well as a half dozen statements from other witnesses.

The CHP said the information was redacted under a section of the records act that permits agencies not to disclose certain information about police investigations.

Caballero was from Chula Vista and a U.S. citizen, while the other three were in the country illegally, the Border Patrol has said.

The Border Patrol policy on vehicle pursuits says agents may get involved in pursuits only when the benefit outweighs any immediate danger created by speeding or other emergency driving techniques.The latest version of the policy was crafted in 2007, replacing a 2002 version. It was reviewed in November 2010 and has remained in place since then.

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Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.comI was one of several South Park homeowners who challenged the Historical Resources Boards recent approval of the South Park historic district. I brought my appeal to the San Diego City Council because a decision of this magnitude  to establish a historic district over 396 parcels encompassing an entire neighborhood  should be made by elected officials who answer to voters, not an unelected board of experts. Besides, its not clear this board has authority to establish a historic district.

The word district doesnt appear in the code authorizing the board to act. The code speaks of a historical resource. Is a neighborhood with 396 individually owned parcels a historical resource?

Related: Historic designation protects community character

Historic district is a nice-sounding name, but it comes with an iron fist. Quoting from a city power point, All properties within a historic district are regulated. ... All work within a historic district requires review and approval by the citys historical resources staff. And All modifications [to homes] must comply with the U.S. Secretary of the Interiors standards.

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In other words, a homeowner forfeits to the city control over what she can do with her home. Worse, there are no neighborhood checks and balances. If planning denies a homeowner a permit to fix up her home, there is no appeal to a committee of local homeowners to override the planners. Thats a problem because South Park has an aging housing stock  with some homes over 100 years old. South Park homeowners need to be able to repair and maintain their homes, and, yes, modernize where needed, without having to comply with standards set by the U.S. Department of Interior.

Historic preservation partisans  and yes, in South Park, we have them  argued the City Council approved the Golden Hill Community Plan Update a year earlier and that the South Park Historic District was baked into the plan update. But the Golden Hill Community Plan Update was hundreds of pages, addressed many topics besides historic districts, spoke in generalities, didnt set timetables and wasnt submitted to homeowners for their approval. Its unclear how many homeowners knew a historic district was in the works for South Park.

Last summer, just 27 percent of South Park homeowners expressed support for a historic district. Another 63 percent  thats nearly two-thirds  didnt return their polling slips. Owners of 42 parcels  just 10.5 percent of South Park parcels  attended the citys one and only workshop where city staff explained the historic district to South Park homeowners.

When the Historical Resources Board saw these low numbers, it should have kicked the proposal back to city planners to hold more workshops and to collect more polling slips. Instead, the board went ahead and approved the South Park historic district.

But instead of approving the historic district as submitted by city planners, the board acted on a request by Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) to expand the list homes to be classified as contributing  a technical term meaning homes subject to elevated regulatory oversight. At the hearing (which I attended), no one on the Historical Resources Board asked whether SOHO had checked with impacted owners to determine whether they agreed to have their homes reclassified as contributing.

When I made this point in my appeal to the City Council, city staff replied, the Municipal Code does not require the property owners consent to designate a historical resource.

How can a property owners lack of consent to a historical designation not matter when the designation results in additional regulatory oversight over how a homeowner maintains her home? For most Americans, their home is their most expensive investment. Over the course of 20-30 years, a homeowner spends thousands of dollars on property taxes, insurance and interest, on top of what she pays for the home. Its insulting to tell a homeowner her consent to historic district designation isnt required.

South Park is  or was  a modern, thriving, forward-looking, residential and retail business neighborhood, and a smart place to invest in a home. Historic designation threatens all that by handcuffing South Park homeowners in how they can repair, maintain and renovate their homes. Partisans argue historic district designation protects the neighborhood from developers. But if that was the objective, there were less burdensome ways to achieve it. It wasnt necessary to place 396 privately owned parcels under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

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On Feb. 6, the City Council denied my appeal. But the fight isnt over. The city has identified 13 neighborhoods for historic district designation. Homeowners: Get informed and organized. Your neighborhood may be next.

Roberts is a South Park resident and homeowner.Historic designation recognizes historic resources. And historic districts can present a particularly useful opportunity to preserve the narrative of how, where, even why our city developed. A district is a concentration of resources that come together to collectively convey a shared significance under the citys criteria.

In the case of the South Park Historic District, this area was our first streetcar suburb, San Diegos initial transit-oriented development.

Related: How historic districts can hurt homeowners

The most recent historic districts were unanimously designated by the Historical Resources Board following a vigorous public process, and implement the Golden Hill and North Park Community Plans. Historic resources also appear in Economic Prosperity Elements of the general plan and community plans, for good reason.

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Districts protect community character and the unique sense of place of these neighborhoods. They tend to be environmentally friendly, designed with low-tech features promoting livability, and preserving embodied energy from original construction, as well as not filling landfills through their loss. The greenest site can be the one already built. The power bill in our own household is less than half that of efficient area households, and about one-third of the average utility customer.

Districts support and enhance property values, protecting the investment of owners. Values appreciate more than in similar non-designated areas, and are less subject to market volatility. Realtors advertise historic homes and districts as a distinct asset.

Districts encourage better quality design and help infill, additions and new development to be better neighbors, and consequently more welcomed.

Districts provide peace of mind to residents, by enhancing certainty about the future of an area. Certainty is something developers, lenders and communities alike want and value, whether it is for an investment or a home. I bought my own 1912 South Park bungalow in 2009, in the certainty that we would, sooner rather than later, be in the long-anticipated South Park Historic District.

Historic districts tend to be pretty popular and enjoy broad support. Many more participants show up in support of historic districts. The Mission Hills district polled at 69 percent support of respondents, Valle Vista 77 percent, and South Park 76 percent in 2012. A second poll at the start of the 2017 process garnered 73 percent for South Park.

My first historic home was in the Sherman Heights Historic District, designated in 1987. That district has worked well so that the neighborhood retains its character and cultural vitality and is a good place to live.

The process has not changed that much since the program began in 1967. A review of the program during the Maureen OConnor administration was modest only in the changes made, not in the comprehensive effort that went into it. A very diverse group appointed by the mayor made recommendations, and the City Council voted enthusiastically to adopt this balanced program. The biggest change was adoption of education and incentives elements, including, eventually, the Mills Act program. One of the ground rules for that group from mayor and council was to keep their docket focused on issues that might require further adjudication. Hence the appeal to council, as was exercised by several owners in Valle Vista and South Park, just as intended.

San Diegos Historic Preservation Program is a compromise forged over 50 years of balancing interests and ideas. It is consistent with the law and accepted standards, and the welfare of our community.

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While the recent discussion of process was fueled largely by misinformation and alternative facts, the political-ideological divide represented is not new.

The Historical Resources Board has always had the charge to designate historic resources, since its establishment, and districts have always been a part of that. In fact HRB site No. 1, from 1967, is a historic district.

One council member suggested that more poll replies should be required for districts. If that concept was mandated for elections, I suspect at least one City Council seat might be vacant. Participation is a right, not a requirement.

Owners in South Park received four notices leading up to the designation and seven overall. By contrast, contact to owners for Community Plan updates is limited to publication in the Daily Transcript.

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Apparently some who just dont like preservation are trying to set up impossible task straw men. That would not be a way to develop balanced policy or protect historic communities.

South Park deserves historical recognition and after more than 20 years, the South Park Historic District is finally a reality!

Swarens, a property owner and resident of the South Park Historic District, is chairman of the Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee.San Diego knows Trump's wall a waste of time, money 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. (K.C. Alfred/ San Diego Union -Tribune)

Re  Trump in California: Trip just another distraction from chaos  (March 14): As a 67-year-old San Diego native, I believe I have more of an insight to our border with Mexico than others living thousands of miles away.

These "others" don't realize that the majority of illegal border crossers are poor and desperate people willing to work in pesticide infested fields to feed their families back home. Work no U.S.citizen would ever do.

The criminal element has found other ways to distribute their felonious agenda by tunnels, drones and pangas, which a wall would never stop. So, waste the money on a wall and be ready to pay a lot more for fruits and vegetables and other services these honest, desperate people provide.

I wonder what ever happened to the bracerro program that provided at least a measure of compromise for so many downtrodden people. My heart goes out to them.

Steve Saint-Martin

Loma Portal

Trumps visit to San Diego was an obvious publicity stunt, and distraction.

Our president attacked the entire State of California, along with its excellent Democratic leadership. He spouted multiple alternative facts to discredit our state, because California has the moral integrity to stand up against his negative policies and values. He then flew on to Los Angeles for a fundraiser that provided him millions of dollars from Californians, a state he condemned.

Trumps border wall is a symbol of hatred and discrimination, which focused those un-American concepts on San Diego. Seeing pro-Trump supporters rip a Mexican flag to shreds, was shocking. This is what Trumps visit inspired in his base, here in Americas Finest City.

San Diego is a bi-cultural city, with a strong population of Hispanic people who have a rich culture, diversity, history and presence here. Trumps border wall visit was an insult to San Diego, a gateway to Mexico.

Barbara Ann Cooper

El Cajon

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.Expect to see a significant increase in what the city charges developers who would rather pay a fee instead of including affordable housing units in their for-sale and rental residential projects.

City staff is working on a proposal to be presented at the April 3 City Council meeting, according to Bob Manis, director of development services. A recommended new fee has not yet been determined, but Manis said it will be significantly higher than the current assessment of $500 per unit.

The $500 fee came up during the March 6 meeting while councilmembers were discussing two new mixed used projects on Poway Road. Several audience members expressed surprise that the fee was so low.

Manis said his department has been studying the fee for several weeks and was already planning to present a report on the council on the matter.

State law allows developers for for-sale housing to either set aside 15 percent of their units for inclusionary housing or pay a per-unit fee set by the city. In 2009 the California Court of Appeal ruled on a case that effectively restricted the citys ability to require affordable housing units in new market rate rental developments. However, the state Legislature last September passed a bill allowing cities to offer an in-lieu fee for developments of rental units.

Poways in-lieu fee dates to 1993, when a maximum rate of $4,500 per unit was established. The collected money is placed in a special fund intended to finance construction of affordable housing in the city.

In 2008, with the Great Recession beginning to negatively impact the start of new construction, the council voted to cut the fee in half, to $2,250. A consultant hired at the time recommended the fee be increased, to $9,000, according to Manis.

Two years later, with the recession still in effect and costly new water conservation mandates being handed down to developers by the state, the council trimmed the fee to $500 for homes exceeding 1,500 square feet according to Manis. The fee dropped to between $100 and $450 for smaller homes, depending on zoning.

The fees have not been reviewed since due to a lack of interest in the development community to build either market-rate homes or rental units, Manis said.

That has changed with the recently adopted of the Poway Road Specific Plan, Manis said. The plan includes zoning that encourages mixed-use projects with both residential and commercial components. Examples include The Trading Post, with 53 rental residential units of differing types and sizes, and the Fairfield Homes development, with 216 apartments. Councilmembers unanimously approved The Trading Post and sent the Fairfield proposal back to the drawing board.

Manis said The Trading Post developers will pay whatever fee is in effect when building permits are issued. Even if the fee is increased, he said, it is possible only $500 will be charged for units that are under 1,000 square feet.

Email: editor@pomeradonews.comAfter a barrage of reader letters strongly disagreeing with my expressed fears (Feb. 15) regarding President Trump, I might have been moved to back off from my seemingly harsh opinions. However, in view of the endless stream of horrifying statements and actions by Trump between Feb. 26 and March 3, and being buoyed by a bevy of other readers, I am about to double down on my strong conviction that Donald Trump is the most dangerous person on this earth.

I dont even know where to start. He has flaunted the rule of law, suggesting that we break into peoples homes to take away their guns and later follow due process. I actually believe that he was trying to say that when there are signs of danger that authorities need to act quickly. But the way that it came over was a macho, vigilante type Clint Eastwood character and the last thing that we need is to encourage vigilantes to deny constitutional rights to safety within our homes. What could be more hypocritical than this from the protectors of the second amendment?

Trump stunned members of his own staff and party with a spur-of-the-moment declaration of a stiff tariff on imported steel and aluminum. This was Trump in a hissy fit. With pressures mounting from all corners, he couldnt handle his frustration with Chinas pricing of steel. He acted out in a fit of anger to throw a gigantic monkey wrench into a very delicate international economy. His own advisors were left out of the action and were mortified. They could have told him that China wasnt even in the top four exporters of steel to the U.S. They could have warned him that the stock market would react with extreme disapproval and fear. They would have warned him of the strong likelihood of tit-for-tat repercussions. They surely would have advised him that the increased cost of steel and aluminum would cost way more jobs than he would save in the metals industries.

But even worse, if a little frustration with international economic competition could move Trump to totally lose his cool, what would the man with the big button do in the case of other things that dont go his way? What if Little Rocket Man taunts him a few more times? Does he head right for his big button?

And speaking of nuclear threats, what was Trumps response to Putins bragging about Russia having new weapons against which we would have no defense? Silence! All his bluster about everything else and nothing about Putin. Again. Why? How do we explain this? Has the bully been out-bullied? Putin poses Armageddon against the U.S. and the president responds with tweets about Alec Baldwin. Isnt it bizarre?

Things are falling apart on Pennsylvania Avenue. More advisors and staff arguing with him. More people fleeing the White House. More insiders having their qualifications in doubt. Family members being questioned about meetings with foreigners for the purpose of providing government favors in exchange for financial favors. Trump being upset with family members. Trump being angry with Kelly. Mueller continually in his rear view mirror and moving closer. Its not surprising that Trump is experiencing mental anguish. He has no friends. He has no one he can trust. This is a man who is being pushed into a corner and is capable of a full blow-up. Unglued is what the people around him are saying. And he has a big button. Shall we follow his own advice and break into his house to remove his dangerous weapons? There will be time for due process later.

Several letters defended Trump by complaining vehemently about Obama or Hillary. Regardless of our opinions of these key figures, how would dislike or distrust of them legitimize Trumps behavior? Never in the history of this nation has there been any president who has trampled on basic decency and ethical values and violated the rule of law as much as this (and Ill say it again) frightening, dangerous man? He has no allies. No one to confide in. No one he can trust, because he is unworthy of trust.

Former FBI Director John Brennan used these words in describing Trump: Ill prepared, unstable, inept, and unethical. Brennan added, There is deep, deep concern for the countrys national security.

Should we feel that we have to protect this person just because he is not Obama or Hillary? Can we not ask for someone better? Do we not deserve more?

Conservatives and liberals will always have legitimate and conflicting positions on what this nation needs. But none should accept the broken, destructive attempt at leadership now in the White House. We cannot apologize for the depravity of this man. We cannot accept his distorted brand of governance. And surely, we cannot allow him to destroy the fragile economic and political environment of todays world by perpetrating some hurried act of immature defiance.

A Rancho Bernardo resident, Levine is a retired project management consultant and the author of three books on the subject.China import expo attracts star companies

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-03-14 23:12

SHANGHAI - China International Import Expo (CIIE) has signed its first contract with a leading intelligent manufacturer, the organizers said Wednesday.

Tawara Kazuyuki, chairman of the board at Nachi (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said that he hopes to show and improve the company's robotic products and technology through the expo.

Nachi is a top company in the robotics industry and will be a highlight of the intelligent and high-end equipment zone of the CIIE.

The zone covers industries such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, energy conservation, 3D printing and new energy equipment.

More than 250 companies have signed letters of intent to take part in the CIIE, according to the CIIE Bureau.

The first CIIE will be held in Shanghai in November, which is expected to bring together thousands of enterprises from more than 100 countries.Mongolian language talk of the town for teacher

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-03-15 08:14

Liu Hongyan, who has taught the Mongolian language to ethnic Mongolian students at middle schools in Beipiao, Liaoning province, for three decades, said she has witnessed drastic changes in attitudes toward learning the language among young people.

Liu, a deputy to the National People's Congress for six years, said that when she began teaching she had to go to every student's home and patiently persuade them to take the language lessons. Now, however, nearly all students of the ethnic group willingly attend the language classes, beginning at kindergarten.

The 50-year-old ethnic Mongolian attributed the change to people's rising self-confidence in their ethnicity, and national and local governments placing more emphasis on strengthening education for the country's ethnic groups in an effort to help them learn their own cultures and languages.

Liu said people of her parents' generation haven't spoken the Mongolian language since childhood in most places in Liaoning, where ethnic groups form only around 15 percent of the population.

"I often talk to students and parents about the importance of inheriting our ethnic language," said Liu, who used to teach at a junior middle school in the countryside.

When she first began teaching, Liu compiled textbooks, exercises and quizzes for the students, who generally had zero knowledge of the Mongolian language in kindergartens and primary schools.

Liu said that when she was transferred to a senior middle school in 2003, where around 10 percent of the 3,000 students were members of the ethnic Mongolian group, only one of the eight Mongolian language teachers actually spoke it as a native tongue.

But changes happened quickly as authorities began encouraging people of different ethnic groups to better understand their own cultures.

At least one teacher from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region who speaks the language as their mother tongue has been introduced to each of the city's schools that have students from the ethnic group.

"The teachers really make a difference, as students can learn more terms used in daily life," Liu said. "Moreover, the Mongolian language has appeared together with Mandarin on all road signs and at public facilities such as hospitals, schools and government departments in Beipiao to create a better environment for language learning."

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.Suspicious parcels under fresh scanner

From:Shine | 2018-03-15 02:29

COURIER firms will now relay suspicious parcels to the police in real time.

In a trial run of the new smart X-ray machines at four delivery companies, 3,974 parcels were singled out from the 834,000 parcels, Shanghai police said yesterday.

Deppon Logistics, SF, STO and Fast Expresses tested the machines at one of their parcel sorting centers.

In China, courier firms are required to ensure that every parcel is checked before being delivered, but the implementation of the rule is difficult, police said after a recent inspection of local courier businesses.

Their competency in discovering and reporting irregularities differs from one another, and as a result, some suspicious parcels get through, said an official from the General Squad for Public Order of Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

In the latest experiment, all scanning machines at the sorting centers will be remotely connected to a parcel content identification center in the Pudong New Area, where trained staff will watch over the returned pictures, police said.

Once a suspicious parcel is spotted, the delivery information such as the address and name are scanned. The information is then passed on to the police and the delivery of the parcel blocked.

Police said they will also train parcel security staff at courier firms.

It is estimated that about 10 million parcels are delivered to and from Shanghai every day.Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join

Though its spring break stories are legendary, theres more to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, than late nights filled with tequila. Long, sunshine-filled days are the norm on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, but how to best stay busy in these parts is a matter of opinion. For some its as simple as soaking up vitamin D while napping on the sand. For others, off-roading on mountain trails and beaches provides a sought-after adrenaline boost. Outdoor options are plentiful and typically come with postcard-worthy views that getaways were made for. Need more inspiration? There are plenty of ways to fills those vacation days.

1. Watch the Parade of Boats

If youre an early riser, youre in luck because youll experience the Cabo San Lucas most others miss. Grab a cup of caffeine and head straight to the marina for sunrise. Boat after boat charges past El Arco, Cabos famous arch, loaded with hopeful fisherman competing for the catch of the day. Take in the view and then take advantage of the quiet and stroll along Medano Beach, one of Cabos few swimmable stretches of sand. Even first thing in the morning, chances are good itll be warm enough to jump right in.

2. Test Your Sea Legs

As impressive as El Arco is from the beach, it knows how to take a close up. A sea lion colony blends into the scenery, but their boisterous barks give them away. Pack a picnic and explore Lovers Beach, go snorkeling near Pelican Rock, or simply enjoy the scenic ride. (Some boats even boast glass bottoms.) If youre organized you can plan ahead and book a tour; if you like to do things on the fly, just hire a water taxi.

3. Have a Whale of a Time

They dont stay for long, but when humpback whales come to town, its worth setting aside a few hours to try and catch a glimpse. Whale watching cruises run daily, typically December through mid-March, or when the whales decide its time to head north again. Small boats can maneuver a little quicker and easier, but larger boats come with amenities like bathrooms, food, and drink.

Dress in layers. It can be quite a bit cooler on the open sea, and its always better to be able to shed layers than wish you had them.

4. Ride Camels in Cabo

Giddy up! Well kind of. More than a dozen camels are giving horses a run for their money on the coast. Camel-back beach tours are run daily by Cabo Adventures. A handful of the camels are rescues. After a little education about the curious creatures, guests saddle up two to a camel and embark on a cruise along the sand. Theres little skill involved on the part of the rider; guides are plentiful and the camels know the way to beach. Every camel has a four-day work week, followed by two days off to roam dozens of seaside acres.

5. Spin Your Wheels in the Dirt

First the bandana gets tied across your nose and mouth. Next, a guide slides a helmet over your head. But its when the goggles go across your eyes and the straps get tightened that your heart may start to beat a little faster. Buckle up and hold on: youre ready to go off-roading in Cabo San Lucas.

About a 40-minute drive northwest of town, Cabo Adventures runs daily tours in an area known as Elias Calles. With dusty trails, cacti, and the occasional cow, the landscape is everything youd expect to find in the Mexican desert. But in this stretch of arid scenery, adventurous travelers get to hit the gas and roar their way through in a Polaris UTV (utility task vehicle) with seats for four. (Be sure to bring your driver license if you want to drive.) The dust gets in every crevasse. Youll have dirt under your fingernails. And theres a good chance youll get wet. But youll be smiling from ear to ear through every grimy minute.An international team of astronomers from Australia, China and the United States has discovered that all galaxies rotate once every billion years, no matter how big they are.

The Earth spinning around on its axis once gives us the length of a day, and a complete orbit of the Earth around the Sun gives us a year, said Professor Gerhardt Meurer, from the University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

Its not Swiss watch precision, but regardless of whether a galaxy is very big or very small, if you could sit on the extreme edge of its disk as it spins, it would take you about a billion years to go all the way round.

He said that by using simple maths, you can show all galaxies of the same size have the same average interior density.

Discovering such regularity in galaxies really helps us to better understand the mechanics that make them tick  you wont find a dense galaxy rotating quickly, while another with the same size but lower density is rotating more slowly.

Professor Meurer and his colleagues from the University of Western Australia, the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech and Chinas National Astronomical Observatories also found evidence of older stars existing out to the edge of galaxies.

Based on existing models, we expected to find a thin population of young stars at the very edge of the galactic disks we studied, Professor Meurer said.

But instead of finding just gas and newly formed stars at the edges of their disks, we also found a significant population of older stars along with the thin smattering of young stars and interstellar gas.

This is an important result because knowing where a galaxy ends means we astronomers can limit our observations and not waste time, effort and computer processing power on studying data from beyond that point, he added.

So because of this work, we now know that galaxies rotate once every billion years, with a sharp edge thats populated with a mixture of interstellar gas, with both old and young stars.

The teams findings are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (arXiv.org preprint).

_____

Gerhardt R. Meurer et al. 2018. Cosmic clocks: a tight radius-velocity relationship for HI-selected galaxies. MNRAS 476 (2): 1624-1636; doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty275IoT & SD-WAN: A Match Made in Heaven?

By Paula Bernier , Executive Editor, TMC

The acronyms IoT and SD-WAN are popping up together a lot lately. Thats because SD-WAN provides the predictability and visibility that businesses need to make their internet of things applications work as required.

Software-defined WAN solutions will play an important role in enabling enterprise Internet of Things initiatives, says Shamus McGillicuddy with Enterprise Management Associates.







SD-WAN can ensure that IoT devices in remote sites get the bandwidth, security, and other treatment and resources they require. That important, says McGillicuddy, because IoT devices frequently lack the power and computing resources to support channel-based security techniques like TLS.

These same constraints also make it difficult for network managers to discover IoT devices with traditional network management tools, which challenges their ability to find rogue devices, he adds. Strict LAN segmentation that maps onto SD-WAN segments ensures that isolation is maintained throughout the network.

Silicon Angle, in August, noted because SD-WAN make network traffic visible and steerable, its a good match for IoT applications. It adds that 60 percent of IT and business professionals expressed challenges with their IoT efforts, saying they have created bigger than expected challenges. And it says the inability to monitor chaotic IoT traffic may be contributing to these struggles.

SD-WAN allows users to segment the network into lanes-for instance, IoT lanes- and determine what traffic flows through, R. Danes writes. They can view the activity in the lanes and reconfigure them.

Industry analyst Zeus Kerravala says that SD-WANs also makes network resiliency easy and affordable.

The IoT era is here and I strongly encourage business and IT leaders to consider how the business will evolve once everything is connected. However, before going down that path, take a step back and deploy an SD-WAN to simplify your WAN architecture, so your IoT initiatives can scale quickly and securely and in line with changing business requirements.

Bill Rojas, adjunct director for telecom research at IDC Asia/Pacific, says: "In Asia/Pacific, where LTE (News - Alert) coverage is becoming pervasive, it is becoming cost-effective to utilize consumer connections combined with SD-WAN technology to implement secure, reliable, and robust IoT networks, connecting endpoints to cloud/remote data center servers."

Edited by Mandi NowitzStarting Dec. 10, MSC Armonia will add Miami to its seven-night Cuba itinerary, homeporting there alongside MSC Divina and MSC Seaside.

MSC Cruises will be the only cruise line offering a weeklong program regularly including two days in Havana.

MSC Armonia will embark in Miami on Mondays then sail to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel before arriving at Havana on Saturday and staying through to Sunday before returning to Miami. In Havana a wide range of cultural excursions will be offered.

The visits to Cuba comply with US Department of Treasury regulations that permit travel operators to transport approved US citizens to Cuba to engage people-to-people educational exchange activities.

'This new MSC Cruises product out of Miami allows to us to further enrich our offer to North American guests,' MSC Cruises CEO Gianni Onorato said.

He also noted that by having Miami as homeport, this will give European and other international travelers an opportunity to add a pre- or post- cruise land vacation from New York, Orlando or other US cities. Miami also offers a greater array of inbound and outbound flight options when traveling from within the US or internationally.

As the first ship in MSC Cruises $250m Renaissance Program, MSC Armonia has been recently and extensively renovated.Speaking at Shipping 2018, the Connecticut Maritime Associations (CMA) annual conference, rbeck-Nilssen looked at some of the initiatives taken at IACS that were changing the organisation.

It is my duty and honour to encourage the worlds biggest classification societies to pull together to adapt to this rapid pace of change and create a strong foundation for IACS as the leading maritime technical association, said Knut rbeck-Nilssen.

The changes at IACS were not a sudden revolution, where we throw everything we know overboard and start back at one, he said, but rather an evolution, a gradual transformation to becoming more advanced, more transparent and more efficient in serving our industry.

IACS was embracing the challenges of the digital transformation of shipping and had already launched several projects to help the industry adapt to recent shifts in markets, regulations and technologies, rbeck-Nilssen noted.

In a dedicated working group, IACS has examined all the relevant resolutions, to identify which standards present potential regulatory barriers to autonomous ship operations. In addition, IACS is supporting the industry by leading the work on the development of a common terminology for different levels of autonomy.

To help the maritime community ensure the cyber-resilience of their assets, IACS established and is taking the lead in an industry working group focused on cyber safety. The working group addresses common safety issues with interconnected systems, sharing best practices and keeping up to date with new developments. To facilitate the use of modern survey technology, IACS is also taking a fresh look at its survey requirements. Potential revisions could cover advanced non-destructive testing and remote inspection techniques.

IACS itself was a focus of the changes as well, added rbeck-Nilssen: As our way of working changes, the Association has taken a fresh look at its internal procedures. Our focus is to ensure that the services delivered by both new and existing members keep up with regulatory developments and meet the highest quality standards.

But even in a rapidly changing world, IACS and the classification societies would stay true to their ideals, said rbeck-Nilssen: And when everything around us is in motion, class aspires to be a beacon of light setting the course ahead  with modern requirements, transparent processes and the highest quality of service. The industry is changing. Our ways of working may be changing. But the purpose of classification remains the same: To protect life, property and the environment.The scope of supply includes 42 Rolls-Royce US 205/255 azimuth thrusters for 21 new Robert Allan-designed harbour/terminal/escort tugs in the 60, 70 and 80 tonne bollard-pull range and high-pressure hydraulic towing winches for the 80 tonne models, Rolls-Royce said in a press release.

We have delivered 150 azimuth thrusters to Sanmar in a relationship that spans 15-years, said Andrea Cerutti, Rolls-Royce Customer & Sales vp for South Europe, adding this new contract is another significant milestone in the Rolls-Royce-Sanmar partnership.

Unlike conventional supply agreements signed on a project-by-project basis, Rolls-Royce and Sanmar have entered into a framework agreement whereby Rolls-Royce will supply standard specification products for all the vessels across a two-to-three-year period. The agreement takes into account options on the standard product specification to cover specific demands and operational requirements.

This new arrangement provides both parties with some significant advantages, said Gary Nutter, Rolls-Royce Customer & Propulsion director. For Rolls-Royce it provides good visibility, allowing us to optimise production. The benefits for the customer are that we can offer shorter lead times, secure production slots and the flexibility to customise the equipment in line with specific requirements. Its a win-win arrangement for both parties.

No financial details of the deal were released. Rolls-Royces marine business has been struggling amid the downturn in the offshore market, with a 24% drop in sales and a widening of segmental losses to GBP27m in 2017. It is reportedly set to be spun off from the main business.

Sanmar projects director and board member Ali Gurun added: The current order book for Sanmar tugs lends itself to this new procurement arrangement. Rather than having to create new supply agreement for each newbuild project, this new arrangement allows to effectively have a constant supply of Rolls-Royce equipment that we can adapt to meet our customers requirements. This means we can potentially reduce build time and streamline the building process.

Sanmars new portfolio of tug designs has two new additions, a versatile 25m Tractor tug that incorporates a hull that can be outfitted with 60 to 70 tonnes bollard pull and a 29m ASD tug which can accommodate up to 90 tonnes of bollard pull.The loud whirr of an industrial band saw fills the clinical white warehouse space off Woodward Heights in Ferndale as Mike Romine heaves a seventy-pound lamb carcass on the saw table. With practiced speed and dexterity, Romine adjusts the angle of the animal and looks towards the reciprocating blade, cleaving the loin and tossing the resulting cut into a veritable mountain of meat accumulating on the worktable. Behind him, a small group of employees sorts and packages cuts of pork.

Its funny, he says, looking up. A delivery person was here the other day, and Im going hard on this pig when the driver ran out the door. Watching me cut up that pig was traumatic for her. Mike shakes his head, visibly disappointed. People are really disconnected.

Its that disconnection that is the driving force behind Farm Field Table, a butcher shop founded by Romine with his twin brother Matt Romine. The shop sells locally sourced meats, some from the Romines own heritage hog farm near Imlay City. In addition to selling retail onsite, Farm Field Table supplies high-end local restaurants across metro Detroit such as Selden Standard, The Emory, Takoi, and the Apparatus Room, in addition to the Romines restaurant, Hirams Tavern in Imlay City (formerly the Mulefoot Gastropub).



Farm Field Table. Photo by Nina Ignaczak.

According to Romine, its all about knowing where your food comes from.

We dont buy from any farms that we dont physically go see, he emphasizes. We know where the animals sleep. We know everything about them.

To Romine, food isnt merely a commodity, something to be consumed and just as quickly forgotten. He sees a connection to our food as something to be savored, contemplated, and above all, respected. He suspects the delivery driver, like so many of us, is used to their meat arriving wrapped in a bag, disembodied from the animal, pushed behind a glass display case and wholly divorced from its oinking, bleating, breathing origin.

Romine takes off his gloves, scratches a weeks worth of stubble, readjusts his black ball cap and gestures at the butchering floor and with a wave of his hand.

All this is about understanding intentional food systems, he says.

According to Romine, our disconnection from our food stems from our history as a nation that prides itself on innovation.

We came out of the Great Depression, and we had this need for food preservation, Romine says, and at that time the can was a new concept, it was inexpensive, and people learned to eat like that: frozen and in cans. People are not farmers anymore.

Connecting farm to table

The Romines' commitment to their product is clear when you look upon the variety and freshness of the dry aged lamb, beef and pork products displayed with pride at Farm Field Table.

That commitment is equally evident on the back acreage of the Romine farm near Imlay City. Chickens run in the yard and hide between rusty implements scattered throughout the property. Behind a few metal fences that have seen brighter days, beautiful fat sows gorge themselves around circular metal troughs.

Joe Romine, father of Matt and Mike, chuckles as he steps over the knee-high enclosure. Joe Romine looks every inch his sons father, sharing their dark hair and eyes, as well as a contagious enthusiasm for his work. He praises a big male Mulefoot, dark brown with coarse hair, who roughly nudges a smaller male away from a prime feeding spot and digs in.



Matt (left) and Mike Romine. Photo by Nina Ignaczak.

Look at it, the elder Romine says admiringly, the thing is a walrus! He takes out a tin of Grizzly dip and begins to pack it. Five to six inches of back fat! Thing is a porker!

When Joe Romine walks into the enclosure, the pigs trot right up to him, expectant as dogs. These pigs are nothing like typical commercially raised pigs, pink with a short tail that twists into a helix. These are heritage breeds. Closer to a boar, the Mangalitsa, a Hungarian breed, is lighter colored and covered with a thick, luxurious coat of white curly hair. The darker colored Mulefoot breed has less hair, so its nearly half-foot of back fat jiggles and sways as it trots around the 20-acre farm. The breeds dont get much over 600 pounds and get too fatty for conventional commercial use.

This is the point, though. When you eat a cut of the dry aged pork from the Romine farm, the experience is unlike what most people associate with eating pork, according to Romine. Outside of bacon, large-scale commercial pork is pretty lean, a sickly grayish-white devoid of any appreciable flavor profiles. However, if you find yourself eating a cut of pork from a heritage breed, particularly one raised on Joe Romines farm, you could be forgiven for not recognizing the meat as coming from swine. The meat is a bit darker than most people are used to and dense with flavor. A given cut will be rippling with luxurious deposits of fat.

Do not be afraid, advises Mike Romine, adding Dont you dare trim it. Indulge; it will be one of the finest bites of your life.

Building a sustainable food system

Its an experience the Romines are hoping to expand throughout the region.

In Imlay City, Mulefoot Gastropub brand is being replaced by a more affordable and accessible iteration, Hirams Tavern. The goal is to encourage more of a local following; a majority of the clientele were driving an hour or more for a destination experience that averaged $50 per person. Hirams Tavern will cater to a more local, regular clientele without, Romine emphasizes, sacrificing quality.

But hes hoping to introduce the higher-end Mulefoot Gastropub concept in the southern Oakland County area soon.



Mike Romine. Photo by Nina Ignaczak.

Mike acknowledges the difficulty in the undertaking he and his family have taken on. It isnt the easiest or the most cost-efficient route, paying all their farmers fair prices for their goods, dry aging their meat in-house, running their own butchering facilities, raising their own pigs, charging a little more so that they might pay their employees enough to live on.

But they arent doing it this way because its easy.

The culture that we bring here, says Romine, is a great example of sustainability in our world.

Because, really, this isnt just about the food, as good as it is.



As the straight shot of Van Dyke eases you back from Joe Romines pig farm in the thumb and back into Detroit, the transition is gradual. The farms, with fields spread out like a checked picnic blanket, begin to give way to the urban sprawl of the exurbs. Soon, neighborhoods become denser, and restaurants carrying cuts purveyed by Farm Field Table begin to appear. But to find where the food came from, all you have to do is go little north. Its not too far.A partnership between a Hazel Park-based film studio and Detroit entrepreneur Jennyfer Crawford has debuted the first episode of its new online video series highlighting Detroit-area entrepreneurs. The web series "All Things Detroit Conversations" debuted on Wednesday, March 14.Reel Clever Films produced the series, which features conversations between Crawford and local small business owners. The first episode features Megan Cowan of Finch Finery The "Conversations" comes out of Crawford's small business consulting and events company, Ask Jennyfer, which organizes the All Things Detroit events at Eastern Market. It's a natural outgrowth of the original business, as each are meant to showcase and promote the area's small businesses. All Things Detroit events provide vendor space to local entrepreneurs, along with food trucks, performances, and other attractions.The next All Things Detroit event takes place at the city's Eastern Market on Sunday, March 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ticket costs range from $5 to $15 and can be purchased online . Children six and under are welcome, free of charge.For Reel Clever Films co-founder Eden Sabolboro, the partnership between the two companies is a perfect fit. Eden says that Crawford was one of the first people to respond and support Reel Clever following Eden and co-owner Thaad Sabolboro first moving to Michigan from the Philippines in 2014."Whenever I meet someone here, they always have the most interesting stories, stories of people starting from scratch. And Jennyfer's one of them," Eden says. "That resilience and grit, it's a sense of attitude here. That's what I want to highlight in Jennyfer's film series."There are currently six episodes scheduled for the first season of the web series. Planned conversations include the owners of Delectabowl, Detroit Girls Rock, Tealing & Co., and Zayna Bakes."All Things Detroit Conversations" is available on Jennyfer's website and on YouTube Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraithLawrence Technological University and its industrial engineering programs are celebrating a $75,000 gift from Siemens Corporation, the United States subsidiary of the German industrial automation giant Siemens AG. The $75,000 is being awarded in the form of cash, hardware, and software.According to Raj Batra, president of Siemens Digital Factory, U.S., the donation is intended to address growing workforce skills gaps in the industrial engineering and high-tech manufacturing sectors. The investment in LTU is also designed to help forge new pathways to the middle class for manufacturing workers.Batra is an LTU alumnus, graduating from Lawrence Tech with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering in 1990."Siemens donations will help establish an industrial engineering and manufacturing lab at LTUs campus, and help establish a semi-automated mini assembly line using Siemens Digital Factory tools," Ahad Ali, associate professor and director of LTUs Bachelor and Master of Science in Industrial Engineering programs, said in a statement. "It will be a great learning experience for our students, and help prepare a skilled workforce in the industrial and manufacturing sectors."This is not the first time Siemens has contributed to the Southfield-based technological university. Siemens has awarded LTU two in-kind software grants since 2013. The Siemens PLM software, which includes NX, Teamcenter, Technomatrix, and Solid Edge, is commercially valued at more than $200 million.LTU is recognizing the $75,000 donation from Siemens at two events: A March 13 event on the Lawrence Tech campus, and a formal presentation at the Manufacturing in America conference and exhibition at Ford Field in Detroit on March 14. The conference and exhibition is a forum designed to get students interested in careers in high-tech manufacturing.Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraithPress Release

March 15, 2018 THERE IS NO HIDING FROM THE ICC

Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on President Duterte's withdrawal from the ICC President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration of withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), only exposed his fear of being subjected to international scrutiny and prosecution. President Duterte's latest pronouncement may have damned him more as he may have unwittingly displayed his guilt over the crimes he stands accused of. May I remind President Duterte that even if he declared the country's withdrawal from the treaty, it will not discharge our country of its obligations while it was still a party to the said agreement. In fact, it will not affect our country's cooperation with the ICC conducting criminal investigations which were initiated before the said withdrawal. Simply put, President Duterte can still be held liable for offenses committed while the Philippines was signatory to the ICC, even assuming the withdrawal is lawful -- which is not the case as article 127 of The Rome Statute says that a withdrawal is effective only one year after receipt of notification. Thus, President Duterte's so-called declaration of the Philippines' withdrawal from the Rome Statute has no effect whatsoever on the ICC's criminal examination of the complaint filed against him. Instead of trying to desperately evade his international obligations and escape accountability for his actions, President Duterte should just recognize the ICC processes and accord it due respect. If the President believes that he is innocent of the charges lodged against him, if the countless extrajudicial killings under his bloody drug war are just the product of our imagination, and if his government's war against drugs is not abusive and corrupt, he has nothing to fear from the ICC. On the contrary, he should see the ICC process as an opportunity to clear his name and rehabilitate his reputation before the international community. There is no hiding from truth, justice and accountability. There is no hiding from the ICC, Mr. President.Press Release

March 15, 2018 POE: PUBLIC OFFICIALS SHOULD BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD Sen. Grace Poe today stood pat on her proposal to bar government employees from spreading "fake news," stating that public officials should be held to a higher standard. During the resumption of the Senate inquiry on the proliferation of online propaganda, Poe argued that a public office is a public trust, thus, government employees are mandated to promote a high ethical standard in public service. "There are certain things that are expected of us because we've waived that certain right since we are serving the people and we have to be transparent and held to a higher standard," said Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, in response to Presidential Spokesperson Herminio "Harry" Roque Jr.'s assertion that Poe's measure was unconstitutional. Roque told the committee that Senate Bill No. 1680, which seeks to amend Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees to penalize state employees who publish or disseminate false news or information in any platform, "singles out government employees" and "infringes on the equal protection of the law." Poe, however, said the Article 154 of the Revised Penal Code that punishes unlawful publication of false news, in particular, covers private citizens. She reiterated that her proposal was put forward because public officers--whether elected or appointed--are held to a higher degree of responsibility. She said government employees are required to submit a declaration of their assets and liabilities annually and are made accountable for any irregularity, especially as regards the use of public funds. Under the proposed measure, government officials are prohibited from disseminating false information and from using his or her working hours in publishing personal opinion. In the course of the three-hour public hearing, Poe said she was not in favor of "over-legislating" that would result in "taking away anyone's rights." Poe said the public hearing on fake news was not the proper venue to discuss the proposal as the measure was referred to the Senate committee on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation. She added the Palace official should just raise his objection when the Senate committee tackles her bill in a public hearing. Asked about her reaction to Roque's claim that the public should be the one to judge whether news is truth or propaganda, Poe said public officials should not be at the forefront of spreading lies and cultivating disinformation. "Bilang opisyal ng gobyerno, may responsibilidad ka rin na kapag alam mong hindi makatotohanan, huwag mong ilabas... Kung alam naman natin na hindi totoo, huwag na nating ilabas," Poe told reporters after she adjourned the hearing. She said those in public service should be more accountable and more liable. "Kung ayaw mong magkaroon ng ganung responsibilidad, wag kang sumapi sa gobyerno."NZME chief financial officer Michael Moran has resigned from the newspaper publisher and radio station operator for "personal reasons" after a year in the role.

Moran joined the Auckland-based company in June 2016 as interim CFO before being permanently appointed in January last year, taking on responsibility for NZME's financial and technology operations. Prior to that, he'd been a partner at accounting firm Deloitte. NZME has started looking for a replacement, but chief strategy officer Sarah Judkins will act as CFO in the interim. Investor relations manager Paddy Walker couldn't immediately say when Moran's departure was effective.

"Mike has played a critical role in transforming the way the business operates, extracting synergies from business integration and driving various elements of the growth strategy, including progressing the proposed merger with Fairfax NZ," chief executive Michael Boggs said in a statement.

NZME's proposed merger with rival Stuff, the local subsidiary of ASX-listed Fairfax Media Group, was blocked by the Commerce Commission over fears it would give the merged entity too much influence to the detriment of the wider public and offsetting tangible economic gains to be had. The High Court upheld that decision, and while both media companies are taking that ruling to the Court of Appeal, the terms of the tie-up will be renegotiated if successful.

Last November, First NZ Capital analyst Arie Dekker wrote in a note to clients that NZME shouldn't pay Fairfax $55 million if the appellate courts cleared the way for the merger, saying the Stuff portfolio's lack of diversity was more challenging than NZME's, which includes radio assets.

Stuff has already embarked on scaling back its domestic newspaper operations, yesterday announcing it will close four community papers and one magazine. Another 23 publications it plans to exit have attracted interest from potential buyers.

Meantime, NZME has signalled plans to introduce subscription-access for premium content on its website this year. Former owner APN News & Media toyed with introducing a paywall for the flagship New Zealand Herald website in 2015 but later backed away from the plan.

NZME shares last traded at 82 cents and have dropped 6.8 percent so far this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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The Treasury is seeking financial advisers to work out the best use of the government's $100 million green investment fund and report back by July.

The government agency this week issued a tender for consultancy services to provide an independent and evidence-based assessment of the green investment fund's (GIF) opportunities to develop and deploy financial products that help reduce carbon emissions. The three-month contract is in two parts, the first being a high-level review of green investment banks around the world to work out where they've been successful and what an appropriate return is, and the second being an analysis of target sectors.

"The Treasury is looking for credible providers who have the capability, experience and depth of financial intermediary and industry relationships to deliver on what are a novel and complex set of requirements," the tender document said. "Providers need a good track record in delivering quality advice in challenging timeframes (that may have required a multi-disciplinary approach and the management and coordination of other consortia member or subcontractor inputs)."

The green fund forms part of the support agreement between the Labour and Green parties, with the $100 million government-backed fund seeking to stimulate $1 billion of new investments in low carbon industries by 2020.

The Treasury has already set up a cross-agency working group with officials from the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, the Ministry for Primary Industries and a private sector contractor, which has been tasked with recommending the best design for the fund.

The tender document notes New Zealand's emissions profile differs from other nations in that more than half greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are methane and nitrous oxide due to the large agricultural sector, and that the typically high incidence of carbon dioxide from transport emissions in other nations only account for 40 percent in New Zealand.

The Treasury is targeting process heat such as milk powder plants, electric vehicles, energy efficiency and space heating in industrial and commercial buildings, and waste as the sectors offering the most gains, and "where we consider that there is potential for the GIF to have the greatest impact in the first three to five years".

The document said about 11 percent of New Zealand GHG emissions come from fossil fuels used by manufacturers to process heat, with about 200 meat and dairy process heat sites largely owned by farmer cooperatives. Those plants use 1,800 megawatts of heat plant in dairy and 460 MW in meat with an average annual energy spend of $1 million per site.

"We want to investigate opportunities for the GIF to leverage off established relationships and design financial solutions that incentivise more energy and GHG emissions efficient process heat solutions," the paper said. "Such research includes investigating the types of low GHG emissions plant technologies that are available and suitable in New Zealand."

Fonterra Cooperative Group operates some coal-fired processing plants and has acknowledged that's a significant challenge to overcome. In a submission to the Productivity Commission's inquiry into transitioning to a low carbon economy, the country's biggest company blamed national grid operator Transpower for failing to build the required capacity needed to meet large-scale electrification, and that it "may require some form of direct regulation to enable an economic transition to use" renewable energy for processing.

The Treasury said it expects providers may have to form consortia to meet the tender requirements, and that it might appoint different providers for separate parts.

Proposals are due at the close of business on April 10 and the contract is scheduled to start on May 4. A high-level report will be due on June 1, and the final report no later than July 1.

(BusinessDesk)

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The owners of a South Island dairy manufacturer plan to list their company on the Australian Securities Exchange, raising as much as A$20 million to expand.

Australian-based Keytone Dairy Corp, whose New Zealand Keytone Enterprises (NZ) unit manufactures and exports dairy and nutrition blended products to Asia from its Christchurch factory, is seeking to raise between A$15 million and A$20 million ahead of a listing on the ASX in May, the company said in a statement. Keytone Enterprises is 49 percent owned by Shanghai-based venture capital firm Long Hill Capital, 17 percent owned by managing director James Gong, and 34 percent owned by chief operating officer Vivienne Cheung.

Keytone built a state-of-the-art dairy packing and blending facility in Sockburn in 2013, where it produces milk powder, sheep milk powder, kiwifruit milk powder and lactoferrin under its own brands as well as manufacturing a range of powdered dairy products for supermarkets and other customers under their own private label brands. The company last year bought two adjacent sites in the Izone Industrial Park in Rolleston where it plans to build new manufacturing facilities enabling it to expand into new products.

The ASX listing will assist Keytone Dairy to grow and expand," Gong said. "The company has purchased land for two new manufacturing facilities it plans to build. Once completed, the first facility will enable Keytone Dairy to expand into a number of new products with increased capacity realised through the addition of new powder blending and packing lines.

We believe that demand for these new products will be satisfied by Keytone Dairys existing customers. By expanding its capacity to manufacture powdered products, it is expected that Keytone Dairy will gain access to high-volume customers in China and other Asian countries.

New Zealand is the eighth-largest milk producing country in the world, and accounts for 3 percent of global milk production. While it produces a similar amount of milk to other comparable countries such as the UK and France, its small population means most of the production is exported. Farmers control about 85 percent of the industry through cooperatives, although the country has attracted a wide range of global investors in the dairy industry over the past 15 years since deregulation, and Chinese investors have been particularly active amid increased demand in Asia's largest economy and after the two countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2008, according to a government guide to the industry published last year.

Keytone Dairy said it plans to lodge a prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in coming weeks, and expects a bookbuild to take place in April.

(BusinessDesk)

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The news of Megastar Amitabh Bachchan falling ill on the sets of Thugs of Hindostan in Jodhpur, left his fans and well-wishers across the globe worried. As per reports, the cause of illness is said to be Big Bs heavy makeup and costumes, reported IANS

The actor had posted on his blog that a team of doctors will "fiddle around" with his body and set him up again.

"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."

On Tuesday afternoon, doctors arrived in Jodhpur from Mumbai to treat Senior Bachchan.

#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

T 2742 -

  

       ;

  ,

   ,

   ,      ~ ab



pic.twitter.com/StAyxRgO6l  Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) March 13, 2018

The actor even turned poetic to keep fans abreast about his health after doctors were flown in to check on him. Amitabh tweeted about his health and wrote, "Kuch kasht badha, chikitsak ko chikitsa ke liye bulana pada, ilaaj prabal, swasth huye nawal, chalo isi bahane apno ka pata chala. (The pain aggravated and the doctors had to be called for treatment, the treatment is complete and I am healthy as new now. In the process, I got to know my dear ones)."

Later that day, Rajya Sabha MP and wife of Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan said all was fine with the actor's health. "Amit ji's (Amitabh Bachchan) health is fine. His back, neck hurts. He is in some pain, but overall he is doing fine," she told reporters.

Also read: Amitabh gets poetic over health again | Amitabh is fine, says Jaya Bachchan

Superstar Rajinikanth, who is Big B's good friend, expressed concern over the latter's health. The actor-turned-politician who is on an annual spiritual pilgrimage to the Himalayas said he will not talk about politics on his pilgrimage.

Currently, in Dehradun, the Kaala actor told the media, "I have come here on a pilgrimage. It is a spiritual trip and has nothing to do with politics. Just now heard about it (Amitabh Bachchan's health). I will pray to God, he will be alright."

Watch the video here:



Rajnikanth arrives in Dehradun, says, 'I have come here on a pilgrimage. It is a spiritual trip & has nothing to do with politics. Just now heard about it (Amitabh Bachchan's health). I will pray to God, he will be alright.' #Uttarakhand pic.twitter.com/gRRWzMaJ9n  ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2018

On Wednesday, Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan said his Thugs of Hindostan co-star Amitabh Bachchan's health is better now and he is back to shooting.

"I shot with Amitji last night itself. It's true that he has pain in the shoulder and back. But this film also has a lot of action scenes for him. I think it is after a lot of years that you will see Amitji doing a lot of action. So, it's definitely a challenging film for him and he is coping very well with it," Aamir told the media.

"He has had a shoulder and back injury. The pain had got aggravated day before, but he is better now," he added.

Also read: Big B's body to be 'fiddled' around by doctors

"I hope the work we are doing on Thugs of Hindostan is good and people really like it. I want that the film that I am working in with Amitji is memorable. This is my expectation from the film," he said.

The movie, being directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, also features Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Sheikh. Parts of it are being shot at Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort, from where Big B has been sharing some picturesque updates, reported IANS.Another Christian is struggling for his life in Pakistan following blasphemy allegations against him. The man who belongs to Lahore, a city with very harmonious past but an extremist present, has been tortured beyond belief merely for whimsical and capricious reasons.





Sajid Masih, a Christian youth, has been badly tortured by Pakistani agencies that had been tasked with the investigation. Pakistani police reportedly compelled him to sodomise his own cousin who was the main suspect. Patras Masih, Sajid Masihs cousin was arrested in blasphemy case.





Sajid was called for investigation to agencys office where Patras was incarcerated. Here he was asked to rape his cousin. When Sajid refused to commit the abominable act, they forced him to jump from the fourth floor of the agencys office. It is nothing short of miracle that the man survived though with multiple fractures all over his body including his jaw that seems to have badly disfigured his face.





There are allegations that the man posted objectionable materials on his Facebook account, though the rumors are yet to be proved in a court of law. Pakistan, where terrorists killing dozens of people tend to escape from prison with agencies tacit support, any innocent person can be accused of blasphemy and can be put to death by ruthless mob or by agencies.





While minority communities in Pakistan have faced persecution since the formation of Pakistan, the severity of the oppression has only gone up with the rise of fundamentalism there. Religious organizations are making way for more extremist outfits that are successfully sidelining their previous incarnations. The rise of Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasulullah, a rabidly extremist outfit founded in the memory of Mumtaz Qadri who had killed former governor of Pakistan Salman Taseer and Hafiz Saeeds political ventures have performed better than Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in recent by-elections.





Apparently, in semi literate society where people have been fed on religious fanaticism for decades beginning with the military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haqs reign of around a decade, extremism remains the most potent force to attract the crowd. Successive governments in Pakistan have used extremism, and of course terrorism as a tool to first bleed Afghanistan and then Kashmir in India. They miserably failed on both the fronts. Afghanistan that Pakistan once thought as its own backyard, has tilted heavily in favour of India, while its Kashmir misadventure proved futile.





There is no denying that myriad blasphemy laws have been misused across Pakistan to persecute minority communities there. Many a times the blasphemy law is invoked to actually settle personal scores.





There are more than half a dozen blasphemy laws and bylaws under Pakistan Panel Code dealing with blasphemy. These include rather mild sections like PPC Section 298 that carries one year imprisonment or fine or both as punishment. This section involves uttering of any word or making any sound or making any gesture or placing of any object in the sight with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person.





Stringent laws include section 295A of Pakistan panel Code. It includes deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. A person can be imprisoned for up to 10 years or face fine, or both. But the most stringent law in Pakistan is section 295C of PPC. This includes use of derogatory remarks, spoken, written, directly or indirectly, etc. defiles the name of Muhammad 1986. Anyone arrested under the charge faces mandatory death and fine.





It is needless to say that these obsolete laws have proved handy not just for successive governments in Pakistan to keep the bigots on its side but also for extremist religious organizations that have mushroomed over the decades. Such sections of legislations have been wantonly misused by government, the extremist organizations and even common goondas as and when the need arises.





Mashal Khan, a Pakhtun student in a Pakistani university was, in a macabre fashion, beaten to death for allegedly sharing blasphemous content on social media less than a year ago. Asia Bibi, a hapless Christian woman was accused of blasphemy following an argument with her co-workers with whom she grew berries. She was sentenced to death by a local court in Pakistani province of Punjab. After several years of litigation and repeated hearings in the Pakistani Supreme Court, the hapless womans miseries are far from over. Watch video here:





The Pakistani society seems to be stuck in a time-wrap. While the world around it has undergone metamorphosis of sorts, the Pakistani society, led by its obscurantist leadership is doing its best to beguile public to be even more zealot. Whatever little progress the society begrudgingly makes towards openness during bouts of democracy is rendered futile by an indoctrinated army that takes over the country as and when it desires.





More columns by Syed Ubaidur Rahman:

is a New Delhi based author and columnist. His latest book includes Muslim Freedom Fighters: Contribution of Indian Muslims in Freedom Movement. He can be reached at syedurahman@gmail.com)STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New York State Parole Board's decision to release admitted cop killer Herman Bell from prison has outraged lawmakers and city officials.

Bell, a former member of a 1970s Black Liberation Army, fatally shot New York City police officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones in 1971, after luring the officers into an ambush in Harlem.

Jones was killed with a gunshot to his head, as Piagentini was shot shot 22 times, including with his own service revolver - as the dying officer pleaded for his own life.

Over the last 47 years, according to Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill, Belle has never expressed genuine remorse.

"Every day, police officers bravely face the risk of serious injury and death in confronting armed robbers, fleeing felons and the unpredictability of domestic violence,'' said O"Neill. "But, the murders of Officers Piagentini and Jones were different. It was a horrific assault on the basic underpinnings of our society. And the parole board's unjust and irresponsible decision today renders the life portion of that sentence meaningless. Bell's victims - targeted solely for the blue uniform they wore - can never be paroled from death."

Some Staten Island elected officials spoke out about the release of Belle, stating they feel the system has failed.

"Any person involved in the murder of a police officer should never be able to walk our streets again,'' said Rep. Dan Donovan. "It's unfathomable to think that Herman Bell, a domestic terrorist and member of the Black Liberation Army, who murdered two NYPD officers - as well as a police officer from San Francisco - in cold-blood will be released on parole. This announcement not only dishonors the sacrifice of Officers Waverly Jones, Joseph Piagentini and Sgt. John Young and their families, but it also betrays the trust of the brave men and women in blue who protect and serve our communities each day. This decision is a failure of justice and contrary to the ideals of fairness and liberty that our nation was founded on."

State Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, of the 64th District, also said the justice system had reached an all-time low.

"Herman Bell's heinous crime, which was both premeditated and without provocation, would earn him life in prison without parole today,'' Malliotakis said. "It is unconscionable that this murderer will be able to walk our streets again. The lack of respect shown by members of the parole board, who are all appointed by the governor, in making this decision, is absolutely outrageous and a total disgrace. My heart breaks for the families of Police Officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones. While their family members' lives were cruelly taken from them while they served our city, they continue to be remembered and mourned for."

Asseblyman Ron Catorina also expressed his anger over the decision:

"This man murdered two NYPD officers in cold blood. He ruined two families. Children forced to grow up without their fathers, wives living without their husbands. What kind of message does this send to our brave men and women in the NYPD?" Assemblyman Castorina continued, "The pain and grief he caused, still present 47 years later, will never go away. The lives he ruined will never be the same. Justice should always be tempered by mercy, but there is no justice in the release of Herman Bell. Justice requires that Bell remains where he belongs, behind bars."

In 1979, Bell was sentenced to 25-years-to-life and has been before the parole board eight times.

The earliest Bell could be released from Shawangunk Prison in Ulster County is April 17.

(AP content was used in this report.)STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- For decades, buses like the X1, X10 and X17 have been synonymous with commuting to Manhattan for Staten Island residents.

With a complete overhaul of the borough's express bus network coming in August, some commuters are questioning why the bus routes they've been riding for years need to be renamed.

"What is the purpose?'' asked Linda Lambert of Westerleigh, who has been commuting on the X12 for 29 years. "They will only confuse the riders. The riders will still be asking the driver what bus they are on and where will it stop."

The new plan will consist of 21 routes: 11 traveling to Midtown, eight traveling to Downtown, and two traveling to Greenwich Village via Battery Park City.

The previously used "X" routes have been dropped in favor of "SIM", or Staten Island to Manhattan, routes.

Click on the chart above for a look at the new name coming to each Staten Island route.

"Because the Staten Island express bus network underwent a comprehensive redesign, the route numbers had to be changed," according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) website.

The renamed routes are meant to emphasize to riders that they are on a completely new system, while also making Staten Island's express bus lines consistent with those of other boroughs (BxM for Bronx to Manhattan, BM for Brooklyn to Manhattan and QM for Queens to Manhattan).

The MTA will be launching an extensive communications campaign to ensure that riders are informed about their new bus routes.

The campaign will include newspaper advertisements, social media outreach, a comprehensive website, posters on buses and MTA ambassadors present at bus stops in the days leading up to the overhaul.

"They'll be a lot of outreach and communication in advance to get everyone ready so they know which routes they're taking," said Jonathan Hawkins, bus planner for NYC Transit.

"Initially there's bound to be a little bit of confusion, but we'll be there very proactively helping people and they'll soon get used to it," said NYC Transit President Andy Byford.Staten Island attorney Richard Luthmann, who is accused in a scrap-metal fraud scheme, appears in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday, March 14, 2018. (Staten Island Advance/Mira Wassef)

BROOKLYN, N.Y.-- The controversial Staten Island attorney indicted in the scrap-metal fraud scheme was sporting his signature bowtie during his first court appearance as a free man after being sprung from federal lockup on Monday.

Richard Luthmann, garbed in a lavender shirt underneath a gray suit with a dark purple bowtie, and his co-defendants, Michael Beck and George Padula III, were in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday to argue over severing the trio for trial.

The Staten Island men are charged with various counts of wire fraud, money laundering, kidnapping and extortion conspiracy.

The defense attorneys claim the case is split in two parts, the violent acts -- kidnapping and weapons -- and the fraud, but the government contends the defendants and the charges are intertwined, and therefore there should only be one trial.

U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein was concerned about admitting certain evidence into trial, namely the alleged mob allegations and prior criminal convictions.

"I'm not hot on trying all of them together with the mafia allegations lurking in the background," he said. "Once we mention mob ties and the mafia, there's a lot of prejudice and concern if any of the defendants will get a fair trial."

Federal prosecutor Moira Kim Penza alleges all three defendants have organized crime connections, but couldn't tell the judge which family they're allegedly associated with.

Penza argued Padula, who remains held without bail, has strong mob ties and Beck was his enforcer. Luthmann, she said, was using those mafia connections to protect them from disgruntled clients.

"There was no (crime) family that was identified because it doesn't exist," said Luthmann's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, after the proceeding.

"The fact that they can't state what family my client is connected to means it's completely false," said Padula's lawyer Gerald McMahon.

Weinstein did not make a decision on severing the defendants, and set a pre-trial motions schedule for the lawyers to make their arguments before his ruling.

Luthmann, 38, who is infamous for his trial-by-combat antics, did not speak to reporters outside of court, but did pose for some pictures for the assembled media.

Aidala joked that his client was happy to be home after posting bail, and has been enjoying his mother's Italian home cooking.

"The best part of being released from prison was his mother's chicken parmigiana and eggplant parmigiana and a big plate of pasta with red sauce," Aidala said.

"That's right," Luthmann added.

The parties are back in court in late April. The trial is set for May.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Face to face with an alleged burglar, a Mariners Harbor man literally took matters into his own hands.

Police were called to a home on Arlington Place at about 1:10 a.m. Tuesday, where the 48-year-old homeowner had physically detained the intruder, according to an NYPD spokesman.

Hilton Little, 26, of Wright Avenue in Elm Park, faces charges that include burglary, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and unlawful possession of marijuana in connection with the incident, according to court documents.

Police said Little, who stands about 5-foot-4-inches tall and weighs 150 pounds, entered the home through a back door that was unlocked. He made his way into the basement where he attempted to lift nearly $900 worth of electronics, including a laptop, iPad and cell phone, police said.

The homeowner woke up and confronted the intruder, whom he did not know, and physically prevented him from fleeing the scene, according to court documents.

A neighbor said a woman also lives at the home, who, according to public records, shares the same last name as the male complainant. No one was armed or hurt during the incident, the spokesman said.

Little was arraigned Tuesday in Richmond County Criminal Court, where a judge set bail at $25,000, cash or bond. He's due back in court March 16.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A 15-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday afternoon after he allegedly set off firecrackers in the middle of a group of Tottenville High School students participating in the National School Walkout.

The teen, who police did not identify because of his age, was arrested at around 1:40 p.m., after he lit the firecrackers, and threw them into a crowd of students participating in the nation-wide protest against gun violence, according to a spokeswoman for the NYPD.

The student is charged with reckless endangerment, according to the spokeswoman.

Students participated Wednesday in the National School Walkout to remember the 17 victims of the Parkland, Fla., shooting and protest gun violence outside. The Tottenville walkout took place at the Huguenot school on Luten Avenue.

One parent said her daughter heard fireworks or "mini explosions" going off at the school at about 10:25 a.m. She said her daughter called her shortly after the fireworks went off as deans escorted students back into the school.

"Safety always comes first, and this disappointing incident was immediately reported to the NYPD," said Miranda Barbot, a Department of Education spokeswoman. "There were no injuries, and we will ensure swift follow-up action is taken."

A parent of a sophomore at the school, who asked to go by the name Ann, said she is upset that the school didn't notify her about the alleged incident.

"Someone could've gotten seriously hurt, and they didn't know if there were bullets flying," Ann said. "It's scary."STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Thursday -- March 15 -- is also known as the Ides of March.

The name traces its roots back to the ancient Roman Calendar. In Roman times, "ides" was a date -- referring to the first full moon of a given month, which usually fell on the 15th.

Here's what you need to know about the famous phrase and date.

The Ides took an ominous turn in 44 B.C., when Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in the back on March 15.

Caesar was previously warned by Plutarch, the Greek author and philosopher, that evil would overtake him by the Ides of March, but the emperor ignored the warning. Shortly after, Caesar was stabbed to death.

Caesar's murder sparked a civil war in Rome, giving the Ides of March its initial bad reputation in history.

The actual phrase, "Beware the ides of March," was first written in the 16th century play, "Julius Caesar," by William Shakespeare. In the play, a soothsayer cautions Caesar to "beware the Ides of March" just before the emperor is murdered.

Ever since, the date has taken on an ominous tone, and has come to mean the day is cursed with bad luck.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- United Airlines has apologized after a family's puppy died when it was placed in a plane's overhead storage compartment.

United said it assumes full responsibility following the tragedy.

"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," United said in a statement.

Catalina Robledo and her two children were on a return flight from Houston, Texas, to New York when a flight attendant told the family their dog, a 10-month-old French bulldog, had to be placed in an overhead bin.

The dog, named Kokito, who was traveling in a TSA-approved kennel, was placed into the bin by Robledo following the instructions of the flight attendant, according to published reports.

United's in-cabin pet policy allows for pets in the cabin when they are traveling in kennels that can fit under the seat.

The dog reportedly barked at the start of the three-hour plane ride, but stopped making noise when the plane hit turbulence within the first 30 minutes, according to published reports.

Upon landing, Robledo said she opened the bin to find the dog dead.

The airline has contacted Robledo and offered to pay for a necropsy, an autopsy for animals, and is refunding the family's tickets.

Airlines are required to submit a report for any month in which it experienced such a loss, injury or death during air transportation.

According to the Department of Transportation statistics, United transported 138,178 animals last year. United reported last year that 18 animals died, and 13 suffered injuries, while being transported on United.

John Kennedy, U.S. senator of Louisiana, sent a letter to Scott Kirby, the president of United Airlines, demanding an explanation for the number of animals that have died recently in United's care.

Kennedy said in a tweet that he would be filing a bill to prohibit airlines from placing animals in overhead bins.

I will be filing a bill tomorrow that will prohibit airlines from putting animals in overhead bins. Violators will face significant fines. Pets are family.  John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) March 14, 2018

DONOVAN PROPOSES A BAN

Rep. Dan Donovan (NY-11) introduced legislation Thursday, banning dogs from overhead compartments. Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-9) is the lead Democratic cosponsor on the legislation.

"It should be plain common sense that a live animal doesn't belong in a cramped, dark, and poorly ventilated overhead compartment. Unfortunately, United Airlines doesn't seem to get that, so I introduced legislation to ban the practice. Hopefully this stops other dogs from meeting the same fate as Kokito," the Island congressman said.

The bill, titled the PETS (Planes Ensuring Total Safety) Act, will require the Federal Aviation Administration to ban pets from flying in overhead compartments and institute fines on airlines that fail to comply with the law. Donovan's PETS Act already has a Senate companion, called the WOOFF Act, after Sen. Kennedy (R-LA) agreed to carry the proposal in his chamber.

FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.CITY HALL -- After two children were killed in a crosswalk in Brooklyn by a Staten Island woman who reportedly suffers from multiple sclerosis, Mayor Bill de Blasio called on Albany to pass legislation to go after reckless drivers.

The mayor unveiled three legislative proposals Thursday that would:

Allow the city to install speed cameras at 150 more school zones;

Increase penalties for drivers with red light and speed violations; and

Require doctors to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles when a patient has a medical condition that would cause them to lose control of their vehicle.

De Blasio called on Albany to pass his proposals during this legislative session by June, and said he would fight "tooth and nail" to get them passed.

"These are the kinds of measures that will make us safer, obviously these are measures that could have averted the tragedy that happened in this community," de Blasio said.

De Blasio's proposals to fix what he described as gaps in current traffic safety enforcement laws, come just a little more than a week after Dorothy Bruns, 44, of Staten Island allegedly mowed down five people at a crosswalk in the mayor's Park Slope neighborhood, killing a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old.

Bruns reportedly suffers from multiple sclerosis, and was believed to have suffered a seizure at the time of the incident.

However, she has not been charged with any crime but had her license suspended.

Because an investigation into the collision is ongoing, authorities have declined to say whether a doctor ordered Bruns to not drive or if she was using any medication at the time of the incident.

MORE SPEED CAMS AROUND SCHOOLS

The mayor said currently the city was limited in areas it could install speed cameras around schools.

He said if Albany passed legislation allowing New York City to install more speed cameras in school zones, it would allow the city to put them at any intersection near a school it deemed dangerous.

"Had this legislation been in place previously, we would have had the right to put a camera at the intersection of 9th Street and 5th Avenue," de Blasio said. "We need that right so we can protect kids."

MORE PENALTIES FOR DRIVERS WITH VIOLATIONS

Public records show 12 open parking and camera violations issued to the license plate of the same vehicle Bruns was driving during the time of the collision.

None of the violations were personally issued to Bruns -- but rather to the vehicle, so there is no way to know if Bruns was responsible or at the wheel when the summonses were issued.

The summonses include four red-light camera violations, and four school-zone speeding camera violations issued in the past two years.

Without additional penalties, de Blasio said drivers "can get numerous violations without consequences" based on the argument that you don't know if the person the car is registered to was the one driving the car at the time of the infraction.

"It's very straightforward, if you repeatedly break the law, you will suffer consequences," de Blasio said. "You should not be able to hide behind the fact that the car is registered to you but maybe someone else was driving. You have to take responsibility for your own vehicle."

The mayor's plan includes increasing the fees on red light and speed camera violations. There is currently a flat $50 fine for any photo violation and fines do not increase with recurring violations. But his proposal would increase fines for multiple violations within a two-year period.

REPORTING MEDICAL CONDITIONS

At the time of the collision, Bruns was believed to have suffered a seizure. The mayor said someone with a similar medical condition should not be allowed to drive.

However, in the State of New York, de Blasio said it was not a requirement -- only voluntary -- for doctors to inform the DMV when their patients suffer from "dangerous" medical conditions.

If his proposal passes in Albany, de Blasio said the doctors would not need to report patients who suffer from "everyday medical conditions" or target the disabled.

"We're talking about if a doctor identifies a specific condition like a propensity for seizures that could cause someone without any warning, to be unable to control their car," he said. "Someone in that situation should not be driving a car, right now there's nothing truly stopping that in New York State"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - I keep waiting for Hillary Clinton to get to the end of her list of people she blames for her 2016 loss to Donald Trump.

Waiting for her to get to the point where she realizes what a lot of us out here realized long ago: The bulk of the blame lies with her and her campaign.

Not with the Russians.

Not with Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Not with the women who failed to come out and vote for her in sufficient numbers.

Not former FBI Director James Comey.

Not Bernie Sanders.

Hillary has blamed these folks and others for her loss to Trump.

And now, on foreign tour to promote her "What Happened" book, Hillary played the blame game again. If she's lousy at running for president, Clinton is good at blaming others for her troubles.

Here's the most offensive part of her latest aria: Hillary said that white women who voted for Trump did so because they were basically bullied into it by the men in their lives.

"We do not do well with white men and we don't do well with married, white women," Clinton said 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."

Brutal. But I have to say, given the #MeToo moment that we're living in, where women are standing up for themselves like never before, where offense is taken at the slightest provocation, the outrage at this remark has been rather muted. Maybe it's just not getting a lot of news coverage. Imagine that.

Can you imagine if any man, Democrat or Republican, had described women so sweepingly and with such disdain?

And does anybody out there really believe this in this day and age that women are told who to vote for by the men in their lives? That women can't decide on their own whom to vote for? That they need hubby or daddy to do it for them?

Yet here we have Hillary, who was supposed to shatter the presidential glass ceiling, belittling and infantilizing an entire gender, saying that they're victims of male domination. Oh, excuse me, infantilizing only a certain segment of a gender, those that voted for Trump. And here I was thinking that women were supposed to stick together, that if one of them was under attack, they all were.

Hillary also said that Trump made a racist appeal to people "looking backward," and that she won the states that are "optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward."

Not quite as bad as her "basket of deplorables" comment during the campaign, but still sniffily dismissive of that great swath of the United States that lays between New York and California.

Not a good look for those in the party trying to convince heartland Americans that the Dems really do care for the working class, and aren't the elitist, chardonnay-sipping snobs that they've been painted as by the opposition. I guess Hillary didn't get the memo. Or she probably did and just refuses to change her ways.

Former Hillary aides and surrogates anonymously told The Hill that they're getting pretty sick and tired of hearing Hillary gripe about why she lost the election. They think that Hillary needs to get over it, take responsibility, and move on. Or at least pipe down. Stop re-litigating the election. That she's hurting a party that needs to be united heading into this year's midterms and into the 2020 presidential election beyond.

The admonition might carry more force if some of these Dems actually went on the record with their objections.

Hillary is the reason she lost. And fewer and fewer people in her party feel sorry for her. It's time for her to stop feeling sorry for herself if she wants any political future at all.North Korea's top diplomat due in Sweden for talks



Stockholm, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



North Korea's top diplomat was on Thursday en route to Sweden for talks which could play a role in setting up a proposed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Sweden's embassy in Pyongyang also represents US, Canadian and Australian diplomatic interests in North Korea, with the country playing a key role in liaising diplomatic talks.

Sweden confirmed that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was to visit the Scandinavian country for talks with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom.

"The talks will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," a foreign ministry statement said.

"They will also address the security situation on the Korean peninsula, which is high on the (UN) Security Council agenda," it said. Sweden is currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

"The aim of the visit is to contribute to the effective implementation of the resolutions" voted by the Security Council against Pyongyang over its nuclear programme as well as those calling "for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict".

- Historic summit? -



Ri was travelling with Choe Kang Il, deputy director general of the foreign ministry's North America section, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"We can't rule out the possibility of a contact between the North and the US" during Ri's trip to Sweden, a Beijing source told the news agency.

Ri was expected to arrive in Stockholm around 6:15 pm (1715 GMT).

The Swedish foreign ministry said there would not be any press conferences during his visit but that it would publish a statement on Friday evening after the conclusion of talks.

After months of tension and warmongering over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, Trump has agreed to a summit proposal relayed by South Korean envoys who met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

But no specific time or venue has been set and North Korea has yet to confirm it even made the offer to meet.

International media have speculated that Sweden could be a potential location if the summit were to be confirmed.

The Scandinavian country has longstanding ties with North Korea -- its diplomatic mission in Pyongyang was the first Western embassy established in the country, in 1975.

North Korea also has an embassy in Stockholm, in the leafy residential suburb of Lidingo.



- 'Cannot be naive' -



"I think it's much too early to speculate about that ... we're not there yet," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told news agency TT.

However, he added: "If the main actors want Sweden to play a role -- facilitate, be a forum or a link or whatever it may be -- then we are ready to do that," he said, referring to North and South Korea, the US, Japan and China.

"This is such an incredibly important issue. We are a country that is militarily non-aligned and have a longstanding presence in North Korea, and with the trust we enjoy we think we can play a role," he said.

"But it has to be the main actors who decide which role Sweden will play."

"We cannot be naive and think that Sweden is going to resolve these problems," he said.

Jerker Hellstrom, Asia specialist at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) under the defence ministry, said Sweden has "an important role in the Korean peninsula, both as a protecting power and its contribution to the supervision of the (Korean War) armistice agreement."

However, North Korea watchers should not be overly optimistic about the current tone.

"The pause in escalation that we see right now is temporary," he said, noting that Pyongyang will eventually "need to prove its capabilities in the nuclear sphere."

Earlier this month, Trump thanked Lofven for Stockholm's efforts to negotiate the release of US student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested for stealing propaganda material during a 2016 trip to Pyongyang, but who died after returning home.

According to a source close to the Stockholm-Pyongyang talks, the fate of three Americans detained in North Korea is also expected to be on the agenda.

"We know these consular cases are of great concern to the Americans, and when there are now gestures being made from both sides to defuse tensions, this is something North Korea can consider from its side," the unnamed source told Sweden's newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter.GREAT BAY (DCOMM):---Fire Chief Clive Richardson said on Monday that Fire Chiefs from within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Expert Group, met last week to discuss various forms of cooperation.

Fire Chiefs from Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, BES Islands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba), the secretary for the Fire Chief of Saba, representatives from the Fire Department in the Netherlands, held discussions with respect to cooperation and the way forward.

The agenda points discussed during the meeting related to training of fire department personnel, education and firefighting equipment.

The meeting took place on Sint Maarten, and is held about twice a year on one of the islands.~ USD 10.000 to be divided among staff members ~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Toyota Del Peru has held a Hurricane Irma donation drive among their employees with the result of raising USD 10.000 which has been sent to Real Auto St. Maarten, the exclusive Toyota distributor for St. Maarten.

Real Autos General Manager, Felix Nevarez, stated we cannot be more grateful for the heartwarming support we have received from our Toyota colleagues. Some of our staff members have been hit really hard by Hurricane Irma but still came to work and helped clean up and get us operational again, he continued. This has been recognized by Toyota and we are happy to give them some extra relief, Nevarez concluded.

Toyota has been offering relief and support ever since the passing of Hurricane Irma in September. This support coordinated by Mr. Steve St. Angelo, CEO of the Toyota Motor Corporations Latin American and Caribbean Division, included an emergency supply of vehicles from Toyota Argentina as well as additional support via the regional Toyota office located in Miami.Thomas Huchon's Documentary, Trumping Democracy: Real$ "Fake News" "Your Data"

It's not Russia's interference with the 2016 elections that tilted the vote Trump's way, but rather a dark force hiding in the shadows of his campaign, which is the subject of the French journalist and documentarian, Thomas Huchon's film, Trumping Democracy: Real$ "Fake News" "Your Data," that was released last December.

Advertisement As we take our "mystery tour," through Huchon's film, we travel down paths of dark money, algorithms, sharp tools of the digital trade, and psychometrics, as we learn who moved Donald J. Trump into the oval office

Huchon's revelatory documentary, broken down into three parts, shows how the players of the Trump campaign team all worked together to capture the 45th presidency.

The first part delivers valuable information about this historic election and the movement of fake news, taking the false narrative and the political lie to heights never before witness in the United States.

Huchon interviews political strategists, pollsters, and journalists who help corroborate the facts about how the dark side of the Internet creates false information and passes it off as real. One of the examples of blatant fakes news came from Breitbart: "Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?"

Breitbart, which has come to be known as the "alt right" news, is one of the main "characters," if you will to strut across Huchon's screen. It's a perfect centerpiece and transition from the first part, that examines fake news and Trump's lies, to the second part, which is about the shadow men behind Trump; the men that made Trump, not America, great.

What was probably one of the most striking revelations, was that it was not, as Trump would have us believe, his populist rhetoric and celebrity popularity that won him the election, but a much more nefarious entity; The men in the shadow, Robert Mercer and his stalwart, Steve Bannon, worked a high tech psychological operation) into the digital heartland of the American people.

"Trumping Democracy," breaks down how Robert Mercer's campaign strategy used data mining to subconsciously influence potential Trump voters by using their data to feed them "dark posts," via a little known Facebook feature. These posts would appear as a personalized message in the "dark web" that could very well sway the individual's vote.

For example, something might appear on one's Facebook feed that claims that Hillary Clinton is trying to take away our gun rights. This message will only be seen by the particular user, and then disappear into the dark void of the web, and before the person realizes it, his mind is being manipulated.

Trump's campaign team manipulated voters' minds without their awareness, which seems eerily Orwellian.

Cambridge Analytica, a company formed by Mercer when he partnered up with the UK firm, Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), focuses on data mining and data analysis.

Huchon carefully reveals the mysterious Robert Mercer's character, as he splatters bits and pieces of the man throughout the film to help us better understand how and why he was the dark entity behind Trump's victory.

We learn Mercer is secretive and prefers the company of cats. We learn he pioneered algorithm trading at IBM when he was a mere computer scientist. This, we learn paved the way for him to become a billionaire, who essentially bought the 2016 elections using Cambridge Analytica's data profiling technology.

Mercer exemplifies and promotes the ultra conservative views of limited government and extreme capitalism. He could perhaps, have something in common with Ayn Rand's John Galt. Mercer, it is revealed, expects his policy preferences to be met by his candidate.

The film shares Trump at one of his rallies say, "I know that corruption has reached a level like never ever before in our country." We know, through filmmaker Huchon, the dark forces that lurk in Trump's shadows who used data mining to create "the right message to the right person at the right moment," using psychometrics, or data profiling.

Huchon reveals that SCL's services help them to learn, "What motivates human behavior the better to influence them."

The 77,000 votes Trump needed to win the Electoral College votes of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, were, as the film revealed, achieved through the high tech methods employed by Cambridge Analytica.

The real cabal behind Trump's election

Did Trump's voters own their own thoughts or did psychometrics and the digital world own them? Was it right that 77,000 voters should make the decision for all? Questions about the Electoral College and the dark side of the web are raised in the film.

What was revelatory about the film was how the technology that permeates the dark web has its way of traveling through the veins of our data and into our brains without our awareness.

Is the world of Trumping Democracy an Orwellian world where ignorance is strength?

The first thing one might have impulse to do after seeing the film is to temporarily suspend his or her Facebook account. That might be, the first step in letting go of one's attachment to the world of alternative facts

.Bar fight turns into gun violence exiting West End Bar

The West End bar was the scene of a bar fight , until someone pulled a gun

3/9/2018: SMPD detectives say they filed charges against Carl Marcel Nelson, 33, from Los Angeles for a shooting at 5th Street and Arizona on February 18th.

AdvertisementThat night, several men were in a fist fight after exiting a nearby nightclub called the West End. The fight ended when Nelson pulled out a pistol.

Police named the suspect as Nelson

"The suspect shot at a male victim and fled the location. The victim was struck multiple times in the lower leg . The victim was found in a nearby car with multiple gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. "

SMPD forensics collected evidence of Nelson's link to the crime. SMPD took Nelson into custody on March 7, 2018 in the 10000 block of East Flower Street in Los Angeles.

He's charged with 664/187(a) PC  Attempt Murder; 245(a)(2) PC  Assault with a Deadly Weapon and 29800(a)(1) PC  Previously Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm. Nelson remains in custody with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office on a $ 2.165 million bail pending future court proceedings.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is encouraged to contact Detective Cooper at (310) 458-8478; or the Santa Monica Police Department at (310) 458-8491.Polish Falcons Heritage Foundation (PFHF) will hold its second annual Dyngus Day celebration on Monday, April 2 at Polish Falcons of America Nest 8, 60 S. 18th St., Pittsburgh, PA 15203, from noon to 8 p.m.

The event will feature Polka music by The Trel-Tones and a folk-dance performance at 6:30 p.m. New this year, the Pittsburgh Pierogi Truck and Franktuary Food Truck will be serving Polish favorites, and paczki from Bethel Bakery will be for sale. Also, Father Miro will be on-site cooking his fresh potato pancakes.

This years family-friendly celebration will be even bigger with a designated dancing area, cornhole, and childrens activities. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Polish Falcons Heritage Foundation. Polish and domestic beers will be available for purchase. Vendors will be on-site with Polish folk-art pieces and various specialty items. The celebration will take place rain or shine.

We are so excited to once again be bringing back the tradition of Dyngus Day to the South Side of Pittsburgh, said PFHF Vice President Patricia Del Busse. Last year was a blast, she added.

Easter Monday holds special meaning to both Poles and Polish-Americans. The day is known as Smigus Dyngus or Lany Poniedzialek in Poland and Dyngus Day in the U.S. On the Monday after Easter, Poles celebrate the end of Lent and the joy of the Easter season.

The celebration of Smigus Dyngus has existed in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary since the Middle Ages. Traditionally, young boys woke girls by pouring buckets of water over them and switching their ankles with willow branches. Poles held the superstition that girls who received a drenching were going to be married within the next year.

Among Polish-American Communities in the U.S., the Easter Monday celebration is known as Dyngus Day. The holiday is a time for these communities to celebrate Polish culture, heritage and tradition.

For more information regarding the Dyngus Day celebration, please contact the Polish Falcons at 844-203-9917 or visit polishheritage.org/events.Intel says chips addressing flaws set for release this year



Washington, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



Intel Corp. said Thursday new computer chips designed to address vulnerabilities disclosed earlier this year would be shipped in the second half of 2018.

Chief executive Brian Krzanich said the new chips would guard against hardware flaws dubbed Meltdown and Spectre which could leave millions of computing device vulnerable to hackers.

Krzanich said the next-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, for cloud data centers, and well 8th generation Intel Core processors for consumer devices would be ready to ship in the second half of 2018.

"As we bring these new products to market, ensuring that they deliver the performance improvements people expect from us is critical," Krzanich said in a statement. "Our goal is to offer not only the best performance, but also the best secure performance."

The disclosure of Meltdown and Spectre roiled the computing world, prompting a series of lawsuits and a congressional inquiry about Intel's handling of the matter.

While Intel issued patches for most devices, security experts said the flaws were more difficult to deal with because they involved hardware rather than software.

Krzanich also said Intel has released software updates for all of its products launched in the past five years that require protection against the flaws.

"With these updates now available, I encourage everyone to make sure they are always keeping their systems up-to-date," he said.

Separately this week, security researchers said Tuesday they discovered flaws in chips made by Advanced Micro Devices, an Intel rival, that could allow hackers to take over computers and networks.

Israeli-based security firm CTS Labs published its research showing "multiple critical security vulnerabilities and exploitable manufacturer backdoors" in AMD chips.The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy StatementPentagon chief Mattis: voice of moderation in Trump's cabinet



Washington, March 14 (AFP) Mar 14, 2018



The firing of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson leaves Defense Secretary Jim Mattis as the key voice of moderation on President Donald Trump's cabinet -- and without one of his closest allies.

The 67-year-old four-star Marine general had forged a front with Tillerson to curb Trump's most extreme tendencies, like making a sudden break with traditional allies or threatening nuclear war with North Korea.

It was a quiet alliance, helped by the fact that Mattis's Washington residence was near the State Department, giving the two a chance to talk regularly over breakfast.

"I inform Secretary Tillerson of the military factors. And we make certain that then, when we come out of our meetings, the State Department and Defense Department are tied tightly together, and we can give straightforward advice to the commander-in-chief," Mattis told CBS last May.

Tillerson paid homage to their partnership in a short exit speech on Tuesday, after the president dismissed him in humiliating fashion -- by tweet.

"I am told for the first time in most people's memory the Department of State and the Department of Defense have a close working relationship, where we all agree that US leadership starts with diplomacy," Tillerson said.

But it is Mattis, the battle-seasoned Marine, who has proven to have the deft diplomatic skills needed to work with the mercurial Trump.

While Tillerson and White House national security advisor HR McMaster have frequently become public targets of Trump's anger, the Pentagon chief remains in good stead, even if he frequently disagrees with the president.

He has proven able to coax his boss away from inflammatory rhetoric and towards more traditional US positions.



- Diplomacy first -



For instance, when Pyongyang last year blasted a ballistic missile over Japan, Trump warned that military options were on the table and insisted negotiations were "not the answer."

Mattis, together with Tillerson, quickly dialed the message back, saying the United States was never out of diplomatic options. And he has continued to insist America's response to the crisis should be led by the State Department.

On Pentagon affairs, Mattis can also quietly hold the president at bay.

Last year, Trump said he would ban all transgender personnel from serving in the military. But the move has yet to be implemented at the Pentagon, pending legal challenges.

To avoid friction, Mattis has studiously avoided tons of media coverage -- as Trump has a clear dislike for members of his team who pull attention away from him.

Rather than get in front of TV cameras, Mattis speaks to journalists on his own terms, showing up informally in their area of the Pentagon when he has something to say.

And he avoids making any comment on the president, even in private, always saying that he is not a part of political decision-making. He rails against any suggestion of fundamental disagreements between them.

"If I say six and the president says half a dozen, they're going to say I disagree with him," Mattis tells reporters. "So let's just get over that."

Indeed, he has stayed absolutely silent on the firing of his closest cabinet ally -- helped by the fact that it took place while he was on a trip to Oman and Afghanistan.

Mattis's spokesman Jeff Davis declined to comment on Tillerson's dismissal.



- Daring to disagree -



Mattis does at times make his differences with the president known.

He added his name recently to a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross opposing Trump's proposed sharp hike in taxes on steel imports, saying it would damage national security.

When Trump pushed ahead on the tariffs, Mattis opted for silence.

And he and his officers continue to challenge the president on the value of the nuclear accord with Iran. Trump has called to scrap it, but Mattis has repeatedly pushed back, saying it is in the US national interest.

That raises questions about how Mattis will relate to Tillerson's replacement, Mike Pompeo, who for the past year has served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

At least publicly, Pompeo's views have aligned more with those of Trump, making him one of the president's favorites in the national security realm.

But that means Pompeo is more opposed to the Iran deal, and has been more aggressive on North Korea, where Mattis and Tillerson favored diplomacy rather than military conflict.Two soldiers killed in Nigeria communal violence: army



Kano, Nigeria, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



At least two soldiers were killed Wednesday in renewed violence between herders and farmers in central Nigeria's Plateau state days after similar violence killed 25 in unrest linked to land, water and grazing rights.

Troops were deployed to contain the fresh clashes between Fulani herders and farmers from Irigwe ethnic group in Bassa district, a military spokesman told reporters, as bloodshed continued in the region despite a round-the-clock curfew imposed to stem the fighting.

"We lost two of our men, two others were injured and are receiving treatment in hospital," said Major Umar Adamu.

Many people from the two warring sides were "feared killed" in the violence, which left scores of homes burnt, he said.

The violence was believed to be reprisals for Monday's attack on Irigwe farmers that killed 25.

Troops backed by fighter jets were deployed to the area to contain the violence, said Adamu, adding that eight suspects had been arrested in connection with the violence and weapons recovered from them.

Plateau state governor Simon Lalong announced dusk-to-dawn curfew in the entire Bassa district to end hostilities.

The state lies in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt that separates the predominantly Muslim north from the largely Christian south.

The area has long been a hotbed of ethnic, sectarian and religious tensions between indigenous farming communities, who are mainly Christian, and the nomadic Hausa/Fulani cattle herders, who are Muslim.

Tensions have boiled over access to land and resources, escalating into a rift that has deepened along nominally religious lines.

Last week, at least five people were killed in the state, while President Muhammadu Buhari finished up a tour of Plateau and four other states hit by violence.

Nigeria has seen a growing number of clashes between herders and farmers over grazing rights since the beginning of the year.Colombia government and ELN rebels to resume peace talks Thursday



Quito, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) will resume peace talks this Thursday in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, both parties said.

President Juan Manuel Santos's government suspended negotiations in January following an escalation in violence on police stations that left six people dead and dozens more wounded.

"Tomorrow from 10:00 am in Quito, Ecuador, we will begin the fifth round of peace talks between the government and the ELN," Santos's negotiating team said on Twitter, in an announcement echoed by the ELN.

Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa, currently in New York, said it was "great news" that the discussions would resume.

"Peace in Colombia is peace for all of Latin America," she said.

Talks began a year ago in Sangolqui, in the suburbs of Quito -- but were suspended after the end of a historic bilateral ceasefire gave way to a guerilla offensive.

Santos announced Monday that the talks would resume following the rebels' unilateral ceasefire during legislative elections the day before -- 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.

The ELN "will continue talking" and "does not reject peace," said its leader Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, according to a statement released by negotiators.

Santos, who will leave office this August, is hoping to establish total peace in Colombia after the disarming of the FARC guerrilla group, which has since transformed into a political party.

sp/lda/ska/cebSix dead, 14 hurt in Senegal military helicopter crash



Dakar, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



Six people were killed and 14 others injured when a Senegalese military helicopter crashed late Wednesday, according to a government statement giving an updated toll from the incident in the south of the country.

The helicopter, which went down in a mangrove forest in the coastal area of Missirah, was carrying 20 people, including four crew, army spokesman Colonel Abdou Ndiaye told AFP earlier.

According to a statement released by the government, rescue workers said six people died at the scene.

"The other 14 passengers were wounded, three seriously," it said, adding that the injured were being transferred to a regional hospital in Kaolack.

Authorities have launched an enquiry into the incident to determine the cause of the crash, the statement said.Court orders Japan government to pay new Fukushima damages



Tokyo, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



A Japanese court on Thursday ordered the government to pay one million dollars in new damages over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, ruling it should have predicted and avoided the meltdown.

The Kyoto district court ordered the government and power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to pay 110 million yen in damages to 110 local residents who had to leave the Fukushima region, a court official and local media said.

Thursday's verdict was the third time the government has been ruled liable for the meltdown in eastern Japan, the world's most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

In October, a court in Fukushima city ruled that both the government and TEPCO were responsible, following a similar ruling in March in the eastern city of Maebashi.

However, another court, in Chiba near Tokyo, ruled in September that only the operator was liable.

On Thursday, presiding judge Nobuyoshi Asami ordered that 110 plaintiffs who saw their lives ruined and their property destroyed by the disaster be awarded compensation, Jiji Press and other media reported.

Contacted by AFP, a court spokesman confirmed the reports, adding that the ruling denied damages to several dozen additional plaintiffs.

"That damages for 64 people were not recognised was unexpected and regrettable," a lawyer for the plaintiffs said, adding that they would appeal, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Around 12,000 people who fled after the disaster due to radiation fears have filed various lawsuits against the government and TEPCO.

Cases have revolved around whether the government and TEPCO, both of whom are responsible for disaster prevention measures, could have foreseen the scale of the tsunami and subsequent meltdown.

Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed seeking compensation from the government.

In June, former TEPCO executives went on trial in the only criminal case in connection with the disaster.

The hearing is continuing.

Triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami overwhelmed reactor cooling systems, sending three into meltdown and sending radiation over a large area.

kh/sah/jtaSenegal helicopter crash toll rises to 8



Dakar, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



The death toll in a Senegalese military helicopter crash rose to eight on Thursday after two more people succumbed to their injuries, the army said.

The helicopter was carrying 20 people, including four crew, when it plummeted into a mangrove forest in the southern coastal area of Missirah on Wednesday night.

What caused the crash is unclear.

Army spokesman Abdou Ndiaye told AFP the death toll had risen from six to eight overnight while three of the 12 injured remained in a serious condition.

The director of the Kaolack hospital in central Senegal told the public APS press agency that some of the injured had been transferred to the capital, Dakar, for treatment.

Authorities have launched an enquiry to determine the cause of the crash.NATO chief says spy attack must have 'consequences'



Brussels, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday backed a "proportionate" British response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy, saying the incident must have "consequences".

Stoltenberg said the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, which he called the first offensive use of a nerve agent on the alliance's territory since its foundation, came against the "backdrop of a pattern of reckless behaviour" by Russia.

He said he would hold special talks with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Brussels on Monday over the attack in the city of Salisbury, but added that Britain had not invoked the alliance's Article 5 mutual defence clause.

British Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and suspended some high-level contacts with the Kremlin after saying Moscow was "culpable" for the attempted murder of Skripal.

"Britain is not alone," Stoltenberg told a news conference as he launched NATO's annual reports.

"I am absolutely certain that the UK will respond and is responding in a proportionate and measured way. But at the same time, I fully support that there is a need for a response, because it has to have consequences when we see actions like we have seen in Salisbury."

The former Norwegian premier said NATO itself was not taking any direct steps beyond offering political support, although it would offer "practical support" with the investigation if Britain wanted.

He said NATO was already responding strongly to years of Russian aggression including the annexation of Crimea, the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and meddling in western elections.

"The attack in Salisbury has taken place against a backdrop of reckless behaviour by Russia over many years," he said.

Stoltenberg said Britain had not asked for the triggering of NATO's fundamental collective defence clause -- which the United States used after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"There has been no request for article 5 and it is for nations to ask for that," he said.If Iran gets nuclear bomb, Saudi Arabia will follow: crown prince



Washington, March 15 (AFP) Mar 15, 2018



Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow suit -- just days before he arrives in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.

In an interview with CBS television, parts of which were released Thursday, the upstart Saudi royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler, warning he could sweep through the Middle East like Germany's Nazis did at the start of World War II.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed said in the interview, which will air in full on CBS on Sunday.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said, "wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," said the 32-year-old heir to the throne.

"Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East."

His comments come as the Trump administration threatens to end the Iran nuclear deal, which could leave Tehran free to advance its development of atomic weapons.



- Stoking Saudi-Iran rivalry -



Prince Mohammed, the son and heir of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Monday ahead of talks with Trump on Tuesday.

The brazen prince, dubbed "MBS", has rocked Saudi Arabia since his father became king in 2015 and named him defense minister.

Last year, he was elevated to crown prince, and is seen as the effective ruler under his 82-year-old father.

His moves have shaken up the kingdom -- declaring a liberalization of social mores from the stifling ideology of Wahhabi Islam, and moving to modernize a heavily top-down economy.

But in a move to consolidate his power over rival royals, he also locked up many princes and top businessmen for months to force them to hand over fortunes and accept him as the country's future sovereign.

And he has also added fuel to largely Sunni Saudi Arabia's fight with Shiite Iran, miring the US-backed Saudi military in a disastrous confrontation with Tehran's proxies in a war that has destroyed much of Yemen, and launching a mostly failed effort by Gulf Arab states to isolate Qatar.

Trump however has repeatedly signalled his support for Saudi Arabia, visiting Riyadh in May 2017 on his first foreign trip as the US leader.

His son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner took the lead in building a relationship with Prince Mohammed, reportedly supporting his political offensive against Qatar -- which the US Defense Department opposed.



- Fast-track nuclear energy program -



The new push by the kingdom to develop a nuclear energy capability has raised worries that, as in Iran, it could potentially underpin a weapons program.

Earlier this week, the Saudi cabinet officially put the atomic energy program on a fast track, saying it aims to lessen domestic use of oil to preserve the kingdom's huge hydrocarbon resources for export markets.

Saudi Arabia has for decades ranked as the world's leading crude oil exporter.

Prince Mohammed's visit comes less than two months before Trump must decide whether to continue sticking with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which removed sanctions on Iran in exchange for its pledge to halt its push toward developing nuclear weapons capability.

Trump has repeatedly condemned the deal, agreed by his predecessor Barack Obama together with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- all of which want to keep the agreement in place.

But Trump's sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, removing a defender of the deal, and naming CIA Director Mike Pompeo, an Iran hawk, to replace him could sound the death knell for the Iran accord when the May 12 deadline for Trump's decision arrives.

"The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind -- or at least it was one of the reasons," Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday.Bir Lahlou, March 15, 2018 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, called on the United Nations to stop the organization of the so-called Crans Montana Forum in occupied Dakhla, calling this act a provocation that would undermine the efforts of the United Nations led by it Personal Envoy President Horst Koehler in his letter to His Excellency ,Secretary General of the United Nation, Mr. Antonio Guterres

I am writing to draw the attention of your Excellency to the Moroccan states insistence to organize, yet again, another so-called Forum of Crans Montana, from the 15th to the 20th of March, in the occupied city of Dakhla, Western Sahara. Gali says in his letter to UNSG

President Brahim Gali also went on saying that The Frente Polisario strongly condemns this new provocative act and calls for your urgent intervention to convince Morocco stop this provocation that undermines the efforts of the United Nations led by your Personal Envoy, President Horst Kohler.

He stressed that the organization of this so-called Forum is in complete contravention with the International Law and the International Humanitarian Law, since Western Sahara is still under the legal responsibility of the United Nations as a Non-Self-Governing territory pending a decolonization process, adding Morocco, as it is well established has no sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara and should therefore abstain from organizing international or national activities in the occupied zones of the territory and refrain from trying to change the reality on the ground in any form.

Furthermore, organizing such activities in the occupied territory of Western Sahara should no more be tolerated while the UN is working hard to bring the two parties to the conflict, Frente POLISARIO and Morocco, to enter into direct negotiations under your auspices and the auspices of your Personal Envoy. He emphasizes

Gali added that the Moroccan Kingdoms move can only be considered as an irresponsible attempt to jeopardize the efforts so far paid under your auspices to bring peace in Western Sahara and should therefore be stopped.

The President of the Republic stressed the seriousness of this matter and of the need to avoid all that can cause additional obstacles to the efforts of the international community aimed at ending colonization from Western Sahara.SPSMadrid, March 15, 2017 (SPS) - Spanish deputies of the parliamentarian intergroup of support and friendship with Western Sahara called on their government to comply with the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which stipulates that the fisheries agreement between EU and Morocco is not applicable to the territories of Western Sahara and its waters.

In a communique published after their visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps, the Spanish deputies underlined that in order to ensure the respect of CJEUs decision by the commercial companies and Spanish citizens who could be interested in the use and exploitation of the natural resources of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the Spanish government must urgently initiate a procedure leading to the implementation of the decision of 27 February 2018.

The parliamentarians also called on the Spanish government to extend the humanitarian aid to the Sahrawi refugees which has been noticeably reduced in the past few years while underlining that they noted the decrease in the funds that the Spanish government allocates to the Sahrawi refugee population.

The parliamentarians of the intergroup of peace and freedom for Western Sahara also pointed out the need to raise the representation of the Frente POLISARIO in Spain to the diplomatic rank.

The recognition of SADR will allow establishing privileged relations in the cultural, economic, political and human levels, they said while underscoring Spains historic responsibility in the conflict of Western Sahara and its presence as a member at UN Human Rights Council.SPS

125/090/700Algiers (Algeria), March 15, 2018 (SPS) - The Russian ambassador in Algeria, Evigdor Biliaev, said in an interview with the Algerian newspaper, ElKhabar, that Russia supports the efforts of the United Nations to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara according to the relevant resolutions.

The Russian diplomat reiterated that Russia supports these efforts, and that "in Western Sahara there is an international mechanism, MINURSO, in charge of organizing a referendum."

the Russian ambassador, said that the referendum was not organized and that the parties have to negotiate, as well as organize a referendum of self-determination. SPS

125/090/TRAA more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Index of turnover in industry 2021, July

Published: 15 March 2018

Turnover in manufacturing grew by nearly 7 per cent in the last quarter

According to Statistics Finland, turnover in manufacturing in the October to December period was 6.7 per cent higher than in the corresponding period of the year before. Domestic sales grew by 5.1 per cent and export turnover by 7.8 per cent from one year ago.

Three months' year-on-year change in turnover in manufacturing (C) sub-industries (TOL 2008)

Turnover went up from the corresponding period of the previous year in all manufacturing (C) sub-industries . Growth was strongest in the chemical industry, 9.9 per cent, in the forest industry, 6.9 per cent, and in the metal industry, 6.3 per cent. Turnover grew slowest in the food industry, by 2.8 per cent.

Three months' year-on-year change in turnover in main industrial categories (TOL 2008)

The turnover of nearly all main categories of manufacturing industries grew year-on-year. Turnover grew strongest in the industry of mining and quarrying, by 11.8 per cent. Turnover in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities increased by 5.8 per cent. Turnover contracted from the previous year only in the industry of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, by 2.8 per cent.

The index of turnover in industry describes enterprises whose main industry is manufacturing. The calculation of the indices is based on the Tax Administrations self-assessed tax data which are supplemented with data obtained with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnovers of manufacturing enterprises can vary considerably, especially in the metal industries. The variation is mainly due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major machinery deliveries and projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the delivery had required the work of several months or years.

Index of turnover in industry will adopt base year 2015=100 from the January 2018 data. Data using the new base year will be published for the first time on 13.4.2018.

Source: Index of turnover in industry 2017, December, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Maija Sappinen 029 551 3348, Kirsi-Maaria Manninen 029 551 2681, myynti.teollisuus@stat.fi

Director in charge: Sami Saarikivi

Publication in pdf-format (368.6 kB)

Updated 15.3.2018

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover in industry [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-596X. December 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 21.9.2021].

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#Chuseok Seoul-bound traffic jammed as S. Koreans return after Chuseok Long lines of vehicles formed on South Korea's major highways Tuesday as millions of people headed back to Seoul after celebrating the Chuseok holiday with their families in their ...TARGOVAX ASA: Annual Report 2017

On 14 March 2018, the board of directors of Targovax ASA approved the company's financial statements for 2017, which will be dealt with by the Company's annual general meeting on 11 April 2018. The company's annual accounts for the financial year 2017, including the financial statements and annual report for the financial year 2017, are together with the auditor's report, attached to this notice and is also available at the company's webpage, www.targovax.com.

For further information, please contact:

Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations

Phone: +47 922 61 624

Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com

Media and IR enquires:

Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)

Phone: +47 9300 1773

Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no

Simon Conway - FTI Consulting (International)

Phone: +44 20 3727 1000

Email: Targovax@fticonsulting.com

About Targovax

Arming the patient's immune system to fight cancer

Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology therapies to target, primarily, treatment-resistant solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine.

The Company's development pipeline is based on two novel proprietary platforms:

The first platform, ONCOS, uses oncolytic viruses as potential multi-target, neo-antigen, therapeutic cancer vaccines. ONCOS uses an adenovirus that has been engineered to be an immune activator that selectively targets cancer cells. In phase I trials it has demonstrated immune activation at tumor lesional level which was associated with clinical benefit. In an ongoing phase I combination trial in advanced melanoma we are seeking important proof of concept data to confirm that patients who have become refractory to treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) can respond to the same checkpoint inhibitor after treatment with ONCOS-102.

The second platform, TG, uses neo-antigen cancer vaccines designed to specifically treat tumors that express mutated forms of RAS. Mutations to the RAS protein are common in many cancers and are known to drive aggressive disease progression and treatment resistance. There is a high unmet medical need for therapies that are effective against tumors that express these mutations. The TG platform's therapeutic potential stems from its ability to enable the patient's immune system to develop a cellular response with the potential to identify and destroy tumors bearing any RAS mutations. In early 2017, key proof of concept data for the TG platform from a clinical trial of TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer patients showed encouraging overall survival. These results are now providing guidance for the future clinical development of this platform.

Targovax's clinical development pipeline includes three novel therapeutic candidates covering six indications.

Both platforms are protected by an extensive portfolio of Intellectual Property (IP) and know-how and have the potential to yield multiple pipeline candidates in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, Targovax has other product candidates in preclinical development.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

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: Targovax ASA via Globenewswire

TARGOVAX ASA: Notice of Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of Targovax ASA will be held at the Company's offices at Lysaker, on 11 April 2018 at 10:00 CET.

Please find the notice including agenda for the General Meeting and appendices attached to this disclosure. The notice will also be sent to all shareholders. The notice and appendices will also be made available on Targovax' website www.targovax.com under Corporate Governance and General Meetings.

The proposal from the Nomination Committee will be made available on www.targovax.com prior to the Annual General Meeting. The Company will publish a new press release when the proposal from the Nomination Committee is available.

Notice of attendance must be received no later than 10 April 2018 at 16:00 CET.

For further information, please contact:

Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations

Phone: +47 922 61 624

Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com

Media and IR enquires:

Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)

Phone: +47 9300 1773

Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no

Simon Conway - FTI Consulting (International)

Phone: +44 20 3727 1000

Email: Targovax@fticonsulting.com

About Targovax

Arming the patient's immune system to fight cancer

Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology therapies to target, primarily, treatment-resistant solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine.

The Company's development pipeline is based on two novel proprietary platforms:

The first platform, ONCOS, uses oncolytic viruses as potential multi-target, neo-antigen, therapeutic cancer vaccines. ONCOS uses an adenovirus that has been engineered to be an immune activator that selectively targets cancer cells. In phase I trials it has demonstrated immune activation at tumor lesional level which was associated with clinical benefit. In an ongoing phase I combination trial in advanced melanoma we are seeking important proof of concept data to confirm that patients who have become refractory to treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) can respond to the same checkpoint inhibitor after treatment with ONCOS-102.

The second platform, TG, uses neo-antigen cancer vaccines designed to specifically treat tumors that express mutated forms of RAS. Mutations to the RAS protein are common in many cancers and are known to drive aggressive disease progression and treatment resistance. There is a high unmet medical need for therapies that are effective against tumors that express these mutations. The TG platform's therapeutic potential stems from its ability to enable the patient's immune system to develop a cellular response with the potential to identify and destroy tumors bearing any RAS mutations. In early 2017, key proof of concept data for the TG platform from a clinical trial of TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer patients showed encouraging overall survival. These results are now providing guidance for the future clinical development of this platform.

Targovax's clinical development pipeline includes three novel therapeutic candidates covering six indications.

Both platforms are protected by an extensive portfolio of Intellectual Property (IP) and know-how and have the potential to yield multiple pipeline candidates in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, Targovax has other product candidates in preclinical development.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

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: Targovax ASA via Globenewswire

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.New Port Citys hidden truth spells danger for future generations By Alvin Sallay View(s): View(s):

Marine biologist Carmel Corea begins her argument against the Port City by quoting Arahat Mahinda who is believed to have told King Devanampiyatissa the birds and beasts have an equal right to move about in any part of the island as thou and that the island belongs to the people and that thou are only a guardian.

Hands up, I admit that I didnt delve into the Mahavamsa to confirm the words passed between the bearer of Buddhism to ancient Lanka and the great King at their first meeting simply because it rings of the truth  this Island belongs to all of us.

Starting on this premise, it is hard to find fault with Carmels address to a seminar in Colombo last week where speakers lined up to take a swing at the government and its pet project the Colombo Port City. The seminar was headlined as The Hidden Truth behind the project.

The truth as Carmel and company believes will bring major repercussions with the completion of the Port City built on 269 hectares of reclaimed land. Among the consequences future generations will face are: The threat of buildings in Colombo City sinking with main roads cracking; Central hills forest cover being erased leading to reduced water supply and drought resulting in food shortage; sea erosion and coral reefs being destroyed affecting marine life including fish supplies being badly hit; raw sewage and solid waste disposal into the sea; and the tourism industry affected.

Before taking Carmels argument step-by-step, lets look at the solution she has given, an alternate plan instead of the Port City  turn the isle of Mannar into an offshore banking hub.

If you need an offshore island to create an international finance city then it can be built on the island of Mannar which has an area of 50 square miles. The distance from Colombo is 142 miles and you can connect it with a high-speed rail network. The flying time in only 15 minutes. So instead of going through such a devastating development we can use the isle of Mannar which is already there and you can do this without destroying our people, Carmel counters.

But as it is, the Port City which is taking shape under the aegis of the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is a sore eye to everyone at the seminar held at the Methodist College auditorium including the Peoples Movement Against the Port City (PMAPC), Dr, Ranil Senanayake, a systems ecologist, Bishop Asiri Perera, the head of the Methodist Church, representatives of the fishing community, and Carmel herself.

According to the Bishop, the Port City was not in line with the teachings of the Holy Scripture as man was interfering with nature. Bishop Perera said: We (the Methodist Church) are not against development but we stand for the rights of every human being. Nature, and a conducive environment is for all of us but we now hear of the detrimental effects (of building this Port City).

Im very, very sad it has become a political issue and that we are looking at the project from a monetary basis. The government has not considered the ill-effects on nature and I call on the government to listen to voice of the people, the Bishop voiced.

One strident voice is Carmel who has come armed with a long list of environmental issues that have cropped up due to the Port City and the ill-effects that will crop up as a result.

On its effect on ground water levels, she says: Dr. P.J. Karunaratne, an international land reclamation expert said two years ago that ground water levels are rising. The water (historically) drains out but when you have this large reclamation against Colombo City the water table rises.

This apparently could lead to the capital city sinking. Already many old buildings in the Fort area have faced flooding issues. The developers of Cinnamon Life had their schedule put back by almost a year due to the water from the Beira affecting the foundation works, it was noted.

Carmel continues. On sand dredging, coastal erosion and coral destruction: Dredging has resulted in sand particles smothering the reef which is the spawning and breeding ground for fish. It also protects the coast from erosion. Waters have become turbid due to dredging and this prevents sunlight from reaching the corals.

Reefs provide nature with a natural filter system for clear waters. It also controls the amount of carbon dioxide in the water by extracting the acidity and this has an effect on climate change. The tsunami was directly linked to the destruction of reefs. In areas where the reef had been destroyed, the tsunami waves were 30-feet high and surged inland for about a mile, while in areas where the reef was intact the wave was about nine feet and barely grazed the beach. Coral reefs buffer our island but the sand dredging is destroying it as well as increase coastal erosion along the West coast.

Quarrying for millions of cubic-metres of granite also exacerbates drought conditions by destabilising the environment in water catchment areas in the Central Hills, Carmel pointed out. It will also destabilise the geology of the country leading to increased risks of landslides and other natural disasters. Her zealous presentation also touched on the disposal of raw sewage into the waters off Moderakilometre-long pipes taking the waste from Colombo and its suburbs, including the National Hospital, and pumping it into the sea.

It is up to us to stand up and do our duty to the nation. This is our country and we have to fight for this. We are all guardians, she concluded. Just like Arahat Mahinda reminded the King.

Is it then too late to stop the project? Not so according to Carmel who proposes the reclaimed land can be turned into a salubrious park making it a vital green lung for Colombo. As for the International Financial City, well Mannar is always available, although the islands donkey population might be disgruntled. Perhaps they can come to some sort of an amicable settlement with our two-legged variety  those who make these decisions.

Response from CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd to comments made by speakers at the Methodist Church event in Colombo on February 28: It is clear that certain NGOs continue to spread disinformation about Port City. This time they have regrouped under a new banner to bring out the same rhetoric whereas all relevant points of contention have been explained in various press responses and the 2 EIA studies. We believe there is a hidden agenda to the spread of this misinformation. For example, that Colombo city buildings will sink and the main roads will crack, was a result of a hypothesis presented by one particular private company at the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) a couple of months ago. This got blown out of proportion in the media. Ms. Carmel Corea is basing her arguments taking this report as truth when there is no scientific basis to back the hypothesis. This is irresponsible behaviour and fear mongering. As for the central hill forest cover being erased leading to reduced water supply, we have no idea as to why Port City is being accused of deforestation. If this has anything to do with granite mining, we have to clearly state that the Port City project does not get its rock material from the central hills. Granite for the project is obtained from 11 quarries (which have their own EIA approval) in the Colombo and Gampaha districts amounting to only 7 per cent of the quarry reserves of these districts. We have to categorically state that no coral reefs have been destroyed due to the Port City project and this was addressed in the SEIA. Also, the Coast Conservation Department has confirmed that there is no coastal erosion due to the project. Reduction in fish catch is debatable as there is fluctuation in the catch around the island, and this has been attributed to many reasons i.e. from global warming to unsustainable fishing methods used by fishermen etc. This aspect too has been extensively covered in the SEIA. As for sewage disposal, Sri Lanka, probably for the first time, will experience very sophisticated methods for disposing waste when the Port City becomes operational. Not merely because it would be the right thing to do, but because it would be mandatory for a city of the future to have sustainable practices to make it marketable to an international audience. Whilst Sri Lankas tourism plans are always centered around resorts, beaches and out of Colombo attractions, Port City will be a catalyst to attract tourists who want to experience the city; therefore it will only add to the countrys tourism attractions mix. In analysing a project such as Port City, one has to take a logical and scientific approach, and the way to do that is to look to the various experts who have been hired by the Government to see that development happens in an orderly and sustainable manner. We need to point out that 26 Government agencies monitor the reclamation and development of Port City and the project is a partnership between CHEC Port City Colombo and the Government of Sri Lanka who is represented by the UDA and the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development. We are sensitive to the social issues prevailing within the fishing community and therefore Port City has provided Rs. 500 million to the Fishermens Livelihood Support Society Limited, which is entirely administered and funds disbursed under the supervision of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development and the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development. The programme has within the past year or so, become an acceptable and sustainable mechanism for hundreds of fisher families. Projects implemented under this programme cover a wide range of activities such as building community halls, revamping pre-schools and common facilities, providing necessary equipment to schools, installing beacon lights for fishery anchorages, conducting health camps for fisher families and funding cataract operations and replacement of lenses, conducting training camps on self-employment for women, conducting beach cleanups and Negombo lagoon cleanup, funding vocation training courses for youth, disbursing Rs. 2 million each as a grant to 56 registered village-based fishery associations and funding the insurance premium of Divi Sayura insurance scheme for more than 5000 registered fishermen from Uswetakeiyawa to Palangaturai.LINCOLN  Nebraska lawmakers gave initial approval Tuesday to a proposed $8.8 billion two-year budget despite major disagreements over funding for the University of Nebraska and family-planning services, including Planned Parenthood.

Lawmakers advanced all three of the budget measures that make up the package, even as many senators raised concerns that state officials are relying too much on their emergency cash reserve. Two additional votes are required before the bills go to Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The package would balance the states finances through a combination of spending cuts, reclaiming unused money from state agencies and tapping into 73 different state accounts that are separate from Nebraskas general fund. Many of those stand-alone accounts receive money from fees and were created for a specific purpose, such as maintaining state parks or providing affordable housing grants.

Its not an ideal approach but needs to be done to balance the budget after state revenue fell short of expectations, said Sen. John Stinner, of Gering, chairman of the budget-crafting Appropriations Committee. Lawmakers began this years session with a projected $173 million shortfall and are almost certain to reject any tax increase.

These are extraordinary times, Stinner said.

Several senators raised concerns about the states cash reserve, which would fall to $296.4 million if the budget passes, down from a high of $730.7 million in fiscal year 2016. Stinner said the state should maintain at least $250 million in the reserve.

Sen. John Kuehn, of Heartwell, an Appropriations Committee member, said the package draws too heavily from the rainy-day fund, which is generally used for emergencies and one-time expenses.

Im not sure how long its going to continue to rain, he said, and lawmakers have hamstrung the options of this Legislature going forward.

Sen. Paul Schumacher, of Columbus, issued a stern warning that the budget could create future revenue problems that force state officials to cut even more or raise taxes. Schumacher, who leaves office in January because of term limits, said his fellow senators are on pace to end up in a worse situation in future years.

We are in really bad financial shape, and we are making it worse, he said.

Lawmakers also debated a provision inserted by Ricketts to prevent health clinics from getting so-called Title X funding from the federal government if they offer abortions. The Republican governor announced the proposal in January, arguing that Nebraskas budget should reflect its status as a pro-life state.

The Obama administration previously prevented states from withholding federal money from clinics that might provide abortions, but President Donald Trump reversed that directive last year and gave the states far more leeway in how they distributed Title X money.

Supporters of the proposal said organizations such as Planned Parenthood could continue to receive such funding only if they maintain physical, financial and legal separation between their abortion operations and other services. They also said Nebraska risks losing federal funding if legislators dont approve the measure, an assertion denied by senators who support abortion rights.

This has no business being in the budget, said Sen. Adam Morfeld, of Lincoln.

Lawmakers are likely to debate proposed funding cuts to the University of Nebraska when the issue comes up again. Ricketts proposed 2 percent in cuts this year for the university, followed by a 4 percent reduction from the amount the Legislature approved in 2017. The Appropriations Committee recommended keeping the first-year cut at 2 percent, but lowering the cut to just 1 percent in the next fiscal year.The Himalaya Helicopter Expedition is an 8-day adventure that allows guests to explore a total of 8 peaks that stand over 8,000 metres high.

The trip begins in late April, when intrepid guests will board two AS350 B3 helicopters to fly from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp, situated an impressive 19,000 feet above sea level.

Over the subsequent 8 days guests will be treated to jaw-dropping mountain views as they take to the skies. The helicopters will land to allow guests to explore locations such as Everests Western Cwm and Scoundrels Viewpoint in Nepals Gokyo Valley.

Guests will also enjoy dramatic vistas from peaks including Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Kanchenjunga, Manaslu, Annapurna, and Dhaulagiri, as well as experience local traditions such as sipping yak butter tea with monks in Tengboche.

Other highlights will include enjoying views of the worlds highest lake, Lake Tilicho, and visiting the isolated Nepalese Kingdom of Lo. Travellers will be accommodated at high-end hotels including the Yak & Yeti hotel in Kathmandu and Everest Summit Lodge in Pangboche.

The expedition is priced at $22,500 per person (plus extra for flights) and is operated by Jack Wheeler who founded Wheeler Expeditions and has conducted the Himalayan Helicopter Expedition four times already.Find an expert for comment Search for a Swinburne researcher or academic expert who is available for media comment about their field of expertise.

Please enable JavaScript to get the full experience of this website.Mitchell Patterson is a regular guest columnist for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. He is a former venture capitalist and current entrepreneur. He lives in Clay.



By Mitchell Patterson | Guest columnist



Recently I wrote about the concept that people need to start viewing themselves as corporations based on the new tax laws recently passed by Congress. I focused on the creation of the age of the limited liability corporation, or LLC, where people are being pushed to incorporate themselves for tax relief. Well, that same concept is about to emerge again, only in reverse: the concept that corporations are people, too.



Delta Air Lines Inc., a corporation that by law should receive the same constitutional protections as you or me, recently was punished for exercising its free speech rights under the First Amendment.



The Supreme Court ruled that corporations have free speech rights in its 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. The court said that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for communications by nonprofit and for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations. The ruling allows such groups to spend and unlimited amount of money on ads for or against political candidates. This had a tremendous effect on our political culture.



In another case involving corporate "personhood," Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby declared in 2014 that a requirement in the Affordable Care Act that companies pay for insurance coverage for contraception violated the owner's right to religious freedom.



Now, we are watching the same thing happen in the national debate over gun control.



Delta, the nation's second-largest airline and one of Georgia's largest employers, responded to the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, by declaring that it would no longer offer partner benefits to members of the National Rifle Association. Lawmakers in Georgia responded by swiftly passing a law that specifically excluded tax benefits to Delta, to the tune of $38 million to $50 million. Their explicit purpose was to punish Delta for its choice, and frankly, its right, to cancel its partnership with the NRA.



Dick's Sporting Goods decided it would stop selling military-style, semi-automatic rifles, and would raise the age of purchase to 21 for all guns. Walmart also raised its age limit for gun buyers. Consumers passionate on both sides of the gun debate responded either by saying they'd shop more in those stores or by boycotting them. Meanwhile, a 20-year-old Oregon man is suing both retailers for discrimination.



Viewing corporations as people, with free speech and religious rights, cuts both ways. Their interests may not always align with the public's interests.



For example, corporations free to exercise all the speech money can buy may drown out the voice of an individual voter. We have seen this firsthand as elections now have corporations spending billions on behalf of legislators who could affect their bottom lines. In many ways, this was already the case even prior to Citizens United. Look at the NRA, whose membership represented less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, but as a lobbying organization has been able to garner support from more than 50 percent of the elected officials in this nation.



Yet, this new political dynamic where people are corporations and corporations are people could be positive for all parties involved. Corporations may have the capital to outspend any single individual, but they also have a customer base on which they rely to generate that capital. A differently engaged population has put pressure on corporations that previously sat back and tried to avoid taking a stand on hot-button political issues. Now corporations face economic pressure from customers to take principled stands and to lead on issues that Congress won't touch.



In turn, elected officials will feel the pressure from the tens of thousands of voters these corporations employ, and the millions more customers they serve. If corporations choose to take a side, elected officials now must decide the impact it will have on their longevity, to say nothing of their morality.State Sen. John DeFrancisco says his 40-year political career will likely come to an end if he doesn't win the Republican nomination for governor in May.

DeFrancisco, R-DeWitt, the deputy majority leader of the Senate, said Thursday "it's very unlikely" he will seek re-election to the 50th Senate District seat he has held for 25 years.

DeFrancisco, 71, talked about his future during an appearance in a live radio interview with Susan Arbetter on WCNY's The Capitol Pressroom.

"You never say never, but it's very unlikely -- 95 percent unlikely -- for me to run again," DeFrancisco said in the interview.

DeFrancisco told syracuse.com in January, when he announced his campaign for governor, that he was unlikely to run again for the Senate seat. But he later appeared to retreat from those comments and leave the door open for a Senate campaign if he didn't win the nomination for governor.

The New York State Republican Committee plans to hold its nominating convention for governor at a date to be determined in May. DeFrancisco is competing for the nomination with Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro and Joseph Holland, a former New York housing commissioner.

If DeFrancisco decides against seeking re-election to the Senate, it would be only the second time in 52 years that the Syracuse-area seat has opened without an incumbent candidate.

Former state Sen. Tarky Lombardi Jr. held the seat for 27 years before DeFrancisco.

In the radio interview Thursday, Arbetter joked that DeFrancisco could have a future career as the host of a radio talk show.

"I don't know if I'm that talented enough," DeFrancisco quipped before adding, "And I don't know if I could stop saying what's on my mind, which sometimes is controversial."

Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro on Thursday passed a key milestone needed to lock up the Republican nomination for governor after winning the latest in a series of endorsements from state GOP committee members.

The Manhattan Republican Party said it voted overwhelmingly to support Molinaro in his bid for the nomination to take on Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in November.

The endorsement means that Molinaro now has 50.01 percent of the weighted vote of Republican State Committee members heading into the party's May nominating convention, according to Molinaro's campaign.

Any candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the GOP vote at the convention automatically becomes the party's nominee on the November ballot.

Molinaro's chief rival, state Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-DeWitt, has endorsements representing almost 20 percent of the weighted vote. A third candidate, Joseph Holland, has not announced any endorsements from committee members.

All told, Molinaro has received endorsement from GOP committees or party chairs in 32 of New York's 62 counties. An updated number from DeFrancisco's campaign was not immediately available Thursday.

New York Republicans use a weighted system to choose their candidate for governor. The weighted vote of state GOP committee members from each county varies, based on how many people in that county voted on the GOP line in the last election for governor.

The committee members are not required to vote at the convention for the candidates they endorsed, and DeFrancisco is counting on many to change their minds about Molinaro before the May convention.

"We view the vote as totally fluid, as has been evident for weeks," said William O'Reilly, speaking for DeFrancisco's campaign. "There is a long time between now and May for votes to change, and we expect votes will change."

So far, the only votes that changed were from county committees (Sullivan and Chemung counties) that now back Molinaro, after originally supporting DeFrancisco.

Since Molinaro told state GOP leaders he planned to run for governor two weeks ago, DeFrancisco has argued that he is the only candidate that has been fully vetted in the campaign.

Molinaro did not appear before any county Republican committees or at GOP debates until he showed up Wednesday night at the gathering of Manhattan Republicans. He plans to formally kick off his campaign on April 2.

Said O'Reilly: "There are no hidden things to know about John DeFrancisco."

Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751World renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking visited Cornell University more than 50 years ago, and it wasn't a good experience.

According to The Cornell Daily Sun, he called the trip "a mistake." He and his wife stayed in a dormitory on the third floor designated for families, however, the toddlers were pretty noisy.

Stephen Hawking, 76, died Wednesday. Known for his work with black holes and relativity, he wrote several popular science books including the international best seller "A Brief History of Time."

Although his body was attacked by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, when Hawking was 21, he stunned doctors by living with the normally fatal illness for more than 50 years.

Hawking and his wife at the time, Jane, arrived in Ithaca in 1965 during the second week of their honeymoon for summer school, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.



"We stayed in a dormitory that was full of couples with noisy small children," Hawking wrote in My Brief History, "and it put quite a strain on our marriage."

Among other challenges for Hawking included getting around campus and getting to lectures on time. The couple had never discussed the disease, at Hawking's request, until he suffered from a sudden choking fit one night, according to "Stephen Hawking: A Biography," by Kristine Larsen.

His wife wrote in "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen," how debilitated her husband was by ALS and how it left her "shocked and helpless."

Jane also wrote how the couple was left "wondering whether we were doomed to spend the whole period of the summer school confined to the campus of Cornell University and the third floor of the hall of residence."

Although Hawking's stay at Cornell nearly 53 years ago was challenging, his legacy has inspired many Cornellians. When Hawking died Wednesday, professors spoke about his groundbreaking research and how it affected their careers.

For Lisa Kaltenegger, she had the opportunity to join Hawking among six speakers at a 2016 conference at The Pontifical Academy of Science in Vatican City. Kaltenegger, an astronomy professor and director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell, called her mother and compared the experience to being in the same room with Albert Einstein.

"He made the cosmo something everybody could get a glimpse at ... and be part of," Kaltenegger told The Cornell Daily Sun. "I think that is what we all strive for as researchers and professors, [and] that is also what Sagan pioneered here at Cornell."March 14--WASHINGTON -- Two Buffalo Veterans Affairs Medical Center employees left their jobs after they were implicated in the botched decision not to try to revive a patient suffering cardiac arrest, a spokeswoman for the facility said Wednesday.

A report from the Department of Affairs Inspector General released earlier this week said staffers at the hospital should have tried to resuscitate that patient when he fell gravely ill in late 2016. The Inspector General also criticized the hospital for not immediately removing the staffers from patient-care duties while it investigated the incident.

Two VA staffers left hospital after failing to try to revive patient https://t.co/piTIFGCK1e  The Buffalo News (@TheBuffaloNews) March 14, 2018

But Evangeline Conley, spokeswoman for the hospital, said the employees were disciplined.

"In response to this report, two employees have been proposed for removal and both no longer work for VA," Conley said. "Another employee has received the appropriate level of discipline, and more disciplinary actions are possible."

Conley declined to provide further details, such as the titles of those disciplined, for privacy reasons.

The report, which the center received in November and which was released to The Buffalo News this week, offers a scathing review of the actions of several Buffalo VA employees at a time of crisis for the patient, who died after failing to get the proper treatment.

A registered nurse and respiratory therapist "acted outside their scopes of practice and violated Veterans Health Administration and facility policy when they announced that the patient was dead, which influenced others not to take appropriate action," the report said.

The registered nurse did not want to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation out of fear that the patient was so frail that the procedure could crush his chest, the report said.

Another registered nurse should have, but didn't, monitor the patient's heart rhythms. That nurse also abandoned the desk where she was supposed to monitor the vital signs of other patients, "thereby temporarily placing other monitored patients at risk," the report said.

The incident prompted the Inspector General's office to issue several recommendations.

The hospital's top officer should review the incident and confer with the Office of Human Resources and the VA general counsel to determine if actions should be taken in response to it, set up mock drills to make sure employees react appropriately to health emergencies, and conduct a review to identify any "issues undermining teamwork," the report said.

The Buffalo VA hospital said in the report that it would adopt the recommendations, and Conley, the hospital spokeswoman, stressed that the facility is taking the report seriously.

VA Secretary David Shulkin "has made it clear that he will hold employees accountable when the facts demonstrate that they have failed to live up to the high standards veterans and taxpayers expect, and that's exactly what we will do in this case," she said.

- By Jerry Zremski, The Buffalo News, N.Y.A sheriff in Alabama took $750,000 in government funds meant to feed inmates at a county jail over the last three years, according to an investigation by al.com.



The sheriff and his wife then bought a four-bedroom beach house for $740,000 in September with an in-ground pool and water access.



The whole series of events was completely legal.



Al.com found that Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin listed $750,000 worth of additional "compensation" on ethics disclosure forms from a source identified as "food provisions." Etowah County is in northern Alabama, near Birmingham.



The money was allocated by federal, state and municipal governments to feed inmates at the Etowah County jail, but it was not used for that purpose. Entrekin pocketed the money instead.



Alabama has a Depression-era law that allows sheriffs to "keep and retain" unspent money from jail food-provision accounts, according to NPR. Sheriffs across the state take excess money from the accounts as personal income.



In the event of a shortfall, they're personally liable for covering the gap. Some Alabama counties require excess funds from the accounts to be turned over to county governments, al.com said.



Entrekin told NPR that the he was being attacked by the "liberal media" just for following the law. He also said he has advocated for county lawmakers to handle the funds used to feed inmates, but that hasn't happened yet.



In the meantime, he acknowledged he keeps leftover funds from the food accounts.



"The law says it's a personal account and that's the way I've always done it and that's the way the law reads and that's the way I do business," he said, according to al.com. "That's the way the law's written."



Sheriffs across Alabama have been taking money from the food accounts for decades, according to NPR.



The law that allows the practice is at the center of a lawsuit filed in January by the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. The centers argue that sheriffs are misinterpreting the law.



"Our position is that this practice is illegal now, but it's clear that many sheriffs believe its legal for them to do this," said Aaron Littman, a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights, according to al.com. "It's pretty clear that when every year taxpayers are asked to spend their hard-earned dollars on any purpose - including feeding people in jails - the money should go to that purpose."

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112On a day when tens of thousands of students across the county walked out of classes to protest gun violence, the sister of mass killer Dylann Roof was arrested in South Carolina for carrying a knife and pepper spray on school property.

Morgan Roof, 18, a student at A.C. Flora High School in Columbia, was charged Wednesday with two counts of carrying weapons on school property and possession of marijuana, according to records at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center where she was taken.

Students at the school became alarmed Wednesday at her Snapchat post disparaging National Walkout Day, which was being held in response to a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead. Roof's post said she hoped "it's a trap and y'all get shot" and "we know it's fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway," authorities told local news outlets.

Morgan Roof, sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, arrested after making threats to students who walked out today. She was charged with possession of marijuana and weapon on school grounds. pic.twitter.com/On9HFPd6Nu  Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) March 15, 2018

The Richland County Sheriff's Department confirmed to The State newspaper that Morgan is the sister of Dylann Roof, who is on death row at a federal prison in Indiana for fatally shooting nine black members of a Charleston church during a Bible study in 2015. Roof, a self-described white supremacist told authorities that he targeted a historic black church in hopes of starting a race war. A month after the killings, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds, ending its 54-year presence at the Capital.

In December 2016, a jury convicted Roof on 33 federal hate crime charges in connection with the killings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was sentenced to death in January 2017. Four months later, he pleaded guilty to state charges - nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder charges and a related weapons charge. A deal with prosecutors allowed him to avoid a second death penalty trial and be given a sentence of life in prison without parole.

After Wednesday's incident, Morgan Roof is not allowed to return to school, WLTX-19 reported.

"A student used social media to post hateful messages," Susan Childs, the school's principal, said Wednesday in a statement to parents. "The posting was not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate. That student was dealt with in a swift and severe manner as the posting caused quite a disruption."

A second student was also arrested at the school this week for allegedly having a loaded magazine, The State reported. A Smith & Wesson .380 handgun was recovered on school grounds with information provided by students, authorities told the news outlet. The student, who was not identified, was released to the custody of his parents, the newspaper said.

The principal's statement did not mention the arrests. On the second matter, she wrote: "In an isolated incident yesterday, administration was notified that there was possibly a weapon on campus. Through diligent work from the Assistant Principals and the School Resource Officers, an unloaded weapon was recovered. The investigation of this matter involves law enforcement as well as school officials. "

Gov. Henry McMaster said on Twitter that "we owe a debt of gratitude to all involved" for acting quickly and decisively.

"Potential tragedy was avoided at AC Flora High School. In two separate incidents, students and educators reacted quickly to reports of suspicious activity and behavior to their Richland County Sheriff's Department school resource officer."Two aviators died Wednesday after a U.S. Naval Air Forces jet crashed in waters near Key West, Florida.

The aviators were on a training flight in the dual-seated F/A-18 Super Hornet and making their final approach toward the Naval Air Station Key West when the jet went down. The aircraft hit the water about 4:30 p.m., roughly one mile east of the runway, U.S. Naval Air Forces said.

Search and rescue crews responded quickly and were able to recover the aviators from the water. They were taken by ambulance to the Lower Keys Medical Center. But roughly three hours later, U.S. Naval Air Forces reported that the aviators did not survive their injuries.

"We are sad to report that both aviators have been declared deceased," U.S. Naval Air Forces said in a statement. "Their families are in our prayers."

Officials declined to release the aviators' identities, pending notification of next-of-kin, but did say that one was a pilot and the other was a weapons systems officer. They were based at Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia.

President Trump tweeted condolences, saying, "Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible @USNavy."

The cause of the crash is under investigation, U.S. Naval Air Forces said.

Witnesses described seeing the jet catch fire in midair, then falling from the sky.

"It went a little sideways, then I saw fire," Barbie Wilson, a local marina owner, told local news. "And then it just literally dropped out of the sky. It was like something out of a movie."A new space race is heating up between SpaceX boss Elon Musk, NASA and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to launch a mission to Mars next year, potentially beating similar plans in the U.S.

"We are planning unmanned and later manned launches -- into deep space, as part of a lunar program and for Mars exploration," Putin said in a new documentary, according to RT.

"The closest mission is very soon, we are planning to launch a mission to Mars in 2019."

RT reports the spaceship in 2019 will not carry any crew members, but later missions will.

According to Newsweek, NASA is planning its own mission to Mars scheduled for between July and August 2020 when the positions between Earth and Mars are best placed for a landing.

Musk, who launched a Tesla car on top of a SpaceX Falcon rocket last month, said Sunday that his SpaceX Mars rocket may be ready for test flights next year; he previously said cargo flights could begin in 2022.

"We want a new space race. Races are exciting," Musk said in February.

President Donald Trump praised Musk's achievement for showing "American ingenuity at its best!"

While surveying border wall prototypes this week, Trump vowed that "very soon we're going to Mars" and suggested Hillary Clinton would not have supported exploring the red planet. Trump also proposed a potential future "space force" fighting alongside the nation's military branches.

The last space race took place in the '50s and '60s between Russia, then the Soviet Union, and the U.S. during the Cold War. Americans led the efforts to reach the moon, landing in 1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Putin said in the new documentary that Russia would also launch a new lunar program and find water on the moon.

"Our specialists will try to make landings on the poles, because there is reason to believe that there can be water there. There, there is progress to be made, studies of other planets, distant space can be started from there," he said.

Putin's comments come before Russia's presidential election on Sunday. Putin is expected to win, leading the country for a fourth term.WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including 13 indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his Russia-related investigation.

Also targeted were five Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, which is accused of orchestrating a mass online disinformation campaign to affect the election that Republican Donald Trump won over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Treasury Department announced the sanctions amid withering criticism of Trump and his administration for failing to use the congressionally mandated authority to punish Russia for the election interference. Trump himself has been skeptical of the allegations.

The sanctions are the first use of the powers that Congress passed last year in retaliation for Moscow's meddling. The targets include officials working for the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU. Thursday's action freezes any assets the individuals and entities may have in the United States and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The department said in a statement that the GRU and Russia's military interfered in the 2016 election and were "directly responsible" for the NotPetya cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe in June 2017.

"The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia."

Among those penalized was Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "chef" and who ran the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, and 12 of the agency's employees. They were included in Mueller's indictment last month.

The Internet Research Agency "tampered with, altered, or caused a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes and institutions," specifically the 2016 U.S. presidential race, the department said.

"The IRA created and managed a vast number of fake online personas that posed as legitimate U.S. persons to include grassroots organizations, interest groups, and a state political party on social media," the Treasury Department statement said. "Through this activity, the IRA posted thousands of ads that reached millions of people online."

The sanctions also affect the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, and six of its employees, for cyberattacks more broadly, including those targeting Russian journalists, opposition figures, foreign politicians and U.S. officials. The Americans members of the diplomatic corps, the military and White House staffers.A company founded by former Google chief executive Larry Page will be announcing a deal with New Zealand to test its self-flying taxis in the country. Kitty Hawk is behind the creation of the self-flying planes.

Looks like flying taxis are closer than previously thought.

Kitty Hawk Cora

Kitty Hawk has been testing its Cora flying taxi since October 2017 in New Zealand. On March 13, it is set to announce an agreement with the prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. It will allow Kitty Hawk to test its self-flying planes as part of a certification process.

Both parties are hopeful that this will lead to a network of flying taxis in New Zealand within the next three years. Speaking to the New York Times, Ardern said that the embrace of this technology can show the world that the country is open to new ideas. She also added that they are targeting 2050 as the year New Zealand will become net carbon zero.

Kitty Hawk planes are 100 percent electric. Cora has a wingspan of 36 feet and is powered by a dozen battery-powered rotors. It is able is to take off like helicopters do and fly just like a plane and can be as fast as 110 miles per hour. The self-flying plane is limited to a distance of 62 miles and can hold two people. Cora planes can fly at an altitude of 3,00 feet.

Developers of the flying taxis say that they're much quieter than helicopters. Developers want to be able to use rooftops and parking lots as landing pads,

Cora was in development for eight years before being unveiled. Trials for the new mode of transportation will take six years, and be based around the city of Christchurch.

Competitors

Kitty Hawk is only one company in a field where everyone is trying to become the first to get off of the ground. Air taxis are a popular market that other transportation is trying to fill first. Boeing bought Aurora Flight Sciences, Airbus made an investment in Blade, and Uber is already working on the same idea with Uber Elevate.

Kitty Hawk wants to reach consumers first by being able to trial its Cora planes first in a less congested area of the world. Uber hopes to begin testing its services by 2020 in Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Dubai by 2010.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.NASA thinks a design error may have been the reason why a SpaceX rocket exploded in mid-air back in June 2015, according to a report by the space agency published March 12.

The ill-fated rocket was supposed to bring 4,000 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station  in what's called as the CRS-7 mission  but burst into flames mere moments after launching from a Cape Canaveral pad in Florida.

SpaceX later concluded that the explosion was the result of a faulty steel component called a strut, which snapped during the flight and allowed a helium bottle to break loose and hit an oxygen tank, which exploded and destroyed the rocket.

What Went Wrong With SpaceX's Failed Rocket, According To NASA

In its report, NASA said SpaceX decided to use an industrial-grade 17-4 PH SS cast part  instead of an aerospace-grade variant  which was put through a "critical load path under cryogenic conditions and strenuous flight environments." This implementation was administered without adequate screening, NASA claims. There was also no testing of the industrial-grade component, and the company launched the rocket disregarding the manufacturer's 4:1 factor of safety when using the part in question.

The part was supposed to handle nearly about 10,000 pounds of force but failed at merely 2,000 during the launch, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The company doesn't use the strut anymore, though, but still mentioned that it had been certified and was supposed to handle strenuous loads well beyond the expected figures.

What Does SpaceX Have To Say About This?

"We appreciate NASA's insight and continued partnership, and we look forward to next month's launch of a flight-proven Dragon for the company's fourteenth resupply mission to the International Space Station," said a spokesperson for SpaceX, who noted that both NASA and SpaceX came to the same conclusion about the failed 2015 rocket.

NASA did note that all the issues they identified were later resolved come time SpaceX launched another rocket in January 2016. The space agency's results had actually been completed back in 2015 but was only released just now "to maintain historical data of the mishap."

Since the accident, SpaceX has successfully launched a rocket 31 times, but one failed in September 2016 during a fueling mistake. Even still, that's a pretty startling ratio.

Despite numerous setbacks in the past, SpaceX seems to be on a roll. Its much-hyped Falcon Heavy launch was a success, for starters, and by launching a Tesla Roadster in space, it singlehandedly ignited excitement for space exploration once again. The company is setting its sight on Mars next.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Drinking from plastic water bottled could also mean drinking microplastic particles.

Findings of a new study have found that many of the world's most popular brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny pieces of plastic.

Microplastic Contaminants In 93 Percent Of Tested Bottled Water Brands

Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia and colleagues analyzed more than 250 water bottles from 11 popular brands that are sold in in nine countries, namely the United States, Brazil, Lebanon, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Kenya, Thailand, and China. Brands tested include Aquafina, Aqua, Bisleri, Dasani, Epura, Evian, Nestle, Gerolsteiner, Minalba, Wahaha, and San Pellegrino.

Using Nile red dye to reveal the particles in the water, researchers found evidence of microplastic contamination in bottled water. They found that 93 percent of the samples contain tiny pieces of plastic. Each liter of water, on average, was found to have 10.4 microplastic particles.

The researchers said that the contamination is partly the result of plastic packaging and partly the fault of bottling processes as suggested by the most common type of plastic contaminant they found: polypropylene. It is also used to make bottle caps.

"Infrared analysis of particles greater than 100 micrometers in size confirmed microplastic identity and found polypropylene to be the most common (54%) polymeric material (at least with regard to these larger microplastics), consistent with a common plastic employed to manufacture bottle caps," the researchers said.

Nile Red Dye Known To Produce False Positives

Nestle and Gerolsteiner have responded to the results of the study. Nestle said that it tested six bottles of water from two of its brands and found only between two and 12 microplastics per liter.

This amount is much lower compared with what the study found. The company also pointed out that the Nile Red Dye technique is known to produce false positives. Gerolsteiner said that its tests also revealed that its products have a far lower amount of microplastics per liter than the findings of the study.

"We still cannot understand how the study reached the conclusions it did," Gerolsteiner said. "The research results do not correspond to the internal analyses that we conduct on a regular basis."

Effect On Human Health

It is not yet clear how microplastic in bottled water can affect human health. A research conducted by the European Food Safety Authority suggests that as much as 90 percent of ingested plastic is excreted by the body but there are still concerns over the potential impact of plastic particles on human health.

"There are connections to increases in certain kinds of cancer to lower sperm count to increases in conditions like ADHD and autism," said Mason. "We know that they are connected to these synthetic chemicals in the environment and we know that plastics are providing kind of a means to get those chemicals into our bodies."

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Add deafness to the list of the ways that smoking hurts healthy people. A new study shows that there may be an increased risk of going deaf due to smoking. Giving up smoking can also help cut those chances down.

Deafness joins a list of adverse health effects that are caused by smoking.

Hearing Loss

A Japanese research team found that smokers have a higher risk to develop hearing loss than those that are non-smokers. This risk is increased with every additional cigarette that is smoked on an everyday basis.

Data was gathered from 50,000 workers between the ages of 20 to 64 who had not suffered from hearing loss. Participants were tracked for up to eight years. Through the study, more than 5,100 people developed hearing loss.

The longer that a person smokes, the higher they are at risk for developing for high frequency and low-frequency hearing loss. Quitting smoking almost totally eliminates the chances of developing hearing loss. The risks are increased by the number of cigarettes that are smoked, according to the lead author of the study, Huanhuan Hu, who spoke to Reuters.

He also added that nicotine exposure may be harmful to the ears. The study didn't set out to prove a link between hearing loss and smoking, but makes a case that it contributes to it. It shows that the more a person continues to smoke, the higher the chances of hearing loss become.

Those that smoke up to 10 cigarettes per day were 40 percent more likely to develop high-frequency hearing loss and 10 percent more likely to develop low-frequency hearing loss. Smokers that used 11 to 20 cigarettes per day were 60 percent more like to develop high-frequency hearing loss and 20 percent more likely to develop low-frequency hearing loss. Participants who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day were 70 percent more likely to develop high-frequency hearing loss and 40 percent more likely to develop low-frequency hearing loss.

Participants In The Study

Most of the participants in the study were in their 40s, and 21,000 of them had never smoked. About 19,000 of them were smokers and 9,800 were former smokers. Those who were current smokers were more likely to be overweight or obese and have chronic health problems such as diabetes and be in jobs with high levels of noise.

Participants had to take comprehensive hearing tests each year during the study.

Some of the limitations of the study include the problems with counting on participants to accurately report their own smoking habits.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.During his visit to San Diego, President Donald Trump gave a speech at the Marines Corps Air Station Miramar where he floated the idea of creating a space-based branch of the military called the Space Force. He called space just another domain of war just like land, sea, and air.

This isn't the first time that the idea has been floated around by a member of the government.

Space Force

Trump said during the speech that the idea of the Space Force started out as a joke while he was discussing government spending and private investments in space. He added that the more he thought about the idea, the better it seemed to him.

He praised former astronauts that were members of the armed forces. Trump is taking credit for the idea of creating a military branch devoted to fighting in space. A previous proposal, passed by the House of Representatives in 2017, called for splitting the Air Force into two separate branches.

Military officers at the Pentagon have warned that the creation of a space branch for the military may not be as beneficial as Trump thinks. They've argued that such restructuring of the armed forces would do more harm than good. Officers have said that it would be unnecessary and expensive.

Intelligence and military officials are warning that China and Russia want to gain the upper hand over the U.S. in space.

Space Corps

In its version of last year's National Defense Authorization Act, the House passed its version of the bill that included a proposal for the new Space Corps. Creation of the new Space Corps was supported by the House Armed Services Committee.

Space Corps would have been like the Marine Corps  a separate branch  but it is kept within the Navy. Leaders in the Pentagon argued against the idea by saying that it needed further brainstorming. Secretary of Defense James Mattis came out against the idea by writing a letter to support an amendment to remove Space Corps from the spending bill.

This cleared the way to change how the Air Force treats its space programs. This includes creating a single organization in the Air Force that is responsible for space forces. Members of Congress wanted the Air Force to treat space as a priority in national defense. They argued that it was spending more time concentrating on fighter jets and bombers.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Travelers who were present in the customs and baggage areas of Detroit Metropolitan Airport's North Terminal from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. on March 6 are warned to look out for possible symptoms of measles.

Adults and children showing signs of the disease should seek immediate medical attention before suffering from serious complications, including hospitalization, pneumonia, and death.

This public health alert has been issued March 14 by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) upon confirming that an infected passenger arrived in the airport facility during the specified hours on Tuesday, last week.

According to state health officials, the passenger is already under recovery after being hospitalized in Washtenaw Country. Such counts as the state's first case of measles for the year 2018.

"Individuals may be contagious for a few days before they present with symptoms, which increases the potential of exposing others to the infection," MDHHS cautions in an official statement.

Common Signs And Symptoms Of Measles

Measles symptoms do not appear instantaneously, states the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They begin showing around seven to 14 days following infection, and within this frame, the patient may experience high fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis.

Two to three days from the onset of symptoms, Koplik Spots start to grow inside the mouth. When checked in the mirror, these white spots are barely visible because of their tiny size.

These early signs could manifest simultaneously with rashes, the most obvious indicator of measles. They initially break out around the facial area then spread toward the lower extremities, from the neck to the trunk and arms, to the legs and feet.

Rashes associated with the disease are accompanied by a fever of more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit. They look like red and flat spots, with a small bump growing on top some of them. As the patient's fever disappears, the spots also fade.

Treatment For Measles Infection

There are no known treatments for measles. Health care providers can only ensure proper nutrition, sufficient water intake, and oral rehydration fluids to replace important elements that are excreted through diarrhea or vomiting, explains the World Health Organization.

Although antibiotics cannot cure the disease itself, they can treat its complications, such as pneumonia and eye or ear infections.

Best Course Of Protection From Measles Outbreak

Families living within the state must see their doctor "right away" for a vaccination update, urged MDHHS Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells. This will ensure that every member of the community has optimal protection in case of a measles outbreak.

A single dose is recommended for adults with no prior measles immunization, and two doses for children. The first is given at 12 months, and the second before the child starts attending kindergarten.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Scott Kelly made news when it was revealed that the astronaut's time in space had altered his gene so much that they were now different from that of his twin brother Mark Kelly. NASA has now confirmed that space travel can alter a person's genetic makeup.

Scott Kelly spent almost a year in space.

Space Gene

Scott Kelly's genes were altered due to the stresses of space travel. This change can stick around with a person even after they return to Earth. Scientists found that after spending a year in space, Scott Kelly's genes were no longer an exact match to his brother Mark. Scott and Mark Kelly were part of the Twin Study by NASA to determine the effects of space travel on humans.

Scientists were not expecting this change in his genetics. NASA also found hundreds of unique mutations. Scott developed significantly longer telomeres in space. Telomeres cap off chromosomes and regulate the aging process.

Findings show that about 93 percent of the changes in his genes were temporary and Kelly's genetic profile returned to normal after he came back to Earth. About 7 percent of the changes have not reverted to the way he was before he spent the year in space. This includes changes in his immune system, DNA repair process, bone formation networks, oxygen deficiency in the bloodstream, and an excess of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.

Changes like the longer telomeres disappeared after 48 hours of being back on Earth. Most of the changes that Scott Kelly went through disappeared after hours or days of his return to Earth, but some changes stayed with him after six months.

NASA concludes that this may point to longer-term changes in DNA. Kelly joked about the changes in his DNA by stating that he would no longer have to call Mark Kelly his identical twin.

Long-Term Space Travel

President Donald Trump announced his intentions to fund NASA to send astronauts to Mars. A mission to the red planet would take up to three years.

NASA's study into the changes may shine a light on the possibility of people traveling to other planets. Humans bodies are resilient, but they're protected from the amount of radiation found in space due to the magnetic field that surrounds the planet. Once astronauts are in space, radiation can be harmful. In the case of Scott Kelly, his DNA has been altered for good.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A Baton Rouge Metro Councilwoman warned her colleagues Wednesday that refusing to scrap rules that allow retirees to return to work part-time while drawing retirement benefits results in a lack of fresh ideas at City Hall.

The proposal by Metro Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis would have stopped retired city-parish workers from returning to full-time jobs while getting paid for 29 hours of work a week and collecting their retirement benefits. Had Collins-Lewiss ordinance been successful, it would have led to departures of some of the city-parishs most well-known staffers and important members of Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broomes cabinet. Broome opposed the measure.

+2 Baton Rouge City Hall could lose high-profile staff if new policy stops part-time retiree work Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome could lose key staffers and City Hall might say goodbye to some of its longest-working employees if the E

Employees who retired in the past and have returned to work under retire/rehire include Transportation and Roads Director Fred Raiford; Finance Director Marsha Hanlon; Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer; Parish Attorney Lea Anne Batson; Public Information Officer Dennis McCain; Retirement Administrator Jeffrey Yates; Information Services Programming Supervisor Patrick Guidry and more.

Many said they work more than 29 hours a week, despite their part-time pay. If an employee returns to work full-time, he or she has to forfeit retirement benefits.

Collins-Lewis said Wednesday her proposal to eliminate city-parish retire/rehire rules was not personal toward any of the employees. But she argued that the city-parish will never attract young blood when retired employees can keep returning to work and blocking them from climbing to the top of a department.

Collins-Lewis also said its unfair that the city-parish does not have a uniform rule to determine when employees are allowed to return to work and which positions they should fill. She said it opens the city-parish up to disputes from retirees who have been denied a request to return to work.

Its wrong," Collins-Lewis said. "I dont care how you look at it, its wrong. Keep on doing what were doing and were going to get the same results.

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

But Collins-Lewis found little support for her ordinance on the council, and the Broome administration also opposed it.

Several council members expressed concerns that it would stifle the mayors office from appointing whomever they want to their cabinet positions.

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

Councilwoman Tara Wicker described the retire/rehire policy as a management issue, rather than one the Metro Council should regulate. She said department heads and the mayors office should issue a directive about planning for retirements and training less experienced employees so they are ready to step in and fill leadership positions in the future.

Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg said the Metro Council should not overly restrict the mayors office, while Councilman Matt Watson noted that all of the employees who have come back to work have no protections that prevent them from being fired.

While most government employees enjoy civil service protections, Baton Rouge department heads who have returned under retire/rehire serve at the pleasure of the mayors office, council or their appointing body.

If City Hall wants to make room for an up-and-coming employee, Watson said the administration or council who appointed their superior could fire the superior on the spot. The DDD also stood by its use of retire/rehire, saying Rhorer should be exempt from the proposal because the DDD board appoints him, not the mayors office or Metro Council.

Developer proposes new historic district centered around Government Street, east of I-110 A local developer and architect is working on establishing a new historic district east of Interstate 110 near downtown that aims to put much 

Davis Rhorer, the executive director, has been effectively leading the DDD for 30 years and he wants to continue to do this, said Ric Kearny, the DDD board chairman, who urged council members to vote against the ordinance.

Councilwoman Chauna Banks defended the proposed ordinance. She asked why council members were concerned about job security for some employees but not others, given that the Metro Council recently voted to gut the Office of Community Development. And Banks accused the retirees who have returned of being greedy.

Seven council members voted to delete the ordinance: Freiberg, Watson, Trae Welch, Scott Wilson, Buddy Amoroso, Dwight Hudson and Chandler Loupe. Collins-Lewis and Erika Green voted against the deletion. Wicker abstained, Banks did not vote and LaMont Cole was absent.

Collins-Lewis was still thinking about the ordinance after the debate ended and the council moved on.

I know that this is probably out of order, she said later in the meeting, but I am going to bring it back again, the ordinance. I am going to keep bringing it back.Former Baton Rouge resident Jason Triplett, 37, was video-recorded Tuesday night pushing a police wagon that had gotten stuck in the heavy snow. That alone wouldnt have made him famous, but he was wearing a stunningly appropriate costume  Queen Elsa from the Disney movie, Frozen.Six months after his death rocked the LSU campus and spurred some state lawmakers to action, an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury that investigated the alleged hazing of 18-year-old fraternity pledge Maxwell Gruver on Thursday indicted a former student with negligent homicide and three others with hazing.

Matthew Alexander Naquin, 20, is accused of negligent homicide, a felony that carries up to five years in prison, while Sean-Paul Gott, 21, Ryan Matthew Isto, 19, and Patrick Andrew Forde, 21, were charged on a misdemeanor hazing count, punishable by up to 30 days in jail.

Police had said Gruver, of Roswell, Georgia, was targeted by senior members of Phi Delta Theta in a hazing ritual they dubbed "Bible study" that required pledges to chug 190-proof liquor when they incorrectly answered questions about the fraternity.

Max Gruver's parents, Rae Ann and Stephen Gruver, traveled to Baton Rouge to attend the grand jury announcement  the first time they had been back since their son died Sept. 14.

"To me, the charges just don't fit the crime," Stephen Gruver said. "The punishment is practically nothing and our whole family has changed for the rest of our lives.  That's not a deterrent. The law needs to be substantive enough to make somebody think twice."

He said the family is advocating a change to state law that would make hazing a felony. They're also reaching out to other families affected by hazing and looking to spread the word about what happened to their son in hopes of "changing the culture" that led to his death.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III, whose prosecutors presented the case to the grand jury, agreed with the family that the hazing law needs to be strengthened.

"Our hazing statute is inadequate to cover the death of their son," Moore said. "It's not an appropriate penalty."

Can't see the video below? Click here.

A lawyer representing Naquin, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, said his client is innocent. Police reports said witnesses accused Naquin of being the most aggressive hazer during the party last September.

We are prepared to go to trial and show that Matthew did not commit negligent homicide, said John McLindon, his attorney.

The 11 grand jurors pretermitted  meaning they heard evidence but were unable to reach a consensus  on charges involving the three men charged with hazing, as well as others arrested in October by LSU Police in the incident.

The grand jury pretermitted on a negligent homicide charge against Isto and made the same decision on obstruction of justice and negligent homicide charges against Gott and Forde.

A lawyer representing Isto, of Canada, said he and his client were disappointed, but not surprised, by the hazing indictment.

The hazing statute is vague and confusing, and the grand jury, unfortunately, doesn't get to hear all the facts as would a jury or judge at trial, Michael Fiser wrote in an email. We never felt negligent homicide was remotely applicable to Isto under all the facts, and we look forward to moving ahead in this process to find closure for everyone involved in this tragic incident.

Kris Perret, who represents Patrick Forde, of Westwood, Massachusetts, said his client was not an LSU student and was no longer an active member of the fraternity at the time of Gruvers death.

Well discuss it with the District Attorneys Office at the appropriate time, he said of the hazing indictment against Forde.

Gott, of Lafayette, could not be reached for comment. Prosecutors said they have had no contact with an attorney for him.

The grand jury, which began its work in December, issued a no true bill for Nicholas Michael Taulli, 20, of Cypress, Texas, clearing him on a hazing charge. The grand jury did not consider charges against one man who was arrested last year: Sean Andrew Pennison, 21, of Mandeville. His attorney said prosecutors informed him Thursday that they would not seek to prosecute Pennison.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

The jurors also pretermitted after considering whether to render hazing charges against Hudson Brandt Kirkpatrick, 19, Zachary Tower Hall, 21, and Elliott Eaton, 20. They pretermitted as well on obstruction of justice and hazing charges considered against Zachary Antonio Castillo, 19.

Prosecutors also asked the grand jury to consider a misdemeanor charge of hazing against the LSU chapter of Phi Delta Theta, but the jurors pretermitted.

+13 Maxwell Gruver case: Gut-wrenching accounts of alleged hazing at Phi Delta Theta house One day in September, Maxwell Gruver received a phone message from a member of the fraternity he hoped to join.

An autopsy revealed Gruver's blood-alcohol content was 0.495 percent  more than six times the legal limit to drive. The parish coroner said his Sept. 14 death was an accident but could be attributed to alcohol poisoning and aspiration, meaning he suffocated on his own vomit.

Gruvers parents have said they don't believe their son would have voluntarily consumed that amount of alcohol.

LSU President F. King Alexander said in a written statement that the grand jurys decision furthers the fact that behaviors that threaten the safety of our students will not be tolerated.

Hazing is dangerous and unacceptable. We are taking necessary steps to change the culture on campus related to hazing and are currently in the implementation phase of our Task Force on Greek Lifes recommendations, he said.

In a recent policy change that Alexander said will be enforced with no exceptions, LSU students caught hazing will be expelled and the involved fraternities or other student organizations will be kicked off campus.

Aidan Reynolds, who represents Taulli, said the grand jury made the right call in clearing his client, who merely shuttled pledges to and from the fraternity house that night.

He is a great kid. I had no great concerns about him being formally charged with anything. He had no involvement whatsoever, Reynolds said.

Franz Borghardt, the attorney for Sean Pennison, said his client is relieved that prosecutors decided not to prosecute him. Ultimately we trusted the District Attorneys Office and the system and it worked, he said.

An attorney for Castillo, of Terrytown, said his client is thankful for the consideration and effort that the District Attorneys Office and grand jury put into the matter.

I agree with the grand jurors decision not to charge my client, Brian Capitelli said in an email. Zac and his family will continue to keep the Gruver family in their thoughts and prayers.

Rodney Messina, who represents Eaton, of New Orleans, said he was pleased with the grand jurys decision to pretermit on the hazing count they considered.

We dont know what the evidence is out there, he said. Unless theres some new evidence coming back, well just wait and see.

David Bourland, who represents Zachary Hall, of Charlotte, North Carolina, said he respects the grand jurys decision to pretermit on the hazing count against him.

Mr. Hall was always innocent. The indicting of (him)  would have made this more tragic, he said. Zachary was not involved and did not participate in any form or fashion. His heart goes out to Maxwell.

Mary Olive Pierson, one of the lawyers for Kirkpatrick, of Baton Rouge, said her client cooperated with authorities and was not involved in Gruvers death.

Were glad to get this behind him so he can continue with his studies, she said.

Naquin, Gott and Isto are no longer students at LSU.

Proposed bills calling for stiffer hazing penalties and protections for students who report dangerous behavior such as hazing are expected to be taken up during the three-month regular legislative session that began Monday.

After Gruver died, Phi Delta Theta's national headquarters pulled the fraternity from LSU's campus. Less than a year before his death, the fraternity had been temporarily suspended for complaints about hazing and drinking.Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionA Louisiana House panel on Wednesday swiftly approved of a bill that seeks to beef up how the state handles sexual harassment claims and institute new measures to prevent harassment.

House Bill 524 now heads to the full House for consideration, after sailing through the House and Governmental Affairs with no objection.

+2 Embattled Secretary of State Schedler: I'll finish term, won't seek re-election in 2019 After nearly a month of silence, Secretary of State Tom Schedler announced Wednesday that he will finish his current term but not seek re-elec

If it makes it into law, all public employees and elected officials would be required to undergo annual harassment prevention training and each agency head in state and local government would have to develop and institute policies to prevent sexual harassment.

Rep. Barbara Carpenter, D-Baton Rouge, said it was inspired by the "Me Too" movement that has propelled heightened discussions about and awareness of sexual harassment, particularly in the workplace.

"It will allow the agencies to analyze existing policies, make recommendations for training and improve" how the state handles harassment, she said.

It's here: What to expect as Louisiana Legislature's 3-month regular session kicks off Monday The Louisiana Legislature, fresh off a week-long break after the collapse of its recent special session, is heading back to the State Capitol 

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

Legislative panel begins review of state sexual harassment policies Legislators are looking for ways to improve sexual harassment policies in state government, amid an increased national interest in the issue.

No one spoke against the proposal during the committee's hearing.

Carpenter's bill, which was co-authored by Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, is the first to get a hearing in the State Capitol since lawmakers began the regular session on Monday, but several others have been filed and are awaiting action.

Multiple reviews of the state's sexual harassment policies were launched last fall, after a top aide to Gov. John Bel Edwards resigned amid an investigation into sexual harassment claims lodged against him. Johnny Anderson, who was the governor's deputy chief of staff at the time of the allegations, has denied any wrongdoing.

But the reviews found that the state lacked uniform policies and procedures for addressing claims of harassment and preventing harassment in the work place.

Records obtained by The Advocate though an open records request show the state has paid nearly $4 million to settle harassment claims since 2004.if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...Ganges Part 9: The Tortuous Trail For many long stretches we were alone. The Ganges River was on our right. Beyond it were mountains scarred with landslides and avalanches. Streams leapt over waterfalls and tumbled into...

Ganges Part 8: The Trail Begins The journey to the source of the Ganges River began with 220 steps from the Temple of Mother Ganga to the beginning of the trail. At an altitude of 9,813...Well, this is not the news we wanted to hear just before Paddy's Day.

It's just around the time of year when everyone is telling us how great Ireland is and how they wish they were Irish, too - but in fact, it seems like we're not that happy as a nation overall.

According to the World Happiness Report for 2018, Finland is the happiest country in the world - while Ireland ranks just 14th.

Ahead of Ireland are countries like Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada and Australia - although we are ahead of both the US (18th) and the UK (19th).

The least happy countries, meanwhile, are the politically violent and tumultuous Central African Republic and Burundi.

The report takes into account six factors - levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom, and corruption - when ranking each country. On a side note, Ireland was ranked as the 11th country 'most accepting of migrants.'

See the Top 10 below (with last year's ranking in brackets):

1. Finland (5)

2. Norway (1)

3. Denmark (2)

4. Iceland (3)

5. Switzerland (4)

6. Netherlands (6)

7. Canada (7)

8. New Zealand (8)

9. Sweden (10)

10. Australia (9)

Don't worry, lads. We'll get our revenge at Eurovision... right?

Via The Irish TimesIf you're planning a quiet one to ease your way into the Bank Holiday weekend then you could be doing worse than watching this Friday's Late Late Show.

Star Wars fans will be only delighted to hear that Luke Skywalker himself will be on the show as the one and only Mark Hamill will be joining Ryan for a chat. He will be talking about being part of the biggest film franchise in movie history and bringing the production to Ireland for those iconic scenes filmed on Skellig Michael. Well also be finding out whats next for him after the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi while Hamill is also in town as the St. Patricks Festival Inaugural International Guest of Honour.

Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham will also be in studio to chat about the parade as he is 2018's St. Patrick's Festival Grand Marshal. Of course, he will also be talking about the final season of Game of Thones, which is currently filming, and his role as Ser Davos Seaworth. A passionate advocate for human rights, hell also be sharing what he learned on a recent trip to Uganda and giving his thoughts on the scandals engulfing some of the charity organisations working in the developing world.

Cork woman Samantha Barry made headlines of her own earlier this year when she was appointed the new editor-in-chief of US magazine Glamour. Well be finding out how this 36-year-old from Ballincollig made it big in the US with an award-winning career that has taken her around the world. Shell be telling Ryan what its like to find yourself rubbing shoulders with Anna Wintour on the front row at New York Fashion Week and interviewing Donald Trump in a toilet in Miami.

As Daffodil Day approaches, Ryan will be joined in studio by some of those who have contributed to or benefitted from the fundraising and work carried out by the Irish Cancer Society.

Ryan will also be meeting teenagers Liam and Paddy Doran, boxers and members of the travelling community, who are the stars of a major new fashion campaign for British menswear brand Kent & Curwen.

Finally there will be music from Don McLean and Jake Carter.

Catch it all on The Late Late Show on Friday on RTE One at 9.35pm.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 08:08 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9e540f 4 Editorial #Editorial,paternity-leave,parents,#parents,#babies,baby Free

State encouragement of paternity leave has finally arrived in Indonesia, a historic move acknowledging a fact that women have known all too long: They cant manage alone. It seems to be a small, hesitant start. Based on a regulation of the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) late last year on leave of civil servants for important needs, men can apply for up to a months leave starting from before their wifes childbirth, beyond the two days currently provided in the Manpower Law. The Jakarta administration says it adopted the policy this year, though paternity leave is limited to just five days.

The policy shows symbolic government support for the employee welcoming his newborn, albeit limited to civil servants. Its at least a start to better recognize the needs of both mother and father in a childs life.

Fathers may still be reluctant to sign up for the leave, feeling either too busy with work or embarrassed to stay for an extended period of time at home. Few Japanese and South Korean men have applied for the leave, a study by Kyushu University found last year, blaming perceptions that their peers would disapprove, despite desperate government incentives to boost birthrates.

Similarly, our traditions have long kept fathers away from a more significant role in raising children. Even the 1974 Marriage Law states the wife is obligated to arrange household affairs as best as possible.

Other local administrations should also enforce paternity leave, certainly longer than five days, because women fresh from giving birth need support after the first weeks  often when the mother or mother-in-law is preparing to leave. While recuperating and taking care of the new infant is a great challenge, there is also the housework and often other children to care of, although some can afford domestic helpers. The challenge is at least two-fold following childbirth involving a caesarian section.

Therefore, the private sector also needs to do everything it can to offer paternity leave. A few private companies, including PT IBM Indonesia and PT Johnson & Johnson, were among the first to issue paternity leave, proving theres no need to wait for specific rules and bylaws. Apart from paternity leave PT Unilever Indonesia has extended maternity leave from the mandatory three months to four months; Aceh province has regulated six months maternity leave for civil servants.

Similar incentives are crucial to retain women in the workforce. A whopping 40 percent of women of productive age leave work for at least one year after their first childbirth, according to demographer Ariane Utomo, citing last years study under the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Economic Governance. Employers naturally fret about replacing the women employees talent and experience, especially given our female labor participation rate is chronically stuck at around 50 percent.

Women have said they would gladly pitch in to the economy, even while seeking income at home. Governments have been slow to realize whats holding them back. At least now men will be able to enjoy fatherhood along with the hectic days and nights in welcoming their baby.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Yoes C. Kenawas (The Jakarta Post) Evanston, Illinois  Thu, March 15, 2018 17:21 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca01d4d 3 Opinion women-empowerment,regional-economy,Indonesian-politics,democracy,women-in-politics Free

Amid the hype of the 2018 International Womens Day, the picture of Indonesian womens representativeness in regional elections is grim. In 2010, Indonesian expert in gender and politics Hana Satriyo wrote about the underrepresentation of women in regional elections. The picture is not much different today, and it will not change anytime soon.

We need a radical preferential policy to increase women's representativeness in local politics. A 50 percent quota system is an ideal way to do so. That is, every pair of candidate in direct local elections should include at least one female, running as either chief executive (governor, mayor, regent) or deputy. In doing so, the proportion of women in sub-national executive leadership would automatically increase. This sounds dramatic but its not new. Nevertheless, a crucial problem exists: this kind of quota has never been implemented anywhere in the world. More importantly, in todays male-dominated politics, achieving such kind of quota system would be very difficult, if not impossible.

In legislative elections, a 30 percent gender quota obligates every political party to include at least 30 percent women in political parties organizational structure at the national level, and to nominate at least 30 percent women as legislative candidates in an electoral district. Additionally, Indonesian election law has the zipper system, with the obligation for political parties to include at least one female candidate among every three nominated candidates on each party's list. As a result of these pro-women policies, the number of women legislators in the national parliament has slightly increased, although still below expectation. In 2004, the percentage of women legislators was 11.2 percent. In 2009, the proportion of women legislations increased to 18.2 percent and slightly decreased to 17.3 percent in the 2014 elections.

Unfortunately, the General Elections Commission's (KPU) data shows only 94 female and 930 male candidates are verified to participate in the upcoming direct local elections. In other words, the proportion of female candidates is less than 10 percent of the total verified candidates. Of course, not all of the female candidates will win, which translates to an even smaller percentage of elected women.

Arguably, governors, mayors, and regents have a more strategic position than national and local parliaments for producing regulations that deal with womens everyday life. The male-dominated regional politics have contributed to local regulations that discriminate against women. Local bylaws on appropriate public dress code in Aceh, South Sumatra, Mandailing Natal in North Sumatra and Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, or bylaws banning women from being outside their homes after10 pm and 11 pm in Tangerang and Banda Aceh respectively, are examples of bylaws with a prejudice against women. The National Commission on Violence Against Women listed 421 discriminatory policies against women and minorities at the regional level from 2009 to 2016.

Worse, from the 95 female candidates running in the upcoming elections, at least 46 are part of political dynasties. They are wives, daughters, sisters, or a niece of male incumbents who are unable to run because they have reached their term-limit. So far women of such dynasties have largely been little more than puppets of their male family members. They are more concerned with protecting their families' politico-economic interests than promoting a womens agenda. The case of the former regent of Cimahi in West Java, Atty Suharty -- who was sentenced to four years in a corruption case along with her husband Itoc Tohija, her predecessor, who got seven years -- is a prime example of male family members exploiting the political position of a female leader.

So in the next local elections we can only be more hopeful in better chances of elected leaders prioritizing womens needs if the other 49 female candidates win. Yet they have a smaller chance of winning than those with the powerful links to the local dynasties given greater amount of political resources and networks inherited from male family members who have already occupied office. Introducing an improved quota system can help non-dynasty female candidates to break the structural barriers to enter politics at the regional level.

To be sure, there is no guarantee that more women as local leaders will automatically improve women's rights at the regional level. Also, there is a fierce debate on the long-term benefit of quota systems for women. However, if the political arena remains extremely dominated by men who never experience the hardships of being a woman, then the prospects of having more women-friendly local regulations will be even grimmer.

The world has no precedent for adopting a 50 percent gender quota for executive leaders, and therefore there is no empirical evidence of effects. However, one thing is certain: in a male-dominated political system, the advancement of women's rights moves at a snail pace, in well-established as well as emerging democracies. Should Indonesia be the first country to introduce a radical quota system for the advancement of women's rights, its success may inspire other countries to follow her path.

***

The writer is a political science graduate student Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.A total of 20 restaurants in Taipei, including five that serve Japanese food, received accolades in the inaugural edition of the Michelin guide for Taipei released Wednesday.

Touting the launch of the guide as a "truly historic event," Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guide, told a press conference in Taipei that Taiwanese food can now take its rightful place on the international stage.

"The food in Taiwan is vibrant, dynamic and delicious," he said. "That 20 restaurants obtain Michelin stars means that Taiwanese cuisine has now entered the area of being truly recognized as world class."

Among the 20 restaurants, only one, Le Palais, gained the top honor of three stars.

One star refers to a very good restaurant. Two stars refer to excellent cooking worth a detour, while three stars refer to exceptional cuisine worth a special journey.

Chef Ken Chan of Le Palais, a Cantonese restaurant, said he felt totally surprised and honored to receive the accolade.

Chan, who emigrated from Hong Kong some 30 years ago, said the top rating definitely put him under more pressure, but he will continue to do a good job and provide customers with good food.

Shoun RyuGin, one of the two restaurants that gained two stars, offers "innovative interpretations of Japanese cooking."

Chef Ryohei Hieda told reporters that obtaining the two-star status was recognition of his work.

When asked about his future goal, the young chef said that his motto has been to "do a better job tomorrow than yesterday," so his goal will be to provide customers with better food on a daily basis.

Read also: Michelin guide to launch in Taipei

Born in 1981 in Nagasaki, Hieda began his professional career 18 years ago when he apprenticed at a famous restaurant in Kyoto. Hieda joined Nihonryori RyuGin, a three-Michelin star restaurant in Tokyo, in 2008 and there acquired profound knowledge and techniques from founder chef Seiji Yamamoto.

When Yamamoto opened his second overseas restaurant in Taipei in 2014, he appointed Hieda as chef de cuisine at Shoun RyuGin.

Yamamoto defines the main theme of his restaurants on his website as "to pursue every single possibility of Japanese cuisine" and his mission as a chef "to share the richness of Japanese cuisine with others and make it a universal language."

In addition, 17 other restaurants were awarded one star, including four Japanese restaurants.

Taipei is the 31st city in the world and seventh Asian city to be rated by Michelin, following Thailand's Bangkok.

Tokyo was the first Asian city to have a red guide, followed by Hong Kong/Macao, Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai.

As Taiwan is also famous for street food, Michelin launched last week its Big Gourmand restaurant guide featuring 26 restaurants at moderate prices and 10 street food from night markets.Tourists whove traveled to Hanoi to eat at the same spot where former US President Barack Obama and chef Anthony Bourdain famously sat are in for some disappointment.

The restaurant in the Vietnamese capital where the two personalities had dinner in 2016 has sealed their table and chairs in a glass case.

One of the crew members who filmed them snapped the restaurants displayeven the dishes and bottles of beer that they used are preserved in the glass container.

Read also: Anthony Bourdain's Singapore-style hawker project at Manhattan's Pier 57 a no-go

Bourdain shared this on his Instagram account with the caption, Not sure how I feel about this.

The celebrity chef treated Obama to a $6 bun cha meal. The meal consisted of grilled pork, rice noodles, herbs, dressing and dipping sauce.

According to Bourdain, Obama was skillful with the chopsticks and had a second serving.

The former President was then on an official visit, while Bourdain was filming for his food travelogue Parts Unknown.

After their visit the restaurant, Bun Cha Huong Lien, released a meal called Combo Obama, which consists of noodles, deep-fried spring rolls and a Hanoi beer.Artist Dyan Anggraini always pours her heart out onto her canvas.

Dyan recently expressed her feelings during her exhibition, titled Perempuan (di) Borobudur (Women [in] Borobudur), at the National Gallery of Indonesia in Jakarta.



A retired bureaucrat, Dyan can leave her civil servant uniform at home in Yogyakarta, but not her brushes and canvas. In April, the 61-year-old will return to the capital city to hold a joint exhibition with her group, Kelompok Lima Putri (Five Girls Group), at Bentara Budaya Jakarta.

Read also: An ode to the unsung heroines of Borobudur

Our first exhibition was at Senisono art center in Yogyakarta in 1980, the mother of three said.



As an artist, Dyan is known for raising issues she witnessed in government institutions, from the laziness of civil servants, bureaucracy and nepotism to corruption.



For example, in a painting of a man wearing a mask and a white shirt with a blue cloth over his shoulder, which depicts a civil servant uniform, his arms are folded together across his chest as if he feels he is in a superior position.



Dyan named the painting Priyayi (Nobleman), a title that many artists believe is a satire of civil servants who act like a boss to the people they are supposed to serve.

The painting is interesting because it was made when Dyan was still active as a civil servant, a profession she started in 1989.

Priyayi (Nobleman) by Dyan Anggraini (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

Days before retiring, she made a series of drawings that she named Kor Bungkam (The Chorus of Silence). The paper she used was from letters she had received or issued when she was a bureaucrat.



On a letter that appointed her to be the head of the Yogyakarta Cultural Park (TBY), for example, she drew her face speaking, but with a cloth covering her mouth as if it was trying to stop her from talking.



Since 1980, Dyan has held five solo exhibitions and participated in 136 group exhibitions. She always invited her colleagues in the government, but few of them came.

I do not have [many] friends, she said.



Dyan, who is soft-spoken, said her paintings aimed to express the ups and downs she faced in her 24 years of serving the country.



After office hours, she tinkered with a canvas, brushes and paint in a studio she had set up near her workroom at TBY.



I am an introvert, but if I feel somethings wrong, Ill say it.



When undertaking her second term as the head of TBY, she was suddenly reshuffled in 2011.



They indeed wanted me to leave TBY.

Kor Bungkam (The Chorus of Silence) by Dyan Anggraini (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

Born in Kediri, East Java, Dyan found her passion for art from her father, painter Rais Rayan, one of the first batches of students of the Indonesian Fine Arts Academy (ASRI), the countrys first fine arts campus, now known as the Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI).



At 5 years old, she learned to draw with her fathers students at his studio, Sanggar 64, in Kediri. She also liked to dance.



When I was in sixth grade, I taught other children to dance at my school, Taman Siswa, she said.



After graduating from high school, she continued her studies in ASRI in 1976, majoring in painting, to color the countrys art scene, which was dominated by male artists at that time.



Studying art in the era of the authoritarian New Order regime was not easy, she said, adding that at that time, the police acted like curators because they would check artists works when they asked for permission to hold an exhibition.



She said she was lucky because at her class, she was surrounded by critical friends. They had the courage to express their pain and unease, and criticize the countrys second president, Soeharto, through their works.



Dyan is no different, but she was more fortunate because she, unlike her friends, was not arrested or suspended.

Dyan Anggraini (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

Being raised by a family in democratic way made Dyan sensitive to social issues, such as the struggle of women in a patriarchal society.



Perempuan (di) Borobudur, for example, highlighted the fight of craftswomen living in villages around Borobudur temple in Magelang, Central Java.



In the exhibition, she displayed many paintings of women wearing masks. For her, using different masks meant expressing different feelings.



If our basic character is gentle, it does not mean that we have to act gently all the time. If we are angry, we have to express it by wearing a mask of anger because we see something wrong, she said.

Dyan also likes to paint paper boats or make art installations depicting them.



A paper boat is fragile because it can be easily broken when it floats. But it can tell a story because we can write it on the paper, she said.



In her mind, government institutions are fragile like paper boats, as they are vulnerable to negative influences.



Among the artists who have followed Dyans artistic journey is curator Kuss Indarto.



For Kuss, her biggest contribution is facilitating the founding of the Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation, which organizes contemporary arts program Biennale Jogja.



To hold Biennale Jogja, [the committee] got only Rp 100 million (US$7,280). After the foundation was formed, the funds exceeded Rp 1.5 billion. That is a huge increase, he said.



Dyan, he said, had also initiated Pasar Kangen Jogja (Jogja Longing Market) to conserve traditional foods, beverages and toys on the brink of extinction.



Kuss recalled that Dyan had always attended events held at TBY whether she was invited or not  something that was meaningful for artists because they felt appreciated.



All artists feel that they have a mother [in Dyan] at TBY, he said.It was the eye-roll that launched a thousand gifs.

China's censors are scrambling to put a lid on a social media frenzy unleashed by a journalist's reaction to a softball question during the mostly scripted annual parliament session.

Impeccably coiffed and sporting a bright blue suit jacket, Yicai financial news service reporter Liang Xiangyi sighed and raised a sceptical eyebrow at another journalist's query to a delegate at a National People's Congress press event Tuesday.

As the question about China's Belt and Road infrastructure project dragged on for 45 seconds, Liang grimaced, glanced sideways to give the woman dressed in red a disbelieving once-over, and concluded with a majestic, head-turning eye-roll.

Caught on camera by state broadcaster CCTV, the moment at the usually staid Great Hall of the People went viral and turned Liang into an instant online celebrity.

Social media platforms were flooded with gifs, cartoons and parody reenactments, with people dressed in red and blue. Some began superimposing footage of her eye-roll on clips of celebrities spouting nonsense.

Liang's image was plastered onto T-shirts and cellphone cases sold on Taobao, China's ever-reactive eBay equivalent.

But China maintains tight control of its internet and is extremely wary of viral stories about politically sensitive subjects like the NPC.

By evening, Liang's name had become the most-censored term on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.

And on Wednesday, authorities released an "urgent notice" prohibiting all discussion of her in all mainland media outlets.

"Anything already posted must be deleted. Without exception, websites must not hype the episode," according to the US-based China Digital Times, which posted the leaked directive.

Read also: China 'winning' war on smog, helping life expectancy: Study

- 'In the hearts of the nation' -

This year's NPC gathering has been historic.

A vote Sunday abolished rules limiting heads of state to 10 years in power, setting President Xi Jinping on a course to potentially rule the country for life.

On Tuesday, the congress also unveiled plans for the biggest shakeup of government structures in at least a decade, including the merger of its banking and insurance regulators to better handle financial risks.

But Liang's epic eye-roll has now grabbed the limelight.

"With this outfit and your meaningful expression, you've left a deep impression in the hearts of the whole nation's people," wrote one of thousands of commenters on her Weibo account, which had soared to over 200,000 followers.

Zhang Huijun, the reporter who posed the long-winded question, works for American Multimedia Television (AMTV), a Los Angeles-based company whose website describes itself as a CCTV partner.

Reporters from media outlets based abroad but with ties back to China's state media apparatus are often called on at government events so that Beijing can appear to cede the floor to "foreign" journalists -- who will nonetheless toe the party line.

Read also: The world of online games arrives in China for WESG Grand Final

- Unknown fate -

A leaked screenshot of an Yicai group chat showed Liang explaining herself.

"Her question was even longer than the answer," she said, using a colourful obscenity to describe Zhang and calling her "stupid".

Yicai Media declined to comment and the NPC press office said they did not know anything about rumours that Liang's press credentials were revoked.

AFP journalists did not see Liang or Zhang during a session on Wednesday of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top political advisory board that holds its annual session at the same time as the NPC.

Online commenters were sympathetic to Liang.

"Sister, if you've lost your job," one fan told her, "you can always work in social media"A species of spotted marsupial devastated by foxes has been returned to the wild in mainland Australia for the first time in almost 50 years in a rare and landmark conservation success story.

The eastern quoll -- a furry carnivore about the size of a domestic cat -- disappeared from the mainland in the 1960s but clung on in the island state of Tasmania.

They have now been re-introduced to their native environment on the country's east coast after a 15-year project to bring feral predators in one area under control.

Twenty of the cute critters were released into the Booderee National Park, south of Sydney, this week.

"This is the first time in Australia that a carnivore extinct on the mainland has been re-introduced to the wild," WWF-Australia's head of living ecosystems Darren Grover said Thursday.

"Most of the carnivores lost from the mainland are gone forever, its not possible to bring them back, so this is a rare opportunity.

Read also: Outrage after koala found screwed to pole in Australia

"For thousands of years eastern quolls played a part in the ecosystem as primarily insect-eaters. It will be fascinating to see what happens when they return to that role at Booderee."

Australian National University researcher Natasha Robinson said the quolls, which tend to live alone, had been fitted with GPS collars so their progress could be closely monitored.

"Over the next three months the eastern quolls will be intensively monitored via GPS tracking and then regularly monitored over three years," she said.

"Foxes, both outside and entering the park will also be monitored and managed with the aim of ensuring fox incursion to the park is very limited.

"This will help us understand how resilient the eastern quolls can be to very low densities of feral predators in the landscape."

Large numbers of eastern quolls were killed in the early 1900s by a mysterious epidemic, and their population was then devastated as foxes spread across south-eastern Australia.

They were last regularly seen in the 1960s in the Sydney region.Global warming could place 25 to 50 percent of species in the Amazon, Madagascar and other biodiverse areas at risk of localised extinction within decades, a report said yesterday.

The lower projection is based on a mercury rise of 2 degrees Celcius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels - the warming ceiling the world's nations agreed on in 2015. The highest is for out-of-control warming of 4.5 deg C.

"Global biodiversity will suffer terribly over the next century unless we do everything we can," said conservation group WWF, which commissioned the analysis published in science journal Climatic Change.

"We must keep average global temperatures down to the absolute minimum."

The report focused on 33 so-called "Priority Places" which host some of the world's richest and most unusual terrestrial species, including iconic, endangered or endemic plants and animals.

Read also: Global warming will expose millions more to floods

They include southern Chile, the eastern Himalayas, South Africa's unique Fynbos eco-region, Borneo, Sumatra, the Namibian desert, West Africa, south-west Australia, coastal East Africa, and southern Africa's Miombo woodlands.

The team looked at the impact of climate change on nearly 80,000 terrestrial plant, mammal, bird, amphibian and reptile species.

At warming of 4.5 deg C, based on a "business-as-usual" scenario of no emissions cuts, the Amazon could risk the local extinction of 69 per cent of its plant species.

The Miombo Woodlands risks losing 90 percent of its amphibians, 86 percent of birds, and 80 percent of mammals, said the report.

Limiting warming to 2 degrees Celcius would enable many species to continue inhabiting the areas they currently occupy, according to the report.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Star/ANN) Putrajaya, Malaysia  Thu, March 15, 2018 11:22 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9ed097 2 World #Malaysia,#SaudiArabia,#Terrorism,#bilateral Free

Malaysia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to raise their level of co-operation in this area through shared intelligence and networking, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said after meeting visiting Saudi Arabia Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud on Wednesday.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said their discussions focused mainly on security.

We have agreed to strengthen bilateral co-operation on anti-terrorism and cross-border crimes. This will be on top of the security cooperation agreement, which both nations signed in 2011, he said.

The princes three-day visit to Malaysia is the first since his appointment as Interior Minister in June.

Ahmad Zahid said he also took the opportunity to share Malaysias experience in deradicalization efforts and offered the module to Saudi Arabia.

In addition to Bahasa Malaysia and English, the module is also available in Arabic and French.

We highly appreciate the co-operation that we have with Saudi Arabia to fight crime and terror. I also pointed out to Prince Abdulaziz that Malaysia places great emphasis on its relations with countries in the Middle East, he said.

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This article appeared on The Star newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta PostShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 14:00 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f5f7c 1 City Tanah-Abang,road-closure,lawsuit,angkot,anies-baswedan Free

In response to a court challenge from angkot (public minivan) drivers, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has said he would follow the legal process.

We will respect the legal process, Anies said at City Hall recently, as quoted by tempo.co.

On Tuesday, a representative of public minivan drivers serving the Tanah Abang route, Abdul Rosyid, filed a lawsuit with the Central Jakarta District Court against Anies decision to close Jl. Jatibaru Raya in the textile market area to accommodate street vendors in December last year.

The drivers also named Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo and Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi in their lawsuit, said the drivers lawyer Ferdian Sustanto.

Before filing the lawsuit, the drivers, with the help of their lawyers, had sent a reprimand letter to the governor on March 7, demanding the reopening of Jl. Jatibaru Raya.

The letter demanded that Anies reopen the road within five days of receiving it, or else the drivers would legally sue the governor. (vny)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 22:38 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca0f565 1 National saracen,Asma-Dewi,hate-speech,Facebook Free

The South Jakarta District Court sentenced Asma Dewi on Thursday to five months and 15 days in jail for using the words koplak (loosely translated to stupid) and edun (loosely translated to crazy) to criticize the government on Facebook.

Asma was found guilty of violating Article 207 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) for insulting those in power or legal institutions.

Upon her arrest in September 2017, police said she was possibly linked to the Saracen group, a news outlet accused of producing hate speech. The police said Asma sent money to Saracen.

However, Asmas lawyers later said the polices dossiers and the indictment against Asma did not mention anything about Saracen or money.

During Thursdays hearing, the judges said Asmas criticism on Facebok was not constructive. Dont use koplak or edun, which can be construed as insulting according to this article, said presiding judge Aris Bawono as quoted by kompas.com.

The judge said both words were not in the Indonesian official dictionary, but both had negative connotations.

Koplak can mean many things: stupid, imbecile, strange, not right in the head, he said.

Asmas sentence takes into account her detention period, therefore she may walk away free.

The sentence was lighter than the two years imprisonment and Rp 300 million fine sought by prosecutors. (evi)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 13:15 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f43e2 4 Business ride-hailing-application,roadworthiness-test,drivers-licenses,regulation Free

The Transportation Ministry in April will start ticketing ride-hailing drivers who violate the rules as stated in Transportation Ministerial Regulation No. 108/2018 on non-route public transportation.

The ministry will pay particular attention to drivers who do not have a driver's license for public transportation (SIM A general) and the document that demonstrates the vehicle has passed a roadworthy test, said Transportation Ministry land road transportation director general Budi Setiyadi in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He said there was no reason for drivers to violate the rules as the government had helped them and the vehicle owners by providing cheap drivers licenses and free roadworthy tests.

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi instructed me to complete the issuing [of driver's licenses and vehicle roadworthiness documents] in March so that in April we can start ticketing [violators], said Budi as reported by tribunnews.com

The ministry has started deploying officers on roads to advise ride-hailing drivers who do not have the two documents. The officers currently only issue warning tickets to the drivers.

Budi said the ministry had recorded a high demand for the two documents as the deadline was approaching. He said in Jakarta alone, 18,000 roadworthy documents for ride-hailing vehicles had been issued and about 1,000 drivers had also obtained their new drivers licenses. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 17:23 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca02638 1 National bali,family-planning,Bali-gubernatorial-candidate,keluarga-berencana,culture,culture-and-tradition,I-Wayan-Koster,2018-regional-election,2018-Bali-gubernatorial-election Free

Bali gubernatorial candidate I Wayan Koster has said the national family planning program needs to be reformed to make it more suited to the culture of the province.

He said Indonesias family planning program, which encourages married couple to have only two children, defied the customs and traditions of Balinese society, which includes naming children according to the order in which they are born.

If the current program is followed, there will be no more Nyomans, Komangs or Ketuts in the future, Koster said, as quoted by Antara, after meeting with Banjar Bengkel residents in Antiga village, Karangasem, on Wednesday.

According to Balinese culture, each family ideally consists of four children, with the first child named Gede, Putu or Wayan while Made or Kadek is the name given to the second child. Meanwhile, the third child will be called either Nyoman or Komang and the fourth child will be named Ketut.

Koster and his running mate, Tjok Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, have claimed they were aiming to build a better Bali by promoting the richness of the island's nature, culture and people through a program called Nangun Sat Kerthi Loka Bali.

Having more children will not lead families into poverty. We will still help them pay for their schooling, healthcare and housing needs. There is nothing to worry about, said Koster, who is also a House of Representatives member. (ebf)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 17:34 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca02d0f 1 World Malaysia,Foreign-Affairs-Ministry,Foreign-Ministry,Indonesian-migrant-workers,Penang,BNP2TKI Free

The Foreign Ministry facilitated the transport of the remains of Santi Restauli Simbolon, an Indonesian worker who was allegedly murdered in Penang, Malaysia, on Thursday, asserting that it would closely follow all developments in the case.

Santi is suspected to have been murdered by her boyfriend, a Nepalese citizen. Her remains were found in a cupboard on Tuesday.

Ministry official Judha Nugraha accompanied Santis body to Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, and handed it over to her family and representatives from the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI).

We will help claim the rights of the deceased, including insurance payments. We will also guard the legal process to make sure that all perpetrators are arrested and punished, Judha told Santis family.

The ministry's overseas citizen protection director, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said Santi was a 25-year-old legal migrant worker who worked as a factory machine operator in Penang.

Penang police officers estimated that Santi died two to three day prior to her remains being discovered on Tuesday. The police have detained two Nepalese men for questioning.

George Town OCPD Asst Comm. Anuar Omar said the police arrested the two suspects, who were believed to be friends of Santis boyfriend, The Star Malaysia reported

Anuar said police were looking for Santis boyfriend, Sandip Gurung, 27, a Nepalese citizen. (ebf)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 17:07 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca01249 1 Business bri,lost-funds,skimming,customers,Kediri,East-Java Free

State-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) claims it has compensated all of its customers who have been victims of skimming, while pledging to improve its security by installing state-of-the-art technology and holding routine patrols.

On Monday, dozens of BRI customers in Kediri, East Java, reported a loss of funds, ranging from Rp 500,000 (US$36.40) to Rp 10 million per person.

There was one ATM skimming case [in Kediri], but we have identified and caught the perpetrator, BRI president director Suprajarto said on Thursday at the Presidential Palace complex. We have reimbursed all of the lost funds. Its just around Rp 100 million.

Bank Indonesia stated that lenders could prevent skimming if they followed the National Standard Indonesian Chip Card Specification (NSICCS), which was introduced last year, because chip cards were more secure compared to magnetic-stripe cards.

However, Suprajarto said it would take time for BRI to replace customers old magnetic-stripe cards with the new chip cards because the lender had about 50 million customers at present.

The implementation [of the chip-card policy] has only reached around 5 percent. But hopefully, we can complete it by mid-2019. Other banks might have set a deadline in 2022, but we want to expedite this as soon as possible, he added. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Zheng Yiran and Ouyang Shijia (China Daily/Asia News Network) Beijing, China  Thu, March 15, 2018 11:52 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9ed805 2 Business #China,#beijing,#cooperation,#economy,#EconomicPolicy Free

The past four years have witnessed positive outcomes of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the three areas plan to further strengthen cooperation, to improve the overall competitiveness as a potential world-class city cluster, said officials on the sidelines of the ongoing first session of the 13th National Peoples Congress.

Yang Maorong, head of the Tianjin Binhai New Area, said that with the aim of promoting regional coordinated development, we have set up the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park, integrating the innovative achievements and resources from Beijing with Tianjins advanced manufacturing capacity and thus bringing the utmost benefits to both parties.

Yang, who is also an NPC deputy, noted that in the future, Hebei, Tianjin and Beijing are expected to make full use of their respective advantages, and boost joint development with concerted efforts, further realizing the nations Made in China 2025 strategy, as well as creating an internationally oriented platform for reform and opening-up.

Zhang Gong, vice-mayor of Beijing, agreed. In the past three years, Beijing has injected a total of 560 billion yuan (US$88 billion) into Tianjin and Hebei, further deepening the industrial integration among the regions. To date, companies from the Zhongguancun Science Park have set up more than 6,100 subsidiaries in the two regions.

Last November marked the first anniversary of the establishment of the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park, where many enterprises have benefited from the integration of innovative and industrial resources from Beijing and Tianjin.

The reason why we choose to bring our company here is that we see the science park as an industry agglomeration district where science, technology, healthcare and finance industries can develop alongside each other, said Ning Shuxing, chief executive officer of Enduxinneng (Tianjin) Tech Co Ltd, a big data company that has just entered the Tianjin (Binhai)Zhongguancun Science Park.

Liu Qi, general manager of Sublue Tech Co Ltd, an underwater robot company that was set up in the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park last March, agreed.

He said that he and his team were attracted to the science park because they get favourable policies from not only the science park, but also from the Binhai New Area and Tianjin.

Our employees in the Binhai New Area get subsidies for three consecutive years. The annual living allowances for each employee with a bachelors degree, a masters degree, and a PhD are 12,000 yuan, 24,000 yuan and 36,000 yuan respectively. The company also receives construction and rent subsidies, Liu said.

Duan Haibo, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, told the Xinhua News Agency that the Tianjin (Binhai)-Zhongguancun Science Park plays a crucial role in deepening the innovative collaboration between Beijing and Tianjin, as well as accelerating regional transformation and industrial upgrading of the two regions.

According to Duan, the enactment of the governments favourable policies in the future will promote more cooperation between Beijing and the Binhai New Area by docking resources from the two regions, setting up industrial development foundations, as well as promoting communication between research institutes from Beijing and Tianjin, to build a cross-region innovation and entrepreneurship ecological system.

Besides, monthly intercity railway tickets between Beijing and Binhai have been issued to attract talents from Beijing to start businesses in the new area. Binhai also canceled driving restrictions in the new area for cars with a Beijing license, Yang added.

Beijing and Tianjins efforts for coordinated development were echoed by what has taken place in Hebei. Yuan Tongli, vice-governor of Hebei province, said that during the past four years, Hebei has been sparing no efforts to contribute to the joint growth of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the province had witnessed significant progress on many fronts, including transportation, industrial manufacturing, education, healthcare as well as the environment.

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This article appeared on the China Daily newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta PostShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15 2018

Dawn had just broken on Saturday morning when hundreds of students, all wearing white T-shirts, from 64 high schools across Jakarta were already swarming beneath 64 pillars along Jl. Antasari in South Cipete subdistrict, Cilandak, South Jakarta.



The students were about to paint the pillars with pictures related to Jakartas urban life and Betawi tradition. The murals, according to the city administration, were part of their plan to beautify the city.



Among t...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 15:30 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9fcfe2 1 City drug-dealer,arrest,East-Jakarta Free

The National Police arrested on Wednesday a suspected drug dealer in the parking lot of Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) cultural park, East Jakarta.

The suspect was carrying with him 10 kilograms of methamphetamine and four packets of ecstasy, the polices narcotics division deputy chief Sr. Comr. Krisno Siregar confirmed.

The case is still under development, Krisno said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

An amateur video recording showed a man being detained in the Snow Bay TMII parking lot, with plainclothes officers searching his bag, which was found to be filled with drugs.

The suspect was arrested as he was walking out of the attraction to his car, allegedly to complete a drug transaction in the TMII grounds.

The suspect was taken to the Cawang Narcotics division headquarters in East Jakarta for further questioning. (jlm)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 10:41 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9eb385 4 National drug-trafficking,West-Kalimantan,Pontianak,Malaysia Free

A foreign national, identified as Ng Eng Aun, aka Piter, was shot dead by a joint team from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), the Police and the Customs Office after he resisted a drug trafficking-related arrest at a hotel in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on Tuesday.

BNN drug eradication deputy chief Insp. Gen. Arman Depari said the arrest had been made after the law enforcers had previously rounded up another suspect, Edy Aris Wicaksono, on Jl. Trans Kalimantan in Kubu Raya regency. Inside Edys car, the investigators found two kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally known as sabu sabu, and over 30,000 ecstasy pills.

As has been the modus operandi in past cases, the drugs were hidden under piles of various supplies to avoid police searches, Arman was quoted as saying by kompas.com in a press conference at the West Kalimantan Police headquarters on Wednesday.

Edy told the investigators that Piter had given him instructions to transport the drug. Law enforcers tracked Piter and found him in a hotel. The officers shot Piter dead after he resisted arrest and attempted to escape.

Arman said that Piter, believed to be a Malaysian national, was wanted by the law enforcers related to another drug smuggling case involving 25 kilograms of crystal meth at the border area.

According to Arman, the drug smugglers had apparently shifted to land routes to avoid the massive trafficking crackdown across Indonesias waters that was recently launched by the authorities. In the latest major drug bust, the police and customs officers thwarted an attempt to smuggle 1.8 tons of crystal meth by boat in Natuna waters.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 14:15 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f85b5 1 City gambling,Central-Jakarta,arrest Free

A gambling ring uncovered by the Jakarta Police in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta on Wednesday employed as many as 10 spies as lookouts.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Thursday that the spies were spread across the alleys in the area to monitor the movement of strangers.

Their job was to be on the lookout for any suspicious individuals traversing the area. They communicated via cellphone in case of someone entering the alley, said Argo as quoted by kompas.com, noting that each spy was paid from Rp 100,000 (US$7.25) to Rp 200,000 per day to secure the gambling den, which had been operating for about a year.

According to Argo, police detained the spies and confiscated their phones, and then moved to raid the gambling premises.

From the raid, police arrested 85 men and women in the midst of gambling. They are currently being questioned further, as the police has not yet determined the scope of the rings profits.

Police also confiscated Rp 300 million in cash, gambling equipment, cellphones and a logbook.

The suspects have been charged under Article 303 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp 25 million. (jlm)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 17:46 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca031a2 2 Business Java-1-power-plant,general-electric,Samsung,EPC-ngineering-procurement-construction Free

The developer of the Java 1 combined-cycle power plant, claimed to be the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia, has granted an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth US$900 million to a consortium consisting of General Electric (GE), Samsung C&T and PT Meindo Elang Indah.

PT Jawa Satu Power, a joint venture between state-owned energy giant Pertamina and Japans Marubeni and Sojitz Corporation, is currently in the process of developing the Java 1 power plant in Karawang, West Java, with a total investment value of around $1.8 billion.

The Java 1 facility, expected to commence operations in mid-2021, will have a total capacity of 1,760 megawatts (MW), enough to supply electricity to about 11 million households in Indonesia.

Efficiency in power plants is important to maintain competitive and affordable electricity rates for the public. Our high-efficiency gas turbine called GE 9HA.02 and asset performance management software will play their role for those purposes, GE Indonesia president and CEO Handry Satriago said in a statement on Thursday.

Jawa Satu Power president director Ginanjar has high hopes that GEs gas turbines will provide reliable and clean energy to the public.

It has also signed a 25-year agreement with GE Power Services, which provides operations and maintenance management for gas plant assets. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 15:15 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9fc32f 1 Business property,broker,closure,license,Trade-Ministry Free

The Trade Ministry has stopped the operation of two property brokers -- Chika Property and ERA Peak  as the managements failed to show their business licenses.

Trade Ministry trade compliance director Veri Anggriono said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the ministry found that the two businesses had not obtained licenses.

We are protecting customers by requiring that businesses operate in accordance with the existing regulations, Veri told reporters, adding that Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 51/M-DAG/PER/72017 required property brokers to obtain business licenses.

He stressed that the two property brokers were prohibited from operating until they obtained valid licenses.

If within two to three days they can show their business licenses, they can resume their operation, Veri said, adding that if they continued to operate without a license, they may face criminal charges.

Robert Kaonang of Chika Property said that his company had been trying to obtain the business license because the Indonesian Real Estate and Broker Association (Arebi) had warned him to do so.

There should have been a notice about this raid. I will discuss with the association (Arebi) first, Robert said. Meanwhile, ERA Peak declined to comment on the issue when The Jakarta Post contacted the property broker on Wednesday. (ami/bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 16:21 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca0069f 1 Business Trade,deficit,February,2018,BPS Free

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced on Thursday that Indonesia booked a US$116 million trade deficit in February, bringing the deficit year-on-year (yoy) to $872 million.

Indonesia had enjoyed trade surpluses in the last three years.

Imports increased by 25.18 percent yoy to US$14.21 billion, while exports only increased by 11.76 percent yoy to $14.10 billion.

BPS chief Suhariyanto said all types of imports increased in February, with imports of consumer goods climbing by 55.32 percent yoy, driven mostly by rice imports.

Imports of industrial materials and capital goods, which made up over 90 percent of total imports, increased by 20.75 percent and 32.23 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, export growth was held back by a 13.11 percent decline in palm oil exports, which may have been effected by Indias recent import duty hike on crude palm oil (CPO) imports.

India is the largest importer of Indonesias CPO, but in February the exports of the commodity decreased by 24.44 percent yoy to $113 million.

Suhariyanto expressed the hope that Indonesia would have an overall trade surplus by the end of the year, particularly if it could diversify its exports  not relying on the export of raw materials.

We have to diversify our exports with more added-value products as otherwise, we risk being outpaced by countries like Cambodia and Myanmar, he said. (kmt/bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani and Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 13:14 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f3776 2 Politics house-of-representatives,Gus-Dur,insult,reform-era Free

Former president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid was the only president after the Reform Era to have publicly insulted the House of Representatives, comparing it to a kindergarten.



Years after making the statement, the late president and influential Muslim cleric doubled down on his attack on the House, saying the legislative body was chaotic and had devolved from a kindergarten into a playgroup.



It is said that Gus Dur regretted comparing House members to kindergarten students, saying the latter were pure and innocent and therefore not alike.



But his jokes about the House may be a thing of the past, however, as starting Wednesday, it is unclear whether one can make such jokes in public after the Legislative Institutions ( MD3 ) Law came into force.



The law, which took effect on Wednesday, grants the Houses ethics council (MKD) the authority to press charges against those accused of disrespecting the House or its members.



To make matters worse, the law also stipulates that House members cannot be investigated by law enforcement authorities without the approval of the president and the consideration of the MKD.



Civil society groups have said the provision could be easily abused to silence critics, though lawmakers have dismissed such concerns as baseless, saying they could differentiate between legitimate criticism and insults.



President Joko Jokowi Widodo said he was aware of the publics concern about the law, which he had refused to sign, but made clear that there was nothing he could do to repeal the law other than ask the public to challenge it at the Constitutional Court.



Laws passed by the House will take effect after 30 days with or without the Presidents signature.

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Linkedin Choi He-suk (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Seoul  Thu, March 15, 2018 19:03 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca07797 2 World #SouthKorea,#NorthKorea,#KoreanPeninsula,#summit,#politics Free

The preparation committee for the inter-Korean summit officially took form on Thursday, with President Moon Jae-ins Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok taking the chair.

Under Im, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon will serve as the administrator. Committee members include National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, chief of staff for policy Chang Ha-sung, Minister of National Defense Song Young-moo, National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha and Minister of Office of Government Policy Coordination Hong Nam-ki.

The committee will be divided into three subcommittees on agenda; communication and public relations; and operations support.

The committee integrates the presidential office and the government in making systematic and practical preparations for the summit, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.

According to Kim, the committee has been streamlined compared to that formed for the 2007 inter-Korean summit in order to allow the organization to react swiftly to related developments.

Kim added that the committee will meet once every one or two weeks, and that working-level meetings will be held up to four times a week.

The working-level meetings will be presided over by Im, with the chiefs of the subcommittees and the unification minister attending.

The committee is to oversee preparations for the inter-Korean summit scheduled for some time at the end of April.

The upcoming inter-Korean summit, the third of its kind, was agreed to during National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yongs visit to Pyongyang on March 5. At the time, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also agreed to halt missile and nuclear tests and expressed willingness to engage the US in denuclearization talks.

US President Donald Trump accepted Kims offer of talks, announcing through Chung on March 9 that he would meet Kim by May.

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This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta PostShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 15:23 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9fcde1 1 Business pawnshop,profit,2017,customers,expansion,numbers Free

State-owned pawnshop PT Pegadaian recorded Rp 2.5 trillion (US$182 million) in net profit in 2017, representing a 13.7 percent year-on-year (yoy) growth.

Pegadaian president director Sunarso said the service improvement and network expansion had contributed to the significant growth in the companys profit.

The company saw outstanding loans (OSL) increase to 36.88 trillion and revenue increase to Rp 10.52 trillion in 2017.

We plan to expand our number of customers to 11.1 million this year. We are optimistic that we can achieve the target due to the improvement in the digital service and the expansion of our network, said Sunarso in a statement issued on Thursday.

He said that currently, Pegadaians customers were mostly in the productive ages (under 45 years old). He did not mention the current number of customers.

Meanwhile, this year, the company targeted Rp 45.4 trillion in OSL and Rp 12.5 trillion in revenue.

The company will perform well this year in line with the estimated economic growth of 5.4 percent, he said, adding that the company also targeted Rp 2.7 trillion in profit, which is a growth of 7.14 percent, compared to last year's figure.

Sunaraso said this year the company would begin digitalization, revitalizing warehouses and logistics and improving services to the customers at each outlet.

Meanwhile, this year business expansion includes increasing the number of agents, improving online service through a mobile app, diversifying products such as introducing interest-free pawn service and fintech-based service. (roi/bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 14:25 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f996e 1 City LRT,work-accident,piped-natural-gas Free

Less than 24 hours after being repaired, a gas pipe in Cawang, East Jakarta, cracked again on Wednesday evening after being hit by a backhoe being used for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project.

The pipe, laid 1.5 meters below ground level, was previously repaired after it had been accidentally drilled by LRT workers at 7:50 p.m on Monday, causing a gas leak in front of the National Narcotics Agencys (BNN) headquarters and the closure of the road for about three hours.

Even though no casualties were reported in the incident, the gas leak disturbed the distribution of gas to customers at Bidara Cina low-cost apartments in East Jakarta and Kalibata apartments in South Jakarta.

The repair was finished on Wednesday morning.

State gas company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN), which operates the pipe, said the backhoe had allegedly hit the pipe at around 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday and caused another gas leak in the area.

A team from PGN has gone to the location since receiving the information, PGN secretary Rachmat Hutama said in his statement on Wednesday.

The scene was closed by the police after the incident.

Rachmat said PGN would coordinate with the police to minimize the effect of the gas leak.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Elly Burhaini Faizal (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 23:40 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9ca0fcf3 1 National Nila-Moeloek,health-minister,Health-Minister-Nila-Moeloek,health-ministry,TB,End-TB-Summit,Tuberculosis Free

Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek reiterated Indonesias strong commitment to ending tuberculosis by 2030, which she said was part of the countrys development agenda.

Speaking during the High Level Leadership Meeting on Ending TB in New Delhi on Tuesday, the minister said under the strong leadership and political commitment of President Joko Jokowi Widodo, Indonesia would work to achieve the goal across several sectors.

The government has set TB control as one of its highest priority programs in its National Mid-Term Development Plan 2015-2019, which includes a TB program [...] to be monitored directly by the President, said Nila.

(Read also: Countries commit to intensifying efforts to end TB)

The minister said Indonesia had formulated policies to strengthen self-reliance and sustainability in TB control.

They include: first, universal access to high quality TB care in all sectors by carrying out national health insurance and social protection schemes; second, empowering the body, to set TB control as one of its highest priority programs in the national development [plan] and commit to full funding for ending TB with the implementation of an exit strategy with external aid for TB control, said Nila.

Third, carrying out family health and patient-centered community approaches; fourth, establishing a district-based public-private mix strategy; fifth, practicing active case-finding and [developing] partnerships; and sixth, engaging in innovative policies and research in TB control.

Nila said that last year, in the New Delhi meeting and the WHO Global Ministerial Conference in Moscow, Indonesia reiterated its firm commitment to eliminating TB as defined by the End TB Strategy and Development Goals.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, March 15, 2018 13:11 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f27ff 4 Business rupiah,exchange-rate,BI,comments Free

Bank Indonesia does not see any risk of the rupiah weakening to 15,000 against the US dollar as estimated by Standard & Poor (S&P) Global Ratings agency.

We do not see any risk from the [rupiah] exchange rate side if we consider the current fundamental [economic] condition, said head of BI monetary management department Doddy Zulverdi in Jakarta on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.

Previously, S&P lead analyst for Indonesia and Malaysia Xavier Jean 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.

From the domestic side, the Indonesian macroeconomic condition was strong enough to support the rupiah against the US dollar, Doddy said.

He said the central bank had seen a strengthening trend of the rupiah this week.

He said the rupiah's recent fluctuation was purely caused by external factors, particularly the estimation that the Federal Reserve would increase the fund rate for the fourth time.

However, he added, the global sentiment had started cooling down, helping the rupiah exchange rate to strengthen.

The global political dynamic of President Donald Trump wanting to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also added positive sentiment to the rupiah.

If it [the meeting] happens, it will [further] help ease the pressure against the rupiah, Doddy added. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, March 16 2018

Just one day after the controversial Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law took effect, opposition from the public has grown stronger, with judicial review requests filed to the Constitutional Court piling up.



More than 100 civil society organization members and scholars staged a protest in front of the court building on Thursday to demand the court annul several problematic articles passed by the House of Representatives last month.



A group calling itself Presidium Rakyat Menggugat (PRM) filed a judicial review against articles 73, 122 and 245 of...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Veeramalla Anjaiah (The Jakarta Post) JW Marriott, South Jakarta  Fri, March 16 2018

Switzerland Tourism, the national tourism board of Switzerland, hosted 150 travel agencies from Indonesia at this years Switzerland Travel Experience Workshop, which was held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on Wednesday and Thursday.

During the two-day workshop, the travel agents had an opportunity to interact with more than 20 Swiss tourism industry players, including suppliers, destination operators, mountain excursion agencies, hotels, land operators and watch and jewelry makers. There were also lectures about Swiss travel products and new travel itineraries for the Indonesian market.

At the end of the program some operators received the Switzerland Tourism Expert Certificate after they completed a newly launched online learning program about the bea...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Martin Parry (Agence France-Presse) Sydney, Australia  Thu, March 15, 2018 14:10 1286 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c9f7632 2 SE Asia ASEAN,Australia,summit Free

Australia must avoid a "dance with dictators" when it hosts ASEAN leaders at a special summit this week, and should make human rights a prominent issue, campaigners say.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will welcome heads of government or state from nine of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations heads to Sydney from Friday, including Cambodian strongman Hun Sen and Myanmar's under-fire leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is a no-show, citing more pressing developments at home as he faces international censure over a brutal drug war that has left thousands dead.

Australia was among several countries to raise concern about his crackdown at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva last year.

This weekend's meeting, initiated by Canberra, is focused on economics and counter-terrorism, but Turnbull has been urged to use the opportunity to publicly raise human rights issues.

"Shutting ones eyes and hoping that closer trade and security ties will somehow magically transform abusive governments into rights-respecting ones doesnt work," said Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson.

"The ASEAN summit shouldnt just be an opportunity to dance with dictators, but a chance to publicly press them over horrific human rights abuses across the region."

A military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state that began in August has seen nearly 700,000 of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority flee to Bangladesh, with pressure mounting on Aung San Suu Kyi after a top UN rights expert warned this week the situation bore "the hallmarks of genocide".

The Nobel Prize winner is due to stay in Australia for bilateral talks after the summit.

Amnesty Internationals director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific James Gomez said Australia and ASEAN leaders needed to take a strong stand against what was happening on their doorstep.

"The human rights crisis in Rakhine State, and Myanmar as a whole, must be top of the agenda this weekend in Sydney," he said.

- Tough issues -

Hun Sen's attendance is not guaranteed. He was rankled by reports he could face pressure over his government's crackdown on democratic institutions and media freedoms, with protests planned by Australia's sizable population of Cambodian refugees from the Khmer Rouge days.

The notoriously brash Hun Sen threatened to "shame" Canberra and block the release of a joint statement at the summit's conclusion on Sunday if he was embarrassed.

Australia has been a dialogue partner of ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, since 1974. They began biennial leaders' summits in 2016, with the first at Vientiane.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop indicated Canberra intended to tackle the tough issues.

"This is an opportunity for us to discuss issues of concern face-to-face and raise with the ASEAN leaders the value that Australia attatches to protecting and promoting human rights," she said.

The summit will open with a business meeting in Sydney on Friday, covering energy supply, agribusiness and tourism, before closed-door counter-terrorism talks on Saturday and then the leaders' gathering on Sunday.

Canberra has played a key role in helping Southeast Asian states choke terrorist financing and counter violent extremism, with the problem exacerbated by jihadists now being forced out of Syria and Iraq.

The issue was driven home last year when pro-Islamic State militants seized the southern Philippine city of Marawi, with Australia aiding Manila to win it back.

John Blaxland, director of the Australian National University's Southeast Asia Institute, said he was not expecting dramatic outcomes, but ASEAN leaders meeting in Sydney was itself a "significant inflection point in Australia's engagement in the region".Duterte cited the baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person as against my administration, engineered by the officials of the United Nations, as well as the attempt by the [ICC] special prosecutor to place my person within the jurisdiction of the [ICC].

All these acts are in violation of due process and constitutional presumption of innocence, he added.

Duterte also argued that the treaty, which the Philippines signed on Aug. 23, 2011, is not effective nor enforceable in the country because it was not published in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

An international law cannot supplant, prevail, or diminish a domestic law, he said.Sailor soldiers are set to arrive at Universal Studios Japan with the upcoming Sailor Moon anime attraction.

The campaign for the new attraction will begin on March 16 and run until June 24. According to the campaign page, there will also be a lottery for the Sailor Moon: The Miracle 4D film.

This lottery will be done through a Twitter campaign where interested visitors need to retweet a post from Universal Studios Japan. At the lotterys conclusion, five pairs of people will be chosen to watch Sailor Moon: The Miracle 4D for free on April 29.

Visitors who want to watch the 4D film can get a Sailor Moon Special Express Pass for 4,400 yen (about $41.49), which includes a meet-and-greet portion with Tuxedo Mask, a Luna P Ball ramune candy case and a photo op with Sailor Moon.

Standard passes go for 2,000 yen (around $18.8) and comes with a Luna P Ball.

Watch trailer below for a sneak peak at what the sailor soldiers will be fighting in the 20-minute 4D film.

There will also be Sailor Moon-related merchandise for sale like the Cutie Universal Rod, various accessories and themed food items.

Aside from Sailor Moon, visitors can check out the Final Fantasy XR Ride, Monster Hunter: The Real attraction, and Detective Conan World escape game.Domestic Korean travelers took out the biggest portion of Airbnb users in Korea in 2017, followed by tourists from the US and Singapore.



According to Airbnb on Wednesday, over 1.8 million travelers made use of some 37,000 Airbnb listings last year. Of the figure, 66 percent were Korean tourists traveling domestically.



As for the foreign visitors, those from the US and Singapore were the most comfortable using the home-sharing service, respectively taking out 18 percent and 13 percent of the local demand for Airbnb in 2017.

More than 868,800 US tourists visited Korea last year, of which a round up of 113,700 used Airbnb for their stay. As for Singaporeans, about 81,700 out of 216,170 rough total opted for the Airbnb option. This means 1 in 8 tourists from the US and 2 in 5 from Singapore staying at Airbnb listings here.

Read also: Is one day strolling in Seoul enough?



Tourists from China, Hong Kong and Malaysia rounded out the top 5.



Lee Sang-hyun, the head of public policy at Airbnb in Korea, said in a press release that Airbnb could be the key to the diversification of tourism in Korea, by dispersing the tourists from conventional tourism locations and closer to authentic local spots.



During the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, held last month in Gangwon Province, more than 15,000 people opted for Airbnb when booking accommodation.Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2018 11:00 pm

The annual Montgomery County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner will host two prominent Republicans this year. Erika Harold, Republican candidate for Illinois Attorney General is the featured speaker, and Governor Bruce Rauner will also speak. The annual GOP Lincoln Day Dinner will be held Saturday, March 24.

Congressman Rodney Davis, Illinois 13th Congressional District and Rep. Avery Bourne, Illinois House 95th District will also be in attendance. The event will begin with a social hour from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by a prime rib dinner, catered by Milanos Catering. The evening program will be held at the Litchfield Community Center, 1100 S. State, Litchfield.

Other local and state officials will also be in attendance.

Tickets are $35 each and are available by calling Daryl Hodges, 217-556-1420 or Terry Richmond, 217-825-8061. Tickets can also be purchased at the door.Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2018 11:00 pm

Members of the Schram City Village Board will craft new laws and make changes to established ordinances after addressing inquiries and concerns during their monthly meeting on Monday evening, March 12.

President Albert Oberle will write a policy to rent the village hall for events to be reviewed in next month's meeting. He said he has received inquiries about renting the hall for various events and suggested a deposit, which could be refunded if the hall was left in good condition. However, non-residents would not receive a refund.

Trustee Earl Eller said he was afraid to let the public have access to the building, and was concerned about the use of the bathroom as it becomes problematic after excessive use. Trustee Pat Rhodes added that the back door could be locked, only allowing access to the refrigerator. She also suggested a $25 deposit.

Eller suggested they lock the filing room to make sure everything is secure. Trustee Kevin Tuetken added that he is concerned with renting the hall to non-residents.

An ordinance will be established and the issue will be re-visited during next month's meeting.

Oberle reported that the village will need several tool items such as an air compressor (current compressor is over 40 years old and may be hazardous to use), battery grills and a drill press. He added that he will begin accepting bids.

The drill press will be needed soon as the village workers will begin replacing water meters around the village.

Oberle suggested that the village hire two full-time summer employees to assist in the project, as it will could take up to one year to complete otherwise. He added that warmer months are approaching, and other work such as asphalt, mowing and weeding will also need to be done.

With four employees, the project completion time is estimated at just two months. They will also fix the meter pits and install plastic pit rings for additional security.

Meters lose accuracy over time and need to be replaced after ten years, and the majority of the existing 300 meters are over 20 years old.

Rhodes asked if the village employees could begin on meter pits while work is slow and Oberle said that is a possibility. Eller added that he wishes to see all four employees working with no supervising.

Oberle asked Village Clerk Marsha Eller if there was an application form, with Eller saying there is. Oberle said he will update the form to be ready for the next monthly meeting.

In disaster plan news, Oberle reported he has not heard back from Hillsboro and Taylor Springs townships regarding a community-wide plan he sent in January.

Oberle also reported he met with the Montgomery County Economic Development council on Wednesday, March 7, to complete the comprehensive economic strategy report.

He added that if the village pursues grant money, reports are to be submitted. He said they were to list three priorities, and has to complete a narrative and strategy to be submitted by May 21.

On Tuesday, March 27, Oberle will attend a pipeline safety meeting hosted by Ameren. He will also be on hand at the Mongtomery County Economic Development council's annual meeting to be held on April 12.

In area news, trustees reported about vehicles, buildings and miscellaneous trash throughout the village.

Oberle said he will amend all ordinances to increase fines and issue citations in efforts to clean up the village. He added that the small municipality has a favorable amount of outside traffic thanks to three great businesses.

This issue will be re-visited in next month's monthly meeting, and the village will begin issuing citations just ten days later.

Tuetken inquired about the ten vacant properties, with Oberle reporting that he's received one response thus far, regarding letters sent. He added that the remaining nine will be turned over to the attorney, and that he has more letters to mail.

"Our village and our community needs to be one of pride," said Oberle.

Tuetken said alleyways in Kortkamp need attention. Effective this month, DC Waste will pull their trucks from alleyways, make arrangements with customers and furnish them with containers. Oberle said he will notify other trash companies to do the same.

Derelict vehicles, signs and permits and stickers were also among the topics of discussion.

Oberle stated he will have a price for the new tractor and mower to be purchased for next month's meeting. He will also look into the grant application process, as the village should receive an answer regarding the lift stations.

Oberle will order new street signs as some need to be replaced, and will contact the state in regards to cleaning the drains.

Trustee Sam Whitlow voiced concerns over some sidewalks and how the drains are high in some spots. He offered his time to picking up trash.

The board scheduled a "work day" on Saturday, April 7, beginning at 8 a.m. Those interested in volunteering may meet at the hall.

Oberle expressed interest in organizing a group to help those in need, and encouraged board members and the public to participate in the primary election on Tuesday, March 20.

The next meeting will be held Monday evening, April 9, beginning at 6 p.m. at Schram City Village Hall. Fall festival meetings have commenced. The public is encouraged to attend.For those who love all things 1990s, retro and European, an immersive, four-course, Prague-themed banquet is about to take place *somewhere* in London.

The Spirit of Prague Banquet has been designed to celebrate London Beer Week, and promises to take guests back in time to 90s Prague and become immersed in the sights, sounds and flavours of the Czech capital.

Post-feast, guests will also be assigned to a guild  either of Tap Masters or Brew Masters  and will be invited to take part in the competition between the two groups, before the secrets to creating the perfect pint are revealed.

Basically if youre partial to a bit of double denim and a Staropramen, this event is going to be very much your bag.

Its happening tonight, at a secret East London warehouse location, which will only be revealed to us by text (very un-90s) at the very last minute.

And thats basically all the information that we have. Mysterious, we know.

Suitably intrigued? Us too. If you want to see where we end up, well be documenting our adventure on Instagram.

We hope youre ready for some denim nostalgia. Until then, na zdravi! (For those not fluent in Czech, that means cheers.)

Tickets cost 35, but youll need to hurry  find out more here.different

Lightroom,

to

on

Sammie and I connected through a blogging group about a year ago and since then I have eagerly followed her travels via Instagram and her website . In her bio Sammie says that she is, just an adventurous soul living her best life, and this couldnt be more evident than on her Instagram. She pairs a keen eye for beautiful aesthetics and compelling photographs with an authenticity and thoughtfulness that is often rare on the social platform these days. In our interview, we discuss everything from favourite travel destinations, to the pros and cons of Instagram as a platform for influencers and travellers:I've been fascinated with my parents film photos since I was a kid  I always found myself flipping through old photo albums to relive those golden moments, they really tell a story. Funnily enough, I think I really dove into travel photography by appreciating my surroundings where I grew up - in Vancouver, BC. It's hard not to be inspired by nature there!I am definitely no expert, but to those who are just starting out and picked up their first camera, I would recommend looking at your surroundings withperspective and trying to capture that.If I'm posting on Instagram, I use Adobeand then tweak minor things on VSCO before posting. For client work, I just edit on Lightroom.The thing I love most about Instagram is that it truly has a great community of like-minded people! I've been meeting up with local adventure photographers in Toronto and wouldn't have been able to without this platform.There's always a good and bad side to social media. I would say it can be tough sometimes to not be influenced by trends on Instagram, especially on a platform that is based on what people like.I actually learned photography first on a film camera! I took a photography class in high school, learned to develop black and white film in a dark room, and made my own pinhole camera. Because each film type is made to look a certain way, like real-world filters, I love how raw it is and how well it conveys a story. I think an advantageshooting film is that it makes you learn the fundamentals of photography and think about your composition for each shot because each shot costs money. I'd recommend startinga basic SLR if you want to learn how ISO, aperture and shutter speed works together.Fun fact: I have a Sustainability Certificate! While it says on paper that I'm an eco-nerd, the turning point for me was probably when I looked at my closet one day and realized I had all these clothes I never wore and didn't love. I started thinking about why I bought those pieces and realized it was just because it was trendy. From then on, I gradually started shopping more consciously and I try to only buy things I see myself wearing all the time. I began researching sustainability the fashion industry and learned what fast fashion meant for the environment and for people making these clothes that we don't really appreciate. Although I try to buy consciously most of the time, I also don't think that is accessible to everyone. Ethically made pieces are higher priced and I firmly believe that you can also be living 'sustainably' if you only buy a couple things a year, but wear them all the time, even if they're from fast fashion companies. Being a conscious consumer is an ongoing journey!It's so hard to choose just one! I'm tied between Milos in Greece or Tulum, but if I could go back to one right now it would be Tulum. I love being by the beach and I feel the most energized in the sun. Tulum is easily a favourite of mine because the little eco-chic town has all the vacation necessities: beaches, tacos, cenotes, and yoga.Camera, Hair Tie, and Power Bank - my phone ALWAYS runs out of battery during the day!There are so many places! I don't have any travels planned yet for 2018 but my trips always happen spontaneously, I think it adds to the fun. I'm currently deciding between Cuba, Austria, Patagonia, or Bali!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By Dave Herndon

dherndon@thenewsherald.com

@NHDaveH on Twitter

State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor) hosted a Teachers for Michigan Town Hall for local residents at Taylor City Hall recently.

Educators, parents and community members showed up to talk about ways to prepare, attract and retain Michigans best educators.

Michigans hardworking teachers need our support, and our kids simply deserve to have good schools with good teachers, Hopgood said. As residents of this great state, we have a shared responsibility to discuss our educators concerns and ways we can support them in their teaching environments.

Hopgood recently introduced legislation to help the cause. His TeA+chers for Michigan education plan is the first comprehensive investment in Michigans K-12 teachers in more than a decade.

If approved, the 22-bill package  that includes Senate Bills Nos. 25, 724-725 and 764-782  has been designed to provide incentives and tools to restore the teaching profession and make Michigan a place where people want to teach.

We need to bring back the respect of the profession and make it a great profession for people who love education and love our kids, House Democratic Floor Leader Christine Greig (D-Farmington Hills) said at the meeting. Lets start doing more positive things for education rather than high-stakes testing and punitive measures that are tearing down our profession, and the education system as a whole.

The potential legislation is supported by the Michigan Education Association and other teachers groups.

In the past two years, I think I could count on my hands how many students have told me that they want to be teachers, said Michael Sayler, Ph.D., dean of the College of Education at Eastern Michigan University. This is an awesome package of bills  Its the closest to tremendous you can get.Creator widely known to be associated with "Sex Criminals"

Source: ZDARSKY Signs MARVEL Exclusive, Allowed to 'Do Whatever He Wants (Maybe)'

Marvel has signed an "exclusive agreement" with writer/artist Chip Zdarsky. Terms such as the length of the exclusivity and whether he can continue his creator-owned work (such as being the artist with writer Matt Fraction on Sex Criminals) have not been disclosed. He is currently writing Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Two-In-One for Marvel.

Zdarsky, of course, sounded pleased about the deal:

"I'm thrilled to be with Marvel"  "This deal means I get to do whatever I want with whatever characters I want and nobody can stop me, which is great. I feel reinvigorated, like someone slapped a new #1 on me and, honestly? I couldn't be happier."

Marvel EIC C.B. Cebulski echoed Zdarsky's claim sort of:

"We're proud to have him as part of the Marvel family and to let him do whatever he wants with whatever characters he wants. Maybe."

Could it mean that Spider-Man will officially turn to "spiderman" as Zdarsky loves to refer to him as on his Twitter account? Maybe.



In the announcement regarding the exclusive agreement, it was also revealed that Zdarsky would be writing two annuals: Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 with artist Mike Allred and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 with artist Declan Shalvey.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 (2018) cover by Mike Allred

Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 (2018) cover by Chip ZdarskyNow with variant armor!

Source: IGN

Dan Slott and Valerio Schiti are letting nothing get in their way of having their upcoming Iron Man title mirror the Avengers: Infinity War movie, by having Tony Stark don the "Bleeding Edge" suit configuration. But the comic won't just have one version. There appears to be at least nine different versions of the "Bleeding Edge" suit designed by Schiti, which has the toy companies salivating.

Slott EXXXCLUSIVELY told The Outhouse, "The way Schiti designed these is perfect. Perfect for toys that is! There's the classic red suit, but there's also blue! And yellow! Stupid kids will bug their parents for all the version."

Iron Man #1 from Slott and Schiti is set to release June 20.Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Rain this evening with thunderstorms by morning. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Rain this evening with thunderstorms by morning. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2018 7:56 am

On Feb. 28 the students and staff of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to their campus. We all have been affected by the atrocious event that unfolded there in Parkland, Florida on Feb 14, and my thoughts are of the community and all families who have experienced tragedies such as this as they try to find a new normal.

As we think about what the Parkland community is going through, it gives every district across the country a definitive reason to pause and re-examine school security, and our district is no different. In fact, school safety and security is regularly examined in Battle Ground public schools.

Since the Parkland shooting, we have received many comments, questions and concerns about safety and security. Some of it is likely because our bond did not pass last month. It fell short of the required 60 percent supermajority by a couple hundred votes. The bond would have replaced our four oldest primary and middle schools that lack modern security features, and would have provided for improvements such as internal classroom door locks and card-controlled entrances at our other schools.

Regardless, I want to assure you that the safety of our students and staff is a top priority in Battle Ground Public Schools. Our older buildings may not have the advantages of the most modern security features, but our staff is committed to being proactive in our emergency preparedness practices. We have thorough plans in place should safety be compromised in our schools; we regularly train and drill staff and students on various emergency scenarios; and our Emergency Preparedness team works with local law enforcement, fire, and emergency personnel to regularly update and improve our plans and procedures.

The following are some of the protocols we have in place:

 Battle Ground schools have procedures for securing buildings and evacuating students during emergency events such as fire, natural catastrophes, and lockdowns, and students and staff practice these procedures regularly  18 times every year at each school.

 All staff must wear identification badges during the day, and visitors must check into the school office and also wear identification while on campus.

 The district has two armed law enforcement personnel, called school resource officers, who have a presence at all our schools. The district partners with the Battle Ground Police Department for our officer stationed at Battle Ground High School and the Clark County Sheriff's Office to serve Prairie High School and our southern schools.

 A team of security personnel monitor both Battle Ground and Prairie high schools during the school day.

 Security cameras are placed in various locations throughout the interior and exterior of our buildings.

 Anonymous tip reporting through SafeSchools Alert.

 A computerized phone calling system allows us to notify families about emergency situations in a timely manner.

 Office staff only release students to adults who are on their Emergency Contact list and ask for identification.

 Every school has an automated external defibrillator on site, and at least one was used last year to save the life of a community member.

Still, one of the best practices in the Battle Ground district is prevention. Battle Ground has a strategic goal dedicated to supporting the physical, emotional and social well-being of students. We strive to know every student and create compassionate environments in which all students feel safe and supported. We have prevention/intervention specialists and school counselors at our middle and high schools, school psychologists at each of our schools, and are working to hire school counselors for our primary schools. We have a process for assessing students who may be a threat to themselves or others and have partnered with resources to get students help.

We have enlisted not only the support of our staff, but also have sought the help of community members and partners. We have implemented programs that educate students and parents on how to recognize the signs of youth in crises and how to get them help. (Parents and community members can sign up for upcoming Youth Mental Health First Aid classes online through our partner Connect Battle Ground at ymhfabg.com.)

We also ask that students and parents report anything concerning. Often students will see or hear about a potential threat before school personnel become aware. You can report safety concerns anonymously via text, email, phone or the web using our SafeSchools Alert reporting system: bgsd-wa.safeschoolsalert.com.

It's important that parents talk to their students about school safety concerns that they may have and encourage them to share these concerns with school counselors or administrators.

In Battle Ground Public Schools, we keep school safety and security at top of mind no matter what is happening across the country. We know it is important to our families, too. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

Mark Ross is the superintendent of Battle Ground Public Schools.Wyoming Republican Party Secretary Charles Curley has had his duties suspended following an allegation of assault on February 23.

According to a press release from the party, the Wyoming Republican Party Executive Committee met via teleconference on March 7. The committee is comprised of the state party officers plus seven State Central Committee (SCC) members from around the state.

The Executive Committee followed Roberts Rules of Order to conduct the meeting. Two motions were made. The first was a motion to suspend the duties, powers, and responsibilities of party secretary Charles Curley. The second motion directed Chairman W. Frank Eathorne to set a meeting of the SCC for the purpose of removing Curley from position of party secretary. Both motions passed. Party bylaws prescribe a 10-day notice before a full SCC meeting. The date is pending feedback from SCC members as to the earliest date the majority are available to attend the in-person meeting. It will be a closed session. Once the outcome of the meeting is determined, a press release will follow.

This action comes after an allegation of assault against Curley which apparently happened following the Laramie County Republican Partys Lincoln Day on February 23. It has been reported Curley and Wyoming GOP Executive Director Kristi Wallin had a disagreement following the dinner and Curley allegedly grabbed Wallin, shook her and tore or dislodged her shirt from her shoulder.

It is the goal of the Wyoming Republican Party to resolve this matter expeditiously with all due respect and dignity to its many members and the public states a release issued by the Wyoming GOP.

The incident is being investigated by the Cheyenne Police Department.The famous British physicist has died at 76.



Hawkings was famous for his work with black holes and ralativity depite being wheel-chair bound from the age of 22 and only able to speak through a voice synthesiser due to a rare motor neurone disease.



He died peacefully at home, on March 14th.



Foo Fighters tribute to the legend was bang on.

Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet

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.HAVE A NOTE? Or a Sez You? Email them to notester@thesunchronicle.com or drop them in snail mail addressed to Restaurant Notes, The Sun Chronicle, Box 600, Attleboro, MA 02703.The project will 1) identifycritical conflict drivers at the local, regional, and national levels and toprovide targeted, strategic support to relevant stakeholders or initiativeswith an interest in and capacity to address and resolve conflictsnon-violently; 2) bolster in an integrated fashion the ability ofconstituent-responsive local authorities, civil society and others to shore upand sustain localized or higher-level peace processes; and 3) empower civilsociety and others to more broadly and inclusively engage on issues related togood governance, reform, accountability, dialogue and local, regional ornational-level peace.Job

Title: Customer Care Officer

Organization: Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services in

Uganda (CORSU)

Duty Station: Kisubi, Wakiso, Uganda

About US:

Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services in Uganda (for people with

disability) was established in 2006 as a private non-profit, non-governmental

organization and is supported by CBM (Christian Blind Mission). CoRSU

Rehabilitation Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre on Entebbe Road provides

Orthopaedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Rehabilitation, mainly for children

with disability.

Job Summary: The Customer

Care Officer will ensure that patients and visitors to CoRSU are well received

and given the attention they require; and provide and promote a professional,

effective communication at all levels to both external and internal clients.

This position is one of great importance because the team member is responsible

for the clients first impression of our Hospital. The post holder will be

responsible for dealing with all Customer enquiries in relation to the hospital

services, focusing primarily on patient care and management. He/she shall

deliver a service to meet the individual needs of all clients and wherever

possible resolving enquiries at first point of contact.



Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities:



To take responsibility for being the first point

of contact for clients and visitors and ensure that a high quality of service

is delivered at all times in liaison with other hospital departments.



Manage the OPD patient customer care and

administration processes efficiently and effectively and in the best interests

of the clients; book Out-Patient appointments, obtaining all the necessary

information when required.



Giving direction to patients in the Hospital and

ensuring they are explained all further procedures.



Ensure the safe custody and proper usage of all

OPD front desk equipment.



Ensure that all incoming calls to the OPD

Reception and Customer Service Line are received and dealt with promptly, in

line with agreed standards including weekends.



To identify customer needs, and utilize

appropriate questioning and listening skills; to identify and offer appropriate

solutions and ensure that clients are advised on alternative communication

methods including SMS and email facilities.



To conduct daily customer care ward rounds and

make regular reports.



Manage and maintain data including OPD customer

care desk records, patients needs, problems & concerns and implement

appropriate corrective actions.



Participate in Staff trainings, CMEs and

meetings.



Undertake any other duties that may be

reasonably requested of him or her.











Experience: Qualifications, Skills andExperience:



The ideal candidate should preferably hold a

Degree in Social Sciences or Social Administration, Public Relations, or

Development Studies.



Certificate in Customer Care is essential



Three years of work experience in a busy health

care setting.



Excellent computer skills

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates are encouraged to

submit their applications (detailed CV with covering letter plus copies of

academic qualifications) to The Head of Human Resources, CoRSU Hospital P.O.

Box 46 Kisubi, Uganda or email to recruitment@corsu-hospital.org.

Deadline: 26th March 2018 by 5:00pmOrganisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR)

Position No.: 10028892

Vacancy Notice: 013/2018

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Post Grade: NOA

About UNHCR:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was

established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly.

UNHCRs mandate under the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees is to lead and co-ordinate action for international

protection to refugees; seek permanent solutions for the problems of refugees

and safeguard refugee rights and well-being. UNHCR has an additional mandate

concerning issues of statelessness, as it is given a designated role under

Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.



Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities:



Keep abreast with all developments in the area

of responsibility to prepare appropriate briefings and reports.



Provide support in collecting and drafting the

required information for the production and dissemination of regular updates

for internal and/or external distribution.



Assist in organising donor briefings and the

coordination of inter-agency meetings.



Assist in maintaining working relationships with

the Government, NGOs, and UN agencies.



Draft and disseminate minutes of the meetings

that are held periodically in the duty station.



Accompany visitors and colleagues on monitoring

missions to refugee sites giving appropriate briefing, commentaries and prepare

briefing material for visitors.



Draft updates, donor reports, background notes,

briefing notes, press reports, etc.



Perform any other related duties as required

Key Performance Indicators:



Reports to promote UNHCR activities are prepared

and distributed in a timely manner



Produce reports on UNHCR activities. Liaise with

external partners on behalf of UNHCR









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:



The ideal candidate for the United Nations UNHCR

Assistant Reporting Officer job opportunity should hold an undergraduate degree

(equivalent of a BA/BS) in Journalism, Communications or a related field



One year of previous work experience relevant to

the function. Graduate degree (equivalent of a Master or Doctorate degree

(equivalent of a PhD) may also be accepted.



Excellent communication skills, good writing

skills and good knowledge of computer applications.



Excellent knowledge of English and UN working

language of duty station if not English

How to Apply:

All interested Ugandan nationals who wish to join the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the aforementioned capacity are

encouraged to click on the link below and follow the application instructions

after reviewing the job details.

Deadline: 15th March 2018School security, tuition relief, mandated services and other issues of importance to the Jewish community were the topics of the morning as Agudath Israel of America continued its long standing tradition of community engagement with a legislative breakfast co-hosted by Senator Elaine Phillips and featuring State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan on Sunday, March 11th in Great Neck, New York.

The breakfast took place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. David and Jila Hazghiyan, with well over four dozen members of the local Persian-Jewish community taking advantage of the opportunity to hear about the Agudahs ongoing activities that include advocating for the private school community as the finishing touches are put on the states annual budget.

After being introduced by the Hazghiyans son, Mr. Jonathan Hazghiyan, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, vice president of community services for the Agudah, opened the program by discussing the Agudahs close ties to the Perisan-Jewish community, particularly the accomplishments of its Iranian Rescue Committee, which evacuated a number of those in attendance from the Khomeini regime more than 30 years ago. Rabbi Lefkowitz also invoked the legacy of the late Agudah president Rabbi Moshe Sherer, whose advocacy efforts to reimburse non-public schools for mandated services continue to bear fruit today.

Great Neck mayor Dr. Pedram Bral spoke about modifying guidelines for the states 529 savings accounts to match the newly broadened federal program in order to provide parents of children in grades K through 12 with desperately needed tuition relief. Dr. Bral also emphasized the importance of beefing up security at all state schools, an always high priority item that has taken on greater urgency after last months massacre at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas school. Anti-BDS legislation and a bill that would make Holocaust education mandatory in all New York State high schools were two ongoing projects that were mentioned by State Senator Elaine Phillips, whose northwest Nassau County district includes Great Neck. Senator Phillips praised the Agudah for its tireless efforts on behalf of its constituents, noting that Agudah advocates are in her office so frequently that at times it feels as if they are part of her staff.

Special guest speaker Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan also emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety of every student in New York State and reiterated his support of anti-BDS legislation. Noting that he is one of three people in the room during budget negotiations, Senator Flanagan said that he was well acquainted with the pressing issues that affect the Jewish community and that he intended to be a strong advocate on those matters, telling participants, I have your back.

The breakfast was well attended, noted Rabbi Lefkowitz, with many prominent local activists taking advantage of the opportunity to share their concerns with elected officials.

It was clear that 529s and school security are both very high on the list of priorities and those who joined us were grateful for a vehicle to convey to the senate majority leader what they would like to see included in the upcoming New York State budget, said Rabbi Lefkowitz.

Leon Goldenberg, a member of the Agudahs board of trustees, said that the breakfast was yet another shining example of the Agudahs continued commitment to its goal of advocating for every member of Klal Yisroel. That mission, observed Goldenberg, can only be realized when community members do their part to interface with elected officials and other local leaders.

We thank our friends in the Great Neck community for coming out and welcoming Senate Majority Leader Flanagan and Senator Philips, added Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, director of New York government relations for the Agudah. Our community is fortunate to have such good friends in Albany and we look forward to continue working with them in the future.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)In a conference of European Rabbis that is taking place over the next few days in Bucharest, Hagaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel suggested that the Admor from Gur instructs his fellow Rabbonim to outlaw any travel on Israel railways due to the Chillul Shabbos being performed in constructing and fixing rail lines throughout Israel.

Rabbi Yosef spoke about the desecration of Shabbos that is taking place in Israel by Israel Railways and the Israel Electric Company. He said that it would be correct and prudent to use generators to power Shabbos accepted appliances and not rely on the electricity from the power company during Shabbos.

Rabbi Yosef admitted that according to the strict law there is nothing wrong with using Israel Railways on a weekday, however, he said that it is forbidden to publicize that he said that because then the Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz would hear about it and say See the Chief Rabbi said it was okay.

According to his speech, Rabbi Yosef told the Admor that the majority of the rail lines were built during the weekdays and therefore it is permissible to travel on the trains. However, he told the Admor, if they were to create a wide-ranging law that would be declared as a Horaat Shaah by all of the Moetzes in the Chareidi world to outlaw travel by train, it would certainly be a cause for concern among those who make plans to have work done on Shabbos.

Rabbi Yosef said that the Chief Rabbis are willing to join such a declaration as it would cause the work being done on Shabbos to cease.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)(VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

The incitement is repeated: minutes after the draft bill was approved on Tuesday evening, Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid rose to the podium and harshly attacked the chareidi public, the Likud and the Bayit Yehudi parties.

MK Ben-Tzurs draft law was approved in a preliminary reading by a majority of 59 to 38, with Minister Sofa Landver voting against it the bill. Shas MK Ben-Tzur said, I do not know without the Torah where Margi from Morocco would be today, or Kahlon from Tripoli, or Lapid from Serbia or Yvette from Russia. 

MK Yair Lapid got up to respond, saying, I will tell you where they were today without the IDF, they would be dead because without the IDF it is impossible to maintain the State of Israel.

Lapid added: I do not remember that it says in the Torah that it is permissible to send others to be killed for you, and I do not remember that it says in the Torah that it is possible to evade serving. The word chareidim, but the disgraceful surrender of the Likud and Bayit Yehudi. Who do you think that you are fooling? Cowards sacrifice the IDF and its soldiers for political interests. Where is written in the Torah that it is permitted to send someone else to be killed for you, since when did you learn in the Torah that contradicts the defense and preservation of the homeland? Shame on you! You are all throwing the IDF soldiers under the wheels of your political bus.

MK Moshe Gafni, Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, attacked Lapid with his statements. I am happy that the law on limud Torah has passed, without which we have no right to exist as a Jewish people. The Knesset accepted the right to study Torah with a significant majority for those who declare limud Torah as their profession and thereby sustaining the Jewish People. This is a historic event and I was deeply moved by it when seeing the outcome.

Gafni added: I did not understand Yair Lapid, and he spoke about mesirus nefesh. There are yeshiva students who go to work and go to be a reporter for [the IDF magazine] BaMachane. It is not certain that as a reporter for BaMachane Lapid risked his life. In his position, I would prefer not to raise this argument for he takes crowns that he hasnt earned for himself.

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri responded to the approval of the amendment to the draft law in a preliminary reading and said: I am happy that the amendment we brought to the Torah law was approved by a large majority. That certain elements have tried to make political capital on it and to create an unnecessary crisis.

I congratulate my coalition partners who showed responsibility at the moment of truth in order to enable this good social government to continue to work for the general public, Deri added.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)A campaign stemming from within the chareidi tzibur against organ transplant begins by explaining In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, headed by an chareidi minister, efforts are ongoing to persuade people to sign organ donor cards.

It talks about efforts including compelling bnei torah to enter the IDF, then bringing women into the IDF, and now, organ donor cards.

In the accompanying photo, we see a picture of former Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi HaRav Yaakov Ariel, among the rabbonim who speak out to encourage Israelis to sign an organ donor card. Rav Ariel and many other rabbonim back the effort and the organization, insisting the process is done in accordance to Halacha.

YWN NOTES: YWN is in no way stating any opinion regarding organ donation. Please consult with your local Rov.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)The United Nations received pledges Thursday of nearly $100 million in new funding for the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians after the U.S. slashed its aid, but it is still facing a nearly $350 million shortfall this year.

A dozen countries announced new funding during an emergency donor conference called as the U.N. Relief and Works Agency experiences the worst funding crisis in its 68-year history. Stepping up were Qatar, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Mexico, Slovakia, India and France, U.N. officials said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said an important first step was reached with the new pledges. But he said a long way is in front of us to fully fund the agency, which went into the conference facing a $446 million gap in financing this year after the U.S., which has provided a third of the agencys budget, announced it was withholding aid.

If UNRWA would not exist, if these services were not provided, the security of region would be severely undermined, Guterres told reporters. Now it is very clear, it is absolutely essential, that the extraordinary unanimity in political support to UNRWA and its activities translates itself into cash.

The agency, the oldest and largest U.N. relief program in the Middle East, provides health care, education and social services to an estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes during the war that led to Israels establishment in 1948.

Guterres told the conference that cutting sanitation, health care and medical services in already poverty-wracked and conflict-ridden areas would have severe impact  a cascade of problems that could push the suffering in disastrous and unpredictable directions.

The Trump administration announced in January it was withholding $65 million of a planned $125 million funding installment. It released $60 million so the agency wouldnt shut down but made clear that additional U.S. donations would be contingent on major reforms at the agency.

Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness said the actual cut was around $300 million because the U.S. had led the agency to believe it would provide $365 million in 2018. He said the agency went into 2018 with a $146 million shortfall that ballooned to $446 million without the anticipated U.S. funds.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who co-hosted the meeting with Jordan and Sweden, was hopeful the U.S. would continue to support the agency and the creation of a viable Palestinian state that can care for its own people.

We recognize the important contributions of the United States in the past and look forward that it continues to play its fundamental role in support of UNRWA and in also support of the peace process to enable the establishment of the Palestinian state, he said.

The U.S. had been UNWRAs largest donor, supplying nearly 30 percent of its budget. In announcing the cuts in January, the U.S. State Department said it wanted reforms at the agency, which Israel has strongly criticized.

Shoukry said the agency had already streamlined some of its activities but said there is a limit to its ability to do so given the enormous needs faced by 5 million people.

It is vital and it is necessary to address these very basic services, but also to provide dignity for multitudes of Palestinians and to (protect) many of them from the potential threats of radicalization and terrorism, he told reporters.

(AP)Airbus chief executive Tom Enders made his views known at the outset of Melrose's hostile 8billion bid for GKN.

He didn't much like the cut of Melrose's financially driven jib.

Now, Airbus has formalised its position, arguing the aerospace industry requires 'a commitment to long-term investment and strategic vision'.

Chief operating officer Tom Williams notes that the industry does not lend itself to short-term investment.

The Airbus intervention is hugely significant. GKN in Bristol is a vital supplier of kit for the Airbus wing plants at Broughton in North Wales, employing 10,000 people.

Concerns: Airbus boss Tom Enders made it clear at the outset that he did not welcome Melrose's hostile 8bn bid for GKN

If GKN were to vanish as a supplier, France, Spain and Germany would see it as an opening to switch wing production to the Continent.

That means the decision of asset manager Aviva to vote its GKN shares in favour of Melrose could risk the livelihoods of thousands of skilled workers in Britain.

It cannot possibly be in the best interests of the UK savers Aviva represents who would be horrified by sabotage of the aerospace industry.

If Airbus is so disquieted about Melrose, it is hard to believe the US defence contractors working on Pentagon contracts, such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning jet, are jumping for joy at the prospect of dealing with financial engineers interested in giving margins a wash and brush-up.

There is disquiet about the speed with which GKN sold its automotive arm to American white knight Dana.

But it rightly recognises that it needed Anne Stevens and another GKN executive on Dana's board and has agreed to a London share quote.

It is not just Airbus which fears rapacious Melrose management.

The world's largest car maker Toyota privately says there are fears over Melrose's ownership of a major supplier.

There are good industrial reasons for keeping Melrose at bay and depriving its leading lights of another 285million payday.

The sooner Melrose pulls back and lets GKN get on with making things, the better.

Dutch comfort

The fuss surrounding Unilever's retreat from London to Rotterdam is overdone. It may have escaped the notice of Brexit critics, but the reality is that 55 per cent of Unilever shares are held by Dutch institutions.

Simplifying a duplicated structure that has been around since the 1929 merger of Lever Brothers with Holland's Margarine Unie was a pledge made a year ago when chief executive Paul Polman fought off unwanted attentions from Kraft Heinz.

Being in the Netherlands does, culturally, offer more protection against unwanted bids than in the UK.

There is a tradition of consensus under which the consent of all affected parties, workers, suppliers and the body politic is taken into account before bids and deals can be done.

In Britain it is a rush to the finish line with cutting-edge firms including Arm Holdings and Worldcom surrendering independence before anyone has woken up to the foolishness of selling our intellectual property.

If Unilever had decided to stay in London we would be hailing it as a victory for Brexit. The reality is that nothing much will change in Britain.

The headquarters in London will become home to two divisions  beauty and personal care, and home care  representing 60 per cent of turnover.

UK investment spend will be 1billion a year with Theresa May joining Polman at the opening of a new research centre on the Wirral.

We are assured the one-for-one swap of UK shares for euro-denominated stock raises no tax issues for private shareholders, as was the case when the two Shell companies came together in 2005.

The question for UK professional investors is whether Unilever can remain part of the FTSE 100 index. Certainly, Shell is still part of it and, with 45 per cent of Unilever stock held by UK-based investors, there should be no bar.

The London Stock Exchange and regulators who are bending over backwards to bring Aramco to the City would be bonkers to allow Unilever to fall by the wayside.

Water boarding

Labour's water nationalisation threat is having an amazing impact on the utilities.

Anglian Water is retreating from the Cayman Islands, cancelling an inter-company loan, putting a majority of independent directors on the board and cutting the dividend to help pay for investment.

Who needs regulator Ofwat when we have Jeremy Corbyn?Insurer Prudential is splitting in two  with the fast-growing Asian and US business hived off from its slow and steady UK division.

The separation is expected to happen late next year after court approval, with investors getting shares in both companies.

Current chief executive Mike Wells will run the US and Asian operation, which had assets of 318billion, made profits of 4.2billion last year and will be known as Prudential Plc.

Prudential has announced its UK unit M&G Prudential is being spunoff with the creation of a new US brand

Its US brand Jackson Life hopes to tap into the 3.5m Americans who are now over 65, and its businesses across the Pacific region see opportunities in the surging middle class market, with Asias working-age population due to surge by 200m in the next 12 years.

The company also has a presence in five African countries and, overall, looks after nearly 19m customers.

The British and European segment includes life insurance brands and fund manager M&G and will be run by John Foley, who already oversees it.

M&G Prudential, as it will be known, looks after 351billion of savers cash and had a 2017 profit of 1.4billion, with 7.2m customers.

END OF AN ERA: PRUDENTIAL Prudential was founded in London in 1848 to provide loans to working people

It sold insurance polices for as little as one penny through a team of door-to-door salesmen

Its traditional red terracotta headquarters in Holborn Bars is considered one of the Citys finest buildings

The firm became famous for its army of insurance salesmen  who became nicknamed the man from the Pru

It grew into an international giant with businesses in the US and Asia, and has 26million customers

But the business has been dogged by mis-selling scandals, last year admitting it had wrongly sold thousands of overpriced annuities

It bought fund manager M&G in 1999, now run by Anne Richards, one of the most influential women in UK finance

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Nicholas Hyett said: The two businesses that emerge will be distinctive, a high-growth emerging market play and a capital light dividend machine (eventually).

Wells said it was not possible to say what the relative sizes of the two parts of the company will be.

Both will continue to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and have their headquarters in the City.

The chief executive added that the board will not get any special bonuses if the demerger succeeds and there are no plans to cut staff or slash costs as part of the deal.

But he added: One of the things thats important about this business is that we do evolve our staffing levels every year.

The split is likely to fuel speculation that a large competitor may swoop on the British side of the business.

The Pru revealed overall profits of 3.3billion for 2017, up 45 per cent on a year earlier, and hiked its dividend by 8 per cent to 47p per share.

Shares were up 5.1 per cent, or 92.5p, to 1918p.US car supplier Dana has made a 4.4bn bid for GKN's automotive arm

The US car supplier that plans to buy GKN's automotive arm would consider listing shares in both London and New York, dealing a further blow to predator Melrose's takeover bid for the firm.

Dana's finance director Jonathan Collins told the Financial Times that a secondary listing in London was 'definitely an option'.

The suggestion is significant because some funds may have been discouraged from Dana's bid, either because they don't want to hold US shares or are unable to hold such shares.

Shareholders are choosing between Dana's 4.4billion bid for GKN's automotive arm, backed by GKN's board, and Melrose's hostile 8.1billion bid for the whole firm.

Crunch meetings are being held with shareholders ahead of the deadline for Melrose's bid on March 29.

It has come under increasing scrutiny due to GKN's role in the UK, where it employs 6,000 people making parts for airplanes, cars and fighter jets.

In the House of Commons yesterday, Theresa May again signalled the bid could be stopped.

Business secretary Greg Clark is examining whether it should be blocked on national security grounds.CO-OP LOSS Struggling Co-op Bank lost 140.3million in 2017  its fifth straight year in the red  less than the 500million it lost in 2016.

It is close to meeting Bank of England health requirements after nearly collapsing when a 1.5billion black hole was discovered in accounts five years ago.

STAKE SOLD The Chinese sovereign wealth fund has sold its stake in US private equity titan Blackstone. China Investment Corps 2.5billion acquisition of a 9.9 per cent shareholding in 2007 raised fears over the countrys influence.

The sale comes as President Donald Trump cracks down on China.

JOBS FEAR There will be big job cuts in the asset management industry as technology triggers change, says Jupiter Fund Managements Edward Bonham Carter.

CASH PLEA The Serious Fraud Office wants more money after its profile was boosted by a string of high-profile prosecutions. It currently gets 31million.

APP SWOOP Online bank Tandem has bought money management app Pariti, giving it up to 95,000 extra customers.

BITCOIN DEAL Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has signed a deal with Barclays in the first tie-up between a large UK bank and a business involved in the digital currency. Barclays will process transactions for the trading firm.

BONANZA AHEAD Investors are plotting to pump another record amount of cash into private firms, says Rede Partners which surveyed 166 asset managers with more than 5.7trillion of cash.

They are expecting to significantly boost this amount in 2018.

BANKS TALK French lender Societe Generale is in exclusive talks with Germanys Commerzbank over buying its equities, markets and commodities division.

FIGHTING FIT City analysts are preparing for bumper full-year results from The Gym Group next week. Peel Hunt said it expected profits to jump 39 per cent.

SALES SPRINT Online sales at sportswear multinational Adidas surged 57 per cent last year as profits shot up by 31 per cent to 1.9billion.

TOP ROLE Michael Sherman, who spent 11 years at Boston Consulting Group, has been appointed chief strategy and transformation officer at BT.Pottery firm Portmeirion has posted a record profit as Americans kept snapping up fine dining tableware.

The Stoke-on-Trent company grew sales for the ninth year in a row to 84.8million, a 10.6 per cent jump on a year earlier.

Strong sales in the UK and US glazed over disappointing results in South Korea, where revenue plunged 32 per cent to 6.6million.

Portmeirion grew sales for the ninth year in a row to 84.8m, a 10.6 per cent jump on a year earlier

Portmeirion said a shift to casual dining there had hit sales, but a growing presence in other Asian countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong had offset losses.

It is reviewing the types of products it sells in South Korea to be more attractive to consumers.

Portmeirion sells more than two-thirds of its plates, bowls, mugs and other tableware overseas, with the US and South Korea being two of its biggest customers.

Profits at the AIM-listed company jumped by 13 per cent to 8.8million.

Portmeirion has integrated its home fragrance business Wax Lyrical with its other homeware ranges, boosting sales.

It bought Wax Lyrical for 17.5million in 2016 and has started selling candles and diffusers alongside its pottery.BANK PROFIT Self-proclaimed ethical bank Triodos made a 33.1million profit in 2017, a rise of 28 per cent.

The Dutch firm's UK arm lent a record 181million to customers last year.

STRESS FEARS Investment bankers worry that their stressful jobs are harming their health, says a survey by the Banking Standards Board, with 25 per cent concerned about their wellbeing.

And 27 per cent are too afraid of the consequences to speak out about bad behaviour at work.

ROW CASUALTY The deputy head of French bank Societe Generale, Didier Valet, has quit after a row over how to handle a probe into claims it rigged the Libor rate.

UPDATES CALL More than 7.5m finance contracts will need updating in the next 12 months because of Brexit, says global legal services provider Axiom.

Many UK firms are setting up subsidiaries on the Continent to avoid disruption.

OFFICES SURGE Demand for London offices is up 76 per cent on a year earlier, according to figures.

Research by property company CBRE shows that there was 3.7m sq ft of space under offer in the capital last month.

INVESTMENT BOOST Profits at the Anglo-South African savings firm Old Mutual rose by 22 per cent to 2billion last year. The result was powered by strong growth in its UK investment business, which is being renamed Quilter.

FLOAT PLAN Online marketing firm Performatrix plans to float on the junior AIM stock market, valued at around 231.7million. It wants to raise around 163million to develop the firm.

BUILDING BONANZA Construction firm Kier has announced a 5 per cent rise in profit for the six months ending December 2014 to 60million, on revenues of 2.1billion.

FILMING STRUGGLE Fierce competition from online video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime is inflating the cost of hiring actors and writers, top Hollywood producer Jason Blum, the man behind films such as Get Out and Whiplash, has said.

NEWS STREAM Video streaming giant Netflix could start its own TV news programme to challenge established networks, with a source telling Marketwatch it is mulling 'a current affairs show encompassing both sides of the political divide'. Netflix declined to comment.Charged: Elizabeth Holmes has been banned from public companies for ten years

A high-flying American businesswoman once described as the next Steve Jobs must surrender control of her company after being charged in a massive fraud case.

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of blood testing group Theranos, was yesterday banned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from public companies for ten years.

The 34-year-old will also pay a settlement of 360,000.

She had been accused by the SEC of raising more than 500million by exaggerating or lying about her firms technology.

Holmes started Theranos in California, in 2003 at the age of 19.

She pitched its technology as a cheaper way to run blood tests and raised millions in funding.

But probes were launched after Wall Street Journal articles raised doubts about the technology.

Neither Theranos nor Holmes admitted or denied wrongdoing.One of Britain's biggest ports has been rocked by allegations of bullying and inappropriate behaviour by its boss.

The Dover Harbour Board, which has run the Port of Dover since 1606, has been sent a dossier of staff complaints about Tim Waggott.

According to Sky News, the allegations include the use of abusive language aimed at staff and members of the public.

The 51-year-old, who was appointed chief executive in 2013, has also been accused of making inappropriate physical and verbal gestures towards a number of female staff.

Storm: The Dover Harbour Board, which has run the Port of Dover since 1606, has been sent a dossier of complaints about boss Tim Waggott by members of staff

The claims have plunged Waggott's future into doubt at a crucial time for the Port of Dover ahead of Brexit.

The town is Europe's busiest ferry port and handles 119billion of goods every year, 17 per cent of the goods traded by the UK.

Ministers are pushing for a deal that will enable trade to be as frictionless as possible when the UK leaves the European Union.

Brexit secretary David Davis yesterday said he was confident an agreement on a transition phase with the EU post-Brexit can be reached within days.

He said the UK would accept a shorter transition period than initially suggested, saying he could 'live with' the arrangement ending in December 2020 rather than March 2021 if it helped secure 'the close relationship we are seeking'.

This week Waggott said: 'As the UK's key maritime gateway to Europe, our largest trading partner, we remain convinced free-flowing trade and supply chains are imperative to the well-being of the many people whose jobs and livelihoods they support.'

The comments came as a report by Imperial College London warned that longer vehicle checks at the UK border post-Brexit would lead to huge queues on British motorways.

Waggott, who sits on the board of water regulator Ofwat and on the south east regional council of the CBI business lobby group, is still in his role at the port.

'Tim Waggott remains in post as chief executive,' a source said. But Richard Everitt, the chairman of the Dover Harbour Board, which reports to the Department for Transport, is weighing up how to deal with the allegations.

The dossier was compiled by Dakota Blue, a human resources consultancy in Kent that specialises in how firms treat their staff.

A Port of Dover spokesman said: 'Dover Harbour Board acknowledges that following a detailed and independently managed staff engagement survey a number of issues came to light.

'These are being worked through and so it would be inappropriate to provide further comment at this stage.'

Dakota Blue Consulting founder Jackie Brooker said: 'We specialise in services to companies looking to improve engagement and relations between employees and executives to ensure best business practice and enhanced efficiency.

'Our work is confidential and we cannot confirm or deny our instruction on behalf of any particular client or the detail or outcomes of any of our work.'

She added: 'We are therefore unable to provide any further comment at this time.'

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: 'This is an internal matter for Dover Harbour Board.'

Plans to privatise the Harbour Board were blocked by ministers in 2012.IN this country one has learnt to reserve praise for any action seen to be taken against corruption until the case is successfully concluded with a conviction and deserving sentence.



Too often we have been sold a dummy through a series of arrests that only go as far as bail applications. Looking set to fit this profile are the recent arrests of those suspected to be involved in the illegal acquisition of Swazi citizenship, khonta certificates and passports. For now these are interesting developments rather than a job well done.



Members of Parliament have rightly decried the slow pace at dealing with the alleged corruption at the Ministry of Home Affairs, where officials have been fingered in damning findings of a Parliament probe that had been instituted to look into the influx of Asian nationals.



The MPs were disappointed to learn that the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has hardly got its teeth stuck into the matter. Not surprising really, given reports on leadership instability within the corruption watchdog.

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is looking for a new boss for the ACC following the expiry of South African Thanda Mgwengwes contract.



The urgent need to deal with this immigration scandal cannot be overemphasised due to the security threat and cost implication it has on every citizen, as well as on the countrys diplomatic relations with other countries. Revelations that the Kings signature has allegedly been forged to facilitate this crime, places citizens of this country in a serious predicament on several fronts.



For instance, a few years ago countries such as Canada, where Swazis could travel to without a visa, removed this exemption after it was found that there was an excessively high number of Swazi passport holders who were able to legally change their names to acquire new passports, allowing them to re-enter Canada after being deported as security risks.

There was also a high number of Swazi passport holders reported to be asylum seekers in Canada.



We also recall how a wanted terrorist suspect nicknamed the White Widow, who was involved in the terrorist attack that killed 67 people at Westgate Mall in Nairobi Kenya back in 2013, was reported to have acquired a Swazi passport for herself and two children through the assistance of a convicted fraudster who allegedly paid E20 000 for each document to our immigration officials.



Earlier that year (2013) the Ministry of Home Affairs in Swaziland discovered that an officer based in Big Bend had made 24 passports for people of Asian descent and had since gone AWOL. The then Minister of Home Affairs Prince Gcokoma reported allegations of staff illegally selling documents to foreigners, to the Royal Swaziland Police.



However, it seems the rot has continued unabated, resulting in the influx of Asian nationals in the country. The numbers of these nationals is reported to have risen to over 200 000 in the country. This has seen them acquire citizenship and literally taking over small businesses that were previously run by indigenous Swazis.



Even though new passports and travel documents were subsequently introduced by the Swaziland Government, many countries across the world continue to view citizens of this country with suspicion each time they produce a Swazi passport.



We are also seeing neighbouring South Africa introducing new measures at its borders to try and reduce human trafficking as well as to catch those who hold illegal passports or double citizenship. The difficulty in acquiring study permits to South African institutions has also been attributed to the threat posed by our off-the-street travel and passport documents.



Citizens of this country now have to apply for visas to a majority of the countries around the world while enjoying visa free access to only 70 countries.



Our passports are currently ranked 66th in terms of travel freedom out of 195 countries of the world, according to the Henley Passport Index as of January 2018. According to its website, this index is a rigorous and sophisticated measure of global access that provides an in-depth picture of ones travel freedom.



Japan and Singapore now hold the most powerful passports in the world, giving their citizens visa-free access to 180 countries around the world, displacing Germany that had occupied top spot for some time.



The cost of a passport in Singapore is US$78.50 which translates to around E950; almost double our E500 passport. Given the number of countries with visa free access for Singapore citizens, our passport clearly goes down as one of the most expensive in the world considering the number of countries we have to fork out visa fees to visit.



While some countries may choose to remove visa requirements to target citizens of countries that are most likely to boost their tourism industry, others put in place visa requirements to improve security. Each country has a responsibility to ensure that passports are issued to legitimate citizens. Swaziland is no exception.



Therefore, while authorities drag their feet in getting rid of the rot at Immigration, they should not lose sight of the rising cost implications on innocent citizens. Before we know it, we will need visas to enter every country in the world, including South Africa.

MAKHASA (SOUTH AFRICA)  A top education official in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa has given a hint that the contract for schools offering the matric syllabus in Swaziland could be extended beyond 2019.



This will surely be a relief to locals, who were sent into panic mode by media reports last year, which were to the effect that the department of Basic Education in South Africa would discontinue the matric syllabus offered by local schools as from next year.



Speaking to the media on the side-lines of the Umkhanyakude District Merit awards on Tuesday, where best performers in the 2017 Matric examination were awarded, the District Director Thanduyise Joseph Motsa, said there was a great possibility that education officials of both countries would extend the contract beyond 2019.



I see no reason why there would be no further contract because education is a continuous process. We cant then put a full stop right at the middle of the process, he told Swazi journalists.



He added that he was confident that the ministers in charge of the education portfolios in both countries would engage each other and extend the existing contract, which expires next year.



I want to believe that another contract will be signed by the ministers. For now, the terms of the (current) contract expire by 2019. I dont necessarily mean things will stop, it is just a term of the contract which ends (next year), he added.



Guided



He stated that education officials in the province would be guided by the minister on how to handle the matter.

He further expressed his satisfaction with the working relationship he has with both the head teachers of schools offering matric in the country and the U-Tech centre, where pupils from the schools sit for their examination.LOBAMBA - The issue of the shocking E250 million set aside for the designs of the new Parliament has been reported to the King.

The building itself is expected to cost about E2.3 billion.



The matter was brought before His Majestys attention by Speaker in the House of Assembly, Themba Msibi.

Yesterday, the House was expected to receive a report on the way forward on the project including the construction of a new stadium.



The matter has become a hot potato after MPs raised concerns why there was no money allocated towards the construction of the Parliament building yet the King had clearly pronounced himself on the project during his speech from the Throne last month.



During the debate of the budget, Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo highlighted that they were informed by the Finance Minister Martin Dlamini that they had not budgeted for it because they had nothing on paper which would indicate figures.

He did reveal though that they had been told by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport that the designs would be E250 million and the E2.3 billion was actually the entire budget for capital projects in the country.



This did not go down well with the MPs who questioned why the mere drawings would cost so much money which was more than what was spent on the construction of the infamous Nkandla, the residence of former South African President Jacob Zuma. The MPs wondered what happened to the E50 million which had been set aside during the last financial year.

The House was yesterday adjourned for 15 minutes as MP Khumalo said they wanted to table the report on the way forward on the two projects especially because the Speaker had also come back with a report from the countrys authorities.PIGGS PEAK  Teachers should not be afraid of being fired if arrested for drink-driving.

This is because though the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) is empowered to fire teachers who are found guilty of criminal offences, drink-driving teachers will not be fired.



Under normal circumstances, a teacher charged with a criminal offence where he or she is likely to receive a sentence of more than three months or E100 fine, should be suspended then dismissed when convicted.



This is according to the regulations contained in the Teaching Service Act of 1982.

However, despite that drink-driving is one of the offences in this category; teachers convicted of this offence will be pleased to know that they will not be fired.



This was revealed to teachers who attended a team-building workshop held at Herefords High School yesterday.

The team-building was attended by Lugongodlwane, Mdlawini, Herefords Primary and Herefords High School teachers.



Addressing the teachers, TSC Executive Secretary Mduduzi Nkambule, who was responding to questions said drink-drivers were normally not dismissed or suspended for the offence.



Following a presentation by TSC Legal Advisor Lungile Mamba on the Teaching Service Act of 1982, Nkambule was asked if there were any drink-drivers who had been dismissed as per the regulation in the Act.



Nkambule said though drink-driving teachers were supposed to be dismissed, the commission had noted that there were many teachers who consumed alcohol and are arrested for drink-driving.



We would end up firing most of the teachers, said Nkambule.

He, however, said the commission did not just sit back but also warned the teachers against such offences.

He said teachers dealing in dagga, theft convicts or those convicted of assault, would be dismissed.



Teachers who are also found guilty of serious offences such as abduction of underage girls or rape, will be fired.Armed police officers pave way for the convoy that transported Sipho Shongwe as he left the High Court yesterday. (INSET) Shongwe having a conversation with his defence counsel Advocate Jacobus Lodewicus Coetzee Jansen Van Vuuren. (Pics: Sibusiso Shange)

MBABANE  Fears that there was an alleged plot to snatch murder suspect Sipho Shongwe by his friends changed the security scene altogether at the High Court yesterday.



Leaving nothing to chance, sniffer dogs and police officers from the Bomb Disposal Unit were dispatched to the High Court and it was a first of its kind.



This was in addition to the usual contingent of armed police officers who provide security during Shongwes court appearances.

There was even a bomb disposal detecting machine, which was also used to detect if there were any explosives planted in the courtroom in which Shongwes bail hearing was scheduled to be held.



The beefing up of the security was reportedly necessitated by information received by the intelligence department of the law enforcers, that there was a plan to steal Shongwe by some of his friends from South Africa.



It seems like the police and officers from His Majestys Correctional Services (HMCS) were geared up to suppress any daring attempt to snatch Shongwe from their watchful eyes.



According to the officers who were present in court, there were threats to security, which resulted in them making sure that there were no foreign elements at the High Court.



It was at 8:20am when members of the Royal Swaziland Police and HMCS officers did a clean sweep of Court B of the High Court.

A sizeable number of people, notably Mbabane Swallows fans, had occupied their seats in the public gallery.About 50 to 60 Titusville High School students participated in the National School Walkout on Wednesday morning to honor the 17 people killed in the Feb. 14 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. The students stood outside in the cold, snowy weather for 17 minutes, one each for the dead in Florida. The students at THS joined other schools across the country in the National School Walkout.[March 15, 2018] BASF Canada reduces its carbon footprint with Bullfrog Power's green electricity

MISSISSAUGA, ON and TORONTO, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ - BASF and Bullfrog Power, Canada's leading green energy provider, have formed a new environmental partnership that will see BASF choose green electricity for its Canadian corporate headquarters, as well its production facilities in Windsor, Cornwall and Etobicoke (ON), Blackie and Nisku (AB), Saint Leonard (QC), and Saskatoon (SK). BASF's renewable energy commitment will reduce its CO 2 emissions footprint by approximately 1,520 tonnes on an annual basis. This amount of carbon dioxide is equivalent to taking nearly 325 cars off the road for a year. "Through the partnership with Bullfrog Power, BASF is reducing its environmental impact and supporting an innovative approach to growing Canada's renewable energy industry," said Marcelo Lu, President of BASF Canada. "BASF wants to contribute to a world that provides a viable future with enhanced quality of life for everyone. Partnering with Bullfrog Power means BASF is helping to support community renewable energy projects across Canada." The agreement with Bullfrog Power ensures that 100 per cent renewable electricity is put onto the grid to match the amount of conventional electricity being used at BASF's Canadian corporate headquarters and its bullfrogpowered production facilities. Across Canada, Bullfrog's green electricity comes from a blend of wind and low-impact hydro power sourced from new Canadian renewable energy facilities. "BASF's partnership signifies that mnufacturers in the supply chain increasingly see energy as a key input when making their products more sustainable," said Ron Seftel, CEO, Bullfrog Power. "As a global leader and major chemistry company in Canada, BASF is taking a proactive approach to addressing climate change by proactively committing to renewable electricity at its Canadian sites."



By means of the green energy commitments of bullfrogpowered homes and businesses across Canada, including BASF, Bullfrog Power is able to provide critical financing to support the development of new, community-based green energy projects from coast to coast. Bullfrog Power has supported more than 130 community projects across Canada, including:

the Haida Heritage Centre solar and battery project in Skidegate, British Columbia ;

; solar on the Hope Blooms community greenhouse in Halifax, Nova Scotia ; and

; and Ontario's first community-owned wind farm, located in Oxford County. About BASF

BASF Canada, headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, has approximately 700 employees at 11 production facilities and offices located across Canada. BASF Canada is a subsidiary of BASF SE, and an affiliate of BASF Corporation. To find out more about BASF's activities in Canada, visit www.basf.ca or follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/basfcanada. BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 18,200 employees in North America, and had sales of $17.9 billion in 2017. For more information about BASF's North American operations, visit www.basf.com. At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The more than 115,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of 64.5 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com. About Bullfrog Power

Bullfrog Power, Canada's leading green energy provider, offers renewable energy solutions that enable individuals and businesses to reduce their environmental impact, support the development of green energy projects in Canada and help create a cleaner, healthier world. As a Certified B Corporation, Bullfrog Power meets higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Thousands of individuals and businesses in Canada are doing their part to address climate change and air pollution by choosing green energy with Bullfrog Power. Sign up easily, quickly and affordably at bullfrogpower.com. Join the bullfrogpowered community online on Facebook (facebook.com/BullfrogPower), Instagram (@bullfrogpower) and Twitter (@bullfrogpower). SOURCE Bullfrog Power

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Canada and New Brunswick to make significant investments that will improve the lives of Canadians

$673 million available for projects that build prosperous communities and transition to a clean growth economy FREDERICTON, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ - The governments of Canada and New Brunswick are working together to make long-term infrastructure investments to create economic growth, build inclusive communities and support a low carbon, green economyleading to a higher quality of life for all Canadians. Today, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and the Honourable Brian Gallant, Premier of New Brunswick, announced the signing of a bilateral agreement that will provide more than $673 million over the next decade in federal funding dedicated to infrastructure projects under the Investing in Canada plan. The projects supported through this agreement will be cost-shared with the provincial government, municipalities and other partners. This new funding will see the Government of Canada make unprecedented investments in public transit, green infrastructure, recreational and cultural infrastructure, and rural and northern communities infrastructure. These investments will have benefits for people in communities across the province, including: Faster commute and travel time for more people, and easier movement of goods for businesses

Cleaner air and water

Reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Smarter and more efficient cities

Sustainable water management

Enhanced public parks, recreational facilities and other spaces that make communities great places to live

Better transportation and digital infrastructure for people living in remote communities Across Canada, more than $33 billion in federal funding will be invested through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories. Provinces and territories will develop three-year plans that will provide information on how they will implement their infrastructure projects. Quotes "Long-term investments in infrastructure are key to building a strong Canadaconnecting people, creating good jobs for the middle class, and building our economy and our communities for the future. We are pleased to reach a new agreement with New Brunswick to invest in infrastructure projects that will benefit communities of all sizes for years to come. Collaboration and partnership have been at the heart of the success of our Investing in Canada plan and we will continue to work with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous communities, stakeholders, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast." The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities "Your government's multi-year economic growth plan includes investing in New Brunswick's infrastructure to create jobs. Infrastructure investments help stimulate the economy and improve the quality of life of New Brunswickers." The Honourable Brian Gallant, Premier of New Brunswick Quick facts Under the Investing in Canada plan, the Government of Canada is investing more than $180 billion over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and Canada's rural and northern communities.

plan, the Government of is investing more than over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and rural and northern communities. Under the first phase of the plan, Infrastructure Canada has approved nearly 3,500 projects across Canada worth a combined investment of more than $8.4 billion .

worth a combined investment of more than . As part of the Plan, Infrastructure Canada will deliver $33 billion over the next decade through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories under four funding streams:

over the next decade through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories under four funding streams: $20.1 billion for public transit;

for public transit;

$9.2 billion for green infrastructure;

for green infrastructure;

$1.3 billion for community, cultural and recreational infrastructure; and

for community, cultural and recreational infrastructure; and

$2.4 billion for wide-ranging infrastructure needs in rural and northern communities

for wide-ranging infrastructure needs in rural and northern communities This marks the third new long-term infrastructure bilateral agreement the Government of Canada has signed with provincial and territorial partners. Related product Backgrounder Canada and New Brunswick to make significant investments that will improve the lives of Canadians

$673 million available for projects that build prosperous communities and transition to a clean growth economy Under the $180 billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan, the Government of Canada is signing new bilateral agreements with all provinces and territories, which will see more than $33 billion in federal investment towards significant infrastructure projects across the country. The objective of these investments is to transform the way Canadians live, move and work in four priority areas: Public transit;

Green infrastructure;

Community, culture, and recreation infrastructure; and

Rural and northern communities. New Brunswick Funding Allocations The table below shows the allocations for New Brunswick by funding stream from 2018-2028 which amounts to $673,217,569.







Funding Stream Allocation Expected Outcomes at Project Completion* Public Transit $165,202,662 to build new urban transit networks and service extensions that will transform the way Canadians live, move and work. Improved capacity of public transit infrastructure

Improved quality and safety of existing and future transit systems

Improved access to public transit systems Green Infrastructure $347,151,232 to support greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions; enable greater adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change and climate-related disaster mitigation, and ensure that more communities can provide clean air and safe drinking water for their citizens. Increased capacity to manage more renewable energy

Increased access to clean energy transportation

Increased energy efficiency of buildings

Increased generation of clean energy

Increased structural capacity and increased natural capacity to adapt to climate change impacts, natural disasters and extreme weather events

Increased capacity to treat and manage wastewater and stormwater

Increased access to potable water

Increased capacity to reduce or remediate soil and air pollutants Community, Culture and Recreation Infrastructure $46,230,038 towards community, culture and recreation infrastructure to build stronger communities and improve social inclusion. Improved access to and increased quality of community, cultural and recreational infrastructure for Canadians, including Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable populations Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure $114,633,636 to support projects that improve the quality of life in rural and northern communities by responding to rural and northern specific needs. Improved food security

Improved and more reliable road, air and marine infrastructure

Improved broadband connectivity

More efficient and reliable energy

Improved education and health facilities that benefit Indigenous peoples (specific to Truth and Reconciliation Commission)

* Outcomes will be obtained through projects which will be communicated in more details as they are announced. The bilateral agreement will allow the Government of Canada and New Brunswick to agree on shared results as well as a method of reporting on results on a regular basis. The bilateral agreement supports the following long-term results: Increase the rate of economic growth in an inclusive and sustainable way;

Improve environmental quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resiliency of communities;

Improve mobility in Canadian communities;

Make Canadian communities more inclusive and accessible; and

Manage infrastructure in a more sustainable way. Under this new bilateral agreement, the Government of Canada will not only make significant investments in Canadian communities, but also open the door to unique and innovative project ideas that meet the agreed-upon outcomes. These new ideas will contribute to the long-term sustainability of our infrastructure. In order to ensure our partners consider opportunities to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or better adapt to climate change during the project development stage, a new climate lens will be applied for certain projects. Additionally, partners will also report on how larger projects are creating job opportunities for a broader array of Canadians in the construction industry and related sectors through a new Community Employment Benefits framework. For information on cost-sharing, please see Infrastructure Canada's website. Associated links Government of Canada's $180-billion+ Investing in Canada plan: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/about-invest-apropos-eng.html *New*  Investing in Canada plan project map: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/gmap-gcarte/index-eng.html Federal infrastructure investments in New Brunswick: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/map-carte/nb-eng.html Twitter: @INFC_eng

Web: Infrastructure Canada SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Megan Mann Appointed Director, General Manager of ClickBank University

BOISE, Idaho, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ClickBank, a global internet retailer and one of Idaho's largest privately-owned technology companies, announced the appointment of Megan Mann as Director, General Manager of ClickBank University. Mann, ClickBank's former Director of Marketing, brings an extensive background of online marketing, business development, sales, and customer service expertise to the program. "Megan has been instrumental to the success of ClickBank University since it launched in 2014," said Kevin Strawbridge, CEO of ClickBank. "Her years of experience at ClickBank combined with her comprehensive knowledge of the ClickBank University program and its member's needs is going to result in empowering new and current members to reach their goals while expanding the courses' worldwide reach. In addition, we enjoy the opportunity to promote another woman leader to the senior leadership team within ClickBank to truly reflect the balance and diversity of our company." As the General Manager, Mann continues ClickBank's partnership with instructors Justin Atlan, Adam HorwitzClickBank University TV, a YouTube Channel focused on bringing free ClickBank University content to the masses.



"I am beyond honored to be the General Manager of ClickBank University," said Mann. "I am extremely passionate about helping people build sustainable online businesses while finding financial freedom. ClickBank University has worked with over 70,000 members and with the partnership forged with Justin Atlan and Adam Horwitz, we will see membership numbers rapidly increase with the implementation of new strategic initiatives." Megan joined ClickBank in 2007 and holds an MBA from Boise State University. During her tenure at ClickBank, she has been an integral member of the Operations and Marketing teams. In her prior role as the Director of Marketing, Megan oversaw the ClickBank brand, planned all business development events, and created engaging marketing programs and campaigns. Megan and partners' vision to create ClickBank's first online training course for online entrepreneurs was born in 2014 as ClickBank University.

About ClickBank Founded in 1998, ClickBank has established itself as a top global internet retailer powered by one of the world's leading performance marketing platforms for both digital and physical products. The ClickBank platform meets at the intersection of e-commerce, fintech and adtech, enabling entrepreneurs to drive consumer traffic and sales through a commissioned marketer network. With over 200 million customers, six million platform users and distribution in 190 countries, ClickBank's powerful e-commerce and mobile ecosystem provides entrepreneurs with an easy to use, secure online marketplace to help them sell their products and services. To learn more, visit www.clickbank.com. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/megan-mann-appointed-director-general-manager-of-clickbank-university-300614157.html SOURCE ClickBank

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] PRICEZA INSIGHT: The Role and Influence of Social Media on the Development of e-Commerce in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- E-commerce is an industry that is growing very rapidly in recent years. There are many factors that support this phenomenon. One of them is that many things in Indonesia are still ineffective and inefficient, and it is ironically 'blessing in disguise', a hidden opportunity that has been captured by e-commerce players in Indonesia. Go-Jek and Grab will not be the services people need if the public transportation system is established and reliable, and that's where they help solve transportation problems. Tokopedia and Bukalapak, for example, that create disruptions by bringing together sellers and buyers directly through their platforms, which makes business much more effective and efficient. Also, Traveloka, which revolutionized the travel and tourism industry by offering effectiveness and efficiency in ticket bookings. The above examples are illustrations of how e-commerce has facilitated and penetrated so deeply in our lives. And they are only five of thousands of startup and e-commerce companies in Indonesia. In general, the e-commerce market base is internet users. Their presence increases as the penetration and reach of the Internet grows. Citing a study from Statista, the number of internet users in Indonesia reached a figure of about 105 million. This number is more than 40% of the population in 2017. The figure is growing consistently and rapidly compared to 2011, where the penetration rate is only 18%. So, it is not surprising if most of these internet users are also social media users. Yet, not even just an ordinary 'users', but 'fans'. E-commerce and Social Media As is known, one of the important points that determine the position of e-commerce in the internet is the traffic it has. The higher the traffic, then the popularity of the e-commerce in cyberspace increased. If compared to conventional business, then 'traffic' is people who stop at the store. Of course, more and more visitors are generally interpreted as something positive. Considering the importance of traffic for e-commerce and the use of social media, the digital tactics of increasing traffic va social media have become popular in recent years. Simply put, the mechanism is to reference websites or apps on social media platforms.



This tactic proved successful in increasing traffic. Studies by Shareaholic in 2015 as quoted from Forbes, said that social media is the number one referral (referral) to the entire website, including e-commerce. About 31% of referral traffic comes from social media. This figure is certainly a dynamic move, but the significant role of social media as a reference will remain an essential point for e-commerce.

Social Media Referral in Indonesia From the above premises, it is interesting to know the relationship of traffic on e-commerce and social media referrals in Indonesian. According to SimilarWeb statistics collected from July 2016 to August 2017, there were 9.158 billion visits to 10,000 online shopping sites in Indonesia. There are six social media raised in this study: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. The six are on average contributing 3.40% in the same period as referrals to online shopping sites. This means roughly 311 million visits in the period July 2016 - August 2017 are sourced from social media referrals. Facebook is still the most influential social media in terms of referrals. This is certainly related to their position as the number one social media in Indonesia. But the trend of Facebook as a traffic referral has tended to decline in recent months, after having been at 2.56% in January 2017, down to 1.51% in December 2017. Right in the second position, there is YouTube figure that went up and down, and perched at 1.40% in December 2017. The most interesting is WhatsApp platform, which has experienced consistent and significant improvements. It only takes one year for WhatsApp (from 0% in December 2016) to be in the third position of a significant social media referrer. WhatsApp percentage increased from January 2017, which was 0.08%, to 0.24% in December 2017. This is three times the previous number. Conclusions and Practical Implications So, what can be drawn from these numbers? First, Facebook with YouTube will still be the main platform in terms of social media referrals that drive traffic to shopping sites. Both contributions are still too significant to be rivaled by other media. Secondly, WhatsApp which is a text messaging platform, also acts as a social media that has gained popularity as a referral in recent months, and its role will continue to increase. These three platforms are predicted to be the dominating platforms in 2018 in terms of social media referrals. The reference contribution of 6 selected social media as a source of traffic to 10,000 shopping sites in Indonesia (3.35%) over the past 18 months is still very far from the word effective when compared to global social media referrals (31%) in 2015. However, this should be seen as a golden opportunity. That there is still so much space to increase traffic with social media referrals tactics. About Priceza Priceza is a shopping search engine and price comparison platform established in 2010 (in Thailand). Priceza Indonesia was established in 2013 with a total of nearly 4.5 million users per month. In addition to Thailand and Indonesia, Priceza also operates in 4 (four) other Southeast Asian countries, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Vietnam. Priceza helps millions of online shoppers access information to make smart shopping decisions, and connect thousands of online stores with their buyers. Media Contact Sheilla Quinita

Priceza Indonesia

Media Relations & Partnership Manager

Email: sheilla@priceza.com

Website: www.priceza.co.id Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180315/2080938-1 SOURCE Priceza Indonesia

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] RFA Names Richard Muckle as Head of Client Development for its EMEA Headquarter

LONDON, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RFA (Richard Fleischman & Associates), a next-gen managed IT services provider for the financial industry, recently named Richard Muckle as RFAs Head of Client Development for its EMEA Headquarter.

RFA names Richard Muckle as Head of Client Development for EMEA headquarter. RFA is a next-gen managed IT services provider for the financial industry with industry renowned customer service and innovation.



In his role, Richard will manage and guide RFAs European markets alongside RFAs growing EMEA team. Richard will advise and provide support for clients to nsure they are able to implement their vision and realize intended outcomes.



Richard is an accomplished professional with vast experience in this market  he knows the right touch for our customers and how best to help them secure their organizations and help them scale as they grow, said RFA EMEA Managing Director, George Ralph. Richard has over 25 years of experience in the financial sector, covering the UK, Europe, Asia, New York and the Cayman Islands. Prior to this role, Richard was global COO for a family office covering London, Luxembourg and New York with AUM in excess of EUR 1 billion. Richard has also held various C-level positions over the last 17 years, of which the majority were start-up funds as well as working in the fin-tech space as an advisor.

Richard has worked in the investment banking sector at Lehman Brothers as a senior analyst in its Fixed Income/derivatives prime brokerage team as well as running the exotic derivatives middle office at Greenwich NatWest. He also has had experience working in hedge fund administration and business consulting for asset managers. About RFA (Richard Fleischman & Associates)

RFA is the trusted technology partner to over 600 clients globally for nearly thirty years. Offering a full range of technology solutions with global data center operations, RFA serves the IT and Technology needs across the whole of the financial sector. RFA has the expertise to meet the industry-specific needs of our clients with a proven customer service model, whether its on-site or cloud-based solutions, telephony, data systems, fully-managed IT, or project management. RFA is headquartered in New York City with operations in Westchester, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, and EMEA HQ in London. Contact:

Thuy Huynh

Marketing

thuynh@rfa.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/70e257bc-7162-424a-a9da-c8f7c34f6cb6

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 14, 2018] TUV Rheinland: Wireless Lab in Sweden Receives Accreditation

COLOGNE, Germany and LUND, Sweden, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The global testing service provider's Swedish national subsidiary, TUV Rheinland Sweden AB, has had its wireless lab in Lund audited and accredited as a certification institution by the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (SWEDAC). This allows the company to carry out full compliance testing as an independent testing organization. "The lab in Lund, Sweden is a further milestone with which we can build up our global commitment in the field of wireless technologies, bringing us another step closer to fulfilling our TUV Rheinland Wireless Strategy 2020. With this successful accreditation, SWEDAC has now confirmed our expertise in the field of wireless," explains Stefan Kischka, Vice President of Wireless/Internet of Things at TUV Rheinland. Full range of wireless testing options TUV Rheinland has expanded its worldwide wireless network with the wireless laboratory acquired in 2017. In addition to Sweden, TUV Rheinland also operates comparable IoT labs in Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, the USA and the Netherlands.



Lund is the first of the TUV Rheinland European wireless labs to specialize in IoT products. "In this laboratory, we offer our customers the entire range of wireless testing options, such as Sigfox, LoRa, ZigBee, 3GPP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Thread. The lab is also equipped with OTA chambers and SAR systems and even offers eCall testing," adds Anders Nordlof, Managing Director of the national subsidiary TUV Rheinland Sweden AB. eCall testing

eCall is the abbreviated version of "emergency call". From March 31, 2018, manufacturers across the EU must install this automatic emergency call system for motor vehicles in all new car models and in new light-duty commercial vehicles. In the event of an accident, the vehicle sends a relevant notification to the emergency services, helping to initiate rapid rescue operations. "We see major potential in this development. As a state-of-the-art lab, which is TUV Rheinland's first in the world to offer eCall testing, we are continuing to expand our market position," states Nordlof. For more information, visit www.tuv.com/wireless. TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group employs 19,700 people around the globe. Annual revenue is more than EUR1.9 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all industrial sectors and areas of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, and oversees projects, processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, the company operates a global network of approved labs and testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com SOURCE TUV Rheinland Singapore Pte Ltd

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 14, 2018] First-Line Lung Cancer Data and Other New Research from Merck's Broad Oncology Program to be Presented at AACR Annual Meeting

Merck (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that new research from Merck's broad oncology clinical program - across several major tumor types, as monotherapy and in combination - will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2018 in Chicago from April 14-18. For the first time, data from the pivotal phase 3 KEYNOTE-189 trial with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, in combination with pemetrexed (ALIMTA) and cisplatin or carboplatin for the first-line treatment of metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will be presented (Abstract #CT075). In January 2018, Merck announced the KEYNOTE-189 study met its dual primary endpoints, and the KEYTRUDA combination resulted in significantly longer overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) than pemetrexed plus platinum chemotherapy alone. In addition, results from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-054 trial, in collaboration with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), studying KEYTRUDA in adjuvant melanoma will be presented (Abstract #CT001). As previously announced, this is the first KEYTRUDA trial to demonstrate a significant recurrence-free survival (RFS) benefit in the adjuvant treatment setting for stage III melanoma. "Our global efforts in immuno-oncology research, anchored by KEYTRUDA, are fueled by a commitment to improve the lives of patients suffering from malignant disease," said Dr. Roger M. Perlmutter, president, Merck Research Laboratories. "New studies to be presented at AACR, including our KEYNOTE-189 and -054 trials in first-line lung cancer and adjuvant melanoma, respectively, demonstrate the progress that we and our colleagues have made in developing treatment regimens for a broad range of cancers." "The science of immunotherapy has advanced significantly in recent years, and Merck is forging new ground through its research efforts. At the Cancer Research Institute, we support the discovery of new treatment options for people with cancer and we are very excited about the new research with KEYTRUDA in first-line lung cancer and other cancers to be presented at AACR," said Jill O'Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs, Cancer Research Institute (CRI). With KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) and a growing early pipeline of 20 novel mechanisms, Merck has become a leader in immuno-oncology research with the largest clinical program in the industry. Data from Merck's broad portfolio including KEYTRUDA, internally-discovered investigational STING agonist (MK-1454), and several collaborations including with AstraZeneca for the PARP inhibitor LYNPARZA (olaparib), will be featured in more than 20 oral plenary and poster presentations. Select data highlights at AACR include: KEYNOTE-189: Randomized, double-blind, phase 3 study of pembrolizumab (pembro) or placebo plus pemetrexed (pem) and platinum as first-line therapy for metastatic NSCLC. Top-line results showed that the KEYTRUDA combination improved OS and PFS in the first-line treatment of nonsquamous NSCLC. Abstract #CT075. L Gandhi. Plenary Session: Monday, April 16, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CDT.

Randomized, double-blind, phase 3 study of pembrolizumab (pembro) or placebo plus pemetrexed (pem) and platinum as first-line therapy for metastatic NSCLC. Top-line results showed that the KEYTRUDA combination improved OS and PFS in the first-line treatment of nonsquamous NSCLC. Abstract #CT075. L Gandhi. Plenary Session: Monday, April 16, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CDT. KEYNOTE-054 (EORTC1325): Pembrolizumab versus placebo after complete resection of high-risk stage III melanoma: Efficacy and safety results from the EORTC 1325-MG/KEYNOTE-054 double-blinded phase III trial. In January 2018, Merck and EORTC announced the study met the primary endpoint of RFS, showing significant benefit for patients with resected stage III melanoma who received KEYTRUDA compared to placebo. Abstract #CT001. A Eggermont. Plenary Session: Sunday, April 15, 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. CDT.

Pembrolizumab versus placebo after complete resection of high-risk stage III melanoma: Efficacy and safety results from the EORTC 1325-MG/KEYNOTE-054 double-blinded phase III trial. In January 2018, Merck and EORTC announced the study met the primary endpoint of RFS, showing significant benefit for patients with resected stage III melanoma who received KEYTRUDA compared to placebo. Abstract #CT001. A Eggermont. Plenary Session: Sunday, April 15, 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. CDT. KEYNOTE-040: Updated survival results of the KEYNOTE-040 study of pembrolizumab vs standard-of-care chemotherapy for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Updated OS results will be presented at AACR. Abstract #CT115. D Soulieres. Minisymposium: Monday, April 16, 3:00-5:00 p.m. CDT.

Updated survival results of the KEYNOTE-040 study of pembrolizumab vs standard-of-care chemotherapy for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Updated OS results will be presented at AACR. Abstract #CT115. D Soulieres. Minisymposium: Monday, April 16, 3:00-5:00 p.m. CDT. Merck's Early Pipeline: Combining STING Agonists with an Anti-PD-1 Antagonist results in Marked AntiTumor Activity in Immune-Excluded Tumors. MK-1454, Merck's investigational STING (stimulator of interferon genes) agonist, is currently being evaluated in a phase 1 study as monotherapy and in combination with KEYTRUDA in patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphomas. Abstract #4721/24. S Perera. Poster Presentation: Tuesday, April 17, 1:00-5:00 p.m. CDT.

Combining STING Agonists with an Anti-PD-1 Antagonist results in Marked AntiTumor Activity in Immune-Excluded Tumors. MK-1454, Merck's investigational STING (stimulator of interferon genes) agonist, is currently being evaluated in a phase 1 study as monotherapy and in combination with KEYTRUDA in patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphomas. Abstract #4721/24. S Perera. Poster Presentation: Tuesday, April 17, 1:00-5:00 p.m. CDT. OlympiAD: OlympiAD final overall survival: Olaparib versus chemotherapy treatment of physician's choice (TPC) in patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (mBC) and a germline BRCA mutation (gBRCAm). Abstract #CT038. M Robson. Minisymposium: Sunday, April 15, 3:00-5:00 p.m. CDT. Additional data to be presented for KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) and from Merck's collaboration with AstraZeneca for LYNPARZA (olaparib) include: Additional KEYTRUDA Data at AACR Minisymposium: Safety, efficacy, and immune correlates of alternative doses and schedules of entinostat combined with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors - results from SNDX-275-0141 Phase I trial. AW Tolcher.

Minisymposium: Biomarkers predictive of response to pembrolizumab in head and neck cancer (HNSCC). TY Seiwert.

Minisymposium: Effect of JAK/STAT or PI3Kd plus PD-1 inhibition on the tumor microenvironment: Biomarker results from a phase 1b study in patients with advanced solid tumors. J.M. Kirkwood.

Poster Presentation: Durability of responses to the combination of SD-101 and pembrolizumab in advanced metastatic melanoma: Results of a phase 1b, multicenter study. A Ribas.

Poster Presentation: Phase Ib/II, open-label, multicenter study of intratumoral SD-101 in combination with pembrolizumab in anti-PD-1 treatment-naive patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). E Cohen.

Poster Presentation: Imprime PGG, a soluble yeast -glucan PAMP, in combination with Pembrolizumab induces infiltration and activation of both innate and adaptive immune cells within tumor sites in melanoma and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients. MT Uhlik.

Poster Presentation: Comprehensive investigation of Programmed Death Receptor Ligand 1 (PD-L1) Expression and Associated Molecular Features in Gastric Cancer patients. X Liu.

Poster Presentation: Molecular Biomarker Study of Programmed Death Receptor Ligand 1 (PD-L1) in Korean Patients with Lung Adenocarcinoma. X Liu. Additional LYNPARZA Data at AACR Poster Presentation: A two-stage Simon Design phase II study for NOn-BRCA metastatic BReast cancer (MBC) patients with homologous recombination deficiency treated with OLAparib single agent. (NOBROLA study). E Aguirre.

Poster Presentation: Testing a combination of AKT inhibitor (AZD5363) with PARP inhibitor Olaparib plus Carboplatin in TNBC. JH Carlson.

Poster Presentation: Patient derived ovarian cancer xenograft (OC-PDX) to study the response of the PARP inhibitor olaparib. F Bizzaro.

Poster Presentation: Adaptive oncology phase 1 study of first-in-class inhibitor of ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein kinase (ATM), in combination with olaparib. Y Chen.

Poster Presentation: A pre-surgical window of opportunity study to investigate the biomarker effects of DNA damage response (DDR) agents in patients (pts) with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC). U Duvvuri.

Poster Presentation: The PARP inhibitor olaparib is synergistic with the ATR inhibitor AZD6738 in ATM deficient cancer cells. R Lloyd.

Poster Session: A head-to-head comparison of the properties of five clinical PARP inhibitors identifies new insights that can explain both the observed clinical efficacy and safety profiles. E Leo. For more information, including a complete list of abstract titles, please see the AACR program at http://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/4562. Merck Investor Event: Merck will hold an investor event in conjunction with the 2018 AACR Annual Meeting on Monday, April 16 at 6:45 p.m. CDT (7:45 p.m. EDT). Those unable to attend in person will be able to listen to a live audio webcast of the presentation. Details of the event to be provided at a date closer to the event at http://investors.merck.com/home/default.aspx. About KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) Injection 100mg KEYTRUDA is an anti-PD-1 therapy that works by increasing the ability of the body's immune system to help detect and fight tumor cells. KEYTRUDA is a humanized monoclonal antibody that blocks the interaction between PD-1 and its ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2, thereby activating T lymphocytes which may affect both tumor cells and healthy cells. Merck has the industry's largest immuno-oncology clinical research program, which currently involves more than 700 trials studying KEYTRUDA across a wide variety of cancers and treatment settings. The KEYTRUDA clinical program seeks to understand the role of KEYTRUDA across cancers and the factors that may predict a patient's likelihood of benefitting from treatment with KEYTRUDA, including exploring several different biomarkers. KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) Indications and Dosing Melanoma KEYTRUDA is indicated for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma at a fixed dose of 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Lung Cancer KEYTRUDA, as a single agent, is indicated for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression [tumor proportion score (TPS) =50%] as determined by an FDA-approved test, with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations. KEYTRUDA, as a single agent, is also indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors express PD-L1 (TPS =1%) as determined by an FDA-approved test, with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy. Patients with EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations should have disease progression on FDA-approved therapy for these aberrations prior to receiving KEYTRUDA. KEYTRUDA, in combination with pemetrexed and carboplatin, is indicated for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and progression-free survival. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. In metastatic NSCLC, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) is administered at a fixed dose of 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. When administering KEYTRUDA in combination with chemotherapy, KEYTRUDA should be administered prior to chemotherapy when given on the same day. See also the Prescribing Information for pemetrexed and carboplatin. Head and Neck Cancer KEYTRUDA is indicated for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. In HNSCC, KEYTRUDA is administered at a fixed dose of 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma KEYTRUDA is indicated for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), or who have relapsed after three or more prior lines of therapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. In adults with cHL, KEYTRUDA is administered at a fixed dose of 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. In pediatric patients with cHL, KEYTRUDA is administered at a dose of 2 mg/kg (up to a maximum of 200 mg) every three weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. Urothelial Carcinoma KEYTRUDA is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who are not eligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) is also indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy. In locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, KEYTRUDA is administered at a fixed dose of 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. Microsatellite Instability-High (MSI-H) Cancer KEYTRUDA is indicated for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with unresectable or metastatic microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) solid tumors that have progressed following prior treatment and who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options, or

colorectal cancer that has progressed following treatment with fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. The safety and effectiveness of KEYTRUDA in pediatric patients with MSI-H central nervous system cancers have not been established. In adult patients with MSI-H cancer, KEYTRUDA is administered at a fixed dose of 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. In children with MSI-H cancer, KEYTRUDA is administered at a dose of 2 mg/kg (up to a maximum of 200 mg) every three weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. Gastric Cancer KEYTRUDA is indicated for the treatment of patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma whose tumors express PD-L1 [Combined Positive Score (CPS) =1] as determined by an FDA-approved test, with disease progression on or after two or more prior lines of therapy including fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy and if appropriate, HER2/neu-targeted therapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. The recommended dose of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) is 200 mg every three weeks until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or up to 24 months in patients without disease progression. Selected Important Safety Information for KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) KEYTRUDA can cause immue-mediated pneumonitis, including fatal cases. Pneumonitis occurred in 94 (3.4%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 1 (0.8%), 2 (1.3%), 3 (0.9%), 4 (0.3%), and 5 (0.1%) pneumonitis, and occurred more frequently in patients with a history of prior thoracic radiation (6.9%) compared to those without (2.9%). Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of pneumonitis. Evaluate suspected pneumonitis with radiographic imaging. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater pneumonitis. Withhold KEYTRUDA for Grade 2; permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA for Grade 3 or 4 or recurrent Grade 2 pneumonitis.



KEYTRUDA can cause immune-mediated colitis. Colitis occurred in 48 (1.7%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 2 (0.4%), 3 (1.1%), and 4 (<0.1%) colitis. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of colitis. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater colitis. Withhold KEYTRUDA for Grade 2 or 3; permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA for Grade 4 colitis. KEYTRUDA can cause immune-mediated hepatitis. Hepatitis occurred in 19 (0.7%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 2 (0.1%), 3 (0.4%), and 4 (<0.1%) hepatitis. Monitor patients for changes in liver function. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater hepatitis and, based on severity of liver enzyme elevations, withhold or discontinue KEYTRUDA.

KEYTRUDA can cause hypophysitis. Hypophysitis occurred in 17 (0.6%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 2 (0.2%), 3 (0.3%), and 4 (<0.1%) hypophysitis. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of hypophysitis (including hypopituitarism and adrenal insufficiency). Administer corticosteroids and hormone replacement as clinically indicated. Withhold KEYTRUDA for Grade 2; withhold or discontinue for Grade 3 or 4 hypophysitis. KEYTRUDA can cause thyroid disorders, including hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and thyroiditis. Hyperthyroidism occurred in 96 (3.4%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 2 (0.8%) and 3 (0.1%) hyperthyroidism. Hypothyroidism occurred in 237 (8.5%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 2 (6.2%) and 3 (0.1%) hypothyroidism. The incidence of new or worsening hypothyroidism was higher in patients with HNSCC, occurring in 28 (15%) of 192 patients with HNSCC, including Grade 3 (0.5%) hypothyroidism. Thyroiditis occurred in 16 (0.6%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), including Grade 2 (0.3%) thyroiditis. Monitor patients for changes in thyroid function (at the start of treatment, periodically during treatment, and as indicated based on clinical evaluation) and for clinical signs and symptoms of thyroid disorders. Administer replacement hormones for hypothyroidism and manage hyperthyroidism with thionamides and beta-blockers as appropriate. Withhold or discontinue KEYTRUDA for Grade 3 or 4 hyperthyroidism. KEYTRUDA can cause type 1 diabetes mellitus, including diabetic ketoacidosis, which have been reported in 6 (0.2%) of 2799 patients. Monitor patients for hyperglycemia or other signs and symptoms of diabetes. Administer insulin for type 1 diabetes, and withhold KEYTRUDA and administer antihyperglycemics in patients with severe hyperglycemia. KEYTRUDA can cause immune-mediated nephritis. Nephritis occurred in 9 (0.3%) of 2799 patients receiving KEYTRUDA, including Grade 2 (0.1%), 3 (0.1%), and 4 (<0.1%) nephritis. Monitor patients for changes in renal function. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater nephritis. Withhold KEYTRUDA for Grade 2; permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA for Grade 3 or 4 nephritis. Immune-mediated rashes, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) (some cases with fatal outcome), exfoliative dermatitis, and bullous pemphigoid, can occur. Monitor patients for suspected severe skin reactions and based on the severity of the adverse reaction, withhold or permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA and administer corticosteroids. For signs or symptoms of SJS or TEN, withhold KEYTRUDA and refer the patient for specialized care for assessment and treatment. If SJS or TEN is confirmed, permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA. KEYTRUDA can cause other clinically important immune-mediated adverse reactions. These immune-mediated reactions may occur in any organ system. For suspected immune-mediated adverse reactions, ensure adequate evaluation to confirm etiology or exclude other causes. Based on the severity of the adverse reaction, withhold KEYTRUDA and administer corticosteroids. Upon improvement to Grade 1 or less, initiate corticosteroid taper and continue to taper over at least 1 month. Based on limited data from clinical studies in patients whose immune-related adverse reactions could not be controlled with corticosteroid use, administration of other systemic immunosuppressants can be considered. Resume KEYTRUDA when the adverse reaction remains at Grade 1 or less following corticosteroid taper. Permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for any Grade 3 immune-mediated adverse reaction that recurs and for any life-threatening immune-mediated adverse reaction. The following clinically significant immune-mediated adverse reactions occurred in less than 1% (unless otherwise indicated) of 2799 patients: arthritis (1.5%), uveitis, myositis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, myasthenia gravis, vasculitis, pancreatitis, hemolytic anemia, and partial seizures arising in a patient with inflammatory foci in brain parenchyma. In addition, myelitis and myocarditis were reported in other clinical trials, including classical Hodgkin lymphoma, and postmarketing use. Solid organ transplant rejection has been reported in postmarketing use of KEYTRUDA. Treatment with KEYTRUDA may increase the risk of rejection in solid organ transplant recipients. Consider the benefit of treatment with KEYTRUDA vs the risk of possible organ rejection in these patients. KEYTRUDA can cause severe or life-threatening infusion-related reactions, including hypersensitivity and anaphylaxis, which have been reported in 6 (0.2%) of 2799 patients. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of infusion-related reactions, including rigors, chills, wheezing, pruritus, flushing, rash, hypotension, hypoxemia, and fever. For Grade 3 or 4 reactions, stop infusion and permanently discontinue KEYTRUDA. Immune-mediated complications, including fatal events, occurred in patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) after being treated with KEYTRUDA. Of 23 patients with cHL who proceeded to allogeneic HSCT after treatment with KEYTRUDA on any trial, 6 patients (26%) developed graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), one of which was fatal, and 2 patients (9%) developed severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD) after reduced-intensity conditioning, one of which was fatal. Cases of fatal hyperacute GVHD after allogeneic HSCT have also been reported in patients with lymphoma who received a PD-1 receptor-blocking antibody before transplantation. These complications may occur despite intervening therapy between PD-1 blockade and allogeneic HSCT. Follow patients closely for early evidence of transplant-related complications such as hyperacute GVHD, severe (Grade 3 to 4) acute GVHD, steroid-requiring febrile syndrome, hepatic VOD, and other immune-mediated adverse reactions, and intervene promptly. In clinical trials in patients with multiple myeloma, the addition of KEYTRUDA to a thalidomide analogue plus dexamethasone resulted in increased mortality. Treatment of these patients with a PD-1 or PD-L1 blocking antibody in this combination is not recommended outside of controlled clinical trials. Based on its mechanism of action, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. If used during pregnancy, or if the patient becomes pregnant during treatment, apprise the patient of the potential hazard to a fetus. Advise females of reproductive potential to use highly effective contraception during treatment and for 4 months after the last dose of KEYTRUDA. In KEYNOTE-006, KEYTRUDA was discontinued due to adverse reactions in 9% of 555 patients with advanced melanoma; adverse reactions leading to discontinuation in more than one patient were colitis (1.4%), autoimmune hepatitis (0.7%), allergic reaction (0.4%), polyneuropathy (0.4%), and cardiac failure (0.4%). Adverse reactions leading to interruption of KEYTRUDA occurred in 21% of patients; the most common (=1%) was diarrhea (2.5%). The most common adverse reactions with KEYTRUDA vs ipilimumab were fatigue (28% vs 28%), diarrhea (26% with KEYTRUDA), rash (24% vs 23%), and nausea (21% with KEYTRUDA). Corresponding incidence rates are listed for ipilimumab only for those adverse reactions that occurred at the same or lower rate than with KEYTRUDA. In KEYNOTE-010, KEYTRUDA monotherapy was discontinued due to adverse reactions in 8% of 682 patients with metastatic NSCLC. The most common adverse event resulting in permanent discontinuation of KEYTRUDA was pneumonitis (1.8%). Adverse reactions leading to interruption of KEYTRUDA occurred in 23% of patients; the most common (=1%) were diarrhea (1%), fatigue (1.3%), pneumonia (1%), liver enzyme elevation (1.2%), decreased appetite (1.3%), and pneumonitis (1%). The most common adverse reactions (occurring in at least 20% of patients and at a higher incidence than with docetaxel) were decreased appetite (25% vs 23%), dyspnea (23% vs 20%), and nausea (20% vs 18%). In KEYNOTE-021(G1), when KEYTRUDA was administered in combination with carboplatin and pemetrexed (carbo/pem) in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC, KEYTRUDA was discontinued in 10% of 59 patients. The most common adverse reaction resulting in discontinuation of KEYTRUDA (=2%) was acute kidney injury (3.4%). Adverse reactions leading to interruption of KEYTRUDA occurred in 39% of patients; the most common (=2%) were fatigue (8%), neutrophil count decreased (8%), anemia (5%), dyspnea (3.4%), and pneumonitis (3.4%). The most common adverse reactions (=20%) with KEYTRUDA compared to carbo/pem alone were fatigue (71% vs 50%), nausea (68% vs 56%), constipation (51% vs 37%), rash (42% vs 21%), vomiting (39% vs 27%), dyspnea (39% vs 21%), diarrhea (37% vs 23%), decreased appetite (31% vs 23%), headache (31% vs 16%), cough (24% vs 18%), dizziness (24% vs 16%), insomnia (24% vs 15%), pruritus (24% vs 4.8%), peripheral edema (22% vs 18%), dysgeusia (20% vs 11%), alopecia (20% vs 3.2%), upper respiratory tract infection (20% vs 3.2%), and arthralgia (15% vs 24%). This study was not designed to demonstrate a statistically significant difference in adverse reaction rates for KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) as compared to carbo/pem alone for any specified adverse reaction. In KEYNOTE-012, KEYTRUDA was discontinued due to adverse reactions in 17% of 192 patients with HNSCC. Serious adverse reactions occurred in 45% of patients. The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of patients were pneumonia, dyspnea, confusional state, vomiting, pleural effusion, and respiratory failure. The most common adverse reactions (reported in at least 20% of patients) were fatigue, decreased appetite, and dyspnea. Adverse reactions occurring in patients with HNSCC were generally similar to those occurring in patients with melanoma or NSCLC, with the exception of increased incidences of facial edema (10% all Grades; 2.1% Grades 3 or 4) and new or worsening hypothyroidism. In KEYNOTE-087, KEYTRUDA was discontinued due to adverse reactions in 5% of 210 patients with cHL, and treatment was interrupted due to adverse reactions in 26% of patients. Fifteen percent (15%) of patients had an adverse reaction requiring systemic corticosteroid therapy. Serious adverse reactions occurred in 16% of patients. The most frequent serious adverse reactions (=1%) included pneumonia, pneumonitis, pyrexia, dyspnea, GVHD, and herpes zoster. Two patients died from causes other than disease progression; one from GVHD after subsequent allogeneic HSCT and one from septic shock. The most common adverse reactions (occurring in =20% of patients) were fatigue (26%), pyrexia (24%), cough (24%), musculoskeletal pain (21%), diarrhea (20%), and rash (20%). In KEYNOTE-052, KEYTRUDA was discontinued due to adverse reactions in 11% of 370 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. The most common adverse reactions (in =20% of patients) were fatigue (38%), musculoskeletal pain (24%), decreased appetite (22%), constipation (21%), rash (21%), and diarrhea (20%). Eighteen patients (5%) died from causes other than disease progression. Five patients (1.4%) who were treated with KEYTRUDA experienced sepsis which led to death, and 3 patients (0.8%) experienced pneumonia which led to death. Adverse reactions leading to interruption of KEYTRUDA occurred in 22% of patients; the most common (=1%) were liver enzyme increase, diarrhea, urinary tract infection, acute kidney injury, fatigue, joint pain, and pneumonia. Serious adverse reactions occurred in 42% of patients, the most frequent (=2%) of which were urinary tract infection, hematuria, acute kidney injury, pneumonia, and urosepsis. In KEYNOTE-045, KEYTRUDA was discontinued due to adverse reactions in 8% of 266 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. The most common adverse reaction resulting in permanent discontinuation of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) was pneumonitis (1.9%). Adverse reactions leading to interruption of KEYTRUDA occurred in 20% of patients; the most common (=1%) were urinary tract infection (1.5%), diarrhea (1.5%), and colitis (1.1%). The most common adverse reactions (=20%) in patients who received KEYTRUDA vs those who received chemotherapy were fatigue (38% vs 56%), musculoskeletal pain (32% vs 27%), pruritus (23% vs 6%), decreased appetite (21% vs 21%), nausea (21% vs 29%), and rash (20% vs 13%). Serious adverse reactions occurred in 39% of KEYTRUDA-treated patients, the most frequent (=2%) of which were urinary tract infection, pneumonia, anemia, and pneumonitis. It is not known whether KEYTRUDA is excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, instruct women to discontinue nursing during treatment with KEYTRUDA and for 4 months after the final dose. There is limited experience in pediatric patients. In a study, 40 pediatric patients (16 children aged 2 years to younger than 12 years and 24 adolescents aged 12 years to 18 years) with advanced melanoma, lymphoma, or PD-L1-positive advanced, relapsed, or refractory solid tumors were administered KEYTRUDA 2 mg/kg every 3 weeks. Patients received KEYTRUDA for a median of 3 doses (range 1-17 doses), with 34 patients (85%) receiving KEYTRUDA for 2 doses or more. The safety profile in these pediatric patients was similar to that seen in adults treated with KEYTRUDA. Toxicities that occurred at a higher rate (=15% difference) in these patients when compared to adults under 65 years of age were fatigue (45%), vomiting (38%), abdominal pain (28%), hypertransaminasemia (28%), and hyponatremia (18%). About LYNPARZA (olaparib) LYNPARZA is the first FDA-approved oral poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor and the first targeted treatment to potentially exploit DNA damage response (DDR) pathway deficiencies, such as BRCA mutations, to preferentially kill cancer cells. Specifically, in vitro studies have shown that LYNPARZA-induced cytotoxicity may involve inhibition of PARP enzymatic activity and increased formation of PARP-DNA complexes, resulting in DNA damage and cancer cell death. Indications for LYNPARZA (olaparib) in the U.S. LYNPARZA is a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor indicated: For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy. For the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) advanced ovarian cancer who have been treated with 3 or more prior lines of chemotherapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA (olaparib). In patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious gBRCAm, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer who have previously been treated with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant or metastatic setting. Patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer should have been treated with a prior endocrine therapy or be considered inappropriate for endocrine treatment. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. Important Safety Information for LYNPARZA (olaparib) Contraindications There are no contraindications for LYNPARZA. Warnings and Precautions Myelodysplastic Syndrome/Acute Myeloid Leukemia (MDS/AML): Occurred in <1.5% of patients exposed to LYNPARZA monotherapy, and the majority of events had a fatal outcome. The duration of therapy in patients who developed secondary MDS/AML varied from <6 months to >2 years. All of these patients had previous chemotherapy with platinum agents and/or other DNA-damaging agents, including radiotherapy, and some also had a history of more than one primary malignancy or of bone marrow dysplasia. Do not start LYNPARZA until patients have recovered from hematological toxicity caused by previous chemotherapy (=Grade 1). Monitor complete blood count for cytopenia at baseline and monthly thereafter for clinically significant changes during treatment. For prolonged hematological toxicities, interrupt LYNPARZA and monitor blood count weekly until recovery. If the levels have not recovered to Grade 1 or less after 4 weeks, refer the patient to a hematologist for further investigations, including bone marrow analysis and blood sample for cytogenetics. Discontinue LYNPARZA if MDS/AML is confirmed. Pneumonitis: Occurred in <1% of patients exposed to LYNPARZA (olaparib), and some cases were fatal. If patients present with new or worsening respiratory symptoms such as dyspnea, cough, and fever, or a radiological abnormality occurs, interrupt LYNPARZA treatment and initiate prompt investigation. Discontinue LYNPARZA if pneumonitis is confirmed and treat patient appropriately. Embryo-Fetal Toxicity: Based on its mechanism of action and findings in animals, LYNPARZA can cause fetal harm. A pregnancy test is recommended for females of reproductive potential prior to initiating treatment. Advise females of reproductive potential of the potential risk to a fetus and to use effective contraception during treatment and for 6 months following the last dose. Advise male patients with female partners of reproductive potential or who are pregnant to use effective contraception during treatment and for 3 months following the last dose of LYNPARZA and to not donate sperm during this time. Adverse Reactions-Maintenance Setting Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =20% of patients in clinical trials of LYNPARZA (olaparib) in the maintenance setting for SOLO-2: nausea (76%), fatigue (including asthenia) (66%), anemia (44%), vomiting (37%), nasopharyngitis/upper respiratory tract infection (URI)/influenza (36%), diarrhea (33%), arthralgia/myalgia (30%), dysgeusia (27%), headache (26%), decreased appetite (22%), and stomatitis (20%). Study 19: nausea (71%), fatigue (including asthenia) (63%), vomiting (35%), diarrhea (28%), anemia (23%), respiratory tract infection (22%), constipation (22%), headache (21%), and decreased appetite (21%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients in clinical trials of LYNPARZA in the maintenance setting (SOLO-2/Study 19) were: increase in mean corpuscular volume (89%/82%), decrease in hemoglobin (83%/82%), decrease in leukocytes (69%/58%), decrease in lymphocytes (67%/52%), decrease in absolute neutrophil count (51%/47%), increase in serum creatinine (44%/45%), and decrease in platelets (42%/36%). Adverse Reactions-Advanced gBRCAm Ovarian Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =20% of patients in clinical trials of LYNPARZA for advanced gBRCAm ovarian cancer after 3 or more lines of chemotherapy (pooled from 6 studies) were: fatigue (including asthenia) (66%), nausea (64%), vomiting (43%), anemia (34%), diarrhea (31%), nasopharyngitis/upper respiratory tract infection (URI) (26%), dyspepsia (25%), myalgia (22%), decreased appetite (22%), and arthralgia/musculoskeletal pain (21%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients in clinical trials of LYNPARZA (olaparib) for advanced gBRCAm ovarian cancer (pooled from 6 studies) were: decrease in hemoglobin (90%), increase in mean corpuscular volume (57%), decrease in lymphocytes (56%), increase in serum creatinine (30%), decrease in platelets (30%), and decrease in absolute neutrophil count (25%). Adverse Reactions-gBRCAm, HER2-Negative Breast Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =20% of patients in OlympiAD were: nausea (58%), anemia (40%), fatigue (including asthenia) (37%), vomiting (30%), neutropenia (27%), respiratory tract infection (27%), leukopenia (25%), diarrhea (21%), and headache (20%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients in OlympiAD were: decrease in hemoglobin (82%), decrease in lymphocytes (73%), decrease in leukocytes (71%), increase in mean corpuscular volume (71%), decrease in absolute neutrophil count (46%), and decrease in platelets (33%). Drug Interactions Anticancer Agents: Clinical studies of LYNPARZA in combination with other myelosuppressive anticancer agents, including DNA-damaging agents, indicate a potentiation and prolongation of myelosuppressive toxicity. CYP3A Inhibitors: Avoid concomitant use of strong or moderate CYP3A inhibitors. If a strong or moderate CYP3A inhibitor must be co-administered, reduce the dose of LYNPARZA. Advise patients to avoid grapefruit, grapefruit juice, Seville oranges, and Seville orange juice during LYNPARZA treatment. CYP3A Inducers: Avoid concomitant use of strong or moderate CYP3A inducers when using LYNPARZA (olaparib). If a moderate inducer cannot be avoided, there is a potential for decreased efficacy of LYNPARZA. Use in Specific Populations Lactation: No data are available regarding the presence of olaparib in human milk, its effects on the breastfed infant or on milk production. Because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in the breastfed infant, advise a lactating woman not to breastfeed during treatment with LYNPARZA (olaparib) and for 1 month after receiving the final dose. Pediatric Use: The safety and efficacy of LYNPARZA have not been established in pediatric patients. Hepatic Impairment: No adjustment to the starting dose is required in patients with mild hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh classification A). There are no data in patients with moderate or severe hepatic impairment. Renal Impairment: No adjustment to the starting dose is necessary in patients with mild renal impairment (CLcr=51-80 mL/min). In patients with moderate renal impairment (CLcr=31-50 mL/min), reduce the dose to 200 mg twice daily. There are no data in patients with severe renal impairment or end-stage renal disease (CLcr =30 mL/min). Dosing and Administration To avoid substitution errors and overdose, do not substitute LYNPARZA tablets with LYNPARZA capsules on a milligram-to-milligram basis due to differences in the dosing and bioavailability of each formulation. Recommended tablet dose is 300 mg, taken orally twice daily, with or without food. Continue treatment until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. For adverse reactions, consider dose interruption or dose reduction. About the AstraZeneca and Merck Strategic Oncology Collaboration In July 2017, AstraZeneca and Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) announced a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize LYNPARZA, the world's first PARP inhibitor, and potential new medicine selumetinib, a MEK inhibitor, for multiple cancer types. The collaboration is based on increasing evidence that PARP and MEK inhibitors can be combined with PD-L1/PD-1 inhibitors for a range of tumor types. Working together, the companies will jointly develop LYNPARZA and selumetinib in combination with other potential new medicines and as a monotherapy. Independently, the companies will develop LYNPARZA and selumetinib in combination with their respective PD-L1 and PD-1 medicines. Merck's Focus on Cancer Our goal is to translate breakthrough science into innovative oncology medicines to help people with cancer worldwide. At Merck, helping people fight cancer is our passion and supporting accessibility to our cancer medicines is our commitment. Our focus is on pursuing research in immuno-oncology and we are accelerating every step in the journey - from lab to clinic - to potentially bring new hope to people with cancer. As part of our focus on cancer, Merck is committed to exploring the potential of immuno-oncology with one of the fastest-growing development programs in the industry. We are currently executing an expansive research program evaluating our anti-PD-1 therapy across more than 30 tumor types. We also continue to strengthen our immuno-oncology portfolio through strategic acquisitions and are prioritizing the development of several promising immunotherapeutic candidates with the potential to improve the treatment of advanced cancers. For more information about our oncology clinical trials, visit www.merck.com/clinicaltrials. About Merck For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer's disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the "company") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company's 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov). Please see Prescribing Information for KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) at

https://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/k/keytruda/keytruda_pi.pdf and

Patient Information/Medication Guide for KEYTRUDA at https://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/k/keytruda/keytruda_mg.pdf. Please see complete Prescribing Information for LYNPARZA (olaparib) tablets

https://www.azpicentral.com/lynparza_tb/pi_lynparza_tb.pdf#page=1 and complete

Prescribing Information for LYNPARZA capsules,

https://www.azpicentral.com/Lynparza/pi_lynparza.pdf#page=1 including Patient Information (Medication Guides). ALIMTA is a registered trademark of Eli Lilly and Company. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180314006245/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 14, 2018] Beaird Dermatology Kicks Off "We Want to See You Naked" Campaign, Focused on Skin Cancer Screening and Treatment

Beaird Dermatology, led by Dr. Leslie Beaird, has initiated a Chicago area campaign, "We Want to See You Naked", designed to raise community awareness for "head to toe" skin exams, an important screening that identifies precancerous and cancerous conditions. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year than all other types of cancer combined. Consistent use of sunscreen and regular screenings are essential to address the increasing incidence of skin cancer. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180314006256/en/ Beaird Dermatology Attention-Getting Billboard on Chicago Tollway Bringing Awareness for Skin Cancer Screening (Photo: Business ire)



By going to www.skincheck.us, members of the community will link to a primer on the importance of skin cancer screening and can easily schedule a thorough evaluation of their skin by Beaird Dermatology's board-certified care team.

Dr. Beaird states, "We are passionate about the need for our patients to have all of their skin examined from head to toe each year. Our screening standard is extremely thorough and recognizes that many precancerous and cancerous conditions are not visible to an individual and cannot be self-identified. Our campaign - while it brings a sense of fun - is about a serious matter that we make a priority in our medical practice. Our patient care begins with a thorough screening." The "We Want to See You Naked" billboard is featured on one of the most highly traveled highways in Chicago. Beaird Dermatology will be conducting "Spot Checks" at events in the community and will be giving away thousands of sun-sensitive bracelets that change color as a reminder for when it's time to apply additional sunscreen. Individuals interested in a screening event for their organization may call Beaird Dermatology Offices at 224.484.0183. ABOUT BEAIRD DERMATOLOGY - Located in Hoffman (News - Alert) Estates Prairie Pointe office complex at Routes 90 and 59, Beaird Dermatology offers medical, surgical and aesthetic dermatology services in their state-of-the-art offices. The Beaird Dermatology practice team brings 30+ collective years of medical practice that includes evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and enhancement of the skin. Beaird Dermatology is accessible to patients with special needs, including those with mobility limitations of any kind. The practice also offers Spanish and English fluency. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180314006256/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 14, 2018] WeChat Team to Make Public Debut in Singapore to Unveil the Secret of Success in China's Mobile Payment

SINGAPORE, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WeChat official team, who builds the first Chinese app to hit 1 billion monthly active users in the world, will hold its WeChat Pay Overseas Partners Conference in Singapore for the first time on Mar 26th, 2018. The conference will explore the secret behind the rapid growth of mobile payment in China and bring to Singaporean merchants handy tools and best practice on how to better operate Chinese shoppers on WeChat. Singapore Tourism Board data shows that more than 3 million (3.227 million) visits were made by Chinese tourists to Singapore in 2017, 13% higher than 2015. Chinese have become the largest overseas tourist base for Singapore. With growing number of Chinese visiting Singapore, Singaporean merchants imperatively requires a matured solution to provide Chinese visitors with overseas shopping andpaying experience.



WeChat team will introduce its cross-border solutions, including WeChat Pay, WeChat Official Account, Mini-program and more to the market. Local golden cases are invited to share their experience and methodology of attracting Chinese shoppers. WeChat Pay aims to duplicate domestic smart life and its business solutions overseas. The cross-border payment solution offered by WeChat Pay allows Chinese outbound tourists to make the payment to the merchants in Chinese yuan, while enabling the Singaporean merchants to receive the payment in their local currency, saving them the trouble of exchanging currencies and saddling the shopper with a small-denomination banknotes and coins in an unfamiliar currency.

Through serving Chinese outbound tourists, WeChat Pay has established partnerships with an ever-growing number of overseas merchants with the ability to handle transactions in 13 different currencies in 25 countries and regions. Event detail

Time: March 26th, 2018 1:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.

Venue: Shangri-La Hotel Singapore, the 3th floor, Island Ballroom

Address: 22 Orange Grove Road, 258350, Singapore

Apply now for free: http://cn.mikecrm.com/UDY46NC

Seats are limited and the audience will be chosen in a random way. Registration will be confirmed by mail and SMS.

Application deadline: March 19th, 2018 | 12:00p.m. Interested media are invited to conference. Please contact liwan@tencent.com to register. SOURCE WeChat

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 14, 2018] Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) Becomes First Test Lab to Issue IP Blocking Certificates for Philippines Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) License Holders

MANILA, Philippines, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Gaming Laboratories International's (GLI) Asia-Pacific (APAC) operations, led by GLI Australia, is proud to announce that it has become the first independent accredited gaming test laboratory to successfully complete and issue IP Blocking Certificates for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) Licensees, pursuant to Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR)'s existing POGO Rules and Regulations. GLI's testing and resultant certificates were undertaken in accordance with a Memorandum issued by PAGCOR to all POGO Licensees, requiring them to ensure that their IP address(es) used for offshore gaming operation were not accessible within the jurisdiction of the Philippines, on or before March 15, 2018. GLI's Vice President of iGaming Salim Aatia said, "We are honored to be the first PAGCOR-accredited gaming laboratory to test and certify various IP blocking protocols and solutions for POGO Licensees. We knew the importance PAGCOR placed on this mandate and how paramount IP blocking integrity is to this jurisdiction, which now hosts the largest number of online gaming operators in the APAC region."



"Through our Adelaide, Sydney, and Macau test facilities, we are delighted to provide PAGCOR POGO license holders with the highest quality and most effective IP blocking testing services in the industry," added GLI Asia's General Manager of Client Services, Marina Wong. GLI is authorized to provide independent testing and professional services to the Philippines, all Australian states and territories, New Zealand, Macau, Singapore and other APAC gaming jurisdictions. With more than 20 years of operations in APAC, GLI is the most qualified and experienced independent gaming laboratory in the region. GLI has offered extensive expertise and services to online licensees relating to IP Blocking Testing, Game, Platform, RNG, and Live Dealer testing. The lab also provides training through GLI University; field inspections; responsible gaming; and security audits of all sorts including penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, and threat and risk assessments.

About Gaming Laboratories International

Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) is committed to the Asia Pacific and delivers world-class independent testing and certification services to more than 475 global jurisdictions. For nearly 30 years, the company has helped ensure integrity in the industry with more than 1,100 highly trained professionals. GLI holds accreditations for compliance with ISO/IEC 17025, 17020, and 17065 standards for technical competence in the land-based and online gaming, wagering and lottery industries. For more information about GLI's growing portfolio of services, please visit gaminglabs.com. Contact:

Christie Eickelman, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing

+1 (702) 914-2220 or c.eickelman@gaminglabs.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/654626/Gaming_Labs_International_Logo.jpg SOURCE Gaming Laboratories International

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018]

Innate Pharma to present broad and innovative portfolio in immuno-oncology at AACR 2018

Innate Pharma to present broad and innovative portfolio in immuno-oncology at ACCR 2018

First clinical activity data of the combination of monalizumab and cetuximab

New preclinical data further supporting the rationale of Innate's first- or best-in-class antibodies

Eric Vivier, Chief Scientific Officer, to present at meet-the-expert session on next generation immunotherapies

Marseille, France, March 15, 2018, 07:00 AM CET

Innate Pharma SA (the "Company" - Euronext Paris: FR0010331421 - IPH) today announces that new clinical and preclinical data will be presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, taking place from 14 to 18 April 2018 in Chicago.

In particular, preliminary clinical activity data from the ongoing Phase II trial evaluating monalizumab, Innate's first-in-class antibody targeting inhibitory receptor NKG2A, in combination with cetuximab in previously treated patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M SCCHN) will be presented.

Eric Vivier, Chief Scientific Officer commented: "We have made substantial advances in building a broad and diversified portfolio in immuno-oncology, having the potential to address large unmet medical needs in cancer. We are proud to share data from across this uniquely positioned portfolio and we look ahead to a number of key milestones in 2018."

Innate will also be sharing new preclinical data on monalizumab, which further supports the rationale for the development of monalizumab as a combination therapy as part of the ongoing joint clinical development program with AstraZeneca/MedImmune. These data demonstrate that blockade of NKG2A potentiates cetuximab induced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) in a preclinical SCCHN model. Separate data suggest the combination of monalizumab and durvalumab as a potent immunotherapy for solid tumors.

Additional highlights from the Innate immuno-oncology portfolio will include preclinical data to support the development of anti-CD39 and anti-CD73 neutralizing antibodies targeting the ATP/Adenosine immune checkpoint pathway for cancer immunotherapy, in combination with chemotherapy or immune checkpoint therapy. CD39 and CD73 are membrane-bound extracellular enzymes which play a major role in promoting immunosuppression through the pathway degrading adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into adenosine. The blockade of CD39 and CD73 has the potential to promote anti-tumor immune responses across a wide range of tumors. IPH52 (anti-CD39) and IPH53 (anti-CD73) are currently in preclinical development.

Another poster will highlight preclinical findings for a first-in-class antibody program targeting the Siglec-9 immune checkpoint for cancer immunotherapy. This new program has recently been disclosed on Innate Pharma's R&D Day on March 8.

Presentation and poster details have been released on the AACR website and include:

Session Type: Meet-the-Expert Session

Track(s): Immunology, experimental and molecular therapeutics

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM

Location: McCormick Place South, Level 4, Room S406 (Vista Ballroom)

Speaker: Eric Vivier, Chief Scientific Officer, Innate Pharma







NKG2A immune checkpoint blockade potentiates cetuximab induced ADCC in head and neck cancer preclinical model

Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 1

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 31

Poster Board Number 15

Abstract: 1690

Combination of monalizumab and durvalumab as a potent immunotherapy treatment for solid human cancers

Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 32

Poster Board Number 6

Abstract: 2714

Preclinical development of humanized CD39 and CD73 blocking antibodies targeting the ATP/Adenosine immune checkpoint pathway for cancer immunotherapy Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 32

Poster Board Number 10

Abstract: 2718

Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 32

Poster Board Number 5

Abstract: 2713





The posters and presentations will be made available on the Company's website after the session.

About Innate Pharma:

Innate Pharma S.A. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to improving cancer treatment and clinical outcomes for patients through first-in-class therapeutic antibodies that harness the innate immunity.

Innate Pharma specializes in immuno-oncology, a new therapeutic field that is changing cancer treatment by mobilizing the power of the body's immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells.

The Company's broad pipeline includes four first-in-class clinical stage antibodies as well as preclinical candidates and technologies that have the potential to address a broad range of cancer indications with high unmet medical needs.

Innate Pharma has pioneered the discovery and development of checkpoint inhibitors, with a unique expertise and understanding of Natural Killer cell biology. This innovative approach has resulted in major alliances with leaders in the biopharmaceutical industry including AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk A/S and Sanofi. Innate Pharma is building the foundations to become a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company.

Based in Marseille, France, Innate Pharma has more than 180 employees and is listed on Euronext Paris.

Learn more about Innate Pharma at www.innate-pharma.com

Information about Innate Pharma shares:

ISIN code

Ticker code

LEI FR0010331421

IPH

9695002Y8420ZB8HJE29

Disclaimer:

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors ("Facteurs de Risque") section of the Document de Reference prospectus filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website (http://www.amf-france.org) or on Innate Pharma's website.

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in Innate Pharma in any country.

For additional information, please contact:

Investors







Innate Pharma



Dr Markus Metzger / Jerome Marino

Investor relations



Tel.: +33 (0)4 30 30 30 30



investors@innate-pharma.com



International Media







Consilium Strategic Communications



Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson / Melissa Gardiner



Tel.: +44 (0)20 3709 5700



InnatePharma@consilium-comms.com French Media







ATCG Press



Marie Puvieux



Mob: +33 (0)6 10 54 36 72



presse@atcg-partners.com





Attachment:

//www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dea31a7c-a184-44ba-a929-b69f9785141e[March 15, 2018] Targovax ASA: Annual Report 2017

On 14 March 2018, the board of directors of Targovax ASA approved the company's financial statements for 2017, which will be dealt with by the Company's annual general meeting on 11 April 2018. The company's annual accounts for the financial year 2017, including the financial statements and annual report for the financial year 2017, are together with the auditor's report, attached to this notice and is also available at the company's webpage, www.targovax.com. For further information, please contact:

Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations

Phone: +47 922 61 624

Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com Media and IR enquires:

Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)

Phone: +47 9300 1773

Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no Simon Conway - FTI Consulting (International)

Phone: +44 20 3727 1000

Email: Targovax@fticonsulting.com



About Targovax Arming the patient's immune system to fight cancer

Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology therapies to target, primarily, treatment-resistant solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine. The Company's development pipeline is based on two novel proprietary platforms: The first platform, ONCOS, uses oncolytic viruses as potential multi-target, neo-antigen, therapeutic cancer vaccines. ONCOS uses an adenovirus that has been engineered to be an immune activator that selectively targets cancer cells. In phase I trials it has demonstrated immune activation at tumor lesional level which was associated with clinical benefit. In an ongoing phase I combination trial in advanced melanoma we are seeking important proof of concept data to confirm that patients who have become refractory to treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) can respond to the same checkpoint inhibitor after treatment with ONCOS-102. The second platform, TG, uses neo-antigen cancer vaccines designed to specifically treat tumors that express mutated forms of RAS. Mutations to the RAS protein are common in many cancers and are known to drive aggressive disease progression and treatment resistance. There is a high unmet medical need for therapies that are effective against tumors that express these mutations. The TG platform's therapeutic potential stems from its ability to enable the patient's immune system to develop a cellular response with the potential to identify and destroy tumors bearing any RAS mutations. In early 2017, key proof of concept data for the TG platform from a clinical trial of TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer patients showed encouraging overall survival. These results are now providing guidance for the future clinical development of this platform. Targovax's clinical development pipeline includes three novel therapeutic candidates covering six indications. Both platforms are protected by an extensive portfolio of Intellectual Property (IP) and know-how and have the potential to yield multiple pipeline candidates in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, Targovax has other product candidates in preclinical development.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

Attachment: //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/75439b1f-48e7-4201-a952-891114def6d4

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Clarivate Analytics Welcomes Caroline Birkle as the New General Manager of Converis

PHILADELPHIA, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ -- Data company Clarivate Analytics has announced the appointment of Caroline Birkle as the General Manager of their leading research information management system, Converis. Converis supports universities, research institutions and funding agencies in collecting and managing data across the research life cycle. Birkle will join Converis on April 16th 2018, based in Karlsruhe, Germany and will manage an international team across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. Converis is part of Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation and is part of the Scientific and Academic Research Group alongside industry leaders like Web of Science. Built with the research community in mind, Converis is used by faculty, librarians and research managers globally to showcase the outputs and impact of research. Converis offers seamless integration with data, platform and products from Clarivate Analytics, such as Web of Science, InCites and Derwent Innovation Index, as well as a number of third-party products. Birkle will join Clarivate Analytics from Thieme Chemistry in Germany, where she is Managing Director and has overall P&L responsibility for global elctronic publications, leading an international team including editorial, production and software development. Previously, Birkle held publishing positions with the Royal Society of Chemistry and Thomson Reuters before moving to Holtzbrinck Publishers, where, as Vice President, she led Business Intelligence for STM (including Nature and Macmillan Science & Education) and coordinated the integration of Macmillan and Springer Nature, pre- and post-merger.



Caroline Birkle incoming General Manager, Converis said: "The research landscape is changing at an unprecedented rate, with technological opportunities creating a pace within the research life cycle that is exhilarating and challenging. The opportunity to join Converis and work together with research offices globally, creating meaningful solutions that address industry needs, is one I am really looking forward to. I am proud to be joining this highly skilled and entrepreneurial team working within one of the industry's most exciting and dynamic business groups."

Annette Thomas, CEO Scientific and Academic Research Group, Clarivate Analytics said: "I am delighted to welcome Caroline to our growing team; with her deep understanding of the research market, commercial and strategic acumen, as well operational and transformational experience, she is ideally suited to lead Converis during its next phase of growth and expansion. Converis currently supports a wide variety of customers in more than 20 countries and it's our intention to significantly evolve and strengthen its position in the market by integrating more data and by providing a more streamlined product offering. Caroline's experience will benefit us tremendously as we expand, and accelerate innovation and growth." About Converis

Converis is a world-leading research information management system that supports the complete research lifecycle to manage complex research teams and projects in a unified flow. Converis benefits key stakeholders along the research lifecycle, including administrators and research managers (e.g. Research Office, Library and Graduate School), researchers, graduate students, and different organizational units. Converis is part of Clarivate Analytics and for more information, please visit https://clarivate.com/products/converis/. About Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarivate-analytics-welcomes-caroline-birkle-as-the-new-general-manager-of-converis-300614462.html SOURCE Clarivate Analytics

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Aerpio Pharmaceuticals to Present at the Oppenheimer 28th Annual Healthcare Conference

Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: ARPO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing first-in-class treatments for ocular diseases, today announced that President and Founder, Joseph Gardner, Ph.D., will present at the Oppenheimer 28th Annual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time in New York, N.Y. Dr. Gardner will provide a corporate overview and business update.

The presentation will be webcast live and may be accessed by visiting Aerpio's website at http://ir.aerpio.com/.







About Aerpio Pharmaceuticals

Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing first-in-class treatments for ocular diseases. The Company's lead compound, AKB-9778, is a small molecule activator of the Tie2 pathway and is in clinical development for the treatment of non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy. For more information please visit www.aerpio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005395/en/[March 15, 2018] Small Changes for Better Living

MISSION, Kan., March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Family Features) A busy schedule doesnt have to prevent you from taking steps toward a lifestyle that fosters overall well-being. There are many easy, small changes you can make toward better living that can make a noticeable impact.

Photo Courtesy of Nonnis Foods



Choose the long route. For many people, its an automatic move to find the closest parking space or shortest distance to the door. With your lifestyle goals in mind, consider taking a different approach. Look for ways to work in more physical activity. Seek out a spot in the back of the parking lot as an opportunity to increase your steps for the day, or choose the longer scenic route when walking your dog at the park for a more pleasant experience all-around.

Go for guilt-free snacks. Better living isnt about giving up everything you like; its about balance and moderation. For example, Nonnis Foods now makes a better-for-you chocolate chip tin cookie that lets you enjoy the indulgence without the guilt. Made with real, premium ingredients like dark chocolate, crunchy California almonds and coconut oil, the individual portion packs are portable for the perfect on-the-go snack to satisfy cravings anytime, anywhere. Available in Double Chocolate, Almond Chocolate and Toasted Coconut varieties, each pack contains three cookies that are low in sugar, fat and carbohydrates with an average of only 100 calories total.





Take time to recharge. Even when youre strapped for time, carving out a few minutes for yourself each day to focus on your mental well-being is important. This can include simply enjoying a few moments of silence or something more specific like meditating or journaling. Busy people tend to carry more stress, so looking for ways to inject these calming activities into daily schedules can help keep you refreshed and bring you more happiness.

Practice self-care. Especially when youre busy, its easy to slack on self-care, but combine that with elevated stress and you may be especially susceptible to not feeling your best. Give yourself a boost with a daily vitamin or try a warm bath with Epsom salt to soothe your senses.

Space out your meals. Waiting hours to eat can cause people to overeat at major mealtimes  especially dinner. Taking time to plan simple snacks throughout the day helps ensure cravings are met and overeating is avoided when the dinner bell rings. Consider keeping a snack like Nonnis Artisan Thin Chocolate Chip Cookies on-hand for guilt-free snacking when hunger strikes. For more better-for-you snack ideas, visit nonnis.com.



Michael French

mfrench@familyfeatures.com

1-888-824-3337

editors.familyfeatures.com

About Family Features Editorial Syndicate

Established in 1974, Family Features is a leading provider of free food and lifestyle content for print and online publications. Our articles, photos, videos and web content solutions save you time, money and help create advertising opportunities. Registration is fast and free  with absolutely no obligation. Visit editors.familyfeatures.com for more information. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/de36c52c-13db-49d2-9b66-724cb94849c9

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Corvil Says Standards, Collaboration and AI-Powered Automation are Critical to Building Cyber Resilience in Global Financial Markets

DUBLIN, Ireland, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corvil Director, Security Product Management, Graham Ahearne, is among the cybersecurity panelists at todays FIX Trading Community Annual EMEA Conference, enlisted to address how financial markets can mitigate cyber risk.

While most financial institutions have robust information security solutions and programmes in place, outmaneuvering todays advanced cyber attackers, who have industrialised their tactics, techniques and procedures, remains one of the biggest operating challenges. The risk should not be underestimated with regulators such as Steve Peikin, co-director of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), warning last year: The greatest threat to our markets right now is the cyber threat. Industry associations such as the FIX Trading Community are playing a key role in spearheading standards to mitigate risks. January 2018 saw the release of the FIX-over-TLS (FIXS) standard and guidelines to help users of the FIX protocol meet security requirements. FIXS is part of a larger programme of work that the FIX Trading Community initiated in response to the cybersecurity challenge. In supporting FIXs cyber initiatives Graham Ahearne says: The advanced, persistent threat landscape poses an enormous risk to financial markets. The significance of industry collaboration and knowledge sharing cannot be overstated, which is why events like FIX EMEA conference are critically important. Trading environments tend to be optimized for one thing: speed. Nowhere else in the world is data moving this fast, in such large volumes, with so much economic value at stake. Performance and speed are paramount, and trading networks do not want additional overhead to weigh them down, which makes addng traditional security systems challenging.



Ahearne says: There is also a perception, because they are typically segmented from the rest of the enterprise IT infrastructure, that trading environments are safer than others. With more than 80 percent of breaches[1] stemming from accidental mishaps or malicious insiders, these environments can become compromised. While in a normal attack, hackers may need to steal data or install ransomware, in financial markets, hackers only need to slightly tweak an algorithm or impair the performance of the network overall. Electronic trading networks are heavily automated, but they play such a huge role in the stock market at large that a rogue trading algorithm could do significant damage.

Whether dealing with nation state attackers, criminals, hacktivists, or simply careless employees, CISOs in financial markets have now taken on the unique role of an independent risk monitor watchdog. Corvil believes AI-powered automation and advanced analytics will also play a big role in the way forward. Optimal cyber security needs to understand the content of communications, as well as patterns and types of communication. Different, anomalous and malicious content along the same communication paths, tendencies, and applications may still constitute a breach. The only way to govern the proper function of algorithms is by watching over the machines themselves  not just what they are doing, but what they are actually saying to each other. FIX Trading Community is the non-profit, industry-driven standards body at the heart of global financial trading. The 2018 EMEA Trading Conference takes place on 15 March 2018 and will cover the most pressing issues facing the institutional trading community and provide a neutral platform for buy-side, sell-side, exchanges, vendors and regulators to share their ideas on how the community can continue to collaborate. Graham joins fellow panelists Ian Glover, President, CREST; Charles Kilkenny, CEO, Actuare ?and Russell Wing, Head of ?Information Security, LME on the Mitigating Cyber Risk panel session which is moderated by Julia Streets, Founder & CEO, Streets Consulting Ltd. About Corvil

Corvil is the industry leader for deriving Security, Operational, and Business intelligence from network data. As companies adopt faster and smarter machine technology, it becomes critical to tap into richer and more granular machine data sources to safeguard the transparency, performance and security of critical infrastructure and business applications. The Corvil streaming analytics platform captures, decodes, and learns from network data on the fly, transforming it into machine-time intelligence for network, IT, security and business teams to operate efficiently and securely in this new machine world. Corvil uses an open architecture to integrate the power of its network data analytics with the overall IT ecosystem providing increased automation and greater operational and business value outcomes for its users. The Corvil solution is trusted by leading financial institutions to safeguard their businesses across the globe involving 354 trillion messages with a daily transaction value in excess of $1 trillion.

Learn more about Corvil: Corvil.com | Twitter | LinkedIn



Notes to editor: [1] 81% of hacking-related breaches leveraged either stolen and/or weak passwords - 2017 Verizon DBIR. Media Contact

Press Office at Corvil

+353 1 859 1040

pressoffice@corvil.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Philips showcases digital pathology system for clinical use and advanced imaging analytics[1] to transform pathology services at USCAP 2018

AMSTERDAM and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today unveiled intelligent and connected pathology solutions that will be showcased at the 2018 United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) Annual Meeting, from March 17-23 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. At Philips' booth (#542), USCAP attendees will experience a comprehensive portfolio of digital pathology systems and AI-powered software that enhance imaging quality and pathologists' workflows, ultimately helping to drive seamless patient care. As diagnostic workloads expand in both volume and complexity due to a growing number of cancer cases, pathology services are under mounting pressure to provide efficient and high quality diagnoses. Leveraging innovative and intelligent digital solutions can help support pathologists in delivering quick and accurate diagnoses, while simultaneously lowering the cost of healthcare delivery through increased operational efficiencies. Philips' suite of digital pathology systems features collaboration and image analytics software that helps simplify access to histopathology information and empowers pathology laboratories to transform cancer care. Automated technology for fast and accurate cellularity guidance

At the 2018 USCAP Annual Meeting, Philips will debut a major upgrade to its advanced computational pathology solution, TissueMark, which aids in identifying insufficient samples for molecular tests with accurate cellularity guidance. The AI-enabled application enables region of interest detection and cellular profile estimation in whole slide images (WSI) of lung histology, lung cytology, colon and breast FFPE, and H&E tissue samples in 60 seconds. Interoperable with the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, TissueMark[1] provides a high throughput, intuitive molecular test workflow that helps labs reduce variability in tumor estimation. "TissueMark's deep learning AI technology accumulates information from several hundred images and applies that knowledge to accurately identify tumor samples and estimate tumor percentages," said Marlon Thompson, General Manager, Philips Digital Pathology Solutions. "Leveraging this advanced platform empowers pathologists and labs to enhance the quality of macrodissection and ultimately aids in reducing costs caused by insufficient tumor input." Comprehensive, open solution to digitize clinical workflows

Philips will also be highlighting updates to its Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution[2], the first and only digital pathology solution marketed for primary diagnostic use in the U.S., which helps pathologists manage the scanning, storing, presenting, reviewing, and sharing of information across labs and lab networks. The latest release contains new features, including the ability to upload images and documents to consolidate case information, automatic third party scanner import of non-diagnostic images and extended NAS support. The system is comprised of an ultra-fast pathology slide scanner, image management system and display, and is designed to be interoperable with various information systems, third party slide scanners, IT environments and storage systems. The system works bi-directionally with laboratory information systems (LIS) to create a highly efficient workstation for pathologists that unifies all relevant patient data in a streamlined digital pathology workflow.



Collaboration brings improved information access

The Philips IntelliSite Collaboration Suite[3], deployed on the Philips HealthSuite digital platform, will also be featured at the show. The secure web-based platform offers an intuitive workflow and provides labs with fast access to pathology experts worldwide. Through facilitating high performance viewing and enabling flexible consultation management, digital whole slide images and consult information can be exchanged easily between pathologists, across external institutes. Improving connectivity between labs reduces the logistical challenges of the traditional consultation in which the physical shipping of glass slides is costly. Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution was recently awarded the 2017 POPULAR SCIENCE "Best of What's New Award" in the Health category, recognizing Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution's significant step forward in imaging diagnostics. To learn more about Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution, visit this website, download the Philips IntelliSite Pathology app in the App Store and Google Play, and follow @Philips_Path.

For more information on Philips' presence at the 2018 United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Annual Meeting, visit www.philips.com/digitalpathology and follow @Philips_Path for #USCAP18 updates throughout the event. [1] TissueMark is not intended for diagnostic, monitoring or therapeutic purpose or in any other manner for regular medical practice. PathXL is the legal manufacturer of TissueMark and is a Philips company.

[2] In Canada, the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution is licensed by Health Canada for in vitro diagnostic use. In the United States, the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution can be used for in vitro diagnostic purposes. In the European Union, the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution is CE Marked under the European Union's 'In Vitro Diagnostics Directive' for in vitro diagnostic use. The Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution is registered for in vitro diagnostic use in Japan, Singapore and Middle East.

[3] Philips IntelliSite Collaboration Suite is not intended for diagnostic use. For further information, please contact:

Hans Driessen

Philips Digital Pathology Solutions

Tel.: +31 6 10 61 0417

E-mail: hans.driessen@philips.com About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 74,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/philips-showcases-digital-pathology-system-for-clinical-use-and-advanced-imaging-analytics1-to-transform-pathology-services-at-uscap-2018-300614580.html SOURCE Royal Philips

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] 3M and Nobel Media Bring Prestigious Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative to Minnesota

Working together to inspire students and the next generation of scientists, 3M and Nobel (News - Alert) Media are bringing Nobel Laureates to Minnesota for a series of dynamic events, April 25-26, as part of the Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005329/en/ 3M (News - Alert) Global Headquarters (Photo: Business Wire). "This unique and prestigious event is all about collaborating to solve current problems and the challenges we will face in the future," said John Banovetz, 3M Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "We are privileged to welcome three Nobel Laureates to Minnesota to inspire the problem solvers of today and tomorrow." Dr. Mario Molina, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1995, will engage with more than a thousand students and researchers during the two-day event, through lectures, discussion panels and Q&A sessions held at the University of Minnesota, the Science Museum of Minnesota and 3M. On the afternoon of April 25, he will be joined by Nobel Laureates Elizabeth Blackburn and David Gross to discuss the grand challenges of our time. "We believe 3Mshares our mission to inspire current and future thinkers to engage in science in line with Alfred Nobel's vision and legacy," said Mattias Fyrenius, CEO of Nobel Media.



The visiting Nobel Laureates are known for their commitment to supporting the next generation of scientists. Mario J. Molina, a Mexico-born chemist, was co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking role in demonstrating stratospheric ozone depletion.

Elizabeth Blackburn, an Australian-American molecular biologist, was co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere.

David Gross, an American theoretical physicist, was co-recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction. Dr. Molina will also participate in a Q&A session with high school students at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

The Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative is a global program that brings Nobel Laureates to universities and research centers to inspire and engage students and the scientific community. This is the first Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative to be held in partnership with 3M. 3M also has a long-term partnership with Nobel Media as a Nobel International Partner, a collaboration committed to the advancement of scientific research, sustainability and education. Previous activities within this partnership include events in Dubai, Seoul, India and Japan. Video highlights will be recorded and available to students and the public following the event. About 3M

At 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily. With $32 billion in sales, our 91,000 employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more about 3M's creative solutions to the world's problems at www.3M.com or on Twitter (News - Alert) @3M or @3MNews. About Nobel Media

Nobel Media spreads knowledge about Nobel Prize-awarded achievements and stimulates interest in science, literature and peace in line with Alfred Nobel's vision and legacy. The company reaches a global audience of millions through its high-quality productions: The official digital channels of the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Prize Concert, as well as a series of intercontinental, inspirational lecture events featuring Nobel Laureates. The company also manages a portfolio of publishing licenses, footage sales, and live broadcast rights to the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005329/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Kuebix's Daniel Padilla Named 2018 Food Logistics Champion

MAYNARD, Mass., March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kuebix, creator of a transportation management system that delivers true freight intelligence, announces that Daniel Padilla, Director of Supply Chain Operations at Kuebix, has been named a 2018 Food Logistics Champion: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain by Food Logistics magazine. The Food Logistics Rock Stars of the Supply Chain Award recognizes influential individuals in the food logistics industry whose achievements, hard work, and vision have shaped and attained milestones in safety, efficiency, productivity and innovation through the global supply chain.

Kuebix's Daniel Padilla Name 2018 Food Logistics Champion: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain



Daniels extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, coupled with his leadership in shaping supply chain optimization, makes him a well-deserving recipient in this years competitive list of Food Champions, said Dan Clark, Founder and President of Kuebix. As an industry expert, Daniel is continuously delivering value to partners through increased visibility of freight operations and improved control over logistics processes. We are thrilled to have Daniel on the team at Kuebix and congratulate him for this well-earned achievement. The diversity of this years award winners reflects the growing complexity of the global food supply chain and the many peope whose individual and collective successes are driving the industry to new heights, notes Lara L. Sowinski, editorial director at Food Logistics.



As Director of Supply Chain Operations at Kuebix, Padilla is responsible for directing and managing the manufacturing, grocery and food services divisions. He is an accomplished logistics professional and supply chain director with 15 years of hands-on experience driving cost reductions and quality improvements in the shipping, receiving and transportation of consumable and non-consumable goods. He is also responsible for business development through on-site client meetings to work on additional product offerings, identify gaps within their current structure and build on the relationships, which has increased sales by 20% year over year with current customers. Leveraging his years of experience in the grocery industry, Padilla is highly involved with Kuebixs national grocery customers. Padilla has responsibility over the development of CPU programs, on-line scheduling, and negotiating with carriers and suppliers to name a few. Grocery retailers note that Padilla has been able to scale up their operations using the Kuebix TMS, which also helped them gain efficiencies in their operations and improve visibility of their inbound freight logistics.

As a transportation visionary, Padilla predicts continued growth on the final mile side of the industry, including the addition of quick stop lanes at grocery retailers where consumers can drive up at a certain time to pick up their groceries, which were ordered online. He also sees more and more companies working more strategically with carriers and partnering on regions and or lanes along with more dedicated fleets being brought on to mitigate having to find carrier capacity within this sector. From early pioneers and entrepreneurs to non-conformist thinkers and executive standouts, the Food Champions award aims to honor these leaders and their contributions to the industry. Recipients of this years 2018 Food Logistics Champions: Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award will be profiled in the March 2018 issue of Food Logistics, as well as online at www.foodlogistics.com. About Kuebix

Founded by a freight industry technology innovator, Kuebix offers a transportation management system (TMS) with Freight Intelligence that enables companies to capitalize on supply chain opportunities through visibility, control and the use of predictive analytics. Kuebix is democratizing the rating, booking and tracking of freight with its free TMS, Kuebix Shipper, which can be ready to use in minutes. Shippers looking for financial management, advanced analytics and other premium features can upgrade to Kuebix Business Pro and then seamlessly add Premier Applications and Integrations as needed. Kuebix also offers unique Managed Service Programs to businesses looking to partially or fully outsource transportation management. Follow Kuebixs quest to #freetheshipper on social media. For more information visit: www.kuebix.com. About Food Logistics

Food Logistics is published by AC Business Media, a business-to-business media company that provides targeted content and comprehensive, integrated advertising and promotion opportunities for some of the worlds most recognized B2B brands. Its diverse portfolio serves the construction, logistics, supply chain and other industries with print, digital and custom products, events and social media. Media Contacts: Sarah Clark

Director of Marketing

Kuebix

sclark@kuebix.com

978-298-2157

Becky Boyd

VP, MediaFirst PR

becky@mediafirst.net

(770) 642-2080 x 214

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] ThromboGenics Business Update - FY 2017

Press release

15 March 2018

Regulated Information Advancing Preclinical and Clinical Diabetic Eye Disease Portfolio Regained global rights to JETREA from Alcon, a Novartis company,

and received 53.7 million in cash as part of the settlement agreement Total Cash & investments at 115.7 million on January 18, 2018 Highlights Pipeline ThromboGenics continues to advance its promising pipeline of novel drug candidates for the treatment of diabetic eye disease in key areas of unmet medical need:

In December 2017, the last patient was enrolled in a Phase I/IIa study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of two dose levels of THR-317 (anti-PIGF) for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). Top line results from the study are expected by end of Q1 2018.

Late stage preclinical candidates THR-149 (plasma kallikrein inhibitor) for DME and THR-687 (integrin antagonist) for diabetic retinopathy (DR) and DME continue to progress well. Both are expected to enter the clinic in 2018.

Further novel diabetic eye disease drug candidates are being studied with at least one expected to enter preclinical development in 2018.

Patient enrolment in Phase II CIRCLE Study evaluating THR-409 (ocriplasmin) for non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) was discontinued due to slow rate of patient recruitment.



In July 2017, ThromboGenics regained full and exclusive ownership of THR-317 for development and commercialization in all non-oncology indications as part of an amended agreement with BioInvent. As part of this amendment, BioInvent's future royalty rate on net sales and other revenues will be 5% in all non-oncology indications. Oncurious In September 2017, Oncurious announced an agreement with VIB to acquire a portfolio of five next generation immuno-oncology (IO) assets for the treatment of a broad spectrum of cancers. As part of this agreement, VIB has increased its equity share in Oncurious to 18.33% with the remainder being owned by ThromboGenics.

Oncurious is progressing the clinical development of TB-403 for medulloblastoma with BioInvent International. ThromboGenics and BioInvent share the costs and economic benefit of developing TB-403 for oncology indications on a 50/50 basis. JETREA In September 2017, ThromboGenics announced a settlement agreement by which it regained the non-US rights to JETREA from Alcon, a Novartis company. As part of this agreement, ThromboGenics received 53.7 million in cash and a 10 million equity investment by Novartis Pharma AG. ThromboGenics now owns all rights to JETREA globally. 2017 Appointments Thomas Clay was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective June 15, 2017. Mr Clay joined the ThromboGenics Board as a non-executive in 2011.

In 2017, the Board acknowledged the resignation of Viziphar Biosciences BVBA, represented by Mr. Staf Van Reet, Innov'Activ BVBA, represented by its permanent representative Patricia Ceysens, and Lugo BVBA, represented by its permanent representative Luc Philips, as Directors of the Board.

In November 2017, ThromboGenics strengthened its leadership, welcoming two new members to the executive team: Susan Schneider, MD, was appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO), and Vinciane Vangeersdaele was appointed Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Financial On January 26, 2018, the completion of an equity investment of 10 million by Novartis Pharma AG in ThromboGenics capital was confirmed as part of the settlement arrangement of September 15, 2017. Novartis Pharma AG now holds a 5.69% stake in ThromboGenics NV. The cash will be used to progress ThromboGenics' novel diabetic eye disease pipeline.

ThromboGenics generated overall income of 9.1 million in 2017.

Inclusive of restricted cash freed up in 2018 through Novartis Pharma AG equity investment, ThromboGenics had, at the end of December 2017, 115.7 million in cash and investments, compared to 80.1 million as of the end of December 2016. Leuven, Belgium - 15 March 2018 - ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR), a biotechnology company developing novel medicines focused on diabetic eye disease, issues today a business update and its financial update for the year ending December 31, 2017. ThromboGenics is developing a broad pipeline of disease modifying drug candidates for the treatment of diabetic eye diseases, including: THR-317 - a PIGF neutralizing monoclonal antibody being developed for the potential treatment of DR and/or DME. Initial top-line results for the Phase I/II study in DME are anticipated to be reported by end of Q1 2018. THR-149 - a plasma kallikrein inhibitor being developed to treat DME. THR-149 is expected to enter the clinic in H1 2018. THR-687 - a small molecule integrin antagonist being developed to treat a broad range of patients with DR and/or DME. THR-687 is expected to enter the clinic around mid-2018. These products all have different modes of action and could allow the Company to address the key segments of the rapidly growing diabetic eye disease market. Further drug candidates are currently being explored for the treatment of diabetic eye disease and it is expected that at least one additional candidate will be moved into development in 2018. Patrik De Haes, MD, ThromboGenics CEO, said: "We are pleased with our progress in 2017 and expect to build further momentum during 2018. With an expected 3 clinical studies activated ahead of the summer, we are rapidly executing our 'multiple shots on goal' diabetic eye disease development strategy. Our strong cash position provides us with the means to achieve several value generating milestones from our pipeline of novel drug candidates over the next 12 months." Research & Development Activities Diabetes, Diabetic Retinopathy and DME According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 9% of adults 18 years and older had diabetes in 2014 (WHO, 2015)[1]. Diabetic eye disease is caused by hyperglycemia (high blood glucose levels) associated with diabetes. If left unchecked hyperglycemia causes damage to the capillaries in the back of the eye (retina) and can result in vision loss and subsequently, blindness2. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of vision loss among working-age adults, affecting approximately a third of all diabetes sufferers[2]. Worldwide, the prevalence rate of vision-threatening PDR or DME was estimated to be 11.72% of the diabetic population in 2010 (Yau et al., 2012). DR progresses from mild, non-proliferative to more severe or even proliferative stages. DME can occur at any point as a complication of DR. As DR progresses, there is a gradual closure of retinal vessels leading to impaired perfusion and retinal ischemia. THR-317 - anti-PIGF antibody for treatment of DME or DR THR-317 (anti-PlGF) is a recombinant human monoclonal antibody directed against the receptor-binding site of human placental growth factor (PlGF). ThromboGenics completed patient enrolment in a Phase I/II single-masked, multicenter study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of two dose levels of THR-317 for the treatment of DME in December 2017. The last patient has now completed treatment and initial top line results from the study are expected by end of Q1 2018. DME represents an area of unmet medical need; the current standard of care treatment with anti-VEGFs has been shown in some cases to result in suboptimal and late responses in patients. In May 2017, during the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting, preclinical data were presented supporting the therapeutic potential of THR-317 in DR. These data were subsequently published in Experimental Eye Research, a peer reviewed journal (the article can be found online here). The data published showed that the murine form of THR-317 was able to reduce DR disease hallmarks; the authors confirm that the anti-PIGF antibody shared a common pharmacology towards vascular leakage in comparison to VEGF inhibitors but that anti-PlGF therapy might provide additional benefits in respect to the reduction of inflammation, the absence of a negative impact on the neuroretina, and the inhibition of fibrotic responses after retinal damage. In July 2017, ThromboGenics and BioInvent agreed to amend their long-standing agreement covering co-development of novel anti-PIGF monoclonal antibody products, including THR-317. Under the amended arrangement, ThromboGenics has gained full and exclusive ownership of THR-317 for development and commercialization in all non-oncology indications. ThromboGenics continues to carry all costs for development of THR-317 in non-oncology indications, and BioInvent is entitled to 5% of the project's economic value. THR-149 - a plasma kallikrein inhibitor for treatment of DME THR-149 is a plasma kallikrein inhibitor being developed to treat DME. The compound is expected to enter the clinic in H1 2018. Plasma kallikrein is considered a valid target for the treatment of DME through inhibition of the Plasma Kallikrein-Kinin (pKaI-kinin) System. Activation of the pKal-kinin system induces retinal vascular permeability, inflammation and angiogenesis. Based on literature data, patients with DME have elevated levels of plasma kallikrein, and the vitreous level of plasma kallikrein varies less compared to VEGF in these patients. Therefore, a plasma kallikrein inhibitor may be appropriate for the treatment of DME patients. THR-687 - a small molecule integrin antagonist under development for Diabetic Retinopathy, with or without DME ThromboGenics is developing THR-687, an integrin antagonist, for the treatment of a broad range of patients with DR, with or without DME. THR-687 is expected to enter the clinic mid-2018. In September, ThromboGenics presented a poster at the European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER) 20th Annual Meeting, providing new preclinical evidence supporting the use of THR-687 for the treatment of back-of-the-eye vascular diseases. The poster was entitled "THR-687, a potent small molecule integrin receptor antagonist, holds promise as a therapeutic approach for back-of-the-eye vascular pathologies." The studies presented concluded that THR-687 is a potent and safe treatment, highlighting its ability to inhibit various significant stages in pathologic angiogenesis, an important factor leading to vision loss in DR. The data presented at EVER provide further support to the development of THR-687 in the treatment of DR ahead of its entry into the clinic. THR-409 (ocriplasmin) CIRCLE Study discontinued In December 2017, patient enrolment in the Phase II CIRCLE Study was discontinued due to the slow rate of patient recruitment. CIRCLE was a Phase II, randomised, double-masked, sham-controlled, multicenter study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ocriplasmin in inducing total posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in patients with NPDR. Ocriplasmin was found to be generally safe and well-tolerated with no new safety signals raised. Data from the study will be analyzed and shared with the scientific community via a publication in late 2018/early 2019. Resources previously earmarked for the CIRCLE study will be re-allocated to progress the current clinical pipeline and advance new drug candidates for the treatment of diabetic eye disease into the clinic in 2018. Oncurious Update Growing pipeline with five unique next generation immuno-oncology assets In September 2017, Oncurious reached an agreement with VIB to acquire a portfolio of five unique next generation immuno-oncology assets, based on seminal work originating from the VIB-KU Leuven and the VIB-VUB labs. VIB Discovery Sciences is taking the lead in the preclinical development of these new projects. As part of this agreement, VIB increased its equity share in Oncurious to 18.33% with remainder being owned by ThromboGenics as majority shareholder. VIB will also receive a royalty on future sales of any of these assets. As part of this deal, ThromboGenics will invest an additional 2.1 million in Oncurious which after incorporation in Capital will bring VIB's share back to 14.2%. The newly acquired assets have resulted in an exciting pipeline of next-generation immuno-oncology drugs targeting a broad spectrum of cancers, in addition to Oncurious' ongoing clinical development activities in orphan pediatric oncology with TB-403. Clinical Update: TB-403 for Pediatric Brain Cancers Recruitment is on-going in a Phase I/IIa study with TB-403, a humanized monoclonal antibody against placental growth factor (PlGF). PlGF is expressed in several types of cancer, including medulloblastoma. High expression of the PlGF receptor neuropilin 1 has been shown to correlate with poor overall survival. The study, initiated in May 2016 and being conducted by Beat Childhood Cancer (formerly known as NMTRC), aims to recruit 27 patients with Relapsed or Refractory Medulloblastoma. Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric malignant brain tumor, accounting for 20% of all brain tumors in children. Treatment with TB-403 in relevant animal models for medulloblastoma has demonstrated beneficial effects on tumor growth and survival. The European Commission confirmed orphan drug designation for TB-403 for medulloblastoma in January 2017. The orphan designation allows a pharmaceutical company to benefit from incentives from the European Union to develop a medicine for a rare disease, such as reduced fees and protection from competition once the medicine is on the market. TB-403 is being developed by Oncurious in conjunction with BioInvent International. In July 2017, ThromboGenics and BioInvent amended their long-standing monoclonal antibody development agreement. As per the amended agreement, BioInvent has assumed the project lead for development of TB-403 in all oncology indications and has increased its share in the economic value of TB-403 from 40% to 50%. Both parties continue to share equally the costs of developing TB-403 for oncology indications. JETREA US and Global Update JETREA Commercial In September 2017, ThromboGenics announced that it regained the non-US rights to JETREA from Alcon, a Novartis company, based on a mutual settlement agreement that ThromboGenics is a better fit for building a smaller but sustainable long-term business with this unique drug for the treatment of vitreomacular adhesion/vitreomacular traction. As part of this agreement, ThromboGenics received 53.7 million in cash and an equity investment by Novartis Pharma AG of 10 million in ThromboGenics capital, which will be used to progress ThromboGenics' novel diabetic eye disease pipeline. ThromboGenics generated JETREA sales of 2.9 million in the US in 2017 and received 1.3 million in royalties from Alcon/Novartis's ex-US sales up to 15 September, 2017. From 16 September 2017, ThromboGenics received 1.7 million in profit transfer as result of a transition agreement following the return of ex-US rights from Alcon/Novartis. ARVO 2017: Ocriplasmin data presentations demonstrate continued interest 11 ocriplasmin-related presentations, abstracts and posters were delivered at the May 2017 ARVO meeting. These covered real-world clinical data, further characterization of results from different studies, including OASIS and ORBIT, and the cost effectiveness of ocriplasmin. New Ocriplasmin clinical and health economic data presented at ASRS 2017 ThromboGenics delivered two poster presentations at the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) in August 2017. The first poster presentation was entitled "'Comparison of Visual Results in Patients Receiving Vitrectomy for Macular Hole in One Eye and Ocriplasmin for Vitreomacular Traction in the Fellow Eye' (by Arshad M. Khanani et al). The conclusion of the presentation was that patients who had to receive a pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for full-thickness macular hole (FTMH) in one eye, may be able to avoid a second PPV in their other eye with vitreomacular traction by potentially preventing its deterioration to FTMH via early treatment with ocriplasmin. In the second poster presentation, entitled 'Budget Impact Analysis of Ocriplasmin for the Treatment of Vitreomacular Traction in the United States', Peter K. Kaiser, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, presented data from the OASIS randomized trial, a 2-year follow-up study evaluating ocriplasmin for the treatment of symptomatic VMA (VMT) including macular hole. He also presented a new budget impact model that was developed in accordance with the principles of good practice published by the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. Corporate Update CMO and CCO appointments - announced 8 November 2017 Susan Schneider, MD, has been appointed as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Schneider is responsible for the development and execution of the Company's global clinical and medical programs. She brings nearly 15 years of experience in clinical drug development and was, most recently, Vice President & Therapeutic Area Head of Retina & Glaucoma at Allergan. Vinciane Vangeersdaele has been appointed as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Vinciane will lead and develop the overall commercial strategy for the Company's recently formed global JETREA business unit, created following ThromboGenics regaining the full global rights to JETREA from Alcon/Novartis. She will also lead strategic marketing activities for any new compound that emerges from the Company's clinical development pipeline. Vinciane has over 15 years of experience in sales and marketing leadership in the global pharmaceutical industry, the latest being the Head of the Ophthalmology Franchise Europe at Novartis Pharma AG. Chairman and Board of Directors ThromboGenics' long-time non-executive director Mr. Thomas Clay was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective June 15, 2017. Mr. Clay succeeded Staf Van Reet, PhD. Thomas Clay is Vice-President of East Hill Management, a US-based investment company. He also serves as the Chairman and CEO of Golden Queen Mining Co., Ltd., and is a Director of the Clay Mathematics Institute. Thomas Clay has been a non-executive Director of ThromboGenics NV since 2011. In that year, he replaced his father, Landon T. Clay, who led the first external investment in ThromboGenics in 2001 when the Company was private. Effective June 15, 2017, Viziphar Biosciences BVBA, represented by Mr. Staf Van Reet, retired from the Board of Directors of ThromboGenics NV. Effective September 8, 2017, Luc Philips (Lugo BVBA) and Patricia Ceysens (Innov'Activ BVBA) retired from the Board of ThromboGenics NV. The Board of Directors decided not to replace Viziphar Biosciences BVBA, Lugo BVBA and Innov'Activ BVBA. Financial review In 2017, ThromboGenics had total income of 9.1 million, including 2.9 million sales in the US, 1.3 million in royalties, 1.7 million in profit transfer as a result of transition arrangements with Alcon/Novartis and 3.3 million in settlement from previous dispute on vial price. The latter settlement makes up part of 53.7 million cash ThromboGenics obtained from Alcon/Novartis together with the return of the ex-US JETREA rights. This compares to a 2016 total revenue of 7.1 million, including 4.4 million of JETREA sales in the US, 2.2 million in royalties from Alcon/Novartis based on its ex-US sales of JETREA,

0.3 million from other royalties and 0.2 million from other income. In 2017, ThromboGenics' R&D expenses amounted to 23.2 million, excluding intangibles amortization. This compares with 24.7 million of R&D expenses in 2016. The current level of R&D spending is the result of the Company's decision to refocus its activities and resources towards drug development, and to start executing the development pipeline of its novel disease-modifying drugs for the treatment of DR, with or without DME. In 2017, the selling and marketing expenses amounted to 4.2 million compared to 4.3 million in 2016, US commercial operations reached break-even. In 2017, ThromboGenics obtained other income of 50.4 million, 45.0 million and 4.5 million were received from Alcon/Novartis in compensation respectively for ending the JETREA ex-US commercialization agreement and for intervention in obsolescent drug materials. As a result, ThromboGenics made an operating profit of 23.3 million in 2017 compared to a loss of 60.8 million in 2016. ThromboGenics had a financial income of 0.4 million in 2017. In 2016, the Company reported a financial income of 0.5 million. The finance expenses in 2017 amounted to 1.0 million. In 2017, ThromboGenics made a net profit of 22.6 million resulting in diluted earnings per share of 0.62 versus 1.67 negative diluted earnings per share in 2016. ThromboGenics had, at the end of December 2017, 115.7 million in cash and investments, inclusive of restricted cash freed up in January 2018 when the Novartis Pharma AG equity investment was completed. This compares with 80.1 million as of the end of December 2016. The total balance sheet per December 31, 2017 amounted to 150.4 million with cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and investments representing 77% of the total balance sheet. The Group has no external financial debts. END For further information please contact: ThromboGenics

Wouter Piepers,

Global Head of Corp Coms & Investor Relations

+32 16 75 13 10 / +32 478 33 56 32

wouter.piepers@thrombogenics.com Citigate Dewe Rogerson

David Dible/Sylvie Berrebi/Isabelle Andrews

Tel: +44 20 7282 2867

thrombogenics@citigatedewerogerson.com



Conference call & Q&A Patrik De Haes, MD, Chief Executive Officer, an Dominique Vanfleteren, Chief Financial Officer, will host a conference call and Q&A at 18:30 CET / 17:30 GMT / 13:30 EDT to discuss the update.



The call will be conducted in English and a replay will be available via the company's website. To access the conference call, please dial one of the appropriate numbers below quoting the conference ID:

Belgium +32 2 403 58 16

France: +33 (0)1 72 72 74 03

Germany: +49 (0)69 222 225 429

Netherlands: + 31 207 095 119

Switzerland +41 445831805

UK: +44 (0)20 7194 3759

US: +1 8442860643 Conference ID: 36364546# To access the webcast, please register here To ensure a timely connection, it is recommended that users register at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start timing. The presentation and transcript of the call will be made available in the investor

information section of the website. About ThromboGenics ThromboGenics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative treatments for eye disease, with a focus on diabetic eye disease. The company's pipeline of disease modifying drug candidates is targeting the key segments of the diabetic eye disease market. ThromboGenics' is developing THR-317, a PIGF inhibitor in a Phase I/IIa clinical study for the treatment of diabetic macular edema. Results are expected at the end of Q1 2018. ThromboGenics' late preclinical pipeline consists of THR-149, a plasma kallikrein inhibitor, and THR-687, an integrin antagonist. THR-149 is expected to enter the clinic in H1 2018 and THR-687 mid-2018. Further new drug candidates are currently being progressed for the treatment of diabetic eye disease, at least one of which is expected to enter preclinical development in 2018. ThromboGenics owns the global rights to JETREA (ocriplasmin), the only pharmacological vitreolysis drug approved for the treatment of symptomatic vitreomacular adhesion (in the US) and vitreomacular traction (in Europe and elsewhere). ThromboGenics is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and is listed on the NYSE Euronext Brussels exchange under the symbol THR. More information is available at www.thrombogenics.com . Important information about forward-looking statements Certain statements in this press release may be considered "forward-looking". Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and, accordingly, entail and are influenced by various risks and uncertainties. The Company therefore cannot provide any assurance that such forward-looking statements will materialize and does not assume an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or any other reason. Additional information concerning risks and uncertainties affecting the business and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement is contained in the Company's Annual Report. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities or assets of ThromboGenics in any jurisdiction. No securities of ThromboGenics may be offered or sold within the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or in compliance with an exemption therefrom, and in accordance with any applicable U.S. state securities laws. Financial information 2017 Consolidated statement of profit and loss In '000 euro (as at 31 December) 2017 2016 Income 9,055 7,104 Sales 7,797 4,596 Income from royalties 1,258 2,508 Cost of sales -2,579 -6,880 Gross profit 6,476 224 Research and development expenses -23,186 -24,712 General and administrative expenses -6,226 -6,523 Selling expenses -4,247 -4,325 Other operating income 50,449 1,088 Impairment losses 0 -26,586 Operating result 23,266 -60,834 Finance income 392 529 Finance expense -1,029 -65 Result before income tax 22,629 -60,370 Taxes -14 22 Result of the year 22,615 -60,348 Attributable to: Equity holders of the company 22,788 -60,314 Non-controlling interest -173 -34 Result per share Basic earnings/(loss) per share (euro) 0.63 -1.67 Diluted earnings/(loss) per share (euro) 0.62 -1.67 In '000 euro (as at 31 December) 2017 2016 Result of the year 22,615 -60,348 Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations -150 36 Other comprehensive income, net of income tax -150 36 Other comprehensive income that will not be reclassified to profit or loss -150 36 Total comprehensive income/loss for the year 22,465 -60,312 Attributable to: Equity holders of the company 22,638 -60,278 Non-controlling interest -173 -34 Consolidated statement of financial position In '000 euro (as at 31 December) 2017 2016 ASSETS Property, plant and equipment 991 1,743 Intangible assets 23,603 25,902 Other non-current assets 126 202 Non-current tax credit 1,434 2,350 Non-current assets 26,154 30,197 Inventories 2,204 2,614 Trade and other receivables 4,295 7,672 Current tax receivables 2,054 1,085 Investments 49,555 21,817 Cash and cash equivalents 56,175 58,251 Restricted cash 10,000 0 Current assets 124,283 91,439 Total assets 150,437 121,636 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES Share capital 151,991 151,991 Share premium 157,661 157,661 Cumulative translation differences -335 -185 Other reserves -13,141 -13,317 Retained earnings -163,546 -186,334 Equity attributable to equity holders of the company 132,630 109,816 Non-controlling interest 727 43 Total equity 133,357 109,859 Trade payables 3,298 5,941 Other short-term liabilities 13,782 5,836 Current liabilities 17,080 11,777 Total equity and liabilities 150,437 121,636 Consolidated statement of cash flows In '000 euro (as at 31 December) 2017 2016 Cash flows from operating activities Profit (loss) for the period 22,615 -60,348 Finance expense 1,029 65 Finance income -392 -529 Depreciation on property, plant and equipment 674 886 Amortization of intangible assets 3,156 33,383 Equity settled share-based payment transactions 176 156 Change in trade and other receivables including tax receivables and stock -4,697 3,232 Change in short-term liabilities -4,697 2,846 Net cash (used) from operating activities 26,295 -20,309 Cash flows from investing activities Disposal of property, plant and equipment (following a sale) 323 31 Change in investments -27,738 -13,773 Interest received and similar income 22 148 Acquisition of intangible assets 0 -1,000 Acquisition of property, plant and equipment -246 -572 Acquisition (divestments) of other non-current assets 76 33 Net cash (used in) generated by investing activities -27,562 -15,133 Cash flows from financing activities Restricted cash reserved for issue of share capital 10,000 0 Paid interests -11 -6 Net cash (used in) generated by financing activities 9,989 -6 Net change in cash and cash equivalents 8,722 -35,448 Cash and cash equivalents at the start of the period 58,251 93,341 Effect of exchange rate fluctuations -798 358 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the end of the period 66,175 58,251 Consolidated statement of changes in equity Share capital Share premium Cumulative translation differences Other reserves Retained earnings Attributable to equity holders of the company Non-controlling interest Total Balance as at 1 January 2016 151,991 157,661 -221 -13,473 -126,020 169,938 77 170,015 Loss of the year 2016 0 0 0 0 -60,314 -60,314 -34 -60,348 Change to foreign currency translation difference and revaluation reserve 0 0 36 0 0 36 0 36 Share-based payment transactions 0 0 0 156 0 156 0 156 Balance as at 31 December 2016 151,991 157,661 -185 -13,317 -186,334 109,816 43 109,859 Balance as at 1 January 2017 151,991 157,661 -185 -13,317 -186,334 109,816 43 109,859 Profit of the year 2017 0 0 0 0 22,788 22,788 -173 22,615 Change to foreign currency translation difference and revaluation reserve 0 0 -150 0 0 -150 0 -150 Issue of ordinary shares 0 0 0 0 0 0 857 857 Share-based payment transactions 0 0 0 176 0 176 0 176 Balance as at 31 December 2017 151,991 157,661 -335 -13,141 -163,546 132,630 727 133,357 The statutory auditor, BDO Bedrijfsrevisoren represented by Gert Claes, has confirmed that the audit procedures, which have been substantially completed, have not revealed any material adjustments which would have to be made to the accounting data included in the Company's annual announcement, and intends to issue an unqualified opinion.





[1] World Health Organization (WHO). (2015). Diabetes. Fact sheet N312. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs312/en/ 21 May 2015. [2] International Diabetes Federation (IDF). (2017). IDF Atlas 2017. p.88



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] 1 in 4 Canadian bank consumers visit their local branch more than once a month

TORONTO, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ -- Digital channels provide customers with the freedom to bank when and where they want, but the majority of Canadians haven't lost their connection with their local branch. New research from Mintel reveals that more than eight in 10 (86%) Canadian bank consumers have visited a branch in the past year, with one quarter (25%) saying they visit their local branch more than once a month on average. What's more, no matter how tech-inclined they are in other parts of their lives, younger consumers find value in visiting their local branch. In fact, the country's oldest and youngest consumers are more likely than Canadians overall to be frequent visitors to their local branch as three in 10 (29%) Younger Millennials (aged 24-31) and Baby Boomers (aged 54-72) say they visit their local branch more than once a month on average. While Canadians young and old are frequenting their neighbourhood bank branch, their reasons for doing so are quite different. Older bank consumers aged 55+ are the most likely age group to visit their branch for financial planning advice (20% vs 16% of Canadians overall) and to buy investment products (16% vs 11% overall). Meanwhile, younger bank consumers aged 18-24 are most likely to visit their bank branch for money transfers (33% vs 21% overall), to open an account (26% vs 13% overall) and to apply for a credit card (20% vs 9% overall). Younger Canadians represent a prime target for bank branches as they are the most likely consumers to be increasing their visits. In fact, more than one quarter (28%) of bank consumers aged 18-24 say that they find themselves visiting their local branch more as they get older, compared to just 13% of consumers overall. "The appeal of the bank branch ontinues to be strong in the face of technological banking innovations, even among younger consumers who are likely still in the early stages of their financial journey. The branch network can play a critical role in building relationships, enhancing trust, providing financial advice and easing the transition to digital channels. We see that younger consumers are increasing the frequency of their visits to banks likely because they are relatively inexperienced in financial matters and have weaker credit histories, resulting in a desire to learn about their finances in-person. However, brands should avoid marginalizing older customers through mass reduction of human personnel as Baby Boomers are some of the most likely visitors of their bank branch as they are typically more affluent and seeking financial planning and investment advice," said Sanjay Sharma, Senior Financial Services Analyst at Mintel.



While more than half (54%) of bank consumers say they prefer to look online for answers about their financial accounts rather than visit a branch, many consumers agree that some things are better handled in person. In fact, nearly three quarters (72%) of bank consumers agree that they would prefer to buy more complex products at a branch rather than online, and 68% say they would be more likely to buy new financial products/services at their local branch than through call centre sales. Meeting face to face when resolving issues is also preferred for most as three in five (62%) bank consumers agree that if they need a problem resolved, they would prefer to visit their local branch than use a call centre. Despite the fact that digital tools are on the rise, more than one third (35%) of bank consumers agree that digital banks cannot meet all of their banking needs, rising to 44% of those aged 55+. In fact, many prefer to do routine transactions at their local branch as Canadian bank consumers overall are by far and away most likely to visit their local branch to deposit a cheque (53%). What's more, other top reasons to visit their local branch include customer service/product information (25%), bill payments (23%) and money transfers (21%).

"In many ways, the rise of quick-service formats and automated service has actually fuelled a greater desire for good old-fashioned customer service, particularly in face-to-face form. Although bank customers have many channels to choose from when completing routine transactions, many customers are still choosing to visit their local branch, indicating that financial institutions should emphasize the convenience of completing routine transactions using mobile banking apps to increase mobile banking adoption. However, while branches are the best place to cement long-term customer relationships, they are also being challenged to evolve with the advent of artificial intelligence, robotics and increased digitization. Bank branches of the future might witness a slow shift toward being more advice-centred rather than transactional," concluded Sharma. About Mintel

Mintel is the world's leading market intelligence agency. For over 40 years, Mintel's expert analysis of the highest quality data and market research has directly impacted on client success. With offices in London, Chicago, Shanghai, Belfast, Dusseldorf, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto, Mintel has forged a unique reputation as a world-renowned business brand. For more information on Mintel, please visit www.mintel.com. SOURCE Mintel

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] AHF Global Public Health Institute at University of Miami Launched

In a meeting in Miami last week, Dr. Julio Frenk, President of the University of Miami (UM), and Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), agreed to formally announce the launch of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami. This partnership will engage in global public health policy analysis and research to generate objective evidence that can inform improvements in public health policy at the global, regional, national and local levels, not just for HIV, but for other aspects of public health as well. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005972/en/ March 2018-Participants at the Miami, FL meeting to formally announce the launch of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami. Left to right are: Cindy L Munro, Dean, School of Nursing and Health Studies; Otto Yang, Researcher at UCLA AIDS Institute; Michael Weinstein, President of AHF; Julio Frenk, President of the University of Miami; Jorge Saavedra, Executive Director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at UM; Jose Szapocznik, Professor of Public Health Sciences, UM Miller School of Medicine; Hansel Tookes, Assistant Professor of Medicine & Director, IDEA Exchange, UM Miller School of Medicine; Adriane Gelpi, Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences, UM Miller School of Medicine; Sunil Rao, Interim Chair, Department of Public Health Sciences, UM Miller School of Medicine; Andrea Calo, Executive Director, Major Gifts, UM Miller Shool of Medicine; Mitzi Tanaka, Director of Research Support, Department of Public Health Sciences, UM Miller School of Medicine (Photo: Business Wire)



"This partnership began with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between both institutions in September 2016. The Institute already has important projects underway, including a study on Zika and public health policies and practices that can be used to inform recommendation for future Zika preparedness and response in the Americas; an initiative on harm reduction among injection drug users in Miami-Dade County, a study of the microbiome on HIV-negative gay men; and, a study of the US Minority AIDS Initiative intended to yield recommendations for improved strategies for reaching minority populations," said Dr. Jose Szapocznik, Professor and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Public Health Science at the UM Miller School of Medicine, who directs the UM component of the partnership.

Dr. Frenk welcomed the partnership and the creation of the AHF Institute. During the meeting, he also recommended some strategic thinking on the further evolution of the Institute to include addressing global health governance issues. "The new 'AHF Global Public Health Institute at UM' is a wonderful example of the synergy that can be gained through partnership. The School of Nursing and Health Studies is looking forward to the Institute's interdisciplinary work that will make a positive impact on global health," said Cindy Munro, Dean of the UM School of Nursing and Health Studies, who was also present at the meeting. In discussing AHF's involvement beyond HIV, Michael Weinstein noted during the meeting that in 2015, AHF, as part of an independent panel, took part in evaluating the global response to Ebola, in light of an outbreak that devastated West Africa in 2014 and 2015. That panel was initially co-led by UM's President Frenk. "Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, AHF's key doctor in Sierra Leone and one of its most respected and prominent physician/scientists, after caring for many Ebola infected patients, died from Ebola in 2014-a devastating loss to his family, his patients, for AHF and for the overall fight for global health," said AHF's Weinstein. "We expressed to WHO our concerns about the global response to Ebola in Sierra Leone and throughout Africa. That is when we realized that AHF, as a global health care organization, had a duty and moral responsibility to devote some of our resources to analyze other diseases beyond HIV. We are now committed to this new partnership with the University of Miami to generate rigorous research that will inform improvements in global public health policies." During the meeting, Weinstein also announced the appointment of Dr. Jorge Saavedra as Executive Director for the AHF Institute for Global Health. Dr. Saavedra, a medical doctor from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has two master's degrees from Harvard, one in Public Health and a second in Health Policy and Management. Prior to joining AHF, he was also the first director of the largest HIV clinic in Latin America (Clinica Condesa) in Mexico City during 2000 and served as Director General of the National Center for AIDS Prevention and Control in Mexico (CENSIDA) from 2003-2009, and later as AHF's Global Public Health Ambassador. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 882,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook (News - Alert) : www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us: @aidshealthcare View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005972/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] RANE Named 'Best Security Consulting and Risk Management Firm' by Family Wealth Report Awards 2018

NEW YORK, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RANE (Risk Assistance Network + Exchange) today announced that it was named Best Security Consulting and Risk Management Firm at the fifth annual Family Wealth Report Awards held at the Mandarin Oriental in New York on March 8, 2018 by ClearView Financial Media.





Showcasing best of breed providers in the global private banking, wealth management, and trusted advisor communities, the awards are designed to recognize companies, teams, and individuals that the panel of judges deemed to have demonstrated innovation and excellence during 2017. According to the judging panel, RANE impresses by addressing a wide range of risks i its field. Its submission was particularly strong.



Steve Roycroft, CEO of RANE said, "We are delighted to be recognized by this award. It is a testament to the hard work our team has put in to consistently deliver proactive risk management solutions for our corporate, private equity, and family office clients. ClearView Financial Media CEO Stephen Harris, publisher of Family Wealth Report, extended his congratulations to the winners. These awards recognize the very best operators in the private client industry, with independence, integrity, and genuine insight the watchwords of the judging process - such that the awards truly reflect excellence in wealth management, Harris said.

About RANE

RANE (Risk Assistance Network + Exchange) is an information and advisory services company that connects business leaders to critical risk insights and expertise, enabling risk and security professionals to more efficiently address their most pressing challenges and drive better risk management outcomes. RANE clients receive access to a global network of credentialed risk experts, curated network intelligence, risk news monitoring, in-house analysts and subject matter experts, and collaborative knowledge-sharing events. Learn more at www.ranenetwork.com. About ClearView Financial Media Ltd

ClearView Financial Media was founded by Chief Executive, Stephen Harris in 2004, to provide high quality need to know information for the discerning private client community. London-based, but with a truly global focus, ClearView publishes the Family Wealth Report group of newswires, along with research reports and newsletters, while also running a pan-global thought-leadership events program. With teams based in London, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, and the Philippines, the company is one of the fastest-growing media groups serving the financial services sector. Tim Allik

508.310.3876

timallik@slotkincommunications.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Cogeco Connexion, finalist at the 2018 Mercuriades

MONTREAL, March 15, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Cogeco Connexion is honoured to be a finalist in the "Engagement dans la collectivite" (Community Involvement) category of the 38th edition of the Mercuriades, the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce's (FCCQ) prestigious business competition. This category seeks to reward the company that, concurrent with its regular operations, is involved in its community through activities that raise and social commitment, and rallies its employees around specific causes. Cogeco Connexion's nomination is most notably due to its volunteer involvement in the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of Alma and the 52nd edition of the Jeux du Quebec (Quebec Games). Thanks to the many partnerships that were formed with local bodies, the teams at Cogeco Connexion and NousTV Alma were able to create major television productions. These alliances also fostered the participation of different community players, mobilized a host of volunteers and promote Alma throughout Quebec's regions. "It is with considerable pride and the feeling of a job well done that we receive this nomination," explained a delighted Line Gaudreault, Manager of the NousTV Alma station. "Not only did the teams of Cogeco Connexion and NousTV play a role at the local level, they also contributed significantly to the outreach of the Lac-Saint-Jean region at the provincial level," she concluded. "We are honoured by this nomination, which attests yet again, to the importance of Cogeco onnexion's commitment to the community," asserted Johanne Hinse, Vice-President Sales  Consumer Market and Community Relations with Cogeco Connexion. "Cogeco Connexion and NousTV have been part of Quebec's social, economic and cultural landscape for more than 60 years, contributing to its regional and economic development. This nomination strengthens our commitment and our resolve to maintain our positive and sustainable impact on the communities in which we pursue our activities."



Held since 1981, the Mercuriades competition celebrates the success and ambition of Quebec companies. Winners of the 2018 edition of the Mercuriades will be revealed at a gala evening to be held April 18 at Montreal's Palais des Congres. ABOUT NOUSTV

YourTV/NousTV is a division of Cogeco Connexion, a property of Cogeco Communications inc. (TSX: CCA), a communication corporation that operates 36 community television stations in Quebec and Ontario. Available exclusively to Cogeco Connexion customers, Your TV offers a wide and varied range of programs developed, produced and put on the air by a team of employees and volunteers in collaboration with different local organizations. Your TV programming reflects the concerns and interests of the communities it serves. Quebec towns where NousTV has stations : Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Sainte-Adele, Saint-Hyacinthe, Magog, Drummondville, Trois-Rivieres, Montmagny, Roberval, Alma, Saint-Georges, Thetford Mines, Rimouski, Matane, Baie-Comeau and Sept-Iles.

ABOUT COGECO CONNEXION

Cogeco Connexion regroups the Canadian cable operations of Cogeco Communications Inc. Cogeco Connexion is the second largest cable operator in Ontario and Quebec in terms of the number of basic cable service customers served. It provides its residential and small business customers with Internet, video and telephony services through its two-way broadband cable networks. Cogeco Communications Inc. is a communications corporation and is the 8th largest hybrid fibre coaxial cable operator in North America operating in Canada under the Cogeco Connexion brand name in Quebec and Ontario, and in the United States through its subsidiary Atlantic Broadband in 11 states along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. Through Cogeco Peer 1, Cogeco Communications Inc. provides its business customers with a suite of information technology services (colocation, network connectivity, hosting, cloud and managed services), through its 16 data centres, extensive FastFiber Network and more than 50 points of presence in North America and Europe. Cogeco Communications Inc.'s subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CCA). SOURCE Cogeco Connexion

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] Rocketing Ahead: Being Recognized as a High-Growth Company

VANCOUVER, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ - Yesterday, Traction Guest was selected for the 2018 Ready to Rocket list of high-growth companies in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

For the past 16 years, Ready to Rocket has profiled technology companies that demonstrate more than $500K in revenue, a rapidly growing customer base, and the potential for 50% to 100% growth in revenue and headcount. A Ready to Rocket company has advanced from the emerging business world and launched into the high-growth phase.

Thanks to its unique competitive position and a rapidly growing market opportunity, Traction Guest has demonstrated ten consecutive quarters of growth and a trailing 12-month revenue growth of 175%. The company is playing a signifiant role in defining the cloud-based visitor management SaaS category and has established itself as one of the leading vendors in the market.





"Each year when we choose the Ready to Rocket companies, we are looking for those companies that have best matched technical innovation with market opportunity. Traction Guest is an excellent example of the right technology for the right customers at the right time." said Reg Nordman, Managing Partner at Rocket Builders.



Traction Guest's platform enables businesses to customize and streamline the visitor sign-in experience in offices and at events. It provides a global view of visitors, keeps a record of their interactions with employees, sends instant notifications, and shapes first impressions of the corporate brand. Companies can leverage more data, increase their operational efficiency, and strengthen security across multiple locations.

"It's exciting to see that we've jumped straight into Ready to Rocket's high-growth category! We feel like we're just scratching the surface of what is possible in visitor management and are excited about our roadmap," says Cameron Wiebe, CTO of Traction Guest.

With a growing number of integrations into a variety of business source systems, the platform can send and receive information to build a connected enterprise. Using guestConnect, customers can build custom integrations between Traction Guest and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

"We're proud to be recognized as one of the fastest growing technology companies. When we started, we strongly believed there was a better way for corporations to manage their visitors. Now, we have customers across five continents and 26 industries, growing rapidly every month," shares Keith Metcalfe, CEO of Traction Guest. "It's been a great journey and we are humbled to be named alongside many admirable technology companies."

The annual Ready to Rocket list provides accurate predictions of companies that will continue to experience significant growth in the coming year. Traction Guest is quickly evolving in the enterprise B2B space.

About Traction Guest:

Traction Guest is a rapidly growing software company offering a cloud-based visitor management platform that enables organizations to customize and streamline the visitor experience in facilities or at events. Read more about the technology impact in the annual visitor management report.

SOURCE Traction Guest

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] 01 Communique Announces its First Quarter Fiscal 2018 Results

TORONTO, March 15, 2018 /CNW/ - 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (ONE:TSX-V) today announced results for its first quarter fiscal 2018, which ended January 31, 2018. The Company's loss for the quarter was $44,537 (2017  $97,763). The adjusted loss for the first quarter, which excludes non-cash expenses for stock-based compensation and depreciation, was $38,179 (2017  $44,174). The Company completed the quarter with $175,319 of cash and cash equivalents. "We remain committed to our plan of continuing operations while we pursue our appeal of the Citrix Systems Inc. ("Citrix") lawsuit until its conclusion," said Andrew Cheung, President and CEO for 01 Communique. "With respect to the appeal with Citrix, a hearing took place at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on February 8, 2018. We are now waiting for the Court of Appeals to render their decision on our request for a new trial." An Update on the Company's Operations follows: The Company reduced its operating expenses significantly in January 2016 as it prepared to work through the appeal process in its patent litigation against Citrix. In addition to moving forward with the appeal process the Company continued to work with Hitachi Solutions Create, Ltd. as well as make its products available from its web site. Substantially all development work had been completed on the products that the Company licenses and with respect to the appeal process the Company relies on its lawyers and hence minimal internal resources are required. Accordingly the Company was able to significantly reduce its expenses. The Company makes use of third party contractors for the development and support of its products as required. Revenue for the first quarter 2018 was $34,844 (2017 - $7,631) an increase of $27,213. The majority of this increase is due to an increase in royalty revenue received for the Company's share of revenue received from third parties for the sale of DoMobile in Japan by Hitachi Solutions Create, Ltd. Cash operating expenses, which exclude stock based compensation and depreciation, for the first quarter 2018 were $51,883 which is fairly consistent with first quarter 2017 of $37,762 an increase of $14,121. There were no patent enforcement and re-examination expenses for the first quarter 2018 (2017  nil). Patent enforcement and re-examination expenses have fluctuated in prior years with the level of activity in respect of the Company's patent litigation and the re-examination requested by Citrix. With respect to the Citrix litigation, expenses have reached a cap and the Company's lawyers are now responsible for such expenses for which they are to be reimbursed out of proceeds of settlement or an award of damages, if any. As previously announced, on January 31, 2018 the Company entered into an agreement to amend the terms of its $400,000 principal amount of debentures (the "Debentures") and 800,000 common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") that were issued on April 24, 2015. Before the amendment the Debentures bore interest at a rate of 10% per annum, had a term of 36 months expiring on April 24, 2018 and the Warrants were exercisable into one common share in the capital of 01 Communique at any time until April 24, 2018 at an exercise price of $0.21 per Common Share. Under the terms of the amendment the rate of interest on the Debentures increased to 15% effective April 25, 2018 and the maturity date is extended to April 24, 2019. Furthermore, effective January 31, 2018 the Warrant exercise price is decreased to $0.10 and the expiry date is extended to April 24, 2019. Background on the Company's patent lawsuit against Citrix: In February 2006, the Company commenced a lawsuit in the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, against Citrix alleging infringement by their GoToMyPC product line of the Company's patent, United States Patent No. 6,928,479, ("the '479 Patent"). On January 11, 2016 a jury trial commenced in the lawsuit with the jury reaching and returning a unanimous verdict on January 19, 2016. The Court entered Judgment as follows: 1. Defendants Citrix have not infringed claims 24 or 45 of the '479 Patent; 2. Claims 24 and 45 of the '479 Patent are not invalid; 3. Plaintiff 01 Communique takes no damages from Citrix; 4. Except as set forth above or adjudicated through Summary Judgment, all other claims and counterclaims in this matter were dismissed; 5. On March 7, 2016 the Company filed post-trial motions with the District Court that presided over the trial. These included motions for renewed judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial. 6. On March 21, 2017 the District Court issued its order denying the Company's motion for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial. 7. On March 30, 2017 the Company filed a Notice to Appeal the District Court's Order with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 8. There was a hearing that took place at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on February 8, 2018. We are now waiting for the Court of Appeals to render their decision on our request for a new trial. While the Company is confident in the merits of its appeal there can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in its appeal. Neither TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") 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. About 01 Communique Established in 1992, 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (TSX-V:ONE) offers a suite of remote access services designed for small-medium sized business, mobile professionals and IT service providers. 01's software as a service offerings are deployed on-demand and include functionality enabling on-line meetings, remote computing and IT support. 01's suite of products includes its remote access offering I'm InTouch (www.imintouch.com), its online meeting offering (www.imintouchmeeting.com) and its remote support offering I'm OnCall (www.imoncall.com); products are protected in the U.S.A. by its patents #6,928,479 / #6,938,076 / #8,234,701 and in Canada by its patents #2,309,398 / #2,524,039 and Japan by its patent #4,875,094. For more information, visit www.01com.com or call (905) 795-888 or (800) 668-2185 (North America only). Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements. Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking" statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, such statements use such words as "may", "will", "expect", "believe", "plan", "intend", "are confident" and other similar terminology. These statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors discussed under "Risk and Uncertainties" in the company's Management's Discussion and Analysis document filed on SEDAR. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.









01 Communique Laboratory Inc. SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION Consolidated Statements of Financial Position









31-Jan-18

31-Oct-17







Assets





Current assets







Cash and cash equivalents $ 175,319

$ 238,576

Accounts receivable 43,365

28,077

Prepaid expenses and other assets 6,883

6,281

225,567

272,934







Plant and equipment 3,794

2,477

$ 229,361

$ 275,411







Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity













Current liabilities







Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 482,890

$ 498,295

Deferred revenue 10,456

10,899

Liability component of debenture --

391,580

493,346

900,774







Liability portion of Debenture 382,300

--







Shareholders' equity







Share capital 40,832,777

40,832,777

Contributed surplus 5,413,225

5,407,310

Equity portion of Debenture 64,811

47,111

Deficit (46,953,363)

(46,912,561)

(646,285)

(625,363)









$ 229,361

$ 275,411

01 Communique Laboratory Inc. SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income For the 3 month periods ended January 31, 2018 and 2017



for the 3 months ending

31-Jan-18 31-Jan-17





Revenue $ 34,844 $ 7,631





Expenses (income):



Selling, general and administrative 34,475 86,034 Research and development 23,774 5,325 Interest (8) (8)

58,241 91,351 Profit (Loss) before interest, accretion on



liability component of debenture and taxes $ (23,397) $ (83,720)





Interest on debenture 10,000 10,000 Accretion on liability portion of debenture 8,420 4,043





Profit (loss) before taxes $ (41,817) $ (97,763)





Withholding taxes 2,720 -





Profit (loss) for the period $ (44,537) $ (97,763)





Basic $ (0.001) $ (0.001) Diluted $ (0.001) $ (0.001)





Weighted average number of common shares (note 6)



Basic 66,543,807 66,543,807 Diluted 66,543,807 66,543,807 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. SELECTED FINANCIAL INFORMATION Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows For the 3 month periods ended January 31, 2018 and 2017



three months ending

31-Jan-18 31-Jan-17 Cash provided by (used in):









Operating activities:





Income (Loss) for the period $ (44,537) $ (97,763)

Adjustments to reconcile the loss for the period



to net cash flows from operating activities





Depreciation 443 1,089

Stock-based compensation 5,915 52,500

Accretion on liability portion of debenture 8,420 4,043

Interest income (8) (8) Change in non-cash working capital (31,738) (16,816)

(61,505) (56,955) Interest income received 8 8

(61,497) (56,947)





Investing activities:





Purchase of capital assets (1,760) - Increase (decrease) in cash (63,257) (56,947)





Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 238,576 173,424 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 175,319 $ 116,477 SOURCE 01 Communique Laboratory Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][March 15, 2018] MetLife Recognized as a Top Company for Female Executives

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) today announced that it has been named to the 2018 list of "Top Companies for Executive Women" by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), one of only 70 companies to make the list. This is the 11th time MetLife has been recognized by NAFE for its efforts to advance women and demonstrated commitment to inclusion of women at all levels of leadership, including the Board of Directors and Executive Group. NAFE recognizes organizations whose policies and practices encourage women's advancement and whose numbers at the highest levels of leadership demonstrate that commitment. The intensive application process includes over 200 questions to assess female representation at all levels, with a focus on the corporate officer and profit-and-loss leadership ranks, the number of employees that have access to and participate in programs and policies that promote the advancement of women, and how managers are held accountable for the advancement of female employees. "Having strong women leaders is critical to a company's success, and MetLife is proud of our efforts to advance the careers of women at all levels of the company," said Rebecca Tadikonda, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for MetLife. "Their continued leadership, diverse perspectives and accomplishments fuel MetLife, enabling it to move ahead - today and in the future." "MetLife has a strong commitment to upporting the career advancement of women across the company, and we are honored to again be recognized for our efforts," said Elizabeth Nieto, MetLife's global chief diversity and inclusion officer. "The women in MetLife's executive leadership and our board of directors make important contributions, and we are proud to work with them each day."



Through its Global Women's Initiative, MetLife offers a wide array of programs for women in the company. They focus on developing leadership competencies, strengthening the pipeline of women and increasing their representation in broader leadership roles. These programs include: Women's Business Networks, resource groups in more than 30 countries that female employees can use to share insights and build informal networks

The Global Women's Leadership Forum, an annual program that brings together thought leaders to discuss the importance of women's leadership and share insights on leading and thriving during periods of change

Developing Women's Career Experience, a 14-month developmental program focused on the female talent pipeline

Lean In Circles, modeled on the concepts in Sheryl Sandberg's best-selling book For more information on MetLife's commitment to advancing women and its corporate responsibility activities, visit www.metlifeglobalimpact.com.

About MetLife MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315006426/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Tue., Sept. 21, 7 p.m.

Jacksonville Public Library 201 W. College Ave., Jacksonville Jacksonville

Free

Nature, Science & Environment

Thirty-five years after the nuclear accident, Stephen Quandt went to Chernobyl to participate in a spay/neuter and research campaign for the dogs that were descended from the pets left behind after the disaster of 1986 (and that were not killed by the military.) Stephen will tell his story of meeting the inhabitants of the mostly abandoned town of Chernobyl City. This is a story of resilience, hope, life and even heroism. This program will be on Zoom and will also be displayed at the library. Please e-mail to receive a Zoom link. No registration required for in-person. 217-243-5435iStock/Thinkstock(AUSTIN) -- A father of a young girl and a teenage orchestra star were the two victims killed in the package bomb blasts that rocked Austin, Texas.



Friends and acquaintances of Anthony Stephan House and Draylen Mason, the man and teenager who were killed in the first and second blasts, are speaking out about their contributions to their community.



Two women -- one in her 40s and another in her 70s -- were injured in the two blasts on March 12, but their names have not been publicly released.



Police have residents in Austin, the state's fourth-biggest city, on alert as they have warned residents to call in any suspicious or unexpected packages for fear of subsequent bombings.



Anthony Stephan House, 39



The first victim was 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House.



Local newspaper The Austin-American Statesman reports that he had an 8-year-old daughter and a graduate of Texas State University.



He worked as a project manager for Texas Quarries until February 2017, a spokesperson for the company told ABC News.



House was killed an hour after a blast was reported at his home in north Austin at 6:55 a.m. March 2.



Police initially ruled the death suspicious, though they have since connected it to the two subsequent blasts that took place at other residences in Austin on March 12.



Draylen Mason, 17



Friends and associates have described Draylen Mason as a rising star who was active in his community and had a future of music studies ahead of him.



Mason stood out in 2013, when then-City Council member Mike Martinez met him after the student won a writing contest with his essay on racial profiling.



Martinez posted a picture of him and Mason on Facebook after news of Mason's death in the first March 12 blast, writing that his essay was "so insightful and mature for such a young man."



Mason was also involved in a youth orchestra program called the Austin Soundwaves, which caters to underserved children in East Austin.



Doug Dempster, the dean of the College of Fine Arts and the University of Texas-Austin, said faculty from the school regularly teach in the program, and that he'd "been watching Draylen blossom in the program for the last few years."



"He was a remarkably and precociously talented bass player whose talents developed enough through the program for him to audition into top music schools," Dempster said in a statement.



Dempster said Mason was set to start as a freshman at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas next year.



"The loss of any child is heartbreaking. The loss of a child with such conspicuous ambition, talent and determination is the cruelest kind of heartbreak. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, teachers and fellow students," he wrote.



Austin police said Mason's mother, whose name they did not publicly disclose, was injured in the blast as well, and is in stable condition at a local hospital.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Corporate retaliation: Monsanto is trying to take down civic group that warned about health risks of glyphosate herbicide

A group that dedicates itself to conjoining people with the pressing policy issues that affect them is being targeted by the worlds most evil corporation for daring to spread the truth about the toxicity of glyphosate, a highly pervasive crop chemical thats commonly sprayed on genetically-modified (GM) crops.

According to reports, Monsanto has served the civic campaigning group Avaaz with a 168-page subpoena that demands all of its internal correspondences concerning glyphosate  more than a decades worth  be turned over to the New York Supreme Court.

The subpoena, which commands Avaaz to do this, is part of a witch hunt by Monsanto to silence its opposition using expensive litigation and scare tactics. In this case, Monsanto wants Avaaz to stop campaigning against glyphosate, including its 2017 effort to block the European Union from re-issuing a 15-year license for the use of glyphosate in Europe.

Other Avaaz campaigns against glyphosate include another effort that same year to stop the building of a Monsanto-owned GM seed factory in Argentina, as well as an ongoing campaign to stop Monsanto from achieving its goal of establishing a so-called mega-merger with fellow GMO and chemical giant Bayer.

Avaaz founder Ricken Patel admits that the request is massive, considering that Avaaz staffers have spent a considerable amount of time and resources working towards a ban on glyphosate. On the groups website, Patel noted that the subpoena demands include pretty much every single private email, document, note, chat or anything else that any Avaaz staffer has ever written or done on our campaigns to ban Monsantos key herbicide, glyphosate.

Is Monsanto planning to conduct hits on members of the public as punishment for spreading the truth?

Whats perhaps more disturbing is the scope of the details that Monsanto is requesting. Per the sweeping language contained in the subpoena, Monsanto is essentially demanding that Avaaz procure the private details of its employees, including contact information and other personal details.

Why Monsanto wants all of this has yet to be determined. But recognizing the aggressive ways in which the mega-corporation has bullied farmers, non-profit groups, and many others in the past, theres no telling what it might have in store for Avaaz.

Even members of the public could be at risk, as internal company documents also include the names and email addresses of people who have signed Avaaz petitions calling for a ban on Monsanto products. One such petition seeking a moratorium on the use of glyphosate reportedly garnered more than two millions signatures  and Monsanto is basically demanding to have access to the identities of these signers.

The subpoena from Monsanto comes in response to a sweeping class-action lawsuit against the company in which plaintiffs from all across the country are suing on behalf of themselves or their loved ones, whom they claim developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma as a result of exposure to Roundup, the brand-named Monsanto herbicide that contains glyphosate.

Monsanto is apparently retaliating against those who helped fuel this class-action lawsuit, of which Avaaz is named among the culprits.

This is big, Avaaz states in one of its latest petitions. [Monsantos] a $50 billion mega-corporation, infamous for legal strong-arm tactics like this. They have unlimited resources. If they get their hands on all our private information, theres no telling what theyll use it for.

Avaazs Deputy Director, Emma Ruby-Sachs, says that not only is the demand heinous in intent, but it also violates the First Amendment rights of the group and its employees.

There are millions of people around the world who have a deep and genuine concern that Monsantos glyphosate is making us and our environment sick, she says. That is the sole reason our members have called on governments to regulate it based on independent science. Were not going to let this legal attack slow down that essential work one bit.

See the Monsanto Mafia website for more coverage of Monsantos evil tactics.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

EcoWatch.comIntel's Brian Krzanich announced today in a blog post that the company has made Spectre and Meltdown patches available for every processor it has launched in the last five years. The company also announced that it has new in-silicon mitigations, meaning security fixes baked directly into the processor, ready for the next round of Xeon Scalable processors, code named Cascade Lake, as well as 8th Generation Intel Core processors that should ship in the second half of 2018.

It may seem like an eternity, but it was only 73 days ago that the Meltdown and Spectre bugs threw the computing industry into chaos. After the initial fog surrounding the discovery dissipated, we learned that industry leaders had already been working feverishly behind the scenes for 200 days to patch systems against what could be the most widespread vulnerability of our time. Even with the continual extensions to the NDA period, the industry still struggled to patch the vulnerabilities because they attack some of the fundamental underpinnings of modern operating systems and processor microarchitectures. Intel and other industry stalwarts pledged to continue to refine and extend the patches further, but there were no firm guarantees for when we could say that all computers would be patched against the vulnerabilities.

And we still cant. The industry is moving along, though. Intel, easily the most visibly affected company, announced today that it had reached its commitment to provide a microcode patch for all the processors it launched within the last five years.

Coffee Lake, Kaby Lake, Skylake, Broadwell, And Haswell Patches Available

Intel has made the patches available for all processors based on the Coffee Lake, Kaby Lake, Skylake, Broadwell, and Haswell microarchitectures. These patches consist of both software patches for operating systems (such as Windows and Linux) to protect against Variant 1 and 3, along with processor microcode to address Variant 2.

Intel has delivered the new microcode to all system vendors, but there could be a staggered rollout as OEMs issue BIOS updates. Unlike the first round of emergency patches, Intel and OEMs have conducted extended reliability testing, so we shouldn't see a repeat of the earlier missteps.

Unfortunately, although the patches are available, some older systems may never be patched by the respective OEMs. Intel's new dedicated security website has a list of system vendors and links to additional resources for each. Microsoft has also stepped forward to wrap patches up in manually-downloadable Windows Update packages, but support varies and several caveats apply. We hope Microsoft expands this technique to a wider range of systems, as it will help speed the delivery process and also assures that older systems could actually receive the patches that Intel has made available.

In-Silicon Fixes For Meltdown And Spectre Baked Into New 8th Generation Processors

Intel says that the company redesigned parts of the processor and partitioned off sections to protect against Variants 2 and 3. Currently, Variant 3, otherwise known as Meltdown, requires a software patch that resides in the operating system. This patch has minimal performance overhead, but it is possible that the hardware alterations reduce it further, or eliminate it entirely.

Spectre Variant 2 currently requires both a software and microcode patch, and it confers the highest performance overhead. Again, we expect the new in-silicon mitigations to reduce the impact on performance.

Intel isn't providing technical details of the new hardware-based fixes yet, so we don't know if they are just an extension of the PCID (Post-Context Identifiers) feature in post-Broadwell systems. That feature helps the operating system navigate an extra layer of memory address abstraction.

Thoughts

Intel still hasn't defined the timeline for patching processors beyond the five-year-old window. Given the steady update cadence of the company's processor lineup, the five-year patching window should cover a good portion of active desktop systems. More important for Intel, it should cover an even higher percentage of active Xeon servers, which are refreshed on a much more predictable cadence in the data center. Intel is pushing deeper into the data center with each passing year, so keeping its customers happy is essential, especially as AMD's EPYC continues to enjoy more uptake.

AMD has not entirely patched its ecosystem yet: we haven't seen any signs of microcode updates to address Spectre on the desktop. AMD has unfortunately been in the news lately due to a new set of alleged vulnerabilities that can be exposed by second-level attacks, but we still aren't sure of the impact. Of course, some will think that Intel is capitalizing on AMD's recent bad news by announcing its new achievements, but Intel has communicated its intentions to patch all of its recent processors since the early days of the vulnerability disclosures. The company has reached its milestone and is ready to share the news; take it as you will.

Intel's new hardware mitigations sound promising, but we have no details yet. Intel says the in-silicon fixes will apply to 8th Generation processors, but the 8th-gen lineup also encompasses 14nm+ Kaby Lake-R (refresh), all 14nm++ Coffee Lake models, and the forthcoming 10nm Cannon Lake processors. Intel hasn't specified which new processors will have the fixes, or if it can apply the fixes to newer versions of the existing 8th Generation models.

ASRock recently listed compatibility with several new Coffee Lake processors, but these new models move from a B0 to a U0 stepping. We aren't sure if the in-silicon fixes required a significant-enough retooling of the microarchitecture that would necessitate more than a mere stepping to address, but it is a nice thought. We're eager to learn more about the mitigations, and also if Intel has any plans to fix its older processors.(Image credit: ProtonMail)

ProtonMail was able to confirm reports from its users that its service is currently blocked by ISPs in Turkey due to a government order. ProtonMail is one of the more popular end-to-end encrypted email services, which allow users to encrypt their emails with their own keys, making it difficult for government surveillance or interception to happen.

How ProtonMail Was Blocked In Turkey

ProtonMail first saw reports of its service being blocked by Vodafone Turkey from some of its users. It later received other reports from users of other ISPs in Turkey that ProtonMail was not working for them.

At first the company believed it may be a glitch, similar to the one it had just last week. However, it turned out that the Turkish government issued a censorship order against the service. The Turkish government has censored tens of thousands of websites in the past few years, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia, although some of these popular services were only blocked or throttled temporarily.

The blocking is usually done at the DNS level, which means its also relatively easy for users to bypass it, as long as they know how to change their DNS servers. Sometimes the ISPs resort to doing local DNS poisoning, as well as intercepting requests going to well-known DNS servers that users might choose, such as Googles DNS servers.

ProtonMail confirmed that this is the type of DNS blocking Turkey used against its service. The company contacted Vodafone Turkey, but it hasnt received any response from the ISP yet. ProtonMail said its now working behind the scenes to have the service unblocked, and that it learned that the blocking was ordered against multiple websites on March 12.

Vodafone, which has a track record of complying with censorship and surveillance requests from governments, represents over 30% of Turkey's mobile market and is also a leading fixed-line provider in the country.

How To Use ProtonMail In Turkey Right Now

Until ProtonMail figures out how to get its service unblocked, it laid out a few options that can allow its Turkish users to continue to use its service.

Use A VPN Service

You can use any VPN service you want, or you can opt for ProtonMail own ProtonVPN service, which is provided for free to those who want to avoid censorship. VPN services tend to encrypt DNS requests, too, so any DNS-level blockade should be bypassed.

However, the Turkish government is apparently preparing to ban VPN services in the country, too, so ProtonVPN would be at risk of being blocked as well. If ProtonVPN is blocked, ProtonMail suggested using public servers at VPNGate. As with all blacklists, someone would have to block all of these servers manually, so this would essentially turn into a cat and mouse game.

Change Your DNS Server

Because ProtonMail is blocked at the DNS level, you may still be able to unblock the service by changing your DNS server. ProtonMail suggested the list of popular DNS servers at Lifewire, or you could also opt for the privacy-focused DNS servers at the OpenNIC Project.

Use Tor

The last option, and perhaps the most resilient as well, is using the Tor browser to circumvent censorship and keep your browsing habits anonymous in Turkey. As the Turkish government has been trying to censor Tor, too, you may need to use Tor bridges to connect to the Tor anonymity network.

ProtonMail said its service is one of the few email services to even have an .onion address on the Tor network at: protonirockerxow.onion.

The company added that it will continue to fight censorship and surveillance in various countries, as this has been been the reason for the services existence from the start.A massive fire destroyed an Overland Park home Wednesday night. Crews from Overland Park and Leawood fire were called just before 10:30 p.m. to the 15700 block of Windsor Street. Crews reported fire visible from several blocks away. First crews on the scene reported heavy smoke and fire from the back side of a two-story, single family home.Church Militant reported March 9 that the concert had "been moved off church grounds after pushback." When news of Schutte's upcoming concert broke, the article claimed, "locals wrote to the diocese expressing concern, and Catholics responded strongly."

Bishop moves concert out of Kansas City parish A concert by a renowned composer of Catholic hymns has been moved out of a local parish on orders of the bishop. Dan Schutte, part of the 1970s and '80s musical group The St. Louis Jesuits respon...

This parish is the richest in Kansas City and that gives them a lot of leisure time to slap fight among one another.Take a peek:and the boring write-up from NCR that buries all the good stuff and gives far too much credence to PR . . .KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The Wyandotte County District Court announced last week that a local man initially charged with killing a Kansas City, Kan., teen is not guilty. The court ruled that Michael Adams, Jr. was found not guilty of all counts in the death of 15-year-old Brannae Browne.Here at the shebeen, we've been tracking the ongoing festivities in a federal courtroom in Kansas City, where Kansas Secretary of State and patron saint of all vote-suppressors, Kris Kobach, is mounting his own defense of one of his pet laws against the onslaught of the local ACLU.New report shows wide gender gap in Kansas City for doctor pay - Kansas City Business Journal A new report on physician compensation in the U.S. found that the Kansas City metro is among the worst when it comes to equal pay. Among the 50 metros studied, the Kansas City area had the second highest gender wage gap, in which female physicians earned 32 percent less, or $131,996, than their male counterparts from 2016 to 2017, according to Doximity's second annual Physician Compensation Report.

Critics of the "pay gap myth" often lament that comparisons about compensation rarely take into account career choices, fields of expertise or other data that may justify some disparity . . . Essentially, the reactionary argument is that men & women on the same career track with the same level of education typically earn the same amount of money . . . Here's data that proves otherwisereveals that not all medical specializations are created equal. You decide:Kansas City Biz Border War Continues

Tallgrass Technologies plans to move from Lenexa to Crossroads - Kansas City Business Journal The board of Enhanced Enterprise No. 1 of Kansas City voted 3-1 to approve a 15-year, 100 percent property tax abatement for a building at 215 E. 18th St., where Tallgrass Technologies plans to move about 20 employees from its Lenexa location and create about 33 new full-time jobs over the next five years.

Old School Legacy Well Remembered

The Pendergast Way This week we feature a piece of Kansas City's Irish history just in time for the upcoming St. Patrick's Day festivities. The 1920s-published card depicts the statue of Alderman Jim Pendergast in its original location just below present-day Case Park, overlooking Pendergast's beloved first ward in the city's West Bottoms area.

JoCo Runaround Aftermath

Leawood police search for driver suspected of hitting officer during traffic stop Police in Leawood, Kansas, searched early Thursday for a driver suspected of knocking an officer down during a traffic stop.

Midtown Kansas City Rebuilding

KC restaurant damaged by drunk driver crash on Southwest Trafficway nearly ready to reopen KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- About nine months after a drunk driver ran into their building, a Kansas City restaurant is nearly ready to reopen its doors. On Thursday, a Jackson County judge sentenced Malcom Hawkins, who drove into a restaurant on Southwest Trafficway while intoxicated, to 10 years in prison.

Kansas City Local Legend Report

Ida B. Wells was a journalist, feminist, activist, and defender of civil rights Considered bold for her time, Ida B. Wells was a feminist and civil rights activist who spoke on behalf of those who could not or would not speak for themselves.

Always The KCMO Hipster Weekend

Color Between The Wines & Other Weekend Possibilities Having trouble finding your moment of zen? Top Hat Winery (120 S. Main St., Independence, Missouri) is holding a Color Between the Wines Adult Coloring Event from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday. You'll get all you need to color and a glass of wine for $10.

The Kansas City Old School Good Life

North Hyde Park block drew early prominent families On a North Hyde Park block where a large steel tank once drew patients to a groundbreaking sanitarium, captains of Kansas City industry built their homes in the waning years of the 1800s. New homes, both rental and owner-occupied, filled in the block during the early 1900s.

Legendarymight not be part of the glam modeling game any longer but herare still making international news and inspire this gathering of local content of far less exotic topics closer to home.Take a peek:Because we're gearing up for all things Irish for St. Paddy's Day, here's one of our favorite tunes from an 80s Scottish band . . .is the #TBT song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .THANKS TO KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTERS, THERE'S SOME CLEANUP UNDERWAY AT THE LOW-RENT LOCATION!!!

"Brief update on eyesore motel. As I whizzed by on way home tonight, I noticed all of dumped trash had been removed! Progress!"

5th District Council Lady Alissia Canady - "Not sure I can take all the credit other than encouraging City Staff to stay on top of this. Its complicated because it is private property and I believe the owner is an out of state LLC. We've been trying to get them into compliance since the Eastwood & Blue Pkwy intersection was reconstructed. The City will continue to pursue legal options. "

At the outset of this month ournotedwhich confronted Kansas City drivers along a high-traffic route.To wit . . .A brief word from a local denizen who called out the nightmare . . .Accordingly, we talked to the Council rep for the area and asked for an on-record quote in order to provide just a bit of good news and possibly give her credit, she was humble about the ongoing blight fight and shared news of more crackdown efforts underway . . .Developing . . .From Monday, March 12 to Sunday July 15, 2018 the Athens International Airport will host the exhibition Images of Athens from Benaki Museums Photographic Archives. It is the first individual partnership between the Benaki Museum and the Athens International Airport, which involves the presentation of 2 thematic exhibitions, representatives of Greek Culture, through the collections and the archives of the Museum, within 2018. The exhibition is hosted at the exhibition area Art & Culture at the arrivals level.

Already in the early years of the invention of photography (1839), Athens attracted foreign photographers, who, as their Greek counterparts did later on, systematically captured the archaeological monuments of the capital of the newly founded Greek State. For a long period of time, the city itself did not attract their interest since its rebuilding was still in progress, while the scars of the long Ottoman domination remained vivid.

In the years to come, and as Athens continued to develop, professional and amateur photographers meticulously depicted the capital as it offered a multiplicity of themes. The current images, selected from the collection of the Photographic Archives of the Benaki Museum, illustrate a series of views of the city centre, its squares, as well as its central roads, from the mid-19th century up to the late 1960s.

The Athens International Airport hosts in its premises a fine selection of images from the Archives of significant Greek photographers, safeguarded by the Benaki Museum, and valued both for their historical significance and their aesthetic excellence. This exhibition offers to the viewer a unique experience to travel back to an Athens that no longer exists.

Exhibition area Art & Culture, Arrivals Level  Entrance 1, free access.

Duration: 12.3.-15.7.2018

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Leonid Mamchenkov License: CC-BY-SALeading German tour operators have reported strong bookings for summer 2018 holidays while Alltours is warning of a possible capacity squeeze in Greece and Turkey. Photo: Elounda Gulf Villas and Suites Hotel

Germanys leading six tour operators  TUI, Thomas Cook, DER Touristik, FTI, Alltours and Schauinsland-Reisen  released a mix of booking figures and destination trends before or at ITB last week. The German Travel Industry Association (DRV) and researchers GfK had earlier disclosed an overall double-digit rise in summer sales on the German market as of end-January, fvw.com reports in the following article:

Alltours reported a double-digit sales rise, with heavy demand for Greece, Turkey and Egypt along with mixed trends for Spain with lower bookings but higher revenues due to price increases. Managing director Markus Daldrup warned at ITB: There could be a bed shortage in Turkey and Greece. Not only the German market but others, such as Russia, are growing too. Spain bookings were suffering from significantly higher prices and the doubling of the tourist tax on Majorca, he commented.

Similarly, FTI also has a double-digit growth in sales revenues and bookings for the current business year, driven by strong sales for Turkey, Greece (+50%) and Egypt. Ralph Schiller, Group Managing Director, commented: The destination shift that we could see two years ago is reversing again. Holidaymakers are returning massively to Turkey and the Red Sea. The companys new charter flights to Bodrum are selling well, he added.

Schauinsland-Reisen has raised its forecasts for this year due to strong bookings and now expects an increase of up to 10% in customer numbers. Turkey, Egypt and Greece are the clear growth drivers, with each of them up by 50% compared to the same time last year, while Portugal, Bulgaria and the Emirates are all 20% ahead of 2017 at present. Owner Gerald Kassner said: The bookings in recent weeks and months make us very confident that the current business year will be a good one for the tourism industry and for Schauinsland-Reisen.

As listed groups, TUI and Thomas Cook were less forthcoming with sales numbers. TUI Germany said it had a clear increase in bookings and a rising share of the tour operator market, driven by Eastern Mediterranean destinations such as Greece (2-digit growth) and Turkey (+50%) as well as North Africa (Egypt and Tunisia), while Spain remained its top destination with higher sales. Growth in the east is not impacting on western destinations, commented tourism programme chief Stefan Baumert.

in similar fashion, Thomas Cook has strong bookings for Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt and Tunisia, while Spain is stable at last years levels. However, Germany chief Stefanie Berk cautioned: The question is how much of the good trend is early demand and how much is real growth. On Turkey, she commented: Measured in terms of the flight capacity, a doubling of customer numbers is possible. 2018 could be a record summer.

The UK-based group also announced the launch of Thomas Cook Hotel Investments, a joint venture fund with Swiss-based hotel property development company, LMEY Investments. Thomas Cook Hotel Investments will consist of five seed hotel assets worth nearly 150 million, and will buy properties across key destination markets to expand Thomas Cooks own-brand hotel portfolio.

The five seed assets are two Sunwing hotels in Greece (Rhodes and Crete islands), two Aldiana hotels in Spain, and their first joint project, a fifth Casa Cook which will open on Ibiza in summer 2019. The first two Casa Cook hotels on Rhodes and Kos will joined by a property on Crete this summer and then one in Croatia next year.

Meanwhile, DER Touristik, which also has similar sales trends in Germany as other tour operators, has concluded the acquisition of Kuoni France to enter the French tour operating market. Kuoni France, which has annual turnover of 144 million from sales of premium holidays to 58,000 customers, is the haute couture of travel, said DER Touristik CEO Soren Hartmann.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Source: fvw.comA contract for the high-speed railway in Egypt between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean is expected to be awarded by July, Transport Minister Hisham Arafat was quoted a saying.

The project will connect the eastern resort of Ain Al Sokhna to El Alamein, a town west of Alexandria, said the Reuters report.

The technical and financial evaluations of the project are currently under way, Arafat told Reuters at a conference in Dubai.

Construction will start this year itself, he said. More than 10 international companies are currently involved in the tender process, he said.Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has scooped the Employer of the Year award for the second consecutive year in the three countries across Middle East and Africa (MEA): UAE, Egypt, and Turkey.



The award was granted to recognise and honour employers efforts based on talent development, performance management procedures, in career planning and organisational culture, said a statement.



Investing in its people is at the very top of the Merck MEAs agenda. As a values-led employer, the company is committed to delivering to its colleagues enriching and engaging experiences at work, with great opportunities to develop, grow and be empowered to reach their full potential, it said.



Paolo Carli, head of Merck MEA, said: I am a firm believer of people as the most important enabler of being the best by delivering on their target, so my initial focus has always been to develop our staffs skills internally, regionally and globally to unleash the full potential of our talent.



Today, I feel incredibly privileged to see our efforts confirmed for the second consecutive year. It is an honour to work with a talented team of dedicated employees and I am confident that our prospective achievements are yet to come, he said.



Abdelraouf Metawee, HR business partner MEA, said: I am pleased to see that our business growth and continued investment in people is recognised externally.



We have attracted and retained a highly qualified international team and still see many opportunities ahead for talented professionals, he said.



Merck MEA plans to include other offices in the Middle East and north Africa (Mena) countries within the listing. The company puts valuable efforts to import talents and expose even further diversity and inclusion within the region.



Merck will celebrate its 350th anniversary this year under the motto "Past. Present. Future.



Our company value is what Merck is today  a vibrant, global science and technology company. MEAs success on people development across the region fits perfectly to the high values of the company that celebrates its 350th anniversary this year, added Carli.



We are proud to see the Mercks contribution to research and development, difficult to treat diseases, new breakthrough therapies and diagnostics, high-tech materials and many more advances, he said.



These contributions are highly differentiated thanks to our committed, loyal and engaged employees. The award confirms Merck MEAs strong contribution to companys overall success based on its long-term heritage, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceDesert Palm Hotel & Resort, a luxurious retreat just 20 minutes from Dubais urban heart, has opened a new spa experience with the launch of Samana Spa.



A sanctuary of wellness and serenity only a short journey away from the city, Samana Spa provides the perfect escape to unwind and recuperate.



Born from Sanskrit, Samana means calming or soothing. We want you to be able to escape from the pollutants of the world to a place that will leave you feeling revitalised and renewed through carefully selected products and curated treatments.



Begin a journey of restoration with our Experience Guides and Gurus who will help explore the apothecary styled homoeopathic Aromatherapy Bar available only at Samana Spa.



Since 1974, Tisserand UK has been carefully harvesting wild ingredients to produce pure organic essential oils. From a range of over 40 essential oils, we have carefully selected 20 essential oils with blends to aid you to relax, restore, rejuvenate and ready to tackle the world.



Aromatherapy is a caring, hands-on therapy which seeks to induce relaxation, to increase energy, to reduce the effects of stress and to restore lost balance to mind, body and soul  Robert Tisserand



Guests can not only immerse in the latest spa therapies designed to stimulate the senses and indulge in the ancient practice of combining aromatherapy and massage for the perfect treatment, but can also choose from unique aromatherapy blends or their own bespoke combination of essential oils to suit individual needs. With a selection of nourishing oils that absorb into the skin and penetrate deeply into the body tissue, guests will feel the positive effect on the mind, body and spirit to enhance emotional well-being.



Eminence organics

Samana Spa houses Eminence Organics facial skin care treatments which are designed to promote the philosophy of over 50 years of Hungarian skin care wisdom. Its humble roots from a traditional village have grown into an emerging favourite amongst industry professionals and spa-goers. Eminences organic face and body elixirs heal and beautify with natures pure riches for the ultimate in ensuring clean beauty.



Voya

Alongside Eminence, Samana offers Voya, which creates its products from hand-harvested organic seaweed and natural seawater from the wild Atlantic coast off the shores of Ireland. Voyas products come from natures most potent antioxidant which is incredibly rich in minerals, vitamins and a bioactive compound that nourishes, moisturises and revitalises the skin.



The Signature packages range from the half day Samana Experience and the full day Samana Retreat, a part of the Samana Journey which includes a deep tissue or Swedish massage and a body polish or an express cleansing facial along with complimentary pool access and lunch in Epicure restaurant to Body brightening and Latvia Moor Mud Body Wrap treatments which helps to detoxify the body, improve circulation and alleviate muscle pain. Each treatment on the menu is specifically designed to combine recuperation and renewal from urban hustle.



Marina Kutskaya, Samana Spas manager, believes that clean beauty and wellness are paramount to todays hectic lifestyle. We are delighted to provide a platform for your individual self-renewal and restoration. Time is a luxury in everyones life today and its important to spend your time taking care of yourself in an environment that is free of toxins from your mind and body.



Beautifully tucked away in the main house of the polo estate, all six treatment rooms overlook the lush green landscape of the polo fields including a couples room where guests can share moments in a calm and serene environment.



Samana Spa features extensive facilities including steam room, sauna, ice room, cold plunge pool, heated beds and chrome therapeutic showers. - TradeArabia News Service

SalamAir, Oman's first budget airline, has introduced the first direct flights between Muscat and Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, said a report.



The new seasonal flights will commence on May 15 to facilitate Umrah during the holy month of Ramadan, with return ticket fares starting from OMR99 ($256.7), said a report in Times of Oman.



Flying thrice weekly, the carrier will depart from Muscat at 11:00 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving in Ta'if at 1:20 am. Return flights from Ta'if are scheduled for Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, departing at 2:10 am and arriving in Muscat at 6:35 am, the report said.



Saudi Arabia has been a key market for SalamAir, which has connected both Muscat and Salalah to Jeddah and successfully operated several seasonal services to other cities within the kingdom.HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday inaugurated the third edition of Art Bahrain Across Borders (ArtBAB 2018), the kingdoms foremost international art fair, said a report.



Held under the patronage of HRH Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of HM King Hamad and President of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), ArtBAB 2018 is open to the public from March 15 to 18 and will host 15 galleries and 13 independent artists from 11 countries, said a report in BNA.



While attending the fair, HRH the Crown Prince noted the extensive development the arts and cultural sector has witnessed under the leadership of HM King Hamad, and highlighted the important role the arts have played in the kingdom's history and cultural heritage.



The contemporary art fair, which is the flagship project of the ArtBahrain across Borders movement, is a collaborative venture with Tamkeen and since its launch in 2016, it has created a new international trajectory for Bahraini artists around the world, with exhibitions in the UK, New Delhi and Mumbai, the report said.



ArtBAB aims to strengthen the base of Bahraini artists visibility by empowering and educating local artists, giving them the opportunity to showcase their unique skills through a sponsored Pavilion which will this year host more than 35 Bahraini artists, exhibiting over 100 works.



The most exciting thing about ArtBAB is that it has consistently offered a new narrative on how one understands modern Bahrain. Seen through the interpretative art of its finest artists and most creative mind, one gets to experience a new Bahrain where an ancient heritage is decoded and brilliantly put together on canvas and through sculptures, said ArtBAB Fair and Programme director, Kaneka Subberwal.



Notable international participants include Alon Zakaim Fine Art from the UK, the Samara Art Gallery from India, Teshk Art Gallery from Ukraine, Galerie Bruno Massa from the USA, Italian artistic collective Antonello Ghezzi, and many more.



ArtBAB represents an important milestone in efforts to solidify Bahrains position as a regional arts and education hub, while stimulating investment and economic activity in the arts and cultural sector, it said.Expedition cruising is set to explode on the cruising scene, fuelled by growing consumer interest in transformational and experiential vacations offered in far-flung regions around the world, it has emerged at the recently concluded Seatrade Cruise Global forum concluded in Miami.



Closer home in Dubai, TTN's Rashi Sen spoke to Nick Wilkinson, vice-president and managing director for UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa, Norwegian Cruise Line, for more regional insight.

He was visiting the emirate as part of an annual roadshow that tours key cities in the Middle East meeting travel agents and consumers, sharing updates about Norwegian Bliss, which sets on its maiden voyage from Bremerhaven in Germany on April 19 this year.



This year, he and his team visited key locations of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait and Bahrain in the second week of March.



After experiencing 38 quarters of continuous growth and with 15 floating resorts in its current portfolio, Norwegian Cruise Line is offering several promotions to increase its market share the region. Theres the interesting buy one get one half price promotion, where you pay for one guest and the travel partner receives a 50 per cent discount.



We consider land-based resorts to be our competition, we do not look to other cruise liners, explains Wilkinson. As part of the roadshow, and for a limited time only (March 25), there will be an additional bonus commission of 4 per cent provided per booking.



Wilkinson explained that a major challenge in promoting cruises in the Middle East region was the last-minute nature of the bookings. While the world books holidays six to eight months in advance, the Middle East books holidays much later, due to various reasons. The low lead time can be a major challenge as the demand for cruise is skyrocketing and seats are filling up quite fast.



According to a change made late last year, Norwegian Cruise Line requires full payment for the trip to be made 120 days ahead of sailing instead of 90 days. To book a place on a cruise usually requires a deposit of $250 per person, so if you are a family of four, you end up paying $1,000 for a cruise holiday next summer or winter.



For the period of March 15 to March 19, Norwegian Cruise Line offers agents in this part of the world, a booking deposit of only $1 per person. - TradeArabia News Service

Every medical care provider I know would certainly list patient safety as the top priority in their work with patients, and the most significant contributor  aside from their expertise  to successful patient outcomes. National regulatory bodies like The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as state agencies, set care standard benchmarks that hospitals and health systems must meet or exceed in order to receive Medicare or Medicaid payments.

Im focusing on patient safety this month because March 11-17 is National Patient Safety Awareness week, and aside from talking about what that means at TRH, I want to share information on safety-related events that weve planned throughout March.

In fact, TRHs full accreditation from The Joint Commission signifies our commitment to delivering the highest quality and safest patient care we can. Our Transitional Care Unit has also received a five-star CMS rating  the highest possible, and our third consecutive award  which indicates that we meet the most rigorous patient safety criteria.

Well-known care standards require important universal practices including now-standard protocols, like the time out practice, where a surgical team pauses before starting a procedure to ensure that a patients identity is confirmed, that the surgical procedure about to be performed is the right one, and all surgical team members understand where the surgical site is located. Communication among hospital staff, medication safety, infection prevention steps and patient risk assessments, for example, are all measures instituted to provide patients with the safest care possible.

TRH also uses a progressive analytical tool known as Root Cause Analysis (RCA) that systematically examines safety-related events on multiple levels. Through the RCA, we take a deep dive into an event and ask why repeatedly, in order to identify what contributed to the event, approach it from many angles and prevent future occurrences.

TRH is dedicated to creating whats known as a just culture, or culture of transparency. We support our staff by encouraging the reporting of potential errors or care inconsistencies they may have been involved in or witnessed. Our staff regularly complete a Culture of Safety survey that measures indicators that impact patient safety, including how burnout, the workplace learning environment, local leadership, teamwork, the safety climate and work-life balance affect our team members. Additionally, we survey our patients about all aspects of their care experiences.

This month, TRH will host a traveling patient safety road show thro-ughout the hospital. Well share information about the Reporting and Learning System that hospital staff use to report actual and potential events, and formulate preventive, creative solutions to increase patient safety, as well as trend and monitor events. Staff will also discuss what motivates them to report events and some innovative safety-focused TRH programs will be highlighted, including our Great Catches program which recognizes reported items that significantly impacted patient safety, and our Caring for the Caregiver program to combat staff burnout. Staff members will have the opportunity to sign a pledge for patient safety, which reflects their commitment to provide the safest care possible to their patients.

Join us at TRH to celebrate our providers commitment to the wellbeing of every patient.

About Transylvania Regional Hospital

Transylvania Regional Hospital (TRH), a member of Mission Health, is a full-service, not-for-profit community hospital serving Transylvania and the surrounding counties. Located in Brevard, TRH is a Critical Access Hospital operating 25 beds and has more than 400 employees and 150 volunteers. TRH offers comprehensive services through more than 120 active, consulting and courtesy physicians representing a full spectrum of specialties. TRH was recently named one of the Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.trhospital.org.

(Michele Pilon, MS, BSN, RN, NE-BC, is the president and CNO of Transylvania Regional Hospital. Her diverse professional experience includes service as a bedside nurse and over a decade as a leader at health care institutions in Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina. Pilon earned a bachelors in nursing from Ohios University of Akron and a masters in health services administration from the University of St. Francis in Illinois; she is also a board-certified nursing executive)Brevard-Davidson River Presbyterian

A special presentation from the Salvation Army will be made at the 8:30 a.m. service. Every third Sunday B-DRPC receives the 5-A-Meal Offering to help fight hunger in this community. That will be received this Sunday at both morning worship services.

Keith Thompson will be bringing the morning message. Special music for worship will be provided by Will Selle, violinist, and the Chancel Choir.

Sunday worship services are at 8:30 and 11 a.m.

Brevard FUMC

Carolina Blue, a Brevard-based band, will lead worship this Sunday at the 9 a.m. praise service at Brevard First UMC. Through music and testimony they will share their faith and lead the worship celebration. Formed in 2007, Carolina Blue is rooted in the bluegrass tradition of Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs. Members are Bobby Powell, Tim Jones, Reese Combs, James McDowell and Aynsley Porchak. All are welcome.

This Sunday, Rev. Mike Holder speaks on the theme Promise at the 8:30 and 10:55 a.m. worship services. When it comes to recovering from a medical event, rehab means following a program designed just for us that helps us get back to living a normal life. However, sometimes our faith lives need rehab, too. We all experience wilderness times in our lives, times when circumstances and events make life hard. So, what do we do? Where do we turn? It is good to remember that God made us a promise, both of Gods great love and grace, and also Gods very presence.

Brevard First UMC, as a member of the KOINONIA community of local churches, is again participating in the Lenten worship series on Thursdays hosted by various churches. Today, the service is at St. Philips Episcopal Church at noon. The service is followed by a light lunch. Brevard First UMC will host the service next Thursday, March 22.

Brevard First UMC also offers chapel worship with Holy Communion every Wednesday at 5 p.m. All are welcome. The 30-minute service is held in the church chapel.

Brevard First UMC, in partnership with Bread of Life, hosts the annual Empty Bowl Lunch on Saturday, March 24. Pro-ceeds go to benefit the ministry of feeding the hungry through Bread of Life.

Brevard First UMC is located on Broad Street across from Brevard College. Three worship experiences are offered on Sunday mornings: traditional worship at 8:30 and 10:55, and a celebration service at 9 a.m. (in the fellowship hall). All are welcome.

Cedar Mountain Baptist

Dr. Milton A. Hollifield Jr., executive director and treasurer of the N.C. Baptist State Convention, will be the guest speaker for the 11 a.m. worship service at Cedar Mountain Baptist Church, Sunday, March 18. Hollifield is from Western North Carolina. The public is invited to come and hear his message.

The CMBC Praise Team is working on a program for Easter Sunday morning. The church will not be having Wednesday evening Bible study until April 4, giving them extra time for practice.

First Baptist

Pastor Jeff Maynard will lead worship for the first time on Sunday. The youth group will have another potato lunch after the worship service. There is no charge for the lunch, but donations are appreciated. The money donated will help defray the cost of summer camps for the children.

The Rosman band is still collecting shoes for a mission project. Any gently used shoes are needed. All sizes and styles can be used. Thank you for bringing your donated shoes to the church where they will be picked up.

Next Wednesday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. the preschoolers will gather eggs of different colors and then redeem them for prizes to learn why we celebrate Easter. Later, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Retrieving the Last Bible is a break-out activity for elementary-aged children and youth that will have them searching for clues trying to beat the clock while using their Biblical knowledge to find the last Bible. Pizza, drink and dessert will be served at 5:30 p.m.

First Baptist Church has Bible study at 9:30 on Sunday mornings. Worship service is at 11 a.m. The senior pastor is Jeff Maynard and the associate pastor is Tony Ladley. Visitors are welcome. Nursery care is provided for Sunday school and worship.

First Congregational UCC

First Congregational United Church of Christ in Hendersonville invites one and all to its sacred Holy Week worship opportunities beginning with the Palm Sunday procession into the church for the service on March 25 at 10:30 a.m.

On Maundy Thursday, March 29, at 7 p.m. there will be Tennebrae shared worship and communion in the Sanctuary with MCC Sacred Journey.

The celebratory service on Easter Sunday, April 1, at 10:30 a.m. features joyful music and worship. There is no pre-service Adult Forum that day. Everyone is welcome at all times. Coffee hours follow the Sunday services. The church continues to offer contemplative prayer in the church parlor every Tuesday and Thursday between 7 and 8 a.m. The east-facing side door of the church near the large parking lot will be open for attendees to enter or leave any time. To learn more, call (828) 692-8630 or visit http://www.fcchendersonville.org.

Glady Branch Baptist

The public is invited to join the congregation at Glady Branch Baptist Church on Sundays at 11 a.m. as they continue to explore Jesus teaching and experiences recorded in the books of the Gospel. This Sunday, March 18, they will be looking at the sharp contrast of Jesus near death experience the previous week in Nazareth, and his wide acceptance in Capernaum.

NEXT Church

Next Church meets on Sundays at the Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County on 11 Gallimore Road in Brevard.

Come early for coffee, treats, and conversation at 9:30 a.m. Nursery and childrens age-appropriate worship is available. Worship starts at 10 a.m.

Pastor Dave Blackburn sermon is Mystery Unveil-ed, based on Colossians 1:26-28.

For the month of March, the Next Kids theme is Jump Ball: Finding Peace in the Madness. Kids will have fun learning what God says about making peace a priority in their relationships.

There are several Life Groups that meet throughout the week. For more information, visit http://www.NEXTCHURCHNC.net or call Pastor Dave at (828) 384-1951.

Sacred Heart Catholic

Join us for a very special Lenten Retreat for Healing being held March 22-24. All are welcome to experience this three-day event filled with praise and worship, prayer, lectures, Adoration and Mass.

Guest presenters are Dr. Mary Healy and Father Ubald. Healy is an author, professor and international speaker who was appointed by Pope Francis as one of the first three women ever to serve on the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Ubald is a native Rwandan and victim of the 1994 genocide of more than 1 million of his Rwandan countrymen. He will speak about losing 80 members of his family and 45,000 parishioners and following his miraculous survival, how he began to preach healing, forgiveness and reconciliation throughout the country.

The retreat begins on Thursday, March 22, at 6 p.m. in the Sacred Heart Fellowship Hall with a documentary about Ubald. At 7:15, Ubald will speak on The Power of Forgiveness followed at 7:45 p.m. with Adoration and Benediction. This session will conclude at 9 p.m.

On Friday, March 23, the retreat will begin at 6 p.m. in the Sacred Heart sanctuary with praise and worship. At 6:15 p.m., Healy will give her first talk. At 7:30 p.m. there will be a healing Mass that will conclude at 9 p.m.

On Saturday, March 24, the Healing Retreat will move to Immaculate Conception with praise and worship at 9 a.m. At 9:30 a.m., Healy will give her second lecture followed at 11 a.m. by a special presentation entitled Fearless. There will be a luncheon break at noon. Boxed lunches are available for $10 per person. Indicate when you register if you would like a boxed lunch. At 1 p.m., Healy will speak again followed by a Healing Service and the event will conclude at 4 p.m. There is no cost for this retreat, but donations are appreciated. For registration or questions, contact Tricia Poche at [email protected] or Sacred Heart Church, 150 Brian Berg Lane, Brevard, NC; or Sherry [email protected] com or Immaculate Conception Church, 208 7th Avenue W., Hendersonville, NC.

St. Patricks Anglican

St. Patricks continues to observe Lent this Friday, March 16, with the Stations of the Cross beginning at 5:30 p.m. followed by a light supper. At approximately 6:30 p.m., members will meet for the weekly class on Higher Criticism. All of this evenings activities are open to the public.

On Sunday, March 18, the day begins with the study of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah at 9:30 a.m. The Service of Holy Communion beings at 10:30 a.m. The weekly sermon is posted at http://www.stpatricksbrevard.org. Serving at the altar will be the Very Rev. Nicholas Henderson, vicar; Rev. Mr. Robert Shoup, deacon; with Pippen Shepherd as acolyte. Our readers are Pippen Shep-herd and Jim Boettcher. Pippen and Lis Shepherd have closing duties. Ushers for this Sunday are Kathryn Hackett-Fields and Jenny Boettcher.

St. Patricks has a service on Wednesdays from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. Each week, they celebrate a significant person in church history as well as Holy Communion.

Throughout Lent they are collecting funds for Sharing House and providing the funding for a second school for Dalit children in India.

St. Patricks Anglican is a mission of the Anglican Province of America. It is a traditional, biblical and apostolic church, reveling in the rich and reverent heritage of the historic Church of England. Congregants meet downstairs in the Hollingsworth Building at 147 E. Main Street, Suite 100, in Brevard. Handicapped parking is available behind the building or on Main Street. Contact [email protected] or visit http://www.stpatricksbrevard.org.

St. Philips Episcopal

The Shop of St. Philips welcomes spring. After a complete winter clearance, the shop will reopen on Saturday, March 24, filled with fresh seasonal merchandise. Operated solely by volunteers, the shop continues its 55-year tradition of offering high quality, affordable goods, with proceeds funding outreach in the local community. The shop is located at 44 Four Seasons Plaza and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

As the Rice Street Garden has grown, so has the garden workday and the need for more volunteers. From 10 a.m. until noon on Saturday, March 17, cold-weather crops will be planted; the churchs back door will be painted; and there will be a pizza party afterwards. All ages and abilities are welcome.

St. Philippians will celebrate St. Patrick on Saturday, March 17, from 6-8 p.m. in Miller Hall with dinner and entertainment. Corned beef and cabbage and key lime pie will make up the dinner. Entertainment will include Irish fiddle tunes, Irish bagpipes, and Irish Story Time. The St. Patricks Day Feast is sponsored by EPP (Episcopal Parish Program-ming). Volunteers are needed to help set up/clean up.

The final Lenten program takes place on March 21. A simple meal will begin at 5:15 p.m., followed at 6 p.m. by a discussion of former Archbishop Rowan Williams book, Being Christian. Prior to the dinner, a Stations of the Cross service begins at 4:45 p.m. in the church. A nursery is provided during the program.

A Palm Cross Workshop will be held on Thursday, March 22, from 3-5 p.m. During this intergenerational event, participants will learn to create palm crosses for Palm Sunday. Refreshments, supplies and instructions will be supplied.

St. Timothy UMC

As Easter approaches, St. Timothy UMC is continuing its study of the Gospel of John. Pastor Ann Duncan will preach on Jesus discourse with his disciples in the upper room as they celebrate the last supper. At this point, Jesus is preparing them for his death and resurrection, telling them he is going away but that he will be coming back.

The St. Timothy Community Garden is ready for planting and the garden team has materials, supplies and tools at hand ready for use. In April there will be an opportunity to adopt a limited number of garden beds and plots for adopters to grow whatever they want. More information will be available in April.

The Third Sunday offering this month will be for the Society of St. Andrew, which sponsors gleaning opportunities in an effort to end hunger in America. Offerings can be brought each Sunday through Easter.

St. Timothy United Methodist Church is located at 1020 Asheville Highway at the corner of Hospital Drive. Worship is at 10:55 a.m. each Sunday and Sunday school is at 10 a.m. For more information, contact the church office at 883-2985 or visit http://www.sttimothy-brevard.org.

Unitarian Universalist

Rev. Ilene Tompkins-Gillispie will deliver the sermon Nurturing Our Promises at the 9:15 and 11 a.m. Unitarian Universalist services on March 18. The worship theme for this month is wealth.

All are welcome to join the Mens Group on Tuesday at 9 a.m. On Wednesdays at 9:30, come listen to the Eclectics.

The first guiding Principle of Unitarian Universalism is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. UUTC welcomes all  persons of various ages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, theological and political beliefs, socio-economic status, educational backgrounds, abilities and ethnicities. Services are at 9:15 and 11 a.m. The building is wheelchair accessible, dress is casual, and visitors are always warmly welcomed.

Childrens Lifespan Religious Exploration is offered at 11 a.m. Infant care is available during the service. Join us for coffee between services at 10:30 a.m.On March 6, Brevard College hosted the National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organizations Regional Leadership Conference. FFA was founded in 1928 and, composed of nearly half-a million student members, is one of the nations leading agriculture education programs.

Students gain valuable career opportunities in fields such as production farming, agribusiness, forestry, biotechnology, marketing and food processing. The organizations primary mission is to develop members leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. One of the many ways they o...Dr. Jeremy Gibbs (center) receives an award from the state superintendents' association, named for Dr. Sam Houston (left) and presented by Jack Hoke, executive director of NCSSA and former superintendent of Alexander County Schools. (Photo courtesy of NCSSA)

The North Carolina Alliance for School Leadership Development (NCASLD) and the North Carolina School Superin-tendents' Association (NCSSA) has announced the selection of Dr. Jeremy Gibbs, chief academic officer of Transylvania County Schools, as the recipient of the inaugural Dr. Samuel Houston Leadership Award.

This annual award is presented to a graduate of the North Carolina Alliance for School Leadership Development's Aspiring Superintendent Program, a program which is designed to empower transformational education leaders for North Carolina's public schools.

The award is named in...Sixteen students represented North Carolina as delegates to the American Junior Academy of Sciences. Seven were from Transylvania County. (Courtesy photos by Colella Digital.)

Aidan and Bryce Spradlin, Sara Megown, Matt Bailey, John Nguyen, Chase Bishop and Alex Eberhardt, student scientists from Transylvania County's TIME 4 Real Science Program, recently traveled to Austin, Texas to present their research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting.

The AAAS seeks to "advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people." This year's AAAS Conference was attended by more than 10,000 scientists and science enthusiasts from around the world.

The students presented their research at the me...Pisgah Forest Rotary

The March 21 meeting of the Rotary Club of Pisgah Forest will feature Abigail Cooley, rural outreach advocate for SAFE. Cooley will cover domestic violence and sexual assault in Transylvania County, the services SAFE provides and their current outreach efforts.

For the month of March the speaker chair is Jim Hedgpeth, and the Rotary theme for the month is water and sanitation.

The public is always welcome to attend the meetings, listen to the guest speakers and share a delicious buffet breakfast at the Pisgah Fish Camp every Wednesday at 8 a.m.

For information on Ro...The Transylvania County Fire Chiefs Association has come out against the county imposing a flat tax rate to pay for fire/rescue services.

Six of the eight fire chiefs in the association backed the decision Monday during its regular meeting at the Transylvania County Rescue Squad.

As previously reported, county staff presented basically five options for county commissioners, the fire/rescue squads and the public to consider. Commissioners will make any final decision on whether they change the current method, which calculates fire tax rates based partly on property tax values in each of the eight fire districts.

Those values range from $55.5 million to $1.6 billion.

It means fire rates vary throughout the county, with, as an example, Lake Toxaway Fire Rescue having the lowest rate at 4.79 cents and Cedar Mountain Fire Rescue with the highest at 13.78 cents.

It means that each fire department receives differing fund amounts, resulting in varying service levels in regards to equipment, manpower and resources. The association has come out against Option D (see box on page 14A), as its been called by county staff.

Option D calls for a county-wide, flat fire tax rate at 7.23 cents per $100 of valuation to fund fire and rescue services.

We are against the flat tax, said Carmon West, Lake Toxaway Fire Rescues chief and the associations chairman.

The association sent a letter laying out its position to The Transylvania Times that will appear in todays paper. The letter has also been sent to the Board of Commissioners.

The letter is signed by fire chiefs from Rosman, Little River, Cedar Mountain, Balsam Grove, Connestee and Lake Toxaway.

The letter reiterates that county staff has laid out options related to addressing the differing levels of fire, rescue and EMS services in the county, as well as a concern about the variance of fire tax rates among the various fire tax districts.

Because of the different terrain and communities, the letter says, each fire department is designed to meet the specific challenges of a given fire district, which the letter goes on to say is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Challenges posed to North Transylvania Fire Department, which responds to emergencies in Pisgah National Forest, are different than challenges posed to the Brevard Fire Department, the letter says.

As a result, Transylvania County fire departments use fire tax dollars and budgets in a variety of ways, each carefully crafted to serve the specific needs of citizens and community, the letter says.

In addition, the letter says the association is not aware of any concern expressed within our communities with regard to fire, rescue and EMS services we currently provide which may have led up to the commissioners discussion on making changes to the fire tax rate.

We get this question about the quality of services, but I dont know anyone who has not covered a call they have, West said during the meeting. I mean, if it isnt broke, dont try to fix it or you will mess it up.

Chase Owen, the Connestee Fire Rescue chief, said all departments do a great job in response time and working together for mutual aid.

Owen asked Transylvania County Assistant County Manager David McNeill, who was at the meeting, what the tax rate of 7.2 is based on.

McNeill said it is based on the tax valuation, budget and collection rate for last year.

Later in the meeting, Keith Owen, with Connestee Fire Rescue, asked why the signatures of the chiefs from Brevard Fire Department and North Transylvania Fire Rescue signatures were not on the letter.

We all said we were in this together, so why not now? Owen asked.

Brevard City Manager Jim Fatland, who was at the meeting, said that because the city is structured differently than other districts, there would be a longer process to undergo before the Brevard Fire Department chief could take a position.

That position would have to be approved by city council, so if we were to take a position it would slow down the process, and city council would either support or oppose the decision, Fatland said. And I dont think Brevard hurts or helps the position here.

West said he couldnt answer for North Transylvania Fire Department since it wasnt represented at the meeting, but that at a previous meeting the vote was unanimous in opposing the flat tax.

The North Transylvania Fire Department was reached for comment but had not responded as of going to press.

Option D: Fund from Single Countywide Service District/Tax Rate

Used by five counties in North Carolina

Pros: Tax rate can be adjusted annually to meet budget needs based on approved fire departments budget requests. Every property owner in the county pays the same rate. Funding method represents fire departments dependence on mutual aid from other fire departments in the county. Removes the tax valuation in a district as the limiting factor when determining the best response plans so operations drive decisions. Reserve fund specifically for fire services would be required, so that anything collected above approved budgets would be used for fire specifically and no other purpose. The single service district more easily allows for equitable and standardized coverage and allows the county to address deficiencies or gaps in coverage areas. Method recognizes that a citizen may require service outside of the district in which they live. Simplify process for tax office and reduce workload. Continue to contract with local fire departments for fire and rescue services. City residents do not pay both city and county for fire services

Cons: Perception of taking from rich to give to poor districts (two tax districts would have an increase in rate and six rates would decrease). Changes create anxiety and opposition. Perception that change in funding method represents attempt to change current contractual agreements with volunteer fire departments serving their respective communities. It does not change the authority commissioners currently have to approve fire department budget requests. Perceived loss of local volunteer fire department serving its community/district status (although method of collecting funding does not impact that). Perception that this is a new tax when it is not.

Fire Tax Bill For $250,000 home: $180.75 annually. The 2018 fiscal year tax would be 7.23 cents for all residents, excluding the city of Brevard.Tyler Chase, who grew up in Brevard, has a history of being a bully.

He's allied not just with a hostile group of adversaries during a zombie apocalypse, but also worked as a jihadist recruiter for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But this doesn't make Chase a disreputable outcast of Brevard, because these are just roles he's played in season three of "The Walking Dead" and the History Channel's Navy Seal drama, "Six," respectively.

In his most recent role, Chase dons the bully hat again in the feature film "Love, Simon," which hits theatres this Friday.

"It's weird to play one of the bully...As noted in Mondays paper, citizens of North Carolina and the United States have access to a multitude of government documents, from emails to maps to photographs to minutes of meetings. That, however, does not mean that all documents that should be available to the public are made available. Over the years, government employees and elected officials have used a variety of techniques to stop the public from viewing government documents or attending meetings that should be open to the public.

One of the more popular ways for government bodies to circumvent the Open Meetings Law in North...editorial@tribune.com

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

Steel-consuming industry in the region has heaved a sigh of relief as steel prices have softened by 5% after the US proposed 25% import duty on steel and 10% on aluminium. The industry expects the prices will further decline by 5% in the coming days.

According to the industry, though the exposure of Indian producers to the US is very less, the impact could be much higher due to lower international prices because of excess supply from exporting countries.

With export markets becoming more competitive, domestic steel companies would be forced to focus on domestic market.

According to exporters, the price of steel ingot (raw material) had increased from Rs 28,000 per tonne in November 2017 to about Rs 37,000 per tonne. However, it has come down from Rs 37,000 to Rs 35,100 in the past 10 days.

This has come as a respite for the exporters and manufacturing community. But, only the prices of steel ingot have softened and not that of steel round or HR coils. Although its too early to comment, we foresee further reduction in prices in near future, said SC Ralhan, a hand tool exporter from Ludhiana.

Though the cut in prices is not as anticipated by the exporters, however, many of them feel it will go a long way in promoting exports from the country. Although the US accounts for only 2% of total exports from India, industry sources said supplies bound for the US from other countries may be dumped into expanding markets such as India, especially from Korea, Russia and Japan.

We were facing uncertainty in steel prices since July 2017. The price rise was unnatural and unjustified. However, the US decision to put import duty has come as a boon for the exporters, said Sharad Aggarwal, president, Northern Chamber of Medium and Small Industries.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

The city has witnessed a total of 905 snatching incidents in the past five years with 2017 accounting for the maximum number of snatchings. The situation is alarming for the UT police considering the pace at which the miscreants are striking this year with 64 snatchings already having been reported.

While 195 snatching incidents were reported in 2013, the number of snatching incidents witnessed a fall with 146 incidents reported in 2014.

Since 2014, the number of snatching incidents has only gone up with 159 snatching incidents reported in 2015, 167 snatchings in 2016 and 238 snatchings in 2017.

Of the total 238 snatchings last year, 147 were reported from southern sectors, especially Sector 32 to 47.

Even in 2016, a majority of the snatching incidents were reported from southern sectors. Of the total 167 incidents, 103 were reported from these sectors.

While the police manage to solve several cases in which mobile phones are snatched, most gold chain snatching cases remain unsolved.

This year, 64 snatching incidents have already been reported from the city that has exposed tall claims made by the UT police regarding stepped-up patrolling.

The crime branch, in March 2017, had arrested three snatchers, members of the Bawariya gang, who, the police claimed, were involved in 40 gold chain snatching cases. The police had recovered 21 gold chains from them. Since then, the police have failed to make such a big recovery.

Many residents have also installed CCTV cameras outside their houses, but that has failed to deter the miscreants. The police scrutinise the CCTV footage in snatching cases to get clues.

The rising incidents have instilled fear among residents, especially women.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

The School of Public Health in PGIMER is going to host the five-day International Public Health Management Development Programme (IPHMDP).

The programme will impart key skills required to effectively manage the existing and emerging public health challenges and in-turn enhance the capacity of the public health managerial workforce. It will be held from March 20 to 24. Nearly 35 participants from around 20 countries are going to participate in the event.

The programme, a first-of-its-kind in the country, will be conducted on a no-profit-no-loss basis in a government set-up, said Dr Sonu Goyal from the Department of Public Health.

He said the PGI would be the first health institution in the country to host senior officials from various countries.Harish Khare

Harish Khare

Last Monday produced a revealing moment for the Indian polity. That day, a very peeved Naresh Agarwal snapped his ties with the Samajwadis because the party was unable, or unwilling, to accommodate him for another term in the Rajya Sabha. That he chose to walk out of the Samajwadi Party was no surprise; what was a surprise was that he was promptly admitted into the Bharatiya Janata Party  no questions asked. A Union Cabinet minister  a fellow caste brother  was trotted out to welcome Naresh Agarwal for the benefit of the cameras. A grand catch, indeed. One more testimonial to the ruling partys invincibility.

That was a significant moment, revealing how far the process of Congressisation of the BJP had progressed. Honble Naresh Agarwal is an original Congressman, from Uttar Pradesh. The UP Congress-wallahs have always thought of themselves as belonging to a superior breed; for nearly seven decades, they smarted under a special sense of entitlement  and, a convenient conscience. When they sensed, in the mid-1990s, that the Congress fortunes were on the decline, they promptly hitched themselves to the two emerging power empires, the Samajwadi or the Bahujan Samaj Party. Honble Naresh Agarwal personifies in every odd way the old politics of Old India.

Now this very man is readily welcomed by the managers and purveyors of a New India. It is not that they are not unfamiliar with Naresh Agarwal and his record of political infidelity. He is an old-fashioned politician, adept at the Congress variety of transactional politics  value-less, ideology-less, idealism-less. That kind of politics is supposed to have failed and been rejected by the masses in 2014. Naresh Agarwal is not a solitary swallow heralding a summer. A few days ago, we had a Kirodi Mal Meena crossing over from the Congress to the BJP in Rajasthan; then we had the Bahuguna siblings, once shrilly denounced as corrupt and inefficient, proudly admitted. And earlier, there was that grand catch  the very cocky Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The Naresh Agarwal episode offers a glimpse of the new mindset of the new Chanakyas. And, this new mindset is turning out to be the old Congress mindset, which thought of a ruling party as a dharamshala, where everyone could be accommodated as long as a few basic rules, procedures and protocols were observed. This is a familiar phenomenon  and, perhaps, an unavoidable dilemma.

In 1969-70, the Indian politics, it be recalled, was in convulsions as Indira Gandhi thought the Indian National Congress, the party of the national struggle, had to be redesigned as an instrument of transformation of the post-Colonial India. Indira Gandhi stood for a radical rearrangement of the economic and social forces; and, the progressives and the communists were more than happy to help her gain the upper hand in her struggle with the forces of conservatives and status-quoists within the Congress. A split in the Congress was organised.

And, once the tide turned in Indira Gandhis favour, all the old, discredited, status-quoists quietly made a beeline to her corner, and were promptly readmitted. Indira Gandhi went on to win a famous electoral victory in the March 1971 Lok Sabha elections. That electoral victory consecrated her leadership and sowed the seeds of a personality cult; but, the opportunists and the time-servers saw to it that the transformative potential of the Congress got killed and, killed comprehensively.

Something similar happened, again, in 1979-80 when those very individuals who had revolted against her and Sanjay Gandhi after the 1977 defeat, silently crawled their way back into the Congress. Despite all the trauma and ignominy of the Emergency, the opportunists and the realists ended up, once again, to reinforce Indira Gandhis authoritarian political persona.

The dharmshala metaphor is not misplaced. Any party that hopes to govern this vast and complex land like ours has to position itself in the centre and has to necessarily learn the ways of non-ideological governance, accumulate power by any or all means.

The BJP has been experimenting with that format during the Vajpayee era. The entire NDA experiment was premised  just as was the UPA  on accommodation and opportunism. This can be honourable politics of accommodation  a certain decent way of sharing power, accommodating ambitions and aspirations, pooling of strength in a larger, noble enterprise.

But this also corrodes. It took the Congress five decades to become hollow; the BJP has placed itself on a fast track. A Nitish Kumar is allowed to come aboard if he offers the BJP a slice of power in Patna. A Ram Vilas Paswan, the very man who had walked out of Vajpayees Cabinet because of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, is accommodated with his entire pocket party. The RSS, which likes to think of itself as the BJPs conscience-keeper, itself stands ensnared in the temptations of power. The whole, much-touted outreach in the North-East is nothing but a cobbling together of all the tainted, corrupt and criminal elements.

What begins as an ethical experiment inevitably degenerates into a pursuit of power at all cost. In the current run-up to the Rajya Sabha polls, the MLAs are being wooed, coerced, intimidated and bought. They are presumably being compensated in the new currency of the New India.

Each centrist grouping is entitled to pretend that its ways of governing make a cleaner arrangement than those of the other. Each manufactures an appropriate narrative. The BJP has gathered in its stable very many apologists and advocates who serenade every opportunistic, cynical compromise as proof of awe-inspiring invincibility of the wise and clever Chanakyas.

This power-at-all-cost brings with it a personality cult. An extraordinary potency is posited to the curative power of the Leader. Sinners are offered redemption, as long as they are willing to profess their faith and offer obedience to the Leader.

The conceit is that though the riff-raff may be without morality or manners, they do enable the Leader to do his leadership tricks  ushering in revolution, cleansing politics of its corruption, restoring national glory, initiating a moral regeneration.

Yet the Naresh Agarwal virus is not without its positive side effects. First, the new recruits will slow down the Hindutva revolution from within the saffron ranks. The Naresh Agarwals, the Bahugunas, the Himanta Sarmas are not cut out to be mosque-breakers. Second, every Naresh Agarwal will take the moral shine off the leader; and, that in turn, will induce and embolden the institutions of restraint and accountability  the judiciary, the election commission, the media, etc  to see through the naked power game. A naked pursuit of power robs every helmsman of an essential patina of nobility and eats into his legitimacy.vinaymishra188@gmail.com

New Delhi, March 14

An UPSC aspirant, who is an MTech, was arrested for kidnapping a five-year-old boy, said a police official.

A resident of Subhash Mohalla filed a complaint that his son has been kidnapped by some unknown persons.

Yesterday, the complainant received a ransom call for Rs 20 lakh. Thereafter, technical analysis of the mobile number was done by the police.

On the basis of the location of the phone, the accused, Asif Saifi (27), a resident of Mohalla Brahampuri, was arrested from Dadri and kidnapped child was rescued within nine hours. The child handed over to his parents, said the official.  TNSmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Toronto, March 15

Canada's top Sikh real estate tycoon Bob Dhillon donated $10 million to the University of Lethbridge in Alberta on Wednesday.

The university has renamed its business school after him. It will henceforth be called the Dhillon School of Business.

Calgary-based Bob (Navneet) Dhillon is the president and CEO of the real estate giant Mainstreet Equity Corporation, which he started from the back of his car in the 1980s.

With its assets over $1.5 billion, the company owns over 10,000 apartment units across Canada.

The university said the Dhillon School of Business will drive futuristic learning and focus on new technologies such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies and new growth industries, including artificial intelligence and robotics.

"I'm a first-generation immigrant and I'm very fortunate that I'm in a position to make this contribution. This is my way of giving back to Canada," said Dhillon whose family hails from Tallewal village near Barnala in Punjab.

Dhillon, who is an alumnus of Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, said: "I am an immigrant and a businessman and I'm extremely thankful for the opportunities I've had growing up here in Canada.

"I was very fortunate that the importance of education was drilled into me by my family, my parents, my brother, really everybody around me growing up." The Sikh real estate tycoon, who also holds an MBA from the famous Ivey School of Business at Western University, added: "Education is what drives successful global nations and Canada is unique in that there is so much opportunity here.

"The UofL is a world-class university that the world needs to discover." University President and Vice Chancellor Mike Mahon said the donation from Dhillon will be transformational for his institution.

"Our university was founded by forward-thinking mavericks...Here we are 50-plus years later and we're still looking ahead, pushing boundaries and creating an educational experience like no other.

"This gift, this commitment from Dhillon, will help drive us forward." IANSeditorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

Following allegations of financial irregularities in the Board of School Education, Haryana (HBSE), Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the government was ready to order a probe by the State Vigilance Bureau if any documentary evidence was provided to the government.

Sharma made this announcement on the issue raised in the Assembly by INLD MLA Parminder Singh Dhull which was supported by Congress MLAs Kiran Choudhry and some other members.

Dhull alleged that the board got CCTV cameras installed in 543 examination centres across the state for rent of Rs 6,000 apiece for holding the Haryana Teachers Eligibility Test (HTET) and paid about Rs 7 crore as rent while such cameras were available in the market for a price of Rs 800 apiece.

The INLD MLA also alleged that honorarium for evaluation of the answersheets was increased to Rs 12 per answersheet putting a huge burden on the exchequer. He further alleged that board chairman Jagbir Singh lives in Hisar and has hence set up a camp office there.

He moved an application for the rent of the office in May 2017, but claimed it from April 2016, Dhull alleged.

Congress Legislative Party leader Kiran Choudhry, Gita Bhukkal and some other members of the Opposition also supported Dhulls allegations and alleged corruption in the board.

Dhull said that since the board was an autonomous body and there was no audit of its account, the corruption was going unchecked.

In reply, Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said that during Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime, nine districts of the state were blacklisted and no centre of the HTET was allowed to be made there.

Candidates, including women, had to go far off districts to appear in tests and once, eight candidates had died in a road accident while travelling, the minister said.

Sharma said as far as financial irregularities alleged by the Opposition members were concerned, the government has no problem in ordering a probe if documents are provided as evidence.

Meanwhile, HBSE chairman Jagbir Singh said the CCTV cameras were ordered for nearly Rs 4 crore, the rates of evaluation of answersheets were increased by the Board of Directors and rent for the camp office was part of his terms of appointment.editorial@tribune.com

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 15

A Central Reserve Police Force man was injured in an ongoing gunfight between militants and security forces on the outskirts of the city.

The gunfight broke out at Khonmoh, some 20 km from the city, after militants fired upon security guards of BJP leader Anwar Khan when he was visiting the Arsh institute in the area.

The PSOs (personal security officers) of the protected person repulsed the attack while exhibiting extreme caution to avoid any collateral damage, resulting in the militants fleeing the spot, a police spokesman said. In the said incident, one PSO, Bilal Ahmad, sustained minor injuries.

Police sources said the firing at the security guards was aimed at snatching the weapons, which was foiled. The militants were later on chased and the area was cordoned off by personnel of the 50 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion, police and the CRPF. The militant believed to be two or three in number are holed up inside two houses, officials said.

As a search around the suspected house was launched, militants opened fire, triggering a gunfight, which is underway. In the gunfight so far, one CRPF man has been injured, a senior security officer said.

Clashes erupted near the gunfight site as protesters tried to disrupt the anti-militancy operation. Clashes also erupted in Pulwama.editorial@tribune.com

Jammu, March 15

Mohan Bhagwat, RSS chief, said today that Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan were an integral part of India. He stated this while inaugurating the Jammu Kashmir Ladakh Maha Utsav organised by Jammu Kashmir Study Centre (JKSC) in Nagpur.

Nirbhay Sharma, Mizoram Governor, was the chief guest on the occasion.

Jammu and Kashmir is not a problem. The actual problem lies within us because we have accepted the definitions given by outsiders who have worked on the agenda of weakening India by creating divisions and differences, he said in his inaugural address.

The issue of Jammu and Kashmir affects the entire India. We dont need to keep announcing that we are one; it is an indisputable fact. We need to remember that this is the land of Acharya Abhinavagupta, who was one of the greatest proponents of Shaiv philosophy. Some people use terminologies like Kashmir Shaivism, but Shiv bhakti is one. There cannot be any difference, he said.

Truth needs no proof. But sometimes it is essential to support it with strength, so that negative powers dont overshadow it, he said while referring to the role of the security forces in fighting terrorism in J&K.

We are one, and will always remain so. Entire India is our own and we all belong to India. It is essential that we carefully nurture and safeguard this sense of belonging, he said in the context of entire Jammu Kashmir, including those areas that are under occupation.

Mizoram Governor Nirbhay Sharma, a former Army officer who was posted in Jammu and Kashmir for almost two decades, also shared his experiences on the issue. He expressed regret that young minds were being strategically brainwashed in Kashmir. He said J&K was not merely a piece of land. It is an integral part of the Indian ethos, our faith and beliefs, he said while talking about Kashmir references in the Mahabharata, the Nilamata Purana, Rajatarangini etc.  TNSeditorial@tribune.com

Srinagar, March 15

A team of the Malaysian High Commission has assured to promote Kashmir tourism after their visit to the Valley.

After their trip to Kashmir, which concluded yesterday, officials of the Malaysian High Commission vowed to encourage their citizens to visit the Valley. The visiting delegates said they would post their travel pictures from Kashmir on their official website and promote Kashmir, said Mahmood Ahmad Shah, Director, Tourism, Kashmir. The Malaysian team comprised counsellor Mohd Hafiz Bin Othman and counsellor Zamil, advisor Ahmad Sham Baharin and immigration attache Siti Zulaikha Binti Abdul Wahab. An official statement said the Malaysian diplomats had expressed their willingness to visit Kashmir at an ambassadors meet organised by the Tourism Department, Kashmir, in collaboration with the Travel Agents Association of Kashmir at New Delhi on February 1.

On their visit, the diplomats said they saw a completely different picture here against what is being portrayed by some sections of media, the statement added.  TNSshalender@tribune.com

Nonika Singh

For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.  Bo Bennett

Only truth is stranger than fictionon the surface the tale of an income tax officer might not seem like ideal fodder for the world of fantasy that cinema comprises. But when acclaimed director Raj Kumar Gupta (of No One Killed Jessica-fame) heard about the bravado of an income tax sleuth, he was awestruck by the un-believability of the real-life person, Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, and the daring raid that he conducted way back in 1981 in Lucknow.

As Ajay Devgn-starrer Raid is all set for release today, the captain of the ship, Gupta, shares how he finds the marriage between facts and fiction a highly intoxicating combination. Indeed, compared to Jessicas story, Raid is about both an unlikely and an unsung hero. But for the director perennially fascinated by tales of heroism, this was a story waiting to be told. You and me may believe that income tax officers are hardly worth idolizing, but Gupta dubs them as financial police who fight corruption in their own way and many of whom like his protagonist are incorruptible.

Real touch

When you set out to make a film steeped in facts you remain true to the soul and spirit of the actual story and cant step out of the paradigm of reality. Yet you do need to dramatise the story. Even when he was researching and met officials of income tax department, they understood that a film just cant be a bland narration of actual events.

Gupta is best known for his realistic, slice of life, touch, yet Raid has its fair share of songs too. Music, already touching the right notes, is by his favourite (and ours too) music director Amit Trivedi. Then two of Rahat Fateh Ali Khans songs have been composed by Tanishk Bagchi. But, mind you, Gupta insists, None of these will stand out like a sore thumb but gel with the narrative. Songs were required to explore the husband-wife relationship. Though, the lovely Ileana DCruz gets to play Devgns wife in the film, he didnt cast her just because she is a pretty face who will up the glam quotient of the film. He quips, I never include a character if its not required in the script.

As a rule, he writes his own films but this time over he has talented writer Ritesh Shah on board, for their creative process is on the same wavelength.

Write note

When Gupta writes, its the directors vision, keenly aware of how cinema is a visual medium, which guides the writing. Indeed, telling the story of a department not seen in the haloed light of positivity was quite a challenge. He is not only happy with his writer Shah, but also with his lead actor, Ajay Devgn, who he praises most effusively. A directors actor all the way, Devgn understands both the craft of acting and direction.

But those who deem that creative people are only as good or bad as their last film, he disagrees completely. Indeed, Guptas last outing, Ghanchakkar, may not have created magic at the BO and opened to mixed reviews, but he insists, One film alone is not a directors litmus test. And in case your memory is not serving you right, remember he is a director who set the ball rolling for small budget films with Aamir, brought in courtroom drama with No One Killed Jessica and made a film riding on female characters work.

Big challenge

Things he deems are no more conducive for directors today for, making a film that you set out to make is always a challenge, be it yesterday, today or tomorrow. Raid is certainly the content-driven film laced with intrigue and reality he so wanted to direct. Will it strike the same chord as its powerful trailer has? If truth be told, the proof of cinema lies in its viewing. Be ready to raid his celluloid reality today.

nonikasingh@tribunemail.comeditorial@tribune.com

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

The CBI has registered a fresh case of alleged fraudulent issuance of Rs 9 crore of letters of understanding (LoUs) to Chandri Paper and Allied Products Private Ltd by Punjab National Banks (PNB) Brady House branch, which is at the centre of a storm over a similar fraud by billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

The case was registered against Gokulnath Shetty, retired Deputy Manager in PNB, Mumbai, and single-window operator at the branch, Manoj Hanumant Kharat, who are already facing a CBI probe in the Modi-Choksi case, directors of the company  Aditya Rasiwasi and Ishwardas Agarwal  and the private firm, Chandri Paper and Allied Products Private Ltd on March 9, the FIR said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The CBI registered the case under sections 120-B, 409, 420 IPC and sections 13 (2) and 13 (1) D of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR was registered after a complaint was submitted to the CBI by DGM of PNB, Zonal office Mumbai, Avneesh Nepalia.

The CBI has alleged that Shetty retired on May 31, 2017, and Kharat entered into criminal conspiracy with directors of the company. The agency has alleged that as part of the conspiracy to defraud the public sector bank, the accused got issued two LoUs for about Rs 9.09 crore favouring SBI Antwerp, Belgium, the FIR said.

The due date of payment for the LoUs was January 20, 2020. The LoU is a provision of bank guarantee, under which a bank allows its customer to raise money from another Indian banks foreign branch in the form of a short term credit.

It is alleged that for the issuance of the two LoUs neither there was any available credit limit to the company nor any 110 per cent margin was retained by the bank, the FIR said.

Two Arrested for Canara Bank scam

Personnel of the Banking Security and Fraud Cell of the CBI on Thursday arrested two city-based businessmen on charges related to bank fraud running into over Rs 500 crore. Two directors of RP Infosystems Shibaji Panja and Kaustuv Ray were arrested here in connection with a complaint lodged by Canara Bank.

The bank had on February 27 lodged a complaint with the CBI alleging that the company directors  Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna  and its VP (Finance) Debnath Pal cheated the Banglaore-headquartered lender and nine consortium member banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore. As per the complaint, the company availed bank finance by submitting fabricated papers.  TNS

Rotomac: Kothari, son refused bailrchopra@tribunemail.com

London, March 15

The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Britain next month marks a great time for India to lead the way on intra-Commonwealth cooperation, the chief of the 53-nation grouping has said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join heads of state from the member-countries at the summit in London and Windsor in April, during which they will get a chance to have very personal and direct interactions, Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland said at a pre-summit briefing here on Wednesday.

It is a great time for India and it is exciting to see the energised way in which new opportunities are being taken up, she said.

India has done a lot on innovation and in every ministerial Commonwealth meeting we see strong commitment from India. In welcoming that strong commitment from India, I am so happy to see it matched by the other 52 countries and the south-south cooperation taking place, she said.

Scotland highlighted Indias active role and great generosity during the recent Commonwealth education ministers meeting in Fiji, where it shared with other member-states its Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) platform for education, innovation and change.

During the law ministers meeting in the Bahamas last year, India shared the sort of instruments being created to get cheaper, better and faster processes.

Looking at the opportunity, we have launched a small and medium enterprise network in India and we are hoping to have a branch of that in the Pacific, said Scotland, who hailed India as the biggest democracy with 1.1 billion of the 2.4 billion people within the organisations membership landscape.

The Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on April 19 and 20 will be preceded by the Commonwealth Business Forum between April 16-18, which will bring together hundreds of business people and stakeholders from across the 53 Commonwealth countries.

Participation from Indian businesses to the Commonwealth Business Forum is just staggering in terms of the calibre, range, innovation and dynamism, said Richard Burge, CEO of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), who will be leading the trade and business strand of the agenda.

India is a huge nation; it is bound to have a huge impact with its incredibly diverse economy. It is a really knock-your-socks-off economy and we should be really proud of it as a member and take every advantage that we can, he said.

The theme of CHOGM, being chaired by Britain this year, is Towards a Common Future and is focused on building on the strengths of the Commonwealth.

The last trade review of the organisation in 2016 had flagged a Commonwealth advantage, which indicated that bilateral costs for trading partners in Commonwealth countries were on average 19 per cent less than between those in non-Commonwealth countries.

The 2018 summit will mark the launch of a new trade review, which will show that the Commonwealth is likely to miss its target of USD 1 trillion of trade between its members by 2020.

The growth is slightly slower than we thought it was going to be because the global market has slowed down. We hoped it would be about a trillion by 2020--the estimate now is its probably going to be about 700 billion, said Scotland.

However, she said the range of disruptive technologies that were being thrown up held great promise for the revitalised relationship right across the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is a diverse community of 53 nations that work together to promote prosperity, democracy and peace. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Jitendra K Shrivastava

Tribune news service

Ranchi, March 15

A special CBI court in Ranchi on Thursday deferred its judgment in the fourth fodder scam case involving former Bihar Chief Ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra and 29 others.

The court of Shiv Pal Singh deferred its judgment after Lalus counsel filed a petition seeking three officials of the Accountant General Office during 1990s to be made party in the case.

The court will decide on the new date for pronouncing judgment after hearing Lalu Prasads plea on Friday.

The hearing in the fodder case  relating to fraudulent withdrawals of Rs 3.13 crore from December 1995 to January 1996 from the Dumka treasury  was completed on March 5 and the verdict was fixed for March 15. The court is said to have directed the CBI to seek prosecution against then Deputy Commissioner Anjani Kumar Singh in Dumka district (now in Jharkhand). Singh is the Chief Secretary of Bihar at present.

The RJD chief has already been convicted in three out of six other cases of multi-crore fodder scam. He has been lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi since December 23, 2017, as he was convicted in the second case by special CBI judge Shiv Pal Singh, who sentenced him for three and a half years.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Washington, March 15

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale held meetings with top State Department officials and discussed various bilateral issues, including shared interest in the Indo-Pacific region and America's support for New Delhi's emergence as a leading power.

Gokhale, on his maiden visit to the US as India's top diplomat, met the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department yesterday.

"They discussed US-India strategic cooperation, shared interests in the Indo-Pacific region, and US support for India's emergence as a leading power and security provider," a State Department Spokesperson told PTI.

Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna and Alice Wells, who is currently State Department's point person for South and Central Asia, were also present during the meeting.

No other details of the meeting were immediately available.

Gokhale's meetings in the tour were scheduled well in advance and was mainly meant to prepare for the first ever two-plus-two dialogue between the two countries.

Officials from the either side have not yet announced any dates of such a dialogue, but it was previously scheduled for some time in mid-April.

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 fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him. Pompeo needs to be confirmed by the Senate before he can occupy the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Islamabad, March 15

Pakistan on Thursday said it had decided to call back its High Commissioner in India, Sohail Mahmood, for consultations after repeated incidents of harassment of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said India had failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation.

Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad for consultations, he said.

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday claimed that the staff and their families had been facing harassment, intimidation and outright violence from Indian state agencies in recent weeks. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Gurugram, March 15

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said that radicalisation of the populace, particularly youth, is one of the most challenging problems the world is facing currently.

Addressing the fourth counter-terrorism conferenceChanging Contours of Global Terror--here on Wednesday, Singh, without taking Pakistans name, said some countries are providing sponsorship and safe havens to terrorists and this had further played a major role in the phenomenal growth of terrorism globally.

Radicalisation of populace, particularly youth, is another trend and one of the most challenging problems being faced the world over.

Several countries in the world have identified the problem and have taken measures to check and control the process of radicalisation and I am happy to state that India has timely busted some modules that were planning to orchestrate terrorist attacks on her soil, he said.

The home minister said providing sponsorship and safe havens had further played a major role in the phenomenal growth of global terrorism.

In addition, state support had granted terrorist groups access to resources, guidance and logistics, which would normally be beyond their capabilities, Singh said.

Any effort to counter the activities of terrorist groups carries the danger of placing the victim nation in direct confrontation with the host nation and its resources, he said.

Singh said in the recent years, perception of global terrorism had undergone a massive makeover with the rise of armed terror groups, especially in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

This phenomenon could be attributed to the diminishing control in the terror space of the Al-Qaeda leadership, which just a decade ago was the face of terrorism. The shift of AQ Network from the Middle East to South Asia is a phenomenon, which is of serious concern to India, he said.

The home minister said a new dimension of terrorism is the networking of terrorist groups with the criminal underworld, including organised crime gangs, gunrunners, smugglers, drug peddlers, with hawala and parallel banking channels being used for global flows of finance.

It has enabled global terrorist groups to use the infrastructure and terrain knowledge of local outfits for launching attacks in countries, despite having no presence in the area, he said.

The home minister said the government had kept a keen watch on the growth of ISIS and their ways of using social media as a key tool for ideological indoctrination, recruitment and networking by targeting young generation and intellectual Muslims.

The potential threat posed by the ISIS is large-scale radicalisation of Muslim youth throughout the world, rise in lone-wolf and terror attacks by returnee foreign fighters to their home countries. The terror attacks in Australia and France are telling examples of such threat, he said.

Singh said ISIS propaganda had significantly altered jihadi discourse in India, which, so far, was rooted in grievances against the Indian state and society.

I am, however, happy that Indian social fabric has not been affected by the emergence of the Islamic State and I am sure this will not have any further impact in our country, he said.

The home minister said India had consistently taken steps to intensify and strengthen international cooperation through various means.

Terrorism, in all forms, including Left Wing Extremism and Insurgency, poses a challenge on the sovereignty of India and the country already faces a serious challenge due to relentless efforts of Pakistan-sponsored anti-India Islamist groups like the LeT, JeM, HUJI and Hizbul Mujahideen, he said.

Singh said emergence of India at the global level is also being challenged by the terrorist groups, due to its vibrant economy and plural character. PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Ravi S.Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

Rajya Sabha was on Thursday rocked by protests by Opposition members forcing in all three adjournment, including for the day.

The final adjournment, which was during the post-lunch session, came when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was about to move the Finance Bill-2018 and two Appropriation Bills in the House for consideration and passage.

He, however, moved a statutory resolution, which was passed amid din.

As soon as the House reassembled after one-hour adjournment post-lunch, the TDP and Tamil parties entered the Well in protest on issues, respectively, special status to Andhra Pradesh and constitution of Cauvery Water Management Board.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien's appeal to members to allow consideration of the Finance Bill as not passing and returning it to Lok Sabha would make Rajya Sabha irrelevant was not heeded to. He said:"I will dispose it in five minutes."

Leader of the Opposition and Congress member Ghulam Nabi Azad objected amidst the cacaphony of voices, saying: "This cannot be finished in five minutes. There has to be a full-fledged discussion."

With the House in disorder, what with some opposition members in Well and some on their feet about their seats, Kurien said he will be forced to adjourn the House, and the responsibility of not passing the bill will be entirely theirs. His cautionary note was ignored, too.

The preceding adjournment happened about two minutes into post-lunch Session.The House could not take up the listed business of a short duration discussion on the banking scam.

The adjournment in the morning Session happened immediately after the customary laying of papers on the Table of the House due to protest by Congress members when TDP member YS Chowdary was making a statement on circumstances relating to his resignation from the Union Council of Ministers.

He said the then UPA government did not give Andhra Pradesh a proper treatment during bifurcation of the state.This evinced protests from Congress benches, even while the Tamil parties demanded constitution of the board to manage Cauvery waters. This forced the first adjournment by Chairman Venkaiah Naidu,which cut short Chowdary's statement.editorial@tribune.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

Sounding a note of caution against media trial, the Supreme Court today asked journalists to act in a responsible manner and not to vilify anyone without any basis. They (journalists) are sitting on some kind of pulpit... that is not real journalism Journalists behave as if they have turned Popes or guardians overnight, said a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

The CJI, who has stood against gagging of the media in the recent past, said, I have said several times, we will never gag the Press... but you cannot write anything or whatever strikes your imagination... I am sorry to say you cannot write like that. That is irresponsible reporting, the CJI said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, stayed till April 12 the proceedings before an Ahmedabad court against a news portal and its journalists in a defamation case filed by BJP president Amit Shahs son Jay Shah.

Earlier, the Gujarat High Court had dismissed a plea by The Wire for quashing the criminal defamation case filed against it by Jay Shah for an article published about his company.

The comments came in response to submissions by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who said defamation proceedings and gag orders could not be used to throttle journalism. How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone? There are limits... Their writings sometimes amount to sheer contempt of court, the Bench said. It, however, said it did not want to name any particular electronic media organisation.

The CJI clarified that his comments were not connected to the case being heard.

Jay Shah had filed a criminal defamation case against The Wire journalists following an article alleging that the turnover of his company had grown manifold since the BJP-led government had assumed power at the Centre.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

The Lok Sabha proceedings remained disrupted for the ninth working day in a row with the government managing to get two more legislations passed in the din.

There was high drama in the House with the Speaker adjourning it as soon as the Lok Sabha assembled for the day. The TDP and AIADMK members were in the Well of the House with placards raising slogans and demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh and a tribunal to hear the Cauvery Water dispute, respectively.

When the House reassembled at noon, the Speaker allowed the government to bring two legislations after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar pressed upon their importance.

An angry Opposition, including Congress MPs, who were in the well, escalated their protests at this time with some tearing papers and throwing these all around to deflect attention from the Bills being passed without debate and discussion.

That did not stop the government from moving and passing the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, which notifies the period of maternity leave as part of continuous service and seeks to empower the Centre to notify gratuity ceilings periodically without having to amend the law.

The second legislation passed in the din was the Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of breach of business contract and also to reduce the discretionary powers of the courts in these issues.

Earlier, Ananth Kumar kept asking the Opposition to run the House smoothly, calling the Lok Sabha a maha panchayat.shalender@tribune.com

Toronto, March 15

Canadas top Sikh real estate tycoon Bob Dhillon donated $10 million to the University of Lethbridge in Alberta on Wednesday. The university has renamed its business school after him. It will henceforth be called the Dhillon School of Business.

Calgary-based Bob (Navneet) Dhillon is the president and CEO of the real estate giant Mainstreet Equity Corporation, which he started from the back of his car in the 1980s.

With its assets over $1.5 billion, the company owns over 10,000 apartment units across Canada.

The university said the Dhillon School of Business will drive futuristic learning and focus on new technologies such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies and new growth industries, including artificial intelligence and robotics.

Im a first-generation immigrant and Im very fortunate that Im in a position to make this contribution. This is my way of giving back to Canada, said Dhillon, whose family hails from Tallewal village near Barnala in Punjab. Dhillon, who is an alumnus of Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, said: I am an immigrant and a businessman and Im extremely thankful for the opportunities Ive had growing up here in Canada.

University Vice Chancellor Mike Mahon said the donation will be transformational for his institution.  IANSshalender@tribune.com

Sandeep Sinha

Sir Humphrey Appleby must be turning in his grave. The mighty steel frame has been dented by the in-your-face remark of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal at the World Punjabi Conference in Chandigarh that most IAS officers in Punjab are not proficient in English. Manpreet, who obviously has not seen the movie English Vinglish starring Sridevi, remarked, When I read letters and memorandum written by them to the Centre, I hang my head in shame. How have they passed the IAS examination.

While Manpreet found fault with the IAS officers for not being proficient in English, he did not accuse them of not knowing the Punjabi language. This can be of some solace, for IAS and IPS officers are required to be proficient in the language of the state cadre to which he or she is allotted as they have to deal with the local politicians and the masses.

Working for this newspaper in Bathinda, I have seen the Deputy Commissioners, hailing from a different state, speak at public functions in fluent Punjabi. CM sahib chaunde ne, is a common utterance. So, more than criticizing for the poor English, Manpreet was supporting the cause of Punjabi language, whose decline made Surjit Pattar remark, Mar rahi hai meri bhasha, shabd shabd, vak, vak.

There are officers like Pawan Verma and Navtej Sarna, though from the IFS, who have penned books. In fact IPS officer Manmohans debut Punjabi novel Nirvaan won the Sahitya Akademi award. There is Shashi Tharoor, an acclaimed writer, whose accent has given rise to WhatsApp jokes.

The official use of English language for the Babus is limited mostly to writing official and demi official letters, besides noting and drafting. It remains an art in which the Bada Babu is more adept at.

The social composition of the bureaucracy has also changed over the years. It is more heterogeneous. Many of the candidates qualify with language paper as optional or by writing their exam in medium other than English. So, English proficiency gets discounted.

When the British decided to introduce Western education in India, there was a debate. The Orientalists said Indians should be given education in their own language for it was not possible for the British to take responsibility for mass education in India. The Anglicists were of the view that English would give Indians exposure to Western values and create a class of Indians, who could be employed by the British.

Governance needs have put the focus on the local language. What will a DC get to understand by merely speaking in English while touring villages in a block or at a janta darbar?

Manpreets disappointment can be understood. He has studied at the Doon school, St. Stephens College in Delhi and has a law degree from the University of London. It is a pedigree not even many IAS officers can boast of. So, the expectation will be there. But then, should good English be expected only of an IAS officer? What about the ministers and MLAS? Language tends to be different from literature in governance.

In Bathinda, I had the privilege of being privy to the English speaking skills of the Badals, albeit in small measure. When my mother passed away, I received a condolence call from Manpreet Badal, and his English was impeccable. His feisty cousin Sukhbir Badal speaks English equally well, prefixing his sentence with Brother. Veteran Parkash Singh Badal was eloquent in English when he addressed the gathering at the function held to launch the local edition of this newspaper. But it was Simranjit Singh Mann who floored me with his English speaking skills.

Manpreet can seek solace from the Pedro Carolino book English As She Is Spoke, which depicts the humour in dictionary-aided translations into English. When English fails to get him Central funds, he can always switch to Punjabi and tell the Niti Aayog, Sadda haq, etthe rakh.

(The writer is News Editor, The Tribune)editorial@tribune.com

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 15

In a first, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is going to introduce eco-friendly compostable carry bags at the Golden Temple to give a fillip to the state governments campaign to discourage the use of polythene bags.

After holding a discussion with Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) chairperson Kahn Singh Pannu on World Sikh Environment Day on March 14, SGPC chief secretary Roop Singh announced that from April 1, only the bags made from starch granules derived from maize and potato would be used for carrying the karah parshad or pinni parshad at the Golden Temple.

Though the karah parshad is often given in dunas (small bowls or plates made of dry leaves), the takeaway parshad is carried only in polythene bags. The pinni parshad is also offered in polythene bags only.

The SGPC, in collaboration with the Punjab Pollution Control Board, has decided to rope in four firms for supplying the eco-friendly carry bags conforming to the ISO standards. As per an estimate, around 200 quintal carry bags are used annually to carry the karah parshad. Apart from this, 65 quintal carry bags are used for packing the pinni parshad.

As an alternative, the new bags will not only be 100 per cent biodegradable, but also 30 per cent stronger than the poly bags. The compostable bags decompose when thrown in garbage or soil, enriching the soil quality.

Interestingly, the machines used to manufacture plastic bags can be used for making the compostable bags also, as only granules used during the process have to be replaced.

Pannu said these bags were made of eco-friendly granules which would be imported. At present, the compostable bags are a little expensive, but efforts are on to produce these granules in India.

It is pity that despite a blanket ban since 2016 under the Punjab Waste Management Rules, the supply and use of polythene bags could not be controlled as alternatives were not available in Punjab. Now that we have found a direction, we have launched the campaign. We had meeting with at least 100 manufacturers to convince them switching over to the compostable bags, he said. Roop Singh said the SGPC would bear the extra burden for the purchase of the compostable bags for environment protection.

ENRICHING SOIL QUALITY

These compostable bags will decompose when thrown in garbage or soil, enriching the soil quality. Thirty per cent stronger than the polybags, these are made of eco-friendly starch granules derived from maize and potato. Initially, these granules will be imported.editorial@tribune.com

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

Senior advocate Anupam Gupta, appearing for Enforcement Directorate (ED) Deputy Director Niranjan Singh, has told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the agency, which is probing drug cases, threatened the officer with suspension if he failed to change his counsel.

Gupta told the Division Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Shekher Dhawan that the High Court had in November last year directed a probe into former minister Bikram Singh Majithias role, resulting in revival of pressure on Niranjan. The officer had examined Majithia as part of the investigation.

Gupta also told the Bench that the State was not serious about taking action against Majithia. The assertion came after ED counsel Ranjana Shahi placed before the Bench a letter by Niranjan asking Gupta not to represent him further as his transfer stood revoked.

Gupta said the letter already stood withdrawn, adding that the ED was trying to interfere in the judicial process, an action which verged on contempt of court.

Gupta said Niranjan was threatened by senior officers with outright suspension if he did not disengage him, even as Shahi stated that Niranjan was only told to engage a lawyer authorised by the agency.

During the hearing, Niranjan submitted a status report in a sealed cover. After going through the report, the Bench asked the ED to file a fresh status report on the next date of hearing.

The Bench also asked the Ministry of External Affairs to expedite the process of extradition of persons whose details have been forwarded by the Punjab Police. The ministry, too, was asked to file a fresh status report particularly on silver notices and letter of repatriation.

The Bench asked Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal to seek information on proceedings under Section 138 of the Income Tax Act regarding disclosure of information respecting assessees.

The Bench was told that a letter was sent by the Income Tax Department to Niranjan that disclosure of information in respect of the assessees asked by him would lead to violation of Section 138.

The case will come up for further hearing on May 9.editorial@tribune.com

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, March 15

The Punjab School Education Board has directed teachers, who have never taught Punjabi to Class XII students, to evaluate their answer sheets. The examination was held on March 3.

The district education officers (DEOs) have been instructed to find teachers, who have done their post-graduation in Punjabi, irrespective of the fact whether they have taught the subject to Class XII students or not, to check answer sheets.

The DEOs, in turn, have asked tutors, who are teaching Classes VI, VII, VIII and IX, to check the papers.

Union leaders are now planning to hold protests in front of Education Minister Aruna Chaudhurys residence in Dinanagar over the issue.

Unfazed, Gurdaspur DEO Rakesh Bala said it was a normal practice to rope in junior teachers to check answer sheets. When told that these tutors had not even taught the subject to Class XII, she replied, That should not be a problem as we have asked the teachers to first read the textbooks. Only then, they will start the checking process.

Davinder Singh Punia, general secretary of the Punjab Democratic Teachers Front, said the board was playing with the career of students.

How will justice be done to the students who have worked hard throughout the year? The teachers who are busy checking the middle examination answer sheets have been suddenly asked to also check Class XII Punjabi papers. Moreover, the results have to be uploaded on the boards website the moment the process is over. This, in itself, is a cumbersome process. Earlier, uploading used to be done at the board level, he said.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 15

As Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday apologised to former Punjab minister and SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia for having levelled "unfounded" allegations related to involvement in drugs trade, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Punjab leaders termed it a "meek surrender" and a "letdown".

AAP Punjab leaders Sukhpal Khaira and Kanwar Sandhu took to twitter to air their disagreement.

Earlier, Majithia released a letter sent to him by Kejriwal. The Delhi CM has withdrawn the allegations, and the letter has been filed in the court of JMIC, Amritsar.

Following the allegations, Majithia had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal on May 20, 2016.

Majithia said he has redeemed himself. "This proves that they were raking up the issue to tarnish my image and harm me and gain politically," he said.

The former Punjab minister said, "I will withdraw the case now, which I had filed for what is right and for my own and my family's honour." Majithia claimed that Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan too has submitted his offer of regret.

Meanwhile, questioning the Delhi CM's apology to Majithia, AAP Punjab leader Sukhpal Khaira said, "We're appalled and stunned by the apology of Arvind Kejriwal tendered today, we don't hesitate to admit that we haven't been consulted on this meek surrender by a leader of his stature."

Were appalled n stunned by the apology of @ArvindKejriwal tendered today,we dont hesitate to admit that we havent been consulted on this meek surrender by a leader of his stature-khaira @ZeeNews @CNNnews18 @thetribunechd @HTPunjab @PTC_Network @JagbaniOnline @dailyajitnews  Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) March 15, 2018

"I fail to understand the timing of Kejriwal's apology when STF of Punjab has stated to the High Court today that there's substantial evidence to proceed against Bikram Majitha on the issue of drugs."

"We'll meet the media at Chandigarh tomorrow, promise to continue our tirade on the burning issue of drugs destroying the youth of Punjab," Khaira said in a series of tweets.

I fail to understand the timing of Kejrewal apology when STF of PB has stated to the High Court today that theres substantial evidence to proceed against Bikram Majitha on the issue of drugs-khaira @ZeeNews @News18India @thetribunechd  Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) March 15, 2018

In continuation of my tweet on Kejrewal apology well meet the media at Chandigarh tomorrow,promise to continue our tirade on the burning issue of drugs destroying the youth of PB-khaira @ZeePunjab @News18Punjab @PTC_Network @thetribunechd @htTweets @JagbaniOnline @dailyajitnews  Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) March 15, 2018

"Arvind Kejriwal's apology to Bikram majithia in the defamation case on drugs is a let down to the people, especially the youth of punjab. We in punjab have not been taken into the loop. Our fight for Punjab continues," AAP MLA Kanwar Sandhu said.

Arvind kejriwal' apology to Bikram majithia in the defamation case on drugs is a let down to the people, especially the youth of punjab. We in punjab have not been taken into the loop. Our fight for punjab continues.#punjabdrugs  Kanwar Sandhu (@SandhuKanwar) March 15, 2018

In the letter to Majithia, Kejriwal has said, "In the recent past, I made certain statements and allegations against you regarding your alleged involvement in drug trade. These statements became a political issue.

Now I've learnt that allegations are unfounded. Hence there should be no politics on such issues."

Because of my allegations made against you at various political rallies, public meetings, TV programmes, print, electronic and social media, you filed a defamation case against us in the Hon'ble Court at Amritsar."

I hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologise for the same," the letter read.editorial@tribune.com

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 15

The state will have to purchase power from outside sources following the closure of state-owned thermal plants and limited coal availability. Besides buying more power at higher rates, the PSPCL will also expect all private plants in the state to run to full capacity throughout summer.

Official figures suggest that Punjab will float tenders to buy almost 1,000 Mega Watt (MW) of power. The state is relying on its long-term agreements from where it expects to get around 650 MW to meet high demand in the paddy season. The present energy demand is 135 million units (MUs) per day. During the paddy season, the demand will double to around 270 MUs per day, leaving the state at the mercy of private players.

After the government ordered the closure of 460 MW Bathinda thermal plant and two units of 210 MW each of Ropar plant in January, the generation capacity has come down by 860 MW. The dependence on private plants will increase during the paddy season.

In addition to loss of 860 MW, the transfer capacity of power from Northern Grid to Punjab has come down by 600 MW. Thus in the paddy season, the state will face a reduced power availability of 1,460 MW. This implies that Punjab will have to make higher power purchases or resort to power cuts, said Padamjit Singh, chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation.

Since the PSPCL is in extreme financial distress, it cannot afford heavy power purchases. The only solution will be power cuts throughout the paddy season, he claimed.

However, A. Venu Prasad, Chief Managing Director, PSPCL, said they had arranged for additional power through two long-term agreements with Damodar Valley Corporation and Power Trading Corporation. Both would supply 650 MW. We will have 1,500 MW through banking exchanges. We will also float tenders to buy 500 to 1,000 MW, depending upon the demand in the paddy season, he said, adding that there would be no power cuts as the PSPCL was equipped to meet the demand.shalender@tribune.com

Lahore, March 15

A teenaged Taliban suicide bomber attacked a police check post near the residence of Pakistans ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, killing 10 people, including six policemen, police said. According to officials, the blast took place last night next to the congregation of the Tableeghi Jamaat centre.

Five policemen - two inspectors and three constables - are among nine persons killed in the blast, rescue 1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad said. Today, one more policeman wounded in the attack succumbed to his injuries. His death brought the toll of those killed to 10. Around 14 policemen are among 25 injured. The condition of some of them is stated to be critical.

According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), four suspected militants tried to enter the Tableeghi Jamaat gathering but were stopped by policemen. One of the attackers then blew himself up while the remaining managed to flee from the spot, a police officer said.

Inspector General Police Punjab Arif Nawaz confirmed that the blast was a suicide attack carried out by a teenaged boy who blew himself up near the check post. This is the first explosion targeting the provincial capital in 2018.  PTIshalender@tribune.com

Washington, March 15

There have been changes in Pakistans behaviour with respect to fight against terrorism after President Donald Trump blasted Islamabad for providing safe havens to militants and suspended more than $1 billion security aid to the country, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said.

There have been changes in Islamabads behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced), Mattis said. In his new South Asia Policy in August last year, President Trump had called for tougher measure against Pakistan if it fails to cooperate with the US in its fight against terrorism.

In his first tweet of the new year, Trump had accused Pakistan of basing its relationship with the US on nothing but lies and deceit.

Days after his tweet, the US suspended over $ 1.15 billion in security aid and the delivery of military equipment to Pakistan for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups.

There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction, Mattis said.  PTIshalender@tribune.com

Kabul, March 15

An Afghan man taken hostage by the Taliban made a dramatic escape by stealing a gun while his captors were praying and shooting dead seven of them and wounding 18 others, officials said today.

Awal Khan and a local police officer were kidnapped Wednesday as they were driving in the eastern province of Paktika, provincial deputy security chief Abdul Rauf Masood said.

Paktika is a Taliban stronghold bordering Pakistan. The officer was killed and 36-year-old Awal taken to a Taliban compound in Gomal district.

During afternoon prayers, Awal grabbed a weapon belonging to one of his captors and opened fire. Awal Khan sprayed bullets on all of them, killing seven and wounding 18 others, provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Rahman Ayaz said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the group had kidnapped the two men and Awal killed three of them. Awal then fled in a pickup truck belonging to his kidnappers, Ayaz said.

The Taliban is often involved in kidnappings of Afghans and foreigners, sometimes holding people for years for prisoner exchanges.  AFPshalender@tribune.com

Jakarta, March 15

Indonesians could be jailed for criticising national politicians under a new law which came into force on Thursday, in what critics slammed as a major step back for the worlds third-biggest democracy.

The vaguely worded Bill passed the 560-member House last month but has just become official, over the objections of President Joko Widodo who refused to sign off on the controversial legislation. President Widodo does not have veto power over the Bill.

The so-called MD3 law opens to the door to pressing charges against anyone who disrespects parliament or its members. " but does not set out possible minimum or maximum jail terms  AFPmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

United Nation, March 15

Expressing solidarity with the UK, US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has warned that if concrete measures were not initiated, "Russia will use chemical weapons here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this Council".

Haley said the Donald Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain" following a nerve agent attack against a Russian double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week, the CNN reported.

In the strongest statement yet from the US administration on the affair, Haley said Washington shared the UK's assessment that the Russian state was behind the poisoning and demanded a firm international response.

"The US believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the UK using a military-grade nerve agent," Haley said in her remarks at a UN Security Council emergency session on Wednesday, blasting the Russian government for flouting international law, the CNN report said.

"If we don't take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used," said Haley.

"They could be used here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this council." Russia, however, has dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack which landed the Skripals, along with a British police officer, in the hospital.

The UK believes Russia was behind the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia because of the nerve agent used. Novichok, was developed in the Soviet Union and could not be replicated by non-state actors, CNN quoted UK officials as saying.

London on Wednesday announced it would expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow failed to meet a UK deadline to give a "credible response".

Moscow's Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, even suggested the UK might have been responsible for the attack in an attempt to smear Russia. "In the Russian Federation, no scientific research or development work under the title Novichok were carried out," he told the Security Council.

Laying the blame firmly at Russia's door and highlighting Moscow's support of the Assad regime in Syria following that government's use of chemical weapons against civilians, Haley told fellow diplomats the world had reached "a defining moment".

"Time and time again, members states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance," said Haley. "Now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member.

"The credibility of this Council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable," she said.

IANSrchopra@tribunemail.com

Washington, March 15

There have been changes in Pakistans behaviour with respect to fight against terrorism after President Donald Trump blasted Islamabad for providing safe havens to militants and suspended more than USD 1 billion security aid to the country, a top American official has said.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said there are operations by the Pakistan military that are helping the US ongoing efforts against terrorism.

There have been changes in Pakistans behaviour (since the South Asia strategy was announced), Mattis told reporters travelling with him to Afghanistan, according to the transcripts released by the US Department of Defence.

In his new South Asia Policy in August last, President Trump had called for tougher measures against Pakistan if it failed to cooperate with the US in its fight against terrorism.

In his first tweet of the new year, Trump had accused Pakistan of basing its relationship with the US on nothing but lies and deceit.

Days after his tweet, the US suspended over USD 1.15 billion in security aid and the delivery of military equipment to Pakistan for failing to clamp down on the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network terror groups.

There are other issues; the fatwa (against suicide bombings) that came out, that came out of Pakistan, for example. That was a step in the right direction, Mattis said.

In January, the Pakistan government issued a fatwa signed by more than 1,800 Islamic scholars from different schools of thought against the use of violence, including suicide bombings, for religious purposes.

Mattis said that despite the apparent changes in Pakistan, hed still like to talk to people dealing with the border issues and intelligence and their impression of the situation.

One of the reasons I want to go in is actually talk to the people who are dealing with the border issues right now, dealing with intelligence and what theyre seeing. And then go back and talk with our intelligence agencies in Washington, DC, and put together an assessment of this, Mattis said.

There is a number of things that have been going on, but I want to talk to people here and see the reality and how they see it and go back and talk to intelligence agencies and get a full assessment of where were at, he said.

Responding to a question on Taliban, Mattis said the US had to set the conditions where the Taliban realised they could not win with bombs.

At that point, setting the conditions for the diplomats to sit down, and the leadership to sit down and try to get this out of the violence and into the diplomatic stance, he said.

Mattis, however, said while the US tried to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table with the Afghan government, it would still ramp up the military pressure on it.

you need to have that door open, even as you increase the military pressure and say this is not going to work. You know, to just be setting off bombs, he said.

The defence secretary said the US needed to lead and provide the substance for the reconciliation effort.

...it may not be that the whole Taliban comes over in one fell swoop. That would be a bridge too far right now to expect. But there are elements of the Taliban clearly interested in talking to the Afghan government, Mattis said.

In Kabul, Mattis met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, during which they discussed the South Asia strategy and the US commitment to Afghanistan.

Pentagons chief spokesperson Dana White said that Mattis praised Ghanis recent offer to negotiate with the Taliban without preconditions.

He noted Ghanis diplomatic approach achieved a level of international support not possible with military action alone. Secretary Mattis offered his full support to the Afghan-led reconciliation process, aimed at achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan, White said.

At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, President Ghani called on the Taliban to participate in peace talks to save the country while offering security and incentives like passports to insurgents who take part in the negotiations.

During the meeting, Mattis emphasised that the peace offer did not eliminate the need for offensive operations against the Taliban, and noted the importance of continued Afghan National Defence and Security Forces progress on the battlefield.

The two leaders also reinforced that the recent Taliban peace offer without preconditions was genuine, and they are ready to embrace all who are willing to reconcile, White said. PTIshalender@tribune.com

Riyadh, March 15

Saudi Arabia will develop nuclear weapons if its arch-rival Iran does so, the kingdoms crown prince said in remarks released on Thursday, raising the prospect of a nuclear arms race in a region already ravaged with conflict.

Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible, Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBS in an interview.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom has been at loggerheads with revolutionary Shiite Iran for decades. The countries have fought a long-running proxy war in the Middle East and beyond.

Riyadh has criticised the 2015 deal between world powers and Tehran under which economic sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for Islamic Republic curbing its nuclear energy programme.

The comments by Prince Mohammed, who at 32 is heir to the throne, also have implications for Israel, which neither confirms nor denies the widespread assumption that it controls the Middle Easts only nuclear arsenal.

Riyadh approved a national policy for its atomic energy programme on Tuesday, including limiting all nuclear activities to peaceful purposes, within the limits defined by the international treaties.  ReutersDear friends around the world,

Nepal is a country that is very dear to me. I have spent a lot of time there in the past and I know the holy sites very well. I also encourage my students and friends to visit Nepal on pilgrimage and I have personally brought many students there to visit the power places of Kathmandu.

My connection to Nepal (and Kathmandu in particular) goes back to when I first became a monk. After receiving my ordination vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I travelled to Nepal while waiting for the permits that I needed to stay in Gaden Shartse Monastery long term.

So I stayed at Samten Ling Monastery in Boudhanath near the famous Boudha Stupa that contains Buddhas relics and while I was waiting in Nepal, I met some of my teachers there. I was there in 1987 for two months and visited the many holy places which, years later, I took many friends to visit. It was at this time I fell in love with Nepal. My love for Nepal is still strong and if I retired, I would love to live there in a small retreat house near the Himalayan mountains. Seeing the mysterious snow-capped mountains, juniper forests and blue lakes of Nepal resonates a very deep familiarity within me. It feels like the kind of environment I belong in and feels like home. Wherever I go, I try to replicate that type of scene in my living.

During my time in Nepal, my monk friends there also showed me all the beautiful sacred and holy places in and around Kathmandu. It was then that I began to develop a deep appreciation, respect and love for the Nepali people, their culture and their innate spirituality. Not only is Nepal alive with spirituality, but the beautiful Nepali people also have genuine respect for other cultures and faiths. It is truly one of the most spiritual places I have ever been in and the energy of Nepal resonates with me deeply. I would love to live in Nepal some day and have a retreat home in the mountains where I can spend summers with my students and we all do intense retreats together.

Apart from my personal connection with Nepal, I am extremely grateful to the Nepali government and people for giving my fellow Tibetans in exile a safe place to live where they can practise their culture and religion in a peaceful and tolerant environment. And so I decided to do something to show my genuine appreciation for the people of Nepal. Since I am an ordained Buddhist monk, I have no better way to give back to the beautiful Nepali people than to share the Dharma with them. Life can sometimes be painful and difficult and so I wanted the Nepali people to have a way to ease their burdens. Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens practice is perfect for this.

With the help of my students and friends, I have set up two chapels to Bhagawan Dorje Shugden in busy areas of Kathmandu with high foot traffic. Bhagawan Dorje Shugden is an avatar of Bhagawan Shree Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom, who is in turn intrinsically linked to the history of Kathmandu.

The Kathmandu Valley was once believed to have been a great lake surrounded by hills. Manjushri saw that a huge lotus was emanating bright lights in the centre of the lake. Knowing that the lotus was special and would be beneficial to people in the future, Manjushri decided to cut a gorge with his sword and drain the lake. The resulting lake bed is known today as the Kathmandu Valley. And so, given Manjushris importance and significance in the lives of the Nepali people, both Hindu and Buddhist, I strongly feel that Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens practice is particularly appropriate and karmically connected to Nepal.

Bhagawan Dorje Shugden can help us in many ways especially in the areas of wealth, peace and protection as well as healing and wisdom. He is beneficial for students, businessmen and businesswomen, healers, farmers, families, travellers and those suffering from spirit disturbances, magic attacks or depression. (For more details on how Bhagawan Dorje Shugden can help you, please click here.)

Each chapel is well-stocked with many free distribution materials about Dorje Shugden such as booklets, brochures, graphic novels, prayer cards and framed pictures in different sizes. These are available in multiple languages including Nepali, Hindi, Tibetan, English and Chinese, just to name a few. There are also free pendants that are ready to wear (or keep in your purse or bag), offering items such as incense and sindoor (sindur), and you can bring your own butterlamps, fruits, flowers and khatas too.

It will be very good for visitors to make offerings at these chapels to create a connection with this powerful Dhaneshwar Bhagawan Dorje Shugden and collect some positive energy (merit) so that you can tap into his divine energy when you need his assistance. It would also be very good to recite his mantra OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SOHA as much as possible, and even recite his short prayer that I composed if you have the time.

When we pray to Bhagawan Dorje Shugden, we can be of any religion and we do not need to convert to Buddhism or change our culture. Bhagawan Dorje Shugden will help anyone regardless of whether they are Buddhist, Hindu or any other religion. As long as we are sincere, kind and have a good heart, he will hear our prayers and help us. Holy beings and divinities will bless us as we are and they do not require us to be in any religion. Holy beings, gods, God, Buddhas are above mankinds labels and constrictions. These beings are free of the labels of religion and therefore operate to help sentient beings when we connect with them. If people say you need to convert to a certain religion for a divinity or their version of God to help you, they are misinterpreting for their own purposes because they are saying God or divinity is prejudice, biased, hateful and narrow-minded. They are saying God, Buddha or divinities can help you only in their context or only through their religion. If that is the case, then why pray to such a narrow God?

When it is said that one religion is better than another, or that you have to convert to be saved, this is not made by Buddha or God but by men who wish to frighten us into their control, subservience, power, gain profit or perhaps even play into the ego games of the preacher/teacher. If they say you need to convert to a certain religion and that your religion is inferior, then they are degrading your people, your religion, culture and the hundreds of years your ancestors who have worshiped your religion and derived great benefits. Are they saying all your hundreds of ancestors went to hell just because they didnt convert to some new religion? Of course that is not logical nor true. We should keep our unique religious paths and no one should tell us their religion is better. No one should criticise another persons spiritual path. All religions have benefits and it is up to the individual to choose based on their affinity.

Truly religious people are kind, compassionate, tolerant and love everyone regardless of differences in religion. Some people of some religions like to say if you dont enter their religion, you will go to hell. Not true. For hundreds of thousands of years before a particular religion appeared, where did people go after they died? Where you go after death is up to our individual deeds in life and not what religion you belong to. The beautiful people in Nepal are respectful of all religions and have very rich religious traditions of their own, and this should be respected and preserved. Dorje Shugden does not need us to convert to any religion as he is Manjushris emanation (avatar), and he is therefore filled with compassion for all beings if we reach out to him. Dorje Shugden will help all of us equally no matter what religion we are, what caste we belong to, or whether we are male, female, poor and or rich. I respectfully offer Dorje Shugdens protection, blessings, practice and lineage to be a part of what exists within the spirituality in Nepal and not to replace it. Dorje Shugden has benefited me very much and I wanted to share. Nepalis and all people of all religions can incorporate Dorje Shugdens special prayers and mantras into the other prayers that you may be already doing. My guru gave Dorje Shugden to me to practise to help me over 30 years ago and I honour my guru by keeping my practice firm and sharing with others. It was his instructions to me and he knows I will share with others. The time has come we have to respect all religions and not discriminate against anyones religion. May you be blessed.

I have shared Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens practice with many people in the past and many have come back to let me know that they have received miraculous assistance or special signs. Some of these people also come back to help clean the chapels, contribute towards the cost of free distribution materials and spread awareness about the existence of the chapels in gratitude for the divine help they received. So when you are next in Kathmandu, do make the time to visit either (or both) of the chapels below. It would make me very happy to hear that you have created your very own personal connection to Bhagawan Dorje Shugden.

I would like to thank the many kind and generous sponsors, my hard-working students, and especially the authorities who gave us their support and made it possible to establish these two chapels in Kathmandu. I deeply appreciate the Nepali governments policy of accepting all religions and faiths without bias or discrimination, something that Nepals Minister of Defence the Honourable Mr. Bhimsen Das Pradhan said during his speech at the inaugural International Buddhist Conference of Dorje Shugden Followers which was held in Kathmandu from 4th to 6th January 2018.

My deepest gratitude and appreciation also to all who were involved in the planning, fundraising, building, maintenance and operations that went into making these chapels a success. Nothing brings me more happiness than sharing the Buddhas teachings of compassion, generosity, acceptance and wisdom, as well as the practice of Dorje Shugden. Dorje Shugdens practice will give hope, can save lives and give those help who need it. I rejoice that all involved will be blessed as more and more people make a connection with none other than the Bhagawan Shree Manjushri in the form of a Protector. May Dorje Shugdens practice flourish so that others will be greatly benefited too. Please keep checking back to this post for further updates on more Dorje Shugden chapels coming up in Nepal.

Sarva mangalam,

Tsem Rinpoche

Dorje Shugden Chapel in Putalisadak, Kathmandu

This is the first chapel to Bhagawan Dorje Shugden that I established in Kathmandu in February 2016. Over the years, a large number of people have come here to pray to Dorje Shugden for assistance and many have overcome their problems. I also thank the lovely lady who watches over the chapel; she has been a great help. Enjoy the video of our chapel above.

Address:

Dilibazar Ward No. 5

Putalisadak Chowk

Kathmandu, Nepal

Location Pin:

goo.gl/maps/o3vkTg1BHNx

The newly re-furbished 3ft statue of Bhagawan Dorje Shugden in the Putalisadak chapel, Kathmandu. Many have thanked us for these chapels. We made the chapels in the style of the beautiful local appearance so its more familiar to them and they appreciate it very much we are told. The newly re-furbished 3ft statue of Bhagawan Dorje Shugden in the Putalisadak chapel, Kathmandu. Many have thanked us for these chapels. We made the chapels in the style of the beautiful local appearance so its more familiar to them and they appreciate it very much we are told.

A close-up of the beautiful Dorje Shugden statue who is no other than Manjushri A close-up of the beautiful Dorje Shugden statue who is no other than Manjushri

Free distribution Dorje Shugden collaterals in Nepali and Hindi (consisting of a booklet, a brochure and free pendant, a 8R prayer card and a 5R prayer card) are available for free distribution Free distribution Dorje Shugden collaterals in Nepali and Hindi (consisting of a booklet, a brochure and free pendant, a 8R prayer card and a 5R prayer card) are available for free distribution

Free distribution Dorje Shugden collateral in English Free distribution Dorje Shugden collateral in English

Dorje Shugden Chapel in Chabahil, Kathmandu

Established in February 2018, the Bhagawan Dorje Shugden chapel in Chabahil is located in one of the busiest spots in the whole of Kathmandu as can be seen in the video above. Thousands of people walk past the chapel every day, and I am overjoyed that I can share Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens practice with so many.

Address:

Chabahil Ward No. 7

Chabahil Chowk

Kathmandu, Nepal

Location Pin:

goo.gl/maps/u76LNqUmjvE2

The location of the Dorje Shugden chapel in Chahabil, Kathmandu. Click on image to enlarge.

The exterior of the Dorje Shugden chapel in Chabahil, Kathmandu The exterior of the Dorje Shugden chapel in Chabahil, Kathmandu

This Dorje Shugden chapel is located in one of the busiest spots in Chabahil. Thousands of people walk past the chapel daily. This Dorje Shugden chapel is located in one of the busiest spots in Chabahil. Thousands of people walk past the chapel daily.

The exterior of the Chabahil Dorje Shugden chapel The exterior of the Chabahil Dorje Shugden chapel

May our Nepali brothers and sisters always be blessed by Dorje Shugden. May our Nepali brothers and sisters always be blessed by Dorje Shugden.

A close-up of the magnificent Dorje Shugden statue A close-up of the magnificent Dorje Shugden statue

Dorje Shugden collaterals in Hindi Dorje Shugden collaterals in Hindi

Dorje Shugden collaterals in Tibetan Dorje Shugden collaterals in Tibetan

Dorje Shugden collaterals in Nepali Dorje Shugden collaterals in Nepali

Dorje Shugden collaterals in Chinese Dorje Shugden collaterals in Chinese

Dorje Shugden collaterals in English and framed picture for people to invite home Dorje Shugden collaterals in English and framed picture for people to invite home

Dorje Shugden collaterals in Tamil Dorje Shugden collaterals in Tamil

Framed Dorje Shugden pictures for people to invite home Framed Dorje Shugden pictures for people to invite home

View of the street from the Chabahil Dorje Shugden chapel View of the street from the Chabahil Dorje Shugden chapel

The Benefits of Bhagawan Dorje Shugden 1. For Students

Students who wish to do well in school, obtain good grades, and expand their minds to have knowledge so that they may get good jobs when they are older to help their families, villages, city and country can rely on Bhagawan Dorje Shugden. By reciting his mantra daily, they will gain clarity, wisdom and good memory. 2. For Healers

Healers are people who remove pain and physical problems from other peoples bodies. There are many types of healers. When healers of any background pray to Bhagawan Dorje Shugden and do his mantra daily and well, the healing ability of genuine healers will increase. Additionally, the energy of Dorje Shugdens mantra will enter the body of the sick through the healers and help them to become well. So it is an excellent mantra for healers to recite to benefit others to become well. 3. For Businessmen and Businesswomen

Those who wish to do private businesses in order to earn money to take care of their families, responsibilities and perhaps even expand their families may encounter many problems from many directions and from many different parties. Therefore, when a sincere businessman or businesswoman fully relies on Bhagawan Dorje Shugden through offering flowers, incense, tea and light daily as well as by reciting Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens mantra, he will help them achieve a better situation to be able to support their families and take care of their needs. 4. For Families

Families may have problems, disharmony, misunderstandings and arguments which sometimes cause separation. When families have disharmony and problems, the children, in-laws, parents and grandparents suffer. In order for families to be blessed and to have more harmony, it is important for the family members to always sit down and discuss things nicely, honestly and respectfully with one another. By doing Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens puja and prayers daily, they will see their families growing and becoming more harmonious. 5. For Farmers

Farmers rely on the land, vegetables, and fruits that they sow. They work hard in the summer  sometimes in the mud  with the buffaloes, planting, waiting for rain and sunshine, subjected to different weather conditions. Eventually, they need to harvest all their crops so that they will have something to live off through the winter. If their crops do not grow and fail, then the farmers suffer tremendously. Therefore, it would be wise for farmers and farming families to install Bhagawan Dorje Shugden in their homes and pray. Offer Bhagawan Dorje Shugden water, flowers, incense and light and recite his mantra daily for the crops. This will bless your land along with your animals. This is very important. Farmers can rely on Bhagawan Dorje Shugden in order to help their families grow their crops. 6. For Those Suffering From Magic

Some people are jealous and unhappy of other peoples success. Some people are unhappy with others due to anger, arguments, disagreements or for whatever reasons. As a result, sometimes certain people can contact powerful people to hurt others through magic, incantations, mantras and rituals. Some people believe in magic, some people dont, but whether they believe or not, magic does exist and sometimes it can harm. Bhagawan Dorje Shugden is the most supreme avatar of Bhagawan Shree Manjushri who is very powerful to stop magic, to release people from magic and to protect them from being harmed by magic. By propitiating Bhagawan Dorje Shugden consistently, over time one will be released from magic, protected from magic and the magic from jealous parties cannot harm us. Bhagawan Dorje Shugden will never hurt the other party but he will protect us. 7. For Those Disturbed By Spirits

Certain passes, streets, houses, valleys, forests and cemeteries have very powerful spirits residing there. The spirits are people who have passed away, cannot move on, and are unable to reincarnate and they have remained in the area unhappy, sad and attached. Sometimes, these spirits do harm to others, frighten them, causes diseases, and create problems. These spirits need to be released. We need not be afraid of them but instead we should show them great karuna (compassion). By showing and generating great karuna to these spirits through recitation of Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens mantra, the spirits will be released and they cannot harm us further. 8. For Those Suffering From Depression

Depression is a state of mind where we feel hopelessness and sadness. We wish to give up, we do not wish to fight anymore and we have lost our inner strength. All of us suffer through depression at one time or another in our lives. Depression is not easy to heal. Sometimes it is clinical, sometimes psychic, or sometimes it is the wrong way of thinking. If it is clinical, we must get help from a professional, but if it is any other type of depression arising from wrong views, an unhealthy body or an unclear mind, reciting the mantra of Bhagawan Dorje Shugden can guide us and help us to heal from depression or to find help to become free of depression. What is important for depression is not to rely on Bhagawan alone and ask to release our unhappiness, but also seek help at the same time. 9. For Those Who Need Protection

At times we need to travel, without choice, to various places that are dangerous, far, troubled with crime or prone to natural disasters. In order to travel to these places, we need to be very careful. If something happens to us, our families will suffer. Before and during travel, by doing puja, making offerings and reciting Bhagawan Dorje Shugdens prayer and mantra, we can be protected and remain safe. Interesting Note:

Bhagawan Dorje Shugden holds a wisdom sword in his right hand, just like Manjushri. This sword cuts through and purifies our problems, difficulties and negative karma so that we may fulfil our wishes. In weapons, a meandering blade is characteristically designed to inflict maximum damage. In the hands of Bhagawan Dorje Shugden holds a wisdom sword in his right hand, just like Manjushri. This sword cuts through and purifies our problems, difficulties and negative karma so that we may fulfil our wishes. In weapons, a meandering blade is characteristically designed to inflict maximum damage. In the hands of Bhagawan Dorje Shugden it represents just how powerful his practice is for purification, removal of obstacles and ultimately to gain merits, spiritual attainments and Enlightenment. Prayer: A Daily Request for Wealth1, Peace2 and Protection3 Composed by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche In the heavens4 there are myriad manifestations of the divine. All those manifestations specifically show us different aspects of divinity5 in order to be of benefit to all living beings. All the rupakaya6 forms of the divine have compassion, skillful means and wisdom. We invoke upon them whether we are happy, sad, down, lost, fulfilled, confused, empty, and during the whole range of emotions we constantly experience due to an untrained mind. Understanding our nature, Great Wisdom Being Dorje Shugden, therefore all the more so, please hold us close to your bosom as an only child to a parent. Though the manifestations of the divine need no offerings and gifts from us, we offer you supreme Manjushri7 Dorje Shugden a libation of tea, incense and mantras, in order to ask you to bless us, to be a part of our lives, to abide in our dwellings and to give us signs, omens and portents of both good and bad. When the negative arises, quell them immediately. Please increase the positive for my weary and worn mind as I lay my hopes in you. When difficulties, problems and confusion arise, we ask you, who is but the culmination of all that is powerful, holy and omniscient to bless myself, family, loved ones, environment and even my pets. May I see wisdom, find hope, and be at peace. I request you, O Divine Bhagavan8 Dorje Shugden, who wears a round dome hat and the three robes of a saffroned bhikshu9, who wields a sword of liberty, justice and wisdom and clutches a wish-fulfilling jewel, who rides on a supreme lion of subjugation of all that is negative, to fulfill my wishes. I understand my wishes may not be the best, so I surrender to your wisdom for the outcome though it may not be what I have in mind. Please bless myself and everyone that we may enter into the supreme city of liberation. Great Bhagavan Dorje Shugden, I request you sincerely from my heart to be a part of my life, bless my home, and grant me wisdom, solace and comfort, that I might be of service to others without agenda, and that I may focus out onto others and not be fixated on myself, creating more problems for all that I hold dear. Bless me to become kinder, wiser, more compassionate, tolerant and very forgiving to all those who hurt and love me. In order to become close to you, Dorje Shugden, we must surrender the banal. We must abandon fixed views, projections and rigidity. Lastly, in my final moment when I leave this plane of existence, only the positive actions I have done will matter as everything and everyone will be left behind. Let me realise this and act upon this now! At this crucial moment, please may I have a vision of yourself, the powerful and merciful Dorje Shugden, to take me to where I may course in the sky10 to continue my journey of spiritual waxing. I offer you saffron-coloured tea and my faith to fulfill my prayers and gain siddhis11. By reciting your mantra, may healing, peace, love, long life, protection and perfect view of sunyata12 arise. Mantra of fulfillment, peace and wisdom: OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SOHA I dedicate this supreme heartfelt prayer to the all-knowing Celestial and Supreme Protector Dorje Shugden, that I may quickly become a being of light, compassion, love and enlightenment.

1 Sampatti 2 Santi 3 Suraksa 4 Various realms manifested from enlightenment 5 A superior being who has the six paramitas. In Tibetan and Sanskrit, these are: (1) Jinpa (dana, generosity), (2) Tsultrim (shila, ethics), (3) Zopa (kshanti, forbearance, acceptance, patience, forgiveness), (4) Tsondru (virya, joyful endeavour, diligence, zeal), (5) Samten (dyana, meditative concentration), and (6) Sherab (prajna, discriminating wisdom-awareness, insight). 6 Avatars / emanations / tulkus 7 An Arya Bodhisattva who is the culmination of all the enlightened beings wisdom. 8An epithet for God, In Buddhisms Pali scriptures, the term is used with Gautama Buddha, referring to him as Bhagavan Buddha (translated with the phrase Lord Buddha or The Blessed One) The term Bhagavan is also found in other Theravadin, Mahayana and Tantric Buddhist texts. Bhagavan is generally translated as Lord or God. 9 Fully ordained monk 10 Positive future rebirths in existence and/or a pure land of an enlightened being 11 Common attainments that bring mental quiescence and extraordinary abilities such as removing obstacles, bringing/stopping rain, subjugating negative invisible beings, bringing resources, higher clairvoyance, etc. 12 Correct view of our existence; emptiness

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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 13 of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987, allowance is made for fair dealing for purposes such as non-profit research, private study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events. The Operator and author(s) of TsemRinpoche.com, a not-for-profit blog, do not claim ownership on the intellectual property rights of the contents, images and/or videos reproduced in this article. Any subsisting intellectual property rights shall belong to the legal owner of the contents, images and/or videos.(By Tsem Rinpoche)

Since the start of time, humans have used herbs for a variety of different applications, including the flavouring of food in cooking, in healing and medicinal applications, for cleansing and purifying the environment and even for religious and spiritual use.

It is believed that when herbs are burned, the resulting fragrant smoke has the ability to refresh the air and enhance positive energy, making it an essential precursor to important religious rituals. Traditionally, many cultures burn incense, resins, or smudge herbs to purify the air and remove negative energy. For the sake of convenience, these days we mimic these ancient rituals through the use of essential oil burners and diffusers which are based on the same principles as burning herbs.

The smoke from natural herbal incense is believed to cleanse the surroundings and remove negative emotions, thoughts, stress and unpleasant energy in the home or office. Your environment is a sponge for negativity, and it is commonly believed that negative energies can absorb into walls and objects if not properly purified. Many believers light incense after a bad relationship break-ups, arguments and disagreements, illnesses, or sad events such as funerals as well as when purchasing a new home or a second-hand antique. It is said that clearing the negative energy from these events, places and objects refreshes the space and signifies a new start.

Furthermore, herbs have played a vital role in healthcare and medicine, due to their medicinal and versatile healing properties. Apart from modern western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, herbs are also widely used by indigenous cultures all over the world for recovery and good health.

Here are a list of herbs and their benefits.

1. Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis L)

Commonly used in western cooking, rosemary is one of the worlds most-used and best-known herbs. In Latin, rosemary translates to The Dew of the Sea and it is said that the ancient Greeks would wear rosemary garlands on their heads whilst studying.

In ancient and aboriginal cultures, incense comprised of wild rosemary or Ledum Palustre was used for shamanic rituals, and was highly valued by the aboriginal Ainu shamans of Japan. It was considered a sacred herb to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, due to its medicinal properties and benefits.

In the 16th century, rosemary was commonly burned as dry herb incense or as an oil, in hospitals or wherever the sick lay. It was believed that rosemary had tremendous healing properties and was applicable for all illnesses, making it a very sought after commodity.

The benefits of rosemary include:

Improved memory

Lower stress levels

Anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties

Detoxification of bodily toxins

Pain relief

Stimulates blood circulation

2. Cedar

Signifying strength and dignity, wood from the cedar tree has been used since ancient times in the construction of altars, churches, thrones, buildings and ships. Since ancient times, Cedar was also widely used as incense, in perfumes and for embalming purposes.

There are many types and varieties of cedar which grow in all corners of the world, each with their own properties and applications. Cedrus Atlantica mainly grows in Morocco and Algeria, whereas Lebanon Cedar is on the wildlife protection list and can age up to an incredible 2,500 years.

Some types of cedar are extremely rare, such as the Himalayan Cedar or Cedrus Deodora, mainly found in Himalayan regions such as Northern India and Pakistan. The resin of the Himalayan cedar tree is often referred to as gokul and it is known to be a powerful incense due to its vast abundance of essential oils.

Tibetan cedar wood is an old herb/resin which has been used in many aspects of daily life since ancient times. Its fragrance is relaxing and harmonising, and it stimulates mental focus and helps with the practice of meditation. It is also known to cleanse the environment of negative energies and brings a peaceful and serene atmosphere.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Tibetan cedar: vajrasecrets.com/tibetan-cedarwood-incense

3. Sage

Best known for its versatility in the kitchen, sage or Salvia Officinalis has been used for thousands of years in culinary, medicinal and religious applications. Prized for its healing and medicinal properties, sage has been used as an anti-depressant, for improving memory and concentration and to help patients suffering from Alzheimers.

Many cultures including the Native Americans, Celtic druids, pagans and ancient Romans all used sage in one form or another. In particular, the indigenous Americans burned sage smudge sticks as a way to purify the air and absorb negative energy such as conflict, anger and illness.

4. Tibetan Sage (Ganden Khenpa)

Gaden Monastery in Tibet, founded in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa who is widely known as The Second Buddha, is credited as the birth place of Ganden Khenpa, otherwise known as Tibetan sage.

Legend says that during a time when Tibet was plagued with illnesses, the great Lama Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, sought a way to relieve the sufferings of all sentient beings. He cut and scattered his hair on the ground and where his hair fell, from the consecrated ground grew the herbal Ganden Khenpa. The herb was first harvested and burnt as an incense to purify the air of the monastery. Later, it was distributed to every household where it was burnt and used to cure the epidemic.

Since then, Ganden Khenpa has been used in traditional Tibetan medicine as well as for purifying holy spaces and as an offering to the Buddhas. Every household in Tibet still uses this herb and it is often called the Obstacle-Clearing Grass.

It is known for its anti-inflammatory properties, for helping to increase blood circulation and is even said to make the user wiser. Furthermore, according to some lamas, Ganden Khenpa is recommended for those suffering from SARS, who should inhale it deeply. It is also beneficial for people with rheumatism, arthritis, swellings and, according to the personal physician of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for purifying polluted environments as well as to prevent colds and flu.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Ganden Khenpa: vajrasecrets.com/ganden-khenpa-loose-incense

5. Sandalwood

Sandalwood is the hardwood and roots harvested from the Royal Tree or Santalum Album, found mainly in India. The wood is commonly used to make mala (rosary) beads and furniture due to its durability and aromatic scent.

Many cultures from all over the globe prize sandalwood for numerous reasons. The ancient Egyptians used sandalwood for medicinal purposes as well as for religious and cultural rituals and ceremonies. In Hinduism, sandalwood is also known as chandana and is used as a sacred herb in the worship of the God Vishnu. It is also used as part of ayurvedic healing.

In Tibetan Buddhism, one of the 35 Confessional Buddhas known as Tathagata Glorious Sandalwood (Chandanashri), is depicted holding a sandalwood branch in his hands. He uses it to purify the karma of those who pray to him, cleansing them and washing away their negative deeds. Buddhists also use sandalwood to purify offerings to the Three Jewels and to calm those who suffer from nervous tension and anxiety.

Today, sandalwood is still commonly used for its medicinal and healing properties which include:

Anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties

Diuretic properties

Lower blood pressure

Improved memory

It is also known to be a relaxant which induces calmness and is helpful in enhancing concentration.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Sandalwood: vajrasecrets.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=sandalwood+incense

6. Juniper

Found all over the world, juniper grows in a variety of species. The Tibetan word for incense is sang (pronounced sung), which is also the folk name for juniper.

Apart from being used as incense in many world cultures, juniper is also widely used in cultural and religious rituals as well as in medicine and healing. It is effective for the treatment of pain, cramps and arthritis, and also possesses antiseptic and diuretic properties. Furthermore, it is used to cleanse and purify the blood, to lower blood pressure and to increase sweating to expel toxins which lie below the skin.

In Buddhism, juniper is often used in the construction of stupas. The central axis or life stick of the stupa is traditionally constructed from solid juniper wood due to the belief that it purifies the area and rejects negative energy, and is engraved with mantras and Tibetan seed syllables.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Juniper: vajrasecrets.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=juniper+incense

7. Frankincense Resin

Frankincense resin is extracted from trees of the Boswellia genus. It is harvested by making a small incision into the bark of the tree and the precious gum resin will expel from the bark and form solid resin after a few weeks, also known as frankincense tears.

Frankincense resin is best known as one of the gifts offered to baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men. It is used in many rituals in Christianity, as well as in those of Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists.

The many health benefits of juniper include stronger immune systems, improved oral health, regulated menstruation, prevention and elimination of gas, reduced stress and as an antiseptic. It is used in traditional Chinese and ayurvedic medicine. Frankincense is also used during meditation and visualisation as it increases awareness, serenity and relaxation.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Frankincense resin: vajrasecrets.com/blessed-frankincense-resin

8. Myrrh Resin

Commiphora Myrrh is a resin harvested through sapping the myrhh shrub. Like frankincense, myrrh is most famous for being one of the gifts offered to baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men, along with gold.

Myrrh resin is used in many cultural and religious rituals. For example, the ancient Egyptians used myrrh during the embalming of pharaohs. It was also readily used by the Romans.

Myrrh is very effective against candida and parasites. It has strong antiseptic properties and can eliminate fungus in the digestive system without destroying good bacteria. It can also help boost and strengthen the immune system and analgesic ailments. During the time of the plague that swept through Europe, myrrh was one of the main remedies against the epidemic.

Lastly, myrrh is known to be effective in clearing and purifying the air when burned as an incense. However, it should not be used if you are feeling depressed as it can bring on or intensify negative and sad emotions.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Frankincense resin: vajrasecrets.com/blessed-myrrh-resin

9. Golden Leaf (Sunpati)

Sunpati, also known as Golden Leaf or Balu, is a distinctly sweet-smelling herb commonly used in religious rituals and healing applications. Found in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal and Tibet, it is also the official flower of the kingdom of Nepal.

Tibetans believe that drinking sunpati in a tea can aid digestion and stimulate appetite. Some species of sunpati are also proven to have antimicrobial effects against harmful bacteria and fungi.

Burning the resin of this herb has a cleansing effect on the environment. It can also help protect against negative spirits and illnesses, as well as to connect with the divine.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Sunpati: vajrasecrets.com/incense-sunpati

10. Agarwood

Precious agarwood resin is produced from a fungal infection that affects the Aquilaria Agallocha tree. The infection causes a resin to form to protect the tree from further damage and gives off a distinct aroma. It is generally believed that the older the tree and the more resin it has produced, the more valuable and potent the resin will be.

Agarwood resin is one of the worlds most expensive and sought-after resins. It is used in a variety of different cultures including Arabian, Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan and Indian traditions for both religious ceremonies as well as medicinal applications.

Agarwood is highly praised due to its powerful and immediate effects. It is known to have anti-oxidant and anti-ageing benefits as well as being effective against asthma and excellent for kidney health and function.

Agarwood increases our awareness and it is known to be very helpful for meditation and prayer as it can increase our ability to focus. Its warm nature has a calming and uplifting effect on our psyche and it is said to remove sadness of the heart. It is also known to be effective in cleansing the environment, bringing serenity and tranquility.

For more information and to experience the benefits of Agarwood: vajrasecrets.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=agarwood

Conclusion

The burning of natural herbs as incense is very effective and is proven to have many benefits. In Buddhism, offering incense to the Three Jewels helps remind us of our vows and beliefs. In addition, offering incense creates the causes to have morality and ethics and to be of benefit to others. Sangsol, a Tibetan Buddhist incense offering ritual, is generally performed during religious ceremonies and special events such as the Tibetan New Year (Losar), pujas (prayer ceremonies) or marriages. Further descriptions and explanations of how to perform the incense offering prayer can be found here.

I hope the above list of herbs and resins, its benefits and properties  spiritual, religious and medicinal  will inspire you to experiment with different types of incense, purify your personal life, and enhance your time of worship.

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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 13 of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987, allowance is made for fair dealing for purposes such as non-profit research, private study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events. The Operator and author(s) of TsemRinpoche.com, a not-for-profit blog, do not claim ownership on the intellectual property rights of the contents, images and/or videos reproduced in this article. Any subsisting intellectual property rights shall belong to the legal owner of the contents, images and/or videos.Bentong is a small town with a history as colourful as the people who inhabit it. From noble characters such as Mr Loke Yew, who has done much for the establishment of Bentong town, to the Chinese labourers who toiled to build up the towns infrastructure, Bentong has been fortunate to have these people throughout its development. The main purpose of this article is to recognise and more importantly, to remind the younger generation of the previous generations contribution in pioneering the development of Bentong.

In this article, I will explore some of the key figures who have contributed significantly to the development of modern Bentong today. It should be emphasised that this article will focus on two main groups of people namely Mr Loke Yew and his business partners and the founders of the celebrated Bentong landmark, the Chinese Town Hall.

Loke Yew and His Partners

The story of modern Bentong begins with the discovery of mines by the British in 1889. Nevertheless, large-scale commercial mining activities did not really get off the ground until Loke Yew and his partners Cheong Fatt Tze and Chia Choon Seng joined hands to form a partnership to explore the tin mines of Bentong.

Their partnership was the catalyst that galvanised the tin mining industry in Bentong as the partners pooled their resources and expertise to create a conducive environment crucial for economic development.

Loke Yew: Spearheading Bentong Development

In 1845, Loke Yew was born with the surname Wong in a village located in the Xinhui district of Guangdong Province, China. Spurred on by economic hardship and poverty in his homeland, he left China in 1858 to seek a better life in Singapore. There, he worked initially as a shop assistant and a few years later, he was able to open his first provision shop named Tong Hing Loong.

After managing his business for five years, Loke Yew decided to expand his business to Malaya, in particular the highly profitable tin-mining sector. He first began by investing in the tin mines of Larut (now Taiping). After several years in the business and with the support of the British colonial administration, Loke Yew gained control of the main tin mining operations in the states of Perak, Selangor and Pahang. When the British approached him for funding in 1887, Loke Yew decided to invest further in the tin mines of Bentong.

One of Loke Yews most important contributions is the pivotal role he played in spearheading the development of Bentong town. With his immense wealth and resources, Loke Yew was able to bring thousands of Chinese labourers to Bentong to work in the tin mines. This in turn provided the pre-requisite population for the birth of a new town. In addition, he was able to construct roads to improve accessibility to Bentong from other parts of Malaya. In fact, the roads that he constructed became the foundation for infrastructure development in and around Western Pahang.

Aside from his business interests in Bentong, Loke Yew was a great philanthropist in that he contributed generously to improve the living standards of the locals. For example, the Kwong Fook Temple in Bentong which serves as the local place of worship was refurbished in the late 19th century with financial assistance from Loke Yew. Today, Bentong residents have commemorated this great iconic figure by naming one of the main roads in Bentong after him, Jalan Loke Yew.

Apart from Loke Yew, we should not forget the contributions of other pioneers who have dedicated a tremendous amount of time and resources towards the development of Bentong. Below are some of the other key contributors to the town.

Cheong Fatt Tze: A Key Connection

Cheong Fatt Tze, originally born in Dapu, Guangdong Province in 1840 was a rich politician and businessman who, throughout his life, contributed significantly to the development of Bentong. During his early days, he lived in a China ravaged by years of civil war and consequently had to endure much hardship and poverty. At the tender age of 17, he left China for Southeast Asia to strive for his own survival.

Upon leaving China, his first destination was Batavia (now Jakarta) which was then known as the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He worked at a provision shop in Batavia for a few years before amassing sufficient capital to start his own business venture in 1877. Subsequently, he expanded his business from Batavia throughout the Dutch East Indies, focusing mainly on the supply of goods and dairy provisions to the Dutch army and navy in Indonesia.

After Cheong Fatt Tze made his fortune in the Dutch East Indies, he expanded his business to Malaya in 1886 where he engaged in a wide spectrum of businesses including mining, plantation, shipping and medical halls. It was during this period that he decided to enter into a partnership with Mr. Loke Yew to develop the tin mines in Bentong. By investing financial and human capital into the local economy, he helped to spur on economic growth in the region. Without his contribution, Bentongs mining industry would not have grown so rapidly.

In recognition of his hard work and contributions, the Qing Chinese government appointed Cheong Fatt Tze as the Chinese Counsel to Malaya in 1890. As Chinese Counsel, he worked tirelessly to safeguard the interests of Chinese workers in Malaya including those in Bentong. Through diplomatic channels and his strong network in the colonial government, he played a key role in persuading the British administration to allow him and his partners to set up Chinese schools and improve the healthcare and sanitary facilities in Bentong.

Chia Soon Seng: Investing in Bentong

Chia Soon Seng was born in Pontianak, Borneo (now Indonesia) in 1847. His ancestors hailed from Jiaying in Guangdong Province. Upon amassing his wealth in Sumatra, Indonesia, he emigrated to Penang and became one of Cheong Fatt Tzes neighbours. Subsequently, both became close associates and were involved in several business ventures including the founding of Bank Deli in Medan, the first Chinese-owned bank in Indonesia.

When Loke Yew was seeking business partners to participate in a joint venture to develop the tin mines of Bentong, Chia Soon Seng was also invited to participate alongside Cheong Fatt Tze. Neither hesitated and contributed significant capital towards the business. As he accumulated more wealth from the mining venture, Chia Soon Seng contributed financially to the development of Chinese schools as well as healthcare for the labourers and the town.

The Founders of Chinese Town Hall

The majority of Chinese folk in Bentong arrived in the late 19th century as a result of Loke Yew and his partners deciding to develop the mining industry in the area. Over time, the Chinese came together to form fraternity associations in the town. The Tongmenghui was first set up in 1906 at No. 91, Ah Peng Street (now Sang Cheong Jewellery store) and was originally intended to serve as a platform to promote and support the Chinese revolution spearheaded by Dr. Sun-Yat Sen back in China.

With the passage of time, a huge plethora of Chinese associations were established. Eventually in 1914, five leaders from the five main Chinese clans in Bentong decided to pool their resources and form the Bentong Chinese Town Hall. The five men were Tang Siew Mun JP (Guangdong), Hoh Wah Kee (Hainanese), Tan Lian JP (Hokkien), Mun Fong (Hakka), and Chow Tak Heng (Guangxi). Together, they initiated the construction and establishment of the Chinese Town Hall, thereby uniting all five major clans under one roof.

By establishing the Chinese Town Hall, the founders were able to pool their collective strength to assist the local Chinese community. For example, the Chinese Town Hall was able to jointly build the main Chinese school in Bentong  Khai Mun School. Khai Mun remains the biggest school and the main bastion for Chinese medium education in Bentong today.

The Chinese Town Hall also helped to maintain and manage one of the towns main temples, the Kwong Fook Temple. This is a key pilgrimage site for the local Chinese Buddhist community and many locals believe it plays a key role in maintaining the prosperity and peace of the town.

It is therefore worth emphasising that without the Chinese Town Hall, the residents of Bentong would be deprived of an organisation which has not only helped address community problems but has also acted as a spokesperson to voice the concerns of the community to the authorities. As such, it is probable that Chinese language and culture would not be so well-preserved in the absence of the Chinese Town Hall.

Conclusion

For some members of present-day society, the contributions of prominent people in the pre-WWII era may be a distant past destined to be forgotten. Yet, all residents of Bentong continue to enjoy the byproduct of peace and development brought to the town by Bentongs historical figures. Therefore, we must make it a point to remember their generosity and sacrifices because without them, Bentong would not be the rising star of Pahang that it is today.

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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 13 of the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987, allowance is made for fair dealing for purposes such as non-profit research, private study, criticism, review or the reporting of current events. The Operator and author(s) of TsemRinpoche.com, a not-for-profit blog, do not claim ownership on the intellectual property rights of the contents, images and/or videos reproduced in this article. Any subsisting intellectual property rights shall belong to the legal owner of the contents, images and/or videos.As part of his official visit to the United Arab Emirates, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov held talks in Abu Dhabi with the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The sides exchanged views on the prospects of further strengthening the interstate relations based on the principles of mutual respect. The sides noted the similarity or convergence of positions of Turkmenistan and the UAE on issues related to international politics and regional relations, which is a good basis for cooperation through international organizations and the UN above all.

The sides also discussed building up cultural and humanitarian ties in such important areas as science, education, culture and art.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021

When the vulnerability of small island countries to climate change is reported in international media, it is often accompanied by images of houses and roads inundated with seawater, families standing among ruined homes, and children barefoot among wind-blown palm trees.

People are often portrayed as victims at the mercy of the elements. It can be an easy narrative to fall into  communicating climate change is complex and multifaceted. Yet it is far from the full picture. And it fails both the stories and the readers.

Addressing the impacts and causes of climate change must begin with strengthening nations' ability to make decisions about their own future. And this means investing in the very people who will help shape those decisions.

This can be a challenge in small island developing states. Take the example of Tuvalu, where coastal areas are highly vulnerable to sea-level rise, storm surges and flooding. Building resilience in these areas requires not only coastal engineers, but also marine biologists, geologists, oceanographers, meteorologists and so on. Yet the size of a country dictates the breadth of technical expertise it can offer, so it is not uncommon for a small island country's government to have to call upon international consultants to assess and present solutions. Unsurprisingly, these solutions are often not fully "owned" by communities.

Lifting up young Tuvaluans

This issue was very much in our thoughts when we, with the Government of Tuvalu, began co-developing a proposal for the Green Climate Fund, focused on coastal adaptation.

Both the Government and project team recognized that, for transformational change to take place, there was a clear need to focus on building a pipeline of young Tuvaluans, ready to lead their country in addressing the challenges ahead.

One of the components of the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project is to fund up to six students to study a discipline relevant for coastal resilience abroad at a specialist university.

The scholarship is not just a personal investment for a talented young person. The seven-year duration of the project allows the scholarship recipients to return home and work on the project directly. This means their skills and knowledge are directly fed back into the work being done. It also lays the foundation for some of those same students to move on to a master's degree to become an expert in the topic, building the knowledge capital of their nation.

19-year-old Tanu Sumeo won a scholarship to study geospatial science at the University of South Australia. Photo: Merana Kitione/UNDP

The Government of Tuvalu recently announced two awardees for the 2018 scholarship programme, including 19-year-old Tanu Sumeo. Tanu has set her sights high. Asked what she wants to do after finishing her studies, she replied, "I want to be a permanent secretary (high-level civil servant)."

With her recent acceptance to the University of South Australia to study geospatial science, shes well on her way. Bright young women like Tanu are going to be among the technical experts and the decision-makers Tuvalu needs to protect its atolls and communities from the effects of climate change and sea level rise.

Looking to the future

Tuvalu may be a least developed country with considerable development challenges, including a small and fragile economy, geographical vulnerabilities and financial and technical barriers.

Yet it is also a country determined to develop and implement its own solutions to address the impacts of climate change, including building the capacity of its young population to take charge of their future.



This article was originally published in the Fiji Times.Were it not for a recent change of the law, Olivia's daughter would have been born without Malagasy nationality.  UNHCR/Roger Arnold

New York  UN Women, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) called today for increased efforts to eradicate gender inequality in nationality laws, which is a key driver of statelessness.

In 25 countries around the world, nationality laws do not allow women to confer their nationality to their children on an equal basis as men. In more than 50 countries, women are denied equal rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality. These sex-discriminatory laws result in wide-ranging human rights violations.

At a high-level event today in New York, the three UN agencies, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and affected women discussed the benefits of gender equality in nationality laws, and shared lessons learned from recent reforms in relevant legislations.

The event was held at the side lines of the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62), which this year focuses on the empowerment of rural women and girls.

Discrimination against women in nationality laws has crippling effects on their daily lives. It is one of the primary causes of statelessness, whereby a person is not recognized as citizen of any country. This can lead to the denial of basic human rights that most of us take for grantedlike access to education, health care, social security, job opportunities or participation in political processes.

Sex-discriminatory nationality laws can also contribute to the risk of gender-based violence, threaten family unity, and are often linked to social marginalization and psychological distress.

Such laws and practices contradict a number of international conventions, agreements and recommendations. For example, according to General recommendation No. 34 on the rights of rural women, of the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): States parties should ensure that rural women may acquire, change, retain or renounce their nationality, or transfer it to their children and foreign spouse under the same conditions as men, and that they are aware of their rights in this regard. States parties should also provide rural women with access to personal identification documents (such as identity cards, passports and social security numbers) and ensure that civil registration procedures, including for birth, marriage, divorce and death, are accessible in rural areas.

However, momentum for the reform of sex-discriminatory nationality laws is increasing. Several positive developments have taken place in recent times: In 2017 alone, two countries, Madagascar and Sierra Leone, reformed their nationality laws to allow women to confer their nationality on their children on an equal basis as men. These achievements follow similar reforms made by 15 other countries in the last 15 years.

UN Women, UNHCR and UNICEF are redoubling their efforts to work towards a world in which no woman or child is denied basic human rights as a result of gender discrimination in nationality laws. These efforts will also contribute to the aim to leave no one behind, outlined in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and to end statelessness by 2024, which is the goal of the #IBelong Campaign.Why it matters

What is the agreement that has been reached and why does it matter?

About 60 per cent of the worlds refugee population lives in around 10 countries, all in the global south. Refugees often live in the poorest parts of these countries. The global compact is a response to the need for the international community to come together and help these countries that are particularly affected by refugee movements. Thats the whole purpose.

We have just ended an 18-month process of intense engagement with all 193 Member States of the United Nations plus all other stakeholders  non-governmental organizations, the private sector, faith communities, refugees themselves, and the World Bank.

Its a miracle that in todays world where there is a lot of polarization, where we see a lot of divisiveness, we actually managed successfully a multilateral process to address one of the most sensitive issues  refugees.

The global compact is a document that consolidates practices acquired over many years and often over decades, and puts forward a new vision of how the international community will engage with countries that are particularly affected by refugees.

If a country today is affected by an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees or, by even ten or twenty thousand, what should the international community do to assist this country? Thats the question that the global compact answers.

But why a new international agreement? Does this mean the Refugee Convention is not fit for purpose?

The Refugee Convention focuses on rights of refugees and obligations of States, but it does not deal with international cooperation writ large. And thats what the global compact seeks to address.

The 1951 Convention does not specify how you share the burden and responsibility, and thats what the global compact does. It responds to one of the major gaps we have faced for decades.

How it will make a difference

What tangible difference will the compact make in the lives of refugees or the communities that host them?

We would see better education for refugee boys and girls, as well as better access to health services for all refugees, and more livelihood opportunities. We would also see a different way host communities engage with refugees, hopefully moving away from the encampment policies that we still have in too many countries.

Host countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Iran, those in Central America, or Lebanon  with its infrastructure and health services enormously challenged by hosting a million refugees  would get the support they need to meet both the needs of refugees and the communities that host them.

The compact would make sure that countries like Lebanon are supported. Not just from a humanitarian perspective but from a development cooperation perspective. And thats what is new.

Also, we would aim to get more resettlement places and find more ways refugees can move to third countries  such as through family reunification, student scholarships, or humanitarian visas, so that refugees can travel safely (what we call complementary pathways). There would be more support in the form of standby arrangements, providing technical support to host countries in many areas  from gathering and analyzing data to managing the environment.

But if the compact is not legally binding, can it really make a difference?

The UN General Assembly will adopt the global compact; that is our expectation, and once thats done, it demonstrates a very strong political commitment of all 193 Member States to implement it, even if its not legally binding.

In todays world, thats how multilateralism is often done.

The mechanics of responsibility sharing: how its all going to work?

Paint a picture for me on how its all going to work when theres a new refugee crisis with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to, say, Bangladesh. What should happen?

First of all, when a country is hit by a large-scale influx, such as in Bangladesh or Uganda with the latest influx of Congolese refugees, we quickly need to know the needs of the people and the impact on the receiving country.

Then we have to present the needs in terms of financial support, humanitarian assistance, and development cooperation to the international community writ large. We would need to see if some countries come forward and say: yes Im going to pledge funding; I am going to help on the education front; I will help with technical expertise through standby arrangements to ensure jungles dont disappear due to a huge influx of people to a certain area (which is currently happening in Bangladesh); yes, we are going to increase resettlement.

So, what we want to achieve is a very quick galvanizing of support: political, financial, and resettlement support, so that countries  when they are faced with such a situation  feel that they are not on their own, that they are not isolated, or that no one cares. That actually yes, the international community cares about the people, but also the country that is affected. And it stands in solidarity, and acts in solidarity with them. That is really the purpose.

So is it really about drawing together various existing tools, and ensuring they happen faster, and more systematically?

The idea is very much to trigger and activate mechanisms that are faster, more equitable, more predictable, and more comprehensive.

What will it take to build confidence among host countries to let refugees work, own businesses, live outside of camps, and generally have more progressive policies for refugees?

It is important to recognise the incredible challenge for countries like Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, or Rwanda, which have their own development challenges, to be confronted suddenly with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people.

But if countries can also see crisis as an opportunity and adapt their policies accordingly, this can be turned into an advantage. This means saying: okay, this is a remote part of the country, we have this influx of people, we have international engagement, and (so) lets use it so that both the refugee population and the host community can benefit from boosted development cooperation. This means we do not just develop and focus on one camp, but we focus on the area where refugees are hosted and live with local communities. And we make sure that we build the infrastructure, the roads, the electricity grid, the water supplies that benefit refugees and also the host communities. We also build the livelihood opportunities that go along with that.

Of course to do this, you need investment. You need an initial strong, robust response. You need the support and solidarity. So thats what we hope to secure with this new approach, and its a strong case to make to countries.

Relationship between the refugee and migration compacts

There are in fact two global compacts in the works  one on refugees and one on migrants. How do they relate to each other, and are there two?

The New York Declaration that was adopted in September 2016 gave birth to two compacts: one on refugees and one on migration. They were set in train by the same declaration, but pursue very different objectives.

The migration compact really started from scratch. For the first time, at the level of the General Assembly of the United Nations, you had an intense discussion on the benefits of migration, on what migration brings to countries, but also some of the challenges countries face when they are dealing with migration issues. Thats what the global compact on migration tries to address. It puts together a holistic view of migration in todays world.

There is a very strong human rights basis for everyone on the move. Thats clear.

At the same time, there is a legal distinction for those who, for valid reasons, cannot return to their country of origin, because of conflict, because of war, because of serious human rights abuses, because of massive inequality that leads to discrimination, because of gang violence, and so forth. For these people a specific legal regime has been established to protect them, and it is people in these situations that the refugees compact addresses.

The World Bank is involved in the global compact, and funds will be made available. The question is why hasnt this been done before?

Perhaps I can talk about this in the context of partnerships. What the global compact does is it embeds the response to host countries, host communities, to the refugees in a much broader partnerships approach.

It actually looks at what the private sector can bring to the table, what faith communities can bring to the table, what the international financial institutions can bring to the table, and over the last three years, we have seen a sea change in the way, for instance, the World Bank group engages with refugee hosting countries.

The World Bank has established a so-called refugee sub-window, a specific financial instrument for low-income countries affected by forced displacement  US$2 billion for a couple of years  to help address the socio-economic impact of refugee flows into a particular part of a country.

What has happened is there is a realization within the international financial institutions that the impact of forced displacement can be a shock to the system  on water, sanitation, education, health, and you need to invest in the system so that it can cope with a much larger population, and that has happened over the last three years.

In a way, what the global compact does is not just build on existing partnerships, but also expand some of them and bring in new partners. And one of the big new partners that have come in are these international financial institutions.

This Q&A was originally published in March 2018 and has been updated to reflect recent progress in developing the compact.UNHCR Deputy Representative for Protection in Chad, Edward O'Dwyer  UNHCR Chad

At the time, it was not my intention to join the UN, says Edward ODwyer.

In the early 1990s, the Limerick man was working with a Galway based computer software company when it closed, leading him to consider a career change.

He joined the UN Volunteer programme in Cambodia in 1992, but soon after was deployed with UNHCR in the former Yugoslavia, where a devastating conflict had created the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

I was drawn by events there and it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

Some 25 years later, he is still passionate about working with refugees and asylum-seekers around the world. Since January 2017, he has been stationed in Chad in the role of Deputy Representative for Protection, an often challenging and very interesting assignment.

The current situation is quite difficult, explains ODwyer. Over the past few years, Chad has experienced an economic crisis as its petrol revenues plummeted due to global oil prices and conflict and instability in neighboring countries led to border closures and the disruption of trade. In this context UNHCR is supporting the government to protect and find solutions for more than 630,000 people in Chad. This includes about 430,000 refugees, 157,000 internally displaced people as well as Chadian returnees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria and Chadian refugees from Darfur in the Sudan.

Conflict zones

Sharing a border with Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon as well as Nigeria and Niger, the land-locked country is located in-between some of Africas most notorious conflicts.

Insecurity related to the Boko Haram terrorist group in the Lake Chad region has led to over 157,000 people being displaced or affected by displacement within Chad near the border with Nigeria. People who previously were obliged to move their homes to follow the receding waters of the lake in order to maintain their livelihoods in fishing and agriculture are now forced to move again due to violence and attacks on the civilian population by Boko Haram.

According to ODwyer, Islamic terrorism posed a threat not just to Chad but to the broader region.

Boko Haram puts the whole area under stress. This element of extremism needs attention.

Boko Haram puts the whole area under stress. This element of extremism needs attention. If communities dont have protection they are either forced to flee or they fall prey to their captors.

On top of all of this, renewed fighting in the Central African Republic has triggered large movements of people towards Chad. 21,000 people have entered into Chad since Christmas alone and we understand more are arriving as we speak. This is very worrying, he says.

In the context of instability in the region, Chad has been a safe haven, offering security and protection to large numbers of refugees over the years. However, this regional instability has left its mark on the countrys economy and has negatively impacted the resilience of communities and families to make ends meet. This has been a harsh set back following the more successful years of the petrol boom, which began in 2003.

Child refugee Zoera, in faded red dress with green headscarf, attends class at Djabal camp in Chad Young Sudanese refugees are being integrated into Chad's school system, with the support of UNHCR and Educate A Child Programme.   UNHCR/S.Cherkaoui

Falling oil prices and humanitarian aid

The petrol industry gave Chad a new lifeline to complement its existing base. Before that, its biggest industries were cattle, agriculture and cotton. When the growing insecurity in the region led to the countrys decision to close some of its borders, the situation changed. The cattle industry was highly dependent on cross-border trade. That wasnt possible anymore. When the petrol prices started going down as well, Chad entered a deep economic crisis, he says

Progressive reductions in the levels of humanitarian resources available in Chad have made the situation even more precarious. Both UNHCRs, as well as the World Food Programmes funding, have been reduced over the last few years at a time when the numbers of people of concern have continued to increase. UNHCR Chads operational budget had reduced by 50% since 2013, he says. This has a direct and negative impact on the general protection environment and well-being of families, particularly women and children who are exposed to the most serious risks to their person and dignity. The problem is, that Chad, or at least NDjamena, looks better to the eye than it actually is when reality reveals itself. During the petrol boom, a lot was invested in infrastructure but nobody was investing in the human capital which the country so badly needed. We can feel that now.

Today, more than a quarter of Chads own population is in need of humanitarian aid due to food insecurity. This situation has a direct impact on families, particularly children. It often means families cant send their children to school, or they have to choose which of their children will get to go. It is usually the girls who end up staying at home.

...people here tend to be very welcoming. There is a huge tradition of asylum on the African continent.

Tradition of asylum

Despite all this, Chads population remains welcoming towards refugees and asylum-seekers, says O'Dwyer. Think of Chad as a country of great hospitality. Africa, in general, is very specific in this regard as people here tend to be very welcoming. There is a huge tradition of asylum on the African continent.

To improve the situation and get people out of their dependency on humanitarian aid, UNHCR is working closely with development agencies as well as the government of Chad toward the socio-economic inclusion of refugees. High up on this years agenda: giving refugees the right to work.

Refugees access to the labour market is still quite restricted. We are supporting the government to lighten the administrative procedures and facilitate inclusion. Implementing refugee legislation would allow refugees to stimulate the economy here in Chad.

Its a highly charged brief, but one that the occasional trip home helps him get ready for. I go back to Ireland a few times every year. Its good to fill up the batteries.22 Sep 2021 | 1:04 AM

New Delhi/Paris, Sep 22 (UNI) French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said an effusive thank you to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the phone conversation, during which the two leaders discussed the situation in Afghanistan and closer cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. The growing warmth in relations between the two sides comes as France has taken umbrage over the cancellation of a $66 billion submarine deal by Canberra in favour of a new deal with the US, Australia, and UK.Hawala money seized

Kannur, Mar 14 (UNI) Police seized Rs 94 lakh hawala money and arrested two persons after conducting as many raids at Kunnoth near Iritty on Wednesday.

The arrested, who were coming from Karnataka in tourist buses, have been identified as K C Sonimon (35) of Ulikkal in Kannur district and Muhammed Anshad (24) of Nilambur in Malappuram district.

Police said the duo, who were on way to Kannur in two buses, had hidden currencies in plastics bags, in the denomination of Rs 2000 and Rs 500, under the seats of the buses.UN envoy urges armed groups to sign accord in Sudan

United Nations, Mar 15 (UNI) While the security situation in Sudans Darfur region remained stable, the causes of the conflict  and their related consequences  have been largely unaddressed, the head of the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission said Wednesday, calling on holdout armed groups to sign the foundational 2011 peace agreement without delay.

That would be the only way the people of Darfur, and indeed the international community, could have any realistic hope for the achievement of durable peace in Darfur, Jeremiah Mamabolo, the Joint Special Representative and the head of the AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), told the Security Council.

In particular, he urged the Council to use its leverage to have Abdul Wahid al Nur, who leads a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, join the peace process.For information only - not an official document

UNIS/MA/213

14 March 2018

MEDIA ADVISORY

Media representatives are invited to

UNISPACE+50

18 - 21 June 2018

M Building, Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria

VIENNA, 14 March (UN Information Service) - The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) invites the media to UNISPACE+50, from 18 to 21 June 2018 in the M Building of the Vienna International Centre (VIC).

UNISPACE+50 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, held in Vienna in 1968. It will also be an opportunity for the international community to gather and consider the future course of global space cooperation for the benefit of humankind.

Hundreds of representatives from the space community are expected at UNISPACE+50, including United Nations Member States, Permanent Observers, United Nations entities, space agencies, NGOs, academia, civil society, students, the private sector and industry. United Nations Champion for Space, former astronaut Scott Kelly, will be a special guest.

UNISPACE+50 will consist of two main parts:

1. UNISPACE+50 Symposium: 18-19 June

Monday 18 June Tuesday 19 June 9:30 - 10:00 Opening remarks by the Office for Outer Space Affairs Introductory remarks by the Office for Outer Space Affairs

Keynote address by Scott Kelly, United Nations Champion for Space 10:00 - 11:30 High-level panel Heads of Space Agencies panel 12:00 - 13:30 Space and Industries panel Space and Civil Society panel 15:00 - 16:30 Space for Women panel Space for Youth panel



2. UNISPACE+50 Summit: 20-21 June

A special high-level segment of the 61st session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will be open to all Member States of the United Nations, with an address by United Nations Champion for Space Scott Kelly, the adoption of the UNISPACE+50 resolution, and statements by United Nations Member States.

Other activities

A number of side events will be held during UNISPACE+50.

In addition, a UNISPACE+50 exhibition consisting of nearly 40 exhibitors will be held in the Rotunda of the VIC from 18 to 23 June. The exhibition will be open to the public from 9:00 until 13:00 on 23 June.

Further details about UNISPACE+50, including speakers and specific media opportunities, will be publicized in due course.

***

Media representatives who wish to attend the event, and who are not accredited to the VIC, should write to press[at]unvienna.org.

Access to the M building is via Gate 1 of the Vienna International Centre.

* *** *

For more information about UNOOSA, please contact:

Daria Brankin

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

Tel.: (+43 699) 1459 8718

Email: daria.brankin[at]un.orgUptown Update Archives September 2021 (4) August 2021 (6) July 2021 (36) June 2021 (11) May 2021 (3) April 2021 (8) March 2021 (8) February 2021 (8) January 2021 (5) December 2020 (8) November 2020 (11) October 2020 (15) September 2020 (11) August 2020 (10) July 2020 (19) June 2020 (19) May 2020 (34) April 2020 (32) March 2020 (11) February 2020 (23) January 2020 (53) December 2019 (5) November 2019 (27) October 2019 (14) September 2019 (38) August 2019 (47) July 2019 (53) June 2019 (38) May 2019 (33) April 2019 (47) March 2019 (46) February 2019 (28) January 2019 (16) December 2018 (41) November 2018 (46) October 2018 (31) September 2018 (19) August 2018 (41) July 2018 (62) June 2018 (45) May 2018 (56) April 2018 (47) March 2018 (24) February 2018 (53) January 2018 (67) December 2017 (82) November 2017 (78) October 2017 (53) September 2017 (45) August 2017 (66) July 2017 (67) June 2017 (62) May 2017 (82) April 2017 (63) March 2017 (64) February 2017 (49) January 2017 (15) December 2016 (46) November 2016 (34) October 2016 (91) September 2016 (80) August 2016 (54) July 2016 (62) June 2016 (101) May 2016 (85) April 2016 (65) March 2016 (34) February 2016 (54) January 2016 (63) December 2015 (78) November 2015 (71) October 2015 (86) September 2015 (84) August 2015 (84) July 2015 (72) June 2015 (85) May 2015 (87) April 2015 (77) March 2015 (65) February 2015 (74) January 2015 (79) December 2014 (67) November 2014 (48) October 2014 (54) September 2014 (26) August 2014 (50) July 2014 (66) June 2014 (67) May 2014 (98) April 2014 (84) March 2014 (76) February 2014 (62) January 2014 (82) December 2013 (81) November 2013 (88) October 2013 (77) September 2013 (92) August 2013 (105) July 2013 (85) June 2013 (90) May 2013 (70) April 2013 (89) March 2013 (77) February 2013 (74) January 2013 (84) December 2012 (85) November 2012 (84) October 2012 (96) September 2012 (87) August 2012 (105) July 2012 (103) June 2012 (87) May 2012 (76) April 2012 (84) March 2012 (92) February 2012 (80) January 2012 (93) December 2011 (76) November 2011 (72) October 2011 (77) September 2011 (101) August 2011 (105) July 2011 (99) June 2011 (116) May 2011 (128) April 2011 (125) March 2011 (151) February 2011 (121) January 2011 (123) December 2010 (117) November 2010 (113) October 2010 (122) September 2010 (118) August 2010 (115) July 2010 (145) June 2010 (124) May 2010 (148) April 2010 (130) March 2010 (111) February 2010 (88) January 2010 (97) December 2009 (108) November 2009 (95) October 2009 (108) September 2009 (108) August 2009 (108) July 2009 (111) June 2009 (129) May 2009 (135) April 2009 (134) March 2009 (130) February 2009 (123) January 2009 (86) December 2008 (116) November 2008 (106) October 2008 (138) September 2008 (136) August 2008 (149) July 2008 (164) June 2008 (127) May 2008 (137) April 2008 (126) March 2008 (118) February 2008 (64) January 2008 (59) December 2007 (51) November 2007 (54) October 2007 (51) September 2007 (77) August 2007 (65) July 2007 (90) June 2007 (43) May 2007 (40)Former UW McNair, Wyoming Research Scholar Studies Puerto Rico Forest Hurricane Damage

Jazlynn Hall, of Rawlins, and a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, uses a high-resolution GPS to mark the corners of her calibration plots in the forests of Puerto Rico. Hall is part of a research team that is studying hurricane damage to better process how an increase in extreme weather may hinder the ability of forests to create a positive effect on the climate. (Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Photo)

A scholar from Rawlins who got her start in academia at the University of Wyoming is part of a major research project that recently was featured in the New York Times.

Jazlynn Hall, a former UW McNair Scholar and Wyoming Research Scholar who graduated from UW in 2016, is now a doctoral candidate in ecological and evolutionary biology at Columbia University. She was the subject of a photo that accompanied a March 7 New York Times feature article. The story centered on research of the devastated forest canopy in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria barreled through the country last September.

I feel fortunate to be working as a part of Dr. Maria Uriarte's lab doing research that is directly related to current events, Hall says. It was a pretty big milestone to be mentioned at all (in the article), and I am excited to continue the research and see what we can discover with the data we are collecting.

Hall is part of a research team that is studying the hurricane damage to better process how an increase in extreme weather may hinder the ability of forests to create a positive effect on the climate. Uriarte is a professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia.

The Uriarte lab hopes to use this data to examine how the hurricane will affect forest dynamics and what that may mean for the future of the forests, Hall explains. This research hopes to estimate the physical changes in forest composition and structure, which will likely have a significant effect on the ability of forests to deliver ecosystem services like carbon sequestration and water resources.

Hall says the research team spent three weeks in January assessing forest damage from plots marked in the field. A good portion of the January fieldwork was spent calibrating satellite images. This work, conducted with her lab partner, Andrew Quebbeman, was part of a joint student grant from Columbias Earth Institute.

Hall says her role, thus far, has been to use remote sensing techniques and the Google Earth Engine platform to estimate island-wide damage. She looked at Landsat data from before and after the hurricanes (Irma and Maria), and applied spectral mixture analysis to estimate the per-pixel proportions of non-photosynthetic vegetation. Much of her January research, and a portion of the fieldwork for the next few months, will focus on determining the relationships between the Landsat satellite-derived damage estimates to the damage that the research group is seeing on the ground.

The team will return to Puerto Rico periodically over the next few months.

Our next steps will be to use those relationships to estimate vegetation damage and, therefore, biomass redistribution and loss, across the island, Hall says. I also have been involved with helping to process the field damage data that we have been sent by the volunteer team, and have been personally using that data to calibrate the estimate, of damage, that I created.

UW Laid the Foundation

Hall says she benefited from the multitude of undergraduate research experiences she accumulated while at UW.

I honestly cannot say enough good things about the McNair Scholars Program, Hall says. It played a large role in my being admitted to graduate school, as they have an incredibly helpful program training their scholars in how to appeal to schools, reach out to potential advisers and how to ultimately select the right program.

Jazlynn Hall, a 2016 UW graduate, observes hurricane damage in the forests of Puerto Rico during January. Her fieldwork -- assessing hurricane damage with her Columbia University research group -- was featured in a March 7 New York Times article. (Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Photo)

The McNair Scholars Program also provided a course to prepare students for the Graduate Records Examination; held seminars about diverse topics ranging from time management to dealing with cultural and social barriers involved with being a first-generation college student; and provided guidance on writing and research techniques that have proven to be useful, she says.

Additionally, they provided the funding for me to visit Columbia, which ultimately helped me make my decision, which I would not have been able to afford without the financial assistance of the program, Hall says.

Hall also was a member of the inaugural class of the Wyoming Research Scholars Program. That opportunity provided research experience by pairing her with a faculty mentor and providing funding for travel to Panama, a trip she otherwise could not afford.

They offered a seminar that highlighted critical thinking as well as insight into the scientific community that I have found useful in graduate school, she says.

She also participated in Wyoming EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) and WyCEHG (Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics), and was a recipient of the competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award. When she graduated from UW in 2016, Hall was one of the top 20 Outstanding Arts and Sciences graduates.

My time with WyCEHG taught me much about experimental design, field techniques and data processing, which are skills I utilize nearly every day in graduate school, Hall says. Monitoring and setting up the long-term research field stations gave me access to a wealth of information and taught me much about how to formulate questions with the data we have.

EPSCoR provided the funding for multiple personal research projects, and was a valuable resource for conferences and conducting research, she adds.

Adjusting to the Big City

Hall admits growing up in rural Wyoming was quite different from living in the urban jungle of New York City, which took some getting used to.

It took some time to adjust to the crowds, noise and, honestly, the smell, of the city. Its much more fast-paced, and you begin to miss having a car, she says. But, in other ways, it isn't terribly different. In my experience, New Yorkers put on rough faces, but they are not afraid to stand up for their fellow New Yorkers when they can see someone needs help. There is a strong sense of community here that I have a deep respect for.

She also credits her support base at Columbia with helping her make the transition.

I am incredibly fortunate to work alongside my colleagues here and to have had the opportunity to conduct research that I find meaningful while having so many wonderful people here to inspire and push me, Hall says.Trump paves way for a Trudeau resurgenceFollowing his misadventures on the India subcontinent, Justin Trudeau has to restore his once-lustrous international image. Donald Trump is his ticket.The U.S. President has upped his reputation for running a gong show with his admission that he had no idea what he was talking about when telling the Prime Minister the United States runs a trade deficit with Canada.He just made it up, the President admits on an audio feed from a private fundraiser on Wednesday. Didnt know what he was talking about.The confession, a rather unique one in the annals of relations between presidents and prime ministers, is a big boost for Ottawa negotiators in the trade debate, undercutting the credibility of the American posture. The Canadian side has been making the point about the U.S. having a surplus repeatedly over the last year. Washington has twisted statistics and data to claim otherwise.The President is well known for fictional accounts. He averages, according to trackers, several falsehoods a day. So in that sense, the revelation, the added evidence that he is not terribly tethered to realities, comes as no great surprise. The line about Ronald Reagan  If you walked through his deepest thoughts you wouldnt get your ankles wet  is much more applicable to Donald Trump.Given Mr. Trumps unpopularity, given that he is so offensive to so many Canadians, Mr. Trudeau is fortunate in that he cannot help but benefit by comparison.Though a fellow conservative, opposition leader Andrew Scheer avoids Mr. Trump like plutonium. Its a smart move. He wouldnt want to risk wilt by association.Mr. Trump thinks he has Ottawa boxed in on the trade file by playing the linkage game. As in, either pony up at the North American free-trade agreement negotiations, Mr. Trudeau, or youll be bludgeoned with steel and aluminum tariffs.But in fact Mr. Trudeau has the upper hand and it is getting stronger. Larry Kudlow, the Presidents newly appointed director of the National Economic Council, says it makes no sense to go after Canada. While alleging that Mr. Trudeau is a left-wing crazy guy, Mr. Kudlow added that exiting NAFTA would be a calamitously bad decision.We are sad to report that both aviators have been declared deceased

(Is this newsspeak? I guess 'deceased' sounds better than 'dead'. - Murphy)



Flying is always serious business.---The aviators were on a training flight and making their final approach toward the Naval Air Station Key West when the jet went downThe aviators were on a training flight in the dual-seated F/A-18 Super Hornet and making their final approach toward the Naval Air Station Key West when the jet went down. The aircraft hit the water about 4:30 p.m., roughly one mile east of the runway, U.S. Naval Air Forces said.Search and rescue crews responded quickly and were able to recover the aviators from the water. They were taken by ambulance to the Lower Keys Medical Center. But roughly three hours later, U.S. Naval Air Forces reported that the aviators did not survive their injuries.We are sad to report that both aviators have been declared deceased, U.S. Naval Air Forces said in a statement. Their families are in our prayers.Officials declined to release the aviators identities, pending notification of next-of-kin, but did say that one was a pilot and the other was a weapons systems officer. They were based at Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia.President Trump tweeted condolences, saying, Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible @USNavy.The cause of the crash is under investigation, U.S. Naval Air Forces said.Witnesses described seeing the jet catch fire in midair, then falling from the sky.It went a little sideways, then I saw fire, Barbie Wilson, a local marina owner, told local news. And then it just literally dropped out of the sky. It was like something out of a movie.---Asia Bibi, the Christian Pakistani woman serving a sentence on death row for blasphemy, said the fact that she has been allowed to keep the rosary sent to her by Pope Francis, is a miracle.

Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, Asia Bibi revealed that it is the first time in nine years of imprisonment that she has been allowed to have a religious object with her in her cell.

The organization, a Papal charity that supports persecuted Christians, organized a meeting in the Vatican on February 24 between Pope Francis and Asia Bibis husband, Ashiq, and daughter, Eisham. It was during that occasion that Francis entrusted to them a rosary for Asia and asked them to tell her that he is praying for her.

Asia Bibi was jailed in June 2009 and sentenced to death for blasphemy. After two transfers, she has been held in one of the three windowless cells on death row in the southern province of Multan in the Punjab Penitentiary.

I received the Popes gift with devotion and gratitude Asia Bibi reportedly said, adding that the rosary offers her great consolation while the knowledge that the Pope is praying for her and thinking of her is a source of great comfort.

ACN also said Asias daughter and husband told her of how the Colosseum was lit up in blood red on the evening of 24 February in memory of and in tribute to Christian martyrs.

International awareness of my case is fundamental for me. It is thanks to this that I am still alive she said.



And she thanked ACN for the work it does for all victims of the anti-blasphemy law which, she said, if abused is ruthlessly used against religious minorities.

Conflict has devastated the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and caused what is being rated as one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world today.

By Linda Bordoni

A wave of violence has transformed the Greater Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo into one of the most volatile regions in the world today.

What began in August 2016 with the killing of a local chief by the Congolese armed forces, led to the killing of over 3,000 people and the displacement of more than 1.4 million.

The current humanitarian crisis in Kasai is rated as one of the most serious in the world where it is estimated more than 10 million people will need aid in 2018.

Caritas, the Churchs aid organization, has launched an emergency appeal for the war-affected population where time is running out for millions. Thats why it has called the appeal is called Its time to break the silence.

Caritas International Belgium has been present in the DRC since 1960 and is working in partnership with local dioceses.

Caritas Willem Vervaeke told Linda Bordoni about the organizations three-pronged approach to the crisis and about the current situation in Kasai.

Vervaeke explained that thanks to the work and coordination between Caritas International and Caritas DRC, aid is reaching the most vulnerable through the distribution of food, essential household supplies and hygiene kits. We launched this appeal at the end of last year due to the urgent humanitarian situation he said.

Caritas threefold response

Vervaeke said Caritas has a three-level response, the first of which tries to respond to the basic needs of food and other basic necessities.

He explained the second response is what is known as the Humanitarian Watch System in which all partners collect and transmit information about the humanitarian situation in specific local communities and this information is then used to orient the humanitarian response in the area.

So each actor knows exactly where to go and what the specific needs are he said. The third aspect, he continued, is called RRMP  Rapid Response to the Movement of the Population: a mechanism coordinated by the UN which aims to maximize the efficiency of the response to particular needs.

Situation of the people

As regards the current situation of the people Vervaeke said At the moment it remains very volatile. Towards the end of 2017 we had the feeling it had stabilized a little and numbers of displaced people were beginning to return to the region but, he said, since January we are seeing pockets of violence erupting again, for different reasons, sometimes along ethnic lines, sometimes its between the armed forces and local Kamwina Nsapu militias. 

Tension is erupting again, and humanitarian needs are increasing he said.

He says this is reflected also in the unprecedented UN appeal for 1.6 billion dollars in humanitarian assistance for 2018, much of which is linked to the situation in the Kasai region.

Vervaeke said formerly displaced people who are back in the region and are in host communities are completely destitute: they have missed three agricultural seasons and have no food and no means to pick up their lives again: the situation is very dire.

He said the situation is largely neglected also because the news that is filtering through the mainstream media is mostly linked to the to the political situation in the country, to the democratic process and elections.

Funds received so far do not cover urgent needs

We have to remember the humanitarian situation is crucial and at the moment the money received by the international community does not cover the needs that are present in the county.

We have only received between 1 and 10% of what is need on the ground. So we really urge the international community to come to help the Congolese people he said.

Vervaeke also invited individuals to click onto the Caritas website and go to the Its time to break the silence campaign which explains the background to the crisis and encourages people to act also at a personal level.

He concluded noting that Pope Francis recent call for a Day of Prayer for Peace in DRC also had a huge impact in raising awareness and providing impetus to the humanitarian work being carried out in the region.

Listen to our report



Pakistani bishops on their ad limina visit to Rome, were received by Pope Francis in the Vatican, 15 March. Archbishop Joseph Coutts spoke about the meeting.

By Robin Gomes

Pope Francis welcomed visiting Pakistani Catholic bishops in the Vatican on Thursday, making them feel at home but showed great concern for the tiny Catholic community that is facing difficulties in the predominantly Muslim nation.

Members of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops Conference (PCBC) are currently in Rome on what is called the ad limina visit. Heads of dioceses make such visits every 5 years or so to report on the state of their jurisdictions.

PCBC president, Bishop Joseph Arshad of Faisalabad led four other Pakistani bishops in concelebrating Holy Mass with Pope Francis Thursday morning and later meeting him in a group.

It was a wonderful feeling meeting the Pope because the serious encounter was held in a very informal atmosphere, Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi told Vatican News.

Feeling at home



Arch. Coutts said that unlike the last ad limina in 2008, this meeting was more informal where the Pope reminded them they were all bishops, he being the Bishop of Rome. It was like a chat but the bishops brought out serious problems.

The Holy Father was keen to know about the situation in the Church. But what pleased most Arch. Coutts was the way Pope made them feel at home. In a lighter mood at a particular point, the Pope said there was drinking water available, and if needed, there was a toilet nearby.

Concern for Pakistans Christians



However, Archbishop of Karachi said that they also talked about serious issues. One could see the concern on the Popes face regarding the negative feeling about Pakistan abroad, especially with issues such as terrorism, and how they were coping with the situation.

Being Christian in non-Christian milieau



The bishops told the Pope that they had a lot of challenges but there was also hope. The Catholic Church is contributing much to society and to the development of the country, especially through education, hospitals and other charitable works such as with the handicapped and drug addicts. All these are a witness to their faith and what it means to be a Christian in a non-Christian milieu. The bishops pointed out that Catholic institutions are open to everyone, not just Christians.

Dialogue of life

The Holy Father also encouraged the bishops in inter-religious dialogue, which the archbishop said comes quite natural to the Church in Pakistan. However, this consists more in a dialogue of life rather than in discussions and lectures. He said it is sharing of our lives and common problems and other issues like education.

As a case in point, the 72-year old archbishop spoke about the Holy Family Hospital in his Archdiocese of Karachi, where most of the doctors were Muslims. There were a few Hindus but no Catholics. This way, he said, they were working together to respond to the common human needs. Lewis Morley Archive

Screenshot of the National Portrait Gallery in Londons website on March 14, 2018 showing incorrect labeling information identifying Stephen Hawking as the man in glasses.

Have you seen this photo of Stephen Hawking protesting the Vietnam War in 1968? Its a powerful image, but its not actually Hawking. Gizmodo has confirmed with the National Portrait Gallery in London that it doesnt actually know who the bespectacled man with canes might be.The National Portrait Gallery apologizes that a sitter in a photograph taken at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration in London in October 1968 was previously mistakenly identified as Stephen Hawking, a spokesperson at the National Portrait Gallery in London told Gizmodo.The photographer, Lewis Morley indicated that Hawking was in the image but the Gallery has since ascertained that this was incorrect.British-Pakastani activist and journalist Tariq Ali, whos also featured in the photo, was the first to point out on his Facebook page that the image doesnt actually show Hawking.So how did so many people start to think that it was the famed scientist? The National Portrait Gallery in London sells prints of the photo on its website . The image for sale clearly lists the people in the photo, taken by Lewis Morley, as Stephen Hawking; Tariq Ali; Vanessa Redgrave.The National Portrait Gallery in London has told Gizmodo that it will update its website with the correct information soon.(via GizmodoA woman works at the front desk of the offices of British insurer Prudential in Hong Kong on Mar 9, 2010. (Photo: AFP/Mike Clarke)

The demerger will create M&G Prudential, a savings and investment provider for Britain and Europe, and Prudential plc, which will mostly focus on insurance in Asia, the United States and Africa, the company said in a statement.

No clear timetable was given for the move, which was revealed alongside the group's annual results.

"Prudential plc today announces its intention to demerge its UK & Europe business M&G Prudential from Prudential plc, resulting in two separately-listed companies with different investment characteristics and opportunities," it said in a statement.

"On completion of the demerger, shareholders will hold interests in both Prudential plc and M&G Prudential."

The two new groups will both be based in London, where they will have separate listings on the stock market.

"The decision to demerge M&G Prudential follows a rigorous review by the board which considered all options, including the status quo, and concluded that it is in the best interest of the group to operate as two separately-listed companies, able to focus on their distinct strategic priorities in their chosen geographies," Prudential chairman Paul Manduca said.

"Both are expected to meet the criteria for inclusion in the FTSE 100 index."

M&G Prudential, a leading retirement and savings business in Britain and Europe, will also sell 12.0 billion ($16.7 billion, 13.5 billion euros) of its shareholder annuity portfolio to Rothesay Life.

The proceeds from this transaction would be used to support the demerger process, it added.

"Following separation, M&G Prudential will have more control over its business strategy and capital allocation," said Prudential chief executive Mike Wells in the statement.

"This will enable it to play a greater role in developing the savings and retirement markets in the UK and Europe through two of the financial sector's most trusted brands, while Prudential plc will be able to focus on the attractive returns and growth potential of its market-leading businesses in Asia and the US."California teacher accidentally discharges gun in class, (File photo: AFP/Mat Hayward)

The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, happened the same day as a separate case in which a police officer assigned to a school in the state of Virginia accidentally fired his service weapon inside his office and was placed on administrative leave.

The massacre of 17 students and staff in Parkland, Florida, last month has ignited a nationwide debate over whether some teachers should be armed, with President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in favor.

Dennis Alexander, a teacher at Seaside High School in California's Monterey County and a reserve police officer, fired a semi-automatic handgun as it was pointed at the ceiling, police chief Abdul Pridgen said in a statement.

Pridgen said no one was hit by gunfire or seriously hurt and police registered one injury in the incident, although local media reported that three teenagers were struck by falling masonry.

"One student had an abrasion to his neck, a red mark. When the bullet stroked the ceiling some debris came down. We didn't confirm two others," Seaside police commander Judy Veloz told AFP.

"There was no panic in the school. The teacher has been put on administrative leave. We're still investigating, interviewing students. The school is open as usual."

Fermin Gonzales, the father of the 17-year-old boy to whom police were referring, told NBC affiliate KSBW Alexander had informed the class he was going to demonstrate how to disarm someone and was checking if the weapon was loaded.

"It's the craziest thing," said Gonzales, who added that bruising to his son's neck appeared to have been caused by a bullet fragment.

A spokeswoman for the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District said in a statement education officials and police began interviewing students immediately after the alarm was raised.

"It was determined that there was no immediate threat to students or staff, and school remained in session," she said.

She added that the district allows only authorized law enforcement or security personnel to possess weapons on school property or transport. Students would be offered counseling, she said.

Alexander, who also teaches math, has been placed on leave both as a teacher and in his position as a reserve officer for the Sand City Police Department. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Alexandria Police Department in Virginia meanwhile said it was investigating after an officer accidentally discharging his weapon at George Washington Middle School on Tuesday morning.

"At approximately 9:10 a.m., a School Resource Officer accidentally discharged his service weapon inside his office at the middle school," the police said in a statement.

"He immediately checked for potential injuries in the area. No one was injured. The officer then contacted his supervisor and school staff. All students and staff are safe and classes continued as normal."

The officer was placed on administrative leave pending the probe.

Students across the United States walked out of classes on Wednesday in a nationwide call for action against gun violence, many gathering outside the White House and chanting "Never again!" and "Enough is enough!"

Concealed carry at colleges and schools has been banned since 2015 in California and police are understood to be establishing whether Alexander violated any regulations by bringing a gun onto campus.

"I think a lot of questions on parents' minds are, why a teacher would be pointing a loaded firearm at the ceiling in front of students," Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh told CNN affiliate KSBW.

"Clearly in this incident protocols were not followed."Vietnamese e-commerce has been exploding two decades after the internet first came to Viet Nam, said head of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Department of E-Commerce and Economy Dang Hoang Hai. - Photo vov.vn

The Viet Nam Online Business Forum (VOBF) 2018 opened in Ha Noi on Wednesday following last years success. Statistics showed that e-commerce has grown 25 per cent in the last year alone among the worlds fastest growth rates. Hai hoped that the forum, with the participation of prestigious experts at home and abroad, would discuss new e-commerce trends, outstanding technologies and innovative business ideas.

The E-Business Index released by the Viet Nam E-Commerce Association (VECOM) showed that online retail and marketing, tourism and payment saw the most impressive growth. Online retail revenue increased by 35 per cent while shipping services revenue grew from 62 per cent to 200 per cent. The National Payment Corporation of Viet Nam reported that online transactions using domestic cards in the last year rose by nearly 50 per cent in volume and 75 per cent in value year-on-year. Several affiliated marketing companies posted 100-200 per cent growth.

According to the VECOM, the rate of room reservations via online travel agents increased by over 30 per cent annually, starting from 20 per cent in 2016. The growth helped online tourism earnings rise by more than 50 per cent. Dang Thuy Ha, Director of Consumer Behaviour Research at Nielsen Viet Nam, said nearly 4 billion people worldwide are forecast to be online by 2020.

Trends such as big data, virtual reality technology, the sharing economy and cashless payments will be increasingly popular. Revenue from the sharing economy is expected to near US$300 billion by 2025. There are 59 million Internet subscribers in Viet Nam now while 91 per cent of the population used smart phones. On average, the Vietnamese spend 25 hours per week on average on the Internet. The VOBF will also come to HCM City on Friday.

Make way for Amazon

In other e-commerce news, Amazon will take its first steps into the Vietnamese market starting next month.

Gijae Seong, global selling director of Amazon in Singapore, said at the VOBF 2018 that the online retail giant is building teams to develop markets in the Southeast Asian region, including Viet Nam. The company aims to help individuals and enterprises in Viet Nam access global customers.

He also said that Amazon will provide tools for Vietnamese firms to expand their trade ties with the world.

After the event, Amazon will co-operate with VECOM to organise training courses for retail individuals and enterprises in Viet Nam.

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, deputy chairman of VECOM, said that VECOM and Amazon will organise training courses, providing experiences, solutions, tools and experts for Vietnamese enterprises.

Amazon will provide documents for Vietnamese enterprises so that they can learn how to sell goods to the world via Amazon.

Within the frame of VOBF 2018, VECOM also provided information to help the start-up community gain knowledge of internet trading to join the global market.An inevitable trend

Green building, or sustainable development in construction, has become an inevitable trend in the context of global climate change. Green buildings usually have long life cycles and attain the efficient consumption of resources to ensure the comfort and convenience of the users, while minimising any harmful impacts on the environment by using green building materials.

Accordingly, green or sustainable building materials are characterised by having one of the following traits: non-toxicity, high recycled content, efficiency, energy saving, a long life-cycle or eco-consciousness to reduce pollution in the soil, air, and water, while contributing to the efficient use of energy in construction works, said Dr. Thai Duy Sam, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Building Materials.

As said by the World Green Building Council and Green Building Certification Institute, buildings worldwide account for 17 per cent of fresh water usage, 25 per cent of wood harvest, 33 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, 30-40 per cent of energy usage, and 40-50 per cent of raw material consumption during the process of construction and operation.

At the same time, the building materials industry also has negative environmental impacts. This is reflected in the amount of energy consumed and the impacts exerted on the environment during the exploitation and processing of raw materials, the production of finished materials, and transportation to factories or places of construction.

According to estimates by the Ministry of Construction (MoC) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the demand for bricks, particularly clay bricks, will be 24-33 billion from 2015 to 2020. Meanwhile, one billion bricks made of baked clay require 1.5 million cubic metres of land and 150,000 tonnes of coal to burn the kiln, which is estimated to emit 0.57 tonnes of CO2 into the environment. Given the above demand for bricks from clay, by 2020 Vietnam will lose 50 million cubic metres of clay, five million tonnes of coal, and discharge 19 million tonnes of CO2.

Therefore, the use of baked clay bricks will consume a lot of farmland, causing a reduction in agricultural area and thus seriously affecting food security. However, these figures only show some of the impacts related to production stages, while information about the exploitation and transportation of materials is not sufficiently provided. In addition, many other popular construction materials, such as cement, steel or glass, also consume a lot of energy and exert considerable impacts on the environment.

Speaking at the 2nd International Conference on Building Materials and Construction held in 2017, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung said that besides the remarkable achievements the building materials industry has produced over the past few years, more attention should be paid to the development of unbaked building materials to replace burnt-clay building products.

Today, the world is seeking to promote sustainable development in the construction sector on the basis of the economical, efficient, and eco-friendly use of natural resources. Meanwhile, the building materials industry plays a key role in supporting the development of the construction and real estate sectors. Construction materials account for 30-40 per cent of construction products. At the same time, the quality of construction materials will determine the quality and longevity of the building. Thus, it is completely rational to give some degree of priority to the industry.

Furthermore, MoC suggested the government to continue to direct and promulgate preferential policies to attract investment and encourage the development of new types of construction materials that are resource-saving, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, responsive, and adaptable to climate changein line with the development trends of the world.

Additionally, MoC also recommended that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Science and Technology should continue to co-ordinate in the planning of mining areas; jointly develop sound policies on the taxation of natural resources, the import and export of materials, as well as environmental protection charges; and support research activities for the development of new products.

Pioneering businesses

Nguyen The Thuong, general director of Thanh Chi JSC, said that the company is the owner and the main investor of many construction stone mines in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, with a reserve of over 12 million cubic metres and a total production capacity of 700,000 cubic metres per year, processing on an advanced production line imported from Russia, which is developed based on the TITAN technology. This production line is capable of supplying all kinds of high-quality construction stones according to customers demands, especially the 5x16 mm and 5x19 mm stones or artificial sand made from stone instead of natural sand.

Cement is also an indispensable material in construction. However, the production of cement might be considered the biggest culprit behind the greenhouse effect. Throughout the production of a tonne of cement, 770 kilogrammes of CO2 will be added to the air after firing the materials.

Officially joining the Vietnamese market after the merger and acquisition (M&A) deal between Siam City Cement Group (SCCC) and Holcim Vietnam, all products of the newly-established brand INSEE fully satisfy the necessary standards for eco-friendly products. Nguyen Cong Minh Bao, director of Sustainable Development at INSEE Vietnam, said that this was the long-term plan of the company right from the beginning, in accordance with the sustainable development path that the company has been pursuing for more than 20 years.

With the new brand of INSEE, the company has officially acquired the Green Label for all of its product lines, listing INSEEs products in the Green Database of the Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC) and the Green Label of the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), while at the same time ensuring that all products strictly comply with various international green building rating systems, such as LOTUS, Green Mark, and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

With green label products, INSEE is trying to create more added value for our customers and gather competitive advantages in the building materials market, Bao said.

Similarly, the domestic construction paint market also made numerous efforts to improve and develop new production technology towards green products. Do Huu Nhon, sales director of Galaxy Paint Vietnam JSCa well-known domestic paint companysaid that all of its products meet green criteria. Specifically, input materials are treated by Nano antibacterial technology, resulting in lead-free and mercury-free products which also have a low content of volatile organic compounds (VOC).

The manufacturing of products following green standards is now a compulsory obligation. At the same time, this also contributes to the protection of the environment and the protection of human health, while attracting more customers to the products, Nhon said.

Along with the adoption of green criteria in the production of paint and coatings, the use of glass products with energy-saving features in construction works also attracts great attention from many developers and contractors. Energy-efficient glass has a low degree of emissivity and thermal conductivity to restrain the heat transferred between the indoor and outdoor environment, normally through a system of glass walls or glass panels. Through this, the products help to save more energy costs on the air conditioning and heating systems, yet are still able to maintain the best temperature for the building under any weather condition.

As a pioneer in this field who has been actively conducting research and applying modern science and technology into the production and development of green materials, Viglacera Float Glass Company has entered into a co-operation with Von Ardenne GmbH (Germany) to open the very first energy-efficient glass production line in Southeast Asia, with a capacity of 2.3 million square metres per year. The products have achieved the European standard EN 1096: 2012.

Nguyen Minh Khoa, managing director of Viglacera Float Glass Company, said that Viglaceras energy-efficient glass production line is completely automated. The raw materials are white glass ingots which are placed directly in the mould void and cast to fill the mould, then rinsed in demineralised water before being coated with metal oxides, metals, and silver, as well as receive protective and anti-erosion coatings in a vacuum chamber.

Especially, the water systems used to wash the glass ingots before coating are the DI Water Desalination System and the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification System. Water goes through two stages (RO1 and RO2) in both these systems to make sure that the conductivity of water is less than one microsiemens. Therefore, the surface of the glass sheet after washing will be clean enough to ensure the best adhesive strength of coating materials to the glass.

Nguyen Quang Cung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Building Materials, said that energy-efficient glass is becoming an alternative to conventional glass because of the tremendous economic benefits it can bring to modern construction works. Currently, energy-efficient glass is divided into two widely-used product lines called Low-E glass and Solar Control glass. In the Vietnamese market, these products are mainly imported from Belgium and France.

Nevertheless, according to the assessment of some experts in the building materials industry, Viglaceras energy-efficient glass products are gradually replacing imports. Besides, these products have helped to solve the problem of maintaining energy efficiency in line with different weather conditions and save 30-40 per cent of the energy cost of air conditioning systems.Andrew Doyle, Irelands Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Forestry speaks at a conference in Vietnam in 2016.

On March 17, the world turns green in celebration of Irelands national day, St Patricks Day. This is a special time of celebration in Ireland and for all of those of Irish descent and affinity around the world. This year, I am delighted to be in Vietnam to further our bilateral ties.

This is my second visit to Vietnam. In 2016 I led an agri-food trade mission to Ha Noi and was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm I encountered here. Vietnams development story has much in common with Irelands. Forty years ago, Ireland was a poor, agricultural based economy. Today, Ireland has a modern knowledge based economy focusing on services and high-tech industries and dependent on trade, industry and investment.

Ireland is a stable, competitive, secure and pro-business economy. In an increasingly complex and uncertain world, we remain true to our values. We believe in the international rule of law. We believe in free trade and the kind of globalisation that serves the greater good and the welfare, not just of our people, but of people everywhere. Our membership of the European Union (EU) has been a key factor in Irelands development success - and we remain a committed member of the EU and the Eurozone.

Irelands agri-food sector plays a critical role in the Irish economy. In a generation, our food industry has evolved into a world-class, global player. As a farmer myself I am extremely passionate about farming and what Irish farms have to offer the world. Our farms are the bedrock of Irelands natural, grass-based, sustainable food production systems. They combine traditional values and the best of nature with science and technology, to produce the highest quality food, with different generations of the family working together.

Planning for the future brings with it the responsibility of ensuring the next generations are not compromised in their ability to plan for theirs. Population increases and climate change are just two of the challenges putting enormous pressure on our planets finite resources. One of the most important investments we have made in recent years has been in Origin Green, our national agriculture and food sustainability programme which enables our food industry to set and achieve measurable sustainability targets.

Sustainability is key, and so too is safety. In Ireland we have invested in our food safety systems. This has allowed us to ensure safety not just for our domestic consumers but around the world. Today, Irelands world-class meat, dairy, beverages and seafood are enjoyed far beyond our shores. Last year, we exported 12.5 billion euro of food and drink to 180 countries. Irish meat and livestock is exported to more than 50 markets. Irish beef is on the shelves of 82 supermarket chains across Europe  more countries and more customers than any other national beef. We export to 120 countries in the dairy sector, including here in Viet Nam where I am delighted to see top quality Irish milk products.

We have pioneered change in our own agri-systems in Ireland and we have learned a lot from it. We are keen to work with Vietnam to ensure both of our countries benefit mutually from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

This week I will meet my counterpart at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review our co-operation in agriculture. We have achieved a lot since my last visit to Hanoi less than two years ago. Through the Irish Aid programme we are supporting experience sharing between Ireland and Vietnam. Since my last visit we have supported four new partnerships - with Vietnam National University of Agriculture, IPSARD and NAFIQAD and Hue University. This week I am accompanied by the Dublin Institute of Technology, which is partnering with Hue University on the development of a curriculum on food safety management. We hope this collaboration can help train the next generation of food safety specialists in Vietnam to the highest international standards.

I am very optimistic about our future partnerships with Vietnam, and confident that we can work together for safer, more sustainable, greener agriculture.

So on this special week, when Vietnam joins Ireland and the world in turning green, I want to wish all of the friends of Ireland in Vietnam a very happy St. Patricks Day, or as we say in the Irish language, Beannachtai na Feile Padraig

Irish people celebrate St Patricks Day.Heat will peak between noon and 4p.m in HCMC in the next several days with the onset of a heat wave.

Temperatures will rise from the current 35 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees.

HCMC has been going through a bout of hot weather since the beginning of this month with temperatures rising to 38 degrees.

Temperatures will peak between noon and 4pm for the next several days, with temperatures at the ground level being higher than forecast levels because of radiation from traffic, construction works and street surface.

Vu Quang Dau, deputy head of the centres forecasting division, said from March 21 the heat will become increasingly severe.

The regions average temperatures until May will be 0.5-1 degree Celsius higher than in the same period last year, he said.

This years hot spell will be caused by La Nina, a phenomenon associated with the cooling of the central Pacific Ocean, and climate change.

According to health experts, prolonged heat is conducive to the spread of bacteria and viruses, and could cause seniors to get sore throat, sinusitis and laryngitis.

Doctor Dinh Thac of the citys Paediatrics Hospital 1 told the Liberated Saigon newspaper that common diseases during hot spells include diarrhoea, food poisoning and acute respiratory tract inflammation.

Children could also contract chicken pox, mumps, measles, and meningitis, he said.

Dehydration is also a threat, he warned.

Parents should regularly wash their childrens hands before eating to prevent infection and keep the environment clean, and be hygienic with cooking and storing food, he said.

Kids should be given plenty of water and fruit juices and vaccinated adequately, he said.Photo for illustration. Three Chinese men are sentenced to prison for using fake ATM cards to withdraw some VND90 million ($4,000) in April last year.

The accused are Zhu Hai Rong, 41; Qiu Shui Binh, 42; and Zhong Jian Hua, 38. While Rong was sentenced to 42 months in prison, Binh and Hua got 36 months each.

According to investigation, in March 2017, an unknown Chinese national offered to pay each of the three men 5,000 Chinese yuan ($800) if they agreed to go to Vietnam and steal money using fake ATM cards.

On April 22, 2017, the three men arrived in Vietnam and stayed at a hotel in My Dinh 2 ward, Nam Tu Liem district in Hanoi. On April 22 and 23, they used dozens of ATM cards to withdraw some VND90 million ($4,000)

They were caught in the evening of April 23 when Hua was withdrawing money from an HSBC ATM and Bing from an ANZ ATM in Hoan Kiem district.Foreign investment "injected" into domestic market has been diversified method- and sector-wise

Specifically, over the first two months of 2018, foreign investment streams into the domestic market through capital contribution and share purchasing hit $1.25 billion, a 102.5 per cent rise against the same period in 2017.

Meanwhile, various FDI-backed projects were given investment certificates and approved for construction in Vietnam.

In early March, global equity firm Warburg Pincus announced its decision to invest over $370 million into Techcombank (OTC: TCB), supporting the banks scheme to raise equity to fund its expansion, which would likely further bolster its leading position in the Vietnamese financial sector.

The investment deal would in turn add to the total investment commitment of the New York-headquartered equity firm in Vietnam to reach more than $1 billion.

Jeffrey Perlman, managing director, head of Southeast Asia at Warburg Pincus, stressed that since Vietnam had one of the fastest growing finance and banking sectors in Southeast Asia, the investment in Techcombank aimed at reassuring Warburg Pincus standing in the market as well as further boost their business operations in the country on the long run.

Recently, Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), a South- Korea-based foreign exchange bank, was reported to seek share-purchasing opportunities at Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV).

According to newswire Business Korea, with the aim of business expansion in Vietnam, the Seoul-headquartered bank is actively pursuing BIDVs shares, expecting to gain the approval from the Vietnamese government to finalise the transaction.

Previously in 2017, TPBank signed a contract with PYN Fund Management, whereby the Vietnam-based bank agreed to sell 4.99 per cent of its stakes to the Finland-based fund. The deal value is equivalent to around $40 million. Likewise, Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) gained a total of $250 million of foreign investment through its initial public offering (IPO).

Also, WHA Hemaraj, a Thailand-based land development public company, officially started the construction of WHA Hemaraj-Nghe An Industrial Zone with the initial capital of roughly $1 billion. Likewise, AEON Mall, a Japanese shopping mall developer, recently hosted the ground-breaking ceremony of AEON Mall Hadong which is the Japanese developers fifth shopping mall in Vietnam and the second in Hanoi, after AEON Mall Long Bien.The skyline of the financial district in Shanghai, China. (JOHANNES EISELE/AFP)

A source who had direct knowledge of the administration's thinking said the tariffs, associated with a "Section 301" intellectual property investigation, under the 1974 U.S. Trade Act begun in August last year, could come "in the very near future".

While the tariffs would be chiefly targeted at information technology, consumer electronics and telecoms, they could be much broader and the list could eventually run to 100 products.

The White House declined to comment on the size or timing of any move.

Washington is targeting Chinese high technology companies to punish them for China's investment policies that effectively force U.S. companies to give up their technology secrets in exchange for being allowed to operate in the country along with other allegations of intellectual property theft.

China runs a US$375 billion trade surplus with the United States and when President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser 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.

While the tariffs on steel and aluminum, announced last week by Trump, are viewed as relatively insignificant in terms of imports and exports, moves to target China directly risk a direct and harsh response from Beijing.

The news website Politico earlier reported that the U.S. Trade Representative's office had presented Trump with a package of US$30 billion in tariffs last week, but Trump told aides that this wasn't high enough.

One business source who had discussed the issue with the White House said the figure had now grown to about US$60 billion, with a potentially wider array of products under consideration.

A second person, who is an industry lobbyist in Washington who is familiar with the administration's thinking said the process was being led by Peter Navarro, an avowed protectionist, who has accused American companies of conniving with the Chinese state, and by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who also favors tariffs as a tool.

Speaking to reporters in the Capitol, U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady stressed that Trump was serious about addressing the issue of intellectual property theft.

"Hes serious about calling their hand on this, and my understanding is they are looking at a broad array of options to do that," Brady said.

While complaints about China's abuse of intellectual property rights are not confined to the United States, Trump's global steel and aluminum tariffs announced last week complicate Washington's efforts to recruit allies to help put pressure on China.

A China-based business source with knowledge of discussion among senior European officials said there had been a clear effort by the U.S. government over the past six months to introduce a coordinated approach to Chinese industrial policy, but that Trump's proposed metals tariffs under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 had undermined support from Europe.

"Senior Trump administration officials had directly approached European leaders at a senior level. There had been a willingness to do something together on China. Thats impossible right now. You cant cooperate when youre getting whacked around", the person told Reuters.Viet Nam, Australia issue Joint Statement on setting up strategic parternship

JOINT STATEMENT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

BETWEEN

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM

AND

THE GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA

15 March 2018

1. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1973, Viet Nam and Australia have built strong and substantive relations on the basis of mutual respect and interest. Converging security and economic interests and deepening people-to-people links anchor our bilateral relationship and cooperation.

2. The Viet Nam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership, announced in 2009 and enhanced in 2015, underlines the concerted efforts of the governments and peoples of the two countries to advance bilateral relations.

3. Recognising that 2018 marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Australia, we jointly decide to elevate the bilateral relationship to the level of a Strategic Partnership, on the occasion of the Official Visit to Australia by H.E. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Viet Nam.

4. In declaring a Strategic Partnership, Viet Nam and Australia pledge our commitment to deepening ties based on respect for the United Nations Charter, international law and each others sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and respective political systems. We will enhance mutual trust and understanding to strengthen the bilateral relationship and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region. In particular, we commit to work intensively to ensure that our region remains peaceful, resilient and shaped by the rules and norms that have prevailed for decades.

5. The Viet Nam  Australia Plan of Action 2016-2019 remains in effect and will be renewed on the signing of this Joint Statement.

Bilateral Cooperation

Political cooperation

6. We commit to deepen bilateral political cooperation including through frequent high-level exchanges between the Communist Party, Government and National Assembly of Viet Nam, and the political parties, Government and Parliament of Australia.

7. To reflect better the modern and dynamic relationship, we will strengthen political engagement through annual ministerial meetings aimed at maximising opportunities to exchange views, ideas and initiatives on strategic issues. These regular and high-level exchanges will be complemented by existing bilateral meetings, which include the 2+2 Strategic Dialogue, Viet Nam-Australia Human Rights Dialogue, Viet Nam-Australia Consular Consultations and Viet Nam-Australia Agriculture Forum.

8. We commit to strengthening bilateral political engagement on foreign and regional issues through the establishment of an annual Foreign Ministers Meeting.

9. We pledge to expand high-level official contacts to advance the already strong cooperation in economics and trade, foreign affairs, defence, security, law and justice, science, technology, agriculture, innovation and education, and other areas such as labour and tourism.

Economic cooperation and development

10. We commit to deepen the bilateral trade and investment relationship and pursue more open trade and investment through global and regional economic integration.

11. Building on the complementary nature of the two economies, we will promote market access and trade facilitation measures for both sides, including for agricultural and seafood products.

12. We welcome the establishment of an annual ministerial-level Economic Partnership Meeting to identify opportunities to expand trade, investment and development cooperation, and for sustained economic reform. Superseding the Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee, this new economic forum will facilitate discussions among key ministers responsible for trade, investment, development and planning, and drive synergies among the different facets of our economic links.

13. We acknowledge the importance of strong commercial and business-to-business engagement in underpinning our trade and investment relationship. We encourage positive business engagement and building understanding of our respective economic complementarities, including through two-way business and trade missions.

14. Australia recognises the significant achievements of Viet Nam in reducing poverty and its aspirations to develop its economy further. Viet Nam appreciates Australias long-standing bilateral and regional official development assistance. We commit to an economic partnership that will assist Viet Nam to achieve its socio-economic and development aspirations, placing an emphasis on economic reform, human resource development, private sector engagement, climate change, gender equality and innovation.

15. We will continue building a mutually beneficial agriculture partnership, including joint research and technical assistance projects to improve the capability and competitiveness of Vietnams agriculture sector and promote international standards and reliable supply chains.

16. We will also further strengthen our mutual interests in energy, resources, the blue economy and environmental cooperation, and in responding to climate change.

Defence, law and justice, intelligence and security cooperation

17. We confirm our increasing strategic relations and shared regional interests and reaffirm our commitment to closer defence, law and justice, intelligence and security cooperation, contributing to the peace, stability and development of the region.

18. We reaffirm our commitment to an annual Defence Ministers Meeting to facilitate high-level dialogue on defence matters underpinned by the Memorandum of Understanding for Defence Cooperation signed in 2010. These exchanges will be an opportunity to explore further defence cooperation, including in education and training, maritime and aviation security, peace keeping training and support, counter-terrorism, war legacy issues and other areas.

19. We welcome the cooperation between Australian and Vietnamese police, maritime and border authorities, and mutually decide to strengthen further security and law enforcement cooperation, including through an annual Security Dialogue at Vice-Ministerial level and greater exchange of intelligence and information sharing, and capacity building.

20. We commit to continue strengthening bilateral cooperation and participation in regional efforts to address traditional and non-traditional security threats, especially transnational crime, including people smuggling and human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, cybercrime, and in recovering the proceeds of these crimes.

21. We will strengthen bilateral and regional cooperation between and among maritime policy-making, administration and law enforcement agencies through dialogue and coordination, practical cooperation and capacity-building activities.

Education, science and technology, labour, social affairs and cultural cooperation and people-to-people links

22. We emphasise the strengthening of the people-to-people aspect of the relationship, particularly the two-way flow of youth and students. We strongly support Australian and Vietnamese students to study in Viet Nam and Australia, including through the New Colombo Plan, and Australian and Vietnamese scholarships.

23. We reaffirm the significance of our education, training and research relationship and the large Vietnamese alumni of Australian education institutions. We reaffirm support for education policy dialogues to enhance institutional linkages and the transnational delivery of education (including by taking advantage of advances in communication technologies) and expand student, academic, researcher and professional mobility.

24. We will promote cooperation in the areas of vocational education and social affairs, including striving towards gender equality, and note opportunities for labour mobility through Australias skilled migration program.

25. We will continue to promote and expand mutually beneficial cooperation on science, technology and innovation; strengthen connectivity between research institutions; and encourage technology transfer, expert exchange and information sharing on science, technology and innovation.

26. We recognise the role of social and peoples organisations in both countries in fostering good relations, friendship and understanding between the Vietnamese and Australian people.

27. We recognise the success of the Vietnamese community in Australia and highly value its contribution to bilateral relations. We highlight the role of young people in building mutually beneficial networks of influence among future leaders and entrepreneurs.

28. We commit to promote the effective implementation of the Viet Nam - Australia Work and Holiday program.

29. We welcome the rapid increase in visitor numbers to both countries and associated growth in aviation and tourism, and will look for opportunities to enhance cooperation in the tourism sector.

30. We reiterate the importance of cultural cooperation in promoting mutual understanding between people of our two countries and are committed to developing further cooperation between Viet Nam and Australia in this area.

Regional and International Cooperation

31. We will work closely to preserve the open, inclusive and rules-based regional order, which underpins regional peace, security, stability and increasing prosperity. We share the goal of reinforcing and developing regional and international institutions to promote our common political, economic and security interests.

32. We support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which has brought harmony and coherence to our region. We will continue to develop the Strategic Partnership between ASEAN and Australia and commend the historic ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, including a suite of practical initiatives for enhanced cooperation.

33. We emphasise ASEAN centrality in the evolving regional architecture and resolve to work together to strengthen ASEAN-led mechanisms such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), with ASEAN as the driving force. In this regard, we affirm the importance of the EAS as the premier leaders-led regional forum for dialogue and cooperation on strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern.

34. We pledge to continue to work together to address regional and global emerging issues, including: terrorism; transnational crime; cybercrime; people smuggling and human trafficking; environmental protection; climate change; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU); energy security; maritime safety and security; food and water security; infectious diseases; quality infrastructure; narrowing the development gap; digital economy; and supporting economic growth, promoting trade and investment liberalisation, and enhancing regional and sub-regional connectivity and sustainable prosperity in the region.

35. We will strengthen our cooperation in the areas of sustainable development, environmental protection and management, responses to climate change and resilience to natural disasters consistent with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

36. We reaffirm our commitment to promoting security and safety, freedom of navigation and overflight, and the rule of law, including the observance and implementation of international legal obligations in good faith; and to the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and through the appropriate ASEAN-led mechanisms. In this regard, we remain concerned about the situation in the South China Sea and affirm our commitment to continue working actively together to promote peace and stability in the region. We reiterate the importance of the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the early conclusion of an effective and binding Code of Conduct (COC) between ASEAN and China, consistent with international law.

37. Building on the significant outcomes of the 25th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting in Da Nang, Viet Nam, we commit to further our cooperation in promoting regional economic integration, and free and open trade and investment through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans - Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and APEC, as well as supporting the rules-based multilateral trading system.

Signed in Canberra on 15 March 2018 in duplicate, in Vietnamese and English, each being equally valid.Vinafood 2 sold out the 115 million shares at its IPO

The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) has just announced the results of Vinafood 2s IPO. Accordingly, all of the shares have been purchased at the public auction.

40 individuals and one organisations participated in the auction and all of them bought successfully at the average unit price of VND10,101 ($0.44), equivalent to the initial price.

The highest price was VND12,000 and the lowest one VND10,100. The proceeds from the auction reached nearly VND1.159 trillion ($51 million).

According to the equitisation plan, Vinafood 2s charter capital is VND5 trillion ($220 million). Of this, the state holds 51 per cent, equivalent to 255 million shares. 114.8 million shares were auctioned publicly, equalling 22.97 per cent at the initial price of VND10,100. Later on, 125 million shares will be sold to strategic investors, equivalent to 25 per cent.

Approximately five million shares (equalling 0.99 per cent of the charter capital) will be sold to employees and another 200,000 shares (0.04 per cent) will be sold to the corporations trade union.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, up to date, T&T Group is the only partner registered to become the strategic investor of Vinafood 2. The selling price for strategic investors will not be lower than the public auction price. Thereby, T&T Group will have to spend at least VND1.26 trillion ($55.5 million) becoming the strategic investor of this company.You have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseUpdate on Rockfall at Devils Tower Road

Following advice received from the geotechnical engineers who visited the site of the rock fall last week it has been recommended that, in the first instance, a timber fence be constructed along the front of the aerial farm site to mitigate against the risk of fly rock in the event of a further rockfall in the area.

It is expected that this fence will be completed in approximately three weeks time and, therefore, arrangements are currently being put in place to provide alternative vehicular and pedestrian access through the area. The section of Devils Tower Road directly adjacent to the rock fall site will remain closed until the fence is completed. Traffic will be temporarily diverted through the new access road and roundabout that was recently constructed as part of the runway tunnel project, and will exit along Eastern Beach Road by the MOT Centre.

The traffic diversion will become operational during the late evening of Friday 16th March 2018 and appropriate traffic and diversion signs will be placed along the route to advise drivers accordingly.

The Government would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience caused.Gibraltar - Berlin Cultural Exchange - Call for Artists

Gibraltar Cultural Services will once again be organising the Gibraltar-Berlin Art Residency. The cultural exchange is organised in conjunction with Lichtenberg Studios and is a programme for artists working in any medium, interested in developing their work in Urban public spaces.

The artist selected to take part from Gibraltar, will be required to travel to Berlin from the 9th July to 5th August 2018. The artist selected from Berlin will be in Gibraltar from the 13th September to 7th October 2018.

A publication and an exhibition of both artists will follow at the John Mackintosh Hall in October 2018.

Local artists wishing to apply to participate in the exchange are required to do so via email on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Artists are required to submit a CV and statement detailing recent projects, a portfolio with samples of works and a brief description of the artists interest in art in public spaces.

For further information please contact Lichtenberg Studios on email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit their website: www.lichtenberg-studios.de

Alternatively, please contact GCS Events Department on 20067236.

Closing date for applications is Wednesday 2nd May 2018.Minister Licudi to Introduce Gibraltar Lecture at Oxford

The Minister for Tourism, Gilbert Licudi QC will once again introduce the Gibraltar Lecture at this years FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival on Saturday 17th March.

The Lecture is being delivered by Baroness Kennedy. Barrister and television presenter Baroness Helena Kennedy talks about her life and her passion for human rights.

Baroness Kennedy is one of Britains best-known lawyers and has dedicated her professional life to giving a voice to those who have least power and to championing civil liberties. Her writing has ranged across issues such as medical negligence, terrorism and the rights of children. Kennedys broadcast work has included the BBCs Heart of the Matter and After Dark.

Baroness Kennedy has been a Labour peer in the House of Lords since 1997 and has held many distinguished positions including Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, chair of the British Council and chair of the Human Genetics Commission. She is currently chair of JUSTICE, the human rights organisation, and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford.

The Lecture is sponsored by the Gibunco Group of companies and is part of the yearly activities carried out to promote the Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival. Her Majestys Government of Gibraltar sponsors the Green Room for the Festival at Oxford.

Baroness Kennedy has graciously accepted an invitation to take part in this years Festival in Gibraltar, being held from 15th to 18th November.

Minister Licudi said, Were already looking forward to another excellent Festival in Gibraltar in November. Im looking forward to listening to Baroness Kennedy and were delighted that she has agreed to visit Gibraltar later this year. Were grateful to the Gibunco Group for their commitment to the Festival and their support at Oxford and Blenheim with the Gibraltar Lectures. Her Majestys Government of Gibraltar believes in delivering quality events throughout the year, not only for our residents but for those who wish to visit us to enjoy these. We will shortly be announcing the names of some of the participants for this years event and as always Id like to thank all our sponsors and partners that help make the Festival a success.Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SXSW

Weeks before Steven Spielberg releases his megabudget virtual-reality movie Ready Player One, all of Hollywood wonders just what he might do next. Could he make that that next Indiana Jones movie? Is he really going to remake West Side Story? Whatever happened to the 19th-century kidnapping drama Tony Kushner was writing? Spielbergs one of the industrys most prolific directors, and one of its worst at making a plan and sticking to it. In honor of his latest period of indecision, we present ten years of projects Spielberg announced, abandoned, and in a few rare cases, finally decided to shoot  all reported on breathlessly in the trade papers at the time.

May 19, 2009: Spielberg announces plans to produce a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic after securing the rights from his estate. (He holds onto the rights for years without making it.)

August 2, 2009: On second thought, Spielberg says he will direct a remake of the 1950 James Stewart movie Harvey, which everyone imagines will star Tom Hanks.

December 3, 2009: Spielberg scraps Harvey after Hanks reportedly turns it down.

May 3, 2010: Spielberg is said to consider making a George Gershwin biopic or adapting the sci-fi novel Robopocalypse before signing up to direct the WWI movie War Horse (which is actually completed and released in 2011).

October 22, 2010: Spielberg commits to directing Robopocalypse, to shoot in early 2012 for a 2013 release.

November 19, 2010: But first, he decides, hell make Lincoln with Daniel Day-Lewis for Oscar season 2012 (and he follows through).

January 25, 2012: Spielberg is reportedly in talks with Warner Bros. to direct Gods and Kings, a Braveheart-ish version of the Moses story.

July 19, 2012: Spielberg casts Chris Hemsworth as the lead in Robopocalypse, now for a 2014 release.

September 24, 2012: He casts Anne Hathaway in Robopocalypse, too. I believe its quite real, shell say later, though you never want to hang your hat on anything.

January 9, 2013: Spielberg delays Robopocalypse, which had been scheduled to shoot this spring, amid rumors that hed tackle Gods and Kings next.

March 2013: Spielberg drops Gods and Kings. He claims Robopocalypse will still happen but tells the press hes interested in making Stanley Kubricks never-completed Napoleon movie as a TV mini-series.

May 2, 2013: Spielberg announces his next movie will be American Sniper starring Bradley Cooper.

August 5, 2013: Spielberg bails from American Sniper, which is eventually directed by Clint Eastwood, and says he might produce a remake The Grapes of Wrath. (He doesnt.)

January 2014: Spielberg reportedly signs up to direct a Montezuma movie with Javier Bardem as Hernan Cortes, based on an old script by Dalton Trumbo. (This doesnt get far).

March 5, 2014: Fox releases the rights to remake West Side Story because Spielberg says hes interested.

April 17, 2014: Spielberg hires Tony Kushner to write a script for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, about the forced baptism of a young Italian Jew in the 19th century.

April 21, 2014: Spielberg approaches Tom Hanks to star in a Cold War thriller (which would eventually become 2015s Bridge of Spies), though reports still say hes doing Robopocalypse next.

April 25, 2014: Another change: Spielberg agrees to adapt Roald Dahls The BFG (and he does it; its released in 2016). He sets Edgardo Mortara aside.

February 20, 2015: Chris Pratt gets attached to play Indiana Jones in a reboot directed by Spielberg.

March 2, 2015: Jennifer Lawrence will reportedly star in a biopic of war photographer Lynsey Addario to be directed by Spielberg. (This doesnt get far.)

March 25, 2015: Spielberg announces plans to adapt Ready Player One.

March 15, 2016: Spielberg announces plans for a fifth Indiana Jones with Harrison Ford himself (sorry, Chris Pratt), for 2019.

April 11, 2016: But first! Edgardo Mortara seems like its happening again, as Spielberg casts Mark Rylance, and later, Oscar Isaac.

June 17, 2016: Another change: Spielberg confirms Tony Kushner is working on the script for his West Side Story remake.

March 6, 2017: Unable to find the right child actor for Edgardo Mortara, Spielberg drops everything and announces hell make a Pentagon Papers movie (later The Post) with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep to be released before years end (and he does it).

January 19, 2018: Reports say Spielberg will shoot Indiana Jones 5 next, followed by West Side Story, for which he announces an open casting call.

March 7, 2018: Spielberg finally passes off Robopocalypse to Michael Bay.

March 9, 2018: Reports emerge that Spielberg held a secret table read for a Leonard Bernstein biopic, which he might direct before, or instead of, West Side Story.Photo: Ray Mickshaw/FX

The second season of Ryan Murphys American Crime Story anthology series, titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, explores the titular designers brutal 1997 murder at the hands of serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Were walking through all nine episodes in an effort to identify what ACS: Versace handles with care versus when it deviates from documented fact and common perception. The intention here is less to debunk an explicitly dramatized version of true events than to help viewers piece together a holistic picture of the circumstances surrounding Versaces murder. In other words, these weekly digests are best considered supplements to each episode rather than counterarguments. Below are the results of our dogged research into the veracity and potency of events and characterizations presented in episode eight, Creator/Destroyer.

What They Got Right

Andrews father

Modesto Pete Cunanan was no angel. The Navy vet turned stockbroker and father of four did, according to court records, embezzle a couple hundred thousand dollars, ditch his family, and flee to the Philippines. He even briefly returned to the U.S. after Andrews death to seemingly capitalize on his notoriety. Theres less evidence to support the story that he swindled an elderly woman named Vera out of her savings, invoking the ire of her burly grandson, but the FBI was definitely onto him, and by 1988, he was outta there. At least until he returned nine years later for the aforementioned effort to exploit Andrews death.

Andrew as the favorite child

Weve already confirmed that Cunanan lorded over his familys master bedroom, but what about his father demonstrating outright preferential treatment relative to his three siblings? Look no further than the testimony of his brother Christopher and sister Elena, who both remarked on Andrews favored status in a 1997 ABC interview with Diane Sawyer. They even verify that he was gifted with a Nissan 300ZX from dad  though Modesto purchasing it years in advance appears to be a touch of, well, drivers license.

The high-school yearbook

Theres no way to know if Andrew told off a homophobic jock before unbuttoning his top and loosening his tie, but his yearbook spread did absolutely feature him more or less shirtless and beaming. And his much-dissected senior quote did invoke Louis XV and read, Apres moi, le deluge, or After me, the flood. There is, however, some discrepancy in accounts of his superlative that year. Maureen Orth and the New York Daily News, among others, reported it then as Least Likely to Be Forgotten, while most current coverage asserts it was Most Likely to Be Remembered. And Newsweek claimed that Andrew was voted Most Likely Not to Be Forgotten. Less up for interpretation is his eventual status as one of the FBIs Most Wanted.

What They Took Liberties With

Giannis mother

Creator/Destroyer would have it that Giannis dressmaker matriarch, Francesca, identified his gift for design while he was still a boy and defied anyone who steered him from his passion for fashion. Thats a bit ideal, even in Giannis memory. During a 1994 interview with Charlie Rose, Versace told an anecdote about how, even in his teen years, his main aspiration was to compose music like Burt Bacharach or Gershwin. However, he continues, My mother say, No, you stay with me. Something was in my blood, in my family. He was certainly not spiteful, but to say he only had one goal all his life and that his mother championed whatever his whims were would be a slight exaggeration.

Andrew and Elizabeths meet-cute

Elizabeth Cote was indeed Andrews friend, she did anoint him godfather to his kids, and even videotaped a plea for him to cease his killing jag. But by Orths own account, the pair met in junior high, not at a high-school kegger. Not to mention, reporting by thenSun Sentinel journalist and current Miami Herald staffer Luisa Yanez  who has contributed her insights on and off to this column all season  notes that Andrew wore that fabulous red jumpsuit to his prom, as opposed to some local rager. Though interestingly, Yanez and her co-author Sergio Bustos also second what Creator/Destroyer puts forth about Cunanan having already had at least one older male benefactor by his senior year.

Andrews bedtime reading

We were unable to uncover any evidence that Modesto lullabied Andrew with passages from The Art of Conversation. The most widely read tome with that title wasnt actually released until 2008, while other publications with the same title, like Peter Burkes more academic reference, werent yet in circulation when Andrew was a youth. Lets assume Art of Conversation was a stand-in, for whatever reason, for Dale Carnegies touchstone How to Win Friends and Influence People. Ultimately, we get it: Art of Conversation is the kind of book his dad would model his personality on and try to instill lessons from in his prized protege.

Modesto molesting Andrew

First, theres Modesto gently taking Andrew by the hand and leading him softly up the stairs to his new room while the children are outside pondering their whereabouts and mom looks concerned. Then, far more bluntly, Modesto looms over Andrew in bed, encouraging him to channel the same silence he bravely mustered after burning his foot on a heater (a story relayed to Orth by Modesto) years back. And then the lights go out. Yikes. We have uncovered nothing to support the implication that Andrew was sexually abused by his father, though shortly after his death, the Washington Post did repeat an unconfirmed report that Andrew  using his DeSilva pseudonym  may have called into a hotline for victims of abuse by Catholic priests. Nor were we able to find anything outside of accusations by Mary Ann Cunanan and Andrews godfather, Delfin Labao, in Orths book corroborating that Modesto was physically abusive with her (ditto recollections from Pete and Delfin that Mary Ann was hospitalized with postpartum depression).

Andrew and Modestos Manila showdown

Several sources cited Mary Anns divorce filings to confirm that Andrew visited Modesto in the Philippines soon after his father fled the States. Those same sources also quote Mary Ann in the court papers as claiming her boy came back in short order, repulsed by Modestos squalid living conditions. Their dramatic confrontation, which culminates in the episode with Modesto berating his son as a sissy boy and Andrew showing a flash of violent impulse by warding his father away with a kitchen knife, is by all indications pure plotting. Like many of ACS Versaces more melodramatic asides, this confrontation filled a need, in this case suitably disorienting the character of Andrew to an extent where hed go adrift in search of love and acceptance, but become triggered by the slightest betrayal.Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Months after alleging Harvey Weinstein raped her in her apartment in the early stage of her career, Annabella Sciorra is ready to embark on a return to television. Per Variety, Sciorra  who you may remember from her memorable stint as Gloria Trillo on The Sopranos  will be kicking ass all over the place as Luke Cages primary antagonist in season two. Playing a very Italian Rosalie Carbone, her character is described as a dangerous downtown criminal underworld power player with an eye, and an agenda, toward Harlem. It seems Netflix has taken a liking to Sciorra, as the actress will appear in a supporting capacity in GLOWs upcoming season as well. Leave the gun, take the cannoli, and make sure to tune in when Luke Cages new season premieres on June 22.The film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Photo: Universal Pictures

Broadways big-name adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Aaron Sorkin, starring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch, and set to open this fall, has run into trouble with Harper Lees estate. Per the New York Times, the estate filed a suit Tuesday in Alabama federal court claiming that Sorkins adaptation deviates too far from Lees novel, specifically in its characterization of Atticus Finch.

As Sorkin previously described to Vulture (in an interview that has been cited in the lawsuit) the Finch in his script does not always act as a moral exemplar  as he does in the novel  but progressively becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play, going from being in denial about Maycomb Countys racism to standing against it. To that end, Sorkin said he expanded the role of Atticuss housekeeper Calpurnia, with whom he has a kind of running argument. Tonja B. Carter, the lawyer running Lees estate, claims to have been shocked by Sorkins changes. Atticus Finch is portrayed in the novel as a model of wisdom, integrity, and professionalism, the suit claims. Producer Scott Rudin defended the changes to the Times by pointing out that, I cant and wont present a play that feels like it was written in the year the book was written in terms of its racial politics: It wouldnt be of interest. Rudin added that he was surprised by the estates objections, since Carter had been involved in the publication of Go Set a Watchman, which depicts Finch as racist.

Before her death, Lee signed a contract authorizing the play in June 2015, and Carter had previously met with Rudin to discuss concerns about the script, but the parties did not come to any agreement. In response to the suit, Rudin issued a statement noting that Lees estate has a history of litigious behavior, claiming that the estates action is an unfortunate step in a situation where there is simply artistic disagreement over the creation of a play that Ms. Lee herself wanted to see produced, and is the kind of disagreement which one expects would be worked out easily between two parties who have a mutual interest in seeing a work produced. The statement continued: While we hope this gets resolved, if it does not, the suit will be vigorously defended.Meek Mill. Photo: Shareif Ziyadat/WireImage

After being incarcerated in November 2017 for violating his parole over a gun-and-drug case in 2008, rapper Meek Mill could be released earlier than expected from a Philadelphia prison. In a surprising turn, prosecutors told the AP they are not opposed to allowing the hip-hop star to appeal his probation-violation sentence from outside a jail cell. Its the first sign of good news for Mill and his defense team since he was turned down for parole late last year.

The news comes after a criminal-justice-reform panel at the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday during which Mill phoned into to talk to his mother and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Im just happy to be able to shed light on the situation, Mill said. Im the platform for other people to fight for their freedom.

Since Philadelphia judge Genece E. Brinkley sentenced the 30-year-old rapper to two to four years in prison over violations having to do with a nearly decade-old case, Mill has become the celebrity face of mass incarceration. According to NBC 10, Sharpton said yesterday, Youre not just talking about freeing Meek. Youre talking about freeing the whole system.

Mills attorney Joe Tacopina blames the judge for what he has called an injustice, criticizing Brinkley for being enamored with the rapper, and saying she crossed the line when she asked Mill to write a song about her and showed up to his community-service project.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with Rolling Stone, Mill showed no love for the judge, saying, Theres brothers locked down that did nothing to be here but piss off people like Brinkley.

When Mill was denied bail in late November, the Reverend Sharpton, one of the hip-hop stars staunchest defenders, said the rapper was being treated differently because of his color, alleging that the case had become inappropriately personal for the judge.

Just last month, it was announced that Judge Brinkley hired her own attorney, accusing the rappers legal team of making false claims against her. Page Six broke news in December that Brinkley was being investigated by the FBI over her handling of the case and possible financial conflicts. Theres no word about whether Brinkley or a different judge will decide whether Mill is released from prison, but word could come as early as this week.Photo: Sansho Scott/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

Chic Coopers arrival in the Riverdale community has been pretty polarizing, to put it lightly. On one hand, its lovely how Alice gets to reconnect with the son she never thought shed see again. On the other, to paraphrase Thom Yorke, hes a bit of a creep and a weirdo, what the hell is he doing there, he doesnt belong there! As Riverdale season two progresses, so do Chics questionable intentions, as evidenced by the revelation in this weeks episode that he might not be a true Cooper after all. So, what does this mean for Chics endgame and his beautiful cheekbones going forward? Ahead of Wednesdays episode, Vulture called actor Hart Denton to discuss the surprising comedic undertones of his character, what makes Chic so creepy, and how he deals with all of those crying scenes.

On a scale from one to ten, how much of a creep is Chic?

Oh my God, 11.

Justify it!

Hes so creepy. Hes so, so creepy! Hes keeping it close to his chest. Hes not saying ultracreepy things. You dont know about this guy. People are so intrigued with figuring out what exactly is wrong with him, and in that, the creepiness just rises to the top. Its prevailing, you can see it! Its his look  not his physical looks, but how he looks with his eyes. Theres so much more going on under the hood that people dont necessarily know yet.

The first thing I thought when he took the babies was, Oh, hes definitely gonna drown them in the river.

Oh, I know. [Laughs.] Put down those babies!

What type of direction did Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa give you about playing the role? Were there any particular pop-culture figures he wanted you to emulate?

Roberto pretty much gave me free reign to create this character out of almost nothing. There wasnt the need to stick to the comics. That was the most wonderful thing as an actor, having the freedom to figure out the character myself and figure it out in the best way for me. Chic comes into this house with this perfect family and is so uncomfortable in his own skin. Growing up in such a horrible way, this is all just so strange to him. Thats the thing with Chic. Its not that hes maniacal or thinking in a way to end these peoples lives. Hes self-sustaining and thats all that matters. He doesnt trust anymore.

Did you model Chic on anyone in particular, then?

I was given a canvas with Chic. I had this canvas I was able to craft this character on, and I found out more and more about him with every passing week. I grew up watching film, and I was able to pull from different people and put them together based on things Ive seen. A lot of it isnt from creepy things  its the way certain people hold their eyes or hold certain objects. There are pieces of Requiem for a Dream in Chic, and things from Peaky Blinders. It was a collection of so many different things pulled together. There were even comedies that had relevance. If you look at this guy, he grew up in such an awful, horrible situation and doesnt trust anymore, and hes then thrown into this picture-perfect family. Theres humor in that! It couldnt be more opposite than how Chic was raised.

Not to say whether Chics good or bad, but Ive always been more intrigued by the villainous nature of characters than the heroic nature of them. I love the heroes, but theres so much richness tied to the villainous side of things, because theres the wrongdoing and the sin and the things that every human goes through. Were able to deflect our own mistakes or regrets onto another character and level the playing field and go, Well, maybe its not that bad. We tend to attach to a villainous character in a therapeutic way. I love what Chic is able to do for people because it sets the bar for where they go, Whoa, I may have done this and I may feel this way, but look at this guy.

Chic also toes the line between villainous and sympathetic. Where do you think his motivations lie?

Number one is survival. Thats the number one thing on his mind at all times. Thats all he knows, all hes grown up with. When I think of motives, I think of characters putting certain things into place to get want they want in a maniacal way. But with Chic, its not necessarily that. He just wants to survive. Whatever towers fall down in result of that, so be it, in Chics mind.

Im reminded of the scenes where hes cutting up a Cooper family photo. What do you think Chics endgame is? To destroy the Cooper family? To have Alice to himself?

It wasnt his intention to wreck this family. But you look at somebody who was tossed aside and not cared about whatsoever, and then brought to this perfect family who are trying get him to act a certain way. A lot of bad stuff has happened because Chic is in the house and people feel bad for him, so they take his side and they help him out, and that starts to implode in the family. And then you have Chic cutting the picture. It wasnt necessarily his intention to ostracize the family members, but now that its happening and set in motion, theres a humor with that. Hes like, I could care less, bye bye, Hal! He doesnt care about this perfect, wonderful family, because at the end of the day, theyll never understand what it was like growing up with nobody. He has fun with that and finds it humorous.

Chic randomly breaks out in tears numerous times this season. How did you prepare for all of that crying?

Its a lot, isnt it? Ive always been a thinker. My parents have always told me to stop thinking so much and to relax. I have the blessing and the curse of having an insane imagination. But in this situation, it was great because Im able to go right into the feelings of Chic. Its such a strange dynamic, because yes, hes crying and yes, hes sad, but he knows what hes doing and he knows how to mess with people and stir things up. Not necessarily to make it implode, but to have some fun with it. This is such a strange situation for him, so hes going to milk it and play with it as much as he possibly can. Its funny, because Im completely the opposite from Chic. But on set, when youre actually there and everythings rolling, you feel like this guy for however long were shooting the scene. Its been so fun to dive into this guys head. Hes so crazy.

This interview has been edited and condensed.This is not the puzzle. Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture/2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This post contains an insignificant Tomb Raider spoiler.

For a movie called Tomb Raider, based on a franchise beloved for its gigantic interactive puzzles, the new reboot has shockingly little to offer in terms of tomb raiding or puzzles. Heck, with the exception of a brief scene in the beginning where our Lara inspects the Croft family crypt  less of a raid, more of a visit  we dont even set foot in a tomb until the start of the third act. (The first two acts are mostly Alicia Vikander doing pull-ups.) And once were in the titular tomb, the movies attention is occupied by two well-worn action-film activities: skulking around in the dark, and fighting to the death. So if youre the type of Tomb Raider fan who fell in love with the franchises signature puzzles (as opposed to the, uh, other stuff), there might not be a lot for you here.

But on the puzzles front, you wont be completely deprived. The movie does contain one single puzzle scene, and it is incredibly baffling. My colleagues and I cant quite figure out if thats because we failed to solve it or because the solution simply makes no sense. So, were going to play a game: Im going to describe the puzzle to you, and you are going to tell me if you came to the same conclusion Lara did. If you did, congratulations, youre smart enough to survive the tomb in Tomb Raider. If you did not, well, thats maybe more proof that this movie is not exactly a feast for the mind.

Lets set the scene: At this point in the movie, Lara and most of the movies other characters are exploring the tomb of Himiko, an ancient Japanese queen said to possess mysterious evil powers. Were already past the part where sharp things pop up from the floor, and have not yet gotten to the part where spiky things fall from the ceiling. The gang enters a room where a lot of complicated things happen, but the basics are: (1) The floor starts to fall away, tile by tile, and (2) they read an inscription that implies the only way for them not to eventually fall to their deaths is to put a gem thats the color of life into a Himiko statue.

Are you smart enough to figure it out? Here are your options. (And these are just the colors I remember them trying in the film; feel free to throw out your own answer, like chartreuse.)

Is it yellow, the color of the sun, which gives us life?

Is it blue, the color of water, the source of all life?

Is it red, the color of love, the thing that makes life worth living? (Or the color of the heart, which powers life.)

Is it white, which is every other color put together, in other words a metaphor for life?

Is it black? (Gotta try everything.)

Got your choice ready? Okay, heres the answer:

As Lara eventually figures out, the correct solution is to put the yellow and blue gems together to create green, which is, obviously, the color of life.

Please let me know in the comments if I am an idiot, or if this puzzle stumped you too. (And please dont comment just to tell me that green is the first thing that pops up when you Google the color of life. Im well aware!)Vince Staples. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for FYF

Vince Stapless brilliant plan to troll his trolls with a GoFundMe campaign has come to an end, reports Pitchfork. In the campaign the 24-year-old rapper offered his haters a chance to fund his early retirement  he claimed that if he raised $2 million that would be enough money to allow me to shut the fuck up forever and you will never hear from me again. He added, Get off of my dick or fund my lifestyle, the choice is yours. Consequently, he then released a single titled, Get the Fuck Off My Dick.

After raising $2,200 through the GoFundMe, Staples closed the campaign, announcing that he would be giving the money back. He wrote on Twitter, Seeing as we clearly wont reach our goal of 2 million dollars, I am cancelling the gofundme and refunding all the little people with big voices. I expect to hear no further slander. He also revealed that he plans to match the amount of money raised and donate it to the Michelle Obama Library in his hometown, North Long Beach, California.

I am also personally matching the donations made and donating the full amount to the Michelle Obama library of Norf Long Beach... in honor of you citch ass niggas. I love you all, good day. #gtfomd  Vince Staples (@vincestaples) March 15, 2018(CNN) -- A person was killed and another wounded Wednesday in a shooting at the UAB Hospital-Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama, police and hospital officials said. The suspect gunman was found dead.

Birmingham police responded to an active shooter situation and said they found two people with gunshot wounds.

One of the employees injured has died and the other one is in stable condition, the hospital said.

During a search of the hospital, they found a suspect with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. That person has been pronounced dead.

"It is with a heavy heart that we announce to you this evening the passing of one of our colleagues after a shooting at UAB Highlands," said Anthony Patterson, the hospital's senior vice president in a statement.

"We ask that you please join us in prayer for these families, those who work where the incident occurred, and those who were immediately on the scene, including the first responders who acted so heroically under extremely difficult circumstances," Patterson said.

There is no threat to the community or anyone else in the hospital, police said.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.Click here for updates on this story

Preston, Idaho (KSTU) -- 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.

"Hes the best science teacher Preston Junior High has," said Johnson.

Franklin County Sheriff, David Fryar, says the department is looking into it.

"Were investigating the facts and turning it over to the prosecutor. Hes 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, hes 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.

"Theres 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 youre 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.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.(CNN Money) -- Toys "R" Us is closing its doors after 70 years in business.

The iconic toy retailer will shut or sell all of its almost 800 stores in the United States, a source familiar with the matter told CNNMoney on Wednesday. About 33,000 jobs in the United States are at risk.

MGN Online MGN Online

The company's CEO, David Brandon, notified employees earlier in the day, according to an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal.

The announcement marks the end for a company that sold toys to millions of American kids. For half a century, Geoffrey the mascot giraffe invited children to its giant playhouses. Legions of adults who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s can probably still whistle its jingle: "I'm a Toys 'R' Us kid."

Related: Meet the woman who wrote the Toys 'R' Us jingle

But Walmart, Target and other big-box retailers  stores that sold aisles of toys and everything else, too  began to erode its dominance. And then the emergence of Amazon sped its demise.

In September, Toys "R" Us filed for bankruptcy, hoping to shed debt and reinvest in its stores. But the turnaround didn't work. In January the company said it would close 182 stores across the United States.

Toys "R" Us is expected to close hundreds of stores worldwide as well. Earlier on Wednesday, Toys "R" Us said it was closing all of its stores in the UK.

Tell us your Toys "R" Us memories

Toys "R" Us hasn't made a full-year profit since 2012 and has lost $2.5 billion since then. It reported a loss of $953 million in the first nine months of last year alone. Sales during the recent holiday period, which the company has yet to report, are believed to have been very bad.

The company was taken over by private equity giants KKR, Bain Capital and real estate investment company Vornado in 2005. Together they paid $6.6 billion, but saddled the company with $5.3 billion in debt.

At the time of its bankruptcy, Toys "R" Us disclosed it had about $5 billion in debt and was spending about $400 million a year just to pay for it.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.The University of North Alabama is renaming a main building on campus after the university's first African American student.

Wendell W. Gunn graduated from Florence State College, which is now UNA, in 1965. He was the first African American student at the school at the height of the Civil Rights movement in a racially divided south. UNA officials said Gunn paved the way for other students at UNA. After he graduated he worked in the Regan administration and now owns his own business.

Wednesday a large crowd gathered at the Commons building to watch it officially be named the Wendall W. Gunn Commons Building.

"We hope by seeing his name on this building people will understand some of the things he had to go through to go to school," said UNA Spokesperson Bryan Rachal. "Especially with today's political climate we wanted to show that we're an open and progressive campus."

Just about every university in the state of Alabama; including UNA, has a building named after David Bibb Graves, a former governor of Alabama who had many accomplishments but also had ties to the Klu Klux Klan. Some students feel like naming the Commons building after Gunn is a step in the right direction.

"I think it's pretty good for them to leave his legacy here. The campus is getting more diverse with all races and it's changing the future," said UNA student, Jared Kent.

Gunn told WAAY 31 it's been a humbling experience to have his name on the building.It is the next generation of younger and emerging artists, which includes Patrick Mung Mung, Mabel Juli, Shirley Purdie, Gordon Barney, Phyllis Thomas, Rusty Peters and Charlene Carrington, Tommy Carroll, Kathy Ramsey and Rammey Ramsey, who are featured in this exhibition.

The Warmun Art Centre, formerly known as Turkey Creek, first opened its doors in 2007 and was home to an array of major Aboriginal artists from the region who included Rover Thomas, Queenie McKenzie, Paddy Jaminji, Jack Britten and Hector Jandany.

If the first generation was that of pioneers and discoverers, the subsequent generations were settlers and developers who built on the foundations of their predecessors. Some of them are interesting and accomplished artists; they do lack something of the profundity and excitement of the founders and their work does on occasion lend itself to less than favourable comparisons with that of giants in the art world, such as Rover Thomas and Queenie McKenzie, who were shown in Canberra at the now defunct Chapman Gallery 10 or 15 years ago.

The smallish canvas by Rusty Peters, Three nyawana in Yarini country (2012) is one of the gems in this exhibition with wonderful gritty surfaces and a simple compositional structure. The combination of areas of natural pigment, neatly articulated by white dots and presented in a series of horizontal bands, with a band of more naturally observed three trees is effective and memorable. Peters is aged in his late 80s and worked with Rover Thomas before branching out into his own practice. He has a boldness of touch and the ability to create moving, moody landscapes that are charged with meaning of traditional law and contain the sacred landforms.

Shirley Purdie, who turns 70 this year and was the winner of the Blake Prize for Religious Art about a decade ago, has been painting for about 25 years. The outstanding piece at the exhibition is her large painting Goordbelayinji (2012), which is arranged as a triptych and stretches over three metres. "Goordbelayinji" is a Gija word for a massacre site and it is a narrative that Purdie has painted on many occasions. In the upper centre of the composition there is a scene of Aboriginal life before the Europeans arrived, while on the left we see the arrival of Europeans in their wagons.

The lower part of the composition marks the place of the massacre of the Gija peoples at Mistake Creek, with the actual site marked near the growing boab tree. The perpetrators were acquitted as they claimed that they were tricked into believing that these Aboriginal people had stolen and killed one of their cows. It is a remarkably lyrical composition that masks a dark episode in Aboriginal history.

Purdie's husband, Gordon Barney, is the other outstanding artist in the show with a similar palette and a lovely gritty tactile quality in the ochres and ground pigments used to describe the landscape elements. His images of Birnoo country have a wonderful combination of aerial imagery and an articulation with crisp white dotting. They are rhythmic and moving abstracted images of the local landscape.Tax agents have been put on notice for deliberately encouraging their clients to submit over the top work expense claims with Tax commissioner Chris Jordon warning cheating by professionals could undermine the integrity of the taxation system.

The Tax Office has been doing random audits of taxpayers with work-related expense deductions, and Mr Jordan, in an address to the the Tax Institute conference in Cairns on Thursday, said he was concerned that some practitioners had displayed a lack of competence and others were deliberately scamming or cheating the system.

Chris Jordan says he wants to win the "hearts and minds" of taxpayers. Credit:Penny Bradfield

We are continuing to see a level of incorrect claiming for deductions that is concerning - particularly in relation to over-claiming of work-related expenses, he told the crowd of about 350 tax professionals.

There were different results for self-preparers and those who used an agent. "The incorrect claiming in these random enquiries is actually worse in agent-prepared returns," he said.Australia's highest reported CEO salary peaked at $33.5 million before the GFC, fell to $11.8 million in 2011 and bounced back to $21.6 million in 2017.

A new report that analyses data from Australia's top 100 companies shows that the average chief executive pay dropped from $5.5 million before the GFC to $4.7 million in 2011. But it has steadily crept back to $5.2 million.

The average top chief executive in Australia is earning $5.2 million, a figure not seen since before the global financial crisis. It comes as wage growth remains stagnant for most workers.

The report has found that while average earnings have less than doubled since 2000, the pay packets of executives at National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank have more than tripled.

The report is being released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Bear Stearns, the fifth largest investment bank in the US, which had some of the world's highest paid executives.

Report author David Richardson, a senior research fellow at left-wing think tank the Australia Institute, will on Thursday release the report, which analyses executive pay in Australia 10 years on from the GFC.

"These salaries dropped substantially during the GFC, but Australia is currently going through another surge in CEO pay, particularly in larger companies, heading back towards GFC levels," Mr Richardson said.

"The lesson of the GFC should be that the surge in executive pay was not only unwarranted but dangerous where it accompanied a high-risk culture among some of the world's biggest financial institutions."Britains top envoy has warned Russias alleged involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy is a challenge to all of us as the Turnbull government considers its own possible sanctions against Moscow.

Acting high commissioner Ingrid Southworth raised the deaths of Australians in the shooting down of flight MH17 by Moscow-backed Ukrainian separatists as she thanked the Turnbull government for a firm statement of condemnation over the poisoning and said Britain will work very closely with Australian officials as they consider punitive action.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a joint statement on Thursday that it supported Britain in the strongest terms and warned that Australia is considering its responses in support of the United Kingdom.

Both the British and Australian governments have repeatedly said they are consulting closely on responses to the poisoning, raising the prospect that Canberra will take out its own measures against Moscow along with others countries that are rallying around Britain over the unprecedented use of a chemical weapon on British soil.Bill Shorten has pledged to compensate up to 250,000 pensioners for any dollar they lose under his $59 billion dividend imputation policy as the Coalition, retirees and seniors groups accuse Labor over a "brutal and cruel" threat to their finances.

The commitment could see part and full pensioners rushing to restructure their investments and move away from shares to pension payments if Labor wins the election early next year, with only eight weeks between the latest date an election can be held in May and the July 1 implementation date of the new policy.

The opposition insists the hit to the budget from pension increase for hundreds of thousands of voters has been fully costed and is included in the $59 billion budget boost, but has refused to release its Parliamentary Budget Office advice, leaving no clarity on how much the pension-subsidy will cost.

"For a person on the part pension they may get some taxpayer funded supplement to their shares - what we're proposing is if they're not getting some extra taxpayer funded bonus for income tax they haven't paid, their part pension will increase," said Mr Shorten.The nation's peak law body has warned of "systemic racism" in the justice system, as it presented shocking statistics on the sky-rocketing rate of Indigenous incarceration and called for a massive cash injection to fund legal aid.

In his first major speech as president of the Law Council, Morry Bailes said the number of Aboriginal Australians in jail cells was "catastrophic" and required "urgent" action to address.

"The figures are shocking," he told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "In the last decade, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration in this country has risen 88 per cent. Those peoples represent less than 3 per cent of the population but are 27 per cent of our incarcerated population."

This increase in prison numbers is far greater than the general Indigenous population, which rose by 17 per cent between 2011 and 2016 according to census figures.For queer Australian Muslims this marginalisation is palpable, and their fight for visibility has led to the creation of an organisation that aims to shed light on their concerns.

Mainstream coverage of LGBTQ events, including this month's Mardi Gras parade, has largely centred on the flashy, white, and middle class, thereby fashioning a marketable caricature of LGBTQ identity that restricts entire communities, and their unique concerns, into the margins.

Australias LGBTQ community is a vibrant and diverse part of the wider, global fabric of uncompromising gay liberation advocacy, but the media's characterisation of it exists almost entirely through the lens of what is ferociously visible.

It's about reconciling our faith with our lives as queer members of the community. Credit:Peter Harrington

President of SQM, referred to here as N.H.* for privacy concerns, tells Fairfax Media that after the horrific Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, members decided to turn their support group into a revolutionary advocacy network in order to be able to do more.

The primary goals of SQM are to let queer Muslims know that they are not alone, to provide queer Muslims with a sense of community and opportunities to form social connections and support networks, to provide resources for queer muslims so that they're able to reconcile their faith with their sexual and gender identity (and so that their families may understand their journey), and to strengthen family bonds through family remediation workshops.

Recently, SQM has proposed a spiritual counselling program that will primarily take the shape of short-term crisis counselling and assistance with family reconciliation.

N.H., a 48-year-old Muslim lesbian, admits that while her inter-familial experience has been free of violence she is well versed in stories of other LGBTQ Muslims, and the pain they've had to endure. Lives are being ruined by the impact of societys attitudes towards LGBT Muslims, she says.

The intention of SQM is to step in where more normative social services and community support fall short. We act as a referral service, but with a personal touch. Our organisation is dedicated to supporting queer people of Muslim background, and especially to those who dont want to renounce their faith.My university graduation was looming over my head when I sought and secured an internship last year at a boutique book publisher in Melbourne.

At one point, I was stationed next to a Year 10 student on work experience. She was in casual clothes  a fun part of missing classes for work experience  and was unsure how to pronounce Bronte sisters.

In Victoria, Year 10 students receive a small payment for every day of their placement that often just covers the cost of their transport (although teenagers in NSW are not so lucky). So my young neighbour was paid to learn about the myriad jobs in publishing and bookselling.

Students who need experience to get a job are vulnerable to exploitation. Credit:Nic Walker

But I wasnt. I had spent two years studying professional writing and literature, and yet I proofread, marketed and assisted at events for nothing.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.A Sri Lankan asylum seeker family taken from a small Queensland town were pulled from a plane overnight just minutes before they were due to be deported.

Nadesalingam and Priya with their two children. Credit:Tamil Refugee Council

Border force officials removed Tamils Nadesalingam, Priya and their two Australian-born daughters from Biloela last week and put them in a Melbourne detention centre.

Tamil Refugee Council spokesman Ben Hillier said they were handcuffed and taken in separate vans to Melbourne Airport on Tuesday, flown to Perth and placed on a flight to Sri Lanka.

But a last-minute legal intervention resulted in them being removed from the plane before it took off.An elderly man has been charged with molesting a seven-year-old girl more than 40 years ago.

Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said police will allege the man, who was known to the girl, sexually assaulted her between 1974 and 1981.

The alleged abuse happened more than 40 years ago. Credit:John Donegan

An 86-year-old Great Southern man has been charged with three counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a child under 13 years of age.

He is due to front Albany Magistrates Court on Thursday.Fisheries authorities have determined it is "unlikely" a shark is to blame after two children were injured while swimming off a Perth beach on Wednesday evening.

Fisheries issued a shark warning after the two boys were injured within minutes of each other while swimming at Watermans Bay Beach at 5.20pm.

A shark warning is cancelled for beaches between Sorrento and Trigg. Credit:Surf Life Saving WA

The two children left the beach and their injuries were treated by a doctor, and they couldn't provide any information about the animal's possible size or species.

The incident was listed as a "possible shark interaction", and beachgoers between Sorrento and Trigg were urged to stay alert.A Perth bakery owner imported more than two tonnes of tobacco illegally into Australia, defrauding the Commonwealth to the tune of almost $2 million, a WA court has heard.

For the first time, details of the Australian Border Force (ABF) illicit tobacco importation investigation can be revealed.

The ABF operation in Perth in 2016 led to father of three Ma'ad Abdul Muna'm Al Raziqi copping a five year jail term in the WA District Court after he pleaded guilty to eight charges.

The court was told how Al Raziqi, 45, defrauded the Comonwealth of more than $1.8 million as a result of six separate tobacco imports, weighing approximately 2.3 tonnes in total.



The court heard how in October 2016, ABF officers examined a consignment addressed to the father of three and Wangara bakery owner, who came to Australia from Iraq in 1999.The iconic CY O'Connor statue has been repaired and replaced at North Coogee home on Wednesday morning, after it was first broken in two in mysterious circumstances last month.

Locals recognised and reported the damaged statue to authorities last month, and the torso of Tony Jones' famous bronze sculpture was eventually located on the ocean floor in late February.

While it's unknown how the statue was originally broken, original artist Tony Jones and a small team were able to retrieve the torso and repair it in a Cowaramup studio over the course of about two weeks.

The statue was put back in place on Wednesday morning, and Mr Jones told 6PR's Simon Beaumont CY O'Connor was looking "better than ever" and thanked his team and the public for their support.

Now complete with a beautiful bronze strip across its torso, Perth locals Steve Hawkes and Tanya Izzard were there to capture the moment CY O'Connor returned to the beach.A shark warning has been issued for Perth beaches after two children were injured within minutes of each other in a suspected shark attack on Wednesday evening.

The warning is current for beaches between Sorrento and Trigg, according to Surf Life Saving WA.

A shark warning is current for beaches between Sorrento and Trigg. Credit:Surf Life Saving WA

About 5:20pm two children were walking in the water just three metres offshore at Watermans Bay Beach when they were injured just moments apart in a "possible shark interaction".

The two children left the beach and their injuries were treated by a doctor.Beijing: The Chinese education ministry says Australia is denying visas to Chinese PhD students even though they have been offered places with Australian universities.

In comments to Fairfax Media, the Chinese education ministry spokesman said Chinese students had not only faced delays in visa processing in recent times, but "some students failed to obtain visas, even after review, causing inconvenience to both applicants and Australian schools".

A tour guide takes a group of Chinese people for a tour of Sydney University in February. Credit:Fairfax Media

The delays in processing visas for the PhD students as the Home Affairs department conducts national security checks has emerged as the latest point of diplomatic tension between Australia and China.

Some Chinese students have been waiting more than eight months for security checks, which are conducted by ASIO, and are unable to take up offers from Australian universities as they wait.Jakarta: An Australian man and a Cambodian man were killed when a landmine detonated during a military training exercise west of Phnom Penh on Thursday, police say.

Three others were injured, including a second Australian, though his injuries are said not to be serious. He has been treated at a hospital in Phnom Penh and is able to walk.

A man being stretchered into a hospital after the incident in Kampong Speu. Credit:Phnom Penh Post

The Australians were military trainers according to police in Kampong Speu, 50 kilometres from Phnom Penh.

Their names have not yet been released.Under the auspices of the West African Customs Administration Modernization (WACAM) Project financed by Sweden, the World Customs Organization (WCO) provides tailor-made support to Guinea in building capacities to effectively engage with stakeholders.

In the framework of this support, a training on stakeholder engagement was jointly delivered from 05 to 08 March 2018 in Conakry, Guinea, by the WCO and the World Bank. The aim of the training was to improve Guinea Customs capacities to engage with stakeholders, as part of its efforts to implement provisions of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

The workshop, which involved the participation of 20 officials, including 3 women, comprised presentations and group exercises dealing with consultation processes in order to highlight and reinforce the importance of engaging with relevant stakeholders and thereby enhance Guinea Customs officers capacities to successfully conduct consultations.

The establishment of a Consultative Committee at the Port of Conakry was one of the recommendations of the workshop. The purpose of establishing a committee would be to support Guineas government commitment to ensure compliance with TFA provisions, including those related to Article 2, and to initiate a unique platform for dialogue and coordination on trade facilitation reforms.

The Director General of Guinea Customs expressed his sincere appreciation to the donor, the WCO and the World Bank for their support to Guineas efforts in the implementation of TFA provisions. He emphasized the importance of this training for the administration, and regarded the organization of the workshop as a critical step in improving the involvement of relevant stakeholders as part of the effective implementation of TFA provisions and in view of the increased volume of international cross-border trade.

For more information about the WCO-WACAM Project, please refer to the Director of the WCO-Sweden Programme. M. Richard Chopra, Richard.Chopra@wcoomd.orgIn March 2018, the WCO organized a study visit and secondment for Malawi Revenue Authority officials to the Rwanda Revenue Authority. The main objective of the mission was to build a strong knowledge base in risk management frameworks and identify ways to fully implement ASYCUDA risk management modules. This activity was co-funded by the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD Project and the WCO ESA Project II (funded by the Finnish government).

The study visit was planned in line with the recommendations made in the WCO Mercator Implementation Plan as well as the WCO risk management diagnostic study carried out for Malawi. The reports indicated that MRA would greatly benefit from a study visit to a neighboring ESA Customs administration that could provide the required knowledge and expertise.

Rwanda Revenue Authority was seen as an ideal choice, not only because it had fairly recently successfully migrated from Asycuda ++ to Asycuda World but it had a well-established Risk Management Unit that was efficiently and effectively collecting, analyzing and utilizing data from a variety of sources. RRA was keen to assist MRA and this collaboration is an excellent example of regional integration.

This study visit will strengthen the capacities of MRA in using Intelligence-based risk analysis, coupled with effective information collection and sharing in order to create greater harmonization of risk management approaches and standards across their Organization.French English

Innate Pharma to present broad and innovative portfolio in immuno-oncology at ACCR 2018

First clinical activity data of the combination of monalizumab and cetuximab

New preclinical data further supporting the rationale of Innate's first- or best-in-class antibodies

Eric Vivier, Chief Scientific Officer, to present at meet-the-expert session on next generation immunotherapies

Marseille, France, March 15, 2018, 07:00 AM CET

Innate Pharma SA (the "Company" - Euronext Paris: FR0010331421 - IPH) today announces that new clinical and preclinical data will be presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, taking place from 14 to 18 April 2018 in Chicago.

In particular, preliminary clinical activity data from the ongoing Phase II trial evaluating monalizumab, Innate's first-in-class antibody targeting inhibitory receptor NKG2A, in combination with cetuximab in previously treated patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M SCCHN) will be presented.

Eric Vivier, Chief Scientific Officer commented: "We have made substantial advances in building a broad and diversified portfolio in immuno-oncology, having the potential to address large unmet medical needs in cancer. We are proud to share data from across this uniquely positioned portfolio and we look ahead to a number of key milestones in 2018."

Innate will also be sharing new preclinical data on monalizumab, which further supports the rationale for the development of monalizumab as a combination therapy as part of the ongoing joint clinical development program with AstraZeneca/MedImmune. These data demonstrate that blockade of NKG2A potentiates cetuximab induced antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) in a preclinical SCCHN model. Separate data suggest the combination of monalizumab and durvalumab as a potent immunotherapy for solid tumors.

Additional highlights from the Innate immuno-oncology portfolio will include preclinical data to support the development of anti-CD39 and anti-CD73 neutralizing antibodies targeting the ATP/Adenosine immune checkpoint pathway for cancer immunotherapy, in combination with chemotherapy or immune checkpoint therapy. CD39 and CD73 are membrane-bound extracellular enzymes which play a major role in promoting immunosuppression through the pathway degrading adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into adenosine. The blockade of CD39 and CD73 has the potential to promote anti-tumor immune responses across a wide range of tumors. IPH52 (anti-CD39) and IPH53 (anti-CD73) are currently in preclinical development.

Another poster will highlight preclinical findings for a first-in-class antibody program targeting the Siglec-9 immune checkpoint for cancer immunotherapy. This new program has recently been disclosed on Innate Pharma's R&D Day on March 8.

Presentation and poster details have been released on the AACR website and include:

Session Type: Meet-the-Expert Session

Track(s): Immunology, experimental and molecular therapeutics

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM

Location: McCormick Place South, Level 4, Room S406 (Vista Ballroom)

Speaker: Eric Vivier, Chief Scientific Officer, Innate Pharma

Session Title: Phase I/II, II, and III Trials in Progress

Session Date and Time: Tuesday Apr 17, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Hall A, Poster Section 42

Poster Board Number 10

Abstract: CT158

NKG2A immune checkpoint blockade potentiates cetuximab induced ADCC in head and neck cancer preclinical model

Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 1

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 31

Poster Board Number 15

Abstract: 1690

Combination of monalizumab and durvalumab as a potent immunotherapy treatment for solid human cancers

Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 32

Poster Board Number 6

Abstract: 2714

Preclinical development of humanized CD39 and CD73 blocking antibodies targeting the ATP/Adenosine immune checkpoint pathway for cancer immunotherapy Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 32

Poster Board Number 10

Abstract: 2718

Session Category: Immunology

Session Title: Immune Checkpoints 2

Session Date and Time: Monday Apr 16, 2018 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: McCormick Place South, Exhibit Hall A, Poster Section 32

Poster Board Number 5

Abstract: 2713





The posters and presentations will be made available on the Company's website after the session.

About Innate Pharma:

Innate Pharma S.A. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to improving cancer treatment and clinical outcomes for patients through first-in-class therapeutic antibodies that harness the innate immunity.

Innate Pharma specializes in immuno-oncology, a new therapeutic field that is changing cancer treatment by mobilizing the power of the body's immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells.

The Company's broad pipeline includes four first-in-class clinical stage antibodies as well as preclinical candidates and technologies that have the potential to address a broad range of cancer indications with high unmet medical needs.

Innate Pharma has pioneered the discovery and development of checkpoint inhibitors, with a unique expertise and understanding of Natural Killer cell biology. This innovative approach has resulted in major alliances with leaders in the biopharmaceutical industry including AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk A/S and Sanofi. Innate Pharma is building the foundations to become a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company.

Based in Marseille, France, Innate Pharma has more than 180 employees and is listed on Euronext Paris.

Learn more about Innate Pharma at www.innate-pharma.com

Information about Innate Pharma shares:

ISIN code

Ticker code

LEI FR0010331421

IPH

9695002Y8420ZB8HJE29

Disclaimer:

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors ("Facteurs de Risque") section of the Document de Reference prospectus filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website (http://www.amf-france.org) or on Innate Pharma's website.

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in Innate Pharma in any country.

For additional information, please contact:Students joined together at Philip Barbour High School standing in solidarity, while calling for change and action.

"We see the world a lot different from adults or children, so I think that's why I really enjoyed doing this and it was so respectful. I just felt like it need to be done. Gun violence needs to stop," said Olivia Zinn, student.

Due to the cold weather, the student body gathered in the gymnasium for a 17 minute peaceful protest. This was to honor and remember the victims from the Florida tragedy. Students read aloud each of the victims names, said a prayer, and later released balloons into the sky.

"Enough is enough. We're tired of people dying, students dying in senseless tragedies that could so easily be avoided. We are tired of it and we are asking Congress to take action," said Cadie Beth McNaboe, student.

Students wanted to make clear that their protest is not about promoting gun control or stricter gun laws. Instead, they said this is all about putting a stop to gun violence.

"We're fired up that people are dying so senselessly. At the end of the day this isn't about gun control. This isn't about whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or whatever your political ideologies are, at the end of the day we are all Americans, we are all humans," said McNaboe.

This issue hits to close to home for many students after the 2015 hostage incident at the school.

"As a school that experienced this in August of 2015 we decided to unite and show that we support all of the victims thus far," said Kiara Harris, student.The Annual General Meeting of Targovax ASA will be held at the Company's offices at Lysaker, on 11 April 2018 at 10:00 CET.

Please find the notice including agenda for the General Meeting and appendices attached to this disclosure. The notice will also be sent to all shareholders. The notice and appendices will also be made available on Targovax' website www.targovax.com under Corporate Governance and General Meetings.

The proposal from the Nomination Committee will be made available on www.targovax.com prior to the Annual General Meeting. The Company will publish a new press release when the proposal from the Nomination Committee is available.

Notice of attendance must be received no later than 10 April 2018 at 16:00 CET.

For further information, please contact:

Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations

Phone: +47 922 61 624

Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com

Media and IR enquires:

Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)

Phone: +47 9300 1773

Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no

Simon Conway - FTI Consulting (International)

Phone: +44 20 3727 1000

Email: Targovax@fticonsulting.com

About Targovax

Arming the patient's immune system to fight cancer

Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology therapies to target, primarily, treatment-resistant solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine.

The Company's development pipeline is based on two novel proprietary platforms:

The first platform, ONCOS, uses oncolytic viruses as potential multi-target, neo-antigen, therapeutic cancer vaccines. ONCOS uses an adenovirus that has been engineered to be an immune activator that selectively targets cancer cells. In phase I trials it has demonstrated immune activation at tumor lesional level which was associated with clinical benefit. In an ongoing phase I combination trial in advanced melanoma we are seeking important proof of concept data to confirm that patients who have become refractory to treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) can respond to the same checkpoint inhibitor after treatment with ONCOS-102.

The second platform, TG, uses neo-antigen cancer vaccines designed to specifically treat tumors that express mutated forms of RAS. Mutations to the RAS protein are common in many cancers and are known to drive aggressive disease progression and treatment resistance. There is a high unmet medical need for therapies that are effective against tumors that express these mutations. The TG platform's therapeutic potential stems from its ability to enable the patient's immune system to develop a cellular response with the potential to identify and destroy tumors bearing any RAS mutations. In early 2017, key proof of concept data for the TG platform from a clinical trial of TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer patients showed encouraging overall survival. These results are now providing guidance for the future clinical development of this platform.

Targovax's clinical development pipeline includes three novel therapeutic candidates covering six indications.

Both platforms are protected by an extensive portfolio of Intellectual Property (IP) and know-how and have the potential to yield multiple pipeline candidates in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, Targovax has other product candidates in preclinical development.



This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.



Attachment:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e95dad2d-9fe5-4f80-8ce8-0656cfac87a1McDonald's to phase out plastic toys in Happy MealsLoading...

About to enter its second year in the West End, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery shows no signs of slowing down as it unveils its crack new criminal cast ready to steal the show.

The production, written by Mischief Theatre's Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, follows an anarchic attempt to rob a bank in Minneapolis, with a slapstick twist.

When the show first opened, WhatsOnStage critic Mark Valencia said "it will have you laughing all the way to the bank", and awarded it five stars. The comedy followed on from the company's previous successes, including The Play That Goes Wrong (which is also currently touring and running on Broadway) and Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Most recently, the company were nominated for an Olivier Award for their new devised show Mischief Movie Night.

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is booking at the Criterion Theatre until November 2018.English Dutch

PRESS RELEASE : Thursday, 15 March 2018, 07:00 CET

Biocartis Abstract on Performance Idylla(TM) ctRAS Liquid Biopsy Tests

Selected for Oral Presentation at

2018 American Association for Cancer Research Meeting

Mechelen, Belgium, 15 March 2018 - Biocartis Group NV (the 'Company' or 'Biocartis'), an innovative molecular diagnostics company (Euronext Brussels: BCART), today announces that a study abstract on the analytical and clinical validation of the liquid biopsy Idylla(TM) ctKRAS and ctNRAS-BRAF Tests has been selected for oral presentation at the renowned AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Annual Meeting in Chicago (US), taking place between 14-18 April 2018. Results demonstrated that the Idylla(TM) ctKRAS and ctNRAS-BRAF Mutation Tests provide a sensitive, reliable and fast solution for liquid biopsy RAS-BRAF ctDNA (circulating tumor) testing, and that RAS-BRAF mutation status can be adequately determined using blood plasma from metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with liver metastases.

RAS-BRAF mutation analysis is mandatory by all major international guidelines for mCRC patients. Incorporating ctDNA testing in routine diagnostics could allow rapid detection of baseline RAS mutation status from a single blood draw. Today, an increasing number of studiesis aimed at supporting the use of liquid biopsy testing in routine diagnostics.

The analytical and clinical validation of the liquid biopsy Idylla(TM) ctKRAS Mutation Test and the Idylla(TM) ctNRAS-BRAF Mutation Test, both CE-marked in December 2017, is based on a RAS concordance comparison study between tumor tissue (FFPE) and blood plasma samples,. For clinical validation, pre-treatment plasma samples from 203 mCRC patients were retrospectively assessed. As a comparator test, NGS analysis was performed on ctDNA, resulting in overall RAS agreement between Idylla(TM) and NGS on plasma of 90.0%, showing high clinical sensitivity of the liquid biopsy Idylla(TM) tests.

Additionally, the study demonstrated that patients with low amounts of ctDNA in the blood sample, absence of liver metastases and resected primary tumor were associated with discordant RAS results between FFPE tumor and blood plasma samples, whereas in the patient population with liver metastases showing sufficient ctDNA, overall RAS agreement between plasma and tissue RAS status was 92.5%. As such, the study concluded that the Idylla(TM) ctKRAS and ctNRAS-BRAF Mutation Tests, operating each directly on 1 ml of blood plasma on the Biocartis Idylla(TM) system, provide a sensitive, reliable and fast solution for RAS-BRAF ctDNA testing in mCRC patients with liver metastases.

Herman Verrelst, Chief Executive Officer of Biocartis, commented: "We are very proud that the excellent performance of our liquid biopsy Idylla(TM) RAS tests has been selected for an oral presentation at the renowned 2018 AACR Meeting. We see this as recognition by the AACR of the huge potential of using liquid biopsy tests such as ours in routine clinical diagnostics. This furthermore confirms the true strength of our Idylla(TM) system as a flexible solution for all patients, whether they have high or low amounts of ctDNA in the blood stream, as Idylla(TM) allows for easy, rapid and sensitive molecular diagnostic testing on both FFPE tumor tissue and blood plasma samples."

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, with nearly 1.4 million new cases diagnosed in 2012.

--- END ---

More information:

Renate Degrave

Manager Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

e-mail rdegrave@biocartis.com

tel +32 15 631 729

mobile +32 471 53 60 64





About Biocartis

Biocartis (Euronext Brussels: BCART) is an innovative molecular diagnostics (MDx) company providing next generation diagnostic solutions aimed at improving clinical practice for the benefit of patients, clinicians, payers and industry. Biocartis' proprietary MDx Idylla(TM) platform is a fully automated sample-to-result, real-time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) system that offers accurate, highly reliable molecular information from virtually any biological sample in virtually any setting. Biocartis launched the Idylla(TM) platform in September 2014. Biocartis is developing and marketing a rapidly expanding test menu addressing key unmet clinical needs in oncology and infectious diseases. These areas represent respectively the fastest growing and largest segments of the MDx market worldwide. Today, Biocartis offers fourteen oncology tests and two infectious disease tests in Europe. More information: www.biocartis.com. Press Photo Library available here. Follow us on Twitter: @Biocartis_.

Biocartis and Idylla(TM) are registered trademarks in Europe, the United States and other countries. Biocartis trademark and logo and Idylla(TM) trademark and logo are used trademarks belonging to Biocartis. This press release is not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in any jurisdiction where to do so would be unlawful. Any persons reading this press release should inform themselves of and observe any such restrictions. Biocartis takes no responsibility for any violation of any such restrictions by any person. Please refer to the product labeling for applicable intended uses for each individual Biocartis product. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities in any jurisdiction. No securities of Biocartis may be offered or sold in the United States of America absent registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Forward-looking statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Biocartis expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release, except if specifically required to do so by law or regulation. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.





B Jacobs, B Claes, P Laurent-Puig, JP Bachet, S Tejpar, G Maertens, E Sablon, "Analytical and clinical validation of the Idylla(TM) ctKRAS and ctNRAS-BRAF Liquid biopsy tests", first presented at the 2018 AACR Annual Meeting in Chicago, US, 14-18 April 2018.

These tests were developed under the collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

The Idylla(TM) ctKRAS Mutation Test and the Idylla(TM) ctNRAS-BRAF Mutation Test are CE-marked IVD's in Europe and not for sale in the US. Please check availability with the local Biocartis sales representative.

http://www.amp.org/committees/clinical_practice/CRCOpenComment.cfm; ESMO (ESMO consensus guidelines for the management of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Annals of Oncology 0: 1-37, 2016); NCCN (NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology - Colon Cancer - Version 2.2016); ASCO (Allegra C.J. et al. Extended RAS gene mutation testing in metastatic Colorectal Carcinoma to predict response to antiepidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody therapy: American Society of Clinical Oncology Provisional Clinical Opinion Update 2015. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2016; 34(2):179-85) and CAP/AMP/ASCO

Formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded.

The prospective multicenter RASANC study: "RAS mutations concordance in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) and tissue in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC)"; J.B. Bachet et al, Poster presented at ASCO 2017, Sponsored by AGEO - supported by a grant from Merck Serono s.a.s. (France), an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

Patients enrolled in the prospective multicenter RASANC study (NCT02502656). Proper informed consent and statistical analysis were included.

As a comparator test, NGS analysis with a sensitivity of 0.2% was performed on ctDNA according to Pecuchet et al. (2016). In addition, tissue RAS/BRAF results were available from standard of care testing.

With a sensitivity of 93.2% and specificity of 90.9%.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MGX Minerals Inc. (MGX or the Company) (CSE:XMG) (FKT:1MG) (OTCQB:MGXMF) is pleased to announce that as a result of the recently announced positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the production of 161,000 net tonnes per year of magnesium oxide (MgO) at its Driftwood Creek Magnesium Project (Driftwood Creek or the Project), the Company has engaged engineering firm Hatch Ltd. (Hatch) to complete a scoping study for the purpose of selecting appropriate process and associated economics for the upgrading of magnesium oxide to magnesium metal. The Hatch study will evaluate process routes, and order of magnitude capital and operating cost estimates for an initial 10,000 tonne per year (tpy) magnesium plant as well as address various environmental and engineering topics.



The scoping study may further enhance the already positive economics of Driftwood Creek with the addition of Mg Metal to proposed MgO production as well as provide diversification into advanced materials. The current price of magnesium metal (99.5% ingot) is approximately $2,250 per tonne versus MgO (DBM 95%) at approximately US$600 per tonne. Contained Mg in MgO is 60.3%, making the process and associated recovery as well as energy use a key focus of the study. Additionally, long-standing anti-dumping and strategic metal designation has significantly increased the domestic price of Mg in the United States compared with global markets. A single sole producer of magnesium metal in the U.S. has operated for many years. Of note is the fact that Canada is no longer subject to these U.S. tariffs against foreign magnesium metal imports. Additionally, Driftwood is located in an area of low cost power in southwest British Columbia and proximate by direct rail to even lower cost power in eastern Washington State.

Magnesium metal is considered an advanced material. Magnesium is 33% lighter than aluminum, 60% lighter than titanium and 75% lighter than steel while offering comparable strength ratios. Automobile and aerospace manufacturers are increasingly shifting towards magnesium-alloys to reduce vehicle and aircraft weights and meet growing fuel-efficiency demands, while recent advances in magnesium battery technology represent strong potential for future additional non-structural applications.

Qualified Persons

The technical portions of this press release were reviewed by Andris Kikauka (P. Geo.), Vice President of Exploration for MGX Minerals. Mr. Kikauka is a non-independent Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards.

About Hatch

Hatch is an employee-owned and independent company with experience spanning over 150 countries around the world in the metals, energy, infrastructure, digital, and investments market sectors. Hatch embraces its client visions as its own and partner with them to develop better ideas that are smarter, more efficient, and innovative. Hatch's exceptional, diverse teams combine vast engineering and business knowledge, working in partnership with its clients to develop market strategies, manage and optimize production, develop new game-changing technologies, and design and deliver complex capital projects.

About MGX Minerals

MGX Minerals is a diversified Canadian resource company with interests in advanced material and energy assets throughout North America. Learn more at www.mgxminerals.com.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Partly cloudy skies during the evening giving way to a few showers after midnight. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening giving way to a few showers after midnight. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.English Finnish Swedish

Fiskars Corporation

Stock Exchange Release

March 15, 2018 at 9:30 EET

Fiskars appoints Niklas Lindholm as Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Fiskars Group Leadership Team

Fiskars has appointed Niklas Lindholm as Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Fiskars Group Leadership Team (FGLT) from August 1, 2018. He will report to Fiskars President and CEO, Jaana Tuominen. As announced on January 11, 2018, Nina Ariluoma, who currently holds the position, will be leaving the company at the end of March.



"I warmly welcome Niklas to Fiskars. He has a strong track record in developing and leading human resources in a global environment. The depth of his experience will be a great asset to Fiskars as we strive to make the everyday extraordinary for our employees, and for the consumer," said Jaana Tuominen.



I look forward to joining Fiskars, a company with an unparalleled heritage and globally recognized brands, at this point of its journey. Fundamentally it is people that create great brands. Therefore, I look forward to driving a globally collaborative culture, and an extraordinary employee experience, so that we can continue to build a family of iconic lifestyle brands, said Niklas Lindholm.



Niklas Lindholm joins Fiskars from Paulig Group, where he holds the position of Vice President, Human Resources. He brings with him a wealth of experience in human resources and international business, having worked at Paulig for ten years based in Finland and Sweden and more than ten years at Nokia, based in China, UK and Finland. He has a PhD (Econ.) in International Management and a MSc (Econ.) in Organization and Management.



As a result of this change, the Fiskars Group Leadership Team will, effective as of August 1, 2018, consist of the following members:



 Jaana Tuominen, President and CEO

 Sari Pohjonen, Chief Financial Officer and Deputy to the CEO

 Risto Gaggl, Chief Supply Chain Officer

 Ulla Lettijeff, President, SBU Living

 Niklas Lindholm, Chief Human Resources Officer

 Maija Taimi, VP, Corporate Communications and Sustainability

 Paivi Timonen, General Counsel

 Paul Tonnesen, President, SBU Functional

 Chief Growth Officer, to be appointed later



Niklas Lindholm's picture and resume are available at: https://www.fiskarsgroup.com/media/image-bank



More information on the Fiskars Group Leadership Team members are available at: https://www.fiskarsgroup.com/investors/corporate-governance/management/leadership-team



Media and investor contacts:

Corporate Communications, tel. +358 204 39 5745, communications@fiskars.com





Fiskars - Making the everyday extraordinary

Fiskars serves consumers and customers around the world with globally recognized brands including Fiskars, Gerber, Iittala, Royal Copenhagen, Waterford, and Wedgwood. Building on our mission to create a family of iconic lifestyle brands, Fiskars' vision is to create a positive, lasting impact on our quality of life. Please visit www.fiskarsgroup.com for more information.

20180315 Fiskars appoints Niklas Lindholm as CHRO_engFour teens are behind bars tonight after police say they threatened to shoot up a school in southeastern Michigan.

Whitmore Lake Public schools superintendent says he received a threat about a shooting just after classes let out Tuesday.

Police determined it was credible -- and arrested the teens.

They range in age from 16 to 18-years-old.

They're all current or former students in the district.

All schools were closed today as a precaution.TORONTO, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Despite upbeat government rhetoric, Ontarios economic growth in 2017 was not enough to repair the damage done during the preceding decade when the provinces economic performance was among the worst in Canada, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.



Over the course of a decade, Ontario was near the bottom of the heap for private sector job-creation, economic growth and increases in household income. The recent uptick in growth is good news, but given the length of Ontarios slump, its far too early to celebrate, said Ben Eisen, director of the Fraser Institutes Ontario Prosperity Initiative and co-author of Ontarios Lost Decade: 2007-2016.

Most of Canadaincluding Ontarioenjoyed stronger economic growth last year, but it isnt expected to last with the Bank of Canada and others forecasting slower growth in the years ahead, Eisen added.

The study finds that from 2007 to 2016 Ontario was at or near the bottom on several important economic indicators compared to Canadas other provinces. For example:

GDP growth per person : Ontario was 7 th out of 10, with average annual GDP growth of 0.4 per cent per person over the 10-year period, compared to 0.6 per cent for the rest of Canada.

: Ontario was 7 out of 10, with average annual GDP growth of 0.4 per cent per person over the 10-year period, compared to 0.6 per cent for the rest of Canada. Annual private-sector job growth : Ontario was 8 th out of 10, with barely half the average private-sector job growth of the rest of Canada0.6 per cent annually compared to 1.1 per cent.

: Ontario was 8 out of 10, with barely half the average private-sector job growth of the rest of Canada0.6 per cent annually compared to 1.1 per cent. Debt accumulated per person : Ontario was 9 th out of 10, having added $9,313 in new government debt per Ontarian during the 10-year period compared to $5,770 for Canadians in other provinces.

: Ontario was 9 out of 10, having added $9,313 in new government debt per Ontarian during the 10-year period compared to $5,770 for Canadians in other provinces. Median household income growth: Ontario finished last10th out of 10with just 3.8 per cent income growth for the median household, compared to 15.7 per cent in the rest of Canada from 2005 to 2015, the most recent year of available data.

Queens Park should not be complacent about Ontarios economic prospects, given more sluggish growth is looming on the horizon, Eisen said.

Instead of boasting about last year, policymakers should instead focus on identifying strategies that can ensure Ontarios next economic decade is stronger than the last one.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Ben Eisen, Director, Ontario Prosperity Initiative

Fraser Institute

To arrange interviews or for more information, please contact:

Bryn Weese, Media Relations Specialist, Fraser Institute

(604) 688-0221 ext. 589

bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org

Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Like us on Facebook

The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institutes independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.orgRelease no. 4/2018

Columbus A/S has today published the Annual Report 2017, cf. release no. 3/2018.

In 2017 Columbus delivered a revenue of DKK 1.2bn, and EBITDA* amounted to DKK 149m, corresponding to an increase of 2% and 3%, respectively, compared to 2016. The result after tax increased by 18% to DKK 96m.

The revenue growth was primarily driven by the emerging cloud business, growth in the services business and acquisitions made in 2016 and 2017.

The increase in EBITDA* was primarily due to growth in profitability in the services business, which increased by 19%, but was negatively affected by the development in Columbus business in the US.

Based on the result for the year and cash flow, the Board of Directors proposes that the General Meeting adopts a dividend payment of 10% of the nominal share capital.

Management initiatives in 2017

Execution of the Columbus20 20 strategy

Execute cloud transition plan

Acquisitions: Tridea Partners Offer to buy iStone AB

Recovery initiatives for Columbus US

Succesful execution of Columbus2020

Columbus continued the execution of Columbus2020 as planned. In 2017 Columbus focused particularly on improving customer success and customer loyalty, and during the year the number of loyal customers increased considerably.

In 2017, Columbus launched a range of new services within Application Management and Infrastructure Management, which means that Columbus is now able to support the customers entire applications and IT infrastructure.

Cloud market leaders

During 2017, Columbus converted the Companys software portfolio into cloud-based solutions and developed new services to support the customers running their applications in the cloud. Today, Columbus is among the market leaders in implementing business application projects in the cloud.

Acquisition of iStone

On 30 November, Columbus announced an offer to acquire the Swedish IT services company iStone with 600 employees. The acquisition was completed 2 January 2018. The acquisition will grow Columbus revenue by approx. 50% and position Columbus as market leader within digital transformation in the Nordic region as well as increase global reach significantly.

Challenges in Columbus US

During first half of 2017, Columbus business in the US faced market challenges that led to declining sales. The challenge with the US market has continued through Q4 and we experienced sales execution below expectations and unexpected losses on customer engagements of DKK 4m. Overall the challenges in the US business had a negative impact on revenue of approximately DKK 70 million and a negative impact on EBITDA of approximately DKK 31m. During 2017, the US business has adjusted the cost level in order to compensate for the reduced revenue.

Financial statements for 2017

The revenue increased by 2% to DKK 1.2bn in 2017. In local currency revenue increased by 3%. EBITDA2 increased by 3% to DKK 149m. Revenue is in the lower end of the announced expectations.

The revenue from Columbus services business increased by 3% to DKK 823m. Service EBITDA increased by 19% to DKK 109m which is in the lower end of the announced expectations.

The revenue from Columbus Software decreased by 9% to DKK 83m (2016: 91m). The decrease is due to the cloud conversion, as license sales decreased by 37%. However, sale of subscriptions increased by 7% and own cloud revenue increased by 216% to DKK 6.2m. This development is in line with expectations.

Recurring revenue increased from 25% of total revenue to 28%. The increase is primarily due to an increase in sale of Columbus Care which grew by 43% and growth in the sale of cloud based solutions. The development is in line with the announced expectations.

EBITDA after share-based payment increased by 6% to DKK 146m compared to 2016 (DKK 139m). Profit after tax increased by 18% to DKK 96m (2016 DKK 82m) and is considered satisfactory.

Expectations for 2018

2018 will be focused on growing the business organically with retained profitability while ensuring a successful integration of iStone and other acquisitions. Management will also have high focus on getting the US business back on track.

Specific targets for 2018:

Revenue in the level of DKK 2bn

EBITDA* in the level of DKK 200m

Columbus Software in the level of DKK 90m

10% dividend on nominal share capital

Expected integration and restructuring costs of DKK 10-15m in relation to the integration of iStone and HiGH Software are included in the expectations to EBITDA* for 2018.

Columbus increases expectations to acquisition price and contribution from the iStone acquisition

At the time of announcement of the iStone acquisition, Columbus expected iStone to deliver revenue in the level of SEK 800m (DKK 600m) and an EBITDA in the level of SEK 41m (DKK 31m) i 2017.

Due to a high activity level and a good final sprint, iStone ended the year better than expected. Thus, the preliminary unaudited financial statements for 2017 for iStone show a revenue of SEK 830m (DKK 623m) and an EBITDA of SEK 56m (DKK 42m).

At closing on 2 January 2018, the total acquisition price for iStone was expected to amount to between SEK 430m (DKK 323m) and SEK 570m (DKK 428m), of which SEK 230m (DKK 173m) was paid at closing. Based on the preliminary result for 2017 and adjusted expectations for 2018, the total acquisition price is expected to increase to between SEK 514m (DKK 386) and SEK 682m (DKK 512m). The increased acquisition price will be paid over the next three years and is expected to be financed by liquidity from operations.

As a consequence of the final sprint and subsequent momentum, iStone is expected to deliver revenue in the level of SEK 840m (DKK 630m) and an EBITDA in the level of SEK 60m (DKK in 45m) in 2018.

Updated long-term guidance

Columbus has updated the long-term guidance for the next three years.

With the acquisition of iStone and HiGH Software Columbus has taken a large step in reaching the financial goals for 2020.

With the acquisition of iStone the Companys focus will be to grow the business organically. The ambition is to grow the business at a compounded average growth rate of 3-5% each year. If Columbus makes any acquisitions during the period, expectations will be adjusted accordingly.

In 2017 Columbus realized an EBITDA margin of 12%. With the acquisition of iStone, the EBITDA margin for 2018 is expected to be in the level of 10%.

Columbus maintains long-term guidance of 11% EBITDA margin towards 2020.

We are satisfied with the result for 2017 where we grew our business while developing and selling a range of new cloud-based solutions helping our customers in the digital transformation. The result has shown that Columbus can deliver on our vision about growth and innovation in a rapidly changing market, says CEO & President in Columbus, Thomas Honore.

Investor presentation

Columbus Executive Board will present the results for 2017 at a conference call today at 13:00CET.

Please use the following dial-in numbers:

Denmark: +45 35 15 81 21

UK/international: +44 (0) 330 336 9411

US: +1 323 994 2083

Conference ID 1227866

It is also possible to follow the online webcast via this link: edge.media-server.com/m6/p/u6fejqs3

A recorded version of the presentation will be available on the website after the webcast has concluded:

www.columbusglobal.com.

Ib Kune

Chairman

Columbus A/S

Thomas Honore

CEO & President

Columbus A/S For further information, please contact:

CEO & President, Thomas Honore .: +45 70 20 50 00



Translation: In the event of any inconsistency between this document and the Danish language version, the Danish language version shall be the governing version.

Columbus Columbus2020 strategy  towards growth

Based on Columbus strengthened position, as a result of successful execution of the Columbus15 strategy, the company launched a growth strategy in March. The strategy is named Columbus2020 and consists of four interconnected strategic elements.DENVER, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Faction, the Multi-Cloud Platform as a Service company, headquartered in Denver, CO, announced today that it closed an $18 million Series B financing to expand its multi-cloud products and services and accelerate growth via sales, marketing and international expansion. New investor River Cities Capital Funds led the round, which includes investment by Dell Technologies Capital and existing investors Sweetwater Capital, Meritage Funds and Charterhouse Strategic Partners.



Tweet: Faction secures $18M in growth funding from six investors, including new investors River Cities Capital Funds and Dell Technologies Capital.

This growth capital financing positions Faction to further enhance its industry leading position as a premier provider of multi-cloud storage by extending its cloud connected storage to the VMware Cloud on AWS platform. Additionally, Faction will be expanding its managed services internationally to support the global rollout of VMware Cloud on AWS.

With this funding, Faction will expand its global operations in 2018 and 2019, and plans to hire across all functional areas of the business with an emphasis on software development, engineering, and managed and professional services. Factions hiring plans for 2018 are building on the growth of Factions Denver based team last year, which included two key executives in President & COO and CFO roles.

Executive Quotes

We are thrilled to partner with Faction and believe there is a tremendous opportunity to accelerate the companys growth through product and international expansion. Were impressed with the depth and breadth of the companys solutions for enabling managed services partners and are particularly encouraged by their innovative offerings for cloud connected storage, including VMware Cloud on AWS, said Rob Heimann, Managing Director at River Cities Capital Funds.

Dell Technologies Capital is excited to be working with Faction to deliver customer configurable and adaptable multi-cloud solutions, commented Daniel Docter, Managing Director at Dell Technologies Capital. Our investment, domain expertise and industry relationships will help Faction continue to grow its IaaS and Enterprise Storage as a Service offerings as it expands to support VMware Cloud on AWS solutions.

This growth capital is validation that Faction is providing and developing groundbreaking technology in the cloud industry, said Luke Norris, Founder and CEO at Faction. We are ecstatic to partner with great investors who share our vision of a multi-cloud future and are uniquely positioned to help us realize that future today.

About Faction

Denver-based Faction, the Multi-Cloud Platform as a Service company, empowers clients by delivering maximum and unmatched control in hybrid and multi-cloud environments that perform like on-premise, scale like public, and connect with patented ease and speed. Factions Private VMware Cloud and VMware Cloud on AWS solutions and managed services are bolstered by the companys status as a Platinum-level NetApp Service Provider, a Premier Partner in the VMware Cloud Provider Program, and an early access partner for VMware Cloud on AWS. Follow Faction on Twitter (@FactionInc) and LinkedIn. For more information, please visit www.factioninc.com

For Faction media inquiries, please contact:

Brittany Gunter

720.442.9696

brittany.gunter@factioninc.com

VMware, VMware Cloud, and VMware Cloud Provider are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions.MILAN, Italy, and SAN MATEO, Calif., March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cloudian, the innovation leader in enterprise object storage systems, today announced that it has acquired Infinity Storage, a Milan-based pioneer in software-defined file storage solutions. With Infinitys technology, Cloudian now offers customers integrated file and object-based storage solutions that consolidate all unstructured data types into a limitlessly scalable storage pool. The result is simple storage management that reduces TCO by more than 70 percent when compared with traditional multi-silo NAS systems.



The acquisition is the culmination of an existing relationship between Infinity Storage and Cloudian. The companies worked together to launch the Cloudian HyperFile NAS controller, which delivers enterprise-class file services from Cloudian HyperStore. Cloudian HyperFile incorporates all NAS features essential for enterprise applications, including SMB(CIFS)/NFS support, snapshot, WORM, non-disruptive failover, scale-out performance, POSIX compliance and Active Directory integration.

Infinity Storage is a proven innovator in enterprise file systems technology. The firms founder Caterina Falchi was an inventor of the write-once-read-many (WORM) file system that provides jukebox file management and transparent access to data within this protected environment. WORM was originally designed to preserve data integrity for regulatory compliance and now also plays a vital role in protecting data from corruption caused by malware or ransomware. Falchi joins Cloudian as vice president of file technologies.

For more than a decade, Infinity Storage software has helped enterprise customers simplify file management with enterprise-class features that provide a familiar user experience on next-generation storage platforms, said Falchi. While launching HyperFile with Cloudian, we immediately recognized that our company cultures and technologies meshed perfectly. We are genuinely thrilled to be joining the Cloudian team.

When combined with the limitless scalability of Cloudian HyperStore enterprise storage, HyperFile gives organizations new on-premises options for managing the tsunami of unstructured data, now growing at more than 50 percent annually. Scale-out platforms such as Cloudians are becoming an increasingly critical element of the IT landscape. Gartner predicts that, By 2021, more than 80% of enterprise data will be stored in scale-out storage systems in enterprise and cloud data centers, up from 30% today.*



This acquisition further accelerates Cloudians efforts to reduce IT workloads with self-protecting and easy-to-scale file systems that analysts agree are critical for next-generation storage management, said Michael Tso, CEO of Cloudian. Not only does Infinity bring deep technology expertise to the table, but also our two companies cultures fit perfectly, with the same uncompromising dedication to the customer, to the team and to technical excellence. We are excited to be growing together.



*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage, 17 October 2017

About Cloudian

Cloudian turns information into insight with an infinitely scalable platform that consolidates, manages and protects enterprise data. Cloudian Enterprise Object Storage brings cloud technology and economics to the data center with uncompromising data durability, intuitive management tools and the industrys most compatible S3 API. Cloudian and its ecosystem partners help Global 1000 customers simplify unstructured data management today, while preparing for the data demands of AI and machine learning tomorrow.

Join us on LinkedIn, follow us on Twitter (@CloudianStorage) and Facebook, or visit us at www.cloudian.com.

Media Contact:

Rick Popko

10Fold

cloudian@10Fold.com

415-800-5381FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: OZ Management LP and

Och-Ziff Management Europe Ltd (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree GVC Holdings plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 14 March 2018 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" Yes

If YES, specify which:

Ladbrokes Coral Group plc

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



Euro 0.01 ordinary (IM00B5VQMV65)



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



6,120,629 2.016 1,224,942 0.404 (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 6,120,629 2.016 1,224,942 0.404

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit





(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit Euro 0.01 ordinary CFD reducing a short position 277,145 GBP 9.52 Euro 0.01 ordinary CFD reducing a short position 97,913 GBP 9.52 Euro 0.01 ordinary CFD reducing a long position 375,058 GBP 9.52

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"









(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"









(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO





Date of disclosure: 15 March 2018



Contact name: Janine Frederick Telephone number: 02077584420

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.SALINAS, Calif., March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Via OTC PR Wire -- SUNSET ISLAND GROUP, INC. (OTCQB:SIGO) is pleased to provide an update to its shareholders regarding the current harvest.



The Company recently harvested Bay 1 which will be used for extraction purposes. Bay 2 was harvested beginning March 9. As part of the harvesting, the Company pre-trimmed the sellable flower from the flower that would be used for extraction purposes. The Company hung 53 kilograms (approximately 116 pounds) of sellable flower to dry. The Company expects to yield between 30-40 pounds of sellable flower.

Extraction : We froze approximately 20-30 pounds of flower that will be used for extraction purposes. Typically, we would expect to see yields of 10-18% from the process weight. But that is typical of trim and not flower. Processing flower could yield as much as 25% from the processed weight.

Company's Goals : The company's goal (once retrofit is completed) is to produce 0.08-0.10 pounds per square foot of canopy space per harvest. The Company expects the canopy space to be between 1,200 and 1,600 square feet per bay (each bay is a total of approximately 2,000 square feet). Which would be an estimated 96-160 pounds per bay per harvest.

The Company expects that its trim weight will be approximately 20-25% of the sellable flower weight. The expected yield for extraction from the trim is 10-18% of the processed trim weight. For example, if ten pounds of trim is processed the company would expect it would produce between 1 pound and 1.8 pounds.

The Company has planted Bays 3, 4, and 5 under its new growing technique of using coco coir and increasing its plant count. As these bays are harvested and new bays are planted and harvested the Company would be able to provide additional projections and fine tune its operations.

The number of plants planted in the bays was/is as follows:

Bay 1: Had approximately 500 plants

Bay 2: Had approximately 800 plants

Bay 3,4,5: Approximately 1,200 plants

Expansion/Retrofit:

The Company has been in the process of retrofitting our current greenhouse. The retrofit is two phases: Phase 1 is the retrofit of the current greenhouse operations and Phase 2 is the building of a new greenhouse on the Company's bare land or retrofitting another greenhouse on the property.

The Company has begun the process to better insulate the greenhouse and install HVAC systems in the greenhouse. Each grow bay would have its own HVAC system which would allow the company to maintain and control the environment. The Company has ordered and is installing Quest 506 dehumidifiers in the greenhouse The Company has begun expanding the Greenhouse (which is part of Phase 2). The company will move the nursery from Bay 6 into a self-contained greenhouse. This will allow Bay 6 to be used as grow bay thereby increasing the growable area by approximately 20%. The Company has begun to reduce the size of the flowering plants to allow for a multi-tier grow system to be used within the greenhouse. The Company will add at least 1 level for a 2-tier grow system with the goal of adding a 2nd level for a 3-level tier system. Under this system, a 2-tier system we expect to produce 96-160 pounds of sellable flower while a 3-tier system could exceed 240 pounds per harvest. The Company is currently able to clone approximately 100 plants per day. The Company's goal is to increase that to 350 plants per day.

To date the company has also accomplished the following items as part of the retrofit of Phase 1:

Completed rewiring the greenhouse to provide the additional power needs for the retrofit. This was completed on January 20, 2018. Installed 120 LED lights in our grow bays. Installed 8 "Sensor Push" atmospheric sensors in the greenhouse. The sensors provide wireless thermometer / hygrometer readings with alerts. The sensors allow the company to monitor the Sensor Push sensors remotely and with the cloud service we can receive current conditions, alerts and the full data history of each grow bay. Converted the clone room and operations to a Coco Coir and hydroponics system. Begun planting 2 bays with Coco Coir. Increased the number of plants in each bay to approximately 1,200 (up from 480 plants). Built out new dry rooms. Built out new trim rooms. Installed 28 cameras in the greenhouse and dry/trim rooms. Begun build out of manufacturing room. Begun build out of distribution room.

The Company's current greenhouse operations are conducted with a 12,000 square feet greenhouse, 1,000 square foot warehouse and approximately 9,000 square feet of bare land that the Company currently has temporary buildings on for administration purposes.

The goal of the retrofit for Phase 1 is to increase the growable space in the current greenhouse to approximately 22,000 (with a vertical grow) with approximately 85% being canopy space (or approximately 19,000 square feet). The Company's goal is to yield 0.08-0.10 pounds per growable space and to have 5 harvests.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate.

CONTACT:

Sunset Island Group, Inc.

info@sunsetislandgroup.comEnglish Lithuanian

Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018-03-15 15:27 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AB Grigeo (hereinafter referred to as the Company) has received Resolution No 03-43 of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania Regarding the infringement committed by AB Grigeo dated 13 March 2018. In executing the obligation imposed by the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania, the Company hereby publishes information about the Resolution adopted by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania:

AB Grigeo has been warned for failure to promptly make public disclose of inside information according to the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on market abuse and Article 33 of the Law on Securities and, therefore, infringed Article 17(8) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on market abuse (the Regulation). Gintautas Pangonis, President of the Company, in commenting on information related to the Company, failed to comply with the prohibition established in Article 14(c) of the Regulation because, during a talk with a BNS journalist on 20 September 2017, he unlawfully disclosed the importance of an event he would discuss with the Minister of Economy and would announce through the stock exchange. The announcement of that fact, i.e. the importance of a future event, prompted investors to take investment decisions to buy shares of AB Grigeo in the morning of 21 September 2017. On 21 September 2017, from the beginning of the trading session at 10:00 to 14:20, the unlawful actions of the President of AB Grigeo resulted in information asymmetry, when those investors who had access to information published on the website of BNS had a clear advantage over investors who were able to use only those sources of information through which the Company was obliged to disclose inside information pursuant to the requirements of the Law on Securities and the Regulation. In accordance with a part of the requirements of Article 17(8) of the Regulation, when the President of the Company unlawfully disclosed inside information, AB Grigeo was required to disclose all information related to the signing of a memorandum of intent promptly, i.e. no later than by the beginning of the trading session of 21 September. Announcement of the fact that AB Grigeo and UAB Grigeo Baltwood had signed a memorandum of intent with the German company Homanit Holding GmbH regarding the sale of 100% of the shares of UAB Grigeo Baltwood was made through the news system of Nasdaq Vilnius Stock Exchange only at 14:20 on 21 September 2017; therefore, the Company failed to comply with the requirements of the part of Article 17(8) of the Regulation prescribing that in case of failure to ensure confidentiality of inside information, such information must be disclosed promptly.

The Company considers that the information disseminated by Baltic News Service (BNS) was of an abstract nature and fragmented and, therefore, did not make any significant impact on the share price change at the beginning of the trading session on 21 September 2017. In the opinion of the Company, a greater impact on the shares purchase activity and price was made by the article Popieriaus pramones aukso amzius: laukia pakuotes brangimo banga (The golden age of the paper industry: a packaging appreciation wave is ahead) published in the daily newspaper Verslo Zinios on 21 September 2017, which positively featured the prospects of the paper business (link to the article: https://www.vz.lt/pramone/2017/09/21/popieriaus-pramones-aukso-amzius-laukia-pakuotes-brangimo-banga).

During the investigation, the Company actively cooperated with the Bank of Lithuania and took action to update the procedure for disclosure of inside information so that to ensure provision of information to investors in accordance with legal provision in all cases.

The Resolution of the Bank of Lithuania can be appealed against within one month from its service in accordance with procedure prescribed by the Law on Administrative Proceedings of the Republic of Lithuania. To date, the Company has not made any decision on appealing against the Resolution of the Bank of Lithuania.Close Get email notifications on Mike Holloway daily!

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PetSmart, the leading pet specialty retailer in North America, and Ellen DeGeneres, passionate pet enthusiast, announced the launch of the ED Ellen DeGeneres Spring Collection for pets. This new collection features a range of active toys, slogan tees and dresses with spring designs, as well as exciting safari-themed items. The ED Ellen DeGeneres Spring Collection is available now at all PetSmart stores across Canada and PetSmart.ca.

Ive probably said this before, but I really mean it this time. My new safari collection is the cutest collection weve ever done. Until our next collection, said Ellen.

The safari assortment includes a Wild One bandana featuring a jungle leaf print, a Wild Child dress, binocular graphic tee, and an adorable First Class airplane pet bed  perfect for a dreamy nap and an Instagram-worthy moment. Also included are safari pet harnesses resembling outdoor vests complete with utility pockets, as well as warthog, alligator, lion, elephant, chameleon and giraffe toys featuring wild colours, jungle graphic patterns, and alluring crinkle materials and squeakers.

Additional new spring items include active toys such as this red flyer, perfect for a game of fetch, and a range of durable rope toys, as well as brightly colored yellow and green plush toys in turtle and fish silhouettes. The new spring assortment also includes an adorable camo pet cap, floral print sun hat, and a range of new slogan tees and dresses with fresh spring stripes, colour-blocking, and heart designs with fun sayings, including certified cute, dream big, smile, happiness and a key theme in all ED Ellen DeGeneres products, love. Also included are dog collars and coordinating leashes done in classic stripes and solids such as navy with light blue piping, as well as placemats and unique square-shaped feeding bowls, great items for a springtime home refresh.

Shoppers can find the ED Ellen DeGeneres Collection in all PetSmart stores in Canada in a centre aisle fixture topped by photos of Ellen with pets. The assortment always includes a range of pet lifestyle necessities for dogs and cats, such as toys, collars, harnesses, leashes and grooming products, as well as apparel and home decor items, including beds, feeding bowls and pet treat jars, among other items.

About PetSmart

PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmarts passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they, together, can live more fulfilled lives. This vision impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates and how we give back to our communities. We employ approximately 55,000 associates, operate more than 1,600 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, as well as more than 200 in-store PetSmart PetsHotel dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and products, as well as pet-focused services such as dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp and pet adoption. PetSmart, together with nonprofit partners, PetSmart Charities and PetSmart Charities of Canada, invite more than 3,500 animal welfare organizations to bring adoptable pets into stores so they have the best chance possible of finding a forever home. Through this in-store adoption program and other signature events, PetSmart has facilitated more than 7.9 million adoptions  more than any other brick-and-mortar organization. The companys portfolio of digital resources for pet parents includes PetSmart.com, petMD.com, the PetSmart mobile app, ReptilesMagazine.com and BlogPaws, the worlds first pet blogger and influencer network. Through these digital platforms, PetSmart offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care information in the U.S. In May 2017, PetSmart acquired Chewy.com, a leading online retailer of pet food and products in the U.S., which operates as an independent subsidiary.

Find PetSmart on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PetSmartCanada

See PetSmart on Instagram: @PetSmart

Follow PetSmart on Twitter: @PetSmart

See PetSmart on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/PetSmart

PetSmart homepage: http://www.petsmart.com/

Turn your passion for pets into a career youll love! Visit careers.petsmart.com to learn more about corporate, retail store and Distribution Centre opportunities

For questions, samples or images please contact:

Miriam Fitting

Golin for PetSmart

416-483-6225 ext. 3440

mfitting@golin.comFirst executive programme in Digital Business

Wits Business School (WBS) is excited to have launched its first executive education programme in Digital Business, the first of its kind in South Africa.

The programmes, which kicked off in March, will be rolled out during 2018 for digital solutions company BCX, a subsidiary of the Telkom Group.

The programmes have been designed to equip businesses with skills, knowledge and insight into the future world of work, specifically training managers to lead on all fronts in an era of rapid and unpredictable digitalisation, says Professor Brian Armstrong, Head of the BCX Chair in Digital Business at WBS. This is an exciting venture for WBS, the Chair of Digital Business and Executive Education. It is a privilege to work with BCX in creating this new programme, he concludes.

WBS took a proactive step in 2016 when it established the first Chair in Digital Business in Africa, through funding by Telkom, with the overarching aim of helping South African businesses thrive in the digital era.

An important focus of the Chair is the generation of new research in an area which, until now, has not been a formal area of study. Research will lead to the further development of academic curricula, including a Masters degree in Digital Business, as well as various short learning programmes and executive courses.

The successful roll out of the pilot programmes for BCX will allow other organisations to benefit from the close working relationships between the Digital Chair and BCX, as well as Executive Education, says Dr Timothy Hutton, Acting Director of Executive Education at WBS.

We designed the programmes in close collaboration with BCX, creating content that suits the needs of the company. It has been an immensely exciting process, and also a big learning curve for all involved, says Dr Hutton.

A total of 205 managers at BCX were selected to take part in the programmes which are aimed at junior, middle and senior managers. The programmes, Future Leaders in Digital Business, Digital Business Management and Digital Business Executive Programme are on average around 24 days in duration, completed in study blocks. Graduation is set for the end of February 2019.

The beauty of the BCX programme is that it can be refashioned to address the needs of any organisation. Just as financial considerations cut across all business, so too does digital, notes Hutton. The programme can be structured to highlight specific aspects and pull out desired learnings. Within a rigorous academic framework, there is a lot of flexibility. For example, one of the modules is currently being re-designed as a stand-alone programme to be launched in the middle of this year.

The BCX programme will be offered in various formats in the future, including online and contact, in-house and open enrolment, for both companies and individuals wanting to enhance their understanding of digital business.

Working in the digital world does not only mean how to develop new strategies or market digitally and understand the financials of digital; it also means how, fundamentally, we and our customers remain human, how we anticipate and mitigate social consequences of digitisation, and how we understand the environmental costs and benefits of the digital world, says Professor Armstrong.

The rollout of the BCX Executive Education programmes is a very exciting step forward in preparing business leaders in South Africa, not only for the future world of work, but indeed also the rapidly changing current world of work. We are not always aware of this digital presence in our daily lives. This programme will open eyes, ideas and innovative opportunities around this very fact.Memory is a 22-year-old activist, advocating for girl's education and against child marriage. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

Growing up in Malawi, one of the world's least-developed countries, exposes young girls to a number of risks -- some of which are life-threatening.

Despite the fact that there are so many people advocating for gender equality, women and girls still do not have much choice when it comes to taking control of their own lives. This often comes down to cultural traditions that seem at times impossible to overcome.

I have witnessed many injustices against women and girls in my country. It is so sad to see girls in life-threatening situations when they are so young, preventing them from exploring opportunities that would give them a completely different life.

When I was a little girl, I used to see my relatives, friends and schoolmates going through a rite of passage to adulthood. We all grew up knowing we would have to go through this at some point ourselves -- whether we understood what was happening to us or not. After all, we did not have a choice. It was something that the community expected of us.

In Malawi, there are numerous traditions that girls must go through as they approach adulthood. Girls as young as 10 are expected to go to "chinamwali" -- a camp where they are taught how to sexually please a man.

This is a tradition not only in my country, but in other African countries too.

In the most extreme cases, a man who has been hired by the community comes and sleeps with the girls at the camp to prove that they have been well trained. As soon the girls return from the camp, most of them will be forced into a marriage.

In other traditions, some girls are given away as young as nine for marriage. They will long have been aware that once they reach puberty, there will be a man who their parents have already promised their child to.

These girls grow up with all of the most important decisions about their lives already made for them. So it is not surprising that so many girls drop out of school once they reach puberty.

And If girls are never taught at a young age that they can be leaders, it shouldn't surprise anyone that we have so few women in positions of power.

Even when a girl has been sexually abused and exploited, the blame is always on the her. These social injustices against girls create a damaging chain of events. If we do nothing about it now, the vicious cycle will continue indefinitely.

These traditions can be stopped. Communities can be restructured. When you talk passionately and often enough about injustices that young girls face today, people do listen.

The human rights of all people must be respected. This is something that goes beyond the traditions, norms and beliefs that any community might have. Of course, traditions exist. But how can it be right that, in the name of tradition, the human rights of young girls are taken away solely because of their sex?

It's high time that girls are taught how to be tough, strong and able to make their own choices.

From an early age, I aspired to be different from everybody and everything. I was a tough girl. I had a voice, even though my culture reminded me to be quiet and silent because I was a girl.

But I believe that girls everywhere are strong. They have a voice and should have a choice.

Girls everywhere have to know that no matter where they are born they have a say about what goes on in their lives and their communities. Silence has never saved anyone.CALGARY, Alberta, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. (TSX:PEY) ("Peyto") confirms that the monthly dividend with respect to March 2018 of $0.06 per common share is to be paid on April 13, 2018, for shareholders of record on March 31, 2018. The ex-dividend date is March 29, 2018.

Dividends paid by Peyto to Canadian residents are eligible dividends for Canadian income tax purposes.

Shareholders and interested investors are encouraged to visit the Peyto website at www.peyto.com to learn more about what makes Peyto one of North Americas most exciting energy companies. The website also includes the Presidents monthly report, which discusses various topics chosen by the President and includes estimates of monthly capital expenditures and production. For further information please contact:

Darren Gee

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: (403) 237-8911

Fax: (403) 451-4100

Certain information set forth in this document, including management's assessment of Peyto's future plans and operations, contains forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond these parties' control, including the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, currency fluctuations, imprecision of reserve estimates, environmental risks, competition from other industry participants, the lack of availability of qualified personnel or management, stock market volatility and ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. Peyto's actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that Peyto will derive therefrom. The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein.Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks lost the latest round in his battle with the city on Thursday morning, but the chief says the war isnt over yet.

In State Supreme Court in Rome on Thursday, Brooks asked the judge to find that hed made a mistake in his last ruling to dismiss Brooks' lawsuit and overturn his own decision, which didnt happen.

In May 2017, Chief Brooks  a 42-year veteran of the Utica Fire Department  was placed on leave. The move came several months after Brooks said he applied for sick leave benefits, after he was diagnosed with leukemia related to his work in New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Brooks request for benefits was denied by the city and he was paced on Section 72 Civil Service Law Leave of Absence, which requires him to use sick time. Brooks then filed a lawsuit against the city, and and in December 2017, a State Supreme Court judge ruled that Brooks never formally applied for sick leave benefits, and he dismissed the lawsuit.

In court on Thursday, the judge denied Brooks motion to reargue that last decision, saying he did not misconstrue the facts of the case or the law as it applies. Next, Brooks will have to submit an application for extended sick leave under New York General Municipal Law Section 92-d, which he and his attorney felt theyd already made.

"I'm disappointed, obviously, Chief Brooks said "I'd like it to end. I'd like it to end, I'd like to go on with my life."

Brooks and his attorney will submit that application soon, and they say their next move depends on whether or not the city grants it. But they say this isnt the end of the road, and Brooks says hell fight to the very end.One of the countrys most well-known store chains is closing its doors.





In the age of Amazon, its goodbye Geoffrey the Giraffe as Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us sores prepare to close up shop. The retailer announced it has filed to liquidate and close all of its 735 stores nationwide.

Locally, there is a Toys "R" Us store on Commercial Drive in New Hartford, located right next door to a Babies "R" Us store.

The company's chairman and CEO, Dave Brandon, said in a statement, I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the Companys U.S. operations. We are therefore implementing an orderly process to shutter our U.S. operations and will pursue going concern sales or reorganizations of certain of our international businesses, while our other international businesses consider their options.

"This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years, Brandon also said in the statement.

Toys "R" Us employs more than 30,000 people, and according to one estimate, accounted for about 20 percent of all toy sales last year.

Its the latest major casualty in a string of retail store closures across the country, even after a strong holiday shopping season. Toys "R" Us, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year, was already closing 180 stores and laying off workers in 41 states.

Sen. Chuch Schumer is urging the Federal Trade Commission to force Toys "R" Us "to redeem outstanding gift cards for cash.

Toys R Us representatives are expected to appear in Virginia bankruptcy court Thursday afternoon.

There is no word yet on when the stores will begin closing, but the company says gift cards will be honored for 30 days. Returns will not be accepted once liquidation sales begin.

To read the full press release issued by Toys R Us on Thursday morning, click here.ROCKFORD, IL. (WLFI) - An Illinois coroner has completed an autopsy on a Nobel-Prize winning Purdue University professor's wife.

Sumire Negishi and Ei-ichi Negishi were reported missing Monday night. Police later discovered Sumire was dead. However, many of the details of their disappearance are still a mystery.

The Ogle County Coroner's Office says that Sumire's autopsy shows that no foul play is suspected. However, it's still not clear what did happen.

Indiana State Police asked Purdue Police Monday night to check for the missing professor in his office located in the Wetherill Chemistry Building. Purdue Police Chief John Cox said they weren't able to find him anywhere on campus.

Early Tuesday morning, investigators said the 82-year-old professor was found wandering a rural road south of Rockford, Illinois. Police searched the area and found Sumire's body at the Orchard Hills Landfill, along with the couple's vehicle.

Sumire was battling Parkinsons disease. Local authorities in Illinois are now leading the investigation.

According to a family statement, Sumire and Ei-ichi Negishi were on their way to the Rockford International Airport Monday night.

Ei-ichi was apparently suffering from an acute state of confusion and shock. He then started to look for help.

This statement was released from Purdue President Mitch Daniels.

Purdue University and the world have lost a dear friend in the death of Sumire Negishi. Throughout a lifetime of love and loyalty, she supported her husband in a career of tremendous contributions to science and to the teaching and training of subsequent generations of top scientists.

It appears that the Parkinsons disease from which she has been suffering and the mental confusion that age can bring to the most brilliant minds combined to produce the recent tragic events. That these phenomena are so common does not make their consequences any less cruel.

All Boilermakers everywhere join the Negishi family in sadness at the loss of Sumire, who made so many of her own contributions to her husbands life work and to the vitality of our community.REDMOND, Wash., March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed delivery of all of the crew module engines for Boeings Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft. Boeing will integrate the engines into the Starliner crew module at its Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.



The Starliner crew module is designed to transport up to seven passengers or a mix of crew and cargo for missions to low-Earth orbit destinations. Developed in partnership with NASAs Commercial Crew Program, the Starliner will carry up to four astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA missions. Each capsule is designed to be used up to 10 times and features 12 Aerojet Rocketdyne MR-104J engines to properly orient the spacecraft during atmospheric re-entry.



Astronaut safety is paramount at Aerojet Rocketdyne, which is why we are providing a reliable propulsion system for the Starliner crew module to ensure a safe re-entry for all of Starliners passengers, said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake.



Each MR-104J engine produces more than 100 pounds of thrust and draws on a legacy dating back to NASAs Voyager probes, which have traveled farther in space than any other human-made objects. Key to the reusability of CST-100 Starliner crew module engines is a patent-pending design approach that strengthens the engine to withstand extreme operating temperatures without significantly increasing its weight. The total weight of the delivered flight engines met the Boeing requirement with more than a 12 percent margin.



In addition to the crew module engines, Aerojet Rocketdyne is providing launch abort engines, service module reaction control thrusters, and service module orbital maneuvering and attitude control engines for the Starliner program.



Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), is an innovative company delivering solutions that create value for its customers in the aerospace and defense markets. The company is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader that provides propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, tactical systems and armaments areas, in support of domestic and international markets. Additional information about Aerojet Rocketdyne can be obtained by visiting our websites at www.Rocket.com and www.AerojetRocketdyne.com.

Contact: Mary Engola, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 571-289-1371

Mary.Engola@Rocket.com

Steve Warren, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 703-650-0278

Steven.Warren@Rocket.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c450e51a-34bc-4410-807d-75c42daf5525





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Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home pageUK firm sees year-end launch of pulsed power device

15 March 2018

Share

First Light Fusion (FLF) is investing GBP3.6 million (USD5.0 million) building what it says will be the only pulsed power machine of its scale in the world dedicated to researching fusion energy. The Oxford, England-based company said on 12 March it expects to commission the device - Machine 3 - by the end of this year.

A rendering of Machine 3 (Image: First Light Fusion)

FLF aims to achieve 'gain' before seeking to demonstrate the commercial viability of the technology to produce safe, efficient and environmentally friendly baseload energy around the world. The fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol Q, is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state.

"The pressures and velocities that we will be able to access with this machine will massively extend the development of our fusion target designs," Nicholas Hawker, Founder and CEO of FLF said.

"We are confident that we will reach our present goal of demonstrating fusion. Beyond that, the experimental platform that we can build with this machine will give us critical insights into the next step, which is to demonstrate gain."

Machine 3 will be capable of discharging up to 200,000 volts and in excess of 14 million ampere - the equivalent of nearly 500 simultaneous lightning strikes - within two microseconds, the company said. It will use some 3km of high voltage cables and another 10km of diagnostic cables.

Machine 3 will be used to further research FLF's technology as the company seeks to achieve first fusion. The next step in the technological development will be to achieve gain, whereby the amount of energy created outstrips that used to spark the reaction, it said.

It uses a high-velocity projectile to create a shockwave to collapse a cavity containing plasma inside a 'target'. The design of these targets is the companys "technical USP", FLF said.

The only example of inertial confinement found on Earth is the pistol shrimp, which clicks its claw to produce a shockwave that stuns its prey, the company said. The only other naturally occurring inertial confinement phenomenon is a supernova. The reaction created by the collapsing cavity is what creates energy, which can then be captured and used, it added.

Fusion has already been demonstrated by other approaches, FLF noted. The two most advanced are the tokamak and laser-driven inertial fusion.

ITER, being built in the south of France, will be the world's largest tokamak, aiming to demonstrate gain. The National Ignition Facility in California is the world's most energetic laser and is also aiming to demonstrate gain.

Both these projects have encountered "substantial difficulties", FLF said, both relating to the fusion process itself but also the complexity of the engineering required. FLF must demonstrate fusion before then undertaking an equivalent gain-scale experiment, it added.

If First Light succeeds in the fundamental demonstration of fusion, however, the pathway to gain and a power plant is "potentially much simpler, quicker and cheaper than these mainstream approaches", it said.

Hawker said FLF looked forward to welcoming its collaborators from the high energy density physics community to work with it on its experiments.

"All of this has been achieved at a drastically reduced cost when compared with other alternative technology choices," he said.

FLF Ltd, which researches energy generation via inertial confinement fusion, was spun out from the University of Oxford in July 2011, with seed capital from the IP Group plc, Parkwalk Advisors Ltd and a number of Angel investors. Until May 2014, the company was named Oxyntix Ltd.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsThe Foreign-Policy Implications of Aging



Patrick Cox





Dear Reader,



As Yogi Berra famously said, Its tough to make predictions, especially about the future.



Ive been thinking about this quote because Im doing a panel at the Strategic Investment Conference this week with el jefe John Mauldin. Also on the panel is Karen Harris, managing director of Bain & Company's Macro Trends Group.



(By the way, if you sign up for the SIC Virtual Pass, youll get video and audio recordings of all the presentations, including this panel. From Tuesday to Friday, you will also be able to watch the sessions in real time. Looking at the lineup of 25 exceptional speakers, I definitely think its worth it. Click here to sign up for your Virtual Pass at a $400 discount.)



The panel has been described as a discussion among futurists, a term I have some trepidations about. Harris, who is also in the prediction business (and a reader of this letter), told me that shes ambivalent about the label too. We do our best to make accurate predictions, but they come with the stipulation of uncertainty, ceteris paribus (Latin for all other things being equal).



The folk version of this disclaimer is something like, Lord willing and the creek dont rise. Both phrases express the impossibility of accounting for the unexpected.



Trend Reversal: The American Energy Miracle



Many professions rely on mathematical models, extending current trends into the future to help make plans. However, trends may change in entirely unexpected ways. Too often, an exogenous variable, something not accounted for in the model, will completely ruin a prediction. It could be something that on the surface appears to be trivial, such as a surprising technological improvement.



Advances in fracking, for example, embarrassed numerous forecasters who confidently predicted sky-high petroleum prices and a rapid shift to alternative energies. The impact of technological innovation is not limited to prices and products, though. It has a way of expanding far beyond obvious and easily measurable consequences.



Increased US and Canadian energy production has fundamentally changed the political dynamic between the West and the petrostates. Higher domestic production has not just reduced Americas vulnerability to foreign sources that are openly hostile to US interestsexports of North American oil and natural gas are reducing the influence of other energy-exporting nations as well.



Prior to the fracking revolution, US foreign policy had to consider the possibility that an international conflict would disrupt supply lines and increase the cost of energy imports. Energy is a component of every products cost, from agriculture to computers.



Critics of US foreign policy created the slogan, No blood for oil, to argue against US interventions meant to secure energy supplies. Certainly, the motivation for such interventions has been lessened.



You could even make the case that the US and Canada would benefit from disruptions in energy exports from Russia, Venezuela, and the Middle East. I dont know if that encourages or discourages international conflict, but its an interesting point.



Nevertheless, I believe its important to consider that small technological changes may result in enormous geopolitical changes. This is especially true because the experts have missed so many important trends.





Demographic Trend Changes: No One Sees Them Coming



The best example, of course, is demographic change. From the 1970s until very recently, many people in positions of authority and influence predicted an overpopulation catastrophe. Only a few real demographers dug deeper and saw that birthrates would lead to depopulation, but they were either ignored or vilified.



As a result, most developed nations failed to plan for the day when the shrinking taxpayer base would no longer provide the funds to deliver on promises made to a growing population of retired dependents. Judging from current political attitudes, that lesson still hasnt been learnedso, like Thelma and Louise in their Thunderbird convertible, most of the developed world is headed toward a fiscal cliff.



My concern is not just about the impact a debt crisis would have on the US and Canada directly. The unpredictable foreign-policy implications of aging may be even more serious. Whether we like it or not, we live in a globalized world. Economies are interconnected, and trouble on the other side of the world can have big impacts at home.



Ive written a lot about Japans struggles to deal with an aging population that has too few young people to pay the bills. Japan accounts for almost 6% of the world economy. A severe contraction there would have serious consequences for the US, which makes up about 24% of the world economy. But perhaps we should be more worried about the nearly 15% of gross world product (GWP) that is Chinese.



Chinas Dangerous Miscalculation



A lot of people were fooled by the overpopulation hysteria of the 1970s. The most important may have been officials of the Chinese government, which had the political power to enforce a one-child policy (OCP) on much of its population.



Though China hasnt admitted it was a mistake, the policy was abandoned two years ago, and the government is beginning to implement policies aimed at pushing birthrates upward.



The biggest impact of the one-child policy, in my opinion, was the creation of a serious gender imbalance. Families favored male children and used strategies including abortion and infanticide to make their one child a boy. The result was the birth of about 117 boys for every 100 girls, which will have negative impacts on Chinese society for a generation. Societies with too many unmarried men often experience social unrest and political instability.



A recent Chinese state report acknowledged that ending the OPC has not resulted in a big enough increase in birthrates to solve the countrys economic problems. Further measures involving taxation, child raising, education, social security and housing are in the Works.



However, those policies would be extremely expensive, and China already faces enormous economic challenges as the Chinese labor force continues to shrink. According to a 2017 report by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), 2018 will be the eighth consecutive year that the working-age population will contract.



You can read the report here but, full disclosure, I dont believe the NBSCs strong economic growth statistics. I think the Chinese economy is much worse off than the official numbers show.



Nor do I believe that Chinese proposals to increase birthrates will reverse the depopulation trend or fund programs for the aged. Similar efforts by the Russian government have not stopped the countrys depopulation.



Both countries will therefore continue to struggle with demographic and economic issues. Some might argue that a poorer China and Russia would be good for the US. Im not so sure. I worry that economic problems could increase the probability of political instability, which, in turn, could increase the risk of international conflict.



Michael West, the scientist whose pluripotent stem cell therapy is now making history in spinal cord injury trials, will be at the Strategic Investment Conference to talk about a biotechnology that could solve the aging problem. Ill report on that at a later date.



If you want to be privy to all the details of what Im learning at the Strategic Investment Conference, you might want to give my premium service, TransTech Alert, a try. Aside from the monthly deep analysis of a new technology/company, my team and I also provide weekly updates on our portfolio stocks, and trade alerts when a new development requires fast action.



Extending healthspans would solve the financial problems posed by demographic aging all over the world, and that will reduce domestic instability everywhere. When that will actually happen is another question, though. At this point, its impossible to predict with any accuracy.



Hidden inside biotech laboratories, breakthroughs are happening right now that could allow it to happen very soon. My concern is that political forces, including international conflict, will interfere with the deployment of these revolutionary biotechnologiesbut thats not a prediction.Business rates support for high streets extended  as some Eagles Meadow stores see -35% rates reduction

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Mar 15th, 2018

Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford today announced an extra 5m to extend the high street rates relief scheme in 2018-19  helping shops and pubs to pay their business rates.

The scheme, which is unique to Wales, will provide additional support to around 13,000 small and medium-sized high street businesses across the country, including shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs and wine bars.

The Welsh Government-funded scheme, which was originally set up for 2017-18 only, will provide eligible businesses with a reduction of up to 750 from their non-domestic rates bills.

Professor Drakeford said: This additional support, which extends the high street rates relief scheme into 2018-19, together with our decision to put the 100m small business rates relief scheme on a permanent footing from April ensures ratepayers across Wales are receiving support to pay their bills.

Targeting support to high street retailers will help those businesses, which are affected by the current economic conditions and competition from online and out-of-town providers.

In September 2016 the Valuation Office Agency released its draft list of revaluations of commercial properties.

The Revaluation is carried out by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and reassesses all rateable values in Wales and England based on their open market rental value on a fixed date. This was the first such revaluation in Wales since 2010.

There were winners and losers locally in the draft revaluations  with many town centre business seeing a drop in the business rates. However several local and independent businesses saw their draft rates increase.

Coming into 2018 we have seen recent revaluations / apparently successful appeals locally, with many units in Eagles Meadow seeing around 35%-40% reduction in their rateable value. Some units occupiers will see a rebate in addition to their rates reduced going forward.

The below list of properties have an alteration date of 19th January 2018, backdated April 1st 2017.Wrexham schools to benefit from over 600k Welsh Government funding boost

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Mar 15th, 2018

Schools across Wrexham are to receive a share of more than 600,000 to pay for small scale repairs and maintenance under plans announced by the Welsh Government.

In total, 14m will be handed out to local authorities across Wales for essential school maintenance, which compliments the work of the 21st Century Schools Programme.

It is intended to be used for work such as boiler repairs, plumbing, caretaker costs, painting and decorating and replacing flooring.

Locally schools in Wrexham will receive a share of 610,000.

Wrexhams Assembly Member, Lesley Griffiths has welcomed the investment and said: After eight long years of UK Government austerity, everyone is aware budgets are tight but I hope this Welsh Government funding will help alleviate some of the financial pressure on our local schools.

School maintenance issues can be costly and time consuming but this funding will help ensure teachers and staff can concentrate on supporting students.

I trust Wrexham Council will transfer the money to schools as quickly as possible so essential work can begin.

Cllr Phil Wynn, lead member for education, said: On behalf of Wrexham schools I welcome the Welsh Governments recent announcement that they have identified a budget of 14m to assist schools across Wales in offsetting small scale repairs and maintenance costs incurred during the current financial year.

The 610,000 allocated to Wrexham will be distributed directly to all schools my March 31st using the formula provided by the Welsh Government.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Mark Pritchard, has written directly to the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, to thank him for the allocation to Wrexham.The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is working to isolate the 1,400 striking telecommunication workers at Frontier in West Virginia and parts of Virginia. The strike, which began on Sunday, March 4, is nearing the end of its second week.

Workers are fighting for their jobs and against further attacks on health care and pension benefits. Frontier, which has already cut 500 jobs in the past few years, is planning to eliminate another 500 jobs. Many workers with 14, 15 and 16 years of experience with the company would be cut.

The company is making it clear it wants to break the strike, refusing to bargain and is bringing in contractors, management and personnel from other parts of its region to keep operations going. The company has also shifted work to Frontier call centers in Florida, according to a worker, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), who posted a comment on a CWA social media page.

In the face of this strikebreaking assault, the CWA and other unions are doing everything to prevent the mobilization of other workers both Frontier locations in other states, let alone other telecom workers at Verizon and AT&T who are also battling to save their jobs.

The strike takes place as Verizon, which is raking in $3 billion to $4 billion in tax cuts this year due to President Trump, is closing six call centers across the countryone-third of its totaland wiping out 3,000 customer service jobs.

Frontier is the fourth largest provider of telecommunication services in the US. It provides landline, TV and Internet services in mostly rural areas of 29 states throughout the country but also includes several large metropolitan areas.

While the company dates back to the 1930s it became a major provider of telecom services only in the last two decades after the deregulation of the industry by then president Bill Clinton. The telecom bill passed by both Democrats and Republicans allowed the former Bell System companies to get out of providing service in less populated areas of the country and concentrate on the highly profitable, more densely populated areas.

Much of Frontiers territory consists of former GTE operations, which it purchased from Verizon in 2010. Verizon itself was the result of a merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE in 2000. Frontier also acquired many areas from AT&T, primarily the former Southern New England Telephone company in Connecticut.

The area in West Virginia and Virginia where the current strike is taking place was also acquired from Verizon as part of the 2010 deal but was not former GTE territory. It had been the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, once a part of the Bell system and one of the companies that made up Bell Atlantic.

This reorganization benefited the wealthy stockholders of all of three companies at the expense of both the workers and the customers. Verizon and AT&T have pushed up revenues by building out their broadband networks while no longer having to shoulder the added costs of providing service in rural areas. Frontier was now freed to raise prices and cut maintenance to its customers citing the added cost of reaching rural populations as justification.

Frontier is renowned for its particularly generous dividend payments to shareholders. In 2008, for example, its dividend-to-net-income ratio was 175 percent, meaning it paid out to shareholders nearly double the total income earned by the company that year. These payouts have been financed by taking on more and more debt, which now totals close to $18 billion. While squeezing workers, the company has paid billions to its main lenders include JP Morgan, Citibank, Bank of America, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

Since the 2008 recession, both Verizon and AT&T stock have remained basically the same, while Frontier stock has fallen from a high of over $235 per share in March 2007 to less than $8.00 per share today. The company has responded to its stagnating or tanking stock through a savage cost-cutting campaign, affecting both workers and customers.

CWA President Chris Shelton postures as an opponent of Wall Street and was a backer of Bernie Sanders and his campaign for the presidential nomination by the Democratic Party, before the CWA backed Hillary Clinton, a shill for Wall Street. Shelton and the CWA combine phony denunciations of social inequality with a deliberate policy of suppressing opposition by telecom workers, and betraying strikes when they occur.

This included the sellout of the 45-day strike by 40,000 Verizon workers on the US east coast, and brief strikes by AT&T workers on the west coast. The deals the CWA signed, which they claimed would save jobs, have been followed by job cuts by both Verizon and AT&T.

In the past two decades Verizon has cut nearly 100,000 jobs and AT&T has cut an even larger number of workers. Healthcare and retirement benefits have been cut or eliminated. Frontier has been cutting workers, reducing service and increasing rates.

The Frontier strike erupted as 30,000 West Virginia teachers and other school employees were waging a nine-day strike, in defiance of the states anti-strike laws and the sabotage of the teacher unions. With the corporations making billions in profits and raking in billions more in tax cuts, telecom workers are determined to recoup the years of concessions handed over by the CWA.

On April 14, the contract expires for 10,000 AT&T Midwest workers in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois. The only way Frontier workers can win their struggle is to elect rank-and-file strike committees, controlled by workers themselves and free from the control of the CWA, to break the isolation of their strike and mobilize the broadest support among telecom workers and every section of the working class for their battle.The World Socialist Web Site spoke with striking lecturers yesterday in London, Manchester and Sheffield.

In London, where more than 2,000 academics rallied, members of the Socialist Equality Party and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) distributed copies of the statement, UK university lecturers revolt against union sell-out agreement.

The article explained that the revolt by lecturers on Tuesday was the latest expression of a resurgence of the class struggle internationally, portending a break with trade unions which function as arms of management. The lecturers rebellion follows the recent revolt against the unions by 30,000 striking teachers in the US state of West Virginia, who voted to carry on a strike to demand wage increases and an end to soaring health care costs.

It noted that The stand taken by lecturers has won broad support among university staff and students precisely because they are seeking to push back against the marketisation of education that has been enforced over decades by both Labour and Tories.

Lecturers and students protest during the march in London on Wednesday

There was universal satisfaction that the University and College Unions (UCUs) sell-out deal had been rejected, with lecturers determined to continue the strike to victory. Many questioned the union leaderships intentions in allowing the deal to get as far as it did.

During a packed meeting at Westminster Central Hall, a staff member from Imperial College London was applauded as he challenged the UCU: I do have a question for the negotiators, which is What on earth were you thinking? For me, and many of my colleagues, wed all been out on strike, I disappeared for a day and I come back and its like a kick in the teeth.

The reason we had to respond so quickly was because it felt like we were being blackmailed by the UCU leadership. We had 24 hours to respond, and, if not, then we had to capitulate to Universities UKs demand and go back to work the next day. We also had rescheduling, which is a complete humiliation. What is the point of going on strike if we then have to do all that work for free?

Rather than patronising us with a discussion of how brilliant we all are, just for a moment can we please put the spotlight on the negotiators. Why did you agree to rescheduling? Why did youeven if we were being defeated which were not, we should at least carry out an orderly retreatwe should at least have struck till Friday. What were you thinking?

UCU President Joanna de Groot responded lamely, All of your negotiators with one exception have been elected. No deal was ever done, she falsely claimed.

Outside the meeting hall, our reporters spoke with lecturers and students.

Alison

Alison, who works with the Open University, said, We have spoken today with our feet. We are out here, and none of the branches want to support this kind of offer. We also are vehemently against the idea that staff who have been on strike and who have been penalised for being on strike should then have to give their labour back by rescheduling classes.

This is a unified struggle of students and lecturers for education. We have to be involved in it now to defend education, to fight against marketisation and fight against casualisation. Youre right, we do need to join up as a united workforce because its also about pensions in the wider workforce in the UK.

Lizzie, who works in Professional Services, said, Im in Unison [the largest public sector union], so today is actually my first day striking, because our union is not actually out on strike. I wanted to support the march because of the deal that was proposed yesterday.

Im hoping that Unison will ballot its members, she added.

Khalid, a student from Kings College London (KCL), said he had joined the march because I think its about more than pensions, though pensions would be enough to march for. Privatisation of our universities has led to the point where its no longer a place of knowledge creation, its about producing knowledge for profit.

Khalid

Most classes now are framed around very specialised subjects, like Business Management, for example. Even the sciences are now based more and more particularly at my university at KCL, with the War Studies departmentaround weapons manufacture and stuff like that. All without any focus on viable political or economic alternatives, which is what a university is supposed to be for: for producing knowledge for the betterment of society.

With higher fees for universities, students are no longer able to participate in education. The poor are getting increasingly marginalised with exorbitant fees, especially for international students. This is about more than defending pensions, its about saying we want to reclaim our education and our universities.

Khalid explained how students had organised to help ensure the rejection of the UCU deal: We called for certain protests in response to the deal, to reject it, to make sure that it didnt go through. I think today was a very good sign that people are not accepting the deal.

Luke

Luke was part of a group of students who travelled to London from Essex University: Weve been on the picket lines at our campus showing solidarity with staff and trying to engage as many students as possible. We felt it was really important for us to come to London today to show solidarity on the national stage.

Im really glad lecturers rejected the deal.  We have to stay strong and fight for what we need. Not just to get lecturers defined pensions, but also to change education for the future. Weve had doctors come to campus and tell us their struggles with strikes over the past few years. Professors have talked about the miners strike and drawn similarities to that. This isnt just a struggle for education, this is a wider struggle which as many people as possible need to get involved with. One of our banners says, This concerns everyone! and I think thats true.

At the University of Sheffield, staff manned pickets while students occupied the central arts building. Tim Cooper, an international student support officer and a former lecturer in history and archaeology, said, The agreement was a sell-out. All it does is delay things for a few more years.

The thing that people feel most strongly about is the final part of that [UCU] statementthat the union would encourage staff to reschedule lectures. The whole point about a strike is that we are removing our labour, and the last thing you want to do is to give the employers that concession straight away by saying, Right, if were ever in this situation again in the future as soon as we go back to work well scramble and work our butts off to replace the work we havent been paid for in the first place.

Tim Cooper (right) and Jeff Green

This is a bigger debate than just pensions. The student support shows that. This is about the very future of higher educationwhat it means to be at university, what university teaching means, what students get from it.

The strikes are now scheduled again for after Easter. At the very least, we need to keep that momentum. People on the pickets were feeling like wed won victory, and then we saw the statement from our general secretary and we felt that victory had been snatched away from us.

Ive worked in UK universities since 1990. This is the most unified Ive seen staff and students. Arguablyand I go back to my student activist days in the 1970sin my lifetime this is the closest were now getting to real activism on the campuses, and weve got to keep that momentum going.

After the [UCU] statement came out in the evening, it was a case of reading it and thinking I dont like that, then seeing on social media that others were feeling the same, getting to the picket lines early in the morning and finding that people were going Yeah, Im not happy, and within about an hour or two that was turning in some cases to anger, disillusionmentvery strong feeling. I didnt get any negative sense, I got the positive feeling that No, were not going to accept this and this fight goes on, and this fight clearly isnt over.

Social media had played a huge role in the strike, with #NoCapitulation trending on Twitter within hours of the UCU deal being made public. The main positive difference is not just the speed with which information can get out, but the reality that it gives for building solidarity, Tim noted. Its reminding me how strong our students are, and the strength of our support.

If I had doubts at the beginning of this action, it was first of all whether sufficient numbers of our colleagues would be coming out and taking action. Yes, they have, and that has built during the course of the strike. And secondly, we were worried about the students. It has a big impact on themwould they support it? The support has been phenomenal. Ive been in this sector on and off for 27 years, and Ive never seen anything like it. We owe a big debt of thanks to our students. Sheffield has been at the forefront. Theyve occupied buildings, and thats great. We can look forward to real strength, real solidarity between us and our students.

Marc

At the University of Manchester, Marc, a lecturer in the third year of a four-year probationary period, said the UUK/UCU deal thrown out by the lecturers, was a sell-out.

There needs to be a mechanism for a no-confidence vote in the unionthe head people are staff, employed by the union.

Originally from Greece, Marc, a reader of the WSWS, said he saw the struggle of UK lecturers as part of an international struggle. Were dealing with a transnational economy, so we have to build a sense of solidarity internationally.

Mickie, a lecturer at Manchester for nine years, said, It feels hopeful after the wobble. Branch after branch rebelled against the stand of the union leadership.

Mickie

Speaking about the creeping market in education, he said, The big one was the crippling student fees in 2011, which led to riots in London. That was a step change. Weve been subjected to performance management and turned into service providers.

TEF [Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework] will be used to raise student fees further. Youll have different fee levels on different courses, according to data on average student earnings after graduationreducing the value of a course to its market value. This is further commodification.Following the mass revolt by thousands of striking lecturers and other university workers Tuesdaywho rejected a sellout agreement reached by the University and College Union (UCU)they resumed their fight to stop the destruction of their pensions

Around 40,000 lecturers and other academic-related staff who are covered by the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) are involved in the action. Wednesdays strike was the third of this weeks planned five-day stoppage. This is the fourth successive week that the workers have taken industrial action in what is the largest national strike since that of 50,000 junior doctors in 2016.

Throughout the UK Tuesday, strikers voted in impromptu meetings in at least 45 universities to throw out the UCUs filthy deal, which detailed how the strike would be immediately ended wholly on the terms of the employers, Universities UK (UUK).

At the University of Manchester, the biggest single university campus in the country, more than 300 voted unanimously to reject the UCU/UUK agreement. At Sheffield University, 350 strikers also voted unanimously in opposition. The same scenario was repeated by thousands of angry staff at universities in Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Cambridge, Cardiff and many other institutions.

Following the rejection of its sell-out deal, the UCU spent yesterday attempting to reassert its control over the dispute. The union staged a march and rally in central London, attended by around 2,000 strikers. The UCU ensured that its general secretary, Sally Hunt, who had recommended the deal and who was heckled and denounced by strikers protesting in their hundreds outside the unions HQ Tuesday, was nowhere to be seen. After a few speeches at the Malet Street Assembly point, mainly from delegates to the UCUs Higher Education Committee, the march made its way to the Westminster Central Hall, where a rally was held.

Members of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and its youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) distributed copies of the World Socialist Web Site article, UK university lecturers revolt against union sell-out agreement.

Many lecturers who took the statement expressed satisfaction that the sellout was massively rejected and expressed a determination to continue their struggle to victory.

The UCU could not honestly deal with revulsion at its treachery. An article posted on its web site stated, UCU has rejected a proposal drawn up at talks between the union and Universities UK (UUK) to end the university pensions strike. It added, UCU representatives from the universities where staff are on strike over plans to cut their pensions met at the unions headquarters today (Tuesday).

The delegates that the UCU are referring to had no choice but to reject the offer agreed to by their executive, as thousands of angry workers would accept no other outcome, with the UCUs HQ surrounded by protesters.

In response to the revolt, the UCU will do all it can to end the dispute at the earliest opportunity. Its statement concluded, We want urgent talks with the universities representatives to try and find a way to get this dispute resolved.

UCU members reacted with such hostility to the sell-out agreement as it would have resulted in a reduction of at least 19 percent in the value of lecturers pensions, with tens of thousands of pounds being taken from them in deferred wages. It offered no long-term security, being set to last just three years from April 1, 2019, and then giving the employers the right to end the Defined Benefits (DB) scheme as planned.

To maintain a DB pension for only a three-year period, the UCU and management agreed that members contributions would rise by 1.7 percent, while the employers would increase their share by only 1.3 percent. Both parties would then engage in meaningful discussions as soon as possible to explore risk sharing alternatives for the future from 2020, in particular Collective Defined Contributions (CDC).

The threshold for retaining elements of the existing DB pension scheme was for those earning 42,000 a year or less. All those earning more than that amount would not be entitled to benefits under the existing scheme. The UCU entered the negotiations saying it wanted to maintain a threshold of DB at 55,000. Many lecturers expressed contempt and disbelief that the UCU made a pledge in the Agreement to encourage its members to prioritise the rescheduling of teaching in order to minimise the disruption to students. That is, lecturers would be forced to reschedule lectures not carried out due to the strike, rendering the withdrawal of their labour futile.

By agreeing to a transitional deal till 2022, the UCU had not only agreed to pave the way for the end of DB, but crucially the end all national pensions schemes. This is line with UUKs policy statement that favours flexible schemes to meet the needs of individuals and individual universities.

In an August 2017 policy document, Suitability and Sustainability: pensions in the higher education sector, UUK declared: More than ever, institutions believe that achieving long-term stability of pension provision is critical and that cost and risk must be better controlled.  It stressed, ... It is evident that uniform pension solutions are no longer suitable for an increasingly divergent higher education sector. Institutions have different strategic priorities, with some wanting more flexibility in the reward package they are able to offer . ... [emphasis added].

From the beginning of the dispute, the SEP has insisted that the UCU is not an organisation fighting in the interests of workers. It is a tool of management and, as with all the unions, is not amenable to reform through rank-and-file pressure. The events of the last 48 hours have vindicated this assessment and demonstrate the necessity for workers to break with the unions and build genuine organisations of class struggle.

We also explained that any claims that the Labour Party represents an ally in the struggle to defend pensions and against marketisation of education must be rejected. Labour, despite the fact it is now led by the nominally left Jeremy Corbyn, is the same party that has done so much to attack education in the past, including the introduction of tuition fees and opening up the sector for privatisation.

As lecturers emphatically threw out the UCUs deal on Tuesday, Corbyn did not utter a word in their support. Even 48 hours later, he remains silent, as he will do nothing to jeopardise his relationship with the trade union bureaucracy that he relies upon.

The SEP calls for the formation of democratically elected rank-and-file committees, independent of the UCU, as the only means to defend jobs, wages, conditions and the right to a decent pension, as part of the fight for a socialist programme for the defence of education as a right. This struggle can only be successful if it is consciously conducted in opposition to the UCU and the education unions and to the extent that it is bound up with a turn to workers throughout the education sector in Britain and internationally who face the same attacks.The technology firm Broadcom has withdrawn its proposed $142 billion hostile takeover bid for the US technology giant Qualcomm after an extraordinary intervention by President Donald Trump, who vetoed the deal on national security grounds.

Broadcom launched the takeover last November and major banks, including Bank of America and JP Morgan, had lined up $106 billion in finance. Broadcom also had won support on the Qualcomm board after a series of manoeuvres that, according to Bloomberg, made the deal likely to go through.

But the takeover was effectively spiked on Monday when Trump issued an executive order banning it. According to the order, there was credible evidence to suggest that after the purchase of Qualcomm, Broadcom could take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States. He ordered that the companies immediately and permanently abandon the proposed takeover.

The intervention, following the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminium, was a further expression of how America First nationalism and the invocation of national security, tied to military considerations, are coming to dominate all the administrations economic decisions.

The objection to Broadcom was not that it was a foreign company at the time the takeover began. Broadcom was launched in the US, then transferred to Singapore. However, it had agreed to re-domicile to the US last November, just days before the takeover move, at an event Trump hosted at the White House.

The national security objection was based on a Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) investigation, which claimed that Broadcoms record showed that in order to finance the deal it would cut back expenditure on 5G phone technology vital for US security.

The CFIUS investigation was the outcome of a move by Qualcomm to block the takeover. Normally any such investigation begins after a deal has been announced. But Qualcomm asked the CFIUS to intervene on January 29, claiming that the Broadcom takeover would weaken the company and therefore the US.

This pitch formed the basis for the CFIUS findings, issued in a March 5 letter, that any potential merger between Broadcom and Qualcomm could pose a risk to the national security of the United States.

The letter noted that articulation of potential national security risks was in significant part classified. But, insofar as they could be revealed, the supposed risks related to Broadcoms relationships with third party entities and the effects of Broadcoms business intentions with regard to Qualcomm.

The third party entities were not identified, but clearly the reference was to China.

The CFIUS letter said Qualcomm ranked second after Intel in research and development. Its previous role in setting standards for 3G and 4G had positioned it as the leading company in 5G development and standard-setting. It was well known and trusted by the US government and any reduction in its long-term technological competitiveness and role in standard-setting would significantly impact on US national security.

This is in large part because a weakening of Qualcomms position would leave an opening for China to expand its influence on the 5G standard-setting process, the letter said. The Chinese company Huawei had increased its research and development spending, and owned about 10 percent of essential 5G 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 letter stated.

The CFIUS claim that Qualcomms research and development capacities would be weakened was based on the private equity style of Broadcoms financial operations, which involved reduced long-term investment and a focus on short-term profitability. The letter noted that the $106 billion lined up to support the takeover would be the largest corporate acquisition loan on record and such a debt load would increase the pressure for short-term profitability.

The letter cited press reports that Broadcom had spent six times as much on acquisitions, as compared to research and development, and former employees who allege that it underinvests in long-term product development.

If Broadcom had taken that road, it would have been acting no differently from many other major firms. Such takeovers that have formed an integral component of corporate profit accumulation in the US, starting in the 1980s.

Trumps unprecedented action delivered a shock to the US corporate world. The Financial Times noted: Never before has a sitting US president barred a deal over national security concerns ahead of two companies agreeing to a merger, highlighting Mr Trumps readiness to test the limits of his constitutional powers to secure Americas primacy in the world.

Previous presidents have taken action to prevent takeovers by foreign companies, but never on such a scale and never in such a manner.

The fact that the president took such pre-emptive action before a deal was even signed is extremely disturbing and inconsistent with all our notions of due process, according to Frank Aquila, a top mergers and acquisitions lawyer cited by the Financial Times.

Aquila warned that the action would make it difficult for US companies to object when they are blocked in other countries for political reasons and did not bode well for cross-border merger and acquisitions in a number of sectors.

The action was taken in opposition to market sentiment. According to the Wall Street Journal, Broadcoms market value is about 16 percent higher than Qualcomms, despite having a 20 percent smaller annual revenue base.

Thats thanks to a relentless pace of successful acquisitions that has boosted sales, earnings and cash flow while also endearing the company to Wall Street, the Journal noted. About 96 percent of analysts covering Broadcom rate the stock as a buy.

Trumps action, based on the CFIUS report that China would be a major beneficiary of any Broadcom takeover, is highly significant. Such national security considerations were invoked with regard to steel and aluminium tariffs.

In particular, the move indicates the kind of measures likely when a report, being conducted under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, is brought down within a few months on Chinese practices on innovation, intellectual property rights and technology transfers.

This can be described only as the increasing militarisation of administration decisions on the US economy. It is a clear sign that the guiding philosophy is not the free marketthe basis of official ideology for decadesbut the unrelenting drive to maintain American pre-eminence, including by war if that is considered necessary.

This shift is not merely a product of Trump. Rather it is expression of the long-term economic decline of the US relative to its rivals, both old and new.The main pseudo-left organisations in Australia have combined forces to form a new electoral party, the Victorian Socialists, for the sole purpose of contesting and winning one seat in the forthcoming November election, in the state of Victoria.

The latest opportunist manoeuvre by the pseudo-left is a calculated response to immense disaffection within the working class towards the Labor Party, which holds government in Victoria, and to the breakup of the longstanding two-party-dominated political system. Its aim is try to capture some of the social and political discontent and channel it into new parliamentary illusions.

The pseudo-lefts primary aim, however, is to block the emergence of a political movement of the working class based on an internationalist and socialist perspective. Leading figures within the Victorian Socialists openly express their hope to emulate Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, key bourgeois political figures, who have worked to channel mass alienation with the political establishment back behind the Democratic Party in the US and the Labour Party in Britain.

The Victorian Socialists are significantly to the right of both Sanders and Corbyn. The formation combines the crassest parliamentary cretinism with a parochial and minimum-reformist platform. While Corbyn, with his fake left-populist appeal to the British working class, declares, for the many, not the few, the Victorian Socialists, even more pathetically, pledge, for people, not the powerful.

The Victorian Socialists brings together Stephen Jolly and his supporters, who split in 2016 from the Socialist Party and the British-based Committee for a Workers International; Socialist Alternative, which has close relations with the US International Socialist Organization; and Socialist Alliance, which is what remains of a 2001 regroupment among Australian pseudo-left parties and groups. Socialist Alliance is largely made up of what was once the Pabloite Democratic Socialist Party, and it still publishes the Green Left Weekly.

The prospect of Jolly winning a Victorian Legislative Council (upper house) seat has provided the immediate rationale for the pseudo-lefts regroupment. Jolly is regularly promoted in the media. He has been a member of the inner-Melbourne Yarra Council since 2004 and, in the last Victorian state election, received nearly 10 percent of the primary vote in the lower house seat of Richmond, in the state capital, Melbourne.

Jolly has boasted: Many of our political opponents in the Labor Party, on the right wing, and so on, have said to us that we really are in with a shot of winning this. This is not just some flag flying exercise.

Socialist Alternatives Corey Oakley issued a statement on its publication Red Flag, noting that the organisation had previously not participated in election campaigns. Before, he explained, left parliamentary campaigns tended to be fruitless affairs offering virtually zero chance of winning. After elaborating the intricacies of how members are elected into Victorias upper house, Oakley declared: This campaign is different.

Because of Jollys profile, Oakley gushed, the Victorian Socialists could win as much as 6 percent of the vote in the Northern Metropolitan upper house district. Moreover, providing Labor and/or the Greens directed preferences to the electoral front, it could secure enough votes to win one seat and elevate Jolly into state parliament.

Socialist Alliance appears likely not to stand under its own name, as it has in previous state elections. Instead, one of its leaders, Sue Bolton, who sits on a local council in Melbournes north, will be on the Victorian Socialists slate, along with a leading Socialist Alternative member, Colleen Bolger.

Not a single issue outside the state boundaries of Victoria, or a single policy of a remotely socialist character, is being raised by the Victorian Socialists. All its demands remain safely within the realm of respectable bourgeois politics. If Jolly is elected, the party has promised, he will campaign to improve public transport, through measures including increasing the frequency of northern line trains, and to fix the housing crisis, by building 50,000 new public houses over five years. After noting that Melbournes north-west region has the second-highest official unemployment rate in the statethe product of brutal factory closures and other layoffs imposed in collaboration with the trade unionsJolly has pledged only to move government departments to the outer suburbs.

Tellingly, Sue Bull, a prominent member of Socialist Alliance, wrote in February that the new electoral front was not just about raising these demands. A socialist in parliament gives the left access to resources, insider information and greater campaign opportunities. The left should never forget how Pauline Hanson used her first term of office in 1996 to mobilise a right-wing base of support. In other words, this is a grab for resources, media promotion and privilege.

It is an axiom of Marxism that the purpose of standing candidates for bourgeois parliament is to utilise such campaigns to fight for the development of the political consciousness of the working class, by demonstrating that only the international struggle for socialism against all capitalist parties can advance its social rights and interests.

The groupings that make up the Victorian Socialists, however, are as removed from, and hostile to, genuine Marxism and socialist internationalism as is the Labor Party. The new party intends to censor from the Victorian election campaign any mention of the tremendous dangers of war and the virulently anti-democratic hysteria underway in Australia against Chinese interference, which is being stoked to provide a pretext for military confrontation with China. It will seek to suppress any discussion on the anti-working class character of Labor and the trade unions, and the necessity of workers and youth taking matters into their own hands to fight for wages, conditions, social services and infrastructure, and democratic rights.

Summing up its utterly diversionary role, the policy of the Victorian Socialists that has received the most public attention is its call to replace the state flag, which features the British Union Jack, with the Eureka flag, which was unfurled by rebellious gold miners in Ballarat in 1854, and has been used by various trade unions to promote their nationalist perspective ever since. Stephen Jolly is advocating this initiative from the standpoint that the current flag is outdated and doesnt reflect modern Victoria. A change, he suggested, would assist the state government to appeal for transnational corporate investment into the state. He told the Herald Sun: We are going out to the world and saying to people come to Victoria to invest, and this is our flag. Its embarrassing.

The Herald Sun, the right-wing tabloid of the Murdoch empire in Melbourne, prominently reported the partys launch, declaring that the new party was focused on bread-and-butter issues. The newspapers essentially uncritical coverage of the pseudo-left project was, itself, an indication of the pro-establishment politics of the Victorian Socialists.

Sections of the trade union bureaucracy may well give some degree of support to the Victorian Socialists, which has already received $6,500 in financing from the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association. Such contributions are predicated on the understanding that the pseudo-left will direct preferences to Labor and refrain from any serious criticism of either the Labor government or the unions themselves. Both have collaborated with the employers and the state for the past 35 years in destroying the social rights and conditions of the working class.

Justifying this latest opportunist manoeuvre, Jolly has repeatedly warned that the growing anti-establishment mood could be capitalised by the likes of One Nation and others on the far right. In fact, the pseudo-lefts real fear is not the extreme right, but the extreme leftthat is, the danger that the working class will break from the entire political establishment and take up the fight for a revolutionary socialist program, advanced only by the Socialist Equality Party.

The Victorian Socialists campaign underscores that, whatever their episodic, tactical disagreements, the politics of all the pseudo-left tendencies derive from their shared class standpoint. They speak for a layer of academics, union officials, and professionals that, in one form or another, derive a privileged social position by serving as a critical voice within various institutions of the existing order.

Class-conscious workers and young people seeking a genuine means to fight the capitalist system will find it only in the Trotskyist perspective upheld by the International Committee of the Fourth International and its Australian section, the Socialist Equality Party.GREENE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI)- The courtroom was silent during the prosecutions' statements Thursday morning. That's when Chase Alianos parents took the stand. For the past year, the Steve Aliano and the rest of his family have struggled with the loss of their son.

"Well I mean its been a very trying time to say the least and without god, we would have never got through it," said Aliano.

A jury convicted William Abel of shooting and killing Aliano on this property. Police say he proceeded to burn his belongings, buried Aliano, and hid his vehicle.

Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw said it was an investigation that took nearly a year. It also included a week-and-a-half long jury trial.

"When chases family reached out, he lied to them. When members of his own family asked him about what had happened and why the vehicle was on the property, he lied to them," said Holtsclaw.

A jury recently found Abel guilty on all four charges against him. Thursday a judge sentenced him to a total of 80 years in the Indiana Department of Corrections. The prosecution hopes this will give Alianos family peace.

"Nothing we can do as prosecutors, or the investigators or the judge can make the Aliano family whole again. We cant bring chase back. But in terms of handing down a punishment that will hold Mr. Abel accountable, I think this will," said Holtsclaw

During Thursday's hearing, Abel took the stand. Abel apologized to the Aliano family and his own.

He said that this is a price he is willing to pay. Now the Aliano family has to move forward without their son.

"I hope nobody ever has to experience what myself and my family have experience through this," said Steve Aliano.

The prosecution says Abel will have to serve a minimum of 59 years of his sentence depending on his behavior. Abel does plan to appeal the judges sentence.TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The Indiana Health Department just released this year's health rankings.

For infant mortality - Vigo County still has some of the worst numbers in the state.

Union Hospital in Terre Haute hopes to decrease these numbers.

The hospital is raising money for the March of Dimes March for Babies.

This nationwide program creates a support system for families who have a premature baby.

They also focus on those who have lost their babies.

Terre Haute hosts the second largest March for Babies event in Indiana.

It happens on Saturday, May 6th at Rose-Hulman.

To sign up, click here.BAINBRIDGE, Ind.  A student was arrested Wednesday after allegedly writing a threat against North Putnam High School on a bathroom wall our partner station, CBS 4 in Indianapolis first reported.

Principal Jason A. Chew said in a letter to the community that the administration became aware of the threat at about 1:30 p.m. and it was immediately investigated by local authorities. The student was then identified and isolated, according to Chew.

Putnam County Sheriff Scott Stockton told CBS4 that one of his deputies obtained a confession from the student in the presence of a parent. The student was then arrested.

The sheriff says the incident is being forwarded to the county prosecutor and school officials are seeking administrative action against the student.

This is not the environment for anyone to make inappropriate or threatening comments regarding public safety in our schools and it will not be tolerated, said Sheriff Stockton.

We are thankful for the cooperation of parents and students in this matter, we know it takes all members of our community to keep our school safe, said Chew. North Putnam Community Schools will not tolerate threats or intimidation, and will take action against those who interrupt the purpose of school.

The student was not identified by authorities.MARKHAM, Ill. (WTTV)  Police have issued an Amber Alert for two young girls in Illinois after their mother was fatally shot, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Lynn Roby, 3, and Jordyn Washington, 2, are believed to have been taken by their father, Lynn Washington, from Markham, Illinois. They were last seen in a silver 2004 or 2005 Chevrolet Malibu or Impala. Markham is only about 10 miles from the Indiana state border.

Markham Police Chief Mack Sanders says Washington is a person of interest in the shooting death of the girls mother, Lakisha Roby, 27.

Roby was fatally shot at a BP gas station at 167th Street and Pulaski Road around 1:35 a.m. Wednesday after getting into an argument with Washington, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Washington picked up the children about 2 p.m. from a family friend who had been watching the girls and was not aware of the shooting, Sanders said.

He is prohibited from contact with the children by a protection order issued on November 30.

Washington, 40, is black with brown hair and brown eyes. Police say he is about 5 feet 9 inches and weighs about 180 pounds. He has tattoos on his neck, left arm, right arm and chest.

He is described as armed and dangerous. Anyone with information is asked to call 911.

This story was posted by WTTV in IndianapolisST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)  A man who claimed on a TV series that he helped burn and bury the remains of a missing Alabama teen in Aruba has died after police say he was stabbed with his own knife during a foiled kidnapping of a woman in Florida.

John Christopher Ludwick tried to kidnap a woman Wednesday as she exited her driveway in North Port. Ludwick and the woman knew each other, said a police spokesman in North Port, a small city south of the Tampa Bay area.

"They were roommates at one point. He apparently became kind of infatuated with her. She was doing everything in her power to distance herself from him," spokesman Josh Taylor said.

Police said she fought back, and Ludwick was stabbed in the struggle with his own knife.

According to a police report, the victim said she felt that Ludwick was stalking her in person and on social media.

He ran, but officers found him in a wooded area. He died at a hospital.

Ludwick was a friend of Joran Van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Van der Sloot is in prison now for an unrelated murder in Peru. North Port police say they've informed authorities involved in the Holloway case of Ludwick's death.

Ludwick claimed Van der Sloot paid him $1,500 to dig up her body in 2010, five years after the 18-year-old vanished on the Dutch Caribbean island.

"The idea was to crush everything to the point where it wasn't recognizable as her bones or skull or anything like that," Ludwick said in the video. He purported that Holloway's skull was burned to eliminate any remaining hair fibers, saying: "It was doused in gasoline in a fire pit in a cave."

Taylor said North Port Police was aware of Ludwick and added that the FBI had interviewed him.

Ludwick and his allegations were the center of the TV program about Holloway's disappearance.

Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, sued the network and the production company that was responsible for the 2017 program. In a federal court document, Holloway alleged that the six-part series was misleading and a fictional "farce" that gave her false hope her daughter's remains had been discovered. It also caused her unnecessary suffering, she said.

The show investigated whether bone fragments found were that of Holloway, but they weren't.

Ludwick appeared on "The Nancy Grace Show," and other network programs, when Van der Sloot was arrested in Peru for beating a woman to death in 2010  five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance.

Ludwick defended his friend and said the victim in Peru should have been more careful when she realized who Van der Sloot was.

"I'm not saying she deserved it, but she definitely could have prevented it by leaving immediately," he said.

Ludwick told Grace that he met Van der Sloot on Aruba in 2010 and hung out with him almost every day for a few months.

"He seemed like he'd be a cool guy, he's a good person and a good friend," Ludwick said on the show. He added that he was from Alexandria, Virginia. On another show, he said of Stephany Flores, the victim in Peru, "If she hadn't been nosy and confronted him like that, she wouldn't have died."BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WTVA) - A native of Monroe County has been identified as the shooting victim from Wednesday's shooting at UAB's hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.

Birmingham police identified the victim who died as 63-year-old Nancy Swift, formerly of Hatley.

According to ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, she worked at the hospital.

Sometime near 6:55 p.m. on Wednesday, Birmingham police were called to UAB Highlands.

Another person in the hospital was wounded, and the gunman fatally shot himself, police said.

ABC 33/40 reports the wounded victim is an employee of Steris, a company that UAB contracts with.

"I don't think we could've imagined something like this," Family-friend Teri Wilbanks said.

Wilbanks said her mother, Debroah Culver, was one of Swift's best friends.

"If you saw Deb, my mother, you would always see Nancy not far behind," Wilbanks said.

Culver and Swift lived right next door to one another.

Swift formely attended Hatley Missionary Baptist Church and Hatley School. Her father who has since passed away, was a deacon at the church.

Swift also worked at the North Mississippi Medical Center in West Point from 1995 to 2007.

Employees describe her as well-liked and well-respected. There was a prayer service held at the hospital Thursday morning in her honor.

According to the Associated Press, authorities described the shooter as a disgruntled employee who opened fire before turning the gun on himself.

Police say a "work conflict" was the root of the shooting, reports AP.

"One day we will see her again and she will be just as beautiful as she has always been. Our loss is heavens gain," Wilbanks said.NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WTVA) - New Albany police need the public's help identifying the person or persons responsible for stealing a tractor.

On March 10 sometime near 2:32 p.m., police received a report of a stolen tractor. The tractor was described as a 2006 John Deere model 7220 MFD, with a 310 front loader.

Police say the tractor was parked in a hayfield beside Copyplus on Denton Road in New Albany.

The tractor was taken some time between 5 p.m. on March 9 and noon on March 10.

The photo attached shows the actual stolen tractor.MITCHELL COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - In south Georgia, a Mitchell County family is without a home after it caught fire Wednesday morning.

Fire fighters say the home on the 4700 block of Hall Lane was fully engulfed when crews arrived around 1:30 a.m.

Autry State Prison Fire Chief Michael Jones said the family was not home at the time.

It took about 30 minutes to get the fire under control.

The house is a complete loss.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A registered sex offender was arrested after being accused of exposing himself at a Tallahassee store.

Joseph Baker, 50, was identified by the victim as the person who exposed himself to her at the Good Samaritan Super Thrift Store, 2810 Shared Road, on March 1, 2018.

He was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in public on Wednesday and remained in the Leon County Detention Center on Thursday on a $1,000 bond.

Baker walked up to the victim in the shoe section of the store, committed the act and went to another part of the store, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The victim told the store manager, who suspected Baker because Baker was on duty at the time. Baker denied to the store manager that he had exposed himself and said he was only adjusting his pants.

Baker is on supervised conditional release through the Florida Department of Corrections and is required to wear a GPS ankle monitor.

The ankle monitor provided the Leon County Sheriff's Office investigator the information about Baker's location.COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster spoke frankly against the actions of students across the country who participated in National Walkout Day just one month after 17 people were killed in a shooting at a Florida high school.

Addressing members of the media at the State House, McMaster called the demonstration shameful, and that the protests are a tactic implemented by a left-wing group and use teens to disseminate their political agenda.

RELATED: WIS hosts special Keeping You Safe: Protecting Our Children forum

"I understand that there is a left-wing group that is coordinating this around the country," McMaster said. "I think the children, it appears that these school children - these innocent school children - are being used as a tool by these left-wing group to further their own agenda. It is not about the tragedy, it's not about the school children or what we should all do and what these students should do."

The governor went further to express his point.

"I imagine a lot of them intend to do is pray and to hope for the families of those who were slain," McMaster continued. "But this is a tricky move, I believe, by a left-wing group from the information I've seen, to use these children as a tool to further their own means. It sounds like a protest to me, it's not a memorial, it's certainly not a prayer service, it's a political statement by a left-wing group and it's shameful."

Thousands of high school students across the country, including in South Carolina, participated in various demonstrations. Several schools opted for demonstrating inside their school and others did alternative protests such as prayer vigils, kindness acts, and more.

National Walkout Day was held one month after 17 people - including 14 students - were killed at the hands of a single gunman on Feb. 14 at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

You can see the entire video of McMaster's statement here.

Copyright 2018 WIS. All rights reserved.THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WALB)- The Thomasville-Thomas County SWAT Team is now fully staffed.

Eight people from the Sheriff's Office, three of which are drug squad agents recently completed training to become certified SWAT team members.

The unit is now up to 21 members.

SWAT is a joint unit between the Thomas County Sheriff's Office and Thomasville Police Department.

It also consists of emergency medical service personnel and firefighters.

According to Drug Squad Commander, Louis Schofill, the training will help with planning for searches and warrants.

"It will help us with planning for searches and vehicle stops, how to plan for those and how to execute those with tactics that are up to the date up to the minute," said Schofill.

Schofill says, having "SWAT-certified agents" allows them to have access to different equipment than normal.(KLTV) - A Virginia middle school teacher's message to her students has quickly gone viral.

Jodie Katsetos, a sixth-grade teacher at Arcadia Middle School in Oak Hall wrote a message on a poster board in her classroom for her students to read this morning when they arrived at school. It read, Walk Up Not Out.

Along with the message were things her students could do instead of getting up and walking out of school on Wednesday.

Walk up to the kid who sits alone and ask him to join your group.

Walk up to the kid who never has a voluntary partner and offer to be hers.

Walk up to your teacher and thank them!

Walk up to someone and just be nice.

Katsetos posted the photo of the poster to her personal Facebook page on Tuesday. The post has received 17,000 reactions and nearly 600,000 shares. Not everyone is reacting positively to her message.

On Wednesday, students walked out of schools across the entire country to protest gun violence and call for change. The protest was to honor the 17 people gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last month.

Many people across the nation took to Twitter to show their support using the hashtag #walkout.

Im the Columbine generation. I cant help but think what would have happened if we all just walked out then. What if instead of active shooter drills we said no school until gun reform? How many lives would have been saved? Im sorry we didnt walkout. #walkout  Megan Ellyia Green (@MeganEllyia) March 14, 2018

So proud of @reillydennedy for leading a walk out to protest government failure to limit access to assault rifles. Too many children murdered. Time is NOW. Powerful images of student activism from National School Walkout Day https://t.co/38clzXnUqX  M Dennedy (@mdennedy) March 14, 2018

Nickelodeon supports national walkout day by going off the air for 17 minutes. Great to see big names and companies take a stand in the gun violence debate. #mcj2033/14 https://t.co/q1f16MyRgZ  Jack McCallum (@mccallumj97) March 14, 2018

Today was an incredible day of action in DC as students from gathered on Capital Hill to hear from elected officials and protest for gun reform. It so important that we keep the momentum up for the #MarchForOurLives and the #NationalSchoolWalkout on April 20th. #NeverAgain https://t.co/tXgSXsl972  National School Walkout DC (@schoolwalkoutDC) March 14, 2018

The NRA, however, had a different message.

Others believed that the #walkout was just political agenda and unnecessary.

Let us be real...To these ignorant children, these walkouts are just social events that get them out of school.These are not profound political statements by deep-thinking young people.The kids are being used as pawns.#NationalWalkoutDay #walkout #WednesdayWisdom  Mark Pantano (@TheMarkPantano) March 14, 2018

Why doesn't the media ever handle the death rate caused by bullying, like it does the death rate of guns? Why aren't we seeing walkouts to end the school violence that occurs on a daily basis and, regularly, harms our youth? Guns aren't the problem, people are #Walkout  Loru (@LoruYaz) March 14, 2018

The FBI failedBrower PD failedSheriff Israel FailedThe deputies at the school failedNot:TrumpCongress NRA@DLoeschYour protest needs better aim#NationalWalkoutDay#Walkout#FreeCrowder #ParklandStrong  CA-Conservative (@artyvanguard) March 14, 2018

The walkout was organized by EMPOWER, the youth branch of the Womens March. More than 3,100 walkouts were registered across the country.

Copyright 2018 KLTV. All rights reserved.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 00:20:53|Editor: Lu Hui

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File photo taken on April 16, 2013 shows British physicist Stephen Hawking attending an activity at California Institute of Technology, the United States. Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at age 76, a family spokesman said on March 14, 2018. The professor died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Cambridge, the spokesman said. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Scientists around the world have mourned the passing of and given high accolades to Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who revealed some secrets of the origin of the universe in his rather difficult lifetime stricken by deadly disease.

American space agency NASA praised Hawking who died in the early hours of Wednesday "a renowned physicist and ambassador of science," whose "theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring."

He "showed us there are no limits to achieving our dreams," European Space Agency said in its twitter account, praising the man who suffered amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and lost his ability to write down math equations, but worked with incredible determination to make great accomplishments in cosmology.

Christopher Shaw, a neuroscientist at King's College London called Hawking "an outliers outlier, both in terms of his extraordinary contribution to science and the time he survived with motor neuron disease."

"Stephen Hawking overcame unimaginable challenges to become one of the most influential and renowned scientists of our time. His life is a testament to the power of human creativity and imagination," said Venki Ramakrishnan, President of Britain's Royal Society.

Hawking, known for his work with black holes and relativity, had sought "new links between the very large (the cosmos) and the very small (atoms and quantum theory) and to gain deeper insights into the very beginning of our universe," according to Hawking's colleague Martin Rees, an astronomer with the University of Cambridge.

Hawking predicted that black holes would not be completely black, but would radiate in a characteristic way. His most important scientific legacy is his idea that "black holes slowly dissolve like aspirin in a glass of water," in the words of Lisa Harvey-Smith, an Australian astronomer.

"It is still the focus of theoretical interest, a topic of debate and controversy more than 40 years after his discovery," Rees said.

Hawking is also the author of popular science book "A Brief History of Time."

"He was a true genius who had a great admiration of and connection to the public. Most people, when he published A Brief History of Time, would have thought a book about physics would not sell. But Stephen knew people would want to read it and it turned out they did," said Katherine Mathieson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association.

Michio Kaku, American theoretical physicist called Hawking the "rock star of science."

Rees said Stephen was "far from being the archetype unworldy or nerdish scientist. His personality remained amazingly unwarped by his frustrations and handicaps."

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said that "we lost a great one today," who will be remembered for "his spirit and unbounded pursuit to gain a complete understanding of the universe, despite the obstacle he faced."

"Stephen Hawking was a great physicist, a great public communicator, and a great icon for science and rationalism throughout the world," according to Paul Nurse, Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 01:36:12|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Israel's "Hannibal Directive," a controversial military tactic used when soldiers were captured by enemy forces, was criticized in a report released by the government's watchdog on Wednesday.

Under the directive, last used during Israel's 2014 offensive in Gaza, soldiers are ordered to use heavy fire if a soldier was captured, even at the risk of killing the soldier.

During Israel's "Protective Edge" 2014 campaign, the directive was employed after militants had captured a soldier. Israel reacted with heavy artillery fire and airstrikes on Rafah, a town in the southern enclave, killing at least 100 Palestinians.

In the 169-page report, the State Comptroller, an official watchdog that reviews the government's activities, said the directive is vague about "the value of the abducted soldier's life."

The report also criticized the order for not "explicitly" stating the need to use "proportional" force.

A military statement said the army welcomes the report, adding that "most of the specific suggestions regarding these mechanisms have already been fixed and addressed."

Human rights organizations have long criticized Israel's use of the directive, charging it constitutes a violation of international law. Wednesday report was a rare criticism by an official Israeli body.by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Known for hawkish foreign policy views, the incoming U.S. secretary of state seems far more eager to rock the boat than his predecessor. That may indicate a more tumultuous road ahead, and may push Washington to further turn up the heat on countries like the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), U.S. experts said.

POMPEO TOUGHER THAN PREDECESSOR

Mike Pompeo, the new nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, is likely to be tougher than his predecessor on key U.S. foreign policy issues. That could egg on President Donald Trump's administration to behave in a more hawkish manner, especially regarding Iran and tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the experts said.

"The White House will likely take a tougher stance on foreign policy because there will be fewer impediments to Trump being Trump," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

Pompeo's nomination comes at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, despite the goodwill expressed at the recent Winter Games in South Korea. While his predecessor, outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was seen as a voice of reason, the Trump administration wants to fill the position of head diplomat with someone who is more like Trump -- eager to shake things up.

Pompeo has made numerous hawkish statements about DPRK. Last October, he said Pyongyang would soon be able to threaten a U.S. city with nukes, and blasted previous U.S. presidents for failure to stop the perceived threat.

With Pompeo in a key position, "the president will have greater leeway to follow his own instincts on foreign policy and he will be less restrained in taking actions," West said.

Experts also said that having Pompeo at his side, instead of the less confrontational Tillerson, could result in a more impulsive U.S. president.

"Trump probably will be more impulsive and more prone to rattle cages around the world," West said of the change Pompeo could bring to the administration.

POMPEO'S PRIORITY: THE DPRK

If he is confirmed by the Congress, Pompeo's first job will be to deal with the summit meeting with the DPRK, which is slated for May, although it remains unknown exactly what his plans are for that summit. Experts reckon he will continue to exert pressure on the DPRK, and even ratchet up the heat on DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.

Troy Stangarone, senior director with the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute, said that with Tillerson gone, it removes one of the voices of moderation and a supporter of engagement.

"While Tillerson was often undercut by Trump, his efforts at diplomacy are most likely under appreciated in getting us to the point where we are now. With Pompeo set to replace him, I would expect that to strengthen the voices of skepticism towards North Korea and for him to be more supportive of taking a harder line in general and at the summit with Kim Jong-un," he told Xinhua, speaking of the upcoming May summit on the issue.

"That being said, Pompeo could improve the chances for diplomacy. He is respected by the president and will be seen as representing his views," Stangarone said.

Pompeo has also had harsh words for Iran, and has compared the nation to the Islamic State, the radical terrorist group that at one point overran vast swaths of the Middle East. He has also called Iran a "thuggish police state," and has blasted the Iran nuclear deal, saying he looked forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism."

AMERICA FIRST FOREIGN POLICY

Some experts argued that the change will make it less complicated to push for an "America first" foreign policy.

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency, told Xinhua that Tillerson's ouster "makes it much easier to have an America First approach in the truest sense of what was heard on the campaign trail, as President Trump is removing a moderate, pragmatic voice from his cabinet."

"It certainly makes the Iran situation more complicated, as Secretary Tillerson was advocating for adjustments to the deal in concert with allies rather than tearing up the deal," he said, referring to the controversial Iran nuclear deal.

"Vis-a-vis DPRK, it further sidelines the State Department and traditional diplomatic efforts as the effort is largely being driven by Trump himself," he said of Tillerson's removal.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 02:31:22|Editor: Lifang

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Photo taken on March 14, 2018 shows a general view of United Nations Security Council's meeting on the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain at the UN headquarters in New York. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday condemned the alleged use of nerve agent in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition. British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday condemned the alleged use of nerve agent in the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned over the reported use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom to harm or kill persons," said Farhan Haq, Guterres' deputy spokesman. "The use of nerve agents as a weapon under any circumstances is unacceptable and its use by a state will constitute a serious violation of international law."

"While the secretary-general is not in a position to attribute responsibility, he strongly condemns the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hopes the incident will be thoroughly investigated," Haq told a daily press briefing.

Guterres conveyed his sympathies to those who have been harmed and expressed his sincere hope for their early recovery, he said.

Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition.

British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain.

British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from Britain and will freeze Russian state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

Britain will also suspend all planned high-level bilateral contacts with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the poisoning incident.BULAMBULI, Uganda, March 14 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed while two others injured on Wednesday in a traffic accident in Bwikhonge sub-county, Bulambuli district in eastern Uganda.

Suwed Manshur, the Elgon regional policeman, said the overloaded Fuso truck failed to accelerate out of an old condemned bridge and reversed into the Cheptui river in Bwikhonge.

The bodies of the dead were taken into Mbale mortuary while the injured were admitted at Mbale regional referral hospital for treatment.

Police had mounted a search for the driver of the truck who fled the scene after the accident.

"We had stopped vehicles from using that bridge. So this truck just risked to use the bridge and got engaged in the accident. We are looking for the truck driver for arrest and prosecution," Manshur said.

Built by the British colonial Government in 1952, the old bridge, located along Muyembe-Nakapiripirit highway, caved in during the floods in 2007. Consequently, the Ugandan government built a temporary bridge along the route and pledged to rebuild the main bridge.

The temporary bridge is narrow, and trucks have tended to continue to use the condemned bridge.

Geoffrey Wasike, an eyewitness, said the truck failed to climb the slippery muddy mound out of the bridge and plunged in the river.

"The vehicle had almost crossed. All of sudden, it halted at the edge of the bridge and started sliding back. The driver tried to break and accelerate in turns but the truck kept sliding backwards until it fell in the river," Wasike said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 03:16:32|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi government-backed paramilitary Hashd Shaabi members on Wednesday killed 10 Islamic State (IS) militants near the town of Hawijah in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk, the Iraqi military said.

Acting on intelligence tips, paramilitary Hashd Shaabi fighters carried out an operation targeting IS hideouts at a village near Hawijah, some 230 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing 10 IS militants, the Hashd Shaabi said in a statement.

The intelligence service of the Hashd Shaabi was still chasing another group of IS militants in the rural area near Hawijah, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Hashd Shaabi said in a separate statement that the paramilitary fighters found in the morning a grave containing six bodies, who were apparently executed earlier by IS militants near their former stronghold of Hawijah.

On Sunday, the Iraqi federal police and several Hashd Shaabi brigades carried out an operation to clear remnants of IS militants from a cluster of villages around the town of al-Ryahd in Hawijah Pocket southwest of the city of Kirkuk.

The operation was based on intelligence reports, which said that a number of IS militants hided in the area and were preparing for terrorist attacks against the security forces and civilians in the oil-rich Kirkuk province, according to a Hashd Shaabi statement.

During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former urban strongholds in Mosul, Salahudin province and Hawijah area in the west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS offensives.

However, remnants of IS militants resorted to hideouts in rugged areas near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as the Himreen mountainous areas to continue their almost daily attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.

However, small groups and individuals of IS militants are still capable of carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 07:07:16|Editor: Lifang

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Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia (Front) addresses a Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on March 14, 2018. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said Wednesday that Britain's allegations that Moscow was responsible for a nerve attack were "completely unacceptable." (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said Wednesday that Britain's allegations that Moscow was responsible for a nerve attack were "completely unacceptable."

"The Russian Federation thinks it is completely unacceptable to launch unjustified accusations as contained in the letter from Theresa May dated March 13 to the Secretary-General of the United Nations," Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom on March 4.

"We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event. Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account," he added.

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen said hundreds of his countrymen had potentially been exposed to the agent.

He said Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, were poisoned with "Novichok," which he insisted is a weapon that cannot be manufactured without the use of the highest-grade state laboratories.

"This was no common crime," he said. "It was an unlawful use of force."

U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity" with the UK, following the nerve agent attack against the former Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week.

The United States believes that Russia "is responsible for the attack" on the two people using a military-grade nerve agent, Haley added.

Russia dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack.

Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese ambassador to the UN, said China hopes that "a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation could be conducted based on facts and in accordance with relevant international rules and reach an evidence-based conclusion that can stand the test of facts and history."

"We hope relevant parties could properly handle this issue through appropriate channels," he said.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition.

British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from Britain and will freeze Russian state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

Britain will also suspend all planned high-level bilateral contacts with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the poisoning incident.

Related:

Britain to expel 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning rowCHICAGO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Northwestern University on Wednesday afternoon issued an all-clear after police determined a report of shots fired at a graduate dorm on its main campus in Evanston in U.S. state of Illinois was a hoax.

Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew confirmed they received a call around 2:15 p.m. from a person who said he shot his girlfriend at Engelhart graduate residence hall in the university campus.

After a search of the dorm and area around it, police found no evidence of a shooting, no victim and no gunman, Glew said. Police said at a press conference they confirmed it was a prank call.

Northwestern University said in a tweet around 4:30 p.m. that "the report of a man with a gun in Engelhart Hall was a hoax. No danger to the community exists. Police are investigating."

Acting upon the report of gun shots earlier Wednesday, the university had sent out an alert to all students and faculty, telling them a gunman was reported on the campus and asking people nearby to "seek shelter in a safe place and remain there until further notice."SAO PAULO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's President Michel Temer on Wednesday said he is likely to call his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump over his decision to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum.

"The steel issue is indeed alarming," Temer said during the opening of the World Economic Forum for Latin America in Sao Paulo.

Trump recently announced a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum, sparking protests from his country's main trade partners, including Mexico, Canada and Brazil.

"Clearly we should address this topic very cautiously," said Temer, adding "I realized that President Trump would appreciate communication from the countries implied."

Brazil would prefer an amicable resolution to the issue, but could ultimately appeal the decision at the World Trade Organization (WTO), said Temer.

Initially, Brazilian companies that export steel to the U.S. should work "in cooperation with the U.S. Congress to remove or reduce the tariffs," he said.

"If we don't come to a solution that's friendly and quick... we'll resort to the World Trade Organization, but not unilaterally, not just Brazil, but all of the countries that face losses stemming from the implementation of this measure," said Temer.

Brazil's Foreign Affairs Minister Aloysio Nunes, who was also at the opening ceremony, told reporters he has already requested a meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to discuss exemptions for most Brazilian exports.

"Protectionism is a regression. We are going to defend ourselves in keeping with the rules of international trade," said Nunes.

Should Brazil have to respond to the tariffs, it will take measures "provided for in our legislation and in the international agreements signed with the United States," Nunes added.

Brazil is the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States, after Canada, and the leading supplier of semi-finished steel of the United States.

In 2017, Brazilian industry sold 2.6 billion U.S. dollars worth of steel to the United States, or 4.7 million tons of the metal, according to official figures.Photo shows a general view of a Security Council meeting on the poisoning of a former Russian spy, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, March 14, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said Wednesday that Britain's allegations that Moscow was responsible for a nerve attack were "completely unacceptable."

"The Russian Federation thinks it is completely unacceptable to launch unjustified accusations as contained in the letter from Theresa May dated March 13 to the Secretary-General of the United Nations," Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom on March 4.

"We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event. Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account," he added.

Britain's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Allen said hundreds of his countrymen had potentially been exposed to the agent.

He said Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, were poisoned with "Novichok," which he insisted is a weapon that cannot be manufactured without the use of the highest-grade state laboratories.

"This was no common crime," he said. "It was an unlawful use of force."

U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain" following the nerve agent attack against the former Russian spy and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week.

The United States believes that Russia "is responsible for the attack" on the two people using a military-grade nerve agent, Haley added.

Russia dismissed the accusations as "fairy tales" and denied any involvement in the attack.

Ma Zhaoxu, Chinese ambassador to the UN, said China hopes that "a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation could be conducted based on facts and in accordance with relevant international rules and reach an evidence-based conclusion that can stand the test of facts and history."

"We hope relevant parties could properly handle this issue through appropriate channels," he said.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4. They remain in a critical condition.

British authorities have concluded that the two were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok. London has demanded Moscow explain why the nerve agent that traces back to Russia should end up in Britain.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced Wednesday that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats from Britain and will freeze Russian state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

Britain will also suspend all planned high-level bilateral contacts with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday denied his country's involvement in the poisoning incident.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 08:16:07|Editor: Liangyu

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A woman interacts with a parrot at Parrot Academy in Warsaw, Poland, on March 14, 2018. Parrot Academy is a place where people can make direct contact with parrots, feed them and follow lectures. (Xinhua/Jaap Arriens)ISLAMABAD, March 15 (Xinhua) -- At least seven persons, including four policemen, were killed and over 20 others injured Wednesday evening as a blast hit a police check post in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, the provincial health minister said.

Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir said that the death toll has risen to seven after three of the wounded succumbed to their injuries during treatment.

Hospital officials feared that the death toll might further rise as some of the injured were in critical condition.

Deputy Inspector General of Lahore Police Haider Ashraf said that the blast hit a police check post in Raiwind Town located on the outskirts of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab province.

Police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to the Sharif City Hospital, Jinnah Hospital and Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in the city.

Nature of the blast is not known yet. However, local media reported that a bomb fixed in a motorcycle exploded with a big bang soon after a police patrolling party reached the check post near a famous religious center.

The Bomb Disposal Squad of police is examining the site to determine the nature of the blast.

Security forces and police have launched a search operation in the area and a security high alert has also been announced in the city. No group has claimed the incident yet.

Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack and asked the authorities concerned to provide the best available medical treatment to the injured.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 08:57:36|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- How does one depict interaction between Chinese and Western cultures? Sculptor Wu Weishan had an idea: juxtaposing Qi Baishi and Leonardo da Vinci.

One of his signature works features statues of Qi and da Vinci standing beside each other, with the Chinese painter holding an oversized cane and da Vinci's index finger pointing at the sky.

"Despite their different ways of expression, the artists both devoted their lives to seeking the truth of beauty and human emotions. It makes perfect sense they could have a conversation across time and space," Wu said.

The work, on permanent exhibition at the National Museum in Rome, Italy, offers an example of Wu's career-long exploration of relations between Chinese and Western cultures and his attempts to bridge the two using "the wisdom in the hands," a praise from former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"Geographical and racial differences may set us apart culturally, but deep down, people around the world share the same quest for betterment, virtue, and beauty," said Wu, 56, who is also director of National Art Museum of China.

Over the past twenty years, Wu has created more than 500 sculptures of historical and cultural figures from around the world. His works have earned him numerous international awards, including the prestigious Pangolin Award from the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 2003.

"I have a single criterion for choosing the subjects of my work: they all have contributed to civilization," he said.

Wu, also a member of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has put forward many proposals on cultural issues to the country's policymakers, including one advocating a more open mind in China's cultural interactions with the world.

"We often talk about cultural confidence today, but it doesn't mean we should cling to our past and stay complacent. Instead, we should embrace different cultures and try to create new artistic languages through interactions and exchanges," he said.

However, Wu has also been a long-time critic of cultural appeasement in some of China's contemporary art scenes.

There has been an inclination among some Chinese artists who always try to please the West by uglifying the Chinese people, he said in a discussion on the sidelines of the ongoing CPPCC annual meeting, adding that "this has led the world to misunderstand China."

For his part, Wu has been striving to promote Chinese classical artworks in the world, and was granted the title of "Goodwill Ambassador for China Voices" by the State Council, China's cabinet, in 2016.

"China's traditional values and thinking, especially the spirit of poetry that celebrates romanticism, are well-received worldwide," he said.by Mohammed M. Mupenda and Lv Tianran

KIGALI, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The envisaged African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will benefit Africa in terms of business and industrialization, although operational challenges remain, a Rwandan official said Wednesday.

The expected creation of the AfCFTA could more than double the share of Africa's trade within itself by 2022, Rwandan Minister of Trade and Industry Vincent Munyeshyaka told Xinhua here in an interview.

The AfCFTA will also reduce the cost of doing business among African countries, create business opportunities, promote industrialization and increase production in Africa, he said.

An extraordinary summit of the African Union (AU) on the AfCFTA is scheduled to be held in Kigali on March 17-21, where leaders of Africa's 55 countries are expected to sign an agreement to launch the AfCFTA, according to the AU.

Munyeshyaka noted that the free trade area will also create jobs and reduce unemployment rates, support sustainable economic development and improve the livelihood of all Africans.

"From the academic theories and experiences across the world, trade has been proved to be an obvious engine for economic growth. The AfCFTA is meant to increase intra-Africa trade and economic integration of African countries," said the minister.

He said the AfCFTA is designed to attract investment from across the world and will also help Africa's self-sustainability.

The single market of more than 1.2 billion consumers has the potential to attract multinationals from other parts of the world to Africa, said the minister.

Statistics from the AU show that currently Africa trades far less within itself than it does with the rest of the world. Intra-Africa trade stands at about 16 percent of the total on the continent, compared with 19 percent intra-regional trade in Latin America, 51 percent in Asia, 54 percent in North America and 70 percent in Europe.

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.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the AfCFTA has the potential to boost intra-Africa trade by 53 percent by eliminating import duties and non-tariff barriers.

Munyeshyaka said that before the AfCFTA enters into force, AU member states will need to ratify it after it is signed.

It could be a challenge to fast track the ratification process and transformational changes brought by the AfCFTA may face resistance, he said.

Munyeshyaka explained that there is a need to promote investment along with the AfCFTA, as investment may not follow its creation.

The creation of the AfCFTA should be followed by industrialization and infrastructure policies across Africa, which could also pose a challenge to the operation of the free trade area, he added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 10:32:50|Editor: Liangyu

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. northwestern state of Alaska is getting one step closer for Chinese investment in its ambitious energy program after U.S. energy regulators set assessment in motion for a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the state.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has set December 2019 as the deadline for the Alaskan LNG project to receive its final environmental impact statement, which Alaska Governor Bill Walker said has cleared a hurdle for investments in the project, local media reported Wednesday.

"This is a major step forward that establishes clarity and predictability in the federal permitting process, which is critical for investors," Walker said in a statement.

The LNG project in the design phase in Alaska would connect a natural gas reservoir in Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska through 800 miles (about 1,280 km) of pipe with a liquefaction plant on the southcentral Alaskan coast.

The project, upon completion, will have an annual design capacity of 3.9 billion standard cubic feet (100 billion cubic meter) per day peak capacity of natural gas.

Alaska has been aggressively seeking foreign funds, particularly Chinese investment, for its energy program.

The U.S. state signed an agreement with Chinese energy company China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec, last November on the latter's purchase of its LNG resources.

Sinopec said it was interested in the possibility of LNG purchase on a stable basis from Alaska state.

Walker announced last week that he would lead a delegation of state trade representatives to China in May to deepen Alaska's business ties with the world's second largest economy.

Walker's office said that China has been the top consumer of Alaskan goods since 2011.

Statistics show that Alaska exported 1.32 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods, including 796.2 million dollars of seafood and 64.6 million dollars of fishmeal to China last year, which created thousands of jobs for local fishermen.

The U.S. northwesternmost state also exported 355.8 million dollars of mineral ore, 49 million dollars of energy, and 48 million dollars and 5.9 million dollars of forest products and machinery, respectively.CHICAGO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- When and where you were born can influence the type of media you choose to follow, a recent regional study says.

The study by Northwestern University researchers focuses on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where the summers are mostly unbearably hot, forcing people to stay indoor and cover themselves up.

"The more summer months people born in the MENA region experience in the first half year of their life, the more we would expect them to use and prefer entertaining media content," researcher Klaus Schoenbach said.

"This relationship is stronger in countries with higher average summer temperatures. The duration of summer correlates with more media use later in life to compensate for a lack of cheerfulness and liveliness."

Individuals who have experienced more and relatively hotter summer months directly after birth more often prefer entertaining genres such as comedy and drama, both on TV and online. Younger respondents also tended to watch films on DVD more frequently and did not name religious and spiritual programs as their favorites.

The study however adds that the impact of climate during the first six months in a person's life fades with age.

"This study provides new evidence of how temperaments come about that lead to specific media behaviors, thus helping to expand and refine (the) mood-management theory," Schoenbach said.

The study was published in the scholarly journal Communications.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 11:02:54|Editor: Chengcheng

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Pakistani policemen pay tribute during a funeral ceremony of security officials following a suicide blast in eastern Pakistan's Lahore on March 15, 2018. Death toll of the suicide blast that hit a police check post in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore Wednesday evening has risen to nine, police officials said. (Xinhua/Sajjad)

ISLAMABAD, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Death toll of the suicide blast that hit a police check post in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore Wednesday evening has risen to nine, police officials said.

Deputy Inspector General of Lahore Police Haider Ashraf said that the death toll rose after two of the injured succumbed to injuries during their treatment, adding that five policemen and four civilians were killed.

Over 20 persons, including six policemen, also sustained injuries in the blast.

The police officer said that a suicide bomber exploded his explosives-laden vest near a group of policemen at a check post in Raiwind Town located on the outskirts of Lahore, the provincial capital of eastern Punjab province.

The bomber attacked the police personnel who were checking the people arriving to attend the country's biggest annual religious congregation.

Additional contingents of police and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and the injured to nearby hospitals.

Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack and asked the authorities concerned to provide the best available medical treatment to the injured.

Security forces and police have launched a search operation in the area and a security high alert has also been declared in the province.

Following the attack, Police Chief of Punjab Arif Nawaz Khan directed to intensify search, sweep, combing and intelligence based operations across the province, the home of some 100 million people.

According to the local media reports, the Pakistani Taliban claimed the attack.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 11:07:56|Editor: Liangyu

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VANCOUVER, March 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese businessman and philanthropist has made the largest-ever individual donation to the University of British Columbia (UBC)'s faculty of medicine in Canada.

UBC alumnus Edwin S.H. Leong, a hotel and commercial property developer in Hong Kong, China, has donated 24 million Canadian dollars (some 18.5 million U.S. dollars) to expand research aimed at helping people live longer and healthier.

"My wish is for everybody to live long and die peacefully, and I believe healthy aging is the key to that," Leong said last week in a statement released by UBC.

"This is an investment in people, and I have great confidence that by bringing together and supporting the brightest people in this field, UBC will be able to show us the way," he said.

The donation is from Leong's Tai Hung Fai Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong.

Leong, 66, earned his bachelor of science degree from UBC in 1973 before launching a property development company, Tai Hung Fai Group, in Hong Kong in 1977.

The group has been engaging in different charitable initiatives since 2005, and The Tai Hung Fai Charitable Foundation was set up in 2013.

The gift to UBC will be used to set up the Edwin S.H. Leong Healthy Aging Program, said Dr. Dermot Kelleher, UBC's dean of the faculty of medicine.

He told Xinhua Wednesday that the money will help UBC recruit faculty, researchers and support staff for the program.

This gift also will boost healthy aging research through collaboration with scientists and clinicians at UBC and globally.

"It's an extraordinary gift," Kelleher said in an interview. "Our faculty's strategic plan focuses on the life course and aging as one of our key themes. And the concept of healthy aging is very dear to our hearts."

He said Leong's donation demonstrates the developer's "deep humanity" and "deep feelings" for people who are reaching their elder years and who are finding it difficult to cope.

Kelleher said this is the largest individual donation ever given to the faculty of medicine.

"It's an extraordinary gift. It reflects the humanity and personality of Dr. Leong and his real interest in making a better world for everyone," Kelleher said.

In a statement, UBC President Santa J. Ono said he is inspired by Leong's vision for a world in which people can age healthier and with greater mental and physical agility.

"Edwin's friendship and transformative donation to UBC are highly valued and the university is honored to partner with him and his foundation to build a successful program that addresses this critical societal need," said Ono.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 11:22:58|Editor: Lu Hui

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MINSK, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Ukraine said Wednesday that the situation in southeast Ukraine remains alarming despite a fresh truce announced on March 5.

The TCG negotiators participated in a meeting in Minsk to discuss such issues as the cease-fire regime, pulling back forces and hardware, a new prisoners exchange as well as restoration of mobile telecommunication in conflict-hit eastern region of Donbas.

They said there is a decrease in tensions on the contact line, however, a complete cease-fire had not yet been achieved.

The next meeting of the TCG, a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), will take place on April 4, according to the Belarussian Foreign Ministry.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in April 2014 between government and separatist forces, having killed more than 10,000 people. There have been dozens of cease-fires after the conflict erupted.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 11:43:00|Editor: Lu Hui

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by Victoria Arguello

BUENOS AIRES, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum will impact more than the industries themselves in many countries, including Argentina, a leading Argentine economist said.

These countries will not only see their revenues take a hit, but employment and other areas will also be indirectly affected, Mariano Feliz, a member of the Critical Economy Society of Argentina and Uruguay, said.

The move is bound to lead to a fall in jobs and income, as well as a lower demand for inputs and machinery for the two industries that carry significant weight, Feliz said.

Currently, 0.6 percent of U.S. steel imports and 2.3 percent of its aluminum imports are from Argentina, according to Argentina's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The 25-percent tariff on steel and 10-percent tariff on aluminum would additionally affect the Argentine industry supplying steel tubing for the oil sector, and primary products made of aluminum, which together account for more than 720 million U.S. dollars in revenue for the South American country, the economist explained.

Besides, it will trigger fierce global competition.

"All of the world's producers will be looking to unload in other markets what they cannot sell in the United States, pushing prices and profits downward, and invading markets such as Argentina's," Feliz said. "To the loss of Argentine exports to the United States, you have to add the impact of the rise in global competition in these fields."

President Mauricio Macri has been pushing hard against the tariffs, asking for Argentina to be exempted.

Argentina's Steel Chamber, whose members include at least six of the country's biggest producers, including the Techint Group, has also expressed dismay at the U.S. measure and is backing the government's bid to win exemption for Argentina.

But "apart from diplomatic pressure, there's little that Argentina can do," Feliz said.

"Metal workers are part of the base that supports the Trump administration, mainly white blue-collar workers who voted him into office in rejection of the neoliberal policies of former governments," Feliz said.

During the presidential campaign in 2016, Donald Trump courted this group by promising to protect their jobs.

While "protectionism won't solve the problems for this U.S. segment, it emerged as a favorable move for the working people in an election year," Feliz pointed out.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 11:48:01|Editor: Lu Hui

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LA PAZ, March 14 (Xinhua) -- At least six inmates were killed and more than 20 people injured on Wednesday in an armed clash between inmates and police in Bolivia, said authorities.

The violence at the Palmasola Prison in Bolivia's eastern city of Santa Cruz erupted after an inspection turned up drugs, weapons, alcohol and other items the inmates are banned from possessing, Deputy Interior Minister Jose Luis Quiroga told a press conference.

"We took control of the prison after the inmates resisted the requisition of the banned items," said Quiroga.

"We are going to impose discipline to prevent powerful gangs from operating inside this prison," he added.

According to the police report, more than 2,300 heavily armed officers entered the facility at dawn to carry out the inspection, with helicopters providing support from the air. A five-block area around the prison was cordoned off.

After police uncovered some of the items, inmates fired on the officers and a firefight ensued.

According to Quiroga, six people who resisted the police incursion were killed.

Among the injured were 18 inmates and six officers, said the chief of police, Gen. Faustino Mendoza.

"It was a successful operation. Today we can tell the people that we have taken control of the prison. We have identified several (gang) leaders and are going to relocate them," said Mendoza.WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Conservative economic analyst Lawrence Alan "Larry" Kudlow has accepted President Donald Trump's offer to be his top economic adviser, the White House confirmed Wednesday.

The 70-year-old will be the new director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), replacing outgoing Gary Cohn.

Kudlow, who graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in history in 1969, began his career as a staff economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the 1970s before joining the Ronald Reagan administration in the Office of Management and Budget.

Kudlow was investment bank Bear Stearns's chief economist in 1987 and worked there until 1994, when he was fired due to a cocaine addiction.

Kudlow, who describes himself as a supply-side economist, spent much of his time in recent years working for CNBC and other media outlets, advocating free-market, low-tax and free-trade policies.

He expressed support for Trump, primarily for the tax-cut plan, during the 2016 campaign. However, he has publicly criticized Trump's trade policies.

Like Cohn, Kudlow also opposed Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month. But Trump said Tuesday that Kudlow has come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point and that they agreed on most matters.

Kudlow's television presence is part of the reason Trump wanted him as the NEC director, according to Politico. The president regularly complains that he does not have enough talented people making the case for his policies on television.

The choice of Kudlow came after Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, replacing him with Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

It illustrated how the U.S. president is increasingly looking to "stack his inner circle with longtime loyalists" after more than a year of frustration with aides and cabinet officials who sought to "temper his extemporaneous and combative style," The Washington Post commented.

The NEC, created in 1993 by then President Bill Clinton, has become the most important economic policymaking body in the White House.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 12:48:09|Editor: Lifang

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NANJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A consumer rights group has withdrawn a public interest suit against Chinese tech firm Baidu, after the company removed its apps' "snooping" functions.

Nanjing Intermediate People's Court in east China's Jiangsu Province accepted a lawsuit filed by Jiangsu provincial consumer rights protection committee against Baidu in January.

The committee accused Beijing Baidu Netcom Science and Technology Co. Ltd. of ignoring an instruction to remove some functionality from Baidu Mobile and Baidu Browser apps which monitor users' contacts and activity.

The committee began an investigation in July last year into "snooping" by 27 app developers. Except for Baidu, the other 26 firms all took measures to remove or optimize functions to adhere to the committee's instructions.

The apps violate consumers' rights by passing on their personal information, often directly resulting in telemarketing calls and telecom fraud, the committee said.

The committee said on Thursday that Baidu's modified apps went online in February. The committee withdrew its suit as Baidu had removed improper functions.

Thursday is World Consumer Rights Day, also known as "3.15" in China. Chinese consumer right groups launch their annual campaigns on this day to raise attention of consumers rights.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 12:58:10|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Days before the annual legislative session, the Hurun Global Rich List 2018 ranked national lawmaker Ma Huateng, or Pony Ma, as the wealthiest person in China and the 15th wealthiest in world.

Ma, founder and chairman of Tencent, is among a number of entrepreneurs attending the annual sessions of the national legislature and political advisory body.

While the business insiders are discussing innovations in block chain and artificial intelligence, some attendees are worrying about the grave challenge of feeding the poor people.

It is fresh in the mind of political advisor Duan Minglong how hailstones destroyed large areas of crops in his hometown three years ago, depriving some villagers of their only source of income.

"A natural disaster or an illness can drag even a well-off household into poverty overnight," said Duan, 29, a judicial officer in Yunnan Province.

"Some people are so poor that they cannot afford to get ill," he said, although health insurance reimburses most part of the medical bills, the remaining fraction is still too much of a burden for some.

LARGEST DEVELOPING COUNTRY

Last year, the average disposable income for rural people in Duan's hometown was only 9,464 yuan (1,500 U.S. dollars), less than one fifth of that of the residents in Shenzhen City, Tencent is headquartered.

Nationwide, the average disposable income for rural people was 13,432 yuan last year, about one third of that of the urbanites.

Defining the latest "principal contradiction" facing Chinese society, the 19th Communist Party of China National Congress report reads, "What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life."

Delivering the government work report on March 5 at the opening of the legislative session, Premier Li Keqiang said China "faces a number of acute problems caused by unbalanced and inadequate development that remained unsolved."

He described poverty alleviation as a "formidable task," and mentioned disparities in development between rural and urban areas, between regions, and in income distribution.

While being the world's second largest economy, China is also the largest developing country with many disparities.

Although the country has the largest middle-income group in the world, around 400 million, there were still over 30 million rural people living under the poverty line at the end of last year.

At a press conference during legislative session, He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the greatest imbalance is that between the rural and urban areas, and the greatest inadequacy is in the development of the countryside.

National lawmaker Ran Hui is from western China's Chongqing Municipality, which reported a growth of 9.3 percent last year, after 15 years in double digits. But Ran's hometown is a village tucked away in the mountains with over one third of its 1,800 villagers in poverty.

As head of the village committee, Ran has been working to develop rural tourism, but her effort is frustrated by poor infrastructure.

She recalled that once a tour bus was stuck at the foot of the mountain for over two hours when it met a farm vehicle head-on on a narrow road.

"Roads, telecommunications, power and water supplies are the common problems of many rural areas," said Yang Decai, a national political advisor and economics professor at Nanjing University, who has conducted dozens of countryside surveys.

Insufficient education and medical resources also hold back the development of the countryside, he said.

National lawmaker Dong Caiyun is head of a primary school in the impoverished Jishishan County in northwest China's Gansu Province.

She remembers how she was amazed by the beautiful playground and facilities such as labs and dance studios in a Beijing school she visited.

"Our playground is just a piece of flat, hard mud, and we are not able to offer quality art courses," she said. "There is no music teacher, we just play recorded music in music classes."

Political advisor Yong Mei, a clinician from Inner Mongolia, still remembers that once a herder came to see her after a long journey from his remote hometown.

"He was so worried that he had not recovered despite a month of treatment in his hometown," Yong Mei said. The patient was diagnosed with a simple respiratory problem.

"Primary clinics in the pasturing areas lack both equipment and good doctors," she said. "Sometimes there is just one physician for a whole village, and the income is so low that doctors have to do farm work or graze cattle to sustain themselves."

EFFORTS BEING MADE

To end poverty, China will put more effort into developing local industry, education and healthcare, according to the government work report.

More than 100 billion yuan will be spent on poverty alleviation in 2018, 20 billion yuan more than last year, said Vice Finance Minister Hu Jinglin.

President Xi Jinping has made a solemn promise on poverty reduction, with an ambition to eliminate poverty in all poor counties and regions by 2020.

More than 68.5 million people had been lifted out of poverty over the past five years. That means 37,000 people escaped poverty every single day.

Xi vowed that "no one should be left behind."

To fulfill this mission, Party and government officials took turns to stay in poor villages. They helped craft out individualized poverty reduction plans for every family and worked with them to achieve their goal.

Jiang Fu'an was one such cadre. In 2015, Jiang, then a prefecture government auditor, arrived at a remote mountainous village in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. He walked door to door to visit each of the more than a hundred poor households.

With his help, dozens of poor children got education near their home. But in 2016, before finishing his stint, Jiang collapsed on the job and died. He was just 26 years old.

Besides government efforts, social capital is filling development gaps.

As a political advisor, JD.com chairman Liu Qiangdong said his company will help poor rural areas improve logistics and build agricultural brands.

Ma Huateng suggested using digital technology to realize a more balanced development of healthcare.by Raimundo Urrechaga

HAVANA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The expected generational change in Cuba's top leadership will be the climax of an age transition in top positions, a Cuban political analyst said.

"Younger generations have already been governing in the country for several years. The fact (that) we'll soon have a president (who) isn't a Castro and is 30 years younger than our current president has, above all, a symbolic effect," Rafael Hernandez told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The remarks came as millions of Cubans voted on Sunday to elect more than 600 lawmakers to the National Assembly of People's Power, with the elected leaders representing a new generation in the Caribbean nation.

The legislative body will, in turn, elect the president in April.

Hernandez said the founding generation of Cuba's revolution has paved the way for younger leaders in various ministries, positions in the Communist Party of Cuba and the legislative authority.

The average age of the elected lawmakers is 49, while that of the Council of Ministers is 59, younger than historical leaders like Raul Castro, Ramiro Valdes or Jose Machado, who are all above 85.

The 86-year-old Castro, Cuba's current leader, announced in December that he would not seek re-election for a third five-year term. It is the first time since Dec. 2, 1976 that a person without the last name Castro would likely be the president.

It is expected that Castro's successor will be 57-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, the current first vice president. His election should not bring about major changes as he has been defending Cuba's political continuity and maintaining the socialist model, the analyst said.

"The challenge of (the) future government is to respond quickly to the population's demands and executing political and economic changes," he said.x Hernandez stressed that a major task of the younger leaders would be to continue the reform and modernize the economy.

The future leadership is aware of the importance of implementing key reforms such as ending the double currency system, and increasing productivity, efficiency and salaries in the state sector, he said.

Regarding the turnout for Sunday's elections -- 82.9 percent -- Hernandez said though lower than in the previous years, it was "still extraordinarily high."

The academic pointed out that most elected lawmakers are local leaders who work in their communities, which will increase parliament's work and contact with ordinary citizens.

According to official data, women comprise 53.22 percent of the legislative women; 13.22 percent are people under 35, while 40.50 percent are Afro-Cubans.

The elected lawmakers will meet in Havana on April 19 for the first session of the National Assembly's new legislature.

On that day, the historical generational change will be furthered as the new legislators vote for the 31-member State Council, including its new president, first vice president and five vice presidents.SEOUL, March 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign currency deposit fell for a second straight month as local residents sold the U.S. dollar, which made an ascent to the domestic currency, central bank data showed Thursday.

Foreign currency-denominated deposits, owned by residents, came in at 80.96 billion U.S. dollars as of end-February, down 940 million U.S. dollars from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Residents refer to people of the South Korean nationality and foreigners who stayed here for at least six months.

The U.S. dollar deposits reduced 610 million dollars over the month to 69.47 billion dollars as of end-February, the first decline below 70 billion dollars in three months.

The greenback gained versus the local currency, encouraging residents to sell the strong currency. The won/dollar exchange rate averaged 1,080.7 won per dollar in February, up from 1,066.54 won in January.

The Japanese yen deposit shrank 490 million dollars to 5.13 billion dollars as the yen rose against the local currency.

Deposits denominated in the Chinese yuan and the European single currency stood at 1.06 billion dollars and 3.51 billion dollars each as of end-February.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 13:48:21|Editor: Lifang

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LIMA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Peru's judicial branch called for "reciprocity" from the United States on Wednesday when requesting the extradition of former President Alejandro Toledo who is accused of bribery, according to the state news agency Andina.

"I think we must ask U.S. authorities for reciprocity, because when they send us an extradition order, especially for drug trafficking, we don't take more than three months," said Duberli Rofriguez, president of the judiciary.

Toledo, who served as president from 2001 to 2006, faces charges of accepting 20 million U.S. dollars in bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for lucrative public works contracts. He is also accused of influence peddling and money laundering.

Toledo denied all charges and alleged that his political enemies are exacting revenge for his presidential victory.

Peru and the United States signed an extradition agreement in 2001, which was said to have enhanced cooperation on the suppression of crime.THE HAGUE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- About half of wildlife and 60 percent of plants in 35 of the world's most exceptional ecosystems and habitats are at risk of extinction due to climate change, said a report based on a study.

The study, conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), University of East Anglia in Britain, and the James Cook University in Australia, was published on Tuesday in the journal Climate Change.

The study concluded that nearly 80,000 plants and animals in 35 biodiverse areas, including the Amazon rainforest, the Galapagos islands, southwestern Australia and Madagascar, could be at risk in the next century if global temperatures continue to rise.

"Hotter days, longer periods of drought, and more intense storms are becoming the new normal, and species around the world are already feeling the effects," said Nikhil Advani, lead specialist for climate, communities and wildlife at the WWF.

Researchers examined the impact of climate change with three scenarios: a 2-degree-Celsius rise in global temperature, the upper target of the 2015 Paris Agreement, a 3.2-degree-Celsius rise, the estimated forecast given exiting national commitments, and a 4.5-degree-Celsius rise, if current carbon emissions trends remain unchanged.

The study found that in the second scenario, 60 percent of plant species and 50 percent of animal species in the Amazon would be wiped put. In the first scenario, the outlook is better, with more than 35 percent of species at risk of local extinction.

"The collected results reveal some striking trends. They add powerful evidence that we urgently need global action to mitigate climate change," the report said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced in June last year that the United States would withdraw from the landmark Paris climate accord, weakening global efforts to fight climate change. Trump said in January that his country could join the international accord if it had a "completely different deal", calling the exiting one a "disaster" for the United States.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 13:53:24|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Having swapped his overalls for a suit and tie, Qi Songyu boarded a train to Beijing.

Qi, an automaker technician, is a new deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature.

The 13th NPC is holding its first session in Beijing. Of the nearly 3,000 deputies, three out of four are new faces.

More than 15 percent of the deputies are workers and farmers, up 2.28 percentage points from the previous NPC. Professionals number 613, with their share growing by 0.15 percentage point to 20.57 percent.

Qi, 44, is a maintenance worker from northeast China's Jilin Province, part of the country's old industrial base.

He won voters' heart as he converted a key-cutting machine into a sharpener to recycle the used blades, tools for auto electrode repair. The invention helps save 2.3 million yuan (363,000 U.S. dollars) every year for his state-owned employer, FAW Car Co., Ltd.

Qi submitted three suggestions to the session, including raising the wages of skilled workers. He said under the current salary system, workers are paid based on their posts.

"Workers' skills vary even if their posts are the same," said Qi, adding that a differentiated pay system should be introduced to encourage quality workmanship and innovation.

NPC deputies are members of the highest organ of state power in China and are elected by secret ballot at people's congresses of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities ahead of the NPC.

During an NPC session, deputies submit motions and suggestions as well as review and vote on legal documents and personnel changes.

Unlike legislators in the West who make a career of politics, NPC deputies work part-time and many of them are ordinary citizens, including workers, farmers, teachers, artists and even street cleaners.

Deputy Gao Xiangqiu is a farmer and entrepreneur from northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

She has organized 170 households to plant peppers and invited professionals for technical advice. The annual income per household increased by 20,000 yuan last year.

"I suggest the government offer policy support for bean farmers, as well as trial plantation of high-protein beans," she said.

With its vast tracts of fertile farmland, Heilongjiang is known as the country's "grain barn," with beans among its major products.

Many deputies proposed methods of developing agriculture as the country strives for rural revitalization, a concept proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

A package of policies was unveiled in the first central document of the year to see a strong agricultural sector, a beautiful countryside and well-off farmers.

Duan Jun, one of the 45 migrant worker deputies, proposed upgrading seats on slow trains so that migrant workers, who sit for long hours on slow trains, could have a comfortable journey.

Although spacious and comfortable high-speed trains have connected large parts of China, migrant workers with meager pay prefer slow trains as the ticket price is only about a quarter that of a second-class seat on a high-speed train traveling the same distance.

China has 286 million migrant workers.

Film director Jia Zhangke was born in north China's Shanxi Province, known as the country's "coal capital." Last year, he organized the first international film festival in Pingyao, a World Cultural Heritage site in central Shanxi.

"Many have identified Shanxi with coal, neglecting its history of thousands of years," said Jia, now a tourism ambassador for the province.

He suggested developing the cultural industry to detach Shanxi from traditional coal mining in order to fight overcapacity and pollution.

Another suggestion related to pollution reduction was proposed by Li Shufu.

Li, chairman of leading Chinese auto brand Geely, suggested more government support for clean energy vehicles as well as market access for methanol-fueled cars to reduce car exhaust.

While many parts of China are limiting cars for better air, Gesang Degyi has been thrilled to see more vehicles in her hometown in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Gesang Degyi, 40, is a primary school teacher from the border county of Medog, where there was no asphalt road until 2013.

"I have witnessed the great changes over the past five years in my hometown, with transportation and school conditions greatly improved," she said. "My suggestion is about balanced development in border areas."

Gesang Degyi is one of 400-plus ethnic minority deputies to the 13th NPC and the only deputy of the Moinba minority, one of the smallest ethnic groups in China.

According to China's electoral law, NPC deputies should be elected in proportion to the population, urban and rural regions alike. A deputy might represent several hundreds of thousands of people.

However, each of the country's 55 ethnic minorities is entitled by law to have at least one deputy to the NPC.

Over the past five years, deputies to the 12th NPC submitted 2,366 motions and 41,353 suggestions, said Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th NPC, on Sunday.

Hundreds of the motions have been adopted or are being deliberated, he said in a work report.

At the ongoing first session of the 13th NPC, new deputies have a chance to meet and discuss how they will fulfill their duties in the next five years.

"An NPC deputy should speak for the people. I can feel the responsibility -- it's huge but an honor," Gesang Degyi said.MOSCOW, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Despite the anti-Russia propaganda, U.S. tourists to Russia increased by 25 percent in the first nine months of 2017, the chief of Russia's tourism agency said Thursday.

In the first nine months of 2017, Russia's border authorities recorded a 25-percent increase of American tourists visiting Russia compared with the same period of 2016, Oleg Safonov, head of Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, told the Izvestia daily in an interview.

"The anti-Russia propaganda only arouses great interest among American citizens for our country," said Safonov.

Safonov explained why the anti-Russia propaganda helps to increase the tourist flow. "American citizens are told various stories about what is going on in Russia, no wonder they want to come and see everything by themselves."

Safonov said American tourists are not disappointed by what they saw in Russia. They see a "modern, peaceful and developed country," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 14:08:27|Editor: Lifang

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AUSTIN, the United States, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The future of e-commerce will be more personalized and aim to provide consumers with customized services, a senior director of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group said here Wednesday.

Paul Fu, senior director of user experience at Alibaba, made the remarks at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festivals here in the southern U.S. state of Texas, where he delivered a speech on Alibaba's Singles' Day Global Shopping Festival.

Fu noted that e-commerce in China has been leading the way in global markets, but the e-commerce industry as a whole is still at its early developing stage with many areas having room for improvement.

In his speech, Fu said consumers spent over 25 billion U.S. dollars during Alibaba's shopping binge in November, and over 90 percent of the transactions were made on mobile devices.

Fu told Xinhua that e-commerce is moving towards consumer-to-business model from the current business-to-consumer model, and that he envisioned a future in which "businesses provide customized services and experiences based on customers' specific needs."

On the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in e-commerce, Fu said AI has already been used during Alibaba's online shopping festivals, and the future application areas of AI will only be broader.

Although AI technology is predominately used in assisting consumers during online shopping, said Fu, the technology has huge potential to be used in many other areas, such as language interpreting and others.

SXSW, founded in 1987 in Austin, is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of interactive, film and music industries.WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Wednesday praised the performance of Mike Pompeo, the new presidential nominee for secretary of state, as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) despite the Republican Party's opposition to the nomination.

In an announcement, the White House said Pompeo, nominated by President Donald Trump on Tuesday to replace Rex Tillerson, has a "distinguished career" as the head of CIA.

It hailed Pompeo's work in confronting threats to U.S. security, working with allies around the world to stop terrorism and securing election integrity for the United States and its European partners. It also lauded his work to update the CIA's intelligence gathering process to make it "more nimble and effective."

Specifically, Pompeo was given credit for providing highly confidential information on Syria, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran, which played a "crucial" role in shaping the Trump administration's foreign policy.

The White House also gave a thumbs-up to Pompeo's effort to focus "much-needed public attention on non-state hostile intelligence services like WikiLeaks, which seek to obtain and disseminate America's secrets, jeopardizing our national security personnel and operations."

Pompeo was also praised for his work with private-sector entities to harness world-class ideas and technologies, deploy more CIA officers to the field "where the enemy is operating," and strengthen information-sharing among government components on counterintelligence.

The White House said he decentralized decision-making, streamlined management within the CIA's mission centers and eliminated redundant bureaucracy.

However, Republican Senator Rand Paul said Wednesday that he would try to block Pompeo's nomination.

Paul said Pompeo's hawkish worldview, his earlier support for the Iraq War, and enhanced torture in interrogation all disqualified him for the job.

He said he would also oppose Trump's nomination of Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo, accusing her of having shown "joyful glee" during the torture of terrorism suspects.

"People complain sometimes about the filibuster; they complain about trying to obstruct. I think the debate over whether or not America is a country in favor of torture ... is an important one," Paul said. "I'm going to do everything I can to block them."

Senator John McCain, another Republican heavyweight, said Tuesday that Haspel needs to explain the "nature and extent" of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program.

He called the torture of detainees in U.S. custody "one of the darkest chapters in American history," and urged the Senate to scrutinize her involvement in the "disgraceful program."

Paul's opposition would pose severe challenges to Pompeo's nomination, as he serves in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where the Republican Party has little advantage in terms of seats.

If the Democrats join Paul, Pompeo could receive an unfavorable committee verdict, leaving a serious black mark on the Senate's confirmation of his nomination.

The committee's head Bob Corker has said the panel will consider Pompeo's nomination as expeditiously as possible.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 14:38:33|Editor: Lu Hui

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Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia (Front) addresses a Security Council emergency meeting regarding accusations of the use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on March 14, 2018. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said Wednesday that Britain's allegations that Moscow was responsible for a nerve attack were "completely unacceptable." (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- In the latest sign of rising tensions between Britain and Russia over the poisoning of a former Russian spy, the two countries' envoys clashed at a UN Security Council emergency meeting convened especially over the matter on Wednesday.

The exchange of barbs came shortly after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that her government will expel 23 Russian diplomats, cancel high-level bilateral contacts with Russia, and freeze Russia state assets "wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents."

"The Russian Federation thinks it is completely unacceptable to launch unjustified accusations as contained in the letter from Theresa May dated March 13 to the secretary-general of the United Nations," Russia's UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said.

"We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event. Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account," he added.

The London-Moscow row started following the murder attempt on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Britain's southwestern city of Salisbury.

Found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping center there on March 4, they remain in critical condition.

Britain claims the father-daughter pair was exposed to a nerve agent and Russia is responsible for the act, which Moscow denies.

At the UN Security Council meeting, Britain's Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen said hundreds of his countrymen had potentially been exposed to the agent.

He said Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian spy who became a double agent for Britain, and his 33-year-old daughter were poisoned with novichok, a chemical nerve agent that cannot be manufactured without the use of the highest-grade state laboratories.

"This was no common crime," he said. "It was an unlawful use of force."

VARIED RESPONSES

At the same UN meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the Trump administration "stands in absolute solidarity" with Britain following the incident.

The United States believes that Russia "is responsible for the attack" on the two using a military-grade nerve agent, Haley added.

The White House issued a statement on the day in support of Britain, saying London's decision to expel the Russian diplomats was justified.

"The United States stands in solidarity with its closest ally, the United Kingdom," and is working together with its allies and partners to ensure that "this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again," the White House said.

It noted that the incident "fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide, and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes."

France said it would not take any position on the issue before "the facts are fully proven."

Asked whether France was ready to retaliate as part of a common European stance to support Britain, French Government spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting, "we do not do politics-fiction over serious and sensitive issues. Once the elements will be proven, decisions will be taken."

He also said: "What happened in Britain is a very serious act ... Britain is France's strategic and historical ally."

Ma Zhaoxu, the Chinese ambassador to the UN, said China hopes that "a comprehensive, objective and impartial investigation" will be conducted based on facts and in accordance with relevant international rules, reaching an evidence-based conclusion "that can stand the test of facts and history."

Speaking at a daily brief on Wednesday, a deputy spokesperson of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed concern over the poisoning incident.

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned over the reported use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom to harm or kill persons," Farhan Haq said.

"The use of nerve agents as a weapon under any circumstances is unacceptable and its use by a state will constitute a serious violation of international law."

Haq also said while the secretary general was not in a position to attribute responsibility for the attack, he strongly condemned the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hoped the incident would be thoroughly investigated.

Related:

White House says Russia responsible for poison attack on former double agent

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The White House said on Wednesday that the United States believed that Russia was responsible for the high-profile poison attack against a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. Full story

Russia says UK accusations of nerve agent attack "unacceptable"Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 14:48:34|Editor: Liangyu

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ANKARA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish air force launched airstrikes in northern Iraq on Wednesday, destroying eight terrorist targets, the military said Thursday.

The airstrikes were carried out in northern Iraq's Hakurk and Zap regions, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement.

The military did not give information on the terror group. Turkish strikes in the regions usually target the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has been striving for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state by armed combat since the 1970s.

The airstrikes took place amid intense Turkish-led military operations in Afrin, northern Syria, targeting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which were alleged by Ankara to be affiliated with the PKK.MEXICO CITY, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Near the fence separates the Mexican city of Tijuana from the U.S. city of San Diego on Tuesday, a Mexican man, called Oswaldo, held a pinata in the shape of U.S. President Donald Trump and stood on the Mexican side.

"We don't want your wall!" he shouted, together with others, as Trump stood on the other side to inspect the prototypes of the unscalable barrier he wants to be built along the 3,200-kilometer border the two countries share.

Several trailers had been parked in front of the prototypes to block the view from the Mexican side, just a few meters away, when Trump, surrounded by U.S. Border Patrol and Secret Service agents, was checking the prototypes.

"No wall! No wall!" Oswaldo and about other 30 members of Tijuana's Migrant Alliance chanted from behind the fence in the Las Torres district of Tijuana city.

As soon as they heard Trump would be visiting the site in San Diego, the Mexican activists began to build a pinata resembling the U.S. president, complete with a suit, tie and his signature yellow hair.

The idea was part of their anti-wall demonstration, but police in Mexico asked them not to do so for safety reasons. So they had to settle for making their statement by posting signs and placards on the fence that has divided the two cities since the 1990s.

Trump's proposed wall rankles Mexicans who see the two countries as necessarily united by the border, not divided by it, and bound together by other factors, including migration, trade, history and common concerns.

"He is sending a message to all our people, to other countries around the continent, and to the entire world that he is going to place this huge wall and that he doesn't want to know anything about our people over there in the United States," said Jose Maria Garcia, coordinator of the alliance, which assists migrants in the northwest border area.

Garcia, who runs a shelter for undocumented Mexicans who have been deported, believes the wall would not stop migrants fleeing poverty from trying to cross, but only force them to take more dangerous routes.

He was also worried about the effects of Trump's anti-migrant rhetoric, which reached a fever pitch during the presidential campaign period, when the then Republican candidate said the wall was needed to keep out rapists, criminals and drug traffickers.

"Mr. Trump is making a very strong statement about the migrant community, specifically Mexicans residing there, who he has criminalized," said Garcia.

Trump's first visit as president to California sparked various protests on both sides of the border, though some Americans also came out to support him.

By the time Air Force One landed at the Miramar air base, some 46 kilometers from Otay, where the prototypes were displayed, people with signs that read "Bridges Not Walls" were already standing outside the San Ysidro border crossing and other key points in San Diego.

"I'm from San Diego and I never asked for a wall. We don't want that," deacon Jose Luis Medina told reporters at a demonstration by members of the religious San Diego Organizing Project.

Even California Governor Jerry Brown sent an open letter to Trump the day before his trip, asserting that his state is given to building bridges not walls.

California, the U.S. state where the largest number of Mexicans live, is prosperous because it welcomes migrants and innovators from around the world, added Brown.

Democratic congressman Juan Vargas was more blunt, telling a gathering in San Diego that "he isn't welcome here."

To date, the U.S. Congress has not authorized the estimated 18 billion U.S. dollars needed to build the wall, despite Trump's assertion that Mexico could be made to pay for it.

Raul Benitez Manaut, a professor at the North America Research Center of Mexico's National Autonomous University, said that Trump's inspection of the prototypes was meant to remind U.S. lawmakers, and Mexicans, that the project is still viable.

"It's a kind of ... show to put pressure on the U.S. Congress and on Mexico's government," said Benitez.

It was also directed at his base, to demonstrate "that he doesn't go back on his campaign promises," Benitez said.

For the moment, the proposed wall is not so much a border policy tool as a tourist attraction, drawing organized tours of curious onlookers.

According to Ives Lelevier, the deputy secretary of tourism for the Mexican state of Baja California, where Tijuana is situated, at least two travel agencies have included the prototypes on their tour itineraries.SEOUL, March 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in formed a committee to prepare for the upcoming summit meeting with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Blue House said Thursday.

Presidential spokesman Kim Eui-keyom told a press briefing Thursday that Moon appointed Im Jong-seok, presidential chief of staff, to lead the preparation committee.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon, the country's top policymaker in charge of inter-Korean affairs, was named as vice head of the presidential committee.

Other members of the committee were Chung Eui-yong, top security advisor for Moon; Jang Ha-sung, presidential policy chief; Suh Hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency; Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha; Defense Minister Song Young-moo; and Hong Nam-ki, the minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.

The committee was composed of three sub-committees in charge of setting an agenda, promotion, and situations management, which will be headed by Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung, Presidential Press Secretary Yoon Young-chan, and Kim Sang-gyun, second deputy director of the NIS, respectively.

The committee's first meeting will be held Friday afternoon, Moon's spokesman said. Working-level discussions will be made three or four times a week, with the committee's chief and vice chief in attendance along with the three heads of the sub-committees.

Moon and Kim have agreed to hold their first meeting in late April at Peace House, a South Korean building in the truce village of Panmunjom that straddles the two Koreas.

If held as scheduled, Kim will become the first DPRK leader to set foot on the South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in armistice, not peace treaty. The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 16:18:52|Editor: Chengcheng

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MAIMANA, Afghanistan, March 15 (Xinhua) -- At least one militant has been killed and three others injured as security forces operations against Taliban insurgents have been continuing in the northern Faryab province, an army spokesman in the northern region said Thursday.

The operations, according to Mohammad Hanif Rezai, is underway in Goroghli area of the troubled Shirin Tagab district since Wednesday and so far one insurgent has been killed and three others sustained injuries.

Without mentioning the possible casualties of security forces, Rezai said that crackdown against militants would continue until Shirin Tagab district and adjoining areas are cleared of the insurgents.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 16:23:53|Editor: Chengcheng

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ULAN BATOR, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian Defense Minister Enkhbold Nyamaa met with his Qatari counterpart Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah in Doha on further strengthening bilateral cooperation in the defense sector, the Mongolian Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The pair met on the sidelines of the sixth edition of the Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX) in the Qatari capital on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on a wide range of issues in the defense sector, including the revision of cooperation agreements between the two countries and exchange of visits by the two defense ministries.

They also talked about Qatar's participation in the annual Khaan Quest military exercises in Mongolia and the continuation of the training of Mongolian servicemen at the Qatari military academy.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 16:23:54|Editor: Chengcheng

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TOKYO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso will not attend a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs in Argentina next week but will appear at a parliamentary session over a state document altering scandal, public broadcaster NHK said Thursday.

After the Finance Ministry admitted this week that it had deliberately altered documents connected to the sale of state-owned land to a nationalist school operator with connections to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie, Aso has been under close scrutiny.

Lawmakers will quiz Aso in an Upper House Budget Committee session on Monday.

While Aso has apologized for the scandal and described it as regrettable, opposition parties have been ardently calling for Aso, who also serves as deputy prime minister, to step down to account for his ministry's involvement in the document-tampering scandal.

Aso, however, has maintained he will continue in his role as the finance minister.

The Finance Ministry, in Aso's absence, will send State Minister of Finance Minoru Kihara to the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires on Monday and Tuesday. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will also be in attendance.

The finance ministers and central bankers are expected to discuss the recent protectionist moves by U.S. President Donald Trump, which have rattled stock markets amid concerns of a trade war.

Stricter regulations and monitoring of cryptocurrency exchanges after a massive hacking incident in Tokyo recently are also slated to be discussed at the meeting.Tan Jian (L), Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia and Samir Wanmali, Acting World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director in Ethiopia exchange signed documents during a signing ceremony in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, March 13, 2018. The government of China on Tuesday provided 6 million U.S. dollars in financial support to the United Nations WFP emergency response in Ethiopia that targets drought-hit and refugee populations in Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, March 15 (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."Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 16:28:55|Editor: Chengcheng

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TIKRIT, Iraq, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Wednesday killed at least seven Islamic State (IS) militants in clashes at a village near the city of Shirqat in Iraq's central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source said.

The clashes erupted at dawn when about 10 IS militants attacked a military base at the village of Mseihli in southern Shirqat, some 280 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, Col. Mohammed al-Jubouri from the media office of the provincial police command told Xinhua.

The attackers first managed to seize two military sites at the village, but a helicopter gunship destroyed the two sites later, leaving seven militants killed and forcing the rest to flee to the neighboring village of al-Khanouga near the Tigris River, Jubouri said.

Government-backed paramilitary tribal fighters launched a search for the attackers in the rural area near the river, he added.

During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former urban strongholds in Mosul, Salahudin and Hawijah area in the west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS offensives.

However, remnants of IS militants resorted to hideouts in rugged areas near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as Himreen mountainous areas to continue their almost daily attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from the IS after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.

However, the militants are still capable of carrying out attacks against security forces and civilians despite repeated operations to hunt them down.YANGON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Border trade between Myanmar and Thailand reached 1.33 billion U.S. dollars as of March 2 in present 2017-2018 fiscal year, up 90 million U.S. dollars compared to the same period in last FY 2016-2017, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday.

In accordance with the figures from Myanmar's Commerce Ministry, the country's exports to Thailand via border gates totaled over 393 million U.S. dollars while its import value was 941.7 million U.S. dollars during the period.

Myawady border gate topped the trade with 816 million U.S. dollars, followed by Myeik with 241 million U.S. dollars and Kawthoung with 179 million U.S. dollars.

The country trades with neighboring Thailand via seven border gates -- Tachilek, Myawady, Kawthoung, Myeik, Hteekhee, Mawtaung and Maese gates.

The country mainly exports fishery products including fish, crabs and shrimps as well as agricultural products to Thailand while cosmetics, machinery, food products and agricultural equipment are imported from Thailand.

The total border trade value of the country was 7.592 billion U.S. dollars, in which exports shared with 4.99 billion U.S. dollars while import took 2.60 billion U.S. dollars as of March 2 in present FY 2017-2018.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is conducting border trade with neighboring India, China and Bangladesh via a total of 16 border checkpoints.BANGKOK, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's business tycoon Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and famed law lecturer Piyabutr Saengkanokkul launched on Thursday a brand-new party to contest a nationwide election.

Thanathorn, executive vice president of Thai Summit Group, a major manufacturer of automobile and motorcycle parts, and Piyabutr, a Thammasat University law lecturer, gave a press conference before they went to the Election Commission headquarters for creation of the Future Forward Party.

Founded by 26 local activists, academic and social campaigners, the party said in a statement that it is to build "new politics" to lead Thailand out of a decade of political crisis.

The young business tycoon told the press conference that his party will never endorse the naming of any non-elected person as post-election prime minister.

Thanathorn, a nephew of former transport minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit, said his party consists of members of the young generation from varied walks of life whose viewpoints will be taken as part of his party's policy during an electoral campaign.

Thanathorn along with his members of the party went to the Election Commission after the press conference to register for the party.

"We are the 58th," Thanathorn said to his members, as other 57 groups of persons had earlier applied to set up political parties since the beginning of this month.

Meanwhile, former Democrat Party secretary general Suthep Thuagsuban, who had orchestrated mass protests in Bangkok streets which culminated in the 2014 coup to depose former premier Yingluck Shinwatra, is largely expected to apply to set up a party later this month.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who concurrently heads the National Council for Peace and Order, earlier commented that the general election would be held February next year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 16:44:00|Editor: Chengcheng

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DAMASCUS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 25 truckloads of aid started to move toward the rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Syria's capital Damascus on Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The aid convoy was sent to the rebel-held Douma district in Eastern Ghouta in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the United Nations.

It's the third aid convoy to enter Douma since the military operations in Eastern Ghouta started late last month.

Last Friday, 13 truckloads of aid entered Douma with 2,400 food parcels and 3,240 bags of wheat flour.

The UN humanitarian agencies have sounded alarm about the worsening humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, where activists said more than 1,000 people have been killed in the heavy bombardment since a military showdown between rebels and the government forces since late February.

The Syrian army has captured over 62 percent of Eastern Ghouta in recent days, as part of an ongoing wide-scale offensive to dislodge rebels from the key areas on the eastern rim of Damascus.SEOUL, March 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating jumped this week on the agreed summits between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and between the DPRK and the United States, a poll showed Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon was 69.2 percent this week, up 3.4 percentage points from a week earlier.

The result was based on a poll of 1,502 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

The rapid increase in Moon's support score came as Moon's special envoys visited Pyongyang and Washington last week, helping bring about the agreements to hold the inter-Korean summit in late April and the DPRK-U.S. summit by May.

The positive agreements were reflected in Moon's support rate belatedly as some liberal politicians were embroiled in sex abuse scandals last week.

The pollster said public opinion spread that the sex abuse is happening in the entire society, not in the liberal bloc alone.

Moon's ruling liberal Democratic Party garnered 51.5 percent of support this week, up 3.4 percentage points from the previous week.

Support for the main opposition Liberty Korea Party fell 0.3 percentage points to 18.9 percent, keeping a downward trend for the second consecutive week. The minor conservative Bareun Future Party's support dipped 1 percentage point to 7.4 percent.

Approval scores for the minor progressive Justice Party and the minor liberal Party for Democracy and Peace stood at 4.8 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 17:14:04|Editor: Chengcheng

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JERUSALEM, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Israel shelled Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning after explosive devices were detonated near the fence separating Israel and the besieged Palestinian enclave.

A spokesperson with the Israeli military said there were no injuries from the explosion.

No organization has assumed responsibility for the attack. However, Israel usually retaliates by attacking the Hamas movement, maintaining that Hamas should be held accountable for any hostility.

Hamas took over control of Gaza in 2007 from the Palestinian National Authority and has ruled the enclave ever since.

Israel has imposed a strict blockade on Gaza that is home to more than two million people in the past 10 years and launched three large-scale military operations against Hamas.

The incident came two days after a bomb went off near the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah during a rare visit to Gaza. The blast occurred shortly after the convoy entered Gaza, but no injuries were reported.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 17:14:05|Editor: Yurou

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Photo taken on March 15, 2018 shows the foreign oil tanker arriving at Tripoli naval base in Tripoli, Libya. Libyan navy on Thursday morning seized a foreign tanker for smuggling fuel off the coast of Zuwara, some 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, a navy spokesman told Xinhua. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

TRIPOLI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Libyan navy on Thursday morning seized a foreign tanker for smuggling fuel off the coast of Zwara, some 120 km west of the capital Tripoli, a navy spokesman told Xinhua.

"An oil tanker carrying the flag of Togo with 8 crew members on board, whose nationalities have not been identified, attempted to enter the town of Abu-Kammash in Zwara," said the navy spokesman Ayob Qassem.

The tanker was seized 8 miles (12.8 km) off the coast of Abu-Kammash as it was preparing to unload the smuggled fuel, Qassem added.

The spokesman said that no clashes erupted between the navy and the smugglers or the tanker crew, and the tanker was later towed to Tripoli's naval base.

Western Libyan coast, from the capital Tripoli to the Tunisian border, has been witnessing unprecedented activities of fuel smuggling recently.

The Tripoli appeal court last week issued a verdict to confiscate a tanker called Al-Khayyam and imprison its crew members for 6 years, who were also fined 6 million dinars (4.5 million U.S. dollars) for smuggling more than 2.5 million liters of diesel.

The tanker was seized in February 2016 Libyan navy for smuggling fuel off Zwara's coast.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 17:24:08|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese listed companies have paid out more dividends than before as regulators demanded firms reward investors, official data showed.

In 2017, 2,451 companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen gave 979.3 billion yuan (about 155 billion U.S. dollars) in profit to their investors, accounting for 70.3 percent of the total number of listed firms, according to figures from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

That represented an increase from 830.8 billion yuan and 67.3 percent in 2016.

In recent years, authorities have encouraged listed firms to offer more yields to investors in the stock market, where dividend payouts were previously infrequent.

In August 2015, the CSRC and other three government agencies jointly issued a notification, requiring capable listed companies to pay cash dividends.

Regulators can conduct on-site inspections of companies that maliciously refuse payouts, the Shanghai Stock Exchange said in February.

Between 2014 and 2016, Chinese listed companies paid on average over 30 percent of their net profits to shareholders, a moderate level compared with those in other countries.

Dividend payouts are not only good for investors but also listed companies themselves, as they can help reduce stock price volatility and support stable operation, said Kou Guangwu, secretary of the board of directors of the Shanghai-listed Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd.

China has over 3,500 listed firms, with their total market value exceeding 55 trillion yuan.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 17:29:09|Editor: Jiaxin

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Zhao Huijie (1st R), Xiang Changjiang (2nd R), Li Jun (C) and Cao Qinghua (2nd L), deputies to the National People's Congress, attend a press conference to share their experiences on poverty alleviation in Beijing, capital of China, March 15, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

by Xinhua writer Sun Xiaozheng

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Deputies to the National People's Congress Thursday shared their experiences on poverty alleviation at a press conference held on the sidelines of the ongoing session.

Zhao Huijie, Party Secretary of Xiaomiaozi Village of Chifeng City, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said the village was striving to inspire people to live a happy life.

"We taught a family to raise organic pigs and geese and now not only have they been lifted out of poverty but their ambition has been totally inspired," Zhao said.

The annual income per capita of his village was raised from 3,000 yuan (about 475 U.S. dollars) in 2009 to 13,000 last year.

Li Jun, Party Secretary of Xiuyun Village in southwest China's Sichuan Province, said his village had started a new poverty alleviation plan to give the impoverished more esteem.

"We have paired more than 5,000 city households with people who are living below the poverty line. Instead of pure donation, the donors buy agricultural produce from the poverty-stricken families," Li said.

China plans to lift at least 10 million people out of poverty this year, according to the annual government work report made by Premier Li Keqiang. The country will put more effort into developing local industry, education and healthcare, according to the report.

There were around 30 million Chinese living below the national poverty line at the end of last year.

"The challenges lie in illness," said Xiang Changjiang, director of the village committee of Xiangjia Village of Longhui County, central China's Hunan Province. "Many people were thrown back to poverty due to illness."

He suggested that government make policies to support people living in the rural areas who have serious illness, improve the health care system and increase the medical reimbursement ratio.

"The work gets harder towards the end, but we have confidence," said Cao Qinghua, Party Secretary of Lianzhu Township of Puer City, southwest China's Yunnan Province.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 18:09:18|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong (2nd L) and Nepal's Secretary at Ministry of Finance Shankar Prasad Adhikari (2nd R) sign agreements on China-Aid projects in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 15, 2018. China and Nepal agreed on Thursday to construct a frontier inspection station and facilitate resumption of Nepal-China border point, which has been closed after a devastating earthquake in 2015. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China and Nepal agreed on Thursday to construct a frontier inspection station and facilitate resumption of Nepal-China border point, which has been closed after a devastating earthquake in 2015.

Amid a special function organized at Nepal's Ministry of Finance in Kathmandu, the two neighbors signed an agreement on the Post-disaster Recovery for Tatopani (Zhangmu) Frontier Inspection Station Project.

The agreement was signed by Chinese Ambassador Yu Hong and Nepal's Secretary at Ministry of Finance Shankar Prasad Adhikari. The support is under a 3-billion-Chinese yuan (475-million-U.S. dollar) grant pledged by China during International Conference for Nepal's Reconstruction in 2015.

The project includes repairing of buildings, establishing protection measures to prevent from secondary disasters, including debris flow and landslide, and improving trade clearance capabilities.

"The Chinese government has been making positive effort to reopen the Zhangmu port. We will carry out work of disaster treatment and road repair on the Chinese side. Considering the construction of border inspection station, both the countries have been discussing reconstruction of the border bridge," Ambassador Yu said.

Tatopani, known as Zhangmu port, was severely damaged in the 2015 earthquake and could not function because of geographical challenges. Since then, the Kerung port, also known as Rasuwagadhi, has been in operation for cross border trading and tourism.

The ambassador further informed that the Syaphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi highway repair and improvement project and Timure Frontier inspection station project will be started within this year.

"The China-Aid projects and the Cross Border Economic Zone will effectively enhance our infrastructure connectivity and increase trade flow under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative," she said.

Besides the border project, the two sides also signed agreement on "Hospital Recovery Project in Sindhupalchowk" and "Jiri Secondary School Reconstruction Project."

The government of Nepal expressed its appreciation to the Chinese government for the assistance and its continuous support for reconstruction of quake-hit Nepal.

Shankar Prasad Adhikari, Secretary at Ministry of Finance, said, "I am confident that the economic cooperation between Nepal and China will help especially to overcome our infrastructure bottleneck and improve connectivity."

Right after the earthquake, China had pledged to help Nepal with post-disaster reconstruction in five areas - infrastructure, livelihood recovery in hilly regions, cultural heritage renovation, capacity building of disaster prevention and health.

Up to now, 22 China-Aid projects have been already initiated and are in the process of implementation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 18:09:18|Editor: Jiaxin

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by Xinhua writer Hu Tao

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Asia Pacific region, with China as the leading force, has made 2017 an "incredible year" for Bell Helicopter, according to company executives.

Bell has seen a 75 percent year-on-year increase of orders worldwide, despite the "steep down cycle of the industry in the past few years," said Patrick Moulay, executive vice president with Bell Helicopter in global sales and marketing.

"We take more orders from the Asia Pacific region, more than the combination of other markets. In particular, Bell achieved a great success in the Chinese market with 210 orders in 2017," said Moulay in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

RIGHT TIMING TO CHINA

"The timing is now, now, now. The heli-industry has suffered a lot in the past few years, but we've seen the market is recovering. Of course, with the strong driving force from China and other countries in the region," Moulay said.

Bell is a global leader in commercial and military, manned and unmanned vertical-lift aircraft.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Bell Helicopter has delivered more than 35,000 aircraft to customers around the world over its 80-year history.

In mid-2017, Bell Helicopter and the Shaanxi Helicopter signed a purchase agreement for 100 Bell 407GXP single-engine helicopters.

The helicopters will be finalized in Bell's U.S. plant, shipped to China and reassembled. Some of them will be configured for customer needs in Emergency Medical Service, emergency rescue, fire fighting and law enforcement.

In 2017, it also received a total of 110 orders from the Beijing-based Reignwood Group for Bell505 single-engine helicopters, including 60 confirmed orders and 50 newly increased orders.

These "big orders" from the Chinese market jointly contributed to Bell's great success in China and worldwide in 2017.

"In fact, the heli-fleet in China is still quite small compared with the vast country's surging demand, but its potential is magnificent," Moulay said.

COMMITMENT TO CHINA CUSTOMERS

"Amid the surging market, we will not only sell our products, but also play a role in cultivating the surging market jointly with Chinese partners," said Jose Jacinto Monge, managing director with Bell Helicopter China.

"China has a need to lift its public welfare, and helicopters are indispensable in emergency medical and natural disaster rescue, especially in its mountainous and disaster-prone southwestern regions," he said.

China is set to boost the development of its civil aviation industry to create a market that is expected to be worth more than a trillion yuan (158.4 billion U.S. dollars) by 2020.

It will build new civil airports, bringing the total to more than 500 by 2020, and support the further opening of its low-altitude airspace, which is a major operation envelope for helicopters.

Global major helicopter manufacturers and the country's domestic developers are also gearing up for the burgeoning market by introducing new models and setting up new production facilities.

"We have a commitment to our Chinese partners and customers to develop their capabilities in reassembly and maintenance, as well as pilot and technician training," said Monge. "Bell will support them in daily maintenance, heavy maintenance and pilot training."

He said Bell Helicopter was resolved to support the healthy development of the heli-market in China.

"We will in joint hands with the government authorities and industry insiders to make sure of the safe operation of customers and their passengers," Monge said. "China is our top market worldwide. It deserves our attention and focus."Xinhuanet| 2018-03-15 18:41:47|Editor: ZD

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Singaporean Ambassador to China Stanley Loh Ka Leung takes an exclusive interview with Xinhuanet in Beijing, capital of China, March 7, 2018. (Xinhuanet photo)

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The Belt and Road Initiative brings about new opportunities for China as well as its neighboring countries, and it is the main focus of Singapore-Chinas further development, said Singaporean Ambassador to China Stanley Loh Ka Leung during a recent interview with Xinhuanet.

The ambassador stressed that the Belt and Road Initiative offers opportunities not only for Chinas economy and enterprises, but also for the neighboring countries and regional economies.

It is a win-win initiative, and all the countries can share its fruits, he added.

According to Loh, Singapore is one of the earliest countries which supports and gets into the swing of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The ambassador said Singapore's investment in China [in 2016] accounted for about 85 percent of the total investment China has attracted from the countries and regions along the Belt and Road, and China's investment in Singapore amounted to nearly 30 percent of China's total investment in the countries and regions along the Belt and Road, according to statistics from Chinas Ministry of Commerce.

"We are launching four platforms to support the development of the Belt and Road", he said.

The four platforms cover financial connectivity, infrastructure connectivity, third-party cooperation and legal services.

The ambassador stressed that many cooperative projects, in line with the Belt and Road Initiative, are making steady progress.

He highlighted some of the major cooperative projects, including the Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-city and Chongqing connectivity project.

Speaking highly of Chinas current innovative capability, the ambassador also expressed Singapore's expectation of cooperating with Chinese innovative enterprises.

As the chairman of ASEAN this year, Singapore can provide a platform for Chinese innovative enterprises to promote their products and services into ASEAN countries, said the ambassador.

During the interview, the ambassador noted that Singapore is looking forward to developing an open world economy with China.

The ambassador said that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP) is under negotiation, hoping a consensus can be reached at an early date, so that the Asia-Pacific free trade agreement can be signed.COLOMBO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday called for greater economic and trade cooperation with China and hoped China's assistance and aid would benefit more ordinary people in the island country.

The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka said in a statement that during a working consultation with China's Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan, Wickremesinghe thanked China for its long-term support to Sri Lanka's economic and social development and emphasized that Sri Lanka attaches great importance to mega-projects cooperation between the two countries.

Wickremesinghe further affirmed his commitment to tackle the practical difficulties listed by the Chinese side and speed up the implementation of pragmatic cooperation such as the development of Hambantota Port and industrial zone, in southern Sri Lanka, so as to bring real benefit to Sri Lankan people in an early date.

During the discussions, Ambassador Cheng said in order to strive for early harvest and bring tangible benefit to the two peoples, China stands ready to work with the Sri Lankan side to accelerate the implementation of the major-projects cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The ambassador also elaborated on current progress together with difficulties of the mega-projects cooperation between the two countries and called upon the Sri Lankan government to push for practical solutions.

Both sides reviewed the current progress of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and vowed to further promote pragmatic cooperation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 19:09:32|Editor: Zhou Xin

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JINAN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1,800 Confucius schools have been built in China, according to the China Confucius Foundation, including 123 in the rural areas.

The foundation began building Confucius schools in 2014. The schools promote traditional Chinese culture, while also providing training in law, education and jobs. The first Confucius school was built in Jinan City, capital of east China's Shandong Province.

The foundation plans to build 10,000 such schools in China, according to Wang Daqian, director-general of the foundation.

The China Confucius Foundation was established in 1984. It is a national academic organization dedicated to supporting Confucius research and the spread of Chinese culture.

Confucius (551-479 B.C.), an educator and thinker, has influenced countless generations of Chinese society.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 19:09:32|Editor: Chengcheng

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TEHRAN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the U.S. arms sales to the Middle East for fueling conflicts, the state TV reported Thursday.

Washington takes advantage of the conflicts in the Middle East by flooding the troubled region with arms, Zarif said.

Most of the weapons sold to U.S. allies in the region end up in the hands of war criminals, the top Iranian diplomat said.

"The U.S. pumps some half of its arms exports into our region. The vast majority goes to inexperienced and adventurist leaders who are engaged in war crimes," Zarif added.

Zarif was reacting to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which shows the U.S. remains the top arms exporter in the world.

The report also reveals that nearly half, or 49 percent, of the total U.S. arms exports flew to the war-torn Middle East.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 19:19:34|Editor: Chengcheng

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WELLINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- New Zealanders can register their interest in being part of the government's consultation on what the Zero Carbon Bill should look like, Climate Change Minister James Shaw said on Thursday.

"We know many New Zealanders want to be part of the discussion on how we reduce our emissions and want to be kept updated in the lead up to formal consultation starting around the end of May," Shaw said.

The Zero Carbon Bill will be a cornerstone of New Zealand's transition to a low emission climate resilient future that will help achieve its international commitments, he said.

An online registration process has been set up on the Ministry for the Environment website for individuals or organizations who want to be kept informed between now and then, the minister said.

"Consultation has to be with New Zealanders across the country; from farmers and factory workers, to iwi (tribe) and innovators. We want everyone's thoughts and ideas," he said.

The consultation will also cover the role of the new independent Climate Change Commission, which is intended to take a long-term non-partisan view, provide independent advice to the government of the day, and ensure New Zealand stays on track to meet its climate change goals, Shaw said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 19:24:36|Editor: Yurou

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Indian army troopers arrive at site of a gunfight at Khonmoh village in the outskirts of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, March 15, 2018. A gunfight between militants and Indian troops broke out Thursday in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A gunfight between militants and Indian troops broke out Thursday in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The gunfight erupted at Khonmoh village in the outskirts of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, after militants attacked security guards of a local pro-India politician.

"Militants fired upon the two personal security officers of a political activist in Khonmoh, who repulsed the attack but in the incident one of them was wounded," a police spokesman said.

Following the attack, the area has been cordoned off by government forces.

"As per recent update a gunfight has begun and militants have been hold up," the spokesman said.

Local villagers said they heard the sound of gunfire and saw contingents of police and army in the area.

A guerrilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. The gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently across the region.LJUBLJANA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned late on Wednesday hours after a key investment project was dealt a legal blow.

Cerar announced his resignation in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling to annul the result of a September referendum that approved the government's biggest investment program, a railway project worth 1 billion euros (1.23 billion U.S. dollars.)

"The ...project has been hit by another blow, delivered by those who want to stop Slovenia's positive development. I don't want to be part of such stories," he said.

In addition, at a press conference held in the capital, Cerar expressed strong dissatisfaction at coalition partners without naming specific parties, saying they have been trying to undermine projects. Slovenia's ruling coalition includes Cerar's center-left Party of Modern Center, the Social Democrats and pensioners' party Desus.

His government took power in September 2014. His stepping down came less than three months before a general election is expected to be held in June in the Balkan state.

Cerar said he would remain in office until a new government is formed, and that President Borut Pahor would decide whether to call an early election.

The blocked 24-km Second Track Divaca-Koper railway project is intended to connect the coastal cities of Koper and Divaca, and extend to Ljubljana as well. Media reports said Cerar has considered the project vital for Slovenia's development.HANOI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The 6th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit will be held here on March 29-31, with the expected participation of some 2,000 participants.

The participants include GMS countries leaders, senior public officials, private sector representatives and development partners such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dang Dinh Quy told reporters on Thursday.

Themed "Leveraging 25 years of Cooperation, Building an Integrated, Sustainable and Prosperous GMS," the summit is set to review achievements and shortcomings of cooperation programs over the past 25 years.

Delegates will also discuss and set directions for cooperation and connectivity in the coming time, said Quy. Under the framework of the summit, main discussion sessions include infrastructure and financial sources, agriculture and global trade.

A GMS Business Summit will be held for the first time to connect firms from member countries. Over 200 firms have registered to attend the business summit.

Countries under the GMS program, which focuses on increased regional cooperation and integration for inclusive and sustainable development, include Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2018 1:30 pm

Arrangements were under the direction of Roller-Christeson Funeral Home in Harrison.

Roy H. Huntley, 89, of Harrison, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 20 (2018). He was born in San Angelo, Texas, Feb. 5, 1929, the second of eight children born to his parents, Harper Algernon Huntley and Laura Frances Ogden Huntley.

He had a poor but happy childhood on the farm near San Angelo where he began school, continuing at Seagraves, Texas, after the family moved there. He worked on oil drilling rigs in Texas and New Mexico for several years before joining the U.S. Border Patrol in 1954. He worked at several southern border stations and while stationed at Rio Grande City, Texas, he met and married his wife, Maria Teresa of the neighboring town of Roma.

He enjoyed playing his guitar and singing, in both Spanish and English, and collecting antique and unusual wrenches. But what he mostly enjoyed, was going places with Teresa and always knowing he was loved.

He will be missed.

Arrangements were under the direction of Roller-Christeson Funeral Home in Harrison.JAKARTA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian authorities in Bali Island has arrested two people who had slaughtered endangered dolphin species.

Acting chairman of natural resources conservation center in the island I Ketut Catur Marbawa said on Thursday that Tut Tony and Wayan Mudiana have admitted that they slaughtered dolphins and posted their pictures on social media.

"Now both perpetrators are in custody and we will escort them for undergoing legal process," he said.

The butchers of the species that are on the brink of extinction lived in Tianyar Kangin village of Kubu subdistrict in Karangasem district, said Catur.

The water policemen and the officials from the natural resources conservation center are now hunting for others who had caught dolphins, he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

Indonesia is a vast archipelagic nation and home to over 17,500 islands, which are habitat for several endangered species.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 19:40:49|Editor: Jiaxin

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Du Liqun (L) speaks with nurses at the Fourth People's Hospital in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sept. 18, 2017. Du Liqun is a nursing supervisor of AIDS department in the fourth people's hospital of Nanning. She has been stuck to her post ever since the AIDS department was founded in 2005. Apart from management works including the department's regulation making, recruitment and staff training, her major work is to take care of AIDS patients. Over the past years the number of patients she ever nursed exceeds 10,000. In 2015, she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal for outstanding contributions to health care. During her long-term medical practice, Du believes that a complete medical service system is indispensable to basic social security. In her spare time, she often provides free diagnosis for people in communities, raising their awareness of health. As a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Du is dedicated to promotion of the primary medical service. She came to this year's CPPCC with a motion to improve medical staff's comprehensive ability of treating infectious diseases. (Xinhua/Lu Bo'an)Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 19:39:40|Editor: Chengcheng

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by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The replacement of Rex Tillerson with the more hawkish Mike Pompeo as U.S. Secretary of State has raised concerns in Turkey about the normalization of its ties with the U.S., analysts said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who is known for his hawkish stance in foreign policy.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was originally scheduled to meet Tillerson on March 19 in Washington, has postponed his visit to the U.S. following Tillerson's sudden departure.

The top Turkish diplomat said Wednesday that he hopes to build a good relationship with the new U.S. secretary of state.

"We would like to work with the new secretary of state with the same understanding, with bilateral respect and understanding," Cavusoglu told a news conference in Moscow, where he was on an official visit.

But Turkish analysts are worried that Tillerson's ouster has cast a shadow on the thaw in the strained ties between Turkey and the U.S., two NATO allies.

During Tillerson's visit to Turkey in February, the two sides agreed to normalise their ties following their feud over the Turkish military operations in Syria to oust Kurdish fighters, who are supported by Washington.

Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, is seen as a hawk in foreign policies, as he has been an ardent opponent of Russia and Iran. And he is also not a fan of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After Pompeo's appointment, Turkish media seized on a tweet purportedly posted by Pompeo, before becoming the CIA director, in which he called the Turkish government headed by Erdogan a "totalitarian Islamist dictatorship."

Pompeo's tweet was posted following a failed military coup in Turkey in July 2016. The tweet was later removed but went viral once again in the Turkish social media.

Writing in a column on Wednesday, Murat Yetkin, chief editor of the Hurriyet Daily News, said that Pompeo had "prejudgments" regarding Turkey, citing the deleted tweet.

"It is not clear whether the Turkey-U.S. ties will get better or worse under Pompeo. But based on what we know so far, there is not much room for optimism," commented Yetkin.

Turkey has been angered by Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish militia in the fight against Islamic State (IS), as Ankara sees them as terrorists affiliated with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody insurgency in Turkey since the early 1980's.

Despite the U.S. opposition, Turkey launched in late January a major offensive in northern Syria's Afrin enclave to oust the Kurdish fighters.

But Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim downplayed the impact of Pompeo's appointment, saying that Pompeo would stay in line with national policy rather than taking his own course of action on the issues dividing the two allies.

"It is not so import to us what the new secretary thinks about Turkey, it doesn't matter if it's person A or person B," he said.

"There would be some changes expected naturally, but we believe that the understanding that we secured during Mr. Tillerson's visit will be implemented," a Turkish diplomatic source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Some analysts believe that the deal reached recently between Turkey and the U.S. on the city of Manbij, where about 2,000 U.S. troops are deployed, is not a done deal after Tillerson's departure.

They cited that Pompeo's main priority would not be Turkey but Iran.

"Pompeo is not fond of the current Turkish leadership. He has been critical of a number of issues, starting with the failed coup," veteran Turkish journalist Tulin Daloglu told Xinhua.

Daloglu noted that while while the Turkish side said that the two sides reached a draft deal on Manbij, the U.S. has not yet confirmed it.

Some other analysts are even more pessimistic about the Turkey-U.S. ties, arguing that the hawkish Pompeo will prefer the use of force to dialogue.

"We should expect a U.S. administration more prone to conflict and less dialogue," Muhittin Ataman, a professor at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), told the Turkish media.

"We can expect a more violent and stringent attitude which could take the place of dialogue and moderation," he argued.

Pompeo's first task in dealing with Turkey may be American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained in Turkey for alleged involvement in the 2016 coup.

The prosecutor in Turkey's western province of Izmir, where Brunson is being held, charged him with being "a member and executive of the terrorist group."

The Turkish government blames Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, for the coup and has repeatedly demanded for his extradition.

But the U.S. has refused to hand over Gulen on the grounds that Turkey has not provided sufficient evidence to prove its charges against the cleric.

Brunson's detention raised doubts that Turkey is using him as a bargaining chip with the U.S. to extradite Gulen.PYONGYANG, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The official daily of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Thursday branded the United States as the world's worst human rights abuser.

The United States is making desperate efforts to tarnish the international image of the DPRK while resorting to the frantic human rights campaign against it, Rodong Sinmun said in an article.

"It is the height of folly for the U.S., which has seriously threatened the right to existence of the Korean people through persistent sanctions and blockades to violate the sovereignty of the DPRK with nuclear weapons for decades, to voice 'concern' about its 'human rights performance,'" said the daily.

What's more, adding that the world's worst human rights abuser is none other than the United States, the daily said "democracy is crudely violated" in the United States.

"There are over 200 countries and regions in the world but there is no such a vicious human rights abuser as the U.S. in which all kinds of crimes stalk and police indiscriminately kill defenseless people," said the official daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

The article also accused the United States of violating human rights in other countries in a shocking way.

"The U.S. is the kingpin of human rights abuses and harasser of peace" and doesn't even shy away from "even sanguinary massacre in order to realize its domination ambition," it said.

The DPRK has rejected accusations of human rights abuses by the United States and other Western countries.PHNOM PENH, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Two people, one Australian man and one Cambodian soldier, were killed and three others got wounded in an explosion at a shooting range in west Cambodia's Kampong Speu province on Thursday.

Kampong Speu Provincial Governor Vy Samnang said the incident happened at the shooting range within a military training base when the victims accidentally spotted a war-left Russia-made landmine and one of them picked it up, triggering an explosion.

"One Australian man and one Cambodian soldier were killed, as three others, one Australian man and two Cambodian soldiers, got injured in the explosion," he told Xinhua, adding that the two Australian nationals were bomb experts and they visited the shooting range as tourists.

The military training base, better known as the "ACO" armoured vehicle base, is located in Phnom Sruoch district, some 70 km west of capital Phnom Penh, and the shooting range inside it is used by law enforcement groups for training and practice.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 20:19:52|Editor: Chengcheng

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THE HAGUE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Unilever will pick Rotterdam, the Netherlands as its headquarters, leaving London as a second headquarters, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company announced on Thursday.

Unilever, producer of many well known daily necessities brands, such as Lipton tea, Dove soap, Axe deodorant and Jerry's ice cream, stated that it intends to change from two legal entities into one single legal entity, incorporated and tax-resident in the Netherlands.

Unilever has been owned through two separately listed companies, a Dutch N.V. and a UK PLC, since its formation in 1930. The company now concluded that a single holding company brings greater simplicity and more flexibility.

Secondly Unilever announced that it will evolve into a company with three divisions instead of the current four, Personal Care, Foods, Home Care and Refreshment. These three divisions are Beauty and Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods and Refreshment.

The headquarters of the Beauty and Personal Care Division and the Home Care Division will be located in London, the headquarters of the Foods and Refreshment Division continue to be based in Rotterdam.

"Unilever's board believes the move to three Divisions and the simplification of our corporate structure will create a simpler, more agile and more focused company with increased strategic flexibility for value-creating portfolio change," stated Marijn Dekkers, Chairman of Unilever, in a press release.

"Our decision to headquarter the divisions in United Kingdom and the Netherlands underscores our long-term commitment to both countries. The changes announced today also further strengthen Unilever's corporate governance, creating for the first time in our history a 'one share, one vote' principle for all our shareholders."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte welcomed the decision. "This is good news," he told Dutch national broadcaster NOS on Thursday.

"It is very important to have such a headquarters here, because in the headquarters decision are made," said Rutte.

The new measures came one year after a failed attempt for a take-over by Kraft Heinz. In February last year the United States foods giant stopped its attempt to acquire the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company, after Unilever called the bid "fundamentally undervaluing Unilever".

The Netherlands has more favorable takeover protection rules, which can be considered as a main reason for the decision to choose for Rotterdam as sole headquarters.

According to Unilever CEO Paul Polman the move has nothing to do with Brexit. The company emphasizes that employment of 7,300 people in Britain and 3,100 people in the Netherlands will be unaffected by the changes. It will also continue to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, Euronext in Amsterdam and on the New York Stock Exchange.MANILA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines is looking forward to the first ever China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held in Shanghai in November, seeing the event as a good platform to showcase Philippine products and services, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Thursday.

The CIIE will be the biggest ever overseas trade fair that the Philippines will participate in, with over 100 product and service exporters as well as investors and government representatives attending the event, the minister said at a CIIE roadshow conducted in preparation for the event.

"The CIIE is a major international event that reiterates China's strong support for trade liberalization, as well as their way to actively open the Chinese market to the world," Lopez said while launching a CIIE information mission at the roadshow.

He said the CIIE can open doors of opportunity to Philippine investors, and help them gain access to the huge China market.

China is the Philippines' top trading partner in 2017 with a total bilateral trade valued at 23.82 billion U.S. dollars. China also ranked fourth biggest export market for the Philippines last year and the Philippines' top import source.

Lopez appealed to Filipinos to take advantage of China's huge market. "Accessing to this market will surely leapfrog the level of business transactions between the Philippines and China," he said.

The CIIE information mission will also be held in Cebu City in the central Philippines and Davao City in the southern Philippines.

The CIIE, to be held on November 5-10, will cover a total exhibition area of over 240,000 square meters, with eight exhibition areas, including one for country pavilion, six for trade in goods and one for trade in service.

More than 3,000 enterprises from different countries and regions have confirmed to attend the expo, according to officials from China's Commerce Ministry.BERLIN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Germany's new foreign minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has signalled his country's openness to French proposals for the reform of the European Union (EU) on Wednesday night.

Shortly after a formal ceremony at the German foreign office to mark his ministerial inauguration, the new foreign minister met with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to demonstrate the high priority which the next government attaches to European affairs.

Germany was ready to "finally embrace the hand which Emmanuel Macron has extended with his proposals for the renewal of Europe," Maas told press.

Berlin and Paris would now start cooperating swiftly to reinvigorate the EU after a protracted process of German government formation.

German FM Maas did not comment on remaining disagreement between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and German Social Democrats (SPD) on EU reforms, but noted that all legislation would be grounded in the framework of the "very pro-European" grand coalition agreement.

Maas expressed confidence that upcoming talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and their French colleagues in Paris would consequently mark the beginning of constructive and more detailed discussions on EU reform.

While stating that Berlin did not have a "fixed position" on the subject, the foreign minister praised Macron's proposals as offering a good foundation for changes to be made in the governance of the bloc. Amongst others, the French president has called for the creation of a shared eurozone budget, finance ministry and parliament.

Appearing on the public broadcaster "ZDF" recently, Merkel said that her government was ready to raise the level of German financial contributions to the EU. She warned, however, that there would not be a "simple mutualisation of debt" and that the nation states would retain their dominant position as sovereign actors in Brussels.

Regardless of the outcome of early German-French negotiations on EU reform, Maas has committed to a busy schedule of early travels which will also take him to Poland in the course of the week. The new foreign minister emphasized on Wednesday night that it would be "wrong" and "potentially dangerous" for Berlin to keep a low diplomatic profile in light of tumultuous developments in international relations.PARIS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- France agreed with Britain that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of a former spy in Britain, President Emmanuel Macron's office said Thursday.

On March 4, former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in a shopping center in the southern British city of Salisbury. They remain in critical but stable condition.

"Since the beginning of the week, the United Kingdom has kept France closely informed of the evidence gathered by British investigators and evidence of Russia's responsibility in the attack," the Elysee said in a statement.

"France agrees with the United Kingdom that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with its ally," it added.

During a phone conversation with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Macron mentioned the need to coordinate a European response to the nerve agent attack on the Russian spy on British territory.

On Wednesday, May announced that 23 Russian diplomats would be expelled, the biggest move of its kind in three decades.

May blamed Moscow for the chemical attack which involved "military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia."

Russian denied any involvement in the poisoning incident.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said London's accusations were "completely insane," adding that "reciprocal steps" would be taken in the near future in response to London's retaliations, including suspending all planned high-level bilateral contacts.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 20:50:01|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NANJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A new regulation on the environment protection of Yangtze River bank will go into effect on April 10 in the city of Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

According to the regulation, the Nanjing government will ban water-consuming factories in certain areas along the river. It also bans sewage outlets in areas where aquatic resources need to be conserved.

Destruction of wetlands will be severely punished, according to the regulation. The Nanjing government will send staff to repair damaged water areas along the river bank during the annual fishing ban period.

The regulation marks certain areas for economic development, but stipulates that these economic activities must have the least possible impact on flood prevention, water safety and the river's ecological environment.

Yangtze River is China's longest, at 6,300 kilometers long, with a drainage area of 1.8 million square kilometers. About 97 kilometers of the river flows through Nanjing. Nanjing is home to 8 million people.Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2018 1:30 pm

Graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at Mountain Springs Cemetery near Compton; arrangements with Coffman Funeral Home of Harrison.

Wanda Doss, 88 of Compton, passed away Monday, March 12 (2018).

The daughter of Robert and Olive (Ketner) Sharp was born Dec. 17, 1930, at Sacramento, California.

Graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at Mountain Springs Cemetery near Compton. There will be no visitation.

Arrangements under the direction of Coffman Funeral Home of Harrison.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:00:03|Editor: Chengcheng

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SYDNEY, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Australia will host a special summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Sydney this weekend, the first such event in the country, with trade, business links and counter-terrorism expected to top the agenda.

Leaders from the 10 Southeast Asian member states will be hosted by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who called for the meeting at a biennial ASEAN-Australia Summit in Laos in 2016.

Australia started to hold dialogue with ASEAN in 1974. Over the past four decades, dramatic economic changes have taken place across the region and now ASEAN is collectively Australia's third largest trading partner behind China and the United States.

The relationship between the two sides has brought a number of achievements including the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement in 2010.

Already worth around 730 million U.S. dollars to the Australian economy last year, exports to Southeast Asia are continuing to grow rapidly with many economists viewing the region as a market with huge growth potential for Australia's resources and agricultural sectors.

"Overwhelmingly, it is a meeting about prosperity and security," Turnbull was quoted in an Australian newspaper on Thursday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:05:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Xi Jinping (C, front), Li Keqiang (4th R, front), Zhang Dejiang (4th L, front), Yu Zhengsheng (3rd R, front), Zhang Gaoli (3rd L, front), Li Zhanshu (2nd R, front), Wang Huning (2nd L, front), Zhao Leji (1st R, front) and Han Zheng (1st L, front) attend the closing meeting of the First Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 15, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisory body concluded its annual session Thursday, stressing the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"Taking a clear political stand is an essential feature of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)," said Wang Yang, newly-elected chairman of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, when addressing the closing of the session.

The CPC leadership is a fundamental political guarantee for the development of the CPPCC and a basic political principle that the advisory body must observe in the new era, Wang said.

Wang asked political advisors to uphold the CPC leadership, take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guiding principle for the work of the CPPCC, perform their duties for the people, improve their consultation competence, and act within the boundaries of the Constitution and laws.

A resolution on an amendment to the CPPCC Charter was passed at the meeting in a move widely believed by observers as representing an important chapter in the development of democracy in China.

Xi's thought was incorporated into the amendment as a guiding theory of the CPPCC.

The definition of the CPPCC's nature and tasks was enriched, and the idea of "socialist consultative democracy" was written into the charter.

This was the fourth amendment to the CPPCC charter since it was adopted in 1982.

The CPPCC is an important organ for multiparty cooperation and political consultation led by the CPC, which has been described as "a new type of party system growing from China's soil."

As a distinctively Chinese political institution, it is a major channel for socialist consultative democracy.

As of 5 p.m. on March 9, political advisors had submitted 5,360 proposals since the session started on March 3, ranging from strengthening overall CPC leadership, the "three critical battles" against major risks, poverty, and pollution, to high-quality development.

A resolution on a work report of the Standing Committee of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, a report on the examination of proposals, and a political resolution on the annual session were also approved at the closing meeting.

The CPPCC should uphold the CPC leadership, firmly safeguard the core status of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership, the political resolution read.

It called on political advisors to rally Chinese people from all parties, social and ethnic groups, strata and sectors to strive for the achievement of goals and tasks set at the 19th CPC National Congress in October.

Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Zhang Gaoli, Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng attended the closing meeting.

Xi and other Chinese leaders took group photos with political advisors after the meeting.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:05:04|Editor: Chengcheng

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BERLIN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Helge Braun (CDU), the new chancellery minister in the federal government, became the latest senior German politician to oppose diesel driving bans on Thursday.

Appearing on the public broadcaster "ZDF", Braun emphasized the need to prevent diesel owners from experiencing any "depreciation in the value" of their vehicles.

He also voiced worries about the proposal for a "blue placard" system, which is currently being discussed in Germany, saying it would effectively ban vehicles with high nitrogen oxide emission levels from densely-populated areas and is hence expected to harm the demand for diesel motors.

Calls for driving bans have recently gained renewed momentum in Germany after a landmark ruling by the Federal Administrative Court in the ongoing "dieselgate" scandal empowered municipal governments to adopt such measures unilaterally.

Earlier, Berlin had admitted that at least 20 German cities would fail to comply with European Union (EU) urban air quality regulations by 2020.

According to the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), diesel cars are responsible for more than 50 percent of harmful nitrogen oxide emissions. The EU has threatened to sue Germany before the European Court of Justice (CFEU) unless the situation is addressed swiftly.

Braun consequently urged the German automotive industry to cooperate in finding a different, less radical solution, which did not require the removal of diesel vehicles from urban roads.

"If trust is restored that (diesel owners) will still be able to drive in cities, the problem of value depreciation will solve itself," the chancellery minister said.

"There is no doubt that we will need the automotive industry's assistance to achieve this objective," the CDU politician added.

Having recently participated in the first session of Chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) fourth ruling cabinet, Braun voiced confidence that the coalition partners in the new government would work together constructively.

Echoing a sentiment expressed by the new transport minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU), the chancellery minister said that he did not expect driving bans to be implemented.FILE PHOTO: Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo (R) was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday to replace Rex Tillerson (L) as U.S. Secretary of State. (REUTERS)

by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The replacement of Rex Tillerson with the more hawkish Mike Pompeo as U.S. Secretary of State has raised concerns in Turkey about the normalization of its ties with the U.S., analysts said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who is known for his hawkish stance in foreign policy.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was originally scheduled to meet Tillerson on March 19 in Washington, has postponed his visit to the U.S. following Tillerson's sudden departure.

The top Turkish diplomat said Wednesday that he hopes to build a good relationship with the new U.S. secretary of state.

"We would like to work with the new secretary of state with the same understanding, with bilateral respect and understanding," Cavusoglu told a news conference in Moscow, where he was on an official visit.

But Turkish analysts are worried that Tillerson's ouster has cast a shadow on the thaw in the strained ties between Turkey and the U.S., two NATO allies.

During Tillerson's visit to Turkey in February, the two sides agreed to normalise their ties following their feud over the Turkish military operations in Syria to oust Kurdish fighters, who are supported by Washington.

Pompeo, a Trump loyalist, is seen as a hawk in foreign policies, as he has been an ardent opponent of Russia and Iran. And he is also not a fan of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After Pompeo's appointment, Turkish media seized on a tweet purportedly posted by Pompeo, before becoming the CIA director, in which he called the Turkish government headed by Erdogan a "totalitarian Islamist dictatorship."

Pompeo's tweet was posted following a failed military coup in Turkey in July 2016. The tweet was later removed but went viral once again in the Turkish social media.

Writing in a column on Wednesday, Murat Yetkin, chief editor of the Hurriyet Daily News, said that Pompeo had "prejudgments" regarding Turkey, citing the deleted tweet.

"It is not clear whether the Turkey-U.S. ties will get better or worse under Pompeo. But based on what we know so far, there is not much room for optimism," commented Yetkin.

Turkey has been angered by Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish militia in the fight against Islamic State (IS), as Ankara sees them as terrorists affiliated with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody insurgency in Turkey since the early 1980's.

Despite the U.S. opposition, Turkey launched in late January a major offensive in northern Syria's Afrin enclave to oust the Kurdish fighters.

But Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim downplayed the impact of Pompeo's appointment, saying that Pompeo would stay in line with national policy rather than taking his own course of action on the issues dividing the two allies.

"It is not so import to us what the new secretary thinks about Turkey, it doesn't matter if it's person A or person B," he said.

"There would be some changes expected naturally, but we believe that the understanding that we secured during Mr. Tillerson's visit will be implemented," a Turkish diplomatic source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Some analysts believe that the deal reached recently between Turkey and the U.S. on the city of Manbij, where about 2,000 U.S. troops are deployed, is not a done deal after Tillerson's departure.

They cited that Pompeo's main priority would not be Turkey but Iran.

"Pompeo is not fond of the current Turkish leadership. He has been critical of a number of issues, starting with the failed coup," veteran Turkish journalist Tulin Daloglu told Xinhua.

Daloglu noted that while while the Turkish side said that the two sides reached a draft deal on Manbij, the U.S. has not yet confirmed it.

Some other analysts are even more pessimistic about the Turkey-U.S. ties, arguing that the hawkish Pompeo will prefer the use of force to dialogue.

"We should expect a U.S. administration more prone to conflict and less dialogue," Muhittin Ataman, a professor at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), told the Turkish media.

"We can expect a more violent and stringent attitude which could take the place of dialogue and moderation," he argued.

Pompeo's first task in dealing with Turkey may be American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained in Turkey for alleged involvement in the 2016 coup.

The prosecutor in Turkey's western province of Izmir, where Brunson is being held, charged him with being "a member and executive of the terrorist group."

The Turkish government blames Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric who lives in exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, for the coup and has repeatedly demanded for his extradition.

But the U.S. has refused to hand over Gulen on the grounds that Turkey has not provided sufficient evidence to prove its charges against the cleric.

Brunson's detention raised doubts that Turkey is using him as a bargaining chip with the U.S. to extradite Gulen.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:30:09|Editor: Jiaxin

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BAKU, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, and Georgia expressed their readiness to further enhance solidarity and cooperation after their foreign ministers' first quadrilateral meeting here on Thursday.

According to the joint Baku Statement, the diplomats agreed to carry out existing cooperative projects in the field of energy, transport, finance, agriculture, tourism, environment, etc.

They agreed to increase transit potential on "South-West" route starting from the Iranian ports of Bandar-Abbas and Chabahar at the Gulf through Rasht-Astara, connecting to Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.

The ministers also reiterated their firm commitment to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and separatism in all their forms.

According to the statement, Georgia will host the next quadrilateral foreign ministers' meeting.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:35:10|Editor: Chengcheng

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ISTANBUL, March 15 (Xinhua) -- As the Turkish army lays siege to Kurdish militia-held Afrin in Syria, analysts do not expect the Kurdish militants to surrender but probably hand over the city to the Syrian government when they feel they can resist no longer.

"It looks as if the YPG will fight," Cahit Armagan Dilek, head of the Ankara-based 21st Century Turkey Institute, told Xinhua.

The YPG, or People's Protection Units, has been under a fierce assault by Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels since Jan. 20, as Ankara is determined to clear its border of a terror group which its says is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party outlawed for its continued armed struggle against the Turkish state.

As the central town in the Afrin district, Afrin has been largely surrounded by Turkish troops since the beginning of this week, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday evening that the troops were about to enter Afrin.

"There are no indications that the YPG will withdraw from Afrin without fighting," Sinan Ulgen, a former diplomat, told Xinhua.

Since Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch against Afrin, there have been reports about the YPG conducting negotiations with Damascus over handing over Afrin. According to some reports, the talks failed as Damascus wanted the militia to leave behind its weapons.

The Kurdish fighters are getting reinforcements from other parts of Syria, said Ulgen who chairs the Istanbul-based Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, as they have established three cantons along both sides of the Euphrates River during the Syrian civil war.

About 6,000 to 8,000 YPG militants are estimated to be in Afrin city, which has a population of some 700,000, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based organization that reports on the Syrian war.

The YPG may be hoping to make its fighting in the besieged city another success story just as it did in Syria's Kobane against the Islamic State back in early 2015, observed Dilek, a former staff officer in the Turkish military.

According to reports in Turkish media, the Kurdish militants have built underground tunnels all over the Afrin city after they seized the district and set up a canton there.

Dilek feels that the United States may be encouraging, with a view to spoiling an alleged deal between Turkey and Russia, the Kurdish militia to fight while planning to increase international pressure on Turkey as the siege continues.

It is widely argued that Ankara launched the offensive against the YPG following a deal with Moscow.

Since the summer of 2016, Turkey has been cooperating with Russia in Syria rather than with the U.S., its NATO ally, as Washington's continued arming of the YPG angered Ankara and alienated bilateral ties.

The U.S., which sees the YPG as an ally in the battle against the Islamic State, has expressed its dissatisfaction with Turkey's Afrin operation.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday that the Turkish army's entry deep into the Afrin area was illegitimate, describing the situation as grave and critical.

In the view of Ulgen, the YPG could accept Damascus' conditions to hand over the city if it feels unable to cope with the Turkish offensive.

Arguing such a formula would also be politically acceptable for Turkey, he said -"the Turkish army would not have to fight an urban warfare."

Dilek, however, does not expect Damascus to take over the city from the Kurdish militia, as he thinks Afrin is reserved for Turkey in the alleged deal between Moscow and Ankara.

Until the beginning of this week, the Turkish army had the Afrin area surrounded from only three sides, letting a corridor in the southeast of the Kurdish enclave have link with an area under Syrian government control.

President Erdogan's remarks on Wednesday suggested that Turkish troops were intending to block that passage as well, a move which would prevent the YPG from handing over the city.

The president also said he hoped the city would completely fall by Wednesday evening.

Then, in an effort to clarify Erdogan's words, an unidentified presidential source reportedly told the media that the president was expecting Afrin to be completely besieged.

The Turkish offensive has gained momentum particularly since the beginning of March when the YPG lost several critical positions it had stubbornly defended since the beginning of the offensive.

Turkish media reports revealed, however, that the YPG withdrew, either due to panic or as part of a strategy, without much resistance at some places.

Units of special forces from the Turkish military, police and gendarmerie, which are well-trained in urban warfare, were sent to the Afrin district in recent weeks.

Turkish press reports said that the YPG is trying to stop civilians from leaving Afrin.ROME, March 15 (Xinhua) -- An Italian citizen was arrested on suspicion of terrorism in Italy on Thursday, following a warning from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), local media reported.

The suspect was a 24-year-old man of Latvian origin who was arrested in Viterbo, north of the Italian capital, according to Ansa news agency. No further details on his identity were revealed.

He was detained on charge of manufacturing and possessing explosives, after anti-terrorism police searched his home and found bomb-making materials. He would have been in possession of weapons as well, including a rifle, and two handguns.

The man had not been under the attention of Italy's counter-terrorism before, Ansa said. Italian security forces acted on a tip-off from the FBI, which signalled the young man posted on social media praising comments about the terrorist who killed eight people in a vehicle-ramming attack in New York in October.

Besides this arrest, a total 27 people have been expelled from the country on suspicion of religious radicalism so far this year, the Interior Ministry stated.

The latest measure involved a 35-year-old Moroccan citizen, who was repatriated on Wednesday.

Overall, some 264 people were expelled and repatriated since January 2015, according to official data.HARARE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe Gender Commission has expressed concern over political violence targeting women ahead of general elections to be held between July and August.

Deputy president of the country's biggest opposition party the MDC-T, Thokozani Khupe, has been attacked twice recently by members of her own party following her rejection of co-vice president Nelson Chamisa as the party's interim leader until congress in 2019.

In a statement Thursday, the commission said it was deeply concerned about reported attacks against female political leaders.

"These attacks are worrisome particularly with the looming general elections, as they will inevitably escalate to outbreaks of political violence during and after the elections, if left unchecked," the commission said.

It added that such practices exacerbated the disparity between men and women in politics and decision-making positions and worked against gender equality and peaceful, free, fair and credible elections.

Khupe was also attacked in August 2017 by fellow party members for allegedly holding an unsanctioned meeting at the party's offices in the second city of Bulawayo.

The commission called on political leaders to take a strong stance against electoral and political violence against women and improve their status within their political parties.

Various civic organizations have also expressed concern over the recent acts of violence against Khupe.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:40:11|Editor: Chengcheng

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BRUSSELS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said NATO Allies made progress on defense spending in 2017.

Presenting his annual report at the press conference, Stoltenberg said the report shows that, in 2017, European Allies and Canada increased spending on defense by almost 5 percent.

Stoltenberg added that NATO Europe and Canada defense spending has now increased for three consecutive years since 2014.

NATO Allies have added 18 billion dollars to spending on major equipment in three years.

"All NATO members have pledged to continue to increase defense spending in real terms. The majority have already put in place plans on how to meet the 2 percent guideline by 2024. And we expect others to follow", Stoltenberg said.

The report also shows that NATO Allies are contributing more to operations and missions. "At the end of 2017, there were over 23,000 troops serving in NATO deployments. Up from just under 18,000 in 2014," he said.

NATO Allies agreed to stop cuts to their defense budgets and move towards spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense within a decade in 2014 at NATO's summit.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:40:11|Editor: Chengcheng

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RIYADH, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud announced on Thursday that his country would develop a nuclear bomb if Iran does so, Al Arabiya local news reported.

"We don't want to own nuclear weapons, but if Iran does that, we would do the same," he said, adding that the Saudi economy is stronger than Iran's.

The crown prince also accused Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of harboring expansion ambitions in the Middle East.

The announcement came two days after the Saudi cabinet adopted the national nuclear energy policy that is restricted for peaceful purposes and focuses mainly on the construction of nuclear energy plants.

The policy also requires best exploitation of local natural resources and full application of international standards in radiation waste management.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:45:11|Editor: Jiaxin

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TAIPEI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- About 61.6 percent of the respondents aged 18 to 29 in Taiwan said their willingness to study, work or invest in the mainland has increased due to preferential policies toward Taiwan compatriots, according to a survey on the island.

The survey carried out by "Global Views," a monthly magazine focused on politics, economics and social affairs in Taiwan, said the desire to study, work or invest in the mainland was highest among Taiwan people aged 18 to 29, compared to other age groups.

A similar survey done by the same magazine 10 years ago showed youth in Taiwan were most likely to have negative attitudes toward the mainland, but today's young people are the least likely to have these views compared to other age groups, said the magazine in a report.

The attitude toward the mainland among young people in Taiwan has changed dramatically.

The report pointed out the reason was that Taiwan's youth have become much more practical when facing choices about their future development.

Only 3.3 percent of all the interviewees said the island's authorities should strongly oppose preferential policies, but almost none of the young respondents chose this option, according to the report.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 21:55:14|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Wang Yang (8th R, front), a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), meets with journalist representatives of major domestic media outlets at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 15, 2018. Wang expressed appreciation for the efforts made by all journalists covering the annual session of the top political advisory body. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Wang Yang on Thursday encouraged journalists to tell the stories of China, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and consultative democracy through vivid examples.

Wang, who was elected chairman of the 13th CPPCC National Committee Wednesday, made the remarks when he met with journalist representatives of major domestic media outlets.

Wang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, expressed appreciation for the efforts made by all journalists covering the annual session of the top political advisory body.

He expressed his hope that media outlets could give play to their advantages, continue to cover news related to the CPPCC well, promote the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation, and show the CPPCC's progress in the new era.

The political advisory body concluded its annual session Thursday.LONDON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- In the first 49 days of this year, an extra person died every seven minutes in Britain compared with five years before, the biggest difference since the Second World War, news reports here said on Thursday.

Loneliness, overstretched hospitals and the crumbling elderly care system could all be contributing to a sharply increase in deaths, according to the reports.

The increase can be clearly shown as about 10,375 more people than would be expected died in the first seven weeks of this year, or a rise of 12.4 percent.

This rise was not due to the ageing of the population, and British experts have called on the government to explain why there were more than 10,000 "additional deaths" in England and Wales in the first few weeks of 2018.

An editorial published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) showed that during the first seven weeks of the year, there were 93,990 deaths in total.

But in the same period over the previous five years an average of 83,615 people died.

The latest death rise suggests that British life expectancy is about to start falling, academics say. They have called for an urgent investigation after the latest in a string of figures that show older people are dying earlier than expected.

Infant mortality has also risen in the world's first industrialized country, with dozens more babies dying in 2016 than the previous year, according to the reports.

The reported deaths are the result of sustained underfunding and should be taken more seriously by the government, the reports said.

After decades of rising life expectancy, progress has stalled in recent years in Britain, while it continues in many other countries.

"Because so many older people are dying sooner than expected, life expectancy in Britain has stopped increasing," the Times newspaper said. "If this year's trend continues, British lives will start to become shorter, something unexpected in modern times."

"The figures make the case for an investigation stronger and more urgent," the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

Caroline Abrahams, who is from Age UK, said, "It is extremely worrying that more older people are dying during what was a relatively mild winter. Older people have felt the brunt of long-standing cuts to social care and stagnant funding for the NHS (Britian's National Health Service)."

To cope with anticipated pressures, the NHS was advised to cancel all non-urgent care in January, amounting to tens of thousands of planned operations, to free up capacity, the Independent newspaper said.

While British Prime Minister Theresa May said the NHS was better prepared for the winter than ever before, doctors warned that patients were "dying prematurely in corridors."

Danny Dorling, an Oxford professor who analyzed the figures, said, "The key thing to remember is we had an NHS in crisis like never before. Austerity policies are the most likely cause of the slowing of life expectancy rises."

"People have become a bit immune to this. Five years ago, this would have got a lot more attention, this huge number of people dying, this huge number of people dying" Dorling said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the British Department of Health and Social Care said, "We are absolutely committed to helping people live long and healthy lives, which is why the NHS was given top priority in the autumn budget. We will consider this and other new research."

The first weeks of this year witnessed that icy grip of the so-called Beast from the East continued to tighten on the British Isles, with more snow, wind and punishingly cold temperatures on the way.

However, the winter of 2017-18 is actually relatively mild compared to some that have come before. Which winter holds the distinction of "coldest on record" depends on the data and criteria used.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 22:00:15|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Xinhua writer Hu Tao

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The school system in China has seen "significant progress" in the quality of its education, according to a World Bank report Thursday.

The East Asia and Pacific region is on the way to equitable development in education, said the report,"Growing Smarter: Learning and Equitable Development in East Asia and the Pacific."

The East Asia Pacific region has seven of the top 10 performing education systems in the world, with schools in China and Vietnam showing strong evidence of high and equitable learning outcomes, the report said.

"Providing a high-quality education to all children, regardless of where they are born, isn't just the right thing to do, it is also the foundation of a strong economy and the best way to stop and reverse rising inequalities," said Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank vice president for East Asia and Pacific.

According to the report, improving education is necessary to sustain economic growth. The report also highlights ways that countries in the region have been able to improve learning outcomes.

"It is noticeable that, China provides several examples of how to equalize resources across the system, such as prioritizing the enhancement of the teacher-support system across the country," said Michael Crawford, co-author of the report and World Bank's lead education specialist.

China has implemented a long-term strategy to become a high-tech knowledge economy. It has seen a high-quality schooling drive its own economic growth as well as growth in the region.

It has the largest education system in the region, with 182 million students enrolled in basic deduction. The net enrollment in primary schools in China reached 99.9 percent in 2015.

One of the key findings of the report is that across the region, household incomes do not necessarily determine educational success.

According to PISA scores in Vietnam and some regions of China, students from poorer households do as well, if not better, in both mathematics and science, as compared to average students in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. PISA is the Program for International Student Assessment.

"Quality policies and sound practices in the classroom are what determine how much students learn," said Jaime Saavedra, the World Bank's senior director for education.

"For policymakers looking to improve their school systems, allocating existing budgets efficiently and systematically can make a real difference in the lives of children across the region," he said.

A quarter of the world's school-age children, about 331 million, live in the East Asia and the Pacific region.

Up to 40 percent of them attend school in education systems whose students are ahead of average students in OECD countries.

These schools are not only in wealthy countries such as Singapore and Japan, but also in middle-income countries such as China and Vietnam, according to the report.

It also highlights that student performance is not necessarily tied to a country's income level. By age 10, for example, the average Vietnamese student outperforms all but the top students in India, Peru and Ethiopia.

"Equalizing the quality of education and ensuring that children develop both basic and complex skills through education will be necessary to meet future labor market demands," Crawford said. "Sustainable commitment by governments is vital in ensuring that that reforms produce learning."Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 22:05:16|Editor: Jiaxin

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Hainan Airlines will launch China's first direct flight to Ireland to facilitate bilateral tourism and economic exchanges, the company announced Thursday.

The flight linking Beijing and Dublin will start operation on June 12, with the flight from Beijing to Dublin taking off each Thursday and Sunday and the return flight taking off each Tuesday and Saturday.

The company also decided to launch Beijing's first direct flight to Edinburgh. Flights linking Dublin and Edinburgh will also be opened.

The flights will operate using Airbus A330 aircraft, the company said.

Hainan Airlines also inked strategic cooperation agreements with the airports of Dublin and Edinburgh, as well as Tourism Ireland and VisitScotland to promote people-to-people and economic exchanges.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 22:10:17|Editor: Yurou

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A girl watches people from the window of a bus while evacuating the town of Hamouriyeh in Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus, Syria, March 15, 2018. The Syrian army captured the Hamouriyeh district in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside after the withdrawal of the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group as 12,500 people evacuated that area on Thursday, a monitor group reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army captured the Hamouriyeh district in the capital Damascus' Eastern Ghouta countryside after the withdrawal of the Failaq al-Rahman rebel group as 12,500 people evacuated that area on Thursday, a monitor group reported.

The Syrian government forces have started deploying in Hamouriyeh and set up their positions in that area amid an ongoing evacuation process of civilians from that area, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

This comes amid heavy shelling from the government side on the remaining posts of Failaq al-Rahman in the towns of Jisreen, Zamalka, Kafar Batna and Saqba, said the London-based watchdog group.

The observatory added that 12,500 civilians have left the areas of Failaq al-Rahman rebels through Hamouriyeh on Thursday, marking the largest wave of evacuation from civilians since the Russian-backed humanitarian pause for the civilian evacuation started two weeks ago.

It said the Russian and the Syrian government are sending a message that on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian crisis, civilians have started returning to the government side.

The state TV, meanwhile, aired several interviews with people leaving that area, all thanking the Syrian army for saving them.

It's the latest in a series of recent civilian evacuation operations in the rebel-held areas in the east of Damascus.

On Wednesday, around 90 civilians were evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, a day after 146 others left that area.

Earlier in the day, 25 truckloads of aid started to move to the rebel-held district of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The aid convoy was sent in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations.

It's the third aid convoy to enter Douma since the military operations in Eastern Ghouta started late last month.

Last Friday, 13 truckloads of aid entered Douma with 2,400 food parcels and 3,240 bags of wheat flour.

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.

The Syrian army has captured over 62 percent of Eastern Ghouta in recent days, as part of an ongoing offensive to dislodge rebels from the key areas on the eastern rim of Damascus.

Still, reports say that Douma will be excluded from the military operation as the Islam Army, which is in control of that area, is not designated as a terror group.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 22:20:19|Editor: Chengcheng

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VALLETTA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Malta's National Statistics Office said on Thursday that 87,190 foreign students are attending Malta's English language courses at local licensed English Language Teaching (ELT) schools in 2017.

Statistics reveals that foreign students number in 2017 increased by 13.6 percent over 2016.

The majority of students attending English courses in Malta came from Italy, Germany and France, which together accounted for more than half of total students.

The largest share of language students were aged 15 years or less, making up 32.2 percent of total students.

Female students outnumbered males in all age categories, and accounted for 59.7 percent of the entire student population under review.

The most popular course offered by local licensed ELT schools is General English. 71.5 percent of students studying during 2017 opted for this course.

English language teaching is an important sector within the tourism industry as well as a predominant contributor to an ever-evolving education sector.ADDIS ABABA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia said Thursday that unrest in Moyale area, southern Ethiopia, in recent days has displaced 39,825 people.

Speaking to the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Colonel Aligaz Gebre, head of the 41st division of Ethiopia army, said rumors of war was largely responsible for the displacement.

Gebre's comment came after a botched military operation to sniff out rebels in Moyale city last Saturday left nine civilians dead and 12 injured. The deadly shooting and resulting panic has already led to more than 8,000 people to flee to neighboring Kenya.

Ethiopia's Command Secretariat on Sunday said four soldiers including a colonel have been disarmed and put under arrest pending investigation.

Moyale near Kenya border is in Oromia regional state, which has been in a state of unrest since late 2015 that has left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

The unrest has forced the Ethiopian government to impose a six-month martial law starting February 16, saying it was to protect the country's constitution, citizens and their property from dangers that would arise from the violent demonstrations.

The current martial law period is the second the East African country has imposed since the second half of 2016. Ethiopia had witnessed a 10-month long state of emergency period since October 2016.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud announces on March 15, 2018 that his country would develop a nuclear bomb if Iran does so. (AFP photo)

RIYADH, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud announced on Thursday that his country would develop a nuclear bomb if Iran does so, Al Arabiya local news reported.

"We don't want to own nuclear weapons, but if Iran does that, we would do the same," he said, adding that the Saudi economy is stronger than Iran's.

The crown prince also accused Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of harboring expansion ambitions in the Middle East.

The announcement came two days after the Saudi cabinet adopted the national nuclear energy policy that is restricted for peaceful purposes and focuses mainly on the construction of nuclear energy plants.

The policy also requires best exploitation of local natural resources and full application of international standards in radiation waste management.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 22:25:20|Editor: Jiaxin

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CHANGSHA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese publisher Thursday said it has received orders for over 1 million copies of Stephen Hawking's works following the death of the legendary British physicist.

Hawking's death has put the spotlight on his books, leading to surging orders for new copies, said Sun Guijun, an editor at Hunan Science and Technology Press, the sole publisher of simplified Chinese versions of Hawking's works in China.

Many of Hawking's books are sold out on major Chinese online book retailers JD.com and Dangdang.com, and customers can only make pre-orders.

The publishing house introduced Hawking's best-seller "A Brief History of Time" to China in 1992 and went on to publish nearly 10 more books in the following 26 years.

"'A Brief History of Time' has been printed over 30 times and is very popular among Chinese readers," said Sun, who has been in charge of editing Hawking's books since 1999.

"When I first saw him at the University of Cambridge in 2006, I was deeply shocked to see such a great scientist bound to a wheelchair forever," recalled the editor.

"I could hardly believe that he had left us. I sobbed and my mind went blank several times," Sun said.

"Hawking was great. He solely depended on his mind to express while being unable to speak and write. His personal charisma has long inspired me," she said.

Hawking's books have been popular in China and many readers fell in love with science after reading his books.

The publisher also plans to publish more of Hawking's works in the future to help more readers in China gain an insight into his thoughts and personal charisma.

Hawking died at the age of 76, a family spokesperson announced Wednesday. His death has prompted mourning across the world, including among fans in China.

Hawking, a legendary figure in the modern history of physics, is known for his work on black holes and relativity, and he authored several best-sellers on science, despite being bound to a wheelchair. He was diagnosed with a motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21.

He broke new ground on the basic laws that govern the universe, including the revelation that black holes have a temperature and produce radiation, now known as Hawking radiation.

At the same time, he also sought to explain many of these complex scientific ideas to a wider audience through popular books, most notably his bestseller "A Brief History of Time," according to an obituary posted on the University of Cambridge's website.ROME, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Italy will double its contribution to the agency of the United Nations assisting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) this year, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Angelino Alfano said on Thursday.

Alfano made the announcement during an extraordinary conference held at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the Italian capital.

"Italy intends to double its financial support to the humanitarian activities managed by UNRWA in 2018," Alfano said.

Founded in 1949 to assist Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, UNRWA has been providing help to over 5 million people, including refugees affected by the seven-year-long war in Syria.

"In order to face the Syrian crisis, UNRWAY had to increase its relief efforts to reach out to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still (living) in the country, and also to assist thousands of displaced people in Lebanon and Jordan," Alfano explained in a statement.

Thursday's ministerial conference at the FAO headquarters was co-chaired by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Sweden, and Egypt, and attended by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Foreign Affairs High Representative of the European Union (EU) Federica Mogherini, and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

The aim of the event was to stimulate a response by the international community "to ensure UNRWA's unprecedented funding crisis of 446 million U.S. dollars is urgently solved."by Yuan Mengchen, Dong Chengwen and Dario Agnote

MANILA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's policy to open its door wider to the outside world will benefit developing countries like the Philippines, Philippine Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Thursday.

In an interview with Xinhua, Lopez said China "is now continuously supporting the globalization and liberalization of trade." He said the "noble act" is "very timely" given the recent developments that "some countries" are moving to "actually bring some trade wars."

Lopez lauded China for opening its market to the world, especially to developing countries.

"Definitely, this (strategy) will have a positive impact (to the world)," Lopez said.

Lopez said China has been adopting a strategy to buy more products from other countries to balance the trade with all the other countries.

"I think what China is doing is simply to continue the process of globalization and not build high tariff barriers and share prosperity with others," Lopez said.

China is the Philippines' largest trading partner, the largest source of import and the fourth largest export market.

Lopez said China's move is important given that China is one of the largest economies in the world.

"China is a huge country and huge economy, it gives hope to the smaller countries like the Philippines because China is thinking this way. This is the right way," Lopez said.

"China's idea of 'building a community with a shared future for mankind' is very fair to mankind and music to our ears," he said.

"We would like to see that happen. We are very happy China is a mature economy with the Chinese good values. Noble, honor and fairness. Those are values we inherit from China centuries ago," he said.

Lopez cited the big number of Chinese living in the Philippines and the kind of values the Chinese community has imparted to the Filipinos.

"You can feel that this sets a role model and future form that everyone should follow. Fairness, impartial system, shared prosperity, balanced increase. These are all positive initiatives that China can do for the world," Lopez said.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Lopez said the Philippines can learn a lot from China's development in the past 40 years, including how China promoted investment, and manufacturing in creating more jobs, he noted.

"This is the key that we achieve the growth. We need to take advantages of opportunities being provided by China, which means the Philippines needs to produce more to supply the Chinese market," he said.

Lopez said the China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November is a great opportunity for the Philippines to show off its products to the world.

Over 100 Philippine product and service exporters, as well as investors and government representatives, showed the willingness to attend the event.

"We appreciate the openness of China, especially to the Philippines. The challenges for us are how to cope with the opportunities coming our way," Lopez said.JAKARTA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia would send missions in Malaysia's upcoming travel fair held in three cities, aimed at tapping up to 1.4 million tourists from the neighboring country this year, an official at Indonesia Tourism Ministry said here on Thursday.

The Malaysian travel fair, Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair, will be held from March 16 to April 1 in Malaysia's three cities of Kuala Lumpur, Perak and Penang.

Malaysia is among top five foreign tourist contributors to Indonesia in the last several years.

"The 2018 MATTA Fair is a very potential momentum to attract more tourist from Malaysia, coping with our targets this year," Deputy Tourism Minister for International Marketing at the ministry I Gde Pitana said.

Pitana said Indonesian mission would focus on promotion and tour package sales in Bali, followed with other destinations of Borobudur Temple, Lake Toba and Lombok's Mandalika.

Indonesian exhibit in 2018 MATTA Fair would take a design of Phinisi traditional boat, to showcase various traditional and cultural attractions.

Indonesia Tourism Minister Arief Yahya hailed Indonesia's participation in the Malaysian travel fair event, expecting it would contribute to the nation's target to welcome 17 million foreign tourists this year.HARARE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean foreign minister Sibusiso Moyo said consultations are at an advanced stage on the country rejoining the Commonwealth, a grouping of mostly former British colonies.

The country left the group in 2003 following disputes over its governance, including its land reform program to expropriate land from white farmers to parcel out to landless blacks.

State media The Herald reported Thursday that Moyo had told Parliament that the new administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa was not facing any impediments with regards to it rejoining the Commonwealth.

"In fact the process which is there at the moment is that there are necessary processes and consultations which are taking place." Moyo said.

He said these consultations would inform the executive so that the process of rejoining the Commonwealth could then be undertaken.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 23:00:27|Editor: ZD

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by Xinhua writer Wang Lei

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's massive cabinet restructuring plan unveiled on Tuesday is widely seen by international observers as a significant and revolutionary move to meet the needs of the people and the country's development and streamline the governance system with a more efficient administration.

The institutional reform plan of the State Council, targeting a better-structured, more efficient and service-oriented government, was submitted to the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress for review.

If passed, it would be China's biggest government reshuffle in years, in which the State Council would have 15 fewer entities at ministerial or vice-ministerial levels.

Observers believe that the move, as part of a broader plan of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to reform the Party and state institutions, would optimize the government's functions by promoting coordinated actions and improving levels of management and public service to better satisfy people's demands and the needs of development in a new era.

Given China's fast pace of development, revamping the current governance system and adapting it to the changing conditions in various fields is an urgent task, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.

To reform state institutions even further is an important step for the comprehensive establishment of the institutional system, which is seen as a cornerstone of the country's long-term stability and peace, he said.

For Milton Reyes, an expert at Ecuador's Institute of Advanced National Studies, China has entered a new stage of development, which means the CPC, China's ruling party, needs to improve its ability to run the world's second-largest economy.

The plan to reform state institutions was proposed at just the right time with quite clear targets, Reyes said, adding that the endeavors would optimize the government's structure and functions, and cut bureaucracy.

Besides downsizing the cabinet, China also plans to create a series of new ministries, including a ministry of natural resources, a ministry of veterans affairs and an international development cooperation agency, and to integrate national and local taxation systems at and below the provincial level.

China's efforts to further reform the Party and state institutions will facilitate the functioning and improve the working efficiency and quality of the administration, so as to further reinforce the full implementations of policies from the central government, Jon Taylor, a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas in the United States, told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the reallocation of power, brought about by the shake-up at all levels of governments, would also lead to a more efficient management of the government, he added.

With the reshuffle, the government would play a more effective role in performing its functions, said Ignacio Cortes, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "It will lay a solid foundation of governance for China's sustainable development in the future."

When it comes to efficiency, Ecuadorian expert Reyes spoke highly of the move to cut bureaucracy, saying that "it will help China to build an effective, transparent and honest administration."

Selcuk Colakoglu, vice chairman of Turkey's International Strategic Research Organization, said he was fully confident in China's reforms.

"It has entered a key stage, which is very crucial for China's development and modernization," he said.

(Xinhua reporters Li Xiaoyu in Singapore, Hao Yunfu in Quito, Gao Lu and Liu Liwei in Houston, Wu Hao in Mexico City, and Shi Chun and Wang Feng in Ankara also contributed to the story.)HARARE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit Zimbabwe on Saturday for talks with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his office confirmed Thursday.

The South African Presidency said in a statement that Ramaphosa will also visit Mozambique on the same day as part of his regional tours to apprise regional leaders on the latest developments in his country.

It said Ramaphosa will visit the two countries as chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

"The visit forms part of a long-standing tradition in the SADC region whereby newly elected heads of state pay courtesy calls to the neighboring countries," said the office.

Ramaphosa took over from former President Jacob Zuma who resigned in February.

During the Zimbabwe visit, Ramaphosa and Mnangagwa are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation and other regional, continental and global issues.

"It is expected that the SADC heads of state will pay a particular focus on the latest political and security developments in the region including the regional economic integration agenda in the SADC," the office said.

South Africa is Zimbabwe's biggest trading partner and is home to millions of immigrants from Zimbabwe.TOKYO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Japan and South Korea held security talks for the first time in three years in Tokyo on Thursday.

According to Japan's Foreign Ministry, the two sides exchanged views on their security situation, defense policies as well as communication and cooperation in defense fields.

The two sides agreed to further enhance mutual understanding and cooperation in defense fields, said the ministry.

Senior foreign affairs and defense officials of the two countries participated in the talks, including Kenji Kanasugi, head of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japan's Foreign Ministry, and Kim Yong-kil, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau.

The talks on Thursday were the 11th edition of the Japan-South Korea Security Dialogue which began in 1998, with the last round held in South Korea in April 2015.WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced its decision to sanction five entities and 19 individuals, accusing them of having interfered with the 2016 U.S. elections and engaged in "malicious" cyber attacks.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "the administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure."

"These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia," he said.

In an announcement, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the entities and individuals were designated under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) as well as Executive Order 13694.

"Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions," Mnuchin said.Outgoing Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (front) and his successor Peter Pellegrini arrive for the ceremony of tendering resignation by Fico and appointing Pellegrini for the post, in Bratislava, Slovakia, March 15, 2018. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) resigned from his post on Thursday. Meanwhile, President Kiska has tasked Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) with forming a new government. (Xinhua/TASR/Martin Baumann)

BRATISLAVA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) resigned from his post on Thursday.

According to the reports by local news agency, Fico has handed over his resignation to President Andrej Kiska.

Fico's Government resigned as well, with the ministers keeping their posts until a new cabinet is appointed.

Meanwhile, President Kiska has tasked Deputy Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) with forming a new government.

Pellegrini has already delivered to President Kiska signatures from 79 MPs supporting the new government earlier in the day.

Fico decided to step down from his post after a two-week coalition crisis that emerged following the murders of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova.

In the crisis triggered by the murders, Marek Madaric was the first to resign on the post of culture minister, followed by Robert Kalinak who resigned as the interior minister a week later.

But Fico will remain the Smer-SD chairman.Sorry, this news has been deleted.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 23:45:40|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China hopes to address bilateral trade issues with the United States in a constructive manner and by way of making a bigger cake of cooperation, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks when asked for comment on the latest announcement of the U.S., which pressed China to cut its trade surplus with the U. S. by 100 billion dollars.

"We will never accept those rules unilaterally imposed by any country," said Lu, adding that China has always abided by the rule-based multilateral trading system with WTO at its core and has complied with bilateral and multilateral trade and investment arrangements reached with relevant countries.

"China-U.S. economic and trade relations have proved to be reciprocal in essence and have brought huge benefits to the peoples and business communities of both countries in the past 40 years, including providing both with a huge market and plenty of job opportunities," said the spokesman. "I don't believe such relations would have lasted till this day if they had only benefited the Chinese side."

"The two sides have properly resolved their trade differences in a constructive manner over the past 40 years. We believe the two countries can still settle their disputes through friendly negotiations, and we are ready to do so," Lu said.

He also stressed that China is ready to safeguard its rights and interests should anything unwanted happens.WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced its decision to sanction five entities and 19 individuals, accusing them of having interfered with the 2016 U.S. elections and engaged in "malicious" cyber attacks.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said "the administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure."

"These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia," he said.

In an announcement, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the entities and individuals were designated under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) as well as Executive Order 13694.

"Treasury intends to impose additional CAATSA sanctions," Mnuchin said.

The announcement also said that since at least March 2016, Russian "government cyber actors" have targeted U.S. government entities and multiple critical infrastructure sectors.

It also said that Russia was behind the recent use of a "military-grade nerve agent" to "murder" two British citizens, but Russia denied its involvement in the incident.

As a result of Thursday's sanctions, all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction would be blocked, and U.S. persons were generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

The United States has been accusing Russia of interference in the U.S. presidential elections in 2016 and involvement in hacker attacks against the United States, which have been denied by Russia.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 23:50:42|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) on Wednesday published 10 typical cases of cheating and misleading advertising concerning food products.

In one of the cases, a suspect from central China's Hunan Province used Internet to sell food added with banned substances, including sibutramine and phenolphthalein. The case is worth of 200 million yuan (31.67 million U.S. dollars).

Another two cases, each worth of 10 million yuan, also involve adding of illegal substances to food products.

The suspects from the three cases have been transferred to the police.

The other cases involve illegal acts such as food production without permission and using fake production dates on labels.

The authorities will keep taking strong action against such cases, punish the suspects and stop their momentum, according to the CFDA, which released a video and a poster warning the public of misleading food advertisements, particularly those of health food, on Thursday, the World Consumer Rights Day.

The CFDA worked with eight other departments to launch a year-long campaign to crack down on food frauds across the country last July and had handled 12,000 cases by the end of 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 23:50:42|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- World number one Roger Federer will take on South Korea's Chung Hyeon in the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells ATP tournament after their respective victories in Round 4 on Wednesday.

It's a rematch of this year's Australian Open semifinal, where the Swiss master defeated the South Korean en route to emerging as eventual winner in Melbourne.

The five-time champion improved to 15-0 in 2018, with every match occurring on hard court. Even more remarkable, Federer has only lost three sets this year (36-3 in sets).

If he can repeat his Australian Open semifinal victory against Chung, Federer, 36, will match his previous best start to a season, which came in 2006 when he was 24 years old (16-0).

"It's been great...Felt like I found my range, my rhythm early in the year. Tough draw like here at Indian Wells, you're never quite sure what to expect. So I'm just happy I'm on a good run," said Federer.

"You can't plan for these runs to happen. Either they happen or they don't. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to keep the runs going. And this year it's just been really good, solid matches," Federer added. "We'll see how long it lasts really. This might be the last day. So we'll see. It's just how it goes. Don't jinx it."

Chung, seeded 23rd in Indian Wells, defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-1, 6-3.

The men's singles fourth round winners also include Kevin Anderson of South Africa, American veteran Sam Querrey, sixth seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina and Canada's Milos Raonic.

In women's singles, top seed Simona Halep of Romania battled through Petra Martic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 to make last four while Naomi Osaka of Japan stunned former world number one Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 to also reach semifinals.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. China Tuesday unveiled a massive cabinet restructuring plan to make the government better structured, more efficient, and service-oriented. The institutional reform plan of the State Council, affecting dozens of entities, was submitted to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress for review, pending approval. If passed, it will be China's eighth cabinet restructuring since 1982. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

by Xinhua writer Wang Lei

BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China's massive cabinet restructuring plan unveiled on Tuesday is widely seen by international observers as a significant and revolutionary move to meet the needs of the people and the country's development and streamline the governance system with a more efficient administration.

The institutional reform plan of the State Council, targeting a better-structured, more efficient and service-oriented government, was submitted to the ongoing first session of the 13th National People's Congress for review.

If passed, it would be China's biggest government reshuffle in years, in which the State Council would have 15 fewer entities at ministerial or vice-ministerial levels.

Observers believe that the move, as part of a broader plan of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to reform the Party and state institutions, would optimize the government's functions by promoting coordinated actions and improving levels of management and public service to better satisfy people's demands and the needs of development in a new era.

Given China's fast pace of development, revamping the current governance system and adapting it to the changing conditions in various fields is an urgent task, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.

To reform state institutions even further is an important step for the comprehensive establishment of the institutional system, which is seen as a cornerstone of the country's long-term stability and peace, he said.

For Milton Reyes, an expert at Ecuador's Institute of Advanced National Studies, China has entered a new stage of development, which means the CPC, China's ruling party, needs to improve its ability to run the world's second-largest economy.

The plan to reform state institutions was proposed at just the right time with quite clear targets, Reyes said, adding that the endeavors would optimize the government's structure and functions, and cut bureaucracy.

Besides downsizing the cabinet, China also plans to create a series of new ministries, including a ministry of natural resources, a ministry of veterans affairs and an international development cooperation agency, and to integrate national and local taxation systems at and below the provincial level.

China's efforts to further reform the Party and state institutions will facilitate the functioning and improve the working efficiency and quality of the administration, so as to further reinforce the full implementations of policies from the central government, Jon Taylor, a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas in the United States, told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the reallocation of power, brought about by the shake-up at all levels of governments, would also lead to a more efficient management of the government, he added.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers a government work report at the opening meeting of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 5, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

With the reshuffle, the government would play a more effective role in performing its functions, said Ignacio Cortes, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "It will lay a solid foundation of governance for China's sustainable development in the future."

When it comes to efficiency, Ecuadorian expert Reyes spoke highly of the move to cut bureaucracy, saying that "it will help China to build an effective, transparent and honest administration."

Selcuk Colakoglu, vice chairman of Turkey's International Strategic Research Organization, said he was fully confident in China's reforms.

"It has entered a key stage, which is very crucial for China's development and modernization," he said.

(Xinhua reporters Li Xiaoyu in Singapore, Hao Yunfu in Quito, Gao Lu and Liu Liwei in Houston, Wu Hao in Mexico City, and Shi Chun and Wang Feng in Ankara also contributed to the story.)Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-15 23:55:43|Editor: yan

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HANGZHOU, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China has initiated a pilot mechanism of appointing "gulf chiefs" to tackle pollution on coastlines and offshore areas.

The State Oceanic Administration (SOA) on Wednesday held the first on-site meeting in Taizhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, to oversee the pilot results.

Officials and supervisors from the administration viewed information boards erected along the coast in Shitang Township, which provided information including the names and contact means of the gulf chiefs responsible for supervising the sections of coastline.

Each board also has a QR code for the public to report cases of pollution.

In 2017, some 2,000 gulf chiefs were appointed in the pilot in Zhejiang. The province has 6,486.24 kilometers of coastline, the most in China.

Pan Chongmin, director of the marine and fishery bureau in Taizhou, told the meeting that gulf chiefs have helped clear and block off 117 outlets discharging sewage into the sea. Thanks to these efforts, the water quality of four estuaries in the city now meets the national standard.

More than 80 percent of marine pollution derives from land. An SOA meeting in January concluded a nationwide survey of land-based sources of marine pollution, identifying a total of 9,600 such sources.

The SOA selected the province of Zhejiang and cities of Qinhuangdao, Qingdao, Lianyungang, and Haikou to pilot the gulf-chief mechanism at the start of 2017.

Sun Shuxian, deputy director of the SOA, said at the meeting that the pilot should be extended and expanded this year, and a national standard system to evaluate the work of gulf chiefs should be established based on the pilot results.

The protection mechanism for maritime pollution control outlined by the SOA is similar to the approaches of "river chiefs" and "lake chiefs" which have been widely adopted nationwide since 2016 and have achieved visible results in combatting pollution.

Under the mechanism, top officials at provincial, city, county, and township levels are appointed as chiefs, accountable for the effects of water pollution control.ADDIS ABABA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Infrastructure works done to connect Djibouti and Ethiopia have hit 15 billion U.S. dollars, an Ethiopian official said on Thursday.

Speaking to local and international media, Meles Alem, Spokesperson of Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said the infrastructure investment has helped to closely integrate the two countries.

Alem mentioned the Chinese built and financed 4 billion U.S. dollars 756 kms Addis Ababa-Djibouti electrified rail line as a standout project.

Contracted by two Chinese companies, the first 320 km of the rail project was carried out by China Rail Engineering Corporation (CREC), while the remaining 436 km connecting to the Djibouti port was built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).

The railway project provides both passenger and freight services between Addis Ababa and Djibouti.

Chinese finance and expertise has also helped in building a potable water project bringing water from Ethiopia to Djibouti and in the construction of ports in Djibouti which will service landlocked Ethiopia's increasing foreign trade.

Gedion Jalata, CEO of Center of Excellence International Consult, told Xinhua that Ethiopia-Djibouti economic ties are being boosted by the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

"B&R has already incorporated 60 countries since its launch in 2013, with a landmark B&R project the commissioned 756 kms Ethiopia-Djibouti electrified rail line and other ongoing infrastructure projects in ports, industrial parks, air sector helping connect Ethiopia and Djibouti to China," he said.NAIROBI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A UN official on Thursday attributed the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Africa to unregulated importation of used vehicles.

Rob de Jong, head of Air Quality and Mobility Unit at the UN Environment, said the majority of diesel engine vehicles sold to the continent produce adverse emissions that require regulation.

"You need to develop a harmonized policy to help regulate the importation of the vehicles to avoid being duped by importers," he said at the ongoing Africa Clean Mobility Conference in Nairobi.

De Jong noted that the majority of countries do not have policies to regulate the importation of the vehicles and that the existing policies are not uniform.

He said given that the countries have porous borders, it is important that a harmonized policy is developed as opposed to every country developing their own.

"You need to copy the European Union that has a single policy that guides the importation of used cars," he added.

Used vehicles are popular in most African countries, yet their rate of pollution is higher compared to new vehicles.

In East Africa alone, 70 percent of GHG emissions recorded comes from the transport sector that is dominated by the used vehicles.

De Jong said more than 42 million used cars were imported in the continent mainly by Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Guinea, Cameroon, Togo and Uganda in 2014 alone.

He said even as the vehicles provide opportunities, they too provide challenges in regard to their condition and fuel issues.

De Jong urged African governments to acquire affordable technology to help acquire quality used vehicles, fit for the operating environment and do not have adverse financial, environmental and health impacts.

"The vehicles should be between three to five years old, proven to work well and clean for usage," he added.

De Jong commended Mauritius which imported four hybrid electric vehicles in 2016 and has increased the number to 4,000.

He said the UN Environment is ready to help the countries develop harmonized policies to avoid having several different policies.

"Vehicle exporting countries must also stop dumping unsafe and dirty vehicles and start helping African countries leapfrog to clean and safe technology," he noted.

He recommended that exporters contribute one U.S. dollars per every exported car to help fix their environmental damage.

According to the UNEP, used cars in the continent are mainly imported from Japan, Europe and the United States. Kenya imports 96 percent of used cars years while Nigeria imports 99 mainly through internet-based sales. Liberia imports 90 percent while in Uganda the numbers of used cars are higher than new cars.NAIROBI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government on Thursday launched legal guidelines to assist in the fight against international crime.

Githu Muigai, outgoing Attorney General, said the blueprint dubbed "Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) in Criminal Matters," is a positive step in strengthening the East African nation's cooperation with international partners in the field of crime.

"The mutual legal assistance will be used by law enforcement agencies during investigations, prosecutions, judicial proceedings, consultations and service of overseas processes," Muigai said.

He added that the document will also be used in freezing and confiscating property acquired from proceeds of crime.

The document, which was put together with assistance from the British government, is intended to provide essential basic information on the country's mutual legal assistance program and will seek to improve the efficiency of processing of mutual legal assistance requests to Kenya.

Muigai said Kenya will now be in a position to provide mutual legal assistance to any country or territory in the world whether or not the country has signed treaties and agreements with such states.

He said the scandal in which officials of British printing company Smith and Ouzman got convicted for paying out bribes to Kenyan electoral and examinations officers was as a result of mutual legal assistance between the two governments.

According to the document, a letter of request from a foreign government must specify the nature of the criminal matter, the assistance required and details of any particular procedure to be followed in order for the application to be complied with.

British High Commissioner to Kenya, Nic Hailey, said the fact that Kenya is the first country in the region to endorse the MLA is testimony of its strength and willingness to tackle corruption.

"We will help to bring more people to justice, the bad guys don't play by the rules but governments do play by the rules," the envoy commented.

Muthoni Kimani, the director of Asset Recovery Agency, said Kenya is sending out a message that the country is not a safe haven for hiding ill-gotten assets, and that the nation is alive to its obligations.

"Requesting states can now make their applications with ease so long as the procedure is not contrary to Kenyan law. Failure to do so will mean that the service will be effected according to Kenyan law," Kimani noted.ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan has called back its high commissioner in India to discuss the incidents of harassment of its diplomats and their families in New Delhi, Muhammad Faisal, the spokesman of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

The spokesperson, in a weekly press briefing, highlighted the harassment of Pakistani diplomats in India and said "Pakistan High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood, has been called back from New Delhi by the federal government for a consultation related to harassment cases with Pakistani diplomats."

"As the Indian government did not take any steps to safeguard the Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, the Pakistani government has also lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy high commissioner as well as India's External Affairs Ministry," said the spokesperson.

Separately, Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on Tuesday to protest against the "maltreatment being meted out to the officials and families of Pakistan High Commission."

Faisal said photographs identifying individuals involved in the harassments had been submitted to the Indian External Affairs Ministry, but no actions were taken.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said the officers, staff and more regrettably the families and children of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi continue to face intense harassment, intimidation and outright violence.

The ministry said the harassments are "not confined to a single isolated event, but continues unabated in a series of incidents."

Faisal said unknown persons illegally stop cars in which Pakistani diplomats' family were on board on their way back from school and the harassers filmed and threatened them, including children.

Faisal termed continuous occurrence of the harassments as a failure of Indian authorities, saying that "under the Vienna Convention, the safety and security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian government."

Meanwhile, India on Thursday described Pakistan's move to call back its envoy from New Delhi as a "routine."

"He has been called back for consultation. It is pretty normal for an ambassador, High Commissioner in any country to brief its foreign office. It is pretty routine in nature," foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a press conference in New Delhi.SINGAPORE, March 16 (Xinhua)-- The cooperation between China and Singapore on the Belt and Road Initiative has yielded concrete results, the newly-appointed Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Hong Xiaoyong said on Thursday.

Hong made the remarks upon his arrival in Singapore Thursday night.

He said the China-Singapore bilateral relations have entered a new stage of even greater growth, compared with his last posting in Singapore as a diplomat 10 years ago.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity is moving ahead smoothly, the building of the Southern Transport Corridor is gradually realizing the goal of connecting the Belt with the Road, and the two sides are also jointly expanding cooperation in third countries, he said.

"All these have demonstrated our shared commitment to our peoples and to the region," he said.

For the past five years in a row, China has remained Singapore's largest trading partner and Singapore as China's top foreign investor, Hong noted.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, and it was 40 years ago that China and Singapore took the historically significant step of substantial cooperation, he said, adding that the past 40 years is the best witness of the China-Singapore relationship that is strong, dynamic and ever-growing.

Hong is the 11th Chinese ambassador to Singapore. He is scheduled to present his credentials to Singapore's President Halimah Yacob at the end of March.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 01:10:56|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Thursday adopted a resolution to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for a year, till March 15, 2019.

Resolution 2406, which was approved unanimously, also decides to maintain the overall force levels of the mission, known as UNMISS, with a ceiling of 17,000 troops and 2,101 police personnel. The troops include a Regional Protection Force at levels to be set by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres but not to exceed 4,000.

The resolution requests Guterres to take the necessary steps to expedite force and asset generation.

The resolution demands that all parties immediately end the fighting throughout South Sudan, and that South Sudanese leaders implement the permanent cease-fire declared in a 2015 peace agreement and cease-fires for which they respectively called in the following years.

It demands the leaders ensure that subsequent decrees and orders directing their commanders to control their forces and to protect civilians are fully implemented.

It demands the transitional government immediately cease obstructing UNMISS in the performance of its mandate, and cease obstructing international and national humanitarian actors from assisting civilians.

It calls on the transitional government to take action to deter and to hold those responsible to account for any hostile or other actions that impede UNMISS or international and national humanitarian actors.

The resolution indicates that the Security Council may consider all appropriate measures against those who take actions that undermine the peace, stability and security of South Sudan.

On Dec. 14, 2017, the Security Council renewed the UNMISS mandate for three months as a technical rollover to allow for the completion of a strategic review of the UN mission.

Shortly after its independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan plunged into civil war, in which up to 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed since late 2013. More than 1.5 million people having fled to neighboring countries, more are internally displaced. UN officials have repeatedly said the South Sudanese civil war is a man-made tragedy, blaming it on the greed of South Sudanese politicians.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 01:20:59|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov (R) and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz attend a press conference in Sofia March 15, 2018. Boyko Borissov and Sebastian Kurz said on Thursday the external borders of the European Union should be better protected. (Xinhua/Wang Xinran)

SOFIA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Thursday said the external borders of the European Union (EU) should be better protected.

Those fleeing from wars should enter the EU only through border crossing points, Borissov said at a joint press conference after talks with Kurz.

They should get shelter for a certain period of time and then return to where they came from, Borissov said.

Kurz said in turn that illegal migrants in Central Europe are too many, and external borders of the EU should be strengthened.

He was glad that Bulgaria has been active in this area, Kurz said, adding the EU should cooperate with Turkey in the fight against illegal migration and terrorism.

Meanwhile, Kurz said Austria and Bulgaria shared the view that the Western Balkans should be integrated into the EU as soon as possible.

However, some of these countries still did not meet the criteria for EU membership, he added.JOHANNESBURG, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries on Thursday resolved to work together to tackle the listeriosis which broke out in South Africa last year.

South African Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi said this on Thursday while addressing the media about meeting the Southern African Ministers of Health in Johannesburg about the listeriosis outbreak.

Motsoaledi called his counterparts to find ways to prevent the spread of the disease in the region. The 15 SADC ministers agreed to return the meat products imported from South Africa to be disposed of in the country.

"The recall of products in neighboring countries is the responsibility of the companies and not the countries. We have strongly advised ministers here to discourage citizens in their countries from disposing the products themselves, because there is a danger in that. The products should be brought back here in South Africa to be disposed in a scientific manner as agreed with South Africa's minister of environmental affairs," said Motsoaledi.

The southern African countries agreed to tighten border control to prevent the smuggling of meat from South Africa which might spread listeriosis.

Since its outbreak last year, listeriosis have killed 180 people in South Africa and 940 cases have been reported. Motsoaledi stated that he expects the infection to increase. Southern African countries agreed to share information and coordinate closely in the region to ensure that other disease does not spread to other countries.

Motsoaledi said, "We have called on the SADC Secretariat to facilitate experience sharing and information exchange between member states. We have also requested the support of international and regional partners like WHO to support capacity building for member states."

The countries in the region have suspended importation of processed meat from South Africa. Zimbabwean's Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said his country has no reported listeriosis cases. He however pointed out that they are on high alert to prevent the spread of the disease and address it if reported. Namibia has one case of listeriosis reported.KIEV, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A passenger plane from Finland's capital Helsinki made an emergency landing at Boryspil International Airport outside the Ukrainian capital, local media reported Thursday, citing the airport's press service.

"There were technical problems, but everything went normally. The landing was successful," Tetyana Yarosh, Boryspil airport spokesperson, told media outlet Ukrainska Pravda.

The plane carried a total of 46 people and no one onboard was hurt in the accident, Yarosh said.

The plane, belonging to Ukrainian International Airlines, was en route from Helsinki to Boryspil, she added.

The Ukrainian State Service for Emergencies has confirmed it was alerted about the emergency situation, but the emergency crews were called off after the aircraft made a safe landing.NAIROBI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and many others displaced as flash floods caused by heavy rains continued to be experienced in several parts of Kenya on Thursday.

The police and government officials confirmed deaths in Kitui and Kajiado counties in eastern and southern Kenya respectively as heavy rains that pounded several parts of the East African nation paralyzed businesses, transport and learning in schools across the country.

Meanwhile, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) announced the closure of the busy Nairobi-Mombasa highway after a bridge collapsed at Athi River area.

KENHA's head of communication Charles Njogu warned drivers against using the same route after Sioni Bridge was over-topped by flood waters. The bridge is located at the junction of Athi River and Machakos.

"The Kenya National Highways Authority would like to urge motorists and pedestrians to exercise caution and not attempt to cross the bridge or any other road that are overtopped by floods," Njogu said in a statement.

He also said their engineers are on standby, monitoring any eventuality that may occur as a result of the ongoing heavy downpour.

The closure of the highway is expected to affect thousands of motorists and travelers who are set to be stranded on both sides of the Mombasa-Nairobi Highway at Mto wa Mawe in Machakos County after Athi River broke its banks and flooded the key thoroughfare.

Machakos County Governor Alfred Mutua said some 50 people were rescued from submerged structures in Green Park Estate after floods marooned the estate.

Mutua said a bulk of those rescued by the county emergency services team comprised of the elderly, children and house helps.

Torrential rains, which pounded many parts of Kenya, resulted in flood waters over-topping bridges, cutting off highways, destroying structures, disrupting business and displacing people.

Across the country, businesses and property were destroyed by the raging floods on Wednesday night and on Thursday even as emergency service providers rushed to address the situation.

At least two people including a pupil died in Kajiado following the rains. Kajiado County Commissioner David Kipkemei said the pupil in Kiserian Town died after being swept away while crossing a stream.

Kipkemei has directed that all schools within the county be closed until the heavy rains being experienced in most part of the country subside.

In Mwingi Town, Kitui County, four people were swept by raging water at River Enziu. The four were among eight people who were on a lorry ferrying charcoal before being washed away.

Mwingi East Divisional Police Commander Paul Munene said River Enziu unexpectedly broke it banks while the victims were in the process of making their crossing.

"Those who were in the lorry tried to climb up but the water was too much. It covered the lorry and washed it downwards," he said.

On Kibwezi-Kitui road in eastern Kenya, more than 20 homes were swept away by water after heavy rains.

Eastern Regional Police Commander Moses Ombati said the victims had been accommodated at a local school. "They are being attended to by the Kenya Red Cross and other agencies," Ombati said.

Director General of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Geoffrey Wahungu said government officers have been deployed to monitor areas likely to experience flooding.

Wahungu said Kenyans living in hilly areas that are likely to experience landslides and those residing on illegally built structures should move urgently.

"We are asking Kenyans not to test their luck by crossing moving water. Those in a structure built on riparian land have been asked to move and currently our teams are monitoring the situation in Mathare, Huruma, South C and South B (in Nairobi)," he added.

Kenya Meteorological Service on Thursday warned that heavy rains will continue in many parts of the country for the next five days.

The department further cautioned drivers against speeding owing to slippery roads and reduced visibility.

Rains continue to cause havoc in many parts of Kenya, with the capital, Nairobi, among the most-affected areas. In Nairobi, most roads were flooded affecting flow of vehicles.CHICAGO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Chicago-based United Airlines has announced to use colored tags for labeling pet bags after death of a pet dog on one of its flights.

"This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," United said in a previous statement. "We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them."

United pledged to provide better care for pets on board its flights. "To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

The incident took place Monday night on board a three-hour flight from the southern city of Houston to New York City. A carrier containing a French bulldog was on the ground sticking out into the aisle, and the owner was told to store it in an overhead bin. Upon arrival the dog died.

The incident drew a spotlight on the United's pet care record, which according to official figures is the worst in industry.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said 24 pets died or was injured last year while flying on U.S. carriers, 18 of which were on the United flights.

The district attorney's office in Harris County, Texas on late Wednesday said its animal cruelty division is working with the county's animal cruelty task force to investigate the death of the bulldog on the United flight from Houston.

Prosecutors said in a statement they won't decide whether or not to press charges until the investigation is completed.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 01:56:06|Editor: pengying

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Photo taken on Feb. 16, 2018 shows a view of Muyanza Dam built by China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGC) in Rulindo District, Northern Province of Rwanda. The recently completed Muyanza Dam is the second highest in Rwanda and the country's highest and largest earth fill dam in the agriculture sector. It will benefit farmers and help grow crops for exports, a Rwandan official said on Thursday. (Xinhua/CGC)

KIGALI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The recently completed Muyanza Dam in central Rwanda will benefit farmers and help grow crops for exports, a Rwandan official said on Thursday.

The 26-meter-high Muyanza Dam located in Rulindo District, Northern Province was built by China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGC) and financed by the World Bank. Land Husbandry, Water Harvesting and Hillside Irrigation Project and the Third Rural Sector Support Project (LWH-RSSP) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda is the employer of the project.

The dam is the second highest in Rwanda and the country's highest and largest earth fill dam in the agriculture sector, Esdras Byiringiro, Acting Project Coordinator of LWH-RSSP, told Xinhua in an interivew.

The dam is expected to retain enough water to irrigate 1,100 hectares of crop fields throughout the year which will benefit all categories of farmers, said Byiringiro, adding that those include commercial, small- and medium-scale farmers.

A number of high-value legumes, grain and horticultural crops will be grown by farmers in the area, of which a significant portion will be for export markets, he said.

The irrigated area to be served by this dam is the largest consolidated hillside area in Rwanda, said the official.

Dams construction, irrigation schemes and marshland rehabilitation conducted by Chinese companies have helped the government of Rwanda to implement irrigation projects across the country, which has led to an increase in agricultural productivity and a significant rise in farmers' incomes and livelihoods, said the coordinator.

Since entering the market of Rwanda in 1999, CGC has completed 13 irrigation and water conservancy projects in the landlocked country.HARARE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A visiting top United Nations official on Thursday met Zimbabwean foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo to discuss the world body's support to Zimbabwe's upcoming polls.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) administrator Achim Steiner told journalists after the meeting that the UN was committed to supporting Zimbabwe's efforts to hold free and fair elections and achieve economic growth.

"We are very much committed to the success of this election as we are committed also to the economic recovery of Zimbabwe as a nation in terms of its macro-economic indicators," Steiner said.

He said the UN was pleased to provide Zimbabwe with technical support for the crucial polls, which comes after the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe last November.

"We are very proud and pleased to be part of efforts to support the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) not only on the technical side but also on public outreach, voter education and many of the elements that are essential to make this a successful election," he said.

Already, the UNDP has provided support to ZEC to conduct bio-metric voter registration under which 5.3 million Zimbabweans have so far registered for the polls.

Steiner's visit is the first by a UN official since the end of Mugabe's presidency.

Zimbabwean elections are expected to be held no later than August 21 this year.SKOPJE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The law on the use of languages, apart from easing communication between citizens and institutions, will also seriously contribute to the building the concept of "one society for all citizens," Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told citizens here Thursday in a video address.

"Now is the time to abandon the policies of division, discord and conflict, which are opposite to our values and European values. Our duty and responsibility lie in the interests of all citizens, without exception," Zaev said, noting that there was no reasonable justification of the blockade of political processes and political institutions.

He said it was time for reforms and economy and time for development of Macedonia in the interest of all citizens.

The law on languages foresees the advancement of the use of Albanian language across the country, making it Macedonia's second official language. It was adopted with 64 votes during Wednesday's parliament session amid tensions as opposition MPs tried to block the voting process.

Zaev said that the languages law fully complied with the constitution and amendment five, passed 17 years ago.

"No one is and no one can be above the constitution," Zaev said in his video address.

He further said that Macedonian government was committed to policies that have been building Macedonia as a civil country of all those living here: Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs, Romas, Bosniaks, and all the remaining communities.

Meanwhile, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said in an address on Wednesday that he would not sign the presidential decree that was passed through the parliament.

According to Ivanov, during the voting of the bill, parliamentary rules were not respected. He again claimed the draft bill goes against the constitution and threatens the single character of the country.

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE said that it would press charges against parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi and that the party would not recognize this law.

Under the new law on the use of languages, the Albanian language, which is the language of the second largest ethnic community in Macedonia, will be an official language alongside the Macedonian language.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 02:06:08|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Israel's top court on Thursday temporarily suspended a deportation plan of thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers following petitions by human rights groups.

The petitions were filed in an effort to stop a government plan to deport the asylum seekers to Africa.

In its decision, the Supreme Court said the state should respond by March 26 and provide further details about the plan. Until that deadline, the plan is suspended, the court said.

The plan was first announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January. Under the plan, migrants who entered the county without permits would be given a choice between leaving voluntarily to an unnamed "third country" in Africa or face indefinite imprisonment before they would be forced to leave. Women, as well as children and their parents, would be excluded from the plan.

Official figures released by the Interior Ministry show some 42,000 African migrants currently live in Israel.

Human rights groups say the refugees will face life danger if the plan is implemented.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 02:11:11|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Thursday called on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access to all affected areas.

In a presidential statement, the council expressed concern over the impact that access restrictions on commercial and humanitarian imports have on the humanitarian situation.

It called on the parties to immediately facilitate access for these essential imports into the country and their distribution in order to reach the entire civilian population.

The Security Council called for the full and sustained opening of all Yemen's ports, including the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah and Saleef, and stressed the importance of keeping these functioning and open to all commercial and humanitarian imports, including food, fuel and medical imports.

The council also called for increased access to Sanaa airport for life-saving humanitarian supplies and movement of urgent humanitarian cases.

The council reaffirmed that denial of humanitarian access can constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 02:21:13|Editor: yan

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SANAA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Yemeni armed Houthi movement on Thursday confirmed that his group has been undergoing secret talks with the Saudi side since two months to end three years of war.

"The movement's spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam had held several rounds of direct negotiations with the Saudi officials in Oman to pave the way for a comprehensive political solution," the official of the Houthi Political Bureau told Xinhua by phone on condition of anonymity.

"There are ongoing debates over several issues," the official said without providing any details.

The new development emerged after the new UN envoy to Yemen, former British diplomat Martin Griffiths began his term earlier this week.

Three previous peace talks sponsored by the United Nations and hosted in Kuwait and Switzerland in 2016 had failed to end the war.

In March 2015, Yemen plunged into civil war between Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels and Sunni Saudi-backed internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The civil war has drawn in Saudi-led coalition in response to a call of the Yemeni president to restore his government to the capital, Sanaa.

The civil war has killed more than 10,000 people, half of them civilians, injured more 35,000 others, and displaced over two millions, according to humanitarian aid agencies.JOHANNEASBURG, March 15 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Lindiwe Sisulu on Thursday met the Australian High Commissioner to South Africa, Adam McCarthy to demand a retraction of remarks made by his government official over land appropriation.

Australia's home affairs minister, Peter Dutton who was quoted saying South African farmers deserve special attention from his government because of South Africa's horrific circumstances of land redistribution.

"It was communicated to the High Commissioner that the South African government is offended by the statements which have been attributed to the Australian Home Affairs Minister and a full retraction is expected," said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in a statement.

South Africa have initiated a process to amend the Constitution to pave way for the appropriation of the land without compensation.

The South African government has emphasized that the land appropriation would be done within the confines of the law and not disturb the country's economic performance.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation's added, "The High Commissioner who was accompanied by his deputy High Commissioner undertook to immediately communicate with the Australian government to convey the message from the minister and South African government."OSLO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Tone Wilhelmsen Troen was elected as new president of the Norwegian Storting (parliament) on Thursday, one week after her predecessor resigned over a building budget scandal.

"The Storting has elected Tone Wilhelmsen Troen as President of the Storting. She succeeds Olemic Thommessen, who announced his resignation on 8th March," the Norwegian parliament said in a statement.

Troen, a politician for the Conservative Party, is the second woman in history to hold that position. Kirsti Kolle Grondahl was Norway's first female president of the Storting in 1993 to 2001.

"I hope to be able to perform this position in a confident and trustworthy way and lead the Storting's work by having close and good cooperation with all the parties," Troen was quoted as saying by newspaper Aftenposten.

Thommessen was last week forced to resign over enormous cost overruns on a building project of the Storting his office had led, Aftenposten reported.

The cost has increased from 1.1 billion kroner (143 million U.S. dollars) to 2.3 billion kroner in three years and it may increase further.

Troen promised to follow the politics of adjusting consumption by income and keeping in touch with all the building projects and early updates, so as to avoid similar scandals in future.

Troen has represented Akershus county in the Storting since 2013. She was a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services in 2013 to 2017 and has served as leader of the Standing Committee on Family and Cultural Affairs since 2017.VILNIUS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Approximately 5,000 people gathered at Independence Square in Vilnius near the parliament building, urging the parliament to disband, local news agency ELTA reported on Thursday.

The protest followed the unsuccessful impeachment two days ago of lawmaker Mindaugas Bastys, who was accused of allegedly cooperating with foreign intelligence and security officers, as well as criminal figures.

The organizers claimed that the parliament "cowardly shielded behind secret ballot and trampled the ruling of the Constitutional Court thus finally discrediting itself".

Journalist Andrius Tapinas, the initiator of the protest, told the crowd -- mostly the young and the elderly -- that incumbent MPs were not serving the people.

On Tuesday, 72 lawmakers voted in a secret ballot in favor of removing Bastys from office, while 21 voted against this and 24 abstained, 11 ballots were invalid. But at least 85 votes were needed to remove him from the parliament.

The next day, Bastys announced he decided to abandon his parliamentary mandate, prompting four Lithuania's opposition parties to call for an early election.

According to the draft resolution prepared by the opposition parties, early election would take place on June 3.

The current Lithuania's parliament was elected in October 2016.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 03:06:28|Editor: Yurou

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during an award ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, March 15, 2018. Erdogan on Thursday rejected the European Parliament's motion calling Turkey to end its military operation in northern Syria's Kurdish enclave of Afrin. (Xinhua/Mustafa Kaya)

ANKARA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday rejected the European Parliament's motion calling Turkey to end its military operation in northern Syria's Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

Speaking at an award ceremony in Ankara, Erdogan said the European Parliament is calling Turkey to withdraw from Syria's Afrin, but all such efforts would be in vain.

"Do not get your hopes up. We will not get out of there [Afrin] until our work is done," Erdogan said.

The European Parliament approved the motion on March 15. The motion stated that the parliament is "seriously worried about the escalating situation in Afrin."

"The European Parliament cannot say a word to Turkey [about the ongoing Operation Olive Branch]," Erdogan said.

A total of 3,525 terrorists have been "neutralized" since the start of Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, the president said, adding that to take the city center of Afrin is just "a matter of time."

On Tuesday, Turkish military announced its army and allied FSA forces have encircled Afrin, achieving a significant advance during its eight-week-long operation.In this file photo taken on August 19, 2012, Muslim men attend prayers on Eid Al-Fitr day at the Regent's Park Mosque in London. (AFP photo)

RABAT, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) hailed on Thursday the decision by British authorities to inscribe two mosques in London on the National Historical and Architectural Heritage List.

The Islamic sites, the London Central Mosque and its Islamic Cultural Center, and Fazl Mosque in Southfields district have been given protected heritage status to recognize their historic and cultural importance.

ISESCO said in a statement that this civilizational initiative promotes the international efforts to foster interreligious coexistence and respect religious sanctities.

The Islamic Cultural Center in London has signed a cooperation agreement with ISESCO under which important educational, cultural and information activities have been held for Muslims in the United Kingdom.BAKU, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said on Thursday Baku would support the extension of the global oil output cut deal, official media reports.

Speaking at the briefing after the Energy Efficiency Conference in Baku on Thursday, Shahbazov said that OPEC and non-OPEC producers agree that it is necessary to continue cooperation under the deal.

"Cooperation of the oil producing countries within OPEC+ has led to successful regulation of oil prices in the global market. On this basis, the OPEC member countries, as well as the countries that joined the deal, agree on the need to continue cooperation under this agreement," the minister said.

"I hope the parties of the agreement will adopt solutions acceptable for everyone," he said, adding that the next ministerial meeting of the OPEC+ will take place in June.

The minister stressed that the OPEC deal doesn't envisage further reduction in oil production, but maintains the production at the existing levels.

Non-OPEC countries agreed to cut oil production by 558,000 barrels per day (b/d) during a meeting with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna in December 2016. OPEC members also confirmed their commitment to the plan to reduce the oil supply by 1.2 million b/d. The agreement was extended until the first half year of 2018 in May, 2017.

In November 30, 2017, the deal was extended by late 2018. Azerbaijan has joined the new agreement with OPEC and non-OPEC countries.

Azerbaijan was ranked 20th with 7 billion barrels of oil reserves among the world countries rich with proven oil reserves, according to the Global Firepower (GFP) review for 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 04:06:49|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Bhutan, Kiribati, Sao Tome and Principe, and the Solomon Islands will be recommended for "graduation" from the least developed countries category, a UN expert committee announced on Thursday.

Jose Antonio Ocampo, chairman of the UN Committee for Development Policy, described the development as a historic occasion.

In the 47 years since the start of the least developed countries category, only five countries have left the list, with two more countries -- Angola and Vanuatu -- in the process of graduating, he told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

The graduation of the four countries has to be approved by the UN Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly. The graduating country has a grace period of normally three years before the formal removal of its name from the list.

The committee's recommendations for graduation followed increases in the national income in all countries, as well as improved education and health, said Ocampo.

For Bhutan and Sao Tome and Principe, per capita gross national income (GNI) tripled, the mortality rate under the age of 5 declined, and gross secondary education enrolment more than doubled from 2003 to 2018.

During the same period, the per capita GNI doubled for the Solomon Islands while the country's gross secondary education enrolment almost doubled. In Kiribati, the per capita income almost tripled and it continues to perform well in health and education since 2003.

The least developed countries category is assessed using three criteria: human assets (health and education targets), economic vulnerability and per capita GNI. Countries must meet two of the three criteria at two consecutive triennial reviews to be considered for graduation.

Bhutan, Kiribati, SaoTome and Principe, and the Solomon Islands each continues to meet the per capita income and human assets criteria, but not the economic vulnerability criterion, said Ocampo.

Nepal and Timor-Leste also met the criteria for graduation. But they were not recommended given economic and political challenges. The two countries may be considered for graduation at the next review in 2021, he said.

Bangaladesh, Laos, Myanmar met the graduation criteria for the first time, but would need to meet them for a second time to become eligible for consideration, he said.

Currently, there are 47 least developed countries in the world, representing 1 billion people. Most of the countries (33 in number) are in Africa, followed by Asia (9) and Oceania (4).Economic analyst Lawrence "Larry" Kudlow appears on CNBC at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., March 7, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Conservative economic analyst Lawrence Alan "Larry" Kudlow has accepted President Donald Trump's offer to be his top economic adviser, the White House confirmed Wednesday.

The 70-year-old will be the new director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), replacing outgoing Gary Cohn.

Kudlow, who graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in history in 1969, began his career as a staff economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the 1970s before joining the Ronald Reagan administration in the Office of Management and Budget.

Kudlow was investment bank Bear Stearns's chief economist in 1987 and worked there until 1994, when he was fired due to a cocaine addiction.

Kudlow, who describes himself as a supply-side economist, spent much of his time in recent years working for CNBC and other media outlets, advocating free-market, low-tax and free-trade policies.

He expressed support for Trump, primarily for the tax-cut plan, during the 2016 campaign. However, he has publicly criticized Trump's trade policies.

U.S. President Donald Trump responds to questions as he leaves the White House en route to Mar-a-lago Estate in Florida after signing the tax cut bill into law in Washington D.C., the United States, on Dec. 22, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

Like Cohn, Kudlow also opposed Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month. But Trump said Tuesday that Kudlow has come around to believing in tariffs as a negotiating point and that they agreed on most matters.

A steelworker in a protective suit checks the temperature of molten metal in furnace at the TMK Ipsco Koppel plant in Koppel, Pennsylvania on March 9, 2018. (Xinhua/AFP)

Kudlow's television presence is part of the reason Trump wanted him as the NEC director, according to Politico. The president regularly complains that he does not have enough talented people making the case for his policies on television.

The choice of Kudlow came after Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday, replacing him with Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

It illustrated how the U.S. president is increasingly looking to "stack his inner circle with longtime loyalists" after more than a year of frustration with aides and cabinet officials who sought to "temper his extemporaneous and combative style," The Washington Post commented.

The NEC, created in 1993 by then President Bill Clinton, has become the most important economic policymaking body in the White House.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 04:11:53|Editor: yan

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DOHA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Leading Qatari defense company Barzan Holdings signed a number of agreements with some major international defense companies on military empowering, Qatari local media reported Thursday.

The agreements came on the sidelines of Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX 2018), reported Gulf Times.

Barzan holding, the largest exhibitor at DIMDEX 2018, signed a total of 24 agreements with international partners including the United States and Turkey.

Rheinmetall Barzan Advanced Technologies, which is Barzan Holdings' joint venture with German defense company Rheinmetall AG, signed four agreements, aiming to build an ammunition production plant in Qatar.

Earlier, the Qatari company has signed another deal with Italian company Beretta Holding to supply rifles to Qatar.

The signing ceremony of the Italian deal was attended by the Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah and the Italian Minister of Defence Roberta Pinotti.

"The agreement with Beretta Holding represents a strategic deal between Qatar and Italy, and is firmly in line with Barzan Holdings' objective of meeting Qatar's long-term defense and security needs," said Barzan Holdings managing director Nasser al-Naimi.

Al-Naimi added that the Italian deal would empower the capabilities of the Qatar Armed Forces.BERLIN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- German public prosecutors on Thursday indicted a Syrian refugee for planning to kill at least 200 people with explosives, according to a statement on the official website of the Federal Prosecutors' Office.

The 20-year-old Syrian national, Yamen A., allegedly planned in Germany "an Islamist motivated attack" with explosives and has already begun with the preparation, the statement read.

According to the accused, he wanted to kill at least 200 people with his attack and in the midst of a large concentration of people to "fuel a climate of fear and uncertainty", the statement said.

Yamen A. has been dealing with jihadist ideas since the summer of 2017 and advocated the ideology of the "Islamic State". Against this backdrop, he decided in July 2017 at the latest to detonate an explosive device in Germany.

The Federal Prosecutors Office said, almost all of the components and chemicals he purchased to make explosive devices have been found, and the accused has been arrested and held in custody since October 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 04:16:56|Editor: yan

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DOHA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Qatar announced a 50 million-U.S. dollars donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), authority said on Thursday.

The government communications office and Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the donation came during the extraordinary ministerial meeting of UNRWA held in Rome, Italy in the presence of UN Secretary-General.

Subsequently, Qatar also announced that it has continued to finance projects implemented by the UNRWA, especially in the education and health sectors.

In February, Qatar announced the distribution of 9 million dollars of emergency aid of medicines, medical supplies, foodstuff, and fuel to operate hospital generators in the Gaza Strip.

Qatar is facing a nine-month boycott by its Gulf allies, which accused Qatar of supporting extremist political movements in the Middle East, including Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas.

Qatar has categorically denied the allegations.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 04:57:02|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Thursday urged global policymakers to guard against trade protectionism in the wake of U.S. proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum.

"Policymakers need to work constructively together to reduce trade barriers and resolve trade disagreements without resort to exceptional measures," Lagarde said in a blog post.

"They should ensure that the recently announced U.S. import tariffs do not lead to a wider escalation of protectionist measures," she said, warning that trade wars will hurt global growth and they are also "unwinnable."

Her warning comes as finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 (G20) prepare to meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina, next week.

"Their focus will be on the policies needed to protect this (global economic) upswing against downside risks and bolster growth going forward," said the IMF chief.

As "harming trade is bad for the economy and bad for people," it's critical to use fiscal means to address global economic imbalances rather than raising new obstacles to trade, she added.

Lagarde's remarks also comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that the U.S. would slap a 25-percent tariff on imported steel and a 10-percent tariff on imported aluminum on the grounds of national security.

These unilateral protectionist measures have sparked widespread criticism and provoked threats of retaliation from major trading partners, raising the prospect of escalating global trade conflicts that threaten the global recovery.KHARTOUM, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Sudan and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have signed Thursday a document on a four-year country program action plan worth 417 billion U.S. dollars.

The document represents a roadmap for implementing the program and projects funded by the UNDP for 2018-2021.

Sudanese Minister for International Cooperation Idris Suleiman signed the document for the government while the UNDP was represented by the Resident Country Humanitarian Coordinator Marta Ruedas.

In his speech to the signing ceremony, Suleiman commended the Sudan-UN cooperation.

"The document signed today focuses on national priorities to achieve sustainable development goals and the shift from humanitarian assistance to development and finding job opportunities for Sudanese citizens," he said.

"We hope the document will be implemented with real partnership, high coordination and harmonization between national and the UN agenda," Suleiman added.

For her part, Ruedas said the document "represents a chance for achieving sustainable goals in Sudan and will contribute to realizing national priorities in accordance with Sudan's national development plan."

She added that the document supports economic and social development, and the ability to counter the climate change and to provide social services.

The document covers good governance, rule of law, communities' stability, peace building, environment and natural resources development.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 05:12:04|Editor: Yurou

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Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United Nations Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi (R) speaks to the press with Khaled Hussein Mohamed Alyemany, Yemen's Ambassador to the UN, at the UN headquarters in New York, March 15, 2018. The Security Council on Thursday called on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access to all affected areas. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday called on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access to all affected areas.

In a statement, the council expressed concern over the impact that access restrictions on commercial and humanitarian imports have on the humanitarian situation.

It called on the parties to immediately facilitate access for these essential imports into the country and their distribution in order to reach the entire civilian population.

The Security Council called for the full and sustained opening of all Yemen's ports and stressed the importance of keeping these functioning and open to all commercial and humanitarian imports, including food, fuel and medical imports.

The council also called for increased access to Sanaa airport for life-saving humanitarian supplies and movement of urgent humanitarian cases.

The council reaffirmed that denial of humanitarian access can constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.

It noted that 22.2 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance, 3.4 million more than last year.

The council voiced deep concern about the acute vulnerability of civilians to outbreaks of cholera and diphtheria, in light of acute malnutrition, the threat of famine and the weakness of Yemeni institutions.

The council called on all parties to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, to avoid harming civilians, and to end the recruitment and use of children in conflict.

The council condemned "in the strongest possible terms" ballistic missile attacks by the Yemeni Houthis against Saudi Arabia, with particular concern for the attacks on Nov. 4 and Dec. 19, 2017, which deliberately endangered civilian areas.

It called on all UN member states to fully implement the arms embargo as required by relevant Security Council resolutions.

The council condemned the use of sea mines by non-nation state actors, including Houthi forces, and expressed deep concern that mines are prone to break free of their moorings and drift into international shipping channels, and thus represent a threat to commercial shipping and sea lines of communication.

The Security Council emphasized that the humanitarian situation will continue to deteriorate in the absence of an inclusive political solution, and called on all parties to the conflict to abandon preconditions and engage in good faith with the UN-led peace process in order to overcome obstacles and reach a political solution to the conflict.RABAT, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Nine people have been arrested after clashes between protesters and security forces in Morocco's remote eastern town of Jerada on Wednesday, according to the Moroccan government.

Hundreds of protesters marched on Wednesday in Jerada, defying a government ban on holding demonstrations announced a day earlier.

Speaking during the weekly government meeting on Thursday, the Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani said the clashes caused many injuries, including 10 serious ones, 8 of them were among security forces.

In a statement Tuesday, the Moroccan Interior Ministry said it would ban "illegal demonstrations on public roads" and "respond firmly to irresponsible acts and behaviors" in order to "preserve security and protect the interests of citizens."

Despite this ban, the protesters continued their protest movement, which was sparked last December by the deaths of two brother miners while they were digging in deserted mines.

The protesters have called for justice for the dead and demanded job opportunities and "economic alternatives" for their town which is heavily dependent on coal mining.

El Othmani said "the government acknowledged from the outset the legitimate claims of the population and committed itself to finding an economic alternative and settling urgent issues," stressing that the implementation of the various measures taken in favor of the province of Jerada require "time and order."

The Moroccan prime minister visited the region in February, vowing to implement a number of development projects, create thousands of jobs and withdraw licenses of mineral exploitation for the companies that fail to meet legal requirements.

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 to make a living.LJUBLJANA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Slovenian President Borut Pahor said he prefered an early general election for a new prime minister rather than putting forward a prime minister-designate for the approval of the National Assembly after the resignation of Prime Minister Miro Cerar on Wednesday.

He believed that it makes more sense to call early general elections, expectedly in the second half of May, as he said in an announcement from his office on Thursday after he received Cerar to get acquainted with the reasons for resignation, according to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA).

"President Pahor has assessed that the resignation of the prime minister will result in early election, expectedly in the second half of May," said the announcement.

Though Pahor will not propose a prime minister-designate to the National Assembly, a proposal can be also put forward by the parliament.

The president will consult on this and possible dates of the early election with the heads of deputy groups next week, the STA reported.

Cerar presented his resignation to Parliamentary Speaker Milan Brglez on Thursday after announcing the decision on Wednesday. It came in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling to annul the result of a September referendum that approved the government's biggest investment program, a railway project worth 1 billion euros (1.23 billion U.S. dollars.)

The blocked 24-km Second Track Divaca-Koper railway project is intended to connect the coastal cities of Koper and Divaca, and extend to Ljubljana as well. Media reports said Cerar has considered the project vital for Slovenia's development.

Under the law, the National Assembly has to acknowledge his resignation within seven days.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-16 06:42:20|Editor: yan

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RIO DE JANEIRO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Michel Temer on Thursday vowed to track down the killers of Marielle Franco, member of the Rio city council, who was shot dead in a targeted killing on late Wednesday.

Franco was shot by at least nine shots, four of them in the head. Her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, was also killed.

According to local authorities, the shots came from another car, which hit Franco's vehicle from behind. Nothing was stolen, and so far there is no clue on the murderers' vehicle.

Ironically, Franco's death occurred while Rio state is under a federal intervention, which was supposed to help curb crime and violence.

Franco received the fifth largest number of votes in the latest city council elections in 2016. She was a rising left-wing leadership, who fought for women rights, against racism, criticized police brutality and racial profiling.

The office of the United Nations in Brazil published on Thursday an official statement calling for rigorous investigation of the murder of the Rio councilor.By RALPH ANSAMI

[email protected]

HURLEY  The city of Hurley will work to come up with a plan for addressing water system cross connection violations.

Mayor Joe Pinardi said the city has until September to assure the Department of Natural Resources the violations have been addressed and corrected.

A connection between any part of the public water supply system and a source of contamination or pollution is called a cross connection. The aim is to eliminate cross connections to keep drinking water safe by keeping out contaminants and pollutants and preventing what are called backf...MICHIGAN STATE Police trooper Jerry Mazurek addresses grades 7-12 Wednesday in the gymnasium of the Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 school in Wakefield in response to school violence.

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

While students across the country walked out of class Wednesday in a call for action on gun violence and to remember the 17 students killed in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; Gogebic Range students recognized the effort in various ways.

In Ironwood, interested students from the district's upper grades gathered in the gym to talk with members of the Ironwood Public Safety Department regarding school safety.

"Our main thing was to provide a space for students that had concerns to ask questions, f...WAKEFIELD CITY employees address various concerns with Wakefield city council members during a Wednesday workshop in council chambers. Speaking is David Semenak, front row left, with co-worker Michael Grayson to his right.

By P.J. GLISSON

[email protected]

WAKEFIELD - A Wednesday workshop of the Wakefield city council opened doors to city employees who were asked to voice their concerns.

"We want to fix problems if there are any," said mayor pro tem Amy Tarro, standing in for mayor John Granato, on vacation.

A continuing issue is city workers' daily hours, which changed this from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and is now 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Mike Singleton, a heavy equipment operator with the city's department of public works for nearly two decades, disapproves of the change.

"DPW has never been 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for as...This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

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Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College Transfer Services, the AWC Alumni Association, and the AWC KEYS program will be hosting a University Transfer Signing Day to celebrate students who are continuing their education beyond AWC to Arizona state universities.

The event will be held on Thursday, April 26, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the LR Breezeway on the AWC Yuma Campus, 2020 S. Ave. 8E.

AWC students transferring to a university in the fall will be celebrated and recognized by officials from Arizona State University, University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University.

Additionally during the event, there will be drawings for college life necessities and photo opportunities with mascots and university colors. Family and friends are welcome and encouraged to attend.

For more information, contact Gladys Anaya at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at (928) 317-7620.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - The 2018 One Book Yuma selection is Mythical River: Chasing the Mirage of New Water in the American Southwest by Melissa L. Sevigny. Make this a true community-wide reading event! Pick up your copy of Mythical River at your local library or book seller.

Melissa will visit Yuma Wednesday, March 21st, to lead two community discussions.



Wednesday, March 21st  1:00-2:30 p.m.

AZ Western College, 3C Building



Wednesday, March 21st  6:00-7:30 p.m.

Main Library, 1st Floor Meeting Room



In a lyrical mix of natural science, history, and memoir, Melissa L. Sevigny ponders what it means to make a home in the American Southwest at a time when its most essential resource, water, is overexploited and undervalued. Mythical River takes the reader on a historical sojourn into the story of the Buenaventura, an imaginary river that led eighteenth- and nineteenth-century explorers, fur trappers, and emigrants astray for seventy-five years. This mythical river becomes a metaphor for our modern-day attempts to supply water to a growing population in the Colorado River Basin. Readers encounter a landscape literally remapped by the search for new water, where rivers flow uphill, dams and deep wells reshape geography, trees become intolerable competitors for water, and new technologies tap into clouds and oceans.



In contrast to this fantasy of abundance, Sevigny explores acts of restoration. From a dismantled dam in Arizona to an accidental wetland in Mexico, she examines how ecologists, engineers, politicians, and citizens have attempted to secure water for desert ecosystems. In a place scarred by conflict, she shows how recognizing the rights of rivers is a path toward water security. Ultimately, Sevigny writes a new map for the future of the American Southwest, a vision of a society that accepts the deserts limits in exchange for an intimate relationship with the natural world.



One Book Yuma is brought to you by Arizona Western College/Northern Arizona University-Yuma Academic Library, Arizona Western College Office of Campus Life, Friends of the Foothills Library, Friends of Yuma County Libraries, Inc., Yuma County Library District, and the Yuma Sun.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - On Thursday, March 29th, the Heritage Library will host Massacre at Caborca: the Ill-fated Crabb Expedition of 1857 at 10:30 a.m. In 1857, American Henry Crabb led a filibuster into Sonora, Mexico with devastating consequences. Political historian Ian McDougall takes a fresh look at a still controversial conflict.

There is no charge to attend.



The Heritage Library is located at 350 Third Street. For more information, call (928) 783-5415.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...Washington DC: Thousands of students across the United States (US) walked out of their schools on Wednesday to call for action against gun violence precisely one month post the Florida shooting which claimed 17 lives.

Students from more than 3,000 schools took to the streets from Washington to Los Angeles and from New York to Parkland, reported the Independent.

Organized by Empower, the youth arm of the Women's March movement, the walkouts are the latest show of activism by young people who are now wading into the gun-control debate.

Student speakers boomed outrage and grief for a problem that has a growing body count - both in and out of schools.

According to the reports, students clutched signs that read "I should be writing my college essay, not my will." Others read "Enough is enough."

Celebrities on Twitter expressed their support for the demonstrations, including Chris Evans, Miley Cyrus, Zendaya, and Kerry Washington.

Some students went to the White House and sat on the closed-off portion of Pennsylvania Avenue for a 17-minute moment of silence. They sat on the street with their backs to the executive mansion.Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday recalled its envoy for consultation to Islamabad over alleged harassment of its staff at the Embassy in the national capital, reports quoting the Foreign Office said.

According to the Foreign Office, Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi, Sohail Mahmood, has been recalled back to Islamabad.

This was announced by Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal in his weekly press briefing in Islamabad.

''The Pakistan government will hold consultations with the High Commissioner over "recent incidents of harassment of the diplomats", he said.

Faisal alleged that the Indian government had not taken adequate measures to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India.

He added that despite the Pakistani government lodging several protests over the matter with the Indian Deputy High Commissioner and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), no action was taken.

The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement, which said its, "staff and their families had been facing harassment, intimidation and outright violence from Indian state agencies in recent weeks in New Delhi".

''Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner's car was chased and his driver was abused by a group of men in the Indian capital last week,'' it said further.

Responding to complaints by Islamabad, the Government of India had assured last week that it "will make all efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for diplomats to work in".

It added the Indian officials had also faced "harassment" last year in Pakistan but they chose to deal with it through "quiet and persistent diplomacy".By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. You can find out more by clicking this linkNew Delhi: Three persons, including a woman, were arrested for allegedly stealing bags and valuables from wedding parties at upscale venues, the police said on Thursday.

In the last few months, several cases of thefts from wedding ceremonies, held at five star hotels, banquet halls and farmhouses in the national capital region, were reported. It was suspected that children were deployed for the crimes, they said.

The gang members used to dress up in wedding finery, so that they could mix with the crowd. CCTV footage could not identify the accused, the police said.

The accused, members of 'Raja Dadaa' gang, has committed more than 15 thefts from various wedding venues. They used to recruit juveniles who are trained to steal bags, and hailed from Madhya Pradesh, a police official said.

On March 8, Raj Kumar alias Dadaa (42), the kingpin of the gang, Reema alias Dakhan (30) and Bhupender Sharma (35) were arrested from

Paharganj near the New Delhi Railway Station, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that Reema Bai used to train juveniles for stealing valuables. She was paid Rs 60,000-80,000 for it. As the leader of the gang, Raj Kumar used to identify potential recruits and enter into a contract with the family for 'renting' the child, he said.

The juveniles were kept in posh areas as part of their training and were trained to dress well and eat with knife and fork, Kumar said.

Once trained, the juveniles were then sent to wedding ceremonies in five star hotels and high-profile venues where they used to mingle with the crowd, identify bags that have cash and jewellery, and steal them, he said, adding the gang had employed lawyers in several states.

Bhupender Sharma used to work as a driver for a cab aggregator and his vehicle was used by the gang members for going to the venues, the police said.Kolkata/New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday arrested Shivaji Panja and Kaustav Ray, both directors of R P Infosystems for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, officials said.

In 2015, the company, which manufactured computers with brand name 'Chirag', was booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating IDBI bank to the tune of Rs 180 crore.

The CBI has booked R P Info Systems and its directors, including Panja and Ray, for allegedly cheating Canara Bank and nine other consortium members to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

The other members of the consortium were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the SBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

The bank in its complaint on February 26, now a part of the FIR, has alleged that the company had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards.

These loans have become non-performing asset (NPA), it said. The FIR also named Vijay Bafna and Debnath Pal, VP of the company.

The bank has alleged that the company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account.

The probe agency had booked the company and its directors in 2015 in connection with the case related to IDBI. But in the FIR, the agency had only focused on the exposure to IDBI bank which was over Rs 180 crore.

"During 2013, IDBI Bank relinquished their position as consortium leader after the deliberations with the RBI.

"It is learnt that in the month of December 2013, IDBI Bank lodged a complaint regarding the fraud committed on their bank alone to the CBI and the CBI investigated only their exposure of IDBI Bank," the latest complaint from Canara Bank said.New Delhi: Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that a total of 24,791 defects/snags were reported by various airlines in 2017 in connection with the recent grounding of 11 Airbus 320 neo aircraft. Out of the 11 grounded planes, eight belonged to Indigo Airlines and three to Wadia group's Go Air.

Civil Aviation minister Jayant Sinha 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 a number of aircraft in the airline and increased number of flight sectors," Sinha said.

"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 added.

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 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 national 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.

The 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.

(With agency inputs)New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Some sunshine with a thunderstorm or two possible this afternoon. High near 95F. NE winds at less than 5 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Low 64F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.Delhi: A 26-year-old girl student currently doing PhD from Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has reportedly gone missing for the past five days.

A case against unidentified persons have been registered and the Delhi Police has begun its investigation into the mater.

Delhi: 26-year-old girl, PHD scholar in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) went missing on 10 March. Case registered against unidentified persons. Police investigation underway  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

The missing girl had last spoken to her mother over telephone on March 10 and is untraceable since then.

She is a first-year student of the Ph.D. life sciences course at JNU and used to stay at the Shipra Girls Hostel inside the varsity campus.

Unable to establish contact with his sister, her brother went to her hostel to inquire about his well being.

However, upon reaching there, his brother found that her room was locked.

The girl's family suspects that she has been kidnapped by some persons.

The JNU administration has not reacted to the incident as yet.

Two more JNU students  Mukul Jani and Najeeb Ahmed - had earlier gone missing from the varsity campus and are still untraceable.

Mukul Jain, enrolled in the Life Sciences course, has been missing since 8 January this year.

A missing report was registered in the evening of 8 January. It is suspected that he was having some problems in his relationship, a senior police officer from the South-west District said.

Najeeb Ahmed, also a JNU student, went missing from the Mahi-Mandvi hostel of the university on 15 October in 2016, following a scuffle with some other students, allegedly affiliated to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the previous night.

Over a month after the incident, his mother moved the Delhi High Court, seeking directions to the police to trace her son.

The high court on May 16, 2017, handed over to the CBI the investigation into the disappearance of Najeeb, a student of MSc in Biotechnology.

The CBI has even announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anyone providing crucial information about Najeeb Ahmed.New Delhi: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said that the state government will form an expert committee regarding implementation of the 7th Pay Commission.

This decision was taken at the first meeting of the council of ministers.

Deb, however, did not elaborate more on the issue since. The BJP had promised in its manifesto that the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission would be implemented during the first meeting of the cabinet if the BJP and its ally the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) were voted to power.

The Union Cabinet had in June approved recommendations of the CPC with 34 modifications, which will mean an additional annual burden of Rs 30,748 crore on the exchequer.

All allowances are given effect from July 1, 2017.

The recommendations benefit over 1 crore employees. This includes over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.

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.New Delhi: Volunteers in Maharashtras Yavatmal city have found hundreds of Aadhaar cards dumped in a well in the district while they were cleaning it.

The volunteers were carrying out work of desilting the well when they found some plastic bags inside it. To their surprise, they found hundreds of original Aadhaar cards on opening the bags.

Many of them were found in damaged condition, but around 157 were partially damaged. The unique identification number of these cards were intact.

The recovered cards were issued between 2011 and 2014 by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

The district administration has ordered a probe into the matter, and an FIR has also been lodged against officials of the postal department.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court on Tuesday 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.

The constitution bench was 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.

With Agency InputsNew York: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the use of a nerve agent in an attack in Britain on a former Russian spy and branded it as "unacceptable."

"The use of nerve agents as a weapon under any circumstances is unacceptable and its use by a state will constitute a serious violation of international law," China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported, citing UN spokesman Farhan Haq as saying in a press briefing.

"While the secretary-general is not in a position to attribute responsibility, he strongly condemns the use of any nerve agent or chemical weapons and hopes the incident will be thoroughly investigated," Haq told reporters.

The comments reportedly came before an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called at Britain's request to discuss the attack that left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.

Retired military intelligence officer Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre on March 4.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday stated that it was "highly likely" Russia was to blame for the attack.

In a strongly worded statement to the House of Commons, May said the "military grade" nerve agent used in the attack had been identified as Novichok, a substance developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

May on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats over spy poisoning.

The Guardian quoted May as saying, "23 Russian diplomats will be expelled. They have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers. It will be the largest expulsion for 30 years."Hyderabad: TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday that they may support a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha against the BJP-led NDA government over the issue of special status.

The YSRCP is seeking to put the TDP on the defensive by moving a no-confidence motion.

"If necessary, we will support the no-confidence motion against Centre, whoever may place it," he said in his statement in the Assembly. "I am telling this with pain and agony, 40 years of political experience and as people's word. It is not good to play with the lives of people. If you sincerely move the no-trust motion, we will fully co-operate. If you do it by colluding, we will expose you," the TDP president warned the YSRC.

Refuting criticism against him that he was 'weak', Naidu said, "Mine is dharma, mitra dharma. For four years I have been requesting the Centre but now, only under inevitable circumstances, I started fighting only to secure the state's rights since the PM has meted out injustice."

He reiterated the demand that the Centre fully implement the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 and also the promises made in the Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation of the state to carve out Telangana. Naidu recalled that the TDP MPs had been constantly fighting in Parliament to get the promises fulfilled.

If necessary, we will support the no confidence motion against Centre, whoever may place it: TDP President and Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu in state assembly pic.twitter.com/WriwjHgYnf  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

YSR Congress Party MP YV Subba Reddy on Thursday met leaders of different political parties in the national capital, including Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge and CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury and gave them Jaganmohan Reddy's letter seeking their support for the no-confidence motion to be moved by YSRCP in Lok Sabha on Friday.

In his letter to different political leaders Reddy wrote,"If even after this no-confidence motion, the Central government is reluctant to grant Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh, all our party MPs will tender resignation to their seats on April 6, 2018."

YSR Congress Party MP YV Subba Reddy met leaders of different political parties, including Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge & CPIM's Sitaram Yechury & gave them Jaganmohan Reddy's letter seeking their support for the no-confidence motion to be moved by YSRCP in Lok Sabha tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/xhr6IfRAkl  ANI (@ANI) March 15, 2018

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Opposition members tore papers and threw them around in the Lok Sabha as relentless protests by them and NDA partner TDP disrupted proceedings in both Houses of Parliament for the ninth straight day.

The proceedings of the two Houses were paralysed as Opposition parties, along with ruling NDA partner TDP the TRS, stormed the Well and continued their noisy protests over a host of issues, including the banking scam, special status for Andhra and setting up of Cauvery management board.

Earlier, in the morning on Thursday, the Rajya Sabha was disrupted by Congress protests following a remark by TDP member and former minister S Chowdary that the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 was carried out in a "hasty, unjust and unscientific" manner by the then UPA government.

Two ministers of the TDP - Chowdary and Ashok Gajapathi Raju - had quit their posts on March 8, 2018.

Their resignations had come a day after Naidu had announced that the party's ministers will quit the central government in protest against its refusal to grant special category status to the state.

The Centre has been taking one sided decisions and our patience has run out now. When the purpose of joining the union cabinet hasnt been fulfilled, its best to resign now.  N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) March 7, 2018

I am not angry with anyone. This decision has been taken only to benefit the people of Andhra Pradesh.  N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) March 7, 2018

Raju had later told reporters that his party will continue to part of the ruling alliance. Chowdary said the issue of special category status was very emotive for the state but the Centre had not addressed it and had added that even the special package was not adequate.

He, however, had added that it would be unfair to say that the Centre did nothing for the state. Naidu had earlier in the day had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has met NCP chief Sharad Pawar as part of efforts to reach out to leaders of like-minded parties with an aim to build an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

As per reports, Rahul met the veteran NCP leader at the latter's residence on Wednesday.

Rahul is also scheduled to meet Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when she visits Delhi on March 28 to underscore the need for a strong alliance to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 polls.

Rahul's meeting with Pawar came a day after UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's dinner for Opposition leaders that was attended by representatives of at least 20 political parties.

The dinner took place against the backdrop of a logjam in Parliament, which has witnessed continuous disruptions since the start of the second part of the Budget Session on March 5.

Opposition leaders had on Wednesday called for a grand alliance to defeat the BJP in the 2019 polls after it was defeated in the by-polls to three Lok Sabha seats, especially in Uttar Pradesh where an alliance of arch-rivals SP and BSP sealed the saffron party's fate.

The BJP was defeated on the Gorakhpur, and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh by Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine while the Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) defeated the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) - an NDA ally - on Araria Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.

The RJD had the backing of the Congress in Bihar though in Uttar Pradesh the Congress fielded its candidates on both seats.

Buoyed by the victory, a number of opposition leaders including RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav called for a Grand Alliance at the national level to defeat the BJP.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee were quick to congratulate the victorious candidates of the opposition camp.

Although Samajwadi Party President and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav avoided a direct reply to the chances of his party forging an alliance with BSP and others for the next year's Lok Sabha polls, saying there was still time, but emphasised that the by-polls results did give a "message and a direction" to the national politics.

Gandhi, while congratulating the victorious candidates, said that the results showed the "electorate is very angry with the BJP and will vote for the non-BJP candidate most likely to win".

Tejashwi Yadav said the Samajwadi Party and the BSP should fight the 2019 Lok Sabha polls together and urged the Congress to join them.

"A Grand Alliance is the demand of time, it is the demand of the people. Keep your ego away. There is a need to teach a lesson to those who have destroyed the country," he said.

Sharad Yadav said even "a partial unity" among opposition parties was enough to defeat the BJP.

"The (BJP-led) government will go even if there is a partial unity among the opposition parties," he said.

Asked if the Opposition parties were chalking out unity plans ahead of the 2019 General Election, he said the "process is on" and added that the opposition unity was a "big challenge" and would take "time and honest efforts" to materialise.

Banerjee congratulated Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Lalu Prasad as the Opposition took big leads over the BJP in Lok Sabha by-elections.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the BJP under-estimated the SP-BSP alliance that led to its defeat in the by-elections to the prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats and termed it as a lesson to the party which would do an introspection.

Reacting to the shocking defeat of the party in the seats held by him and his Deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, he, however, expressed confidence that this would have no impact on the general elections in 2019 in which national issues will play a dominant role and it will be a vote on the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said local factors play a role in by-elections but in the general elections, the good performance of the Modi government and its welfare schemes will have an impact in BJP's favour.

In Bihar, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi downplayed the RJD's victory, saying it was the result of sympathy votes in Lalu Prasad's favour.

(With Agency inputs)New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended five years of compulsory military service for anyone who wants a subsequent employment with the state or the central government.

According to reports, the parliamentary panel wants the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) - a wing of government that reports to the Prime Minister  to prepare a proposal in this regard and take this up to the Centre.

The panel believes that five years of compulsory military service for those seeking government job will also make up for the shortage of personnel in the armed forces.

The DopT is tasked with administering and making policy for all government servants.

The recommendations from the parliamentary panel to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) come at a time when the Indian Army alone is short of over 7,000 officers and over 20,000 men.

Likewise, the Indian Air Force has a shortage of nearly 150 officers and over 15,000 men and the Indian Navy faces a shortage of 150 officers and nearly 15,000 men.

The Central government alone has about 30 lakh employees with the Indian Railways, while the state governments employ about another two crore people.

The Parliament Standing Committee had made this recommendation with the understanding that the perennial and alarming situation of shortage of Officers and PBOR in Armed Forces would stand corrected.

This way, the Central and State Government Services will also get enriched by the disciplined officers/PBOR.

The committee is reportedly unhappy with the lukewarm response of the MoD to this important recommendation with the onus now being shifted to DoP&T.

The committee desires that issue of shortage of officers should be given priority as it is directly related to national security.

The Ministry of Defence should take up this matter at the higher levels in the Department of Personnel and Training and should try to convince them with their demand.

The panel desires that the Ministry of Defence should inform them about the outcome of such discussion.New Delhi: The Congress plenary beginning on Friday is being held after almost eight years and will ratify Rahul Gandhi`s election as Congress president and is expected to outline party`s strategies to oust the Narendra Modi government in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul, 47, was elected party chief in December 2017. The plenary will begin with a meeting of the steering committee on Friday which would finalise the draft resolutions. Rahul`s speech on Saturday morning is expected to set the tone of plenary. He will also make the concluding remarks.

Following are some of the key points of the plenary:

- It will be held at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The last plenary was held in Burari in December 2010.

- While former PM Manmohan Singh would address the plenary, there is no certainty yet if Sonia Gandhi will speak.

- Rahul has constituted an organising committee, a drafting committee and its four sub-groups and a constitution amendment committee for the plenary session.

- While Manmohan Singh is chairman of the drafting committee and Mukul Wasnik its convener, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora is chairman of the organising committee and party general secretary Oscar Fernandes its convener.

- The constitution amendment committee has senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Janardan Dwivedi as its chairman and convener, with ten other senior leaders, including Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram, Mallikarjun Kharge and Kapil Sibal, as its members.

- While AK Antony is the chairman of the political sub-group and Selja its convener, Chidambaram is the chairman of the economic affairs sub-group with Jairam Ramesh as its convener and Anand Sharma the head the international affairs sub-group with Jyotiraditya Scindia as its convener.

The drafting committee has 44 other senior party leaders as its members. It also has four sub-groups on political, economic affairs, international affairs and agriculture and employment.

- More than twelve thousand AICC and PCC members are expected to take part in the plenary. Former Congress MLAs, MPs, chief ministers and current CMs among those who have been invited.

- The party is expected to pass more than seven resolutions mainly pertaining to the current political situation. Resolutions may also be passed on India's foreign policy, economic situation, unemployment and farmers' distress.

- Keen to build a grass-roots campaign against the Modi government, the party will come out with 'facts sheets' in the form of booklets on agriculture, economy, youth, weaker sections, besides national security.

- The political resolution is expected to spell out ways in which the party will go about retrieving its lost ground and political space.

- As per Zee Media sources, Congress will in its political resolution put a stamp on coalition politics. They believe that the only way to defeat Modi-led BJP in 2019 is to put together a coalition of 'secular' parties. Sonia had recently held a dinner for Opposition leaders at her residence which was attended by 20 political parties.

- Plus, the party will dwell on its prospects in elections to key states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh slated in 2018.

- At the same time, Rahul has to take a call on the composition of the Congress Working Committee (which has now been revamped as steering committee). It has 24 members at present.

- It is not clear yet if Rahul will opt for election to the committee in keeping with his oft-repeated thrust on internal democracy or opt to nominate them as has been the general practice in the party.

- Rahul is keen on a greater contribution from the youth during the plenary and as per media reports, party leaders have said that many of the AICC members, who will take part in the deliberations, are young in keeping with the country`s demographic profile.

(With Agency inputs)BENGALURU: After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a massive defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a jibe at CM Yogi Adityanath asking him to focus on Uttar Pradesh and not 'lecture' Karnataka. "Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development," he tweeted on Wednesday night.

He also congratulated the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, who had joined hands for the elections, for their win on the seats that were previously held by Yogi Adityanath and Deputy UP CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

"BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role," the Karnataka CM tweeted.

The rounds of attacks and counterattacks between the Karnataka CM and his counterpart in UP are not new. Adityanath during his two visits to poll-bound Karnataka had targeted Siddaramaiah over the development in the state. The two CMs had indulged in a Twitter war with the two attacking each other on the issue of development and governance.

'Welcoming' Adityanath to Karnataka, the Congress leader had reminded the UP CM of the 'starvation deaths' in the northern state. "I welcome UP CM Shri @myogiadityanath to our state. There is a lot you can learn from us Sir. When you are here please visit a Indira Canteen & a ration shop. It will help you address the starvation deaths sometimes reported from your state," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The UP in turn had responded to the jibe and tweeted back reminding Siddaramiah of the high number of farmer suicides in the Karnataka. "Thank you for the welcome @siddaramaiah ji. I heard number of farmers committing suicide in Karnataka was highest in your regime, not to mention the numerous deaths and transfer of honest officers. As UP CM I am working to undo the misery and lawlessness unleashed by your allies," Adityanath had tweeted.

On Wednesday, SP's Praveen Nishad won the Gorakhpur seat by 21,961 votes, and SP's candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel won Phulpur bypoll by defeating his nearest rival BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel by 59,460 votes. Gorakhpur was vacated by Adityanath and Phulpur by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, following their election to the Uttar Pradesh state legislative council.New Delhi: At 133, India has slipped 11 places in a recent World Happiness Report released by United Nations on Wednesday. The country fared far worse than Pakistan, Nepal and other SAARC countries with only war-ravaged Afghanistan faring even poorer.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network's (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report measures 156 countries on numerous parameters including healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, social freedom and rate of corruption. India was ranked 122 last year but this year, slipped even further. Even neighbouring countries like Bhutan (97), Nepal (101), Bangladesh (115) and Sri Lanka (116) fared far better. Despite being a hub of terror activities, Pakistan ranked far ahead of India at 75th and despite China having a strong censorship program, the country managed to take the 86th place in an index which did, however, note that Chinese only as happy now as they were 25 years ago.

Finland topped the index and was joined in the top-10 by several of its Scandinavian neighbours. It upstaged Norway from the top spot while other countries in the top of the list included Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. The United States was distant at 18th despite the index noting that people at large here had gotten richer on an average. The UK was 19th while oil-rich United Arab Emirates was placed 20th.We still dont know who stole the painting or how it was recovered

On March 20, after an absence of more than 22 years, the illustration by Russian painter Mikhail Vrubel, entitled "Demon and Angel with Tamara's Soul" will once again be on display at the Museum of Russian Art in Yerevan.

It was stolen from the museum in 1995, and nothing was known about its destiny until 2017, when during a meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow, Russian President Putin announced his intention to return the recovered painting to Armenia.

However, the staffs of the Russian and Armenian presidents and law enforcement agencies either do not know, or do not want to disclose, details about the circumstances of the paintings disappearance and detection.

How Vrubel's painting appeared in the museum

"Demon and Angel with Tamara's Soul" is one of the illustrations commissioned to young Vrubel for Mikhail Lermontov's Demon poem, created in 1891, when a full collection of Lermontov's writings was printed to mark the 50th anniversary of his death.

"Vrubel created the painting equivalent to the literary work," says Lilit Sargsyan, senior researcher at the Russian Art Museum.

Art historians say that it was the illustrations made for Demon that brought recognition to Vrubel. These works later appeared at the Tretyakov Gallery in Russia and other museums or collections.

The illustration stolen from the Yerevan Museum appeared on the last poem page. After the publication of the Lermontov collection, it was acquired by Russian entrepreneur and patron of arts Savva Mamontov.

Russian prima ballerina Yekaterina Geltzer was the next owner. Geltzer's collection of several hundred paintings never was organized as a museum. Some paintings from her collection, however, including "Demon and Angel with Tamara's Soul", appeared later on in the private collection of Professor Aram Abrahamyan. Born in Tbilisi in 1898, he studied medicine in Moscow and lived most of his life there, working as a urologist.

Abrahamyans apartment in Moscow held a large collection of artwork. At first, it was done non-systematically, but then he started collecting works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known as Silver age" of Russian Art. Chief custodian of the Russian Art museum Vera Kalchurina says that forms of art were closely linked in that period, so the paintings exhibited in the museum give a general idea about Russian art.

Kalchurina says that though Abrahamyan was not a specialist in arts, he showed an artistic approach.

Aram Abrahamyan with his wife, Maria Abrahamyan, from the book by N. Stepanyan, "Aram Abrahamyan's Collection", 1981

Aram Abrahamyan moved some part of his collection - more than 200 paintings, graphic works, sculptures and applied art samples - to Yerevan.

The Museum of Russian Art was opened in 1984 based on his collection. It is now called The Museum of Russian Art, Aram Abrahamyan's Collection.

Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov, Alexandre Benois, Zinaida Serebriakova, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Martiros Saryan and others are exhibited in the museum.

(From right): Mikhail Vrubels canvas "Safo", "The Princess of the Sea" sculpture and Martiros Saryan's "Yellow Flowers" at the Russian Art Museum.

The museum was compared to Moscow's famous Tretyakov Gallery and called Small Tretyakov. Describing the museum's collection, Vera Kalchurina says: "This is the best period of Russian culture and art, and many of its delicacies can be found here."

One night in June 1995, when there was no electricity in the building and no alarm system in the museum, and the guard was away from his place of service, some people came to steal one of those "delicacies".

Lost for 22 years

Museum controller Tsovinar Aghayan, who lived in the same building, was the first one to find out about the theft. Learning from a neighbor about the broken glass in the museum, she went there and noticed the painting by Vrubel was missing. It was the only stolen piece of art.

Aghayan called museum director Anahit Fljyan, who contacted law enforcement agencies.

The thieves used a metal manhole cover to break the museums double layer glass showcase. The newspapers of the time quoted the testimony of nearby residents about seeing two thieves.

Two months after the theft, the case was suspended "on the grounds of unknown identity of the perpetrators." Armenias Investigative Committee noted that the value of the painting was AMD 8,145,200.

The museum's showcase

The museum staff does not know if the guard was involved in the incident. Kalchurina recalls the nights after the theft, when the museum employees, together with Police officers, took turns guarding the museum at nights.

Image detection: unexpected news for the museum staff

Museum staff learnt about the recovery of the stolen Vrubel picture from the television. It was first announced a year ago, in March 2017, during a meeting of the Presidents of Russia and Armenia. No details were reported. On November 16, at the Vrubel Hall of Tretyakov Gallery, during the official opening of Armenian Culture Days in Russia, Vladimir Putin said that the illustration had been found in 2016 and Tretyakov Gallery specialists spent seven months to restore it.

(From the left) Painting restorer Inna Solovova, Vladimir Putin and Serzh Sargsyan / kremlin.ru

This is almost all the information available about the circumstances of the paintings recovery.

The Kremlin's press service told Hetq that the painting was found torn into pieces, "as a result of complex measures taken by the law enforcement agencies" in 2014, not in 2016.

"The Russian side did not disclose any details of the discovery of the painting by the law enforcement agencies, so the RA President's staff will also refrain from providing details," the Armenian Presidential Office says.

The Investigative Committee only says no person has been arrested or charged with the theft at present.

The museum staff celebrates the return of the painting, but still has questions

The museum staff has no information about the incident details, either.

Director Marine Mkrtchyan only knows that the painting was found by special services "when inspecting someone's house" and handed over to the Tretyakov Gallery to check.

Mkrtchyan refuses to speak about the value of Vrubel's work. "It's priceless for us," she says.

Vera Kalchurina thinks this painting is the pride of the museum, noting that there are only a few museums that have Vrubel's works. She assumes the thieves knew about it, too. However, it is difficult to claim that they really knew the artistic value of the painting.

"Why would they tear it into pieces if they valued it?" she says. Its also questionable if they had some collector who issued an order to obtain the painting.

Employees of the Russian Museum of Art compare the restoration of a torn painting to a complicated surgery or a medical resuscitation.

"If you do not know that its been restored, you wont even notice the sewing. They did an excellent job," says Lilit Sargsyan, describing the work of Tretyakov Gallery restorer Inna Solovova.

During the exhibition, the painting restoration process will be presented, too.

The exhibition, entitled "Return of the Stolen Vrubel", will be open until November 20. It will then be moved to a permanent display.

The painting will be shipped to Russia in 2020, to be shown at Vrubel's personal exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery.

Photos of the museum: Narek AleksanyanNew Delhi: After being critical of the Tejas fighter jets for several years, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has now agreed to induct as many as 324 indigenously developed light combat aircraft (LCA), reports said on Thursday.

The induction of 324 Tejas fighter jets will make up for the IAF's depleting number of squadron strength.

The IAF has, for years, maintained that the Tejas fighters are not combat-ready even after three decades of development given its limited range.

However, the Indian Air Force has now committed to buy at least123 Tejas fighter jets at the cost of Rs 75,000 crore from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

The IAF, however, demands that the Tejas Mark II jets should be entirely new fighters with better avionics, radars, enhanced weapons carrying capacity and powerful engines.

The Tejas Mark-II is still on the drawing board. But if DRDO, Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd deliver the required Mark-II fighter, IAF has agreed to have a total of 18 Tejas squadrons, a highly-placed source was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

According to report, the IAF has already issued the request for proposal (RFP) to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the acquisition of 83 fighters which are scheduled to join the IAF from 2019-20 after completion of Final Operational Clearance (FOC) contract for 20 Tejas jests.

The existing single-engine Tejas has limited endurance of just an hour, with a radius of action of only 350-400-km and weapon-carrying capacity of 3-tonne. While the other single-engine fighters such as Swedish Gripen-E have triple the endurance and double the weapon-carrying capacity.

IAF's readiness to buy more LCA jets is based on its assessment that buying and inducting expensive foreign fighters in large numbers is simply not an option.

This comes after a series of recent top-level meetings in South Block during which Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that government is not ditching the home-grown Tejas and putting all its energies into ensuring the fighter is delivered at a much faster pace.

Being critical of the fighter jets, the IAF had said, Tejas, which has just about 50% of the capabilities of an F-16 or Gripen in terms of endurance, payload etc, will have to fly under the protection of other fighters during conflicts.

The IAF has earlier reportedly informed the Centre that Tejas - Indias first domestically designed and produced light fighter aircraft  has several deficiencies and lags behind its foreign competitors like the JAS-39 Gripen.

In July 2017, the IAF inducted the first squadron of home-grown Tejas with two fighter planes joining the force. The squadron named  Flying Daggers 45  is expected to have its full strength by 2018-2020. However, the IAF was not eager to expand its Tejas unit.New Delhi: Canada has conveyed to India that presence of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an event here last month where the Indian map was "inaccurately" depicted, did not reflect its endorsement.

Trudeau had attended a conclave of Young Change Makers here on February 24 where the Indian map was reportedly shown incorrectly.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India had taken up the matter with Canada.

"We had taken up the matter with the Canadian side. We were informed that the inaccurate depiction of the Indian flag happened at the Young Change Maker's conclave held on Feb 24 which was attended by the Canadian Prime Minister," Kumar said during a media briefing on Thursday.

He said the Canadian government has conveyed to India that the event was organised by a third party and the map and its backdrop were an artiste's creation.

"We have been told that they do not imply endorsement or acceptance by the government of Canada," he said.

India's map shown at the event reportedly shown Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Akshai Chin and Gujarat incorrectly.

Replying to another question, Kumar said the visit of a Chinese dignitary here has been cancelled as he had to attend a meeting of China's Communist Party.A veteran Indian-origin British MP said on Thursday that he has written to Prime Minister Theresa May, asking her to consider inclusion of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in the country's school history curriculum.

Virendra Sharma, the Labour party MP for Ealing Southall, has been campaigning for the historic episode to be commemorated in the UK and had raised the issue during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday and was assured a written response from Theresa May.

"I was pleased to ask the Prime Minister about her plans to commemorate the Amritsar massacre, and delighted that she will look more closely at the matter,? he said.

He added: "I believe it is important that everyone in the UK is aware of this country's colonial heritage, and that schoolchildren should be taught about the more shocking aspects of our history".

"I have written to the Prime Minister about my campaign for a permanent memorial and for the Amritsar massacre to be included in the school curriculum. I look forward to meeting her to discuss positive steps we can take," he said.

The 70-year-old parliamentarian has previously campaigned for an apology from the British government over the atrocity on April 13, 1919, when General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on thousands of unarmed protesters gathered at Jallianwala Bagh.

During his Indian trade mission in February 2013, the Prime Minister David Cameron had said it would be wrong to "reach back into history" and apologise for the wrongs of British colonialism.

The UK Foreign Office has stood by that view in its stand on the matter. "As the former Prime Minister said when he visited the Jallianwala Bagh in 2013, the massacre was a deeply shameful act in British history and one that we should never forget. It is right that we pay respect to those who lost their lives and remember what happened. The British Government rightly condemned the events at the time," the FCO says.

Sharma is hopeful that his campaign for a permanent memorial and for the subject to be included in the school curriculum will bear fruit in time for next month's 99th anniversary of the massacre.NEW DELHI: In a relief for Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case, the Supreme Court on Thursday said the Congress leader cannot be arrested till March 26, extending the interim protection from arrest granted by Delhi HC.

The SC transferred to itself matter pending before the Delhi High Court in view of conflicting views by different HCs on the Enforcement Directorate's power to arrest. It said that it will deal with the issue related to ED's power to arrest the accused in money laundering case. The apex court has fixed the matter for hearing on March 26.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said it would hear the matter on March 26 and the top court would answer the question regarding the interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA.

The apex court's order came hours after the high court extended Chidambaram's protection from arrest in the ED case from March 20 to March 22. Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, is in jail in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI.

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: Admitting that his allegations accusing him of being part of a drug racket were unfounded, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologised to Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia in a letter.

In the run-up to elections in Punjab, Kejriwal had accused Majithia, the Revenue Minister in the Akali Dal government, of being at the helm of a multi-million dollar drug racket in the state. Even though Akali Dal finished a distant third, AAP did not fare too well either. The war between Majithia and Kejriwal though raged on with the former filing a defamation case.

Facing a slew of cases which, according to reports, have begun taking a toll on AAP, Kejriwal in his letter to Majithia said that he apologises for making the allegations against him. "In the recent past, I made certain statements and allegations against you regarding your alleged involvement in drug trade. These statements became a political issue. Now I have learnt that allegations are unfounded," he wrote. "I hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations made against you and apologies for the same."

CM @ArvindKejriwal has tendered an apology to me in the court,for all the baseless&false allegations he & his party levelled against me in drug https://t.co/Fl679yeKHW mother suffered the most due to all this&this apology is vindication of her faith in Wahegurus power of justice pic.twitter.com/YXs3f710eu  Bikram Majithia (@bsmajithia) March 15, 2018

While this is not the first time the AAP chief has had to issue an apology, it may well be a sign of Kejriwal falling on the backfoot in face of mounting cases against him. The most high-profile of these is a case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.Here is what is making headlines today:

Ready to be 'Neelakantha', drink poison to clean the banking system: RBI Governor Urijit Patel

RBI Governor Urjit Patel has said that like the 'Neelakantha' (Lord Shiva), he will do everything possible to clean the rot in the Indian banking system and to make it more transparent and efficient. http://bit.ly/2pf8YMy

Compulsory military service for those seeking govt jobs, recommends Parliamentary Standing Committee

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended five years of compulsory military service for anyone who wants a subsequent employment with the state or the central government. http://bit.ly/2Dt0aaP

BJP loses Yogi's Gorakhpur and Maurya's Phulpur: 5 reasons why it's a big deal

Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, in an alliance with Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), snatched the two prestigious seats - Yogi's Gorakhpur and Maurya's Phulpur - from the BJP. http://bit.ly/2FDkgoX

Spend less time lecturing us: After bypoll losses, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah mocks Yogi Adityanath

After the BJP suffered losses in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls on Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took a jibe at CM Yogi Adityanath asking him to focus on Uttar Pradesh and not 'lecture' Karnataka. http://bit.ly/2FRQxYC

Lionel Messi hits 100th Champions League goal as Barcelona make last eight

Lionel Messi scored his 100th Champions League goal as Barcelona defeated Chelsea 3-0 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament, 4-1 on aggregate. http://bit.ly/2pfI1YWNew Delhi: There was nothing small about the manner in which a certain wedding took place in Maharashtra's Nasik district recently. But it was not the grandeur but the enthusiasm with which the holy ceremony took place that drew locals and officials to the wedding of a couple - both three-feet tall and with even taller dreams.

While both Monali Kavle - the bride, and Sandip Geete - the groom, may have been three-feet tall but their wedding was just as grand as any. People from distant towns came to be a part of their special day. And special it was indeed. A lavish palki made from select flowers was prepared for Monali and Sandip for them to reach the ceremony in. A DJ was arranged to welcome them and his beats kept the guests entertained through the ceremony and even after. As for the guest list, there were several officials from the local administration as well and they blessed the newlyweds after the ceremony.

Their wedding may have been like a fairytale but it is only by chance that the two met. It is learnt that Monali's parents were not able to find a match for her because of her height. After many failed attempts, they discussed their predicament with a local from another district who informed them that he knew of a family with a son with the same worry. Rest worked like a charm and Monali and Sandip fell for each other as if they were meant for each other.

Both families made elaborate plans for the wedding but said they won't give or take any dowry. Setting an example for other couples and their families, Monali and Sandip have indeed shown that where there's love, there's a way.New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that Pakistan deciding to call back its High Commissioner in India Sohail Mahmood was a routine affair.

"I am surprised why is this question being raised. It is not a recall. He has been called back for consultations. It is very normal and routine in nature," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

On the allegations of "repeated incidence of harassment" of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi by Pakistan, Kumar said that he would not like to comment on it in the media and the matter will be taken up through diplomatic channels.

Upping the ante, Pakistan on Thursday called back its High Commissioner in India for 'consultations'. Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said that the Indian government had "failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation of Pakistani diplomats", their families and staffers by its intelligence agencies.

"Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad for consultations," he said.

On Tuesday, the Foreign Office had summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh over the alleged harassment of its officials and their families in New Delhi.

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry claimed that the staff and their families have been facing "harassment, intimidation and outright violence" from Indian state agencies in recent weeks.

Faisal also alleged that this deliberate continuing bullying was not confined to a single isolated event and "continues unabated despite repeated official protests lodged with the Indian High Commission here and also with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the highest (level)," PTI reported.

He said the Pakistan High Commission had shared with the External Affairs Ministry photographs identifying the individuals, who forcibly halted and took pictures of the officers but "regrettably no positive action" was taken by the Indian side so far.

"The total apathy and failure of the Indian government to put a halt to these despicable incidents, sparing not even young children, indicates both a lack of capacity to protect foreign diplomats posted in India or a more reprehensible, complicit unwillingness to do so," he said.

Faisal added that under the Vienna Convention, the safety and the security of Pakistani diplomats and their families is the responsibility of the Indian government.

He further claimed that in the latest incident, Indian officials stopped the car of the deputy high commissioner for 40 minutes and harassed the occupants of the vehicle.

(With PTI inputs)Gandhinagar: Expressing deep anguish over a spate of banking frauds, RBI Governor Urjit Patel has said that like the 'Neelakantha' (Lord Shiva), he will do everything possible to clean the rot in the Indian banking system and to make it more transparent and efficient.

"If we need to face the brickbats and be the Neelakantha consuming this poison, we will do so as our duty," Patel said.

''The central bank will persist with its endeavours and get better with each trial and tribulation,'' the RBI Governor added.

Patel made these remarks while delivering a lecture at the Gujarat National Law University on Wednesday.

During his speech, Patel said, ''Banking frauds amount to the looting of our country's future by some in the business community in cahoots with some lenders.''

He, however, pledged to break the unholy nexus between businessmen and bankers.

''As the guard of people's deposits at banks, I will do my best to break the unholy nexus," he said.

Referring to the Rs 12,967 crore scam at PNB, he said, "I have chosen to speak today to convey that we at the Reserve Bank of India also feel the anger, hurt and pain at the banking sector frauds and irregularities."

Patel said RBI has in place an asset quality review of banks and "we are doing all we can to further strengthen it".

Patel's comments came come almost a month after India's second-largest lender, state-owned Punjab National Bank was allegedly defrauded of around Rs 13,000 crore by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connivance with some bank employees.New Delhi: I dont want to die an ordinary death. When I go, the whole nation will remember me.

These were the words uttered by Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan to his father when he had just joined the National Security Guard (NSG) as a part of the elite Special Action Group.

On November 26, 2008, Major Unnikrishnan got his wish. 26/11 will always be remembered for the courage displayed by our security forces in overcoming the siege at the Taj Mahal hotel, Oberoi and Chabad House in Mumbai.

Unnikrishnan was instrumental in rescuing 14 hostages from the clutches of terrorists who had swarmed the Mumbai hotel and killed hundreds of people.

On that fateful day, he entered the hotel in a group of 10 commandos and reached the sixth floor through the staircase. As the team descended the stairs, they suspected perpetrators on the third floor.

A few women were held as hostages in a room which was locked from the inside. After breaking open the door, the round of fire by the perpetrators hit Commando Sunil Yadav, Unnikrishnan's colleague.

Unnikrishnan engaged the perpetrators in a gunbattle. He arranged for Yadav's evacuation for first aid.

Meanwhile, he chased the terrorists, who had escaped to another floor of the hotel. In the encounter that followed, he was shot from the back before later succumbing to his injuries.

According to NSG officials, his final words were, Don't come up. I will handle them.

March 15 marks Late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's 41st birth anniversary. Not only should every Indian know his name, but also know the life of this martyr who died for his countrymen.

Sandeep Unnikrishnan always wanted to join the Indian army. He even sported a crew cut in school

According to his cousin, Sandeep was scared of water but learned how to swim when he joined the Indian Army.

According to his friends and teachers, he was a good athlete who was active in school activities and sports events. He was also a member of the school choir and enjoyed watching movies.

Unnikrishnan joined the National Defence Academy (India) (NDA), Pune, Maharashtra in 1995. He was a part of the Oscar Squadron (No. 4 Battalion) and a graduate of the 94th Course of NDA. He graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Arts.

His friends at the National Defence Academy have often recalled him as selfless, generous, calm, and composed.

After serving the Indian Army in different locations in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan during counter insurgencies for two terms, he was selected to join the National Security Guards.

Unnikrishnan topped the 'Ghatak course' (at the Commando Wing (Infantry School), Belgaum), the most difficult course of the Army, earning an "Instructor Grading" and commendation. He opted for the NSG commando service which he joined on deputation in 2006.

He died at the age of 31 after being shot by terrorists during the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Major Unnikrishnan's funeral was held with full military honours.

He was awarded the Ashok Chakra, India's highest peace time gallantry award, on 26 January 2009.

The official citation for the Ashoka Chakra Award reads:

IC-58660 MAJOR SANDEEP UNNIKRISHNAN BIHAR REGIMENT/51 SPECIAL ACTION GROUP (POSTHUMOUS)

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan led the commando operation launched on 27th November 2008 to flush out terrorists from Hotel Taj Mahal, Mumbai in which he rescued 14 hostages. During the operation, his team came under intense hostile fire, in which one of his team members got grievously injured. Major Sandeep pinned down the terrorists with accurate fire and rescued the injured commando to safety. In the process, he was shot in his right arm. Despite his injuries, he continued to fight the terrorists till his last breath. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan displayed most conspicuous bravery besides camaraderie and leadership of the highest order and made the supreme sacrifice for the nation.

The Mother Dairy Double Road in Bangalore, a 4.5 km road from Federal Mogul on Doddaballapur Road to MS Palya junction, was renamed Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan Road in his honour.

The Ramamurthy Nagar-Outer Ring Road Junction in Bengaluru, here a bust of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan is installed and the junction is named in his honour.

Here's how the nation is remembering the hero who sacrificed his life and has now become an epitome of bravery:

Paying tributes to the proud son of India, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His bravery, service & spirit of sacrifice will always inspire us. pic.twitter.com/dy0vcMpSz3  Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) March 15, 2018

Remembering braveheart, martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His valour, courage and spirit will always remain an inspiration pic.twitter.com/qhlGAV0MhV  Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) March 15, 2018

"The respect that one gets in the Armed forces, one does not get anywhere said Sandeep when his parents asked him why he decided to join Indian Army. Tribute to d proud son of India Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. Today he would have turned 41yrs. pic.twitter.com/cWXrhDifjM  Mujaid Alam Bakerwal (@alam_mujaid) March 15, 2018

Remembering martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his birth anniversary. His valour & courage will always be an inspiration. I salute his supreme sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/6OVuPX3Pqo  Harsimrat Kaur Badal (@HarsimratBadal_) March 15, 2018

Remembering the brave son of Mother India, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan on his Birth anniversary. He gave supreme sacrifice in action during Nov-2008 Mumbai attacks. He was consequently awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peace time gallantry award, on 26 Jan 2009. #Respect pic.twitter.com/UdM3VPU8E8  maHesh herambHa (@MahiHerambha) March 15, 2018

Sandeep Unnikrishnan's death was a major cause of sorrow to people throughout the nation and many people openly mourned his death while taking to the streets. There were thousands who stood outside the Bangalore residence of Unnikrishnan to pay their last respect. Many mourners shouted slogans during his funeral Long Live Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Sandeep Unnikrishnan Amar Rahe.By Mattha Busby

The money has barely addressed a number of fundamental needs, say the auditors, citing the independence and impartiality of the judicial system, the fight against high-level corruption and organised crime, and press freedom as some of their key concerns.

The independent, external auditors said the blame for the unsatisfactory progress in these areas rests with the Turkish authorities, which they said had demonstrated a lack of political will to reform over the past several years.

The member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report recommended that the EU should ensure that money allocated to Turkey is better spent in the future.

From 2018 onwards, the Commission should better target funding for Turkey in areas where reforms are overdue and necessary for credible progress towards EU accession, said Bettina Jakobsen.

Auditors stressed that the EU failed to use the funds as a bargaining chip to ensure Turkey stayed on the correct path, with backsliding on democratic reforms highlighted as a central disappointment.

With the majority, 75 percent, of Turkish NGOs and civil rights organisations vanishing in the wake of the 2016 attempted coup, the reports authors were told that national funds were targeted towards organisations supportive of the government.

The report was criticised by a Turkish official who claimed that the practical implications of its findings are hypocritical since pre-accession funding could be cut while Turkey technically remains on the path to EU membership.

Turkish institutions are and have always been willing to work with the EU on rule of law and fundamental rights in order to continue the reform process, a Turkish official told the Financial Times. It is a big contradiction from the EU to criticise Turkey on these fields and at the same time cut funds which are supposed to bring Turkey closer to the EU.

Meanwhile, around 48,000 people remain behind bars since the 2016 putsch.

occrp.orgLondon/Amsterdam: Britain`s third biggest company Unilever picked Rotterdam over London for its main headquarters on Thursday in a blow to Prime Minister Theresa May`s government a year before Brexit.

The Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove soap, Domestos and Ben & Jerry`s ice cream launched a review of its dual-headed structure in 2017 after fighting off a $143 billion takeover from Kraft Heinz, triggering a battle between Britain and the Netherlands.

Unilever said the decision to end 88 years of two parent-ownership was not linked to Brexit or any form of protectionism but said it would simplify its structure, make it more agile and facilitate acquisitions.

"Let me categorically say that this had nothing to do with Brexit," Chairman Marijn Dekkers told reporters.

"The board takes a 30 to 50 year decision. We think both countries are highly attractive investment climates and we will continue to invest in both countries as a result of this," added Dutchman Dekkers.

However Chris Bryant, a lawmaker in the opposition Labour Party who campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, said the decision was another sign of the weakening business environment in Britain.

NO BIG STAFF CHANGES

Forged by the 1930 merger of the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and the British soap maker Lever Brothers, Unilever will retain 7,300 staff in the United Kingdom and continue to be listed in London, Amsterdam and New York.

However, it is unclear whether it can remain in the FTSE 100 Index of leading stocks however, a decision which could hit its shares if tracker funds are forced to sell.

Unilever was forced to act to improve its operations and profitability after it fought off one of the biggest takeovers ever proposed in early 2017.

Unilever swiftly rejected the offer and Kraft walked away but the move for a company once thought to be too big to take over has had widespread repercussions.

In the weeks after the offer Chief Executive Paul Polman said Britain, known for promoting one of the most open economies in the world, should do more to protect national champions.

Unions in Britain have noted that Dutch companies have stronger powers to fight off unwanted takeovers, as seen last year when paint maker Akzo Nobel succeeded in fending off a 26.3 billion euro bid from Pittsburgh-based PGG Industries.

"Unilever`s headquarter move to Rotterdam is a damning indictment on the UK`s toothless takeover laws which leave decent employers fighting predatory takeovers by vulture capitalists with one hand tied behind their back," Unite national officer for Unilever Rhys McCarthy said.

THREE DIVISIONS

As part of the restructuring, Unilever will create three divisions, with Beauty & Personal Care and the Home Care units being headquartered in London. The Foods & Refreshment division will be based in Rotterdam.

The company said it would give more authority to the heads of those divisions to set strategy. "This secures nearly 1 billion pounds per year of continued spend in the UK, including a significant commitment to R&D," it said.

Finance Director Graeme Pitkethly told Reuters that its continued inclusion in the FTSE 100 Index was still to be determined because it had not yet engaged with the index providers.

Unilever had held talks with the governments of both countries before making its decision, and the move will be seen as a blow to Prime Minister May, who is locked in talks with Brussels over the country`s departure from the EU on March 29, 2019.

In recent months, speculation had grown that Unilever would choose the Netherlands after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, himself a Unilever veteran, proposed a tax change seen as benefiting Anglo-Dutch multinationals.

Unilever said it did not expect any significant tax changes as a result of the deal. It said it had chosen the Netherlands because the Dutch company currently accounts for 55 percent of the group and those shares trade with greater liquidity.

The British government said however it welcomed Unilever`s long-term commitment to Britain and the protection of jobs.

"Its decision to transfer a small number of jobs to a corporate HQ in the Netherlands is part of a long-term restructuring of the company and is not connected to the UK`s departure from the EU," a government spokesman said.

Unilever is not the only major company spanning Britain and the Netherlands -- with Royal Dutch Shell, publishing group Relx and the bank also having strong links with both countries.Washington: US President Donald Trump is set to take more actions against Chinese products as he strongly believes that American businesses have been "ripped off" by foreign trade competitors, the White House said today.

The US has some USD 500 billion trade deficit with China. Ever since coming to power, Trump has sought to reduce this trade deficit which he says is mainly due to the unfair trade practices of China.

"His goal is free, fair, and reciprocal trade agreements in which other countries grant American products and American exports just as much access as we grant to their products and their imports into the US. He's going to be pushing for that, and there could be additional actions," White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters in a gaggle abroad Air Force One.

Shah was responding to a question on media reports that the Trump administration was working to increase import tariff on a number of Chinese products.

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representatives, China is currently US' largest goods trading partner with USD 578.2 billion in total (two way) goods trade during 2016.

Early this month Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on import of steel and another 10 per cent on aluminium.

"The president campaigned on, believes in strongly, that American workers and American businesses have been ripped off by foreign trade competitors and partners in the past, and he wants to level the playing field," Shah said.

Meanwhile, Florida Senator Marco Rubio urged the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions (HELP) to include language in the upcoming Higher Education Reauthorization Act to address Chinese government-run programmes known as 'Confucius Institutes'.

He urged the committee to make it harder for China to evade reporting requirements for any money it gives to US colleges and universities and to "require colleges and universities to choose between federal funding and Confucius Institute-related funding from the Chinese government".

"Confucius Institutes are Chinese government-run programs that use the teaching of Chinese language and culture as a tool to expand the political influence of the PRC," he said.

There are presently more than 100 Confucius Institutes, in addition to Confucius Classrooms at the K-12 level in the US.

Meanwhile, Trump's key adviser on the administration's "America first" economic policies also said that the next step in US trade policy is addressing intellectual property theft by China, Fox News reported.

"The next thing on the chess board really is to deal with something Lou that you've been talking for years, China's stealing our technology but also more subtly, the force technology transfer," White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro said.

US businesses have been "abused" by China and forced to give up their technology in order to enter the Asian market, according to Navarro.

"We are going to move forward with some recommendations for the president. And I tell you what, there is nobody who is going to oppose that in this country," he said.Srinagar: Two militants were killed and three policemen including an SHO injured on Thursday in a gunfight that broke out on the outskirts of the city after a BJP leader was attacked, said police.

Police sources said two militants were killed and three policemen including a station house officer (SHO) injured in the gunfight between the security forces and hiding militants in Balhama area of Khonmoh in outskirts of Srinagar.

Militants had attacked BJP leader, Muhammad Anwar Khan and injured his security guard Bilal Ahmad after which they fled and took shelter in Balhama village.

Security personnel immediately surrounded the village and a gunfight started there.

Four houses have been damaged in the gunfight while police said firing exchanges have now stopped and searches are on to locate the bodies of two slain militants.

Authorities also announced suspension of rail service between Baramulla and Bannihal towns on Friday as a precautionary measure after intense clashes erupted between a stone pelting mob and the security forces at the gunfight site.

Mumbai: Former top cop of Karnataka HT Sangliana stoked controversy at a recent event when he allegedly called Delhi-gang rape victim Nirbhaya's mother's physique 'good'. If this was not enough, he further said that he couldn't imagine how beautiful Nirbhaya would have been.

The former DGP was quoted as saying by Mumbai Mirror, "Nirbhaya's mother has such a good physique. I can imagine how beautiful Nirbhaya would have been.

Sangliana did not stop here. He also reportedly said that if a woman is overpowered, then she should surrender, prevent being killed and follow up the case later.

At the event, Karnataka cadre IPS officer D Roopa was given the 'Nirbhaya award' on the occasion on March 9, 2018. This was for International Women's Day, which is celebrated on March 8 every year.

Met Nirbhaya's mother today. She spoke how the society stigmatises rape victims rather than stigmatising the culprits. It's for citizens to play active role in checking crimes against women. Ex MP, retd IPS Sangliana was present I received "Nirbhaya Award" on the occasion. pic.twitter.com/ifjeaBpnf1  D Roopa IPS (@D_Roopa_IPS) March 9, 2018

Meanwhile, activist Anita Cheria was quoted as saying by the media house that she had wanted to leave soon after the remark as a mark of protest but had stayed back out of respect for Nirbhaya's parents.

Later, Cheria, who was also awarded, as a mark of disapprovement of Sangalianas comment, in her acceptance speech said that when top government officials comment on a woman's 'good physique', then it shows that the society still has a long way to go in order to change mindsets and bring lasting change.

On the other hand, as per the report, noted journalist Pushpa Achanta walked out of the event because of ex-DGP's remarks. However, the report said that it was not clear whether Nirbhaya's parents could hear Sangliana's speech clearly.

On her part, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said that justice was something that did not come easy and various laws were really not a deterrent for anti-social elements.

Her daughter was brutally gang-raped on a bus in Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012, and died on December 29, 2012, in Singapore the same year.

A juvenile, who was under 18 years of age, was held along with five other men for the rape and murder of 'India's braveheart'.

The incident had shocked the nation and had led to massive protests across the country seeking safety for women and stricter punishment for rapists.

In December 2015, the Parliament had passed the juvenile justice bill, which provides for the trial of those between 16 and 18 years of age as adults for heinous offences. Also, anyone between the age of 16 and 18 who commits a less serious offence may be tried as an adult if he is apprehended after he attains the age of 21.New Delhi: The untimely departure of legendary actress Sridevi has been the biggest shock for the entire nation. But more than her fans and film industry, it's a big loss for her family, who must be still fighting with the harsh truth.

Sridevi's elder daughter Janhvi Kapoor, who is gearing up for her Bollywood debut, recently returned to the sets of 'Dhadak' and resumed her work.

On Thursday, Janhvi, who recently turned 21-year-old, was snapped heading to a gym. This is the first time, the young girl has been spotted getting back to her fitness regime post Sri's death.

She, along with her sister Khushi, had returned from Chennai on Tuesday where a prayer meet was conducted in the memory of Sridevi. Check out her latest pictures:

Janhvi is making her Bollywood debut opposite Ishaan Khatter with 'Dhadak'. The film is being directed by Shashank Khaitan and produced by Dharma Productions and Zee Studios. The film is a remake of 2016 Marathi language film 'Sairat'.

The original film featured Akash Thosar and Rinku Rajguru as the leads. Janhvis parents, Sridevi and filmmaker Boney Kapoor, had accompanied her to Udaipur for her first day of the shoot last December. In fact, Sridevi was also slated to do a film titled 'Shiddat' produced under the banner of Dharma Productions.

The film is scheduled to be released on July 20 across India and overseas.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed real estate firm Amrapali Group and its home buyers to hold a meeting and arrive at a consensus on the status of its projects which are nearing completion.

The top court said the meeting of representatives of Amrapali Group and the home buyers shall be held at the Supreme Court consultation room on March 17.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit said after the meeting, a consensus has to be reached on several aspects including the time needed for completion of its various projects, half completed projects and other issues.

"The joint statement and proposals shall be filed before the court on March 27, so that we can take a holistic view of the problems faced by the parties. The proposals filed should be in a tabular form with details of time needed for completing work at nearing completion projects and those in which work has not started so far," the bench said.

It said there was an urgent need to arrive at a consensus as "we want that home buyers to get their flats at the earliest. Refund of money is not the solution to the problem".

On February 22, the top court had said it shared the concerns of home buyers and the real estate firm should consider their plight and abide by the proposal to complete the housing projects and hand them possession in accordance with the time frame.

It had permitted the group to "immediately start" the work as proposed by the firm in the residential towers of its Leisure Park housing project in Greater Noida West in Uttar Pradesh and said the group should be "true" to the assurances given in the court as well as to the home buyers.

Amrapali Group had earlier given details of its ongoing housing projects, stages of work and the likely time to complete construction.

It had referred to the works related to 19 towers of Leisure Park project while giving information like number of floors, saleable area, proposed likely time to complete the finishing work, balance amount payable by the home buyers and expenditure to be incurred by the group.

It had said the likely time to complete the work and deliver possession of flats ranged from 3 to 15 months and Rs 87.28 crore would be required to complete the finishing works in these towers.

The real estate group had said that 12 developers, in addition to the Galaxy Group, were willing to collaborate for the purpose and assurance by these builders were testified by their individual letters which were annexed in the record.

The company, which is facing insolvency proceedings initiated by the creditor bank for not repaying the loans, had earlier told the top court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over possession of flats to over 42,000 home-buyers in a time-bound manner. It had said the properties were needed to be developed with the help of co-developers.New Delhi: The anti-piracy cell of Kerala Police on Wednesday busted a racket involved in releasing the pirated copies of recent released films. The police arrested five people from Tamil Nadu, belonging to piracy websites - Tamilrockers.com and DVD rockers.

The police also recovered laptops, hard disks and other gadgets used for piracy from their possession.

All the five accused were brought to Thiruvananthapuram and produced before a local court after which they were remanded to judicial custody.

As per a report in The New Minute, the accused have been found to have made more than Rs one crore through the film piracy.

Meanwhile, the police suspect the involvement of more people in the racket.

The arrests were made after a probe, which went on for several months, to track down the members of both the groups.

Speaking to The News Minute, anti-piracy cell SP Prasanthan said that an email that a Haryana-based advertising firm that used to canvas ads for popular websites. The firm wrote an email to one of the accused, who was arrested in 2016 in a similar case that led the police to the racket.

The police claimed that all the accused are young and academically qualified and some of them even hold degrees in MSc and BSc in computer science.

"They used to record movies in pieces from various parts of the world and join it. We are trying to trace more members of the gang including Karthis brothers," Prasanathan said.

Several complaints have been registered against them in Kerala. As per Indian Express, DVD rockers leaked the Malayalam hit Ramaleela starring Dileep within a few days of release while Tamilrockers allegedly leaking the Mohanlal hit film Pulimurugan online. The latter is also believed to be behind the leak of Pranav Mohanlals debut film Aadhi.Mumbai: Moviegoers are eagerly looking forward to the release of Mahanati, a biopic on legendary actress Savitri. The multilingual film directed by Nag Ashwin will star Keerthy Suresh (as Savitri), Dulquer Salmaan (as Gemini Ganesan), Samantha Ruth Prabhu (as Jamuna), Anushka Shetty (as Bhanumati) and Naga Chaitanya (Akkineni Nageshwara Rao).

The makers havent yet revealed the looks of the characters in the film but a photograph of Dulquer and Keerthy as Gemini and Savitri respectively has surfaced online.

It looks like a poster made by a fan but given the fact that its a biopic and set in the 1950s, expect Dulquer and Keerthy to sport a look that was popular in that era.

Check out the photo which has been doing the rounds on social media:

Mahanati which is being made in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam languages is one of the most awaited films.

Dulquer, son of Malayalam superstar Mammooty, is excited to be a part of Mahanati. Talking about it during an interview in September last year, he said, Amazing period is being captured in films and even in TV series in the West. For long, I have desired to be part of a period drama. Unfortunately, in the Malayalam film industry, we don't have huge budgets to make such films. 'Mahanati' is being made on a massive scale and I'm lucky to be part of this project.

On playing Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan in the film, Dulquer said: "I'm not going to look like him. I can't, honestly, and I don't want to wear prosthetic. My approach is simple. I would like to be me in the 1950s if I was a big movie star."

"I don't think I should attempt to play Gemini Ganesan. You don't really have any off-screen footage of him. You don't know what kind of person he was off-screen. We only know his persona on screen and I can't use that to play him off-screen," he added.

Keerthy had to gain weight to shoot some important portions of the film which went on the floors in May last year.

Born on January 4, 1936, Savitri made her acting debut in 1950 Telugu-Tamil drama Samsaram, and went on to star in several classics such as Devadasu, Missamma, Penin Perumai, Pasa Malar, Bhale Ramudu, Thodi Kodallu, Mayabazaar and Gundamma Katha.

(With IANS inputs)Mumbai: Priya Prakash Varrier, Indias latest and perhaps the most popular social media sensation, recently shot for womens clothing brand in Kakkanad Cochin.

Priya took to her Instagram page to share a photograph from her photo shoot for Diva Womens Clothing online designer store. The B.Com student thanked Shafeena for the photoshoot and mentioned photographer Anaz Jaffer from Woodpecker photography in the caption for the beautiful shots.

Take a look at the pics shared by Priya here:

A post shared by priya prakash varrier (@priya.p.varrier) on Mar 14, 2018 at 5:47am PDT

The pretty young girl made internet go gaga over her captivating expressions in a leaked video clip from a Malayalam song in an upcoming film directed by Omar Lulu.

Priya had been signed for the film to play a small role. But ever since a clip featuring Priya from the song Manikya Malaraya Poovi from Omar Lulus Oru Adaar Love went viral on social media, the makers decided to extend her role. They have made her role in the film meatier to make the most of her popularity. The script and climax have reportedly been changed to give her more prominence.

The song sung by Vineeth Sreenivasan and composed by Shaan Rahman became popular but it was Priya who stole the show. In the video, we can see Priya making adorable expressions and winking to grab her crushs attention.

Oru Adaar Love is Omars third venture. Besides Priya, the movie also stars Siyadh Shajahan, Noorin Shereef and Roshan Abdul Rahoof. The film is slated to release on June 14 this year.

The 18-year-old has gained over 5.2 million followers on Instagram and has thus surpassed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose follower count stands at 4.1 million!

Rumours are rife that Priya may be a part of Rohit Shettys masala entertainer Simmba starring Ranveer Singh, an actor who Priya is a big fan of. Will this become a reality? Lets wait and watch.New Delhi: Remembering the late scientific legend Stephen Hawking, NASA said that he was 'a longtime friend' to the space agency.

He was a brilliant cosmologist and an inspiration to generations around the world, the space agency said.

The acclaimed British physicist breathed his last in the early hours of Wednesday, March 14, following complications due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)  a progressive neurodegenerative disease.

His demise left millions around the world in mourning. He was 76.

"Today, the world lost a giant among men, whose impact cannot be overstated," acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, said in a statement, late on Wednesday.

"Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Stephen Hawking.

"Along with groundbreaking and inspiring work came another attribute that made Stephen a hero not just to younger generations, but also to his peers.

"A longtime friend to NASA, Stephen was a passionate communicator who wanted to share the excitement of discovery with all."

"His loss is felt around the world by all he inspired with his work and his personal story of perseverance."

Hawking's relationship with NASA spanned years.

In 2007, Hawking took his first flight in microgravity from NASA's Kennedy Spaceflight Centre. On April 21, 2008, Hawking and his daughter Lucy delivered a lecture as part of NASA's 50th anniversary.

Speaking of the importance of human spaceflight, Hawking concluded, "If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata aboard the International Space Station spoke with Hawking during their 2014 mission.

A year later, he made a video congratulating the New Horizons team for their successful flyby of Pluto.

Sharing the video earlier on Wednesday on Twitter, NASA said: "Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science.

Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we & the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014 pic.twitter.com/FeR4fd2zZ5  NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2018

"His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014"

"We explore because we are human, and we want to know," Hawking had said in the video.

Best known for his work on black holes, the cosmologist theorized that contrary to the prevailing scientific belief that black holes were inescapable for all forms of matter and energy, they actually emitted a form of radiation  now known as Hawking radiation.

"Although humanity has lost one of the most prominent cosmologists and astrophysicists of our time, his work and vision will last forever," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"His ability to communicate to the general public about the importance to study the universe and move science forward is a legacy that will endure to achieve greater heights to explore the solar system and beyond," Zurbuchen added.

(With IANS inputs)The following is an Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs' press release.

On March 15, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh Republic), the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the ceasefire regime on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, to the south-east from Kuropatkino settlement of the Martuni region.

From the positions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (CiO) Mihail Olaru (Moldova) and Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), as well as staff member of the Office of the CiO Personal Representative Martin Schuster (Germany).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE CiO Ognjen Jovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Personal Assistant to the CiO Personal Representative Simon Tiller (Great Britain).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. However, the Azerbaijani side did not lead the OSCE mission to its front-line positions.

From the Artsakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the Republic of Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.New Delhi: When retired astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth in March 2016, NASA carried out its Twin Study on him and his twin brother Mark Kelly.

The researchers began combining the data and reviewing the enormous amount of information looking for correlations, especially to gain insight into the changes space travel has or can have on the human body.

While the study's preliminary results revealed massive changes in their gene expression caused by space travel, more research has now shown that a year in space has caused a long-term change in Scott Kelly's DNA.

As per the study, seven percent of astronaut Scott Kelly's genes linked to the immune system, DNA repair, and bone formation, showed an unexpected change.

As part of the study, Scott spent a year in space while Mark, his identical twin, stayed on Earth as a control subject to look at the effects of space travel on the human body.

The findings showed that after returning to Earth, Scott started the process of readapting to Earth's gravity. Most of the biological changes he experienced in space quickly returned to nearly his pre-flight status.

While 93 percent of Scott's genes returned to normal after landing, seven percent remained unchanged.

This remaining seven percent points to the possible longer-term changes in genes related to his immune system, DNA repair, bone formation networks, hypoxia and hypercapnia, the US space agency said in a statement.

By measuring large numbers of metabolites, cytokines, and proteins in Scott's body the team learned that spaceflight is associated with oxygen deprivation stress, increased inflammation and dramatic nutrient shifts that affect gene expression.

Previous studies showed the effect on the body after the standard-duration six-month missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

But the "Twin Study" discovered what happens to the human body after spending one year in space, in a stepping stone to the impending three-year mission to the Mars.

The results were presented at the annual Human Research Program Investigators' Workshop held in Texas.

Further, a majority of Scott's telomeres  endcaps of chromosomes that shorten as one ages  which had become significantly longer in space, shortened within two days of his return to Earth.

The one-year resulted in no significant decreases in Scott's cognitive performance.

However, a more pronounced decrease in speed and accuracy was reported postflight, possibly due to re-exposure and adjustment to Earth's gravity, and the busy schedule that enveloped Scott after his mission, the agency said.

(With IANS inputs)New Delhi: The 4G internet speed in Navi Mumbai has left the other cities of the countries far behind, says a report.

According to a report by OpenSignal, Navi Mumbai 4G's internet speed has reached 8.72Mbps, while Chennai doubled its 4G speed to 8.52Mbps from 4.4Mbps in March 2017. Kolkata ranked third on the list with a speed of 8.46Mbps.

The 4G market had grown in India after the disruptive entry of Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio in the telecom sector.

Chennai got the second spot with a spike from 4.4Mbps speed in the same month last year while the third sport went to Kolkata.

The report also said that Allahabad was the only city that registered 4G download speed below 4Mbps at 3.5Mbps for the given duration.

The report was surveyed across the country in major cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chandigarh, and Patna among others.

While Navi Mumbai outperformed all other cities in terms of the highest 4G download speed, Allahabad got itself the last position on the list of all the 20 cities. Interestingly, six out of ten cities were in either southern or western regions of the country. Chennai topped the list of southern cities while ranked second in the overall list.

The onset of high speeds for the 4G networks in India was sparked by Reliance Jio, that is currently credited for making India one of the largest LTE footprints in the world.

"Driven by fierce competition, the Indian 4G market is growing rapidly, and the country now has one of the largest LTE footprints in the world. The shockwaves from the debut of Reliance Jio are still being felt, with no less than three mobile mergers on the table, meaning the fastest 4G city rankings are likely to change significantly in the coming months," the report said.

Meanwhile, the LTE availability has improved over time with the promptness to the connection for 86 percent of the time, which is a rise of around 10 percent from the same time last year.

(With agency inputs)Lucknow: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shivpal Yadav on Thursday congratulated his party workers for bypoll victory in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, the results of which were declared on Wednesday.

Shivpal, who is SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav's younger brother and uncle of former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, took to Twitter to congratulate his party workers.

            ,     ,       -                     ,     Shivpal Singh Yadav (@shivpalsinghyad) March 15, 2018

While Shivpal praised the SP leadership for the victory in the crucial Lok Sabha bypolls, he stayed mum on his nephew Akhilesh Yadav under whose leadership the party managed to defeat BJP which is currently in power in the state.

Shivpal's congratulatory tweet came several months after he was locked in a bitter struggle for power with his nephew Akhilesh Yadav.

Akhilesh Yadav had on Wednesday called his partys win in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha by-elections as a victory of social justice, saying the verdict of the people shows that they are angry with the BJP.

Thanking Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for its support in the bypolls, Yadav said, "Our Dalit brothers helped us secure a victory".



The former chief minister also used the opportunity to lash out at UP CM Yogi Aditayanth and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the BJP of making false promises to people. "If people in those areas are so angry with them, just imagine the situation when elections are held across the country," Yadav said.



He further accused the BJP of not respecting the law of the land and the Constitution.

"BJP will now have to move from the path of destruction to development, he said, adding that the ruling party was "causing harm to the country and spreading hatred". "In the pretext of nationalism, they cheat people," he added.



The Samajwadi Party leader also recalled a recent statement by CM Adityanath made in the UP Assembly on his not celebrating Eid. "He (Yogi Adityanath) said on the floor of the House that I am a Hindu and I dont celebrate Eid, he said sentences like 'encounter kar do on the floor of the House. They are spreading hatred," he said.



Referring to assurances of the BJP before the elections, Yadav said that they did not fulfill any of their promises.

In a huge blow to the ruling BJP, the Samajwadi Party won both the Lok Sabha seats of Gorakhpur and Phulpur which were vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had backed its bitter rival the SP.

The SP candidate in Gorakhpur, Pravin Nishad defeated his nearest rival Upendra Dutt Shukla (BJP). In Phulpur too, the SP candidate, Nagendra Singh Patel, defeated its nearest rival Kaushlendra Singh Patel of BJP.

In 2014, the BJP stunningly won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats while one of its allies secured two.

The SP had won from five seats. The Congress and BSP had drawn a blank.

(With Agency inputs)Lucknow: Buoyed by his party's victory in the Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday stressed that his party's ties with the Congress continues to be good.

However, the SP chief stopped short of commenting if the two parties will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together.

"I cannot comment on what will happen in the future. Our ties with the Congress will continue to be good," Akhilesh Yadav said this while addressing a press conference in the state capital Lucknow.

Akhilesh was replying to a question whether the SP will tie up with the Congress in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Akhilesh Yadav said the Samajwadi Party "respects all" and "sometimes we have to shed past baggage".

"Our ties are good with everyone," he said, commenting on the BSP's support to the Samajwadi Party in the Uttar Pradesh by-polls.

Akhilesh made these remarks a day after the Samajwadi Party snatched two BJP strongholds - Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Gorakhpur and his deputy Keshav Maurya's Phulpur parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh - with the support of the BSP.

The former chief minister said the SP's "big win" in the by-polls was the victory of the "Dalits, poor, labourers, minorities and the other marginalised sections of the society".

"The lotus could not bloom in Phulpur... Their arrogance has been defeated. We hope their language will change."

(With Agency inputs)Likening Iran`s leader to Adolf Hitler, Saudi Arabia`s crown prince warned in a US television interview that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an excerpt of the interview that aired Thursday on "CBS This Morning."

The 32-year-old Prince Mohammed said he has referred to Iran`s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "the new Hitler" because "he wants to expand."

"He wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," Prince Mohammed said.

"Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don`t want to see the same events happening in the Middle East."

The interview is scheduled to run on CBS`s "60 Minutes" show on Sunday, two days before the crown prince`s scheduled White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.

His comments come amid concerns over nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and just days after the kingdom put an atomic energy program on a fast track.

Although intended to reduce Saudi Arabia`s dependence on oil, analysts warn the capacity to produce atomic energy could open a pathway to nuclear development for military purposes.

A 2015 nuclear agreement has placed curbs on Iran`s nuclear program, but Trump has expressed a desire to scrap it, making its future uncertain.

The Saudi cabinet says its nuclear program will be in "full compliance with the principle of transparency" and meet nuclear safety standards "in accordance with an independent regulatory and supervisory framework."

The country has accelerated plans to build 16 nuclear reactors over the next two decades, according to officials and analysts, at a cost of around $80 billion.

Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Faleh said in October that the nuclear program would start by building two reactors, each producing between 1.2 and 1.6 gigawatts of electricity.Owners of bars and restaurants in a part of Beijing have been told by police that they should not let more than 10 foreigners inside at a time. The bizarre rule has been issued by the cops with the threat that the restaurant could be shut down immediately of more than 10 foreigners are found inside on Fridays and Saturdays. The restriction is in place for the annual 'Two Sessions' meetings of Chinese government.

The 'Two Sessions' is an annual event where Chinese Communist Party members from across the vast country converge on Beijing to receive instructions and indications on the goals and priorities for the coming year. And this year, the sessions have been loaded. Among other things, President Xi Jinping has effectively cleared the way to stay in power indefinitely.

And these events have come hand in hand with paranoia that these tectonic shifts in China's politics might spark discontent. With the student protests of Tiananmen Square in mind, Beijing police have turned up in person to deliver verbal instructions to restaurants and bars in the Wudaokou area in northwest Beijing: No more than 10 foreigners inside your establishment at given time on Fridays or Saturdays, or we will shut you down.

Wudaokou is close to Tsinghua University and Peking University, from where the student protests of Tiananmen originated. The area also has a large number of foreigners, mostly students.

A number of restaurants in the area have now put up a sign that reads, "Until March 22nd, every Friday night and Saturday, as requested by local authorities, we can only allow a maximum of 10 foreigners in our store at a time. We appreciate your understanding during these challenging times."

Wudaokou, Beijing, 2018 until whenever Xi dies. pic.twitter.com/O5VNNipdRn  Nathan Attrill (@nathanattrill) March 11, 2018

Police gave the restaurant owners no reason for the restriction. And, they have denied giving the instruction when contacted by media outlets, reported Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Foreign students in the area who spoke to different news outlets anonymously ridiculed the regulation as racist, and questioned if the Chinese Communist Party thought they would be the ones to launch a revolution to remove it from power.

The restriction will remain in place till two days after the end of the 'Two Sessions'.Washington: The United States on Thursday took its most notable action against Russia since Donald Trump became president, slapping sanctions on a group of Russian individuals and entities, including Moscow`s intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and malicious cyber attacks.

Under pressure to act, the administration still deferred making a move targeting Russian government officials and oligarchs, those closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Thursday`s announcement marked the first time that the US government stated publicly that Russia had attempted to break into the American energy grid, which U.S. security officials have longed warned may be vulnerable to debilitating cyber attacks from hostile adversaries.

Trump has faced fierce criticism in the United States for doing too little to punish Russia for the election meddling and other actions, and a special counsel is looking into whether Trump`s campaign colluded with the Russians, an allegation the president denies.

Combined with the United States joining Britain in blaming Moscow for poisoning a former Russian spy in southern England, the actions represented another plunge in U.S.-Russian relations despite Trump`s stated desire for improved ties.

"The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in announcing the new sanctions.

Trump has frequently questioned a January 2017 finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign using hacking and propaganda in an effort eventually aimed at tilting the race in Trump`s favor. Russia denies interfering in the election.

But Mnuchin was unequivocal in saying that Thursday`s Treasury action "counters Russia`s continuing destabilizing activities, ranging from interference in the 2016 election to conducting destructive cyber-attacks."

A senior administration official told Reuters that Trump, who campaigned on warmer ties with Putin, has grown exasperated with Russian activity.

The Treasury Department aimed the sanctions at 19 Russian individuals and five groups. Sixteen of the Russian individuals and entities sanctioned were indicted on Feb. 16 as part of Mueller`s criminal investigation. While Trump has frequently called the Russia probe a "witch hunt," the new sanctions appear to affirm Mueller`s investigative strategy.

Trump told reporters during a White House event with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar that "it certainly looks like the Russians were behind" the use of a nerve agent to attack Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent in England. Trump called it "something that should never, ever happen, and we`re taking it very seriously, as I think are many others."

Russian government hackers since at least March 2016 "have also targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors," a Treasury Department statement said.

A senior administration told reporters on a conference call that Russian actors infiltrated parts of the US energy sector.

"We were able to identify where they were located within those business systems and remove them from those business systems," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mnuchin said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs "for their destabilizing activities." Mnuchin did not give a timeframe for those sanctions, which he said would sever the individuals` access to the U.S. financial system.

The new sanctions also include Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and six individuals working on behalf of the GRU.

Thursday`s action blocks all property of those targeted that is subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits American citizens from engaging in transactions with them.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions were also meant to counter destructive cyber attacks including the NotPetya attack that cost billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the United States. The United States and Britain last month attributed that attack to the Russian military.

Mueller`s indictment stated that Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages, travelled to the United States to collect intelligence and staged political rallies while posing as Americans.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress, which nearly unanimously passed a new sanctions bill against Russia last summer, had criticized Trump for not punishing Moscow. The Trump administration in January did not announce sanctions against Russia, for now, under the new law.

Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the new sanctions as an important step. "But more must be done," Royce said in a statement, promising that his committee would "keep pushing to counter Russian aggression."

The Treasury Department said it would keep pressure on Russia for its ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine and occupy the Crimea region, as well as corruption and human rights abuses.After Balochi activists organised a massive protest against Pakistan on the sidelines of the ongoing 37th session of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, it was the turn of World Sindhi Congress of hosting a protest of equal scale to highlight state-sponsored crimes in Sindh.

Accusing Pakistan of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, several members of WSC raised banner and black flags flaying the government in Islamabad. And despite a heavy downpour in Vienna, the protestors remained steadfast in demanding the international community to take note of Pakistani atrocities. Terming it as a blatant violation of basic human rights of people in Sindh, the protestors also urged Pakistani agencies to stop terror operations in Sindh.

Based in the UK, US, Canada and Sindh, WSC promotes human rights of Sindhis around the world. The organisation accuses Pakistani establishment of forcing Islamization, denying indigenous cultures, unfair allocation of resources, plundering natural resources, re-directing water from Indus and constructing military bases to subdue Sindhis. Much like Balochis, members of WSC also say that the establishment is working towards robbing them of their identity.Read the original text at 112.ua.

Open source

March 8, US President Donald Trump signed a decree on the introduction of import duties for steel and aluminum at a rate of 25% and 10%, respectively. The document comes into force 15 days after the signing (March 23). The White House report states that the duties became the result of the investigations under Section 232, the norm in US legislation that allows introducing any restrictions on imports if it poses a threat to the country's national security.

The Trump administration did not hide the fact that the duties are of a protective nature and are introduced with a view to reducing the import of steel and aluminum to a level that will allow the US steel industry to achieve stable profitability.

Wood Mackenzie calculated that after the introduction of duties, the total volume of imports, in particular, steel in the US, could be reduced by 18 million tons per year (now import is more than 35 million tons), Reuters reported. The import of steel in the United States accounts for about 30% of consumption (the main supplier is the European Union), Brazil and Russia also have significant shares. In the supply of aluminum, the import of which accounts for about 80% of consumption, the main supplier is Canada, which is not subject to Trumps fees. About 20% of the total imports of aluminum are shared by China, Russia, and the UAE.

In the US, Trump's decision was perceived ambiguously. American metallurgists would have to approve of the decision of the White House, which in the future should allow them to increase production volumes. But companies that use metal for the construction will suffer since after the introduction of duties they will face the inevitable increase prices, Bloomberg reports. The decision caused protests among American machine builders, many of whom have already warned that in the event of a rise in metal prices, they will have to raise prices, which will fall on the shoulders of consumers, Politico writes. President and CEO of the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA), Cody Lusk, also commented on the increase in prices for cars produced in the US. Even the producers of aluminum cans for beer and soup warned about a possible increase in prices.

Large representatives of the agrarian business said that they were seriously concerned about the possible response measures that could be imposed on their products by countries whose enterprises would suffer from the introduction of duties. And their fears are not at all groundless. Even last week, when Trump announced the introduction of duties, the European Union threatened to introduce retaliatory measures against American whiskey, jeans, and motorcycles. With a final decision on possible reciprocal steps, the EU has not yet decided.

Trump is not so much seeking to win the sympathy of American producers, but rather planning to use duties as a tool for bargaining with the external partners. Trump does not hide his real intentions. During a visit to Pennsylvania last Saturday, he urged the European Union to abolish duties on the import of American cars. "Take off the barriers and cancel the tariffs. If you do not do it, we will introduce duties for Mercedes-Benz and BMW," Trump threatened.

"The steps taken by Trump are the realization of his election promises, the main of which was to return large industrial production to the US," said Gennady Ryabtsev, a leading researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

At the same time, experts warn that having decided to go all-in, Trump can get the opposite effect. In connection with the threat of reducing margins, the US companies can freeze investments and begin to reduce employees, Bloomberg claims. For example, China might transfer large-scale contracts planned for the United States to other countries, in particular, decide to buy aircraft from Canada, rather than from American manufacturers, the agency writes. "No one is obliged to him (Donald Trump), therefore for partners there is nothing easier than to introduce retaliatory measures," said Bill Reinsch, Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and is a senior adviser at Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP.

Hyundai Motor Co, one of the largest car manufacturers in South Korea (located in the list of countries that might be most affected by the introduction of duties), has already said that it could review plans for manufacturing cars in America.

European steel producers will suffer the most, as a result of the introduction of duties on the import of aluminum and steel in the US, Moody's rating agency writes. Each year they supply about 5 million tons of steel in the US (the total volume of imports in the US is more than 35 million tons). Europe's largest steel producer Eurofer has already called the US decision to impose duties "damaging and unproductive for both the EU and the US economy." The German Steelworkers' Association stated that by its decision, Trump violated the rules of the World Trade Organization, and called upon the EU to immediately begin the process for using the WTO instruments to remove the trade barriers. Let us note that Japan and South Korea have already threatened to appeal to the WTO.

Trump's decision also affected mining companies that produce bauxite and iron ore used in the production of aluminum. The head of the International Association of Mining and Metallurgical Industries (ICMM) Tom Butler said that for this reason, the most painful decision will affect the poorest countries, whose economic development will eventually slow down. Among those affected could appear the countries of South Africa, the agency Reuters reports.

The US is not the main market for the Ukrainian metallurgical industry, about 80% of which is exported. Flat and long products, tubular products, semi-finished products of steel are exported from Ukraine to the USA. According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, in 2015, Ukrainian steel products for $ 119.6 million were exported to the United States, in 2016  for $ 89.7 million, in 2017  $ 175.6 million.

At the same time, Ukraine does not supply aluminum to the United States. It has not been produced in the country since 2012, since the Zaporizhia Aluminum Combine, which belonged to the Russian holding, ceased to function.

Most of all, Ukrainian companies Metinvest and Interpipe will suffer from the introduction of duties, the experts predict. To a lesser extent, "Arcelor Mittal Kryvyi Rih" would suffer, whose parent company - Arcelor Mittal - owns production facilities in the US and builds a plant in Mexico.

In addition to Arcelor, no Ukrainian manufacturer has capacity in the US. Evraz group did, but it has recently sold her Ukrainian assets to DCH of Olexander Yaroslavsky.

Thus, in Ukraine, the issue of duties directly affects only the interests of the steelmakers. At the same time, their market share in the US market cannot be called significant. "In 2017, Ukraine delivered 1.3 million tons of pig iron and 200,000 tons of rolled metal to the United States. If we speak about the rental level, it is about 1.3 percent of the total production in the country," said Olexander Kalenkov, president of the Ukrmetallurgprom association of enterprises.

The biggest threat from the introduction of duties is not even in the loss of the US market for Ukraine, but mainly the situation at the world market after Trumps decision. Despite the fact that Ukraine does not export so much rolled metal directly to the US, the introduction of duties can have very far-reaching consequences for our country. The duties affect the markets of countries that provide Ukrainian producers with export products, says the president of the Ukrmetalurgprom association of enterprises. According to him, the decision of Donald Trump opened a Pandora's Box.

Another negative consequence is that they could be beneficial for the largest Russian producers, which, unlike the Ukrainian ones, have their own production facilities in the US. They can occupy a niche freed up after Ukrainian steelmakers have left the American market, experts say. Production facilities in the US are owned by Evraz, NLMK, and TMK. Russian newspaper Kommersant also wrote about the fact that duties could be useful to them.

This will happen if Russian companies find an alternative and inexpensive opportunity to load the capacities of their American enterprises. Until recently, they have been supplying them with Russian slabs (cast billets used for the manufacture of finished products, in particular, flat products).

The metallurgical industry is of strategic importance and is critical for the Ukrainian economy. At the same time, the state of affairs in Ukrainian metallurgy and before the introduction of duties could hardly be called successful. During the past two years, the price environment on the world market has been favorable for increasing export volumes. After the fall, observed in 2014-2015. (the prices were at the lowest levels) the prices have raised for the last 13-15 years. However, despite this, Ukraine produced 21 million tons of steel in 2017 - this is the smallest amount since Ukraine gained independence, 112.ua the president of the association of enterprises "Ukrmetalurgprom" said.

In January 2018, Ukraine ranked tenth among 67 countries producing steel in the ranking of the World Association of Steel Producers (Worldsteel). In the best of times, our country took the seventh place in the world in terms of steel production and the third - in terms of metal exports.

According to Olexander Kalenkov, the situation in the industry has become more complicated due to the increased competition, as well as the upheavals that have occurred due to Donbas blockade. "We lost some of the assets that remained in the uncontrolled territory, were registered in Ukraine and paid taxes to the country's budget. In addition, Ukraine lost the opportunity to supply coal from the mines that remained in the temporarily occupied territory. Coking coal, which is now transported due to the border, is much more expensive - at least $ 30-50 per ton. According to our estimates, Ukraine has produced about 2 million tons of metal products less than it could. It seems that we have not obtained billions of dollars of foreign exchange earnings," said Kalenkov.

Ukrainian authorities reacted to the introduction of duties in the US almost instantly. Already on the day after Trump signed a decree on their introduction, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Natalia Mykolska stated that the Ukrainian government was taking all measures to ensure that products from Ukraine were excluded from the protection measures introduced by the US. She wrote that the government is in constant dialogue with the US government and works with the Ukrainian producers.

March 12, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine hosted a closed meeting with the participation of First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development Stepan Kubiv and representatives of the metallurgical industry, dedicated to the need to make allowances for Ukrainian metal products. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade refused to give details about the proposals of the Ukrainian side in the press service.

"Over the past two weeks, the Ministry of Economy hosted two meetings with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Stepan Kubiv and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Natalia Mykolska, who joined the process in a timely manner, told Olexander Kalenkov, who also took part in the meetings.

The president of the association of enterprises "Ukrmetallurgprom" did not disclose the details of the discussion and what concessions Ukraine was ready to go for the cancellation of duties. "The process is underway, there will be bilateral meetings, but I do not want to go ahead and comment on it, I can only repeat some theses voiced by Stepan Kubiv: we are partners with the US, we are interested in the safe economic development of the US, especially as Ukraine's share in the metal products market so insignificant that we cannot seriously affect the situation, let alone damage to the American metallurgical companies. If we take the balance between the export of Ukrainian products to the US and the import of American products in Ukraine, the balance will be in favor of the US. We buy more than we sell. If we separately consider the products of the mining and metallurgical complex, including coking coal, then this imbalance is in favor of the US. Therefore, the fewer restrictive measures, the more opportunities we have," said Kalenkov, adding that the likelihood of Ukraine's positive solution to this dispute is not very high.

The introduction of duties on steel and aluminum also did not affect Canada and Mexico, which were recognized as a "special case". At the same time, the message of the White House on the introduction of duties also said that the US president is open to discussions with representatives of other countries. In addition, he reserves the right to change tariffs for other countries with which, in particular, alternative ways of solving the threat of the American metallurgical industry will be found.

The chances of Ukraine to achieve release from the US experts are assessed as low. "I do not think that Ukraine can count on concessions or release from the US, until at least one reform, mainly anti-corruption is successful," Ryabtsev said.

The trouble is also that Ukraine has nothing to offer Trump, experts say. "The Ukrainian market is not the biggest and not the most significant for the US, so in the case of Ukraine, it will most likely refer to some things that are important for the American business operating in the country," says Ryabchenko, director of the Institute for Economic Security.

Ryabtsev agrees with him: "The US has never viewed Ukraine as a promising market, especially a market for products. The country has nothing to sacrifice for the abolition of duties for steel. The only thing the US can demand is speeding up reforms and tightening in a fight against corruption."The court announced the verdict in the case of armed burglars - the group of supporters of 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DNR), who robbed civilians and local enterprises in Pokvorsk, Donetsk region, in 2014. Andriy Lysenko, the spokesperson of Prosecutor General's Office reported that on Facebook.

Two residents of Pokrovsk joined DNR in May 2014. They came to Donetsk, received guns and ammunition and returned to Pokrovsk. Then, they met another five accomplices and started robbing people. From July through December 2014, they seized property and funds in the general amount of USD 7,500. The criminals broke into houses, threatened people with guns and used tortures to make the victims give them the money.

The perpetrators had an arsenal of firearms and camouflage, which the police seized.

The organizer of the criminal gang was sentenced to 12 years behind the bars; four of his sidekicks got from eight to ten years in prison. One of the criminals was submitted to a psychological expertise; another one remains at large.Dean Cain, who played Superman in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which ran on American TV from 1993-1997, has told The Jerusalem Post that he hoped every government would recognize the Armenian Genocide because its a historic fact.

Cain arrived in Israel on Tuesday with Laura McKenzie, a travel writer for USA Today who hosts her own TV program, Laura McKenzies traveler. The two will be filming an episode of the show in Israel.

I want to come in and say hello, and probably state the obvious  that Israel has a special place in the heart of people in the US. The two countries are special friends, Cain said in the interview.

Cain has recently co-produced the Architects of Denial documentary on the Armenian Genocide.

Israel has not recognized the events of 1915 as genocide.

In the interview with The JerusalemPost, Cain said he wouldnt tell a foreign country what to do.

I do understand the political ramifications in the US  its because we have diplomatic relations with Turkey. For anyone who studies genocide or history, its very clear the genocide took place. Its not the people of Turkey today who did it, or even the government... It was horrible  call it what it was, Cain is quoted as saying.

Cain met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday.US State Department accused Russia of using violence against people who oppose annexation and promised not to stop sanctions until Crimea returnds to Ukraine

Open source

It was noted that four years ago this week, Russia held an illegitimate, fabricated referendum in Ukraine in a futile attempt to legitimize its purported annexation of Ukrainian territory. Crimean residents were compelled to vote under scrutiny by heavily armed Russian troops. Russias claim that Ukrainians made a free choice in that sham referendum has always lacked credibility.

In light of Putins remarks, it is important to call attention to the illegitimacy of the staged referendum, but also to the tremendous human costs the Russian government has imposed on the people of Crimea. Over the past four years, Russia has engaged in a campaign of coercion and violence, targeting anyone opposed to its attempted annexation. Russian occupation authorities have subjected Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, pro-Ukrainian activists, civil society members, and independent journalists to politically motivated prosecution and ongoing repression, while methodically suppressing nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets.

We reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Crimea is part of Ukraine and our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine, the message says.

As it was reported earlier Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine claimed the today's visit of Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia to annexed Crimea a provocation. He claimed this at the joint briefing with Alexander Van der Bellen, the President of Austria.

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.

Earlier Poroshenko urged G7 to condemn and not recognize the Russian election in Crimea.Mark Hudzovsky who served with Azov regiment was fatally shot by the enemy marksman

Mark Hudzovsky, the sniper of Azov volunteer regiment passed away at a hospital in Dnipro on Thursday, March 15.

The 20-year-old serviceman was critically wounded in combat near Vodyane, Donetsk region, last Saturday. Hudzovsky was severely shot in the head by an enemy sniper. Later, he was taken to the hospital in Dnipro, where neurosurgeons fought for his life.

'When they brought him here, he appeared to be in the deep coma. We spent four days with Mark, trying to revive him, but unfortunately, our saddest forecast came true', said Ihor Yovenko, the Chief Officer of Intensive Care Unit of Mechnykov Dnipro Hospital.

The farewell ceremony for Hudzovsky will be held in Dnipro on Friday.The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine is outraged at the publication of Euronews TV Channel on the visit of Vladimir Putin, the President of Russian to Crimea as there is any mentioning of the illegal annexation and illegitimacy of the election at the Ukrainian peninsula. Mariana Betsa, the spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry reported this on Twitter.

Euronews: Not a word about Russian occupation of Crimea, illegitimate elections. Reporting should be based on facts, she wrote about the publication of the TV Channel: Putin shows his dominance at a rally in Crimea ahead of the Russian elelction.

Such approach is unacceptable. We urge Euronews to correct the article in accordance with the international law and standards, Betsa claimed.

Crimea was annexed by Russia by way of the illegal referendum that was held at the peninsula in March 2014. Earlier the Russian militaries that stayed there without any marking conquered all strategic military objects and building of the force and state bodies. The results of the referendum were not recognized by Ukraine and the world society. The number of the European and world countries, including Ukraine imposed the economic sanctions against Russia.Open source

Bulgaria has chosen Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RSK MiG) to overhaul and maintain its 15 ageing, Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets until 2022, Defence Ministry documents show. This was reported by Reuters.

The Black Sea state is a member of the European Union and NATO but deemed RSK MiG the only supplier able to provide reliable support for its MiG 29s, which date to when Sofia was part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact alliance in the 1980s. Bulgaria therefore did not invite other bidders for the deal.

Sofia has said it needs to keep its Soviet-era aircraft operational after plans to buy eight new fighter jets from a fellow NATO state hit a procedural snag. The process is expected to start almost from scratch later this year.

The Defence Ministry planned to sign a four-year, 81.3-million-lev ($51.45 million) deal with RSK MiG in December but put it off following an appeal by Ukrainian arms exporter Ukrinmash.

Bulgarias anti-monopoly commission later rejected Ukraines appeal and a special Defence Ministry commission approved RSK MiGs offer on March 6, according to the documents posted on the ministrys website.

Some eastern European NATO allies that were once Soviet satellites still rely on Russian-made military jets - two-thirds of Polands military equipment dates from the pre-1991 Soviet era, for example. But NATO has encouraged eastern European members to develop, buy and operate new alliance weaponry compatible with older Soviet-era systems.

Sofia has said that between 2018 and 2022 it wants to upgrade to bring its fighter jets closer to compliance with NATO standards.

As it was reported earlier some of the Bulgarian military pilots refuse to perform flights using Russian MiG-29 fighters; they report safety issues in the obsolete aircraft. Atanas Zapryanov, the countrys deputy defense minister said this on October 25, 2017. The defense ministry accused the boycotting pilots of conducting a motivated campaign. He insisted that Bulgaria will be restoring all domestically-made MiG-29s and Russian-made Su-25s.

Bulgaria joined NATO back in 2004; most of its aircraft, however, is Russian-made. Currently, Bulgarian Air Force employs seven combat-ready Mig-29s. Previously, Bulgaria announced the 770 million Euro-large tender. The opinions in the authority divided; Boiko Borisovs conservative government opposes the Parliament, President Rumen Radev, and local socialists. As the Cabinet offered to buy JAS Gripen fighters from Sweden, the Parliament vetoed this decision and supported the idea to purchase F-16s from Portugal and Eurofighter Typhoons.The attack took place in Desnyansky district of Kyiv

A man who threw the explosive at the police officers was detained in Desnyansky district of Kyiv. Oleksy Biloshytsky, the First Deputy Head of Patrol Police Department of Ukraine reported this on Facebook.

This night, at Mayakovsky Street, in Desnyansky district of Kyiv the police stopped a passer-by for a check as he raised the suspicions.

A man quickly changed the direction of the movement to avoid the meeting with police, Biloshytsky claimed.

During the check of the documents and cursory inspection, the substance that seemed to be a drug was found. The police called the crime scene investigation team.

But during the further cursory inspection, a man put a grenade out of the pocket and threw at the police.

The item exploded, however, the police succeeded to avoid the wounds.

The citizen was detained; also, an item seemed to be remade military pistol and shank were found with him. The investigators will work with a man further, Biloshytsky added.Moreover, the journalists have found it he had been accused of fraud earlier

Spanish dispatcher Carlos who allegedly worked in Boryspil airport and reported in Twitter about Ukrainian fighter jets chasing Malaysian MH17 plane said that he received 48,000 dollars from Russia. This was reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a group of Romanian journalists investigators RISE Project.

Carlos claimed to have fled Kyiv after his social-media posts prompted death threats against him from supporters of the Euromaidan protests that swept Ukraines Moscow-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych, from power in February of that year. The segment featured posts from the Twitter account attributed to the guest: @spainbuca.

This man, however, was a fabulist. And two months later, the Twitter account shown in the interview would launch one of the most notorious and enduring hoaxes of the Ukraine conflict -- one that would later be cited by a top Russian military official and, ultimately, President Vladimir Putin himself.

No evidence ever emerged that such a Spanish air-traffic controller actually worked at Boryspil, and @spainbuca was suspended by Twitter shortly after its MH17 tweets. Journalists and social-media users widely dismissed "Carlos" as a ruse.

Bloggers and social-media users, meanwhile, dug up digital clues - including photographs from a now-deleted Facebook profile - about a man they believed to be Carlos. This man's purported name was Jose Carlos Barrios Sanchez, and he appeared to have ties to Romania. But few verified details about him or his background emerged.

Romanian authorities discovered something else about the suspected con man: He was wanted in Spain, which had issued a European warrant for his arrest on charges of forgery and misappropriation.

Romania decided to hand Sanchez over to Spain. A day after his detention at the airport, the Bucharest Court of Appeals ordered his arrest pending his transfer to Spanish authorities within 29 days.

We were unable to establish the outcome of the Spanish fraud case. We do know that a Madrid criminal court in October 2010 ordered a search for Sanchez to compel him to serve a six-month prison sentence, according to a Spanish court document that does not indicate the underlying charges.

Sanchez, who claimed to be in Bucharest, agreed to meet with us the following day at a shopping center next to the airport where he was detained nearly five years ago. But refused to meet later.

Sanchez also made some more sensational claims: He said that he had received "a lot of money, very large sums, from transfers that came from Russia." He claimed that he had been "told what I had to write" on his Twitter account.

He also claimed that he had received wire transfers from RT "a lot earlier" than his May 2014 interview with the network's Spanish-language channel, and that the alleged transfers were compensation for "what I was writing."

Sanchez claimed to have received a total of $48,000 from Russian sources as payment for his turn as "Carlos the Spanish Air-Traffic Controller."

RT denied ever making such payments.

As it was reported earlier Dutch edition of independent journalistic investigation Zembla published the names of suspected in the case of crash of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, that performed a flight Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur above Donbas in 2014.

The edition says that the Security Service of Ukraine determined the group of seven people involved in this incident. The names of Russian military servicemen  Igor Girikin (Strelkov), Serhey Dubynskyi and Nikolay Tkachev  are in the list of suspects.

Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines, flight number MH17, was destroyed while performing a regular flight from the Netherlands to Malaysia in July 2014. The tragedy took place in the sky over the militant-held section of Donetsk region. All 298 people aboard deceased; most of the victims,196, were Dutch, but there were citizens of other nine countries as well.One of the Polish people among the attendees regarded such greeting a violation of the Institute of National Remembrance Act and called the police

Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes! (Ukrainian greeting slogan, - ed.)  this words made someone called a police in Sahryn, Poland. Dzennik Wschodni, Lublin newspaper, reports.

As it is reported, official Ukrainian delegation consisting of Andrii Deschytsia, Ukrainian Ambassador in Poland, Vasyl Bondar, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, and representatives of local authorities of Lviv and Volyn regions, arrived to Sahryn to honour the memory of Ukrainian murdered by the Home Army (the dominant Polish resistance movement in Poland occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II, - ed.) in 1944.

It is reported that Oleksandr Pyrozhyk, Deputy Head of Volyn Region Council, at the end of his speech said the traditional Ukrainian greeting Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes!. The news agency calls the greeting banderist.

One of the Polish people among the attendees regarded such greeting a violation of the Institute of National Remembrance Act and called the police.

The police officers took Pyrozhyks documents and left. The prosecution is determining whether the greeting was a violation of the law or not.

Earlier, 74 years ago the Home Army and Bataliony Chopskie (Polish World War II resistance movement, guerrilla and partisan organization) performed actions against Ukrainian population in Tomaszow and Hrubieszow districts in Poland.Yury Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine made three submissions to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on MP Nadia Savchenko. The Prosecutor General asks the MPs to allow the bearing to responsibility, detention and arrest of Savchenko. Larysa Sarhan, the spokeswoman of Savchenko reported this on Facebook.

Earlier Lutsenko claimed during his speech at the parliament that Savchenko personally planned, recruited and ordered how to hold the terrorist attack in the Verkhovna Rada, destroying two lodges, governmental and post, by the combat grenades, bringing down the dome of the Verkhovna Rada by the mortar launchers and killing the survived with the assault rifles.

Also, he announced that he will submit the provision on the bearing to the responsibility, detention and arrest of Savchenko.

On March 12, 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.People's deputy of Ukraine Nadia Savchenko returned to Ukraine. At the Boryspil airport, the correspondent of 112 Ukraine TV channel talked to her.

"It was a very good flight, I met on the way a lot of good people - our Ukrainians, who are forced to go to earn money abroad," Savchenko said in a comment.

Answering the question whether she was in Russia and where she flew from, the People's Deputy advised looking at the schedule of the flight she was on. It turned out that Savchenko had flown to Ukraine from Munich. The deputy refused from the further comments.

As it was reported earlier Security Service called Savchenko for questioning on case of detained leader of POW Release Center. However, she left the territory of Ukraine after that. Yury Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said this. The Prosecutor General urged Savchenko to come to the Security Service (SBU).

I want to appeal to MP Savchenko  if she is really as brave and honest as she talks, she should be in the SBU tomorrow, he added.

As we reported 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.Also, she claimed that she was called as the witness in Ruban case

MP Nadia Savchenko claimed that she testified in the judicial court instances of Europe on the facts of corruption in Ukraine during her trip to Strasbourg. She claimed this after the questioning in the SBU as 112 Ukraine broadcasted.

In Europe, I managed to testify in the judicial court instances of Europe on the corruption of Poroshenko, the criminality of our authority and political persecutions, Savchenko noted.

Also, Savchenko claimed that she was called as the witness in Ruban case.

Lutsenko (the Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko) lied once again. I was called as the witness to Prosecutor Tomusyak. The questioning was held by another prosecutor and it was not a questioning but the charging of the explanations, the MP noted.

According to Savchenko, she could not be excluded from the National Security Committee as there were no legal bases for this.

The authority commits crimes step by step. The first one, as far as talk goes, is the exclusion from the National Security and Defense Committee. I am a member of the committee, not a secretary or head and there is no legal basis for the exclusion of the member from the committee. The second is the making of the submission without my presence in the regulation committee and the Verkhovna Rada during the lifting of the parliamentary immunity, she added.

The accusations in the preparation of the military coup detat and attacks at the authority are good accusations, as I am the officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I gave the oath to the Ukrainian people to defend the land but not the Ukrainian authority. I blame the Ukrainian authority in the crimes against the nation, in the deaths that occurred during the criminal authority of Poroshenko, Savchenko added.

Lutsenko made three submissions to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on MP Nadia Savchenko.

Earlier Lutsenko claimed during his speech at the parliament that Savchenko personally planned, recruited and ordered how to hold the terrorist attack in the Verkhovna Rada, destroying two lodges, governmental and post, by the combat grenades, bringing down the dome of the Verkhovna Rada by the mortar launchers and killing the survived with the assault rifles.

On March 12, 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 Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine excluded Nadia Savchenko, the non-affiliated MP from the membership of the National Security and Defense Committee. 261 MPs supported the decision.

According to the order, Nadia Savchenko was excluded from the key personnel of the committee and was released from the duties of the committees member.

The order comes into force since the day of its adoption.

On March 14, the Ukrainian Parliament Committee for National Security and Defense appealed to Andry Paruby, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada with a demand to put the project of the order on the exclusion of MP Nadia Savchenko from the membership of the committee to vote.

In January 2017, the Committee for National Security and Defense to exclude Savchenko from its personnel, however, the proper order was not submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.NATOs stated on March 9 that four partner countries have declared their aspirations to NATO membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) welcomes NATOs statement of 9 March 2018 that four partner countries have declared their aspirations to NATO membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine. This was reported on the website of the congress.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko responded to NATOs statement by declaring that: "I welcome the important, long-awaited and logical decision of NATO to increase Ukraine's ambitions regarding the Alliance."

The UWC calls on all NATO member states to proceed with granting Ukraine a NATO Membership Action Plan.

The Ukrainian World Congress welcomes NATOs recognition of Ukraines Euro-Atlantic aspirations and stands united with Ukraine in its quest for full membership in the Alliance stated UWC President Eugene Czolij.

As it was reported earlier, Eugene Czolij, the President of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), visited Budapest, Hungary with working visit on the invitation of the UWC member organization Association of Ukrainian Culture in Hungary on 26-28 November 2017, to discuss with its high-ranking government officials the new Law of Ukraine On Education and Hungarys continued support for the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine.

During meetings with high-ranking government officials, the UWC President thanked Hungary for recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-33 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people, being one of the first countries to do so, and for the support for Ukraine in the defence of its territorial integrity and the humanitarian assistance, primarily the treatment and rehabilitation of Ukrainian soldiers and caring for children with family members fighting in the conflict zone.The UN Security Council will hold the session on the situation in occupied Crimea today. Ukraine Mission to UN reported this on Twitter.

On Thursday, March 15, UN will hold the session on the situation in occupied Crimea in Arria-formula at the initiative of Ukraine, the message said.

The beginning of the meeting is planned for 21:00 Kyiv time.

Oleh Nikolenko, the Speaker of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to UN claimed that the preparation of the election of the Russian president at the occupied peninsula by Russian authorities and the possible ways for the de-occupation of the Ukrainian territories will be also discussed during the meeting as Ukrinform reported.

Olena Zerkal, the Deputy Foreign Minister will represent Ukraine at the session. Also, the representatives of the Crimean Tatars Mejlis will take part in the discussion besides the members of the UN Security Council. Also, the appeal of Robert Serry, the former UN Secretary-Generals Special Adviser on Ukraine is expected, the Ukrainian diplomat noted.

He noted that the holding of the session was initiated by the delegation of Ukraine to UN. It was supported by the current members of the Security Council, particularly, Sweden, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands and the US.

It will be important to discuss the situation in Crimea before the illegal election of the president of Russia planned there. The position of the Ukrainian side in this issue is principal  the organization of the so-called peoples will expression in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol by the occupation authorities is the gross violation of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, cynical and demonstrative disregard of the world-recognized norms of the international law by Russia, Nikolenko emphasized.

The UN Security Council meetings in Arria-formula are held to allow the members of the Council to get the information from the wide range of the members who are usually cannot be heard in the Security Council. Such discussions can be held in the close and open formats and allow holding the direct dialogue with the representatives of the governments, international organizations and non-governmental actors on the issues that are in the competence of the UN Security Council.

This format was called in the honor of Diego Arria, the Ambassador of Venezuela who began to use this practice in 1992 as the representative of Venezuela in the Security Council.Yuh Shioh  The Light Behind the Sun

Matthew Finley  Fragile

March 9April 13

Gallery Reception: Saturday, March 31, 68 pm

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present The Light Behind the Sun, an exhibition of paintings by Yuh-Shioh. Inspired by personal visions and concepts from ancient civilizations, Yuh-Shioh creates ethereal compositions that are both deliberate and impulsive.

Her interest in Shamanism and the spiritual realm leads Yuh-Shioh to paint atmospheric landscapes that are summoned from her experiences with nature. She uses large Sumi and Hake brushes to apply diluted acrylic paint to stretched raw canvas. Her confident shapes are painted with intention, while watery edges bleed spontaneously into the natural raw canvas surface.

Yuh-Shioh earned a BA in painting at Harvard University and an MFA in painting from Hunter College in New York City. She also attended Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in Maine. In 2013 she was the Artist-in-Residence at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Yuh-Shioh currently lives and works in Mount Shasta, California.

In the project room the gallery presents Fragile, a selection of tintype photographs by Los Angelesbased artist Matthew Finley. This series of conceptual portraits explores ideas of introversion in contemporary society. Matthew Finleys work has been published in Fraction Magazine, Shots Magazine, and the journal Plates to Pixels. He won the Juror Award in the Visual Armistice 10th Annual Juried Showcase.

Images for this exhibition can be found on our website www.levygallery.com. High-resolution images are available on request. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @levygallery #yuhshioh #thelightbehindthesun #matthewfinley #fragile

Dates: March 9April 13, 2018

Gallery Reception: Saturday, March 31, 68 pm

Gallery Hours: TuesdaySaturday, 11 am4 pm

Location: 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102

Contact: 505.766.9888, info@levygallery.com, www.levygallery.com

Gallery Reception: Saturday, March 31, 68 pm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!!

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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!!

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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.YEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan visited the US Congress on March 14 in Washington D.C.

The President had a meeting with a group of members of the foreign relations committee to discuss issues related to the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict and regional processes, Artsakhs Presidential Office told ARMENPRESS.

Later on a reception dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Artsakh Movement was organized in the Congress.

In his remarks President Sahakyan attached importance to the meetings in the US legislative branch, mentioning that the meetings also raise the degree of responsibility for carrying out persistent and painstaking work and deepening and developing the bilateral relations even more.

I am optimistic  it will happen like this because we view the United States of America as a friendly country, a state which for millions of Armenians became a second homeland. I am optimistic, because here we have loyal and honest friends who are always with Artsakh for already many years, supporting the people of our country and presenting accurate information about our country to the world. We highly value our friendly ties, considering it to be a great wealth, the President said in his remarks.

President Sahakyan noted that Artsakh attaches importance to US support, and the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress have their unique place here, along with friendly Congressmen and Senators.

The President attached importance to Washingtons tangible role in the maintenance of peace and stability in the region and the just and peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

Developing and deepening of relations with the US was, is, and will remain one of the fundamental directions of our foreign policy, he said.

President Sahakyan awarded a group of US Congressmen and Senators with high state awards of Artsakh for significant contribution in the development of Artsakh-US relations and supporting Artsakh.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan on March 14 visited the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) in Washington D.C. where he had a meeting with the leadership and staff, the Artsakh Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The President highly appreciated ANCAs activity in solving different national issues and expressed gratitude for always keeping in spotlight the issues relating to Artsakh.

Bako Sahakyan expressed confidence that the close cooperation with ANCA will further strengthen.

On the same day the President of Artsakh also met with the leadership of the ARF Eastern Region Central Committee during which issues relating to Artsakhs domestic and foreign policy, Artsakh-Diaspora cooperation, development and deepening of the US-Artsakh ties were discussed.

The President highly valued the structures activity aimed at assisting Artsakh, solving important pan-national issues, strengthening the Fatherland-Diaspora ties and expressed hope that the works will continue with the same enthusiasm and efficiency in the future.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will participate for the first time in the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C., USA, due in summer.

Participants are currently in the active phase of preparations for the event.

Ethnographer Levon Abrahamyan, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, who is in charge of coordinating the countrys participation in the upcoming US festival, told ARMENPRESS they are doing their best for delivering a top level participation of Armenia.

The Smithsonian Institution is organizing the Folklife Festival for 50 years. In addition to Armenia as a first time participant in the event, Catalonia will also mark its debut in the festival.

Folklife isnt an ordinary exhibition festival, it presents in a live style the household life, crafts, cuisine and other aspects of the given country. Various themes and directions are features each year. The main character this year is the master, through whom the crafts, traditions and cuisine will be displayed, by maintaining the tie with the past. The idea is how the crafts have been preserves and passed on to generations, Abrahamyan said.

The program of Armenias participation has the following idea behind it  From Nature To Home.

Pottery, wood craft, carpet weaving and cross-stone art will be presented.

By the way, all of this will not simply be displayed. The cross-stone artist will show his work during the entire process, and will finish his work on spot. We also plan to have a blessing ceremony of that cross-stone. Blacksmiths will also show their crafts. Carpet weavers will make several types of carpets, he said.

Syrian-Armenians will display embroidery crafts.

Cuisine is also an important component of Armenias participation in the festival. Organizers spare no effort to present the very best of Armenian cuisine at the event.

Visitors will have the chance to see how lavash is being made, and taste the well-known Armenian bread. Pakhlava, cheese, dolma, dried fruits, wine and many other Armenian cuisine specials will be presented.

The festival will begin June 27 and run through July 8. July 4th is Independence Day in the US, and usually a large number of visitors arrive in Washington. Estimates show that half a million visitors come to the festival on an average basis, Abrahamyan said, stressing that Armenias participation is very important in terms of developing tourism.

The government of Armenia allocated 49 million drams from the reserve fund for the countrys participation in the event.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to Angela Merkel on being re-elected to the office of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

Confident that Angela Merkels long experience in State and political activities will continue to promote development and prosperity in Germany and the wellbeing of the friendly German nation, enhance Germanys weight and role in the international arena, the President wished the Chancellor every success in all her initiatives. President Sargsyan expressed hope that during her new term in office, Armenian-German relations will continue to develop dynamically and expand in both bilateral and multilateral formats.

I have noted on several occasions that Germany is a reliable partner of Armenia, active supporter of democratic reforms and economic development. Today, the Armenian-German political dialogue has reached a new level: economic cooperation, cultural, inter-parliamentary and decentralized relations are developing continuously.

This year, our country is entering a new stage of development. We are shifting to a new system of political administration that has for many decades contributed to the strengthening of democratic institutions, economic development and prosperity in Germany. On the way to the parliamentary system of governance, we look forward to building closer ties of cooperation with the German government.

I likewise appreciate the support provided by the German side for expansion of EU-Armenia cooperation, with the latter having reached a new level thanks to the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed in November, 2017, the President said in his congratulatory message.

The Presidents message also touched upon the inter-party cooperation between the Republican Party of Armenia and the Christian-Democratic Union of Germany in the bilateral format and in the framework of the European Peoples Party.

Serzh Sargsyan also sent a congratulatory message to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on being elected Secretary General of the Christian-Democratic Union of Germany.

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. The share of renewable energy resources in the overall production can be doubled reaching 50-60%. The construction of Masrik-1 55 MW solar power plant can greatly contribute to this which is being implemented by an open competition  in case of proposing the lowest tariff by private companies.

Armen Melkikyan  Director of the Armenia Renewable Resources and Energy Efficiency (R2E2) Fund, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS talking about the Funds activities.

-Mr. Melkikyan, what is the main activity of the Fund this year?

-One of our most important activities is the program of constructing the 55MW solar power plant in Mets Masrik community. You know that a great conference was held, we invited all pre-qualified companies which are ten in order to present their questions on the packages submitted for investors. The result was quite good, we received nearly 250 written requests which received clarifications from us, we again provided a chance to address questions within three days and as a result we received 10 more requests. We hope this further increased the trust among the investors which will lead to presenting lower tariff by them.

This is a unique project, we havent had a tender with such procedure in Armenia yet. Thanks to the World Bank consultants, we managed to develop a package and procedure which will allow the country to implement a program by private-public sector partnership for the first time. We will assess the proposals on tariff when they are submitted on March 21. The most important condition of the tender is to propose the lowest tariff, but in order for the companies to be able to submit an application, they need to ensure that. If all participants decide to participate, each of them must provide one million USD as a guarantee. If one is declared the winner, we return the money to those who provided, the winner must also provide additional 700 thousand USD, this will be the insurance that the plant will be constructed within two years, otherwise that money will be kept.

In addition, there will also be a sum of money the company will compensate to the community for implementing community development programs worth about 80 million USD. At the moment all participants are searching for funds. Its worth mentioning that they all are large companies across the world with a great experience in the field of renewable energy. Three out of ten already conduct an activity in Armenia. This project will bring direct investments to Armenia and if succeeded will improve Armenias position from the perspective of public-private cooperation.

-What will change the lowest tariff in this field?

-A lot will change in the field. We can judge by the results of small power plants: high tariff was set in order to gain experience. The interest towards that business started increasing in Armenia, the small and medium enterprises started to think about it. A great experience was reached within two years and new innovative investments are being made in solar solutions. In other words, by developing the small ones, if we get a low tariff for the large ones, we will be able to compete in the competition race of energy tariffs from other renewable sources. In case of the HPPs the tariff is 28 AMD, if we manage to get that tariff, the solar power plants will be able to compete with the HPPs. The sun is pure energy which doesnt cause environmental problems.

Of course, its important to note that the second step of these developments is the creation of cumulative capacities. This is one of our main targets, and at the moment we are carefully following the developments in this regard. Today the prices gradually become stable, and interesting proposals emerge. As a result we will solve both the countrys energy security issue and will create opportunities for additional consumption by increasing the export capacities. Finally, by having a competitive tariff we can attract new investments.

-Is it possible to be self-sufficient as a result of using renewable energy resources?

-I would say this is already a mandatory condition in many countries. Of course, Armenia must also strive for that, but I cannot say the exact dates we will achieve this. 30% of overall energy production in Armenia comes from renewable energy in which the great share belongs to small HPPs, the share of sun is small, but it can increase of course. It is possible to reach up to 50-60% share in the overall production from the renewable energy. The results of 2017 were quite satisfactory, and the development of solar energy will double, if not triple in 2018. According to the data of 2017 more than 2000 people in Armenia have already installed water heaters and about 200 people solar panels on their roofs.

Interview by Ani Nazaryan

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has taken a number of steps for making the country more attractive, interesting and safe for Iranian tourists, minister of economic development and investments Suren Karayan told ARMENPRESS. The minister says celebrations, concerts and fairs on the occasion of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, are planned for this year also, like previously.

Weve numerously said that Iran is an important partner and targeted tourism market for us. I am happy to note that last year the number of Iranian tourists grew 16,6%. Yes, this year weve taken several steps ahead of Nowruz also to make Armenia attractive, interesting and of course safe for Iranian tourists, he said.

Iranian tourists will be provided with Iranian language tourism information flyers and brochures in the information center at the Meghri FEZ in the Iran-Armenia border checkpoint.

Nowruz celebration posters, as well as Armenian and Iranian language informational posters will be installed along the Iran-Armenia highways.

Another important step  a 24-hour hot-line involving Iranian language specialists will operate in Armenia during Nowruz with the cooperation of the ministry of emergency situations and the police force, thus we will try to ensure the safety of Iranian tourists and give immediate solution to possible problems in case of necessity. We expect that the private sector will also have active involvement during these days, he said.

The ministry will hold a discussion with the state tourism committee and the tourism development foundation, involving stakeholder state agencies and private sector representatives in order to properly host Iranian tourists.

Nowruz celebrations will be held March 21-24.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on March 15 attended the opening ceremony of Digital Solutions for Food Safety conference which was organized by the State Service for Food Safety on the occasion of the World Consumers Rights Day, the government told Armenpress.

The PM said the slogan of the World Consumers Rights Day 2018 is Making Digital Marketplaces Fairer which is in accordance with the digital agenda being formed in Armenia.

I think in the contemporary governance the digitization is one of the most relevant topics relating to all spheres. Every republican executive body must attach importance to installing digital tools taking into account some of their advantages. Its also necessary to propose digital solutions in the field of ensuring food safety. The events organized by the State Service for Food Safety play an important role in the protection of consumer rights, the PM said, adding that such events aim at strengthening the responsibility of state, public and private sector on controlling the food safety and quality.

Karen Karapetyan said its obvious that it would be impossible to give solutions to issues without cooperating with each other, voicing about the issues and sometimes criticizing them. The protection of the consumer is first of all the awareness on his/her own rights, and in this sense the NGOs, mass media play a great role. In this regard the actions being taken within the frames of the consumer rights protection week are completely directed for implementing that goal. I am confident that during todays event proposals on digitization of food safety will be made and practical solutions will be offered, the Prime Minister said.

PM Karapetyan highlighted the works carried out in the field of food safety in the recent period. We clearly understand where we should move on and what steps we must take so that our citizen will gradually be confident that he/she uses safer food. Here, of course, its very important for our consumer to be aware of his/her rights and have an active position, he said.

The conference was attended by Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Switalski, Armenias agriculture minister Ignati Arakelyan, head of the State Service for Food Safety of the ministry of agriculture Ishkhan Karapetyan and other officials.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. The United Kingdom supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Ambassador Judith Farnworth said during an international conference titled Prospects of Peace in Nagorno Karabakh  Local and International Perspectives.

The Ambassador stressed that in order to achieve progress in the NK conflict settlement process it is necessary for the idea of peaceful resolution and establishment of peace to be strengthened in the societies of the conflict sides.

Great Britain unconditionally supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in achieving peaceful settlement based on the Madrid Principles.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenias foreign minister Edward Nalbandian met with Chairman of the Board of Directors of Denmarks Export Credit Agency Christian Frigast on March 14 on the sidelines of his official visit in Copenhagen, the foreign ministry told Armenpress.

The officials exchanged views on issues relating to strengthening and developing the Armenian-Danish cooperation in the commercial, IT and alternative energy spheres.

Minister Nalbandian introduced Christian Frigast on the business environment formed in Armenia based on the ongoing reforms, the favorable conditions for investors and the opportunities provided by the free economic zones in Armenia.

At the meeting the ways on boosting the contacts between the Armenian and Danish business circles were also discussed.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenian minister of foreign affairs Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Denmarks Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Michael Starbk Christensen during his official visit to Copenhagen.

A number of issues related to the development of Armenia-Denmark relations were discussed at the meeting.

The sides touched upon boosting of political dialogue and economic ties.

The parties exchanged ideas over issues related to the Armenia-EU cooperation, regional and global challenges.

The Armenian FM presented the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries for the exclusively peaceful solution of the NK conflict.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. The majority of provisions of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement which was signed between Armenia and the EU in November 2017 will be put for temporary application immediately after the ratification, deputy FM Garen Nazarian said.

This process will start prior to April 1, he said.

The deputy FM was speaking to reporters after the opening of the 14th session of the Public Administration Reforms panel of the Democracy, Good Governance and Sustainably first platform.

He said the session is attended by both EU and Eastern Partnership member state representatives to discuss and compare the process of reforms in the public administration sector.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. At an event marking the 10th anniversary of Tert.am, an online tabloid media website, ARMENPRESS state news agency was awarded with the Most Collaborated Partner certificate.

Director Aram Ananyan congratulated Tert.am on behalf of ARMENPRESS .

Tert.am is a dear and important partner for us, a partner which is loyal to its values. A partner who understood the dictum of Yeghishe Charents very well  If you want your song to be heard, you must become the breath of your time, Aram Ananyan said, adding that during 10 years all generations of the media outlet succeeded in being the breath of time.

Tert.am is an online trilingual (Armenian, Russian, English) tabloid news website covering Armenian and global news.

Since October of 2015 it features the Tert.am Health and Tert.am Youth platforms.

Tert.am has joined the PanArmenian Media Group.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Deputy foreign minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan welcomes the statement of Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly, according to which Russia will not continue supplying weapons to Azerbaijan with the same scale it did before the 2016 April war, Armenpress reports.

Russia has always been the number one supplier to Azerbaijan. We know this very well. The impression from this statement is that some conclusions are made by Russia. I want to state that this statement is welcomed, the deputy FM told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

During a meeting with the reporters in the Armenian Parliament on March 14, Konstantin Kosachev said Russia will not continue supplying weapons to Azerbaijan with the same scale it did before the 2016 April war. He said Russia implements the contracts that were signed with Azerbaijan before April 2016.

We are obliged to do that in accordance with these contracts. But as far as I know it will not be with the scales that existed as of April 2016. Undoubtedly, we react to the situation which took place in April 2016, the Russian official said.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. The 14th session of the panel of the Public Administration Reforms of the EUs Eastern Partnership Platform on Democracy, Good Governance and Stability launched in Armenia on March 15, Armenpress reports.

The session is attended by the representatives of the EU and Eastern Partnerships member states, Ambassadors in Armenia and etc.

Deputy foreign minister of Armenia Karen Nazaryan welcomed the session participants and wished them productive discussions. The field of public administration is reflected in Armenias and the EUs fundamental documents, one of them is the partnership priorities document which is based on the provisions of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed earlier. The talk here is about implementation of public administration reforms, their timetable: as it is known the whole volume of reforms in this field is mostly included in Armenias 2017-2025 respective strategy, the deputy FM noted.

Ambassador Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, said this platform is an important opportunity as it once again shows Armenias active participation within the frames of the Eastern Partnership.

Armenia is at the stage of fundamental reforms. We propose our support, as well as will try to cooperate within the frames of the public administration field. For this purpose we are planning to provide nearly 20 million Euro support, the EU Ambassador said.

He said the countries in this platform can exchange experience, as the challenges are the same for the Eastern Partnership states.

They are in the same situation. In the post-Soviet period its difficult to make transformations as technologies develop and problems change or increase, Ambassador Piotr Switalski said.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh is a de facto independent state, has its foreign policy, which is naturally limited as long as there is no international recognition, deputy minister of foreign affairs of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters after todays Cabinet meeting, commenting on the Azerbaijani uproar regarding Artsakh President Bako Sahakyans visit to the United States.

But in any case the visit is extremely important, he said.

Regarding the fact that Azerbaijan had recently filed a complaint to the US on Bako Sahakyans visit, Kocharyan said: Well naturally they had to complain, what else.

One reporter argued that the Artsakh President isnt received on such levels in Russia or CSTO countries, and asked for the reason, and the deputy FM said: From this perspective America has its special approach. It is manifested with the fact that they allocate aid to Artsakh, aid which is approved by the budget. From this perspective the US is unique. This means that overall America has more multilayered, diverse approach in foreign relations, which is also associated with the Congress independence, that ideas can be expressed in the Congress which very often do not coincide with the White House, and to some extent impact policy. From this perspective the US is more flexible.

President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan is in the United States on a visit. The President visited Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. and met with Congressmen and Senators.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ara Babloyan on March 15 visited the Rehabilitation Center for the Defender of the Fatherland in the Heratsi N1 hospital complex, the Parliament told Armenpress.

Accompanied by Rector of the Yerevan State Medical University Armen Muradyan, the Parliament Speaker toured the newly-constructed Center, got acquainted with the large-scale works carried out in a short period of time after his last visit.

The Center is equipped with latest technologies and is the only of its opportunities in the region.

Armen Muradyan introduced the Speaker on the Centers ongoing activity and future programs and informed that in addition to healthcare problems of military disabled they also plan to solve their education and employment issues.

Speaker Babloyan also talked to the Centers patients and asked about their health.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Russia is launching an ambitious series of missions to the Red Planet, starting with an unmanned Mars mission in 2019, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview, RT reports.

We are planning unmanned and later manned launches  into deep space, as part of a lunar program and for Mars exploration. The closest mission is very soon, we are planning to launch a mission to Mars in 2019, the president said in an interview shown in a new documentary by Andrey Kondrashov.

He added that the lunar exploration program would target the polar regions of the moon.

Our specialists will try landing near the poles because there are reasons to expect water there. There is research to be done there, and from that, research of other planets and outer space can be undertaken, Putin said.

The plans for Russias lunar program include a landing test at moons southern pole scheduled for 2019, testing technology that can be used for a permanent lunar outpost in 2023 and a soil retrieval mission in 2025. A base on the moon may be established sometime in the 2040s or 2050s.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. Minister of culture Armen Amiryan had a meeting Thursday with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, briefing him on the process of implementation of the presidents tasks, the ministrys actions in 2017 and upcoming priorities for this year.

The minister presented ongoing works on legislative improvement in the culture sector, training of specialists, preservation of cinematographic, historic and cultural monuments, reforms of museums and libraries, modernization and improvement of conditions using innovative technologies, activation of cultural life in provinces of Armenia as well as raising awareness of Armenian culture abroad.

Minister Amiryan briefed that the idea on creating a Pan-Armenian Orchestra, which was discussed earlier with the President, was successfully realized and the orchestra had its first performance on April 24 in 2017 with the participation of 71 Armenian musicians from 20 countries. This year the orchestra will perform in Shushi on May 9, and in Yerevan on May 14.

The minister said that a Pan-Armenian Choir is being created and it is due to debut on April 24 in Yerevan.

Tours and exhibitions on Armenian culture were organized in a number of countries in 2017, namely in China, Iran, India, Russia and the US. Armenian delegations also took part in international book, film, contemporary arts exhibitions in Frankfurt, Cannes and Venice.

The minister mentioned the Armenian Culture Days in Russia, where 250 Armenian artists performed in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities.

The upcoming programs include the tours of the Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet Theater in the UAE.

Armen Amiryan also mentioned the Culture Stop program, which included over 100 communities in the provinces of Armenia aimed at boosting the cultural life.

The minister said the Presidents task on creating a regional center of restoration of archaeological values with the Italian government is in the final stage and the center will soon be opened.

The minister noted all reforms and ongoing projects involving museums, infrastructure improvement etc.

The digitization of libraries, cinema heritage, music funds will be completed by 2021, and digital database will be created.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanMost read of the weekYEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. In a first-ever visit to the U.S. Capitol by an Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) head of state, President Bako Sahakyan delivered a powerful pro-peace and prosperity message to the American people, thanking U.S. legislators for ongoing aid programs and encouraging continued U.S. leadership toward a durable, democratic resolution of outstanding Artsakh-Azerbaijan status and security issues, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Our people are building an independent, sovereign, democratic state and civil society, said President Sahakyan. We are committed to these ideas consciously. They have been inherited from generation to generation, constituting part and parcel of the Armenian civilization.

Citing Artsakhs democratic and economic progress over the past 25 years, President Sahakyan noted Representatives of numerous countries, including the United States, who periodically visit Artsakh, carry out observation missions in various elections also point to our achievements registered on this path. Artsakh people have earned the right to become a full member of the international community and to be integrated into the civilized world.

President Sahakyan concluded, noting Washington has a tangible role in maintaining peace and stability in our region, peaceful and just settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict conducting its mediation mission as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group. Cementing and deepening ties with the United States of America have always been and will remain among the fundamental directions of our foreign policy.

Artsakh President Bako Sahakyans visit to Washington, DC marks a major milestone in U.S.-Artsakh relations  representing both a clear rejection of Bakus reckless bid to block bilateral dialogue and a bold reaffirmation of America and Artsakhs shared commitment to open discourse as the only viable path to peace, said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. As weve long said, Artsakh is a very American story, the victory of a free people over foreign rule. So its particularly meaningful that Artsakhs head of state was  in the spirit of the bilateral U.S.-Artsakh Travel and Communication Resolution  so very warmly welcomed in our U.S. Capitol.

The Artsakh briefing and reception on Capitol Hill featured Congressional participation by Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Jackie Speier (D-CA) and David Valadao (R-CA), Vice-Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI), Jim Costa (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Brad Sherman (D-CA). They each welcomed the President and his delegation, which included Foreign Minister Masis Mayilian, Parliamentarians David Ishkhanian and David Melkoumyan, and the Presidents Deputy Chief of Staff David Babayan. They were accompanied by Artsakhs Representative in the United States, Robert Avetisyan. Also in attendance was Armenian Ambassador to the U.S. Grigor Hovhannisian and his Embassy team.

Opening up the Congressional briefing, Rep. Pallone cited the importance of lifting artificial barriers to dialogue and travel to Artsakh. When we were there (in Armenia) in September, explained Rep. Pallone, we were strongly urged by the Administration, by the State Department not to go to Artsakh, which I think is very wrong that they continue to do that. That is one of the reasons that we introduced this bill (H.Res.697)  to make it clear that travel and communications with Artsakh  even though it is not recognized by the United States  is very important. Support for H.Res. 697, introduced in January, 2018, is growing with 12 cosponsors to date. Congressman Pallone went on to stress the importance continued visits to Artsakh as well as the continuation of U.S. assistance to Artsakh and the implementation of the Royce-Engel proposals for peace in the region.

Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Jackie Speier (D-CA), one of two Members of Congress of Armenian descent, announced that she would be leading a Congressional delegation to Armenia and Artsakh this year to help everyone understand and appreciate what a grand and prosperous country it is and how important it is for Artsakh to be recognized as part of Armenia.

Following the briefing, Rep. Schiff told the ANCA of the importance of implementing the Royce-Engel proposals. That [the proposals], of course, are supported by Artsakh and Armenia but opposed by Azerbaijan, which has consistently been a belligerent and aggressor, but in the absence of that kind of deterrent, there is a grave risk that Azerbaijan may provoke a conflagration in the region, said Rep. Schiff. As Aliyev struggles with conflicts and unpopularity at home and spends billions on his military, there is a great temptation to use that, and we have to insist upon the peace as well as hold those who violate it accountable.

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA), also of Armenian and Assyrian descent and from Rep. Speiers neighboring district, spoke fondly of her trip to Armenia last September, and of her Armenian family present on Capitol Hill and across the United States, all dedicated to advancing pro-Armenia and Artsakh priorities.

During the Congressional luncheon and briefing, President Sahakyan announced the awarding of Presidential Medals of Gratitude to a number of U.S. legislators, including Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Representatives David Cicilline, Jim Costa, Brad Sherman, Adam Schiff, and David Valadao. The Medal of Gratitude is awarded to individuals, organizations, and collectives for significant contribution in restoring and developing the economy, science, culture, social spheres of the NKR as well as for defending and promoting international recognition of the Republic.

After thanking President Sahakyan for the honor, Rep. Cicilline noted, I know that the relationship between Artsakh and the United States is a strong and important one and we will continue to do everything we can to support the aspirations of your countrymen and women and be sure that they enjoy freedom and independence and self-determination. He went on to praise the active efforts of the Armenian community in his state in support of Artsakh freedom and recognition. Rhode Island was the first state in the country to recognize the independence of Artsakh, said Rep. Cicilline, citing the efforts of ANC-Rhode Island leader Ani Haroian and his own staff member Lisa Sarkisian Tatarian.

Immediately after the briefing, Rep. Cicilline issued a separate statement marking the occasion of President Sahakyans visit, noting, Since the fall of the Soviet Union, a new generation in Artsakh has grown up in freedom and under a democratic government of its own choosing. Artsakh has continued to strengthen its democracy, having held several parliamentary and presidential elections. Freedom House has consistently rated Artsakh more democratic than Azerbaijan.

Rep. Sherman explained that For 22 years I have served on the Foreign Affairs Committee  and Mr. President, this award is very important to me because one of the first things I did on the Committee was to introduce an amendment which would provide direct aid to the people of Artsakh. The State Department opposed it on the theory that it would be an implicit recognition of your independence. I thought, as they say in Silicon Valley, thats not a bug, thats a feature. And so, we secured $12 million to help people who needed help, who were suffering as a result of war and hostility  and we implicitly recognized the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh  now the Republic of Artsakh, noting the important next step of explicitly recognizing Artsakhs independence.

It was a great honor to be the first member of Congress in over a decade to touch soil in Nagorno Karabakh and see it for myself, said Central Valley California Congressman David Valadao (R-CA), who travelled to Artsakh in September, 2017, after having successfully spearheaded the Valadao Amendment securing $1.5 million in U.S. assistance for ongoing demining efforts through the HALO Trust. I still remember driving around Nagorno Karabakh and seeing all the families, the kids outside their living lives. You hear on the outside of the shelling, the sniper fire and the rocket fire in such a small country but people are living their lives just like our families here. So the resilience, the strength, the courage, of so many people is amazing to see, concluded Rep. Valadao.

It was an honor to be awarded the Gratitude Medal by President Sahakyan today, said Rep. Costa. We must continue to do all that we can to support the democratic independence of the Republic of Artsakh and the nations rightful exercise of self-determination. On February 27th, Rep. Costa issued a powerful video statement marking the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms against Armenians. He was later joined by Representatives Pallone and Schiff in condemning the attacks and calling for justice for the victims.

President Sahakyan is on a week-long working visit to Washington, DC, where, in addition to meetings with Congressional leaders, he and his delegation will be meeting with media representatives and think tank experts.

English translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanMONTREALGay studio Icon Male presents the story of a young man and his two daddies in the new feature Daddy Dilemma, now available on DVD. The movie is distributed through parent company Mile High Media.

AVN Award-winning filmmaker Nica Noelle directed the erotic drama, which features Jaxton Wheeler, JD Phoenix and Michael Roman in four hardcore sex scenes. The DVD also includes behind-the-scenes footage, a photo gallery and other extras.

To view box art and product information, click here.

Nica brings out the best in her talented cast in this new film, said Mile High Media Vice President Jon Blitt. Jaxton, JD and Michael are terrific as the hot daddies and the young man caught up in his passion for older men. Its a great blend of drama, sex appeal and intense erotic energy.

At the heart of the Daddy Dilemma is older/younger couple Michael Roman and JD Phoenix, who are celebrating their anniversary in a quaint hotel by the sea. But when JD notices sexy bear Jaxton Wheeler alone in the lounge, he can't help but take noticemuch to Michael's dismay. As JD's attraction for Jaxton continues to grow, Michael's frustration intensifies. JD now must now ask himself if its possible to have two hot daddies without losing them both.

The latest Icon Male trailers can be found on the membership site IconMale.com.

For Icon Male sales and distribution, email [email protected].

For news and BTS previews, follow Icon Male on Twitter: @IconMale.CYBERSPACENew headlines on the legal tussles surrounding Stormy Daniels and the hush money settlement that Donald Trump did or didnt know about are popping up even faster than reports on the latest departure from the White House. And moving up just as quickly is the big, bold number indicating the total funds raised on Daniels case on CrowdJustice.com, a website founded to increase access to the legal system.

Earlier today the Washington Post jumped all over the story and word soon spread.

Daniels states on the crowdfunding page, I am attempting to speak honestly and openly to the American people about my relationship with now President Donald Trump, as well as the intimidation and tactics that he, together with his attorney Michael Cohen, have used to silence me.

In her pitch she elaborates on the details, stating, I need funds to pay for: attorneys' fees; out-of-pocket costs associated with the lawsuit, arbitration, and my right to speak openly; security expenses; and damages that may be awarded against me if I speak out and ultimately lose to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.

Within hours, the fundraising effort hit the $100,000 mark.

At this posting the amount is already over $105,000 (refreshing page ... make that $107,102). It's edging up quickly to beat the $130,000 that attorney Michael Cohen paid her 12 days before the election in exchange for her silence about the alleged sexual relationship with Trump more than a decade ago.

In terms of how the case compares to the listed success stories on the site, Daniels has already raised more cash than two-thirds of themand its still Day One.LOS ANGELESiWantEmpire co-founder and president, Jay Phillips, spoke about the companys move into virtual reality through its partnership with adult VR platform vrXcity in an interview which published on Medium.com. Phillips also announced iWantEmpire will begin accepting redBUX cryptocurrency.

I am excited to share with Medium and its eclectic readership the latest about our eventual expansion into VR technology, Phillips said. Medium and its wide-ranging reader base is the perfect platform for iWantEmpire to reach an upscale and diverse audience that is very interested in the growth and applications of new technologies and new media.

The article, available here, focused on the growth of iWantEmpire and its unique business model as well as its move into the VR segment by partnering with vrXcity.

As an innovator of disruptive technology, I have had a lot of VR concepts proposed to me over the past couple of years and nothing has stood out as the next big thing until demoing the vrXcity, Phillips explained. I am both excited and amazed at the quality of their technology and the experience it provides to consumers. vrXcity is going to be a game changer for consumers and artists alike. iWantEmpire is proud to be in partnership with such a truly amazing technology and product.

The article went on to discuss iWantEmpires position on redBUX cryptocurrency: Starting right after release in May 2018, iWantEmpire will join the vrXcity ecosystem by accepting the redBUX as the only cryptocurrency on their sites and services to accommodate their subscribers wish to remain truly anonymous when enjoying their services.

For more information about iWantEmpire visit iWantEmpire.com.SAN FRANCISCO  Today, NakedSword Originals releases the second episode of its series Berkeley: Sophomore Year, the follow-up to the 2016 series centered around home town Berkeley, CA. Shot on location by NakedSword's award-winning Director mr. Pam, the new series, Berkeley: Sophomore Year, is a love letter to the progressive and vibrant town nestled in the hills of Northern California. Berkeley: Sophomore Year centers around political dissent, free speech marches, and the ANTIFA protesters that have come about in the past year.



"Crossing Party Lines" features the return of Leo Forte to NakedSword. He has been a part of the NakedSword family for the past five years in numerous roles such as Scriptwriter, Director, Videographer, and, of course, a model. Forte returns in a scene with Timarrie Baker. When the threat of violence from both sides forces Berkeley Republican Club President Leo Forte to cancel the appearance of a controversial right-wing talking head (cameo by Theo Ford) he is forced to address the crowd himself. Democratic Party Club President Timarrie Baker stops by Leos dorm room to express his regret that free-speech has been silenced on campus by violence. The two hot-headed student leaders begin sparring and it soon becomes clear they have more in common than politics.

NakedSword Director mr. Pam says, "This is one of the most natural scenes I've ever filmed. Leo and Timarrie are fuck-buddies off camera, and their chemistry is so obvious and real which made the scene unfold very organically. These guys know what they are doing! Leo is such a talent, and Timarrie is amazing. Both guys are very comfortable with each other, so they really go there, which makes this scene a real standout!"



Berkeley: Sophomore Year runs throughout the end of March and features a sexy and diverse cast that includes: Campus Alumni Recruiter Wesley Woods, Freshman Timothy Drake, Berkeleys Republican Club President Leo Forte and Democratic Club President Timarrie Baker. ANTIFA protestors Justin Brody and Teddy Bryce round out the cast, along with hung professor Dallas Steele and horny student David Emblem.



Watch the second episode of Berkeley: Sophomore Year now playing only on NakedSword.com."Dude": Once, We Were the Leaders of the Free World

Is Obama a Very Good Democrat, or Just a Really Bad President?

A Lawless Attorney General, Democrats mouthing Talking Points, and an Unprincipled MSM/OMG Conspire to Protect an Incompetent Executive Branch

"America is War Weary"

Democrats 'Jumping Ship' as The Amateur Loses the Iraq War, and Prepares to do the Same Elsewhere in the Middle East Theater

The Amateur Continues "Leading from Behind"

America: What Direction?

Amateur Obama is Readying to Blow-up "Washington"

Contradiction-in-Chief Obama, Hypocrite Democrat Senate Turns America's Secrets Over to the Enemy

Obama Doubles Down on Stupid

Political leanings and affectations ebb and flow depending on who the neophyte politician talks to; even, I know when to keep my mouth shut for I will reveal the obvious should I speak too much. While I might possess clarion conscience on exactly the way I know a political /governing reality to be, it is most difficult to win a salient point when others have little knowledge of the issues. Sometimes remaining quiet is the better position, or just remaining in the shadows working on stuff for later - I've done much of this ... still do and probably will continue.I reckon the point here is initially two fold: 1) this post is about me and my many constant positions; 2) I am not the neophyte politician. I am, however, as of February 26, 2018, a politician once again . As a politician, I must espouse issues that I do hold deep in my clarion conscience , but a word of warning here, I am also a salesman of my SNI products , so, there will be times that I will not talk from my wide realm of political knowledge. What would be the point? I am there to express the real value of my superior products, and that is what I do; however, I am seeking a seat on the Beaufort County Commission, and folks need to know who I am, and what I stand for ... for our principles, for my constituents - past and future.To that end, I have written much about issues that involves politics on a national stage, and I tell the story as I see it; in fits of rants, some more developed musings, but always straight to the core of the subject. I don't often write about my views brick by brick, where I develop the explanation in depth (time is limited), but by a constant inference temperament, I adamantly let everyone know where I either stand or should stand as a Conservative /Libertarian. Mostly, the core of my writings and rants push a resolute position of what I know to be right stripped of all trapping of political correctness and perceived typical conventions. I just want to espouse there is often a profound difference as devised by the right from the wrong; when governing decisions are being made; that is all that essentially matters in almost all instances.If these deep assumptions appear intolerant, they are. I am intolerant of many vices, but chief among what I am intolerant of is: dishonesty, deception, sophistry and ignorance, which often to appear to be the only noticeable character traits in some politicians. It is those politicians, and their flimsy method of governing that I take unmitigated umbrage with, and by my abject protestations, I assert who I am, who I was, who I will continue to be.Here below are the first series of posts, which I will share now, written by me signifying my often negative positions on American politics, governing, and, of late, profound scandals. Within my continual maxim you might notice a profound level of disgust ... still, I am optimistic; ergo, I take the time and make the opportunity to express myself ... in a complete manner.We live in an age, where the running joke of what is so uncool are the "Old White Men" that once ran this country. Now, these "Old White Men" are replaced by the far hipper associates of the 'ultra cool' 1/2 Black President "Barry" Obama; the conventional process of working for a stronger America to fend off its adversaries, both foreign and domestic, is over.It is a rhetorical question, so, accordingly, the only acceptable answer to this titular question shall remain, egregiously yes and HELL YES! As a senator in the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama, D, Illinois, had the Democrat foresight to stridently oppose the World Wide War on Terror in the Iraq Theater, but professorially reflected upon the Afghanistan Theater as the 'good war'. Now, Candidate Obama will be the first American president to lose a war since Vietnam, a war also lost by Democrats.This presidency, his pathetic staff, his inept cabinet and their incompetent respective departments, and, finally, his accompanying mainstream media are rotten to the core: But how can a nation save itself from itself when it is not smart enough to consider the question?Too harsh? Too cynical? The national nightmare continues, but for how long? This presidency, his pathetic staff , his inept cabinet and their incompetent respective departments, and, finally, his accompanying mainstream media are rotten to the core: But how can a nation save itself from itself when it is not smart enough to consider the question? Too harsh? Too cynical?"Granted, the "War Weary" case may be the reality for some; however, please understand this one truth: ISIS or ISIL (Obama speak) does not do polls to tap into the pathos of those that they subjugate, accordingly, "War Weary" is not a consideration for them. ISIS is not "War Weary", it is war ready, and for those of the "War Weary" class, many of whom consider: Global Climate Change (no longer global warming); "Women's Reproductive Rights", or extra-Civil Rights for thugs, are the issues of our time, they might need a reality check in the severest of terms as to what may become the most desperate of times.Amateur Obama, a Democrat president, who would not allow the word terrorist to be used in his administration during his first 5 years on the job, has inarguably lost the War in Iraq, and is now losing the World Wide War on Terror, making Americans less safe world wide, and here at home. Obviously the ideal of "All we are saying ... is give peace a chance" is not working under The Amateur's watch.The radicalized Muslims of this world expect America, as the beacon of hope of the civilized West, to be supplicant to their hegemony of a Sharia Islam, or perish by their cruel, murderous hands. The latest Islamist supremacists, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), are the very essence of the word that Candidate Obama, and his administration, would not utter until the embarrassment of the Benghazi debacle on 9/11, 2012 - Terrorists. Goaded by a splintered faction of the Mainstream Media, and alternative news sources, Amateur Obama finally used the word terrorist to describe that remnants of these murderers that did still exist. Now it appears that events in northern Iraq, where the ISIS militia are slaughtering Christians, Kurds, Shite and moderate Sunni Muslims, and now beheading, at will, American and British journalists and aid workers.Who could forget this petty Democrat refrain, where Amateur Obama, then Never-Present-Senator Obama, served as lead cheerleader for his muddle-minded brethren, who incessantly clamored for our soldiers to be out of harm's way, as they were abroad protecting us here back home? I often wonder how much the Bush Administration was influenced by Community Organizer Obama, and his fellow cheerleaders, and the pansy-assed Democrats, who first backed the War on Terror , and then surrendered when the heat was turned up a bit, as our American soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice, and some came home as the ultimate heroes of our time.America is broken. An amateur president, a cabinet full of ideological addle-brained federal department heads, yessing their way to the top of the Socialist dung heap, and a stretched, Botox ridden Nancy Pelosi for too long, and Hapless Harry Reid for 4 additional years is destroying this land at its majestic core.Why work our collective butts off, with Democrats spending our children's future to buy votes now? Why defend our borders and our principles, when our commander-in-chief prefers to lose wars already won, and then apologizes to our enemies for not doing more? Why even care, when so many 'transformational' Americans don't? Why?With his apologist foreign policy in tatters, more Americans beheaded and slaughtered abroad, Amateur Obama will force his political hand in Washington, DC on Thursday night, November 20, 2014, by blaming the Republicans in the United States House as America's number one enemy, and his one stumbling block to immigration reform. It may well be a 'night that will live in infamy.'The president presiding over America's most opaque administration in modern times, now wishes to reinstate transparency, providing that it only puts American personnel abroad at risk, not him or his administration here at home.To put this succinctly, America's first Affirmative Action President, whose only qualifications for the job was that he once was a ' community organizer ' and, of course, a Democrat, used the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein -D, to release the report on the President Bush era CIA enhanced interrogation practices. Remarkably, what makes this crude attempt of instilling the fleeting transparency that Amateur Obama swore that his administration would abide by is that this scandal ridden administration has done nothing to discover the root of the IRS political targeting scandal, the ObamaCare lying to the People scandal, and so many more, including the Benghazi terrorist attack/ 'despicable video'/ hands off responsible terrorists scandal.Since early November, it has been a quantifiable losing streak for Amateur Obama, and The Amateur ain't helping with the perception of it, not in the least bit. After the midterm elections, when Obama's policies were weighed and measured and found wanting, he elected to sharpen his best stick, then publicly gave the Republicans, a good poke in the eye, every chance he got and gets. This is how the amateur politician practices bipartisanship: He first tells the Republicans that their historic sweeping election does not matter because his people did not come to the polls, and he can prove that; then he promises vetoes for the new Republican legislation to anyone that will stop long enough to listen.The Amateur Obama playbook has not changed much from whence he took office. His take no prisoners approach to politics, irrespective of the odds against any reasonable posture, is even bolder now, even while some Democrats and even more squishy Middlecrats are wiping the intoxicating ooze from their eyes to see more clearly the path The Amateur that has led them, who is proved to now be losing our nation in great, sweeping strides. With Iraq lost, Benghazi lost, Yemen lost, Syria lost, and Afghanistan near lost, Amateur Obama somehow believes that we are doing just fine against the "violent extremist" 'kinda' threatening America right now. At least that was part of The Amateurs sophistic comments to congress in his 2015 State of the Union Address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.On Tuesday, I received a call from school officials informing parents of activities for a "national school walkout," planned in response to the recent deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida.Wednesday morning, I did what I expect many other parents did. I had a conversation with my children about gun violence.Ironically, I realized I would need to teach my children about the subject before I send them off to school. Especially because the subject involves a long-recognized civil right.It was the school's announcement that there would be walkout activities that prompted me. It seems to me this issue being on everyone's minds makes it a highly teachable moment. But do professional educators see it that way?What, I asked, is your school teaching you about guns? Anything?Mass school shootings are down overall, especially since the 1990s. Did you know that? That's a finding from recent research from a criminologist at Northeastern University. Has your school told anyone about that?Do you know why? Because school shootings tend to track with violent acts in general. And violent acts in general are also down.Gun killings are down - dramatically - since the 1990s . Did you know that? Has your school told anyone about that?In fact, violent, nonfatal gun crimes are also down dramatically since the 1990s . Hear anything about that?Do you know what's up dramatically since the 1990s? Gun sales . The amount of legally owned guns in society has skyrocketed.If more guns meant more gun violence, I said, we wouldn't be seeing dramatic declines in gun violence. But what if guns do indeed have a defensive purpose? What if their presence - or the belief in a criminal's mind that they might be present - can be a deterrent against violence? Then significantly falling gun violence with significantly increasing gun ownership fits Self-defense. Has your school taught gun ownership as a civil right? The history behind it? The idea of a right to self-defense?Did they even discuss the details in Parkland? How government officials, federal to local, failed over and over again to take obvious, proper steps that could have prevented it? How the FBI ignored direct warnings about the shooter? How the county sheriff's office overlooked a history of violence and also ignored a direct warning the killer could be a "school shooter in the making"? How the armed school resource officer and then county deputies did nothing while the shooting was going on?Why, I asked, aren't schools taking the opportunity to teach these things ? Kids who might otherwise be bored by history and civics would be paying attention. It would be a perfect time to model an adult response to a hot-button topic: Field questions. Test assumptions. Compare alternative viewpoints. Collect data. Weight the merits. Acknowledge shortcomings. Debate. Treat different viewpoints respectfully.Instead, if they're being taught anything, it's by watching educators react Ready-FIRE!-aim. Or to promote their emotional response without grounding it. Neither serves the purpose of providing education.I suppose that's why it's said education begins in the home. But I think it's a shame nonetheless.Tom Campbell

This week was Sunshine Week, not that we saw a lot of it, either meteorologically or metaphorically. What we got for the start of the week was dark clouds, some wind and even snow. Some might say it was symbolic of a week designated to shine the light on the need for open government. There is too much public business in Washington, Raleigh and local governmental units conducted in the dark.While our Constitution doesn't specifically guarantee transparency in government, it is a longstanding tradition that every citizen has access to government documents and information about actions taken by public bodies, especially actions taken in closed-door sessions. But there is an ever-widening gap between the theory and the practice. It is frustrating when you request public records from your government and those requests go months without response or, as is often the case, documents you receive are heavily redacted on grounds that they contain personal, sensitive or proprietary information.Either you believe in open government or you don't and in North Carolina there's evidence that we don't. It begins with our General Assembly that, like those in other states, passed public records laws, then exempted themselves from being bound by them and conducts far too much business behind closed doors. How can they possibly convince state agencies, school boards, municipal governments and other public bodies of the importance of public access to records and minutes of closed-door meetings even they aren't willing to abide by? But government in the dark isn't exclusive just with our legislature.There are about 10 permissible reasons why these public boards can legally go into closed session. Certainly, when discussing personnel issues, negotiating sensitive details of contracts and dealing with proprietary or time sensitive data are among them. But when they do it is required that minutes of those meetings be kept in such a way that most people can understand why the session is closed and what actions were taken. There's proof that both impermissible meetings (that don't fit the criteria) and a lack of minutes occur regularly.10 reputable newspaper, TV and radio newsrooms proved this by simultaneously requesting minutes from the 2017 "closed" sessions of 50 public bodies at the local and state level. Two months after the request one refused outright to provide information, more than a dozen had not responded to the requests and others provided minutes of some, but not all such meetings. Some submitted versions that were heavily redacted or with little information. Some excused their tardiness due to personnel shortages and backlogs. Some responded by just not responding.If you believe that government functions best when it operates in the open, then it behooves all of us to insist that those we elect and appoint abide by this belief. We know that the news media has come under fierce attack, especially in recent months, and perhaps some of it may be deserved. But our nation has survived for more than 200 years because we had a free press that gave citizens information about their government.In an era when many don't trust government leaders or agencies the best way to build or restore that trust is to shine light on the actions being taken.Sunshine shines light on the good and the bad. We need more sunshine in government.Dennis W. Alexander

Born: December 23, 1945, Died: March 10, 2018



Mr. Dennis Warren Alexander, age 72, loving husband, father and grandfather, passed away Saturday March 10, 2018 at Vidant Medical Center.



Memorial services will be 11:00 am Wednesday March 14, 2018 at First United Methodist Church in Washington, NC and will be conducted by Rev. Ken Hall.



Mr. Alexander was born in Pitt County on December 23, 1945 to the late Olin Tillett and Ruth Amanda Warren Alexander. On June 11, 1967 he married Linda Wynne Smith who survives. He was a 1964 graduate of Stokes High School, 1968 graduate of Atlantic Christian College where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Business, graduate of LSU School of Banking and UNC School of Banking. He started his career with First National Bank of Eastern North Carolina in Jacksonville, NC. He proudly retired after 42 years of service in the banking industry with BB&T as Senior Vice President and City Executive in Greenville, NC. He served in the United States Army Reserve. He worked tirelessly for his communities serving in many different roles in many organizations such as 13 years on the Board of Trustees with Beaufort County Hospital, served as chairman for the Salvation Army, served with the Greenville Chamber of Commerce and was a member of First United Methodist Church for 30 years. One of his proudest moments was serving as Lay Director of the Pamlico Emmaus Walk 28. One of his joys was serving with the fine men of the Caring Christian Carpenters. Along with his family, friends and church, Dennis' lifelong passion was fishing.



Survivors include his wife, Linda Smith Alexander of the home, one son, Mark Warren Alexander and wife Kendra of Greenville, one grandson, Brody Warren Alexander, one expected grandson, Jack Keech Alexander, one sister, Betsy Holliman of Stokes, one sister-in-law, Kay Wainwright of Greenville, two nieces, Amanda Bryan and husband Bill of Garner, Krista Bass and husband Brian of Durham, two nephews, Andy Holliman and wife Gina of Stokes, Alan Holliman of Stokes and special cousin, Steve Alexander. Dennis had many dear friends that he thought of as his brothers and sisters.



The family will receive friends from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm Tuesday March 13, 2018 at Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington and other times at the home.



Memorial donations may be made to the First United Methodist Church, Caring Christian Carpenters, P.O. Box 715, 304 West Second St., Washington, NC 27889.



Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Alexander family.

The results from PA-18 are still unknown.Absentee ballots in the Pennsylvania 18th congressional district won't be counted until tomorrow morning, and the two candidates, Republican Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb, are running in a dead heat, separated by less than 100 votes as of this writing.That's bad news for Republicans.It's bad news for Republicans because this district went to President Trump over Hillary Clinton by 20 percentage points. The district hasn't been competitive for two decades. And no matter who ends up with the seat, the race is neck-and-neck. Here are the takeaways:President Trump visited the district. Republicans poured money into the district. It didn't seem to help very much. In the seven special elections in 2017, Democrats gained on their 2016 and 2012 results, according to FiveThirtyEight.com , by an average of 16%. Just one of those seats ended up shifting to Democrats thanks to the heavy Republican constituency of the seats in the first place, just as Saccone may end up winning after all in PA-18. But there are 118 seats held by Republicans that Trump won by fewer than 20 points - and Democrats need to pick up just 24 of them.Republicans should be expected to lose seats in the first off-year election of a Republican president. But they should be expected to do better than average when the economy is booming and we're not suffering any serious foreign policy crisis. That's not happening. In fact, Republicans are wildly underperforming across the country - as of February, Democrats had flipped 35 state legislature seats , including a blue wave in Virginia. Presidents with low approval ratings drag their parties with them in off-year elections. Trump isn't coming close to cracking 50%.Democrats poured money into Jon Ossoff in the Georgia 6th, and they lost. That's because Ossoff was a Nancy Pelosi-lite candidate. Lamb isn't. As many Republican commentators have pointed out, Lamb ran as a soft Republican, not a gun control fanatic with a pro-abortion radical streak. Republicans say this means that their agenda is still popular. What it really means is that if Democrats tailor candidates to their districts as opposed to running on an intersectionality-first platform, they could clock Republicans.It's still early. A lot can change between March and November. But the data support the serious possibility of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) come Election Day 2018.Contact: White House

White House Press Office

President Donald J. Trump has fought for our military since day one and has sought to provide our troops with the funding they need. On February 9, 2018, President Trump signed a two-year budget deal raising the military's budget caps for national defense to $700 billion for Fiscal Year 2018 and $716 billion for Fiscal Year 2019. Raising the budget caps fulfills the President's promise to end years of harmful sequestration budget restraints on our military and will help the military rebuild. The new budget cap increases Fiscal Year 2018 defense spending over the previous year by nearly $70 billion, a 10 percent increase and the largest increase for our military since 2007. The budget deal provides for funding levels that would support for thousands more troops and billions more in funding for missile defense. President Trump signed the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorized important priorities for defense spending. The NDAA authorized $626 billion of base budget resources for the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy national security programs, providing an additional $66 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations. The NDAA authorized a 2.4 percent pay raise for our troops, providing a significant improvement in quality of life for the members of our military. The NDAA included authorization for $146.2 billion for military personnel, including pay, allowances, and bonuses. The NDAA adds thousands to the size of U.S. forces and provides billions of dollars for the air, land, and sea equipment our military needs. The NDAA authorizes key investments in readiness across the military, supporting Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force operations and maintenance. The President has called for a major modernization of our nuclear forces to ensure that the U.S. deterrent is modern, robust, flexible, ready, and resilient.President Trump has charted a new course for America's foreign policy, putting the interests and security of the American people first. President Trump has outlined a national security strategy following four key pillars: protect the homeland, the American people, and the American way of life; promote American prosperity; preserve peace through strength; and advance American influence.President Trump has made great strides in fulfilling his promise to defeat ISIS and tackle the threat of terror around the world. ISIS has lost nearly 100 percent of its former caliphate. More than 50 percent of the territory liberated from ISIS has been liberated under the Trump Administration, freeing another 5 million people from ISIS's oppression. The President is committed to destroying ISIS, and the Global Coalition will hunt these terrorists wherever they hide. President Trump is making clear to our allies that they cannot be America's friends while supporting or condoning terror. The President has suspended security assistance to Pakistan, sending a long-overdue message to the recipients of American foreign aid that we expect them to fully join us in combatting terrorism. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, President Trump called on representatives of over 50 Muslim-majority nations to do more to combat terror and extremist ideology.President Trump has made strong and necessary moves to deter threats to the United States. The President has led and executed an international maximum pressure campaign against North Korea to compel North Korea to denuclearize and cease its dangerous provocations. The President has rallied world powers in support of increasing economic and diplomatic pressure. The global maximum pressure campaign appears to be working-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has committed to ceasing provocations and expressed willingness to denuclearize. The President has agreed to meet with the North Korean leader and will use this opportunity to hold the regime to its commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. The President has taken aggressive action to confront Iran's threatening behavior, including imposing sanctions on dozens of Iran-linked entities and refusing to re-certify the Iran deal. The President ordered missile strikes in Syria, in opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following his use of chemical weapons against his own people. In doing so, the President stood up for the global norms against the use of chemical weapons.At immediate risk from a trophy hunting season in Wyoming would be celebrity bears, like female 399 (pictured above), who is often seen in areas just outside of Grand Teton National Park. She is more than 20 years old and has been a successful mother. Photo by Thomas D. Mangelsen/www.mangelsen.com

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Our fight to protect grizzly bears cleared a hurdle this week, when a federal court gave the green light to a lawsuit challenging the premature delisting of Yellowstone-area grizzlies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had filed a motion to indefinitely pause the case filed by The HSUS and the Fund for Animals last year, challenging the politically motivated removal of federal protections for the bears.

The court rejected the FWS motion and allowed the lawsuit to proceed without delay.

States surrounding Yellowstone National Park have pressured FWS to ignore available science and turn grizzly bear management over to the states. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (whose Chief Game Warden, Brian Nesvik, is a Shikar-Safari Club International honoree) is moving to open up a season on the rare and much-beloved grizzly bears who live in the vicinity of Yellowstone this fall. The current proposal would set a quota of 24 bears, and even allow inhumane hunting methods like baiting in some areas.

Until April 30, Wyoming Game and Fish will take public comments on the proposal. It will render its decision at a hearing in Casper on May 23.

As part of an agreement with Idaho and Montana, Wyoming gets the lions share of the trophy-hunting opportunities for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears: 58 percent to Wyoming for bears outside of the national parks, while Montana gets 34 percent and Idaho gets eight percent.

When asked why Wyoming wants to open a season while Montana (and British Columbia) wildlife officials have opted not to, Nesvik replied, Its great that states get the opportunity to make the decision. Its not surprising that Nesvik thinks so, but there is a reason why state governments should not get to decide the fates of rare species. Local officials, who cater to ranchers and local outfitting guides, disenfranchise the millions of Americans who dont want grizzly bears slaughtered for a few trophy hunters seeking to have their portrait taken over a dead bear while gloating and showing off their high-caliber weapons on social media.

Wyoming wildlife officials admitted that they knew the hunt would be controversial. In formal comment letters and in open meetings, there was strong public opposition expressed against the hunt.

At immediate risk from a trophy hunting season in Wyoming would be celebrity bears, like female 399, who is often seen in areas just outside of Grand Teton National Park. She is more than 20 years old and has been a successful mother. She and her beautiful cub will be put in the crosshairs if Wyoming opens up a grizzly bear hunting season.

The National Park Service notes that in 2016, eight million visitors went to Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks and spent $1.5 billion in local communities, which contributed to 17,600 jobs in the region. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and other state officials should realize that Yellowstone-area grizzly bears are far more valuable alive than dead. In the meantime, The HSUSs litigation work will advance as part of our comprehensive effort to stop Wyomings grizzly bear hunt.Dan Lipinski literally inherited his Illinois seat from his father, and has held it since 2004, despite voting against a $15 minimum wage and against a woman's right to choose to have an abortion.

Lipinski is using a $1.2 million war-chest to fight off a primary challenge from Marie Newman, a progressive Democrat who is pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ, pro-$15 minimum wage, and is endorsed by NARAL, EMILY's List and Planned Parenthood.

Lipinkski's campaign riches come largely from industry, especially railroad company PACs, who contributed nearly a sixth of his warchest. They owe Lipinski, who lead the effort to delay the imposition of a key safety measure called Positive Train Control, saving railroad companies millions and putting America lives at risk.

You can donate to Marie Newman's campaign here.



The Intercept reviewed FEC records and found that the major rail industry PACs have lavished Lipinski with donations throughout his career. Over the last decade, the companies and their trade associations have provided $232,100 in donations, which Lipinski has been able to largely preserve, since he has generally not faced a competitive general or primary election since 2008.

Dan Lipinski Raked in Rail Industry Campaign Dollars While Delaying Safety Standards [Lee Fang/The Intercept]When a Kansas family taking a United flight yesterday from Oregon to Kansas City, Missouri boarded their dog on the plane, they probably hadn't yet heard that United had just killed a passenger's puppy. When they landed, they went to the cargo area to pick up their 10-year-old German Shepherd, but were greeted by a great Dane instead. Fortunately, the Dane was alive.

Meanwhile, their German Shepherd, Irgo, was still in the air, on a different plane headed for Japan.

The owners of Irgo are, of course, distraught. Apparently, United is trying to tell the family the the great Dane is indeed their German Shepherd, because, well, the paperwork tells them so.

According to CBS:

"I just want to know where my dog is," Swindle told KCTV. "The fact that we don't have any idea is the most frustrating part. He could be in Kansas City and we have no idea because the paperwork is all messed up. They have our paperwork here saying that this is the correct dog, but we know it's not. It's just horrible." According to KCTV, Irgo will see a veterinarian before being put back on a flight to Kansas City. There is a chance that Irgo may need to be quarantined for up to two weeks in Japan due to traveling on an international flight. It remains unclear as to when the dog will arrive in Kansas City. "At this point, all I can do is be hopeful that my dog is going to be OK and return safely," Swindle told KCTV. "I don't know what else to do at this point. I can't cry anymore. I've cried too much."

The United officials who admit that the dogs were indeed swapped have a mighty good excuse: The kennels looked similar. Way to go United! Another day, another trip through the friendly skies.

United Airlines is supposedly investigating the incident.

Image by InSapphoWeTrust/FlickrSpecial counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization for an array of documents, including those related to contact with Russia.

No response from the Trump Org or reps for the President at this time, reports Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times.

From their big scoop:

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known time that the special counsel demanded documents directly related to President Trump's businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president. The breadth of the subpoena was not clear, nor was it clear why Mr. Mueller issued it instead of simply asking for the documents from the company, an umbrella organization that oversees Mr. Trump's business ventures. In the subpoena, delivered in recent weeks, Mr. Mueller ordered the Trump Organization to hand over all documents related to Russia and other topics he is investigating, the people said. The subpoena is the latest indication that the investigation, which Mr. Trump's lawyers once regularly assured him would be completed by now, will drag on for at least several more months. Word of the subpoena comes as Mr. Mueller appears to be broadening his investigation to examine the role foreign money may have played in funding Mr. Trump's political activities. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller's investigators have questioned witnesses, including an adviser to the United Arab Emirates, about the flow of Emirati money into the United States.

Last July, Donald Trump warned that Mueller would cross a 'red line' if he began digging into the Trump family business. "I think that's a violation. Look, this is about Russia," he said.

PHOTO: ReutersWells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan has only been on the job since October, but he's earned a 35%, $4.6m raise, despite flat earnings and a series of scandals since Sloan took over from the cartoonishly villainous John Stumpf.



Sloan's tenure has included record-breaking penalties for the bank from the Fed, class action lawsuits enabled by Sloan's desperate spin before Congress; Sloan boasting that not one cent from the Trump tax breaks would go to investment or wages; and a farcical "reparations" program for defrauded mortgage borrowers that was calculated to be thrown away with the junkmail.



Wells Fargo justified Sloan's overall pay package in its proxy by saying that it reflected "solid financial performance." But the bank did not substantially grow profits last year which would typically be a reason for such a pay increase.

Net income at the bank last year was $22.2 billion, up from $21.9 billion in 2016, an increase of little more than 1 percent. Revenues at the bank were flat at $88.4 billion compared with $88.3 billion a year earlier. Wells Fargo's return on equity, which is a measure of how profitable a bank is with its underlying assets, fell to 11.35 percent from 11.49 percent in 2016.In 1955, MIT- and Caltech-educated Qian Xuesen was fired from his job teaching at JPL and deported from the USA under suspicion of being a communist sympathizer; on his return to China, he led the country's nuclear weapons program and became a folk hero who is still worshipped today.

Qian's major accomplishment wasn't nukes, though: it was popularizing "systems thinking" among Chinese elites, and with it, the belief that technocrats could find the best course of action, and then engineer public support for it using pervasive systems of social control.





This approach has its roots in the early days of "hard" systems thinking in the USA, popularized by JPL and military contractor Aerojet General, who implemented it in the form of a "data-driven" streaming of students in California's public schools, with resources apportioned to students based on a prediction of their future academic accomplishments, based on their IQ scores, attendance records and previous report-cards.

Qian's proteges applied systems thinking to many of China's looming social programs: it was "systems thinking" that led to the country's one child policy (which led to imprisonment, housing demolitions, and forced abortions and sterlizations for noncompliance), the Three Gorges Dam (which displaced 1.3 million people), the country's systems of internet surveillance and control, and the Citizen Scores social credit system of total surveillance and realtime scoring. In China's fast-propagating "smart cities," systems thinking dictates that every bit of infrastructure be wired up for surveillance.





Outside of China, "systems thinking" has softened to a more collaborative approach that explicitly takes account of the feelings of the people who make up the system. This approach has its own Chinese analog, called "WSR" for wuli (fact-based scenario planning), shili (modeling and prediction) and renli (human relations). In this model, technocrat still decide what is right, but put effort into convincing people that they should go along with the plan, rather than using their resources to corral and coerce people who disagree.

As with the one-child policy, though, the systems scientists entrusted with studying the Three Gorges Dam devoted little time to consulting people whom the project would affect most. (Dam building and the reservoir that formed behind the structure displaced 1.3 million people in southwestern China.) Because the dam's construction was a foregone conclusion, the feasibility study was limited to outcomes that reinforced government plans. Researchers in China often approach megaprojects like Three Gorges "from the perspective of how to successfully implement the project whose execution has already been decided politically," says Yoshiteru Nakamori, a systems scientist and former dean of the School of Knowledge Science at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Nomi. More recently, the involvement of China's systems scientists in designing the country's digital infrastructure has raised similar questions about whether the scientists are aiding the state at the expense of the public. Take China's smart cities initiative. The Chinese government claims to have wired hundreds of cities with sensors that collect data on topics including city service usage and crime. At the opening ceremony of China's 19th Party Congress last fall, Xi said smart cities were part of a "deep integration of the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence with the real economy."



A revered rocket scientist set in motion China's mass surveillance of its citizens [Mara Hvistendahl/Science]

(via Super Punch)News / National

by Staff reporter

A 25-year-old man has been nabbed for allegedly stealing two cars worth US$9 430 after misrepresenting that he was hiring them.Rifasi Simbarashe Machokoto was not asked to plead to theft of trust property charges when he appeared before Harare magistrate Tilda Mazhande.He was advised to apply for bail at the High Court and the matter was remanded to March 27.The State alleges that on January 19, Machokoto hatched a plan to steal Pikisai Chipwazo's car a Toyota Alteza, registration number ADM0389 and approached him purporting as if he wanted to hire it.It was reported that Pikisai gave him the car since he knew him.During the same day, at around 3pm, Machokoto went back to Pikisai and lied that he had found a swap and top deal with a similar car which was a recent import.Pikisai agreed to swap the car and gave Machokoto the registration book.It was reported that Machokoto approached Asaph Chidavaenzi, a car dealer and sold the car for US$1 500 before converting the money to his own use.Thereafter, Machokoto shifted from where he was staying and became evasive.Pikisai lodged a complaint with the police after failing to trace Machokoto.On February 14, the car was recovered from Chidavaenzi who revealed that he bought it from Machokoto.The State further alleges that sometime in January this year, Machokoto hatched a plan to steal Hazel Zidducheh's car, a Honda Fit registration number AEJ5996.He reportedly lied to her that he wanted to hire the car and travel to Mutare but Hazel who was busy that time did not respond leading to Machokoto taking away the car without the complainant's consent.It was reported that Machokoto sold the car to an unknown buyer and did not return home.On March 11, Machokoto was arrested at his hideout in Marlborough after a tip off.News / National

by Simbarashe Sithole

A 25-year-old Mvurwi man has been arraigned before the court for stealing 17 340 plants of the golden leaf from his employer's field.Cephas Musaidzi of Ruia B Plot 1 farm appeared before Guruve Resident Magistrate Shingirayi Mutero accused of reaping tobacco plants worth $ 934, 08 from his employer Stella Zhakata (37) who was contracted by the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB).Public prosecutor Ms Spiwe Makarichi told the court that sometime on 17 February 2008 the complainant allegedly saw a group of people reaping her tobacco at the fields without her consent and did not confront the accused but made a police report at Mvurwi Police leading to the arrest of the accused.However in his defence the accused alleged that he was given a portion of land by the complainant to farm his own tobacco as payment of the work he was doing in Zhakata's tobacco filed."The complainant is simply being jealousy that my portion has ripened healthily first before hers and have even chased me away from her homestead forcing me to seek refuge from unknown neighbours", said the accused.It is further alleged that the accused was requested by Stella from Rusape to come and assist her in tobacco farming since he has experience in farming and it was their agreement that he would farm his own tobacco as payment for the field work.News / National

by Staff reporter

THE Department of Immigration has accused some of its workers of launching a smear campaign against the organisation, following reports that the top brass was involved in massive sexual abuse and corruption.Addressing journalists in Harare yesterday, immigration principal director Clement Masango accused workers' representative Nkosana Mtunzi and two other employees, Sheila Moyo and Emily Mupeti, of leading the smear campaign."The public should be made aware that the group of malcontents led by one Nkosana Mtunzi were dismissed from the service after due process by laid down disciplinary procedure, Mtunzi is 'selling a dummy' as the adage goes and there is no entity called immigration workers representative in the department," he said. "Consequently, Mtunzi has been loitering and gallivanting in immigration uniform without performing any work for the government. He had no office, no assigned tasks and was not accountable or reporting to anyone in the department."Masango said Mtunzi also took the department, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Public Service Commission to court and the case had been dragging since then until 15 February 2018 when the High court dismissed it.Masango said Moyo and Mupeti who alleged to have been sexually harassed by their bosses should have reported the cases to the police.Moyo and Mupeti recently appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio on Labour where they broke down in tears as they narrated how a director allegedly sexually harassed them, and after they rejected his advances since 2017.News / National

by Staf reporter

The Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Philip Valerio Sibanda, yesterday officially handed over command of the Zimbabwe National Army to the new Commander Lieutenant-General Edzayi Chakanyuka Chimonyo at One Commando in Harare.General Sibanda served as commander of ZNA for 13 years.In a speech during the ceremony, General Sibanda urged Lt Gen Chimonyo to work hard as he had come at a critical period when the country had begun a new political dispensation in which people had high hopes and expectations for a better future."These expectations will not come to fruition if the ZNA and you (Lt Gen Chimonyo) in general fail to execute your roles as mandated. I should point out that if we are not vigilant these expectations and high hopes among our people may be derailed by those who do not want to see peace and progress in our countries."I want to urge all officers, men and women of the ZDF to be wary of the social media as it is being used as a vehicle to try to subvert us. Events of the last few months during which increased subtle attacks on the military have been noted attest to this fact. Let us remain very vigilant and adopt a motto that "its not over until its over".Officiating at the ceremony Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga, (retired) who was also the chief witness of the handover, said the ZNA was a key pillar of the country's defence and security service whose constitutional mandate was to defend Zimbabwe, its people, its national security interests as well as its independence, sovereignty and national integrity.He paid tribute to General Sibanda for being an illustrious leader during his tenure as ZNA commander."I therefore call upon you to maintain the same vigour, dedication and allegiance in your new assignment as Commander ZDF. To the incoming Commander ZNA, your promotion and appointment was based on distinction and merit as you have shown great visionary leadership as a distinguished liberation fighter, decorated military commander and shrewd ambassador. As you assume a higher and more challenging assignment, I have no doubt that you take a leading role in further developing the ZNA into a reputable, competent, professional and highly disciplined force," he said.VP Chiwenga said the ZNA should contribute towards nation building by supporting Government's socio-economic development programmes. "Indeed it is your responsibility as defence forces to defend the country's economic interest and also support civil ministries. Our defence forces are renowned and respected nationally, regionally and internationally for their professional conduct. This can be demonstrated by the number of successful operations they have undertaken such as the Mozambique Campaign, DRC Campaign which was "Operation Sovereign Legitimacy" and the recent "Operation Restore Legacy" at home among others, he said.VP Chiwenga said the advent of the new political dispensation bestored the honours on all Zimbabweans to revive the economy by mobilising local and international investments in support of the President's call that Zimbabwe is open for business. "As VP I am aware of the challenges you are facing in improving capabilities and requirements to develop the ZDF into the desired formidable entity. I want to assure you that my ministry is fully committed to the task of ensuring your requirements are provided while at the same time regularly reviewing conditions of service." I urge you all to remain firm in your endeavours in building a robust defence force that guarantees the security of our beloved motherland, Zimbabwe," he said.Commander Lt Gen Chimonyo participated in the liberation struggle and has held a number of appointments in the ZNA between 1980 and 2008 before his transfer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was appointed ambassador to Tanzania until December 2017.News / National

by Staff reporter

SOME 200 schools from across the country are participating in the new season of Old Mutual Schools Quiz at the weekend with organisers anticipating an exciting battle of the minds.Takudzwa Tsikwa, Old Mutual Schools Quiz spokesperson, said there were new entrants who will battle it out at the provincial finals while others were tried and tested horses.Schools including Mandwandwe, Sikhulile, Eveline, Northlea, Townsend, Gifford and Montrose from Bulawayo will battle it out at Montrose Girls High School on Saturday with the top four set to represent the province at the national finals. They will each have four participants.Midlands will host its finals at Guinea Fowl."The top four schools from the provincial knockouts will proceed to the national finals which are scheduled for 25 May at the Harare International Conference Centre."The winning quiz team at provincial level will walk away with a laptop to be used by the team for future research activities, while trophies for the top three schools will be awarded," Tsikwa said.Tsikwa said the competition this year will be exciting as the final quiz will not be pre-recorded, but will be broadcast live on ZBC and on social media platforms. Last year's quiz was won by Manicaland's Hartzell High School."People need to diarise 25 May  Africa Day as it will be the day where they'll watch live, which quiz team knows more about Africa than the others."The focus is to test knowledge on all things about Africa. We want to empower participants with awareness of their immediate environment. Of course financial literacy workshops through Old Mutual's On The Money programme is an added advantage for participants," Tsikwa said.He said there was an overwhelming response from schools across all 10 provinces.Since 1983 when Old Mutual launched the quiz programme, focus was always on high schools.However, primary schools can now participate as a measure of empowerment and recognition of their ability.Zimbabwe is only third to India and the United Kingdom in terms of school quiz participation.Tsikwa said with primary schools being invited, they believe Zimbabwe would lead the world as far as quiz participation is concerned.News / National

by Staff reporter

POLICE spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba has called on the media to complement police efforts to spruce up their image which was battered by rampant corruption and harassment of members of the public.Addressing a media workshop in Gweru on Tuesday, Snr Asst Commissioner Charamba said the police need to regain the public's confidence under the new dispensation and that can only be achieved if their efforts are complemented by the media.Snr Asst Comm Charamba said the media, being the fourth estate, plays a pivotal role in the country's social and economic development.She said media has become an integral part of life in modern society and it provides people with information hence it can help the police in regaining its self-assurance from the public through keeping the people well informed of the good works the police are doing."The media is referred to as the fourth estate and it can influence opinion of the whole society and act as a watch dog to ensure things are done in a transparent and proper way. Therefore through its reporting it can help us as the police force to gain goodwill especially in the eyes of the public," said Snr Asst Comm Charamba.The relationship between the police and the media is like that of fish and water, we cannot do without each other. The ZRP is a source of important information more so as it relates to the security of the country."Snr Asst Comm Charamba said the police was committed to creating good relations with the media so that the two could complement each other in serving the public.She said police public relations department will work hand in glove with the media and will be cooperative in providing information which is of public interest."Allow me to recognise the significant role the media plays in the political, socio-economic development of any society. The quest for information in the modern world is very high as it impacts on people's lives in different ways."I have met Zimbabwe Editors Forum, ZUJ, MISA and the Media Alliance for the sole purpose of improving Police /Media relations", said Snr Asst Comm Charamba.News / National

by aL jAZEERA

Zimbabwe's business community has called for all international sanctions to be lifted in order to help improve the struggling economy.President Emmerson Mnangagwa wants to attract more foreign investors, however, some are cautious about doing business with Zimbabwe.News / National

by Syephen Jakes

MDC-T President Nelson Chamisa today visited stranded patients at Harare hospital following a strike by doctors and senior medical personnel that has crippled the country's health services sector.His spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said after the tour, President Chamisa immediately called on the government to look into the very reasonable demands by the country's doctors, whom he said were earning far much lower than their peers in the region and on the continent.The doctors are striking over low salaries, on-call allowances, poor working conditions and lack of essential drugs, among other reasons."President Chamisa toured various wards at the hospital speaking to patients before calling on the hospital's chief executive to appreciate the enormity of the crisis at one of the country's major national health referral centres. The chief executive told President Chamisa that the outpatients department had been seriously affected by the work stoppage by doctors," he said.Addressing journalists outside the hospital's maternity wing at the hospital, President Chamisa urged the government to urgently look into the genuine grievances by the country's doctors."He said President Mnangagwa cannot continue with his mantra that the country was open for business when it is not open for health. He said the country's medical staff worked under very difficult conditions and the government had to prioritize the health of citizens. He said doctors and medical personnel in countries like South Africa and Rwanda earned far much more and enjoyed better working conditions than the health workers in Zimbabwe," he said."He pledged that his incoming government would take seriously its responsibility particularly in the social sectors such as health and education. President Nelson Chamisa said the party would do all it can to ensure that the next elections are free and fair to enable a new government to attend to the myriad challenges facing the people. He was accompanied by the party's Health Secretary Dr Ruth Labode, Secretary for Elections Hon. Murisi Zwizwai, the MDC Harare Province Chairperson Hon. Eric Murai, National Youth chairperson Happymore Chidziva, Deputy Treasurer General Mr. Chalton Hwende, several MPs and other senior officials in the party."News / National

by Staff reporter

UNLESS government acts today, a crisis may be brewing in the country's health sector with doctors insisting that they are on a strike that is intensifying with every passing hour.More than five provincial hospitals and over 20 district hospitals are affected by the strike which began with only junior doctors on the first of March but has since roped in middle and senior doctors.Dozens of United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) doctors yesterday took to the streets in Bulawayo protesting over conditions of employment."The strike entered its 14th day (yesterday) and although it started with junior doctors, senior doctors joined around the seventh day and the strike is intensifying because government is not treating this demonstration with the urgency it deserves," said Dr Mxolisi Ngwenya, the spokesperson and vice president of Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA).H-Metro sent teams to the country's two major hospitals and what they saw was a situation that has not deteriorated into a crisis and can still be salvaged.Dr Ngwenya claims the absence of disaster is due to the efforts of the most senior doctors who fall in the bracket of consultants and only ZHDA can call off the strike."Only consultants are still working in those hospitals. The rest: like registrars, senior housing residents, junior housing residents and medical officers are on strike and the situation is deteriorating fast."This was never our intention as government has had four years to deal with these issues but nothing has been done. As a result, over 90 percent of doctors are on strike."The government's lack of urgency is appalling as we sent them a petition on the 23rd of January and until now our concerns have not been addressed. After their initial response, we gave them a 21-day ultimatum on the 5th of February and they did nothing culminating in the strike which began on March 1," he said.Chief among the concerns is the availability of medication and resources for patients and improved working conditions for doctors,"We want clearly defined working hours and they must be well remunerated. We go on call for a meagre $1.50 an hour and we do that beyond the stipulated 72 hours per month and both the payment and the hours spent on call are unfair."They put a cap of 72 hours per month but on average we spend between 240-360 hours per month on call. Government once promised to pay us US$10 per hour up from 75 cents and that has still not been done, four years later. Even if we are to be working 360 hours and be paid for 72 hours, it would be better if the amount was US$10 per hour," said Dr Ngwenya.He also bemoaned lack of transport for doctors and said government should assist them with vehicles or enable them to get cars duty free."We are ready to import vehicles with our own money and all we ask for is for the cars to come in duty free but again these requests have been ignored. The health services board and the minister of health (Dr David Parirenyatwa) must be put to task because these are the same people that were there four years ago when we started these deliberations."We met with them again on the 6th of March and they said they need nine days to respond, even though doctors were already on strike. They have no sense of urgency whatsoever."The nine days government gave itself to respond end today and one wonders if an agreement will be reached.Calls to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Of Health, Dr Gerald Gwinji, for government's position on the matter went unanswered yesterday.News / National

by Staff reporter

ST MATHIAS Tsonzo High school in Mutasa has been rocked by student riots which are allegedly being instigated and sponsored by some teachers in a bid to push out the school head Mr Obvious Chikata.The demonstrations started last Friday and involved mostly Forms 3, 4 and 6 students who were protesting over the suspension of two of their colleagues on allegations of drug and substance abuse.The riots reached the fiver pitch on Sunday evening as male students wearing balaclavas stormed into the girls' dormitories and ordered them to join the demonstrations around 11pm.Security guards and school authorities who tried to restrain the riotous students were pelted with an assortment of missiles.The students vandalised the security fence around the learning area to troop out of the school premises, forcing the school authorities to summon police to quell the situation.Mutasa District School Inspector Mrs Chipo Mlambo was holed at the school on Monday trying to break the impasse. Though Mrs Mlambo said the situation had stabilised, reports indicate that the students were threatening to strike again on Tuesday.Provincial Education Director Mr Edward Shumba said the matter was still being investigated.News / National

by Staff Reporter

Ward 4 councilor who is also Chiredzi Town Council chairperson, Francis Moyo, has instructed vendors to go against the edict by the minister and go back into the streets. He claimed that the minister has reversed his decree to move all the vendors out of the streets.This is however, in contradiction with the District Administrator (DA), Lovemore Chisema, who professed ignorance of such turnaround by the minister of local government, housing and public works, July Moyo, and said he had not received such communique."There is no such instruction from the ministry. I have never seen nor heard of such a communication. The position of the ministry still stands, and I am sure if there are any new developments my office will be furnished with the new position of the ministry. In fact, we have more information to buttress the directive from the minister."If anything, it is from Moyo and not anyone else saying vendors should go back in the streets, but I should quickly point out that he is acting outside the dictates of the government law and the by-laws of the local government," said Chisema.Town Secretary Charles Muchatukwa said he is not aware of the reversal and went on to say that councillor Moyo should be able to explain what he told the vendors. "I am not aware of such a communication. If any, I am sure it will reach my office. For the time being I am not aware of that development. There is no such declaration," said Muchatukwa.Nonetheless, Moyo is standing with his position that the minister had reversed his directive, and had since made an announcement on social media those vendors removed from the streets should go back. He claims that a reversal was made after his meeting with the minister.Moyo, who is eying Chiredzi West, was last week manhandled by vendors after he tried to block his rival, former Tongaat agriculture director, Farai Musikavanhu, from developing a vending place for displaced vendors. He later told vendors that he met with minister Moyo who eventually gave in and approved his request to have vendors back in the streets.According to Solomon Ndarova, the Chiredzi vendors' chairperson, Musikavanhu is developing a vending site on which vendors were moved immediately after the operation."After the directive from the minister, as vendors we approached Musikavanhu who promised to develop a decent place for us, but this seems not to go down well with Moyo who is trying to block the progress there. The place is going to accommodate over 450 all paid up vendors."As vendors we have already written to all members of the Joint Operations Committee (JOC) to intervene and stop councillor Moyo from playing politics with our livelihoods. He has been in council for five years now, but we haven't seen any development except reports of corrupt activities. We are now saying no to corruption."We are demanding accountability from Chiredzi Town Council. We won't sit back and watch them destroy our children's future. We no longer want to continue working in dilapidated infrastructures, so we are demanding to know how they used the $15 we each paid," said Ndarova.Efforts to get comment from the minister were fruitless as his mobile went unanswered.Meanwhile, minister Moyo gave vendors 48 hours to vacate the streets about two months ago, and most towns around the country made consultations as to where to relocate their vendors before moving them, but Chiredzi Council seems to have been taken by surprise, and is making desperate efforts to relocate the vendors. Most vendors were relocated on private owned land as the council is claiming to have run out of land.In a statement read to residents by the on behalf of the minister, at Chitsanga Hall vendors were given 72 hours to leave their illegal stalls.The ten minute meeting was attended by members of JOC which include the Zimbabwe National Army, President's office, Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Prisons Services.Opinion / Columnist

There are very genuine questions we have to ask the Nguni ethnic group their audacity to revive their Kingdoms here in Mthwakazi: the lands of the San populations from the Zambezi escarpment right down to the ocean shores of southern Africa Cape now newly called Cape Town? In a nutshell the entire southern cone belongs to us the peoples of San ethnic. When they saw northern tribes: blacks and white alike invading their spaces, they must have said okay; the lands are big enough to accommodate all of us. But because our history is oral, we are really not privy about the raw truth of history: what really transpired. Why were the San populations treated like second class peoples, despised by so many ethnic groups tried to decimate them from the map of southern Africa altogether.There were many kingdoms that ruled Zululand in the 18th and 19th century. The Kings were of several groups such as the 'Khumalos, the Mthethwas, the Ndandwes and several other royal clans. When one reads the history books of early colonisation of southern Africa and also the Wikipedia, one notices already the distortion of facts about this nation called the Zulus of southern Africa. However it is true that there was a lot of mistrust among the Zulu kingdoms that were somehow related to well knitted each other. Mzilikazi who is the only chief that defeated Chaka the king did not feel safe again in Chaka's Zululand: Mzilikazi fled northwards, he had a combat encounter with Kingdom under Moshoeshoe. They were defeated in detail but the Zulus left havoc, plundering and killings behind them: the Basuthu and Batswana called them Matabele.Dear reader you need to page back the article written by Emanuel Mdzimu Unami, one not so long ago, alluding to the factuality of the coronation of Ndebele kings in our lands. Reading the previous article will assist me never to repeat facts already mentioned eloquently before me. Comrade Emmanuel Mdzimu Unami asked questions that need answers by those who think they have the right to impose their kingdoms on us: not only one but three kings in a time space of 12 months.When did the Nguni ethnic group leave Zululand how many of them were there? Guessed its 100 t0 300 strong soldiers and many cattleWhere did they get their wives from to make a sound Ndebele kingdom of Mzilikazi ka Matshobana whose number rose from 300 to 20,000 in 1893?How many Nguni peoples are in Mthwakazi region? Guessed its 5% or even lessHow did the Nguni incorporate other tribes they found after crossing Ngulukudela (now called Limpopo) in Mthwakazi: by cohesion or coercing? No guessing here bitter wars were fought and Mzilikazi won almost all the wars and took with them cattle, women and children who were then subjects of the Kingdom of the Ndebele people.Was the intention initially to subjugate them into the Nguni tribe or to decimate them and they keep the lands that historically do not belong to them?One of the ethnic groups that were supposed to be decimated were the Khoi-Khoi and San populations who resisted being subjects to the Zulu/Nguni ethnic groups. The reason why Mzilikazi hated the San population was that the San resisted vehemently to be conscripted into Mzilikazi armies to wage wars against the surrounding kingdoms. The men were pushed to the deserts and connected with other san populations that were already arid and desert dwellers. The San women and children, who were not so lucky, were abducted and overnight became subjects of the new arrivals, colonisers, settlers of black origin: the Zulus. Mzilikazi and his tribalistic outfit: ethnic people subdivided everyone under his rule into hierarchical: the royals: (the Ngunis) amahole la betshabi. This outfit still exist till today. Anyone who has a royal surname: Khumalo, Mthethwa, Dlamini, Dlodlo, Mafu, Mkhwananzi Gasa, look down at those "less" subjects, feel automatically better/superior than Ncube or Ndlovu, Moyo, Sibanda Ngwenya it goes on: the surname determines which royal hierarchy one belongs to, to this day in 2018. To say Mzilikazi was not a tribalist is wholly not true. Back then in those days: kusabusa u Mzilikazi tribalism was raw and openly rude.Currently we have three kings in Mthwakazi: what is next?The first question we should all ask ourselves is: was there an opinion poll done to determine if the entire peoples of "Mathebeleland wanted a King? Were they asked which king of which ethnic group was going to be the rightful Kingdom for all the peoples of "Mathebeleland" How does it happen that a population of 5% can just over night force feed us through our throats on three kings all that happening in 12 months. What was this rush to impose on us kings and not even one but three of them Khumalo ethnic group. Did the Ngunis fear an opinion poll that was going to reject the imposition of their Nguni king in this region, a king from a small margin of ethnic groups in the region.Mfecane time: Mthwakazi does not seem to see the imminent danger in our midst! The three kings!How are the three kings going to sort this already a big mess that can lead to internal fightings inside Mathebeleland itself without Zanu PF or the peoples of Mashonalands interfering into the conflicts? The serious and deadly conflicts are there for all to see, it's now a question of time, a conflict that can even dwarf war conflicts in South Sudan. U Mfecane is the war term the Zulu use to square up who can be king? In those days of Chaka and Mzilikazi and many other Kings and Chiefs, there was selling and counter-selling of one another to get the upper hand of either chiefdom or Kingdom. There was total mistrust of all of them chiefs and to-be kings then. It is not surprising that there are three kings in total conflict with one another in such a small place like Mthwakazi with a population of less than 4 million. This new development is a repeat of history of what it was during those days before Mzilikazi left Zululand going north. There will be combat action no very long in 2018 a repeat of how kingdom-cliches were solved. Iqhude elikhulu ngubani? Here in "Mathebeleland" there will be real fighting and internal displacements of communities that are still have not recovered from the Gugurahundi atrocities. Women and children will be the greatest casualties in all this potential mess before us. It is this small group of people of Nguni: (mostly men) tribe who will suck the entire western region of southern Rhodesia into serious political instability.It is mostly the Nguni men pushing this agenda very hard because it serves them. The Ngunis in Mthwakazi have realized how innovative it is to have a monarch. All they need to do to demand royal taxies to 4 million people in Mathebeleland; they will have yearly tax returns of $4,000,000:00 tax free. You did not need to work again if there are revenues that can be generated without working. All the money will be shared among those dignitaries surrounding the royal Kraal.Three kings and the cessation of Mthwakazi from ZimbabweCan the region be trusted with cessation and independence of separate state if already bitter lines of has been drawn that have the potential to destabilize the whole of southern Africa. I wonder still if the people of Mathebeleland see the danger we are in because of self imposing of kings on other ethnic groups without any opinion polls that will give them a clear mandate to have kingdom(s). I am nowhere provoking the peoples of Mathebeleland,, in retrospect the Nguni peoples are insensitive to many other ethnic groups in western Rhodesia. It is inconceivable how they can impose three kingdoms on us without any prior consultation by way of a slender survey in the region if the people wished for a Nguni Kingdom in the region.We feel as people of this area that UDHLAKELA has been used all over again to subject us to a kingdom that does not belong to us rightfully. They imposed their kingdoms on us and not only one but three of them. We shall never remain silent on this time round in as much as we rejected the British Crown to reign over us. We reject the kingdoms from minority group to subject us on their traditions that have nothing to do with us. We feel we have assimilated enough of the Nguni culture and traditions. The Kalanga people have their culture and traditions, so are the Nambiya, the Sothos Tongas, Chewas, the Venda, the San peoples and, the ethnic groups and all of us in the region. For example, for argument sake we could reject it equally if the white population in Zimbabwe overnight declared that King Charles Winsor is now the bonfire King of Zimbabwe as Rhodesia was once a colony of Britain.The best way forward is for the Nguni people to recognise their King Zwelithini of the Mthethwa ethnic group as the sole King of all the Nguni peoples in southern cone of Africa. They could make pilgrimages to see Nyambosi; bayekotha imililo lama langabi omlilo we nkosi u Nyambosi and bahabule imihabuliso relating to the rayal traditions of the Zulus, and come back to their place of birth that rightly belongs to them by birth: nobody will take their right of birth because they are of Zulu origin, those times have gone.It is also very important to note that the name Ndebele is really imposed on us, we are Abathwa: the name Mthwakazi comes from the San population of this region. It is said that when Mzilikazi had made truce with Mambo (our history is indeed oral,) Mzilikazi asked King Mambo: What is the name of the place they found themselves in by name. Mambo because of his large wisdom: he told King Mzilikazi that the whole land is called Mthwakazi a name coming from the San Peoples who were called Abathwakazi: the original dwellers of the region. The rest of us peoples from this region are not Ndebele people by any stretch of imagination. Amatabele are of the Nguni peoples AND NOT THE ENTIRE ETHNIC GROUPS FOUND IN THIS REGION. The name they got from the Sothos and Tswanas under King Moshoeshoe the Second after a bitter mountainous war of the early 1800.Opinion / Columnist

It is strange that Zimbabwe's endurance under the sanctions embargo for nearly two decades has not been evidence enough to the United States of America (USA) to realise that its continued sanctions don't have an impact.Zimbabwe exhibited a diehard attitude during its years of isolation. Despite the biting sanctions, Zimbabweans refused to be cowed and if USA continues to be led astray by the opposition through ZIDERA, the more other countries continue to be spoiled for choice in terms of investment opportunities.The first bird catches the worm, and the latter bird has to contend with the morsels.Donald Trump announced last week that he had extended the sanctions on Zimbabwe by another year. The extension of sanctions followed a visit by Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti and Dhewa Mavhinga to the USA where they had gone to lobby for the extension of sanctions, a situation they envisaged would contribute towards the electoral victory of the MDC Alliance.The MDC Alliance sought to inflict suffering on the people of Zimbabwe by asking, on bended knees, Trump to extend sanctions on Zimbabwe. Their misguided-philosophy claims that if people are made to suffer enough, they will turn against the Government of the day in their favour, so far that strategy has failed to work, time to move on.President Mnangagwa has, however, continued his "Zimbabwe is open for business" call which has been overwhelmingly received by African, European and Asian countries. Zimbabwe has vast resources that have not been explored and serious investors will not regret partnering Zimbabwe. It is at this point that US's extension of sanctions will seem like a drop in the ocean. It's of no consequence. Zimbabwe is on a progressive road map and will not be perturbed by scare tactics from the USA. It is about time the USA stopped playing 'big brother' role on other countries because from the looks of things on the global arena, the US is slowly isolating itself from the rest of the world.Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa has promised a free and fair election, a position that assures investors their investments are safe. The SADC Election Advisory Committee that is currently in Zimbabwe has expressed satisfaction at the way the pre-electoral processes are going. Furthermore, President Mnangagwa has invited foreign investors to include even the previously denied EU observer missions. Zimbabwe is open for business to willing investors.Opinion / Columnist

As the pre-election season rolls on, the MDC-T leader, Nelson Chamisa continues to address people as both that party's leader and the MDC Alliance presidential elections candidate. He has so far held about seven rallies in some provinces of the country and with each meeting, one would expect that his party's message would be clearer but this has not been the case. It has turned out that each time he opens his mouth; he leaves people more confused about whether or not the party or alliance has any policies, programmes and projects to improve people's livelihoods.Only this week while addressing his party's aspiring election candidates, he shamelessly claimed that his party was peaceful. Peaceful? The MDC-T? My foot! Chamisa had the temerity to claim that, "it (political violence) is not our culture. MDC-T is populated by democrats, doves and peace ambassadors" Initially one is tempted to disagree with him but after analysing the history of the party, one does not just agree that violence is not part of MDC-T's culture but that violence makes up the very essence of its DNA.Those who were around in January 1998 will vividly remember the food riots which were sparked by bread price increase and started in Harare's Mabvuku high density suburb. The event was hijacked by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) which was then led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai. Many will remember the extensive damage to shops and other infrastructure as well as financial losses occasioned by the looting by the marauding demonstrators. As a brainchild of the ZCTU, the violence chromosomes were carried to the MDC-T which was formed in September the following year.Who will forget the terror caused by the MDC-T's terrorist group, the Democratic Resistance Committees (DRCs) whose elements petrol-bombed several police stations in Harare which included the Harare Central Police and Marimba in March 2007? At the Marimba police station, two police constables, who included Sergeant Pretty Rushwaya sustained serious burns. In Mutare, the group also bombed the Sakubva police station during the same month damaging property and dockets in the process. In April of the same year, businessman and ZANU PF Chitungwiza South legislator, Christopher Chigumba was targeted for exercising his constitutional right to association through joining the Party when his Gumbas Wholesalers in downtown Harare was also petrol bombed. This was the tenth petrol-bombing incident in the country in two months.In August 2016 during demonstrations staged by members of the MDC-T youth assembly and the National Election Reforms Agenda (NERA) in Harare, who were demanding electoral reforms, many business premises were vandalised and stocks were looted. The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) were also targeted as both lost pickup trucks which were burnt by the demonstrators.Apart from targeting Government institutions and known ZANU PF members, some members of the MDC-T national leadership also uses violence to punish members who hold dissenting views and entrench their power within the party. It was a public secret that anyone who disagreed with Tsvangirai suffered violence at the hands of the party's youth and security department. For demanding leadership renewal in the party following its emphatic defeat by ZANU PF during the 2013 elections, former MDC-T deputy treasurer general, Elton Mangoma was assaulted in front of the party's Harvest House headquarters before Tsvangirai's eyes in February 2014, while former secretary general, Tendai Biti escaped. An attempt at petrol-bombing the latter's Umwinsidale house was made by the same elements. His rural homestead in Murehwa was also torched during the same time.When the MDC-T split over participation in 2005 senatorial election, some people who disagreed with Tsvangirai had the violence machinery unleashed upon them. Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Senegal and the Gambia, Lottie Gertrude "Trudy" Stevenson to this day carries scars of such assaults. What can one say of the violence which MDC-T vice president, Thokozani Khupe has suffered at the hands of MDC-T youths since August last year for daring to disagree with Tsvangirai over the party's participation in the alliance and being a threat to Chamisa's ascendance to the MDC-T leadership? Even at Tsvangirai's burial last month, she was subjected to threats and labelled a dissident. So much for a party of "excellence" and peace ambassadors.Despite this catalogue of horror, Chamisa sought to lamely blame ZANU PF for his party's own violent culture. He accused ZANU PF of "planting their people, some come wearing MDC-T T-shirts, while others try to influence our members to engage in violence."The MDC-T leader even claimed that "we are different from ZANU PF, which persecutes young people, but in MDC-T we elevate young people." For this once Chamisa was honest. This is because indeed the MDC-T elevates young people to the "prestigious" Vanguard "brigade" which is very key to keeping his opponents within the party under check with threats of physical harm.It is evident that Chamisa is fully aware that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called for credible, free and fair elections, a message which ZANU PF members have heeded and continue to maintain. Chamisa and his party are therefore merely trying to besmirch ZANU PF ahead of the elections in the desperate and vain hope of influencing a negative view of the Party. He is trying to look for a scapegoat to explain away his party and alliance's predictable poor electoral showing later this year. The electorate, however, knows that elections are won on the basis of solid policies and not stratospheric promises which do not resonate with the grassroots people's concerns and anxieties.Technology / Internet

by Robert Ndlovu

AS a follow up to my recent article about fake news on social media, this piece sheds light on the block chain technology and how it could be just what the doctor ordered.To those who do not know what block chain, is I will try to explain it briefly. Block chain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 for use in the crypto-currency bitcoin, as its public transaction ledger. This made it the digital currency to solve the double spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server.No intermediary, no central bank nor RBZ. This is the most common example of the use and application of block chain.However, it has more useful and effective use elsewhere in industry and community. Block chains alleviate the need for a trust service provider and are predicted to result in less capital being tied up in disputes.Block chains have the potential to reduce systemic risk and financial fraud. They automate processes that were previously time-consuming and done manually, such as the incorporation of businesses. In theory, it would be possible to collect taxes, conduct conveyancing and provide risk management with block chains.Organisations like Zimra would stand to maximise their revenue collection from this. That is a topic for another day.This makes block chains potentially suitable for the recording of events, medical records and other records management activities, such as identity management, transaction processing, documenting provenance, food traceability or voting.Identifying and rewarding value in social networks - we consume social media on a handful of platforms that have achieved massive scale like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest, among others.These networks rely on ad-based business models, which share a major shortcoming like users, creators, and platforms are unequally compensated for their participation on the platform.The other day while at Joina City in Harare to attend some conference, I could not resist the temptation to stop and observe what people in there where doing. About 95 percent of them were on their smartphones chitchatting.The same scenario is found at flea markets, airports, churches, colleges etc. That made me think that somewhere somehow there should be a way to monetise this addiction of social media by locals. Go into any pub or restaurant and try to prove my hypothesis wrong.By utilising the private ledger the block chain provides, companies can better track user interaction with content. This will enable the quantification of user's worth to the network, and therefore a better idea of how they should be compensated for their activity.How many times do you check your Whatsapp or Facebook per day? Are you paid for using it? I know that this notion of equally spreading the wealth across the network is somewhat radical, it is there for someone daring to tap into it.Great inventions usually start as crazy ideas. Access to content  in countries like China, North Korea and Syria, citizens can be blocked by the government from accessing social media and certain content, including news, music, and more.The same is true for a number of African countries especially during election time. The concept of decentralised content offers an alternative to combat internet censorship. By providing a distributed ledger, block chain ensures no entity can block valid access to content. I am sure you see why trigger-happy regulators would not like this kind of technology.Content authenticityWe all have received messages or notifications of fake recruitment drives supposedly from local companies. The list is endless. Recently the ZDF had to issue a press statement stating that they were not recruiting following some thread that went viral on social media and youths flocked to military bases looking for employment.If people can be paid something to post on social media, I think we will get more authentic posts. It is complex but it can be done.The human has split an atom and landed man on the moon so this is not a far-fetched idea. The possible use cases for this block chain are limitless and staggering. Any group that utilizes propaganda as tool for recruiting and marketing could cause serious damage if the technology were made available to them, underscoring the importance of a proven validation system.That is where block chain enters. Easier said than done. More block chain use cases coming weekly just watch this space. As we approach general elections you do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the kind of damage fake news on social media can do. "Mina Zwi"Robert Ndlovu +263 77 600 2605 : wozatel@gmail.comBy Teis Jensen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Several Danske Bank <DANSKE.CO> shareholders voiced discontent on Thursday with the bank's alleged flaws in preventing money laundering in the past at its Estonia branch.

Estonia's Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) said last month it would look into whether Denmark's biggest bank knowingly withheld information from the FSA during a series of inspections it conducted at the Estonian branch in 2014.

If that turns out to be the case, it could be a serious blow to the bank's reputation which it has spent years restoring following a much criticised advertising campaign in late 2012.

"Given the seriousness of the case, the board should have reacted faster and initiated an investigation earlier," Claus Wiinblad, senior vice president at Denmark's largest investor, pension fund ATP, said at Danske Bank's annual general meeting on Thursday.

ATP says it owned 1.05 percent of Danske Bank at the end of 2017.

Danske Chairman Ole Andersen said it was "highly unsatisfactory that we may have failed to meet both our own and society's expectations to our anti-money laundering measures in Estonia in the period from 2007 to 2015."

Danske Bank has itself launched an investigation into the case which is being conducted by the external Danish law firm Bruun & Hjejle and overseen by the bank's board.

The case represents a serious short-term risk, because there still are many uncertainties, but the compliance area does not represent a serious long-term risk as the bank has done a lot to live up to its responsibilities, including increasing its compliance staff to 900 people, Wiinblad said.

He stressed that it is critical for Danske Bank to be transparent about the findings from its investigation and that it draws any necessary consequences from it. "Nothing must be swept under the carpet," he said.

The case is "painful" Leonhardt Pihl, chief executive of Danish Shareholders Association, a lobby group for private investors, said.

Story continues

"The interest this case draws from the press and the politicians cannot help but affect the reputation of the bank," Pihl said.

Denmark's Financal Supervisory Authority is also looking at the bank. But its chairman Henrik Ramlau-Hansen has recused himself from the case as he was chief financial officer at Danske Bank from 2011 to 2016.

"It is difficult for an outsider to understand how Danske Bank in its investigation will question the former CFO, now the chairman of the FSA," Pihl said.

(Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Jane Merriman and Adrian Croft)The Alberta government is proposing a new bill that would create 3,000 post-secondary spaces over five years to train people to work in the technology sector.

The program will dedicate $43 million to training programs and another $7 million to scholarships. Some scholarship funding will be aimed at increasing the number of women in the tech sector.

The government proposes to create 200 new spaces in 2018-19, 550 in 2019-20 and 740 in each of the remaining three years.

Post-secondary institutions would have to submit proposals in order to receive the new funding.

The government is also proposing a new council to advise the government on what programs would help the most.

Bill 2 also proposes a new interactive digital media tax credit to encourage new companies to start up in Alberta, or move here from other jurisdictions.

The government also wants to extend two existing programs  the Alberta Investment Tax Credit and Capital Investment Tax Credit.

Alberta is expected to face a shortage of computer and information technology professionals by 2025 and a shortage of software designers, programmers and developers.National Geographic says it 'went too far' with emaciated polar bear video

The Quebec inquiry tasked with investigating discrimination is being criticized for its own lack of representation, as it examines how Indigenous people are treated by provincial services.

The Viens commission  named after its chair, Jacques Viens  was created by the Quebec government in 2016 in response to public pressure after prosecutors decided not to lay charges against six provincial police officers accused of sexually abusing Indigenous women in Val-d'Or, a city about 525 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

When Premier Philippe Couillard announced the inquiry, he said there was a "need to act rapidly to restore the relationship of trust broken since the events in Val-d'Or."

The inquiry, which is wrapping up its 16th week of hearings, has been mandated to look into treatment of Indigenous people by six specific government institutions: police services, corrections, legal services, the health system, social services and youth protection.

One Indigenous advocate who testified before the commission last month said she was struck by the absence of Indigenous people heading up the inquiry.

"You're walking into this sterile environment that is not welcoming," said Nakuset, director of the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal who goes by just the one name. "You have this white judge and then you have a white lawyer on your side who's proceeding."

"There are some people [with the commission] that are Indigenous. [But] I don't remember seeing them there. They're not sitting in front."

There are 18 Indigenous staffers  roughly 21 per cent of the commission's members  who serve on various teams, including Aboriginal relations, research, pscyhosocial support, wellness and communications.

None of them are part of the legal department.

Indigenous lawyers were sought

Inquiry head Viens is also not Indigenous, though the retired Quebec Superior Court judge spent 25 years of his career in the judiciary district of Abitibi, which encompasses Val-d'Or, and also practised law in Cree and Inuit communities.

Story continues

Commission chief counsel Christian Leblanc said attempts were made to recruit Indigenous lawyers, but many were not willing to relocate to Val-d'Or, the base of operations for the commission.

He said it was difficult to find experienced lawyers  Indigenous or non-Indigenous  who were willing to interrupt their lives and careers for the duration of the inquiry.

"You have to understand, to know that we did offer jobs and opportunities to Indigenous lawyers to come work with us," he said.

Leblanc said he had serious conversations with at least four Indigenous lawyers about joining the inquiry, but they all declined.

He said his team was careful to only hire legal counsel with experience working in Indigenous communities or on Indigenous issues.

Leblanc also underscored the role that Indigenous commission staff play in decision-making.

"In the best world, if we could have had 50 per cent, it would have been a good statistic. But what's important is not the quantity, it's the quality. It's the role those people play in the work we do."

He said the inquiry also makes every effort to ensure the hearings are held in a welcoming and culturally sensitive atmosphere.

"We try to have an audience room that is as different as it can be from a court hearing room," he said. "We set the table in a circle. Everybody sits.

"We have the decor. We try to make it Aboriginal."

That's not good enough for Nakuset. She said she can't understand why the Quebec government wouldn't name an Indigenous judge to head the commission.

"They have a connection and an understanding of our realities," she said. "It's always easier to see someone in power who has lived a similar experience."

Examples set by previous inquiries

A spokesperson for Quebec's Minister of Indigenous Affairs said Viens was selected following consultations with various Indigenous representatives.

But the former general counsel of the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) says it's "essential" that there be Indigenous representation in the commission's leadership.

"I don't think ... a non-Indigenous person coming through a standard legal education in Canada comes away with a very good understanding of the Indigenous interactions with the justice system or the Indigenous perspective," said Tom McMahon, who also served as executive secretary to the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba.

He said it's not just about portraying an idea or image of equality; an inquiry's success relies on including high-ranking Indigenous members  as previous Indigenous inquiries have done.

In 1988, the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry was the first in Canadian history to have equal leadership, as it was co-chaired by Justice Alvin Hamilton and Justice Murray Sinclair.

Convened in 2009, the TRC met a benchmark of 50 per cent Indigenous staff, and two out of three of its commissioners were Indigenous.

And the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, which was created to investigate the alleged slaughter and relocation of Inuit sled dogs after the Second World War, was the first Inuit-led inquiry.

The QTC found it "incredibly important" to have representation from the communities it was discussing, says Madeleine Redfern, who was the executive director of that commission and is now the mayor of Iqaluit.

"We ensured that the night before we did our hearings in the community, we held a community feast.... Sharing the food and culture and getting to know each other made people a lot more at ease and willing and able to participate in the commission," said Redfern, who is Inuk.

"People have to have that sense of trust in the team that's been assembled."A ceremonial military eagle staff has crossed into the North for the first time ever.

The staff honours Indigenous members and veterans of the armed forces including Metis, First Nations and Inuit  but it has never been north of the 60th parallel before this week.

"Having it up here with me carrying it, it's quite the honour in itself," said Warrant Officer Sheldon Quinn, a Cree serviceman and one of the few Canadian Armed Forces members authorized to carry the staff.

Eagle staffs are present in many Indigenous cultures, representing the honour and integrity of its people.

The Canadian Forces eagle staff is made up of distinct pieces symbolic of the Indigenous peoples of Canada: a Metis sash, a row of eagle feathers, an ash bow, a medicine pouch, an antler carved into the shape of an eagle, and flags of Canada, the provinces, and the territories.

It can now count one more of those territories among the places it has visited after a quick tour that included Cambridge Bay and Resolute, Nunavut, during Operation Nunalivut.

Travelling emblem of unity

One final, crucial piece of the staff is a replica narwhal tusk, which extends the entire length of the bow.

It represents the contributions of the Inuit to the Armed Forces. In Resolute, the tusk matched the two crossed tusks adorning the front of the hamlet's council chambers as Quinn addressed the community's leaders.

"Two former service members were instrumental in creating it in 2002, which in essence, is a travelling emblem of unity among all Indigenous peoples in the defence community," Quinn told the hamlet's deputy mayor and staff.

The eagle staff has been present at multiple important military ceremonies, including marking anniversaries of Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Beaumont Hamel and even on the four-day Nijmegen Marches in the Netherlands.



Quinn held the staff on the parade at Vimy.



"When we were carrying it onto that parade in Vimy, every Aboriginal, First Nations people that were watching that, they actually stood up, and you could see the pride grow," he said.

Story continues

"It didn't just march on the parade, it led the parade on."

According to the Department of National Defence, more than 4,000 Indigenous people served during the First World War. More than 300 of them died in uniform.

Today, the Canadian Forces counts nearly 3,000 Indigenous members, but a recent report from the Defence Aboriginal Advisory Group found racism was "rampant" throughout the military.

"I think the military is indicative of Canadian society in itself," says Quinn. "If, obviously, there's racism out in Canada, in Canadian society, we're going to show it here as well."

- EXCLUSIVE | Indigenous military members endure 'systemic' racism, report claimsSHANGHAI (Reuters) - Most Chinese investors expect regulators to relax rules on initial public offerings (IPOs) by technology companies, and would like to invest in such domestic listings, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange said on Wednesday, citing a recent survey. The exchange said its survey showed that nearly 90 percent of respondents said Shenzhen's start-up board ChiNext <.CHINEXTP> should strengthen its support to hi-tech firms. Most investors are in favor of lowering financial threshold for their IPO, or accepting dual share classes, according to the survey. The survey results, published on the exchange's website, fit with regulators' desire to bring home overseas-listed tech giants. Many of China's biggest tech companies, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd , Baidu Inc , JD.com Inc , and Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK>, are listed offshore. China may allow its offshore-listed tech firms to sell a form of shares on the mainland, or China depositary receipts (CDRs), people with knowledge of the plan told Reuters last week. Such a plan, if implemented, would pit Shanghai and Shenzhen against Hong Kong in the battle to host China's tech giants. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and John Ruwitch; Editing by Richard Borsuk)Hawking 'an inspiration to everyone' at centre bearing his name

Stephen Hawking's deep love for people, personal warmth and sense of humour are being remembered by those who knew and worked with him at Perimeter Institute, in Waterloo, Ont.

Hawking, 76, died early Wednesday morning in Cambridge, England.

The theoretical physicist was well known for his lectures on cosmology and for his books, including A Brief History of Time and Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays.

Perimeter director Neil Turok, who was a close collaborator and friend of Hawking after working with him at the University of Cambridge as well as in Waterloo, said Hawking will also be remembered for inspiring many scientists.

"Stephen's passing is a very sad day for physics and for humankind. His spirit will live on in all of us who knew him, as we aspire, with all our hearts, to perpetuate the many wonderful human qualities he embodied," Turok said in a release Wednesday morning.

"Uncompromising in his scientific honesty and his search for the truth, always willing to listen and to explore new ideas. He combined this with extraordinary personal warmth, an acute sense of humour, a deep love for people and for sharing good times together," Turok added.

"His incredible power and determination to overcome the constraints of his condition was the ultimate example of mind over matter."

Time spent in Canada

Hawking was a distinguished visiting research chair at the Perimeter Institute. He started visiting the Waterloo centre in 2009.

At that time, Hawking said he was "honoured to accept the first distinguished research chair at the Perimeter Institute."

"The institute's twin focus on quantum theory and gravity is very close to my heart and central to explaining the origin of the universe," Hawking said.

"I look forward to building a growing partnership between PI and our Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, at Cambridge. Our research endeavour is global, and by combining forces I believe we will reap rich rewards."

Story continues

In 2011, Perimeter named a centre after Hawking  the only building in the world to which Hawking ever lent his name.

At the opening of the centre, Hawking said, "the importance of special places and special times, where magical progress can happen, cannot be overstated. I am hoping, and expecting, great things will happen here."

Late last year, Hawking also endorsed Perimeter's new Centre for the Universe and lent his name to a new fellowship for a young theoretical cosmologist.

'An inspiration to everyone around him'

Others at Perimeter noted the world has lost an irreplaceable scientist and human being.

Luis Lehner, faculty chair at Perimeter Institute, said Hawking's influence in science "has been tremendous."

"His continuing to push the boundaries of knowledge despite all odds served as an inspiration to everyone around him and this was very palpable at all levels  from students to faculty and staff  every time he visited Perimeter," Lehner said.

Raymond Laflamme, Perimeter associate faculty member and the former director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, did his PhD under Hawking at Cambridge. He called Hawking an "incredible scientist" who changed the way people think about the universe.

"Despite his disability, he had a great sense of humour and was able to do incredible things to inspire a lot of people," Laflamme said. "He was an inspiration for overcoming our challenges, to keep going, to always be kind to the people around us."Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Regina again on Wednesday, meeting with workers and leaders from the steel industry, and Regina's mayor says he's glad to see Trudeau has the city's back.

Regina is the largest steel producer in Western Canada, Michael Fougere said after meeting with Trudeau earlier in the day. The Regina Evraz steel facility employs about 900 workers.

"So what happens in trade, happens in Regina. So [I'm] pleased he's out here, taking leadership to say that he'll defend the interest of the steel industry," he said.

While Fougere said he was glad to see Canadian steel granted a reprieve from punishing tariffs announced by the U.S., he noted conversations with the U.S. seem to go in different directions from day-to-day.

"I think common sense will prevail, that we're a very efficient producer of steel. We're not dumping steel in the United States  there's no evidence of that  and the U.S. knows that," he said.

"There's a much larger game being played here and we're just a small pawn in that discussion."

Trudeau voices support for Trans Mountain, steel industry

During his day in the city, Trudeau travelled to Evraz Regina to tour the facilities and meet with workers.

Evraz had warned that it may have to layoff workers in Regina if the B.C. government continued to block pipelines through that province. During his stop in the facility, Trudeau reiterated his support for an east-to-west pipeline as being in "the national interest."

"Trans Mountain Pipeline is going to get built," he said, adding that the pipeline's ability to get oil products to tidewater is tied in with the federal government's climate plan, along with ocean protection and setting a national carbon price.

He also touched on ongoing NAFTA negotiations, which is the larger picture around discussions on steel and aluminum exports.

"Canada knows there's a win-win-win outcome on improving NAFTA, something that will be good for Canada, U.S. and Mexico," he said.

Story continues

However, Canada is prepared to defend itself, its workers and industry in the negotiations, he said.

"We won't accept a bad deal, but we know because a good deal is possible for everyone, we're going to get there."

At the moment, Canada is exempt from a proposed 25 per cent tariff on steel exported to the U.S., along with Mexico. Both countries are also exempt for the time being on a proposed 10 per cent tariff on aluminum exports to the States.

Canada exports 85 per cent of its steel and aluminum to the U.S.Coding

2U Announces New Scholarships and Apprenticeships for WeWork Students

Online learning company 2U is extending its partnership with WeWork by offering $390,000 in additional scholarships and apprenticeships for WeWork students.

Twenty students in WeWork's Access Labs Initiative, a program with Flatiron School that teaches coding to low-income adults, will be able reduce their tuition payment by half with 2U's new "No Back Row" Future Devs Scholarship. Students in the Access Labs Initiative are allowed to pay their tuition after they graduate and are employed.

To qualify for the initiative and scholarship, students must:

Have a high school degree or equivalent;

Earn a total annual income of $35,000 or less;

Be 21 years of age or older at the start of the program; and

Be legally authorized to work in the United States permanently at the time of admission to the program.

Ten graduates of the program will receive 15-week paid apprenticeships at 2U, which the company said are "designed to open the door to future employment opportunities" there. Apprentices will work on the integration of Flatiron School's Learn.co technology with 2U's learning management system, according to a news announcement, and upon completing the apprenticeship will have the opportunity to apply for full-time positions at 2U.

"A person's income should not limit their opportunity. That is why we are incredibly excited about our partnership with the Access Labs Initiative because it expands on our joint commitment to lifelong learning and will make this transformative educational experience more accessible and affordable to diverse and ambitious adults," said James Kenigsberg, 2U's chief technology officer, in a statement. "With these scholarships and apprenticeships, 2U is investing in the next generation of developers and technology leaders and growing the broader tech community."Crowdsourcing

Tufts Uses Mapping Tool to Gather Student Input on Social, Physical Campus Needs

A recent initiative at Tufts University reached out to students to gather ideas for campus improvements. The Tufts Community Union Senate's "Brown & Blueprint" program asked undergraduates for comments and feedback on the physical aspects of the campus as well as how students build community (or not) within those spaces.

The project used coUrbanize Interactive, a mapping tool that allows students to write comments on a virtual 3D map of the campus, correlating their experiences with specific places to the physical location itself. CoUrbanize offers an online community outreach platform typically used by city planners and developers. A sampling of the responses received:

"201 room is always smelly and suffocating."

"Would be great to have compost bins next to recycling and trash bins around campus, especially Tisch."

"There is no crosswalk in front of the Memorial Stairs, even though most people cross the street here."

Additional response at Tufts has been solicited through text-messaging in specific locations, with messages being automatically added to the online map in the appropriate spots; townhall sessions; bulletin board post-it note commenting; and an anonymous feedback channel.

"We are especially listening to students who feel like they are not seen on this campus, who feel under-invested in and under-prioritized," a senate website explained. "We must organize in solidarity across all areas of this campus to identify how students are interacting with and forming communities within their physical spaces. We need to document these experiences, discover best practices, assess areas for growth, and advocate for stronger spatial investment by the university."

At the same time, the senate has been reaching out to its student community for feedback on a planned development of on-campus housing for juniors and seniors. That part of the project is specifically asking for input on what type of "social community" students would like to form; how they feel about "themed social housing"; and how it should operate.

Senate members plan to draft a report, consolidating trends and findings, to share with campus administrators.Kafie 1901 Cigars has announced it will be introducing a line of premium bundles under the San Jeronimo brand. Concurrently, the company will also give a packaging upgrade to its current Kafie 1901 premium bundle line. Both the new San Jeronimo bundle and upgraded Kafie 1901 bundle are scheduled to hit retailers April 15.

San Jeronimo is the oldest brand in existence in Honduras and is named for a tobacco producing region in Honduras. It is produced at Kafie 1901 Cigars factory, Tabacalera G.Kafie y Cia and distributed in the U.S. by Kafie 1901 cigars. The new San Jeronimo bundles will be offered in three sizes (5 x 50, 6 x 54, and 6 x 60). The cigars will be available in a natural and maduro offering and will incorporate tobacco from the San Jeronimo region. The cigars will be banded and feature an image of a whitetail deer, the national animal of Honduras.

The Kafie 1901 bundles will now receive a band with the name Liga De La Casa which is Spanish for House Blend. These cigars are also available in a natural and maduro offering and are available in five sizes (5 x 50, 5 x 56, 6 x 54, 6 x 60, 7 x 50). These cigars are produced at Tabacalera G. Kafie y Cia and are often smoked on a daily basis by those who work at the factory.

Image Credits: Kafie 1901 CigarsShare this: Twitter

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Beirut, March 14, 2018Bashar al-Attar, a photographer for the pro-opposition Arbin Unified Media Office, died from injuries sustained in a March 12 airstrike in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area of Syria, outside of Damascus, according to his employer and the Syrian Journalists Association.

Al-Attar was hit by shrapnel while he was helping civilians wounded in an earlier airstrike that he had been covering in the city of Arbin, according to Abu Abdo, a member of the Arbin Unified Media Offices board of directors. The photographer sustained several serious injuries and was transferred to a hospital, where he died, Abdo told CPJ. He added that the airstrike was carried out by the pro-government Russian-led coalition.

The Syrian government and its allies are showing complete disregard for human life in eastern Ghouta, meaning no journalists there are safe, said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour in Washington, D.C. We call on the Syrian government to cease hostilities in eastern Ghouta and guarantee the safety of all civilians, including journalists.

Abdo told CPJ that Al-Attar had worked as a photographer for the Arbin Unified Media Office for a year. The independent media organization, which supports the internationally recognized Syrian opposition, is documenting the impact of the pro-Bashar Al-Assad airstrikes in Arbin.

Eastern Ghouta has been under constant shelling, airstrikes, and rocket fire from Assads forces and their allies since February 18. At least 1,197 civilians have been killed and 4,640 wounded in the offensive, according to the London-based human rights group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In a statement released on February 22, the Syrian Journalists Association said that at least 75 journalists and media professionals were under threat in eastern Ghouta due to the escalating military campaign.

Syria is one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists. At least 115 journalists have been killed there in relation to their work since the conflict began in 2011, according to CPJ research.Share this: Twitter

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The assassinations of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in October and of Jan Kuciak in Slovakia last month have elicited an outpouring of support from journalists determined to honor the memory of their colleagues by fighting back with the weapon they wield best: journalism.

Some journalists will keep the investigations into the crimes under scrutiny and call out failings. Others have vowed to complete the stories that both journalists were working on at the time of the killing. This probing of organized crime and political corruption could come at some risk to individual reporters, but here journalists have another weapon: solidarity.

Increasingly, reporters are working in packs rather than as lone wolves. The complexity of international crime and the sheer volume of electronic documents and files dumped by whistleblowers such as the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers have driven newsrooms and individual freelancers to set aside competition in favor of collaboration.

The result is more public interest journalism, more reporters chasing great storiesand more attacks on journalists. The intense global scrutiny produced by established news organizations like The New York Times, the Guardian, and Munichs Suddeutsche Zeitung working together, not to mention an army of freelancers and small online outlets across Eastern Europe and Asia, has rattled governments and criminals and provoked pushback.

We have people asking good questions and demanding answers and its giving off sparks, said David Kaplan, executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN).

Even before the murders in Malta and Slovakia, journalists around the world knew that investigative reporting was a dangerous business. More than a third of the 821 journalists murdered over the past 26 years covered crime or corruption, research by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows. Compounding the problem is impunity. The killers and those ordering the murder of journalists are rarely brought to justice. In fact, 86 percent of murder cases show the killers have enjoyed complete impunity.

Short of losing their lives, journalists in many countries who anger the powerful face an array of risks ranging from imprisonment, physical attack, financial ruin through bogus lawsuits, or job loss to online attacks, reputational damage, and doxing.

We are under assault almost everywhere and even in places where we thought we were relatively safe weve got our backs to the wall, places in the West, and even in the U.S., Kaplan said.

Some of the most vulnerable reporters are those covering financial crime, drugs cartels, and corruption.

There are huge problems reporting on the nexus of organized crime and government, according to Drew Sullivan, editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a collaborative investigative reporting platform. It published a draft of a story Kuciak was working on at the time of his murderan investigation into the penetration of Slovakian business and politics by the feared Italian Ndrangheta criminal group.

Sullivan said reporters who cover criminals are among the most vulnerable. First, they are never warned, he said of the reporters on this beat. Politicians and businessmen threaten. Organized crime doesnt, he told CPJ. We are soft targets. Were easy to get to and hard to protect especially if you dont know you have a problem.

The necessity for investigative journalists to interact with their subjects puts them in danger, Sullivan said. Corruption is a trillion dollar business and almost no one is punished for it. So a reporter is more a rarity than a common problem for criminals. They dont always know how to deal with them and with billions at stake, the easy solution is to kill the reporter.

Deadly countries for those covering crime and corruption over the past 20 years include Russia, Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, and the Philippines.

So how are news organizations and individual journalists to keep working safely?

Firstly, reporters say, they need to take responsibility for their own safety, assess their risk, and get training before they start turning over rocks in the political and financial landscape around them.

Some criminals killquickly and ruthlessly. Some never kill. Some will kill you when they see the benefits outweigh the risk. You never know who you are dealing with, which is why its critical to report the risk, said the OCCRPs Sullivan, who works with reporters in highly dangerous areas. A firefighter wouldnt enter a burning warehouse until they know what chemicals are there. In the same way, a journalist should never investigate someone until they know whether the person kills, in what circumstances they kill, and how they kill.

Besides individuals looking after themselves, reporters are now seeing the benefits of working together. As part of a newsgathering consortium, reporters can shield one another. In a repressive country, merely asking a question of a high official can expose a local reporter to danger. To get the comment that the reporter needs to round out their story, they can turn to a foreign journalist to seek out a comment.

If a government comes after a journalist or news organization, members of the consortium will double down on the reporting that may have gotten the local reporter into trouble.

When journalists stand together its a very powerful force, said Marina Walker Guevara, an award-winning investigative reporter and deputy director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a network of more than 200 reporters and 100 media organizations in 70 countries who collaborate on stories. When we were all separated and competing and trying to scoop one another it is the perfect environment for those who didnt want this kind of journalism.

If a journalist is imprisoned, colleagues can not only rally international support and condemnation, but also continue his or her work.

The Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova credited the increased scrutiny of the first family of Azerbaijan by her colleagues as the real reason she was released, said Sullivan. Walker Guevara agrees: When Khadija was in prison a network of journalists reported the hell out of Azerbaijan. That may have helped get her out. In an interview with the Guardian after her release, Ismayilova said, There were a greater number of investigations published both in the international media and the national press. Therefore, they didnt succeed in staving off investigations by jailing her.

The challenge now for all international journalist consortiums and press freedom defenders is how to get justice in the Caruana Galizia and Kuciak murders. After all, the crimes took place in countries which are part of the European Union; the bloc is supposed to uphold freedom of expression, the rule of law, and access to informationall structures that the media needs in order to carry out its watchdog function.

A problem in journalist murders is that the governments and groups that the slain reporter was probing are sometimes the very people with control of or influence over the police, prosecutors, and judges that are meant to deliver justice.

Investigations run into sand or yield only the small fry. Those who order the assassination simply dont get caught. Its been a pattern in Russia, for example, for the past two decades.

Reporters in the new investigative networks, however, seem determined to break this cycle. Many of them say they are dissatisfied with the lack of progress to date in the Malta and Slovakia killings.

Maltese authorities have made several arrests since October and have put three suspects on trial for carrying out Caruana Galizias killing, but the investigation has so far failed to dig into her extensive critical reporting to identify and prosecute those who might have ordered her assassination.

Members of the European Parliament looking into the murder expressed serious concern about the rule of law in Malta, according to news reports. And MPs from the Council of Europes parliamentary assembly have called for an independent rapporteur to follow the police investigation.

Despite authorities stated commitment that justice will be delivered, more than 20 defamation lawsuits against Caruana Galizia are continuing through the courts since her death, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff, Keith Schembri, among the plaintiffs. Press freedom groups including CPJ have demanded a more effective investigation.

In Slovakia, authorities detained several people for questioning after Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova were found shot to death near Bratislava, but they were later released. The murders have nevertheless provoked political upheaval and street protests in the country and triggered the resignations of the interior minister and prime minister.

Journalists and press freedom advocates have rallied support for thorough investigations in both cases and lobbied EU officials and lawmakers. They are also determined to keep digging.

We should engage in massive investigations of anyone a reporter was working on when they die, said Sullivan of OCCRP. We are part of a group doing that with Daphne [Caruana Galizia] and we have already published the last story of Jan Kuciak. We will continue reporting on all of these dangerous people. Only this will stop people for cavalierly killing journalists.

That may in fact be the best or indeed only tool reporters can use. Pressuring governments and international bodies to work for justice and build the institutions that promote the rule of law is slow and arduous work.

In the meantime the media needs to harness the forces behind the surge in investigative journalism to protect its own, journalist say.

That is the optimistic message and also the warning to those who are killing journalists, Walker Guevara said. They need to understand how investigative journalism has changed and that in the 80s, in the 70s, you could bring somebody down and completely kill an investigation. These days if you touch a journalist the effect that you are going to have is a whole bunch of even more powerful global reporting on the very story that you were trying to kill.Share this: Twitter

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Supreme Court says Can Dundar should face retrial

Turkeys Supreme Court of Appeals on March 9 ruled that Can Dundar, former chief editor of the daily, Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gul, the papers Ankara representative, should face a retrial on charges of obtaining secret information with means of espionage, Euronews reported.

If convicted of espionage, the journalists could face between 15 to 20 years in prison.

The Supreme Court on the same date revoked the sentence that a local court handed down on May 6, 2016, to the two journalists for exposing secret documents and information, Euronews reported. In that trial, Dundar, who is living in exile, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, and Gul was sentenced to five years, for a report that alleged Turkey smuggled weapons into Syria under cover of humanitarian aid.

Dundar told Euronews that the prosecutor in his original case failed to file the case in the timeframe set by Turkish law.

The case needs to be filed within four months for press-related crimes. The court ignored that time limit. The Supreme Court of Appeals revoked the sentence, Dundar told the paper. However, in order to not to leave me unpunished, now they want punishment, not for publication but for obtaining state secrets for espionage.

No date has been set for the retrial.

Journalists released pending trial

A court ordered two former Cumhuriyet journalistsMurat Sabuncu, chief editor, and Ahmet Sk, a reporterto be released pending the outcome of their trial, Cumhuriyet reported on March 9. Akn Atalay, chair of the foundation that publishes Cumhuriyet, remains in custody for the opposition dailys ongoing trial.Share this: Twitter

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With claims to more than one billion users consuming content in 76 languages, Googles YouTube has become a core part of most media outlets dissemination strategy. And although there are 88 localized versions of the service, YouTube.com remains the largest and most influential platform for reaching a global audience. Which is why, when the site quietly rolled out new notices on the channels and videos of state and publicly-funded news outlets, many of these outlets expressed concern.

The notation ostensibly appears only for U.S.-based users of YouTube.com and labels a channel as funded in whole or in part by a government, or as publicly funded, and provides links to their respective Wikipedia pages. The effort reflects the companys interest in surfacing more authoritative news content and is the latest in a series of steps, including tweaking its recommendations algorithm, that the platform has taken to improve its news service, Geoff Samek, senior product manager at YouTube News, wrote in a blog announcing the new initiative.

The YouTube policy is the latest development in the information wars waging between Russia and the U.S. Since the 2016 presidential election, top officials at the major social media companies have been hauled before Congress to explain how Russia-linked content spread through their networks and what they were going to do to combat the disinformation campaigns. A study by the Guardian found significant partisanship in the videos recommended by YouTubes algorithms, while another by BuzzFeeds Craig Silverman showed that counterfeit news articles far outperformed legitimate news articles on Facebook during the election.

Late last year, the US. Department of Justice required RT, the government-funded international news network formerly called Russia Today, to register as a foreign agentprompting Russia to retaliate and require that media outlets that receive all or partial funding from sources outside Russia to be designated as foreign agents. The Russian Justice Ministry was given discretion to designate additional journalists or media outlets as foreign agents.

Giving more context on news videos is aimed at improving transparency and show congress that the company is making a good-faith effort to address the Russia problem said Alex Walden, public policy and government relations counsel at Google. We want people to be on notice that they should be critical, she said, adding that the new labels are preliminary and that the company has been exploring how to refine them and work with partners with greater expertise in media ownership issues.

News outlets to which CPJ spoke were critical of the process so far, and said they were not notified of the new labels. We were not informed about the YouTube policy, Mhamed Krichen, Al-Jazeera Arabics chief news presenter and a CPJ board member, said. However, we are currently working on a strategy to best approach this. The way the label is inserted is harmful to the brand because it implicitly tell the audience Al Jazeera is a propaganda platform for Qatar.'

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees U.S.-funded international broadcasters like Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network that includes Al Hurra and Radio Sawa, also said it had not been notified in advance about the labels and expressed concern at being lumped into the same category as RT and another Russian-funded outlet, Sputnik.

Haroon Ullah, chief strategy officer at the BBG, said YouTubes approach puts objective and independent news reporting at a disadvantage.

Weve lost journalists in the field, weve had a number of our journalists jailed, and they are under pressure, under censorship, and so when you emphasize government sponsored a lot of people only focus in the first part of that word and everything that it connotesit means different things in different countries, Ullah said. It could have detrimental effects on our journalists and just make their job harder because people see them in the same way as an RT reporter or as one of the other outlets that dont really have the same the same contours and rigorous standards that we do.

YouTubes website says the new label system is not a comment by YouTube on the publishers or videos editorial direction or a governments editorial influence. But some of those affected said they feel otherwise.

The policy is discriminatory for several reasons. One, a mandatory disclaimer creates a false notion that some sources, namely privately or corporate owned ones, are intrinsically better more legitimate, credible or objectivethan others, publicly financed ones, just because of the source of their funding, and not factuality of their reporting or quality of content, RT Deputy Editor in Chief Anna Belkina told CPJ.

Journalists have criticized news outlets of all of three groups, along with other public broadcasters, for lacking editorial independence from the governments that sponsor them. At the same time, journalists from state-funded and privately-run media alike are at risk of jail or physical violence because of their reporting, CPJ research shows. In addition to the dangers faced by journalists working for BBG-run outlets, RT and Al-Jazeera journalists have been kidnapped, arrested and killed while on assignment.

Belkina said: Secondly, we have seen uneven application of the labels, where some outlets have received one, while others with the same style of financing have not; furthermore, even among those with a disclaimer a hierarchy persists, for instance with the BBC News being called publicly financed, instead of government funded, even though it receives substantial financing straight from the U.K. defense budget.

The challenges of verifying that last assertion is illustrative of the difficulty of figuring out how, exactly, news outlets are funded. CPJ reviewed the BBC websites About Us section and FAQs and a fact sheet on the U.K.s defense spending, but could not confirm whether the BBC does indeed receive funding directly from the defense budget. The national security strategy put forth by the ruling Conservative party in 2015 identified the BBC as a critical pillar of soft power, but did not address the sourcing of its funds. An inquiry emailed to the BBC press office yesterday was not answered.

It can be incredibly difficult and resource intensive to figure out who owns the media, and how specific outlets are funded, raising concerns that YouTubes efforts to improve transparency may only muddle the waters further.

It is quite difficult to get to the bottom of ownership claims. Over the last couple of decades there have been efforts to maintain ownership registries, to get to understand ownership structure for antitrust or concentration purposes, said media scholar Monroe Price, former director of the University of Pennsylvanias Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, but he noted that there is a desire for easy category markers that can be used as triggers for automated action. One impact of the new policy, he said, could be the continued escalation of a labeling race, an international pattern of reacting regulations, all of which will limit speech.

According to a post by Google explaining the new labeling initiative, information about ownership originates from Wikipedia or other independent third-party source and does not reflect a determination made by YouTube.

It is not clear what these independent third-party sources are, how the initial list of stations to label was decided, or which outlets are on this list. CPJ requested this information by email several times but Google did not provide it. A review by CPJ of 37 state-funded public media outlets on YouTube.com showed that 19 included notices, and the rest did not. In Hungary, for example, the ruling Fidesz party directly or indirectly controls an estimated 90% of all media in the country, according to a study by Marius Dragomir, director of the Center for Media, Data and Society at Central European University in Budapest; while in Turkey, a massive crackdown on the media has resulted in the state or its proxies taking control of nearly all independent outlets, according to CPJ research. The Hungarian public broadcasters channel carries no label whereas TRT, the Turkish public broadcaster, does. The Venezuela-based pan-Latin American channel Telesur, which is also backed by Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Bolivia, is labeled as funded in whole or in part by several Latin American governments.

Although YouTube said this feature was only rolled out in the U.S., when a virtual private network (VPN) was used to indicate a location in Canada or Mexico, some of the labels were nonetheless visible. The company did not say whether it would roll out the labels in other countries.

In the meantime, U.S.- and Russia-funded media outlets have found at least one thing on which they can agree: frustration with YouTubes foray into the politics of media ownership.

UPDATE: The name of Turkish public broadcaster TRT in the 18th paragraph has been corrected.ATLANTA -- An inmate known as the Georgia "stocking strangler" was denied clemency Wednesday evening, despite evidence his lawyers say casts doubt on his guilt. Carlton Gary, the 67-year-old inmate, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7pm on Thursday.





The Georgia Parole board, in a statement released Wednesday evening , said "after thoroughly considering all of the facts and circumstances of the case, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency in the case."





"Carlton Gary is scheduled to be executed this Thursday by Georgia, despite the fact that physical and scientific evidence developed long after his trial proves that he is likely innocent of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death, including DNA evidence that the only eyewitness identifying Gary at trial was mistaken in her identification," wrote Gary's attorney Jack Martin in a statement released to the press at 3pm on Wednesday, while the State Board of Pardons and Paroles was still in session in a closed-door clemency hearing.





"Despite this compelling evidence of innocence, the Georgia courts have refused to intervene."





Gary was convicted on three counts each of malice murder, rape and burglary for the 1977 deaths of 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff.





From September 1977 to April 1978, the string of violent attacks on older women terrified the west Georgia city of Columbus. The women, ranging in age from 59 to 89, were beaten, raped and choked, often with their own stockings. Seven died and two were injured in the attacks.





Prosecutors have consistently said the same man carried out all nine attacks.





Police arrested Gary in May 1984, six years after the last killing. He became a suspect when a gun stolen during a 1977 burglary in the upscale neighborhood where all but one of the victims lived was traced to him.





In 2009, just hours before Gary's first execution date, the Georgia Supreme Court ordered a stay in order to allow DNA testing of the semen found at the crime scenes, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.





Gary's lawyers still say police arrested the wrong man, and newly discovered evidence proves his innocence.





In the clemency application submitted Wednesday to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, Gary's lawyers argue evidence that would have helped their client wasn't available to his defense team at trial because the necessary testing methods didn't exist at the time or because prosecutors failed to disclose it.





"We are not talking about questionable recanting witnesses who came forward long after trial, but hard physical evidence of innocence," his lawyers wrote. That evidence would have raised reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors who convicted him, they contend.





The arguments in the clemency petition have previously been raised in court filings, and lawyers for the state have consistently disputed their validity.





Since the state says the same person carried out all the attacks, excluding him from even one "would prove, under the prosecution's own theory, that Mr. Gary was innocent of all nine attacks," his lawyers wrote.





DNA testing done years after the trial on semen found on clothing worn by one of the women who survived does not match Gary, his lawyers wrote. That's significant, Gary's lawyers assert, because the woman had dramatically identified Gary as her attacker during his trial, and the prosecution relied heavily on her testimony.





The defense also belatedly received a police report in which the woman is reported to have told officers she was asleep at the time of the attack, that her bedroom was dark and she wouldn't be able to identify or describe her attacker, the clemency application said.





Bodily fluid testing done on semen found on Thurmond's body and on stains on Scheible's sheets also likely exclude Gary, his lawyers argue. DNA analysis would have provided further evidence, they wrote, but it couldn't be done because the samples were discovered to have been contaminated at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab.





A shoe print found at one of the scenes was not disclosed to the defense until 20 years after his trial and would have cast doubt on his guilt because his size 13-and-a-half foot would not have fit in the size 10 shoe that made the print, the application said.





Additionally, defense experts testified that evidence of a bite mark on one of the victims that was missing for years does not match Gary's teeth, and fingerprint evidence relied upon by the prosecution was problematic.





Authorities have said Gary confessed to participating in the burglaries but said another man committed the rapes and killings. His lawyers say the unrecorded and undocumented statement "fits all the recognized hallmarks of a false confession that never happened."





Lawyers for the state have previously disputed these claims in court filings. They say Gary's claims have repeatedly been rejected by the courts. Furthermore, they've argued, the state now has even more evidence that proves Gary's guilt, and a judge who denied him a new trial found that none of the evidence Gary's lawyers cited would likely have changed the verdict.





Gary would be the first inmate executed by Georgia this year.

 | 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



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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeCloud

Service heads demur on DOD's 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

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.Unmanned Systems

Air Force awards $961M drone support contract

AECOMs URS Federal business has won a seven-year, $961 million contract to help the Air Force operate and maintain three types of unmanned aircraft.

The Air Force received three offers for the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operations and Maintenance Support contract that seeks to sustain combat and training capabilities, the Defense Department said in its Friday contracts digest.

URS will be responsible for organizational-level maintenance support to Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. The business also will also support launch, recovery and sensor operations.

AECOM acquired URS in 2014.Cloud

Protest against U.S. Transcom cloud contract withdrawn

Microsoft has decided to back away from a fight over a sole-source contract U.S. Transportation Command wants to award to rival Amazon Web Services for putting classified data in the cloud.

Transcom wants to give AWS the contract and said it would do it without competition because AWS is the only cloud service provider with a solution rated for Impact Level 6, to handle data with a "Secret" classification.

Microsoft said in October that was working toward its own "Secret" designation for its Azure cloud offering.

In its protest, the firm argued that Transcom didnt adequately justify the use of a sole-source procurement as opposed to a full and open competition.

The protest withdrawal was first reported by NextGov.

When asked for additional details, Microsoft said it withdrew the protest "because the issues involved were resolved to Microsofts satisfaction.

Ive also contacted Transcom because Im not sure what exactly does resolved to Microsofts satisfaction mean? I'm also asking for more clarification from Microsoft.

But does it mean Transcom will move forward with its award to AWS, or did the procurement strategy change and lead Microsoft to withdraw its protest? Will there be a competition for this work?

Im not going to read too much into this until I hear more from Microsoft or get a response from Transcom. But I cant help but think there is more to this to meet the eye.

It is also worth noting that Microsoft has had some success turning back government efforts to sole-source work to AWS. In August, Microsoft filed a protest of a Navy attempt to give a contract directly to AWS. The Navy then backed off within days.

A longer version of this article originally appeared on WashingtonTechnology.com.Naftogaz to hold talks with Gazprom in March

Company officials will inform their Russian counterparts that Ukraine does not agree to cancel gas contracts.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterSmolii tapped to head National Bank of Ukraine

Some 247 Members of Parliament voted for this decision.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterAll eyes on crypto: Mining to become profession, Cabinet says

The government committee endorsed the move to grant crypto mining the status of economic activity, supplementing the Classifier of Economic Activities accordingly.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterNBU prolongs sanctions against Russian banks' subsidiaries in Ukraine

The ban extends on the transfer of funds or withdrawal of capital outside Ukraine in favor of persons affiliated with these banks.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterSouth Korea recently reduced the maximum workweek for most industries from 68 hours to 52 hours in an attempt to promote worker health and productivity. The reduction, and the work-week cap initiative, are spurred in part by South Koreas third-highest annual average of working hours in 2016 among OECD countries. At the same time, South Korea increased its minimum wage by 16% in 2018 from $6.08 per hour to $7.08.

South Korea should reconsider these new policies and look to the United States, which does not have a federal limit on overtime hours.

The number of hours Americans work per year has been declining since 1950 without federal action. For example, in 1953 Americans worked an average of 1,986 hours (part- and full-time work), while they worked an average of 1,783 hours in 2016. Overtime caps are one excessive labor regulation that the United States has avoided, helping it achieve a higher GDP per capita than competitors operating under the European Unions Working Time Directive of 2003. The EU Time Directive limits workers to an average of 48 hours per week, including overtime.

In 2016 South Koreans worked an average of 2,069 hours, compared to the average of 1,763 for OECD countries. South Koreans averaged 40 hours per week, and Americans averaged 34 hours per week. The OECD data count both dependent and self-employed individuals, and every country has a different rate of self-employment, making exact comparisons of working hours difficult.

Different cultures have different preferences for work-life balance. The phenomenon of working to death in South Korea, known as kwarosa, is well-documented, while the United States does not have this problem. But while South Korea does face a serious problem, and worker productivity does decrease over the course of a day, there are other solutions.

For example, South Koreans can be encouraged to use more of the vacation days that they are voluntarily foregoing or stockpiling. They could be encouraged to take everyday steps to reduce work-related stress such as unplugging on the weekends, and keeping work separated from home life. Health and productivity problems can be mitigated with personal action and negotiations over work hours, without the negative consequences that federal intervention creates.

Some employers have limited working hours without a government mandate. South Koreas 10th-largest conglomerate, Shinsegae, cut its workweek from 40 to 35 hours without a pay cut. This limit might lead its workers to get the same amount of work done in less time, but that is just another reason for the government to shy away from this new overtime cap. It is in businesses own interest to find the right balance between work and rest to maximize productivity.

South Koreas federal actions reduce workplace flexibility. The Korean Federation of Micro Enterprise said that small and medium-sized business owners who cannot afford to hire new employees would be forced to take on more hours themselves as a result of the overtime cap. The new workweek cap exempts businesses with fewer than 50 employees, discouraging small firms from expanding.

Companies with a thinner profit margin in South Korea are also being squeezed by the increased minimum wage. The new minimum wage is leading small restaurants and self-employed franchisees to either automate much of their workforce or raise prices.

Moreover, bigger businesses are protected by workweek caps because they limit start-up companies from putting in the kind of hours it often takes to get established. Many jobs also fluctuate in intensity, and companies abilities to adjust their work schedules would be affected.

Another problem is that the flow of available labor could be reallocated because people, especially those still in school, might shift their career choices. Job-seekers weigh many factors: pay, benefits, effort and hours required, prestige, fulfillment, opportunities for growth, and more. Altering the relative benefits of a type of job restricts employers ability to attract new workers.

This kind of labor reallocation slows a nations move toward its natural comparative advantage. Additionally, a worker can get around the new regulations by taking a second job and surpassing the workweek capunless the government wants to waste taxpayer dollars with a new surveillance prerogative, all in the name of saving employees from themselves.

In short, the magic wand of South Koreas governmentany government, for that mattercannot be expected to bestow blessings in this way without also delivering some curses. Ambitious individuals that see their work as their own Everest can judge for themselves whether their productivity is decreasing as they work more hours. The government should target any employers that unjustly coerce workers, rather than blanketing all businesses with a burdensome regulation.

The government is not the best institution to determine how employers and employees should maintain health and productivity, especially considering the evolving nature of work. South Korea might find its new law is more trouble than it is worth.

Joshua Hardman is a contributor to Economics 21.

Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief.Thirty years ago, on March 16, 1988, and just before the start of the al-Anfal operation, the regime of then-President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, committed one of the worst atrocities of the modern era: the murder by poison gas of thousands of civilians in the Kurdish-Iraqi town of Halabja.

As part of a genocidal campaign against the Kurds and other ethnic groups in Northern Iraq, government forces spent two days shelling the city of Halabja with rockets and Napalm, an incendiary gel that sticks to skin and causes terrible burns. On the second day, March 16th, they suddenly changed tactics: attacking aircraft began to pepper the civilian parts of the city with canisters of chemical weapons including mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun, and VX.

That day, some 3,500 to 5,000 people died within minutes. Another 7,000 to 10,000 were injured, crippled, or suffered long-term health problems.

Although there is some evidence that Saddam Hussein's forces had used chemical agents before March 16, 1988, the attack on Halabja is thought to be the first documented assault by Saddam Husseins forces using chemical weapons. But it would not be the last.

Early in 1987, Saddam Hussein authorized the use of chemical weapons in attacks on as many as 24 Kurdish villages. For his role in these heinous attacks, the dictators cousin and the campaigns commander, Ali Hassan al-Majid, earned the nickname Chemical Ali.

The Al-Anfal campaign was a series of horrific crimes perpetrated by Iraqi leaders against their own civilian population. The gassing of the citizens of Halabja was one of the worst atrocities perpetuated by Saddam Hussein against his own people.

For his part in it, and for other crimes, Chemical Ali was executed by hanging. The Iraqi Special Tribunal dropped charges against Saddam Hussein himself only because he was executed after being convicted in a separate case.

The head of government has a responsibility to the country, and to its people, to act in their best interest. Ultimately, few dictators die in bed, or exit the scene of their crimes gracefully. The fate of those who instigated the al-Anfal and killed thousands of innocents in Halabja, should serve as a warning to others who follow in their murderous footsteps.Islamic Republics Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has insisted on Thursday, March 15, that he was aware of peoples difficulties in making ends meet, but these problems are not insurmountable.

Khamenei was speaking on March 15 at a meeting with the influential Assembly of Experts.

Khamenei made his remarks at a time when scores of sociologists, economists and political activists have cautioned against the reoccurrence of mass unrest.

Prominent economist Masoud Nili, an advisor to President Hassan Rouhani, was one of the whistle blowers insisting that the protests that overwhelmed Iran in December and January could reoccur and spread if the government fails to win the nations confidence.

In a March 14 interview Nili said that continuing economic reforms without the publics trust in the government would be dangerous.

He stressed that Irans top priority should be to revive hope and social capital.

Analyzing the protests that spread to more than 100 Iranian cities and towns, Nili said, Those demonstrations were a warning that more widespread protests might be on the way. Next time, you [the regime] may not have the chance to control them.

During December-January widespread protests, demonstrators chanted slogans against both factions of the Islamic Republics system, conservatives and reformists, who have ruled Iran for almost four decades. The protests left more than 25 killed, while thousands more were arrested.

In his remarks Khamenei promised to comment on peoples economic problems in the future.

Of course, we are aware of the livelihood difficulties and other problems of our people, but I believe in no unsurmountable problem for the country. I will speak to the people about these matters soon. Khamenei affirmed.The chairman of Tehran City Council and a council member have confirmed receiving the resignation letter of reformist Mayor Mohammad-Ali Najafi amid conflicting reports of his decision to step down.

The chairman, Mohsen Rafsanjani said the city council discussed Najafis resignation at its Wednesday session.

The mayor has cited a new health issue as the reason behind his resignation. We cant disclose the issue publicly, he noted.

State-run Mehr News Agency (MNA) has cited several unidentified city councilors as insisting Najafis resignation had not been deliberated and the council is set to hold a joint session to convince him to stay. All members of the city council are reformists.

Najafi was known to have a heart condition, but there are rumors he has developed cancer, as well, MNA reported.

Najafi and the reformist city council took control of city hall after last years elections, when Tehran voters overwhelmingly rejected conservatives for all kinds of positions.

The head of the City Councils Transportation Commission, Mohammad Alikhani, referred to the same medical problem as Najafis reason for resigning.

But besides health issues, the question is whether there is also political pressure on the reformist mayor.

Although Tehrans councilors have been convinced Najafi has some medical problems, they cannot close their eyes to the political pressure on him, he said.

Najafis resignation came after he had been summoned to court for organizing an event held at Tehrans Milad Tower celebrating Irans Womens Day.

During the celebration, held on March 6, three days in advance of the official Womens Day, a group of girls age 9 and younger danced for a mixed-gender audience, which outraged conservatives across the country.

Iran does not officially celebrate International Women's Day, marked by the United Nations on March 8. It celebrates its own Womens Day marking the (lunar) alleged birthday of Fatemeh, Prophet Mohammed's daughter and wife of Ali Bin Abi Talib, the first Shiite Imam, which this year fell on March 9.

Irans prosecutor-general, religious leaders and the conservative media harshly criticized the mayor and demanded the organizers of the event be punished for allowing girls to dance onstage in front of a mixed-gender audience.

Besides the Womens Day celebration issue, the resignation could also be the result of political pressures related to revelations by the mayor and the reformist city council of huge corruption at city hall during the term of the previous conservative administration.

The former mayor, Baqer Qalibaf is a hardliner and a former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).

In recent months, the new administration has made piecemeal revelations about billions of dollars having gone missing or wasted by the Qalibaf city hall.

If conservatives were determined to create problems for the reformists at city hall, the dancing girls incident offered a perfect opportunity to attack.

According to some interpretations of the Islamic law, girls and women are forbidden to dance in presence of anyone except their husbands.

For his part, Najafi wrote on Twitter, Islam is not a religion of mourning. Islam is a religion of mirth and liveliness. Nevertheless, the standards and frameworks should be respected in times of joy.

He told the Iranian governments official newspaper, Iran, that he did not agree with the dance but saw no reason to leave the event at the time.

Though Najafis resignation has not yet been officially announced, the head of the City Councils Budget Commission, Majid Farahani, has confirmed his resignation.

We are still exploring the issue in our informal meetings, he told MNA.

Tehran councilors unanimously called on Najafi to remain mayor until the end of Nowruz. They said they would officially start discussing his resignation in the first meeting after the holidays (beginning on March 21 and lasting two weeks).Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 96 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 15.

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 15

Trend:

The only reason why the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not yet resolved is that Armenia doesn't want to free occupied territories, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks at the opening of the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies".

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan unfortunately suffered from aggression and occupation of the neighboring Armenia, which occupied almost 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, brutally violates the international law norms, committed ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis, as a result of which over 1 million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs.

Ilham Aliyev also reminded that Armenia committed a war crime - the genocide in Khojaly, which today is recognized by more than 10 countries. He went on to say that as a result of the Khojaly massacre, 613 innocent people, including 106 women and 63 children, were killed. Moreover, more than 1,000 are still missing.

"This is a crime against humanity, and this was part of the aggression policy against Azerbaijan, said President Aliyev.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is our ancient land, and for centuries Azerbaijanis lived on those territories. Now, everything is destroyed on our occupied lands - historical buildings, monuments, graves, etc. And this is reflected in the OSCE's two assessment missions sent to the occupied territories. This is also a genocide against our cultural heritage," he said.

The president went on to add that the conflict resolution should be based on laws and principles of international law. He also reminded about the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in the early 1990s, which demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories.

"Unfortunately, these resolutions are not implemented, and no sanctions were imposed on Armenia - the country which violates the UN Security Council resolutions for more than 20 years. Other international organizations, like the OSCE, the Islamic Cooperation Organization, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Non-Alignment Movement, adopted similar resolutions," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Historical truth, international law is on our side. The only reason why the conflict is not yet resolved is because Armenia doesn't want to free the occupied territories. Not just Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan, which are under occupation as well," he said.

He went on to say that the status quo is unacceptable, it is not sustainable.

"This is not our position, this is the position of the leading world countries, particularly those, who have mandate from the OSCE to be mediators of the conflict - the US, Russia, France. The presidents of these countries, have, on many occasions, openly stated that the status quo is unacceptable and it has to be changed. The status quo must be changed, Armenia must start the immediate withdrawal of its troops from the occupied territories and allow Azerbaijani people to return to their homeland," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president said that this conflict is not only the biggest injustice in modern history, it is also a source of permanent threat and instability in the not very stable region.

"Therefore, the soonest resolution of the conflict based on principles of international law, the UN Security Council resolutions, the Helsinki Final Act, must be achieved and then peace will come to our region," said Azerbaijan's president.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

Live-fire exercises were conducted during the large-scale drills, held in accordance with the plan approved by the President of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said in a message March 15.

Troops carried out tasks to prevent the enemy from attacking, suppress the enemy with fire, restore defense along advantageous frontiers by inflicting counter-strikes with further large-scale counteroffensive operations.

The troops improved their skills in organizing and practicing various methods of modern combined-arms operations throughout the exercises, held in difficult conditions in mountainous terrain, electronic warfare environment, and also other characteristic features set by the concept of the exercises.

Efficient use of troops and control systems was also carried out.

In various firing ranges and training areas, motorized rifle and tank units, rocket and artillery units, anti-aircraft missile systems, combat aircraft and helicopters carried out live-fire, launched missiles and conducted bombardment using new weapon systems.

Visiting the field command post of the exercises, Azerbaijans defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov highly appreciated the troops management ability of command staff and the skills of servicemen to carry out combat missions.

The minister ordered to reward officers and soldiers who demonstrated professionalism.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Bosnia and Herzegovina supports the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at finding a peaceful solution in order to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, who will take part in the 6th Global Baku Forum to be held March 15-18, told in an exclusive interview with Trend on March 15.

Bosnia and Herzegovina expects that the easiest way to achieve this is an internationally recognized, peaceful and sustainable solution, Ivanic said.

Bosnia and Herzegovinas House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly in January 2013 and the House of Peoples in February (with some amendments in April 2014) adopted the Resolution on Recognizing and Supporting the Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan. This resolution articulates the support for the positions represented by Azerbaijan, he added.

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 15

Trend:

In a very short time, the Global Baku Forum has transformed into a very important platform to address important issues on global agenda, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks at the opening of the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies".

"Among our guests there are representatives of more than fifty countries, more than 450 guests. Among them are 47 acting and former heads of states and governments, prominent politicians, statesmen, scientists, representatives of civil society," said the president.

"During the work of the forum I am sure that we will broadly discuss the issues which are on top agenda of international relations and also I am sure there will be important recommendations in order to provide security, stability, predictability and cooperation in the world," he noted.

President Aliyev went on to add that Azerbaijan has already hosted many international events.

"Among them are - traditional Baku Humanitarian Forum, regular International Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, World Religious Leaders forum, UN Alliance of Civilizations Global Forum," he said.

The president also reminded that Azerbaijan hosted the inaugural European Games in 2015 and 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

"All these events serve the cause of cooperation, these events build bridges, establish more understanding between representatives of different countries, different religions, different views," he said.

He went on to say that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Baku Process, which has now full support of the United Nations, and which is a unique platform of cooperation between the member countries of the Council of Europe and the members of the Islamic Cooperation Organization.

"Azerbaijan, as a member of both international organizations, initiated the meeting of the ministers of culture of both organizations in Baku, in 2008. Now, the Baku Process embraces the very broad activity in order to create better understanding between international organizations and peoples," he said.

The president also said that representatives of all religions and all ethnic groups live in Azerbaijan as one family in peace and dignity.

"In today's world, I think, it's a big asset. And we also want to share our experience, and I think that today's development of modern Azerbaijan illustrates that this is the only right policy," he said.

The president went on to add that inclusive society is now one of the issues of the global agenda.

"Of course, all our efforts are aimed at strength and security, which we all need in the world, especially in our region," he said.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan unfortunately suffered from aggression and occupation of the neighboring Armenia, which occupied almost 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, brutally violates the international law norms, committed ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis, as a result of which over 1 million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs.

Ilham Aliyev also reminded that Armenia committed a war crime - the genocide in Khojaly, which today is recognized by more than 10 countries. He went on to say that as a result of the Khojaly massacre, 613 innocent people, including 106 women and 63 children, were killed. Moreover, more than 1,000 are still missing.

"This is a crime against humanity, and this was part of the aggression policy against Azerbaijan, said President Aliyev.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is our ancient land, and for centuries Azerbaijanis lived on those territories. Now, everything is destroyed on our occupied lands - historical buildings, monuments, graves, etc. And this is reflected in the OSCE's two assessment missions sent to the occupied territories. This is also a genocide against our cultural heritage," he said.

The president went on to add that the conflict resolution should be based on laws and principles of international law. He also reminded about the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in the early 1990s, which demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories.

"Unfortunately, these resolutions are not implemented, and no sanctions were imposed on Armenia - the country which violates the UN Security Council resolutions for more than 20 years. Other international organizations, like the OSCE, the Islamic Cooperation Organization, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Non-Alignment Movement, adopted similar resolutions," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Historical truth, international law is on our side. The only reason why the conflict is not yet resolved is because Armenia doesn't want to free the occupied territories. Not just Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan, which are under occupation as well," he said.

He went on to say that the status quo is unacceptable, it is not sustainable.

"This is not our position, this is the position of the leading world countries, particularly those, who have mandate from the OSCE to be mediators of the conflict - the US, Russia, France. The presidents of these countries, have, on many occasions, openly stated that the status quo is unacceptable and it has to be changed. The status quo must be changed, Armenia must start the immediate withdrawal of its troops from the occupied territories and allow Azerbaijani people to return to their homeland," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president said that this conflict is not only the biggest injustice in modern history, it is also a source of permanent threat and instability in the not very stable region.

"Therefore, the soonest resolution of the conflict based on principles of international law, the UN Security Council resolutions, the Helsinki Final Act, must be achieved and then peace will come to our region," said Azerbaijan's president.

Despite the conflict, Azerbaijan continues to develop, said Ilham Aliyev.

"Our economic and social development is reflected in figures. It is reflected in today's appearance of our cities and villages. We invested largely in human capital," said the president.

He also reminded that Azerbaijan is among the three cities that submitted bids for hosting the Expo 2025 exhibition.

"We concentrate on human capital and always stated publicly that it is people of Azerbaijan who are in the center of our policy," he said.

"During the last 15 years, a lot has been done in order to reduce poverty and unemployment [in Azerbaijan], which today stand at the level of 5 percent each. This was one of the biggest achievements of our government, because we all remember the difficult times of the early 1990s and serious economic and social problems in our country," he said.

"Now, with respect to the level of poverty and unemployment, Azerbaijan is among the leaders in the world," Ilham Aliyev said.

"We largely invested in education, health care. More than 3,100 schools, more than 600 hospitals have been built [in Azerbaijan], in the last 15 years," said Ilham Aliyev.

"Azerbaijan is a country where people are getting annual medical checkups free of charge, and more than 5 million people every year have this opportunity," said the president. "This is our policy."

However, President Aliyev further said that just intentions and policy is not enough.

"Our concentration in the previous years was to achieve economic independence, not only to be able to serve better the needs of people, but also in order to strengthen our political independence, because it is clear that when a country is dependent economically, the ability to conduct independent foreign policy is limited," he said.

"In our case, our rapid economic growth allowed us to conduct independent foreign policy, which is based on interests of Azerbaijani people and universal values," Ilham Aliyev said.

President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan's economy grew by 3.2 times in 15 years, which is a record by itself.

"Our reforms are highly valued by the leading international financial institutions. The Davos World Economic Forum ranks Azerbaijan #35th in terms of global competitiveness. I think this is a historical achievement, so we are among the 35 most competitive countries in the world. For a country that has been independent for only 26 years, I think this is a really big achievement," he said.

"Another Davos assessment refers to inclusive development index, and here Azerbaijan is #3. Ahead of us are only 30 developed countries and two developing countries," Ilham Aliyev said. "So, this is the assessment of the leading international, political and financial institutions towards our reforms."

"Our reforms bring good results, and as a result of the reforms, we are among the leading countries in terms of direct investments per capita," said the president. "The total amount of investments in our economy during the last 15 years was more than $230 billion, with half of that accounting for foreign investments. So, Azerbaijan's economic policy has already proven to be successful, and of course, it allows us to invest not only in the country, but also in the region, and to create better platform for regional cooperation," said President Aliyev.

The president went on to add that of course Azerbaijan is famous for its energy resources.

"The first oil well in the world was drilled in Azerbaijan, in Baku. Azerbaijan is a country today which opened its energy potential to the world. We are the first country to invite foreign oil companies to work in the Caspian Sea, and this cooperation has been lasting for 24 years already, bringing good results to us and our partners," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Together with our neighbors and friends, Georgia and Turkey, we implemented important transportation projects like Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline. Both are bringing our hydrocarbons to international markets. Azerbaijan became a transit country for oil from the other side of the Caspian Sea," said the president.

He went on to add that today Azerbaijan is working closely with partners in a broad format on one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the energy sector - the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Noting that SGC is a historical project, Ilham Aliyev said that it unites seven countries and has the potential to attract more countries.

"This is a $40-billion project of production, transportation, distribution of natural gas from Azerbaijan," he said. "It starts in Baku and ends in Europe. So this is a really big contribution to the energy security of the region and Europe," he noted.

President Aliyev went on to say that energy security is part of national security of many countries.

"Today, oil from Azerbaijan for some European countries makes about 40 percent of the energy balance, and Azerbaijani gas will also strengthen energy security of European countries," said the president.

"This year, we will inaugurate one of the most important segments of the Southern Gas Corridor project, in particular, the first gas from the Shah Deniz 2 gas field. The inauguration of the South Caucasus pipeline, which connects Azerbaijan with Georgia and Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, which is the pipeline on the Turkish territory, these are the most important parts of the SGC. Everything is going in accordance with the plan, and hopefully soon we will celebrate the historical inauguration of this project, Ilham Aliyev said.

He went on to say that regional cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey is not only serving the benefits of the mentioned countries, but also has importance for the entire region.

"Last October we inaugurated another historical project - the railroad connection between the three countries, but actually - between the continents, because this railroad is the shortest transportation route from Asia to Europe. It will take two weeks, instead of more than one month to bring goods from Asia to Europe and vice versa," said Ilham Aliyev.

He underscored that Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a railroad project of global importance.

"I am very glad that in a very short period of time, in less than six months since the inauguration, we see the growing interest to this project. We see new partners in Central Asia, in Europe, which are looking at this project with big interest and big hopes," he said.

"Now we are at the stage of cooperation. We coordinate our efforts, because we not only need to have shortest route, but also an economically competitive route, so we could attract cargoes, not only because of time, but also because of costs. This is what we're actively working on," said the president.

"So, this is actually the most important part of our activity, which has international exposure, international importance," Ilham Aliyev said.

He continued, saying that Azerbaijan's contribution to international cooperation has many dimensions.

"Our effort is to create more understanding between Asia and Europe, between Europe and the Muslim world. Our energy transportation projects bring benefits to peoples, create tens of thousands of jobs and thus help develop countries," he noted.

"Our roles as stabilizing factor in the region is also appreciated. Therefore, we see the benefits of this policy. Our policy has always been cooperation, mutual support, prosperity, stability and predictability," Ilham Aliyev said.

He went on to add that the relations that Azerbaijan has established with its neighbors set an example of good neighborhood.

"Today in Baku for the first time there will be a meeting of ministers of foreign affairs of four countries of the region - Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia and Turkey. Prior to that, we already had and have trilateral formats of cooperation: Azerbaijan-Iran-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Iran-Russia. All these formats serve the cause of stability and peace, economic development, energy and transportation projects which we are now implementing. They serve the benefits of all the countries," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Only in this case, we can achieve success. We will never be able to become a transit country without neighbors. And if you don't have good relations with neighbors, no matter how matter how much you invest, you will fail. Therefore, good neighbor relations is very important for every country," the president said.

He went on to add that Azerbaijan has very strong positions in international organizations.

"Next month we will host the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement. Azerbaijan is a relatively new member in this important international organization, but it already got strong support, so this ministerial meeting is one of the reflections of that," said President Aliyev.

He went on to remind that Azerbaijan is also working with the EU on the new partnership agreement.

"It will be a very comprehensive document, which will cover many areas of political, economic cooperation, security, energy, transportation, cultural diversity," he said.

"So, in short, this is how we see our role in our region, in the world, and what we've achieved by pursuing these goals. Again, our policy is aimed at cooperation, friendship and partnership. As I said before, the results of modern Azerbaijan demonstrate that we're on the right track," said Ilham Aliyev.

He then went on to announce that in two months, Azerbaijan will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (ADR).

"We're very proud that it were Azerbaijanis who created, for the first time in the Muslim world, a democratic republic, which we now can be proud of," he said.

"For the first time in the Muslim world, Azerbaijani people have shown that they want to live in a free society, they want to live in a society where all the rights of all the people are protected," said Ilham Aliyev.

He went on to add that the role of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic in development of today's Azerbaijan is very big.

"At the same time, even a hundred years ago, they made important decisions, which we are proud of. One of them was granting women with right to vote, much earlier than in many European countries," President Aliyev said.

"Unfortunately, the life of the first Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was short, less than two years, and the tragic end of the republic also is a good lesson to all of us. It is a lot more difficult to preserve real independence, than to obtain it. And today's Azerbaijan is a truly independent country, with a very clear vision of the future," he noted.

"I think that if the founders of the first Azerbaijani Democratic Republic had the chance to see how Azerbaijan developed today, they definitely would've been proud of us. And we're proud of them, we demonstrate to ourselves and the world that only during independence people can achieve success, with their destiny in their hands, they can be successful. Azerbaijan is a good example of that."(Details 10:45)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The 6th Global Baku Forum is a place where important issues are discussed, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in Baku on March 15.

He made the remarks at the opening of the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies".

Yildirim further noted that today it is extremely important to implement joint projects that can promote the development of friendly relations among the countries.

"Today, Turkey and Azerbaijan are implementing important projects, which not only contribute to the regional development, but at the same time have an important global significance," Yildirim said.

The Prime Minister noted that the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project is one of such important projects.

"Turkey pursues a policy of increasing the number of allies and friends," Yildirim said, noting that all countries must act together to solve the crises.

The 6th Global Baku Forum kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures who are the members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are expected to participate in the 6th Global Baku Forum.

The participants are expected to discuss such issues as peace and security in the Middle East, the current geopolitical situation in the Balkan region, and the growing role of youth in social and political life in the modern world.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanov - Trend:

The Global Baku Forum is a good platform for building up mutual understanding among countries, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in his letter, which was read out at the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies" in Baku on March 15.

The president noted that the terror acts are a challenge for all countries.

"We need to ensure security, we need a mutual dialogue to combat this [terrorism.] The global forum is a good example in this regard. This [Global Baku Forum] is a good platform for building up mutual understanding," he said.

The president stressed that ensuring peace and stability in the world is important, for which it is necessary to stop intolerance and extremism.

The 6th Global Baku Forum kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijan State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The Nizami Ganjavi International Center creates bridges among societies and cultures at this difficult time, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his letter addressed to the Global Baku Forum.

The letter was read out by UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Ghulam Isaczai at the 6th Global Baku Forum, titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies", in Baku on March 15.

Guterres expressed his gratitude to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center for this work.

Creation of an inclusive society is very important and is one of the goals set in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, he said, stressing that science and technology can help solve today's problems.

The 6th Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijan State Committee for Work with the Diaspora.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic, Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures, who are members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are participating in the 6th Global Baku Forum.

The participants discuss such issues as peace and security in the Middle East, the current geopolitical situation in the Balkan region, and the growing role of youth in social and political life in the modern world.(Details added 10:04)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

The 6th Global Baku Forum has kicked off in the capital of Azerbaijan under the slogan "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended the opening ceremony of the forum.

President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall are among the participants of the forum.

The participants of the forum posed together for photographs.

Co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Ismail Serageldin declared the forum open.

President Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the opening ceremony.

Nearly 500 delegates from more than 50 countries, including heads of state and government, who are members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, heads of international organizations, well-known political and public figures and scholars attend the three-day forum.

The forum will feature the 7th International Summit of the Book on March 18-19. A joint initiative of the US Congress Library and Egyptian Library of Alexandria, the summit will focus on the significance of the book in national development, preservation and transformation of cultural heritage, as well as the role of national libraries and the future of libraries.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

The Global Baku Forum is one of the most important discussion platforms in the world, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, who takes part in the Forum, said in an interview with Trend on March 15.

The 6th Global Baku Forum titled Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies opened in Baku on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijan State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

It is evident that it is getting even more effective from year to year, given the topics that are being discussed as well as the impressive list of the participants, Ivanic added.

Commenting on the role of the Global Baku Forum as a platform for discussing developments on the international arena, Ivanic said that the Forum is exceptionally important because it anticipates essential topics and challenges that are of great importance to the entire global world.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures who are the members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are participating in the 6th Global Baku Forum.

The participants are discussing such issues as peace and security in the Middle East, the current geopolitical situation in the Balkan region, and the growing role of youth in social and political life in the modern world.(Details added 12:01)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanov - Trend:

The Global Baku Forum is a good platform for building up mutual understanding among countries, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said in his letter, which was read out at the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies" in Baku on March 15.

The president noted that the terror acts are a challenge for all countries.

"We need to ensure security, we need a mutual dialogue to combat this [terrorism.] The global forum is a good example in this regard. This [Global Baku Forum] is a good platform for building up mutual understanding," he said.

The president stressed that ensuring peace and stability in the world is important, for which it is necessary to stop intolerance and extremism.

The 6th Global Baku Forum kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijan State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.Details added (first version posted on 13:46)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

A joint declaration was signed at the first quadrilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and Georgia in Baku March 15.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze took part in the meeting.

"The declaration will expand cooperation among the countries in several areas, including infrastructure, transport, agriculture," FM Mammadyarov said at a press conference following the meeting.

We are working on development of new projects, he said. We hope to join efforts, create and consolidate the format of cooperation that will connect the major regions of the world in a joint fruitful cooperation."

Mammadyarov said the next meeting in the quadrilateral format will be held in Georgia.Details added (first version posted on 13:44)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Azerbaijan plays an important role in regional cooperation, Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze said.

Janelidze made the remarks at a press conference in Baku on March 15 following the meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Iran.

"We support Azerbaijan's efforts in establishment of cooperation in the region, in particular, holding of today's quadripartite meeting, which will give an impetus to the expansion of our cooperation," Janelidze said.

Janelidze also expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for its support to Georgias territorial integrity and said that Georgia also supports Azerbaijans territorial integrity.

"The document on cooperation, which we have signed today, will serve to increase our mutual investment potential, as well as develop cooperation in priority areas," the minister said.(Details added 12:01 )

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The Nizami Ganjavi International Center creates bridges among societies and cultures at this difficult time, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his letter addressed to the Global Baku Forum.

The letter was read out by UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Ghulam Isaczai at the 6th Global Baku Forum, titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies", in Baku on March 15.

Guterres expressed his gratitude to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center for this work.

Creation of an inclusive society is very important and is one of the goals set in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, he said, stressing that science and technology can help solve today's problems.

The 6th Global Baku Forum, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijan State Committee for Work with the Diaspora.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic, Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures, who are members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are participating in the 6th Global Baku Forum.

The participants discuss such issues as peace and security in the Middle East, the current geopolitical situation in the Balkan region, and the growing role of youth in social and political life in the modern world.Details added (first version posted on 13:46)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

A joint declaration was signed at the first quadrilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and Georgia in Baku March 15.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze took part in the meeting.

"The declaration will expand cooperation of the countries in several areas, including infrastructure, transport, agriculture," FM Mammadyarov said at a press conference following the meeting.

We are working on new projects, he said. We hope to unite efforts, create and consolidate the format of cooperation that will connect the major regions of the world in a joint fruitful cooperation."

"With our colleagues, we discussed the possibility of developing new transport routes that could potentially facilitate the transportation of goods in different directions," he said. Among the projects to be implemented soon I can mention the Rasht-Astara railway. Together with the Iranian colleagues, we have practically completed the work on an agreement on this issue.

The Azerbaijani foreign minister added that the forthcoming projects of quadrilateral cooperation will help develop the work of many organizations, including customs and economic institutions.

Mammadyarov said the next meeting in quadrilateral format will be held in Georgia.(Details added 12:43)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of Albania Ilir Meta.

Recalling his visit to Azerbaijan as a speaker of the Parliament of Albania two years ago, Ilir Meta said it is his first visit to Azerbaijan as a president.

The Albanian president noted that he is pleased with his visit and stressed the significance of the 6th Global Baku Forum. Noting that Baku has made a significant contribution to the global cooperation, President Meta expressed his gratitude to President Aliyev for work to strengthen bilateral relations and cooperation.

Ilir Meta noted successful implementation of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline in Albania. He said the project is of great importance in supplying gas to Albania.

President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that the projects jointly implemented by Azerbaijan and Albania have strengthened bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

The head of state hailed the fact that Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project is being implemented on schedule in Albania and highlighted the importance of the project.

Noting that there are good prospects for energy cooperation, President Aliyev recalled the Albanian delegation's participation in the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku a month ago.Details added (first version posted on 15:47)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

Azerbaijan's First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva has met with Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Binali Yildirim in Baku.

Expressing gratitude to the Turkish prime minister for his speech at the 6th Global Baku Forum, Mehriban Aliyeva stressed that there are exemplary relations of friendship and brotherhood between the countries.

Mehriban Aliyeva added that Azerbaijan respects these relations.

Stressing that Azerbaijan and Turkey support each other in international organizations, Azerbaijan's first vice-president stressed that Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis always feel and appreciate this support.

She stressed the importance of large-scale projects being implemented on the initiative and with the support of the two countries both for the region and for Europe. Mehriban Aliyeva emphasized that fraternal and friendly relations stand at the heart of the success of these projects.

"Successful relations have been established between our countries in many spheres, Mehriban Aliyeva said. These relations are getting stronger day by day. Joint activities will bear fruit in the future.

The first vice-president expressed gratitude for Turkey's defending Azerbaijan's just position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and that Turkey updates the world community about it.

She expressed confidence that the conflict will soon be resolved within Azerbaijans territorial integrity on the basis of norms and principles of international law.

Mehriban Aliyeva stressed that nothing can harm friendly relations between the Azerbaijani and Turkish peoples.

In his turn, Yildirim expressed gratitude for the invitation to the 6th Global Baku Forum, saying Azerbaijan is a fraternal and friendly country for Turkey.

Stressing that Azerbaijan and Turkey are one nation, two states, Yildirim said fraternal relations are strengthening year by year.

He added that the large-scale energy and transport projects, which are being implemented, intensify economic power and serve to bring the two countries closer.

Yildirim stressed the importance of making mutual investments and appreciated the activity of businessmen.

The Turkish prime minister said that in all international organizations Turkey will always support Azerbaijan's fair position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.Details added (first version posted on 13:56)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif March 15.

Zarif conveyed the greetings of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to President Aliyev. Zarif expressed satisfaction with the quadripartite meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and Georgia in Baku.

Touching upon the activity of the joint Azerbaijani-Iranian intergovernmental commission, Zarif said the activity of the commission brought very good results.

The Iranian foreign minister stressed that important documents on cooperation in the economic sphere will be signed in the near future.

President Aliyev stressed the importance of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and Georgia in Baku in terms of regional cooperation.

The president emphasized the successful activity of the joint Azerbaijani-Iranian intergovernmental commission.

It was stressed that President Rouhanis visit to Azerbaijan soon will contribute to further strengthening of cooperation between the two countries.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude for the Iranian presidents greetings and asked to convey his greetings to President Rouhani.Details added (first version posted on 15:12)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov in Baku.

Noting the growth of international importance of the Global Baku Forum, Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of participation of Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov in the event.

President Aliyev recalled with satisfaction the meetings with the president of Macedonia in Baku and at various international organizations.

Gjorge Ivanov noted that the 6th Global Baku Forum was organized at a high level and was held successfully. He said the event makes a great contribution to the expansion of cooperation, strengthening of stability, security and mutual understanding on international arena.

At the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the current state and prospects of cooperation in the energy, pharmaceutic and other spheres.

Gjorge Ivanov invited Ilham Aliyev to visit Macedonia.Details added (first version posted on 16:24)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva has met with Marianna Vardinoyannis, president of the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation and the ELPIDA Association of Friends of Children with Cancer.

At the meeting, it was noted that participants from many countries joined the 6th Global Baku Forum and that this is another indicator of great interest in the event.

It was also noted at the meeting that the Forum has already become an international platform, and the importance of topics discussed as part of this event was stressed.Details added (first version posted on 16:06)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva has met with Vice-President of the Italian Senate Linda Lanzillotta.

The importance of the 6th Global Baku Forum was stressed at the meeting.

It was noted that the issues discussed at the Forum have a positive impact on the processes taking place in the world, and that interest in the Forum is gradually growing.

The sides noted that the organization of the Forum is at a high level, and stressed that the Forum is a good platform for discussing many issues of global concern.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

US ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta will leave his position in late March, Trend learned from the US embassy in Baku.

After more than three years as ambassador to Azerbaijan and a number of decades in the State Department, Ambasssador Cekuta has decided to leave his position in Baku at the end of March and then to retire from the Foreign Service, said the embassy.

The Ambassador notes relations between the United States and Azerbaijan have moved forward and improved during his tenure and that he and his family greatly appreciated their time in Azerbaijan, getting to know the country and its people, according to the US embassy.

It has been a unique honor and privilege to be a United States ambassador, and now Ambassador Cekuta is looking forward to pursuing new opportunities and challenges, said the embassy.Details added (first version posted on 15:14)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by President of Moldova Igor Dodon in Baku March 15.

President Aliyev stressed the importance of President Dodons participation in the 6th Global Baku Forum.

The Azerbaijani president recalled Dodon's last year visit to Baku and the meeting with him at international events. The president stressed that the agreements reached during President Dodon's visit to Azerbaijan have already been implemented.

President Aliyev said there is a good potential for the development of ties between the countries in various fields and stressed the importance of determining joint mutual activity in the future in the political, economic, humanitarian, investment and other spheres.

The Azerbaijani president stressed that he is confident of continuing systematic contacts in the future to address important issues related to further rapprochement of the countries. President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is interested in this work.

President Dodon expressed gratitude to President Aliyev for the invitation to the 6th Global Baku Forum.

Stressing the significance of the event, President Dodon said Moldova participates in the forum for the first time.

The Moldovan president said there are traditionally friendly relations between the countries.

Recalling last year's visit to Azerbaijan, President Dodon stressed that the meetings held during the visit have already yielded results.

The Moldovan president said that a few days ago, together with representatives of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, he personally participated in the ceremony of laying the foundation for an important social project in Gagauzia.

President Dodon appreciated the role of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Moldova in strengthening the ties between the countries.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

If every nation is given the right to self-determination, ethnic separatism will become an insurmountable process in the world, Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov said March 15.

He was speaking at a panel session titled Majority against Minorities as part of the 6th Global Baku Forum.

Hasanov noted that presently the strengthening of ethnic separatism in the world is one of the main factors that negatively affect the regional and international security, as well as the mankind's peaceful and tranquil life.

For more than 200 years, Azerbaijan has been subjected to the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide, carried out by the Armenians, and has been suffering from bloody tragedies and a war as a result of this policy, Hasanov said. The main goal of this policy is to expel the Azerbaijanis from their historical lands and create on their territories a Greater Armenia, invented by the Armenians.

The basis of the ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijan was laid as a result of the resettlement of the Armenians, living in other states, to Azerbaijan in the beginning of the 20th century with the support and pressure of some foreign geopolitical forces, he noted. This started to greatly influence the change of the demographic situation related to the national-ethnic composition in the historical lands of Azerbaijan.

He said that in order to organize confrontations on national and ethnic grounds, the Armenians openly committed large-scale bloody acts against Azerbaijanis in 1905-1906 and subjected the peaceful population to mass slaughter.

Skilfully taking advantage of the First World War, as well as the February Bourgeois and October Bolshevik revolutions of 1917, the Armenians were able to implement their separatist claims under the Bolshevik flag, he noted. In March 1918, the armed Armenian nationalists with military assistance from Soviet Russia, committing genocide of the peaceful Azerbaijani population throughout Azerbaijan, killed thousands of people.

Occupying Azerbaijani lands after the Sovietization of the South Caucasus, in 1920, they declared Zangezur province and a number of other lands as the territories of the Armenian SSR, he added. The Armenians continued to put forward territorial claims regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where the Azerbaijanis lived since ancient times, and as a result, in 1923, under the influence of such Armenians as Mikoyan, and according to Stalins instruction, the Armenians living in the mountainous part of the Karabakh region were given the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within Azerbaijan.

Ali Hasanov added that when creating the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, which is an integral part of Azerbaijan, Karabakh was artificially divided into plain and mountainous parts, and the leadership of Azerbaijan was forced to grant the status of autonomy to the Armenians placed in the mountainous part of Karabakh.

At the same time, this status of autonomy was granted without considering the opinion of the Azerbaijanis that historically lived in Nagorno-Karabakh and with grave violation of their rights, he said. The course of historical events showed that the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast laid the foundation for future territorial claims and ethnic separatism on the part of the Armenians.Details added (first version posted on 19:49)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

If every nation is given the right to self-determination, ethnic separatism will become an insurmountable process in the world, Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov said March 15.

He was speaking at a panel session titled Majority against Minorities as part of the 6th Global Baku Forum.

Hasanov noted that presently the strengthening of ethnic separatism in the world is one of the main factors that negatively affect the regional and international security, as well as the mankind's peaceful and tranquil life.

For more than 200 years, Azerbaijan has been subjected to the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide, carried out by the Armenians, and has been suffering from bloody tragedies and a war as a result of this policy, Hasanov said. The main goal of this policy is to expel the Azerbaijanis from their historical lands and create on their territories a Greater Armenia, invented by the Armenians.

The basis of the ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijan was laid as a result of the resettlement of the Armenians, living in other states, to Azerbaijan in the beginning of the 20th century with the support and pressure of some foreign geopolitical forces, he noted. This started to greatly influence the change of the demographic situation related to the national-ethnic composition in the historical lands of Azerbaijan.

He said that in order to organize confrontations on national and ethnic grounds, the Armenians openly committed large-scale bloody acts against Azerbaijanis in 1905-1906 and subjected the peaceful population to mass slaughter.

Skilfully taking advantage of the First World War, as well as the February Bourgeois and October Bolshevik revolutions of 1917, the Armenians were able to implement their separatist claims under the Bolshevik flag, he noted. In March 1918, the armed Armenian nationalists with military assistance from Soviet Russia, committing genocide of the peaceful Azerbaijani population throughout Azerbaijan, killed thousands of people.

Occupying Azerbaijani lands after the Sovietization of the South Caucasus, in 1920, they declared Zangezur province and a number of other lands as the territories of the Armenian SSR, he added. The Armenians continued to put forward territorial claims regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where the Azerbaijanis lived since ancient times, and as a result, in 1923, under the influence of such Armenians as Mikoyan, and according to Stalins instruction, the Armenians living in the mountainous part of the Karabakh region were given the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within Azerbaijan.

Ali Hasanov added that when creating the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, which is an integral part of Azerbaijan, Karabakh was artificially divided into plain and mountainous parts, and the leadership of Azerbaijan was forced to grant the status of autonomy to the Armenians placed in the mountainous part of Karabakh.

At the same time, this status of autonomy was granted without considering the opinion of the Azerbaijanis that historically lived in Nagorno-Karabakh and with grave violation of their rights, he said. The course of historical events showed that the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast laid the foundation for future territorial claims and ethnic separatism on the part of the Armenians.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

Trend:

First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva has congratulated the Azerbaijani peoples writer Anar on his 80th birthday.

Dear Anar, I sincerely congratulate you, our classic and outstanding writer, who has exceptional merits in the development of Azerbaijani literature, on your 80th birthday, and convey to you my best wishes, Mehriban Aliyeva said in her congratulatory letter.

Preservation of the purity of the Azerbaijani language as one of the main features of your works and the creation of works in a simple Azerbaijani language reflect your love for this language, reads the letter.

Along with literary activity, you actively participate in the socio-political life of Azerbaijan, the letter reads. Wisdom, patriotism and principled position, demonstrated by you, play the role of an example for many people today. It is no coincidence that you were awarded the highest awards of our state.

Dear Anar, once again, I cordially congratulate you on this remarkable day and wish you success, healthy and happy life with your relatives and friends, reads Mehriban Aliyeva's congratulatory letter.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Iran offers Azerbaijan to create a joint industrial commission, Irans Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari said at the meeting with Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, who was in Tehran March 13-14, Azerbaijans Economy Ministry reported.

Shariatmadari noted that such a commission could have operated under the Azerbaijan-Iran State Commission for Cooperation in economic, trade and humanitarian spheres.

In his turn, Mustafayev noted that the peoples of Azerbaijan and Iran have historically always been close to each other. He said that the heads of both countries attach special importance to the development of ties, adding that over the past four years, 10 high-level meetings have been held and decisions have been made to develop cooperation in various areas.

Holding these meetings and negotiations enabled to increasingly develop the mutual relations between the two countries, he noted.

During the meeting, the sides discussed joint projects, including the International North-South Transport Corridor, the automobile plant in Neftchala Industrial Park of Azerbaijan, the joint production of agricultural machinery and buses, as well as other issues.

Mustafayev also touched upon the possibility of Irans investing in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which is of strategic importance for Azerbaijan.

As part of his visit to Tehran, Mustafayev took part in the meeting of the Azerbaijan-Iran intergovernmental commission, held a number of meetings, including with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Head of Iranian Presidential Office Mahmoud Vaezi, as well as various ministers.

Azerbaijans State Customs Committee reported that the trade turnover with Iran amounted to $257.1 million in 2017, which is 27.4 percent more than in 2016. In 2017, the export of Azerbaijani products to Iran stood at $16.8 million.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Azerbaijan is a very important part of the puzzle, connecting Europe and Asia, being a key part of the trade route to Central Asia and China, Kestutis Jankauskas, head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan, told Trend.

"Europe has been consistently supporting all the ways, contributing to the connectivity between the countries in several directions, including sea, railways, air connection, as well as financial connectivity and IT connectivity. We should develop all these terms of cooperation with Azerbaijan and other countries of the Silk Road in order to work as one structure," said Jankauskas.

He stressed that EU and Azerbaijan already have significant achievements in increasing trade and energy links, such as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars.

"What we need now is to fill these routes with cargoes, since there are new possibilities in their fast and cheap transportation. We support Azerbaijan as a significant transport hub. And I would also like to mention the importance of people-to-people connectivity, increasing each year between Europe and Azerbaijan," Jankauskas said.

According to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee, trade turnover with the EU member countries amounted to $9.4 billion in 2017, 52.35 percent more than in 2016.

Azerbaijan exported goods worth $7.45 billion to the EU countries in 2017.

Subscribers of Trend News Agency can read this and other exclusive materials before they are published in open access.

More information on Trends news products can be found here.Title changed, details added (12:01)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and Georgia will sign today [March 15] a roadmap for cooperation in a wide range of spheres, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on the sidelines of the 6th Global Baku Forum in Baku on March 15.

"We worked on a joint road map and today we plan to sign it. This covers various areas, including sub-projects related to transport, communications, energy, regional issues, economy, trade and customs," he said.

The minister noted that today the foreign ministers of the four countries meet for the first time in this format. "We used to hold tripartite meetings with Iran, Turkmenistan and Georgia, but today we are holding a four-sided meeting, which is an indicator of the role that Azerbaijan and Turkey play in the region," Cavusoglu said.

The sides have many topics to discuss, including Iran's joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, and energy projects.

The minister also spoke about multiculturalism and mutual understanding among peoples. "We need to learn how to live together, just like in Azerbaijan, Turkey. People must respect each other, regardless of which cultures or religions they represent," he said.(Details added 12:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanov - Trend:

Azerbaijan and Great Britain will deepen cooperation, British Prime Minister Theresa May said in her letter, which was read out at the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies" in Baku on March 15.

She noted that the two countries have established good cooperation, mainly in the energy sector.

"The UK and Azerbaijan have strong and productive relations, which were established in 1992. We are actively cooperating particularly, in the energy sector."

She noted that the Nizami Ganjavi International Center is a good platform for exchanging views and establishing dialogue, and expressed confidence that this forum will contribute to the creation of an inclusive society in the world.

The 6th Global Baku Forum kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures who are the members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are expected to participate in the 6th Global Baku Forum.Details added (10:49)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Roughly 66 percent of chief executives of companies in Azerbaijan are confident in the growth prospects of their companies' profits, Managing Partner of PwC Azerbaijan Movlan Pashayev said at a presentation of the report 'CEO Survey-2018' in Baku on March 15.

He said that the mood and prospects of both global and local leaders were rather dark when conducting a similar survey two years ago.

"It is very gratifying that Azerbaijan managed to overcome many of the challenges it faced in the economy in a comparatively short two-year period. The 2018 report showed that 66 percent of chief executives are confident in the growth prospects of profits of their companies," Pashayev said.

He noted that the optimism level of CEOs both globally and in Azerbaijan is the highest since 2010.

"This level has almost doubled compared to the previous survey. The chiefs see the growth prospects in short and medium terms for their business, while economic and commodity prices are stabilizing, with many countries pursuing institutional reforms and diversification. The recent crisis has led to disruptions, and it turned out to be the main catalyst for changes, positively impacting both private and public sector enterprises, forcing them to review their strategies and business models," Pashayev said.

He noted that 45 percent of the chief executives expect an increase in global economic growth over the next 12 months. Two years ago their percentage was 23.

"This roughly corresponds to the global indicator. Thus, 57 percent of the interviewed CEOs around the world believes that the economy will grow," Pashayev said.

He noted that during the survey, the heads of companies pointed to the main economic problems they face. The biggest of them - volatility of Azerbaijan's manat rate, followed by threat of tax burdern increase and uncertainty of economic growth.

Pashayev further noted that CEOs also identified the main direct threats to their businesses.

"Particularly, 83 percent of respondents see the lack of professional skills in the market and poor confidence in this business as a threat. Some 75 percent identified changes in the behavior and expenses of consumers as a threat," Pashayev said.

As for the main foreign attractive markets, CEOs highlighted Russia and Turkey, like a year ago, he added.

"At the same time, China entered the top three this year, surpassing Iran. It is noteworthy that this time Iran did not even enter the top six. Only three percent of the respondents voted for it, and we believe that this reflects current geopolitical and economic trends," he said.

He added that today only three percent of the surveyed chief executives do not exclude the possibility of staff reduction (compared to 20 percent worldwide), while last time this figure was 50 percent in Azerbaijan.

"Moreover, today 50 percent of the chief executives are going to increase the staff number," Pashayev said.

The CEO survey is compiled for 19 years, and is presented at the Davos Forum every year. This survey was compiled on Azerbaijan for the second time. The aim is to identify regularities in the global economy, which can be an additional guide for the business community and politicians in decision-making.

Some 40 heads of both public and private companies from leading sectors of the economy participated in the survey on Azerbaijan.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Azerbaijan will join the International Energy Charter, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at a briefing after the Energy Efficiency Conference in Baku on March 15.

Shahbazov handed over a corresponding letter of accession to the Secretary General of the International Energy Charter, Urban Rusnak, at the Energy Efficiency Conference.

"Azerbaijan has been a member of the European Energy Charter since 1998. In May 2015, the European Energy Charter received an international status. Azerbaijan decided to join the Charter, and a corresponding letter was presented to Mr. Rusnak today," Shahbazov said.

The minister further noted importance of a bill on effective energy use, discussed at the Conference, and its importance for the future of the Azerbaijani economy.

"The bill on effective energy use will be reviewed by experts and relevant state structures, after which it will be submitted to the parliament for ratification," the minister said.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanov - Trend:

Azerbaijan and Great Britain will deepen cooperation, British Prime Minister Theresa May said in her letter, which was read out at the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies" in Baku on March 15.

She noted that the two countries have established good cooperation, mainly in the energy sector.

"The UK and Azerbaijan have strong and productive relations, which were established in 1992. We are actively cooperating particularly, in the energy sector."

She noted that the Nizami Ganjavi International Center is a good platform for exchanging views and establishing dialogue, and expressed confidence that this forum will contribute to the creation of an inclusive society in the world.

The 6th Global Baku Forum kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures who are the members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are expected to participate in the 6th Global Baku Forum.Details added (first version posted on 10:53)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Azerbaijan supports the extension of the OPEC+ deal on reducing oil production, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at a briefing after the Energy Efficiency Conference in Baku on March 15.

Cooperation of the oil producing countries within the OPEC+ deal has led to successful regulation of oil prices in the global market, the minister said. On this basis, the OPEC member countries, as well as the countries that joined the deal, agree that it is necessary to continue cooperation under the agreement.

Shahbazov noted that the next ministerial meeting of the OPEC+ will take place in June.

I hope at the meeting the agreement parties will adopt solutions acceptable for everyone, the minister said.

Shahbazov stressed that the OPEC deal doesnt envisage further reduction in oil production, but maintaining the production at the existing levels.

In December 2016, OPEC and several other non-OPEC producers, including Azerbaijan, reached an agreement to extend the production deal for a further nine months. The meeting ended with signing an agreement to reduce oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 2017.

This would shift the expiration date of the agreement from March to the end of 2018.

Daily oil production in Azerbaijan stood at 806,600 barrels in February 2018, of which 751,000 barrels accounted for crude oil and 55,000 barrels for condensate, according to the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry.

Meanwhile, 621,300 barrels of crude oil, 55,000 barrels of condensate, and 20,400 barrels of oil products per day were exported.(Details added 11:02)

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

Azerbaijan will join the International Energy Charter, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at a briefing after the Energy Efficiency Conference in Baku on March 15.

Shahbazov handed over a corresponding letter of accession to the Secretary General of the International Energy Charter, Urban Rusnak, at the Energy Efficiency Conference.

"Azerbaijan has been a member of the European Energy Charter since 1998. In May 2015, the European Energy Charter received an international status. Azerbaijan decided to join the Charter, and a corresponding letter was presented to Mr. Rusnak today," Shahbazov said.

The minister further noted importance of a bill on effective energy use, discussed at the Conference, and its importance for the future of the Azerbaijani economy.

"The bill on effective energy use will be reviewed by experts and relevant state structures, after which it will be submitted to the parliament for ratification," the minister said.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The projects under the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) development carry strategic importance for Azerbaijan's long-term macroeconomic stability, said Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency.

Fitch has affirmed Southern Gas Corridor CJSC's (SGC) senior unsecured Eurobonds' long-term foreign currency rating at 'BB+'.



The affirmation reflects Fitch's unchanged view on SGC's $2 billion Eurobonds maturing in 2026 fully guaranteed by Azerbaijan (BB+/Stable).

The strategic importance of SGC is further strengthened by the cross-border nature of its projects, involved intra-governmental commitments and political support from transit states, the EU and consumers, the report said. Most of the gas is already contracted up to 2045 by buyers from the EU and Turkey.

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 15

By Huseyn Valiyev - Trend:

The Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ministry of Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding with Cisco, the ministry said on March 15.

Under the agreement, the most advanced technical solutions of Cisco will be applied in the formation of new postal services, in intelligent transport management, in ensuring cybersecurity and in development of broadband services.

In addition, Cisco will also engage in increasing the human resources capacity in the IT sector, the ministry said.

During the signing ceremony, the sides discussed creating a digital infrastructure, strengthening of cadastral capacity and introducing business innovations in the social and economic sphere.

The abovementioned three strategic directions contribute to speeding up the digitalization process, raising public awareness in this area, reducing costs and creating new sources of income.

A joint working group is planned to be created to expand the use of digital technologies and the application of new technological solutions.Kyrgyz-Indian military exercises Kanjar-2018 has started in India, Kabar with reference to the press service of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic reported.

"In accordance with the plan for the preparation of the command and control bodies, units and agencies of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan for the 2018 academic year, a joint Kyrgyz-Indian exercise of special forces "Kanjar-2018 will be held in India from March 14 to 30, 2018," the report said.

Kyrgyzstan in the exercise is represented by the military contingent of the military unit of the Army of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Within two weeks, Kyrgyz and Indian servicemen will work out the training of special forces for conducting a joint special operation to destroy illegal armed formations in mountainous terrain.

In terms of joint training, practical exercises are planned on tactical, mountain, military-medical, fire training, tactics of actions in storming premises and survival techniques in extreme conditions.

As part of the cultural exercise program, Kyrgyz military personnel will visit the historical attractions of the host country and organize the exposition on the history and culture of Kyrgyzstan for the host country.Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic Raimberdi Duishenbiev, visited the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the period from 12 to 15 March 2018, Kabar with reference to the press service of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic reported.

During the visit, the head of the military department of the Kyrgyz Republic met with Minister of Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran Khurram Dastagir Khan, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the IRP, General Zubair Mahmud Hayat and other high-ranking officials of the high command of the Armed Forces of the IRP.

The meetings were held with the participation of Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Erik Beishembiev.

As a result of the meetings, the sides agreed on the development and strengthening of cooperation in the field of peacekeeping, the training of military personnel and joint military activities, and expressed the intention to sign a Memorandum on military and military-technical cooperation.

In addition, the delegation of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan visited the National Defense University in Islamabad and got acquainted with the military products produced at the defense-industrial enterprises of Pakistan.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 15

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will hold talks at an intergovernmental level March 15, Altyn Asyr TV channel reported.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov is on an official visit to the UAE March 14-15. The agenda includes a wide range of issues of cooperation in the political, diplomatic, trade, economic and cultural spheres.

A package of documents designed to further strengthen and expand the regulatory and legal framework for interstate relations is planned to be signed following the meeting.

The UAE is one of the five trade partners of Turkmenistan and the volume of trade turnover between the two countries continues to grow, UAE ambassador Hassan Abdullah Al Adab told media in December 2017.

The diplomat said that the total volume of trade turnover amounted to $1.330 million in 2015, while in 2016 it reached $1.432 million. Moreover, $1.375 million accounted for the share of exports from the UAE to Turkmenistan.

UAE companies operate in the local energy market. Dragon Oil has been operating in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea since 1999 as part of a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). The company is one of the biggest foreign investors in Turkmenistan. Another company - Petrofac took part in implementation of a major service project for development of the Galkynysh gas field.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 15

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has invited major oil and gas companies, financial and investment structures of the UAE to cooperate in the oil and gas industry, the Turkmen government said in a message March 15.

In particular, Berdimuhamedov, who was on an official visit to the UAE on March 14-15, noted the recent launch of construction of the Afghan section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.

The export-import opportunities of both countries create favorable prerequisites for increasing mutual trade turnover, the message said. Regular holding of bilateral consultations and economic exhibitions plays an important role in this regard.

The Turkmen president held a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE vice-president and prime minister, the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. The sides exchanged views on the possibilities of strengthening interstate relations and discussed international and regional issues.

The growing interest of the UAE business circles towards the Turkmen market is related to the fact that the Turkmen economy is one of the fastest growing in the world, the Turkmenistan State News Agency reported.

Construction of the Turkmen section of the TAPI gas pipeline began in December 2015.

Construction of the Afghan section of the TAPI gas pipeline started Feb. 23, 2018. The pipeline is scheduled to run along the Kandahar-Herat Highway in western Afghanistan, and further through the cities of Quetta and Multan in Pakistan. The pipelines route will end in the Indian city of Fazilka.

The total length of the TAPI gas pipeline will be 1,840 kilometers. A 205-kilometer section of the pipeline will run through Turkmenistan, an 816-kilometer section will run through Afghanistan and an 819-kilometer section will go through Pakistan.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Iran and South Koreas mutual trade continued to fall during the second month of 2018.

The bilateral trade witnessed a fall by 20.6 percent in January-February 2018 and stood at $1.7 billion, according to the latest data released by the Korean Customs Service.

South Korea exported $551.3 million worth of goods to Iran in the first two months of 2018, which is less by 11.7 percent compared to the same period of 2017.

Meanwhile the countrys imports from Iran hit $1.156 billion in the 2-month period, indicating a fall by 24 percent compared to January-February 2017.

Iran-South Korea trade in 2018 (1,000 USD)

Month 2018 2017 Export change % Import change % Export Import Trade balance Export Import Trade balance 1 312,666 520,048 -208,036 327,842 785,219 -457,38 -4.83 -33.77 2 239,276 636,090 -396,81 296,578 740,799 -444,22 -19.32 -14.13 total 551,288 1,156,138 -604,849 624,420 1526,018 -901,598 -11.7 -24.24

The trade fall between the two countries comes after experiencing a huge rise in 2017. The Iran-South Korea trade volume hit $12 billion last year, witnessing a rise by 43.6 percent compared to 2016.

South Korea imported $7.99 billion worth of commodities, including oil, from Iran in January-December 2017, which is more by 58 percent compared to the same period of 2016.

The country also exported $4 billion worth of goods to the Islamic Republic in the 12-month period, registering a 92 percent rise compared to 2016.

Iran-South Korea trade in 2017-2016 (1,000 USD)Baku, Azerbaijan, March 18

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

The latest official statistics indicate that export of Irans minerals and mineral industry products has increased in terms of value, amid fall in terms of volume during the current fiscal year, that started March 2017.

Exports of the products amounted to $8.396 billion during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Feb.20), Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) said.

The figure is more by 6 percent compared to the first 11 months of the last fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the volume of minerals and mineral industry products export fell by 3 percent to 58.1 million tons in the 11-month period.

The export included cement, ceramic and tiles, steel and iron products, all types of stones, copper, coal and coke as well as chromium, mica, nickel, precious metals, and aluminum, Molybdenum, titanium, lead and zinc production chain products.

Iran exported 8.27 million tons of crude steel and its products, worth $3.128 billion in the 11-month period. The volume of the export products rose by 34 percent, meanwhile its value increased by 20 percent.

The country exported 12.9 million tons of cement, worth $482 million, 4 and 1 percent more respectively, year-on-year.

Export of aluminium chain products reached 175,598 tons, worth $316 million (up 33 percent in terms of volume and up 40 percent in terms of value).

Iran exported 383,733 tons of copper products, worth $431.3 million in the 11-month period, which was 50 and 35 percent less in terms of volume and value, respectively.

The Islamic Republic also imported $5.024 billion worth of mineral industry products in the period, 34 percent more year-on-year.

However, the volume of the imports increased by 75 percent to 10.043 million in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined the importance of the South-West transit corridor during the press conference following a quadrilateral meeting with counterparts from Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

We believe that this is a historic opportunity for us to start something that will be in the interest of stability and economic development of the region, he said.

The transit corridor is an import corridor that will link not only our four countries together but it will also provide access from the Indian Ocean to the Black Sea as well as to the Mediterranean Sea that would basically facilitate connectivity between the two very important parts of the world, he added.

The minister further touched upon efforts to complete the railway network connecting Iran to Azerbaijan.

We have completed the agreement between Iran and Azerbaijan to finish about 180 kilometers of the railway to connect Astara and Rasht and that would connect basically the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea and it will be finalized within three years, he said.

In the next meeting we have already decided to work on working groups to deal with specific areas of cooperation including transport and transit, energy cooperation, tourism, he added.

Speaking about Baku statement, he said this is a roadmap for the future cooperation and we will have joint working groups and joint task forces in order to move the process forward.An investment business holding company, Georgia Capital of BGEO Group will invest $500 million "over the next few years in Georgia, of which Eurobonds worth of $300 million has already been listed and traded on the Irish Stock Exchange, Agenda reports.

Georgia Capital plans to invest the attracted funds to Georgian companies operating in various fields of Georgias economy.

"It is very exciting that a new investment of $300 million will flow into the countrys strategically important fields such as tourism, energy and real estate. It is welcomed that a non-governmental non-financial Georgian company has listed Eurobond and attracted $300 million, said Georgias Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili at the presentation of investment plans of Georgia Capital that was held today.

While delivering his speech at the presentation, Kvirikashvili accented the increased volume of foreign direct investments (FDIs) in Georgia. He said the economic development model implemented by the government was successful and this was proved by the recent statistics of FDI.

"An absolutely correct course is being taken for improving our business environment. FDI grew by 16.2 percent and reached $1.862 billion, which is an impressive number. We are also delighted that the reinvestment has been increased by 130 percent  about $712 million has been reinvested. This amount of money would flow out from the country if not for the growing economy (4.8 percent economic growth) and profit tax reform, Kvirikashvili said.

PM Kvirikashvili also announced that the Global rating agency Fitch Ratings had revised Georgias outlook from stable to positive.

"Recently Moody improved Georgia's credit rating from Ba 3 to Ba 2, while today it was announced that Fitch Ratings has changed Georgias outlook from stable to positive, Kvirikashvili said.Germany said on Thursday that any escalation of U.S. President Donald Trumps tariffs on metal imports into a full-blown trade war could cause tangible damage to the global recovery, although the tariffs themselves should have only a limited effect, Reuters reports.

Trump last week ordered the imposition of duties on incoming steel and aluminum and threatened to levy a tax on European cars if the European Union did not remove horrific tariffs and trade barriers on a range of goods.

The German economic upswing is continuing at the beginning of 2018. The global economic environment is still favorable, the Economy Ministry said in its monthly report. But it said U.S. trade policies were creating a sense of uncertainty.

The tariffs on steel and aluminum will affect trade flows in some regions, but their overall implications for the global economy are likely to be manageable, it said.

But a possible escalation into a trade war and rising uncertainty among market participants could cause tangible damage, it added.

European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday urged the United States to revive trade talks rather than escalate a dispute over tariffs on metals and cars.

And Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Thursday that U.S. protectionism could be a threat to the export-dependent Swiss economy and trigger safe-haven flows that would drive up the value of the Swiss currency.

Germanys new economy minister, Peter Altmaier, said Trump was challenging the multilateral trade system as defined by the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

We are at a very important crossroads, Altmaier said, warning of a scenario in which countries could start a spiral of tit-for-tat trade restrictions.

This is a really huge challenge with implications for all of us, Altmaier added. He said consumers in all countries would end up footing the bill because tariffs would push up prices for many kinds of products.

The threat of a full-blown trade war will also be on the agenda of the G20 meeting in Argentina, where finance ministers and central bank governors from the worlds 20 biggest economies meet from March 17 to 20.

Germanys new finance minister, Olaf Scholz, will meet his U.S. counterpart Steven Mnuchin on Sunday or Monday on the sidelines of the meeting to discuss trade, banking regulation and other issues, senior German officials said on Thursday.

The minister will have bilateral meetings with all G7 counterparts, one of the officials said, on condition of anonymity, adding that multilateral trade would certainly be a big topic at the G20 meeting.

The taxation of profits from digital business and regulation of crypto currencies will also be in focus, the official added.Belarus and Israel intend to maintain an active dialogue in politics, economy and IT, Belarus' Ambassador to Israel Vladimir Skvortsov told BelTA when commenting on the meeting with Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alexander Ben-Zvi.

A number of priorities of the Belarusian-Israeli cooperation were discussed during the meeting. We welcomed the intensification of interparliamentary dialogue between the two countries in 2018, as evidenced by the visits by representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus to Israel in February and March and their meetings with colleagues in the Knesset. The mutual intention to raise the level and intensity of political dialogue between the two countries was confirmed during the meeting, Ambassador Vladimir Skvortsov noted.

Vladimir Skvortsov and Alexander Ben Zvi noted the productive bilateral consultations held by the foreign ministries and their specialized units in 2017 in three different formats, including ministerial political negotiations. The parties stressed the mutual interest in continuing the practice of holding consultations of experts in specific areas of cooperation this year.

Trade and economic relations were another topic of the discussion. The parties reviewed the preparations for the sixth meeting of the joint Belarusian-Israeli committee on trade and economic cooperation. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Israel in May 2018. According to Vladimir Skvortsov, the protocol of the fifth meeting held in Minsk a year ago has been almost fulfilled. This allows the two countries to move forward in a number of areas that have investment and innovative potential. The head of the Belarusian diplomatic mission believes that the matter should top the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the intergovernmental commission.

Vladimir Skvortsov updated the deputy director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the digital economy ordinance and the advantages it provides to IT business. The progressive legislation adopted in the country will give a new powerful impetus to the dynamically developing interaction between the two countries in the field of information technology, the ambassador said.

Alexander Ben-Zvi named the areas of trade and economic cooperation, which seem to be most promising from the point of view of Israeli partners and which should make part of the agenda of the forthcoming meeting.A visiting top United Nations official on Thursday met Zimbabwean foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo to discuss the world body's support to Zimbabwe's upcoming polls, Xinhua reports.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) administrator Achim Steiner told journalists after the meeting that the UN was committed to supporting Zimbabwe's efforts to hold free and fair elections and achieve economic growth.

"We are very much committed to the success of this election as we are committed also to the economic recovery of Zimbabwe as a nation in terms of its macro-economic indicators," Steiner said.

He said the UN was pleased to provide Zimbabwe with technical support for the crucial polls, which comes after the resignation of former president Robert Mugabe last November.

"We are very proud and pleased to be part of efforts to support the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) not only on the technical side but also on public outreach, voter education and many of the elements that are essential to make this a successful election," he said.

Already, the UNDP has provided support to ZEC to conduct bio-metric voter registration under which 5.3 million Zimbabweans have so far registered for the polls.

Steiner's visit is the first by a UN official since the end of Mugabe's presidency.

Zimbabwean elections are expected to be held no later than August 21 this year.Russia runs no risks by selling air defense systems S-400 to Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the forum Russia - a Country of Opportunities on Thursday, TASS reports.

"I dont think we should feel any fears here," he said.

"The agreements that have been achieved on Syria are unprecedented. We managed to unite three players who have very different vision of the situation in Syria and who pursue very different aims in the region - Russia, Turkey and Iran. But the awareness we all live side by side and should respect each others interests and seek agreements that will enable us to pursue along this foreign policy track in a way that will prevent these interests from colliding but ensure they can be reconciled somehow is a greatest achievement," Lavrov said.

In particular, Lavrov said that the policy of strategic partnership pursued by the Russian and Turkish leadership testified to the "wisdom of the leaders who make such decisions."

"Turkey is our neighbor. Quarreling with neighbors is wrong. This is a profound conviction of mine. Equally wrong is setting neighbors against each other," Lavrov said.

"The projects we have been working on with Turkey in the trading and economic sphere (Turkish Stream and nuclear power plant project) - are long-term undertakings designed to last for years and decades, and the economic basis, as we have seen in a number of other regions, are the best guarantee to ensure countries should work together and never plunge into confrontation that nobody needs," Lavrov concluded.

In November 2016, there were reports Turkey and Russia were in talks over an S-400 export deal. Russia confirmed the conclusion of the contract on September 12, 2017. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan then said that a deposit had been paid. Turkey will become the first NATO member-country to have purchased the S-400 system from Russia. There has been no confirmation from official sources of the number of S-400 sets to be provided.

Earlier, Russian presidential aide for military-technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said the contract to deliver S-400 systems to Turkey would begin to be implemented at the beginning of 2020.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold a meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Hulusi Akar, Turkish media reported on March 15.

Reportedly, Erdogan's meeting with Akar will take place today. They are expected to mull the military Operation Olive Branch.

Erdogan will also today meet with Head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization Hakan Fidan.

The General Staff of Turkey announced on March 13 about complete encirclement 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 in 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Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey will export domestic drones "Bayraktar2" to Qatar, Turkish media reported on March 15.

A relevant agreement was signed within the framework of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference DIMDEX.

In January-February 2018, Turkey exported defense products worth $ 7.9 million to Qatar.

From 2011, Turkey has set up the production of mobile outposts that proved effective in fight against the militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and also the Canik TP9 handguns, unmanned ANKA aircraft and other military equipment to strengthen the domestic defense industry.

Turkey is also developing a domestic combat laser system.

Earlier, the trials of the domestic-made long-range surface-to-surface missiles have also been conducted in Turkey.

The new rocket, named KAAN was launched from a firing ground in the province of Sinop in the north of Turkey and having flown 280 kilometers in the given direction, fell in the Black Sea.

The KAAN rocket system, produced by the company "Roketsan", was first demonstrated at the International Defense Industry Fair IDEF-2017 in Istanbul.Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the U.S. scheduled for March 19 this year has been postponed, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a message March 15.

The visit was postponed because of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to fire Rex Tillerson from the post of the U.S. secretary of state. CIA Director Mike Pompeo replaced him in position.

During the visit, Cavusoglu was supposed to hold talks with Tillerson as part of their meeting in Washington on March 19.

The sides planned to discuss bilateral relations, the situation in Syria, and the Operation Olive Branch.

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 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Since the beginning of the Operation Olive Branch, 3,524 terrorists have been killed in Syrias Afrin, the Turkish General Staff said in a message March 15.

In particular, 80 terrorists have been recently killed in Afrin.

The General Staff of Turkey announced on March 13 about complete encirclement 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 in 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Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish Armed Forces have liberated more than 70 percent of Syrias Afrin, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said, t.

In the coming days, Afrin may be completely liberated from terrorists, the Turkish media quoted him as saying March 15.

He noted that in the ranks of the PYD/YPG terrorists, there are many citizens of Europe and the U.S. taking part in the fighting against Turkish Armed Forces.

On March 13, the Turkish General Staff said that Turkish Armed Forces and Free Syrian Army completely encircled 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KYODO NEWS - Mar 15, 2018 - 17:41 | Feature, All

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a U.S.-based father seeking to return his 13-year-old son brought by the mother to Japan, overturning a lower court ruling against the father's request.

The top court made the first decision on cases in which the return of a child has yet to take place despite a finalized Japanese court order to take the child back based on the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The Supreme Court's First Petty Branch said it sees "clear illegality" in the mother's failure to comply with the order and sent the case back to the Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch for further deliberation with a hearing from the child.

The top court ruled that it is illegal that a parent does not comply with a court order to return a child that is made based on the Hague treaty unless the circumstances are exceptional.

The boy was born and raised in the United States, while his parents are both Japanese. A cross-border child custody battle began after the mother left their residence in the United States and returned to Japan with their son in 2016.

Last November, the high court branch rejected the father's plea to take the son back to the United States, the boy's former habitual residence, saying the custody transfer was against his will.

The Hague treaty sets out rules and procedures for the prompt return to the country of habitual residence of children under 16 taken or retained by one parent as a result of failed marriages, if requested by the other parent.

The pact stipulates that if a parent takes a child to another member state, a judgment as to which one of the parents is to take care for the child should be made in principle after returning the child to the country of his or her former habitual residence. Japan joined the convention in 2014.

Based on the treaty, the Tokyo Family Court ordered the mother to return the son to the United States and it was finalized in November 2016. But when enforcement officers visited the home of the mother and the child in Japan, the mother refused to let him go.

The situation prompted the father to file a habeas corpus appeal with the Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch, but it rejected his claim, saying, "Custody transfer is against the son's will and the Hague Convention does not influence judgment on a habeas corpus petition."

Filing a habeas corpus petition is the process to restore liberty of a person unlawfully deprived of it under Japan's Habeas Corpus Act. If a court judges a case as the illegal detention of a person, the court orders the detainer to release the person.

In cases of a child custody battle, a parent who refuses to bring his or her child to the court is subject to imprisonment or fines.

A parent can file the petition with either regional or high court and if she or he is dissatisfied with the court's judgment, an appeal to the Supreme Court is possible.

As of the end of February, there were six cases in which the return of a child has yet to take place despite a court order to take the child back based on the Hague Convention, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

At the top court, the mother has argued the son wishes to stay in Japan and lawyers representing the son have submitted a similar written statement.KYODO NEWS - Mar 15, 2018 - 14:59 | All, Feature

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is considering abolishing a legal clause demanding broadcasters ensure political fairness, claiming it would spur competition and diversify programs, an internal document obtained by Kyodo News showed Thursday.

By loosening regulations for TV and radio programs, the government aims to help more businesses enter into the broadcasting market, but the envisioned overhaul is likely to spark controversy as broadcasters with strong party colors could be established.

The government plans to abolish Article 4 of Japan's broadcasting law, which provides that a broadcaster shall not negatively influence public safety and morals, shall be politically fair, shall not distort the facts and shall clarify the points at issue from as many angles as possible where there are conflicting opinions.

But a senior official of a private broadcaster expressed caution about removing the clause, saying, "The government is probably hoping to create a broadcaster that speaks for the administration."

Due to various views surrounding Article 4, it remains unknown whether the government will actually be able to abolish the clause.

Article 4 was also often used by politicians and bureaucrats to pressure broadcasters airing programs critical of the government as the Internal Affairs and Communications minister can, according to government interpretations, suspend the use of radio waves or take other administrative measures if broadcasters are deemed to have violated the provision.

While some in the broadcasting industry favor the abolition of the article for fear of potential abuses, others are concerned about possibly more diversified but one-sided programs.

In the United States, TV and radio programs are said to have developed stronger party colors, aiding a social division in the country after the principle of broadcasting fairness was abolished in 1987.

According to the document, the government will unify different regulations currently applied to online and conventional broadcasters. A simple copyright procedure currently allowed for conventional broadcasters will be expanded for online ones.

As for Japan's public broadcaster NHK, also known as Japan Broadcasting Corp., program editing disciplines will be maintained, while it will be permitted to simultaneously broadcast its programs both on TV and the internet.

Under the plan, businesses dealing with program editing or other content services and others handling broadcasting equipment will be completely separated. Different legal systems will be applied according to functions such as video transmission, rather than traditional business sectors.

The reform "will create a growth market where a variety of broadcasters can offer attractive programs to consumers by competing with one another," the document said.

It is believed the government has an idea of letting existing broadcasters return part of the radio waves they were allocated, as the document touched on "the establishment of a program distribution network with reduced dependence on radio wave broadcasting so that waves, an asset for people, could be better utilized."

Since January, Abe has repeatedly spoken about "the need to drastically review the broadcasting business." The Cabinet Office's regulatory reform promotion council is considering an overhaul and its policy proposal is expected to be compiled in a report around May.KYODO NEWS - Mar 15, 2018 - 16:25 | All, Japan

A Japanese district court on Thursday ordered the state and the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to pay damages to evacuees over the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

The Kyoto District Court ordered the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. to pay 110 million yen ($1.04 million) in damages to 110 of 174 plaintiffs who fled Fukushima and other prefectures to Kyoto, in most cases, voluntarily. The plaintiffs were seeking a total of around 846.6 million yen.

The ruling is the fifth among approximately 30 similar lawsuits filed across Japan and the third in which a court found both the state and Tepco liable. The plaintiffs are set to appeal the ruling as the claims made by 64 of them were rejected.

The focal points of the case were whether and to what extent the state and Tepco can be held responsible for taking measures against tsunami as well as how dangerous low-dose radiation exposure was in areas where the plaintiffs lived before the crisis.

Presiding Judge Nobuyoshi Asami said in the ruling that the government was able, to some extent, to foresee a tsunami and it breached the law by failing to order Tepco to take measures against such a natural disaster.

"It is highly likely that the accident could have been avoided if the state had exerted its regulatory authority over Tepco by the end of 2006," the judge said.

He also said that even if the plaintiffs' evacuation was not based on government instructions, a decision to flee voluntarily depending on individual circumstances at that time is "considered rational according to common wisdom."

On the danger of low-dose radiation exposure, the court said, "Its impact on human health is unclear as many factors (about the danger) are still scientifically uncertain."

Instead of using the uncertain impact of the exposure as criteria to determine whether evacuation was necessary, the court assessed each case by taking into account the place of a plaintiff's residence, the time of evacuation and whether there were accompanying children. The court then acknowledged a link between the accident and damages incurred up to two years after evacuation.

The plaintiffs in the Kyoto suit evacuated from Fukushima, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba prefectures. Among them, 29 were living outside the area in which residents were designated to receive compensation from Tepco.

They demanded 5.5 million yen each in principle, arguing they were compelled to evacuate voluntarily without the state's instruction due to concerns about radiation exposure and the related impact on their health.

Atsuko Fukushima, a 46-year-old co-representative of the plaintiffs said, "The ruling made it concrete that the state cannot avert its responsibility. It's a big step forward."

"I want the state to sincerely face disaster victims to resolve the issue," she added.

The plaintiffs claimed Tepco failed to take precautionary measures despite it being able to predict potential tsunami damage based on the government's long-term assessment of earthquakes released in 2002. They also claimed the government did not order the company to rectify the situation.

But the state and Tepco maintained they were not able to foresee the tsunami.

A Maebashi District Court ruling in March last year and a Fukushima District Court decision in October acknowledged both the state's and Tepco's liability, but a Chiba District Court ruling in September ordered that only Tepco should pay damages.

Rulings on similar lawsuits filed with the Tokyo District Court and the Iwaki branch of the Fukushima District Court are expected to be handed down on Friday this week and Thursday next week, respectively.KYODO NEWS - Mar 15, 2018 - 19:19 | World, All

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was on Thursday en route to Sweden, which represents U.S. interests in Pyongyang, for talks with his Swedish counterpart Margot Wallstrom, the Scandinavian country's Foreign Ministry said.

The two ministers are likely to discuss issues such as North Korea's ongoing detention of three U.S. citizens ahead of the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"The talks will focus on Sweden's consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia," the ministry said, adding Ri and Wallstrom "will also address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula."

Ri arrived Thursday in Beijing by air from Pyongyang. A car belonging to the Swedish Embassy in China appeared at Beijing International Airport immediately after his arrival, leading to speculation that Swedish officials held talks with Ri there.

It is the first time a minister-level official of North Korea has made a public appearance outside the country since the White House announcement last week that Trump has agreed to hold a summit with Kim by May.

Ri is scheduled to arrive in Stockholm later in the day and be in Sweden through Friday, the ministry added.

Meanwhile, Choe Kang Il, a North Korean official in charge of negotiations with the United States, also arrived in Beijing on Thursday.

It remains unclear why Choe, deputy director general for North American affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, was in the Chinese capital. A source close to the matter said he may make contact with the United States in a third-party country.

In 2015, North Korea arrested Kim Dong Chul, a Korean-American man, on suspicion of espionage.

Last year, the country detained other U.S. citizens -- Kim Hak Song, who had worked at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, and Kim Sang Dok, who was invited to the same university to teach accounting.

They have been accused of "hostile acts" against North Korea.

Sweden, one of the current nonpermanent members of the U.N. Security Council, has diplomatic ties with North Korea, but the United States does not.KYODO NEWS - Mar 15, 2018 - 11:07 | World, All

Japan and South Korea held security talks for the first time in three years in Tokyo on Thursday, exchanging views on North Korea and the rest of the security situation in Northeast Asia.

The 11th round of the talks follows the South Korean government's announcement that Kim Jong Un has expressed a readiness to discuss denuclearization.

A summit is planned in late April between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In, with another between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump to follow.

The Japanese and South Korean officials may discuss how they would cooperate on security in the event that dialogue with North Korea goes poorly and tensions on the Korean Peninsula heighten.

Japan is represented by Kenji Kanasugi, head of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, while South Korea is represented by Kim Yong Kil, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau.

Shuji Yuge and Park Chul Kyun, international policy officials at the Japanese and South Korean defense ministries, are among the other participants.

The last round of the talks, which began in 1998, was held in Seoul in April 2015.Black fungus infection again in Kerala, 38-year-old woman in Kochi undergoing treatment

Black fungus or Mucormycosis is a rare infection that has been found to affect people on medication or with health issues resulting in poor immunity.Physician-researchers from the Cardiac Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) presented new findings on pediatric cardiovascular disease at the American College of Cardiology's 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018 in Orlando, Fla. Among many abstracts presented were emergency department visits in patients with congenital heart disease, social risk factors for readmission, factors predicting mortality after prolonged critical illness and more.

Modifiable Factors Predict Mortality After Prolonged Critical Illness Following Congenital Heart Surgery

Patients who suffer prolonged critical illness (PCI) after congenital heart surgery are at high risk for mortality, yet the extent to which mortality after critical illness is preventable remains unknown. The researchers aimed to determine the modifiable and non-modifiable factors predicting mortality for patients with PCI after heart surgery at hospitals in the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium (PC4). The team performed an observational analysis of the PC4 clinical registry of all admissions to the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) after congenital heart surgery from August 2014 to December 2016, stratified into neonates (under 28 days) and non-neonates, and defined PCI as length of stay greater than the 90th percentile. The primary outcome was death prior to discharge from CICU. Of the 13,106 surgical episodes from 23 hospitals, the final cohort was 242 neonates and 1,184 non-neonates with PCI. Of these, 57 (24 percent) neonates and 92 (8 percent) non-neonates died in the CICU. Mechanical ventilation days, cardiac arrest, renal replacement therapy and unplanned re-operation independently predicted mortality in both groups. Time to freedom of vasoactives predicted mortality in neonates, while nitric oxide use, pre-operative comorbidities and mechanical circulatory support predicted mortality in non-neonates. Prematurity, extra-cardiac and chromosomal abnormalities, and surgical complexity were not associated with mortality in either cohort. Complications and prolonged critical care therapy drive mortality after PCI more than innate patient characteristics, particularly in neonates. Aaron Dewitt et al. "Modifiable Factors Predict Mortality After Prolonged Critical Illness Following Congenital Heart Surgery" presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018. This abstract was selected as the Best Poster.

Smaller aortic isthmus size is associated with earlier surgical timing in complete common atrioventricular canal defects

Complete common atrioventricular canal (CAVC) heart defects are common, but data is limited regarding the relationship between patient-specific pre-operative characteristics and operative timing. The research team performed a retrospective, single-center review of all patients who underwent primary biventricular repair for complete CAVC defects between 2006 and 2015. Surgeons performed complete CAVC repair in 153 subjects at a mean age of 102 days. Aortic isthmus z-score on initial echocardiogram, pre-operative admission for heart failure, need for supplemental nutrition and lower birth weight were associated with earlier surgical repair. Evaluating early versus late repair, only aortic isthmus dimension was significant. Down syndrome, prematurity, use of diuretics, pre-operative atrioventricular valve regurgitation and aortic annulus size were not associated with surgical timing. Smaller aortic isthmus size, even without coarctation, is an important predictor of earlier surgical repair in complete CAVC. Although the timing of repair of CAVC is dependent on many factors, the relationship between aortic isthmus z-score and timing of surgery suggests that this measurement may be useful for providers in their initial counseling of families with regard to surgical timing. Danielle Burstein et al. "Smaller aortic isthmus size is associated with earlier surgical timing in complete common atrioventricular canal defects," presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018.

Emergency Department Visits Among Children with Congenital Heart Disease in the US

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) represent a medically complex population at increased risk for morbidity, mortality and resource utilization compared to those without CHD. The research team performed an analysis of data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample for 2006 to 2014. Patients age up to and including 18 years old with CHD were placed in one of three categories: simple CHD (atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, atrioventricular canal defect); single ventricle; and other complex CHD. During the study time period, there were 41,196-48,501 annual CHD-related ED visits. Compared with non-CHD visits, those with CHD were more likely to be under one year of age, in an urban environment, in a teaching hospital and to pay with Medicaid. The most common presenting complaint was acute respiratory disease. More than 35 percent of CHD patients presenting to the ED had one or more complex chronic condition. Those with CHD were more likely to be admitted, and had higher median ED charges. Mortality was higher for CHD patients. Over nine years, there was an increase in median ED charge, while the mortality rate for CHD ED presentations decreased. This study better elucidates the number of CHD patients seen in the ED, details their medical complexity, examines risk factors for presentation to the ED and inpatient admission over time and describes temporal trends with respect to cost and mortality. Jonathan B. Edelson et al. "Emergency Department Visits Among Children with Congenital Heart Disease in the United States from 2006 to 2014," presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018

Predictive Model Identifies Patients Under Age One with a High Risk of Developing Hospital-Acquired Thrombosis

Hospital-acquired venous thrombosis (HAT) in children with congenital and acquired heart disease may be life-threatening. Children under age one are at highest risk and strategies to prevent HAT are lacking. The researchers performed a cohort study to develop a risk prediction model for HAT in babies by examining all admissions to the Cardiac Center at CHOP from September 2013 through December 2016 in infants less than one year of age during which a new HAT developed. Controls included all admissions without thrombosis in patients under one year of age for the same time period. Of the 1995 admissions, HAT developed in 83. Patients with prior thrombosis, younger age, chylothorax, single ventricle physiology, cardiac surgery, sepsis, central venous catheter and femoral catheter site were at highest risk. From this data, a risk prediction model was created with greater than 50 percent sensitivity and 97 percent specificity. Of patients identified by the model, over 50 percent went on to develop HAT. This model will inform further studies using prophylaxis with anticoagulants in infants with high risk of HAT. Therese M. Giglia, Leslie Raffini, et al. "Predictive Model for Hospital-Acquired Thrombosis in Pediatric Cardiac Patients Under One Year of Age," presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018.

Social Risk Factors Impact Hospital Readmission for Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Prolonged hospitalization and readmission for children with congenital heart disease (CHD) can increase risk for infection, impede development and increase costs. Social determinants of hospitalization and readmission are known for adult cardiac patients, but not for children with CHD, who are particularly vulnerable to the developmental impacts of hospitalization. The researchers examined records for 219 patients who underwent infant cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Cumulative social risk (racial/ethnic minority, Medicaid insurance, non-English speaking, maternal age at birth, regional socioeconomic status, distance from an outpatient cardiology clinic) was divided into high social risk vs low social risk, and risk of morbidity by procedure was ranked. Social risk groups did not differ on presence of genetic syndrome or single ventricle physiology. Interactions between social risk and morbidity score were identified for number of readmissions to age one and readmission days to age two. Comparisons showed that at low morbidity scores, patients with high social risk had more readmissions and greater number of readmission days than those at low social risk. High social risk also predicted significantly worse adherence to cardiology appointments and lower developmental scores. Social risk factors impact readmission rates and days for CHD patients with low risk of morbidity by procedure. Abby Demianczyk, et al. "Social Risk Factors Impact Hospital Readmission for Children with Congenital Heart Disease," presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018.

Chronotropic Response Predicts Exercise Performance in Children and Adolescents with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot

The determinants of exercise performance in tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) are not well understood. The research team retrospectively analyzed a cross-sectional cohort of patients with TOF and evaluated the association of heart rate reserve with measures of exercise performance in a cohort of 152 patients with TOF, ages 8 to 18 years, who were studied prospectively by cardiac magnetic resonance and exercise stress test. The analysis showed that greater heart rate reserve was associated with better percent-predicted maximum oxygen consumption (%mVO2) and percent-predicted maximum work. This association remained significant after adjusting for indexed right ventricle end diastolic volume and left ventricular stroke volume. In the analysis of subjects that achieved a maximal effort on exercise testing, the only significant predictor of %mVO2 was left ventricular stroke volume. Heart rate reserve is an important contributor to exercise performance in patients with TOF during submaximal exercise, independent of right ventricle volume. Shivani M. Bhatt, et al. "Chronotropic Response Predicts Exercise Performance in Children and Adolescents with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot," presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018.

Comparing Resource Utilization Among Pediatric Heart Transplant Indications Using a Novel, Merged Data Set

The recent UNOS-PHIS database merger enables novel analyses of inpatient management for pediatric heart transplant recipients. This study evaluated the variation in resource utilization among differing transplant indications using UNOS-PHIS data. The research team retrospectively analyzed a merged UNOS-PHIS cohort of pediatric heart transplant recipients from participating centers between 2004 and 2015. Patients were categorized as congenital heart disease (CHD), myocarditis and cardiomyopathy based on the UNOS-defined primary indication for first heart transplant. Of 2,264 pediatric heart transplants (1,106 CHD, 106 myocarditis, 1,039 cardiomyopathy), CHD recipients were younger and less likely to have a ventricular assist device at the time of transplant. Most transplants (86 percent) occurred at centers performing more than 10 pediatric heart transplants annually. Post-transplant length of stay, ICU resource utilization and mechanical ventilation were all longer in CHD than myocarditis or cardiomyopathy. Post-transplant costs were higher for CHD compared to myocarditis and cardiomyopathy, primarily driven by longer length of stay. Congenital heart disease is associated with increased resource utilization and costs during the first year post-HTx compared to cardiomyopathy and myocarditis. Danielle Burstein et al. "Comparing resource utilization among pediatric heart transplant indications using a novel, merged data set from the United Network for Organ Sharing and the Pediatric Health Information Systems (UNOS-PHIS) databases," presented at the American College of Cardiology 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 546-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu

###Cybersecurity

Lawmakers look to boost Energy's cybersecurity role

To protect the energy sector and other critical infrastructure against cyber threats, lawmakers are looking to boost the Department of Energy's cybersecurity role and questioned the future role of its new cybersecurity office.

Government needs to "make sure we're doing everything we can to protect our electric grid" and the energy sector as a whole from emerging threats and emergencies as they arise, said Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) at a March 14 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

Energy undersecretary Mark Menezes testified that the biggest concern facing the department is "cybersecurity, clearly."

"Our system is becoming more and more open," Menezes said. "We're increasing the flexibility of our grid to make it more resilient, but every time we make it smarter, [it increases the attack surface]."

The White House's fiscal year 2019 budget request proposed a slight funding bump for Energy's overall number, including $96 million to stand up new cyber office  the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.

Menezes provided members with some specifics about the future of the department's new cyber office, as well as the department's cybersecurity priorities, emphasizing the creation of the new office -- and its absorption of other Energy programs -- is "just an initial step."

Menezes wants the office's priorities to be sharing vulnerability information with industry, engaging in training programs for the future cyber workforce and building towards countering cyber threats with artificial intelligence.

Patricia Hoffman, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, said that in partnering and sharing information with industry "as quickly as possible," the ability to respond to cyber incidents and to prevent cyberattacks from progressing is "the next phase we must advance in."

In addition to information sharing with industry and incident response, Hoffman said the office's top cyber priority is the development of a future workforce, adding that Energy has partnered with universities to build a cybersecurity workforce pipeline.

Committee members have introduced bills aimed at boosting the department's cybersecurity role with private industry and state and local governments, plus its ability to work and share information with the private sector.

The Energy Emergency Leadership Act, sponsored by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), which specifies Energy's functions in protecting infrastructure in emergency situations and providing technical support upon request from government and private entities.

Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) introduced the Cyber Sense Act , to promote the use of cybersecure products in interconnected electrical systems.IT Modernization

White House-backed IT modernization push makes first contract awards

The General Services Administration picked the vendors who will support a White House-backed plan to centralize modernization best practices.

The awards, announced March 14, are the result of a process launched with an October 2017 request for information by GSA on behalf of the Office of American Innovation and continued with a White House industry day in December.

The awards "mark a major milestone in implementing the administrations far-reaching federal IT modernization effort," Joanne Collins Smee, acting director of GSAs Technology Transformation Services and deputy commissioner of the agency's Federal Acquisition Service said in the statement.

"This is a significant step forward in the government's commitment to improve citizens' lives," said Chris Liddell, assistant to the president, director of the American Technology Council and a member of the OAI.

The awards support the first phase of work at five IT Modernization Centers of Excellence. Work will begin at the Department of Agriculture, which was selected as the government's "lighthouse" agency.

SIE Consulting Group will be working on cloud adoption, McKinsey & Company is tackling infrastructure optimization, ICF Inc. won two contracts for customer experience and service delivery analytics, while Kaiser Associates was awarded a contact center contract.

GSA named Bob DeLuca to run operations at the centers of excellence. DeLuca served most recently as CIO of the federal governments Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which helps American companies invest in emerging markets overseas.Oversight

IG: Interior unprepared for cyber threats

The Department of Interior is vulnerable to the theft of sensitive data, unprepared to detect and deal with cyber threats and failing to keep users on its computer network from visiting downloading materials from  illicit websites, according to a new watchdog report.

During testing at a U.S. Geological Survey facility as part of a department-wide audit, Interior's inspector general identified a "workstation attempting to communicate with IP addresses of known malware command and control website in Russia." The machine, Interior later determined, had been compromised.

Auditors found one Interior network user "had been frequenting websites that hosted pornography" and downloading and saving material from the sites to an external drive.

They also found users on the U.S. Geological Survey network were "actively streaming pirated media from Russian and Ukrainian websites."

Inappropriate and risky network behavior occurred undetected, auditors found, due to deficiencies and inconsistencies in Interior's Office of the CIO incident response program.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the findings "are symptomatic of a much broader problem," pointing to the White House's proposed multi-billion-dollar cuts to many civilian agencies.

"Our country faces an increasing number of sophisticated cyberattacks, so it is critical that the federal government increase the funding and investments we need to secure our IT systems at both our defense and civilian agencies," Cummings said.

As part of its assessment, auditors simulated cyberattacks to access Interior's networks. And while OCIO's incident response tools detected "many" of the tests, "hundreds of thousands" of alerts went unnoticed by OCIO staff because they did not review some enterprise security tools for two weeks, auditors stated.

Due to slow or nonexistent responses to security alerts, sensitive data could be stolen without detection, and risks are not quickly contained or eradicated, auditors stated.

Additionally, auditors reported that OCIO and Interior staff did not investigate "blocked potential threats or inappropriate user behavior" because OCIO's cybersecurity operations group "had been instructed to focus on widespread or confirmed incidents" instead.

"OCIO's blocking of anomalous traffic from bureau computer networks without alerting the affected bureau of the potential cyber threat directly led to multiple compromised machines remaining on the Department's network for an indeterminate amount of time," the report states.

Further, auditors reported that OCIO's cybersecurity operations team "was not privy to" the department's high-value IT asset list "due to its sensitive nature."

Since those responsible for securing Interior's IT resources could not access the list, "incident response teams could not focus their resources where they were most needed," the report states.

Auditors made 23 recommendations to improve Interior's incident response program and internal controls. Among them are requiring all security incidents to be tracked in a single enterprise system, developing a department-wide policy to address and monitor inappropriate internet usage, as well as the complete replacing or redesigning of the incident tracking system.

Interior concurred with the recommendations, and provided target completion dates.Cybersecurity

U.S. hits back at Russian spies, cyber groups

The U.S. executed its most significant retaliation to date against the Russian government and related cyber organizations on March 15, levying economic sanctions against five entities and 19 individuals through the Treasury Department and formally outing Russia as the sponsor of Dragonfly, an advanced persistent threat hacking group that has been targeting federal agencies and critical infrastructure in the U.S. and Europe before and after the 2016 elections.

Treasury designated five organizations for economic sanctions under authorities derived from the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act as well as Executive Order 13694 issued under President Barack Obama in 2015. The sanctions affect officials from two Russian intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Services and Main Directorate Unit as well as employees from the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation.

"The Administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing the sanctions. "These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia."

Mnuchin also said that Treasury intends to impose additional sanctions in the future on Russian government officials and businessmen.

On the same day, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI updated a joint technical alert on cyberattacks on U.S. government and critical infrastructure entities, attributing a host of ongoing attacks to Russia. An earlier version of the alert was issued in October 2017. The updated alert firmly links Dragonfly to the Russian government and provides more details around the strategies the group has been using to attack its targets.

Congressional Democrats welcomed the sanctions but criticized the Trump administration for not moving quicker or going far enough. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, released a statement saying the administration "has finally come to its senses" and the findings reinforce the need for additional security measures ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said the move was long overdue but does not go far enough.

"Nearly all of the entities and individuals who were sanctioned today were either previously under sanction during the Obama Administration, or had already been charged with federal crimes by the Special Counsel," Warner said.

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, was even more critical, calling the economic sanctions and joint technical alert "woefully inadequate."

"Sanctioning individuals already under indictment thanks to Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not going to change Russia's behavior," Langevin said. "Relisting Russian intelligence agencies already sanctioned under different authority will not deter them."Procurement

Why acquisition reform is about more than OTAs

Acquisition reform will take more than creative regulatory workarounds if the Defense Department is going to truly modernize and advance, said Air Force Materiel Commander Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski.

Speaking at a March 14 Air Force Association event, Pawlikowski called other transaction authorities (OTAs), a legal workaround to traditional acquisition processes endorsed in the 2016 defense spending bill, the latest buzzword that requires both a major culture change and better industry-government collaboration to work well.

First of all we need to both understand what an other transaction authority means and not to expect more than what we can get out of them, she said.

Pawlikowski said shes seen four waves of acquisition reform over her career. But to keep up with software advances, she said, the Defense Department is going to need more than other transaction authorities.

"We have to truly embrace this idea of experimentation in prototyping," she said. "Recognizing that we will spend money to build things that we will never buy because we will find out early it doesn't do what we really want.  Money spent on things that we try and dont adopt -- that will be more than recouped."

Pawlikowski also said government's insistence on owning the technical baseline, namely data or intellectual property, is ultimately suffocating for innovation limits the effectiveness of OTAs.

If we think that in order for us to own the technical baseline, we have to have that data then we will shut out that opportunity to have innovation, she said, noting that for many small businesses, intellectual property is often their entire business. Such firms cant survive if theyre locked into giving up those rights to the government.

"We have to close that requirements loop decision process as much as we do the acquisition process, Pawlikowski said.

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on emerging threats March 14, the Acting Assistant Defense Secretary for Research and Engineering Mary Miller made a similar point. Overly rigid or poorly crafted acquisition requirements can be antithetical to warfighter needs, Miller said.

"Sometimes we get requirements that were given to acquisition that aren't really what the warfighter wants," Miller told the committee. "And the experimentation venues that the undersecretariat was given, the ability to do prototyping experimentation, are helping to refine that before we get launched."

While tweaks and added functionality can take time, for Pawlikowski, the issue of acquisition reform ultimately comes down to practices, rather than the technology itself.

"Requirements change," she said. "Well get over it."Meet the contracting folks who are encouraging new IT vendors

When interviewing non-traditional IT vendors in the federal marketplace for a series of blogs, I asked how they decided what agencies to target. A common answer was that they chose based on whether a sympathetic contracting officer was present. So -- not the least to provide tips to contracting folks who want to encourage new vendors entering the marketplace -- I decided to talk to two of the contracting officials the new vendors mentioned to me: Mark Junda of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Dan Levenson of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to find out what they did to encourage new vendors.

Junda's LinkedIn profile identifies him as an "acquisition innovation advocate." He got a job in contracting straight out of college, where he was a business major, with the Army Communications-Electronics Command in New Jersey. When the command was moved to the Washington area and VA opened up an IT office in New Jersey to hire people who didn't want to move, Junda switched over to the VA.

How did he get interested in encouraging new vendors? "I was always looking to making my career interesting and not just push paper," Junda said. "That led me to the training program in digital contracting that the Office of Federal Procurement Policy was launching. I saw it as an opportunity. Even if it's more work, this is motivating. And it's the right thing to do."

As for Levenson, he went to work in industry after studying supply chain logistics in college, but business at his company took a nosedive, so he decided to look elsewhere and discovered that CMS was hiring people because of Obamacare. Coming into contracting, there were lots of things he saw that didn't make sense to him, such as refusal to communicate with vendors and overly prescriptive statements of work. It was a revelation to him to learn about the digital contracting training program. He was chosen as the only CMS participant, and the experience -- which included an introduction to the U.S. Digital Service -- was a game-changer for him.

Talking with both of them, I concluded that the most important thing they do is far from rocket science, though it may involve some extra effort. It is, simply, to be open to meeting with vendors who request this.

Junda arranges a small meeting each week with individual vendors who request them. A good many requests come from new vendors, though Junda and his colleagues will meet with anybody, including large, established firms. (There are enough vendors making such requests that there is now has a two-month backlog.)

Junda attends some of these meetings himself, but most are attended by more-senior contracting officials. Levenson estimates he has 200 meetings a year with vendors, though an important part of the reason for this very large number is that it is part of his responsibilities as CMS Digital Services Contracting Advisor at HHS, working with USDS.

"A lot of the meetings are one on one," he said. "I prefer smaller meetings, where you can build a relationship -- they're not as superficial as larger meetings. Because I emphasize what we were trying to do differently, they make suggestions, 'Have you thought about this?'"

An important part of these meetings is answering questions about how to deal with the government.

Even if this is not rocket science, it doesn't mean such openness is common. Anything nearly this elaborate in terms of meeting with vendors is quite unusual; firms trying to develop business often report that most contracting officials don't return their phone calls seeking a point of entry into an agency. As Raj Sharma, who runs the Public Spend Forum, notes, "the culture of contracting is such that most contracting professionals either don't understand the value that comes from building supplier relationships or don't see this as a part of their job."

The second category of activities these contracting folks undertake involve initiatives to make it easier for new firms to break into the government. Two recent ones of which Junda is proud are spreading the word about the new $10,000 micropurchase authority and introducing Github at VA.

Interestingly, about two years ago a group of contracting officials who had started informally meeting together to share ideas that grew out of the digital contracting course started talking about how the IT services community could potentially make use of an increase in the micropurchase threshold to buy IT services as a micropurchase, where the government can buy with very little paperwork. Up to now, micropurchases have been widely used, but only for simple supplies, such as printers; "nobody ever thought to use them for services," Junda said.

Tracy Walker of USDS, who was in the group, suggested it could be revolutionary to use them for IT services, including software development (simple apps or APIs, for example), that could be bought for under $10,000. "You can buy a lot more if you don't need a program manager or proposal writer," Junda noted.

Micropurchases also provide an important way for new entrants to get experience, and develop past performance, in the federal marketplace -- one of the things that is most exciting about the threshold increase. Now that the micropurchase authority has been raised from $3,500 to $10,000 for civilian agencies, and Junda will get busy as soon as the regs are out.

The latest extension of this discussion has been that, if each individual job in a micropurchase has a deliverable and is severable such that the work will provide value to the agency even if there are no follow-ups -- to avoid the regulatory prohibition against splitting orders under the micropurchase authority -- an agency can procure separate, successive micropurchases for a broader capability.

The second initiative is VA's use of Github as a way for the agency to communicate about procurement with commercial IT developers and other IT marketplace participants. Github is a place where developers post open-source code and other information, either in private or public groups.

The first procurement uses of Github at VA have been to advertise micropurchases only on Github; there is no requirement to post micropurchases on FedBizOpps.gov, though the agency published a notice there saying it intended to use Github to publicize micropurchases.

"If we put a notice on Github, it puts information where non-traditional contractors would be," Junda said. (Just as many government people may be unfamiliar with Github, most new non-traditional vendors would never have heard of FedBizOpps -- and when they learn about it and look, it strikes them as bureaucratic and off-putting.)

"So this shows a new culture that the government is willing to use a commercial niche site," Junda said. "Words are one thing, but these are deeds. We are allowing developers to communicate outside a traditional bureaucratic process." Also, he added, "by using Github we are increasing the vendor pool and making our procurements more competitive -- we don't go to same three companies all the time, the way many agencies do for simplified acquisitions."

Both of these initiatives share something in common, which is that individual contracting folks can use them without getting approval of the entire agency. Once a micropurchase authority is in the regs, an individual contracting official can choose to procure a qualifying job on their own. Any contracting officer may use Github for procurements in which they are involved as long as the agency has a Github presence, which agencies that partner with USDS or 18F are likely to have. Contracting folks who want to play a role encouraging new vendors in the marketplace can just do it.

One project Levenson has on the drawing boards is what he calls "market research as a service." The idea is to create a repository where vendors could submit, for example, RFI responses and contact information. This could be a starting point both for contracting officials doing market research and vendors trying to make contact with the government.

"Most contracting folks don't really dig in and ask what's available in the market they typically just look at how we've done before," he explained. This could be a win-win for the government and for new vendors, lowering vendor transaction costs for entering the marketplace; my own view is that this is a creative and exciting idea.

"These days there are absolutely more small innovative vendors than before," Levenson noted. "I would say there's a growing movement from new vendors, and also from existing government small businesses that are more agile but didn't think the government would be willing to listen to them. I am excited for what they can do -- both new entrants and those who have been around and say that the government is now ready."

Junda and Levenson represent contracting professionals willing to go above and beyond to promote agency missions and serve taxpayers as well as the new vendors. I take my hat off to both.

P.S. -- After I conceived the idea for this blog but before actually writing it, Dan Levenson left the government to go to industry. But in a real twist on the Washington "revolving door," he left not for a big Beltway contractor but rather for Agile Six, a tiny non-traditional contractor started by Robert Rasmussen, the founder of the Digital Services Coalition, a support group for new contractors that I featured in a recent blog.Here's what Trump's pick for top diplomat has said on Russia, North Korea, Iran  and Trump's tweets

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, widely seen as the next secretary of state, is known for a hawkish approach toward foreign policy challenges such those presented by Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Pompeo's past remarks on hot-button topics shed light on how Washington will manage its future diplomacy.

U.S. foreign policy toward adversaries such as Russia , North Korea and Syria may turn more aggressive if CIA Director Mike Pompeo becomes secretary of state.

President Donald Trump nominated 54-year-old Pompeo  a three-term Republican congressman known for his hardline views  after firing Rex Tillerson , whose sudden departure sparked concerns about the credibility of American diplomatic personnel being directed by an already chaotic White House.

Pompeo became America's spy chief in January 2017. During his 14 months at the CIA, he took a confrontational stance toward Iran and gave staunch support to Israel.

Pompeo's nomination indicates Trump is filling his administration with individuals who share his views, said Jim Glaser, director of foreign policy studies at libertarian think tank Cato Institute.

Pompeo's public statements support Glaser's point of view. The appointment still requires Senate confirmation, but a look at Pompeo's past remarks may shed light on the face of future American diplomacy.

On North Korea

October 2017 : Pompeo said Pyongyang was would soon be able to threaten a U.S. city with nuclear weapons. He echoed Trump in criticizing previous administrations for failing to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

January 2018 : Kim "is looking for a foothold to walk himself back," Pompeo said. "This would but entirely consistent with his historical activity. When he sees the threat, he tries to pacify it. And you can be sure that this administration is not going to fall prey to the same trap that previous administrations did."

July 2017 : "I am hopeful we will find a way to separate the [North Korean] regime from this system. . . . The North Korean people, I'm sure, are lovely people and would love to see him go."

Story continues

October 2017 : "With respect to, if Kim Jong Un should vanish, given the history of the CIA, I'm just not going to talk about it. Someone might think there was a coincidence."

Ahead of a milestone meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un , Pompeo may be a good choice as a negotiator because "he's a hawk," said Sean King, vice president at consultancy Park Strategies.

On Russia

Pompeo has lambasted Moscow's aggression toward the West and other countries, and  unlike Trump  he has encouraged an assertive posture toward the Kremlin.

January 2018 : "I continue to be concerned not only about the Russians but about others' efforts as well. We have many foes who want to undermine Western democracy. So there's this Washington-based focus on Russian interference. I want to make sure we broaden the conversation."

April 2017 : "I don't have any comment on the [Russia] investigations. They'll run their course. We'll do our duty and provide those who ask and have a right to see it, we'll give them the information that they need so that they can conduct their investigations."

Pompeo had extreme views on Moscow before he became CIA director, "but as a Trump loyalist, he has softened his views on Russia and seems to be in line with Trump," Anders Aslund, resident senior fellow at think tank Atlantic Council, said in a note.

On secret CIA missions

In a recent interview with CBS, Pompeo said the CIA was "most certainly" expanding covert and clandestine operations.

January 2018 : "Make no mistake about it. We are doing things today that the CIA was not doing a year ago, and there's more risk attached to those ... I want the president to have the best intelligence in the world."

The intelligence agency's next chief will be 61-year-old Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the agency who played a role in the waterboarding of suspected militants at secret facilities.

On Syria

Pompeo has repeatedly criticized the presence of Iran and Russia in Syria. He has stressed the importance of challenging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad .

July 2017 : "We're staring at the places we can find to achieve American outcomes in Syria, the things in our country's best interest and not in theirs. When the decision was made to allow the Russians to enter into Syria now, coming on four years ago, fundamentally changed the landscape. And it's certainly been worse for the Syrian people."

July 2017 : "It is difficult to imagine a stable Syria that still has Assad in power. He is a puppet of the Iranians and therefore it seems an unlikely situation where Assad will be sitting on the throne and America's interests will be well served."

As secretary of state, Pompeo could "embolden those within the Trump administration who seek to further amplify a more assertive posture within the Syrian crisis," The Middle East Institute, a Washington-based research firm, said in a note.

On the Iran nuclear deal

Pompeo has likened Iran to the Islamic State terror group, calling Iran a "thuggish police state." He's also expressed disdain for a 2015 nuclear deal aimed at limiting the country's nuclear energy program.

November 2016 : "I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism."

Pompeo is "a longtime die-hard opponent of the Islamic Republic, who has for years advocated for a policy of regime change in Tehran," said The Middle East Institute note. "He was seen as someone willing to help set the stage for a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran."

On China

In the past, Pompeo has praised the China  while also warning of Beijing's significant security threat.

July 2017 : "I think China has the capacity to present the greatest rivalry to America  over the medium and long term."

October 2017 : "We think that President Xi Jinping ] will come out of this in a dominant position with incredible capacity to do good around the world."

"Pompeo has shown a high regard for Xi Jinping as a strongman," noted Jessica Chen Weiss, professor of government at Cornell University and expert in Chinese foreign policy. With Pompeo leading the State Department, "China and Asia can probably expect more of Trump's wild swings between rhetorical confrontation and cooperation."

On Trump's tweets

Pompeo has said that he believes the president's social media posts help the CIA.

December 2017 : "I have seen things the president has put on his Twitter account actually have a real-world impact on our capacity to understand what's going on in other places in the world."





More From CNBC

Australia bitcoin tax

Australias official tax authority has warned the public of scammers purporting to be tax agents demanding cryptocurrencies like bitcoin for tax payments.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is alerting citizens of fraudsters impersonating the tax agency to seek payments of faux tax debts from unsuspecting victims in cryptocurrency. The scammers who purport to be ATO officials have been defrauding taxpayers since late 2017, the ATO said in a notice this week. According to ATO assistant commissioner Kath Anderson, scammers have so far conned over AUD$50,000 in bitcoin alone.

She stated:

We became aware of scammers seeking payment in Bitcoin last year. So far, we have seen over $50,000 paid in Bitcoin to scammers claiming fake ATO tax debts.

The seismic growth of cryptocurrencies popularity, particularly in 2017, makes it inevitable that scammers would target cryptocurrency she said. Cryptocurrency operates in a virtual world, and once the scammers receive payment its virtually impossible to get it back, the ATO official added.

As things stand, cryptocurrency is not a recognized method of payment by the taxation office. The ATO lists electronic bill payment system BPAY alongside a credit/debit card as the easiest way to make tax payments alongside a number of alternative options including bank transfers.

While cases of cryptocurrency-related fraud are on the rise, the ATO reminded taxpayers to be wary of the most frequently reported scams that include demands of direct deposits into third-party bank accounts, pre-paid Visa gift cards and payments in iTunes gift cards. Australians lost over AUD $2.4 million to these scams specifically in 2017, Ms. Anderson revealed, with roughly $1.2 million siphoned through conning taxpayers into making transfers through the traditional banking system to third-party accounts.

The governments tax agency joins the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the countrys consumer watchdog, in warning the public of cryptocurrency scams that have sharply increased  a 126% spike in a single week  in Australia last year. The ACCC revealed a total of 1,289 complains related to cryptocurrency scams in 2017 with reported losses totaling AUD $1.2 million.

Story continues

Over a year ago, Canadian police cited similar reasons while warning the public of fraudulent schemes involving cryptocurrencies wherein fraudsters purporting to be government employees sought income tax payments from taxpayers in bitcoin.

Featured image from Shutterstock.



The post Australia Warns of Scammers Collecting Taxes in Bitcoin appeared first on CCN.

Young woman on a tourist resort vacation, relaxing by a tropical beach resort hotel infinity pool on the Caribbean Sea, Cancun, Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Planning a vacation this summer? While there are tons of great destinations to choose from  from beach getaways to urban retreats  some locations are better for your wallet than others.

A new GOBankingRates study determined the 20 cheapest and 20 most expensive destinations to visit this summer to help travelers know where to go if they dont want to spend a fortune on their trip.

Keep reading to see 20 brilliant ways to save on summer travel.

The study analyzed 40 popular summer vacation destinations, taking into consideration the average hotel rates during popular summer travel times and the average round-trip airfare to get to each destination from LAX and ATL airports. Each destination was given a score for hotel rates and airfare, and these were combined for an overall score. The destinations were then ranked from least to most expensive.

Overall, flights are a much larger expense than hotels, so its important to keep that in mind when booking a vacation. Hotel rates among the destinations included in the study ranged from $22 to $316 per night, while airfare ranged from $135 to $2,003 for round-trip tickets.

According to the data, the most expensive 2018 summer vacation destinations are:

1. The Bahamas

2. Hawaii

3. Seattle

4. Buenos Aires, Argentina

5. Porto, Portugal

6. Amsterdam

7. Hamburg, Germany

8. Edinburgh, Scotland

9. Dublin

10. Copenhagen, Denmark

11. Los Angeles

12. San Francisco

13. Athens, Greece

14. Rome

15. Barcelona, Spain

16. Vancouver, Canada

17. Boston

18. Paris

19. New Orleans

20. Nashville, Tenn.

Not surprisingly, many of the most expensive destinations were outside of the U.S., with many of the top 10 priciest destinations located in Europe. A previous GOBankingRates study found the cheapest times of the year to fly to Europe, and the summer months did not make the list for any of the most popular European destination cities.

Meanwhile, the cheapest 2018 summer vacation destinations are:

Story continues

1. Las Vegas

2. Washington, D.C.

3. Orlando, Fla.

4. Miami Beach

5. Bangkok

6. New York

7. Austin, Texas

8. Montreal

9. Puerto Rico

10. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

11. Cancun, Mexico

12. Bali, Indonesia

13. Key West, Fla.

14. London

15. Portland, Ore.

16. Virginia Beach, Va.

17. Singapore

18. Savannah, Ga.

19. Rio de Janeiro

20. San Diego

If youre planning a summer trip within the U.S., check out the most expensive times to visit all 50 states.

Methodology: GOBankingRates analyzed the following factors to identify the cheapest and most expensive summer destinations: 1) average hotel rates based on the average three 4-star minimum hotels for stays during July 7, 2018, to July 14, 2018, and 2) average airfare based on the average cost of the three lowest round-trip flights leaving ATL and LAX from July 7, 2018, to July 14, 2018. Sources used: Hotels.com and Google Flights.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Here Are the Best and Worst Destinations for Summer 2018 TravelMy names Will Capers. For almost nine years, Ive blogged on various topics. I blogged as Blaque Ink first, and as Brotha Wolf second. The latter had a mu...

1 year agoDoes FireEye (FEYE) have what it takes to be a top stock pick for momentum investors? Let's find out.

The worlds second largest economy started 2018 on a solid note, as latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show better-than-predicted economic fundamentals.

Chinas economy grew 6.9% in 2017 compared with 6.7% in the previous year, marking the first annual acceleration since 2010. It was also way above the governments full-year target of 6.5%. The impressive growth came despite the fact that the emerging market nation faces risks like the crackdown on pollution, increasing financial threats and concerns surrounding possibilities of a trade war with Trump-led United States.

Into the Headlines

Industrial output grew 7.2% year over year in the first two months of 2018 compared with 6.2% last December and above 6.1% projected by analysts. Moreover, Chinas fixed asset investment rose 7.9% in the first two months of the year compared with analyst expectations of 7% and above 7.2% for the entire 2017.

Although Chinas retail sales slowed a little in the January-February period from 2017, it was still robust. It grew 9.7% year over year in the first two months of 2018 compared with 10.2% in 2017. However, it should be noted that economic data from China in the first two months of a year are considered to be distorted, caused by a week long holiday for Lunar New Year celebrations that fell in mid-February this year. As a result, a better analysis of Chinas economic health can be conducted when the first quarters data gets released in April.

Risks Involved

Although geopolitical risks involving North Korea are not bothering the markets at the moment, as North Koreas Kim Jong-Un has offered to hold potential denuclearization talks with Trump, a slew of other factors are troubling Chinas market (read: An End to North Korea Fears? ETFs to Watch).

From a political risk perspective, the Chinese Communist Party amended its constitution to remove presidential term limits and allow a third term for President Xi Jinping. Being number two in the world, Xis policies are expected to greatly impact global peace and shape up policies, as he aims to take China closer to being the number one country, marring relations with peers in Washington.

Story continues

Moreover, tensions between Washington and Beijing have been on the rise. After introducing a tariff on steel and aluminum, Trump has proposed the imposition of tariffs on around $60 billion worth of Chinese imports of IT, telecom and consumer products. China recorded a $375-billion trade surplus with the United States in 2017 and the Trump administration is pressing Chinese representatives to cut that humongous amount by $100 billion (read: Trump Tariffs: ETF Winners & Losers).

Let us now discuss a few ETFs focused on providing exposure to the Chinese economy (see all Asia-Pacific Emerging ETFs here).

iShares China Large-Cap ETF FXI

This fund seeks to provide exposure to Chinese equities, serving as a pure play on the economy.

It has AUM of $4.7 billion and is a relatively expensive bet as it charges a fee of 74 basis points a year. From a sector look, Financials, Energy and Information Technology are the top allocations of the fund, with 52.4%, 11.1% and 10.0% exposure, respectively. From an individual holding perspective, China Construction Bank Corp, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are the top allocations of the fund, with 10.4%, 9.5% and 8.1% exposure, respectively. The fund has returned 30.8% in a year. FXI has a Zacks ETF Rank #2 (Buy) with a Medium risk outlook.

iShares MSCI China ETF MCHI

This ETF is another such option to play the BRIC nation.

It has AUM of $3.6 billion and charges a fee of 62 basis points a year. From a sector look, Information Technology, Financials and Consumer Discretionary are the top allocations of the fund, with 42.0%, 23.3% and 9.3% exposure, respectively. From an individual holding perspective, Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding ADR and China Construction Bank Corp are the top allocations of the fund, with 19.2%, 12.4% and 5.3% exposure, respectively. The fund has returned 48.5% in a year. MCHI has a Zacks ETF Rank #2 with a Medium risk outlook.

SPDR S&P China ETF GXC

This fund has AUM of $1.2 billion and charges a fee of 59 basis points a year. From a sector look, Information Technology, Financials and Consumer Discretionary are the top allocations of the fund, with 37.2%, 23.2% and 10.4% exposure, respectively. From an individual holding perspective, Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding ADR and China Construction Bank Corporation are the top allocations of the fund, with 16.1%, 10.8%, and 5.9% exposure, respectively. The fund has returned 45.4% in a year. GXC has a Zacks ETF Rank #2 with a Medium risk outlook.

Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?



Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>

















































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ISHARS-CHINA LC (FXI): ETF Research Reports



SPDR-SP CHINA (GXC): ETF Research Reports



ISHARS-MS CH IF (MCHI): ETF Research Reports



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Zacks Investment Research



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U.S. Congress Hearing Addressed the Need to Distinguish Digital Commodities From ICOs





On March 14, 2018, the House Financial Committee held a hearing entitled Examining the Cryptocurrencies and ICO Markets. This was the first hearing in which members of the U.S. Congress, specifically a subcommittee on capital markets, securities and ICO markets, addressed cryptocurrencies and ICOs. Witnesses at the hearing included Dr. Chris Brummer, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center; Mike Lempres, chief legal and risk officer at Coinbase; Robert Rosenblum, a partner at the Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonseni Goodrich & Rosati; and Peter Van Valkenburgh, the director of research at Coin Center.

The hearing addressed the economic efficiencies and potential capital formation opportunities that cryptocurrencies and ICOs offer to businesses and investors. It also reviewed the current approach by the SEC, CFTC and state regulators to administer laws which adequately protect investors. Because regulatory clarity so far has been difficult for businesses and investors, members of Congress also expressed interest in how to best monitor and oversee blockchain technology as it moves into the future. Notable points asked of and addressed by the witnesses included the need for security and investor compliance for U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges; the need (or in Rosenblums case, lack thereof) for regulators to distinguish the difference between cryptocurrencies that are considered digitally scarce commodities and securities tokens; the need to establish a harmonization among the patchwork of regulatory agencies dictating how to move forward; and the policing of cryptocurrencies, all in such a way that wont stifle domestic innovation by forcing investors and businesses to leave the country. Digitally Scarce Commodities and Security Tokens Distinguishing major cryptocurrencies from the majority of ICO tokens was the biggest topic of conversation during the hearing. Van Valkenburgh noted that digital scarcity is a fundamental difference between ICOs and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Filecoin. The fundamental innovation of Bitcoin is digital scarcity. That digital scarcity can then be employed by innovative people for a variety of innovative purposes. A token that is scarce and transferable from person to person can be used just like money, just as any good throughout history from gold to seashells. A scarce token can also be automatically redeemable for a digital good or computing service provided by the same network of computing participants who verify the blockchain. These are projects like Ethereum, Filecoin and Blockstack and they are beginning to compete with competitors like Amazon, Facebook and Google. A scarce token can also represent a legal agreement. Van Valkenburgh went on to distinguish scarce tokens already put into practice from others that are merely theoretical, supported only by blockchain software that has yet to be built. Recently, new blockchain projects have raised money by selling the promise of future tokens to willing investors in ICOs. He went on to state that the former scarce tokens are like digital commodities while the latter (ICOs) are securities, both having distinct risks that must be addressed by investors in different ways. Rosenblum suggested a short and long-term approach for the SEC and other agencies to modify the regulation rules around cryptocurrencies so that the industry does not get locked into a concrete regulatory system too early. He used the combination of blockchain technology with artificial intelligence to convey why imposing regulations at this time would not be a good idea: On the subject of regulating ICOs, Brummer emphasized the need for standardized and precise promoter disclosures for investor protection. Speaking primarily about cryptocurrency white papers, essentially the business and technological plan behind each cryptocurrency, Brummer gave a list of recommended standardized disclosures: Brummer concluded by saying that white papers should also disclose the basic principles of blockchain governance and risk factors, not only for the token itself, but also for the industry as a whole. Brummer stated that one major point of contention for government regulators on cryptocurrencies might be the fact that because digital things tend to be more abstract and they therefore tend to be harder to understand, there is more tension and difficulty in defining them as commodities, unlike gold which is shiny and universally identified as something that has value. Huizenga, in turn, acknowledged that governmental bureaucracies tend not to view the world through those lenses. And I think that there is a certain governmental responsibility to protect investors. A Patchwork of Regulatory Agencies While distinguishing between a digitally scarce commodity and a security appeared to be the most fundamental and pressing issue, all testifying witnesses acknowledged the need for clear lines in which regulatory agencies operate and monitor the industry. This confusing and often contradictory relationship between the SEC vetting cryptocurrencies, the CFTC policing cryptocurrencies on the spot market, and state regulators has already indicated a level of disorder that could potentially stymie further development within the domestic cryptocurrency and blockchain technology industry. Again, Van Valkenburgh reiterated that if policymakers get the distinction between digitally scarce commodity tokens and security tokens wrong, they will cede leadership of the technology development to the rest of the world. Rosenblum suggested that, moving forward, regulation by enforcement, in an area that is as complicated and dynamic as this, is not the appropriate way to regulate. Enforcement is clearly necessary; however, we need clearer guidelines on the SECs registration, market trading and how investment rules should apply and do apply, and that is something that you cannot do through regulation and enforcement. Security and Compliance Congressman Hultgren expressed concern over cybersecurity standards within cryptocurrency. Addressing these concerns, Lempres stated, Approximately 99 percent of Coinbase cryptocurrency holdings are held in cold storage. Furthermore, 20 percent of Coinbases employees are dedicated to compliance. Lempres also pointed out that the blockchains transparent ledger allows for Coinbase to glean insight into bad activity occurring within their system. Lempres also referred to the cybersecurity standards of the state of New Yorks BitLicenses. So far these BitLicenses have only been administered to four cryptocurrency companies  including Coinbase  and that is the strongest evidence for the security standardization, according to Lempres. Voices For and Against Voicing disapproval of cryptocurrency, no one was more direct than Congressman Brad Sherman. Cryptocurrencies are popular with guys who like to sit in their pajamas and tell their wives they are going to be millionaires. They help terrorists and criminals move money around the world. Tax evaders. They help startup companies commit fraud, take money, and one percent of the time they actually create a useful business. Sherman went on to suggest that cryptocurrency hurts the U.S. dollar, prevents the federal government from preventing tax evasion, and takes away from investment that could otherwise be used to develop the American economy. Chairman Huizenga noted that, despite Shermans comments, the hearing was to focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology and not Dodd Frank reform. On the other hand, Rep. Tom Emmer, a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, suggested that the potential for innovation from blockchain technology in American society is something both Republicans and Democrats should welcome.



Story continues

From a regulatory standpoint there is a fundamental distinction that must be made between scarce tokens that exist on a blockchain and are used for payment or to obtain computing services and, on the other hand, promises of future tokens representing the hopefully profitable efforts of a developer.

It could potentially lead to new marketing, business opportunities, scientific and sociological advances. However, the opportunity to use that same technology for manipulative conduct, data breach and other nefarious conduct is really hard to predict right now.

Location : Brummer cited one particular study which indicated that in 32 percent of ICOs it is not possible to identify the identity or origin of the ICO issuer or promoter. Without having this information it is very difficult for investors to understand the protection rights or authorities they can contact in case of fraud. Therefore, ICO promoters or issuers should establish a clear statement of where an issuer is located.



Problem and proposed technology solution : The most important information for assessing the success of an ICO is understanding its proposed solution for how the technology will solve a problem: a plain-English explanation of the technology solution. More technical aspects of the white paper would be subject to the validation of a third-party technology audit. All code would be subject to a public repository such as GitHub.



Token proposal: An ICOs white paper should disclose legal rights of token holders as well as how the tokens will be traded and on what platforms.



I tend to trust people and believe that theyre in these things for good, and that theyre trying to improve their own lives and hopefully the lives of people around them  that old adage that a rising tide lifts all boats. And yet I hear elected officials who dont have any concept of what were dealing with here and how exciting it is, talking about how we got to regulate and create more government infrastructure. I respectfully disagree that that wont act as a wet blanket on this amazing new technology. I realize there has to be some regulation, but theres got to be balance.





This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.[caption id="attachment_9634" align="alignleft" width="245"]

Jack Martin

Jack Martin (Photo: John Disney/ALM)[/caption] Editor's note: Jack Martin issued the following article about his client, Carlton Gary, who is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. What follows is Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's Feb. 23 summary of the Gary case.'Compelling Evidence of Innocence'Carlton Gary is scheduled to be executed this Thursday by Georgia, despite the fact that physical and scientific evidence developed long after his trial proves that he is likely innocent of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death, including DNA evidence that the only eyewitness identifying Gary at trial was mistaken in her identification. Despite this compelling evidence of innocence, the Georgia courts have refused to intervene.Gary was charged with the murders of three elderly women in Columbus, Georgia, in late 1977 and early 1978. These attacks were three of a series of nine virtually identical rapes/murders of elderly women living alone in a discrete neighborhood in Columbus. This serial killer was characterized in the media as the Columbus Stocking Strangler. Law enforcement was at a loss to solve the crimes. One suspect, Jerome Livas, confessed to the crimes, supposedly recounting details about the crime scenes that only the perpetrator would know, but this confession was later determined to be false or fabricated by the police. Gary was not arrested and charged with the crimes until seven years after the crimes, based upon alleged fingerprints from the crime scenes, which at first were determined not to match Gary and about which a former supervisor of the Latent Fingerprint Section of the FBI swore in an affidavit were suspiciously collected and were borderline at best. The State also claimed that Gary gave an unrecorded and unsigned confession that he was present at the crime scenes, in which he allegedly gave the same details only the perpetrator would know, just like Livas' false or fabricated confession.But the most dramatic testimony offered by the state was from one of the victims who had survived the attack upon her by playing dead, Gertrude Miller, who at trial pointed at Gary as the person who had attacked her. The prosecutor thundered in closing that her identification was burned into her memory, its forged into her memory, she cant put it out of her mind if she wants too.Fortunately, long after trial, DNA testing of semen stains on clothing Miller was wearing at the time of the attack upon her proved to a scientific certainty that these stains were from sperm and that the DNA from this sperm did not match Gary. Contrary to Millers dramatic testimony at trial, someone other than Gary had attacked her in the same ritualistic and distinct pattern in all of the Columbus Stocking Strangler attacks. Other hard physical evidence was discovered only long after trial exonerating Gary. A mold of a bite mark on the breast of one of the victims, never disclosed to the defense at trial, was examined by the most respected forensic odonatologist in Georgia, who concluded that the bite mark did not match Garys teeth. A shoeprint at the point of entry at one of the attacks, never disclosed at trial, was a size 10 shoe. Garys feet were examined by a forensic podiatrist who determined that Gary wears a 13  size shoe and that there was no way that he could fit his foot into a size 10 shoe. Finally, the test results of secretor/nonsecretor testing of semen stains found on or in the bodies of two of the victims were found to have come from a nonsecretor, while Gary was tested and determined to be a secretor. Approximately 80 percent of the population secretes their blood group substance into their body fluids, including saliva and semen, while 20 percent do not. Prior to the advent of DNA forensic testing, secretor testing was a key investigative tool in rape investigations. Since Gary is a secretor, and the attacker of the two victims was a nonsecretor, Gary was excluded. But, the defense was not provided any expert assistance at trial to show how this evidence exonerated Gary. And, most incredibly of all, when slide samples of sperm on or in the body of one of the victims were discovered long after trial, even though the state had protested that they no longer existed, were sent to the State Crime Lab for testing, the lab recklessly contaminated the samples, thereby destroying the samples and making DNA analysis impossible. This was particularly disturbing because these samples came from one of the cases where secretor analysis had excluded Gary making certain a favorable DNA result. This reckless destruction of what would have certainly have been exonerating evidence is, in and of itself, sufficient to take the death penalty off the table.Last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Georgia Parole Board are pending, but unless some court or board takes action, a person who never got a fair trial and whose guilt has been seriously questioned by hard physical and scientific evidence suppressed by the state and not revealed until long after trial will be executed. That execution will be a stain on the state of Georgia, the judiciary and the parole board. It would just be one more example of how the death penalty is so fraught with error that it should be abolished.Jack Martin, attorney for Carlton Gary [caption id="attachment_6310" align="alignleft" width="245"]

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr[/caption] Attorney General's Summary of the Case of Carlton Michael GaryGarys Crimes (1977-1978)The U.S. District Court summarized the facts of the crime as follows:Between the fall of 1977 and spring of 1978, terror gripped the historic Wynnton neighborhood in Columbus, Georgia. Targeting elderly white women, an assailant sexually assaulted nine women, killing seven of them and leaving stockings around their necks as his calling card. Labeled the "stocking strangler" by the local news media, the assailant suddenly ceased his activities in the Wynnton area in 1978 and eluded authorities for six years.These crimes remained unsolved until 1984, when a pistol that was stolen from a home in the Wynnton area in October 1977 was linked to [Gary]. [Gary] was arrested on May 3, 1984, for this burglary. After acknowledging his Miranda rights, [Gary] confessed that he was present at the burglary and that he was either present at, or had knowledge of, eight of the nine 1977-78 Wynnton area rapes and murders. [Gary] stated that he burglarized these womens homes, while an individual named Malvin A. Crittenden committed the rapes and murders. The authorities found no corroborating evidence linking Crittenden to the crimes.[Gary]s fingerprints were ultimately found to match the latent prints found at four of the crime scenes. Blood evidence and hair samples taken from the crime scenes were inconclusivethey neither established [Gary] as the perpetrator nor excluded [Gary].An investigation into [Gary]s background revealed his connection to similar crimes in the past. Specifically, on April 14, 1970, the body of 85-year-old Nellie Farmer was found in her residence in Albany, New York. She had been raped and strangled, and her body was covered. A fingerprint taken at the scene matched [Garys]. When arrested and confronted with this evidence, [Gary] claimed that he was at the crime scene, but an individual by the name of John Lee Mitchell actually raped and killed Farmer. Mitchell was acquitted of these charges.On Jan. 2, 1977, 55-year-old Jean Frost was attacked and raped during a burglary of her home in Syracuse, New York. One of the items taken during the burglary was her watch. When [Gary] was taken into custody two days later, he had the watch in his pocket. [Gary] confessed to being the "lookout" for the Frost burglary. He claimed that an individual named Dudley Harris committed the attack and rape. Harris was not convicted for the crimes.Regarding the Columbus "stocking strangler" crimes, [Gary] was indicted for raping, murdering, and burglarizing the homes of three of the nine victimsRuth Schieble, Martha Thurmond and Kathleen Woodruff. At trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of the attacks on the other "stocking strangler" victims, claiming they showed a similar pattern and were also committed by [Gary]. The evidence presented by the prosecution to show a similar pattern included the following: All of the victims were elderly white women between the ages of 55 and 89. Each of the victims lived alone. In each crime, the assailant broke into the womans home and burglarized her residence. With the exception of one, all of the crimes happened at night. All of the elderly women were sexually assaulted. All of the attacks involved ligature strangulation, usually with the victims stockings or pantyhose. With the exception of only one attack, all of the attacks occurred in the Wynnton area of Columbus, Georgia. Every deceased victim had been either partially or totally covered after the attack.The evidence at trial showed that Schieble had been raped, beaten and strangled to death with a stocking on Oct. 21, 1977. She was 89 years old at the time, legally blind and could walk only with the aid of a walker. Schiebles son and his wife discovered her lifeless, covered body on Oct. 21, 1977.Martha Thurmonds body was discovered on Oct. 25, 1977. Her body was covered by a pillow, blankets and sheets. The evidence showed that Thurmond had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled with a stocking.On Dec. 28, 1977, the body of 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff was discovered partially covered and lying on her bed. Woodruff had been raped and strangled with a scarf.The similar crimes evidence showed that Gertrude Miller was attacked on Sept. 11, 1977. She had been raped and severely beaten. Knotted stockings, similar to the ones used to strangle the other victims, were found at the scene. Miller survived the attack and identified [Gary] as her assailant.The body of 58-year-old Mary "Fern" Jackson was discovered on Sept. 16, 1977. Her body was covered, and she had been beaten and raped. Jackson was strangled to death with a stocking and a sash from a dressing gown.Jean Dimenstein, 71, was raped and strangled to death with a stocking in her home on Sept. 24, 1977. Her body was covered with sheets and a pillow.On Feb. 11, 1978, police responded to a call and found Ruth Schwob sitting on the edge of her bed with a stocking tied around her neck. Schwob never identified [Gary] as her assailant. Although she survived the Feb. 11, 1978, assault, she died before [Gary] was charged and tried. On Feb. 12, 1978, the body of 78-year-old Mildred Borom was found lying on her back in a hallway of her home with her face covered. She had been strangled with a Venetian blind cord. She also had been raped.On April 19, 1978, 61-year-old Janet Cofers body was found lying in her bed covered with linen and with a pillow over her face. She had been raped and strangled with a stocking. Although Cofer did not reside in the Wynnton area of Columbus, as had all of the other victims, she had attended choir practice at the Wynnton Methodist Church on the evening of her murder.Gary v. Schofield, 336 F.Supp.2d 1337, 1341-1343 (M.D. Ga. 2004) (internal citations and footnotes omitted).The Trial (1984-1986)Gary was indicted in the Superior Court of Muscogee County, Georgia, on May 4, 1984, for three counts of malice murder, three counts of rape and three counts of burglary. Gary was convicted as charged in the indictment and was sentenced to death on all three counts of murder on Aug. 27, 1986. Thereafter, Gary filed a motion for new trial, which was denied on Oct. 18, 1986.The Remand Proceedings (1987-1989)Gary appealed his convictions and sentences to the Georgia Supreme Court. On June 26, 1987, the justices remanded the case to the trial court for a hearing on whether Gary was denied the effective assistance of counsel. Gary was represented by new counsel during the remand proceedings, and a hearing was held on Nov. 12 and 16, 1987. On June 12, 1989, the trial court held that Gary actively rejected the assistance of counsel appointed by this court and that as to those issues addressed during the hearing on remand that the defendant knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived those issues after having been repeatedly advised by the court that his conduct would amount to such a waiver." (Trial Court Remand Order, p. 27).The Direct Appeal (1990-1991)Garys case was again appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, which affirmed Garys convictions and sentences on March 6, 1990. Gary v. State, 260 Ga. 38 (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court denied Garys request to appeal on Oct. 1, 1990. Gary v. Georgia, 498 U.S. 881 (1990), rehearing denied,Gary v. Georgia, 498 U.S. 1043 (1991).State Habeas Corpus Proceedings (1991-1997)Gary filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Superior Court of Butts County, Georgia, on Jan. 11, 1991. An evidentiary hearing was held on Jan. 30-31, 1995. On Nov. 13, 1995, the state habeas corpus court entered an order denying Gary state habeas relief. The Georgia Supreme Court denied Garys appeal on Oct. 7, 1996. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Garys request to appeal on May 27, 1997. Gary v. Turpin, 520 U.S. 1244 (1997), rehearing denied Gary v. Turpin, 521 U.S. 1137 (1997).Federal Habeas Corpus Proceedings (1997-2009)Gary filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia on Nov. 18, 1997. The district court conducted evidentiary hearings on issues raised by Gary regarding serological evidence and a bite mark exemplar. On Sept. 28, 2004, the district court denied Gary federal habeas relief. Gary v. Hall, 336 F. Supp. 2d 1337 (2004). After federal habeas relief was denied, but while Garys case was on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the coroner of Muscogee County located the missing bite mark exemplar. As a result, Garys case was remanded to the district court for further proceedings on the bite mark exemplar. On May 30, 2007, following an evidentiary hearing, the district court reaffirmed its earlier decision denying Gary federal habeas relief. Gary v. Schofield, 493 F. Supp. 2d 1255 (2007). The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district courts denial of relief on Feb. 12, 2009. Gary v. Hall, 558 F.3d 1229 (11th Cir. 2009). The U.S. Supreme Court denied Garys request to appeal on Nov. 30, 2009. Gary v. Hall, 558 U.S. 1052 (2009).Extraordinary Motion for New Trial (2009-2018)Garys execution was originally set for Dec. 16, 2009. On Dec. 7, 2009, after 31 years in prison and with his execution nine days away, Gary sought post-conviction DNA testing pursuant to O.C.G.A.  5-5-41. The Georgia Supreme Court entered an order on Dec. 16, 2009, remanding the case to the trial court to determine whether Gary was entitled to DNA testing. Extensive testing was performed during the extraordinary motion for new trial proceedings, which revealed a positive DNA match between Gary and one of the victims, Jean Dimenstein. In addition to the extensive testing, three evidentiary hearings were held in the trial court. On Sept. 1, 2017, the trial court denied Garys extraordinary motion for new trial. Garys appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court was denied on Dec. 1, 2017, and his motion for reconsideration was denied on Jan. 16, 2018.FILE PHOTO - The Canary Wharf financial district is seen in east London November 12, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

By Carolyn Cohn, Kirstin Ridley and Cindy Silviana

LONDON/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Britain's financial watchdog is conducting inquiries into an unregulated company that sponsors a Formula One team and has attracted investors from countries across Asia, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Separately UK-based Financial.org has told investors it will close their accounts and take 20 percent of their money if they do not raise their minimum investment to $10,000 (7,158) from $3,000, according to a notice posted on its website and seven investors from China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the UAE and Vietnam.

Reuters reported in January that Financial.org is managing hundreds of thousands of dollars for Asian investors even though it is not licensed to engage in financial transactions. Investors said their money had been invested in U.S. stocks.

Financial.org, which describes itself as an education business, is not on a publicly available list of firms authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to buy and sell stocks or bonds for clients. Offering investment services without regulatory permission is a criminal offence in Britain.

"The FCA is conducting inquiries into the company's activities," the source told Reuters.

Financial.org, a sponsor of British Formula One team Williams, did not respond to a letter left at its address in London's Canary Wharf district and sent to two Financial.org email addresses. The company's phone number has been removed from its website and the number diverts to an answer phone which did not accept messages.

Williams declined to comment.

The FCA has warned of the dangers of investing through firms it has not authorised, as no independent checks have been made on their businesses. It says it received more than 8,000 reports of potential unauthorised activity in the last financial year.

Last week, Indonesia's regulator, the OJK, placed Financial.org on an investor alert list and warned people away from the company.

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"We ask people who have put their money in this entity to take out the money immediately. If there is any civilian who has been harmed, please report to the police," Tongam Lumban Tobing, head of the financial regulator's investment alert task force, told Reuters.

The Malaysian and Singaporean financial regulators last year placed Financial.org on alert lists of unauthorised investment firms with whom investors should exercise caution.

TOP UP OR FACE FEE

Financial.org posted a notice on a password-protected, members-only section of its website in January announcing the increase in the minimum investment, according to the seven investors. Two of them provided screenshots of the notice.

The notice gave investors until March 31 to top up their accounts, after which it said accounts that did not meet the new threshold would be closed and investments returned in a lump sum "with a 20 percent account closure fee levied".

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown, said it was highly unusual for regulated investment firms to require investors to top up their investments or to charge withdrawal fees.

Five of the seven investors said they were not concerned about the change.

"It does not affect investors much, because if they do not upgrade, they can get their money back ... minus 20 percent," Albert Anthony, a fashion business manager from Vietnam, told Reuters via Facebook Messenger. He has invested $100,000, according to a screenshot of his account he sent to Reuters.

However, one investor said attempts to withdraw money had failed. The person, who declined to be named due to concern about their investments, provided screenshots of an account page showing withdrawal requests had been rejected.

(Additional reporting by Engen Tham in Shanghai, Stanley Carvalho in Abu Dhabi and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Editing by Pravin Char)FILE PHOTO: A Ford worker inspects paint work on the body of a Ford Expedition SUV at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant as the No. 2 U.S. automaker ramps up production of two large SUV models in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Carey/File Photo

By Paul Lienert and Joseph White

DEARBORN, Mich. (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) executives on Thursday disclosed ambitious plans to shift the struggling automaker's product portfolio from passenger cars to SUVs, add more hybrid and pure electric vehicles, and reduce development and manufacturing costs - moves aimed at boosting Ford's profit and share price.

At a media briefing near the company's headquarters, Chief Executive Jim Hackett said Ford's previously stated margin target of 8 percent "now has upside." But company executives targeted 2020 as when the overhaul of its product lineup and engineering systems will fully take hold.

Ford shares were up 0.8 percent at $11.11 on Thursday afternoon, reversing an earlier decline.

Ford is overhauling itself for the second time in a decade at a time when rivals, including General Motors Co (GM.N), are telling investors they are ready now to move aggressively into new, technology-driven markets such as robo-taxi services and electric vehicles. GM said on Thursday it will invest $100 million in two suburban Detroit factories to begin commercial production of self-driving versions of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars for use as robo-taxis.

Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said the automaker plans to shift $7 billion of investment to sport utility vehicles from cars, and by 2020 field a North American lineup of eight SUVs, including one high-performance electric model and five with hybrid powertrains.

Trucks already are critical to Ford. The F-series pickup line generated $41 billion in revenue last year - about 28 percent of Ford's total $145.7 billion in revenue - but the lion's share of the company's profit.

Coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, Ford pushed fuel-efficient cars for the U.S. market. Now, the automaker is driving toward a near-term future in which cars account for only 14 percent of its volume, with SUVs and trucks growing to around 86 percent of North American sales. Of nine future vehicles displayed at Ford's product development center on Thursday, only one was a car - a high-performance Mustang.

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Among new SUVs in the pipeline are two boxy models aimed at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's (FCHA.MI) profitable Jeep franchise.

Ford also plans to take on Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) with a performance-oriented battery electric utility vehicle in 2020 - the first of six new pure electric vehicles due by 2022 as part of Ford's planned $11 billion investment in electrification. "That vehicle is going to be famous without having to shoot it up in space," Farley said, alluding to the roadster Tesla CEO Elon Musk launched recently with one of his SpaceX rockets.

Ford will move the Lincoln brand's focus toward SUVs and electrified cars. Lincoln "is committing to electrification across its lineup globally," with new hybrid electric versions of its future models, Farley said.

In the push to increase revenue from commercial customers, Ford will update its F-series Super duty pickups, launch the Ranger compact pickup and overhaul its large Transit van in 2019.

Phoenix dealer Tim Hovik said in an interview on Thursday he was "excited" by the prospect of the performance electric vehicle in 2020, but that the upcoming Bronco SUV was generating the greatest interest among his customers.

He also said "there will be demand" for a rumored Raptor performance edition of the new Ranger compact pickup as a companion to the larger F-150 Raptor: "We're out here in the wild, wild west. The days' supply of F-series Raptors is about six hours." Joe Hinrichs, president of global operations, said Ford is cutting costs by reducing the time to develop new models by 20 per cent, and by relying on just five new flexible vehicle architectures.

Ford's new model preview is part of a broader effort to regain investor confidence after a turbulent year.

Ford shares have lagged those of rival General Motors Co (GM.N) since Hackett was named CEO on May 22, 2017. Since then, Ford shares peaked at $13.23 in mid-January, then plunged to$10.14 in early March and have only recently begun to recover.

GM stock has risen more than 14 percent during the same period. Its shares were up 0.5 percent at $37.89 on Thursday afternoon.

(Reporting by Paul Lienert and Joseph White in Detroit; Editing by Matthew Lewis)General Motors said that its sales in China rose 7.8% in February, outpacing the overall market, despite fewer selling days because of the timing of the Lunar New Year.

Year to date, GM's sales in China are up 12%, outpacing most global rivals' year-over-year gains -- and far outpacing a dramatic sales decline for Ford Motor Company.

A red Baojun 510 SUV on a bridge, at night.

The affordable Baojun 510 crossover SUV has been a huge hit for GM in China. Image source: General Motors.

How GM is faring against key global rivals in China

Evaluating monthly sales results from China in the first two months of the year requires a little local knowledge. Specifically, we need know that the Chinese New Year is a lunar holiday. It sometimes falls in January, and sometimes in February.

That's important because businesses (like car dealers) generally close for several days around the holiday. When the holiday week falls in January one year and February the next, monthly sales results get confusing.

The best way to cut through that confusion is to evaluate results from the first two months of the year combined. When we do that, we see that GM has kicked off 2018 with some nice sales growth, outpacing its big-name global mass-market rivals.

Automaker Year-to-date sales Change vs. 2017 General Motors (NYSE: GM) 633,706 12% Volkswagen (VW brand only) 486,100 10.2% Nissan 213,172 9.7% Toyota 203,400 10.8% Honda 203,239 3.9% Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) 123,473 (23%) Overall 3,931,700 2.1%

Data source: The automakers, Automotive News. Year-to-date sales are through Feb. 28. Overall figures are for all light vehicles sold in China during the period and are approximate.

It's hard to miss that the chart has one big outlier: Ford. The Blue Oval's sales in China have been falling sharply for months, but the decline seems to have accelerated in 2018. Ford is working on a turnaround plan that will bring new models and better distribution to its China effort, but the problems will take time to solve -- and that gives rivals like GM an opportunity to gain ground.

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That's exactly what GM has been doing.

A red Cadillac XT5, a midsize crossover SUV, on a city street.

Cadillac sales have boomed in China, driven in part by big demand for the XT5. Image source: General Motors.

What's driving GM's sales boom

GM's recent success in China has been driven by a few different things:

SUVs -- particularly its nearly all-new lineup of crossover SUVs. GM's crossovers have done very well in China in recent months, though sales of the Chevrolet Equinox were down in February.

The affordable China-only Baojun brand. The smash-hit compact Baojun 510 crossover is still selling in huge numbers, with over 32,000 units sold last month despite the holiday. Sales of the newer 310 hatchback topped 18,000 in February, driven by big demand for the new wagon variant.

Cadillac -- GM's old luxury brand has been struggling a bit in the U.S., but sales are booming in China: Year to date, they're up 37%, on strong demand for the XT5 crossover and the XTS, CT6, and extended-wheelbase ATS-L sedans.

It's almost easier to list the things that aren't working for GM in China right now. The big one is Wuling, a brand that for years sold small, inexpensive commercial vans. The market for such vans has shrunk significantly as China's building boom has trailed off. Baojun has responded by revamping its products as inexpensive minivans, with windows and passenger seats, under the Hong Guang sub-brand.

Wuling's sales are still strong, with almost 200,000 sold year to date -- but they're down almost 15% from a year ago.

Coming soon: More new products for China's fast-paced market

The sheer number of companies selling vehicles in China means products become stale more quickly than they do elsewhere. GM has responded with a steady stream of strong new products, and more are on the way. GM has said that it will launch 15 new or refreshed products in China this year, about half of which will be SUVs or minivans.

At least one has the potential to be a big hit: The upcoming new Cadillac XT4, a compact luxury crossover that is expected to arrive at dealers in China (and the U.S.) in the second half of the year. Given the strong sales of the XT5 since its launch, the new one-size-down Cadillac is likely to find a lot of eager buyers -- and help keep GM's growth streak going.

More From The Motley Fool

John Rosevear owns shares of Ford and General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.FILE PHOTO: Sample bottles of crude oil are seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo

By Amanda Cooper

LONDON (Reuters) - Global oil demand is expected to pick up this year but supply is growing at a faster pace, leading to a rise in inventories in the first quarter of 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

The IEA raised its forecast for oil demand this year to 99.3 million barrels per day (bpd) from 97.8 million bpd in 2017.

Commercial oil inventories in industrialised OECD nations rose in January for the first time in seven months to 2.871 billion barrels, 53 million barrels above their five-year average, the Paris-based IEA said.

The January increase of 18 million barrels over the December inventory level was roughly half the size of rises normally seen at this time of year, according to the agency, which advises Western governments on energy policy.

But it said Venezuela, where an economic crisis has cut oil production by 50 percent in two years to lows not seen in more than a decade, could still trigger a renewed drawdown in stocks.

"With supply from Venezuela clearly vulnerable to an accelerated decline, without any compensatory change from other producers, it is possible that the Latin American country could be the final element that tips the market decisively into deficit," the IEA said.

In a bid to drain inventories, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other producers have been implementing a deal to cut output by about 1.8 million bpd from January 2017 until the end of 2018.

Assuming no change in OPEC output for the rest of the year, the IEA said it expected a small increase in OECD inventories in the first quarter of 2018 with declines after that.

The agency said it expected supply from non-OPEC nations to grow by 1.8 million bpd in 2018 to 97.9 million bpd, led by the United States, where crude output was forecast to rise by 1.3 million bpd during 2018 to more than 11 million bpd by the end of the year.

OPEC crude output fell in February to 32.1 million bpd, led by Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.

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The IEA raised its estimate for demand for OPEC oil to 32.4 million bpd for 2018 from last month's forecast of 32.3 million bpd.

The agency said the decision by U.S. President Donald Trump decision to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium, which has prompted threats of retaliation from major trading partners, posed a risk to global economic growth forecasts.

"A slowdown would have strong consequences, particularly for fuel used in the maritime sector and in the trucking industry," the IEA said.

It said growth in world trade had been strong, accelerating from 2.5 percent in 2016 to 4.7 percent in 2017, citing this as the likely reason behind a sturdy 1.8 percent rise in 2017 in global gasoil demand.

(Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Edmund Blair)* Pompeo may advocate harder line on Iran deal

* Some former U.S. officials warn against jumping to conclusions

* Former CIA chief could have more influence with Trump

By Arshad Mohammed, John Irish and Robin Emmott

WASHINGTON/PARIS/BRUSSELS, March 14 (Reuters) - It is unclear how Mike Pompeo becoming U.S. secretary of state may affect the Iran nuclear deal given that there is only one voice that counts in President Donald Trump's administration: his own.

Trump's choice of the Central Intelligence Agency director to replace Rex Tillerson means an Iran hawk who fiercely opposed the 2015 pact as a member of Congress will now be in charge of the U.S. diplomacy trying to strengthen, and perhaps save, it.

Former U.S. officials and serving European officials were at a loss to gauge how the switch would affect negotiations between the United States and three European powers - Britain, France and Germany - that are also parties to the agreement.

Some said Washington may take a harder line under Pompeo and the Europeans may be under more pressure to offer concessions, while others suggested his views on the deal have evolved and he may be better placed to influence Trump to keep it.

U.S., British, French and German officials are due to meet on the deal in Berlin on Thursday.

"Any officials negotiating with the Europeans right now will get a much more aggressive set of requirements from Pompeo," said Richard Nephew, a former White House and State Department official who worked on Iran during the Obama administration.

"The odds of them coming up with a thoughtful compromise by May just got a lot longer," he added.

Trump on Tuesday singled out the Iran nuclear deal as one of the main differences he had with Tillerson.

"I think it's terrible, I guess he thinks it was OK," Trump said.

Trump delivered an ultimatum to the European powers on Jan. 12, saying they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal" or he would refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran that it calls for. U.S. sanctions will resume unless Trump issues fresh "waivers" to suspend them on May 12.

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The crux of the July 2015 pact between Iran and six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - was that Iran would restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy.

Trump sees three defects in the deal: its failure to address Iran's ballistic missile program; the terms under which international inspectors can visit suspect Iranian nuclear sites; and "sunset" clauses under which limits on the Iranian nuclear program start to expire after 10 years. He wants all three strengthened if the United States is to stay in the deal.

In a Jan. 13 cable, the State Department sketched out a path under which the three European allies would simply commit to try to improve the deal over time in return for Trump keeping the pact alive by renewing sanctions relief in May.

TRUMP "IS WHAT MATTERS HERE"

Other European officials and former U.S. officials said Pompeo's rise, if he is confirmed as secretary of state by the Senate, might have a more ambiguous effect on the negotiations and that, in any case, Trump's views are paramount.

"All our work is going into delivering a credible package that is sellable to Trump," said a European diplomat on condition of anonymity. "He is what matters here."

While Pompeo was a fierce critic of the deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a congressman, he tempered his views when testifying before Congress in January 2017 to seek confirmation as CIA director.

"Pompeo was a hawk on Iran. However, my understanding is he doesnt want the deal to disappear," said a former senior U.S. official. "People should not jump to conclusions."

Many of Trump's top national security aides, like Tillerson, have argued that the United States is better off with the Iran nuclear deal than without it. That stance was echoed on Tuesday by the U.S. general who heads the U.S. military command responsible for the Middle East and Central Asia.

Former U.S. officials suggested that, as the administration nears a planned summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about Pyongyang's nuclear program, it could rethink its stance on the Iran deal.

European diplomats saw some chance Pompeo may have more influence over Trump than Tillerson, who antagonized the U.S. president by reportedly calling him a "moron" and who differed with Trump on Iran and other issues.

"If Pompeo is that hawkish, then in reality all it is is the affirmation of Trumps policies. Its Trumps line," said a another European diplomat. "Hopefully hell have the mandate that Tillerson didnt have." (Writing by Arshad Mohammed; editing by Yara Bayoumy and Jonathan Oatis)SINGAPORE, March 15 (Reuters) - Singapore's central bank chief said on Thursday that there is now a real risk of a trade war that could deal a devastating blow to the global economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump has recently imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, sparking threats of retaliation from some trade partners, and called on China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion.

The move has sent stock markets around the world tumbling as fear of a trade war mounts.

"There is a real risk now that that (trade war) would happen because these things are not easy to control. And while everyone agrees that a trade war is bad, sometimes you can't help but retaliate when you are hit with tariffs," Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said at the Asia Money2020 conference in Singapore.

Asked what impact such a trade war would have on the global economy, Menon said it would be "devastating". (Reporting by John Geddie and Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Kim Coghill)Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Donald Trump, who just fired him, were a terrible fit from day one. Its pointless to seek a more profound truth here, as media boffins will insist on doing. The news doesnt show that business leaders are unfit for government service, though it does illustrate the old observation that if they choose to serve, theyll probably be miserable. The larger, worrying trend is that after Gary Cohns resignation as Trumps chief economic adviser, the administration in one week has lost two of its most substantial members.

The bad fit should have been obvious. Tillerson has a habit of saying what he thinks, which guaranteed collisions with his impulsive, distractible boss. As Exxons CEO for a decade he built a reputation in the business world as a blunt talker who sticks to his guns. Calling him an Eagle Scout is no metaphor; he was one and later was president of the Boy Scouts of America. When Trump said he wanted to bail out of the nuclear arms treaty with Iran, Tillerson said he didnt want to. When Trump initially did not condemn the white supremacists whose rally in Charlottesville became deadly, Tillerson said, The president speaks for himself, distancing himself from Trump in a way that shocked the foreign policy establishment. It probably didnt help when Tillerson was reported to have privately called Trump a moron and, sticking to his guns, didnt deny it.

Most notably, when Tillerson said last October that he was trying to start a dialogue with North Korea, Trump publicly rebuked him, tweeting that Tillerson was wasting his time. Save your energy, Rex. Then last week, when Trump reversed course, agreeing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, he didnt consult with Tillerson beforehand or personally inform him afterward.

It was a relationship made in hell.

Business leaders have long and rightly been wary of government service. Which CEOs have gone to Washington and come back with their reputation improved? a prominent CEO asked me when he was offered a post in George W. Bushs cabinet. He could think of just oneformer Goldman Sachs chief Robert Rubin, who was Bill Clintons Treasury Secretary in the late 1990sand declined Bushs offer.

That was then. The Trump administration is in a class by itself and seems unlikely to attract any prominent CEO after publicly undercutting Cohn and Tillerson. Trump made a telling comment in explaining to reporters why he fired Tillerson. They disagreed on things the Iran deal. So we were not thinking the same, he said. Many top leaders prize subordinates with the courage to disagree and argue their position. Trump does not. He emphasized why he chose Tillersons proposed successor, CIA chief Mike Pompeo: We have a similar thought process.

Trump added a comment with which Tillerson will surely agree: Rex will be much happier now.Entrepreneur Joshua Browder has made waves in the past by building a robot-lawyer called DoNotPay that has beaten hundreds of thousands of parking tickets, aided tenants in landlord disputes, and helped consumers sue Equifax  with a few successes.

Armed with an infusion of over $1.1 million in funding led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, the part-time Stanford student (My degree is a bit of a side project, he says) is turning to empower air travelers by helping them leverage their own rights they may not know about to get cheaper tickets.

If someone buys a ticket and the price falls within 24 hours for that flight or other similar flights, DoNotPay is able to cancel the original flight and rebook at a lower price since all fights are legally refundable for a day.

Its actually ridiculous, Browder says. Sometimes there are flights within 10 minutes, but one is $200 cheaper than the other.

In some cases, thanks to a suite of other refundability rules, this price protection can work weeks later.

In addition to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, which outline consumers rights and dictate to some degree rules on air travel, airlines have their own contracts with their customers. These contracts of carriage outline the terms of your flights, including your own rights as a customer like what youre entitled to in case of big delays, airport changes, flight time changes, and more.

But most consumers dont exercise their own rights or hold an airline accountable to its end of the bargain simply because theyre unfamiliar with all these rules. A typical contract of carriage is often well over 20 pages long and there is a good chance this is the first youre hearing about it. Its usually amongst the fine print people skip.

Even the most un-refundable ticket can be canceled at some point, Browder says. Browders robot-lawyer app, DoNotPay.com, has been programmed with all the various reasons and loopholes for cancellation, 70 to 90, depending on the airline. For example, every ticket is eligible for cancellation under the 24-hour rule  you can make changes before it locks in  and if the National Weather Service issues a warning, a passenger is allowed not to fly and instead get a refund.

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The good news is that all these things exist, says Browder of the FAA regulations. The bad news is that the Trump administration is thinking of getting rid of these regulations, so in six months the opportunity may not exist.

The Trump administration has pushed for two regulations to be scrapped for every new one implemented and supported privatization of the air traffic control system. Last year in a meeting with aviation leaders, he spoke of rolling back regulations. Browder and others believe the rollbacks would advantage the airlines, not the travelers and reasons for refundability could be in play.

How the app works

To sign up, air travelers go onto DoNotPay.com and enter their Gmail address (no other email addresses work right now). This is because Gmails API allows a third-party service like DoNotPay to have limited access to messages sent only from certain email addresses, in this case ones from online travel agencies and airlines.

Finding the flight information in a travelers flight receipts, the app cross-references the airlines obligations for cancellation with actual potential reasons for cancellation as well as the prices of itineraries like yours, something it can access thanks to the APIs of online travel agencies, such as Expedia, Orbitz and Kayak.

If a lower price is found and theres grounds for cancellation, DoNotPay will book the lower-price flight of the same ticket class  with its own money  and cancel yours.

DoNotPay has enough confidence in its system that it will not charge you if your flight doesnt get canceled. When the flight is canceled and your refund is on its way, DoNotPay charges the travelers credit card, via Stripes payment network.

In addition to this price protection for certain flights, DoNotPay can offer you better flights, even if theyre not necessarily cheaper. If a flight surfaces thats better than yours  different airport, shorter layover, fewer stops, better fare class  DoNotPay will text you if it can cancel yours and give you that one.

Anant Akash, a beta tester during the two-month testing period that ended this week, told Yahoo Finance that he had booked a flight out of Oakland, Calif., for around $200 on Spirit Airlines. He declined a slightly cheaper flight, but when DoNotPay offered him a flight out of San Franciscos airport for $40 less and on Delta, an airline he likes better, he jumped.

DoNotPay texts a user if a better flight is available. The user can say yes or no.

I got a [cancellation] email from Spirit and DoNotPay sent me a text with confirmation, with the name and flight deals, he said. DoNotPay charged me for $170 for the new ticket. It was all through text and pretty fast.

If the user says yes, then the app will cancel the old reservation and rebook at the lower price.

Lessons from Equifax

Browders latest project for DoNotPay  this time with a revamped website thanks to the new funding  is the next step in his crusade to make the law work for all, not just those who can afford lawyers. For this project, he aimed to make it as automatic as possible, based on the lessons he learned from his bot that helped people draft lawsuits against Equifax.

The bad things are that for consumers, it doesnt provide true access to justice. To make consumers print out a PDF and go to court  Its too much of a struggle. A lot of people didnt even show up in court, he said. But when they did and they were prepared, they won their cases. The good things were that these sorts of rules and regulations, they stand up and can be enforced.

With a team of two employees whom he pays (he does not take a salary), Browder has his sights set on a big insurance project, and wants to make it fully automated. While he is the first to acknowledge the current limitations of robot lawyers, his products show the value of public APIs and how organizing public data can be all it takes to give consumers a little more agency. In essence, this latest product merely shows a consumer public information that could save them money: their cancellation rights and other cheap flights.By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan officials said on Thursday they had lifted a ban on Facebook after discussions with the social network, a week after blocking access on the grounds it was being used to fuel communal violence.

At least two people were killed in clashes last week when Sinhalese Buddhists, angered by the killing of a Buddhist driver by Muslims, attacked mosques and Muslim-owned properties in the central Kandy district.

Some of the violence was instigated by postings on Facebook threatening, according to the government, which on March 7 cut access to Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp. It initially said the ban would last for three days but extended the block without informing the public, users said.

"On my instructions, my secretary has discussed with officials of Facebook, who have agreed that its platform will not be used for spreading hate speech and inciting violence," President Maithripala Sirisena said in his Twitter feed.

He said he had instructed the telecommunication regulator to remove the temporary ban with immediate effect.

Government officials have said Facebook's action against those who spread hate speech has been too slow.

"Facebook officials agreed to speed up the response time," telecommunication minister Harin Fernando, who participated in the discussion with Facebook officials, told Reuters.

"We have discussed how we can create new windows to make sure easy removal of these hate speech items," he said without elaborating. Facebook officials were not immediately available for comment.

The government had lifted the ban on Viber and WhatsApp earlier this week.

Communal tensions have grown over the past year with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalising Buddhist archaeological sites. Muslim groups deny the allegations.

Fernando said on Tuesday the government could not control hate speech and fake messages on Facebook by "extreme" Buddhists and Muslims and it had become a menace to national security.

Story continues

Police are investigating whether 10 suspected ringleaders of the wave of attacks on Muslims had outside funding or foreign help.

Sri Lanka's Muslims make up about 9 percent of its 21 million people and mostly live in the east and centre of the island. Buddhist Sinhalese account for about 70 percent and ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, about 13 percent.

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Andrew Roche)Thailand Bitcoin

The cabinet of Thailand has principally approved two royal decree drafts aimed at regulating cryptocurrency transactions and imposing taxes on capital gains from crypto investments.

The Cabinet of Thailand, the governments executive branch compromising of thirty-five of the countrys most senior members, has reportedly approved to royal decrees that will both cover cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) under its purview. In Thailand, a royal decree can be issued by the king or his council of ministers, or the Cabinet, where legislation is fast-tracked for purposes of public safety, economic stability and a handful of other factors.

According to the Bangkok Post, the effort to push legislation to foster a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies comes at the behest of Thai deputy prime minister Wissanu Krea-ngam telling the cabinet about the need to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies and ICOs with a new law. The report points to the deputy prime minister citing concerns of crypto abuse in money laundering, tax evasion and other criminal activity.

Pointedly, however, the deputy prime minister instructed the cabinet that the newly proposed law isnt meant to prohibit cryptocurrencies and their usage nor ICOs. Instead, the law proposing regulation is mean to safeguard adopters invested in cryptocurrencies, deputy PM Wissanu stressed.

Before its approval into law, the royal decree drafts must be reviewed and vetted by Thailands Council of State, a number of qualified law councilors with experience in areas including law, economics, social sciences and more.

The drafts will also be formally reviewed and discussed by the countrys financial authorities including the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Anti-Money laundering Office  jointly with the Council of State  as early as next week, as assigned by the cabinet.

Wissanu further revealed progress in working toward broader organic laws by the Finance Ministry and the SEC wherein all digital asset transactions, including trades on cryptocurrency exchanges and those between brokers and dealers, will have to be registered with the relevant authorities. Cryptocurrencies, digital tokens issued through ICOs and other assets in the form of electronic data are all classified as digital assets by Thailands Finance Ministry.

Story continues

The cabinets approval of the two draft decrees come within days of Thailands central bank governor confirming upcoming regulations for the cryptocurrency sector sometime in April.

Featured image of Thailand cabinet house from Shutterstock.



The post Thailand Begins Legal Process to Regulate and Tax Cryptocurrency appeared first on CCN.

All Toys 'R' Us shops to shut in Britain

(Reuters) - Toys "R" Us stores will disappear from Britain's shopping streets within six weeks, joint administrators for the retailer said on Wednesday, announcing plans to close the group's remaining 75 shops.

The administrators said in a statement they had not been able to find a buyer for all or part of the business, resulting in the loss of about 3,000 jobs.

The retailer's U.S. parent company is also suffering in its home market with reports it is preparing for potential liquidation, six months after filing for bankruptcy.

The toy chain, however, is working on a proposal that will keep about 200 U.S. stores open for business even after the liquidation, CNBC reported https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/14/toys-r-us-is-exploring-a-plan-that-could-keep-200-stores-open-even-after-liquidation.html, citing people familiar with the situation.

The company is working on a plan where it could sell its stronger Toys R Us Canadian business, along with roughly 200 of its most profitable U.S. stores, to a new buyer, according to the report.

Toys "R" Us declined to comment on the CNBC report.

The toy store chain, which has 800 operating stores in the United States, is already in the process of closing about 180 of them.

The UK arm of Toys "R" Us entered administration, a form of creditor protection, in February, sunk by weak consumer sentiment, the growth of online sales and currency swings as a result of Brexit.

In Britain, the administrators had been trying to sell parts of the business.

"This process attracted some interest, but ultimately no party has been able to move forward with a formal bid prior to the expiration of the stated deadline," joint administrator Simon Thomas, a partner at corporate advisory and restructuring firm Moorfields said in a statement.

Seventy-five stores will be closed over the next six weeks, on top of the 25 outlets that have already closed or are about to shut under an earlier plan.

The administrators said they remained open to interest from potential buyers.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Additional reporting by Nivedita Balu; Editing by Mark Potter and Sriraj Kalluvila)Peter Navarro

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

President Donald Trump's national trade director Peter Navarro blames trade deficits with China and Europe for the loss of American manufacturing jobs.

Fred Bergsten, a former Treasury official, says Trump's strategy of steel and aluminum tariffs offers a lesson on "how not to mobilize against China."

The measures have alienated key allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union, which Bergsten says the US should instead be trying to rally around its hawkish China agenda.

President Donald Trumps chief trade warrior Peter Navarro was out in full force on CNBC Thursday morning, making his case for sharp tariff spikes against major commercial partners that many fear could spark a global trade war.

The director of the newly-formed White House National Trade Council focused his ire on China in particular.

"We have trade deficits with every single major trading partner," Navarro said, implicitly repeating the lie the president recently bragged about when he invented a trade deficit with Canada.

"The biggest one is China. [] For every billion dollars of trade deficit we have according to some estimates, thats 6,000 jobs we lose. Were essentially shipping factories over there."

Beyond its misleading zero-sum logic, which ignores multi-national companies and global production chains involving a web of different firms and countries, Navarros argument belies a policy proposal that is counterproductive to its own ends: punishing China.

Fred Bergsten, veteran trade negotiator and director emeritus of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (where I used to work), was a long-time critic of Chinas currency manipulation when the country was actually doing that sort of thing, as well as other unfair trade practices that continue, including violations of intellectual property rights.

However, Bergsten, a former Treasury official, argues in a new blogpost that Trump and his team offer a lesson in "how not to mobilize against China."

Story continues

"Trump's recent trade actions, especially the announced plans to impose steel and aluminum tariffs, will have little effect on China," Bergsten writes. "In fact, they will make confronting China with an alliance of trading partners much harder."

Trump's abrupt withdrawal from the TransPacific Partnership agreement with 11 other nations already burned a lot of bridges. Now, Trump's tariff plans are eliciting predictable threats retaliation from Canada to the European Union.

"To effectively attack China's trade and investment policies, the United States must have allies," Bergsten said ."The United States should thus seek to mobilize Europe, Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, and as many emerging market economies as possible (including Mexico, Brazil, and India) to challenge the Chinese."

That may sound constructive, but its hardly in line with the "America First" rhetoric championed by the administration.

NOW WATCH: Harvard professor Steven Pinker explains the disturbing truth behind Trump's 2 favorite phrases

See Also:

SEE ALSO: The biggest threat to the US from steel tariffs goes deeper than trade  and debt investors could be in for a surpriseFILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist after speaking at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, U.S. March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion, a White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday, clarifying a tweet last week from President Donald Trump.

Last Wednesday, Trump tweeted that China had been asked to develop a plan to reduce its trade imbalance with the United States by $1 billion, but the spokeswoman said Trump had meant to say $100 billion.

The United States had a record $375 billion trade deficit with China in 2017, which made up two thirds of a global $566 billion U.S. trade gap last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

China reported its 2017 U.S. trade surplus as $276 billion, also about two thirds of its reported global surplus of $422.5 billion.

The White House spokeswoman declined to provide details about how the administration would like China to accomplish the surplus-cutting goal - whether increased purchases of U.S. products such as soybeans or aircraft would suffice, or whether it wants China to make major changes to its industrial policies, cut subsidies to state-owned enterprises or further reduce steel and aluminum capacity.

In a Thursday editorial, widely-read Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said the United States was trying to play the victim.

"If the U.S. wants to reduce its trade deficit, it has to make Americans more hard-working and conduct reforms in accordance with international market demand, instead of asking the rest of the world to change," it wrote.

"Once a trade war starts, capable countries won't bow to the U.S. China has tried hard to avoid a trade war, but if one breaks out, appeasement is not an option."

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said history showed that trade wars are in nobody's interests, but that China would protect its legitimate rights if "something happens we don't want to see".

"We believe that China and the United States can use friendly consultations to resolve our disputes. We have the good faith to do it this way," Lu said.

Story continues

The U.S. request comes as the Trump administration is said to be preparing tariffs on imports of up to $60 billion worth of Chinese information technology, telecoms and consumer products as part of a U.S. investigation into China's intellectual property practices.

It is also unclear if the requested $100 billion reduction would address U.S. complaints about China's investment policies that effectively require U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese joint venture partners in order to gain market access.

The issue is a core part of the probe being conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision seldom invoked since the World Trade Organization was founded in 1995. Trade experts have said tariffs imposed as a result of the China intellectual property probe may fall outside of WTO rules.

U.S. TARGETS INDIAN SUBSIDIES

But Washington showed on Wednesday that it has not abandoned the global trade body, launching a WTO legal challenge to India's export subsidies for domestic companies, including producers of steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and IT products.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said India had failed to remove the subsidies as required by WTO rules after the country reached certain economic benchmarks.

The United States is expected to invoke a national security exception to WTO rules in imposing import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum announced by Trump last week.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told lawmakers on Wednesday his department would soon publish procedures for product-specific exemptions from the steel tariffs for items that are not available from domestic producers or in short supply. The procedures are due by Sunday.

Anne Forristall Luke, president of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, said the group would be "pressing very hard" for an exemption from tariffs for high-strength wire rod used to make cord for steel tire belts that is not produced by U.S. mills.

The largest sources for the material are Japan and Brazil, she said, adding that U.S. tire producers will lose business to foreign competitors if their steel costs rise.

"We are working this from the product side and the country side. We think we have a very good case," she told Reuters.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, Writing by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Susan Heavey, Tom Brown and Himani Sarkar)U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist after speaking at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, U.S. March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion (71.5 billion), a White House spokeswoman said on Wednesday, clarifying a tweet last week from President Donald Trump.

Last Wednesday, Trump tweeted that China had been asked to develop a plan to reduce its trade imbalance with the United States by $1 billion, but the spokeswoman said Trump had meant to say $100 billion.

The United States had a record $375 billion trade deficit with China in 2017, which made up two thirds of a global $566 billion U.S. trade gap last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

China reported its 2017 U.S. trade surplus as $276 billion, also about two thirds of its reported global surplus of $422.5 billion.

The White House spokeswoman declined to provide details about how the administration would like China to accomplish the surplus-cutting goal -- whether increased purchases of U.S. products such as soybeans or aircraft would suffice, or whether it wants China to make major changes to its industrial policies, cut subsidies to state-owned enterprises or further reduce steel and aluminium capacity.

The request comes as the Trump administration is said to be preparing tariffs on imports of up to $60 billion worth of Chinese information technology, telecoms and consumer products as part of a U.S. investigation into China's intellectual property practices.

It is also unclear if the requested $100 billion reduction would address U.S. complaints about China's investment policies that effectively require U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese joint venture partners in order to gain market access.

The issue is a core part of the probe being conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision seldom invoked since the World Trade Organization was founded in 1995. Trade experts have said tariffs imposed as a result of the China intellectual property probe may fall outside of WTO rules.

Story continues

U.S. TARGETS INDIAN SUBSIDIES

But Washington showed on Wednesday that it has not abandoned the global trade body, launching a WTO legal challenge to India's export subsidies for domestic companies, including producers of steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and IT products.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said India had failed to remove the subsidies as required by WTO rules after the country reached certain economic benchmarks.

The United States is expected to invoke a national security exception to WTO rules in imposing import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium announced by Trump last week.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told lawmakers on Wednesday his department would soon publish procedures for product-specific exemptions from the steel tariffs for items that are not available from domestic producers or in short supply. The procedures are due by Sunday.

Anne Forristall Luke, president of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, said the group would be "pressing very hard" for an exemption from tariffs for high-strength wire rod used to make cord for steel tire belts that is not produced by U.S. mills.

The largest sources for the material are Japan and Brazil, she said, adding that U.S. tire producers will lose business to foreign competitors if their steel costs rise.

"We are working this from the product side and the country side. We think we have a very good case," she told Reuters.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Writing by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Susan Heavey and Tom Brown)A bomb has exploded near a police checkpoint killing three police officers and a bystander and wounding 20 others near the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistani police say.

Lahore deputy police chief Haider Ashraf said on March 14 that an initial investigation suggests the bomb was planted near the checkpoint close to a religious group's main congregation place in Raiwind near Lahore, the capital of Punjab province.

Ashraf said many of the wounded were police and three were hospitalized in critical condition.

The wounded also included members of the Islamic preaching group known as Tablighi Jamaat.

The Taliban group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility, saying it was a suicide attack.

Lahore and its surroundings have been targeted by multiple bomb and suicide attacks in recent years.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dawn.comIs your county elections clerk ready for Russian hackers?

This article originally appeared in Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

MORE INFO DHS: 21 states' voting systems probed by Russian hackers In some cases the hackers got inside the systems, but their tampering had no connection to vote counts, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. Read more. Draft guidelines tackle voting security The latest Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines widen the scope of election security to include voter registration and pre-election practices. Read more. 5 ways to address election system weaknesses Vulnerable systems can undermine voters' confidence in the security of the process and expose sensitive voter data. Read more.

The weakest link in any local voting system is that one county clerk whos been on the job for three days and opens up an email file that could take down the whole system.

The head of every U.S. intelligence agency says Russia attempted to penetrate elections systems nationwide during the 2016 presidential election and will try again during this years midterm elections.

In a decentralized election system with more than 10,000 separate jurisdictions, the onus for security is on local officials.

That keeps me awake at night, said Nancy Blankenship, the clerk for Deschutes County, Ore.

Blankenship, like thousands of other county clerks, is the chief elections official for her area. Its not so much the threat of foreign hackers changing votes that concerns Blankenship -- Oregon is not only a vote-by-mail state, but also does its ballot counting without an internet connection -- its the possibility that hacking could undermine public confidence in the system.

There are three major local cybersecurity threats during elections, said Maurice Turner, a senior technologist at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C.:

Hackers could break into statewide, online voter registration databases to either steal personal information or change names, addresses or party affiliation to create confusion and discourage participation on Election Day.

Hackers could attack a county website, taking it offline so that people could not see results after polls close.

Hackers could take over social media accounts to broadcast false results from official sources, or announce falsely that polls are closing earlier or later than normal.

As election officials conduct primaries and prepare for the midterms in November, they must understand and meet security challenges so voters are confident in the election process, Turner said.

We know we have an adversary that has a known interest and capability to make that threat a reality.

All it takes is one clerk clicking on a link in one apparently legitimate email for a hacker to penetrate a county or state system. So-called phishing attempts -- where hackers might gain passwords, usernames or personal information through unwitting officials -- are becoming more and more sophisticated, Turner said. Its a race between local information technology departments and hackers.

Most people respond to phishing very well, Turner said. But there will always be a small number of people who will click on the links regardless of their training. And once an intruder breaks into the system, they may linger for several days or months.

How local officials respond

Despite the threat, many local officials are confident in their ability to keep a voting system safe from hackers.

Sara May-Silfee, the director of elections for Monroe County, a community of 170,000 in eastern Pennsylvania, said she knows her county is secure, even if her state was one of 21 states targeted by Russian hackers in 2016.

I cant even begin to tell you how theyd hack us, she said. Nothing is hooked up to anything. How could anybody hack us? Im not worried about anything. Sometimes it seems like a lot of hullabaloo.

A potential breach by hackers has never been brought up in Election Day training for Monroe County, said Andi McClanahan, who has served as a judge of elections for her ward for the last six years.

The issue has never been spoken about, she said, which now Im thinking is problematic with the current issues we are facing.

While hacking attempts failed in Pennsylvania, they were successful in Illinois, as hackers in 2016 accessed registration data for as many as 90,000 voters. Officials, though, say the hackers did not erase or modify any records.

Adam Weiner, who served as a poll worker in his South Loop neighborhood in Chicago during the 2014 midterm elections, said if a voter roll had been compromised by hackers, it would have ground everything to a halt.MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, March 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. (the Company or BVT) (TSXV:BEE) announces the appointment, on a contractual basis, of Dr. Gerardo Suazo, Ph.D., M.B.A. to the position of Senior Technical Manager.



Mexico is a market where about $250M of chemical fungicides are being used today, and where growers are already actively modifying their production practices to meet standards demanding higher levels of food safety and quality with less chemical inputs. Offering a motivated and highly-scalable market, it will be the next, after the United States, that BVT will target in which to develop its technology. Dr. Suazo will be responsible for overseeing and managing trials in Mexico and will play a key role in driving the BVT technology adoption within the country.

Dr. Suazo brings 15 years of industry relevant experience in the US and Mexico to the Company. His work experience spans research, product and project management and includes 8 years working with Syngenta. He holds a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Cornell University, an M.B.A. in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, an M.S. in International Horticulture from Essex University in the UK, and a B.S. in Horticultural Engineering from Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos in Mexico. Dr. Suazo is based in Queretaro, Mexico and will be responsible for developing the BVT system for the Mexican market, and in assisting with the commercialization efforts in the US.

The BVT system is highly innovative, and the discussions I had with growers in Mexico before taking the role have confirmed that there is a very good opportunity for this technology across many crops in Mexico, said Dr. Suazo. I am very excited to be part of the team now and feel that my experience and connections will help accelerate development of the business in Mexico and the US.

Ashish Malik, CEO of BVT added, Gerardo is very strong technically, but what we are most excited about is that he is very hands-on and has a very good business sense that relates very well to growers. He has a record of accomplishment of commercializing innovative tools for growers and being bi-lingual makes him a perfect fit to help build our business in both Mexico and the US.

Mexico is experiencing a production increase of several crops for export and domestic consumption (i.e. avocados, berries, vegetables). BVT has the potential to address the vegetable and fresh fruit production markets (for example, 22,500 acres of strawberries, 8,000 acres of blueberries and over 300,000 acres of tomatoes & peppers).

About Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc.

BVT has developed and owns patent-pending bee vectoring technology that is designed to harmlessly utilize bumblebees and honeybees as natural delivery mechanisms for a variety of powdered mixtures comprised of organic compounds that inhibit or control common crop diseases, while at the same time enhancing crop vigor and productivity. This unique and proprietary process enables a targeted delivery of crop controls using the simple process of bee pollination to replace traditional crop spraying, resulting in better yields, superior quality, and less impact on the environment without the use of water or disruptions to labour.

Additional information can be viewed at the Companys website www.beevt.com

On Behalf of Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc.,

Ashish Malik

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ashish Malik, President & CEO

marketing@beevt.com

Babak Pedram, Investor Relations

Virtus Advisory Group

Tel: 416-995-8651

bpedram@virtusadvisory.com

For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:

Josh Stanbury | josh@sjspr.co.uk | T. 416-628-7441

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.

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company, annual revenue potential, are intended to identify forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Companys current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including: planted acres of strawberries in Florida, selling price of competitive chemical pesticides and the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. These factors include changes in law, competition, litigation, the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities, state of the capital markets, the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations, new technologies, the ability to protect intellectual property rights, the ability to obtain patent protection for products, third-party intellectual property infringement claims, regulatory changes affecting products, failing research and development activities, the ability to reach and sustain profitability, dependence on business and technical experts, the ability to effectively manage business operations and growth, issuance of debt, dilution of existing securities, volatility of publicly traded securities, potential conflicts of interest, unlikelihood of dividend payments, the potential costs stemming from defending third-party intellectual property infringement claims, the ability to secure relationships with manufacturers and purchasers, as well as general economic, market and business conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Companys Filing Statement dated May 29, 2015, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. All figures are in Canadian dollars.PRESS RELEASE

15 March 2018

WENTWORTH RESOURCES LIMITED

("Wentworth" or "the Company")

Invitation to Conference Call for Full Year 2017 Financial Results

Wentworth is scheduled to release its full year 2017 Financial Results on 22 March 2018. A conference call for investors, analysts and other interested parties will be held that day at 14.00 GMT (London) / 08.00 MDT (Calgary) / 15.00 CET (Oslo).

A Q&A session will follow the presentation and information on how to submit questions to management will be given at the beginning of the Q&A session. To participate to the management presentation of the results, please use the dial-in details below.

Participant Dial in Numbers:

United Kingdom (Local) 020 3936 2999 Canada (Toll Free) 1 833 2942 546 Norway (Toll Free) 800 24 973 USA (Local) 1 845 709 8568 All other locations +44 20 3936 2999

Participant code - 171600

-Ends-

Enquiries:

Wentworth Lance Mierendorf,

Chief Financial Officer



lance.mierendorf@wentworthresources.com

+1 403 680 8773 Katherine Roe

Vice President Corporate Development & Investor Relations



katherine.roe@wentworthresources.com

+44 7841 087 230 Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited AIM Nominated Adviser and Broker (UK)

Callum Stewart

Ashton Clanfield +44 (0) 20 7710 7600





GMP FirstEnergy





Broker (UK)

Hugh Sanderson





+44 (0) 20 7448 0200





Peel Hunt LLP





Broker (UK)

Richard Crichton

Ross Allister





+44 (0) 20 7418 8900





FTI Consulting





Investor Relations Adviser (UK)

Edward Westropp

Kim Camilleri





wentworth@fticonsulting.com

+44 (0) 20 3727 1000

About Wentworth Resources

Wentworth Resources is a publicly traded (OSE: WRL, AIM: WRL), independent oil & gas company with: natural gas production; exploration and appraisal opportunities; and large-scale gas monetisation initiatives, all in the Rovuma Delta Basin of coastal southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique.

Inside Information

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by Wentworth to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) no. 596/2014 ("MAR"). On the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information. The words "expect", "anticipate", believe", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "forecast", "plan", and similar expressions are used to identify forward looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date the statements are made in light of management's experience, current conditions and expected future development in the areas in which Wentworth is currently active and other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Wentworth undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predicted outcome will not occur, including some of which are beyond Wentworth's control. These assumptions and risks include, but are not limited to: the risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general such as operational risks in exploration, development and production, delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures, the imprecision of resource and reserve estimates, assumptions regarding the timing and costs relating to production and development as well as the availability and price of labour and equipment, volatility of and assumptions regarding commodity prices and exchange rates, marketing and transportation risks, environmental risks, competition, the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources and changes in applicable law. Additionally, there are economic, political, social and other risks inherent in carrying on business in Tanzania and Mozambique. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could vary or differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. See Wentworth's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2016, available on Wentworth's website, for further description of the risks and uncertainties associated with Wentworth's business.

Notice



Neither the Oslo Stock Exchange nor the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange has reviewed this press release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.MONTREAL, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HI is relaunching its "Stop Bombing Civilians" campaign against the bombing of civilian populations. Bombing and shelling in populated areas, which have become commonplace in current conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Syria, kill and wound 92% civilians. The association calls on the general public to sign an online petition asking states to end the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. Its goal is to obtain 1 million signatures and to officially submit the petition to the United Nations and political decision makers in September 2018.



For seven years, Syrians have been the victims of a conflict marked by intense and continuous use of explosive weapons: Massive bombing raids on Eastern Ghouta since the 18th of February, 2018 have killed more than 1,100+ people and destroyed countless civilian infrastructures, including hospitals and health centers. In parallel, bombing and shelling on central areas of Damascus has caused dozens of casualties. Over the last months, military offensives accompanied by heavy bombing raids and shelling have killed hundreds of civilians in Idlib governorate, Raqqa governorate and Afrin district.

In the countries affected by the Syrian crisis, HI teams witness the suffering and trauma of the Syrian population; victims of a conflict marked by the repeated heavy use of explosive weapons. According to a survey of the International NGO Safety Organization (INSO), 33,394 attacks involving explosive weapons took place in Syria in 2017, accounting for 70% of reported incidents. This represents an average of 91 attacks, in the form of bombing or shelling, every day.

A Canadian on the field

Based in Amman, Jordan, Shirin Kiani works as the Inclusion Coordinator for HIs Syria response. With a background in occupational therapy and Public health, she works with field teams to ensure persons with disabilities and older persons access livelihood and recovery programming of mainstream NGOs working on the Syrian Crisis. In Canada, actor Anthony Lemke acts as HI Canadas spokesperson for questions related to explosive weapons.

1 million signatures

With the "Stop Bombing Civilians" campaign, launched in March 2016, HI is calling states to take immediate action and develop a political declaration to reduce harm and increase the protection of civilians living through conflict, by stopping the use of explosive weapons and by providing assistance to victims including affected communities. The organization is asking general public to sign its international petition. This petition which aims to collect 1 million signatures has already exceeded 390,000 signatures.

About HI

HI is an independent international association that has been working for 35 years in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. Working alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable people, HI acts and speaks out to meet their basic needs and improve their living conditions. HI is one of the six founding associations of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize and winner of the 2011 Conrad N. Hilton Award.

Media contacts

HI CANADA

Gabriel Perriau

Communications &

Digital Marketing Officer

514 908-2813 # 229

g.perriau@hi.org

HI US

Mica Bevington

Media Relations

301 891 2138

m.bevington@hi.org



Michele Lunsford

Digital Marketing &

Communications Officer

301 891 2138

m.lunsford@hi.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e7fcb6b2-d925-4679-bba2-a0c0b27ef4afbb wrote:

Thx for the explanation. That's pretty foreign to me.....



I can see the cheapest school - Jindal being a draw as well.

It is only $20K and you get a STEM degree that comes with 3 year OPT. It is ranked #38th vs. 29th for Rice but neither is going to land you a job in your lap as an international applicant.



The only part I don't like about Dallas is that it has a very small class of about 50 people. Makes it a pretty small group. Easier to employ them all but hard to get events or speakers or events in general. There is a pro however, as fewer clicks can develop and most would probably hang out together. I would chat with one of the current students about it. Would not dismiss it as it has some merits.



P.S. I don't know much about PSU's and if there is a solid job track in Jones or other Texas schools. Just make sure the consulting companies hire international applicants.As part of a heartfelt plea to convince Illinois Times to abandon plans to move crossword, JoshJosh and Sudoku puzzles to an online-only format beginning in April, a reader sent over their completed crossword puzzle from the March 8 edition.

PLEASE PRINT PUZZLES

I wish to peacefully protest (on paper) the proposed banishment of puzzles from the back page of your weekly edition. Working crosswords on a screen is not something I would choose to do even if I had a computer at home, which I dont. Like a good, fair and open-minded citizen, I read the entire Jeanne Ives article in order to be responsible and fully informed as a voter. After all that, I needed a little recreation and the puzzle page provided just that. Seems to me (and lots of other grumpy old farts, Im sure) that you owe it to your faithful, hard copy print readers to keep the puzzles where they are and allow us the guilty pleasure of sitting in a quiet corner, writing implement of choice in hand, cogitating over crafty clues and triumphantly filling in the little squares with our own proudly non-digital manual marks.

A Reader

Springfield



MENTAL HEALTH, ECONOMICS

This is regarding the March 8 Illinois Times article by Megan Swett titled Prison mental health on trial, which focused on the limitations of professional mental health services within the prison system.

I suggest we are looking at symptoms as if they are the causes of our problem. After all, what is crime but some form of bad behavior? Bad behavior itself is a symptom of stress or frustration, which comes from uncontrollable situations due to economic strife, neglect, abuse or some form of developmental disability.

Unfortunately, people dont have the patience to wait for the long-term results that come with a more proactive approach to early bad behavior and its causes, and we live in a capitalist system where the most money is made by treating only the symptoms instead of curing the disease.

Fred Slocombe

Springfield

Concerning Mark Janus versus AFSCME (Local landmark, by Scott Reeder, Feb. 8): Is Mr. Janus using his own compensatory time on his jaunts to the Supreme Court hearings in Washington, D.C.,  the time he benefits from only because unions fought for employee rights to have such time?Will he pay for his own travel expenses, hotel room fees and dining? If anyone other than himself is paying, it should be disclosed to the public.It seems a shame that a mere and probable 40-some dollars per month is worth jeopardizing many workers ability to be represented in the way of collective bargaining for workplace safety, pay increases, health benefits and more.I wanted to extend a huge thanks to Illinois Times, participating restaurants and sponsors for the best #217FoodWeek ever! My friends and family enjoyed sampling all the tasty and creative creations at numerous restaurants. There was definitely something for everyone. And a big thanks to Marx Fireplaces & Lighting and Turasky Meats who provided the awesome Epic Grill Package that I won!1 Kudos 2 Bookmarks

This is how I did:



Subject of email: Final Decision



Dear XXXXX,



I sincerely thank you for giving me the admission offer to MBA program starting Sept 2007 at one of the greatest business school, ABC Business School. This was a great opportunity to know more about ABC Business School through the application process. But sometimes you have to make very tough decisions that become tougher when every choice carries the potential to lead you to success. That is why I have accepted an offer from another business school that best fits my career ambitions and goals. So I have to sadly inform you that I will not be able to be a part of wonderful MBA class that is starting in Sept 2007. I fully appreciate the effort the ABC admission staff has put into reviewing multiple parts of my application and profile. Even after this decision, my respect for Mr INTERVIEWER (It was telephonic interview with Recruitment Director) and other professors at ABC is still unshaken.



I hope we will cross roads at some point in life. I wish all the best to this year's incoming class.



If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me any time.



Thanks

ps_dahiya

Ph: +1-123-456-7890Chris Schaller isnt your typical mortgage broker.

He once had a show on WMAY radio, where he was known as the Illinois Mortgage Man. Sam Madonia on WFMB has broadcasted live from Schallers office on Greenbriar Road. On front-page State Journal-Register ads, Schaller appears in a coat and tie, smiling pleasantly, like any other workaday loan officer from pick a bank. On his Facebook page, where he goes by Shot Caller, Schaller is a broker with attitude, complete with a photo of himself in mirrored sunglasses with Straight Outta Loan Closings, in lettering cribbed directly from the infamous NWA album, emblazoned over his torso.

With annual pay north of $700,000 a year, Schaller has been a financial success. But hes in trouble now.



click to enlarge Chris Schaller

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation on March 7 declared an emergency and suspended Schallers brokers license after department investigators seeking loan files visited his office, a branch of Diamond Residential Mortgage Co. based in Lake Forest, which failed to produce the records. The department obtained the files from the principal of Diamond Residential Mortgage, according to the order suspending Schallers license. Its not clear why the department wanted to see the files. The director of IDPFRs banking division yanked Schallers license on the grounds that the branch office did, in fact, have copies of loan files and that a shredding service had been summoned.

Diamond Residential has suspended Schaller, shut down the Springfield office and launched its own investigation, a company spokesman says. Schaller appeared at a Monday court hearing in his pending divorce  he filed the same day IDFPR sent investigators to his office  but he says via telephone that hes now in the wind.

Schaller says that hes paid a $100,000 nonrefundable retainer to a Washington, D.C., law firm to deal with his legal woes, whatever they might be. He says that the Illinois attorney general has asked about Operation Fight Veteran Homelessness, a charity he helped found that has held at least one fundraiser but lacks standing as a 501(c)3 nonprofit  he says that the state inquiry turned up nothing. There also is the lawsuit filed against him by Dan Fricke and his mother, Esther, who claim that Schaller defrauded them out of land in Menard County worth well into the six figures.

There is, in short, a lot to talk about, and Schaller likes to talk. After telling a reporter that he cant talk about anything on advice of his lawyers, Schaller stays on the phone for nearly two hours, professing innocence. He says that the U.S. attorneys office has asked for mortgage records, but that was in 2015. His very life, he says, might be at stake, and so he has fled Illinois.

I need to be around some of my brothers who protected me when I was in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, Schaller says. I wasnt scared in Iraq, bullets whizzing by my head. But Ive been scared the last two weeks.

Just why isnt made clear in the course of a conversation that moves from the IDFPR case to the Fricke lawsuit to homeless veterans.

A year ago, Schaller told the Springfield Business Journal that hed gotten eight homeless veterans off the street, but he could not provide to Illinois Times any names of formerly homeless veterans hes helped. Schaller said Operation Fight Veteran Homelessness will turn over keys and the deed to a home to a veteran  he couldnt provide a name  on April 2. It will be, Schaller says, straight out of Extreme Home Makeover, with a stunned veteran handed the keys to a home thats been all fixed up.

Where is the home? Schaller says that he doesnt know  it will be one of 10 houses that a trust he controls owns on Springfields East Side. All of the homes have delinquent taxes, and most have fair market values south of $30,000, according to county property records. Schaller says that hes worked with the city to address code violations. Ive never been to any of these properties, he says.

What about the Fricke lawsuit filed last June? Schaller said hes done nothing wrong. But Fricke says that Schaller took advantage of him, telling him in 2011 that he would loan him $15,000 to save 40 acres from a bankruptcy auction. Schaller, according to the lawsuit, also paid taxes on the land, spent $7,000 to provide an access point to the property so it could be farmed and loaned Fricke an additional $5,500 to buy a vehicle. Fricke says he thought that he was getting loans but discovered last year that documents hed signed without carefully reading had actually deeded the property to Schaller, who somehow also got the deed to adjoining property that included the house where Fricke lives. Fricke says he never signed paperwork concerning the house, which was given to him by his elderly mother. Shortly after paying $15,000 to Fricke and getting deed to land, Schaller got a $500,000 mortgage on the two parcels, according to Frickes lawsuit.

Noting floods of Facebook postings from folks who support him, Schaller says hes not a crook. Literally, Im getting 50 emails a day of support, he says. And, while Diamond Residential Mortgage has suspended him, Schaller says that business prospects are bright.

I got recruiters calling me left and right, he says. I just had a company offer $2 million to sign a three-year deal with them.



Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.At the beginning of this year, solar energy production in India surpassed a major milestone when the countrys installed capacity for generating solar power reached 20 Giga wats (Gw). This was the target that India had set for the year 2022 before the government decided in 2014 to drastically revise it to 100 Gw by the year 2022.

This milestone was achieved on the back of serious efforts made by the government in getting private sector investments into the solar power industry that resulted in a six-fold increase in capacity installation in less than four years.

Until May 2014, the countrys total solar power installed capacity was around 2.7 Gw which was consistent with the earlier target of 20 Gw for the year 2022.

Bridging energy deficiency with solar power

The governments decision to revise the solar power generation capacity target five-fold, for the year 2022 is accompanied by plans to attract $100 billion of investment into the industry. This will involve major investments in rooftop solar that will account for 40Gw of the total of 100 Gw installed solar power generation capacity by 2022.

In this context, rooftop solar is not just rooftop in the strict sense of the term  rather it means off-grid solar power. This could include localized microgrids set up in villages in the remote rural areas where the conventional power grid hasnt been able to reach due to unsustainable logistical barriers.

Renewable energy to be a critical part of Indias energy mix

Around 300 million Indians, an equivalent of the population of the United States or the European Union, do not and will not have access to the national electricity grid, and this number is scattered all across the vast country in isolated pockets of the remote rural areas.

This segment of the population will be served by decentralized renewable energy, also known as off-grid power. Solar energy will comprise more than three-fourths of the renewable energy mix in these areas while the rest will be accounted for by wind, small hydro and biomass energy. The program is being implemented via the public-private-partnership (PPP) model.

India doesnt have a robust solar energy input production infrastructure, and it is also true that without this capacity the country will find it difficult to achieve the stiff short-term target it has set. However, the governments efforts to build up input production capacity simultaneously with increasing power generation capacity has brought results. It is expected that India will be able to meet the bulk of its requirements before long.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iStock / Thinkstock(LONDON) -- Doors to apartments in London's Grenfell Tower could resist fire for half as long as they were intended to, authorities said this week.



Londons Metropolitan Police experts tested a Grenfell Tower apartment front door, designed to resist fire for 30 minutes, and found that it only resisted fire for about 15 minutes, police said in a statement.



The test was part of what the police described as a comprehensive investigation into what happened when a huge fire engulfed the 24-story Grenfell Tower on June 14, 2017.



The Metropolitan Police said the forensic examination phase is ongoing and they are not able to comment on what impact the test result could have on the criminal investigation.



The fire killed 70 people, according to the Metropolitan Police. A stillborn baby was also recorded as a victim.



The Metropolitan Police has previously said that exterior cladding, fitted to the building, failed all safety tests.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.While U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, faces no primary opponent, Democrats are preparing for the fall general election, focusing on November and the incumbent instead of each other in the March 20 primary.



The 13th Congressional District that encompasses a wide swath of central Illinois has long been seen as a swing district where Democrats have a chance, and primary candidates have been spending plenty of time and money arguing that the incumbent is a lackey of an unpopular president. Kent Redfield, a retired political science professor from University of Illinois Springfield, pointed out that the district includes several college campuses, where voters tend to vote liberal.



In the 13th youve got Bloomington-Normal, which is Illinois State, Redfield said. Youve got Champagne-Urbana, which is U of I, youve got a chunk of Springfield.  So it has more potential [for a flip] in a competitive year than you would think.

The five candidates running in the Democratic primary include Jonathan Ebel, a University of Illinois professor in the Department of Religion, David Gill, a physician, Erik Jones, a former assistant state attorney general, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, and Angel Sides, a teacher. Londrigan, who has raised more than $560,000, and Jones, who had raised more than $476,000, are leading the money race, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

While Democrats in the primary are pushing Obama-era programs such as the Affordable Care Act, Davis isnt necessarily in trouble. The Democratic Party likely will spend more money and time on suburban Chicago districts come November than downstate races, Redfield said.



The 13th is probably the third-highest priority for the Democrats, Redfield said. It is a better prospect  particularly for downstate  than anything else youre looking at.

Redfield explained that a number of factors must line up to flip the district from Republican to Democrat, many of which are out of the control of candidates. Things happening on a statewide or national level likely will impact voters as they cast their ballots.

Voters, theyre more drawn to the polls by the people at the top of the ticket, he said. And if theyre not excited about re-electing Rauner, thats not helping Davis.

Davis support for policies espoused by President Donald Trump could add to problems for the GOP in the 13th. Polls have shown that Trump is among the most unpopular of American presidents since polls have been taken. And Davis voting record aligns with Trump proposals 95 percent of the time, including overhauling the federal tax code and validating concealed-carry permits across state lines. And so it is not surprising that Democrats are painting Davis as a Trump stool pigeon, betting that hell ultimately poll as well as the president has.

Clearly what the Democrats are doing this time around, theyre going to go after him on health care, Redfield said.

I want to make sure that [people] dont lose everything that theyve worked for their entire lives because of one medical emergency, Londrigan said during a March 6 debate sponsored by the State Journal-Register and WMAY radio. I know what it feels like to be terrified in the hospital and terrified all over again when you get home and the bills start coming. I will stand up for our health care.

Jones goes beyond Obama on health care issues, saying during the March 6 debate that the Affordable Care Act didnt go far enough.

I was part of the fight to get the [Affordable Care Act] passed through the United States Senate and the Congress, said Jones, who was once a lawyer for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce. The failure at that time  was ensuring there was some kind of cost-control involved in the marketplace. And so what Ive been pushing for in order to get there is to allow anybody to opt into Medicare. So that way you have the government involved, which will be a cost-control mechanism, and also its the quickest way we can get the universal coverage.

And so the 13th has become a microcosm of the national political scene.



Davis wants to be your congressman, Redfield said, characterizing the incumbents campaign stance. Hes one of us, he understands us, and all that sort of stuff. And the Democrats would like to weigh him down with baggage in terms of issues, but also just generally in terms of Trumpism. Its certainly going to be a tougher race (for the GOP) than the last two times around.



Megan Swett is an editorial intern for Illinois Times through the public affairs reporting program of University of Illinois Springfield. Contact her at intern@illinoistimes.com.A Springfield fire captain who served a six-day suspension last year and agreed to counseling in 2015 is in line to become a battalion chief.

Capt. Chad Bates is on the promotion list even though he was suspended for six days last year after bringing a gun into a firehouse. In addition, Bates in 2015 agreed to counseling after the department found he had falsely told police that his ex-wifes husband had slashed his tires. Despite bringing a gun to work and fibbing to cops, Bates as recently as last fall was allowed to act as a battalion chief by the department while the citys civil service commission worked to ensure that he couldnt be promoted to the job.

Bates has been the subject of two requests for protection orders, both filed by his ex-wifes husband. In the first request, filed in the spring of 2015, the ex-wifes husband alleged that the captain had threatened him and made obscene gestures. He also said that his car had been vandalized. In December of 2015, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Maurer continued the matter, decreeing that it would be dismissed in six months if there were no acts of misconduct by Bates.

Less than a month after the ex-wifes husband asked for the protective order, Bates told police that his tires were slashed  according to city files, the suspect was the ex-wifes husband, who is a physician. Authorities determined that the report was phony after the physician pointed out that an estimate for repairs submitted to police by the captain was dated three days before the day Bates had alleged that the damage had occurred. In addition, Bates had submitted an insurance claim stating that the damage had occurred earlier than hed claimed in his police report. Bates presented police with a second estimate from a repair shop owned by a fire department employee, but the shop owner told police that the shop had provided no such estimate.

I am using every legal means necessary to get the truth and expose (Bates) for who he is, a sociopath, the physician wrote in an email to the city human resources director, after hed pointed out that the estimate was dated before the damage allegedly occurred. (Bates) uses lies, manipulation and any dangerous means necessary to intimidate those who are unfortunate enough to have some interaction with him. In my case, Ive never met the man.

Maurer threw out a second request for a protective order from the ex-wifes husband, saying there was insufficient evidence. But the states attorneys office sent Bates a cease-and-desist letter, warning the captain that any future false police reports could result in criminal charges.



Officially, at least, the city didnt discipline Bates, although the department determined that the captain had falsely reported to police that his ex-wifes husband had slashed his tires, according to city disciplinary records. The captain admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to undergo counseling for one year, with his therapist sending monthly progress reports to the citys human resources department.

Bates landed in trouble again last spring, four months after he brought a gun into a firehouse. A co-worker found the pistol in a kitchen in January of last year, but the incident didnt come to light until April, when Battalion Chief Eric Helms reported it to another battalion chief after overhearing a conversation in the firehouse.

Bates admitted that he erred in bringing the gun to work, where no firearms are allowed. He said that he needed the gun because he was worried about his ex-wifes husband.

Her new husband has really attempted to harm me in every way possible, Bates wrote in a memo to Battalion Chief Mike Bartletti. Over the years, I have grown very cautious about my safety and the safety of my children.

Bates and the city agreed to a six-day suspension, with the captain ordered to see a specialist to determine whether he was fit for duty. At the time, Bates was on track for promotion, and the city did nothing to stop the process, which included a written test that the captain and other candidates for battalion chief took 16 days after Bates agreed to a suspension.

The civil service commission, citing Bates disciplinary record, removed the captain from the promotion list in September. Bates sued, arguing that it was too late: If the city didnt want him to be a battalion chief, it should have barred promotion as part of a disciplinary process that has run its course. In a court motion, Don Craven, Bates lawyer, wrote the commissions move was inconsistent with the actions of the fire department, which allowed Bates to act as a battalion chief last October, after the commission had removed the captain from the promotion list. A battalion chief is the third-highest officer in the department and runs the department with the chief and four deputy chiefs are not available.

Fire chief Barry Helmerichs said that captains routinely act as battalion chiefs. Captains do it on a daily, weekly basis, Helmerichs said.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Madonia last month ruled in Bates favor, saying that the commission cant block promotion due to his disciplinary record. Bates ranks second on the battalion chief promotion list. Given recent staff departures that include the retirements of Helmerichs, two deputy chiefs and two battalion chiefs, Bates could soon find himself with a bigger paycheck and more responsibility.

Helmerichs said he has confidence in Bates, as I do all my people.

Hes been a good firefighter, the chief said. Ive known him for a long time.



Contact Bruce Rushton at

brushton@illinoistimes.com.Lahore, Mar 15 (IBNS): A suspected suicide blast in Raiwind area of Pakistan left at least nine people killed, media reports said on Thursday.

The incident occurred at the outskirts of Lahore.

The deceased included five policemen and four civilians.

According to reports, the incident left 25 people injured.

Senior police official, Deputy Inspector General Operations Dr. Haider Ashraf, told Geo News that police personnel appeared to be the target of the attack as the explosion took place close to a police check-post and near the vehicle of a deputy superintendent.

DIG Ashraf told the news channel that the explosion occurred when the police were changing guards at the checkpoint.

A motorcycle, which was located close to the site of the mishap, has been destroyed.

Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the incident.

He tweeted: "Brave police officials lay down their lives in the line of duty. The nation is proud of sacrifices that the Punjab police, security officials & our citizens have rendered in the war on terrorism. Prayers for the departed souls & bereaved families who lost their loved ones!"

Brave police officials lay down their lives in the line of duty. The nation is proud of sacrifices that the Punjab police, security officials & our citizens have rendered in the war on terrorism. Prayers for the departed souls & bereaved families who lost their loved ones!  Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) March 14, 2018

The official Twitter page of the Government of Punjab said :" Chief Minister Punjab has expressed grief and and sorrow over the loss of precious lives in the Raiwind blast. The Chief Minister has extended condolences to the bereaved families."

Image: Internet GrabMr. Trump himself cited differences of opinion over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as a major reason for his firing of Tillerson. Although the outgoing Secretary of State had been harshly critical of that agreement, which had been spearheaded by the Obama administration and negotiated between Iran and six world powers, he was also credited with talking Trump down from initial plans to unilaterally withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In January, the White House announced that Trump would not renew the relevant sanctions waivers when they next came due in May, unless Congress and its European partners took concrete steps to strengthen the JCPOA. Tillersons ouster makes it all the more likely that the president will follow through on this promise, in light of Pompeos public contempt for the deal and his declared commitment to countering Irans efforts to reenter the global economy.

As the Associated Press put it, Tillerson had recently been pursuing a delicate strategy with European allies and others to try to improve or augment the Obama-era deal. It is not immediately certain to what extent Pompeo will break with this approach, but media reports emphasize that the change in leadership is contributing to anxiety in Tehran while conversely raising the hopes of many of Irans adversaries, including those in the Arab world.

The AP quoted both hardline and reformist Iranian media as projecting that this was the first step toward the US torpedoing the JCPOA, an outcome that would be widely embraced by the leadership of regional states including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The AP also noted that these opponents of the Islamic Republic were looking forward to the change in US policy toward neighboring Qatar that also might follow Pompeos takeover of the State Department.

In June of last year, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were joined by Egypt and Bahrain in breaking of diplomatic relations with Qatar and cutting off travel to the island nation, in part because of its alleged efforts to encourage Arab cooperation with Tehran. These supposed efforts marked a significant break with the aggressive policies being pursued by other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, who have been contributing to a Saudi-led coalition with the mission of pushing back Iranian influence, especially in Yemen where it supports the Houthi rebels who currently control the capital.

As the AP put it, Trump has at times appeared to side with Qatars rivals in the dispute, while Tillerson had projected a more neutral stance, advocating for the Saudis to call off their boycott and open a dialogue with Qatar. Several Arab media analysts have thus projected a major shift following Tillersons ouster. And indeed, Pompeos well-known antipathy toward Iran, which he has compared to Islamic State militants, will almost certainly have knock-on effects upon the Trump administrations approach to tangentially-related regional issues, including the Qatars apparent drift into Irans orbit.

But some voices within the Iranian regime have reportedly been trying to mitigate expectations regarding the extent of the effects from Tillersons appointment. According to Reuters, this was the approach taken on Wednesday by Bahram Qasemi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, who emphasized that personnel changes in the Trump administration were nothing new and represented only their internal issue.

Reuters identified this as part of an effort to downplay the potential impact of the change on the JCPOA. But Qasemi stopped well short of saying that that agreement was secure, instead using the relevant news conference to insist that the United States cannot be trusted very much and may therefore follow through on Trumps promise to withhold sanction waivers if his demands are not met.

Furthermore, not every Iranian official and not even every official in the Iranian Foreign Ministry has echoed Qasemis optimistic assessment of the Pompeo effect. Agence France Presse reported, for instance, that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had identified Tillersons firing as evidence that the US is determined to leave the nuclear deal.

Araqchi also declared that if the US does leave the deal, Iran will immediately follow suit. However, AFP pointed out that on this point also there are internal contradictions among different members of the regime. President Hassan Rouhani has previously stated that Iran will continue adhering to the provisions of the JCPOA as long as doing so appears to be in the countrys interest. This leaves open the door for European entities to continue doing business with the Islamic Republic over the objections of the United States, provided that they can secure financing and keep the relevant transaction isolated from American sanctions.

There have been various reports of efforts, on both sides, to achieve this very isolation. France, for instance, has considered establishing a bank that would undertake no transactions with the US in order to minimize the risk of asset seizures. And the Iranian Central Bank recently announced its intention to establish a national cryptocurrency, apparently emulating a similar move that had been undertaken by Venezuela in order to evade sanctions.

In the meantime, Iran is also striving to secure sources of financing other than Western banks, and there have been scattered reports of success in this endeavor, although not all of them have been substantiated. On Wednesday, Irans English-language propaganda network Press TV announced that a Chinese company had signed an agreement with Iran Air to provide financing for pre-arranged purchases of aircraft from Americas Boeing Corporation and the French-headquartered Airbus.

The Press TV report did not identify the company by name, but seemed to be suggesting that Iran Air would still have opportunities to follow through on the purchase agreement even in the face of mounting pressure from the White House. However, the same report also acknowledged that there was persistent speculation about the Trump administration possibly cancelling license agreements that are necessary for the completion of sales from both Boeing and Airbus, since the latter utilizes American-made parts.

Given that Pompeo has staunchly opposed the expansion in trade with Iran, it stands to reason that pressure for this cancellation will intensify alongside pressure for the cancellation of the JCPOA itself after he takes over as Secretary of State.In interviews with two Iranian newspapers, published on Sunday and Monday, Fazli acknowledged about 5,000 arrests that had been made in connection with those protests. Of these, he said, about 800 had turned into serious cases. But the National Council of Resistance of Iran has determined that the true number of arrests exceeded 8,000 and that more than 14 detainees have been tortured to death so far in an ongoing crackdown.

Fazli also asserted that the December-to-January uprising was not affiliated with any organized social movement. But this seems to contradict earlier statements by no less an authority than Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who acknowledged that the NCRIs main constituent organization, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran, had played a leading role in planning and carrying out the demonstrations. This observation was later corroborated by the political affairs deputy for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, who reported that several of the persons who were arrested for leading the protests were female leaders of the PMOI who had also contributed to student protests in the 1980s.

The PMOI and the NCRI have made their own projections regarding the resumption of protests following the crackdown. The same is true of various foreign observers who believe that Tehrans repressive measures were effective in the short term but also provided fuel for further public resentment. The PMOI has also sought to specifically channel this resentment into a new uprising, to coincide with the Iranian New Year of Nowruz, which occurs next week.

Fox News reported upon the PMOIs calls to action on Tuesday, featuring commentary from two activists inside the Islamic Republic. The report noted that protest organizers believe forthcoming protests will be even larger than those that emerged virtually without warning at the end of December. We are like a wave  we come back even stronger, and the Iranian people want regime change, said one of the activists.

Another of the interviewees credited young Iranians in particular with making history. This is reminiscent of Fazlis efforts to blame generational change for the recent social unrest. But while Fazli rejected the notion of deep-seated and demographically diverse economic and political grievances, the Iranian activist sought to emphasize that more types of people [are] becoming involved, including housewives, office workers, and the rural poor.

IranWires account of Fazlis remarks suggests that by remaining unwilling to address the specific roots of the protest movement, the Interior Minister pointed to how ill-equipped his government is to prevent more such demonstrations in the future. This is not to say that the regime hasnt put forth effort to do so, but reporting from sources like the NCRI indicates that this effort consists of little other than the repetition of the sorts of repressive measures that put demonstrations on pause in January.

The PMOIs call to action was specifically focused on Tuesdays celebration of the Iranian fire festival Chahrshanbeh Suri. This in turn coincided with massive deployments of repressive forces such as the Basij civilian militia to municipalities throughout Iran. With this in mind, the Iranian activists interviews with Fox News reiterated calls for the international community to pay attention to the human rights situation in the days ahead and to help Iranian retain access to the internet and other forms of communication.

Similar advocacy has been offered up this week by a number of Iranian and international human rights groups. which reported that 46 different non-governmental organizations had signed a document urging the United Nations Human Rights Council to renew the mandate for the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. A major portion of the document focused upon the deaths and arrests that resulted from the recent uprising, while others emphasized separate instances of political imprisonment, Irans track record for non-cooperation with international human rights bodies, and the reprisals that it has visited upon those who dare to communicate with the outside world about recognized abuses.

In addition, Human Rights Watch and three other NGOs issued another statement on Tuesday calling attention to the issue of Irans persecution of the families of people who died suspiciously while in police custody. CHRI highlighted this statement in the context of a report on the case of Mohammad Raji, a member of the religious group known as Gonabadi dervishes who was arrested during a mass protest on February 20 and died sometime thereafter.

The report indicated that even in spite of the interrogations and intimidation they have subsequently faced, the family now intends to sue the Iranian government for burying Rajis body without their permission, as part of an apparent effort to prevent and independent autopsy and conceal the cause of his death. In the cases of several recent detainee deaths, prison authorities have attempted to claim that the individuals committed suicide.

The familys prospective lawsuit stands alongside the calls to action by the PMOI and other activist groups in demonstrating that members of the Iranian public are committed to action even in the face of severe repression. And this in turn reinforces expectations, even among Iranian officials like Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, that another nationwide uprising might occur in the near future.During meetings held to commemorate Naim Frasheri, the the nineteenth century Albanian poet, on March 5th and 6th in Tehran, known mercenary Ebrahim Khodabandeh, was brought in as a representative of the Nejat Association, the Ministry of Intelligence Branch, and spoke with Albanian participants claiming security threats by the MEK to the Balkans, and in particular Albania and made allegation that their children were being captive in the hands of the MEK, and called for facilitating the travel of families to Albania to meet their loved ones.

According to Ministry of Intelligence sites, on March 6th, a number of Albanian people were taken to the Nejat Association, and met for a full day with a number of other mercenaries from the Ministry of Intelligence under the name of the family members of the MEK, who made similar allegations against the MEK.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) say in an article published on March 14th, that Khodabandeh, who has been hired by the Ministry of Intelligence since 15 years ago, was threatening MEK families to cooperate with the Ministry of Intelligence against their children before the transfer of Mojahedin to Albania. He traveled frequently to Iraq in those years to encourage Iranian and Iraqi mercenaries to exert pressure on the MEK in Iraq.

In its statement on November 27, 2014, the Secretariat of the NCRI described the mission of Nejat Association against the MEK in Iraq, saying, The Ministry of Intelligence dispatched a number of its well-known agents such as Ebrahim Khodabandeh to Iraq to meet with regimes Iraqi elements and its ambassador Danaifar to pave the way for this demonizing campaignin a meeting with Ebrahim Khodabandeh at the regimes embassy in Baghdad on October 16, Danaifar promised to continue with his endeavors to establish contact between captive members of Rajavi sect and their families and to use the full capacity of the embassy of the Islamic republic of Iran in Iraq for this purpose.

The Iranian Resistance has published the documents and details of Ebrahim Khodabandeh, his brother, and his brothers wife, several times. The December 2012 report by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress and the Pentagon described how these three people became the mercenaries of the MOIS.

The NCRIs Security and Counterterrorism Committee said in a statement dated February 5, 2018, that Mostafa Roodaki, a veteran member of the clerical regimes Ministry of Intelligence, was sent to Albania as the first secretary of the embassy in order to plot against the MEK, adding that two branches of the Ministry of Intelligence, the Habilian Center and the Didehban (Observatory) Institute, have become active in Albania under the cover of cultural and press activities to facilitate Roodakis work. The statement added, Mullah Ahmad Hosseini Alast, the cultural attache of the regimes embassy in Albania, is also involved in the plotting of the regime in Albania and other Balkan countries. He is the representative of the Islamic Culture and Communication Organization affiliated with Khameneis office.

It appears that the purpose this intelligence is to endanger the security of members of the MEK in Albania. Therefore, the Iranian resistance has urged the Albanian government not to allow these mercenaries to meddle in the country and plot against Iranian refugees.

In fact, according to the EU Council Resolution of April 1997, all intelligence officers of the Iranian regime should be expelled from these countries, as stipulated.The Iranian daily newspaper Javan, which is affiliated with the militant Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), stated that they believed that Donald Trumps decision to replace Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo signalled that the nuclear deal, which Trump and Tillerson often disagreed on, would soon collapse.

In terms of the nuclear deal, Tillerson has urged Trump to remain in the deal, alongside European leaders, while Trump has wanted to withdraw for some time now. It is believed that Pompeo will support Trump in this, something especially notable because Trumps May deadline for fixing its flaws approaches.

The fixes that were proposed by Trump in January included:

 Removing the expiration dates on certain restrictions, which currently mean Iran could be nuclear-capable in less than a decade

 Enabling automatic triggers to reinforce sanctions if/when Iran violates the deal

 More restrictions on the Iranian Regimes ballistic missile programme

Ali Khorram, a former Iranian envoy to the United Nations, mischaracterised this in Arman newspaper as Pompeo wanting to start a war with Iran, rather than the simple act of agreeing with Trump to withdraw from an oft-violated deal that does not help US national security.

While Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi tried to downplay this change and what it will mean for the future of the Iran nuclear deal, which in itself shows how scared the Regime must be. This is a major event and to pretend like this is business as usual is basically like sticking your head in the sand.

It looks like the US will be toughening its stance on the Iranian Regime and its many problems, including the nuclear programme, support of terrorism, and human rights abuses.

This will be a positive step towards safety and security in the region, as the Iranian Regime is the cause (or at least exacerbator) of most crises in the Middle East, and has been welcomed by many powers in the region including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Those countries, along with Bahrain, and Egypt, have also previously urged the US for a tougher stance on Iranian ally Qatar for its support of extremist groups, some sponsored by Iran. Trump supported the allies, while Tillerson remained more neutral.Civility on Social Media Is Dead

What I Miss about Handwritten Letters

I have found myself increasingly wondering whether social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, constitutes a vehicle for civil dialogue. The number of attacks that I have either witnessed or experienced has been astounding. It has gotten to the point that I rarely respond to comments on either Twitter or Facebook, unless I have concluded that the original writer/author was interested in a response.

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The situation has gotten way out of control. The insults that are thrown around; the demeaning language; the condescension; I could go on and on. About a year ago, I awakened to a Twitter storm attacking me for my support of the Palestinian people. It was not just one tweet; it was one tweet after another, accusing me of being everything, but a child of God. There seemed to be no way to stop it.

Just recently, a good friend of mine came under a vicious Twitter attack by someone whose sanity I have been forced to question. My friend could not figure out a way to stop it, so it continued until the attacker ran out of steam.

Social media makes it easy to be obnoxious. Among other things, there are few, if any, penalties. In the old days, if you read something with which you were in disagreement in the paper; magazine; or even saw something on television, you would write a letter to the editor. To write such a letter you had to do some thinking prior to composing it. You then had to mail the letter. This entire process gave you at least a moment to contemplate your reaction and whether it was worth responding to something and, if so, how to respond.

In todays social media world, filters seemed to be reserved for photos and videos. When it comes to dialogue, people read something online and react! You can react immediately by sending an email, tweeting, posting on Facebook, or Instagram, etc. You dont have to really stop and think. You just hit Send.

And if you are really angry and want to be nasty, there are no penalties! You can, in effect, curse someone out, because what are they going to do? You can literally say whatever you want to anyone and the worst that they can do is block you from future exchanges. But that need not stop you, because you can post around them or even create another account and continue the verbal onslaught.

The result is that, rather than a medium for rational exchanges and debates, social media is more about trolling or making assertions. In a Facebook, exchange I had with someone a few months ago, after I refuted their argument they simply dismissed me by saying: Well, thats what I believe and I have a right to believe what I believe.

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Really? So, when it comes to social media, should we really just say to hell with the facts?

Each day, when I turn to social media I feel that I must dress in psychological battle armor, preparing for yet one more poison dart to come flying.Congresswoman Barragan Gets Overwhelming Support of Black Leaders

Congresswoman Nanette Barragans endorsement list reads like a Whos Who of African American Political Leaders both locally and nationally. Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Corey Booker, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congressman & Civil Rights Icon John Lewis and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver are but a few of her colleagues in Washington DC who have supported her bid for re-election. Locally, her list of supporters is just as impressive. She has garnered most of this support because of just how effective she has been as a leader representing the people of her district. Locally she has been endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti, Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis. State Senator Steve Bradford recently announced his endorsement of the Congresswoman as well as Carson Mayor Albert Robles and a number of the Carson City Council, Compton School Board President Micah Ali and a majority of the Compton School Board just to name a few.

I am deeply grateful for and humbled by the support of Senators Booker and Harris, said Congresswoman Barragan. I look forward to continuing to work alongside them in Congress to advance the values of justice, equality, and opportunity for all.

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California State Senator Steve Bradford, whose state district covers much of the congresswomans district said, I am proud to endorse Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragan for re-election. Nanette is a true fighter for environmental justice, good paying jobs, dreamers and working families. She has worked tirelessly for the underserved and underprivileged in our communities. As a former District Director for the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, who represented the district, I know the values and commitment of a true public servant. Nanette exemplifies the best of what my former boss meant to this district and who the people rightfully deserve and need representing them in DC. Im honored to endorse her for re-election.

The Congresswoman is just completing her freshman term as a member in the US House of Representatives. She was elected to fill the seat of former congresswoman Janice Hahn after she won her seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. During her first 18 months in congress, she has been extremely busy. She has been introducing legislation to require sexual harassment training for those doing business with the federal government, ushering legislation to address the growing homelessness crisis and battling with the current president over racist remarks, the government shutdown, and a myriad of issues which have affected her constituents and our nation as a whole.

Congresswoman Barragan represents one of the most diverse districts in the entire state. Californias 44th Congressional District includes the communities of Carson, Compton, Lynwood, North Long Beach, Rancho Dominguez, San Pedro, South Gate, Walnut Park, Watts, Willowbrook and Wilmington. It spans from the Port of Los Angeles to the Watts Towers, and features some of the most vibrant business, cultural, and historic communities in Southern California.Estelle Van Meter Multipurpose Senior Center: A One-Stop Shop for the CD 9 Community

Speaking in front of a crowd of nearly 200 people, Councilman Curren Price announced the expansion of critical programs and services for older adults at the Estelle Van Meter Multipurpose Senior Center grand re-opening and ribbon cutting on March 8.

Councilman Price recently secured a historic, annual budget allocation of about $500,000 for the center in Council District 9, allowing older adults in the community to benefit from a variety of free services, including: transportation; hot lunch and groceries; classes and recreational activities; legal assistance; and in-home support services.

Today, more than half a million people age 60-years-old and older live in the city of Los Angeles, said Councilman Price. Im deeply committed to honoring our older adult population and making South LA a more vibrant community for all ages.

The Estelle Van Meter Multipurpose Senior Center will also provide CalFresh and Medicare enrollment on-site. As a result of the budget allocation, the center will offer free transportation for local seniors to get to doctor appointments or go grocery shopping, among other things.

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Im excited for the computer classes, Spanish-language classes, health classes and memory classes, which I need! said Betty Clemons, a longtime CD 9 resident who attended the celebration.

Rogelio Garcia, who was also there for the grand-reopening, added, Im thrilled because this Senior Center is close to my home, making it convenient for me to be a part of the South LA community. Its also extremely welcoming to every resident in the area and allows us to take advantage of much-needed services that contribute greatly to our everyday lives.

The multipurpose center, at 7600 S. Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles 90003, was originally founded 35 years ago by South Los Angeles activist Estelle Van Meter. For more information on the free programming and services available, call Councilman Prices Constituent Service Center at (323) 846-2651.Health Insurance Is More Than an Insurance Card: Tips for Using Your Coverage

You enrolled in health insurance through Covered California, and now you have a pathway to receiving the health care you need and deserve.

So what comes next?

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Health coverage means more than just having an insurance card from the carrier youve chosen, said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee. It means you can get real care, at the right time and at an affordable price. We want people to use it.

Here are a few things to know:

 After you enroll and pay your first premium, your health insurance company will send you a welcome packet with important information about your coverage and a member ID card.

 If you have not chosen a primary care physician within the first 60 days of coverage, one will be chosen for you to get you started on the path to wellness. Contact your health insurance company to find an in-network provider. It will cost you less than a provider not in your network would.

 Make an appointment to see your doctor and bring your member ID card with you.

 Your health plan includes free preventive services for you and your family, helping you detect and prevent small problems before they become big health risks. Free services include blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, tests for common diseases like Type 2 diabetes, mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, and breastfeeding support and equipment. For children, vision and hearing screenings and common vaccinations.

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 There may be additional costs for some services. At doctors visits, you could be responsible for a copay. This is your share of the costs for the care. Contact your health plan to learn more.

Because of the Affordable Care Act, and through Covered California, health care is no longer a privilege but a right, Lee said. And the time to use your coverage is now.

For more information about your health coverage and how to use it, please go to https://www.coveredca.com/members/using-your-plan/.

Open enrollment ended recently with 423,484 plan selections, which represents a 3 percent increase over last year. Since 2014, more than 3.4 million people have purchased health insurance through Covered California, and nearly 4 million have enrolled in the states Medi-Cal program. Together, the gains have cut the rate of the uninsured in California from 17 percent in 2013 to a historic low of 6.8 percent as of June 2017.

Although open enrollment for coverage in 2018 has ended, you or someone you know may still qualify to enroll in a quality, affordable health plan through Covered California if youve experienced a qualifying life event.

Qualifying events include losing your Medi-Cal coverage or losing your employer-sponsored coverage, exhausting your COBRA coverage, turning 26 years old and no longer being eligible for a parents plan, moving to or within California, or having a baby or adopting a child. For other qualifying events, visit: https://www.coveredca.com/individuals-and-families/getting-covered/special-enrollment/qualifying-life-events/.

Medi-Cal enrollment is year-round, so youre encouraged to shop any time.Courtesy U.S. Geological Survey. Map shows concentrations of nitrogen from fertilizers flowing from the upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.

Last August the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the Gulf of Mexico dead zone  an area of low oxygen (hypoxia) that can kill fish  is the largest ever measured. At 8,776 square miles, it is an area about the size of New Jersey. Scientists have determined that the dead zone is caused by nutrient pollution, primarily from agricultural and developed land runoff into the Mississippi River. Central Illinois contributes more than its share, with University of Illinois researchers concluding in 2015 that agriculture contributes 80 percent of the nitrate-nitrogen that flows into the Mississippi from Illinois. The tile-drained areas of central and northern Illinois are the largest source of nitrate, says a government report. As they say, we have met the enemy. 

Concern about the dead zone has spawned the Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force, the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Policy Working Group, the Illinois Best Management Practices Council and a dozen other groups and task forces geared toward keeping fertilizers and pesticides in soil and out of lakes and rivers. The busiest group close to home is the Lake Springfield Watershed Resource Planning Committee. Last week Barbara Mendenhall, manager of the latest EPA grant to improve water quality in the Lake Springfield watershed, was implementing the groups latest big idea for moving soil conservation from theory to practice  a first-time ladies-only meeting of women landowners. Ranging in age from 30 to 90, the widows, wives, heirs and some active farmers were tickled to death to get their questions answered without men around to dominate the discussion. Women tend to be more conservation-minded, Mendenhall said, but theyre usually not the ones to implement the strategy. So some of the talk was about how to get the men who rent their ground to do what they want done.

We discussed the benefits of soil health, water quality and the responsibility of farmland owners for the land, Mendenhall said. A field trip showed conservation tillage operations, grass waterways, crop rotation and applying nitrogen with a strip bar so the fertilizer goes only to the row where the seed is planted. Where cover crops had improved soil health, a shovelful of dirt revealed happy earthworms.



Mendenhall went to work for the Sangamon County Soil and Water Conservation District in 1989, later serving 15 years as executive director before retiring four years ago. Shes seen progress in her nearly 30 years of promoting soil conservation. When I got involved it was deep tillage, she said, but now farmers know to leave crop residue over the winter to provide the soil some protection. Just 10 years ago, farmers would apply nearly all their nitrogen in the fall, while now many apply half in the fall, the rest in the spring, sometimes side-dressing with nitrogen after the corn is up. Under the EPA grant that Mendenhall administers, farmers can apply and receive a site-specific nutrient management plan, based on soil tests and prior yields. All the practices are geared toward getting the biggest bang for the fertilizer buck, which also keeps fertilizer out of waterways.

Grants also pay for cover crops, which not only hold soils in place after corn and soybean harvests, but also add organic matter, increasing microbial biomass and aiding water retention. Last year EPA grants, matched by Springfields City Water, Light and Power, helped farmers in the Lake Springfield watershed plant 1,572 acres of cover crops, and another 450 acres will be added this year  about 2,000 acres total this year. That may sound like a lot until you consider the Lake Springfield watershed includes 125,000 acres of farmland.

Are we making any progress? Its too soon to tell, said Ted Meckes, CWLP water division manager for the past six years. He, like Mendenhall, has been fighting the uphill battle of protecting Lake Springfield since the 1980s. The lake is silting in at a slower rate, he says wearily. This didnt happen overnight. Besides soil conservation measures, Lake Springfield is helped by being fed by small tributaries rather than a river. The Illinois State Water Survey estimates Lake Springfield will lose only 2 percent capacity per decade through 2050 from sediment deposition, compared to Lake Decatur, which is silting in at 5.5 percent per decade and Lake Vermillion at 8 percent.



We see good things happening, though not as fast as we want them to, says Barb Mendenhall. According to last years Lake Springfield Watershed Management Plan, still about 74 percent of the watersheds 125,000 acres of cropland is still farmed using conventional tillage methods, rather than no-till or conservation tillage. Thats a high percentage. Those who farm a lot of acres find the quickest way to get the crop in is to till.

She sees structural problems in the farm economy that bode against best management practices. She said many farmers used to have a 50/50 crop share lease, where the landowner paid half of the costs in exchange for half of the crop. Now most pay straight cash rent, which makes the farmer responsible for all the inputs, the equipment and the rent. With low commodity prices, farming is a very stressful occupation these days, she said. No wonder expensive niceties like cover crops and grass waterways dont happen unless the government provides more grants. Talk is that conservation programs could take some deep cuts in the federal farm bill now under discussion in Washington. Im not liking what Im hearing, says Mendenhall.

Nevertheless she and many others persist, preaching the message of healing the soil. Were continuing to go after grants at every opportunity, she says. There will be informational meetings on best practices every December and February, and a Lake Springfield watershed tour will show farmers where progress is being made. As Mendenhall says, Many are trying to do the right thing.



Fletcher Farrar manages a southern Illinois cattle farm, which presents different erosion problems than central Illinois cropland, but where soil health management is also the key to the future. Contact him at editor@illinoistimes.com.LAUSD Urges Workers to Avert Strike

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are asking thousands of service workers to help them avert a strike, one that members of the Service Employees union Local 99 began voting on this week. The group includes custodians, cafeteria workers, special education assistants and other peri-educators, who say that after a year of negotiations, no significant movement has been made on key issues, including wages and staffing shortages.

In fact, SEIU Local 99 has filed charges against the District for bargaining in bad faith, said union members in a recently released statement.

If workers vote to authorize a strike, and all legal avenues in the collective bargaining process are exhausted, a strike could come as early as this school year

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Writing to school board members on behalf of the California Legislative Black Caucus, Assembly Member Chris Holden, Chair of the Caucus, states in his letter: We wholeheartedly support the custodians, cafeteria workers, special education assistants, bus driver, teacher assistants, playground assistants, and other dedicated education workers represented by SEIU Local 99, who ensure that children can learn in a clean, safe, and supportive environment. Many are working mothers and fathers, people of color whose own children attend LAUSD schools  Through their contract negotiations they are seeking to improve student services and their own livelihoods.

Our goal is to secure a fair contract, union Vice President Tanya Walters, a bus driver told reporters. We want good livelihoods for the dedicated school workers who help our children learn. And we want staffing levels that ensure every child has the support and services they need to succeed.

The union has accused the district of cutting hours of special education assistants and under-staffing janitorial services at schools. The union also wants the district to increase its proposed 2 percent wage hike offer.

After nearly a year of negotiations, LAUSD has not made any significant movement to improve our wages and staffing for student services, said officials.

To hold the District accountable, our bargaining team is asking us for the authority to call for a lawful strike should the district continue to bargain in bad faith and continue to present proposals that disrespect the value we bring to the District.

SEIU Local 99 members must vote to authorize a lawful strike. Voting against the strike means you are satisfied with whatever LAUSD offers. Make sure your voice is heard

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The District continues to depend on a largely part-time work force to provide critical support services, including student nutrition, health and safety, and classroom support, union members said.

Additionally, after school programs and parent training, which are proven to increase graduation rates, are in dire need of expansion. Career ladder opportunities to hire more teachers from our local school communities have not been funded in years. And while weve worked with the District to lift the wage floor at LAUSD, many of the Districts most experienced, long-time workers still struggle on wages that have not kept up with the rising costs of living, they said.

Concretely, adequate staffing, fair wages, better training and education and safety and respect are what the union is fighting for.

LAUSD chief labor negotiator Najeeb Khoury told local reporters that the district values the union as a labor partner and has engaged in economically responsible bargaining, which means we must make proposals that take into account our structural deficit.

We have a solid offer of a 2 percent ongoing raise for the 2017-18 school year, adding seven extra work days or their equivalent for this school year, creating a $1 million cleanliness fund, and allowing for economic reopeners that allow the parties to come back to the table if our economic situation improves in the 2018-19 or 2019-20 school years.

We encourage SEIU Local 99 to continue working with us at the table to find solutions that take into account our economic reality, Khoury said.

We trust that SEIU Local 99 will follow the law and will not declare a strike

before going through all the statutory mandated procedures, including mediation

and fact-finding.

Voting will take place at select work sites across LAUSD through Friday, March 23. Schools, where voting is scheduled to take place, will be posted on the unions website daily along with the time members can cast their vote.McKenna to Host School Safety Town Hall Meeting in South L.A.

Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Dr. George J. McKenna III will host a town hall meeting on school safety on Saturday, March 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Los Angeles Southwest College in the Little Theater of the Cox Building. The Schools as Safe Zones town hall meeting will address school, classroom, transportation, neighborhood and online safety as well as emergency preparedness. The event is in direct response to the recent shooting involving a 12-year-old girl who accidentally discharged a gun at Sal Castro Middle School that left four students injured and one of the deadliest school shootings in Americas history at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead and dozens injured and follows calls from activists to to end random searches of students.

Schools should be the safest places in our community because we serve the most precious and vulnerable citizens in our society, our children, commented Board Member McKenna. Now is not the time to contemplate or even suggest the removal of all school police officers from schools or create a pilot program at some LAUSD schools that discontinue wanding for a period of time.

McKenna continued, These are reactionary responses that understandably seek a less restrictive environment for children, but the reality is that our officers are necessary to protect us from internal and external intrusions of acts of violence. Since we are screened when entering airports and government buildings, shouldnt our schools be kept equally safe? The most important consideration for any school is the safety of students, and parents have consistently identified this as their top priority in school selection. Having officers on campus adds to the safety of students and employees.

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For more information on the town hall meeting, please call (213) 259-9763.NABJLA Welcomes LA Sentinel Reporter, Kimberlee Buck as Its New Secretary

The National Association of Black Journalists Los Angeles (NABJLA) chapter recently announced that Sentinel reporter Kimberlee Buck was appointed to the board and will be acting as secretary. The appointment came after months of the board having no secretary. Now, said NABJLA President Trevell Anderson, with Buck, the board can get back on track.

At the end of last year, about November, our former secretary had to step down as she moved to Sacramento for a new job, Anderson explained.

NABJLA has gone without a secretary for about four months, a time period particularly difficult for the organization as its when we complete audits for the national organization, making sure everything is right for the filing of our taxes and so much more.

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Kimberlee has been a consistent presence at our NABJLA meetings for almost a year. At her first meeting, she came up to me after and introduced herself. I was immediately struck by her confidence, striking smile and interest in being involved. Since, shes been an active member and even pulled in a few of her fellow Sentinel reporters to our meetings. I think shes a great person for the job of secretary because I know shes committed to the values of NABJ and NABJLA and she wants to help ensure we are the best resource possible for Black media folk  veterans, people in the middle of their careers and emerging professionals

According to their website, NABJLA was formed in 1980 to provide advocacy for Black journalists in the Los Angeles area and encourage balance news coverage of the black community. NABJLA also provides employment opportunity information as well as workshops for high school and college students.

Anderson described Bucks role as the lifeblood of the organization.

In addition to run-of-the-mill things like taking notes on our meetings, running our official email account and overseeing membership records along with our treasurer, the role is for someone who is able to manage day-to-day tasks while also not neglecting bigger picture, vision-oriented initiatives set forth by myself and our vice president, he said.

Its often a thankless job, but most organizations would not run without someone in that position.

Said Buck about her appointment, I am extremely proud and honored to have been selected to sit on the NABJLA board and carry out the legacy of my organization and those who sat in this position before me. Being the secretary is no easy task. It requires effective organization, communication, and time management skills. However, I am ready to take on that role alongside my fellow colleagues.

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Part of NABJs mission is strengthening ties among Black journalist. Which is also something that I believe in and want to help the board achieve. For me strengthening ties among Black journalist means providing opportunities and a safe place for both the young and more seasoned; male and female; and print and broadcast journalist to learn and challenge one another in all areas of the media industry.

Buck is among seven new people appointed to the board this year.Residents To Shape Making Of Destination Crenshaw

More than 300 Crenshaw residents and Black Angelenos crowded into the Museum of African-American Art recently to shape new plans for a community-driven, open-air art museum to be built on Crenshaw Boulevard, to be called Destination Crenshaw.

Like projects in other iconic LA neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and Boyle Heights, Destination Crenshaw will physically tell the story of Black Los Angeles and formally recognize Crenshaw as the heart of Black LA. It will run between 48th Street and 60th Street along the new Crenshaw/LAX Line. Destination Crenshaw is about celebrating all that is, has been, and will be Black Los Angeles, said Councilmember Harris-Dawson who represents Los Angeles Eighth Council District.

Destination Crenshaw was born out of the struggle to oppose the construction of the LAX/Crenshaw Line at-grade, instead of underground, to save money despite community concern. Harris-Dawson noted that Crenshaw Boulevard will be the only main thoroughfare in the city where the train will run at-grade through a community. This is unheard of in the city but were doing what our community has always done, were turning insult into opportunity, said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson.

A small group of residents started hatching a plan to take an advantage of that opportunity to make a significant investment on Crenshaw Boulevard. Berlinda Fontenot-Jamerson, President of the African-American Art Museum and Chair of the Destination Crenshaw Advisory Council, was one of those community members. Weve done a lot, weve contributed a lot to the city and we see this as an opportunity to celebrate our past and build something for our children and grandchildren to celebrate all that they will contribute to this community and the world.

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Zena Howard, a Principal Architect at Perkins+Will, an internationally-renowned architecture firm that specializes in African-American cultural institutions was on hand to meet community members. Im so excited to be able to partner with this community, to learn about its history and bring to life something that represents that history in a meaningful way, said Howard. She will lead the design, curation, and construction of the museum. Howard is responsible for the newly built National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington D.C., and is one of some 400 licensed Black women architects, making up .3% of all architects in the country.

Community members have bought in to the idea of a physical place to celebrate Black LA. This is an opportunity to say to the world, as they enter Los Angeles from LAX or come by for a visit, we are here and weve been here, come see what were all about, said Kahllid Al-Alim, a long-time resident of District Eight and Chair of Park Mesa Heights Community Council. I cant wait for my neighbors and the young people to get involved.

Destination Crenshaw is slated to open in October 2019, coinciding with the opening of the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Councilmember Harris-Dawson is encouraging residents to visit destinationcrenshaw.la to participate in a survey and learn more about the project.Senate Lawmakers Seek to Gut Fair Housing

Civil Rights Guarantees Proposed to Be Weakened

In just a few weeks, civil rights and housing advocates will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Just four days following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Congress passed the law on April 10, 1968.

On the following day, President Lyndon Baines Johnsons signature made it unlawful to discriminate in housing sales, rentals and finance. Although race, color, religion and national origin were the original protected classes, in later years the Act was amended to include gender, people with disabilities and families with children. With each revision, businesses such as banks, and other lenders, realtors, landlords, insurance companies  even governments that previously used zoning and restrictive covenants to deny housing access  were all obliged to adhere to new standards of inclusion.

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Fast-forward 50 years, and much of Black America and other people of color still find that the promise of fair lending remains just that. Our collective experiences as a people provide painful reminders of how full and equal access to credit  particularly in mortgage lending  remains an unfulfilled promise.

These long-standing concerns have somehow failed to be included in a new draft legislative proposal on Capitol Hill. In the name of housing finance reform, a working proposed bill by Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Mark Warner of Virginia would eliminate the current requirement of a duty-to-serve all markets, particularly those like communities of color and rural areas. Instead, the promise of inclusion would be replaced with the vague business judgment of a so-called guarantors decision.

If allowed to be enacted into law, government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would be eliminated and fair lending requirements could be weakened. Were talking trillions of dollars being affected by such a so-called reform without any assurance that fair housing promises made half a century ago will remain. At the end of 2016, the GSEs  Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, along with Ginnie Mae together held $16.7 trillion in mortgages on the nations secondary market.

Its the kind of policy development that usually fails to attract major headlines but affects literally millions of unsuspecting potential homeowners across the country. Once mortgage applicants are approved for loans, the bulk of them are sold to the secondary market, most often to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Their sale enables the original lender to free up capital to make more loans to consumers.

Fortunately, the National Urban League and the Center for Responsible Lending joined forces to oppose this proposal before it can pick up more lawmaker support.

A report co-authored by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and National Urban League critiques this Senate proposal and criticizes recently published papers supporting it. Senate GSE Reform Proposal: A Blow to Affordable Housing and Harmful to the Overall Housing Market, calls for a system that supports opportunity for current and future generations to achieve homeownership. It also criticizes the current legislative proposal as reserving homeownership only for those who are financially well off.

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Although much of the housing market has recovered in recent years, many Americans have either not benefited or have even lost ground, said National Urban League President Marc Morial. Millennials and people of color deserve the opportunity to pursue their own American Dreams. And existing homeowners, especially older Americans need buyers when they are ready to downsize or retire. The financial glue connecting these generations is affordable mortgage credit.

Morial is right. This year, new discriminatory housing and lending lawsuits in Sacramento and Houston are reminiscent of earlier ones filed in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Memphis, Philadelphia, and other locales. When fair housing problems persist with 50 years of civil rights laws, consumers cannot afford a rollback of robust existing oversight and enforcement.

Not that long ago, taxpayers bailed out risky and ill-advised private sector practices that targeted Blacks and Latinos for high-cost, risky mortgage loans that were designed to fail. Our communities bore the brunt of the 7.8 million foreclosures and a trillion dollars in lost wealth.

If housing reforms are to be enacted, then open opportunity to all credit-worthy borrowers with strong enforcement. Civil rights leaders, housing advocates and others will not stand by to witness the repeal of key public interest mandates that enable mortgage credit to be available in all regions of the nation. Replacing the public interest mandate with weak incentives will greatly harm the overall housing market.

The entities under assault are Freddie Mac, the acronym for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and Fannie Mae, the name given to the Federal National Mortgage Association.

Our recent housing past is replete with risk that eventually harmed consumers, communities, and the entire economy, said CRL President Mike Calhoun. A doubtful structure of guarantors awarded unenforceable duties is simply not in our nations best interest. Now as the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act nears, housing finance reform should embrace housing affordability, taxpayer protection, and a duty-to-serve all markets and all credit-worthy borrowers.

Charlene Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lendings Deputy Communications Director. She can be reached at [email protected]SPECIAL REPORT: New Bill Cosby Trial on Old Allegations Begins April 2

Bill Cosbys criminal retrial on sexual assault charges set to begin with jury selection on March 29 after Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Judge Steven ONeill rejected the comedians request to have the charges against him dismissed.

Cosbys attorneys, led by former Michael Jackson lawyer Tom Mesereau, argued for dismissal on the grounds that prosecutors disregarded clear and convincing evidence that accuser Andrea Constand lied when she claimed she didnt know Marguerite Jackson, a fellow Temple University employee, who used to share hotel rooms with Constand.

Jackson told Cosbys attorneys under oath in January that Constand confided that she could set Bill Cosby up and extort him by making false allegations.

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Prosecutors continue to claim that Jacksons testimony would be hearsay and therefore inadmissible.

ONeill also denied a second dismissal motion from Cosbys team that claimed that they had irrefutable proof that the sexual encounter between Cosby and Constand occurred prior to January 2004 and therefore, the statute of limitations had expired before the case was filed on December 30, 2015.

Under Pennsylvania law, prosecutors have up to 12 years to bring a criminal case after an alleged crime. Former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor had previously declined to bring charges instead urging Constand to file a civil suit.

Constand and Cosby reached an out of court settlement in 2006 for an undisclosed amount and now Cosby wants that agreement admitted as evidence.

His legal team believes that it will show that Constands allegations are motivated solely by money and that she and the comedian had a consensual relationship, one in which Cosby has admitted that he wasnt interested in sex per se, but just petting and touching.

During the recent hearings about the case, prosecutors also asked ONeill to allow testimony in the upcoming trial from 19 women who said Cosby drugged and assaulted them. Some of the claims date back to 1965, prosecutors said.

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He did it 19 times, before he did it to Constand, Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Jappe, who argued for two hours that the judge should allow the women as witnesses.

ONeill said the new trial should last one month, or two weeks longer than the first trial. If he allows the 19 alleged victims, defense lawyers believe the trial will go past a month.

During pretrial hearings for the initial trial, which ended in a mistrial when jurors couldnt reach a verdict, ONeill declined prosecutors request to allow 13 accusers who, in recent years, have come forward with allegations similar to Constands claims.

In his previous ruling, ONeill allowed just one accuser. He said at the time that an individuals history could not be admissible evidence that proves he committed a certain crime.

During the recent hearings that took place on last week, lawyers for both sides went after each other with prosecutors asking the judge to remove Cosbys defense attorneys, because they accused the state of malicious prosecution.

Before the hearings started, ONeill expressed condolences to Cosby whose daughter, Ensa, died late last month from kidney failure at the age of 44.

Thank you, your honor, Cosby said as he rose and bowed to the judge.

Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt said Ensa had been in bad shape since last year. He said that her death came, as one of her sisters was cleared to donate a kidney.

Ms. Cosby was there day and night with Ensa, keeping watch, Wyatt said. She was there to the end and called and said she wasnt going to make it. This family is tough.

Wyatt said having a defense team led by Mesereau has afforded the Cosby family a bit of comfort.

Having Tom certainly allows Mr. and Mrs. Cosby to sleep at night, Wyatt said.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday, March 29 while the trial is on the calendar for Monday, April 2.Success On The Way Ask Dr. Jeanette: When Hatred Turns Good! Part I

Sounds a little crazy, huh? But, lets follow some fascinating ancient happenings. Havent you seen how sometimes what you thought would turn out to be terrible further on down the road, something happens and its not as bad as you thought it could be and something at the end turns to be good. There once was a man who today is famous in literature. This is somewhere around 1600 B.C.

The father was and is even more famous. The father had twelve sons. Sounds familiar? The father made a terrible mistake, at least by todays standards it would be considered terrible. And even back then, its not advisable. But, we see over time, what was not good happens for the best for many other people a long time away in the future. Back to the plot. The father loved the eleventh son , Jose, [fictitious name] more than the other ten. The twelfth son was born after the eleventh [obviously]. The first ten sons were by three different wives. This was okay to do during ancient days. The eleventh and twelfth sons were by one wife and the other ten were by three different wives. Now, that alone is enough to keep up with, right.. Okay, lets get back to the exceptionally famous father, who we will call Hocob [fictitious name] even to this day. He loved the eleventh son more than the others and made this well known with no attempt to hide it. Now, Hocob, the father loved Jose and showed his favoritism by awarding to Jose an article of custom made one of a kind designer colorful coat. This made the other ten [who were born before the eleventh] very jealous. As a matter of fact, they were so insanely jealous they conspired together to kill Jose! Hocob, the father, was insensitive or blinded to their deep jealousy and hatred toward his beloved favorite son. One day, Hocob sent Jose out to look for them as they hated him so much, I suspect they would wander off and leave him regularly, because they could not speak any kind words to him. When they saw Jose coming, they conspired to kill him by throwing him into a pit without water. After doing so, their insensitivity was shown. They just whimsically sat down after they had dumped him in the pit to eat? Some other tribe of people came by caravan and discovered Jose in the pit and got him out and sold him into slavery. So, now theres one great thing that happened by Gods providence! He landed in prison because of the lustful wife. While in prison Part 2 to follow.stay tuned, it gets better.

Teach the Children.

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Jeanette Grattan Parker, Superintendent/Founder Todays Fresh Start Charter School www.todaysfreshstart.org Will You Marry Me? Inquiring Minds Want To Know copyright. All rights reserved.The Black Press Honors Senator Kamala Harris with the NNPAs 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award during Black Press Week

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) will honor Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) with the 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award during the NNPAs 2018 Black Press Week. The Newsmaker event will take place at the Rayburn House Office Building on Wednesday, March 14 at 7pm.

The Honorable Kamala Harris, the second African American woman and first South Asian American senator in U.S. history, is an outstanding choice for the NNPAs 2018 Newsmaker of the Year Award, said Dorothy Leavell, the chairman of the NNPA and publisher of the Crusader Newspapers in Chicago and Gary, Ind.

The NNPA will also celebrate the senators efforts to raise wages for working people, reform the criminal justice system, and expand healthcare access for all Americans.

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In all of my years of covering news in our community, Senator Harris has been one of the smartest, most fearless, steadfast and caring politicians that I have come to know, said Amelia Ashley-Ward, the new NNPA Foundation chair and publisher of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. She has a lot to offer the worldwe are so fortunate to have her advocating on our behalf.

The theme of this years Black Press Week is Celebrating 191 Years of the Black Press of America: Publishing Truth to Empower. Black publishers, media professionals, civil rights leaders and lawmakers from across the country attend the annual event, taking place March 14-16. On Friday, March 16, Democratic strategist and author Donna Brazile will deliver a keynote address on the state of the Black Press in America.

When John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish printed that first issue of Freedoms Journal they sought to empower Black people to determine their own destiny and to define themselves, said Leavell. How iconic, that in 2018, our theme still rings true: Publishing Truth to Empower.

Black Press Week will also feature sessions on business development, education reform, and sickle cell disease. Outstanding leaders in the Black community will be honored during the Torch Awards Dinner.

The Torch Award recipients are: Dr. Amos Brown, the pastor of the San Francisco Third Baptist Church; Rep. Barbara Jean Lee (D-Calif.); and James Farmer, a senior consultant for General Motors.

Ken Barrett, the global chief diversity officer for General Motors, said that Jim Farmer dedicated his career to transforming the automotive industry through diversity and community service.

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I am proud of the invaluable support Jim continues to provide GM and he is truly most deserving of this prestigious honor, said Barrett.

Chairman Leavell agreed.

The NNPA Foundation, under the leadership of Chairman Amelia Ward, the publisher of the Sun Reporter in San Francisco, Calif., has chosen some of the most outstanding leaders and trailblazers in the Black community to receive Torch Awards, this year, said Leavell.

The 2018 Black Press Week partners include the Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Reynolds American (RAI), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer, Inc.

The 2018 Black Press Week sponsors include AARP, Amerihealth, Comcast, Koch Industries, Wells Fargo, AT&T, and Volkswagen.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the NNPA, said that the NNPA and the NNPA Foundation have joined together to celebrate the 191-year anniversary of the Black Press in America.

This year, Black Press Week convenes at a time of profound opportunity and responsibility to ensure a record turnout for Black American voters in the upcoming midterm elections across the nation, said Chavis. The new strategic alliance between the NNPA and the NAACP bodes well to advance civil rights and the economic, political, and cultural empowerment of Black America.Trump Administration Proposes Arming Teachers

Last month, authorities rushed to the scene after receiving 911 calls that a school shooting was taking place at Douglas High School in Florida. The incident left 17 people dead and poised the rest of the U.S. to once again debate gun control laws and look to the Trump Administration for answers.

On Sunday March 11, the Trump Administration proposed providing certain school personnel with rigorous firearms training for specifically qualified school faculty on a voluntary basis. Additionally, the administration is seeking assistance from the Department of Justice in providing school personnel with firearm training from state and local law enforcement agencies.

STOP School Violence Act

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In addition to arming qualified school personnel with guns, the administration also stated that it would provide states with funding for training, technology and any further assistance in order to help schools understand, recognize, and stop school shooting and violent acts from occurring.

The administration also announced that they will support military veterans and retired law enforcement officers in pursuing careers in education and urge state attorney generals to inspect school districts and determine if they are in accordance with state emergency preparedness rules and standards.

President Trump is also looking to support a bill that will improve background checks for gun buyers. The proposal also includes a commission that will be spearheaded by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, that will put forward policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention and possible age restrictions for a variety of firearm purchases.

Today we are announcing meaningful actions, steps that can be taken right away to help protect students, DeVos said in a statement.

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, she continued. But the plan that were going to advance and talk about is a pragmatic plan to dramatically increase school safety and to take steps to do so right away.

The administration is also in favor of Senator John Coryn and Senator Chris Murphys Fix NICS bill, which is said to improve the way in which the National Instant Criminal Background Check System receives information. The improvement will also persuade authorities to adhere to the law by providing them with financial incentives for reporting criminal history records.

Gun Laws and Mental Health

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Currently, under federal law, it is considered, unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution.

According to the state of California Welfare and Institutions Code section 8100, A person shall not have in his or her possession or under his or her custody or control, or purchase or receive, or attempt to purchase or receive, any firearms whatsoever or any other deadly weapon if  he or she has been admitted to a facility and is receiving inpatient treatment [for a mental disorder], is a danger to self or others, even though the patient has consented to that treatment.

Furthermore, section 8103 reads, no person who has been adjudicated by a court of any state to be a danger to others as a result of a mental disorder or mental illness shall purchase or receive, or attempt to purchase or receive, or have in his or her possession, custody, or control a firearm or any other deadly weapon unless there has been issued to the person a certificate by the court of adjudication upon release from treatment or at a later date stating that the person may possess a firearm or any other deadly weapon without endangering others, and the person has not, subsequent to the issuance of the certificate, again be adjudicated by a court to be a danger to others as a result of a mental disorder or mental illness.

To better control persons who are mentally ill getting their hands on firearms, Trump is expanding mental health programs. The expansion would help identify and treat people who may be a threat to themselves or others. He also proposed an increase in mental health resources, primary care, family services, and support for programs that utilize court-ordered treatment.

Although Trump is addressing the issues of school violence and mental health in regards to gun laws, many questions remain and everyone isnt on board.

Providing rigorous firearms training to teachers puts millions of dollars in the NRAs pocket and makes Los Angeles schools less safe, said Congresswoman Karen Bass.

Arming teachers would have had no impact on the tragedies in Las Vegas, or Sutherland Springs, or San Bernardino, or Orlando. The worst part? Trump is their pitchman. The companies that sell the weapons get richer. More people will die.

How will parents and school personnel keep students in the mean time?

Recently, Dr. George J. McKenna III announced that he would hold a town hall meeting on Schools as a Safe Zone. The event, located at Los Angeles Southwest College at 9am, is said to help families and members of the community understand the role they play in keeping schools safe and creating a safe learning environment.

To register for the event please visit www.drgeorgemckenna.com .

CNN contributed to this reportTrump-Kim meeting could make war less likely

Donald Trump is taking a lot of heat for his snap decision to talk face to face with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. His aides caution that the meeting may never take place, that concrete conditions must be met for it to happen.

Conservative pundits and foreign policy pundits fret that Trump has given Kim recognition that North Korean dictators have sought for decades in exchange for a mere promise to pause missile and nuclear tests. Republican Sen. Corey Gardner calls for concrete, verified steps towards denuclearization before this meeting occurs. Even Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren describes a face-to-face meeting as a win for them. It legitimizes, in their view, their dictatorship and legitimizes their nuclear weapons program.

Admittedly, President Trumps sudden agreement is a head-spinning reversal of direction from schoolyard taunts and threats of war to an agreement to meet and talk. But I would rather Trump and Kim talk to each other than threaten each other with war and nuclear weapons.

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It may be that Kim craves the recognition and Trump the flattery, but these caricatures are irrelevant. Whether they agree to agree or agree to disagree, their meeting can make war less likely. I have always believed that one can talk without conditions toward an agreement with concrete and verifiable conditions. The notion that Kim will give up his nuclear weapons program as a precondition to any talk is nonstarter, a recipe for increasing tensions and escalating crisis.

It is time to get real. North Korea is a dictatorship and an impoverished country, crippled by a failed economic system and harsh international sanctions. It is also a nuclear power, in possession of 20 to 60 nuclear weapons. It has sustained its nuclear weapons program in the face of immense international pressure.

After George Bush named it part of the axis of evil with Iraq and Iran, North Korean leaders had every reason to believe that nuclear weapons  and their ability to destroy South Koreas capital with conventional weapons  were essential to deter any attack on them. Kim no doubt noticed when the U.S. and its allies took out Libyas Muammar Gaddafi after he got rid of his nuclear weapons.

There is no rational military solution to North Koreas nuclear arsenal. An attack by the U.S. is unimaginable, with millions of lives in South Korea at risk. Threats and juvenile taunts about having a bigger nuclear button only ratchet up tensions. Escalating and ever more aggressive military exercises only increase the possibility of a war by miscalculation.

This opening comes from the initiative of South Koreas president, Moon Jae-in, who has worked tirelessly to lessen tensions between North and South and to broker a meeting with U.S. and North Korean officials. He embraced North Koreas participation in the winter Olympics. Kim sent his sister with an invitation to a summit.

While Vice President Mike Pence startled Koreans with his lack of manners and hard line at the Olympics, President Moon responded positively, dispatching envoys to North Korea to continue the talks and begin to arrange a summit. At that meeting, Kim stunned the diplomats by saying that he was open to talking with the Americans about his nuclear program, willing to suspend nuclear and missile testing to open the way for talks without insisting that the U.S. and South Korea suspend their joint military exercises that have always been a source of tension.

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This caught the U.S. by surprise. We have no ambassador in South Korea. The State Departments top diplomat in charge of North Korea policy, Joseph Yun, recently retired. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was essentially out of the loop when Trump made his snap decision to agree to a meeting.

Can the talks take us from the edge of co-annihilation to the possibility of co-existence? Thats surely unknown. The hermetic kingdom of North Korea is one of the most closed countries in the world. It is separated from the world by a wall, so it lives in the shadows, which allows propaganda, fear, lies and rumor to define reality.

It will take more than one summit to resolve this crisis. South Koreas president will meet with Kim before Trump does. Trump and Moon would be wise to suspend this springs U.S.-South Korean military exercises unilaterally, as a gesture of good will before the talks.

Any agreement will meet formidable obstacles. Could an agreement be verified, given North Koreas fear of outside observers? Will the U.S. and its allies ease sanctions if Kim agrees to discontinue nuclear and missile tests, as a first step toward peaceful relations? What would be necessary to make North Korea confident that they wont be attacked if they disarm?

One thing is clear. It is far better that Trump and Kim are moving toward talks rather than escalating threats. Negotiations are preferable to name calling and missile rattling. Trumps decision to accept Kims offer was characteristically impulsive, abrupt and unbriefed.Mary Bohlen A mural highlighting Pontiacs connection to Route 66 graces the back of the museum complex in this central Illinois town. The school bus/home of Springfield-area resident and Route 66 aficionado Bob Waldmire sits in the parking lot.





David Estes should ask Ancestry.com to check his DNA for a museum-founding gene.

His mother, Betty, late tourism director for Pontiac, Illinois, founded the towns popular Route 66 museum in 2004. Not to be outdone, Davids father, Dal, built the Livingston County War Museum upstairs in the same building a few months later. These days David, a Vietnam veteran and former high school French teacher, continues the legacy by overseeing the War Museum.

He joins a dedicated group of volunteers trying to make Pontiac, population 12,000, known for more than its state prison and I-55 rest stop for travelers hurrying to and from Chicago. Those who take the time to pull off the highway will find those two museums  and three more, including a one-of-a-kind gilding arts museum  worth a visit.

Visitors also will discover a town full of outdoor murals and a charming courthouse square.

A good place to start is just off the square at the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum on the first floor of the towns old fire station. The museums display cases highlight stops along the Illinois portion of the route, from Lou Mitchells restaurant in Chicago to the Hi-Way Tavern in Edwardsville.

Hall of Fame plaques honor 80 people or businesses instrumental to the roads fame and fortune. Other items showcase quirky memorabilia.

Rose Geralds, a docent for nine years, says some of the most popular exhibits are Route 66 legend Bob Waldmires Volkswagen van inside and his converted school bus/home parked outside. The late Springfield-area artist willed them to the museum.

One familys donation of Illinois license plates from 1912 to 1984, including those made from soybeans during WW II, fills a wall. Postmarks from every post office along Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica took the collector three years to acquire, Geralds says.

Mary Bohlen David Estes shows the fatigues he wore in Vietnam on one of 250 mannequins displaying military uniforms at the Livingston County War Museum in Pontiac. Davids father, Dal, began the museum with his own collection of military memorabilia in 2004, a

Everything has been donated or brought in, she says. Ive heard this is the biggest Route 66 museum, and some visitors say it is the best. The museum draws a lot of international visitors, and Geralds says she has hosted people from as many as 19 different countries in one day. Many come during the roads annual Red Carpet Corridor Festival, stretching from Joliet to Towanda and scheduled this year for May 5.

She credits Betty Estes with the museums success. Till the day she died, she was a 66er. Her husband, meanwhile, collected military memorabilia. He had landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

David Estes said his father had a small collection in a small room in their house. My mom wanted it out of our house and told Dad, It goes or I go, according to David. After Betty became Pontiacs first tourism director, Dal opened the military museum on the buildings third floor, and many veterans started donating items.

Today the collection includes 250 mannequins dressed in military uniforms worn by local service men and women, with their pictures and information tags attached. Some small hand weapons, ammunition, books, flags and photos of planes and troops complete the display. The goal is to educate visitors about the 250 stories we tell here, David says.

We love getting field trips in here and we do Skype in the Classroom all over the United States and in 15 other countries, he explains. We bring in a veteran and kids ask questions.

The second floor of the museum complex houses the small Walldog Mural and Sign Art Museum, a room with music from the Civil War, an exhibit of Bob Waldmires art and a gift shop with an abundance of Route 66 items. The Walldog museum has videos of the traveling mural painters at work, painting equipment and examples of murals.

Pontiac hosted the Walldogs in 2009, when they completed 18 murals on downtown buildings. Local artists have added a few more, and visitors can follow sidewalk footprints to view the art.

They also should hoof it over to the Museum of Gilding Arts, the only gilding museum in the United States, according to docent Cindy Neaveill. The small museum has original tools, workbenches and floors from a Connecticut factory dedicated to the ancient art of applying gold leaf.

Pontiac landed the museum through a connection between one of the Walldog mural painters and the factory owners, who were looking for a museum location. The mayor at the time jumped at the chance to host it, and the museum opened in 2015.

A long time ago there were gilders in Pontiac, Neaveill says. There are four gilders in Chicago who come down regularly. When they are here, they are just in heaven. Non-gilders can learn about the craft through numerous information panels and gilded examples.

Pontiac also was the natural choice for a museum dedicated to cars with that name. The Pontiac-Oakland Museum and Resource Center opened in 2011 as the only all-Pontiac museum in the world, according to Joy Henderson, who oversees the gift shop.

She says Museum Director Tim Dye and a friend had gone to a Pontiac car show in Chicago and on their way home to Oklahoma saw the sign for Pontiac. He was a Pontiac fanatic so he had to check this Pontiac out, she explains. The mayor called Dye the next day to discuss setting up a museum honoring Pontiacs and their predecessor Oaklands.

The museum featuring vintage autos and historic Oakland/Pontiac gear is especially popular with international visitors touring Route 66, Henderson says.

All of the Pontiac museums are free but appreciate donations.

For more information about Pontiac, its museums and their hours, go to www.visitpontiac.org or call 815-844-5847.



Mary Bohlen is a Springfield travel writer who is exploring Illinois in honor of the states bicentennial in 2018.This is Whats Trending Today

Cedric Vaivre owns a bakery in the small French village of Lusigny-sur-Barse. Last summer, Vaivre decided to keep his business open every day of the week to serve visitors to the area.

That decision may cost him.

The French department of Aube has fined the 41-year-old baker 3,000 euros, or about $3,600. Aube officials say he violated a local employment law. The law says bakeries cannot be open seven days a week. Instead, bakers must take one day of rest.

European media reports say Vaivre is refusing to pay the fine. And many in his community are on his side. About 2,000 people have signed an official message of support for Vaivre.

Lusigny-sur-Barse sits near several beautiful lakes, as well as a protected park area. In fact, Vaivres calls his bakery La Boulangerie du Lac, or Bakery of the Lake.

Travelers from across France visit the area during summer months.

The Guardian newspaper reported that, until 2016, local officials had permitted Vaivres shop to stay open every day of the week during the summer. However, officials refused Vaivres request to do the same last summer. He stayed open anyway.

Eric Scherrer is an official with the French retail union CLIP-P. He explained that the law for bakers and others in the food industry is meant to protect people from working too much.

Scherrer told Frances The Local news site, Its an artisanal trade where people can work a lot, much more than the legal limits.

But the towns mayor, Christian Branle, is supporting Vaivre. Branle told LEst Eclair newspaper, In a tourist area, it seems essential that a business can open every day during the summer. Theres nothing worse than closed shops when there are tourists.

And thats Whats Trending Today.

Im Phil Dierking.

Ashley Thompson wrote this article based on reports by The Guardian and French media. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

bakery - n. a place where bread, cakes, cookies, and other baked foods are made or sold

retail - n. the business of selling things directly to customers for their own use

artisanal - adj. relating to making things by hand

tourist - n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

essential - adj. extremely important and necessaryAs Egypt prepares for a presidential election, the country continues to struggle with security in the Sinai Peninsula.

The election will take place from March 26 through March 28. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to easily win a second term in office.

However, Egypts military remains in a campaign against extremist groups in the Sinai including the Islamic State group.

The IS is suspected in a December attack against the Al-Arish air base. Officials believe Egyptian government ministers were the targets. Reuters news service reported that the attackers used a laser-guided missile to destroy a helicopter.

Military and police officials say a Russian-made missile was fired from a house near the base.

The ministers were not hurt.

The military noted the attack in December but officials did not comment on it since then.

Islamic State remains in the Sinai

The Islamic State is using the Sinai area as a hiding place. The group has been forced out of Libya, Iraq and Syria.

In January, the United Nations released a report that spoke of the resilience of the Islamic State in Egypt.

Reuters reports that the Egyptian military has said it had killed more than 1,800 rebels in the area since 2014.

In February, the army launched an offensive in the Sinai. It said it killed may suspected rebels and detained hundreds of others.

The military said the army, navy and air force cooperated in a new way in the campaign.

Sisis supporters say the security situation now is better than it was in the years after the Arab Spring uprising of 2011. Sisis office did not answer requests for comments on the current security situation.

A new Sinai campaign against militants

The attack on the helicopter took place three weeks after Sisi ordered his generals to use, in his words, brute force against jihadists.

Egypts military is using warplanes, tanks and troops that have fought Islamists in the Sinai for years. Some experts say the army should use more effective methods that are less likely to anger civilians in the area.

One Western diplomat said Egypt should employ more targeted, intelligence-based tools for fighting extremism.

However, a military official told Reuters that Egypts security forces are succeeding. He also said civilians would be paid for material damages caused by the fighting.

The army says more than 10 soldiers have died in the recent Sinai operation and that hundreds have died in recent years.

The Islamic State has said that it killed many soldiers in the last month in roadside bomb attacks. The group is said to have released an unconfirmed video of the attack on the airbase.

The governor of Sinai announced after the attack that a secure area would be extended around the base. But people Reuters spoke to questioned whether the measures would help, saying they would only make people angry.

Im Mario Ritter.

Reuters News Agency reported this story. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

resilience n. the ability to regain strength or previous abilities

brute adj. violent

jihadists n. Muslims who support holy war

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.Some economic experts are saying United States plans to put tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods could end up helping China.

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused China of permitting unfair trade policies that hurt the U.S. economy and its workers. Trump has also said he wants the U.S. trade deficit with China to be reduced.

Recently, Trump announced plans to place new tariffs on steel and aluminum. He said the tariffs were meant to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industries, which are important to national security.

Steel imports to the U.S. would be subject to a 25 percent tariff, while aluminum would face a 10 percent tariff.

Canada and Mexico do not have to pay the new tariff. Many other steel and aluminum exporting nations have said they also want to avoid it.

The U.S. administration is also currently considering putting additional tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods, Reuters news agency reports. Those new tariffs would be placed on products in the technology and telecommunications industries, Reuters cited officials as saying.

The plans to put new tariffs on Chinese goods reportedly came as the result of an investigation launched last year into violations of intellectual property rules by China.

In addition, a White House spokeswoman said the administration is requesting that China take steps to reduce its trade imbalance with the U.S. Officials have set a target for China to cut its U.S. trade surplus by at least $100 billion, she said.

Last week, President Trump tweeted that China had been asked to develop a plan for the year to reduce the trade imbalance by $1 billion. 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! the tweet said.

The White House spokeswoman said Wednesday that the amount was actually $100 billion.

The U.S. Census Bureau says the U.S. trade deficit with China reached a record $375 billion in 2017. That number is two-thirds of the U.S. trade deficit with all its trading partners.

China has estimated its 2017 U.S. trade surplus was $276 billion. That is equal to two-thirds of its trade surplus, of $422 billion, with all other countries, Reuters reports.

Some economic experts are saying that some tariffs meant to punish China might end up helping the Chinese. They say this is because some of the latest American policies - such as the tariffs on steel and aluminum  affect other nations as well.

One example is the European Union, or EU. The EU in the past has joined with the U.S. to dispute Chinese trade policies both considered unfair.

Christopher Balding is a professor of economics at Peking Universitys HSBC Business School. He says recent Trump administration decisions on tariffs are likely to change current world trade alliances.

One of the biggest problems with recent Trump actions is that it seems to very much alienate many countries who have nearly identical interests in confronting Beijing and their strongly protectionist trade regime.

Balding added that this could make EU members and some other nations less willing to support Trump when his administration is also placing tariffs on them.

In December, trade ministers from America, the EU and Japan promised to cooperate on efforts at the World Trade Organization. They said they would fight Chinese trade policies they consider unfair such as state support for exporting companies. They say this support permits the companies to sell products at a lower cost.

Jacob Kirkegaard is with the Peterson Institute of International Economics. He told VOA cooperation with other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development could change because he thinks the new situation is clearly helping China.

There is no doubt that the splitting of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) or Western camp, on trade disputes - because of the unilateral decision of the Trump administration - is a benefit to China.

Chinese officials have repeatedly said they do not want a trade war to break out with the U.S. But they have also said in several statements they would take measures to protect Chinese trade interests if U.S. actions are seen as threatening.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Saibal Dasgupta reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English, with additional material from Reuters and the Associated Press. 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

tariff  n. a tax on goods coming of leaving a country

retaliate  v. to take negative action in response to negative action

intellectual property  n. work or invention that is the result of creativity such as a design, a manuscript, software, etc. that one has copyright or trademark

surplus  n. a situation in which a country sells more to other countries than it buys from other countries

deficit  n. situation in which a country buys more from other countries than it sells to other countries

alienate  v. to cause to become isolated or apart from the group

confront  v. to oppose or challenge, often in a direct and forceful way

unilateral  adj. involving only one group or country

benefit  n. something that helps or provides an advantage

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia said his country will develop nuclear weapons if its rival Iran does.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the American television network CBS, Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.

The CBS report with the prince will air on Sunday.

The princes statement raised the chances of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim kingdom, and Iran, a Shiite-majority republic, are longtime rivals. The two countries are backing opposing groups in armed conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has criticized the 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran. The deal lifted economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear energy program.

U.S. President Donald Trump has described that agreement as a terrible deal. The United States will restart sanctions against the country unless Trump issues new waivers to suspend them on May 12.

An American withdrawal from the nuclear deal would likely lead to the restarting of nuclear development in Iran.

Civilian nuclear program

Saudi Arabia is currently developing a civilian nuclear energy program to reduce its economys dependence on oil.

Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, has previously said it wants nuclear technology only for peaceful uses. But it is unclear whether it also wants to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel. The process can also be used to produce atomic weapons.

The United States, South Korea, Russia, France and China are competing for a deal to build the countrys first two nuclear reactors.

American companies can only transfer nuclear technology to a country that has signed an agreement that rules out domestic uranium enrichment and the preprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Such steps can have military uses.

So far, Saudi Arabia has refused to sign any agreement that would take away its ability to one day enrich uranium. This has been at the center of worldwide concerns over Irans nuclear program, which enriches uranium domestically.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on Reuters news reports. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

rival - n. country that tries to defeat or be more successful than another

acquire - v. to get something

follow suit - v. to do the same thing

waiver - n. an official document indicating desire to give up a right or requirement

enrich uranium - v. develop higher concentration of uranium through the process of isotope separation

transfer - v. to move something from one place to another

domestic - adj. of, relating to, or made in your own country

The United States government is taking action against over 20 Russian cyber actors for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Treasury Department announced sanctions against the GRU, the Russian military intelligence organization, and 13 Russian citizens. Those individuals already face charges as a result of a special U.S. investigation of Russian activities during the election campaign.

The measures also target the Internet Research Agency, a company based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Officials say it sought to divide Americans with misleading stories and commentary on American issues during the campaign.

The sanctions mark the first time President Donald Trumps administration has directly blamed the Russian government for election interference.

Putin riding Russia First wave

Across Russia, final preparations are being made for elections on Sunday. Vladimir Putin is expected to win another term as president. Many Russians credit him with defending the country against Western governments that consider him a dangerous leader.

Studies of likely voters show Putin with a commanding election lead. That all but guarantees him another term that will take him to nearly 25 years in power.

The only thing that could take away from a Putin victory is if a lack of interest in a predictable election keeps many people from voting. The Reuters news agency says officials are also concerned that Putins opponents may organize protests against what they see as an undemocratic election.

In an election campaign where television reporters often say good things about Putin, he has presented himself as the only person who can defend Russias interests in a hostile world.

His supporters point to Russias military intervention in Syria and its takeover of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 as examples of his leadership. They say U.S. and European sanctions announced during the Ukraine crisis are a price worth paying.

An argument with Britain over claims the Russian government poisoned a Russian double agent in England has not hurt Putins popularity. The Russian government has denied involvement.

Boycott Campaign

Vladimir Putin was first elected president in 2000. This year, on March 9, a study found that 69 percent of likely voters expressed support for Putin. The state-operated polling company reported the finding.

His nearest competitor, Pavel Grudinin, candidate of the Communist Party, received just 7 percent in the poll.

Another candidate, Ksenia Sobchak, a television presenter and family friend of Putin, has criticized the Russian leadership. But she has only two percent support, the same poll showed.

Government officials say some Russians may decide not to vote because of Putins lead over the other candidates. That could lessen his position with the ruling elite who have backed him, partly because of his ability to command popular support.

The first politician in years to threaten the governments control on power, Alexei Navalny, is not on the ballot. He was barred after being jailed for corruption, charges he says were invented by Russian officials.

Navalny, who uses social media to fuel anger among his mostly young followers over official corruption, is pushing an election boycott.

Our boycott campaign is working, he said this week. As evidence, Navalny pointed to a plan by officials to offer food at lower than normal prices at voting stations. He also said state officials were pressuring government employees and students to vote.

Problems of the office

Though winning another term is nearly guaranteed, governing Russia for another six years will not be easy.

Hurt by lower oil prices and the effect of Western sanctions, Russias economy grew by only 1.5 percent last year. That is well below the growth Russians had come to expect in the earlier years of Putins rule.

Putin has spoken of the need to increase economic growth, but the steps that economists want include lessening the states position in the economy. Many people in leadership positions resist this idea because it may affect their own wealth.

But it is the end of Putins next term that may lead to problems. Term limits bar him from seeking re-election, and Putin has said he will not change the constitution to stay in office.

Some members of the ruling elite are reported to believe Putin will repeat the move he took in 2008 when he also faced term limits. At that time, another man took over the presidency while Putin served as prime minister.

If Putin, who will be 71 when his next term ends, wants to retire, however, he will need to identify a replacement. That risks releasing tensions between competing groups in the ruling elite.

I'm Bryan Lynn. And I'm Susan Shand.

Susan Shand adapted this report for VOA Learning English. Her story was based on information from VOANews.com and the Reuters news agency. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

sanctions  n. a measure or action that results from failure to obey a law or rule

poll  n. an activity in which several people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to get information about what most people think about something

cyber  adj. of or related to or involving computers or computer systems

elite  n. upper classIt is easy for people in Erie, Pennsylvania to blame their citys economic problems on the loss of manufacturing jobs to China and Mexico.

Many Americans, including President Donald Trump, believe that factory closures are the main issue facing aging manufacturing towns in the United States.

Since 2008, Erie has suffered a less-known and possibly more serious loss of well-paying, white-collar jobs. Half of the business leadership positions in Erie  220 jobs  have disappeared. The city has lost 10 percent of its computer workers, 40 percent of its engineers and 20 percent of its lawyers. The Associated Press says that information comes from a study of government records.

All these jobs helped to support Eries manufacturing industry. And they are the kind of work that has increasingly become the base of the American economy.

The AP examined U.S. Department of Labor records dating to 2008. It found that a third of major cities  nearly 80 communities  are losing a greater percentage of white-collar jobs than blue-collar jobs.

In Ohio, cities such as Toledo and Canton have had a harder time keeping jobs in offices than on factory floors. The situation is similar in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Wichita and Topeka, Kansas; in Birmingham, Alabama and Decatur, Illinois.

Thats one of the most painful aspects of the economic decline of these manufacturing centers: They get hit twice, said Enrico Moretti, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. First, they lose the factories. But second, and most importantly, they lose everyone who was supportive of those factories.

Economists worry most about this second-level loss. They believe that cities need white-collar jobs to meet a new economy based on specialized knowledge and technological skill.

Higher-Paying Jobs Leaving Smaller U.S. Cities

During the 2016 election campaign, candidate Trump promised voters that he would bring factory jobs back to areas that had lost them. But the AP study shows how higher-paying jobs are leaving smaller cities, and a generation of workers are following. Such workers could create businesses or serve existing companies if they stayed.

The AP studied employment records by occupation from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. It then compared employment numbers for metropolitan areas with national averages. Jobs that were defined as white collar include supervisory, administrative and sales positions. Blue-collar occupations include production, machine operation and transportation positions.

White-collar workers are increasingly moving away from smaller cities and settling in fast-growing areas like Seattle, Nashville, Chicago and Silicon Valley. As those higher-paying occupations become centered in fewer places, the wealth they create is less likely to be passed along to cities with a history of manufacturing.

Making Erie More Appealing

In Erie, many business leaders say the city mainly needs to keep and create more white-collar jobs.

Its largest for-profit employer, Erie Insurance, recently repaired an old building where the U.S. National Guard kept arms and military equipment. The company has also been rebuilding old homes nearby, slowly turning part of the city into a business center.

In addition, Erie Insurance is leading a private $40 million effort to fill downtown Erie with stores and housing. It is hoping that the changes will appeal to other employers and college graduates.

For the companys chief executive, the project is personal. Tim NeCastro has five adult children; only one has chosen to stay local.

If this is successful, 10 years from now, two more of my kids will move to Erie, he said. They will find a reason to get back here.

It is the same issue many small- and middle-size cities face. Children who left for college are mostly not returning home. Many young people are choosing to live in communities close to a major university, like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 200 kilometers south of Erie.

In larger cities, it is easier for white-collar workers to make job changes that offer more money or possibilities for career development. This makes big cities appealing to younger professionals.

For example, Census Bureau records show that Chicago, Illinois, added nearly 40,000 college graduates under age 35 since the Great Recession began in late 2007. Boston, Massachusetts gained about 10,000. Denver, Colorado added 25,000.

However, in the same period, Toledo, Ohio lost 1,600 young college graduates.

In a 2016 campaign speech in Erie, Trump blamed unfair trade for the struggles facing communities across the country. He spoke about the North American Free Trade Agreement and the entrance of China into the World Trade Organization.

"We will stop these countries from taking our companies," Trump said.

The argument helped Trump, the Republican Party nominee, win Erie County. It had voted for Democrat Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. In the 13 months since Trump entered office, Erie has lost about 800 jobs. The number of people seeking jobs dropped by more than 2,000.

Trump has announced taxes on steel and aluminum imports in hopes of strengthening U.S. industry.

I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Caty Weaver.

The Associated Press reported this story. George Grow adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

white-collar  adj. of or related to office workers

blue-collar  adj. of or related to people who work in a factory

aspect  n. the way something appears; a part of something

decline  n. a process of becoming worse or weaken in condition

graduate  n. someone who completed a study program at a school, college or university

metropolitan  adj. of or relating to a large city as well as nearby cities and towns

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.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10 hours ago

Investors, Have You Used the Rule of 72? If Not, Here's Why You're Missing Out

You could live to 120 and not know everything you could possibly know about investing. However, it's also important to have a firm grasp on the basics. One of the most basic concepts of personal finance involves the rule of 72.

Read ArticleOn Friday, March 9, the Springfield Art Association, along with the SAA Collective in the Hoogland Center for the Arts, combined forces with independent artist group The Pharmacy Gallery & Art Space to participate in a Passport Gallery Tour. Each location had an opening scheduled for that evening, and visitors were encouraged to obtain a passport at whichever gallery they stopped at first. Art enthusiasts who had their passport stamped at all three locations not only got the chance to see the work of three groups of Springfield-based artists (and fill up on food and drink from three separate spreads) but also got a chance to win a drawing for artwork from one of the artists on exhibit.

click to enlarge Family Talk by David Brodsky, part of Ambience at SAA Collective.

We were hoping that the merger of the Prairie Art Alliance and the Springfield Art Association in January 2016 [in which the former PAA essentially became the SAA Collective], would be a catalyst for the arts in Springfield to come together, explained Corrin McWhirter, Collective gallery director. I had a lunch meeting with Janet Sgro from The Pharmacy and proposed this idea as something we could potentially do. Everyone was very excited. In the past it has not been uncommon for the different galleries in town to have openings on the same night, which often resulted in increased attendance. Why not make it happen in an official, coordinated way? asked McWhirter with a laugh.

Things kicked off at SAA Collectives H.D. Smith Gallery, with Ambience, featuring photography by David Brodsky, paintings by John Hayes and ceramic pieces by Gary Beaumont, combining for a show that is both varied and cohesive. Brodskys contributions to Ambience are typically striking black-and-white street scenes, filled with anxiety, humor and stillness, depending on the image. Ladder shows the inside of a decaying church, giving the viewer an uncanny feeling of the previous activity in the abandoned, once-holy space. In contrast, Family Talk provides a wryly humorous, detached perspective on an elderly, bickering couple in a cafe. Hayes work in the show ranges from a pastel landscape completed 20 years ago, to oil and mixed media pieces completed earlier this month. Ive done a variety of imagery over the past 30 years, some of it representative and much of it just design and abstraction, said Hayes. Beaumonts work is also mixed media and very colorful, combining ceramics and painting, resulting in a variety of expressions, including otherworldly objects he refers to as space platters, which would not have been out of place in The Pharmacys show (more on that below).

Meanwhile, the M.G. Nelson Gallery at the Springfield Art Associations main campus at 700 N. Fourth St. hosted a three-pronged show featuring work from the second batch of participants in the still-new Enos Park Residency for Visual Artists program, which provides long-term residencies for artists in all media. In contrast to the more community-focused and interactive work of the first two resident artists, all three current artists produce pieces suitable for gallery exhibits. Back from the Dead / Hauntology by Wisconsins Ginger Lukas is a collection of colorful ceramic sculptures, both archly witty and visually arresting, giving the viewer a sense of an archaeological dig from a dead society only fractionally removed from our own; Vermont-native Rob Thomson contributed a series of vibrant, evocative paintings under the title Contempt for a Thin Fever, which he described paradoxically as representing a Heros-Journey-Away-and-Back-Home, only time is all at once, there is no hero, and there is no home. More straightforward are the paintings in Head like a Stone by Romanian-born, Chicago-based artist Gene Tanta, including a few eccentric portrayals of cairns and biographical self-portraits of that Romanian 8-year-old boy who knew he wanted to be an artist but couldnt.

Cosmos was the apt title of the group show at The Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space at 711 S. Fifth St., featuring a veritable galaxy of varied work from its energetic group members. Not all of the work related directly to the loose outer-space theme  although William Crooks local street scenes are arguably a galaxy unto themselves, Diane DeLeonardos colorful clown faces, lizards and frogs have a distinctly alien feel to them and Patricia Myers tactile abstracts conjure up a palpable inner space. But work like Timothy Donavan Russells lunar-themed Keith, Jeff Williams various cartoonish-yet-menacing aliens and the otherworldly objects made by Vince Merriman, along with many others, allowed visitors a rare passport to intergalactic regions.



Scott Faingold can be reached at sfaingold@illinoistimes.com.The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: @Credentials Inc., ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. 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Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A  Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mohawk Unilin Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk United Finance B.V., Mohawk United International B.V., Mohawk Vinyl Financing S.a r.l., Molber Beheer B.V., Monarch Ceramic Tile Inc., P.F. Onroerend Goed B.V., PF Beheer B.V., Pergo, Pergo (Europe) AB, Pergo Holding BV, Pergo India Pvt Ltd, Polcolorit S.A., Premium Floors Australia Pty Limited, RR Apex LLC, Rata International Pty Ltd, Recubrimientos Interceramica S. de R.L. de C.V., Riverside Textiles Pty Ltd, S.C. KAI Ceramics SRL, Sibir Kerama OOO, SimpleSolutions USA LLC, Soft Step (Australia) Pty Ltd, Spano Group, Spano Invest BVBA, Spano NV, Stroyagromekhzapchast ChaO, Stroytrans OAO Orelstroy, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, The Flooring Federation Ltd, Tiles Co OOD, Unilin (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited.The memory of a beloved pet inspires one couple's fight against injustice.

Illinois lawmakers walked out of the Capitol building on Wednesday morning to honor victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Led by Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, lawmakers joined student demonstrations across the nation on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting that killed 17 people.

I helped to organize this walkout with my colleagues not to preach or lecture about guns, Bush said in her opening address, but to honor the 17 students and staff members who gunned down a month ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

It was a bipartisan event.

We are here today not as politicians, but as colleagues, committed to working together with one another on behalf of students, teachers, police officers, parents, and all members of our community who should be able to live, or work, or learn, or worship, or do anything else without the fear that their lives are in danger, Sen. Chris Nybo, R-Elmhurst, proclaimed.

Following Nybos statement, Bush and Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, read out the names of the Parkland victims. As each victim was named, a lawmaker held up the victims picture, putting 17 faces to the recent tragedy. Throughout the reading, the senators voice trembled.

In addition to the Parkland students, lawmakers honored a Chicago police officer who was recently shot and killed by a man who had run from other officers.

Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said, It would be remiss of us today not to remember the epidemic of gun violence recently took the life of one sworn protector, police commander Paul Bauer, who died in the line of duty in Chicago, Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said. Following speeches, demonstrators remained silent for three minutes, one minute for Bauer and two for the students slain in Florida.

We call gun violence an epidemic for a good reason, Collins said. (G)uns and bullets do not discriminate against race, religion, age, gender, or creed, whether you wear a school uniform, or a police uniform. For that reason, we must stand united.

The demonstration followed Gov. Bruce Rauners veto of a bill that would have required gun dealerships to register with the state. The governor called the bill onerous and duplicative, as Illinois gun dealers already register with the federal government.

During a press conference late Wednesday morning, Rauner promoted a newly formed Legislative Public Safety Group and the Interstate Crime Prevention Network, which will work to stem illegal gun trafficking across state borders.

I was also meeting (this morning) with our leaders at the terrorism task force that we have for the state of Illinois, Rauner said. They are working right now with my support and coordination to come up with a plan to increase public school safety.

While the governor promoted task forces and safety groups, the Senate on Wednesday passed three gun bills. The measures include a ban on bump stocks, a mandatory 72 hour waiting period to buy assault weapons and a ban on purchases of assault weapons by anyone younger than 21.

However, there was no attempt by lawmakers to override Rauners veto of the gun dealer licensure bill. Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said that he hasnt given up. I will move to override it, and I am hopeful that my colleagues will join me in making sure this common sense measure becomes law, he said.

Megan Swett is an editorial intern for Illinois Times through the public affairs reporting program of University of Illinois Springfield. Contact her at intern@illinoistimes.com.Forget steel and intellectual property. The biggest potential flash point between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is an island of 23 million people sitting off Chinas coast.

Even as global investors shift from worrying about a second Korean conflict to a potential China-U.S. trade war, decades-old disagreements over democratically run Taiwan are simmering. For China at least, that is a more serious concern.

Compared with economic and trade issues, the Taiwan issue is a top priority for Beijing and is more politically sensitive, said Fu-Kuo Liu, an international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei. The U.S. will measure relations with Taiwan based on its national interest, and Taiwan will be a pawn to Beijing.

The dispute centers on Taiwans 70-year slide into diplomatic isolation after ending up on the losing side of the Chinese civil war. While the island is self-ruled and enjoys American military protection, China considers Taiwan a province and has made acceptance of its  one-China claim a precondition for diplomatic ties  including with the U.S.

On trade, China has sought to maintain what it calls strategic composure as Trump escalates his threats, launching a probe of U.S. grain imports while warning against a trade war. Trumps planned tariffs on steel and aluminum would apply to a variety of countries, not just China, which accounts for a relatively small portion of American imports. Indeed, Taiwan faces a bigger hit.

But challenging Xi on Taiwan  a central focus of his Chinese dream of national rejuvenation  would be another matter.

Trumps firing of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief executive officer with many years of China experience adds more uncertainty to the issue. His nominee for the role, Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, warned just days ago of the Chinese threat to American interests, although he hasnt said much recently on Taiwan.

Some U.S. national security hawks have long advocated greater Taiwan ties as a bulwark against China. Although Trump signaled he might try that strategy  holding an unprecedented December 2016 phone call with Taiwans president, Tsai Ing-wen  he later reaffirmed support for the one-China principle while seeking Xis cooperation on North Korea.

Now, a series of moves in Beijing, Taipei and Washington are threatening to bring the Taiwan question back to the fore. One Chinese official in Beijing said there was concern that Trump could play the Taiwan card and that the government was prepared to take a strong stand against any U.S. moves on the issue.

Tensions have been steadily rising since Taiwans 2016 election, which replaced a China-friendly government with one run by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai has angered China by refusing to endorse the one-China framework while offering to sign a U.S. free-trade deal and buy more advanced American arms.

In response, China has ratcheted up pressure on Tsai, picking off Taiwans few remaining diplomatic allies and launching regular encirclement patrols with military jets around its airspace. Chinas decision Sunday to remove presidential term limits gives Xi even more incentive to see through his pledge for Taiwans peaceful reunification.

Meanwhile, Taiwans allies in the U.S. Congress have pressed for greater support, passing legislation last month allowing for diplomatic exchanges with Taiwan at all levels, specifically citing cabinet-level national security officials. Signing the bill and holding such visits would signal whether Trump intends to test China on Taiwan. He could grant Taiwanese requests to buy advanced weapons such as Lockheed Martin Corp.s F-35 fighter jets.

While such moves risk provoking a confrontation with China, Trump has shown a willingness to use available leverage in showdowns over North Korea, health care and immigration. And hell need to apply a lot of pressure, if he expects China to cut anywhere near $100 billion from its $375 billion trade surplus with U.S.

Taiwan is a diplomatic card for Trump to play when he needs to annoy China, said Cheng Yu-Chin, director of the EU-China Economics & Politics Institute in Prague. In the future, Taiwan will suffer even more, as it gets caught in the middle between a stronger China and a inward- looking U.S.

National security policy documents published by the Trump administration have described China as a strategic competitor and urged greater efforts to support allies in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. provides military support to the island under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.

A stronger line on Taiwan might also find supporters among congressional Republicans. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton  a vocal Trump ally  has criticized Chinas efforts to isolate Taiwan and said after the Taiwan Travel Acts passage last month that only U.S. leadership can push back against this aggression.

China has signaled it will have little patience with the U.S. if it attempts to upgrade its relationship with Taiwan. In December, a senior Chinese diplomat in Washington warned that China would unify the island by military force if a U.S. warship made a port call there.

Zhou Qi, director of the Institute of American Studies at the state- run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said any effort to play the Taiwan card would backfire on the U.S.

To the Chinese government, Taiwan is the primary issue in U.S.-China relations, Zhou said. And it cant be used as a bargaining chip in trade talks. BloombergCathay Pacifics losses more than doubled last year because of rising fuel costs and relentless competition, the Hong Kong airline said yesterday.

The airline posted a HKD1.26 billion (USD160 million) loss for 2017, compared with a HKD575 million loss the year before. Revenue rose 5 percent.

Fundamental structural changes within the airline industry continued to create a challenging operating environment for our airline businesses, Chairman John Slosar said.

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Hong Kongs biggest airline, also operates regional carrier Cathay Dragon.

The company has been under pressure from rivals including budget airlines around Asia and state-owned mainland Chinese carriers, which have been flooding key routes with passenger seats and driving down prices.

Cathays fuel bill rose 11.3 percent even after taking into account fuel hedging contracts used to minimize price swings. Jet fuel is the companys single-biggest expense, accounting for nearly a third of total operating costs.

Congestion at Hong Kongs airport and from air traffic control constraints in mainland China, where the militarys tight control of much of the airspace results in aviation bottlenecks, also added to costs.

One-off charges included a 57 million euro ($71 million) fine levied by the European Commission in a years-long case involving 10 other air cargo carriers accused of colluding to fix fuel and security surcharges.

Last year, Cathay embarked on a sweeping corporate overhaul that included dismissing nearly 600 staff at its headquarters, in its biggest round of layoffs in two decades. Redundancy costs added HKD224 million ($28.6 million) to staff expenses. But Slosar said there were signs the revamp was paying off, with losses in the second half of the year smaller than in each of the preceding two years.

Cathays cargo business helped offset some of the pain, with revenue up 19 percent on robust demand, the company said. Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong, APTucked away in a nondescript alley not far from Taipeis hostess bar district, Ming Fu isnt the most likely place to find internationally acclaimed cuisine.

The small seafood restaurant was the surprise name among the 20 eateries recognized in Michelins debut guide for the Taiwanese capital on Wednesday. It now sits alongside the restaurants of such lauded names as Joel Robuchon and Andre Chiang.

In its appraisal, the French tiremaker hailed Ming Fus dense and gelatinous Buddha jumps over the wall soup and the signature braised chicken with pickled gourd. To get a spot at one of its only six tables, diners are warned that reservations are vital.

Taipei is a city that has incredibly rich gastronomic history, said Michael Ellis, international director in charge of the Michelin Guides. Taipei has also given birth to a truly dynamic and innovative dining scene.

Cantonese establishment Le Palais was the only Taipei restaurant to receive three stars. Two others were awarded two stars.

The awards are part of Michelins growing effort to broaden its appeal in Asia. In addition to Taipei, it now publishes guides for Japan, Hong Kong and Macau, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Bangkok. The Thai capital failed to claim a single three-star award when its guide was released in December.

One notable omission from the Taipei list was Din Tai Fung, perhaps Taiwans most famous culinary export. The dumpling maker  lauded in a 1993 New York Times article by chef Ken Hom as one of the best restaurants in the world  failed to win any stars, having to settle instead for a mention in Michelins bib gourmand category.

Michelins restaurant reviewers anonymously award stars based on creativity, quality and service. Three stars are given to restaurants worth a special journey, two stars for those worth a detour, and one star is for those deemed worth a stop.Adela Lin, Samson Ellis, BloombergPresident Rodrigo Duterte announced yesterday that the Philippines is withdrawing its ratification of a treaty that created the International Criminal Court, where he is facing a possible complaint over thousands of suspects killed in his anti-drug crackdown.

Critics expressed shock at Dutertes decision, saying he was trying to escape accountability and fearing it could foster an even worse human rights situation in the country. Others called the move a foreign policy blunder that could embolden China to scoff at Manilas victory in an international arbitration case against Beijing over contested territories.

An ICC prosecutor announced last month that she was opening a preliminary examination into possible crimes against humanity over alleged extrajudicial killings in Dutertes drug crackdown, angering the president.

Duterte said that the court cannot have jurisdiction over him because the Philippine Senates ratification in 2011 of the Rome Statute that established the court was never publicized as required by law. He called the failure to make the ratification public a glaring and fatal error.

Thousands of mostly poor drug suspects have been killed under Dutertes drug crackdown. He argued that the killings do not amount to crimes against humanity, genocide or similar atrocities.

The so-called war against drugs is lawfully directed against drug lords and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, specially the youth, Duterte said in a 15-page statement explaining his legal position.

The deaths occurring in the process of legitimate police operation lacked the intent to kill, Duterte said. The self-defense employed by the police officers when their lives became endangered by the violent resistance of the suspects is a justifying circumstance under our criminal law, hence, they do not incur criminal liability.

Duterte also invoked presidential immunity from lawsuits, which he said prevents the ICC from investigating him while he is in office. The president renewed his verbal attacks against U.N. human rights officials who have expressed alarm over the massive killings.

He said the U.N. expert on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, had without any proof pictured me as a ruthless violator of human rights who was directly responsible for extrajudicial killings. He also criticized ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who announced last month that she is opening a preliminary examination into the killings.

Last Friday, the United Nations human rights chief, Zeid Raad al- Hussein, suggested that Duterte needs to submit himself to some sort of psychiatric evaluation over his unacceptable remarks about some top human rights defenders.

Zeid demanded that the Human Rights Council, which counts the Philippines among its 47 member countries, must take a strong position on the issue, and insisted these attacks cannot go unanswered.

Duterte has acknowledged his rough ways and tough approach to crime, but suggested many Filipinos have come to accept him.

He has lashed out at European governments, saying they should go to hell for imposing conditions on financial aid.

Opposition Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate called Dutertes move to withdraw the country from the Rome Statute a grave setback to human rights and accountability.

It is intended to escape accountability by present and even future officials for crimes committed against the people and humanity, Zarate said.

Another opposition lawmaker, Tom Villarin, said Dutertes action would have unprecedented repercussions on our international standing as a sovereign state.

Villarin said it could also embolden China, which has refused to comply with an international arbitration ruling that invalidated its vast territorial claims in the South China Sea under a 1982 U.N. treaty. The Philippines filed and largely won the arbitration case. Jim Gomez, Manila, APAmericas 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 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.

Spithills signing with Luna Rossa, which is the Challenger of Record for the 2021 Americas Cup, raises questions about whether Oracle Team USAs owner, tech billionaire Larry Ellison, is finished with the Americas Cup.

Spithill skippered Oracle Team USA to consecutive landmark Americas Cup victories.

As a 30-year-old in 2010, Spithill became the youngest skipper to win the Americas 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 wasnt available for comment yesterday, and representatives of Oracle Team USA didnt 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 Americas Cup. The 2021 Americas Cup will be sailed in radical foiling monohulls. APProsecutors yesterday were questioning South Koreas conservative former President Lee Myung- bak over corruption allegations, making him the latest of the countrys leaders entangled in scandal.

The move came about two weeks after prosecutors demanded a 30-year prison term for his conservative successor, Park Geun-hye, over a separate bribery scandal that led to weeks of massive anti-government protests. Park is jailed as she awaits a court verdict set for early next month.

I stand here today feeling wretched, Lee said in televised remarks after arriving at a Seoul prosecutors office. I am very sorry for causing worry for the people.

South Korean politicians accused of misdoing often apologize for causing trouble while still denying wrongdoing. Lee has previously called the investigation political revenge orchestrated by the current liberal government of President Moon Jae-in, a statement that prompted fury from Moon.

Lee also referred to the 2009 suicide of ex-liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, who leapt to his death amid a high-profile corruption investigation of his family when Lee was president. Moon, who was Rohs chief of staff, previously called the Roh investigation by the Lee government politically motivated.

Prosecutors accuse Lee of taking about 1.75 billion won (USD1.6 million) from the National Intelligence Service, the countrys main spy agency, for personal purposes through his aides.

Prosecutors allege Lee took other illicit money from business groups including Samsung and a former lawmaker. South Korean media said the illicitly obtained funds totaled 11 billion won ($10 million).

Lee is also accused of using an auto parts manufacturer called DAS as a channel to establish illicit slush funds amounting to 30 billion won ($28 million) and embezzling its official funds.

One of Lees brothers is DAS largest shareholder, but prosecutors suspect Lee is its de facto owner.

Nearly all former presidents in South Korea, their family members and key aides have been embroiled in scandals either just before they ended their terms or after they left office.

South Koreas first president, Syngman Rhee, resigned and fled to Hawaii in 1960 amid protests over allegations of vote-rigging. Parks father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for 18 years following a 1961 coup, was gunned down by his own spy chief during a 1979 drinking party.

Parks successors Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae- woo, both former army generals, spent time in jail after leaving office for bribery, treason and other charges. Presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung saw their terms tainted by corruption scandals involving their sons. Hyung-Jin Kim, Seoul, APBritain has strongly condemned the Iraqi authorities over the execution of The Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft in Baghdad.

Mr Bazoft  who came to live in Britain from Iran in the 1980s  was convicted by the Iraqis of spying four days ago. He was hanged at dawn after a last minute appeal for clemency from the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, failed.

In the Commons this afternoon, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said Britains ambassador to Iraq was being recalled and all visits to the country have been suspended.

But Mr Hurd stopped short of cutting off diplomatic relations with Iraq. He said it was important to keep dialogue alive with the Iraqis for the sake of the 2,000 Britons living in Iraq, including Mr Bazofts alleged accomplice, British nurse Daphne Parish.

Mr Bazoft and Mrs Parish were arrested last September after visiting a top secret military installation south of Baghdad.

The Observer journalist was investigating reports of an explosion at the plant, which had reportedly left hundreds dead. He asked Mrs Parish to give him a lift in her car.

He was convicted of spying and sentenced to death by a revolutionary court. Mrs Parish was jailed for 15 years.

The British Consul General in Baghdad, Robin Kealy, was Mr Bazofts last visitor before his execution.

He said: He was looking hollow-eyed and subdued, not surprisingly. He passed on a last written message and a number of oral messages to friends and colleagues He repeated that he had been a journalist going after a scoop.

The Iraqi ambassador in France said British appeals for clemency fell on deaf ears because officials used threatening terms and blackmail.

Prayers for Mr Bazoft were said today at the offices of The Observer in London. Later staff gathered outside the Iraqi embassy to register their silent protest.

The daughter of Mrs Parish, Michelle de Vries, has supported the governments decision to keep diplomatic channels open. She hopes to be able to secure the early release of her mother.

She said: It is far too early to know what implications todays events will have on my mother. All I can do is hope and pray she receives the clemency not afforded to poor Mr Bazoft.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

Mrs Thatcher called the execution of Mr Bazoft an act of barbarism.

The European Parliament also condemned the execution but stopped short of cutting diplomatic and trade relations. The UN Secretary General expressed his deep regret.

But Britain was not prepared to cut diplomatic ties and trade between Britain and Iraq continued.

Many British firms were benefiting from the reconstruction work taking place in Iraq following the war with Iran.

Daphne Parish was released on 16 July 1990.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, starting the Gulf War.A Vietnamese woman accused of murdering the estranged half brother of North Koreas leader was recruited by a North Korean suspect at a Hanoi bar two months before the killing, her lawyer said yesterday.

Details about Doan Thi Huong are emerging for the first time since she was charged, along with Siti Aisyah from Indonesia, with smearing Kim Jong Nams face with the banned VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpurs airport on Feb. 13 last year. The two are the only suspects in custody, though prosecutors have said four North Koreans who fled the country were also involved.

Lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told the court that Huong told police shortly after she was detained last year that she was introduced to a Korean man known as Mr. Y by a Vietnamese bar owner in December 2016. Mr. Y has been identified in court as Ri Ji Hyon, one of the four North Korean suspects who fled Malaysia.

Huong said Nguyen Bich Thuy, who was a former co- worker at a pub, called her and asked if she wanted to work for a Korean company as an actress in a short movie or funny video, according to her police statement read out by Teh. She said she was introduced to Mr. Y at the Hay Bar, which belonged to Thuy and her husband, and asked for a salary of USD1,000 a month.

Huong said she participated in her first prank outside Hanois Opera House, where she was told to kiss a stranger on the cheek. She said in the police statement that it was unsuccessful because the person shied away.

Teh told the court that Thuy had declined to come to Malaysia to testify but was questioned by Vietnamese police in March last year and made sworn statements that supported Huongs claims to police.

The lawyer said Thuy told Vietnamese police that Mr. Y, who speaks fluent Vietnamese, had initially wanted to recruit her but she declined due to family commitments. She said she then remembered Huong loved to act and introduced her.

The youngest of five siblings, Huong, 29, said in her police statement that her parents were farmers and that she studied accounting at Hanoi Business and Technology University and later worked for three years as a waitress in Hanoi.

Teh was cross-examining chief police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz, who acknowledged that he hadnt investigated Huongs claims or contacted Vietnamese police to get details from Thuy. The lawyer said his law firm had written to Malaysias attorney-general to seek Vietnams approval for Malaysian police to probe the case there but was refused.

Teh also accused Wan Azirul of being a biased investigator, not independent and not interested in the truth.

We are terribly disadvantaged as the investigation didnt focus on this area, Teh told reporters later. The hearing is to resume today.

The two women face the death penalty if convicted, but not if they lacked intent to kill. Prosecutors contend the women knew they were handling poison.

Kim, the eldest son in the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding, had been living abroad for years after falling out of favor. It is thought he could have been seen as a threat to the rule of his half brother, Kim Jong Un.

Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea of involvement in Kims death and have made it clear they dont want the trial politicized. Eileen Ng, Shah Alam, APChina slapped a logistics company with fines totaling 5.5 billion yuan (USD870 million) for manipulating the stock market, the biggest ever punishment for such an infringement.

Xiamen Beibadao Group was charged with manipulating the share prices of three Shenzhen-listed companies, Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank Co., Jiangsu Jiangyin Rural Commercial Bank Co. and Guangdong Hoshion Aluminium Co., Chinas securities regulator said in a briefing in Beijing yesterday. It later clarified that the units parent, Shanghai-based Beibadao Group, was the manipulator.

The penalty is almost six times what Beibadao earned by its actions, the watchdog said. Chinese authorities have been mounting a campaign to stamp out illicit behavior in the worlds second-biggest equity market, which is dominated by individual, often first-time investors. Liu Shiyu, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in February 2017 that he would pursue market malpractice and wrongdoing no matter whether its historical or current.

The fines will only get bigger and bigger as regulators step up the crackdown on market irregularities, and its likely well begin to see similar cases being exposed more frequently in the future, said Yin Ming, vice president of Shanghai-based Baptized Capital. Its a signal to market participants that violent share moves and speculative trades are prohibited, and its always the authorities priority to maintain a stable market.

The Shanghai Composite Indexs volatility hit historic lows last year, and despite a recent increase, the markets swings are far smaller than the wild extremes of 2015 and 2016. Liu, who took on his role at the CSRC in February 2016, told senior officials at the time that strictly supervising the market and checking for manipulation was among their main tasks.

Beibadao set up a team of traders who used more than 300 different accounts from March to May 2017, CSRC officials said. A phone call to a number listed for Beibadao was unanswered, and the company doesnt appear to have a website.

The punishment isnt the first multibillion-yuan fine handed down by the CSRC since the crackdown began. In March 2017, an individual investor was ordered to pay 1.17 billion yuan in two cases of manipulation, while one month earlier a 3.47 billion-yuan fine was imposed on a company controller, who was also permanently banned from the securities industry for violations on disclosures and manipulation.

In December, an equities trader in the city of Foshan, in Guangdong province, was fined 54 million yuan for manipulating 15 stocks and making a profit of 27 million yuan. A week later, another trader in nearby Shenzhen copped a 1-million yuan fine for a stock-

price manipulation plan that actually lost him money. In April, a former stock market official was fined 251 million yuan for illegal trading activities. Unlike the earlier cases, Beibadaos penalties were aimed at a company rather than an individual.

In the past, when there was illegal activity in the capital market, the fine was just hundreds of thousands. The cost to violate the rules was so low, said Hong Hao, Hong Kong-based strategist at Bocom International Holdings Co. Going forward, as long as there is a similar case, I think the regulators will continue to charge huge fines. BloombergMarch 15, 2018 14:08

YEREVAN.  Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan instructed to ensure full implementation of the e-health system within 15 days.

In particular, Minister of Healthcare Levon Altunyan, Territorial Administration Minister Davit Lokyan, Transport, Communications and Information Technologies Minister Vahan Martirosyan, heads of regional administration were instructed to ensure implementation of the system. Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan was offered to create conditions for integration of all capital and regional medical institutions in the e-health system.

At this stage, it is necessary to ensure the integration of all health facilities operating under the authority of the city and regional municipalities in the e-health system. The point is that in many places there is no Internet, and it is necessary to solve this problem shortly, Karapetyan said.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and TwitterQR codes. Credit: EBMT

Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) is a curative and established treatment approach for patients with haematological malignancies such as leukaemia. However, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), where the transplanted stem cells react against the tissues of the patient, is a major complication and often results in late morbidity and mortality, as well as in a reduction of quality of life. The accurate evaluation of this disease is thus of paramount importance to correctly evaluate and optimize transplantation outcome.

The transplantation community has made major efforts to develop international guidelines to diagnose and score GvHD accurately. However, it still remains a challenge to effectively implement the guidelines in daily clinical practice, as clinicians tend to consider them to be relatively complex and time consuming1, 2.

Dr Grzegorz Basak, Chair of the EBMT Transplantation Complications Working Party (TCWP) explains: "Our Working Party has been collaborating since 2014 with the University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven) / KU Leuven (Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery) and the NIH to develop an electronic tool named 'eGVHD App', to help clinicians achieve optimal evaluation of GvHD. A rigorous user-centered design process has been followed: several rounds of feedback from experts and users have been included to improve usability and accuracy of the App."

The 'eGVHD App' is available on:

the AppStore - https://itunes.apple.com/be/app/egvhd/id1355873791?mt=8

GooglePlay https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.uzleuven.ghvd

online at https://www.uzleuven.be/egvhd (best to be used with a google chrome browser)

It is a user-friendly educational tool, which encourages the healthcare professional to work in a systematic fashion and evaluate all potentially affected organ systems according to up-to-date international guidelines. The app provides the user convenient details, such as definitions and pictures to illustrate the terms used, and segregates information according to the type of evaluation needed: whether aiming at research or daily practice GVHD assessment. Finally, the App gathers the information entered by the healthcare professional and produces the final score automatically, using an internal algorithm.

The use of the eGVHD app has already repeatedly been shown to improve the accuracy of the GVHD assessment of health care professionals2, 3. Right now, it is still limited to an educational function, but CE marking steps are underway, thanks to the support of the HTC Project Endowment Funds recently created by CRYOSTEM, to allow for certification for a broader clinical use.

Dr Helene Schoemans, HCT physician from the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium explains: "The development of the eGVHD App is a fantastic experience. We have the chance to work with a team of highly motived healthcare professionals and IT specialists across the world. We have translated their expertise and feedback in a computer algorithm using an interactive development strategy to ensure optimal usability and user adoption of the tool." Dr Schoemans adds: "This has resulted in a rich interdisciplinary interaction and stimulating discussions. Ultimately, we hope that the eGVHD App will provide all healthcare professionals with what we could call a 'portable GVHD expert' to assist them in their clinical practice. It's an exciting challenge!"

Explore further Immune cell subset is associated with development of gastrointestinal GVHD after HSCT

More information: Accuracy and usability of the eGVHD app in assessing the severity of graft-versus-host disease at the 2017 EBMT annual congress, Bone Marrow Transplantation (2018). Accuracy and usability of the eGVHD app in assessing the severity of graft-versus-host disease at the 2017 EBMT annual congress,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41409-017-0017-0

Provided by European Society for Blood and Marrow TransplantationCredit: CC0 Public Domain

In a perspective piece, Stanford researchers discuss the ethical implications of using machine-learning tools in making health care decisions for patients.

Artificial intelligence is hard at work crunching health data to improve diagnostics and help doctors make better decisions for their patients. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine say the furious pace of growth in the development of machine-learning tools calls for physicians and scientists to carefully examine the ethical risks of incorporating them into decision-making.

In a perspective piece published March 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors acknowledged the tremendous benefit that machine learning can have on patient health. But they cautioned that the full benefit of using this type of tool to make predictions and take alternative actions can't be realized without careful consideration of the accompanying ethical pitfalls.

"Because of the many potential benefits, there's a strong desire in society to have these tools piloted and implemented into health care," said the lead author, Danton Char, MD, assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine. "But we have begun to notice, from implementations in non-health care areas, that there can be ethical problems with algorithmic learning when it's deployed at a large scale."

Among the concerns the authors raised are:

Data used to create algorithms can contain bias that is reflected in the algorithms and in the clinical recommendations they generate. Also, algorithms might be designed to skew results, depending on who's developing them and on the motives of the programmers, companies or health care systems deploying them.

Physicians must adequately understand how algorithms are created, critically assess the source of the data used to create the statistical models designed to predict outcomes, understand how the models function and guard against becoming overly dependent on them.

Data gathered about patient health, diagnostics and outcomes become part of the "collective knowledge" of published literature and information collected by health care systems and might be used without regard for clinical experience and the human aspect of patient care.

Machine-learning-based clinical guidance may introduce a third-party "actor" into the physician-patient relationship, challenging the dynamics of responsibility in the relationship and the expectation of confidentiality.

"We need to be cautious about caring for people based on what algorithms are showing us," Char said. "The one thing people can do that machines can't do is step aside from our ideas and evaluate them critically."

Sources of bias

In discussing designer intent, which is one source of bias, the authors pointed to private-sector examples of algorithms meant to ensure specific outcomes, such as Volkswagen's algorithm that allowed vehicles to pass emissions tests by reducing their nitrogen oxide emissions during the tests.

David Magnus, Ph.D., senior author of the piece and director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, said bias can play into health data in three ways: human bias; bias that is introduced by design; and bias in the ways health care systems use the data.

"You can easily imagine that the algorithms being built into the health care system might be reflective of different, conflicting interests," said Magnus, who is also the Thomas A. Raffin Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Ethics. "What if the algorithm is designed around the goal of saving money? What if different treatment decisions about patients are made depending on insurance status or their ability to pay?"

The authors called for a national conversation about the "perpetual tension between the goals of improving health and generating profit  since the builders and purchasers of machine-learning systems are unlikely to be the same people delivering bedside care."

They also put the responsibility for finding solutions and setting the agenda on health care professionals.

"Ethical guidelines can be created to catch up with the age of machine learning and artificial intelligence that is already upon us," the authors wrote. "Physicians who use machine-learning systems can become more educated about their construction, the data sets they are built on and their limitations. Remaining ignorant about the construction of machine-learning systems or allowing them to be constructed as black boxes could lead to ethically problematic outcomes."

The authors acknowledge the social pressure to incorporate the latest tools in order to provide better health outcomes for patients.

"Artificial intelligence will be pervasive in health care in a few years," said co-author Nigam Shah, MBBS, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine. But health care systems need to be aware of the pitfalls that have happened in other industries, he added.

Shah noted that models are only as trustworthy as the data being gathered and shared. "Be careful about knowing the data from which you learn," he said.

Could data become the doctor?

The authors wrote that what physicians learn from the data needs to be heavily weighed against what they know from their own clinical experience. Overreliance on machine guidance might lead to self-fulfilling prophesies.

For example, they said, if clinicians always withdraw care in patients with certain diagnoses, such as extreme prematurity or brain injury, machine-learning systems may learn that such diagnoses are always fatal. Conversely, machine-learning systems, properly deployed, may help resolve disparities in health care delivery by compensating for known biases or by identifying where more research is needed to balance the underlying data.

Magnus said the example of a current pilot study of an algorithm developed at Stanford to predict the need for a palliative care consultation illustrates how collaborative, careful consideration in the design of an algorithm and use of the data can guard against the misinterpretation of data in making care decisions.

Shah is helping to lead the pilot study. In this case, Magnus said, physicians and designers work closely to ensure that the incorporation of the predictions into the care equation includes guarantees that the physician "has a full understanding that the patient problems are answered and well-understood."

The insertion of an algorithm's predictions into the patient-physician relationship also introduces a third party, turning the relationship into one between the patient and the health care system.

It also means significant changes in terms of a patient's expectation of confidentiality.

"Once machine-learning-based decision support is integrated into clinical care, withholding information from electronic records will become increasingly difficult, since patients whose data aren't recorded can't benefit from machine-learning analyses," the authors wrote.

Magnus said the pressure to turn to data for answers is especially intense in fields that are growing quickly, such as genetic testing and sequencing.

"In a situation where you're looking for any evidence in informing your decision-making that you can get, and now you have all this genetics information and you don't know how to deal with," having clear data can be enormously helpful, he said.

Char, who is doing research funded by the National Institutes of Health on the ethical and social implications of expanded genetic testing of critically ill children, said it's important for health care professionals to figure out how to minimize negative outcomes of data-based decisions in all fields.

"I think society has become very breathless in looking for quick answers," he said. "I think we need to be more thoughtful in implementing machine learning."

Explore further Machine learning techniques show promise for supporting medical decisionsThe most important thing is to keep the baby warm  put her on your chest covered with a warm towel. Credit: www.shutterstock.com

Women often express a fear of giving birth en route to the hospital, and these fears have some basis. Dramatic videos do the rounds on social media of women giving birth to babies in cars, on their front lawn, or as recently happened, in the car alone and then driving themselves to hospital.

In Australia, around four to five in 1,000 births are recorded as "other", meaning the birth didn't occur in hospital, in a birth centre, or as a planned home birth. The birth may occur in the woman's home, en route to the hospital or in ambulances where a midwife or doctor is not in attendance. More babies are born as unplanned out of hospital births than as planned home births in Australia. We often refer to these births as "born before arrival".

Babies born before arrival are more likely to be premature (12.5% compared to 7.3%), be smaller, and most likely be a second baby, and a girl (possibly because they are smaller).

In a new study looking at ten years of births in NSW, we found women more likely to deliver early are women of low socioeconomic status, those living in rural or coastal areas and those living in areas with high rates of planned home birth.

This may be due to some women having poor levels of engagement with health services, or needing to drive big distances to get to hospital. Another factor to consider though is some of these births could be "freebirths"  giving birth at home intentionally without a midwife or doctor.

While we showed babies born unexpectedly before arrival have poorer outcomes, this is probably due mostly to prematurity which increases the risk for all babies. We also know babies born before arrival are more likely to be cold and this is even more likely to happen when they are small in size, such as when they're premature.

Videos of women giving birth en route to hospital go viral.

What to do if the baby is coming early

Call an ambulance and someone will be able to talk you through the birth until the ambulance arrives

Get down low and put a towel under you so the baby has a soft landing. Don't sit on the toilet

If you have a heater put it on and get some towels on it or in the dryer to warm

As soon as the baby is born, put her straight on your chest and rub dry with a towel. Get whoever is there to put a second warm dry towel over the baby removing the now damp one. Your skin is the best way to warm a baby up

If the baby is not breathing try blowing in her face as the cold air can make her gasp and take a breath. If that doesn't work rub the baby's back up and down with the towel as this can stimulate her to breathe.

If the baby doesn't respond to these initial steps you may need to resuscitate her using CPR, but this is rare

Keep the baby warm at all times and especially cover the head as this is where a lot of heat is lost

Do not cut the cord or attempt to tie it with string or shoelaces or anything else, just leave it attached to the baby

Do not pull on the cord and try to deliver the placenta as you may cause heavy bleeding or even pull the uterus out which is then a serious emergency

Try to stay warm and calm, and maintain skin-to-skin contact with your baby, as help will arrive soon.

Some other things to be aware of is that liquid (amniotic fluid) will come out as the baby is born. Be prepared  there will be some blood loss and up to a certain point this is a normal part of the process. Most importantly try not to panic  birth is a normal process.

It's hard for women to always get the timing just right when making the decision to go to hospital or the birth centre, or to call the midwife for a home birth.

We know going to hospital too early will increase your chances of interventions such as a synthetic oxytocin hormone to speed labour up, forceps or caesarean sections. These lead to more bleeding and pain for the mother, longer length of stay in hospital and a greater chance of the baby needing to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Be aware if you had a reasonably quick first birth. Chances are it will be even quicker second time around.

It's really important women don't worry too much about this happening as the chances are small, and even if it does happen it usually turns out fine. Once the shock wears off, you have an entertaining birth story!

If you follow the steps above you can dramatically reduce the risk of problems for the baby.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.(HealthDay)A new study of pregnant women in the Caribbean further confirms that Zika virus causes birth defects, particularly if infection occurs early in pregnancy.

About 7 percent of Zika-infected women in French territories of the Caribbean delivered babies that suffered from birth defects of the brain and eyes, researchers report.

These numbers are close to those reflected in the United States' registry tracking the outcomes of Zika-affected pregnancies, researchers noted.

The virus "should definitely be added to the list of infectious agents that can cause severe birth defects, as are rubella virus, cytomegalovirus and others," said lead researcher Dr. Bruno Hoen. He's head of infectious and tropical diseases at Pointe-a-Pitre Hospital in Guadeloupe.

Zika, a mosquito-borne virus, emerged in Brazil in 2013. It spread rapidly throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean, usually causing only mild symptoms in adults. But babies exposed to Zika in the womb suffered serious consequences.

Between March 2016 and November 2016, researchers tracked the pregnancies of 546 women with confirmed Zika infection in the French Caribbean territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Birth defects developed in 39 fetuses and infants, researchers said.

Microcephaly was the most common birth defect, occurring in 32 fetuses and infants. This defect causes abnormally small brains and skulls.

Seventeen babies also showed signs of congenital Zika syndrome, a cluster of birth defects that include microcephaly, decreased brain tissue, eye damage, frozen or disabled joints, and rigidity of the limbs.

The risk of birth defects was highest early in pregnancy but still significant at any point, researchers found. The range was almost 13 percent in the first trimester, less than 4 percent in the second trimester and more than 5 percent in the third trimester.

The risk of microcephaly, in particular, was about 3.7 percent in the first trimester compared with less than 1 percent in the second trimester and none in the third.

The new findings are in the March 15 New England Journal of Medicine.

"They saw, as we have seen in our surveillance, that there is a risk of serious birth defects with an infection at any time during pregnancy, but the risk is highest and the outcomes are most severe for those infections that occur early in pregnancy," said Margaret Honein, chief of birth defects at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Studies tracking all children born of Zika-infected pregnancies will be important to weigh the virus's full effects, said Honein, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new paper.

"Even more important will be the follow-up of the children in this cohort to fully understand the full range of outcomes and disabilities that are occurring," Honein said.

"We know there are other consequences that can happen, like seizures, like difficulty swallowing. We are learning more every day about what other disabilities these children may have, what learning challenges they might face," Honein continued. "We need this information to plan for the services families are going to need to help these children thrive."

The study also emphasizes the need for women to be careful, even though there is currently no Zika epidemic raging throughout many parts of the world, Honein concluded.

"While Zika has faded from the headlines, it's critically important that pregnant women not travel to areas with risk of Zika, and pregnant women living in areas with Zika take steps to prevent mosquito bites and sexual transmission," she said.

A study published in January suggested that these birth defects occur due to a woman's overwhelming immune response to Zika, rather than directly by the virus itself. That study appeared in the journal Science Immunology.

Explore further Mosquitoes spreading Zika virus in parts of U.S.: CDC

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.A version of the CapioCyte technology used in the study, which flows a small amount of a patient's blood through a chamber lined with tumor cell-capturing proteins. Credit: Michael Poellmann

Tumor cells circulating throughout the body in blood vessels have long been feared as harbingers of metastasizing cancer - even though most free-floating cancer cells will not go on to establish a new tumor.

But if these cast-offs could be accurately counted, they could provide an additional way to track treatment or screen for the disease.

New research by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Pharmacy Seungpyo Hong and his collaborators builds on several years of work in isolating these circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, by demonstrating improved methods for their capture on clinical samples for the first time. By forcing cancer cells to slow down and developing stronger molecular traps specific to CTCs, researchers were able to identify large numbers of the cells in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.

The number of CTCs dropped during therapy and subsequently rebounded in those patients that ended up requiring additional treatment - suggesting that this technology could supplement other techniques for tracking the progress of treatment.

Hong and his collaborator Andrew Wang of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine started the company Capio Biosciences in 2015 to commercialize the technology, which they term CapioCyte.

An array of captured cells stained with fluorescent dyes helps identify cells coming from tumors (CTCs, in red and blue) and exclude normal white blood cells (leukocytes, in green and blue). Credit: Michael Poellmann

The study is published March 15 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. In addition to the Hong and Wang groups, collaborators from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Duke University and South Korea's Yonsei University contributed to the work, which was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Scientists have recognized CTCs as potentially useful metrics for tracking a patient's disease for some time. But the cells are the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack, drowned out by billions of ordinary red blood cells and other cells found in the blood. Developing ways to specifically concentrate and trap CTCs has been technically challenging, with existing technologies only identifying a handful of cells from certain patients.

Hong's team was inspired by the behavior of CTCs in the blood, which attach themselves to blood vessel walls and begin tumbling along looking for suitable places to invade. This behavior separates them from the oxygen-carrying cells floating by and is mimicked in the CapioCyte technology using an array of sticky proteins that force the CTCs to begin rolling, which slows them down.

The cells are then trapped using a series of three cancer-specific antibodies, proteins that tightly bind and hold onto the CTCs. To make the connection even stronger, the researchers developed a nanoscale structure shaped a little like a tree, with each branch tipped with an antibody. As a cancer cell passes nearby, many individual branches can latch on, increasing the strength of the attachment.

The cell rolling and multi-tipped branches helped the researchers capture an average of 200 CTCs from each milliliter of a patient's blood, many times the number of cells captured with previous technology. They identified cancer cells in each of 24 patients undergoing treatment for head-and-neck, prostate, rectal or cervical cancer that enrolled in the study.

Illustration of the CTC capture process where cancer cells (in orange) and white blood cells (in white) both begin rolling along sticky proteins mimicking blood vessel walls. Only cancer cells are held firmly in place by CTC-specific antibodies, while normal white blood cells are allowed to keep moving. Credit: Michael Poellmann

"The absolute numbers of CTCs don't represent too much because there's too much variation individually, but the more important thing we found was the trend - how the CTC numbers change over time upon treatment. So, for example, we've shown that the CTCs go down when the patients are responding really well to the radiotherapy," says Hong.

Although the number of cells did not correlate with the stage, and thus severity, of the cancer, the reduction in cells was correlated with successful radiation therapy. In two of the three patients that had recurring or persistent disease, CTC numbers came back up.

"Our data suggest that we have a good chance of making CTCs a predictive biomarker or biomarker for surveillance for at least a few cancers, and that's always exciting," says Wang.

"What makes us excited in particular is we can see the direct impact," says Hong. "As a researcher, if you develop a new technology and it can directly help people, that's going to be the most rewarding experience - it's really exciting."

Explore further Circulating tumor cells associated with relapse in late-stage melanoma patients

More information: Ja Hye Myung et al. Multivalent binding and biomimetic cell rolling improves the sensitivity and specificity of circulating tumor cell capture, Clinical Cancer Research (2018). DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-3078 , Journal information: Clinical Cancer Research Ja Hye Myung et al. Multivalent binding and biomimetic cell rolling improves the sensitivity and specificity of circulating tumor cell capture,(2018). DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-3078 , clincancerres.aacrjournals.org  078-0432.CCR-17-3078PET scan of a human brain with Alzheimer's disease. Credit: public domain

Like a great orchestra, your brain relies on the perfect coordination of many elements to function properly. And if one of those elements is out of sync, it affects the entire ensemble. In Alzheimer's disease, for instance, damage to specific neurons can alter brainwave rhythms and cause a loss of cognitive functions.

One type of neuron, called inhibitory interneuron, is particularly important for managing brain rhythms. It's also the research focus of a laboratory led by Jorge Palop, PhD, assistant investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. In a study published in Neuron, Palop and his collaborators uncovered the therapeutic benefits of genetically improving these interneurons and transplanting them into the brain of a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Interneurons control complex networks between neurons, allowing them to send signals to one another in a harmonized way. You can think of inhibitory interneurons as orchestra conductors. They create rhythms in the brain to instruct the playersexcitatory neuronswhen to play and when to stop. An imbalance between these two types of neurons creates disharmony and is seen in multiple neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism.

A Brain without a Conductor

Palop's previous studies showed that, in mouse models of Alzheimer's, the inhibitory interneurons do not work properly. So, the rhythms that organize the excitatory cells are disturbed and fail to function harmoniously, causing an imbalance in brain networks. This, in turn, affects memory formation and can lead to epileptic activity, which is often observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

His team found a way to reengineer inhibitory interneurons to improve their function. They showed that these enhanced interneurons, when transplanted into the abnormal brain of Alzheimer mice, can properly control the activity of excitatory cells and restore brain rhythms.

"We took advantage of the fact that transplanted interneurons can integrate remarkably well into new brain tissues, and that each interneuron can control thousands of excitatory neurons," said Palop, who is also an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. "These properties make interneurons a promising therapeutic target for cognitive disorders associated with brain rhythm abnormalities and epileptic activity."

First, the scientists had to overcome a significant challenge. When they transplanted regular interneurons, they saw no beneficial effects, presumably because Alzheimer's disease creates a toxic environment in the brain.

The researchers then genetically boosted the activity of inhibitory interneurons by adding a protein called Nav1.1. They discovered that the interneurons with enhanced function were able to overcome the toxic disease environment and restore brain function.

"These optimized neurons are like master conductors," said Palop. "Even with a declining orchestra, they can restore the rhythms and harmony needed for cognitive functions."

Conductors Engineered for Alzheimer's Disease

The findings could eventually lead to the development of new treatment options for patients with Alzheimer's disease.

"Besides the applications this cell engineering and transplantation approach may find in regenerative medicine, our findings support the broader concept that enhancing the function of interneurons can counteract key aspects of Alzheimer's disease," said Lennart Mucke, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

In addition to examining if the cell therapy could be translated from mice to humans, Palop and his team are working to identify potential drugs as an alternative way to enhance the function of inhibitory interneurons.

"Advancing our understanding of Alzheimer's disease and identifying potential new treatment strategies are critical to addressing the escalating global health crisis," said Elizabeth Edgerly, PhD, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association, Northern California and Northern Nevada chapter. "We were proud to support Dr. Palop's research and vision with an Investigator Initiated Research Grant award." The Alzheimer's Association, which funded part of the study, is the world's largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research.

The paper "Nav1.1-Overexpressing Interneuron Transplants Restore Brain Rhythms and Cognition in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease" was published online by Neuron on March 15, 2018.

Explore further Research reveals how brains develop the right mix of cells

More information: Nav1.1-Overexpressing Interneuron Transplants Restore Brain Rhythms and Cognition in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease, Neuron (2018). www.cell.com/pb-assets/journal  now/neuron14158r.pdf Journal information: Neuron Nav1.1-Overexpressing Interneuron Transplants Restore Brain Rhythms and Cognition in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease,(2018). doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.02.029Credit: St. George's University of London

Experts aim to halve the number of deaths from a type of meningitis by changing drug treatment as a result of a new medical study.

The fungal infection cryptococcal meningitis is responsible for more than 180,000 deaths per year worldwide, mainly in HIV-infected patients.

Current treatment for this type of meningitis is difficult and mortality rates in Africa in routine care are in the region of 70% - as high as for the Ebola virus infection. Under the new suggested treatment regimen, the research indicates this would fall to 25-35% - potentially saving up to 80,000 lives a year.

An international team led by Professor Tom Harrison at St George's, University of London has published results of their Advancing Cryptococcal Treatment for Africa (ACTA) Trial in the New England Journal of Medicine which shows relatively simple changes can save tens of thousands of lives a year.

In the light of the new findings, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued new Cryptococcal Disease guidelines recommending a one-week drug course.

The shorter, safer and more effective antifungal drug regimen treats cryptococcal meningitis with a one-week combination antifungal regimen of amphotericin B and flucytosine for the initial induction phase of treatment. This one-week regimen has been shown to reduce mortality by at least a third, compared to the previously recommended two-week regimen.

Tom Harrison, Professor of Infectious Diseases, said: "The research programme has taken 15 years and has at times been a long hard journey but we are delighted to be able to show a way forward to dramatically cut the number of deaths from meningitis.

"We are calling for the generic manufacture and widespread availability of the drug flucytosine, and plan large-scale programmes of implementation with partner countries and international agencies that could result in the mortality from this dreaded infection being halved.

"Our trial has shown beyond doubt that flucytosine is an essential medicine for the treatment of meningitis related to HIV. However, it is currently completely unavailable in Africa which is where three quarters of the global cases occur."

The St George's team worked with partners at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, The Institut Pasteur, Paris Descartes medical school and hospitals in Malawi, Zambia, Cameroon and Tanzania for the study whose results were announced at the International AIDS Society meeting in Paris on July 24.

The trial, funded by the UK Medical Research Council and the ANRS (the French national agency for research on AIDS and viral hepatitis), is the largest conducted to date, including over 700 participants, on the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis.

Explore further Experts aim to slash the number of deaths from killer fungal disease in Africa

More information: Sile F. Molloy et al, Antifungal Combinations for Treatment of Cryptococcal Meningitis in Africa, New England Journal of Medicine (2018). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1710922 Journal information: New England Journal of Medicine Sile F. Molloy et al, Antifungal Combinations for Treatment of Cryptococcal Meningitis in Africa,(2018). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1710922This week, thousands of graduating medical students around the country will find out where they'll head next, to start their residency training. But a new study gives the first objective evidence of the heavy toll that the first year of residency can take on their sleep, physical activity and mood.

The results come from the first phase of a University of Michigan study aimed at understanding the effects of medical training stress. It asks new doctors to wear Fitbit activity trackers around the clock, and sends them mood-tracking text messages every day, for the months immediately before and after they start residency. The researchers call it "digital phenotyping."

On average, the 33 doctors in the pilot study lost 2 hours and 48 minutes of sleep a week after their residency training began, due to high work load and frequent changes in their schedule that wreaked havoc on their sleep patterns. They got 11.5 percent less physical activity than before, and their mood score dropped by 7.5 percent.

The demands of the intern year of residency appeared to stack up. When they had a shorter sleep time one night, the participants' mood suffered more the next day, and they slept even less the following night.

The study also reveals the impact of the frequent changes in work schedules that medical interns experience as they rotate among the different settings where they get their training. They got less sleep and had lower mood levels when their sleep schedule was more than three hours from one rotation to the next - for instance, shifting from overnight hospital duty to outpatient clinics.

The new results, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, give the first objective evidence of a phenomenon that senior author Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D. and his colleagues have studied for years. Past studies based on questionnaires have shown a high risk of depression among medical interns, which researchers have attributed to the loss of sleep, high stress and demanding schedules.

To look at the issue on a much larger scale, the team has already recruited more than 500 of this year's graduating students from more than 80 medical schools to take part in the study including enhanced reports about their tracking results. From the class just matching into new residency programs this week, they will be enrolling 1500-2000 more participants; interested students can learn more at https://www.srijan-sen-lab.com/intern-health-study.

"Though we expected the start of internship to affect sleep, mood and activity, quantifying the extent and nature of the effects in real time really highlighted the magnitude of changes," says Sen, an associate professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. "The relationship between sleep and mood is clearly bidirectional, but it appears that sleep affects mood the next day more than mood affects sleep."

Sen and his colleagues note that when the training physicians experience the dramatic shift to an earlier wake-up time to start their clinical duties in the hospital, most do not seem to compensate by going to sleep much earlier the night before.

He notes that the system of asking interns to get to the hospital in the pre-dawn hours so they can be ready to inform senior residents and attending physicians about patients during morning rounds dates back more than a century.

But with modern knowledge about natural patterns of sleep and waking - called circadian rhythms - it may be time to update that practice, he says. Or at least, it's time for residency programs to reduce interns' schedule swings back and forth from early duty to later duty.

"Interns' schedules change day to day and month to month as they rotate through different shift times and settings, and with recent national changes in their work-hour limits, these dramatic changes in work and sleep time have become more profound," he says. "We hope this research will help inform residency programs as they design their interns' schedules."

For instance, going abruptly from a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift suddenly to a 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. shift not only sleep but mood in a way that persists beyond the first few days of working the night shift.

Other studies have shown that long-term night-shift work by all kinds of workers can have a negative effect on mental and physical health and work performance, Sen notes, because of the effects of working when the body expects to be sleeping based on circadian rhythms.

But the body can adjust somewhat to long-term night work. Changing from day shift to night and back in rapid succession, as medical interns do, appears to create much stronger effects on sleep, physical activity and mood.

The new study also suggests that shifting to a later start is much easier than shifting to an early-morning start - another observation that could help residency programs schedule their shifts.

Data from the Fitbits in the two months before the interns began their training showed variation among individuals in their patterns of sleep and activity. Those who tended to be "night owls" before internship began had a harder time than those who were already natural "morning larks", with an early natural wake-up time.

As for the students who are about to graduate and become this year's intern class at hospitals around the country, Sen offers some advice. "Try to stick to the same sleep-wake schedule throughout a rotation, and go to sleep earlier than you naturally would when your schedule demands an early start time, to reduce the effects of sleep deprivation and the risk of mood changes and depression."

But he also hopes that hospitals will recognize the importance of their physicians' sleep schedules to their own health, and to the safety of their patients. "We're learning more and more that sleep and circadian timing play a role in our mental and physical health. We need to see this as a national priority, not just for physicians in training but even for those in practice - for instance, those who stay up late to finish entering information and orders into electronic health record systems at home, or have other administrative burdens outside of clinical care hours."

Explore further Lack of sleep could cause mood disorders in teens

More information: David A. Kalmbach et al, Effects of Sleep, Physical Activity, and Shift Work on Daily Mood: a Prospective Mobile Monitoring Study of Medical Interns, Journal of General Internal Medicine (2018). Journal information: Journal of General Internal Medicine David A. Kalmbach et al, Effects of Sleep, Physical Activity, and Shift Work on Daily Mood: a Prospective Mobile Monitoring Study of Medical Interns,(2018). DOI: 10.1007/s11606-018-4373-2Flies are an established model to study energy metabolism. The body fat of this fly is labelled with GFP ("green fluorescent protein"). Credit: The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ)

Insulin resistance and elevated blood glucose levels are considered to be the cause of type 2 diabetes. However, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and Heidelberg University Hospital have now provided evidence that things might be completely different. They showed in flies that elevated levels of the metabolite MG (methylglyoxal) cause the typical diabetic disturbances of the metabolism and lead to insulin resistance, obesity and elevated blood sugar levels.

Type 2 diabetes, a form of diabetes with a typical onset in middle or older age, causes severe health complications including elevated risks for heart disease and strokes, massive blood flow problems in the legs as well as severe damage to eyes, nerves and kidneys. These dangerous late effects are believed to be caused by high blood sugar levels, which develop when the body cells no longer respond to insulin, the regulatory hormone that lowers blood sugar.

Blood glucose levels correlate with the level of diabetic symptoms. When very high blood glucose levels are lowered using drugs, the rate of infarctions and strokes as well as blood flow problems decrease in parallel.

"But this holds true only up to a certain point," said Peter Nawroth, Medical Director of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Heidelberg University Hospital. "Large clinical trials in recent years have shown: Even when blood sugar could be lowered by drugs below the diabetes threshold value, many patients nevertheless developed typical diabetic damage to nerves and kidneys. This suggests that type 2 diabetes might in fact have molecular causes that are independent of insulin and glucose."

Peter Nawroth and Aurelio Teleman, who leads the Division of Signal Transduction in Cancer and Metabolism at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, knew that in type 2 diabetics, high levels of a glucose metabolite called methylglyoxal (MG) have been observed. Medics have thought so far that this is an effect of elevated blood glucose levels. Since MG can cause damage to proteins, textbook knowledge consequently holds that it must be one of the culprits in causing typical diabetic damage. However, in light of their recent results, metabolism experts Teleman and Nawroth have now doubted this sequence of events.

When rats are given MG with their food, they develop many typical signs of diabetes, including insulin resistance. The Heidelberg researchers planned to investigate the effects of long-term elevated MG concentrations on the organism. They chose fruit flies as a model for this purpose. "Flies and humans are not very closely related. However, since energy metabolism developed very early on in evolution, results are nevertheless meaningful and can usually be translated to mammals and humans," said Teleman.

Using genetic engineering, the researchers turned off the enzyme that breaks down MG in flies. The glucose metabolite MG subsequently accumulated in their bodies. The flies soon developed insulin resistance. Later, they became obese and at higher age their glucose levels also became disrupted.

"It appears to be sufficient to increase the MG level to trigger insulin resistance and typical diabetic metabolic disturbances," Teleman resumes. "This is clear evidence that MG is not the consequence but rather the cause of type 2 diabetes."

This observation, in turn, raises the question about what might cause an elevated MG level. For example, obese people who are not diabetic also display elevated MG levels. "Why this is so, we don't know. This is an important aspect of our future research," said Nawroth. Teleman adds: "Production as well as decomposition of MG is influenced by numerous metabolic processes which we do not know yet and have to understand better. And we also urgently plan to study in mice which clinical symptoms long-term elevated MG levels cause in mammals."

Explore further Toward a 'smart' patch that automatically delivers insulin when needed

More information: Alexandra Moraru, Janica Wiederstein, Daniel Pfaff, Thomas Fleming, Aubry K. Miller, Peter Nawroth und Aurelio A. Teleman: Elevated Levels of the Reactive Metabolite Methylglyoxal Recapitulate Progression of Type 2 Diabetes, Cell Metabolism 2018, Journal information: Cell Metabolism Alexandra Moraru, Janica Wiederstein, Daniel Pfaff, Thomas Fleming, Aubry K. Miller, Peter Nawroth und Aurelio A. Teleman: Elevated Levels of the Reactive Metabolite Methylglyoxal Recapitulate Progression of Type 2 Diabetes,2018, DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet2018.02003Smoking linked with higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Credit: Shutterstock

The prevalence of diabetes has increased almost 10-fold in China since the early 1980s, with one in 10 adults in China now affected by diabetes. Although adiposity is the major modifiable risk factor for diabetes, other research in China suggests this can explain only about 50 percent of the increase in diabetes prevalence over recent decades, suggesting other lifestyle factors, including smoking, may play a role in the aetiology of diabetes. In recent decades, there has been a large increase in cigarette smoking in China, especially among men. About two thirds of Chinese men now smoke, consuming roughly 40 percent of the world's cigarettes.

Researchers from the University of Oxford, UK, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking University have examined the association of smoking and smoking cessation with the risk of diabetes in a large, nationwide study of 500,000 adults from 10 areas (five urban and five rural) of China. The present study included only people with no history of diabetes at the baseline, whose health status was monitored for nine years through death and hospital admission records. During this time over 13,500 participants developed new-onset type 2 diabetes.

The researchers found that, compared with people who have never smoked, regular smokers have a 15-30 percent higher risk of developing diabetes, after taking account of the effects of age, socioeconomic status, alcohol consumption, physical activity and adiposity. The study also showed a clear dose-response relationship with amount smoked and the earlier a person started smoking.

Among men, the smoking-associated risk of diabetes appeared to be greater among individuals with higher adiposity. Compared with those have who never smoked, smoking 30 cigarettes or more per day was associated with a 30 percent higher risk of diabetes among men with a normal weight (i.e. body mass index [BMI] <25 kg/m2) but with a 60 percent higher risk among men who were obese (i.e. with a BMI 30 kg/m2). Smokers, on average, tended to be leaner than non-smokers, possibly reflecting appetite suppression and elevated resting metabolic rate associated with smoking. However, heavy smokers were more likely to have higher abdominal adiposity than light or non-smokers, greatly increasing the risk of diabetes.

Study author, Professor Zhengming Chen, from the University of Oxford, UK, said: "The excess smoking-associated risk of diabetes among men in China is likely to increase substantially in future generations because the tobacco epidemic is maturing, but also because levels of overweight and obesity continue to rise among adults in China."

Previous studies have suggested that giving up smoking may increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, at least in the short term. By carefully analysing information on the reasons why people stopped smoking, the study demonstrated that this excess risk of diabetes among recent quitters was only seen in those who had stopped smoking because of illness, and not those who chose to stop smoking for other reasons. Among individuals who had chosen to give up smoking and had stopped for more than 5 years, there was a small excess risk of diabetes, but this could be explained by moderate weight gain following smoking cessation.

Study co-author, Dr. Fiona Bragg, from the University of Oxford, UK, said: "These findings add to existing evidence of the health benefits of giving up smoking, not only for prevention of cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, but now also for prevention of diabetes."

Although smoking is much less common among women in China, the smoking-associated risks of diabetes appeared to be greater among women than men for a given amount smoked. This may be explained in part by their greater proportion of body fat compared with men.

Study author, Professor Liming Li, Peking University, China, said: "We can't conclude from these findings that smoking causes type 2 diabetes, but, irrespective of this, smoking should be targeted as an important modifiable lifestyle factor in future disease prevention strategies, including for diabetes, in China and elsewhere."

Explore further Smoking a pack or more a day increases diabetes risks among blacks

More information: Xin Liu et al. Smoking and smoking cessation in relation to risk of diabetes in Chinese men and women: a 9-year prospective study of 05 million people, The Lancet Public Health (2018). Xin Liu et al. Smoking and smoking cessation in relation to risk of diabetes in Chinese men and women: a 9-year prospective study of 05 million people,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(18)30026-4Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Medicinal cannabis is safe and effective in pain relief, and researchers are calling for the treatment to be properly established in our modern medical arsenal. A new special issue of the European Journal of Internal Medicine provides a comprehensive overview of current evidence for the use of cannabis and derived products in medicine, and calls for more research to improve the evidence base for its use.

"We feel it is absolutely imperative to not only present the current state of affairs, but also propose the development of the scientific research program within the paradigm of evidence-based medicine," said Prof. Victor Novack, guest editor of the special issue and a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. "Our ultimate aim should be to scientifically establish the actual place of medical cannabis derived products in the modern medical arsenal."

Cannabis has been used for centuries in pain relief, as a sleep aid and for many other purposes, yet there is little evidence on its safety and effectiveness. This is in part due to relatively recent legal restrictions on its use, which have hampered research efforts and resulted in doctors having little to no understanding of its use.

However, there has been an explosion in the number of studies published since 2012. The new special issue provides two major studies on the use of cannabis in cancer patients and the elderly, as well as a comprehensive overview of the evidence, regulations, ethics and practical use. The authors and editors call for more research to improve the evidence base.

In a study led by Prof. Novack, a team of researchers from Israel analyzed data collected during the medicinal cannabis treatment of 2,970 cancer patients between 2015 and 2017. The two main problems patients were hoping to overcome were sleep problems and pain, and cannabis has been shown to be effective in alleviating both. 95.9 percent of the patients reported an improvement in their condition.

The same team also analyzed the effectiveness of medical cannabis in elderly patients who were being treated in 2015-2017 for a variety of issues, including pain and cancer. The researchers conclude in their paper: "Our study finds that the therapeutic use of cannabis is safe and efficacious in the elderly population. Cannabis use may decrease the use of other prescription medicines, including opioids. Gathering more evidence-based data, including data from double-blind randomized-controlled trials, in this special population is imperative."

In a review in the special issue, Prof. Donald Abrams at University of California San Francisco Ward in the US covers the recent review conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids. The report, which considered 10,000 scientific abstracts, "concluded that there was conclusive or substantial evidence that Cannabis or cannabinoids are effective for the treatment of pain in adults; chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis."

Yet the report also highlighted the barriers to research in the US, which may explain the lack of strong evidence for the therapeutic use of cannabis. This dearth of research has also led to numerous ethical issues in prescribing cannabis, not least because many doctors do not understand the treatment enough to advise dosage and use. An article by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Canada and International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute, Prague, Czech Republic provides practical guidance for doctors, with data on cannabis pharmacology.

"This Medical Cannabis special issue covers everything you wanted to know about medical cannabis," said Prof. Novack. "We hope that it will provide physicians with a contemporary summary of different aspects related to the medical cannabis and guide the choice of an appropriate for the indications where the evidence is sufficient to initiate the treatment. We also hope the articles will facilitate the conversation on the future of medical cannabis research and its accommodation into mainstream medicine."

Explore further Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than opioids: study

More information: Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider et al, Prospective analysis of safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in large unselected population of patients with cancer, European Journal of Internal Medicine (2018). Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider et al, Prospective analysis of safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in large unselected population of patients with cancer,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejim.2018.01.023 Donald I. Abrams. The therapeutic effects of Cannabis and cannabinoids: An update from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report, European Journal of Internal Medicine (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejim.2018.01.003 Caroline A. MacCallum et al. Practical considerations in medical cannabis administration and dosing, European Journal of Internal Medicine (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejim.2018.01.004It was the worst agricultural contamination incident in U.S. historythe accidental inclusion of PBB fire retardant in cattle feed at the Velsicol Chemical factory in St. Louis, Mich., in 1973.

Researchers have identified ongoing human health problems from exposure to the chemical in the four and a half decades sincefrom thyroid disorders to an increased risk of breast cancer. Health problems were also found to potentially pass to additional generations through the mother's placenta and breast milk.

But researchers from Atlanta's Emory University, in meetings with PBB-contaminated Michigan communities, kept hearing similar anecdotes involving men, too.

"When I would describe to people the kind of health effects in children of women exposed to PBB, some would say, 'In my family, it was my father who was exposed, not my mother. But our children are having the same kinds of conditions,' " said Michele Marcus, Emory professor of epidemiology and lead researcher on the PBB health studies.

Emory's newest round of research, kicking off in earnest in April, will focus on whether males can genetically pass on PBB-related health disorders. Researchers are seeking volunteers to provide blood samples and answer questionnaires as part of the study.

"We want to find families where the grandfather was exposed, but not the grandmother, so the exposure of the next generation would only be through the father's DNA," Marcus said.

It's estimated that, through milk and meat, the chemical made it into the bodies of nine out of 10 Michigan residents.

Research shows PBB affects the epigenome, the compounds that tell a genome, the genetic material present in a cell, what to do.

"PBB does impact how certain genes are regulated," Marcus said. "Could that gene regulation impact, that epigenome, be passed on to the children and grandchilden? It has been shown in animal studies, but it hasn't yet been demonstrated in people."

The perfect scenario for the multigenerational study would be a family where the grandfather was exposed, the grandmother was not, and they now have an adult child, male or female, and a grandchild, she said.

"Because this happened over 40 years ago, some of the families we've already identified are where a man grew up on a contaminated farm; he ate the contaminated food, perhaps as a teenager or young adult; and then he married a woman from out-of-state, and they have children and grandchildren," Marcus said.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In 1973, the Velsicol plant, then known as Michigan Chemical, was producing a PBB-based flame retardant known as FireMaster, as well as magnesium oxide, a cattle feed supplement sold under the trade name NutriMaster.

Ten to twenty 50-pound bags of PBB made it to the now-defunct Michigan Farm Bureau Services operation in place of NutriMaster. It was mixed into cattle feed and purchased by farmers throughout Michigan.

Soon, livestock began exhibiting bizarre behavior and symptoms, including hooves that grew long and twisted, and dying off. The offspring of cattle that had eaten the tainted feed were being born with horrific birth defects. After the feed mix-up was discovered by investigating veterinarians about nine months later, about 30,000 contaminated cattle, 1.5 million chickens, and thousands of hogs and rabbits were killed and disposed of in mass graves in Kalkaska and Mioalong with tons of meat headed to market. About 500 Michigan farms were quarantined, prevented from selling milk or meat, nearly destroying the state's dairy industry.

"It really was all over the state," said Melanie Pearson, who leads Emory's community engagement efforts on its PBB research.

"We recently mapped all of the quarantined farms, and there were farms in almost every county of the state."

The cleanup of the now-shuttered Velsicol site is still ongoing, the largest EPA Superfund project in the Great Lakes region, with an estimated cleanup cost of more than $300 million.

That contamination has proven very persistent. About 867 Michigan residents, believed exposed to PBB through working in or living by the chemical plant, or from living on a tainted farm, gave blood samples to Emory researchers. More than 60 percent of participantsfour decades laterstill had PBB blood levels higher than 95 percent of the U.S. population.

St. Louis resident James Hall, 54, grew up about three blocks away from the chemical plant.

"I was kind of there 24-7," he said. "My paper route was in that neighborhood. My grandma and grandpa, from when I was age 5 on, lived right across the street."

Hall got his blood tested by Emory researchers in 2013. His result was shocking: PBB at more than 5 parts per billion.

"My levels are seven times higher than the average for chemical plant workers," he said. "They are 16 times higher than the farm families."

Then things made sense.

"In 2007, I started having problems with weight and fatigue," he said. "I figured I was getting old, fat and tired. Lazy. I worked 12 hours a day and slept 12 hours a day. That's all I did."

Hall's weight ballooned up to nearly 300 pounds. Then he felt a nodule in his throat. Doctors ultimately removed his thyroid glands, which produce hormones that regulate the body's metabolic rate as well as heart and digestive function, muscle control and more.

"The doctors said, 'You're going to be on medication for the rest of your life,' " he said.

Like others in St. Louis, Hall wonders about every family member who suffered a disease or died, whether toxic exposures were to blame. His brother died of cancer at age 24. A daughter died from a heart condition in 2005, at just 2 years old.

"It's insidious," he said. "You can't tie it down. (But) I believe there's something to it."

LEARNING ABOUT THE EFFECTS

In addition to the multigenerational study, Emory researchers also hope to obtain funding and approval to study how long PBB stays in the body following exposure, and to test whether ingesting certain substances will aid the body in eliminating it.

"We're trying to understand why some people still have high levels in their body, while some people have eliminated the PBB," Marcus said.

A complicating factor has been gaining access to the records of the thousands of Michigan residents tested in the original Michigan Health Department PBB registry in 1978. Participants must actively waive privacy rules to allow Emory researchers accessand it's a matter of ongoing legal debate between the university and state officials whether descendants can provide that waiver for registry participants who've since died, Pearson said.

Hall, the chairman of the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force in St. Louis, says the research is important.

"Everybody goes through denial, anger," he said. "I'm at the point now where I'm in the action phase. I want to learn as much as we can learn from it, and transfer that to policy, to medical response."

-

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PBB-EXPOSED STUDY

Emory University is seeking participants in a multigenerational study of PBB health effects.

Specifically, researchers are looking for families where:

1. The grandfather lived or worked on a Michigan farm in 1973 to 1978;

2. The grandfather worked or lived very near the Michigan Chemical/Velsicol plant in St. Louis;

3. The grandfather had a child with a woman who was probably not exposed to PBB (for example, his wife/partner was not living in Michigan);

4. This couple had a son or daughter who was born after 1978, and this adult child had a child.

To enroll in the study, contact Emory's PBB Research Team at 888-892-0074 or by e-mail at pbbregistry@emory.edu.

Those who took part in the original Michigan Health Department PBB Registry in 1978, also known as the Michigan Long-Term PBB Study, need to transfer their records to Emory University to be part of its ongoing database. To receive information on transferring records, call the above toll-free number or e-mail pubregistry@emory.edu.

Explore further Tracing the toxic legacy of PBB contamination

2018 Detroit Free Press

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.A minimally invasive surgical device to be commercialized by a newly launched startup could fundamentally transform the way doctors correct organ defects. For patients with certain conditions such as a hole in the heart, the device might one day provide a lasting repair without the complications and risks common to more invasive types of surgery.

Harvard University's Office of Technology Development (OTD) has established a licensing agreement with HoliStick Medical, granting the Paris-based startup exclusive worldwide rights to commercially develop this medical technology co-owned by Harvard, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, and MIT.

The enabling technology is a specialized catheter device that can repair holes in the heart, or tissue defects in other organs, using deployable soft structures. Designed to work with sticky and flexible materials such as patches, the device incorporates mechanisms to delicately close a hole without requiring the use of sutures or rigid devices. Critically, the device offers a non-invasive approach to tissue repair, facilitating clinicians' access to difficult-to-reach organs, as demonstrated in successful animal studies and published in Science Translational Medicine (Roche et al., 2015).

The technology was created through a collaboration between bioengineers and clinicians working with the Harvard Biodesign Lab, led by Conor Walsh, PhD, who is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and a Core Faculty Member at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

The lead scientist on the project was Ellen Roche, PhD, a doctoral student at SEAS, co-advised by Walsh and Prof. David Mooney, PhD. Roche has since joined the MIT faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.

Walsh and Roche were joined on the project by co-PIs Pedro del Nido, MD, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital and Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Jeffrey M. Karp, PhD, a principal investigator at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at HMS, along with members of their research groups and other collaborators. Del Nido is also principal investigator of the Boston Pediatric Device Consortium, an FDA-funded resource for inventors developing devices designed for children.

Walsh's lab at SEAS and the Wyss Institute is known for combining elements of engineering, industrial design, medical practice, and business savvy to design novel robotic systems and smart medical devices that address human needs.

"Part of our lab's goal is to develop disruptive technologies that augment or restore human performance, and in this case we've developed a technology that augments a doctor's ability to perform a medical procedure," said Walsh. "Ellen's brilliant leadership of this project and the essential input of our engineering and clinical colleagues have resulted in the creation of a less invasive, less traumatic device that could really improve the way difficult tissue repairs are performed and, hopefully, reduce the need for procedures like open-heart surgery."

HoliStick is backed by Truffle Capital, a French venture capital firm that focuses on disruptive startups in life sciences and information technology, with $1.2 billion in assets under management.

"To carry an early-stage medical technology into clinical application requires both commitment and strategic sophistication," said Sam Liss, Executive Director for Strategic Partnerships in Harvard OTD. "We're thrilled to see this technology enter commercial development in the hands of a well-resourced startup that shares our vision of advancing innovation to transform patient care worldwide."

Research to develop and evaluate the catheter device at Harvard and collaborating institutions was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Explore further UV-light enabled catheter fixes holes in the heart without invasive surgeryIt isnt helpful to jump to conclusions about child sexual abuse. Credit: Raj Rabidas/Shutterstock

Over the past two weeks, a number of commentators have called for the removal of Aboriginal children with sexually transmissible infections (STIs) from their families. This has resulted from the wrongful conflating of rates of STI notifications with child sexual abuse. It's important to delineate these two issues.

Young people living in remote Aboriginal communities, especially those aged 15-29 years, have high rates of STIs such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. But stating all STI cases among young people are related to child sexual abuse isn't helpful in dealing with either a serious public health matter or the well-being and safety of vulnerable children.

More STIs in Indigenous communities

In 2016, the rate of chlamydia notifications among Aboriginal people aged 15 to 29 was 4,602 per 100,000  compared with 1,479 per 100,000 for their non-Indigenous peers.

For gonorrhoea, this was 1,825 compared with 173.

The rate of young Aboriginal people infected with syphilis was 173 per 100,000, compared with 15 per 100,000 in non-Indigenous peers, driven largely by an outbreak occurring over the last six years across northern and central Australia.

The significantly higher notification rates among Aboriginal young people are skewed by the higher numbers in remote areas, where rate differences are even greater.

The reasons for these rates of STI diagnoses are complicated and complex. They include poorer outcomes in many of the social determinants of sexual health: education and health literacy, access to health services, racism (in the form of stigmatising social institutions), income and employment rates. All of these are known to be determinants of higher STI rates in populations globally.

STIs are also driven by risk behaviours such as inconsistent condom use, early sexual debut, partner changes and alcohol misuse. A recent study of 2,877 young Aboriginal people found the median age of sexual debut to be 15 years  around 50% of the participants had their sexual encounter before, and 50% after.

The same study found most people had sex with similar aged peers. The median number of partners in the last year was one, and inconsistent condom use was common, especially when alcohol and or other drugs were involved. All of this isn't that different really from non-Aboriginal Australians.

The risk of acquiring an STI in remote Aboriginal communities is also influenced by issues including demographics and mobility. The median age of Aboriginal people in Australia is 22 years (a peak time for sexual activity) compared to 36 years for non-Aboriginal counterparts.

Short-term and temporary mobility, especially between remote communities and across borders, also peaks in young Aboriginal adults, typically aged 17 to 25. This happens to occur also when young people begin to explore and expand their immediate social networks.

What is different between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people living in remote areas is the underlying prevalence of STIs in the latter communities.

Among 16- to 19-year-olds in remote communities, prevalence has been estimated at 13% for chlamydia and 12% for gonorrhoea.

This compares to prevalence rates of around 3% for chlamydia and way less than 1% for gonorrhoea and syphilis among heterosexual non-Aboriginal people of the same age, living in urban areas of Australia.

With such high prevalences, it's not surprising young people having consensual sex with each other in remote Aboriginal communities are diagnosed with STIs more often than non-Aboriginal peers in mainstream Australia.

What about STIs in children and young people less than 16 years?

A small proportion of STIs reported each year occur in people under 16 years of age. Around 97% of these cases in people aged less than 16 years occur in young people aged 13 to 15 which relate to two issues: early sexual debut with similar aged peers or sexual abuse.

In rare cases, STIs have been detected in those under 12 years of age. According to personal communication with the Northern Territory's Department of Health, there were five cases in total of either chlamydia or gonorrhoea in 2017. No cases of syphilis were reported in children less than 12 years. All of these cases have been reported and investigated, by the relevant authorities.

Sexual abuse is never acceptable. All of us need to do more to ensure every child and young person in these communities can live in a safe environment.

It has been recently reported by the Northern Territory Police Department that around 700 cases of suspected "child sexual offences" have been notified over the last five years in young people aged less than 16 years.

It's important to note that a large number of these are likely to be the result of mandatory reporting. Mandatory reporting occurs when young people under the age of 16 are known to have a partner with an age gap of more than two years, or where there is any suspicion of sexual abuse, or when a person under the age of 14 is known to be engaging in sexual activity.

Mandatory reporting is required by anyone (parent, teacher, clinician or any other person) who becomes aware of such activity.

Given around half of young people in remote areas have commenced sexual activity before the age of 16, it's not surprising a significant number of notifications have been reported to authorities. These notifications annually represent around 0.01% of the Aboriginal population in this age group.

What needs to be done

As is the case in many remote communities across Australia, there has been a failure to adequately address STIs even in people over the age of 16. Commonwealth, state and territory governments have a responsibility to address these issues holistically with programs that have resonance for young Aboriginal people.

Education, child protection and health departments all have a role to play. More resources are desperately required from Commonwealth, state and territory governments to address this gap in public health.

Further, thinking outside the square to address STIs holistically is required. Building resilience in young Aboriginal people, tapping into the agency that young people already have to reduce risk from STI acquisition, or curbing alcohol through supply reduction measures should be considered as solutions to addressing STIs in remote areas including in larger centres.

A basic principle of any communicable disease outbreak is to quickly respond to diagnose and treat all cases. The ongoing syphilis outbreak and the sustained rates of other STIs in remote Australia, is a case in hand where an urgent public health response is required.

Among other measures, this will require a large, well-resourced response to screen and treat a large proportion of young people in the affected areas within a relatively short time period. Aboriginal community controlled health services and other primary care services can achieve this if properly resourced.

There are examples of successful approaches to address STIs through well-resourced Aboriginal community controlled health services and these need to be built upon.

The program from Nganampa Health, an Aboriginal community controlled health service, that has developed and implemented a comprehensive approach to addressing STIs has shown a reduction in rates over a number of decades and needs to be expanded to other regions of remote Australia.

Explore further Australian HIV rates remain stable while other STIs continue to rise

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Associate Professors Bridget Stocker and Mattie Timmer from the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences worked with scientists from Japan to develop an adjuvant which can kick-start a powerful immune response and trigger a specific type of T-cell response. Adjuvants are substances that improve the body's immune response to an antigen.

Current vaccines tend to stimulate antibody-only responses, while this adjuvant targets a specific receptor, which means the immune response is consistent and defined and may also lead to fewer side-effects. It will also assist in the development of vaccines against pathogens for which there are no current vaccines.

"There's been a shift in recent years in looking at whether more precise vaccines can be developed. Rather than packing everything into a vaccine, including the parts of a pathogen that don't stimulate the desired immune response, you're just adding the specific ingredients that do the job," says Associate Professor Stocker.

The adjuvant could play a role in developing vaccines for HIV, Group A Streptococcus, Tuberculosis, and Meningitis, as well as improving current vaccines, and may also reduce the need for booster shots.

"One reason why there's no vaccine for many pathogens is that you can't get the right immune response with the current technology. This new additive will allow vaccines to be tailored to each immune response, and it could also increase the length of time immunity lasts after vaccination."

The findings are part of a wider project to target immune cells and develop novel cancer therapies. The new adjuvant can be used in preventative vaccines, but it could also be used to switch off dysfunctional immune cells in an effort to combat cancer.

Vaccine development is an area that Associate Professor Stocker and her team have been interested in since 2011. They had been researching different molecules to add to vaccines and were able to combine that research with the discovery of a new cell receptor to work towards their new adjuvant.

The new receptor was discovered by Professor Sho Yamasaki from Japan, one of the world's foremost experts in immunology. Professor Yamasaki flew to New Zealand to work with the Victoria research team, and Associate Professor Stocker's Ph.D. student Amy Foster spent three months in Japan to complete further testing in Professor Yamasaki's lab.

"This was an amazing opportunity for Amy to experience the whole process, from our focus on chemistry and cell-based immunology, to Professor Yamasaki's more advanced immunological expertise. Amy had turned down a Fulbright scholarship to stay and do further study with us at Victoria, in part due to the ability to offer opportunities like this. We also had an undergraduate student, Amy Lynch, who helped in the early stages of the project and is now completing her Masters with us. It just shows that good projects attract good students, no matter where you are in the world."

The next step for Associate Professor Stocker and her team is to work with other partners to test the adjuvant in specific disease settings. They will also look at it in context with different antigens.

"In our current research we used a generic antigensomething that induces an immune response in the bodyto test the effect of the adjuvant. The next step will be to test specific antigens in different diseases, and to refine the adjuvant we have. We have a patent on this compound, but any research group can only take an idea so far until you need a partnership to take it to the next level. We have a lot of people interested in what this adjuvant can do, and that is very exciting."Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have seen momentous swings in value over the past year, quickly emerging from obscurity onto the public stage.

An indication of these price swings  and the excitement surrounding them  is that one of the most popular live price trackers for Bitcoin is an adaptive gif of a cartoon token on a roller coaster.

The comparison is apt, as Bitcoins volatility over the last year has gained many investors wild profits, and many more significant losses.

A lack of regulation surrounding the trading of cryptocurrencies make them vulnerable to manipulation, causing many traditional investors to label Bitcoin a get-rich-quick scheme or a bubble waiting to pop.

This bubble has deflated somewhat in recent months, with Bitcoin falling to values not seen since October last year  but still showing year-on-year gains of over 500%.

According to price information from South African exchange Luno, Bitcoin was valued at R15,242 on 15 March 2017.

At the time of writing  15 March 2018  the cryptocurrency is now worth R99,437.

Hype train

The fervour surrounding Bitcoin ramped up throughout the second half of 2017, culminating at the end of the year when the coin reached an all-time high.

The price of Bitcoin hit R254,000 on 14 December 2017  doubling its value in just under a month.

Cryptocurrencies had become a hot topic across mainstream media, with stories circulating of early investors who became overnight millionaires.

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) also became increasingly popular, with investors looking to cash in on risky projects with potential for massive returns.

The hype surrounding the cryptocurrency market infected traditional investors, too, with many companies seeing a massive growth in their share price after changing their name to include the phrases blockchain, fintech, or cryptocurrency.

Scammers and criminals also found a lucrative market in cryptocurrencies, with ponzi schemes like Bitconnect and exit scams like BTC Global preying on newcomers to the market.

The hype surrounding cryptocurrencies has deflated somewhat in 2018, however, along with the values of most coins.

Google search trends data shows that the amount of people searching for Bitcoin-related content has decreased substantially since the beginning of the year, although South Africa remains one of the countries most interested in the cryptocurrency.

Pitfalls

Bitcoin has encountered large obstacles during its meteoric rise, which had dramatic effects on its value. Other cryptocurrencies were also similarly affected.

In the middle of 2017, Ethereum threatened to overtake Bitcoin as the worlds largest cryptocurrency  due to fears that Bitcoin would not recover from its Bitcoin Cash hard fork.

Regulation has also provided investors with concerns, with major countries attempting to crack down and control the use of cryptocurrency.

This is also true for ICOs, many of which found themselves in trouble with the SEC and other regulatory bodies.

All of these hazards caused the price of Bitcoin to fluctuate dramatically as it rose throughout the past year, allowing investors to profit from the large price swings (if they timed their orders correctly).

With many people losing interest in Bitcoin, however, it remains to be seen whether it will recover to previous highs.

High mainstream interest could once again be gained if the currency begins another meteoric rise, but it may also remain the domain of blockchain enthusiasts and long-term holders if it fails to rally.33% of global business executives list IoT as a technological priority  even above major focus areas like robotics and AI  but businesses are still frustrated by how to benefit from this technology.

Theres no doubt that IoT is quickly becoming the digital transformation end game, said Hitachi Vantara MD Alexander Jenewein, speaking at a round table event in Johannesburg. Hitachi Vantara was established to assist businesses with their digital transformation plans  creating digital business agility by solving critical challenges in managing and deriving value from data.

In South Africa, the appetite for IoT is growing, and many businesses have established a transformation charter, Jenewein said. Yet the adoption of IoT is still fairly slow because stakeholders arent clear on the outcomes of their digital transformation plan.

We still often find that businesses feel the need to implement an IoT system without first establishing the business value, Jenewein said. At Hitachi Vantara, we help them to tightly align the implementation process and the business value. Rather than installing IoT solutions as yet another siloed department, we enable businesses to integrate it into their digital transformation plan and to gain real value from it.

He added that businesses should start implementing technology solutions with actual business outcomes in mind. Hitachi Vantaras recent rebrand is uniquely positioned to take businesses on their digital transformation journeys, said Jenewein.

Improving business efficiency

Hitachi Vantara has seen great success with its IoT offering, recently increasing the yield of a global manufacturer by over 90%.

The companys polymer mixing process was producing output of inconsistent quality, with yields sometimes dipping as low as 50%. Production engineers were unable to stabilise the process using traditional approaches as mixing polymer was unstable and each new product formulation increased the problem.

Hitachi delivered an advanced analytics platform that integrated a wide range of production data and sensor data outputs to visualise, analyse, and diagnose the mixing process. This new insight enabled the production engineering team to understand the correlations and cause-and-effect from a wide number of variables. By adding machine-learning functionality, the solution was also able to make continuous process adjustments to improve the yield over a period of several months.

During the initial pilot project, the solution eliminated over 50% of the poor-quality batches, increasing the average yields to above 90%. Hitachi Vantaras solution optimised the process parameters, and the system is now capable of continuously adapting to changing conditions.

Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara offers analytics, industrial expertise, and technology, helping businesses find the hidden value in data that reveals the path to intelligent innovation.

This new company unifies the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and Pentaho into a single integrated business aimed at capitalising on Hitachis social innovation capability in both operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT).

Hitachi Vantara was launched to leverage the broad portfolio of innovation, development, and experience from across Hitachi Group companies  and it does this by bringing together its Lumada IoT platform and data storage portfolio with the Pentaho data integration and business intelligence business.

Most businesses have data silos that are difficult to correlate and analyse, said Jenewein. At Hitacho Vantara, we help decision makers connect these silos, build new revenue streams, create better customer experiences, and lower business costs through comprehensive, data-driven solutions.

For more information, visit the Hitachi website.

Alexander Jenewein, Hitachi Vantara MDPutin, Erdogan to discuss Syria and other regional conflicts

Karabakh's Arayik Harutyunyan visits Armenia 1st President, latest developments in Artsakh discussed

Members of "Armenia" alliance and MPs of homonymous faction visit Yerablur Military Pantheon (PHOTOS)

Monument to Marshal Baghramyan unveiled in Moscow

Karabakh President sends condolence message to Russia's Putin

Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of another Armenian serviceman found in Mataghis

Catholicos of All Armenians visits Yerablur Military Pantheon (PHOTOS)

Russian State Duma chairman congratulates Armenian counterpart on Armenia's Independence Day

Putin appoints Armenia's Mikayel Aghasandyan Russia's Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative to CSTO

Resident of Karabakh's Karmir Shuka runs over three 14-year-olds, body found hanged from a tree later

Adam Schiff congratulates Armenians on 30th anniversary of Armenia's Independence

Nikol Pashinyan: Grove of Life will symbolize the start of era of peaceful development of Armenia

Armenia premier: History has shown that it's not mandatory and is sometimes unnecessary to defeat others to win

Azerbaijan FM meets with Turkish counterpart in New York

Karabakh President meets with President of Tashir Group Samvel Karapetyan in Yerevan

New Armenian flag placed in Armenia's Tegh village, higher than Azerbaijani flag

UN Secretary General urges to ban weapons that kill without human participation

Russia Federation Council chairwoman congratulates Armenia Parliament Speaker on Independence Day

US may approve Pfizer child vaccine drug soon

Biden calls on UN to protect rights of sex minorities from Chechnya to Cameroon

"Vivid" Independence Day event kicks off at Republic Square in Yerevan

Iranian Deputy FM to arrive in Azerbaijan on a three-day visit

Police inspecting citizens with metal detectors before Independence Day event at Republic Square in Yerevan

Armenia marks Independence Day: Digest on congratulations from int. leaders

Largest flag of Armenia raised in Yeraskh village of Ararat Province (PHOTOS)

China PM to Armenia counterpart: Cooperation in sidelines of One Belt One Road joint construction steadily develops

Lukashenko to Pashinyan: Belarus, Armenia will be able to fully realize bilateral cooperations potential

Kazakhstan President: Armenia achieved great success, enjoys well-deserved reputation in international arena

Putin to Pashinyan: Trilateral agreements implementation will ensure your countrys peaceful, prosperous development

Mishustin to Pashinyan: Russia-Armenia relations progressively developing in all directions

Guy Parmelin: Switzerland remains reliable partner of reforms in Armenia

France MP: Armenia fighting for survival of itself, its people, against Azerbaijan, Turkey

Wendy Morton: UK will continue to be proud supporter of Armenias democratic, economic development

Russia envoy to Armenia: Any challenge in modern world can be overcome only through joint efforts

Top Iran officials congratulate Armenia, Armenian people

Armenia health minister's vaccinated mother contracts COVID-19

Pope Francis: May divine blessing be with people of Armenia

Wreath laid on behalf of Armenia ex-President Sargsyan at Yerevan military pantheon (PHOTOS)

Sweden ambassador: My best wishes to all Armenians (VIDEO)

Netherlands envoy to Armenia: This beautiful country, wonderful people have bright future (VIDEO)

Xi Jinping to Armen Sarkissian: Dynamics of development of China-Armenia relations is maintained

Armenia First President: Independence is non-negotiable for me

Putin: Development of Russia-Armenia relations corresponds to fundamental interests of our fraternal peoples

Blinken: US remains committed to helping negotiate long-term political settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Armenia Security Council chief refuses to speak about possible Pashinyan-Erdogan meeting

Biden: US will continue to advocate for release of all Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan

Armenia FM to head for New York

Macron to Armenias Sarkissian: We will spare no effort to find lasting solution to conflict

Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: Defeat, authorities that symbolize it cannot be source of inspiration, creation

494 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Challenging but honorific struggle awaits us ahead

Karekin II: Main meaning of 30th anniversary of independence is to rebuild progressive, prosperous country

Karabakh President: Strong, developing Armenia has no alternative

Shombi Sharp: UN will continue to stand with Armenia in addressing impact of recent crises, pandemic, conflict

Armenia President: Today it turns out that we did not appreciate what we had

Georgia capital Tbilisi TV tower illuminated in colors of Armenia flag (PHOTOS)

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 (PHOTOS)

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UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats from the UK since the Cold War over the alleged attack on a former spy. Moscow has denounced May's claims as baseless, Sputnik reported.

London has submitted to Moscow a list of Russian diplomats who must leave the UK as personae non-grata, and Russia is preparing a mirror response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.

"The list was sent by diplomatic channels to the Russian side. These are Russian diplomats, including members of the military attache staff. We have it. They must leave Great Britain within seven days," Zakharova noted.

"We are preparing our response and will notify the British side when it's ready," she added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that it regarded the punitive measures against Russia announced by UK Prime Minister Theresa May over Moscow's alleged involvement in the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal as a gross provocation that undermines the foundations of a normal interstate dialogue between the two countries.

"We consider it categorically unacceptable and reproachful that the British government, while pursuing its unseemly political goals, opted for further serious aggravation of relations, announcing a whole set of hostile measures, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country," the Ministry's statement said.

The Russian Embassy in London called the expulsion of the diplomats "unacceptable, short-sighted and unjustified."

In a statement, the Embassy confirmed that the diplomats had been declared personae non grata, adding that London was to blame for the harm caused to Russian-UK relations by this "hostile step."

The Russian Embassy's reaction followed UK Prime Minister May's address to the House of Commons, where she announced a response to the alleged attack on Skripal.

Reiterating a claim she made Monday about Russia's alleged culpibility in the Skripal case, the prime minister accused Russia of an "unlawful use of force against the United Kingdom," saying this crime was part of a well established pattern of "Russian state aggression" in Europe, and accused Moscow of "sarcasm, contempt and defiance" in its response to London's ultimatum to provide further information.

May announced that 23 Russian diplomats "identified as undeclared intelligence officers" will be expelled and given one week to leave.President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan, on Wednesday visited the US Congress. He met with a group of members of the foreign affairs committee, and discussed Artsakh-US relations, avenues for the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, and regional trends.

The NKR President accentuated Washingtons considerable contribution to maintaining peace and stability in the region and in seeking a pacific and equitable solution to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

A street in Istanbul will be renamed after slain Istanbul Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

According to the respective decision, Samanyolu Street in Sisli district will renamed to Hrant Dink Street.

Sisli District Council has forwarded this decision to Istanbul Municipal Council, after whose approval the decision will come into force.

American actor and producer Dean Cain said he hopes Israel will recognize the Armenian Genocide. During his visit to Israel, Cain spoke to The Jerusalem Post and voiced the importance of recognizing this tragedy.

Cain noted that although he would not tell a foreign country what to do, he hopes every government would recognize Armenian Genocide, because its a historic fact.

Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian is holding meetings in Copenhagen. On Wednesday he met with tax minister Karsten Lauritzen of Denmark to discuss development of trade and economic ties.

The ministers signed the convention between Armenia and Denmark on the relief for double taxation of income and property, and on the prevention of tax evasion.

Edward Nalbandian also met with Michael Starbk Christensen, Permanent Under-Secretary of State of Denmark, responsible for Foreign Affairs. A number of issues related to the development of the Armenian-Danish relations were discussed.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced a range of economic and diplomatic measures, including the suspension of high-level bilateral contacts with Russia over poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal.

The UK announced Wednesday it will expel 23 Russian diplomats and promised to freeze Russian assets if they were used to threaten British interests. Later in the day UK blocked Russia-proposed statement on the Skripal incident at the meeting of the UN Security Council.

Moscow denounced Theresa May's claims as baseless and promised to expel British diplomats in response.

Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan instructed to ensure full implementation of the e-health system within 15 days.

At this stage, it is necessary to ensure the integration of all health facilities operating under the authority of the city and regional municipalities in the e-health system. The point is that in many places there is no Internet, and it is necessary to solve this problem shortly, Karapetyan said.

Armenian national squad are still 91st in the new FIFA standings released on Thursday. The squads once 30th ranking, however, was a record-breaking high for the country.

Reigning world champions Germany still top the FIFA World Ranking, where Brazil and current European champions Portugal are still second and third, respectively.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.

Currently floating a navy comprising just 11 capital warships (four corvettes and seven frigates, most 30 years old or older), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been on the hunt for new warships from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) for nearly a decade. Last week, it got its wish.

In the Department of Defense's first contracts digest of the week, the Pentagon described awards totaling $2.63 billion. Topping that list was a $481.1 million award funding "long-lead-time material" that Lockheed will need to begin construction of four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) ships.

Word military next to a green ball with Saudi flag on it

Saudi Arabia wants a modern military. Lockheed Martin wants to sell it to them. Image source: Getty Images.

Told you so

This contract award shouldn't come as a huge surprise. As recently as November, Lockheed Martin updated investors on the progress of negotiations with Saudi Arabia to win the warship deal. In its post-Q3 earnings conference call, Lockheed Martin CFO Bruce Tanner noted that the company was already "starting to do some design work and so forth" on potential variants of the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (that Lockheed builds in cooperation with Fincantieri Marinette Marine for the U.S. Navy) that might interest the Saudis.

Now it appears Lockheed has hit upon a design that Saudi Arabia likes.

What is MMSC?

Derived from Lockheed Martin's proven Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship, MMSC, says Lockheed, "is a lethal and highly maneuverable surface combatant capable of littoral and open-ocean operation."

Each warship stretches nearly 390 feet in length, with weapons bristling all along its length: a MK-75 76mm cannon, ten 50-caliber machine guns, two eight-cell MK 41 Vertical Launch Systems, and two Harpoon missile launchers for offense. MSSM will also be equipped with Raytheon RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles and a Raytheon SeaRAM Close-in Weapon System for air and missile defense. MSSM even has room on deck for an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter -- also sold by Lockheed Martin, and of which Saudi Arabia already owns several -- for anti-submarine warfare.

Story continues

What's it worth to Lockheed

Lockheed Martin's $481.1 million award to begin building four MMSC warships for Saudi Arabia was the largest contract awarded last Monday. But big as it is, this award is barely a down payment on the ultimate cost of these warships.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Lockheed sells Littoral Combat Ships to the U.S. Navy for roughly $666 million apiece. However, once you include the vast array of missiles and other equipment needed to arm these warships -- more than 700 Harpoons, RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, and RIM 116C Block II Rolling Airframe Missiles across the four hulls Saudi Arabia is buying -- Janes reports that Saudi Arabia will pay more than $11.2 billion for its four MMSCs.

And even that's not the end of the opportunities for Lockheed Martin. In comments on an unrelated matter, Lockheed partner Fincantieri Marinette Marine mentioned that Saudi Arabia has taken out an option to buy a further four MMSC warships -- potentially doubling the value of this contract to as much as $22.5 billion. That's more money than Lockheed's entire Rotary and Mission Systems division -- which, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, builds the LCS and MMSC -- ordinarily makes in a year.

What comes next?

Pentagon-watchers will be aware that Lockheed Martin is currently engaged in a high-stakes contest to win a contract from the U.S. Navy to build as many as 20 new frigate-class warships for the U.S. Navy. Lockheed is offering its Freedom-class LCS as one design on which a frigate could be based, and Saudi Arabia's order of a Freedom-derived MMSC is a strong vote of confidence in the design from a foreign buyer.

Just because Saudi Arabia likes the Freedom-class, though, doesn't necessarily mean the Pentagon will, too. And with the Pentagon program more than twice the size of Saudi Arabia's buy, that's still the real prize Lockheed Martin is aiming for -- and it's a prize that remains yet to be claimed.

More From The Motley Fool

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Malaysia CopyCash ICO

Malaysias central bank has issued a statement seeking to warn customers and distance itself from the Coinzer cryptocurrency.

Bank Negara Malaysias concern is Coinzers use of official logos on their proposed physical token. The statement outlines that Coinzers use of the BNM and Jata Negara logo on their prototype token website and whitepaper are unauthorized, and the project is in no way connected with the bank. Alongside this, the bank reminds customers that digital currencies are not legal tender, and urged investors to exercise caution and carefully examine the potential risks.

Coinzers proposed digital token, which uses the official BNM logo.

Since the Banks statement, Coinzer has produced their own press release, posted on their website. The statement attempts to clarify that the physical token was only a proposal and that they will now not be going ahead with this idea. They add that they are in fact working closely with Malaysian authorities and that the development of cryptocurrencies is recognized as a positive force by both sides:

Regulators in many countries especially Malaysia are aware that this new technology and financial innovation will not only enhance productivity of economic activities, but also make financial intermediation more seamless

According to the website, a new design and a video further explaining the situation are in production.

Coinzer is building on the Ethereum network, focused on maximizing the efficiency of businesses by bringing all manner of systems on to the blockchain. Their whitepaper states that they are trying to become the number one cryptocurrency in Malaysia and attract international investments to the Asian country.

Malaysia itself has taken a passive stance towards cryptocurrencies, with the head of the central bank announcing that the public would decide the technologys future last month. It is not the intention of the authorities to ban or put a stop on any innovation that is perceived to be beneficial to the public, he told reporters. It marks Malaysia as one of the few countries that has laid out a clear approach to the development of virtual currencies, allowing the public to decide their fate.

Story continues

Whilst the central banks position has been for the most part positive towards crypto, Malaysias statutory securities regulator did shut down an ICO in January. CopyCash, a decentralized trading and investing platform, was told to cease and desist by the authority, after it was discovered the platforms token did not comply with laws regarding securities.

Featured image from Shutterstock.



The post Malaysias Central Bank Slaps Down ICO for Logo Misuse appeared first on CCN.

Nah

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no shade, but my eyes scrolled far too quickly and I was like, "when did Caitlyn Jenner get red hair, and why the hell was she ever on TRL?" lol

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LMAO same

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I love how TRL was made iconic once PRETTYMUCH made their presence there!





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this is the douchiest thing ive ever seen wow

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You should be considered blessed to not have ever watched a Justin B*eber performance then

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mte lol

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The blonde one sticks out soooooo badly

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so much ugly

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>>>>>>>>



tbh

>>>>>>>>tbh

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nobody grabs teenagers like "Picture it: the Today Show, 1994"

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The fuck is on homeboys forehead?

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Didn't even know it was back. How bad is it now?

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do they play whole music videos or just snippets?

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I didn't even know TRL was still on. I stopped watching after they changed to including that stupid box with screaming kids interrupting the fucking music video.

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PEOPLE DON'T WATCH TV. no one is going to tune in on an actual television at a specific time. everyone watches shit when they want to, on their computers.

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i mean, to a certain extent yes



but when you tie in live performances, that was the best part of TRL to me



fans freaking out and meeting their ~idols~, exclusive performances, etc etc etc

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I watch TV off the DVR/OnDemand. I prefer to not watch on a computer.

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Me too.

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I vividly remember watching TRL after school every day with my friends and even calling in regularlyl. I even remember how everybody knew to call in and request a new kids on the block video on a certain day (wayyyyyy before any kind of social media). With the advent of youtube/twitter/tumblr/etc I don't know what role TRL could play any more.

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I remember that and I remember Carson being so damn confused as to why a NKOTB video had somehow made it onto the countdown and to #1 lol

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do people actually request and vote for music videos?



if not, why even call it TRL?

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Everything about this show is so embarrassing and despite having the 300 person focus group in the building everyday that the MTV president mentions, they clearly haven't consulted a single young person on any of this.

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TRL worked back then because we didn't have access to social media and phones/computers like we do now. I just don't see teenager nowadays actually turning on the television to watch a music television show.



TRL was the highlight of coming home from school in my middle school days tho

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my trl highlight was when Kelly Clarkson had her behind these hazel eyes video out and it got the most #1 days at trl (may have since been broken idk) I was such a crazy stan before I knew what stan was and coming home and watching every day was the best lol



edit-hmmm a quick google says that backstreet boys had the most #1's (which I mean makes more sense) but I VIVIDLY remember the trl host saying that behind these hazel eyes hit most #1 days ever. I choose to live in that reality



Edited at 2018-03-15 12:46 am (UTC)

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The hosts are annoying.

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LinkLoL, OP that GIF is an accurate visual depiction of me willing you into feeling better.

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Edited at 2018-03-15 02:34 am (UTC) <3 <3

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Why is this show only 22 minutes long?! I could watch hours of Alexis and David.



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Stevie and David's storyline was really great last night. It's been a while since we had good friendship scenes with them.

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I LOVED THIS EPISODE SO MUCH. I watched it twice in a row. SO funny with the usual heart. David and Stevie's friendship is everything and David basically acknowledged that he's in luuuurve even if he's upset with Patrick rn. Johnny was hilarious with the Jazzagals.



Dead at "There are only like 10 guys on this app and three of them are Ray."

and then "How did Ray get such a nice bathroom?"





ooh and usually ~quirky waitstaff would annoy me but the waitress was hilarious



Edited at 2018-03-15 02:30 am (UTC)

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We need more Ray, TBH. I was screaming at him doing the photography for the motel ad campaign.

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ooh and usually ~quirky waitstaff would annoy me but the waitress was hilarious



I died when she threw the rose petals lmao

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I loved all the Ray mentions. He's one of my favorite townies.

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I love characters that fit an annoying archetype but actually go outside the box and are amazing.



I feel Alexis would be the type of character who would get pigeonholed but she is probably my 2nd favorite character on the show.



I think the same about Barbara Jean from Reba. She could have been just that whacky kookie neighbor but she was wonderful.

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I think the same about Barbara Jean from Reba. She could have been just that whacky kookie neighbor but she was wonderful.



I honestly think Melissa (who I think is truly underrated - there were days she practically carried Baby Daddy on her lonesome) is a huge reason why Barbara Jean worked as a character. Much like Annie being spectacular being a huge reason why Alexis too is so easily likable and relateable.



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I love David and Stevie's friendship so much <3



LOL I knew that moment was gonna be a gif.



This episode overall was just so good though. An extra thumbs up for no Roland.

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seconded, whenever Roland is not in the episode, the episode is like 1000000x better. Although last week when he dubbed Johnny 'Poor Little Rich Grill' I LAUGHED. Otherwise he is the absolute worst and not funny!

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I have never been a Chris Elliott fan and Roland is just so gross. The less, the better.

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@God i'm so glad Noah dyed his hair back from that tragic Eminem blonde.



that was NAGL.

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it was for hamlet

as soon as the run finished, he went back to natural

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oh thank goodness. someone said it was prob. for a role.



i'm glad that was correct and he wasn't thinking it looked good.

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dapper af. OH AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW HAWT THIS CAST ISdapper af.

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so hawt!



although i'm not sure about David's glasses, but who cares...

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I wouldn't have thought I'd like these glasses but he looks so fantastic in them tbh

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pressed i forgot to apply to volunteer/missed the deadline and couldn't find seatfilling info

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Johnny Galecki looks so tall.

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slay a bit



even tho that silver dress alexis wore in this weeks ep was a choice, annie looked so banging in it

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Moira's confession about her social life to Johnny was so poignant and important. It's the first time she hasn't been oblivious on purpose and has actually spoken about the reality of their living situation. I really liked how Johnny reacted and I love them together. Jazzaguy <3



David and Stevie being bffs was everything, David saying he didn't want Patrick to stop liking him once he found out his background and Stevie consoling him MADE ME TEAR UP. Stevie agreeing to sleep in the bathtub cracked me up. oh my god.



I'm 100% ok with Alexis and Ted not getting together this season. I VERY much want it to happen but I LOVE learning more about Alexis and seeing her navigate on her own and how she's becoming closer with her family.



I CANNOT WAIT FOR SEASON 5, THIS SHOW IS WONDERFUL.

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That Moira/Johnny scene was wonderful.



Stevie agreeing to sleep in the bathtub cracked me up



Her "I understand" got me lol

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Stevie and David eating the bad curry and bonding over the resulting gastrointestinal distress was v relatable. Because one of my best friends in high school and I had a big bonding moment when she slept over at my house and we ate an entire box of Mini Wheats and all that fiber... oh my. It was rough.

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i love David/Stevie together. their friendship is everything. i died at her agreeing to sleeping in the bathtub. lmao.

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this show is my happy place <333

And i can't decide if i want to date or *be* david.

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I love this show so much.





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IT TOOK ME A MIN TO REALIZE THAT WASNT A WEIRD MUPPET STEVIE WAS DRAGGINGO UT OF BED LMFAOOOOO





holy shit-- i legit thought that was a muppet face







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i just finished the BBQ episode. why is my face wet? MY FEELS. 



on to tonight's ep.

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omg. you poor thing.

i've read spoilers and i can tell you things will be ok... hehe.





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oh! Noah Reid's performance was so good! I've actually been listening to his album. it's good!



GIMME MORE DAVID/PATRICK NOW!!!

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Ugh I love this show so much!!! I need episodes and seasons to be longer.



Moira and Johnny swiping through Bumpkin had me in tears. Alexis....just all of Alexis. I love her so much. I also loved when Stevie and David both admitted they've never had best friends before. Oh and I died at them bonding over gastrointestinal issues from the curry. I related too much to that part. Also, special mention goes to Ray...the bathroom and his 3 profiles on Bumpkin (agree with everyone else that there needs to be more Ray). <3 <3 <3



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Link@ us bitch, you're famous for being someone's daughter what else are we supposed to talk about. your "art"?

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the art of her tattoos?

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the good sis is gorgeous, but i mean we already have Miley Cyrus (who tbh, is not).

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mte

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THANK YOU

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roflmao mte

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Dead. Hahahahaha

I think this every time she's on some award show. Like, "SO...your adoptive parent was famous...so now you're suddenly invited to EVERY award show for doing absolutely nothing contributing to the arts?"

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No, she isnt nice enough to go away.

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She annoys me.

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Dear Paris.

You are more than welcome to get the fuck out of social media and the industry. The world won't cry if petite nepotism blonde #2354 decides to leave.



Edited at 2018-03-15 02:43 am (UTC)

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Lmao! Didnt you know shes mixed?! smh

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As if some "celebs" don't put stuff out there just to be talked about.

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Kylie Jenner disappearing for her ENTIRE PREGNANCY really speaks to this.



Fame doesn't just happen, it takes active work to be in the spotlight and if you don't want people talking about you, get the fuck out of the light! Move over and let Speidi in, they'll gladly take your spot.

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Exactly. Think about the A-listers or at least those with A-list name recognition that don't live in L.A. or California at all. And are we really supposed to believe most paps aren't called for certain things? Like those Ben Affleck/Jen Garner Easter church pics from a year or two ago? Celebs and/or their teams know what they're doing. It's all about relevance and how badly some of them want it.

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lol drag us. But who is she referring to with the "pretty well known person talking shit" part? Something recent?

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pretty sure she was talking about Dakota Fanning

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Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for: the answer is really Dakota Fanning

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Dakota knows who her real father is. She was there. Watching from the bushes.

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I'm procrastinating a lot tonight lol. You just inspired me to make this. idk why. Too bad I didn't think of it 10 years ago, it would have been useful back then.I'm procrastinating a lot tonight lol.

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lmao @ this and the what?? replies

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i can't even begin to imagine what she's referring to. probably random almost famous youtuber vs random almost famous youtuber lol

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i mean the daily mail article she refers to is dumb as fuck.



like these 'look at ____ walking down the street' posts are useless.



Edited at 2018-03-15 02:22 am (UTC)

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there's a reason they call it the daily fail

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Somebody has to buy all the boring paparazzi pictures.

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don't do the Hilary Duff walking posts like this

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the shia ones were iconique

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She selflessly sacrificed up her dream of becoming a psychologist to become a socialite for us. We need to appreciate her more.

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Does she realize that rants like this will make people talk about her more

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More than likely she does, lol.

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that's why she does it

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Like whats else there

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probably her goal, as no one was talking about her before, and i'm going to stop now

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sad but true. :(

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but she "barely has a reaction" lol

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boo hoo poor celebs who are making 10x more then a firefighters/emt/school teacher combined booooo hooo



Edited at 2018-03-15 02:26 am (UTC)

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she's such a try hard. sit down somewhere.

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Edited at 2018-03-15 02:27 am (UTC) Lmao k

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lol at this wannabe celebrity

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shes annoying as fuck, but shes also a teenager, so. mehhhh.

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lmao your icon is so good

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Yes drag Ontd! LOL. But somehow i've been gone for like a month and almost don't know how to get back into the spirit of ontd. Like i didn't feel the urge to rush back when i finally had time. Ugh i hate when i no longer love something that i use to love, SAD!

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You'll find your rhythm again.

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Aww thanks.

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LinkDoes he remind anyone else of Antoni from Queer Eye?

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i see it tbh. Maybe if Antoni had a son when he was a baby.

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I totally see it

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how dare you insult Antoni like that

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and brooklyn beckham

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he reminds me of brooklyn beckham tbh lol

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but antoni is cute, and a bland disney way, but still cute

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Totally, and he seems as bland as Antoni too.

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i thought i was the only one that noticed this.

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That's a cute story and so is the gif, Keiynan is so adorbs!! 

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I adore him so much!! :D

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oh ok GOOD i was coming into the post to ask if that was ollie from DA

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Keiynan looks like an IRL, human version of Powerline from the Goofy Movie and I mean this in the most respectful, adoring way haha.

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Oh lawd, is he of age?

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.omg what a cutie

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i would hope so. Ellen brought it up.



i think he had his brother's blessing cause if not....



Edited at 2018-03-15 04:29 am (UTC)

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mte

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I'm sure his bother appreciates your concern

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lmao that's obviously the case. he isn't going to throw his brother under the bus on national tv

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I mean they even had a picture of his brother on the screen behind them, Im 100% positive Nick's brother didn't mind.

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Did you honestly believe he didnt?

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lol really?

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lol of course he did

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I just finished the book; I read it in a day. Excited for the movie!

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so jealous of your fast reading skills

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same!! I read it on sunday and loved it but now all I want to read is more lgbtq ya stuff except most of it is... not good, and the good stuff I've read

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This was the first LGBTQ book Ive read. Do you have any recs?

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Well I can see her point of view. It's hard to get out of the idea that there's "one gay per family"

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That's the rational my brother had about me, I told him I was glad there's a 'one piece of shit per family' theory too

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Do you really consider that blame?

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He's kind of basic lol. But in a cute way. He comes off as a bit shy here.

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why? can you maybe vaguely tell me? can you explain without spoilers? planning on seeing it this weekend.

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I've heard a few people say how unhappy they were with me film. What were the issues with it?

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Was it her boyfriend's family that made you dislike it and the things she had to go through. . . or??? (Haven't seen it but I watched BBC World News where they did a clip Fantastic Woman before it won and she spoke about her life vs her character's.)

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I saw this last night and it was so great, don't think id come out of a movie that happy in a long time. The whole cinema cheered during one point

And lord, keiynan was so hot

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Sure Jan.

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I'm so sick of seeing this potato face.

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I hope its does well. It will be nice to see a light gay film thats got no heavy themes.

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just saw it. loved it!



my only gripe is that they keep on casting these str8 yts as leads. at least the cast is pretty diverse.



also, what city is this supposed to be set in?

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Cincinnati Ohio

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the book was set in Georgia and I believe they shot the film there too

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I'm almost positive they mentioned it's Atlanta Georgia in the film

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it's Atlanta

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You'd think that since Greg Berlanti was producing/helming/wahtevering this film, and his husband was helping out, that they'd look for more LGBT representation aside from Keiynan......but no...

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forgot to add that they did that girl dirty, fifth wheeling ha. get that girl some D. pobrecita, she was thirsty

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who Leah? don't worry about her. she gonna get her own book. Leah on the Offbeat

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EIGHT?



lawd

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I hate watching Ellen interview people, but I sat through it, and that's a nice story. That's way too many siblings though, jfc! I have two sisters and that's plenty on the sibling front, can't imagine seven.



I've liked him since TKoS & am looking forward to seeing this movie, hopefully sometime this weekend.

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That's way too many siblings though, jfc! I have two sisters and that's plenty on the sibling front, can't imagine seven.



same. i'm one of three and that's plenty.



my dad and mom however have 9 other siblings each. too many tios and tias. family reunions in Los Angeles or Mexico are a headache.

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LinkIf anyone is doubting her blackness, that's fucked up.





But let's not pretend that casting Storm as someone the world considers "acceptably" black is a good thing to do.

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Should people really be coming at her for that though?

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Not for that alone, but she's made statements in the past that it's all hunky-dory because Storm is light-skinned anyway, and she (Shipp) passing the paper bag test has had no effect on her career compared to women with more melanin; and she's not taking roles away from darker-skinned actresses, which is... untrue.



Basically refusing to acknowledge that colorism is a thing, for actresses especially, and that she benefits from it.

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She has a point. The critics have a point. Black people cannot win.

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but as a woman of color, you cant tell me that I cant play a woman of color because I dont match the Crayola marker from 1975 when they drew the comic, that makes no sense.









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i'm so sick of this broad. storm is an dark skinned african character my good yellow sis. just because she has white hair and blue eyes doesn't mean that it's uncalled for for fans to expect her to AT LEAST be played by a dark skin black woman if not an african woman (and if not a kenyan woman at that!)



like it's so jarring how tessa, gugu, zendaya, and amandla are basically the only young black women getting routinely cast in major films and then alexandra wants to act brand new when ppl point out how fucked up it is that we're still having this issue

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THIS

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Exactly

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like it's so jarring how tessa, gugu, zendaya, and amandla are basically the only young black women getting routinely cast in major films and then alexandra wants to act brand new when ppl point out how fucked up it is that we're still having this issue



Oh my goodness, yes!

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All of this! People like to act like colorism is a myth. One of the reasons everyone was/is so hyped about BP was that finally dark skinned black women being bamf, wanted and appreciated. They were the typical ugly friend or club goer the main character uses, dismisses, and or singles out to prove a point about how they like their women Nubian and not Egyptian.

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i don't even lmfao storm has always been a dark skinned woman even in newer comics! she just needs to stop being defensive like colorism isn't a thing.

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RIGHT?! LMAO

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CACKLING !!!!!!

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This photo pretty much sums it up. LOL



and I don't know how much she was actually targeted I think the issue is more of the producers and people behind the scenes always cast a biracial woc to play roles for black women.

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SCREAM!!!!!!! my exact face when I read that mess

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Yep. It really would look so much better if she could at least acknowledge this.

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she's not even that light though....

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Unless my computer screen colors are off

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She isn't "light skinned", but she's definitely not dark skinned either. She 100% passes the paper bag test, though

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k

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Letitia is basically the only one I can name :(

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ryan destiny and ashleigh murray are the only two i can think of.

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only ones i can really name were in black panther and karidja toure

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Is Yara considered light skin? I mean, I'm a little darker than her color and I wouldn't consider myself light skin even though she's obviously not as dark as someone like Letitia.

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i don't know her but i like her.

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I hate this.

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She really used a whole lot of words to say absolutely nothing.

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So basically 'fuck darker skinned actresses' got it.

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PRETTY MUCH, kick rocks

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preeeeetty much!

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This is just so fucking sad lmao. Like she really went THERE

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She's not wrong that the studio would just work its way down a list of other girls who look a lot like her but that doesn't absolve her of her choices or how she's responded to this so far.

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I kinda get what she is trying to say. It's not her fault the roles are only being offered to light skinned woman. The way she is saying it tho...

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Lmao I can't believe that even came out of her mouth...

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I'd agree with her critics if they were talking about any other black female character (Shuri or Monica Rambeau for instance) but part of Storm's design is that her features are all over the map.



She's supposed to "have features from every race" but still look distinctly African: have full lips, almond-shaped blue eyes, a thin nose, etc etc...



How do you go about casting that realistically?



Edited at 2018-03-15 02:18 pm (UTC)

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By starting with a dark skinned woman, duh

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Preferably a Kenyan, because Storm is dark-skinned and from Kenya.

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Cast a black woman with crazy cheekbones like the girl on the next page and give her blue contacts. Or maybe even cast a blasian, if she's dark enough.



Wolverine is supposed to be like 5'7 and weigh 300 lbs of muscle. Sometimes you can stray from the unrealistic comic dossiers, as long as you keep their most essential traits.

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She's been working, good for her.

Yeah those are breaks. Own the role, make it you/yours and the chatter will die down. She's right, they would keep going and cast an emma stone and say she's South African.

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When they drew Storm at several points in the 90s, they didn't do it every well. They drew her with European features as if she was Ethiopian, but she's supposed to be from the area where Kenya is. So, that's not great, but I also don't expect artists from the 90s to have the same awareness as newer artists.



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That's how she was drawn in the 70s and 80s too.



Basically a standards white female character but with brown skin and white hair. They justified it by saying she's "a woman of the world" or some BS.



It's really only in the last decade or so that artists have actually been trying to give her African features.



Edited at 2018-03-15 02:34 pm (UTC)

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i noticed that also. throw the whole storm away and start over tbh. i used to love her because of that hair but the features were off, she can still have white hair and not be european beauty standard

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Okay, first of all thats not the issue the issue is casting light skinned black people to play roles and characters who are supposed to be dark skinned. There is already a market for light skinned racially ambiguous black girls recognize how you benefit from colorism and shut up. Im sick of the light-skins acting like theyre being oppressed for people calling them out for this shit.

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Girl, shut the hell up.





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that was really funny. social media is terrible for people's egos.

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Andrew McCabe arrived at the Justice Department this afternoon at about 1PM, he was expected to make a final pitch to senior officials about why he should not be fired just 72 hours before his retirement, WaPo reports. https://t.co/GRXSJGbMJe  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 15, 2018



Trump is such a vindictive psychopath.

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If this happens, no one anywhere should be able to argue that Trump cares about our people in intelligence.



I don't know a lot about McCabe, but he seems like a semi-decent white guy. And the idea of destroying someone's pension o- which I assume is most of his retirement savings - is something a fucking sociopath does.



On top of that - he's retiring because they are fucking pushing him out. Just give the guy a fucking break.

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I don't know much about him either TBH but Trump's viciousness toward him and his wife has been absolutely obscene. Never forget he asked McCabe to ask his wife what being a loser felt like because he didn't think McCabe was displaying loyalty. I would say that surely he wouldn't have him fired but I vividly remember Jr. tweeting when McCabe went on leave that they had fired him which obviously wasn't true but the seed was definitely planted.

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If this happens I hope every intelligence person (or at least the ones with brains) revolt. Shameful and just cruel. He put the years in. Its not his fault that the current admin is like a Meetup group for psycho and sociopaths.

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Firing him 72 hours before retirement is such a dick move.

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aren't there laws against this?

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You mean the dog dying?? I'm surprised the view didn't discuss it actually.



The ny post had pictures of the dead dog in the carrier 

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I don't think we did but I'm just heart sick over that poor little bb. I don't know what I would do if I were the family. It's United so I'm not exactly shocked but it's still incredibly upsetting.

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I think I read somewhere that United has the largest number of pet deaths on their flights. And yesterday, a family relocated to Kansas but United had a mix up and sent their dog to Japan while the family was met with a different dog in Kansas.

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I honestly can't talk or think about what happened without actually feeling sick to my stomach. It makes me so upset.

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Honestly, I'd rather not see that on here. It's so fucking depressing and frustrating.

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D: OMG

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whats even worse is that republicans have already written a bill to regulate airlines so this doesnt happen again



meanwhile kids get criticized for not wanting to be murdered at school.

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I've heard about this, I (unfortunately) saw the photo, and I'm just incensed.



I travel with my dog all the time and if someone tried to get me to put him above in the overhead bin I'd tell them to gtfo. Absolutely not. They can drag my ass off the plane if they need to, or you can get me the fucking captain.



Why did the dog go up there in the first place? Was it being a nuisance? I just don't understand why the FA thought putting it up there was a good idea in the first place.



I hope they drag the FA to hell and back.

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I had never watched anything he was in so I tried watching his Netflix special but I stopped 5mn in due to his transphobic shit

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was it transphobic, or just a joke involving a trans issue?

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Transphobic AF. Joking a million times about how he called Caitlyn by her former name, pretending to be Caitlyn when she was in a male body and that she'd tell her doctor that she had a huge penis etc. It went on and on and on. And don't get me started on the racist shit about him pretending to adopt a kid from Africa and then telling people the kid broke into his house bc he lives in Hampstead...

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So we are finally getting out of this hellhole right? Keep up good work, Mueller. You doing amazing sweetie

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"So we are finally getting out of this hellhole right?"



lolllll no not until 2020 sry babes

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Im just too old for this shit lol. Theyhavetodie.gif

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Focus on taking back Congress because while the GOP control things, no matter what Mueller finds... nothing is gonna happen.

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Nah I wish but no. This doesn't end even if Trump is impeached. Pence is much worse and more competent.

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I caught the part where they talked about Kathie Lee Gifford phoning Weinstein and talking about how people shouldn't be ~fair-weather friends! to people like Weinstein and Cosby rme. Anyways Whoopi was of course quiet for most of that hot topic.



In Mueller news, I really believe Trump will fire him. He already wants to fire Sessions. Nicolle Wallace just played an interview from this past summer with Trump talking to Haberman and he predicted this wouldn't happen with his organization lmao. Surprise, bitch! I love that Trump keeps thinking this investigation will wind down soon and his lawyers have to lie to him about it.



Edited at 2018-03-15 08:25 pm (UTC)

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Rumor is that Trump is gonna fire Sessions so he can make Pruitt the new AG (who won't have to go through a Senate confirmation since he was already confirmed to lead EPA) and then have Pruitt fire Mueller.



Which... dude, THAT IS NOT HOW AN INNOCENT MAN BEHAVES.

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Pruitt is one of the most toxic cabinet members. I can't imagine the damage he would make as AG. But then again, Sessions is the antichrist. Where is the 'none of the above' option? :(

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Then why would Pompeo need to go through a confirmation hearing?

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kathie lee is a christian woman, so she'll forgive it all.

She took her husband back, after all.

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Sen. Marco Rubio floats a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent https://t.co/inV2UuunLl pic.twitter.com/Q0881fwf5D  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 15, 2018





probably the only good thing hell ever do besides resigning and living the rest of his days in a swamp cave. probably the only good thing hell ever do besides resigning and living the rest of his days in a swamp cave.

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I agree with Marco Rubio on a topic and now I feel dirty.

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Ugh me too.



He's the Jonah Ryan of our timeline.

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I very reluctantly support this, dammit.

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lol what is his reason for doing this?

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please come through on JUST THIS ONE THING EVER marco

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I support this. not him though.

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DST is the worst fucking thing and now I feel even more righteous about it

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That's a hell of a thing to tack onto this post, lol

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Carson and Sessions are possibly on the chopping block too. I know that none of that is shocking but it's really unsettling that he'd turn on Kelly so quickly after giving him full control.



The purge at the top may not be over. NYT reports Trump appears to have soured on additional senior members of his teamand his frequent mulling about making changes has some people around him convinced that he could act soon, possibly as early as Friday. https://t.co/QlMCeZOGzE  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 15, 2018



Kelly and McMaster are the ones most likely to be fired tomorrow according to this article.Carson and Sessions are possibly on the chopping block too. I know that none of that is shocking but it's really unsettling that he'd turn on Kelly so quickly after giving him full control.

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This White House has a higher turnover rate than a call center. omg.

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I don't think people who've never worked for a call centre realise how funny and true this comment is!

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Isn't McMaster sort of writing his own way out already? (And not in a catchy Hamilton kind of way.) If it is those two, I don't think anyone would be surprised. Kelly's been pissing Tr*mp off for awhile now.

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i wanna say i dont think hell be reelected but i also thought he had no chance of winning so lemme scale it back even if dems wins 70+ house seats and take the senate back.

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I'm kinda hoping that there's a major twist and someone we dont expect flat out snitches on Trump and everyone involved including russian spies andmajor gop resulting in the witness being put in witsec its so outrageous lol



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C'mon Ivanka! You can be the twist we always wanted



(and save your husband's ass)

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Democrats did absolutely nothing about the former Bush administration or the people who caused the financial crash, so I don't expect much other than impeachment. And I'm not sure they'll even follow through on that.



Edited at 2018-03-15 09:47 pm (UTC)

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OT, but is anyone else starting to feel like the words "raises concerns" regarding any illegality from this administration are essentially the same effectiveness as "thoughts and prayers"?

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man i hate RG.

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Semi ot but I don't know where to talk about that russian double-agent killed in London. I feel like I'm on an episode of the Americans tbh. This is some cold war stuff.



Also, how can Trump fire so many people ? oO

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Do you know if they've determined whether or not the guy found on Monday had been murdered? I was truly shook when I read that they determined it was Russia behind the poisoning of the other man and his daughter (and a police officer in critical condition) because the poison they used could only possibly me made in Moscow. Like, they aren't even trying to hide this shit.

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lmao Putin doesn't give a shit. He's just playing a game of chicken with the entire world, blatantly doing shit like this and daring other governments to do something about it.

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They are keeping it vague on purpose I believe. There's no confirmation for his death which is weird but in the gigantic chess game that is being played, it makes sense for London to not confirm the death/murder for now. He's been poisonned, they keep saying that again and again.

Moscow is being a troll rn saying they are the victims and not liking being given ultimatums. The tone is quickly going from 'amused' to a menacing one. I'm not sure where this is going but it really does feel like the cold war.

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I wasn't shocked. After Alexander Litvinenko (which DID shock me), nothing really shocks me about Russia anymore.

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It's really scary tbh. It's obvious putin is hiding some majorly dirty shit by killing ppl off. And to think the first 1 or 2 Russians mysteriously falling off a balcony or whatever didn't alarm anyone too much but now it's obvious some major shit is going on. I don't even know what to think anymore.

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lmao vanessa officially filed



snitch girl snitch!!

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i just want to thank all of you for your support during these timeshttps://t.co/SwkSxnCdcU  Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) March 15, 2018



every photo of don jr looks like he just learned how to stand that day pic.twitter.com/dWPX2XRfYT  Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) March 15, 2018





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he's so repulsive

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The Enhanced Interrogation Program saved lives, prevented attacks, & produced intel that led to Osama bin Laden. The techniques were the same as those used on our own people in the SERE program. No one should slander the brave men & women who carried out this crucial program. https://t.co/IXQuldr1R6  Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 13, 2018



I can't believe Liz Cheney tried to torture-splain McCain.

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Good for ha! on a side note... my one favorite jlo moment:

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yikes

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Didn't Cartman give a handjob to Ben Affleck in this episode too?

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what a terrible first post

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You thought this was appropriate and/or funny?

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Fuck off.

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now girl.....

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trash

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Here's some more attention you're desperate for.



Whats it like being a pathetic, stereotypical white gay?

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kind of related.... i have a meeting with my work's health & safety committee in a few weeks wrt sexual harassment in the workplace since they never address patrons harassing staff. basically, i'm going to be recounting my own experiences and those of others and how poorly they've been handled. i know it's going to piss a few managers off and i'm a bit worried at this point but fuck it, fuck them i deserve to feel safe and supported in my workplace.

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were you the one who worked in the theater and was asking for advice about this earlier or was that some other user?? anyways good luck! you are doing the right thing, no one should be forced to tolerate that kind of behavior

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yes that was me (omg thank you for remembering)! thank you! it's rare the harassment gets really bad but the fact i've just put up with it for almost six years because my manager won't do anything is stupid. i should have spoke out a long time ago. when he told me to just ignore the man who put his hand up my skirt that should have been what started this.

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Good luck and be proud that you are using your voice and it could really help others too.

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I support you all the way! Hugs and luck! Let us know how it goes.

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When you recount what happen, avoid characterizations and stick to specific actions. i.e. instead of "he was skeptical that it had happened" say "he kept asking me 'are you sure?' 'are you sure?'". It's much harder to deny your story that way and it's much harder for those managers to discredit you. Good luck!

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Good luck!

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I think it's great when woman share their stories of saying NO and facing no consequences...but I wish they would also acknowledge that they understand why women feel the CANT say no, and how more often than not women face consequences for standing their ground. instead of just...acting like because you grew up in the Bronx that is what actually made the difference here.

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Exactly. Her statement here rubs me the wrong way.

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I agree. I appreciate that she was able to stand her ground and its admirable but its not always that easy. This isn't really directed at her specifically but in general when celebs are sharing stories.

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Is she talking about Oliver Stone?

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I mean, it's great she stood up for herself but I don't like the way this is worded, especially the "but did I do It? No." part. I get that this probably isn't how she means it but it reads like she's saying that if everyone was brave enough to stand up to their assailants then this wouldn't happen.

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it sounds patronizing to women who couldn't say no, that's how it reads. I doubt she meant it that way, but the entire way this is worded, at multiple levels, is not good.

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She says it could have gone either way. She acknowledges that it was terrifying to even try standing up for herself. I dont really think shes saying what youre reading into it.

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I don't think that's what she's saying either tbh. I think we're all just so used to women being blamed for men's actions that I at least always feel like I'm on high alert, waiting for someone to victim blame assault victims for not doing enough to get away from the situation.

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that's funny because i didn't initially read it that way at all. but i guess this is one of those instances where tone makes the difference.



didn't like the 'from the bronx' thing though rme.

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no, you are wrong

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y'all are so exhausting. Now Jenny's unsupportive of other women in similar situations because of her thought process and how she handled it in the moment herself? *eyeroll* Y'all are never satisfied.

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It's exhausting when people like you complain about opinions that differ from your own. People take things differently. This is essentially a forum, you know.

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It never stops being depressing with every new story. The industry is so fucked up.



On a light note, I used to go to the same dermatologist center as her in Miami (but with one of the junior doctors) and I pray to the Taino gods that I age as well as she has.

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LinkDrought Declaration Signed for Klamath County, Oregon

Gov. Kate Brown's news release said at the end of February, the snow-water equivalent in Klamath County was 40 percent of a normal water year, and forecasted water conditions are not expected to improve. Drought, severe weather conditions, and the upcoming fire season are significant threats to the local economy, agriculture and livestock, natural resources, and recreation in the county.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown visited Klamath Falls on March 13 to sign an executive order declaring a drought in Klamath County and directed state agencies to coordinate and prioritize assistance to the region. She met with Klamath County officials, tribal members, and water users to discuss options for immediate drought relief, and while Brown committed the state to a locally supported, comprehensive resolution of conflicts over water and land in the Klamath Basin, she asked federal officials to commit to this, as well.

"We know 2018 is shaping up to be a very difficult year for the Klamath Basin, and we're closely monitoring drought conditions here and statewide," she said. "I am committed to doing everything possible to make state resources available to provide immediate relief and assistance to water users throughout Klamath County. As we brace for another record-breaking drought year, collaborating with our federal partners will also be critical as we work towards locally supported, long-term solutions."

Her office's news release said at the end of February, the snow-water equivalent in Klamath County was 40 percent of a normal water year, and forecasted water conditions are not expected to improve. As a result, drought, severe weather conditions, and the upcoming fire season are significant threats to the local economy, agriculture and livestock, natural resources, and recreation in the county.

Her declaration makes available several drought-related emergency tools for water users, including assistance to local water users, and allows the Water Resources Department to expedite review processes and reduce fee schedules. Declarations are intended to be short-term emergency authorizations to address water supply challenges.

The release said a request for federal assistance has been made and is supported by members of Oregon's congressional delegation. Interior Department Deputy Commissioner of Reclamation Alan Mikkelsen attended the meeting and committed federal assistance to the Klamath Basin, it said.

On Feb. 20, the Klamath County Commission had declared a drought emergency due to low snowpack, low precipitation, low streamflows, and warmer-than-normal temperature, asking for a state drought declaration. State officials subsequently met and the Oregon Drought Readiness Council recommended that the governor's drought declaration will provide a critical tool to confront current water conditions and future climate forecasts.Six Dead in Bridge Collapse at FIU

A new pedestrian bridge under construction near the campus of Florida International University collapsed Thursday, crushing eight cars underneath the concrete slabs.

[UPDATED March 16 at 10:50 a.m.]

A new pedestrian bridge under construction near the campus of Florida International University collapsed Thursday, crushing eight cars underneath the concrete slabs. The Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed to NBC Miami on Friday that six people have died.

"This has turned into from a rescue to a recovery operation," Det. Alvaro Zabaleta said.

According to NBC Miami, 10 people were taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center from the site of the bridge collapse, and two of them were in critical condition when they arrived. One person died at the hospital, but it is not clear if it was one of the 10 taken there.

The cause of the bridge collapse has not yet been determined. A team of investigators was sent to the site by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The bridge was lifted off its temporary support and placed in its permanent position above a seven-lane road on Saturday, NBC news reported. According to Florida senator Marco Rubio, the cables used to suspend the bridge had loosened and the engineering firm had ordered they be tightened.

"They were being tightened when it collapsed today," Rubio said.

The bridge, which cost $14.2 million, was constructed using a method called accelerated bridge construction, meant to reduce potential risks to workers, commuters, and pedestrians as well as prevent traffic problems in the area, CBSN reported. It was scheduled to open in early 2019.Beijing is mapping out specific tactics to lure Taiwan into its orbit and possibly pave the way for forcible seizure of the self-ruled island, although there is no timetable for such a drastic move, according to a senior mainland Taiwan affairs adviser.

Li Yihu, dean of Peking Universitys Taiwan Studies Institute, said Beijing was reinforcing its carrot and stick approach to dealing with Taiwans independence forces after passing historic constitutional amendments on Sunday to remove presidential term limits on the mainland.

Beijing has been using economic sweeteners or carrots such as offers of better paying jobs, access to bigger markets and equal treatment to lure Taiwanese to the mainland.

Taipei faces brain drain as Beijing dangles equal status offers

Analysts have cautioned that if the sweeteners fail to work, the mainland could bring down its stick  moving to forcibly seize the wayward island.

Li said that although he doubted that Xi had set a timetable for a Taiwan takeover, the Taiwan issue would remain prominent on the leaders agenda.

Cross-strait unification is more urgent when the mainlands economic power is rising, Li said. Beijings involvement in the Taiwan issue has strengthened in tandem with the mainlands growth.

Resolving the Taiwan problem is seen as a major step in achieving Xis goal of national rejuvenation.

Li said that as a result the mainland was turning Xis Taiwan-related strategies into detailed tactics in various areas  including the economy, politics, the military, culture, society and even the judicial sector  with some already being implemented.

The moves come on the heels of the Beijing-based Taiwan Affairs Offices February announcement of 31 policies smoothing the way for greater Taiwan-mainland integration, including 12 measures related to business and 19 to social and employment issues.

Story continues

Unlike the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed between Beijing and Taipei in 2010 that lowered tariffs for Taiwanese businesses, the new measures were intended to put Taiwanese companies and residents on an equal footing with their mainland-based counterparts.

Li said Beijing had also looked into ways to deal with tactical-level challenges from the islands independence forces.

Analysts have speculated that a vote by the mainlands legislature to repeal presidential term limits, allowing the president to stay on past 2023, will empower Xi to take a tougher approach to Taiwan by forcibly taking back the island.

Resolving the Taiwan dilemma would also clear the decks for the 2020 launch of Xis push to build China into a leading innovation nation via the two 15-year plans.

Beijing plans to spend the first 15 years of this two-part undertaking transforming China into a top innovation nation. By 2035 it is to have a large middle-income population and a narrowed wealth gap.

The government is to spend another 15 years driving Chinas evolution into a pioneering global influence by 2050.

Huang Zhixian, chairman and Communist Party chief of the All-China Federation Of Taiwan Compatriots, a civilian group that focuses on Taiwanese living on the mainland, said Beijing would prefer to use peaceful means to reunify Taiwan.

As part of the federations effort to help Beijing engage the Taiwanese public, it would invite ordinary people from southern Taiwan, the power base of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, to take part in various mainland social and cultural exchanges, Huang said.

Some 70 per cent of the islands grass roots had never visited the mainland, he said.

General Han Weiguo, a Peoples Liberation Army ground force chief who spent more than 30 years stationed in Fujian province, across the Taiwan Strait from the island, said the PLA hoped Taiwans problem could be solved peacefully, as soon as possible.

Taiwan should be unified, not by force, but peaceful means, Han said on the sidelines of the National Peoples Congress in Beijing. But that doesnt mean the problem could be postponed indefinitely. It should be solved as quickly as possible.

Taipei needed to appreciate the urgency of resolving the issue, Han said.

Taipei-based political commentator Wang Hsing-ching  better known by his pseudonym, Nan Fangshuo  said the mainlands recently announced 31 integration measures would deal the islands independence-leaning forces a setback.

Beijings economic power is now so powerful in the international community, he said. Its a fact that Tsais administration couldnt do anything due to its weakness, causing more and more Taiwanese talent to seek better job opportunities on the mainland.

The commentator said he also feared Beijings sweeteners would siphon away the DPPs political leaders and grass-roots supporters.

This article Is Beijing planning to take Taiwan back ... by force? first appeared on South China Morning Post

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More from South China Morning Post:A Japanese court on Thursday ordered the government to pay one million dollars in new damages over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, ruling it should have predicted and avoided the meltdown. The Kyoto district court ordered the government and power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to pay 110 million yen in damages to 110 local residents who had to leave the Fukushima region, a court official and local media said. Thursday's verdict was the third time the government has been ruled liable for the meltdown in eastern Japan, the world's most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. In October, a court in Fukushima city ruled that both the government and TEPCO were responsible, following a similar ruling in March in the eastern city of Maebashi. However, another court, in Chiba near Tokyo, ruled in September that only the operator was liable. On Thursday, presiding judge Nobuyoshi Asami ordered that 110 plaintiffs who saw their lives ruined and their property destroyed by the disaster be awarded compensation, Jiji Press and other media reported. Contacted by AFP, a court spokesman confirmed the reports, adding that the ruling denied damages to several dozen additional plaintiffs. "That damages for 64 people were not recognised was unexpected and regrettable," a lawyer for the plaintiffs said, adding that they would appeal, according to public broadcaster NHK. Around 12,000 people who fled after the disaster due to radiation fears have filed various lawsuits against the government and TEPCO. Cases have revolved around whether the government and TEPCO, both of whom are responsible for disaster prevention measures, could have foreseen the scale of the tsunami and subsequent meltdown. Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed seeking compensation from the government. In June, former TEPCO executives went on trial in the only criminal case in connection with the disaster. The hearing is continuing. Triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami overwhelmed reactor cooling systems, sending three into meltdown and sending radiation over a large area.Coconut vendor Romnick Relos and his two siblings

MANILA, Philippines  Coconut vendor Romnick Relos and his two siblings are still under the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

But CDIG -Detection and Special Operations Unit (CIDG-DSOU) chief Police Superintendent Richard Verceles said the brothers might be sent to Masbate anytime soon due to murder charges .

The procedure is, we will be returning him to the court concerned but we are not sure when because we are considering their security situation, said Verceles.

The Relos siblings have to return to a court in Masbate to face murder charges in connection with the stabbing and killing of their neighbor Junie Olete in 2007.

However, Verceles said that Relos filed complaints against three personnel of the Metropolitan Manila and Development Authority (MMDA) for beating him.

The coconut vendor filed physical injuries and threat charges against Victor Jimenez, Jonathan Prebente, and Leonard Mojica.

MMDA had previously suspended its men who hurt Relos.

The case is docketed under file in Pasay prosecutors office under case number XV-13-INV-18-00436. He was assisted by lawyer from Public Attorneys Office, said the unit chief.  Lea Ylagan | UNTV News & Rescue

The post Formal charges filed against 3 MMDA men for mauling buko vendor appeared first on UNTV News.Three European tourists were banished from the Incan citadel Machu Picchu in Peru after taking photos of themselves exposing their backsides, police said Wednesday. The visitors -- a 21-year-old from Germany, a 24-year-old from Switzerland and a 26-year-old from the Netherlands -- were expelled from the site on Tuesday, according to authorities. "The three tourists dropped their pants to show their buttocks and took photos," police official Martin Flores told AFP. "That is not allowed ... in accordance with internal rules in place there, the three tourists were expelled, but they were not detained." Peruvian authorities consider undressing at Machu Picchu disrespectful. The majestic 15th century stone citadel -- the jewel in Peru's tourism industry -- is located 74 kilometers (45 miles) from Cusco, former capital of the Incan Empire, in southeastern Peru. Built on the top of a mountain, it blends into surrounding thick foliage. In June 2014 Peru's culture ministry reiterated that nudity is banned after a wave of visitors snapping offensive pictures. Spanish colonizers never knew of Machu Picchu, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1983. It was discovered in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham.Self-driving cars. Internet-connected homes. Smart cities. Innovations like these are expected to reshape the technology industry and society at largebut none will take off without stronger wireless infrastructure, known as 5G.

The fifth-generation mobile network will vastly expand the speed and volume of data that can be shared wirelessly, bringing the world closer to the autonomous age and generating enormous wealth and power for the companies that supply the equipment.

That's what made the Trump administration and other federal agencies so skittish about a hostile takeover of Qualcomm by Singapore-based Broadcomleading to the White House's unprecedented move Monday to block the proposed $117-billion deal because of national security concerns.

Qualcomm, the Trump administration argues, is needed to boost America's lead in 5G research and development. Should the San Diego chipmaker fall behind, Chinese manufacturers could fill the void in U.S. and global markets.

That would be a blow for U.S. innovation, as the mass market could be beholden to foreign hardware. Worse, Beijing could have an advantage in discovering vulnerabilities in the technology that it could turn into so-called backdoors used for spying.

"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," said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, a panel of federal agencies charged with scrutinizing foreign deals that raised major concerns about Broadcom's bid.

What makes the introduction of 5G so sensitive is that its chips will be included in anything that requires access to the internet. That makes it a bigger source of risk than software. The discovery of security flaws called Spectre and Meltdown this year affected virtually all computers because of the ubiquity of the compromised chips made by Intel, AMD and Arm.

Once adopted, 5G stands to revolutionize communications. If 4G's breakthrough was enabling people to stream high-definition video on handheld devices, then 5G might be remembered for ushering in an age when we can power the most intricate technologies like drones, robots and city grids from devices we carry in our pockets.

The new standard is 10 times faster than 4G and is expected to make buffering video a thing of the past. Its connectivity is also superior, resulting in less aggravation for people seeking a cell signal.

A rollout of 5G probably won't gain momentum until next year, though providers have recently been teasing the technology. Samsung and Intel showcased the new standard at last month's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. (The technology was used to direct a fleet of 1,200 LED-affixed drones that put on a light show during the opening ceremony.)

Whether any Chinese telecommunications companies will get to wow U.S. audiences remains to be seen. Tensions are rising between Washington and Beijing over trade and protection of intellectual property rights.

Though some Chinese firms have made inroads in Europe, they have failed to gain traction in the U.S. because of national security concerns. A bill was even introduced in Congress that would ban the U.S. government from doing business with two of China's market leaders, Huawei and ZTE.

ZTE was fined $1.19 billion by the U.S. Department of Commerce a year ago after pleading guilty to breaching sanctions by selling equipment to Iran and North Korea. Huawei, meanwhile, has been hitting roadblocks in the U.S. for years, most recently with American cell carriers that refuse to sell its phones.

Huawei and ZTE say they are independent of the Chinese government. But Chinese companies, particularly those in strategically important sectors like telecommunications, have to work closely with Chinese authorities because they also supply equipment to China's mobile network. Those close ties have raised red flags given China's history of corporate espionage.

Last month, U.S. lawmakers and spy chiefs warned a Senate hearing that China was trying to steal U.S. technology and intellectual property through contact with universities, business joint ventures and telecommunications firms such as Huawei and ZTE.

"The reality is that the Chinese have turned more and more to more creative avenues using nontraditional collectors," FBI Director Christopher Wray told the panel.

Still, some analysts say the threat posed by the Qualcomm takeover bid, which would have been the biggest-ever tech acquisition, has been overstatedsuggesting Monday's executive order was driven by protectionism, one of Trump's signature campaign platforms, as much as it was by national security.

A chief point of disagreement is the assertion by CFIUS that Broadcom wasn't interested in long-term investment in 5G.

"The narrative that Broadcom was not investing in (research and development) is a gross oversimplification," said Mark Hung, an analyst for Gartner. "They've been very diligent in terms of investing in technology and products that have profitable commercial applications. 5G fits that bill. To say it would acquire Qualcomm and not invest in 5G is ludicrous."

Broadcom was in the process of redomiciling to San Jose when the deal was shot downa move that would have made it an American company again (it was founded in Westwood) and free of CFIUS' jurisdiction. The company also pledged it would continue Qualcomm's investment in 5G if the deal went through. It also promised a $1.5-billion fund to train U.S. engineers with the goal of making the country the leading innovator in wireless technology.

Qualcomm isn't the only U.S. company that can be counted on to advance 5G technology. Its much larger rival Intel is also working on 5G chips, though it's playing catch-up to Qualcomm, which has focused on mobile equipment longer. Qualcomm chips can be found in most leading Android phones and many iPhones.

Patent filings loosely suggest Chinese brands are working just as hard, if not harder.

The most recent statistics available through the World Intellectual Property Organization show ZTE led the world in patent applications in 2016 with 4,123, a 91 percent increase from the year before. Huawei was second with 3,692 applications and Qualcomm was third with 2,466.

A massive effort is needed to upgrade the world's wireless network to 5G, which will be a global standard. That's unlike its predecessors, which often varied from country to country. That means all 5G devices will be able to communicate with one another seamlessly. The standard is set by an international body called 3GPP.

"It will eventually be a game-changer," Hung of Gartner said of 5G. "But the amount of investment required means it won't happen overnight. It will take many years of development in infrastructure."

Explore further Broadcom withdraws Qualcomm offer after Trump blocks bid

2018 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Vultures feasting. Credit: Raptors Botswana

A third of all vultures caught and tested in the Botswana study showed elevated levels of lead in their blood, most likely due to ingesting lead bullet-contaminated flesh. Hunters' bullets shatter inside their prey and can then be absorbed into the blood stream of the vultures when they feed on these animals or their remains. This ingested lead is highly toxic to birds.

"We were all shocked by how widespread lead poisoning was for this population and just how clearly these elevated levels were associated with recreational hunting activity", said Dr Arjun Amar, Associate Professor from the University of Cape Town's FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, who supervised the research.

The study, published this week in the international journal Science of the Total Environment, is based on tests of nearly 600 critically endangered African White-backed Vultures. Higher lead levels were found in the blood of vultures in the hunting season and in hunting areas, suggesting that the source of the lead in their blood stream was lead bullets used for hunting.

"The only logical explanation for the patterns of lead poisoning we observed is if lead bullets were the source of this contamination" said the study's lead author Beckie Garbett, who conducted the research as part of her PhD.

The four-year study was conducted jointly with Raptors Botswana, a conservation NGO. It has prompted a call for a national ban on lead bullets in the hope of minimising negative impacts on vulture populations, which are declining throughout Africa. Previous vulture studies linked declines in several species across the continent to mass poisoning, usually by farmers trying to kill other predators, or poachers deliberately trying to kill vultures for fear they might give away their location.

Vultures eating on a carcass. Credit: Beckie Garbett

Researchers believe alternative non-lead ammunition, already adopted in some countries, could provide a helping hand to vultures. "Whilst lead poisoning may not be the main driver for the declines in vultures across Africa, it is something that can be tackled more easily through simple legislation, as compared to stopping the illegal actions of livestock owners or poachers" Amar said.

Lead poisoning was one of the main reasons for the near extinction of the Californian Condor and is known to increase mortality and reduce breeding performance in birds. Thus, shattered fragments of bullets left in the carcasses of big game animals on the African savannahs could also be accelerating the decline of vultures.

The latest research also suggests that the 2014 ban on hunting on government owned land in Botswana has had no effect on the lead levels in vultures. Lead levels in vultures actually increased after the ban, and the researchers believe vultures may have shifted their foraging to private game farms where hunting is still allowed: "Hunting may have become more concentrated after the ban and this might explain the increase in lead levels in vultures following the ban, since the vultures may have tapped more into this food supply. We also need to consider that because vultures range so widely, they are exposed to lead use throughout the region, therefore mitigation of this issue needs to be addressed at a regional level" Garbett said.

Vulture resting on a post. Credit: Beckie Garbett

The authors of the study have called for greater awareness among policy makers of the threat that lead ammunition may pose to vultures. The Convention for Migratory Species (CMS) has also urged all signature countries to phase out the use of lead ammunition. Whilst Botswana is one of the few countries yet to sign the convention, the authors urge policymakers there to implement this call. "To do so is particularly important for species like vultures that range widely across international borders," the study said.

Explore further 87 endangered vultures poisoned by poachers in Mozambique

More information: Rebecca Garbett, Glyn Maude, Pete Hancock, David Kenny, Richard Reading & Arjun Amar. Association between hunting and elevated blood lead levels in the critically endangered African white-backed vulture Gyps africanus. Science of the Total Environment, 2018. Journal information: Science of the Total Environment Rebecca Garbett, Glyn Maude, Pete Hancock, David Kenny, Richard Reading & Arjun Amar. Association between hunting and elevated blood lead levels in the critically endangered African white-backed vulture Gyps africanus., 2018.

Provided by University of Cape TownCredit: University of Queensland

Researchers have shown why a fragment of a protein from the venom gland of rattlesnakes could be the basis for an alternative to conventional antibiotics.

The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) was part of an international study that investigated how a part of the crotalidicin peptide kills bacteria, without impacting healthy cells.

IMB's Dr. Sonia Troeira Henriques said the research was significant due to the increase in drug-resistant strains of bacteria, and the scarcity of conventional antibiotics in development.

"This is an example of taking what nature has given us and trying to understand how it works, so we can modify it to be more potent, more stable or more drug-like, to use as an alternative to what we have in our pharmacy now."

The research showed the peptide fragment targets the surface of the bacteria through electrostatic attractions, caused by differences in membrane properties.

"The peptide is positive while the bacteria is negative, allowing it to kill the bacteria by inserting and disrupting the membrane," Dr. Henriques said.

"Because the cells in the body hosting the infection are neutral, they are not disrupted."

The project was led by Professor David Andreu from Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, who previously found the fragment retained the antimicrobial potency of the full peptide, but was less toxic to other cells.

Dr. Henriques said the research was conducted on bacteria strains including those causing serious hospital-acquired infections.

"These are usually difficult to target because they have an extra membrane and are often camouflaged by a capsule or slime layer."

IMB scientists joined counterparts from Spain, Portugal and Brazil on a Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) program funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 framework.

The program enabled mobility and knowledge transfer between institutions, with Professor David Andreu spending six months with Dr. Henriques and Professor David Craik at IMB in Brisbane.

Dr. Henriques is now exploring other peptides produced by nature for potential use as antimicrobial or cancer targeting drugs, with a particular focus on melanoma and breast cancer.

The study is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Explore further Spider peptides battle superbugs and cancer

More information: Clara Perez-Peinado et al. Mechanisms of bacterial membrane permeabilization by crotalicidin (Ctn) and its fragment Ctn(1534), antimicrobial peptides from rattlesnake venom, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2017). Journal information: Journal of Biological Chemistry Clara Perez-Peinado et al. Mechanisms of bacterial membrane permeabilization by crotalicidin (Ctn) and its fragment Ctn(1534), antimicrobial peptides from rattlesnake venom,(2017). DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA117.000125A figure from the study maps pollution data from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center and calculates life years saved using the AQLI methodology. Credit: Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago

As China marks its four-year anniversary of declaring "war against pollution," a new analysis using data from more than 200 government monitors throughout the country finds air pollution has decreased across the board in China's most populated areas. Cities on average have cut concentrations of fine particulateswidely considered the deadliest form of air pollutionby 32 percent in just four years.

"The data is inChina is winning its war against pollution," said Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Professor in Economics and director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, who conducted the analysis. "By winning this war, China is due to see dramatic improvements in the overall health of its people, including longer lifespans, if these improvements are sustained."

The most populated cities saw some of the greatest declines: Beijing cut air pollution by 35 percent; Shijiazhuang, the Hebei Province's capital city, cut pollution by 39 percent; and Baoding, China's most polluted city as of 2015, cut pollution by 38 percent. If China sustains these reductions, Greenstone finds that residents would see their lifespans extended by 2.4 years on average. The roughly 20 million residents in Beijing would live 3.3 years longer, while those in Shijiazhuang and Baoding would add 5.3 years and 4.5 years onto their lives, respectively. These improvements in life expectancy would be experienced by people of all ages, not just the young and old.

The analysis is the first in a series highlighting pollution challenges and improvements globally, drawing from the method underlying the Air Quality Life Index, which EPIC introduced last year and plans to fully release in the coming months. The Air Quality Life Index shows the potential gain in life expectancy communities could see if their pollution concentrations are brought into compliance with World Health Organization or national standards. It is based on two studies conducted by Greenstone and co-authors that convert concentrations of fine particulates (PM2.5) into their impact on lifespans.

Notably, while China has seen a marked improvement in air pollution, their levels still exceed these global and national standards, as the AQLI shows. Bringing the entire country into compliance with its own standards would increase average life expectancies by another 1.7 years, in the areas where data is available. Complying with WHO standards instead would yield 4.1 years.

"China has taken aggressive, and in some cases extraordinary, measures to reduce its pollution in a relatively short time spanfrom prohibiting new coal-fired power plants in the most polluted regions to physically removing the coal boilers used for winter heating from many homes and businesses," Greenstone said. "This approach, which has relied heavily on requiring specific actions as opposed to more efficient market-based mechanisms, has imposed its share of costs on the Chinese economy. There is a great opportunity to facilitate the urgent need for continued rapid economic growth and achieve further reductions in pollution by embracing market-based approaches to regulation, like pollution taxes and cap-and-trade markets for pollution."

More information: White Paper: AQLI Update: Is China Winning its War on Pollution? White Paper: AQLI Update: Is China Winning its War on Pollution? epic.uchicago.edu/research/pub  ng-its-war-pollutionThe rising influence of the gun lobby in Australia may have extended the prospects of duck season continuing for the foreseeable future. Credit: shutterstock

On March 17, the 2018 duck shooting session will open in Victoria. The first shots were fired in Tasmania and South Australia last weekend. The Northern Territory allows certain types of bird shooting later in the year. Duck shooting is prohibited in the rest of Australia.

States and territories have jurisdiction over duck shooting. In Victoria a new raft of regulations has been introduced to try to limit the damage to the state's wetlands. One change of note in Victoria is that this year the Blue-winged Shoveler cannot be legally shot due to the low numbers of the species.

Other new regulations require that hunters recover the birds they shoot. This rule serves to formalise what Victoria's Game Management Authority (GMA) refers to as "standard practice for responsible hunters".

However, in most other respects Victoria's 2018 duck season will look almost indistinguishable from previous years. It will still be three months long, with a "bag limit" of ten birds per person per day.

In Tasmania, authorities postponed the shooting start time in 2018, among a raft of other minor amendments.

In fact, the various states regularly make minor changes to the rules. Hundreds of minor adjustments have been made over many decades. While these changes may seem significant, from a broad socio-legal perspective they do little to challenge the status quo.

Playing by the rules?

A GMA-commissioned review by Pegasus Economics last year documented regular instances of duck shooters behaving irresponsibly. The independent report concluded that "non-compliance with hunting laws is commonplace and widespread".

The ABC has aired allegations that unsustainable hunting is on the rise and that regulators feel unable to enforce the rules. It revealed pits containing around 200 unrecovered shot birds from the 2017 opening weekend at Victoria's Koorangie State Game Reserve alone.

Activists interviewed in the report claimed to have brought out 1,500 dead birds from the wetlands. Of these, 296 were protected species, including 68 endangered Freckled Ducks.

In my book Animals, Equality and Democracy, I argue that there is a generalised tendency for animal welfare laws to be more effective for socially visible animals. Laws that govern the welfare of zoo animals have improved much more quickly, for example, than those that cover animal welfare in factory farms.

The Blue-winged Shoveler has been added to the protected list in Victoria this year for the first time. Credit: Flickr CC

Duck shooting is not a highly visible cause of animal harm. Relatively few people live near the wetlands where shooting takes place. But animal advocates have been effective in making it visible, despite laws that limit their ability to do so.

Elaborate events such as Duck Lake, in which animal activists performed their own version of Swan Lake on the opening morning of the 2016 Tasmanian duck shooting season, help generate media attention.

In 2017, long-time Victorian anti-duck-shooting campaigner Laurie Levy from the Coalition Against Duck Shooting was once again fined for entering the water to help an injured bird. While such activities go some way in generating public visibility, they have thus far not been able to stop duck shooting outright.

The gun lobby's growing influence in Australia

At present, only 28,000 Australians are registered duck shooters. According to 2012 Australia Institute analysis, 87% of Australians support a ban on duck shooting. There is mounting evidence that endangered and non-game species are also being killed.

Before being re-elected at this month's Tasmanian state election, the Liberal state government promised to soften the state's gun laws. It also committed to "always protect the right of Tasmanians to safely and responsibly go recreational shooting".

In Victoria the picture is a little more complex. A 2016 report asserted that most members of the state's Labor Party oppose duck shooting and that the Andrews government's continued support may cost it votes.

Indeed, despite the pressure from within the ALP, the daily bag limit for the 2018 season is ten, compared with just four in 2016.

'Industry capture' reinvigorating duck shooting

The Pegasus Economics review identifies "industry capture" as a significant factor in the continuation of duck hunting. Industry capture refers to a situation in which industry has a disproportionately close and influential relationship with policymakers compared with other relevant stakeholders.

The decision by the Tasmanian Liberal Party to share details of its proposed softened gun laws with shooters and farmers, and not other interested parties or the public, suggests industry capture is a genuine factor in Tasmania too.

With widespread community opposition ranged against the entrenched interests of the shooters themselves, state governments will need to make some big calls on the future of duck hunting, rather than the current tinkering around the edges.

Explore further Research on optical illusion gives insight into how we perceive the world

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.The newest electric car start-up vows it will learn from Tesla's mistakes by echoing Apple's iPhone moves and designingbut not buildingits vehicles, with its sights set more on the economy market.

EVelozcity, a company based in Los Angeles founded by veterans of BMW and electric car start-up Faraday Future, revealed Tuesday it had secured $1 billion in funding from an unnamed group of U.S., European and Chinese backers.

The company plans to design and engineer an electric car and leverage third-party contractors for everything from self-driving car software to manufacturing. The idea is to have a branded car available by 2021, according to CEO Stefan Krause.

"Our main ambition is not to build a large luxury car," Krause tells USA TODAY, referencing Tesla's $100,000 Model S and X. "We want to build affordable electric vehicles for people in the city for three use cases, a personal car, a last mile delivery car and a ride hailing car."

Beyond Tesla, which has succeeded in selling cars but still doesn't make a profit, there is a growing list of companies, often backed by Chinese money, vowing to produce shiny new electric vehicles but failing to deliver on those often wildly hyped promises.

Companies such as Faraday Future, NIO and Lucid Motors have hosted hip media events at tech confabs such as CES and SXSW to show off futuristic prototypes that never made it to the factory or driveway.

Tesla has run into its own, steep challenges getting its sought-after cars into buyers' hands, providing an opening to rival all-electric cars. What CEO Elon Musk has termed "production hell" in producing its more affordably priced Tesla Model 3's has choked output, causing it to miss its own estimates for deliveries.

EVelozcity hopes to avoid Tesla's production woes by contracting with auto companies, suppliers and contract manufacturers to build its small electric cars.

"What young EV industry learned out of Tesla is you can test and design a great prototype, but building a supplier network and manufacturing is tricky," he says. "That's why we'll go with experienced people to assemble the car, just the way companies like Apple go to others to build their phones."

The cars will initially have steering wheels and pedals and eventually feature self-driving software as that technology and related regulations develop. Krause said the company is designing a "skateboard" platform that will house the battery, engine and other tech, with different configuration shells popped on top to suit a particular need.

EVelozcity's strategy stands in contrast to that of automotive tech start-ups Cruise and Argo.ai, both of which focus primarily on self-driving technology and have since been folded into General Motors and Ford, respectively.

Auto analyst Karl Brauer applauds EVelozcity's approach, but strikes a cautionary note when gauging its chances of success.

"The bad news for any new companies is that Tesla has been around 15 years and never made a profit and continues to struggle greatly on many fronts," says Brauer, executive publisher of Cox Automotive. "The good news is there are plenty of lessons to be gleaned. Maybe EVelozcity can come along and say, we know what not to do."

Gartner auto analyst Michael Ramsey says EVelozcity's modular concept could explain how the company "has been able to raise so much money in relative silence." But he adds that despite the billion-dollar haul, executives would be wise to spend carefully.

"(Automaker) Fisker raised a similar amount ahead of its launch and quickly stumbled into bankruptcy" before its name was purchased by investors who revived the brand, says Ramsey. "(EVelozcity) will need to manage their cash expertly and get some breaks to make it past the development phase."

Big ties to BMW

Krause and his team no doubt were able to land big funding due in part to their industry track records.

Krause, who was with BMW for 20 years before joining Deutsche Bank, was brought on board L.A.-based Faraday Future as CFO last year to raise $1 billion after its main source of funding, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, began facing increasing financial scrutiny at home.

A few months later, Krause and more than a dozen Faraday Future employees left the start-up, including EVelozcity technology chief Ulrich Kranz and design chief Richard Kim.

In January, Faraday Future sued Krause and Kranz, charging that they stole intellectual property in order to start a competing venture. The company told Business Insider at the time that "we do not have, nor do we need, any technology from Faraday Future."

Ultimately, analyst Brauer thinks a big shakeout is inevitable as just a few players ultimately dominate the coming age of self-driving, electric cars and trucks.

"It's like the automotive industry in 1927, where you had hundreds of car manufacturers and it took the Depression to weed things down to just a few players," he says. "The same will happen here. Just remains to be seen who'll be left."

Explore further Electric car startup Faraday Future signs factory deal

2018 USA Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Ford, with a sagging U.S. market share and one of the oldest vehicle lineups in the industry, is promising to revamp three-quarters of its models in the next two years.

Much of the emphasis will be on refreshing or revamping the entire lineup of SUVs while adding gas-electric hybrid powertrains, two new off-road SUVs and two new trucks.

It's all part of the larger plan to prepare the company for the future by cutting costs, increasing the number of common parts and feeding a long-starved product lineup.

The move, detailed at a presentation on Thursday at Ford's product development center in Dearborn, Michigan, comes at a time when Ford's aging lineup has had trouble appealing to U.S. customers. In the past five years the company's market share has fallen over 2 percentage points to 14.4 percent so far this year. Last year its market share rose 0.1 percentage point.

"I have a reinvigorated view of the future," said Richard Bazzy, who runs a Ford dealership in Pittsburgh's northern suburbs and is among dealers who have been critical of company management. "We've been waiting for a long time. We weren't sure what we were waiting for. Now we know."

Included in the hybrid plan is one for the F-150 pickup, the top-selling vehicle in America, that will offer increased towing power and an on-board generator. Ford pledged to be the hybrid sales leader, unseating Toyota in the U.S. by 2021.

The new products, including complete revamps of the Explorer big SUV and Escape compact SUV, should help dealers who have struggled against competitors with fresher vehicles. Ford concedes its model lineup is among the industry's oldest, with an average age of 5.7 years. It promised to drop that to 3.3 years by 2020.

The Escape small SUV hasn't been completely redone since 2012, while the Explorer was last all-new in 2011, both long cycles compared with competitors.

Among the new product announcements:

 The two off-road vehicles designed to compete with Jeep and Land Rover will be the new Bronco midsize SUV and a yet-to-be named small sport utility.

 A new all-electric SUV with 300 miles of range between charges by 2020. Six more battery electric vehicles by 2022.

 Standard safety features across nearly all models by 2020 including automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist and backup cameras.

 Internet connectivity on all vehicles by the end of next year, enabling over-the-air software updates by 2020.

CEO Jim Hackett, who is approaching one year on the job, said having hybrids in high-volume SUVs will aid performance and help the company and its customers hedge against the possibility of rising fuel prices.

He also promised to speed up new product development in the future.

Ford showed off some of the new vehicles but reporters had to promise not to describe or photograph them. There were no compact cars shown, but Ford says cars are still important.

Ford shares rose 5 cents Thursday to close at $11.07. They are down 9.2 percent so far this year.

Explore further Ford shifts production of electric SUV to Mexico

 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This is a composite image of the lunar nearside taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in June 2009, note the presence of dark areas of maria on this side of the moon. Credit: NASA

The SETI Institute has analysed images of our moon and pinpointed a possible home away from Earth.

Recent findings presented at the NASA Lunar Science for Landed Missions Workshop suggest we could become mole people.

On the moon.

Scientists believe that tunnels riddle our hunk of rock in the sky, reminders of the moon's volcanic past. Might these tunnels provide shelter for space-going humans? Could they perhaps hide a fuel source for interstellar travel further afield? Scientists from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the Mars Institute think so.

START WITH A BANG

A generally accepted theory is that our moon formed when something large (think Mars sized) collided with Earth in its early days as a lava pudding cake.

The collision smashed some of Earth's red hot goopy bits out like a potato gun shooting into a watermelon.

These superheated bits began to scatter out around our planet but got caught in orbit by Earth's gravity. Hanging in space, they slowly coalesced all back together into one big sphere, which we now see chilling in our skies every night.

In its early years, our moon was the definition of an angsty teenfiery and prone to lashing out. Which is just a descriptive way of saying it had volcanoes.

As the moon aged, it cooled. Lava was compressed into smaller and smaller spaces even as it continued to flow beneath the crust. And as the lava drained, it left behind tunnels.

ICY POLES

Over a couple of million years, some of these tunnels near the moon's surface have caved in. Thanks to these 'skylights', we've actually known about lunar lava tunnels for a little while now.

Around 200 skylights have previously been identified. These holes in the moon's surface are different from craters, which are caused by collisions of asteroids and meteors. Craters can be distinguished from skylights as craters have a raised rim.

So why are scientists getting worked up about more holes in the moon?

Like a 10-pin bowling ball, the latest photos (taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) observed three skylights clustered at the top of the moonalthough they are slightly bigger than the holes on a bowling ball, with scientists estimating their diameter to be 15 to 30 metres across.

Not unlike Earth, the moon's north pole is pretty chilly. It exists in constant shadow, and temperatures can reach as low as -250C. This is where the latest skylights have been observed. The first 200 were located in sunnier climes along the moon's equator.

The moon's poles have been described as 'cold traps'spots where any water could have collected over the millennia. Whilst we know water exists locked in gravelly form on the surface of the poles, scientists hope that tunnels beneath the surface of the moon could provide easy access to harvestable ice.

Obviously, this ice could hydrate a hard-working astronaut, but it could also be used to propel them further into space. By splitting up water molecules, moon-miners could isolate hydrogen gas and use it to power a rocketship home or even onwards to Mars.

Being able to shelter below the surface of the moon also means that celestial colonisers could protect themselves from harmful cosmic radiation.

TUNNELS ON EARTH

Donald Trump has announced a desire to see humans set their feet back on the moon in the next 5 years. And when they get there, the astronauts will be ready to go deep.

Planet Earth has its own set of underground lava tunnels, and space agencies are using them to familiarise astronauts with subsurface science and exploration.

If you want to get a taste of what life in a tunnel might be like, you can visit some of Earth's longest lava tunnels in Far North Queensland.

But lava tunnels on Earth and on the moon won't be the same. According to Riccardo Pozzobon at the University of Padova in Italy, the effect of gravity will likely have a big impact on tunnel size.

On Earth, lava tubes can be nearly 30 metres across. But Riccardo says the lower gravity environment of the moon might allow lunar lava tunnels to be a kilometre or more across and many hundreds of kilometres in length.

Some have suggested this might allow for entire settlements to exist under the surface of the moon.

Of course, a lot of work is required before we get to that point.

LIGHT AT THE END OF A JOURNEY TO MARS

First, what's needed are higher-resolution images to confirm that these latest discoveries are intact skylights at the end of a tunnel.

Then it will be necessary to actually determine if the tunnels contain accessible ice. Dr. Pascal Lee, the SETI researcher who discovered these new skylights, suggests that a new generation of caving astronauts or 'robotic spelunkers' could help greatly in this exploration.

If we can master moon tunnels, moving to Mars may be that much easier. The Red Planet also appears to have underground tunnels from volcanic activity, leading scientists to speculate that these could house the future of the human race. So that's our housing sorted. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to get there.

Explore further Possible lava tube skylights discovered near the North Pole of the Moon

This article first appeared on Particle, a science news website based at Scitech, Perth, Australia. Read the original article.Depending on the magnetic configuration of the spin valve, the electrical signal is transmitted (bottom) or suppressed (top). Credit: Joel Cramer

In the emerging field of magnon spintronics, researchers seek to transport and process information by means of so-called magnon spin currents. In contrast to electrical currents, on which todays information technology is based, magnon spin currents conduct magnetic momenta. These are mediated by magnetic waves, or magnons, which propagate through magnetic materials. One fundamental building block of magnon spintronics is magnon logic, by which logic operations are processed by the superposition of spin currents.

An international team of physicists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the University of Konstanz in Germany and Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, recently succeeded in adding a further element to the construction set of magnon logic. In a so-called spin valve structure comprising several ferromagnets, it was possible to demonstrate that the detection efficiency of magnon currents depends on the magnetic configuration of the device. Generally, this allows researchers to control the transmission or blocking of incoming information. The research work has been published in the online journal Nature Communications with a fellow of the JGU-based Graduate School of Excellence Materials Science in Mainz (MAINZ) as first author.

The essential aim of magnon spintronics is to replace electrical charge as the information carrier with magnons. Among other things, magnons offer the possibility of wave-based computing, which provides more options for logical data processing. Magnons furthermore propagate in magnetic insulators with comparably small losses, which holds out the prospect of the implementation of improved energy efficiency of data processing.

The investigated spin valve structure is a trilayer system comprising the insulating ferromagnet yttrium iron garnet (YIG), the insulating antiferromagnet cobalt(II) oxide (CoO), and the metallic ferromagnet cobalt (Co): YIG/CoO/Co. By means of the oscillating magnetic fields of irradiated microwaves, the deliberate rotation of the YIG magnetization is induced, which emits a magnon spin current into the CoO. In the metallic Co layer, the magnon spin current gets converted into a charge current due to the so-called inverse spin Hall effect, and is thus detected.

Switch-like device forwards or suppresses magnon current as electric signal

The experiment demonstrated that the amplitude of the detected signal strongly depends on the magnetic configuration of the spin valve. In the case of antiparallel alignment of the YIG and Co magnetization, the signal amplitude is approximately 120 percent larger than in the parallel state. The repetitive switching of the Co magnetization further revealed the robustness of the effect and likewise its suitability for long-time operation. "Altogether, this effect to some extent allows the implementation of a switch-like device, which suppresses or forwards the magnon current as an electrical signal," said Joel Cramer, first author of the article and member of the Graduate School of Excellence Materials Science in Mainz. "The result of our experiment is an effect which might find application in prospective magnon logic operations, thus yielding an essential contribution to the field of magnon spintronic," Cramer added.

Explore further Practical spin wave transistor one step closer

More information: Joel Cramer et al, Magnon detection using a ferroic collinear multilayer spin valve, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Joel Cramer et al, Magnon detection using a ferroic collinear multilayer spin valve,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03485-5An international team led by researchers from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has developed a method to measure the integration or segregation of immigrants based on the messages they write on the social network Twitter. In the work, published in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers developed a method to use Twitter data to analyse the degree of spatial segregation of immigrant communities. "The users' communities of origin are determined by the language in which the tweets are posted, establishing an 'idiomatic algebra' to assign the most likely community to which a tweet belongs," explains the study's director, Jose Javier Ramasco, CSIC researcher at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems, in Mallorca, Spain.

"If all the messages are in the local language, then the user is considered to be a local resident. On the other hand, if some messages are in the language of an immigrant community, it can be assumed that the user knows that language and belongs to that community," he adds.

The language used, together with the location of the messages, make it possible to find the typical residential areas of the different communities and to study whether they are more or less concentrated in those areas than the local population. "This method has allowed us to analyse immigrant communities in 53 of the world's largest cities. In each one of them we can define a metric that measures the spatial integration capacity of the immigrants living there," Ramasco explains.

By applying this metric, cities can be divided into three categories: those with high integration capacity, those with few or highly segregated immigrant communities, and an intermediate category between both extremes, explains Ramasco. "In the first group (high integration) we find cities such as London, San Francisco, Tokyo and Los Angeles, while at the other extreme (low integration), we see cities such as Detroit, Miami, Toronto and Amsterdam," he explains.

In addition to considering cities, the researchers can analyse how different cultures are integrated within the countries where these cities are located. The best integration is found among nearby cultures, for example, Latin-based language speakers (speakers of Portuguese and Italian) in South American Spanish-speaking countries, or those from European countries within the United Kingdom. The cases of greater segregation occur between extremely different cultures.

This method offers a new source of data to analyse the segregation or spatial integration of immigrants' residences. The online data, which is intended for other purposes, is immense, and constantly updated. These studies offer a significantly reduced-cost form of access to near real-time information, with study areas on a global scale. "We hope that this first work will open up the possibility for future use of this data to study integration. We also hope that it may be a valuable complement beyond the scientific community for managers and public authorities who are in charge of immigration," concludes Ramasco.

Explore further Mapping migrant communities across Europe to support local integration

Provided by Spanish National Research CouncilPalaeontologists Vicente D. Crespo, Francisco Javier Ruiz Sanchez and Plini Montoya, from the department of Botanics and Geology of the Universitat de Valencia, and Marc Furio, from the Institut Catala de Paleontologia, have discovered a new fossilised species of insectivore belonging to the unusual and extinct Plesiodimylus family. The identification of this group, related to the fauna that lived in Central Europe during the Miocene (16 million years ago), is based on the study of isolated teeth found in l'Alcora (Castellon), in the district of Araya.

This new species of insectivore, found in the palaeontological site Mas d'Antolino B, has been reported in the prestigious Historical Biology magazine and has the scientific denomination Plesiodimylus ilercavonicus, in reference to the Iberian Ilercavones people, who inhabited part of what are the provinces of Castellon and Tarrragona today.

This family has teeth that protrude from the jaw, with thicker dental enamel than other mammals, as well as four molars (two in each jawbone, or one in each jawbone and then one more in each maxilla). These characteristics give them an unusual look  with overgrown teeth.

Furthermore, by studying the dentition and the type of wear exhibited in tooth enamel, researchers can surmise they would have fed mainly on gastropods, the most common group of mollusks, according to Crespo, Ruiz Sanchez and Montoya of Valencia's Natural History Museum, and Marc Furio. Until now, the finding of material from this animal group in Araya is the only one of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula, joining findings of other species from Central Europe such as some types of hamsters and other rodents, bats and insectivores, which reveal a phase of faunistic exchange between Iberia and Central Europe in the Lower Miocene.

Obtaining the fossilised remains of these small mammals required a strenuous process to clean and sieve through tons of sediment, as well as the examination of the residue obtained through this process. The studying of the specimens was performed with various techniques, including some derived from the use of electronic microscopy devices. The results of the study were unveiled at the 15th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, held in Munich (Germany) during the summer of 2017.

In the Mas d'Antolino B palaeontological site, available since 2008, fossils of other species of shrews, squirrels, hamsters, dormice, bats or crocodiles have been unearthed, among others. These faunas, in the context of an environment similar to present-day rainforests, date back to the Aragonian age of mammals, also within the Miocene period. In this era, there was a rainforest where Araya is currently located, with meadows that would have been located near a great lake reaching most of today's l'Alcora, Ribesalbes and Fanzara villages.

Explore further Extinct rodent species discovered

More information: Vicente D. Crespo et al. A new species of Plesiodimylus (Dimylidae, Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) from the Early Miocene of Spain, Historical Biology (2017). Vicente D. Crespo et al. A new species of Plesiodimylus (Dimylidae, Eulipotyphla, Mammalia) from the Early Miocene of Spain,(2017). DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2017.1289519Much of the natural forest vegetation between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro vanished between 1976 and 2000. Credit: Andreas Hemp

The mountains of East Africa are a treasure trove of biodiversity. However, their ecosystems may be at a higher risk than previously realized. Dr. Andreas Hemp and Dr. Claudia Hemp have discovered that Mount Kilimanjaro is turning into an "ecological island". Agriculture and housing construction have eliminated the natural vegetation that used to serve as a bridge to the surrounding area, enabling the diversity of species to develop to its current levels. Neighbouring mountain regions are presumably also being isolated from their surrounding areas. The researchers have published their study in the journal Global Change Biology.

With a height of almost 6,000 metres, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, and it is located less than 100 kilometres from the 4,600-metre-high volcano Mount Meru in northern Tanzania. Satellite images show how the strips of land between them changed in the 25 years leading up to the turn of the century. Areas that originally had dense vegetation were forced to make room for the intensive agriculture and residential development of a growing population. Nowadays, Mount Kilimanjaro is almost completely surrounded by large areas that are characterized by the encroachment of human civilization.

Bridges of vegetation promote the diversity of species

In order to investigate the impact this rapid change is having on biodiversity, the biologists from the University of Bayreuth and the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt (BiK-F) studied the environments of grasshoppers at 500 selected sites on Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. In this investigation, endemic species  species that are only native to this region of East Africa  were of particular interest. The scientists found an especially high proportion of endemic species in the forest areas at lower altitudes shared by these two mountains. This is a clear indication that grasshoppers once used the dense vegetation between the mountains as bridges to spread out in both regions. Most notably, the flightless species relied on this land route.

Conspicuously, there are also a few endemic species that are only found in higher forest areas. According to the authors of the study, geoscientific findings suggest the answer lies in palaeo-ecological climate changes. "Several thousand years ago, it was considerably cooler and damper in the lower areas than it is today. Thus, grasshoppers that preferred these climatic conditions settled at the foot of the mountains, travelling by foot via the wooded land route. It was only later, as the temperatures rose and precipitation diminished that they made their way to higher areas. They then no longer had contact to grasshoppers in neighbouring regions," Dr. Andreas Hemp explained.

Moreover, the study provides new insight into the question of how the East African mountain ranges were settled during past climate periods. "Our research findings corroborate the thesis that animal and plant species spread out primarily via bridges of vegetation. In contrast, other ways of spreading over long distances, for instance seed transport via wind or the "air travel" of individual insects, must have played a subordinate role. All of these prehistoric processes are still reflected in the current diversity of species we encounter in mountainous regions of East Africa, many of which are difficult to reach. The endemic species, in particular, help researchers trace the development of natural history," Dr. Hemp continued.

Grasshoppers as early warning systems for endangered species

If bridges of vegetation between the mountains weaken or vanish altogether, it is not just the mobility of grasshoppers that is affected. Larger animals living in the forest  e.g. antelope, small mammals, snakes, or chameleons  are at an even higher risk of becoming isolated and thus going extinct in the foreseeable future. Grasshoppers serve as an early warning system for researchers, signalling these kinds of far-reaching effects for other animal groups that are often difficult to study. "However, reliable statements about the ecological interrelationships are only possible after many years of scientifically demanding field studies," emphasized Dr. Claudia Hemp, an animal ecologist who works at the University of Bayreuth and, more recently, also at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F).

Explore further Study explores mysteries of Kilimanjaro

More information: Andreas Hemp et al. Broken bridges: The isolation of Kilimanjaro's ecosystem, Global Change Biology (2018). Journal information: Global Change Biology Andreas Hemp et al. Broken bridges: The isolation of Kilimanjaro's ecosystem,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14078Maximizing fishery profits would halt the declines of all three loggerhead turtle populations examined in the UCSB analysis (in most simulated scenarios). Credit: Projeto Tamar Banco De Imagens

Healthier fish stocks. Higher catches. Profits from fishing. Is there a way to achieve these holy grails of commercial fisheries without harming endangered species that are caught incidentally?

A new UC Santa Barbara-led study has found that may indeed be possible about half the time. According to the research group's analysis, ending overfishing would also promote population recoveries for many endangered species ensnared accidentally as bycatchthe unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species. The team's findings appear in the journal Science.

"Many large animals, including marine mammals, turtles and birds, are threatened by bycatch," said lead author Matt Burgess, a postdoctoral scholar in the Sustainable Fisheries Group at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. "We tend to think that we can only save these species by either dramatically improving our gear or by constraining our fisheries. But this project demonstrated that wasn't always the case. In about half the cases, overexploiting these mammals, turtles and birds occurs because we're also overexploiting the target species."

The study examined how much fishing pressure needs to be reduced to maximize profits in the 4,713 fisheries that produce most of the world's catchand to halt the population declines of 20 marine mammal, sea turtle and sea bird populations threatened as bycatch. The researchers also identified which fisheries might be causing the bycatch for each population.

To account for the many uncertainties in each of these aspects, the scientists simulated 1,000 possible scenarios. In each, they asked what fraction of the 20 threatened bycatch populations would begin to recover if all fisheries adopted efforts that would maximize their profits. For each bycatch population that would not recover under such efforts, the investigators then asked how much profit the fisheries would have to give up to enable recovery of the bycatch population. In 95 percent of the simulated scenarios, the analysis demonstrated that between seven and 13 of the bycatch populations could be saved from decline at a cost of less than 5 percent of the maximum profit.

"Maintaining productive fisheries and protecting threatened bycatch species are two of the primary goals of fisheries policy," Burgess said. "We found that about half the time we can accomplish these goals together with the same management actions."

For some populations like the eastern Pacific leatherback turtle, that bycatch is unsustainable but so, too, is the fishing pressure on many of the target species. "For many species, you actually get a 'win-win,' where building higher stocks of fish in the ocean leads to higher fishery profits and recovery of endangered species," said co-author Christopher Costello, a Bren professor and co-principal investigator of the Sustainable Fisheries Group.

To save the other half of the bycatch populations, fisheries would either have to reduce fishing so much that they would give up a lot of their profits or substantially improve their fishing technologies to better avoid bycatch. "These bycatch populations either need total or near-total elimination of bycatch to survive, like the vaquita porpoise from the Gulf of California," Burgess explained. "Or they are caught in fisheries that already exploit their target species relatively sustainably, as may be the case for the New Zealand sea lion."

"Recognizing the benefits of rebuilding fisheries to endangered populations allows us to also focus attention on other key sources of endangered species mortality, like egg poaching, invasive species, pollution and habitat loss," said co-author Rebecca Lewison of San Diego State University.

All of the data and computer code from the study is publicly available online. "We did this so that our analysis will be fully transparent and reproducible by others," said co-lead author Grant McDermott of the University of Oregon. "This is gradually becoming the norm in science, which is great."

Explore further Small-scale fisheries are throwing away fish that could feed those in poverty

More information: M.G. Burgess el al., "Protecting marine mammals, turtles, and birds by rebuilding global fisheries," Science (2018). Journal information: Science M.G. Burgess el al., "Protecting marine mammals, turtles, and birds by rebuilding global fisheries,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi  1126/science.aao4248Social media provides a new environment that makes it possible to carefully edit the image you want to project of yourself. A study from Lund University in Sweden suggests that many people are prepared to pay to "filter out" unfavorable information.

Economists Hakan Holm and Margaret Samahita have investigated how we curate our social image on the web using game theory.

Previous studies have been conducted on, for example, how anonymity affects our willingness to act pro-socially, and thus our concern for social image. However, the internet and social media now make it possible to edit the image we want to project of ourselves retroactively. One can therefore expect other, - less impulsive, mechanisms to control this behavior. The purpose of the study was therefore to better understand online behavior.

Each subject participated in a cooperative situation with an anonymous person, and the participants earned real money during the experiment. They could be "good" and cooperate a lot, which is costly, or be less cooperative, which costs less. They then found out that information about how much they actually cooperated could be published online along with their name, but that they could avoid this publication if they paid to censor the information. It turned out that those who cooperated less, valued the censorship highest which meant that information about this group's actions tended to be filtered out.

"That the image people share of themselves is 'softened' on the internet is perhaps not that surprising. What is new is that this is shown under experimental control and that the will to 'filter out' is so strong that one is prepared to pay for it", explains Hakan Holm.

Before the cooperative situation was presented, a group of subjects had to take a "selfie" while other subjects did not. One question was the effect of a selfie on the willingness to share sensitive information.

"The selfie can be said to increase visibility, and by combining this with the information about subjects' cooperation, we found that it increased their valuation of censorship. This was especially true for those who cooperated little", says Holm.

Another effect that surprised the researchers was that the likelihood to cooperate, for subjects who reported that they often took selfies, was greatly influenced by the selfie-taking. For the frequent selfie-takers who took a selfie before the cooperative situation, cooperation was significantly lower than those who did not take a selfie.

"One interpretation is that among some groups, a selfie can initiate a temporary selfish mindset that crowds out other motives such as the willingness to cooperate with others. However, we would like to see more studies about this effect before it can be considered scientifically established", Hakan Holm concludes.

Explore further We like taking selfies but not looking at them

More information: Hakan J. Holm et al. Curating social image: Experimental evidence on the value of actions and selfies, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2018). Journal information: Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation Hakan J. Holm et al. Curating social image: Experimental evidence on the value of actions and selfies,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2018.02.008This satellite image shows Bogoslof volcano erupting on May 28, 2017. The eruption began about 18 minutes prior to this image and the cloud rose to an altitude greater than 12 kilometers (40,000 feet) above sea level. Credit: Dave Schneider / Alaska Volcano Observatory & U.S. Geological Survey.

Researchers report in a new study that they've documented rumblings of volcanic thunder for the first time, a feat considered nearly impossible by many volcanologists.

Microphones set out to detect volcanic eruptions in Alaska's Aleutian Islands recorded sounds of Bogoslof volcano erupting over eight months from December 2016 to August 2017. Researchers analyzing the recordings identified several cracking sounds from eruptions on March 8 and June 10 as volcanic thunder, a phenomenon the study authors said has never before been captured in audio recordings.

Observers have described hearing volcanic thunder in the past, but scientists have been unable to disentangle the booms of thunder caused by volcanic lightning from the cacophony of bellows and blasts that accompany an explosive eruption. In the new study, researchers used microphones on a nearby island and maps of volcanic lightning strokes to identify the sounds of thunder.

"It's something that people who've been at eruptions have certainly seen and heard before, but this is the first time we've definitively caught it and identified it in scientific data," said Matt Haney, a seismologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage and lead author of the new study accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

A closer look at the satellite image of the Bogoslof eruption on May 28. The explosions at the base are called tephra jets, which form when extremely hot volcanic material and gas meet water, transforming into particle-filled clouds of steam. Credit: Dave Schneider / Alaska Volcano Observatory & U.S. Geological Survey

Analyzing volcanic thunder offers scientists a new way of detecting volcanic lightning and potentially a way to estimate the size of an ash plume, according to Jeff Johnson, a geophysicist at Boise State University who was not connected to the new study.

Haney and his team found the intensity of the thunder matched the intensity of the lightning, meaning researchers might be able to use thunder as a proxy for volcanic lightning, Johnson said. The intensity of lightning in a volcanic plume can tell scientists how big the plume is and how hazardous it might be.

"Understanding where lightning is occurring in the plume tells us about how much ash has been erupted, and that's something that's notoriously difficult to measure," Johnson said. "So if you're locating thunder over a long area, you could potentially say something about how extensive the plume is."

This audio file contains 20 minutes of microphone data recorded during the March 8, 2017 Bogoslof eruption, sped up 60 times. The volcanic thunder sounds are the quick clicks and pops heard throughout, while the sounds of the eruption are the lower-pitched whirring sounds. The eruption ends halfway through, at the 10-second mark, after which the thunder can be heard more clearly. Credit: Matt Haney / Alaska Volcano Observatory & U.S. Geological Survey.

Monitoring impending eruptions

Volcanic eruptions are inherently noisy  explosions of smoke, ash and magma shake the ground and create loud bangs and rumbles that reverberate for miles. Lightning is common in volcanic plumes because particles of ash and ice scrape and collide with each other and become electrified. Researchers assumed volcanic lightning is followed by thunder, as it is during thunderstorms, but they had not yet been able to tease out thunderclaps from the noises of the eruption itself, and many scientists considered it impossible, according to Haney.

In the new study, scientists detected thunder at Bogoslof volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, a chain of more than 50 volcanic islands in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Researchers constantly monitor the islands from afar for signs of impending eruptions. They use seismic sensors to pick up ground movement before or during an eruption, arrays of microphones to detect sounds of ash exploding skyward and a global network of lightning sensors to detect lightning strokes within an ash plume. Thunderstorms are rare in the Aleutian Islands, so when sensors detect lightning, it most likely means there's an ongoing eruption, Haney said.

A satellite image of Bogoslof volcano on March 11, 2017. The eruption on March 8 produced large changes in the shape and size of the island. The most active vent for the explosive activity is located under the water in the center of the island, and it was greatly enlarged by the March 8 event. The western coastline has grown, and a new vent was produced on the north shore of the island. Credit: Dave Schneider / Alaska Volcano Observatory & U.S. Geological Survey

Bogoslof started erupting in December 2016 and erupted more than 60 times through August 2017. Many of the eruptions produced towering clouds of ash more than six kilometers (20,000 feet) high that disrupted air travel throughout the region.

Isolating thunderclaps

Bogoslof's eruptions on March 8 and June 10 created ideal conditions for observing volcanic thunder, Haney said. Both eruptions generated immense ash plumes that persisted for several hours after the eruptions ceased. Without the din of an eruption in the background, researchers had a better chance of hearing cracks of thunder caused by lightning in the plume.

Worldwide lightning sensors detected lightning strokes in the ash plumes for several minutes after each eruption ended. In the new study, Haney and his colleagues compared the timing and location of the lightning strokes to sounds recorded by a microphone array on a nearby island.

This audio file contains 5 minutes of microphone data recorded during the March 8, 2017 Bogoslof eruption, sped up 10 times. The recording captures thunder from 10:21:30-10:26:30 UTC on March 8, after the eruption had ended. Credit: Matt Haney / Alaska Volcano Observatory & U.S. Geological Survey.

They found the timing and volume of the sounds the microphones picked up matched the lightning data in a way only thunder could.

On March 8, the microphones recorded at least six distinct bursts of sound that occurred three minutes after lightning activity in the plume peaked. The timing of the bursts means they were almost certainly thunderclaps caused by the lightning: The microphones were 60 kilometers (40 miles) away from the volcano, so it would have taken sound three minutes to reach the microphones. That the thunder was picked up so far away also means it was quite loud, Haney said.

On June 10, the microphones picked up bursts of sound coming from a slightly different direction than sounds from the eruption. The location of the bursts corresponded to areas of peak lightning activity, according to the study.

"If people had been observing the eruption in person, they would have heard this thunder," Haney said. "I expect that going forward, other researchers are going to be excited and motivated to look in their datasets to see if they can pick up the thunder signal."

Explore further Alaska volcano sends up ash cloud from Aleutian Islands

More information: Volcanic thunder from explosive eruptions at Bogoslof volcano, Alaska. Geophysical Research Letters. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10  017GL076911/abstract Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Volcanic thunder from explosive eruptions at Bogoslof volcano, Alaska.Rick Potts, director of the National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian, surveys an assortment of Early Stone Age handaxes discovered in the Olorgesailie Basin, Kenya. The first evidence of human life in the Olorgesailie Basin comes from about 1.2 million years ago. For hundreds of thousands of years, people living there made and used large stone-cutting tools called handaxes. According to three new studies published in Science, early humans in East Africa had--by about 320,000 years ago--begun manufacturing more sophisticated tools than those of the Early Stone Age handaxes, tens of thousands of years earlier than previous evidence has shown in eastern Africa. Credit: Jason Nichols

Anthropologists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and an international team of collaborators have discovered that early humans in East Africa hadby about 320,000 years agobegun trading with distant groups, using color pigments and manufacturing more sophisticated tools than those of the Early Stone Age. These newly discovered activities approximately date to the oldest known fossil record of Homo sapiens and occur tens of thousands of years earlier than previous evidence has shown in eastern Africa. These behaviors, which are characteristic of humans who lived during the Middle Stone Age, replaced technologies and ways of life that had been in place for hundreds of thousands of years.

Evidence for these milestones in humans' evolutionary past comes from the Olorgesailie Basin in southern Kenya, which holds an archeological record of early human life spanning more than a million years. The new discoveries, reported in three studies published March 15 in the journal Science, indicate that these behaviors emerged during a period of tremendous environmental variability in the region. As earthquakes remodeled the landscape and climate fluctuated between wet and dry conditions, technological innovation, social exchange networks and early symbolic communication would have helped early humans survive and obtain the resources they needed despite unpredictable conditions, the scientists say.

"This change to a very sophisticated set of behaviors that involved greater mental abilities and more complex social lives may have been the leading edge that distinguished our lineage from other early humans," said Rick Potts, director of the National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program.

Potts has been leading the Human Origin Program's research in Olorgesailie for more than 30 years in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya. He is the lead author on one of the three Science publications that describe the adaptive challenges that early humans faced during this phase of evolution. Alison Brooks, a professor of anthropology at George Washington University's Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology and an associate of the museum's Human Origins Program, is lead author on the paper that focuses on the evidence of early resource exchange and use of coloring materials in the Olorgesailie Basin. A third paper, by Alan Deino at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and colleagues, details the chronology of the Middle Stone Age discoveries.

The first evidence of human life in the Olorgesailie Basin comes from about 1.2 million years ago. For hundreds of the thousands of years, people living there made and used large stone-cutting tools called handaxes (left). According to three new studies published in Science, early humans in East Africa had--by about 320,000 years ago--begun using color pigments and manufacturing more sophisticated tools (right) than those of the Early Stone Age handaxes, tens of thousands of years earlier than previous evidence has shown in eastern Africa. The sophisticated tools (right) were carefully crafted and more specialized than the large, all-purpose handaxes (left). Many were points designed to be attached to a shaft and potentially used as projectile weapons, while others were shaped as scrapers or awls. The National Museums of Kenya loaned the artifacts pictured above to conduct the analyses published in Science. Credit: Human Origins Program, Smithsonian

The first evidence of human life in the Olorgesailie Basin comes from about 1.2 million years ago. For hundreds of the thousands of years, people living there made and used large stone-cutting tools called handaxes. Beginning in 2002, Potts, Brooks and their team discovered a variety of smaller, more carefully shaped tools in the Olorgesailie Basin. Isotopic dating by Deino and collaborators revealed that the tools were surprisingly oldmade between 320,000 and 305,000 years ago. These tools were carefully crafted and more specialized than the large, all-purpose handaxes. Many were points designed to be attached to a shaft and potentially used as projectile weapons, while others were shaped as scrapers or awls.

The horn core of a fossil springbok, an antelope known only from southern Africa today but which occurred in the early Middle Stone Age sites in the Olorgesailie Basin. Credit: Tyler Faith

While the handaxes of the earlier era were manufactured using local stones, the Smithsonian team found small stone points made of non-local obsidian at their Middle Stone Age sites. The team also found larger, unshaped pieces of the sharp-edged volcanic stone at Olorgesailie, which has no obsidian source of its own. The diverse chemical composition of the artifacts matches that of a wide range of obsidian sources in multiple directions 15 to 55 miles away, suggesting exchange networks were in place to move the valuable stone across the ancient landscape.

The team also discovered black and red rocksmanganese and ocherat the sites, along with evidence that the rocks had been processed for use as coloring material. "We don't know what the coloring was used on, but coloring is often taken by archeologists as the root of complex symbolic communication," Potts said. "Just as color is used today in clothing or flags to express identity, these pigments may have helped people communicate membership in alliances and maintain ties with distant groups."

The research team also discovered black and red rocks--manganese and ocher--at the sites, along with evidence that the rocks had been processed for use as coloring material. "We don't know what the coloring was used on, but coloring is often taken by archeologists as the root of complex symbolic communication," Potts said. "Just as color is used today in clothing or flags to express identity, these pigments may have helped people communicate membership in alliances and maintain ties with distant groups." The National Museums of Kenya loaned the materials pictured above to conduct the analyses published in Science. Credit: Human Origins Program, Smithsonian

Hoping to understand what might have driven such fundamental changes in human behavior, the research team integrated data from a variety of sources to assess and reconstruct the ancient environment in which the users of these artifacts lived. Their findings suggest that the period when these behaviors emerged was one of changing landscapes and climate, in which the availability of resources would have been unreliable.

Geological, geochemical, paleobotanical and faunal evidence indicates that an extended period of climate instability affected the region beginning around 360,000 years ago, at the same time earthquakes were continually altering the landscape. Although some researchers have proposed that early humans evolved gradually in response to an arid environment, Potts says his team's findings support an alternative idea. Environmental fluctuations would have presented significant challenges to inhabitants of the Olorgesailie Basin, prompting changes in technology and social structures that improved the likelihood of securing resources during times of scarcity.

Explore further Giant handaxes suggest that different groups of early humans coexisted in ancient Europe

More information: R. Potts el al., "Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa," Science (2018). R. Potts el al., "Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/  1126/science.aao2200 A.L. Deino el al., "Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa," Science (2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/  1126/science.aao2216 A.S. Brooks el al., "Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age," Science (2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/  1126/science.aao2646 Journal information: ScienceLater Stone Age burial from Grotte des Pigeons. Credit: Abdeljalil Bouzouggar

An international team of researchers, led by Johannes Krause and Choongwon Jeong from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Jena, Germany), and Abdeljalil Bouzouggar from the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archeologie et du Patrimoine (Rabat, Morocco) and including scientists from the Mohammed V University in Rabat, the Natural History Museum in London, University of Oxford, Universite Mohammed Premier in Oujda and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, have sequenced DNA from individuals from Morocco dating to approximately 15,000 years ago, as published in Science. This is the oldest nuclear DNA from Africa ever successfully analyzed. The individuals, dating to the Late Stone Age, had a genetic heritage that was in part similar to Near Eastern populations and in part related to sub-Saharan African populations.

North Africa is an important area in the history of the evolution of our species. The geography of North Africa also makes it an interesting area for studying how humans expanded out of Africa. It is part of the African continent, but the Sahara desert presents a substantial barrier to travel to and from southern regions. Similarly, it is part of the Mediterranean region, but in the past the sea could have presented a barrier to interaction with others as well. "A better understanding of the history of North Africa is critical to understanding the history of our species," explains co-author Saaid Amzazi of Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco.

In order to address this, the team looked at a burial site in Grotte des Pigeons, near Taforalt in Morocco, associated with the Later Stone Age Iberomaurusian culture. The Iberomaurusians are believed to be the first in the area to produce finer stone tools known as microliths. "Grotte des Pigeons is a crucial site to understanding the human history of north-western Africa, since modern humans frequently inhabited this cave intensively during prolonged periods throughout the Middle and Later Stone Age," explains co-author Louise Humphrey of the Natural History Museum in London. "Around 15,000 years ago there is evidence for more intensive use of the site and the Iberomaurusians started to bury their dead at the back of the cave."

15,000-year-old nuclear DNA is the oldest recovered in Africa

The researchers analyzed DNA from nine individuals from Taforalt using advanced sequencing and analytical methods. They were able to recover mitochondrial data from seven of the individuals and genome-wide nuclear data from five of the individuals. Because of the age of the samples, at approximately 15,000 years old, and the poor preservation characteristic of the area, this is an unprecedented achievement. "This is the first and the oldest Pleistocene DNA of our species recovered in Africa," explains co-senior author Abdeljalil Bouzouggar. "Due to challenging conditions for DNA preservation, relatively few ancient genomes have been recovered from Africa and none of them so far predate the introduction of agriculture in North Africa," explains first author Marieke van de Loosdrecht of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "Successful genome reconstruction was possible by using specialized laboratory methods to retrieve highly degraded DNA, and relatively new analysis methods to characterize the genetic profiles of these individuals."

The researchers found two major components to the genetic heritage of the individuals. About two-thirds of their heritage is related to contemporaneous populations from the Levant and about one-third is most similar to modern sub-Saharan Africans, in particular West Africans.

Archaeological excavations at Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt. Credit: Abdeljalil Bouzouggar

As early as the Stone Age, human populations had links that stretched across continents

The high proportion of Near Eastern ancestry shows that the connection between North Africa and the Near East began much earlier than many previously thought. Although the connections between these regions have been shown in previous studies for more recent time periods, it was not generally believed that humans were interacting across these distances during the Stone Age. "Our analysis shows that North Africa and the Near East, even at this early time, were part of one region without much of a genetic barrier," explains co-senior author Choongwon Jeong.

Although the Sahara did present a physical barrier, there was also clearly interaction happening at this time. The strong connection between the Taforalt individuals and sub-Saharan populations shows that interactions across this vast desert were occurring much earlier than was previously thought. In fact, the proportion of sub-Saharan ancestry of the Taforalt individuals, one-third, is a higher percentage than found in modern populations in Morocco and many other North African populations.

Co-author Marieke van de Loosdrecht retrieves ancient DNA in the clean room at the MPI-SHH. Credit: Vanessa Villalba

Sub-Saharan heritage from a previously unknown ancient population

Though the scientists found clear markers linking the heritage in question to sub-Saharan Africa, no previously identified population has the precise combination of genetic markers that the Taforalt individuals had. While some aspects match modern Hadza hunter-gatherers from East Africa and others match modern West Africans, neither of these groups has the same combination of characteristics as the Taforalt individuals. Consequently, the researchers cannot be sure exactly where this heritage comes from. One possibility is that this heritage may come from a population that no longer exists. However, this question would need further investigation.

"Clearly, human populations were interacting much more with groups from other, more distant areas than was previously assumed," states co-senior author Johannes Krause, director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "This illustrates the ability of ancient genetics to add to our understanding of human history." Further studies in this region could help to clarify more about when and how these different populations interacted and where they came from.

Explore further Ancient Eurasian DNA sequencing is revealing links with modern humansDarkSide-50 time projection chamber interior at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. Credit: DarkSide Collaboration

University of Houston scientists are helping to develop a technology that could hold the key to unraveling one of the great mysteries of science: what constitutes dark matter? Scientists believe dark matter makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe, but nobody actually knows what dark matter is.

"If we are the experiment that finds dark matter, we can change the fundamental understanding of the universe as we know it," said UH assistant professor Andrew Renshaw. "We can really start to understand the fundamental properties of the universe - how we got from the big bang to where we are, and what the future holds."

Renshaw and professor Ed Hungerford are leading a team of physicists from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in the DarkSide program, an international research collaboration seeking to detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In principle, when WIMP particles collide with ordinary nuclei, extremely small, low-energy nuclear recoil would result. In very simple terms, the scientists are trying to build technology that can detect WIMPS by detecting this very tiny, but observable recoil.

The UH team is using the DarkSide program's first physics detector, DarkSide-50 (DS-50), located underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Central Italy. The team and their collaborators have improved the sensitivity of the DS-50 detector in recent years by switching from atmospheric argon to low-radioactivity liquid argon, which was extracted from underground gas wells in Colorado. But a next-generation detector in development will take it even further.

DarkSide-50 time projection chamber cryostat filled with liquid argon at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. Credit: DarkSide Collaboration

DarkSide-20k (DS-20k) is currently being constructed using similar components from the present DarkSide experiment. Whereas DS-50 holds about 9.5 gallons (50 kilograms) of low-radioactivity liquid argon, this new detector, DS-20k, will employ new readout technology and will be some 400 times larger, holding 3,800 gallons (20,000 kilograms) of liquid argon. The new experiment is expected to start acquiring data at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in 2021.

This detector, said Hungerford, will push the search for WIMP dark matter to new levels of sensitivity, hopefully finding the elusive WIMP. Or, he said, it could demonstrate that dark matter is not a particle, since this technology has now proven capable of searching for types of dark matter other than WIMPs.

"Previously, if you wanted to look for a specific kind of dark matter, you really had to look for a specific kind of detector. Now with this liquid argon technology, it's really opening the door to using a single technology to search for a handful of different kinds of dark matter," added Renshaw, who recently presented DarkSide findings at the UCLA Dark Matter Conference.

While Hungerford and Renshaw continue their research in Houston, three other members of the UH team are manning the day-to-day operations in Italy. Research associate Nicola Canci manages the DS-50 detector and monitors its performance.

"The cryogenic system keeping the argon in liquid phase needs to be monitored, and some operations are needed to allow for the good performances of the detector. Electronics are monitored. Signals coming from the detector are improved, if needed, and the quality of data is routinely checked," Canci said.

Explore further Physicists contribute to dark matter detector successCredit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Among geologists who study powerful earthquakes and volcanoes, there is a mystery: as one of Earth's tectonic plates slides beneath another in a subduction zone, water is squeezed from certain minerals, lubricating earthquakes and fueling volcanoes in hot spots like the Pacific Ocean "Ring of Fire." But equations that predict where the forces of subduction wring water from stone consistently point to locations far from the site of actual cataclysms.

By applying a new spectroscopy technique to garnet containing fragments of quartz, metamorphic petrologist Frank Spear of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute thinks he's solved the puzzle. His early research shows that the equations are incomplete, lacking the significant variable of "overstepping," the additional energy needed to initiate a process, in this case, the decomposition of water-bearing minerals.

"The real culprit in powerful volcanoes and earthquakes is water, but scientists have been unable to determine where that water comes from," said Spear, a professor and head of the Rensselaer Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. "Conventional thermodynamic equations predict that water is released at too shallow a depth to occur at the known locations of volcanoes and earthquakes. But when you factor in the overstepping we've discovered, the locations coincide. The idea of overstepping is an enormous paradigm shift."

His research is supported by a three-year $419,247 grant from the National Science Foundation.

As one tectonic plate is pushed beneath another in a subduction zone, sediments and minerals are carried deep into the Earth, with pressure and temperature mounting with increasing depth. Early in the process liquid water is squeezed from the pore spaces between rocks, but many minerals - such as micas, serpentines, and chlorites - contain water as part of their mineral structure. Chlorite, for example, contains about 10 percent water by weight. When water-bearing minerals finally succumb to increased temperature and pressure, they release water.

The water acts as a lubricant in the fault zone created between two plates, reducing the strain on the fault and allowing the plates to slide past one another, producing an earthquake. Subduction zones produce some of the world's biggest and most destructive earthquakes; the largest magnitude earthquake yet recorded - a magnitude 9.5 earthquake in 1960 near Valdivia, Chile - occurred in a subduction zone. The water also acts as a flux on surrounding rock, depressing the melting temperature of rock, which melts into magma that rises to the surface and erupts as a volcano.

At the point at which the water is released, it creates clues Spear tracked back to its origin. New minerals form in the metamorphosing crust, including garnet, which is produced by the breakdown of water-bearing chlorite. The garnet forms under pressure, and sometimes, as it does so, it traps fragments of surrounding minerals in its grip, fragments that retain a record of the pressure under which the garnet formed. Spear found such garnets, which formed around tiny fragments of quartz, on an island in the Greek Cyclades.

In his lab, Spear and his graduate students used Raman spectroscopy - commonly used in chemistry to identify molecular composition of a sample - to examine the quartz embedded in the garnet. In Raman spectroscopy, laser light is shined onto a sample, and the energy of the photons is shifted up or down based on the interactions between the light and the sample. The difference between the frequency of the outgoing and returning light provides a definitive structure signature.

Quartz at ambient pressure produces a well-known signature. But the peak of the signature from the quartz in the Cyclades samples was shifted to a higher value, indicating the pressure on the grain. Because the Raman signal shift of quartz has been carefully calibrated, Spear was able to use it to determine the pressure, and therefore the depth and temperature, at which the garnet crystallized around the quartz.

"What we discovered when we did this is that the garnet forms not at the shallow depth where the thermodynamic calculations predicted, but much deeper down, near the origin of volcanoes and earthquakes," said Spear.

The finding also indicates that the garnet doesn't crystalize at equilibrium, as is the basis of thermodynamic calculations predicting that process. That, said Spear, "was a total surprise." While initiation of most processes requires activation energy - or overstepping - to some extent, researchers always assumed that the activation energy to initiate nucleation of garnet would be trivial. But the results suggest significant overstepping of 50 to 70 degrees Celsius.

The initial research, published in a series of papers beginning in 2014, was based on three samples from a single site on Sifnos. The new funding will support a broader investigation using 10 to 20 samples taken from five separate locations, to determine whether the findings were "a quirk, or a universal truth." Spear is also working on developing calculations - and a new "maximum driving force method" - that will incorporate observed overstepping to yield more accurate predictions.

Spear's research fulfills The New Polytechnic, an emerging paradigm for higher education which recognizes that global challenges and opportunities are so great they cannot be adequately addressed by even the most talented person working alone. Rensselaer serves as a crossroads for collaborationworking with partners across disciplines, sectors, and geographic regionsto address complex global challenges, using the most advanced tools and technologies, many of which are developed at Rensselaer. Research at Rensselaer addresses some of the world's most pressing technological challengesfrom energy security and sustainable development to biotechnology and human health. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer.

Explore further Clay mineral waters Earth's mantle from the inside

More information: Adrian E. Castro et al. Reaction overstepping and re-evaluation of peak PT conditions of the blueschist unit Sifnos, Greece: implications for the Cyclades subduction zone, International Geology Review (2016). Adrian E. Castro et al. Reaction overstepping and re-evaluation of peak PT conditions of the blueschist unit Sifnos, Greece: implications for the Cyclades subduction zone,(2016). DOI: 10.1080/00206814.2016.1200499Using drones to gather information and samples from a hazardous scene can help incident commanders make critical decisions. Credit: ROCSAFE

Crimes that involve chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials pose a deadly threat not just to the target of the attack but to innocent bystanders and police investigators. Often, these crimes may involve unusual circumstances or they are terrorist-related incidents, such as an assassination attempt or the sending of poisons through the mail.

In the recent notorious case of poisoning in the UK city of Salisbury in March 2018, a number of first responders and innocent bystanders were treated in hospital after two victims of chemical poisoning were found unconscious on a park bench. One policeman who attended the scene became critically ill after apparent exposure to a suspected chemical weapon, said to be a special nerve agent called novichok. Police said a total of 21 people required medical care after the incident.

Past examples of rare but toxic materials at crime scenes include the 2001 anthrax letter attacks in the US and the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995. Following the radioactive poisoning of the Russian former spy, Alexander Litvinenko in London, UK, in 2006, investigators detected traces of the toxic radioactive material polonium in many locations around the city.

Despite these dangers, crime scene investigators must begin their forensic investigations immediately. European scientists are developing robot and remote-sensing technology to provide safe ways to assess crime or disaster scenes and begin gathering forensic evidence.

Harm's way

"We will send robots into harm's way instead of humans," explained Professor Michael Madden at the National University of Ireland Galway, who coordinates a research project called ROCSAFE. "The goal is to improve the safety of crime scene investigators."

The ROCSAFE project, which ends in 2019, will deploy remote-controlled aerial and ground-based drones equipped with sensors to assess the scene of a CBRN event without exposing investigators to risk. This will help to determine the nature of the threat and gather forensics.

In the first phase of a response, a swarm of drones with cameras will fly into an area to allow investigators to view it remotely. Rugged sensors on the drones will check for potential CBRN hazards. In the second phase, ground-based robots will roll in to collect evidence, such as fingerprint or DNA samples.

The ROCSAFE aerial drone could assess crime or disaster scenes such as that of a derailed train carrying radioactive material. It will deploy sensors for immediate detection of radiation or toxic agents and collect air samples to test later in a laboratory. Meanwhile, a miniature lab-on-a-chip on the drone will screen returned samples for the presence of viruses or bacteria, for instance.

An incident command centre usually receives a huge volume of information in a short space of time  including real-time video and images from the scene. Commanders need to process a lot of confusing information in an extreme situation quickly and so ROCSAFE is also developing smart software to lend a hand.

Rare events

"These are rare events. This is nobody's everyday job," said Prof. Madden. "We want to use artificial intelligence and probabilistic reasoning to reduce cognitive load and draw attention to things that might be of interest."

As an example, image analysis software might flag an area with damaged vegetation, suggest a possible chemical spill and suggest that samples be taken. Information such as this could be presented to the commander on a screen in the form of a clickable map, in a way that makes their job easier.

Sometimes, the vital evidence itself could be contaminated. "There may be some physical evidence we need to collecta gun or partly exploded material or a liquid sample," said Prof. Madden. "The robot will pick up, tag and bag the evidence, all in a way that will stand up in court." The researchers are constructing a prototype six-wheeled robot for this task that is about 1.5-metres-long and that can handle rough terrain.

Helping forensic teams to deal with hazardous evidence is a new forensic toolbox called GIFT CBRN. The GIFT researchers have devised standard operating procedures on how to handle, package and analyse toxins such as the nerve-agent ricin, which is deadly even in minute amounts.

When the anthrax powder attacks took place in the US in 2001, the initial response of the security services was slow, partly because of the unprecedented situation. GIFT scientists have drawn up 'how to' guides for investigators, so they can act quickly in response to an incident.

"We want to find the bad guys quickly so we can stop them and arrest those involved," said Ed van Zalen at the Netherlands Forensic Institute, who coordinated the GIFT project.

Nerve agents

As well as containment, GIFT devised sensing technology such as a battery-powered boxed device that can be brought to a crime scene to identify nerve agents like sarin within an hour or two. This uses electrophoresis, a chemical technique that identifies charged molecules by applying an electric field and analysing their movements. Usually, samples must be collected and returned to the lab for identification, which takes far longer.

Additionally, they developed a camera to detect radioactive material that emits potentially damaging radiation called alpha particles. This form of radiation is extremely difficult to detect and even a Geiger counter  used to detect most radiation  cannot pick it up. The substance polonium, used to murder Litvinenko, emits alpha particles which create radiation poisoning but because it was a novel attack, the failure to detect it initially slowed the police investigation.

"That detector would have been very helpful at the time of the Litvinenko case," said van Zalen.At South by Southwest, as entrepreneurs and celebrities mingle to discuss the future of tech, a lot of the hype focuses on attention-grabbing projects such as flying cars. But there also are ideas on display with a more practical bentprojects that could get into consumers' hands sooner.

Thousands have flooded downtown Austin for the annual event that includes a tech conference, film screenings and music concerts. For techies, there is so much to see, do and experience that it's easy to miss the new ideas that could transform whole industries.

But tune out the noise, and you could find prototypes for products that could shape everything from how we buy groceries to how we build houses in the future.

Gaming grocery

Remember Pokemon Go? The augmented-reality technology that made it possible for people to chase and catch the cartoonlike creatures with their smartphones may be coming to a grocery store near you.

Imagine using your smartphone and augmented reality to more easily check items off your grocery shopping list and personalizes the store for each shopper. That's the idea behind a prototype from Fjord, a design and development agency that's owned by consulting giant Accenture. It created an augmented-reality app using the example of Whole Foods Market 365, a smaller, more price-conscious store started by the Austin-based organic grocer in 2015.

Greg Carley, who leads innovation at Fjord, said he believes augmented reality will become a popular way for pharmacies, department stores and other retailers to tailor the shopping experience for customers at brick-and-mortars.

Here's how it works: Grocery shoppers first put together a shopping list, adding items manually or through voice commands to a virtual assistant such as Amazon Echo. When shoppers go to the store, they can hold up the smartphone app and see labels pop up above store aisles, which indicate where desired items are located.

A cartoon-looking yellow brick road guides shoppers to each item. When shoppers scan a QR code next to an item, they can read reviews of a wine or find suggested recipes for a particular box of pasta. The app also detects whether the product meets a shopper's preferences entered into a personal profile. For example, for a shopper looking for gluten-free products, it would suggest alternatives when that shopper scanned a loaf of regular bread.

Robo-barista

Do robots make the best baristas? That's the thinking behind Briggo, a connected coffee company that's based in Austin. The company built a system, called a Coffee Haus, that enables robots to make coffee and other espresso beverages that customers can personalize based on temperature, flavor, caffeine strength or numerous other preferences. The coffee-making robots have become a popular attraction at the SXSW trade show.

Charles Studor, founder and chief technology officer of Briggo, came up with the idea after frequent travels to Central America, a major exporter of coffee beans. Studor, who has a background in chip design, said he noticed many U.S. coffee shops spent more money on sofas and air conditioning than coffee beans. And he said, depending on staffing or time of day, the coffee could taste delicious or terrible. By designing a connected coffee system, he said, customers get a consistent cup of coffee and "more of the cost of the cup can go into the quality of the ingredients."

Customers order through a mobile app and they receive a text when the cup of coffee is ready for pickup. Robots inside the Coffee Haus do every aspect of drink-making, from grinding the coffee beans to heating and frothing milk for cappuccinos and lattes. If the robots decide the temperature isn't hot enough or the coffee beans weren't weighed properly, it'll toss the cup and start again. The robots can make up to 100 drinks per hour, Studor said.

Dell and Samsung employees already order coffee made by robots at their Austin campuses. Austin residents can find it at ice-cream shop Moojo. Starting this spring, travelers can order robot-made coffee at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. And Studor said Briggo is looking to expand to Dallas and Houston this year, too.

Printed houses

In an Austin neighborhood near downtown, one home looks a little different than the others. Its walls are made from layers of cement and finished with cedar window panes and a metal roof. Its builders believe 3-D printing could soon speed up construction and lower the cost of safe, durable houses for families in the developing world.

The project is brainchild of Icon, an Austin construction technology company, and New Story, a San Francisco-based nonprofit. Jason Ballard, one of Icon's co-founders, said he saw 3-D printing as a way to build affordable, energy-efficient homes that create less waste. (Ballard and Evan Loomis, two of the three Icon co-founders, are also co-founders of TreeHouse, an Austin-based eco-friendly home improvement store.)

Last summer, they began working together to develop a large 3-D printer that can work in an environment without reliable access to power and a user-friendly design so it can be operated by people in the community. It can build 600- to 800-square-foot homes in 12 and 24 hours. The goal is to build the homes for $4,000 eachcheaper than the $6,000 cement-block homes that the nonprofit typically builds.

By end of the year, the nonprofit will print its first few homes in El Salvador, said Alexandria Lafci, chief operating officer and co-founder of New Story. It hopes to print a community of at least 100 homes next year, she said,

Ballard said he believes 3-D printed homes won't be a novelty when his 7-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter are grown up. But for now, he said, "it feels like a dream." When his daughter saw the printed house in Austin, she asked him if he could print her a castle.

Explore further Robot makes coffee at new cafe in Japan's capital

2018 The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Teenagers are more likely to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because they are less able to make mature decisions, new research shows.

Experts have called for major changes to the criminal justice system after finding innocent younger people are far more likely admit to offences, even when innocent, than adults.

Those who carried out the study say teenagers should not be allowed to make deals where they face a lesser charge in return for pleading guilty. The study suggests young people are more likely to be enticed by these deals, and take what they see as an advantageous offer even when they have done nothing wrong.

Most criminal convictions in the UK and the USA occur as the result of guilty pleas, rather than trial. This means the majority of convictions are the result of decisions made by people accused of crimes rather than jurors.

The research was carried out in the USA, where a system known as "plea bargaining" is utilised, but the academics say their discovery has implications for countries across the world that allow teenagers accused of crimes to receive a sentence or charge reduction by pleading guilty. Specifically, the researchers recommend restricting reductions that may entice innocent teenagers into pleading guilty and making it easier for teenagers to change pleas after they have been entered.

Other research has found adolescents are less able to perceive risk and resist the influence of peers because of developmental immaturity.

Dr Rebecca Helm, from the University of Exeter Law School, who was part of the research team said: "It is important to ensure the people accused of crimes have the capacity and freedom to make sensible decisions about whether to plead guilty. Where systems allow defendants to receive a reduced sentence or charge by pleading guilty they need to ensure that defendants are suitably developed to make such decisions and that they have the necessary levels of understanding, reasoning, and appreciation.

"We hope this research will lead to plea systems becoming fairer and less coercive for adolescents. Any restrictions on guilty pleas for adolescents would have to be introduced in a way that avoids harsher average sentences being imposed on adolescents. However, research increasingly suggests that in the same way as they are too young to vote, too young to drink alcohol, and too young to rent a home, perhaps adolescents are too young to plead guilty."

Dr Helm and Valerie F. Reyna, Allison A. Franz, and Rachel Z. Novick from Cornell University tested decision making among people of different ages. Participants were 149 adolescents recruited from high schools and middle schools in New York aged from 9 to 17, 200 students from Cornell University aged between 18 and 22, and 187 adults from across America.

Participants were given the same hypothetical situation in which they were asked to indicate the decisions they would make if accused of a crime. Participants were either asked to imagine they were guilty or not guilty of the crime, and were told the approximate likelihood of conviction at trial and the reductions that could be gained by pleading guilty as opposed to being convicted at trial.

The research found that as people become older, those who are innocent are less likely to plead guilty. Innocent teenagers indicated that they would plead guilty in roughly one-third of cases, while innocent adults indicated that they would plead guilty in just 18 per cent of cases. Importantly, when examining the decisions researchers found that teenagers were significantly less influenced in their decision-making by whether they were guilty or innocent than adults were. Results also suggest that adolescents are making decisions that do not reflect their values and preferences, including those relating to admitting guilt when innocent, due to developmental immaturity.

Although this was an experiment, the academics believe the findings have important implications for the juvenile justice system.

Too Young to Plead? Risk, Rationality, and Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem in Adolescents is published in the journal Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.

Explore further Indiana man pleads guilty in cybercriminal marketplace caseDocument discovered in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain explains the St. Patrick's Day celebration in St. Augustine, Florida. Credit: AGI Contaduria 950

Irish culture will soon be celebrated across the globe with parades, pub crawls and seas of green. But newly uncovered documents prove unlike previous belief, St. Patrick's Day celebrations did not start in Boston, rather at least 100 years earlier in St. Augustine, Florida.

The curious discovery comes from a rather unlikely source: gunpowder expenditures lists from St. Augustine for the years 1600-1601.While cannons and other artillery were often fired to help guide ships safely across St. Augustine's protective sandbar, they were also shot off during times of public celebrations and religious festivities.

A single entry from March 1600 states St. Augustine's residents gathered together and processed through the streets in honor of the feast day of San Patricio, or St. Patrick. As they made their way through the town, cannons fired from the wooden fort in celebration of the Irish saint.

"It was certainly a surprise," said historian J. Michael Francis, PhD, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, who uncovered the document. "It did not register the first time I saw the name "San Patricio," the Spanish name for St. Patrick. After a few seconds it actually hit me that there was a St. Patrick's Day parade/procession in St. Augustine in 1601. Even more surprising was that the document identified St. Patrick as the patron saint of the city's maize fields."

Dr. Francis discovered the records while exploring St. Augustine's long Spanish imperial history. Over the past several decades, Dr. Francis has examined thousands of documents housed in Spain's Archivo General de Indias (AGI), one of the world's most important historical archives, classified as a World Heritage Site. The archive also includes information about Ricardo Artur (Richard Arthur), the Irish priest who likely introduced the devotion to St. Patrick. When Artur disappears from the historical record in 1604, so do the references to St. Patrick.

Gun expenditures log explains the procession through the streets of St. Augustine, Florida and St. Patrick as the 'protector of the fields.' Credit: AGI Contaduria 950

Location in Seville, Spain where the gun expenditures log of 1600 and 1601 were discovered. Credit: J. Michael Francis, PhD, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg

Explore further UF researchers unearth only stone mission church in St. AugustineCalifornia's economy struggled in 2017, to the point where it was quite reasonable to ask if the state was experiencing a recession.

In answering that question, we found that economic and employment data from multiple sources were consistent with recessionary conditions being present within the state, which is to say that some sectors of California's economy were indeed experiencing elevated levels of distress during 2017, where one or more sectors would almost certainly have to be going through at least some degree of significant economic contraction.

Further, since much of the negative impact that was clearly evident in the data for the state's employment levels was concentrated in the early months of 2017, that economic distress had to have really taken off in 2016, since changes in employment tend to lag behind changes in economic circumstances for employers.

Around the same time that we did those bits of analysis, we began playing with some new tools for assessing the health of the economy within a given region, which would potentially provide some insight into the nature of the economic distress that was clearly occurring within California using an unconventional metric: the imagery of nighttime lights within the state as documented by NASA's Black Marble project in 2012 and 2016 through the space agency's Worldview application.

So we focused on California's nighttime lights and compared the changes we found between 2012 and 2016. In doing that, we discovered that the most significant changes were taking place in California's Central Valley, where we found numerous lights dim or disappear in that region between 2012 and 2016, which would be consistent with a diminished level of human, and thus economic, activity occurring throughout much of that region between those years. The following animated image shuttles back and forth between the satellite images of California's Central Valley from 2012 and 2016 every three seconds, where the dimming of nighttime lights in the region from 2012 to 2016 becomes clearly evident.

It is almost axiomatic that geography has a profound influence on the composition of a region's economy, so knowing where the lights went out in California's Central Valley between 2012 and 2016 could tell us quite a lot about what sectors of the state's economy were experiencing the greatest amount of distress. So we matched where the lights went out to the communities closest to them, as shown in the following map:

In doing this exercise, we couldn't help but notice that some of the most noticeable changes occurred in the part of the region that is to the west of Bakersfield, California, in the western portion of Kern County, which was something of a red flag because, as Wikipedia describes it, "the city is a significant hub for both agriculture and oil production. Kern County is the most productive oil producing county, and the fourth most productive agricultural county (by value) in the United States."

That's important, because California experienced both a severe multi-year drought that officially ended in April 2017 and also the negative impact of oil prices collapsing in mid-2014, where they didn't hit bottom until February 2016 before going on to stabilize and partially recover.

Of these two industries, the evidence of the dimming nighttime lights between 2012 and 2016 in California's Central Valley prompted us to focus more closely on the state's crude oil production, where we hypothesized that most of what we're seeing is a reduction in natural gas flaring at the state's major oil fields. We then extracted both the state's crude oil field production numbers and its price per barrel from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's databases. In the following chart, we're presenting the trailing twelve month total of its crude oil production along with the state's monthly crude oil prices, mainly for the sake of showing how the rolling annual production level of crude oil in the state changed, where we're capturing data over a 10 year period, from January 2008 through December 2017.

We opted for this presentation because it provides a quick way to compare California's total crude oil production from one year to the next by looking at the values recorded in December each year, while also providing an indication of how the monthly production numbers were changing.

Looking at the period from 2015 through 2017, we see that the California's trailing twelve month total crude oil production was 201 million barrels in December 2015, which declined to 186 million barrels in December 2016 (92.4% of December 2015's value), which then went on to decline more to 174 million barrels in December 2017 (86.3% of December 2015's level).

In very real terms then, we confirm that the California's oil industry contracted by nearly 14% from December 2015 to December 2017. In nominal terms, the picture is much worse. The state's crude oil production sector has shrunk from being an annual output that was consistently worth about $20 billion in the period from 2012 through mid-2014 to an annual output of $8.3 billion at the end of 2017, which works out to be a reduction of 58%.

We confirm that California's economy most certainly experienced recessionary conditions in 2017, with the state's oil industry experiencing a recession that in real terms, was hopefully finally reaching its bottom at the end of that year. It is still very early in 2018, where time will tell if that proves to be the case.

That also makes the experience of California's oil production very different from the experience of other U.S. oil producing states, which have seen their crude oil production rise sharply in 2017 as oil prices have risen off their 2016 bottom, which indicates that factors unique to California are responsible for the continuing recession in the state economy's crude oil production sector.

If it hadn't, California would have turned in a stronger economic performance than it did in 2017. Instead, California finds itself in a schizophrenic situation with two economies, where one is not progressing, to paraphrase one of the many politicians seeking to become the state's next governor. What the data for 2017 makes evident is that California cannot count on the "coastal and thriving" portion of its economy to fully offset continuing economic distress in the state's interior. That kind of worked in 2015 and 2016, but wasn't enough to keep the state's economy from being knocked off its growth trajectory for those years in 2017.

There's a very human cost that comes from the sustained distress in the state's interior, which is showing up in the growing population of homeless Californians, particularly in the Central Valley, where limited resources to support the displaced are being strained, but also in the state's major metropolitan areas, where many of the displaced are going.

It's the kind of distress that the economics equivalent of a climate change denier might try to sweep away or dismiss by deceptively presenting statistics that conceal the widespread economic pain being felt by those who have been negatively impacted in their communities, but which most certainly is there, in a uniquely Californian way, all the same. It is even visible from space.

Update 24 July 2018: And finally, it's also visible in state-level GDP!

Although this GDP category covers Mining, Quarrying and Oil and Gas Extraction in California, the bulk of the data represents oil and gas extraction, where we can confirm that this economic sector has struggled considerably since the fourth quarter of 2014. It doesn't appear to have bottomed until the first quarter of 2017 where since then, the recovery it has experienced may be characterized as fairly stagnant as it appears that California oil and gas industry is still experiencing recessionary conditions.

Since this distress was caused by the decline of global oil prices from July 2014 to February 2016, which have recovered strongly since, what has happened in California stands in stark contrast to the experience of other oil-producing states, such as Texas, whose real GDP from its oil and gas industry has grown strongly with the rise of oil prices.

References

U.S. Energy Information Administration. California Field Production of Crude Oil [Monthly]. [Excel Spreadsheet]. Accessed 28 February 2018.

U.S. Energy Information Administration. California Midway-Sunset First Purchase Price [Monthly]. [Excel Spreadsheet]. Accessed 1 March 2018.New research finds that when healthy people take attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs, the medication stimulates the release of a chemical in the brain associated with positive emotion.

ADHD medications cause a surge in the neurotransmitter glutamate in key parts of the brain. Subsequently, this increase is associated with changes in positive emotion.

The findings not only provide clues about how these drugs affect healthy brains, they also hint at a previously undiscovered link between glutamate and mood.

This is the first time that an increase in brain glutamate in response to psychostimulant drugs has been demonstrated in humans, said Dr. Tara White, an assistant professor in the Brown University School of Public Health and lead author of the new study.

Thats important since glutamate is the major neurotransmitter responsible for excitation in the brain, and affects learning and memory.

Even more interesting, White said, the rise in glutamate predicted the magnitude and the duration of positive emotional responses to the drug.

Given the timing of these effects  the glutamate effect comes first, and the positive emotion comes later  this could indicate a causal link between glutamate and positive emotion, White said. I think what were seeing here is not just a drug effect, its how positive emotion works in humans.

The research appears in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Millions of kids nationwide take prescription medication to treat ADHD. But in addition to prescribed usage, theres a thriving black market for these drugs, which young people use to improve attention, mood, and work and school performance. Yet little is known about what effects these drugs have on healthy brains, White said.

In this new study, subjects were first screened for mental and physical health and then underwent MRI spectroscopy scans designed to detect the concentration of neural compounds in specific regions of their brain.

From the medical literature on psychostimulants, White and her team wanted to look in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a hub brain region that connects multiple brain networks involved in emotion, decision-making, and behavior.

They found that two ADHD medications, d-amphetamine and Desoxyn, significantly increased the overall amount of glutamate in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, even after controlling for possible alternative contributing factors, such as volume of gray matter in the region.

The rise in brain glutamate predicted both the duration and the intensity of positive emotion, measured by participant ratings about whether they liked the drug or felt high after consuming it.

Researchers caution that while this was a placebo-controlled study, the findings only suggest an association between glutamate and positive mood, and not necessarily a causal relationship.

However, the fact that the mood changes consistently followed changes in glutamate is suggestive of a cause and effect relationship, though more research is necessary.

Glutamate is the most abundant neurotransmitter in the brain, White said, and its roles in learning and memory are well established. A potential link between glutamate and mood would be a novel finding.

This is the first time weve seen a link between increases in brain glutamate and increases in positive emotion in healthy people, with both changes happening in real time, said White. I think its going to open up a whole new way of thinking about emotion in humans.

The research also found evidence of gender differences in drug effects. Women in the sample showed a larger increase in glutamate compared to the men in the sample. Women also responded more strongly to Desoxyn, compared to d-amphetamine.

The gender difference is consistent with prior studies in animals, which show greater stimulant drug effects in females compared to males. The differences between the two drugs also indicate that ADHD medications can have different effects on glutamate and other compounds in the brain.

White and her colleagues believe the medications influence the development of more or new glutamate, rather than just improving the uptake of what is already available. With further research, new data could help scientists to better understand how individuals respond differently to drugs, and changes in positive emotion over time.

[The] present findings provide the first evidence in humans that drug-induced changes in [glutamate] correlate with subjective experiences of drug liking and drug high following drug ingestion, White and colleagues wrote.

Source: Brown UniversityPartners Inspire and Equip a New Generation of Haitians

For children living in extreme poverty in Haiti, completing education is grueling. To pay their way through school, students take a couple of years off to work and then return when they have saved enough. Many are in their late 20's by the time they graduate. They've had limited exposure to career paths, with only nurses and teachers as role models.

IAMCP WIT (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners-Women in Technology community) is setting out to change that reality for a deserving group of Haitian young people, equipping them to go farther.

Gail Mercer-MacKay witnessed the adversity and limitations young Haitians experience first-hand in 2016. In conjunction with IAMCP and Harvest for Humanity, Mercer-MacKay travelled to Haiti to help a school recovering from the earthquake. Carrying the $6,000 donated by generous partners around her waist in a cash belt, Mercer-MacKay had been advised that Haiti requires unconventional tactics. Both shocked and inspired by her first visit, Mercer-MacKay set out to do more, enlisting the women of the Microsoft partner community to join.

"I was so moved by the people I met. They are resilient and smart. The young girls who can't afford education don't give up. They work so hard and overcome incredible challenges to complete their education," said Mercer-MacKay. "As a result of going there and seeing what is possible, I realized that we could and should do more."

Partnering with Harvest for Humanity, IAMCP WIT is undertaking a three-pronged approach to help Haitian young people whose education has stalled and set the stage for the next generation of technologists. WIT chapters, Microsoft partners and individuals are joining to support the initiatives, which include a conference, educational sponsorship and a technology lab. There are plenty of opportunities to participate in the upcoming projects, which include:

The IAMCP WIT Conference , to be held August 11, will educate young Haitians about the types of careers they can pursue in technology and how to prepare. The one-day conference will offer 100 young girls a glimpse into the possibilities and options available in STEM. Speakers will include technologists who have had similar life experiences to the girls in the audience. The conference will be staffed by volunteers who have paid their own way and sponsored a Haitian student. Opportunities to participate are still available.

, to be held August 11, will educate young Haitians about the types of careers they can pursue in technology and how to prepare. The one-day conference will offer 100 young girls a glimpse into the possibilities and options available in STEM. Speakers will include technologists who have had similar life experiences to the girls in the audience. The conference will be staffed by volunteers who have paid their own way and sponsored a Haitian student. Opportunities to participate are still available. Educational sponsorships to support a select group of Haitian girls who want to pursue STEM education at the university level. WIT chapters, partners and individuals can sponsor one of these deserving women. Profiles of these extraordinary young women are beyond inspiring.

to support a select group of Haitian girls who want to pursue STEM education at the university level. WIT chapters, partners and individuals can sponsor one of these deserving women. Profiles of these extraordinary young women are beyond inspiring. To continue the momentum after the conference, IAMCP WIT is establishing a new computer lab in a Haitian school to expose an even wider group of students to technology. Microsoft has donated software and the lab is looking for additional software to further the students' education. In addition, funds are being solicited to support a full-time teacher for the lab. Learning partners will be engaged to provide additional training opportunities for students.

Microsoft has chosen the Women's Conference in Haiti as the designated charity for the annual and wildly popular Women in Technology luncheon at the Microsoft Inspire partner conference this July. The support from within the IAMCP WIT community has been tremendous. Several chapters have already signed on for educational sponsorships, with more in the works.

Mercer-MacKay has been thrilled with the response to help Haiti's youth, but not surprised, "I think, for most Microsoft partners, there is a strong desire to give back. Many partners include giving back to the community in their mission statements. We are grateful for what we have and find it hard to believe there is such a different life experience for people who live so close to us geographically."

If you would like to find out how you can support IAMCP WIT's efforts in Haiti, email Gail Mercer-MacKay, Shann McGrail or Maia Moates for more information.News

Microsoft Expanding Azure and Office 365 in Europe, Middle East and China

Microsoft on Wednesday announced an expansion of its datacenter regions for delivering Microsoft Azure and Office 365 services.

Currently, there are 38 Azure regions around the globe, but Microsoft has overall plans to add 12 new regions at some point. Microsoft claims to have "more than doubled" its Azure regions over the last three years.

On the Office 365 and Dynamics 365 side, Microsoft is planning to ensure data residency support for those services in countries. To meet those requirements, Microsoft expects to expand its datacenters to "17 geographies" around the globe, according to the announcement.

[Click on image for larger view.] Microsoft datacenters. New facilities indicated in gray. (Source: March 14 Microsoft announcement.)

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft announced the "general availability" of Azure and Office 365 services in France, which had been at the preview stage back in December. There are two datacenters, with one located in Paris and one located in the south. Existing Office 365 customers in France can now use the new infrastructures, which have support for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect on May 25. However, the availability of Dynamics 365 services in France is yet to come, with arrival expected in "early 2019."

Microsoft also offered a few other datacenter expansion plan details. It's planning to expand into the Swiss market by adding new datacenters in Geneva and Zurich, which are expected to deliver Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 services by 2019. Blockchain support for the financial services industries could be added. Microsoft is partnering with telecom company Swisscom to deliver services to businesses and consumers in Switzerland.

There are also Microsoft datacenter expansion plans for Germany, although the city locations and timing weren't described.

Lastly, Microsoft plans to expand into the United Arab Emirates, adding datacenters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with "availability expected in 2019." Microsoft is partnering with Etisalat Digital to provide private Internet connectivity using Microsoft ExpressRoute technology, along with managed services support.

In another announcement, Microsoft reaffirmed its partnership with 21Vianet, a Chinese company that provides Azure and Office 365 services in China. The two companies are expanding Azure capacity in China, with an expectation to triple it "in the first half of 2018."Bitauto Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides internet content and marketing services, and transaction services for the automobile industry in the People's Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Advertising and Subscription Business, Transaction Services Business, and Digital Marketing Solutions Business. The Advertising and Subscription Business segment offers advertising services, including automobile pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews, and consumer feedback to automakers through its bitauto.com Website. It also provides transaction-focused online advertisement and promotional services for automakers, automobile dealers, auto finance partners, and insurance companies; and Web-based and mobile-based integrated digital marketing solutions to automobile dealers. The Transaction Services Business segment offers transaction platform and self-operated financing services. The Digital Marketing Solutions Business segment offers one-stop digital marketing solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online public relation, online marketing campaign, advertising agency, big data application, and digital image creation services. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

Read MoreKinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The firm engages in the operation of pipelines and terminals that transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other products and stores petroleum products chemicals and handles bulk materials like ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Product Pipelines and Kinder Morgan Canada. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment engages in the ownership and operation of major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems, natural gas and crude oil gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities. The CO2 segment focuses on the production, transportation and marketing of CO2 to oil fields that use CO2 as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields to increase production. The Terminals segment consists of the ownership and operation of liquids and bulk terminal facilities located throughout the U.S. and portions of Canada that trans load and store refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, ethanol and bulk products, including coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer,

Read MoreThis year, everyone on the planet was plunged into a brave new world, as the coronavirus pandemic[SAO PAULO] The Brazilian Supreme Court has declared constitutional several changes that had been made to the national Forest Code in 2012, which environmentalists say will put the restoration of large areas of the Amazon at risk.

By a majority vote of 6 to 5, the high courts ministers decided in favour of revoking fines and shelving environmental lawsuits for landowners who were registered in regulatory programmes designed to compensate for, and remedy, environmental damage caused by their activities.

The ruling gives constitutional amnesty to farmers who, prior to July 2008, cleared Legal Reserves  areas that by law must remain untouched  to set up agriculture and livestock activities.

Some environmentalists say the decision, which was issued on February 28, is unfair to farmers who have complied with the strict rules against deforestation that were established before the new code was adopted six years ago.

The current code allows a reduction of the protection zone, depending on the size of the property, that could [reduce the protection zone to] just five meters Sergius Gandolfi

This amnesty for environmental crimes will prevent to restore around 41 million forest hectares, says agronomist Jose Antonio Aleixo da Silva, from the Federal Rural University of Pernambucos department of forestry science.

To arrive at the decision, ministers took into consideration economic interests rather than scientific evidence, according to da Silva. One minister said that science was not to be considered in the process because it is simply guesswork, he tells SciDev.Net.

Both the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences had sent ministers a letter with technical and scientific arguments to support their analysis.

The trial started in September 2017, after the National Public Prosecutor's Office had questioned the constitutionality of 23 articles of the new Code, arguing that they pose a great risk for environmental conservation.

The ruling makes it legal to reduce from 80 per cent to 50 per cent the size of Legal Reserves in Amazon states or cities where indigenous reserves or protected areas take up more than half their total area.

It also allows the reduction in size of Areas of Permanent Protection (APAs). These are scattered across the country  some are located in headwaters, others in areas of strategic importance for agribusiness, and others next to lakes or rivers  in locations considered crucial for maintaining water supplies and preventing climate disasters such as floods and mudslides.

With the high courts ruling, landowners who illegally cleared APAs now have authorisation to clear 30 per cent more land than was allowed previously. The court decision also now allows farming activities on steep slopes and hilltops, a practice that favours soil erosion.

Sergius Gandolfi, a biologist from the University of Sao Paulos Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (Esalq-USP), believes the decision is a mistake and will have serious consequences for environmental conservation.

The Brazilian Supreme Court judged it at the convenience of powerful agribusiness interests, he tells SciDev.Net. It will perpetuate environmental degradation in protected areas, since it drastically reduces restoration that would help reverse the degradation that already exists, says Gandolfi, who participated in the discussions leading up to approval of the new Forest Code.

Between August 2016 and July 2017, 2,834 square kilometres of land was deforested in the Amazon rainforest  an area four times the size of Salvador, Bahias main city in the northeast.

According to research published earlier this year in Nature Communications, if forest destruction continues at the current rate  about 7,000 square kilometres per year in the Amazon  in three or four decades the cumulative forest loss will intensify the process of global warming, independently of efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

Nearly 90 per cent of Brazils rivers are less than 10 meters wide. As a protection measure, the 1965 version of the Code included a 30-meter riparian protection zone on both sides. The current code allows a reduction of the protection zone, depending on the size of the property, that could [reduce the protection zone to] just five meters, Gandolfi points out.

Roberta del Giudice, executive secretary of the Forest Code Observatory, says that from an environmental point of view, it is not possible to be optimistic about the decision. Although ministers emphasized the constitutional principles that safeguard environmental protection, the decisions taken were favourable to the reduction of environmental protection previously existing by Law, she highlights.

In the meantime, in Sao Paulo, researchers from the Esalq-USP have started to generate maps, quantitative data and other information to support implementation of the states Environmental Adjustment Program, which requires prioritising areas for compensation according to the requirements of the Forest Code.

We have already generated maps and information about how vegetation cover and agricultural production areas will be in 20 years, when the program is fully consolidated, said agronomist Ger Sparovek, from Esalq." " It might be hard to feign understanding if you're wearing this skullcap outfitted with wired electrodes that monitors brain activity and can assess comprehension. University of Rochester photo/courtesy Edmund Lalor

Remember the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher: "Wha wha wha wha ..."? Sometimes we can hear someone speaking, but that doesn't always mean we're tuning in. Now neuroscientists have identified a way of detecting brain signals that indicate when a person is actually understanding speech.

The technique, which applies machine learning, represents an advance in using relatively inexpensive EEG (electroencephalography) technology (think skullcap outfitted with wired electrodes) to monitor electrical brain activity and assess comprehension. The approach could offer a sensitive measure of language development in infants and comprehension among patients, including those in a reduced state of consciousness.

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"Speech is really amazing, but we're so used to it and our brains are so good at understanding a steady stream of words that we often take it for granted," says Edmund Lalor, associate professor of biomedical engineering and neuroscience at the University of Rochester and Trinity College Dublin. Lalor, who oversaw the study published March 2018 in the journal Current Biology, points out that words roll off the tongues of most speakers at an impressive clip  about 120 to 200 words per minute. Our brains, when alert, have little problem keeping up and interpreting the sounds as syllables, words, paragraphs and meaning.

To detect how much processing is happening as we interpret speech, Lalor and colleagues, including graduate student and lead author, Michael Broderick, first applied machine learning to audiobook recordings and addresses by former President Barack Obama to evaluate when key moments of comprehension should occur. "The machine learning ended up producing a big long vector of numbers for every word," Lalor says. "A word with high number value carries big meaning and should evoke a stronger EEG response." The machine learning's readout aligned with EEG readings from the brains of people listening to the same recordings, he says. Spikes in electrical charge from the brain corresponded to key moments of understanding.

To further test that the spikes in electrical signals corresponded to what people were hearing, the team took EEG readings in other situations where listening was compromised. In one, background noise made hearing the speaker difficult, and the listener's brain signals showed a weaker response (comprehension was improved when the listener was also able to see a video of the speaker). In another experiment, the listener's attention was muddled by the competing sound of another narrator telling a different story at the same time. "This simulates a real-world environment where you're in a noisy room and you have to focus your attention on one speaker and ignore the voices of everyone else around you," explains Broderick. In that noisy bar-like scenario, the subject's EEG readings also showed decreased comprehension.

Finally, the team played audiobook recordings backward. In those tests, Broderick says, the brain's response "disappeared" because the sounds clearly made no sense to the listeners.

The practice of detecting comprehension using EEGs isn't new. Since the early 1980s, researchers have pinpointed EEG spikes when people hear unexpected words in a series. The so-called N400 response is typically seen about 400 milliseconds after the incongruent word is heard. The problem, says Lalor, is in interpreting the meaning of the N400 signal.

"You give people a sentence like 'the dentist told me to brush my tree,' and it has this weird violation in it and so your brain responds. People are still debating what that response might mean," Lalor says. "What's different about ours is it's built on an assessment of the amount of meaning of each word in context. So it may allow us to better understand different aspects of linguistic processing."

While Lalor admits their model could be refined, he suggests that the EEG tests, which are much cheaper and more accessible than MRIs, could find several useful applications. Parents who may be concerned about their child's development could request them for children even as young as 18 months, when early language comprehension begins. At that stage, EEG readings should signal some basic language comprehension, Lalor says. If they don't, it could be an early sign of a language problem, which might not otherwise be diagnosed until a later age.

The testing also could offer an inexpensive way of evaluating patients in an apparent vegetative state. Lalor says it could be as simple as attaching electrodes to a patient, having them listen to an audiobook for an hour and then running analysis. Damian Cruse, a psychologist at the U.K.'s University of Birmingham who has analyzed brain function among people with compromised consciousness, called the team's method "very promising," adding that approaches like these could "provide families and caregivers with vital information."

Looking to the future, Lalor even envisions developing wearable EEG tests that could take an instant read on whether, say, a soldier in a field of battle, or a pilot in a busy airspace is not only hearing instructions, but  unlike the students in Charlie Brown's classroom  also registering them.

"If the signals are there," he says, "then you know that they're understanding."

Now That's Interesting Miss Othmar is the name of Linus van Pell's teacher in "Peanuts." She first appeared in the comic strip on Oct. 5, 1959, and from the very start Linus had an enormous crush on her.SINGAPORE, March 15 (Reuters) - Beijing WKW Automotive Parts plans to invest about 16 billion yuan ($2.53 billion) in a new energy car project, to cash in on the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly vehicles as part of China's efforts to cut pollution.

Beijing WKW Automotive Parts Co Ltd aims to set up a production base in the port city of Qinhuangdao in China's northeastern province of Hebei, it said in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange on Thursday.

It said the facility will have an annual capacity of 300,000 new energy cars, which include electric cars.

Beijing WKW, a joint venture set up by Beijing Zhonghuan Investment Management Co Ltd and Germany's WKW Erbsloeh Automotive GmbH, said it planned to invest 1.0 billion yuan to set up a unit for the project.

The plan has been given the go-ahead by the company's board and is pending approval from shareholders.

New energy vehicles are gaining traction in China, the world's largest auto market, with sales up 200 percent in January and February, sharply outpacing the country's overall vehicle sales growth of 1.7 percent during the same period. ($1 = 6.3157 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in SINGAPORE and Twinnie Siu in HONG KONG. Editing by Jane Merriman)Shares of three newly listed companies tumbled in China on Thursday after the country's securities regulator issued a record fine over manipulation of their stocks, the latest move in an official crackdown on financial irregularities. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday that it imposed a 5.5 billion yuan ($870 million) penalty on Shanghai-based logistics company Beibadao Group for manipulating the share prices of the three firms. It was the largest penalty ever handed out in China for such an infringement, according to Chinese media reports. Analysts said the fine impacted a number of stocks, offsetting strength in insurance and consumer shares and causing Chinese markets to end flat on Thursday. The three affected companies are listed on China's second exchange in Shenzhen. Jiangsu Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank dropped 7.68 percent to 8.90 yuan, Jiangsu Jiangyin Rural Commercial Bank fell 3.59 percent to 7.53 yuan and Guangdong Hoshion Industrial Aluminium lost 1.58 percent to 14.91 yuan. "Some newly listed shares were affected by the record fine, dragging down the prices of small caps in the markets," said Zhang Qi, an analyst with Haitong Securities. Regulators have become alarmed as Chinese companies made billions of dollars of sometimes questionable investments overseas in recent years, and as debt levels in the domestic economy soared. The government has since moved aggressively over the past 18 months to stanch the flow of funds overseas, rein in debt, and crack down on irregularities in the financial system. Among a number of recent moves, financial regulators last month took control of troubled insurer Anbang Insurance, saying the company's debt-fuelled foreign acquisition binge left it in financial peril and that high-flying founder and former chairman Wu Xiaohui would be prosecuted for fraud. China also unveiled plans this week 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.Erramon Aboitiz. (Photo: Getty Images)

By Cecilia Yap and Clarissa Batino

Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., a Philippine conglomerate mainly invested in power, is ready to spend about 200 billion pesos ($3.8 billion) in upgrading the Southeast Asian countrys rickety and overcrowded airports.

Airports is a play on consumer growth, on their increasing financial capability and on tourism, President and CEO Erramon Aboitiz said in an interview on March 13. The nations infrastructure requirements are tremendous all over. Were behind in everything except power.

Aboitiz Equity is part of a consortium of seven members that submitted a 350 billion-peso bid to modernize the Philippines main gateway. It also handed in a 148-billion-peso proposal to upgrade and operate four provincial airports.

The nations tycoons and some business groups are competing for a share of projects as President Rodrigo Duterte plans to spend $180 billion on infrastructure. The 70-year-old Manila airport has been ranked among the worlds worst as it handles well beyond the 30 million passengers it was designed for. Airports in the provinces of Iloilo, Bacolod and Laguindingan, which are gateways to tourism destinations in Visayas and Mindanao, have also become overcrowded as an economic boom boosts travel.

The conglomerate also owns Union Bank of the Philippines and Pilmico Foods Corp. It has budgeted about 77 billion pesos for capital spending this year, of which a portion would go to boosting cement capacity. Accounting for 70 percent of the parents revenue, Aboitiz Power Corp. will continue to get the bulk of the annual spending.

Union Bank is looking for opportunities to acquire smaller lenders to widen its reach to the small and micro depositors and borrowers, said Aboitiz, who is set to retire in 2019. He thinks that financial services in the digital age is a potential area for expansion.

To contact the reporters on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.net; Clarissa Batino in Manila at cbatino@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Linus Chua at lchua@bloomberg.net; Sam Nagarajan

 2018 Bloomberg L.PThousands of civilians poured out of Eastern Ghouta on Thursday after a month-long bombardment brought the Syrian regime closer to recapturing the devastated rebel enclave outside Damascus. Defying expectations and calls to step down, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was strengthening his grip on power as the conflict entered its eighth year. His troops advanced in a ferocious assault on Ghouta, once the opposition's main bastion on the outskirts of the capital. A war monitor said regime forces now control 70 percent of the area, splitting the remaining rebel territory into three shrinking pockets. After a fierce air and ground assault, regime forces on Thursday captured Hammuriyeh town, in an isolated southern part of Ghouta. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said rebels later launched a counter-attack and regained parts of the town, killing 14 regime fighters. Elsewhere, however, it said the regime overran Al-Rihan town in an assault led by Russian officers and advisers. The regime's advance into Hammuriyeh had punched a corridor through the town into government-controlled territory. Streams of women and children escaped through that corridor on Thursday, carrying plastic bags stuffed with clothes and pushing strollers piled high with suitcases and rugs. They reached a regime checkpoint in Adra district, where ambulances and large green buses waited to take them to temporary shelters. - 'Largest displacement' - The Observatory said nearly 20,000 people fled the enclave in 24 hours before the flow stopped on Thursday evening. It called the exodus "the largest displacement since the beginning of the assault on Ghouta." The United Nations said it was trying to determine how many people have left the enclave. "The UN has not observed the evacuations, but is visiting collective shelters where some of the evacuees are arriving," a UN spokesman said. Eastern Ghouta had been the main rebel bastion on the outskirts of Damascus since 2012 and came under a devastating regime siege the following year. That left the area's roughly 400,000 residents struggling to secure food and hospitals crippled by shortages of medicine and equipment. On Thursday, a joint convoy of food supplies for some 26,000 people entered Douma, the largest town in Ghouta and part of a separate rebel-controlled pocket. "This is just a little of what these families need," said the International Committee of the Red Cross, which delivered the aid alongside the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN. ICRC President Peter Maurer went with the convoy, the first time he had accompanied such an operation. Twenty-five trucks were delivering food parcels and flour bags to hunger-stricken Douma residents when mortar rounds hit nearby. Aid workers scrambled for cover, an AFP correspondent said, but were able to resume deliveries shortly afterwards. - Divide-and-conquer - Thursday's aid operation came after two consecutive days of medical evacuations from Douma, which saw dozens of civilians bussed out for treatment in Damascus. Ghouta was in May 2017 designated a "de-escalation zone" -- an area where violence is supposed to ease, paving the way for humanitarian assistance and a nationwide truce. But since February 18, Russian-backed government troops have pressed a ferocious air and ground assault that has brought most of Ghouta under government control. The Pentagon accused Russia of being "complicit" in atrocities. US President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, HR McMaster, said "all civilized nations must hold Iran and Russia accountable for their role in enabling atrocities and perpetuating human suffering in Syria." The remaining rebel-held areas have been cut off from each other, in what analyst Nawar Oliver said was part of a divide-and-conquer strategy. "The summary is that the regime cut up Ghouta into three zones, to comfortably work on securing three different agreements," said Oliver of the Turkey-based Omran Institute. Assad is determined to retake Ghouta in order to secure the capital, which is regularly battered by rockets and mortars fired from the adjacent rebel enclave. Dozens have been killed in rebel fire on Damascus in recent weeks, including one on Thursday, said state news agency SANA. The assault on Ghouta has left nearly 1,250 civilians dead, around a fifth of them children. The UN has made repeated demands for an immediate ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta, but they have gone unheeded. For the past seven years, international efforts to bring an end to the violence raging across Syria have consistently failed. The conflict has drawn in world powers, with Russia backing Assad and Turkey supporting an array of rebels in Syria's north against the regime, jihadists, and Kurds. On Friday the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran met in Kazakhstan's capital Astana for a fresh round of talks. Previous discussions in Astana last year paved the way for the de-escalation zones, which were credited with reducing government-rebel hostilities. But the United States has branded the zones a failure in the wake of the assault on Eastern Ghouta. In a separate front of the complex war, Ankara and allied Syrian factions on January 20 launched a sweeping ground and air assault against the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in northwestern Syria. The offensive has forced 30,000 civilians from Afrin city in the past 24 hours, the Observatory said. The city is home to around 350,000 people and is defended by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).Britain warned Thursday of "increasing pressure" on Hong Kong from an assertive Beijing after a raft of jailings of democracy activists and the disqualification of rebel lawmakers from the city's legislature. The comments come after President Xi Jinping was given a lifetime mandate as leader, signalling a harder line on any challenges to Chinese sovereignty across its territories. Since being handed back to China by Britain in 1997 semi-autonomous Hong Kong has enjoyed rights unseen on the mainland, such as freedom of speech and an independent judiciary. But there are increasing concerns those liberties are under threat. Britain's foreign secretary Boris Johnson said the denial of entry to Hong Kong in October of British human rights activist Benedict Rogers had fuelled the UK's concern. "Beijing's involvement in this case has strengthened our view that Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy is under increasing pressure," Johnson said in the UK's regular six-monthly report on the city. He also emphasised the importance of a free and fair judiciary after the jailings of leading pro-democracy activists on protest-related charges and the ousting from the legislature of four rebel lawmakers after an intervention from Beijing. Johnson said that while the judiciary "remains in high esteem" it was vital the government was "seen to use the system fairly in all cases". Hong Kong has come under increased pressure from Beijing since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014 brought parts of the city to a standstill. The rallies failed to win political reform and since then activists have emerged calling for self-determination or full independence from China, infuriating Beijing. Johnson reiterated Britain's opposition to the notion of independence for Hong Kong, saying it was not a "viable option" within the semi-autonomous deal enshrined in the handover agreement. However he urged the local government and Chinese authorities to respect the city's mini-constitution. Plans to bring part of a new Hong Kong railway station under mainland law have been called unconstitutional by critics, who say authorities are bypassing the proper legal procedures to push through Beijing-backed initiatives. "I believe it is vital that Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy is and is seen to be respected in full, allowing the people of Hong Kong and its authorities to tackle important issues for themselves," Johnson said.South Korea's National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong arrives at Incheon International Airport in Incheon South Korea's National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong arrives at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, March 15, 2018. Yonhap via REUTERS

(Corrects name of N. Korean to "Ri", not "Rong" in paragraph 16)

By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - China's President Xi Jinping offered encouragement for South Korea's initiative to nurture peaceful engagement with North Korea, and Russia also expressed support, the South Korean official leading diplomatic efforts said on Thursday.

During the past week, National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong briefed officials in Beijing and Moscow following his dramatic success in arranging summits between the North Korean, South Korean and U.S. leaders.

"Xi Jinping offered a Chinese phrase that says 'once hard ice melts, spring comes and flowers bloom' to describe the situation on the Korean peninsula and expressed his willingness to support the current situation," Chung told reporters on his return to Incheon International Airport.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told the South Korean delegation led by Chung that he was open to addressing denuclearising with the United States, an offer that led to U.S. President Trump agreeing to meet Kim for a summit expected to happen sometime in May.

There was growing speculation on Thursday that Trump and Kim will meet Sweden, after its foreign ministry announced North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho was arriving imminently for two days of talks with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to hold a summit with the North's Kim by the end of April.

The South's preparation committee for the inter-Korean summit, led by Moon's chief of staff Im Jong-seok, will hold its first official meeting on Friday, presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a briefing.

The committee is comprised of presidential and government officials including the ministers of unification, foreign affairs and defence, Kim said.

Separately, a South Korean official said it was too early to discuss joint economic projects with Pyongyang.

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The same official said China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi would visit Seoul on Tuesday for talks with South Korean security officials.

TRAVELLING DIPLOMATS

The flurry of diplomatic activity comes after a year-long verbal spat between Kim Jong Un and Trump, with tensions exacerbated by multiple missile and nuclear tests by the North which has said it will forge on with its nuclear programme to protect its regime.

"China and Russia agreed to continue cooperation to uphold the peace that has been created, as well as the momentum for stability through close communication," Chung said.

North Korea has friendly ties with both Beijing and Moscow, and China is by far its biggest trading partner.

Pyongyang has remained silent over its agreement for the summits since Chung returned from the North, although officials in Seoul have said they expect to continue working talks soon to work out details for the inter-Korean summit.

Ri's sudden visit to Sweden spurred talk that the summit could take place there. Sweden's embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. diplomatic interests in North Korea in the absence of U.S. diplomatic relations with the country.

(Additional reporting by Josh Smith in SEOUL, Chang-Ran Kim in TOKYO, and Johan Sennero and Daniel Dickson in STOCKHOLM; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)China's industrial output strengthened in the first two months of the year, official data showed Wednesday, led by production at state enterprises. Output at factories and workshops expanded 7.2 percent year-on-year in January and February combined, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, beating the 6.2 percent recorded in December and the 6.2 percent forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. The higher output comes even as authorities press on with their fight against smog by clamping down on polluting heavy industries. The drastic measures are working, with a recent analysis by the University of Chicago showing that cities have cut levels of PM 2.5 -- the tiny airborne particles considered most harmful to health -- by an average of 32 percent over the past four years. "The national economy has maintained stable and sound development in the first two months of 2018," said NBS spokesman Mao Shengyong. It "is a good start for high-quality development" Mao said, using President Xi Jinping's new buzzword for the "new era" economy China is aiming for. The retail sector -- which China is counting on to propel its high-quality development -- recorded solid growth, a sign that China's rebalancing from its export and investment led economic model to one driven by consumer spending is well underway. Retail sales for the first two months rose 9.7 percent, year-on-year, up from 9.4 percent in December, but slightly below forecasts of 9.8 percent. Online sales also boomed in the first two months, jumping 37.3 percent on year, the data showed. The data comes at a time of great uncertainty for China's export machine as political machinations in Washington threaten exports to one of its largest markets. The administration of US President Donald Trump unveiled new tariffs on steel and aluminium earlier this month and is expected to publish a damning review of China's intellectual property practices in coming weeks. Still, for now, China's exporters are benefitting from a humming global economy with exports up 44.5 percent in February compared with the same period last year, data released last week showed. Fixed asset investment grew 7.9 percent year-on-year for the first two months, beating expectations of 7.0 percent, and reversing a trend of falling investment seen in the latter half of 2017. China's gross domestic product grew at 6.9 percent last year, the first annual acceleration since 2010.Colombia's government and ELN guerrillas resumed peace talks in the Ecuadoran capital on Thursday, more than two months after they were suspended over a spate of rebel attacks. The latest round of talks, being held in a hacienda run by the Jesuit religious community outside Quito, are aimed at agreeing a new ceasefire that would pave the way for a final peace agreement. "We can see the light at the end of the road that will lead us to the end of armed conflict with the National Liberation Army (ELN), to build a lasting and stable peace," said the head of the government delegation Gustavo Bell. President Juan Manuel Santos, who is due to leave office in August, is trying to conclude a peace agreement with Colombia's last active rebel group, similar to the one he signed with Marxist guerrillas FARC in November 2016, which has since transformed into a political party. However, the latest round of talks are being held against the backdrop of a more hostile political context in Colombia, after hardline conservatives opposed to making peace with the rebels gained ground in legislative elections Sunday. Santos announced Monday that the talks would resume following the rebels' unilateral ceasefire during the 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, following a series of attacks on police stations that left six people dead and dozens more wounded. The ELN "will continue talking" and "does not reject peace," said its leader Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, according to a statement released by negotiators. In a separate development not affecting the ceasefire, at least six people were killed and two wounded in a clash between ELN forces and a drug trafficking gang in northeastern Colombia, the army said Thursday. The firefight displaced six families and was sparked by a turf war over several municipalities in the department of Norte de Santander, on the Venezuelan border, it said. The clashes occurred after a meeting in which both factions "did not reach an agreement" for control of the region, "so they decided to kill each other," General Alberto Mejia told Colombian media.By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado man was arrested this week as a suspect in two shootings, one of them fatal, that rattled people in the northern part of the state in 2015, authorities said on Thursday.

Christopher David Parker, 35, is being held without bond in the Larimer County jail in Fort Collins, Colorado, in connection with the shooting death of a pedestrian and for firing at a motorcyclist, both in the city of Loveland, on June 3, 2015, a task force formed to probe the shootings said in a statement. Loveland is about 45 miles north of Denver.

"These two shootings were linked by forensic evidence, but have not been linked to any other shootings being investigated by the task force," the statement said.

The Northern Colorado Task Force, comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, was formed to investigate six shootings in multiple counties in 2015.

Police said a tip led them to Parker as a suspect in the murder of 65-year-old William Connole, and in the shooting at the motorcyclist the same night.

Parker, who lives in Loveland, was taken into custody without incident on Tuesday. He is set to make his first appearance in Larimer County District Court on March 20, according to a court docket entry.

Parker's court-appointed lawyers declined to comment when contacted by telephone.

Among the other shootings the task force is investigating are the May 2015 killing of bicyclist John Jacoby, shot twice near the town of Windsor, about 60 miles north of Denver, and the wounding of Cori Romero, who was shot in the neck while driving on Interstate 25 in Larimer County a month earlier.

Authorities said Thursday those two shootings were connected, but did not disclose how or whether Parker was tied to them.

Police are also investigating whether Parker is linked to the 2015 firing of gunshots into an unoccupied school and a healthcare clinic in the city of Fort Collins. No one was injured in either of those incidents.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Tom Brown)Two Hong Kong policemen were on Thursday shot by a drunk man who snatched a gun from one of them, sparking calls for top brass to review the design of officers holsters.

It was the third time in four years that a member of the public fired an officers weapon, or what stopped while trying to.

The suspect fired three shots, Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung revealed after visiting the officers at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin.

The man was understood to have pulled the trigger twice while the gun was still in the holster at the officers waist, and fired the third shot after managing to draw the gun.

The two injured constables had had surgery and were in a stable condition by Thursday evening.

The incident happened at a flat in Mau Lam House, Kwong Lam Court  a Home Ownership Scheme complex in Sha Tin with 1,836 flats in three houses. A team of five officers had been sent there after a family called to report that a man was drunk and creating a disturbance at home.

When two of the officers were trying to put the man  who was excited and appeared heavily drunk  under control, the man suddenly snatched a holstered gun from one of them and fired three shots in a row, Lo said at the hospital, adding that one constable was shot in his right hand and right leg, while a bullet grazed the others right leg.

A police source said the dispute erupted at about midnight. He described the scene as chaotic, with the pair of officers trying to pin the suspect to the ground. But the suspect resisted.

One of his hands was already handcuffed, but he managed to reach the holster in such a messy situation, the source said. They were wrestling on the ground.

Shum Wai-nam, the co-founder of Civil Rights Observer, a group founded in 2014 to monitor police policy, said he was puzzled by how the man could take the gun so easily and open fire.

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The design of the holster should maintain the stability and safety of the handgun. The force must find out the cause and fix it, otherwise it will not only jeopardise the safety of officers but also members of public, Shum said.

A frontline police officer said the force had used the same specially designed holster for about 25 years.

The straight-pull is designed to prevent the gun from being snatched easily as the gun is fixed in position by a metal clip inside the holster. This requires a special technique to pull the gun out, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said every officer underwent three handgun training sessions every year.

We are also taught about what to do when a mugger reaches for our holster in different scenarios. But, to be fair, there are countless scenarios in reality, and we cant learn them all

Frontline police officer

We are also taught about what to do when a mugger reaches for our holster in different scenarios. But, to be fair, there are countless scenarios in reality, and we cant learn them all, he added.

Hong Kong Police Inspectors Association chairman Jimes Lee Jim-on expressed the same view. We learn counter-techniques. But situations are ever-changing, he said.

Graftbuster turned legislator Lam Cheuk-ting from the Democratic Party said no holster could guarantee full safety as the design should balance ease of drawing the gun quickly with preventing it from being snatched.

Officers would fail to pull the gun quickly in an emergency if it required too many security steps, Lam said.

The suspect was eventually subdued and arrested by officers at the scene. He was detained by police.

Lo did not explain how the suspect got hold of the weapon, but promised that the details of the incident would be disclosed to the public after a thorough investigation.

Frontline officers often face and handle breaking and dangerous situations. This is one of the challenges of officers duties, he said.

This is not the first time a suspect has snatched policemans gun and fired it.

In 2014, three policemen and a health care assistant at the emergency ward of North District Hospital were injured when a man from the mainland grabbed an officers gun and fired six shots. The weapon was still holstered at the officers waist when the shots were fired.

Last September, a 39-year-old man attempted to snatch a gun from a patrolling officer on a street in Sai Wan, but was immediately brought under control. The man was later convicted of one count of attempted possession of arms without a licence.

This article Drunk man snatches Hong Kong policemans gun and fires three shots, injuring two officers first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.By Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's friends and family have been increasingly successful in winning publicly funded business since he resumed power in 2010, a Reuters analysis of public procurement data shows.

Companies owned or controlled by 10 businessmen - including Orban's childhood friend Lorinc Meszaros and his business partners, and his son-in-law Istvan Tiborcz and his associates - have collectively secured 1.975 trillion forints ($7.85 billion) worth of tenders for contracts funded by public money since 2010, the analysis shows.

That is more than 10 percent of the value of such contracts over the period. The total includes contracts awarded either directly or in consortia, and direct contracts as well as framework agreements.

The 10 men's share of the total surged last year, when public procurement in Hungary reached a record high of 3.63 trillion forints. In 2017, companies they controlled won business worth 28 percent of that, up from around 1-2 percent before Orban took power.

"Reuters' analysis uncovered new hard data and arrived at a valid summary, which contribute to this field in a relevant way," said Istvan Janos Toth, an economist with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Toth is also director of the Corruption Research Centre Budapest (CRCB). The analysis used data collected by the CRCB from the Public Procurement Agency's website.

Neither the government nor Orban responded to requests for comment.

The 10 emerged during reporting for a special report from Lake Balaton, one of central Europe's top tourist destinations. After Orban announced major public funding for tourism projects in the region in 2014, the men bought into properties in the Balaton city of Keszthely.

Orban's son-in-law Tiborcz was the first new investor. He pulled out of one property in 2015 after controversy around his purchase, but a company he co-owns now holds a stake in the resort's largest hotel. This company, Reuters found, is entitled to 45 percent of profits from the hotel and another in its portfolio.

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He did not respond to a request for comment.

EUROPEAN FUNDS

Orban, whose party, Fidesz, faces elections on April 8, has made strengthening local businessmen a cornerstone of his economic policy. Polls show the premier, 54, is likely to secure a third straight term in office, although a united opposition has made his campaign less predictable.

The Balaton investment will include European Union funds.

The EU has "zero tolerance to fraud with EU funds and therefore insists on a clear commitment from all member states to prevent fraud," a Commission spokesperson said by email. The spokesperson did not respond directly to Reuters findings.

In its 2016 annual report, the EU's anti-fraud office (Office europeen de lutte antifraude or OLAF) recommended that Brussels ask Hungary to repay EU funds totalling more than 4 percent of the cash Europe has given it between 2012 and 2015, the highest rate of any EU member country by far.

OLAF declined to discuss specific projects, but says on its website it makes such recommendations when it believes EU money has been "defrauded or irregularly misspent." Suspected violations can include projects that have been overpriced, involved collusion with bidders, or pointed to conflicts of interest.

($1 = 253.0400 forints)

Figures in millions of forints

Year Total of Total public SHARE (pct)

Keszthely 10 procurement

2005 14 141 1 291 300 1.10

2006 7 245 1 685 800 0.43

2007 32 977 1 521 300 2.17

2008 32 810 1 417 900 2.31

2009 46 177 1 809 800 2.55

2010 23 201 1 496 500 1.55

2011 22 279 1 457 200 1.53

2012 88 965 1 333 500 6.67

2013 181 884 2 394 300 7.60

2014 147 558 2 135 900 6.91

2015 146 102 1 931 600 7.56

2016 204 595 2 007 100 10.19

2017 1 014 417 3 629 900 27.95

2018 145 931 n/a n/a

TOTAL 2 108 289 24 112 100 3.93

Total since 2010 1 974 936 16 386 000 11.16

Total before 2010 133 352 7 726 100 1.73

Source: Hungary's Public Procurement Authority (via the Corruption Research Centre Budapest for all except total annual values); Reuters calculations.

($1 = 251.4600 forints)

(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Edited by Sara Ledwith and Richard Woods)Facebook said Wednesday it was responding to Sri Lanka's concerns over incendiary material shared on its platform and hoped internet restrictions imposed during anti-Muslim riots last week would be lifted soon. The government has refused to end an island-wide blackout on Facebook until the tech giant agrees to take quicker action to remove hateful content. Sri Lanka blocked the social network after police warned online hate speech was fuelling violence as mosques and Muslim businesses were burned in a week of unrest, mainly in central Sri Lanka, that left at least three people dead. "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," a Facebook spokesperson told AFP. "We are concerned with the way access to the internet is being restricted and depriving people of important connections and expression, and we hope that access will be restored soon." A state of emergency was declared and internet services suspended entirely in Kandy, the worst-hit central district, for several days last week as authorities sought to disrupt the riots. Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando said Tuesday Facebook had told the government it lacked sufficient "resources" to effectively review content in Sinhala, the language of Sri Lanka's majority ethnic group behind the violence. Facebook said it was increasing staff numbers but gave no further details. It is believed to have 14,000 staff across the globe tasked with reviewing offensive content and the number is tipped to rise to 20,000 by the end of this year. 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.The United States heads to next week's Group of 20 finance ministers meeting looking for partners in confronting Beijing over its trade practices, a senior Treasury Department official said Thursday. Talks in Buenos Aires between the world's largest advanced and emerging economies will occur amid raw tensions over President Donald Trump's increasingly confrontational trade policies. The White House last week announced a raft of tariffs and is poised to unveil more soon. "We have been working with like-minded countries around the world to recognize the problems that China's trade policies and investment policies cause for the rest of the world," the Treasury official told reporters in a briefing given on condition of anonymity. "There's been substantial recognition of this problem." A senior Trump trade advisor warned Thursday the president will soon consider additional tariffs on Chinese products to retaliate for China's alleged theft of American companies' intellectual property. US officials have long accused Beijing of fostering massive overcapacity in the metals sector and forcing foreign companies to surrender proprietary technology as a condition of operating in China. But US trading partners have condemned Washington's decision to impose sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, with markets and lawmakers warning of the risk of a trade war and higher consumer prices. The Treasury official also said the United States would work to address energy investment in Latin America and the current crisis in Venezuela as well as possible new regulations for cryptocurrencies and counterterrorism finance, particularly concerning North Korea's nuclear program. The United States will seek to build consensus in these other areas even if trade policy remains a source of tension, the official said. "While there can be trade frictions there can also be a lot of cooperation in areas involving growth, in involving terrorism financing, involving crypto assets and that's what I expect," the official said.Demonstrators clash with riot police officers during a protest against home auctions in Athens Demonstrators are pushed back by with riot police officers during a protest against home auctions in Athens, Greece, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas

ATHENS (Reuters) - Dozens of Greek protesters clashed with police on Wednesday as they tried to storm a notary's office to prevent an e-auction of repossessed properties under the country's international bailout.

The protesters, led by the left-wing Popular Unity party, chanted "No home in the hands of bankers!" and threw eggs and garbage at a line of police guarding the office's entrance.

At least one protester was visibly injured in the scuffles, with blood around his eye.

The auctions, a condition of the bailouts Greece negotiated with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, have often been disrupted by leftist activists who say they are unfair and target the poor.

Notaries, who handle the auctions, boycotted them for months over safety concerns, but returned to work after the government said it would improve the process and increase security. Online auctions began in November.

Greek banks are saddled with more than 100 billion euros in bad loans after years of financial crisis, mainly due to people's inability to repay mortages.

Popular Unity said four e-auctions had been scheduled to take place at the office in Athens targeted by the protesters on Wednesday, each involving accumulated debts of up to 100,000 euros.

(Reporting by Costas Baltas; Writing by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Gareth Jones)By Keith Coffman

LITTLETON, Colo. (Reuters) - Like most of her friends at Columbine High School, Abigail Orton had not yet been born when a shooting attack at her school in a Denver suburb left 15 people dead and horrified the country.

She was raised in a world in which students have regular active-shooter drills, as their parents once had fire drills, and she joined Wednesday's national student walkout against gun violence to help prevent massacres, such as the one at Columbine in 1999, from happening again.

"I grew up in a community still haunted by the tragedy from 19 years ago. I can see the haunted looks in the eyes of teachers and parents who went through it," said the 16-year-old sophomore.

"We want to make changes so no one has to have that look ever again," said Orton, one of thousands of students who took part in protests across the country on the one-month anniversary of the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students and faculty were killed.

Columbine is one of more than 2,800 U.S. schools whose students participated in an #ENOUGH rally, with about 250 students walking out of class for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. local time.

The walkouts were the latest action by a student-led gun control movement that emerged from the Parkland massacre. It has already helped pass new restrictions on weapons sales in Florida, though enthusiasm for action in Congress appears to be fading.

"What happened here and at Parkland should never happen again," said Leah Zundel, 15, a sophomore at the school of 1,664 students, who took part in Wednesday's walkout. "We shouldn't have to go to school in fear for our lives."

Few teachers or staff who were present for the April 20, 1999, attack still work at Columbine High, but the man who served as its principal at the time returned on Wednesday in solidarity with the student walkout.

Frank DeAngelis, who retired as Columbine's principal in 2004, said he considered the student-led movement "phenomenal."

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"If the adults won't do anything about it, they will," he said.

A wide array of policy prescriptions have been put forward to stem mass shootings since the Florida attack. That state's legislature has raised the minimum age to buy any sort of gun to 21, from 18, in recognition of the fact that the accused 19-year-old shooter used a legally purchased AR-15 assault-style rifle in the rampage.

Democrats have called for a ban on that style of weapon, which has been used in four of the five deadliest mass shootings by a single gunman in U.S. history. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have advocated arming teachers to provide a stiffer defence of schools.

Columbine attack survivor Evan Todd said he saw little sense in restricting gun rights, which are enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as an attempt to stop shootings and would rather see some school staff armed.

"Criminals don't pay attention to laws," said Todd, who was a sophomore when he was wounded in the shooting and is now a 34-year-old construction worker. "It's maddening that students are left as sitting ducks."

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)China is hoping that a change to its government structure will help the campaign to get some of the countrys 350 million smokers to quit the habit.

As part of a sweeping reshuffle, a new health commission will take over from the industry ministry as the government body responsible for tobacco control, implementing a set of international rules from the World Health Organisation.

Beijing signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and it took effect in China in 2006. But compliance has been limited, and China is still a bad example on smoking more than a decade after Beijing decided to implement the rules.

China is the worlds largest producer and consumer of tobacco. About one in every three of the worlds smokers lives in China, and they use about 44 per cent of the tobacco manufactured globally, according to WHO data.

It demonstrates Chinas determination to clear any obstacles in the way of tobacco control

Wu Yiqun, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

Analysts say one of the reasons China has seen little progress in discouraging smoking is that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has been in charge of tobacco control, while it also has close ties to the industry via China National Tobacco Corp and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration.

The situation of the industry ministry taking responsibility for both tobacco control and the tobacco industry is a dark joke, Wu Yiqun, a researcher at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement.

Wu, an advocate of stricter tobacco control, also said it was a direct violation of the convention, which states that the rules should be implemented by an authority without industry interests.

But she was hopeful that the change to the new health commission could lead to more serious and effective tobacco control, saying it will free the campaign from the shackles of tobacco industry interests.

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It demonstrates Chinas determination to clear any obstacles in the way of tobacco control, she said.

In China, some 27 per cent of the population smokes, versus the global average of 22 per cent, and about 100,000 people die from passive smoking-related illnesses each year, according to the WHO.

In total, about one million deaths are caused by tobacco every year in China  and that number could rise to three million by 2050 if the country does not act, the organisation has warned.

While President Xi Jinping was praised as a good model for quitting smoking by then WHO director general Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun in 2016, the country as a whole lags behind other places in efforts to curb smoking through packaging, pricing and smoking bans in public areas.

On packaging, the goal under the framework is to have health warnings covering more than half of the main display areas of tobacco products, but in China the authorities have kept this to 30 per cent. Health warnings are also not shown in pictures or pictograms  which means cigarettes are still a popular gift in Chinese society. Under the framework, member countries are supposed to deliver on goals three years after they sign the convention.

Are cigarettes too affordable for Chinas young people?

Pricing is also a problem. According to a survey released by the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing this month, cigarettes are too cheap in China to deter smoking, especially among young people. A packet of cigarettes can be bought for as little as 3 to 5 yuan, or about 50 to 80 US cents, in most cities and rural areas.

The tobacco industry is also as an important source of government revenues in many parts of China, adding another layer of resistance to the quit campaign. Imposing controls on smoking remains difficult because the industry is state-owned and highly lucrative. Last year, Chinese manufacturers of tobacco products made 97.2 billion yuan in profits, although that was down by 6.3 per cent from 2016, according to statistics bureau data.

A move to ban smoking in all indoor and some outdoor public places has also stumbled. The State Council, Chinas cabinet, issued a draft law at the end of 2014 which was tabled in the legislature in 2016. But a watered-down draft included exemptions such as restricting non-smoking areas in workplaces to communal spaces and allowing smoking areas in restaurants and airports. The law has yet to be passed.

Details of how the new health commission will tackle the fight against tobacco are yet to be revealed.

The leadership handover is the first step. The next possible step that we expect is to separate the regulatory role from sales and production in the tobacco industry, said Wang Kean, director of the ThinkTank Research Centre for Health Development in Beijing.

This article Chinas ministry in charge of tobacco control had ties to the tobacco industry. Not anymore first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.Prime Minister Viktor Orban told around 100,000 supporters gathered in Budapest on Thursday that Hungary's "way of life will lose its meaning" if his opponents win the upcoming parliamentary elections. Orban told the rally, a show of strength ahead of the April 8 vote, that he was the defender of "millions with national feeling" against the "globalist elite". He repeated his key campaign themes in attacking international NGOs and US billionaire George Soros -- whom he accuses of meddling in Hungarian politics -- as well as his vehement opposition to immigration. "Large western European countries bit by bit are losing their own countries, they want to force us to do the same," he told the crowd. "Africa wants to kick down our door, and Brussels is not defending us." He added: "We will take moral, legal and political revenge after the elections" on opponents, in what some opposition politicians have interpreted as a threat. Another 10,000 people gathered for a counter-demonstration, according to an estimate by an AFP journalist at the scene. A further 5,000 attended a leftwing rally organised by the socialist MSZP party and former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's DK, with another 5,000 at a students' demonstration. Despite polls consistently showing a majority of Hungarians are dissatisfied with the government, 54-year-old Orban looks firmly on course to win a third consecutive term. But a surprise by-election defeat for Orban's ruling Fidesz party last month suggests the race may be tighter than expected, especially if turnout is high. - 'Homeland before all' - Critics say the charismatic strongman has eroded democratic institutions like the independent judiciary and the media, and steered Hungary towards authoritarian one-party rule. After he came to power in 2010, Orban placed loyalists in charge of state institutions and rewrote both the constitution and election rules, cementing his grip on power. His second four-year term has been dominated by nationalistic and anti-immigration campaigns that detractors say have stoked xenophobia in the central European country of 10 million. But bolstered by an improving economy and with the opposition divided, the former student leader of demonstrations that brought down communism nearly 30 years ago still enjoys strong support among his base. They say Orban defends Hungary against Soros and in his clashes with the EU, and that his reforms are cleaning up a mess left by previous Socialist-led governments. Numbers at the pro-Orban "Peace March" were swelled by people brought in from outside the capital and also from Poland, which has also clashed with Brussels. At the front of the march was a banner reading "Homeland Before All", while others carried slogans saying: "God protect Hungary and Poland from leftwing ideology!" "This government supports the Hungarian people by helping them start families," David Magyar, a 23-year-old economics student told AFP. "We feel safe here," said a 53-year-old business woman, who gave her name only as Gyongyi. "There isn't a single refugee running around the streets." - Divided opposition - At one of the smaller counter-demonstrations, a banner of the opposition MSZP-DK read: "Down with the Christian dictatorship of Orban!" Protester Erzsike, 74, said she was worried that opposition divisions could favour Fidesz in Hungary's voting system, which is predominantly first past the post: "Without coordination, we have no chance," she said. Addressing the crowd, Gyurcsany admitted the splintered opposition "can only win and govern together" and announced his party was standing aside in one district to clear the way for another opposition leader. Gabor Vona, the leader of the main far-right opposition party Jobbik, told another rally attended by around 2,000 people that his party "will bring back freedom" and emphasised his anti-corruption message.Israel's military hit Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Palestinians set off two bombs near the border fence, the military said, with no casualties reported. Israel's military also said it suspected based on surveillance video there was "an attempt" to fire rocket-propelled grenades toward its forces, but nothing was hit. If confirmed, it would be the first time such weapons were used by Gaza militants against Israeli forces since a 2014 war, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said. A security source from Hamas, the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip, said that one Israeli round hit an observation post near the border, causing damage but no casualties. He said that earlier, shortly after sunrise, there were explosions near the border. Israel said two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated some 100 metres away from the fence on the Gaza side. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts and Israel said it could not say who was behind it, though it held Hamas responsible as the de facto power in the Palestinian enclave. Israel said the IEDs were detonated "toward" soldiers in a vehicle on the Israeli side of the fence near the northeastern Gaza Strip at around 6:00 am. "It appears that there was also an attempt to fire RPG rockets toward the force," Conricus said. "We don't have the final confirmation of that yet, but that is currently our working assumption." Israel's army then hit what it said were four military positions in the strip belonging to Hamas and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad with tank fire and another with air power, Conricus said. Israel also warned Hamas not to use civilian protests that occur near the border fence as cover to carry out attacks against its forces. Beginning on March 30, Gazans are planning to erect hundreds of tents near the Israeli border for a six-week show of support for Palestinian refugees. On February 17, four Israeli soldiers were wounded by an improvised explosive device on the border, sparking intense military retaliation. Israel warplanes attacked 18 "terror targets belonging to Hamas" in Gaza in response to the blast, which severely wounded two of the soldiers, and a subsequent Palestinian rocket attack on southern Israel. The following day, troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near the border, Gaza medical sources said. The Israeli army said at the time that soldiers fired "warning shots" at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence "in a suspicious manner" but could not confirm Palestinian casualties. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. The strip has been under an Israeli blockade for around a decade.A Spanish restaurant chain cannot trademark a name containing the word "Mafia" because it "trivialises" the Italian criminal organisation, an EU court ruled on Thursday. Judges in Luxembourg backed an appeal by the Italian government against the use of the trademark by La Mafia Se Sienta a la Mesa (The Mafia take a Seat at the Table). The chain, which has 40 Italian-style restaurants in Spain, has a logo reminiscent of posters for the film "The Godfather, with the words "La Mafia" in large white letters superimposed over a picture of a red rose on a black background. "The mark 'La Mafia Se Sienta a la Mesa' is contrary to public policy," the General Court of the European Union, the second-highest court in the 28-nation bloc, said in a statement. The trademark "refers to a criminal organisation, conveys a globally positive image of that organisation and trivialises the serious harm done by that organisation to the fundamental values of the EU," the court said. The company that runs the chain, La Mafia Franchises, originally applied for the trademark in 2005. But the EU's intellectual property office turned it down in 2015 after the Italian government objected saying it was "contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality." La Mafia Franchises then lodged an appeal against the decision, which the EU General Court rejected in its strongly worded statement. It said that the word mafia was the "dominant element" of the trademark "and is understood worldwide as referring to a criminal organisation that resorts, inter alia, to intimidation, physical violence and murder in carrying out its activities". The strongly worded statement went on to say that "those criminal activities breach the very values on which the EU is founded" and which "make up the spiritual and moral heritage of the EU". "Moreover, given their cross-border dimension, the Mafia's criminal activities are a serious threat to security throughout the EU." The issue of the Italian criminal organisation is particularly sensitive in Europe after the murder of a Slovak journalist who had been probing alleged high-level corruption linked to the mafia.FILE IMAGE: DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III attending to some OFWs concern

MANILA, Philippines  Eight members of the Kuwaiti delegation are here in the Philippines to negotiate with Filipino authorities regarding an agreement to protect the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in the said Arab nation.

The proposed pact is called Agreement on Domestic Workers Recruitment, Employment, and Protection Between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the State of Kuwait.

It covers all OFW household service workers and skilled workers in Kuwait.

The provisions include:

prohibiting employers from confiscating passports of workers

allowing workers to keep their cellphones

requiring the permission of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO)when transferring workers to another employer

Pag-uusapan lahat ng probisyon (We will discuss all provisions) that will provide our OFWs maximum and optimum protection while they are there, said Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello.

Bello insisted that if Kuwait will not allow their request, the said agreement will not be approved, and the Philippine government will continue to enforce the total deployment ban.

If we cannot be assured of the protection of our workers, the deployment ban might not be lifted, said the labor secretary.

He added that President Rodrigo Duterte also seeks to create a similar agreement with other countries as well.

Since 2016, almost 200 OFW have died in the Middle East.

This is aside from the estimated 6,000 cases of abuse, sexual harassment, and rape recorded by the Philippine Embassy in 2017.

The Philippine government issued a deployment ban on Kuwait after the remains of OFW Joanna Demafelis was found in a freezer at an apartment in the said Muslim country.

Bello said that even if the agreement will be signed, the deployment ban will continue until the Demafelis case is resolved.

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The labor chief also noted that they are also considering implementing the deployment ban should the abuse of OFWs continue.

The negotiations will begin Thursday and will end on Friday. In the last week of March, the draft guidelines of the agreement will be released.  Mon Jocson | UNTV News & Rescue

The post PH-Kuwaits bilateral agreement on OFW rights, expected before end of March appeared first on UNTV News.FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in his speech during the opening ceremony of the National Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Challenge at the Team Davao Inc. Pistol and Rifle Range in Ma-a, Davao City on March 1, 2018, expresses his admiration for the SWATs role in dealing with criminality, illegal drugs and terrorism. JOEY DALUMPINES/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines  Violation of due process and attacks from United Nations (UN) officials that violate the constitutional provision on the presumption of innocence are the reasons why President Rodrigo Duterte decided on the Philippines withdrawal from the International Criminal Courts (ICC) founding treaty, the Rome Statute, effective immediately.

ICC hears cases on crimes against humanity.

Ang nagiging problema kasi sa ICC (The problem with ICC), from the perception of the President, it has become a political tool to harass a particular country like ours, said presidential chief legal counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo.

Based on the statement of the President, there appears to be a concerted effort on the part of the UN special rapporteurs to paint him as a ruthless and heartless violator of human rights who allegedly caused thousands of extrajudicial killings.

The President also claims that the ICC has made a premature public pronouncement of its preliminary examination on the anti-drug war of his administration.

The examination came after the information was filed by the camp of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato and his lawyer Atty. Jude Sabio as well as Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano in 2017.

The President argued that such move gave the impression that he has already been charged of serious crimes in the International Criminal Court under its jurisdiction.

It was in 2011 when the Philippines joined the ICC as the 117th member-state after it ratified its Rome Statute.

However, this is not enforceable because the government then failed to publicize the said Rome Statute in its Official Gazette.

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Rome Statute should have been published in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation before it could be deemed effective in this country. Since it was not, there is no Rome Statute to speak of in the first place, said the presidential chief legal counsel.

Aside from this, the government also insists that the acts complained of in relation to the anti-drug war are neither genocide nor war crimes since the deaths occurring in the process of legitimate police operation lacked the intent to kill and police only defended themselves against violent resistance of drug personalities.

The statements of UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard as well as UN human rights chief Raad Zeid al-Hussein are biased and show a refusal to respect the Philippines independence from foreign influence and control.

The preliminary examination also by Prosecutor Fatou Besouda seems to appear that ICC is being used as a political tool against the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Senate President Koko Pimentel said they have no power to reverse the decision of the President on the issue of withdrawal from ICC.

Its just simple notification from the state, said Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.

If I were president, gagawin ko rin yun . Imagine, sino nagrereklamo? Tapos ano ang mga alegasyon? Hindi ba ito domestic policy? This is law enforcement, said Pimentel.

( If I were president I wouldve done the same. Imagine, who is complaining? What are the allegations? Is this not a domestic policy? This is law enforcement.)

The government, on the other hand, denied that President Duterte is copping out from his alleged potential liability or responsibility.

Ever since naman sinasabi ni President Duterte na were open to investigation from any human rights body. Pumunta lang kayo rito. Hindi yung you rely on what you read, on what you received on the kind of information na false. Punta kayo rito. Tignan ninyo yung bansa natin, said Panelo.

(The President ever since has said that were open to investigation from any human rights body. Just come to the country and not rely on what you read, what you receive  the kind of information that is false. Come here and check out for yourself.)  Rosalie Coz | UNTV News and Rescue

The post PH withdraws from International Criminal Court appeared first on UNTV News.Russia is "complicit" in atrocities perpetrated by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because of its "deliberate" choice to violate terms of a ceasefire in besieged Eastern Ghouta, the Pentagon said Thursday, in comments hammered home separately by the US national security advisor. Thousands of civilians poured out of Eastern Ghouta as the capture of a key town brought Syria's government even closer to retaking the devastated rebel enclave outside Damascus. "The Russians made a deliberate choice not to restrain the Assad regime. Thus, the carnage in East Ghouta continues. Russia is morally complicit and responsible for Assad's atrocities," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told reporters. "We urge Russia to compel the Assad regime to stop killing innocent Syrians and allow much needed aid to reach the people of East Ghouta and other remote areas. We support our diplomats in their efforts to resolve the conflict with the United Nations-backed Geneva process." The 15 UN Security Council members -- including the United States -- unanimously adopted a resolution last month demanding a month-long ceasefire. But it has not been respected. The Russia-backed Syrian army and allied militia began a fierce bombing campaign on February 18 on Eastern Ghouta -- the last opposition bastion near Damascus -- then launched a ground offensive a week later. Russia, which was among those voting in favor of the UN text, indicated Thursday it would carry on backing Damascus in its military offensive. "We will continue fighting terrorists, we will finish them off, we will help finish them off in Eastern Ghouta, where the Syrian army is now conducting operations with our support," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The assault on Ghouta has left nearly 1,250 civilians dead, around a fifth of them children. - 'Enabling atrocities' - "Russia is either incompetent, committing illegal acts or both. Russia is propping up the Assad regime, not targeting Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists in Syria. Russia could stop the civilian casualties in Syria," said White. President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, HR McMaster, said separately that "all civilized nations must hold Iran and Russia accountable for their role in enabling atrocities and perpetuating human suffering in Syria." Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, McMaster said all nations must respond "more forcibly than simply issuing strong statements. "It is time to impose serious political and economic consequences on Moscow and Tehran," he said without giving more detail, as Washington faces criticism for not following up its words with action. Along with Moscow, Tehran is the Syrian regime's other major ally. "Assad should not have impunity for his crimes and neither should his sponsors," McMaster said, adding that Moscow "has done nothing" to encourage Assad to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid, or to respect ceasefire and de-escalation agreements. On Monday Washington's United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley told the Security Council the US "remains prepared to act if we must." She recalled -- as did McMaster on Thursday -- that Trump had ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base in April last year in retaliation for a sarin gas attack blamed on Assad's forces.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Wednesday his country is ready for a compromise over Kosovo since resolving a dispute with its former province is key to its EU bid. Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo's independence, declared unilaterally a decade ago. Brussels insists normalisation of ties between the former foes, who fought each other in a 1990s war, is a key condition they both must meet in order to join the European Union. "For us, the most difficult hurdle on the European path is indeed the situation over Kosovo and that is why Serbia is .... ready to talk about possible compromises," Vucic told reporters. He spoke after meeting with Wess Mitchell, the US acting assistant secretary of state for European affairs. Mitchell is on a tour of the region that has already taken him to Kosovo and Macedonia. "We can accept only a compromise ... but not a humiliation of our own people," Vucic said. Elected last year, Vucic, once an ultranationalist and close ally of the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic -- has become a staunch pro-European liberal who hopes to bring Serbia into the EU. As he was sworn in May last year, Vucic urged an "internal dialogue" over the politically sensitive issue. Although about 115 countries have recognised Kosovo's independence over the past 10 years, Serbia and dozens of other states, including its ally Russia, have not. Serbia and mostly ethnic Albanian Kosovo have had difficult relations ever since the 1998-99 conflict, which claimed some 13,000 lives. It ended after NATO launched a bombing campaign to oust Serbian forces from Kosovo. Today Kosovo is home to some 120,000 ethnic Serbs, which is an estimate because they refuse to take part in a census. Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of their history and Orthodox faith. Belgrade and Pristina recently relaunched a low-level, EU-sponsored dialogue on normalising ties, first begun in 2011, after two years of deadlock. Last month the EU unveiled a new eastward expansion strategy, presenting the prospect of membership as an incentive for reforms in the volatile Balkans region. Serbia and Montenegro are favourites to become the bloc's next members, possibly by 2025.Police stormed a riot-torn prison in Bolivia early Wednesday, killing six inmates in an operation that also left two dozen people injured, authorities said. Deputy Interior Minister Jose Luis Quiroga said the dead at the Palmasola prison were inmates "who resisted the police incursion." Police said six police and 18 inmates were injured in the operation, which was launched to search the prison for weapons and drugs in the wake of a riot. About 2,300 police surged into the cell blocks before dawn, a week after an uprising triggered by a government order that bars children younger than six from visiting jailed relatives. Wives and children live in the prison voluntarily with their inmate relatives. They were allowed to leave before the raid began, Quiroga said. National police chief Alfonso Mendoza said a search turned up "a still to make alcohol, and endless stands for sales of drugs, marijuana, cocaine." "There was complete lawlessness in Palmasola," he said, even though police were meant to control the entry of people and goods into the prison. The police separately revealed that they seized 85 knives, nine firearms, four grenades and 188 mobile phones, according to the newspaper La Razon. Quiroga also attributed the uprising to a power struggle among inmates. He said when police entered the prison, some inmates opened fire, wounding three police and triggering return fire. The objective was to regain control over the prison because authorities had determined that inmates were using the prison to plot crimes in the city of Santa Cruz, he said. "It was a successful operation -- we have taken control," he said. Inside the prison, the situation was relatively calm after the operation, but police used tear gas to disperse people who had gathered outside the prison wanting to know the fate of their relatives. "They've gone in to lynch them, to shoot them, they've gone in to kill them. My husband is inside. I don't know if he is alive or dead," one woman told Fides, a Catholic radio station. Located in eastern Bolivia, Palmasola houses an estimated 4,000 inmates and is reputed to be one of the most dangerous and overcrowded penitentiaries in the country. It was the scene of an uprising in 2013 that left 15 dead. Inmates have often maintained effective control inside the prison, under cursory supervision by the state. Bolivian prisons have capacity for 3,730 inmates, but hold more than 15,000, according to official figures that date from December 2016.A senior White House advisor on trade said Thursday that President Donald Trump would soon consider fresh punitive measures against Beijing over its "theft" of US intellectual property. The warning raises the temperature for currently fraught US foreign relations, in which Trump's aggressive trade maneuvers have taken center stage. With tariffs recently announced on major imports including steel and aluminum, trade war fears have sent markets tumbling in recent days and left US trading partners torn between conciliation and pushback in response. "In the coming weeks, President Trump is going to have on his desk some recommendations," Peter Navarro said on CNBC. "This will be one of the many steps the president is going to courageously take in order to address unfair trade practices." Chinese officials have warned they are likely to retaliate in kind. Speaking at a regular briefing Thursday, foreign minister spokesman Lu Kang said: "History has proven that a trade war is in no one's interest." But he warned: "If an undesirable situation arises, China has the intention of safeguarding its legitimate rights." The United States has long accused Beijing of forcing US companies to turnover proprietary commercial information and intellectual property as a condition of operating in China. The office of the US Trade Representative in August launched in inquiry into the matter in August and is due to submit its findings to the White House soon. The newly ascendant Navarro emerged triumphant last week when former top economic aid Gary Cohn resigned following a bruising internal battle over whether to impose the steel and aluminum tariffs. Navarro, who rose to fame by publishing anti-Beijing diatribes on trade, is an outlier among more mainstream economists, who believe excessive tariffs will be self-defeating and trade deficits do not pose the threat that protectionists and trade hawks claim they do. "I don't think...anybody on Wall Street will oppose cracking down on China's theft of our intellectual property," Navarro said. Trump himself has for decades held nationalist views on trade and opposed globalization. The United States on Wednesday launched a trade dispute with India at the World Trade Organization over export subsidies. Officials say the White House is also considering imposing a raft of retaliatory trade measures against China by imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of tech and telecommunications imports. Documents seen Wednesday by AFP also indicated the United States has proposed WTO reforms that would punish member countries which fail to abide by certain rules -- a move seen as being aimed squarely at Beijing, which the Trump administration says is not a market economy and should not have been admitted the WTO.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/File Photo

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Wednesday the United States believes Russia is responsible for a chemical attack in Britain on a former Russia double agent and his daughter, and the U.N. Security Council should take action.

"The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom using a military-grade nerve agent," Haley told a Security Council meeting.

(Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Lisa Lambert)The Iranian military's behaviour in the Gulf has changed "across the board" in recent months, the US Navy said on Thursday, after years of tensions in the busy waterway. Commander Bill Urban, spokesman for the Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, said there had been no "unsafe or unprofessional" interactions with the Iranians at sea since August 14, 2017 when an Iranian drone with no lights on flew close to US aircraft operating in the Gulf. It "is a substantial period time since then, and something that we think is great," Urban told reporters. Last year and in 2016, the US Navy complained repeatedly about the behaviour of Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels, which would often shadow and steer towards US ships. In at least one incident, US sailors had to fire flares and warning shots before the Iranians turned away. Urban said that since then, the Iranians have stopped approaching so closely. "We have seen an across-the-board change in behaviour," Urban said. "I don't necessarily have a reason for that but it's pretty clear that it's something they are consciously doing." The change comes amid increased rhetoric from Washington about Iran's "malign influence" in the region and US President Donald Trump's persistent railing against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The Fifth Fleet and its associated task forces patrol the Gulf continuously and inspect some of the ships passing through. In 2016, navy personnel seized weapons, including machine guns and rocket launchers, they suspected were headed from Iran to Yemen. Urban said task forces this year have seized record amounts of heroin, some of which may have been from the Taliban, Afghanistan's biggest militant group. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards is a paramilitary force that answers directly to the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small US patrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters. The 10 US sailors were released 24 hours later.Weve all gone on online shopping sprees that we regretted the next morning, but only members of the media have the privilege of reclassifying them as investigative journalism. Thats just what Jimmy Kimmel did on Wednesday night, walking the audience through the contents of a giant box of overpriced garbage he purchased from TrumpStore.com, the official retail website of The Trump Organization. Did you know there was an entire website where you could buy Trump Organization-themed stuff? If youre, just, like, a fan of the Trump Organization and want other people to know that fact about you?

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Kimmel was ostensibly investigating where the Trump Organization has its retail products madeif you guessed not in the United States, despite a certain presidents big talk, you win a shitty plastic coin bankbut his big box of stuff has all the hallmarks of a late-night mistake, and his account of the purchase doesnt exactly sound like Woodward & Bernstein:

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Even though my wife was yelling at me the whole time I was on the site, like, Dont order anything from that! I ordered a bunch of stuff from it.

Kimmels wife, Molly McNearey, is one of Jimmy Kimmel Live!s head writers, so its possible this was a work conversation, but a quick look at TrumpStore.com makes a late-night shopping spree seem more likely. The Trump Organization has created a delightful website, like old-timey-snake-oilsalesman delightful, exactly the kind of internet rabbit hole that leads to buyers remorse the next day. Its aimed at people with more money than tastebut not quite enough more money to know theyre overpaying for things that are actively distasteful. Given that the websites non-Jimmy-Kimmel clientele put Donald Trump in office, the schadenfreude from imagining them getting cheated in an ill-advised attempt to buy class on a budget is one of the few pleasures remaining. TrumpStore.coms pitch shows a level of contempt for the intelligence of its customers that would be appalling if its customers werent people who voluntarily decided to shop at TrumpStore.com, which they are. Its a rich tapestry.

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But how much money did Kimmel have to funnel to the Trump Organization to fund his reporting? To find out, we identified each item in Kimmels big box, found it on the TrumpStore.com website, and paired it with the single most unconvincing, soul-deadening sentence from the marketing copy for that item. (Except for the Classic Natural Trump Mug, where three sentences tied for first place.) Heres the complete rundown:

1 Poly Waffle Cap, Frost White/Black: $32.00 (Made in China)

Contrast stitching lends a contemporary look to our Ahead brand poly waffle cap while the Trump Crest logo, coupled with the subtle waffle pattern, adds to the sophisticated appeal.

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1 Classic Natural Trump Mug, $15.00 (Made in Thailand)

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Subtle elegance is the perfect way to describe our Trump classic natural colored mug. The gold Trump name adorns the side hinting that you enjoy the finer things in life. This beautiful ceramic is sure to maintain its elegance for years to come.

1 Trump Golf Solitaire Driver Headcover, $40.00 (Made in China, Decorated in the U.S.A.)

Our expertly crafted driver headcovers are a luxury you cannot deny yourself  nor will you want to.

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1 Signature Small Duffle Bag, $100.00 (Made in China)

Versatility and convenience are what our small duffle is all about.

1 Signature Shoe Bag, $50.00 (Made in China)

A zippered side pocket adds to its functionality while the Trump crest gives it a stylish flair.

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1 Lattice Embossed Blanket in Taupe Velvet, Twin size $50.00 (Made in China)

Youll fall in love with our luxurious velvet blanket featuring a lattice embossed pattern.

1 Quilted Toddler Bib in Soft White, $25.00 (Made in Peru)

Toddlers can often make messes and thats where our toddler bibs come in handy.

1 Trump Golf Collector Medallion, $15.00 (Made in China)

This is a special collectors item you wont want to pass up.

1 Gold Bar Coin Bank, FREE WITH PURCHASE! (Made in ????)

Our Trump coin bank is modeled after a real gold bullion and is not only a collectors item, but will store your spare change perfect for a rainy day.

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1 Pet Bandana in Fuschia, $8.00 (Made in ????)

Mans best friend will look his best while sporting one of our Trump pet bandanas.

Thats a grand total of $220 worth of Trump Organization merchandise, none of which was made entirely in the United States, some of which may have violated import laws, and every bit of which is so cruddy youd be disappointed to get it for free at a trade show. This is the retail experience Trump Organization fans deserve, and its reassuring to know someone is providing it to them. Its just a shame these particular fools cant be parted from their money without it benefiting the Trump family.Every January, schools across the country cobble together some kind of programming to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Whether its taking students to a local civil rights museum or serving fried chicken and collard greens, every local school administrator puts their own spin on the holiday. In a town about forty minutes outside of Milwaukee, a group of students and teachers decided to include a privilege aptitude test in their MLK day festivities. The test, modeled after one given by the National Civil Rights Museum, asked students to respond to statements like The majority of the staff at my school look like me with yes or no. They then broke out into small groups to discuss their answers and were asked to fill out an exit card that tasked them with raising awareness around the concept of privilege with their family and friends. Pretty innocuous, right? Wrong.

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Some local parents were so incensed by this classic example of [a] school bullying the community that they soon contacted the Oconomowoc Area School District, and their local conservative radio host, to voice their anger. Within a month, the high schools principal resigned and now the school district has moved to limit discussions of white privilege. Donald Wiemer, the school board president, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that, our board is fine with discussions about diversity  but white privilege is a lightning rod for some parents. He added: We have poor people in Oconomowoc who are saying theyre not privileged  and people that say, Don, we worked our butts off to have what we have. 

Besides the blatant censorship, there a few things wrong with this decision imposed, not by local snowflake children, but by their parents and school administrators. The first is that these parents are sorely mistaken in what they believe white privilege meansits almost as if they didnt even read the exercise their kids were so cruelly forced to do. White privilege doesnt mean that your life is free from hardship or that youve never worked a day in your life; it means that, in a rough metaphor, you started a race 30 yards ahead of your competitor who was also carrying a backpack full of rocks. You still ran the race; their race was harder. The second, and arguably the more insidious, is how the move demonstrates the failure of diversity, as exemplified by the fact that a school board that can shut down any talk of white privilege can then feel absolved by saying theyre fine with discussions around diversity.

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In recent years, diversity has become a nice, catch-all way to describe the inclusion of various underrepresented groups of people into majority-white spaces. Its a wishy-washy word that tries to express a desirable outcome (some notion of social inclusion) without quite describing how an organization or society is going to get there. Rather than reaching for equity, diversity merely asks for a certain amount of people who look different from each to be in the room without fighting. As sociologist Ellen Berrey wrote for Salon in 2015, Rather than a righteous fight for justice or effective anti-discrimination laws, we get a celebration of cultural difference as a competitive advantage. Diversity, we are told, is an end goal with instrumental pay-offs: good for learning, good for the bottom line, even good for white people.

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The framework of diversity, which tries to collapse goals like racial equality or gender parity into value-adds for a company or institution, is easily broadened to include any kind of differencethus hindering any real kind of social progress. Diversity can then mean, for example, having an all-white, mostly male, and Ivy-League educated op-ed board, as long as some of them are supposedly conservative. Its so much easier to advocate for diversityfor having undefined difference in the roomthan confronting the ways in which your life has been made easier because youre white or able-bodied or straight or otherwise. And thats what makes diversity rhetoric so unhelpful: It allows us to feel complacent with our good intentions rather than pushing us to actually work to correct real injustice in the world.Better Life Lab is a partnership of Slate and New America.

DENVEROn a cloudless February night, volunteers welcomed Yesenia MacDonald to their cozy Denver church, directed her to a cot adorned with a homemade duvet, and handed her a bowl of steaming organic red chili posole.

Like a growing number of women nationwide, MacDonald ended up on the streets after a cascading series of tragedies left her destitute. Years of unpaid work caring for family, poor health benefits and a persistent gender wage gap that makes it difficult to save ensures these women lack the resources to weather an economic crisis.

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I lost many jobs because I have a mental illness, said the Brooklyn native, as she lounged in a chair resting against a wall of pastel paintings of volunteers at the 10:30 Catholic Community Church. Someday I want to go back to college. 

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MacDonald is among hundreds of homeless women who benefit from the safety, nourishment and sense of connection found in a unique Denver program that provides them a place to sleep every night of the week. By bringing them out of the shadows, the Womens Homelessness Initiative, or WHI, rescued women from abuse they often face on the streets and prompted the city to devote more resources to their care.

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About 750 volunteers and fourteen churches participate in the WHI. Since its inception in 2012, the effort provided 50,000 cots and 100,000 meals on 2,205 consecutive nightsservices easily worth $750,000 a year, said Director Diana J. Flahive, who donates up to 50 hours a week to run the program.

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Neighbors who live around these places of worship in the heart of Denvers rapidly gentrifying quarters have never complained about the effort. Far from it. WHI is transforming residents perceptions about how people end up on the streets.

Our women go into these churches and thousands of members of the congregation learn about them, Flahive said. Their hearts and eyes are opened and they are changed.

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The network provides women stability, if only for the night, and gives them renewed energy to tackle finding a home, medical services, and work the following day. Its also created a new army of advocates eager to give their time to other programs to alleviate homelessness.

I can scarcely go to a registered neighborhood meeting, or host public forum on homelessness, and not be confronted by people raising their hand and saying, I volunteer with my church for WHI,  said Chris Conner, director of the city and County of Denvers Road Home program, which partners with nonprofits and others to help those on the streets.

Thats an incredibly valuable asset to the city, he added. We now hear these women saying they are being seen and valued and no longer ignored.

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Even though Colorado is a fraction of the size of California and New York, the state experienced the third largest absolute increase, respectively, in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness between 2016 and 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments annual homeless assessment.

The Centennial states breakneck economic growthtied with Idaho for the nations seventh-lowest unemployment ratebrought a rush of jobseekers to Colorado from other states. This, combined with Denver posting the third-highest median rent gain in the U.S., left some emigrants homeless when they were unable to land a job with a high enough wage to afford an apartment.

When I ask people why they come to Denver, the number one reason is the job market, said Tom Luehrs, executive director of the Saint Francis Center, a homeless day shelter. We have seen over the years many people who never experienced homelessness or even poverty, and suddenly their rent doubled, and they find themselves out on the streets.

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Advocates nationwide report growing numbers of homeless women and families, even as the nations economy remains stable. Women spend as much as 50 percent more time providing care to family members than men, unpaid work that makes them 2.5 times more likely than noncaregivers to live in poverty.

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In Denver, church leaders and advocates conceived WHI six years ago after Luehrs started to see many more women at his center. At the time, there were two women for every space available at night, he said. He worked with the Rev. Rebecca Crummey, Flahive, and Capitol Hill United Ministries to create more nightly spaces.

The program differs from others provided by churches from Atlanta to Oregon because it operates year-round, not just during the winter. Fourteen churches offer beds for 20 to 25 women one night a week every other month. Women register each day at the Saint Francis Center to participate in a computerized lottery system that pulls names for the night. Sometimes the list can stretch to 60 names or more. Theyve included a teacher, a woman who worked in a legal office, an elderly woman who suffered a stroke, and a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines.

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Those selected are bused from the Center to the churches. Arriving around 6 p.m., they feast on homemade meals, chat with volunteers, and periodically read, watch movies or give each other manicures. Several church members spend the night with them and help take down cots in the morning, handing the women a breakfast bag as they board a bus to head back to the Saint Francis Center around 7 a.m.

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On a recent Wednesday evening at the 10:30 Catholic Community Church in the Capitol Heights neighborhood, site co-coordinator Mary Gould, a retired nurse, read the rules to several dozen women.

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Two smoke breaks would be provided. Lights out around 9 p.m. Tums, cough drops, and other medications were available. Bad behavior would be reported the next day to Flahive on a nightly log. Goulds fellow volunteers stood behind long tables loaded with spicy soup, an enormous green salad, bread, and plates of Girl Scout cookies.

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This put me in touch with the homelessI had never talked with them before, said Nicole Walravens, a retired elementary school teacher who would spend the night with the women. I learned its incredibly hard to be homeless and to manage your lifeits exhausting.

The WHI helped the city track how many homeless women plied Denvers streets and prompted it to provide more emergency shelter options for those who didnt make it into the programs nightly lottery. It also led to a marked decrease in the physical abuse Luehrs observes in this population when they spend their days at the Saint Francis Center.

Flahive, the initiatives director, collaborated with a poet, photographer, and designer to create a book about the groundbreaking program dubbed Exposure: Homelessness through the lens of art & poetry. It features evocative photos of homeless women served by the initiative.

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I call them our street warriors, Flahive said. They are our survivalists and I am in awe at what they are able to do.

One such survivor is Rosalinda Sanchez. She called the streets home for five years after she used her savings to prevent her daughter from being evicted. The WHI saved her life. Sanchez suffered a stroke in a bathroom of a church where she was spending the night. Volunteers discovered her lying in a pool of blood and rushed her to the hospital.

Today, shes one of several dozen former WHI participants who live in a new Denver housing complex inspired by the initiatives success. Luehrs and Flahive worked with WHI volunteers and others to find property, raise money and solicit donations to build and furnish the 50-unit Saint Francis Apartments at Cathedral Square. Saint Johns Cathedral donated the land where the complex sits.

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They were one of my first sites for WHI, Flahive said. They have our women there every other Monday night and had buy in and a personal experience with them.

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With amenities including meeting space, an activities room and case management offices, the apartments cost $11.8 million. About $10.5 million came from tax credits from Boston Capital Bank, $750,000 from the Colorado Division of Housing and $490,000 from the city of Denvers office of Economic Development. The Saint Francis Center raised the rest.

Its residents are previously homeless people who have multiple challenges. They pay 30 percent of their income for rent, with vouchers from the Colorado Division of Housing and the Denver Housing Authority covering the remaining 70 percent. Each resident has access to a case manager who helps them succeed in their new apartment and new life.

Before the women and several dozen men moved in this year, WHI churches donated bathroom, kitchen and cleaning supplies. Residents can live in their units for life.

I have my own key, said Sanchez of her new one-bedroom apartment. Its my place, no one can ask me to leave, and I dont have to be ashamed to be on the streets anymore.

Support for this article was provided by Rise Local, a project of the New America National Network.Conor Lamb, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Tuesdays special election in Pennsylvania, has won a district that went for Donald Trump overwhelmingly just 17 months ago. How did he do it?

Conservatives say Lamb ran as a centrist. Progressives say he relied on unions and defended government programs. Theyre both correct. Lamb won with a combination of triangulation and jiujitsu. He showed that you can punish the right while hugging the middle.

Republicans did everything they could to polarize this contest. GOP nominee Rick Saccone, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Trump administration surrogates tried to tie Lamb to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Saccone talked constantly about the left and advancing Trumps agenda.

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Lamb ducked that fight. He left the Trump-bashing to others. He spoke of bipartisanship and rejected ideology. He praised Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Weve had enough of agendas, Lamb argued in his closing remarks at the campaigns final debate. We need someone to get to work, to do the job.

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But Lamb, a former Marine, didnt flee the political battlefield. He changed it. He picked his fights shrewdly and turned defense into offense. On tax cuts, he said he was happy that the middle class got a break in last years Republican bill. But he distinguished that from the GOPs corporate and top-bracket tax cuts, which, he explained, comprised the bulk of the bill and were now leading to massive deficits. The next step, he warned voters, was that House Speaker Paul Ryan would close those deficits by cutting their Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

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Lamb hammered the proposed cuts at every opportunity. He didnt just say they would hurt people. He framed them as an attack on conservative values, betraying workers to fund corporate welfare and a giveaway to the rich. Paul Ryan will use the term entitlement reform to talk about Social Security and Medicare, as if its undeserved, or its some form of welfare, Lamb scoffed in a TV ad. People paid for it. They worked hard for it. And they expect us to keep our promises to them. Wrapping up a debate, he pledged to keep the promises that we made to the people that built this country.

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Lamb also used the tax cuts as political leverage on health care. Because of the GOPs assault on Obamacare, he warned, Many Pennsylvanians will have their tax cut wiped out by higher health care premiums. Lamb never called it Obamacare, and he said he didnt support a government-run single-payer system. But he also told voters that rich people on Wall Street had no interest in reducing premiums for ordinary families. He called for putting the teeth back in the Affordable Care Act, so that people have health care they can actually afford.

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Steel is important in western Pennsylvania, so Lamb didnt quarrel with Trumps tariffs.

In fact, he accused Saccone of voting repeatedly to allow, in our public construction projects, the use of foreign steel. From this issue, Lamb pivoted to infrastructure investment, calling it the one thing that would create jobs in our district tomorrow. Congress shouldnt just protect steel, he argued. It should use the steel to rebuild our bridges.

On guns, Lamb guarded his right flank. He touted his experience as a Marine. A biographical ad assured voters that he still loves to shoot. He praised the Second Amendment and rejected legislation that would ban assault weapons or high-capacity magazines. But Lamb also accused Saccone of extremism. Hes called for the elimination of the background check system here in Pennsylvania, said Lamb. I support universal background checks. No loopholes, period.

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Saccone tried to use the abortion issue to pry Catholic Democrats away from Lamb. He flunked his basic Catholic catechism, because right-to-life is part of that basic Catholic catechism, Saccone charged in a debate. But Lambs ads reminded voters that he had attended Catholic school. In debates, he explained that while he believed life began at conception, he couldnt impose that view on people of other faiths. To turn Catholics against Saccone, he pivoted to Medicaid. We know that Mr. Saccone is in favor of cuts, he said. If you want to stick up for life, you have to do it from cradle to grave.

On issue after issue, Lamb claimed the middle ground. Saccone claimed to represent coal country against a downtown Pittsburgh liberal. Lamb, in reply, talked about clean energy rather than coal, but he also noted that he supported drilling for natural gas, unlike Democrats who, he said, were so far to the left that they would block it. Saccone opposed any increase in the minimum wage. Lamb said $15 per hour was too high for western Pennsylvania, but $10 seemed about right.

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Some of Lambs maneuvers required military credentials that most Democratic candidates cant replicate. He used his service in the Marines to appeal for caution on the Korean peninsula (We have a lot of young men and women wearing our nations uniform who are serving in harms way), defend Special Counsel Robert Mueller (a decorated Marine), and preach economic equality with an air of gallantry (Officers eat last). He also used it to moralize an otherwise routine indictment of Congress for nonperformance. In the military, he explained in an ad, when you dont get the job done, you get relieved.

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But much of what Lamb did can be tried elsewhere. He reached back to an era when Democrats ruled the country. Franklin Roosevelt said that there was one test people expected of the Democratic Party, he told an audience. They just wanted their government to walk on the same side of the street that they did. As his villain, Lamb chose Ryan, not Trump. People are telling me every day how insulted they are when they hear Paul Ryan refer to [Social Security] as an entitlement, said Lamb. He accused Saccone of following Ryans anti-middle-class, anti-American legislative agenda.

Early Wednesday morning, as the final votes were tallied, Lamb declared victory. He told his supporters: Our job in Congress is to attack the problems, not each other. But thats not how he won the job. He did it with balance, guile, and ferocity. If you want to win like he did, dont be a lamb. Be a Marine.Chris McDaniel ended one U.S. Senate campaign this week and began another. The Mississippi state senator and establishment GOP gadfly announced on Wednesday that he will no longer challenge Republican Sen. Roger Wicker in a June primary and will instead run for the seat that will open up once the states other GOP senator, Thad Cochran, retires next month.

The news is simultaneously great for Wicker and pretty horrible for his Republican friends, both in the Washington establishment and back home in Mississippi. McDaniel presents a Roy Mooreshaped conundrum for Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP establishment. McDaniel is a proud Tea Party type, whose penchant for saying controversial things and alienating those in his own party could theoretically put the seat in play.

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That was a concern when McDaniel was challenging Wicker, but its a much bigger one now that hes the front-runner to replace Cochran. Because the race is a special election, there is no Republican primary, meaning the GOP wont have a chance to knock off McDaniel before November. Running an establishment-friendly Republican against McDaniel could serve to divide the vote and boost a Democratic candidate. And, in another quirk, the special election wont have party lines on the ballot, which could make all this tough to sort out for voters.

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Toss in other anti-GOP headwinds, and conservatives are starting to fretand liberals ever so cautiously hopethat Mississippi could prove to be a repeat of Alabama, where a fractured GOP and a weak Republican candidate opened the door for Democrat Doug Jones to steal a Senate seat last year.

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McDaniel is no Roy Moore, which is to say McDaniel has not been repeatedly accused of being a child predator. But they carry some of the same potential baggage.

McDaniel speaks fondly of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a neo-Confederate group that likes to re-enact Civil War battles and celebrate Robert E. Lees birthday. He also spent three years as a nationally syndicated Christian talk-show host, which means theres plenty of tape of him complaining that there arent enough Muslim villains in the movies, wondering about how as a non-Spanish speaker he might pick up mamacitas in Mexico should he need to move there to avoid paying reparations to the descendants of slaves, and blaming hip-hop for gun violence. (This has nothing to do with race, he promised. OK.) More recently, he took to Facebook following the Womens March to declare that almost all liberal women are unhappy and to pose a question about those doing the marching: [I]f they can afford all those piercings, tattoos, body paintings, signs, and plane tickets, then why do they want us to pay for their birth control?

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None of that is disqualifying in the Old South, but establishment Republicans have worried aloud for years that it could be enough to cost McDaniel in a head-to-head race with a centrist Democrat.

Still, its difficult to separate the Republican Partys fears from its feelings when it comes to McDaniel. He waged a particularly nasty primary fight against Cochran in 2014, which consisted mostly of deriding McConnell and the GOP establishment. The message resonated: McDaniel made it to a runoff and eventually lost by less than 2 percentage points.

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As speculation began to swirl earlier this year that Cochrans deteriorating health would force him to retire this year, McConnell reportedly began urging Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to appoint himself to finish out Cochrans term. Bryant, who will soon be term-limited out of the governors mansion, doesnt seem interested in heading to Washington, but is now specifically searching for someone to fill Cochrans seat who will be able to beat McDaniel in the special election. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann are believed to be on his short list.

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Already, things are getting nasty. Cochran waited to announce his pending retirement until after the primary filing deadline, which forced McDaniel to declare his campaign against Wicker instead of waiting on Cochran. Bryant then completed the one-two punch on Wednesday when he attacked McDaniel for being opportunistic for switching races. He then ratcheted things up further on Thursday when he promised to actively campaign against McDaniel. The Tea Party and other hard-line conservative groups, meanwhile, are lining up behind McDaniel.

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McDaniel, meanwhile, is calling for the party to rally around his campaign. If we unite the party now and consolidate our resources, we can guarantee Donald Trump will have a fighter who will stand with him, he said in a statement. Trump backed McDaniel in his 2014 primary against Cochran but endorsed Wicker this year. Its not clear whether the president has turned on McDaniel, who served as a state co-chair for Ted Cruz campaign in 2016, or if he was simply backing another preferred candidate of McConnells.

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Under Mississippi rules, if no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 special election, the top two finishers, regardless of party, would proceed to a runoff the following month. If McDaniel and a TBD establishment rival were to split the GOP vote, that could open the door for a Democrat to squeeze into the runoff against whichever one of the battered Republicans survived. The Democrat would still be the underdog, but Mississippi isnt quite as politically conservative as you might think. It has the highest share of African Americans of any state, and Republicans margin of victory in recent elections there has been about 10 points smaller than it was in Alabama, where Moore lost last year, or in Tennessee, where Democrats have a real chance of winning a Senate seat this fall. A Democratic victory in Mississippi remains a long shot, of course, but its a long shot that wasnt there last week.Its been six months since Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in September, and recovery is very much an ongoing process. Power remains spotty in Puerto Rico; the U.S. Virgin Islands are without a fully functioning hospital. Media attention has waned, though surely it will rise for a host of half-year check-ins, a fleeting spike of attention to go with the other stories that have popped in and out of the national spotlight: the still-uncounted lives lost, the resourceful citizens rebuilding local infrastructure, the spat between President Donald Trump and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, the curious case of Whitefish Energy.

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These are all important, all deserving of far more attention than they received. And yet, six months on, its increasingly clear that we also need to peer beneath the clamor and hum of these news items and look at more elemental details. We need to grapple with the fact that those of us in the states, including our national leaders, still know almost nothing of substance about the U.S. territories. The issue occasionally crept to the fore in the days immediately following the storm, like when a poll found that nearly half of all Americans didnt know that Puerto Ricans were American citizens, or when Trump referred to U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp as that territorys president. But for the most part, it has remained subtext.

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As Ive read articles and listened to politicians and pundits argue, Ive thought of my own travels and friends in the territories, and wondered: How many people in the states, including those with the loudest voices in these discussions, could name a single city in Puerto Rico other than San Juan? Do they know the differences between, say, Loiza and Caguas and Barranquitas? Can they list one cultural tradition of St. Thomas or a major industry, other than tourism, of St. Croix? Do they realize that Puerto Rico has poverty, yes, but also charming small towns and high-rise banking headquarters and James Beard Awardnominated restaurants and the United States highest concentration of Walgreens and Walmarts? Do the words jibaro, Borinquen, lechon, or coqui mean anything to those without roots on the island? Do they know that Puerto Rico is officially a commonwealth, not a territory, and understand the differences between the two? Can they list even a few bullet points of the Insular Cases, the overtly racist set of Supreme Court rulings that provide the legal basis for American colonialism? Do they know the history of the mid-20th-century Great Migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland United States, and its cultural and political impact?

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These arent esoteric pieces of trivia, or at least they shouldnt be. If you can find Iowa on the map and rattle off a few facts about the state (corn, caucuses, Field of Dreams, a really big state fair), you should be able to do the same for Puerto Rico, which has a larger population. Thats especially important for leaders in Washington, given that the territories have no full-fledged congressional representation of their own, and given that a certain baseline level of knowledge is a prerequisite for sound policymaking.

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Never forget that the United States is more than 50 states, that our nation is an empire.

This is nothing new. The five territories enter the national consciousness almost exclusively in times of adversity. Hurricanes, economic woes, North Koreas threats to Guam; the new but already notorious casino in the Northern Mariana Islands, Tropical Storm Gita, which knocked out power and closed schools in American Samoa in early February: all worthy of coverage, but hardly the full picture. Its the view through a kaleidoscope, composed of truths but distorted and incomplete. Absent greater context and understanding (everyday life, history, deep-rooted problems), the territories become stock images of dysfunctional exotic lands or hard-luck case studies for mainland pundits to bemoan within the framework of stateside partisan battlesin November, a Washington Post analysis found that The mainstream media didnt care about Puerto Rico until it became a Trump story, and even before that, the story of the commonwealths debt crisis was often framed as yet another party-line Washington squabble. As I learned during the research for my book The Not-Quite States of America, the most reliable source for everyday news about these regions of America were public radios foreign affairs program, The World, and, for the Pacific territories, Radio New Zealand. Even in academia, theres scant attention to the territories, barely a mention in standard U.S. history or political science textbooks.

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Crucially, the way we talk about the territoriesand the fact that we rarely talk about themgoes hand in hand with their colonial status. This, after all, is the very core of colonialism: treating people not as equal members of society but as abstractions, policies to be debated, problems to be solved. This isnt unique to the territories (ask residents of Flint, Michigan, or Ferguson, Missouri, or the Navajo Nation if they think their stories are well-told), but its amplified in these islands; their residents are held not just in low regard but as entirely inscrutable, foreign in a domestic sense, as the Supreme Court put it in one of the Insular Cases.

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And just as colonialism thrives on the erasure of individual stories, it also endures by masking its size, obscuring the reach of its talons. Too often, even the most nuanced discussions of Puerto Ricolike the recent hourlong special on NPRs On the Mediafail to acknowledge the broader story of American Empire. In my own travels to the five territories, Ive been struck not only by the bounty of their distinct cultures but by the consistency of their concernswhat can appear to be isolated matters are often the result of systemic, historic problems, part and parcel of the story of American colonialism, and need to be understood and addressed as such. Compartmentalization makes it too easy to see issues like economic turmoil, lack of voting rights, governmental mismanagement, or disaffection with being part of the USA at all as purely local matters. But the U.S. Virgin Islands were also hit hard by the hurricanes and have higher debt per capita than Puerto Rico. The Northern Mariana Islands have long struggled to find their economic footing. Guam has a growing (if still small) independence movement. And while some Puerto Ricans dont want to be American citizens, most American Samoans truly arent American citizens.

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The easiest way to expand and improve the conversations about the territories is simply to include them in existing discussions. We talk at length about the USAs role in the world and American imperialism, yet even the sharpest critiques typically fail to mention the territories, which were the historic starting point for American nation-building overseas and remain Americas front lines in the Caribbean and, more importantly today, the Pacific. We talk about the legacy of British colonialism and the need to decolonize the curriculum of schools and colleges, all while focusing on the colonialism of other nations, not our own. We talk about the rights of detainees at Guantanamo without reckoning with fact that its effectively a U.S. territory, claimed from the Spanish at the same time as Guam and Puerto Rico, and that decisions made about its legal status directly apply to the everyday residents of the territories.

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The territories should have a place, too, in any ongoing discussion of the nations complex cultural identity and who can claim to be a so-called real American. Nowhere is this question more discussed than in the territories, with their complicated relationships to mainland United States and their lives that blend familiar Americana with their own distinct traditions and cultures.

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Go to Guam, where youll find the worlds largest Kmart, its facade imprinted with silhouettes of lattes, two-piece stone columns that formed the basis of ancient Chamorro structures. Just across Marine Corps Drive is Meskla Dos, one of the islands many purveyors of Guamanian barbecue, which draws from the territorys Chamorro, Japanese, and American roots. Here is the American polyglot ideal, on a plate, in a landscape, imbued in a local culture, alongside an Air Force base that embodies American empire and imperialism near and far and is a major catalyst for the islands burgeoning independence movement.

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And this, finally, is the most important reason to learn more about the U.S. territories: not out of a burdensome, eat-your-vegetables duty but because theyre as interesting and important and worthy of celebration as anywhere else in the USA. Do you have an hour or two to learn the history of Puerto Rican folk music and its interconnected African, Spanish, and Taino roots? Would you like to see a slideshow of American Samoas stunning natural beauty, all jagged, jungly mountains and quiet coves, and hear how environmental and cultural stewardship work hand in hand in the territory? Pull up a chair, these are good stories, if only people in the states took a moment to pay attention. News outlets have spent the past year examining the middle America of the Midwest and Appalachia, and theres a cottage industry of similarly focused books like Hillbilly Elegy or the forthcoming Voices From the Rust Belt. But theres no such broad interest in the contours of present-day life in the U.S. territories, no sustained effort to give territory residents a platform to share their joys and sorrows and make their voices heard and show off their complexity and humanity.

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Its time to change that, to keep the territory residents in the spotlight, to listen to them and get to know their lives beyond headlines.

Congress needs to do its part to help the territories, starting with providing more funding for hurricane relief and listening to territory residents more. The Supreme Court should overturn the Insular Cases. And stateside Americans need to engage in the soft activism of increased awareness. Find the territories on a map. Learn their histories and how they fit into the USAs own path to economic and military power. Read their newspapers (there are many online) and their literature: the poetry of Chamorro writer Craig Santos Perez, the graphic novel La Borinquena, novels like Land of Love and Drowning (set in the U.S. Virgin Islands), politically charged histories like The War Against All Puerto Ricans. (Hollywood, take note: As you talk about representation on screen, consider these and other stories from the territories.) Above all, never forget that the United States is more than 50 states, that our nation is an empire.

As the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuild on the ground, those of us in the states need to put in the effort to rebuild our own understanding and appreciation of the territories islands and their nearly 4 million residents. Its only when we understand the depths of their shading and complexity that we can appreciate them on their own terms and realize whats truly at stake when disaster does strike.Now that Conor Lamb has won a House seat in western Pennsylvania, the national press is already decamping for Illinois, where the next big midterm battle will be about reproductive rights. On Tuesday, Democratic primary voters in the Chicago suburbs will choose between Marie Newman, a progressive, pro-choice challenger, and Rep. Dan Lipinski, a Blue Dog, anti-abortion incumbent. Its being billed as a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party and the partys stance on reproductive rights.

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But the real threat to the partys position on reproductive rights doesnt come from a handful of old-guard Democrats like Lipinski. It comes from a rising class of Democrats like Lamb, who soften their personal opposition to abortion with a promise to support existing law.

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Lamb, a Catholic, has said he and other Catholics believe that life begins at conception. But, he clarified, as a matter of separation of church and state, I think a woman has the right to choose under the law. He is on the record opposing the 20-week abortion ban that recently passed the U.S. House, and says he doesnt call himself pro-life because its a political term  not one that you learn in Catholic school or anywhere else in the church.

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Lambs position is not unprecedented among Democratic men, particularly Catholics, in public life. Joe Biden and Sen. Tim Kaine both claim to support abortion rights in their capacity as politicians, even as they oppose the procedure in their personal lives. The position is intended to neutralize the issue by identifying, morally and personally, with anti-choice voters while maintaining their base of pro-choice Democrats, many of whom would never vote for a candidate who wants to curtail abortion access.

In a right-leaning district like Lambs, or a conservative-ish state like Kaines, conventional wisdom suggests that a more principled position on abortion would cost Republican votes, while the murky middle ground can edge a Democratic candidate to victory. In Lambs case, Republican analysts warned up until the bitter end that his tepid support for abortion rights could cost him, in a district that went to Donald Trump by a margin of 19 points.

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But this line of thinking rests on two false premises. First, that anti-abortion voters care about a politicians internal moral stance, and second, that a politicians personal opposition to abortion will have no impact on how they govern.

Lambs personal opposition on the issue did little to help him with anti-choice advocacy groups, who understandably refused to claim him as their own. Liberal Conor Lamb SUPPORTS PAINFUL LATE-TERM ABORTIONS, said the Susan B. Anthony List in one call to action. The groups president also co-wrote a piece in the National Review that accused Lamb of a Faustian bargain on abortion, and said his position is not separation of church and stateits separation of politician and spine.

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Progressives who despise everything the Susan B. Anthony List stands for could easily agree with this characterization. A male lawmaker who says he opposes abortion in private but supports it for the public is taking a position that does not, for practical purposes, exist. Someone whos pro-choice does not necessarily have to be willing to get an abortion herself; there are plenty of reproductive-justice advocates who would never make that choice for themselves. The operative word, though, is choicethey believe every woman should have the rights and access she needs to make her own reproductive decisions.

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For male lawmakers like Lamb, a personal opposition to abortion exists only in the realm of theory. He will never have to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy. The only thing his hypothetical disapproval of the procedure does is signal to moderates that he rejects some elements of Democratic orthodoxy. The price hes willing to pay for that advantage is steep.

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By broadcasting his belief that, lawmaking aside, a fertilized egg is a human life, hes essentially scolding women whove had abortions. I believe youve killed someone, but I will fight for your right to do it! may be the best progressives can hope for from those who are morally opposed to abortion, but its also a good way to alienate people on both sides of the issue.

A male lawmaker who says he opposes abortion in private but supports it for the public is taking a position that does not, for practical purposes, exist.

In Texas, gubernatorial candidate Andrew White is currently facing a similar predicament. White will face fellow Democrat Lupe Valdez in a runoff for the partys nomination on May 22. Valdez, a Latina lesbian, bested White, the son of a former Texas governor, by 16 points in the first round of voting, 43 percent to 27 percent. Still, White has all but made his slogan boring enough to beat Gov. Greg Abbott, and his anti-abortion views are a major component of that branding. Unlike Lamb, he goes as far as to call himself pro-life, though he says abortion is a choice that [my wife and I] wouldnt take away from somebody else, making him technically pro-choice. White has pledged to veto bills that curtail reproductive rights. On his campaign website, he calls himself similar to Biden and Kaine: I accept that life begins at conception. However, I will not impose my personal belief on other Texans.

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Democrats might argue that winning a seat in Congress, or recapturing a red-state governors mansion, is worth some minimal lip service to the anti-choice crowd. But a politician committed to the idea of abortion as a moral wrong is likely to stray from pro-choice principles when it suits him.

As governor of Virginia, Kaines seemingly benign position on abortion led to policies that degraded womens rights. Kaine backed abstinence-only sex education and the state sale of Choose Life license plates that funnel money into deceptive crisis pregnancy centers. He expressed support for two of the states existing restrictions on abortion care: a law that requires minors to get a parent or judges permission before getting an abortion, and an informed consent law that was later expanded to require abortion-seeking patients to submit to unnecessary intravaginal ultrasounds. Kaine has also praised the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal Medicaid dollars from going toward abortion care, effectively limiting abortion access to women wealthy enough to afford it.

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As long as the Supreme Court protects a fundamental right to abortion, these incremental limits on access are where the battles will be fought. Will Lambs personal opposition, and his clear desire to seem like a Democratic dissident, lead him to support, as Kaine did, seemingly minor laws that nevertheless have devastating effects on womens lives and serve as stepping stones to broader restrictions? Without a voting record, no one knows. So far, his commitment to being pro-choice has amounted to citing a separation of church and state. To me, that means we defend the law as it is, he said.

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Thats not exactly a full-throated argument for womens rights. A legislator whose support for abortion rights rests on a lukewarm invocation of stare decisis cannot be counted on to protect and advance reproductive health care. Not every member of Congress is going to be throwing out proactive reproductive-justice bills left and right. But to mount an effective defense of abortion rights, which Lamb claims to endorse, a good legislator will frame the issue in terms of rights, access, and moral imperative. We defend the law as it is is only as strong as the laws that exist. And Lamb will discover one funny thing about laws when he makes it to Congress: They change.

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All Lamb has done with his middle-of-the-roadism is open himself up to more avenues for criticism at the expense of the Democratic Partys credibility on the issue.

Still, for many Democrats, and even some pro-choice advocates, Lambs laissez-faire approach is better than the alternative. The former Obama speechwriter and popular podcaster Jon Favreau tweeted on Wednesday that Lamb is far more progressive than his critics on the left have made him out to be, suggesting Lamb campaigned [f]or a womans right to choosea not entirely accurate characterization of the Lamb campaign. Even Planned Parenthood seems inclined to accept the trade-off. What is dangerous, and where Planned Parenthood has drawn the line, is when politicians try to impose their beliefs on others and substitute their judgment for the judgment of women and their health care providers, Kevin Griffis, vice president for communications at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told Slate in a statement. Griffis said lawmakers like Lamb and Kaine should be applauded for trusting women to make their own health care decisions.

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NARAL communications director Kaylie Hanson Long says her organization will try to educate and push Lamb on reproductive health issues as much as they do any other legislator. We wish that every elected official and every politician were a true champion who is making this their number one issue, she said. Though Lamb probably wont become a standard-bearer for abortion rightsand, depending on how he votes, may not get a NARAL endorsement should he run againLong says his promise to refrain from legislating his own moral code is a promising sign. The decision to have an abortion is as personal as the decision not to, she said. Recognizing thisthats a core part of being pro-choice.

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There is a good argument to be made for a reasonable amount of ideological diversity in campaign strategies within the Democratic Party. Lamb presumably knows what will resonate with the people of his district better than an outsider. But he also wasnt nominated by local Democratic voters in a primaryhe was tapped at a state party convention, making him a strategy-minded outsiders choice, a cosmetically safe pick. If the lesson Democrats take away from Lambs win is that candidates in reddish districts should promote the idea that fertilized eggs are people, they will have wasted whatever good comes of Lambs 10 months in office. Polling data around Democrat Doug Jones improbable Senate win in Alabama suggested that few people, even in a radically anti-choice state like Alabama, are single-issue abortion voters who believe the procedure should be illegal in all or most cases. Jones never compromised his firm pro-choice stance, even as opponent Roy Moore literally nicknamed him Abortion Jones and Donald Trump tweeted that his pro-abortion views should disqualify him from the office. Jones won anyway, despite the fact that a full 71 percent of Alabama Republicans said they didnt believe the women whod accused Moore of child molestation.

Democrats may never know whether a similarly vigorous defender of womens rights could have captured Lambs Pennsylvania district. But theres reason to doubt that his equivocation made the difference in his win. Opponents of abortion have already shown they care much more about policy than they do about a candidates personal morality (see: Trump, Donald). Pro-choice voters, on the other hand, would have gone for Lamb no matter whatperhaps they would have been more enthusiastic if hed come out stronger on behalf of reproductive health care. People whose abortion beliefs lie somewhere in the middle are unlikely to be swayed by either position.

All Lamb has done with his middle-of-the-roadism is open himself up to more avenues for criticism at the expense of the Democratic Partys credibility on the issue, to say nothing of the hearts-and-minds fight for womens lives. Republican leaders are already downplaying the significance of the likely Democratic victory by calling Lamb pro-life. Though Lamb refused to claim such a label on the campaign trail, the muddled interpretation of his abortion politics seems to be exactly what this renegade was aiming for.The Trump administration took one of its strongest actions against Russia yet, imposing sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five organizations in response to interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as cyberattacks including last years NotPetya attack and previously undisclosed attempts to penetrate the U.S. power grid.

The move comes the same day that the U.S., French, German, and British governments issued a statement agreeing with Britains conclusion that Russia was behind the March 4 nerve agent attack that hospitalized a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England. Both the Trump administration and the French government had been slow to sign on to the British governments finding early this week. The Treasury Departments announcement of the sanctions specifically mentions the poisoning as an example of the reckless and irresponsible conduct of the Russian government. The British government expelled 23 Russian diplomats on Wednesday but has, notably, not sanctioned any specific individuals or organizations in response to the attack.

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Trumps sanctions targeted the 13 individuals and three organizations indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller in February for their role in subverting the 2016 election in support of Trump campaignall affiliated in some way with the St. Petersburg troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency. This was done under the authority of a 2015 executive order cracking down on cyber threats that was previously used by the Obama administration in late 2016 to sanction Russian individuals and entities accused of cyber operations during the election. The sanctions will prevent these individuals from entering the United States, freeze any assets they have here, and bar U.S. companies from doing business with them.

The biggest name on the new list is the IRAs alleged bankroller Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a well-connected restaurateur known as Putins chef. Given that hes already sanctioned and banned from the U.S. for his links to paramilitary groups in Ukraine, he may not be sweating about the new measures.

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In addition to those sanctions, the Trump administration has also finally made use of its sanctioning authority under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Congress passed the bill, meant to crack down on Russias election meddling as well as its actions in Ukraine, over Trumps objections last summer. The administration has dragged its feet on complying with the bills provisions so far and used a waiver in January to avoid issuing the new sanctions it entails. Treasury on Thursday sanctioned two Russian government agenciesthe domestic security service, the FSB, and the main military intelligence service, the GRUas well as six GRU officials under the sanctions act for their cyber activities. These entities are also unlikely to feel much impact since they, too, are already sanctioned for activities in Ukraine. (For what its worth, this hasnt prevented the heads of these agencies from traveling to Washington.) Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin did say in his statement Thursday that more CAATSA sanctions could be coming.

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The new measures are a more dramatic step than the administration has taken so far, though probably still not enough to either seriously deter Russian activities or convince Trumps critics that he sees those activities as a problem.

Despite the very real cause for suspicion about Trumps motives when it comes to Russia, his administration hasnt exactly been soft on Moscow. Obamas sanctions have not been lifted, and more have been applied under other legislation. The administration has sold offensive weapons to Ukraine and taken positions opposed by Russia on Syria, Iran, North Korea, and a number of other issues. But its fair to say that Trump himself has been extremely reluctant to criticize Russia or accept the consensus that it interfered in the election.

In that respect, the most significant takeaway from Thursdays actions may be that the treasury has effectively endorsed the indictment by Muellers teamwhich Trump has repeatedly publicly attackedagainst these people and organizations for having tampered with or altered information in order to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election.

Will Trump continue to downplay or deny that the Russians interfered to help his campaign when his own administration has taken action to punish them for doing so? Well, yes, he probably will.Today in Conservative Media is a daily roundup of the biggest stories in the right-wing press.

On Tuesday, the family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich sued Fox News for the networks reporting that linked the 27-year-old to WikiLeaks, spurring conspiracy theories on the far-right. Rich was shot and killed in Washington, D.C. in 2016 in what police said was a botched robbery, but Fox News published a story in May 2017 that hinted at something far more sinister. The story claimed Richwho died days after WikiLeaks released 20,000 hacked DNC emailshad passed the emails to WikiLeaks and that federal authorities were involved in a cover-up of some sort. It was quite a story, pushed relentlessly by the highest wattage stars at the network, particularly Sean Hannity; it was also totally false. The network retracted it shortly after, but the damage had been doneto the Rich family and the reputation of Fox News.

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In response to the suit, National Reviews David French does the soul-searching that Fox News never appeared to do itselfat least publicly. French laments the undignified fall of the network that once was seen in conservative circles as a breath of fresh air when the network first went live in 1996. Not every journalist was serious and not every commentator was thoughtful, of course, and the nighttime lineup often veered into populist infotainment, but it represented a necessary, healthy dose of competition to CNN, French writes. But as Fox grew into the dominant conservative media outletthe place where conservative careers were madesomething else began to happen. It started to attract a constellation of cranks and grifters, people desperate for Fox hits that could turn into contributor contracts. Contributor contracts could turn into book deals. The fortunate few could even host a show.

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The great grifter infiltration diluted standards and sent the network careening from its original mission, but, French writes, it was the single-minded, sensationalistic defense of Donald Trump that brought out the worst of the network on-air. The Pizzagate-like hysteria on the loony fringes, French notes, believe it or not [] was given media life on Fox, went viral thanks to Fox, and was pumped day after day on Fox through comments by some of its biggest names, including Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich.

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Its hard to look at the Seth Rich case and see much evidence of good faith. The complaint makes searing, credible claims that the defendants deceived and exploited a grieving family. There is no doubt that Fox personalities took their deeply flawed reporting and ran with itcausing further harm to parents who had just lost their son. You cant hide this conduct behind silly claims that youre merely asking questions. The news reports and commentary werent just questioning, they were asserting. And they were asserting without foundation.

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Eventually, Fox retracted the story that launched the theory, French notes, but immense damage was done.

In other news

Carl Arbogast at RedState says its time to worry for Republicans after the special election in Pennsylvania Tuesday: Dont Kid Yourself: Conor Lambs Performance Means The House GOP Majority Is In Trouble.

[One] consideration to keep in mind is just how toxic Trumps brand of politics has become for Republicans. Think about it for just a moment. Unemployment is down. GDP is up. The stock market is up. Gas prices are still relatively low. People are paying less in taxes. All of it should amount to approval ratings in the 50s for President Trump. Instead, he still sits in the low 40s.

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Maybe, just maybe, that bombastic, off the cuff, shoot from the hip style is not working as well as people think, Arbogast writes. For more on what the Lamb-Saccone race means the Weekly Standards David Byler has a chart you should see in: One Chart Explains How Vulnerable Republicans Are.

During a speech in India this week, Hillary Clinton irked many on the right with her characterization of Trump voters, particularly women who voted for Trump. [Democrats] do not do well with white men, and we dont do well with married, white women, Clinton said. 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. Robert VerBruggen at National Review investigated: Are White Women Pressured to Vote Republican? In the context of making bitter excuses for her loss, Clinton has advanced an interesting theory about political behavior, he writes. Its a theory worth testing, VerBruggen concludes, but theres no evidence its actually true.

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Conservative media also devoted coverage to the lawsuit filed by the family of Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas student who brought a homemade clock to school in 2015, but school officials worried that it was a bomb and called police. Mohamed was interrogated and suspended. In the aftermath, Mohamed shot to internet stardom and later filed a discrimination suit against the school district. Conservatives found the suit offensive, as evidenced by Jared Sichels Daily Wire piece: GO AWAY: Federal Judge Again Dismisses Clock Boy Ahmed Mohameds Cuckoo Discrimination Lawsuit. Time is up for Clock Boy Ahmed Mohamed and his father Mohameds desperate, attention-seeking, discrimination lawsuit, Sichel writes. Kevin Daley at the Daily Caller covered the suits dismissal this way: Tick, Tick, Tick: Clock Boys Lawsuit Just Blew Up.Billionaire megadonor Tom Steyer, founder of the climate advocacy group NextGen, has, for some time, been one of the most prominent climate activists in the Democratic Party. Hes recently turned his attention to an expansive effort to build support for removing Trump from office. Hes spent millions on an impeachment ad campaign and will begin a national town hall tour on the subject Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio.

Last week, I scheduled an interview with Steyer to talk about the state of climate politics. When we spoke, Steyer talked about how to bring climate change back to the fore of the Democratic Partys agenda, but it was clear that he had impeachment and the partys wider woes on his mind. This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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Osita Nwanevu: Weve seen a lot of potential Democratic 2020 candidates staking out ambitious positions on a number of issues over the past yeartheres been a real rush toward single payer, for instance. But climate policy hasnt been a major part of the conversation within the party and on the left since the election, even as the need to address climate change obviously grows more urgent each passing year. Why do you think that is?

Tom Steyer: You know its hard for me to speculate about what theyre thinking about. To me, theres no way to get away from the centrality of clean air and clean water and the need to rebuild a sustainable America. When you think about the future of this country, it is hard for me to see how we talk to people without talking about the right people have to breathe clean air and drink clean water. That seems to me to be a basic right thats being abridged. And its a real health issue. And I think in terms of thinking about both the current economic position of the country and of working people and the future economic position of the country and of working people, its impossible not to see that we need to rebuild the United States of America and we need to do it in a sustainable way. Whether youre talking about creating good paying jobs or when youre talking about the health of American citizens, you know you are in effect talking about climate. Youre just not talking about it directly.

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You seem convinced, and I think most people are convinced, that the most politically productive way to talk about climate policy is to frame it, to a large extent, as economic stimulustalking less about climate change as an existential threat to humanity and more about it as a pocketbook issue.

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Im agreeing partially, but not completely. Let me give you where I see it differently. What Im agreeing with is that any time you are talking to American citizens, they need to hear something. Human beings need to hear something that has to do with their life. Not with some theory of their life but actually with their life. And so when you talk about jobs in the United States, I mean I think that 2,500 jobs in northwestern Pittsburgh at $26 an hour beats 2 million net jobs in the United States of America for unknown people at an unknown wage. So, if youre going to talk about it, you have to talk very specifically about what the jobs are, what they pay, and where theyre going to be located. So thats one thing that I think weve done a very poor job on. People pushing for clean energy have done a very poor job on.

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Secondly, I would not underestimate the importance to Americans of their health. I think theres been this sense that clean air and clean water and luxurieslike we might get the sniffles. No! Were talking about having a healthy life in California. We have 3.3 million people with asthma. Thats not the sniffles. That changes your life. That means you cant go to schoolthat affects you. You know Ive got a 40-year-old friend, a co-worker from Southern California from Orange County who almost died from asthma and still cannot lead the life he would live if he didnt have asthma. And if you look at the effect of unsafe water on peopleyou know, there are a lot of Flints. Its just that got an extreme amount of publicity. And the other thing thats true about this is that dirty air and dirty water are located in poor communities and communities of color. So when we think about health care, we are basically putting our health risks as a society onto the backs of specific people in society and its completely unjust. So when we think about rebuilding America cleanly we have to be talking about whether there are jobs for somebody you know and what they pay. And are they organized. And we have to be talking about peoples right to clean air and clean water. And the fact that there is an extremely unjust and intolerable situation in the United States. And about whos bearing the costs.

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As far as pollution is concerned, one of the interesting and frequently overlooked facts in the climate debate is that people support regulating and curbing CO2 emissions pretty broadly and strongly even in places where belief in anthropogenic climate change is low. Do you think that can be taken advantage of in selling climate solutions? Saying to voters, look even if you dont think emissions should be curbed to solve climate change, we can agree that air pollution is bad.

Yes, I think thats true, but I would say this too. I think you can successfully go after people who deny climate change, which is a different point from arguing climate. So, for instance, I would accuse climate deniers of being both incompetent and corrupt both of which would be true. I dont even want to talk about climate. I would just say this: that they are being paid money, by special interests looking after their own pocketbooks, not to take care of your kids and your safety and health. And that is an amazing fact that they would sell you out for campaign dollars. But thats exactly whats going on. And that is true. The Republicans have been doing that for over a decade. And it is shocking that the Democrats dont call them out for being absolutely corrupt. All these Republican electeds went to college. Ill bet you 99 percent of them went to college and completed it. They are not fools. Theyre not wondering whether this is true. Theyre lying for money, and theyre putting us all at risk. Thats the truth. When are we going to start telling the truth? That theyre just corrupt liars? Thats just a fact. And the Democrats dont want to say it because its so rude. Really? Is it rude to say that theyre corrupt liars, or is it rude to be a corrupt liar? I say its rude to be a corrupt liar.

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So Ive wondered about this on issues beyond climate. Why do you think the Democratic Party has been reluctant to frame Republicans as antagonists in that way? They will criticize Republicans on climate change, obviously, but I dont think most would frame them as harshly as you just have.

I have wondered about that a lot too. I want to give you one example and then Ill give you my speculation about what is missing. I mean I was talking to a super senior Democrat today whos an old friend. And you know, the guy just hates impeachment. I mean he was talking to me and said, You know, I just dont want to talk about impeachment because I disagree with you. And I was like, OK, do you think the guy is a traitor? That hes refusing to protect the American people from electronic attacks by a hostile foreign power? And hes like, Oh, yeah thats true. I said, Do you think hes lawless? Absolutely lawless. So you think hes a traitor who is not obeying the laws of the United States. And hes not putting the American people first. Hes the president. But youre not for impeachment? No. Im like, Why not? Hes like, Well, tactical reasons. And Im like, This isnt a tactical question. This is a moral question. This is a question of right and wrong. And youre telling me you wont stand up for right and wrong because its not tactically smart, in your opinion. He says, Yes. I dont want to extrapolate that conversation to everybody else. But what Im seeing is a lack of mojo. Theyre lying for money. Its not nice. I wish it werent true. But thats actually whats happening. Its very simple. And so, if youre not willing to say that, I have no idea what is scaring you. But for some reason, youre being scared away from telling an obvious truth. That is absolutely hampering us. And until we start telling the obvious truththat this is a lawless president controlled by a hostile foreign powerhow are we supposed to deal with it? We have to have the guts and the confidence to step up and tell the truth because the American people need the truth.

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One counterargument that might get madeagain thinking about climateis that, given political polarization, overly partisan framing might turn off people who might be otherwise receptive to your message.

Well, let me put it a little differently. Do I feel terrible that were in such a partisan time in the United States of America? I think we all regret that. But do I honestly think that that is the result of equal behavior on both sides? Not for one single second. Not for a single second. If youre talking about climate, you have one side that is trying to use scientific evidence to figure out the best economic health and safety pattern for the United States of America and you have another side that is lying their ass off for money and for the support of their biggest donors. That is not equivalent. Thats not even close to equivalent. So when people say, Oh, youre being too partisan, telling the truth is too partisan. Accepting science is too partisan. Baloney! Thats baloney. What is going on is that the Republican Party has sold out the truth on climate to their biggest fossil fuel donors, and they want to be treated politely and go to a cocktail party and be treated as if they were truth tellers. No, they are not! They are lying their ass off. And they know it!

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So, who

Im sorry, Im just hot about this.

I can tell.

Its infuriating! Its not equivalent. That is a false equivalence, and we see it in so many of these issues. There is a false equivalence here.

Again, I dont think there are many people in the Democratic Party who speak as angrily about all this as you are now. Do you think that theres an opening, come 2020 perhaps, for someone who can take the fight to the Republicans on climate and tell people the truth as you see it?

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I think theres something big going on honestly that I think for some reason people dont want to acknowledge. People want to think the status quo is where were going to stay. And I dont believe that. I thought two people won the presidential race in 2016: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Bernie is stillI mean people still flock to hear him talk. Hes still got tons of followers on Facebook and everything, blah blah blah. Hes not a Democrat. Hes a Democratic Socialist. Donald Trump won the election and he knocked outwhatever it was16 other Republican contenders including all the guys who were considered the real deal. Hes not a Republican. I mean, hes been a Democrat, hes been a Republican. God knows what hes been, but hes not a Republican. And he said he wouldnt support the Republican candidate necessarily blah blah blah. My point being: Two people won and neither of them was a Democrat or a Republican, right?

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So when you say the leaders of the party, Im like, Really? When you say, Is it possible that Americans want to hear the truth?, Im like, Really? I dont think thats a question. I think that were despairing of this two-faced, manipulative fake language that everybody gets.

Everybody in America knows when youre getting two-faced language. I mean its the thing I loved about those kids from Parkland. Its like, theyre 17 years old! They have nothing to lose and theyre literally telling the emperor, Youre naked as a jaybird, man. Its great! And youre asking me, Do I think Americans want to hear the truth? Why do you think they love those kids? I love those kids! Because they were telling the truth and everybody knew it! We are so sick as a country of this lyingthis dissembling and this fakeness, and unwillingness to deal with real issues. I mean, good grief! Im sick to the teeth of this! And I think every one of my relatives and every one of my friends is so sick of these people thinking theyre so much smarter than we are, and theyll just fool us. These answersWell send you our hopes and prayers, after another massacre. Really? Your hopes and prayers? What a bunch of baloney!

Youre about to do this series of town halls about impeachment. What do you hope to accomplish with that? Is that a NextGen project?

I wouldnt say its an official NextGen project. I am going to do it. In every single thing I do, the thing I enjoy by far the most and where I learn by far the most is having direct interactions with American citizens. Im just telling you, it is so fun to go down to Modesto Junior College and talk to the students there. It is so fun to talk to home health care workers about what their job is like and what it means for how their family works, how their life works. I mean, we will be talking about impeachment, but I expect to be the biggest student at those things. They are really fun. I mean, yes we will be talking about how rotten this president is and why we need to get rid of him. But, I will also be hearing a lot from people about whats really going on on the ground.The internet providers that cheered on the Federal Communications Commissions killing of net neutrality in December may yet regret getting the thing they wished for. In the absence of federal open-internet protections, states across the country are starting to pass their own lawsa coast-spanning patchwork of regulations that companies like AT&T and Comcast may find harder to comply with than the now-axed Obama-era policy, which prevented broadband companies from slowing down or blocking access to websites. And a network neutrality law just introduced in California could be the toughest state law yet.

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If the legislation passes, California would follow Washington, which was the first state to pass its own network neutrality policy at the beginning of the month. Governors in New York, Montana, and Hawaii have issued executive orders that bar state offices from doing any business with internet providers that dont adhere to basic network neutrality protections, like prohibitions on speeding up access to sites that pay to reach users at faster speeds. Californias might be the most significantnot just for the bills toughness and the states huge population, but also because its the home of the worlds largest internet giants.

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California state Sen. Scott Wiener originally drafted the legislation, SB-822, in January, and this Wednesday introduced an update to the bill that, beyond banning internet providers from blocking or throttling access to websites, would also bar them from engaging in another discriminatory process called zero rating, which is when an internet providers privileges some websites and apps over others by not counting their usage against monthly data caps.

AT&T, for example, uses zero rating when it allows its DirectTV Now customers to watch without cutting into customers data plans. While it could be argued that these plans are good for consumers, consumer-protection advocates have long maintained that zero rating allows internet providers to pick winners and losers online. If watching YouTube didnt count against your Verizon bill, for example, customers might have extra incentive to watch YouTube instead of another video streaming site, like Vimeo.

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The Obama-era FCC was in the midst of investigating both Verizon and AT&Ts zero rating practices in 2016. But after Donald Trump became president and FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai took over as chairman of the agency, it abruptly ended that inquiry. The net neutrality rules that were dismantled in December didnt bar zero rating, but they did give the FCC the authority to examine if an ISPs zero-rating scheme was anticompetitive on a case-by-case basis

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The new California proposal would also bar internet providers from meddling with or unreasonably neglecting network management and interconnection agreements that would downgrade how certain websites are able to connect to their networks, a practice all kinds of internet providers have engaged in over the years. New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermans office filed suit against Spectrum-Time Warner Cable last year for network slowdowns and service interruption that were often the result of a deliberate business choice by SpectrumTime Warner Cable to squeeze higher fees out of content providers like Netflix, as the attorney general put it in an interview, which he says left New Yorkers without the speeds and services they were paying for.

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The federal network neutrality rules that were finalized by the current FCC arent slated to go into effect until April, but when they do, internet providers will legally be allowed to block or slowdown access or charge a website a fee to reach users faster as much as they want as long as they disclose their business practices to consumers. The new federal rules also pre-empt state laws that circumvent the FCCs rules or attempt to reinstate any of the regulations the FCC repealed, which means any state action, like Washingtons or the California proposal, may be challenged in court.

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Barbara van Schewick, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in internet regulation, doesnt believe the the FCCs pre-emption clause will hold water. According to case law the FCC can only prevent the states from adopting net neutrality protections if the FCC has authority to adopt net neutrality protections itself, van Schewick wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. Since the FCCs 2017 Order removed the agencys authority to adopt net neutrality protections, it doesnt have authority to prevent the states from doing so, either. A similar, less comprehensive state bill cleared the California senate in January, so this latest proposal has a decent chance of passing, too.

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If van Schewick is right, Californias net neutrality law may have ramifications that stretch beyond the states borders, since applying rules within one states lines alone isnt always feasible when it comes to the relatively borderless internet. This is what happened in 2003 with the passage of the California Online Privacy Protection Act, which required websites to publish privacy polices when they collect data about users. Although California was the first state with such a law and since posting a privacy policy for a website in one state and not others would be difficult to implement, California ended up setting nationwide internet privacy standards. If Weiners measure passes and resists legal challenges, California may find itself behind the wheel again in crafting consumer protection laws for the internet that the rest of the country ends up living with. And in the case of stopping companies like Comcast an AT&T from blocking or slowing down access to parts of the net, that could be a very good thing.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issued a statement on Thursday announcing sanctions against Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, launching the costly NotPetya cyberattack, and making intrusions targeting critical infrastructure.

National security officials separately accused Russia of conducting an ongoing operation to destabilize the U.S. electrical grid, based on intelligence from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Heres a quick guide for understanding what these accusations meanand how you hack an electrical grid.

What did the Russian hackers allegedly do?

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Anonymous security officials told reporters that Russian intelligence breached computer systems for the electricity grid and conducted network reconnaissance.

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI also issued an alert characterizing the attack as a multi-stage intrusion campaign by Russian government cyber actors who targeted small commercial facilities networks where they staged malware, conducted spear phishing, and gained remote access into energy sector networks.

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Howd they do it?

The hackers used a variety of methods, such as sending Word documents laced with malware to steal logins and passwords from people at smaller companies. After gaining a foothold, the hackers then invaded the networks of bigger targets to purloin information about industrial control systems for critical infrastructure.

Robert Lee, the CEO of cybersecurity firm Dragos, told Slate over email: The information from DHS is a great amplification of what has been known to the community already. We reported this threat and the activity to our customers in late 2017.

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Are they still in the grid?

The officials claim that the government has assisted the affected energy companies in expelling the hackers, though there is a possibility that there are additional undiscovered breaches.

Why were they gathering this information?

There are two stages of an attack on systems that control energy generation and distribution for a power grid, says Sergio Caltagirone, director of threat intelligence at Dragos.

The first stage involves an adversary infiltrating to spend at least nine months gathering intelligence on energy companies and infrastructure. This a precursor to a potential attack in the second stage.

However, just because hackers have initiated the first stage, it doesnt mean an attack is imminentand its difficult to tell what kind of attack they could be planning. Caltagirone told Slate, The information gathered would only really be useful in a potential attack scenario.  But we dont know what kind of attack they are preparing for or considering.

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The most likely reason for the numerous breaches is that the hackers are just gathering information to have in case they ever wanted to use it to disrupt the grid in the future. But Caltagirone thinks that the chances of an actual attack later on are pretty low. He said, Any actor worth their salt knows that if you take down a countrys electrical grid, youre probably setting yourself up for an act of war.

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Researchers at Dragos are more concerned that hackers attempting to conduct a test on a smaller regional operator could make a costly mistake. A haywire test would inadvertently set off a power outage, which could affect hospitals, safety controls for plants, and cause other life-threatening scenarios. Because of this possibility, Caltagirone emphasized, Any adversary operating within civilian infrastructure and control systems should be a clear and automatic red line for the entire world community.

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Did we know that hackers were targeting the U.S.s electricity infrastructure before?

Yes. In September, a cybersecurity firm called Symantec warned that a group it called DragonFly 2.0 had infiltrated dozens of U.S. power companies over the course of nine months. Though the hackers obtained access that wouldve allowed them to shut down energy production and distribution operations, they held back. National security experts at the time said the breach was likely a warning from Russia.

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Thursdays alert said the energy grid hacking it describes is related to the DragonFly campaign. All weve seen from DragonFly so far is information gathering, said Caltagirone, Theyve been very good at doing it. Theyve been doing it longer than anyone else in the world, based on the public intelligence thats available. Yet, DragonFly isnt known for launching attacks. In most cases, its usually another group that steps in to conduct a second stage attack based on the information gathered in the first stage.

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Have the Russians allegedly done this anywhere else?

Ukraine, often a testing ground for Russian cyberoffensives, has twice blamed Russia for attacks on its electrical grid. In 2015, more than 23,000 residents lost power after a Russian hack that downed around 30 substations and backup power supplies. The Washington Post then reported in June that hackers associated with the Kremlin had developed malware that knocked out one-fifth of the power generated in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in 2016. Dragos found that the hackers could modify the malware to attack systems in the U.S. and other countries.

Everything that happened in this report [from the FBI and DHS] happened in the Ukraine, minus the disruption, Caltagirone said. What somebody does to Ukraine is probably going to be very similar to what someone does to the U.S. or Nigeria. The initial steps are common across the threat spectrum. Whats unique is what they do next. Thats something this report doesnt go into because we dont actually think the adversary has taken those next steps yet.Kimchi shame is real. Whenever I visit my immigrant mother, she foists numerous jars of pickled cabbage on me, then immediately takes them back. I dont want your fridge to stink, she says, presumably protecting my white husbands sense of smell, even though he loves Korean food and, as a Jewish man, sees our cultures shared fondness for brined piquant cabbage as a neat point of convergence. I keep telling her that Korean cuisine is trendy nowbibimbap is the new pad thai and every week gochujang threatens to supplant Srirachabut a lifelong habit of playing defense dies hard, especially when, as an immigrant, youre constantly told youre too much. But in a crowded marketplace, excess can be an asset. Which is how we come to pineapple kimchi.

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Trendiness takes its toll. On Tuesday, a Twitter user named Tony Choi posted a series of screencaps from a BuzzFeed video called Americans Try Customizable Kimchi, captioning them, Oh no, No, no, nooooo, and Who does this. The last of which was in reference to a can of kimchi topped with gold foil; other versions in the video were made with similarly nontraditional ingredients like mango, kiwi, and pineapple. The dishes, made by a purveyor called Kind People Kimchi, offer the tastes of Korea for an American sensibility, according to the companys crowd-funding page. Noah Cho, a teacher and writer whos become a pre-eminent voice of Korean American Food Twitter (disclosure: hes a friend), piled on to side-eye Kind Peoples less-than-authentic ingredients: Yes, yes, my halmoni [grandma] also used *squints* spirulina, cactus honey, and green tea powder, yes, just like in the old country. For a younger generation, private shame about kimchi has given way to public outrage.

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Yes, yes, my halmoni also used *squints* spirulina, cactus honey, and green tea powder, yes, just like in the old country pic.twitter.com/AUPe844QsJ    (@I_Am_Ahjussi) March 13, 2018

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Foodieism undoubtedly crosses all demographic lines, but food writing, and thus taste-making, remains an overwhelmingly white profession (like the rest of media). Without the cultural context, white writers (and white chefs) sometimes get it wrong, or at least not-quite-right. The New York Times amended a dispatch about bubble tea last summer after a description of boba balls as blobs drew ire. A year before that, Bon Appetit apologized for a since-deleted video that facilely compared pho to ramen, and for another video (also deleted) in which a white writer explained (apparently wrongly) this is how you should be eating pho. Both backpedals took place after widespread social-media backlash, without which the kind of geographically scattered but ideologically aligned networks that mount such campaigns likely wouldnt exist.

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Cho is as surprised as anyone that his Twitter following is based partly on his food outrage. But its no mystery why: Shaking our collective heads at outsiders getting aspects of our cultures wrong has practically become an internet pastime. In an email interview, Cho said he views his complaints about new interpretations of Korean cuisine and the outsize press attention they draw when theyre prepared by white chefs as a way of calling out to other Koreans out there to join me in my despair. (Some of those chefs enjoy the cultural cachet to charge way more than, say, your local Korean mom-and-pop restaurant would or could. For the record, Kind People Kimchi boasts a Korean American CEO.) Now that Korean food has really taken off, Cho added, its been enraging to see the people that used to smirk and turn their noses up at Korean food start to breathlessly advocate the probiotic advantages of kimchi at farmers markets. Its nice to find others out there that think $30 kimchi in twee packaging is dumb too.

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Guarding cultural borders can be an edifying community-building exercise.

Korean Americans, of course, are hardly exceptional in our pique at outsiders ignorance about our food. I have a lot of mutual followers on Twitter that are from all parts of the world that get irritated when white chefs suddenly discover their foods, Cho said. Filipino food has been pushed as the next big thing for years now, and it seems like its finally gaining traction. Ive seen a lot of tweets from people dreading the advent of mason jar adobo.

I cant ever imagine ordering a $15 plate of pickled who-knows-what at an upscale New American eatery. (One of the reasons why Americanized Korean food is so unconvincing is that it incorporates the same five vegetables offered at every lunch counter, as opposed to the stunning array of native Asian flora that youd find, in, say, any major Korean American supermarket.) But as Korean cuisine has become A Thing, Ive learned to simply roll my eyesand occasionally clap backat reviews like this one, in which a white food writer singles out a kimchi restaurant in a city full of them because the version it sells is barely spicy, as if thats a good thing. I know more about Korean food than pretty much any non-Korean, and I dont mind throwing that fact in peoples faces online.

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Of course, authenticity policing is probably a losing battle, even if organized internet campaigns targeting appropriators, like the one in Portland, Oregon, last year that followed the dissemination of a Google Doc naming white-owned ethnic restaurants, can take out the occasional business. And these ad-hoc crusades dont take into account the fact that all cuisines are in constant flux anyway and that its not just white chefs, but those of color, too, who are hybridizing and innovating. Overall, though, I find these microcosmic backlashes a positive use of public shaming. Guarding cultural borders can be an edifying community-building exercise. Cultures are often slippery at the edges, but theyre also lifelines that inform who we are and where we come from. Just because theyre always changing doesnt mean there are no right or wrong details. And when others do get it wrong, we can comfort one another with a few words of affirmation on Twitter.

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The question is: Will anyone outside of Korean American Food Twitter listen? Twitter communities are usually insider-y groups that anyone can read or respond to. Many users talk to their friends and allies as such, which can translate to cultural or linguistic shorthand and a natural disregard for whether outsiders feel included in the conversation. Thats fine. Only the foolhardiest would step up to Black Twitter, for example, and demand that it be more welcoming to nonAfrican Americans. Cho told me that he hopes that some of these companies and chefs that arent Korean messing with Korean food will take at least a second to think about what this food actually means to those of us that grew up eating it and having it culturally ingrained into our lives. I agree with that goal in theory, but the best we can probably hope for is to gripe in peace. Weve been accommodating long enough. Any chef or writer receptive to our culinary ideas should be able to deal with the mild heat of our annoyance.Almost since its founding, Twitter has regarded itself as a platform for news; watershed moments in the companys history included the Arab Spring and a 2011 East Coast earthquake. Facebook began talking as early as 2013 about wanting to be a sort of personalized newspaper, only to realize more recently that separating real news from propaganda was harder than it had anticipated. Both companies have spent much of the past year reckoning with their roles in spreading hoaxes, facilitating election interference, and fueling societal division and extremism.

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Googles YouTube, in contrast, has until recently managed to skirt the brunt of the criticism that rival social media platforms have faced. As a result, it has been relatively slow to grapple with the implications of its role as a source of newsand, inevitably, of misinformation. As recently as October, in a series of congressional hearings, Google downplayed the significance of its video platform in Russian election interference, while Facebook and Twitter fielded the toughest questions.

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Now a series of controversies is forcing YouTube to address its responsibilities more directly and candidly than it has in the past. At the South by Southwest Interactive conference this week in Austin, Texas, an appearance by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki made it clear that the platform is finally giving serious thought to the quality and veracity of information its users are getting. It also made clear that the company has a lot of catching up to do.

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In January, star YouTube vlogger Logan Paul sparked a backlash when he published a video showing the dead body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan. Google responded by canceling Pauls preferred ad deal and suspending his projects for its premium video service, YouTube Red. That came as the company was already dealing with a series of reports revealing disturbing cartoons apparently aimed at kids (it subsequently deleted 150,000 of them) and another genre of videos depicting children in abusive situations. The latter prompted the company to hire thousands more human moderators to review content for potential policy violations.

But it has since become obvious that YouTubes problems arent simply a matter of manpower. They flow from the companys confusion about the nature of its business and the extent of its responsibilities.

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.@SusanWojcicki "If there is an important news event we want to be delivering the right information."



Minutes later she says, "We are not a news organization."  Ryan Mac (@RMac18) March 13, 2018

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In February, YouTubes algorithms boosted conspiracy videos attacking the children who survived the Parkland, Florida, school massacre. This month, influential YouTube conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed the company was about to delete his channel, a claim YouTube said was not true. Writing in the New York Times this week, the tech scholar Zeynep Tufekci called YouTube the great radicalizer, detailing how its recommendation algorithm carries casual viewers down rabbit holes of extremism.

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At South by Southwest on Tuesday, Wojcicki came prepared with a new plan to tackle conspiracy videos on YouTube. But the subsequent reaction suggested she hadnt come quite prepared enough.

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Pointing to slides that displayed YouTube videos purveying conspiracies about the moon landing and chemtrails, Wojcicki said the company will begin displaying information cues drawn from Wikipedia alongside such clips. The cues come in the form of little blocks of text directly below the video. To determine which videos require such a counterweight, Wojcicki said, YouTube will draw on Wikipedias own list of well-known conspiracy theories. She noted that YouTube could expand on that list over time.

This was all news to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that administers the volunteer-edited Wikipedia. We were not given advance notice of this announcement, the foundation said in a statement Wednesday, adding that there is no formal partnership between it and YouTube. While it did not explicitly object to YouTube using its content in this way, the nonprofit stressed that it relies on donors and unpaid editors, and that it does not control content or make editorial decisions about information that is included on Wikipedia.

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In other words, an $800 billion companyarguably the worlds most important information sourceis outsourcing the job of combatting misinformation on its platform to a nonprofit built on free labor. And it didnt bother to tell them.

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Even if YouTube had handled this better, its not clear that Wikipedia cards will do much to solve its problems. The approach is loosely analogous to one that Facebook began deploying in December 2016 to fight fake news. But Facebook later ditched its initial approach amid concerns that it might be backfiring (a finding that is itself disputed by some). After a years worth of research, testing, and trial and error, theres been little evidence so far that the social networks efforts have made much difference in the spread of misinformation. Thats one reason Facebook has simultaneously pursued several other avenues to improve the quality and credibility of news and information on its platformsome more promising than others.

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One rather glaring problem with YouTubes plan is that it seems ill-equipped to handle conspiracies that crop up rapidly in the wake of major news events such as the Parkland shooting. Those memessuch as the one smearing Parkland survivor David Hogg as a crisis actorare liable to make the rounds on YouTube well before theyve been authoritatively debunked on Wikipedia, let alone added to a master list of well-known conspiracies. Even with human moderators on hand, some of these conspiracy theories have scaled to the top of YouTubes prominent list of trending videos, and earned millions of views in the process, before being taken down.

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Another issue: Wikipedia is vulnerable to trolls and propagandists, just as is any other platform that relies on the public to produce and curate content. It might become more so, now that people know Wikipedia holds the keys to YouTubes conspiracy-debunking apparatus, such as it is. One prominent Wikipedia editor was quick to warn that YouTubes misinformation problems run deeper than anything that could be solved by an irregularly updated *encyclopedia*.

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...huh.



1) ok, seems fine. Hope they credit us appropriately

2) I don't think YouTube can rely on our irregularly updated *encyclopedia* to solve its ranking algorithm/hate speech issue; ppl don't read refs.

3) web 2.0 is wierd, man.



/goes back to working on Wikipedia articles https://t.co/f9G1JZLTu2  Phoebe Ayers (@phoebe_ayers) March 14, 2018

On the same day that Wojcicki was taking the stage in Austin on Tuesday to announce her big fix, a YouTube spokesperson was telling Vice News that the company had no idea why an InfoWars conspiracy video was topping its search results Monday for queries about the package explosions in Austin. The InfoWars video claimed, without evidence, that Antifa was a prime suspect in the bombings.

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In the same speech, according to tweets by BuzzFeed News Ryan Mac, Wired editor-in-chief Nick Thompson asked Wojcicki how YouTube decides which information sources are credible. Wojcicki declined to get specific, saying there are usually complicated algorithmsthe sort of vague excuse that Facebook shopped for years before critics largely stopped buying it. She did suggest, however, that YouTube looks at the number of journalistic awards and amount of traffic that various publishers have. If thats true, those are some awfully crude, extremely amateurish proxiesmore so even than Facebooks widely ridiculed publisher trust survey.

It appears, then, that YouTube is just beginning the journey of reckoning that Facebook was compelled by critics (and its own outraged employees) to undertake almost immediately after the 2016 election. Part of that journey will probably involve learning some humility: Just last month Wojcicki sniped at a media conference in California that Facebook should get back to baby pictures, the implication being that it couldnt handle the grown-up responsibilities of a prominent news platform. One could imagine a similar dig at YouTube, perhaps swapping out baby pictures for cat videos.

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The reality is that none of these platforms is going back to its comparatively innocent early days. Social media, for better or worse, has firmly established itself as a primary news source for huge swaths of the population, with younger generations leading that trend. That means YouTube, like Facebook and Twitter, is stuck with the responsibility of figuring out how to do a better job of informing its users. Excuses like the one Googles Richard Salgado offered to Congress in Octoberthat the company is a technology platform and therefore not in the news businessno longer fly.

Its good to see YouTube finally beginning to acknowledge that it has a problem. The next step is for it to understand that solving that problem wont be easy, and quick fixes wont suffice. Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg indicated in January that he understood fixing his platform will require a sustained, long-term effort. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said as much in a tweetstorm earlier this month. To judge from Wojcickis recent comments, YouTube isnt quite there yet.Review Overview Usefulness Functionality Price LG makes a return to OLED screens in the LG V30, their latest flagship smartphone. At 537 ppi (pixels per inch) density, it's got a large and useful display with a premium feel and good looks to match. Don't let its thin body fool you  this phone has passed 14 military-grade stress tests. Be mindful of variants.

If youre looking for a water-resistant, dust-resistant, high-end phone for your small business, the LG V30 is one of the most recent. Its one of the lightest, thinnest smartphones with Android Oreo on the market.

LG V30 Specs

Key LG V30 Specs

The screen gives you 2880 x 1440 pixels, and it almost feels as if youre holding 6 inches of high-res screen and nothing else. It has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of memory which you can expand with a microSD card to 2 terabytes. Depending on the carrier, theres the V30+ if 64 GB isnt enough for you. (See the Cons section.)

According to LG, more colors (up to 211 percent more) will be rendered when shooting pictures or video. (Im unsure if my human eye will notice, but at least we know the 16-megapixel camera on the V30 is a step up from what the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus offers at 12 megapixels.) The LG V30 camera setting has a wide-angle option which I didnt try. Video mode has some bonus features like Cine Effect and Point Zoom, which are marketed to the 78 percent of Millennials who use phones for video creation.

LG V30 Pros

Starting with its fully-charged 3,300 mAh battery, in three hours of very heavy uninterrupted use, the LG V30 fell to 62 percent battery capacity. This is a positive because I expected a slightly bigger drop during this stress test. By very heavy, I mean I focused on a known battery-hog  specifically Snapchat. When Snapchat wasnt in active use, I still kept it open alongside normal apps. I switched back and forth between normal apps and Snapchat. Because the V30 is such a thin phone, I wanted to see if Snapchat would make the V30 uncomfortably hot. It didnt get hot at all, a nice surprise!

The LG V30 has IP68 certification which means its dust-resistant and water-resistant in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. You could safely rinse this phone several times a week to keep it looking new. It is MIL-STD 810G compliant which means it successfully passed 14 military-grade stress tests. It has a headphone jack placed on top, where I think a jack belongs. Because it was introduced in late 2017, its easy to find numerous LG V30 message boards filled with tips, fixes and tweaks written by individual owners. The same is true for recent reviews of it on YouTube.

A quick charger using USB Type C is provided and offers the speed youd expect. If you want wireless charging, thats sold separately but at least you have it as an option, another positive youd expect from a 2018 flagship.

LG V30 Cons

The battery, though good, is non-removable. The front-facing camera (or selfie camera as some like to call it) is basic at just 5 megapixels.

If you simply want the basic V30, please be sure you dont get distracted by variants. But one variant worth considering is the V30+ which has double the storage (128 GB) but the same amount of RAM. The V30+ is surprisingly only $82 more than the $830 unlocked version (which means a handset isnt locked to one carrier), but its only for Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular.

When it comes to buying smartphones, the fewer variants, the better. Too many variants can lead to confusion. Followers of LG Mobile who predicted thered be only one V30 variant were wrong. There are now a few variants of the V30 out there like the V30S ThinQ. When you see any LG product with ThinQ in its name, it means artificial intelligence is somehow inside, whether its a smartphone, smart appliance, etc. Do most small businesses truly need AI in a phone? Hard to say, but in 2018, Id guess no unless experimenting floats your boat. Specifically for the V30S ThinQ, ThinQ means camera features with EyeEm (an image-recognizing AI developed in Germany) woven in, as well as voice commands with an AI layer.

Conclusion

I see the LG V30 as a solid, high-quality choice for most businesses.

With an 18:9 aspect ratio, however, images (in portrait mode) will be taller than whats produced on other phones. This could sometimes cause an image thats shot on a V30 to look off-kilter if opened on another phone. To remedy this, just be mindful of edge extremes during your shooting and any post-production (e.g. Instagram or Snapchat stickers). If your business does a lot of stickers on Instgram or Snapchat, then Id throw in this minor point of caution. Otherwise, I recommend the V30 for business. If your business is near a lot of water or dust, consider this phone.

If youre bristling at the price, be aware carriers are usually open to price negotiation if youre buying several phones for employees. LG recently announced the V30 will earn a special approval in a Google-led program following an upgrade to Android 8.1. The (Android 8.0 version of the phone is what is being reviewed here).

If youre a medium-sized enterprise, this information may apply to you as well. The Google approval, known as Android Enterprise Recommended approval, is meant to help IT departments and COOs make good choices, especially if structuring a new CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) plan, or tweaking an existing one. As an indicator, the approval complements an LG offering named LG GATE (Guarded Access To Enterprise) which is an on-ramp to added value like ease of device deployment to your employees, and cybersecurity updates delivered on-schedule.Creativity is like a muscle. It must be stretched, challenged, and occasionally pushed past its comfort zone.

Now its time to stretch your creative muscles again.

Ways to Boost Creativity

Here are nine ways you can dramatically improve your creativity.

1. Learn Through Collaboration

Curiosity will lead you to creativity.

Andrew Ng, formerly of Google and now of Baidu, is one who doesnt believe innovation is due to unpredictable flashes of genius. Rather, he said you can become more creative and innovative systematically.

In my own life, I found that whenever I wasnt sure what to do next, I would go and learn a lot, read a lot, talk to experts. I dont know how the human brain works but its almost magical: when you read enough or talk to enough experts, when you have enough inputs, new ideas start appearing.

Indeed, collaborating with and learning from others may be just what you need to give your creativity a boost.

2. Do Something You Love

Stuck for ideas? Not sure what to do? Your life needs some balance to ensure your creativity doesnt suffer.

In a letter to his son, Albert Einstein provided a great bit of fatherly insight when addressing his sons interest in playing the piano that is applicable to losing yourself in the creative process: do something that pleases you.

That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you dont notice that the time passes, Einstein wrote. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal.

Love and creativity are intertwined. A hobby, such as playing an instrument, running, or collecting memorabilia, can help you relax and fight stress while giving your creativity a boost.

3. Find Inspiration From Other Industries

Your next idea wont come from copying what a competitor has already done. So look for innovation in different industries and niches.

Research what businesses are dominating. Why?

What businesses are you most loyal to? Why?

How can you transfer what worked for businesses outside your industry to your own market? Maybe you can improve on these ideas.

Taking inspiration from other industries is a great way to boost your own creativity.

4. Unplug (Or Just Do Nothing)

As Alan Cohen once wrote, There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.

Sometimes your best ideas will come when youre not wracking your brain trying to come up with the next great idea.

It could be while youre sleeping. A good night of rest will help you be more productive and creative.

It could be while your mind wanders in the shower that you get a great idea.

Maybe your next innovative idea will come while youre driving, exercising, hiking, shopping, sitting on an airplane, or watching the sunset.

If your creativity is lacking, unplug. Relax. And let your brain do its magic.

5. Walk

The average person sits between 7 and 15 hours every day.

Crazy, right?

Thats terrible for your health and your mood, which means it can be terrible for your creativity.

Stanford research has indicated that walking improves creative thinking. In a follow-up study, HBR found that people who take part in walking meetings are more creative and engaged.

Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Western Union Co. CEO Hikmet Ersek, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and scores of other business leaders and entrepreneurs regularly have walking meetings.

While walking during work wont solve our national sitting crisis, its a step in the right direction.

6. Set the Right Mood

A lack of ideas or being unable to solve a problem can be extremely frustrating.

Unless you value complete silence, music can be the thing to give your mood, and your creativity, a boost.

Steve Jobs used music to change his moods and keep himself creative.

It could work for you, too.

7. Use the Six Thinking Hats Technique

Sometimes you just need to start over. Forget everything and begin anew with a blank slate  break it down using six different colored thinking hats.

Using this process could help you look at things in a different way. It gives you the option to look at things in a just the facts manner (white hat); where things could go wrong (black hat); and possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas (green hat), for example.

By looking at a problem from several unique perspectives may be just what you need to find a solution.

8. Ask For Advice or Feedback

Sometimes youre too close to a problem to figure out a creative solution all by yourself.

Asking for help isnt a sign of weakness. Ask for help and advice from friends, peers, and people from your personal network that you trust and respect. Every person has a unique skill set, experience, and knowledge.

A fresh outside perspective, or three, or five, may be just what you need.

Even if you dont use their advice, it may spark some new, creative thinking that will get you where you need to go.

9. Pick a Terrible Idea

Step away from whatever idea youre stuck on for a few minutes.

Whats the most useless idea you can imagine? Make a list of the worst ideas you can think up.

Now the real challenge to stretch your creativity: what are the best features of these terrible idea

Perhaps looking at these terrible ideas will spark something creative that you can transfer over to your excellent idea.

Bonus Ideas to Stimulate Your Creativity

Check out this infographic for some more ways to get your creative juices flowing.

Credit: Shout

Republished by permission. Original here.Blog: The emotions behind Slovakia's public outcry

Demonstrating peacefully, ringing their keys, Slovaks today are fighting for their past, their present, and their future.

For a moment, Slovakia was front-page news all around the world when international media reported on the murder of the young Slovak journalist, Jan Kuciak, and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, as a result of his work on the corruption, outside infiltration and abuse of political power in Slovakia.

I quickly came to realize that with everything that is going on right now, the representation of Slovakia abroad would not get any better. Unfortunately, Slovakia still has its Eastern Bloc history against itself, with many people still assuming Slovakia (government and people alike) is much akin to Russia  a democratic pretender.

We know this is primarily a result of simply being uninformed about Slovakia. I fear, however, that the very factual description by international media of the murder of Kuciak, the corruption, and the ties between the government and foreign organized crime, only confirm this distorted stereotypical image in the eyes of their readers, instead of changing it.

Foreign readers need to be shown the very strong emotional undertow underneath the recent events and the reactions to it  one that runs deep in the psyche of the Slovak people.

First of all, Kuciaks murder should be seen as the "last drop" in an already long stream of suspicions of political corruption over the past years.

Second, even deeper, the majority of Slovaks gathered in the squares and in front of embassies all around the world, still have a vivid recollection of the infamous 1990s era of Vladimir Meciar, where the streets ran rife with corruption, violence, murder by broad daylight, abduction, and oppression of free speech. When Meciar's autocratic rule as prime minister ended in late 1998, the Slovak nation hoped to never have to go back to a time like this and to march forward into a better (and safer) future. To many, the murder of Kuciak is a stark reminder of a Slovakia 20 years ago. A Slovakia they prefer to leave behind.

Moving even further back in time, we should see today's demonstrations against the backdrop of the final days of the Communist era in the late 1980s, when the parents of today's generation cried out for change. They organized their own peaceful demonstrations against the Communist regime and brought it to its knees. They rang their keys. They called for a better future for their children. They succeeded.

Standing up against corruption in 2018 is therefore more than a reaction to recent events. It is a new generation protecting what their parents fought so hard for 30 years ago. What's more, it is a new generation fighting in its own right for the future of their children.

The distinction between Slovakia as a government and Slovakia as a people is therefore very important. Demonstrating peacefully, ringing their keys, and crying out for change, Slovaks today are fighting for their past, their present, and their future. The world should see that.

Boudewijn Dekker is a Dutch blogger who writes about his experiences and observations as a foreigner living and working in Slovakia. He shares his stories, pictures and opinions as The Curious Dutchman on his blogpage, his Facebook Page as well as on Instagram.

15. Mar 2018 at 13:00 | Boudewijn DekkerDo you want a tree named after you?

The Slovak National Gallery is revitalising an old orchard and is raising needed funds via a crowdfunding project.

The most prominent art museum in Slovakia, the Slovak National Gallery (SNG) has taken on a quite untraditional task  the revitalisation of an old orchard in Pezinok. It is part of the historical Schaubmar Mill which was turned into the Naive Art Gallery dozens of years ago.

The project for the revitalisation and transformation of the mill into a modern amusement area started last year; this year the priority is to revitalise the orchard, said Ladislava Gnackova from the SNG PR department.

The SNG plans to plant 33 new fruit trees and more than one hundred fruit and other bushes. These will include apple, pear, sour cherry, mulberry and quince trees and currant and raspberry bushes. They chose the trees, bushes and other plants with the intention of using their fruits during various educational and artistic activities or for the production of their own products. Later they also want to plant vines and place bee hives, nesting boxes and an insect house. Along with a green house, there will also be vegetable and herb beds. For visitors there will be paths, benches, hammocks and fire places where they can have barbecues.

The total cost for the revitalisation of the orchard is 13,000. To raise the necessary money the SNG has prepared a crowdfunding project Posad sa(d) u nas! a play on words of sitting (posad), orchard (sad) and planting (posad). It was launched on Monday, March 12 and it will last until April 9. People can support the project via the purchase of textile bags or local wines. For a donation of 300 the SNG will name a fruit tree after the donor. The website is, however, only in Slovak.

During the first four days donations have exceeded 6,300, well above the target of 5000. Of the offered pledges, two of the most expensive are already sold. One donor gave 1,200 for the purchase and planting of a full-grown lime tree. As a reward the lime tree will be named after him or her. Another donor gave 600 for which the reward will be a dinner for four cooked by chef Michal Kordos with a private tour of the mill and its premises. There are still plenty of other pledges like a birthday party for children, gallery packages and graphic art work ranging from 6 to 300.

As the costs of the planned revitalisation will climb to more than 13,000 we would welcome it if people continued to donate, said Gnackova.

Schaubmar Mill

The Schaubmar Mill in Pezinok, about 23 km from Bratislava, is a place with an exceptional atmosphere - the historic mill is surrounded by a yard and old orchards, the SNG writes on its website. The mill, known as the Schaubmar Mill, has belonged to the SNG since the 1970s. As the only completely preserved mill of its kind in Slovakia, it is a precious historical and technical heritage site.

In addition to the functional mill technology and an exhibit about the history of the mill, the building also houses an art gallery dedicated to the art of untrained artists known as self-taught art, naive art, art brut and outsider art.

Read also:

Read also: Insita serves as a forum for outsider and self-taught art Read more

The permanent exhibit showcases a selection of paintings, sculptures and drawings by Slovak and foreign artists. The art gallery also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions, which explore modern and contemporary art and design. Throughout the year, various public events and educational programmes for schools and families with children take place at the mill, the gallery informs on its website.

The Schaubmar Mill is open on Thursdays and Fridays 9:00  16:00 and on Saturdays and Sundays 10:00  18:00. Tickets cost 2 for adults and students and 1 for seniors.

15. Mar 2018 at 22:45 | Compiled by Spectator staffPeople still trying to save the ruins of Slanec Castle

Most recently, a stairway was repaired in the castle situated close to Kosice.

More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

A new stairway has recently been built at the Nebojsa Tower (named after a fearless fairytale hero), which is part of Slanec Castle.

A wooden spiral staircase between the fourth and sixth floors was fixed, said Slanec Mayor Jozef Bela, as quoted by the TASR newswire. It was a difficult process; the carpenters were working on the beams right on the spot. We also started the reconstruction of a fireplace on the sixth floor and the construction of portals.

Read also:

Read also: The rise and fall of Slovak castles (Spectacular Slovakia - travel guide) Read more

The project to save and reconstruct the castle situated close to Kosice started in 2012 under the supervision of the nearby village and the civic association. About 20 unemployed people were working at the castle between June and December 2017, with the Culture Ministry allocating 26,000 for the work, TASR reported.

The tower stays closed for now

Nebojsa Tower, which dominates the castle, should be turned into a lookout tower and an exhibition place. Back in 2013, it was roofed, while the sixth floor was added in 2016. However, the tower is now closed to visitors.

We would like to start with laying the floor on the terrace and installing the handrails, Bela said, as quoted by TASR.

Apart from these works, the reconstruction of the north-western bastion and the palace wall started last year.

A brief history

The Gothic Slanec Castle was destroyed in 1679 during the uprising of the Hungarian count Emeric Thokoly. It was first restored in the 19th century when the dominions owner, Count Forgach, ordered the reconstruction of the tower and opened a family museum there.

The museum closed in 1937. Afterwards, the tower dilapidated and burnt down in 1945, TASR wrote.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

15. Mar 2018 at 14:01 | Compiled by Spectator staffA journalist banned from writing because of his story

The ruling is not valid yet. It might become one of the few cases where journalists are punished for their work.

A 18-month imprisonment with three-year condition and ban from writing for the same period is the punishment for journalist Lukas Milan, who wrote about murky business practices in Kosice, involving a former top representative of the Smer party, Pavol Paska.

The story entitled Kosices Octopus was published by the Plus 7 Dni weekly more than two years ago. Paska, who once served as speaker of parliament but left after the scandal with the purchase of an overpriced CT device for Piestany hospital, filed a criminal complaint for libel.

The police prosecuted Milan, who left Plus 7 Dni, while the prosecutor submitted a lawsuit. The judge has now accepted the suit, the Medialne.sk website reported.

However, Milan disagrees with the ruling and appealed it. If the appellate court confirms the original ruling, it will be one of the few cases in which a journalist i sentenced in Slovakia.

What was the story about?

According to the lawsuit, Milan stated some untrue facts in his story, which harmed Paskas business and his reputation in society.

The prosecutor, for example, states that the part in which the journalist cites an unnamed businessman active in transport, claiming that Paska had been asking for bribe for distributing blood plasma to medical facilities, is untrue, as reported by Medialne.sk.

Lawyer Tomas Langer, who is dealing with the media disputes, claims that if journalists inform the public about something in good faith in their veracity and checks the facts, they should not be punished for their work.

It is the work of the police and then the court to check whether this was the case, Langer told Medialne.sk.

Milan refused to reveal the name of the entrepreneur cited in the story to investigators. The entrepreneur told Medialne.sk that he does not want to testify on his statements concerning Paska, since he is afraid he would lose the orders and go bankrupt. He insists on remaining anonymous.

The law stipulates that journalists must not reveal their sources if they asked.

15. Mar 2018 at 14:05 | Compiled by Spectator staffPellegrini is the new PM

Robert Fico and his cabinet submitted their resignation. Kiska authorised Pellegrini to form a new cabinet.

video //www.sme.sk/vp/36568/

Peter Pellegrini will replace Robert Fico as the prime minister.

Pellegrini, who currently holds the post of deputy PM for investments and informatisation, met with President Andrej Kiska on March 15, handing in a document with the signatures of 79 coalition MPs who support the resignation of the current government.

They all guarantee the support for the new government after it is created.

Robert Fico submitted his resignation to President Andrej Kiska in the early afternoon of March 15. Subsequently, Kiska appointed Peter Pellegrini, Ficos nominee, as designated prime minister who will form a new cabinet with a new programme statement, and seek the trust of the parliament.

"It is immensely demanding and I admit I have not slept properly for two nights," Peter Pellegrini told journalists after meeting with President Andrej Kiska on March 15. "On the other hand, I have accepted this offer and I will also accept it if the president assigns me to try and put together a new government."

Read also:

Read also: Peter Pellegrini to become new prime minister. Who is he? Read more

Though Kiska confirmed to journalists that they have discussed the new ministers, Pellegrini refused to comment on specific changes, claiming that the whole process of creating a new cabinet will start only after the president officially authorises him to form it.

He only said that the reconstruction of the government will be fundamental. The distribution of the ministries will remain the same as it is now, he added.

Both Kiska and Pellegrini hope that the changes will relieve the atmosphere in society.

The natural successor

Critics of the ruling Smer have voiced concerns that as chairman of Smer, Fico will be able to maintain his influence in the government through Pellegrini.

"The nomination of Peter Pellegrini is the most natural thing, Fico told journalists in the Presidential Palace, side by side with Pellegrini, after he filed his resignation.

In his statement to journalists, Fico attacked the opposition again and said that as the chairman of the strongest political party on the scene he will be part of the coalition council and he wants to remain active in the political life. He called Pellegrini his close personal friend.

Pellegrini did not speak to journalists after the act.

Most-Hid moves

After Pellegrinis appointment, Most-Hid MP Frantisek Sebej announced he was giving up his parliamentary mandate and thus leaving the parliament.

Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska who has earlier announced she was not going to participate in the new government, is returning to the parliamentary caucus of Most-Hid.

I cannot represent this or the new government anymore, she gave her main reason for leaving the cabinet. She also mentioned her different opinions with SNS members and part of the ruling Smer.

Zitnanska insists that the new government, led by a new prime minister, is a better solution than a fast snap election, this way there will be space for everyone including the parliament, the government, and the non-parliamentary parties, she said.

Kiska had no other option

Pellegrini presented to Kiska the petition with 79 signatures of MPs who pledged to support the new government.

In such a case, Kiska had no other option than to accept the resignation of Fico and authorise Pellegrini to form the new cabinet, said political analyst Grigorij Meseznikov.

We will see what the nominations for cabinet members will be; that is where the president can still play a role, Meseznikov told Sme.

Read also:

Read also: Fico is going. So why does the crisis continue? Read more

15. Mar 2018 at 14:51 | Compiled by Spectator staffPeter Pellegrini to become new prime minister. Who is he?

After two weeks of political crisis, Slovakia will have a new prime minister. Pellegrini came of age in Smer.

Peter Pellegrini (l), authorised to form a new government, and President Andrej Kiska (r) (Source: TASR)

Top storiesLast Week in Slovakia: Vadala arrested for drugs, political crisis continues

People will protest tomorrow again.

video //www.sme.sk/vp/36565/

These top three stories from Slovakia are a selection of headlines from a weekly overview in pdf and audio format that subscribers of The Slovak Spectator receive directly in their inboxes every Thursday morning.

Italian businessman Antonino Vadala, one of the main characters in the last story of the murdered journalist Jan Kuciak, was taken into custody Tuesday morning again. This time, the police arrested him during an international anti-drug action.

Interior Minister Robert Kalinak resigned from his post two weeks after the murder of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, yielding to pressure from opposition and the public. He also faces a criminal complaint accusing him of sabotage.

Last week's protests were the largest since 1989, they are set to continue this Friday again.

Below you can listen to all the headlines from Last Week in Slovakia published on March 14.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/413570493&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true

15. Mar 2018 at 15:40 | Compiled by Spectator staffUS steel and aluminium tariffs may have little impact on Slovakia, for now

Increase of US tariffs on cars may be painful for Slovakia.

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The tariffs the USA is imposing on the import of steel and aluminium may not have any significant direct impact on the economy of Slovakia. This is because the exports of these commodities from Slovakia to the USA make up only small portions of total volume. However, if the USA increases tariffs on imported cars, as US President Donald Trump is threatening in this looming tit-for-tat trade war, this may be painful for the Slovak automotive industry, especially the oldest car producer in Bratislava.

US President Donald Trump has signed the order to hit steel imports with a 25 percent tariff and aluminium imports with a 10 percent tariffs with national security justification on March 8, excluding Mexico and Canada for now. They should become effective later next week.

For now, it is difficult to estimate the direct impact of the tariffs on Slovakia but in terms of small exports of Slovak steel, iron and aluminium to the USA, these are not expected to be significant.

It is difficult to assess the impact of adopted measures on Slovakias economy as they will have a global impact for now, Maros Stano, spokesperson of the Slovak Economy Ministry told The Slovak Spectator.

15. Mar 2018 at 16:35 | Jana LiptakovaMEPs call for investigation into the disappearance of journalists

Journalist Miroslav Pejko disappeared in March 2015. At the time, he was working for Hospodarske Noviny.

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Members of the European Parliament are calling to re-open the cases of missing journalists in Slovakia: Miroslav Pejko, a reporter for the Hospodarske Noviny daily who went missing in March 2015, and Pavol Rypal, a reporter for private broadcaster TV Markiza who disappeared in 2008.

This is one of the reasons why the EP delegation, which visited Slovakia in early March in connection with the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, want to return, the TASR newswire reported.

Read also:

Read also: Fico: There is no mafia in eastern Slovakia Read more

I expect this delegation will continue, Slovak MEP Jozsef Nagy (Most-Hid) who represents the European Peoples Party (EPP) faction in the EP, told TASR before the March 14 plenary session.

They will ask for further information and documents which they did not have at their disposal during their last visit, he added.

Pejko disappeared under strange circumstances

Pejko started his career with the regional newspaper MY Banskobystricke Noviny. He later moved to the Bratislava section at Hospodarske Noviny. He contacted his family and friends for the last time on March 17, 2015 and then went missing, MY Banskobystricke Noviny reported.

Though a nationwide search was declared, there have been no results as yet. The circumstances of his departure from his temporary residence on Zelezniciarska Street in Bratislava are very strange. He did not take any of his personal documents or a mobile phone with him and left the flat in ordinary clothes.

Before his disappearance, Pejko had reported about several serious economic topics, MY Banskobystricke Noviny reported.

15. Mar 2018 at 21:48 | Compiled by Spectator staffItalian businessman Vadala taken into pre-trial detention

The decision is still not valid, as he can appeal it.

A Judge of the Kosice Regional Court has agreed with the proposal to take Italian businessman Antonino Vadala into pre-trial detention. The ruling was issued at a closed session on March 15, the TASR newswire reported.

Vadala is being prosecuted in Italy for drug-related crimes and the court in Venice has issued a European arrest warrant for him.

Read also:

Read also: Italian entrepreneur Vadala reportedly detained due to drugs Read more

The Italian businessman, who is featured in the last story of murdered investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in connection with the Italian Mafia, was detained early on March 13. Later that day, the prosecutor submitted a pre-trial detention proposal, TASR wrote.

The ruling is still not valid as Vadala can appeal within three days. If he does so, the appeal will be discussed by the Supreme Court, said spokesperson for the Kosice Regional Court, Anna Pancurova.

40-day wait for further documents

I visited my client during the pre-trial detention hearing and I asked him whether he wanted to speak to the media about the matter, said Vadalas lawyer Jaroslav Hamza, as quoted by TASR. He said he did not want to. He did not authorise me to speak in his name either.

The main purpose of the pre-trial detention is to guarantee that the detained person will remain in Slovakia and not hinder the European arrest warrant proceedings. Meanwhile the regional prosecutors office asked the Italians for additional information.

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Read also: Cocaine hidden in fruit Read more

The prosecutors office now has 40 days to deliver the original arrest warrant with respective documents which will be provided by the Italian prosecutors office to the court, said Milan Filicko, spokesperson for the regional prosecutors office in Kosice, as reported by TASR.

After receiving the documents, the court will decide whether to place Vadala in extradition custody.

Vadala was previously detained by the Slovak police shortly after the murder of Kuciak and Kusnirova. He was, however, released after only one day.

15. Mar 2018 at 21:59 | Compiled by Spectator staffRyanair will fly to Turkey from Bratislava

The Irish low-cost airline will operate the highest number of regular flights from Bratislava since 2005.

Amid indications that the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is weighing up the possibility of launching flights out of Vienna, just about 60 km from Bratislava, it has announced its first ever flights to Turkey, with two new routes from Bratislava and Dublin to Dalaman on the southwestern coast.

Ryanair is pleased to announce our entry into the Turkish market, said Chief Commercial Officer David OBrien in a short statement.

Both routes will operate once a week as part of the Summer 2018 schedule. They went on sale on Thursday, March 15, from the Ryanair.com website with a promotional price from 39.99 for travel from June. The discounted flights are available for booking until midnight Friday, March 16, the airline announced on March 15.

The route to Turkey is the sixth brand new route Ryanair will launch from Bratislava during its Summer 2018 schedule, valid from the end March until the end of October.

Read also:

Read also: More flights from Bratislava Read more

In late March Ryanair will begin flights to Burgas in Bulgaria, Malta, Paphos in Cyprus and Thessaloniki in Greece. As of June 1, it will launch a new route to Eidenhoven in the Netherlands.

The Irish airline will be operating as many as 25 routes from Bratislava during the Summer 2018 schedule.

This will be the highest number of regular routes since the start of the operation of Ryanair in Bratislava since 2005, said Jozef Pojedinec, general director of the M. R. Stefanik, as cited in a press release.

15. Mar 2018 at 22:11 | Compiled by Spectator staffCompanies seek pensioners to fill vacancies

Lack of qualified labour has increased the demand for pensioners.

Lack of skilled workers and an increase in job vacancies has boosted the attractiveness of old-age pensioners to the labour market.

Many companies prefer to hire part-timers from the ranks of pensioners to waiting until they succeed in filling a vacancy with a person working full time, the Wincott People personnel agency wrote in its press release, as cited by the SITA newswire.

In combination with reduced payroll taxes on earnings up to 200 that come into effect from July, new opportunities are opening for pensioners to earn additional money to top up their pensions. The average monthly pension in Slovakia is less than 440.

Read also:

Read also: Shortfall of qualified workers depresses the Slovak labour market Read more

Companies, that are looking for people to fill vacancies where no great physical strength or high level of fine motor skills are required may thus consider pensioners especially in administration, retail and education but also in logistics, hotels, restaurants and catering services.

We are expecting this trend especially in the sectors that face a more massive outflow of employees to the better-paid sectors, in particular in industry, said Jana Mesarova, district manager of Wincott People. We will see pensioners working part-time as cashiers at stores, as hotel receptionists, or in restaurants much more frequently.

15. Mar 2018 at 22:22 | Compiled by Spectator staffPolicy & Funding

E-rate Delays and Denials 'Unjust,' According to EducationSuperHighway

It appears that some schools are caught in an E-rate funding slowdown so worrisome, EducationSuperHighway was compelled to create a dedicated website to track the scale of the problem. "Delays and Denials" provides what the non-profit calls a status report on the number of days school districts are now waiting "to discover the fate of their fiber projects" (currently, 245) and the likelihood that their applications will be denied (seven times more likely than this time a year ago). Currently, the new site reported, 61 fiber projects have been "unfairly denied," and 38 are still awaiting decisions from last year.

The organization blames the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees E-rate program administrator Universal Service Administration Company (USAC). The FCC could accelerate approval of fiber broadband projects, the new site asserted, by directing USAC "to eliminate the red tape in the E-rate application process."

According to EducationSuperHighway, USAC is denying projects for "unjust reasons" outside of the main criteria: Whether a district is eligible for the funding, whether it has followed the competitive bidding rules and whether it has selected the most cost-effective bid. A common theme among the applications being denied is that the school systems where service providers have separated the fiber construction charges from the monthly recurring cost face greater scrutiny and "are more likely to be denied than those" that bundle the fees together.

Also, EducationSuperHighway charged, several recent changes to the application process have led to confusion among applicants, whose projects face rejection due to clerical errors. That was the case with New Mexico's Central Consolidated, whose funding request was denied "because of a minor discrepancy on their paperwork." In a separate allegation, Woodman School District 8, a rural system in Montana, has such poor bandwidth, it's forced to bus students to another district in order to give them online state tests. When Woodman applied for funding to cover fiber, the school received an "unanswerable 30-page questionnaire." And 250 days later, according to the account by EducationSuperHighway, the funding was denied.

The school broadband advocate would like to see the FCC direct USAC to approve all outstanding fiber projects as long as they've selected the most cost-effective bid; to re-evaluate all previously delayed or rejected applications and reverse the ones that were denied for unfair reasons; and to prioritize future fiber funding requests so that decisions are made by Sept. 1 in the same year the applications are filed. To push the point, EducationSuperHighway has composed a letter for districts to fill in and send to their senators requesting them to pressure the FCC to make the needed changes.

Ironically, problems with the application process was the focus of a letter sent last April by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to then-USAC CEO Chris Henderson. In the letter Pai complained about "serious flaws" in USAC's administration of the E-rate program, particularly those related to the funding process. Henderson resigned weeks later. In January USAC announced the appointment of Radha Sekar as the new CEO. Sekar previously served as CFO for the Farm Service Administration and the Commodity Credit Corp. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Her appointment was approved by Pai in mid-December.School Reform Funding

Walton Grant will Ready Principals to Run 'Autonomous' Schools

A $1.7 million grant will help Indianapolis Public Schools as the school system shifts away from centralized support and its principals take on more autonomy. According to the final paperwork, the purpose of the grant is "to support the development of internal capacities, processes, and systems necessary for implementing full, building-level autonomy for every IPS school."

The funding comes from the Walton Family Foundation, which has invested $1.3 billion-plus in K-12 education since the early 1990s. That includes support for more than a quarter of the charter schools created in the United States.

More recently, the foundation has turned its attention to supporting cities that want to undertake "system-wide educational improvement." Besides Indianapolis, that list also includes New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Memphis; Houston; Oakland, CA; and Los Angeles, among others. States have also been the recipients of its largesse for developing new education policies.

Reporting by Chalkbeat stated that Walton's support for IPS will help the largest district in the city "roll out a strategy for giving principals at traditional schools more control over instruction, budgets, and staffing." So far, 12 schools have been named as "autonomous." In these schools, principals are given more freedom for allocating resources to address the specific needs of the students and families, as they see fit, in pursuit of better learning outcomes.

"Top-down management doesn't take into account that each school is different and serves different students," the district's website explained. "By empowering strong leaders at the school level to make informed decisions for their teachers and students, we will create a system where the central office supports school needs instead of dictating them."

By the 2020 school year, Chalkbeat noted, all of the schools in the district could have similar levels of autonomy.

The district already has "innovation schools," which maintain full decision-making authority over both academic and operational functions. Most are managed as charters or run by outside non-profits. The autonomous designation differs from that in that the controls will focus primarily on academic functions  how the day is structured, how staffing is chosen and what instructional methods are used.

Another difference is that teachers at the autonomous schools, unlike teachers at innovation schools, remain part of a district-wide bargaining unit; teachers at the autonomous schools may choose to create a school-wide bargaining group.

The Walton funding will cover the costs related to the change management aspects of the transformation and training for school leaders and staff.BAP National Organizer Ajamu Baraka represented the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) at a gathering in Caracas, Venezuela, March 5 to 7. It marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez.



Bringing together grassroots activists from 116 nation-states, the gathering produced the Caracas Declaration, a document that forcefully asserts revolutionary peoples from around the world will stand with the Venezuelan people to defend their sovereignty and revolutionary process. Here is a piece that captures the spirit of the gathering.



Below, you see Ajamu sitting in the front row, second from right, while Venezuela's current president, Nicolas Maduro, addresses an audience.





Trumps Military Parade



BAP was one of the lead formations that met on February 28, 2018, to collaborate on actions to oppose the Trump administrations plan to hold a $22 million military parade. Meeting participants were united in opposition to the military parade and intent to mobilize people to Washington, D.C., or to any location if plans for the military parade change. For now, Trump wants the parade to take place on Veterans Day. Our plan is to outnumber parade supporters. However, it is important BAP determine the best way we respond as an organization to this provocation, which is an attempt to normalize war on the part of the Trump administration. In the meantime, for more information, you can go to http://notrumpmilitaryparade.us.





Upcoming Events



BAP is a member of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations. It will hold its second electoral school from April 7 through April 9 in Saint Louis, Missouri. The electoral school is a means by which the coalition opens up a new front in the struggle for Black self-determination in the United States and elsewhere. It challenges the monopoly on the electoral arena by a select sector of our community with special ties to capitalist white power. You can register here.



Planning is heating up for the Spring Actions to oppose all wars scheduled to take place in the Bay Area, Chicago and New York City. Dozens of organizations have signed on to endorse this national call for regional actions. Check springaction2018.org for how to get involved in organizing before April 14-15, to get your organization signed on as an endorser and to download flyers.





Monitoring the World

BAP members and activists should closely follow the situation in Syria. Unlike others who might have the luxury of being confused about the world, we must at all times be crystal clear on global events. While the attention of the U.S. public was diverted to the Syrian Army battle with insurgents in East Ghouta, Turkey has busily recruited right-wing Islamic extremists and deployed them against the population in the Afrin region of Syria, with the result being a massive ethnic cleansing. Patrick Cockburn captures some of the horror of the latest assault on collective human rights in Syria.



BAP member Margaret Kimberley reminds us we need to continue to monitor the situation with North Korea. But she also points out the bi-partisan reality of militarism in the United States, as Democrats appear to be opposed to any efforts to de-escalate the situation with the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.



BAP member Mekdes Amare wrote a piece on the devastating impact of war on people of color around the world, making connections the Western media and many Western leftists dont.



No compromise.



No retreat.



Struggle to win,

Ajamu, Ana, Jaribu, Kali, Lamont, Lukata, Margaret and Yolande

Coordinating Committee

Black Alliance for Peace



P.S. The oppressors wont dismantle the U.S. war machinethats our job. Contribute today!

Foxtel titles Wentworth & Grand Designs Australia are set to screen on Free to Air with ABC acquiring rights to early seasons.

Season One of Wentworth, which debuted on Foxtel in 2013, will screen from 9pm Thursday April 12. While the show has been available internationally via Netflix, this marks its only broadcast outside the Pay TV platform.

ABCs deal with Foxtel comes at a time when SBS was looking for second-window opportunities for projects with Screen Australia funding.

A date for Grand Designs Australia, which launched on Pay TV in 2010, is yet to be confirmed.

Wentworth is a contemporary drama set in a prison which initially follows Bea Smiths (Danielle Cormack) incarceration and her subsequent rise to the top of the prisons hierarchy.

This ground-breaking and much acclaimed Foxtel drama has gained popularity worldwide, and has garnered multiple nominations and numerous awards including three Logies; three AACTA awards and three ASTRA awards for both the show itself and members of its cast. Additionally, Danielle Cormack and Robbie Magasiva received (respectively) Outstanding Actress and Actor in a Drama Series at the Monte Carlo TV Festival.

Many of Australias finest and most loved actors have had ongoing roles or made guest appearances on Wentworth, including: Aaron Jeffrey, Sigrid Thornton, Kris McQuade, Kate Jenkinson, Catherine McClements, Leeanna Walsman, Libby Tanner, Lynette Curran, Hunter Page-Lochard, Martin Sacks and Kate Atkinson.

The ABC is also very excited that Grand Designs Australia is about to find a home on free to air. Grand Designs Australia  also from Foxtel  is a local adaptation of the British series of the same name, and sees host and architect Peter Maddison chronicle the construction of grand and unusual houses.

Grand Designs, the British version starring Kevin McLeod, has been one of ABCs most popular programs since it first appeared on our screens more than a decade ago, so we cant wait to present our viewers with this additional offering.New HBO comedy Barry co-created and starring Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live), debuts soon on Showcase.

The cast also features Henry Winkler, Stephen Root and Sarah Goldberg.

This will air same day as the US.

Starring Bill Hader, Barry is a dark comedy series that follows a depressed, low-rent hitman from the Midwest. Lonely and dissatisfied in his life, he reluctantly travels to Los Angeles to execute a hit on an aspiring actor. Barry follows his mark into an acting class and ends up finding an accepting community in a group of eager hopefuls within the LA theatre scene.

He wants to start a new life as an actor, but his criminal past wont let him walk away  can he find a way to balance both worlds?

Mondays from March 26 at 8.30pm on Showcase.A civil case for Craig McLachlan begins tomorrow in Sydney.

Ahead of the case McLachlans partner, conductor Vanessa Scammell, has spoken to 2GBs Steve Price defending him and giving some insight into how they have coped as a couple.

I have absolutely no doubt that Craig will rise to the top again, she said.

I have absolutely no doubt. In fact a very dear friend 2 days ago said to us, This is but a comma. This is not a full stop.

Scammell expressed disdain at the media pile-on, savage coverage and lack of due process.

Craig often describes it as like when you throw a stone in a pond, the ripple effect, she explained.

He talks about an atom bomb being thrown in a pond and the after-effects are still rippling for family and friends and supporters.

We basically are determined and will do everything we can to move through this and clear his name. For everyone to realise that the person who is Craig McLachlan is not the person who has been painted.

Craig McLachlan is not that person. Hes kind and gentle and funny yes hes mischievous.

But one of his greatest assets is that he loves to make people happy and comfortable.

She also paid tribute to the network of Doctor Blake fans worldwide.

The Doctor Blake fans have been absolutely, staggeringly supportive of Craig. They have fan clubs, discussion groups, Support Craig McLachlan groups going on.

McLachlan has denied all allegations made by Rocky Horror cast members. A police investigation is ongoing.

You can hear the full interview here.Wilfred co-creator and star Jason Gann has been ordered to pay more than $750,000 to a former bus driver he assaulted at the Melbourne spring racing carnival in 2007.

Legal proceedings over the incident have been long and varied but appear to have reached the end of the road in the US this week.

Gann pleaded guilty to the case in which Joseph Hosny was assaulted after Gann attempted to board a shuttle bus whilst still intoxicated. He was ordered to pay $325,000, upheld by the Court of Appeal last year. No conviction was recorded so he could continue his US acting career.

But Gann refused to pay the damages on Hosnys legal fees, who subsequently initiated legal proceedings in the US about two years ago.

This week, the Superior Court of California ordered Gann pay AU$755,638  plus 10 per cent interest for every year the damages dont get paid.

Gann starred in 4 seasons of Wilfred on the US FX network -longer than most Aussie adaptations survive- but in 2012 was reportedly facing bankruptcy. In 2013 he was developing a comedy My Problem With Women for ABC (US) but it is yet to eventuate.

Fairfax reports Mr. Hosny was also ordered to pay back almost $50,000 in workers compensation in 2014 after pleading guilty to WorkCover fraud.EXCLUSIVE: TV Week this year reduced the number of entries networks could submit for the 60th Logie Awards voting.

This year there are under 70 Actors & 70 Actresses hoping to secure a Silver Logie nomination in the Popular Awards. In recent years sometimes they have nudged 100 each.

For the 60th event on the Gold Coast networks were limited to 10 Actors, 10 Actresses & 15 Presenters each, forcing them to focus on high profile talent and leaving talent & fans confused and disgruntled.

There are also caps on shows in each Popular category, such as 5 titles per network for Most Popular Drama, resulting in bizarre voting choices for fans.

None of the Studio 10 cast are listed for TEN. Nine has Delta Goodrem, Boy George, Kelly Rowland & Sonia Kruger for The Voice but not Seal. ABCs Virginia Trioli is listed but not Michael Rowland for News Breakfast while nobody from The Secret Daughter is listed. ABC infamously snubbed Craig McLachlan and The Doctor Blake Mysteries but submitted Nadine Garner.

Exacerbating the problem is this years extended eligibility date of March 31st, due to the July 1 ceremony on the Gold Coast. This sees Bachelor in Paradise and Show Me the Movie! on the voting lists, neither of which have aired yet.

TV Week said in a statement, After feedback from previous years, the decision was made to reduce the entries in the Most Popular categories to improve the user experience and promote greater engagement with the voting process.

Yet there are rumblings within the industry over the reductions, with some talent and fans expressing confusion on social media. Whilst TV Week says the list is up to the networks, the networks are only following Logies set limits.

One industry source told TV Tonight, The limit on the number of Logies entries networks can provide for Most Popular acting categories is pretty hard to understand. They unreasonably force broadcasters to choose between often equally-excellent and popular actors and actresses in major roles.

They likewise prevent TV viewers from voting for some of their favourite performers, in turn hurting audience enthusiasm for the Logies as a whole. And the drop in permissible number of entries, compared with previous years, has not been clearly explained.

The limits on the number of programs broadcasters can enter in Most Popular program categories is even tighter, and likewise forces broadcasters into what can seem, for Logie voters and program makers alike, quite arbitrary choices.

Broadcasters are unhappy, and so are some of our biggest performers and producers.

Another industry source said, For a number of different reasons, this round of Logie voting and the actual awards night is in unchartered territory. The restriction on the number of nominees allowed in the new system (this year) hasnt helped sort out the concern.

When voting was via magazine coupons, readers had the option to submit an Other choice, but it vanished from online voting years ago.

With its impressive 60 Year legacy the Logies have always evolved and adapted, from replacing defunct categories, to introducing phone & online voting and staging Live broadcasts. With the responsibility comes a need to respond to industry concerns. This years message loud and clear is that reducing the number of candidates is unfair to networks, talent and fans alike.

As a third source noted, Local drama isnt coping too well in this constantly changing world of streaming and declining TV audiences, so the last thing we should be doing is making it harder for actors to break through.

Amended.UK detective drama, Endeavour, has been recommissioned for a sixth season.

The Inspector Morse prequel, featuring Shaun Evans & Roger Allam, will again be written by Russell Lewis.

The 5th series launched with UK audiences of 6.7m, the highest for three years.

Creator, Russell Lewis said: As our story reaches the last year of the 1960s, and mankind makes its giant leap, all at #TeamEndeavour look forward to exploring further early chapters in the casebook of Colin Dexters beloved creation.

ITVs Head of Drama, Polly Hill added: Endeavour continues to be hugely popular with ITV audiences and were delighted to be bringing viewers more films to enjoy. Thanks to Russell Lewiss consistently intriguing scripts and the excellent production values at Mammoth Screen, it is a high quality drama that ITV is immensely proud of.

Endeavour screens in Australia on 13th Street and TWOJEREMY COBRYNs response to the Russia spy poisoning to Theresa May at the dispatch box has been attacked as much as possible because it has been deemed weak and political point scoring. But with very little known of the surrounding motives, surely unequivocally blaming a nation state would be reckless? Of course not, you have to immediate place blame somewhere otherwise you arent strong, apparently.

The desire for strong evidence and the ability to publically show who is to blame is for weaklings. The criminal justice system would work far better if you could just lock people up because as Boris Johnson has put it The Russians smirked when questioned, that Proves they are guilty.

Corbyns OUTRAGEOUS response

Jeremy Corbyn asked the government to seek evidence legitimately through international treaties?! What is that ridiculous notion because the Iraq WMDs evidence was incredibly successful? Talking to Russia and the desire to work with them to come to a well thought-out and detailed conclusion is something a weak, anti-British communist would say! What is the point in funding a military when you cant use them on a whim?

Theresa May on the other hand was incredibly strong and powerful, she stood up there with no evidence and just the testimony of one of those trustworthy former Soviet Spies and stated that Russia were responsible for the attack. Those brave heroes on the Labour benches, who immediately threw their support behind May afterwards and publicly condemned Corbyn, must be treated with the utmost respect for actively attempting to undermine him.

He seeks peace in this world but this is a dangerous precedence to allow to spread, otherwise how will the wealthiest be able to fund their lifestyle if there is a government that seeks to use diplomatic relations to solve international crisiss rather than send in a few bombs and the military for geopolitical gain.It appears that we in the West are about to descend into another Cold-War, the current events and climate, hardly conducive to good relations between the NATO Alliance and those in the Kremlin. Even though Russia is no longer the power it once was with the break up of the old Soviet Union, you still wouldn't mess with them.

History

It is a common thread with those who gain power, that once in, they do not wish to be out, no, not ever again, and so will take any measure possible to remain exactly where they are. Take Russia itself, the Tsars - Autocratic Power/Divine Right, that was bad enough - but the Lenin's and Stalin's that replaced them were infinitely worse.

Vladimir Putin is also in it for the long run, having done away with the Gorbechov stabs at a Democratic future to a return to total Autocracy, which he, and he alone controls.

China has just changed the rules for its leader to remain leader for life. We cannot overlook North Korea, and the whole Indian sub-continent, never mind Afghanistan and Burmese add-ons; all are ruled by Army factions, never mind the Democratic cloak.

Even Syria whose leader is hell-bent on bombing his country back to year 0 has given up any pretence that the leader acts for himself rather than the good of his people. The West got rid of Hussein and Gaddafi. As maniacal and deluded as they may have been, at least the anarchy that replaced them did not exist.

Delusion

It was said that prince of Wales, George, later George IV, when he became too drunk would regale his guests of his exploits with his cavalry division on the Plains of Waterloo in June of 1815. He even expanded long and hard in front of the Duke of Wellington about their joint noble exploits that day; the Prince, of course, at the time being fast asleep in his bed at Windsor Castle, while the Duke was boot deep in blood.

The Donald is another master of the delusional art, never mind that he fired his Secretary of State by tweet, yet fails to do the honourable thing and tell him first. Never mind that he is about to waste millions of dollars on a Military Parade that honours only him, when he, in fact, dodged the Vietnam Draft five times and has had the gall to belittle honoured heroes in his speeches.

Somehow he also fooled himself, if not us, into believing, that without the aid of a gun, he would have attempted to stop the recent school shooting in Florida.

To fool others is easy, to fool yourself takes a master of the art and yet we have been fooled year after year, century after century by generation after generation of delusional also-rans. Lions led by donkeys we may be, but unlike many others, as a true Democracy, at least we have a choice.Oh dear, here we go again, but it should come as no surprise. Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are sitting on the fence -.Again!

In light of the growing problems between the UK and Russia over the alleged poisoning of a double agent and his daughter in Salisbury; as usual, Jeremy Corbyn is remaining characteristically silent, over a matter that has put Britain in the direct line of conflict. But wait, consider this:

Skripali was a convicted double-agent living in Wiltshire one of the Uk's most concentrated military areas, where he had given lectures on espionage, and obviously knew the right people; or the wrong ones depending on which way you look at it?.

living in Wiltshire one of the Uk's most concentrated military areas, where he had given lectures on espionage, and obviously knew the right people; or the wrong ones depending on which way you look at it?. Porton Down - where we test and develop chemical agents - ones of course which we do not use ourselves as we are too principled to stoop that low - but may be quite happy to sell to others so they can wreak the damage themselves (But of course no-one knows because its work is ultra secret - is only 20 miles from the city.

- where we test and develop chemical agents - ones of course which we do not use ourselves as we are too principled to stoop that low - but may be quite happy to sell to others so they can wreak the damage themselves (But of course no-one knows because its work is ultra secret - is only 20 miles from the city. He was a double-agent, took the risks, and obviously the rewards; so knew what he was doing. It should then come as no surprise to him or us that this has happened.

Indecision!

It has always been hard to know what Jeremy Corbyn actually stands for.

He has been involved in his own spy-scandal recently, but we are no clearer whether it is 'fake-news,' or not? He has certainly in the past been a supporter of many left-wing causes and suspect regimes. Certainly, his rambling speech at yesterdays Question Time seemed to be doing everything NOT to attach blame to the shady doings of the Kremlin.

At least the current Government has made its own stand, rightly or wrongly, for as yet we have no firm proof of Russian involvement.We are dismissing 23 Russian Diplomats, calling for International sanctions, and cutting diplomatic ties with Russia. In response, Putin has told us quite firmly, 'Do not mess with a Nuclear Power, and that the 'UK are fully fledged liars,' ' and will no doubt unveil his own retaliation scheme shortly.

Corbyn the man who dithers

Corbyn is either a man who simply dithers, or is so unsure of his judgment that he prefers to keep his own counsel on important matters, which is no good for the safety of this country. He has done it with any number of issues during his tenure as Labour Leader, not least with his true feelings over Brexit?

It is time for him as the leader to do just that - LEAD! So, in a heartfelt plea would the real Jeremy Corbyn please stand up and account for something - anything, and if he cannot, then please return to the back-benches where he has been showing us where undoubtedly belongs.So who is Miss Holland? She is a rude, crude and crass Beauty Queen who hits the Streets Of London to learn about UK culture and bag herself a royal husband. Hands off Miss Holland, Harry is already taken.

Unique comedy

The unique comedy was created by award-winning comedian Eline Van Der Velden who developed the idea while trying to make it as an actor in LA. Eline, 31, told us "I wasn't getting proper roles and my agent kept telling me to lose weight and to do my hair and make-up better, but that really isn't me." Eline's Dutch beauty queen alter-ego comes to the UK to learn just why Britain is so Great.

Miss Holland is very misguided about the British culture and wants to learn how to become a lady while immersing herself in the country's modern culture. However, it seems to all go wrong with everyone she meets along the way. The Dutch native told us: "I wanted to come to Britain because it is the land of comedy, I love Sacha Baron Cohen and Rowan Atkinson. I have worked with BBC in the past, I did a video about gender bias and a science series called Putting It Out There."

Full body makeover

In the first episode Miss Holland visits Love Island star Chloe Crowhurst, 22, and enjoys a full body makeover, Eline revealed: "I stopped shaving my legs and armpits to make it even funnier, but filming got pushed back for nine months, so I turned into a hairy beast".

She also visits a royal butler who teaches her the etiquette that Meghan Markle will have to learn before the royal wedding.

Eline said: While filming the show members of the public didn't realise it was a spoof and it was very difficult to convince them. I found it really easy when I was filming to stay in character. I have actually been speaking in a Dutch accent for month, it has been driving all my friends crazy."

Eline owns her own production company called Particle 6 Productions which produced the show and she herself directed it, alongside Leslie Coutterand.

Miss Holland already seems to be creating waves online ahead of it's BBC debut. Away from the media spotlight, Eline holds a degree in physics and nuclear science. 'People always tell me it's a strange career move but I think acting is a love for understanding how humans think and physics is an understanding of how nature works. So I've decided to bring my skills together and write a comedy about physics.

Catch Miss Holland on BBC Three and BBC Threes YouTube channel from Friday 16 March.Unilever is making one single legal entity, based in Rotterdam (Getty Images)

Marmite maker Unilever has delivered a blow to Theresa Mays government by choosing Rotterdam over London for its corporate headquarters.

While the company has insisted the decision is not to do with Brexit, the move to Holland will be viewed by critics as an indication of falling confidence ahead of next March.

Unilever, which also markets leading brands Dove soap, Magnum ice-cream and Persil detergent, is currently the third biggest company on the FTSE.

MORE: Tesco pulls dozens of Unilever brands in post-Brexit price row

It will continue to be listed in London but long-term that could change now its single legal base is to be in Rotterdam.

Unilever employs 7,300 people in the UK and 3,100 in the Netherlands. It says no jobs will be lost by the move.

Unilever boss Paul Polman says the decision was nothing to do with Brexit (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Unilever chief executive Paul Polman told the BBCs Today programme the move to a single legal entity was being made for technical reasons, as the bulk of its shares  55%  were traded in the Netherlands.

MORE: FTSE chiefs to air Brexit concerns during summit with May

This is not about Brexit, he said, adding that both countries are attractive from an investment point of view.

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Unilever chief financial officer, Graeme Pitkethly, insisted Brexit was absolutely not a factor in the decision.

And the UKs Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy tweeted: As the company itself has made clear, its decision to transfer a small number of jobs to a corporate HQ in the Netherlands is part of a long-term restructuring plan of the company and is not connected to the UKs departure from the EU.

Under the changes it will operate three divisions. Its beauty and personal care division and its home care division will be based in London, while its foods and refreshment division will be based in Rotterdam.

MORE: EU tells Britain to face up to hard facts on Brexit

Unilever has had two main offices in London and Rotterdam, and has been dual listed, since its creation from the 1929 merger of the British soap maker Lever Brothers and the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie.

It has held two AGMs and files two lots of accounts. It has annual UK sales of around 1.8bn.

Company executives were courted by ministers from both the UK and Dutch governments  however, Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, used to work for Unilever and is thought to have played a big role in the decision.(Adds details of deal, quotes)

March 15 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LSE: 0LN9.L - news) is selling its upstream assets in New Zealand to Austria's OMV AG (IOB: 0MKH.IL - news) for $578 million, the companies said on Thursday.

"Today's announcement is another step towards reshaping and simplifying our company," Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) 's Integrated Gas & New Energies Director Maarten Wetselaar said.

Thursday's agreement includes the sale of Maui, Pohokura and Tank Farms. After deal closure, Shell Taranaki and Shell New Zealand employees will become a part of OMV New Zealand, Shell said.

"This acquisition is an important step to develop Australasia into a core region in line with our new strategy," OMV CEO Rainer Seele said.

Shell has sold or agreed to sell over $25 billion of assets as part of a three-year programme to dispose of $30 billion by the end of 2018, following the acquisition of BG Group (EUREX: 1007667.EX - news) in 2016.

Shell sold its stake in Kapuni gas field, New Zealand's second-largest, for an undisclosed price in 2017. (Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Roche)A Shell logo is seen reflected in a car's side mirror at a petrol station in west London, Britain, January 29, 2015. Picture taken January 29, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

(Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc is selling its upstream assets in New Zealand to Austria's OMV AG for $578 million (414.7 million), the companies said on Thursday.

"Today's announcement is another step towards reshaping and simplifying our company," Shell's Integrated Gas & New Energies Director Maarten Wetselaar said.

Thursday's agreement includes the sale of Maui, Pohokura and Tank Farms. After deal closure, Shell Taranaki and Shell New Zealand employees will become a part of OMV New Zealand, Shell said.

"This acquisition is an important step to develop Australasia into a core region in line with our new strategy," OMV CEO Rainer Seele said.

Shell has sold or agreed to sell over $25 billion of assets as part of a three-year programme to dispose of $30 billion by the end of 2018, following the acquisition of BG Group in 2016.

Shell sold its stake in Kapuni gas field, New Zealand's second-largest, for an undisclosed price in 2017.

(Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Roche)FILE PHOTO: Kim Jong Nam arrives at Beijing airport in Beijing, China, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 11, 2007. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

Thomson Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Vietnamese bar owner was asked to act in a video prank show by a man wanted for the killing of Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean leaders half-brother, but declined the offer, a Malaysian court heard on Wednesday.

In a sworn statement, the bar owner, identified as Nguyen Bich Thuy, said she then introduced the man to a friend and former colleague, Doan Thi Huong, a woman now facing trial in Malaysia for the killing.

Vietnamese Huong is accused with another woman, Siti Aisyah, an Indonesian, of smearing Kims face with VX, a lethal nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur international airport on Feb. 13 last year.

Defense lawyers say Huong and Siti Aisyah thought they were playing pranks for a reality show and did not know they were poisoning Kim.

A man who called himself Li had approached Thuy at her bar in Hanoi in December 2016, Thuy said in her affidavit, presented in court by Huong's lawyer, Hisyam Teh.

Li, who spoke fluent Vietnamese and said he was the child of Vietnamese and Korean parents, told Thuy he was hiring actresses for short films and offered her a role.

After she refused, she called Huong, who had previously worked with her at another bar, and asked her to meet Li, Thuy said.

"I remembered that Huong loved making films so I introduced Huong to him," she said in the affidavit made available to reporters after the hearing.

Teh submitted Thuy's affidavit during questioning of Wan Azirul Che Wan Aziz, Malaysia's lead police investigator on the case. Wan Azirul had earlier admitted he had not sought witnesses in Vietnam to verify Huong's account to police.

Teh accused police officials of being biased in their investigation, saying Wan Azirul could have either traveled to Hanoi himself or obtained assistance from Vietnamese authorities to question Thuy.

"Because you did not take these stepsthis failure has been prejudicial to the accused's case," Teh said.

Story continues

Malaysian police have since identified Li as North Korean Ri Ji Hyon. Ri is among four North Korean men caught on airport cameras fleeing Malaysia on the day of the killing, and Interpol alerts have been issued for their arrest.

Defense lawyers have argued the killing was politically motivated, with many key suspects linked to the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, suggesting the women were mere pawns.

Kim had criticized his familys dynastic rule of North Korea, and his brother had issued orders for his execution, some South Korean officials have said.

Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on North Korea after formally determining that Pyongyang had used VX to assassinate Kim.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff)

See Also:LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A European Union court said on Wednesday civil society groups could challenge the way the European Commission authorized the sale of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the bloc.

The ruling follows the commission's rejection of a demand by German campaign group TestBioTech for a review of a decision to permit the entry into the EU of genetically-modified (GM) soybeans produced by Pioneer and Monsanto.

The soybeans were cleared by the commission in 2015, after a positive recommendation from the European Food Safety Agency.

EU scientists have repeatedly said GMOs are as safe for humans and the environment as their non-modified counterparts, but consumer opposition remains strong. Permission to allow GM crops into the EU is often delayed as EU members cannot agree.

TestBioTech had filed for a review under a regulation that allows civil society groups to engage with the EU on environmental issues. The commission rejected the request, saying GMO decisions related to health not the environment.

The EU's General Court disagreed, saying regulations on GMOs were "an integral part" of environmental law. It said GMOs were part "of the natural environment" before being processed into food.

The "Aarhus Regulation", under which TestBioTech filed its case, covered all aspects of EU legislation concerning the regulation of GMOs in relation to health risks, the court said.

TestBioTech welcomed the ruling, calling it "an important step towards strengthening the precautionary principle in the EU."

The EU allows the import of more than 50 GM crops and, while approval covers human consumption, they are exclusively used as animal feed. Only one GM crop, a type of maize, is grown in Europe.

(Reporting by Samantha Koester; Editing by Edmund Blair)

See Also:STEVE isnt as popular or as famous as the northern or southern lights, but STEVE is still a beautiful show. This green and purple aurora appears in Alberta, Canada and scientists are starting to understand it a little better.

Aurora fans, who find, photograph and video the night-sky phenomenon, discovered the aurora and named it Steve. After pictures and video of STEVE appeared on a Facebook group called Alberta Aurora Chasers (and users came up with a whimsical name for it), a researcher at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada contacted group-members to confirm it. The scientist cross-referenced the pictures with the European Space Agencys satellites in 2017, Space.com reports.

AuroraSTEVE

NASA / Krista Trinder

Trending: Fortnite 1.50 (3.3) Update Adds C4, Llamas & Blitz Mode - Patch Notes

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science, scientists proposed an official name to match the one that citizen scientists suggested. STEVE, in all-caps, signifies the newly assigned acronym: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.

STEVE is special because it forms in a different area than he northern and southern lights. An electric field and a magnetic field meet in the Canadian region where STEVE was found, and those fields pull solar particles westward when they come together. When those particles meet neutral particles, the particles warm up and produce light that continues to streak westward across the sky.

While northern and southern lights generate exclusively near the north and south poles, STEVE forms closer to the equator in warmer areas with a higher population, which is why people in Alberta were able to see it so clearly. STEVE may end up just as popular as the northern and southern lights if its easier for tourists to visit it and take pictures.



Satellites and scientific inquiries are integral to discovering, documenting and understanding auroras. However, in this case, citizen scientists with online communities, on-hand cameras and a desire to share proved just as important in discovering natural phenomenon like STEVE.

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekMembers of the Rohingya, Karen and Kachin ethnic minorities protest against human rights abuses in Myanmar, as Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burma State Counsellor receives the Freedom of London award in the Guildhall Old Library in the City of London on May 08, 2017 in London, England. - Barcroft Media

Human rights atrocities and potential war crimes have been stepped up against other Burmese minorities while the world has been distracted by the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, a new United Nations report has revealed.

The revelations, disclosed in Geneva this week by the UNs international fact-finding mission in Burma, also known as Myanmar, will compound global pressure on leader Aung San Suu Kyi, for her failure to curb harrowing human rights abuses across the country since coming to power in 2015.

While the Burmese military has inflicted horrific cruelty against the Rohingya, prompting a mass exodus from the western state of Rakhine since August, military violence against minorities in the northeastern states of Kachin and northern Shan has been silently escalating.

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, head of the UN mission, Marzuki Darusman told the Human Rights Council.

These include reports of 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 labour, recruitment of children into armed forces.

Rohingya refugees walk towards a refugee camp after crossing the border in Anjuman Para near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 19, 2017 Credit: REUTERS

Investigators are also probing violations of international humanitarian law that may have been committed by ethnic armed organisations, including the recruitment of children.

The UN said it was deeply concerned about recent clashes between security forces and the Kachin Independence Army since January 2018, including military airstrikes in civilian areas around the town of Tanai, which targeted lucrative amber and gold mines.

The strikes trapped about 3,000 civilians, leaving them without food, water or sanitation. Humanitarian access was denied and they were reportedly stripped of their belongings.

Story continues

Along with Muslim Rakhine, the largely Buddhist and Christian Kachin and Shan states have seen internal conflict, albeit for different reasons, since shortly after Burma gained independence from the UK in 1948.

Kachin insurgents, including the Kachin Independence Army, have fought with government soldiers for more autonomy since 1961, with the exception of a ceasefire from 1994 to 2011.

Meanwhile, in Rakhine, the oppressed Rohingya minority has demanded the right to become full citizens.

While the conflicts are of a different nature, the Burmese military has been accused of using similar brutal tactics to contain them.

Burmas light infantry division 99, a battle-hardened counter-insurgency force with a reputation for ruthlessness, has been reportedly deployed at different times in both in Kachin and Rakhine.

Although the scale of military operations in Kachin and northern Shan is not of the same magnitude, the UN investigation suggests certain patterns of violations also seen against the Rohingya.

The allegations include the use of rape as a weapon of war. In one of the most disturbing cases in 2015, Maran Lu Ra and Tangbau Hkawn Nan Tsin, both 20, were brutally raped and murdered in the Kachin village of Kutkai Kaung Kai.

The young women were volunteer teachers with the Kachin Baptist Convention. Their mutilated bodies were found in a hut they shared just 100m from a temporary army camp that had just been occupied by Burmese soldiers of the 503 rd light infantry regiment.

Suspicion for the crime immediately fell on the newly arrived troop, but the accusations were strongly denied by the army.

An investigation into the double murder has reportedly been hampered by ongoing tensions in the area, but the crime is reportedly not isolated.

Women and girls have reported many instances of sexual violence, said Mr Darusman.

Members of an ethnic Kachin family at their shack at a refugee camp in Myitkyina, northern Myanmar, in 2012 Credit: AFP

He said UN investigators had also documented civilians allegedly being forced to work for the Burmese military, as porters, jungle guides or even as human shields for soldiers on patrol.

Many reported that they were severely beaten, had their identity cards confiscated, were insulted with derogatory racist language or were sexually assaulted, he added.

Much of the UNs investigation, which records human rights allegations from 2011 to September 2017, was obtained from exiles who fled from the country. The UN has been denied access to Kachin and Shan states.

Benedict Rogers, East Asia team leader for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said the UN report on Burma required the immediate attention of the international community.

The human rights situation in the country as a whole is rapidly deteriorating, especially the conflict in Kachin and northern Shan states, which is largely ignored, he said.

Burma as a whole requires urgent action to restore the hopes that were raised in recent years and to address a severe human rights crisis.Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont takes part in a meeting with his party in Brussels, Belgium March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Vidal

Thomson Reuters

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

ZURICH (Reuters) - Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, in self-imposed exile in Belgium since leading a failed secession bid, will speak at a film festival in Switzerland, requiring rare international travel despite previous Spanish efforts to extradite him.

Puigdemont is slotted to speak at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva on Sunday, organizers said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Swiss government said in a statement he was free to travel to the country, that Catalonia's status was an internal Spanish matter, and that it was in communication with the Spanish authorities.

Puigdemont, who was sacked as Catalonia's leader by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after holding a referendum on independence last year that Spanish courts ruled illegal, has been charged in Spain with sedition and rebellion.

Earlier this month he pulled back from a bid for a second term as regional leader.

He is likely to be arrested if he returns to Spain. However, Spain's Supreme Court withdrew an international arrest warrant for him in December, to bring his case solely under Spanish jurisdiction.

When he last traveled from Belgium, on a trip to Denmark in January, Spanish prosecutors sought to revive the international warrant. The Spanish court rejected that, putting the extradition bid on hold at least until the Catalan parliament resumes work, which has been held up during a court fight over the jailing of another prospective candidate for leader.

Fellow Catalan politician Anna Gabriel is staying in Geneva to avoid charges of sedition and rebellion, for which she was supposed to appear before Spain's highest court last month.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Angus Berwick; Editing by Peter Graff)

See Also:BEIJING (AP)  China's securities regulator says it has imposed a record 5.5 billion yuan ($870 million) fine on a company that manipulated share prices in the latest scandal to roil the country's markets.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission said Wednesday the company in the southeastern city of Xiamen made 945 million yuan ($150 million) by using 300 trading accounts to manipulate share prices of two banks and one company.

The agency gave no details of the possible criminal charges against employees of the company, Xiamen Beibadao Group, a private owner of railway cars.

China's securities markets have been shaken by scandals over the past two years. A prominent trader was sentenced last year to 5 years in prison and the general manager of the country's biggest brokerage was arrested in 2016.

See Also:By Zachary Fagenson

MIAMI (Reuters) - A newly erected pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday, killing six to 10 people, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida told TV station CBS Miami.

Emergency personnel with sniffer dogs searched for signs of life amid the wreckage of concrete slabs and twisted metal after the bridge crushed vehicles on one of the busiest roads in South Florida.

At least eight vehicles were trapped in the wreckage of the 950-ton bridge and at least 10 people have been transported to hospitals, officials and doctors told news conferences.

Witnesses told local media the vehicles were stopped at a traffic light when the bridge collapsed on top of them at around 1:30 p.m. ET (1730 GMT).

"We're working our way into the pile trying to create holes that we can actually physically see," Miami-Dade Fire Department Division Chief Paul Estopian told reporters.

The Florida Highway Patrol has said several people were killed but did not release a figure on fatalities.

At one point, police requested television helicopters leave the area so rescuers could hear for any sounds of people crying for help from beneath the collapsed structure, CBS Miami television said.

Complicating the rescue effort was the uncertainty about the integrity of the bridge, parts of which remained off the ground, much of it inclined, local media reported.

The 174-feet (53-meter) long bridge connects the university with the city of Sweetwater and was installed on Saturday in six hours over the eight-lane highway, according to a report posted on the university's website.

The bridge was intended to provide a walkway over the busy street where an 18-year-old female FIU student from San Diego was killed while trying to cross last August, according to local media reports.

Students at FIU are currently on their spring break vacation, which runs from March 12 to March 17.

'A MIRACLE'

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Student Aura Martinez was having lunch in a nearby restaurant with her mother when a waitress told her the bridge had collapsed. She ran outside and helped pull a woman out of her car, most of which was flattened by the bridge.

"Her car, it was literally a miracle of God, her car got squished by the bridge from the back, so she was able to get out and she was on the floor and it was just very traumatic," she told the local CBS affiliate.

To keep the inevitable disruption of traffic associated with bridge construction to a minimum, the 174-foot portion of the bridge was built adjacent to Southwest 8th Street using a method called Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). It was driven into its perpendicular position across the road by a rig in only six hours on Saturday, according to a statement released by the university.

The $14.2 million bridge was designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, the most dangerous measure by the National Hurricane Center, and built to last 100 years, the university said. (http://bit.ly/2tQ2ARg)

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate why it collapsed.

President Donald Trump thanked first responders for their courage on Twitter. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and Florida Governor Rick Scott were at the scene of the collapse.

Munilla Construction Management, which installed the bridge was founded in 1983 and owned by five brothers, according to its website. In addition to its Florida operations, the company also has divisions in Texas and Panama and employs 500 people.

"Munilla Construction Management is a family business and we are all devastated and doing everything we can to assist," the company said in a statement.

FIGG Engineering said it took part in the bridge project and the collapse was a first in its 40-year history.

Both companies said they would cooperate fully with investigators.

Colorado-based engineering company BDI said in a tweet on March 12 that it was "thrilled" to have conducted structural monitoring during the "spectacular" process of moving the bridge into place. The company removed the tweet on Thursday and said in a statement it did so out of respect for individuals affected by the collapse.

(Reporting by Zachary Fagenson; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus, Joseph Ax, Daniel Wallis and Andrew Hay in New York, Scott Malone in Boston, Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, James Oliphant in Washington, Keith Coffman in Colorado and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's war is reaching a point where President Bashar al-Assad's will not be able to win back much more territory without risking conflicts with foreign powers that have sent military forces to the country.

The expected conquest of eastern Ghouta will be another milestone in Assad's effort to crush the rebellion as the war enters its eighth year with Russia and Iran still firmly behind him.

Assad's foreign enemies have condemned the assault but failed to stop it, as was seen in Homs, Aleppo and other areas where pro-government forces crushed outgunned rebels.

But the map of the conflict suggests difficulties ahead for Assad in his quest to recover "every inch" of a country fractured by a war that has killed half a million people and driven 5.4 million abroad.

The U.S. military is in much of the east and northeast, which is controlled by Kurdish groups that want autonomy from Damascus. It has used force to defend the territory from pro-Assad forces.

Turkey has sent forces into the northwest to counter those same Kurdish groups, carving out a buffer zone where anti-Assad rebels have regrouped.

In the southwest, where rebels hold territory at the Israeli and Jordanian border, Assad faces the risk of conflict with Israel, which wants his Iranian-backed allies kept well away from the frontier and has mounted air strikes in Syria.

Some believe a divided Syria may stabilise for some time - perhaps years - with Assad forced to accept a de facto partition and no prospect of a negotiated peace. Others fear further escalation involving Turkey, the United States, Israel, Iran and Russia.

"I don't think victory is as near as the Syrian government perceives it to be," said David Lesch, an expert on Syria, noting that Assad was now facing "a diplomatic quagmire".

Assad believes he can "wait out" foreign powers, notably Turkey and the United States, but it is going to be a very long time, if ever, before he can extend real control over the rest of the country, Lesch said.

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CONFIDENCE IN DAMASCUS

The conflict grew out of popular protests against Assad and evolved into a violent insurgency and civil war after the government responded with force. It has laid waste to swathes of Syria, helped the rise of Islamic State, fed sectarianism, and seen the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the 1980s.

Backed by Iran and Russia, Assad has recovered ground from rebels whose supporters - the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey - never gave them the weapons to defeat him.

Reflecting confidence in Damascus, first lady Asma al-Assad, has stepped back into public life. She has visited special needs children and accompanied Assad to meet the wounded. Assad has appeared on the currency for the first time.

Any serious discussion about Assad's future has been off the table for some time: Western and Arab states that backed the opposition sidestepped the issue entirely in recent recommendations to the moribund U.N.-led peace talks.

The West still hopes Russia will put pressure on Assad, and is withholding reconstruction aid until a negotiated political transition to end the war is underway. But many Syria analysts say that for Russia there is no dependable alternative to Assad.

At its weakest point in 2015, the Syrian state held less than a fifth of Syria. Russia's air force arrived to turn the tide in September of that year, working with Iranian and Iranian-backed forces spearheaded by Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been fighting in support of Assad since 2012.

After defeating insurgents in Aleppo, Assad and his allies swept across Syria last year, recovering territory all the way to the Iraqi border from Islamic State's crumbling "caliphate".

Assad now holds 58 percent of Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, including the main cities, the coast, and an expanse of desert west of the Euphrates.

The government is now trying to finish off the rebellion in western Syria. The defeat of eastern Ghouta may hasten the demise of remaining rebel pockets near Damascus, Homs and Hama.

DETERRING ISRAEL

The southwest is also back in focus. This week, rebels say the government launched its first air strikes there since a truce last year brokered by Russia and the United States.

The southwest is one area where Russian and Iranian priorities seem to differ. For Iran, Syria is a frontline state in the struggle with Israel, which fears Tehran is establishing permanent garrisons in Syria. Russia has been engaging with Israel, which is looking to Moscow to rein in Iran.

A commander in the regional military alliance fighting in support of Assad said Israeli demands for a "buffer zone" stretching from the Golan frontier into Syria were unacceptable.

"We will increase the level of deterrent force against Israel in southern Syria," the commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Assad's aims include reopening the crossing to Jordan, a vital trade route. The rebels in southern Syria are backed by Jordan, the United States and - according to Syrian officials - Israel.

The shooting down of an Israeli F-16 as it returned from a bombing run in Syria last month highlighted the risks of conflict between Iran and Israel in Syria.

Containing Iran is one goal of a newly crystallized U.S. policy towards Syria, where Washington has established leverage through its alliance with the Kurdish YPG militia that controls around one quarter of the country.

Some 2,000 U.S. forces have deployed in the territory held by the YPG and its allies during the campaign against Islamic State. The area covers the eastern bank of the Euphrates and includes oil fields and farmland.

"DREAMING OF GUERRILLA WAR"

U.S. goals have broadened beyond fighting Islamic State to curbing Iran and paving the way diplomatically for Assad's eventual departure, though Washington's call for "patience" on that front points to the difficulties.

"The Syrians are dreaming of how to use guerrilla war against the Americans, but it is hard to get to them and they are protected by the YPG. America has gotten smarter about occupying Arab countries," said Syria expert Joshua Landis.

A senior opposition official forecast that Syria would stabilise, divided into spheres of influence. "It could stay like this for two years, or 10 years," he said.

The United States is trying to manage tension with its NATO ally Turkey over its support for the Kurds. Ankara's main aim is to roll back the YPG, which it views as an extension of a Kurdish insurgent group in Turkey.

It is in the process of widening its buffer zone into the predominantly Kurdish Afrin region, where Moscow's priorities also appear to differ from those of Damascus and Tehran. Russia gave Turkey the green light for the attack, while Tehran and Damascus are concerned by Turkey's growing footprint.

The Turkish sphere also extends into Idlib province, but this time with the consent of Russia and Iran. Idlib is controlled by jihadists and hosts thousands of dissidents forced from other areas by Assad.

It appears to be far down his list of priorities. The pro-Assad commander said it was up to Turkey to deploy according to its agreement with Iran and Russia and end the presence of al Qaeda organisations in Idlib.

"The problem with Turkey is in Afrin," the commander added. "We won't accept the terrorists ... advancing and occupying Afrin," he added, referring to the anti-Assad Syrian groups fighting alongside Turkish forces.

(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood)Mossack Fonseca, the firm at the root of the Panama Papers scandal, is to cease operations following the fallout from the data breach.

In a statement in Spanish obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and translated by Sky News, the firm explained why it was closing.

It described itself as "the victim of a cyberattack on a global scale" and said it could no longer operate because of the attention brought on it by the leak.

Following the publication of the documents in 2016, many politicians resigned amid public protest . Stories of tax evasion led to raids and investigations in dozens of countries.

The firm has always stressed that it was the victim of a crime as documents leaked to media organisations across Europe allegedly revealed how the rich and famous exploited secretive offshore tax regimes.

It was the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm at the time of the leaks, and one of its founders, Ramon Fonseca, said that the data breach was a "crime" and an "attack" on Panama.

He said: "This is a crime, a felony. Privacy is a fundamental human right that is being eroded more and more in the modern world."

The firm's offices were raided in El Salvador , although in its statement the company said: To this day, nowhere where Mossack Fonseca holds companies have criminal proceedings been initiated for the provision of this service."

In its letter explaining the shut-down, the firm said: "The deterioration in reputation, the media campaign, the financial siege and the irregular actions of some Panamanian authorities has caused irreparable damage."

This damage "has resulted in the total cessation of operations to the public at the end of this month after 40 years of growth and contribution socially, economically and culturally to our country", it added.

The firm criticised the attention the firm had been paid in Panama, stating: "Only in Panama are there investigations which, unfortunately, have not been handled adequately despite us, from day one, providing all the information that was required by the authorities."

The firm said that as a result of the Panama Papers it had to "begin the process of reducing its offices and personnel and in total now has less than 50 employees".FILE PHOTO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announces the disbandment of police operations against illegal drugs at the Malacanang palace in Manila, Philippines early January 30, 2017. REUTERS/Ezra Acayan/File Photo

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Thursday its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) could be "the beginning of the end" for the institution, as more countries would follow suit and non-members would be discouraged from joining.

The announcement to withdraw comes five weeks after a court prosecutor said a preliminary examination had been opened into President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs, to look into whether crimes against humanity had been committed.

But according to Duterte's spokesman, Harry Roque, that examination "violates the very fundamental basis by which we gave our consent to be bound by the ICC".

ICC prosecutors have yet to comment on the announcement.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Duterte said U.N. special rapporteurs were trying to "paint me as a ruthless and heartless violator of human right", and the ICC had acted prematurely and created the impression he would be charged with serious crimes.

Roque said Duterte believes there is a "conspiracy" among lobby groups and the United Nations, to which he said the ICC is perceived to be allied, and wants to indict him "in the court of public opinion".

"The ICC has lost a strong ally in Asia," Roque told a media briefing.

"No new countries will join because we are recognised as probably the number one defender of human rights and democracy in the world," added Roque, a lawyer and prominent advocate for the Philippines joining the ICC in 2011.

Duterte's opponents wasted no time in accusing him of flip-flopping, pointing out that he had repeatedly dared the ICC to indict him and said he would "rot in jail" to defend a war on drugs during which police have killed thousands of people.

They said Duterte's decision was an admission of guilt and a sign that he was panicking.

Human rights and jurist groups condemned him for what they saw as an attempt to evade justice and accountability, and said a withdrawal was pointless, because jurisdiction applied retroactively, for the period of membership.

Story continues

In an interview with ANC news channel early on Thursday, Roque warned of an "avalanche of other states leaving".

"This is the beginning of the end of the court," he said, adding that the ICC would have no jurisdiction over the Philippines, and it was unlikely Duterte would ever be handed over to the court.

Presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said Duterte felt the ICC had become "a tool of oppression, a tool of harassment".

Jude Sabio, the lawyer who filed the ICC complaint last year, told ANC that the issue of an arrest warrant for the president would be a "big triumph of justice".

(Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Martin Petty and Michael Perry)Famed physicist Stephen Hawking died Tuesday at the age of 76, his family confirmed. Renowned for his scientific work in a number of areas, Hawking left behind a legacy that encompassed a variety of subjects, expounding on everything from the secrets of the universe to artificial intelligence.

Hawking often shared his predictions about the future, discussing the fate of humanity and the human race.

Here are some of Hawkings most interesting theories.

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Artificial Intelligence

Hawking warned about the potential for robots to outperform humans, effectively making the human race obsolete.

I fear AI may replace humans altogether, he told Wired in November. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans.

Boiling Earth

Hawking had some dire predictions for the temperature of our home planet, thanks, he said, to President Donald Trump. Following Trumps decision to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement on climate change, Hawking warned of the consequences.

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"We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible, he told BBC News. Trump's action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees and raining sulfuric acid.

Leaving Earth

Hawking urged humans to expand their horizons, saying he believed humans needed to leave Earth in order to have a viable future. Hawking discussed the potential for a space colony for survival.

I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space, the physicist told Charlie Rose.

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The Future of Humanity

Hawking was vocal in his belief that humanity would meet its demise at some point in the relatively near future, putting an expiration date on the human race.

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Although the chance of a disaster on planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, becoming a near certainty in the next 1,000 or 10,000 years, Hawking said in the BBC documentary Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth.

We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity, he also said. I dont think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet.

GettyImages-520677250

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA large crowd of people gathered in Brnos Liberty Square as students from around 300 high schools and universities across the Czech Republic took to the streets on the afternoon of March 15 to defend democracy and support the freedom of the press.

During the marches, students spoke about their discontent with the current government. They specifically called for Prime Minister Andrej Babis to resign in the wake of recent controversies and criticized the remarks made by President Milos Zeman against the media  which prompted 4,000 people to protest in Prague on March 14.

The demonstration was organized by students from the Theatre Faculty of Pragues Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU). Credit: Dominik Levicek via StoryfulUnited Airlines has launched an investigation after mistakenly flying a Kansas-bound familys dog to Japan, according to reports.

Kara Swindle flew with the airline from Oregon to Kansas City, Missouri with her two children as the family is in the process of moving homes, reported KCTV.

When they arrived at Kansas City Airport, the family went to the cargo facility to pick up their 10-year-old German Shepard, Irgo. Instead of their dog, the Swindle family were handed a Great Dane who was scheduled to fly to Japan.

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united

Tim Boyle/Getty Images

After enquiring about the mistake, Kara Swindle realized there had been a mix-up and Irgo mistakenly put on a United Airlines flight to Japan.

The German Shepard reportedly landed safely in east Asia but it was originally feared that Irgo might be put in quarantine there for as much as two weeks before he can be sent back.

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Airline officials in Japan said they have put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City but it is unclear when the dog will arrive.

I just want to know where my dog is," Swindle told KCTV. "The fact that we dont have any idea is the most frustrating part. He could be in Kansas City and we have no idea because the paperwork is all messed up. They have our paperwork here saying that this is the correct dog, but we know its not. Its just horrible.

At this point, all I can do is be hopeful that my dog is going to be okay and return safely," she added. "I dont know what else to do at this point. I cant cry anymore. Ive cried too much.

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In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said, United says it has been in contact with the customer and is looking into how this happened."

Story continues

United Airlines have already accepted full responsibility this week for the death of a 10-month old puppy after a flight attendant put the pet in the overhead locker during a flight from Houston and New York.

According to reports, the dog owner argued with crew staff but eventually put the pug in the compartment after being told it was safe. Witnesses said the dog barked for about 30 minutes before going quiet.

At the end of the flight, the woman found her dog, deceased. She sat in the airplane aisle on the floor crying, and all of surrounding passengers were utterly stunned, fellow passenger Maggie Gremminger wrote in a series of tweets detailing the incident.

Following outcry over the incident, United said it was a a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWater Intelligence has acquired its franchise in California for $252,000 after raising 4.2m in a placing to fund several acquisitions, the company said on Thursday.

The leak detection and remediation services company has acquired the American Lead Detection franchise in Bakersfield after purchasing another such franchise in Louisville, Kentucky, earlier this month.

Patrick DeSouza, executive chairman of Water Intelligence, said: "American Leak Detection can now make a difference in an important region for the US economy. Moreover, given the reality of waste as a by-product of agribusiness, and California's leadership on environmental matters, this area will also be an ideal location to develop our newly announced renewables line."

California often suffers drought conditions with water loss being a particularly sensitive issue for agricultural businesses in the state.

The previous franchise owner made approximately $180,000 in sales during 2017 and Water Intelligence plans for further expansion rapidly, citing "the size of the opportunity".

"This territory was under-exploited by our American Leak Detection franchise operation relative to its geographic size and demand for solutions to water loss. With a critical mass of corporate-operated resources and the added leadership of one of our strongest franchise owners, we see a lot of upside starting immediately," said DeSouza.

The AIM-traded company will utilise a similarly strategy at the Bakersfield franchise to the one it is implementing in Louisville, which is a much larger operation.

As of 1419 GMT, Water Intelligences shares were unchanged at 210.00p.These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:

US: 2.83% (+1bp)

UK: 1.43% (+0bp)

Germany: 0.58% (-2bp)

France: 0.82% (-2bp)

Spain: 1.38% (-2bp)

Italy: 1.99% (-3bp)

Portugal: 1.79% (-2bp)

Greece: 4.21% (+5bp)

Japan: 0.05% (-0bp)

Sovereign bonds on other side of the Atlantic diverged on Thursday, against a backdrop of simmering geopolitical and trade tensions.

Front and centre at the end of the week was the stand-off between the UK and its allies versus Russia, with Britain, the US, Germany and France calling on Moscow to explain its recent use of a military grade nerve toxin against a former spy living in London.

Meanwhile, overnight the White House clarified that it was asking China to cut its yearly bilateral trade shortfall with the States by $100bn.

In 2017, the Asian giant's trade deficit with the US reached $375bn, accounting for two-thirds of America's total deficit in trade.

That prompted a response from China's state-run tabloid Global Times, which said: "If the U.S. wants to reduce its trade deficit, it has to make Americans more hard-working and conduct reforms in accordance with international market demand, instead of asking the rest of the world to change."

Against that backdrop, readings on the Empire State and Philly Fed factory sector indices for the month of March validated the 14-year high reached earlier in the month on the key nation-wide ISM gauge, Pantheon Macroeconomics's Ian Shepherdson said.

"It was not a fluke. In short, the surveys signal that a robust manufacturing upswing continues unabated," he said.

Back in Europe, investors were digesting somewhat hawkish rhetoric from rate-setters in Norway and Switzerland, with rate-setters from the former country's central bank flagging the possibility of quicker rate hikes this year.

Similarly, following its own policy meeting on Thursday, the Swiss National Bank warned of the risk of a correction in house prices, saying it would continue to regularly assess the need for an increase in lenders' so-called counter-cyclical buffers.Tesco is a visible turnaround story and the retailer will increasingly be viewed as a capital return stock, JP Morgan analysts said as they rated the shares overweight.

The supermarket chains recent acquisition of Booker is transformational because it gives Tesco a bigger market to aim at, more than 6bn of revenue capacity and a better mix of formats as shoppers opt for online and convenience, the analysts said. In addition to 200m of synergies, Tesco has secured the execution abilities of Charles Wilson, Bookers former boss who has taken over as head of Tescos UK business.

The Booker deal, which is not reflected in consensus estimates, will allow Tesco to generate 4.4bn of free cash flow and reduce its net debt by 2.2bn by 2020, JP Morgan said. A quarter, or 1.1bn, of the free cash flow will be returned to shareholders in dividends, they predicted.

For this reason, investors will shift their attention to Tescos cash generation and ability to return capital and away from its trading potential, the analysts said. They gave Tesco a 265p price target compared with 210p at the time of publication.

We turn buyers of Tesco shares for the first time in five years as its cash flow, top line and balance sheet have improved, whilst Booker adds new addressable market potential and strong execution capabilities with Charles Wilson now at the helm, the analysts, led by Borja Olcese, said in a note to investors.

Better-than-expected execution is an opportunity, given the strength of the management team, while weaker revenue trends are the biggest risk, they said. A stronger Tesco is not good news for Sainsburys given their geographic and customer overlap, the analysts added.

Before Tesco's bid for Booker, JPM had an 'underweight' rating and a 135p price target on the stock.President Donald Trumps new chief economic adviser has triggered renewed concerns about a trade war by calling for the US to lead a coalition of nations to stand up to China.

Immediately after he was appointed by Trump overnight, Larry Kudlow, a 70-year-old former official in the Reagan administration, said that China had earned a tough response not only from the United States.

He continued: A thought that I have is the United States could lead a coalition of large trading partners and allies against China, or to let China know that theyre breaking the rules left and right  Thats the way Id like to see. You call it a sort of a trade coalition of the willing. Kudlow added, in the interview with CNBC, that he did not like blanket tariffs.

Trump made Kudlow director of the White House National Economic council on 14 March, replacing Gary Cohn, who stepped aside after Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on steel imports. Kudlow has also disagreed with Trump on his tariff plans, describing them as a regressive tax on low-income families.

Kudlow, was an economist at Bear Stearns after leaving the Reagan White House and then, until his appointment by Trump, a pundit on CNBC and in other media. He left Bear Stearns in the mid-1990s to deal with addictions to cocaine and alcohol.

Writing in the Washington Post, Jared Bernstein, a former adviser to Barack Obama's vice president, Joe Biden, described Kudlow as a die-hard, supply-side, trickle-down tax cutter wedded to a strong dollar. But Bernstein said Kudlow was flexible enough to listen to opposing views on issues such as employment.

He hated Trumps tariffs, though he eventually said something positive about sanctions on China for dumping steel. But any such conversions are new for Kudlow, Bernstein wrote. Kudlow is a grown-up and will hopefully be someone who can get between Trumps worst instincts and the rest of us.

Others were more damning. Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning Keynesian economist, said Kudlow was reliably wrong about everything and that Trump was looking for sycophancy instead of good advice.

Rabobank analyst Bas van Geffen said it could have been worse. Markets may actually find some comfort in the fact that Mr. Trump decided to give the job to Kudlow, rather than someone with more radical economic beliefs, such as Peter Navarro, who is even more skeptical about the current free trade paradigm," he said in a note to clients.London stocks had pared earlier gains by midday on Thursday amid worries about a possible trade war between the US and China, while news that Unilever is shunning the UK for new headquarters in Rotterdam did little to boost sentiment.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.1% to 7,140.59 after stocks fell on Wall Street overnight amid renewed worries about a trade war as President Trump looked to impose fresh tariffs on China. According to reports, Trump is looking to levy tariffs on up to $60bn of Chinese imports, with a focus on technology, telecoms and apparel.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that TV talkshow host and conservative commentator Larry Kudlow, who was an informal economic adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign, will replace Gary Cohn as the president's top economic adviser.

In currency markets, the pound was down 0.1% against the euro at 1.1282 and 0.2% lower versus the greenback at 1.3938 as investors weighed up rising tensions between the UK and Russia against some encouraging Brexit news.

Brexit Secretary David Davis will go to Brussels on Sunday in what looks like an indication that a deal is imminent, reports Bloomberg, while The Times has seen documents that indicate the UK will be free to sign trade deals during the transition period without permission from the European Union after a climbdown by Brussels.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said: "Not only are investors concerned about an international trade war, in terms of more UK-specific issues a 25% post-profit warning plunge from consumer goods firm PZ Cussons sparked losses for its FTSE 100 cousins Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever, the latter already upsetting people by announcing it was shifting its main headquarters to Rotterdam."

Unilever fell after announcing it will move its corporate headquarters to Rotterdam from London as it combines its two classes of shares into a single entity while Imperial Leather maker PZ Cussons tumbled on its profit warning.

Housebuilder Persimmon slipped as it appointed Roger Devlin, currently chairman of pub group Marston's, as chairman with effect from 1 June. The company announced back in December that chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Jonathan Davie, chairman of the remuneration committee, has resigned amid anger over their failure to cap directors' earnings under a long-term incentive plan agreed in 2012.

OneSavings Bank was in the red despite posting a 21% jump in full-year profit as the loan book grew and saying it kicked off 2018 with a strong pipeline of new business, as guidance on margins disappointed.

Estate agency Savills declined as it said statutory pre-tax profit for 2017 rose 13% but warned that it expects "some tempering of the strong transaction volumes of recent times in some markets".

Hammerson was under pressure as Goldman Sachs added it to its 'conviction buy' list but Credit Suisse cut the property development and investment company to 'neutral'. Imperial Brands was weaker as Goldman Sachs dropped the stock to 'neutral'.

Meanwhile, as is usual on a Thursday, ex-dividends weighed, with Anglo American, Crest Nicholson, Domino's Pizza, Essentra, Galliford Try, Hammerson, LondonMetric, Millennium & Copthorne, SSP, Spirent Communications and Tritax Big Box all in the frame.

On the upside, Tesco was the top gainer after JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded its stance on the stock 'overweight' from a previous rating of 'underweight' before the Booker offer.

Old Mutual edged higher as it reported a 22% increase in underlying operating profits to 2bn as the Anglo-South African financial services group continued the process of splitting itself up.

Cineworld gained ground as it posted a 23% jump in full-year pre-tax profit while construction and services group Kier was up after reporting a rise in first-half profit and saying it expects double-digit profit growth in 2018.

Retirement products specialist Just Group rallied on the back of a 35% increase in 2017 operating profit Spirax-Sarco pushed higher on better-than-expected full-year results.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals was lifted by an upgrade to 'buy' at Citi and to 'hold' at Jefferies, while TalkTalk rose on the back of an upgrade from Macquarie.

There are no major UK data releases due but in the US, jobless claims, the import price index, NY Empire State manufacturing and the Philly Fed manufacturing survey are all at 1230 GMT.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,140.59 0.11%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,736.35 -0.42%

techMARK (TASX) 3,331.30 0.10%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Tesco (TSCO) 216.30p 2.85%

Shire Plc (SHP) 3,214.50p 2.21%

Prudential (PRU) 1,947.00p 1.51%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 958.20p 1.27%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,009.70p 1.10%

NMC Health (NMC) 3,388.00p 1.07%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,754.50p 1.01%

Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 369.20p 0.90%

HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 696.47p 0.89%

Old Mutual (OML) 253.10p 0.88%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hammerson (HMSO) 431.00p -5.61%

GKN (GKN) 428.10p -2.19%

Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,936.00p -1.90%

Just Eat (JE.) 751.00p -1.60%

Unilever (ULVR) 3,762.00p -1.53%

easyJet (EZJ) 1,608.50p -1.53%

WPP (WPP) 1,138.50p -1.51%

Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,484.00p -1.49%

Evraz (EVR) 435.80p -1.43%

Pearson (PSON) 755.84p -1.33%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,057.00p 13.78%

TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 112.80p 6.82%

Computacenter (CCC) 1,125.00p 5.53%

Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 5,935.00p 3.31%

Cineworld Group (CINE) 248.00p 3.25%

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 1,310.00p 1.71%

Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 485.68p 1.65%

Weir Group (WEIR) 1,961.50p 1.47%

Tullow Oil (TLW) 182.45p 1.36%

Just Group (JUST) 136.80p 1.33%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

PZ Cussons (PZC) 234.19p -15.39%

Dignity (DTY) 932.00p -5.09%

Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 470.00p -4.86%

Essentra (ESNT) 456.40p -4.72%

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 196.50p -4.52%

OneSavings Bank (OSB) 387.80p -4.48%

Big Yellow Group (BYG) 864.00p -3.95%

Intu Properties (INTU) 205.70p -3.15%

IG Group Holdings (IGG) 799.00p -3.09%

NewRiver REIT (NRR) 292.13p -2.79%Downing Street has made a U-turn and has decided to save 1p and 2p coins due to the public uproar fired by threats to scrap them.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that the early reaction of the public made it clear that Britain wants to keep copper coins.

The PMs spokesman said on Wednesday: There are no proposals to scrap one or two pence coins in the consultation that HMT issued yesterday. The call for evidence is simply intended to enable the Government to better understand the role of cash and digital payments in the new economy.

One thing HM Treasury were seeking views on was whether the current denominational mix of coins meets the publics needs, and from the early reaction it looks as if it does.

The Government welcomes all contributions to the debate and will respond fully after the call for evidence closes on June 5.

The governments Philip Hammond announced on Tuesdays Spring Statement that there were proposals to abolish 1p and 2p coins as well as 50 notes, but the public didn't react well to the news.

The PM spokesman said that they are still looking into the utility of the 50 note. The note has always been seen as rare and it is perceived to be used mainly in criminal activity.

It is not the first time the government has considered scraping pennies, in 2015 then-Chancellor George Osborne proposed the measure only to be blocked at the last minute by former PM David Cameron.

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said that the decision was good news for charities and seaside penny arcades that depend greatly on copper coins.Four select committees formed by UK members of parliament have called for a new Clean Air Act to tackle the UKs air pollution problem, which they said could provoke half a million more early deaths after Brexit if left undealt with.

In a joint report, they called for a new clean air fund, paid for by carmakers and emission-based taxes on diesel vehicles.

Lawmakers also called for the date for when conventional petrol and diesel cars will be banned to be brought forward.

The report also found that air pollution causes approximately 40,000 early deaths each year, with a cost to the UK taxpayer of 20bn each year.

Despite levels of contamination since 2010, the committee accused authorities of being more worried about "box-ticking and demonstrating compliance" than with actually taking bold action and finding solutions.

Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said: "The governments latest plan does not present an effective response to the scale of the quality catastrophe in the UK. We are concerned that the government is treating air quality as a box-ticking exercise. Real change will require bold, meaningful action.

"The UK automotive industry is investing billions in technology and other measures to help address the challenge," said Mike Hawes, chief executive officer of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Vehicle manufacturers are funding scrappage schemes themselves to get the older vehicles off the road. Other sectors must also play their part in improving air quality."

Unfortunately, Labour MP Geraint Davies believed that Brexit could be used as an excuse for the government to lower standards further.

"It [Brexit] demands the government adopts World Health Organisation Air Quality standards to take leadership instead continuing to make excuses for bad practices."Cineworld reported strong profits growth for a 'momentous' 2017 and was feeling boffo about newly acquired US cinema chain Regal and a bulging slate of blockbusters in 2018.

Boosted by a strong 'Star Wars'-led finish to the year, the FTSE 250 company, which with more than 9,500 screens in almost 800 locations in 10 countries is now the second largest cinema chain in the world, took 890.7m of revenues in the calendar year, up 11.6% or 8% if currency swings are excluded.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 198.2m was up 7.4%, in line with average analyst forecasts. Profit before tax of 120.5m was up 22.7% or 14.5% to 127.5m on an underlying basis.

Basic earnings per share, adjusted for the rights issue associated with the $3.4bn Regal acquisition, of 16.4p were up 19.7% on the prior year. With cash generation of 184.8m, the full year cash dividend was increased 14.5% to 15.4p per share or 3.1p on a rights adjusted basis.

To pay for Regal, Cineworld raised 1.7bn from the rights issue and has secured dollar- and euro-denomiated term loans of $4.1bn and a $300.0m revolving credit facility. Net debt is now around 4.4 times EBITDA.

With the strong finish to last year continuing in January and February with the huge success of Marvel's 'Black Panther' and the completion of the Regal deal at the end of February, chief executive Mooky Greidinger was "pleased" with the opening weeks of the new year and "encouraged" by the 2018 slate, which also includes 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom', 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald', 'Avengers: Infinity War', 'The Incredibles 2', 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again', Star Wars spin-off 'Solo', 'Deadpool 2', 'Fifty Shades Freed' and 'Mary Poppins Returns'.

For the UK and rest of the world, the group plans to open 381 screens in the next four years, of which 75 are scheduled for delivery in 2018.

"The cash generative nature of our business underpins our business model. Our priorities for the use of our cash have remained consistent; to invest in the business to support growth in revenue and earnings, for selective acquisition opportunities and to grow the dividend," Greidinger said.

On the Regal deal, he added: "Although a huge challenge, we as management are confident that we will successfully lead the group to new achievements and deliver enhanced shareholder value. Through our success and experience in the UK and Israel we have learnt and proved that the potential in more mature markets is at least as attractive as in the emerging markets.

"The US is the biggest cinema market in the world and we are confident that this transformative acquisition will be a great success."

Although no further details have been disclosed in this release, analyst are expected to hear more later in the day.

Shares in Cineworld rose more than 3% in the first hour and a half of trading on Thursday to 248.2p.

Numis said the 2017 results are as expected but the Regal deal is "more crucial to sentiment" and "still largely misunderstood by investors". It forecast 5.5% EBITDA compound annual growth between 2018-2021, driven by US margin improvement from cost and revenue synergies and whilst the balance sheet looks "optically high" at a starting ND/EBITDA ratio of 4.4x, "we believe the balance sheet is appropriately leveraged".

Numis forecasts 2.9bn revenue, 630.9m EBITDA, 313.1m PBT, 18.5p EPS and a 10.2p dividend per share for 2018, with PBT of 408m and EPS of 24.2p in 2019.

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity said excluding Regal "these are creditable results in a soft film year and we would have expected a good response to the dividend hike".

"However, the results add little/no further insights to the Regal acquisition. We think it's a deal fraught with risk but the share price fall makes the upside attractive enough to support our recent upgrade to 'buy'."GKN 's largest customer, Airbus, has suggested it would withdraw custom from the FTSE 100 engineer in the event of the proposed hostile takeover by Melrose International .

Airbus, from which GKN generated 20% of its aerospace sales last year, expressed caution about turnaround specialist Melrose's focused on the short term.

The nature of our industry is one that requires a commitment to long-term investment and strategic vision, said Tom Williams, chief operating officer of Airbus's commercial aircraft arm.

The industry does not lend itself to shorter-term financial investment which naturally reduces R&D budgets and limits vital innovation," he added, in remarks to the Financial Times.

It would be practically impossible for us to give any new work to GKN under such an ownership model when we dont know who will be the long-term investor.

Earlier this week, Melrose upped its offer to 467p per share, or 8.1bn, from 7.4bn and sought to reassure MPs about the proposed takeover by proposing binding commitments on research, pensions and other matters of political concern. GKN makes technology used in the F-35 fighter jet

The turnaround specialist said it had not viewed GKNs books but that it intended to make binding post-offer undertakings covering the engineering companys head office, research spending, suppliers and pensions.

In a statement on Thursday, GKN chairman Mike Turner said the comments from Airbus back up the board's belief that Melrose "is not an appropriate owner of GKN" and that the "short-term business model is inappropriate for GKNs customers and investors".

As we have previously stated, and as these comments from Airbus reinforce, winning new business in our markets would be more difficult if customers were uncertain as to the identity of their future long-term partners.

The bid battle-cum-war of words started on 12 January and has become highly political. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, called Melrose an asset stripper out to make a quick buck at the expense of UK industry. Prime Minister Theresa May has said the government will monitor the bid after MPs raised security concerns about a buyout.

The deadline for accepting the final offer by Melrose, which would see GKN shareholders own 60% of the company and receive 1.4bn, is Thursday 29 March at 1300 GMT.

Melrose's sweetened offer came after GKN announced on Friday that it had agreed to combine its automotive business, Driveline, with US-based Dana in a deal valued at around $6.1bn.

Analysts at Olivetree Financial calculated on Wednesday that Melroses ability to attain a 50% acceptance from GKN investors "isnt necessarily the slam-dunk that a decent swathe of the market currently assumes".

Analysis of the shareholder register concludes that 49.59% of the GKN register "is currently motivated to tender to Melrose", and 50.41% are unclear. With Dana management in London to sweet-talk investors, "it would appear there is much left to play for here".

GKN's shares were down almost 2% to 429.8p on Thursday, while Melrose was down less than a penny to 220.6p.Over the last week, Vice President Mike Pence has taken a page out of Donald Trump's playbook by using Twitter to vent his frustrations. After representing the United States during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, the vice president had some strong words for North Korea on social media.

Back in DC. Proud to stand w/Japan & South Korea reaffirming our strong alliance. Our policy regarding North Korea is unchanged from my trip. @POTUS has said he always believes in talking but there will be NO reward for talks...  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) February 12, 2018

Pence on Trump

Upon arriving for the start of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, Vice President Mike Pence made headlines for a variety of reasons.

First it was in response to Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, who is openly gay, announcing he wouldn't meet with Pence due to the vice president's controversial stance on LGBT rights. After Pence nearly groveled to Rippon on Twitter, he went back on the social media platform to sound off on the status between the United States and North Korea.

Despite potential talks, and irrespective of if they happen w/USA or S. Korea, new strong sanctions are coming very soon and the maximum pressure campaign will only intensify until North Korea abandons its nuclear program. All our allies agree!  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) February 12, 2018

In a pair of tweets sent out on February 13, Mike Pence didn't hold back his thoughts about North Korea.

"Back in DC. Proud to stand w/Japan & South Korea reaffirming our strong alliance," Pence tweeted. "Our policy regarding North Korea is unchanged from my trip. POTUS has said he 'always believes in talking' but there will be NO reward for talks," he added.

In a follow-up tweet, Mike Pence doubled down on his warning to North Korea.

"Despite potential talks, and irrespective of if they happen w/USA or S. Korea, new strong sanctions are coming very soon and the maximum pressure campaign will only intensify until North Korea abandons its nuclear program," Pence tweet, before adding, "All our allies agree!"

Moving forward

In response to Mike Pence's tweet, critics of the administration wasted no time firing back.

"Lol, a joke. Russian oligarchs are making billions selling to North Korea from ports north. Does Donald Trump and Putin get a cut? Wheres the pressure on Russia?" a tweet read.

Lol, a joke. Russian oligarchs are making billions selling to North Korea from ports north. Does @realDonaldTrump and Putin get a cut? Wheres the pressure on Russia?  Bob Radomski (@rlradski) February 12, 2018

All of Congress and the Senate agreed on #RussianSanctions . What's up with those?  Danny Morrow (@dpmorrow) February 12, 2018

"All of Congress and the Senate agreed on Russian Sanctions. What's up with those?" a follow-up tweet added. "What about your RUSSIAN friends? Ever going to get those sanctions in place...??" yet another tweet stated.

"Will these sanctions sit on the sidelines like the Russian ones? How many rubles did you end up with Mikey?" a social media user wrote.

@POTUS when will the Russia sanctions authorized by overwhelming majorities in both House and Senate be enacted? Please comment!!  Jim Scudder (@therealscuddly) February 12, 2018

#RussiaSanctions is first on my agenda. Little kim and liddle donnies ego masturbation standoffs are a stupidly dangerous smoke screen. #Monday  Adrienne LaCava (@AdrienneLaCava) February 12, 2018

What about your RUSSIAN friends? Ever going to get those sanctions in place...??  WiseMagic (@RockinHits) February 12, 2018

"When will the Russia sanctions authorized by overwhelming majorities in both House and Senate be enacted? Please comment!!" a Twitter user wondered. "As the negative responses continued, it was clear that the opposition to the White House was only gaining stream.The alleged Parkland's shooter, Nikolas Cruz was officially arraigned in court on Wednesday where his attorneys offered to Plead Guilty to avoid the death penalty, the Chicago Tribune reported. According to the public defender, Howard Finkelstein, Mr. Cruz is ready to plead guilty as long as the death penalty is off the table. Michael J. Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, made his decision to seek the death penalty against Cruz just days after the Parkland Shooting.

Parkland shooting

19-year-old Cruz is being accused of killing 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Upon his arrest, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. The police told reporters that Cruz legally purchased the weapon he used in the shooting.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Cruz seemed oblivious to everything happening around him and constantly kept his head down. His lawyers stood mute on the plea, forcing the judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. Present family members of the victims were spotted crying while others stared intently at Cruz. Cruzs younger brother, Zachary Cruz, was among those present during the hearing. According to a police report, Zachary regrets bullying his brother and wishes he could have prevented the massacre.

Cruzs attorneys are determined to keep their client out of death row.

The lawyers have decided to focus on convincing one juror to block the execution rather than contesting for his guilt. They intend to prove mitigating factors such as mental duress. On the other hand, the prosecutors plan to prove that Mr. Cruz is eligible for execution by citing that Cruz knowingly murdered many people in a cruel and heinous way.

Florida currently is home to 347 death row inmates. If the defense team is successful in removing the death penalty, Cruz would be expected to serve a life sentence for each of his murders.

Governor Rick Scott signs gun bill

After the mass shooting, Florida lawmakers passed a bill that ensures no one below the age 21 is allowed to own a gun.

The law also allows local districts to arm their teachers and other school personnel. The state will provide annual funding that would give local law enforcement and educators the necessary tools to identify students capable of violence. However, the NRA has sued Florida and requested that the court block the bill since it goes against the constitution, according to chief lobbyist Chris Cox.Ever since Donald Trump pulled off the shocking upset over Hillary Clinton, he's taken time to gloat about his victory as often as possible. During a recent speech to a group of Marines, Trump took his bragging to another level.

.@POTUS: "Very soon, we're going to Mars. You wouldn't have been going to Mars if my opponent won." pic.twitter.com/QJkLdmM7Sl  FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) March 13, 2018

Trump on Mars

The presidential election of 2016 will likely be remembered for the surprising victory of Donald Trump, as well as the credible reports of inference from Russia.

Despite the constant scandals and drama that has surrounded the administration, most recently the firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson which was confirmed by the president on Twitter, Trump has done his best to deflect the negative reports and focus on the more positive aspects of his presidency.

On Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump made his way to San Diego, California to visit the prototypes for his proposed border wall. Following his visit, the president stopped over at Miramar Naval Air Station to address members of the military. During his speech, Trump touched on a variety of topics, including the United States and NASA going to Mars, before predictably ripping Hillary Clinton. "In space, the United States are finally going to lead again," Trump said.

Pres. Trump at CA Marine base: "Very soon we're going to Mars. You wouldn't have been going to Mars if my opponent won." https://t.co/1CCJ0PtcuO pic.twitter.com/P6ETSGVfDE  ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2018

"You see what's happening? The rockets are going up left and right," Donald Trump added. "Very soon, we're going to Mars," Trump said, before stating, "You wouldn't have been going to Mars if my opponent won." "You wouldn't even be thinking about it," he claimed.

Trump's space plans

Donald Trump has made it clear that he would like to see an American on Mars before the end of his presidency, either after one or two terms. Despite Trump's plan, NASA's time table is around 2033, far longer than the president would like, though their goal appears more realistic. Last year, Trump kept the majority of NASA's budget intact at around $19 billion, though he did slash about $200 million that was allocated mostly for climate change research, as well as additional education programs.

Clinton obsession

Donald Trump and his administration have been accused of having an unhealthy obsession with Hillary Clinton, which has only increased since the election of 2016. While most presidents leave their opponents in the rear-view mirror, Trump has continued to use Clinton as a punchline during his interviews, speeches, and social media rants. In addition, members of Trump's team, like White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway, have followed in his footsteps on an almost routine basis.As students stage protests all over the country to demand stricter gun reforms, the House passed a bill that focuses on early detection and prevention of school violence, CNN report. However, the law fails to expand background checks and increase the age for purchasing firearms. The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the bill in a 407 to 10 vote.

Gun reform has been a topic of controversy over the past month. After the massacre of the 17 students in Florida, parents and students have been organizing walkouts nationwide demanding a change in gun laws.

Last week Governor Rick Scott signed a state law that raised the age for purchasing firearms from 18 to 21 and banned the use of bump stocks. Moments after signing the bill the NRA sued Florida lawmakers for passing the bill. According to the NRA chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, the new state law goes against the constitution of the United States.

Authorities say alleged Parkland shooter, Nikolas Cruz, legally purchased the weapon he used in the massacre of the students and staff. Cruz has been charged with 34 counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. According to his lawyer, Cruz plans to plead guilty to all 34 counts to avoid the death penalty.

Stop School Violence Act

The STOP School Violence Act passed by the House might be the only action Republicans agree to in response to the recent school shootings.

John Rutherford, a Republican congressman from Florida, told reporters that the new bill marks a significant step forward in protecting children, teachers, and administrators in the country. The legislation would authorize $50 million annual grants aimed at paying for school threat assessment teams to train staff and students to identify early signs and report possible threats to the authorities.

Both the NRA and the gun-reform group, Sandy Hook Promise, praised the House for passing the bill. The managing director of Sandy Hook Promise tweeted that though the bill does not solve everything, its still an essential step in preventing violence in schools. In his statement, Cox said the legislature would stop school violence and help identify individuals at possible risk of violence.

White House backs the new law

The White House also applauded the House passage of the bill. The president tweeted that the STOP School Violence Act puts the safety of Americas children first by improving training and providing schools and law enforcement with better tools to ensure an incident like the Parkland shooting never happens again.Donald Trump wanted to make America safe from illegal migrants and drug smugglers who used to enter the United States from Mexico via the openings in the fences. Some of these entry points were natural ones like rivers, others were breaks in the existing fences. In order to plug all possible loopholes, it was necessary to have a new border wall that would be strong enough to act as a deterrent for those who tried to enter illegally.

The Washington Examiner reports that eight border wall prototypes have been built in San Diego and President Trump will be visiting the site to inspect them.

However, he is not likely to announce which of these would get the final nod. In November, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security had hinted that the president could announce the winner during his visit but that may not happen.

Testing is a long process

The specifications that had been identified by Donald Trump for the wall were very rigid and testing and further certification will take time. Four of the border wall prototypes are made of concrete and the remaining four of non-concrete materials. All the prototypes are located in San Diego. According to US Customs and Border Protection spokesman Carlos Diaz, the testing, evaluation, and assessment of the prototypes had started in end November.

It was initially expected to be completed in a couple of months but that has not happened. The finalization of the design is a long drawn process and is not yet completed.

Incidentally, the final design for the wall may be a mix of the eight designs because the intention is to have an impregnable wall that will prevent illegal immigrants from crossing over the boundary.

The local topography and geography will have to be taken into account and the end result must ensure that Border Patrol agents who protect the border are equipped with the best tools.

Funding for the wall is a problem

CNBC reports that the cost of building the border wall is estimated to be nearly $22 billion over a three-year period.

During his election campaign, Donald Trump had said that Mexico would pay for the wall but there is no indication to that effect as of now. Obviously, taxpayers will have to share the burden and the White House has asked Congress to release $18 billion toward the wall over the next 10 years. At present, the United States has a 2000-mile border with Mexico and only a small portion of it is fenced. The 30 feet high prototypes have been constructed in Otay Mesa border, San Diego, and actual work on the wall is yet to start.Noah Brown of "Alaskan Bush People" is getting ready for his big honeymoon with fiance Rhain and now the fans are accusing him of lying about the money he got for their honeymoon. Radar Online shared the details about what is going on and how some people are not happy with him at all.

Noah and Rhain asked for money from fans

Instead of doing an actual registry for items, the couple asked for money. They shared that it was for their honeymoon, but it turns out that may not have been the case. They said that later this year they would be going to Hamilton, Montana.

At first, people said they were "greedy" and got really upset about it. Then after that, they decided to explain that they were not asking everyone to give them money, but instead only wanted money from the people who were invited to their wedding.

One fan took it pretty far. He went and sent the couple a gift card. Where this might sound like a sweet idea, it was for $1. His name was Ralph McLain and it sounds like he proved his point by sending that to them. He said that he wanted to send them only 10 cents, but you couldn't do that so he had to send $1 and then spend another $1 for processing fees. Instead of getting mad, they played it off going to Facebook and thanking him for the kind gift.

Of course, he probably didn't love this, but that was the way he did it.

How is this couple doing?

Right now, it sounds like Rhain and Noah are doing great. The couple seems really happy together and they are planning a wedding. They have these plans for a honeymoon already. One thing is she allegedly doesn't get along with rain and Snowbird, which are his sisters.

It sounds like she isn't fitting into the Brown family perfect, which does make it hard for everyone. The fans have got to know her a bit, but since the show hasn't been back they haven't seen how this couple from "Alaskan Bush People" is doing right now. The only updates that are coming out are those from social networks.

Her name was Ruth Alisha Merrill, but she changed it to Rhain legally, which is really odd.

The fact that Noah has a sister named Rain really does confuse people. His family is really close so her not fitting in is a bit odd and can't be easy for them.

Are you shocked to hear that Noah Brown allegedly lied to fans about money he got for his honeymoon? Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts. Right now, there has been a lot of talk about "Alaskan Bush People" coming back, but nothing has been confirmed.The fairytale romance between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle started when the two of them met on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend. Their story is being made into a movie with an international cast. The production activities began in early February in Los Angeles and in Vancouver and is moving at a fast pace. The much-awaited movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance is all about a member of the British Royal family and an American actress, and is planned to be released before their wedding.

According to Daily Mail UK, Lifetime network has already announced that the movie will air on Sunday, May 13 much before the marriage ceremony scheduled for May 19.

The movie has an international cast

Lifetime network has confirmed that Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance will recreate the relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle right from their first meeting. Lifetime has made public the first pictures of the original film, and it seems the choice of the cast will gel with the viewers.

British actor Murray Fraser had acted in The Lock and will portray the role of the Prince. Parisa Fitz-Henley has experience in acting and has acted in Midnight Texas. She is a Jamaican-American actress and will be seen as Meghan Markle.

As to other roles, Maggie Sullivan will be the Queen. Maggie is a Canadian actress and has done memorable roles in the TV.

Princess Diana will come alive on the screen courtesy Bonnie Soper who is a soap star from New Zealand. Australian actor Burgess Abernethy will be seen in the role of Prince William while Laura Mitchell will be Kate Middleton.

Other important characters in the movie are Prince Charles played by Steve Coulter, a British actor.

The role of Camilla Bowles will be done by Deborah Ramsay who is an accomplished actress.

The story in brief

Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance will follow their initial courtship. Lifetime network has not disclosed much which is understandable. The viewer will have to wait for its release before they can embark on the adventure and share the experience of how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle managed to stay away from the glare of publicity and keep their affair a secret.

Lifetime did the earlier movie on the marriage of Prince William, Harrys older brother. It was William & Kate: The Movie in 2011. Their story was quite different to that of Harry and Meghan because Kate was of British origin while Meghan is an American actress and a divorcee. The audience will have plenty of expectations, and the movie should be a memorable one.The Death of Stalin, the new film by Armando Iannucci, the creator of Veep, starts with the sudden demise of one of historys greatest monsters. A lot of wheeling and dealing, backstabbing, and backbiting ensues, along with hilarity. Only someone who could sell a Hillary Clinton-type character as the center of an HBO comedy could create a satire that takes down the Soviet Union at the height of its ferocity and terror. No wonder the modern Russian leader. Vladimir Putin, hates the movie.

Stalin a bigger monster than Adolf Hitler?

When one points to who is the evilest person in world history, Adolf Hitler almost always winds up at the top of the list.

Hitler carried out an extermination program against entire groups of people he wanted dead, including European Jews. He launched a world war that killed tens of millions of people, wrecked Europe for a generation, and set up the Cold War that more than once almost went nuclear, a development that would have ended civilization.

However, Stalin gives Hitler a good run for his money. He lasted over twice as long as his German counterpart and thus had more opportunity for mass slaughter, including the mass starvation of Ukrainians in the 1920s and the purges of the 1930s. Stalin ran a system of labor camps called the Gulag that rivaled anything Hitler did, with the exception that there were no gas chambers and ovens.

The victims of the Gulag were worked and starved to death.

Stalins non-aggression pact with Hitler made World War II possible and set the stage for the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union that nearly ended that empire fifty years before it finally was consigned to the ash heap of history. Stalin was killing people willy-nilly right up to his death in 1953.

His departure from this mortal coil was a relief, to say the least.

The reason that Stalin usually plays second fiddle to Hitler is that the depths of his evil were never on display in the media. No one liberated the Gulag camps as had been Hitlers death factories at Dachau and Auschwitz. Besides, for a time, Stalin was an ally, and it suited Great Britain and the United States to paper over his depredations.

A comedy about Stalin?

Mel Brooks, the creator of such hit films as The Producers and To Be or Not to Be, is quoted as saying that the one way to deflate evil was to make light of it. He certainly did Nazi Germany that service in his play within a play, Springtime for Hitler, and his later remake of a wartime comedy set in occupied Poland. The Death of Stalin, by all accounts, does the same thing to Soviet communism. The film deserves to be a sleeper hit. Courtesy of science photo - Fotolia.com





Lodi Lake Park is a lakefront park located on West Turner Road. Visitors can partake in a variety of activities including boating, kayaking, swimming, chartered river tours, and much more. Experienced docents lead the nature programs, which focus on topics like nature typical of Lodi Lake and the Mokelumne River area. Kayaks can be rented at the Boathouse, and beginning kayak lessons are available.

The 90-minute chartered boat tours of the Mokelumne River are offered for groups of up to ten people. For swimmers, there is a large sandy beach along Lodi Lake as well as a childrens area with a spray pool. The park also has a boat launching area.

1101 West Turner Road, Lodi, California, Phone: 209-333-6742

More vacation ideas: 16 Best Things to Do in Sacramento.

You are reading "5 Best Things to Do in Lodi, California with Kids of All Ages" Back to TopThe historic town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania is a popular place to visit in the Pocono Mountains. The town is home to historic attractions, unique inns, shops, and restaurants. Visit the Asa Packer Mansion Museum, the Old Jail Museum and the Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary. Here are the best things to do in Jim Thorpe, PA. Hours/availability may have changed.

1. Asa Packer Mansion Museum  Courtesy of jonbilous - Fotolia.com

This Asa Packer Mansion Museum is located in the home of Asa Packer, a philanthropist, railroad businessman, and founder of Lehigh University. Architect Samuel Sloan built the three-story, 18-bedroom mansion in 1861. The mansion has been open to the public for tours since the Bear Mountain Lions purchased it in 1956. The inside of the mansion appears almost exactly as it did when the Packer family occupied the home in the late 1800s. Visitors can tour the mansion from Memorial Day to Halloween. After that time period, tour availability varies depending on the season. PO Box 108, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania 18229, 570-325-3229



2. Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, Jim Thorpe, PA  Courtesy of jonbilous - Fotolia.com



Guests can get a taste of historic train travel by visiting the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway. A 70-minute narrated tour on a diesel engine train leads visitors over span bridges and through the Lehigh Gorge State Park during which they can admire tranquil mountain scenery, dramatic cliffs, and a variety of wildlife while traveling along the historic railway. All of the trains are family-friendly, pet friendly, and wheelchair accessible. Special train rides through the Lehigh Gorge for holidays and festivals are also available. 1 Susquehanna St., Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 610-562-2102 You are reading "15 Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania" Back to Top



3. Old Jail Museum, Jim Thorpe, PA  Courtesy of Nomad_Soul - Fotolia.com

The Old Jail Museum is a two-story stone structure that was built in the late 1800s. True to its name, the museum served as a jail for Jim Thorpe and surrounding communities through 1980. There are 27 cells inside of the jail, as well as rooms in the basement for solitary confinement. The jail is best known for the Molly Maguire trials, which ended with seven Irish coal miners being hanged from gallows. Today guests can tour the Old Jail Museum and see where one of the condemned Irishman placed his hand on the jail wall as a proclamation of his innocence. 128 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-5259 You are reading "15 Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania" Back to Top





4. Harry Packer Mansion  Harry Packer Mansion



The Harry Packer Mansion is a bed and breakfast that sits on Packer Hill, an area overlooking Jim Thorpe. The mansion may look familiar to Disneyworld visitors since the home was the inspiration for the theme park's Haunted Mansion attraction. With 15-foot ceilings, marble fireplaces, and luxurious furniture, this mansion is a popular spot for self-guided tours. The Libations Lounge, a built-in bar, is the perfect spot to have a drink while enjoying views of the town below. The Jim Thorpe community holds regular events at the mansion, including murder mystery dinners and wine tastings. The mansion is available to rent for private events as well. Nightly bed and breakfast room rates start at $175. 19 Packer Avenue, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-8566 You are reading "Fun Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania this Weekend with Friends" Back to Top or More places to see near me today, what to do, weekend trips



5. Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania  Courtesy of Dave - Fotolia.com



The Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary is a prime spot for family outings and field trips. In addition to butterflies, the sanctuary is home to a variety of frogs and fish. The sanctuary has an education center and art room for children, along with a nature gift shop. In the Flutterarium, visitors can observe butterflies and learn how to hand-feed them. The sanctuary is also available as a space for birthday parties, and the establishment offers an entire birthday package that includes balloons, crafts, goody bags, and butterfly hatching kits. Next read: water parks in PA 18 Church Road, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-4848 You are reading "What to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania this Weekend" Back to Top or Restaurants near me, stuff to do near me



6. The Mauch Chunk Opera House, Jim Thorpe, PA  Courtesy of eugenesergeev - Fotolia.com



A trip to the Mauch Chunk Opera House gives visitors and locals a taste of Jim Thorpe's unique culture. This lively arts center constantly hosts performances and exhibits for people of all ages. Local artists and musicians from nearby communities put on the majority of shows at the opera house. Guests can also take tours of the Mauch Chunk Opera House during which they will learn about the history of the spacious performance hall. A historical exhibit and an art gallery featuring works by Jim Thorpe artists are also part of the tour. 14 West Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-0249 You are reading "Top Romantic Tourist Attractions in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania" Back to Top or More must do for couples, what to do near me, places to visit this weekend



7. Mauch Chunk Museum, Jim Thorpe, PA  Mauch Chunk Museum

This museum tells the story of Mauch Chunk, the coal-mining town that preceded Jim Thorpe. The main exhibit focuses on the Lenape Indians, the discovery of coal in the Jim Thrope area, the industrialization of Mauch Chunk, the Switchback Gravity Railroad, and Mauch Chunk's transformation into modern-day Jim Thorpe. Geological history is another topic that is covered through the museum's exhibits. The second floor of the Mauch Chunk museum has a ballroom that is available for special events, including weddings, parties, and corporate get-togethers. 41 W Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-9190 You are reading "What is There to Do with Kids in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania" Back to Top or More tourism, attractions for couples, food, things to see near me today , From LA



8. Mauch Chunk Lake Park  Jonathan Schops/stock.adobe.com

Mauch Chunk Lake was built as a flood control project to prevent recurrent flooding of the town of Jim Thorp, caused by the waters of the Mauch Chunk Creek which runs under the city. The project was so successful that it was decided to build a park around the lake which would provide a welcome recreation area. Today the park welcomes vacationers from all over the state and beyond, who come to get back to nature and enjoy amenities like a campground and cottages, hiking trails, a swimming beach and great boating. There are 2 boat launches and fishing is permitting along much of the shoreline and from the fishing pier. Mauch Chunk Lake Park, 625 Lentz Trail, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-3669



9. Pocono Whitewater  Courtesy of Alexey Achepovsky - Fotolia.com

Pocono Whitewater is an adventure company that organizes exciting river rafting trips for the whole family. The company offers two whitewater rafting trips on the Lehigh River Gorge. The first trip, Dam Release Whitewater, is a 12-mile-long rafting adventure that includes sections of Class III rapids. The other trip, Family Style Whitewater, is a shorter expedition through smaller rapids. Moonlight rafting and pirate rafting are also favorites among Pocono Whitewater customers. In addition to rafting, the company offers biking and paintball adventures, and Pocono Whitewater also has tour packages for all-inclusive trips to Belize. 1519 State Route 903, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-3655 "Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania for Locals & Tourists - Restaurants, Hotels" Back to Top or Beautiful places near me, what to do, restaurants for breakfast, travel guide, nearest beach



10. Jim Thorpe Sidecar Tourz  Courtesy of dmitrimaruta - Fotolia.com

Jim Thorpe Sidecar Tourz gives people an opportunity to whiz through the Pocono Mountains on a vintage BMW sidecar. Barb Timberz and Ed Fink, two locals who know the best spots to visit in Jim Thorpe and the Poconos, lead the tours. Gorgeous mountain views are the main benefit of these exciting rides. Guests can choose between a 1.5-hour tour or a 4 hour tour. Jim Thorpe Sidecar Tourz provides riders with eye gear and a helmet to keep riders as safe as possible. Once the tour ends, riders can pick up unique merchandise from the Jim Thorpe Sidecar Tourz shop. Jim Thorpe Sidecar Tourz, 570-249-1570



11. Jim Thorpe River Adventures  Courtesy of Alex Green - Fotolia.com

Jim Thorpe River Adventures runs whitewater-rafting trips on the Lehigh River Gorge for people of all ages and skill levels. Intro to Whitewater Rafting and Easywater Rafting are their basic trips for beginners. Both of these trips are 3-4 hours long and include several sections of class I and II rapids. Adventurous rafters can join the Big Time Whitewater Rafting trip, which includes stretches of canyon paddling and class II and III rapids. Aside from its rafting trips, Jim Thorpe River Adventures rents out inflatable kayaks and mountain bikes. 1 Adventure Lane, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-2570 "New cool stuff to do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania" Back to Top or Romantic Getaways, Wedding Ideas close to me this weekend, honeymoon, anniversary Ideas, fun places near me



12. Broadway Grill and Pub  Broadway Grill and Pub The Broadway Grill is bursting at the seams with character; it occupies part of the historic Inn at Jim Thorpe and boasts many attractive Victorian features including tin ceilings, wrought-iron balconies and gas fireplaces. However, there is nothing old fashioned about the food and drinks on offer. The pub serves a fine selection of craft beers, creative cocktails and wines from all corners. The food is Modern American style and everything is produced using the freshest possible local produce. The venue offers a full calendar of live music events on most weekends. The grill serves a daily breakfast and lunch and dinner from Thursday to Sunday. Broadway Grill and Pub, 24 Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-732-4343



13. Skirmish Paint Ball  Kadmy/stock.adobe.com

Ideally located in the Pocono Mountains, Skirmish Paint Ball boasts 750 acres of land and is proud to offer 50 different themed paintball fields which will challenge and surprise you. The various maps cover a range of outdoor environments including dense forests, wide open fields, creeks, bridges, swamps and more. You will have to contend with obstacles like cargo containers, tanks, forts and castles. There is even a proper village to navigate through. Everyone is welcome to come and join in the fun, regardless of your skill level and helpful staff members are on hand to make sure you have everything you need for hours of fun. Skirmish Paint Ball, 1519 State Route 903, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-3699



14. Cafe Arielle  Cafe Arielle

Set in a carefully restored former fireworks factory and silk mill, Cafe Arielle is a must on your Jim Thorpe dining list. Although the setting dates back many years, the restaurant is beautifully contemporary and boasts many innovative touches. The dining tables have been constructed from the old silk cutting tables and have legs made from the pipes of the old heating system. You can choose to dine inside the stone-walled dining room or outside on the patio. Cafe Arielle serves a simple but delicious menu of cafe favorites including charcuterie boards, salads, sandwiches, flatbreads and mouth-watering entrees. You can also enjoy the full bar, a childrens play area and all the riveting artworks in the Stabin Museum. Cafe Arielle, 268 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-5588



15. Molly Maguires Pub and Steakhouse  pavel siamionov/stock.adobe.com



Located in the oldest surviving building on the historic Hazard Square, Molly Maguires Pub and Steakhouse is a firm favorite with locals and visitors to Jim Thorpe. The pub has been owned and operated by the Behan family (from Dublin, Ireland) for more than 25 years and offers both indoor and outdoor dining areas which are family-friendly. The food is always freshly prepared using prime ingredients and is not confined to Irish pub grub. Some popular menu choices include Seared Ahi Tuna, a selection of salads and wraps, burgers, steaks and delicious Grilled Salmon. The fully-stocked antique bar is a sight to behold. Molly Maguires Pub and Steakhouse, 5 Hazard Square, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229, 570-325-4563 You are reading "15 Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania" Back to Top or Amazing things to do around me & More pictures of fun cheap vacation spots



15 Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania

Attraction Spotlight: Harry Packer Mansion

Located in Jim Thorpe, PA, the Harry Packer Mansion is a historic landmark that blends old world opulence with modern day convenience. The Mansion is mostly popular for their Murder Mystery Weekends.

In 1874, founder of Lehigh University and the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Asa Packer built the Harry Packer Mansion for his son Harry. The Mansion was Asas wedding gift to Harry and his new wife. Six years later, Harry hired Addison Hutton to renovate a few sections of the Mansion. Together, the Harry and the Quaker architect expanded the Mansion by building a study wind and a front veranda. The front veranda is one of the most recognizable features of the Mansion, as it is made out of blue stone from New York, tile, and a mahogany ceiling (all of which still stands today).

In 1983, Robert and Patricia Handwerk purchased the Harry Packer Mansion. When the Handwerks purchased the Mansion, only the first level had electricity, the house had no plumbing or heat, and the roof appeared to be crumbling. With hard work and dedication, the Handwerks were able to restore the beauty of the Harry Packer Mansion.

Today, the Mansion operates under the Handwerk family of Pat and Bob, their son Taylor, and his wife Kristen. Thanks to Taylor and Kristen, the Mansion has expanded from a typical bed & breakfast to an added Libations Lounge, which serves a fine variety of alcohol.

Guests can choose to stay in either the Mansion or the Carriage House. Its important to note that since the establishment is historic, children are not allowed and smoking is strictly prohibited. Rooms inside the Mansion include:

 Queen size beds

 Private bathrooms

 Egyptian cotton sheets with 700 thread count

 Air conditioning

 Free WiFi

As for the Carriage House, Asa Packer originally built this facility in 1861 as a place to service the Mansion. It is 50 feet away from the Mansion, and is decorated like a classic hunting lodge. Currently, there are six guest rooms in the Carriage House. Anyone who stays in the Carriage House also has access to the Mansion. Each room within the Carriage House includes:

 Queen size beds

 Private bathrooms

 Free WiFi

 Access to a communal Keurig coffee maker

Aside from the Mansion and Carriage House being attractions within themselves, guests are welcome to hang out in the Libations Lounge. The Libations Lounge offers a selection of fine spirits, beer, and wine inside a Victorian setting.

Aside from the Libations Lounge, many people visit the Harry Packer Mansion to participate in one of the Murder Mystery Weekends. Murder Mystery Weekends occur almost every weekend from Friday through Sunday. The storyline of the Murder Mystery is a combination of reality and fiction. While detailed information is unavailable, what is known is the Packer fortune is involved in the plot.

Each Murder Mystery Weekend is offered for 11 couples. Larger groups are encouraged to participate in Murder Mysteries throughout the midweek. For larger groups, individuals can volunteers to act as certain characters, and others can work in teams. Its important to note that the price of rooms are different for Murder Mystery nights.

For more information about the Libations Lounge, Murder Mystery Weekend, or any other attraction at the Harry Packer Mansion, visit the Mansions official website.

If youre interested in learning more about the Harry Packer Mansion, but you dont want to spend the night there, you could always take a self-guided tour. A self-guided tour has an admission per person, and allows participants to explore almost every nook and cranny of the Mansion. Its important to note that the second floor is only accessible when there are no guests. If the second floor happens to be closed, the tour fee will be cut in half.

If youre interested in learning about wine, what the difference between good and bad wine is, anything else wine related, then take one of the Harry Packer Mansions wine classes. Each wine class teaches a group of six or more about the basics of wine, how to decipher and understand a wines label, information about pairing wines, and how to evaluate the taste and quality of a wine.

The Harry Packer Mansion hosts a combination of public and special events throughout the year such as First Friday Wine Tastings where guests can enjoy appetizers and wine in The Lounge and New Years Eve special events. Private events and parties may also be booked through the event staff at the mansion.

Back to: Things to Do in Jim Thorpe

19 Packer Ave. Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, 18229, Phone: 570-325-8566

You are reading "15 Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania " Back to Top



Attraction Spotlight: The Old Jail Museum

Located in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, the Old Jail Museum was used as a jailhouse during the late 1800s. Guided tours occur on a daily basis from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend. During September and October, the Old Jail Museum is only open during the weekends.

Tom McBride and his wife Betty Lou purchased the Old Jail Museum in 1995. The Old Jail Museum has a dense history, most of which is unpleasant. Most notably, the Old Jail Museum was the site of the Molly Maguires hanging in 1800s. Known as the Day of the Rope, which was June 21, 1877, Alexander Campbell, Edward Kelly, Michael Doyle, and John Donohue, who were Irish coal miners, were hung. On March 28, 1878, another Irish coal miner named Thomas P. Fisher was hung. Then, on January 14, 1879, two more Irish coal miners named James McDonnell and Charles Sharp were hung.

These trials, known as the Molly Maguires are known as one of the first examples of the surrender of state sovereignty. While the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided the courtroom and gallows, a private corporation led the investigation alongside a private detective agency and a private police force. Private attorneys were also used.

Its important to note that prior to the men being hung, many proclaimed that they were innocent. Today, many historians believe that some of the men who were hung were falsely accused and actually innocent.

The Old Jail Museum itself is the only attraction at the Museum. The Old Jail Museum consists of:

 Approximately 72 rooms.

 27 cells,

 Basement dungeon cells.

 Wardens apartment which includes a living room, dining room, sitting room, and two bedrooms.

 Kitchen for the warden and their family, as well as the prisoners.

One of the only educational opportunities at the Old Jail Museum are the guided tours.

Visitors also have the option of participating in a group tour. Group tours are available on specific weekday dates from May through October, as well as any weekends throughout the season except October. Its important to note that group tours require a minimum of 20 people.

Aside from regular guided tours, visitors can take a ghost tour. According to the Old Jail Museums website, the ghosts at the Old Jail Museum are friendly and often make themselves known to people who are not specifically looking for them. Since the Old Jail Museum is currently closed for the winter season, they have not released their ghost tour dates for the 2017 season. If youre interested in taking a ghost tour, make sure to check the Old Jail Museums official website on a regular basis.

After exploring the Old Jail Museum, make sure to shop on their online Gift Shop. The Old Jail Museums online Gift Shop sells a variety of souvenirs, such as books, DVDs, sweatshirts, t-shirts, sweatpants, and drinkware. All of the online Gift Shops orders are processed through Peggys Treasure Shop.

For more information about the souvenirs sold at the Old Jail Museums gift shop and Peggys Treasure Shop, visit the Old Jail Museums official gift shop website.

The Old Jail Museum is located on 128 W Broadway, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania 18229. If youre unfamiliar with the Jim Thorpe area, the Old Jail Museum is located in the historic downtown area of Jim Thorpe. Its important to note that the Old Jail Museum only has a small parking lot, so most people park at a parking meter or in the County Parking Lot, which is located on Route 209.

In order to specifically get to the Old Jail Museum, you can easily walk from a parking meter or the County Parking Lot. All you have to do is walk up Broadway. The Old Jail Museum is located five blocks away from the Court House that has a clock. The Old Jail Museum provides visitors with an online map. Also, the Old Jail Museum states on their website that visitors are free to give them a call in case they get lost.

Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania is a rustic town settled between east coast mountains and the Lehigh River making for gorgeous scenery and transporting you back in time. The downtown area is home to locally shops that have been restored to their grand Victorian architecture and style. There are many antique and specialty shops, eateries and cafes all within walking distance of The Old Jail House Museum. You can even take walking ghost tours of the town and visit some of the old coal mines while you are in town.

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128 West Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA, 18229, Phone: 570-325-5259

You are reading "15 Best Things to Do in Jim Thorpe in the Poconos, Pennsylvania " Back to Top

Fiji is home to many romantic honeymoon resorts where couples can relax on secluded sandy beaches, have outdoor massages and dinners under the stars. Choose from luxury private island resorts or beach getaways set on a larger island. All the resorts on our list have fabulous spas, amazing honeymoon suites and excellent restaurants. Private beach picnics are a favorite with honeymooners traveling to Fiji, allowing you to spend your days relaxing in the shade and in the sun with a gourmet food basket.

Flight time from the West Coast of the United States to Nadi International Airport or Suva Airport is about 11 hours. Fiji is 10 hours from Hong Kong, 6 hours from Honolulu and 4 hours from Sydney. From Nadi, take a local flight (or boat) to one of the islands to reach your honeymoon resort. Here is the list of top ten honeymoon ideas in Fiji in no particular order. Hours/availability may have changed.

1. Namale  Namale

Namale is an all inclusive resort with fantastic sandy beaches, an incredible spa and an array of outdoor adventures for couples. The property has attracted many sun-loving celebrities, including Donna Karan, Meg Ryan and Mike Myers. Couples enjoy an authentic Fijian experience at Namale, complete with friendly service and unspoilt nature. The 3-to-1 staff-to-guest ratio ensures that all your wishes are attended to on vacation. Namale has a beautiful spa offering treatments inspired by ancient healing traditions. The 10,000-square-foot spa has stunning oceanview whirlpools where couples can relax in the most unbelievable setting. Bure rates start at $1,170 per night.



2. Turtle Island  Turtle Island



Turtle Island has hosted its share of celebrity couples, including Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson. The resort is famous for its personal service and relaxed island lifestyle. The island has just 14 romantic, eco-friendly guest villas built in traditional Fijian style. Couples should ask about Vonu Point, a two-room thatched cottage which offers complete privacy and incredible ocean views. Turtle Island has 14 white sandy beaches where you can spend your days relaxing in the sun and swimming in the turquoise Fijian waters. Couples can reserve their own private beach for the day, complete with a picnic lunch. All-inclusive rates on Turtle Island start at $1,630 per night. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top



3. Fiji Honeymoon: The Wakaya Club & Spa  The Wakaya Club & Spa

The Wakaya Club & Spa is a private getaway which offers couples just ten Fijian suites, each a separate structure. The suites are steps from the ocean and measure 1,650 square feet in size, complete with a garden with two covered outdoor decks, bedroom, living room, cathedral ceilings, Tibetan rugs and Asian art. The private open air lava-rock shower makes it easy to stay cool during the day. Try the couple's retreat at Breeze Spa which has two beautiful treatment rooms, a serenity pool and an oceanview lanai. All-inclusive rates at The Wakaya Club start at US $1,900 per night, including all meals and airport transfers. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top





4. Fiji Honeymoon: Tokoriki Island Resort  Tokoriki



Tokoriki offers 34 luxury freestanding bures and villas, surrounded by tropical gardens and the ocean. The Sunset Pool Villas offer the best views along with private pools with plush lounge chairs. Each cottage has an indoor and outdoor shower, air-conditioning and a hammock. Tokoriki has a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm dive facility where couples can take beginner and advanced scuba diving classes, and dive at some of the most spectacular reefs in the world. Resort facilities include a freshwater and a saltwater pool, day spa & salon and a restaurant offering a daily changing dining menu. Complimentary activities include kayaking, standup paddle boarding, windsurfing, hobie cats, guided nature walks, tennis and many others. Tokoriki is located off the west coast of Nadi, a 15-minute helicopter or seaplane ride from Nadi. Nightly bure rates at Tokoriki start at USD $600. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas this Weekend with Friends" Back to Top or More places to see near me today, what to do, weekend trips



5. Fiji Honeymoon: Outrigger on the Lagoon





Outrigger on the Lagoon located on Viti Levu is set on 40 stunning acres and designed like a traditional Fijian village, featuring thatched bures decorated with hand-painted masi bark cloth. In addition to the bures, couples have a choice of stylish rooms and suites, many with ocean views. The resort's new Vahavu swimming pools cater only to adult guests and are perfect for honeymooners looking for a quiet ambiance. Choose from diverse dining options, get massages at the spa and enjoy luxury butler service during your stay. Bebe Spa features 8 treatment rooms with private balconies where you can relax with amazing ocean views. Rooms start at $200 USD. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas this Weekend" Back to Top or Restaurants near me, stuff to do near me



6. Fiji Honeymoon: Wadigi Island  Wadigi Island



Hidden away in the Mamanuca Islands, Wadigi Island combines luxurious accommodations, gourmet cuisine, a plethora of activities, and absolute exclusivity for the ultimate island escape. Offering unfettered ocean views, the exquisite beach villa houses three deluxe air-conditioned suites that boast a wealth of first-class amenities. Wide verandahs feature day beds on which to relax and soak up the breath-taking views. Fully stocked mini bars offer cool refreshments and freshly baked cookies, fruit platters and bottled water. A personal chef will conjure up culinary delights to sate every taste, accompanied by a selection of fine wines from the well-stocked cellar. Choose where to dine, from the cool pool deck to a torch-lit dinner on the beach. Wadigi Island offers an extensive range of activities, from water-based fun such as water-skiing, tubing and snorkeling to dolphin tours, helicopter rides and trekking. Relax next to the infinity swimming pool with a colorful cocktail or book an indulgent massage on the beach. All-inclusive rates start at US$ 2,049 per night. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top or More must do for couples, what to do near me, places to visit this weekend



7. Fiji Honeymoon: Likuliku  Likuliku

Guests at Likuliku Lagoon Resort are accommodated in stunning overwater suites which remind you of Bora Bora or the Maldives. The over-water bures were built using traditional architecture and natural elements unique to the region. Wake up to the sounds of the water and incredible Pacific Ocean views. Spend your days relaxing on the deck over the water, snorkel in the lagoon watching colorful tropical fish and take relaxing baths in a tub over the water. Over-water bure rates at Likuliku start at USD $1,525 per night. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top or More tourism, attractions for couples, food, things to see near me today , From LA



8. Fiji Honeymoon: Tadrai Island Resort  Tadrai Island Resort

Tadrai Island Resort is an all-inclusive five star resort surrounded by palm trees in Selena Cove on the decadent Mana Island. This resort offers five luxurious villas on the beachfront that are 100 square meters each, providing tranquil privacy. Each villa has a plunge pool that gives panoramic views of the ocean from the raised elevated deck along with outdoor tropical showers and much more. The resort has a host of activities such as surfing, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, mountain climbing, sea kayaking, diving, as well as the extravagant spa Wai Siliva Spa. For dining you may choose Na Vatu, also called The Rock. Here youll enjoy the freshest seafood prepared with Pacific Rim flavors. If you would rather stay secluded, then have a private Chef to your villa or arrange for a picnic. Whether you are looking to enjoy a private luxurious stay or for the right spot to have the most romantic beachside wedding, Tadrai Island Resort is the epitome of peaceful tropics.



9. Fiji Honeymoon: Vomo Island Resort  Vomo

Vomo is a private island getaway with villa accommodations, some right on the beach so that you can stay on the ocean's edge. Villas reflect European elegance and Fijian touches in their design. The spa on Vomo offers a menu of relaxing massages, facial treatments and body therapies. Try the Sunrise Massage for Two at the start of your getaway in Fiji. "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas for Locals & Tourists - Restaurants, Hotels" Back to Top or Beautiful places near me, what to do, restaurants for breakfast, travel guide, nearest beach



10. Fiji Honeymoon: Laucala Island  Laucala Island

Laucala Island is the only private island resort in Fiji with its own 18-hole championship golf course with incredible ocean views. It's the most expensive getaway on our list, with rates starting at US$ 3,800 for a one bedroom villa. If you want the ultimate couples' vacation in Fiji, book a villa on this exclusive island. Laucala Island offers a wide variety of water- and land-based sports, including rainforest walking tours, farm visits and horseback riding. The Water Sports Centre has a fleet of 14 boats, including the Riviera Open Flybridge for game fishing, Dragon sailboats and traditional Fijian outriggers.



11. Fiji Honeymoon: Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort



Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort is located on Vanua Levu, the second largest island in Fiji. The hotel offers seclusion, romantic atmosphere and a sense of adventure combined with luxury services such as spa treatments, ocean-front swimming pool and an open-air restaurant. Guests are accommodated in twenty-five eco-friendly thatched-roof bures with ocean or garden views, perfect for honeymooners. The bures come with a private deck and are furnished in natural style without telephones or TV sets. If you are looking for adventure, there is a PADI and TDI certified scuba diving school which offers beginner, advanced and specialty courses, including underwater photography. Guests can rent scuba diving and photography equipment at the resort. As soon as you arrive, reward yourself with a native Fijian Massage on your private deck, especially if this is your honeymoon. Afterwards, head to the bar which serves exotic drinks. The hotel offers a variety of complimentary activities, including rain forest hikes, waterfall excursions, arts & crafts, organic garden tours, sea kayaking, sailing, glass bottom boat tours and tennis. Children under 9 years old can attend the Bula Camp where daily activities include beach combing, planting, fish painting and Fijian arts and crafts. The restaurant serves contemporary Fijian, South Pacific and International cuisine. Relaxed atmosphere is created by live entertainment featuring local and American songs. If you prefer privacy, you can reserve a romantic candlelight dinner for two on the pier. Flight time from the West Coast of the United States to Nadi International Airport or Suva Airport is approximately 11 hours and 30 minutes. The hotel is 55 minutes by plane from Nadi and 40 minutes by plane from Suva. The hotel provides complimentary transportation from Savusavu Airport to the resort. The resort enjoys warm tropical climate year round. Summer is November through March with average land temperature from 80 - 90 degrees and average water temperature 80 - 83 degrees. Winter (April through October) is less hot and drier than summer, with average land temperature 75 - 80 degrees and water temperature 70 - 80. >Rates start from US $455 per night for a Gardenview bure and from US $795 for a Honeymoon Point Reef bure with a spa tub (415-788-5794). "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top or Romantic Getaways, Wedding Ideas close to me this weekend, honeymoon, anniversary Ideas, fun places near me



12. Snorkel and Dive at Shangri-La's Fijian Resort

Shangri-La's Fijian Resort, set on its own private island, offers an array of activities that can be enjoyed by the whole family. Choose from banana boat rides, bay fishing, parasailing, nature walks and tennis. You can also snorkel just off the beach or take a PADI course and learn how to scuba dive. The resort, located on the 109-acre Yanuca Island, has white sandy beaches, three freshwater pools, a 9-hole executive golf course, a gym and tennis courts. The property is located on the Western part of Viti Levu. The resort has 436 recently renovated guest rooms & suites with private balconies overlooking the lagoon or Pacific Ocean. There are four restaurants that serve BBQ dishes, Asian seafood and a buffet every evening. The elegant wedding chapel is surrounded by palm trees next to the water and the 7th golf green. The chapel can seat up to 40 guests who will be able to enjoy views of the reef and the Pacific Ocean through the glass wall behind the altar. Plan your wedding between May and October to avoid tropical cyclone months. Schedule the wedding to begin a few hours before sunset to get the best photos - colors are the most spectacular then. For additional privacy on your honeymoon, book one of the four secluded Beach Bures on the beach. VacationIdea.com Tip: look for a package to save on your Fijian honeymoon. The "Fijian Family Getaway" package starts at FJD 440 and includes: buffet breakfast, airport transfers, 30 minute massage, one hour bike hire, a game of golf on the putting course, and the 2nd room at 25% saving (+679 652 0155).



13. Fiji Honeymoon: Sonaisali



Sonaisali is a 105-acre private island, only a three-minute boat ride across the lagoon from Viti Levu. Swimming, tennis, horseback riding, sailing, fishing, jet skiing, and daily snorkeling trips are among the vacation activities available at this island resort. If you like scuba diving, daily dive trips are offered to the outer reef from the resort. There are 32 Beachfront Hotel Rooms, 3 Beachfront Family Bures, 42 Oceanview Bures and 46 Beachfront Spa Bures. Each room and bure have air-conditioning, ceiling fans, television, in-room safe, mini bar, and a king or twin queen bed. The three Beachfront Family Bures are ideal for a family trip. They have two bedrooms, a full bathroom, a large separate lounge area, and a large deck with views of the ocean. These family bures are conveniently located near the main complex and the Kids Club Bure. One of the highlights of any tropical getaway is the ability to dine right outside or actually on the beach. Most meals are enjoyed poolside at the Sunset Terrace Restaurant or in the resort's air-conditioned Plantation Restaurant. In addition, 24-hour room service is available to hotel guests. Take a 25-minute drive from Nadi International Airport. Guests reach the island via a 24-hour shuttle from Nadi. Rates at the Sonaisali Island Resort start at 581 Fijian dollars (679-670-6011).



14. Fiji Honeymoon: Sheraton Denarau Villas



Sheraton Denarau Villas is a stylish getaway which is a part of a larger resort complex, the Sheraton Resorts Denarau Island, which is Fiji's only five-star integrated resort complex. Enjoy the restaurants, activities and services of all the other adjacent Sheraton properties including: the Sheraton Fiji, Sheraton Royal Denarau, and Denarau Golf & Racquet Club. This getaway has an infinity swimming pool, a 18 hole golf course and a relaxing spa. Head down to the beach and swim in the lagoon, stroll through the landscaped gardens, or hit the courts for some tennis in the afternoon. There is a choice between hotel-style rooms or apartment-style villa suites. The 82 rooms offer all the of amenities you would expect from a luxury hotel. The 82 villa suites have a comfortable lounge, dining area, fully equipped kitchen, bathroom en suite, and laundry. The large villa suites are well suited for a family vacation. Families of any size can fit into either the one, two or three bedroom villas. With 16 restaurants to choose from at the adjacent properties you could almost eat every meal at a different restaurant. There is a complimentary "Bula Bus" resort shuttle which makes getting around easy. You'll be just three minutes to Port Denarau Marina where you can take a cruise to the famous Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands. The hotel is only 20 minutes from Fiji's Nadi International Airport. Rates start at around FJD 825 per night (+679-675-0777).



15. Fiji Honeymoon: The Westin Denarau Island Resort & Spa





A stylish resort located in the Denarau resort complex, the Westin Denarau Island Resort and Spa offers family couples a great selection of activities and beautiful accommodations. There is a great spa, 18 hole championship golf course, many restaurants, a gym, volleyball and many other facilities. Choose from rooms just steps from the water or garden accommodations surrounded by tropical plants. Ocean Front Rooms on the ground floor give you a quick access to the beach, along with water views from your bed. Ocean Front Suites are inspired by traditional Fijian design with earthy colors, contemporary furnishings, and authentic artwork. There are four restaurants, two bars and a lounge. International and local chefs create a mouthwatering selection of dishes served in the restaurants and bars. Rates at the resort start at FJD 375 per night (679 675 0000) You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top or Amazing things to do around me & More pictures of fun cheap vacation spots



16. Fiji Honeymoon: Royal Davui





Royal Davui is private and secluded, catering only to adults. Couples stay in gorgeous villas with private pools and luxurious whirlpool spa baths. Ask for a villa facing the sunset if you want to enjoy a romantic sunset dinner on your private deck. Banyan Restaurant is set under a Pacific Banyan tree which provides it with a natural shade and a romantic setting. The menu at the restaurant changes every day, showcasing the best tropical Fijian flavors.



17. Yasawa Island Resort  Yasawa Island Resort



Yasawa is all about privacy and seclusion. The resort has just 16 luxury bures, surrounded by 11 white-sand beaches. If you want to elope to the South Pacific, Yasawa Island is the perfect place for a sunset wedding on the beach. Ask about the bure named Lomalagi which means Heaven in Fijian. Lomalagi is situated at the end of a deserted white beach with a pool overlooking the ocean. The bure is $1,800 per night. You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas" Back to Top or More weekend getaways, what to do near me, must see attractions, stuff to do near me



18. Fiji Honeymoon: Vatulele  Vatulele



Vatulele is a private 12-square-mile getaway with resident PADI scuba diving instructors and 19 villas surrounded by the jungle for ultimate privacy. Ask for one of the deluxe beach villas with an infinity freshwater pool. Scuba diving at Vatulele is incredible - expert dive instructors take you to all of the famous dives in the area where you can admire unbelievable underwater formations and rare fish and coral. Villas start from US$ 1,800 per night.



15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas

Fiji Honeymoon Planning Tips

Pristine white sands, amazing snorkeling, massages and overwater bungalows attract vacationers from all over the world.The beaches are beautiful, the people are very friendly, and relaxation is a must. When choosing where to stay, you need to be sure you know what you are looking for. Many resorts offer guests a wide range of activities and dining options, while other resorts specialize in certain vacation activities like scuba diving. Don't forget to make sure that you know how to reach your hotel once you land at the airport. The trip to some of the resorts can mean two or more boat rides. A helicopter ride to your resort is often the way to go since a helicopter can get you where you need to go much faster than a boat.

How Much Will the Trip Cost?

Resorts range from USD $250 to well over $1,000 per night. One important cost to consider is the price of the transfer from the airport to the resort. Whether it's a boat, a seaplane, or helicopter it's going to cost you more than a regular hotel shuttle that you might find in other destinations. The nightly rates for many resorts are all inclusive so you can get a good sense of what your basic daily expenses will be.

Unlike many other resort vacation destinations, Fiji does not have a truly crowded season. There is, however, a rainy season. Instead of planning to avoid the crowds you might want to plan on avoiding the rain. The season for tropical rains is from December through February. These months are also when the temperatures are highest in Fiji.

How do We Get to Fiji?

Air New Zealand, Air Pacific, Qantas, and American Airlines all fly to Nadi International Airport. Flight times from select destinations are as follows: Los Angeles - 10 Hours, Honolulu - 6 Hours and 30 Minutes, London 21 Hours and 30 Minutes, and Sydney - 4 hours.

Total travel time may be longer depending on the layover times for connecting flights. Most vacationers connect in either Los Angeles or Honolulu. Rental cars are available although you probably won't need one. Travel arrangements can usually be made through your hotel. A vacation in Fiji is really about the beach and the ocean, not the roads.

Packing List

Don't forget a pair of sunglasses and a hat to shield you from the strong sun, especially if you plan on spending any amount of time on the water. If you have a digital camera, you should consider investing in an underwater housing for it so that you can take pictures underwater. Even if you are not into scuba diving, you will want to snorkel on Fiji. If you buy your own mask before you go, it will be cheaper and more comfortable than if you rent one at your resort. Remember to pack light. There are often weight restrictions on smaller planes.

Where Should I Go?

There are few places left on the planet where you can see bright stars at night and swim in a pristine ocean with abundant fish life. The Fijian islands are known for the warmth and generosity of their people, fabulous scuba diving and white sandy beaches. The Great Sea Reef, located on the north end of Vanua Levu is the fourth longest reef in the world.

Viti Levu

International flights land at Nadi International Airport on Viti Levu, so if you stay at one of these resorts, you don't have to take a connecting flight.

Sonaisali offers sailing, fishing, jet skiing and snorkeling. There is a PADI dive shop for scuba diving enthusiasts.

Sheraton Denarau Villas, located 20 minutes from Nadi Airport, has a spa and a golf course. Guests get access to services and facilities of the adjacent Sheraton resorts which provide additional activity choices.

Shangri-La's Fijian Resort is situated on Yanuca Island connected to Viti Levu by a causeway. There are three freshwater pools and a 9-hole executive golf course.

Vanua Levu

Vanua Levu is the second largest island and a one-hour flight from Nadi.

For those who crave privacy and seclusion, Namale Resort is the perfect destination. 16 luxury guest bures and villas on 325 tropical acres are surrounded by empty beaches and lush vegetation. Scuba diving is spectacular and Namale is a 5-Star Gold Palm PADI certified resort.

At the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, each day of the week is devoted to a particular activity. The resort operates a PADI certified scuba diving school and an interactive program for kids. There is also a spa for anyone in need of a massage after a day of scuba diving.

Other Fijian Islands

Fiji is home to incredible private island resorts where guests are surrounded by white sandy beaches and colorful sunsets.

Over Water Honeymoon Suites at Likuliku are a paradise for honeymooners. Enjoy incredible ocean views from your private deck, the living room and even the bathroom.

Tauveni is Fiji's third largest island, surrounded by beautiful coral reefs. It has lush tropical vegetation nourished by rich volcanic soil. Touveni Palmsoffers beachfront villas and first-class scuba diving.

Yasawa is surrounded by 11 white-sand beaches and great dive sites. The resort is popular with honeymooners and vacationers looking for privacy.

Laucala is one of the most spectacular resorts in the world. The property has its own farm and a golf course. Since there are just 25 guest villas, your every wish will be attended to.

You are reading "15 Beautiful Fiji Honeymoon Ideas " Back to Top

From stylish cottages and cabins to historic inns and romantic B&Bs, Oklahoma offers many beautiful places to stay. Whether you are looking for outdoor activities such as lake fishing, canoeing and hiking, or want to stay near city museums and restaurants, our list includes a range of options, including spa resorts, fun tipi accommodations, and romantic inns with fireplaces and unique decor. Popular Oklahoma destinations include Tulsa, Norman and Oklahoma City. Hours/availability may have changed.

1. River's Edge Cottages, Watson  River's Edge Cottages

Rivers Edge Cottages are located on 300 acres in southeastern Oklahoma. The twelve cottages are spacious and furnished with full kitchens and fireplaces. Try your hand at fishing, biking, canoeing, or hiking, or take it easy by relaxing in the hot tub or bird watching. All of these activities can be done at or near the cottages. Come nighttime, guests can light a fire in the fire pit and tell stories or roast marshmallows. Due to the secluded nature of the cottages, it is recommended that guests bring enough food to last them throughout their stay so that they can prepare their meals in the cabins. If you prefer, however, you can also find places to eat in Smithville, which is a short drive from the cottages. Cottages start at $150 per night. 491 River Edge Road, Watson, OK 74963, 580-244-7296



2. Two Hearts Inn, Edmond  Two Hearts Inn



True to its name, Two Hearts Inn in Edmond is a romantic place for couples to relax and unwind. The inn has six suites in total, three of which are luxurious Honeymoon Suites ideal for newlyweds who want their wedding night to be romantic and unforgettable. Each suite includes a sitting area, dining room, private deck, and amazing views of the scenery. When you feel like relaxing a little, you can lounge around inside the room and watch television on your large flat screen TV. The other suites have decorations and furnishings inspired by different destinations around the world; one of the most popular is Suite Tuscany. Every morning, enjoy delicious breakfast options, or stop by for lunch or dinner to try different soups, salads and entrees. Rooms start at $159 per night. Keep reading for more unique Oklahoma destinations. 2118 W Edmond Rd #100, Edmond, OK 73003, 405-715-2524 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways" Back to Top



3. Oklahoma Weekend Getaway: Montford Inn Bed and Breakfast, Norman  Montford Inn Bed and Breakfast



The Montford Inn Bed and Breakfast in Norman is a relaxing getaway with sixteen individually furnished guest rooms. Amenities include private bathrooms, cable TV, fireplaces, and Wi-Fi. The romantic cottages are a great idea for couples and include private screened-in porches, walk-in showers, and whirlpool baths. Guests can take a romantic walk through the lovely landscaped yard or in the patio garden area. A fresh breakfast is served in the dining room each morning, with items such as fruit, smoothies, pancakes, and bacon. For lunch and dinner, head to one of the cafes and restaurants in Norman. Rooms start at $140 per night. Places to Visit in Oklahoma, Things to Do in Norman 322 W Tonhawa St., Norman, OK 73069, 405-321-2200 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways this Weekend with Friends" Back to Top or More places to see near me today, what to do, weekend trips



4. Romantic Getaways in Oklahoma: Echo Canyon Spa Resort, Sulphur  Echo Canyon Spa Resort



Echo Canyon Spa Resort is a luxurious romantic getaway offering elegantly decorated suites and cottages that have their own unique themes. Each room has fine linens, a private bath, satellite TV, a DVD player, and some even have fireplaces, allowing you to really set the mood. The Aloha Spa, located at the resort, offers over one hundred relaxing treatments, from massages and body wraps to manicures and facials. There are several activities guests can enjoy, including hiking, biking, fishing, golfing, sailing, swimming, and other water sports. If you would prefer to simply take in the scenery or appreciate the wildlife, there are plenty of sightseeing opportunities in the beautiful parks. If you are looking for great Oklahoma resorts for food lovers, youll be pleased by the dining options as well. The Baron of Beef restaurant at the resort serves fantastic four-course culinary meals. The menu includes entrees such as Kobe beef tenderloin, grilled duck breast, jumbo shrimp scampi, and chicken picatta. The restaurant also caters to vegans and vegetarians, and has several options for their dietary preferences. Rooms start at $205 per night. 350 Lawton Ave, Sulphur, OK 73086, 580-421-5076 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways this Weekend" Back to Top or Restaurants near me, stuff to do near me



5. Oklahoma Getaways: Shiloh Morning Inn, Ardmore  Shiloh Morning Inn



Shiloh Morning Inn provides guests with a quaint holiday with all the niceties of a bed and breakfast. There are five luxurious suites available, each of which has a gas fireplace, a private balcony or patio, a TV with a DVD player, a stocked mini fridge, a jetted tub, and Wi-Fi access. The inn also has four tucked away cottages that have a living and dining area and a kitchen. Some of them also feature extras such as wet bars, separate tub and showers, and hot tubs. On site, guests can try out catch and release fishing, bird watching, or exploring the walking trails. A selection of books, DVDs, board games, and cards are also available. A three-course breakfast is served each morning in the Main House dining room. There are also two dining options available for those who want to eat in their rooms - choose from a light dinner or a dinner with two entrees. Rooms start at $159 per night. 2179 Ponderosa Rd, Ardmore, OK 73401, 888-554-7674 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways" Back to Top or More must do for couples, what to do near me, places to visit this weekend



6. Weekend Getaways in Oklahoma: Meadowlake Ranch Bed and Breakfast, Sand Springs  Meadowlake Ranch Bed and Breakfast

Meadowlake Ranch Bed and Breakfast is located along Route 66. Visitors can stay in one of four cabins. Each cabin has a kitchenette, a private bath, a living area with a TV, a fireplace, and a patio. While there, guests can take tomahawk throwing lessons or try out rifle and pistol shooting, trophy bass fishing, horseback riding, and archery. The Ranch also offers hayrides and straw calf roping. Visitors are welcome to take advantage of bird watching, walking trails, and the wildlife observation towers located around the property. The Ranch serves a hearty home cooked country style breakfast every morning, and picnic lunches are also available depending on the type of reservation you make. 3450 S 137th W Ave, Sand Springs, OK 74063, 918-494-6000 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways" Back to Top or More tourism, attractions for couples, food, things to see near me today , From LA



7. Oklahoma Vacations: Cedar Rock Inn Bed and Breakfast, Tulsa  Cedar Rock Inn Bed and Breakfast

Cedar Rock Inn Bed and Breakfast in Tulsa is located on 65 picturesque acres, giving visitors a beautiful place to wind down and relax. The Inn has five uniquely decorated suites, each featuring its own theme. All rooms are equipped with a flat screen TV and DVD player, a private bath, a ceiling fan, a telephone, and Wi-Fi access. Several rooms have the additional luxuries of whirlpool tubs or fireplaces. You can treat yourself with a trip to the spa, which offers services such as Swedish and hot stone massages. Adults can also make purchases from the well-stocked Wine Reserve, located on the property. A delicious breakfast is served each morning in the dining room of the main building. Picnic lunches can also be purchased; these include a blanket, the necessary tableware, and a choice between three meal options. Suites start at $149 per night. 4501 W 41st St, Tulsa, OK 74107, 918-447-4493



8. Weekend Getaways in Oklahoma: The Victorian Lady Bed and Breakfast, Jenks  The Victorian Lady Bed and Breakfast

The Victorian Lady Bed and Breakfast takes its guests back to the Victorian era while still providing them with modern luxuries. Three elegantly decorated suites feature their own theme and are furnished with beautiful, antique period furniture. Each room comes with central air conditioning and heating, a high definition LCD TV with DVD player, a ceiling fan, and a private bath. Guests can read, relax, or mingle with one another in the parlor room or sitting room or they can spend time admiring the beautiful perennial garden located on the property. A gourmet three-course breakfast is served every morning in the dining room, and guests can find plenty of places to enjoy lunch or dinner at in the nearby town, which also has shopping and other sources of entertainment. Rooms start at $99 per night. P.O. Box 784, Jenks, OK 74037, 918-814-8207 "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways for Locals & Tourists - Restaurants, Hotels" Back to Top or Beautiful places near me, what to do, restaurants for breakfast, travel guide, nearest beach



9. Romantic Getaways in Oklahoma:: Colcord Hotel, Oklahoma City  Colcord Hotel

Colcord Hotel, a member of Historic Hotels of America, in Oklahoma City offers a selection of elegantly furnished guest rooms and two excellent dining options with city views. Choose to stay in a deluxe king, deluxe double, or superior corner king room, each of which has their own appeals and includes upscale amenities. You can request a wake-up call and start your morning off with freshly brewed tea or coffee. The hotel provides bottled water along with local and international newspapers, as well as Wi-Fi access. Colcord Hotel is known for its fine dining; Flint is located inside the hotel and serves gourmet cuisine in a casual setting. The restaurant has a lounge where you can sample tasty dishes made with fresh local ingredients. Vast Restaurant is another elegant dining option with a varied and tempting menu. Rooms start at $159 per night. 15 N Robinson Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102, 405-601-4300



10. Romantic Getaways in Oklahoma: Southard House, Enid  Southard House Southard House in Enid is bed and breakfast with four tastefully decorated rooms that showcase soothing and romantic themes. All of the rooms have a dining table, luxury linens, private baths, and high definition TV with cable and Netflix. There are several large, open rooms for visitors to enjoy, whether they choose to read, socialize with the other guests, or just relax in one of the sitting areas. You can choose from a large collection of books and spend some time reading or play a few tunes on the piano located in one of the common rooms. A continental breakfast is offered every weekday and is served in the hospitality suite. On weekends, a gourmet breakfast is available in the dining room, or you can request it to be delivered to your room. Rooms start at $119 per night. 518 W Pine Ave, Enid, OK 73701, 580-231-3960



11. Lago Vista Bed and Breakfast, Broken Bow  Lago Vista Bed and Breakfast

Lago Vista Bed and Breakfast is an excellent choice for a peaceful mountainside getaway if you are looking for something other than a standard hotel or cabin. The four guestrooms all overlook the lake and feature a balcony, which offers a better view of the surroundings. The rooms have a king-sized bed fitted with soft sheets, a fireplace, satellite television, a private bath, a whirlpool tub, and a towel warmer. Guests can treat themselves to Swedish, hot stone, or couples massages during their stay, or relax in the swimming pool or hot tub outside on the deck. A theatre room shows movies nightly, and guests can participate in big games or sip beer and wine each evening. Enjoy a full breakfast every morning, and take advantage of the unlimited snacks and beverages available throughout the day. For lunch and dinner, guests can travel a short distance to the nearby town and enjoy a variety of restaurants and shopping. Rooms start at $400 for two nights. Broken Bow, OK 74728, 580-494-7378



12. Oklahoma Vacations: The Whispering Pines Inn, Norman  The Whispering Pines Inn



The Whispering Pines Inn is a charming bed and breakfast with a touch of the 1900s. The seven rooms have been carefully arranged and decorated, ensuring no two experiences are alike. The rooms are equipped with cable television with and a DVD player, a mini refrigerator, a microwave, and a coffee maker. Guests can meander through the property and admire the beautiful landscape or take a few minutes to try out the swing near the koi pond. The restaurant at the Inn has a full service bar with a variety of liquor, beer, and wines in stock. The restaurant also offers a brunch and dinner menu as well as a room service option. The gourmet options served for dinner range from shrimp cocktail to pork tenderloin. Nearby, horseback riding, an IMAX theater, two casinos, and a park offer a choice of entertainment options. Rooms start at $79 per night. 7820 E State Hwy 9, Norman, OK 73026, 405-447-0202



13. Weekend Getaways Near Me: Quartz Mountain Resort, Lone Wolf  Quartz Mountain Resort



Situated just next to a lake and the mountains, Quartz Mountain Resort is a unique destination with 118 rooms designed and decorated with a cabin-like feel. The rooms have either private balconies or patios, satellite TV, high speed Internet, and coffee makers. Guests who enjoy being in the water will appreciate the swimming pool, whirlpool, and seasonal water at this resort. Cave exploration, hiking, biking trails, go-carts, fishing, and paddleboats are also available for more adventurous types. A large, classic dining room houses the restaurant as well as two large fireplaces. The absolutely gorgeous views make for an unforgettable dining experience. The Sundance Cafe serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, and offers salads, pizza, burgers, filling entrees, and decadent desserts including turtle cheesecake, layered chocolate cake, and Haagen-Dazs ice cream. Rooms start at $109 per night. 22469 Lodge Road, Lone Wolf, OK 73655, Phone: 580-563-2424 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways" Back to Top or More weekend getaways, what to do near me, must see attractions, stuff to do near me



14. Weekend Trips from Tulsa: A to Z Guest Ranch, Smithville  A to Z Guest Ranch



A to Z Guest Ranch is located in the Kiamichi Mountains and offers a vacation experience that is perfect for those who love the outdoors. There are four cabins, all with a fully equipped kitchen, a sitting area, and a deck or patio with either a grill or hot tub. Guests can spend their time participating in exciting activities like horseback riding the trail rides or trying out ATV riding. If you prefer something a little more soothing, an on-staff massage therapist will attend to adults while the children play outside in the yard. Guests can spend a peaceful evening sitting on the porch and taking in the beautiful scenery, or they might choose to walk around the property and enjoy the serene ambience of the woods. The ranch Chef prepares fabulous meals that are available in the Wagon Wheel Room and can also be ordered to go. Guests can also bring their own food to prepare in their cabins to ensure that it is to their taste. Cabins start at $75 per night. 64599 Ashby Rd, Smithville, OK 74957, 580-244-3729



15. Oklahoma Destinations: Candlewyck Cove Resort, Grove  Candlewyck Cove Resort



Candlewyck Cove Resort is set right next to the water and features a private boat dock. The rooms vary, and you have options such as deluxe hotel-style rooms, king suites, and lake front cabins. Each luxury rental comes with a mini fridge, microwave, and other amenities. If you choose to rent a townhouse or home, you will have the use of a full kitchen which is ideal for families. Wi-Fi is also available for guest use. The resort has a park with a basketball court, areas for tetherball and volleyball, a play gym, and several great places for a picnic. You can also rent pontoon, Jet Ski, or ski boats with H20 Sports Rental. 59800 E 307 Ln, Grove, OK 74344, 918-786-3636



16. Weekend Trips from Oklahoma: Lindley House Garden Cottages, Duncan  Lindley House Garden Cottages



Lindley House Garden Cottages Bed and Breakfast allows guests to have a romantic excursion in a convenient location. There are three cottages and four rooms available, all individually decorated. Guest rooms have a private bath, cable TV, a DVD player, and access to Wi-Fi. The cottages offer the same amenities available in the rooms with the addition of jetted tubs, stocked refrigerators, stoves, and a gourmet breakfast delivered to the cottage. The house offers public spaces for guests to relax and mingle in, including a beautiful garden that is perfect for reading in or strolling through. Breakfast is served each morning in the main house. Guests can find plenty of places to eat and things to do in the downtown shopping area of Duncan, as well as a country club nearby. Rooms start at $79 per night. 1211 N 10th St, Duncan, OK 73533, 580-255-6700 You are reading "25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways" Back to Top or More romantic weekend getaways, more places of interest in, wedding venues near me, time zone, what to do



17. Weekend Trips from Tulsa: Pine Lodge Resort, Afton  Pine Lodge Resort Pine Lodge Resort is sheltered beneath the grandiose timbers near Grand Lake. In fact, many of the cabins are right along the shoreline. When visiting this peaceful location, you will lose yourself in the pure beauty of nature, where the scenery is sure to take your breath away. Each cabin comes with either a queen or king bed, rock fireplace, private hot tub, and a deck that overlooks the lake or woods. If you are celebrating a special occasion, you will love the grill and full kitchen included in every cabin, which allows you to prepare your own intimate dinner. Each cabin also has firewood, towels, and linens. Nearby attractions include multiple parks and nature centers, along with Grand Belle River Boat Cruises and Har-Ber Village Antique Museum. Rates start at $128 per night. 33635 Dock Road, Afton, OK 74331, 918-782-1400



18. Couples Getaway Oklahoma: Stone Creek Bed and Breakfast, Broken Arrow  Stone Creek Bed and Breakfast



Stone Creek Bed and Breakfast is set on over 80 acres of land and provides a wonderful escape for couples or groups of friends looking for a secluded getaway. The cabin has a full kitchen, a fireplace, cots and air mattresses, a whirlpool tub, satellite TV, and wireless Internet access. The cabin has a unique sleeping porch, which features a queen-sized bed that hangs from the arbor and has a beautiful view of the lake. Guests can relax in the warmth of the cabin, explore the many acres, or spend time at the lake. Full service meals are offered at the cabin, as well as picnic basket lunches and dessert every evening. There is also an outdoor movie package available for guests who want to watch a movie under the stars while enjoying popcorn, candy and refreshing beverages. Cabin rates start at $200 per night. 20510 E 77th St S, Broken Arrow, OK 74014, 918-520-8291



19. Romantic Getaways Near Me: The Manor Bed and Breakfast, Norman  The Manor Bed and Breakfast



The Manor Bed and Breakfast is perfect for couples looking for a quiet hideaway. The manor has only one suite and therefore, couples benefit from all the one-on-one services the Manor provides without having to share attention with others. The room features a private bath with a 2-person jetted tub under a skylight, a living room, a mini bar with a coffee maker, a balcony, a 32 inch flat screen TV, and a pull out couch. The manor offers free Wi-Fi, complimentary snacks, private access to the suite, and a cozy fire pit. The bed and breakfast is conveniently located within walking distance of several museums and parks. The manor can also deliver a delicious gourmet breakfast to guests in their suite, in the dining room, or out on the patio. Breakfast will be prepared to the guests taste, and they can choose from options such as thick-cut bacon and homemade donuts to crepes or pancakes. The suite starts at $150 per night. 917 W. Boyd St. Norman, OK 73069, 405-310-2254



25 Best Romantic Oklahoma Weekend Getaways

Oklahoma Destinations: Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City, the ideal destination for a weekend getaway, boasts 250 days of sunshine per year and a huge variety of attractions and activities for all ages. The Oklahoma History Center and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum will interest history buffs, while the American Banjo Museum and the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum are fun for everyone.

You can immerse yourself in the vibrant arts scene at the Civic Center Music Hall, a historic art deco building which is home to the Oklahoma Ballet, Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and the Oklahoma Philharmonic, or cross the road to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art which showcases everything from ancient Egyptian art to the work of French Impressionists. Exhibit C and IAO (Individual Artists of Oklahoma) feature local artists. The vibrant Paseo Arts District hosts the First Friday Art Walk each month, featuring almost 20 galleries.

In the Boathouse District you can rent canoes, kayaks, paddle boards and more and at Riversport Adventures and Riversport Rapids you can try a thrilling SkyZip across the river or go white-water rafting. You can hike through the Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge or at Lake Hefner, or stroll through Martin Park Nature Center and the Myriad Botanical Gardens, which have a special children's garden and a splash park.

More OK Destinations: Tulsa

Tulsa offers visitors a good mix of art and culture, outdoor activities and a few interesting museums to keep you busy on rainy days. Art enthusiasts are in for a treat in Tulsa, and you can feast your eyes on the excellent collections at the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Gilcrease Museum (which features a brilliant collection of western American art), 108 Contemporary, and the many galleries of the Brady Arts District. Music lovers can take a trip down memory lane at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and the Woody Guthrie Center, or watch the Tulsa Ballet in action at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

The Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium, the Tulsa Zoo (which features a Children's Zoo with petting area) and the Tulsa Aquarium are all great for families. If you enjoy getting outside and active you can head to the Tulsa River Parks where 26 miles of trails are waiting to be explored - you can hike or rent a bike from Tom's Rivertrail Bicycles. There is more hiking at the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area or you can visit Woodward Park to stroll through beautiful gardens which feature over 9000 roses.

Oklahoma Destinations: Natural Falls State Park, OK

Natural Falls State Park is located in the beautiful Ozark Highlands of north-east Oklahoma and offers weekenders a perfect escape from the city and the chance to get back to nature in pristine surroundings. Visitors can get close to the 77-foot waterfall which cascades through a rocky ledge to form a beautiful natural pool at the base of the valley. (Note: no swimming is allowed in the park).

You can visit the park on a day trip, but spending a few nights camping under the stars is the best way to fully appreciate the beautiful natural surroundings and lush forests. There are both RV sites with full hookups and tent sites available, where you can set up camp. Hiking and bird-watching are the two main activities in the park and there are four and a half miles of nature trails you can follow, which will give you the chance to enjoy the railed observation platform at the top of the falls, as well at the lower observation platform at the foot of the falls. You can picnic throughout the park and there are several picnic tables and grills.

In addition to biking, hiking and camping, you can try your hand at catch-and-release fly fishing on the river or play volleyball, horseshoes, basketball or disc golf, and there is a playground for younger children.

Romantic Getaways Near Me: Lake Murray State Park, OK

Lake Murray State Park is Oklahoma's largest and oldest state park, as well as one of the most family-friendly vacation destinations in the state, offering an endless variety of activities for all ages. The lake-side situation of the park means that you can choose from huge variety of water sports including paddle-boats, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, jet-skis and ski boats, as well as fishing - all equipment is available for rental on site or you can bring your own. There are also sandy swimming beaches and fishing or swimming pontoons which you can rent.

If you prefer to keep your feet dry you can enjoy biking, hiking and bird watching - there are several good trails to follow - or try some more extreme action at the ATV area specially dedicated to three and four-wheelers, off-road bikers and motorcycles. In addition there is a 72 par 18-hole golf course, a riding stable, tennis courts, baseball diamond, and badminton and volleyball nets. Younger children can enjoy miniature golf, hayrides, rollerblading and various ranger-led programs.

You can park your RV at one of over 300 sites with hookups which can be found in several different areas of the park or simply set up a tent in one of the campsites and indulge your adventurous side. If you prefer a little more comfort you can rent a cabin or stay at the park lodge.

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Robber's Cave State Park, OK

Escape the city and head for the hills of the picturesque San Bois Mountains in south-east Oklahoma where the Robber's Cave State Park is waiting to entertain the whole family with diverse outdoor activities. The hilly terrain of the park offers great hiking opportunities along miles of trails and if you have a good head for heights you can do some rock climbing and learn rappelling. There is an adjacent wildlife management area for wildlife viewing and a forested hunting area. Hiking up to Robber's Cave, notorious as a former hideout for outlaws Jesse James and Belle Star, is a very popular activity and there is good bird watching along the way and several places to picnic.

You can jump aboard the Belle Starr Express, a miniature trains that takes you on a 30 minute scenic circuit of the park or head straight for Lake Carlton to enjoy paddleboats, canoes, rafting and kayaking, (rentals available on site or bring your own) or simply swimming off the sandy beach or in the pool. Other activities available inside the park include horse riding (rentals available), great fishing and a 250-acre ATV riding area. There are several ranger-led nature activities and a playground and miniature golf for younger children.

You can bring your RV or tent and rent a serviced site, stay in the lodge or rent a fully-equipped cabin.

Oklahoma Destinations: Muskogee, OK

Muskogee is full of surprises for visitors, offering a good blend of historic, arty and outdoor activities to keep the whole family entertained.

You can learn about local history at the 3 Rivers Museum, which is dedicated to the history of the American West. Here you can go on one of several tours offered by the Muskogee Regional Heritage Center, including a Historic Homes and Building Tour and a Haunted History Trolley Tour. The Five Civilized Tribes Museum provides a solemn reminder of how thousands of African Americans were forcibly removed from their homes, while at the Muskogee War Memorial Park you can step aboard the U.S.S. Batfish, an authentic WWII submarine.

Other interesting historic attractions you can visit include the Fort Gibson National Cemetery, the Fort Gibson Stockade and the Castle of Muskogee, which regularly features fun festivals for all ages. Muskogee is surrounded by five lakes which offer great water sports, fishing and hiking for outdoor enthusiasts.

The beautifully restored Roxy Theater, the Muskogee Civic Center and the Muskogee Little Theatre feature live entertainment, and if you visit during May - June you can listen to the Symphony in the Park concerts at Honor Heights Park.

Families can visit the Georgia-Pacific Butterfly Park at Honor Heights Park or have hours of summer fun at the River Country Family Water Park.

Oklahoma Destinations: Turner Falls Park, OK

Turner Falls Park is tucked into the scenic hills of the Arbuckle Mountains in Davis Oklahoma, offering an easily accessible weekend getaway with plenty of outdoor activities for all ages. The most popular activity in the park is enjoying the crystal-clear waters of the natural pool at the foot of the 77-foot waterfall. In addition to swimming in this beautiful natural environment, the park also has several wadding areas and sandy beaches for younger children and some fun water slides.

When you need a change from swimming you can go hiking along several trails including a moderately challenging 3.5 mile loop that starts at the falls and takes you to explore three caves in the hills above the waterfall. The rivers are stocked with trout and you can enjoy some of the best fishing in Oklahoma. Other interesting attractions include the Rock Castle, also known as Colling's Castle, which dates back to the Great Depression and has many (now crumbling) rooms to explore and some excellent views over the park.

There are several picnic areas dotted around the park and you can bring your RV, pitch a tent in the camping site or rent a cabin. (Teepee style tents are available to hire on site.) You can buy basic provisions at the convenience store and enjoy a meal at the concessions.

Weekend Getaways Near Me: Tenkiller State Park, OK

The enviable lake-side situation of the Tenkiller State Park, which rambles along 130 miles of Lake Tenkiller shoreline, ensures that visitors have a host of wonderful water sports to enjoy, along with a variety of other shore-based activities. If you enjoy camping you can look forward to a great back-to-nature adventure at one of several camping areas with serviced RV sites and tent sites. If you prefer a little more comfort, there are cabins and cottages to rent.

Scuba enthusiasts consider Lake Tenkiller to be one of the best diving destinations in the state, and apart from excellent water clarity all the way down to 28ft, the lake hides a variety of amazing dive sites including several wreck dives. If you have never tried scuba diving, Tenkiller State Park is the place to learn and there is a certified dive school on site which offers lessons and equipment hire.

Other water sports you can enjoy in the park include canoeing, kayaking, boating, tubing and water skiing, as well as swimming and fishing. The park also has an outdoor swimming pool with a diving board, water slide and recliners.

If you prefer to keep your feet dry you can enjoy hiking or biking along two multi-purpose paved trails and a nature trail, neither of which is too challenging and will give you a chance to do some bird watching.

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Oklahoma Vacation Spots: Norman, OK

Situated just 20 miles south of Oklahoma City, Norman is a delightful getaway destination which offers an almost endless variety of cultural, fun and educational activities. Start by visiting the Norman Welcome Center in Main Street to pick up maps and get inside tips on current attractions from enthusiastic locals. If you enjoy historic architecture you can visit the Boyd House, the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority House and the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, to see three distinctly difference styles of historic buildings, and then move on to the Chautauque and Miller Historic Districts where over 150 historic homes dating back to the 1920's can be found.

Art lovers can tour the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art to see works by Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir, enjoy a show at the historic Sooner Theatre or watch the Norman Philharmonic, the Norman Symphony Orchestra or the Norman Ballet in action. Lake Thunderbird State Park is the place to head to for hiking, biking, camping and every kind of water sports you can think off along 86 miles of shoreline.

Families have many attractions to choose from including the Discovery Cove Nature Center, the fascinating National Weather Center and the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

Resorts in Oklahoma: Enid, OK

Enid is situated about 100 miles north of Oklahoma City and is a great place to escape to for an interesting and entertaining weekend. Enid has a colorful historic background which you can uncover by visiting the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center and the Leona Mitchell Southern Heights Heritage Center and Museum. The Waverley and Kenwood Historic Districts cover over 30 city blocks and a walking tour through the two districts will fascinate anyone interested in the architecture of the early 1900's.

For outdoor recreation you can hike, cycle, jog or skate the Enid Recreation Trails, visit the Enid Skate Park or play a round at one of the several golf courses in the area.

There are plenty of fun activities for children including the Hoover Park Splash Pads, the Champion Park Splash Pads, Splash Zone Water Park, miniature golf, carousel and train rides at Meadowlake Park and hours of fun at Leonardo's Children's Museum/Adventure Quest.

To soak up some authentic Enid culture you can visit the Enid Symphony Center, watch a play at the Gaslight Theatre or listen to a concert at the Briggs Auditorium. There is good shopping at several malls and foodies can enjoy a wine tasting at Indian Creek Village Winery.

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News

Microsoft Takes Its Cloud Infrastructure Buildout To Middle East, China

Microsoft this week described its plans to increase its number of cloud datacenter regions, expanding the global reach of its Azure and Office 365 services.

The company intends to eventually add 12 new Azure regions to its current total of 38, according to an announcement Wednesday. Microsoft claims to have "more than doubled" its Azure regions over the last three years.

On the Office 365 and Dynamics 365 side, Microsoft is planning to ensure data residency support for those services in countries. To meet those requirements, Microsoft expects to expand its datacenters to "17 geographies" around the globe, according to the announcement.

[Click on image for larger view.] Microsoft datacenters. New facilities indicated in gray. (Source: March 14 Microsoft announcement.)

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft announced the "general availability" of Azure and Office 365 services in France, which had been at the preview stage back in December. There are two datacenters, with one located in Paris and one located in the south. Existing Office 365 customers in France can now use the new infrastructures, which have support for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect on May 25. However, the availability of Dynamics 365 services in France is yet to come, with arrival expected in "early 2019."

Microsoft also offered a few other datacenter expansion plan details. It's planning to expand into the Swiss market by adding new datacenters in Geneva and Zurich, which are expected to deliver Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 services by 2019. Blockchain support for the financial services industries could be added. Microsoft is partnering with telecom company Swisscom to deliver services to businesses and consumers in Switzerland.

There are also Microsoft datacenter expansion plans for Germany, although the city locations and timing weren't described.

Lastly, Microsoft plans to expand into the United Arab Emirates, adding datacenters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with "availability expected in 2019." Microsoft is partnering with Etisalat Digital to provide private Internet connectivity using Microsoft ExpressRoute technology, along with managed services support.

In another announcement, Microsoft reaffirmed its partnership with 21Vianet, a Chinese company that provides Azure and Office 365 services in China. The two companies are expanding Azure capacity in China, with an expectation to triple it "in the first half of 2018."How social media enables political groups to form and engage in risky collective movements is a complex problem that requires multilayered approaches.

Now, researchers at the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech are trying to understand how information spreads through social media, as well as the underlying thought processes of the individuals and groups involved. The research could help policymakers better predict social movements and uprisings.

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were distinctive components of sucxh uprisings as the Arab Spring, in which a wave of demonstrations, riots, and violence swept North Africa and the Middle East, and the Gezi Park demonstrations in Istanbul, which involved millions of people connected by social media.

Our objective is to understand the ways in which these social networks, as opposed to traditional media, can facilitate actionable common knowledge through local interactions, Gizem Korkmaz, research assistant professor at the institute's Social Decision Analytics Laboratory (SDAL), noted.

Spearheaded by Korkmaz, the $2 million Common Knowledge and Social Networks project will use laboratory, online, and neuroimaging experiments to test predictive models of knowledge and behavior. The research relies on game-theoretic models to uncover how individuals communicating through social media coordinate and decide to join a risky collective action.

The project involves investigators from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI) and the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering. Project advisors include economist Fernando Vega-Redondo of Bocconi University, Monica Capra of Claremont Graduate University, and psychologist Steven Pinker of Harvard University.Bates demonstrates the caliber of a Virginia Tech alumnus, with both a 1979 bachelors degree in civil engineering and a 1981 master of science degree in structural engineering from the Charles Edward Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

But his good example doesnt end there: Bates reconnected with the university all the way from California by giving back philanthropically and of his time.

Bates said that because he's so far away, he wasnt always so connected to the university. It was through the encouragement of a fellow Hokie, Tim Groover, that he reestablished ties with the university and was invited to join the civil engineering departments advisory board.

That really helped me reconnect with the university, and so I would go back at least twice a year, sometimes three times a year, for those meetings and would be on campus, Bates said.

Coming back to campus is an opportunity for Bates to reflect on his time at Virginia Tech. Bates fondly remembers his time in civil engineering honor society Chi Epsilon, his frequent visits to War Memorial Gym, and Siegfried Holzer, a professor who served on his masters committee.

Holzer taught Bates in the first matrix methods class he took, which was when Bates said the lightbulb clicked on, as far as computerized structural engineering.

That was the class that made it interesting to me, Bates said. So Ive always thought of him as my mentor all the way through.

Bates says his masters degree played an integral role in his transition from structural engineering to software development, which is where his career took off.

Originally I imagined myself as a structural engineer, designing buildings with the hard hats, with the blueprints, all that kind of stuff, Bates said.

But a job working for a large company doing day-to-day structural engineering pushed him into a different direction. He applied for a job at the same companys analysis group working on software.

Bates said it was his masters degree from Virginia Tech that helped him land the job. His appreciation for the opportunities afforded to him thanks in part to his education ultimately compels Bates to give back to the university.

When you look back and reflect, you realize just how important the education is, Bates said. I give back just to repay some of the debt I feel to Tech for preparing me for the career that Ive had.

Written by Erica CorderThe Virginia Tech Board of Visitors will hold its quarterly board meeting March 26 at 1:15 p.m. in the Board Room of Torgersen Hall (Room 2100) on the Blacksburg campus.

On March 25, a selection committee will meet in closed session from 7:45 to 10 a.m. to interview candidates for the boards two student representative positions. Later that afternoon, an information session for all board members will be held in open session from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Solitude Room at the Inn at Virginia Tech.

The following Board of Visitors committees will meet at the Inn at Virginia Tech during the two-day meeting:

On March 26, the Academic, Research, and Student Affairs Committee will meet with the Finance and Resource Management Committee in closed session at 8:30 a.m. in the Solitude Room. The Academic, Research, and Student Affairs Committee will then meet in open session meeting at 9 a.m., also in the Solitude Room.

On March 26, the Buildings and Grounds Committee will depart from the Inn at Virginia Tech at 7:45 a.m. to tour Holden Hall and the Steam Plant. At 10 a.m., the committee will meet in closed session in the Duck Pond Room, and will then meet in open session at 10:30 a.m., also in Duck Pond Room. At 11:30 a.m., the Finance and Resource Management Committee will join Buildings and Grounds in open session, also in the Duck Pond Room.

The Compliance, Audit, and Risk Committee will meet in closed session on March 25 from 10 to 10:30 a.m. in the Duck Pond Room and will meet in open session from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. in the Solitude Room.

The Finance and Resource Management Committee will meet March 25 in open session from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. in the Solitude Room.

The Governance and Administration Committee will not convene during the two-day meeting.

During the two-day meeting, board members will consider resolutions on 2018-19 compensation for graduate assistants, 2018-19 tuition and fees, the renovation of Commonwealth Ballroom in Squires Student Center, and several resolutions necessary for the integration of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine into Virginia Tech

Public comment will not be received at the meeting. More information may be found at the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors website.4 firms tapped by GSA to launch modernization centers of excellence

Four companies have been picked by the General Services Administration to establish five centers of excellence to establish best practices for IT modernization efforts.

The terms and value of the contracts were not disclosed but the companies will provide consulting and IT engineering services to help agencies improve systems that interact with citizens.

The five contracts went to:

SIE Consulting Group for cloud adoption

McKinsey & Co. for IT infrastructure optimization

ICF International for customer experience and service delivery analytics

Kaiser Associates for contract center

ICF won two of the five contracts.

The work will begin at the Agriculture Department, which GSA described as a lighthouse agency because it will serve as the early proving ground for modernization initiatives.

The awards announced today mark a major milestone in implementing the administrations far-reaching federal IT modernization effort, said GSAs acting director of Technology Transformation Services (TTS) and deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service Joanne Collins Smee.

The goal of the centers is to build an IT infrastructure that will make it easier for American people to interact with their government, she said.

In conjunction with the announcement, GSA named Bob DeLuca to manage day to day operations of the effort.

Each center of excellence will cover a different area such cloud adoption, IT Infrastructure, and customer experience. Each center and its contractor will work on establishing best practices for other agencies to follow.

The centers of excellence initiative has backing from the White House and came out of the Office of American Innovation headed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. The White House hosted an industry day for the program in December.Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreNo. 4 Aberdeen Christian outlasts Roncalli in five-set win

There were admittedly some signs of fatigue for No. 4 Aberdeen Christian in the first set against crosstown rival Aberdeen Roncalli.SANTA FE  Joy Farkas was in the middle of writing #ENOUGH in chalk on the concrete at Santa Fe Highs plaza Wednesday morning when she took a moment to talk about her views on guns and school safety.

She was one of about 250 students at the school who left class, with permission, to protest against gun violence and to remember the 17 people who were killed by a gunman at a Florida high school last month. The protest was nationwide, with similar demonstration at schools across the country. Several other events were held at Santa Fe schools.

Farkas said #ENOUGH, a social media hashtag used for Wednesdays national movement, represents her frustration that some adults, whether they be politicians or otherwise, seem to care more about guns than student safety.

We are sick and tired of being unsafe and dying in our schools while they protect something that to them is more valuable than human life, Farkas, a junior, told the Journal.

They have done nothing so far. They are in the process of doing stuff, but these call have come up before, and they didnt do anything then. So its our turn to change the world by making sure this does not die out. We are sick and tired of them doing nothing for us, so were going to do it for us.

Students were allowed to walk out of class at 10 a.m. and go to the school plaza for 17 minutes  one minute for each victim at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Fla. last month  if they wanted to participate. The arrangement was a compromise, after some students had planned to walk off campus in protest.

Several students began passing around chalk and covered the plaza pavement with sayings like No more gun violence.

Senior Sophie Colson got on a microphone and told everyone to sit down and observe a moment of silence for the Parkland victims. Balloons were released, but some were popped or got stuck in a nearby tree. The crowd applauded when Colson freed the stuck balloons.

We decided a good compromise was to walk out on our plaza because the message is strongest here where our school is, Colson said. We are trying to do everything we can to be listened to and respected.Defense Department employees spent more than $138,000 at President Donald Trumps branded properties during the first six months he was in office, a nonprofit group that advocates for government transparency says.

The employees stayed in Trump properties stretching from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C., from last January to June, according to travel document and receipts obtained by the group, Property of the People.

Military personnel spent over $58,000 while staying at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Fla., and more than $9,500 at Trumps property in Bedminster, N.J., in May, the group says.

Additionally, employees charged $35,652.44 at Trumps Las Vegas Hotel and over $17,100 at the presidents Ocean Club in Panama.

The payments were made using their government-issued credit cards, the group added.

Property of the People got the records after suing the Defense Department through the Freedom of Information Act.

The group says the employees may have violated the domestic emoluments clause of the Constitution.



2018 New York Daily News

Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): TRUMP-PROPERTIES

_____WASHINGTON  Gina Haspel, President Donald Trumps pick to lead the CIA, is running into confirmation problems in the Senate, and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.,  a member of the Senate intelligence committee  is among her detractors.

Haspel, currently the CIAs deputy director, is under fire for her role in the CIAs operation of secret black sites, including one in Thailand at which she oversaw the waterboarding of prisoners suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Heinrich said Haspels role in the waterboarding  condemned as torture by some members of Congress and human rights experts  is deeply troubling. Republican Sens. John McCain and Rand Paul have also signaled their displeasure with Haspels nomination.

Her record makes her unsuitable for a leadership role at the agency, let alone to serve as the director, Heinrich said. We should not be asked to confirm a nominee whose background cannot be publicly discussed and who cannot then be held accountable for her actions. The American public deserves to know who its leaders are.

Trump condoned waterboarding and other forms of torture on the 2016 campaign trail. Haspel would be the first woman to lead the CIA if confirmed.

Heinrich and Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who also sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, have asked the CIA to declassify information related to Haspels background on torture and human rights.

RUSSIAN MEDDLING: Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., said Wednesday that it is clear that Russians meddled with American democracy, but he wasnt prepared to back a conclusion this week by the House intelligence committee that there is no evidence of collusion between Trumps presidential campaign and Russian operatives.

On Monday, the Republican-led committee said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not aiming to get Donald Trump elected and that there doesnt appear to have been any collusion, and that the House investigation is over. The House intelligence committee worked within their jurisdiction to seek out any wrongdoings, Pearce said, noting that he would reserve judgment on the question of collusion until the committees full 150-page report is released. It has been made clear over time that Russian nationals have attempted to disrupt our democracy. This report, however, focuses on the question of collusion. I look forward to reading through the details once its released.

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., viewed the GOPs announcement with skepticism about what she called a partisan decision to end the probe.

Unfortunately, it is not surprising that House Republican conclusions regarding Russian interference in our elections contradicted the findings of every single U.S. intelligence agency, she said. Russia attacked us by trying to infiltrate our election systems, stealing information from party committees, and systematically disseminating false propaganda in order to support their preferred candidate.

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said House Republicans closed their inquiry prematurely in a politically motivated attempt to suppress the truth. He also rejected the notion that Russian interference was not intended to help Trumps campaign.

This contradicts the firm conclusions of the entire U.S. intelligence community.

Michael Coleman: mcoleman@abqjournal.comCopyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

After investigations into serious allegations of misconduct by a substitute teacher, the principal and assistant principal at Jimmy Carter Middle School no longer work at the school and have been reassigned to new roles.

Last month, Jimmy Carter then-principal Amy Mahr and then-assistant principal Frances Chavez were put on paid leave during the investigation.

Now, Jimmy Carter is on the hunt for a new principal and already has replaced Chavez.

But Albuquerque Public Schools is keeping mum about why the staff members were reassigned and the moves relation to last months investigation.

The district does not typically comment on personnel matters, and we are limited in what we can say about this, APS spokeswoman Johanna King said.

King did confirm Mahr is now serving as a district director of AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college readiness program. And Chavez is now the assistant principal at Sandia High School.

Margaret Lucero, who previously was an assistant principal at Rio Grande High School, is serving as the acting principal at Jimmy Carter until a permanent replacement can be found. Marco Martinez  the former Sandia High assistant principal  switched jobs with Chavez and is the new assistant principal at Jimmy Carter.

A notice to the Jimmy Carter community was posted March 7, announcing the search for a new principal.

We would like you to be a part of the search for a permanent principal who can lead Jimmy Carter Middle School into the future, wrote Gabriel Antonio Gonzales, associate superintendent of leadership and learning for Zone 2.

The first step in identifying a new principal is collecting community and staff input into the characteristics they would like to see in their new leader. A survey has been posted on the JCMS website for parents to complete.

Last month, the Jimmy Carter community received another message from APS.

We are calling to let you know police are investigating serious allegations of misconduct by one of our substitute teachers. The substitute is on leave pending the outcome of this investigation, the message read. District officials have also placed Principal Mahr and Vice Principal on paid administrative leave until the investigation is complete.

At the time, APS said the allegations were not violent in nature and did not involve sexual assault.

The substitute teacher, Claude Carroll, was placed on unpaid leave in February. King said he resigned effective March 2.President Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up facts in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether or not that was the case.

Trudeau came to see me. Hes a good guy, Justin. He said, No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,  Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio obtained by The Washington Post. Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  Donald we have no trade deficit. Hes very proud because everybody else, you know, were getting killed. 

So hes proud. I said, Wrong Justin, you do. I didnt even know.  I had no idea. I just said, Youre wrong. You know why? Because were so stupid. . . . And I thought they were smart. I said, Youre wrong Justin. He said, Nope we have no trade deficit. I said, Well in that case I feel differently, I said, but I dont believe it. I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said check because I cant believe it.

Well, sir, youre actually right. We have no deficit but that doesnt include energy and timber . . . And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year. Its incredible.

The United States trade representative office says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada.

Trump launched a blistering attack against major U.S. allies and global economies, accusing the European Union, China, Japan and South Korea of ripping off the United States for decades and pillaging the American workforce. He also described the North American Free Trade Agreement as a disaster and heaped blame on the World Trade Organization for allowing other countries to box the United States in on trade.

He also seemed to threaten to pull U.S. troops stationed in South Korea if he didnt get what he wanted on trade with Seoul, an ally. He said the country had gotten rich but United States politicians never negotiated better deals. We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them, Trump said. We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Lets see what happens.

Our allies care about themselves, he said. They dont care about us.

Trumps rare comments that laid bare his approach to arguing trade facts with foreign leaders show how he might try to engage with numerous other heads of state in the coming weeks. Trump has said he will impose tariffs on steel and trade imports as soon as next week, a steep increase in duties that could impact some of the U.S. governments biggest trading partners.

Trump said countries can request exemption from these tariffs but only after direct negotiations with him. And the audio from the fundraiser shows how difficult these discussions might prove.

In his 30-minute speech to donors in Missouri, Trump heaped praise on himself while ticking through a list of U.S. allies that he said were actually taking advantage of the United States.

The president did not mention his abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet, or the personnel turmoil that is swirling in Washington, or special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian interference, or reports of his affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels  and his lawyer paying her off.

While his White House picked up the pieces after a Republican lost a special election in a western Pennsylvania congressional district that Trump won by 20 percent in 2016, and pollsters said the results showed how Trump was dragging down the Republican party, Trump took none of the blame. He said that the candidate, Rick Saccone, would have lost even bigger without him. And he said the Democrat, Conor Lamb, won the seat because he was like Trump but that he would vote with Pelosi.

Trump was in Missouri to fundraise for Josh Hawley, who is taking on incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. He called McCaskill bad for Missouri, and bad for the country. But he barely spoke about Hawley. Instead, he talked about Trump  even bragging about his 2016 election win.

Trump described his decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un through the prism of making history and besting his predecessors while lamenting his media coverage, questioning the United States allies and labeling his presidency as virgin territory.

They couldnt have met with Kim, he said, after mocking former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Nobody would have done what I did.

Its called appeasement, please dont do anything, he said of other presidents.

They say, maybe hes not the one to negotiate, he said, mocking a voice of a news anchor. Hes got very little knowledge of the Korean Peninsula. Maybe hes not the one . . . Maybe we should send in the people that have been playing games and didnt know what the hell theyve been doing for 25 years.

The through-lines of his meandering speech were simple: Trump was tougher than all the rest, and the United States was not going to be laughed at or taken advantage of.

He accused Japan of using gimmicks to deny U.S. auto companies access to their consumers, said South Korea was taking advantage of outdated trade rules even though its economy was strong, and said China had single-handedly rebuilt itself on the back of its trade surplus with the United States.

Its the bowling ball test. They take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and drop it on the hood of the car, Trump said of Japan. If the hood dents, the car doesnt qualify. Its horrible, he said. It was unclear what he was talking about.

He said he didnt even want Japan to pay the tariffs but to build more automobiles in the United States, which he said Japan would do if tariffs were imposed. There is no evidence of such a possibility as of now.

His comments were among his most protectionist to date and didnt identify a single benefit the United States receives from its trading relationships.

The so-called free-trade globalists, he said, are against his trade moves because theyre worldly people, they have stuff on the other side. Gary Cohn, the presidents top economic adviser, recently quit over the tariffs and was derisively labeled by his critics as a globalist.

Trump mocked other politicians for wanting to keep the NAFTA, calling Mexico spoiled and saying that Canada had outsmarted the United States. The best deal is to terminate it and make a new deal, he said.

Above all, he cast his presidency in historic proportions, saying he was attracting so much media criticism because he was doing so well. He seemed fixated on his media coverage, with much of his story-time about North Korea focused on how the media covered it, even talking about a specific CNN segment with Erin Burnett.

He said the news media was criticizing him for conceding a meeting with Kim.

They were afraid of being blown up. Then all of a sudden, they say, lets not meet, he said of reporters.

While Trump said some decry his rhetoric and think his bellicose and mercurial tendencies could bring the United States into a war, Trump explained why he taunted the North Korean president as Little Rocket Man. He said the South Koreans told him Kim Jong-Un was agreeing to meet because of the tough United States sanctions and that they promised to not do any nuclear tests or missile launches until a meeting occurred. That comment could not be verified.

Hes going to get us in a war, he said, again mocking a news anchor. You know whats going to get us in a war? Weakness.

He said Republicans needed to run on their tax bill this year, but he was determined to not call it tax reform, as many other Republicans have done. He said Democrats would not appoint judges that Republicans like while reversing tax cuts and taking away guns, an unproven claim.

He implicitly rebuked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for not changing the rules of the Senate where only 51 votes were needed on all legislation, saying more Republicans were needed because the current leadership would not act and no one could explain why the current status quo made sense.

Trump criticized judges in the Ninth Circuit, saying that his presidency would reshape the judiciary and change courts such as that one. He said he planned to pick 145 judges and gave a thanks to Obama for leaving so many vacancies.

At the end of the day, the event, like it usually is with Trump, was about marketing. He said Republicans needed to run on tax cuts because they were very popular.

Do me a favor, dont call it tax reform, it hasnt worked in 45 years, Trump said he told others. You say, youre reforming taxes, that means taxes could go up.

I actually said, lets call it the Tax Cut Cut Cut plan, Trump said. I actually did.

He added: They thought it sounded a little hokey and called it something else. I liked the first one better.WASHINGTON  The Iran nuclear deal was in near terminal condition and on life support even before President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Tillersons dismissal this week may hasten its demise.

As CIA chief and Iran hawk Mike Pompeo prepares to run the State Department, the Trump administration is weighing a speedier withdrawal from the agreement than even the president has threatened, according to two U.S. officials and two outside advisers briefed on the matter. They were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

While such a scenario is unlikely, the fact it is being floated as an option may give U.S. officials more leverage in negotiations with European signatories to salvage the accord by toughening it. Two such negotiating sessions have already been held and a third is set for Thursday in Berlin.

Trump, who calls the Obama administrations signature foreign policy achievement the worst deal ever negotiated, has vowed to walk away from the 2015 agreement in mid-May unless Britain, Germany and France join the U.S. in addressing what the president says are its fatal flaws. These include no penalties for Irans missile work and support for militant groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

The deal that was negotiated by the Obama administration and six other countries limits Irans enrichment and stockpiling of material that could be applied to a nuclear weapons program. In exchange, Tehran was granted widespread relief from international trade, oil and banking sanctions. Trumps next deadline to extend some of those concessions is May 12, and he has vowed not to do so again unless the Europeans meet his demands.

Any U.S. withdrawal would likely crater the agreement. If the U.S. begins threatening fines and other punishments for sanctions violations, countries around the world are likely to curtail commerce with Iran. That could prompt the Iranians to walk away as well, and perhaps even restart nuclear activities banned under the accord.

An indication of the Trump administrations thinking could come Friday, when the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the European Union and Iran meet for a periodic review at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna.

State Department policy planning chief Brian Hook, who is running the negotiations with Europe, will lead the U.S. delegation to the larger meeting in Austrias capital. Hook, who Tillerson leaned on heavily for policy advice and direction, could meet separately in Vienna with the Iranian delegation head, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi. For his part, Aragchi sees the writing on the wall. He told a parliamentary committee in Tehran on Wednesday that Tillersons ouster was proof that Trump would pull out and promised that Iran would withdraw if the U.S. does.

In the U.S., Iran deal supporters braced for what they see as the inevitable. Pompeo is certain to advise the president to withdraw the United States from our obligations under the nuclear agreement, said Diplomacy Works, a group of mainly former Obama administration officials that lobbies for staying in the deal.

Hook had been tasked by Tillerson with getting the Europeans to agree to as many of Trumps demands as possible, with an eye toward selling the president on extending the sanctions waivers. Doing so would buy U.S. negotiators time to deal with elements of the agreement Trump has disparaged  such as its expiration dates on key nuclear constraints  and missile and terrorism concerns.

With Tillerson gone, the emphasis will likely change.

The ex-oilman had waged an often lonely battle within Trumps Cabinet to save the deal. He succeeded for 13 months. But each time Trump faced another sanctions deadline, Tillerson met increased resistance to keeping the agreement alive.

In firing Tillerson on Tuesday, Trump in particular noted his disagreement over the Iran accord. Trump wont have that problem with Pompeo, who has lambasted the deal on a level similar to Trump, making clear the two men are of the same opinion.

Trump said that he and Pompeo have a very similar thought process on the deal.

As a congressman, Pompeo vociferously denounced the accord when it was struck.

The (deal) can perhaps delay Irans nuclear weapons program for a few years, he wrote at the time. Conversely, it has virtually guaranteed that Iran will have the freedom to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons at the end of the commitment.

His stance and position with Trump could give Pompeo leverage with the Europeans that Tillerson never enjoyed.

U.S. officials said American positions have hardened over the past several weeks, notably on Iranian ballistic missile testing and the deals provisions that allow Iran to gradually resume advanced atomic work. Because Iran and the Europeans refuse to renegotiate the nuclear deal, U.S. officials are seeking to create a supplemental agreement with Europe to address these matters.

At Thursdays meeting in Berlin, U.S. and the European officials are hoping to compare draft written proposals and combine points of agreement into a new document that could form the basis of a side deal.

U.S. and European diplomats say theyre closer on long-range ballistic missile launches, inspections and new sanctions on Iranian-backed militant groups. Gaps are larger on medium-range missiles that could hit Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states and on the deals particulars for when advanced atomic work can restart.

The U.S. focus turned to medium-range missiles after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump in Washington earlier this month. Iran maintains that it must have medium-range missiles to defend itself, an argument the Europeans have been sympathetic to.

The differences are even more stark on the sunset provisions, which are codified in the nuclear deal and which the Europeans and Iran regard as inviolable, according to the diplomats. One senior negotiator involved in the talks said last week that Europe is prepared to be creative in addressing the provisions but would not budge from opposing any measure that would punish Iran for activity that is otherwise permitted under the 2015 agreement.WASHINGTON  How did George Nader  Lebanese-American businessman, globe-trotting fixer, convicted child molester  get caught up in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation?

The answer, it seems, can be found in the shadows, where Nader has long operated.

His long history included intrepid back-channel mediation between Israel and Arab countries  and a 15-year-old pedophilia conviction in Europe that has not been previously reported. But Mueller, in his investigation of President Donald Trump, his campaign and possible wrongdoing connected to Russia, is focused on Naders role in two high-level get-togethers after the presidential election, according to three people familiar with the case.

Nader was caught in Muellers web a few days before the anniversary of Trumps inauguration. He was transiting through Dulles International Airport outside Washington, on his way to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort, when his plans changed  abruptly and involuntarily.

Muellers investigators stopped him, people familiar with the case said. His electronics were seized and he was then allowed to go see his lawyer. Nader later agreed to cooperate with Muellers investigation, said the people with knowledge of the case as it pertains to Nader. They werent authorized to speak publicly on the case and demanded anonymity.

Nader is little known to the public, a man who has led a shadowy existence as a go-between across numerous Middle East capitals and who gave testimony to Muellers Washington grand jury earlier this month.

Nader joined a meeting at New Yorks Trump Tower in December 2016 that brought together presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, chief strategist Steve Bannon  fired by Trump last August  and Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates.

A second meeting occurred a month later in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Seychelles and involved Nader, bin Zayed, former Blackwater boss Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to President Vladimir Putin.

Naders record of sexual abuse in Prague appears unrelated to his role in Muellers probe in the United States; it is unclear whether Muellers investigators knew about it. One of Naders lawyers, Sandeep Savla, suggested that information about his record was being leaked to stop him from cooperating.

This is nothing more than an orchestrated, disgusting scheme by those who are trying to intimidate Mr. Nader into silence. It wont work, he said. Mr. Nader will continue to answer truthfully questions put to him by the special counsel.

Kathy Ruemmler, who previously served as White House counsel to President Barack Obama, is among the lawyers representing Nader. She declined to answer questions about her client.

A George Nader was convicted by Pragues Municipal Court of 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in May 2003, court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said the crimes occurred between 1999 and 2002. She said Nader served time in a Prague prison, though it isnt clear how much. He was then ordered expelled.

Puci said Nader was convicted of moral corruption of minors, sexual abuse and impairing morals, after abusing underage boys.

In one case, Nader requested oral sex from a 14-year-old boy in a room at the Hilton Hotel in Prague, Puci said. After the boy refused, Nader masturbated in front of him and paid him 2,000 koruna  worth about $100 today, she said.

The verdict cites other examples of Nader providing money, jewelry, cellphones, clothes and accommodation for sexual services. The AP was able to see a copy of the verdict, which gives Naders birthdate as May 15, 1959. Nader was separately accused in Washington, D.C., of child pornography infractions in 1985, but those charges were later dropped. A criminal docket sheet obtained by the AP shows the same birthdate for Nader.

Two people with knowledge of the case confirmed it involved the same Nader now cooperating with Mueller.

Many of Naders former contacts and onetime friends have noted in recent weeks how they lost touch with him in the early 2000s.

Nader had worked in recent times as an adviser to bin Zayed, one of the most powerful men in the Middle East, according to people who know Nader. The questioning of Nader in the Mueller probe suggests possible interest in UAE relations with Trumps transition team or his administration.

Naders connections with Trump confidants include Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fundraiser who co-hosted a Tuesday night event attended by the president in Beverly Hills, California.

Earlier this month, several media organizations, including the AP, obtained emails belonging to Broidy, a California-based venture capitalist and the Republican National Committees deputy finance chairman. They show Broidy emailing Nader with a summary of Broidys talks with Kushner and Trump in the White House in October 2017, touching on matters including the UAEs bitter dispute with fellow Persian Gulf country Qatar.

Broidy accused Qatar of hacking his emails. The Qataris denied the charge.

Your governments actions against U.S. citizens will jeopardize your nations relationship with the United States, Broidy wrote in a public letter to Qatars U.S. ambassador.

In response, the Qatari government called Broidys baseless accusations a diversionary tactic.

___

Janicek reported from Prague. Associated Press writers Desmond Butler, Tom LoBianco and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.WASHINGTON  Once again, President Trump has made a cowardly, cynical and monumentally stupid retreat on the issue of guns. No one should have expected otherwise.

Forget everything he said after the Parkland shooting about the urgent need for meaningful action. Trump now takes a position that will almost surely guarantee more gun violence in schools, not less. It must take a lot of hard work and concentration to be so utterly wrong.

The president  I cant believe Im writing this, but its true  wants to arm highly trained expert teachers with concealed weapons. Anyone who thinks this is not one of the worst ideas in history should conduct a brief thought experiment. Imagine any one of your elementary, middle school or high school classrooms. Imagine a loaded gun in there somewhere. Now imagine what could go tragically wrong.

Trumps support for arming teachers and his refusal to back sensible gun control measures represent a craven surrender to the National Rifle Association. In his made-for-television meeting with members of Congress to discuss gun violence, Trump accused Republicans of being afraid of the NRA. But hes the one cringing and cowering to keep the gun lobbys favor.

Trump tried to defend his meek surrender Monday on Twitter: 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!

Can he really be that obtuse, or is he just pretending?

One thing that should be clear by now is that most of the perpetrators of mass shootings, in schools and elsewhere, do not launch their obscene attacks with the expectation of getting away after the vile deed is done. A few do survive, such as the Parkland shooter, but there is almost never any indication that escape was part of the assailants plan. These are not rational acts by rational people.

It is ridiculous to think that the fear of getting shot by a teacher would serve as any kind of deterrent. The most obvious foreseeable consequence is that would-be shooters will probably decide to aim at the teachers first.

Trump is slavishly following the NRAs party line that a good guy with a gun is the solution to mass shootings. Clearly, however, it is not. An armed security officer was on site at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland while the shooter went on his rampage. The officer never went into the building; he later said he believed the shooter was outside the school, not inside. Additional officers who arrived quickly also did not enter.

Where are the shots coming from? How many shooters are there? Is that an assailant pounding on the classroom door, or a potential victim in imminent peril? The idea that teachers are going to be able to answer these questions more quickly and accurately than well-trained security personnel is ludicrous.

In gunfights, even big-city police officers who are regularly tested on their firearms proficiency miss their targets more often than they hit them. Picture the chaos of an active-shooter situation. Hear the shots, the shouts, the screams. Are teachers going to be able to focus in on an assailant despite the sensory overload? Or are they more likely to fire at innocent students? Or perhaps at each other?

Consider another predictable scenario: A high school class gets out of control, to the point where the overwhelmed teacher feels physically threatened. Will the teacher perhaps be tempted to display a loaded weapon to restore order? If so, what happens next?

The tragedy of this awful idea  and the intent  is that it diverts the gun violence debate away from measures that could actually have an impact. Chief among them would be a ban on the military-style assault rifles that have become the mass shooters weapon of choice. Trump is too scared of the NRAs wrath to dare mention this common-sense, life-saving step.

Incredibly, the president has even backed away from the no-brainer idea  newly enacted by the state of Florida  of raising the minimum age for at least some gun purchases from 18 to 21. He supported such a move until the NRA slapped his little hand.

Forming a school safety commission under hapless Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is like consigning the issue to a gaggle of geese. Slightly toughening background checks and banning bump stocks hardly amount to incremental progress. Sorry, students. Trump has wimped out.

Robinsons columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion  look for the syndicated columnist link. E-mail: eugenerobinson@washpost.com; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.Many of us are too young to remember, but history shows us that many current farm bill programs emerged from lessons learned during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s  lessons that an entire generation of Americans would never forget. Years of unsustainable agricultural practices helped create one of the worst disasters in our nations history. Out of that experience, farmers, ranchers and the public came together to improve agricultural practices and design government programs to heal the land.

Since then, farm bill programs have become an essential part of our agricultural system and economy. The programs touch almost every aspect of New Mexicos $3 billion agricultural industry, providing almost $1 billion in investments to ease access to credit, support a stable farm safety net, and promote growth in new markets. For generations, the farm bill has helped our producers grow affordable food, build resilient businesses, and conserve lands and natural resources.

In New Mexico, the strength of our state and local economies and well-being of our communities depend on stable farms and ranches. Farm bill conservation programs have funded more than $544 million dollars in collaborative efforts that have empowered producers to do more with less while keeping food prices affordable.

Farm bill funding is spent on our people and in our communities, too. Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has invested more than $719 million in rural communities in our state. Farm bill programs provide food for the children and low-income seniors who do not have enough, and they amplify our efforts to build more affordable housing, start businesses, create jobs and build stronger communities.

Farm bill programs are also essential in preserving the iconic landscapes that serve as the foundation of our local and regional economies. Whether it is improving our water supplies or protecting wildlife, restoring forest health, protecting fragile soils or improving rangeland, the work farmers and ranchers do through the farm bill supports a better environment for all.

Recently, the federal administration proposed a budget outlining severe cuts that could compromise some of the farm bill programs we use most. If enacted, the proposal would be a significant blow to New Mexicos farms, ranches, rural economies, children and low-income seniors. It would limit our ability to conserve and restore the land, water and other natural resources essential to all of us today and to future generations.

And thats why during the 2018 session, New Mexicos Legislature unanimously passed a memorial encouraging our Congressional delegation to stand in strong support of continuing vital farm bill funding for our state.

Our Legislatures memorial is a bipartisan recognition of the important role the farm bill has played throughout the state. Our Legislature should be commended for its willingness to stand together with the people of New Mexico to fight for these proven programs. We strongly urge our Congressional delegation to follow their bipartisan lead and do the same.

As Congress begins its work on the next farm bill, we urge our delegation to follow the New Mexico Legislatures example and stand up against any efforts to cut vital farm bill programs that are essential to the vibrancy of our agricultural economy and rural communities.

Nelson Shirley owns and manages the Spur Lake Cattle Company in New Mexico and serves as vice-chair, and Lesli Allison as executive director, of the Western Landowners Alliance, established by landowners in 2011 to advance policies and practices that sustain working lands, connected landscapes and native species. WLA members steward approximately 14 million acres of deeded and leased public land in the American West.They left Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939, and reached Havana, Cuba, 14 days later. The ships 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 eras 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 Donald 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, 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 thats 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 Europes 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 Depressions vast unemployment. It took him until 1944 to publicly denounce the murder of Europes 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. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre 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 its soul.

E-mail: cohenr@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.A 14-year-old girl, a 17-year-old girl, and a 52-year-old woman.

All three were described as very petite and were walking or running in the Foothills alone over the past week when police say 25-year-old James Carter attacked and tried to force them into his car.

He didnt succeed, and none of the victims were seriously hurt.

Thursday afternoon, the SWAT team took Carter into custody after a lengthy standoff at an apartment complex on Pennsylvania near Constitution NE.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, on March 9, the 17-year-old reported that she had finished a run in the Foothills open space when a light-colored Kia Soul pulled up behind her.

The girl told police she felt someone was right behind her, and when she turned around, a man threw her to the ground, groped her and tried to pick her up as if to put her in his car. She was able to fight back, and the man fled.

Four days later, on March 13, a 52-year-old woman was running about three miles to the south on the Tramway bike path when the Kia Soul drove past and parked. She said the driver got out and began sprinting toward her. so she sprayed him with mace.

It didnt work. and he kept trying to abduct her, according to the complaint.

At that point, a woman driving past noticed the commotion and pulled up, asking if she needed help. The man ran off, and the two women drove to the police station to file a report.

The next day, a 14-year-old was walking home from Eisenhower Middle School when police say the man in the Kia Soul struck again.

The teenager told police that, as she passed his car, the driver got out and grabbed her, putting her in a chokehold as he tried to drag her toward his car, according to the complaint. She lost consciousness.

Again bystanders intervened  even taking a photo of the cars license plate as the man sped away.

The license plate was traced to a vehicle owned by Carters mother. Out of all the victims and witnesses, two positively identified him in a photo line-up, and the others either hadnt gotten a good look or tentatively identified him, according to the complaint.

Officer Simon Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said detectives tracked down Carter at the Winrock Villas Condos complex on Pennsylvania and Constitution NE on Thursday morning. He said Carter initially refused to come out of the home, so the SWAT team was called to the scene.

Carter surrendered several hours later and will be booked into the county jail on two counts each of kidnapping, child abuse, aggravated battery and criminal contact of a minor.

Tips

Police ask any other victims to call Crime Stoppers at 843-STOPCAIRO  Up for re-election in less than two weeks, Egypts president on Thursday took center stage at a televised ceremony commemorating the countrys martyrs, declaring his readiness to personally join the battle against militants and decorating soldiers and families of fallen ones.

I swear by God that I am ready to don combat fatigues and fight side by side with the security forces, said Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a general-turned-president. We either live together, or die together, he added.

El-Sissi has yet to do any traditional campaigning for the March 26-28 election, such as addressing rallies or doing TV ads. With his win all but certain, he has apparently opted instead for televised appearances  Thursdays ceremony lasted about five hours  in which he presides over official functions during which he addresses the nation.

With the outcome of the election a foregone conclusion  el-Sissis only challenger is a little-known politician who supports him  he and his supporters have been tirelessly urging voters to come out and cast their ballots since a high turnout will accord the vote legitimacy.

In comments made Wednesday, he said he would rather win a third of the vote with a good turnout than every vote with a low turnout. A good turnout would contribute to Egypts stability and freedom, he said. Voting for Egyptian expatriates begins Friday.

With el-Sissi not campaigning, the only sign of an imminent election is the tens of thousands of banners bearing the incumbents image that have sprung up across the country.

Banners for his challenger, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, number only in the dozens in Cairo, a city of some 18 million people.

What is happening, to be exact, is a one-man referendum, Abdullah el-Sinnawy, a political analyst and one-time el-Sissi supporter, wrote Thursday in the independent Al-Shorouk daily.

In Thursdays ceremony, a visibly moved el-Sissi listened as mothers and widows remembered their loved ones who fell in the fight against militants. He warmly greeted them, briefly chatting with each one or, in some cases, placing a kiss on their heads.

He hugged the children of the fallen soldiers and carried one of them, a small girl in military uniform, across the hall and sat her next to him amid applause. Later, a boy, also in military fatigues, joined him.

Photos later released by the presidency showed el-Sissi feeding cookies to the two children as their mothers looked on during a break from the ceremony.

His patriotism, of which an extreme version has swept Egypt under his rule, was also on display Thursday,

Of the fallen, el-Sissi said: Its a price that is dear to us, but not too dear for the sake of Egypt. He has also warned that the whole Arab world would suffer if Egypt was to fall in the hands of militants.

We are 100 million. We are the heart of the (Arab) nation.

Egypts security forces last month launched an all-out offensive against militants, deploying tens of thousands of troops and police backed by fighter-jets, helicopter gunships, navy vessels and tanks in Sinai and in the western desert along the border with Libya. Dozens of militants and 16 soldiers have been killed in the fighting since.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gathered steam and grew deadlier after the 2013 ouster by the military, then led by el-Sissi, of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president. Morsi was Egypts first freely elected leader whose year in office proved divisive.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

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A Northwest Albuquerque neighborhood was brought to a halt with three schools placed on lockdown Thursday afternoon after police say a man exchanged gunfire with State Police officers before holing up inside a nearby home for an hourslong standoff.

New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Armijo said the suspect, 40-year-old Michael Ray Nieto, surrendered peacefully just before 3 p.m. after about an hour and a half of negotiations with State Police.

Armijo said neither Nieto nor State Police officers were injured in the shootout or ensuing standoff, in which law enforcement and emergency personnel inundated a stretch of Candelaria, between Second and Seventh NW.

Three nearby schools  Garfield Middle School, Saint Therese Catholic School and Valley High School  were placed on lockdown throughout the ordeal.

Armijo said State Police officers were serving a probation violation warrant, stemming from charges of burglary and auto theft, on Nieto when he brandished a handgun and was heard yelling that he would shoot officers.

Shortly thereafter, multiple shots were fired, she said.

Armijo said Nieto and at least one officer fired shots but did not say who fired first or what led to the shooting.

She said Nieto continued to fire shots from inside his home, in the 400 block of Candelaria NW, while displaying threatening behavior as police made a perimeter and began to negotiate with him until his eventual surrender.

Armijo did not release the names of the officers involved in the shooting and gave no other details surrounding the shooting, but she did say one officer has been placed on administrative leave.

Crowds gathered behind crime scene tape at a Blakes Lotaburger, standing on pillars and landscape rocks to get a glimpse as tactical vehicles crawled through a sea of law enforcement officers toward a line of houses on Candelaria, just west of Fourth.

Officers from various departments dotted the surrounding roadways, gripping long rifles and strapped with forest-green tactical gear as a State Police helicopter buzzed overhead.

Medical and fire personnel fitted with helmets and body armor waited a block away, flanked by firetrucks and ambulances.

Court documents show a lengthy criminal record for Nieto, dating back to 1998, and involving charges from DWI and child abuse to drug possession and burglary.

Armijo said the incident is under investigation by State Police Investigations Bureau and the Albuquerque Metro Shoot Team Task Force, which is made up of several departments, including Albuquerque police, the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office, the Rio Rancho police, and University of New Mexico police.Its a Roswell reboot as the late-1990s TV series, which aired for three seasons and 61 episodes, is getting a pilot order.

Warner Bros. Television/Palladin Productions will begin principal photography this month on the Untitled Roswell Project.

Were excited to welcome another production highlighting New Mexicos unique history, said Film Office Director Nick Maniatis. With strong tools, infrastructure, as well as unique stories and landscapes, New Mexico is a perfect location for any production.

Production will take place in Albuquerque.

It is based on the Roswell High book series, written by Melinda Metz.

The upcoming pilot tells the story of a daughter of immigrants who, after reluctantly returning to her hometown of Roswell, discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: Hes an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life.

She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.

The pilot will star Jeanine Mason, Nathan Parsons, Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Michael Trevino, Tyler Blackburn and Heather Hemmens.

According to the state Film Office, the production will employ 90 New Mexico crew members and approximately 800 New Mexico background talent.

The pilot is produced by My So-Called Company, Amblin Television and Bender Brown Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Carina Adly MacKenzie wrote the pilot script and serves as executive producer along with Julie Plec, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Lawrence Bender and Kevin Kelly Brown.

MacKenzie worked on The Originals.

Plec is known for her successful work on The Originals and The Vampire Diaries.WASHINGTON  Americas largest business lobby is warning President Donald Trump against slapping big tariffs on Chinese imports. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sounding the alarm as the White House weighs whether to punish China for forcing U.S. companies to hand technology to Chinese companies.

Simply put, tariffs are damaging taxes on American consumers, U.S. Chamber President Thomas Donohue said in a statement Thursday . Citing reports that the administration is considering tariffs worth $30 billion a year, Donohue noted that such a tax on Chinese imports would wipe out much of the windfall American families are getting from Decembers tax cuts.

Donohue also warned that sanctions against China could lead to a destructive trade war with serious consequences for U.S. economic growth and job creation. The administration last August launched an investigation into Chinese policies that coerce U.S. companies into transferring technology.

Instead of using tariffs, Donohue said, the administration should work with the business community to resolve the real and justifiable concerns raised by Chinese trade practices.

As a presidential candidate, Trump campaigned on a promise to bring down Americas huge trade deficit, which he blamed on bad trade deals and abusive practices by China and other U.S. trading partners.

Only recently, however, has the president begun to turn rhetoric to action. In January, the administration imposed taxes on imported solar panels and washing machines. And last week, Trump ordered stiff tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration gave no indication that it planned to let up on its pressure on China over trade. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Argentina for meetings next week of the Group of 20 major industrial countries, which includes traditional economic powers and emerging economies such as China.

Officials said that they planned to make Chinas moves away from a market-oriented economy a major topic of discussion at the meetings.

The trip to the G-20 will focus on advancing the Trump administrations global economic agenda to level the playing field for U.S. companies and workers, Mnuchin said in a statement.

Treasury officials said they expected substantial discussion at the G-20 meetings on such trade issues as Chinas continued subsidizing of over-capacity in the areas of steel and aluminum.

The G-20 talks will be held on Monday and Tuesday in Buenos Aires. Mnuchin will also stop in Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday to meet with the newly inaugurated Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Finance Minister Felipe Larrain.

___

To read the Chambers statement: http://apne.ws/N6YW4tYConvergys will lay off 151 employees at its Rio Rancho call center by the end of April, according to a notice filed with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.

A spokeswoman for the company said the layoffs, which are mostly full-time employees, are the result of a change with a single client program and are not indicative of plans to shutter the center.

Verizon Wireless recently announced it will close its Albuquerque call center next year and transition employees to a work-from-home model.

New Mexico Economic Development Department records show that Convergys received nearly $200,000 in fiscal year 2017 from the states Job Training Incentive Program. The funding was for a reported 100 jobs with an average wage of $12.25 an hour.

The program funds on-the-job and classroom training, reimbursing companies for 50 to 75 percent of wages for newly-created jobs for a period of up to six months.

The Convergys spokeswoman said the company had successfully met the terms of its agreement with the program and would not be subject to clawbacks. The Journal has not been able to determine the relationship between the jobs tied to the economic incentives and the jobs that are a part of the layoffs.

The Economic Development Department confirmed that Convergys had met its obligations for the program.Adfest 2018 has brought on board Kapil Batra, Creative Head, McCann Worldgroup Delhi to judge the Film Lotus & Radio Lotus category.

Kapil joined McCann Delhi in 2005 and rose through the ranks to become Creative Head in 2016. During this journey, he, along with his team, has created several popular campaigns for Perfetti, Coca Cola, Dominos Pizza as well as homegrown brands like Yatra.com, Paytm, Radio Mirchi, Greenlam, and more.

His work has won at Cannes, Clio, ADFEST, Spikes Asia, One Show and also at several national award shows like, Abbys, Effies and Mirchi Kaan. As much as he enjoys making ads, he loves watching them too. Itd be fair to call him a walking encyclopedia of ad films. So much so, his colleagues sometimes call him TV Ad Index (a popular database for TV ads in India). Whenever he finds time, he loves to head to some quiet mountain village.

Adfest 2018 will take place at the Royal Cliff Hotels Group in Pattaya, Thailand from March 21 to 24.After the stupendous success of its love stories, Tu Aashiquii and Ishq Mein Marjawan, COLORS will now be adding a new shade of love with its unique offering  Bepannaah. A love story unlike any other, this romantic drama tells the impossible tale of two strangers brought together by a mysterious accident that shakes the very roots of their foundation. They say once bitten, twice shy  for Aditya and Zoya, love betrayed them the first time around, will they learn to fall in love again? With the perfect amalgamation of romance, drama and mystery  this riveting plot features some of the most loved faces of Indian Television with Jennifer Winget as Zoya, Harshad Chopda as Aditya, Sehban Azim as Yash (Zoyas Husband) and Namita Dubey essaying the role of Pooja (Adityas Wife). Produced by Cinevistaas, Bepannaah will premiere on March 19, 2018 and will air every Monday to Friday at 9pm.

Talking about this development, Manisha Sharma  Programming Head, COLORS said, Bepannaah is a story about love and betrayal that changes two peoples lives forever. The need to know what happened that night is what will keep our main protagonists and story moving very interestingly. We hope the chemistry between our lead characters and the twist that surrounds them will keep the viewers hooked on to the show.

Sunil Mehta from Cinevistaas Ltd. further added saying, BEPANNAAH comes across as a Breath of Fresh Air, that differentiates it from the common denominator of storytelling that the audience has been catered and made used to on prime time! A Path Breaker, that will hopefully Set Trends!!!

Speaking about being a part of the anticipated show, Jennifer Winget who plays Zoya said, The first time I heard the narration for the show, I had tears in my eyes; a show like Bepannaah comes your way rarely and I am ecstatic to be a part of it. My character Zoya is a sweet, polite young lady who has always led a very sheltered life and has always been dependent on the men in her life. How her life turns upside down in a flash is baffling to say the least. Im having a blast shooting with Harshad and Sehban. Im sure viewers will love our chemistry.

Harshad Chopda who essays the character of Aditya says, I am returning to television after a hiatus and I was consciously waiting to pick the right story. Bepannaahs core concept and my director Aniruddha Sir and DOP Deepak Sir were the major influencers in this case; Jennifer and I hit off as soon as we met. Im sure it will be exciting for the audience to see us together onscreen.

Sehban Azim who plays Zoyas husband- Yash on the show said, Bepannaah is a show that has been in the making for a while now. The detailing for every character, be it the look, the dialogues, the treatment  all of it has been given close attention to and its brilliance shows in every scene we do. I cannot thank the channel and the creators of the show enough, for making me a part of this stunning piece of fiction.

Namita Dubey, who plays Adityas wife Pooja in the show said, We are working with the best team on television today  both in front of the camera and behind it. The audiences response to the promo has been great and I hope and pray that it gets better and bigger as the show progresses.

Be a part of Aditya and Zoyas journey starting March 19, 2018  every Monday to Friday at 9pm only on COLORS.

To Read More Visit here.The Board of Directors of TV18 Home Shopping Network Limited announced the appointment of Manish Kalra as Chief Executive Officer of Homeshop18. Kalra joins Homeshop18 at a critical yet promising stage in the companys journey, when it has merged its business with Shop CJ, thereby becoming the largest television home shopping brand in India. Kalra brings with him extensive experience in e-commerce and will report to the Board of TV18 Home Shopping Network Ltd.

To Read More Visit here.

Prior to joining Homeshop18, Kalra was Chief Marketing & Business Officer at Craftsvilla, where he was the overall business P&L owner. He is a young achiever and comes with over 16 years of experience in leading businesses across e-commerce, IT, FMCG and BFSI Industry. Prior to Craftsvilla, he had worked for companies such as Amazon India, MakeMyTrip and Dell.

Speaking on his appointment, Manish Kalra said, I am excited to join Homeshop18 and look forward to working with and learning from the talented team there. Retail industry in India is going through a transformation phase. Team at Homeshop18 has a unique opportunity to deliver innovative products and solutions to our customers that will bring greater value to them, our suppliers, employees, investors and other stakeholders in the process. I am grateful to the HS18 board for giving me this opportunity.

To Read More Visit here.World Consumer Rights Day is an occasion to demand that the rights of all consumers are respected and protected; it has become an important event for mobilising citizen action. Advertising is a vital marketing tool that plays a significant role in influencing consumer choices by changing their perception towards a brand. In an effort to capture consumers imagination and sell the product, advertisers often end up distorting factual data. Misleading advertisements can have serious repercussions on consumers as they not only violate the consumers right to information, but could also affect their health and safety.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) explains how consumers can play an important role in curbing such misleading advertisements by identifying and reporting them absolutely free of cost through a simple WhatsApp message on +91 77100 12345. As a healthy practice, ASCI maintains utmost confidentiality with respect to complainants identity and contact information.

Established in 1985, ASCI, a self-regulatory organisation, has successfully completed 32 years in protecting the interest of consumers by curbing misleading ads and has effectively dealt with the complaints received against deceptive advertisements. It is ASCIs ongoing mission to maintain and enhance the publics confidence in Advertising.

To read more visit here.

ASCIs role has been commended and strengthened by various Government bodies, including The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of AYUSH as well as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

Since 2012-13, ASCI has been successfully running itsinitiative of Suo Moto Surveillance (National Advertising Monitoring Service - NAMS) against advertisements that are in potential violation of the ASCI code. It has kept continuous track of advertisements nationally by monitoring around 1,600 TV and 45,000 new print advertisements every month. ASCI also ensures that advertisements conform to its Code for Self-Regulation, which requires them to be legal, honest, decent, not hazardous or harmful while observing fairness in competition.

In the last three years, as part of collaboration with the Department of Consumer Affairs, ASCI has processed over 6,500 complaints received on the Government Portal Grievances Against Misleading Advertisements (GAMA gama.gov.in).

On the occasion of the World Consumer Rights day, ASCI urges each and every citizen to be vigilant and alert and be the leader of change by flagging misleading advertisements to ASCI. While ASCI does Suo Moto surveillance, consumers can strengthen this process further by being the eyes and ears of ASCI and send the details of objectionable advertisements through WhatsApp. Additionally, consumers can also reach out to ASCI through its website.

To Read More Visit here.Hundreds of Aiken County high school students stood in the cold, walked out of classes and gathered together in gyms and cafeterias and around flagpoles Wednesday to bring awareness to the issues of gun violence and school safety in America.

The students joined thousands of others as more than 3,000 schools all over the country participated in the National School Walkout. The student-led movement grew from the school shooting Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 students and teachers dead.

At Aiken High before school started, about 50 students stood outside in near freezing temperatures in front of a banner  in orange letters, the color of the demonstration  reading We Need Action in solidarity with their peers calling for stricter gun control and an end to gun violence.

At 10 a.m., more than 100 Aiken High students walked out of class, too, and stood in front of the school for 17 minutes, one for each life lost in Parkland.

Amid police cars at the school for extra security, students walked outside, chanting, "We want action, not just talk." One opposing student waved a yellow "Don't tread on me" flag, while other students chanted, "Guns don't kill."

Need for action

Later Wednesday morning, wearing orange T-shirts, three Aiken High students who helped organize the demonstration  seniors Richard Dorman Jr., 19, and Catherine Orlowski, 18, and junior Jahleel Johnson, 16  talked about the importance of the movement to them, their message to the community, and the need for action to make American schools safe.

We're trying to urge our legislators and representatives in Washington and in Columbia to look on the issue of gun violence, which isn't new, and do something about it, Dorman said.

After more than 75 people died from gun violence at a concert in Las Vegas and at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, nothing happened, Dorman said.

Now we have Stoneman Douglas, and we want that to be different, he said. We don't believe that sitting here and doing nothing is going to fix the problem  we need to act.

Seeing the signs and banners at the early morning demonstration really raised the energy up, said Johnson, who said he always has been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.

I actually felt like I was a part of something  to be a part of history and help make change, he said.

All of the students said they support stricter gun laws and enforcement of those laws.

Orlowski cited America's crime rate and its relationship to guns and gun violence.

In this country, we don't have the highest crime rate, but we have the highest homicidal crime rate. And a lot of that has to do with gun violence, she said. It should not be as easy to get a gun as it is to go to the store and buy an apple.

Johnson agreed.

I was at the drugstore, and there was a guy buying Ny-Quil and Tylenol  he probably had a headache. The cashier asked him his age, and I was wondering why can't they do that for people buying these assault weapons, he said.

Dorman said he believes he and most of his peers agree that certain firearm accessories  bump stocks, which increase a firearm's firing rate, and high-capacity magazines, which allow shooters to continue firing without having to reload as often  should be banned. The shooter in Las Vegas used both, he said.

It makes it easier to kill more people, Dorman said. That's not good or safe for us as a society.

Dorman said he also supports universal background checks before people can buy a firearm.

We need to give the authorities more discretion to look at and vet each one of these purchases well enough so that we can make sure that the person purchasing the firearm is competent, he said. I recognize that, nine times out of 10, the person buying the firearm is going to be a law-abiding citizen who's just going to go out to the shooting range or might use it for hunting or some other legal purpose.

What you have to account for is the people who aren't going to do that, and that's what we want to see more action on.

Debate on arming teachers

All three students said they do not support arming teachers to help prevent gun violence in schools.

Teachers didn't sign up to be a security guard. Their priority is to teach their kids, Dorman said. If there are more guns on campus or teachers with guns, it's going to raise tensions and make students a little more antsy. We're trying to maintain a peaceful environment.

Orlowski said arming teachers would make the school environment like a prison.

Teachers are teachers, she said. Their job is not to have a firearm and protect their students. That's not what they got their degrees for; that's not what theyre here for.

Johnson said he used to be a strong proponent of arming teachers, but after talking to both conservative and liberal teachers, he concluded arming teacher is not a good idea.

If a teacher loses a gun, a student might use it to kill people. Also, teachers can be overpowered, he said. If teachers are armed with guns, I want to see an increase in their salaries. I don't think it's fair to them to have two jobs in one when they're not getting paid enough.

Conversation just beginning

All three students said, after Wednesday's demonstrations and walkouts, they would continue to advocate to end gun violence and would continue to speak out.

We're going to continue to call our Congressmen and write letters and make sure they remember, Dorman said. We want them to know, hey, we're still here. We're still concerned. Please look at this issue.

Orlowski said students aren't going to allow gun violence to be swept under the rug again.

With all these shootings, you see political people putting out, tweeting or posting thoughts and prayers, she said. We don't need thoughts and prayers. We need action. We need gun reform. We need to be able to have a safe environment at school, at businesses, at public places.

Johnson, who said he was a member of a thoughts and prayers group at his church, said it's OK to offer thoughts and prayers.

But my pastor said don't just do thoughts and prayers, he said. If God gave you the ability to make change, then use your ability, which is our voice, to make change.

Many students protest inside school buildings

Students at other schools across Aiken County also protested and demonstrated against gun violence.

"Each school planned for the walkout according to their specific needs and what was best for them from a safety and logistics perspective," said Mike Rosier, a district spokesman. "With that in mind, some schools chose to host their events indoors."

At South Aiken High School, approximately 400 students gathered in the school's gym at 10 a.m., according to school spokespeople. No students went outside.

Those who partook in the pseudo-walkout at SAHS had to sign up first, according to an announcement made over the school's public address system before 10 a.m. Anyone who had not signed up was expected to stay put.

Around 125 students at North Augusta High School protested "peacefully" in a courtyard; "a few" Ridge Spring-Monetta High School students protested; and the cafeteria at Paul Knox Middle School was full, but "not overflowing," with student protesters, according to sources at the schools who asked not to be named.

At Fox Creek High School in Edgefield County, around 125 students met at the flagpole for "quiet reflection" at 10 a.m., according to a school employee.

Rosier said there was a total of about 600 student participants just among Aiken, South Aiken and North Augusta high schools.

The Aiken Standard's Bill Bengtson, Colin Demarest and Lindsey Hodges contributed to this article.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.Three major players in Aiken-area leadership met with the National Nuclear Security Administration's newly sworn-in leader last Friday.

Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon, Aiken County Council Chairman Gary Bunker and state Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, met with Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration Lisa Gordon-Hagerty before her tour of the Savannah River Site.

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., accompanied Gordon-Hagerty on her actual tour. She visited the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and K-Area specifically, according to NNSA information.

National Nuclear Security Administration chief tours Savannah River Site on Friday The woman heading up the upkeep, security and advancement of the nation's nuclear weapons complex toured the Savannah River Site March 9.

Before the tour, though, Osbon, Bunker, Young and Gordon-Hagerty discussed several things  including the relocation of pit production to SRS.

"We did talk about pit production and tried to find out where that decision was," Osbon said Wednesday.

Plutonium pits are grapefruit-sized nuclear weapon triggers. No new weapons-usable pits have been produced since 2011, and the NNSA is under orders to produce 80 pits per year by 2030.

Pits have, most recently, been produced at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Previous to that, pits were made at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver.

A 2017 NNSA analysis named SRS a top-two contender for the modernized  and politically deemed necessary  pit production mission, either by way of a new facility or a repurposed MOX building.

Both Osbon and Bunker said their meeting with Gordon-Hagerty was introductory and, essentially, informal. It was productive, though, Osbon said.

Bunker said pit production at SRS was addressed because "that's the big thing."

The cities of Aiken, North Augusta and New Ellenton have all passed pro-pit production resolutions, as have the Aiken County Council and the Aiken County Legislative Delegation. The Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce formally supports the potential mission. The South Carolina Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council is backing it and so is the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization.

Bringing pit production to SRS  bringing a major national security production mission to an otherwise active cleanup site  would install approximately 800 longterm jobs at the Site, according to several expert estimates.

The recently passed resolutions of support, Osbon and Bunker concur the area's workforce is prepared for such a mission: Osbon said the workforce here has six decades of experience, and Bunker said they made sure to "point out" the "level of support we've had." Young reinforced these points in a Wednesday letter to Gordon-Hagerty.

"Generations of citizens in our two-state region helped to win the Cold War," Young wrote.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Allen praised the South Carolina-Georgia workforce when U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry toured SRS at the beginning of February.

"We've had just a very unified front in regards to wanting pit production," Bunker said.

Osbon believes Gordon-Hagerty is "clearly aware" of what SRS and its workers have accomplished.

NNSA pit production analysis The National Nuclear Security Administration studied locations for possible plutonium pit production and issued this document in November 2017.

"I think we have a real opportunity with the pit production," Osbon said, adding that the NNSA chief did not betray any information regarding which location  SRS or Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to NNSA documents  will be selected.

"At a meeting like that, we certainly don't get commitments," Bunker said.

On Wednesday, Gordon-Hagerty told a U.S. Senate Armed Services subcommittee that a followup analysis of pit production locations is in its final stages. Gordon-Hagerty told U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., she would soon be meeting with the U.S. Department of Defense for that very reason.

The NNSA chief said SRS, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Rocky Flats Plant personnel are involved with the followup study.On the cold, rainy night of Jan. 25, the Kafarina family unearthed an archaeological site that sparked a major controversy between the family and the authorities that remains unresolved.

The family of 20, including 14 children, live in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, a few kilometers from the border separating Gaza and Israel. One of the grandchildren, Abdelkarem al-Kafarina, noticed as the rain kept falling that a small cavity appeared in their backyard.

Kafarina, 24, went out into the rain to check the cavity, curious if this would reveal an archaeological site, which regularly happens in the area, or a smuggling tunnel, which may have crumbled under the heavy rain.

Using simple tools, he started digging around the cavity and once he reached a depth of about 1 meter (3.3 feet), he found a 60-centimeter (2-feet) limestone that appeared to be covering an underground cellar. As soon as he removed it, a foul smell emanated from under the cover.

He described the stench to Al-Monitor as one of the foulest he had ever smelled; it did not go away for several hours after the cover was removed. Once he and his relatives and neighbors resumed digging, he noticed human bones.

What was revealed, after hours of digging, was what looked like an archaeological site filled with human bones, lanterns, glass artifacts, pottery and copper tools. As soon as he entered the site, he found bones inside nine small spaces arranged around a circular area. Kafarina said he found several skulls and bones that had belonged to more than one person in each space.

While the family waited for four days before the local office of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities sent a team, several archaeological experts visited the site on their own initiative and said that it may have been part of a large cemetery dating to the Roman era.

According to the ministry, given the number of bones found under each stone, it is likely that each of the nine graves contain remains of several people. Upon examining the site with a team of specialists on Jan. 28, the director-general of antiquities at the ministry, Jamal Abu Rida, said that the cemetery dates back more than 2,000 years.

Archaeologist Jamal al-Atal told Al-Monitor that the cemetery is likely to be Roman and that, given the geology of the terrain, it could actually be a lot larger than what was discovered by Kafarina.

Abu Rida said that further excavations and studies are needed, but that the government in Gaza lacks the funds and interest in covering the hefty costs of such a process.

A week after discovering the cemetery, an engineer at the Beit Hanoun municipality, Suhail Ahmad al-Kafarina, a relative of the family, told Al-Monitor that the soil has undergone some changes due to the minor cave-ins since its discovery. He confirmed that an expert team has not been sent to preserve the site, and that the site would be damaged under wet weather conditions if action was not taken.

According to Abu Rida, the ministry has not assigned guards to the site because of the family's unwillingness to cooperate. He also blamed the centralized government for ignoring archaeological sites and not taking timely measures to prevent them from being looted.

Meanwhile, Kafarina insists that the ministry wanted to take the artifacts discovered at the site. The ministrys delegation  which included Abu Rida  arrived at the site and threatened to take the artifacts found there. I proposed to Abu Rida that we hand over the pieces found in the cemetery in the presence of the head of the Beit Hanoun municipality. But he refused and insisted on taking them right away, he said. Abu Rida denies this claim.

According to Abu Rida, since the property housing the site is private, the government cannot properly protect it. The ministry has offered the family compensation whereby they would receive property of the same size in return for the land that would be acquired by the ministry, in compliance with the right of substitution.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has asked Kafarina to hand over all artifacts found at the site, but to no avail. The ministry collects all historical artifacts from around the Gaza Strip in order to house them in the Qasr al-Basha Museum. However, the ministry claims that it could not acquire anything from the cemetery as it had already been looted  either by the family or their relatives who were at the site before the ministry officials arrived.

Abu Rida said that if the family does not hand over the artifacts and allow the excavation of the site, he will pursue them through legal means. But court cases usually take a long time and often turn into a dispute between the residents and the authorities.

The ministrys history of caring for artifacts and historical heritage remains unsettling, especially because a couple of months ago, an important archaeological site called Tell El Sakan was about to be demolished by the government. If it had not been for the wave of activism on social media calling for the protection of the site, Tell El Sakan would have probably been destroyed by now.On March 14, Iranians woke up to a surprising piece of news: Tehrans mayor, prominent Reformist Mohammad Ali Najafi, who was only chosen as mayor in August, had submitted his resignation to the city council.

Explaining the reason for what had occurred, Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Tehrans Reformist-dominated city council, said at a press conference on March 14 that Najafis resignation will be studied in the first session of the city council in the coming Iranian year (beginning March 21) and that he must remain as mayor until then.

Of note, the first session of the city council in the new Iranian year will be held on April 8.

Hashemi said, In the [coming] session, which will be held with Najafis presence, his resignation will be studied. And if his explanation convinces the [city council] members, they will accept his resignation. He added, If his explanations dont convince the city council members, he will remain as mayor.

The city council chairman then stated that Najafi said he is resigning due to health problems. Yet it seems as if city council members believe that the sudden resignation comes amid increasing pressure from hard-liners. The Tehran mayor has come under fire for having attended a recent Mothers Day event in which young girls performed a dance, which staunch conservatives have decried as contrary to Islamic teachings.

Hashemi said at the press conference, Mr. Najafi tolerated lots of pressures but had decided not to resign in the face of these pressures. [But now], a new medical problem has come to exist. His physician has emphasized that he must be away from a stressful atmosphere, and this is while the municipality is a stressful place.

Hashemi, who is being considered as a potential replacement for Najafi, reacted to a question at the press conference about the possibility of running for the mayorship, saying sarcastically, I will not agree to be mayor; the chairmanship [of the city council] is stressful, and the municipality is full of stress and Im still young.

Meanwhile, Najafi attended on March 15 a municipality-related ceremony in which he declined to answer journalists questions about the reasons for his resignation. Rather, he just recited a verse of famous Iranian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, which hinted that he prefers others to speak about the matter.

While the conservatives have focused on Najafis possible health issues, the Reformists are arguing that the resignation is a result of pressure from hard-liners.

Of note, the conservative-controlled judiciary recently summoned Najafi for participating at the Mothers Day event in which little girls were dancing.

Amid the resignation debacle, a number of Reformists are now urging Najafi to not surrender to the pressures and to continue his path in the Tehran municipality.

Nahid Khodakarami, a Reformist member of the city council, said March 15, Najafi knows that combating complex corruption and the economic mafia in Tehrans municipality is costly. He can now choose to stay and fight or retreat and leave the stronghold. This is dependent on his motivation and mentality."

Khodakarami then took a swipe at Najafi, stating, Humans have different mentalities. Some [people] are [ready] to enter a war and fight while they know [the situation] is one-sided and cruel [just for] being committed to their promises. But some others lay down their weapon and [prefer] to escape to prevent a crisis.

Ali Shakouri-Rad, a prominent Reformist activist, tweeted March 14, Najafi is an efficient and successful mayor. He has had good interactions with the city council and has appointed deserved colleagues and carried out transparent and valuable work. His departure from the municipality is not in the interest of Tehran and the people of Tehran. Those who wish this and pursue it should know that their actions are against the people and the city of Tehran.On Feb. 13, Israel Police recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted in two cases of bribery. It is now up to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to decide whether to indict, but Netanyahu has already indicated that he will not be leaving office, even if indicted.

When Minister Tzachi Hanegbi was asked in a March 14 Army Radio interview about the fate of the government coalition if the attorney general indicts, he responded that everything would be business as usual. Hanegbi, a former justice minister, deflected the interviewers assumption that such a decision by Mandelblit would represent a crisis, terming it instead an irrelevant crossroads from a legal point of view. According to Hanegbi, the decision to indict would only assume significance after Netanyahu is accorded an official hearing and presented with an array of material and evidence against him. This procedure could take many months, he added.

Two days earlier, addressing about 1,000 supporters at a gathering in Petah Tikva, Hanegbi made sure to praise and bolster Netanyahu. Hanegbis blanket support for the prime minister, who is entangled in a series of criminal investigations, reflects the sentiment of the ruling Likud, where Netanyahu enjoys growing popularity. The latest polls clearly indicate that Netanyahus standing is stable, and even improving, despite suspicions of bribery.

When Netanyahu lashes out at the media, saying the people are with him, or thanks his many supporters in the Likud at every opportunity for backing him and for the love they show him and his wife, he is describing an essentially accurate state of affairs. In addition to the backing of hard-core Likud supporters, equivalent to some 15 Knesset seats, Netanyahu also enjoys broader support, on the moderate right and at the political center.

According to poll results broadcast March 12 by Hadashot News, if elections were held at that time, the Likud with Netanyahu at the helm would occupy 30 Knesset seats (out of 120). These findings are the source of Netanyahus power within the Likud and his six-party governing coalition. They are his insurance policy; they are the reason Hanegbi and other top Likud officials are providing him with a defensive shield against the police probes, with some joining his harangues against the police for hounding him.

Netanyahu is conducting a direct dialogue with the public via social networks and conveying his messages over the heads of the media, which he long ago tagged as an enemy. He often directly shares with them news of his achievements and his meetings with world leaders, persuading Likud members to also identify with him as someone being persecuted by powerful forces out to topple him. That is why not a single senior Likud figure dares utter a single word of criticism against Netanyahu or say anything about moral values.

The claim that the Likud traditionally does not oust its incumbent leaders is valid, but there has never been a time when the party leader did not face some form of open opposition at the top. The late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, even at the height of his power when he led the Likud to a 38-seat windfall in the 2003 elections, had his detractors among the partys Knesset members and ministers. When he became embroiled in legal troubles, Likud Minister Uzi Landau called him corrupt and a liar, and along with others, claimed that Sharon had hatched the plan to pull Israeli settlements and troops out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 to avoid criminal prosecution.

Netanyahu, too, faced internal opposition during his previous terms, with party rebels plotting to unseat him at least twice. The first time was after the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, when the Likud crashed in the polls, and the second time was after the 2006 elections, when the Likud recorded a low of 12 Knesset seats. At the time, senior Likud officials, among them Ministers Silvan Shalom and Limor Livnat, considered a move to oust Netanyahu. Even on the eve of the last elections, in March 2015, when polls predicted the Likud's downfall, a group of senior officials made preliminary preparations to call on him to resign on the night of the election loss. Instead, Netanyahu led the party to a 30-seat victory, which he sees as a personal achievement  his alone.

Will Likud ever abandon Netanyahu? Arik Ziv, a party stalwart and founder and editor of the Likudnik website, says the prime minister is nowhere near such a point and is even stronger than he was after the 2015 elections. As long as no one sees envelopes stuffed with money, no one in the Likud will challenge him, because the Likud believes the police is persecuting him, Ziv told Al-Monitor, referring to the case against former Likud Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was accused of receiving cash in envelopes.

When rumors surfaced that Netanyahu had sent private investigators to dig up dirt on officers leading the police probes against him, I said that if it turned out to be true, I would use every platform to call on him to go home, Ziv further stated. But if it turns out to be false, at that moment all the investigations against him have to be scrapped.

Likud activist Moti Ohana, who plans to run for the Knesset in the next election, also points to a sense of collective identification with Netanyahu. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, Ohana explained that contrary to the impression often conveyed by the media that Likud members blindly follow their leader, they are, in fact, law-abiding citizens. Unless the police present a smoking gun proving he took money for himself, no one will challenge him, Ohana said. Thats the red line, and Netanyahu is not there.

Ohana recalls being stunned when Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced his resignation in 1983. Ohana, who had just completed his military service, had heard on the news about demonstrators outside Begins house urging him to stay. He got on a bus in the northern town of Tiberias and went to Jerusalem only to find that no more than a few dozen supporters had gathered outside the revered Likud leaders home.

I was sure they wouldnt let him go, that there would be tens of thousands of people who would persuade him to stay, Ohana recalled. But then I also understood that no leader is stronger than the party. If the police were to show that Netanyahu had taken money into his pocket, he would not have been able to stay in office a single day. But that is not the case, and that is why he is being given all this strength and support.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has several good reasons to want early elections held in June. Much has been written about his desire to face a test of public confidence before facing a criminal trial, if Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decides to indict him on bribery charges.

Speculation has been rife that he plans to turn the 70th anniversary of Israels independence on April 19 into the high point of an election campaign. His failed attempts to hijack the Independence Day opening ceremony on Mount Herzl, traditionally hosted by the Knesset Speaker, also figured in assessments. Preferring June for elections has additional significance of no less importance to Netanyahu: In mid-May, US President Donald Trump is due to decide on whether to stick with the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five world powers.

Trump's decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo strengthens the likelihood that he will renege on the nuclear deal. In November 2016, as a candidate for the CIA job, Pompeo tweeted, I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism. As a member of Congress, Pompeo spoke out in favor of a military strike against Irans nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu is probably the public figure most identified with the campaign against the nuclear deal, which bears the imprimatur of former President Barack Obama. Renewed US sanctions against Iran and saber rattling at Tehran would elevate Netanyahu to the standing of Israels national savior from another Holocaust, to quote him. Invoking Case 1000 against Netanyahu, does one oust such an outstanding leader merely because he accepted a few cigars from wealthy patrons?

Last November in an interview on the television program Uvda, Netanyahus friend and lawyer Attorney Jacob Weinroth stated what he claimed was the prime minister's great advantage: He is basically an American. Hes not Israeli, really. That, however, is his greatest drawback. Israel may be too small for his shoes, but the Constitution of the United States, where Netanyahu spent formative high school and university years, bars immigrants from the presidency, thus preventing him from foisting Israeli government policy and interests on that country.

In fact, Netanyahus nuclear policy is totally different than Trumps. Take, for example, Trumps willingness to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who prides himself on his countrys nuclear arsenal. Were it not for Trumps obsessive need to erase every last vestige of his predecessors policies, chief among them Obama's, Trump might not have objected so vehemently to the nuclear deal with Iran.

On March 9, Channel 10 news reported that during a March 5 meeting at the White House, Netanyahu had asked Trump to block a planned sale of US nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia, or at least to prevent the Saudis from acquiring a uranium enrichment capability. The Prime Ministers Office did not deny the report, but took this festive opportunity to remind the public that Netanyahu had always warned that the nuclear agreement with Iran could generate demands by countries in the region for the same type of capability with which the deal provides Iran, including uranium enrichment. Obviously, countries in the region do not include Israel.

Trump, like his predecessors, stands not to prevent Israel from amassing dozens or even hundreds of nuclear bombs, according to foreign media reports, far removed from the eyes of International Atomic Energy Agencys inspectors or to confront Israel about its persistent refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). There is nonetheless a vast difference between allegedly allowing Israel to develop and maintain nuclear capabilities, including the acquisition of nuclear warheads, and a nuclear embargo on the other countries in the Middle East, including on nuclear reactors for commercial purposes.

The George W. Bush administration announced in 2008 that the United States had decided to help the Saudis build nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes. The White House said at the time that the two countries would cooperate on nuclear issues in order to protect the Saudis' energy infrastructure from radical Islamists, among other reasons. The agreement, it should be stressed, included the supply of enriched uranium.

Saudi Arabia is not alone. In January 2017, the head of Jordans Atomic Energy Commission, Khaled Toukan, said his country expects to obtain bids for the construction of nuclear reactors from China, the Czech Republic, Japan and the United States. In addition, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates have long expressed interest in developing civilian nuclear programs. As Trump reportedly told Netanyahu, if the United States does not meet the Saudis' needs in this regard, Russia, China and European states would be happy to sign agreements worth billions of dollars for their coffers.

Instead of fighting against nuclear plants throughout the Middle East like tilting at windmills, the Israeli government should shift policy on this important issue in accordance with the changing realities in the region and the world. One cannot work to forge a unified front with Saudi Arabia against the Shiite axis led by Iran and at the same time act against the interests of that key Sunni state. The risk of a country clandestinely reconfiguring a reactor designed for peaceful purposes to achieve a nuclear weapons capability should not be dismissed. Still, the Iranian case illustrates that even a signature on the NPT is no guarantee against a nuclear threat by totalitarian regimes. This is doubly true in a region like the Middle East, which is hardly a paragon of political stability.

Nonetheless, US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal would not remove the threat of the Middle East becoming a ticking nuclear time bomb, nor would Netanyahus ineffectual effort at torpedoing the Saudi nuclear deal contribute to averting a nuclear war in the region. The only option Israel has not examined is the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative. Sadly, even on its 16th anniversary, in two weeks time, it will continue to gather dust.

The Arab Peace Initiative could actually serve as basis for nuclear demilitarizing of the region, since Israels official stance is that it will back nuclear demilitarizing only when the Middle East achieves overall peace. In that context, one should remember that last December, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed the final communique of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, which included support for the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. Unfortunately, Israel did not respond. Luckily for Netanyahu, no one is ever indicted on charges of criminal neglect of such strategic interests.Jordan is keeping a close eye on the situation in Syrias eastern Ghouta amid growing fears that the Syrian regimes next move will be against the southern province of Daraa along the kingdoms borders. On March 6, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for an immediate cease-fire in eastern Ghouta and an end to the suffering of the Syrian people.

The UN Security Council has failed to implement a resolution adopted Feb. 24 to impose a truce throughout Syria. On March 12, the United States submitted a new draft resolution to council members calling for an immediate 30-day cease-fire in the capital of Damascus and the suburbs of eastern Ghouta.

Most of southwest Syria is part of a de-escalation zone agreed to in July by the United States, Russia and Jordan. The province, along with the city of Daraa, is divided between regime forces and rebel groups  the latter controlling the Nasib border crossing with Jordan.

On March 12, residents and rebel groups claimed that Syrian jets carried out at least eight strikes against rebel-held areas in Daraa, not far from the town of Izraa, where the Syrian army maintains a considerable presence. If confirmed, the strikes would be the first to take place since the multilateral truce was adopted.

Reacting to these reports on March 12, the US State Department called for an urgent meeting in Jordan to discuss concerns about alleged strikes in southwestern Syria within the boundaries of the de-escalation zone negotiated last year. We have called an urgent meeting in Jordan to review the situation in southwest Syria and ensure maintenance of the de-escalation zone that the United States helped negotiate, a department official said in a statement.

Jordan is yet to comment on these reports. On March 13, the Jordan Times quoted a government official as saying that Amman was coordinating with the United States to hold an emergency meeting with the kingdom over reports of violations to the deal that established a de-escalation zone in southwestern Syria. The official was also quoted as adding, Jordan was very keen on sustaining the de-escalation zone that was created last year following a tripartite agreement involving Russia.

The situation in southwest Syria represents a crucial national security concern for Jordan. A collapse of the de-escalation zone there and an attempt by the Syrian army and allied militias to take over the region would sound alarm bells in both Jordan and Israel. For Jordan, clashes and fighting along its northern borders could send thousands of Syrian refugees into the kingdom, which is already hosting at least 600,000 Syrian refugees out of 1.2 million Syrians residing in the kingdom.

Jordan has repeatedly complained that hosting Syrian refugees has stretched its resources and complicated its economic recovery. It has also stated that it could no longer receive additional refugees. The Jordanian economy has been under pressure for years with unemployment and poverty rates reaching record levels.

In addition, deterioration in the security situation in southern Syria would exasperate humanitarian conditions there. On Feb. 26, the Daraa Municipal Council refused to allow aid convoys to enter from government-held areas, insisting that aid should come through regular routes across border points with Jordan.

King Abdullah has in the past praised the success of the truce agreement in southern Syria. After his recent visit to Moscow on Feb. 15, where he met with President Vladimir Putin, it was reported that Russia had asked for Jordans help in stabilizing the situation in the southern safe zone. In October, Jordan failed to convince rebel groups in Daraa to hand over the Nasib border crossing to the Syrian government. Since the middle of last year, when the United States cut its financial and military support to Syrian rebel groups  including the Free Syrian Army  Jordans sway over these groups also decreased.

It is not clear if the recent government raids in Daraa represent the beginning of a large-scale military operation there or if they were meant as a warning to rebel groups not to intervene in the eastern Ghouta fighting. A number of rebel factions, such as Jund al-Malahim in southern Syria, had vowed to carry out attacks on the Syrian army and allied militias in retaliation for the bombardment of eastern Ghouta. On March 3, the pro-rebel Syrian news website Enabbaladi said members of Jaish al-Islam in the south were mobilizing to target the Syrian army in solidarity with their comrades in eastern Ghouta.

The possible collapse of the de-escalation zone in southwest Syria would be a game changer for both Israel  which had criticized the trilateral agreement for failing to stop Irans ambitions in Syria  and for Jordan. Israel and Jordan are worried that pro-Iran militias, including Hezbollah, will take up positions close to the Golan Heights and Jordans northern borders.

Retired Jordanian army general and military analyst Fayez al-Duwairi told Al-Monitor that the situation in southern Syria differs from that of eastern Ghouta. In the south, there are many players such as Jordan, the United States, Russia, Iran and Israel, he said. The United States and Russia will take Israels interest, as well as that of Jordan, into account, and no one wants to see an Israeli-Iranian confrontation in southern Syria. In his view, Jordan and Israel view pro-Iran militias as being as dangerous as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State [IS].

But political analyst Omar Kulab said the liberation of Syrian territory could extend to southern Syria following the recapture of eastern Ghouta. He told Al-Monitor that Jordanian interests come first and it is in our interests to purge our northern borders and reopen the border crossing with Damascus. He pointed to the presence of the IS-linked group Jaysh Khalid Ibn al-Waleed in the Yarmouk River basin.

Orieb al-Rintawi, the head of the Amman-based Jerusalem Center for Political Studies, told Al-Monitor that Israel could be using Jabhat al-Nusra in southern Syria to confront pro-Iran militias that may try to come close to the Golan. This further complicates things for Jordan because any military faceoff in the south will be within a few kilometers from Jordanian borders, Rintawi said. Claims that Israel has provided military aid to jihadi rebels in southern Syria have circulated since former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy said in 2016 that Israel was treating wounded rebel fighters. Yet Israeli officials have vehemently denied allegations that it has provided armed support.

Jordan is expected to coordinate with Moscow and the United States to prevent the collapse of the safe zone in southern Syria. Both Russia and the United States established the so-called Amman Center for Cease-fire Control in southern Syria in August to monitor violations of the truce. The meeting, which the United States has called for in Amman, will attempt to stabilize the de-escalation zone.The global community and several Libyan politicians are pushing for Libyan elections by the end of this year, despite the danger of plunging the country torn by civil war deeper into turmoil. Ghassan Salame, the UN envoy to Libya, supports the proposed elections but warned that myriad conditions still need to be met before sending Libyans to the ballot box.

The primary requirement, he told reporters last month in the capital of Tripoli, is adopting a new constitution that all Libyans can stand behind. Without one, parliamentary elections risk prolonging the political deadlock that has crippled the country.

Yet Tarek Megerisi, a Libyan analyst and a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al-Monitor several countries are lobbying local politicians to have elections whether Libya has a constitution or not.

Some countries see elections as a way to propel the party they are supporting into power. Other nations have economic ambitions in Libya, and they need a legal body to sign big contracts. But none of these countries really care for the stability of [Libya], Megerisi recently said by phone.

A Western diplomat recently told the BBC that France is one of the countries pushing hardest for elections despite the lack of security in the country. Not only are militias such as the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA)  which controls the eastern part of the country from Tobruk  undermining civilian institutions, but porous borders have also enabled tens of millions of arms to enter the country.

The problem with having elections so soon is that there are no avenues for people to dispute the results. And if some militias say that the result isn't in their favor, then they wont accept it, Megerisi said.

LNA head Gen. Khalifa Hifter even told the French Pan-African magazine Jeune Afrique that he will take the country by force if he doesnt like the election results.

Hifter has hinted that he would run for election, though not all of his supporters say they will vote for him. Omar Kharoubi, one of the founders of the LNA foreign media office in Benghazi, told Al-Monitor he prefers Hifter as head of Libyas military.

Hifter is a good guy, but hes good with guns, said Kharoubi. Hes a military man, but not a guy to run the politics of the country.

Hifter could nonetheless prevent anyone from running against him in areas under LNA control, and some may already face targeting for electoral aspirations. On Jan. 4, unknown gunmen assassinated Salah al-Qatrani, an education official, outside his home in the Benghazi suburb of El-Biyar. And while there was no stated motive, Qatrani was killed just days after announcing his intention to run in parliamentary elections.

Militias from the western port city of Misrata that are nominally aligned with the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli are also obstructing the pathway to elections. Salame, the UN envoy, has stated that all of Libyas 165,478 internally displaced persons need to be returned to their villages before elections are held. One major priority is to return the 40,000 people who were driven from Tawergha by Misrata fighters in 2011 during the uprising in which Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi was deposed and then killed. Since that time, the Tawerghans  who had supported Gadhafi  have been living in tents in desert camps.

In August 2017, the UN brokered a reconciliation between the Tawerghans and Misrata forces allowing for the former to be allowed to return. But shortly after the Government of National Accord tried to enforce the agreement Feb. 1, Misrata fighters blocked thousands of Tawerghans from returning to their homes. The setback was a reminder that Libyas institutions are at the mercy of militias.

Some militias in Misrata were against the idea that the [Tawerghans] should come back. But I think its time for them to return, said Abdel Hamed Ishra, a fighter with a group in Misrata called al-Tayyar al-Watani.

When Al-Monitor asked Ishra whether he would support elections by the end of the year, he said, I dont think there can be an election right now or anytime soon. We cant have elections when Libya has no single authority and everybody has guns.

Zahra Langhi, co-founder of the Libyans Woman Platform for Peace, agreed. Instead of elections, she said, Libya needs to adopt a constitution that is inclusive of women and minorities. She advocates amending Libyas first constitution from 1951 so that it reflects today's realities. That document is still considered progressive by many observers because it enshrines human rights.

The next steps, Langhi said, would be to unify the countrys institutions and build social cohesion in fragmented communities.

Im not in favor of elections at a time when Libya is experiencing so much insecurity, trauma and anarchy, she told Al-Monitor. Libyans need to resolve the constitutional issue first. Stability wont be achieved through another election. It can only be achieved if we undergo a state-building process.

Memories of Libyas last election in June 2014 are still fresh in Langhis mind. It was during that period that her close friend and co-founder of Libyans Woman Platform for Peace, Salwa Bugaighis, was murdered in her home by unknown gunmen, presumably for encouraging Libyans to vote.

Libya descended into the current civil war in 2014 after the General National Congress  which had been in charge  was voted out but refused to step down. The House of Representatives, which won the election, was forced to relocate to the far eastern city of Tobruk. Libya might suffer an even worse fate, Langhi warned, if people are pushed to the ballot box too soon.

If Libya has elections at the end of 2018, then we would be repeating a terrible mistake, she told Al-Monitor. "Im certain that the election wouldnt result in a peaceful transition of power."BEIRUT  It is officially election season in Lebanon, and the air is quickly filling up with the chatter of candidates, programs, videos, publicity stunts and alliances. Who can blame them? It has been almost a decade since Lebanons last parliamentary elections on June 7, 2009; the delay has been caused political disagreement over the creation of a new electoral law, security concerns, a partial political vacuum and two-year stalemate over the presidency, which led to the elections being postponed twice, allowing parliament to extend its own mandate twice.

Now, nine years and a new electoral law later  a hybrid based on proportional representation where voters have to select a list of pre-decided candidates for their electoral district but get to select their preferred candidate within that list  Lebanon is gearing up for a political battle May 6. The elections are expected to pit the countrys old guard against a new, alternative political current.

Competing for the 128 parliamentary seats are 976 candidates (999 sought to run but 23 were rejected due to incomplete applications), including 111 female candidates, up from the 12 female candidates who participated in the 2009 elections. The candidates are a veritable whos who of Lebanons political, media and civil society.

In addition to entrenched veterans such as former Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Michel Murr, Marwan Hamadeh and Yassine Jaber, this years candidates include dozens of sons and daughters of former and current politicians, including first-timers such as Taymour Jumblatt (son of Walid Jumblatt), Tony Franjieh (grandson of Suleiman Franjieh) and Michelle Tueni (daughter of Gebran Tueni).

But in a country where the sitting prime minister, Saad Hariri, is the son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the foreign minister, Gibran Bassil, is the son-in-law of the president, Michel Aoun  essentially where dynasties control patronage networks in their communities  these particular candidates do little to raise eyebrows. Those who are raising eyebrows, however, are the new class of political activists preparing to face off with the political heavyweights.

An array of activists has clubbed together to form a national coalition called Tahaluf Watani  which includes around 11 different movements, including Li Baladi, Baalbak Madinati and You Stink!  to compete for seats across the countrys 15 districts. They include some who shot to fame for their activism during the 2015 garbage crisis, such as Asaad Thebian, Marwan Maalouf and Imad Bazzi of the You Stink! movement. Others include local celebrity Paula Yacoubian, a political talk show host on the Hariri-owned Future TV who quit her job in television in order to run as a candidate for the "leaderless" political movement Sabaa.

Weve decided to run because those who took to the streets in 2011 and 2015 need to have their voices heard in parliament, Thebian, who is running in the 1st Beirut district, told Al-Monitor. We need radical change in the system; we need to hold the government accountable, and we really need to have a functioning state and parliamentarians who know society.

Aware that establishment parties have much deeper pockets to spend on their electoral campaigns, the civil society activists are banking on their collective social media presence and on-the-ground interaction with voters to reach a much wider audience.

We are nonsectarian, nonpartisan, and we are unifying our voices and our power and offering solutions to issues, Thebian said.

But for many, including those within the current political system, the elections are expected to be a continuum of the current establishment with little impact from the new alternative movement led by the activists.

Theyre like the guy who pisses in the ocean and thinks it will rise, Bassem Shabb, a current member of parliament within the Future Bloc, told Al-Monitor of the activist movements. I dont view them as a threat [in the elections]; rather, I view them as agents of positive change.

Shabb added, While I dont think theyre capable of huge change because the political system doesnt allow for small groups of individuals to make a change, they can get the political parties to be more inclusive. Currently, many of the parties are largely made up of traditional political families and a rigid power structure, making it difficult for new political activists to enter the system.

And political parties have diversified their candidate lists for these elections, tapping into the trend and adopting local celebrities and civil society activists; the Christian right-wing Lebanese Forces has brought popular MTV news anchor Jessica Azar on board, while unionist and social welfare activist Nehme Mahfoud is now running as a candidate for Hariris Future Movement.

According to Rabie Barakat, a Lebanese political commentator and former opinion editor of Assafir newspaper, the civil society movement is unlikely to see any tangible results in the elections.

They lack proper coordination; some are running from an apolitical perspective, which doesnt work in parliamentary elections. They lack sufficient resources, and they are not part of the present clientelistic structure in Lebanon, meaning they are already lagging behind in terms of solid support base, he told Al-Monitor. Lebanons political structure is dominated by a religion-driven patron-client relationship between political figures and their communities  a structure that has been in place for decades. Barakat added, Also, most of the establishment parties are supported by regional players, which also increases their chances in the elections.

With the new electoral law being practiced for the first time, from the redefined districts to the proportional representation system to the only one-preferred-candidate option, many within the electorate and the parties themselves will be viewing these elections as an experiment  whether forging new alliances in specific districts to ensure seats or running candidates based on their popularity and leverage among the electorate (as voters are only entitled to choose one name per list). But it is already apparent that the new electoral law is tipped in favor of the ruling parties.

While the introduction of proportional representation is a step forward in itself, said Barakat, the electoral districts are still more or less tailored to suit the political parties in the establishment.

Furthermore, the lists require enough candidates to fill 40% of the available seats for each particular district, forcing independent candidates to form alliances with others. While the same applies to political parties, they are currently seeking to form alliances among themselves, meaning little will change regarding the makeup of the political system.In ousting his chief diplomat on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump has eliminated a key champion for ending the monthslong Gulf crisis over Qatar and left US plans to resolve the dispute in flux.

Trumps surprise decision to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo sent shock waves through Washington, just a week before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to visit. Tillerson had close ties with all the Gulf leaders from his four decades with Exxon Mobil, while Pompeo is largely seen as more sympathetic to Saudi criticism of Qatari ties to Islamists and Iran.

Qatar is in trouble now, theyre going to have to give up something, said Theodore Karasik, an analyst with Washington-based consulting firm Gulf State Analytics. Doha may have overplayed its hand by relying too much on Tillerson. I dont think the US can do much to settle the conflict.

A Qatari official who spoke to Al-Monitor said the emirate, which has faced a Saudi-led embargo over alleged terror ties for the past nine months, is still figuring out how theyll handle Pompeo, a former three-term Republican congressman from Kansas who took the helm of the spy agency in January 2017.

"Qatar looks forward to working closely with Mr. Pompeo, to build on the numerous strategic partnerships between our two countries," the official told Al-Monitor. "We also look forward to the upcoming visit of His Highness the Amir to the White House in April, expanding our bilateral relations, improving regional stability and resolving the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] crisis."

A key element in the relationship is the US air base at al-Udeid, which serves as the forward headquarters of US Central Command and houses 11,000 American troops. Amid the crisis, Qatars detractors have doubled down on their efforts to get the United States to pull out, so far to no effect.

Hacked emails last summer showed that leaders of the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, held discussions about Qatar last summer. After an email from John Hannah  who was a national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney  complained about Hamas holding an event at an Emirati-owned hotel in Qatar, Otaiba responded: Hows this, you move the base then well move the hotel :-)

Pompeo spoke at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies conference in October, but did not mention Qatar. He last visited Saudi Arabia in December and met with Qatari officials during their visits to Washington.

One of Pompeos first acts at the CIA was to travel to Saudi Arabia and to recognize Prince Mohammed bin Nayef for his anti-terrorism record. The prince was next in line to the throne until his cousin Mohammed bin Salman deposed him in a palace coup. Months later, Tillerson signed an agreement in July with Doha on combating terrorism in a failed attempt to quickly resolve the Gulf crisis.

Still, the White House has continued to denounce Qatars alleged failure to sufficiently crack down on terrorism. In December, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said funding of extremism through Islamic charities and social organizations is done more by Qatar, and by Turkey."

The first test of the post-Tillerson era will come in April, when Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani makes his first White House visit under Trump. The visit may be followed by a Gulf Cooperation Council summit on US soil, which the Qatari official said is still most probably going to happen despite Tillersons exit.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia will see Tillersons ousting as an opportunity to draw out the clock, said Andrew Bowen, a visiting fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. They can potentially push the administration to turn closer to their position.

But despite Tillersons departure, its not clear that the White House is ready to give up al-Udeid, the US base of operations for B-52 bomber flights into Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Defense Secretary James Mattis has visited the base twice since the Gulf spat broke out in June.

Al-Udeid as an option is not on the table, that was never a realistic option, said Sigurd Neubauer, a Washington-based Middle East analyst. None of the other countries have the ability to build a base from scratch with $80 billion.

Pompeos ascent, however, may move the needle on the terror-financing issue, with legislation moving through Congress designed to cut off funding to Hamas.

I think [Pompeo's] going to be very clear with states such as Qatar  knock it off with funding Islamic extremists, Norman Roule, a former senior US intelligence official, said at the Saudi-funded Arabia Foundation event today that spotlighted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans upcoming visit. The rhetoric will be more unified, but at the end of the day there are some hard physics about what you can do in the region.

Update: March 15, 2018. This story was updated with comment from a Qatari official.Women who fled to Egypt to escape the Syrian war are learning to stand up for themselves despite their refugee status. Sharing the common experiences of war and displacement, fear and uncertainty, these women are training to fight harassment, assault, theft and other problems that plague them in a land that's not their own.

The Souriyat Association, a nongovernmental organization in Cairo, has provided help to Syrian women since 2014. The group offers a variety of training and a sense of community. One of its more recent efforts, launched in November, has begun bearing fruit, empowering women physically, emotionally and economically, according to head Latifa Daghman.

The program includes self-defense classes. There's an urgent need to teach refugees self-defense, as so many of them have been subjected to verbal and physical harassment as well as theft, Daghman told Al-Monitor in a phone interview. Syrian women ought to be able to stand up for themselves, she said, so they can adapt to societies and communities that are different from where they were born and raised.

"I think Syrian women are vulnerable. They are not economically empowered and are without any income. They keep silent when they are abused or humiliated. All this is the result of a lack of cultural awareness, as they aren't familiar with their legal and social rights, she said.

The idea of the initiative came about while we were still in Syria, before we moved to Egypt in 2013," she explained. We discovered that Syrian womens suffering here is greater than in Syria, given the difference in the societal view of women, especially refugee women, who are looked down on and treated unfairly without any regard to their rights, Daghman said.

The training also includes human rights courses to educate Syrian women about Egyptian laws on physical or emotional abuse, so they know what they can do if they are exposed to such violence. There are also programs about self-confidence and mental health.

Souriyat's leadership was surprised by the strong turnout of women wanting to participate. We didn't expect these large numbers of ladies to show up for the courses and classes," Daghman said. "I can say that after several classes, these women are feeling more confident to take matters into their own hands.

One participant was later robbed but managed to defend herself. "Another woman hit a harasser and reported to a nearby police station," Daghman said.

Zahra Abed has been a committed participant in the self-defense training for months. The mental health and combat courses have had a great positive impact on my life after many hardships in the past three years, Abed told Al-Monitor.

I arrived in Egypt in 2013 and started looking for a job that suited me. I started working with my sister making and delivering Syrian food in Cairo, but it was exhausting. I then took a job in a nursery for a pittance. My employer tried to exploit my situation as a refugee to get money from the childrens parents, who empathized with me." To her, it seemed marriage was her only option  one she faced reluctantly.

"I met an Egyptian man and after several attempts to persuade me, I finally caved. When we got married, everything became different. He started mistreating, insulting and beating me," Abed recounted. Now after taking several courses, I've learned to be more assertive, more confident and to stand up for myself."

Lina Haki followed her uncles to Egypt with her brothers who fled the Syrian war. Her suffering began as soon as she set foot in Egypt in 2012.

Egyptians were very welcoming, but I could see how young Egyptian men looked at us. They thought that we were ready to sell our bodies since we are refugees and in need of money and jobs. I have been harassed physically and verbally on several occasions, she told Al-Monitor.

Haki recently joined self-defense and psychotherapy courses and is also learning new skills such as knitting and sewing to be able to support herself.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as of Jan. 31, 48.4% of the 127,414 Syrian refugees registered with the organization are women.

Syrian human rights activist Rafaa al-Rafii, who has been in Egypt since 2012, told Al-Monitor, Syrian women living in Egypt have become more aware of their rights and situation thanks to these courses. Today, many women are immediately reporting harassment to the nearest police station." They are also reporting incidents to UNHCR, which provides lawyers to help with all the legal procedures, she said.

In Egypt, the National Council for Women is the body officially responsible for womens affairs, in accordance with a presidential decree. But the decree doesn't address care for non-Egyptian women.

Daghman said she found it interesting when non-Syrian foreigners also began coming to the center. A bigger surprise, however, was when Egyptian women joined the self-defense classes, she said.

Egyptian participant Nirmin Mohammed said she wanted to change her life after being physically and emotionally abused by her husband for eight years. I do not wish for my daughter to go through what I had to endure at the hands of her father. He humiliated, beat and insulted me. He sometimes withheld money," she said.

"I went through a lot of hardships in my life. After my divorce, I decided to change my life for the better and become a stronger version of myself so I can raise my daughter to be strong and able to stand up for herself.Two Greek soldiers tracking footprints on the Turkish-Greek border crossed into Turkey on March 1. Greece insists that the young soldiers had accidentally strayed into a Turkish military zone due to heavy snowfall that had impaired their vision. Turkey, however, arrested the pair on espionage charges.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza government are taking a somewhat subdued approach to the issue of the soldiers, agreeing in an internal Cabinet meeting that Turkey, a NATO ally, would sooner or later drop the issue instead of exploiting it further. Athens, and the European Union by extension, is not interested in escalating tensions with Turkey beyond rhetoric.

But the arrest and detention of the two Greek soldiers is only the latest in an ongoing saga between the two countries. Tensions have been particularly high since Recep Tayyip Erdogans historic, albeit controversial, visit to Athens last November. The Turkish president spoke of revising the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which delineates the Turkish-Greek border and is a cornerstone of the two countries peace agreement.

Relations have particularly deteriorated since Athens refused to extradite eight Turkish soldiers accused of involvement in the failed 2016 coup. In January, the Greek Supreme Court ruled that the soldiers would be unlikely to receive a fair trial in Turkey. Turkey was furious, but Ankara expressed willingness to exchange the two Greek soldiers for the eight Turks, a negotiation Tsipras resoundingly refuses.

Turkey and Greece have been at odds over a string of territorial issues  land, sea and air  for decades. The so-called dog fights over the Aegean, where Greek and Turkish airplanes violate each others airspace, have continued. In a single day in February, Turkey violated Greek airspace over 30 times. The same month, Turkish and Greek coastguard vessels collided near the Imia islands; Ankara claims it was accidental.

Turkey is provoking and violating Greek and EU waters, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said after the incident.

While security experts agree there is no plan on the Turkish side to stage an actual offensive on Greece  indeed, Turkeys foreign ambitions lay to its southern border  the deepening tensions between the two countries are emblematic of Erdogans increasingly confrontational foreign policy, and the ramifications are being felt in Greece.

What we've seen in the Aegean and with the detention of the two soldiers is symptomatic of something larger in Turkey, rather than being specifically related to Greece. We have seen the same brinkmanship in Afrin and in taking nationals of Germany and the United States hostage. In that sense the two Greek soldiers are in the same pattern, Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based political analyst, told Al-Monitor by phone.

And the ongoing escalation of political rhetoric between Greece and Turkey has recently played itself out in one of the most peculiar of places: Kinaros, a tiny Greek island that is one of the 18 islets the Turkish government has publicly claimed belongs to Turkey.

Kinaros is home to only one person, Irini Katsotourhi. Last week, in light of Katsotourhi losing her state bonus  but also in light of her being the sole resident on an island Turkey is trying to lay claim to  the Hellenic Entrepreneurs Association (EENE) adopted the widow, assuming all her financial and medical needs.

EENE likened the septuagenarian Katsotourhi to a Spartan at the Battle of Thermopylae, a reference to the ancient war when Greek Spartans led a brave, but ultimately failed, resistance to the much stronger Persian army. From the Greek perspective, the historical parallel, now aimed toward Turkey, still stands.

The need to defend our national interests concerns all of us. The call is for national conscience, vigilance and decisive contribution and generosity, to each ones ability, EENE stated. Though Katsotourhi has been elevated to something of a national hero in Greece, the news did not reach the local Turkish press.

Nationalistic fervor is running high on both the Greek and Turkish sides. The naming dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has stoked nationalistic feelings across Greece, resulting in large-scale protests. Over the weekend, right-wing Greek groups burned the Turkish flag in a public demonstration. Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Erdogan, likened the act to a hate crime and demanded the arrest of the Greek protesters.

Such events have forced the Syriza government into an awkward position of maintaining diplomacy with Turkey while seeking help from the EU and NATO, and publicly declaring that it will defend its national borders. Opposition parties have taken advantage of Syrizas delicate situation by taking a more hard-line, nationalistic approach on both the FYROM and Turkish issues.

Meanwhile in Turkey, over the last two to three years, Erdogan has adopted a very Turkish nationalist stance, Jenkins said. Citing Turkeys economic woes and the depreciation of the lira, he noted that Erdogan is perpetuating a sense of importance on these issues to distract from domestic tensions. I dont think this is part of a calculated strategy. Rather, [Erdogan] sees this as an opportunity to strengthen his nationalistic Turkish muscle, he added.

However, as Turkey becomes an increasingly volatile state actor, it has become difficult to separate Erdogans posturing from possible action  and though it might not be specifically directed at Greece, as Turkeys closest EU neighbor, Greece will undoubtedly feel whatever shockwaves come from Turkish foreign or domestic policy. It remains to be seen how  or if  the EU and Turkey will be able to reconcile at a summit in the Black Sea port city of Varna on March 26.

I think we are getting close to a breaking point, Jenkins said. It cant go on like this indefinitely  but when and how this will break I dont know.Um Sameh, from east Damascus, has led a tireless campaign to fight the rampant starvation gripping her besieged city. In the kitchen of an unassuming farmhouse, she and a small group of volunteers cook meals daily in a collection of enormous pots and then risk their lives to deliver food under shelling to hundreds of civilians trapped inside homes across Ghouta. Their organization, One Hand, is a call for compassion toward people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Um Sameh cuts a solitary figure, her small Suzuki weaving through the haze of shattered streets on her daily food runs in Ghouta, on the southeastern edge of Damascus. The relief provided by Um Sameh's daily deliveries is rare mercy for a civilian population pinned down in their shelters amid relentless bombardment and possible suffocation from the Syrian regimes use of banned chemical weapons.

Um Sameh is deliberate in risking her life to venture out. I dont like people to come to the kitchen, she said. We are always afraid when it comes to people being together in a group during the shelling, so for this reason I started going to them instead.

These words were spoken by a mother who has received little mercy herself during the tumultuous years of the Syrian conflict. One Hand's founding dates back to the early days of the siege in 2014, but the fuller story began with a very different kind of tragedy  the abduction of Um Sameh's son by government security officers in 2012.

Sameh was finishing his final year at medical school when officers entered his home one night and hauled him away without explanation. His mother spent the next months in a frantic search, going from facility to facility in search of news about him.

I did everything to try to find him. I called so many people and groups, human rights organizations that work on these things, everyone. But absolutely nobody could help me, Um Sameh said. It was all a failure.

Prior to her sons arrest, Um Sameh had begun delivering medical supplies to front-line relief stations in her hometown of Harasta. Amid her search for Sameh, authorities had grown suspicious of her, and she was subsequently accused of terrorism and detained. They held Um Sameh for several months, moving her from one location to another, before releasing her in January 2013.

Suffering from partial blindness in one eye due to high blood pressure related to the stress of detention, Um Sameh immediately struck out for the besieged neighborhoods of east Damascus, where she had lived most of her life. What she found was a humanitarian disaster and famine that had dramatically escalated during her time in prison. The regime had targeted shops, and the food that could be found was mostly smuggled through tunnels and sold at exorbitant prices.

The situation in Ghouta was very grave, Um Sameh recalled. I asked myself, what can I do to help people? They are starving. So it just seemed natural to open a small kitchen.

By collecting small donations from surviving local shops, Um Sameh and a group of five volunteers began cooking meals, preparing cig kofte (balls of bulgur wheat and meat), manoushe (flat bread with various toppings), baked pastries, rice and simple Syrian sauces. They then packaged the food in ready-to-eat cartons and delivered them to a handful of starving families around eastern Ghouta.

As bombing intensified and international aid ground to a halt, the scale of suffering began to vastly overtake One Hands meager resources. Um Sameh decided at that point to reach out beyond the enclave and was able to strike up partnerships with other civil society organizations, such as Women Now, which helped with immediate relief in the form of 285,000 Syrian pounds (around $1,500 at the time).

Subsequent online campaigns launched by friends outside Syria were able to raise more funds. Um Sameh expanded operations, buying more pots, purchasing large quantities of smuggled food and organizing a network of distributors to drive all around eastern Ghouta.

People close to One Hand estimate that the organization feeds more than 250 families a day, and additional monetary aid generated through online campaigns was donated to support 300 children of widowed mothers in eastern Ghouta.

Um Sameh is yet to learn the fate of her son, more than five years after he was detained. Unable to help him, she is instead determined to remain in the besieged enclave and feed those suffering from hunger.

My work is an extension of the medical relief I was doing before. It is only about civilians, she said. Thats what I am going to dedicate myself to until the last day of my life.

The Syria Institute estimates that 400,000 civilians are trapped in besieged areas of eastern Ghouta. Executive Director Valerie Szybala told Al-Monitor that a 2015 study she conducted suggested that at least 500 people at that time had already died in besieged areas as a direct result of starvation. She noted that exact numbers are difficult to collect under the circumstances.The My Lai massacre was one of the worst atrocities of the Vietnam War. Ten years ago, Al Jazeeras Josh Rushing, a former marine himself, visited My Lai as US veteran Ken Schiel returned to the site of the massacre for the first time to meet survivors and set the record straight.

Rushing spoke with Al Jazeera about his experience meeting people on both sides of the atrocity and his personal take on the events as a former soldier.

Al Jazeera: Can you take us back to that moment in the film when Ken Schiel met one of his victims. What was that moment like?

Josh Rushing: When Ken [Schiel of Charlie Company] came, it was straight from the airport, and that was my first time to meet him; you see it on camera, me shaking his hand as he gets out of the van. We asked him to walk around the place [My Lai], see what he remembers while doing that, Cong [a survivor of the massacre] saw us and inquired about who Ken was and where he was during Vietnam; it all started to unfold before our eyes.

As the emotions evolved, it came to the point where we thought we should stop [the interaction] and come back to it later. I was new to journalism and thought that kind of moment must happen all the time. Now, 10 years later, I realise that that was an extraordinary moment.

Al Jazeera: He [Ken] seemed to struggle with answering your questions. What do you think was going through his mind?

Rushing: I believe that for Ken to be able to continue living his life, he had to silo what had happened in Vietnam. He had the memories, but there was no way that he was going to engage with the morality of it. I got the sense that he felt if he started to, he might not be able to control the flood of emotions and the guilt.

When we had the idea to try and find someone from Charlie Company to take back [to My Lai] we got the court records and had all these names and social security numbers; and so we started contacting people. An alarming number of those people had actually killed themselves. Another group of these people were just in terrible shape.

We finally found one guy who would go, he calls us back a week later and says his therapist said absolutely no way, not a good idea. On the day we were about to leave the country, Ken was the last number that we called, and he said he would go. We were rather surprised. After Vietnam, he had gone on to be a cop, and he had just completely walled off inside himself what he did there and what had happened there.

When Ken and Cong first met, the men were not aware of each others part in the My Lai massacre [Screengrab/Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera: As a former soldier yourself, how difficult is it when youre in the field and youre asked to do something that you morally disagree with?

Rushing: I think it would be easy to sit back, judge that situation and think that you would act differently. The reality of it is, when you go through boot camp, they really break down who you are and they build you back up to this other thing.

For me, it was this US Marine. That was my identity. You had this ultimate trust in your leadership, that youre not going to be given orders that are illegal and so, of course, you follow them. Then you take that person and put them in a place like Vietnam, where everything youve ever learned about a moral compass has been thrown out the window. You lose the sense of whats right and whats wrong in that kind of environment and you end up following orders.

The thing about war is, we send young people to fight these wars, who don't have the wisdom that we gain as older people. There's a reason why there isn't a bunch of 40 and 50-year-olds fighting wars. Josh Rushling, Al Jazeera

But I still think theres that sense of humanity in you that says: this isnt right. In the court documents with Ken, someone testified they saw him firing into a crowd of civilians while saying, I dont wanna do this, I dont wanna do this, so clearly he was struggling with it.

The thing about war is, we send young people to fight these wars, who dont have the wisdom that we gain as older people. Theres a reason why there isnt a bunch of 40 and 50-year-olds fighting wars.

The entire [US] Marine Corps is 172,000 people. If you take the average age, including all the four-star generals in the Marine Corps, the average age is still just over 20 years old. Thats how many young people are at the bottom of that pyramid. At my age, 45, looking back at a 19-year-old kid  that is a child.

And yet, we give them weapons and put them in the most complex situations that you can imagine and have them make life-or-death decisions and then sit back and morally judge them for doing so.

Al Jazeera: Can you look back at the My Lai massacre and tell us what lessons can be learned?

Rushing: The massacre didnt even get reported or come out for a couple of years [after]. It only came out because one soldier talked to another solider, who eventually talked to a young reporter named Seymour Hersh. That kind of warfare  go in and kill everything that moves  is not effective, its not legal, its not morally correct. I think we know that now but war seems to repeat itself.

There actually are no survivors in war. The village in My Lai wasnt even named My Lai; it was called something else. My Lai was a misnomer on an American map  so even that original village name didnt survive. No one really survived in that village that day. Cong a completely different human than he was before that happened and that shaped who he ended up bwas ecoming.

The soldiers we tried to get to go [to My Lai] none of them really survived either. The ones who didnt kill themselves  they werent really the complete pictures of human beings that they would have wanted to be. But those who do survive war and get old enough to realise its atrocities and how wrong it is its already too late. The next generation is already there, fighting  theyre fighting the next one.

The My Lai massacre was one of the worst atrocities of the Vietnam War [Ronald S. Harberle/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images]

Al Jazeera: As a former soldier, what was it like for you going back to what was one of the US armys biggest disgraces?

Rushing: It was really personal. There wasnt a separation that there might be for another reporter. At every moment I was wondering, What would I have done? That was not long after I had left the Marine Corps, and I had been quite public about the regret I had over the role that I had served as a spokesperson, going into the Iraq war and how I had been used to sell that war.

In dealing with my own feelings about that I had a sort of empathy for Ken, even though what I did is not on par with what he did, I had an empathy and a very personal curiosity: what would I have done in My Lai? Id like to think that I would have done the right thing I dont know.

I will say there were heroes to come out of My Lai; My Lai was stopped by an American officer, Hugh Thompson, who literally lowered his helicopter in between Americans who were firing machines guns into the crowd of Vietnamese. He told his door gunner on the helicopter that if they didnt stop their fire  the Americans  to open fire on them.

That would have been the only case of US troops intentionally firing at each other. But thats the level it was at, to stop what he witnessed that day. Thompson and his crew were the heroes that came out of that.

As many as 500 people were killed or injured by US troops in the attack, which took place over several days [Ronald S. Haeberle/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images]

Al Jazeera: What are you hearing now from the families of the victims, years after the massacre. How are they coping?

Rushing: I havent talked to Cong since then but the next day when I ran into him, he said that hed been drinking all night at the grave of his relatives. He told them that he was sorry, that he met the very man that may have killed them and yet he couldnt avenge their deaths.

He couldnt kick him, or hit him or kill him because he represents the government of Vietnam and they have a different policy now. But he was absolutely wrecked by it. We met another survivor who had returned, and they were there just by chance; she found her home standing. She was emotionally destroyed by it. Its like I said, there were no survivors on that awful day.

Editors note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.Over many years a tacit pro-Kremlin consensus has developed in Westminster  across the political spectrum.

Britain is not inclined to admit we are susceptible to state capture by foreign powers  but we are.

On March 11, the Sunday Times newspaper published a front-page story on how the Conservative Party had accepted millions from Kremlin-linked political donors  over 3 million British pounds ($4.2m) from suspect Russian figures channelled to the Conservatives since they took office in 2010. Ministers were increasingly concerned about the effect this would have on Mays policies.

Less than a week before the investigation was published, in the medieval city of Salisbury, southern England, a Russian man called Sergei Skripal and his daughter had been mysteriously poisoned. The pair are still in critical condition in hospital.

The crime was carried out using a rare form of nerve agent  a chemical that was only available from Russian state-owned laboratories.

The Soviet-era Russian chemist who invented the nerve gas chosen by the assailants said it will likely leave the Skripals needing close medical attention for the rest of their lives, if the gas does not kill them outright.

The British army also had to be deployed to Salisbury, to collect evidence, identify further threats, and eventually realise there is a chancethat dozens of British civilians have also been affected.

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The primary target of this obvious Russian state hit was a former Russian special forces soldier turned senior intelligence officer in the Russian military intelligence directorate GRU, who had been talent-spotted by Russian spy chiefs while serving on the front line in eighties Afghanistan.

Eventually though, over many years, Skripal accepted money from MI6 for information on Russian espionage networks and was finally caught in 2004 and exposed as a double agent.

When he was arrested for passing these secrets to the British, FSB officers dragged him by his hair from his apartment, and presented his straining face to national TV cameras as a form of humiliation. He would spend the next six years in a penal colony.

In 2010, Skripal was one of four spies swapped in return for the so-called Anna Chapman ring.

Skripal reportedly begged not to be released precisely because he feared assassination. He decided to move to Britain.

He had been living in Salisbury since then. The poison was likely administered in the quiet town  in an Italian restaurant, riverside pub or at his family home. He was still co-operating with elements of the British intelligence community; he was one of ours, who Theresa May had a duty to protect, both as home secretary when she oversaw the domestic intelligence agencies, and as prime minister.

It is not just Skripal that is now near death though. Two days ago, the body of Nikolai Glushkov, the closest aide of former anti-Putin oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found at his house in London.

Speculation in the Russian emigre community is that he was either poisoned or strangled. The suspected murder is now being investigated by the same police looking at Skripals death.

The same was said of the mysterious death in London of Glushkovs old boss, Berezovsky, when he was found hanged in his British home in 2013.

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The problem of Russian assassinations being carried out on British soil is not rare, then  it is systemic.

Buzzfeed published late last year, that 14 British and Russian citizens had been potentially assassinated in Britain since 2006. As of the past 10 days, that figure has nearly risen to 16. All the fourteen cases identified by Buzzfeed have now been re-opened.

The UK has been chosen as Putins killing ground for so many years  through five prime ministers and four governments  not just because plenty of exiled Russians live here in London, but because Putin holds so much influence in post-imperial 21st-century Britain. Executing people is illegal under Russian law  but Putin has found a way around this rule, by executing dissidents when they flee abroad, in a jurisdiction that allows him to get away with it.

A pro-Kremlin consensus

The three most influential political forces in Britain  left-wing Labour, right-wing Conservatives, and the alt-right UKIP movement  appear almost totally compromised by the Kremlins agenda.

Following an investigation I and a colleague published for openDemocracy, the Electoral Commission is now investigating whether a key financier behind UKIP, a shady entrepreneur called Arron Banks, was the true source of money given towards the Brexit referendum, or he was only acting as an agent.

Investigators are yet to formally draw a conclusion, but both Banks, a huge personality within alt-right social media, and his sponsored pet-leader, Nigel Farage, have frequently praised Vladimir Putin.

Farage has also been named as a person of interest in the investigation into Trump-Russia collusion.

Then you have the left-wing Labour Party  whose chief party strategist has historically argued in favour of Putins annexation of Crimea. In October 2014, Milne was invited to the Kremlin-sponsored Valdai Discussion Club, including being invited to chair the session where Putin was interviewed.

Corbyn has told Twitter followers in 2011 that the Kremlin-run propaganda channel RT is more objective on Libya than most. Over the past few days, he and Milne have repeatedly questioned the validity of evidence gathered by crime scene investigators, to outrage from his own MPs and to the delight of Russian state news broadcasters.

The Conservatives, in power for nearly eight years, like Tony Blairs Labour Party before them  have wooed wealthy Russians to London regardless of their potential criminal pasts or closeness to the increasingly anti-Western Kremlin. These oligarchs and exiles have made London their personal, business, political, and sometimes criminal, playgrounds.

The Russian-speaking former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is now foreign secretary and took great care to cultivate the Russian oligarch community while running the capital. He advocated several times that the UK should work with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and Russia to defeat ISIL.

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George Osborne, the former chief finance minister and now editor of the Russian-owned Evening Standard, was keen on rich Russians, in particular, coming in to beef up the economy after the 2008 recession.

Accordingly, he kept money laundering and tax evasion provisions light to ensure the Russian oligarchs werent tempted by Geneva or Monaco.

In 2012, Conservatives were finally caught out when a lobbying organisation calling itself Conservative Friends of Russia was revealed as a Russian government front. The group simply rebranded and re-named after it was exposed  and still exists today.

What should May do?

Prime Minister Theresa May must now choose what to do, with a party behind her and donors who sympathise with Putin, a party opposite whose leadership think the same, and a strident radical tone in British politics which the Russian premier has already attempted to enflame via social media propaganda and fake news.

So May has so far announced that only 23 Russian diplomats will be expelled in retaliation. She will not strip RT of its broadcasting license as expected.

She has said that rooting out Russian espionage networks will be a higher priority. This is much needed. The domestic intelligence service was under Mays ministerial responsibility before she became prime minister, continuously from 2010 to 2016. The latest figures show MI5 has just 18 percent of its budget dedicated to hostile state activity and protective security with the rest allocated to the relatively minor threat of terrorism.

Despite her post-Brexit international isolation, May faces an historic choice. Uniquely in the world, she controls the two critical levers of Putins continued power  the wealth of his oligarch supporters, and prospects for the Russian economy overall. No other country threatened by Putin can claim these.

Firstly, she could properly seize the billions in assets that Putins personal friends and key political allies hold in London, and in British-controlled tax havens around the world, including cars, houses, televisions, motorbikes, jewellery, bank accounts, British passports and visas. This sanctions hit-list should be selected based on people who are not just commercially or politically close to Putin  but also personally. Putin will face internal revolt at the highest levels if Britain seizes these ill-gotten assets owned by his greedy inner circle.

Secondly, after Cyprus, Britain, combined with the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands (all under ultimate British jurisdiction), provides the second-largest amount of foreign direct investment in Russia, even after sanctions hit in 2014. Without even a portion of this money  impaired by real sanctions, the Putin regime could collapse.

Putin kills people in Britain because he can, because he has before and because he knows there will be no reaction. He kills people at home, too  journalists, politicians, activists, lawyers and ordinary protesters. Abroad, ask Chechens or Syrians: Putin can be immeasurably more brutal.

May could well yet act and announce new measures to truly punish him  but surrounded by those so chronically compromised by the Russian state  will she?

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.In a daring, bold, and defiant move Steve Bannon  the racist white supremacist adviser (until very recently) to the democratically elected president of the United States  told a gathering of likeminded French racists: Let them call you racist. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honour. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker.

This is not a revelation. This is a confession, a public admission of otherwise private convictions.

Steve Bannon and his ardent supporters in the US and France and rest of Europe are racists and are proud of it. Let the world take note of this.

According to Steve Bannon, a major component of US and European societies  a component that in his estimation is getting stronger  believes that they are white and that whites are a superior race. They think their race is being threatened by blacks and all other coloured people they have invented. And they think it is time to go out and declare this prophetic mission openly and proudly to attract more followers and put us all, Jews and Gentiles, Muslims or otherwise, all coloured people of the world, if not in concentration and internment camps then at least in our right place as the inferior races  so we know who is the boss, and which one is the master race.

Steve Bannon is the heart of racist America. He is the heart of racist Europe. He is the very heart and mind of the very foundation of what they call Western Civilisation, which has never had anything but racist contempt for the world.

Steve Bannon is a prophet of the evil banality at the very core of what they call 'Western Civilisation'.

Steve Bannon is a revolutionary of the obvious. He is a rugged thug, only a Beer Hall Putsch and a gang of Sturmabteilung officers shy of Hitler  another racist European who did exactly as Bannon told his French admirers do: carry his racism like a Badge of Honour. The swastika, which some of Trump and Bannons supporters also sport in the heartland of the United States, was his Badge of Honour.

From the inaugural genocide of Native Americans, which they celebrate every year and call Thanksgiving, to the sustained course of African slavery, to the prolonged history of European colonialism around the globe, to the US dropping of the atom bomb on Japan, to the European genocide of Europes Jews during the World War II, all are historical testament to Steve Bannons Badge of Honour. He went to France to claim his Badge of Honour  the very same one that he and his racist ideology claimed for an entire history of white supremacy.

Steve Bannon is a prophet of the evil banality at the very core of what they call Western Civilisation.

It is not accidental Steve Bannon hates Jews and Muslims and loves Israel. He is a perfect Christian Zionist.

His hooligan habits, his hoodlum diction, his sophomoric pomposity all gather about him so the buffoons who love and admire him think they are fast upon a revelation. He may or may not have ever sported a KKK hood of cowardice. But he walks and talks as if he just took it off and came out with the loutish zealotry of an old-fashioned fiend.

What to call Bannon?

So heres my proposal, this is John Elledge writing for New Statesman, If these fu**ers are willing to wear words like racist, xenophobe or Nazi as a medal, we need to start describing them with a word they cant possibly treat as such. We need a word they will never want to appropriate. His suggestion? My suggestion, inspired by Bannon himself, is sh**bag. I mean, no one in their mind is going to proudly go round claiming to be a sh**bag, are they? (Isnt John Elledge lucky he can use that kind of language in print! My Al Jazeera editors wouldnt let me use any such language  unless like this I am citing a white person using his white privileges. We brown and black folks better stay polite and have our English prose behave properly).

But I respectfully disagree with John Elledge. I think we must avoid abusive terms like fu**ers or sh**bags. We must stick to what these racists call themselves  and they do so proudly: Racist, xenophobe, nativist.

The rush to call them abusive terms is a sign of embarrassment. Other white people get embarrassed to see one of them spills the beans like this. If they are mass murderers they call them crazy. If they declare themselves racist, they call them sh**bags and f**kers. This is both impolite and imprecise.

We are at a very precise moment in the history of what they call Western Civilisation  they have come out, their ideologues, their presidential candidates and advisers, and declare proudly they are racists  thus they recall their history of genocide and conquest. Rushing to call them sh**bag is to deny future historians of the terror these sh**bags have perpetrated on our planet and beyond.

Steve Bannon is only the rugged and illiterate version of Niall Ferguson in his voluminous works such as Civilisation: The West and the Rest (2012). Five minutes of listening to Steve Bannon you are saved from the highfalutin euphemisms of Niall Fergusson, Samuel Huntington, and Bernard Lewis in one heavy volume after another.

Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Sebastian Gorka, Richard Spencer, Kellyanne Conway, ad nauseam  they are the Cliff Notes version of Niall Fergusson, Samuel Huntington, and Bernard Lewis. A quick look and you are ready for your test: Western Civilisation 101.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.In a controversial move last week, US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs of 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminium imports to the United States. He said he believes the tariffs will safeguard American jobs.

He was trying to address a very real problem.

The US used to have really good jobs in heavy industry and manufacturing. They paid well. They often had good benefits like defined benefit pensions and good healthcare  which continued into retirement. They often had strong unions. Those jobs werent life-time, as in Japan, but they were usually long lasting. They often required muscle, and courage in harsh and dangerous conditions, turning out tangible, obviously useful products. All this created a sense of self-worth, especially for men. The most symbolic of those types of industry are the ones Trump has picked out, aliminium and steel.

A lot of those jobs were located in the centre of the country, in the areas that nowadays are often called the Rust Belt and Fly-Over States.

When the companies shut down or contracted, the jobs disappeared, and entire communities  from major cities to small communities  spiraled downward. Stores closed. Main Streets and downtowns were deserted. Neighbourhoods fell into ruin.

Part of this was natural, inevitable, a matter of history.

Before the second world war, the US, Europe, and Japan had a monopoly on modern technology and the sort of business organisations that went with it. After World War II, the US was the sole industrial national left standing. In 1947, it produced 56.7 percent of all the steel in the world.

That couldnt last. Europe and Japan began to recover. The third world became the developing world, and took up industrialisation. The USs first financial boogie man was Japan. The standard myth is that they, like the rest of developing world, competed with cheap labour.

Trump's solutions to the problem - the loss of jobs, the decline in the quality of jobs, and collapse of communities around such jobs - is costumed posturing at best, moderately destructive if no one cares, very destructive if it leads to a trade war.

The reality is more subtle. Yes, in the 1950s, US wages in the steel industry were six times higher than in Japan, but productivity was three times higher. US industry had other advantages, including cheap energy and better infrastructure, so that the average cost of production was actually lower in the US than in Japan.

Yet by 1960 the US share in the market was down below 30 percent. By the 1980s, it was about 10 percent.

During that same period, Japans share of the world market rose from 6 percent to 16 percent.

Why did one go down while the other was rising?

Faced with growing pressure  US integrated producers responded by cutting investment in new plants and equipment. That made sense for each individual company, but was disaster for the industry as a whole, for their labor forces, and for the communities that depended on them. Meanwhile, Japanese producers embraced and implemented the new technologies  in facilities of ever-larger scale. The net result was a trajectory that emphasized labor-saving technology and was forward-looking, as compared with the relative stagnation of the US steel industry (pdf).

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Japan also used complex and dense forms of protectionism  rather than simplistic tariffs  to keep the home market for domestic producers. The direction and ideas, the co-ordination, sources of financing, and more, all went through MITI, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

The success of Japan was obvious. Their methodologies were imitated in varying degrees and styles by other developing nations, most notably South Korea and China.

If protectionism has worked for them, why not now, for America? One difficulty is that having ceded much of steel production  aluminum as well  to other countries  and having pursued free trade policies, steel and aluminum and the products made from them constitute an intricate web.

Theres an even greater problem.

After the US steel industry hit bottom in the 1980s, the parts that were left underwent radical reforms. They increased productivity, a term that refers to output per worker. It is now a heavily mechanised industry. In 1980, the labour of one person turned out an estimated 200 tonnes a year. Now its 1,000 tonnes. Theres a steel plant in Austria that can turn out 500,000 tonnes with just 14 employees, almost 36,000 tonnes per person. The only way tomorrows steel is competitive is with ever fewer people. In the US, if recent history is a guide, they will be paid less, benefits will be cut, and unions will be driven out.

The other Trump tariff is on aluminum. The story there is similar but it has one big twist. Making aluminum is incredibly energy intensive.

The US is the world number 9 producer, making barely 1.5 percent of the world supply. Iceland makes nearly as much. It has cheap, non-polluting hydro-power and geo-thermal energy. The United Arab Emirates makes almost three times as much. If you add in the other Gulf states, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, together they make more than 5 times the aluminum as the US, because they can burn natural gas to do it.

Trumps solutions to the problem  the loss of jobs, the decline in the quality of jobs, and collapse of communities around such jobs  is costumed posturing at best, moderately destructive if no one cares, very destructive if it leads to a trade war.

The solutions offered by the Democrats are  non-existent. To be utterly fair, they do recommend things like job training. But for what jobs? Retail? Fast food? Call centers? We can watch them on TV, caught flat footed, trying to say that Trump is wrong by quibbling over bad free trade theories, and offering nothing for the unions, who should be their constituency.

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The problem Democrats have is half intellectual. They cant make the case for economic planning even to themselves, let alone to the public. Just as theyve surrendered to the power of the market for the nation, theyve done so for themselves as well, serving only the interests that make contributions to them. But the historical truth is that every nation that has made itself an economic success has done so the way MITI lead Japan. That includes England, Germany, Japan, South Korea, China, and yes, the US.

The problem  a functioning economy for the abandoned working class  has solutions. Its necessary to look to the future, not the past. The past is full of old tech and everyone can do it. Going backward requires tearing entanglements apart. Its much easier and less costly to find clear spaces, which are mostly in the future. If the goal is good employment, the questions have to be these: What cant be outsourced? What must be labour intensive? What wont naturally flow to the coasts and can stay in the rust belt?

The first, and most obvious answer, is alternative energy. A forgotten fact, which used to be a rigorously ignored fact, is that for decades imported oil accounted for about a third of the US negative balance of trade. The creation of new, cheap natural gas through fracking, has made the US much more competitive. Wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and as yet unknown sources of energy will only increase that advantage. The central states are a wind belt. The Southwest is rightly called the Sunbelt. Even if some of the manufacturing of solar panels takes place abroad, these things are largely construction projects and, therefore, have to be done and maintained domestically. Infrastructure is an invisible subsidy to all other businesses. Making things easy, swift, reliable, and efficient, reduces costs for everyone. Thanks to Abraham Lincoln  who was, single-handedly, the MITI of the 19th Century  the US has major universities in every state. All with significant research abilities. Make a best guess as to what will be the seven most significant science and tech areas of the future. It doesnt matter if four of them are wrong. Then pick the regions that need the most help.

The problems and the pain are real. It is sad that Trump is the only politician addressing them with passion. It is unfortunate that his fix-it ideas are like going after a computer glitch with a hammer. It is tragic that the Democrats abandoned the field long ago and have yet to awaken with a charge to regain it.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.More than 100 protesters were arrested at the heavily-policed DSEI, which took place in September 2017 in London.

The UK spent more than $1m on providing security for the worlds largest weapons fair, Al Jazeera reveals, in an operation campaigners say undermined the rights of anti-war activists.

A Freedom of Information Request submitted by Al Jazeera to Londons Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has revealed the cost of policing Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), which took place in September 2017, ran to 977,000 pounds ($1.3m), including $215,000 in overtime payments to officers.

More than 100 protesters were arrested in London outside the event, the majority of whom have since been acquitted in a series of trials expected to conclude next month.

Sophia Lysaczenko, one of the 108 protesters arrested by the MPS during last years week-long anti-DSEI demonstrations, told Al Jazeera that officers had created a hostile environment near the exhibition.

The only thing police were there to do was to make sure the roads were clear [but]  they were even arresting people for holding banners and congregating by the side of the road near the weapons fair, said Lysaczenko.

They [the police] didnt want to know anything about the protest, they didnt seem to want to engage with us or even [to] check the vehicles carrying weapons into the fair.

A small group of protesters attempted to stop vehicles entering the fair by standing in the middle of the road leading to the Excel Centre, where the event was being held, Lysaczenko added.

Around half of the 87 protesters who were charged following arrest  including Lysaczenko  were taken to trial.

More than 100 protesters were arrested in London outside DSEI 2017 [File: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP]

Most were accused of obstructing the highway, a minor offence which carries a fine of up to $1,400.

Lysaczenko, along with the majority of those who were tried, has been acquitted.

At least one verdict suggested the defendants were innocent, in line with Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others.

Raj Chada, a lawyer representing several protesters, told Al Jazeera his clients had committed reasonable abuse of the highway.

It caused minimal disruption and [we said] its the only way they could get publicity for this [cause] because the government arent going to do anything as theyre complicit [in the arms trade], Chada said.

Police told Al Jazeera that, while officers aim to facilitate peaceful protests, they also have a duty to minimise disruption for other members of the public.

The Metropolitan Police Service proportionately responds to any protest activity, balancing the rights of those protesting with the rights of others to go about their normal business unaffected, said a spokesperson, who requested anonymity.

Andrew Smith, a spokesperson for the UKs Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), told Al Jazeera the polices handling of the anti-DSEI demonstrators was shameful.

It was totally inappropriate and heavy-handed, with [more than] 100 people being arrested for standing up to arms dealers and dictatorships, Smith said. Its time that arms fairs like DSEI were shut down for good.

The arms economy

Held every two years in London, DSEI is advertised as a world-leading weapons event which typically draws in some 1,600 exhibitors from more than 40 countries.

A spokesperson for DSEI, who requested anonymity, told Al Jazeera the event helps sustain British jobs and strengthens the UKs relationships overseas.

DSEI supports the Ministry of Defences (MOD) procurement needs as well as Britains defence and security industry, which has a turnover of over [$50.7bn] and employs 233,400 people directly, including over 7,000 apprentices, the spokesperson said.

The fair provides the UK with an effective platform, the spokesperson added, to showcase its military products to foreign customers in a legitimate  well-regulated environment.

According to the Department for International Trade (DIT), UK defence exports totalled $8.2bn in 2016, up from $6bn a decade ago.

Britains defence industry employs 233,400 people, according to DSEI [Hannah McKay/Reuters]

Michael Fallon, who was secretary of state for defence when the fair took place, had said the UK was seeking to increase sales of weapons.

As we look to life post-Brexit and seek to spread our wings across the world, its high time we do more to compete for a share of this international [arms] export market, Fallon said during his keynote speech at DSEI.

A spokesperson for the DIT, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera the government is committed to supporting British companies and jobs in the defence sector, including at events like DSEI.

Event attended by brutal regimes

However, anti-arms trade campaigners who have demonstrated against the exhibition say that weapons are being advertised, and sold, to governments guilty of committing human rights abuses.

DSEI is the embodiment of the arms industry  [and] the arms dealt there could be used in atrocities for years and years to come, Smith told Al Jazeera.

The activists who were arrested [at DSEI] were protesting against one of the worlds biggest arms fairs, which was attended by some of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world, he said.

Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) attended DSEI at the invitation of the DIT, despite the UKs Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) identifying all of these countries as human rights priority countries in its 2016 Human Rights and Democracy report.

The DIT spokesperson told Al Jazeera the government carried out a stringent process of scrutiny and approval before issuing invites to UK defence exhibitions.

Sales to Saudi condemned

UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia have drawn the sharpest criticism from protesters, with the alarm raised further last week during a three-day visit by the kingdoms crown prince to London.

On Friday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a memorandum of intent on a planned deal, potentially worth billions of dollars, to buy 48 Typhoon fighter jets from UK aerospace company BAE Systems.

Activists, including CAAT, allege the UK is complicit in the deaths of thousands of Yemenis, with the kingdom using UK-made weapons in the ongoing conflict.

In total, more than 10,000 people have died in Yemen since March 2015, when the conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels began.

The UK has licensed more than $6.4bn worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of the war in Yemen, according to CAAT figures.

Mohammed bin Salmans visit to the UK prompted anti-war demonstrations [File: Tayfun Salci/Anadolu]

According to polling carried out by CAAT, however, only 6 percent of UK adults support UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Rebecca Johnson, director of the UK-based Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, said the licenses represent an egregious hypocrisy both [because] of the amount that we export to them [Saudi Arabia], and the use that they put our weapons to in Yemen.

[The government] provides aid to helping countries bombed by some of the UKs largest arms recipients, she told Al Jazeera.

According to the Department for International Development, the UK will provide $285m worth of humanitarian aid to Yemen this financial year.

Theres a clear contradiction between the governments apparent advocacy of human rights, and its actual promotion of a whole cross-section of weapons and defence equipment to governments and regimes that have abused human rights and cause human misery, Johnson said.Authorities in the conservative province say beheading would deter future killers from committing murders.

Amnesty International has condemned a plan by authorities in Indonesias Aceh province to introduce beheading as a punishment for murder.

In a statement on Thursday, Amnesty called on the local government to drop the plan to implement the form of execution.

The Aceh administration cannot use its special autonomous status in order to introduce laws and policies that flagrantly violate human rights, the groups Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said.

The authorities need to focus on the root causes of crime and informed debates on the death penalty as a human rights violation, and swiftly move to abolish this ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

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According to Acehs government, the introduction of beheadings for people convicted of murder would deter future killers from committing the crime.

The local government said it looked at Saudi Arabia as an example, claiming beheadings there had effectively reduced the number of murders.

Saudi Arabia is currently the only country in the world that still beheads people as a form of execution.

Amnesty said the notion that beheadings might stop killings is flawed.

The Aceh administrations argument that beheading could prevent murder is both baseless and unacceptable. There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect on crime, no matter how shocking the method of execution is, the group said.

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The human rights organisation called on the central Indonesian government to intervene, adding it should not only oppose the plan, but also put a moratorium on the death penalty throughout the worlds most populous Muslim nation.

The provincial administration said it would conduct research this year to see if a majority of people in Aceh would support beheading.

Aceh, located on the northern part of Sumatra island, is one of the most conservative regions in Indonesia. It is the only province in Indonesia where Islamic law is implemented.

Lawbreakers are regularly condemned to public caning, with homosexuals and LGBTQ people often targeted by authorities.

According to research done by Human Rights Watch, at least 339 were subjected to caning in 2016 in the province.

The Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia has a population of 260 million people.Two dozen wounded after inmates clash with more than 2,000 officers who entered Palmasola prison.

Seven prisoners were killed and 25 people were wounded when more than 2,300 police officers raided Bolivias notorious Palmasola prison.

Police were searching for weapons and other contraband on Wednesday during the raid on the facility that prisoners largely control, sparking a gun battle with the inmates.

National police Colonel Faustino Mendoza said officers seized arms, equipment to distil alcohol, cannabis plants and other drugs from the section that houses the most dangerous inmates.

There was misrule in this prison, Mendoza said, who described the situation as out of control after officers entered the facility.

Six police officers were among the two dozen wounded in the firefight.

Bolivias largest prison houses about 9,000 inmates outside Santa Cruz, 540km east of the capital of La Paz.

Six prisoners escaped from Palmasola last week during an inmate riot. Authorities say four have been recaptured.

In August 2013, during a struggle for control of the cellblock holding Palmasolas most violent inmates, one group attacked rival prisoners with machetes and homemade flamethrowers. Thirty-six people died, including a one-year-old child who was there visiting his inmate father.

Cramped conditions and violence are commonplace across Latin American prisons.DeAndre Harris, beaten by white nationalists at August rally, cleared of misdemeanour assault and battery charges.

DeAndre Harris, an African American beaten by at least six white nationalist demonstrators at the August 12 Unite the Right rally, has been found not guilty by a court in Charlottesville.

Harris, whose case was decided by a judge on Friday, had been facing charges of misdemeanour assault and battery.

His defence team had argued that he was acting in self-defence.

A video of Harriss beating went viral in the days following the white nationalist rally, prompting an outcry.

Harris was initially charged with a felony, but it was later reduced to a misdemeanour.

Four of his attackers have also been charged.

The rally was originally called to protest against the removal of statues of leaders of the Confederacy  the rebel states that seceded briefly from the United States in the 19th century when Abraham Lincoln took power on an anti-slavery platform.

Counter-protesters and anti-racist demonstrators gathered to confront those gathered for the rally, and in the ensuing violence, Heather Heyer, 31, was killed when James Fields Jr allegedly drove his car through a crowd. Hundreds of counter-protesters were injured.

Injury allegation

Harold Ray Crews, a member of the white nationalist League of the South, alleged he was injured by Harris shortly before the beating took place.

Activists in Charlottesville called on authorities to drop the charges against Harris.

Demonstrators outside the court on Thursday afternoon [Al Jazeera]

On Thursday evening, dozens of locals held a vigil in front of the court where Harris appeared, which is also near to the garage where he was beaten.

Organisers agreed with the defences argument, saying they failed to see how an African American in the middle of a white nationalist demonstration could be charged with misdemeanour assault and battery of his attackers.

These men were victims of hate crimes all day long. They were spat upon. They saw Nazi flags, Grace Aheron, one of the organisers of the vigil, told Al Jazeera.

Harris was not the only African American charged in relation to the August rally.

Donald Blakney has been charged with a felony count of malicious wounding for allegedly hitting Eric Mattson, a member of the Hiway Men, a group with members across the US who were at Charlottesville to protect both the Constitution and the Confederate monuments.

Blakney faces a grand jury on April 16 that will decide whether or not to indict him.

Corey Long was charged with misdemeanour assault and disorderly conduct for wielding a flamethrower to push back white nationalists.

Stream of spray paint

Long is shown using a lighter to ignite a stream of spray paint to keep back a man attempting to hit him with a Confederate flag, a common symbol of white nationalists.

A video later released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia showed white nationalist Richard Wilson Preston screaming a racial epithet at Long and firing a gun in his direction.

Preston has been charged with unlawful discharge of a weapon, a felony.

Preston fired on Long shortly after this photo was taken [Steve Helber/File/AP Photo]

Long will appear in court on the charges on November 13.

Aheron stressed that these men were outnumbered not only in terms of numbers but also firepower and police were nowhere to be seen all day long.

An independent review of events surrounding the rally conducted by Tim Heaphy, a former US attorney, found that Charlottesville and Virginia state police did not adequately protect civilians at the demonstration.

A statement from Commonwealth Attorney Joseph Platania delivered to Al Jazeera said his office will endeavor to work with law enforcement to identify, gather, and evaluate all admissible and relevant evidence related to the alleged incidents.

Platania has no plans to drop the charges, though it should be assumed the men are innocent until proved otherwise, the statement said.

To say that DeAndre was in any way a threat to public safety was a slap in the face to everyone in our community who endured the trauma of August 12, Aheron, the Charlottesville activist, said after Harris was acquitted.

The next step is to immediately drop the charges against Corey Long and Donald Blakney, she concluded.With recorded hate crimes on the rise, critics say Greeces far right feels emboldened.

Athens, Greece  The number of hate crimes motivated by race, national origin or skin colour in Greece nearly tripled in 2017 when compared with the previous year, a police spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

Hate crimes of this type  among them attacks and hate speech  soared to 133 last year, according to the Hellenic Polices statistics. In 2016, police documented 48 such crimes.

Meanwhile, the total number of hate crimes more than doubled from 2016 to 2017, growing from 84 to 184 incidents.

Greek police divide hate crimes into five motivating categories: race, national origin or skin colour (133); religion (28); sexual preference (29); sexual identity (12); and disability (nine).

Compared with 2016, last year witnessed a rise in hate crimes in all categories.

The largest increase took place in the category of sexual identity (crimes that target trans individuals), which grew from one instance in 2016 to 12 hate crimes last year.

Last years numbers trump those recorded in 2013, which was the year with the highest number of hate crimes between 2012 and 2016.

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With a spate of vigilante attacks, many of them fatal and carried out by the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party, 2013 saw 114 documented hate crimes.

The rise in the number of documented hate crimes last year was fueled by an ostensible increase in far-right violence targeting migrants, refugees and Muslims.

In a recent report, Al Jazeera detailed a string of violence targeting Pakistani labourers and Afghan refugees in Aspropyrgos, Athens and Piraeus, as well as a series of death threats against civil society organisations.

In Goritsa, an agricultural village in the Aspropyrgos area near the capital, the attacks reached a crescendo in October 2017, when a group of black-masked men attacked two Pakistani labourers working in a field.

The attack left 40-year-old Ashfak Mahmoud hospitalised after he was stabbed, bludgeoned with a stone and beaten with brass knuckles.

In central Athens, Mahdi, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee whose surname was withheld by Al Jazeera, was followed and beaten by a group of men who hurled Islamophobic and anti-migrant slurs at him.

Anna Stamou of the Muslim Association of Greece, a civil society organisation, described the rise in recorded hate crimes as very worrying.

The fascists in the previous years were afraid to expose themselves, but the crimes are now more open, she told Al Jazeera.

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This doesnt only impact the victims. The society is also very much deeply affected by this and loses faith in the system.

Stamou added: Now, you look at the man in the supermarket next to you, and you wonder if hes a fascist or not. It has penetrated every layer of society.

In the past, Golden Dawn, which has 16 seats in the Hellenic Parliament, was one of the main perpetrators of anti-migrant violence in Greece.

After a Golden Dawn member stabbed to death Pavlos Fyssas, an anti-fascist rapper, in September 2013, 69 party members were put on trial for operating a criminal organisation. That trial is ongoing.

Of the total number of hate crimes carried out in 2017, Greek police said at least 84 of the perpetrators were civilians, five were organised groups, 24 were police officers, 12 were both civilians and unknown actors and 59 were unknown actors.

A previously unknown group calling itself Crypteia  ostensibly a reference to a band of ancient Spartans who attacked slaves  took credit for an attack on an 11-year-old Afghan refugees home on November 2, 2017.

The attackers threw beer bottles and stones at the home of the boy, who was identified in the local press only as Emir.

In January, the same group left a series of death threats on the voicemails of several civil society organisations, including the Muslim Association of Greece.

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Earlier this month, Greek police arrested seven members of Combat 18 Hellas, a neo-Nazi group that has reportedly carried out more than 30 attacks on anarchist squats, left-wing social centres and Jewish memorials.

Petros Constantinou, national director of the anti-fascist group Keerfa, said he suspects that the new groups are linked to Golden Dawn.

The reality is that we are still facing the Golden Dawns neo-Nazis, he told Al Jazeera.

There are small groups related to them. Practically speaking, they are using new names, but they are the same assault battalions as before.

Constantinou added: For the last two years, theyve been trying to make a comeback, but they are facing mass resistance from the anti-fascist movement.

At the time of publication, Golden Dawns press office had failed to reply to Al Jazeeras numerous requests for comment.Houthis: Snipers kill at least six Saudi soldiers daily

A Houthi military spokesman told Al Jazeera that their snipers kill between six to eight Saudi soldiers and mercenaries every day, in addition to the destruction of at least three Saudi military vehicles daily. Houthi losses have also been great.Nazareth, Israel  After seven years of delays, the Israeli governing parties have agreed the final terms of controversial new legislation that would define Israel exclusively as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

The bill is now expected to be fast-tracked through the Israeli parliament and on to the statute books in the coming weeks.

Approval by the parliaments justice committee this week of the Basic Law, which carries much greater weight than normal legislation, marks a dangerous turning-point for Palestinians, according to analysts.

Amir Ohana, the committees chair, called it the law of all laws, while a government minister termed it Zionisms flagship bill.

It effectively blocks any chance for Israels large Palestinian minority  one in five of the population  to reform Israel in the future into a normal, Western-style democracy.

In the words of one of the handful of Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament, Aida Touma-Suleiman, the bill institutionalises an apartheid regime in the most blatant way.

But equally significantly, and largely unnoticed, the Basic Law paves the way for Israels right-wing government to consolidate and expand the annexation of Palestinian lands under occupation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank  and stymie any legal moves intended to prevent such efforts.

The weight of expectations on the new bill is part of the reason it has undergone such a lengthy process of redrafting since a first version was introduced in 2011 by Avi Dichter, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Likud party.

The proposed Basic Law has attracted scrutiny chiefly for the unconcealed nature of its anti-democratic provisions.

The final version approved this week demotes the status of Arabic  the mother tongue of one-fifth of Israels citizens  so that it is no longer an official language alongside Hebrew.

It also promotes Jewish communities that strictly enforce rules to exclude Israels 1.8 million Palestinian citizens. It reiterates Israels mission to ingather the exiles, restricting immigration to Jews only, and prioritises the rights of Jews abroad over those of the countrys Palestinian citizens.

Most significant of all, it dispenses with any democratic component in Israels self-definition. Israels Jewishness is made paramount.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who maintains close ties to Netanyahu, observed of the bill: It will bring order, clarify what is taken for granted and put Israel back on the right path. A country that is different from all others in one way  that it is the nation-state of the Jewish people.

As Levin suggests, while there is little ostensibly new in the bill, it clarifies and shores up Israels current anomalous political makeup.

The Arabic language is already invisible in most public spaces in Israel. Some 93 percent of Israels land is already reserved exclusively for the Jewish people around the world, not Israels citizens. The Law of Return already allows only Jews to immigrate.

And many critics, including Israeli scholars, argue it is impossible for Israel to be both Jewish and democratic  any more than it could be white and democratic or Christian and democratic. They describe Israel as a non-democratic type of state known as an ethnocracy.

So why go to such trouble to legislate the current bill when it changes so little?

There are several urgent impulses behind the Basic Law.

In part, it is the rights response to a series of embarrassing legal and political challenges that have needed to be faced down since Israel passed a Basic Law on Freedom and Human Dignity in 1992.

After the law defined Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, legal rights groups initiated challenges in the courts for Israel to respect equality.

That gradually exposed the unresolvable contradictions between the states Jewish and democratic claims, according to Ahmad Saadi, a politics professor at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva.

The first major crisis arrived at the supreme court in 2000, when a Palestinian citizen, Adel Kaadan, sued to be allowed to live in one of Israels 700 exclusively Jewish communities. Each community had set up a so-called admissions committee specifically to block access for Palestinian citizens.

Lawyers argued that, in excluding 20 percent of its population from almost all land in Israel, the state was enforcing residential apartheid.

The judges agonised over the case for years. In 2011, Netanyahus government finally took the court off this hook by giving the committees a statutory basis.

But the reverberations are still being felt.

Last month, the far-right justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, cited the Kaadan case as a reason for the nation-state Basic Law, saying: Its all right for a Jewish community to, by definition, be only Jewish.

There is place to maintain a Jewish majority even at the price of violation of rights, she added.

Political challenges have compounded the legal ones. In 2006, Palestinian leaders in Israel produced a document, the Future Vision, demanding that Israel reform from being a Jewish state into a civic democracy. They urged that Israel become a consensual democracy, where all citizens had equal rights.

In a highly unusual move, the Shin Bet, Israels secret police agency, responded in public. They called the document subversive and warned they would thwart any activity, even if legal, to promote its aims.

Since then, the figurehead of the democratisation campaign, Azmi Bishara, has been forced into exile, accused of treason.

Israel has also passed a series of measures to weaken the standing of Palestinian politicians in parliament, including an Expulsion Law that allows Jewish legislators to overthrow Palestinian colleagues.

Saadi, the professor, told Al Jazeera: The Israeli right understands the international political climate and believes it is far more conducive to violations of human rights and overt racism than it was a decade ago.

It senses the direction the wind is now blowing.

Additionally, Shaked, the justice minster, has linked the Jewish Nation-State Bill to revisions she is making to another constitutional-type Basic Law, one dealing with legislation.

Jafar Farah, head of Mossawa, an advocacy group for Israels Palestinian citizens, pointed out this would allow the governing coalition to reverse any ruling by the Israeli supreme court against a piece of legislation, even if it violated human rights. The courts powers of judicial review would be voided.

This legislation will tie the judges hands, Farah told Al Jazeera. They wont be able to intervene in government decisions.

In a Facebook post, Shaked said she was undoing the constitutional revolution instituted by the 1992 Basic Law on Freedom and Human Dignity  or in her words, realigning the train track that was twisted a quarter-century ago.

In the past 20 years court rulings have sharpened the universal values more than the states Jewish character, she added.

Which alludes to a likely second ambition for the Jewish Nation-State Basic Law. The restraining hand of the supreme court will be lifted just as the Israeli right enjoys the tailwind of US President Donald Trumps administration.

Farah noted Israel has still not decided on its territorial limits.

Israel refuses to define its borders and then states through this Basic Law that only the Jewish people have a unique right to self-determination in the region, he said.

That could open the door to Israeli consolidating its hold on occupied East Jerusalem and accelerating a policy of creeping annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Trump is preparing to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, pre-empting in Israels favour one of the traditional final-status issues that were supposed to be settled in peace talks with the Palestinians.

At the same time, Israel is drafting legislation that would strip tens of thousands of Palestinians of their residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem, while annexing parts of the West Bank to Jerusalem to skew the citys demography towards a solid Jewish majority.

In the words of Nir Hasson, a veteran Israeli reporter on Jerusalem: The Israeli political system has already understood that Jerusalem is an anomaly that has to be solved.

It intends, therefore, to provide a solution that refuses to recognise the place of the Palestinians in the city.

Proving Hassons point, the parliament passed last week a law empowering the government to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem.

These violations of human rights and international law would be hard for the supreme court to stomach.

But if the Israeli government carries on its current path, the courts will soon have no say on such matters, observed Farah.

The new Jewish Nation-State Basic Law may offer other advantages, Saadi pointed out.

Netanyahu has been trying to impose a precondition on peace talks with Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinian leader first recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

By stripping Israel of even a pretension towards democratic principles, Netanyahu would place Abbas in an impossible position.

The new Basic Law includes all of Jerusalem as Israels capital and gives the Jewish people alone a right to self-determination in the region. No Palestinian leader could contemplate recognising a Jewish state defined this way.

Neither Israel nor the US wants negotiations. They are interested only in the Palestinians submitting, said Saadi.

Netanyahu and his allies on the right may hope to take advantage of Washington and European capitals blind acceptance of Israel on its own terms as a Jewish and democratic state.

Will they notice that through this latest piece of legislation Israel has quietly dropped the claim that a Jewish state even aspires to be democratic?Lampedusa refugee centre to be closed for renovation work following protests over dire conditions and rights abuses.

Rome, Italy  Italys interior ministry decided this week to temporarily close a refugee detention centre, known as a hotspot in Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island between Sicily and Tunisia.

The decision follows protests and a fire that took place at the centre on March 8.

The European Union set up five hotspots each in Italy and Greece, conceived as transit centres where migrants and refugees arriving on European coasts should be formally identified, registered, and channelled on to other centres shortly afterwards  normally within 48 hours  to either wait for deportation or continue with their asylum application.

Migrants and refugees protested the dire living conditions they are forced to endure as they are instead detained in the centre for weeks, and asked to be immediately transferred.

The authorities decision came after NGOs and civil society organisations sounded alarm bells about conditions in the centre, which has seen several similar protests in the past.

At the end of January, about 40 people had sewn their mouths with white thread, while a Tunisian man committed suicide after a month in detention.

Inhumane place

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The problem is that in a place where it is inhumane to stay even for a day, people sometimes stay for months, and that includes vulnerable cases, Gennaro Santoro, a lawyer with the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD), told Al Jazeera.

Together with the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and IndieWatch, the organisation had requested the closure of the centre, which saw dramatic living conditions and systematic human rights violations.

They also sought that vulnerable cases be transferred.

One of the cases Santoros organisation took on board is that of a Tunisian family, a father and two sons, 14 and 15.

One of the children had an artificial limb and was unable to ever leave the centre, Santoro said because migrants leave the centre through a hole in the fence.

Although they are unable to leave the island without papers, some migrants and refugees try to get on boats to the mainland anyway.

The father arrived on January 15 and had already filed his asylum application, Santoro said, adding that he had come across several cases who had been detained for a month or two.

Spaces occupied by minors and women could easily be accessed by others, the lawyer said.

One of the families told us a child had witnessed an attempted rape against her mother. That same child was injured during the incidents on March 8.

Renovation work

After a meeting between the mayor of Lampedusa and the Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday, the government said the centre would be closed for renovation work while migrants and refugees would be gradually transferred elsewhere.

The same statement, however, said services like identification and first aid would still be provided in case of emergency.





There should be no new arrivals, but those who disembark on our coasts will be taken to the hotspot just for the time needed to be identified, and then transferred to the mainland, Salvatore Martello, Lampedusas mayor, told Al Jazeera.

The Italian Red Cross, one of the service providers at the centre, welcomed the move but said no official procedure had begun to close the centre.

Forty people, including women and families, were transferred to the mainland on Wednesday, but these transfers had already been planned, leaving about 100 people living at the hotspot.

The situation risked getting out of control due to the length of [the migrants] stay, Debora Diodati, president of the Red Cross in Rome, told Al Jazeera.

The 48-hour limit should be the rule and not the exception, she said, because the centre is not structurally suitable to host people for long periods.

First denunciation

An independent body that monitors prisons and detention centres in Italy had first denounced the conditions inside the Lampedusa hotspot last year.

The guarantor for the rights of persons detained or deprived of personal liberty stressed in a press release that the interventions to be carried out in the hotspot should not be limited to mere renovation works if human rights are to be protected.

Refugees are held for weeks in inhumane conditions at Lampedusa detention centre [Al Jazeera]

Costantino Saporito, who represents firefighters in the USB national workers union, visited the centre after the fire.

He snapped and published pictures that show beds with no sheets a few centimetres from each other, dirty foam mattresses, filthy bathrooms and rubbish-strewn corridors.

The problem is not only the fire on March 8, Saporito told Al Jazeera.

The problem is that there have been two more fires before that, and that entire areas are closed  dirty, unfit to live in. And yet, some people, having nowhere else to go, sleep there.

The problem is systematic because procedures are not clearly defined, said Santoro, the lawyer, adding that complaints were filed last summer to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of 14 minors detained at a hotspot in Taranto, in the southern region of Apulia.

So, instead of being released within 48 hours or in the shortest possible time, these become places of indefinite detention.Some 25 food trucks allowed in, but those on the ground say the amount will not last each family more than two days.

Some 25 trucks of food aid have entered the town of Douma in Syrias besieged Eastern Ghouta, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The convoy, facilitated by the ICRC as well as the United Nations and the Syrian Red Crescent crossed into Douma on Thursday through the al-Wafideen crossing.

The ICRC said they were delivering food including 5,220 food parcels and 5,220 flour bags, enough for 26,100 people, with each parcel of food meant to last a family of five for a month.

At least 125,000 people live in Douma.

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Abdelmalik Aboud, an activist in Douma, told Al Jazeera that the amount of food aid is not enough, because it is being distributed to all families in the enclave east of the capital, Damascus.

The aid is being divided between all of the people in Ghouta  no one is being left out. So one parcel from the United Nations is being given to around 40 people. This will not be enough to last each family for more than two days, Aboud said.

Iolanda Jaquemet, a spokesperson for the ICRC in Geneva, Switzerland said the aid teams are very aware that the food is limited.

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The needs are much larger than what were providing and we know that. Our convoys can only cover a small amount of the need, she told Al Jazeera, adding that the concept of each parcel lasting a family of five for a month would be in an ideal situation.

We have to negotiate with all the parties involved in fighting in that area  we take the amount were allowed to take, she added.

The president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, and the regional director, Robert Mardini, entered the enclave as part of the convoy to assess the situation on the ground.

This morning I'm joining our convoy with @UN and @SYRedCrescent to reach the people of #Douma, #Eastern_Ghouta. We are taking food for 26,000 people trapped in desperate conditions. pic.twitter.com/9x80J4mf85  Peter Maurer (@PMaurerICRC) March 15, 2018

The ICRC also released a video showing the entrance of the convoy into Eastern Ghouta.

Entering #EasternGhouta now. Our convoy with @SYRedCrescent and @UN is bringing aid to thousands of displaced families. pic.twitter.com/yQCiEY1CZn  ICRC Syria (@ICRC_sy) March 15, 2018

Eastern Ghouta, home to 400,000 people, has been under a government siege since mid-2013.

The area is one of the last major remaining strongholds under the armed opposition, who are aiming to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The enclave is the current major battleground in Syrias war, which entered its eighth year on Thursday.

It has been under increased international spotlight in recent weeks due to civilian suffering during an intensified campaign launched by Syrian government forces and its principal military ally Russia, to retake control of the area.

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Since the start of the campaign on February 18, at least 1,249 civilians have been killed in daily aerial and ground bombardment, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. The figure includes 252 children and 171 women. At least 4,600 others have been wounded.

Eastern Ghoutas proximity to Damascus, the seat of President Assads government  renders it a key target for the government.

Assads government says it is fighting terrorists there. While there is a presence of Hayet Tahrir al-Sham, a group formerly linked to al-Qaeda, Eastern Ghouta is mainly under the control of armed opposition groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) such as Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam.

The FSA is a loose conglomeration of armed brigades made up of Syrian army defectors and ordinary civilians, which receive financial and logistical support from the US, Turkey, and several Gulf countries.

Syrian government forces say they have captured more than half of Eastern Ghouta and have split the area into three sections. Their offensive has cut off the towns of Douma and Harasta from each other and from other towns in the south.

Aboud, the activist in Douma, said there was a pause in the shelling due to the UN delegation.

The UN has said that at least 1,000 sick and wounded residents of Eastern Ghouta are in need of life-saving medical attention. On Wednesday, at least 150 civilians requiring urgent medical treatment were evacuated from the enclave.In interview, Saudi Arabias crown prince says Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, much like Hitler, wants to create own project.

Saudi Arabias crown prince has announced his countrys readiness to develop nuclear weapons in the event that Iran heads in that direction.

The kingdom has expressed alarm at what it views as creeping Iranian influence in the region and has stepped up its efforts to contain what it considers Irans expansion through proxy conflicts and direct military engagement in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible, Mohammad bin Salman, popularly known as MBS, told US broadcaster CBS in an interview set to air on Sunday.

Bin Salman, 34, reiterated statements made earlier comparing Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to Adolf Hitler.

He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler, who wanted to expand at the time, the prince told CBS.





Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I dont want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has been a staunch critic of the Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015, which it says will alleviate Irans economic woes and allow it to prop up affiliates like Hezbollah.

Saudi authorities have repeatedly commended US President Donald Trumps tough stance on the Iran nuclear deal.

Dialogue and tolerance

Iran responded to the comments by saying the Saudi crown prince was a delusional naive person.

He has no idea of politics apart from bitter talk that emanates from a lack of foresight His remarks do not deserve a response,  Irans foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state TV.

Iran respects all its neighbours Tehran invites all regional countries, especially some ill-wishers and obstinate enemies, to dialogue and tolerance.

Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a Tehran-based political commentator, said Iran has been open about its nuclear programme, adding it is intended for peaceful purposes only.

There has never been a shred of evidence all throughout history to accuse Iran of developing a military nuclear programme, he told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

The nuclear deal itself proved that Irans intentions are peaceful and the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] issued 10 reports to confirm the same fact.Ports war: Somalia bans Dubai ports operator

MPs in Somalia have voted to declare a contract with the United Arab Emirates null and void  endangering plans to develop a port in the Horn of Africa.Strategy focuses on making Qatar more self-reliant in the face of a blockade imposed by its neighbours.

Qatar has launched a five-year development plan that focuses on making the Gulf nation more self-reliant in the face of a boycott by other countries in the region.

The National Development Strategy for 2018-2022, unveiled on Wednesday, pledges to rationalise energy consumption and encourage development of renewable energy while raising self-sufficiency levels for farming and fishing production.

The 333-page plan, released by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, aims for Qatar to satisfy 30 percent of its demand for farm animals and 65 percent of its demand for fish domestically by 2022, partly through fish farms.

The document does not give figures for Qatars current level of self-sufficiency in these areas, but the desert country of 2.7 million is heavily dependent on food imports. Only six percent of its land is arable, the document says.

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On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed a land, air and sea blockade on their Gulf neighbour, accusing it of financing terrorism and maintaining too close of ties to their regional rival, Iran. Doha vehemently denies the allegations.

The blockade has disrupted Qatars imports, many of which used to come across its border with Saudi Arabia, and triggered the withdrawal of billions of dollars from Qatari banks by depositors from the four states.

Qatars economy and financial markets were hurt as imports plunged about 40 percent from a year earlier in the first weeks of the boycott.

But the worlds top exporter of liquefied natural gas developed new trade routes and deployed tens of billions of dollars from its sovereign wealth fund, estimated to have about $320bn of assets, to protect its banks.

Gross domestic product data for the third quarter of 2017 showed the economy had largely recovered from the boycott and was again growing robustly.

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Efforts to make Qatar more self-sufficient began within weeks of the boycott starting, as a privately owned local company with government support, Baladna, flew in 3,400 cows on state airline Qatar Airways. It plans to build a herd of 14,000, housing them in sheds cooled by fans and jets of mist.

Other parts of the five-year development plan deal with social conditions, such as encouraging Qatari citizens to play sport and improving the health of young people.Sources say clandestine discussions have been going on for two months in neighbouring Oman, news agency says.

Saudi officials and Houthi rebels have held months of secret talks on ending Yemens devastating three-year war, according to a news report.

The warring parties discussed ways to halt the conflict that has left 22 million Yemenis in dire need of humanitarian assistance, diplomats and Yemeni officials told Reuters news agency on Thursday.

The war has killed an estimated 10,000 people, left millions facing famine, and initiated a major outbreak of disease.

The sources  speaking on condition of anonymity  said Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam had met Saudi officials in neighbouring Oman.

There are consultations between the Houthis and the Saudis, without a representative of the internationally recognised government, and it is clear that there is a desire of the Houthis and the coalition to go toward a comprehensive agreement, a diplomat was quoted as saying.

Wrap it up

The resolution of the conflict would begin with a truce that would halt fighting and allow the negotiation of a definitive peace deal that accounts for the interests of both sides, sources said.

The diplomats told Reuters the talks have been going on for two months. The negotiations follow previous mediation efforts between the Yemeni government and the Houthis that were held in Kuwait in 2016.

Both sides have yet to comment on the news report.

Saudi Arabia, which is leading a military coalition against the rebels, launched its intervention in Yemen to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Coalition air attacks have failed to bring about any real change on the battleground where Houthis continue to control the capital, Sanaa, and most of northern Yemen.

Thousands of Saudi-led air attacks have killed hundreds of Yemeni civilians. Coalition forces have made modest territorial gains, but appear far from seizing back the capital from seasoned fighters.

With no victory in sight, and as the war pushes the country towards famine, Saudi officials  including the powerful Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman  have expressed a desire to wrap up the conflict.

Devastating conditions

The UN Security Council said on Thursday that 22.2 million people  of a 27.5 million Yemenis  are in need of humanitarian assistance, a 3.4 million jump compared with last year.

The council expressed concern over indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas that have led to high civilian casualties and significant damage to civilian infrastructure.

The Security Council expresses its grave concern at the continued deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Yemen, and the devastating humanitarian impact of the conflict on civilians, it said in a statement.

The UNSC called on all parties to respect and protect schools, medical facilities, and personnel.

It also denounced the use of schools by rebels as arms depots and condemned in the strongest possible terms ballistic missile attacks by the Houthis on Riyadh in November and December 2017.President accepts resignation of Robert Fico as anger persists over last months murder of investigative journalist.

Slovak President Andrej Kiska has accepted the resignation of Robert Fico from the prime ministers post in the wake of a public outcry resulting from the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak last month.

Speaking at the presidential palace after a meeting with the president on Thursday, Fico announced that his deputy prime minister, Peter Pellegrini, has been put forward to take the reins and establish a new government.

The nomination of Peter Pellegrini is the most natural thing, said Fico.

Fico said he was sure that forming a new government is the right step, as early parliamentary elections would not have had any stability.

While Fico has resigned from the prime ministers post, he said he would remain with the party and still be very much present at political events.

On February 25, Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, both 27, were found shot dead at their home near Bratislava in what police described as most likely related to his investigative work.

At the time, he had been investigating an alleged connection between Italys Ndrangheta crime syndicate and high-ranking officials in the Slovak government.

The story was published posthumously by Kuciaks news outlet, Aktuality.

The double-murder sparked a nationwide outcry, with tens of thousands of Slovaks calling for an end to corruption in some the countrys biggest demonstrations since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989.

Police had initially questioned suspects over the killings, but no arrests have been made.

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With pressure mounting on Fico, both President Kiska and a minor member of the ruling coalition Most-Hid Party called for drastic reform or snap elections.

On Monday, Robert Kalinak resigned as interior minister in an effort to prevent the government from collapsing.

Kiska supported Ficos offer to resign on condition that his party be allowed to pick the next government leader in an attempt to preserve the three-party government, government officials said on Wednesday.

The condition has drawn sharp criticism from the opposition and political experts who claim Fico is attempting to retain his influence while also threatening Slovakias democratic institutions.

Civil society is not only asking for the resignation of Mr Fico himself, the demand here is for the change of politics of which Mr Fico is a symbol and the frontrunner, said Martin Poliacik, a member of parliament with the new Progressive Slovakia movement.

Viera Zuborova, executive director of the Bratislava Policy Institute, a Slovak think-tank, said the situation harkens back to the final days of the Soviet-aligned governments attempts to cling to power in 1989.

Ficos demands to the president and subsequent retention of power are unique in modern Slovak history, she said, adding that installing Pellegrini without an election was not in the spirit of democracy.

Currently, regional elections are slated for November with MEP and presidential elections to take place in 2019.

Nationwide protests, meanwhile, are expected to continue tomorrow.Australia considers plan to fast track visas for South African white farmers so they can flee horrific circumstances.

South Africa has criticised an Australian government minister for suggesting that white South African farmers should get special visas so they can flee horrific circumstances in the country.

Australias Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who oversees immigration and has drawn international criticism for heading a tough crackdown on asylum-seekers from Asia and the Middle East, said the South Africans deserve special attention for acceptance on refugee or humanitarian grounds.

He cited reports of land seizures and violence targeting the minority white farmers, who control a disproportionate share of the countrys land.

If you look at the footage, you hear the stories and you read the accounts, its a horrific circumstance that they face, Dutton told Sydneys Daily Telegraph late Wednesday.

Ive asked my department to look at options and ways in which we can provide some assistance because I do think on the information Ive seen people do need help, and they need help from a civilised country like ours.

The offer was swiftly rebuffed by South Africa, with its foreign ministry saying that no section of the countrys population was in any danger.

In a statement on Wednesday, South Africas foreign ministry said: There is no reason for any government anywhere in the world to suspect that any South African is in danger from their own democratically elected government.

That threat simply does not exist.

The statement added that South Africa regretted that the Australian government chose not to use the available diplomatic channels to raise concerns or to seek clarifications on the land distribution process in South Africa.

Clearly racist

Duttons comments come just months after asylum-seekers and refugees held by Australia in a remote Pacific camp were awarded Aus$70 million ($56 million) for being illegally detained and treated negligently in the countrys largest human rights class action settlement.

Canberra, which denied liability, sends asylum-seekers who try to reach Australia by boat, rather than through official channels, to facilities on Nauru in the Pacific and Papua New Guineas Manus Island.

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Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition in Sydney, said Duttons comments were clearly racist and demonstrated the astounding hypocrisy of the Australian government.

Weve often joked that if it were White Zimbabwean farmers or White South African farmers arriving by boat in Australia, there wouldnt be any mandatory detention, he told Al Jazeera.

When they are from Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan, the attitude is very different. Boats are turned around, they are expelled to Nauru and Manus Islands.

He added: It is a deliberate ploy to appeal to racist folk in the context of a government that is declining in the polls and is desperately appealing to those folk to maintain some popularity.

Land ownership is a sensitive subject in South Africa, 24 years after the end of apartheid rule.

White people still own around 72 percent of individually-owned farms, with the black majority holding just four percent, according to a Land Audit Report published in November.

The countrys ruling African National Congress (ANC) has backed expropriation of land without compensation.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to escalate the pace of redistributing land from wealthy whites to poorer blacks.

But any transfer would be done legally, he told parliament.

I can say now that we will not allow land grabs. We will not allow land invasions and those who are tempted to resort to such activities must be warned in advance that we will not allow it because it is illegal, but apart from being illegal, it begins to violate the rights of other South African citizens, he said.Participants in Rome meeting to help fund the Palestinian refugee agency, but combined aid pledge falls $350m short.

A conference in Rome aimed at funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has gathered pledges of $100m in funding, according to UN officials.

The summit, co-organised by Jordan, Sweden, and Egypt in the Italian capital, convened on Thursday at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), where foreign ministers from the three countries discussed the financial crisis confronting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

More than 90 countries were invited to participate in the Rome conference, which was attended by Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, and Federica Mogherini, the European Unions foreign policy chief.

Also in attendance was Rami Hamdallah, the Palestinian prime minister, who called for increasing support and warned of the multiple risks that this financial crisis will have for Palestinian refugees, their host countries, and the regions stability.

Among the pledging countries are Qatar, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Mexico, Slovakia, India and France. Their combined commitment fell $350m short of the amount required by UNRWA.

UNRWA is one of the regions oldest relief agencies, but is currently facing an unprecedented financial crisis, according to Guterres, after US Department of State decided to withhold $65m out of a $125m aid package.





The move came after US President Donald Trump threatened on January 3 to cut aid to the agency, which serves more than five million people.

In a series of tweets, Trump had said:  We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect.

 With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?

Trumps posts came less than a month after his controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, a move that prompted widespread international condemnation and led Palestinian leaders to say that they would no longer accept any peace plan put forward by the US.

The US had been UNWRAs largest donor, supplying nearly 30 percent of its budget.

Earlier on Thursday, Guterres said in a Twitter post that supporting UNRWA is an investment in peace.

Supporting UNRWA is not only a matter of human solidarity with Palestine refugees, it is an investment in peace. #DignityIsPriceless  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 15, 2018

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Rome, Christopher Gunness, senior spokesperson for UNRWA, said they had started with a 2018 budget deficit of $446m  and although pledges for funding were made, there is work to do on the funding.

According to Gunness, existing funds will only allow the agency to carry on with operations until summertime, and so a sustainable financial footing is required.

For nearly 70 years, UNRWA has been the lifeline to the more than five million registered Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

It offers support in food supply, access to education, healthcare, social services and employment.

The agencys commissioner-general, Pierre Krahenbehl, said in a Twitter post Palestine Refugees deserve recognition of their rights & stable delivery of UNRWA services.

Similarly, Ayman Safadi, Jordans foreign minister, noted that delivering vital services to Palestinian refugees is an international, political, legal, ethical and humanitarian responsibility.US, France and Germany blame Russia for spys poisoning in UK

In a joint statement, the leaders say there is no plausible alternative explanation to the incident.The woman, whose name has not been made public, accused the New York governor of groping her.The kid who's hogging up most of the media attention, thanks to his anti-gun views, is David Hogg. And his handlers appear to be keeping him well stocked with an arsenal of tweet-ready rhetoric.

We've clearly reached peak foolishness in the U.S. when adults at certain media outlets feed us a steady stream of lectures from children about how we need to surrender our constitutional rights in the name of safety. The most recent example is the fawning treatment of the anti-gun versus the pro-gun kids from the Parkland school massacre.

In a recent tweet taunting President Trump, he ventured into economics and said:

He then doubled down on his tweet:

Reasonable minds can debate the merits of placing tariffs on certain goods entering the U.S. (I'm generally against but am open to the idea that Trump intends to use tariffs only as a temporary negotiating tool.) But in suggesting a tax on the sale of firearms (what amounts to a sin tax), Hogg fails to realize that his idea (assuming that it was his idea to begin with) would have a very different effect from what he might expect on his original crusade to reduce the number of guns in the U.S.

If David Hogg's #guntax (let's call it the Hogg Tax) were enacted, money from the sale of guns would eventually flow into government coffers and then be used to "harden schools, create new manufacturing jobs and save lives." (Keep in mind that this new tax would punish the poor and their ability to protect themselves and their families disproportionally.) To make that happen, new government employees would need to be hired, new office space taken up, and recipients of this newly created tax identified and ultimately subsidized.

Once in place, the newly created bureaucracy would be filled with busy government employees, all creating programs (surely wrongheaded and inefficient ones) with the tax dollars collected from the sale of those "evil" firearms.

But human nature will have something to say about this, as explained by Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration. Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teacher's union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc. The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

Keeping in mind that David's original mission was to have fewer guns on the streets, once the bureaucracy and government programs (made possible only by the Hogg Tax) were in place and doing "wonders for humanity," would either group as described in the Iron Law of Bureaucracy now prefer that gun sales decrease? Would the politicians who control all this money, the government employees (who have bills to pay like everyone else), and the recipients of this redistributed wealth really want gun sales to suddenly dry up or even slow down? After all, their very livelihoods would be tied directly to a steady flow of firearms sales.

In fact, not only would the Iron Law's second group fight to protect its existing bureaucracy, but it would actively attempt to grow it in the wake of any declining sales due to the high taxes  just as we saw bureaucrats advertise in Mexico to help grow the food stamp program during the Obama administration.

Of course, why make our society poorer by instituting the silly Hogg Tax when David Hogg and his ilk in the mainstream media have done more to increase firearms sales than even the most seasoned bureaucrats could ever dream of doing?

Follow Scott on Twitter: @Politiseeds.On August first of that year,Whitman rode the elevator to the top of the Clock Tower at the University of Texas at Austin. He rolled a hand truck along with him that carried a footlocker full of guns and ammunition. Soon after ensued the first mass murder in a public place in America.

The era of mass public shootings began with Charles Whitman in 1966. He taught us all we need to know to prevent or minimize such events. We ignored his lessons.

Texas Monthly Magazine published an in-depth story for the 40th anniversary of this episode in American history. It is entitled "96 Minutes"  you know why. It contains many quotes from individuals who were there or were immediately affected by those events. If, after you read that, Whitman's Lessons are not then apparent, then come back and read on, because those lessons are here named and explained.

I. There will be warnings.

Whitman sought out psychiatric help. He mentioned that the Tower would be a great place from which to shoot people.

From the note he left behind:

I have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail. After my death I wish that an autopsy would be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder[.] ... Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type.

II. There are reasons.

This type of behavior does not occur at random. People see trouble coming, but they don't imagine the magnitude of consequences.

Was it his abusive childhood? His overwhelming anger? The amphetamines he consumed, observed one friend, "like popcorn"?

This reporter has seen his type a few times before. There are tales of more. They go along, these amphetamine addicts, energetic and good-natured, until they explode. To reinforce that anecdotal information, the reader is encouraged to research the term "amphetamine psychosis."

Charles Whitman was:

... a good son, a top Boy Scout, an excellent Marine, an honor student, a hard worker, a loving husband, a fine scout master, a handsome man, a wonderful friend to all who knew him  and an expert sniper.

He himself recognized the symptoms (but not the cause) and asked for help that never arrived. One might doubt that the danger was known at the time. A bit of research turned this up:

... a letter by P.H. Connell published in the British Medical Journal on March 9, 1957 ... "[a] common result of amphetamine intoxication is the development of a paranoid psychosis indistinguishable from schizophrenia, during which the patient may be a serious social danger," he wrote.

III. Help will not be in time to save you.

In the absence of any visible police presence, students decided to defend themselves.

The police were armed with revolvers and shotguns. Neither was effective against an enemy atop a 300-foot tower shooting over a chest-high wall.

The populace of U.T. and Austin in 1966 was an armed society. These people felt every right to defend themselves, and they did so in numbers. Among civilians, students and police were those who owned high-powered rifles, many with scopes for long-range targeting. Within 20 minutes, they began to return fire on Whitman, who was forced to give up his place shooting over the wall and from then on shot only through the drain holes at the base of the deck.

In the seventy-odd minutes after that, only one more fatality occurred. When the Tower deck was "stormed" by a two cops [not one ed.], backed up by a volunteer, Whitman was on the deck, with his rifle's barrel through a drain hole. While he was furiously reversing the rifle out to shoot these "intruders," officers responded with a revolver and a shotgun. Those turned out to be effective after all  at close range.

Had Whitman been standing to shoot over the wall and undistracted by return fire, it might have been a very different story. Thanks, armed society!

IV. Do not dwell on the tragedy.

This one is not immediately obvious.

In the aftermath, don't glorify or name the shooter. Don't dwell on the event. It might be best to just shut up about it  perhaps for many years. Excess attention to the event makes it, in some twisted minds, an exaltation of the actions of the maniac, and that seems to promote similar events. It is known that the publication of suicide stories is a stimulus for more suicides. That once kept people from publishing such stories. The incident was not spoken of much.

A similar event did not occur until 1984 in San Ysidro, California. Another disturbed individual went on a rampage in a fast food restaurant. Among civilians, nobody shot back at all. The police did have a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, which arrived only after the majority of deaths had occurred. Whitman's Third Lesson had been ignored, and the shooter had managed to kill 21 and wound 19 others.

The San Ysidro perpetrator had called a mental health clinic and said he had a problem on the day before the event. He made an "offhand" comment about hunting humans on the morning of the incident. Whitman's First Lesson was ignored as well.

Was the 18-year gap a result of the reluctance to talk about Whitman? Perhaps. Whitman's Fourth Lesson could be said to have been postulated that day. Ensuing years seem to have confirmed it  in a negative and tragic way  as the rhetoric about shooting incidents increased and the gaps between such incidents shortened.

The current state of affairs: Paralysis

There have been more and more arms restrictions and regulation. The role of defenders has been taken away from the people and deposited with SWAT teams. Has it improved the situation? Not at all!

Perpetrators are being spotted in advance, but their actions and words are ignored by the very authorities charged with defending the public. Schools are institutionally disarmed and advertised as such. Crimes that would disqualify perpetrators from purchasing weapons under existing laws are not being prosecuted. And some of these shooters seem to have been taking drugs with dangerous side-effects.

So how would we solve these problems?

Let's take the first two together.

The warning and the reason

The answer would have been to take Whitman's Warning seriously and help him to give up his speed habit. Medical science knew the reason, even if Whitman himself did not. If someone had described the problem to him, he might have cooperated with the solution  he wanted to get better!

Don't wait for help

They didn't. How many were saved by the return fire is uncertain, but it is unquestionably "many." The armed society also  albeit unknowingly  paved the way for the final assault on Whitman's "fortress."

Your defense is your responsibility. Blaming others is denial. That you were unprepared is tragic, regrettable, forgivable, even understandable  but not correctable.

The stark reality of Whitman's Third Lesson is this: the best way to deal with a mass shooter is to aim your own gun and shoot back. Even if you miss, you may save lives.

That last thing

What shall we call it? Forbearance? Discretion? Responsibility? Don't talk so much? If mere chronology is any indicator, keeping quiet about Whitman perhaps delayed for 18 years any repeat of the situation. These days, not a year seems to pass without one, while the media analyze and accuse for as long as ratings persist.

Perhaps there is a time to shut up about the subject?

Steve Campbell attended the University of Texas at Austin some years after the Whitman Event. See his writings at Goingwalkabout.blog.Unitarian ministers were among the most vociferous in leading the rhetorical charge against the South and raising the conscience of the Northern public to the evils of slavery. Without question, the Unitarian Church has earned its rightful place in the annals of American history for starting and leading the campaign against the awful scourge of slavery.

The Unitarians were among the earliest and most successful in the Underground Railroad, rescuing hundreds of slaves from bondage, spiriting them away to freedom by an elaborate network of safe houses from Virginia to the Canadian border. They did so at great sacrifice, even great peril, often barely a step ahead of the relentless slave-catchers.

And now...

What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!

The mantra of Black Lives Matter is all one really needs to know to comprehend the philosophy, temperament, and makeup of the modern-day black nationalist group. As a wise Jewish sage once said, "All the rest is commentary."

Yet commentary is what's needed to describe the strange alliance between the Unitarian Universalist Society and Black Lives Matter. The former is an organization that purports to be nonviolent and dedicated to the unity and peaceful advancement of all humanity. The later is a racist, anti-Semitic, violent communist group committed to the overthrow of our elected government, the eradication of our democratic nation, and the subjugation or murder of our white citizens.

Black Lives Matter is the descendent of the Black Panther Movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, whose motto, "Burn, Baby, Burn," propelled them to practice what they preached by burning, attacking, and trying to destroy or kill what they termed as their oppressors: government targets, especially law enforcement and the military.

In the era of Martin Luther King and the peaceful Civil Rights Movement, the Panthers had only very limited success in attracting blacks to their violent ranks. Fast-forward to the present, and the Black Panthers have spawned Black Lives Matter  a new batch of violent black and white radicals who initiated their movement under the false pretext of a national epidemic of white law enforcement killing innocent blacks.

In this they cite the Ferguson, Missouri incident, falsely claiming that a white police officer, who was later exonerated, executed a black man, who was in fact trying to kill the officer. Through subsequent false accusations against white cops in similar incidents, BLM, as it is called, created a false narrative of an epidemic of an evil white law enforcement plotting to kill blacks nationwide. These modern-day Black Panthers then embarked on a long litany of rioting, mayhem, and murdering white police officers. They enlisted the violent Antifa in pursuit of their nefarious ends.

Oddly enough, the Unitarians have embraced the BLM Movement to the point of being willing accomplices to one of the most violent racist movements of our time. And they're very public about it.

"One of the ways that UU congregations are working to show up for racial injustice is by displaying a BLM banner outside their buildings." This is according to a pamphlet from the First Unitarian Society. Such a Black Lives Matter banner is on display on the front lawn of the Unitarian Church right across from the police headquarters in Newton, Massachusetts.

So each day, police officers reporting for duty to protect people like the congregants of this church are greeted by a big in-your-face banner supporting a group that pledges to kill cops. And yet the Unitarian ministers and their flock claim to be pacifists.

What's mind-boggling is that in hanging such a volatile banner across from a police station, the alleged peace-loving Unitarians apparently haven't got a clue as to how obscene this is  not only to the police, but to people who support the police, which means most of us.

They claim they support Black Lives Matter because they're both fighting against racial injustice. How supporting a group that burns and loots communities, assaults white people with impunity, and targets police officers for assassination is akin to fighting racial injustice is something they won't elaborate on. But there lies the conundrum, or more accurately, the vile hypocrisy of it all.

In the Unitarian world of make-believe, Black Lives Matter is a peaceful movement attempting to correct the ills of society. Yet ideological blindness is no excuse for championing a group that hates and kills. They've made a conscious collective decision to support BLM, and expect society at large to condone their depraved choice.

Not only has the Unitarian Church lost its moral bearings, but it has degenerated to the point where it deserves to be shunned by the vast majority of Americans who don't support groups that hate other racial groups and kill cops.

Martin Luther King would have been mortified at the sad, destructive direction of the same Unitarian Universalist Society that once played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.

How the Unitarians got to the point where they're openly supporting one of the most violent, hateful groups in America is less important than the fact that they do. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that until such a time as they publicly repudiate their alliance with Black Lives Matter, condemn it for the violent racist organization that it is, and apologize to the public for having supported BLM, our community, and our nation, should, in the name of common decency and basic morality, completely ostracize the Unitarians from American society.

And the federal government should rescind their religious tax-exempt status, since, as a result of their inexcusable support of the violent Black Lives Matter, it has become questionable whether there is anything religious about the current Unitarian Universalists.

Tom Mountain is a Massachusetts Republican state committeeman.Ah, it's tariff season in the US again!

U.S. presidential elections are decided in a swath of states from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, or at least close presidential elections have been decided in these states. President Trump won in 2016 by appealing to blue-collar voters in these states. President Obama in 2004 won Ohio and Indiana along with Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin and held all of these but Indiana in 2008. President George W. Bush in 2000 won Ohio and Indiana and kept them in 2004. Also little noticed in the aftermath of the 2004 election, President Bush was about as close to winning Pennsylvania in 2004 as John Kerry was to winning Ohio. There is another link among these three presidents, from both parties, who faced this same basic electoral map. Each of these presidents facing midterm elections during his first term in office and then his re-election slapped tariffs on products produced in the swing-state swath of states within two years of taking office.

President Bush put quotas on steel of eight percent to thirty percent. Pennsylvania and Ohio are both steel states. These tariffs took effect in March 2002. President Bush exempted Canada and Mexico and several developing countries from his tariffs. These tariffs were slated to last until 2005 but were ended in December 2003. President Bush's party famously gained seats in both the Senate and the House in the 2002 midterm elections. President Obama perhaps having noted the results in 2002 slapped a twenty-five to thirty-five percent quotas on tires from China in September 2009. Curiously the center of the US tire industry is Ohio and the workers in this industry are members of the steelworkers union. However, President Obama's party lost seats both the Senate and House in the 2010 midterm elections. President Trump, who ran on such policies, recently put a twenty-five-percent tariff on steel and a ten-percent tariff on aluminum. Again steel is produced in swing states, including Pennsylvania and Ohio. Like President Bush, President Trump has exempted some counties from his tariffs and has discussed exempting additional counties. We do not yet know what will happen in the 2018 midterm elections, but after what happened after in the 2002 midterms, it is hardly surprising that the next Republican president would try steel tariffs again. So we have three presidents, one Democrat and two Republicans, one outsider in president Trump and two insiders, each of whom saw it in their best interests to impose tariffs before his first midterm elections. These tariffs curiously affect products from workers in the swath of swing states that decide American presidential elections. This seems to imply that these tariffs are more of a political policy than an economic one. An interesting fact about these tariffs is how they are covered on the internet. As I write this, the George W. Bush tariffs are discussed on his Wikipedia page, and President's Trumps tariffs are discussed, but the Obama tariffs are completely ignored on his Wikipedia page. Also, in general, despite the lowest top tariff rate of the three presidents, the tone of coverage of the Trump tariffs seems more negative than the tone of coverage of the Bush tariffs, which seems more negative than the Obama tariffs. Also, it is interesting that the coverage of the Obama tariffs seems to be disappearing to some extent. The conclusion that recent American tariffs are more political than economic should cause us to understand a couple of things. The first is that President Trump, given his campaign rhetoric, certainly had to follow through with some tariffs, since Presidents George W. Bush and Obama also imposed tariffs despite running more as free traders. The second thing to understand is that we should hardly be surprised if whichever Democrat or Republican is president in 2025 and 2026 imposes tariffs to help swing states prior to the 2026 midterm elections. It will be tariff season again.Our parents did not succeed in ensuring our safety at school. So we must do it ourselves.

Surrounded by cops with guns , politicians ; teachers ; and their oh, so self-important, clueless, and manipulated students walked out of classes nationwide, ostensibly to protest "gun violence." (As inanimate, lifeless objects, guns can't be violent by themselves, but never mind.)

The killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida may be the massacre that finally gets federal and state governments to enact common-sense gun control laws. That should have happened after Columbine. It should have happened after Virginia Tech. It should have happened after Sandy Hook. But it didnt. ... We are Generation Z, the generation after millennials. We outnumber them by nearly one million and may be the largest cohort of future American spenders since the baby boomers. We have more than $30 billion in spending power and wield enormous influence in family spending. Our spending power will only increase as we begin to earn our own wages. We will flex our muscles at the ballot box, too. Many high school seniors will cast their first ballots this November, and in 2020, a majority of todays high school students will most likely be able to vote in their first presidential election. And we will not forget the elected officials who turned their backs on their duty to protect children. Let us remind politicians like Donald Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who accept donations from the National Rifle Association and oppose efforts to restrict gun purchases that we are the future leaders and voters of this country. Let us remind corporations like FedEx that provide discounts to N.R.A. members that we are their future customers. The Stoneman Douglas students who began speaking out after the killings last month have better articulated the need for common-sense gun control laws and school safety than our elders ever have.

Notice that the kiddies who marched, and their adult string-pullers, don't mention the shooting in Las Vegas several months earlier...but then again, that was Vegas, and the victims were just people who enjoyed country music.

And the students conveniently ignored last year's Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which occurred in a gay bar courtesy of a Muslim man devoted to ISIS about an hour's drive from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas H.S. in Parkland, Florida.

All of this  and more  would disrupt the narrative of the walkout engineered by the bigoted folks of Women's March Youth, who brought the country the so-called Women's March, and other liberal lefty groups who are using the walkout to get more empty headed-voters and to rail against their favorite target (I couldn't resist): the National Rifle Association.

Wear orange in solidarity! You can also take action by registering to vote: text P2P to RTVOTE (788-683) right now to get registered or to check/update your registration! #ENOUGH

But some young people across the country, mainly males and mainly minorities, ignored the walkout  and were in turn ignored by the protesters and politicians  and continued their old habits of shooting others with guns obtained by...um...unconventional methods that bypass "commonsense gun laws" and even the NRA, as occurred in Chicago around the walkout times.

All of the Chicago victims were under 25 and were shot not in school, but just walking down the street, in a store, or at home.

The walkout students and their teachers don't want to talk about these common incidents because it would raise uncomfortable questions about certain segments of society and disrupt their narrative that they are good and the NRA and gun-lovers are evil, so the former group must control the country.

Today the walkout is over; the students are back in school. Maybe even in a school where teachers are armed and ready. But probably not.

And amazingly, violent people, using guns, continue to shoot other people. And will keep on shooting, no matter what these student pawns demand.President Trump carried this district by over 20 points. The district includes southern Allegheny County (excludes Pittsburgh) and Westmoreland, Washington, and Greene Counties. Lamb won because of the vote in Allegheny County. Saccone carried the other three counties.

Conor Lamb, Democrat, leads Rick Saccone, Republican, by about 500 votes out of over 200,000 votes cast in the 18th Congressional District special election in southwestern Pennsylvania. While it is still possible for Saccone to win after all absentee ballots are counted, it appears that Lamb has won. Even if Saccone wins, the following criticism of his campaign ads still applies.

The district will disappear and be apportioned to other districts if the redistricting map done by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court survives the legal challenges.

Lamb will serve until January 2019. There will be an election in November 2018 for the new district, so Lamb and Saccone may again run against each other.

Given President Trump's landslide victory in this district, Saccone, or any Republican, should have won by at least 5 to 10 points. Instead, Lamb leads by about 500 votes. Why?

I am a resident of this district. Saccone lost because the Republicans ran a lousy advertising campaign. Saccone should fire the campaign managers and consultants who produced the ads and hire new ones for the November election. These consultants should not work any other election.

Simply put, the Republican strategy was to nationalize the election by presenting Lamb as a tool of Nancy Pelosi. The problem with this is that Lamb announced on day one that he would vote against Pelosi as House speaker.

The Republicans should have nationalized the election by praising President Trump. They should have highlighted Trump's achievements such as his tax cuts, reducing regulations, the booming economy, the booming stock market, the defeat of ISIS, and the enforcement of our immigration laws. There should have been photos of Saccone with Trump and Saccone promising to continue the Trump agenda. There were a few ads on the tax cuts, but they were negative in that one ad said Lamb opposed the cuts. Problem is, Lamb wasn't in Congress to vote against. President Trump appeared at a rally on Saturday, March 10, which helped reduce Lamb's lead.

The Republicans sought to demonize Lamb. The problem is that there was nothing to demonize. Lamb has never held public office. He served in the Marines, then worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh. He is only 33 years old and appears as a clean-cut, polished speaker with no baggage to attack. His grandfather was speaker of the Pennsylvania House in the 1970s, and an uncle is a county official. He comes from a large, well known, respected family in the southern suburbs in Allegheny County that gave Lamb the win.

Demonization worked against Hillary Clinton because she has much to attack. The demonization ads against Lamb attacked him for cases he handled as a prosecutor where defendants received plea deals that were portrayed as favorable to the defendants. But these deals were approved by the U.S. attorney. Lamb could not do these without approval. The U.S. attorney appeared in a Lamb ad praising Lamb's work.

The Republicans should have run a positive campaign stressing how Saccone would help Trump achieve his agenda of building the wall, enforcing immigration laws, cutting taxes, reducing regulations, and bringing back manufacturing jobs. This district lost many manufacturing jobs and steel-making jobs and responded well to Trump's tariffs. Both Lamb and Saccone support Trump's tariffs.

The bottom line is that Trump won this district by 20 points, which means his agenda is well received here. But the Republican strategy was to link Lamb to Nancy Pelosi instead of linking Saccone to President Trump.

As they say, all politics is local. The Republicans who ran these ads did not understand the 18th District. They do not understand the appeal of Trump, who won here by 20 points.In 2015, Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old student at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas brought what he claimed was a homemade clock to school. When he showed it to one of his teachers, the older man thought immediately it was a bomb.

The world exploded in outrage. The kid was showing how clever he was, but Islamophobic authorities believed the worst because he was a Muslim. Despite the fact that the machine didn't look much like a clock and appeared very much to be a bomb, the weepy left got involved, and young Ahmed became a celebrity.

NASA invited him for a tour. President Obama weighed in, congratulating the young man for being so clever. Editorials in all the correct newspapers praised him and condemned the "Islamophobia" that led to him being taken into custody.

Ahmed's family sued the school district and the city of Irving in 2016, claiming that his civil rights were violated. Yesterday, a judge dismissed the lawsuit "with prejudice," which basically means "get out of my court and don't come back."

Dallas Morning News:

The suit, filed by Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed on behalf of his son, had asked for unspecified damages. It had been amended twice since it was initially filed in August 2016. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay on Tuesday ordered that the suit be "dismissed with prejudice" and that "all relief requested by plaintiff is denied." Lawyers for Ahmed Mohamed did not return calls for comment Wednesday. In a statement released Wednesday, the city of Irving said that it is "extremely pleased by the court's ruling, which supports the justifiable actions taken by the officers in the matter. We remain committed to ensuring the safety of all Irving residents and schoolchildren." Katie Long, the attorney for Irving ISD, said in an emailed statement that the district was "pleased the court had dismissed the case in its entirety" and that it had recognized that there was no basis to the claim that "Irving Independent School District or any employee discriminated against this student on the basis of race or religion." "The Court's Order confirms that there is no plausible claim that Irving ISD or its employees violated anyone's constitutional rights. Irving ISD is committed to the safety, well-being, and equality of all students," the statement said.

So that ends this strange and disturbing episode. But does it? There has been intelligent speculation for years that the whole incident was a setup  that young Ahmed, in cahoots with his father (and possibly CAIR), wanted to create conditions for the kind of lawsuit that was eventually filed. It's even possible that CAIR was in on the scheme, hoping to prove how much America hates Muslims.

While there's no proof of any of this, there's that crazy clock and its resemblance to a bomb. As questions began to be asked, the family moved to Qatar. His father, who ran twice for president of Sudan, is a Sufi Muslim who was deeply involved in the Islamic community in Texas. Ahmed later made a promotional video with the co-founder of CAIR.

Many questions, no answers. The idea that it was all a setup is plausible because of who was involved and what eventually transpired. And Ahmed is a hero to leftists because the incident gave them all  from President Obama on down  a chance to let us know how tolerant and good they all are because they defended someone who may have conned them all.The very expensive ( $70.9 billion in 2016) federal food stamp program (officially: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) is an open invitation to fraud. The latest indicator comes from Jacksonville, Florida.

Sheriff Mike Williams announced Tuesday the results of a multi-agency, undercover investigation into the exchange of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for cash and, in at least one case, cocaine. From 2012 to 2017, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detectives, working with federal and state agencies, documented more than 22,000 fraudulent transactions involving $3.7 million in taxpayer money. "These people are selling or stealing money from hardworking taxpayers right here in our community, and they are abusing a program that is meant to help people," Williams said. Williams said that during Operation Half-Back, undercover officers personally observed 115 individuals in 390 fraudulent transactions from February to July 2017. Investigators said those with SNAP/EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) cards would give their PIN number to the buyer, and that money would then be deposited into their accounts. Williams said, in most cases, the food-stamp recipient received 50 cents per $1 of SNAP benefit used. Each transaction was recorded.

This operation required a heavy investment of law enforcement resources, it should be noted, making the actual cost of the fraud much higher than the $3.7 million total stolen from taxpayers. Having officers observe 390 transactions eats up a lot of time. News4Jax recorded some of the arrests in this video:

And provided this image of the suspects:

The SNAP program ballooned under President Obama (up 42%). But it is worth noting that even under George W. Bush, the program metastasized  almost as if people had motives other than a true need for food in enrolling:



Source.

A similar story came out of Worcester, Massachusetts, where $3.6 million was stolen, resulting in a mere one-year prison sentence for the woman who was the ringleader.

This endemic fraud is the reason why President Trump's proposal to move toward food boxes makes great sense, despite the ridicule and specious criticism it elicited.

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney explained that "part" of food stamp recipients' benefits would "come in ... a Blue Apron-type program where you actually receive the food instead of receive the cash." The proposal, called "America's Harvest Box," would reportedly contain "homegrown" products, sourced from American farmers and producers. Shelf-stable milk, juice, grains, cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, canned meat, poultry or fish, canned fruit and vegetables are among the items that would be included in the box. ... [T]he rest of their benefits would be provided on electronic benefit cards as they are currently. Mulvaney claimed that the change would allow the government to save nearly $130 billion over 10 years, as it would lower government costs because it could buy the products at wholesale prices. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asserted that the box would maintain "the same level of food value as SNAP participants currently receive," calling it a "bold, innovative approach to providing nutritious food to people who need assistance feeding themselves and their families."

It is much more difficult to turn a food box into spendable money than a credit card-like SNAP card. Boxes are not fungible the way electronic finds are. And they don't contain junk food.Yep, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi is finding herself a massive liability to her party, and now swamp-watcher Mike Allen of Axios is reporting that she's actually tottering.

In a top post headlined "Pelosi in Peril," Allen writes:

Top Democrats tell me that if they take back the House in November, a restoration of Speaker Nancy Pelosi is no longer guaranteed. In fact, some well-wired House Democrats predict she will be forced aside after the election and replaced by a younger, less divisive Dem. The big picture: Conor Lamb, 33, won his U.S. House race in Pennsylvania this week after saying he wouldn't vote for her for leader  a new template for moderates. Pelosi has hung in through the minority, and remains the party's most consistent fundraiser. As for whether she'll return as Speaker, she has just said that it's up to the members. (Her allies note that she has never lost a leadership vote.) But others have their eye on the gavel, and many members want a younger, newer face. Her No. 2 and longtime rival, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, 78, covets the job but is three months older than she is.

Here's the gross part: the just-as-surreal Adam Schiff is one of the names in the pot to replace her. Pelosi II will ride again.

It all makes perfect sense. Pelosi has been showing signs of weakness in her compulsive pandering to any leftist constituency. Her insistence on championing DREAMers in a bid to pander for Latino votes has led her to make ridiculous statements as well as take torrents of abuse from enraged illegal alien activist groups, even as their ally. Anyone can see that it's her waning influence that has led her to some pathetic suck-ups to fringe special interest groups. And apparently, the victory of Lamb in Pennsylvania, who specifically ran for office on a promise to not vote for Nancy Pelosi as House speaker should Democrats retake the House in November, was the final nail in the coffin.

Pelosi has a lot of power among the Democrats. According to Allen, in his piece linked above, she's the moneybags who distributes the goodies to Democrats, which is why so many support her and her unhinged babbling statements, and she also is known for getting results by muscling Democrats to vote together as a tight, zero-dissidents bloc. That makes her valuable to a Democratic president such as President Obama  and, given the insane far-left agenda she has enacted, absolutely hated on the right and an object of chariness among Democratic moderates. She, after all, muscled together the Democrats-only bloc on Obamacare  much to the nation's regret.

Since Pelosi has a record of clinging to power and seems to like to use it, it might mean a fight, with money and the Obamacare record becoming central to the issue. She doesn't go quietly and doesn't understand "retirement," so get ready for some fireworks as they attempt to dislodge this Jurassic barnacle who has, up until now, defined them.Tillerson out, McMaster next?

In a series of surprise developments this week, President Trump relieved secretary of state Rex Tillerson and replaced departing economic adviser Gary Cohn with financial news commentator Larry Kudlow. Tillerson, Cohn, and Kudlow all oppose Trump's recently announced steel tariffs, but Kudlow says he agrees they can be an effective bargaining chip. Tillerson will be replaced by current CIA director Mike Pompeo. Another Trump administration official who opposes Trump on the tariffs is national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Recent speculation puts him next on the chopping block. NBC News cited anonymous administration sources recently claiming that White House chief of staff John Kelly and defense secretary James Mattis are pushing for his removal, and that he may be gone in a month. According to Bloomberg News, Kelly has been seeking a new job for McMaster at the Pentagon. CNN claims that McMaster has looked into a position at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed these rumors, saying McMaster is " not going anywhere." There is no doubt, however, that many defense experts and Trump-supporters would like to see him gone.An Associated Press investigation of U.N. missions during the past 12 years found nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other personnel around the world  signalling the crisis is much larger than previously known. More than 300 of the allegations involved children, the AP found, but only a fraction of the alleged perpetrators served jail time.

There is way too much sexual abuse taking place by those under the banner of the United Nations. Something is very wrong, and there are few reasons to hope anything will change. The halo that the left and mainstream media place over that organization is not just mistaken; it may enable horrific acts. United Nations Peacekeeping Forces have engaged in sexual abuse on a huge scale, in multiple poor and beleaguered countries. The Associated Press last year attempted to get a handle on the magnitude:

The U.N. itself is investigating new accusations:

Seven new allegations of sexual exploitation by United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic are being investigated by the UN mission in the country. The investigation comes following a series of allegations in which soldiers serving under the UN have been accused of abusing minors. Dianne Penn reports. The UN mission, MINUSCA, says it received details of the allegations in the town of Bambari from a team of Human Rights Watch researchers. MINUSCA says there was "sufficient initial evidence" that five of the victims were minors and had been sexually abused. One adult had also been sexually exploited. The seventh alleged victim, reportedly a minor, has not yet been interviewed.

There are institutional reasons for such widespread abuse. As The AP report notes:

Legally, the UN is in a bind. It has no jurisdiction over peacekeepers, leaving punishment to the countries that contribute the troops.

But I have to wonder about the organizational culture of the U.N.  especially in the light of this report from the U.K. Daily Mail:

A leading children's rights campaigner, who helped governments around the world tackle the issue of abuse, has been jailed for raping a 13-year-old boy. Former UNICEF consultant Peter Newell admitted three counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery and was sentenced to six years, eight months in prison. He has also been placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

One has to wonder who hired this guy. But of course, one never hears of U.N. officials disciplined for poor performance. Accountability for results is not a prominent feature of the U.N. bureaucracy.

As the Daily Mail notes, purported do-gooder organizations, the kind of groups that the left and the mainstream media generally put halos over (like the U.N.) have been revealed to be hotbeds of abuse:

News of his imprisonment comes amidst warnings that predatory paedophiles are exploiting the aid sector after 125 British charity workers were accused of sexual abuse in 2017. Newell "helped prepare UNICEF's Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child" and "led the UK's anti smacking campaign in a long and distinguished career," according to the Daily Mail.

The left and its mainstream media allies regard the pursuit of profits as evil, and thus generally favor nonprofit organizations and governments as morally superior. But the problem is that accountability mechanisms are far weaker in these sectors than in for-profit organizations, where a failure to perform leads to organizational death via bankruptcy or insolvency.

As the Daily Mail reports:

The scale of the problem has been laid bare by the scandal facing Oxfam whose staff have been accused of downloading pornography, using prostitutes in Haiti and preying on teenage volunteers in UK shops.

This is not to impugn all people who work for nonprofits and governments. No doubt, most are good people. The problem is that without vigorous accountability and with the presumption of virtue the media and left endow them with, they can offer camouflage to those with evil intent.The United States Patent and Trademark Office received a trademark application for the term AT&T TV from the wireless carrier on March 6, suggesting AT&T may be looking to launch a new TV service or is planning to rebrand some of its existing television offerings  U-verse, DIRECTV, and DIRECTV NOW. The application specifically mentions set-top boxes with voice controls, thus being indicative of an Internet TV solution.

The Dallas, Texas-based telecom giant was reportedly interested in replacing the U-verse and DIRECTV brands since at least 2015, before its $67.1 billion acquisition of the El Segundo, California-based TV company was even completed. The firm is understood to have dropped those plans by late 2016 when it launched DIRECTV Now, with the new trademark hence being more likely to replace the U-verse brand than that of its flagship subsidiary. Alternatively, the company may be looking to phase out its traditional TV brands and consolidate them under the AT&T TV name while leaving the DIRECTV NOW service as it is. The fact that DIRECTV NOW isnt available on set-top boxes which AT&Ts latest trademark filing refers to adds more credence to that possibility.

The latest move comes as AT&T is preparing to fight the U.S. Department of Justice in court over its proposed $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner which the regulator blocked primarily due to its implications for the TV industry, suggesting AT&T may force rival distributors to pay more for Turners programming and consequently drive up the annual TV bills by hundreds of millions of dollars. The telecom giant repeatedly dismissed such claims as baseless, asserting that its proposed tie-up is a vertical merger which doesnt remove any competition from the market and stating Washington has no precedent for blocking it. The trial on the matter is scheduled to start on March 19 and is expected to last for several weeks. AT&Ts latest internal deadline for the completion of the consolidation is April 22, though the company should extend it if its dispute with the DOJ isnt resolved by then.Coolpad is planning a major comeback in India following half a year of inactivity in the South Asian country and is also currently in the process of settling debts incurred as part of LeEcos aggressive expansion strategy which ended up proving unsustainable, according to Syed Tajuddin, Coolpad India Chief Executive Officer. In a recent interview with the Indo-Asian News Service, Mr. Tajuddin said the Chinese original equipment manufacturer is looking for a fresh start after an unsuccessful episode with LeEco which recently sold its majority stake in the company at a significant loss, being pressured to do so due to a rising pile of debts that brought its operations to a halt, forcing it to liquidate some of its assets in an attempt to stay afloat.

Coolpads new plans for India will largely be funded by a $300 million injection the firm managed to receive earlier this year from Chinas real estate tycoon Chen Hua, i.e. his family trust Power Sun Ventures. The OEM sees India as one of its largest growth opportunities, with the United States being its other focus market going forward, according to Mr. Tajuddin. The phone makers top executive believes Coolpad will soon start placing an even smaller focus on its home country than it already does due to the generally oversaturated state of the local market which allows for a small number of opportunities. In the near term, Coolpad remains focused on settling any debts taken on as a result of LeEcos decisions and returning to India on a significant scale with a new product family focused on artificial intelligence applications. The company already confirmed its planning to implement Amazons Alexa into some of its offerings at MWC 2018 and also used the Barcelona-based trade show as an opportunity to announce its working on new wearables meant to be released over the course of this year.

Not all future Coolpad-made smartphones will support Alexa but many of them will, Mr. Tajuddin suggested, adding that the company will already be introducing new devices in India over the first half of the year. Its local product launches should ramp up by the second half of 2018, whereas the firm is now also looking toward wireless carriers to help it bring its offerings to a wider audience. Coolpads presence in India diminished in 2017 as LeEco found itself in legal issues due to numerous defaulted loans. Prior to the troublesome period, the company was shipping 34 million handsets and generating $3 billion in revenue on an annual basis. Coolpad has yet to elaborate on its stateside ambitions that it previously described as a core component of its long-term strategy. Washington presently isnt particularly open to Chinas tech companies, having recently blocked the likes of Huawei and ZTE from doing large-scale business in the country, citing spying concerns. Coolpad could still avoid such scrutiny as it doesnt have a presence in the telecom segment which the U.S. is primarily worried about, being interested in safeguarding its future 5G infrastructure.Google may end up being sued by France, said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, over what he has called abusive practices found in the search giants contractual arrangement with app developers for Android. More specifically, the minister believes that the policy changes and imposed pricing laid out in the companys Google Play Store contracts with developers and start-ups are worthy of a lawsuit. Le Maire understandably didnt choose to go into further details aside from mentioning that the company should not use its power in that way. Meanwhile, the case will be brought before the Paris commercial court, according to Le Maire. There is no date set yet for proceedings to begin but the minister also expects that the European Union (EU) can also be pressed to close tax loopholes benefiting the company by the year 2019. Some within the EU are currently working to address the problems with taxing tech giants based overseas.

For Googles part, a company spokesperson has released a statement saying that the company believes itself to be in compliance with French law on the matters. Moreover, the company looks forward to presenting its case in court. With that said, Google has caught several bad breaks in the EU and elsewhere over the past couple of years, in addition to facing accusations outside of the legal sphere. Among those was one case where several million dollars in fines were paid in the EU and another where the company was forced to open up its browser to secondary search engines in Russia. So the company should be well prepared for whatever challenges lie ahead with this case. The company also shouldnt have any trouble paying the fines Frances Finance Minister is seeking to impose  which are set at around $2.5 million for the ordeal.

In the meantime, Google is not the only company Le Maire plans to charge with the allegations. Apple is included in that as well. The iPhone manufacturer is facing precisely the same charges as Google. Whats more, it has been included in Le Maires list of companies with regard to the EU tax loophole. The minister also says those loopholes are providing unwarranted benefits to Facebook and Amazon.Google has started to experiment with light field technology with the hope of making virtual reality (VR) more life-like. As while VR is a field that has grown massively of late, and one that is now capable of offering some impressively immersive experiences, to the trained eye  literally  there are some areas where the experience remains an unnatural one. Light is a good example here as while creating a world that replicates the real world is one thing, taking account of the way light has a tendency to bounce and reflect off everything  and the way the eye interprets that bouncing  is a lot harder to replicate in an authentic fashion in VR. Though, if it can be, it has the potential to add further depth elements to a constructed world, and thereby making immersive experiences, even more closer to the real thing.

The light field is nothing new, as it has been a staple of science for years, though the light fields Google is specifically referring to is the use of algorithms to cleverly capture, stitch, and render, images to account for a scenes light field. In addition to the computational tech there are also cameras available (light-field cameras) which help in the process of capturing light fields  usually for research purposes. Although as part of its own research, Google put together a makeshift light-field camera by modifying a GoPro Odyssey Jump camera. The results of which have now afforded Google the ability to sample light rays for use with VR headsets.

One of the major technical hurdles for light fields in relation to VR, is not just the capturing of how light reflects in a single image, but how those light reflections change and move within a 3D environment when a person moves, which is why the more advanced camera rigs are needed. To further highlight this distinction, Google has released a new VR app called Welcome to Light Fields. With this being a VR app it is only compatible with select headsets, namely the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. The app is available to download through Steam VR and for those who do not have a compatible headset to hand, Google has released the still images shown below which look to provide some indication of how the capturing of light can add an additional level of realism.Google on Thursday officially rebranded Android Wear into Wear OS, having confirmed the new name of its wearable platform only several days after rumors of its intentions to do so originally emerged. The Mountain View, California-based tech giant said the move is a result of a conscious decision to move away from the Android brand which is meant to reflect the fact that not all Android Wear users also own Android-powered smartphones. Every third consumer who purchased an Android Wear device in 2017 was an iPhone user, with the new name hence being indicative of the inclusive nature of the companys wearable ecosystem, Google said. Going forward, the full official moniker of the operating system will be Wear OS by Google, though its presently unclear whether the firm and its partners will also be using a shortened name of the platform in their promotional materials.

The change doesnt affect the underlying technology enabling Wear OS, with the software still being based on the same Linux kernel used by the mobile version of Android and its niche variants such as Android Go, whereas developing and updating Wear OS apps still requires the latest build of Googles Android Studio and SDKs. The rebranding also comes with a new logo that appears to feature some elements of the Google Assistant logo, with the move likely being indicative of the increasingly growing importance of the artificial intelligence helper in the smartwatch ecosystem. The Alphabet-owned company says the platform was meant to be entirely inclusive since its inception, suggesting the new name is more in line with that vision. The development marks the first rebranding of the OS that Google originally launched in early 2014, with Wear OS being set to celebrate its fourth anniversary on Sunday.

To date, Googles partners created more than 50 Android Wear-powered watches and while the platform is presently lacking a contemporary chip to back it, its still gaining commercial momentum, with the companys internal estimates indicating a 60-percent annual growth in activations over last years holiday season. Android Wear officially received iOS support in 2015 and owners of Apples mobile devices are now apparently fueling at least a third of its yearly growth. The update that will rebrand the OS will be rolling out to users on a global level over the coming weeks and should be followed by new functionalities, tweaks, and optimizations.

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The rebranding comes amid widespread criticism that Google effectively abandoned its wearable platform and indirectly dispells that notion, though the firm has yet to share any concrete details regarding its plans for future major software upgrades, the last one of which was launched in the form of Android Wear 2.0 over a year ago. While its presently unclear how many hardware partners are still committed to the ecosystem, Fossil Group Chief Strategy and Digital Officer Greg McKelvey said the Richardson, Texas-based company is one of them, suggesting more Fossil smartwatches are set to be released going forward. In an emailed statement, Mr. McKelvey revealed Fossil almost doubled its wearable unit last year, estimating the division is now generating $300 million in revenue on an annual basis. Even though new features and improvements are meant to follow going forward, the initial version of Wear OS will still be pretty much the same experience as Android Wear, the industry veteran said. While Google has yet to attempt to create a smartwatch role model for the rest of the industry to follow in a move reminiscent of its Pixel initiative, new Wear OS devices may be announced as soon as next week when Baselworld 2018 is set to take place, being the latest iteration of the worlds largest watch and jewellery trade show.Ridesharing company Lyft has announced that it will be partnering up with Magna, one of the largest suppliers in the auto industry, to create its own self-driving system. Lyft and Magnas goal is not only to get autonomous Lyft vehicles onto public roads around the world, but also to create a platform that can be used by automakers worldwide to create self-driving cars. The kicker with the platform is that it will be integrated with Lyfts own systems, which means that any vehicle built with it will have access to Lyfts ridesharing system. Essentially, this move will allow Lyft to build a sort of shadow fleet that does not necessarily consist of contracted vehicles, but makes it easy for vehicles in the fleet to be used with Lyft if the creator or owner wishes. In order to help make all of this happen, Magna is buying up an equity stake in Lyft for $200 million.

The way that the deal will reportedly work is with Lyft developing the software for the system in Palo Alto, and Magna manufacturing the hardware that makes integration of the system possible. Magna will be working closely with Lyfts engineers to develop a solution thats able to meet all of the needs of the self-driving software that the pair design together. The goal of the project, according to Lyft CEO Logan Green, is to start out by deploying level 4 autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars that can mostly match human drivers, but still require some help occasionally. Eventually, the company wants to deploy level 5 vehicles, which are fully autonomous at all times and are able to readily best human drivers in reflexes, perception, and judgment.

This project is not a replacement for Lyfts independent efforts in self-driving cars, which have thus far culminated in tests in controlled facilities in California. The company also has a partnership of largely undisclosed nature with Waymo, a venture that represents Googles take on the self-driving car craze. Lyft may well develop and deploy all of these efforts independently, though the company could just as easily combine the three different solutions somehow. Given the outcome of Waymos legal battle with Uber, Lyft would be wise to tread lightly in its other self-driving ventures, or at the very least maintain proof that it did not misappropriate Waymos trade secrets at any point during the processes of developing and deploying other solutions.Nokia government relations chief Brian Hendricks and senior counsel Jeffrey Marks met with the Federal Communications Commission last week to plead for accelerated efforts meant to realize the agencys plans to hold a 5G spectrum auction this year, according to the regulators recently publicized ex patre filing. The Espoo, Finland-based telecommunications company spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pais adviser and senior counsel in order to reiterate its perceived importance of a timely 5G auction in the context of the countrys plans to maintain its leadership in the segment.

Nokia wants the FCCs next auction to encompass both millimeter-wave and mid-band spectrum so as to allow the stateside wireless carriers to prepare for a wide(r) variety of 5G use cases. While Nokia believes the American mobile service providers already have sufficient holdings to support their early rollouts, its skeptical about their ability to fully transition to the next generation of wireless communication that they expect will offer peak download speeds of up to 20Gbps, increasing the initial 5G data rates by a factor of ten. The Finnish telecom giant is now pushing the FCC to establish a firm timeline for auctioning off the spectrum necessary for accomplishing those goals within the next two years, urging it to hold its next 5G auction in the coming months.

The regulator already announced plans to start a 28GHz auction in November and follow up on it with a 24GHz one but requires Congress to remove the legal barriers to doing so with new legislation that must be enacted by May 13. Under the current set of rules, the FCC must have all bidders deposit upfront payments with private banks on interest-bearing accounts yet theyre still legally unable to do so due to other regulations which Capitol Hill is presently in the process of revoking. Should the new legislation be implemented by mid-May, the FCC will be able to deposit such upfront payments directly with the U.S. Treasury. The issue already caused some friction between the FCC Commissioners and it remains to be seen whether the U.S. lawmakers manage to resolve it in time. Initial 5G deployment in the country is scheduled to start in the second half of 2018, with first large-scale buildouts being planned for early 2019.Samsung on Thursday released its kernel sources for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, with the move being meant to support independent developers looking to make custom Android implementations for the companys latest pair of flagships. The South Korean original equipment manufacturer released the sources of all four variants of its new offerings, i.e. the two Snapdragon 845-powered models and their Exynos 9810-equipped counterparts. The crucial code is available for download directly from Samsungs Open Source Release Center which can be accessed by referring to the banner below.

The move comes only a day before the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are scheduled to officially hit the market on a global level, with Samsung once again demonstrating its prepared to support independent developers who themselves are interested in supporting its devices. The availability of kernel sources for the new Android flagships should enable the creation of both custom ROMs and recoveries, so combined with the existence of Googles Project Treble, the new smartphones should be easier to support for the indie dev community than anything else Samsung released in the past.

Following their late February announcement, the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus went through a two-week pre-order period and already found their way to most consumers who placed advanced orders on them around the world, according to recent reports. The Seoul-based tech giant hasnt shared any pre-order performance figures of its new products, suggesting they havent managed to generate as much momentum as their record-breaking predecessors, though the company is still expecting both to outsell the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, as revealed by its mobile chief DJ Koh late last month. All variants of the phablets run Samsung Experience 9.0 based on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box and should receive regular security patches for at least two years, as suggested by Samsungs track record with flagship software support.MadridDiego Perez de los Cobos has been promoted to the post of commander of the Guardia Civil stationed in Madrid. The man behind the police crackdown in Catalonia on October 1, whose job was to coordinate the efforts of the Spanish police, Guardia Civil and Mossos dEsquadra ahead of the independence vote, has been given the top spot in the chain of command in the Spanish capital because, according to Guardia Civil boss Jose Manuel Holgado, he has the right profile for the position.

Spains official gazette (BOE) published the appointment on March 6 and on Wednesday Guardia Civil sources confirmed to Europa Press that Colonel De los Cobos had taken charge of his new job. When his predecessor, Colonel Santiago Caballero, was promoted to general of the Guardia Civil De los Cobos became everyones favourite to replace him.

Diego Perez de los Cobos is the brother of a former president of the Spanish Constitutional Court and, until now, he had led the bureau of coordination and studies within Spains State Security department. At the end of September last year, Madrid picked him to coordinate the various police forces in Catalonia, with a view to stopping the referendum on independence. On October 1, the day of the ballot, over one thousand people were injured as a result of the the Spanish polices baton charges.

The new head of Madrids Guardia Civil has been toiling in the engine room of Spains Interior Ministry for nearly twelve years. In July 2006 he was appointed advisor to the staff of then-minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba (PSOE) and at the end of 2011 Mariano Rajoys first Interior Minister (Jorge Fernandez Diaz) and his successor, Juan Ignacio Zoido, both kept him in the post.

Perez de los Cobos is also the States key witness in the cases against Catalan secessionist leaders to be heard in Madrids Supreme Court and the Audiencia Nacional, where Catalonias Mossos dEsquadra stand accused of allegedly looking the other way in order to allow the referendum to be held. In public statements Diego Perez de los Cobos has slammed Mossos Major Josep Lluis Trapero, the Catalan police boss who was sacked when direct rule was imposed by Madrid, and has referred to the Catalan police preparations to impede the ballot as a joke.

A family well-versed in fighting Catalonias independence bid

In recent years the Perez de los Cobos surname has stayed in the limelight in Catalonia. Diegos brother, Francisco Perez de los Cobos, was the president of the Spanish Constitutional Court from June 2013 to March 2017. Besides the controversy stirred by the fact that he used to be a card-carrying Partido Popular member, his tenure in the Constitutional Court was marked by several rulings striking down a number of resolutions passed by the Catalan parliament in the context of the independence bid, such as the 2013 declaration of sovereignty, the non-binding referendum of November 2014 and the 2015 breakaway declaration. All of todays investigative and judicial efforts following Catalonias independence referendum stem from the courts ruling on the 2015 declaration. The Catalan parliament attempted to challenge Francisco Perez de los Cobos a number of times for having scorned the Catalan people in books and lectures.

Francisco fought the independence bid from a court of law and now his brother Diego has followed suit as police chief. Their father had a stint in politics when he ran in the 1977 elections for the Murcia constituency on Fuerza Nuevas slate, a far-right political party.In Southeast Asia, Dentons will join with Hanafiah Ponggawa & Partners (HPRP) in Indonesia; and Zain & Co. in Malaysia.

"Our expansion in Indonesia and Malaysia high-quality firms there will help us build on our currently strong South East Asia presence in region with very dynamic economies," said Philip Jeyaretnam, S.C., Singapore Chief Executive Officer, Global Vice-Chair and the first CEO of Dentons ASEAN Region.

The other combinations are with: Hamilton, Harrison & Mathews in Kenya; Mardemootoo Solicitors and Balgobin Chambers in Mauritius; Dinner Martin in the Cayman Islands and Delany Law in the Eastern Caribbean (including offices in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago).

Allens Hub officially launches with 10 research streams

The Allens Hub for Law, Technology & Innovation has been officially launched in collaboration with UNSW to investigate challenges from digital transformation facing the legal system.Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The K&L Gates advised on all legal aspects relating to the sale. It was led by Melbourne M&A partner John Mann, and included Sydney tax partner Betsy-Ann Howe, senior associate Danielle Larkin, and lawyer Rachel McNally.

TOLMAR has a reputation for delivering high quality products to the market. The sale of TOLMAR compliments Mundipharma's existing product range and will ensure product access for patients and healthcare professionals well into the future. We are pleased to have helped them achieve a successful result, Mann said.

Mundipharma said that the acquisition is part of the companys plan to grow its existing portfolio of oncology medications.

Prostate cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, with one in seven men expected to be diagnosed before the age of 85. It is also the third most common cause of cancer death, said Jane Orr, Mundipharma Australia and New Zealand managing director.The nation also has a strong and independent judiciary and the rule of law has been tested and not found wanting, she said. The Law Council is also robust, as it not only understands the challenges and issues of the day, but actively seeks and advocates for the solutions, the president said.

However, Bailes said that the nations longstanding reputation as a fair, open-hearted and prosperous country with a strong legal system has distracted us from an uncomfortable truth: the growing numbers of people unable to access justice who are excluded from that system and thus from equality before the law.

The people who are cut off include the most disadvantaged and impoverished among us, but also the growing numbers in the missing middle. These are the ordinary working people who cannot afford legal representation for everyday legal concerns such as commercial matters, family law, injury compensation, she said. Those in the missing middle would never be able to qualify for legal aid assistance so they fall through the cracks in our justice system. Thats why the work of the Law Council is now more important than ever.

Bailes said that members of the profession must bring our strongest and most measured arguments to the table to defend the rule of law and the rights and freedoms we all assume we have by virtue of being Australian.

The president also outlined the Law Councils priorities for the next 12 months. These priorities include being a trusted adviser to Parliament on key legislative matters, defending an independent judiciary, and working to safeguard the future of the legal profession. The peak lawyer body will also continue to study and advocate for solutions to issues affecting aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as rural, regional, and remote communities.The reform will change the basis of criminal advocates pay from the number of pages of matters to their seriousness and complexity. It is being implemented against a backdrop of a 40% fee cut, she said.

We are receiving information about the likely effects of reform from you. It is our view that the mood of the profession is darkening. Many at the meeting told us that the scheme would have a catastrophic effect on chambers budgets and on some barristers careers, she said. These messages are deeply concerning; they are constantly expressed, with many from cautious and circumspect barristers who do not voice such opinions lightly. It is vital that you look at the new scheme, as it will affect you. This is your future.

The chair said that the bar will be discussing with the executive committee how to survey the membership, with balloting through chambers being considered as an option.

Our members have been telling us constantly that the criminal justice system is reaching a point of no return. Those who work across the system are reaching the end of their tethers, she said.Introduced for the 2019 model year, the mid-cycle refresh of the VV222 is somewhat subtle. The first detail that catches your attention is the reinterpreted front grille with vertical struts. Maybach argues the pinstripe suit served as an influence, a pattern carried over from the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Concept New 20-inch alloy wheels with a 10-hole motif are also in the offing, as are two-tone paint options for body shell. The interior also features a handful of new trim pieces finished in magma grey, mahogany brown, and the silk beige/deep sea blue combination. As ever, the Pullman is offered with two executive-sized rear seats.Boasting the most rear legroom in the segment, the Pullman one-ups the ultra-luxury game with an electrically operated partition and a two-cabin audio system. What the latter means is that the chauffeur can listen to Nirvana on the radio while the rear occupant can indulge in the classical music of Tchaikovsky.Priced in the ballpark of 500,000 (make that $618,500 at current exchange rates), the 2019 Mercedes-Maybach Pullman will be joined by an armored version in the following months. Both models, as you already know, benefit from V12 power.Losing the S600 badge in favor of the S650, the ultra-luxury behemoth has 6.0 liters of twin-turbocharged goodness to offer. Tuned to deliver 630 ponies and 1,000 Nm (737 pound-feet of torque), the Pullman can thrust to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.5 seconds.Fuel economy is abysmal, with Mercedes-Maybach quoting 14.6 liters per 100 kilometers (16 miles per gallon) on the combined cycle. Oh well, at least its more frugal than the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon.Starting this month, more than 600 intersections in Washington D.C. will support the German carmakers Traffic Light Information feature. It is a massive expansion of the service, accounting for roughly 60 percent of the existing connected intersections Audi had until now.This initiative represents the kind of innovation that is critical for us to advance the traffic safety goals of Vision Zero, said the citys mayor, Muriel Bowser.We look forward to building on this, and similar partnerships, as we continue to build a safer, stronger, and smarter D.C.Aside from the addition of D.C. to the service, Audi offers Traffic Light Information in Dallas, Houston, Palo Alto, Arcadia, Portland, and Denver. In all, now there are 1,600 city lights that can communicate with Audi vehicles.But what do they communicate? Part of the connect suite available on select 2017 and 2018 models, Traffic Light Information (TLI) allows car to receive a single set of data when approaching a connected intersection.Cars receive real-time signal information from the traffic management system that monitors traffic lights via the onboard 4G LTE data connection. When the light is red, the TLI feature will display the time remaining until the signal changes to green in the instrument cluster in front of the driver, or the head-up display, depending on the model.For now, this time-to-green countdown is the only feature available, and a pretty dumb one, considering the fact that here and there around the world traffic lights themselves are equipped with counters showing exactly that. What is important however is what the TLI can do in the future.According to Audi, work is underway to allow TLI to integrate the start/stop function, meaning the engine would ignite as soon as the traffic light tells it too. Further research might also integrate navigation for better routing.But what if some of us chose to spread kindness while not wearing the work-day outfit? What if, for instance, some guy decided to buy an Elsa outfit, you know Elsa, Disneys Frozen queen with magical icy powers? Would we get better recognition then?Last year, a 37-year old attorney from Boston named Jason Triplett thought buying a life-size Elsa costume would constitute money well spent. Why? For unknown reasons, the grown-up guy believed dressing up as a drag queen in the middle of a winter snowstorm would be hilarious, as he told Buzzfeed Sadly for him, since he bought the dress last year, he hasnt gotten any chance of using it explicitly for all to see. Until earlier this week, that is, when a snowstorm in Boston, a police van and a couple of friends with smartphone cameras aligned just like the planets do from time to time.The attorney was having his way in a local bar, dressed as seen in the video below, when by some miracle a Boston police van got stuck right outside, giving the guy a chance at stardom. So out of the several guests of the pub, he/she was the only one to get out in the storm and try to lend a helping hand to the distressed cop. All the others jumped at the window, phones in hand, cheering.What happened next you can see for yourselves in the video below. For now, thats all weve got from Jason Triplett, but the man does say he has some other women dresses in his closet, so perhaps shortly we will be seeing him towing a truck dressed as a French maid. Or wearing a wedding dress while jumping over obstacles during the Warrior Dash race, as he claims to have done before.Officially called Mars InSight Roadshow , the caravan will stop over the following months in several locations along the coast, spanning from the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in the North and ending in Los Angeles in the South. The tour starts on March 30 and is scheduled to end on May 19.InSight, an acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is meant to study Mars' deep interior using seismology and other geophysical measurements. Considering the fact that the Sunny State is earthquake central in the U.S., NASAs scientists will take advantage of the tour and try to make comparisons between the earthquakes and the marsquakes (yes, that's now the movement of the ground is called on Mars).Visitors to the venues where NASA would present the mission will be able to talks with NASA scientists and engineers, explore the interior of the planet via models, and even see panoramas of Earths sister ball of dirt through virtual reality headsets.The difference between the lander to be used on this years mission and the existing or planned rovers for Martian missions is that InSight would land and then stay put for as long as it can, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe, and other instruments to scan the interior of the Red Planet.The immobile instrument platform was built back in 2010 and was initially planned to travel to Mars in 2016. Because of a failure to one of the instruments, the launch was cancelled.The launch of the mission is not exactly known. The launch window opens on May 5 for the Vandenberg Air Force Base.The article is titled "Tesla employees say automaker is churning out a high volume of flawed parts requiring costly rework" and is based on the alleged statements of two unnamed former employees of the car manufacturer. In it, it says that "40 percent of the parts made or received at its Fremont factory require rework."Given the dodgy start to life the Model 3 has had, this kind of news isn't going to help matters, particularly since we're nearing the next deadline set by Elon Musk regarding the sedan's production rate. The Fremont plant - with help from the Gigafactory 1, where the battery cells and modules are made - should have an output of 2,500 Model 3s a week by the end of this month. Is it just Musk, or can you hear "tic-tac" as well?The obvious consequence was a severe drop in the value of Tesla's stock, which now sits at $326.63 after reaching $347.11 on Monday, the highest point in the last five days. With Tesla Inc., you just know you're not buying into the most stable company on the market, but on the other hand, it's still nerve-wracking for stock-owners to see the value drop so much, and all due to an unchecked story in the media.However, it did provide a good chance for those looking to buy, which is why you'll hear plenty of theories saying these things are all orchestrated. But we're not here to judge, only to report, so we'll let that discussion to others.Tesla couldn't just take the punch and go on with things as if nothing happened, so it issued a lengthy response to the allegations. You can read it in full below in the "Press release" section, but here's the jest of it: Remanufacturing is a process that literally every automaker on earth performs. CNBC is extracting a few lines from two job descriptions posted online and making gross assumptions about the roles that are inaccurate. Our remanufacturing team is very small, comprising only 0.1% (40 people) of our nearly 40,000 employees. Any expert claiming there is something unusual about our remanufacturing or that it has something to do with the quality of cars that come off a production line is either very confused or just completely wrong. In reality, like other automakers, Tesla remanufactures parts because doing so uses fewer materials and less energy than building a new part from scratch. It is undeniably a good thing that is ultimately better for the environment and if well done is equally good for the customer.Tesla is due to give us an update on where the Model 3 production stands during the first week of April, which means we'll soon find out if the 2,500 weekly units target was met. Depending on that report, expect to see more fluctuation on the stock market.Image: Military.com

Two crew members were killed when an F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed into the sea off the coast of Key West on Wednesday afternoon, military officials have confirmed. The aircraft, which was based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia, was on approach, about a mile from the runway at Boca Chica Field, at about 4:30 p.m., after completing a training mission. A local resident, Barbie Wilson, told Military.com she had stopped to watch the F/A-18 flying overhead. Literally, the wings went vertical, and there was a fireball, and it just literally dropped out of the sky, Wilson said. She said she didnt see the crew eject from the airplane. She later saw the wreckage upside down in the water near the shore.

A Navy spokesman told Military.com the pilot and a weapons systems officer had ejected, and were recovered from the water within minutes and taken by ambulance to a medical center, where they were declared dead. The Navy is investigating to determine the cause of the crash.Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership

on Extreme Risk Protection Orders

By Dan Zimmerman. March 13th, 2018

(Original material from Arthur Z Przebinda, MD and Robert B. Young, MD)

In the wake of the Parkland shooting we've seen a push to find solutions that would keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people who might commit atrocities.

The majority of the mass killers in recent times appear to have been mentally ill or deeply disturbed. Because mental illnesses are so varied, the mere presence of one does not indicate any risk of violence. Approximately 25% of our population experiences some mental illness at any given time.

As part of a constellation of indicators, the presence of a major mental illness (like major depression, delusions, or psychosis) can contribute to risk, along with (even more) the presence of active substance or alcohol abuse, along with threats made to targets or to acquaintances and a prior history of abusive or violent behavior. When such indicators occur, we must say something and that must be acted upon.

To address this, several states have passed "Gun Violence Restraining Order" or "Extreme Risk Protection Order" legislation aimed at interdicting potentially harmful individuals before they cause harm. We've discussed these a number of times on DRGO. .......

The full article appeared in the 'Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership' web site - always refreshing to find MD's who have sensible views on firearms ownership. The very important point to be made here is simply one of the serious potential for major abuses with "Extreme Risk Protection Orders", where lack of due process could lead to nothing short of pure gun confiscation. No tragedy warrants the abandonment of the founding principles of liberty and legal principles stemming from essential values and rights.

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The bipartisan criminal justice front has been going through a breakup  in the House, the Senate and among activist groups. Some are excited about the White House prison reform proposals, which focus on helping prisoners re-enter society. But others doubt the administration's motives and insist there can be no reform without tackling pre-incarceration issues like mandatory minimum sentences.

Why it matters: This division, particularly in the Senate, could threaten the momentum behind prison reform. The Brennan Center for Justice's Inimai Chettiar told Axios the White House's efforts are "a setback" as they have "split the bipartisan reform movement."

Where it stands: President Trump, some Republican members of Congress, and conservative groups like Koch Industries want to keep the focus on prison reform. But Sen. Chuck Grassley, most Democratic lawmakers and several left-leaning groups are demanding sentencing reform and question the White Houses motives.

The distinction:

Prison reform, which focuses on helping convicts prepare for re-entry and find jobs once released, has the most bipartisan support.

which focuses on helping convicts prepare for re-entry and find jobs once released, has the most bipartisan support. Sentencing reform, which attempts to cut back on policies like mandatory minimums and would most directly decrease incarceration, tends to lose "tough on crime" conservatives like Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Team White House

Trump and Sessions have no interest in anything more than re-entry reform right now. And Jared Kushner, the criminal justice reform advocate in the White House, has decided prison reform is the only way forward.

have no interest in anything more than re-entry reform right now. And Jared Kushner, the criminal justice reform advocate in the White House, has decided prison reform is the only way forward. Koch Industries is backing the White House's re-entry efforts and has left the Coalition for Public Safety, one of the most influential, bipartisan criminal justice reform groups. Koch General Counsel Mark Holden told us that they still work with other bipartisan coalitions and, although they hope for sentencing reform in the future, are focused on their Safe Streets and Second Chances initiative.

is backing the White House's re-entry efforts and has left the Coalition for Public Safety, one of the most influential, bipartisan criminal justice reform groups. Koch General Counsel Mark Holden told us that they still work with other bipartisan coalitions and, although they hope for sentencing reform in the future, are focused on their Safe Streets and Second Chances initiative. Right on Crime , another conservative member of the coalition, is also supportive of the White House's priorities. But Deputy Director Derick Cohen says he doesn't consider the division to be that serious.

, another conservative member of the coalition, is also supportive of the White House's priorities. But Deputy Director Derick Cohen says he doesn't consider the division to be that serious. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn won't support Grassley's bipartisan, comprehensive criminal justice reform bill  which the Judiciary Committee recently passed 15-5  despite his prior support. Cornyn is pushing instead for his bill with Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse that calls only for prison reforms aimed at aiding re-entry and reducing recidivism.

won't support Grassley's bipartisan, comprehensive criminal justice reform bill  which the Judiciary Committee recently passed 15-5  despite his prior support. Cornyn is pushing instead for his bill with Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse that calls only for prison reforms aimed at aiding re-entry and reducing recidivism. An aide to a Judiciary Committee member told Axios: "Its clear McConnell isnt going to put sentencing reform on the floor, particularly now that the administration opposes it. So the options are the Whitehouse-Cornyn bill, or nothing."

told Axios: "Its clear McConnell isnt going to put sentencing reform on the floor, particularly now that the administration opposes it. So the options are the Whitehouse-Cornyn bill, or nothing." Rep. Doug Collins, whose Redemption Act mirrors the Cornyn-Whitehouse bill and has the most momentum in the House, told Axios he supports some broader, more comprehensive criminal justice reforms. However, he said he recognizes that at this point, prison reform can get the votes in Congress ... but sentencing reform cant."

Team Sentencing Reform

Democracy Forward is suing the Justice Department for not properly disclosing requested information under the Freedom of Information Act on possible relationships between the Trump administration and private prisons.

is suing the Justice Department for not properly disclosing requested information under the Freedom of Information Act on possible relationships between the Trump administration and private prisons. Ben Seel, a legal analyst for Democracy Forward, told Axios the group believes the White House's reforms are disingenuous because the administration's actions suggest they aren't that serious about prison reform.



For example, he cited a Sessions memo from last year that directed federal prosecutors to charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense against crime suspects  a reversal of an Obama administration initiative to ease penalties for nonviolent drug offenses.

Progressive groups like The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Human Rights Watch and ACLU ardently disagree with the idea that "something is better than nothing."

like The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Human Rights Watch and ACLU ardently disagree with the idea that "something is better than nothing." "[The White House's priorities] are not something, quite frankly, and wont meaningfully address these issues," Sakira Cook, senior counsel at the Leadership Conference, told Axios.

Cook and Todd Cox, a legal analyst for LDF, told Axios they were wary of how the White House's suggested prison reforms would benefit private prisons.

told Axios they were wary of how the White House's suggested prison reforms would benefit private prisons. Sens. Grassley, Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham and others aren't backing down on sentencing reform.

and others aren't backing down on sentencing reform. "Only bill rolling right now is [Grassley's] SRCA," a Grassley spokesman told us.

Reps. Bobby Scott and Jason Lewis, who cosponsored a bipartisan, comprehensive criminal justice reform bill in the House, are still hoping for sentencing reform.

The peacemakers

Some senators, like Whitehouse and Republican Mike Lee, are willing to go with either option  Grassley's bill or Cornyn's. And Scott told Axios earlier this year that he would be willing to at least evaluate a prison reform-only bill if trying to tackle both prison and sentencing reform at once is too much for some in Congress, according to a spokesperson.The parents of Seth Rich, the former DNC staffer who was murdered in 2016, have filed suit against Fox News, reporter Malia Zimmerman, and guest commentator Ed Butowsky over a retracted 2017 article that tied his death to a conspiracy theory that Rich had a hand in WikiLeaks' release of hacked DNC emails. They allege that the "sham story" exploited their son's murder "through lies, misrepresentations, and half-truths."

The details: The filing claims Fox News and the writers are liable for "intentional infliction of emotional distress" with the story's publication. The Rich family is seeking monetary and compensatory damages to be determined in a court of law. Fox News declined to comment on the allegations, citing pending litigation.The New York Times' Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman reported that Special Counsel Bob Mueller is demanding documents related to Russia from the Trump Organization.

Why it matters: This brings the Russia probe even closer to President Trump, as it's the first time Mueller and his team are seeking documents directly from Trump's business. And this subpoena signals that the investigation is not wrapping up any time soon, contrary to Trump's lawyers telling him otherwise.

Flashback: In July Trump told NYT that Mueller would be "crossing a red line" if he investigated his familys finances, which he argues is outside of the scope of Russia-related matters.

Two people familiar with the subpoena told NYT that Mueller is requesting some documents related to Russia from the Trump Organization, though the organization maintains that they have never had real estate in Russia.

But in 2015 Felix Sater, one of Trump's longtime business associates, sent an email to Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, bragging about his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also encouraged Trump to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, saying it would help him win the election. Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it, Sater wrote in the email, according to NYT. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.

in 2015 Felix Sater, one of Trump's longtime business associates, sent an email to Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, bragging about his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also encouraged Trump to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, saying it would help him win the election. Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it, Sater wrote in the email, according to NYT. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process. NYT notes that Trump signed off on a letter of intent for the Trump Tower project in Moscow in 2015 (though it was nonbinding) and he later discussed it with Cohen three times.

that Trump signed off on a letter of intent for the Trump Tower project in Moscow in 2015 (though it was nonbinding) and he later discussed it with Cohen three times. Witnesses recently interviewed by Mueller's team have been asked about this real estate deal, per NYT.

Be smart, from MSNBC's Ari Melber: "Senior congressional source says that Mueller beginning with a subpoena, rather than typical document request, suggests special counsel intends to put every Trump Org staffer on alert not to destroy evidence."

Go deeper: Every big move by Mueller ... Behind Mueller's deep investigative work.Top Democrats tell me that if they take back the House in November, a restoration of Speaker Nancy Pelosi is no longer guaranteed. In fact, some well-wired House Democrats predict she will be forced aside after the election and replaced by a younger, less divisive Dem.

The big picture: Conor Lamb, 33, won his U.S. House race in Pennsylvania this week after saying he wouldn't vote for her for leader  a new template for moderates. Pelosi has hung in through the minority, and remains the party's most consistent fundraiser. As for whether she'll return as Speaker, she has just said that it's up to the members. (Her allies note that she has never lost a leadership vote.)

But others have their eye on the gavel, and many members want a younger, newer face. Her No. 2 and longtime rival, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, 78, covets the job but is three months older than she is.

have their eye on the gavel, and many members want a younger, newer face. Her No. 2 and longtime rival, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, 78, covets the job but is three months older than she is. Pelosi is more likely to be the bridge to a younger generation. A possible successor, who works the caucus behind the scenes, is Rep. Joe Crowley of Queens, N.Y., who turns 56 tomorrow.

to be the bridge to a younger generation. A possible successor, who works the caucus behind the scenes, is Rep. Joe Crowley of Queens, N.Y., who turns 56 tomorrow. Another possible candidate who's getting buzz: Rep. Adam Schiff, a fellow Californian who has a sky-high profile as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, investigating Russia's role in 2016.

who's getting buzz: Rep. Adam Schiff, a fellow Californian who has a sky-high profile as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, investigating Russia's role in 2016. Dems point out the members and candidates can distance themselves from their leader for political reasons, but then ultimately vote for her.

One Democratic source told me that Pelosi hears footsteps: She used to be retributional. Now shes more inclusive.

Pelosi allies see some of the criticism as sexist, and say she has always been inclusive of all parts of the caucus' diversity, including newer members.

see some of the criticism as sexist, and say she has always been inclusive of all parts of the caucus' diversity, including newer members. Pelosi told the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a retreat in Baltimore last week: "Every morning, I don a suit of armor, eat nails for breakfast, and go fight inequality."

the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a retreat in Baltimore last week: "Every morning, I don a suit of armor, eat nails for breakfast, and go fight inequality." President Trump plans to invoke her frequently in midterm speeches, and Republicans already use her image to raise funds. And in campaigns this fall, many Dems challengers will be put on the spot about whether they'd vote for her as Speaker.

One scenario, from a Pelosi ally:

"She could win the caucus vote [for Speaker] easily but lose the floor vote."

the caucus vote [for Speaker] easily but lose the floor vote." "[I]f Dems win the majority by, say, a 10-vote majority, and 15 newly elected Dems have committed not to vote for her [like Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania] for leader of the party, ... she could lose the floor vote for Speaker. That would give the House to the head of the Republicans."

"She would never let that happen, and she would bow out to someone else."

and she would bow out to someone else." "[S]hes the best vote counter this generation has ever seen. So shell know this scenario well in advance, and will figure out a way out that will preserve her legacy."

Be smart: If there's a post-election coup against Pelosi, Crowley is the likely winner because Schiff and the others would scramble the field and Joe is acceptable to all factions.NBC is planning to launch a streaming platform for younger viewers, executives told reporters Wednesday. The network is also revamping its digital strategy to focus on platforms that value curation and editorial judgement.

Why it matters: The efforts are part of a wider push by the company to invest in younger viewers, as linear TV audiences migrate towards digital news consumption.

What they're saying: While plans for a streaming platform are nascent at this point, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack says introducing younger viewers to the NBC brand is a huge part of the network's longterm strategy. "They don't want to watch television. They want to watch it in a digital platform."

The details

Executives at NBC News and NBC News Digital Thursday said they are viewing content partnerships and distribution through two buckets: open platforms and closed. Open platforms, like Facebook, have simply become marketing channels, Lack says, while closed platforms, like Snapchat, have become valuable content distribution partners.

Here's where NBC sees the distribution landscape heading:

Open platforms, like YouTube, Twitter and  particularly  Facebook have become marketing channels that are relied on mostly for extending their brand.

like YouTube, Twitter and  particularly  Facebook have become marketing channels that are relied on mostly for extending their brand. Closed platforms, like Snapchat, Amazon, Apple, Hulu, Netflix, Roku and YouTube TV, have become strategic distribution partners for content, where they can make money and develop more loyal audiences.

Lack touted Snapchat as being a great content partner, and continued to call Facebook "Fake book," a comment he made earlier this year.

Executives say its Snapchat show "Stay Tuned" has been enormously successful, luring an audience that's 75% under 25.

"Stay Tuned," they say, has seen 33M unique viewers in February, with roughly half being "core viewers," meaning viewers that have watched the show at least three times in the last seven days.

Our thought bubble: The distribution ecosystem for digital content is rapidly evolving, and until now, it's been difficult to understand where the power lied between platforms (content distributors) and publishers (content creators).Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his security cabinet his assessment is that President Trump will most likely withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal in May, according to two ministers who attended the meeting.

The backdrop: Netanyahu was briefing the security cabinet Sunday on his meeting with Trump earlier this month. He said Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Chief of Staff John Kelly had all been present for the discussion on Iran.

According to the two ministers, Netanyahu said in Sunday's meeting:

"I think Trump is very close to withdrawing from the Iran deal. The meeting was very important. Trump spoke in front of all the most senior members of his administration and told me that if the nuclear deal would not change significantly the U.S. will withdraw."

The prime minister's office did not dispute this account but refrained from commenting on it.

Israeli officials say that the departure of Secretary of State Tillerson is another sign that Trump is headed towards withdrawing from the Iran deal. They said Israel was very happy with the appointment of Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State mainly due to his hawkish views on Iran in general and especially on the Iran deal.

Tillerson was almost non-existent when it came to the U.S.-Israeli relationship and was perceived in the Israeli government as "problematic" due to his opposition to U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal.

when it came to the U.S.-Israeli relationship and was perceived in the Israeli government as "problematic" due to his opposition to U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal. Tillerson visited Israel once during his time in office and even then it was with President Trump. Pompeo visited Israel three times during his first year as CIA director.

Netanyahu issued a statement yesterday welcoming Pompeo's appointment and praising his abilities and experience. Netanyahu's statement did not mention Tillerson at all.18 Republican lawmakers have sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Labor calling on them to help one of the largest private prison companies, GEO Group, fight a lawsuit alleging that these private prisons force labor on undocumented immigrant prisoners for $1 a day or less, the Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff reports.

Notable: GEO Group has already given roughly a quarter of a million dollars to Republican members of Congress in the 2018 cycle.

The congressmen argue in the letter that undocumented immigrants should not be able to sue prison companies because they arent employees there, and claim forced labor saves the government money and improves prisoners' morale.

in the letter that undocumented immigrants should not be able to sue prison companies because they arent employees there, and claim forced labor saves the government money and improves prisoners' morale. The letter was signed by Lamar Smith, Jody Hice, Matt Gaetz, Steve King, Mike Rogers, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert, Dana Rohrabacher, Paul Cook, Scott Taylor, Earl Buddy Carter, John Ratcliffe, Duncan Hunter, Bob Gibbs, Barry Loudermilk, Brian Babin, and John Rutherford.

GEO group response: Spokesman Pablo Paez pushed back, pointing to the fact that the Obama Administration established standards for Voluntary Work Programs at all ICE detention centers and that the wage rates are set by the federal government, not private companies.House Democrats on Tuesday stripped $1 billion for Israel's Iron Dome defense system from its short-term government funding bill after backlash from progressives, people familiar with the decision tell Axios.

Why it matters: There has never a situation where military aid for Israel was held up because of objections from members of Congress. While the funding will get a vote in its current defense bill, the clash underscores the deep divisions within the Democratic party over Israel.The days of President Trump boasting about how his cabinet had by far the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled are over. As Axios' Jonathan Swan has reported, Trump and his chief of staff John Kelly are becoming increasingly frustrated with stories of cabinet secretaries' frivolous spending on taxpayers' dime.

The big picture: At least six current or former cabinet officials have been swept up in investigations over splurging on expensive renovations or luxurious travel.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign in September for repeatedly using costly military planes for overseas and domestic travel. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has been under fire for using government funds to fly his wife to Europe and stipend her meals. Shulkin's chief of staff later stepped down after an investigation found she doctored an email and misled officials to gain approval for the trip. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has faced backlash for traveling first-class and using a military jet to fly to Rome. And per WashPo, he also used $43,000 in public funds to install a soundproof phone booth in his office. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's use of private and military aircraft were called into question last fall, and an investigation later found that he had failed to keep complete records of his travel. HUD Secretary Ben Carson and his wife Candy picked out a $31,000 dining set for his office, according internal emails obtained by CNN. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin faced inquiries last fall for having requested a government jet for his honeymoon and using a government jet to travel to Kentucky, a trip that coincided with the August eclipse. Mnuchin said the honeymoon story was "misreported" and denied his Kentucky trip was related to the eclipse.

Go deeper: Donald Trump's cabinet full of troubleThe Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning five entities and 19 individuals in Russia over meddling during the 2016 U.S. election  as well as for destructive cyberattacks, including the NotPetya malware attack.

Why it matters: This is the strongest action yet from the administration in response to Russian election meddling, which President Trump has repeatedly downplayed or expressed doubts about. Brian OToole, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former senior official at OFAC, tells Axios that while the sanctions highlight behavior by the Russians, from a legal perspective it doesnt change much.

The entities sanctioned include Russia's top intelligence services  the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)  as well as the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which was indicted by the Mueller probe earlier this year. The FSB and GRU were previously targeted by the Obama administration.

This is a very competent, technocratic action , but it feels like this situation called for something more than that, O'Toole said. I do think they missed an opportunity for a real pushback, he added, suggesting a joint response with the U.K. over NotPetya or sanctions like those placed on members of Putin's inner circle under Obama as steps that would have had more bite.

, but it feels like this situation called for something more than that, O'Toole said. I do think they missed an opportunity for a real pushback, he added, suggesting a joint response with the U.K. over NotPetya or sanctions like those placed on members of Putin's inner circle under Obama as steps that would have had more bite. As to the practical implications of sanctioning the Russian security services, OToole offered an example: Good luck getting your Adobe Acrobat update.

One big thing: The administration is also accusing Russia of an ongoing and deliberate attack on the U.S. energy sector.

The sanctions come in light of this targeting, as well as targeting of "nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors, per the Treasury Department.

The details ...The leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France issued a rare joint statement Thursday unequivocally blaming Russia for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and calling on the country to "live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security."

Why it matters: Despite "no plausible alternative explanation," the Kremlin has still yet to accept culpability for what the four leaders are calling the "first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War." Yesterday, Theresa May announced a series of punitive measures that included the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, marking a huge escalation in international tensions.

We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK, on 4 March 2018. A British police officer who was also exposed in the attack remains seriously ill, and the lives of many innocent British citizens have been threatened. We express our sympathies to them all, and our admiration for the UK police and emergency services for their courageous response.

This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War. It is an assault on UK 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 United Kingdom briefed thoroughly its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility. We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury. Russia should in particular provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behaviour. We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security.Russia may alter the scale of its supplies of modern weaponry to Azerbaijan in view of Armenian concerns following heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior Russian lawmaker hinted in Yerevan this week.

Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base and is a member of the Russian-led defense pact, took offense at Moscow in the wake of a brief war with Azerbaijan in April 2016 during which Baku used some of its state-of-the-art offensive weapons purchased from Russia.

Nearly a hundred Armenian troops were killed and scores were injured in the clashes that triggered protests in Yerevan against Russia, the main supplier of deadly weapons to Azerbaijan.

According to various sources, since 2011 Azerbaijan has purchased from Russia up to 4 billion dollars worth of arms, including some modern offensive weapons.

President Serzh Sarkisian raised the issue shortly after the cessation of hostilities in 2016 as he hosted Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Yerevan. He emphasized that Azerbaijan used the Russian weapons also against ethnic Armenian civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

I am sure you know that the fact that Azerbaijan used in full measure the weapons that it purchased from Russia in the recent time has evoked a strong reaction in Armenia, Sarkisian said back then.

Top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have effectively defended arms supplies to Baku, saying that an oil-rich country like Azerbaijan could have purchased similar types of weapons elsewhere on the world market. Routinely they have also pointed to the fact that Russia also supplies Armenia with modern types of weapons at knockdown prices or even free of charge, which, according to Moscow, maintains the military balance in the region.

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the upper house of Russias parliament, the Federation Council, was challenged on the matter as he led a delegation on a visit to Armenia this week. During a press conference at the National Assembly of Armenia on Wednesday journalists reminded the Russian senator about Russian President Putins September statement that the United States decision to supply weapons to Kyiv would not contribute to the resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Armenian media stressed, for many years Russia has supplied weapons to Azerbaijan, which is in a de-facto state of war with Armenia.

Russia is fulfilling its contracts [with Azerbaijan] that were concluded before April 2016, and we are obliged to do so in accordance with the provisions of these contracts. But this is a situation that existed up to that moment, and according to the information that I possess, it will not be reproduced in the future on the existing scale. Of course, we are reacting to the situation that occurred in April 2016. There is no doubt about that, Kosachev said in Yerevan.

Talking to media in Yerevan on Thursday, Armenias Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian confirmed that the matter of Russian arms supplies to Azerbaijan has been discussed between Yerevan and Moscow.

I can only say that the circumstance that they [Russians] try to draw conclusions from the [2016] April war [in Nagorno-Karabakh] can be welcomed, he said in answer to the question of RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which is known for its research into armaments worldwide, recently published a report reaffirming Russia as Azerbaijans number one arms supplier.The Sweden-based institute said Russia accounted for 65 percent of Azerbaijans armament imports in 2013-2017.

Richard Giragosian, the director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center, said that by continued large-scale arms deliveries to Azerbaijan Russia is seeking to solve both its geopolitical and economic tasks.

There are significant financial incentives for Russia to continue supplying Azerbaijan with modern offensive weapons, said Giragosian, adding that Armenias complaints to Moscow will be ineffective as long as Russias policy towards Azerbaijan is involved. In this view, the analyst said, military reform in Armenia and Armenias military ties with China and Western countries become even more important than before.

Along with the United States and France, Russia is a mediator in the process of settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the co-chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes Minsk Group.

The mainly Armenian-populated region declared independence from Azerbaijan during 1988-94 ethnic tensions and a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Three decades of diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the conflict have brought little progress.Nagorno-Karabakhs ethnic Armenian leader Bako Sahakian visited the U.S. Congress on Wednesday as part of his ongoing trip to Washington opposed by Azerbaijan.

Sahakians administration said that at the Capitol the Karabakh leader met with a group of members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, discussed issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh-U.S. relations, the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict and issues related to regional processes.

According to the report, a reception devoted to the 30th anniversary of the 1988 Karabakh movement was organized at the Congress.

In his speech Sahakian highlighted the importance of the meetings organized by the supreme legislative body of the United States, noting that they also enhance the degree of our responsibility in the course of carrying out hard and painstaking work, further deepening and developing bilateral relations.

I am optimistic  it will be definitely so, for we consider the United States to be a friendly country, a state which has become a second homeland for millions of Armenians. I am optimistic because we have here devoted, sincere and honest friends, who have been standing by Karabakh for many years, supporting our people, providing objective information about our country worldwide. We highly assess our friendly ties, considering them to be a precious asset, stressed the Karabakh leader in his speech, as quoted by his press office.

Sahakian reportedly added that Karabakh greatly acknowledges the support rendered by the American people and emphasized the special role that the House of Representatives, the Senate, our congressman and senator friends have in this process.

The Karabakh leader also stressed Washingtons considerable contribution to maintaining peace and stability in our region, to the peaceful and fair settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

Cementing and deepening ties with the United States have always been and will remain among the fundamental directions of our foreign policy, Sahakian underscored.

According to the report, Sahakian handed Nagorno-Karabakh state awards to a group of U.S. congressmen and senators for supporting Karabakh and for their tangible contribution to the development of Karabakh-USA relations. The report did not give any names.

The Armenian National Committee of America, which is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots organization in the United States, stressed that Sahakians was the first-ever visit to the U.S. Capitol paid by a Karabakh leader.

Ahead of Sahakians visit to the United States that began on March 13, Baku summoned the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, Robert Cekuta, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed him a note of protest addressed to the U.S. Department of State.

In the note, Azerbaijani authorities urged the United States to adhere to the norms of international law and not to allow on its territory activities aimed at violating the sovereignty of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev claimed the visit would seriously harm the negotiating process [over Nagorno-Karabakh] and increase tensions in the region.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for years.

Nagorno-Karabakh, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, declared independence from Azerbaijan during 1988-94 ethnic tensions and a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Three decades of internationally-mediated diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the conflict have brought little progress.

Along with Russia and France, the United States co-chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes Minsk Group, the main international format helping broker a peaceful solution to the protracted conflict.By Rashid Shirinov

Every month, the state debt of Armenia increases by tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, but interestingly, the country's population sees no real improve that these funds are intended to yield. The state debt amounted to $6.9 billion in the end of January this year, growing by $123.5 million or by 1.8 percent. It is noteworthy that the forecasts laid down in the 2018 state budget say that the state debt of Armenia will reach $7.2 billion by the end of the year.

While the state debt is heading toward $7 billion, there is no sign of improvement in the life of Armenians: the unemployment rate is around 18 percent, almost a third of the population lives in poverty, and as a result, thousands of Armenians leave the country for good every year. The population holds protests from time to time, demanding from the government to solve the economic and social problems, but the authorities continue to close their eyes to these issues.

Armenian analysts especially note the fact that the economic decline in Armenia has accelerated with Karen Karapetyans arrival in the government, and associate the growth of debt indicators with him. Meanwhile, many experts believe that Karapetyan was just a front man who was supposed to distract the populations attention from the Armenian authorities for some time.

As a result, many people see Karapetyan as the only person responsible for the doleful state of the current Armenian economy, while Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his team could get away with it. If to look at the years of Sargsyans rule it turns out that during last ten years, the external debt of Armenia has grown from $2 billion to $7 billion.

While the Armenian authorities imitate fight against corruption, the government itself embezzles the money that the country borrows from abroad. The funds are spent not on the well-being of the population but on the ruling regimes own needs. Therefore, the economic and social situation has hardly improved in Armenia, and president and his team are to blame for these failures.

It is worth reminding that at the end of 2016, the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan predicted a probability of default in the country.

While the governing regime is busy with theatrical ceremonies of reforming the governance and electoral process, which are clearly aimed at strengthening its own power rather than at the improvement of the state, our country is at the risk of a real economic disaster in the near future, hidden under a harmonious name default, Ter-Petrosyan said back then.

This warning is already coming true today. The remaining thing is a default, but it is not too far off.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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The Coordinating Committee on Development of the International Transport Route South-West was considering the tariffs for cargo transportation along the corridor at a meeting in Warsaw, the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC said in a message March 14.

The delegations of the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia and Ukraine took part in the event. Azerbaijan was represented by the delegation headed by deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Igbal Huseynov.

"During the meeting, strategically important issues were discussed, the message said. Among those issues are the consideration of the tariffs for cargo transportation in rail cars and containers for private rolling stock via the South-West route for 2018 (taking into account the latest changes made by the Ukrainian side). The issue about the launch of the first test container train (block train) on the route Slavkov (Poland) - Astara (Iran) was discussed.

The complex tariff rates for cargo transportation (cereals, vegetable oils, metal products, building materials polyethylene, polypropylene, ore, bitumen, glass, tomato paste, dried fruits, etc.) in the universal rolling stock were also considered, the message said. The transportation of dangerous goods in universal and specialized containers along the "South-West" route for 2018 was discussed and coordinated.

The agenda also included the issues of reconsideration and approval of the tariff conditions for cargo transportation in Azerbaijan and Iran by the Azerbaijani and Iranian sides in connection with the commissioning of the Astara (Iran) station; updating the Ukrainian and Georgian sides about the achieved results on optimization of tariff conditions on the offshore section of the route (in the Black Sea).

The issue of consent of the sides (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Poland) regarding exemption from payment for transportation of empty containers and platforms (no more than one block train per month) was also considered.

The agenda also included the issues of updating the working group by the Ukrainian side about its final decision on the previous issue, as well as informing the participants of the route by the Azerbaijani side about complex tariff rates and posting this information on the route's website.

The sides added that the issues which are being discussed will serve to develop the South-West route and increase its transit potential.

At the end of the meeting, the protocol was signed.

There were also presentations of railway administrations (potential, opportunities, plans), as well as business meetings with potential customers and forwarding companies during the event.

The South-West international transport route is designed for the transportation of goods between the European Union and India. Currently, terms of delivery of goods in this direction via alternative routes are 35-37 days. The South-West corridor, stretching through Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine, will greatly reduce the period of cargo transportation. The goods will be transported via this route within seven days.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

A tapestry is a large piece of heavy cloth with a picture sewn on it using colored threads. This kind of applied arts has a very ancient history.

To create woven fabrics you need a frame and threads that are weaved by hand. And the skillful hands of the master, boundless love of craft and enormous patience are also necessary. All these qualities are possessed by the well-known Azerbaijani tapestry artist Semeni Gasimzade.

She creates incredible tapestry, which one can enjoy for hours.

Most of the artist's works reflect the ancient culture, the history of Azerbaijan. There are art works inspired by Gobustan, the most ancient part of Baku the Old City, Absheron, Khinalig village and pomegranate which has long been a symbol of Azerbaijan.

Gasimzade notes it is correct to call her works not tapestries, but kilims, whose history dates back to the 4th century in Egypt.

In a conversation with a correspondent of Trend Life, Semeni Gasimzadeh told how she creates such beautiful kilims, what inspires her and motivates her to engage in complicated and elegant crafts for about 30 years.

The artist has said that she had been interested in applied art since childhood.

I liked embroidery and sew clothes. While studying at the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts at Filming Department, I visited the workshop of artist Namig Ismayilzade where I learned about the technique of weaving, said the artist.

However, Semeni admits that it was not easy to create tapestry.

In the beginning it was difficult even to thread. It's a very complex art. There is a big difference between the work with threads and colors. Gradually, looking for color transitions and solutions, I created a small composition. Together with me there were a few more people who also tried to learn this technique, but from all of them only for me it became the meaning of life. You know, this is such a difficult trade, not everyone can find peace in threads, she said.

The love for this kind of applied arts is in her blood. Her grandmother had several handmade items, including kilim that depicts a camel caravan. By the way, there is a small copy of a similar kilim in Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.

My grandmother had several handmade items - this is Kelim, a composition that depicts a camel caravan. It turns out, I have a craft in the blood. By the way, in our museum of a carpet there is a small copy of a similar kilim.

Gasimzade stressed that Azerbaijani carpets are known all over the world. Everyone admires their beauty. They decorate museums of the world.

I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, there is a carpet "Sheikh Safi", which I watched for hours, plunging into his world. Therefore all over the world handmade products are so valuable, she said.

The artist creates all my work with great love. Gasimzade is a self-taught artist. She learned this technique step by step, every time discovering something new.

In her interviews, national artist told how she creates her works.

When I create a composition, I immerse myself in the color scheme and, of course, I go beyond the sketch. Many, even creative people say to me: Give it back, and let the weavers weave for you. But, how can I explain to the master how I see and feel the topic, said artist.

I really want that people who look at my work can feel everything I wanted to say.

Everyone gets pleasure from different things, but I live by creativity. I rarely work with oil paints, more watercolors and graphics, but I can't convey the beauty of color as I do it with threads, she added.

In her collection, Azerbaijani artist have many works dedicated to the most ancient part of Baku the Old City.

I often go to the Old City, and every time, as in the first. The walls and stones in Icherisheher have so much "experienced" and "seen", they "breathe" with history. In general, I like such places, and on foreign trips I aspire to visit historical sights. Everything that has a special historical, artistic and cultural value must be protected," said Gasimzade.

The artist wants to have a workshop in the Old City.

While visiting Icherisheher, many foreign guests are looking for something ancient. They want to acquire something connected with our national color, something that reflects the ancient history and rich culture of Azerbaijan, she added.

After a while Gasimzade looks at her first works with a completely different look.

But, if I did not create those works, I did not come to what I can do today. My first work is "The Sea". It's is a very small composition, but there are such beautiful color transitions. I still keep it because it all started from this work, she added.

By the way, artist's personal exhibition opened in Baku Museum Center in 2013. Speaking about her future plans, she said that Gasimzade will hold her next exhibition in May.

I intend to hold an exhibition in May this year. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to create a composition, but I work fruitfully to present my new works at the exhibition. Great work cannot be done in a short time, she said.

Notably, artist doesnt sign any work. However, she made an exception for her work "Pomegranate".

I had always asked my father why he called me that, he said: You are renewed every year, like green leaves. And in this work, in the continuation of the pomegranate leaf, I wove my name ..."

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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The OSCE is expected to monitor the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops on March 15, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said in a message on March 14.

The monitoring will be held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative in Azerbaijans Fuzuli district.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring will be held by Ognyen Yovic and Simon Tiller, field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

On the Azerbaijani territories, occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring will be held by field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Mikhail Olaru, Martin Schuster and Gennady Petrica.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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An event dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Azerbaijan's Press Council was held in Baku on March 14.

Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov, MPs, representatives of state agencies, media leaders, representatives of international organizations and other guests attended the event.

Speaking at the event, Hasanov praised the Press Council's 15-year activity.

"As you know, the 7th Congress of the Press Council was held a few days ago and I read out the congratulatory letter of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the event. In the congratulatory letter, the activity of the Press Council was highly appreciated. National leader Heydar Aliyev also highly assessed the activities of the Press Council. The Press Council has gained a unique reputation in society, among state structures, journalism community, and citizens, who apply to the Council. We believe the Press Council will further strengthen its activities," he said.

Then, Chairman of the Press Council Aflatun Amashov informed the event participants about the history of the Council's creation. He noted that during these 15 years, the Press Council played a significant role in strengthening the freedom of speech and thought in Azerbaijan, and regulation of relations among media, society and government.

Amashov noted that the Council has become an organization for all Azerbaijani journalists.

UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan Ghulam Isakzai, in his turn, said the Press Council has passed a long way of development over the 15 years.

He added that the UN is interested in development of the independent media in Azerbaijan.

"Recently, we began to cooperate with the Press Council. We will conduct training for Azerbaijani journalists within the framework of our cooperation," he said.

Head of the Council of Europe Office in Azerbaijan Zoltan Hernyes, addressing the event, noted that the Council of Europe highly appreciates the media activities in its member countries.

Appreciating the activities of the Press Council, Hernyes said that since its establishment, the Press Council has closely cooperated with the Baku Office of the Council of Europe.

"The Press Council is our successful partner," he added.

The event continued with presentation of a film about the Press Council.

Later, a number of media representatives were awarded the Higher Media Award.

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Azerbaijan's Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov and the ministry's leadership inspected the armament and military equipment of the Rocket and Artillery Troops of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, involved in the large-scale exercises, and met with the military personnel, the Defense Ministry said in a message on March 14.

The Minister inspected the readiness of combat crews and gave appropriate instructions in connection with more efficient use of the missiles and artillery systems of different calibers, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, which will carry out combat missions during the exercises.

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 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.

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In a very short time, the Global Baku Forum has transformed into a very important platform to address important issues on global agenda, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

He made the remarks at the opening of the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies".

"Among our guests there are representatives of more than fifty countries, more than 450 guests. Among them are 47 acting and former heads of states and governments, prominent politicians, statesmen, scientists, representatives of civil society," said the president.

"During the work of the forum I am sure that we will broadly discuss the issues which are on top agenda of international relations and also I am sure there will be important recommendations in order to provide security, stability, predictability and cooperation in the world," he noted.

President Aliyev went on to add that Azerbaijan has already hosted many international events.

"Among them are - traditional Baku Humanitarian Forum, regular International Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, World Religious Leaders forum, UN Alliance of Civilizations Global Forum," he said.

The president also reminded that Azerbaijan hosted the inaugural European Games in 2015 and 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

"All these events serve the cause of cooperation, these events build bridges, establish more understanding between representatives of different countries, different religions, different views," he said.

He went on to say that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Baku Process, which has now full support of the United Nations, and which is a unique platform of cooperation between the member countries of the Council of Europe and the members of the Islamic Cooperation Organization.

"Azerbaijan, as a member of both international organizations, initiated the meeting of the ministers of culture of both organizations in Baku, in 2008. Now, the Baku Process embraces the very broad activity in order to create better understanding between international organizations and peoples," he said.

The president also said that representatives of all religions and all ethnic groups live in Azerbaijan as one family in peace and dignity.

"In today's world, I think, it's a big asset. And we also want to share our experience, and I think that today's development of modern Azerbaijan illustrates that this is the only right policy," he said.

The president went on to add that inclusive society is now one of the issues of the global agenda.

"Of course, all our efforts are aimed at strength and security, which we all need in the world, especially in our region," he said.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan unfortunately suffered from aggression and occupation of the neighboring Armenia, which occupied almost 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, brutally violates the international law norms, committed ethnic cleansing policy against Azerbaijanis, as a result of which over 1 million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs.

Ilham Aliyev also reminded that Armenia committed a war crime - the genocide in Khojaly, which today is recognized by more than 10 countries. He went on to say that as a result of the Khojaly massacre, 613 innocent people, including 106 women and 63 children, were killed. Moreover, more than 1,000 are still missing.

"This is a crime against humanity, and this was part of the aggression policy against Azerbaijan, said President Aliyev.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is our ancient land, and for centuries Azerbaijanis lived on those territories. Now, everything is destroyed on our occupied lands - historical buildings, monuments, graves, etc. And this is reflected in the OSCE's two assessment missions sent to the occupied territories. This is also a genocide against our cultural heritage," he said.

The president went on to add that the conflict resolution should be based on laws and principles of international law. He also reminded about the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in the early 1990s, which demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territories.

"Unfortunately, these resolutions are not implemented, and no sanctions were imposed on Armenia - the country which violates the UN Security Council resolutions for more than 20 years. Other international organizations, like the OSCE, the Islamic Cooperation Organization, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Non-Alignment Movement, adopted similar resolutions," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Historical truth, international law is on our side. The only reason why the conflict is not yet resolved is because Armenia doesn't want to free the occupied territories. Not just Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan, which are under occupation as well," he said.

He went on to say that the status quo is unacceptable, it is not sustainable.

"This is not our position, this is the position of the leading world countries, particularly those, who have mandate from the OSCE to be mediators of the conflict - the US, Russia, France. The presidents of these countries, have, on many occasions, openly stated that the status quo is unacceptable and it has to be changed. The status quo must be changed, Armenia must start the immediate withdrawal of its troops from the occupied territories and allow Azerbaijani people to return to their homeland," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president said that this conflict is not only the biggest injustice in modern history, it is also a source of permanent threat and instability in the not very stable region.

"Therefore, the soonest resolution of the conflict based on principles of international law, the UN Security Council resolutions, the Helsinki Final Act, must be achieved and then peace will come to our region," said Azerbaijan's president.

Despite the conflict, Azerbaijan continues to develop, said Ilham Aliyev.

"Our economic and social development is reflected in figures. It is reflected in today's appearance of our cities and villages. We invested largely in human capital," said the president.

He also reminded that Azerbaijan is among the three cities that submitted bids for hosting the Expo 2025 exhibition.

"We concentrate on human capital and always stated publicly that it is people of Azerbaijan who are in the center of our policy," he said.

"During the last 15 years, a lot has been done in order to reduce poverty and unemployment [in Azerbaijan], which today stand at the level of 5 percent each. This was one of the biggest achievements of our government, because we all remember the difficult times of the early 1990s and serious economic and social problems in our country," he said.

"Now, with respect to the level of poverty and unemployment, Azerbaijan is among the leaders in the world," Ilham Aliyev said.

"We largely invested in education, health care. More than 3,100 schools, more than 600 hospitals have been built [in Azerbaijan], in the last 15 years," said Ilham Aliyev.

"Azerbaijan is a country where people are getting annual medical checkups free of charge, and more than 5 million people every year have this opportunity," said the president. "This is our policy."

However, President Aliyev further said that just intentions and policy is not enough.

"Our concentration in the previous years was to achieve economic independence, not only to be able to serve better the needs of people, but also in order to strengthen our political independence, because it is clear that when a country is dependent economically, the ability to conduct independent foreign policy is limited," he said.

"In our case, our rapid economic growth allowed us to conduct independent foreign policy, which is based on interests of Azerbaijani people and universal values," Ilham Aliyev said.

President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan's economy grew by 3.2 times in 15 years, which is a record by itself.

"Our reforms are highly valued by the leading international financial institutions. The Davos World Economic Forum ranks Azerbaijan #35th in terms of global competitiveness. I think this is a historical achievement, so we are among the 35 most competitive countries in the world. For a country that has been independent for only 26 years, I think this is a really big achievement," he said.

"Another Davos assessment refers to inclusive development index, and here Azerbaijan is #3. Ahead of us are only 30 developed countries and two developing countries," Ilham Aliyev said. "So, this is the assessment of the leading international, political and financial institutions towards our reforms."

"Our reforms bring good results, and as a result of the reforms, we are among the leading countries in terms of direct investments per capita," said the president. "The total amount of investments in our economy during the last 15 years was more than $230 billion, with half of that accounting for foreign investments. So, Azerbaijan's economic policy has already proven to be successful, and of course, it allows us to invest not only in the country, but also in the region, and to create better platform for regional cooperation," said President Aliyev.

The president went on to add that of course Azerbaijan is famous for its energy resources.

"The first oil well in the world was drilled in Azerbaijan, in Baku. Azerbaijan is a country today which opened its energy potential to the world. We are the first country to invite foreign oil companies to work in the Caspian Sea, and this cooperation has been lasting for 24 years already, bringing good results to us and our partners," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Together with our neighbors and friends, Georgia and Turkey, we implemented important transportation projects like Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline. Both are bringing our hydrocarbons to international markets. Azerbaijan became a transit country for oil from the other side of the Caspian Sea," said the president.

He went on to add that today Azerbaijan is working closely with partners in a broad format on one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the energy sector - the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Noting that SGC is a historical project, Ilham Aliyev said that it unites seven countries and has the potential to attract more countries.

"This is a $40-billion project of production, transportation, distribution of natural gas from Azerbaijan," he said. "It starts in Baku and ends in Europe. So this is a really big contribution to the energy security of the region and Europe," he noted.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree amending the decree dated Sept. 5, 2012 "On ensuring the activities of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan."

Under the amendments, the staff of the State Agency will be increased from 640 people to 655 people.

The staff of the State Agency is increased to ensure that it can fulfill the tasks set by the head of state on provision of the activity of the E-Government portal, the formation, management, integration and effective control of state information reserves and systems.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree March 14 on measures to develop e-government and transition to the digital government.

According to the decree, the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations has been charged with the implementation and regulation of a state policy on e-government to improve the management system in this area, strengthen state control and improve the efficiency of the conducted work.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on additional measures for construction of the Guba Regional Central Hospital.

Under the decree, 7.55 million manats will be allocated from the state budget to the Health Ministry for completion of construction of the Guba Regional Central Hospital.

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.

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The 6th Global Baku Forum is a place where important issues are discussed, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in Baku on March 15.

He made the remarks at the opening of the VI Global Baku Forum titled "Bridging Gaps to Create Inclusive Societies".

Yildirim further noted that today it is extremely important to implement joint projects that can promote the development of friendly relations among the countries.

"Today, Turkey and Azerbaijan are implementing important projects, which not only contribute to the regional development, but at the same time have an important global significance," Yildirim said.

The Prime Minister noted that the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project is one of such important projects.

"Turkey pursues a policy of increasing the number of allies and friends," Yildirim said, noting that all countries must act together to solve the crises.

The 6th Global Baku Forum kicked off on March 15 with the support of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and organization of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center.

The three-day forum is attended by presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers of many countries, including President of Albania Ilir Meta, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov, President of Moldova Igor Dodon, President of Mauritius Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mladen Ivanic, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr, Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Sarovic and Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall and others.

Moreover, about 500 guests, including former presidents and heads of governments, well-known public and political figures who are the members of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, are expected to participate in the 6th Global Baku Forum.

The participants are expected to discuss such issues as peace and security in the Middle East, the current geopolitical situation in the Balkan region, and the growing role of youth in social and political life in the modern world.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

The Convention on the status of the Caspian Sea will be signed this year, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on March 15.

With a high degree of certainty, I can announce that the convention will be signed at the 5th summit, which will be held in Kazakhstan this year, the FM said, RIA Novosti repoted.

Lavrov noted that at the meeting in Moscow this December, the foreign ministers of the Caspian states  Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan  finished harmonizing all articles of the convention.

Now the verification of the texts in the language of each participating country is carried out, the minister added.

Lavrov also expressed confidence that the convention will be signed, noting that there are no obstacles to this.

The issue of determining the legal status of the Caspian Sea became relevant after the collapse of the USSR, when the emergence of new subjects of international law - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - raised the issue of delimitation of the Caspian Sea between the five littoral countries.

The difficulties in determining the status of the Caspian Sea were linked, in particular, with the recognition of it as a lake or sea, the delineation of which is regulated by different provisions of international law.

The leaders of the five countries met for the first time in 2002 in Ashgabat. The second Caspian summit was held in Tehran in 2007, the third one in Baku in 2010, and the fourth summit  in Astrakhan in 2014.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

London has handed to Moscow a list of 23 Russian diplomats declared personae non grata, with the embassys military diplomats put on it, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in the 60 Minutes program on Rossiya24 channel, TASS reported.

"Today, the list was handed to the Russian side, we have it," she said. "They are Russian diplomats. Among them are military diplomats. Those people are ordered to leave the United Kingdom within seven days."

According to Zakharova, Moscow will offer an appropriate response to the British governments steps against Russia and officials are currently considering the reciprocal measures.

"Well take the measures that will be absolutely proportionate to the situation and were mulling them right now," she said.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Iran and Russia signed a deal on Wednesday to develop two oilfields in Iran, Reuters reported, citing Iranian state TV.

The National Iranian Oil Company signed a deal with Russias Zarubezhneft to develop the fields, according to SHANA, the news site of the Iranian oil ministry.

The Aban and Paydar-e Gharb fields are both in western Iran and jointly owned by Iran and Iraq, according to SHANA. Their combined oil output is currently 36,000 barrels per day.

The 10-year agreement is intended to boost the production of the fields to 48,000 bpd. The fields are expected to produce 67 million barrels of oil during the ten years, SHANA reported.

Zarubezhneft has an 80 percent share in the deal and its Iranian partner, Dana Energy, the remaining 20 percent.

The cost of developing the fields is estimated at $674 million, with an additional $68 million in indirect costs, according to SHANA. (Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh Ediitng by Mark Potter)

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzLamar University's band will present an outdoor concert from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 24 in honor of "March King" John Phillip Sousa's four Beaumont visits in 1906, 1919, 1924, and 1928.

The free concert will be on the grounds of the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum, 5550 Jimmy Simmons Blvd., Beaumont. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and picnic baskets and soak up the sun and a bit of history.A cowboy's outfit is only complete once donning his all-important, sparkly-yet-rugged rodeo accessory: the belt buckle.

And perhaps no man knows this better than Phillip E. "Bubba" Murphy, an iconic fixture at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and major belt buckle supplier for the annual event.

His bedazzled fame began in 1979 when Murphy noticed the pride radiating from volunteers wearing their badges. Yet, he said there was nowhere to showcase that pride once the event wrapped up.

"I wanted them to have something to wear when it wasn't rodeo season," he said.

RELATED: Houston rodeo a boon for shoe shiners polishing cowboy boots

So Murphy incorporated the 1980 rodeo badge into an adornment for holding up cowboys' britches. It's now a tradition, with his reputation and responsibilities growing over the decades. He also supplies buckles for the mutton bustin' kids, most of the committees and the RodeoHouston performers.

The official buckle is made with a steel dye, essentially a stamp, that is pressed on a piece of metal and then plated in gold and silver.

Because of the sheer quantity, Murphy helps design the belt buckle but has another company manufacture them. His company, Murphy's Buckles, also creates higher-end custom buckles, watches and Western jewelry. It has created custom buckles for J.J. Watt, George W. Bush and Ray Charles, to name a few.

His most recent favorite buckle was the one created for Garth Brooks' opening night performance at RodeoHouston. It had his logo, a "g" with a circle, "Opening Performance" and the date.

MORE: What to do at Houston rodeo during Spring Break

"I look at him as a person who has taken what he was given, appreciates every day of it, and doesn't take it for granted," Murphy said. "That's the way I perceive him, so it's kind of neat to do a buckle for someone like that."

Yet before that fateful day in 1979, Murphy had zero experience selling belt buckles. He did know the rodeo. His father introduced him to the Houston festivities as a child in 1958. In fact, he's only missed one year while serving in Vietnam.

And while he's held other jobs, co-owning a company that removed asbestos and another company that rebuilt air conditioning compressors, those were just mechanisms for funding Murphy's true passion.

"My heart was always in retail," he said, "so it was just a means of growth and financial security."By M A Mir

After news of the incident broke, protesters gathered in the Abbaspur market and staged an anti-India rally condemning Indian aggression

MUZAFFARABAD: Three UN observers narrowly escaped the Indian armys attack along the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday with two civilians being seriously injured in the incident.

Members of the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) were interacting with locals on the current ceasefire violations in the area when they came under attack.

The victims received bullet wounds in the Abbaspur sector of the Rawalkot district in the Poolas village.

They were identified as Sardar Saghir and Muhammad Azam Qureshi, residents of Poolas and Tarooti.

They were shifted to the Abbaspur hospital where their condition is said to be stable. The UN observers also reached the hospital to inquire after the injured persons health.

According to local police, the UN observers had already informed the Indian army of their visit along the LoC in the Abbaspur sector.

After news of the incident broke, protesters gathered in the Abbaspur market and staged an anti-India rally condemning its aggression.

Protesters were chanting go India go back and we want freedom slogans.

We want the international community to take notice of the Indian forces targeting civilians along the LoC, one of the protesters said.

Opposition leader in AJK Legislative Assembly Chaudhry Muhammad Yaseen condemned the attack and termed it naked aggression.

It is normal for India to murder civilians, he said, adding, The attack on the UN observers is a sign that India doesnt want peace in the region.A Groves city councilman under fire after nude photos were anonymously sent to City Hall broke no laws when he shared the images on an online dating site, according to the town's mayor.

Screen-shot images of Cross Coburn, 19, were mailed in an unmarked package to city administrators on Feb. 23, Mayor Brad Bailey said.

"At the end of the day, with the city attorney, we felt like there was nothing truly that was done illegally," Bailey said. "Now disturbing, maybe. There are a ton of adjectives you can use to describe what was in the pictures."

Coburn declined to comment on Wednesday, referring questions to his attorney, Jill Pierce.

In an email late Wednesday night, Pierce said the person who sent the photos has potentially violated Texas law.

"It is a crime to publish intimate photos that were sent to another with the expectation of privacy," Pierce said.

Pierce said she believes "someone is targeting Mr. Coburn based on his sexuality, which is unfair."

Bailey said he met with the city attorney, human resources director and other city officials after receiving the photo packet to ensure "all the bases were covered." He said he met with Coburn four days later.

"I personally think as a public servant, you should be held to a higher standard," Bailey said.

If the photos are brought up again, it will be because it is "a citizen-driven issue," according to Bailey.

Coburn was elected Ward 1 councilman this past November after running unopposed.

Incumbent Ward I Councilman Jim Rasa withdrew his candidacy three days after Coburn filed to run on Aug. 18, 2017, citing as his reason that an election would put an undo financial burden on the city, Bailey said.

Bailey said the council hasn't met "since these allegations (against Coburn) have been brought forth."

"The uncomfortableness and the awkwardness of it all, that hasn't come into play yet," he said. "We have a meeting on Monday."

Phoebe.Suy@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/PhoebeSuyMarion Healthcare, a large outpatient surgery center in Southern Illinois, filed a suit in 2012 against Southern Illinois Healthcare, alleging the hospital system is stifling competition by striking exclusionary agreements with commercial payers. On March 14, a judge issued an order on the ongoing proceedings.

Here are six things to know:

1. The initial complaint listed SIH and BlueCross and BlueShield of Illinois as defendants, but when some of the claims were dismissed a year later, Marion Healthcare filed a second and then third complaint, eventually only naming SIH as a defendant. SIH filed a motion for partial judgment on the pleadings, but the court denied it.

2. Court documents show that in 2003, Health Alliance entered into an exclusive agreement with SIH, the same year Marion first attempted to join BCBS' provider network; all requests between 2003 and 2011 were denied. SIH had a monopoly over the market, and found the exclusivity agreement which stated:

"Blue Cross agrees not to enter into a CPO [Community Participating Option] agreementwith another hospital in the southern Illinois counties of Jackson, Williamson, Franklin, Saline, Johnson, Union, Pulaski, Alexander, or Perry without the expressed written consent of [SIH]."

3. Marion alleged that because SIH had exclusionary contracts, patients were required to pay more for outpatient procedures than they would at a non-SIH outpatient facility. The ASC also alleges that because SIH prevented other providers from entering in network with BCBS, the health system "reduced quality competition between SIH and its competitors."

4. Furthermore, Marion alleged SIH violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and Illinois antitrust law. However, SIH denied the violations, indicating it didn't have contracts with exclusivity provisions during the timeframes alleged in the third complaint. Marion pointed to evidence that the exclusionary contracts were in effect on a de facto basis during the time periods in question, but the court didn't address all the issues.

"It makes no rational business sense not to contract with Marion HealthCare if Health Alliance was free to contract with any provider in the seven-county market. If a provider is willing to offer better rates than competitors, a rational insurer would include that provider in a competitive market. Yet the decision not to negotiate a contract with Marion HealthCare resulted in significantly higher costs for outpatient surgical services paid by Health Alliance," an expert report in the order advised.

5. While the third complaint focused on written agreements, the court found it also encompassed unwritten agreements. "Given that it has adequately pleaded non-written agreements and/or ongoing conduct, MHC has also demonstrated a factual dispute as to the issues raised in SIH's motion," the order states. "Simply put, while SIH contends that MHC cannot state a cause of action for the periods in which SIH did not have written exclusivity agreements with payors, MHC's expert opines that such agreements essentially continued on a constructive basis."

6. The court recognized an issue existed and denied SIH's motion for partial judgment on the pleadings. It did not make a ruling and didn't take a position on Marion's claims.Here are seven updates for ASC leaders to know for March 15, 2018.

Vanderbilt offers $4.8M for property to build ASC, pediatric clinic

Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center wants to buy up to 14 acres of property in Murfreesboro, Tenn., for a new ASC and pediatric clinic. VUMC has offered between $3.8 million and $4.8 million for land to construct the 37,500-square-foot medical building.

Northwell Health implementing gGastro for its 20+ affiliated hospitals, ASCs

New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health will deploy the gGastro enterprise Endoscopy Report Writer by gMed, a Modernizing Medicine company, at 20-plus New York-based hospitals and ASCs. Northwell already rolled out the solution at Staten Island (N.Y.) University Hospital, and it will begin the process of converting its other facilities.

Oregon House passes extended recovery stay bill, allows ASC patients to stay 48 hours

Oregon House Bill 4020 was unanimously passed on March 12, which will allow extended stay recovery centers in the state. Under the bill, patients are able to spend 48 hours recovering from procedures at an ASC. Previously, Oregon ASCs were required to discharge patients within 24 hours of admission.

Global 1 expands bundled payment system to 85 outpatient surgery centers

Global 1 expanded its medical bundled payment system to include a network of more than 85 outpatient surgery centers, featuring more than 650 physicians, in California. The partnership makes Global 1 the largest commercially insured bundled payments manager in California and one of the largest in the nation.

North Carolina's 1st pediatric dental care ASC to open

Fayetteville, N.C.-based Valleygate Dental Surgery Center, the first ASC in North Carolina focused on children's dental care, is set for a grand opening in March. Village Family Dental plans to open other centers in Charlotte, N.C., and Greensboro, N.C.

Congress questions Joint Commission accreditation process

The House and Energy Commerce Committee sent a letter to The Joint Commission requesting a briefing on its survey process and interactions with CMS by April 6. The Congressional committee is conducting oversight of The Joint Commission, CMS and three other accreditation organizations to check adherence to federal standards for Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Longtime Aetna executive to join Surgery Partners as CFO

Thomas Cowhey will serve as Surgery Partners' executive vice president and CFO beginning April 2. Mr. Cowhey has worked for Aetna since 2007, most recently as CFO of the company's institution business portfolio and previously as CFO of Aetna's consumer health and services business.Administrators at the Bend (Ore.) Surgery Center and Bend, Ore.-based Cascades Surgicenter said they'll consider adding recovery rooms for keeping patients for up to two days, The Bulletin reports.

Here are five insights.

1. In early March, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill allowing ASCs to add extended stay recovery rooms. Current state law limits patient stays at ASCs to 24 hours from the time of admission.

2. Cascades Surgicenter has space that could be converted into recovery rooms after lawmakers finalize regulations. The center is co-owned by St. Charles Health System and The Center: Orthopedic and Neurosurgical Care and Research, both based in Bend.

3. Extended care centers, which are permitted in five other states, have been successful, according to Bend Surgery Center administrator Neal Maerki.

"Weve seen this model work well in other states, and it would prevent some patients from having to stay overnight in the hospital. It will lighten the load for the hospital, especially if somebody has a little bit of pain and we need to keep them in house a little longer," Mr. Maerki told The Bulletin.

4. The state is finalizing regulations and working to establish a licensing process for extended stay centers. Oregon's Health Evidence Review Commission will determine which types of patients and procedures are appropriate for extended stay ASCs.

5. It could take about a year for regulators to work out other regulation details, meaning ASCs might be able to apply to add recovery rooms in the spring of 2019. Extended stay centers could be up-and-running in Oregon as early as 2020.President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law Dec. 22, 2017. This law not only overhauled the tax code, but included key provisions affecting executive compensation for tax-exempt organizations.

During a recent webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review, Willis Towers Watson experts, Betsy Field, Health Care Industry Total and Rewards Leader; Susan Sulisz, Managing Director, Executive Compensation; and Paul Weber, Actuary, Retirement; shared insights to help eligible organizations better understand the changes surrounding executive compensation and develop strategies to ensure the optimal use of resources.

Under the newly signed legislation, tax-exempt entities such as qualifying hospitals and health systems must pay a 21 percent excise tax on any remuneration exceeding $1 million to all covered employees after Dec. 31, 2017. A "covered employee" is a current or former employee who was among the five highest compensated employees in a tax year beginning after 2016. This means organizations could have up to 10 covered employees in 2018 if the top five earners for that year are completely different than 2017.

Covered employees are covered forever, and a former covered employee who receives post-termination compensation in excess of $1 million per year is subject to excise taxes. These taxes are paid by the organization, which would still be subject to potential excise taxes for terminated covered employees as long as they are still receiving taxable pay. It is essential for providers to understand that covered employees must be identified at each entity within a given organization  the entities cannot be aggregated for this purpose. Organizations that filed multiple 990 tax forms must pay excise taxes on any covered employees with pay in excess of $1 million for each separate entity.

Remuneration subject to the excise tax includes all compensation an employee received during a calendar year, including pay from affiliated or related organizations. However, Ms. Field noted qualified retirement payouts are excluded and there is an important exception for providers to consider.

"The excise tax excludes any remuneration paid from qualified retirement plans and any payments to licensed medical professionals for the performance of medical services," Ms. Field said. "If you have a chief medical officer who's a physician but they're receiving administrative pay as opposed to pay for medical services, that remuneration would be subject to the excise tax. However, if that individual receives half their compensation by actually providing medical services, that portion of the pay would not be included."

Ms. Sulisz clarified that severance pay can also trigger the excise tax if the severance is greater than or equal to three times the base amount. The base amount is the average W2 pay for the employee's last five taxable years at the company. However, the tax is applied to all severance amounts that exceed one times the base amount.

Ms. Sulisz said organizations must do important front-end work to prepare for these changes, including identifying covered employees and rethinking how their pay structure may trigger this new tax, perhaps considering how a lump-sum payment that could trigger the $1 million tax could be split across more than one tax year to allow an additional amount to be exempt from the tax.

"Organizations need to come to terms with how to balance this new cost of doing business and the public relations issues it might bring, with the continued need to attract and retain executive talent," Ms. Sulisz said. "We do not expect any organizations will be capping executive pay or reduce pay in order to avoid the excise tax, but you can already start identifying covered employees in 2018 if someone new has moved into the top five earners through promotion, SERP distribution or other means, and set up a mechanism to track these employees  because once covered, always covered, even if terminated."

Mr. Weber added that while a stable base salary of under $1 million may not trigger an excise tax on its own, there can be material tax implications for lump sum-vesting events which create a spike in taxable income during one tax year.

"Organizations could mitigate this excise tax event by accelerating vesting of lump-sum payments over a number of years. This spreads payments into taxable income and results in pay levels that do not trigger excise taxes," Mr. Weber said. "Accelerating a SERP payment has other implications, though, and organizations may want to have some handcuff associated with the payment to ensure employees stay on. Instead, vesting and payment could also be deferred.

Organizations should expect a public reaction to these new taxes and should proactively address issues by defining and implementing a communication strategy and managing the messaging about the organizations pay strategy.

Moving forward, hospitals and health systems must work actively to understand the potential impact of these taxes, review existing arrangements, consider changes for their executive compensation plans and develop an appropriate communications plan.

Click here to learn more about navigating the changes associated with the new tax reform landscape.Throughout history, the sharing of information has been a precursor to progress. The printing press and, centuries later, the internet exponentially increased our ability to access and share knowledge, ushering in new eras for science and society as a result. And yet, these revolutionary inventions met their match in the modern medical record, the documentation and distribution of which has only grown more Byzantine and frustrating for all involved.



Fortunately, the emergence of blockchain may offer us new hope. This technology, more closely associated with the financial world, may possess the power to do what paper files or EHRs could not: offer a seamless and secure way to capture, track and share a patient's entire medical experience.

Blockchain's key innovation lies not in a new format or vehicle for information  like a printed book or a computer screen  but in a radical new approach to oversee and manage data in a decentralized way. Doing so could greatly help us empower patients in their own care and lead to better medical outcomes.

Put simply, too many institutions have too much authority over the medical information they possess, and there is too little cooperation between them. In today's world, patients see dozens of doctors in their lifetime, undergo countless tests and procedures, all captured and filed in a host of disparate systems administered by each respective care organization.

Under this arrangement, a patient's medical history is a puzzle that must be pieced together anew at each interaction in the healthcare journey, often requiring as much detective work as medical expertise. This patchwork approach has been inefficient at best and dangerous at worst. A study last year found medical errors were the third leading cause of death in American hospitals, many of which could cite a lapse of properly sharing information as a contributing factor.

EHRs were supposed to solve this problem, but over a decade into the concerted and well-intentioned push to utilize them, many of even their most ardent supporters are expressing exasperation, if not conceding defeat. Recent studies have shown as much as 70 percent of practitioners have described their EHR efforts as not worth the investment.

The main roadblock to the success of EHRs has been interoperability  in essence, agreeing to a common system for all these repositories of information to interact. Both from a technical and organizational perspective, the challenge has been to get different centralized system owners to cooperate with each other, while at the same time, retaining their authority and security over their data.

Blockchain makes it possible to try a different approach. Using a decentralized, encrypted ledger, the technology provides a method for any entity to access and append information, if given the right permission. There is no need for cooperation between system owners because no one owns this system.

Imagine a magic book in which an authorized person could write, then that page would be stamped with the time of entry and locked in place, unable to be edited. When needed, the book would appear, and providers, patients, payers could review that page and all those before it, and then fill in other pages, providing one continuous log of an individual's care history. But it's not magic; that's exactly what blockchain does.

Of course, someone would have to be in charge of granting access and otherwise ensuring the ledger was used appropriately. That person would be the patient him- or herself  a massive shift in the distribution of responsibility for medical information. The potential differences in the healthcare experience could be stark.

To give one example, when visiting a doctor, the patient would not have to wait for that provider to contact another provider and receive permission to review records, then wait longer for those records to be sent and reviewed. The patient would grant the initial doctor access to her blockchain, and immediately her entire medical background would be at the provider's fingertips.

Aetna strongly believes we need to center the health ecosystem around the patient, and we see blockchain as a potentially valuable tool to reorganize the healthcare industry in that direction. Increasingly, we view our job as helping to structure the healthcare of individuals in a way that helps them achieve their aspirations for better, more cost effective care. Through our new innovative AetnaCare initiative and partnerships with accountable care organizations, we are creating many more touch points for patients and encouraging a shared responsibility in managing their health.

Personalized health approaches, like AetnaCare, depend on two fundamental pillars for success. The first is the seamless interoperability of data and information that is actionable by the patient and benefits all the participants in the health ecosystem that engage in offering interventions to advance an individual's health and wellness, beginning in the home. The second is a move to value-based reimbursement that creates shared financial risk and rewards for the organizations that offer those solutions. Supporting a personalized health ecosystem through value-based contracts has been achievable, but the opportunity for truly seamless patient-centric health information remains an aspiration.

As a nation, we spend more than any country in the world on healthcare, but do not have the comparative health outcomes that reflect this investment. One-third of the $3.1 trillion we spend on healthcare is wasted on both administrative and clinical inefficiencies. Arguably, in many cases the root cause of this waste is the inability to create interoperable information systems on par with other sectors of our economy. Tragically, we are not only missing the opportunity to more efficiently utilize healthcare dollars on crucial social, behavioral and environmental determinants of health, but we are also experiencing unprecedented burnout of our clinical workforce due to the enormous unnecessary complexity in managing ever-increasing amounts of health information.

It is inevitable that the health system will undergo a transformation that mirrors the changes seen in other industries over the past several decades. Blockchain offers the potential of an interoperable, consumer-focused health ecosystem that could incorporate not only traditional sources of clinical and administrative information, but also the Internet of Things, real world clinical evidence, genomics and pharmaceutical supply chain adherence. To keep track of all these interactions, and to make informed decisions based on information they generate, it will be crucial to have a way for all these learning to be stored and shared quickly, easily and accessibly. After decades of consolidation, it is time the healthcare industry examined models that redistribute the ability to do so and catch up to the rest of the modern age.Ever since Danbury-based Western Connecticut Health Network switched EHR software systems March 3 to Cerner  after dedicating nearly two years to preparation  patients have been complaining about problems reaching physicians, scheduling appointments and accessing other services, according to newstimes.

WCHN announced in 2015 they would transition to Cerner for systemwide support of its clinical and financial needs, as well as population health management. The health system completed that transition March 3, but issues have plagued its three hospitals since.

It took some patients, such as 80-year-old Carole Conaway, more than one and a half hours to schedule appointments with her primary care doctor and the specialist who treats her for her kidney disease, she told newstimes.

"I understand with new electronics it takes awhile to get it straightened out, but an hour and a half trying to make two appointments, that's ridiculous," Ms. Conaway, who worked in the radiology department at WCHN's Danbury (Conn.) Hospital when it first got computers in the 1990s, said.

Others, like Ann Marie Seavy-Cioffi's 93-year-old mother, waited four hours for a blood transfusion after a computer glitch hampered the procedure at Danbury. By the time the procedure began, there was only time to transfer one pint of blood, and Ms. Seavy-Cioffi was forced to reschedule her mother's appointment.

A notice on the health system's website warns patients they may experience longer waits or appointment times and apologizes for any inconvenience.

"Patients are receiving the same great clinical care that they have always received," WCHN officials said March 13 in a statement to newstimes. "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."

Becker's Hospital Review reached out to Western Connecticut Health Network for comment. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

More articles on EHRs:

Microsoft rolls out genomics service on Azure cloud

Cleveland Clinic study suggests Apple Watch app successfully detects atrial fibrillation

Study: Wearables, analytics support early heart failure detection at VA hospitals

The following hospitals announced or completed plans in the last week to expand, upgrade or renovate their facilities.

1. Memorial Health breaks ground on $50M expansion

Marysville, Ohio-based Memorial Health broke ground March 13 on its $50 million hospital expansion.

2. Bon Secours Community Hospital receives approval for $40M expansion project

Port Jervis, N.Y.-based Bon Secours Community Hospital will begin a $40 million expansion project after receiving approval from the state of New York.

3. Mercy Hospital Jefferson completes $73M patient tower

Crystal City, Mo.-based Mercy Hospital Jefferson completed construction of its $73 million, three-story patient tower.

4. Harris County purchases former Riverside Hospital, plans mental health conversion

The Harris County (Texas) Commissioners Court voted March 13 to purchase the shuttered Riverside General Hospital in Houston. The hospital will be converted into a facility to serve mental health needs.

5. Palomar Health unveils 14-bed ED expansion: 3 things to know

Palomar Health held a ribbon cutting ceremony March 12 to celebrate the completion of a 14-bed emergency department expansion at Palomar Medical Center Escondido (Calif.).

6. Loma Linda University Health opens pediatric clinic

Loma Linda University Children's Health Indio (Calif.) opened its pediatric outpatient clinic March 11.

7. Mount Sinai Health System to open member-only clinic in NYC neighborhood: 3 things to know

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.

8. Encompass Health, Deaconess Health System plan to construct 80-bed replacement hospital

Evansville, Ind.-based Deaconess Health System, in partnership with Birmingham, Ala.-based Encompass Health, will construct an 80-bed replacement hospital for HealthSouth Deaconess Rehabilitation Hospital in Evansville.Alignment of Nepal-China power line to be finalised

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is ready to finalise the alignment of the first Nepal-China cross-border transmission line extending from Rasuwagadhi to Kerung. The state-owned power utility has temporarily selected a route that avoids Langtang National Park as much as possible.The Pathway Home program, located on the campus of the Veterans' Home of California in Yountville, is closing for good following a March 9 shooting that left three employees dead, according to The New York Times.

The residential program provides mental health services and wellness support for post-Sept. 11 veterans affected by deployment-related stress. It was suspended after the shooting and is now closed "indefinitely," according to the report.

"Veterans who have been in the program's care will be supported by mental health and other services in cooperation with the federal Veterans Administration and local Napa County and nonprofit providers," the Pathway Home said in a statement. "The future use of Madison Hall, the building that housed The Pathway Home, has not been determined. The building remains closed as the law enforcement investigation continues."

Program Executive Director Christine Loeber, 48, and staff psychologists Jennifer Gonzales Shushereba, 29, and Dr. Jennifer Gray Golick, 42, who were part of the program's core clinical team, lost their lives in the shooting. According to The New York Times, the three women were reportedly taken hostage by gunman Albert Wong, 36, a former member of Pathway Home, and killed. Local law enforcement said Mr. Wong, who also died, released other hostages during the March 9 incident, according to the report.

The Pathway Home said it "is examining a range of options to continue the important mission of The Pathway Home, helping the nation's post-Sept. 11 veterans with mental health services and wellness support in a network of local and national public and private partners."

Meanwhile, a #3BraveWomenFund fund has been established through The Pathway Home's website to support the families of the three women who lost their lives, victims and survivors, and other mental health services for military veterans.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Moody's: Nonprofit hospital rating downgrades rose sharply in 2017

Disney pledges $100M to enhance the patient experience at children's hospitals

University Medical Center operator threatens to terminate management agreement over budget impasseThe Massillon, Ohio, mayor's office reportedly sent dozens of letters to medical groups potentially interested in reopening Massillon-based Affinity Medical Center, which closed last month, according to CantonRep.com.

A city official confirmed to the publication about 40 letters were distributed, with the bulk of the memos sent to Ohio-based medical organizations.

The city representative told CantonRep.com officials have been negotiating with several interested parties, but noted "there's nothing to bring forward" to the city council "at this time."

One organization that reached out to the mayor's office is led by Elizabeth Pruitt, the former interim CEO of Affinity Medical Center. Ms. Pruitt's proposal recommends a management team to restart and oversee hospital operations on an interim basis. She confirmed the submitted proposal to The Independent, but said the offer "doesn't have an opportunity unless we have an investment group to support it," according to CantonRep.com.

More articles on transactions and valuations:

UNC Health Care, Wake Forest Baptist ink deal to transition ownership of High Point Regional

Cleveland Clinic + 4 others among finalists to partner with Boca Raton Regional Hospital

Trinity Health in talks to sell New Jersey assets to Virtua Health 3 months after failed mergerA gunman opened fire at Birmingham, Ala.-based UAB Hospital-Highlands March 14, shooting two employees before killing himself, according to The New York Times.

Police responded to an active shooter situation just before 7 p.m. March 14 and said they found two men with gunshot wounds and another man who shot and killed himself.

One of the employees injured in the shooting was pronounced dead at 10 p.m. March 14; the second employee is in stable condition.

"It is with a heavy heart that we announce to you this evening the passing of one of our colleagues after a shooting at UAB Highlands," said Anthony Patterson, the hospital's senior vice president of inpatient services, according to the report.

Birmingham Police Department Lt. Peter Williston said the department is still investigating and reviewing employee records to determine if the gunman was also an employee.

All surgeries scheduled for March 15 at UAB Hospital-Highlands are canceled.A D.C. Council committee voted March 13 to subpoena four witnesses, along with materials connected to the consulting firm that operated Washington, D.C.-based United Medical Center for almost two years, according to The Washington Post.

Here are six things to know about the situation.

1. The five-member D.C. Council Committee on Health voted March 13 to subpoena four top officials at Veritas, UMC's former operator, as well as recordings of hospital board meetings during the past three years. Four council members voted in favor of issuing the subpoenas, while one council voted against them.

2. The committee previously asked the four officials to voluntarily appear at a public hearing. However, two officials sent letters declining to appear, while the two other officials did not respond, according to committee staff who spoke with The Washington Post.

3. Veritas was awarded the no-bid contract to operate the hospital in spring 2016. The Washington Post reports top executives within Veritas and some of their relatives donated a substantial contribution to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser's election campaign in 2014, as well as donated funds to one D.C. Council member's campaigns between 2014 and 2016.

4. However, the full council voted last November to sever Veritas' operating agreement, citing concerns about patient safety and allegations of mismanagement. The Washington Post also previously reported Veritas failed to meet many of the city's standards for managing the hospital, and delivered only one-tenth of the $9 million in extra revenue the company promised to generate, according to the report.

5. Veritas officials have defended their management of UMC, citing the hospital's ongoing financial struggles prior to when Veritas' contract took effect, the report states.

6. NFPHC Director of Public Relations and Communications Michael Austin told Becker's Hospital Review via email March 15, "UMC intends to fully comply with the Council's decision."

To access The Washington Post article, click here.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 1 p.m. March 15 to include a statement from United Medical Center.Patient assaults on staff continue to be an issue at Concord-based New Hampshire Hospital, according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report.

Here are six things to know.

1. The state psychiatric hospital's new CEO, Lori Shibinette, told the publication a young patient assaulted three staff members and damaged property March 9.

2. Ms. Shibinette told the Union Leader: "The team members were treated for any injuries and returned to work. The NHH team responded to the incident professionally and therapeutically, which de-escalated the incident and contained any damage."

3. The March 9 incident is just one of the various recent patient-led assaults on healthcare workers at New Hampshire's state psychiatric facilities. Last October, an uptick in such assaults prompted Ms. Shibinette to head up an investigation into state psychiatric facilities such as NHH.

4. Ms. Shibinette told the Union Leader NHH is still examining data to get a deeper sense of the issue and whether, as suspected, there is a growing number of violent and aggressive youth being admitted.

5. Meanwhile, efforts to pass state legislation to address worker protections has been unsuccessful, according to the report.

More articles on workforce:

Viewpoint: Why the healthcare job boom isn't all positive

Healthcare adds 19k jobs in February; hospitals continue to drive growth

20 hospitals hiring nursesZimmer Biomet employees in Shannon, Ireland, are considering organizing a walk-off March 20, according to The Clare Champion.

Here are four observations:

1. Workers were disappointed with their bonuses. They have been expressing dissatisfaction with bonuses for the past few years.

2. Typically employees received on average a $1,234.08 bonus. However, this year employees are possibly receiving $617.04 or less.

3. Employees also expressed complaints about the conditions at the plant. Recently, the site has seen a high turnover rate.

4. There are roughly 400 employees at the Zimmer Biomet location; however, many are contract or temporary employees who are unlikely to join in the walk-out.Seven spine surgeons discuss trends in spinal deformity.

Ask Spine Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to spine surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. We invite all spine surgeon and specialist responses.

Next week's question: What was the proudest moment of your career?

Please send responses to Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com by Wednesday, March 21, at 5 p.m. CST.

Question: What are the key trends in spinal deformity care today?

Brian R. Gantwerker, MD. Founder of the Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: Spinal deformity continues to be top of mind among most new graduates and current symposiums. The key things to look out for are the concepts of global spine balance and using ALL release to correct flat back deformities. I am keen on learning more about both of these concepts this year. Our goal as surgeons is to heal, and hopefully we can decrease the number of advance level sufferers and repeat surgeries.

Medhat Mikhael, MD. Medical Director of the Non-operative Program at Center for Spine Health at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (Fountain Valley, Calif.): The key trend for the treatment of spinal deformities is to use conservative approaches like physical therapy, special braces, acupuncture, spine interventions and medications like NSAIDs and muscle relaxants, however surgical interventions sometimes are warranted if pain is out of control and conservative approaches failed, or more importantly, the deformity has caused progressive neurological symptoms, spine instability or visceral compromise, like a restrictive lung condition, that can lead to major respiratory distress.

David Feldman, MD. Director of Center for Scoliosis and Spinal Deformity at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute at St. Mary's Medical Center (West Palm Beach, Fla.): The therapeutic and surgical management of spinal deformity in children and adults has expanded and grown over the past decade. Spinal deformity encompasses scoliosis, kyphosis and spondylolisthesis. All aspects of spinal deformity may occur from infancy to the geriatric population and may cause pain and dysfunction.

While training 20 years ago at New York University in New York City and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, there were few non-surgical options to offer patients and the surgery was maximally invasive. Physical therapy was thought to have little impact for the patients. Today at the Paley Institute, we have children and adults alike undergoing Schroth Therapy and other modalities to specifically treat spinal deformity. Schroth Therapy is a Pilates-like exercise therapeutic program that is showing great promise in correcting and stemming the progression of childhood and adolescent scoliosis. In adults, this can often aid in pain relief and reduced disability.

Surgical intervention has advanced logarithmically in recent years. Spinal deformity is being treated in children with non-fusion techniques such as growing rods and vertebral body tethering as well as fusion surgery that allows for very accurate placement of spinal hardware with various CAT scan and 3-D modeling techniques. These new techniques allow patients to be corrected to a normal state, resume all activities very soon after surgery and reduce complications of spinal surgery.

Minimally invasive spinal surgery in the correction of spinal deformity has become the norm. Adults and children may have surgery that has one-half inch incisions and allow for placement of hardware and correction of the spinal deformity. New instrumentation and imaging possibilities has allowed for this to become the definitive treatment of the deformity.

Understanding the normal alignment of each individual spine and how to correct the curve, so that other spinal deformities do not develop, is critical. Our understanding of the spine has grown and our ability to use imaging that has little radiation exposure to the patient is the standard of care. The EOS system, a low-dose total body X-ray machine, exposes children and adults alike to a fraction of the radiation seen in standard X-rays and demonstrates the alignment from the head to the feet.

In conclusion, spinal deformity is a problem that requires extensive expertise to treat. Finding solutions with a billboard-commercial quick-fix is unfortunately doomed to failure making it more complicated and often harder to correct. However, in 2018, assessed correctly and with the utilization of all the modern non-surgical and surgical tools available, an outcome that leaves the individual functioning fully and pain-free should be expected.

Payam Farjoodi, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center (Fountain Valley, Calif.): There is an increasing focus on sagittal alignment as this has been found to correlate with patient outcomes. I think an emphasis on improving biologics and minimally invasive techniques to achieve these results are important to minimize the risk of complications in these complex patients.

Ram Mudiyam, MD, Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at the Spine Health Center at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center (Fountain Valley, Calif.): Spinal deformity surgeons involved in the management of early onset scoliosis have a better understanding of the classification and available treatment options. There is an increased interest in derorational casting on the one hand and magnetic growing rods on the other, both attempting to minimize the morbidity associated with traditional growing rods in this very challenging group of children. The prosthetic titanium rib is reserved for severe cases of thoracic insufficiency syndromes.

Adolescent skeletally immature children with progressive idiopathic scoliosis are ideal candidates for surgical correction. The key trends include a better understanding of fusion levels based on 2-D and 3-D classification of idiopathic curves aided by low-dose imaging techniques that allow imaging from the cranium to the feet. Other advances include the use of anti-fibrinolytic agents such as tranexemic acid to significantly reduce intraoperative blood loss and the use of multimodal neuromonitoring to decrease risk of neurological injury during surgery. Fusionless surgery via growth modulation techniques and minimally invasive techniques are gaining traction among pediatric and adult spinal deformity surgeons.

The management of complex adult spinal deformity continues to be a daunting challenge for spinal deformity surgeons. Understanding global sagittal and coronal alignment is an evolving field. The key trends include a better understanding of the patients's comorbidities, which allows for better risk stratification prior to surgery, presurgical optimization of the patient's nutritional and metabolic status including aggressive treatment of severe osteopenia/osteoporosis with anabolic agents such as teriparatide/abaloparatide, age-adjusted understanding of spinal parameters to avoid overcorrection, understanding junctional complications, such as proximal junctional kyphosis and proximal junctional failure and most importantly, engaging the patient in the informed consent process through shared decision making.

David Roberts, MD. Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon at NorthShore Orthopaedic Institute, NorthShore University HealthSystem (Evanston, Ill.): As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon specializing in scoliosis and spinal deformity surgery, I see several exciting trends in this area of medical care.

First, the ultra low-dose 3-D imaging system known as EOS is minimizing radiation risk during scoliosis monitoring. This radiation exposure is up to nine times less than a standard X-ray, which is particularly important to young scoliosis patients who are watched closely throughout their lifetimes. Also, computer navigation for pedicle screw insertion is helping with more accurate placement and fixation in correcting spinal deformity as well as reducing time in the operation room and postsurgical complications.

In addition, optimizing implant density is saving surgical time and cost by reducing unneeded screws. Studies have shown these benefits using low-density constructs. Finally, postoperation care pathways through best practices such as better multimodal pain management are leading to faster discharge. All these trends are leading to a better future and care for children and adolescents with spinal deformity.

Theodore Belanger, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Texas Back Institute (Plano): Some trends include less invasive surgery, more use of surgical navigation and robotic surgery as well as programs directed at reducing hospital length of stay and associated cost.

Additionally, we are seeing a transition toward more anterior and lateral techniques, with deformity correction achieved through interbody techniques, and performing fewer "destabilizing" osteotomies.The loss of around 120 jobs at four Toys R Us stores in Northern Ireland has been confirmed after administrators failed to find a buyer for the stricken chain.

Administrators Moorfields Advisory have already pulled down the shutters at stores at Crescent Link Retail Park, Londonderry, and Mill Road at Newtownabbey.

Stores in Belfast's CastleCourt Shopping Centre and Lisburn's Sprucefield Park will also close within the next six weeks after closing-down sales.

In total, around 120 people in Northern Ireland will lose their jobs, out of a workforce of 3,000 around the UK.

The stores which have already been closed were previously identified for closure before the administration.

Simon Thomas, joint administrator and partner at Moorfields, said: "We have made every effort to secure a buyer for all or part of the company's business.

"This process attracted some interest, but ultimately no party has been able to move forward with a formal bid prior to the expiration of the stated deadline."

But the firm said it had extended a sale in the stores, saying it was "the most comprehensive toy and baby product discounting programme available to consumers in the UK".

The firm said: "Many outdoor toys including bikes and ride-ons are now available at 30% discounts."

Glyn Roberts, the chief executive of trade body Retail NI, said: "It's very sad for the staff and their families that this has happened, and I hope that they will be able to find alternative jobs in the retail sector.

"When retailers go out of business it also brings a knock-on reduction in footfall for neighbouring shops and other businesses."

He said Toys R Us had faced tough competition from both online retailers and from supermarkets selling the same toys at lower prices.

"To survive in the retail business means having to adapt and sadly if you can't adapt, you won't survive."

The insolvency of Toys R Us was announced on the same day as electrical retailer Maplin announced it was going into administration.

Maplin has five stores here in total. Chief executive Graham Harris said it had been struggling to mitigate the impact of the pound's devaluation after the Brexit vote and a weak consumer environment.The head of Enterprise Ireland warned the Irish Government ahead of the Republic's Budget that it would need to create a funding pot of around 40m (35.5m) for Brexit-hit firms given the "gravity" of the situation, it has been revealed.

Julie Sinnamon said the Irish Government would "very likely" need to revive the Enterprise Stabilisation Fund, which was introduced in the financial crisis to provide loans to vulnerable, but viable, businesses.

She also warned that the Brexit loan guarantee scheme - subsequently announced in Budget 2018 - may not fit the needs of all Enterprise Ireland firms, in part because the agency believed large companies would be excluded.

In a letter to then Tanaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald in September last year, Ms Sinnamon warned that Irish exporters were facing an "unprecedented" challenge from both the devaluation of sterling and having to prepare for a hard Brexit.

She noted that more than 1,500 Enterprise Ireland client firms export to the UK, and employ more than 100,000 people.

"These companies that are deemed to be particularly badly exposed employ 40,000 people," Ms Sinnamon wrote in the letter, which was obtained under Freedom of Information.

"The majority of this employment is in the regions outside of Dublin. Job losses in these locations would erode employment in indigenous industry and the employment would be very challenging to replace considering their rural locations, sectors, and the nature of the employment."

Ms Sinnamon set out four initiatives to help companies to prepare for Brexit and "deal with the current crisis", including expanding Enterprise Ireland's footprint overseas, a campaign to support market diversification, extending business angel funding and rolling out a Brexit Enterprise Stabilisation Fund.

She estimated the additional spend required for the initiatives this year to be 35m.Apathy and anger

Shockingly, Chand Maoists are resorting to violence to settle disputes at the local levelTwo Northern Ireland regions have won UK Government investment totalling 14m to boost broadband speeds and increase digital connectivity.

Belfast City, and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Councils are among 13 areas to benefit from the 190m Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) capital grant programme.

Belfast will receive 11.5m, while Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon's cut will be 2.4m. The funds were confirmed by Chancellor Philip Hammond on Tuesday.

The LFFN programme was designed to help deliver the fastest and most reliable digital networks available. A total of 95m was awarded in the first tranche.

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Lord Mayor Gareth Wilson said: "The digital economy is one of the most important drivers of innovation, competitiveness and growth for our economy and investment and our infrastructure is vital to delivering success, to connecting people and opportunities.

"By embracing and investing in digital, the potential is huge. From reduced costs, greater efficiencies, improved interactions with businesses and residents, better use of data, greater outcomes and better lives."

The LFFN fund is part of a wider 500m package for digital technology and was first announced in the autumn statement. Mr Wilson's council said the projects funded will enable gigabit-capable connections to key public buildings and businesses, "with the expectation that this leads to broadband providers creating additional connections to local homes and businesses".

Joe Nelson, chairman of the council's economic development and regeneration committee, said the investment would enable business growth.Rachel Dean checks out the style in Victoria Square, Belfast.

Diane Steele (34), civil servant, Newtownards

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Wore what? Shirt, 13, Primark; gilet, 25, New Look; jeans, 40, Topshop; boots, 22, Aldo; bag, 35, Carvela.

Why? My look just depends on the day  I could be casual one day and dressy the next.

Who? I think Victoria Beckham has the ideal simple, classic style.

Monthly spend: 250

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Donna Finney (50), personal assistant, Coleraine

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Wore what? Jumper, 50, French Connection; coat, 14, Action Cancer Charity shop; jeans, 10, Dunnes Stores; boots, 20, TK Maxx; bag, 150, Michael Kors.

Why? My look is usually very simple and neutral but with a matching print. I like having a quirky addition to my outfits.

Who? I absolutely love Accidental Icon (Lyn Slater) on Instagram. Shes my style inspiration  I would be happy to look like her at her age.

Monthly spend: 50

Leah Crozier (19), student, Armagh

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Wore what? Top, 20, bag, 26, both Topshop; coat, 55, Next; jeans, 42, boots, 10, River Island.

Why? I follow trends to keep my look up-to-date and Im always in high street stores. I love red and pink at the moment.

Who? I always look to Cathy Martin for style ideas. I follow her on Instagram  shes so on-trend.

Monthly spend: 100 plus

Rebecca Kilgore (22), student, Coleraine

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Wore what? Dress, 10, Dorothy Perkins; coat, 28, Topshop; boots, 50, Bishops Footwear (Coleraine); bag, 200, Guess.

Why? I would describe my style as simple and casual. Im great at finding a good bargain.

Who? I love Rita Oras street style because its a muted version of her on-stage style but still fun and unique.

Monthly spend: 50 or less

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Emma Creen (30), finance analyst, Belfast

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Wore what? Sweater, 70, Whistles; coat, 60, Stradivarius; jeans, 40, boots, 60, both Topshop; sunglasses, 120, Ray-Ban; bag, 80, And Other Stories.

Why? I would say my look is modern and edgy. Im definitely into trends and I especially like the Mom jean trend. They are so comfortable!

Who? Alexa Chung has a distinctive look. She knows what suits her.

Monthly spend: 100

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Victoria Gill (22), dance teacher, Newtownards

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Wore what? Top, 30, jeans, 45, both River Island; coat, 90, Miss Selfridge; sunglasses, 25, TK Maxx; boots, 35, H&M; bag, 55, Juicy Couture.

Why? I think my look is funky and unique. I like to look different and wear a lot of colour.

Who? I like Gwen Stefanis look  she does her own thing and thats cool.

Monthly spend: 100 plus

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Emma Wallace (27), singer-songwriter, Belfast

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Wore what? Jumper, 35, M&S; jacket, 65, Cavalini; jeans, 35, Abercrombie & Fitch; sunglasses, 8, Accessorize; boots, 20, River Island; bag, 40, Fox Talbot.

Why? You could describe my style as comfy chic. I love cosy jumpers and bold colours.

Who? Emma Watsons style is so classy, with simple lines.

Monthly spend: 100

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Lorraine McKerney (46), department specialist, Dungannon

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Wore what? Coat, 80, vintage (sourced online); jeans, 25.99, New Look; boots, 120, Bertie; bag, 10, Aurora (Dungannon).

Why? My style is eclectic. Its vintage with a modern twist.

Who? Kate Moss is a leader, not a follower. Shes not afraid to express herself through fashion.

Monthly spend: 60

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Whatsapp Kate Moss (Photo by Studio Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images for amfAR)It's a scenario I never imagined possible: I'm sitting with a cup of coffee poring over a copy of the Racing Post. Names like Vintage Clouds and Gold Present catch my eye, but the jumble of numbers alongside each entry is a completely different language.

One horse in particular seems to sum up my current state of mind as I set off for a weekend at Cheltenham's races, frantically trying to gen up before someone realises I'm a fake; right now, Pylonthepressure could be my kindred spirit in equestrian form.

Favoured by a wealthy set sporting Barbour jackets and Hunter wellies, the Cotswolds is often painted as a country playground for celebrities and aristocrats temporarily tired of city life. Plenty of boutique hotels and gastropubs nurture that nostalgic sentiment, but when it comes to attitudes and actual price points, the destination is far less 'exclusive' than you might think.

Sleeping with a slice of history

Pulling into the driveway at Ellenborough Park, a 61-room hotel 20 minutes' drive from Cheltenham Spa train station, I can visualise myself as an aristocrat.

A Union flag flutters from a turret crowning the butter-yellow brick facade. Modern wings have since been added, but the original structure of the former manor house is firmly intact.

Originally built in 1485 by a local farmer, Thomas Goodman, whose initials can still be seen above the original entrance, it survived the English Civil War and allegedly sheltered Oliver Cromwell. Passing through several hands, who added grand staircases, oak panelling and bay windows, it eventually ended up with the Earl of Ellenborough in the 1800s, whose second wife, Jane Digby, reportedly caused scandal with her numerous affairs. Until 1940, it was used as a school, then a hotel, and finally renovated as Ellenborough Park in 2008.

A day at the races

Located opposite Cheltenham Racecourse, the hotel naturally attracts racegoers. Some wealthier spectators arrive by helicopter, explains our chauffeur, as we head along a private country trail belonging to the hotel. "During busy times, we get one every seven seconds," he claims. Inside the course, crowds queue outside booths to place their bets - starting from as little as 1.

Dining in stately style

Fearing the irresistible lure of gambling (and inevitable failure) I refrain from placing any bets. Instead, I enjoy my prize back at the hotel, where cocktails have been prepared in Ellenborough's slick, revamped Atrium bar.

Last year, the property underwent a renovation, transforming two dining areas - the country pub-style The Horse Box and the more elegant The Restaurant. We opt for the private dining room worthy of a royal banquet, where executive chef David Williams, who has worked alongside Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, presents a largely British menu. After dinner we retire to The Great Hall, harking back to medieval times with its open fire and golden harp, and sneak up a winding stairwell to The Snug, a tiny room decorated with warm Moroccan furnishings.

Ghosts from the past

Like all worthy Cotswolds hotels, a range of celebrities has passed through these stone doorways: Zara Tindall, Sadie Frost and David Hasselhoff have all checked in at some point.

I wonder if any have stayed in Room 56, reputedly haunted by Lady Ellenborough. In the last three years, 13 people have complained about "a presence", although when I enter the room, where her portrait hangs on blood-red walls, I fail to find any ghostly guests.

My room in the modern wing may lack the atmosphere of the original house, but it's comfortable nonetheless. With a clawfoot bath and four-poster bed, it fits the country bolthole bill.

Ending on a ramble

One of the main reasons people come here is for country walks, putting those wellies and wax jackets to good use. I end my weekend with a muddy stomp up Cleeve Hill, borrowing attire from the hotel's Boot Room to avoid getting my own gear dirty. Taking it easy, I refrain from galloping to the top. And my deserving reward will be a pint and the Sunday papers back in Ellenborough's lounge - and this time, the Racing Post won't even get a look in.

Rooms at Ellenborough Park hotel (ellenboroughpark.com) start from 143 per room per night, for a cosy double including breakfastHonest portrayal: Eddie Redmayne and Stephen Hawking at the 2015 Baftas, where The Theory of Everything won three awards

It may seem ridiculous to say it, when motor neurone disease confined his body to a wheelchair and reduced his voice to an electronic burr, but Stephen Hawking, who has died aged 76, was the scientist as rock star.

Before him, scientists in popular culture had been eccentric, comic figures, like Magnus Pyke or Patrick Moore. Without him - and he leaves a terrible void - there would be no Professor Brian Cox.

Hawking managed to convince the public that abstruse theories on cosmology and quantum mechanics could be explicable to all.

Although A Brief History of Time, which spent 237 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list, was arguably more bought than read, he communicated a heady sense of wonder in the universe and was a great promoter of science through the popular media as well as his studies at Cambridge.

The image of the giant mind trapped in the crumpled body, and the immense struggle that suggested, was a potent one.

He could lend that image to The Simpsons and Star Trek, or his voice to the Pink Floyd song Keep Talking. There were shades, even, of rock star arrogance to him, and scandal around the break-up of his first marriage and the suggestion he was being controlled or abused in his second. The writer Ken Campbell, who explored his ideas in a stage show, recalled an annoyed Hawking deliberately running over his foot.

But the 2014 film of his life, The Theory of Everything, for which Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for his warm but unsparing portrait of Hawking, underscored the extraordinary tenacity of a man not expected to live past 23.

In 2007, I interviewed his first wife, Jane, about the revised version of her book, Travelling to Infinity, which formed the basis of the film. It was clear she still loved him and remained in awe of his mind, and it was also clear he'd been impossible to live with.

Until the end of his life, he remained a powerful voice in debates, whether on space or threats to the NHS, which had kept him alive. Scientists have noted that he died on March 14, or 3.14 - the number of Pi.

Hawking should have been a Londoner, but his mother gave birth to him in Oxford to escape German bombing in 1942.

He initially was not considered overly bright, although he passed his 11-plus a year early and in his teens built a computer out of clock parts with his friends. He couldn't study maths, as he'd hoped, at his father's alma mater, University College Oxford, so he opted for physics and chemistry. He became a social figure, coxing for the college boat club, but in his final year began to suffer periods of dizziness and occasional falls. He graduated with a first in natural science and went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to continue his studies, in cosmology.

It was in his first year, in 1963, that he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Doctors gave him two years to live. But he had already started dating graduate student Jane Wilde, and the two got married in 1965. Hawking said she gave him something to live for.

Extraordinarily, they never seem to have discussed the challenges that beset their marriage. Wilde was a Christian and Hawking eventually came out as a rationalist atheist. Although a scholar in her own field of medieval Spanish poetry, she accepted it was her role to manage the home as he worked. They had a son, Robert, in 1967 and a daughter, Lucy, in 1970. By the end of the 1960s, he had been forced to give up crutches for a wheelchair and could no longer write. His ability to speak deteriorated over the next decade.

When he took up a year's post at the California Institute of Technology in 1974, he accepted his wife's suggestion that a graduate student should help with his care. Later, in 1977, an organist called Jonathan Hellyer Jones became absorbed into their family.

He and Jane fell in love, but her third child with Hawking was born in 1979, when he had been appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge and had extremely limited movement. He almost died after contracting pneumonia on a visit to CERN in 1985, after which his round-the-clock care was undertaken by three nurses. A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, went on to sell an estimated nine million copies.

In 1990, Hawking left Wilde for one of his nurses, Elaine Mason, whose husband had adapted the voice synthesiser for his wheelchair, and married her in 1995. The first draft of Wilde's book, untangling these years, caused a stir. Subsequent suggestions that Mason had alienated him from his children and grandchildren - and a police investigation into possible abuse - added notoriety to his fame.

If none of his more recent work had quite the bombshell effect of A Brief History, it didn't matter. He had become something bigger than himself.

Who can forget Hawking losing a bet that the Higgs boson would never be found, the image of him floating in zero gravity on a "vomit comet" flight, his participation in the 2012 Paralympics, his endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn in opposition to Conservative policies on the NHS in 2017?

Who among us can have confronted a life so full of challenge and lived it so fully and so well?Police are investigating the cause of a fire in Carrickfergus which caused "significant damage" to a home and neighbouring properties.

The fire erupted at the Victoria Road home on Wednesday at around 3pm.

Detective Sergeant Peter Crothers added: [The fire] caused significant damage to it along with a neighbouring property. No injuries were reported and police attended the scene along with the Fire Service.

"Anyone with information should contact detectives in Larne on 101 quoting reference 795 of 14/03/18. Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.The head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service said he would ensure notes were taken of all meetings with ministers in 2015 - three years before he said it was a "habit" of Stormont mandarins not to take minutes in order to save embarrassment of their political taskmasters.

During a finance committee hearing into the sale of the Republic's National Asset Management Agency (Nama) portfolio in October 2015, Mr Sterling who was the permanent secretary of the Department of Finance and Personal, was asked as to why his department did not have a record of a meeting while Nama did.

Read More

"Obviously, it is up to Nama to take whatever notes it sees fit," he told MLAs, "this whole process has identified that we probably need to be more consistent in our approach to taking notes of meetings. I actually agreed with the minister recently that we will ensure that notes are taken of all meetings, simply recording who attended, what was discussed and what was agreed."

On Tuesday during the RHI inquiry, Mr Sterling - now head of the civil service - described it as a "feature" of government in Northern Ireland that minutes would not properly be made in case they were later subject to Freedom of Information requests which would put the information in the public domain.

"It is a feature of devolved administration here were there have been two main parties that have been sensitive to criticism," he told the inquiry.

"And in that context as senior civil service we got into habit of not recording all meetings on the basis it is safer sometimes not to have record which may be released under freedom of information that shows that things that might have been unpopular were being considered."

The Executive Office has been asked for a response.

Meanwhile, Speaking on the BBC Stephen Nolan show former finance minister Mairtin O Muilleoir rejected Mr Sterling's implication Sinn Fein was involved in any cover up of internal political business saying it was "clap trap".

"When I was there we conducted our business in a transparent manner," he said.

"We discharged our responsibilities in a proper manner, in an open manner and that is our commitment."

Asked if anyone from within Sinn Fein instructed minutes not be made he said "most definitely not, at no point did we ever tell a civil servant not to minute a meeting."

He added: "David has appeared in front of two committees now - in 2015 in the finance committee he said at that meeting one of the mistakes civil servants made around Nama, working with DUP ministers - solely DUP ministers - is that they didn't minute meetings.

Sinn Fein conducted our business in a transparent manner. Mairtin O Muilleoir

"This week again now he is saying civil servants did not minute meetings which involved DUP ministers.

"So the people in the dock - metaphorically - are the civil service and DUP ministers."

He added: "It does not involve Sinn Fein and I repudiate any suggestion that we instructed insisted or told civil servants not to discharge their jobs properly and I reject any suggestion we did not discharge our responsibilities to the public to act in an open and transparent manner.

The South Belfast MLA said Sinn Fein had a "professional relationship" with civil service and "deal with them fairly".

"They have their own obligations... they have their own legal obligations protocols and rules. Civil servants can not breach those protocols and rules.

"Any civil servant that says they did not follow protocols has serious questions to answer."

The DUP has been asked to comment. The party has said it would be inappropriate to comment on matters arising from the RHI Inquiry as its members are to appear in front of it later in the year.A man charged with the loyalist feud-related murder of a father outside a supermarket has been granted High Court bail.

A man charged with the loyalist feud-related murder of a father outside a supermarket has been granted High Court bail.

Joseph Blair, 34, is to be released from custody under conditions which include a ban on contacting two others also accused of killing Colin Horner in Bangor, Co Down last year.

Blair, of Shackelton Walk in Newtownards, was allegedly present in a scout car which tracked the victim's movements.

Prosecutors claim he was in phone contact with the suspected gunman more than 20 times in the lead up to the shooting.

Mr Horner, originally from Carrickfergus, was shot up to five times in front of his three-year-old son at Sainsbury's car park on May 28.

Detectives have linked the killing to mounting tensions within the Ulster Defence Association's South East Antrim brigade.

The victim was said to have relocated to Co Down amid fears for his safety - two months earlier his friend George Gilmore had been shot dead in Carrickfergus.

Blair is among three men charged with Mr Horner's murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Mobile phone analysis and DNA evidence allegedly links him to a Ford Focus car believed to have been used to scout the victim's movements.

According to the prosecution case he was a passenger in that car, making calls to a suspected gunman travelling in a Ford Mondeo who has yet to be charged.

The killers were said to have escaped in the Mondeo, later found burnt out on Kerrs Road between Bangor and Newtownards.

In an alibi provided after his arrest, Blair claimed was at an address in Newtownards on the day of the murder.

His lawyers mounted a fresh application for bail based on delays in progressing the case.

They argued there is uncertainty around a preliminary enquiry hearing planned for May.

With Blair's co-accused out on bail, Mr Justice Colton ruled that he should be released from custody too.

The judge ordered him to have no contact with any other defendants or civilian witnesses in the case.

Imposing a curfew and electronic tagging, he also prohibited Blair from leaving Northern Ireland.An east Belfast woman has celebrated her 105th birthday surrounded by four generations of her family.

As she cuddled her two-month-old great, great grandson Oliver, Emily Desano, who spent most of her life working alongside her late husband Samuel in the family's ice cream shop, recalled her experiences of being evacuated from Belfast during the Second World War and of listening to her father's accounts of building the Titanic.

Born on the Avoniel Road in 1913 - a year before the Great War broke out, Emily attended Bill's School on the Beersbridge Road before beginning work "threading bobbins" in a factory when she was just 14.

Aged 18, she met Italian immigrant Samuel Desano at a dance near Millisle, Co Down.

Samuel had arrived in the UK after stowing away on a boat bound for London as a child.

Emily was initially reluctant to accept Samuel's proposal due to the 25-year age difference, but eventually succumbed to his charms.

"He wanted to marry me right away but I said to him I wanted to wait for a year, and he said he would wait 10 years for me," she recalled.

"We got married at Knock Presbyterian Church when I was 19 and it was the happiest day of my life.

"But my parents didn't approve of me marrying an Italian, so I sent them to the wrong church!"

The couple had three children: Eileen, Cecil and Hazel.

Emily spent decades serving customers and making ice cream in the Newtownards Road shop.

During the Second World War she and her children were evacuated to Saintfield, and it was thanks to her foresight that she and Samuel were not interned due to the family's Italian connections.

Granddaughter Janice Fitzsimons revealed: "They were rounding up all of the Italian families and putting them in prison.

"They were considered to be on the other side and they would have put nanny and Samuel in as well, if she hadn't persuaded Samuel to become a British citizen just before the war. If it wasn't for her, they would both have ended up in jail."

The decision to evacuate also proved to be a life-saver after a bomb thought to have been destined for the shipyard landed on Westbourne Church beside the family's home, taking the roof off their property.

The younger generations of the family describe Emily, who has been a member of Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle for around four decades, as "inspirational".

"She lived next door to the family's ice cream shop for most of her life and lived by herself until she was 102," her great granddaughter Leigh Fitzsimons (34) said.

"She had a hip replacement when she was 100, but apart from that she has always been very healthy.

"I even caught her up a ladder at 101. She was a brilliant cook, she was just fantastic.

"It's very special for us all to be here with her to celebrate her 105th birthday, particularly with the great, great grandchildren Ella (2) and little Oliver. She's a wonderful role model."

Having received her second birthday card from the Queen, Emily shared her secrets to a long and healthy life.

"No drinking, no smoking, and love the Lord," she said. "I love the Lord and my children."A man who used explosives to try and steal an ATM from a filling station in Co Armagh has been jailed.

Ioan Anton was sentenced at Newry Crown Court, sitting at Dungannon courthouse on Thursday.

40-year-old Anton was sentenced to two years - one year imprisonment and one year on licence for charges in relation to conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.

His co-accused, 41-year-old Gratian-Ioan Pinter, had previously been sentenced to three years imprisonment, with three years on licence, for causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, and three years, with three years on licence, for attempted burglary, at Newry Crown Court on October 17, 2016.

Anton and Pinter were arrested following the attempted theft from an ATM machine at a filling station on Annareagh Road, Hamiltonsbawn during the early hours of Thursday June 5, 2014.

Around 2.30am police received a report of a loud bang in the area and suspicious activity close to the ATM. Officers attended and discovered a suspect device involving gas had exploded close to the ATM.

ATO were tasked and the device was made safe and removed for further examination. Anton and Pinter were arrested later that day and an extensive police investigation involving assistance from law enforcement authorities across Europe has ensued since.

Investigating officer Inspector Will Brown said the case took a long time to conclude.

This was a protracted investigation led by detectives from Criminal Investigation Branch," he said.

"We will continue in our efforts to make Northern Ireland a safer place to live and work by proactively investigating and arresting people involved in criminality.

"Ioan Anton and Gratian-Ioan Pinter became involved in criminality and as a result are now in prison. The sentence handed to them at court should act as a deterrent to others.

"We will continue to actively seek out these individuals and bring them before the courts. I would like to thank our counterparts in the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau who provided essential assistance in bringing these offenders to justice.A policewoman who had an inappropriate sexual relationship with an associate of a criminal gang linked to PSNI officer Ronan Kerr's murder has been disciplined but allowed to return to work.

The officer was suspended from duty after the affair emerged and an investigation was launched by the PSNI, the Irish News reported.

It stated that she was brought before an internal misconduct hearing last month where she received sanctions, including having her pay docked.

However, she is now free to return to operational duty.

Mr Kerr, a 25-year-old Catholic PSNI officer, was killed in April 2011 when a booby-trap bomb exploded under his car in Omagh.

The criminal gang is suspected of involvement in the theft of cars for dissident republicans involved in the murder plot.

Chief superintendent John McCaughan, head of the PSNI's professional standards department, said a file had been sent to the PPS following a police investigation, but it had "directed no prosecution in relation to all matters reported to them".

He added: "The matter was not the subject of a public complaint, thus it was not referred to the Police Ombudsman. Following that, an officer appeared before misconduct proceedings in February 2018 to answer a number of charges.

"The charges were proven and the officer received a number of disciplinary sanctions as a result.

"As the misconduct proceedings have now finalised, the officer has returned to an operational role."Ban on vehicles older than 20 years kicks in

The ban on public vehicles older than 20 years begins across the country on Thursday.Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that people claiming Brexit could lead to a return to the Troubles in Northern Ireland are almost encouraging violence.

The arch-Brexiteer also suggested the Irish Republic could quit the single market and customs union in favour of UK regulation in order to make Britains EU withdrawal smoother.

Mr Rees-Mogg branded warnings that Brexit could pose a threat to peace in Northern Ireland as cynical.

People making that argument should think very carefully about the wisdom of that argumentJacob Rees-Mogg

He told The House: I think its a politically unappealing and cynical approach to suggest that violence may be a consequence of not doing what the pro-Europeans want, and they should think whether that is a wise approach to take.

Once you start proposing that violence may be a consequence of something, youre almost encouraging violence. So, people making that argument should think very carefully about the wisdom of that argument.

Asked about Theresa Mays pledge to work closely with the EU to solve Northern Ireland border issues like regulatory alignment, the MP said: I think the Prime Minister was being generous to the European Union in that context.

She wants to have friendly relations in the negotiations, but its a question of nuance and I think theyre the stick in the muds in this and have come up with a solution that is wholly impossible for the United Kingdom to accept, that we should take Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.

Why dont we suggest to them that the Republic of Ireland comes out of the single market and customs union and accepts our regulations? Its an equally logical suggestion.Six Northern Ireland grammar schools scored 100% pass rates at GCSE in terms of five or more A*-C grades, including the core subjects.

Today the Belfast Telegraph publishes the second part of its annual guide on the performance of every post-primary school here.

The top six at GCSE level are Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School in south Belfast; Assumption Grammar School in Ballynahinch; Down High School in Downpatrick; Our Lady and St Patrick's College in east Belfast; St Louis Grammar School in Ballymena, and St Mary's Grammar School in Magherafelt.

The number of schools scoring 100% has dipped from the previous year, when nine schools saw all of their students achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including core subjects English and maths. Grammar schools dominated the top of the league tables for GCSE results achieved in 2017, taking the top 54 places.

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The Belfast Telegraph's league tables include data on every secondary school in Northern Ireland.

The top non-grammar school at GCSE in 2016/17 was St Patrick's High School, Keady (91.3%), followed by St Colm's High School in Draperstown (87.7%), and St Patrick's College, Maghera (85.9%) - just ahead of the top performing controlled non-grammar, Castlederg High School (83.3%).Overall across Northern Ireland in 2016/17, some 70.3% of year 12 pupils achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C (or equivalent) including English and maths.

This was up 2.4 percentage points from 2015/16.

Peter Dobbin, principal of Assumption Grammar, described its joint topping of the latest league tables as a surprise 85th birthday present for the Co Down school.

"I am delighted with the phenomenal achievement of our Assumption girls at both GCSE level and A2 level," he said.

"The girls and the staff of Assumption have worked so hard and fully deserve this public recognition of our academic success.

"However, it is the school's 'Fully Alive' ethos which underpins every aspect of why Assumption Grammar is such a unique educational establishment and has been since we were first established by the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption 85 years ago this year.

"This is a surprise birthday present which will bring a smile to all our Assumption girls, past and present."

Down High principal Maud Perry said the school was very proud of its results and she paid tribute to the hard work of pupils.

"We celebrate the many talents and achievements of all our pupils at Down High and we're very proud of the 100% pass rate at GCSE in both mathematics and English," she said.

"Our motto 'nothing is achieved without effort' reflects our belief that there is no limit to what can be accomplished through hard work.

"This hard work of staff and pupils, alongside the support of our parents, produced these fantastic results in the 2017 summer exam season."

Today's tables also represent a triumph for south Belfast grammar school Wellington College, which scored 94.7%, significantly above the Northern Ireland average, as it works to be removed from formal intervention.

Principal David Castles said: "We are very proud of the excellent GCSE outcomes our students have attained. This significant improvement is part of our drive at Wellington College to raise standards, engage students and build pathways to success.

"Excellence in exams is a result of students, staff and parents working together, and these GCSE results give a great foundation for success at A-level and beyond."

How we did sums for the latest league tables

The Belfast Telegraph is the only source of comprehensive league tables showing the results of every post-primary school in Northern Ireland.

We obtained the data from the Department of Education for A-level and GCSE examinations sat in the 2016/17 academic year and compiled the figures into easy-to-read league tables, ordered from top to bottom. In the GCSE league tables, the Belfast Telegraph has used the percentage of pupils in the final year of a level 3 course who achieved five or more GCSEs - including English and Maths -between an A* to C grade in each school as the standard measure.

The Department of Education does not produce A-level or GCSE league tables and said it does not endorse them.Paul Hamill with Sinn Fein MLA Declan Kearney (left), Sean O Murchadha, and Iona Gorman and Meabh McClean from Gaelscoil Eanna

A DUP politician who gave an address in Irish has been praised for his leadership by a Sinn Fein MLA.

Antrim and Newtownabbey mayor Paul Hamill spoke Irish when he welcomed nearly 200 guests to the Theatre at the Mill in the borough for a special Irish Language Week event last night.

To loud applause, thanking the audience and welcoming them, he said: "Dia daoibh agus failte mor chugaibh go Mossley Mill chun an cheiliuradh speisialta seo, Seachtain na Gaeilge."

He continued his lengthy welcome greeting in which he acknowledged everyone involved in putting the event together.

Sinn Fein's Declan Kearney was among those who appreciated the mayor's gesture.

"I congratulate him on his fluency. I was very impressed with the blas that he used and his turn of phrase, which was a particularly nice element of the evening," the MLA said.

"This is an important gesture, I think the mayor's use of Irish at this event shows mutual respect for Irish traditions and culture.

"Paul has demonstrated an act of leadership this evening and shown how we should go forward."

After delivering the greeting Mr Hamill took his seat in the sixth row to enjoy a night of Gaelic music, dance and poetry, which was performed by children from Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach in Crumlin and Gaelscoil Eanna in Glengormley.

Sean O Murchadadha, who was compering the night of cultural celebration, said Mr Hamill told him that he had been inundated with text messages in Irish.

"He'll have to brush up on his Google translate skills to reply," he joked.

In another light-hearted exchange, Sean told the mayor to "keep calm and don't panic" as he introduced a group of young people on stage to sing T. Rex's Children Of The Revolution in Irish.

Mr Hamill's gesture comes after talks to restore Stormont broke down due to disagreements between the DUP and Sinn Fein about legislation for the Irish language.

Mr Kearney, who said he didn't consider unionism or the DUP to be monoliths, praised the "decent, practical, pragmatic politicians within the DUP" who recognised there was no threat from the Irish language to the community they represent.

"The Irish language belongs to us all - it's as much Paul Hamill's language as it is mine," he added.

"They serve as exemplars of how all politicians should behave in our society."

However, Mr Kearney said there needed to be more political leadership within unionism if Stormont was to be restored.

"We are in very deep political impasse and in my view that crisis is deepening. Events like this demonstrate in a very inclusive way just how we can build common ground and build on that in the future," he said.

It's the third time that Mr Hamill has used Irish at public events in the last three months.

Speaking ahead of the event, he said he thought "it is only right" to address guests in Irish because he wanted to "be a mayor for everyone".

He also admitted that he had some help from a teacher at St MacNissius' Primary School in Tannaghmore in Antrim.

"She sent me an Irish translation and phonetic pronunciation," he explained.

"I understand why it's perceived to be a big deal by some, but that's not the way I approach it and I think the hype is regrettable."

Last night Mr Kearney reiterated that unionism had nothing to fear from the promotion of the Irish language.A desire by the DUP and Sinn Fein for some meetings at Stormont not to be minuted represents an attempt to "subvert the democratic process", the director of the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information has said.

Maurice Frankel described as "unprecedented" the admission by the head of the Northern Ireland civil service David Sterling that some meetings weren't minuted because it was "safer" not to have a record which might have to be released following a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it would be contacting Mr Sterling urgently. A spokesman told the BBC there were concerns about statements made indicating efforts were made to frustrate FoI requests.

The ICO is the independent body set up to uphold information rights.

Mr Sterling told the RHI Inquiry on Tuesday: "The two main parties have been sensitive to criticism and I think it is in that context that as senior civil service we got into the habit of not recording all meetings on the basis that it is safer sometimes not to have a record that, for example, might be released under Freedom of Information."

Mr Frankel said such a practice was wholly unacceptable.

"They are distorting the public record by not keeping a public record. They are subverting the democratic process in political interests," he said. "This isn't even a case of providing a watered down record, it is about no record keeping at all. This runs totally contrary to the process of accountability.

"It also does a disservice to those individuals who have behaved properly because the lack of record-keeping exposes them to criticism."

Mr Frankel said it was "highly unusual" for a top civil servant to acknowledge this practice existed. "We may suspect that some people behave in this way but for a senior official to acknowledge it is unprecedented," he stated. The FoI Act already offered protection regarding ongoing policy discussions so there was no justification whatsoever for what happened at Stormont, he added.

SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan called on the DUP and Sinn Fein to come clean over their level of secrecy. He said: "This is a scandalous contortion of standard practice that was designed to keep the work of ministers secret from the people they are supposed to represent."

Mr McCrossan said questions must be answered by each and every minister in that "secretive" Stormont Executive.

"Did they instruct or intimate that senior civil servants should not take notes of meetings to protect them from public scrutiny?" he asked.

"Did they have any knowledge that notes were not being taken of key meetings and decisions?

"This goes to the heart of the character of those two parties.

"They negotiate in secret, they govern in secret, they are terrified of scrutiny. Any minister who is too sensitive to have their decisions scrutinised by the public has no business being in government."

Alliance MLA David Ford called on the DUP and Sinn Fein to clarify whether they will record all departmental meetings in any future Executive.

Mr Ford, a former Justice Minister, said: "There needs to be an agreed record of the decision taken and the basis on which it was done so. That's the way things have been done in my experience and that's the way they should be done across every department.

"But it appears it was not the case in departments under the control of the DUP and Sinn Fein - where things were decided and nothing recorded as to why.

"Those two parties need to clarify whether any reformed Executive would be subject to the same draconian approach by ministers more interested in saving their own skin than being transparent to the public."

The issue of minutes was raised at the inquiry over a meeting between Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment official Fiona Hepper and former minister Arlene Foster about whether to proceed with RHI without the cost controls introduced in Britain.

There was a difference of opinion between the two about the meeting and no minute was taken. Ms Hepper said she flagged a warning while Mrs Foster said she has "no recollection" of the conversation.Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will stress how the chemical threat does not just come from Russia, as he announces a multimillion-pound investment in a new specialist centre.

After the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter and the growing possibility of further attacks, British troops will also be vaccinated against anthrax, he will reveal.

In his first keynote speech since becoming Secretary of State last year, Mr Williamson will set out the threats facing the UK, his vision for the Modernising Defence Programme, and make the case for investment in the armed forces.

If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury, Mr Williamson is expected to say.

We know the chemical threat doesnt just come from Russia but from others.

But we have world-class expertise at Defence Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Porton Down and today I can announce we will be strengthening this capability by investing 48m in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to ensure we maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence.

Kremlin spox Peskov: Russia, having nothing to do with Sergei Skripal poisoning, is ready to cooperate with UK, but sees no reciprocity. UK media proved their quality  no more trust in them. pic.twitter.com/YM0fGt12L5  Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) March 14, 2018

Experts based at DSTL in Wiltshire were tasked with analysing the nerve agent used to poison Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and played a crucial role in linking the attack to Russia.

In light of what he will describe as a growing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat from a range of state actors, he will confirm that thousands of British troops who are held at high-readiness will be vaccinated against anthrax.

In a move to ensure personnel are protected and ready to deploy to areas where the risk of this type of attack exists, Mr Williamson will state how the voluntary vaccination will offer vital protection against a deadly danger.

Anthrax is a spore-producing bacterium and is often used as a weapon in a powder, spray or as an aerosol  with inhalation the most dangerous form of transmission and usually fatal.

Mr Williamson is also expected to warn how the country has arrived at a profound moment in our history, stressing there is a crossroads where the choice before us as a nation is simple  to sit back and let events overtake us or step forward.

This was not just an act of attempted murder in Salisbury  nor just an act against UK. It is an affront to the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. pic.twitter.com/iMh3CfvCy8  Theresa May (@theresa_may) March 14, 2018

As Brexit beckons, the eyes of the world are on us. Rest assured our adversaries will be watching even more closely than our allies, he will add.

This is our moment to retain our competitive advantage.

During his speech on Thursday, hosted by Policy Exchange and Rolls Royce in Bristol, Mr Williamson will also set out his vision for the ongoing Modernising Defence Programme.

The South Staffordshire MP will say that the programme, launched in January and due to report in the summer, will give Britain a more productive, harder-hitting joint force, which is able to counter conventional threats and deal with the new challenges of asymmetric conflict.

This will mean taking intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to the next level, and accelerating the development of specialist Army information unit, 77 Brigade, he will add.

Amid the emerging threats facing Britain and a shortfall in the defence budget over the next decade of an amount thought to be at least 20 billion, Mr Williamson is also expected to say that the UK must prioritise investment in military capabilities.Jeremy Corbyn has defended his stance on the Salisbury poison attack after coming under fire after his team raised doubts over whether Russia was to blame.

The Labour leader stressed he totally condemns the attack and said the evidence points towards Russia being responsible.

But he also said the possibility the nerve agent attack was carried out by Russian-linked gangsters could not be excluded.

And he warned Theresa May not to rush way ahead of the evidence  highlighting the way international crises such as the Iraq War had seen clear thinking overwhelmed by emotion and hasty judgments.

Mr Corbyn faced criticism after failing to offer his support in Parliament on Wednesday to Prime Minister Theresa Mays decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith publicly backed the mass expulsion on Thursday morning, saying it would have been easier for us if the Labour leader made it clear he supported the move too.

The attack in Salisbury was an appalling act of violence, which we condemn in the strongest terms. Nerve agents are... Posted by Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Speaking during a visit to Carlisle on Thursday, Mr Corbyn said: I was extremely definite yesterday that I totally condemn this attack. The perpetrators must be brought to justice.

The international Chemical Weapons Convention must be invoked and the source of this weapon, which appears to be Russia  either from the state or from a rogue element of the state  must be brought to justice as a result of it.

He added: The evidence points towards Russia on this, therefore responsibility must be borne by those that made the weapon, those that brought the weapon into the country and those that used the weapon.

Mr Corbyn was briefed on Privy Council terms ahead of Wednesdays statement about the intelligence behind Mrs Mays assessment that Moscow was culpable for the attack.

Writing in the Guardian he said Labour was no supporter of the Putin regime and the authorities in Moscow must be held to account on the basis of the evidence.

But he warned against a new Cold War of escalating arms spending, proxy conflicts across the globe and a McCarthyite intolerance of dissent.

Confirming Labours support for Mrs Mays actions, Mr Corbyn said: We agree with the Governments action in relation to Russian diplomats.

But he added: Measures to tackle the oligarchs and their loot would have a far greater impact on Russias elite than limited tit-for-tat expulsions.

We are willing to back further sanctions as and when the investigation into the Salisbury attack produces results.

Mr Corbyn said that Mrs May was right on Monday to identify two possibilities for the source of the nerve agent  either Russia authorised the attack or had lost control of the Novichok substance.

If the latter, a connection to Russian mafia-like groups that have been allowed to gain a toehold in Britain cannot be excluded, he said.

Mr Corbyns official spokesman appeared on Wednesday to question the Governments use of intelligence material, telling reporters there was a history in relation to weapons of mass destruction and intelligence which is problematic, to put it mildly.

The Labour leader  who strongly opposed the Iraq War  also referred to the dodgy dossier produced in the build-up to the 2003 invasion.

Mr Corbyn said: There can and should be the basis for a common political response to this crime.

But in my years in parliament I have seen clear thinking in an international crisis overwhelmed by emotion and hasty judgments too many times.

Flawed intelligence and dodgy dossiers led to the calamity of the Iraq invasion.

Ms Griffith told The Mirror that Labour was fully supporting the expulsion of 23 diplomats.

Asked if Mr Corbyn had undermined UK security assessments that it was highly likely Russia was behind their poisoning, Ms Griffith said: Looking back, perhaps it would have been easier for us if he had made it clear at the beginning of what he said, just how much we support the expulsion of the diplomats.

Fully support what Shadow Defence Secretary @NiaGriffithMP says in this interview. https://t.co/uBBOup3S2P  Diana Johnson MP  (@DianaJohnsonMP) March 14, 2018

Ms Griffiths position was supported by several Labour MPs.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw said she was spot on, while Kingston Upon Hull North MP Diana Johnson said she fully supported the shadow defence secretary.

Mr Corbyns spokesmans comments on Wednesday prompted Labour backbencher John Woodcock to table an Early Day Motion unequivocally accepting the Russian states culpability for the attack, and supporting fully the statement made by Mrs May in the Commons.

Great to hear Shadow Defence Secretary @NiaGriffithMP set out on @BBCr4today in clear terms that @UKLabour accepts the responsibility of Russia for the poison attacks and that the evidence is clear. She speaks for our voters, members and MPs - and makes it clear Mr Milne does not  ChukaUmunna (@ChukaUmunna) March 15, 2018

The motion was swiftly signed by a number of prominent critics of Mr Corbyn, some of whom went public with their criticism of the leaders senior aide Seumas Milne.

Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values, while Chuka Umunna said: Mr Milnes comments do not represent the views of the majority of our voters, members or MPs.Brexit Secretary David Davis has signalled he is prepared to accept a shorter transition period than the UK wanted.

Mr Davis said he could live with the proposed arrangement ending in December 2020, rather than the March 2021 date London has asked for if that would help secure a deal.

The Brexit Secretary, who is to meet the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, on Monday, said the EU and the UK would establish a joint committee during a transition period to guarantee a duty of good faith by both sides.

Prime Minister Theresa May has called for an implementation period of around two years after Britain formally quits the EU in March 2019.

Mr Davis said his priority was to secure an agreement on the transition phase at next weeks EU heads of government summit, telling BBC2s Newsnight: That is more important to me than a few months either way. So, Im not bothered too much about the question of whether it is Christmas 2020 or Easter 2021.

Asked if he could live with the transition ending in December 2020, Mr Davis said: I would live with that. We are still in the middle of a negotiation. Frankly, what I would not do is delay the decision in order to get a month or two more.

Mr Davis downplayed concerns expressed by arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg that Britain would be a vassal state during the transition.

The Brexit Secretary said most EU laws take two years to pass, which is three months longer than the proposed transition timetable.

Mr Davis said: It is not going to be a big material issue. But we want to have in place, and we will have in place, is a joint committee which will oversee any issues like this that come up and a duty of good faith, good faith on both sides so neither side is disadvantaged. So, we wont fall into Mr Rees-Moggs interesting definition of our position.

Mr Davis said his team had been working flat out in discussions with the EU, mainly in Brussels, adding: That will continue through this weekend, and I shall join them on Sunday, and well have another meeting with Michel on Monday.

Busy day meeting with European ministers.



In #Denmark I met Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen.



Then on to #CzechRepublic where I saw FM @stropnickym and PM @AndrejBabis to discuss the strong security partnership between our countries. pic.twitter.com/10jPYvXZwU  David Davis (@DavidDavisMP) March 14, 2018

The Brexit Secretary said the talks with Brussels were just one strand and he would be holding other meetings before the upcoming European Council summit.

He said: Its the council that make the decision on what our future partnership will be. Thats the member states. The council is made up of member states.

I will be going around talking to them, listening to their concerns, explain what weve got in mind, what we aim to do and understanding what their interests are and their concerns are. So we can incorporate that and make sure that we get the right decision.A German financier whose marriage broke down after his wife discovered that he was having an affair is waiting to hear whether he has won a divorce battle in a London court.

Three Court of Appeal judges have been asked to make decisions relating to whether Oliver and Catja Thum should fight over money in Germany or England.

Lawyers say judges will have to decide whether a divorce petition launched in England in October 2015 by 47-year-old Mrs Thum, who is also German, should take priority over a petition launched in Germany by Mr Thum nearly three months later.

Mr Thum, who set up a business called Elvaston Capital, based in Berlin, says Mrs Thum is guilty of tactical manoeuvring and kept the fact that she had issued her petition in England secret.

Mrs Thum disputes his allegations.

Lady Justice King, Lord Justice David Richards and Lord Justice Moylan have analysed the case at a Court of Appeal hearing.

They are expected to deliver a ruling in the near future.

The three judges heard that Mrs Thum began divorce proceedings after learning of an affair.

They were told how she had discovered that he had taken his mistress to an office party and on a birthday trip to Rome.

Mr Thum, 46, has asked appeal judges to review decisions made by a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Mostyn had analysed the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London in October 2016.

He concluded that any money fight should be staged in England and said German judges should decline jurisdiction.The Scottish Government has been urged to take action to help parents cope with the physical, emotional and financial pressures of having twins or triplets.

A petition lodged at the Scottish Parliament calls on ministers to take steps to address the unique challenges faced by families who have multiples.

The move is being spearheaded by Jennifer Edmonstone, an activist and secretary of the East Kilbride Twins and Triplets Club.

She told Holyroods Public Petitions Committee: Many of the relevant Scottish Government policies I accept are aimed at families more generally, including baby boxes and grants for those in need.

Via this petition I want to show that having multiple births is so different in so many ways and therefore the government needs to aim some of its relevant policies directly at families with multiples.

MSPs heard that in addition to a high risk pregnancy and birth, 68% of twins and 95% of triplets are born prematurely compared to 7% of all births.

***Petition to the Scottish Parliament for better support for families with multiples***



SUMMARY

After my own... https://t.co/z3QBNmRIr8  ekttclub (@ekttclub) February 2, 2018

Ms Edmonstone said more than half (52%) of twins require extra time in hospital, with further medical care once discharged a common consequence of premature birth.

In addition she told the committee that post natal depression and relationship breakdown are more prevalent in families with multiples, while 80% of mothers of twins or triplets do not breastfeed compared to 60% of singleton mothers.

On the financial side, she said the cost of sending two children to nursery on a full time basis was around 55,000 over six years for two children born two years apart, compared to 70,000 over only five years for twins.

She also highlighted UK child benefit, which pays a premium for the first child born.

If multiples are a mothers first pregnancy in particular what hasnt been considered is the requirement to buy two of many items at the same time, she said.

It has been estimated that twins doesnt cost double, but it is about 50% more than one child and this needs to be accounted for.

Families with multiples are asking for help.

Ways in which the Scottish Government could help are as follows: increase and match child benefit for each multiple born, provide more funding earlier for childcare for families with multiples and provide support for improvements in maternity leave, maternity pay and paternity pay by bringing this petition to the attention of Westminster.

If improvements like that are made its likely that women will be in a better position to return to work sooner and multiples will be put on an equal footing with singletons.

The committee agreed to write to the Scottish and UK Governments as well as organisations including the Royal College of Nursing and the Multiple Births Foundation, to seek their views on the issues raised in the petition.Bangladeshi minister meetsPM Oli and Home Minister Thapa

Visiting Bangladeshi Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism AKM Sahajan Kamal paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday.Leaders of Britain, the US, Germany and France have issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the Salisbury poison attack.

The four allies urged Moscow to provide full and complete disclosure of its Novichok nerve agent programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The statement was issued as Prime Minister Theresa May visited the scene of the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

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Speaking as she met emergency services and residents of the Wiltshire city, Mrs May said: We do hold Russia culpable for this brazen and despicable act that has taken place on the streets of what is such a remarkable city.

The joint statement agreed by Mrs May, US President Donald Trump, Frances Emmanuel Macron and Germanys Angela Merkel followed speculation of Paris wobbling in its support for Britains response to the March 4 attack, which has seen 23 Russian diplomats ordered out of the country.

A statement of solidarity with the UK was issued by the Elysee Palace afer an early-morning phone call from Mrs May to Mr Macron.

In the joint statement, the four leaders said that they abhor the poison attack and share the UK assessment that there was no plausible alternative explanation other than Russia being responsible.

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This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War, they said.

It is an assault on UK 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 leaders called on Moscow to answer all questions about the Salisbury incident and live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security.

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Nato states were briefed by UK National Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels.

The military alliances secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the attack took place against the backdrop of a reckless pattern of Russian behaviour including its interference in Georgia and Ukraine and attempts to subvert democratic elections.

Russia has integrated conventional and nuclear warfare in its military doctrine and exercises, he said.

This blurring of the line between nuclear and conventional lowers the threshold for Russias use of nuclear weapons.

And the blurring of the line between peace, crisis and war is destabilising and dangerous. Natos approach remains firm, defensive, and proportionate.

We do not want a new Cold War. And we do not want to be dragged into a new arms race  But let there be no doubt. Nato will defend all allies against any threat.

We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury. Full statement: https://t.co/Om1uqm9K58  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) March 15, 2018

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned Moscow will expel British diplomats soon after Mrs May announced the biggest expulsion of Russian embassy staff since the Cold War.

Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the final decision on retaliatory measures will, of course, be made by the Russian president, adding: There is no doubt that he will choose the variant that best of all corresponds to the interests of the Russian Federation.

Mr Peskov said Moscow was perplexed by the UK Governments stance, insisting that allegations of Russian culpability were unsubstantiated.

But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the evidence against Moscow was overwhelming.

There is something in the kind of smug, sarcastic response that weve heard from the Russians that to me betokens and indicates their fundamental guilt, said Mr Johnson.

They want simultaneously to deny it and yet at the same time to glory in it. The reason theyve chosen this nerve agent is to show that its Russia, and to show people in their agencies who might think of defecting  that Russia will take revenge.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: It is absolutely atrocious and outrageous what Russia did in Salisbury. We have responded to that.

Frankly, Russia should go away and should shut up.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd was chairing a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergencies committee in London to discuss the latest situation.

And Environment Secretary Michael Gove led a cross-governmental ministerial recovery group looking at support which will go to the people and city of Salisbury in the aftermath of the incident.

Boris Johnson says British people shouldn't be nervous over Russia ex-spy poisoning https://t.co/FxvrNme3ER #r4today pic.twitter.com/FVYxbgIePN  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) March 15, 2018

Mr Johnson said the UKs response means Russias intelligence capabilities in the country had been basically eviscerated for decades.

He confirmed the UK will submit a sample of the nerve agent to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for it to carry out its own tests.Tori Miller's son kept the notes she included with his snack (Tori Miller/PA)

When Tori Miller first included a note with her sons morning snack at school she wanted to help her little boy through the day.

She kept writing the daily messages but it was only when she visited Olivers school for his second-grade parents evening that she learned he saves them.

Tori was so thrilled by his actions that she posted a picture on Reddit which amassed thousands of upvotes and comments with people praising her parenting.

After the kids went to bed I checked Reddit again and it was at 50K and on the front page, I was completely blown away, Tori, 37, from Northbrook, Illinois, told the Press Association.

I mean, lets be real, it was a picture of some folded up notes in a plastic bag.

There were so many people praising me which was so unexpected and amazing. Even now it makes me cry because sometimes, as a full-time parent, you need that validation.

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Now, Tori has shared whats inside those folded notes, why she started writing the notes and how she felt about the messages being kept.

She said: Oliver is an emotional boy and he feels very deeply and passionately, so he can get upset fairly easily which makes social situations sometimes difficult for him.

Naturally, I worried about him every day, all day. Thats when I decided to write the notes, so that he could feel me with him on those rough days.

Tori, who is married to Patrick with whom she also has a four-year-old daughter, Piper, pens a new message each morning.

Every note has, basically, the same structure. I start out by wishing him a good, happy day, maybe mention one of his special classes he has that day like computer class or library. Then I try to give him some encouraging words to help him through any rough spots throughout his day. I always end them with a fun fact so that he has something to share with his peers, she said.

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In one note she describes how there are 78 different types of mushrooms in the Mario games, and in another how the moustachioed plumber had a crush on Mayor Pauline before Princess Peach came along.

But the notes help Oliver in more ways than being a reminder his mum is always there for him.

He comes home and immediately wants to talk to me about the fact I wrote and how he shared (it) with his friends and teachers.

It also helps me talk to Oliver about how his day went. I can ask him if my note helped him that day and that opens up the door for us to talk over the rough spots he had that day, or it allows him to tell me how he was able to navigate his way through those tough feelings.

I really think that the notes help him through his day.

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She discovered he kept the notes during a school visit when she asked to see Olivers desk  fearing it would be a mess.

His teacher handed me this Ziploc bag from his desk that had his name on the front and it was filled with all the notes I had written him since Christmas, said Tori.

I managed to keep myself together until I got home and started going through them, then the crying started. I was overwhelmed with emotion.

In his bedroom, Tori discovered more bags of the saved notes from the previous term.

Being a parent is the toughest job in the world. And when I saw that bag full of notes that I had just assumed were going in the garbage every day, more than anything I felt appreciated, she said.

I felt like whatever it is that Im doing here might actually be helping him. And that is the best feeling in the world.

Awww. Parenting goals.Donald Trump has been pictured wearing shamrocks in his top pocket in honour of Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkars visit.

With St Patricks Day approaching on Saturday, Varadkar visited various US lawmakers and sites. On Thursday, he met with 46th US president, Donald Trump at the White House.

In this meeting Trump revealed he is planning a visit to the country, although a date has not been set.

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Many issues were on the agenda, but some online were distracted by the topiary in Donald Trumps top pocket, taking screenshots from the news to question what it was.

Is he growing sprouts in his pocket? https://t.co/bF3RkT50JL  Sarah (@sarah_jwh) March 15, 2018

Is he wearing watercress as a boutonniere? https://t.co/nJb1EVSeCi  Ethel Mertz (@theivornovello) March 15, 2018

Wearing shamrocks to celebrate the visit of an Irish premier or the countrys national day isnt so unusual. The shamrock is a clover-like plant which is used as the national emblem of Ireland.

Heres Irelands last taoiseach, Enda Kenny, handing over a bowl of shamrocks at the Shamrock Presentation Ceremony in 2017. If you look carefully, he has shamrocks in his pocket.

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Other Twitter users felt the photos needed the meme treatment.Daniel Jones, left, is escorted by a prison guard to a waiting van outside the Siem Reap court (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A Cambodian court has started the trial of a British man who was among a group of foreigners arrested for allegedly posting photos on social media of sexually suggestive dancing.

Daniel Jones, who has been charged with producing pornography, appeared before the Siem Reap provincial court.

He was among 10 Westerners arrested in January for allegedly posting the photos from a party, and faces up to a year in prison if convicted.

One of the lawyers for the defendant, Ouch Sopheaktra, said 31-year-old Mr Jones was not granted bail and is the only one on trial because he organised the party.

The other nine were released on bail and were ordered to be deported last month.

Siem Reap provincial court spokesman Yin Srang said the court has set a one-day trial, but he did not know whether the verdict would be issued the same day.

He said the charges against the other nine have already been dropped.

The 10 Westerners  five from the UK, two from Canada and one each from Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand  were detained when police raided a commercially organised party at a rented villa in Siem Reap town and found people dancing by a swimming pool at an event described as a pub crawl.

Siem Reap is near the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

Police said those caught in the raid had been dancing pornographically and offended Cambodian standards of morality.

Mr Sopheaktra said he will argue that there was not enough evidence to convict Mr Jones because the charge relies on images of Westerners posted on social media to advertise a party.

As a foreigner, my client thinks that the pictures that were posted on social media were not unlawful, as he thought those photos were used only as advertisements.

I also dont see those photographs as basis for the court to use as the main evidence to accuse and convict him.

Those in the group who have spoken publicly have denied the allegations.A new pedestrian bridge collapsed onto a road at a Miami-area college, crushing at least five vehicles under massive slabs and killing several people, authorities said.

Several people were seen being loaded into ambulances and authorities launched search and rescue missions.

Florida Highway Patrol Lieutenant Alejandro Camacho told CBS News that there were several fatalities.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue tweeted that multiple people were injured when the Florida International University bridge collapsed.

Authorities said they were working on confirming the numbers.

The bridge was still under construction and expected to open to foot traffic next year.

We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge. At this time we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information, the statement said.

Im on my way to Florida International University to be briefed by local law enforcement and university officials. pic.twitter.com/4RyoeELh9m  Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) March 15, 2018

The 14.2 million US dollars bridge crossed over a busy seven-lane highway that divided the universitys campus from the city of Sweetwater.

The 950-ton span was installed on Saturday to great fanfare.

The main part of the 174-foot span was assembled by the side of the road and had to be moved into place.

The accelerated bridge construction method was supposed to reduce risks to workers and pedestrians and minimise traffic disruption, the university said.

FIU is about building bridges and student safety. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully, FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg said in the statement on Saturday.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to the scene. Governor Rick Scott tweeted that he was heading there as well.

I will be in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day, the governor said.

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MCM, the Miami-based construction management firm that won the bridge contract, took its website down on Thursday.

But an archived version of the website featured a news release touting the project.

This our first Design-Build with FIGG Bridge Engineers, a nationally acclaimed, award-winning firm based out of Tallahassee. FIGG has designed iconic bridges all over the country, including Bostons famous Leonard P. Zakim Bridge and Floridas Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

MCM said on Twitter that it was a family business and we are all devastated and doing everything we can to assist.

We will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way.

A message left at FIGGs office in Tallahassee was not immediately returned.

Florida International University is the second-largest university in the state, with 55,000 students.

Most of its students live off-campus and they were on spring break when the collapse happened.

The bridge was supposed to be a safe way to cross a busy street and a plaza-like public space with seating where people could gather.

In August 2017, a university student was killed crossing the road that the bridge was supposed to span.

Florida International University is also home to the National Hurricane Centre.A woman whose sister was murdered by the IRA has called on the American public to boycott a new US beer commemorating Gerry Adams.

'Adam's (sic) Best' is the latest product from the Chicago-based craft beer company Revolution Brewery.

According to the company's website, Adam's Best "is named for Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, who was instrumental in the development of the Belfast Agreement in the late 1990s, which brought a ceasefire to Northern Ireland".

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The profile of the new product makes no mention of the former Sinn Fein leader's association with the IRA. Mr Adams has always denied membership of the IRA, but never distanced himself from the terror group.

Ann Travers, whose sister Mary (22) was shot dead by the Provos in Belfast in 1984 as she walked home from Mass with her father Thomas, said commemorating Mr Adams through a craft beer was "shameful".

She has called on Americans to boycott it.

"It is absolutely unbelievable. I'm actually lost for words," she said.

"How can anyone be so insensitive? It doesn't matter where you're from or what political persuasion you may have, this is below poor taste.

"I mean, does the brewery realise Gerry Adams supported IRA actions that killed many, many innocent people?

"I would hope that good Americans are aware of the full story behind this man and I would call on them to boycott this product, because it is simply shameful."

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Ann Travers was just 14 at the time of her sister's murder. Her father, the intended target, was a Catholic magistrate and he survived the attack, despite being shot six times.

Ms Travers said she could not believe how those behind Adam's Best "would be so callous" as not to think about the hurt it could cause IRA victims before they put the product on the market.

"There are many victims' families here who have lost loved ones at the hands of the IRA. Many believe Gerry Adams could offer them some information about their family members' deaths, but he has refused," she added.

"Even families who, to this day, do not know where their loved ones are buried. How are they going to feel when they hear about this? I'm simply flabbergasted. It is shocking and I'm just lost for words."

Revolution Brewery did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Adams has consistently denied ever being an IRA member, however, he has said that he would never "disassociate" himself from the organisation. The IRA was responsible for around 1,700 deaths during the Troubles.The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 US election, including 13 indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The penalties also include the first use of new powers that Congress passed last year to punish Moscow for election meddling. Those targets include officials working for the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU.

The Trump administration has also accused Russia of a deliberate operation to penetrate the US energy grid which is still continuing.

The Treasury Department said the GRU and Russias military both interfered in the American election and were directly responsible for the NotPetya cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe in June 2017.

Those included in the Mueller indictment include Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has become known as the chef to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The administration is also targeting the Internet Research Agency that Mr Mueller says orchestrated much of the cybermeddling in the presidential election.

National security officials say the FBI, the Homeland Security Department and intelligence agencies have determined that Russian intelligence and others are behind attacks on the American energy sector.

The officials say the Russians obtained access to the energy system and conducted network reconnaissance of industrial control systems that run US factories and the electricity grid.

The officials say they have helped companies kick the Russians out of all systems currently known to have been penetrated.

The US is sending an alert to energy companies to raise threat awareness.Earlier this week there was an event in Belfast to highlight one of the many famous people born in our capital city. Chaim Herzog, who was President Israel from 1983 to 1993, was born in Cliftonpark Avenue in north Belfast on September 17, 1918

He was the son of Isaac and Sarah Herzog and his father was the rabbi of the Jewish congregation in Belfast from 1916 to 1919.

The following year Isaac and his family moved to Dublin and Isaac Herzog was chief rabbi of Ireland.

In the 1930s the Herzog family moved to Mandatory Palestine and there both father and son occupied high positions. Isaac was chief rabbi of the state of Israel and Chaim was the sixth President of the state.

Chaim is one of many people who were born in Ulster and then made their mark elsewhere in the world. William Ferguson Massey is another example.

Massey was born into an Ulster-Scots family in Limavady in 1856. At the age of 14 he followed his parents to New Zealand and then followed his father into farming. He was elected as an Independent MP in 1894 and was the first leader of the Reform Party when it was formed in 1909.

Massey became Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1912 and remained in office until his death in 1925, making him the country's second-longest serving premier. He led New Zealand through the difficult days of the First World War, attended meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet, and signed the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919.

We sometimes speak of "our wee country", and the population of Northern Ireland is roughly the same as that of the Leeds urban area, but men and women of Ulster birth have made an impact in many lands.

Ulster has produced pioneers, Prime Ministers, Presidents, social reformers, entrepreneurs, scientists, authors and artists, but we have not been very good at celebrating these sons and daughters of Ulster. There are many reasons for that, but one has undoubtedly been political prejudices.

Herzog died in 1997 and, the following year, the Ulster History Circle unveiled a commemorative blue plaque at his birthplace in Cliftonpark Avenue. However, in 2014, the building was daubed with anti-Israeli graffiti and an attempt was made to dislodge the plaque.

It was then removed in August 2014 at the request of the community group that occupies the building and placed in storage.

Is it possible that, in this year, the centenary of his birth, we may have the plaque for Herzog reinstated? Or will political prejudice and intolerance continue to prevail?

Of course, political prejudice is not restricted to Belfast.

There is a statue of W F Massey in Limavady, but in 2008 Sinn Fein councillors demanded that it be removed.

By way of justification, Paddy Butcher, leader of the Sinn Fein group on the council, highlighted the fact that "William Massey was a prominent Orangeman".

News of the Sinn Fein demand reached New Zealand and it was reported in local and national newspapers.

There was an apt response from Dr Michael Bassett, a historian in Auckland, who told the New Zealand Herald: "You'd have thought a little town in Northern Ireland would be rather proud that one of their people went off to New Zealand and became Prime Minister."

Indeed you would. And, thankfully, the statue remains - in spite of political prejudice and intolerance.

While such folk are generally commemorated and celebrated in the land of their adoption, they are often forgotten in the land of their birth.

Yet, if I can adapt the words of Dr Bassett: "You'd have thought a little country like Northern Ireland would have been rather proud of such folk."

Perhaps it is time that our cultural institutions, tourist organisations and others really took this onboard. These stories are part of the cultural wealth of Northern Ireland and deserve to be told and retold.

They are also a way of opening up international connections.

They should be part of the tourism product that Northern Ireland has to offer.

We would be foolish to forget them.Controversy surrounding judiciary a sad affair: PM

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the controversy surrounding the birth date and educational certificates of a person who holds a responsible position in the judiciary was a sad affair.Every destination around the world boasts a unique culinary identity; whether it be tapas in Spain, pizza in Italy or bratwurst in Germany, enjoying local cuisine is one of the best ways to get to know a new destination.

Italy in particular is renowned for its glorious food, authentic Italian pasta, glossy home-grown olives, the freshest Alpine fish and mouth-watering desserts. Good food is at the heart of Italian culture, bringing family and friends together, giving them an excuse to catch up over a delicious meal. The food is as spectacular as the landscape, from the stunning natural backdrop of the Italian lakes to the inspiring coastal views of Sorrento and the bustling magic of Rome.

One of the best things about a holiday to Italy is that youre guaranteed to eat well, with fine cheeses, cured meats, risottos and filled pastas on every menu, but with so many amazing foodie hotspots to choose from, it can be difficult to pick just one to visit.

Italy definitely offers a foodie experience like no other, so to help you choose your next destination.here are our top foodie suggestions for each region.

Carbonara in Rome

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When in Rome, you should do as the Romans do and try some of the capital cities traditional cuisine. From the humble trattoria to the grander ristorante, Rome offers a great choice of places to eat and drink.

Food in Rome is known for being simple, flavoursome and satisfying. Throughout the ages, chefs in Rome have tried to stick to century old traditions and most meals are still prepared with a few simple ingredients used in creative ways. Roman cuisine continues to be full of character and reflects the Lazio regions local delicacies. If you ask anyone from Rome, they will tell you that spaghetti carbonara belongs to Rome

Over the years, other countries have added their own ingredients to the popular dish but the traditional carbonara that originated in Rome is still made with only the simplest of ingredients: fresh eggs, pecorino cheese, guanciale (cured pigs cheek) and high-quality dried pasta. Contrary to popular belief, there is no cream in the traditional carbonara in Rome...so you can afford to eat even more of this tasty dish!

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Risotto in Lake Como

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When it comes to Italian food, its the ingredients that make it so special, from fresh herbs to home-made pasta and fresh fish. Every town has its own family recipes and secrets that are passed down from generation to generation.

The Lake Como region is renowned for its freshwater fish and one type that is popular with local fisherman is perch (pesce persico) which is a delicate, lean, white and flavoursome fish. Lake Como boasts an array of mouth-watering local dishes but we suggest that you try the Risotto with Perch (Risotto con pesce Persico) which is sure to get your taste buds tingling.

This dish is a perfect combination of local resources (perch fish) and the famous Lombard regional dish (risotto). It has a rich, buttery texture and is best accompanied with a dry white wine while you enjoy the stunning lakeside views.

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Pizza in Sorrento

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When we think of Italian food, our mind instantly arrives at pizza. However, Italian cuisine is incredibly varied region by region. You can order a pizza anywhere in Italy but youll experience the best pizza in the Sorrento region.

Nowadays, you can order almost anything on a pizza but a traditional pizza typically has a few, high quality ingredients. In the late 1800s it is thought a Neapolitan pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, produced the Pizza Margherita, a hot flatbread topped with red tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and basil to represent the Italian flag. This simple pizza is both one of the original forms of modern-day pizza and the most popular and is a must-taste in Sorrento.

The food is as spectacular as the landscape and often its how you eat it that really makes for an authentic experience. Pizza is best bought from little street stalls and eaten immediately standing in the closest piazza. The city has street-side pizza stalls, where you can buy them by the slice, but if you fancy a more relaxed experience, there are also plenty of eateries where you can settle in with a glass of wine and a whole pizza and watch life pass you by.

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Olive Oil in Tuscany

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Olive Oil has always been a popular commodity, the Greeks, the Romans, even the Egyptians cultivated it and appreciated its many uses. In Italy, olive oil is so much more than just something to drizzle over your saladits a lifestyle for many Italians and an essential ingredient for every meal!

Tuscany is considered the classic olive oil region of Italy and the creation of olive oil is almost a sacred process here. The regions of Lucca and Chianti boast some of the most well-known olive oils of the region and if you ever get the chance are a must-taste!

Lucca is located close to the coast and the oils in this region tend to be yellow, light and fluid. The olive oils of the Chianti regions however tend to have more of a green colour, and are often spicy with hints of pepper. Italians drizzle olive oil on pastas, meat and even vegetables to add flavour to their meals and just a few drops does the trick.

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Cannoli in Sicily

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Sicily produces many beautiful regional dishes thanks to its abundance of fresh seafood and vegetables. It is famed for pasta dishes such as pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines) but one of its most popular (and scrumptious) dishes is actually a dessert.

Sicilian cannoli are tubes of deep fried pastry filled with a sweet creamy filling, usually ricotta, and dusted with powdered sugar or crushed nuts. They can be bite-sized or as long as your hand, and there are many different types of filling and toppings - all delicious and all very good with a sharp espresso.

It is thought that cannoli were originally prepared as a part of the Carnevale festival that is celebrated in the region in February, although nowadays the dessert is enjoyed all year around. The Ballaro market in Palermo is a favourite spot for cannoli and there are many specialty Italian pasticceria that produce the authentic dessert.

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Feeling hungry yet? Explore these foodie hot spots and more with The Belfast Telegraph who offer a great selection of guided holidays, in association with Travel Department. Travel Department is one of Europes leading guided holiday companies with over 20 years experience organising fantastic tours to over 100 destinations worldwide. Our holidays are fully guided, which means that they include return flights, hotel accommodation, guided transfers and expert local guides for all excursions that are included in the holiday.

These holidays are truly great value and are competitively priced. To learn more about planning your next trip to over 100 destinations worldwide, please visit: www.bt.traveldepartment.co.ukLidl are on the look out for small and medium businesses across Northern Ireland to take part in their new Kick Start development programme.

What is Kick Start?

Kick Start is a brand new Supplier Development Programme developed by Lidl in conjunction with Bord Bia to give Irish food and drink suppliers the chance to showcase their products in Lidl stores all over the island of Ireland.

How will Kick Start boost your business?

All selected suppliers will be invited to attend two free, comprehensive seminars covering quality control, packaging, marketing & PR building, as well as other important aspects of business development.

Who are Lidl looking for to apply for the Kick Start programme?

Lidl are seeking applications for small and medium sized business owners, start ups, farmers, and people with an interest in agriculture and culinary products.

What is the application process for Kick Start?

The application process will take place over four stages:

Stage 1

Apply online from March 12 2018.

A number of products will then be shortlisted for Lidl's Best of Ireland Promotion. A product sample will be requested if your product is shortlisted.

Stage 2

Kick Start Product Shortlisting

Lidls judging panel will choose a number of successful shortlisted products for the promotion.

Successful suppliers will receive an order with a guaranteed quantity for the two week promotional period.

Suppliers will then be invited to take part in two diverse seminars aimed at helping them through the process and teaching them the skills to help grow their business.

Seminars include topics around quality control, marketing, PR, and brand building. In addition to these seminars the chosen suppliers will be fully supported by Lidl in terms of packaging.

Stage 3

The Best of Ireland Promotion - September 2018

High potential suppliers will be chosen to take part in the development programme.

Here suppliers will work closely with Lidl and receive the support and consultancy required to grow and develop a product base suitable for Lidl shelves in Ireland.

Stage 4

Kick Start to Exporting with Lidl

At this stage your product will be on sale in over 192 Lidl stores across Ireland.

Lidl will also choose up to three products to export across Europe.

What kind of businesses have benefited from the Kick Start programme in the past?

Niall Moloney from PowCow, Greek Style Frozen Yogurt in Co. Dublin said:

Kick Start was a fantastic opportunity for us. It allowed us to partner with one of Europes largest retailers and gave us a chance to showcase our products with Lidl.

The programme was a great way to learn about how Lidl works. The workshops were ideally timed and were very informative. The Kick Start team did everything they could to ensure we were ready for the launch date.

Cahill Cheese, Co. Limerick:

As a small, family run, speciality cheese business, our relationship with Lidl has been hugely beneficial.

"Turnover has trebled since 2010 and our work force has doubled. Most importantly, Lidl have provided us with the required support on every level along the way. We feel that Lidl believe in Cahills."

When is the closing date for applications?

Applications close on Sunday, April 15 2018.

Where do I apply?

Click the link to begin your application for Lidl's 2018 Kick Start programme.Rohingya refugees gather outside their makeshift homes on land belonging to a Bangladeshi farmer near the Kutapalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district, southeastern Bangladesh, Feb. 9, 2018.

Myanmar has informed Bangladesh that it will take back fewer than 400 Rohingya refugees out of more than 8,000 who want to return voluntarily to northern Rakhine state from which they fled a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military, a government official said Wednesday.

Myint Thu, permanent secretary of Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a press conference in Naypyidaw that the country had verified that 374 refugees on the list of 8,032, which Bangladesh had submitted to Myanmar officials in February, were eligible for repatriation.

We have sent the list [of 374 refugees] to the Bangladeshi embassy in Yangon today, and the Myanmar embassy in Dhaka is going to forward it to Bangladeshs Foreign Ministry, Myint Thu said. We are ready to receive these 374 refugees. We have asked Bangladesh to fill out the incomplete forms of the rest.

Some 1 million Rohingya from Myanmars Rakhine state are sheltering at squalid refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, including close to 700,000 who fled a violent crackdown by the Myanmar military following deadly attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents in August 2017. The crackdown in Rakhine has amounted to ethnic cleansing, if not genocide, the U.N. and United States have said.

Earlier this week, Yanghee Lee, the U.N.s human rights envoy in Myanmar, and Marzuki Darusman, the Indonesian chairman of a U.N.-appointed international fact-finding mission on human rights in Myanmar, issued damning reports on the violent expulsion of Rohingya. They cited hundreds of interviews with victims and eyewitnesses about reported human rights violations. Lee said the crackdown bore the hallmarks of genocide.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to repatriate refugees who can prove they had lived in northern Rakhine prior to Oct. 9, 2016, the date of a smaller-scale ARSA attack. But the program, slated to begin in late January has been beset by delays, with each side blaming the other.

Aung Tun Thet, chief coordinator of the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development (UEHRD), an organization set up by Myanmars government to handle refugee resettlements and development plans for impoverished Rakhine state, told the media that the international communitys accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing were not reasonable.

No country receives back refugees if it is accused of genocide or ethnic cleansing, but we are taking the refugees back even though we have been accused of this, he said, adding that there had been no cases of either crime anywhere in Myanmar.

He also took issue with the U.N.s estimate of refugees who fled to Bangladesh from northern Rakhine after the Aug. 25 ARSA attack, putting the number at 530,000.

Also, during the meeting on Wednesday, Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said authorities had arrested more than 380 Rohingya based on background checks of those on the list, and had charged 248 of them under anti-terrorism laws.

He also said the government had taken action against a military commander and senior police officer involved in the Rohingya crisis, without further elaboration.

Bangladeshi leader complains

On Wednesday, senior officials in Myanmar and a U.N. spokesman said that talks with U.N. agencies had begun to see how they could assist with the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, the Associated Press reported.

In Singapore, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged Myanmar to cooperate on repatriating the refugees, whom she described as a burden on her impoverished country of 160 million people.

Despite commitments by the Myanmar authorities, the flow of Rohingya into Bangladesh continues till today, she told The Straits Times of Singapore during a state visit to the city-state this week.

Creating a conducive environment in the Rakhine state in terms of ensuring safety and security, rebuilding of destroyed villages and houses, creating livelihood options, and granting due rights to the returnees are crucial, she said.

These are primarily the responsibilities of the Myanmar authorities. Now, it depends on their sincerity, the newspaper quoted her as saying.

The U.N. has expressed concern about the creation of conditions that will allow for the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of refugees in accordance with international principles.

This report was produced by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.Salim Bashir, a lawyer representing Vietnamese defendant Doan Thi Huong, shows images of her at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, during a break in her trial in Shah Alam, Malaysia, March 14, 2018.

Attorneys for a Vietnamese woman standing trial for the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia tried Thursday to portray the lead investigator as not doing a thorough job, as the defense pressed forward its efforts to spare two defendants from the death penalty.

Under cross-examination by attorney Hisyam Teh Pok Teik, investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz acknowledged that he did not check Doan Thi Huongs statement about staying at five different hotels in Malaysia prior to Kims death in February 2017.

Doan is standing trial at the Shah Alam High Court with Indonesian Siti Aisyah on charges of murdering Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in a chemical weapon attack at a Kuala Lumpur area airport.

Reading from Doans 11-page statement as he questioned Wan Azirul, Hisyam told the court that Doan stayed at Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, 2017, and at Pearl International Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6, 2017. Neither of those stays was investigated by police, Hisyam said.

Doans defense team, which began questioning Wan Azirul on Wednesday afternoon, tried to present still photos from CCTV footage and photocopies of hotel guest registrations, but Judge Azmi Ariffin ruled that such evidence should be presented by prosecutors in original form.

Wan Azirul told the court that he chose not to investigate the hotels because he believed Doan was lying, although he did not specify which part of her statement was false.

Speaking to reporters following the court session, Hisyam said the lead investigator was not in any position to accuse his client of lying.

Its an open allegation. Its very easy to openly allege that so-and-so lied, Hisyam said. One must appreciate that at the time Doan was making her statement, she purely relied on her memory and nothing else, and dates are easy for one not to remember exactly.

At the time, she had to recall facts from memory, because police had confiscated her passport, mobile phone and travel documents, but evidence obtained from hotels appeared to show she had been truthful, he said.

Supporting documents given to us by various hotels is to show that weight must be given to the statements of Doan supported by independent evidence  that are not investigated by the investigating officer, primarily on the grounds that he is not interested, Hisyam said.

The trial is to reconvene next week.Twelve Vietnamese fishermen sit inside their Malaysian-flagged fishing vessel after Philippine authorities arrested them off the southern province of Jolo on charges of poaching sea turtles and black sea corals, May 11, 2012.

Philippine authorities arrested 14 Vietnamese fishermen on suspicion of poaching, police said Thursday, a few weeks after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his navy to shoot foreign ships extracting natural resources from the countrys exclusive maritime territory.

The fishermen were caught Wednesday aboard two vessels off the waters of Paluan, in the central province of Occidental Mindoro, Superintendent Imelda Tolentino, the regional police spokeswoman, told reporters.

The detained fishermen were undergoing a thorough interrogation, Tolentino said.

Joint personnel of Paluan police were conducting seaborne patrol operation, which resulted in the arrest of the suspects on board two fishing vessels while in the act of poaching in territorial waters of Paluan, she said.

Imelda said the foreigners were detained at the police station in the nearby town of Mamburao and their fishing boats were towed to a municipal port.

Their arrests came after President Duterte last month called on the navy to open fire at foreign ships suspected of poaching or extracting natural resources from the nations exclusive waters.

If you get something there from the economic zone, I will order the navy to fire, Duterte had said.

Duterte was referring to the countrys 370-km (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone, where coastal states are granted special rights to exploit natural resources under a 1982 U.N. treaty.

He made the comments after his government came under severe criticism from nationalist groups for allowing a Chinese research vessel to explore Philippine Rise, also called Benham Rise, in the Pacific coast to the countrys east.

The United Nations has recognized the 13-hectare undersea feature as a territory of the Philippines, which has competing claims with China and several Southeast Asian countries over the South China Sea off the western side of the archipelago.

While China has not officially laid claims to the vast and mineral-rich region, it has assigned Chinese names to same features, spurring Filipino groups and several politicians to launch protests.

In November last year, Duterte released five Vietnamese fishermen who were arrested two months earlier on suspicion of poaching off the northern Philippine coast. They were turned over to the Vietnamese ambassador, and Duterte had apologized for detaining them.

It was the second time for Duterte to appear in a send-off ceremony for Vietnamese fishermen.

In November 2016, the Philippine government also freed 17 Vietnamese fishermen who had spent two months in jail after Coast Guard officials detained them on charges of poaching.

Six nations  the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, China, Malaysia and Taiwan  have territorial claims in the South China Sea, a potentially mineral-rich region that straddles vital commercial and fishing lanes.

Fishermen from claimant nations have often been arrested for straying too close to each others shores, fueling tensions and complicating the territorial conflict.

In September last year, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano extended the Philippines condolences to his Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Bin Minh, during an informal meeting in New York, for the deaths of two Vietnamese fishermen who were gunned down after a local navy ship fired warning shots during a sea chase.

A Philippine police report said the deaths occurred after a joint patrol from the coast guard and the navy saw six Vietnamese fishing vessels about 34 miles off the coast of Cape Bolinao in northern Pangasinan province. One of the fishing vessels immediately turned off its lights and sped off, triggering a chase and prompting the local authorities to fire warning shots, the police report said.

Despite numerous and repeated orders through marine-band radio and megaphone to stop fleeing, the Vietnamese vessel initiated a dangerous maneuver and subsequently rammed the Philippine Navy patrol boat in an attempt to escape, the report said.

When the Philippine ship caught up with the Vietnamese boat, Philippine sailors saw two dead bodies lying on its deck, it said, adding that the two bore gunshot wounds to the head and body, although no contraband were seen inside the Vietnamese vessel, which had seven crewmen.Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.Footage before US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 crash

In this video posted by a local news portal shikharnews.com on Tuesday shows the flight of US-Bangla Airlines flying very low (at least 200 feet from ground), prior to the crash, at Gagalphedi- around 18 km North-East of Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu.By Aaron Devine

There is a well-known story in the Gospels where a rich man asks Jesus about the requirements to inherit eternal life. Luke recounts the story in this way:

And a ruler asked him, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother. And he said, All these I have kept from my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it said, Then who can be saved? But he said, What is impossible with man is possible with God. (Luke 18:1827; ESV)

A question that naturally surfaces in this reading is whether Jesus considers wealth to be compatible with a life of faithful discipleship. Some interpret this story to say that material things and following Jesus do not mix well. This interpretation is sometimes based on a plain reading of passages like this, but it can also be motivated by material excesses in Christianity that make us uncomfortable. Too much focus on material blessing as a necessary indicator of Gods approval can stifle efforts at legitimate Christian disciplines, such as frugality, generosity, and financial sacrifice. As such, divesting material wealth is sometimes seen as a corrective to bad prosperity theology.

So, what then is Jesus saying about material wealth? Is it better to be poor than to be rich? Does one have to give up everything in order to follow Jesus? Does wealth itself ever keep people out of the kingdom of God? These are important questions, as they have implications for ones personal call to discipleship and also for the ability of the Church to address social issues that require financial resources.

To provide context for interpreting this passage, it is helpful that Luke has a lot to say about material wealth throughout Luke-Acts. One of Jesus woes is against those who are rich (Luke 6:24), and it is intentionally contrasted to the blessed poor who inherit the kingdom of God (Luke 6:20). There is the story of the rich fool who stores up material wealth to the point that his life is found forfeit by God (Luke 12:1321). There is the parable of a rich man who finds himself in Hades, while poor Lazarus looks on from comfort in the afterlife (Luke 16:1931). We are told about Ananias and Sapphira who die because they lie to the Apostles about the status of their possessions (Acts 5:111). Our things, it seems, can certainly get in the way of the right kind of life in the kingdom of God.

However, it is also clear that Luke does not condemn material things outright. We are told that while Jesus lifestyle was sparse (Luke 9:58), there were women who contributed to the needs of his ministry through financial means (Luke 8:13). Joseph of Arimathea had significant social prominence and was able to afford a private tomb for Jesus at his death. He was considered good and upright himself waiting for the kingdom of God (Luke 23:5053). There were also those in the early church who used significant financial resources to support the advances of the gospel. Lydia of Thyatira, for example, was an early convert of the Apostle Paul and was a dealer of purple, a lucrative enterprise that made her wealthy. As such, she was able to provide a location for the first house church in Europe from her resources. This community became the church in Philippi that Paul wrote to in one of his New Testament letters with much affection (cf. Acts 16:1315, 40). As such, it is clear that material resources were used in the early church to benefit the gospel, without requiring every individual to divest themselves of all possessions in order to be in right standing before God.

How then might we reconcile these various perspectives in Luke? It is a question that scholars of Luke have considered for awhile. A helpful model for framing Lukes teaching on wealth is one that Christopher M. Hays promotes in his study Lukes Wealth Ethics: A Study in Their Coherence and Character. It is a technical work and a comprehensive research project that seeks to reconcile passages on money and possessions that sometimes seem to be in tension throughout Luke-Acts. For example, does Lukes understanding of wealth require us to give up all things, or is there a legitimate place for having some (or even significant) material resources? Why did the early church pool its resources communally in Acts, and to what extent is that model required of others? Why do we see some people condemned in the handling and keeping of their possessions, while other wealthy people are commended as being righteous? We will not answer all of these questions here, but part of the solution, Hays says, is to see the moral directive as not one that necessarily requires individuals to divest themselves of all possessions, but rather one that renounces everything in service to Gods purposes. Depending on vocation and social location, this can have various means of expression that are specific to individuals, vocations, or communities.

Coming back to the story of the rich ruler, there are two things to notice. First, Jesus does not say that it is not possible to enter the kingdom of heaven and have riches, but rather that riches can provide a significant kind of difficulty in doing so. Additionally, when Jesus addresses the issue of wealth with the rich ruler, he switches from Gods universal expectations in the law to something more personally directed: You still lack one thing. Apparently for the rich ruler, wealth encouraged a specific type of vice that, while not a guaranteed pitfall for all who have much money, was not uncommon, either.

It is not a coincidence that Luke immediately precedes this story with another one that talks about entrance to the kingdom of God. Here is the story:

People were even bringing babies to Jesus for him to touch them. When the disciples saw this, they spoke harshly to the people. But Jesus called the little ones to himself and said, Let the little children come to me, and do not prevent them, for of such is the kingdom of God. I tell you the truth, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will in no way enter into it. (Luke 18:1517; translation mine)

There have been various opinions regarding what it is about little children that models the trait that allows entrance to Gods kingdom. Humility is perhaps the most common suggestion, and as such, it is often recommended that we should humble ourselves before God, as do children.

Although humility is commendable, in this case the children who were initially brought to Jesus were quite small, literally babies (Greek brephos). It is the same word used by Luke to describe children yet unborn (cf. Luke 1:41, 44) and also Jesus in his swaddled state (cf. Luke 2:12, 16). As such, they were probably not yet overtly exemplifying commendable models of biblical virtue. What is it that we might discern about very young children, then, that could possibly be held up as a model for adults? If we imagine little bundled children being brought to Jesus, there is perhaps one thing that we do know for certain that all children naturally affirm, not as a virtue but as a brute fact of reality: they are utterly dependent on resources outside of themselves for their well being. As an adult, this trait is not generally considered commendable, perhaps even less so to those who have acquired significant material resources. However, if we are honest, it is often an inflated sense of self-sufficiency that prevents us from responding in trust to God regarding our deepest spiritual needs.

Jesus called the rich ruler to recognize an utter lack of self-sufficiency in himself before God, just as very young children naturally recognize their dependence on others. To enter the kingdom of God, the man needed to put his trust in God to do something that he could not do for himself, namely be spiritually well before God. Spiritual realities can seem a step removed from our material possessions. However, significant financial resources can isolate many from the existential concerns of a fallen world that mirror our spiritual lostness and can thus discourage a trust in God that is spiritually transformative. As such, Jesus asked the rich man to renounce his wealth in a very specific way (i.e., full divestiture) that was specific to his need, such that he redirect his trust to God instead. In this case, it was a radical antidote to the most pressing spiritual need of the man. That the rich ruler insisted that he had done perfectly well on all of the other legal requirements suggests that self-sufficiency was at the heart of his specific need, and about which his significant financial resources served to obfuscate.

We can learn something from this episode and from Luke-Acts more broadly about the relationship between our possessions and the kingdom of God. For one thing, it may be a good thing that more of us are not significantly wealthy, as it can encourage a common problem in the spiritual life that Jesus describes. However, we should also be grateful that there are those with spiritual sensitivity who have been blessed by God with material resources, as it can serve the Church in significant ways, as it did the early church.

God is ultimately concerned with the condition of the heart in relation to our possessions, as we have simply been given temporary stewardship over material things that can be used in his service. God is also concerned that our things do not create barriers to the kind of transformative work that he wants to do in our lives, either for entrance into the kingdom of God or in service within it. The kind of trust that provides an initial entry into Gods kingdom is the same kind of trust that sustains us within it as well.

It leads us to pointed questions about our own possessions and Gods kingdom, just as it required of the rich ruler. Do I trust significantly in my own ability to take care of myself, or do I trust in God for my ultimate well-being? As such, in what ways does God ask me to loosen my grip on my possessions for the kingdom of God? Does this require full divestiture of certain things, or reappropriation of them towards other ends? The questions of wealth that pressed those in Jesus day are the same ones that press us now, not only as we seek to be faithful with the things we have been given, but as we develop hearts of trust that are sensitive to the work of God in the world.

Photo credit: Getty Images/Stas_V

For more, visit the Good Book Blog, a seminary faculty blog from Talbot School of Theology.The Member countries of the Region stressed their firm intent to collectively reach out to 2 million missing TB cases and 150 000 multidrug-resistance cases by 2020 and implement a response that is demonstrably adequate for ending TB

Tracking progress to eliminate tuberculosis, Member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region committed to further intensifying efforts to ensure rapid and concrete progress to End TB by 2030.

In a statement adopted at the Delhi End TB Summit held recently, member countries unanimously agreed to actualizing and intensifying essential actions agreed to in the Delhi Call to Action which was adopted in March last year to accelerate efforts to End TB in the Region, host to one fourth of the global population but a disproportionate 46% of the global TB burden.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization said, Progress against TB in this Region will have a major impact on the progress globally. Too much is at stake, we cannot afford to fail. We must remember that the war against TB will be won in communities. It will be won by nurses, doctors, community health workers and others at the frontlines. We must give them the resources they need to find every last person with TB, to diagnose them, to treat them, and to cure them.

Welcoming the statement, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia, said, it gives shape to our momentum and aspirations, and does so by setting out a series of strategic priorities which include establishing strong leadership of TB programmes at the national level; increasing budgetary and human resource allocations to TB programmes from domestic and global sources; enabling each and every TB patient to access the best possible care available; and supplementing medical care for TB with social and financial protection.

Hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, the World Health Organization and the Stop TB Partnership, the Delhi End TB Summit 2018 was inaugurated recently by the Prime Minister of India.

Reviewing efforts being made to end TB since the adoption of the Delhi Call for Action on 16 March 2017, Member countries noted that though efforts have been strengthened with increased attention, investments and initiatives; the stepped-up response was falling short of what was required to reach the critical thresholds for ending TB.

The Member countries of the Region stressed their firm intent to collectively reach out to 2 million missing TB cases and 150 000 multidrug-resistance cases by 2020 and implement a response that is demonstrably adequate for ending TB.

In the statement, the countries committed to multisectoral and empowered national initiatives, reporting to the highest levels of government, to lead the TB programme.

The Member countries committed to increasing budgetary and human resource allocations by governments as well as by their global, domestic and other partners so as to ensure that national TB plans are fully funded.

They also committed to universal access to comprehensive, integrated TB care and prevention services, to achieve universal health coverage as committed to in the Sustainable Development Goals, by enabling the best possible care to each and every person, including migrants, the aged and other high-risk populations, living with any form of TB including drug-resistant TB and TB-HIV co-infections.

To address the challenge of TB in a holistic manner, the Member countries agreed to supplement medical care for TB with social and financial protection in both high and lower incidence countries.

As member countries committed to working together to end TB, WHO reiterated that it stands with the Stop TB Partnership and all partners to make that vision a reality.

Dr Lucica Ditiu, The Stop TB Partnerships Executive Director and Peter Sands, Global Funds Executive Director were among the prominent health leaders attending the week-long meeting.

The health ministers of a number of countries including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan and Peru also participated.

The Summit sets the stage for the September 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB. For the first time TB will be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the Heads of State level. The UN high-level meeting is expected to endorse an ambitious set of goals to put the world on course to ending TB.Due to lack of accurate methods of assessment, endometrial receptivity (ER) is not usually investigated in an infertile patient or even before in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

At present IVF no doubt has proven to be successful, as due to this fertility treatment hundreds of thousands of children are born yearly world over. It reinstates hope, optimism and patience in an infertile couple who are facing challenges conceiving, hopping doctors and fertility experts to know the root cause of infertility. IVF provides a sense of security because they know they have a last resort which they can bank upon! But at times the dream of becoming a parent through this treatment might not always work.

For all those aspiring mothers who feel empty, lonely and incomplete and are having a harrowing experience with failed IVF cycle, your biological clock is ticking at a faster pace now; and hard luck with IVF is boosting your anxiety levels.

According to the estimate of World Health Organization (WHO) about 8-10% of couples experience some form of infertility. A growing problem in India since the last decade, infertility is a complex and upsetting experience and people undergoing IVF often face more stress worrying about the success rate.

Igenomix brings a new solution, a new genetic technique Synchrony. This path breaking new product, brings the advantage of Endometrial Receptivity Analysis (ERA) and Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) together to help IVF specialists achieve a successful pregnancy for their patients.

The success of IVF depends on a lot of factors such as the age of the woman, the quality of the embryo, status of the uterus etc. But the two principal factors to consider for maximizing the chances of implantation during an IVF treatment are a chromosomally normal embryo and a receptive endometrium. If both the embryo and the endometrium are synchronized, the IVF clinician can transfer the right embryo at the right time. Combining IGENOMIX ERA and PGS allows covering the two key factors to achieve your goal, a healthy baby at home. Says Dr. Rajni Khajuria, Lab Director at Igenomix.

Analyzing and detecting the window of implantation is really important so as to prevent implantation failures. Due to lack of accurate methods of assessment, endometrial receptivity (ER) is not usually investigated in an infertile patient or even before in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Endometrial tissue is a receptive lining in the uterus which is integral to the successful pregnancy. Since long, endometrial tissue was checked through ultrasound. ERA is the latest discovery to assess the endometrial receptivity.

ERA is a state-of-the-art diagnostic method, developed and patented by Igenomix in2009. The development of this diagnostic technique is based over the 10-year of research. ERA determines whether the woman is receptive on the day, when the biopsy is performed. If the result is positive then that is the window of implantation for that particular patient.

Even after a successful implantation there are many cases where the pregnancy endsup in a miscarriage in the first trimester. This mostly occurs due to chromosomalabnormalities in the embryo. Over 50% of spontaneous miscarriages are caused bychromosomal abnormalities.

IGENOMIXs PGS with the added advantage of MitoScore enables pregnancy rate by 70-80% by a single embryo transfer. PGS uses the latest next generation sequencing(NGS) technology to screen the embryos for chromosomal abnormalities of all 24chromosomes, hence increasing the chances of conception by 60% through IVF.

So time to overcome your stress and advance your chances of IVF success and pregnancy. Take an optimistic step forward towards motherhood with Synchrony!Frost & Sullivans South Asia summit today

Frost & Sullivan is hosting Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL) South Asia Summit on Digital Transformation: Business and Social Impact in Kathmandu on Thursday. The summit will bring together a global network of todays best thinkers, visionaries and thought leaders. These dignitaries will provide tips on ways to leverage innovation as a resource to address global challenges.How to grow

The need of the hour is to focus on each growth-driving sector to create significant traction and ramp up the economyIntl Entrepreneurship Conclave from March 24

Nepali entrepreneurs, who wish to pitch their innovative business ideas in front of renowned Indian entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and operators of start-up incubators, have until Friday to submit their applications.Jagadishpur lake under encroachment threat

Conservationists are concerned over growing encroachment of Jagadishpur lake in Kapilvastu district.It may be too late for a community impact statement to be accepted and read in court, but thats not stopping Kim Longstreet from sharing that statement with the community.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/3/2018 (1286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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It may be too late for a community impact statement to be accepted and read in court, but thats not stopping Kim Longstreet from sharing that statement with the community.

After receiving eight contributions from community members who wanted to add their voice to the collective voice against drugs and drug trafficking in Brandon, the community impact statement compiled by Longstreet will not be read at the sentencing of Leslie Gerald Bisson  the primary target of Project Derringer, a major drug investigation.

A community impact statement can only be considered by a court after an offender is found guilty. Bisson pleaded guilty to multiple charges in October, including trafficking and unauthorized possession of guns, which was followed by three sentencing hearings debating Bissons precise role in the overall trafficking scheme.

Longstreet reached out to the public in January for input on the impact statement, which was intented to be put forward to the court as a thorough example of what the consequences of drug trafficking are to the community.

In a letter to the editor sent to The Brandon Sun in February, Acacia Bisson, Leslie Bissons wife, wrote that her husband was "very remorseful for his actions and how it has impacted the lives of the user, their families and his family," but that he is "not solely to blame for the drug problem in Westman."

"Accusing one person for a global problem is unjust and unproductive," Acacia wrote.

The Brandon Sun reached out to Acacia for comment, but did not receive a response before press time.

In court, a judge is deliberating and will deliver his decision on Bissons sentence on March 23.

"Its unfortunate I hadnt started this sooner and had (the community impact statement) in place while they were doing the (hearings)," Longstreet said.

"Its not that it can never be used, but at this juncture and in this particular case, it cant be used."

Erin Magas, senior Crown counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said it is the Crowns responsibility to deal with the general aspect of things  such as the effect of an accuseds actions on the community  which the Crown did do in Bissons case.

"The accused is entitled to fairness before the proceedings as well and any impact statements have to relate directly to that accused, as to what offences that accused has done that has an effect on the community, as opposed to generally what the affect is on the community," Magas said. "Generally, drug traffic in the community  thats within the purview of the Crown to speak about."

Regardless of the outcome, Longstreet said this has been a good learning experience on something she plans to continue working on in the future.

"Im going to look into other cases and see where each  are sitting and make a decision from there," Longstreet said. "Im prepared to continue forward with it, but I want to make sure that Im doing it in the right way."

In the meantime, Longstreet said she will be sharing the community impact statement, so the public can understand the depths in which drugs are affecting the city.

"This is a statement directed at anyone who is, or is,considering preying on the vulnerabilities of others in order to traffic illegal drugs," the statement reads. "The statement is a means for these offenders to understand the impact that their decisions to sell illegal drugs have on a community."

Exploring "the ripple effect" drug trafficking has on the community, the statement addresses the repercussions stretching through almost

every level of our community  the health-care system, employment and education systems, the justice system, the child welfare system, social services and even the environment.

"Our community is feeling real pain right now. We are hurting. Not simply because the people with substance disorders are hurting, but because their pain is reverberating in our community," the statement says. "We are at a moment, as a community, where we can no longer ignore the pain. We have to contend with the epidemic that was brought here by illegal drug trafficking."

The community impact statement can be read in full on The Brandon Suns website, attached to this article.

"I dont want it not to be out there," Longstreet said. "I think its good timing in the community right now to have the impact statement out there for people to recognize where were at in the community  things could get progressively worse if we dont address it sooner than later."

 edebooy@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @erindebooy

Download Community Impact StatementJudicial Council relieves CJ Parajuli of his duties

In a dramatic turn of events, the Judicial Council (JC) on Wednesday terminated Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli stating that investigation of documents showed he had attained the retirement age (65) seven months ago on August 5, 2017.The force is with The Late Late Show on Friday night as the original Star Wars superstar Mark Hamill joins Ryan Tubridy live in studio.

Hamill will be chatting about being part of the biggest film franchise in movie history and bringing the production to Ireland for those iconic scenes filmed on Skellig Michael.

Hell be telling viewers what it was like to achieve superstardom when Star Wars changed movies in the 1970s and how he felt about returning to play Luke Skywalker decades later as the story continued.

Cork woman Samantha Barry made headlines of her own earlier this year when she was appointed the new editor-in-chief of US magazine Glamour.

Well be finding out how this 36-year-old from Ballincollig made it big in the US with an award-winning career that has taken her around the world.

Shell be telling Ryan what its like to find yourself rubbing shoulders with Anna Wintour on the front row at New York Fashion Week and interviewing Donald Trump in a toilet in Miami.

Actor Liam Cunningham will be in studio to chat about everything from leading off this years St Patricks Day Festival to the thing that television fans are eagerly awaiting and equally fearing  the end of mega-hit Game of Thrones.

A passionate advocate for human rights, hell also be sharing what he learned on a recent trip to Uganda and giving his thoughts on the scandals engulfing some of the charity organisations working in the developing world.

As Daffodil Day approaches, Ryan will be joined in studio by some of those who have contributed to or benefitted from the fundraising and work carried out by the Irish Cancer Society.

Ryan will also be meeting teenagers Liam and Paddy Doran, boxers and members of the travelling community, who are the stars of a major new fashion campaign for British menswear brand Kent & Curwen.

Plus music from Don McLean and Jake Carter.

- Digital DeskNCs Pushpa, left alliances Shiva Maya file candidacy for deputy-speaker post

The main opposition Nepali Congress has fielded Pushpa Bhusal while the left alliance has fielded Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe as their respective candidates in the election of a deputy-speaker slated for Friday.A Cambodian court has started the trial of a British man who was among a group of foreigners arrested for allegedly posting photos on social media of sexually suggestive dancing.

Daniel Jones, who has been charged with producing pornography, appeared before the Siem Reap provincial court.Nepali Migrant worker dies in Malaysia

A Nepali migrant worker, who was preparing to return to Nepal, died in Malaysia on Tuesday.Mossack Fonseca, the Panama law firm at the centre of the "Panama Papers" scandal, said on Wednesday it was shutting down due to the economic and reputational damage inflicted by its role in the global tax evasion debacle.

In the Panama Papers, millions of documents were stolen from Mossack Fonseca and leaked to the media in April 2016. Credit:AP

The so-called Panama Papers, which consist of millions of documents stolen from Mossack Fonseca and leaked to the media in April 2016, provoked a global scandal after showing how the rich and powerful used offshore corporations to evade taxes.

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"The reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial circus and the unusual actions by certain Panamanian authorities, have occasioned an irreversible damage that necessitates the obligatory ceasing of public operations at the end of the current month," the firm said in a statement.One hundred years on we still haven't fully come to grips with World War I. But now that we've reached the centenary of 1918 it's well and truly time to celebrate Australia's valiant and intrepid struggle against the German empire (Kaiserreich) in the conflict we know as the Great War.

This epic battle of the volunteers of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) who went up against seasoned German troops was the most formidable campaign our troops had ever fought.

Thinking about the fates of those Australians who had sailed away to fight the Germans, the resourceful Bruce Gaunson couldn't find any single book that provided two crucial themes: an analysis of the Diggers' heroic exploits and the titanic context and the larger matter of what that war was all about in the first place. To narrate and explain this for general readers, with a nod to scholars too, is the aim of this finely written and well-produced book.

Gaunson explains that 1918 was the crucial year when our troops, no longer shackled "to deficient generals and their abysmal strategies", were able to win a series of bracing, but costly, victories.

Indeed by the time John Monash's troops, suffering cruel attrition, had broken through the Hindenburg Line, the costs to the ordinary members of the AIF, as well as our military achievements, were staggering. But their heroics and professionalism made them the trailblazers of the Allies' ultimate advance.

Scrupulously researched and drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources from more than a dozen countries, Fighting the Kaiserreich is an absorbing and quite fascinating read.Fintech (finance-technology) startups have exploded in the past five years, shaking up traditional product and service offerings in banking, insurance and superannuation; industries long overdue for disruption.

Digital "non-bank" platforms and apps are promising to demystifying complex financial processes, personalise customer experience and offer round-the-clock convenience. Whether you're paying off debt, budgeting, getting started with investing or saving for retirement, there is likely to be a fintech app to help you.

A plethora of apps can help with money management. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

However as digital technology replaces human decision making, we need to ensure that the algorithms that will increasingly decide our financial fate do not reflect the unconscious and often unhelpful biases of their creators. As artificial intelligence expert Clara Durodie points out, "algorithms have parents". In mathematician Cathy ONeils terrific book Weapons of Math Destruction she outlines the importance of both intention and design in electronic decision tools. She suggests that a far scarier, and more likely, scenario than machines taking over the world, is the prospect that current disadvantage is entrenched in our society by poorly designed, opaque and largely unchallengeable algorithms. Overweighting of factors such as ethnic origin, postcode, or marital status may adversely affect access to, and cost of, capital and other critical financial products, particularly for those from less affluent backgrounds.When Free-Rain Theatre Company's Anne Somes asked him if he wanted to direct her production of the musical, he leapt at the chance, eager to see if he could recreate that initial feeling it produced, not just for himself this time, but for others. With hundreds of "stunning" costumes sourced from CLOC, a Melbourne theatre company that's done multiple productions of the show - lots of sequins, lots of feathers - and hours of rehearsal putting the cast through their paces with his production team, he says he's excited to get the show in front of an audience. "It's spectacular, theatrically extraordinary ... and full of pizzazz." 42nd Street is the quintessential Depression-era backstage musical. Would-be dancer Peggy Sawyer (played by Sophie Highmore) arrives too late to audition for the chorus of the new musical Pretty Lady being staged by veteran director Julian Marsh (Jarrad West). He's having his own problems with past-her-prime prima donna Dorothy Brock (Louiza Blomfield) and her wealthy boyfriend Abner Dillon (Michael Miller), whose money is needed to help finance the show. Peggy attracts some romantic interest from the juvenile lead, Billy Lawlor (Sam Ward) and sympathy from the chorus girls, who invite her to have lunch with them. The girls and Peggy start an impromptu dance together, impressing Julian, who hires the talented newcomer. But there's more trouble ahead as the company rehearses the show in preparation for its opening.

Baldock says 42nd Street had a simple story but still posed challenges, one of which was to give it both heart and a sense of humour while treating the period setting properly. "My favourite composer of Broadway is Cole Porter - this is my era, the stuff I love, so it's a perfect show for me in that respect. I find the music quite thrilling." Among his tasks, he says, was to make sure the younger members of the cast understood the Depression-era setting of the show - "$22 a week was a lot of money in 1933" - and that the actors performed with suitable period "innocence" without sending up the material. When it premiered on Broadway in 1980, 42nd Street was a relatively early example of a recently flourishing sub-genre, the screen to stage adaptation, Baldock says. There had already been some others - Bob Merrill's Carnival! in 1961 was a hit, based on the 1953 film Lili; Lerner and Loewe's Oscar-winning 1958 movie musical Gigi was adapted by the team in 1973 and had a modest run; and Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, also premiered the same year. The sub-genre's popularity has only increased in the years since 42nd Street with many films - musical and non-musical, old and new being transferred from cinema to theatre with varying levels of artistic and financial success. Among them are An Officer and a Gentleman, King Kong, Footloose, Newsies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Calamity Jane, The Producers, Ghost, Saturday Night Fever, Strictly Ballroom and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

42nd Street was a hit and a late entry in the nostalgia boom that had seen such old shows as No, No Nanette and Irene successfully revived on Broadway in the 1970s. It won the Tony Award for best musical and ran for nine years in its first Broadway production. The show was based on the 1933 Warner Bros. film adapted from Bradford Ropes's novel and was also a jukebox musical of sorts, since in addition to the songs Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote for the original movie, it included numbers they wrote for other films of the era including Gold Diggers of 1933 and Dames. While the names of Warren and Dubin might not be as well known as some of their songwriting peers such as Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, the score includes such standards as You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me, I Only Have Eyes For You and Lullaby of Broadway. But as well as the songs, there's the dancing - and in 42nd Street that's predominantly tap, with some soft shoe, character dances and even a touch of ballet thrown into the mix. This marks choreographer Michelle Heine's first time tackling 42nd Street but as a tap dancer herself and owner of Legs Dance Studio - where she teaches tap, ballet, jazz and contemporary dance - she's well suited to the material. "Ten years ago every kid who did dance did tap - now there are not as many. I seem to find tap is the first thing to go," she says. "It's quite a difficult style of dance - you've got to have all the rhythms."

Most people, she says, have to study it for five years to get up to a really good performance level. One dancer who's been doing it for much longer than that is Sophie Highmore - "I've had her since the age of two," Heine says. Now 17 and in her final year at McKillop College, for Highmore life is imitating art to some extent: she, like her character, is getting a big break at a young age. "It's my first lead role," she says. Not that she lacks performing experience - she's had roles in several musicals at school and for Canberra Philharmonic Society and Free-Rain - but this goes beyond anything she's done before. "I watched the movie and fell in love with the girl, Peggy Sawyer," she says.It's a case of so far so good after 20 Eastern quolls were released into Booderee National Park at Jervis Bay on Tuesday - marking the return of the mammal to mainland Australia for the first time in 50 years.

The quolls were released in small groups at five sites along St Georges Head peninsula, a more remote part of the park, on the south coast.

The Eastern Quolls were released into the Booderee National Park at Jervis Bay on Tuesday - the first time the mammals have been roaming free on the mainland for 50 years.

The World Wide Fund for Nature says it is first time in Australia that a carnivore extinct on the mainland has been re-introduced to the wild.

Booderee National Park manager Dr Nick Dexter said that section of the park had been subject to heavy fox controls - through poison and shooting - to protect the fledging population.Police bust fake note racket

Police on Wednesday busted a fake currency racket with the arrest of six persons involved in printing and circulating counterfeit Nepali currency in Dharan, Sunsari.

Evelyn Beckenham's 2006 history of the Girls' Friendly Society recorded the commitment of generations of Sydney Anglicans to the church's ministry to women and girls. The book's title, A Faithful Journey, is as apt to her own life as to the society she chronicled.

When their new GFS group needed leaders in 1958, Ev's young daughter suggested her mother help out. She agreed, but said "don't ever ask me to wear a uniform!" She was not only persuaded into uniform, but wore it proudly for the next five decades. First she ran weekly meetings for local girls, then later held executive roles for the society, culminating in a term as Australian chairman. In 1998, her "service to youth, through the Girls' Friendly Society and to provision of accommodation for homeless young women" was recognised when she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Evelyn Beckenham as a young ballet performer.

Born Evelyn Mary Egan on March 14, 1923 at Flemington, to Patrick and Elsie Egan (nee Newton), Ev was a sickly child who, aged six, hated the special shoes worn to correct her rolled-in feet. The family doctor recommended dancing to improve her health.

"At the first [ballet] lesson, I thought I was Anna Pavlova," she recalled years later. "I was so excited, I could hardly wait for my next lesson. My mother bought my first ballet shoes and I loved them. I danced until I wore that first pair out. Dad played violin with an orchestra, so when he practised I danced to everything that came from that beautiful violin - from opera to the sailor's hornpipe!"EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.

The father of one of George Pell's accusers has rejected as "an insult" a suggestion that he made up his evidence about being told his son was sexually assaulted by the cardinal.

The father told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday he was informed in 2015 of the separate allegations involving his son and two priests, but conceded he never named Cardinal Pell in his statement to police.

Robert Richter, QC, and Cardinal George Pell arrive at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday. Credit:AAP

Defence counsel Robert Richter, QC, questioned whether the father was ever told the allegation was against Cardinal Pell, and told the witness: "That's an invention of yours, since July 2015, you have just made that up after you have made your statement."A glasshouse dining area has been proposed for Howard Smith Wharves, extending one of the historic buildings that form part of the $110 million development.

Brisbane City Council received a development application on Wednesday proposing a minor change to the long-awaited Howard Smith Wharves project, which council originally approved in December 2015.

Design plans by Tim Stewart Architects showed the glass dining room at Howard Smith Wharves would adjoin the courtyard and awning link Credit:Tim Stewart Architects

The letter requesting the change said the applicant, Howard Smith Wharves Consortium, refined its understanding of the nature of activities that would suit the venue and now wanted to include a small private dining room at the end of Building E which is at the eastern end of the site and will house a function facility, restaurant and small retailers.

Following review of the operational requirements of the restaurant, it is proposed that the covered structure is partly replaced by an enclosed, architecturally designed dining space for the restaurant, the letter said.A woman is fighting for life in hospital after she was brutally attacked in Queensland's Darling Downs.

Police were called to a home at Goomburra, north of Warwick, just before 1am on Thursday where they found the 46-year-old with a serious head injury.

The woman was taken to Warwick Hospital.

She was initially taken to Warwick Hospital but was transferred to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital, where she remains in a critical condition.

Emergency services were then called to a home at Glenore Grove, about 90 minutes' drive away, just after 2.30am.The message I was reading made me want to be sick.

I cant remember the exact words but they went along the lines of you dont know who we are but we know who you are, we know what bus you catch, youre going to pay.

I didnt know the mother showing me, in the audience at a childs school event, but heartbreak was written all over her face.

The texts had started after the mother had put a ceiling on the number of those who could attend her daughters 11th birthday party. One girl missed out, and organised friends from other schools to start sending texts to this girl.Brodie Moran's heartbroken father says his deepest regret is that he wasn't there to prevent the alleged murder of his "beautiful" eight-year-old son.

Lee Moran released a statement on Thursday afternoon, a week after Brodie was found dead by police at his mother's home in Tootgarook on the Mornington Peninsula.

Joanne Finch, Brodie's mother, has been charged with his murder.

Lee Moran and his son Brodie, who was killed last week allegedly by his mother.

Mr Moran, who was living in China at the time of Brodie's death, said that he had separated with Ms Finch in 2015 but had "never stopped loving, caring and supporting" his son both emotionally and financially.The number of crimes committed in Victoria dropped almost 10 per cent last year, the latest police data reveals.

Incidents of violent crime, drug dealing, arson, thefts and burglaries all fell in 2017, sometimes sharply, the new figures show.

The only principle offence category in which a significant increase was recorded was in sexual offences, which rose 15.9 per cent from 7142 incidents in 2016 to 8279 incidents last year.

There werea total of 380,066 criminal incidents last year, compared with 420,219 in 2016.An unapologetic Derryn Hinch says he will continue to drink after a fall which saw him knocked unconscious and hospitalised on Monday night.

The 74-year-old senator was diagnosed with minor brain trauma from the fall outside his St Kilda Road apartment in Melbourne.

He insists he was not drunk at the time, but says he'd had two of glasses of wine with a dinner guest that night.

Youve got to live your life, he told reporters on Thursday.Cockman Road and Stoner Avenue are among some of Perth's most stolen street signs, according to the man who is left in charge of replacing them.

Sunny Signs owner Chris Brightling, a preferred sign supplier for the Western Australian Local Government Association, is one of the companies charged with recording and replacing signs that are broken or outdated on WA roads.

Have you seen this type of graffiti around Perth?

While he told 6PR's Simon Beaumont the company was often kept quite busy due to Perth's sheer amount of road works, they still got a laugh out of some of the more popular stolen signs.

"I've got a couple I've noted that we remake [a lot]," he said.Security locking systems installed on oil tankers

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) on Wednesday officially launched security locking systems to secure oil tankers in a bid to control theft and leakage in transit. NOC imports all its oil from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) depots in India.And as the youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars, White insists on cutting through the gristle of any pretension around cooking, taking inspiration from where it appears, be it the finest chefs or an animated film - always favouring things done simply and well.

"I watch it with my daughter. A chef who's a rat making ratatouille for the harshest critic who has such power, and when he tastes the dish he is transported to his childhood. That to me is what it's all about - food is emotional connection. That's when it's best."

"I'm trained in classic French gastronomy, so for me I like to keep it simple and honest. You can do too much to food and it ruins it. If you're going to roast a chicken then roast the best chicken you can. No need to reinvent the wheel.

"And always keep the bones in when you cook any meat, for God's sake! That's where the deep flavour comes from. Keep it as nature intended. She is the greatest artist, and we are just the humble cooks."

I met White on a muggy Thursday morning at Perth's Crown Metropol where he was lounged on a balcony sipping a flat white, which I promptly spilled by knocking my knee on the table.

"Never fear, Mr Petale, I do it all the time", he said, his Italian heritage allowing him to pronounce my surname spot on. "Let me order you one now. Can't say you came and they didn't feed you."

There was no prelude, no small talk or awkward jousting, we just started talking: food, cooking, writing, eating, the short stories of Ernest Hemingway, women and love, heart surgery and its knife skills, raising daughters, Italy and the passing of his good friend A.A. Gill, breaking only to have a cigarette on the balcony and eat pastries he foraged from the bar.Police will be granted more lethal force powers during terrorist incidents under new laws set to be introduced into State Parliament.

The Terrorism (Extraordinary Powers) Amendment Bill 2018 will be introduced and read for the first time in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

Premier Mark McGowan is urging Upper House MPs not to block the legislation. Credit:Anthony Anderson, 6PR

Police Minister Michelle Roberts said the proposed legislation would give police greater powers in the event of a declared terror incident.

The proposed laws give police clearer legal protection if they're required to use pre-emptive force when responding to a terrorism incident or a suspected terrorist act.Singapores Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has warned against Asia splitting into rival blocs as part of a looming Darwinian shake-up of security alliances.

In an interview ahead of this weekends ASEAN meeting in Sydney, Mr Lee has also said the most critical issue facing the region remains the political and strategic resolve of the United States to continue as a reliable and constructive player in the western Pacific.

And he has suggested Australia should be open to joining Beijings $1 trillion belt and road initiative under which China would fund infrastructure projects in Australia - though he has stressed the decision is Canberras.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, second from left, with Malcolm Turnbull and other leaders at the 2017 East Asia Summit. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Lee, widely regarded as one of the most strategically adept of Asias leaders, painted a picture of a region undergoing dynamic shifts - many of which will be hotly discussed in Sydney where leaders from south-east Asia are gathering - but one in which the region should not line up against a rising China.Labors problem is that they are being too clever by half. They want to increase taxes without clearly saying so. That is profoundly dishonest. Receiving a tax refund is not welfare. In the same way receiving your change from the supermarket isnt corporate charity  it is a return of your own money. Millions of Australians overpay their tax liabilities each and every year and receive a refund from the government. Labor proposes to stop paying refunds to older Australians  both now and in the future.

Australias tax system is quite complex and politicians often rely on that complexity and a lack of community understanding of taxation to their own benefit. Not just politicians  the Australian Broadcasting Corporation recently published an article arguing against company tax cuts while confusing the difference between revenue and income.

Australias dividend imputation system was introduced in the late 1980s. It was intended to tax company distributions at the shareholders' marginal tax rate. For Australian tax residents the company tax became a withholding tax. Those Australian shareholders with a marginal tax rate above the company tax rate generally had to pay in and Australian shareholders with a marginal tax rate below the company tax rate generally got a refund.

At the time a pragmatic decision was taken to only refund the amount that extinguished any outstanding tax liability. Taxpayers entitled to more simply lost out. In 2000 the Howard government made the principled decision to refund the entire amount that could be owed the taxpayer. Labor proposes to revert to the pre-2000 pragmatic approach.

So the important question becomes, who are these taxpayers likely to be losing out? Answer: current and future elderly Australians are the losers. Labors policy is not just a raid on the living standards of the currently retired (former workers), it is a raid on the superannuation funds of every currently working Australian, too.Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has asked his department to look into a special refugee intake of white South African farmers subject to violence, murder and persecution in their homeland.

White farmers in the high-crime country also face new moves to forcibly redistribute land without compensation under the auspices of addressing apartheid-era inequities in land ownership.

Peter Dutton has asked bureaucrats to look at a special entry program for white South African farmers. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Dutton flagged a special intake of white South African farmers - potentially similar to the 12,000 additional Syrian and Iraqi refugees Australia accepted between 2015 and 2017 to address displacement caused by the Syrian civil war and fight against Islamic State.

"I've asked the department to look at ways that we can provide some assistance. We could provide more visas for people potentially in the humanitarian program," Mr Dutton told 2GB radio on Thursday.The South African government has demanded that Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton retract his comments suggesting white farmers were being persecuted and should receive humanitarian protection from a "civilised country" such as Australia.

This week, Mr Dutton said he had asked his department to look into admitting a special refugee intake of white South Africans, who he said "deserve special attention" because they were facing "horrific circumstances".

He said there were already large numbers of South African expatriates living in Australia.

"They work hard, they integrate well into Australian society, they contribute to make us a better country and they're the sorts of migrants that we want to bring into our country," Mr Dutton told radio station 2GB on Thursday.La Paz: At least six inmates died and more than 20 were injured in a Bolivian prison on Wednesday while attempting to resist a police search of the Palmasola jail in Santa Cruz, the government said.

Policemen guard the Palmasola jail in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, earlier this month. Credit:EPA

Earlier on Wednesday, about 2000 police entered the prison where they found firearms, an alcohol distillery, cocaine and marijuana, according to the general commander of the Bolivian Police Faustino Mendoza. He said six police were shot and injured.

Some 5000 men and women are incarcerated in Palmasola, where a clash between inmates in 2013 left 34 people dead. The government recently ordered the evacuation of dozens of children who had been living with their parents at the prison after because of child prostitution.

Overcrowded and violent prisons are common throughout much of Latin America. In Brazil last year more than 140 inmates died in just over two weeks due to fighting between rival gangs.Tanahu Hydro, Sinohydro Corp sign memorandum

Tanahu Hydro Limited (THL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), and Sinohydro Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding on Sunday to implement the hydro and electromechanical works of the Tanahu Hydroelectric Project.Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

She took these developing minds to infinity and beyond!

A scientist from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration touched down in Kings County last week to share insights from her career exploring the final frontier with students of all ages.

Dr. Anna-Maria Rivas McGowan  a senior engineer for the federal agencys Complex-Systems Design department  kicked-off her Kings County tour at Crown Heights MS 61 on March 8, where she spoke to more than 100 students before leading a question-and-answer session about her work to advance our understanding of the universe.

And following her visit with the middle-school scholars, the astronauts of tomorrow presented McGowan with a proclamation commending her commitment to intergalactic exploration.

The Trinidadian-American McGowan, who studied aeronautics at Indianas Purdue University before earning a doctorate degree in design science in engineering at the University of Michigan, then landed in Downtown, where she addressed students and faculty of New York Universitys Tandon School of Engineering at its MetroTech campus on March 9, before blasting off back to her offices at the space agencys Langley Research Center in Virginia.Temples valuables disclosed

The Bageshwori Temple Management Committee in Nepalgunj, Banke, disclosed the valuables offered to the temple by devotees after 45 years.A CBI court has rejected the regular bail pleas of Rotomac Global promoter, director Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul Kothari, in connection with the alleged Rs 3,695 crore willful loan default case.

Earlier on March 7, the court had turned down Vikram's interim bail plea also.

The CBI had arrested the duo accused in Delhi on February 23 and since then they have been in jail.

The accused were then brought to Lucknow on transit remand after their arrest.

The CBI court, on the application of premier agency, had on February 24 allowed their police remand for the purpose of interrogation in its custody.

The CBI remand period expired on March 7, after which the judge MP Chaudhary had taken him under judicial custody and sent him to jail.

Meanwhile, both the accused moved bail pleas but the court refused them bail. The court observed that the offence was serious and the accused did not deserve bail.

According to the prosecution, a consortium of seven banks led by Bank of India had extended loans worth Rs 2,919 crore to Rotomac Global Pvt Limited from 2008 onwards.

However, according to an FIR filed by CBI, the directors allegedly cheated the banks by diverting the raised funds in a conspiracy with unidentified bank officials.

The agency has claimed that instances were found where the credit sanctioned and disbursed to the company was used for purposes other than execution of the claimed export orders.

Also, citing the FIR only, prosecutor also placed a case in which the credit sanctioned for an export order purportedly received from Singapore for supply of wheat was diverted to another company named Bargadia Brothers Private Limited, Singapore.

The CBI prosecutor further narrated another modus operandi wherein the accused would use the loans -- disbursed on proposals for procurement of goods meant for exports -- for undeclared purposes.

In such cases, no export orders were allegedly executed by the company, the agency said.

Further, it was also alleged in the FIR that most suspect transactions of the company were with a limited number of buyers, sellers, sister concerns and subsidiary companies.

The FIR in the case has stated that the act of the accused amounted to misappropriation, criminal breach of trust and violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act.As revealed by the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) survey - Worldwide Cost of Living 2018 - three Indian cities are amongst the cheapest in the world. New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai are amongst the world's 10 cheapest cities, while Singapore is the most expensive. The survey mentions that South Asian cities, particularly those in India and Pakistan offer the best value for money. Karachi has also been mentioned as one of the cheapest cities.

"India is tipped for rapid economic expansion, but in per-head terms, wage and spending growth will remain low. Income inequality means that low wages are the norm, limiting household spending and creating many tiers of pricing as well as strong competition from a range of retail sources," the report noted. The report noted that cheap supply of goods in vast quantities from rural producers, as well as government subsidies on some products have kept prices down, especially when compared with Western standards.

Joining the Indian cities are Damascus, Caracas and Almaty, capitals of Syria, Venezuela and Kazakhstan in first, second and third positions. They are followed by Lagos on fourth, Bengaluru on fifth, Karachi on sixth, Algiers on seventh, Chennai on eighth, Bucharest on ninth and finally New Delhi on the tenth spot.

The report further said, "Although the Indian subcontinent remains structurally cheap, instability is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in lowering the relative cost of living of a location. This means that there is a considerable element of risk in some of the world's cheapest cities."

Singapore has been declared the world's most expensive city for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Paris, Zurich and Hong Kong. Oslo is the fifth most expensive city in the world, Geneva sixth, Seoul seventh, Copenhagen on eighth, Tel Aviv on ninth and Sydney on tenth.

The Worldwide Cost of Living is a biannual Economist Intelligence Unit survey that compares more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services. These include food, drink, clothing, household supplies and personal care items, home rents, transport, utility bills, private schools, domestic help and recreational costs.

(With PTI inputs)Before Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi , there was Vijay Mallya, who in turn was preceded by Lalit Modi and Jatin Mehta. But these businessmen-turned-fugitives are just the more famous names to hog the headlines in the past few years. Yesterday, Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar told the Parliament that as many as 31 business people facing a CBI investigation have flown the coop, including long-forgotten names like Pushpesh Kumar Baid, Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Ashish Jobanputra.

But it seems the government has finally learnt its lesson and is now considering more proactive vigilance. It has reportedly prepared a list of 91 names it is considering to bar from leaving India due to their involvement with companies branded as wilful defaulters. The latter is an umbrella term used for someone who has not repaid his debt when he can do so or has essentially not used funds for the purpose it had been borrowed for, or has disposed off the assets pledged for a loan without the bank's knowledge.

A source aware of the developments told Bloomberg that the people on the list were selected because of their roles as directors or owners of such companies. Furthermore, the government has asked banks to provide the passport details of a larger group of individuals - those who have stood as guarantors or signed applications for soured loans of over Rs 50 crore. The source added that some of these individuals may also be barred from leaving the country if they are found to have committed fraud or engaged in wilful defaults.

Given that some 400 Indian companies have been classified as wilful defaulters, this is going to be one long list. But a desperately needed one since in the first half of the current fiscal alone, public sector banks wrote off loans worth Rs 516 crore spread across 38 loan accounts of wilful defaulters.

This news comes just days after the government tabled the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018, which seeks to recover dues from absconding fraudsters and loan defaulters with an outstanding debt of Rs 100 crore or more by impounding and selling their assets.

But once a loan defaulter manages to escape, extradition proves next to impossible. Since India has not had a lot of success in that direction in the past, it makes far better sense to close the gates before the horses bolt. The government's recent overdrive in this direction makes more sense when you factor in the general elections coming up next year.A former Indian-American president of the blood-testing company Theranos and the firm's founder and CEO were on Thursday charged with "massive fraud" amounting to over USD 700 million by the US federal regulators.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani and the founder Elizabeth Holmes raised money by deceiving investors about the company's technology, business and financial performance.

Holmes, 34 and Balwani, 52, raised more than USD 700 million in years-long "massive fraud", it said.

The SEC alleged that Theranos, Holmes and Balwani falsely claimed that its key product a portable blood analyser could conduct comprehensive blood tests from finger drops of blood, revolutionising the blood testing industry.

In truth, Theranos' proprietary analyser could complete only a small number of tests, and the company used analysers manufactured by others to conduct majority of patient tests.

Holmes and Balwani also claimed that the company's products were deployed by the US Department of Defence on the battlefield in Afghanistan and that the company generated more than USD 100 million in revenue in 2014.

In reality, the company's technology was never deployed by the US Department of Defence and generated a little more than USD 100,000 in revenue from operations in 2014.

Theranos and Holmes neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC's complaint and have agreed to settle the fraud charges levied against them.

Holmes agreed to pay a USD 500,000 penalty, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years, return the remaining 18.9 million shares that she obtained during the fraud, and relinquish her voting control of Theranos, the statement said.

Due to the company's liquidation preference, if Theranos is acquired or is otherwise liquidated, Holmes would not profit from her ownership until over USD 750 million is returned to defrauded investors and other preferred shareholders, it said.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sent Letters Rogatory (LRs) to seven more countries, in connection with the Rs 13,578 crore Punjab National Bank fraud involving rogue jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. These seven countries are in addition to the six countries where the LRs were sent earlier. "After the agency got the information that Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have businesses and properties in these seven countries, the decision was taken to send LRs," a senior ED official told Mail Today.

Earlier, the agency, investigating the PNB scam, had issued LRs to Hong Kong, USA, UK, UAE, South Africa and Singapore for obtaining information about Nirav Modi's overseas businesses and assets. "It is an application for issuance of LR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for recovery/seizure of proceeds of crime and collection of documents, evidence lying in Hong Kong, USA, UK, UAE, South Africa and Singapore, which are required in connection with the investigation," ED had then said in its plea before the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court.

A letter rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance in an ongoing investigation to seek evidence. To tighten the noose around Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, ED also contacted Interpol to initiate the process of issuing red-corner notices (RCNs) against both the fugitive diamond merchants. According to sources, ED has requested the Interpol to issue RCNs against Modi and Choksi.

The notices are likely to be issued in the next 10 days. A red-corner notice is a highpriority request to provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition.

However, a member country may decide not to make the arrest. Sources in the Enforcement Directorate have said that the Ministry of External Affairs has cleared the RCN request and most likely it has reached the Interpol General Secretariat in Lyon, France. ED has issued a non-bailable warrant thus setting in motion the process of bringing back to India the fugitive diamond merchants.After multiple similar strikes, Uber and Ola drivers are halting their services across the country from today. Prices are expected to skyrocket during the strike due to the shortage of cabs. Apart from high-prices, the waiting period for a cab is also expected to go up significantly.

The drivers, along with their families are planning to protest outside the offices of cab-hailing giants. Maharashtra Navnirman Vahatuk Sena's Sanjay Naik said that the business of these drivers have taken a deep plunge over the years due to the 'mismanagement' of these companies. He also added that if their demands are not met, then the protest could go on indefinitely.



The drivers are demanding that Uber and Ola should ensure the business that they promised in the beginning. According to a report by Financial Express, that business amounts to Rs 1.25 lakh per month. Moreover, the association wants Uber and Ola to discontinue company-owned cabs entirely, reinstate drivers with a low rating, stop low fares and decide fares based on the cars.



Needless to say, their protest will affect the day-to-day business of big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata, but it will also hit smaller cities to a great extent. Smaller cities have low prices and to add to that the comfort, ease and security of these cabs has resulted in a rapid expansion of these services.



Cab drivers have been making their dissatisfaction known for a while now with the way the cab-hailing business is taking shape. Banks are also seizing the vehicles of drivers as they are unable to pay back their loans and feed their family at the same time even after long, strenuous hours of work.

According to reports, the incentives that drivers used to get have also decreased, while Uber and Ola still continue to charge 20-25% of the fee on every trip.

Uber commands 50% of the Indian market and Ola holds 44.2%. Their growth rate is expected to be 19.6% taking the market volume to USD 761 million by 2022.

Last year, the drivers of the two cab-hailing services conducted major protests in light of decreasing revenues which eventually led to financial burden in form of car loans and maintenance. After the protest in April last year, Uber had approached Delhi High Court seeking Rs 12 crore in damages due to drives assosiations accusations.The United States launched a challenge to Indian export subsidies at the World Trade Organization on Wednesday, saying they hurt U.S. companies by letting Indian exporters sell goods more cheaply, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.

India provides exemptions from certain duties, taxes and fees that benefit numerous Indian exporters, including producers of steel products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and information technology products, Lighthizer's office said.

"These export subsidy programs harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field on which they must compete," Lighthizer said in a statement.

"USTR will... hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing U.S. rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO," Lighthizer said.

The office of the USTR said export subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to the companies that receive them and are prohibited under WTO rules.

A limited exception to the rule is provided for developing countries until they reach a specific economic benchmark, the USTR office said. It said India was initially within the group of developing countries but surpassed the economic benchmark in 2015.A day after the Reserve Bank banned Letters of Credit, State Bank of India today said that no other public sector bank issued unauthorised credit letters except PNB. The PNB is at the centre of India's biggest banking scam where two of its officials allegedly issued as many as 1,213 LoUs fraudulently for the group of companies belonging to billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.



SBI Deputy Managing Director M S Sastry in a press briefing said: "Each bank has already scanned their LoU/LoC related transactions and have confirmed that all of them are properly assessed, genuine and accounted for except those reported." He also informed that further controls have now been put in place that included additional layer of approvals for all outward swift message, integration of SWIFT with CBS latest by April 30, 2018.



CBS refers to system where all branches are inter-connected and all the transactions are updated real-time. However, the PNB officials - who fraudulently issued the LoUs - had bypassed the CBS and used a messaging system called SWIFT which was not integrated with CBS.



The RBI on Tuesday barred all banks from issuing guarantees in the form of LoUs. The central bank in a press statement said: "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." However, letters of credit and bank guarantees for trade credits for imports into India may continue to be issued subject to compliance with (certain) provisions, it added.



An LoU is a service whereby the bank guarantees a customer's payment obligation of a specified amount to an overseas bank.New research from KBC has found that the number of people with a savings account in 2018 has risen by 3% from 79% in 2014 to reach 82%.



The research shows that more people with a savings account are putting aside money at planned, regular intervals than before. Almost a quarter (24%) of those surveyed now save a set amount weekly, up from (21%) in 2014, while 37% are putting aside a set amount every month, a significant jump from 29% in 2014.



The research indicates that there has been a shift in some of the motivation for saving. When opening a savings account, more than 4 in 10 have a specific savings goal. While ensuring they have a financial safety net still tops the list, opening a savings account specifically for saving for a home (13% vs. 4% 2014) holidays (10% vs. 7% 2014) or car (5% vs. 2% 2014) is on the rise.



Those who cited having a financial safety net as their main priority in 2014 (35%) has fallen to 28% and the number of those motivated to save owing to uncertainty about the future in 2014 (30%) has halved to 14% of respondents in 2018. The numbers saving for childrens education (8%) or a long-term nest egg (8%) remains largely unchanged.

When asked to describe their savings plan for 2018, almost one-third (32%) said they were planning to save much more and 29% a little more than they did the year before, up from 28% and 27% respectively for 2014.

When it comes to influencing factors for opening a savings account, the ability to access funds is less of a priority for customers today (54%) than it was in 2014 (65%). Rate has grown as a reason to choose a savings account up from 41% in 2014 to 53%, as has the security of the bank to save with, at 41%, up from 36% in 2014.



Commenting on the research, Director of Products at KBC Bank Ireland, Fergal ORiagain said, "Our research shows that savings remain a priority for consumers, with more people saving and saving more regularly. We know from our business that retail customers are moving into investments as part of a wider savings plan, be that saving for a new home, a familys future needs or retirement at a future date."

Source: www.businessworld.ieTop NC leaders ask partymen for effective role in HoR

Top leaders of main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) have asked fellow partymen to play effective role as opposition in Parliament.It was announced today that Irelands fastest growing specialist business lender, Capitalflow, plans to provide up to 150 million in new business lending across its product range in 2018. This will see its customers grow from its current levels of 900 to 1,600 new business customers during the year.



To deal with this demand, Capitalflow will invest 10m in a new Dublin headquarters and will create 40 new jobs over the next three years, growing its total headcount to 90 by 2020.



Currently, Capitalflow has over 900 customers in the Irish market. Through its various financial products, the company has funded over 2,000 business transactions, including debtor finance, construction and heavy goods vehicles purchases and property acquisitions since establishing two years ago.



In December 2017, Capitalflow acquired bridging finance specialists BBF Capital. The acquisition means that the company are now offering term loan and bridging finance facilities to Irish business owners. BBF Capital has provided over 40 million of bridging finance facilities to companies in Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Galway and main provincial towns.



Commenting on the new investment, Chief Executive Officer of Capitalflow, Ronan Horgan said, "Capitalflow challenges the status quo. We provide both small and large businesses the means to realise their ambitions in a time-effective, efficient way. Customers appreciate the open, flexible and fast response times we can provide over traditional options."

Source: www.businessworld.ieRyanair will offer direct employment contracts within the next few weeks to all pilots in Germany who are currently on contracts via an agency, the budget airline said on Thursday.

The Irish carrier has come under fire from unions, especially in Germany, for its practice of employing some pilots via third-party agencies, such as McGinley Aviation. The airline last year decided to recognise unions in an attempt to improve relations with its pilots and ease a staffing crunch.

"McGinley Aviation have decided to withdraw from supplying contractor pilots for Ryanair in the German market, and Ryanair has now begun the process of offering these contractors direct employment," a Ryanair spokeswoman said.

McGinley said that after a review of operations, it would cease to provide contractors in Germany from Oct. 31.

"We continue to supply contractor pilots to all other countries in Ryanair's growing European network and look forward to a future continued relationship with our customer," a spokeswoman said via email.

Ryanair has so far agreed union recognition deals in Britain and Italy and hopes for similar in Spain by the end of the month.

Goodbody analysts said the move to offer direct contracts in Germany should help to ease relations between Ryanair management and the German pilots union.

A spokesman for German union Vereinigung Cockpit said it would first have to see the terms of the new direct contracts before commenting. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ieStep 1

Log on to the Punjab Public Service Commission official website.

Step 2

On the home page, click Open Advertisement.

Step 3

The list of recruitment advertisements will be displayed on the screen.

Step 4

Against the relevant link, click Apply/View.

Step 5

On the new page, click Apply Online.

Step 6

The application form will be displayed on the screen. Fill your particulars in the fields provided.

Step 7

Upload your photo and signature.

Step 8

Pay the fee.

Step 9

Enter your login credentials.

Step 10

Click Submit and complete the registration.Bookings for the Toyota Yaris will begin in April. The Japanese automaker will be making its foray in the C+ segment for the first time and this is the vehicle that they will be fielding. The car was showcased at the 2018 Auto Expo.

Toyota will officially open bookings for the Yaris sedan in April. It had unveiled and showcased the car at the 2018 Auto Expo and will be the first major addition to the Toyota family in almost a year.



The Yaris will only be offered with petrol power which in this case is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder unit producing 106bhp/140Nm. Depending on the variant, it is expected to be offered with either a six-speed manual or a CVT. It will be the first car in the segment to get a powered drivers seat, roof mounted AC control and six airbags as standard. We have spoken in heavy detail about the Yaris and you can read about that here.



Toyota is expected to give a premium pricing for the Yaris and looks to have in its sights the Honda City , Hyundai Verna as well as some of the D-segment SUVs like the Creta and Duster in its sights.





Toyota Yaris  9.17 Lakh Onwards

Toyota | Yaris | Toyota YarisPhoto: Google Street View

RCMP in Surrey are currently investigating a motor vehicle collision in which a 70-year-old woman was rushed to hospital.

The incident happened at 1:20 p.m. March 14, at the intersection of Martin Drive and Southmere Crescent in South Surrey.

Cpl. Elenore Sturko said a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle while crossing the intersection.

The vehicle was traveling east and making a left turn when the collision occurred. The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene of the collision, said Sturko. The 70-year-old female pedestrian was transported by Air Ambulance to local area hospital in critical condition.

Sturko said traffic in the area will be affected for an undetermined amount of time while investigators work at the scene of the collision.

Anyone with more information is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502.

To make an anonymous report, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or www.solvecrime.ca.There are people who use, on their devices, old versions of the operating systems, Android and iOS. Well: for this...US Department of Justice to investigate Cemex over Maceo plant payments

15 March 2018

The US Department of Justice is investigating Mexico's Cemex SA over payments concerning the construction of the Maceo cement plant in Colombia. Cemex is being investigated over whether it violated federal bribery laws.



Cemex said in a filing Monday that it had received a federal grand jury subpoena related to the Colombian project, located in the municipality of Maceo.



According to a September 2016 filing, Cemex paid roughly US$20m to a non-governmental employee of CI Calizas y Minerales SA, a Colombian company described online as a cement and concrete supplier, for land and to secure mineral rights and access to a tax-free benefit zone that includes the site of the new plant.



Internal audits later turned up irregularities in these payments, claims the Wall Street Journal. As a result of the audits, the company terminated the executives responsible for making the payments. The chief executive of Cemex Latam Holdings later resigned over the matter.



In its filing, Cemex said it would cooperate fully with the investigations.





Published underNew 6000tpd Saudi cement plant for Al Baha Cement

ICR Newsroom By 15 March 2018

Saudi Arabias Al Baha Cement Co plans to built a new cement plant with a capacity of 6000tpd of sulphate-resisting Portland cement as well as the potential to produce white and grey cement.



The project represents an investment of US$100m, for which the company will be raising finance from banks. The carry out the funding process, Al Baha Cement is inviting to submit bids for a financial consultancy contract.



The Al Baha Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Saudi investors have formed the above-mentioned project company, under which the cement plant will be developed. The Minister of Commerce and Industry has approved the license for establishing the company.



To date the feasibility study has been completed and all licenses and permits have been obtained, according to Inside International Industrials. A land usufruct agreement has also been signed. EPC tendering is expected to take place in the 2H18.



Once the project is completed, Al Baha Cement will be registered as a listed joint stock company with 50 per cent of the companys shares held by the founders and the remainder offered for public subscription at actual cost.

Published underCement consumption rises in Indonesia in February

15 March 2018

Domestic cement consumption in Indonesia rose 5.2 per cent YoY to 4.79Mt in February 2018, supported by an increase in cement demand on the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, according to Indonesia Investments.



Kalimantan recorded a 16.4 per cent YoY uptick in cement demand, with sales volumes reaching 345,000t. This has been attributed to the construction of the Samarinda-Balikpapan toll road, as well as strategic power plant and port projects.



Cement sales in the country reached 10.48Mt in the first two months of 2018, a 7.7 per cent rise compared to the year-ago period. However, while Indonesias production capacity exceeds 100Mta, actual demand is expected to hit just 70Mt for the full-year period.



Meanwhile, a government-led infrastructure push may keep cement demand rising at the necessary pace.

Published underIn a 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos could barely explain a handful of key issues. She confused viewers with convoluted answers, misinformation, and a claim that shes misunderstood.

Interested in hearing why Betsy DeVos is the most hated member of the Cabinet? Then stay tuned as we break down the reasons.

DeVos take on why shes so hated

According to CBS News, DeVos has received death threats and is often met by protesters who accuse her of pushing an elitist agenda. So its no wonder shes often considered the most hated Cabinet secretary. In fact, shes the only one who needs to be protected by a squad of U.S. Marshals.

As the richest member of Trumps Cabinet, DeVos is often criticized for her lack of experience. DeVos, on the other hand, has a different take on why shes so disliked. Im more misunderstood than anything, she said in the interview, which is funny, considering she couldnt explain certain policies when given the chance.

Next: How will she make schools better?

She believes the best solution is to invest in students, not school buildings, institutions, or systems

In DeVos opinion, the solution to schooling lies within school choice. Did DeVos just solve the education system? Nope. Not even close. She does, however, remain steadfast in her mission to promote private, parochial, and charter schools, all at the expense of traditional public schools.

During the interview, DeVos said, Well, we should be funding and investing in students, not in school  school buildings, not in institutions, not in systems. So, will she be able to do it without pissing off the 90% of families whose children attend public schools? Not likely.

According to DeVos, when a large number of students choose to go to a school other than public, the traditional public schools improve. The secretary could not, however, explain how that was panning out in her home state.

Next: DeVos isnt so sure how her master plan is working.

She doesnt know whether her own policy is working in her home state

When asked about the success rate in her home state of Michigan, DeVos proved to be anything but well-educated on the subject.

Stahl asked, Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better? And Devos struggled to find the right answer. In fact, she had no idea. She admitted she couldnt say the state, overall, had gotten better, to which Stahl responded, The whole state is not doing well.

Zing.

Next: DeVos doesnt seem to want to acknowledge any progress that had previously been made.

DeVos denies any improvements had been made in the public school system

According to a very delusional DeVos, the federal government has invested billions and billions and billions of dollars, yet has seen zero results. So, is DeVos right? Not by Stahls calculations.

Stahl said, But that really isnt true. Test scores have gone up over the last 25 years. So why do you keep saying nothings been accomplished?

Not surprisingly, DeVos replied with a sentiment that dodged the question-at-hand. Well actually, test scores vis-a-vis the rest of the world have not gone up. And we have continued to be middle of the pack at best. Thats just not acceptable.

Yet again, Stahl had the perfect response. No its not acceptable. But its better than it was. Thats the point. You dont acknowledge that things have gotten better.

Perplexed? Dont worry, youre not alone.

Next: One would think DeVos would be eager to visit the schools that arent doing well, right?

She admits she does not intentionally visit underperforming schools

Apparently, DeVos prefers not to talk about all schools in general. However, as Stahl reminded her, The public schools [in Michigan] are doing worse than they did.

A natural move for any secretary of education would be to take a look at the underperforming schools in hopes of figuring out a solution. But not DeVos. In fact, she said, I have not intentionally visited schools that are under-performing.

Just give that a minute to sink in.

Next: So, what are her thoughts on school safety?

She will head up a task force to look at school safety

In the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting, there has been a nationwide outcry for gun reform, not to mention a demand to make schools safer. And the perfect person to do it? Well, were not so sure its DeVos. Trump, however, is.

DeVos will head up a task force that will take an in-depth look at what states are doing to ensure mass shootings become a thing of the past. And when Stahl asked if DeVos feels a sense of urgency, DeVos, of course, said yes. But then  and heres where it gets really good  Stahl called out the Secretary of Education by saying, [T]his sounds like talking. Instead of acting.

Next: Stahl is all for it, but she cant imagine it in reality.

She says teachers should have the option to carry guns, yet cant imagine her former teacher doing so

Cutting straight to the point, Stahl reiterated to DeVos exactly what it is that students want: gun control. Convinced they want a variety of things, DeVos had this to say when asked whether teachers should have guns in the classroom:

That should be an option for states and communities to consider. And I hesitate to think of, like, my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff, I couldnt ever imagine her having a gun and being trained in that way. But for those who are  who are capable, this is one solution that can and should be considered. But no one size fits all. Every state and every community is going to address this issue in a different way.

And to that, we say, huh?

Next: DeVos seems to be focusing on the wrong things.

Shes abolished key civil rights for students

As civil rights issues continue to be at the forefront of top-priority concerns, DeVos has come under fire for her controversial stance on a few key issues. And as Secretary of Education, she is responsible for overseeing the guidelines put in place to protect students civil rights. But again, her politics continue to fall short.

DeVos rescinded a guideline implemented under President Barack Obama that allowed transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice, and she is also considering scrapping the Obama-era guidance on how to identify, avoid and remedy discriminatory discipline, which aims to prevent schools from punishing students of color more harshly than their white classmates, CBS News reported.

Next: Sexual assault on college campuses is a definite issue, but DeVos isnt committed to changing things for the better.

Shes changing (for the worse) how sexual assaults on college campuses are handled

Another one of DeVos infuriating moves? Changing guidelines on how colleges handle sexual assault. Thanks to Devos doing, colleges can now demand stronger evidence from accusers and give those accused a greater benefit of the doubt.

During the interview, DeVos said that one sexual assault is one too many, and one falsely accused individual is one too many.

When Stahl asked if they were the same, DeVos, not surprisingly, said she didnt know.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Blink and youll miss the rapid-fire changes going on at the White House. On March 13, President Donald Trump unceremoniously fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson via Twitter, promoting outgoing CIA director Mike Pompeo to serve in his place. The president then tapped deputy CIA director Gina Haspel, 61, as the first woman to lead the CIA, pending confirmation. Some of the facts coming out about her may surprise you  and some could even prevent her from getting the job.

1. She spent much of her long CIA career undercover

While Haspel has worked at the CIA for 33 years, she has remained undercover and overseas for a lot of that time. Her resume includes serving as the agencys top representative in London, as well as the acting head of the National Clandestine Service and as part of the Counterterrorism Center, according to the CIA.

Haspel has also received several awards in her career. Those include the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award a federal civil servant can earn.

Next: She ran a seriously shady division at the agency.

2. Haspel oversaw a black site in Thailand

While running a CIA prison in Thailand, dubbed a black site, Haspel oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects, according to The New York Times. One of the suspects, Abu Zubaydah, got waterboarded 83 times in a single month. The prison held Zubaydah following his capture in Pakistan. Operatives also locked him in a coffin, slammed him against walls, and deprived him of sleep, according to a congressional report on the CIAs torture program.

Only after months of torture did CIA agents realize their mistake: He did not have the al-Queda status they thought. Zubaydah currently resides at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Next: Haspel also played a role in this disturbing practice.

3. She worked to destroy evidence of CIA torture

When torturous interrogation methods came to light and their legality received further scrutiny, Haspel drafted a missive demanding destruction of videotapes that showed those interrogation sessions.

At the time, Haspel served as chief of staff to the head of the agencys Counterterrorism Center, Jose Rodriguez, who ordered the destruction. Rodriguez wrote in his memoir that Haspel drafted a cable ordering the tapes destruction in 2005. He said he took a deep breath of weary satisfaction and hit Send.

Next: Trump has defended these actions.

4. CIA professionals do not agree with torture but Trump does

The CIA defends those who participated in those interrogations, even while vowing not to undertake them ever again. Nevertheless, Trump has said repeatedly that he thinks torture works. Pompeo also said that waterboarding and other techniques do not constitute torture. He even praised as patriots those who used those methods, including Haspel.

Next: She received broad support from some of her colleagues.

5. Many intelligence community members support her

One former CIA official told CNN that Haspels promotion is good for both places, both the CIA and State. The former CIA official added, Haspel is a pros pro. She has run the day-to-day operations at the CIA while Pompeo spent time at the White House, so she already maintains a solid presence at the CIA headquarters.

Next: Some government officials do not feel the same way.

6. Her nomination may come under fire from several officials

Democrats Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Ron Wyden of Oregon both told CNN they did not support Haspels promotion. Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine also intend to question her past activities. McCain said she needs to explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIAs interrogation program during her confirmation.

Wyden added that her background presents a serious problem. 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.

Next: Some activists also take issue with Haspel.

7. At least 1 human rights organization expressed concern

Not everyone celebrated Haspels nomination. The American Civil Liberties Union, for one, harbors serious concerns. Jameel Jaffer, formerly deputy legal director of the ACLU, tweeted that Haspel is quite literally a war criminal. The organization has called on the CIA to declassify every aspect of Haspels torture record before considering the nomination.

Next: One former coworker pointed out a potential pitfall.

8. She has not cultivated close ties to Trump, so far

The White House does not exactly rank well in job security, and Haspel has not buttered up her boss. Former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. endorsed Haspel but warned she may find herself forced to choose between protecting the integrity of the CIA and catering to Trump. And we all know what happens when the president feels slighted.

I think Gina will be excellent as director, as long as she is ready to be fired at a moments notice, Clapper told Cipher Brief. Whatever Haspels qualifications may be, that could come as her biggest pitfall.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!While presidents kept some of the most famous campaign promises, they also broke quite a few. Donald Trump seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping his. But how do former presidents  including Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama  compare?

According to USA Today, political scientists say that candidates usually at least try to keep their campaign promises. Five Thirty Eight concurs, noting that when presidents abandon specific campaign promises, they usually do so for reasons that have more to do with changing circumstances than a lack of principles.

Below, discover the most famous campaign promises that American presidents broke. Check out Barack Obamas record on page 13, Donald Trumps on page 14, and the details on how the two compare on page 15.

1. Woodrow Wilson

28th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: He kept us out of war.

Axios reports that Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the slogan, He kept us out of war. But he wasnt able to keep the promise that the slogan implied  that he would continue to keep the U.S. neutral in the conflict in Europe. Under Wilson, the United States officially entered World War I only a year later. The White House reports that after the election, Wilson concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

Next: This president promised economic prosperity. And then the Great Depression began.

2. Herbert Hoover

31st president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.

Seeker notes that Herbert Hoovers promise of a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage might seem overly ambitious in todays terms. But with the phrase, Hoover gave a clear vision of the prosperity he envisioned for the country, according to Seeker. The publication notes that Less than a year after he took office, the stock market crash of 1929 heralded the Great Depression, the longest and deepest period of economic decline in the 20th century. As you might imagine, Hoover couldnt keep his campaign promises in such dire circumstances.

Next: This president promised to cut government spending.

3. Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: We are spending altogether too much money for government services which are neither practical nor necessary.

USA Today reports that in his 1932 presidential campaign, Franklin D. Roosevelt attacked opponent Herbert Hoover for excessive spending. He even accused the Hoover administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all American history in a 1932 speech. USA Today notes that Roosevelt made those accusations even though economists now agree that more government spending was needed to pull the nation out of the Depression. Roosevelt himself adopted that line of thinking after he was elected. But as Seeker notes, Roosevelts New Deal programs dramatically increased the federal budget deficit far beyond the levels achieved by his predecessor.

Next: This president promised to solve a problem that didnt exist.

4. John F. Kennedy

35th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: That he would eventually close the missile gap.

USA Today notes that some presidential candidates have made campaign promises that they never intended to keep. One example? John F. Kennedys promise to close a missile gap with the Soviet Union that he knew did not exist. The Atlantic reported at that the time that when the Kennedy administration took office, the truth of the situation became known to the president and Defense Secretary [Robert] McNamara, and provided the basis for McNamaras statement to newsmen last February that he had found no missile gap. It was painful, politically, for the new administration to concede this, but it represented the facts.

Next: This president promised to stay out of war.

5. Lyndon B. Johnson

36th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

CNN reports that Lyndon B. Johnson broke one of his biggest campaign promises: his promise to keep American troops out of the war in Vietnam. Johnson campaigned against Barry Goldwater as the peace candidate, according to USA Today. But amid escalating violence once he assumed office, Johnson authorized a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. CNN notes that that campaign preceded Johnsons deployment of the first American combat troops in Southeast Asia. As Seeker notes, Johnsons reversal cost him the support of the American public.

Next: This president promised a secret plan to end the war.

6. Richard Nixon

37th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: I have a secret plan to end the war.

Richard Nixon typically goes on the list of presidents who were actually terrible people. As Smithsonian.com reports, Nixon ran on a platform that opposed the Vietnam War. But to win the election, he needed the war to continue. Nixon stalled the Vietnam peace talks before he gained office. After he became president, Nixon expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia. That action resulted in the loss of an additional 22,000 American lives. And Nixon finally settled for a peace agreement in 1973 that could have been achieved in 1968.

Next: This president didnt make any campaign promises.

7. Gerald Ford

38th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: None because he didnt make any.

Axios reports that Gerald Ford was the only president to never be elected. History notes that Ford ascended to the presidency because Richard Nixon resigned as the 37th president. Ford was serving as a vice president at the time. But he became the president who came to the office through appointment rather than election because he had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president just eight months before. Axios notes that that means Ford didnt have the opportunity to make or break campaign promises like other presidents. He never made any campaign promises to keep or break. He gets a pass, the publication explains.

Next: This president promised to solve the energy crisis.

8. Jimmy Carter

39th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.

Jimmy Carter campaigned on his promises to end the energy crisis. And while he delivered the quote above just days into his presidency, it echoed promises he made on the campaign trail. Yet as The Atlantic explains, Carter couldnt deliver on his promise to end the crisis. Carter called for investments in solar-power research. He pushed for legislation that created grants for energy-efficient homes and buildings. Plus, he also created the Department of Energy. But he couldnt find support for an oil tax, and the energy problem only worsened during his presidency.

Next: This president promised an amendment on school prayer.

9. Ronald Reagan

40th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: To put God back in the classroom.

USA Today reports that Ronald Reagan promised in 1980 to support a constitutional amendment that would allow school prayer. But as the publication notes, that campaign promise never went anywhere after Reagan took office. Education Week reported during Reagans presidency that the practice of school prayer had been outlawed for 20 years. Reagan proposed the amendment in 1982, but USA Today notes that he never made its passage a top priority.

Next: This president promised not to create any new taxes.

10. George H.W. Bush

41st president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: Read my lips: no new taxes.

CNN reports that George H.W. Bush broke one of his most memorable campaign promises. While accepting the Republican nomination, Bush promised that he wouldnt enact new taxes in order to shore up conservative support and appear tougher heading into the election, CNN explains. But facing high deficits and the prospect of severe cuts to entitlements once he was in the Oval Office, Bush agreed with a Democratic-controlled Congress on a budget that included new taxes. But he paid the price in 1992, when he lost his bid for re-election.

Next: This president promised to end big government.

11. Bill Clinton

42nd president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: The era of big government is over.

Bill Clinton had a tough time keeping one of his most notable campaign promises because of the contradictions in his position. The Brookings Institution characterizes the paradox of Clintons 1996 campaign as his declaration that the era of big government is over. Clinton then promised a list of things the federal could do to help Americans through economic change, enable families to cope as both parents work, help people achieve higher education, preserve popular federal programs, and take action on problems ranging from high crime rates to the rate of Americans without health insurance. As Brookings notes, Big government was over, but smaller government would do a whole lot of stuff.

Next: This president promised economic growth.

12. George W. Bush

43rd president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: What we Republicans should stand for is growth in the economy.

The Huffington post reports that on the campaign trail, George W. Bush promised to cut taxes to create jobs. He managed to get his tax-cut agenda through Congress. But he saw less than desirable results from it. Bush said in his first inaugural address, We will reduce taxes, to recover the momentum of our economy and reward the effort and enterprise of working Americans. But the Post reports that he also failed to see his tax cuts translate into jobs. While his administration was in power, the unemployment rate went from 4.2 percent to 7.8 percent, with the country falling into the grips of recession.

Next: Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay.

13. Barack Obama

44th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.

As a senator, Barack Obama made one of his most famous campaign promises: that he would close the Guantanamo Bay prison. He argued that terrorists use propaganda about the prison to recruit, and that the astronomical costs of housing each captive were draining military resources. But as Politifact reports, Obama never fulfilled this promise. When the president left office, 41 prisoners remained at the facility  down from the nearly 800 detainees once held there. Politifact also reports that Obama broke many other promises during his presidency.

Next: Donald Trump promised to prosecute Hillary Clinton.

14. Donald Trump

45th president of the United States

of the United States Promise he broke: Lock her up!

Newsweek reports that Donald Trumps promises on the campaign trail and during his first year in office were as unusual as his presidency. A good example? Trump famously implied that he would prosecute and imprison Hillary Clinton with the campaign chant, Lock her up. That has yet to happen. Americans are also still waiting to see if Trump will repeal and replace Obamacare. It also remains to be seen if hell truly build a wall (and make Mexico pay for it). Additionally, Trumps attempt on a Muslim ban was blocked by multiple federal courts. And tax plan  which promised tax cuts for the middle class  delivers only temporary benefits for the average American.

Next: Who broke more campaign promises, Donald Trump or Barack Obama?

Who broke more campaign promises: Barack Obama or Donald Trump?

Despite the obvious limitations of comparing a former president with a sitting commander-in-chief who hasnt finished his term, many Americans wonder whether Barack Obama or Donald Trump broke more campaign promises. While Trump still has time to make good on his campaign promises  and to seek re-election for a second term  Politifact is keeping track of how hes doing so far.

The publication reports that so far, Donald Trump has kept 8.8% of his campaign promises. He has compromised on 6.9% of his promises. The publication characterizes 32.4% of his promises as stalled. A further 45.1% remain in the works. And so far, Trump has definitively broken 6.9% of his campaign promises. Politifact reports that during his presidency, Obama kept 48.4% of his promises. He compromised on 27.4% of them. And he broke 24.2% of them  a percentage that well have to wait to see if Donald Trump will improve upon.

Read more: This Is the First Thing Donald Trump Changed in the Oval Office After Obama Moved Out

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!A bishop from the Church of England is hoping to raise awareness on the dangers of the use of plastic to the environment this season of Lent and has started using a bamboo toothbrush - a fact that he shared with his followers on social media.

Reverend Graham Usher, the Bishop of Dudley, posted a photo of his bamboo toothbrush on Twitter. He contends, however, that the bristles were still made of plastic since he learned that the alternative, which was made from wild boar hair, causes bad breath.

Usher has joined the Church of England's campaign for a plastic-less Lent that aims to reduce environmental waste. The reverend suggested other tips for going green, aside from using a bamboo toothbrush.

"There are all sorts of other things from choosing natural fibers to wear to using milk in returnable glass bottles and reusing plastic bags whenever you can," Usher shared. The bishop, however, admitted that doing away with plastic use was not always easy since it was in the everyday items everyone needs.

Dr. Ruth Valerio of the Tearfund charity organization launched the campaign via Facebook with the support of the Archbishop's Council and ChurchCare, which preserves religious historical buildings. On the group's page, Valerio shared daily tips on reducing plastic use and plastic wastes.

Environmentalists agree that plastic poses a global challenge. But taking small steps to minimize its harmful scale, such as bringing one's own shopping bags at grocery stores or people using their own coffee cups at Starbucks, will make a significant difference.

Plastic pollution has risen in the last 70 years as the world's population uses some 300 million tons of plastic each year. A bulk of these end up in the ocean that harms and kills marine life. It also contributes to water pollution, when water is essential to life.A judge in Canada has ruled in favor of the Christian parents who lost custody of their foster kids because they did not want to lie about the Easter Bunny.

Derek and Frances Baars from Ontario sued the Children's Aid Society of Hamilton after social workers took back two young girls who were under the couple's care and caused the couple's foster home to close.

Court documents showed that the Society grew concerned of the Baars' refusal to discuss the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus with their kids. The organization contended that it did not ask the couple to lie, but it saw the couple's action as an unwillingness to support and adjust to the children's beliefs, who might have celebrated these holidays with their biological parents or other foster kids in the past.

The couple, however, professed in the lawsuit filed last April 2017 that they do not practice Christmas or Easter celebrations due to their faith as Reformed Presbyterians. Still, they were willing to buy the children gifts or hide chocolate candies provided they would not have to talk about Santa or the Easter Bunny unless they ask questions.

Documents from the Society showed that there have been notations about the couple's religion prior to fostering the children. The Baars had also told them that they believe that talking to the kids about Santa or the Easter Bunny constituted lying, which would be morally wrong.

"There is ample evidence to support the fact that the children were removed because the Baars refused to either tell or imply that the Easter Bunny was delivering chocolate to the Baars' home," Judge Andrew Goodman wrote in his decision. "I am more than satisfied that the society actions interfered substantially with the Baars' religious beliefs."

The judge also cited the Society for violating religious freedom. Goodman reiterated that no one should be forced to do something against his or her beliefs. Additionally, the incident of pulling the kids from the Baars' home might have added to their turmoil.

"Is it more important to have the Easter Bunny or permanency?" the judge further wrote in his decision. "The Society very clearly chose the Easter Bunny."

Children's Aid Society head Dominic Verticchio issued an apology to the Baars after Goodman's decision. The executive director assured the court that this would not happen again.A woman who practices the ancient Zoroastrian religion, also known as Parsi, has come up with a matchmaking service that has helped their faith thrive in a world where online dating is the norm.

Zarin Havewala of Mumbai has helped over 55 individuals find an ideal partner who practices the same faith through her unique system. She does not have a fancy website nor an app but she keeps an international database that has the email addresses of single Millennials who have been born Parsi.

The matchmaker does not advertise her services but operates through word of mouth. Interested people from Australia, to India, to Oman and all the way from England and Canada have contacted her online. They either look for a potential match or provide their profiles to add to Havewala's database.

"About seven years ago, it struck me very badly [that] a lot of our youngsters are getting married outside the community," Havewala told ABC Australia. "I thought maybe they are not having enough avenues to know that there are other young Parsis available."

The matchmaker also organizes meet-ups or speed dating among Parsi millennials with the Bombay Parsi Punchayet in India. The group's pillars see through the process with a strict policy where parents and potential in-laws are off-limits.

Meanwhile, Viraf Patel, a model and actor from India, developed an exclusive Parsi dating and social media app in 2016 that helps digital-savvy Zoroastrian users find their match as well.

Farhad Malegam signed up on the app and described its features as being similar to Tinder. The 26-year-old Zoroastrian, who now lives in Australia, prefers a woman who shares the same religion though it was not a strict requirement.

The only problem is there are only about 200,000 Parsis all over the world, with at least 3,500 living in Australia. Most of the people who practice the religion also uphold orthodox beliefs and frown upon converts and reformists. So far, however, Malegam has not met someone he'd eventually like to marry from the dating app though he was grateful that technology and a database system like Havewala's exist to help with his search.

"We should do what we can to let this ancient faith, that's almost 4,000 years old, survive and continue," the young man believes.

Zoroastrianism is one of the world's oldest religions, which has roots in Persia (Iran). It has influenced other faiths like Christianity, Judaism and Islam in ancient centuries.At least 10,000 Christians from around the world will be expected in a monumental gathering at the Holy Land on June 2020 to observe the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.

Empowered21, an organization that pushes for "Spirit-empowered" causes, is planning the event that will take place at the Pais Arena in Jerusalem from June 1 to 3, 2020

The country's tourism ministry informed Empowered21's executive director, Ossie Mills, that this would be the largest event to happen in Jerusalem. Mills told reporters that they had chosen the Holy Land because it was the "land of the Bible."

"During your time in Jerusalem, you will be inspired, encouraged, renewed, transformed and empowered. Your life will never be the same when you visit Israel," Mills said.

Dubbed Jerusalem 2020, the gathering will focus on the influences of worship music to Christians. Empowered 21 invited three religious groups or musical worship teams -- Bethel Music, Gateway Worship and Planetshakers -- to perform for the crowd at the Holy City.

Bethel is a California-based worship music group that has released over 15 Christian music albums and received 10 nominations at the Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. Gateway, the choir group from Gateway Church in Dallas, has over 40 members who are also songwriters. The group also released albums and individual song tracks.

Planetshakers, on the other hand, come from Melbourne and has 30 albums to their name.

Jerusalem2020 is the sixth global gathering that Empowered21 organized. Since 2015, the group has been mounting similar events in France, Jakarta and Kiev. South Africa will host the gathering on the Feast of Weeks this 2018, while Guatamala will be the site for 2019's event.

The Feast of Weeks, also known as the Shavout or Pentecost, takes place during the seventh Sunday following Easter, as it is written in the Acts of Apostles 2:1-31 in the Bible. It commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and followers of Jesus Christ, which gave birth to the Church.Lightning that hit near a Seventh Day Adventist church in Rwanda has killed 16 people and injured 140 churchgoers. A provincial governor confirmed the incident and added that the victims have been rushed and treated in the hospitals around the area.

Two of the injured are in serious condition, while 17 require further treatments. Most of the victims, however, have been discharged after getting checked, according to Governor Rose Mureshyankwano.

Churchgoers had filled the Gihemvu Seventh Day Adventist Church that Saturday as a visiting choir was in town. Church member Emmanuel Ruremesha told the press that the day's service had been extended because of the visitors.

"By the time it started raining we had just welcomed the preacher to the pulpit," Ruremesha said, adding that churchgoers were told not to use their phones in advance, as rain has been pouring in the previous days.

"Suddenly, there was a big bang, I saw a thunderbolt strike worshippers," Ruremesha recounted. "We all fell down for minutes."

At least 11 people were instantly killed by the lightning strike, while five others died at the hospital. One seriously injured man whose wife was instantly killed insisted on being present during her burial the following day, thus doctors assisted him at the cemetery.

In Rwanda, lightning strikes happen frequently during the rainy season since the region is situated in the hills and mountains. To keep them from harming the public, communities usually install lightning rods.

The Gihemvu Seventh Day Adventist Church could not afford to install a lightning rod though since the congregation lacked the funds. The old church actually exists without the benefits of electricity since there was no money to pay for this necessity. The news came as the government ordered the shut down of 700 churches of different faiths in Rwanda for not following safety regulations, including the lack of lightning rods.

Meanwhile, the president of the Seventh Day Adventist's General Conference issued a statement on Facebook. Pastor Ted Wilson offered prayers and comfort to the Rwanda lightning strike victims as the congregation tries to organize rebuilding efforts.A man who shouted Bible verses in public and threatened to bomb a gay pride march in Cardiff last August has been sentenced to 17 months in prison.

Jesus Christianity, 34, has been found guilty of agitating LGBT marchers. He also said he had given false information and admitted he had threatened he would destroy property.

According to prosecutor Gareth James, Christianity shouted at some of the passengers on a train, who were dressed to join the gay pride march. One of them also attested that Christianity had declared he had a bomb.

"When the passengers got off he said to one of them 'I'm going to Pride now and I've got a bomb in my backpack,'" the prosecutor detailed. "He directed these comments principally because of people's sexual orientation."

Police arrested Christianity after getting reports on scene. They did not find any bomb, but he did carry a toy gun.

The defendant's lawyer, Ruth Smith, stated that Christianity had "clear psychiatric difficulties" and had been "diagnosed with anxiety." His behavior was a reaction to the stress around him.

Smith also said that Christianity actually did not like to use public transport, so the anxiety triggered his outbursts against the LGBT passengers. The lawyer also claimed that her client had never intended to act on his threats.

Judge Neil Bidder acknowledged Christianity's mental anguish. He, however, also said that the latter's actions and threats were upsetting to those around him, especially since he declared he carried a bomb. The judge noted that Christianity added to the problems of the police and their resources.

This was not Christianity's first arrest, however, as he has had 33 prior offenses ranging from assault, damage to property and dishonesty. He also paid bail for a previous bomb hoax, where he had threatened the workers of a building in his neighborhood that he would "burn down the house."Turkish prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson in an official indictment presented to Izmirs 2nd Criminal Court yesterday, 13 March.

Arrested without bail since October 2016, Brunson is accused of being a member and executive of the Islamic movement led by self-exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of orchestrating the failed July 2016 coup attempt to overthrow the Turkish government.

According to the semi-official Anadolu Ajansi, the formal indictment also charges the pastor with establishing links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and obtaining espionage information for political and military purposes.

If the indictment is accepted by the court, formal trial proceedings are expected to be set in motion against Brunson. To date, neither the pastor nor his lawyer have been allowed any access to the legal file of investigations conducted by Turkish authorities into his case.

Commenting on the indictment, the two Vice Chairs of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Sandra Jolley and Kristina Arriaga, said: USCIRF urges President Trump and others in the administration to redouble their ongoing efforts to secure Pastor Brunsons release. No stone should be left unturned in our efforts on behalf of this unjustly imprisoned American. We call again for his immediate release and, if this is not forthcoming, for the administration and Congress to impose targeted sanctions against those involved in this miscarriage of justice.

USCIRF is appalled that Turkish officials are seeking a possible life sentence for Pastor Brunson and are accusing him of leadership in a terrorist organisation. The government of Turkey has detained Pastor Brunson largely based on a purported secret witness and secret evidence which they refuse to make public. The Turkish government should reverse course immediately and we urge the international community to condemn this indictment, they added.

World Watch Monitor reported only yesterday that, despite being detained for 17 months, the Turkish judiciary had failed to release any formal indictment against him.

His daughter, Jacqueline, appealed to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week to help secure her fathers release. Declaring that he had been falsely imprisoned for far too long, his married daughter noted that Brunson decried that he had still not been formally charged with any crime.

I know the allegations against my father are absurd, Jaqueline said, as shown in a video posted by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

He is not an armed terrorist trying to overthrow any government. My father is a peaceful pastor, she said. Noting that she had grown up in Turkey, she added: My family loves and respects the Turkish people, and my father has been dedicated to serving them for over two decades.

Jacqueline said she was allowed to visit her father at his Izmir prison last August. It was hard to see him so broken, so thin, so desperate, she told the UNHRC assembly. She then read a note Brunson had written just a week ago:

Let it be clear. I am in prison not for anything I have done wrong, but because of who I am  a Christian pastor. I desperately miss my wife and children. Yet I believe this to be true: it is an honour to suffer for Jesus Christ, as many have before me. My deepest thanks for all those around the world who are standing with and praying for me, Brunson wrote.

Last month the European affiliate of the ACLJ representing Brunsons case had filed a written statement to the UNHRC, declaring: As a founding Member State of the UN, Turkey is obligated to adhere to norms set forth in the UN Charter By detaining and imprisoning Pastor Brunson because of his religious expression, peaceful association, and assembly of religious believers, Turkey is violating not only its obligations under the UN Charter, but its own Constitution.

Courtesy: World Watch Monitor

Photo courtesy: World Witness

Publication date: March 15, 2018Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

I'll be honest with you: I can be quick to say, "That person needs Jesus." Truthfully, I need Jesus just as much (if not more sometimes) than when I make unhealthy comments like that. Yes, I'm a pastor. Yes, I love Jesus. But I'm far from perfect and if your pastor never admits where they struggle or fall short then, to me, that's a red flag.

I face temptations like anyone else. And every other pastor in the world does too. Recently, I've come to realize that instead of constantly praying for revival "in other people" I need to first be praying for revival within myself.

Recently, the 2018 Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival kicked off and with it comes an influx of more than thirty thousand people to our small little town in South Florida. So many are quick to judge rather than quick to love. I'm guilty too. When the first OMF happened a few years back, I was quick to judge. Wal-Mart was packed and sold out of many items. I, along with many other locals, were judgmental and angry because our norm was interrupted.

The gospel doesn't wait for you to adjust to a new norm to share the gospel with someone different than you. No, the gospel is meant for all people, all over the world. That includes many different types of people. That doesn't mean the gospel message endorses certain lifestyles.

We can love people, no matter who they are or where they came from, and honor God. We can share the gospel with someone different than us without agreeing with their lifestyle. We can befriend an atheist, a Muslim, a Buddhist without agreeing with what they believe. Truly loving people is loving people as God commands us to in John 13:34 and Matthew 4:43-47:

"I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another." - John 13:34

43 "You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don't even the Gentiles do the same?" - Matthew 5:43-48

When you read the Scriptures it's evident that we are to love people. All people. How can revival come if we don't love? How can revival come if we don't hit the floor on our knees crying out to God? How can revival come if there is no repentance? I believe the key to God opening the floodgate of heaven on us is repentance. Have you been unloving? Repent. Do you have any unforgiveness? Repent. Do you have any known unconfessed sin in your life? Repent. God will never turn away from a repentant heart. Psalms 51:17b says:

You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

I'm in the middle of a 40 day prayer challenge that Mark Battersonthe Lead Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.is leading and part of the challenge is to read Draw the Circle (a spin-off of Batterson's book The Circle Maker). There's a challenge for each of the 40 days. As I've read through it thus far I've been both challenged and encouraged more than ever before that praying for revival must begin with myself. Draw a circle around yourself and ask God to first bring revival within that circle. That's what I've learned from Mark Batterson. And I believe it's not only worth trying but it also works. It's amazing to see all God will do when you get yourself out of the way, deal with your sin, and fully trust His every move.

I've given up some things during this prayer fast, because I want to see God work in and through me. I am not going to go into specifics, because that's not important for everyone to know. That's between God and I. What is important is when praying for revival we must have the attitude that it must begin with us (with you, with me). As we near Easter and the end of the 40 days of prayer, I am already planning my next one!

In the last several weeks I have seen God do "above and beyond all that"1 I asked for or even imagined. I am an imperfect person following a perfect Savior and am thankful that God is able to do more than I can think or even ask for. He knows our deepest longings and are greatest fears and everything in between! How cool is it that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we confess our sins to Him and ask for forgiveness, that He is so gracious and good to not only forgive us but also empower us to live in such a way that challenges and changes lives of those around us? To me, that's pretty cool! Lives that are truly transformedlives that have stepped from death into lifethat's the beauty and power of the gospel. And the gospel can open the door to revival when repentance is the forerunner. How can we expect God to pour out His Spirit on an unrepentant generation? How can we expect God to heal anyone, change hearts, or do the miraculous if there is first no humbled heart?

Let it begin with us (with you and me). And let's get serious about praying for revival. Let's stop just talking about it and get serious about praying for it to break out! Recently, about nine of us began gathering at noon on a Tuesday to pray for revival. We've only had one meeting so far, but that first meeting was nothing short of powerful. When God's people get together, get serious, and pray you can expect God to show up and show off!

Lord, bring revival.

This article first appeared on AaronJosephHall.com

End Notes:

See Ephesians 3:20-21 CSB

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations marked CSB are taken from the Christian Standard Bible, Copyright  2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Since the passing of Billy Graham a plethora of voices has chimed in, each attempting to ascertain exactly what Graham's death means in today's world.

Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship, and television's Sid Roth are all saying that Graham's death may create the "spark" for a national and perhaps an international revival.

Christianity could well use a revival in these days of worldwide apostasy and no one would discourage the move of God's Spirit, but it is far more likely that the church may be concentrated rather than expanded in the next few years.

Lines are being drawn in every area of human endeavor as last day's prophecies are being fulfilled today like no other time in history. Educators are either totally secularized or fully open to Biblical truths. Politicians have swung full force to either the right or the left and churches have split into fully conservative Bible based or totally liberal and apostate.

Churches are sliding off into apostasy by means of immorality and perversion. Some churches in the West are simply handing over everything including physical property to Islamization. Anyone who lived through the last world war and watched England and London resist the mighty onslaught of the Nazis; will find it shocking to see headlines like this: "London Closes 500 Churches; Opens 423 New Mosques"

The church that is remaining faithful to biblical principles and the basic gospel seem to be readying themselves to accept the approach of the full onslaught of the antichrist and his persecution of the faithful.

They are becoming concentrated, intensified and totally biblical, but the hope of a burst in numbers is probably not in line with the present decline and apostasy in the church. Add to that the rising worldwide persecution of the church in dozens of nations. The following headlines are indicators, not of a revival, but of a serious decline. This list is but a cross section.

A Church under siege  Egyptian Christians and IS

Condo Bans Senior Citizen's Bible Study, Christian Music

215,000,000 Christians Persecuted, Mostly by Muslims

Hindu Extremists in Eastern India Attack Christians Coming Off Bus

6 Pastors Arrested in Rwanda for Planning to Defy Gov't Ban on 'Unclean' Churches

Clergy Gather to 'Bless' Late-Term Abortion Facility, Claim Abortion Staff Work for God's 'Glory'

The truth is that as we approach the last days, God will do last days kinds of things. The period of worldwide evangelism may be closing, but God has planned a new effort to meet the great falling away of the last days.

There are three ways in which God deals with the world in the last few years of time as we now know it.

1. "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." (Joel 2: 28-29)

2. "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will." (Rev 11: 3-6)

3. "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Rev 14: 6-7)

These verses do not give the idea of a new and powerful evangelist to come on the scene, but they indicate a progression of steps that God uses to meet the fiery days of indignation that will sweep across the globe in the days leading up to the final judgment of our planet.

First, we see an outpouring of God's Spirit on "all flesh" which means just that. The Spirit will fall on unbelievers in an effort to bring them into the fold, and it will fall on the believers to empower them to preach, live, and die if necessary to promote his gospel to a dying world.

Second, we see that God sends two powerful prophets with a message that time is up. They will not be well received and some will try to destroy them before their work is finished, but in vain. No evangelist has ever had the power of these two and everything they do will be seen and heard across the globe, even though they never leave the city of Jerusalem.

For those who to this day argue about the resurrection of Jesus Christ the two prophets will squash that argument forever. They will be killed and after three and a half days will be resurrected before the eyes of the entire world. (Rev 11: 7-12)

Third, we see God's mercy extended to the very last minute of time. When the two prophets are gone and all the Christians have been removed or subdued, God sends a celestial voice (an angel) to broadcast his message of mercy throughout the earth  one last time.

These three portents are proof positive that God's love for mankind is faithful until the very last moments of time. It is also proof that Jesus meant business when he declared:

"Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." (Mt 18: 14)

To hope and pray for revival in America and the world is indeed a noble and worthy aspiration, but it may simply be an extravagance. What is going on today does not invite revival, but rather judgment.

The church will be cast into a state far more akin to Daniel in the lion's den or the three young Jewish men in the fiery furnace, and countless other examples of the people of God undergoing serious testing and persecution.

These examples have been our best teachings and warnings to prepare those who have decided to follow Jesus Christ through fire or flood.

The nature of God's next move in the earth has been designed by God to meet the deep godless decline that is emerging across the globe. His next move will not be fully recognized as a revival, it will be more of an intervention, filled with miracles, unusual people and ministers, and followed up by the millennial kingdom.

This is realism not naivete. It is good, see for yourself:

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev 11: 15)

Michael Bresciani is the editor of American Prophet.org since 2005. The website features the articles and reports of Rev Bresciani along with some of America's best writers and journalists. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe. Visit https://socialcross.org/amprophet also follow us on Twitter and Facebookhome Tech American Bible Society draws criticism for applying restrictive policies on use of .bible domain

The American Bible Society (ABS) is being criticized for applying restrictive policies on the use of its recently acquired .bible top-level domain name.

The .bible domain has been managed by ABS since 2016 and at least 1,190 groups have acquired the domain name.

Some scholars, however, have raised concerns about how the ABS is running the domain name, with some complaining that the organization had applied restrictive policies that limit a wide range of faiths and essentially exclude any group with a scholarly or secular orientation.

Religion News Service reported that ABS had recently enacted a policy prohibiting registrants from posting any material that "espouses or promotes a religious, secular, or other worldview that is antithetical to New Testament principles, including but not limited to the promotion of a non-Christian religion or set of religious beliefs."

After scholars with the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as some Jewish organizations, raised their objections, the ABS backtracked and modified the policy to include the participation of Jews.

However, some scholars have complained that the policy reversal did not go far enough. The revised policies reportedly forbid content that "advocates belief in any religious or faith tradition other than orthodox Christianity or Judaism." It also does not allow "any content that communicates disrespect for God as He is revealed in the Bible" as well as "[a]ny content that communicates disrespect for the Bible."

"The policy remains at its core insufficient," said John Kutsko, executive director of the Society of Biblical Literature. "The ABS excludes those critical of religious traditions or views considered unorthodox by ABS, which is basically a good deal of scholarship," he continued.

ABS said in a short statement that it had met with "complaining parties," but insisted that it is "complete compliance" with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages internet resources and coordinates its domain name system.

In 2013, ABS had stated that it intends "to make .BIBLE domain names available to individuals and groups who have a healthy respect for the Bible." The group also noted in its ICANN application that it intends to protect the .bible domain from "inappropriate use."

The Saudi Arabia's Communication and Information Technology Commission had objected to the application at that time saying, it believes that there is no clear consensus on who or what defines the "bible."

The commission argued that allowing the domain to be registered would be "offensive to many people and societies on religious grounds."

ABS said in a statement that its advisory council will review the criteria for membership on the dispute panel at its next meeting, but declined to provide further details.home World Chinese officials arrest priests during raid on historical church

Several priests were reportedly arrested on Friday when local officials conducted a raid on a historical Catholic Church in China's central Henan province.

According to China Aid, the authorities conducted an investigation on the neighborhood around Nantang Catholic Church without notifying priests and nuns, and abruptly closed it and cut off its electricity.

When priests contacted the police, they were taken into custody and were prohibited from accessing the church. By 8 p.m., the authorities had already demolished four of the church's crosses.

The Nantang Catholic Church, built by Spanish missionaries in 1924, had served as a Communist Party army base during the civil war against the democratic Kuomintang. During the war that lasted from April 1927 to May 1, 1950, the church had been used to shelter individuals who could not fight.

As a result, the Shangqiu government granted the church state-level protection and it was renovated from 2005-2009.

Since early February, officials in Henan province have stepped up its crackdown on churches following the implementation of China's revised Religious Affairs Regulations.

In the city of Nanyang, officials created a new initiative explicitly forbidding any kind of religious gatherings in people's homes. All Christians in the city are required to join an officially registered church and those caught attending or hosting meetings outside of a registered religious venue will be subject to a fine of 30,000 yuan (U.S. $4,700).

In Luoyang, officials have reportedly hired local gangs to break into churches and other gathering places of local Christians. Doors and windows were broken during the attacks, while furniture and religious books were confiscated. Additionally, the unidentified men have reportedly abducted and detained large numbers of church attendees and pastors.

The Chinese government, under the administration of President Xi Jinping, has been placing tough restrictions on religion, which also apply to Communist Party officials.

Party officials, as well as children, students or members of the Chinese military, are prohibited from adhering to any religion. In Shandong province, Communist Party members are being investigated by government agencies to make sure that they are not religious.

A collective punishment was recently implemented by Chinese organizations to isolate Christians among Party members from one another. The policy mandates a deduction amounting between 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (U.S. $3,200 to $4,700) from the salary of all employees if any member refuses to sign a statement denouncing all religious beliefs. Members are also punished if anyone is found to be a volunteer at a church, according to China Aid.home World Christian asylum seeker remains in limbo as Swedish government refuse to reconsider deportation order

A Christian asylum seeker in Sweden remains in a legal limbo as the government refuses to reconsider an order to deport her back to her native Iran, where she is said to face the risk of imprisonment, rape and even death because of her faith.

Aideen Strandsson, who converted from Islam to Christianity in Iran after dreaming about Jesus, came to Sweden in 2014 on a work visa and adopted a Swedish last name. However, the Swedish government has rejected her bid for asylum twice despite the danger she faces back in her home country.

After CBN News broke Strandsson's story, the government of Hungary offered her asylum and people from around the world contacted the Swedish government asking it to reconsider the decision to deport her.

The Swedish migration board, however, refused to rescind the deportation order and told CBN News, "the fact that your readers write to us will not change the Migration Agency's decision, nor can we change the court's decision."

Although Strandsson remains in Sweden, she is unable to get a job and still runs the risk of deportation.

"Aideen's situation is not at all uncommon in Sweden," says Swedish attorney Gabriel Donner. "There are a fair amount of people who get stuck in between. So you have these curious cases where nothing is really dealt with and you cannot get ahead," he added.

Strandsson had previously landed a job as a technology developer for the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, but the government refused to give her a temporary work permit. "[T]he idea is to starve you so you tell them to send you out," said Donner.

While there have been many offers of help and asylum for Strandsson from other nations, she said that she wants to stay in Sweden because her family is there and because she said Jesus told her to not be afraid.

Donner said that it is still not clear when the government would decide to deport Strandsson as the border police's backlog is still growing.

In the event that Strandsson is deported, she would first be sent to prison in Sweden as the authorities make the arrangements to fly her back to Iran, according to Donner.

"This is real prison conditions. They're not allowed to speak on the telephone. They're not allowed to be on a computer, not allowed to get in touch with anybody, they wear prison clothes. If they have to be transferred anywhere, they're transferred in chains," Donner said.

The authorities would then contact the Islamic Republic of Iran and tell them when to expect Strandsson, even though the migration board's website states that it will never deport asylum seekers to nations where they face danger.

While the government has rejected the asylum bids of Strandsson and other Christians, it has reportedly given 150 protected identities to former Islamic State militants who have returned to Sweden so that they can find jobs.home US Christian & Missionary Alliance won't discipline Ravi Zacharias for misrepresenting credentials

The Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) has decided not to take disciplinary action against renowned apologist Ravi Zacharias, after conducting a review of the allegations that he had made false claims about his credentials.

On Monday, C&MA issued a statement on its website saying the evidence against Zacharias does not warrant discipline under its policy.

"Ravi Zacharias has maintained his licensing credentials through The Christian and Missionary Alliance for 45 years. Along with all C&MA licensed workers, he is subject to the Uniform Policy on Discipline, Restoration, and Appeal," the statement said.

"Mr. Zacharias and his employer, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, have revised and clarified their communications to address these concerns. The C&MA has determined that there is no basis for formal discipline regarding this matter," it continued.

In December, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) addressed the allegations, claiming that the ministry had never knowingly misstated or misrepresented Zacharias' credentials.

The allegations surfaced in November when attorney Steve Baughman published his lengthy investigation into the apologist on his website Ordinary Times.

Baughman had alleged that the apologist was often referred to as "Dr." Ravi Zacharias, although he has never earned an actual doctoral degree of any kind and has only been conferred honorary doctorates from certain Christian institutions.

While some Christian publishers have referred to Zacharias as "Cambridge educated," Baughman had pointed out that he only spent a few months attending lectures at Ridley Hall, which is affiliated with Cambridge but not officially part of the school.

The C&MA also noted that it had performed a thorough inquiry about the allegations that Zacharias had an illicit relationship with a woman through electronic communications. The denomination noted that the inquiry included "interviews with those involved and a review of all available documentation and records."

"While it is not appropriate to publicly discuss the nuances of these allegations, the available evidence does not provide a basis for formal discipline under the C&MA policy," the organization stated.

Zacharias said in a statement in December that he had reached a settlement with the woman, but denied that he had met her alone publicly or privately.

The Christian Post reported that screenshots of emails that appeared to be of Zacharias and the woman have emerged online. In one of the messages, the woman told the apologist that she has to reveal their relationship to her husband because she can no longer live with the "guilt."

The apologist seemed to have responded by threatening to commit suicide if the woman went through with her plan to reveal the relationship to her husband.

The couple sent the apologist a letter claiming they had suffered "irreparable harm" and threatened to file a lawsuit against Zacharias unless he sends a check in the amount of $5 million.

Zacharias filed a lawsuit in response to the letter, prompting the couple to request mediation instead of a trial. Attorneys representing Zacharias agreed to mediation and both sides ultimately reached an agreement in November, ending the lawsuit.home World Condo residents file federal complaint after housing board bans Bible studies in common spaces

Residents of a condominium building in Florida have filed a federal complaint after the homeowner association board decided to ban Bible studies and other religious activities from the common spaces in the building.

First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit law firm that focuses on religious freedom, filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on behalf of residents at the Cambridge House Condominiums in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Cambridge House resident Donna Dunbar said that she has held Bible study groups in the building's common room every Monday morning for nearly a year. But on Feb. 6, the HOA board adopted a resolution saying "prayers and other religious services, observations, or meetings of any nature shall not occur ... in or upon any of the common elements."

Additionally, the board reportedly ordered the removal of all religious items from the building's premises, including a decorative angel fountain and a statue of St. Francis of Assisi donated by a resident, in memory of a loved one.

Dunbar, a lay minister in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, also noted that someone had placed a sign on the community organ saying, "any and all Christian music is banned!" She said that before the HOA board banned all religious activities, she was asked to get insurance so that she could continue using the common room for Bible study.

The complaint asserts that the board's actions violate federal housing laws because it targets religion for exclusion. While all religious activities are banned from the common areas, game and movie nights are reportedly still being allowed. First Liberty is asking for HUD too conduct an investigation into the matter and take all appropriate actions.

The religious liberty law firm stated in the complaint that the HOA board had not notified the residents about the meeting in which the policy banning all religious activities was approved.

"The board's failure to include the Cambridge House resolution in the posted meeting agenda or otherwise notify the condominium owners of the proposed resolution constitutes a violation of [Florida law]," the complaint stated, as reported by Christian News Network.

The letter pointed out that the lack of notice about the meeting has left some interested condominium owners with no opportunity to speak out against the proposed resolution.

"The Cambridge House resolution, both in text and in application, is discriminatory and violates the Fair Housing Act because it prohibits ... Christian residents from accessing common condominium areas for any religious activity, while allowing other residents to use those same facilities for similar secular purposes," it continued.

The Gateway Group, the company that manages Cambridge House, has stated that it acts in the direction of the HOA and has declined to provide further comment on the issue.home World Court requires all Pakistani citizens to declare religion when applying for ID

Human rights advocates in Pakistan are expressing concern about the plight of the country's persecuted minority communities after a court ruled on Friday that all citizens must declare their religion when applying for identity documents.

The Islamabad High Court has ruled that anyone applying for government jobs should declare their religion and that those who disguise their religious affiliation were guilty of betraying the state.

"The Government of Pakistan shall take special measure ensuring availability of correct particulars of all the citizens," Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui said in the judgment, as reported by Reuters. "It should not be possible for any citizen to hide his/her real identity and recognition," the judge added.

The ruling is expected to increase pressure on the Ahmadi community, who are not allowed to refer to themselves as Muslims or use Islamic symbols in their religious practices.

The Ahmadis have been targeted with violence and attacks since the sect has been categorized as non-Muslims through a legislation in 1974.

Reuters reported that the order was issued as a result of a petition by the new ultra-religious political party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan in connection with an amendment to an electoral law.

The amendment sought to replace a religious oath with a simple declaration, which has been deemed blasphemous by members of Tehreek-e-Labaik. The government attributed the change to a clerical error and later restored the original format.

Human Rights Watch representative Saroop Ijaz asserted that the judge "is not only attacking everybody's religious freedom in Pakistan but he is also focusing on one particular sect, which is the Ahmadis," adding, "[a] judgment like this would enable and incite violence."

On Sunday, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony maintained that the requirement for citizens to declare their faith was only meant for official work and would not harm religious minorities.

"The declaration of religion by all citizens is not for public consumption, but only for official work to facilitate the religious minorities in education, employment and all other sectors," said ministry spokesperson Sajjad Qamar.

He said that there is "zero chance" of religious persecution of minorities in light of the High Court decision and stressed that the government is committed to ensuring the safety of all citizens, regardless of religion, caste or creed.

He further claimed that the declaration of religion on official documents would actually help religious minorities "secure their five percent quota in all government jobs."

Anjum Paul, a Christian social activist and professor at a public university, expressed concern about the new requirement, saying it may create complexities for the minorities.

He pointed out that no other country in the world requires citizens to declare their religion in official documents and insisted that it was the duty of the government to file a review petition against the verdict in the Supreme Court.home World Former Irish president calls on pope to bring down Church's 'walls of misogyny'

Former Irish president Mary McAleese has called on Pope Francis to "tear down" the Catholic Church's "walls of misogyny" and allow women to have greater decision-making roles in the Church.

During last week's symposium of Catholic women called "Why Women Matter," McAleese criticized the Church's ban on female priesthood, saying the policy had "locked women out of any significant role in the Church's leadership, doctrinal development and authority structure."

"We are here to shout, to bring down our Church's walls of misogyny," the former president said, adding that the Church's stance 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?" said McAleese as who served as Irish president between 1997 and 2011.

McAleese, who has an openly homosexual son, also railed against the Church's stance on homosexuality, saying its characterization of same-sex orientation as "disordered" can lead to harmful internal conflicts in homosexual Catholics.

The Women's Day event, which was attended by hundreds of people and seen by many others around the world via web-streaming, had to be moved from its traditional location in the Vatican to the Jesuit Center in Rome after the permit for the symposium was withdrawn when organizers added controversial speakers without permission.

On Wednesday, McAleese had described the Catholic Church as an "empire of misogyny" and complained that there are few leadership roles that are available to women.

She warned the pope that the exodus of women from the Church would continue unless he comes up with a "credible strategy" to give women equal roles in the Church.

"Failure to include women as equals has deprived the Church of fresh and innovative discernment; it has consigned it to recycled thinking among a hermetically sealed cosy male clerical elite flattered and rarely challenged," McAleese said, as reported by Life Site News.

U.S. Cardinal Kevin Farrell had requested that three gay rights campaigners, including McAleese, be removed from the event, saying it was "not appropriate" for the three to be taking part in the conference.

The Irish-born cardinal, who leads the dicastery for laity, family and life, said that the event in the Vatican presumes papal support, but maintained that he was open to dialogue with the group.

Other female speakers at the event included Polish theologian Zuzanna Radzik, who said that she struggles to make priests and bishops in her homeland take her seriously as an intellectual on par with men.

Many in the audience were nuns who cheered on the speakers when they demanded more rights for women, but there were no official representatives from the Vatican.home World Hindu mob attack Christians on their way to camp in eastern India

A group of Christians who were riding a bus on their way to a camp in eastern India were reportedly assaulted by a Hindu mob after they revealed the purpose of their trip to their fellow passengers.

According to Morning Star News, about 60 to 70 Hindu extremists were waiting for the Christians when they arrived at the bus station in Bettiah, Bihar state on Feb. 26.

The mob was reportedly contacted by a Hindu nationalist, who had argued about conversion with Christians during the trip.

A native missionary for the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS) named D. Joseph, as well as another Christian, Baldev Singh, were separated from the group before they were assaulted by the mob, according to Rev. Mariosh Joseph, coordinator of GEMS in Bihar.

D. Joseph reportedly sustained several internal injuries and was sent to the hospital in a state of deep shock. Singh also suffered multiple injuries, including internal damage to his ear, causing some loss of hearing.

"It was evident from the mob that it was a pre-planned attack," Mariosh Joseph told Morning Star News. "There was a media person present to record and publish the entire episode in the media, along with the Hindu extremist mob," he added.

The Hindu extremists had reportedly interrogated the Christians and accused them of using money to lure poor villagers into converting to Christianity, according to GEMS zonal superintendent, identified only as Pastor Palanivelu.

Palanivelu said that the mob beat the Christians "mercilessly" in a public place as the other members of the group cried out for help, but no one came to their rescue.

When traffic officers tried to help the Christians, they were overpowered by the mob and other police officers had to be called to put the situation under control, the pastor said.

"Some of the women got so frightened that they fled the site and returned home from the bus station itself without attending the camp," Palanivelu said, noting that at least 11 women went on to the camp.

The police have reportedly refused to file a First Information Report about the incident, but they have recorded the statements of D. Joseph and Singh and a Medico-Legal Case has been filed against unknown persons.

GEMS, which works primarily in the state of Bihar, noted that there have been 12 cases of persecutions against its native missionaries last year, and there have already been three cases since January.

Persecution watchdog group Open Doors has ranked India as the 11th country where Christians experience the most persecution, up from 15th the previous year.

The organization noted that the most of persecution of Christians in India comes from a variety of Hindu radical groups and organizations such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiv Sena and Vishya Hindu Parishad (VHP).home World Hindu nationalists attack 5 churches with help of policeman

A Hindu nationalist group carried out attacks on five churches in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Sunday with the help of a police officer.

According to World Watch Monitor, members of the Tamil Nadu-based organization Hindu Munnani, led by their district secretary, Thangam Venkatesh, started raiding churches early in the morning and assaulted Christians as they worshipped.

"At about 9am, Venkatesh went to the prayer hall and abused the pastor, Ravi Jacob. He used extremely vulgar language, and then turned on his wife, Persis," said John J.Y. Arul, Chairman of Madurai District Pastors' Fellowship.

"The extremists were aggressive and uncontrollable. In front of children and others in the church, they savagely beat up Jacob and Persis. They removed Persis' saree and repeatedly kicked her in the face," he added.

Arul narrated that the police officer had started to take part in abusing the Christians when the pastor's wife cried out for help.

"I can't repeat the words they used against Persis. We were shocked by their inhuman behaviour. When Persis was crying for help, the police guard with the Munnani leader asked her to 'prostrate herself at the feet of Thangam Venkatesh and plead for his forgiveness," Arul continued.

The mob went on to attack four other churches, where they stripped and beat other Christians. Three women, aged between 23 and 51, were stripped and beaten when the group attacked the Bethesda Worship Center.

When one victim tried to file a complaint with the police, she was told that they could "only take one complaint per church" and the pastor had already lodged a complaint.

The mob also issued a threat against Bethesda's pastor, Jerome Jagatheesan, saying "you will be brutally murdered in five days."

World Watch Monitor reported that complaints about the attacks were made at Koodal Pudur and Alanganallur police stations, but the police refused to register the case. A Community Service Register receipt was issued by the Koodal Pudur police, but they reportedly concealed the identity of Thangam Venkatesh and the Hindu Munnani members.

Around 200 pastors later demanded the filing of a First Information Report against the Hindu Munnani activists.

The attacks against Christians in India has been continuously rising in recent years. This year, India has been ranked on Open Doors' World Watch List as the 11th country where Christians experience the most persecution, up from 15th the previous year.

Open Doors noted that the source of persecution of Christians in India depends on location, but most of it comes from Hindu radical groups and organizations such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Shiv Sena and Vishya Hindu Parishad (VHP).home US Indiana bill requiring inspections on all abortion clinics heads to governor's desk

A bill that would require inspections on all abortion clinics in Indiana is now headed to Gov. Eric Holcomb's desk after it was passed by the Senate earlier this week.

Senate Bill 340 was approved by the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 37a9 and was passed by the House last month by a 67a26 vote.

The measure would require annual inspections on abortion facilities and would mandate hospitals, doctors and clinics to report any complications during an abortion, including hemorrhaging, infection, respiratory arrest, blood clots, incomplete abortion and others.

It would also require abortionists to report if a woman who wants to obtain an abortion expresses a desire to do so because she was abused, harassed or coerced.

Hospitals and abortion facilities applying for operational licenses would also be required to disclose whether they have been shut down or barred from obtaining legal documents because they have failed to comply with health and safety regulations, according to The Daily Caller.

The legislation also included a provision that would allow fire stations to install climate controlled padded incubators, where a person can drop off a baby so that they can be adopted, rather than abandon them in an unsafe place.

Critics have argued that the bill would allow the government to meddle in personal affairs while miring abortion clinics and medical providers in bureaucratic red tape. They also claimed that abortion has a low complication rate and questioned why the same requirements are not applied to other medical procedures.

The measure has been hailed by Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter after it was approved by the House in late February.

"The days of abortion businesses hiding injuries to women, or looking the other way when women are coerced into abortion, will hopefully come to an end with this important bill," said Fichter.

"The inclusion of safe haven baby boxes in this bill will be key to saving the lives of babies who might otherwise be at-risk of dying as a result of abandonment. We are thankful for those who took the lead on this issue years ago and have steadfastly moved this idea forward," he added.

Holcomb has not indicated whether he supports or opposes the bill, but he has signed a pro-life bill that arrived at his desk last year.

Texas-based abortion chain Whole Women's Health had attempted to open a clinic in South Bend, Indiana, but the Indiana Department of Health refused to grant the clinic a license in January, saying the abortion chain made "inaccurate statements" and "failed to meet the requirement that the Applicant is of reputable and responsible character."home World Irish government approves wording of referendum on repeal of abortion law

The Irish government has approved the wording of the referendum that would determine whether or not to repeal Eight Amendment of the country's constitution, which guarantees the right to life of the unborn child.

In the referendum that has been scheduled to take place in May, the voters will be asked whether they agree with the statement: "Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancies."

According to Catholic Herald, the Eighth Amendment will be repealed if voters approve, paving the way for the Irish government to liberalize the country's abortion laws.

The ballot wording was announced by Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on International Women's Day, saying the referendum was about "trusting women to decide, in the early weeks of their pregnancy, what's right for them and their families."

Dr. Ruth Cullen of the Pro-Life Campaign had criticized the government's decision to release the ballot wording on International Women's Day, saying it was "hijacking" the day to push for abortion.

"Today should be a day about looking for ways to work together to find positive alternatives to abortion. It should be a day that we also celebrate the bond of mother and baby and challenge those in power to provide the necessary supports so that no woman ever feels she has no choice but to go down the road of abortion," she said.

"Instead International Women's Day 2018 is being used as part of the government's choreography to introduce abortion on demand into Ireland. The way the day is being exploited is a total betrayal of women and their unborn babies," she added.

Apart from the wording of the referendum, the government is also planning to release a document that would set out how it intends to regulate abortion.

The Irish Times reported that the document highlights 21 policy principles that would inform the drafting of legislation on abortion.

Under the proposal, abortions will be allowed up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, but a time period must elapse between "between the initial assessment by a medical practitioner and the termination of a pregnancy being carried out."

Abortions after the first trimester could be performed in cases when a mother's health or life is at risk as well as cases of fetal conditions that could result in death before or shortly after birth.

Government sources have reportedly stated that late-term abortions would still be illegal as most pregnancies were viable after the 23rd week.

The document will also commit to the decriminalization of women who obtain an abortion, but those who are found to perform the procedure outside the law will still face a 14-year prison sentence, according to Irish Times.home World Mob attacks Pakistani Christians for helping build church wall

A Christian family in northeast Pakistan was attacked by a group of armed men last Sunday while they were helping to build a boundary wall around their church.

According to World Watch Monitor, the five members of the Christian family were injured after they were attacked by around 20 armed men as they build the wall around the Pakistan Gospel Assemblies church in Yousufwala village, on the outskirts of the Punjabi city of Sahiwal.

"Our church elder, George Masih, who is 70, was overseeing masons and labourers who were constructing the wall. We were praying [inside the church] when we heard shouting and yelling, and, when we rushed outside, we saw about 20 men, armed with clubs and axes, [who] were beating Masih and others," said the church's pastor, who cannot be named for security reasons.

The pastor said that he believes that the assailants were linked to a local landlord. He went on to note that the land was originally designated for communal purposes, but he said that they later obtained permission to build the church on the land. He said that the church has a copy of the legal agreement, which he said included church-related infrastructure such as a boundary wall.

Among those injured in the attack was George Masih's son, Babar, who said that his father had struggled for years to obtain the land where the church is currently situated.

"The attackers told us to stop building the wall as the land belonged to them. But we told them that this belongs to the church. At this they descended into fighting with us. Then our women tried to intervene but they too were beaten and their clothes were torn," he narrated.

Sami Minhas, chairman of the Muthida (United) Christian Movement in Sahiwal, said that the police are treating the attack as a land dispute between two parties even though the incident took place during a worship service.

He claimed that members of the local police force have told him that the Christians should not file a case against the assailants because it could create further tensions between local Muslims and Christians.

According to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), the mud church has been present on the property for over 20 years, but the building was built in brick three years ago. The partial installation of a boundary wall last week had reportedly triggered local animosity.

The Station House Officer (SHO) Muhammad Asif and District Police Officer (DPO) Atif Akram have launched an investigation and have managed to find and arrest the perpetrators of the attack, but seven of the assailants are yet to be arrested.

On March 5, George Masih had presented his landownership papers during a meeting of community elders and the police had confirmed that the land belonged to him and that the church was permitted to use the land.home US Oklahoma House approves 'guns in churches' bill

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a legislation that aims to expand civil lawsuit immunity to places of worship when someone uses a gun or deadly force in self-defense.

House Bill 2632, approved by a vote of 62a21, would expand the state's "Stand Your Ground" law by adding "place of worship" to the list of establishments that are shielded from lawsuits stemming from an accidental injury or death by someone who was acting in self-defense on that property.

"This is necessary to protect the place of worship from basically being sued out of existence. It's proactive, and I think it's necessary based on what we've seen in the past," said state Rep. Greg Babinec (R-Cushing), who authored the legislation.

The bill defines a place of worship as any building, structure or office space owned, leased, rented or borrowed and used for worship services and religious activities, but Babinec said that it could also include areas outside a church.

KFOR reported that the measure will only apply to places of worship that allow conceal-and-carry-permitted weapons, and would not force churches to allow weapons on their premises.

Critics of the bill have urged other lawmakers to carefully read the language, particularly Section F on page 3, which states that a person who uses deadly force is "immune from criminal prosecution and civil action."

According to KOCO News 5, law enforcement officers will be able to use standard procedures to investigate an incident, but they are not allowed to arrest the person who used defensive force, unless they have found that there is a probable cause that the use of force was unlawful.

Additionally, anyone pointing a weapon at a perpetrator in self-defense or in order to thwart, stop deter a forcible felony or attempted forcible felony will not be found guilty of committing a criminal act.

Rep. Collin Walke (D-Oklahoma City) had questioned whether anyone would be held responsible if an innocent person was injured during a shooting incident and said he wants protection added in for anyone who is shot.

"If you have a gun in a house of worship, somebody comes in and they start shooting, and then you shoot at the intruder and miss, and they hit your child, your daughter, your son, your wife, my wife, who's a minister, I can't pursue that person in the court of law. That's what this bill says," Walke explained.

Babinec, however, assured that his legislation cannot be used as a defense for anyone who accidentally shoots innocent people.home US Oklahoma Senate approves bill that seeks to protect faith-based adoption agencies

The Oklahoma Senate has passed a measure that would protect faith-based organizations from being forced to place a child for adoption or foster care even if it violates their religious or moral convictions.

Senate Bill 1140, sponsored by Republican Sen. Greg Treat, was approved by the Senate on Tuesday by a vote of 35a9.

The legislation would ensure protections for child-placing agencies that refuse place children with adoptive parents who do not meet the agency's religious or moral standards.

The bill must be approved by the Oklahoma House of Representatives before it heads for the desk of Gov. Mary Fallin. If signed into law, Oklahoma will join seven other states that provide similar protections for faith-based agencies.

Similar laws were passed in Alabama, South Dakota and Texas last year, while other measures are currently pending in Georgia and Kansas.

Oklahoma law currently does not address whether faith-based adoption agencies can reject potential adoptive parents based on religious grounds, and some agencies already do not place children with same-sex couples or single people. Treat said that the measure would protect such agencies from a potential lawsuit.

"We want to build the levee before the flood. Right now there are no pending lawsuits, but we know they are popping up everywhere all around the country," Treat said, as reported by the Associated Press.

Treat expressed his belief that the measure would increase the number of adoptions in Oklahoma. He noted that it would allow agencies that have statements of faith to be able to contract with the state to provide much-needed homes and foster care.

The senator added that the legislation would get more participants in the system and would not preclude anyone from participating.

Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson expressed concern that the bill would deny children the right to a loving family.

"We've got 9,000 young people in the system who are looking for loving homes. We're going to keep more kids in the system and less families from adopting," he said.

Casey White, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, contended that the state and many private adoption agencies welcome same-sex couples as long as they can provide a stable home for the child and meet other requirements, such as background checks.

"We certify foster and adoptive families who are LGBTQ all the time. Even if a private adoption agency decided not to certify someone, there are many options for families to choose from," she said.home World Ontario court sides with Christian couple who lost foster kids for refusing to tell Easter Bunny is real

An Ontario court has ruled that the charter rights of a Christian couple were violated when a child welfare agency removed two girls from their foster home because they refused to lie about the existence of the Easter Bunny.

Derek and Frances Baars, who describe themselves as a Christian couple with "strong religious faith," sued the Children's Aid Society (CAS) of Hamilton in April 2017, alleging that an aid worker had insisted that they tell the two girls in their care that the Easter Bunny is real, despite their beliefs that lying is wrong.

The court has heard that CAS support worker Tracey Lindsay had acknowledged that the girls, aged three and four, looked well cared for in all respects. But the Baars claimed that the CAS worker had told them that it was part of their duty to teach the children about the Easter Bunny.

CAS had claimed that the children were not removed over the couple's refusal to lie about the Easter Bunny, but for refusing to support the birth mother's wishes and failing to be respectful of the cultural needs of the children.

The Baars, who lived in Hamilton at the time but have since moved to Edmonton, sought a declaration that their rights were violated and that they not be blackballed from future fostering, but they did not seek monetary compensation in their lawsuit.

Superior Court Judge A.J. Goodman sided with the Baars and declared that the welfare agency had violated the couple's right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression when the children were taken from their home and their fostering agreement was terminated due to the dispute.

"There is ample evidence to support the fact that the children were removed because the Baars refused to either tell or imply that the Easter Bunny was delivering chocolate to the Baars' home," Goodman stated in his decision on Tuesday, as reported by The Canadian Press.

"I am more than satisfied that the society actions interfered substantially with the Baars' religious beliefs," he continued.

The judge had found that the Baars had allowed the children to enjoy the holidays such as Easter and Christmas, even if they were not able to "positively perpetuate the existence of the fictitious characters that are associated with those holidays" because of their religious beliefs.

Goodman further noted that there are times when child welfare workers need to intervene, such as in cases of physical or sexual abuse, but a dispute over the Easter Bunny is not one of them.

Frances Baars welcomed the judgment saying: "We are very thankful for it, that we've been vindicated. Our names have been cleared and we don't have that hanging over us anymore."

The Christian couple said that they are trying to adopt a child, and they hope that Goodman's decision would help them in that process.

In light of the Baars' wishes, Goodman had ordered Hamilton CAS to "fully apprise" any agency that is considering the couple's suitability to become adoptive parents.home US Parkland shooter asks for Bible in solitary confinement

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz has reportedly asked for a Bible after spending restless nights in solitary confinement in Broward County Jail.

Documents obtained by NBC News on Wednesday have described the 19-year-old shooter's behavior and movements in prison since he confessed to the mass shooting that has left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Observation reports have indicated that Cruz has spent most of his time lying awake and staring at the ceiling.

Cruz, who remains segregated from other inmates for his own protection, is reportedly having some trouble sleeping at times and has requested to read a Bible in his cell.

The report noted that the shooting suspect "[t]wists and turns in bunk. Does not sleep. Stares at wall in deep thought, eyes closed, appears to be resting not asleep."

The report, which covers the period from Feb. 17 to 24, indicated that the shooter's request for a Bible came 10 days after the mass shooting and on the same day that he was visited by some family members.

Cruz has been placed on suicide watch, but he has been quiet, "cooperative" and taking his medication, according to records. He has reportedly eaten most of the meals he has been served ever since he was transferred from the infirmary to the jail.

After the mass shooting, Cruz had escaped from authorities by filing out of the school with terrified students, but he was arrested shortly after the incident. He has since been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and 17 counts of murder in the first degree.

Cruz has been found to have posted photos of himself with guns and making threats, and he has reportedly expressed his intention in a YouTube comment to become a "professional school shooter."

The FBI and local police have reportedly received several warnings about Cruz's behavior, but the agency has failed to follow up.

Investigators have said that Cruz had claimed to hear voices that he described as "demons," giving him instructions on how to gun down his victims.

The Feb. 14 mass shooting has sparked renewed calls for gun control, including from Parkland students who are demanding a ban on the AR-15 rifle that police say Cruz was armed with.

In response to the massacre, the Florida Legislature passed a school safety bill that allows teachers and other school employees to carry handguns. The bill also raises the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and extends a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns. Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill on Friday, marking his break with the National Rifle Association, a fierce opponent of gun control.home US Pastor says porn star allegations against Trump are 'totally irrelevant' to his evangelical supporters

Evangelical Pastor Robert Jeffress has argued that evangelical supporters of President Donald Trump are not hypocrites despite their continuing support for the president amid allegations that he had an affair with an adult film star.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Jeffress contended that the allegations against Trump were "totally irrelevant" to his evangelical supporters.

"Evangelicals know they're not compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president. And let's be clear, evangelicals still believe in the commandment 'Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star,'" said Jeffress, who leads the First Baptist Dallas megachurch.

"Whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him," he continued.

Jeffress, a member of Trump's evangelical advisory board, argued that evangelicals knew that they "weren't voting for an altar boy" during the 2016 presidential election, and insisted that they supported the business magnate because of his "policies and strong leadership."

"We are all sinners, we all need forgiveness, [and] that forgiveness is available through Christ for anyone who asks. And whether the president needs that forgiveness for this particular allegation, whether he's asked for it, is between him, his family and his God," the pastor said.

Jeffress said that he would never walk away from Trump because of his friendship with him, but added that if the president would suddenly change his policies and was found to be in an adulterous relationship today, it would "cause for many people a problem."

The allegations against Trump came last month amid reports that his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 as part of a nondisclosure agreement that ensured she would not talk about the alleged sexual encounter with the business magnate in 2006. Cohen had reportedly acknowledged that he had made the payment, but he never revealed what it was for.

Daniels, who was born Stephanie Clifford, had claimed in a 2011 interview with In Touch magazine that the sexual relationship with Trump began in 2006, when his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant with Barron.

In the past few months, both Trump and Daniels had both denied the alleged affair in an apparent attempt to comply with the nondisclosure agreement.

The adult film star, however, had recently sued the president in an effort to void the nondisclosure agreement. She claimed in her lawsuit that the agreement that she signed was not valid because it was never signed by Trump.home World Professor removes student from religious studies class for transgender arguments

A professor at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) has reportedly removed a student from a religious studies class after challenging her transgender and feminist arguments.

Lake Ingle, a senior at IUP, claims that he has been permanently removed from a class called "Special Topics In Christianity: Self, Sin, And Salvation" after he challenged the premise of a Feb. 28 class discussion based on a TED Talks video featuring transgender woman Paula Stone Williams.

The student said that he raised his objections about the discussion because the professor, Dr. Alison Downie, had reportedly told the class to talk about "the reality of white male privilege," systemic male sexism, and concepts like "mansplaining" based on Williams' talk.

"I protested to the use of anecdotal evidence to then start a discussion and trying to reference the material or the speaker's account as if they were facts. The professor made it very clear that these things (White male privilege, mansplaining, etc.) were ... well, she seemed to me that she made it clear that they were a reality and not part of an ongoing discussion," Ingle told The Daily Caller.

According to Ingle, Downie initially opened up the discussion only to female students and instructed the male students to remain silent until the female students had their chance to speak.

When no student spoke after about a minute, Ingle said he gave a "passionate" rebuttal of the premise of the proposed discussion, but he claimed the professor tried to silence him "because I am not a woman."

The senior student said that the class went on without disruption after he spoke, but the next day, Downie gave him an Academic Integrity Referral Form and Document Agreement, which describe his alleged violations and the disciplinary terms to which the professor asked Ingle to agree.

The Christian Post reported that the document accused Ingle of being disrespectful when he raised his objections to the proposed class discussion and that he talked out of turn and had "angry outbursts" when he was required to listen to a transgender speaker talk about white male privilege and sexism.

The form also claimed that Ingle was making "disrespectful references to the validity of trans identity and experience."

The agreement asked Ingle to issue an apology in front of the class on March 8 for each of the "disrespectful behaviors" described in the form and requires him to "listen in silence" as students in class share how they felt during his "disruptive outbursts."

Ingle refused to sign the documents, claiming that Downie's account of the incident included statements and claims that he did not make.

After his refusal to agree to the disciplinary terms, Provost Dr. Timothy Moerland sent Ingle a letter saying he had been barred from Downie's class and he would not be able to return until the academic integrity charges against him had been adjudicated.

A hearing on the matter had taken place before the school's Academic Integrity Board on March 9 and a ruling is expected to be released on March 19.home US Public funds can't be used to repair church's stained glass windows, Massachusetts Supreme Court rules

A historic church in Massachusetts can receive taxpayer money in some circumstances, but it is not allowed to use the funds to preserve its stained glass windows, the state's high court has ruled.

In a ruling issued on Friday, the high court clarified conditions under which religious institutions can receive public funds in a case brought by a group of residents opposing preservation grants for a local church in Acton.

In 2016, Acton Town Meeting members approved Community Preservation Act grants amounting to $51,237 for the restoration of the stained glass windows of Acton Congregational Church.

Another $49,500 was given to the church to develop a master plan to study the structural integrity of its main building and two adjacent houses that it rents out, The Boston Globe reported.

Local residents, represented by the Washington-based organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State, opposed the grants, arguing that giving taxpayer money to the church violated the constitution.

The town, on the other hand, contended that the grants are not unconstitutional because it is supporting the preservation of a historic structure, not furthering a religious purpose. Attorneys representing the town pointed out that more than 300 projects involving religious institutions have already been funded through the state preservation program.

A Superior Court judge had previously denied the residents' request to block the grants while the litigation was pending. However, the Supreme Judicial Court reversed the order, granting the plaintiff's request to block the payments as the court proceedings continue.

The Supreme Court has asked the lower court to consider three factors when examining the constitutionality of such grants.

The high court stated that the judge must consider "whether a motivating purpose of each grant is to aid the church, whether the grant will have the effect of substantially aiding the church and whether the grant avoids the risks of the political and economic abuses that prompted passage of the anti-aid amendment."

SJC Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants wrote in his ruling that public funds can be given to churches lawfully for historic preservation in certain cases, such as when "historical events of great significance occurred in the church, or where the grants are limited to preserving church property with a primarily secular purpose."

However, the judge cautioned that the grants in the Acton case could violate the rights of town residents who do not adhere to the church's beliefs.

Gants said that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in challenging the stained glass grant, but added that "further discovery" is required for assessing the master plan grant.

Eric Rothschild, an attorney with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said that the plaintiffs were pleased with the decision.

"The court's decision could be fairly read as urging the trial court to pay attention to the extent this money is going to the core of the church, the sanctuary," he said.home US Secularist groups distance themselves from Lawrence Krauss following sexual misconduct allegations

Major secularist organizations are cutting ties with Arizona State University (ASU) professor Lawrence Krauss after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment.

In an article published by Buzzfeed on Feb. 22, Krauss was accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior over the last decade "including groping women, ogling and making sexist jokes to undergrads, and telling an employee at ASU, where he is a tenured professor, that he was going to buy her birth control so she didn't inconvenience him with maternity leave."

Krauss, who is known for his work on the symbolic "Doomsday Clock," has denied all the accusations against him, calling them "false and misleading allegations."

ASU officials decided to put Krauss on paid leave and announced that the school has began a review of the his conduct. The theoretical physicist has since resigned from his post as the chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' board.

On Friday, the Washington, D.C.-based American Humanist Association (AHA) announced that it has removed Krauss from its pool of featured speakers and has also considered rescinding his 2015 Humanist of the Year Award.

The Center for Inquiry, based in New York, also announced that it is cutting ties with Krauss, saying it has "zero-tolerance for sexual harassment."

"Serious allegations have been raised regarding Lawrence Krauss, and we suspend our association with him pending further information," the organization said in a tweet last week.

Last Thursday, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation announced that its leaders had voted to cut ties with Krauss soon after the Buzzfeed article was published.

The group stated that it has found "well-documented allegations of sexual misconduct against Lawrence Krauss" to contradict "FFRF's commitment to feminist values."

The FFRF noted that Krauss had joined the board of the organization two years ago, but it stressed that the position was "purely an honorific."

The Buzzfeed article noted that many of the women accusing Krauss have requested anonymity for fear of professional or legal retaliation from the theoretical physicist.

One of the professor's accusers, Melody Hensley, claimed that he invited her to dinner after they met at a CFI event in November 2006. She recounted that they planned to eat at a restaurant at the Washington D.C. hotel where Krauss was staying, but he had asked her to come up instead to his room while he wrapped up some work.

At one point, Hensley said that the professor got very close to her face and had pushed her onto the bed beneath him. Krauss forcibly kissed Hensley and tried to pull down the crotch of her tights as she struggled to push him off, the Buzzfeed article narrated. When the professor pulled out a condom, Hensley was somehow able to break free and storm out of the room.

Krauss has reportedly told Buzzfeed that the incident in the hotel room was consensual, but Hensley insisted that it was not. "It was definitely predatory. I didn't want that to happen. It wasn't consensual," she said.

Some skeptic blogs have reportedly published some of the other allegations against Krauss, but were quickly taken down for fear of legal action.home World Turkish assault on Syrian city of Afrin could kill 1 million civilians, Christian activists warn

Christian activists have warned that about a million Syrian civilians are facing certain death in northwestern Afrin because of assault being carried out by Turkey and its allies.

Since launching the offensive on the Afrin enclave on Jan. 20, Turkey-led rebels have advanced to the outskirts of the city, sparking fears that it could become besieged. More than 2,000 civilians have reportedly fled from the enclave to the area of Nubul to avoid the Turkish-led advance, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Two Christian activists, Bassam Ishak and Lauren Homer, are now appealing to U.S. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials to stop the offensive, warning that the failure to act would jeopardize the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria.

Ishak and Homer have accused Turkey of committing "war crimes" and "ethnic cleansing" for launching the campaign in Afrin.

"Turkey has already 'cleared' villages of Yazidis, Kurds, Christians and others, promising to replace them with Syrian refugees. In fact, Afrin already has enlarged its population by 50 percent to house (internally displaced) Syrians, who are among those being killed, injured or captured," they said, as reported by Catholic News Service.

The activists are demanding the implementation of the Feb. 24 U.N. Security Council resolution requiring a cease-fire by Turkey in Afrin, as well as a no-fly zone, enforced by U.S. drones or warplanes, over the enclave. They are also calling for humanitarian aid and safe passage out for civilians.

Additionally, the activists are asking for mediation of a long-term cease-fire and withdrawal of Turkish troops to their own borders.

"This U.N. and U.S. and NATO inaction will go down in infamy as an inconceivable abandonment of our 'allies' the SDF and the FNS. Genocide seems to be only something we are interested in in retrospect, to mourn and wring our hands over," said Homer.

The Kurdish council that governs Afrin have also called on the U.N. Security Council to establish a no-fly zone over the enclave and forcibly respond to the Turkish offensive.

Turkey has explained that it is battling Kurdish "terrorists" to justify the offensive in Afrin, which has been largely untouched by Syria's deadly conflict until recently.

The enclave has been hailed for its success in creating a nonsectarian, pluralist, inclusive government system that grants religious freedom and equal rights to all of its residents. About 60 percent of the Afrin enclave has been captured by pro-Turkish forces since Jan. 20, according to SOHR.home World Turkish prosecutor seeks life sentence for jailed American Pastor Andrew Brunson

A Turkish prosecutor is demanding a life sentence for American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been detained since Oct. 7, 2016 over his alleged links with an armed terrorist organization.

Brunson, who has formally led Izmir Resurrection Church for over 22 years, has been charged with being a "member and executive of the terrorist group" accused of being behind the failed coup attempt in Turkey last year.

According to Al-Monitor, Turkey has blamed U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah GAlen for the coup attempt, and the government has been demanding his extradition.

However, the U.S. has refused to hand over the cleric, who is now living in Pennsylvania, on the grounds that Turkey has not provided enough evidence to prove its claims against him.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a statement condemning the new indictment against Brunson and called on President Donald Trump and members of his administration to "redouble their ongoing efforts to secure Pastor Brunson's release."

"No stone should be left unturned in our efforts on behalf of this unjustly imprisoned American. We call again for his immediate release and, if this is not forthcoming, for the administration and Congress to impose targeted sanctions against those involved in this miscarriage of justice," said USCIRF Vice Chairs Sandra Jolley and Kristina Arriaga.

On Friday, Brunson's daughter, Jacqueline, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council, saying the allegations against her father was 'absurd" and that he had been wrongfully imprisoned.

"Turkey should not get away with holding my father one more day," she said, urging the U.N. to do what it can to help him be released.

The indictment came as the U.S. Congress considers imposing new sanction Turkey for the alleged unlawful detention of U.S. citizens and Turkish employees working at U.S. diplomatic missions in the country.

The proposal involves visa bans on Turkish officials that were deemed to have participated in decisions that led to the incarcerations of U.S. citizens.

Congress reportedly backed down from introducing the measure after the State Department pushed back in an attempt to repair relations with Ankara.

TurkeyaU.S. relations have steadily deteriorated over U.S. support for Kurdish militants in Syria and the detention of two Turkish employees working for U.S. missions.

In September 2017, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had suggested that Brunson could be freed if the U.S. would hand over Gulen.

"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 at the time.home World University's refusal to screen ex-gay film sparks protest

Protesters gathered outside a Northern Ireland university on Tuesday over its refusal to screen a film that highlights the story of people who have left homosexuality.

Core Issues Trust (CIT), a charity supporting gay men and women "who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression," wanted to screen the film "Voices of the Silenced" in a private invitation-only event at The Queen's University in Belfast earlier this month. However, the charity said that the university declined its request "without reason."

The organization expressed its plans to file a complaint with the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland over what it described as "viewpoint discrimination" and refusal of services by Queen's University to those representing a valid ex-gay minority group.

"Clearly in Northern Ireland, in line with the rest of the U.K., Christian freedom is restricted to freedom of worship alone. It is an illusion to believe that Christians have freedom of religion or even freedom of conscience," CIT CEO Mike Davidson said after the news of the university's rejection.

"If it is up to the politicians and the leaders of our institutions, Christian values have no place in the public space, which is reserved for the dogmatic religion of secularism, and promotion of LGBT values which alone define diversity and inclusiveness," he added.

The film drew controversy in February after Vue Piccadilly Cinema canceled a reservation for the screening of the movie. At the time, more than 600 people have reportedly signed a petition calling on the cinema not to show the film, claiming that the project was promoting a "gay cure."

Following the cancellation reservation at Vue, the premiere of the film went ahead after producers were offered a conference room at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster.

The documentary features the testimonies of 15 people "emerging out of homosexual lifestyles" as well as interviews with 18 experts, some of whom "explode the myth of neutral secularism and expose its dangers for society broadly and for Christians specifically."

The screening of the film at the Ballynahinch Baptist Church in County Down has been met with protests on Tuesday. During the screening, about 100 protesters carrying placards and flags picketed the church, with many saying they wanted to show "solidarity with our LGBT community."

The protesters were joined by Sinn FAin assembly member Emma Rogan, who insisted that "conversion therapies should be banned."

Irish News reported that Davidson had previously spoken of how he had previously undergone counseling for homosexuality. During his marriage to his wife, Lynone, Davidson claims to have managed to reject his homosexual urges through a combination of "counselling, prayer and psychotherapy," and claims to be able to help others do the same."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A thousand Christians from around the globe warn of 'death-dealing forces' in the world today

More than 1,000 evangelicals and missionaries from the World Council of Churches' conference on world mission and evangelism (CWME) have issued a 'Call to Discipleship' warning of 'death-dealing forces' and the 'shocking accumulation of wealth' in the world today.

The Christians from different traditions around the world, who had gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, for the conference, said in a statement: 'Despite some glimmers of hope, we had to reckon with death-dealing forces that are shaking the world order and inflicting suffering on many. We observed the shocking accumulation of wealth due to one global financial system, which enriches few and impoverishes many.'

The statement added that millions of people are being marginalised by the 'global imperial system' which had 'made the financial market one of the idols of our time and has strengthened cultures of domination and discrimination'.

The call said that 'we are called to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ  the fullness of life, the repentance and forgiveness of sin, and the promise of eternal life  in word and deed, in a violent world in which many are sacrificed to the idols of death and many have not yet heard the gospel'.

The statement, issued on the final day of the CWME which ran from March 8-13, came under the umbrella ofthe World Council of Churches which includes many Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant denominations.

Though the Catholic Church is not a member, Pope Francis sent a message to the conference endorsing its theme, 'Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship'. The pope said that it 'powerfully reminds us that the Lord's mandate to bring the gospel to all people is not a matter of power and influence in the world. Rather, it is a pressing call to discipleship which manifests itself in unfailing love of neighbour, whoever that may be. By transforming people, beginning with each one of us, the gospel transforms the world.'

Francis continued: 'I pray that the Holy Spirit will fill your hearts with the joy of the Gospel, the Good News of salvation in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To evangelise is to offer a convincing witness to this extraordinary truth. I pray that the Conference will remind Christians of the magnificent, unique and challenging responsibility we have to share this transforming message. God's word is unimaginable in its power. The Gospel speaks of a seed which, once sown, grows by itself, even as the farmer sleeps.'

Meanwhile, in a video message to the CWME, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said that there was 'no question about the importance of world mission and evangelism'. He went on: 'Everybody is talking about transformation... And I know in my own life, the biggest transformation is to be born again. That's the truth. And it is the Holy Spirit who does that. It is not us. We can't twist people's arms to it. We can't make it happen: it is the Holy Spirit moving who does that.'

The Anglican Communion's director for mission, Rev Canon John Kafwanka, organised a meeting for Anglican Communion delegates, with the archbishops of Tanzania and Kenya.

He told the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS): 'Many people said that they felt a high sense of hope especially that many leaders, particularly in the Anglican Communion, had realised the need to take intentional discipleship as central to being church and being Christian.

'It has been a remarkable experience being here and sensing the moving the world of the Holy Spirit sweeping across the world calling the whole people of God to live a Jesus shaped life that transforms communities, nations and the world, and for continuous equipping of whole people of God.''Arrow' season 6 release date, spoilers news: Nyssa Al Ghul issues warning about League of Assassin's rampage

Someone from the past will return in the upcoming episode of CW's "Arrow" season 6, and she bears some bad news for the people of Star City. In episode 16, titled "The Thanatos Guild," a mysterious heirloom will be the center of conflict as the League of Assassins are on a mission to steal that item, which could end up as bloody.

According to the latest promo for "Arrow" season 6 episode 16, Nyssa Al Ghul (guest star Katrina Law) will return to Star City to personally warn the people about the arrival of the League of Assassins. Specifically, Nyssa wants Thea (Willa Holland) to be extra careful, given that the League of Assassins is targetting a mysterious object that was last seen in the hands of Thea's father, Malcolm (John Barrowman). Even though Thea may not have what the League of Assassins are after, the group believes that it is in her possession, or she has an information regarding its whereabouts.

It looks like the League of Assassins is determined to get the item, putting Thea's life at risk. Based on the teaser, the item is a large golden box, and the group led by Athena (guest star Kyra Zagorsky) is willing to kill anyone for it. No one has an idea of what the mysterious box is for, probably except the League of Assassins who is aware of its importance to go all the way to Star City. Although, it could be safe to assume that the item brings harm, knowing that it belonged to Malcolm.

Nevertheless, Thea appears to be unbothered in spite of this new threat in her life, and Nyssa will convince her to take the situation seriously. Aside from Thea, Nyssa will also have a moment with Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), as the latter is conflicted by the recent happenings in Star City.

"Arrow" season 6 has entered a two-week break after the last episode. The show will return on Mar. 29, Thursday, at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.Northern Ireland pastor reports 'extreme' threats after church showed 'gay cure' film

The pastor of a Northern-Ireland church says the community has received violent threats after its screening of a controversial 'gay cure' documentary.

Pastor Rodney Stout of County Down's Ballynahinch Baptist Church said 'extreme violence' had been threatened on social media after the church showed the film Voices of the Silenced: Experts, Evidences and Ideologies on Tuesday night, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

The documentary, created by Christian ministry Core Issues Trust and campaign group Christian Concern, has been accused of promoting a form of gay conversion therapy. In the words of its makers, the film speaks to those who have 'come out of homosexual practices', and challenges the 'myth...that people are born gay'.

A showing of the film at Vue cinema in London's Piccadilly Circus was cancelled following criticism in February, while Queen's Film Theatre, Belfast also cancelled a screening this month. Core Issues Trust protested against the cancellation on Tuesday this week.

The Ballynahinch church screening was accompanied by protesters who opposed the film.

'I went out and welcomed the protesters - I was totally behind their right to be there,' Stout said.

'Some were angry, but several of them agreed that we had the right to screen the film. I asked them if any minority group should have its right to be heard suppressed, and they said no.'

But, he added, threats had been made online in an effort to 'scaremonger' against the event.

'I don't regret allowing the film to be screened in the church, not at all. I don't think anyone should capitulate to threats,' he said. 'I'm not afraid for my safety or that of the people using the church building, I'm more afraid for the disservice it has done to the gay community.'

Sinn Fein MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Emma Rogan had attended the protest against the film. 'Sinn Fein will continue to stand alongside the LGBT communities,' she said.

'There is nothing wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender and Sinn Fein totally oppose the use of 'therapies' which are aimed to change, repress and/or eliminate a person's sexual orientation, gender identity and, or gender expression.

'These 'therapies' are damaging, extremely dangerous and can have a very damaging psychological effect on people.'

Core Issues Trust director Mike Davidson said the Ballynahinch screening had been a success and that further showings of the film were being planned.Christies Middle Eastern art department celebrates the 15th sale season with its upcoming online auctions this November reflected across three sales running online from 11-24 November. A redefined vision and cutting-edge approach this season will be presented in the traditional Modern & Contemporary Art auction, with a newly curated design section. Complementing our main auction includes Matters of Material, a guest curated bespoke sale dedicated to encouraging diversity within the international art market, along with We Are All Beirut a charity initiative aimed to support and provide relief to the arts community in Lebanon. Leveraging both a regional and international interest across all sales, each auction will be accompanied by strong digital programming with enhanced e-catalogues delivering strong visuals.



While our sales can be found online through our e-catalogues and viewing rooms, select highlights will be on view in our London galleries during Frieze and Islamic weeks this October along with a main view during our November online sale.



Our experienced specialists and dedicated wider team are delighted to advise you on any questions regarding buying or selling at auction, online or through Private Sales.Toy store chain Toys R Us is planning to sell or close all 800 of its U.S. stores, affecting as many as 33,000 jobs as the company winds down its operations after six decades, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The chain has about a dozen stores in the Houston area, including Babies R Us.

The news comes six months after the retailer filed for bankruptcy. The Wayne, N.J.-based company has struggled to pay down nearly $8 billion in debt  much of it dating back to a 2005 leveraged buyout and has had trouble finding a buyer. There were reports earlier this week that Toys R Us had stopped paying its suppliers, which include the countrys largest toy makers. On Wednesday, the company announced it would close all 100 of its U.K. stores. In the United States, the company told employees closures would occur over time, and not all at once, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Toys R Us, once the countrys preeminent toy retailer, has been unable to keep up with big-box and online competitors. The recent holiday season dealt another blow to the embattled company, which struggled to find its footing even as the retail industry racked up its largest gains in years. In January, Toys R Us announced it would close 182 U.S. stores, or about one-fifth of its remaining locations.

Despite turnaround efforts at Toys R Us, which included adding more hands-on play labs, retail experts say the 60-year-old company has been unable to get customers back into its stores. It doesnt offer the low prices or convenience of some of its larger competitors, nor the fun-filled experience that many smaller outfits do, some analysts have said.

Toys R Us has been struggling for years to pay down billions of dollars in debt as competitors like Amazon, Walmart and Target win over an increasingly larger piece of the toy market. Its bankruptcy filing cited $7.9 billion in debt against $6.6 billion in assets. The company said it has more than 100,000 creditors, the largest of which are Bank of New York (owed $208 million), Mattel ($136 million) and Hasbro ($59 million).

At its heyday, Toys R Us had a towering flagship store in New Yorks Times Square (now closed and home to Old Navy) and a ubiquitous icon, Geoffrey the Giraffe.

We know that customers are willing to pay more for an enjoyable experience  just look at the lines at Starbucks every day  but Toys R Us has failed to give us anything special or unique, said Kelly O'Keefe, a professor of brand management at Virginia Commonwealth University. "You can find more zest for life in a Walgreens."Norwegian energy company Statoil said Thursday it plans to change its name to "Equinor" to reflect an evolving business that's much more than just oil.

Statoil, now a pioneer in offshore wind and other energy sources, said it wants its name to reflect a growing emphasis on a low-carbon emissions future. "Equi" is supposed to express Statoil's emphasis on all types energy resources while "nor" maintains the company's roots in Norway and its strengths in the North Sea.

Although publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange with a sizable presence in Houston, Staoil remains majority owned by the Norwegian government. Statoil's shareholders are expected to vote on the name change at the May 15 annual meeting. The Norwegian government already supports the change.

"The world is changing, and so is Statoil. The biggest transition our modern-day energy systems have ever seen is underway, and we aim to be at the forefront of this development," said Statoil Chairman Jon Erik Reinhardsen. "Our strategy remains firm. The name Equinor reflects ongoing changes and supports the always safe, high-value and low-carbon strategy we outlined."

Statoil was formed by the government more than 45 years ago to take advantage of Norway's oil and gas resources offshore in the North Sea.

RELATED: European oil companies leading energy transition, while U.S. firms lag

"Looking towards the next 50 years, reflecting on the global energy transition and how we are developing as a broad energy company, it has become natural to change our name," said Statoil CEO Eldar Stre. "The name Equinor captures our heritage and values, and what we aim to be in the future."

More so than their American counterparts, the biggest European energy companies like Statoil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total are pushing the need to reduce their carbon emissions, lower their investments in crude oil and work to help meet the goals of the Paris climate accord, even as they acknowledge the world isn't on track to meeting them. The U.S. is pulling out of the accord under the Trump administration.A 19-year-old Houston man who was arrested on misdemeanor hazing in connection to the death of a fraternity pledge at Louisiana State University (LSU) has had the charge cleared.

Nicholas Taulli was cleared of the charge by a grand jury Thursday in East Baton Rouge, The Advocate reported.

Another Texas man charged in the death of 18-year-old Maxwell Gruver was Matthew Alexander Naquin, 20, of Fair Oaks Ranch. He was indicted on negligent homicide, The Advocate added.

In total, nine people were charged in Gruver's death, the Associated Press reported.

An autopsy revealed Gruver, of Roswell, Georgia, had a blood-alcohol content level of 0.495 at the time of his death on Sept. 14. The amount was more than six times the legal limit for driving, the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Beau Clark said, according to the Associated Press.

TURNED THEMSELVES IN: Police arrest 10 in drinking death of LSU fraternity pledge

Gruver died from acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration, Clark added.

According to social media accounts, Taulli attended Cypress Woods High School.

"Witnesses told police that the fraternity's pledges were forced to drink to excess on the night before Gruver's death, during a game or initiation ritual called 'Bible Study' that required pledges to drink if they incorrectly answered questions about the fraternity," the Associated Press added.

"A witness told police that Gruver was 'highly intoxicated' when fraternity members laid him on a couch and left the house sometime early on Sept. 14. Around 11 a.m., members found Gruver still on the couch with a weak pulse, police said. Two people drove him to a hospital, where he died later that day."

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso.MAN Diesel & Turbo has inked a deal to consolidate its Houston-area locations to a new North America headquarters building with room to expand in the new Twinwood business park west of Katy.

The 137,434 square-foot campus, to be owned by Houston-based Welcome Group, marks the first deal in the 650-acre Twinwood business park, the developers announced. The park is south of Interstate 10 between Woods Road and FM 1489 in the Brookshire area.

Twinwood business park is part of a larger proposed development designed to include residential, hospitality, higher education and offices on property owned by Houston businessman Putera Sampoerna.

Houston-based KDW will build the campus, which includes 105,309 square feet of service shop space and 32,125 square feet of office space. Construction will begin in the second quarter and take a year to complete.

The Augsburg, Germany-based company makes marine propulsion systems used in some of the world's largest containers ships and turbomachinery such as compressors and steam turbines used in oil and gas and chemical processing. The new building will consolidate MAN Diesel & Turbo's locations in Houston and Deer Park.

"Our pre-construction group and in-house architectural team worked with MAN to program its entire campus from the inside out with future phases that will eventually double the square footage of this initial phase," KDW president and CEO Keith Dalton said in an announcement.

Twinwood aims to attract research and development, distribution and light manufacturing companies.

"The property offers global companies a convenient west Houston location with immediate access to Interstate 10," Twinwood president Glenn Plowman said.

Bob Berry and Jacob Bravo of Avison Young represented MAN Diesel & Turbo in the lease. Welcome Realty Advisors represented Welcome Group. Katie Sandoval arranged acquisition and construction financing through Hancock Whitney Bank.

Vince Yokom of the Waller County Economic Development Partnership and Waller County Judge Trey Duhon assisted with the deal. The new facility is expected to employ 142 workers.Closed for renovations after a fire in Sept. 2016, Voodoo Queen Daiquiri Dive made its return on Wednesday evening for thirsty East Downtown residents.

Previously-known simply as Voodoo Queen, owner Brandon Young's tiki-themed bar became a neighborhood hit for its strong boat drinks and a dark and dive-y attitude when it opened in 2013.

RELATED: Canned Acoustica keeps Discovery Green fresh

It's now reopened with an expanded drink and food menu, extra seating inside and out, and bright paint courtesy of Houston street artist, Dual.

Young and company purchased the laundromat space just behind the original bar and set about to expand operations. In the meantime the surrounding neighborhood off Milby has transformed itself with more development and the addition of new businesses.

On Wednesday evening it was already packed with drinkers who found out about the soft opening via the bar's Instagram page.

Frozen daiquiri machines dot the back wall serving frozen drinks like The Bends, Blue Dreamz, and the Volcano Joe for $8 a pop. You can keep the purple cup too as a souvenir.

RELATED: Famous phrases that all native Houstonians should know by heart

The Bends is the strongest frozen drink on the menu. It runs $10 and customers are limited to three per visit.

Daiquiris can be blended with extra shots of rum and liqueur for adventurous drinkers.

Traditional drinks like the Mai Tai, the Pain Killa, and the Skeleton Crew, are also on the menu. Craft beers and straight-forward cocktails are also to be had. A shot menu with concoctions like the Surfer on Acid and the Pink Snapper are available if the daiquiris and beers don't do the trick.

The food menu was limited on Wednesday but will soon be expanded, according to Young. Big Easy-style offerings like six varieties of po' boys and fried shrimp baskets were all the rage on Wednesday night. Of particular note was the pairing of tater tots and crinkle cut fries in the same basket.

Young said that starting Thursday he plans on Voodoo Queen to be open 365 days a year from noon until 2 a.m. every day. He's already got his tattooed hands full with Montrose's Love Buzz and the nearby Moon Tower Inn.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.This week, slime and rodent droppings cause concern for health inspectors.

At Brewingz Restaurant and Bar (5598 North Fwy Ste. B) inspectors condemned all the ice from the machine.

GREAT NEWS: Whataburger, Popeyes, and Pappas Bar-B-Q make Houston's cleanest restaurant list

Approximately 1,500 pounds of it.

They found yellow slime on the chute and under the ice maker.

Inspectors also saw rat feces on the kitchen floor at Vi's Sandwiches (11201 Bellaire Blvd. Ste. A17).

Before you head out for your next meal, be sure to check the slideshow above for this week's list of restaurants with violations (March 8 -15).

During health inspections, inspectors distribute violations that carry a weight between 1 and 25, increasing in severity. The term "demerit" is used by city health inspectors to describe the weighted value assigned to each violation. The Houston Chronicle obtained the results of routine health inspections throughout the city and tallied each restaurant's demerits for a comprehensive list of violations. To view inspection reports online or learn more about food inspections, visit the health department website.Rachel Lindsay, the first African-American Bachelorette, shared her feelings on the controversial ending of "The Bachelor" in a recent interview with The Houston Chronicle.

The current Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr., 36, made headlines last week when he dumped the winner of his season, Becca Kufrin, 27, and then proposed to his current fiancee Lauren Burnham, 26, live on the show.

"I like Arie as a person," said Lindsay at her apartment in Dallas. "I just don't like what he did and how he did it."

Lindsay said she felt that Luyendyk Jr. was having second thoughts about his engagement when she saw him two weeks after he proposed to Kufrin. She said he appeared conflicted and was asking her how long it took her to get over her runner-up Peter Kraus.

"I knew that he was going to end it," she said. "He didn't say that, but from the way he was talking.

He was very conflicted."

Lindsay said she told Luyendyk Jr. that it was natural to have thoughts about the runner-up and wonder how the person was doing since the break-up, but his thoughts should not go past that.

The Dallas attorney also said she is excited for Kufrin's chance to be the Bachelorette describing her as a great person and someone with a good head on her shoulders, but doesn't feel the young woman is ready for the show, based on the heartbreak she just experienced.

"If that was me, there's no way I would emotionally be ready to open myself up for engagement. Will meeting 30 men help me get over a bad relationship? 100 percent," said Lindsay. "Can I date 30 men and then put myself in a mindset of getting engaged? I don't think you can."

As for Burnham taking back Luyendyk Jr. so quickly, Lindsay had strong feelings on the subject. She did not agree with Burnham's decision to not watch the finale footage which showed Luyendyk Jr's break up with Kufrin, calling Burnham "naive."

"I wanted to be like who's decision was that because that's real smart of him to keep you away from watching the finale. For me I want to be educated about everything. I want to know how to defend my relationship," she said. "I want to be able to make the best decision for me and that's knowing everything, not being shut off from stuff."

However, Lindsay thinks the relationship between Burnham and Luyendyk Jr. will last.

"Lauren's a baby and he's going to take care of her and that's why I think that it'll work," she said. "That was very evident to me in how this whole thing played out. She's got blinders on. She's got her ears closed and her focus is him. He's on a pedestal to her. That's the type of woman that he needs."Against the backdrop of lingering effects from Hurricane Harvey, Galveston County Consolidated Drainage District is staging the first election in its 16-year history to feature contested races.

The board president faces two challengers - both who say they were prompted to run because of the storm's devastation in the area. Another board incumbent is vying against an architectural designer.

The district, which is charged with reducing chances for flooding by improving drainage, has an annual budget of $3.2 million, includes more than 80 miles of creeks, ditches, bayous and subdivision detention ponds in the Friendswood area and parts of League City and includes at least 25,000 residents.

Board president Harold Whitaker, family law attorney Christine L. Mangle-Smithe and former Friendswood City Council member Michael Barker are running for Position 4. In the race for Position 3, Carl Horecky, a board director since 1998, is running against architectural designer Marcus Rives.

None of the candidates is proposing a change to the tax rate, which is 10.8 cents per $100 property valuation.

Position 4 race

Whitaker, 86, who previously served as mayor of Friendswood and as a trustee for Friendswood ISD, wants to keep pushing for federal funding to continue a flood-control project that would include channel improvements and more stormwater detention along Clear Creek and Mary's Creek.

A 2013 report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lists $193 million in proposed improvements that would be funded through $151 million in federal money and $98 million in local funds.

"This was supposed to be a two-year project, but it has turned into a 14-year project with nothing done and no funding from Congress to make improvements. We have pushed hard to get this completed," Whitaker said. "This would help with Friendswood flooding tremendously."

District accomplishments include construction of three major water retention facilities that hold a total of 1,176 acre-feet of water, he said.

Whitaker said the district is also working on a proposal to raise the 500-year flood plain by 2 feet.

Whitaker said he knows personally how flooding can impact lives. He received 4 inches of water in his home from Harvey flooding.

"When there is 52 inches of rain in such a short amount of time such as with Hurricane Harvey, there is going to be flooding - you just cannot get by it," he said.

The district played a role in helping residents during the disaster, Whitaker said.

"We have a very close relationship to the city of Friendswood, and during Hurricane Harvey some of our operations managers and operators used some of our trucks to get people out of flooded areas," he said. "After water subsided, they worked to get debris cleared out from outlying populated areas so contractors could get in there quickly and work."

Mangle-Smith, 49, said she is running for political office for the first time after flooding from Harvey persuaded her to get involved.

"The devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey in our community raised alarm bells for me," Mangle-Smithe, 49, said an an email message. "I want to bring a fresh approach to the GCCDD's drainage issues. I want them to be well-positioned to tackle potential drainage issues due in part to the growing population and development in the district.

"My goals are to modernize the GCCDD website and enhance multiple communication platforms for residents," she said. "I would like to move them forward to align with future population growth and increasing flood risk due to new development, especially in the western portion. I would like to see the board put the millions of dollars that the GCCDD currently has on hand toward completing projects that mitigate flood risks."

Current district undertakings include Mary's Creek improvements downstream of FM 2351 and selective clearing Clear Creek, according to the district website. Projects to begin early spring include work on Cowards Creek downstream of Castlewood and at Greenbriar.

"I will use my legal skills to review the contracts that the GCCDD might enter into for their drainage projects, I am well versed in Robert's Rules of Order, and since we have an engineer on staff, I can read and comprehend long, detailed and tedious documents and reports with ease," Mangle-Smithe wrote.

Barker, 63, a retired equipment services company owner who served on Friendswood City Council for 5 1/2 years, touted his background in construction and knowledge about drainage.

"After I retired, I never intended to run for politics again, but the flooding of Hurricane Harvey brought it back front and center," he said in an email message. "A lot of people got flooded that should not have been."

"I think they (The District) has done a lot of good work, but there is also a lot of work that needs to be done," he wrote.

"I am not running because I am criticizing, I am not a politician," he wrote. "I think there is a job to be done behind the political aspects and I am good at getting stuff done. I can do a good job."

Position 3 race

Horecky, 89, said he has chosen to seek re-election with the idea of "less talking and more walking - Get it done."

"I believe I can make a difference after studying this issue for years and working together with all parties involved," said Horecky, who retired after a career in the oil industry.

"My goal is to get counties, cities, industrial complexes and Army Corps of Engineers to work together and convey the needs to elected officials," he said.

Rives, 48, believes that his experience as an architectural designer will come in handy and that he will bring a new perspective to the table if elected.

"My goal would be to breath some new life into the GCCDD with a new set of eyes and perspective from the community," Rives said. "I have been through the process of drainage and mitigation planning. I bring a practical understanding of the impact of drainage requirements for those who live and work in our community. I see the huge developments that the city (of Friendswood) has recently approved that are overbuilding our lands, with little regard to the impact on lot coverage (resulting in more concrete and less land to absorb rain water). I would like to be a voice of reason and representation for the citizens of Friendswood."

Rives believes the district has good a good job keeping creeks and streams clear and draining but that the Corps is an obstacle.

"The Corps seems to be the real hold-up in getting Clear Creek properly maintained and ready to drain," he said. "They are the governing authority for Clear Creek and won't let anyone else work on it properly. What that means is, Washington bureaucrats are in charge of the main drainage artery in our area, but can't seem to do much of anything but spend money on 'studies.' "

Voting info

The district was formed in 2002 through consolidation of the Clear Creek Drainage District and Galveston County Drainage District No. 3. The initial trustees were appointed when the consolidation occurred.

Early voting by personal appearance will be conducted each weekday from April 23 to May 1 with Saturday extended early voting April 28 at City Hall, 910 S. Friendswood Drive. Voting times will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 23, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 24-26, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 27, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 28; 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 30 and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 1.

The district's board has five members elected to four-year terms, with elections held every two years with positions being filled alternately. They receive $500 a month in pay plus compensation for travel outside the district.

For more information, visit http://www.gccdd.dst.tx.us.Harris County prosecutors are examining the death of a 10-month-old puppy during a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York on Monday evening, even as the company has released new details on the incident.

The district attorney's office announced the investigation in a statement late Wednesday from Carvana Cloud, a division chief in the office.

"The Animal Cruelty Division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office is working with law enforcement partners on the Harris County Animal Cruelty Task force to investigate this incident," Cloud said in the statement. "After law enforcement concludes their investigation, we will review their findings and make an appropriate decision based on the applicable law and facts. At this time, no charges have been filed and our office will not make any charging decisions until the investigation is complete.

The airline contends that while the passenger told the flight attendant there was a dog in her carrier, "our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin."

READ MORE: United passenger told to put dog in overhead compartment

"We have spoken to the family, our crew and a number of passengers who were seated nearby," the airlines said in a statement Wednesday. "As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support."

The airline also refunded the family's money for their tickets and in-cabin pet fee and have offered to fund a necropsy, spokeswoman Maggie Schermin told Chron.com Wednesday afternoon. A necropsy is an autopsy performed on an animal.

The airline also will alter its pet policy starting in April. United will start issuing brightly colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets.

Shortly after boarding United Fight 1284 to New York's LaGuardia, the dog's owner was told to place the 10-month-old Frenchie and its carrier in the overhead compartment, June Lara told Chron.com.

By the time the plane landed roughly three hours later and the overhead compartment was opened, the dog was dead, said Lara, a passenger who sat behind the owner.

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."

"This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," United said in its first statement Tuesday. "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."



Jose R. Gonzalez contributed to this report

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso.Gov. Greg Abbott Thursday pledged millions of dollars for widespread property buyouts and preparations for dredging the San Jacinto River to help Lake Houston communities prevent a recurrence of the catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Harvey.

After touring the region by helicopter, the governor met with area leaders at a Kingwood community center, where he announced plans for voluntary buyouts of some 900 flood-prone homes in Harris County, including 134 in Kingwood and nearby Forest Cove. The county flood control district said the buyouts would cost about $180 million.

Abbott's office said money for the buyouts, as well as $3 million to "jump start" engineering and permitting required to dredge the river, will come from the state's hazard mitigation fund  federal money that flows through the state.

Abbott said his helicopter trip with Houston City Councilman Dave Martin  whose district includes Kingwood  provided clear evidence of the problem.

"I was able to see first-hand the silt that has developed as well as the sandbars that have developed in multiple regions across the entire area," Abbott said. "Very profoundly, Dave and I witnessed a stunning number of sand mining operations all up and down the river, and were able to understand more comprehensively the way in which these sand mining operations contribute sand and silt into the river."

Read more: As sand shrinks river capacity, Kingwood residents feel like 'sitting ducks' for floods

Outside the governor's private meeting with elected officials and civic leaders, about 30 Kingwood residents held signs pleading with Abbott to provide money for dredging, improvements to the Lake Houston dam and other measures to protect their neighborhoods.

The governor's visit to the master-planned community in northeast Harris County came amid growing pressure to ensure that its needs were not overlooked as local, state and federal officials plan costly initiatives to respond to Harvey's lessons.

The stakes could not be higher, said County Judge Ed Emmett, who participated in the private discussion with the governor.

"If this area is going to continue to grow and prosper, we have to make sure that flood control and flood protection is our top priority," Emmett said.

The property buyouts announced by Abbott will target homes in areas that are "hopelessly deep" in the floodplain, or two feet below a level of flooding that would occur during a 100-year storm, flood control district officials said. This metric refers to a storm that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.

Read more: Harris, Montgomery counties target San Jacinto River for flood study

More than 3,800 homeowners have volunteered to be bought out after the storm, by far the highest number of requests ever fielded by the district.

In the Lake Houston area, where authorities estimate that 16,000 homes and 3,300 businesses were damaged by Harvey's floods, the focus has been on the need to remove sediment that has reduced the San Jacinto River's capacity to hold floodwaters.

Abbott said he had directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the sand mining facilities. The investigation has led to enforcement actions against two operators, Abbott said.

The state will ensure that all sand mining facilities have required permits and comply with legal requirements, Abbott said: "If not, we are going to shut them down."

Read more: Long road to recovery for Kingwood businesses flooded by Harvey

In Kingwood, some confusion surrounded Abbott's visit, as many area residents mistakenly thought it would be open to the public.

Among those who showed up hoping to see Abbott was James Revel, a resident leader at a nearby condominium development that flooded during Harvey. Revel said residents of all 120 units in the development were displaced, and "some are just moving back in."

"I'd just like to be able to tell our story, and have someone come out and take a look," he said. "A lot of people in Kingwood feel like they've been forgotten."

Prior to Abbott's arrival, Elizabeth Bolt stood in a grassy area outside the community center, holding a sign that said "Please Dredge Now!"

Bolt, who has lived in Kingwood since 2014, said her home took in 38 inches of water from Harvey's floods. Her family was evacuated by boat.

Her home has not yet been repaired, Bolt said, and she's living with seven relatives in a rented house.

Unless dredging and other steps are taken immediately, "we will flood again" with the next heavy rain, Bolt said.

EDITORIAL: Don't forget Kingwood in post-Harvey efforts

Humble Mayor Merle Aaron, who has lived in the city for 50 years, said he believes the most urgent need is the addition of gates to the Lake Houston dam, making it possible to release water faster during floods.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner recently announced that the city is seeking a $45 million grant to add 10 gates to the dam.

Aaron said about 400 homes and 60 businesses in Humble, a city of about 15,000, were damaged by Harvey's floods. Unless the risk of more flooding is reduced, he said, many of the businesses may choose not to reopen.

"It would be devastating to the area," Aaron said.

Mihir Zaveri contributed to this report.No foul play is suspected in a fire that damaged five Coldspring-Oakhurst Consolidated ISD school buses Wednesday night, school district officials said.

Four buses will no longer be usable, and a fifth bus was damaged extensively, the district posted on Facebook. No one was injured.

Crews from the Coldspring Fire Department and Shepherd Volunteer Fire Department arrived around 10 p.m. at the school districts bus barn, off Jones Avenue in San Jacinto County. Four buses were in flames, and a fifth bus was just igniting, according to the Montgomery County Police Reporter.

Texas State Fire Marshal will investigate the cause of the fire. District officials said earlier Thursday that the neighboring Montgomery County Fire Marshal's Office bomb squad would also investigate, though there is no confirmation that a bomb caused the fire.

"There's no sign of anybody entering the property," said Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD Transportation Director Charles Cotton. "At this time there is no foul play suspected."

People in the area reported that they heard loud noises, like pops, around the time of the fire, Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD Superintendent Leland Moore told the Montgomery County Police Reporter.

Students are currently on spring break, but the transportation department will be able to handle taking students to school Monday with fewer buses, Moore said. Classes will continue as planned on Monday with normal bus routes and times.

"We're going to have enough buses to run the route next week," Cotton said.

The buses were manufactured in 2014 or 2015, and an appraiser was to visit the district Friday. All of the buses are insured.Five months after Hurricane Harvey destroyed most of the crops, days in The Village still begin at dawn.

That's when the residents of this small farming community - a sprawling unincorporated enclave in Brazoria County down a dirt road near Rosharon - go to work, tilling dirt in their backyard greenhouses in an attempt to rebuild their livelihoods.

"This is what we do," said Pheap Phoeur, a farmer and 20-year resident of The Village, a community that includes many immigrants from Southeast Asia.

Water spinach, or trakuon, it's Khmer name, is listed as a noxious weed by the USDA because of its invasiveness in waterways, and is heavily regulated and illegal to grow without a permit. The community is one of a handful in Texas, including Huntsville and Humble, allowed to legally grow it as a crop.

"We're the biggest producer of this crop in the state," said Salouern Yin, a farmer in the community who also serves as a contact for Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, a United Way nonprofit agency based in Houston that works to alleviate financial, educational, language and cultural barriers in immigrant and underserved populations.

"In terms of being able to contribute to the Houston economy, (the spinach crop) is significant," Alina Tonu, an Alvin resident with the alliance.

The group recently delivered rebuilding materials for 26 families in The Village, 13 of which were repeat recipients. Since January, the alliance has been a hands-on presence in that community - studying where help is most needed and working with residents. So far, the alliance has provided materials for at least 187 of the 215 households in the community.

"It was heartbreaking because there was a lot of devastation, but we also see hope as we got to interact with the community," said An Phong Vo, community impact director for the alliance. "The people here always have a smile on their face. It's a beautiful thing to see."

Phoeur, 67, and her husband, Doeun Sok, are Cambodian immigrants who came to The Village in the late 1990s for an opportunity to be self-sufficient.

Sok had operated his own businesses since coming to the United States in the early 1980s, including several doughnut shops in area communities including Pasadena.

"I want to depend on myself," he said. "That's always been my dream."

That independent streak has served him after Harvey.

Living in a patio under a tarp

Sok, 68, said he received a few thousand dollars from FEMA. Materials provided by the alliance, including a plywood used to protect homes from the elements, will inch Sok and Phoeur closer to where they can move back into the family's main living quarters, which flooded during Harvey.

But mostly, the rebuild has been left to them.

"We are doing the work ourselves," he said.

According to Vo, the family had, until recently, been living in a former outdoor patio area wrapped by blue tarp.

They were basically living outside, she said.

Yin knows her community from the inside out.

She can break down the population by geography, demographic and age.

There are around 660 residents in The Village, she estimated. Most are ages 57-80. Others in their 40s and 50s are the children of the first generation. The community also has about 220 children, ranging from infancy to 19 years old.

Every home has a backyard greenhouse. That's how significant the water spinach crop is to The Village and why Harvey's destruction and the potential threat of water contamination posed a serious threat.

According to Yin, because the area is unincorporated, addressing ongoing flood and drainage issues will require advocacy and community input.

"As the Alliance, we are trying to help," said Savann Kruoch, monitoring and evaluation manager for Alliance. "We are here to get other agencies and resources to help to rebuild their homes."

The first generation came to the area in 1980 as part of the influx of Cambodian refugees fleeing genocide from the Khmer Rouge. Farming crops such as water spinach was a way of life back home and became their livelihood in the United States.

"There was a demand (for water spinach), and that was in their favor," Yin said.

According to Yin and Kruoch, there is a misconception that this farming community - with its mixture of paved and gravel roads, and brick and mobile homes - is trapped by circumstance.

"The majority of the people here came here wanting to plant," Yin said. "That was our choice and that's what we want to do, that's what I wanted to do."

"Instead of working for someone else, they try to do it on their own for their family, and here they have more freedom to do that," added Kruoch.

Yin's family was part of the first Cambodian exodus to the United States, where she educated. She has worked in fields, including as manager of a gym and coordinator for a construction company. She came to The Village about 10 years ago with her husband and children, drawn by the Alvin school district and a desire to reclaim part of her cultural heritage.

There are many, she said, in The Village who are doctors, nurses, educators and other professionals who came looking for a different, more self-sufficient way of life.

"I wanted to raise my children, be self-employed, make my own hours, and I learned that I have a green thumb and that I love farming," Yin said.

The Village is home to former refugees and immigrants from Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, while a sizable Hispanic population adds to its mosaic of languages and dialects.

'Like starting over'

As with many tight-knit communities in the wake of Harvey, the recovery process is a group effort, with neighbors helping neighbors. But as with Sok and Phoeur, the independent streak runs deep in The Village.

"For many of them, the preference is to do the (rebuild) project on their own," said Vo. "There is an attitude of 'I built it with my hands and I'm proud of my work' - they are resilient and very proud."

For those at Alliance like Vo, Tonu and Kruoch, working with residents of The Village and other communities they serve is also a personal commitment.

Vo came to America from Vietnam when she was 12; Tonu was born in the United States, a child of a Japanese mother and a Romanian father who fled after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu.

"We love our countries, and we were resettled in the States and because we have all these opportunities and were able to go to school and I wanted to do something meaningful," Vo said.

For Kruoch, 65, who came to the United States in his 20s after losing his entire family in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge occupation, the immigrant experience breeds resilience.

"They were refugees and may have faced the same problems," he said of The Village. "And so I share my experience with them. I want them to build their life in this country."

While working on rebuilding the family home, Sok and Phoeur also spend mornings and afternoons propagating water spinach plants - cutting stems and putting it into the soil in order to revive the crop - in their green houses.

"It's like starting over, but we just move forward," said Sok.

This spring, they will harvest their first crop of water spinach and spinach since Harvey.

"This (farming) is all I know how to do, but I love it, it makes me happy," Phoeur said.Police have arrested a man who allegedly stole a woman's wallet at a restaurant and could be responsible for four similar crimes that occurred in the Sugar Land Town Center area since January, city officials said in a news release Thursday.

Christian Santos, 38, of Puerto Rico is accused of taking a woman's wallet shortly before 3 p.m. on March 10 at Panera Bread in the 1900 block of State Highway 6, police said. Police are also searching for a second man who served as the lookout during the crime, according to the news release.Harrison Guy saw the news online: A charter bus carrying local high school kids had crashed into an Alabama ravine. He couldnt find much information, so he moved on.

A little while later, Guy saw a Facebook post from his aunt, pleading for prayers. He froze.

I knew immediately, he said.

His dad had been the driver of that bus.

Harry Caligone, 65, would be the only person to die Tuesday when his bus veered off Interstate 10 and fell 50 feet into a ravine that was so deep, rescuers had to rappel down to reach him and the dozens of Channelview High School band members returning home from a spring break trip to Disney World.

HELP: Ropes, phone lights used in rescue after deadly bus plunge

Although details are not yet clear, Alabama officials said Caligone became unresponsive. Students and parents aboard the bus said the band director tried to grab the steering wheel before they crashed.

On Wednesday, Guy and other family members remembered the Houston man as a generous soul, a bit of a prankster, and a man who loved his work and did it well.

A veteran bus driver who shuttled charter trips for Houston-based First Class Tours, Caligone had left for Orlando late last week with the Channelview band kids.

The spring break trip to Disney World was a drive he made every year, said Caligones widow, Alisa Louis.

Thats why its so shocking that this happened, she said. Harry knows that highway, he knows that road.

WHAT HAPPENED? Family members recovering from bus crash recall how it unfolded

The crash was so far away, the family didnt go there but watched the nightmare scene unfold on the news.

All we had was pictures, said Allan Caligone, Harrys brother.

First Class Tours is arranging the body's return to Houston. Family members are beginning to plan a funeral. But Allan Caligone said he couldnt get used to the fact that his brother is gone.

We all know were going, we just dont know when, he said. But when its tragic like this, we feel like were helpless.

Caligone was the third-youngest of nine kids, his brother said. Their dad sold Avon products and raised all nine mostly by himself in Texas City  except for summers, when the kids would stay with their mom in Scenic Woods, a neighborhood in northeast Houston.

Years later, after their mother died, Harry Caligone moved into the house in Scenic Woods, and he and Louis lived together several years in that low-slung ranch house.

He was a lovable, big old teddy bear, thats what he was, she said.

Louis and Caligone, who was divorced, met in 2005. On his days off from driving, he used to sell beer at a hole-in-the-wall club where Louis went to hang out and shoot pool.

Ever since that day we just connected, she said. Its been Alisa and Harry ever since. Alisa and Harry.

Caligone helped her pay for nursing school, Louis said.

He took care of me and he made my life better, she said. He made me a better person.

Late Tuesday, the Baldwin County medical examiner had not yet determined a cause of death.

MASS CASUALTY: At Pensacola hospital, bus crash triggers "code green"

Rumors swirled on social media that Caligone had suffered a heart attack, but his family doubts that. They also dont believe he fell asleep.

He wouldnt have driven sleepy at all, Guy said. Thats just not consistent with the kind of driver he was.

The bus company has a satisfactory rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

For her own peace of mind, Louis wants to know what happened.

I want to know what caused this, she said. I want to know, was it human error or the vehicle?

Since his fathers death, Guy has been surprised to hear from people who remembered Caligone driving them on church trips, school trips or vacations. They say he went out of his way to help them or make their trip more pleasant.

Your dad was ALWAYS our driver of choice and took us all over this country, wrote a woman who traveled with a church group in The Woodlands. He not only was a skillful/safe driver (he could turn that ole bus on a dime if necessary)  he was just fun to be around.

The notes have come from people from all races, all ages, and its not even just common-courtesy niceness, Guy said. Theyre talking about somebody who went out of his way to be nice.

Friends and family experienced that kindness all the time.

If you saw him coming, he had a gift, Caligones brother said.

Harry Caligone always brought back small souvenirs from the places he visited as he drove his bus all over the country  New York, Nevada, Florida, all across Texas.

My wife said he always brought the Lord to our house, Allan Caligone said  and she meant that literally. The brothers were raised Catholic, so Harry Caligone usually chose religious souvenirs: small crosses and crucifixes, small statues of Jesus or the saints.

Allan Caligone choked back tears a couple of times Wednesday as he talked about his brother.

Im going to miss him, but hes still going to be in here, he said, tapping his heart. I know he did all he could to keep those kids safe. Its just unbelievable that hes not here.

Mark Collette contributed to this report.WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump has offered to drop demands for changes to legal immigration preferences to ease the way to a deal providing new temporary protection to young undocumented immigrants in the country in exchange for border wall funding, said a person familiar with the offer.

Trump had insisted on a broader agreement that also would end immigration preferences for relatives of legal U.S. residents and eliminate visas awarded by lottery to applicants from under-represented countries, a demand that Democratic leaders rejected.

White House officials have shared the potential new offer with Republican congressional leaders, the person said.

The shift brings the two sides closer to a deal that would fund construction for early phases of Trumps promised border wall and temporarily restore protections against deportation for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, a group advocates have dubbed dreamers. In September, Trump canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program established by former President Barack Obama, though the deportation protections remain in place under a temporary court order amid a lawsuit over the action.

One idea under consideration is a three-year extension of the DACA program in exchange for three years of wall funding, a GOP official said. This official said the talks, which are being led by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and legislative affairs head Marc Short, were fluid.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement later Wednesday that the administration opposes a three for three deal, which some moderate Republicans already have floated.

Instead, Shah said, Congress ought to include wall funding in the upcoming spending bill as a matter of course.

Separately, we have never stopped working to negotiate an immigration reform package that addresses DACA, stops illegal immigration, and secures and modernizes our legal immigration system, he said.

But Democrats have made clear that they are unwilling to agree to any wall funding absent protections for dreamers, and the upcoming spending bill is probably the last chance for Trump to lock in a deal ahead of the November midterm elections. And if Democrats retake the House, it will be even more difficult for Trump to demand wall funding.

A deal could come together quickly: Congress must pass a spending bill before a March 23 deadline, and congressional negotiators hope to release draft legislation as soon as this week.

News of the White House offer generated a mixed reactions Wednesday.

With everything else thats going on, I just dont see  the DACA issue being resolved in the next week, said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, who has backed broader immigration cutbacks. A key Senate Democrat, Robert Menendez, N.J., was similarly skeptical: Im not thrilled about including anything for a temporary fix.

Trump on Tuesday inspected eight wall prototypes constructed in the desert south of San Diego as he fights to overcome opposition from Democrats and skepticism from some Republican lawmakers over the cost of a barrier that was a central promise of his presidential campaign.

House and Senate negotiators are trying to wrap up work on a $1.2 trillion spending bill in order to get it passed by March 23 in order to avert another government shutdown.An alleged MS-13 member accused of ordering gang hits in Houston - and listening over the phone as underlings carried them out - was indicted Wednesday in Maryland as part of a sweeping case against at least a dozen members of the bloody street gang.

Luis Arnoldo Flores-Reyes - also known as "Maloso" - was charged in a four-count indictment alleging everything from racketeering to extortion to drug trafficking over a three-year period starting in 2015. The 37-year-old alleged member of the Sailors Clique of MS-13 is in custody, according to a Department of Justice press release, though it wasn't immediately clear when or where he was arrested.

Eleven others have already been charged in the case.

The pattern of criminal violence described in court papers included everything from stabbings to shootings across Maryland, and in January 2018 it spilled over into Texas when Flores-Reyes phoned up a fellow gang member and ordered the slaying of rivals in Houston, according to court filings.

On Jan. 25, authorities charged, Flores-Reyes and other MS-13 members talked about buying a gun to avenge the murder of an MS-13 member in Houston, supposedly at the hands of a rival gang.

That same day, Flores-Reyes allegedly ordered the hits, and two days later he told his Houston counterparts that they'd need to carry out the killings if they wanted to be promoted.

READ MORE: MS-13 was two minutes from execution when police intervened in Houston

After three days of planning and discussion, on Jan. 28, MS-13 members in Houston shot at and tried to kill rival gang members - all while Flores-Reyes and other gang members listened on the phone.

It's not clear whether they succeeded.

Although it was the only murder plot credited to Flores-Reyes in the lengthy federal court filing, it's not the only one mentioned.

In April 2017, another alleged gang member, Donald Roberto Mendez-Lopez, is accused of killing a homeless person living in a wooden shed in Maryland. With the help of another MS-13 member, Mendez-Lopez allegedly stabbed and beat the victim to death before leaving behind the body - all in an effort to win a promotion in the gang.

A few weeks later, Mendez-Lopez and his accomplice were both promoted to the rank of chequeo.

The court filings detail a number of other slayings and acts of violence, including a Jan. 8 beating Flores-Reyes allegedly ordered against another member as discipline for infractions against the gang.

The gang members met regularly to talk about gang structure and discuss snitches, according to the indictment. At times, the gang held "regional meetings" to discuss "programs" of cooperation between different cliques.

They bought guns to enforce their brutal regime, wrote rap songs celebrating their misdeeds, reeled in money from illicit drug deals and threatened anyone who they thought cooperated with the cops.

Many of the men targeted in the sprawling 30-page indictment were accused of extorting money from brothels, illegal beer stores and drug dealers in Langley Park, Maryland to help fund their criminal operations.

Some of them sent the funds back to El Salvador to bolster gang activity there, often addressing it to women to disguise its origins, authorities allege.

News of the arrest comes on the heels of another MS-13 hit that netted a series of charges in Harris County court.

Three men were collared in connection with the plot, which police intercepted just minutes before the planned slaying was to occur.

Formally known as La Mara Salvatrucha, the gang first formed in the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s, but it flourished most in the California prison system.

Today, it's primarily based in El Salvador with distinct cliques, like the one named in the latest indictment.

The gang has been a focal point of President Donald Trump's proposed immigration policies, and its also been cited as justification for legislation like Texas Senate Bill 4, which requires local police forces to cooperate with federal immigration officers.If you have lost your prosthetic leg on a Metro bus, the people at the transit system's downtown Houston office have been holding it for you since last summer and would like you to come pick it up.

Deep inside the Metro offices off Main Street is the lost and found, where items are kept for 30 days.

RELATED: Federal review gives Metro mostly clean marks

Bags of cellphones, wallets, eyeglasses, sunglasses and keys overflow in plastic tubs. There is a bucket of canes, umbrellas and crutches in the corner.

Metro has six bus garages around Houston and a hub for the rail line, serving hundreds of thousands of Houstonians.

At the end of the day, which includes 114 bus routes and three rail lines, left-behind items are sent downtown for processing. It is there where everything is carefully cataloged, placed in tamper-proof bags, and entered into an online database.

Nearly 1,000 items come in to be processed each month but only 20 percent are recovered by the owner. Metro would like to change that.

Some items, not unlike the fake leg, are more precious than others.

"Not too long ago someone left behind an urn," said Russ Frank, Metro's VP of customer service. "Luckily the owner came back by and was able to identify the name on the label."

Earlier this week, a vacuum cleaner left on a bus was recovered by its owner. Frank shows Chron.com a framed photo of a beautiful Texas bluebonnet scene. A whole, unopened box of diapers awaits pickup.

RELATED: Transportation projects that will shape Houston in 2018

There are a handful of Houston ISD-issued student laptops in a crate. "I lost my laptop" just might be the new "The dog ate my homework."

Illegal items, like most weapons and drug paraphernalia, are handed over to the Metro police. One time, according to Metro, a customer came to pick up their missing lunch bag, which had illicit drugs inside it. True story, and the customer was soon taken into custody.

Right now with RodeoHouston there is an uptick of riders but there aren't any cowboy hats or huge, stuffed carnival toys to speak of in the lost and found.

The prosthetic leg, complete with a red Nike sneaker attached, has been here longer than Frank hoped. Theses devices have to be fitted by a doctor, and that is not cheap.

RELATED: Metro poised to buy buses for Post Oak rapid transit line

Unclaimed items that can be donated like clothing are handed over to the Purple Heart after 30 days, but the prosthesis has stuck around.

Frank is constantly amazed at the generosity and humanity of Houstonians. Keep the faith. Just because something is lost doesn't mean it won't be turned in by a fellow rider or a Metro employee.

Craig Hlavaty

"There are honest people still," Frank says. "People are better than you might think."

It always pays to at least call and check with Metro if something is lost. Even small amounts of cash are returned when it could just as easily be pocketed. Don't just assume it's gone with the wind.

Lost and found is a vital part of the customer service experience aboard Metro, and if that means reuniting a Houstonian with their leg, then that is a beautiful bonus.

For information on lost and found items head over to the Metro website. People also can claim lost items by visiting the RideStore, or by calling 713-658-0854.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.The "We Love Houston" sign you've seen either near I-10 or in Instagram selfies is on the move.

Artist and die-hard Houstonian David Adickes told Chron.com in previous interviews that he planned to move the work, which features concrete letters ranging from 5 to 9 feet tall, separated by a 9-foot-tall heart, from a spot just south of I-10 East near Yale to more hospitable surroundings for the art and its fans.

RELATED: To sculptor David Adickes, size does matter

Housing development behind the installation had cluttered the sentiment since it appeared back in the summer of 2013. It used to be at his former art studio SculpturWorx off Summer Street, near his Beatles statues and presidential heads.

Adickes is also the man behind the giant statue of Sam Houston near Huntsville which warns Houstonians not to visit Dallas.

According to KTRK-TV the signage is moving to a promenade near the 8th Wonder Brewery, which is the current home of the towering Fab Four statues. Chris Alan, who runs the Houston pop-culture site It's A Houston Thing, told the outlet that this way Houstonians will be able to safely take pictures in front of it.

That's something that Adickes had always wanted anyway. He is a fan of people of all walks of life enjoying his outsized art.

RELATED: David Adickes' famous Beatles statues are for sale and have found a new home until they're bought

It's not clear when it will be installed and ready for visitors just yet.

The 91-year-old who once used to pal around with Picasso told Chron.com last year that his new workshop on Nance Street is currently being condemned, he said, due to eminent domain issues related to the restructuring of I-45.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.The Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerces kicked off its Annual Womens Conference & Business Expo this Thursday morning with a keynote address by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), the only woman ever elected to that position in mainland United States.

The conference, now in its fourth year, is the fastest-growing event organized by the chamber and the largest women conference and expo in Houston, according to Laura Murillo, the President and CEO of Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The event is sold out with an expected attendance of 700 people, she said.

Murillo explained that he purpose of the event is to provide women with a platform to set tangible business goals, develop a workable blueprint, and put forward a plan to achieve and surpass those goals.

Its very important to empower women, Murillo said, adding that the chamber is committed to providing them important information around three specific areas: excellence, empowerment and execution.

No fluff, she emphasized. Its all about business and making sure people are making good career decisions.

Murillo is going to be the opening speaker before Governor Martinez addresses the audience. The CEO will provide participants with fresh statistics about entrepreneurship, education and other indicators of the advancements of women in a presentation that will include video and exemplary stories to motivate participants, she said.

The program includes panel discussions addressing topics such as how to start or jump start a business, how to leverage mentorship programs and how to address workplace harassment for both employees and employers.

Panelists include Mark Montgomery, Houston Market CEO for BBBA Compass Bank; Connie Clark, president of TDECU Insurance; Susan McEldoon, president of KHOU Channel 11; Mary Ann Perez, Texas Representative and owner of Perez Insurance Agency, and other business owners and corporate leaders.

Businesses owned by women have grown over two times faster than the national average during the last two decades, various studies show.

A study from American Express published this year indicates that while the number of women-owned businesses grew 114 percent during that period, the rate of businesses created by Hispanic women nationwide increased 491 percent.

The Hispanic chamber said that women-owned businesses account for more than 30% of all businesses in the Houston area and that Texas currently boasts the second highest share of self-employed female workers in the country.Texas police have increased the reward for any information that leads to the arrest of a suspect, or suspects, in the case of a woman whose body was discovered July 15, 2003 in North Texas.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is offering a reward of up to $6,000 for information about Cynthia Palacio, 21, who was found on a rural road west of Slaton, in southeast Lubbock County. Police said she was strangled and found partially clothed. Palacio was a Lubbock resident and is survived by her then 2-year-old daughter.3 1 of 3 NEIL ARMSTRONG/HO Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Leslie Plaza Johnson/Freelancer Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Sunday is the last day to catch a glimpse of the Apollo 11 command module at Space Center Houston.

The Apollo 11 spacecraft became famous in the summer of 1969, when it launched three men into space with the intention of landing on the moon. It was on that trip that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon, with Armstrong uttering the now famous phrase: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."Five Houston-area congressmen are urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to accept Houston's idea of using volunteer hours as an alternate way to pay the city's required local match for federal disaster grants.

The letter sent Tuesday to FEMA Administrator Brock Long is signed by U.S. Reps. John Culberson (R-Houston), Brian Babin (R-Woodville), Pete Olson (R-Sugar Land), Gene Green (D-Houston) and Al Green (D-Houston).Dementia UK was founded in 1988. The family of Joseph Levy were caring for him after a diagnosis of vascular dementia, and were dismayed by the lack of specialist care for people in their situation. Joseph had been a keen sailor and was nicknamed Admiral Joe; the charitys dementia specialist Admiral Nurses were named after him.

When things get challenging or difficult, Admiral Nurses work alongside people with dementia, their families and carers, giving them one-to-one support, expert guidance and practical solutions to face dementia with more understanding and confidence.In 2013 the Charity Commission in Northern Ireland launched an investigation into Lough Neagh Rescue, a small charity which provided lifeboat services on the lakes of the same name.

The charity had effectively split down the middle, with two groups claiming to be the legitimate administration. There were claims and counter-claims about illegitimate votes, intimidation, and people changing the locks on the boathouse.

The investigation was one of the first serious pieces of work undertaken by the regulator, then newly formed. In a sign it wanted to come down heavily, it took the side of one group, and sacked five volunteer crew members  using a power which has not been employed in recent memory by the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW).

Lough Neagh was uncharted waters for the CCNI. Up until its establishment, charity regulation in Northern Ireland  a devolved matter  had been piecemeal and unsatisfactory, with no central register, and partial records kept by HM Revenue & Customs. The CCNI was an attempt to bring the issue up to date. It was established in March 2009, with a remit to register all the charities in Northern Ireland  now estimated to be more than 17,000 organisations.

Registration began in 2013 and is going slowly. There are currently 6,000 charities on the register, of which 3,800 have filed accounts. The regulators board estimated last year that on its current annual budget of 1.8m, it will take up to 21 years to register all the charities in the province, although the CCNI has since said ten years is probably a more realistic figure.

Court battles and inquiries

Almost six years after it was first begun, the Lough Neagh case is still going on. The volunteer crew members have been reinstated on appeal, and the former trustee, Trevor McKee, has just won a ruling saying he has the right to appeal the institution of the inquiry that allowed the CCNI to remove him. If he is successful it has the potential to open the question of the legality of all such inquiries.

It is far from the only major battle. The CCNI has been repeatedly back and forth to the Charity Tribunal for Northern Ireland  a process which uses a lot of resources the regulator can ill afford to spare. The tribunal made 11 decisions this year, compared to 28 in England and Wales  a jurisdiction with 20 times as many charities.

The regulators critics say this is because it has been heavy-handed and inconsistent. Greg Burke, who is part of an organisation called Probity, which was set up to challenge the CCNI in the courts, says it has misinterpreted the law, and spent money it does not need to on minor issues, leading to increasing challenge in the courts.

Theyre facing a whole raft of legal challenges because of their own behaviour, he says. They arent targeting their resources correctly. Theyre picking on small charities that dont need the attention, and letting big ones go by.

But Frances McCandless, chief executive of the CCNI, says the main problem is the lack of regulation historically.

Its like lifting a stone to see whats under there, she says. You find a lot of problems. And its brand new legislation. When legislation is first used, you expect to see a lot of challenges.

Seven key risks all high or higher

There are even bigger challenges on the horizon. The regulators own risk register said last year that it was very likely the CCNI would not be able to discharge its function because it did not have the budget.

The risk register compiled by the CCNI board, published in February 2017, and shared with G&Ls sister online news service Civil Society News following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, uses a trafficlight system to quantify risk, with extreme and high risks graded red and orange.

Of the seven key risks on the register, all were at least high. The board said it was very likely that delays in registration would damage confidence in the sector. It said it was likely that a lack of staff and resources was likely to lead to poor practice being undetected, and the sector being less accountable. And it said it was likely that weak oversight and poor governance arrangements would put the CCNI at risk of not meeting its legal obligations as a public body.

Meanwhile the Attorney General for Northern Ireland (AGNI) has been to the tribunal to challenge the CCNIs interpretation of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, a challenge likely to impact the legality of all 141 orders the CCNI has so far made  as well as hundreds of other decisions. In a bizarre turn of events, the AGNI received rulings both for and against from the same court, and on the same day, which will now go to appeal in the High Court.

The CCNIs own parent department has also launched an investigation into whether it is fit for purpose. This report, completed in October 2016, is still to see the light of day, because there is no functioning government in Northern Ireland, nor a minister in place who can take the decision to release the report.

McCandless says the CCNI is constituted in the same way as other comparable regulators and in a way that had the backing of its parent department.

The AGNI has taken one view and weve taken another, she says. Weve acted in good faith and on good advice. Ultimately its for the courts to decide.

The review of whether the regulator is fit, she says, is something which is done periodically in all non-departmental bodies.

She says that despite the many issues, the regulator is a success story.

This is about a generational change in Northern Ireland, she says. Its taking time to say to charities that they must be registered, and getting them to think about contact with the regulator.

Weve taken huge steps forward in terms of transparency for the public. Obviously wed like to be able to simply say that if a charity is legitimate its on the register, and we cant do that right now. We have to have a more complicated message.

We would have liked to have sent a stronger message in the first years about a culture of compliance, and there have been limits to what we could do. Its always challenging Its like lifting a stone to see whats under there. You find a lot of problems. frances mccandless implementing a big change in regulation. No one likes change in their working lives.

Funding

The root of the issues facing the CCNI is a lack of resources. It is very questionable whether there is enough cash on the table to do what is asked.

The CCNI has a little less funding per registered charity than the CCEW. But it is not fair to compare a new regulator with an existing one. The CCNI must register thousands of charities  a time-consuming and expensive process. In addition, the new regulator must build relationships, establish case law, and create procedures. It will uncover more wrongdoing as it lifts stones for the first time. It must deal with crossborder issues. And its fixed costs are not comparably lower. Producing guidance for charities costs just as much, for example.

And of course the comparatively wellfunded CCEW feels it cannot do its job with the resources available to it. How much more true must this be for the CCNI?

The regulator itself is not minded to argue. It, too, says candidly that it is underfunded.

Its fair to say that when implementing a big new piece of legislation, we could have done with more cash, says McCandless. We arent well resourced compared to other regulators  either the other charity regulators in the UK, or other regulators here in Northern Ireland. Weve had to cut our coat to suit our cloth.

The threadbare nature of charity regulation in the province offers major challenges for the rest of the UK, because while civil society is a devolved issue, tax and fundraising are not. If scams involving charities originate in Northern Ireland, there is only a patchwork and incomplete regulatory framework to stop them targeting charities and donors in England.

The likelihood is that it is already happening. Following the discovery in 2012 of the Cup Trust  a 176m tax avoidance scheme registered as a charity  HMRC told the National Audit Office that there were seven similar tax avoidance schemes involving charities. Only two have ever been identified, and one was in Northern Ireland. If the other five are also based there, we currently have no way of knowing, and no effective remedy.

David Ainsworth is group online editor at Civil Society Media

This article originally appeared in Governance & Leadership magazine, the only dedicated magazine for charity trustees. Find out what's in the latest edition here.Much has been written about whether the national medias vilification of Oxfam was a gross overreaction, perhaps even a right-wing conspiracy against a highly effective campaigning organisation that highlights uncomfortable truths about global inequalities and power imbalances. After all, the charitys response in 2011 when the Haiti allegations came to light was not to bury its head  after sending an expert investigation team to the region, it dismissed four staff and required three to resign, and put in place a raft of measures which led to it becoming widely viewed among the international aid community as a leader in the field of safeguarding. Those are hardly the actions of a negligent or complacent organisation.

But what has transpired since the first story broke is much more important than whether Oxfam was fairly treated. Its become apparent that sexual abuse and misconduct is a massive problem in the world of overseas aid, and the organisations trusted to deliver that aid have not been dealing with the problem adequately. There is much more at stake now than just Oxfams reputation.

The whole sector is facing a crisis of trust  and make no mistake, this means the whole charity sector, not just the international aid sector. The Presidents Club has seen to that, and there will be more salacious revelations to come, once the graduate recruitment scheme Charityworks publishes the results of its survey on sexism and harassment in the sector. Charities mistakes, of all kinds, are now gleefully seized upon and the moral high ground the sector once occupied is sliding away fast. So the whole sector has to react  that means you and your trustee board.

As comms expert Sarah Pinch points out in her article for Governance & Leadership magazine, the quality of governance is an essential component in a charitys ability to prevent a crisis happening in the first place, and to respond properly should one hit. Your board now needs to take a long hard look at your organisations culture and systems  lift some stones, see whats beneath. And, learn to love your risk register, as Stephen McAndrew advises in his article. Prevention is way better than cure. Peer closely at those red and amber ratings: if your systems and processes arent good enough to mitigate those risks, consider whether you ought to invest some money to improve them  should you be carrying out DBS checks on all your volunteers? Do you need to devise a policy on how to handle historic allegations? Are all your staff adequately trained in data protection? Would your safeguarding culture be improved by adopting feminist leadership principles, as ActionAid has done? What else do you need to do to ensure that your beneficiaries are protected, that your staff feel safe to call out bad practice, that your charity wont fall victim to fraud or sexual abuse or data security breaches (or whatever else is at the top of your risk register)?

If you believe your trustee board should devote more resources to these things, say so  and if they agree, make sure you write down why, so you can justify the spend to your donors and other stakeholders. If there is any silver lining to be found on this dark cloud, it could well be that spending money on safeguarding, compliance and other overheads should be an easier sell from now on.

Tania Mason is editor of Governance & Leadership magazineThe Motor Neurone Disease Association's website stopped working yesterday following a surge of traffic to after the announcement of the death of its patron Professor Stephen Hawking.

Hawking had lived with a form of motor neurone disease for over 50 years, despite being told he would likely only live a few years after his diagnosis at the age of 22. He had been a patron of the MND Association since 2008. He died in his home in Cambridge in the early hourse of Wednesday at the age of 76.

Chris James, director of external affair at the MND Association said: Following the sad news of the death of Professor Stephen Hawking there has been a huge increase in the number of people accessing our website which caused it to be unavailable for a period of time. Although we have seen a small increase in donations the majority of visitors to our website are interested in finding out more about the disease.

Professor Hawking did a huge amount to raise awareness of motor neurone disease (MND), through so many years in the public eye, and this legacy continues today.

In response to the website being unavailable, the charity set up a JustGiving page to allow people to continue to donate to the charity in memory of Hawking.

MND is a fatal, rapidly progressing disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It attacks the nerves that control movement so muscles no longer work.

Honoured to have him as a patron'

Sally Light, chief executive of the MND Association, said: All of us at the MND Association have been extremely saddened by the news of Professor Hawkings passing.

Through so many years in the public eye he did a huge amount to raise awareness of MND, yet he never allowed himself to be defined by his illness. His approach to life with MND is an example to all of us.

The story of his life and the impact of MND on his family reached a global audience in 2015. We were involved from the very start with the production of the film The Theory of Everything and it was an incredibly powerful tool for further raising awareness of motor neurone disease.

We were honoured that Professor Hawking was a patron of the Association and inspired by his tenacity to keep pushing boundaries.

For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here.

Register with us for a free daily news bulletin Civil Society News is our free daily news bulletin delivered straight to your inbox. It is written by the journalists at Civil Society Media, who also write extensively for Charity Finance, Governance & Leadership, and Fundraising Magazine. RegisterThis week on The Kicker, we dive into something weve all been hearing about but dont quite understandblockchain technology. CJR Digital Editor Nausicaa Renner spoke to author and technologist Paul Ford about the confusing world of blockchain and how its being used in journalism. Then Pete sits down with CJR colleagues Alexandria Neason and Jon Allsop to discuss the media news of the week, including newsrooms examination of their racist past and coverage of Wednesdays school walkouts.

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Meg Dalton and Pete Vernon are CJR Delacorte Fellows. Find Meg on Twitter @megdalts and Pete @ByPeteVernon.The call came just before noon on August 26, minutes after we had crossed a hilly range that separates northern Uganda from South Sudan. Earlier that morning, I had embarked on a four-day embed with South Sudans main opposition movement, the SPLM-IO, traveling on foot through rebel-held parts of the country to shed light on the latest surge of violence in the four-year civil war.

We had just passed a pile of rocks atop of a hill that marked the border when my phone rang, hanging onto the last sliver of cell phone coverage. Through the crackling line, I could hear the high-pitched, distressed voice of a rebel official, whom I had met just days before in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. An American journalist had been shot in South Sudan, he yelled through the phone. At first, with lack of details on the incident or the journalists identity, I thought the dreadful news would turn out to be a rumor. It wasnt until the next morning that the rebel commander I was with confirmed the death of freelance journalist Christopher Allen, a dual British-American citizen and the first foreign journalist to lose his life reporting on South Sudans conflict.

Related: Where the bodies arent buried: Bearing witness to a murderand a messageon a dirt path in South Sudan

Allen was killed in the early hours of August 26, while covering a rebel offensive in the town of Kaya, located near South Sudans border with Uganda. The aftermath of his death was marred by confusion and controversy, the full extent of which I only began to grasp days later, when I returned to cell coverage in northern Uganda and found my phone inundated with messages about the incident. The sequence of events that led to Allens final moments remained blurry and subject to conflicting statements. The South Sudanese government, believed responsible for firing the fatal shot, labeled him a white rebel and threatened other journalists who traveled to rebel areas with similar consequences. The rebels, in turn, deployed a carefully crafted narrative aimed at diverting attention from their own failures to protect the journalist.

Questions of what went wrong, and whether Allens death could have been prevented, echoed among the small community of journalists who reported on South Sudan. When a journalist dies, such questions, while on everyones mind, are often asked in a whisper amid fears of upsetting grieving relatives or tarnishing the legacy of the deceased. But not searching for answers, I felt, would be to fall short of my journalistic duties to establish what, exactly, had happened. It would also mean foregoing an opportunity to draw important, albeit painful, lessons for other journalists and editors covering South Sudans war.

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Throughout South Sudans most recent conflict, the government has treated journalists with scorn. Since fighting broke out again in 2013, South Sudan has steadily slid down the World Press Freedom rankings published by Reporters without Borders (RSF). In 2012, South Sudan ranked 124, but by 2017 it had dropped to 145. Local Journalists risked harassment, arbitrary arrest, and even death for criticizing the government. In 2014, the countrys Minister of Information warned journalists against reporting from opposition areas, threatening that they could face arrest for disseminating poison. It was as if the rebels-turned-ruling party had forgotten that not too long ago, the foreign press had covered their own insurgency against Khartoum, contributing in minor part to galvanizing international support for the independence struggle.

When a journalist dies, such questions, while on everyones mind, are often asked in a whisper.

Things took a turn for the worse in the latter half of 2016, especially for foreign correspondents, who had thus far largely evaded censorship and harassment. In July 2016, fresh fighting erupted in the capital of Juba, marking the collapse of a US-backed 2016 peace agreement. As the war unfurled across the previously peaceful region of Equatoria, the government banned 20 foreign journalists (including this storys author) from entering the country, accusing them of writing unsubstantiated and unrealistic stories that insulted or degraded South Sudan and its people. Press freedom groups and journalist associations denounced the crackdown. This ban on foreign journalists is aimed at creating a blackout on what is happening within the country, said Clea Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSFs Africa desk. Journalists who were still able to secure visas had to accept mounting restrictions of movement. The result was that very little information on the events in Equatoria reached the outside world, even as the UN warned that ethnic killings could spiral into genocide.

Against this backdrop, Christopher Allen reached out to South Sudans rebels in the summer of 2017 to arrange an embed. My goal is to spend time with the opposition forces in the field to try to understand them, the then 26-year-old (Allen would have turned 27 this past December) wrote to the SPLM-IOs deputy military spokesperson, Lam Paul Gabriel. Allen was a freelance journalist who had dedicated himself to covering what he felt were invisible wars. Filing mostly for Al Jazeera English and The Independent, he reported from the trenches in Ukraine and interviewed Kurdish guerilla fighters in Turkey. South Sudan would be his first war on the African continent.

ICYMI: She identified herself as a reporter. He then walked behind her and punched her in the side of the head

Allen arrived in Kampala on August 1. Three days later, he and Gabriel boarded a night bus bound for the northern Ugandan town of Yumbe, just 20 miles from the border with South Sudan. On August 5, Allen entered Kajo Keji county. He was only the seventh journalist to set foot in rebel-held Equatoria since the re-escalation of fighting in July 2016. In February 2017, independent reporter Nick Turse briefly snuck across the border near Kajo Keji to verify allegations of a gruesome killing at the hands of government forces. In April, an Al Jazeera TV crew paid a days visit to rebel forces near Kajo Keji. A couple of weeks later, reporter Jason Patinkin and I spent four days inside rebel-held Kajo Keji, filing reports for IRIN, Foreign Policy, France24, and Vice News.

But Allens trip to rebel-held South Sudan would be unprecedented in its duration. A freelance journalist who had the time and appetite for delving into his stories, he intended to stay with the rebels for several weeks. His only motivation was to find out exactly the truth about the war in South Sudan, Matata Frank, the rebel governor of Yei River state, told me during a meeting in Kampala this past December. Frank was one of the most senior SPLM-IO commanders in the Equatoria region and the first of a dozen people I would interview in order to piece together Allens final days.

For two weeks, Allen stayed with Frank at his headquarters in Panyume, sleeping in neighboring mud huts and sharing meals of posho (a doughy ball made of maize flour and water) and beans in the evening. The rebels, yearning for international news coverage and unaccustomed to hosting a journalist for such a long period of time, quickly grew to appreciate him. We had really a lot of hope in him, Frank told me. Everybody was banking on him when he gets back [to tell] their real, actual stories that people are going through. During his time in Panyume, Allen took extended walks to surrounding villages, accompanied by a couple of guards and his minder and translator, to speak to civilians about the impact of the war and their life under rebel rule.

But the young journalist wanted more. From the very first day, he wanted to cover the actual fighting, Frank told CJR. He kept on asking me especially, when are we going to the war? Where are we going to attack?

Frontline reporting from South Sudan has been scarce. A country with one of the lowest population densities on the continent, South Sudan has too few fighters and too much land for frontlines to exist. Unlike in Iraq, for example, where journalists board Humvees with American-trained special forces to be ferried within yards of combat, South Sudans war is remote and unpredictable. Clashes take place mostly in underdeveloped rural areas that are difficult and dangerous to reach, with few options for extraction in case of an emergency. Fighting is highly asymmetric, a factor that further complicates frontline coverage. The government, equipped with tanks, 12.7mm machine guns, and practically unlimited ammunition, controls the towns and main roads. The rebels, armed with AK-47s and the odd PK machine gun or Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG), lay ambushes along main roads and occasionally raid army barracks. Even when the rebels attack and overrun towns, they hardly ever hold ground.

Trending: The Times tech columnist unplugged from the internet. Except he didnt.

These ground truths make embedding with the rebels a precarious undertaking. Not only are they outgunnedthey also consistently overestimate their own military prowess. When I traveled to Kajo Keji in April 2017, the rebels took us within three kilometers of the frontlines, to a place called Loopo. On the way to the embattled hamlet, Brigadier General Moses Lokujo boasted that his men had surrounded government forces in Kajo Keji town to the extent that they couldnt even fetch water from a nearby borehole. But as we bounced along the dirt track, Lokujo also pointed out a spot where the government had attacked rebel positions just two weeks earlier, clear proof that they were able to venture well beyond said borehole. On the same trip, Lokujo promised he would capture Kajo Keji town within three months, a goal that never came to fruition.

The rebels inferior yet overstated military capabilities, coupled with Allens limited knowledge of South Sudan to critically examine their propositions, proved to be catastrophic during the battle of Kaya.

Kaya is a small, sleepy border town nestled between undulating, green hills and the Kaya river, which marks the boundary between South Sudan and Uganda. The dusty main drag curves around the hills and cuts through the center of town, abutted by one-story concrete buildings that house shops and restaurants. Thatched mud huts extend from the main road onto the flanks of the hills.

Facing Kaya, just a hundred meters from the river where the dirt track ends and the paved road begins, lies the Ugandan border town of Oraba. Trucks bearing fuel and other commodities destined for South Sudan park near the customs checkpoint to clear paperwork. Ugandan forces, the most important ally of South Sudans government since the onset of the war, are deployed on the other side of the border.

Throughout the conflict, Kaya has remained firmly in government hands. Though it is dwarfed by the main border crossing of Nimule in traffic and customs revenues, Kaya remains an important entry point for goods and a source of government income. The town also bears military significance. The government sometimes channels reinforcements through Kaya brought from other parts of South Sudan via Uganda, a route that avoids travel through rebel held areas where they risk being ambushed.

It was the strategic nature of Kaya that prompted the rebels to plan an assault on the town and other government positions along the 16-mile road toward Morobo. The objective of the operation was to capture ammunition, cut off supply routes for the government, and, according to the rebels, preempt an impending attack. The government was building troops there, and the intention was to increase the capacity of the fighting force in Kaya so they come after us in Panyume, said rebel governor Matata Frank. For Allen, the waiting had finally paid off. He would cover one of the most significant military operations in the region that year.

Major General John Mabieh, a Nuer who hails from the same tribe as the SPLM-IO chairman Riek Machar, was to lead the battle. Around 250 rebel troops, half ethnic Nuer and half Equatorians, would attack Kaya and nearby government outposts at Bindu, Kimba, and Bazi. The rebels would assault the barracks, raid their ammunition stores, and chase their enemy toward Uganda. Our intent was [to] capture Kaya. We wanted to have that border so [it] cannot be used again, the SPLM-IOs chief of intelligence for the area, whose name cannot be disclosed for security reasons, told CJR.

Related: Deaths, detainments mount as media environment worsens in South Sudan

While the rebels procured medical supplies and mobilized troops from nearby areas, Allen joined a team of rebels conducting reconnaissance missions aimed at collecting intelligence for the forthcoming battle.

But the rebels ability to plan, let alone execute, such an operation fell short of their ambitious goals. Information of an impending attack had leaked weeks before. Rebel intelligence officials had imprecise information about the number of government troops based in Kaya, Bindu, Kimba, and Bazi, with estimates ranging from two to 800 troops. The very idea of capturing Kaya was unrealistic, according to one former SPLM-IO intelligence officer who had been part of previous assaults on Kaya. None of the operations had been successful. We cannot take the town, said Col. Emmanuel Augustino, who defected to a rival rebel group in 2017. If you want to control Kaya, you need many ammunitions and machine guns.

In what would turn out to be the most serious of miscalculations for their mission, the rebels had banked on raiding ammunition stores to top off their limited supplies during the battle. But the government, wary of a potential assault, had distributed all supplies to soldiers. Rebel commanders were made aware of this at least a day before the attack, according to one officer who took part in the battle. I was thinking that going to Kaya, we will never succeed because of limited ammunition, said the officer, who asked not to be named because he spoke outside of the chain of command.

The rebel commanders knew their mission could fail. During a pre-battle briefing in Yondu on August 25, the chief of intelligence said he advised senior commanders to not let Allen and two other Reuters journalists who had arrived that day join the troops. Journalists shouldnt go direct to the frontline. Maybe [the forces] could not take the town, he told CJR. The intelligence officer said he tried in vain to convince the three reporters to remain behind with Mabieh and spokesperson Gabriel until the town was cleared. They refused, all of them, he said. I was like, what can I do? The commanders, wary of upsetting their visitors and eager for media exposure, let the journalists have their way. Reuters declined to allow their two journalists to speak about their time with Allen for this article.

In the evening hours of August 25, the troops and the three journalists left Yondu and advanced southwest toward Kaya, trailing northwest of the Uganda South Sudan border. They walked through the night along bush paths surrounded by tall elephant grass, until they reached Kaya in the early morning hours. Then, they waited for the break of dawn.

At twilight on August 26, the rebels, equipped with, on average, two magazines each, launched a multipronged attack on Kaya and surrounding government positions. The three reporters, none of whom wore body armor, according to rebel sources, moved with a large group of more than 100 soldiers, who looped toward Congo and descended onto the town from the northwest. The journalists were assigned a group of fighters to protect them, and were instructed to remain behind as the front moved ahead.

Dressed in a colorful array of military fatigues and civilian clothing, the rebels each wore a bright red piece of cloth around their heads to identify fellow fighters. Their ragtag appearance mirrored their clumsy combat etiquette. A Reuters video of the battle shows fighters haphazardly lurching toward buildings that appear to be on the towns edge. There was no apparent formation. Some soldiers casually dangled their AK-47s by their sides, even as bullets whizzed past. Others emptied their precious magazines in a matter of minutes, surprising conduct for a force that prides itself in efficient marksmanship.

Many soldiers seemed disoriented. Originally from the northern Upper Nile region, the Nuer fighters were alien to this land, almost certainly entering Kaya for the first time in their lives. We have to be careful! We dont know where they are hiding, one soldier calls out in the video. The chaotic nature of the assault raised concerns even within the ranks of the SPLM-IO. A rebel officer from the Equatorian region who took part in the attack expressed dismay at the reckless behavior of the Nuer forces. After the first person starts [shooting], immediately everyone is running to the enemy, he told me.

Chaos continued to unfurl as the battle went on. Allen was embedded with a group that was supposed to target the barracks, perched halfway atop a hill to the northwest, to secure ammunition. The soldiers found none, but continued their assault, even though they risked running out of bullets. The government troops deserted the barracks and fled south toward Uganda, with rebels in hot pursuit. But urban warfare wasnt the guerillas strong suit. Passing mud huts and concrete structures, they neglected to clear the buildings along the way, making themselves vulnerable to attacks from government soldiers who had taken up positions inside the houses.

In the course of the battle, Allen separated from the other two journalists and advanced with a group of soldiers headed south, in direction of the Ugandan border. The last sequence of photos found on his camera shows the advancing front: He was running a few yards ahead, capturing images of rebel fighters facing the camera as they charged onward. Chris is very fast. Even me, I was getting tired running after him, his minder said of the event.

Much of what happened next remains a blur amid conflicting accounts of Allens killing, provided by two fighters who were in close proximity when he died and four others with firsthand knowledge of the incident. There are contradictory statements, for example, about the precise type of gun that fired the shots. Its also difficult to establish whether Allen was targeted, and whether he was the only person killed in his group. What is certain, however, is that the journalist was shot several times at close range. According to two witnesses, a soldier from the SPLA fired a large-caliber machine gun at Allens group from one of the concrete buildings on the main road, just 30 to 50 meters away. What is believed to be the fatal shot hit him in the head from the left. A total of five gunshot wounds were later found in his body. The timestamp of the last photo believed to be taken by Allen reads 6:52am, suggesting he may have died around that time.

ICYMI: Conducting interviews with kids: Dos and donts

The rebels reportedly attempted to extract Allens body, but failed amid sustained gunfire. Upon orders from the chief of intelligence, they grabbed his camera, backpack, and jacket, and emptied his pockets. Soon after Allen was shot, and only 40 minutes after the battle had begun, the rebels ran out of ammunition and retreated toward Yondu. In the afternoon, a government helicopter brought Allens body to the capital of Juba, where his identity was confirmed. News of the journalists death spread like wildfire through social media, fanned by inflammatory remarks from government officials who labeled him a white rebel.

The rebels were quick to give their own version of events. SPLA IO Captured Kaya, Bindu, Kimba and Bazi, reads a press release posted on Facebook on August 27 by spokesperson Gabriel. The enemy forces are confined at the Uganda border. The statement was published long after the rebels had been forced to withdraw. Beneath such efforts to save face, the SPLM-IO reeled from their embarrassing defeat. Fighting without proper tactics and considering size of enemies with their equipments, its a disaster, said one member of the SPLM-IO in an internal WhatsApp group, according to a transcript obtained by CJR. Some worried their incorrect accounts of the battle would reflect poorly should the US investigate Allens death. We need to stop looking foolish by spreading false propagandas when we are the one being defeated, said another rebel official.

It was the first time a foreign journalist had been killed in South Sudan. But it was the governments reaction to Allens death that turned the event into a dangerous precedent, causing international outrage and instilling fear among those who reported on the country. In calling him a white rebel, the government denied Allen the status of a civilian he deserved under international law, thus absolving its soldiers of responsibility. And officials further threatened other journalists who embed with rebels. Anybody who comes attacking us with hostile forces will meet his fate, a government army spokesperson told reporters not long after Allens death. Though the government has since toned down its rhetoric, calling Allens death unfortunate, it has no plans to conduct an investigation into the incident. There is nobody that can be accounted because he is at the frontline with rebels and he entered South Sudan illegally, Deputy SPLA Spokesperson Santo Domic recently told CJR.

In the absence of an independent investigation, one important question remains unanswered: Was Allen targeted for being a journalist?

The information available at the time of publication is inconclusive. Contrary to initial reports, Allen wasnt wearing a flak jacket or any other apparel that identified him as press, according to several rebel sources. A picture of his body shared on social media shows the same red band worn by the rebels tied around his left arm, which means government soldiers could have confused him for a fighter. (One rebel claimed the government later planted the band to fuel allegations that Allen was a mercenary, but other evidence, including this video of journalists wearing such bands during past embeds, casts serious doubt on those claims.) According to one Ugandan intelligence official who spoke to government soldiers shortly after the incident, the SPLA genuinely believed they had killed a mercenary fighting alongside the rebels. While such claims could be a conscious attempt to sidestep responsibility, they could also reflect a genuine, if unfounded, belief about foreign fighters that the government has previously tried to cultivate.

Related: The thorny ethics of embedding with do-gooders

Other details, however, suggest Allen may have been intentionally killed. Its difficult to imagine that a soldier shooting from 30 to 50 meters away couldnt have properly identified Allen, who carried two cameras and was snapping pictures until what may have been his last moment. Having separated from the other two journalists, he was also the only white man in his group, and presumably the only one not carrying a weapon. The fact that Allen was shot several times could point toward an intentional killing, especially given that the rebels suffered few casualties (seven fatalities, according to the rebels; 15, according to the government).

Finally, theres the uncomfortable question of whether Allens death could have been prevented. Its unlikely that a helmet and bulletproof vest could have saved his life, in light of the multiple, large-caliber rounds that entered his body. For journalists covering war zones, the decision of whether to wear body armor always comes as a trade off between mobility and protection. In this instance, the tedious, long walk from Yondu to Kaya made carrying a 20-pound flak jacket impractical, especially given that the rebels dont wear body armor and are already difficult enough to keep up with.

There may have also been an element of competition that drove him forward. After all, reporting is often about who gets the story first, and who gets it best.

But should the journalists have covered the battle at all? Allen appeared to be driven by a genuine desire to shed light on an undercovered conflict. He told rebels that he wanted to report the war itself, not just the immense suffering left in its wake. Very little has been done to try to actually articulate who [the rebels] are, what they are fighting for, Allen told Gabriel in June while planning the trip. It was his newness to South Sudan that made it challenging to weigh the risk of such endeavors.

There may have also been an element of competition that drove him forward. After all, reporting is often about who gets the story first, and who gets it best. When the Reuters journalists unexpectedly showed up, rebels say Allen first reacted with disappointment. A freelance journalist who had yet to place his stories, he knew hed struggle to compete against the wires. Allen, he didnt want rivals around, so he was not very happy when he saw [them], said Gabriel. Their presence gave him that pressure, that he wanted to cover something more.

Such sentiments, if true, wouldnt be uncommon in a cutthroat industry in which journalists compete for an ever-declining pool of finances. I felt the same desire to protect my turf when Allen first reached out, asking for rebel contacts three months before his trip. I provided the contacts, but I didnt volunteer any other information on how to navigate rebel-held South Sudan, a mistake that has been a great source of guilt. The same desire for exclusive coverage may have also stopped him from divulging details of his plans when he wrote again at the end of June to let me know hed be traveling to South Sudan soon. In the end, we were both freelancers pitching stories to the same few outlets that still cover international conflict, and a war that commanded little attention amid reports on Iraq, Syria, and the Trump administration.

At the same time, the bar for what the industry considers noteworthy coverage of conflict continues to rise, pushing young freelance journalists looking for a break beyond what many experienced media professionals deem safe. Theres obviously some pressure to take what I would consider unacceptable risk to get ahead, said Tim Freccia, a veteran filmmaker with more than 30 years of experience covering conflicts. To reporters working in South Sudan, Freccia is particularly well-known for a groundbreaking documentary shot during the first and most violent months of the war, portraying an audacious journey deep into rebel territory to meet rebel leader Riek Machar. The film, Freccia admits, may have sent the wrong message to young journalists. On the surface, you know, it may have seemed like we just rocked up in South Sudan and hooked up with Riek Machar, Freccia told CJR. But it was a lot more complicated than that. It was something we set up over months through a lot of intimate, trusted contacts.

Allen reached out to Freccia a week before he entered South Sudan. First, let me say that I respect your work and particularly appreciated your South Sudan stuff, the young journalist wrote. Im headed down to South Sudan on Monday to spend a couple months with the rebels. I was wondering if you had any thoughts or advice. Freccia replied with words of caution. Id be especially wary of the Juba regime. They operate with complete impunity, he wrote. Freccia offered to speak on the phone, but the conversation never took place. Allen sent a final message just before he entered South Sudan. I leave for the rebels in a few hours anyway so I guess we will just have to see how it goes.

This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

ICYMI: Edit tests are out of control, say journalists in search of jobs

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Simona Foltyn is a journalist, writer, and videographer based in Dubai. Her work focuses on in-depth coverage of armed conflict, social justice, and corruption in East Africa and the Middle East. Since 2014, she has extensively covered the conflict in South Sudan. She has also reported from Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Iraq.One month after 17 students and staff were killed at a Florida high school, the media turned its gaze to student voices around the country demanding action on gun control. Thousands of students streamed from classrooms as part of a national walkout, and coverage of the action dominated morning television.

ABC, CBS, and NBC all broadcast special reports on the walkout, while MSNBC and CNN provided extended coverage, with journalists in the field from Washington, DC; Parkland, Florida; New York City; and other locations around the country. There was, perhaps predictably, markedly less coverage on Fox News, which aired brief reports amid regular political coverage. At 10am, Viacom-owned networks including Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, and Comedy Central honored the walkout with a programming blackout.

ICYMI: New York Times columnist lands in hot water

In print, the story features on front pages of this mornings New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today. Even after a year of near continuous protestingfor women, for the environment, for immigrants and morethe emergence of people not even old enough to drive as a political force has been particularly arresting, unsettling a gun control debate that had seemed impervious to other factors, write the Timess Vivian Yee and Alan Blinder in their A1 story.

Wednesdays action drew comparisons to the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s and 70s, demonstrating once again the surprising staying power of the student-led #NeverAgain movement started in the wake of last months shooting. Previous mass killings, even the slaughter of elementary school students in Newtown, Connecticut, faded from the national conversation relatively quickly.

RELATED: The stories we should be writing after the Parkland shooting

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While media coverage of the movement has continued, momentum for any sort of comprehensive federal response appears to have stalled. Florida Governor Rick Scott recently signed a bill raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, but Congress has failed to seriously consider any action on gun control. Yesterday, the House overwhelmingly voted for a bill that would beef up school security without addressing the countrys gun laws. Facing opposition from the National Rifle Association and pushback from lawmakers, President Trump has abandoned his support for gun control measures he outlined in statements shortly after the February 14 shooting.

The walkout was the first national action of the nascent movement, and a march on Washington, DC, is scheduled for March 24. With the continuous churn of news out of the capital and political opposition to any real change in gun laws firmly entrenched, theres no guarantee students will be able to keep the focus on their demands. But a month ago, few would have expected the conversation to have gotten this far.

Below, more on the coverage of the protests.

Blanket coverage: The Washington Posts front-page story on the walkout included reporting from 13 journalists around the country.

The Washington Posts front-page story on the walkout included reporting from 13 journalists around the country. Why now?: The visibility of the current movement, led by students at Stoneman Douglas High School, has left some wondering why previous pleas for gun control didnt gain traction. Philadelphia Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas wrote about students in the city questioning why their struggles with gun violence didnt attract attention. Last month, the Chicago Tribunes Dahleen Glanton focused on Black Lives Matter youth who feel ignored. Voxs P.R. Lockhart reported on the way students of color made sure the national walkout didnt ignore race.

The visibility of the current movement, led by students at Stoneman Douglas High School, has left some wondering why previous pleas for gun control didnt gain traction. Philadelphia Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas wrote about students in the city questioning why their struggles with gun violence didnt attract attention. Last month, the Chicago Tribunes Dahleen Glanton focused on Black Lives Matter youth who feel ignored. Voxs P.R. Lockhart reported on the way students of color made sure the national walkout didnt ignore race. Not universal: Nearly every report I saw included coverage of schools where administrators had discouraged or banned protest, and several outlets included perspectives of students who chose not to participate.

Nearly every report I saw included coverage of schools where administrators had discouraged or banned protest, and several outlets included perspectives of students who chose not to participate. National problem: While the focus has been on Parkland, CJRs Alexandria Neason points out one reason students around the country are more than aware of the gun issue. In the weeks following the Stoneman Douglas shooting, dozens of threats to schools occurred across the country. While local education reporters are aware of these incidents, Neason writes that national media hasnt given much attention to the sprawl of post-Parkland threats.

While the focus has been on Parkland, CJRs Alexandria Neason points out one reason students around the country are more than aware of the gun issue. In the weeks following the Stoneman Douglas shooting, dozens of threats to schools occurred across the country. While local education reporters are aware of these incidents, Neason writes that national media hasnt given much attention to the sprawl of post-Parkland threats. Cable coverage: Media Matterss Lis Power analyzed cable news coverage of the walkout, noting that Fox News chose to spend significantly less time on the story than its competitors. MSNBC devoted the full hour to the protest, not even breaking for commercials. CNN spent significant time on the story, interviewing students and highlighting the national nature of the movement. Fox News devoted only a couple of brief headline segments to the events, Power wrote.

Other notable stories

President Trump tapped CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow to be his chief economic advisor, demonstrating his penchant for favoring those individuals who defend his message on television. He gets policy ideas, talking points, and even personnel advice from conservative cable news shows, writes CNNs Brian Stelter in a look at the Trump-TV feedback loop.

A source emailed me his lifes work. Then, he ended his life. USA Todays Gregory Korte writes about his anguish in dealing with a nightmare situation.

The Denver Post is cutting about 30 jobs, reducing its newsroom by almost a third, reports Denver Business Journal. The paper is one of several owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital that has seen deep cuts in recent years. This is not a decline-of-newspapers story, the LA Timess Matt Pearce argued. Its a corporate governance story.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, capping a stunning downfall for the woman hailed as Silicon Valleys first female billionaire. The Wall Street Journals John Carreyrou deserves the lions share of credit for reporting that sparked investigations into the blood-testing company.

The Washington Posts Paul Farhi examines a lawsuit filed by the parents of Seth Rich against Fox News. Fox retracted the story about Rich six days after posting it on FoxNews.com but hasnt said whether it was because the reporting was inaccurate, Farhi writes. The network also never issued an apology nor has it divulged whether it has disciplined any of the people involved in producing it or promoting it.

CNNs 9pm hour has a new host. Chris Cuomo is moving from mornings to cable newss biggest hour, where hell be up against Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow. The New York Timess Michael M. Grynbaum, who broke the story, notes that CNN has struggled recently in prime time, falling to third place behind Fox News and MSNBC, as viewers are increasingly drawn to partisan commentary.

ICYMI: Amid a sea of voices, Voxs Carlos Maza breaks through

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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.One of the risks when governments try to curb what they see as offensive speech is that other kinds of speech are caught in the same net. One of the most recent examples comes from Spain, where a vague anti-terrorism law has been used to charge and even imprison musicians and other artists.

In a new report on the phenomenon, entitled Tweet If You Dare, Amnesty International looks at the rise in prosecutions under Article 578 of the countrys criminal code, which prohibits glorifying terrorism and humiliating the victims of terrorism. The law has been around since 2000, but was amended in 2015 and since then prosecutions and convictions have risen sharply. In the report, Amnesty International says:

Freedom of expression in Spain is under attack. The government is targeting a whole range of online speechfrom politically controversial song lyrics to simple jokesunder the catch-all categories of glorifying terrorism and humiliating the victims of terrorism. Social media users, journalists, lawyers, and musicians have been prosecuted [and] the result is increasing self-censorship and a broader chilling effect on freedom of expression in Spain.

Among those who have been hit by the law are a musician who tweeted a joke about sending the king a cake-bomb for his birthday and was sentenced to a year in prison, and a rapper who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for writing songs that the government said glorified terrorism and insulted the crown. A filmmaker and a journalist have also been charged under the anti-terrorism law, and a student who tweeted jokes about the assassination of the Spanish prime minister in 1973 was also sentenced to a year in prison, although her sentence was suspended after a public outcry.

Some free-speech advocates are afraid that new laws either in force or being considered in Germany, France and even the United Kingdom could accelerate this problem. In all three countries, legislators say they are concerned about hate speech, online harassment, and fake news, but the definition of those problems is so vague there is a risk that other kinds of speech could also be criminalizedespecially when enforcement of those rules gets outsourced to platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

Read more from The New Gatekeepers blog.

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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.Simulate the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, like Stanfords Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Or recreate the sensory experience of the first year of life like The Guardian. Give out over a million Google Cardboard viewers to your print subscribers like The New York Times, so people can go on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton through a smartphone app. Virtual reality is no longer the next frontier for journalismits here and its accessible at low cost to the news consumer.

Outlets such as Vice, The Wall Street Journal, and PBSs Frontline are making the bet that cinematic virtual reality yields deeper, more immersive news stories that land with a greater emotional impact and inspire a sense of connection. While a new study published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism finds that this hypothesis is generally true, conditions for converting that empathy into longer-term story recall, attitude change about a topic, or motivation to donate to a related cause have to be just right.

Researchers Dan Archer and Katharina Finger recruited 180 people in New York City to view or read five-minute treatments of either 360-degree video or text-based narratives, recording their responses to the content immediately after, and two and fives week later. They predicted that the multi-sensory stimuli of the VR treatments would produce a more empathetic response in viewers than the static, text-based counterparts.

Overall, this proved to be correct. Analyzing cognitive responses from follow-up surveys showed that users who experienced stories in virtual reality reported higher levels of immersion, a higher likelihood of taking political or social action, and were more likely to recall what theyd seen weeks later when compared to those who read similar text stories. There was, the researchers found, a negligible difference in impact between VR stories watched via head-mounted display and those viewed on a desktop computer.

RELATED: Jarrod Dicker on what the blockchain can do for news

Perhaps more noteworthy, though, is the studys investigation into whether the VR format is better suited to particular stories or audiences. Of the three storiesabout a boy living inside a jungle refugee camp in Calais, France; a day in the life of a girl in Sub-Saharan Africa; and the dangers of climate changethe highest empathy levels were registered among users who initially knew little about the subject matter of the story they watched. In the case of Act in Paris, the story about climate change, those who expressed the least interest in the topic felt more connected to the content than those who reported a general interest in climate change to begin with. While the sample group was admittedly limited, comprised primarily of well-educated millennials, the study shows that over-familiarity with a topic can negatively impact a viewers level of immersion or enjoyment.

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Along the same lines, participants who reported consuming news less frequentlyas little as one to two times a monthresponded with more empathy to all stories than participants who read or watch news on a regular basis, suggesting that topic oversaturation should be a concern for VR news producers.

Narrator trust, the research finds, is also essential to creating empathy inside a virtual reality environment. Stories with one clear protagonist, who can serve as a guide, were reported as consistently more enjoyable among viewers. Participants experiencing Growing Up Girl, about a young woman living on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, trusted the narrator the most. Act in Paris, narrated with a voiceover by Jared Letowho never appears on screenscored the lowest in this category.

Finally, enjoyment matters. Stories that were said to be, at least in part, pleasant and fun to view had greater impact. And audiences were more apt to remember them in the long-term. For example, even though Act in Paris highlights the perils of climate change, it does so while featuring appealing footage of a boat ride through Alaskan glaciers. This story scored higher across the board in user comfort level and enjoyment when compared to the others, which placed viewers inside scenes of squalor and suffering. Data suggests that viewer discomfort, which can trigger disengagement, can contribute to an inability to recall what happened weeks after viewing.

Newsrooms should remember that virtual reality is by no means a catch-all for connecting with viewers and motivating action. Even inside virtual worlds, content is king. Flashy VR cant outweigh a users lack of interest or over-familiarity with a subject, nor can it compensate for poor storytelling or production value. Even when done well, virtual realitys chief advantage can at times be its downfall, as immersion in a place you dont want to be can feel too unpleasant to remain engaged.

Virtual reality news stories done right, though, and targeted to the right people, hold so much promise. The trick will be striking the right balance between narration, enjoyment, and content.

ICYMI: Google offers olive branch to newspapers, YouTube relies on Wikipedia

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Abigail Hartstone is the interim publications and web editor at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. She oversees research reports and edits the Tow vertical on CJR.



Executive Summary

Does immersion yield empathy? The aim of this report is to address the question of whether news mediain this instance, short-form journalistic storiespresented in a 360-degree video format affects a users empathetic response to the material. If so, what might the advantage of such a response be, and could it include improvement in a viewers ability to recall the content over time or a resulting behavioral change? Naturally, part of the study will deconstruct what we mean by such a nebulous term as empathetic and how exactly it can be measured.

The study both investigates if particular audiences are likely to respond empathetically to certain narratives and analyzes the component parts of immersive experiencescomfort level, interactivity, and perceived amount of user agencythat contribute to producing an empathetic response. It also aims to answer whether the virtual reality (VR) format is better suited to particular stories or audiences, as well as the potential for unintended, antithetical effects in this embryonic medium such as a users perception of personal space invasion or the feeling that they are not looking in the right direction.1

Results from our study of 180 people viewing five-minute treatments comprised of either 360-degree video or text articles monitored user reactions and their sense of immersion on the day of their first exposure to the narrative treatment, as well as two and five weeks later.

Key findings:

Our research found that VR formats prompted a higher empathetic response than static photo/text treatments and a higher likelihood of participants to take political or social action after viewing.

Users who experienced the VR treatments reported higher levels of immersion and were more likely to report a desire to take action or find out more about the topic as a result.

In the longer term (both two and five weeks after viewing initial treatments), those who registered a higher empathetic response upon first viewing were more likely to recall the stories they had seen.

There is a negligible difference in perceived levels of interactivity between the head-mounted and desktop-based virtual reality treatments, suggesting head-mounted displays (HMDs) arent a deal-breaker.

Viewers using HMDs reported higher levels of immersion, but also some user discomfort.

Trust in the narrator is essential to building empathy, inspiring immersion, and heightening engagement in the narrative. This is best achieved by ensuring that the narrator maintain a consistently visible presence on-screen.

Research showed that stories with one clear protagonist serving as a guide through the VR experience are consistently more enjoyable for users.

Stories that are at least in part enjoyable are most likely to have impact on viewers.

Audience over-familiarity with a story can negatively impact the level of immersion or enjoyment of a story.

The lower a users news consumption habits or familiarity with the technology or story, the more likely they are to be positively impacted and respond empathetically to cinematic VR.

Immersion and presence in VR are key, but still cant outweigh a users lack of interest or over-familiarity with a subject.

Recommendations:

When implementing VR in news-related storytelling, avoid overburdening or overwhelming the user with complicated, lengthy experiences or interfaces.

Remember that the choice of narrative and content influences and outweighs the actual interactive affordances of a VR experience.

The highest empathetic response was registered in users who were unfamiliar with the stories they viewed, suggesting the mediums effectiveness in introducing a new topic or VRs suitability for targeting infrequent news consumers. Focus on less well-known topics, as production value or storytelling alone cannot compensate for lack of user interest.

Audiences that find stories pleasant are far more likely to remember them in the long term; note the interesting correlation between palatability and impact.

Be cautious about showing too many scenes that can cause viewer discomfort; scenes of harsh conditions and suffering can drastically affect user comfort and enjoyment, triggering disengagement from the material and contributing to a drop in long-term memory recall and engagement. We recommend interspersing such scenes with less charged and more neutral material to counterbalance the effect.

Establish a trusting relationship between audiences and the same, single protagonist by including them in every scene.

Choose a narrator in your 360-degree videos that users trust, or include a consistent voice throughout.

Provide clear guidance on sharing VR stories, as audiences are still unfamiliar with how to do so once they have finished viewing the experience.

Remember that VR is by no means a catch-all solution for instilling empathy in all users. Like any other storytelling medium, its power lies not only in journalists flair for narrative, but also in audiences dispositional and contextual affinity for particular topics, which is as vulnerable to over-saturation as any other medium.





Introduction

An expanding list of newsrooms both in the United States and worldwide are incorporating 360-degree video into their production processes,2 often dedicating significant manpower and resources to producing this new form of content.3 The high penetration rates of smartphones, coupled with the relatively cheap barrier to entry for mobile VR (e.g., the Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR headsets), have meant that many newsrooms have integrated cinematic VRthat is, live-action, 360-degree videointo existing news stories.

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Beyond an examination of the analytics for views and visits of 360-degree videos uploaded through social media channels such as YouTube and Facebook, the latter of which owns the VR company Oculus, little information is available about the effect that these 360-degree videos are having on audiences. It remains to be seen whether a new form of metrics is indeed necessary to truly investigate,4 or which best practices should be followed to create the most compelling content.

Evangelists of the medium argue that VR journalism experiences have yielded deeper, more immersive stories that people enjoy and stay with longer than a traditional video or article. Feedback is characterized by more visceral and emotional reactions. People say that VR brings them closer to the events and breaks down barriers inherently raised by a reporter or correspondent.5

However, the news consumption habits of users when experiencing VR journalism are often overlooked, as are the respective differences between viewing an experience with an HMD versus a traditional, two-dimensional desktop monitor, versus a traditional text article.

The first goal of this study is to measure the effectiveness of 360-degree videoboth its immersive and non-immersive formatin creating a sense of presence, or engendering a sense of connection or emotional impact between news audiences and the subjects of their stories. The second is to deduce whether this in turn prompts viewers to take action or change their views as a result. To reach these goals, we specified a set of research questions, detailed in Appendix I.

Hypothesis

Research has demonstrated that in order to foster changes in behavior, an individual must engage with and actively process the content of a message beyond simply reading the message in textual form.6 In many instances, direct experiences with multi-sensory stimuli have proven to be more influential on user behavior than indirect equivalents, such as text-based descriptions.7 Our hypothesis is that virtual reality treatments, be they immersive or non-immersive, will have greater impact over a longer period of time than text, and lead to a higher likelihood of behavioral change and impact on the user as a result.





Virtual Reality, 360-Degree Video, and Empathy

Virtual Reality versus 360-Degree Video

The term virtual reality was initially coined by Jaron Lanier, founder of VPL Research, in 1989. Originally, the term referred to immersive virtual reality, where the user becomes fully immersed in an artificial, three-dimensional world that is generated by computer graphics. The user can explore a scene in all directions, including depth. Fundamentally, one of the chief distinctions between computer-generated (CG) VR and 360-degree video (i.e., cinematic VR) is the formers use of a real-time game engine to adapt the environment to the users interactions. The latter, given its inherently pre-rendered nature, means that although a user can influence their viewing angle within the scene, their actions have no effect on the progression of the 360-degree video they are watching and thus render it unresponsive. Furthermore, cinematic video suffers from the same disadvantages as traditional photography, in the sense that objects further from the camera will lack detail or potentially even be out of focus.8

VR Definitions

Virtual reality:

Equirectangular video comprised of multiple feeds shot simultaneously on multiple cameras that are then stitched and wrapped around a spherical viewer. The user is placed in the center of the sphere and is able to use head movements to change their viewing angle in the scene; the user is stuck to the spot from which the original camera was recording and cannot explore the scene beyond turning their head. Also referred to as cinematic virtual reality. A software program originally designed for the production of video games in which users can write scripts in code that enable interactions between different media assets. These have since become the leading method for developing computer-generated virtual reality experiences. The two most popular game engines are Unity and Unreal. A virtual reality experience that requires the user to put on a head-mounted display (HMD). Typically involves a form of head tracking and headphones.

Non-immersive virtual reality: A virtual reality experience of a three-dimensional world that the user explores on a two-dimensional desktop computer, rotating their viewing angle via a mouse.

Presence: The perception that a virtual reality environment is real, and that the user feels part of that virtual world, through a combination of interactivity, physics (the world updating to their point of view via head tracking), and responsiveness. A core requisite for immersion.

Defining and Measuring an Empathetic Response

Empathy is a multi-faceted emotional and mental faculty that is often found to be affected in a great number of psychopathologies, such as schizophrenia, yet it remains very difficult to measure in an ecological context. Philip Jackson9

The word empathy first appeared in English in Edward Bradford Titcheners translation of the German word Einfuhlung, a term from aesthetics meaning to project yourself into what you observe.10 This aspect of state transferal is conveyed by the primary definition for empathy in The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, namely the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it.11

Yet it is the secondary, interpersonal aspect that is most pertinent to this study, namely the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.12

Mark Davis simplifies this process, emphasizing the reactions of one individual to the observed experiences of another,13 which in turn echoes Robert Hogan: the intellectual or imaginative apprehension of anothers condition or state of mind.14 This rational, imagined aspect of empathy is typically referred to as cognitive empathy.

Of particular significance is the ability to conceive ofanothers condition while simultaneously retaining a distinct feeling of self: The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without ever losing theas if condition.15

This focus on the intellectual or observed reaction to anothers feelings is counterbalanced by others insistence on the emotional core of this observational and transferential process:

Caring, individual concern, and imagination are emotional components of empathy. An individual can place himself in the mental states of others, producing thoughts or feelings that are supportive of others. Sharing emotions, engaging in an emotional exchange with others, stimulating conduct beneficial to others, assisting others, and establishing positive interpersonal relationships are also the components of empathy.16

This emotional branch of empathy, often referred to as affective empathy in the literature, must be appropriate to the observed mental state and can be classified either as parallelin which the observer matches the targets mental stateor reactivein which the observer goes beyond a simple matching of affect.17

Beyond intellectual apprehension of anothers condition and the requisite ability to retain a sense of self yet remain emotionally sensitive to anothers needs, we must also ask ourselves the motivating purpose behind such an investigation, which Martin Hoffman alludes to:

An individual interprets the meaning of information transmitted by others and anticipates the justification and perception of this information. The motivation component of empathy is sufficient to elicit responses beneficial to others, producing empathy with the feelings of others when misfortune falls upon someone else, not oneself. The object of such conduct is to help others.18

Component Parts of Empathy

Thus we have a reductive yet functional three-fold structure for the process of empathizing with another, which can be summarized by a three-component framework attributable to Jorris Janssen:19

Table 1: Types of Empathetic Responses

This in turn facilitates empathic responding, as the subject is still able to retain enough distance to operationalize their response to the objects situation. Perspective-taking, or the mental simulation of putting oneself in anothers shoes via ones imagination20 is often held to be a cornerstone of an empathetic response. Perspective-taking has been proven by psychologists to foster a number of positive qualities,21 such as the reduction of stereotypes,22 improved communication, and construction of favorable attitudes and helping behaviors23 toward those in adverse situations that are alien to our own individual experience, as is often the case in news consumers.An understanding of empathy can thus be broken down into three constituent components, namely, perception, emotion, and motivation. It is worth noting how permeable the boundaries between each of the three respective states are, problematizing easy distinctions between them. Figure 1 was designed to show the links between the respective states, beginning on the left at the start of the empathic process: the subject and the object are clearly separated, and any appreciation of the objects internal state is purely intellectual and cognitive. Perspective-taking is what shifts the process from the left, separate circles to the central diagram with the overlapping circles, as the subject and the object begin a process of emotional convergence.

In the illustration on the right-hand side of Figure 1, where subject and object have become one, the subject runs the risk of losing Rogers aforementioned as-if condition, feeling that they have become the object, and are therefore less able to conceive of a response to the situation. This outcome is otherwise known as personal distress24 and can have a contradictory effect to empathy, inducing a feeling of aversion in the subject that consequently emphasizes the goal of alleviating their own discomfort.

It is worth noting that this theory, attributable to Davis, has its detractors, who argue that empathy associated helping can no longer be presumed to be altruistic because as empathy increases, so does the presence of the self in the other.25

Problematizing an empathetic baseline

There are many difficulties with capturing empathic performance, hence questionnaires are often used as proxies for actual behavior. In such cases, empathy is often considered a trait or inherited characteristic, though it can differ greatly between different situations and interaction partners. Individual differences in expressivity and reactivity should also be taken into account, as should the strong inter-individual differences in emotional expressivity and baseline levels of physiological signals.26

Paralinguistic empathetic responses

Tracking nonverbal behavior, such as the position of the head or facial features and eyebrows relative to the two subjects involved is a commonly used approach to gauge the extent to which individuals share the same emotional state.

At a less conspicuous level, our experience of sympathy (prosocial behavior) or personal distress as an empathic response to suffering is based on our ability to self-regulate emotions: a low ability to regulate a response will likely lead to over-arousal, in turn triggering a self-focused response of personal distress with the immediate goal of swiftly alleviating it.27 Conversely, individuals with a high ability to regulate their reaction are more likely to respond with sympathy. A certain amount of arousal is required for any empathic response at all. Setting a threshold for emotional convergence is critical to ascertaining whether a response is sympathy or personal distress.

Researchers have linked therapist empathy to physiological synchronization between therapist and client.28 Janssen also used physiological signals as intimate cues: communicating a heartbeat signal transforms our experience of social situation.29 Madeline Balaam showed feedback on interaction behavior can enhance interactional synchrony and rapport, but once again emphasizes the difference between human-to-human interaction and human-machine interaction.30

At this juncture, it is essential to highlight the respective differences between dispositional (individual differences between people in their susceptibility to empathy processes) and situational (experienced empathy at specific moments or during specific interactions) factors in an empathetic response. Our survey was designed to highlight the distinction between these states, focusing first on which demographic factors demonstrated a more favorable tendency toward an empathetic response. It then progressed to examine the specific situational stimuli within a narrative treatment that trigger any of the responses associated with empathy such as perspective-taking, emotional impact, or emotional convergence.

360-Degree Video and Empathy

Journalistic practitioners of 360-degree video have referred to empathy in VR as the killer metric31 for impacting viewers and sharing the perspective of another individual. Using the perspective-swapping experience of The Machine to be Another, Maarte Roel, one of the projects creators, emphasized that the focus of the experiment was on the relationship between the respective participants, who, thanks to two mirrored VR headsets and head-mounted cameras, were shown the simultaneous feeds of their partner as they looked down at their own body. Some argue that this performative aspect of relational empathy is of more value than the individual, isolated framework that many have misapplied to empathy-driven experiences32yet it is only achievable in live spaces with human participants, as opposed to filmed characters or digitized avatars.

Limitations within 360-degree video

This brings up the inherent problem of how to induce emotional mirroring between a viewer and subject within a closed, unresponsive system such as 360-degree video. Face-to-face contact and emotional mirroring is a key component of building an empathetic response within a social context,33 since it depends on real-time awareness of another individuals emotional state. The challenge with assessing empathy through a VR headset in this way is that the technology is not yet at the level where the filmed characters in cinematic VR can acknowledge a users presence in a scene, although developments have been made in CG VR using animated pedagogical agents34 to simulate these emotions using digital avatars within an educational context.

Recognition in a CG environment

Instances where these have been implemented have produced beneficial results with regard to encouraging student performance under test conditions,35 yet all studies, including those with three-dimensional avatars, were undertaken in a non-immersive, desktop environment. Furthermore, the incorporation of a test-based system greatly facilitates the feasibility of presenting suitable emotional responses. Hardware that monitors gesture, facial expression, and conversational cues has also been tested36 although its design and implementation requires extensive resources and dedicated staff.37

Not only is this beyond the reach of todays newsrooms, but its also further problematized by the HMD, which obscures a large portion of a users facial gestures. Workarounds in the VR HMD space are being built by companies such as Fove, which incorporate infrared eye tracking to detect user gaze direction and heat maps of the most observed areas within 360-degree videos, but the specific content necessary for these platforms is still limited.38 To that extent, the media is still at a more passive stage, which can exacerbate feelings of distance or detachment on the part of the user. Our study investigates this phenomenon through the analysis of stories with and without first-person characters acting as a guide.

Operationalizing an Empathetic Response

Among the leading exponents of the form, the lack of interactivity beyond the ability to control the camera with ones head movements is still outweighed by an overriding sense of presence, which in turn creates a sense of proximity to the heart of the story that is harder to achieve in other media.39 WITNESS program director Sam Gregory argues that empathy does not necessarily motivate people to take action, instead suggesting VRs potential as a tool for activism. Gregory believes this can happen only if the focus is shifted from empathy to solidarity, based on the power of live witnessing and co-presence, or the sense of being somewhere together with other people, over a sense of presence alone, or the sense of being somewhere.40 He argues that by allowing users to interact with experiences in real time, co-presence could help people move beyond denial and disengagement, and serve as an effective route to user mobilizationfor example, as in the case of frontline activists broadcasting via live 360-degree video.41

Similarly, others warn of the dangers of this heightened sense of proximity to the focal point of a story without any of the typical sensitivities one would normally be mindful of, which can have an unintended, oppositional effect: viewers are immersed, but the characters whose perspective they are supposed to be sharing are excluded.42 This is further exacerbated by the tendency of many 360-degree videos to utilize post-production techniques that remove any trace of the original camera rig that shot the footage, further obfuscating the transparency between the subject and viewer43 and calling into question journalistic ethical standards.





Methodology

Empathetic Response

First, we began with the deconstruction of the umbrella term empathy into a series of qualities that could be quantitatively measured and compared with user responses to each of the three different treatments across three different platforms: immersive VR, non-immersive VR, and text. While various factors were taken in isolation, including presence, information retention, user control, and emotional convergence, a combination of corresponding questions were chosen to represent a more generalized response to the story stimuli.

Each question represented an aspect of affective and cognitive empathy, as well as measurements of the level of immersion. The following post-treatment (PT) questions were selected and correlated for internal consistency, as detailed in Table 2. Given the nature of the composite format to crafting the empathetic response criteria, an overlap with the five factors being targeted in the respective questions was expected. Hence a high immersion rating (question PT2.12) correlates directly to a high empathy rating, given that immersion constitutes one-fifth of the questions that constitute the empathetic response metric.

Table 2: Questions Comprising the Empathetic Response Metric

Third, the operationalization of an empathetic response: namely, whether those who reported high levels of immersion, emotional engagement, and perspective-taking with the subjects of their story were more likely to change their behavior and take action as a result. This action was listed on a spectrum from: wanting to find out more about a specific topic, sharing the story with a friend or family member, donating to a related non-governmental organization (NGO), or volunteering for a related NGO.Second, we analyzed participants results based on their response to the treatments to see whether certain demographic features such as gender, race, education, familiarity with the technology, and news consumption demonstrate a proclivity toward a higher empathetic response, and the commonalities between the user and their storys subject. Are audience members and subjects of the same age and race more likely to empathize with each other, for example?

Limitations

There are several limitations to acknowledge in this study, encompassing the scope of study, methodology, and data collection methods. No research institution was involved in the recruitment phase of the survey, meaning that the number of subjects was not evenly distributed across gender-based lines. Our sample was instead based on the availability of members of the public at three locations around New York and their willingness to take part. This likely led to a bias toward younger participants who were more interested in experimenting with the new technology on offer. Given that the younger adult demographic is among the highest of the target audiences for virtual reality and related computer-generated experiences,44 and similarly constitute a large proportion of the target audience that newsrooms are aiming at, this bias was actually seen as potentially advantageous.

For the follow-up questions that constitute phases two and three of the survey, respondents were sent two respective emails based on the email address they used to fill out their consent form. Of the 180 respondents, three declined to add their email addresses, two did not have their own email address, and fifteen emails were inactive or bounced back the follow-up request. Panel attrition, in the case of those who took part in the first round but neglected to fill out the follow-up responses, is a common problem with longitudinal studies of this nature.45

However, the advantages of comparing the data of within-subject change in order to track the evolution of individual opinion provided enough evidence and insight to merit the practice, regardless of the lower numbers. While this approach has a somewhat weaker claim to causality, the temporal ordering of the measurement renders it preferable to purely observational study on a one-off basis.46

Within the scope of the longitudinal study, participants were only asked about their likelihood of taking further action, changing their attitude toward certain topics, or looking further into related subjectsand thus are ratings of behavior and not behavior themselves.

Individual differences in expressivity and reactivity should also be taken into account. There are strong inter-individual differences in emotional expressivity and baseline levels of physiological signals that will affect the range of responses from participants.

Treatments

In order to preserve consistency between treatments, all three of the 360-degree video treatments were produced by HuffPost RYOT, a video production agency specializing in 360-degree content. The goal was to select three contrasting treatments of 360-degree video from its archive: one without a visible main protagonist, one with, and one with several interchangeable protagonists. Male and female protagonists were deliberately chosen (in Seeking Home and Growing Up Girl, respectively) to examine differences in audiences of contrasting genders, and a third, Act in Paris, was included for its lack of an on-camera narrator despite accompanying narration from Jared Leto.

All of the 360-degree videos were shot on location and shared a similar duration: 4:20 minutes (Growing Up Girl), 5:35 minutes (Seeking Home), and 3:55 minutes (Act in Paris). All of the videos were in English, with minimal background music and no computer-generated special effects.

Despite the commonalities in production, differences in the way that scenes were shot, voiceovers recorded, and narratives designed were inevitable. Similarly, the text treatments were originally conceived as direct transcriptions of the VR treatments, but after piloting were deemed too dry and descriptive in relation to the style of the other treatments. In response, the text treatments were revised to adopt a more similar tone to the videos, focusing more on the narrative and establishing dramatic interest.

The first and most important quality was the structure of the video: all three videos were guided by a narrator who acted as a guide to the visuals that appear in front of the user.

Table 3: 360-Degree VR Treatment Stories Used in This Study

Text article (control): Participants were given a transcript of the video in question, adapted to suit the text-only format, which was also accompanied by screenshots from the respective video.

Non-immersive, desktop experience: Following a brief explanation of the controls, participants were given a laptop and set of headphones and told to use either the mouse or cursor keys to control their viewing angle within the video.

Immersive gear VR experience: Following a brief explanation, participants were seated in a swivel chair and an HMD (the Samsung Gear VR headset) was placed on their head, along with headphones. They were encouraged to use their head and rotation in the chair to control their viewing angle within the video.

Procedures

Three separate instances were used to measure the mediating effect, having established a baseline to indicate the moderating effect of individual trait differences.

Table 4: Phases of Data Collection

Phase one of data collection took place on November 17 and 18, 2016, within private conference rooms at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP at 30 John Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201, a communal work space in the heart of one of New Yorks busiest media production centers. Phase two of the study was conducted on November 28 and 29, 2016, on the sixth floor of Pulitzer Hall on the Columbia University campus grounds on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which accounts for the high proportion of student participation. This was deliberately countered by situating the other two data collection sites in commercial spaces. Phase three was conducted on December 9 and 10, 2016, in a conference room in the New York offices of the Harmony Institute in lower Manhattan at 54 West 21st Street, Suite 310, New York, New York 10010.Data Collection

However, this in turn necessitated the physical presence of potential participants in one of the three recruitment spaces in New York: Dumbo, Brooklyn; Chelsea, Manhattan; and Columbia University, Manhattan. Flyers were posted around these areas to encourage participants to come forward, but required additional on-the-street canvassing in order to garner the sufficient number of participants.

Initial demographic data was collected from each participant, along with information on their experience with virtual reality. This data was used as a comparative baseline for the remainder of our research. Subjects were then exposed to one of nine treatmentseither watching one of three videos in two-dimensional screen format or three-dimensional virtual reality headsets, or reading one of three transcripts derived from the same stories. After viewing the film/reading, participants were given a post-treatment questionnaire asking them specific questions about the characters and events they had viewed or read about, and their reactions to it.

The goal of the data collected from these questionnaires was to discern the reaction to the events participants had seen or read about, and to explicitly understand whether the subject remembered details of characters and events presented to them. A final part of the survey was designed to measure whether and to what degree participants might take a broad range of actions based on what they had seen. It also questioned whether they would have taken action on the topics in the film/transcript if they had not viewed the experience.

Data Analysis Software and Process

The data analysis primarily utilized SPSS and Excel. The raw data was collected in Survey Monkey and exported as an Excel file, which was then imported into SPSS format and recoded.

To cluster data, Cronbachs alpha was used to answer the sub-questions (see Appendix I). Cronbachs alpha is an internal consistency measure that quantifies how closely related a set of items are as a group and is a standardized measure of scale reliability.47 The data was tested with t-tests, chi-squared tests, one-way ANOVA, and correlations between various factors using Pearsons correlation tests, as well as for multiple regressions. Additionally, descriptive statistics, graphs, tables, and histograms were plotted through SPSS and used for exploring the data further.





Participant Demographic Breakdown

The first round of the survey was completed by 182 participants who fit the sample criteria. Two participants were disqualified due to language issues, leaving 180 participants.

Gender

Of those 180 participants, sixty-nine were women and 111 men, representing a gender balance of 38.3 to 61.7 percent. U.S. Census data from 201548 estimated the total female population at 51 percent, a discrepancy that highlights a preference toward virtual reality technology amongst men over women.

Age

The overall age range of participants had a noticeably younger bias, with the older generation under-represented. We recognize the bias toward a younger audience in our sample, with 71.7 percent of the total responses coming from millennials aged eighteen to thirty-four. We feel this corresponds to the heightened amount of interest in emerging technology among younger populations. This study does not prove that all younger audiences are interested in virtual reality; it only suggests a link between these younger audiences and VR consumption trends, as evidenced by consumer research reports conducted by Greenlight VR.49 For further tests, the age groups were combined into four major groups: college-aged students, eighteen to twenty-four; young adults, twenty-five to thirty-four; middle-aged adults, thirty-five to forty-four; and those aged forty-five years and above.

Education

Of our participants, 42.8 percent reported they were currently enrolled full-time in college or at a university. Furthermore, the distribution of education shows that while 21.1 percent reached high school graduation as their highest level of education, 25.6 percent had attended college, 28.3 percent had graduated from a bachelors program, and 22.8 percent had post-graduate qualifications. Only four percent had not graduated from high school, reflecting a bias toward an educated sample. This is attributable to the three different locations at which the survey was conducted, one of which was Columbia University, as well as the ten-dollar incentive to take part in the study.

Ethnicity/nationality

The baseline language was English, with sixty-nine people speaking a second language (twenty-seven speaking Spanish), twelve people speaking two foreign languages, and six people speaking three or more foreign languages. This was not surprising, due to the diverse distribution of nationalities in New York.50 The majority of respondents were Caucasian (forty-four percent), followed by African-American (nineteen percent), Asian or Asian-American (fifteen percent), and Hispanic (twelve percent), with the remaining ten percent listed as Other or preferring not to answer.

Household income levels

Corresponding to the younger age groups, the average household income was under the New York five-borough average of 66,175 dollars,51 with 52.8 percent having an annual household income under 50,000 dollars.

Political views

As expected from young, educated participants,52 57.8 percent were politically liberal or very liberal, followed by 22.2 percent who identified as moderate, and only one percent as conservative. This reflects the emphasis on a younger demographic in the survey, as well as the higher number of respondents still in education. Of our respondents, thirty-six percent saw themselves as neither, or not interested, and five percent declined to answer the question.





Results

Empathetic Response

The immersive format produced a marginally higher empathetic score (5.2 out of seven on the Likert Scale) over the non-immersive format (5.06), and both were above the 4.3 that the mean text treatment received. This corroborates the hypothesis that the immersive VR format is more effective at producing an empathetic response.

Comparing the means of the three stories in a sample t-test shows that, with 0.000 significance, Growing Up Girl produced a slightly more empathetic response with a mean of 5.25 compared to the other two experiences, Act in Paris and Seeking Home.

Level of Immersion

Tests showed no significant difference between the VR immersive and non-immersive treatments, but just that the text format was significantly less powerful than either in terms of its level of immersion. This disproves the hypothesis that an immersive format would prove more immersive than a non-immersive format, and emphasizes the similarity in terms of perceived user experience between head-mounted and desktop-based, two-dimensional virtual reality. It also highlights the disparity between both virtual reality formats and the text control treatments, as is clear from the graph in Figure 4.

There is a significance of = 10-3 that participants level of immersion varies from the sense of closeness to a narrator. People who trusted the narrator a moderately strong amount (mean = 5.06) or very strongly (mean = 5.73) felt more immersed in the experience compared to those whose level of trust was moderately weak (mean = 2.5) to a little weak (mean = 3.56). An ANOVA test using the same immersion mean as above shows highly significant differences between different categories ( =10-3), allowing researchers to ascertain which stories in which formats created the highest sense of immersion. As expected from Figure 5, the text treatments produced a significantly lower level of immersion than the virtual reality equivalents.

Researchers found no significant difference between the stories or treatments and their perceived level of interactivity. However, after comparing means, results show that the immersive Seeking Home treatment was an outlier compared to the other immersive treatments. This might be the result of the refugee crisiss high profile in mainstream media coverage, which led users to feel disinterested in the story and therefore less likely to be affected by it.

Emotional Impact

The level of emotional impact was measured using questions PT6.1, PT6.2, and PT6.3 to test the hypothesis that immersive treatments have more emotional impact on the user than non-immersive treatments. Performing a Cronbachs alpha test to measure internal consistency generated a satisfactory result of  = 0.719. These variables were then combined to create an emotional impact mean. Analyzing the participants evaluations of immersive and non-immersive treatments, our research assumes that the difference between the scale items is equal. Performing an ANOVA test, researchers instead found that immersive treatments do not create significantly more emotional impact than non-immersive treatments. However, it was clear that both the immersive and non-immersive treatments caused a significantly more emotional reaction among users than the text treatment, as is clear from Figure 6.

This was also reflected across the range of stories, with one outlier in the form of the non-immersive Growing Up Girl story, which was the only treatment to outperform all other formats.

Cognitive Absorption

The cognitive absorption level was measured according to the process described in Appendix I with the questions PT2.8, PT2.9, PT2.10, PT2.11, PT2.13, PT2.14, and PT2.15 to test the hypothesis that the virtual reality treatments would score higher in cognitive absorption than the text treatments, given their higher levels of immersion and emotional impact. Performing a Cronbachs alpha test to measure internal consistency generated a good result of  = 0.830, allowing researchers to combine these variables into the cognitive absorption mean. The overall mean of 4.5012 corresponded to a little strong when rounded up to a five out of seven on the Likert Scale. With a significance of  = 10-3, there was a marked difference between the text treatment and the non-immersive and immersive treatments, corroborating the hypothesis that users were more absorbed during the virtual reality treatments.

Interaction

In terms of reported levels of interaction, there was a marked difference between the text treatment and the non-immersive and immersive treatments, corroborating the hypothesis that users were more absorbed during the virtual reality treatments. In the case of the HMD immersive treatment, this could be attributed to the nature of the device itself, since the Samsung Gear 360 viewing goggles obscure any other visual or auditory stimuli, forcing users to focus on the view through the stereoscopic lenses. We were surprised to find the similarity in levels of cognitive absorption between immersive and non-immersive formats, given that the view of the latter was via an unobstructed 2D laptop screen, leaving the potential for distraction significantly higher than the immersive format.

Enjoyment Levels

The contrast between both the virtual reality treatments and the text treatment is clear in Figure 9, corroborating the hypothesis that participants found the former more enjoyable than the latter. The text received a four out of seven (neither enjoyable nor unenjoyable), while the immersive and non-immersive registered as slightly enjoyable.

When mapped against the corresponding stories, immersive Act in Paris, covering climate change, was found to be the most enjoyable, with the text treatment of Seeking Home the least. As is clear from the graph in Figure 10, Seeking Home consistently scores lower than the two other treatments across all formats. Interestingly, the immersive treatment for Seeking Home underperforms against the non-immersive treatmentthe only treatment to do sowhich suggests that users prefer the distance of an interactive, two-dimensional version on a desktop computer to the fully immersive, head-mounted alternative when it comes to viewing scenes that arent objectively enjoyable.

Despite the fact that the subject matter contains a grave warning about the dangers of climate change, Act in Paris does feature appealing footage of a boat ride through glaciers in Alaska, which clearly appealed more to audiences than the squalor of the Calais refugee camp featured in Seeking Home.

User Comfort Level

Questions relating to the users level of comfort were only posed to the participants of the immersive and non-immersive treatments to confirm the hypothesis that the immersive treatments created a more comfortable experience for the user than did the non-immersive. No significant difference was found between the treatments and the level of comfort ( = 0.077), however the ANOVA data suggests that the content is what constitutes the significant difference between the immersive Act in Paris and immersive Seeking Home, and not the format of viewing experiences ( = 0.057). This reinforces the point made in the previous section pertaining to enjoyment levels: When placed inside scenes featuring poor conditions and poverty, users feel uncomfortable, almost in direct synchronicity with their level of enjoyment.

This was manifested across the Growing Up Girl and Seeking Home treatments, while Act in Paris scored consistently higher. The data challenged the original hypothesis, confirming that it is the content of the story that affects users comfort more directly than the format in which it is presented. As is clear from the graph in Figure 10, there are two instances where the non-immersive treatments are rated more comfortable than their immersive equivalents.

Narrator Trust

The level of trust in the narrator during the treatments was measured in accordance with the methodology laid out in the Methodology section, using question PT4.5 to test the hypothesis that participants were more likely to trust the narrator in the immersive treatments, given their heightened sense of proximity to them through the HMD. Analysis shows that there are significant differences between treatments in the participants level of trust in the narrator. The narrators in the immersive and non-immersive treatments were found to be significantly more trustworthy than the authors of the text treatments ( = 0.003).

Data suggests that participants experiencing Growing Up Girl across any of the three formats trusted the narrator the most, as the graph in Figure 11 demonstrates. Another important finding is the low performance of Act in Paris, which scores consistently low on narrator trust. Researchers attribute this to the lack of a visible narrator during the treatment: the narrator, celebrity Jared Leto, is heard only in voiceover and does not make a physical appearance in the scene, unlike the characters who are introduced in Growing Up Girl and Seeking Home.

Conclusions

The immersive VR format produced a marginally higher empathetic score (5.2 out of seven on the Likert Scale) over the non-immersive scale (5.06), and both were above the 4.3 that the mean text treatment received. This corroborates the hypothesis that the virtual reality formats are more effective at producing an empathetic response than the text, albeit by a small (one factor on a seven-factor scale) margin.

There was a noticeably higher score in the measurement of immersion for immersive and non-immersive treatments, both of which received positive senses of presence, versus the text treatment, which received a mean of neither positive nor negative (3.9/seven on the Likert Scale).

A statistically significant relationship was found to exist between the participants level of immersion and their desire to take action. Interestingly, those with a reported immersion level of five out of seven on the Likert Scale responded very strongly in terms of their motivation to take action: higher than that saw the motivation level drop a full point. This supports the thesis that over-immersion in stories can actually hinder an audiences desire to remain motivated after the end of the narrative.

Another important distinction that was noted between the VR treatments versus the text control was the level of user motivation to find out more about the subject, which also highlighted the correlation to emotional impact. Those who received the text treatment were thirteen to eighteen percent less likely to find out more about the subject when compared to the immersive/non-immersive treatments.

Data was inconclusive as to which treatment or format was most effective at prompting users to question their previously held attitudes and change their opinion on a topic. Thirty-three percent of users were unlikely to change their minds, thirty-one percent would stay the same, and thirty-six percent were likely to change their minds.

However, it is worth noting that given the inclination toward a predominantly liberal survey group, with a fifty-eight percent majority identifying as liberal, the pieces already presented a narrative that conformed with the worldview of the majority.

Advantages of Immersive VR Treatments

As the data analysis shows, both the immersive and non-immersive treatments generated a higher combined empathy score than the text-only control treatment. Data suggests that the immersive treatment outperforms the non-immersive treatment, although the difference between the two was not found to be statistically significant. One other important statistic was the difference in the level of perspective-taking across each of the three story formats: immersive and non-immersive respondents rated their treatments a full point higher (five and seven, respectively) than their text-assigned counterparts.

There was found to be no significant difference between audience response to the head-mounted immersive treatments versus the desktop-based, non-immersive treatment when analyzed on their perceived level of interactivity. However, comparing means, results showed that the immersive format of Seeking Home was an outlier, with a lower-than-average perception of interactivity, albeit one that still registered as four (neither positive nor negative) out of a possible seven on the Likert Scale.

This demonstrates a link between the narrative of a story and the perceived interactivity of a story: participants saturated by stories of refugees actually had a less immersive experience in the HMD than those experiencing the story via the desktop.

This was also echoed in the reported level of participant enjoyment when it came to the respective treatments, in which the combined mean of participants agreed a little (5.5 out of seven on the Likert Scale) that immersive treatments were enjoyable, just ahead of the non-immersive versions, but registered only ambivalence (four) for the text treatments.

When taken separately, the level of immersion directly correlated with a significance of 0.000 to the level of enjoyment, which in turn correlated to the level of empathetic response. However, the large number of outliers (see Figure 10) suggests the ambiguity between participant enjoyment of the experience while witnessing the suffering within the experience, which in itself points to an empathetic response.

One such related example was the mean for the enjoyment of immersive experiences, which was heavily affected by the low ratings of the Seeking Home refugee experience: an ambivalent (four) rating, compared to the two other immersive treatments, which scored six out of seven, respectively. Seeking Home performed equally badly in the non-immersive and text treatments, scoring least across all formats, confirming a bias against the subject matterwhich again might be attributed to high media coverage of the topic.

On a related note, the emotional response to some of the pieces had a strong, direct correlation to levels of empathy, particularly in terms of registering an upset or negative emotional reaction. This calls into question the inherently dispositional and ambiguous nature of a users relationship with the content, and the difficulty of classifying an immersive depiction of a news event as troubling yet compelling, or well produced but upsetting and unenjoyable.

Investigating further, it was found that the level of comfort was consistently lower in Seeking Home across the immersive and non-immersive treatments, suggesting a link between the subject matter and the viewers discomfort, compared to both the climate change and sub-Saharan Africa narratives. In particular, the ANOVA datas suggestion of a significant difference between the immersive treatment of Act in Paris, which scored highest in comfort level at over six out of seven, versus Seeking Home at 4.5 out of seven brings up the question of whether being privy to a visible narrators conspicuous plight causes discomfort.

The relationship to the narrator is another key factor in fostering a sense of empathy and engagement with the narrative, and one that is affected by the format in which the narrative is presented. Another significant contributing factor is the narrators visibility on screen and their consistent presence throughout the scenes: even the use of a voiceover as opposed to including the narrator in a shot can cause a significant decrease in narrator trust. The data also suggests that the narrators in both the immersive and non-immersive treatments were seen as more trustworthy than that of the writer in the text control, although that too may have to do with the use of audio over the written word.

In terms of cognitive absorption, a similar pattern to the enjoyment metrics mentioned above emerged (see Figure 8) with regard to the relative success of each story in holding the users attention. Growing Up Girl and Act in Paris scored similarly positively (five out of seven on the scale) in the immersive treatment, with Seeking Home generating a more ambiguous four out of seven. This difference is more marked in comparison with the text treatment, which saw its lowest performer, the text treatment of Seeking Home, generating a mean of 3.5. We suggest that this might be due to the large number of characters and different scenes that audiences are presented with, lacking the consistency of a single, unifying character or voice, as was the case with the other two narratives.

The difference between the HMD immersive version and the non-immersive formats capacity for producing a sense of presence was shown to not be statistically significant. Both VR treatments, however, were stronger than the text control treatment. Personal relevance was also not shown to be conclusive, demonstrated by the lack of correlation between interest in subject matter and the empathetic response, or in demographic commonalities such as age, education level, or gender.

Another significant factor to take into account when analyzing participants level of immersion is their sense of closeness to a narrator. Respondents who trusted the narrator moderately strongly (mean = 5.06) or very strongly (mean = 5.73) felt more immersed compared to those whose trust was registered as moderately weakly (mean = 2.5) to a little weakly (mean = 3.56). There is also a significant difference between participants who trust the moderator a little strongly (mean = 4.24) compared to very strongly, confirming once more the importance of the narrator.

It is also significant that the level of trust in the narrator was significantly diminished by not including them in the frame of the shot, as was the case in Act in Paris, which featured a voiceover track but no visual representation of the narrator, Jared Leto. Growing Up Girl, which conversely featured the same consistent protagonist in every scene, clearly outperformed the two other stories. This was also the case in the category of perspective-taking: Growing Up Girl scored the highest overall mean in both the immersive and non-immersive treatments, as well as the highest in its category.

In terms of demographics in relation to self-reported levels of empathy, there were significant discrepancies between self-perceptions of empathetic qualities on the original baseline tests versus actual responses to the treatments, which were often not nearly as high on the spectrum as participants anticipated.

This is further corroborated by the evidence suggesting that those who consume news less frequentlyas little as one to two times a monthare more likely to respond empathetically to stories than those who consume news on a daily basis. A similar correlation between the frequency of technology usage and empathetic response was also observed: The data suggests that the less exposure to technology and less familiar with a story a user is, the more emotional impact it will have and the more likely their response to it will be empathetic.

One example of this correlation between the familiarity with topics and the level of empathetic response was applied to the climate change piece, Act in Paris, in which those who responded as least interested in the topic actually registered the most empathetic response. Conversely, those who reported a general interest in climate change did not respond empathetically to the story, which suggests that these stories are best directed at newcomers to particular topics, or utilized as introductory pieces to new stories.

Data suggests that middle-income audiences are especially suited to 360-degree videos, while higher income populations might be more resistant. It also supports the hypothesis that women are more likely to change their behavior following an empathetic response to a treatment than men. Regarding individual trait differences in the self-reported baseline empathetic response (phase one), no significant correlation was found between gender, age, or education in terms of predisposition to an empathetic response.

Short- and Long-Term Results

In the second phase of data collection, two weeks after the initial survey, there was a strong correlation between those who had registered an empathetic response and their ability to remember the story. The third phase of data collection, five weeks after the initial survey, showed a significant drop-off in the ability of participants to recall the story of the text treatment versus the immersive and non-immersive treatments, which performed identically with a mean of 4.7 out of the seven-factor Likert Scale.

This might be attributed to the novelty of the technology, the emotional impact of the virtual reality experience, or the contrast the VR formats afforded the user compared to the bulk of other text-based information they are accustomed to reading. Suggestive patterns from the data in terms of long-term behavioral changes were problematized by the attrition in responses over phases two and three.

Although the difference between the immersive and non-immersive treatments was not statistically significant at a difference of only five percentthough interestingly, the non-immersive format proved to be the biggest driver in motivation for taking political or social actionthe VR treatments clearly outperformed the text control treatment by thirteen percent and eighteen percent, respectively, in terms of gauging participants desire to take further action after experiencing the story.

Data analysis concludes that while there is no significant difference between immersive and non-immersive VR in relation to taking political or social action, both formats surpassed text in their ability to motivate audiences to change their behavior. None of the treatments saw a statistically significant rise in participants desire to volunteer or donate money to a cause.

There was only a minor difference in the reported levels of cognitive absorption between the immersive and non-immersive treatments. Immersive treatments recorded a higher consistent level of absorption, and text treatments scored lowest, with most respondents admitting an ambivalent (neither positive nor negative) response to the text control.

Takeaways

Beginning with a reflection on the importance of the immersive versus non-immersive format, it is clearly demonstrated that the immersive and non-immersive treatments outperformed the text control. As predicted in the hypothesis, immersion, sense of control, and interactivity are critical to empathy, although they arent objectively quantifiable factors: they are heavily influenced by the users perceived relationship to the choice of topic and their level of familiarity with the source material.

Similarly, presence is best established through immersive, head-mounted displays, but immersion isnt the only route to producing empathy or facilitating perspective-taking. One of the risks with the HMD immersive treatment is the added chance of causing discomfort in the viewer, which significantly reduces an empathetic response. Considerations such as the level of interaction required, as well as scene duration, are critical in ensuring a smooth, intelligible experience that does not overwhelm the user.

In terms of story, content is still king. The choice of narrative and content influences and outweighs the actual interactive affordances within an experience. The protagonists inclusion is also highly significant and greatly facilitates memory retention of the story over time, in addition to being a proven means of fostering perspective-taking and emotional impact. Data suggests the more people are interested in a topic, the more likely they are to remember it two and five weeks lateralthough this level of interest is a dependent on a variety of external factors such as their preexisting level of exposure to the topic and their personal or political beliefs.

The highest empathetic response was registered by users who were unfamiliar with the stories, suggesting the mediums effectiveness of introducing a new topic or VRs suitability for targeting infrequent news consumers. Audiences that find stories pleasant are far more likely to remember them in the long term, which also suggests an interesting correlation between palatability and impact. This in turn raises a number of ethical questions around user-aversion levels and the extent to which users should be shielded from potentially traumatic or upsetting content when experiencing it in this new, immersive format. Last but not least, user levels of empathy do lead to a higher likelihood of audiences taking action in the long term, but the difference, while statistically significant, is minimal.

In terms of the implications for newsrooms, choose a narrator in your 360-degree videos whom users trust, or include a consistent voice throughout. Establish a trusting relationship between audiences and the same single protagonist by including them in every scene. Be cautious about showing too many scenes that can cause viewer discomfort; an overabundance of scenes showing harsh conditions and suffering can drastically affect both user comfort and enjoyment, causing a drop in long-term memory recall and engagement. Research recommends interspersing such scenes with less charged and more neutral material to counterbalance the effect. Focus on less well-known topics that audiences arent as familiar with, as lack of user interest in a topic cannot be compensated for in terms of the production value or storytelling alone.

Focus on the emotional aspect of pieces, but be careful not to overwhelm the viewer, which can trigger a panic response and disengagement from the material. Provide clear guidance on sharing VR stories, as audiences are still unfamiliar with how to do so once they have finished viewing the experience. And remember that VR is by no means a catch-all solution for instilling empathy in users. Like any medium employed in the nuanced craft of storytelling, its power lies not only in journalists flair for storytelling, but also in audiences dispositional and contextual affinity for particular topics, which is as vulnerable to over-saturation as any other medium.

Outlook

This study touched on a number of factors that merit further investigation. Principal among them is a comparison of CG VR and cinematic VR treatments to compare and contrast levels of immersion, presence, and emotional impact in real time, and responsively rendered virtual environments versus pre-rendered spherical video. Comparing interactions with characters produced using volumetrically generated, three-dimensional video inside CG environments versus characters represented using 360-degree cameras would afford researchers a deeper level of metrics in relation to immersion, narrator trust, user control, and emotional impact. It would also allow for greater flexibility in terms of constraining the level of user agency required, which would be a key metric for isolating the optimum amount of interactivity required for maximum emotional impact and presence.

Crucial to this aspect of cross-platform comparison would be securing the means to co-produce the respective treatments in parallel, to ensure as minimal a discrepancy between narratives as possible. This would mean producing, recording, and editing the treatments on a similar timeline and ensuring they met a number of consistent qualities, including duration, number of scenes, number of characters, and so forth.

The component conditions that constitute the empathetic response also require further elaboration, and the incorporation of biofeedback devices such as blood volume pulse, heart rate variability, electrodermal activity measuring stress response, and skin temperature. In addition, a more granular approach to measuring participant memory recall of the narrative would provide further details of the nature of information that is best retained, and which particular aspects are most tied to emotional impact, interactions, or sense of presence. Similarly, a framework for allowing users to donate to a cause or sign up for a newsletter could also be integrated into the longitudinal responses, in place of a question gauging their willingness to do so.

Lastly, tighter controls during the recruitment process would ensure a representative sample size that meets prescribed gender, age, and ethic levels, as well as designating specific subsets of users whose familiarity with specific news stories and technology can be more accurately mapped. This would be more beneficial if conducted in multiple locations around the United States to ensure as diverse a survey sample as possible.





Appendix I: Research Questions

Do more immersive HMD VR treatments generate a heightened empathetic response by establishing a mediating effect, whereby VR induces presence and personal relevance to a topic area, thereby generating empathy? Is this response reduced in a non-immersive VR treatment?

X > M > Y (mediating effect, where X is the user, and Y is an empathetic response)



Or, do VR treatments always produce an empathetic response, albeit influenced by an individual users dispositional trait differences?

X > Y/M (moderating effect, where X is the user, and Y is the empathetic response, moderated by M, demographic differences)



Or, is the effect of the treatment influenced by both the users personal traits and the environment in which they view the experience?

X > Y/M + S (where X is the user, Y is the empathetic response, moderated by demographic differences and situational factors)



In this experiment, the independent variable is empathy, while the dependent variables are level of engagement, demographic profile, sense of presence, emotional engagement, news consumption habits, familiarity with the technology and story, and relationship to the narrator.

Sub-questions

Question 1: Is the level of empathetic response subject to a moderating effect that is influenced by individual trait differences, such as user demographic and familiarity with the technology involved?

Is the level of empathetic response subject to a moderating effect that is influenced by individual trait differences, such as user demographic and familiarity with the technology involved? Question 2: In the case of users fulfilling the criteria for empathy, does an empathetic response lead to higher levels of engagement and greater likelihood of a positive behavioral change in the user as a result? How long does this behavioral change last?

In the case of users fulfilling the criteria for empathy, does an empathetic response lead to higher levels of engagement and greater likelihood of a positive behavioral change in the user as a result? How long does this behavioral change last? Question 3: What are the differences in audience responses to immersive versus non-immersive VR treatments?

What are the differences in audience responses to immersive versus non-immersive VR treatments? Question 4: Is it possible to quantify the effectiveness of immersive HMD VR stories versus non-immersive VR stories for generating empathetic responses in audiences?

Is it possible to quantify the effectiveness of immersive HMD VR stories versus non-immersive VR stories for generating empathetic responses in audiences? Question 5: What are the specific demographic traits of users most interested in and influenced by virtual reality experiences?

Survey Data Collected

Except where designated below, responses were collected on a seven-point Likert Scale, where one was the smallest/weakest factor and seven the largest or strongest.

Demographics

Empathy Quotient Test

Davis Empathy Test

Interactivity: Post-Treatment

Cognitive Absorption

Attitudes toward Content

Immersion

Narrator Trust

Additional Features

Behavioral Change

Follow-Up Survey: 12 weeks after initial treatment

Follow-Up Survey: 25 weeks after initial treatment

Appendix II: Acronyms and Field Experts

Acronyms

CAVE: Cave automatic virtual environmentA dedicated room-sized, cube-like space where stereoscopic project and advanced three-dimensional computer graphics create an immersive experience for multiple users.

Cave automatic virtual environmentA dedicated room-sized, cube-like space where stereoscopic project and advanced three-dimensional computer graphics create an immersive experience for multiple users. CG: Computer-generatedRefers to assets or experiences that have been constructed in a computer modeling program such as Maya or Blender. Typically used for VR developed inside game engines such as Unity and Unreal. Commonly seen as the alternative to cinematic VR.

Computer-generatedRefers to assets or experiences that have been constructed in a computer modeling program such as Maya or Blender. Typically used for VR developed inside game engines such as Unity and Unreal. Commonly seen as the alternative to cinematic VR. HMD: Head-mounted displayA head-mounted, stereoscopic display that can be either tethered to a desktop computer or powered by a smartphone. Typically combined with a head-tracking device or gyroscope to monitor the users head movement and update the viewing angle of the scene accordingly.

Head-mounted displayA head-mounted, stereoscopic display that can be either tethered to a desktop computer or powered by a smartphone. Typically combined with a head-tracking device or gyroscope to monitor the users head movement and update the viewing angle of the scene accordingly. IVET: Immersive virtual environment technologyA pseudonym for immersive VR experiences.

Immersive virtual environment technologyA pseudonym for immersive VR experiences. VR: Virtual realityAn artificial environment, generated by a computer, in which the users actions control how that environment responds to the user. An offshoot, cinematic VR, is comprised of immersive experiences made from footage shot on video cameras, not from computer-generated graphics.

Leading Practitioners in the Field

Robert Hernandez, USC Annenberg

Sarah Hill, Story Up

The New York Times





Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Maxwell Foxman, the research assistant on this study, whose support was crucial in ensuring the design and implementation of the data collection phase of the surveys. Also to Professor Barbara Tversky at Teachers College, who provided a watchful eye over proceedings; Elizabeth Hansen and Claire Wardle for their initial suggestions; and Jonathan Albright, who gave us helpful final feedback. University of Florida Professor Sri Kalyanarams input was also invaluable as a sounding board for the project design, as was Sun Joo (Grace) Ahns and Professor Jeremy Bailensons expertise in the field. Final thanks to the supportive team at the Tow Center who helped get this project off the ground in the first place: Emily Bell, Susan McGregor, Pete Brown, and Kathy Zhang.





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Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Dan Archer and Katharina Finger are fellows at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Dan Archer founded the virtual reality company Empathetic Media in 2015. Katharina Finger, who works alongside Dan at the company, has a proven track record for international project management at companies like Siemens AG and Aston Martin Lagonda.An Arkansas House panel advanced a proposal Tuesday to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, as lawmakers began a special session focused primarily on addressing a cut in reimbursements rates pharmacists have seen.

The House Insurance and Commerce Committee endorsed a proposal that would also allow the state Insurance Department to require the pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to license with the state. PBMs run prescription drug plans for employers, government agencies and insurers, among other clients. They use their large purchasing power to negotiate prices.

The legislation was spurred by complaints from pharmacists around the state earlier this year about cuts in reimbursements they received for generic drugs. Under the proposal, the state insurance commissioner may review and approve a PBMs compensation program with a health plan to ensure pharmacists reimbursements are fair and reasonable enough to provide an adequate network of pharmacies.

Nowhere in here are we saying what the prices are going to be. What were saying is the reimbursements have to be fair and reasonable to ensure that you have an adequate network of pharmacies, Republican Rep. Michelle Gray told the panel.

The proposal also would ban PBM gag clauses that prevent pharmacists from discussing the total price of a drug or cheaper alternatives. The House is expected to vote on the proposal Wednesday, and more than three-fourths of lawmakers in that chamber and the Senate have signed on as co-sponsors. An identical measure is pending in the Senate. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he supported the measure.

Our independent, our local pharmacists need to be adequately reimbursed and fairly reimbursed so they can survive and they can serve the patients and members of the community that mean so much to them, Hutchinson said.

A national group representing PBMs criticized the measure as going too far.

This legislative mandate would enrich drugstore owners at the expense of patients and the employers that provide prescription drug coverage. PCMA President and CEO Mark Merritt said in a statement.

The anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform also said it opposed the measure. Grover Norquist, the groups president, sent a letter to lawmakers Tuesday blasting the bill as a misguided piece of legislation that would unnecessarily insert state government into certain business-to-business transactions.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.The California Court of Appeal began and ended its insurance coverage opinion of March 7, 2018 with the Bards wisdom. The court clearly got it right in denying property insurance coverage for the victim of counterfeit wine sales, and it cushioned the blow to the policyholder  somewhat  with a second quotation from Othello. The case is Doyle v. Firemans Fund Ins. Co., reported at 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 187.

Here are the facts relevant to the insurance dispute: The policyholder, David Doyle, was a collector of rare, vintage wines that he stored in a wine facility located in Laguna Beach, California. He claimed to have assembled what he termed a world-class collection of wines. In an attempt to protect himself from loss or damage to his wine collection, Doyle purchased a property insurance policy from Firemans Fund. The coverage he purchased was titled Valuable Possessions insurance, and it had a blanket policy limit of $19 million. Doyle first purchased the coverage in 2007, and he renewed the annual coverage eight times.

While he was so insured, Doyle purchased from one Rudy Kurniawan (birth name Zhen Wang Huang) almost $18 million of what Doyle believed was rare, valuable vintage wine. Kurniawan turned out to be a perpetrator of wine fraud. He was the first person in the United States to be convicted of wine fraud. During the 10-year period from 2002 two 2012, when he was arrested, Kurniawan is estimated to have sold as much is $150 million of counterfeit wine in bottles bearing counterfeit labels, according to Maureen Downey, a fine wine authentication expert and founder of Chai Consulting, all as reported by Bianca Bosker in the October 14, 2016 edition of the New Yorker. Worse, as much as $550 million worth of counterfeit fine wine may still be in the market, according to Downey, as reported by Patrick Schmitt on December 8, 2016 at The Drinks Business, a monthly international B2B magazine and website, published by Union Press.

Kurniawan was convicted of fraud in 2013 and imprisoned for 10 years.

Back to the insurance aspects of this saga. Policyholder Doyle made an insurance claim asking for reimbursement from Firemans Fund under his Valuable Possessions insurance for losses he claimed to have suffered because of Kurniawans fraud perpetrated on him. Firemans Fund investigated the claim and denied it on the grounds that there were no covered losses under the policies. Doyle filed suit against Firemans Fund claiming it had breached the insurance policy contracts. The trial court dismissed Doyles lawsuit, entering judgment in favor of Firemans Fund. Doyle appealed to the California Court of Appeal. (The parties settled a claim by Doyle based upon the theory that the parties, in making their insurance contracts, had each made a mistake of fact as to the value of the wine insured, resulting in an overpayment of insurance premiums.)

The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial courts judgment of dismissal. In the process, the court capsulized the cause of Doyles loss in Shakespearean language: O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil! (Othello, act II, scene 3.) The court added: Yea verily, we are presented with a most unfortunate tale of a villainous wine dealer who sold millions of dollars worth of counterfeit wine to an unsuspecting wine collector.

Doyles contention in favor of coverage for his claim was that his Valuable Possessions property insurance policy provided broad protection against all insurable risks, which he argued included crime-related losses to his investment, whether anything physical happened to the wine or not. Firemans Funds counter argument was that no loss or damage to covered property had occurred, as the policy required, because the wine was in the exact same physical condition after the loss was discovered that it was in when Doyle first insured it.

The key to the courts decision for Firemans fund was the PERILS INSURED AGAINST provision of Doyles Scheduled Valuable Possessions Policy, which read, We insure for direct and accidental loss or damage to covered property caused by an occurrence.' (Emphasis added.) The policy defined occurrence as a loss to covered property which occurs during the policy period and is caused by one or more perils we insure against. The policy did not define the term loss.

The policy was quite specific in naming items of valuable personal property that were covered, such as jewelry, furs and fine art. Wine was covered in category of Collectibles, which besides wine, included sports cards, calls, model trains, and other private collections of rare, unique or novel items of personal interest including memorabilia.

The exceptions from coverage found in the policy supported the Firemans Fund argument by excluding conditions inherent in the property insured, either before coverage attaches, or afterwards. That portion of the policy excluded loss caused by wear and tear, gradual deterioration, latent defect or inherent vice[.] With regard to coverage for wine, the policy said, if wine is covered, the following exclusions also apply: a. Failure to use reasonable care to maintain all heating, cooling or humidity control equipment improper operating condition; b. Improper handling or storage; c. Consumption; or d. Normal shortage, leakage, spillage, evaporation, dissipation, spoilage or deterioration, all usual and customary to wine.

The court was not writing upon a blank slate. It relied primarily upon the decision in Simon Marketing, Inc. v. Gulf Ins. Co. (2007) 149 Cal. App. 616, 622-623. In that case, a marketing company, Simon, designed promotional games for McDonalds Corporation and its franchisees, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Monopoly. An employee of the marketing company, one Jacobson, stole winning paper game pieces with a total redemption value of approximately $21 million by organizing a network of accomplices and co-conspirators to channel high-value winning game tickets to specific individuals, who paid Jacobson kickbacks. Jacobson was arrested along with others by the FBI in August 2001, ultimately pleading guilty and sentenced to prison. In discovery, Simon stated unequivocally that it was not seeking reimbursement for the value of the pieces of paper that constituted the winning game pieces. Rather, Simon argued that the undisputed facts established that the theft of the McDonalds game pieces from Simons possession by its employee was a direct loss of covered property, because McDonalds and other customers of Simon canceled their contracts with Simon.

The two insurance policies covering Simon provided that the insurer would pay for loss of, and loss from damage to, Covered Property resulting directly from the Covered Cause of Loss. In finding no coverage for Simons financial loss due to the criminal scheme, the court stated, in a passage quoted by the Doyle court, Property insurance is a type of insurance with its own historical development, and which is now available to cover just about any type of property that exists in the modern world.  And the self-evident point is that property insurance is insurance of property. While in the modern setting just about any type of property may be insured, the insured item must nonetheless be property. Given this premise, the threshold requirement for recovery under the contract of property insurance is that the insured property has sustained physical loss or damage. The requirement that the loss be physical, given the ordinary definition of that term is widely held to exclude alleged losses that are intangible or incorporeal, and, thereby, to preclude any claim against the property insurer where the insured merely suffers a detrimental economic impact unaccompanied by a distinct, demonstrable, physical alteration property. Under the foregoing test, it becomes apparent that the termination of Simons business because McDonalds and others canceled their contracts with Simon is not the physical loss, or damage, to insured property. (Simon, pp. 622-623, quoting 10A Couch on Insurance, 148:46, p. 148-81.)

Applying Simons teaching to the Doyle claim, the Court of Appeal in Doyle found that the policyholder had not stated a cause of action for breach of the insurance policies in issue, because nothing happened to the covered property, the wine that Doyle purchased and insured. The plain language of the PERILS INSURED AGAINST policy provision, the court said, makes it clear that Firemans Fund was insuring [Doyle] against direct and accidental loss to covered property[.] The word loss,' the court said, modifies the subject [actually object] phrase covered property by way of the preposition to. Firemans Fund was not insuring against any losses to Doyles finances or to his unrealized expectations as to the value of the wine he had purchased. (Emphasis by Doyle court.) The Doyle court cited also to California Fair Plan Assn. v. Garnes (2017) 11 Cal. App. 5th 1276, 1288-1289, holding that the phrase total loss to a structure in a fire insurance statute unmistakably contemplates a quantum of physical damage . . . and excludes the sort of economic analysis employed by the [insurer].

Summarizing, the Court of Appeal in Doyle pointed out that when Doyle purchased the wine from Kurniawan it was counterfeit. The wine remained counterfeit (and essentially worthless) throughout the entire coverage period of [each policy]. Further, Doyles financial loss was not a covered peril, it is simply a measure of his damages. Doyle did not buy a provenance insurance policy; Doyle bought a property insurance policy. (Emphasis by Doyle court.)

Returning to a Shakespearean mode for its finale, the court said, Finally, we can merely offereth to Doyle this small piece of wisdom from the Bard of Avon: The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief. (Shakespeare, Othello, act I, scene 3.)The WeChat application seen on an iPhone home screen on March 5, 2018.

Messaging and e-payment app WeChat has become the latest Chinese technology to be banned by an overseas military on security grounds, with Australia instructing its armed forces not to use it.

The country's defence department said the service did not meet its standards, although it did not directly link the ban to security concerns.

"Software and applications that do not meet Defence standards will not be authorised for use on Defence networks and mobile devices," the country's defence department said in an email statement. "Defence has a strict policy concerning the use of social media on its networks and mobile devices. Defence allows very few applications on Defence mobile devices. WeChat has not been authorised for use. "

Late last year the U.S. military banned the use of drones made by China's DJI, the world's largest maker of the devices, citing "cyber vulnerabilities." Other Chinese technologies have come under scrutiny, with a plan by mobile phone maker Huawei for a tie-up with US telecoms firm AT&T falling through under U.S. government pressure.

The Australian Financial Review newspaper reported last month that U.S. security officials had voiced concerns about Chinese involvement in the development of fast 5G networks in Australia. Also in January the US blocked the US$1.2 billion sale of money transfer firm Moneygram to China's Ant Financial, the digital payments arm of Alibaba, while in September Chinese-backed Canyon Bridge Capital Partners' US$1.3 billion bid for Lattice Semiconductor was rejected.

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In Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump has the enabler for his multifaceted China policy

Analysts said the ban on WeChat for military personnel was most likely a political move, but was in line with policies in other countries.

"It is obvious that Australia is standing on the same side as the US and follows its steps. The WeChat ban is more a political behaviour to show its support for the US," said Li Yi, chief fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

"However, it is understandable that the Australian defence department banned staff from using WeChat on concern over messages being monitored by the Chinese government," Li said.

"It is the same story in most countries, where defence departments have to use authorised software. WhatsApp and Facebook are completely banned in China," he said.

WeChat, owned by internet giant Tencent, has 1 billion monthly active users globally. Tencent did not reply to requests for comment.

However, the ban does not mean Australia is closed to business with China, others said.

"Australia could learn from WeChat as a payment system," said Professor Greg Austin, acting director of the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales (Canberra).

"Huawei and ZTE will continue to capture market share in Australia regardless of whether the government blocks them from some projects on security grounds."An employee presents t-shirts with images of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gift shop in Moscow on March 13, 2018. Seven candidates are lined up against Vladimir Putin in March 18 presidential election that he is all but guaranteed to win, extending his Kremlin term to 2024 with a fourth term in office.

Russia is holding a presidential election on Sunday, with President Vladimir Putin widely expected to win. Still, Putin does have political opponents and the election has consequences for Russia and the West. Here's CNBC guide to the vote.

The presidential election on March 18 will see Russia's registered voters  around 110 million people, as of 2016, out of a total population of 142 million  head to the polls. If no candidate gains a majority in the first round of voting, a second round will be held later. This is rare in Russia and not expected this time, particularly as Putin is so far ahead in opinion polls. "While President Vladimir Putin's electoral victory is a foregone conclusion, the Kremlin is keen to boost electoral turnout to increase legitimacy," Otilia Dhand, senior vice president at Teneo Intelligence, said in a note Monday. "This, however, is unlikely to be successful: the latest polls suggest that voter participation will fall well below the Kremlin's unofficial target of 70 percent."

A Russian woman looks at the list of the presidential candidates ahead of casting her vote for the 2018 Russian Presidential Elections at the Honorary Consulate of the Russian Federation in Izmir, Turkey on March 14, 2018. Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Putin made a speech to the Federal Assembly a couple of weeks ago, outlining plans for more infrastructure, social spending and regional development, as well as announcing a new nuclear arsenal. Teneo's Dhand said the speech was intended "to drum up voters' participation by invoking national pride." Many Western observers are skeptical of the fairness or representative nature of Russia's electoral process generally.

Who are the main candidates and parties?

Despite the widespread belief that Putin will be the winner of the election, he does have seven opponents also running for the presidency. Here is a list of the candidates and their party affiliations, if any. Vladimir Putin: The current president, Putin has been in power in both the presidency role and as prime minister since 1999. He ditched United Russia to run as an independent candidate in the 2018 election, a move interpreted as Putin trying to distance himself from the party. United Russia's popularity ratings lag those of Putin. Pavel Grudinin: A businessman who's entered the election race with the backing of candidate of the Communist Party, Grudinin runs a former state farm outside Moscow that models itself on the Soviet cooperatives of the past. Vladimir Zhirinovsky: Widely known as a nationalist and right-wing populist, Zhirinovksy is leader of the LDPR, formerly the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. He has run for the presidency five times and in an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle he praised international sanctions on Russia, saying they'd helped the domestic economy.

A billboard poster promoting Ksenia Sobchak, presidential candidate from the Grazhdanskaya Initsiativa [Civic Initiative] Party, in a street. Russia is to hold a presidential election on March 18, 2018. Yegor Aleyev\TASS via Getty Images

Grigory Yavlinsky: Co-founder of the Yabloko Russian liberal opposition party, Yavlinsky said in 2016 that he expected to beat Putin in the 2018 presidential race. Yabloko was founded in the early 1990s and supports civil liberties, good relations with Europe and free markets. Yavlinsky has run for the presidency several times before, as far back as 1996, but with little success. Ksenia Sobchak: Sobchak is known as a socialite and TV personality in Russia, and was seen as the country's equivalent of Paris Hilton. She reinvented herself as a political activist, has taken part in opposition protests and represents the liberal party Civic Initiative, which was founded in 2012. Her father had close links to Putin in his early political career, but Sobchak says the Kremlin needs fresh blood and must repair its relations with the West. Boris Titov: The chairman of the Party of Growth is seen as a marginal figure in Russian politics  87 percent of 1,500 Russians polled by the Public Opinion Foundation in December said they'd never even heard of him. But he is another government figure, being the authorized representative of the president of the Russian Federation for the protection of entrepreneurs' rights, RIA Novosti reported.

Maxim Suraykin (R), a candidate from the Communists of Russia party, visits the town of Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region to give a masterclass in wrestling ahead of the 2018 Russian presidential election scheduled for March 18. Sergei Bobylev\TASS via Getty Images

Sergey Baburin: Standing for the nationalist Russian All-People's Union party, Baburin has called for Russia to bolster its geopolitical power in Eurasia. A veteran of Russian politics, Baburin voted against the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Maxim Suraykin: The candidate for the Communist Party, Suraykin has adopted his party's economic and political ethos, advocating a Soviet-era socialist economy, and has promised to nationalize the banking system and to close the income gap between workers and management, Sputnik news reported.

What do the polls say?

Voter polls have consistently given Putin a large lead over the opposition. The most recent, carried out by WCIOM on March 4, predicted that Putin would get 69.7 percent of the vote. Previous polls had him on a similar percentage. His nearest rival, Grudinin, received a 7.1 percent approval rating, followed by Vladimir Zhirinovksy with 5.6 percent. Yavlinsky and Sobchak received around 1 percent of the vote, while Titov, Baburin and Suraykin were each seen with around 0.3 percent of the vote. Needless to say, Putin is expected to win the election with a comfortable majority. Russia has been widely accused of having little political plurality and the government's political opponents have faced harassment and death. In 2015, politician Boris Nemtsov, a prominent critic of Putin's government, was assassinated in Moscow and another anti-corruption campaigner and Putin critic, Alexei Navalny, has been barred from running from president. Navalny was convicted of embezzlement in a Russian court, meaning he can't run for election, although he denied the charges and said they were politically motivated.

Why does the election matter?

The 2018 presidential election will likely allow probable winner Putin to be able to consolidate and increase his authority in Russia for another six years. Since 1999, Putin has interchanged between being prime minister and president as Russia doesn't allow for a president to serve more than two consecutive terms at a time. In both roles he was the country's undoubted leader, however, and he's managed to remain popular despite Russia's two-year recession amid lower oil prices. Now, Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 1.7 percent in 2018 and 1.8 percent in 2019 due to increasing domestic demand. The "strongman" of Russia has certainly put Russia back on the world stage as a superpower during his presidency, but Russia's relations with the West are strained. Its annexation of Crimea and support for a pro-Russian uprising in Ukraine in 2014 prompted international rebuke and sanctions remain.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin addresses (C) a rally in his support at the Luzhniki Stadium ahead of the 2018 Russian presidential election scheduled for March 18, in Moscow, Russia on March 03, 2018. Nataliy Zemboska | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesThe EIU's annual ranking compares the prices of over 150 items in 133 cities around the world, such as bread, wine, cigarettes and petrol. It is designed to help hiring managers calculate fair salaries when relocating their employees overseas.

The city state marched in ahead of New York , London and Los Angeles , which didn't even feature in the top 10 priciest places in the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Worldwide Cost of Living 2018 survey.

Singapore has been dubbed the world's most expensive city to live in for the fifth year running.

Singapore's top ranking is reflective of a regional trend, with the costs of living picking up across parts of Asia as their economies expand. The Southeast Asian financial centre was joined in the top 10 by Seoul, which ranked in seventh position, as well as Hong Kong.

However, some of the world's cheapest cities are still in Asia, such as India and .

Europe, too, continues to be expensive  Paris, Zurich, Oslo, Geneva and Copenhagen appeared in the top 10. The only city outside of Asia or Europe to appear in the top 10 was Sydney.

Meanwhile, the weakening of the U.S. dollar in 2017 caused New York and Los Angeles to slip to 13th and 14th positions, respectively.

Bangalore, Chennai, Karachi and New Delhi all featured among the top 10 cheapest locations this year.

They were joined by Damascus, Caracus, Almaty, Lagos, Algiers and Bucharest.

Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook!

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Sydney is the only city outside of Asia or Europe to appear in the list's top 10.Stormy Daniels attends the 2018 Adult Video News Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A Trump Organization lawyer was involved in efforts to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had an affair with President Donald Trump, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing gag-order documents it had viewed

Those papers, provided by Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti, were signed by Jill A. Martin  a lawyer for the Trump Organization according to a now-unavailable LinkedIn profile and The State Bar of California.

Avenatti said the involvement of Martin suggests that Trump knew about the non-disclosure agreement, even though the president had tried to distance himself from the case, according to NBC News.

Trump Organization didn't respond to CNBC's request for comment, but told NBC News in a statement that "the company has had no involvement in the matter."

Reports emerged earlier this year that Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had paid Daniels  whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford  $130,000 in exchange for her silence about claims of an affair with the now-president.

But the president denied those affair allegations and White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said Trump was not aware that Cohen had paid Clifford.

For more details about the Stormy Daniels gag-order documents, see the NBC News report.Chinese e-commerce and technology giant Alibaba Group is planning for a stock listing in China, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The offering could happen as soon as this summer if Chinese securities laws are revised to allow foreign companies to list, one source told the newspaper.

"Since our IPO in the US, we have stated that if regulations allow, we would consider a listing in China," Alibaba said in a statement to CNBC.

Shares of NYSE-traded Alibaba rose more than 3.5 percent to near $200 a share midday Thursday.





In January, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said the company will "seriously consider" listing in Hong Kong.

But the Journal report, citing sources, said Alibaba is considering ways mainland China investors could trade its shares.

Alibaba went public in New York in 2014 in a record $25 billion offering after Hong Kong would not accept the company's governance structure. The stock is up nearly 86 percent over the last 12 months and has a market capitalization of about $495 billion, as of Wednesday's close.

Chinese authorities have been looking for ways to attract foreign capital and develop domestic financial markets.

In late February, Reuters reported, citing six sources, that China's securities regulator is considering a plan to give some of the country's largest tech companies a shortcut to list their shares domestically. Liu Shiyu, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, subsequently declined to confirm the report to the newswire, but said, "We will not waver from reforms (to make China's capital markets) more market-based, law-based and international."

Read the full Journal report here.

 Reuters contributed to this report.Sergey Brin, born in Russia, is the president of Alphabet and co-founder of Google Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

About nine months ago, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky showed up at the Silicon Valley office of a start-up called Verb Surgical. They challenged each other to use robotic arms to put sutures into a squishy, synthetic tissue. That particular robot, created by a collaboration of engineers from Google and J&J, is still a prototype and won't hit the market for a few years. The technology is still off-limits to the outside world, but employees and a few visiting surgeons have tried it out. Google parent company Alphabet has a slew of big bets in health care, including technology to help manage diabetes and tools for people with Parkinson's disease, but its investment in Verb's surgical robotics business could prove to be the biggest yet. Verb's goal is to introduce a better, cheaper surgical robot into the market in 2020, plus a bunch of software tools for capturing insights from procedures. It's a huge potential market.

The surgical instruments business alone is expected to reach more than $12 billion by 2025, with the biggest players in the space including J&J, Medtronic, and Intuitive Surgical. Verb believes that's a conservative estimate, and that it could generate billions based on the current market size alone. That could turn Verb into a material payday for both Alphabet and Johnson & Johnson.

How Verily works with Verb

The relationship between Alphabet and Verb is complicated. Verily, formerly called Google Life Sciences, is Alphabet's main health tech business. In financial statements, Verily rolls up into Alphabet's "Other Bets," which includes a bunch of other long-term bets like Waymo (self-driving cars) and GV (early-stage venture capital). At this stage, Verily is doing a lot of things. It has partnerships with traditional life sciences companies like J&J, Dexcom and Sanofi; makes equity investments; spins out companies; does futuristic projects in-house; and runs or co-manages research projects. Verily hasn't shared much about the financial terms of its life sciences collborations, and they seem to widely vary, but in 2016 Brin revealed to Google employees at an internal meeting that Verily is already profitable. CNBC has learned some business details about Verily and Verb Surgical that shed new light into how Verily works, and how it benefits its parent company. Verb Surgical emerged from stealth in 2016, but little has been written about it since. It's structured as an independent company created through a partnership between Verily and J&J -- the first of its kind. That's different from the other way that Verily interacts with health and biotech start-ups, which is to make a small investment and offer space on its campus. Verb has about $500 million in investment, several sources have said, and Alphabet and J&J are the primary (but not only) holders of equity. If it's successful, the sources also said that J&J has an option to buy out Alphabet's shares, but the terms for that buyout are unknown.

The company now has more than 200 employees according to a Linkedin search, and is continuing to develop a set of software tools to accompany the robotics. About 50 developers from Google have been brought in to help with that effort. That arrangement highlights another benefit for Alphabet beyond the long-term financial upside: employee retention. Engineers who are interested in making an impact in health care can work on a relevant project for a couple years, while still being employed by Alphabet. Verb pays Alphabet for the engineers. If engineers love the project, they can apply to be hired full-time by Verb. Alphabet engineers currently on loan to Verb hail from Project Loon, Google's project that involves using balloons to spread Internet access, YouTube, Google Apps, Google Fiber and more. Verily software director Tom Stanis is a case in point. He started on Google's AdWords team made the move over to Verily after being involved in a serious bike accident. During treatment, doctors discovered a mass in his kidney that turned out to be cancerous. He distinctly recalls when the surgeons told him that they'd be using a robotic set of arms to remove the tumor. "I assumed it would be some autonomous robot put in the room with me, rather than the reality of a surgeon being more precise," he said.

Platform for digital surgery

The collaboration between Verb and Verily gives the two companies an edge over the best-known surgical robot in the market today: Intuitive's da Vinci. That device is far from perfect. It's large and cumbersome, and it doesn't come cheap. The list price for a fourth-generation model is currently just shy of $2 million, putting it out of range for hospitals in developing nations. "There's almost 8 billion humans on the earth and 5 billion (of them) don't have access to surgery," said Verb CEO Scott Huennekens, in an interview. But Verb and its corporate partners have more ambitious plans than hardware alone. Huennekens refers to it as a "platform for digital surgery, of which robots are just a part." He believes Verb has a competitive edge because it's collected experts from a wide range of disciplines, including optics, hardware and machine learning. Currently, the device is undergoing animal trials, and will eventually seek regulatory approval. "We want to create remarkable things, and I know that there are high expectations on us," he said.

WATCH: CNBC takes a ride in 13-foot walking robotThe venture capital arm of Google-parent company Alphabet is leading a $56 million funding round in SambaNova Systems, a start-up building computer processors and software for artificial intelligence and data analytics.

It's the first time Alphabet's venture arm, GV, has invested in an AI hardware company.

The move comes as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other execs frequently insist that Google is an "AI-first" company. Google sells AI services for developers and counts on it to enable special features in its consumer products, while Waymo relies on AI for autonomous driving. Alphabet called out AI in the business overview section of its 2016 and 2017 annual reports.

But GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, held out on backing a start-up building hardware for AI for the past several years, general partner Dave Munichiello told CNBC.

"I would say by our standards, they're right on time because a bunch of other companies we've looked at were too early," he said. Those start-ups built products that proved to be not quite right for the time when they became available, he said.

GV has a unique insight into why existing products from larger companies won't necessarily be just right for AI in the future, Munichiello said. Google employs graphics cards from Nvidia to train AI models, and Google itself has built a custom AI chip, the tensor processing unit. Intel, another Google partner, has developed silicon for AI as well, following its 2016 acquisition of AI chip start-up Nervana.

But the talent at SambaNova, which has more than 50 employees after being founded in November, comes from different places. CEO Rodrigo Liang ran a team of nearly 1,000 chip designers at Oracle. Others came from Stanford University, including professors Christopher Re and Kunle Olukotun. Liang and Olukotun worked together at chip company Afara Websystems, which Sun acquired in 2002.

Olukotun said that SambaNova's focus area goes beyond training AI models: Its infrastructure will be able to accommodate other types of calculations, including speedy queries of databases.

"All sorts of approaches have been tried, but they're all facing the fundamental limit that is Moore's Law is slowing down," Olukotun said. "To get more performance going forward, we need to think about a much more efficient way of doing computations."

The start-up doesn't have a first-generation chip available yet, but it has spoken with potential customers, as well as public cloud providers, Liang said.

Walden International led the round alongside GV. Atlantic Bridge Ventures and Redline Capital also participated in the round.Amazon's cloud business is considering a service for companies to show training content to their employees, according to two people familiar with the plans and job listings.

The move suggests Amazon Web Services sees ready-to-use services, rather than raw computing and storage resources for roll-your-own application development, as vehicles for maintaining the rapid growth of its cloud and keeping its lead ahead of the likes of Google and Microsoft. With learning-management software, individuals can go through collections of content such as videos to gain skills, and managers can track progress.

Amazon already has online training programs for partners to train their employees on how to use AWS offerings. This would be a broader general-purpose service that companies could use to manage all kinds of corporate training and learning programs.

Amazon explored the learning-management field and concluded that none of the available tools were just right for its own workers, and executives decided the company would build its own system, one person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The idea was to build something "commercializable," the person said. It's not clear when the service could become available publicly.

Amazon declined comment.

Key people in the initiative include general manager James Urquhart, who joined Amazon last April and soon began advertising job postings for people who could help build a "learning platform."

"Have you led a new SaaS product from concept to delivery?" Urquhart wrote in one tweet.

tweet

When Urquhart -- a veteran of Cisco, Dell and Sun -- arrived at Amazon in 2017, he joined a spin-out of AWS's training and certification team, a second person said.

A job opening for a solution architect that appeared in December hinted how things could play out. "This is an opportunity for an experienced technologist to be on the ground floor of building a learning platform that will enable hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world to transform and scale their learning initiatives," Amazon wrote.

Amazon appears to be keen on ensuring that the underlying software looks sleek. "In this role, you will design innovative, globally-minded web, mobile, and emerging UX/UI for our digital learning products," Amazon said in a different job posting.

In recent years Amazon has kept its $5-billion-per-quarter cloud unit growing in part by tacking on new software services that companies don't need to buy or build themselves -- including tools for non-technical workers. Today's Amazon cloud offers a video conferencing service, a file sharing tool and an email app, for example.

"If you see Amazon take a strong step into this space, then it's recognition of 'lifelong learning' and career-centric up-skilling," said Tory Patterson, co-founder and managing partner of Owl Ventures, an education tech fund in San Francisco.

Cornerstone OnDemand, Instructure, Oracle, SAP and Workday are among the companies offering so-called learning management software for work (as opposed to schools).

Instructure, whose Bridge corporate learning management tool boasts Scripps Networks Interactive and Tesla as customers, relies on Amazon Web Services' core computing services to operate its software. Cornerstone operates its own data centers but is an AWS customer and aims to move more of its software to AWS, according to a filing. Workday announced in 2016 that AWS would be its "preferred" cloud provider.

-- CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this story.Easing bank regulations will help stabilize the system  not set the stage for another financial crisis, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told CNBC on Thursday.

The Senate voted 67 to 31 on Wednesday to ease regulations on all but the largest banks. If the bill becomes law, it will be the biggest rewrite of financial laws since the Dodd-Frank reform act was passed after the financial crisis.

"It will help Main Street. It will help smaller communities," Cassidy said of the Senate legislation.

One of the main provisions would raise the threshold for banks to be considered so vital to the financial system that they must be subjected to extra oversight and submit to mandatory annual stress tests. The current asset level is $50 billion, and the bill would raise that to $250 billion.

Cassidy argued that since Dodd-Frank was passed, the big banks have gotten bigger, while community banks have "dramatically decreased in number."

"It has increased, if you will, the instability of the system if it is judged by concentration of assets. The more that you spread those assets out, the more stable the system," he said on "Closing Bell."

"The degree [to which] it succeeds in getting stronger smaller banks, the more stable the system will be."

However, critics such as Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren have argued it would apply to too many banks and damage efforts to protect consumers after the financial crisis.

In a tweet after the Senate vote, Warren said: "Instead of working to #EndGunViolence  Republicans and Democrats came together today to deregulate the big banks and set the stage for another financial crash. Bankers are popping champagne because the #BankLobbyistAct just passed the Senate."

Cassidy said the problem is that the marginal costs for community banks to comply with regulations dramatically impacts their ability to make loans.

"I want lending to be happening in smaller communities. They've suffered over the last eight to 10 years. They need to prosper," he said.

The bill now heads to the House, where it has the support of some moderate Democrats. However, some Republicans have argued it doesn't go far enough and have threatened to tie up a vote by trying to add more provisions.

 CNBC's Liz Moyer, Jacob Pramuk and John Schoen contributed to this report.Despite a low unemployment rate and increasing wage growth, Americans still aren't saving much. That's according to a new survey from Bankrate.com, which found that 20 percent of Americans don't save any of their annual income at all and even those who do save aren't putting away a lot. Only 16 percent of survey respondents say that they save more than 15 percent of what they make, which is what experts generally recommend. A quarter of respondents report saving between 6 and 10 percent of their income and 21 percent say they sock away 5 percent or less.

At this rate, many people could be setting themselves up to fall short in retirement, Bankrate warns. "With a steady, significant share of the working population saving nothing or relatively little, it's virtually guaranteed that they'll be unable to afford a modest emergency expense or finance retirement," says Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. "That amounts to a financial fail." The economy might be prospering now, but that won't last forever: "The party has to stop sometime, and when it does, employers will lay off workers," the study says. In fact, Bankrate estimates that half of the American population won't be able to maintain their standard of living once they stop working. A report from GoBankingRates found similar results: Over 40 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for when they retire. What's keeping Americans from saving? "Expenses" was the No. 1 answer of 39 percent of respondents. Another 16 percent say they don't have a "good enough job" to be able to save, which presumably means they aren't earning enough.Prices of major cryptocurrencies saw a sharp downward slide Thursday, amid closer regulatory scrutiny on the space and after Google announced plans to ban advertising related to the sector. The market capitalization or value of all the world's digital coins stood at $310.4 billion early on Thursday morning, down from $372.9 billion a day before, according to Coinmarketcap.com, which tracks prices based on different exchanges. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, traded as low as $7,676.52 on Thursday, the lowest since February 8, according to CoinDesk data. However, by 4.00 a.m ET the price had recovered to $8,219.77, pushing the total cryptocurrency market cap to $331.7 billion.

Why did prices fall?

A number of factors have weighed on the price of cryptocurrencies. The first major one was selling by the trustees of collapsed Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox. It closed in 2014 and filed for bankruptcy after losing around 850,000 bitcoins. Its founder Mark Karpeles, recently pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement. A trustee of the now-defunct exchange has been selling large amounts of bitcoin that the exchange still owned in order to pay back creditors. This has been hitting the price of bitcoin. Meanwhile, Alphabet-owned Google, the world's largest digital advertiser, announced it was banning cryptocurrency-related advertising, including initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets and trading advice. "The sell-off was triggered by a number of factors, notably, weariness over increased regulatory scrutiny of ICOs, the Mt.Gox bitcoin dump and what seems to be some heavily liquid traders pushing for future buy-back opportunities," Thomas Glucksmann, head of APAC business development at cryptocurrency exchange Gatecoin, told CNBC by email on Thursday. "These bear signals have subsequently spooked many new crypto investors who are now looking to cut their loses."

At the same time, there has been continued instances of scams in the initial coin offering (ICO) market. Earlier this week, CNBC reported on how scammers made off with over $2 million in cryptocurrency after carrying out an apparent fake ICO. An initial coin offering or ICO is a way for start-ups to crowd-fund investment. Instead of raising cash from venture capitalists, a company can hold an ICO, which allows people to invest a cryptocurrency, such as ethereum or bitcoin, in exchange for a new token that's issued by the start-up. The new digital coin is not equity. Instead, it can be used in exchange for future services offered by the company. It's also possible that the new coin may climb to a much higher value than the initial investment.

Regulatory crackdown

Regulators globally have been taking a tougher stance on the sector as well. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) subpoenaed cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, and Tether, a digital coin company at the end of last year. In the U.K., Bank of England Governor Mark Carney called for greater regulation of cryptocurrencies. And earlier this month, Japanese regulators issued punishment notices to several cryptocurrency exchanges and even made some stop business altogether.

WATCH: Bitcoin bubble 'just about to burst,' major money managerGoldman Sachs is the best bank on Wall Street and will benefit from improving market conditions, according to J.P. Morgan.

The firm reiterated its overweight rating on the bank, predicting better profits in its trading business later this year.

"Global Markets business is one of the only EPS upgrade segments we see so far in 1Q 18," analyst Kian Abouhossein wrote in a note to clients Thursday. We believe "probability of FY18/17 revenues increasing is high with an easier comp for the remaining 3 quarters of 2018.  Equity-geared IBs, UBS, MS, GS, CSG, are likely to benefit the most from this current strength in equity business."

Abouhossein raised his price target for Goldman Sachs shares to $280 from $275, representing 6 percent upside to Wednesday's close.

The analyst said the bank's equity trading business will benefit from any rise in volatility such as what happened in the market during February. He also ranked his four favorite banks over the long-term in the following order: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and UBS.

Goldman announced on Monday that David Solomon will take over as president and chief operating officer and his sole competitor for the company's CEO job, Harvey Schwartz, is retiring in April. The moves seem to put Solomon in direct line to succeed Lloyd Blankfein when he retires as CEO, amid media coverage last week on his succession plans.



The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Blankfein was likely to step down as soon as this year.

The service, a conversational computer program  or chatbot  is available to Citi's consumer banking clients in Singapore beginning Thursday. A spokeswoman said the bank plans to roll out the service in Hong Kong and Australia later this year before moving onto other markets in which Citi operates.

Citigroup has rolled out a service that allows customers to check certain banking information through Facebook Messenger, the American banking giant revealed to CNBC.

Citi's chatbot is first available to consumer banking clients in Singapore.

Customers who register for the service can access information such as their account balances and credit card bill summaries by sending a message to the chatbot.

The chatbot was developed as part of the bank's efforts to reach out to its increasingly digital-savvy customers, especially those in Asia Pacific.

Citi serves more than 16 million clients in the region.

"The rapid adoption of mobile and other digital channels has transformed how Citi's clients bank, sign up for cards or loans, pay their bills or use the bank's wealth management services," the bank said in a statement sent to CNBC.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly announced developer tools for Messenger chatbots in 2016.In cyberspace, there are no rules of engagement, FireEye Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mandia said Thursday on CNBC.

As a result, "everyone is trying to figure out how to act," Mandia told "Mad Money" host live in San Francisco. This means the U.S., which relies heavily on the internet, has a great potential for attacks from countries such as Russia, Mandia said.

"The reality is if all of Russia's cyber weapons went against us and all of our cyber weapons went against Russia, they would win," Mandia said on "Closing Bell."

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on a number of Russian individuals and entities for their roles in interfering in the 2016 election, singling out "Russian government cyber actors" for targeting key U.S. infrastructure.

Mandia, who became CEO of the cybersecurity company in mid-2016, pointed out that there are no rules of repercussion to hacking when in countries such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

The cybersecurity company, which has provided products and services to help investigate high-profile attacks, made headlines earlier in the day when rumors leaked that companies such as Cisco and Symantec were considering buying FireEye.

Mandia did not confirm or deny the rumors but did say FireEye is in the process of a refresh with new products.Ford expects to beat Toyota in hybrid vehicle sales by 2021, the company said Thursday.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker unveiled a plan to overhaul most of its lineup of vehicles over the next two years at an event at its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan.

The strategy focuses on shifting attention to high-margin trucks, SUVs and performance vehicles, while also offering electrified versions of the bulk of its lineup, including its iconic full-size F-150 truck.

In doing this, Ford aims to make hybrids mainstream by integrating them with the company's most profitable and best-selling vehicles, said Jim Farley, the company's president of global markets.

Incorporating hybrid technology into the Mustang will improve acceleration, Farley said during a presentation. The F-150 will get more low-end torque for towing and a mobile generator, and utility vehicles will be able to conserve fuel.

"So every time we launch a utility in North America our intention is to have a hybrid," he said. "That's a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or in some cases, both. We've moved past hybrids being a science project."

Toyota has been a leader in hybrids ever since it introduced the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, the Prius, in the late 1990s.Preparations to protect the euro zone in the event of another financial crisis are not moving fast enough, the Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau told CNBC Wednesday.

Some European countries, including France, have been pushing for deeper economic ties between the 19 euro zone countries. The idea is to ensure that the economic system in the euro area is sound and the region would not be severely hit, like it was in 2011 during the sovereign debt crisis.

"Now it's time to act and I am bit worried by the fact that at least in recent months, the debate, including in the European Council and in the Ecofin, has been stuck, if I may say, on very old cliches, like opposing risk-reduction and risk-sharing," Villeroy de Galhau told CNBC.

The European Council is the 28 heads of state of the EU that define these laws, while the Ecofin is the finance ministers from these 28 states. The smaller euro zone  the 19 countries that share the euro  has been discussing the details of how to reform its own bloc, including plans to complete a banking union  in which banks in the region need to follow the same rules.General Electric has conducted its first flight test of the world's largest-ever jet engine.

The GE9X engine lifted off Wednesday, under the wing of GE Aviation's Boeing 747 flying test-bed in Victorville, California.

The test had been delayed from February after engineers discovered a design issue with the turbofan. GE described the issue as minor and that it would not delay the program.

The engine has approximately the same diameter as the fuselage of a Boeing 737 and houses a 134-inch-diameter front fan, that GE has claimed to be the largest of any commercial engine in production.

In a press release, Ted Ingling, the general manager of the GE9X program, said the test flight was "picture perfect," adding that final engine certification is expected in 2019.

GE is building the GE9X for Boeing's new 777x long-haul airplane, due to take to the skies in 2020. Almost 700 GE9X engines are already on order.The Trieste-based insurer championed a new asset management strategy, the rationalizing of its international footprint and the transformation of its German business for its latest figures.

"We are very happy with these results because they are the result of two years of very disciplined execution of our plan," Philippe Donnet, chief executive officer at Generali, told CNBC on Thursday.

Europe's third-largest insurer, Generali, reported earnings largely in line with market expectations on Thursday, supported by cost reductions and an uptick in performance from its asset and wealth management business.



Here are some of the highlights from the earnings: Full-year net profit of 2.11 billion euros ($2.6 billion), versus 1.96 billion euros expected in a consensus provided by the company.

Operating profit rose 2.3 percent to hit 4.89 billion euros in 2017, versus 4.86 billion euros outlined in an analyst consensus. "We are very happy with these results because they are the result of two years of very disciplined execution of our plan," Philippe Donnet, chief executive officer at Generali, told CNBC on Thursday.

"Our strategy is the right one for the company in this moment. They are definitely very positive and very solid results," he added.



The Italian company, which confirmed it was on track to hit objectives set for 2018, also said it would pay a dividend of 0.85 euros a share the previous year.

Generali to 'accelerate' company transformation

Generali's operating profit rose 2.3 percent to 4.89 billion euros in 2017, in line with expectations of 4.86 billion euros from an analyst consensus provided by the company. Its economic solvency ratio  a measure of financial strength - stood at 230 percent, up from 207 percent in the latter half of 2017.Right now is one of the best times to find a good deal on a cruise vacation. You can catch the end of what's known in the industry as "wave season" (typically January through March) when many companies are rapidly rolling out promotions. "It's sort of like the Black Friday period for cruising, it's the time when most of the lines do offer some sort of incentive," Chris Gray Faust, managing editor of Cruisecritic.com, tells CNBC Make It. And you still have time. "March and April are kind of low months for cruise-line booking, so cruise lines have extra promotions," says Makoto Rheault-Kihara, the director of marketing at Seahub, a cruise-booking site. "And cruise-booking sites ... [also] add extra promotions to compensate. So it's a pretty good time to book." Here are some tips and tricks to make sure you're getting the best deal and some standout promotions to take advantage of. Know what the deals are When it comes to booking a cruise, there are two types of deals, Gray Faust explains. "One of them is the slashed fares," says Gray Faust, "either through a discount, or you see a lot of things like buy one, get one free. Or they'll do a discount on extra passengers in [a] cabin, which is great for a family." For example, Royal Caribbean is currently offering 30 percent off cruise fares on select Royal Caribbean cruises and an additional $200 in savings.

Another type of deal Gray Faust sees this time of year are add-on values. "That's when the cruise lines don't necessarily lower the fare, but you get more in the fareon a luxury line it might be airfare," Gray Faust says. "On a more mainstream line, it might be beverage packages, a cabin upgrade, on-board credit, free gratuities, free Wi-Fi, those types of things." Gray Faust suggests would-be passengers pay attention to value-adds because they can help you save quite a bit of money. Possibly "more so than a slashed fare, particularly if it's tailored to something you personally are looking for," she says. Current value-added offers include Norwegian's Free At Sea promotion, which consists of perks like a drinks package, a specialty dining package, $50 per port to spend on shore excursions and even free third and fourth passengers to a cabin. When deciding between a slashed fare deal or an added value deal, Gray Fare recommends really examining what is important to you when cruising. "The fare itself is not the only thing," she emphasizes. "It's what are you getting for that fare." Book strategically Many current deals are valid for departure dates beginning in 2019. That can sound intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. "Unlike flights, there isn't this really optimal level of time where it's better to book," says Rheault-Kihara of Seahub. Some cruise lines have lowest price guarantee policies too. Carnival, for example, says if you find a Carnival deal advertised somewhere else within two days of booking your cruise, they will give you 110 percent of the difference in on-board credit.

It's also often possible to get a full refund if you cancel far enough in advance, but there can be steep cancellation fees the closer you get to your departure date, so planning is key. In fact, in some cases it may actually make more financial sense to cancel your booking, lose your deposit and then re-book on a cheaper cruise, Sherry Kennedy, cruising expert and blogger behind the website Cruise Maven explains. "Before you make your final paymentwhich is generally usually 70, 80 even 90 days prior to your sailing date, check to see if rates have dropped. [At that point] you've only invested your deposit," Kennedy says. "Say you lose the $500 [deposit], but the rate for the new cabin is $800 less than what you originally paid. Then you've got a $300 savings," she explains. Cruise deposits typically run between $250 to $1,000 per state room or per person. Cruiseline.com estimates that cruise fares typically range from $400 to $1,400 per person, but prices vary widely and can go much, much higher.

As booking early to take advantage of a deal can get you good rates, so can booking a little later. Kennedy explains the big travel agencies will block 100 to 200 cabins as soon as the ship's deployment is announced, which she says is around 18 months before sailing. Then they will try and sell those rooms. At 90 and 60 days before the sailing, the travel agencies have to return their unsold inventory to the cruise line, Kennedy explains. "That means if you're watching your calendar, at the 60-day mark or 90-day mark before sailing, you contact the cruise line and chances are there will be a glut of cabins that are being returned," says Kennedy. "That's when you might find some special deals and promotions." Just be mindful of cancellation penalties since you're booking so close to the departure date. Go in a group "The more people you book with, the better the price will get," says Rheault-Kihara. "So you'll get a lot of things like kids go free, drink packages, if you get a lot of people." Norwegian Cruise Line, for example, is offering group discounts, including for every 14 passengers and seven cabins, two people cruise free; or for every 14 passengers and seven cabins, one cruises free, plus your choice of two amenities (which range from beverage packages to shore excursion credits). Meanwhile, with minimum of 16 guests, Royal Caribbean is offering a cruise credit for every eight staterooms that sail with your group, which can be used towards the cost of the cruise fares.

On the other hand, if you're a single traveler, be on the lookout for reductions in the "single supplement," which is an additional charge for one person in a cabin. Cruise Critic reports that single supplements can range from an additional 10 percent of the rate up to a 100 percent. "Sometimes on the smaller ships that have a higher ticket price, they will waive a solo supplement. That could be on a river cruise; they're really nice for solo passengers," Kennedy says. Consider older ships "A lot of people tend to look at the newer ships, naturally, but the older ships are just as good or almost as good, but much, much cheaper," Rheault-Kihara says. Currently, a two-day Australian cruise aboard Princess Cruises' Majestic Princess (which launched in 2017) starts at around $384 per person for an interior room, while the rate on the line's Sun Princess (which launched in 1995) for the same room on the same route goes for $229.HP Inc.'s $1.05 billion acquisition of Samsung Electronics' printing business will give HP Inc. access to a $55 billion market, HP Inc. President and CEO Dion Weisler told CNBC on Thursday.

Telling "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer that the printing business is thriving both at home and in the office, Weisler said that his company is currently only "playing in" $55 billion of the $110 billion market.

"We did the Samsung acquisition because it opens up the other $55 billion copier market to us," Weisler told Cramer. "We have very low market share in that market segment, but we're growing there and so it gives us a growth platform for many years to come."

One-half of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s 2015 breakup, HP Inc. just logged its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth  a trend Weisler has come to affectionately call the "double double."

HP Inc.'s latest earnings report boasted 15 percent growth in the personal computer business and 14 percent growth in printing.

"It's really off the back of incredible innovation, hyper-segmentation, cost control and just making the PC cool," Weisler said on Thursday.

But while HP Inc. sees obvious opportunity in the $350 billion PC market, the trajectory for printing, especially 3-D printing, is less clear, the CEO said.

"The 3-D printing market isn't gigantic yet," Weisler said. "It's only a $5 billion market. The potential is to tap into the $12 trillion manufacturing industry because it is a much better mousetrap: lower inventory, just in time, manufacturing democratized, less shipping all around the world, less cost of capital tied up, for all sorts of reasons."

"3-D printing is just a question of when, not if," the CEO told Cramer, adding that his company's highly patented tech helps it print 10 times faster at a fraction of the cost of its competitors.

Weisler spoke from HP Inc.'s Palo Alto, California headquarters, where he showed Cramer some of his company's latest products.

Personalization has been a driving force behind HP Inc.'s product strategy with both computers and printers, the CEO said.

"Customer insights are really important and getting into the psyche of how people really want to operate. We live in a three-dimensional world, we're tactile in nature, so being able to interact with your devices and making them highly personalized is really important," Weisler said.

"We're giving customers, through innovation, a reason to purchase, to be able to touch, to be able to listen, to be able to interact with a device that's beautifully customized for each of the market segments that we go after."Venezuela is likely to remain the biggest risk factor among leading oil producers for some time to come, according to the latest monthly report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

"Within the OPEC countries, the biggest risk factor is, and will likely remain, Venezuela," the IEA said in its closely-watched report published Thursday.

"Without any compensatory change from other producers it is possible that the Latin American country could be the final element that tips the market decisively into deficit," the Paris-based organization added.

While Venezuela boasts the world's largest proven oil reserves, crude production in the state has been steadily declining in recent years. The South American country continues to slog through an economic crisis precipitated by years of government mismanagement and exacerbated by a prolonged oil price slump.

Following years of sharp output losses, Venezuela's crude output is projected to tumble to 1.38 million barrels per day (mb/d) by the end of 2018, according to the IEA. That would represent the oil-dependent state's lowest level of output in approximately 70 years  with the exception of the 2002-2003 strike.President Donald Trump is mad online about America's trade deficit with Canada even though the United States does not have a trade deficit with Canada.

According to the US Trade Representative's official statistics, the United States runs a $12 billion trade deficit in goods with Canada. That is more than offset by our $24 billion trade surplus in services, leading to a $12 billion total trade surplus. Running an overall trade deficit is not really a bad thing, and looking at particular bilateral trade balances is totally irrelevant.

The data says we have a surplus with Canada. But Trump says otherwise!



Tweet

The context for this controversy is reports that last night, Trump admitted to making things up about the US-Canada trade relationship, something he now seems to be denying he did.



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House Republicans said Russia didn't try to help Trump win the election. Now they're backtracking.

The real problem with the New York Times op-ed page: it's not honest about US conservatism

Speaking to donors in Missouri, Trump explained that he got into an argument with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about trade figures even though he didn't actually know what the real numbers are. Via the Washington Post:

"Trudeau came to see me. He's a good guy, Justin. He said, 'No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,' " Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio of the private event in Missouri obtained by The Washington Post. "Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed. " ... So, he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.' You know why? Because we're so stupid.  And I thought they were smart. I said, 'You're wrong, Justin.' He said, 'Nope, we have no trade deficit.' I said, 'Well, in that case, I feel differently,' I said, 'but I don't believe it.' I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, 'Check, because I can't believe it.'

The Washington Post got audio of these remarks and wrote them up with the headline "In fundraising speech, Trump says he made up trade claim in meeting with Justin Trudeau."

This seems to have angered Trump because the argument he made in the remarks was that even though he was talking out of his a**, later analysis of the data vindicated his position:

"Well, sir, you're actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesn't include energy and timber.  And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year." It's incredible.

The problem for Trump is that while he's been repeating this $17 billion deficit figure for a long time now, it's just not true.

It's also, to be clear, genuinely not clear why it matters. One of America's largest imports from Canada is crude oil. If we made it illegal to import Canadian crude oil, our bilateral deficit would definitely fall in the short term.

But gasoline would also become more expensive. And with Americans spending more at the pump, their purchase of other goods and services would decline, leading to falling living standards and lost jobs.

At the same time, the value of the Canadian dollar would fall  which would lead to falling living standards north of the border but ultimately also give Canadian manufacturers an edge over their US competitors.

On net, almost everyone would end up worse off.Italian Northern League leader Matteo Salvini speaks during a political rally in Milan, Italy February 24, 2018. Tony Gentile | Reuters

Investors will soon find out more details on what the next Italian government will look like, with lawmakers still trudging through the arduous task of forming a coalition after inconclusive elections.



The big surprise of the March 4 vote was that Five Star Movement (M5S) and Lega, both parties known for anti-establishment and euroskeptic stances, managed to obtain around 50 percent of the popular vote. But crucially, neither one of those parties obtained a ruling majority. The government formation process from here will therefore be marked by horse-trading and backdoor discussions. Somewhat ironically, the incumbent Democratic Party (PD) led by (the now outgoing leader) Matteo Renzi, has become the kingmaker to the formation of the next government.

What are the permutations?

The center-right bloc formed of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord and Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia) achieved 37 percent of the vote. Contrary to expectations, the right-wing Lega garnered 17.7 percent of the total vote, surpassing Forza Italia's 14 percent and making the outspoken Salvini the leader of the center-right alliance. However, the bloc is still 50 seats short of the majority it would need in the parliament's Lower House. This makes a center-right government led by Salvini mathematically impossible.

The alliance could therefore try to find the 50 lawmakers it needs for a majority from the PD party or M5S. Teneo Intelligence's Wolfango Piccoli sees the likelihood of pairing up with PD as low "given Salvini's hostility towards the PD and deep policy divisions between the two sides." In a speech delivered Wednesday, Salvini went as far as ruling out any possible government with the PD, but significantly, kept the door open to discussions with M5S. Alternatively, M5S, led by Luigi di Maio, which won the most seats on a single-party basis, but again short of outright majority, could also reach out to the PD and other left-of-center parties. According to Giada Giani, an economist at Citi, the left-wing Free and Equal Party (known as LeU who got 3.4 percent of the vote) would be more likely to accept entering into an M5S-led government. While for PD (whose outgoing leader Renzi was fiercely critical of M5S) the decision is more fine-tuned: either join the government with M5S and risk getting "absorbed" by a party that will benefit from Italy's economic recovery or refuse to partner up with them and risk being blamed for pushing Italy into an extreme outcome of a Lega-M5S partnership. Around two-thirds of PD lawmakers are needed to reach a M5S and center-left majority assuming LeU joins in. For that reason, analysis firm Teneo Intelligence sees this outcome as another low-chance arrangement given how much active support it would need from the PD.

Furthermore, the PD party has ruled out any alliances either with M5S or with the center-right led by Lega. PD Deputy Secretary Maurizio Martina this week said that the party intended to "respect the decision of the people" and would continue to serve from opposition. This, however, does not preclude the possibility of members from within PD splintering. The final scenario  which would be the riskiest as far as markets are concerned  is one that sees Lega and M5S go into government together. So far, Lega has signaled it would be open to talking to discussions. At a speech given in Rome Tuesday, Di Maio rejected the idea of forming a government different from the one that was presented prior to the elections, adding that M5S was not "scared" at the prospect of another election. Another potential outcome is one where President Sergio Mattarella calls for the formation of a national unity government  this would entail participation from the bigger parties and would likely be the most fragile option politically. Repeat elections can also not be ruled out, though this is unlikely to happen before several attempts of government formation have been made.

What happens on March 23?

On March 23, the Italian parliament will reconvene and house speakers are announced. This will give the first clues on any possible coalition outcomes. Speakers will need to be elected for both the Senate and the Lower House. Any agreement between parties would be based on selection for both houses. Mathematically, the center-right has enough votes to win the Senate in a ballot run-off, but in the Lower House, it could be stopped by a PD-M5S partnership.Olaf Scholz was appointed Germany's finance minister on Wednesday  but his biggest challenge could be bringing the country's Social Democratic Party (SPD) back from the brink.

The 59-year-old former mayor of Hamburg, a trained lawyer and advocate of closer European integration, will probably target centrist voters, according to an analyst.

"Scholz's home base is the SPD's right-wing. He will likely see it as his task to rebuild the SPD's credibility with centrist voters," Carsten Nickel, managing director of Teneo Intelligence, told CNBC via email.

The SPD has struggled to get into power and has been mostly in opposition since the 19th century. The few times it has governed Germany, it was mostly as the junior member of a coalition  a factor that has impacted the opinion of many of its traditional voters, concerned that the party is merely following Merkel's policies.

The party saw its worst result in modern times in September's general election. Its former leader Martin Schulz blamed the result on the SPD's role during the 2013-2017 coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

Nevertheless, the SPD is once again part of the German government, again as a junior coalition partner, after the failure of preliminary coalition talks between the CDU and the Green Party and the Liberal FDP. In this new government, the SDP managed to get the top seat at the finance ministry.

"Among SPD pragmatists, the view has always been that there is only (one) way to (rebuild the credibility of the party)," Nickel said, outlining its "record of solid, prudent fiscal policy."

"Sholz's party might be tempted to move slightly to the left on some issues over the next four years. But Scholz's job will be to make sure that the SPD becomes competitive again where you ultimately win elections: at the political centre ground."

However, analysts expect Scholz to continue the same vision of austerity as his predecessor Wolfgang Schaeuble.

"He is known for loving details and swallowing briefing files. Expect a well-prepared German finance minister, (but) don't expect the end of black zero or austerity-minded fiscal policies," Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING, told CNBC via email.

"The only thing I would expect to be different compared with Schaeuble would be that Scholz will  at least at the beginning  refrain from teaching other countries lessons," Brzeski added.

As finance minister, Schaeuble was vocal about what he saw as the fiscal indiscipline of southern European countries. During the sovereign debt crisis, media reports suggested that he thought Greece should leave the euro zone, arguing that a voluntary departure could perhaps be better than another bailout program.

Last month, Scholz told Der Spiegel magazine that Germany should not "dictate" to other European countries how they should develop their economies.

Nonetheless, as a pro-European politician, Scholz is set to work with other euro countries to drive reform in the region.

"Expect Germany to support a pro-European reform agenda, but an agenda with small baby steps rather than big visionary ideas," Brzeski said.Special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed President Donald Trump's businesses "in recent weeks" for documents, some of which relate to Russia, according to various reports.

The New York Times, citing two people briefed on the matter, first reported the subpoena.

The Times says it marks the first time Mueller, who is probing Russian involvement in the 2016 election, has asked for information directly related to the Trump Organization. The action comes as the former FBI director appears to be looking into the role foreign money could have played in the president's political activities, the newspaper reported.

It is unclear exactly what information Mueller requested. Trump and his lawyers have sought a swift end to the investigation, but the subpoena indicates it could continue for at least a few more months, the Times said.The Pentagon on Thursday confirmed that there was a hacking attempt

this past weekend against an online financial services portal that Citigroup manages for Defense Department credit card holders.

The confirmation comes a day after Citigroup told CNBC that a "malicious actor" attempted to gain access to information for Pentagon-linked credit card accounts.

The bank had responded to CNBC's inquiry regarding an attempted hack this past weekend. The Pentagon, citing information from Citigroup, confirmed to CNBC on Thursday that there was an attack over the weekend of March 10.

The bank told the Defense Department that the attack came from a computer system that was randomly guessing cardholder account usernames and passwords.

The program hit Citigroup's Pentagon online account application more than 1.3 million times. The hackers did successfully guess 318 Pentagon cardholders' usernames and passwords, but they did not get past a secondary layer of account authentication.

"No data compromise occurred," Citi told the Pentagon.

Citi provides financial services for the Government Travel Charge Card, or GTCC, which is used by Department of Defense personnel to pay for authorized expenses when on official travel.

CitiManager is the online portal used by the Defense Department to view statements online, make payments and confirm account balances.

The Pentagon's Defense Travel Management Office oversees the processing of the GTCC.Peter Thiel, who is moving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, said that rents in and around San Francisco are too high to keep attracting the best start-ups.

The majority of the capital that Thiel deploys to Silicon Valley start-ups goes to landlords and "urban slumlords," Thiel said during a conversation Thursday at the Economic Club of New York.

The venture capitalist and early Facebook investor spoke on a wide range of topics during a lunch at the club, including cryptocurrencies, his lawsuit against Gawker, U.S. trade with China, and President Trump's re-election chances.

Thiel is a well-known bitcoin enthusiast, but he said his optimism doesn't necessarily extend to crypto in general.

"I'm long bitcoin, and neutral to skeptical on everything else," Thiel said. He added that he's "not exactly sure I would encourage people to run out right now and buy cryptocurrency," since the technology's use as a long-term store of value has yet to be proven.

Bitcoin shares with gold several strengths and weaknesses as an asset class, and could conceivably replace it as a store of value eventually, he said.

Thiel said he was "very proud to have supported Hulk Hogan in his lawsuit," against Gawker, saying that he had seen the now defunct news organization bully and mistreat people for a long time. Privacy still matters in the digital age, he said, though the question of what it is and how to protect it is as much a legal, social, and political question as a technological one.

He also drew parallels between how the Democrats are now treating President Trump and how the Republicans treated President Obama during his two terms  painting him in such an absurd way that they will turn off much of the electorate and thus assist in his re-election. He also speculated that many media personalities and late-night comedians were privately hoping for another Trump victory, as his first term so far has been excellent for TV ratings."As the ISIS mission winds down, the U.S. finds itself badly in need of a clear strategy and the will and means to implement it."

Russia's return to the region in force threatens more instability. Iran is emboldened, and Iran's Hezbolla is building up its strength against Israel in both Lebanon and Syria. Saudi Arabia feels more threatened. Assad is empowered to once more use chemical weapons. Turkey seeks to claim additional territory. And we are no closer to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Some would focus on Iran, and suggest that we pull out of the treaty that constrains Iran's nuclear weapons development and attempt to negotiate something that better constrains Iran's efforts to meddle, terrorize and intimidate. But it seems unlikely that a go-it-alone American effort would achieve any better results, and might in fact accelerate Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Others ask, "Is there no way we can force Russia out of Syria and Iran?" Short of conflict, probably not, at least in the near term.

In fact, our best option is to strengthen relationships with traditional allies and friends, to enable them better to protect their own security. We should help Turkey with its refugee load, encourage more Kurdish economic development, continue to protect Jordan, encourage closer Saudi-Israeli-Egyptian cooperation, and work to settle the destructive conflict in Yemen. Our bases and relationships in the Gulf should remain, and where we can assist Iraq, we should.

Russian advanced weaponry has already somewhat impacted Israel's margin of regional military superiority. We must enable our allies to keep up with a renewed arms race, and simultaneously encourage renewed and deeper regional dialogue. Can we do more?

If we have learned one thing over the past fifteen years, it should be that military action often leads to undesirable outcomes. We should use force only as a last resort. But we should also have learned this: U.S. values and principles are important elements of U.S. national power.

We need to keep our word and fulfill our commitments. We should help the weak and struggling, and encourage others to defend themselves. And we should discourage the use of force by others to strike out preemptively. These principles provide the foundation for a new American strategy for the region, and provide the real answer to Gerasimov's threatening remarks.

Commentary by Retired General Wesley Clark, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center. Follow him on Twitter @ GeneralClark.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.Amazon Japan said on Thursday it had been raided by the Japan Fair Trade Commission on suspicion of possible anti-trust violation.

Citing sources related to the matter, Kyodo news agency said the online retailer is suspected of possibly asking suppliers to shoulder part of the cost incurred from selling their products at a discount on Amazon Japan.

Amazon Japan said it was cooperating fully with regulators, declining to elaborate.

Amazon Japan had come under regulatory scrutiny before. In a previous anti-trust probe, the Fair Trade Commission found the firm had required suppliers that sell their products on multiple

platforms to list them on Amazon Japan at the same or lower price.

Amazon Japan agreed to drop the practice and the regulators ended the probe last June.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission declined to comment on the case.Mohammed bin Salman Will Oliver | Pool | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince says the kingdom would pursue a nuclear weapon if its regional rival Iran obtains one. The comment raises concerns about nuclear proliferation at a time when the Saudis are seeking foreign technology for their nuclear energy program, including from the United States. It also comes just two months ahead of a deadline that could see President Donald Trump scrap an accord that limits Iran's nuclear program. In an interview with CBS, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Saudi Arabia is not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, but that could change suddenly. "Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," he said in an interview that will air on the news magazine program "60 Minutes." The kingdom has plans to build 16 nuclear power reactors within 25 years, according to the World Nuclear Association. The cost of the projects could reach $80 billion, a huge opportunity for the companies that build and operate nuclear plants.

The Trump administration has pursued that business, which could bolster the bankrupt nuclear construction company Westinghouse and power generators like Exelon, whose U.S. nuclear plants have come under financial strain due to competition from natural gas and renewable energy. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who has prioritized reviving America's nuclear power industry, led a U.S. delegation to London earlier this month to discuss Saudi Arabia's plans to develop a civilian nuclear program. Perry declined to comment on that meeting to CNBC during the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston last week. The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Salman's remarks. Salman is scheduled to visit the United States and meet with Trump next week. Concerns have surfaced that the Trump administration could relax restrictions on enrichment activities that the United States typically places on countries that receive U.S. nuclear technology and training. The measures, enshrined in so-called 123 agreements, aim to prevent uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing geared toward developing nuclear weapons. Some argue that Saudi Arabia can simply turn to countries like China for relatively unfettered access to nuclear technology if the United States takes a hard line. But Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democratic Sen. Edward Markey have come out in favor of maintaining strict controls on enrichment. "Saudi Arabia's crown prince has confirmed what many have long suspected  nuclear energy in Saudi Arabia is about more than just electrical power, it's about geopolitical power," Markey said in a statement Thursday. "The United States must not compromise on nonproliferation standards in any 123 agreement it concludes with Saudi Arabia."



@SenMarkey: .@realDonaldTrump is trying to curry favor with the Saudi Crown Prince by trading U.S. security interests for commercial ones. Any #nuclear cooperation with the Saudis must include the highest non-proliferation and safeguard standards  a gold-standard! The kingdom has balked at such restrictions. Saudi Arabia notes Iran is allowed to enrich uranium for civilian purposes under a 2015 accord with the United States and five other world powers. The accord lifted sanctions on Iran over its alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapon in exchange for Tehran accepting limits on its nuclear program and conceding to international inspections.

Iran nuclear deal at riskPresident Donald Trump signs a revised executive order in September at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., taking Iraq off the U.S. travel ban list. Carlos Barria | Reuters

Donald Trump has taken a tougher stance toward Iran in the past year, including more sanctions, a travel ban and amped-up rhetoric. Mike Pompeo, the CIA director set to be nominated as Secretary of State, is an Iran hardliner. But there's been collateral damage from these actions: sharply reduced flow in the pipeline of Iranian talent, a hidden but crucial source of talent for the U.S. high tech industry. The number of non-immigrant visas, which includes student visas and those for highly skilled workers, given to Iranians was 19,801 in 2017, down from 29,404 in 2016, according to an analysis of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans. The tech industry had fought the travel ban, and it is still being challenged in court. But in December the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the newest version of the ban to stand. Iran, a country of 80 million, is home to several major universities, including Sharif University in Tehran, sometimes called the MIT of Iran, and the University of Tehran. Top-tier science and math students have long found their way to the United States  making their mark in Silicon Valley and other high-tech areas, including NASA. Companies including eBay, Google, Twitter, Uber  and the venture capital industry, in general  have had Iranian-American executives playing a key role. They are also particularly vulnerable, because of the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the United States and Iran. What's happening to them may be the tip of a growing iceberg. The numbers suggest Silicon Valley's worst fear could be coming true: that the government would make it harder to recruit and retain top talent. That's particularly troublesome for America's high-tech hub, since about 71 percent of tech employees in Silicon Valley are foreign-born. In legal briefs filed against the travel ban, tech companies have argued that their employees would be hurt by the ban, which will eventually make it more difficult for them to recruit from around the world. Silicon Valley executives also worry that reducing the free flow of people means reducing the free flow of ideas.

Panoramic Images | Getty Images

They've been losing the case. In December the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the newest version of the ban to stand, and in the world of high-end business travelers, many took note of the attitude projected when the administration removed "nation of immigrants" from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' website. "There's a real feeling that the government is trying to keep people out," David Leopold, past president of the American Immigrant Lawyers Association and a partner at Midwestern law firm Ulmer & Berne LLP.

The overall number of H1-B visas, which are given to highly skilled workers, has remained the same  85,000 a year  which is the statutory cap, he said. The process typically takes between six and 18 months, so the administration's stricter standards for American companies hiring foreign workers might not show up for a while. But anecdotal evidence suggests that the process has slowed considerably, said Leopold.

Why Silicon Valley is worried

In the economic race between large, cutting-edge companies around the world, talent is the crucial issue. While the United States is seen as closing the door, other cities and countries are opening theirs wider. Shortly after Trump announced the travel ban on people from seven majority-Muslim countries, Dubai's ruler announced it would seek to attract more Iranians. Meanwhile, this year at South by Southwest, London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, is giving a talk about inclusivity in the tech sector. The lower numbers are likely the result of fewer approvals and few applications in a more hostile environment, said Leila Austin, executive director of the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans. More from @Work: Your next job interview may be with an A.I. robot

AT&T's $1 billion gambit: Retraining half its workforce "The community feels under threat," said Pirooz Parvarandeh, a former tech executive who established an organization, the Iranian American Contributions' Project, to quantify the number of Iranian-Americans and their contributions to the United States. It estimated at $2.7 billion GDP contribution in health care alone. "The kind of dialogue that is permitted  taps into anger and fear. Being brutal, being cruel, is OK." The list of prominent Iranian-American entrepreneurs and executives is long. Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, is the son of Iranian immigrants who first went to Paris and then the United States. The new CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, was born in Iran. His cousin, Amir Khosrowshahi, co-founded an artificial intelligence company called Nervana that Intel acquired for $400 million; he's now an Intel executive. Farhad Mohit founded Bizrate.com and Shopzilla and is now working on another start-up. Then there's Omid Kordestani, the current executive chairman of Twitter, who was Google's 11th employee and its first business executive, responsible for all revenue and partnerships.

Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay James Leynse | Getty Images

"Among the many flaws of (the idea of a ban) is the reality of people's beliefs and faiths irrespective of where they are born. For example, I actually went to an Italian Catholic school in Iran. I respect all religions but do not practice any and only believe in science!" Kordestani wrote in an email to CNBC last year.

Statistics tell the story

More than 12,000 Iranians are students in the United States  more than from any other country covered by the the ban, according to the Institute of International Education. Iranians have often faced visa issues under other administrations, too, but the numbers now suggest the barriers are higher under the Trump administration. They are students like Makan Karegar. "I have been stuck outside the U.S. for more than two and a half years due to extensive U.S. visa administrative processing. I am from Iran and have been a Ph.D. student in geosciences at the University of South Florida since 2012," he wrote by email. The University of South Florida recently received special permission to give him his degree remotely, he said. Because of the issues, he's now working in Germany.Rent, credit card bills and student loans call can make it more difficult to save money, especially for younger people. Now, according to a new study from the Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, you can add social media to that list, too.

While Internet advertising has the potential to rake in millions of dollars per year, it isn't the only thing tugging at your wallet via social media, either. Allianz argues peer pressure on social media is part of the problem.

The study, which examined social media's impact on American spending habits, found that nearly 90 percent of millennial respondents say social media creates a tendency to compare their own wealth or lifestyle to that of their peers. That's compared to 71 percent of those in Generation X and 54 percent of Baby Boomers who say the same.

About 60 percent of millennials report feeling "inadequate" about their own life because of something they saw on social media, like flashy clothing or vacations, the study notes. And, as a result, 57 percent say they parted with money they hadn't planned to spend.

But, along with the "fear of missing out" on a new item, trend or experience, advertising does of course play its part in tempting you to splurge. Last year, Facebook brought in $39.9 billion of revenue from ads alone. Instagram recently rolled out Instagram Shopping, which allows people to view product descriptions and pricing. And other social media platforms facilitate monetary transactions directly from the website or app.Stephen Hawking was well-known for his work on black holes and the theory of relativity. But, the famous physicist, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 76, also had some predictions about the future, ranging from topics such as aliens to the end of the world. Here are some of his most famous predictions.

The earth will turn into a ball of fire

Hawking theorized that humans would turn the planet into a giant ball of fire by 2600 due to overcrowding and energy consumption which will make Earth uninhabitable. As a result, humans will need to go to live on another planet. Hawking said humans will need to colonize another planet within 100 years or face extinction. "With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious," he said in a BBC documentary last year.

Stephen Hawking in 2016 in New York City. Getty Images

Hawking is part of the Breakthrough Starshot initiative, which plans to develop ultra-fast light-powered spacecraft that can look for habitable worlds that might be circling the nearby star, Alpha Centauri. "Such a system could reach Mars in less than an hour, or reach Pluto in days, pass Voyager in under a week and reach Alpha Centauri in just over 20 years," Hawking said at the event. Hawking's thoughts were similar to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He said last year that there will be an "extinction event" if humans stay on Earth, according to an article in the journal New Space. Musk has made it clear that he believes that Mars could be a good alternative to Earth.

Warnings on A.I.

In November last year, Hawking said the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) could be the "worst event in the history of our civilization," unless society finds a way to control its development. The physicist did say that the technology could help eradicate poverty and disease, but admitted its future is uncertain. "Success in creating effective AI, could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don't know. So we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it," Hawking said during the speech. "Unless we learn how to prepare for, and avoid, the potential risks, AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilization. It brings dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many. It could bring great disruption to our economy."

Global warming could reach a 'tipping point'

In an interview with the BBC last July, Hawking warned that global warming could reach a point where it can't be reversed. "We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. (President Donald) Trump's action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid," Hawking said. The scientist criticized Trump's decision last year to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, saying that it would cause "environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children."

There may be aliens out thereLarry Kudlow, a CNBC senior contributor and longtime economist, will succeed Gary Cohn as President Donald Trump's top economic advisor. Kudlow told CNBC he got a call from the president on Tuesday night as he got into an Uber after dinner. (CNBC)



* Larry Kudlow: China 'has earned a tough response' (CNBC)

Conor Lamb, a Democrat and former Marine, scored a razor-thin victory against Republican candidate Rick Saccone in a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania. Saccone, who lost by 627 votes, may still contest the outcome. (NY Times)

The Senate approved a bill to ease bank rules, bringing Congress a step closer to passing the first rewrite of the Dodd-Frank reform law enacted after the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. The draft legislation now heads to the House. (Reuters)



Meanwhile, the House passed legislation to help schools and local law enforcement prevent gun violence. The bill would authorize federal grants to fund training, anonymous reporting systems, threat assessments, intervention teams and school and police coordination. (Reuters)



* 3 reasons Gen Z activists have changed the gun control conversation when no one else could (CNBC)

Documents for the first time tie the Trump Organization to the continuing effort to silence former adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Toys R Us made official its liquidation this morning, filing documents with the bankruptcy court that will lead to the sale or closing of its roughly 800 U.S. stores. Still, the company may be able to salvage 200 stores to operate under the Toys R Us brand. (CNBC)

IHeartMedia (IHRT), which has struggled with debt and falling revenue, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today as the largest U.S. radio station owner reached an in-principle agreement with creditors to restructure its overwhelming debt load. (Reuters)

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of embattled blood testing start-up Theranos, has been charged with massive fraud and has agreed to settle and pay a $500,000 fine. The SEC alleges that Theranos raised more than $700 million from late 2013 to 2015 while deceiving investors. (CNBC)Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York.

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Dollar General  The discount retailer matched forecasts with adjusted quarterly profit of $1.48 per share, while revenue was slightly below estimates. However, same-store sales increased by 3.3 percent, better than the 2.7 percent increase predicted by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, and the company also announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to 29 cents per share from 26 cents.

Williams-Sonoma  The company reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.68 per share, seven cents above estimates, while the housewares retailer's revenue was slightly above forecasts. The company also gave strong full year earnings and revenue guidance.

Unilever  Unilever announced plans to leave its London headquarters and base itself solely in Rotterdam. The move is part of the consumer products giant's plan to end its dual parent company structure that has been in place for 88 years.

Hasbro, Mattel  These and other toymakers remain on watch after Toys R Us announced it was closing its 735 U.S. stores after failing to find a buyer. The imminent closure had been widely reported earlier this week.

Genesco  The specialty retailer reported adjusted quarterly profit of $2.15 per share, beating estimates by six cents. Revenue was also above forecast, and a same-store sales increase of 1.0 percent was slightly above the 0.9 percent consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

ADT  The security systems maker lost an adjusted six cents per share for its latest quarter, after analysts predicted a profit of 10 cents per share. However, revenue did beat estimates, and the company gave an earnings outlook that was largely above Street forecasts.

Amazon.com  Amazon attracted more than five million new customers for its Prime service through its original video programming by early 2017, according to company documents seen by Reuters.

Wells Fargo  Wells Fargo faces more legal trouble from US regulators, according to a Reuters report. Regulators are said to be preparing sanctions for the bank for receiving commissions on auto insurance policies that were forced on more than 500,000 drivers. Wells Fargo had earlier blamed a third party vendor for the issue.

Credit Suisse  Credit Suisse was sued by an investor, alleging misstatements about the inverse VIX product that lost 90 percent of its value in just a few hours last month during a stock market sell-off. The product was later taken off the market.

AIG  AIG board member Samuel Mersamer  a representative of investor Carl Icahn  will not seek re-election to the insurance company's board at the May annual meeting.

Sears  Sears saw sales fall by almost a third during its latest quarter, declining to $4.4 billion from $6.1 billion a year earlier. Comparable store sales fell 18.1 percent at Sears stores and 12.2 percent at Kmart. Sears also announced $540 million in new loan agreements.

Noodles & Co.  The restaurant chain said it expects comparable restaurant sales to grow this year after falling for the past three years.

Barnes & Noble  Barnes & Noble is projecting better than expected earnings for fiscal 2019, with the book seller saying sales have improved and costs have dropped.

Tailored Brands  Tailored Brands reported a 2.5 percent comparable store sales increase for its latest quarter at its Men's Wearhouse division and 2.3 percent at Jos. A. Bank. Overall revenue was up a better than expected 8.4 percent.

3D Systems  3D Systems reported adjusted quarterly profit of five cents per share, compared to forecast of a breakeven quarter for the developer of 3D printing technology.Vehicles are seen trapped under the collapsed pedestrian bridge that was newly built over southwest 8th street allowing people to bypass the busy street to reach Florida International University on March 15, 2018 in Miami, Florida. Getty Images

The $14.2 million pedestrian walkway that collapsed on Thursday, killing several people near Florida International University, was built in a single morning and praised for its quick and innovative installation method. The 950-ton "instant bridge" was assembled nearby and then lifted and lowered into place by special cranes, according to the Miami Herald. The process, which only lasted a few hours, was praised by Florida International University for significantly reducing risks to workers, pedestrians and motorists, and minimizing traffic disruptions. The bridge had not been fully completed at the time of its collapse.

Munilla Construction Management collaborated on the project, along with FIGG Bridge Design, the Miami Herald reported. A Twitter account associated with MCM posted on Twitter condolences for those injured and killed in the accident. @WeareMCM tweet The company also promised to cooperate with investigators and determine the cause of the accident. A Cuban-American family business, MCM did work in Havana, Cuba, before the revolution and won a Pentagon contract in 2016 to help build facilities in Guantanamo Bay, the Miami Herald reported. According to the Miami New Times, MCM has had legal trouble before, including one incident in which a TSA employee at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was injured after a temporary bridge collapsed. Juan Perez, director of the Miami Dade Police Department, said the homicide bureau will begin an investigation into the incident, immediately following efforts to rescue potential victims.

The pedestrian walkway was originally built to keep students safe from the notoriously busy Tamiami Trail that separates the university from the suburban town of Sweetwater. An an estimated 4,000 students live there, the Miami Herald reported. Traffic along the Tamiami Trail had become such a problem that in February, campus police launched a pedestrian safety initiative, which included issuing fines for disobeying traffic signals and jaywalking, among other things, FIU News reported. Students and faculty at FIU had long clamored for walkway and were looking forward to its construction, according to FIU News. During the bridge construction on Saturday, a crowd gathered to watch cranes lower the structure into place. Biology student Roshawn Brown told FIU News he was grateful the walkway would provide fellow students a safer crossing to class every day. "Having this bridge is a blessing," he told FIU news. "It was amazing to watch something like this, because I've always seen highways and bridges being built, and I've never understood how this is made possible." MCM and Figg Bridge Design did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

WATCH: Miami-Dade press conference on bridge collapseThe military and intelligence communities have long played a big role in the technology industry and had close ties with many of Silicon Valley's early tech giants. David Packard, Hewlett-Packard's co-founder, even served as the deputy secretary of defense under President Richard M. Nixon.

"The question is how should the United States respond to this challenge?" he said. "This is a Sputnik moment."

academics and representatives from private industry. Their goal is to explore how the federal government should embrace A.I. technology and work better with big tech companies and other organizations.

On Thursday, Robert O. Work, a former deputy secretary of defense, will announce that he is teaming up with the Center for a New American Security, an influential Washington think tank that specializes in national security, to create a task force of former government officials,

There is little doubt that the Defense Department needs help from Silicon Valley's biggest companies as it pursues work on artificial intelligence. The question is whether the people who work at those companies are willing to cooperate.

But those relations have soured in recent years  at least with the rank and file of some better-known companies. In 2013, documents leaked by the former defense contractor Edward J. Snowden revealed the breadth of spying on Americans by intelligence services, including monitoring the users of several large internet companies.

PhotoRobert O. Work, right, at a 2014 news conference led by Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary at the time. Mr. Work, who was the deputy secretary of defense, said of the global race for A.I. technology: "This is a Sputnik moment." CreditChip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Two years ago, that antagonism grew worse after the F.B.I. demanded that Apple create special software to help it gain access to a locked iPhone that had belonged to a gunman involved in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.

"In the wake of Edward Snowden, there has been a lot of concern over what it would mean for Silicon Valley companies to work with the national security community," said Gregory Allen, an adjunct fellow with the Center for a New American Security. "These companies are  understandably  very cautious about these relationships."

The Pentagon needs help on A.I. from Silicon Valley because that's where the talent is. The tech industry's biggest companies have been hoarding A.I. expertise, sometimes offering multimillion-dollar pay packages that the government could never hope to match.

Mr. Work was the driving force behind the creation of Project Maven, the Defense Department's sweeping effort to embrace artificial intelligence. His new task force will include Terah Lyons, the executive director of the Partnership on AI, an industry group that includes many of Silicon Valley's biggest companies.

Mr. Work will lead the 18-member task force with Andrew Moore, the dean of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Moore has warned that too much of the country's computer science talent is going to work at America's largest internet companies.

With tech companies gobbling up all that talent, who will train the next generation of A.I. experts? Who will lead government efforts?

"Even if the U.S. does have the best A.I. companies, it is not clear they are going to be involved in national security in a substantive way," Mr. Allen said.



Google illustrates the challenges that big internet companies face in working more closely with the Pentagon. Google's former executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, who is still a member of the board of directors of its parent company, Alphabet, also leads the Defense Innovation Board, a federal advisory committee that recommends closer collaboration with industry on A.I. technologies.

Last week, two news outlets revealed that the Defense Department had been working with Google in developing A.I. technology that can analyze aerial footage captured by flying drones. The effort was part of Project Maven, led by Mr. Work. Some employees were angered that the company was contributing to military work.

Google runs two of the best A.I. research labs in the world  Google Brain in California and DeepMind in London.

Top researchers inside both Google A.I. labs have expressed concern over the use of A.I. by the military. When Google acquired DeepMind, the company agreed to set up an internal board that would help ensure that the lab's technology was used in an ethical way. And one of the lab's founders, Demis Hassabis, has explicitly said its A.I. would not be used for military purposes.

Google acknowledged in a statement that the military use of A.I. "raises valid concerns" and said it was working on policies around the use of its so-called machine learning technologies.

Among A.I. researchers and other technologists, there is widespread fear that today's machine learning techniques could put too much power in dangerous hands. A recent report from prominent labs and think tanks in both the United States and Britain detailed the risks, including issues with weapons and surveillance equipment.

Google said it was working with the Defense Department to build technology for "non-offensive uses only." And Mr. Work said the government explored many technologies that did not involve "lethal force." But it is unclear where Google and other top internet companies will draw the line.

"This is a conversation we have to have," Mr. Work said.Boeing is on track for its worst week in two years, and with so much political uncertainty surrounding trade policy, more pain could be ahead, according to one long-time market watcher.

"The question is really not economic. It's political at this point," Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, said on CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Wednesday.

Boeing shares have been weighed down by a potential trade war between President Donald Trump and China. A proposed trade package imposing tariffs on $60 billion worth of China-made goods could spark retaliation from the world's second-largest economy.

"Boeing does business with a lot of governments across the world, and if the U.S. policy now is going to be combative instead of conciliatory against everybody in the world, it's going to make Boeing's business much more difficult," said Schlossberg.

The largest aerospace company in the U.S. announced last year a $37 billion order for planes from China and the potential for $1 trillion worth of aircraft over the next two decades. More than half of its total sales come from outside the U.S.

The Chicago-based company's stock has lost more than 9 percent since tariff talk surfaced this month. Those losses have intensified this week with shares briefly falling into a correction on Wednesday. Its stock ended the session down 8 percent from a 52-week high set earlier in March, close to the 10 percent threshold indicative of a correction.

"I would stand aside for now until I see how policy checks out because it could get very ugly, very fast," warned Schlossberg.

Boeing's tailspin this week also spells trouble for the Dow, he added.

"Boeing is one of the most expensive components of the Dow so if it goes, the Dow goes," he said.

Its shares dragged the blue-chip index below 25,000 again on Wednesday after recovering that level last week. However, Boeing remains among the top performers this year. It has led the Dow over the past 12 months with gains of nearly 85 percent.

Boeing's days-long sell-off has it teetering on a critical support level, says Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray.

"The technical picture isn't very rosy," Johnson told "Trading Nation" on Wednesday. "This is a stock that had gone parabolic, meaning it's gone up too far, too fast."

Its shares broke below their 50-day moving average on Tuesday, a level it had not fallen below since May. Its 200-day moving average, around $270, should provide its next critical support level, says Johnson, though downward pressure puts that level at risk.

"Most parabolic advances typically correct almost 100 to 110 percent of the advance. So be careful," Johnson warned.

Boeing ended Wednesday's session with losses of 3 percent, while the Dow dropped 1 percent.Toys R Us made official its liquidation on Thursday morning, filing documents with the bankruptcy court that will lead to the sale or closing of its roughly 800 U.S. stores. It ends a chapter started by Charles P. Lazarus, the son of a bicycle shop owner, the store's visionary, who wanted the "R" written backwards  an ode to childlike scrawl. "This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years," CEO Dave Brandon said in a statement. It is a blow to the toy industry, which has relied on the retailer for supplying row after row of toys and premium pricing, and who now must look to big box stores and Amazon.

Geoffrey the Giraffe is seen on the side of a Toys 'R' Us truck in 2005. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

It is a black-eye for its its three owners, KKR, Bain Capital Partners and real estate investment trust Vornado Realty Trust, who took the retailer private in 2005 for $6.6 billion, leaving it with $4.9 billion in debt. That debt would become an anathema for the business, keeping it from making the investments it needed as the retail landscape rapidly transformed around it. The debt, of course, was what ultimately did the company in. Under its onerous weight and with little hope of refinancing it, Toys R Us hired restructuring advisers in 2017. The plan was to put together pre-packaged bankruptcy for after the holiday season in advance of upcoming payments due, sources tell CNBC. But when CNBC broke news that it may file, it caused a run on the bank. Vendors froze their shipments to Toys R Us, only accepting cash on delivery. In weeks, it was forced to file for bankruptcy before its crucial holiday season and without a plan to emerge. A miserable holiday season would be the nail in its coffin. U.S. holiday sales produced earnings that were $250 million below budget projections, according to court filings. It blamed the uncertainty surrounding its chapter 11, price-cutting rivals and weakened e-commerce business. The holiday season left it unable to ensure it would be able to continue to satisfy the terms of its bankruptcy loan. Meantime, a separate group of lenders had been pushing it toward liquidation. "The stark reality is that the debtors are projected to run out of cash in the U.S. in May 2018," the court filing read. The company may be able salvage 200 stores to operate under the Toys R Us brand in the U.S., in a deal the company has been shopping together with its Canadian business. The new entity would be operated out of Canada. It is in talks with several parties about the potential deals, including some of its lenders. Toys R Us also said Thursday it is pursuing a reorganization and a sale process for its businesses in Asia and Central Europe, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Its businesses in Australia, France, Poland, Portugal and Spain are considering their options, including a potential sale.

Missed OpportunitiesTreasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton arrive on the Marine One helicopter with President Donald Trump aboard the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford for its commissioning ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Va., July 22, 2017.

Treasury Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin routinely opts for pricey military planes to travel on and eschews using less-expensive commercial aircraft options, a scathing new report says.

Mnuchin "never seems to consider flying commercial," said Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group that issued the report.

"He's always looking for the biggest and best private and military plane," Libowitz said of Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner.

CREW's report, which is based on details of Mnuchin's travel obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, says that "between the spring and fall of 2017, Mnuchin took seven separate trips on military aircraft at a total of nearly $1 million."

"Those records make clear that Secretary Mnuchin has legitimately earned a place in the rogues' gallery of cabinet secretaries who have abused their all too easy access to military and other non-commercial aircraft for both business travel and what, upon closer inspection, appears to sometimes include personal travel," CREW said in its report.

The report cited records for Mnuchin's predecessors during the decade before he became Treasury secretary, which show that for 10 wholly domestic trips, seven trips totally or partially used commercial planes, while just three used more expensive military planes.

"The documents Treasury provided CREW show that to date Secretary Mnuchin apparently has not made a single trip on a commercial aircraft," the report said.

A Treasury Department spokesman said in an emailed statement to CNBC: "Much of CREW's 'report' consists of falsehoods and mischaracterizations."

"Even CREW concedes that the Secretary's travel requests 'bear a remarkable similarity' to the requests submitted by secretaries in the Obama Administration, using the same approval process and level of justification."

"The documents CREW cites are the same documents that were examined by Treasury's Inspector General in his review of Treasury's travel, in which he identified no violation of law, regulation, or ethics requirements. The Inspector General confirmed that the Secretary is 'required by applicable authority and policy to have access to secure communications at a high level of classification at all times,' justifying the use of military aircraft. These documents explicitly demonstrate Treasury's concern for being prudent with taxpayer dollars while fulfilling important departmental responsibilities."

In a later statement, Tony Sayegh, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury, said: "Secretary Mnuchin's 2017 official travel totaled $1.2 million, substantially less than the $2.8 million his predecessor in the Obama administration averaged annually. Both figures represent the cost to the government for commercial and government air travel, train travel, hotels, vehicles, and other costs for the Secretaries and their security and traveling staff."

CREW started an inquiry into Mnuchin's travel last August after a controversy exploded on the heels of a trip he took to Fort Knox, Kentucky, on a military plane with his wife, actress Louise Linton. That trip, it was revealed in the report, cost $33,046.

Linton had lashed out on Instagram against a woman who had criticized her post on that social media platform that highlighted the designer clothes she was wearing during that trip.

CREW filed a FOIA request for details of that trip, and said it seemed to have been timed to view the solar eclipse in Kentucky, a prime location to see that rare event.

"As part of an administration supposedly committed to draining the swamp, why did the treasury secretary need a military jet to transport himself and his wife, when a readily available commercial flight would have saved thousands of dollars in taxpayer money and likely gotten them to their destination just as quickly?" CREW said in its report.

Among the trips cited was one in May 2017 to Bari, Italy, for a two-day meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers. Treasury originally requested a C-40 aircraft, which the report noted can accommodate as many as 120 passengers.

The trip, which ended up costing almost $314,000, wound up being taken on a smaller plane that can carry up to 45 passengers, the report said. But only 24 people, including Mnuchin, were listed on the flight manifest, CREW said.

The group's report noted another trip which involved just a 1-hour flight to Ottawa, Ontario, for a meeting and news conference with Canada's finance minister, on June 9, 2017. Twenty people, including Linton and several members of the media, flew on a military aircraft at a cost of $16,350, the report said.

CREW pointed out that the justification for that plane and its secure communications system during that short flight was justified in the request for the aircraft by "the potential for developments during travel related to a number of issues."

In October, the Inspector General's Office of the Treasury Department issued a report that found that Mnuchin had not violated the law in his use of military aircraft for his travel on seven occasions.

However, the same report said it had a "concern" about "a disconnect" between the standard for proving that a trip on military aircraft by senior executive branch officials is justified as being for a so-called White House Support Mission, and the "actual amount of proof provided by Treasury and accepted by the White House in justifying these trip requests."

A trip Mnuchin took to Miami on June 15, 2017, with four staffers and two Secret Service members used a military version of the Gulfstream 550 jet at a cost of $43,725.50, according to the IG's report. That plane holds up to 19 passengers.

The same IG's report noted that the cost per person on a commercial flight would have been $688 for a round trip, or $4,816 in total.

Anne Weisman, CREW's chief FOIA counsel, said: "From the documents we obtained" after the IG's report was issued, "it appears Secretary Mnuchin considers first and foremost his own comfort and ease, leaving the protection of taxpayer money at the bottom of his list of priorities."

"The public still has no reasonable explanation for why Secretary Mnuchin apparently has never used commercial aircraft while his predecessors did, or why he needs military aircraft that can accommodate 120 passengers when his travel manifests contain far fewer names," Weismann said.Military and intelligence officials have said that they have yet to receive directives from Trump to combat the online onslaught from Russia.

"I don't believe there is an effective unification across the interagency, with the energy and the focus that we could attain," Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who is also NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week.

"Because of today's capabilities and information, where they can use multiple platforms and generate great volume, it can really undermine a nation," added Scaparrotti, who oversees an area of responsibility that includes Russia.

One week prior to Scaparrotti's testimony, U.S. Cyber Command chief Navy Admiral Mike Rogers also said he was not directed by the president to counter Russian cyberoperators.

Rogers, who is also the director of the National Security Agency, added that the U.S. has "not opted to engage" with Moscow's continued interference.

Here is how the Treasury described the individuals and entities who were sanctioned:

E.O. 13694 Sanctions

Today's action includes the designation of three entities and 13 individuals pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, which targets malicious cyber actors, including those involved in interfering with election processes or institutions.

The Internet Research Agency LLC (IRA) tampered with, altered, or caused a misappropriation of information with the purpose or effect of interfering with or undermining election processes and institutions. Specifically, the IRA tampered with or altered information in order to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election. The IRA created and managed a vast number of fake online personas that posed as legitimate U.S. persons to include grassroots organizations, interest groups, and a state political party on social media. Through this activity, the IRA posted thousands of ads that reached millions of people online. The IRA also organized and coordinated political rallies during the run-up to the 2016 election, all while hiding its Russian identity. Further, the IRA unlawfully utilized personally identifiable information from U.S. persons to open financial accounts to help fund IRA operations.



Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin (Prigozhin) provided material assistance to the IRA. Specifically, Prigozhin funded the operations of the IRA. OFAC previously designated Prigozhin under E.O. 13661, "Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine," on December 20, 2016.



Concord Management and Consulting LLCprovided material assistance to the IRA. Concord Management and Consulting LLC, which is controlled by Prigozhin, provided funding to the IRA. Concord Management and Consulting LLC was previously designated under E.O. 13661 on June 20, 2017.



Concord Catering provided material assistance to the IRA. Concord Catering, which is controlled by Prigozhin, provided funding to the IRA. OFAC previously designated Concord Catering under E.O. 13661 on June 20, 2017.



Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly Aslanov (Aslanov) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Aslanov acted as the head of the translator project, a department which focused on the United States and conducted operations on multiple social media platforms. He also oversaw many of the operations that targeted the 2016 U.S. election.



Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva (Bogacheva) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bogacheva worked for the IRA from at least April 2014 to July 2014. She worked on the translator project.



Maria Anatolyevna Bovda (Bovda) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bovda worked for the IRA from at least November 2013 to October 2014. She served as the head of the translator project and held other positions within the firm.



Robert Sergeyevich Bovda (Bovda) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bovda worked for the IRA from at least November 2013 to October 2014. He served as the deputy head of the translator project and held other positions within the firm.



Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik (Burchik) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Burchik acted as the executive director of the IRA and held the firm's second-highest ranking position. He was involved in operational planning, infrastructure, and personnel throughout the firm's operations to interfere in the U.S. political system.



Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov (Bystrov) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Bystrov acted as the general director of the IRA and served as the head of other entities used by the firm to mask its operations.



Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina (Kaverzina) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Kaverzina worked for the translator project and operated multiple U.S. personas that she used to post, monitor, and update social media content for the IRA.



Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova (Krylova) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Krylova worked for the IRA from at least September 2013 to November 2014, where she served as a director and was the firm's third-highest ranking position.



Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev (Podkopaev) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Podkopaev was responsible for conducting U.S.-focused research and drafting social media content for the IRA.



Sergey Pavlovich Polozov (Polozov) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Polozov acted as the manager of the IRA's information technology department and oversaw the procurement of U.S. servers and other computer infrastructure that masked the firm's location when conducting operations within the United States.



Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko (Vasilchenko) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Vasilchenko worked for the IRA from at least August 2014 to September 2016, and was responsible for controlling social media content and posing as U.S. persons or U.S. grassroots organizations.



Vladimir Venkov (Venkov) acted for or on behalf of and provided material and technological support to the IRA. Venkov worked for the translator project and operated multiple U.S. personas that were used to post, monitor, and update social media content for the IRA.



These entities and individuals are subjects of an indictment announced on February 16, 2018.



CAATSA Sanctions



Today's action also includes the designation of two entities and six individuals pursuant to section 224 of CAATSA, which targets cyber actors operating on behalf of the Russian government.



Federal Security Service (FSB), a Russian intelligence organization, knowingly engages in significant activities that undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government. Specifically, the FSB has utilized its cyber tools to target Russian journalists and politicians critical of the Russian government; Russian citizens and government officials; former officials from countries bordering Russia; and U.S. government officials, including cyber security, diplomatic, military, and White House personnel. Additionally, in 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two FSB officers for their involvement in the 2014 hacking of Yahoo that compromised millions of Yahoo accounts. OFAC previously sanctioned the FSB under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.



Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence organization, knowingly engages in significant activities that undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government. The GRU was directly involved in interfering in the 2016 U.S. election through cyber-enabled activities. The Russian military, of which the GRU is a part, was also directly responsible for the NotPetya cyber-attack in 2017. OFAC previously sanctioned the GRU under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.



Sergei Afanasyev (Afanasyev) acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of February 2017, Afanasyev was a senior GRU official.



Vladimir Alexseyev (Alexseyev) acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of December 2016, Alexseyev was a First Deputy Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Alexseyev under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.



Sergey Gizunov (Gizunov) acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of July 2017, Gizunov was the Deputy Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Gizunov under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.



Igor Korobov (Korobov) acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of January 2018, Korobov was the Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Korobov under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.



Igor Kostyukov (Kostyukov) acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of December 2016, Kostukov was a First Deputy Chief of the GRU. OFAC previously sanctioned Kostyukov under E.O. 13694, as amended, on December 28, 2016.



Grigoriy Molchanov (Molchanov) acts for or on behalf of the GRU. As of April 2016, Molchanov was a senior GRU official.Democrats once worried that Barack Obama's winning presidential coalition had set them up for midterm election defeats. Conor Lamb's Pennsylvania win shows Donald Trump is solving their problem.

The problem arose from Obama's extraordinary strength among young and minority voters. They vote less often than older whites in midterm campaigns for Congress  which helped Republicans recapture the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.

But Trump has also shifted the electorate. The result leaves Republicans more dependent on less educated voters, especially men  who vote less often than the college graduates and women now flocking to Democrats.

Midterm campaigns often mobilize opponents of whoever sits in the White House. That's why the president's party has lost control of at least one chamber of Congress in the last three midterm elections.

As the least-popular first-term president in polling history, Trump has generated massive opposition. And the nature of that opposition, as Pennsylvania voters demonstrated once again, helps to maximize its electoral impact.

What catapulted candidate Trump to the presidency was his landslide against Hillary Clinton among white men and whites without college degrees. Among white women and college graduates, he won by lesser margins.

But his abrasive, chaotic White House tenure has changed those proportions.

A Gallup poll earlier this month showed that he remains popular among white men and whites without college degrees but by less imposing margins. White women now disapprove of his performance by 49 percent to 45 percent. Among college-educated white women, the negative verdict was overwhelming  61 percent disapprove, 34 percent approve.

That shift let Lamb erase his deficit against Republican Rick Saccone in a nearly all-white district Trump won by 20 percentage points in 2016. A pre-election Monmouth University poll showed him leading by 15 points among women and 22 points among college graduates.

Republicans tried to lure them by touting the Trump tax cuts. It didn't work.

"The size of a tax cut is not that important to us," Caroline Horwitz of suburban Allegheny County told me. "We have two children starting in the public schools soon. We want them to be good."

The 32-year-old helped Lamb with canvassing, phone banks and yard signs because "I want to see fewer people like Trump in Washington." It was the first time she had ever volunteered in a campaign.

Such efforts proved just enough. Historical patterns suggested the middle-class suburbs of Democrat-friendly Allegheny County would represent about 42 percent of the total vote. It turned out to be 45 percent.

Another measure of surging Democratic turnout: Lamb's vote total was 79 percent of what Clinton received in 2016, while Saccone got 53 percent of Trump's total. That echoed earlier Trump-era special elections, which have swung toward Democrats by an average of 14 percentage points since 2016, according to the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"This is the year of the angry white college-educated woman, " said David Wasserman, an analyst of House elections at the Cook Political Report.

That makes Democrats current favorites to gain the 24 seats they need to win back the House this fall  an ominous prospect for Trump's presidency. Republicans hold 23 districts Trump lost in 2016, and 37 that he won by fewer than 10 percentage points.

In some places, subpar turnout still keeps Democrats from turning support into votes. Latinos and young voters remain much less likely to turn out than older whites.

Yet Trump's relentless focus on core supporters gives Democrats a chance to narrow those gaps.

As Pennsylvanians voted Tuesday, Trump traveled to California to examine prototypes of the wall he promises to build along the Mexican border. Democrats hope to mobilize Latinos around that and the Trump immigration crackdown that jeopardizes Obama-era protections for the so-called dreamers who were brought here illegally as children.

The day before, Trump released his plans for responding to the Parkland, Florida, school massacre. He abandoned his earlier pledge to buck the NRA.

On Wednesday, a month after the massacre, student activists demanding gun restrictions walked out of schools across the country. They plan a large scale "March For Our Lives" protest in Washington next week.

Protesters aim to pressure congressional Republicans on gun legislation  and drive young voters to the polls if they fail. A voter registration link on their website is marked "Vote for our Lives."be as powerful and consequential as it has ever been.

President Donald Trump's new top economic advisor could end up in the spotlight a lot more than most of his predecessors in the role. Trump has appointed longtime CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow as the director of the National Economic Council. Kudlow replaces Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who resigned last week shortly after Trump announced a tariff plan on steel and aluminum imports. Kudlow, who has spent more than two decades as a television pundit, served in President Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s. Kudlow has also already supported Trump's political ambitions extensively. He was early to endorse Trump's presidential campaign during the Republican primary in 2016 and served as an informal advisor.

Larry Kudlow Scott Mlyn | CNBC

The role he now fills has held considerable sway in the White House since its creation during the Clinton administration. President Bill Clinton created the National Economic Council through executive order in 1993. It was designed to serve four principal functions: Craft economic policy, for both domestic and international issues

Advise the president on economic matters

Ensure that all policy and programs are consistent with the president's economic goals

Oversee the implementation of the president's economic agenda

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Gary Cohn, Director of the National Economic Council, during a retreat with Republican lawmakers and members of his Cabinet at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland, January 6, 2018. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

The council boasts a handful of high-ranking Cabinet members, including the secretaries of state, commerce and labor. Kudlow's official title is actually "assistant to the president for economic policy"  though it's usually shortened to "director." According to an official description of the job, the NEC director "works in conjunction with these officials to coordinate and implement the President's economic policy objectives." Every White House administration, from Clinton through Trump, has seen more than one NEC assistant come and go. Clinton and President Barack Obama both had three; President George W. Bush had four. In that sense, Trump is keeping very much in line with executive precedent. But there's at least one way in which Kudlow could represent a major inflection point in the traditional role of the second NEC director: power.

A legacy of primacy

President Bill Clinton (L) talks about former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (R) at the unveiling ceremony of Rubin's official portrait in the halls of the Treasury Department 27 June, 2000. Tim Sloan | AFP | Getty Images

In each of the three administrations that preceded Trump, the first-appointed NEC director played a major role in defining the president's economic agenda and laid the groundwork upon which policy was built. Robert Rubin, the first-ever NEC director, steered Clinton toward confronting the burgeoning budget deficits that his administration inherited and was instrumental in shepherding the U.S. budget from deficit to surplus by the time Clinton left office, according to a 2016 profile in Fortune. Rubin became the secretary of the Treasury under Clinton after leaving the NEC in 1995. The younger Bush's first NEC director, Larry Lindsey, is known as an architect of sweeping $1.35 trillion tax cuts signed into law in 2001. Lindsey's successor in 2002, Steve Friedman, followed the path set by Lindsey and oversaw another massive tax cut in 2003.

President-elect George W. Bush (R) and newly named White House economic advisor Larry Lindsey (L) share a laugh at an economic forum 03 January, 2001. Stan Honda | AFP | Getty Images

Obama's first NEC director, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, played a pivotal role in the economic policy direction pursued by the administration. He challenged Fed Chair Paul Volcker's influence over the White House, cutting the central bank leader out of some policy meetings in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. With Summers at its head, the NEC organized a web of policies intended to help lift the U.S. out of recession. Rubin, Lindsey and Summers did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Lawrence (Larry) Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, listens as President Elect Barack Obama announces his new economic team at a news conference in Chicago. Ralf-Finn Hestoft | Corbis | Getty Images

In Trump's White House, Cohn struggled to contain the president's populist proclivities. Cohn, a Wall Street darling and a proponent of free trade policies, was a huge driver of Trump's signature achievement, a large tax-cuts package the president signed in December. Yet Cohn struggled to stop or at least diminish the tariff proposal Trump put forward this month. Trump sought to enact tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum  a broader tariff policy than other modern presidents, who have generally imposed much more narrowly targeted taxes on select products from individual nations. Facing significant pushback from Republicans in Congress, Trump eventually qualified his tariffs with exemptions for Mexico and Canada, as well as an option for affected countries to negotiate better deals. But it was too late for Cohn, who resigned before Trump could issue an official proclamation on the tariffs.

Free trade vs. friendshipPresident Donald Trump said Wednesday that he made up some of what he said in a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister , The Washington Post reported.

Trump said that, during that meeting, he insisted the U.S. had a trade deficit with Canada without knowing whether that was really the case, according to the Post, which obtained an audio recording of the president's Wednesday fundraising speech.

Here's the Post's transcription of part of the president's talk:

"Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in  'Donald, we have no trade deficit.' He's very proud because everybody else, you know, we're getting killed." "... So, he's proud. I said, 'Wrong, Justin, you do.' I didn't even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, 'You're wrong.' You know why? Because we're so stupid.  And I thought they were smart. I said, 'You're wrong, Justin.' He said, 'Nope, we have no trade deficit.' I said, 'Well, in that case, I feel differently,' I said, 'but I don't believe it.' I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, 'Check, because I can't believe it.'"

As The Washington Post notes, the U.S. Trade Representative office says the country actually has a trade surplus with Canada, an American ally.

The White House didn't immediately respond to CNBC's emailed request for comment.

Trump has frequently complained about the U.S.'s trade deficits with economies such as the European Union and China. He has also accused those economies of ripping off the U.S. and hurting American workers.

For more on what Trump said during the fundraising speech, see The Washington Post article.U.S. President Donald Trump talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-In at the presidential Blue House on November 7, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea.

President Donald Trump seemed to threaten to pull U.S. troops out of South Korea if he didn't get his way on trade with Seoul, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them," Trump said Wednesday in a fundraising speech  an audio recording of which was obtained by the Post.

"We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let's see what happens," Trump said.

South Korea, a U.S. ally, is among the economies that came under attack by Trump for the state of their trade balances with the U.S. The president last year threatened to scrap the bilateral trade pact between the two countries, which is known as Korus.

Re-negotiations of the deal started in January 2018.

For the full report, read The Washington Post.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a campaign concert as supporters, celebrities and dignitaries look on at Luzhniki Stadium on March 3, 2018 in Moscow, Russia.

More voters could turn out for Russia's presidential election on Sunday after the U.K. blamed Moscow for a nerve agent attack in England and announced a series of penalties against Russia, an analyst said Wednesday.

Otilia Dhand, senior vice president at Teneo intelligence, said the sanctions could prompt more Russians to take part in the vote, something the Kremlin is anxious about.

"President Vladimir Putin is well-positioned to win the March 18 presidential election without a need for a run-off," Dhand wrote in a note.

"However, the Kremlin is also keen to drum up high turnout to equip Putin with high legitimacy and will use (Theresa) May's announcement to invoke siege mentality and bring more voters to the ballot box on Sunday."

On Wednesday, U.K. Prime Minister May said she had expelled 23 Russian diplomats  identified as "undeclared intelligence officers"  and was taking measures to "dismantle (Russia's) espionage network." It is the single biggest expulsion in over 30 years.

The penalties come after Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy-turned-double agent for the U.K., and his daughter Yulia were subject to a nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, on March 4. They remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Dhand has previously noted that polls had so far indicated that voter participation was likely to "fall well below the Kremlin's unofficial target of 70 percent."

Putin is widely expected to win the election with a strong lead ahead of the other seven candidates running, but the authorities are keen to get people out to vote to improve the semblance of legitimacy.

"The regime in Russia is authoritarian but it requires a certain acquiescence from the populace," Daragh McDowell, principal Russia Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC on Thursday.

"Voter turnout can be the key way to show that people are enthusiastic about, and willing to engage with, the state," he said. "If turnout numbers are continuously falling, then you have legitimacy issues."

McDowell didn't believe the spy attack in the U.K. would factor in the lead-up to the vote on Sunday, saying Putin was unlikely to mention it.

The Russian embassy in London issued a statement Wednesday, following May's announcement, saying, "We consider this hostile action as totally unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted. All the responsibility for the deterioration of the U.K.-Russia relationship lies with the current political leadership of Britain."United Airlines is embroiled yet in another public-relations fiasco when a passenger's dog died after it was stowed in an overhead bin. The dog's owner said a flight attendant insisted the bag, which contained the black French bulldog, be stowed in an overhead bin. An airline spokeswoman said the flight attendant didn't hear or understand the woman that the dog, named Kokito, was in the bag, calling the puppy's death "a tragic accident." Now, the airline is once again playing defense against a backlash on social media, where consumers called to #boycottunited. The puppy's on-board death is the latest in a string of fiascoes that began last April when passenger David Dao was violently dragged off a regional jet serving a United route to make room for commuting crew. The video of the bloodied passenger circulated worldwide.

Animal issues

The death of the French bulldog struck a nerve with the public. Some wrote that animals don't belong in airplane cabins and others called United heartless for allowing the incident to happen. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals weighed in, saying "it is up to each of us to keep our companion animals safe" and that "no trip is that important" as to endanger an animal. The Department of Transportation said its investigating the incident and is in touch with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act. United transports more animals than any other U.S. carrier. Last year, it transported 138,178 animals. Eighteen of them died and 13 were injured, an animal incident rate of 2.24 per 10,000 animals, higher than other carriers. Twenty-four animals transported by U.S. carriers died in total. Those figures do not include animals carried in the cabin and several of the deaths were due to pre-existing conditions, a United spokesman said. The airline's passenger pet problems didn't end with the death of the French bulldog on Monday. A United customer on Wednesday said the airline flew her 10-year-old German shepherd to Japan instead of Kansas City, Missouri.

A new kind of challenge

The social media disaster is a relatively new kind of scar for United as it is for competing airlines that have confronted the viral posts of in-cabin conflicts. It comes at a time when airlines have posted a steady stream of profits, a shift from years of boom-and-bust cycles that resulted in a decade of megamergers among them. The industry even won over Warren Buffett, who shunned airline investments for years after a bet on US Airways soured. Berkshire Hathaway is now among the top shareholders in each of the four major U.S. airlines. The large mergers (United combined with Continental Airlines in 2010) and a plunge in fuel prices in mid-2014 has helped fuel record profits. U.S. passenger airlines are enjoying their longest streak of profitability in at least four decades, according to data from Airlines for America, an industry group. United Continental Holdings, the airline's parent, just posted its fifth-consecutive year of profits. But profitability clearly doesn't prevent such disasters as Kokito's death. And the sheer size that airlines have grown to doesn't help them avoid such nightmares, said Samuel Engel, who heads the aviation group at consulting firm ICF. "First, you have a workforce that is dispersed across the globe and often unsupervised. Second, you need to balance giving employees rules to follow while allowing them enough personal discretion to be human beings with their customers," he said. "It's like a game of telephone: The larger the company, the harder it is to project consistent culture and behavioral norms throughout the organization." The airline has spent nearly a year trying to stop customer service problems from spiraling out of control like the Dao incident. This year, it launched a training program that aims to teach some 30,000 employees about safety, efficiency and caring. Called core4, the program includes role-playing exercises in which employees work out customer service problems and then discuss their approaches. Some employees are skeptical and said the company's emphasis on making sure planes arrive on time reigns supreme. "When there's an issue, management isn't interested in the 'why' of what happened," said a flight attendant who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to media. "You get charged with the infraction and points are added to you file ... period. It's a sad reality now, maybe there's hope that it'll change."

Demands on all sides

These passenger incidents are a challenge for CEO Oscar Munoz, who took the reins after his predecessor Jeff Smisek resigned in September 2015 amid a federal corruption probe. Munoz, who had been tasked with improving the airline's image, had a heart attack and a transplant shortly after taking the role. He returned the following year. Just over a year later, a string of public relations disasters occurred, starting with Dao's dragging last April. Munoz apologized repeatedly after botching an initial mea culpa and was forced to explain overbooking and other airline policies before several, angry lawmakers. United launched more robust customer-service training, which aimed to give front-line employees more power to make decisions on their own, before it followed up with a new course this year. But other passenger incidents arose, many of them amplified on social media. Weeks after the Dao confrontation, a traveler's giant rabbit named Simon died after a United flight from London to Chicago. In August, a Texas family's spaniel died after a lengthy tarmac delay on a trip from Houston to San Francisco.

Labor and Wall Street

These incidents aren't United's only challenges. The airline has had to play defense with Wall Street too, where investors have grown impatient with the company's performance compared with its large peers  American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Delta's shares are up about 19 percent over the last 12 months, and American's have gained about 31 percent. United's are about 3 percent higher over the past year. Investors sent United tumbling stock due to its handling of low-cost competitors last fall and later, balked at an aggressive expansion plan, some fearing an impending fare war. The airline's shares fell around 2.6 percent on Wednesday after the dog incident to close at $70.74. Prices were flat Thursday. The airline also is facing tensions with its own workers. United pilots bristled at the latest expansion plan, fearing the company could outsource additional service to regional airlines, whose pilots and crew are paid less than they are. That came just as pilots and the company are in the early stages of contract negotiations. Earlier this month, United's president, Scott Kirby, said he would shelve a controversial bonus plan after employees expressed outrage. The airline wanted to get rid of bonus program that rewarded employees for meeting certain targets in favor of a lottery system, with bigger prizes but fewer recipients.

Reduced passenger choiceSyngenta Group Co. NK Soybeans are harvested with a Case IH combine harvester near Princeton, Illinois Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

American farmers are worried about possible trade retaliation from China for President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. One U.S. crop sticks out: soybeans. China buys more than half of the U.S. soybean exports and roughly 1 in 3 row of beans grown on the nation's farms goes to the world's second-largest economy, according to the American Soybean Association. Last week, Trump unveiled a 25 percent duty on steel imports and 10 percent charge on aluminum imports, saying the two industries "are vital to our national security." However, that isn't sitting well with farmers in the U.S. heartland because they are well aware China has already warned about possible retaliatory action.

"The Midwest farmers are very concerned that we'll be one of the areas that are retaliated against," said Wendell Shauman, a soybean and corn farmer in Illinois, the nation's top state in soybean production and second largest in corn after Iowa. "We don't know how this will play out. Right now it's a waiting game." Shauman said weak corn prices for four-straight years have meant "the Corn Belt is essentially in a recession. If you took some more markets away from us, it could push us into a depression," he said.

A piglet stands in a pen at a pig farm in Tianjin, China, Feb. 2, 2018. Giulia Marchi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"We're looking for long-term stability, and major markets like China play into that stability in a great way," said Tom Slunecka, CEO of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, which represents the state's soybean growers. "So it could have short-term and long-term implications if we were to lose a major part of that marketplace." According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, soybean exports to China is a $14 billion a year business and most of it is for soy protein to feed roughly 700 million pigs in the country or to make cooking oil. When including other farm-related products, China's total agricultural exports represent more than $21 billion annually for U.S. farmers.

South American competition

"The idea that we're the only game in town, and these partners have no choice but to purchase from the U.S. is flatly wrong," said John Heisdorffer, a farmer from Iowa and president of the American Soybean Association. "Our competition in Brazil and Argentina is eager to capitalize on whatever openings these tariffs create for them in markets like China and elsewhere." The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates Brazil will overtake the United States as the world's largest soybean producer in the coming decade. Together, the U.S. and Brazil represent about 80 percent of the global exports of soybeans. "Soybeans is certainly an area where we do a lot of business with China, and I think they have certainly indicated that they are investigating looking into soybeans as a potential retaliation,'" said Joseph Glauber, a former USDA chief economist and now a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. Then again, Glauber said, the flip side of retaliations are they could inflict pain on China, too. Any action by Beijing would have repercussions for China's importers, crushers and livestock farmers who rely on the soy protein. "I'm sure there's a lot of concern in China over the potential loss of protein meal coming in from the U.S.," he said.

China warning

Last month, a trade official in China's commerce ministry threatened that it would retaliate against possible tariffs and called any such levy foolish. "The spectrum of national security is very broad and without a clear definition it could easily be abused," said Wang Hejun. "If the final decision from the U.S. hurts China's interests, we will certainly take necessary measures to protect our legitimate rights," Wang added. In fact, China took trade action against some U.S. agricultural products last year, including anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on U.S. imports of distillers' dried grains, a corn-based ethanol byproduct used for animal feed. Then, earlier this month the ministry announced an anti-dumping probe into U.S. imports of sorghum, a cereal grain used mostly for feed and ethanol. The Chinese investigation is seen as largely a warning to the Trump administration but it could lead to tariffs and could hurt sorghum-producing states, particularly Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Trump base

If agriculture gets hit with trade retaliation, Trump also risks hurting his support in farm belt states and in the GOP, according to analysts. Last week, Iowa and Nebraska congressional delegations sent letters to Trump asking him to reconsider the tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, expressing alarm about possible retaliatory measures. At the same time, national farm groups have voiced concerns to the Trump administration and Congress. A spokesman for the nation's largest agricultural group, the American Farm Bureau Federation, said more than 70 percent of U.S. agricultural exports last year were made to trade partners that sell the most steel to the U.S., and more than half were to trade partners that sell the most aluminum to the U.S. "We're hoping for a good outcome that whatever tariffs may or may not be leveled, we're not going to be bearing the brunt of it from countries that just want tariffs on their own goods," said Will Rodger, the farm bureau's spokesman.

NAFTA risk

Soybean futuresChina is prepared for a trade war with the United States, but the U.S should consider the costs of starting one, an expert on U.S.-China relations said Thursday.

Robert Ross, a professor of political science at Boston College, told CNBC: "The Chinese have made it clear: 'You want a trade war? We're prepared.' And they are. Because of course they have a very large market and a very robust economy."

In fact, nationalistic state media outlet Global Times said in a Wednesday op-ed that China should be ready for a "looming trade war."

"Beijing needs to give Washington head-on blows in a similar manner and must not be soft," the op-ed said.

It's worth considering the possible fallout for Americans and U.S. companies operating in China, if there is a trade war, he said.

"We should remember two things. One, Chinese exports to the United States improve the American standard of living by selling less expensive goods to United States that we benefit from  and we don't make those goods anymore."

"Second, there are an awful lot of American companies that are making large sums of profits inside China, whether it's Apple, whether it's Buick, whether it's other American companies," he told CNBC's "The Rundown."

"One should be cautious before we say this is a one-way street," Ross said of the economic relationship between the U.S. and China.

Reports on Tuesday said President Donald Trump's administration is considering a trade package including tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese goods, which may target the tech and telecommunications sectors  among others  in China.

Ross also pointed out that the trade deficit with China  at a record $276 billion last year  is a result primarily of economic factors instead of policy issues.

"The Chinese have a very high savings rate, the Americans have a very low savings rate. We consume more than they do, we're going to have a trade deficit. Now, do you fix that through policy? Do you fix that through trade wars? Highly highly debatable."

Larry Kudlow, who Trump has tapped to be his new chief economic advisor, also had harsh words for Beijing on Wednesday, calling for a "coalition of large trading partners and allies against China."

But Ross said such a coalition was unlikely.

"The Europeans are constantly tripping over each other to get advantages in China. And to think they would fall behind the United States and impose sanctions that would put at risk their own economic growth  I don't think that's probable at all."

Furthermore, if China becomes a trade adversary, it does not portend well for any U.S. talks with North Korea on denuclearization, he said.

"It becomes a lot more difficult to ask for Chinese cooperation on something we care about when we are treating them like a trade adversary," Ross said, predicting that Chinese cooperation and interest in the North Korea problem would diminish.When it came time to renovate his outdated private jet, a billionaire stock trader had his Gulfstream 550 gutted and transformed to look like his Manhattan office  complete with a 42-inch TV and an $85,000 custom trading desk with dual monitors. You can see the $25 million aircraft's complete transformation on a new episode of CNBC's "Secret Lives of the Super Rich."

International Jet Interiors

"Our client [is] able to trade in real time, from his desk in the sky, at lightning speed," says Eric Roth, president of International Jet Interiors in Ronkonkoma, New York, which revamped the plane. Lightning-speed trading can occur midflight because the Wall Street executive had Roth install special satellite communications hardware for high-speed Internet. But it didn't come cheap: Roth tells "Secret Lives of the Super Rich" the client spent $100,000 for the equipment.

CNBC

"At 40,000 feet you're trading stocks. You're not missing a moment of productivity," Roth says. But it's not all about work. For example, the custom Italian leather seats were inspired by a coat the financier's wife bought during a trip to Milan, Italy.

CNBC

"She just loved the color and they asked us to duplicate the color of the coat for the seats," Roth explains. "These chairs are probably about $45,000 each and there's five of them."

CNBC

And when the busy Wall Street exec wants to take a break from stock trading, he can relax in his G5's refurbished lounge area with the big-screen TV.

CNBC

For overnight flights, there's even a king-size bed on board.[The stream is slated to start at 2:30 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

Press secretary Sarah Sanders is scheduled to brief reporters at the White House on Thursday.

It will be Sanders' first opportunity to field questions from the media after the Trump administration made multiple high-level staff changes.

On Wednesday, the White House confirmed Larry Kudlow will be the next director of President Donald Trump's National Economic Council.

Kudlow, an economist and longtime CNBC pundit, was an informal advisor to Trump during the campaign. He replaces Gary Cohn, who resigned shortly after Trump announced broad tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum in early March.

Thursday's briefing will also be the first time Sanders faces reporters since the Tuesday firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson had been a target of Trump's ire for much of his tenure. In July, Tillerson reportedly called Trump a "moron" after a meeting; in October, Trump admonished Tillerson on Twitter for "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea on nuclear weapons.

News reports also revealed on Tuesday that Trump's personal assistant, John McEntee, was fired and escorted from the White House this week. McEntee is reportedly under investigation by the Secret Service for financial crimes.

Meanwhile, Democratic congressional hopeful Conor Lamb was projected the apparent winner of a Pennsylvania special election in a district Trump won by 20 points during the 2016 presidential race. Many pundits consider the upset to be a warning sign for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, though some GOP leaders have downplayed the implications of Tuesday's outcome.The tariff talk out of Washington is not an escalation of a trade war, it is about correcting lopsided policies, said Larry Lindsey, who served a top economic advisor to President George W. Bush.

President Donald Trump recently announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum.

And on Tuesday, a source told CNBC the White House is considering a trade package including indefinite tariffs, investment restrictions and possible visa restrictions on Chinese travelers in response to China's alleged intellectual property theft.

"We don't have free trade. We have rigged trade," Lindsey said on CNBC's "Power Lunch" Thursday.

China, in particular, manipulates "all the rules," including "stealing our intellectual property here through corporate espionage," added Lindsey, who served as director of the National Economic Council under Bush.

"We have to have some balance here. I really don't think any reasonable person thinks China is playing fair."

Larry Kudlow, who was just appointed by Trump to replace Gary Cohn as director of the NEC, is a longtime advocate of free trade. While he initially criticized Trump's tariff decision, he told CNBC on Wednesday he softened his position when he saw that the White House offered Canada and Mexico exemptions, as well as other countries willing to negotiate more U.S.friendly trade positions.

However, he said, China has earned a tough response.

"A thought that I have is the United States could lead a coalition of large trading partners and allies against China, or to let China know that they're breaking the rules left and right," Kudlow said on "Closing Bell."Kim Jong Un KCNA | Reuters

Kim Jong Un is a "smart cookie," President Donald Trump said of North Korea's leader in April 2017. Smart enough, it seems, to merit a face-to-face meeting. President Trump's acceptance of Kim's invitation to discuss North Korean denuclearization is a stunning move that some have greeted as a potential breakthrough and others have decried as a massive risk. If he does indeed meet with Kim, Trump will need to understand what makes the North Korean leader tick. Finding the answer to this vital question will require figuring out how the North Korean leader sees the world. Although Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader, he will be far from the first president to try to understand a foreign statesperson. As was the case with figures such as Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Nikita Khrushchev, figuring out a dangerous international interlocutor is once again an urgent national security challenge. Are there lessons from the past that can help President Trump as he prepares to meet Kim?

Lessons of the past

In the spring of 1943, the director of the first centralized U.S. intelligence agency, Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan, sought help in understanding Hitler. Donovan wanted to give President Franklin D. Roosevelt a sense of "the things that make him tick." Donovan called Walter C. Langer, a psychoanalyst helping with the war effort, in for a meeting, and asked: "What do you make of Hitler? If Hitler is running the show, what kind of a person is he? What are his ambitions?" Langer combined the scant intelligence on Hitler with insights from Freudian psychoanalysis into a study on Hitler. He accurately predicted that Hitler would commit suicide rather than be captured by Allied forces. But his insight was largely irrelevant to the military strategy for defeating Germany. The report took so long to produce that the war was nearly over by the time it was delivered to Donovan. Reuters More recently, the former top U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer and I studied what made former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein tick. For several years, Duelfer was the senior point of contact between Iraq and the U.S. After the regime fell, he produced the definitive report on its weapon program. Looking for logic in Saddam's decisions, we found instead a morass of idiosyncratic thinking. Most astonishing was his misreading of President George W. Bush's June 2002 speech to the West Point Military Academy. Intending to warn Saddam that he must comply with U.N. demands or face war, Bush struck a stern tone. The "gravest danger to freedom," he said, was "unbalanced dictators with weapons of mass destruction." Later in the speech, Bush praised President Ronald Reagan for standing up to "the brutality of tyrants." What Bush said and what Saddam heard were two very different things. Saddam did not see himself as unbalanced, and he knew that he did not have weapons of mass destruction. And U.S.-Iraq relations had been excellent under President Reagan, Saddam recalled. The United States had tilted toward his side during the Iran-Iraq war. Things started to deteriorate only under the Bushes, in his view. Our analysis showed that Saddam believed Bush could not have been talking about him. Instead, Saddam concluded he must have been threatening North Korea, not Iraq. Kim Jong Il, father of Kim Jong Un, possessed the nuclear weapons that the Iraqi president desired but did not have. Bush was dumbfounded by the lack of Saddam's response to his threats. Later he asked, "How much clearer could I have been?" Duelfer and I had the academic luxury of malleable deadlines in studying Saddam. Langer spent many months on his Hitler study. Scholarship on Kim Jong Un may be too slow for the current crisis. Major American decision-makers may instead need to rely on their intuition.

Empathize with your enemy

Former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara spoke about intuition in a 2003 documentary about his role in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. McNamara revealed crucial new details about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had smuggled nuclear missiles into Cuba, threatening 90 million Americans. President John F. Kennedy's first reaction was that he must destroy them with a massive air strike. This would have courted war with the USSR. Seeking the widest possible range of advice, Kennedy asked Llewellyn "Tommy" Thompson, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, to supplement his foreign policy team during the crisis. Thompson had come to know Khrushchev well and had stayed at his house in Moscow. "Mr. President, you're wrong," McNamara recalls Thompson saying of the air strike plans. "I think Khrushchev's gotten himself in one hell of a fix." The former ambassador knew that Khrushchev could be impulsive and later regretful. He imagined a terrified Khrushchev, in awe of the events he had set in motion. Thompson suggested that Kennedy help the Soviet leader find his way out of the crisis. Kennedy decided on a naval blockade rather than an air strike, and Khrushchev backed down. The lesson McNamara drew? Empathize with your enemy, and intuit how the world looks to them. "We must try to put ourselves in their skin, and look at ourselves through their eyes," he said. Turning to today's crisis, Trump will have to reckon with several uncomfortable facts. The Kim dynasty has invested decades of effort in their pursuit of nuclear weapons; it is unlikely that they will negotiate them away. Further, Trump must recognize that by meeting with Kim, he is giving the North Koreans something they have long sought: to be dealt with as diplomatic equals. With the president's dearest hope off the table, and with the meeting itself already representing a win for the North Koreans, what is it that Trump can realistically expect to gain from talks? He and his staff will have to think about how they might cajole and persuade Kim to agree to things the U.S. values, such as a permanent freeze on further missile and nuclear tests. History tells us that to influence Kim, we must empathize (note: not sympathize) with him. If the meeting is to be a success, Trump and his advisers must first understand how we look to the North Korean leader, peering at us from his very particular vantage point.Seventeen Senate Democrats joined with every Republican in voting to roll back some bank rules.

Many of those Democrats did so as they push for political survival.

The Senate voted 67 to 31 on Wednesday to ease regulations on all but the largest banks, in what would become the biggest rewrite of financial laws since the Dodd-Frank reform act passed after the global financial crisis. The legislation would raise the level at which banks are considered "systemically important" and exempts smaller banks from other rules aiming to curb risky behavior.

Critics objected to a provision raising the threshold for an institution to be considered "too big to fail" to $250 billion in assets from $50 billion in assets, arguing it opens taxpayers up to more potential liability should a mid-sized institution fail. Under the bill, the entities below $250 billion in assets would no longer have to go through a "stress test" to prove they can survive a crisis. Some Democrats also criticized a provision related to mortgage data that they say will make it harder for the government to target discriminatory or predatory lenders.

It is unclear if the GOP-majority House will seek to pass the legislation or a more drastic rollback of bank rules that Senate Democrats would be reluctant to support.

The bank legislation left Democrats balancing competing concerns as they battle for control of Congress in November. Some members of the party have long argued smaller banks and lenders in rural areas should face fewer restrictions. Several Senate Democrats like Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota face re-election in November in states President Donald Trump won in 2016 and have tried to create an appearance of supporting bipartisan or moderate policies.Twenty to 25 percent of Americans wait until the last 14 days before the deadline to prepare their tax returns.

This year, you don't have to file your state and federal income taxes until April 17. That doesn't you mean should procrastinate. If you wait until the last minute, you could run into headaches, expenses and other problems. Here are some of them.

1.) You'll have less time to come up with any money owed

"A lot of people are blindsided by their tax bill," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. If you wait too long to file your taxes, he said: "You're short-changing yourself on time." The sooner you file, the sooner you'll know if and how much you owe the government. That knowledge can help you plan to save for the bill and reduce the likelihood that you'll need to take out a loan or use a credit card to cover it.

2.) You increase your risk of tax identity theft

Tax returns in which someone uses a stolen Social Security number to file continues to be a problem. Try to get your return in before a thief pretending to be you does. "People who are trying to scam the system are getting their fake returns in very early," said Martin Davidoff, a certified public accountant and tax attorney based in Dayton, New Jersey. "Getting it in earlier is a defense against identity theft."

3.) You leave more room for errors

If you wait until the final days (or hours) to work on your taxes, you might have to frantically hunt down 1099s or call a relative to ask the cost basis on stocks they gave you. Instead, give yourself enough time to research what documents you'll need and to gather them. Ideally, tax filers should step away from their returns upon completion, then reassess, said April Walker, lead manager for tax practice and ethics at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "It's human nature," Walker said. "It's easier to see blatant errors once you've put it down and look at it later." Even technical issues like a computer failure (or realizing that your information is on a laptop you left at work) could increase your chances of making mistakes. "If you run into a glitch at the last minute, there's just not enough time to remedy the situation which may result in your return getting filed late," Walker said.

4.) You'll receive less attention from your preparer

Weekend Images Inc. | Getty ImagesThe leaders of France, Germany, Britain and the United States issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning a chemical attack on a Russian former double agent in England and blaming Moscow for it.

Moscow has denied any responsibility for the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Britain has expelled 23 Russian diplomats, and Moscow is expected to retaliate.

"We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, U.K., on 4 March 2018," the statement said.Offered an opportunity to behave like a statesman and put to bed suggestions that hes in sympathy with the Kremlin, Jeremy Corbyns response to the Skripal poisoning has once again managed to expose deep divisions between himself and his MPs.

Below is a list of those Labour MPs we can find taking a different line to their leader on the Russian issue,

John Woodcock

This is a day for the House to speak as one for the nation. The Prime Minister will be reassured to hear that a clear majority of Labour MPs, alongside the leaders of every other party, support her firm stance. (Source: Hansard)

Ben Bradshaw

Jeremy has a long and honourable record campaigning against chemical weapons, so is in a good position to show real leadership. His response was undermined, however, by appearing to dodge the question of culpability. That omission was made worse by his press spokesman later. (Source: The Times)

Chris Bryant

So far today Ive been called a degenerate, a dimwit, an idiot, cretin, poof, shirtlifter, warmonger, fascist, communist, murderer and f****ing tawt (sic). All because Ive been calling out Putins kleptocratic murdering regime. (Source: The Sun)

Mike Gapes

I understand that Jeremy Corbyns spokesman Seumas Milne has claimed there is no proof that Russia is behind the nerve gas attack in Salisbury. Well Seumas has form on these matters. (Source: Twitter)

Anna Turley

Im afraid Seumas doesnt speak for my Labour or British values. (Source: Twitter)

Nia Griffith

We very much accept what the prime minister said, this is a very sophisticated nerve agent, and that Russia is responsible for this attack. (Source: Huffington Post)

Pat McFadden

Responding with strength and resolve when your country is under threat is an essential component of political leadership. There is a Labour tradition that understands that. (Source: Hansard)

Vernon Coaker

As a strong advocate for the defence and security of our country, I am another one who supports the Prime Ministers statement today. (Source: Hansard)

Yvette Cooper

In addition to its breaches of international law, its use of chemical weapons and its continued disregard for the rule of law and human rights, that must be met with unequivocal condemnation. May I welcome the measures she has taken to downgrade the intelligence capability of the Russian state, and particularly the work that I understand has started with the United Nations? (Source: Hansard)

Hilary Benn

As Russia has chosen to act against us in such an outrageous way, we have to demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves. (Source: Hansard)

There are too many Labour MPs ignoring their leaders official line on this issue to quote them all. Others include: Ian Austin; Stella Creasy; Chukka Umunna; Stephen Doughty; Stephen Kinnock; Wes Streeting; Ann Coffey; Toby Perkins; Adrian Bailey; Ruth Smeeth; Chris Evans; Jim Fitzpatrick; Neil Coyle; Alison McGovern; Chris Leslie; Liz Kendall; Dame Margaret Hodge; Derek Twigg; Luciana Berger; Madeleine Moon; Phil Wilson; Emma Reynolds; Tony Lloyd; David Hanson; Diana Johnson; and Paul Sweeney.We must have the capability

And, if we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury.

Security authorities have compelling evidence to show Russia was involved in the attempted 2016 coup in Montenegro, just prior to that countrys joining NATO.

Meanwhile, Russia is also using its operatives insidiously to interfere in the political processes of other nations.

In Syria, were seeing a humanitarian crisis where Russia is using private military companies such as the Wagner Group to reduce their liability and limit criticism on the world stage.

But Russia is capable of much more. It is already increasingly using proxies to undermine sovereign states. Its involvement in the Ukraine conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives.

Last year Russias military intelligence organisation directed the NotPetya ransomware activity. Overwhelming systems in Ukraine from its power grid to its postal service and causing hundreds of millions of pounds of damage to companies around the world including here in the UK

What is also clear is that the Kremlin is ripping up the international rule book. Using its growing hybrid capabilities to subvert, undermine, and influence countries around the world. Its cyber operations are active and brazen. It uses social media to muddy the waters and spread confusion.

At a time when its economy is under pressure, it is still prioritising military expenditure, investing in highly capable equipment across all domains including long-range surface to air missiles, T-90 tanks, new advanced submarines, long-range precision strike systems and ISKANDER ballistic missiles, a new range of BLACKJACK strategic bombers and the new nuclear systems President Putin recently boasted about in his state of the nation address.

And then there is Russia.

North Korea has demonstrated an active global cyber capability while its nuclear actions are destabilising the international order, flouting decades worth of non-proliferation treaties.

Irans proxy military presence in Iraq, Syria and Yemen is well known.

China is pushing for superpower status, restructuring the Peoples Liberation Army, pushing towards the Indian Ocean and employing sharp power including military, media and economic pressure against any challenger.

And state-based dangers are increasing. Back in 2010 we did not believe they posed us a credible threat. With the benefit of hindsight, this can, at best, be described as naive.

When it comes to non-state actors were seeing a generational shift with terrorist organisations able to access increasingly sophisticated weapons.

Continuing to deliver for the Armed Forces is imperative  especially in a world where the threats are growing.

I want to thank each and every one of them for the dedication and commitment they have shown our nation.

In the last few weeks alone our forces have provided vital assistance in the wake of Storm Emma and are using their expertise to assist the ongoing criminal investigation following the horrific attack in Salisbury.

Beneath the waves our nuclear submarines go undetected, our submariners on patrol every day of every year providing our ultimate defence against the most deadly dangers to our way of life

Our sailors are countering international piracy, policing our waters and securing safe passage for the ships that support our global trade.

Our soldiers stand sentinel with our NATO Allies in Estonia and Poland to deter this threat. We are strengthening the security of Afghanistan and, in South Sudan, helping establish stability and giving democracy the chance to grow and flourish.

Today, our Armed Forces continue to uphold this proud British tradition. They are keeping us safe across the world. Our pilots are destroying terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria and policing Eastern European skies against an increasing threat from Russia.

Our armed forces are still delivering for us today

The United Kingdom has a proud history on the world stage. We helped defeat tyranny in two world wars and communism in the Cold War. We have shielded the most vulnerable from Kosovo to Sierra Leone. We helped liberate millions from the shackles of oppression and exported democracy, tolerance and justice around the world. In the process, Britain alongside our allies ushered in a period of peace and prosperity across our continent unparalleled in its history

But against this backdrop of threats, we shouldnt forget that our Armed Forces remain truly world class and we are giving them the capabilities to respond.

For example, we know the chemical threat doesnt just come from Russia but from other actors so were evolving the capability to meet that danger.

I made the decision to offer the anthrax vaccine to our forces at the highest readiness providing them with vital protection against a deadly danger

And today I can announce we are building on our world class expertise at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down.

We are investing 48 million in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence.

Weve brought together Defences world-renowned explosive ordnance expertise with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialists.

And we are continuing to invest and explore new ways and new capabilities to deal with this threat.

More broadly, our Armed Forces are internationally recognised as having an almost matchless combination of capability and experience, able to field a well-equipped Army division, with armoured brigades, strike brigades, and an air assault brigade, able to project power at distance through an expeditionary air group, based on the state-of-of the-art Typhoon and the new F35 Lightning II that will soon embark on our new aircraft carriers.

Those carriers, in turn, will form part of a hard-hitting maritime task group including modern destroyers, frigates, submarines and commando forces.

All this plus the worlds best Special Forces and some of the most advanced intelligence gathering and analytical capabilities in the Alliance.

These are all the hallmarks of a serious military nation: able to conduct first night, first strike attacks with the technology to go into contested air, sea or land space to project power at range from the UK and make a major contribution to deterring threats not just in the Euro-Atlantic area but across the globe.

Many of these forces are on operations and missions today, we are making a major contribution to the campaign that has crippled Daesh, where we have helped to train over 60,000 Iraqi Security Forces, seen the first UK use of offensive cyber in combat and our airforce is operating at an intensity not seen in more than 25 years

Were training the Afghan and Nigerian security forces and even the US Marine Corps.

And this month we have deployed HMS Trenchant to the Arctic with the US Navy on ICEX 2018  confirming our ability to operate under the ice.

Our operational experience and prowess is the reason the UK has played an important leadership role in NATO since its formation.

The reason we lead a range of international divisions and operations right around the globe.

And the reason were the preferred operational partner for other top tier Western militaries, particularly the US and France who also acknowledge they too must modernise to stay ahead of our adversaries.

The Governments response

But, after a long period of relative peace, threats are increasing again.

So we have arrived at a profound moment in our history.

A crossroads where the choice before us as a nation is simple.

To sit back and let events overtake us.

Or step forward.

Seizing the moment, as we leave the European Union, to shape our vision for a bolder, more prosperous Britain.

A Britain proud of its past and confident of its future.

A Britain ready to reassert its right to do global good in a dangerous and unpredictable world.

A Britain able to protect our security and prosperity at home and abroad

After all, our Armed Forces are the face of Global Britain, enhancing our international reputation, epitomising everything that is great about our nation.

We talk about soft power and we must acknowledge the amazing work of the Foreign Office and DFID, but also of business and organisations like the British Council, in promoting Britains values around the world.

Our Armed Forces work with them delivering aid in the wake of Hurricane Irma minesweeping in the Gulf and bringing medical support to fight Ebola in West Africa.

But lets be clear soft power only works because hard power stands behind it.

And thats what our Armed Forces deliver and why they are so important to our future.

Thats why this is our moment to retain our competitive advantage and invest in hard power capabilities

Modernising Defence Programme

And that is why we have launched our Modernising Defence Programme.

It will make sure our country can respond to the changing character of warfare and can deter and, if necessary, contest the new threats we face to British interests demonstrating to potential adversaries that their efforts to harm the UK are futile and not worth the costs they will incur.

So our Modernising Defence Programme will give us a more productive, more lethal, harder-hitting Joint Force able to counter conventional threats and deal with the new challenges of asymmetric conflict. Building on our existing plans for the future of our Armed Forces.

It will balance routine every day capabilities vital to fulfilling day-to-day tasks with highly sophisticated new equipment, using technology and different approaches to counter the full range of threats to our security and to be able to operate freely in all five domains, land, sea, air, space and cyber

It will prioritise game-changing technologies giving our service personnel the edge in combat.

In practice this will mean taking our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability to the next level, hoovering up information from beneath the waves, from space, from across the increasingly important electro-magnetic spectrum finding out what our enemies are doing in high-definition and providing artificial intelligence  enabling analysis that can stay ahead in a fast-moving world

It will mean accelerating the development of our innovative 77 Brigade  those reservists and regulars who give us the ability to win the information war  so we create and counter the narratives so central to modern conflict

It will mean investing in new more advanced and more capable armoured vehicles, more drones as well as stealth fighters and state-of-the-art anti-submarine ships in new autonomous systems  in areas like mine hunting  to enhance the protection we can provide to the Royal Navy and our NATO allies and in offensive cyber developing our capability, working in partnership with GCHQ.

Today I can announce we will be spending almost 4million with Thales and General Dynamics Land Systems-UK to deliver the Ajax Shot Detection System which can sense enemy gunfire and protect troops using our next generation armoured vehicles.

But well be going further developing and embedding new approaches to warfighting protecting and enhancing our information networks to give our commanders the edge over our adversaries and pursuing technological big bets in big data, artificial intelligence and novel weapons.

All the while building innovation and risk tolerance into our thinking, planning and operating.

So thats my vision:

A modernised force.

Fit for the future.

Delivering the hard power to complement Britains soft power.

Strong, balanced and innovative Armed Forces, equipped with cutting edge capabilities.

Operating confidently in the new domains of warfare.

Preparing us for the unpredictable.

Keeping British citizens safe wherever they are.

Fulfilling our global ambitions and defending Britains national interests.

Our Modernising Defence Programme will make sure we continue leading in NATO.

Continue to be a capable and reliable contributor to missions led by close allies and partners but just as importantly continue to act independently or, lead multinational missions when the need arises.

And this weekend I will be attending a major exercise of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force  bringing together the capabilities of nine nations that allow us to respond more rapidly and pack a more powerful punch in times of crisis.

Stronger partnerships with industry

Our Modernising Defence Programme is also about our prosperity.

You cannot have prosperity without security.

What better illustration of that fact than our iconic hosts in Filton today  Rolls Royce.

The very embodiment of cutting edge, world leading technology, one of our largest suppliers of defence aerospace engines, and a driver of local economic growth, as an employer of more than 22,000 people across the UK.

Together with thousands of other brilliant British businesses they form an industry supporting one in every two hundred jobs in the UK and providing high-quality training and apprenticeships that in just over a decade generated more than 73 billion in exports.

Our Modernising Defence Programme will support the growth and competitiveness of the defence sector, helping to create and sustain jobs by transforming our partnership with industry.

It will allow us to deliver cutting-edge capability more effectively bring more small and medium sized enterprises into the supply chain encourage greater innovation and deliver long-term value whilst we drive a harder bargain for the goods and services we buy.

Since strong defence underpins our nations prosperity, I have invited Philip Dunne to conduct a review to help demonstrate it is far more than an insurance policy, its an investment in jobs at home and exports abroad.

He understands this sector extremely well and also brings an important independent perspective.

Summary on MDP

This work on the Modernising Defence Programme, delivering the right capabilities for our Armed Forces, making sure we remain a leading voice on the world stage, supporting economic growth and creating a stronger and more strategic partnership with industry will be substantially completed by the time of the NATO Summit in July, at which point we will be in a position to share some headline conclusions

I will be saying more in the weeks ahead about my vision for the Armed Forces we want to create.

I hope to engage with many of you between now and then, and would encourage you to take part in our public consultation.

Conclusion

But lets be clear  after 1990, we believed the world was going to become a safer and better place with every year that passed.

Just as we have believed there would be only one superpower.

But, as we have seen increasingly clearly over the last few years, the reality is rapidly changing.

In every continent of the world there are not just extremists but states willing to undermine our values, ideas, and everything we stand for.

To deal with this challenge we need to ensure that soft power has the hard power to back it up.

As we take a new approach to Defence in a post-Brexit world we must work harder to explain why it matters to the nation.

When I visited the Parachute Regiment recently I was told something thats stuck with me:

Knowledge dispels fear.

So lets not give into the demons of doubt.

Instead let us be confident.

Let us be determined.

And let us be resolute in our belief that, by using all our power, hard and soft, Britain will continue bringing light to a darkening world.Rory Geoghegan is Head of Criminal Justice at the Centre for Social Justice.

It was International Womens Day last week. But for many of the countrys most vulnerable women the day passed completely unnoticed. For those caught up in lives that all too often feature violence, abuse, poor physical and mental health, an addiction to crack and heroin, and the resultant life of crime that comes with it, last week was just as bad as any other.

These women rarely get a voice. This is a plea to the current Government and successive governments to take a bold stand against the intergenerational replication of both poverty and crime, by tackling the huge social ills that come from failing to help free vulnerable women from the revolving door of crime.

Brexit, spies and nerve agents are of course dominating the political and media agendas. But the issue of vulnerable female offenders is one that just a little latitude and a little cross-government support could make a huge difference to. Its an area of social policy that successive governments have too often simply booted into the long grass.

Female offenders represent a group of people who are often the product of truly dreadful upbringings  it doesnt excuse their offending, but it can help explain it and, crucially, how to break the cycle. The evidence base tells us that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) play a striking role in shaping men and women alike as they move into adolescence and adulthood.

That drug-addicted, rake thin, grubby-looking woman sitting in the shop doorway, or standing on the corner of a poorly-lit backstreet waiting for the next punter, is not the sole author of her existence. Being beaten, half-killed, and worse, comes  with so many other miseries  as the by-product of both poor choices but also the brute luck of who you find yourself born to.

The 4,000 women currently in prisons across England and Wales today are  like the men in prison  a mixed bag. Many rightly and justly deserve to be there  they pose a threat to the public or have committed offences of such seriousness or with such persistence as to merit a prison sentence, irrespective of what their childhood may have involved. This isnt an abolitionist plea to simply let all the women out.

Rather, this is a sober plea for Government  and Parliament  to build on what we know works, without jeopardising public safety. Indeed  done right  our proposals would help tackle the root causes and improve public safety, for this generation and the next.

So, our proposals in A Woman-Centred Approach  a new report, launched yesterday with Dr Phillip Lee, Minister for Female Offenders  describe how successive governments have offered rhetoric on the rehabilitation of vulnerable female offenders, but done little to empower local police, probation and community-based Womens Centres and other services to ensure that alongside any criminal justice process, the root causes of offending get tackled.

This Government has allocated 1 million to the roll-out of five Whole System Approach projects across the country, with the goal of helping achieve what we all seek. This is to be welcomed. However, the Governments forthcoming Female Offender Strategy can and should go further, and there is appetite across the landscape to do so.

The Government can build on two major, and largely successful, reforms of recent times: local Police and Crime Commissioners and Universal Credit.

Firstly, Government should suspend plans to build a number of poorly-defined Community Prisons for Women and instead plough the funds  totalling up to 50 million  into a Criminal Justice Transformation Fund. Police and Crime Commissioners, working with local services like local Womens Centres, can bid to secure capital funding to build capacity and resilience to address these vulnerable women and the drivers of their offending.

Secondly, Government should recognise that tackling recidivism will require more than the Ministry of Justice alone can offer. Thats why we challenge them to recognise that work isnt just the best way out of poverty, it can be the best way out of crime, too.

The simple step of transferring the equivalent of Universal Credits Core Allowance for each female prisoner into the same fund, would generate a further 15 million of programme funding for the Transformation Fund.

This is one set of policies that has the support of the public, with polling showing 86 per cent support the idea of local Womens Centres addressing the root causes of crime coupled with Community Payback.

And in an exclusive CSJ poll of Police and Crime Commissioners, we found 93 per cent want the Government to give them more responsibility for female offenders. Furthermore, Police and Crime Commissioners including Julia Mulligan in North Yorkshire, Katy Bourne in Sussex, and David Lloyd in Hertfordshire having already endorsed the report.

It would be a mistake for a Government concerned about frying other big fish to write off the issue of vulnerable female offenders as the political equivalent of a minnow. Rather, the Governments approach to vulnerable female offenders should be seen as the litmus test for its commitment to real social justice and equality of opportunity.

Finally, for those who might still fail to grasp the significance of vulnerable female offenders, consider for a moment the next generation. Who do you think are the mothers of so many children taken into care, children excluded from school, or children who themselves go on to live a life of poverty and crime? Female offenders and those at risk of offending must therefore feature in any serious attempt to tackle poverty and crime in Britain today.Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South-East England, and a journalist, author and broadcaster. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit.

I keep trying to move on from Brexit. Twenty-seven years is more than enough time to spend on any issue, whatever its importance. But, just at the moment that the question should have been definitively settled, everyone else is becoming obsessed with it.

Everything  everything  is seen through the prism of the 2016 referendum. The debates we ought to be having about regulation, tax, agriculture, fisheries, regional policy, public spending and the rest are cribbed, cabined, confined by the parameters of Brexit. The argument about where to draw the line between competitiveness and employment rights is measured solely by the yardstick of divergence from EU standards. The issue of farm subsidies is judged, not on its merits, but by whether scrapping the CAP is advantageous. The unexpected budget surplus has not led to a measured debate about the level of public spending, but to a predictable chorus of Wheres our 350 million a week, Brexshit liars?

Some years ago, this website advanced the accurate but at the time countercyclical idea that the real obsessives were not the Eurosceptics, but the Euro-integrationists. Although it had become a lazy journalistic trope to dismiss critics of the EU as swivel-eyed, said ConservativeHome, they had nothing on the Cleggs, Clarkes and Mandelsons. A cartoon depicting the swivel-eyed Europhiles accompanied the piece, and it has been aired several times since.

The past 18 months have vindicated the cartoonist. The guerrilla war waged by Michael Spicer, Bill Cash, Teddy Taylor and Dick Body against successive federalising treaties has nothing on the behaviour of those who are working to overturn the referendum result. I wish I could say that the irreconcilables  David Lammy, Anna Soubry etc  were out on a limb, but a chunk of the country has become almost as fanatical as them. People who couldnt have told you what the Customs Union was last year now insist that staying in it is the single most important issue in politics.

Trade neatly illustrates the distorted nature of our current discourse. Many of those who, before the campaign, were unequivocal free traders are now against global engagement because they regard it as a consequence of Brexit and dislike the Leavers who are pushing the idea. People who spent their pre-referendum lives boasting about the reality-based community now promote ridiculous junk-science scares about US chicken. Conversely, several UKIP types who used to fret about foreign companies buying British assets have become welcome converts to globalisation.

Both sides are to blame for the polarisation. Leavers were slow to reach out after the vote, slow to acknowledge the narrowness of the result, slow to propose moderation. The few who did found no one to engage with on the other side. Here on this site on polling day, I argued for compromise, and I have stuck to that position since, but theres no point in denying that its an exposed and lonely position.

Step away from your screen and youll find that, in the real world, most of the 48 per cent are reasonable and well-intentioned patriots who want what is best for Britain. Sadly, though, their voices have been drowned out by online agitators and a handful of fanatical MPs who are forever in TV studios.

None of this would matter so much if it werent having an impact on the negotiation process. Continuity Remainers are not simply lamenting the result. They are encouraging the EU to offer bad terms in the hope of triggering a second referendum  often with shocking flagrancy. When Michel Barnier welcomed the clarity of Theresa Mays detailed speech on the ideal exit terms last month, Lord Adonis tweeted as follows: Dear M. Barnier, its increasingly likely that the British people will hold a referendum on Mrs Mays Brexit deal & many of us look forward to Britain playing a leading role in the EU long after 2019. In other words, if youre hardline enough, we might just drop the whole idea of Brexit. Alastair Campbell was even more explicit, telling the Irish Taoiseach to Play hardball, Leo.

Its odd to watch Campbell, the spin doctors spin doctor, pursuing a policy that he would surely advise any client against. About the worst look in politics is to be seen to be siding against your own country  especially if you are going out of your way to define a negotiation as confrontational when your government wishes it to be friendly. It is unwise to insult 17.4 million people, to call them old and ignorant and bigoted, to wish for their deaths so as to change the demographic balance. It is unwise to be photographed with the people on the other side of the table. It is unwise, above all, to be seen to be hoping for an economic collapse. Remainers have broken every one of these rules, which is why they would struggle to win a second referendum.

But thats not how it is seen in Brussels. Even now, many Eurocrats believe that, if they make Brexit painful enough, we might drop the whole idea. That, after all, has been their experience with previous referendums in the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Ireland. Their demand that we should accept most of the burdens of membership with no veto rights is not a serious negotiating position. Its not even a serious opening bid. Its an attempt to browbeat us into changing our minds.

Look at the comments underneath this article and youll see what I mean about the debate being stuck in June 2016. Youll be told that Im blaming everyone but Leavers for the failure of the process, that I broke it so I own it, that my lies are catching up with me and blah blah fishcakes. For the avoidance of doubt, I am convinced that Brexit will be a success. The trouble is that, as long as a chunk of our politicians and pundits are set on overturning the referendum, and as long as they keep telling Brussels to hang tough, the EU has little incentive to discuss a mutually beneficial outcome. This makes the process of extrication, if not the eventual outcome, more fraught and costly than it need be.

The notion that we might be worn down is an odd one. I know that people tend to believe what they want, and Brussels officials understandably like to listen to Nick Clegg and Tony Blair and all the others who have so far been unremittingly wrong. But if they think we can be bullied into changing our votes, they really dont understand us at all.Amid all the furore surrounding Russias chemical weapons attack in Salisbury, and the rather less exciting but still important launch of the Spring Statement, Brexit has dropped out of the headlines somewhat in recent days.

That might well be a relief to a populace who largely just want everyone to get on with it, and to politicians who normally have to talk about it every day. Indeed, after recording the latest Moggcast on Monday, Jacob remarked to me his pleasant surprise that we had barely touched on the topic.

Like it or not, however, Brexit is still there, rumbling away, and will no doubt return to centre stage soon. So here is a brief round-up for ConservativeHome readers of the key developments in recent days.

Talks on a transition agreement  the next stage in the process  are underway.

The EU summit next week is the scheduled window to reach an agreement, and allow further progress onto the question of trade. The German Brexit co-ordinator is of the view that a lot of progress has been made in the last couple of days. As readers might recall from the December meeting, the model for all this is slow-slow-rush, by which deals are normally finalised at the last minute (not least to give an impression of being productive).

Theres some movement from the UK

David Davis has said that he could live with the EUs preferred shorter transition period of 21 months to Christmas 2020, rather than the Prime Ministers original estimate of around two years. That might of course place extra pressure on UK administrative systems to be ready in time, but would also help to reassure the many Leavers (including this site) who have deep concerns about the risks of open-ended transition crystallising into endless limbo.

and, in return, from the EU.

Encouragingly, it is reported that Brussels has softened its stance to accept that the UK can negotiate and sign new trade deals during the transition period  an improvement for our trading prospects after we leave, and a sign that EU law will not hold quite the full authority some claimed during the transition. This had been a supposedly immovable red line, something impossible for the allegedly rules-based EU structure to accommodate, and yet here it is, apparently being accepted by Barnier et al after all. Not for the first time, this is a reminder that when the British media, along with various strains of Continuity Remain opinion, get into an almighty flap by taking every statement from the EU as if it were carved into rock tablets, they are making a serious and naive mistake. This is a negotiation, and the EU often bends and disregards all sorts of supposedly immovable rules in order to get on with what it wants to do. British negotiators will want to seal in this permission next week.

Davis is pursuing his national capitals strategy

Another of the EUs myths about itself is that all important things happen in Brussels and Strasbourg, as the members all speak with one voice. This was, we were told, the rationale for all talks taking place in Brussels, and having to go through Barnier and no-one else to get Brexit done. Davis has adopted the analysis that ConservativeHome espoused, which is that the EU institutions and the member states often have different and sometimes competing interests, and that while the Commission naturally held an early dominance of the process, it would be worth talking directly to member states as time went by. There were attempts to prevent this (which hinted that Brussels knew it could be effective), as well as somewhat hysterical claims that it simply could not take place, but the Government called those bluffs and simply went to talk to the relevant national governments.

Newsnight asked Davis about this approach in Bratislava yesterday, and he said that while his team were of course dealing with Barnier, Its the Council that make the decision on what our future partnership will be. Thats the Member States. The Council is made up of Member States. I will be going around talking to them, listening to their concerns, explain what weve got in mind, what we aim to do and understanding what their interests are and their concerns are. So we can incorporate that and make sure that we get the right decision.

just as Selmayrs power-grab in Brussels threatens to shake apart some of the EUs unity.

The EU institutions themselves have been rocked in the last few weeks by a sudden power-grab executed by Martin Selmayr, Junckers extremely ambitious sidekick. The ongoing backlash against his coup combines two dangerous arguments  the criticism of what many see either as a stitch-up combining the worst mix of Brussels cronyism and money (taxpayers, naturally), or alternatively the feeling among other Eurocrats that his success threatens their own ambitions. While backroom deals to advance personal allies are a traditional part of the EUs management culture, this row has become public and bitter to a degree which is quite rare. The full consequences are yet to be seen, but its certainly possible that this could harm the authority of Juncker and the Commission, and thereby free up the member states to get their own way rather more. Played right, that could be good news for the UK.LEEDS, Ontario  Officers of the Leeds Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police educated a driver after the driver performed a stunt while passing a police car on Highway 401 in Leeds County.

On March 4, 2018 at about 2:30 AM officers were on mobile patrol on Highway 401, westbound in Elizabethtown-Kitley Township when a westbound car blew by the cruiser at 159 km/hr. The argumentative driver disagreed with the officer saying it was not possible as he was driving 98.

Turns out 98 MPH = 159 KMH.

The 40 year old Cornwall, Ontario man had his vehicle impounded for 7 days and his drivers licence suspended. A future court date in Brockville was arranged for the man to answer to a stunt driving charge.ALEXANDRIA, Ontario  North Glengarry has named a new CAO/Clerk to replace Don Gagnon who left for a job in Elliot Lake at the end of 2017. Steve Porter has served as interim CAO/Clerk while a full-time replacement was being found.

On Friday, March 2, the Township of North Glengarry had announced Sarah Huskinson as the new CAO/ Clerk.

On behalf of Council, I would like to congratulate Sarah Huskinson and to thank all of the candidates who applied for this position, said North Glengarry Mayor Chris McDonell.

Council knows that Sarah will bring to the CAO/Clerk position the same diligence and excellence in leadership that she has displayed in her position in finance. The Mayor added that Council would also like to thank Mr. Steven Potter for his services as Interim CAO/Clerk, during a productive transition period.

Huskinson joined the Township administration as Deputy Treasurer in December 2017 and was quickly named the new Director of Finance in January.

I am extremely excited for the opportunity to serve as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Township of North Glengarry said Huskinson. I look forward to working in collaboration with Council, Staff, and our community partners, to meet the needs of our residents and to move the Township forward in a positive direction.

The Township of North Glengarry is now searching for a new Director of Finance.CORNWALL, Ontario  A 44-year-old Akwesasne man was arrested on March 15, 2018 and charged with fraud. He was also charged with breach of recognizance for consuming alcohol, as well as breach of undertaking for communicating with his ex-girlfriend, being within 100 meters of her and for failing to keep the peace.

It is alleged on March 2, 2018 the man attended a Brookdale Ave. restaurant and left the restaurant, making no attempt to pay for his meal. It is also alleged on March 15, 2018 the intoxicated man attended his ex-girlfriends residence, despite his conditions, and police were contacted to investigate. He was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing. His name was not released as the conditions stem from domestic incidents and would identify the victim in the matter.

THREATS

CORNWALL, Ontario  James Masson, 42, of Cornwall was arrested on March 14, 2018 and charged with threats. It is alleged on February 28, 2018 the man threatened his probation officer and police were contacted to investigate. On March 14, 2018 the man was taken into custody, charged accordingly and held for a bail hearing.

There were 34 calls for service in the City of Cornwall in the last 24 hours (8 a.m. the previous day to 8 a.m. the day of the release). To see whats happening in your neighbourhood visit our Crime Plot Map @ http://www.cornwallpolice.ca. CCPS reserves the right not to post all calls for service in order to protect the identity of the victims.A new force is set to emerge in the business process outsourcing industry, with private equity firm Capital Square Partners purchasing a 55 percent stake in Greenwood Village, Colo.-based solution provider StarTek.

The deal involves StarTek, No. 80 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500, trading 20.6 million shares of common stock to Capital Square Partners in exchange for 100 percent of Mumbai, India-based outsourcing specialist Aegis  itself a Capital Square Partners portfolio company. Capital Square Partners also will buy 833,333 shares of StarTek common stock at a $12-per-share premium, making it a $10 million investment.

The combination of StarTek and Aegis will create a $700 million company with more than 50,000 employees globally, according to StarTek President and CEO Chad Carlson. Aegis currently operates out of eight countries, with more than 20 sites based in India, and reported revenue of $400 million during the most recent fiscal year.

[Related: StarTek Buys 2,300-Person Business Outsourcing Firm For $16M ]

"There's zero overlap from a geographic perspective," Carlson said Thursday on a conference call with investors. "[The deal is] extremely complementary. I really couldn't have drawn up a better partner from that perspective."

The chief executive added that there is "zero" client overlap between the two businesses, highlighting Aegis' strong presence in the travel and financial services industries alongside StarTek's growing health-care practice. The top three customers of the combined company would account for less than 30 percent of overall revenue, he said.

Leadership from both organizations will be working to determine a management structure for the new company in the coming days, said Carlson, who did not disclose whether he or other StarTek executives will remain with the solution provider.

StarTek, which saw revenue slip nearly 5 percent year over year to $292.6 million in fiscal 2017, expects the transaction to generate $30 million annual benefit to EBITDA by 2020. Carlson said the announcement was "timely" given the headwinds his company is experiencing in the wireless industry and in light of weak response to the iPhone X launch.

The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of 2018. Both companies anticipate unanimous approval from their boards of directors, and StarTek said that "key stakeholders" who own roughly 30 percent of the business have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction.

"We will also work diligently to ramp new business wins as we integrate with the Aegis platform. We are excited to embrace the new larger team once the transaction closes and work together to become a formidable global provider for clients," Carlson said in a statement.Cloud-based object storage technology developer Cloudian on Thursday said it has acquired storage startup Infinity Storage as a way to better integrate file and object storage into a scalable storage pool.

Milan, Italy-based Infinity Storage is a pioneer in software-defined file storage management, said Jon Toor, chief marketing officer for San Mateo, Calif.-based Cloudian.

Toor declined to disclose the terms of the acquisition.

[Related: Cloud Cornerstones: 19 New Ways To Connect Storage To AWS]

The two companies have a history together. Infinity Storage provides the technology behind Cloudian's HyperFile, which was introduced in December.

Cloudian HyperFile is the first object storage-based system to include all the features essential for enterprise NAS customers, Toor told CRN, making it suitable for deployment with capacity-intensive applications that employ file data. With Cloudian HyperFile, enterprise customers get limitless scalability at a significantly lower total cost of ownership than traditional NAS systems, he said.

Together, the two are able to provide the ability to manage block and file data as a single pool of storage across on-premises and multi-cloud environments, he said.

Cloudian decided to acquire Infinity Storage in order to have continued access to its technology, Toor said.

"We see file data continue to be important," he said. "There are a lot of Windows and Linux systems out there storing unstructured data as files. And we want to continue having the best technology."

The companies are complementary to each other, Toor said. Cloudian has a focus on object storage, while Infinity Storage is focused on file-based storage. Both companies are enterprise-focused, and are heavily dependent on channel partners. About 85 percent of Cloudian's business in the last quarter came from indirect channels, and that percentage is growing, he said.

One of those channel partners likes the idea of Cloudian purchasing Infinity.

Jon Mendoza, field CTO at Technologent, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider and Cloudian channel partner, said he is excited to see Cloudian acquire Infinity.

"This gives Cloudian full control of the Infinity intellectual property," Mendoza told CRN. "We're seeing an explosion in customer data. And especially for our customers, it's getting more and more important to understand the value of that data even as they tier the data and move it. The cloud is important, but the ability to move data to the cloud is just as important."

Cloudian has proven to be a very channel-friendly vendor, Mendoza said. "That's really refreshing for us from a vendor," he said. "I've been looking at talking with Cloudian about new ways to further their technology for my customers. And with Infinity, they can now do more internally."

The integration of Infinity into Cloudian is already under way, and it should be quick given the relationship the two already have, Toor said.

"Infinity Storage has a team in Italy, mostly technologists, maybe a half-a-dozen," he said. "We plan to double that team. And we've already launched HyperFile with Infinity, and have paying customers."Windstar Cruises will be back in Asia for the 2018-2019 season with 27 total sailings on the Star Legend, and four completely new cruises, according to a statement.

Windstar has increased departures for popular Japan cruises timed with its famous cherry blossom season and fall foliage.

New Asia itineraries include a comprehensive exploration of greater China; an Asian pop culture journey from Tokyo to South Korea and Beijing; a Thailand and Malaysia cruise big on beaches and big cities; and a new itinerary discovering Indonesia, including Bali, Windstar said.

Windstar is able to do so many things in Asia that only small ships can do, says Windstar President John Delaney. We can sail up rivers and dock in the central areas of Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bangkok. We can anchor off Patong Bay in Phuket, Thailand and small islands in Indonesia like Pulau Bawean on the Java Sea. We visit small ports in the Philippines giving our guests access to places found at the top of Conde Nast Travelers Best Islands and Best Beaches lists. Places like Palawan, home to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, one of the new seven natural world wonders, and beautiful Boracay with white sand beaches perfect for snorkeling. All of our itineraries are carefully crafted by knowledgeable experts with scenic cruising and active exploration in mind. Our new Star Collector sailings have been extremely popular, they combine in-depth itineraries into longer back-to-back sailings, meaning real time for travelers to discover ancient traditions and contemporary cultures.

Windstar also offers a variety of pre- and post-cruise packages in Asia, including a trip to Angkor Wat from Bangkok and a visit to Beijings Great Wall. In addition, Windstar offers more than 200 shore excursions in Asia in 2018/19, including experiences like visiting a traditional Malay home, exploring Komodo National Park on foot, and participating in a night tour of Shanghai with dinner on The Bund.

New cruises include "Comprehensive Indonesia Exploration," sailing 11 days; a 11-day Bangkok to Singapore sailing, titled "Thai Temples, Malaysian Monarchs;" a 11-day cruise, the "Comprehensive China Exploration," from Hong Kong to Beijing (or reverse); and another 11-day option, the "Pop Culture Kings of Asia," from Tokyo to Beijing (or reverse).In what may catch many by surprise, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are being used against companies, organizations, and individuals as an act of vengeance or revenge. No one is immune; documented victims have included non-profit organizations, community colleges, courts and law enforcement entities, and even noted security journalist Brian Krebs.

The commonality is the individual behind the attack wishes to inflict damage, swiftly and completely, on the entity being attacked. No prior experience necessary; you can rent the DDoS service, by subscription no less, with a few clicks and an anonymous bitcoin payment.

DDoS for hire

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), John Kelsey Gammell in January 2018 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit intentional damage to a protected computer. The DOJ continues, Gammel directed DDoS attacks at a number of victims websites, including websites operated by companies he used to work for, companies that declined to hire him, competitors to his business and websites for law enforcement agencies and courts."

Gammel, it would appear, wasnt totally ignorant of the need to obfuscate his identity when hiring the DDoS service (vDOS, CStress, Inboot, Booter.xyz, and IPStresser), as he used IP anonymization services, cleaned his drives, and used encryption to conceal the records of his activities.

DDoS attack against a small business

Then we review the actions of David Chelsey Goodyear, whom the DOJ tells us was convicted in February 2018 by a jury of directing distributed denial of service cyber-attacks against two websites owned by Oklahoma telescope retailer, Astronomics. Astronomics, operates a free astronomy forum, Cloudy Nights, which has 65,000-plus participants. Goodyear was booted from the forum for violating the terms of service and would repeatedly return under a new userid/alias only to get booted again for violating the terms of service. With each instance, Goodyears frustration increased, and he threatened a DDoS attack against Cloudy Nights and A55tronomics.

What makes Goodyears act of vengeance so interesting is that it didnt cost him a penny. Goodyear joined HackForum, and within hours of joining the forum posted a request for the forums users to take down the Astronomics website. For the next two weeks, the family owned Astronomics was subjected to DDoS attacks. No shortage of individuals ready to do the dirty work on request. Astronomics pegged their losses at a minimum of $5,000, with sustained damage for over a year.

DDoS attack against a security writer

Then there was the DDoS attack against noted security journalist Brian Krebs, which occurred in September 2016. The attack, large for the time, was estimated by Krebs to be 620 Gbps in size. This attack leveraged Internet of Things devices, routers, IP cameras and digital video recorders.

In Krebs instance, he was attacked by two individuals associated with the vDOS, a DDoS service for hire. Yes, the creators of the service used by Gammel to attack his victims. Krebs had written about the takedown of the vDOS service and the identity of two 18-year-old Israelis, Yarden applej4ck Bidani and Itay p1st Huri, as the admins. Shortly after Krebs' article  and his site going dark as a result of the attack  the teens were arrested in Israel.

Industry steps up

For news organizations, journalists, election monitoring sites, human rights organizations, etc., Google offers a free service: Project Shield. It matters not how large your site is, if your application for Project Shield protection is approved, you will receive free protection.

For businesses, many IP hosting companies have partnered with a variety of DDoS defense companies, some bundling the service into their hosting agreements. Noted names include Cloudflare, Akamai, AWS Shield, and Microsoft Azure.

Bottom line: If you rely on your website for commerce, be it as a store front or service provider, you must factor the DDoS threat into your cybersecurity matrix, and put in place a protection, mitigation and defense.

The threat is not going to dissipate, and, indeed, as witnessed in the recent February 28 attack against GitHub, the DDoS 1.3 Tbps in size, DDoS attacks are only going to increase in both frequency and velocity. In GitHubs instance, they were prepared, and their service interruption was measured in minutes and not days.

Are you prepared for a DDoS against your site?Three gentlemen earned a total of $162,000 on day one of Pwn2Own. Put another way, Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) paid out $162,000 for three Apple bugs, two Oracle bugs, and three Microsoft bugs as Pwn2Own contestants targeted Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Oracle VirtualBox.

Contestants are allowed three attempts within 30 minutes to demonstrate their exploit. Only three people competed on day one of the 11th annual Pwn2Own contest, being held during the CanSecWest 2018 Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The order of contestants attempting pwnage is decided by a drawing.

Up first was Richard Zhu (@fluorescence). He targeted Apple Safari with a sandbox escape, but he wasnt able to get his exploit chain to work within 30 minutes. Nevertheless, ZDI called the bugs he used interesting and purchased the exploits through the ZDI program.

Apparently Zhu wasnt rattled at all, as he competed immediately again and put the hurt to Microsoft Edge. Within 30 minutes, his first attempt failed; his second attempt almost succeeded, but then the dreaded blue screen of death popped up as his shell started. ZDI noted that Zhu brought a flair for the dramatic with him. He succeeded on his third attempt with only one minute and 37 seconds left on the clock.

In the end, he used two use-after-free (UAF) bugs in the browser and an integer overflow in the kernel to successfully run his code with elevated privileges. The dramatic effort earned him $70,000 and 7 points towards Master of Pwn.

Niklas Baumstark (@_niklasb) was up next, and he targeted Oracle VirtualBox. ZDI wrote, Apparently not one for added intrigue, his exploit immediately popped not one, but three different calcs to indicate success. His demonstration qualified as a partial success as he used an Out-of-Bounds (OOB) read and a Time of Check-Time of Use (toctou) to still earn him $27,000 and 3 Master of Pwn points.

Samuel Gro (@5aelo), the last contestant on Pwn2Own day one, targeted Apple Safari. By the time he was done, Safari had fallen and pwned by saelo =) appeared in green text on the MacBook Pros Touch Bar. ZDI noted, Gro used a combination of a JIT optimization bug in the browser, a macOS logic bug to escape the sandbox, and finally a kernel overwrite to execute code with a kernel extension to successfully exploit Apple Safari. This chain earned him $65,000 and 6 points towards Master of Pwn.

Microsoft patches cause contestants to withdraw

There had been more contestants ready to roll, but some had to withdraw at the last minute from the competition  and some of those withdrew due to the 75 security patches released by Microsoft the day before.

As Trend Micro put it, We never know what will happen when we arrive at the contest. Whether or not Pwn2Own falls near or right after a Microsoft Patch Tuesday, many vendors will make it a point to issue patches ahead of the contest. So, for example, if a contestant happens to be working on a Microsoft vulnerability, their entry could be thwarted by Microsofts updates. A couple of the entries that were withdrawn this year fell victim to vendors issuing patches.

ZDI took a look at three of Microsofts more interesting patches.

CVE-2018-0886: Credential Security Support Provider protocol (CredSSP) remote code execution bug which could allow man-in-the-middle attacks with Remote Desktop sessions.

CVE-2018-0940: Escalation of privilege vulnerability in Exchange Outlook Web Access which failed to sanitize links for users, allowing a phishing attacker to replace a real OWA interface with a fake OWA login page.

CVE-2018-0868: Elevation of privilege bug in Windows Installer  the type of bug which is often used by malware authors to piggyback their malicious code on top of innocuous code. Its always easier to convince someone to install GreatNewGame.exe instead of EvilMalware.exe.

Microsoft partners with ZDI

Speaking of Microsoft, the Redmond giant partnered with ZDI this year and was a VMware sponsor. Microsoft said in a blog post, Exploit contests are great opportunities as it allows Microsoft engineers to exchange ideas face-to-face with the community. This includes intricate details such as attack approaches, techniques used, and opportunities for improvement against similar attacks. While bug bounty programs focus on vulnerabilities, contests like PWN2OWN focus on exploit chains which typically are only seen in real attacks.

Today, on day two of Pwn2Own, two teams are targeting Safari  one attempt with a macOS kernel EoP, and one with a sandbox escape. Zhu will target Mozillas Firefox with a Windows kernel EoP.contributed

BRIDGEPORT  The artistic talent of Bridgeport Public School students will be on display during an art exhibit and recognition event from 10 a.m. to noon on March 24, 10 a.m. at Housatonic Community College.

The celebration will recognize the students whose poster art work best reflects creativity, artistic expression and the theme, My Vision, My Future: Healthy and Happy Communities.BRIDGEPORT  A Connecticut correctional officer pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids on Wednesday.

Nicholas Aurora Jr., 33, of Hamden was arrested after an investigation and court-authorized search of another individuals home in December, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney District of Connecticut.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in December 2017, the Statewide Narcotics Task Force West conducted a court-authorized search of an individuals residence in Hamden and seized approximately 25,000 pills and 530 vials of anabolic steroids. Subsequent analysis of the individuals cell phone revealed numerous text messages relating to Auroras purchase and redistribution of steroids.

The investigation revealed that Aurora was purchasing steroids from his source of supply every two weeks. He personally used some of the steroids, and sold some, at a profit, to coworkers, the statement said..

A sentencing date has not been scheduled, but Aurora is facing up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $500,000, according to the statement. He was released on a $50,000 bond.

Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the pills and steroids were seized from Auroras home.Contributed Photo / Danbury Police Department / Contributed Photo

DANBURY  City cops are looking for a man who they said fired a gun during an altercation at a residence in the city early last month.

Police are looking to arrest 27-year-old Andrew V. Fermin. When arrested, police said, hell be charged with stealing a firearm, reckless endangerment, unlawful discharge of a firearm and third-degree assault. Police plan to set his bond at $100,000.TRUMBULL  A 16-year-old student was arrested Wednesday after, police said, she threatened to shoot up Trumbull High School.

The unidentified juvenile was charged with threatening and breach of peace. Smith said she was referred to juvenile court and was released into the custody of her parents.

There is an ongoing investigation to determine if others were involved, Smith said.

The student, a 16-year-old girl, had made an online threat of a shooting with the intended target being Trumbull High School, Smith said. The threat was made on social media and was brought to the attention of staff members by concerned students.

The student had posted the threat to shoot up the high school along with other remarks about the school, Smith said. He said once school officials and police were notified, immediate action was taken and the 16-year-old student was detained.

Further investigation into the incident showed a photo of the student, holding what appeared to be a handgun, Smith said. He said a replica gun, determined to be the one from the posting, was found in the students home; it was not a functioning firearm.Spring break is upon us, and for many that means escaping to destinations like Mexico.

While spring break is all about fun in the sun, it's important to know you're surroundings in Mexico as it's an increasingly violent country.

The U.S. Department of State is warning road trippers and jet setters visiting Mexico to exercise increased caution and avoid travel in certain places. All 31 states in Mexico currently have warnings in place, while five states are listed as "Do Not Travel" under the Mexico Travel Advisory.

The Mexico Travel Advisory is divided into four levels of caution from the least dangerous  the exercise normal precautions list, to the most dangerous  the do not travel list.

Click through the slideshow above to see how all 31 states and Mexico City rank in the State Department's travel advisory starting with the most popular spring break destinations.

The State Department cautions the public of widespread violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery in Mexico.

Mexico posted its highest homicide rate in decades, with the government reporting in January that there were 29,168 murders in 2017. The number is the highest since comparable records began being kept in 1997 and is also higher than the peak year of Mexico's drug war in 2011, when there were 27,213 murders.

The Interior Department, which posted the number, reported the country's homicide rate was 20.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, compared to 19.4 in 2011.

jerilynn.thorpe@lmtonline.com | Twitter: @jerilynnthorpeWe work in a very urban neighborhood, South Lake Union, just a few blocks north of Downtown Seattle. The SLU area has been undergoing a significant makeover during the past 10 years  from an industrial warehouse no-mans land to the land of the hip and cool, Uber-savvy and technology distracted individuals. Its the land of Amazon!

Naturally, this has become heavily banked neighborhood, with three large national banks, a regional bank, and two credit unions within a three-block radius of our office. The new kid on the block  offering a remarkably different experience than its neighbors  is a Capital One location. We recently took some colleagues on a field trip to check out what makes this spot unique and a completely different strategy to branching.

[SIDEBAR]

This location is the 25th Capital One Cafe Concept in the nation. It opened on December 13th, 2017, after about a year of build-out. The day we stopped by, a large group was on site in the big conference room for planning and training for a new location, which will open in Bellevue in March of 2018.

The first thing you notice about Capital Ones new branch has nothing to do with banking. Its a gleaming full-scale Petes Coffee cafe occupying a portion of a beautifully designed and HUGE space (formerly a high-end rug showroom). The brick facade carries into the interior of this two-storied location to combine old charm with new industrial, cozy tech.

Like nutmeg on your Petes latte, this space has merely the lightest dusting of banking, so as not to overpower the experience. Each entrance has a pair of self-serve ITM machines in vestibules, but banking is hardly the focus here. The operative insight seems to be: people dont really like banking. Or at least not bank branches. Instead, they offer a space where banking is secondary to other, much cooler things  like great architecture and interior design, good coffee, community involvement, and art.

The community is encouraged to use the space to work, meet, read and relax. The space offers a variety of areas for individuals and groups, including two large conference rooms which are exclusively available for non-profit organizations to reserve. On the day we visited, a front table was dedicated to DIY Valentines cards  made for your own use or to contribute to Marys Place, emergency shelter for homeless families.

The first floor has round tables, a tech bar, and several semi-private nooks. Upstairs has an auditorium-style space with a stage and multi-screen presentation wall. Integration of technology throughout feels seamless from a distance, with a few operational bugs remaining up close. The overall design of this facility is genuinely impressive.

But is it effective for moving the merchandise, so to speak? Do people really come here to become new Capital One customers? Do existing customers come in to sign up for additional products?

As we transitioned from the Petes cafe section of the space, drinks in hand, we were greeted by a very friendly Cafe Ambassador who proudly sported a pair of red low-top Chuck Taylors. We posed our question to her: this space is stunning, but does it work?

She skillfully redirected this train of thought (their staffing and training programs are clearly dialed in). The point, she shared, is to give back to the community by offering a space and welcoming individuals and organizations into it. Our Ambassador did admit that  since Capital One is a 100% online bank  some people feel uncomfortable only interfacing with their bank online. When they come into a Capital One Cafe, they are guided through the process by a person  but they are still banking completely online.

And thats the second operative insight underlying this retail strategy: as branch traffic has declined, the role of branches in the banking relationship has evolved. Consumers dont want to have to come into a branch for day-to-day transactions like depositing a check, but they still want to know they CAN. And they still want the comfort of knowing that a real-life person will walk them through whatever they need.

[SIDEBAR]

Seattle now has a smaller share of offices sitting empty than San Francisco or Manhattan, the two most expensive commercial real-estate markets in the country, according to Mike Rosenberg (@ByRoseberg), Seattle Times business reporter. Seattle commercial real estate is now more expensive than Chicago and Los Angeles, and business rents have recently increased 2.5 times faster than the national average. Full article here.

In the equation of this branch strategy, Capital One is rolling the cost of a regional network into one extraordinarily expensive piece of real estate: locating it in a hot spot, building it out with an emphasis on great design, quality finishes, technology meant to impress, and partnering with a regional coffee brand to generate foot traffic.

Suddenly, the branchs competitive set includes co-working spaces like WeWork, not just big national banks, and Third Places like Starbucks, not just local credit unions. If every branch is an expression of the financial institutions brand, Capital One is fully embracing that opportunity and making a Big Statement.

After our individual self-guided tours, our little away team regrouped to discuss our impressions, and how the Cafe Concept aligns with our own banking expectations:

Kory, Associate Creative Director

I appreciated the way the space retained the exterior and look of the prior building, and the use of materials and style in matching nicely with the urban feel of the neighborhood and its location.

My tween and teen daughters dont understand how much more convenient online services like remote deposit capture are versus going into a branch to deposit a check, because they never had stopping by the bank as a part of their regular errands.

Bringing what consumers are now more familiar with as a virtual service  the Capital One credit card  into a physical presence is more like when Amazon opened its brick and mortar bookstores than when Chase opens a new high-end branch. Its about offering a physical experience, which might be rarely used but have high emotional impact.

Joshua, Account Manager

It was a juxtaposition. The space and design of the cafe is really cool, modern and inviting  but I also felt a twinge of confusion. The banking aspects of the space werent well labeled and it took a bit of exploring to figure out where I would need to go to take care of my business. I like the self-service capabilities available, but it didnt instill confidence for conducting more sophisticated banking, such as applying for loans. For me it felt too laissez-faire to discuss a home loan. Perhaps it was the layout of the space, the younger age of the staff, or the fact that this is just a new-to-me format. Overall, that feeling of confidence, trust, and experience wasnt there for me.

Kathy, Production Manager

The atmosphere was warm, clean, open, airy, accessible, welcoming, tuned in, and innovative. As I spent a half hour there, sipped my latte, sampled the candied blueberries, noted the make a valentine to be donated to a homeless charity station, and plugged in my phone charger, my main takeaway was this: I immediately wanted to tell people about it, and that they should come here. Maybe not for the banking  but hey, come for the vibe, stay for the banking!

We also invited a special guest to participate in our conversation: Kathys 19-year-old son, Sam. Because of the distinct business model, the customer of the future should get a chance to weigh in!

Sam, Student

Compared to my current experience at a large national bank, I felt slightly less tended-to by the staff, but I didnt find myself missing it. I dont know if Id consider a full switch from my current bank, given the convenience of their ATMs throughout the world. I am, however, very interested in their credit offerings and potentially opening a line of credit at Capital One. The staff answered any questions I had and I appreciated their tech-forward business model. For me and people my age it makes a lot more sense having a solid and powerful banking app and online presence than going in and talking to a banker.

Downtown Seattle, and specifically South Lake Union, is the kind of place where a brand would want to make a Big Statement, and could perhaps justify the big investment to be here and to do something really category-breaking. But what about other neighborhoods that arent so hot but still have people who crave the reassurance that a real person is nearby and able to help. In other words, communities that credit unions serve across the country, who deserve branches that are relevant to their needs today and tomorrow.

Many credit unions wrestle with what to do with their (often aging) branch networks, given the changing usage trends and industry-wide chatter of declining importance. At Weber Marketing Group, we know branches are still a vital channel to todays omni-channel consumers. The question each credit union should be asking is: how do we shape our overall experience for the way our members want to bank today and into the future, and how can the branch environment better support that goal?

If Capital Ones Cafe Concept offers a lesson to other financial institutions, it is at least this: there is plenty of room for branches to break out of traditional expectations, and that difference can be delightful.

In any credit unions reimagining the branch experience of its future, we believe that exploring and openly considering retail models much different from the norm is a vital part of the process  along with robust data analytics, multidisciplinary collaboration, and, of course, the inclusion of industry-experienced partners.

So if you find yourself in Seattles South Lake Union neighborhood  or if you are looking for a destination to inspire and prompt fresh thinking  you shouldnt miss spending some quality time in this Capital One Cafe Concept. Well even meet you there for a cup of Petes coffee, sprinkled with just a hint of banking.

Co-authored by Charlotte Boutz-Connell  Charlotte brings over 12 years of experience in account management, brand strategy, and consumer insights development to guide positive outcomes for clients at Weber Marketing Group. She is passionate about storytelling to connect brands with audiences.

Charlotte has worked across industries from global enterprise initiatives to local business startups. Her experience includes traditional advertising, social media strategies, brand building and product design innovation. Her current community leadership project is serving as Programs Director for the Seattle Chapter of the American Advertising Federation.STORY LINK New Zealand GDP Disappoints - Pound New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) Exchange Rate Struggles to Capitalise

GBP/NZD Exchange Rate Fluctuates amid Unilever Pick of Rotterdam as HQ instead of London

New Zealand Growth misses its Mark  NZD Exchange Rates Come under Pressure

EU Brexit Summit in the Spotlight  What can Markets Expect for the GBP/NZD Exchange Rate?

Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues:

The Pound New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) exchange rate fluctuated on Thursday, falling in the early hours as markets responded to news that the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever has picked Rotterdam, rather than London as the location for its headquarters, but rising later into the day as the company clarified that the move would not result in the loss of any UK jobs and no change to tax paid in the UK.Indeed, Unilever Chief Executive, Paul Polman asserted that the decision has nothing to do with Brexit, and that they would still be in the iconic Unilever house, London.Markets had been worried that the subsequent loss of jobs would harm the UK economy, but with this concern largely quelled demand eventually returned to the Pound.New Zealands growth readings proved softer than expected in the 4th quarter of 2017.According to figures from Statistics New Zealand (StatsNZ), GDP grew by 0.6% in the December quarter, far below the forecasts of a 0.7% increase.The yearly reading also came up short by printing at 2.9%, below the market forecast of 3.1% but above the previous periods 2.7%.Growth was widespread across many services industries, but the extensive drought that New Zealand experienced towards the end of last year had a massively detrimental effect on their agriculture.Gary Dunnet, National Accounts Senior Manager at StatsNZ shared this sentiment:Hot, dry weather appeared to have a negative impact this quarter on agriculture production, which fell 2.7%. Falling milk production was reflected in lower dairy manufacturing and dairy exports.Sterling initially struggled to capitalise on this news, but as the day progressed and the investor anxiety over Unilevers HQ decision waned, the Pound soon took the lead (GBP/NZD).Theres no escaping it; this week has been a quiet one for UK data.That could change next week, however, with the market focus liable to switch to the EUs Brexit summit, and whether demonstrable progress has been made on the Brexit negotiation front.Markets are keen to assess if the transition period has been hammered out, with notable sticking-points like the Irish border and the rights of EU citizens expected to take centre stage.If no fresh development has been reached on these fronts then the transition period could be delayed even longer, a prospect that ring alarm bells in the more skittish traders minds for a potential cliff-edge Brexit.More notably, however, it could delay talks on trade for even longer, leaving businesses lacking in clarity and liable to hold off on large investments.Conversely, any agreement that cements the transition period would reduce market uncertainty and potentially drive traders back to the Pound.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

TAGS: Pound New Zealand Dollar ForecastsAlmanac winter predictions versus actual weather

The Old Farmers' Almanac has predicted the weather since 1792. Here's what it says for this winter.As a child, Independence Day celebrations intrigued me. On the one hand we were being taught about the concept of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam and yet we were taught to be proud of having driven the British out of India much like most other countries in Asia, and Africa, did to their colonial masters.

As I grew older, I learnt from discussions with my parents and teachers what words truly meant in the lexicon of democracy. Once I understood that the essence of a parliamentary democracy is that peoples interests are represented by the legislators they elect, I saw no dissonance in the concept of universal fraternity and sovereignty. In our democratic set-up, both the ruling party and Opposition have important roles to play, with the paramount objective of ensuring the common good of all citizens.

Civics lessons taught us that Parliament is a sanctimonious house where respectable men and women took decisions on our behalf. When, as children, we used any unsavoury words, we were chided for using unparliamentary language.

Democracy is almost severed from sovereignty. Photo: Reuters

However, as millennials, when we witnessed the boisterous scenes of legislatures on TV, with some legislators hurling abuses (and even objects like dismantled microphones) at each other, the dissonance between the ideal and the real became painfully apparent. Considering the language some of the legislators used, sometimes even in public, we wondered whether children at schools will now be reprimanded for using parliamentary language.

Nevertheless, we continued to believe that the legislators are honourable people by virtue of them representing us and deliberating upon cardinal matters on our behalf. In this light, the Budget session, ought to be the most important discussion because it deliberates on how much and what the taxpayers money is to be allocated to. However, the Budget was passed in the Parliament without any discussion and amidst sloganeering by Opposition members in a matter of minutes. The government has misused its majority on numerous occasions by classifying many bills as Money Bills so that the Upper House has virtually no say in it.

As I discussed the happenings in Parliament in recent times with a close friend, we both felt that life has come full circle and history is repeating itself  like in the late 19th century when the Congress fought for Indians to have the right to discuss and vote on the Budget. He was ruing that the very parliamentarians who are entrusted with defending democracy are circumventing parliamentary processes, rules and conventions.

In the era of crony capitalism, where big capitalists are backed by politicians cutting across party lines, colonialism and exploitation of the masses is manifested in a new avatar.

This time, the people we need to seek independence and demand sovereignty from are not easy to identify because they have the same skin colour as we do, and they are our fellow citizens.

An indication of the inconspicuous exploitation can be discerned by looking at the widening gap between the wealthy elite and the masses, where the richest one per cent amassed 73 per cent of the wealth generated in 2017. This imbalance, instead of being bridged, is being perpetuated by a wilfully lax legislature, helped by an ignorant citizenry that refuses to take part in the political process beyond casting votes.

Basking in our ignorance and meekness, legislators switch parties at will, drive around in red-beaconed cars, display brashness in front of a subservient media, which passes off the brashness as being firm and decisive. There is therefore no room for meaningful debate and dialogue.

The Parliament has been reduced to an embellishment to attract tourists in the capital.

As the people entrusted with protecting our sovereignty continue to weaken democracy and misguide the gullible into believing that democracy means might is right, they deliver sermons on leadership, without a modicum of humility. A few days ago, my father forwarded to me a video clip on WhatsApp where a popular politician was bragging that he is the senior most politician in the country and he knows best what is in the interest of the state. The forwarded video also included a rebuttal by another politician arguing why the bragging politician cannot be considered the senior most politician in the country by any parameter.

While politicians squabble on social media and in Parliament, our democracy finds itself on the guillotine, almost severed from sovereignty. As I watched the video of the bragging politician, I recalled the words of the British journalist and essayist, Walter Bagehot, whom my father often quoted while teaching me the virtues of life: One cannot make men good by an act of Parliament!

Also read: Shocking how government passed the Union budget in Parliament without discussionThe ongoing India-Pakistan diplomatic row took yet another ugly turn when the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi circulated a video on March 13 alleging that Indian security agencies have been tailing Pakistani diplomatic vehicles in the capital. This move is certainly a setback for the prevailing dismal relations between India and Pakistan. Any Pakistani claim to level allegations against India may not always be true as Pakistan's credibility has always been suspicious on all counts.

Assuming the charges aired are authentic, we should not forget the obtrusive and aggressive bumper-to-bumper surveillance mounted on Indian diplomatic cars on the streets of Islamabad by Pakistani intelligence outfits. Ever since India and Pakistan have commenced diplomatic ties, Pakistani ISI - the infamous and unscrupulous intelligence body - has been systematically covering the benign activities of the Indian high commission and its diplomats in the most brazen and uncivilised manner.

Pakistan has exhibited scant respect for the Geneva and Vienna conventions that form the crux of the guidelines for diplomatic conduct and behaviour for host countries. In 1992, senior Indian diplomat R Mittal was brutally assaulted by the ISI, which even resorted to administering electric shocks to him, causing immense physical damage.

Bereft of any civility or sensitivity, they chose medieval methods of interrogation with no regard to human rights. Mittal was not the only case, there were numerous incidents of torture, intimidation and excesses targeting Indian diplomats and staffers.

Essentially, it airs its frustration through such diplomatically immature acts. It has failed abysmally in Kashmir. Photo: Reuters

Sadly, in these days of modern statecraft, Pakistan still employs archaic methods, exposing its regressive approach. Such tactics lay bare its hollow claims of being an advanced and progressive nation. In these modern days of espionage and counter espionage, Pakistan is an example of a country living in the Stone Age.

In the backdrop of reports about surveillance and counter surveillance, Pakistan has created roadblocks and obstacles in getting access to the high commission premises. Other than creating these obstructions, the Pakistani establishment also impedes movements of the Indian high commission officials attending to routine chores like shopping or casual social engagements.

By collaborating with the foreign ministry, the ISI ensures that Indian officials' movements are restricted, if at all. Recently, using the same intimidatory methods, Pakistan stopped the Indian high commissioner from visiting a Bohra community function. Such acts, on part of Pakistan, are against all diplomatic niceties and norms.

Yet again, the country has shown it is oblivious to any moral obligation to the diplomatic community or any international mandate.

Essentially, it airs its frustration through such diplomatically immature acts. It has failed abysmally in Kashmir. And it has not managed to inflict visible damage to split the Indian polity or society. It's also possible that Pakistan is trying to divert attention from the many ills afflicting the dying state.

All such perverse actions are manifested through crude surveillance and acts of provocation directed at India. It is crying hoarse, castigating India for alleged acts of mobile surveillance that affect Pakistani diplomats' movements close to home. In reality, few would buy this story.

Also read: Why Stephen Hawking would make a great Bond villainCharacteristics of a great mind include the capacity for wisdom, the development of social consciousness and the need to raise one's voice fearlessly in relation to the politics of the era.

But in today's world many "mainstream" intellectuals, including authors, artists, scientists, analysts etc choose to remain silent over issues of critical importance and are careful not to be seen as anti-establishment voices.

There is a debilitating hesitance in voicing one's opinions over critical issues, if they are not in sync with the mainstream narrative. There is also a growing self-censorship with regard to anything that can be interpreted as political dissent.

Such is the servitude to power in our "neoliberal" world, marked by a crisis of conscience and courage.

The bulk of "mainstream intellectuals" have also mastered the art of talking seriously about banal things of absolute insignificance.

Being politically correct, playing safe and not disturbing any hornet's nest have become an epidemic in the world of "mainstream intellectuals".

To hear truths which really matter, one increasingly has to delve into the alternative/independent sphere where the true progressive voices now gather.

The following observation by Noam Chomsky, who is generally marginalised by the mainstream corporate media, hits the nail on its head: "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum."

Taboo subjects or words/phrases develop in democratic societies where people are conditioned not to raise them due to fear of backlash and controversy.

However, Stephen Hawking was a rarity, not only in terms of his influential work in cosmology, but also in terms of being a political person. He was keen to comment on issues of public interest which were beyond his sphere of work.

Hawking displayed all the characteristics of a great mind along with the additional trait of being involved in political activism - something that he had inherited from his mother Isobel, an Oxford graduate who was an anti-nuclear political activist.

Following are the significant, and sometimes controversial, interventions of Hawking in relation to politics.

The list displays that Hawking was left leaning or sympathetic to the political left. He was also a supporter of the British Labour Party.

The Iraq War

In 2004, Hawking took part in an anti-war event at Trafalgar Square in London. "The war was based on two lies," he said through his voice synthesizer. Both the claims of weapons of mass destruction and linkage to September 11 had proved untrue. "It has been a tragedy for all the families. If that is not a war crime, what is?"

Pro-BDS movement

In 2009, Hawking denounced Israel's three-week attack on Gaza, telling Riz Khan on Al-Jazeera that Israel's response to rocket firing from Gaza was "plain out of proportion The situation is like that of South Africa before 1990 and cannot continue".

In 2013, Hawking backed the academic boycott of Israel by pulling out of a conference hosted by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem as a protest against Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Hawking was one of the prominent faces of The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (also known as the BDS Movement). It is a global campaign promoting various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets what the campaign describes as "obligations under international law", defined as withdrawal from the occupied territories, removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank, complete equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and promotion of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Anti-Brexit and anti-capitalist

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session in 2015, Hawking expressed concern about economic inequality and said that technology was driving the ever-increasing inequality.

In an article written after UK voted in favour of Brexit in 2016, Hawking said that he was "sad about the result" and "now we must learn to live outside the EU, but in order to manage that successfully we need to understand why British people made the choice that they did".

Hawking believed that "wealth, the way we understand it and the way we share it, played a crucial role in their decision". He called for greater collaboration, distributive reforms and sharing of wealth with fairness.

On Trump

On ITV's Good Morning Britain programme in 2016, Hawking said that Donald Trump, "Is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator".

Message for humanity

In 2010, Hawking had told Larry King, "Mankind is in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity."

In 2016, Hawking reiterated to King that humans have "not become less greedy or less stupid" as we surge towards devastation of our planet.

Hawking raised his concerns over nuclear weapons, over-population, pollution, global warming and warned mankind about Artificial Intelligence (AI). He said that AI is a threat, and that governments need to curb their enthusiasm in their race to make killing machines.

Also read: Why Sonia Gandhi's dinner diplomacy is fraught with problemsBanco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

Read More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Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. is a closed ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. The fund is co-managed by Morgan Stanley Investment Management Company. It invests in the public equity markets of India. The fund invests in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the U.S. dollar adjusted BSE National Index. Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund, Inc. was formed on December 22, 1993 and is domiciled in the United States.

Read MoreI thought about this idea of protection and empowerment as I continue to pray about those being impacted by Covid-19. What came to mind first was the song No Weapon by Fred Hammond. Its always been one of my favorite worship songs because it reminds...Gandhinagar: Expressing deep anguish over a spate of banking frauds, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said on Wednesday that like the 'Neelakantha', the central bank will consume poison and face brickbats, but will persist with endeavour to become better with each trial.

Breaking silence over the Rs 12,967 crore scam at PNB, he said: "I have chosen to speak today to convey that we at the Reserve Bank of India also feel the anger, hurt and pain at the banking sector frauds and irregularities."

Delivering a lecture at the Gujarat National Law University here, he said: "In plain simple English, these practices amount to a looting of our country's future by some in the business community, in cahoots with some lenders."

Patel said RBI has in place asset quality review of banks and "we are doing all we can to break this unholy nexus".

Invoking mythology, he said RBI has undertaken the cleaning up of the country's credit culture as the Mandara mount or the churning rod in the Amrit Manthan or the Samudra Manthan of the modern day Indian economy.

Until the churn is complete and the nectar of stability safely secured for the country's future, someone must consume the poison that emanates along the way, he said.

"If we need to face the brickbats and be the Neelakantha consuming this poison, we will do so as our duty; we will persist with our endeavours and get better with each trial and tribulation along the way," the Governor said.

He also wished that more promoters and banks, individually or collectively through their industry bodies, would reconsider being on the side of "Devas rather than Asuras in this Amrit Manthan".

He made a pitch for "making banking regulatory powers neutral to bank ownership and leveling the playing field between public sector and private sector banks".

Observing that there has been a tendency in the pronouncements post revelation of the fraud that RBI supervision team should have caught it, Patel said no banking regulator can catch or prevent all frauds.

"While that can always be said ex post with any fraud, it is simply infeasible for a banking regulator to be in every nook and corner of banking activity to rule out frauds by 'being there'," he said.

Referring to PNB, Patel said the RBI had identified, based on cyber risk considerations, the exact source of operational hazard through which "we understand" now the fraud had been perpetrated.

In particular, he said the RBI had issued precise instructions via three circulars in 2016 to enable banks to eliminate the hazard.

"It turns out ex post the bank had simply not done so. Clearly, the internal processes at the bank failed in allowing the operational hazard to remain in place in spite of clear instructions to close it," he said.

Patel said the RBI will undertake actions against the bank that it is empowered to but this set is limited under its Banking Regulation Act powers over PSBs.

Noting that "success has many fathers; failures none", the Governor said there has been the usual blame game, passing the buck, and a tonne of honking, mostly short-term and knee-jerk reactions.

"These appear to have prevented the participants in this cacophony from deep reflection and soul searching that can help solve fundamental issues that are the root cause of such frauds and related irregularities in the banking sector," he said.

Patel also flagged the issue of rising bad loans (NPA) saying that the problems needs immediate attention.

"Its magnitude is larger than Rs 8.5 lakh crores of stressed assets on bank balancesheets and its significance stems from several practices in promoter-bank credit relationship that need immediate attention,".

The RBI has been clamping down on the failure to recognise asset quality as non-performing as per its norms by requiring that banks, whose divergence exceeds by 15 per cent of the true non performing assets (NPAs) as per the norms, disclose the divergence.

This should restore some market discipline against such practices, especially in the case of private sector banks, Patel said.GUNTUR: Jana Sena founder and Telugu cine actor K. Pawan Kalyan has announced that he will start a hunger fast unto death at any time seeking Special Category Status (SCS) to AP, during the Jana Sena Formation Day public meeting held at Namburu of Guntur district on Wednesday. He blew a conch asking the public to take money without guilty from other political parties, including Telugu Desam as the money belongs to the public and to cast their vote to Jana Sena in the coming elections. Mr Pawan started his speech in Telugu language but turned to English stating that this is for the demand to reach the Delhi leaders.

Addressing Union finance minister Arun Jaitely, he stated that both the TD and YSR Congress are afraid of the BJP led Central government for personal reasons but Andhra people are not cowards and would not fear the Centre. I am Pawan Kalyan, speaking from Amaravati without fear. The government of India cannot control 5 crore Andhra people through 25 MPs, he said. He recalled that he met Mr Jaitley in 2014 at Parliament central hall and had sought justice to residuary AP state. But the government of India has been doing injustice to our state for the past four years, Mr Pawan said.

I am speaking from Amaravati. I will not fight in Delhi for SCS but would fight from Amaravati, he added. He claimed that earlier Andhra public agitated for a separate state but then PM Indira Gandhi denied the demand and nearly 10,000 people sacrificed their lives in that movement. Mr Pawan said that he will not seek sacrifices from the public, especially from the youth, as they are assets of the society. Hence, he said that he will start a huger fast unto death for the SCS. Mr Pawan announced that Jana Sena will enter in active politics to show its power in elections, including panchyat, municipal, Corporation and Assembly. He announced that Jana Sena will release its election manifesto on August 14 or 15, 2018. He said that Jana Sena gives preference to betterment of publics life by providing employment.

Mr Pawan said that Jana Sena is preparing plans for the development of West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Prak-asam and other backward districts, by using natural resources available there. He said that he went with the BJP and the TD in the 2014 election but he is not against Muslims and asked Muslim youth to bring their issues to his notice. Meanwhile, as many as 10 persons were injured during a minor stampede at Jana Sena formation day meet.Toufeeq was radicalised into the Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of the ISIS (Photo: Representational/File)

Hyderabad: Telengana police has identified the third militant, killed along with Esa Fazli and Syed Owais this week in south Kashmir, as a resident of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana who followed ISIS' ideology and had fled to the Valley last year to join militancy.

Three militants, including Fazli and Owais, both of whom left their B.Tech third year course to join militancy, were killed in the encounter on the intervening night of March 11 and 12, a development seen as a blow to the attempts by ISIS to gain ground in the Kashmir Valley.

After a request for identification sent by Jammu and Kashmir police, the Telangana police came out with a small press note in which it claimed that the person was identified as 26-year-old MD Toufeeq hailing from Bhadradri-Kothagudem district of Telangana.

"It is learnt that MD Toufeeq, a native of Manguru, died in an encounter with security forces on the intervening night of March 11-12 in Hakura area of Anantnag district along with two other Kashmiri militants," the statement said.

Toufeeq was radicalised into the Islamic State ideology through social media and went to Kashmir to participate in terrorist activities of the ISIS, according to the release.

It clarified that he was not wanted in any of the criminal cases in Telangana. However, further details were being verified, it added.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) had written a letter to Telangana police citing reports in social media about the third militant hailing from that state.

While asking them to share the details, the Jammu and Kashmir police had given the name of Mohammed Toufeeq alias 'Sultan Zabul Al Hind'.

The two other slain militants were identified as Eisa Fazili of Srinagar and Syed Owais of Kokernag (Anantnag).

Also Read: 3 ISIS militants killed in J&K's Anantnag, schools, colleges shut in Srinagar

AK-47 rifles, pistols and hand-grenades were found on the slain militants and no collateral damage took place, a police spokesman said.

The police had said that one of the slain militants was involved in a recent attack at a police guard post in Soura area of Srinagar leaving one cop dead.

The ISIS had claimed responsibility for carrying out the attack and said that the war has just begun.

A day after the February 26 attack, the ISIS had on its media website Al Amaq said, Assassinated an element of police in firing near city of Srinagar in Kashmir yesterdayA war has just begun.

The group had also placed the photograph of the service weapon of Farooq Ahmed Yatoo, the policeman killed while guarding the residence of separatist Hurriyat Conference leader Fazl ul Haqs Qureshi at Soura, on its website.New Delhi: India on Thursday said Canada had informed it that the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an event in New Delhi last month in which the Indian map was inaccurately depicted, did not reflect its endorsement or acceptance. Trudeau had attended a conclave of the Young Change Makers in New Delhi on February 24 where the Indian map was reportedly shown incorrectly. Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters that India had taken up the matter with Canada.

We had taken up the matter with the Canadian representatives there. We were informed that the inaccurate depiction of the Indian flag happened at the Young Change Makers conclave held on February 24 which was attended by the Canadian Prime Minister and a large audience.

He added that the Canadian government has conveyed to India that the event was organised by a third party and the map was an artists rendering. We have been told that they do not imply endorsement or acceptance by the government of Canada, he said. Indias map was allegedly shown at the event reportedly showed Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Aksai Chin and Gujarat incorrectly.Vijayawada: The YSR Congress has changed its strategy. On Thursday, it gave the Lok Sabha secretary general notice of a No Confidence motion it intends to move against the Union government. The Telugu Desam has decided to extend its support to the YSRCs No Confidence Motion on Friday, March 16. The Speaker will bring the motion to the notice of the House and ask the members to state how many are in support of it.

The YSRC has sought the support of all parties, and given them a letter written by the YSRC chief. Telugu Desam MP Thota Narasimham also received a letter. Keeping in view that Parliament session may be adjourned sine die as money bills were passed, the YSRC advanced the motion from March 23 to March 15 by giving the notice. Generally, the Speaker disallows the motion, which must have the support of 50 members.

In the notice addressed to Lok Sabha secretary- general Snehlatha Shrivastava, the YSRC MP Y.V. Subba Reddy has stated that under Rule 198 (B) of Chapter XVII of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha, he is giving notice to move a No-Trust motion in the House on March 16. YSRC chief Jagan Mohan Reddys letter seeking support for the No-Confidence motion because of the injustice of not granting SCS to AP was given to the floor chiefs in Parliament.

TD Rajya Sabha MP V Vijaysai Reddy met with the floor chiefs of all parties and requested their support. If the YSRC fails to bring a No Confidence motion against the Government in the Lok Sabha, YSRC MPs have decided to submit their resignations. Generally, the Speaker disallows the motion, which must have the support of 50 members.SALT LAKE CITY  Camron Wright, the Utah author of the best-sellers "The Rent Collector" and "The Orphan Keeper," is coming out with something a little different this month. "The Other Side of the Bridge" isn't based on a true story and it takes place right in the United States  it centers, in fact, on the Golden Gate Bridge.

"The Other Side of the Bridge" tells the story of two people on opposite sides of the country, who both look for answers in this iconic landmark.

Katie Connelly is a historian at San Francisco State University, whose father worked on the Golden Gate Bridge his whole life as an ironworker. She becomes obsessed with a historical journal she found in his desk, written by a man who helped build the bridge decades earlier.

Dave Riley is living a busy life in New Jersey with a wife and three kids and has a high-powered marketing job in Manhattan, but when tragedy strikes he finds solace in renewing his dream to ride a motorcycle across the Golden Gate Bridge on the Fourth of July.

Wright talked recently with the Deseret News about his new book, how it differs from his previous works and about his upcoming event at the Sandy Library.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Deseret News: What inspired you to write "The Other Side of the Bridge"?

Camron Wright: I had a friend years ago when I was a teenager, and he thought that the day he could ride his motorcycle across the Golden Gate Bridge would be the coolest day of his life. I loved that vision. He thought it would be sunny and (that people would) think he was just the coolest person ever. Then he talked about how when he got there it was actually rainy and miserable and he had a personal tragedy occur and it just wasn't the experience that he had set up in his mind. I filed that away and thought, "I'm going to use that someday."

I remember also reading an article about the ironworkers on the Golden Gate Bridge and how they're the ones who talk down jumpers because they're already there and there's no time for the policemen to come. Not only that, they're not afraid to go out onto the structure to try and help these people. The image of a big, burly ironworker who then has to now be a social worker, if you will  I thought that was cool and I filed it away. It was just a matter of taking these separate experiences and weaving them together into the story.

DN: What was your writing process like for this book?

CW: The thing that's interesting about this book is I actually wrote the first draft of it  in 2002. I sent it to Shadow Mountain and they rejected it. The whole Harley Davidson thing bothered them. They said, "The majority of our readers are women and we just don't think this story will work." So I just set the story aside and I went on to do other things.

Then I got a call recently from Shadow Mountain, and they had a slot open in their catalog they needed to fill right away and they asked if I had anything. I said, "You know what, I actually do." I didn't tell them they'd actually rejected it years earlier  Within just a couple of days, I got a call and they were giddy. They said, "This is exactly the type of book we're looking for"  which is ironic. It just goes to show in life timing is often everything.

DN: What should readers look forward to in this book?

CW: "The Rent Collecter" and "The Orphan Keeper" are a bit more layered metaphorically. There are some deeper meanings there. "The Other Side of the Bridge," the intent wasn't really to be that same type of work. I think it's an interesting story with insights into two people and insights into life.  I hope people enjoy it. I want them to keep turning the pages. I hope in the end they walk away and they feel good about the story. I hope they take lessons away from it.

DN: What books are you planning on for the future?

CW: I'm starting another book right now that I'm excited about. It's very early on, but it's the story of a woman who served over in Iraq. It'll be like "The Rent Collector"  half and half. Her story will be true, but I'm going to bring in some family history. She had a grandfather who served in World War II, so I'm going to tie him in. Sadly, we don't know a lot about what he did, so a lot of his story as it ties in will be fictional.

DN: What should people expect from your upcoming event in Sandy? We know you'll have Taj Rowland with you ("The Orphan Keeper" is based on Rowland's story).

CW: Taj doesn't like to do these events, so he does very few of them, and so this is one event where he will be at. I think "The Orphan Keeper" will be the main focus of this event, but naturally because the book is just out, I'll touch on "The Other Side of the Bridge" as well. We'll have a presentation and a behind-the-scenes, and it should be very informative for readers.

If you go 

What: Camron Wright book signing

When: Tuesday, March 20, 7 p.m.

Where: Sandy Library, 10100 S. Petunia Way, Sandy

Web: slcolibrary.org/authoreventsAriel Perez, 19, recently met Mormon missionaries through a friend and felt like he found purpose. Now, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Perez said choosing faith over temptation is like lifting weights at the gym: While the weight itself doesnt change, it feels progressively lighter each time you lift it.

There are so many life decisions that our young single adults have to make, Bishop Kevin Beck told The Frederick News-Post. Having a concrete set of values to navigate through those waters, I think, just makes a huge difference.

Perez is one of many LDS young single adults in Frederick, Maryland who were recently featured in an article by The Frederick News-Post about maintaining and practicing their beliefs despite influences in modern society. The article is the first in a monthly series about local millennials who are active in their organized faith in light of declining interest in religion nationwide.

A discussion about LDS views on repentance and forgiveness opens the article. Ari Hernandez, 20, wasnt ostracized from his family or the church for breaking the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom, the author wrote, Instead, he described the welcoming nature with which he was forgiven and accepted back  by fellow Mormons and more importantly, by God.

The author described her impressions at an LDS sacrament meeting in which Moroni Okonah, 18, spoke with conviction and intensity in a talk he gave before leaving for a full-time mission to California.

"Clad in a suit and tie, Okonah exuded a confidence beyond his 18 years as he stepped up to the lectern during a recent sacrament meeting at the Frederick chapel," the article's author, Nancy Lavin, wrote. "His faith was evident in the words he spoke to the congregation, referencing passages from the prophet Moroni, for whom he is named, in the Book of Mormon."

Other young single adults shared their experiences with answering common questions about Mormons  including polygamy, Joseph Smith and garments  and their thoughts on finding an eternal spouse. Jade Spencer, 26, talked about the benefits she has found to surrounding herself with peers of other faiths.

Beck acknowledged, and even encouraged, members to question their faith at any and every stage of life, Lavin wrote. Breaking away from the church and is teachings depends on the individual, he said.

You dont have to look for happiness, Perez said in the article of how becoming a member of the church has changed his life. You have this sense of purpose.

The entire article can be read on The Frederick News-Post website.SALT LAKE CITY  Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski met with Gov. Gary Herbert on Wednesday to push him to veto a bill to create an inland port authority over the city's northwest quadrant, but it wasn't immediately clear whether the meeting had any sway, though city officials were hopeful.

"The meeting was positive," said Paul Murphy, the mayor's deputy director of communications. "The governor listened to the objections from the city and promised to meet with legislators and others before making a decision, and he said he would call (the mayor) before he makes a decision."

Herbert has already said he plans to sign the bill, with the intent to discuss technical fixes that might need to be made in the next general session.

"Gov. Herbert and Mayor Biskupski had a productive conversation this morning," the governor's spokesman, Paul Edwards, said in a statement Wednesday. "The governor appreciated the opportunity to listen to the mayor's concerns about SB234."

Herbert's office declined comment in response to a question about whether the governor's decision to sign the bill has changed.

Meanwhile, pressure has been mounting as others have joined Salt Lake City's efforts to urge a veto of the bill.

As passed, SB234 would give the Utah Inland Port Authority ultimate say over administrative land-use decisions and the power to capture 100 percent of tax increment from new developments in the project area  what city leaders consider a massive state land grab of nearly 20,000 acres of the capital city's last undeveloped swath of land.

On Tuesday, most members of the Salt Lake County Council signed a letter asking Herbert to veto the bill, drafted by County Councilman Arlyn Bradshaw. Councilman Michael Jensen was out of town and could not sign.

Bradshaw said he hand-delivered it to the governor's office Wednesday.

"Having served as a county commissioner yourself, we trust you are keenly aware of the ramifications of an unelected board usurping local control," the letter states. "We do not believe that an unelected board, unaccountable to the voters, is an appropriate authority for making land-use decisions in any locality."

The letter also decried the removal of tax increment from local school districts and city and county governments, while also leaving local governments with the responsibility of providing municipal and public safety services for the area.

"We believe that this bill sets a very dangerous and precarious precedent of eroding local control and should be vetoed," the letter states.

County Council Chairwoman Aimee Winder Newton said Wednesday she was "frustrated" that the council hadn't been involved in any of the discussions surrounding the bill while it was being negotiated at the Capitol.

"Never once did anybody come to us. Nobody reached out to me to say, 'How do you feel about these tax increment issues?'" Newton said, adding that neither of the county's two positions on the port authority board requires advice or consent from the County Council.

"The County Council was completely left out of that process, and I think there's a lot of unanswered questions about the inland port authority and, really, its impact," she said.

Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, however, hasn't opposed the bill. In response to a request for comment Wednesday, spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend referred to McAdams' comments to the Deseret News last week, when the mayor said, "for the most part, the bill is fair."

At the time, McAdams said that while he "certainly recognizes the concerns, I think they may be a little overstated," noting that the port authority's capturing of tax increments is "not that different from most other economic development incentives we negotiate." McAdams also said protections of environmentally sensitive lands "will be a top consideration as we move forward."

The Salt Lake City School District, however, has joined Salt Lake City's cries. Lexi Cunningham, the district's superintendent, issued a statement late Tuesday urging the governor to veto the bill.

"This bill, if signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert, would greatly hurt the Salt Lake City School District," Cunningham said. "We know the governor to be a champion of education and have appreciated his support for Utahs public schools. If he signs this bill, the governor will be supporting the loss of property tax revenue for the Salt Lake City School District."

Over the next 25 years, city officials estimate the port authority would take control of $1.4 billion, including $360 million in new property tax revenues from Salt Lake City, $581 million from the Salt Lake City School District, and $84 million from city libraries.

The Utah League of Cities and Towns has also urged Herbert to veto the bill, arguing it "violates two core principles of local control  land use authority and local property tax increment  and may be unconstitutional," according to a letter signed by league leadership and sent to the governor's office last week.

"The sweeping consequences of SB234 are bigger than one city or a proposed inland port authority," the letter states. "We believe signing this bill into law will likely result in litigation, and in turn delay the development of the shared objective."

Meanwhile, a groundswell of opposition from concerned west-side Salt Lake City residents was in its beginning stages, with people gathering to plan how to urge Herbert to veto the bill.

Later Wednesday night, the Jordan Meadows and Westpointe community councils held a joint meeting, where about three dozen residents came to ask questions from Salt Lake City legislators about the inland port and express concerns.

"I'm worried about the insidiousness about the way they're doing this," said Natalee Thompson, a resident who lives in an agricultural area within the boundary included in the port authority, near the north end of the Salt Lake City International Airport. "I don't think it's transparent. I think it's underhanded."

Charlotte Fife-Jepperson, a resident of Poplar Grove neighborhood, asked who had called the governor yet to express concerns. About a dozen people raised their hands.

"Everybody needs to do it," she said. "They need to know how we feel."

Dennis Faris, chairman Salt Lake Community Network, said "all we have to do is throw their own words back at them," noting that state leaders have often argued for local control in issues like Bears Ears.

Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, and Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, attended the meeting and fielded questions along with City Councilman James Rogers and some staffers from Biskupski's office.

Escamilla told attendees she and Hollins met with Herbert earlier Wednesday, and while it's not known yet what he will do, they were hopeful of the possibility the bill could be vetoed and an alternative version might be passed in a special session. But if that happens, then the new bill would need to gain support from the rest of the Legislature, Escamilla noted.

The group then began plotting strategies to reach out to the governor and other legislators, including social media campaigns, an online petition, and a sit-in in the governor's office.PLEASANT GROVE  The world's largest aerospace company is betting that the micro-radar innovation coming out of Utah's Fortem Technologies will be a major player in managing the coming explosion of autonomous flying drones.

Fortem announced Thursday that Boeing is among a small group of investors in a $15 million, Series A funding round that will help the company continue to develop and expand the market for its artificial intelligence-driven TrueView radar system.

Fortem's system can simultaneously track thousands of objects  each smaller than a soda can traveling at high velocity  across a 360-degree field of view. Lightweight and low power, the company's TrueView R20 weighs only 1.5 pounds and consumes less power than an LED street light. The technology potentially enables the safe operation of autonomous flying vehicles beyond a flight manager's visual line of sight

By cracking the difficult (visual line-of-sight) challenge, we unlock emerging forms of flight, including everything from autonomous air taxis to lifesaving deliveries. said Timothy Bean, CEO of Fortem Technologies Inc. With the wonderful support from all our investors and the addition of Boeing and Mubadala, Fortem can scale more quickly to simultaneously improve airspace safety and secure critical infrastructure.

Boeing joined venture fund leader Data Collective, Mubadala Investment Co., Manifest Growth, New Ground Ventures and founding investor, Signia Venture Partners, in its effort to back Fortem. The investment comes via Boeing's HorizonX Ventures unit, continuing a penchant for identifying and investing in leading innovators in the autonomous flight sector.

HorizonX Managing Director Brian Schettler said Fortem's TrueView technology distinguished the company in a broadening field of innovators tackling autonomous drone development.

"We see this as a perfect fit," Schettler said. "We gravitated to the technology and capabilities that the Fortem team has, and what that will do to help enable a future of autonomous air vehicles."

The investment compliments other HorizonX activity in the past year, including the acquisition of air taxi vehicle developer Aurora Flight Sciences and funding support of drone navigation company Near Earth Autonomy and hybrid electric jet innovators Zunum Aero.

While the money matters on both sides of the equation  HorizonX expects to see a return on the investment and Fortem will use the capital to continue to grow  one of the biggest benefits may be in the technology sharing that comes with the fiscal partnership.

Boeing is an aerospace behemoth, with revenues in excess of $94 billion in 2017. Behind that volume of business is an expansive portfolio of assets including a supply chain that involves tens of thousands of companies, thousands of in-house engineers and hundreds of development laboratories. The company is even developing its own freight/package carrying drone that features eight propellers and a potential load capacity of 500 pounds.

Schettler said HorizonX sees its relationship with Fortem and its other investment companies as one that goes beyond the monetary transaction.

"Thats one of our key philosophies with our investments," Schettler said. "We realize a good startup can get capital from anywhere. What we want to bring is not just the check, but that technology and development cross-pollination that we can engage in with these companies."

For Fortem, Bean noted that the advantages accompanying the partnership with Boeing were enormous.

"Gaining the exposure to Boeing's vast resources as the aerospace industry's leader cannot be compared," Bean said. "The investment, coupled with the technological support, will accelerate the work we're doing exponentially."

Fortem's radar technology is poised to play a role both in the ground-based infrastructure that will be required to keep track of things when thousands of vehicles are flying overhead, as well as vehicle-installed detection systems to ensure that individual craft are operating safely while aloft.

Bean noted that while billions of investment dollars have gone, and are going, into the development of various autonomous flying vehicles, including those designed to carry cargo and others aiming to move humans around, the near-ground airspace is not yet teeming with drones. The missing element, Bean said, is a viable assurance of safe operations being made to the Federal Aviation Administration, and Fortem appears to be well-situated to be a part of that regulatory solution.

"I believe that the barrier that needs to be addressed is the safety issue," Bean said. "Working with our partners like Boeing and other air taxi customers, well help prove the safety case to the regulators. Once that is established, theyll start to provide waivers and start to expand operations."

Pleasant Grove-based Fortem has been on an incredible success arc since launching less than two years ago. The Series A funding brings the company's total venture input to around $30 million, and Bean believes the company can reach a $1 billion valuation in just a few years.SALT LAKE CITY  Mormon missionaries serving outside the United States along with all Americans living overseas would be counted in the census under legislation Rep. Rob Bishop proposed Thursday.

Currently, only those in the military and working for the federal government abroad are captured in the constitutionally mandated once-a-decade head count. States with high numbers of overseas residents might receive less funding for federal programs and could be underrepresented in Congress.

"This must change," Bishop, R-Utah, wrote in a March 8 letter to his colleagues seeking support for his bill.

His bill would require the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure that all Americans living abroad are "fully and accurately" counted and properly attributed to their states. Bishop said if the legislation were to pass quickly it could apply to the 2020 census. The bill itself, however, targets 2030.

About 9 million Americans live overseas, according to a 2016 State Department estimate. Many are providing short- or long-term humanitarian aid or serving ecclesiastical missions, Bishop said.

If the Census Bureau makes an exception for military and federal workers, there's no logical reason to exclude those in the private sector, he said.

"If you can identify where these people are, they should be counted," Bishop said. "If you're doing it for some, you might as well do it for as many as humanly possible."

Census results are used for making decisions at all levels of government, including determining congressional districts, building schools and roads and allocating money for health and educational services.

Utah is disproportionately disadvantaged because the Census Bureau refuses to do what it's capable of doing.

Utah experienced what Bishop is trying to correct when 11,176 Utah residents serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints overseas weren't counted in 2000.

The state fell 857 people short of gaining a fourth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives based on a Census Bureau formula to determine House seats. The size of the House is set by law, not by the Constitution.

Imputation, or guessing, boosted North Carolina's population count by 32,457, while it added only 5,385 to Utah's total, giving the congressional seat to North Carolina.

Utah challenged the Census Bureau's counts and counting methods, taking its arguments all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel rejected the state's first lawsuit asking that Utahns abroad be counted and the high court refused to hear the case.

The Supreme Court later decided to hear a second lawsuit in which Utah argued that imputation or estimating the number in a household when residents aren't home is unconstitutional.

The court decided 5-4 that estimating household size, which has been used since the 1960 census, is legal.

"We're going to make a push for it one more time," said Bishop, noting that Utah's three other House members back the bill. "Let's see if we can get this done before there is an impact in 2020. If Utah's on the bubble (for a fifth congressional seat), I want us to be favorably considered."United Airlines had a rough week when its come to dogs on flights.

On Wednesday, United unexpectedly shipped a Kansas-bound dog all the way across the world to Japan, CNN reported.

Kara Swindle and her family went to find their German Shepherd named Irgo when they arrived in Kansas City, but only found a Great Dane in their pets place, according to KCTV 5.

Both Irgo and the Great Dane briefly stopped over in Denver, where they were sent on connecting flights. However, the dogs ended up on the wrong flights.

"They had no idea where the dog was," Swindle told CNN. "I burst into tears instantly because this has just all been a whirlwind. They didn't know (where Irgo was) until 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday when the plane landed in Japan."

I dont understand how things like this happen.. my poor irgy is now sitting in Japan because of United Airlines, Denver International Airports & Paradise 4 Paws Denvers screw up.. Posted by Kara Swindle on Wednesday, March 14, 2018

The dog was found OK in Japan.

But Swindle said Irgo didnt have any water or food for the 16-hour flight to Japan. She said her dog also has an ear infection but didn't have any medication for the three days the pet has been in Japan.

United Airlines issued an apology over the incident, as reported by The Huffington Post.

"An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible. We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened," the airline said

United plans to send Irgo from Narita, Japan, to Wichita, Kansas, on Thursday. He will be flown to Denver and then Wichita.

As CBS News reported, the airline recently changed its pet policy to disallow pets in the aircraft cabin. Only small dogs who can fit inside a carrier underneath the seat are allowed.

United faced criticism earlier this week after a familys pet died in an overhead bin aboard one of the airline's flights, according to NPR.

A flight attendant allegedly arranged for the family to place their 10-month-old bulldog in the overhead bin, even though the family wasnt breaking any rules with having the pet onboard the plane.

The pet died during the three-hour trip from Houston to New York.

United accepted full responsibility, according to a statement sent to NPR.

"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."Steven Olsen said one of several goals behind the renovations to Historic Nauvoo is to help visitors understand and appreciate the spiritual significance of the temple that was absolutely central to the historical city."

"I suspect, that done right, this will be quite an addition to the local cultural environment and not just the Mormon religious heritage, said Olsen, the senior curator for historic sites in the Church History Department, in a recent article by the Herald-Whig.

Structures in Nauvoo, an early historic site for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are undergoing renovations and upgrades to make the site more authentic and improve visitor experience, with projects to be completed by 2039, the bicentennial of Nauvoos founding, according to the article.

The first phase includes restoring three historic homes in the Temple District: the home of temple architect William Weeks; the home of Esther and William Green, who worked on temple construction, and the home of Marinda and Orson Hyde, one of the early Twelve Apostles of the church. The home of Edward and Anna Hunter, where Joseph Smith received revelation about salvation for the dead while he was in hiding from those who sought to take his life, will also be re-created.

Other phase one plans include adding a building to display original stones of the Nauvoo Temple and re-creating the West Grove, a wooded area where Joseph Smith and the early members of the church held public meetings.

"We're more mindful of participatory learning as opposed to going from room to room and hearing the missionary tell you what happened in that room, Olsen said in the article. We'll engage in more participatory learning activities, maybe more group activities and other kinds of things to enrich, enliven and make the experience more memorable.

Mayor John McCarty told the Herald-Whig the changes will be beneficial to the city and enhance tourism in the area.

"The fact they're looking to enhance the experience will definitely make an improvement for Nauvoo," McCarty said. "What they're hoping for is to get new people and more people to return.

To read the full article by the Herald-Whig about the churchs plan to improve the visitor experience in Nauvoo, click here.SALT LAKE CITY  Robert Abrams, a Jewish leader and former New York attorney general, has toured Mormon temples before.

As he toured the newly renovated Jordan River Temple with Jewish and LDS Church leaders Wednesday, he again considered what the two religions have in common.

To go through this temple today and to see so many of the Jewish Old Testament themes found in this temple and memorialized in this temple  it just really reaffirms the connection between (Jews and Mormons), Abrams said in a Mormon Newsroom article. And there's a powerful feeling of peace when you come out of the temple.

Abrams was one of 11 Jewish leaders from New York and Los Angeles who came to Utah on March 13-14 for a tour of the Jordan River Temple and welfare facilities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a Mormon Newsroom article. The visit is part of an ongoing interfaith relationship between LDS Church leaders and Jewish leaders.

Several high-ranking Latter-day Saint leaders hosted the delegation, including Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as well as Sister Jean B. Bingham, general Relief Society president; Sister Joy D. Jones, general Primary president, and Sister Neill F. Marriott, second counselor in the general Young Women's presidency.

In addition to seeing the Jordan River Temple, the delegation visited Welfare Square, the Humanitarian Center, the Family History Library and Temple Square.

Elder Christofferson has been nurturing friendships with Jewish leaders for several years and encouraged church members to do the same.

Only good can come out of mutual understanding, Elder Christofferson said in the article. And as we know each other better, we resolve conflicts that might exist, we avoid conflicts and we're able to collaborate in doing good things together. It multiplies our capacity, I think, on all sides to accomplish our own ministry. And we're just better people with that kind of association.

Read the entire article by clicking here.Artifacts Stolen by California Man Recovered and Returned to Belize

Cultural artifacts that were smuggled out of Belize and recovered by Special Agents of the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB) have been successfully repatriated to their country of origin. The artifacts were returned at a recent ceremony when the United States and Belize signed a cultural property agreement, solidifying their collaboration to combat looting and trafficking of cultural objects.

During a cultural property investigation conducted by ISB Special Agents, investigators discovered that a US citizen from California visited a number of archeological sites in Belize in 2000. Searching for artifacts, the man traveled to inland sites as well as on a caye in southern Belize. On the caye, he found an archeological site containing human remains, pottery fragments, at least one jade bead, and flaked stone material. He took many of the artifacts back to California with him without the permission of Belize, and did not declare them upon re-entry into the US.

The man made two subsequent trips to Belize as late as 2007 specifically to revisit the caye and collect any artifacts he could find. He smuggled all of the cultural property he found on his three trips through the Belize City airport.

ISB Special Agents were able to recover only part of the entire collection of stolen artifacts. These recovered items were returned to Belize through the US Embassy and the US Department of State. Among the chert tools and debitage was a piece of special importance that the Belize Institute of Archeology was particularly pleased to receive.

With the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Categories of Archeological Material of Belize, the US and Belize set goals to protect cultural heritage and reduce the incentive to pillage. They are also working to increase lawful access to cultural objects and awareness of world heritage by encouraging interchange of materials for scientific, cultural, and educational purposes.

The United States has been unwavering in its commitment to protect and preserve cultural heritage in Belize and around the world, the US Embassy in Belmopan, Belize, said in a statement. Our policy is clear: the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage and the trafficking of cultural property are unacceptable.

Source: NPSPresident Trump's order prohibiting Broadcom from taking over Qualcomm is all about China, especially Huawei.

The orders argument was based on a March 5 letter from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS). It said Broadcoms attempted takeover of Qualcomm could pose a risk to U.S. national security. Huawei, was everywhere to be seen in the letter.

For example, CFIUS worried that Chinese companies, including Huawei, have increased their engagement in 5G standardization working groups as part of their efforts to build out a 5G technology. It added that 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 U.S.

Qualcomm had come up with many pretty wild arguments against the deal, but it never landed on the one proffered by CFIUS--a lack of R&D for 5G could give Huawei an edge to dominate the 5G world, threatening U.S. national security.

Click here to read more ...



Nara Rohit To Essay A Silent Role

Yes, you heard that right! The popular Tollywood actor, Nara Rohit, is also ready to participate in the recent trend where several Telugu actors have been experimenting with their roles that depict various disorders. Where all are experimenting with their roles, it seems that Nara Rohit is also gearing up for a challenging role.





According to reports, Nara Rohit is all set to play a dump person in his upcoming next. It has been reported that the actor will portray a full-length 'mute' person. Known for coming up with experimental roles, the star is ready to act in another contrasting role.





There are reports, when the director and storywriter narrated the story to Rohit, he immediately agreed to do it as he felt that the role was an emotional one and can showcase his performance well. The film is directed by PB Manjunath and is officially launching on Ugadi. It is yet to see how this new avatar of Nara Rohit will appeal to the audience.





For latest movie reviews, ratings and trailers, download the Desimartini App.





Source: deccanchronicle.comGoogle has announced that will open source the image segmentation tools behind the Portrait Mode in its AI-powered camera. This move should allow other developers to integrate and utilise the Portrait Mode feature used by the companys Pixel 2 smartphones. Thereby letting them create camera apps that offer better Portrait shots, even though they may feature a single camera.

The code, called DeepLab-v3+, is an image segmentation tool that allows the phone to differentiate between the foreground and background elements. The tool helps to categorise each pixel with labels like sky, or person. This lets it differentiate between the foreground and background. As a result, the device will be able to apply blurring effects between the background and foreground more accurately. Which is essentially the basis of a good Bokeh shot.

Liang-Chieh Chen and Yukun Zhu, Software Engineers, Google Research said in the companys official blog post, Modern semantic image segmentation systems built on top of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have reached accuracy levels that were hard to imagine even five years ago, thanks to advances in methods, hardware, and datasets. We hope that publicly sharing our system with the community will make it easier for other groups in academia and industry to reproduce and further improve upon state-of-art systems, train models on new datasets, and envision new applications for this technology.

It should also be noted that while other manufacturers also offer features similar to portrait mode, they usually require a secondary camera to judge depth. Googles Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones offer the feature through the use of a single camera. Further, the camera used on the two Pixel 2 devices is also regarded as one of the best you can get on a smartphone right now.There is local concern in Bundoran about a blank no bathing recommendation made recently for Tullan Strand, a local councillor has claimed.

Cllr Barry O'Neill said it would appear that a recommendation from coroner Dr. Denis McCauley, following an inquest into the death of Cpl Gavin Carey at Tullan Strand in July 2016, has been accepted as the status quo.

He asked: Is Donegal County Council just going to implement the recommendation?

Cllr O'Neill feels there is much ground to cover before this is the case and he wants all the stakeholders and the general public to have a say in any final decision to close the beach to bathers.

What is in the coroner's report is basically a recommendation. Is Donegal County Council just going to implement the recommendation? There is a concern in the local community about the 'blank no bathing' recommendation, he said.

Outlining the process before any such decision would be arrived at, including the need for a by-law to be introduced, he said there would have to be public consultation.

The councillors , the county council, the Irish Defence Forces, Irish Water Safety and the general public should all have a role or say, he stated.

Irish Water Safety

Referencing the Irish Water Safety study which also recommended the beach not be used for bathing, he said the planned renewal of public access to the beach by Donegal County Council and the consultation with stakeholders on the use of the beach for bathing or otherwise, should go hand-in-hand.

He repeated his call for the community to be involved and it was his view that once the process was completed, it would be a matter for the members of the Municipal District to decide on the future of bathing at Tullan Strand.

Cllr O'Neill, who was speaking at Tuesday's Municipal District meeting, asked that an update on progress to open public access to the beach be made available for their next meeting as this was also a much talked about local issue.One in five people (21%) said that Packie Bonners penalty save against Romania at Italia 90 is their favourite Irish moment ever while 11% of those who responded to a survey say they would like to spend St Patrick's Day with Daniel O'Donnell.

The survey, conducted by Core Research among 1,000 people for Brady Family Ham, found that one in ten of us would like to spend the St Patricks Day parade with An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD while the celebrities we would most like to spend the parade with are Ladybird star Saoirse Ronan and Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy.

13 percent also said theyd like to spend the parade with Conor McGregor, 11 percent with Daniel ODonnell, and 6 percent with model Roz Purcell.

The research was commissioned by Brady Family Ham as the brand launches its Low Food Miles campaign this month, celebrating its Irishness and the fact that it is 100% Irish, always.

St Patricks Day

On Saturday, 39% of us will watch Ireland take on England in the rugby while one third of us (32%) will watch or attend a parade.

Despite what people might think, the Irish language is far from obsolete as 1 in 10 claim to speak Irish at least once a week with females (69 percent) claiming to speaking Irish more often than males (65 percent).

We all know a cupla focail that will help us prove our Irishness but the real test is in the writing. The survey shows that 75 percent correctly wrote Hello, how are you? in Irish.

Home comforts

Glenroe and Father Ted were ranked by survey respondents as the joint number one most Irish television series ever made followed by Ros na Run and Mrs Browns Boys.

11% of those who responded to a survey say they would like to spend St Patrick's Day with Daniel O'DonnellNissan and Mercedes are rumoured to be teaming up yet again to create the Japanese brands next Z car.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the cult car classic that first debuted as the 240Z in 1969 and saw numerous iterations over the years, culminating in the current 370Z that will be 10 years old in the models jubilee.

But it might not be the last Z, as Japanese publication response.jp reports European sources confirmed the two automotive giants are planning to collaborate and share costs on a new coupe platform that would underpin the future Z car and a new Benz model.

In a move that could mimic the potential success Toyota and BMW face with their similar Supra and Z4 co-development program, it wouldnt be the first time Nissan and Mercedes have worked together.

Beyond the latest X-Class ute which is based on Nissans Navara, Mercedes supplied Nissan licensing for the original L16 engine that was revised as the six-cylinder L24 and L26 powerplants used in the coveted 240Z and 260Z.

Its also not the first time Daimler-Mercedes has developed a coupe for another make, supplying its then-owned Chrysler company with the Crossfire two-door between 2004-2008 that was based on its older SLK platform.

And like the current Mercedes GLA-based QX30 thats badged by Nissans premium offshoot Infiniti, the upcoming coupe might share both engines and architecture with the three-pointed star.If youre reading this because youre looking to find an affordable and sensible city car, stop reading now.

The new Citroen C3 is not a cheap and cheerful basic runabout. Its stylish, sophisticated and priced at the premium end of the market. So if youre looking for a city car that makes a statement, in the same way a Mini Cooper or Fiat 500 does, then read on because the new C3 may be right up your alley.

The new city car represents more than just a new model for Citroen in Australia though, it also represents the start of a new era for the French brand under the stewardship of new distributors, Inchcape, that took over Citroen and Peugeot in 2017.One-off Airbnb hosts in Louth are slow at coming forward with tax returns and are being warned to file all of their taxes correctly to avoid the "wrath of Revenue".



Taxback.com, who are the tax partners for the private rentals platform Airbnb, say that the average amount earned by hosts in Louth was 2,900 per year.

A comparative analysis of their own client database combined with new stats released by Airbnb for the Irish market reveals that there is probable widespread non-disclosure of hosting activities when it comes to tax obligations despite the companies best efforts to highlight the issue.



The tax refund specialists say they believe the figures suggest that while professional or regular hosts are more likely to get their tax affairs in order, people who rent out their property or rooms less frequently appear to be slow at coming forward  possibly due to a lack of awareness of their tax responsibilities.

"The message we are trying to get across to hosts in Louth is that whether you do it once or 10 times the Revenue can access your data just as easily from Airbnb," a spokesperson for Taxback.com said.



Airbnb's tax partners advised: Given the myriad of tax-deductible expenses out there that can reduce ones tax liability, it is worthwhile ensuring you are compliant, and avoiding the wrath of Revenue.



Barry Flanagan, Director at Taxback.com explained the current situation: "Airbnb is growing in popularity with 1,400 hosts listed in the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow) and the number of inbound guests to the region increasing by 82% in 2017.



Anecdotal evidence leads us to believe that simply not enough people are declaring this income to Revenue quite probably because they dont know they have to. This is despite Airbnb themselves highlighting this. Our concern is that this level of non-compliance will draw the attention of Revenue, as Airbnb report this income to Revenue annually, and unsuspecting and/or unknowing hosts will be hit with penalties and punishment as a result.



Taxback.com looked at the average tax reliefs claimed for the last 2 years and found that:



Average tax reliefs claimed in 2017 is 7609

Average tax reliefs claimed in 2016 is 5386



A Taxback.com spokesperson said: "However, the average amount earned by hosts in Louth was 2900 annually. The assertion were making, based on these figures and our interaction with Airbnb hosts on a regular basis, is that those who are coming to us to file their tax return are earning well above the average, which we believe suggests that its the more professional Airbnb hosts who are registering for tax purposes and those who only host a couple of times a year are not.



Taxback.com say the Top 5 Tax Deductible Expenses for Airbnb hosts are:



Electricity

Broadband

Gas

Host fee

Cleaning fee

Other common allowables include:

Mortgage interest, if the host owns the property

Rent paid, if the host sublets the property

Repairs & maintenance

Services charges

Insurance costs

Accommodation costs  towels, meals, tools

Any associated professional fees e.g. Taxback.com fee

3 Steps to Start



Taxback.com have outlined 3 steps that Airbnb hosts should take to kick-start getting their tax affairs in order:



Consider all your sources of income in addition to that generated through Airbnb

Consider what deductions may be available

Consider whether you can claim any other reliefs or credits, such as for medical expenses.Louth has been selected to take part in Age Friendly Economy, a prestigious EU programme.

Louth's first meeting of stakeholders (SMEs, Dkit, Creative Spark) took place on Thursday 8th of March.

Age Friendly Economy is an EU Erasmus+ project, bringing together partners in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Poland and Denmark. The European Union fund the programme.

The project is being co-ordinated in Louth by the Local Enterprise Office. Louth is known to have an age-friendly, positive attitude, and that is why we were selected to take part, says Sarah Mallon, Assistant Business Adviser in Louth Local Enterprise Office.

The project aims to support individuals and businesses in developing entrepreneurial, innovation and digital skills which in turn will lead to the creation of new products and services demanded by older markets.

Louth had a history of taking part in cross-border, innovative projects, Sarah explains. We also have worked on EU economic projects before and are known for being an age-friendly innovator, she adds.

We had our first meeting in Louth last week, which was attended by stakeholders, Sarah says. There were people from the SME community, representatives from DkITs Lifelong Learning Centre, Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, Creative Spark we also had Mary Deery from Louth County Council and Bernie Bradley from Monaghan County Council, she continues.

Next Thursday and Friday the partners from Europe are coming to Dundalk to meet up, Sarah says. The project leader is Lisburn Castlerea City Council. We also are working with Aging Lab in Andalusia, Spain, the Northern Chamber of Commerce in Szczecin, Poland, Feltech Software Innovations Ltd in Loughrea Galway, and the European E-Learning Institute in Denmark.

The aim of Age Friendly Economy is to support SMEs in innovating their skills in order to develop products for an older market, Sarah explains. The older generation are a huge market, with many people of that age having lots of disposable income.

By catering towards this market, there are direct economic benefits for the companies as people are buying their goods and services, but there is also a wider societal benefit we are all aging after all, Sarah adds.

Each region will be given a toolkit in order to develop their skills. This will be practical for people running SMEs. We are setting up an online course, with different modules, which will help business owners expand their skills, she explains. Entrepreneurs will also learn to tweak their product to suit the older market.

We are planning to trial this online training with 15 SMEs in Louth, reveals the Assistant Business Adviser. Then we will have a business boot camp, where training will be tailored to the businesses who take part.

We also want to set up a collaborative platform to get ideas, to transfer knowledge and to discuss any issues, adds Sarah. We want our local businesses to capitalise on this economic opportunity, especially because Louth is known as an age-friendly place, she adds. At the end of it all we will hold a big event to showcase the progress that has been made.

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Suse recently entered an agreement to expand its relationship with Amazon Web Services, allowing Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications to be sold directly on the AWS Marketplace.

AWS customers that are running SAP workloads on Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications -- a leading platform for SAP Hana and SAP S/4Hana -- will get integrated and streamlined support from AWS and Suse under the agreement.

AWS customers will be able to buy the Suse Linux Enterprise on demand, so they will pay only for what they use.

"This isn't an evolution, but a further support statement that showcases how this new relationship better enables AWS and Suse to deliver SAP solutions on AWS," said Tom Hammond-Doel, AWS global alliance director.

"Enterprises have been embracing open source software and systems for many years," observed Jeff Kaplan, managing director of ThinkStrategies.

"Suse has been a leader in this market for a long time, and this alliance is aimed at helping SAP customers migrate their workloads to the cloud," he told LinuxInsider.

Fast Start

Suse and AWS plan to work together on solutions such as AWS Quick Starts, a template for instant deployment for complex workloads -- an SAP Hana Quickstart and a new SAP Netweaver Quickstart on AWS that leverages Suse Linux, for example.

The market is very competitive because the SAP landscape is changing, Hammond Doel told LinuxInsider.

Customers must move to SAP Hana and SAP S/4 Hana before 2025, when SAP will end support for any database, including SQL Server, Oracle DB and IBM DB2, he said.

"Transitioning to S/4Hana enables customers to undertake their digital transformation journey -- and the platform itself is powered by SAP Hana, which runs exclusively on Linux," Hammond Doel said.

To date, Suse is the leading Linux for SAP Hana and S/4Hana, he noted, and that trend is reflected in the public cloud as well.

Customers will receive Amazon Business support by default, thus providing a single point of contact, noted Bas Kamphuis, general manager of SAP at Amazon Web Services.

The collaboration will help customers deploy and scale SAP Hana workloads on Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications more easily and at a more compelling price point, he added.

Relationship Building

Amazon first certified its platform for SAP applications in 2012. It certified its instances for SAP Hana by 2014, which led to Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications being made available on AWS.

Deployments of SAP Hana workloads have increased since the release of X1 and X1e.32xlarge Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, which are built for in-memory workloads, according to Suse.

The companies first announced their plans for the expanded relationship last year. SLES for SAP would include the High Availability Extension, which allows SAP Hana instances to fail over between availability zones seamlessly, wrote Sabari Radhkrishnan, partner solutions architect at AWS focused on SAP, in an online post. Other enhancements would include page cache management and kernel settings optimized for SAP workloads.

David Jones is a freelance writer based in Essex County, New Jersey. He has written for Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times.



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Dell recently collaborated with the Institute for the Future -- an interesting think tank largely driven by futurists, which focuses on helping firms ride future waves rather than being killed by them -- on a survey that creates a frightening view of 2030. It could be far closer to Terminator than the utopia we once hoped for.

I think more companies should go through a process like this. The reason is that it could help overcome what has become an overwhelming trend to ignore the future and instead focus excessively on quarterly results.

That trend has proven to be a company killer, driving short-term decisions -- like massive layoffs and cutbacks -- that spike income but eventually kill the firm. Dell and the institute surveyed both futurists and thousands of business leaders to assess what the future likely will be and how well prepared we are for it. Their responses are fascinating, and I'll summarize them here.

I'll close with my product of the week: Blade Shadow PC, a new PC in the Cloud service that may represent the future of personal computing.

Half of Business Leaders Are Clueless

One of the big takeaways from the survey is that business leaders collectively had no real clue about the future. Responses were so close to 50/50 on every major question as to be worthless. Business leaders have not been thinking about and discussing the future enough to get to consensus; thus they are inconsistently -- and likely incorrectly -- guessing about the future that will come.

This does not bode well for the long-term strategic investments they are making. A question as simple as "Will automated systems free-up our time?" should have gotten a resoundingly positive response. Yet exactly 50 percent disagreed, suggesting that in their shops, this was not the case, and they doubted it ever would be.

If automation hasn't been freeing up time, then someone clearly has done something very wrong -- and if 50 percent of firms have been deploying technology badly, as this survey suggests, then perhaps some focus should be placed on fixing that.

One particularly frightening response came up in a query about artificial intelligence. When asked for their response to the statement, "We'll learn on the job with AR," 46 percent agreed, implying that they would deploy autonomous machines but only learn how to use them after they were deployed.

If you do not know how to use a thing, how do you select the best thing in the first place? If you were going to create Skynet (the evil AI in the Terminator movie franchise) that's probably how you'd do it. Gee, let's deploy an AI over our weapons systems and then learn how to -- oops, we're dead...

Another troubling response was that only 42 percent believed that offloading undesirable tasks to machines would result in a gain in job satisfaction. So, 58 percent believed that our future -- the future those very folks will be helping to create -- will suck. I'm not even sure how you get there without bad intent.

Think about it: Create a scenario in which a machine does all the stuff you hate about your job, but as a result, your job satisfaction drops. What is implied is that the machine must also be affecting your work in ways you'd like even less. However, the implication is that fixing that just isn't a priority for the majority of business leaders. On the contrary, they seem to expect that with their guidance, employee job satisfaction will degrade.

The survey results also imply that 50 percent of the businesses surveyed not only would fail by 2030, but also that their leaders expected them to fail and weren't prioritizing ways to avoid that outcome. More importantly, if an individual, group or company believes strongly enough that there is no chance of success, then failure likely will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. About half the business leaders appeared to need an attitude adjustment.

Businesses Will Spend Billions to Put Themselves out of Business

Where the survey shows clear intent is with respect to change. Recall that half the companies not only had no real clue about the coming technology but also believed it would make things worse. More than 85 percent indicated that in five years R&D would drive their organization forward, that they would convert to a software-defined business, that they would deliver their product as a service, and that their cybersecurity defense would become effective.

This brings to mind a survey and task force I was part of right before Y2K. We discovered a bunch of companies that appeared underprepared but were reporting they were ready. It made no sense until someone came up with the idea to look at the retirement dates for the related CIOs.

There was a high correlation between the CIOs in the firms that weren't ready but were reporting they were ready and retirement dates prior to 2000. Fortunately, much of this was caught, and we didn't end up in a Mad Max world, but it was a surprisingly close thing. This survey indicates that a lot of business leaders think they will be ready by 2030, but they aren't doing what it will take to be ready. Might want to check their retirement dates.

Here's the thing: Anyone running a race intuitively knows that you have to know where you are going before you start running. Otherwise, there is a high probability that you'll accelerate away from the finish line rather than toward it. This survey indicates that around half of the companies are going to spend a ton of money without knowing where they are going, making things worse.

Missing Advice

The report covering the survey has some great advice on how to go fast, but it lacks advice on where to go. In short, it is strong on executing but weak on strategic direction. That is not unusual. Dell, like any vendor, is focused on what it does -- and what it does isn't what its customers do.

Dell wouldn't be a good place to go to for advice on the future of healthcare. It would, however, be good at helping a healthcare company get where it wanted to go.

In a way, technology firms are like mechanics in a car race. They can help a good driver win a race, but if the driver doesn't know which way to go, or sucks at driving, the mechanic likely will just help the driver get lost or dead faster.

What I find interesting, however, is the embedded advice from Karen Quintos, the chief customer officer at Dell:

"Stronger human-machine partnerships will result in stronger human-human relationships, as companies take a customer-first approach and lead with insights. By applying machine learning and AI to customer data, companies will be able to predict and understand customer behavior like never before."

Wrapping Up: Dell as an Example

This sounds like an excellent place to start to build an idea of where a company should be focusing to evolve into the future. Using machine learning and AI to begin to determine direction would be a powerful first step, but you'd still need to learn how to use those tools before you deployed them. Otherwise, you'd still end up pointed in the wrong direction.

A company like Dell isn't a good place to go for advice on direction -- only for advice on how to get there faster and more efficiently. However, one of the things that makes Dell unique is that it is private, and therefore has significant resistance to the excessive quarterly focus that plagues most other firms. This suggests it can be used as an example of how to determine that direction.

Eliminate the excessive focus on quarterly results (go private if you have to), ensure that leadership is both competent and aligned with the goals of the firm's strategic future (too many CEOs are excessively focused on their own short-term compensation), and create a relatively diverse organization focused like a laser on customer values. That's Dell, and it makes a very nice example of a firm that has set a good direction and is executing against that vision.

Michael Dell's aspirational statement that "we're entering the next era of human-machine partnership, a more integrated, personal relationship with technology that has the power to amplify exponentially the creativity, inspiration, intelligence and curiosity of the human spirit" needs one addition. My suggestion is this: "If you don't set the right goals, all this seemingly wonderful stuff will just put you out of business faster."

Put a different way, putting a rocket on your car could guarantee that you win a race -- unless you are facing a brick wall rather than the race course. So, pointing the car in the right direction first should be a major plan requirement. This study suggests that about 50 percent of the firms plan both to buy rockets and to face them in the wrong direction. If that isn't fixed, it won't end well.

By the way, one final thought: Were I running a team to set strategic goals, Dell's partner in this study would be one of the places I'd go to start. The Institute for the Future is one of the better resources to help you plan for the future you want to live in.

Eventually I am expecting personal computing to move to the cloud, primarily because the aggravation of upgrading, patching and staying ahead of cyberthreats is going up sharply, while the limitations surrounding computing in the cloud are dropping like a rock.

Blade Shadow PC, a service out of France currently in limited release in California, promises a near-term view into that future. For around US$420 a year, you get access to what is basically a dedicated gaming class machine running Windows 10 (Intel Core i7 Xeon, 12GB of Ram, Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics) in the cloud to use as you want, with 4K resolution and some VR support.

While I doubt the dedicated hardware model will be used long term, it provides a stronger performance solution than shared resources now do, thus better anticipating the performance of the future.

Blade's Shadow PC

This is targeting people who want to play PC games, but folks can use the service for anything from running desktop apps to engineering programs.

I expect platform companies like Apple and Microsoft, and major cloud providers like Amazon and Google to enter this space once the technology matures. You can run the service on an older (Windows 7) PC, Android, or its $140 thin client terminal.

Accessories aren't yet where they need to be, and there are some teething issues being reported. It will need 5G to ensure adequate remote (non-WiFi support) to work properly. Still, given that we were talking about the future and Dell, it seemed appropriate to highlight a service that anticipates one aspect of that future. Thus, Blade Shadow PC is my product of the week.

Rob Enderle has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2003. His areas of interest include AI, autonomous driving, drones, personal technology, emerging technology, regulation, litigation, M&E, and technology in politics. He has an MBA in human resources, marketing and computer science. He is also a certified management accountant. Enderle currently is president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, a consultancy that serves the technology industry. He formerly served as a senior research fellow at Giga Information Group and Forrester. Email Rob.



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Google's Chrome Web browser on Thursday began blocking some of the Net's most annoying types of ads.

Chrome's built-in ad filter blocks ads based on standards devised by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group whose membership roster includes Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and The Washington Post.

The group was formed to do something to blunt consumers' bad experiences with advertising on the Web, said CBA spokesperson Brendan McCormick.

"A big symptom of that was ad blocking around the world where consumers were trying to get rid of these annoying ads," he told the E-Commerce Times.

The Web is an ecosystem composed of consumers, content producers, hosting providers, advertisers, Web designers and many others, noted Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Google's vice president for Chrome, in an online post.

"It's important that we work to maintain a balance -- and if left unchecked, disruptive ads have the potential to derail the entire system," he wrote.

"We've already seen more and more people express their discontent with annoying ads by installing ad blockers, but blocking all ads can hurt sites or advertisers who aren't doing anything disruptive," Roy-Chowdhury pointed out.

"By focusing on filtering out disruptive ad experiences, we can help keep the entire ecosystem of the Web healthy, and give people a significantly better user experience than they have today," he added.

Surfer Interruptus

After extensive research involving 40,000 consumers worldwide, the coalition identified a dozen ad types that consumer found the most annoying.

"They're things that tend to interrupt content -- auto-playing video ads with sound, and pop-up ads, for example," CBA's McCormick said.

The ad types Chrome will block are divided into two groups: mobile and desktop.

Types of mobile ads that will be blocked:

Pop-up ads

Prestitial ads

Mobile pages with more than 30 percent ad density

Flashing animations

Poststitial ads that require a countdown to dismiss

Fullscreen scrollover ads

Large sticky ads

Ads that auto-play videos with sound

Desktop ad types blocked by Chrome:

Pop-up ads

Ads that auto-play videos with sound

Prestitial ads with a countdown

Large sticky ads

How It Works

Here's how Chrome ad blocking works: Sites are evaluated by examining a sample of pages from them. Depending on the number of violations of the Better Ads Standards that are found, the site will be given a status of Passing, Warning or Failing.

After a user lands on a page, Chrome's ad filter checks if that page belongs to a site that fails the Better Ads Standards. If so, the network requests on the page -- such as those for JavaScript or images -- are checked against a list of known ad-related URL patterns. If there is a match, Chrome will block the request, preventing the ad from displaying on the page.

When at least one network request has been blocked, Chrome will show the user a message indicating that ad blocking has occurred and provide an option to disable the setting by selecting "allow ads on this site."

For desktop users, the notification in Chrome's address bar will look similar to Chrome's existing pop-up blocker. Android users will see a message in a small infobar at the bottom of their screen and can tap on "details" to see more information and override the default setting.

Ad Blockers Not Going Away

By building ad blocking into Chrome, Google wants to enhance the consumer's experience with advertising, noted Josh Crandall, CEO of NetPop Research.

"They want to support an advertising experience that's beneficial to consumers," he told the E-Commerce Times. "If it's beneficial to consumers, it will ultimately be beneficial to advertisers."

Google's action is a "cleanup move," remarked Sean Blanchfield, CEO of PageFair.

"Chrome, as the majority browser, is going to block the worst of the worst of ads, which mostly low-quality websites tend to deal in," he told the E-Commerce Times.

While including ad blocking in Chrome may be an effort to slow down consumer adoption of ad blocking extensions, that may not happen, Blanchfield noted.

"People use ad blockers for all kinds of reasons," he said. "They're concerned about security and privacy, bandwidth and page performance. Google's move doesn't speak to any of those at all."

Safari, Firefox Will Follow

Now that Chrome, which has about 60 percent of the browser market, has built-in ad blocking, other browser makers will be taking notice, NetPop's Crandall noted.

"Google, as the leader in the browser space, is sending a signal to other browser makers and technology providers in the market, and they will take that into consideration," he said.

Other browser makers already have gone further than Google when it comes to building anti-tracking features into their software, Blanchfield added.

"Safari and Firefox will do, at a minimum, what Google has done to block annoying ads," he said, "but it's very unlikely that Google is going to block tracking, because Google's business model depends on it."

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.



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As Amazon sets consumer expectations for rapid delivery to the home, companies in nearly every industry have been recognizing that they must move to the cloud to keep pace. This means revamping their transportation and logistics systems to meet their customers' escalating delivery expectations.

These rising demands have been fueling the growth of a new generation of cloud-based, Software as a Service solutions to provide end-to-end product delivery and fulfillment capabilities more cost-effectively. They also have been forcing nearly all software vendors in this market to expand their functional capabilities to address the full lifecycle of supply chain management requirements -- from fleet to financial management.

All you have to do to recognize the changing face of the consumer retail market is pay attention to the growing number of packages piling up on your neighbor's front step. The explosive growth of the home delivery business also has been influencing the industrial, business-to-business world.

Getting the right package to the right place at the right price has become a fundamental requirement to remain competitive in today's on-demand world. Whether you're selling pizzas or industrial products, shipping them on time at a competitive price is essential to ensure customer satisfaction and success.

Although the growing competition among the major retailers in the consumer world has been getting the bulk of the attention, B2B companies targeting specific industry requirements also have been facing greater logistics and delivery challenges.

These challenges have been compounded by the redefinition of transportation services, thanks to Uber and Lyft. Just as Amazon has set the bar for rapid delivery in the consumer world, Uber and Lyft have set new rules for the employment and management of workers in the delivery business.

The Supply Chain and the Cloud

Of course, none of these innovations would be possible without the connectivity and analytics powered by the cloud. The cloud has provided new ways to connect and track the vehicles that transport products from warehouse to residential doorsteps and industrial loading docks. The cloud also has delivered a new generation of software applications to manage every piece of the supply chain management lifecycle process.

Supply chain and logistics requirements have been driving savvy B2B companies to move to the cloud.

For instance, approximately three-quarters of the cloud workloads through 2021 will be enterprise-driven and will employ SaaS apps to get the job done, Cisco Systems' latest Global Cloud Index survey report indicates.

Database/analytics and the Internet of Things will be the fastest-growing applications within the enterprise segment, experiencing a 21 percent CAGR from 2016 to 2021, or a 2.6-fold jump over the five-year period, the Cisco survey report predicts.

Given the more complicated and demanding nature of fulfillment and logistics, the supply chain management market will jump nearly 50 percent over the next four years, from US$13 billion in 2017 to $19 billion by 2021, Gartner has predicted.

During the same period, SaaS-based SCM sales will grow substantially, while on-premises licenses will decline significantly, according to Gartner.

A Closer Look

However, today's logistical challenges also have been redefining how SCM systems operate.

Two-thirds of companies surveyed believed advanced analytics would be critically important to their supply chain operations in the next two to three years, Hackett Group researchers found.

These expectations have been driving the global connected logistics market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 30 percent through 2020 according to Technavio.

Satisfying today's rising logistics and supply chain management needs means more than just addressing day-to-day fleet management and fulfillment requirements.

Forty-four percent of supply chain leaders have undertaken enhancements of their enterprise resource planning systems to gain greater supply chain-wide visibility, based on the Hackett Group survey report, in order to track and control every aspect of their supply chain operations more easily.

In response, the software vendors have been trying to expand their product portfolios to provide a full lifecycle of solutions and become strategic sources for their customers.

All Aboard

Descartes Systems Group is one example of a software vendor that has been contending with these challenges.

The company provides SaaS solutions to improve the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Descartes' solutions specifically help companies better route, schedule, track and measure their delivery resources. They also help to plan, allocate and execute shipments. Additionally, they rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; and file customs and compliance documents for imports and exports.

While this would appear to be everything that a company might need from a logistics management standpoint, Descartes recently acquired Aljex Software, a cloud-based provider of back-office transportation management solutions for freight brokers and transportation companies, to help Descartes customers automate their logistics and supply chain business processes.

As the "delivery economy" becomes a more prominent part of every industry, carefully managing every aspect of the logistics process will become equally important.

Cloud-based, SaaS solutions will be the preferred method of managing this increasingly complex and essential business process. Further, the nature of these SaaS solutions has been evolving to address the expanding expectations of consumers and B2B companies alike. The path to successful delivery methods will be to get on the cloud or be left at the curb.

Jeff Kaplan has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2009. His focus is on cloud computing, SaaS, IT management, managed services and the Internet of Things. He is managing director of THINKstrategies. Email Jeff.



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Facebook has millions of users in the European Union, and a German court recently ruled against the company in a case involving its Privacy Policy. Few ever read privacy policies except judges, who must examine them when challenges arise.

The new EU General Data Protection Regulations, which go into effect on May 25, will make things even more complicated.

If you have any customers who are EU residents, the new GDPR will impact you.

What Happened to Facebook?

The GDPR, an overhaul of the 1995 European Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC), extends extraterritorial jurisdictions and unambiguously affirms certain decisions asserted by European case law.

However, the language of the GDPR does not mean there are not still outstanding questions. A German court earlier this year ruled that Facebook's terms of use did not comply with informed consent.

Informed consent is specific under EU rules. Article 4(11) of the GDPR defines consent as

"any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her."

freely given

specific

informed

unambiguous

affirmative

Five criteria must be met to constitute consent:

Unambiguous consent must include a statement or a clear affirmative action indicating agreement, which is primarily where Facebook ran afoul.

Facebook and many U.S. websites use default privacy settings. The German court found several of those settings were difficult for the user to find and change. By implementing default settings, Facebook had failed to get informed consent.

What Did Facebook Do?

The intent of this article is not to attack Facebook. In fact, Facebook has made several changes to the way it handles privacy protections since the German case was filed. It is meant to be a wake-up call to other companies that may have a similar approach to pushing privacy settings by default and assuming that privacy declarations buried in their terms-of-service will suffice.

"If consent is bundled up as a non-negotiable part of terms and conditions it is presumed not to have been freely given," states Article 29 of the Data Protection Working Party Guidelines on Consent under Regulation 2016/679.

Said another way, if a party cannot make use of a good or service without accepting terms of service that contain privacy declarations, the consent is not freely given and violates the elements of informed consent. This approach to security is contrary to the way many U.S. companies operate.

U.S. companies commonly include their data handling and protection terms within a long, legalese-heavy terms of service policy. These "click-through" terms, while commonly upheld in U.S. courts, likely would not pass muster in the EU.

"Blanket acceptance of general terms and conditions cannot be seen as a clear affirmative action to consent to the use of personal data," states Article 29 of the Data Protection Working Party Guidelines on Consent. "The GDPR does not allow controllers to offer pre-ticked boxes or opt-out constructions that require an intervention from the data subject to prevent agreement (for example 'opt-out boxes')."

A U.S.-based company may use an alert box full of legalese and an "OK" box, but this is not considered an affirmative action under the EU rules.

Achieving Compliance

So, what must an entity do to comply with the EU rules? This may be the most difficult part of compliance. The Article 29 guidelines propose a methodology that would impact most U.S. businesses:

"The term explicit refers to the way consent is expressed by the data subject. It means that the data subject must give an express statement of consent. An obvious way to make sure consent is explicit would be to expressly confirm consent in a written statement. Where appropriate, the controller could make sure the written statement is signed by the data subject, in order to remove all possible doubt and potential lack of evidence in the future."

Clearly, requesting a written statement from the data subject is well outside the normal business practices of U.S. companies and likely would be impractical for many online activities.

Online businesses, instead, likely would need to implement a multi-step approach to gaining consent. As an example, a data subject could be asked to fill out a form online, which would generate an email, which in turn would require the data subject to reply with specific text. That would allow the business to show -- and maintain a record of -- explicit consent.

Of course there would be shortcomings with this approach as well. How long would the consent be valid? How would a company update privacy terms? What if there were multiple components of personal information involved? Would a business need to develop multiple steps for each data value?

As court cases like the Facebook decision evolve and interpret the GDPR, businesses will have to stay nimble and responsive in their data gathering processes and procedures.

Edward Block has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2017. His focus is on information security and data privacy. Block is a senior attorney at Gardere Wynne Sewell. Before practicing law, he spent 20 years as an information security professional in a variety of roles, from network security management to chief information security officer for the State of Texas. His blog covers information security and data privacy topics.

Peter Vogel has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2010. His focus is on technology and the law. Vogel is a partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell, and Chair of its Internet, eCommerce & Technology Team. He tries lawsuits and negotiates contracts dealing with IT and the Internet. Before practicing law, he received a master's in computer science and was a mainframe programmer. His blog covers IT and Internet topics. Email Peter.

Eric Levy has been an ECT News Network columnist since 2017. His focus is on compliance, privacy and data security. Levy is a senior attorney at Gardere Wynne Sewell, where he assists clients with HIPAA, FERPA and Gramm-Leach-Bliley compliance, and with responses to data intrusions and breaches.



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Healthcare might offer the best example of the potential for vertical market or industry-oriented customer relationship management, but most people in CRM may not understand or realize this. Healthcare is, after all, a bit of a stretch from what we do in the enterprise or small and mid-sized business world, but perhaps it shouldn't be.

In both spheres we see a relatively small number of highly paid and overworked people addressing the needs of a vast number of people -- and their data -- who need something. The big difference between industry and healthcare is that in industry we deal with products and services, and in healthcare we deal with ideas and services.

Ideas?

Yes. The entire healthcare industry can be reduced -- somewhat simplistically, I admit -- to disseminating the idea of wellness. This idea is as concrete as a product, if only to an individual. The healthcare model most of us probably grew up with is break-fix, so wellness needs some explaining.

Plan Monitoring

Break-fix is just what it sounds like, and for a long time healthcare has been about getting better. However, over many years we've discovered that getting better is very hard to do. It's expensive, potentially uncomfortable, and it can take a while.

Germs become resistant to antibiotics, and cancer is a tough challenge from any angle. Better to avoid getting sick, if you can, in the first place. That's the essential point of wellness. No doubt we'd all vote for wellness in 10 out of nine elections, but wellness is not foolproof. It competes with other needs -- like "won't this taste good?" and "I want/need this even if it's bad for me."

At the end of the day we all want to be well in the same way that Saint Augustine wanted to be good -- just not yet. So, the idea of wellness must be sold and maintained, which is where CRM comes in.

At its core, CRM is a set of applications that address the horizontal needs of most businesses. We all need to market, sell to and service customers, and verticalizing a CRM system to support line-of-business amounts to building-in the proper process rules.

In healthcare too, many processes are oriented to manual compliance. We have systems of record that capture all sorts of treatment data, but for implementing treatment plans we rely on human beings. Patients have to remember to take their meds, go to physical therapy, and generally follow a treatment plan.

Supply Management

A story on the opioid crisis, published last week in The New York Times, shows how the manual parts of following treatment plans can be a weak link. The story deals with a court case in an Ohio federal court, where bright minds have been trying to deal with the crisis.

The strong implication is that we need to get some of the opioids out of the patient side of the distribution channel, but that's proving to be difficult. Many people get opioids for a variety of pains but fail to take all the pills or misplace them, or they get stolen. Taking some of these pills out of the distribution channel won't be done easily, because the manual system needs pills sloshing around in it to ensure that when a patient really needs a pill one is available.

If you apply a CRM approach to the problem, you might discover that the distribution channel can shrink with no adverse effects on the patient. Outbound calling tied into a patient CRM database not only can remind people to take their meds but also can manage the inventory in a patient's possession and deliver a new batch when appropriate, or pick up unused pills when needed.

As luck would have it, Salesforce last week made some announcements that can get us closer to that goal. At the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in Las Vegas, Salesforce introduced Health Cloud Care Gaps, a solution that enables providers to monitor a patient's adherence to a care plan. The CRM-based system captures a patient's data and compares it to the patient's plan, noting gaps or deficiencies to be followed up.

Using such an approach can speed recovery and reduce the number of re-admissions to hospital caused by not following post-care plans, which can save money. At the same time, Cerner, a major software vendor in the space, announced it was including Salesforce with its HealthIntent platform for population health management.

My Two Bits

In a certain way, the opioid crisis is the outgrowth of over-reliance on a manual system that desperately needs computerization. The healthcare industry is bursting with great ideas for how to help people live longer and healthier lives -- but in some cases, it has been slow to adopt information technologies that enable better processes, partly because of issues like cost and security.

A cloud computing approach that leverages CRM's systems-of-engagement approach is a good fit for some of the things that ail healthcare IT. It is likely that in a short time, approaches like Salesforce's and Cerner's will become a standard of care that will advance the idea of wellness. It will cause all organizations to adopt similar solutions or risk not being aligned with best practices. Ending the opioid crisis might be an incidental benefit.

Denis Pombriant is a well-known CRM industry researcher, strategist, writer and speaker. His new book, You Can't Buy Customer Loyalty, But You Can Earn It, is now available on Amazon. His 2015 book, Solve for the Customer, is also available there. Email Denis.



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Against the backdrop of a recent slide in bitcoin markets and a record drop in the U.S. financial markets, federal securities regulators and Senate Banking Committee members on Tuesday signaled that additional regulation may be necessary in the rapidly growing area of virtual currency.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton said in testimony before the committee that virtual currency markets are initial coin offerings, or ICOs, that are trading globally, largely outside the scope of regulatory scrutiny.

While embracing innovation, the agency wants to ensure that Main Street cryptocurrency investors be provided the same level of protection that they would receive when trading standard securities.

"The cryptocurrency and ICO markets, while new, have grown rapidly, gained greater prominence in the public conscience and attracted significant capital from retail investors," Clayton told the committee.

There have been times in history when a rush to new investment vehicles has benefited the national economy as well as investors who bet on the right offering, he noted, "but when our laws are not followed, the risk to all investors are high and numerous, including risks caused by and related to poor, incorrect or nonexistent disclosure, volatility, manipulation, fraud and theft."

Clayton cited a recent study that showed 10 percent of proceeds from ICOs, or about US$400 million, have been lost to cyberattacks.

Wild West

Many cryptocurrency platforms are regulated by states under check cashing and money transmission services. However, Clayton and Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, last month warned that they too were keeping an eye on the virtual currency industry.

The SEC last month obtained a court order to block an alleged ICO scam by AriseBank, which promised to raise more than $600 million of a $1 billion goal in two months in what it promised was the world's first decentralized bank.

The court order froze the assets of the bank and appointed a receiver.

Giancarlo on Tuesday testified that regulators were considering a "do no harm" approach, comprised of improved consumer education and some increased regulation over data reporting, capital requirements, cybersecurity standards and measures to prevent fraud and manipulation.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a member of the Banking Committee, raised concerns that bitcoin lacks inherent value, and no one knows where the true floor is located.

Shelby fears bitcoin and other virtual currencies "could cause systemic risk to our whole financial system," he said in a Bloomberg television interview.

Free Falling

The testimony came against the backdrop of a precipitous slide in bitcoin prices, which had fallen below $6,000 for the first time since mid-November, and were off nearly 70 percent from all-time highs recorded in December.

"Volatility is more digestible if the general direction is up," observed Jessica Groopman, industry analyst at Kaleido Insights.

Bitcoin's dramatic volatility, coupled with the uncertaintly of traditional financial markets, could precipitate a flurry of demands from central banks and governments, she told the E-Commerce Times.

There have been recent moves to crack down on virtual currency trading, Groopman noted, including plans for a joint effort to regulate the activity at the upcoming G20 summit, and an announcement last month that Facebook would ban cryptocurrency ads.

Even before Tuesday's hearing there were concerns about bitcoin trading and ICOs from federal agencies, said Gabriel Wang, an analyst at Aite Group.

China and other countries recently have moved to crack down on cryptocurrencies, he told the E-Commerce Times.

"Given what's happened most recently, I think it will be a surprise if we don't have more regulation in terms of who can set up bitcoin exchanges," Wang said.

Economist Nouriel Roubini has ripped the virtual currency market in recent days, calling them crypto-terrorists in a series of tweets and warning that the market would crash to zero.

Get Ready for Most Cryptocurrencies to Hit Zero, Goldman Says

Ouch!https://t.co/8PPz8nx92f  Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) February 7, 2018

Bitcoin is "a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster," said Agustin Carstens, the new general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, in a speech in Frankfurt earlier on Tuesday.

However, investors were pleased by what they saw as a relatively light touch approach to regulation compared to the heightened fears of a crackdown, according to Ronnie Moes, founder of Standpoint Research.

The bad behavior of players at the lower end of the market is not going to get in the way of the more established leaders in the industry, he told the E-Commerce Times.

"I think the market has been overreacting to the headlines," Moes said. "Everything that happens with these penny names at the bottom of the barrel, and these ICOs -- I don't care about that."

David Jones is a freelance writer based in Essex County, New Jersey. He has written for Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times.



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Some small e-commerce website operators may think their relative obscurity offers protection, but the fact is that SMBs are especially vulnerable to cyberattacks and malware.

"Very often small businesses don't feel vulnerable to cyberthreats because they assume cybercriminals prefer to launch attacks on large companies," said Stephanie Weagle, VP of Corero.

"On the contrary, cybercriminals have greater success in targeting small businesses," she told the E-Commerce Times.

The most obvious attacks involve the use of overt malware, such as ransomware, or redirection to potentially competitive websites, noted Chris Olson, CEO of The Media Trust.

Other attacks "may insert embarrassing language on the homepage or stealthily execute unwanted programs such as cryptominers, toolbars and fake surveys," he told the E-commerce Times.

There are three major threats SMB etailers can address effectively.

1. Unvetted Open Source Code

SMBs that use open source software to keep down costs may increase their vulnerability to cyberattack, Olson suggested.

"There is no accountability for the developer community should a feature or plug-in be compromised," he said.

"Thousands of retailers use open source platforms and tools to successfully launch their Web-based commerce operations," Olson noted.

"These open source tools are compromised on a regular basis via extension corruptions or the creation of flawed versions," he explained, "and as traffic and revenues grow, so does the attraction for criminals."

Etailers should avoid using open source code that has not been thoroughly vetted, Olson recommended. "For a modest investment, etailers can identify all executing code, analyze its relevance to website functionality, and remediate anomalous activity that could propagate an attack."

2. Risky Third-Party Web Components

Third-party Web components "are a significant problem for small businesses," said Sam Curcuruto, technology evangelist at RiskIQ.

Their users employ "a lot of plugins and open source code which can be exploited downstream to give hackers access to any Web properties running them," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Among such exploits are keylogger software, which steals credit card data when customers make purchases online.

The Magecart malware package, for example, injects JavaScript code into e-commerce sites running unpatched or outdated versions of shopping cart software from Magento, Powerfront and OpenCart.

Etailers can combat threats posed by third-party Web components by selecting a reputable website hosting provider or Web development company, and "making sure your contracts or agreements with them include routine and periodic security reviews," Curcuruto said.

They also should include a patching service level agreement, or SLA, "that notes how quickly updates will be applied to their servers and machines that might run your website or payment processing," he continued.

That would not only address security concerns, but also ensure compliance with regulations such as PCI-DSS, Curcuruto pointed out.

3. The Mushrooming DDoS Trend

One third of IPv4 addresses were hit by some kind of denial of service (DoS) attack between March 2015 and February 2017, the University of California San Diego reported.

More than a quarter of the targeted addresses in the study were in the United States. Several website hosting companies were major targets. Among the most frequently attacked were GoDaddy, Google Cloud and Wix.

The frequency of distributed DoS, or DDoS, attacks -- which are launched from multiple sources and are almost impossible to stop -- has been rising steadily, as more devices are connected to the Internet and as the Internet of Things takes shape.

"Today's DDoS attacks have evolved into increasingly sophisticated and damaging events," Corero's Weagle said. Dealing with the fallout -- service outages, recovery, communication, and regaining customer trust -- "is a long and costly road."

SMB etailers should pay their trusted ISP or hosting partner for automated DDoS mitigation at the network edge, Weagle recommended.

Your Service Provider's Role

"Leverage the security and infrastructure of Web services such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Azure," advised Don Duncan, security engineer at NuData Security.

The Infrastructure as a Service environment typical of such companies "provides the business continuity needed to keep the lights on," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Further, these services have standard SLAs that let retailers focus on their core business, Duncan pointed out.

Working with such managed service providers will address "SMBs' limited skilled manpower and technologies," said Gabi Reish, VP of product management and marketing at Check Point.

"There is no excuse for SMBs not to integrate a dependable cybersecurity solution," he told the E-Commerce Times.

The cybersecurity industry as a whole "is on a mission to provide strong cybersecurity solutions for SMBs," Reish said. Such solutions "must be very simple to operate and manage."

Cybersecurity Self-Defense

SMB etailers can take several simple steps to protect themselves, RiskIQ's Curcuruto emphasized, even if they lack IT personnel.

Set Google Alerts to track mentions of your company name, your key executives' names, and your product names.

to track mentions of your company name, your key executives' names, and your product names. Maintain password security. "Use complex passwords, as well as different passwords for different online services," Curcuruto advised. "Change them often, especially when a major breach happens with another organization that you have a login to."

"Use complex passwords, as well as different passwords for different online services," Curcuruto advised. "Change them often, especially when a major breach happens with another organization that you have a login to." Keep a clean digital presence online. "Make sure you know where your website is hosted, and the key contacts at the hosting provider," he recommended. "Deactivate or cancel accounts for products and services you don't use, and monitor those that you do by setting up account alerts or enabling two-factor authentication, especially for social networks."

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.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt had fighting words for California in an interview with Bloomberg News Tuesday, deepening a rift between the Trump administration and the Golden State over the future of Obama-era fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks.

The EPA faces an April 1 deadline to determine if the emissions standards set by the previous administration are achievable from 2022 to 2025. California, which has been granted a waiver by the Clean Air Act of 1970 to set its own, tougher standards, has already said it will stick to the Obama-era regulations. The state is currently in the process of drafting its own standards through 2030.

While Pruitt didn't articulate plans to challenge California's waiver, his remarks expressed annoyance with the powerful role the state plays in negotiating national standards.

"California is not the arbiter of these issues," Pruitt said. He acknowledged the waiver, but added "that shouldn't and can't dictate to the rest of the country what these levels are going to be."

He also put a damper on the one route to compromise California has offered.

In an interview with Bloomberg News in September, chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Mary Nichols said she would be open to reconsidering California's standards through 2025 if the automotive industry and the federal government would agree to tougher standards for 2030.

"The price of getting us to the table is talking about post-2025," Nichols said.

But Pruitt seemed to reject that offer Tuesday, saying the EPA is not "presently" considering extending standards.

"Being predictive about what's going to be taking place out in 2030 is really hard," Pruitt said. "I think it creates problems when you do that too aggressively. That's not something we're terribly focused on right now."

The standards in question were agreed to in 2011 by the auto industry, CARB, the EPA, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They require automobiles to reach an average of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025.

The EPA under Obama ruled that the 2022-2025 standards needed no revision, but the Trump administration overturned that ruling.

The automobile industry had lobbied the Trump administration to review the standards, but they also do not want to see California's and the nation's standards diverge, fearing a split would lead to greater expenses, Bloomberg reported.

In an interview with Bloomberg Radio Wednesday, UCLA environmental law professor Ann Carlson said it's likely that the Pruitt EPA will decide to lower standards when it announces its decision in April, while California has already committed to maintaining them.

"Then the big question will be, will they let California do that, or will they try to revoke California's waiver," Carlson said.

Since the EPA has already granted the waiver through 2025, revoking it now would lead California to sue.

Other states like Washington, New York and Oregon, who have chosen to follow California's emissions standards and make up around one third of U.S. vehicle sales overall, could very well join California in court.

But even if the EPA doesn't revoke California's waiver, its decision to lower standards would still put the planet at risk.

"In my view, the auto emissions standards are the most important climate change policy that the Obama administration issued," Carlson said. This is because greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector have actually gone up due to lower gas prices and lobbying by the auto industry to sell SUVs and other large cars.

"If this gets unraveled, we're going to see an even steeper increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector," Carlson said.Tesla has already built the world's largest battery in South Australia, a lightning-fast system that switched on in December and recently saved the energy market millions during an outage.

Now, the Elon Musk-headed venture is vying to build another massive Powerpack system in Colorado for Xcel Energy Inc., an electric utility operating in eight Western and Midwestern states.

Here's how massive Tesla's battery could be, as Electrek detailed:

"In South Australia, Tesla's 100MW/ 129MWh Powerpack project is known as 'the most powerful battery system in the world' and while this proposal in Colorado would not be as powerful with a power capacity of 75 MW, it would be able to run for 4 hours, which would require a much bigger energy capacity of 300 MWh.

"It would be a major energy storage project that would represent twice the energy capacity that Tesla deployed during the entire last quarter. It would consist of as many as 1,500 Powerpack 2 battery systems."

Xcel Energy is currently soliciting for energy storage and renewable energy projects in Colorado. Along with Tesla, power providers NextERA Energy Resources, Convergent and AEIF Battery Storage have also made bids to build a giant battery, as you can see from this chart posted on pv magazine.

One bid from NextEra is a stunning 150-megawatt system that could run for 10 hours and that, as pv magazine noted, "would be the largest planned anywhere in the world at this moment." In fact, four of the proposed battery projects would qualify for the distinction of "world's largest."

Electrek pointed out that while most of Colorado's electricity currently comes from coal and natural gas, the state is ramping up renewable energy and energy storage projects to boost the efficiency and stability of its power grid.(Photo: Peter Williams / WCC)On 18-19 January 2016, some 80 leaders from governments, UN agencies, faith-related as well as non-religious civil society organizations from countries affected by the current refugee crisis in Europe, Middle East, and Africa met at a conference hosted by the World Council of Churches in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to discern how they can proactively influence and shape coordinated collective practical responses.

20 January 2016

A World Council of Churches/UN high level conference on the refugee crisis in Europe, took place at the Ecumenical Center Geneva on Jan. 18-19. Afterwards they issued a joint statement entitled "Europe's Response to the Refuge Crisis, From Origin to Transit, Reception and Refuge, A Call for Shared Responsibility and Coordinated Action."

The statement was issued jointly by the World Council of Churches; UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund; UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund; and UNHCR, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It reads as follows:

On 18-19 January 2016 representatives of governments, UN agencies and civil society organizations, including churches and faith-based organizations, met at a high-level conference on the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, Switzerland, and co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNFPA and UNHCR. The conference aimed to promote principled, human rights-based and coordinated responses to refugees and migrants in Europe and to the root causes of their displacement. The conference provided an opportunity for participating faith-based organizations to apply faith principles (especially the belief that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God) in putting at the centre of the responses the human dignity and rights of all those affected.

In 2015, more than 1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe by land and sea. Arrivals include people fleeing from many other situations of danger and despair, especially in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The refugee and migrant crisis has rapidly become a children's crisis, as children currently account for one in three of all refugees and migrants arriving in Europe. All children, no matter where they are or where they come from, whether they are refugees or migrants, are entitled to care and protection of their dignity, rights and well-being.

PREDOMINANTLY IN EUROPE

The conference focused on responses to the crises, predominantly in Europe but also in the wider context of the 60 million people displaced globally. It examined the entire trajectory of forced displacement, from origin through transit to destination, and acknowledged the challenges that European governments and societies are facing in meeting legal obligations under international refugee, humanitarian and human rights laws while at the same time addressing political, security and economic concerns.

The conference participants call for stronger collective engagement by the international community in seeking political solutions to conflict, violence, inequality and exclusion that are root causes of the current unprecedented global crisis of forced displacement. In particular, we appeal to all those with capacity to help stop the fighting and to alleviate the intolerable suffering in Syria to put aside their political differences and to join in common action for peace now. Protection of women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation, and their access to life-saving sexual and reproductive health services, are essential components of a humanitarian response to the crisis, and are critical investments in future recovery and resilience. In addition, countries neighboring the conflicts from which the refugees are fleeing, and which carry a disproportionately heavy burden of hosting the majority of refugees, must be acknowledged and better supported.

The conference participants concur that alleviating the suffering of people affected by displacement is a shared responsibility, not only in Europe but also elsewhere.

It is vital that governments, civil society, international agencies and others work together in a consistent and coordinated manner to provide a safe and humane environment for refugees and migrants, and to meet the immediate needs of people escaping war, generalized violence and oppression -- and over the longer term to facilitate social inclusion and integration.

It is of urgent importance that safe and legal passage for refugees coming to Europe be expanded and facilitated. Closing national borders to refugees is not a solution because it only shifts the responsibility to the next country.

The conference participants call for better coordination and cooperation of Europe's response to the refugee and migrant crisis. Implementing, strengthening and improving the common EU asylum system is urgently needed. Strengthened coordination in the European response is required to meet the needs of refugees and migrants, including protection against sexual and gender-based violence, education for children and adolescents, and the specific health, nutrition and protection needs of children, adolescents and women, the elderly and people with disabilities. It is essential to uphold principles of international law in the context of the crisis.

All people fleeing from conflict and persecution are entitled to seek protection under international refugee law. Access to a fair asylum process must not be limited on the grounds of nationality, ethnicity, religion, health status or any criterion other than need. Cooperation is also urgently required to oppose xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic statements and actions, and political exploitation of the crisis. And it is essential immediately to begin implementing measures to help refugees and migrants integrate into their new societies. In addition to considering the legal obligations and moral principles that require a compassionate and welcoming response to people in need, it is to be noted that the contributions made by refugees and migrants through their labor, skills and creative capacities can be of great value to their host communities.

Civil society, including faith-based organizations, has a unique and substantial role in responding to humanitarian crises.

Better coordination of their actions with those of governments and international agencies, as well as stronger inter-religious cooperation that brings in the voices and capabilities of other faiths, are essential to maximize efforts at ensuring the survival, rights and dignity of refugees and migrants.

We call for these intentions to be translated into action, and for the voices and views of refugees and migrants to be heard and taken into account to the maximum extent possible.

This will entail defining roles and responsibilities, sharing information and knowledge, resources and activities, building on each other's comparative strengths and advantages, and holding each other to account.

It will require concrete mechanisms for strategic planning, implementation and accountability, and a plan of action to set specific, measurable, achievable and time-bound goals.

To this end, the conference participants call on the co-sponsoring organizations to work together to strengthen participation and contributions of faith-based organizations in responses to the refugee and migrant crisis at country and regional levels, building on existing initiatives already underway, and on a quarterly basis to review and share progress in addressing issues raised at this conference.In recent decades, public school teachers have become popular punching bags for all that is wrong with America. Critics call public schools government schools and indoctrination camps. In his inaugural address, President Donald Trump declared that public schools were flush with cash, but that they left students deprived of all knowledge.

In many ways, the impending teacher strike in Oklahoma is a crucible of the future of public schools in America. More than a movement to raise salaries, the teacher strike is a referendum on respect for a beleaguered profession.

Teachers can change lives and sometimes literally save them, as teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida proved recently when they sacrificed their lives to protect students from the rampage of a well-armed killer.

The research on teacher quality finds again and again that a teacher can make a profound difference in the life of a child. A teacher can significantly enhance students sense of well-being, boost students future earnings, increase the likelihood that they will participate in democratic processes, and help build connections in the brain that last a lifetime.

The current 2019 U.S. budget proposal cuts more than $3 billion in professional development funds for teachers. It eliminates the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, which serves students and teachers in high-poverty schools, and abolishes Title II, which includes Teacher Quality Partnership grants that link teacher-preparation programs with high-needs schools.

The federal governments hostility toward teachers in public schools, particularly in high-needs public schools, is nothing new. The National Education Association repeatedly asked President Barack Obamas secretary of education, Arne Duncan, to resign because it considered the administrations federal policies harmful to both teachers and public schools.

The impending teacher strike in Oklahoma is a crucible of the future of public school teachers in America."

The American view of teachers lay in our history, Dana Goldstein observes in her 2014 book, The Teacher Wars: A History of Americas Most Embattled Profession, and perhaps had something to do with the tension between the sky-high hopes for education as a vehicle for meritocracy and our perennial unwillingness to invest in our public sector, teachers, and schools included.

On 60 Minutes, earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told reporter Lesley Stahl that the government has invested billions and billions and billions of dollars and seen zero results, which seemed to implicate teachers as part of the problem. Last year, DeVos criticized teachers as being in receive mode, after a school visit. They are waiting to be told what they have to do, she later said in an interview about that visit.

Somehow, in the midst of a tsunami of hatred against public education, West Virginia teachers won their recent strike over poor pay. Despite threats from legislators, teachers obtained a modest raise of 5 percent, which should defray some of the staggering increases in health costs, but not pull West Virginia out of the bottom 10 states when it comes to teacher pay.

In fact, teachers in Oklahoma get paid much less than teachers in West Virginia did pre-strike. They have not had a raise in 10 years. Oklahoma is 50th in the country in average teacher salary, 49th in funding per student, and 50th in capital expenditures per student. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Oklahoma leads the nation in reductions in per-pupil expenditures since 2008.

Dismal rankings notwithstanding, Oklahomas legislature has continued to turn its back on public education in shocking ways. Last year, in the midst of a billion-dollar budget shortfall, the legislature considered new voucher laws that would have redirected hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools. At the last minute, the legislation was withdrawn, perhaps because of the scarcity of private schools in the state96 percent of Oklahomas 700,000 children attend public schools.

Oklahoma has reduced funding for education as it has slashed income taxes for the states wealthiest citizens. In an illogical move, the state cut taxes on oil production from 7 percent to 2 percent in 2014. This was a painful cut and hurt the state deeply. And, then, last year, Oklahomamuch to the embarrassment of manyreduced its school week to four days in order to make ends meet. It doesnt take much to understand why there would be a mass exodus of teachers across state lines.

Oklahoma has one of the lowest rates of union membership in the nation. Like West Virginia, much of the states population is poor and many live in rural areas. In Oklahoma, which has survived battles with the Dust Bowl, innumerable tornados, and crooked politicians, a strike is an anomaly. The state is populated by proud, no-nonsense, hardscrabble survivors.

In general, Oklahomans are proud of their public schools. In many parts of the state, public schools are still the cultural, recreational, and social anchors for the community. A recent poll by the Oklahoma Education Association found resounding support for teachers; 85 percent of those surveyed believed teacher pay was too low. The Facebook page Oklahoma Teacher WalkoutThe Time Is Now!, which supports a teacher strike, earned more than 50,000 likes in a week

Some of the largest school districts in the state, including Tulsa, Norman, and Oklahoma City have proclaimed support for teachers, even if they walk out. In a letter to parents, Sean McDaniel, the superintendent of the Mustang public schools (about 20 miles southwest of Oklahoma City), said that administrators were 100 percent committed to supporting teachers.

According to McDaniel, No one will be subjected to disciplinary consequences for walking out of school in protest of the legislatures failure to provide a pay raise to teachers along with inadequate funding for public schools.

While a teacher raise has garnered overwhelming public support, generated widespread agreement among school superintendents, and received backing from the governor and the state superintendent of education, the momentum might not be enough. Oklahomas legislators, like legislators in every state, must decide if teachers and public schools still matter.Council Leader hits out at "despicable" vandals



Shaw's Brow car park has recently been targeted by vandals.

The Leader of Douglas Borough Council says the recent spate of vandalism in the town is "despicable".

David Christian admits there has been a noticeable escalation of the amount of vandalism in Douglas recently, and that such acts cost many thousands of pounds to repair.

Councillor Christian confirmed the local authority is working with the police following, who have CCTV images showing a small group of youths to be responsible.

The Council will be looking to recover the cost of the repairs following a fire in the toilets on Loch Promenade and vandalism at Shaw's Brow car park from the youngsters' parents.

Councillor Christian is also calling on the public to report anything suspicious to the police in a bid to cut down on vandalism.2018-03-15

Maeci

Ministerial Meeting in support of Lebanons Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces

(Rome, 15 March 2018)

JOINT STATEMENT

1. A Ministerial Meeting in support of Lebanons Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces was held in Rome on 15 March 2018 under the auspices of the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) and under the chairmanship of the United Nations and Italy.

2. Participants expressed their appreciation to Italys Foreign Minister Alfano for convening the meeting that was opened by Italys Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Lebanons Prime Minister Saad Hariri. 40 countries and organizations, including the European Union and the League of Arab States, took part in the event.

3. Participants expressed their commitment to the stability, security and sovereignty of Lebanon and their support to the ongoing efforts of the Lebanese authorities to prepare the holding of legislative elections of 6 May 2018 in accordance with international standards. They recalled the need to protect Lebanon from the crises that are destabilizing the Middle East and called upon regional States and organizations to work for the political, social, economic, and financial stability and security of Lebanon, in full respect of its sovereignty and integrity.

4. Participants welcomed Prime Minister Hariri, and thanked the Government of Lebanon for its concerted efforts to develop long-term plans for strengthening the security, stability and sovereignty of Lebanon and the authority of the Lebanese state. They recalled the statements of the International Support Group on 8 December 2017, and of the Security Council on 19 December 2017, commending the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and of all state security institutions in protecting the country, its borders and its population, and recalling that the LAF are the only legitimate armed forces of Lebanon, as enshrined in the Lebanese constitution and Taif Agreement. Participants commended the role of Lebanons Internal Security Forces (ISF) amongst the legitimate security institutions of the Lebanese state.

5. Participants recalled relevant provisions of the Taif Accords and of Security Council resolutions 1559 (2004), 1680 (2006) and 1701 (2006) including provisions that there be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state, no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government, and no sale or supply of arms related materiel to Lebanon except as authorised by its government. Participants reiterated the need for full respect and implementation of Security Council Resolutions. They called on all Lebanese parties to resume discussions towards a consensus on a National Defence Strategy and welcomed the 12 March 2018 statement of the President of the Lebanese Republic Michel Aoun in this regard.

6. Participants welcomed the statement by Lebanons Prime Minister at todays meeting reaffirming his Governments commitment to the policy of disassociation, as a matter of collective responsibility of all parties, to shield Lebanon from regional conflicts and to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of other states. Consistent with recent statements by the ISG and the Security Council, Participants urged Lebanons leaders to implement and further expand without delay a tangible policy of disassociation as a matter of priority, as spelled out in previous declarations, in particular the 2012 Baabda Declaration.

7. Participants commended the success of the LAF, the ISF and other security institutions in meeting the increasingly complex requirements for maintaining the security and stability of Lebanon since the Rome Ministerial Conference of June 2014. They saluted the role of the LAF in successfully containing and ultimately defeating Daesh, Al Nusra and other UN designated terrorist groups, and consolidating state authority along Lebanons Northern and Eastern border, and its efforts to build its naval and air force capacities. They commended the ISF, the LAF and other state security institutions for their effectiveness in protecting civilians from terrorist activities inside of Lebanon by actively coordinating to prevent terrorist attacks and disrupt the formation of terrorist cells and capacities. Participants praised the courage and determination of military and security personnel involved in these efforts, noting the sacrifices of the 22 personnel who lost their lives in operations in the Eastern region, and of their families. They noted the humanitarian efforts of the LAF to clear affected areas of landmines and unexploded ordinance so as to safeguard local communities and enable social and economic development.

8. Participants welcomed the updated Capability Development Plan (CDP) of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and the Strategic Plan (SP) of the Internal Security Forces, which provide a five-year framework for strengthening security and consolidating the authority of the state. Participants endorsed the Lebanese Governments vision of the LAF as the sole defender of the Lebanese state and protector of its borders, and of the ISF as a key instrument in building the monopoly of the use of Force by the Lebanese state. They welcomed Lebanons own budgetary contributions towards both plans and appreciated the plans commitment to clarity and transparency, their focus on a transformative reform agenda, their emphasis on cost-effectiveness, trust-building and community relations, and pledges to increase the participation of women in all levels of decision-making in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security. Participants encouraged the LAF and the ISF to continue to develop and implement codes of conduct as important steps towards increased respect for human rights and accountability.

9. Participants noted the recent redeployment of additional LAF personnel to the area south of the Litani river, and called on the Government of Lebanon to accelerate effective and durable deployments to the South. They commended the role of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in cooperating with the LAF with the aim of extending and consolidating the presence of the Lebanese state across the whole of its national territory and waters. Within the framework of Security Council resolutions 1701 (2006) and 2373 (2017), Participants welcomed Lebanons concept for a new Model Regiment proposed in the context of the ongoing Strategic Dialogue between the LAF and UNIFIL, and called on them to step up their coordinated actions in UNIFILs area of operations. Participants also noted positively Lebanons proposal to strengthen the capacity of the Lebanese Navy. Participants noted ongoing efforts to fully implement Security Council resolution 2373 (2017).

10. Participants appreciated the need to accelerate and expand their assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces in the coming five-year period and encouraged a coordinated follow-up led by Lebanon. They appreciated the continuing strength of commitment of the international community in supporting Lebanons security, stability and sovereignty. Participants acknowledged the importance of past contributions and the need to mobilize new support, including critical support from the region, for the plans presented in Rome by the Lebanese government. In this vein, they welcomed substantial contributions offered by Lebanons partners during the meeting.

11. Participants expressed the conviction that a strong and sustained security environment in Lebanon will contribute to build the confidence necessary for increased economic investment and long-term development, and advance Lebanon towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. In this regard they took note of the holding of the Paris CEDRE meeting of 6 April 2018 in support of the Lebanese reforms and investment plans and of the Brussels meeting of 25 April 2018 to support host communities and refugees in Lebanon.2018-03-15

Maeci

Over one hundred people (including University professors, teachers, students and business people) attended the first Italian studies meeting in Bosnia and Herzegovina today at the University of Zenica. It was organised by the Italian embassy in order to understand together how to use Italian for human and professional growth, as tweeted by the ambassador, Nicola Minasi.

The platform, in which the local Dante Alighieri Society also took part, was devised to facilitate an exchange of ideas and experiences as well as to make the Italian language an effective instrument, providing extra stimulus to teachers with new ideas and topics.

All universities and schools in the country where Italian is taught were invited to attend, ensuring that the project could start off with well-consolidated practical experience. One area with the potential to give new input into the study of the language was considered to be the corporate sector, since 70 Italian companies operate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and directly employ over 10,000 people. Therefore, in addition to its great cultural potentiality, the Italian language could also be something that facilitates job searches, focusing on the close connection between teaching, learning and work.

Tourism is another area that could offer great opportunities due to the high number of Italian tourists in Mostar and Medjugorje in particular. There was also discussion on how new computer technology can help in teaching languages, which is of topical interest since teaching quality is one of the priorities of the projects organised in the country within the scope of the 2018 Italian chairmanship of the OSCE.Washington, DC (March 15, 2018) --Excessive administrative tasks are a diversion of physicians' time and focus away from patient care, the American College of Physicians (ACP) told a panel of members of Congress this afternoon. Robert M. McLean, MD, FACP, an internist with the Northeast Medical Group of Yale New Haven Health System in New Haven, Ct. presented ACP's ideas for how to address the burdensome administrative tasks physicians face to the first Red Tape Relief Initiative roundtable, convened by the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.

"I want to thank the House Ways and Means Committee for giving ACP an opportunity to address this issue--red tape and administrative burdens limit a physician's ability to provide quality care to patients, and we are glad to have a seat at the table for this important conversation," said Dr. Robert McLean. "It was encouraging to hear that Congress's approach to getting rid of costly and burdensome red tape will emphasize the importance of reducing physician burn-out, as ACP has long identified reducing unnecessary administrative tasks as a priority."

ACP's Patients Before Paperwork initiative, which began in 2015, focuses on reinvigorating the patient-physician relationship by challenging administrative burdens that physicians face in practice. In March 2017, ACP published a foundational set of policy recommendations on reducing excessive administrative tasks. "Putting Patients First by Reducing Administrative Tasks in Health Care: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians" provides a cohesive framework for identifying and evaluating administrative tasks and outlines detailed recommendations to reduce excessive administrative tasks across the health care system.

"When physicians aren't saddled with administrative burdens, it means they can spend more time and energy on their patients, focus on improving the quality of care, and ensure their patients are receiving timely and appropriate treatment," said Dr. McLean. "ACP is committed to working with Congress and the administration to take concrete steps to help physicians and other medical professionals to reduce administrative tasks, and today's roundtable was a great opportunity to share our approach with other leaders in Washington."

###

About the American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States with members in more than 145 countries worldwide. ACP membership includes 152,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.DALLAS, March 15, 2018 - Blacks often have higher exposure to air pollution than whites, which may partially explain their higher risk heart disease and death compared to whites, according to new research in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, an American Heart Association journal.

Exposure to air pollution is associated with elevated blood sugar levels, poorly functioning blood vessels, heart disease events and death.

"Previous studies showed chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - a component of air pollution emitted from vehicles, factories, power plants, fires and second-hand smoke - is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and death," said Sebhat Erqou, M.D., Ph.D., study lead author and fellow in cardiovascular disease at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

"Data also indicates that minorities are more likely to live in areas close to pollution sources, including heavy roadway traffic areas," Erqou said. "However, racial differences in the exposure to air pollution and their role in disparities in cardiovascular risk and death have not been fully explained."

Researchers merged data on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon - a component of ultrafine particulate matter - from a Pittsburgh-area monitoring and modeling campaign, with data from the Heart Strategies Concentrating on Risk Evaluation (HeartSCORE), an ongoing community-based study that included 1,717 participants (66 percent women, 45 percent black, average age 59) in western Pennsylvania. Participants were assessed by questionnaires and during annual follow-up study visits for heart-related hospitalizations, heart attacks, acute coronary syndrome, stroke, coronary revascularization or cardiac death.

Researchers found fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution exposure was associated with elevated blood glucose, worse blood vessel function, cardiovascular events and death from all causes. In addition, blacks compared to whites had:

higher average exposures to fine particulate matter air pollutants;

higher average exposures to black carbon air pollutants; and

45 percent higher risk of cardiovascular events and death from any cause, after considering traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Researchers said about 25 percent of the association between race and cardiovascular events and death may be explained by exposure to fine particulate matter pollutants. However, greater income and education lessened the impact of air pollution.

The study has limitations including that it was conducted at a single institution in one city, so the range of exposure might have been narrower when compared to other localities.

"Further larger-sized, multicenter studies can help to better understand the role and mechanisms of environmental pollution exposures in racial differences in cardiovascular risk and clinical outcomes," Erqou said.

###

Co-authors are Jane E. Clougherty, M.Sc., Sc.D.; Oladipupo Olafiranye, M.D., M.S.; Jared W. Magnani, M.D., M.Sc.; Aryan Aiyer, M.D.; Sheila Tripathy, Ph.D.; Ellen Kinnee, M.S.; Kevin E Kip, Ph.D.; and Steven E. Reis, M.D. Author reported no conflicts of interest.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health, National Institutes of Health and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation funded the study.

Additional Resources:

Available multimedia is on the right column of the release link - https://newsroom.heart.org/news/blacks-have-more-exposure-to-air-pollutants-raising-heart-disease-risk-death?preview=67ab8d71b478ee4d68b3b1e7600aeebb

After March 15, view the manuscript online

Air Pollution and Heart Disease, Stroke

Air pollution linked to cardiovascular disease; air purifiers may lessen impact

"Bad" air may impact "good" cholesterol increasing heart disease risk

Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews

For the updates and new science from the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology journal follow @atvbahajournals

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.As scores of wild species and ecosystems around the world face a variety of human-caused threats, from habitat destruction and fragmentation to rapid climate change, a new book published by the University of Chicago Press illuminates the growing significance zoos and aquariums play as conservation engines for the preservation of global biodiversity in this century.

Titled "The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation," the book, published in March 2018, includes a rich and diverse collection of authors including leaders from Shedd Aquarium and Phoenix Zoo, as well as from a host of other zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). They're joined by an equally impressive roster of university-based historians, biologists, ethicists, and social scientists, including scholars from Arizona State University, Cornell and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Collectively, the authors trace the history of zoos and aquariums, their present role and future-forward evolution as conservation organizations.

"Our goal with 'The Ark and Beyond' was to capture the very best thinking about zoo and aquarium conservation around today," said Ben Minteer, lead editor of the book and Arizona Zoological Society Endowed Chair at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences. "It's a testament to the expertise and hard work of our contributors that the results exceeded even those high expectations."

Featuring an inspiring foreword by the late George Rabb, president emeritus of the Chicago Zoological Society/Brookfield Zoo, "The Ark and Beyond" explores the whole range of research and conservation practices that spring from zoos and aquariums while emphasizing the historical, scientific and ethical traditions that shape these efforts. The book offers a framework for their future course, suggesting that if zoos and aquariums affirm biodiversity conservation as a top priority, these organizations will continue to play a vital role in tackling conservation challenges of global magnitude.

One of the advance endorsements of the book comes from Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History."

Kolbert shared, "In an age of extinction, 'wild' places are increasingly being managed like zoos. What role do actual zoos and aquariums have to play? 'The Ark and Beyond' looks at this question from all angles; the result is both informative and thought-provoking."

Two opportunities to discuss the book's conclusions and hear from a handful of its authors will take place in Phoenix and Chicago this March and April, respectively. At the events, guests may purchase "The Ark and Beyond" and meet some of the authors for a short book signing.

"Over the years, AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums have pioneered advances in research, fieldwork, and education, revolutionizing the way we approach wildlife conservation today," said Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. "I am pleased 'The Ark and Beyond' showcases some of the great work AZA members are undertaking to help save animals from extinction."

###

2018 Book Launch Events and Author Discussions:

Phoenix Zoo | Phoenix, Ariz.

When: March 21, 2018 from 5:30 - 8 p.m.

Where: Phoenix Zoo Stone House Pavilion 455 N Galvin Pkwy | Phoenix, AZ 85008

RSVP: Email jgreenberg@phoenixzoo.org by March 15.

Details: For more information, visit Phoenix Zoo's website.

Shedd Aquarium | Chicago, Ill.

When: April 19, 2018, 5:30 - 8 p.m.

Where: Shedd Aquarium

1200 S. Lake Shore Drive | Chicago, IL 60605

RSVP: Register online

Details: For more information, visit Shedd Aquarium's Facebook page.

Books are available for purchase for $35 through the University of Chicago Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the Changing Hands Bookstore (Tempe and Phoenix, Ariz.), with the proceeds benefiting the Arizona Center for Nature Conservation/Phoenix Zoo's conservation science and field conservation research programs.Health chiefs are failing to investigate a clear pattern of rising death rates and worsening health outcomes in England and Wales, argue experts in The BMJ today.

Lucinda Hiam at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Danny Dorling at the University of Oxford say weekly mortality figures show 10,375 additional deaths (a rise of 12.4%) in England and Wales in the first seven weeks of 2018 compared with the previous five years.

This rise cannot be explained by ageing of the population, a flu epidemic, or cold weather - and no official explanation has been forthcoming as to why death rates have continued to be so high relative to previous trends, they write.

However, they note that the first seven weeks of 2018 were unusual in terms of the operation of the NHS.

On 2 January, after an unprecedented step by NHS officials, thousands of non-urgent operations were cancelled, a clear sign of a system struggling to cope. Many hospitals were already at or beyond their safe working levels, "with high numbers of frail patients stuck on wards for want of social care," and a rise in influenza cases had begun.

However, they then show that influenza can have only accounted for a very small part of the overall rise in mortality in early 2018.

The past five years have been challenging in terms of health outcomes in the UK, they add. For example, spending on health and social care year on year has increased at a much slower rate than in previous years, while outcomes in a large number of indicators have deteriorated, including a very rapid recent increase in the numbers of deaths among mental health patients in care in England and Wales.

They point out that the Office of National Statistics has in the past 12 months reduced its projections of future life expectancy for both men and women in the UK by almost a year each, and, in doing so, has estimated that more than a million lives will now end earlier than expected.

Mortality in infants born into the poorest families in the UK has also risen significantly since 2011.

Hiam and Dorling argue that there remains "a clear lack of consensus" over the reasons for the rise in deaths - and say they and others have already called for an urgent investigation by the Health Select Committee of the House of Commons.

"The latest figures for this year make the case for an investigation stronger and more urgent with each passing day," they conclude.

###And no evidence for a reduction in the 'deprivation gap' in cancer survival

A study published by The BMJ today finds little evidence for any direct impact of national cancer policy initiatives implemented since 2000 on short term cancer survival in England.

And no evidence was found for a reduction in social and economic inequalities ("deprivation gap") in cancer survival since the mid-1990s. The researchers say these findings "emphasise that socioeconomic inequalities in survival remain a major public health problem for a healthcare system founded on equity."

Cancer survival in England has been improving steadily since the 1970s, but still lags behind that seen in comparable countries in Europe. Differences in cancer survival between less and more deprived patients also persist for most types of cancer.

The NHS Cancer Plan was launched in 2000 in a bid to tackle these inequalities and improve cancer survival to levels comparable with the rest of Europe. Since then, other strategies have been introduced, but little is known about their impact at a national level.

So researchers in the Cancer Survival Group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine set out to assess the impact of the NHS Cancer Plan and subsequent strategies on cancer survival in England and whether any gains were evenly distributed across the socio-economic groups of the population.

They analysed national cancer registry data for 3.5 million people aged 15-99 who had been diagnosed with one of the 24 most common cancers in three pre-defined calendar periods: 1996-2000, 2001-05, and 2006-13 with follow-up to 2014. This allowed comparison of trends before and after introduction of the NHS Cancer Plan.

They then estimated one year net survival for each cancer by sex, year of diagnosis, and level of deprivation. They focused on one year survival because most inequalities in cancer survival in England arise shortly after diagnosis.

They found that one year survival improved steadily from 1996 for 26 of 41 sex-cancer combinations studied. For nine additional cancers, improvement in survival was initially negligible, and really began or accelerated only later, from 2001 or 2006.

The largest improvements (greater than 1% per year) were seen for cancers that were of poor or intermediate prognosis in the 1990s, such as cancers of the oesophagus and liver in men, lung in women, and kidney, mesothelioma, and myeloma.

In contrast, survival for men diagnosed as having cancer of the larynx or testis, or Hodgkin lymphoma, was already high in the 1990s, and this improved little by 2013.

Meanwhile, the deprivation gap remained unchanged for most cancers, with a clear, persistent pattern of lower survival among more deprived patients. While the gap narrowed slightly for some cancers, where one year survival was already more than 65% in 1996, it widened notably for brain tumours in men and for lung cancer in women.

The researchers point to some limitations and say their study may be too early to detect the full impact of recently implemented cancer initiatives. Nevertheless, the study is based on virtually all cancer cases registered in England over 18 years, allowing for more accurate estimates of trends.

"Even though increasing cancer survival and reducing inequalities in survival have been among the main targets of national cancer policy initiatives implemented since 2000, this study found little evidence of a direct impact of these strategies on one year survival, and no evidence for a reduction in socioeconomic inequalities in survival," write the authors.

They say their findings "should be taken into consideration by cancer policy makers and inform future initiatives" and suggest that "shifting the focus from individual factors to healthcare system factors might prove to be beneficial in improving cancer outcomes among the most disadvantaged."

Does this mean the NHS cancer reforms failed, ask researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in a linked editorial?

They point out that drivers of social disparities in cancer outcomes are complex, making it difficult to establish cause and effect, and they say genuine improvements "may require a more comprehensive approach than the NHS reforms."

To reduce the incidence and impact of cancer "we must continue to be ambitious," they write. "The goals of the NHS Cancer Plan were to save lives and to ensure that the gains were evenly shared. These goals remain critical. The methods to achieve them need more work," they conclude.

###The Severo Ochoa Centres and Maria de Maeztu Units Alliance (SOMMa) gathers research centres and units that received the Spanish Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu excellence awards respectively. Thanks to the support of the Spanish State Secretariat for Research, Development and Innovation, these centres and units have joined efforts to promote, strengthen and maximise at the national and international level both the value of science of excellence produced by research centres and units, as well as its economic and social impact.

In an event held in Madrid on Monday, March 12th, representatives of SOMMa, together with the Spanish State Secretary for R+D+i, Carmen Vela, presented the new SOMMa alliance. "Spanish science comprises centres and research units of excellence that compete successfully at an international level. Uniting into this alliance allows us to join efforts, increase our impact and promote collaboration and networking. In summary, to enrich the R+D system of our country on the long run," expressed Teresa Garcia-Mila, vice-chair of SOMMa, and director of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Barcelona GSE), during the presentation.

Among the objectives of the Alliance stand out: to increase the national and international visibility of Spanish research, as well as its scientific, economic and social impact; to promote the exchange of scientific knowledge and good practice between the different actors of the Spanish R+D system; to establish a dialogue with society and contribute to the nurturing of scientific culture; and to have a voice in scientific policy both in Spain and in Europe.

The full body of SOMMa centres and units gathers more than 7,000 staff dedicated to research, graduates every year more than 500 PhD candidates, and perceives funding for European projects representing an approximate turnover of 530 million Euro over a five-year period. In 2016 alone, research produced in SOMMa centres and units has been published in more than 5,800 papers in the best scientific journals, has given rise to 8 new spin-off companies, has yielded more than 100 patent applications and approximately 350 collaborations and contracts with companies. "These figures prove that the Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu program has boosted the impact, international scientific leadership and competitiveness of these centres and units. The alliance will be very beneficial because it will allow the best centres to work together in a coordinated manner, which will contribute to expand their impact," declared the Spanish State Secretary for R+D+i, Carmen Vela.

Likewise, with the support of other organizations of the science and innovation sectors, SOMMa representatives stated their concern regarding the decrease of the R+D public funding, as well as the administrative issues constraining Spanish science. In particular, these organizations concur in highlighting the necessity to have specific, adequate regulations within the framework of European legislation safeguarding the competitiveness of the sector, as it happens in other countries.

"We acknowledge the efforts of the Spanish State Secreatariat for R+D+i to create and preserve the Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu program despite the economic crisis and the public budget adjustments. Even so, we must insist in the importance of the investment in science, which requires a long-run State agreement," affirmed Luis Serrano, SOMMa hair and director of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG).

Apart from requesting a firm commitment to uphold funding levels, SOMMa also exposes the existence of certain administrative particularities severely compromising the R+D system, which require of political will to be solved. During the event, the document "SOMMa Position Paper: Actions required to safeguarding science competitiveness" was presented, which intends to draw the attention of politicians to tackle the aforementioned issues urgently and sustainably.

In summary, the three administrative issues exposed in the report refer to the criteria for VAT deduction, the personnel hiring regulations, and the new public-tenders law . These three subjects are currently causing serious problems to a number of research centres, and can potentially affect all other research institutions of the Spanish R+D system.

The position paper proposes to reach a transversal agreement that should be backed by all parliament groups, and includes as possible solutions:

The consideration of research, and basic research in particular, as an economic activity, as well as to note that research is an activity of general interest, whose competitive funding should not be subject to VAT.

The modification of the public-tender regulations for research centres and universities adapting it to their needs, within the framework of European regulations.

The loosening of existing limits to the staff turnover rate, particularly for structural staff, as well as the inclusion of particular non-permanent, open-ended contract typologies. These contracts could eventually be covered with competitive funds from the State's R+D+i Grants scheme, and should not be taken into account within the staff turnover rate.

In general, the current situation affecting the research centres regarding the above mentioned administrative issues, is the result of putting research centres and universities on the same level than other public administrations, without taking into consideration the particularities and necessities of the scientific activity. "We need to have science also present in the political agenda and we hope that SOMMa will be able to work together with the Spanish Secretariat for R+D+i in that direction, for the benefit of not only the centres and units of the alliance, but of all the R+D system in Spain."

###March 15, 2018 -- A study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health finds that cigars commonly used to roll blunts--hollowed out cigars that are filled with marijuana and smoked--dominate the cigar marketplace in states where recreational marijuana is legal compared to nationally. The findings, which could help direct tobacco prevention efforts, are published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"Cigars with fruit flavors, the brand Swisher Sweets, and inexpensive, small pack sizes are valued among blunt users," said Daniel Giovenco, PhD, assistant professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and first author. "Our study demonstrates that these tobacco products hold a larger percent of the market share in states with recreational marijuana laws."

Using 2016 tobacco sales data obtained from the Nielsen Research Company, the authors compared cigarillo sales in regions with legalized recreational marijuana (i.e., Denver, CO; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR) to the overall U.S. marketplace. Nielsen collects electronic point-of-sale data for tobacco products in U.S. convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, mass merchandisers, dollar stores, and other tobacco retailers.

Although Black & Mild, not traditionally used as blunts, was the top brand nationally, Swisher, more commonly used for blunt making, was the most popular brand in all three market regions where recreational marijuana has been legalized. In Colorado, the first state that legalized marijuana and which has experienced a boom in "weed tourism," cigarillo wraps constituted a sizable portion of overall sales (12 percent vs. 3 percent nationally). The wraps eliminate the need to remove the tobacco filler, facilitating easy blunt-making. Notably, however, per capita sales of cigarillos were lower in markets where marijuana is legal, possibly a reflection of the states' stronger tobacco control laws, cultural attitudes toward tobacco use, or consumer preferences for alternative forms of marijuana consumption.

"Irrespective of the legal status of marijuana, local policymakers should employ strategies that reduce the appeal of cigarillos," he says. "Many of the features that are popular for blunt use, such as flavors and small pack sizes, have been banned for cigarettes. Cigarillos should face similar restrictions to improve public health. Knowing where these products are most popular can help direct prevention efforts."

###

Co-authors include Torra Spillane, Christine Mauro, and Silvia Martins of the Mailman School of Public Health. This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health Director's Early Independence Award (DP5OD023064).

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Mailman School is the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its over 450 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change & health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with over 1,300 graduate students from more than 40 nations pursuing a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit http://www.mailman.columbia.edu.Transplanting a special type of neuron into the brain restores cognitive functions in Alzheimer's models, shows a new study by Gladstone scientists

San Francisco, CA -- March 15, 2018 -- Like a great orchestra, your brain relies on the perfect coordination of many elements to function properly. And if one of those elements is out of sync, it affects the entire ensemble. In Alzheimer's disease, for instance, damage to specific neurons can alter brainwave rhythms and cause a loss of cognitive functions.

One type of neuron, called inhibitory interneuron, is particularly important for managing brain rhythms. It's also the research focus of a laboratory led by Jorge Palop, PhD, assistant investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. In a study published in Neuron, Palop and his collaborators uncovered the therapeutic benefits of genetically improving these interneurons and transplanting them into the brain of a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Interneurons control complex networks between neurons, allowing them to send signals to one another in a harmonized way. You can think of inhibitory interneurons as orchestra conductors. They create rhythms in the brain to instruct the players--excitatory neurons--when to play and when to stop. An imbalance between these two types of neurons creates disharmony and is seen in multiple neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism.

A Brain without a Conductor

Palop's previous studies showed that, in mouse models of Alzheimer's, the inhibitory interneurons do not work properly. So, the rhythms that organize the excitatory cells are disturbed and fail to function harmoniously, causing an imbalance in brain networks. This, in turn, affects memory formation and can lead to epileptic activity, which is often observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

His team found a way to reengineer inhibitory interneurons to improve their function. They showed that these enhanced interneurons, when transplanted into the abnormal brain of Alzheimer mice, can properly control the activity of excitatory cells and restore brain rhythms.

"We took advantage of the fact that transplanted interneurons can integrate remarkably well into new brain tissues, and that each interneuron can control thousands of excitatory neurons," said Palop, who is also an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. "These properties make interneurons a promising therapeutic target for cognitive disorders associated with brain rhythm abnormalities and epileptic activity."

First, the scientists had to overcome a significant challenge. When they transplanted regular interneurons, they saw no beneficial effects, presumably because Alzheimer's disease creates a toxic environment in the brain.

The researchers then genetically boosted the activity of inhibitory interneurons by adding a protein called Nav1.1. They discovered that the interneurons with enhanced function were able to overcome the toxic disease environment and restore brain function.

"These optimized neurons are like master conductors," said Palop. "Even with a declining orchestra, they can restore the rhythms and harmony needed for cognitive functions."

Conductors Engineered for Alzheimer's Disease

The findings could eventually lead to the development of new treatment options for patients with Alzheimer's disease.

"Besides the applications this cell engineering and transplantation approach may find in regenerative medicine, our findings support the broader concept that enhancing the function of interneurons can counteract key aspects of Alzheimer's disease," said Lennart Mucke, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

In addition to examining if the cell therapy could be translated from mice to humans, Palop and his team are working to identify potential drugs as an alternative way to enhance the function of inhibitory interneurons.

"Advancing our understanding of Alzheimer's disease and identifying potential new treatment strategies are critical to addressing the escalating global health crisis," said Elizabeth Edgerly, PhD, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association, Northern California and Northern Nevada chapter. "We were proud to support Dr. Palop's research and vision with an Investigator Initiated Research Grant award." The Alzheimer's Association, which funded part of the study, is the world's largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research.

###

About the Research Project

The paper "Nav1.1-Overexpressing Interneuron Transplants Restore Brain Rhythms and Cognition in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease" was published online by Neuron on March 15, 2018: http://www.cell.com/pb-assets/journals/research/neuron/onlinenow/neuron14158r.pdf.

The study's first equal contribution authors are Magdalena Martinez-Losa, Tara Tracy, and Keran Ma. Other contributors include Laure Verret, Alexandra Clemente-Perez, Abdullah Khan, Inma Cobos, Kaitlyn Ho, Li Gan, Lennart Mucke, Manuel Alvarez-Dolado, and Jorge Palop. The research at Gladstone was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer's Association, and the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.

About the Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, the Gladstone Institutes (gladstone.org) focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impact--unsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.WASHINGTON, DC (March 15, 2018)--An anthropology professor from the George Washington University and a team of international collaborators, including scientists from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, have discovered that early humans in East Africa used coloring materials and obtained a range of raw materials from distant sources-- activities which imply the existence of social networks--about 320,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. These new discoveries, as well as early innovations in stone tools, occurred at roughly the same time period and120,000 years earlier than the oldest fossils of our species in eastern Africa.

Alison Brooks, a professor of anthropology at the George Washington University's Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology and an associate of the National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian, is lead author on one of three papers in Science today describing new findings from the Olorgesailie Basin in southern Kenya. The paper focuses on early evidence of social contacts with geographically distant groups more than 305,000 years ago, resulting in collection, transport and processing of materials including obsidian and color pigments at sites in the Olorgesailie Basin.

"The obsidian transport and the collection and processing of pigments imply an early development of social networks connecting members of our species across longer distances," said Dr. Brooks. "This practice is characteristic of our species, but in contrast to our closest primate relatives, and is not implied by the material record of the preceding early Stone Age levels at Olorgesailie."

Obsidian is a glassy volcanic stone valued for its sharp edges, and it was often used to create stone tools and other artifacts. Researchers also found examples of coloring materials such as red ochre or black manganese at Olorgesailie. These materials are used by modern people to color bodies, clothes and objects, often to symbolize status, identity or group affiliation. The team found accumulations of black manganese clustered at one site in Olorgesailie, while red ocher was scraped and dug into at another.

In recent forager societies, social networks serve as a way of mitigating the risk of resource failures by 'saving for a rainy day', not in a bank or grain silo or herd of cattle but in mutual obligations of help and support between individuals. Together, these new findings depict an intricate set of behaviors which emerged earlier than previously known, helping to distinguish the earlier Homo sapiens from other hominin species.

###

The research teams for the three studies published in Science include collaborators from the following institutions: the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museums of Kenya, George Washington University, the Berkeley Geochronology Center, the National Science Foundation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Missouri, the University of Bordeaux (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the University of Utah, Harvard University, Santa Monica College, the University of Michigan, the University of Connecticut, Emory University, the University of Bergen, Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Saskatchewan. Additionally, many of Professor Brooks current and former master's and doctoral students worked on the project and some are authors on one of the papers.

Funding for this research was provided by the Smithsonian, the National Science Foundation and the George Washington University, along with a wide range of private and governmental sources, both national and international.In a new Johns Hopkins study, researchers have added to evidence that Trichomonas vaginalis (TV), the world's most common curable sexually transmitted infection (STI), disproportionately affects the black community.

A report of the findings, published March 15 in Clinical Infectious Diseases, highlights the major racial/ethnic disparities in TV infection in the United States population, calling on the need to improve racial equity in sexual health.

"These findings are likely reflective of real social and structural disparities, such as lower access to health care, that result in high infection rates in the black community. Targeted public health education about Trichomonas will be critical," says Aaron Tobian, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's senior author.

Trichomonas vaginalis infection is caused by a protozoan parasite and is asymptomatic in most people. In women, TV infection cases can be characterized by a foul-smelling vaginal discharge, painful urination and abdominal pain. Similar urination and abdominal symptoms can be seen in men. However, if TV infection is left untreated, it can lead to severe consequences in women, such as pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.

Unlike with some other STIs, there are currently no routine surveillance or reporting programs for TV in the United States, and only two previous studies have ever examined its prevalence on a national scale, according to Tobian. Those studies, he says, only focused on women or a younger population.

To examine the prevalence of TV infection in both males and females 18 to 59 years old, Tobian and colleagues used data from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a collection of health information from the United States' noninstitutionalized, civilian population that includes valid TV results from urine samples.

Of the 4,057 participants, 1,942 were males, 2,115 were females, 822 identified as non-Hispanic black and 3,235 identified as other races/ethnicities.

While the prevalence of TV infection was 0.03 and 0.8 percent among males and females of other races/ethnicities, the burden of TV infection was significantly higher among black males and females: 4.2 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.

Higher prevalence of TV infection was associated with being female, black, older, having less than a high school education and living below poverty level, independent of having multiple sexual partners. TV prevalence was also higher among older individuals (i.e., 25-59 years old compared to age 18-24).

People below poverty level had a prevalence of 3.9 percent versus 0.6 percent for those at or above poverty level, and individuals without a high school education had a prevalence of 2.9 percent versus 0.8 percent for those with at least a high school education.

Currently, screening for TV infection is only recommended for people who are HIV-positive. Eshan U. Patel, M.P.H., lead author of the study, says the new findings should encourage broader screening initiatives, educational programming and policy changes to ensure access to sexual health care.

"It's unfortunate that TV infection hasn't received a stronger public health response, especially since it is easy to diagnose and treat," says Patel. TV infection can be detected using the same diagnostic platform as the one used for Chlamydia and can be cured with just one pill (metronidazole).

###

Other authors on this study include Charlotte A. Gaydos and Zoe R. Packman of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Thomas C. Quinn of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (1R01AI120938-01A1, 1R01AI128779-01, U54 EB007958 and U01-068613) and the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious DiseasesNew methods developed for the study could be applied to devise personalized, cell-based immunotherapies for epithelial ovarian cancer or other types of tumors

A Ludwig Cancer Research study shows that ovarian cancer, which has proved resistant to currently available immunotherapies, could be susceptible to personalized immunotherapy. Led by Ludwig Lausanne investigator Alexandre Harari and George Coukos, director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne, the study shows that ovarian tumors harbor highly reactive killer T cells--which kill infected and cancerous cells--and demonstrates how they can be identified and selectively grown for use in personalized, cell-based immunotherapies.

"Tumors whose cells tend to be highly mutated, like those of melanoma and lung cancer, are the ones that respond best to immunotherapies," says Harari. "It has long been a question whether we'd even be able to detect sufficiently mutation-reactive T cells in patients with tumors that have low mutational loads."

Harari, Coukos and their colleagues report in Nature Communications that, despite their low mutational load, epithelial ovarian tumors are infiltrated with T cells that are especially good at recognizing and killing cancer cells.

Cancer cells that have a relatively large number of mutations in their DNA express aberrant proteins--or neoantigens--that reveal the cancer to the immune system. Killer T cells recognize tiny, mutated bits of these antigens, known as neoepitopes. But neoepitopes vary wildly from patient to patient, even within the same type of cancer. This has long stymied efforts to develop generally effective therapies that target cancer antigens.

To get around this problem, researchers have been developing sophisticated methods to extract T cells from patients, select and expand those that best target a patient's cancer and reinfuse them into the patient. These approaches usually rely on T cells extracted from the bloodstream, not those already inside the tumor, which are referred to as TILs (for tumor infiltrating lymphocytes).

Experimental therapies using T cells taken from the bloodstream have not, however, worked very well against solid tumors. Further, when TILs have been used for such purposes, the proportion of what Harari calls the "juiciest" T cells--those recognizing mutations on cancer cells--tends to decline significantly when the cells are expanded in culture.

"To circumvent these problems, we developed a new methodology to identify highly reactive TILs and expand them in a manner that, rather than diluting the juiciest TILs, enriches them instead," says Harari. "This allowed us to compare the activity of TILs that target neoepitopes with their counterparts in the peripheral bloodstream."

The researchers show that killer T cells isolated from ovarian tumors using their method are much better at both recognizing neoepitopes than are those isolated from blood.

"We could even compare T cells from the two compartments targeting the exact same mutation and show that the TILs were more functional than the T cells we collected from the peripheral bloodstream," says Harari.

Notably, the researchers found that, using their methods, highly reactive TILs could be obtained from some 90% of the ovarian cancer patients whose tumor samples they examined.

"The big message," says Coukos, "is that future cell-based therapies can be envisioned for low mutational load tumors and should prioritize the use of TILs over T cells collected from peripheral blood. This novel strategy to obtain enriched TILs also offers great therapeutic opportunities."

Harari, Coukos and their colleagues will now be applying their findings to an ambitious program to develop and streamline personalized immunotherapies for cancer patients currently underway at the Lausanne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

###

This study was supported by Ludwig Cancer Research, the US National Institutes of Health, the Marcus Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Ovacure Foundation and The Swiss Federal Government.

In addition to his Ludwig post, George Coukos directs the Department of Oncology at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV-UNIL) as well as the Swiss Cancer Center, Lausanne. Alexandre Harari is also Director of the Immune Monitoring Core at the Center of Experimental Therapeutics at CHUV-UNIL. About Ludwig Cancer Research

Ludwig Cancer Research is an international collaborative network of acclaimed scientists that has pioneered cancer research and landmark discovery for more than 40 years. Ludwig combines basic science with the ability to translate its discoveries and conduct clinical trials to accelerate the development of new cancer diagnostics and therapies. Since 1971, Ludwig has invested $2.7 billion in life-changing science through the not-for-profit Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the six U.S.-based Ludwig Centers. To learn more, visit http://www.ludwigcancerresearch.org.

For further information please contact Rachel Reinhardt, rreinhardt@licr.org or +1-212-450-1582.An international team of researchers, led by Johannes Krause and Choongwon Jeong from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Jena, Germany), and Abdeljalil Bouzouggar from the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archeologie et du Patrimoine (Rabat, Morocco) and including scientists from the Mohammed V University in Rabat, the Natural History Museum in London, University of Oxford, Universite Mohammed Premier in Oujda and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, have sequenced DNA from individuals from Morocco dating to approximately 15,000 years ago, as published in Science. This is the oldest nuclear DNA from Africa ever successfully analyzed. The individuals, dating to the Late Stone Age, had a genetic heritage that was in part similar to Near Eastern populations and in part related to sub-Saharan African populations.

North Africa is an important area in the history of the evolution of our species. The geography of North Africa also makes it an interesting area for studying how humans expanded out of Africa. It is part of the African continent, but the Sahara desert presents a substantial barrier to travel to and from southern regions. Similarly, it is part of the Mediterranean region, but in the past the sea could have presented a barrier to interaction with others as well. "A better understanding of the history of North Africa is critical to understanding the history of our species," explains co-author Saaid Amzazi of Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco.

In order to address this, the team looked at a burial site in Grotte des Pigeons, near Taforalt in Morocco, associated with the Later Stone Age Iberomaurusian culture. The Iberomaurusians are believed to be the first in the area to produce finer stone tools known as microliths. "Grotte des Pigeons is a crucial site to understanding the human history of north-western Africa, since modern humans frequently inhabited this cave intensively during prolonged periods throughout the Middle and Later Stone Age," explains co-author Louise Humphrey of the Natural History Museum in London. "Around 15,000 years ago there is evidence for more intensive use of the site and the Iberomaurusians started to bury their dead at the back of the cave."

15,000-year-old nuclear DNA is the oldest recovered in Africa

The researchers analyzed DNA from nine individuals from Taforalt using advanced sequencing and analytical methods. They were able to recover mitochondrial data from seven of the individuals and genome-wide nuclear data from five of the individuals. Because of the age of the samples, at approximately 15,000 years old, and the poor preservation characteristic of the area, this is an unprecedented achievement. "This is the first and the oldest Pleistocene DNA of our species recovered in Africa," explains co-senior author Abdeljalil Bouzouggar. "Due to challenging conditions for DNA preservation, relatively few ancient genomes have been recovered from Africa and none of them so far predate the introduction of agriculture in North Africa," explains first author Marieke van de Loosdrecht of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "Successful genome reconstruction was possible by using specialized laboratory methods to retrieve highly degraded DNA, and relatively new analysis methods to characterize the genetic profiles of these individuals."

The researchers found two major components to the genetic heritage of the individuals. About two-thirds of their heritage is related to contemporaneous populations from the Levant and about one-third is most similar to modern sub-Saharan Africans, in particular West Africans.

As early as the Stone Age, human populations had links that stretched across continents

The high proportion of Near Eastern ancestry shows that the connection between North Africa and the Near East began much earlier than many previously thought. Although the connections between these regions have been shown in previous studies for more recent time periods, it was not generally believed that humans were interacting across these distances during the Stone Age. "Our analysis shows that North Africa and the Near East, even at this early time, were part of one region without much of a genetic barrier," explains co-senior author Choongwon Jeong.

Although the Sahara did present a physical barrier, there was also clearly interaction happening at this time. The strong connection between the Taforalt individuals and sub-Saharan populations shows that interactions across this vast desert were occurring much earlier than was previously thought. In fact, the proportion of sub-Saharan ancestry of the Taforalt individuals, one-third, is a higher percentage than found in modern populations in Morocco and many other North African populations.

Sub-Saharan heritage from a previously unknown ancient population

Though the scientists found clear markers linking the heritage in question to sub-Saharan Africa, no previously identified population has the precise combination of genetic markers that the Taforalt individuals had. While some aspects match modern Hadza hunter-gatherers from East Africa and others match modern West Africans, neither of these groups has the same combination of characteristics as the Taforalt individuals. Consequently, the researchers cannot be sure exactly where this heritage comes from. One possibility is that this heritage may come from a population that no longer exists. However, this question would need further investigation.

"Clearly, human populations were interacting much more with groups from other, more distant areas than was previously assumed," states co-senior author Johannes Krause, director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "This illustrates the ability of ancient genetics to add to our understanding of human history." Further studies in this region could help to clarify more about when and how these different populations interacted and where they came from.

###Hydropower is the world's top provider of renewable energy, producing a whopping 16 per cent of the global energy supply. That's a good thing when it comes to the climate, especially compared to energy from fossil fuels. But hydropower is not without its environmental costs, particularly when it comes to the land that is drowned under reservoirs or gobbled up by roads and power lines built for a hydropower project.

Now, a team of Norwegian-based researchers has developed an innovative way to describe how much land it takes to generate a kilowatt-hour of electricity from hydropower. The goal is to make it easier for policymakers and businesses to assess the environmental trade-offs of current hydropower plants and involved in investing in new hydropower plants.

"Some hydropower reservoirs may look natural at first. However, they are human influenced and if land has been flooded for their creation, this may impact terrestrial ecosystems," said Martin Dorber, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Industrial Ecology Programme.

Life-cycle analysis

There's widespread agreement that boosting the amount of electricity that the world gets from renewable energy like hydropower is key to combatting global climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has looked at this issue in a special report on renewable energy sources and climate change. There, the organization says governments and industry need to include the long-term environmental consequences of hydropower into current and future projects. That way, they can identify the environmental trade-offs that will result from expanding hydropower production.

Dorber and his colleagues Francesca Verones from NTNU's Industrial Ecology Programme, and Roel May from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research realized that they had the perfect tool for quantifying the environmental effects of hydropower production. It's an analysis tool called Life Cycle Assessment, commonly abbreviated as LCA.

LCA gives researchers a methodology to look at all the environmental impacts of a product or process during its life cycle. That means they start at the very beginning, from the production of the item's components, to when the product or process is in created and in use, and finally to when it is no longer in use and recycled or otherwise disposed of. The idea is to give a picture of the complete environmental cost of something.

As an example, if you were to conduct a life-cycle assessment of a beer can, you would need to know everything starting with the environmental costs of mining the raw material (bauxite), shipping it to be made into aluminium, the making of the can itself, and what it takes to recycle it after it has been used. It's complicated, but researchers at NTNU's Industrial Ecology Programme have perfected this approach for hundreds of different products and processes.

One of the potential environmental effects of hydropower development is what it can do to biodiversity. It can alter freshwater habitat, degrade water quality, and change land use by flooding land for reservoirs, and from the construction of the dam and the power lines and access roads the project needs. The researchers realized that there isn't enough information available yet to allow LCA to assess all of these impacts from hydropower, so they decided to focus on one key issue: land use and land use change.

"Land use and land use change is a key issue, as it is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss, because it leads to loss and degradation of habitat for many species," Dorber said.

Flooding natural lakes

The first step for the researchers was to conduct what is called a life cycle inventory, by figuring out just how much land is used to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity.

Since Norway is one of the top ten hydropower producers in the world, with more than 95 per cent of all domestic power production from hydropower, the researchers realized they needed to create an inventory specific to Norway.

There are databases that attempt to provide this information, but the largest of these only had information on hydropower production for Switzerland and Brazil. And none of the databases accounted for the water area of a natural lake that might have been flooded to make the hydro reservoir, the researchers said.

"Most of the Norwegian hydropower reservoirs are created by impounding natural lakes," Dorber said. "So if we applied the information from the databases that don't account for the water area of a natural lake, that would lead to a gross overestimation of the environmental impact."

The trouble is, there's minimal information available on the size of the lakes that were inundated to create Norway's 1289 hydropower reservoirs. So the researchers found a way to estimate what original lake sizes would have been -- by using satellite imagery. How they did it

Fortunately, the researchers had access to two excellent sources of information to make their estimates. The first was measurements of the actual reservoir surface areas at their highest regulated water level, provided by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE).

The second was free, downloadable satellite images from the NASA-USGS Global Land Survey data set, where they used images from 1972-1983 for Norway. The researchers also used aerial photographs as needed from an Internet portal called Norge i Bilder, which provides aerial photographs for Norway as early as 1937.

The dates of the images matter, because the researchers needed to be able to see the land before the hydropower projects were constructed. That meant they could only assess water surface areas before dam construction for hydropower plants built on or after 1937 for the area covered by the aerial photographs, and for dams built on or after 1972 for the area covered by the Landsat photos. As a result, they were only able to calculate how much land was inundated for 184 hydropower reservoirs in total.

For a variety of reasons, they weren't able to use data for 77 reservoirs that they had land area information for. In the end, they were able to calculate land occupation by reservoirs that provided roughly 20 per cent of the total average annual hydropower electricity produced in Norway between 1981 and 2010.

"By dividing the inundated land area with the annual electricity production of each hydropower reservoir, we calculated site-specific net land occupation values for the Life Cycle Inventory," Dorber said. " While it's beyond the scope of this work, our approach is a crucial step towards quantifying impacts of hydropower electricity production on biodiversity for Life Cycle Analysis."

Other uses, other countries

Dorber points out that their approach could be employed by other countries that wanted to know more about the effects of hydropower on the environment, because the Landsat data covers the entire globe and is freely available.

And when they compared the Norwegian information they generated to the hydropower information they had from Switzerland and Brazil, they saw just how different the effects are in the different countries.

"The avera ge land occupation in our study across all the hydropower plants we looked at is 0.027 m2 yr/kWh and is larger than the existing 0.004 m2 yr/kWh in the database for Switzerland," Dorber said. "However, when we adjusted the land occupation value to address uncertainties, the adjusted average land occupation (0.007 m2yr/kWh) is lower than our average land occupation (0.027 m2yr/kWh) and is thus closer to the existing 0.004 m2yr/kWh in the Ecoinvent database."

Knowing how much land was occupied when a dam was built can also help to calculate how much water is lost on average to evaporation, which can affect aquatic ecosystems by reducing the amount of water released from the dam.

And because the creation of hydropower reservoirs leads to an initial increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the decomposition of organic matter that was flooded by the reservoir or flushed into the reservoir, the information can also be used to calculate net water consumption and net greenhouse gas emissions for the Life Cycle Inventory, Dorber said.

"We have shown that remote sensing data can be used to quantify the land use change caused by hydropower reservoirs. At the same time our results show that the land use change differs between hydropower reservoirs," Dorber said. "Therefore, more reservoir-specific land use change assessment is a key component that is needed to quantify the potential environmental impacts in connection with hydropower reservoirs."

###

Reference: Modeling Net Land Occupation of Hydropower Reservoirs in Norway for Use in Life Cycle Assessment M Dorber et al. Environ Sci Technol 52 (4), 2375-2384. 2018 Jan 31.Young, resting neural stem cells in the brains of mice store large clumps of proteins in specialized cellular trash compartments known as lysosomes, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found.

As the cells age, they become less proficient at disposing of these protein aggregates, and their ability to respond readily to "make new neurons" signals wanes. Restoring the ability of the lysosomes to function normally rejuvenates the cells' ability to activate, the researchers found.

The discovery of the aggregates in young stem cells was unexpected, in part because similar aggregates are associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's. It also highlights the importance of maintaining precise control over the protein production and disposal process throughout the life and activation status of neural stem cells.

"We were surprised by this finding because resting, or quiescent, neural stem cells have been thought to be a really pristine cell type just waiting for activation," said Anne Brunet, PhD, professor of genetics. "But now we've learned they have more protein aggregates than activated stem cells, and that these aggregates continue to accumulate as the cells age. If we remove these aggregates, we can improve the cells' ability to activate and make new neurons. So if one were able to restore this protein-processing function, it could be very important to bringing older, more dormant neural stem cells 'back to life.'"

A paper describing the research will be published March 15 in Science. Brunet, an associate director of Stanford's Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, is the senior author. Postdoctoral scholar Dena Leeman, PhD, is the lead author.

Resting versus active neural stem cells

The researchers began their studies by looking to see what difference there might be, if any, between the gene expression profiles of resting neural stem cells and those that had been activated in response to an outside signal to launch the process to make new neurons. They also compared how the cells changed as they aged.

Leeman isolated several populations of cells for study from the brains of both young and old mice, including resting neural stem cells, activated neural stem cells and the neural cell progenitors that arise from activated stem cells. She found that resting stem cells expressed many lysosome-associated genes, while activated stem cells expressed genes associated with a protein complex involved in protein destruction called a proteasome. Strict control of production and disposal allows cells to maintain the necessary protein inventory to carry out needed cellular functions.

When Leeman stained young resting and activated neural stem cells with a dye that binds to protein aggregates, she was surprised to find the resting stem cells stained more brightly, despite the fact that resting cells have a lower rate of protein production. Leeman also found that the young resting neural stem cells accumulated these protein aggregates in their large lysosomes relatively slowly compared with their activated counterparts.

"We were really struck by the differences between resting and activated stem cells in the expression of genes involved in protein quality control," said Brunet. "The fact that these young, pristine resting stem cells accumulate protein aggregates makes us wonder whether they actually serve an important function, perhaps by serving as a source of nutrients or energy upon degradation."

Old resting stem cells, Leeman found, express fewer lysosome-associated genes and begin to accumulate even higher levels of protein aggregates.

"It's almost as if these older cells lose the ability to store, or park, these aggregates," said Brunet. "We found that artificially clearing them by either activating lysosomes in older cells or subjecting them to starvation conditions to limit their protein production actually restored the ability of these older resting stem cells to activate."

The researchers plan to continue their studies to learn what types of proteins might be contributing to the aggregates, to better understand why activated neural stem cells appear to favor proteasomes over lysosomes and to determine how the regulation of protein aggregation becomes disrupted during aging.

'Are they good or bad?'

"We'd like to know whether the aggregated proteins are the same in the young and old cells," said Brunet. "What do they do? Are they good or bad? Are they storing factors important for activation? If so, can we help elderly resting stem cells activate more quickly by harnessing these factors? Their existence in young cells suggests they may be serving an important function."

###

Other Stanford authors are former postdoctoral scholars Katja Hebestreit, PhD, and Ashley Webb, PhD; postdoctoral scholars Tyson Ruetz, PhD, Salah Mahmoudi, PhD, and Xiaoai Zhao, MD, PhD; graduate students Andrew McKay, Robin Yeo and Ben Dulken; former graduate student Elizabeth Pollina, PhD; laboratory manager Keerthana Devarajan; Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences; and Judith Frydman, PhD, professor of genetics and of biology.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants P01AG036695, F31AG043232 and T32GM7365), the National Science Foundation, the Glenn/American Federation for Aging Research, Stanford Bio-X, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship and a Stanford cancer biology training grant.

Stanford's Department of Genetics also supported the work.

Print media contact: Krista Conger at (650) 725-5371 (kristac@stanford.edu)

Broadcast media contact: Margarita Gallardo at (650) 723-7897 (mjgallardo@stanford.edu)

The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://med.stanford.edu/school.html. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health. For information about all three, please visit http://med.stanford.edu.It is a long-cherished dream: Removing the inert greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and using it as a basic material for the chemical industry. This could address two major problems at once by containing climate change and at the same time reducing the dependence on oil. Physico-chemists at the University of Bonn are in the process of making significant contributions to this vision. They have discovered a new way to create a highly reactive form of carbon dioxide with the help of laser pulses. The results have been published online in advance and will soon be presented in the printed edition of the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Every day, nature shows humans how to elegantly bind carbon dioxide from the air and transform it into a much-needed raw material. Plants perform photosynthesis with their green leaves when exposed to light. Oxygen and the much-needed energy and nutrient supplier sugar are created from carbon dioxide and water with the help of sunlight.

"Scientists have been striving to mimic this model for a long time, for instance in order to use carbon dioxide for the chemical industry," says Prof. Dr. Peter Vohringer from the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry of the University of Bonn. What makes the concept hard to implement is that it is very difficult to push carbon dioxide into new partnerships with other molecules.

With his team, the physico-chemist has now discovered a new way of generating a highly reactive variant of the inert and hard-to-bind greenhouse gas. The researchers used a so-called iron complex: The center contains a positively charged iron atom, to which the constituents of the carbon dioxide are already bound multiple times. The scientists shot ultrashort laser pulses of ultraviolet light onto this iron complex, which broke certain bonds. The resulting product was a so-called carbon dioxide radical, which also forms new bonds with a certain radicality.

Such radicals have a single electron in their outer shell that urgently wants to bind permanently to another molecule or atom. "It is this unpaired electron that distinguishes our reactive radical anion bound to the central iron atom from the inert carbon dioxide and makes it so promising for chemical processes", explains lead author Steffen Straub from Vohringer's team. The radicals could in turn be the building blocks for interesting chemical products, such as methanol as a fuel or urea for chemical syntheses and salicylic acid as a pain medication.

Spectrometer shows molecules at work

With their laser and infrared spectrometer, a large apparatus in the basement of the institute, the scientists watch the molecules at work. The spectrometer measures the characteristic vibrations of the molecules, and this "fingerprint" allows them to identify the bonds between different atoms. "The formation of the carbon dioxide radical within the iron complex changes the bonds between the atoms, which reduces the frequency of the characteristic carbon dioxide vibration", explains Straub.

With forensic instinct, the scientists were able to prove that the laser pulses really do produce the reactive carbon dioxide radical. First, the team simulated the vibrational spectra of the molecules on the computer, then compared the calculations to the measurements. The result: Simulation and experiment were indeed an excellent match. Like a "molecular motion picture", the spectrometer took "snapshots" in the unimaginable temporal resolution of millionths of a billionth of a second. On the basis of the spectra, which correspond to the individual images of a film, it can thus be revealed - essentially in slow motion - how the iron complex deforms under pulsed laser illumination over several stages, the bonds break up and finally the radical is formed.

"Our findings have the potential to fundamentally change ideas about how to extract the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to produce important chemical products", says Vohringer. However, suitable catalysts would still have to be developed for industrial use because laser pulses are not efficient for large-scale conversion. "Nonetheless, our results provide clues as to how such a catalyst would have to be designed", adds the scientist. The current study fits in with the multidisciplinary key profile areas on sustainability as well as matter research at the University of Bonn.

###

Publication: Steffen Straub, Paul Brunker, Jorg Lindner, and Peter Vohringer: An Iron Complex with a Bent, O-Coordinated CO 2 -Ligand Discovered by Femtosecond Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy, Angewandte Chemie (DOI: 10.1002/ange.201800672) und Angewandte Chemie International Edition (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201800672)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Peter Vohringer

Molecular Physical Chemistry Group

Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Tel. 49-0-228-737050

E-mail: p.voehringer@uni-bonn.deHealthier fish stocks. Higher catches. Profits from fishing. Is there a way to achieve these holy grails of commercial fisheries without harming endangered species that are caught incidentally?

A new UC Santa Barbara-led study has found that may indeed be possible about half the time. According to the research group's analysis, ending overfishing would also promote population recoveries for many endangered species ensnared accidentally as bycatch -- the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species. The team's findings appear in the journal Science.

"Many large animals, including marine mammals, turtles and birds, are threatened by bycatch," said lead author Matt Burgess, a postdoctoral scholar in the Sustainable Fisheries Group at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. "We tend to think that we can only save these species by either dramatically improving our gear or by constraining our fisheries. But this project demonstrated that wasn't always the case. In about half the cases, overexploiting these mammals, turtles and birds occurs because we're also overexploiting the target species."

The study examined how much fishing pressure needs to be reduced to maximize profits in the 4,713 fisheries that produce most of the world's catch -- and to halt the population declines of 20 marine mammal, sea turtle and sea bird populations threatened as bycatch. The researchers also identified which fisheries might be causing the bycatch for each population.

To account for the many uncertainties in each of these aspects, the scientists simulated 1,000 possible scenarios. In each, they asked what fraction of the 20 threatened bycatch populations would begin to recover if all fisheries adopted efforts that would maximize their profits. For each bycatch population that would not recover under such efforts, the investigators then asked how much profit the fisheries would have to give up to enable recovery of the bycatch population. In 95 percent of the simulated scenarios, the analysis demonstrated that between seven and 13 of the bycatch populations could be saved from decline at a cost of less than 5 percent of the maximum profit.

"Maintaining productive fisheries and protecting threatened bycatch species are two of the primary goals of fisheries policy," Burgess said. "We found that about half the time we can accomplish these goals together with the same management actions."

For some populations like the eastern Pacific leatherback turtle, that bycatch is unsustainable but so, too, is the fishing pressure on many of the target species. "For many species, you actually get a 'win-win,' where building higher stocks of fish in the ocean leads to higher fishery profits and recovery of endangered species," said co-author Christopher Costello, a Bren professor and co-principal investigator of the Sustainable Fisheries Group.

To save the other half of the bycatch populations, fisheries would either have to reduce fishing so much that they would give up a lot of their profits or substantially improve their fishing technologies to better avoid bycatch. "These bycatch populations either need total or near-total elimination of bycatch to survive, like the vaquita porpoise from the Gulf of California," Burgess explained. "Or they are caught in fisheries that already exploit their target species relatively sustainably, as may be the case for the New Zealand sea lion."

"Recognizing the benefits of rebuilding fisheries to endangered populations allows us to also focus attention on other key sources of endangered species mortality, like egg poaching, invasive species, pollution and habitat loss," said co-author Rebecca Lewison of San Diego State University.

All of the data and computer code from the study is publicly available online. "We did this so that our analysis will be fully transparent and reproducible by others," said co-lead author Grant McDermott of the University of Oregon. "This is gradually becoming the norm in science, which is great."

###

Additional co-authors on the study are Brandon Owashi, Tyler Clavelle, Daniel Ovando and Steven Gaines, all of UCSB; Lindsey Peavey Reeves of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary; and Bryan Wallace of Conservation Science Partners and Duke University.Irvine, Calif. -- More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci sketched what he called "la turbolenza," comparing chaotic swirls atop flowing water to curly human hair. It turns out those patterns influence myriad phenomena, from the drag on an airplane's wings and the formation of Jupiter's red spot to the rustling of tree leaves.

New findings to be published Friday in the journal Science add another to the list: the eradication of a pervasive fertilizer pollutant from streams.

"We can now calculate a turbulence 'speed limit' for nitrate removal in any stream," said lead author Stanley Grant, a professor of civil & environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. "That means we can provide specific guidance on how to tailor restoration efforts to maximize its removal and protect ecosystems downstream."

Scientists have long known that nitrate-loaded fertilizers run off from farms and city streets into bodies of water, sometimes creating giant "dead zones" hundreds of miles downstream. The prevailing view has been that hungry algae and bacteria in the bottom sediment control how fast nitrate can be removed.

But an international team of researchers thought that physics might play a role too. Churning water serves as a sort of escalator, whirling molecules of the pollutant down to streambeds in a pattern that's a vertical version of Leonardo's long-ago sketches.

The scientists wanted to know how that action affects elimination of the contaminant. They calculated the maximum velocity - or speed limit - at which turbulence moves nitrate to the sediment and compared it to previously published measurements of nitrate removal in 72 streams across the United States.

"The answer depends on how polluted the stream is," said co-author Perran Cook, an associate professor of chemistry at Monash University in Australia. "In pristine streams, the rate at which turbulence transports the nitrate controls how quickly it's removed. In polluted streams, the prevailing view is correct: Processes within the sediment win the day." In a clean stream, the nitrate is removed when the algae and bacteria in the sediment soak it up, or, even better, convert it to a harmless gas compound.

"It is a gigantic gift. Streams remove much of the nitrate we throw at them, so there has been a lot of interest in understanding how this process works and how it can be made more efficient," said co-author Fulvio Boano, an associate professor of hydraulics at Italy's Politecnico di Torino.

But the process can become overwhelmed when too much of the contaminant is pumped into a waterway, allowing nitrate to flow to coastal waters. Once there, it can stimulate algal growth, deplete oxygen, and lead to the formation of giant barren areas downstream, like the Connecticut-sized area off the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico.

The study results have important implications for managing nitrate pollution near the source, before it flows to sensitive ecosystems.

"The same calculations can be included in stream network models, which would allow researchers to better quantify the impacts of nitrate pollution at local, continental and even global scales," said co-author Morvarid Azizian, a postdoctoral scholar in civil & environmental engineering at UCI.

"That's a picture that would make even Leonardo proud," Grant added.

###

Funding for the work was provided by the National Science Foundation and the UC Office of the President Multicampus Research Programs & Initiatives.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.A third of all vultures caught and tested in the Botswana study showed elevated levels of lead in their blood, most likely due to ingesting lead bullet-contaminated flesh. Hunters' bullets shatter inside their prey and can then be absorbed into the blood stream of the vultures when they feed on these animals or their remains. This ingested lead is highly toxic to birds.

"We were all shocked by how widespread lead poisoning was for this population and just how clearly these elevated levels were associated with recreational hunting activity", said Dr Arjun Amar, Associate Professor from the University of Cape Town's FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, who supervised the research.

The study, published this week in the international journal Science of the Total Environment, is based on tests of nearly 600 critically endangered African White-backed Vultures. Higher lead levels were found in the blood of vultures in the hunting season and in hunting areas, suggesting that the source of the lead in their blood stream was lead bullets used for hunting.

"The only logical explanation for the patterns of lead poisoning we observed is if lead bullets were the source of this contamination" said the study's lead author Beckie Garbett, who conducted the research as part of her PhD.

The four-year study was conducted jointly with Raptors Botswana, a conservation NGO. It has prompted a call for a national ban on lead bullets in the hope of minimising negative impacts on vulture populations, which are declining throughout Africa. Previous vulture studies linked declines in several species across the continent to mass poisoning, usually by farmers trying to kill other predators, or poachers deliberately trying to kill vultures for fear they might give away their location.

Researchers believe alternative non-lead ammunition, already adopted in some countries, could provide a helping hand to vultures. "Whilst lead poisoning may not be the main driver for the declines in vultures across Africa, it is something that can be tackled more easily through simple legislation, as compared to stopping the illegal actions of livestock owners or poachers" Amar said.

Lead poisoning was one of the main reasons for the near extinction of the Californian Condor and is known to increase mortality and reduce breeding performance in birds. Thus, shattered fragments of bullets left in the carcasses of big game animals on the African savannahs could also be accelerating the decline of vultures.

The latest research also suggests that the 2014 ban on hunting on government owned land in Botswana has had no effect on the lead levels in vultures. Lead levels in vultures actually increased after the ban, and the researchers believe vultures may have shifted their foraging to private game farms where hunting is still allowed: "Hunting may have become more concentrated after the ban and this might explain the increase in lead levels in vultures following the ban, since the vultures may have tapped more into this food supply. We also need to consider that because vultures range so widely, they are exposed to lead use throughout the region, therefore mitigation of this issue needs to be addressed at a regional level" Garbett said.

The authors of the study have called for greater awareness among policy makers of the threat that lead ammunition may pose to vultures. The Convention for Migratory Species (CMS) has also urged all signature countries to phase out the use of lead ammunition. Whilst Botswana is one of the few countries yet to sign the convention, the authors urge policymakers there to implement this call. "To do so is particularly important for species like vultures that range widely across international borders," the study said.

###

Notes to editors:

1) The full reference for the paper is: Rebecca Garbett, Glyn Maude, Pete Hancock, David Kenny, Richard Reading & Arjun Amar. 2018. Association between hunting and elevated blood lead levels in the critically endangered African white-backed vulture Gyps africanus. Science of the Total Environment.

2) For more information, contact Dr Arjun Amar, Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, NRF-DST Centre of Excellence, Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, email: arjun.amar@uct.ac.uk , tel: +27 (0)21 6503304 or +27 (0)795855603; or Ms Beckie Garbett , email: vulturesinbots@hotmail.co.uk, tel: +267 72358924 who can also supply the paper and other potential photos

3) Photo 1 - copyright Raptors Botswana. Photo 2 and 3 - copyright Beckie Garbett.

4) The work was funded by Denver Zoological Foundation, Rufford Grant, Leslie Brown Memorial Fund, Wilderness Wildlife Trust, Mohammed bin Zayed, the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence grant to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town.

5) The FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, is a DST-NRF Centre of Excellence based within the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Cape Town. The mission of the institute is to promote and undertake scientific studies involving birds, and contribute to the practice affecting the maintenance of biological diversity and the sustained use of biological resources.

6) Raptors Botswana formed in 2012, is an NGO that works primarily with vultures under Kalahari Research and Conservation. The Raptors Botswana team conducts research and runs community education programs in Botswana.

7) A premier academic meeting point between South Africa, Africa and the world, the University of Cape Town is dedicated to generating new solutions for major societal challenges and focuses on research that can change lives, especially the lives of people in Africa. Founded in 1829, UCT is the oldest teaching university in South Africa. Today it is the highest-ranking university in Africa and has over 100,000 alumni. For more information, visit http://www.uct.ac.za.Lithium-metal batteries -- which can hold up to 10 times more charge than the lithium-ion batteries that currently power our phones, laptops and cars -- haven't been commercialized because of a fatal flaw: as these batteries charge and discharge, lithium is deposited unevenly on the electrodes. This buildup cuts the lives of these batteries too short to make them viable, and more importantly, can cause the batteries to short-circuit and catch fire.

Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a solution to this problem in the form of a graphene-oxide coated 'nanosheet' that, when placed in between the two electrodes of a lithium-metal battery, prevents uneven plating of lithium and allows the battery to safely function for hundreds of charge/discharge cycles. They report their findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

"Our findings demonstrate that two-dimensional materials -- in this case, graphene oxide -- can help regulate lithium deposition in such a way that extends the life of lithium-metal batteries," said Reza Shahbazian-Yassar, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering in the UIC College of Engineering and corresponding author of the paper.

Lithium-metal batteries are so useful because of their high-energy density and relatively light weights compared with conventional batteries. However, over the course of many charge-discharge cycles, lithium builds up unevenly on the battery's lithium metal electrode in a branching or 'dendritic' pattern and ultimately causes the battery to go dead. If the dendrites grow through the electrolyte solution and make contact with the other electrode, then the battery may experience a catastrophic event -- in other words, an explosion or fire.

In lithium-ion batteries, a separator is placed in the electrolyte. Usually made of a porous polymer or glass ceramic fibers, the separator allows lithium ions to flow through while keeping the other components blocked to prevent electrical shorts, which can lead to fires.

Reza and colleagues used a modified separator in a lithium-metal battery to modulate the flow of lithium ions to control the rate of lithium deposition and see if they could prevent dendrites from forming. They spray-coated a fiberglass separator with graphene oxide, producing what they called a nanosheet.

Using scanning electron microscopy and other imaging techniques, the researchers showed that when the nanosheet was used in a lithium-metal battery, a uniform film of lithium formed on the lithium electrode's surface, which actually improves battery function and makes the battery much safer, said Tara Foroozan, a graduate student in the UIC College of Engineering and first author on this study.

Molecular simulations, led by a team of researchers from Texas A & M University, suggested that the lithium ions become temporarily bonded to the graphene oxide, and then diffuse through areas of nanoscopic defects in the sheet. This delays the passage of lithium ions enough to prevent the formation of dendritic deposition of lithium on the electrode.

"The nanosheet slows the passage of lithium ions enough to allow for more uniform plating on lithium ions across the surface of the electrode, which helps preserve battery life," said Reza.

Results of phase-field modeling computations led by Farzad Mashayek, professor and head of mechanical and industrial engineering in the UIC College of Engineering and an author on the paper, indicated that graphene oxide can also mechanically suppress the growth of lithium dendrites.

"We show that two-dimensional graphene oxide materials are able to impede the formation of dendrites by changing the rate of lithium-ion diffusion as they pass through the graphene oxide layers," said Shahbazian-Yassar. "This method has very high potential for industrial application and scalability."

###

Vitaliy Soroosh, Sharifi-Asl, Ramasubramonian Deivanayagam, Zhennan Huang, and Ramin Rojaee from the UIC College of Engineering and Fernando Soto and Perla Balbuena from Texas A & M University are co-authors on the paper.

This research was funded by grant DMR-1620901 from the National Science Foundation and grant DE-EE0007766 from the U.S. Department of Energy.An international collaboration, including the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah, have discovered that early humans in eastern Africa had--by about 320,000 years ago--begun trading with distant groups, using color pigments and manufacturing more sophisticated tools than those of the Early Stone Age. These newly discovered activities approximately date to the oldest known fossil record of Homo sapiens and occur tens of thousands of years earlier than previous evidence from eastern Africa. These behaviors, which are characteristic of humans who lived during the Middle Stone Age, replaced technologies and ways of life that had been in place for hundreds of thousands of years.

Evidence for these milestones in humans' evolutionary past comes from the Olorgesailie Basin in southern Kenya, which holds an archeological record of early human life spanning more than a million years. The new discoveries, reported in three studies published March 15 in the journal Science, indicate that these behaviors emerged during a period of tremendous environmental variability in the region. As earthquakes remodeled the landscape and climate fluctuated between wet and dry conditions, technological innovation, social exchange networks and early symbolic communication would have helped early humans survive and obtain the resources they needed despite unpredictable conditions, the scientists say.

"These behavioral innovations may very well represent a response to rapid changes in the environment," said Tyler Faith, curator of archaeology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, assistant professor of anthropology at the U, and coauthor of one of the three studies. "Such a response would have helped human populations endure climatic and environmental shifts that likely contributed to the demise of many other species in the region."

To better understand how climactic instability might have influenced the ecosystems in which the early humans at Olorgesailie lived, the research team integrated data from a variety of sources to assess and reconstruct the ancient environment. Faith and collaborators analyzed large mammal fossils from the archaeological sites. The bones told a story of massive turnover in the region--most species previously common in the Olorgesailie Basin had disappeared, and were replaced by others previously unknown in the basin. Some of the new ones are familiar species found in eastern Africa today, though others--including a massive zebra--are now extinct.

The team also saw evidence of dramatic range shifts, with some animals--such as the springbok, an antelope known today only from southern Africa--appearing in the basin. The faunal evidence, together with additional geological and paleoenvironmental indicators from Olorgesailie, show that the new adaptive behaviors that define earliest Homo sapiens were associated with large-scale changes in climates, faunas, and landscapes.

Rick Potts, director of the National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program, is the lead author on one of the three Science publications that describe the adaptive challenges that early humans faced during this phase of evolution, to which Faith contributed. Alison Brooks, professor of anthropology at George Washington University's Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology and an associate of the museum's Human Origins Program, is lead author on the paper that focuses on the evidence of early resource exchange and use of coloring materials in the Olorgesailie Basin. A third paper, by Alan Deino at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and colleagues, details the chronology of the Middle Stone Age discoveries.

The first evidence of human life in the Olorgesailie Basin comes from about 1.2 million years ago. For hundreds of the thousands of years, people living there made and used large stone-cutting tools called handaxes. Beginning in 2002, the Human Origins Program team discovered a variety of smaller, more carefully shaped tools in the basin. Isotopic dating by Deino and collaborators revealed that the tools were surprisingly old--made between 320,000and 305,000 years ago. These tools were carefully crafted and more specialized than the large, all-purpose handaxes. While the handaxes of the earlier era were manufactured using local stones, the Smithsonian team found small stone points made of non-local obsidian at their Middle Stone Age sites. The team also found larger, unshaped pieces of the sharp-edged volcanic stone at Olorgesailie, which has no obsidian source of its own. The diverse chemical composition of the artifacts matches that of a wide range of obsidian sources in multiple directions 15 to 55 miles away, suggesting exchange networks were in place to move the valuable stone across the ancient landscape.

The team also discovered black and red rocks--manganese and ocher--at the sites, along with evidence that the rocks had been processed for use as coloring material. "We don't know what the coloring was used on, but coloring is often taken by archeologists as the root of complex symbolic communication," Potts said. "Just as color is used today in clothing or flags to express identity, these pigments may have helped people communicate membership in alliances and maintain ties with distant groups."

###

The research teams for the three studies published in Science include collaborators from the following institutions: the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museums of Kenya, George Washington University, the Berkeley Geochronology Center, the National Science Foundation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Missouri, the University of Bordeaux (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the Natural History Museum/Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah, Harvard University, Santa Monica College, the University of Michigan, the University of Connecticut, Emory University, the University of Bergen, Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Saskatchewan. Funding for this research was provided by the Smithsonian, the National Science Foundation and George Washington University.

Original version of this adapted release available at: https://newsdesk.si.eduMADISON, Wis. - Tumor cells circulating throughout the body in blood vessels have long been feared as harbingers of metastasizing cancer - even though most free-floating cancer cells will not go on to establish a new tumor.

But if these cast-offs could be accurately counted, they could provide an additional way to track treatment or screen for the disease.

New research by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Pharmacy Seungpyo Hong and his collaborators builds on several years of work in isolating these circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, by demonstrating improved methods for their capture on clinical samples for the first time. By forcing cancer cells to slow down and developing stronger molecular traps specific to CTCs, researchers were able to identify large numbers of the cells in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.

The number of CTCs dropped during therapy and subsequently rebounded in those patients that ended up requiring additional treatment - suggesting that this technology could supplement other techniques for tracking the progress of treatment.

Hong and his collaborator Andrew Wang of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine started the company Capio Biosciences in 2015 to commercialize the technology, which they term CapioCyte.

The study is published March 15 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. In addition to the Hong and Wang groups, collaborators from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Duke University and South Korea's Yonsei University contributed to the work, which was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Scientists have recognized CTCs as potentially useful metrics for tracking a patient's disease for some time. But the cells are the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack, drowned out by billions of ordinary red blood cells and other cells found in the blood. Developing ways to specifically concentrate and trap CTCs has been technically challenging, with existing technologies only identifying a handful of cells from certain patients.

Hong's team was inspired by the behavior of CTCs in the blood, which attach themselves to blood vessel walls and begin tumbling along looking for suitable places to invade. This behavior separates them from the oxygen-carrying cells floating by and is mimicked in the CapioCyte technology using an array of sticky proteins that force the CTCs to begin rolling, which slows them down.

The cells are then trapped using a series of three cancer-specific antibodies, proteins that tightly bind and hold onto the CTCs. To make the connection even stronger, the researchers developed a nanoscale structure shaped a little like a tree, with each branch tipped with an antibody. As a cancer cell passes nearby, many individual branches can latch on, increasing the strength of the attachment.

The cell rolling and multi-tipped branches helped the researchers capture an average of 200 CTCs from each milliliter of a patient's blood, many times the number of cells captured with previous technology. They identified cancer cells in each of 24 patients undergoing treatment for head-and-neck, prostate, rectal or cervical cancer that enrolled in the study.

"The absolute numbers of CTCs don't represent too much because there's too much variation individually, but the more important thing we found was the trend - how the CTC numbers change over time upon treatment. So, for example, we've shown that the CTCs go down when the patients are responding really well to the radiotherapy," says Hong.

Although the number of cells did not correlate with the stage, and thus severity, of the cancer, the reduction in cells was correlated with successful radiation therapy. In two of the three patients that had recurring or persistent disease, CTC numbers came back up.

"Our data suggest that we have a good chance of making CTCs a predictive biomarker or biomarker for surveillance for at least a few cancers, and that's always exciting," says Wang.

"What makes us excited in particular is we can see the direct impact," says Hong. "As a researcher, if you develop a new technology and it can directly help people, that's going to be the most rewarding experience - it's really exciting."

###

Eric Hamilton, (608) 263-1986, eshamilton@wisc.edu

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health (grants R01CA182528, R01CA178748, R21CA182322, and U54CA198999) and the National Science Foundation (grant DMR-1409161) as well as intramural research funds from the University of North Carolina Department of Radiation Oncology and UW-Madison School of Pharmacy.A 70,000-strong petition demanding a legal end to the inclusion of wild animals in travelling circuses has been handed in to the Swiss government by several activist organisations.

The petition  No to wild animals in circuses  was launched by the groups Pro Tier (pro animal), Tier im Recht (animal in the right) and Quatre Pattes (four-legged), and collected 70,076 signatures before being presented to the Federal Council in Bern on Thursday.

The activists want the government to formulate a law that takes seriously the scientifically grounded concerns about the detention of wild animals, and to draw up a list of animals banned from circuses and variety shows.

The natural needs of the beasts cannot be met in a circus, the petitioners said at a press conference. The size of their cages, the constant moving from place to place, the proximity with humans, and their pre- and post-tour treatment all raise problems.

+ Read more about how animal-based traditions can collide with modern morality

Circuses in Switzerland are currently allowed keep wild animals in spaces smaller than they would enjoy in a zoo. Elsewhere in Europe, in 26 other countries, restrictions and sometimes blanket bans exist.

That said, change is already headed in a positive direction, says Barbara Kerkmeer of Pro Tier. For example, the famous Swiss circus Knie, which begins touring on Thursday evening in canton St Gallen (the choice of timing by the petitioners was not accidental) has not kept big cats for years;since 2016, it has also stopped parading elephants.

Other circuses however, including the Gasser-Olympia and the Royal, have performed with big cats during their most recent tours.













SDA-ATS/dos





Britain, France, Germany and the United States condemned a nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy and his daughter, saying there was "no plausible alternative explanation" to Moscow's involvement.

We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the English city of Salisbury on March 4, said the rare joint statement issued by the British government.

We share the UK assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the UK government further underlines its responsibility.

Britain has linked the attack to Soviet-designed nerve agents known as Novichok, and accused Moscow of failing to explain how the poison came to be used on English soil.

We call on Russia to address all questions related to the attack in Salisbury, the four world powers said in their statement.

Russia should in particular provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon.

The Salisbury poisoning is the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.

It amounts to a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all, the US and European leaders said.

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 aim of the nerve agents appears to have been to circumvent international conventions banning chemical weapons by developing compounds with new structures that would escape detection, experts say.Spanish police searched the seat of the Catalan regional government in Barcelona on Thursday as part of an investigation into how last year's banned independence referendum was funded.

A Civil Guard spokesperson said the operation targeted the citizens assistance office and the offices of the grassroots separatist group Omnium Cultural, whose leader was jailed last year pending a probe into his role in Catalonias breakaway bid.

During the raid, police detained the head of the citizens assistance department, Antoni Molons, and said his home would be searched. He was later released, the Civil Guard said.

Officers were looking for documents of an economic nature, according to Omnium Cultural spokesperson, Roger Rofin, who denied the use of any public funding.

We have not received a single euro from the (Catalan parliament) since 2012, he said.

According to Spanish media, police are seeking evidence into the public financing of the referendum, organised by pro-independence leaders on October 1 despite a court ban.

We launched an operation in the context of the inquiry heard by the judge of court number 13 in Barcelona, said the spokesperson.

The Catalan parliament was dissolved by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after it unilaterally declared independence on October 27 following the banned referendum on secession.

Since then, the region of 7.5 million people has been under direct rule from Madrid.

Catalonias ousted leader Carles Puigdemont, in self-exposed exile in Belgium, faces arrest if he returns to Spain.Spanish and Portuguese police arrested ten people and seized around 2.5 tonnes of cocaine in raids to smash an international network smuggling drugs from Latin America to Europe, police said Thursday.

Police seized two tonnes of cocaine at a warehouse in Lisbon and around half a tonne hidden as it was being transported by car just across the border in the Spanish province of Badajoz, Portugals narcotics police chief, Artur Vaz, told a news conference.

The cocaine was inside vacuum sealed bricks contained about one kilo each that were decorated with the logos for Rolls-Royce and Mini vehicles as well as the logo for 1972 crime film The Godfather alongside an image of its star, Marlon Brando.

The drugs were to go first to Spain and from there to other destinations in Europe, said Vaz.

The authorities declined to give an estimate for the street value of the cocaine, which was put on display for the media at Portuguese police headquarters in Lisbon.

Police arrested ten people, mainly Colombians and Spanish nationals, who were caught during a police road stop transporting the cocaine hidden inside false bottoms of four vehicles, Spains narcotics police chief, Antonio Duarte, said.

The smuggling ring was based in Madrid and it was completely broken up by the operation, he added.

ds/harMigrants clashed with security forces in central Madrid on Thursday following the death of a Senegalese man whom they said was chased through the streets by police.

Riot police and firefighters were deployed to Lavapies, a district in the centre of the Spanish capital with a large immigrant population, as angry protesters set fire to dustbins and a motorbike, and threw stones at security forces.

Demonstrators told AFP they were protesting in support of Mmame Mbage, a street vendor in his mid-thirties from Senegal, who arrived in Spain by boat 12 years ago.

Emergency services said Mbage was found unconscious on a street in Lavapies by police on patrol.

They were busy trying to revive him when emergency workers arrived, a spokeswoman said. However he died of cardiac arrest.

She did not know what had happened to Mbage before he collapsed, but several other street vendors who were with him said he had been chased by police from Puerta del Sol.

Municipal police arrived and chased him from Sol to Lavapies with a motorbike, said Modou, a 25-year-old vendor from Senegal who refused to give his surname.

At the end he died here, Modou told AFP, with others confirming the account.

Mbage worked as an illegal vendor and sent some money back to his family, one of thousands of migrants who have reached Spain over the years in search of a better life.

Spain is the third busiest gateway for migrants coming to Europe, with close to 23,000 arrivals in 2017. Hundreds have died along the way.The sister of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the target of a French arrest warrant for allegedly ordering her bodyguard to beat up a worker at her Paris apartment, legal sources said Thursday.

The warrant against Princess Hassa bint Salman, issued in late December, follows an alleged assault at her apartment on the ultra-expensive Avenue Foch in west Paris in September 2016, sources close to the case told AFP.

The case could complicate Macrons efforts to build up a good relationship with Prince Mohammed, one of the most powerful leaders in the Middle East, who is due to visit Paris in the coming weeks.

The workman says he was hired to carry out some refurbishment at Princess Hassas apartment and she became angry after he took a photograph of the room where the work was to be done.

He alleges the princess, said to be in her 40s, ordered the bodyguard to beat him, accusing him of taking pictures to sell to the media.

Le Point magazine reported that the princess shouted, Kill him, the dog, he doesnt deserve to live.

The workman says he was punched in the face, his hands were tied and he was forced to kiss the princesss feet during an hours-long ordeal. His tools were confiscated before he was allowed to leave.

AFP reported at the time of the incident that his injuries were so severe that he was ordered off work for eight days.

The bodyguard was charged on October 1, 2016 with armed violence, theft, issuing death threats and holding someone against their will.

The Saudi information ministry did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

 Awkward timing 

Macron held talks with the upstart Prince Mohammed in Riyadh in November and is keen to develop trade ties with the worlds leading crude oil exporter.

Although dates for his trip to Paris have yet to be announced, he will most likely fly in some time after his visit next week to the United States.

Known by his initials MBS, 32-year-old Prince Mohammed has shaken up Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East since he was elevated to crown prince last year.

He has added fuel to the Sunni kingdoms fierce rivalry with Shia Iran  going so far Thursday as to say that if Tehran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.

And he displayed his clout back in November when he is widely believed to have pressured Lebanons Prime Minister Saad Hariri into a shock resignation.

Macron waded into that crisis, inviting Hariri to Paris for talks. Hariri has since withdrawn his resignation.

Widely regarded as de facto leader under his 82-year-old father King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince Mohammed has presented himself as a champion of moderate Islam.

He has declared a liberalisation of ultra-conservative social mores under Wahhabi Islam and moved to modernise the heavily top-down economy.

He has also spearheaded an anti-corruption campaign in which nearly 400 princes, ministers and business moguls were locked up in a deluxe Riyadh hotel and assets worth tens of billions of dollars confiscated.

But his countrys involvement in the war in Yemen has earned heavy criticism in the West, with Macron urging the Saudi king in December to lift a blockade that has strangled supplied to civilians.

His sister Princess Hassa keeps a relatively low profile, but she is lionised in the Saudi media for her charity work and womens rights campaigning.

Her arrest warrant is not the first time Saudi royalty have had a brush with the law in France.

In 2013 French authorities ordered assets to be seized from Saudi princess Maha al-Sudairi, wife of the then interior minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, over an unpaid luxury hotel tab of nearly six million euros.Taking your kids to the dentist in the Netherlands can be a stress-free experience for everyone. Heres a guide to making dental care for your children in the Netherlands a positive experience.

Its unlikely that a trip to the dentist is at the top of your bucket list. Getting your childrens teeth checked by a professional in the Netherlands doesnt need to be an ordeal.

With a good dose of parental TLC and a dental practitioner with calming, caring bedside manners, theres no reason why your childs visit to the local clinic will turn into a tearful tantrumfest; in fact, your kids may even look forward to regular visits.

Lassus Tandartsen Need a child-friendly dentist? Lassus Tandartsen has three state-of-the-art clinics in Amsterdam offering a wide range of children's dental treatments. Their expat-friendly team provide dedicated services for children, including cavity treatments, teeth development checks, braces, and more. Lassus Tandartsen clinics are open 7 days a week, ensuring a welcoming check-up for your child. Make an appointment

Childrens first experience dental care in the Netherlands

Its never too soon to take your child to the dentist: becoming familiar with the sights and sounds of the clinic can quickly make them feel at home and say aaaah without any fear.

Thats the view of Boukje Scheepstra, a dentist who specializes in pediatric dentistry at Lassus Tandartsen, which provides dental services at three clinics. She says both parents and dentists have vital roles to play in ensuring that taking a child to the dentist is stress-free.

Dentists are trained to provide a warm and welcoming environment to put children (and parents!) at ease, she explains. Boukje recommends an initial familiarization visit at two years old. Around that age, we see children who have little accidents and fall on their teeth. Its good if their first dentist visit isnt when they are already under a lot of stress, explains Boukje.

Your child can ride in the dentists chair, and the dentist may have a quick look into your childs mouth to count the teeth and molars, adds Boukje. But if thats too stressful for the child, we do the tooth count in a normal chair until they grow more comfortable.

In addition to the oral exam, we also give advice on dental, including cleaning techniques, thumb-sucking, and pacifier habits. We even offer nutritional guidance, notes Boukje.

Striking the right tone: the dentist

A good pediatric dentist will ensure their little patients are relaxed (and as co-operative as little-humanly possible!) during the visit. That means getting the tone just right.

If, for example, during the check-up the dentist notices cavities, they handle it with due thought and care, says Boukje. They will take time to discuss it playfully with the child, and communicate in an open and friendly way.

The ambiance is important too. Most dental care clinics for children in the Netherlands are bright, airy, welcoming places with TVs on the walls, soothing music, water dispensers, and smiling staff putting everyone at ease.

Modeling behavior: the parent

Kids are super-intuitive. If youre anxious about visiting the dentist, you can bet your bottom dollar theyll pick up on that.

A sizeable percentage of adults have a dentalphobia. A 2009 Dutch study concluded that 3% had what was classed as a phobia.

Addressing your own concerns about visiting the dentist certainly helps allay any anxieties your children have. In any case, there are a number of things a parent can do at home to make children feel more comfortable and confident before and at the dentist, says Boukje.

Good oral hygiene is key, because positive behaviors nip any potential problems in the bud. Dutch guidelines recommend twice-daily tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste. They also recommend restricting the consumption of foods and drinks to a maximum of five to seven times a day.

A 2015 report by BMC Oral Health cites other parent-led influences on a childs oral health behaviors. These include routines, time, family composition, division of family roles, parenting, parental stress, and even parental depression.

For children whose first tooth has erupted, clean once a day with a childrens toothpaste containing fluoride. This strengthens teeth and molars. Children aged three to five should clean twice a day with the same toothpaste. There is another special toothpaste for kids aged five to 12. Beyond 12, its okay to use an adult fluoride-based toothpaste, says Boukje. Keep in mind that until the age of 10, a child isnt fully capable of brushing their own teeth. As a result, its the parents responsibility to help and supervise.

To complement this regime we also recommend your child visits the dentist every six months for a check-up, she adds.

From baby teeth to wisdom teeth

A good dental care regime staves off most problems for children in the Netherlands, but Mother Nature has her own agenda.

Your child will start to lose his or her baby teeth at around six years old. This is also when the first adult molars start appearing, says Boukje.

After that, premolars, canines and incisors will erupt into the gaps left by primary teeth that have fallen out. This process is usually completed by the age of 13. At around the age of 10, large molars come out. Its also possible that, between the ages of 18 to 24, the third set of molars (wisdom teeth) breaks out, she adds.

Unfortunately, some cavities appear while the teeth are not fully erupted. This is due to the food particles and bacteria which lodge in the deep grooves on molars. So its important to check them regularly and, if necessary, to seal the molars with a thin layer of synthetic resin or fluoride-holding cement, explains Boukje.

Brace yourself!

A set of braces can correct childrens teeth that are protruding or crooked. Beyond cosmetic reasons, braces have health benefits.

Straight teeth make it possible to bite, chew, talk, and laugh well. The position of some teeth can lead to gum damage, dental asymmetry in the face, malformed jaws, or an overbite, Boukje explains.

Typically, your child will have an initial consultation about the individual treatment plan, followed by an investigation (X-rays, mouth examination and creation of jaw and teeth models), placing of the braces and check-ups every four to eight weeks during the treatment period, she explains.

Maintaining healthy teeth is a lifelong journey from an early age. The good news is that, apart for orthodontics and other very specific treatments, your childs dental care is entirely covered by their Dutch health insurance until their 18th birthday.

Insurance for dental treatment

If you are covered by public health insurance in the Netherlands, this will include general dental treatment costs for children aged up to 18. You can also opt for private health insurance which offers a greater level of coverage, at a higher cost. Expat-friendly international health insurance companies that provide dental coverage include:The mayor of Castro Marim is prepared to take to the streets along with a civic group, to complain about the state of the eastern section of the EN125.

Francisco Amaral was being interviewed about the degraded state of the EN125, which, should shame any Portuguese citizen.

The mayor is tired and losing his patience and plans to protest in the street to alert those responsible in government as to the state of one of the Algarves principal roads, between Olhao and Vila Real de Santo Antonio.

This is a road that serves the Algarve in general and is used by thousands of tourists throughout the year. I think we should all be ashamed about the state the EN125 is in, said the mayor.

Amaral says that he has met the management of Infraestruturas de Portugal many times, both in Lisbon and in Faro, to try get a start time for the road upgrade. The answer is always the same, the job is on hold because of the Court of Auditors, but this answer is wearing pretty thin.

The mayor says he has already suggested to the council that, in addition to putting pressure on the Court of Auditors, I am considering involving the Civic Movement for the Defence of the EN125, and that we protest in the street. I am not very adept of this type of protest but I believe that this is the time to consider this action because in our country what does not appear on the television does not gain any visibility.

Francisco Amaral said to local media service, Algarve Primeiro, that the state of the road is scandalous, We all know that courts have their own timings and their very own way of acting and this we all respect, adding that the government could get things moving if it wanted to.

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NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.Britain will invest 48 million in a new chemical weapons defence centre and vaccinate thousands of British soldiers against anthrax, the defence minister said on Thursday after the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

We are investing 48 million (54 million euros, $67 million) in a new Chemical Weapons Defence Centre to maintain our cutting edge in chemical analysis and defence, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said in a speech.

Williamson said the centre would be based at the existing Porton Down facility, a secretive British army base which analysed the nerve gas used to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain has accused Russia of being culpable for the attack.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory  its official name  employs 3,000 scientists across a sprawling rural site, and has an annual budget of 500 million.

It was founded in 1916 to counter German gas attacks in World War I, which initially involved chlorine and then mustard gas and phosgene.

In the 1950s scientists at Porton Down developed non-lethal CS gas, better known as tear gas, as well as the deadly nerve agent VX.

Given international conventions that prohibit the use of chemical weapons, research conducted at Porton Down is defensive in nature, according to the defence ministry.

If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury, Williamson said on Thursday.

He added however that threats from chemical weapons in different countries, not just Russia, were intensifying.French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that he would announce unspecified "measures" in the coming days over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain.

I condemn in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable attack, Macron told reporters during a visit to central France.

Everything leads us to believe that responsibility can be attributed to Russia, and the work of the British services, shared with Frances services, confirms it, he added.

I will announce the measures that we are going to take in the coming days, he said.

It was unclear whether the action would be counter-measures against Russia.

Macron said he would discuss the issue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is due in Paris on Friday.British Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday the international community was taking a "united stance" against Russia as she made her first visit to the scene of a nerve agent attack.

She met members of the emergency services and the military deployed to the southwestern English city of Salisbury, where Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on March 4.

She also paid a private visit to Nick Bailey, a local policeman who became ill after attending to the pair. He remains in a serious condition in hospital but is said to be making good progress.

May has blamed Moscow for the attack and on Wednesday announced the expulsion of 23 diplomats and the suspension of some high-level contacts.

She signed a joint statement with the leaders of France, Germany and the United States demanding answers from Russia, which has repeatedly denied any involvement.

What is important in the international arena  and we have taken this into NATO, into the United Nations, well take it through into the European Union  is that allies are standing alongside us and saying this is part of a pattern of activity that we have seen from Russia in their interference, their disruption that they have perpetrated across a number of countries in Europe, she said.

This happened in the UK but it could have happened anywhere and we take a united stance against it.

Parts of Salisbury have been turned in a crime scene, as experts in biohazard suits take samples from the places visited by the Skripals before they collapsed on a bench outside a shopping centre.

Almost 200 troops have been deployed to help the investigation, while members of the public who may have been in the area at the time have been urged to wash their clothes.

A ministerial taskforce convened Thursday to help organise the clean-up operation and May pledged government support to ensure that the city can recover, that we see tourists coming back to this city.Britain on Wednesday appealed for support from countries at the UN Security Council as it pressed Moscow to answer for a nerve gas attack on a former Russian spy in England.

The council met in an emergency session at Britains request to discuss the March 4 attack in the city of Salisbury that left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.

Today I will be calling on my council colleagues to stand with us against such acts, British Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Allen told reporters ahead of the meeting.

This was a reckless and indiscriminate act that put at risk the lives of civilians.

British Prime Minister Theresa May expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Russia after Moscow did not respond to her demand for an explanation.

Allen said that Russias failure to provide answers left the British government with no choice but to conclude that this was a state-sponsored act.

There was no plan for the council to adopt a statement.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the attack using the nerve agent Novichok, which was developed by the Soviet Union and later inherited by Russia.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said the use of a nerve agent was unacceptable and called for a thorough investigation.The United States said Wednesday that Russia was "responsible" for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England, and urged the UN Security Council to hold Moscow accountable.

The United States believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the United Kingdom, using a military-grade nerve agent, US Ambassador Nikki Haley told an emergency council meeting.

The March 4 attack in the English city of Salisbury left ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in critical condition.

US President Donald Trump had pressed Russia to provide answers but did not suggest that Moscow had a hand in the attempted murder.

As one of the councils five permanent members, Russia is entrusted by the United Nations with upholding international peace and security, Haley said.

It must account for its actions.

If we dont take immediate, concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons use.

Britain called the emergency meeting to rally support in its standoff with Russia over the attack that British Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Allen said was state-sponsored.

We ask you today to stand by us, Allen told the council.

This was a reckless and indiscriminate act that put at risk the lives of civilians.

Moscow has denied any involvement in the attack using the nerve agent Novichok, which was developed by the Soviet Union and later inherited by Russia.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said the use of a nerve agent was unacceptable and called for a thorough investigation.Iran on Wednesday signed a $742 million (600 million euro) deal with Russian state-owned energy firm Zarubezhneft to boost production at two oil fields in the country's west.

Zarubezhneft and Dana Energy, a private Iranian company, will jointly develop the Aban and Paydar fields in Ilam province near the Iraqi border, to boost production from 36,000 to 48,000 barrels of oil per day.

Zarubezhneft will put up 80 percent of the capital, while Dana Energy will cover the rest.

Increasing the production from these two fields will bring some four billion dollars to Iran over the coming years, Irans Oil Minister Bijan Namadar Zanganeh said at a signing ceremony in Tehran.

National Iranian Oil Company head Ali Kardor said it was the countrys first such deal with a Russian firm.

On the political front, relations with Russia are at the highest level, but in the economic sphere they have not yet reached the same level, he said.

Iran and Russia, both key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have strengthened their relations in recent years.

Kardor said energy giant Russia had great experience in exploring and developing oil fields.

The deal comes amid heightened fears that Washington will withdraw from a historic 2015 deal to restrict Irans nuclear programme in exchange for the easing of crippling sanctions.

That would further complicate the work of foreign companies wanting to work in Iran.

Wednesdays was Tehrans second deal with a foreign energy firm since the signing of the nuclear accord with world powers.

In July last year, a consortium headed by French energy behemoth Total defied pressure from Washington to sign a $4.8 billion agreement with Tehran.

That made it the first major western oil and gas company to return to the country since the lifting of international sanctions in January 2016.

sgh/vl/par/dvNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday backed a "proportionate" British response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy, saying the incident must have "consequences".

Stoltenberg said the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, which he called the first offensive use of a nerve agent on the alliances territory since its foundation, came against the backdrop of a pattern of reckless behaviour by Russia.

He said he would hold special talks with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Brussels on Monday over the attack in the city of Salisbury, but added that Britain had not invoked the alliances Article 5 mutual defence clause.

British Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and suspended some high-level contacts with the Kremlin after saying Moscow was culpable for the attempted murder of Skripal.

Britain is not alone, Stoltenberg told a news conference as he launched NATOs annual reports.

I am absolutely certain that the UK will respond and is responding in a proportionate and measured way. But at the same time, I fully support that there is a need for a response, because it has to have consequences when we see actions like we have seen in Salisbury.

The former Norwegian premier said NATO itself was not taking any direct steps beyond offering political support, although it would offer practical support with the investigation if Britain wanted.

He said NATO was already responding strongly to years of Russian aggression including the annexation of Crimea, the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and meddling in western elections.

The attack in Salisbury has taken place against a backdrop of reckless behaviour by Russia over many years, he said.

Stoltenberg said Britain had not asked for the triggering of NATOs fundamental collective defence clause  which the United States used after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

There has been no request for article 5 and it is for nations to ask for that, he said.Carpe Diem Westwood, a single-campus charter district that has struggled to meet state academic standards since it opened in San Antonio three years ago, will shut down at the end of the school year.

The school announced the closure in a letter to parents March 2, explaining that Carpe Diems board of directors had voted to end school operations at the conclusion of the school year on June 1. The letter cited low enrollment as the reason for the closure.

We are incredibly proud of our students and staff for their hard work and educational achievements. We believe personalized learning is a tremendous option for many students, and school choice gives students and families a voice in their education, said the letter, signed by school administrators James Bailey, Rick Ogston and Valerie Robertson. Unfortunately, our enrollment numbers are not high enough to support continued operation beyond this school year.

Carpe Diem had failed to meet state academic standards in its first two years of operation and was in the midst of a turnaround plan at the beginning of the 2017-18 academic year. The school had one more chance to pass Texas accountability ratings before the Texas Education Agency could move to revoke its charter under the three strikes rule.

Carpe Diem was part of the initial cohort of schools recruited by Choose to Succeed, a school choice campaign that sought to attract high-performing charter districts to San Antonio. While the other Choose to Succeed districts  KIPP San Antonio, BASIS, Great Hearts Academies and IDEA Public Schools  built campuses across the city, Carpe Diem floundered. Its enrollment hovered between 200 and 250 students at its single campus on the West Side.

Ogston, who founded Carpe Diems blended learning model in Arizona, had taken over school operations over the summer after he said his model was improperly implemented at the campus. The model relies on a combination of technology, data and personalized instruction, along with social and emotional learning.

He did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

LEEP Dual Language Academies, a new dual-language-only charter school opening in San Antonio this fall, will take over Carpe Diems lease at 8038 W. Military Drive. LEEP classes will start Aug. 13.The day after an appeals court upheld almost all the so-called sanctuary cities ban in Texas, immigration activists called on cities and counties to take steps to minimize the laws impact.

Senate Bill 4, passed last year, creates civil penalties for government officials who limit local police enforcement of immigration laws and criminal penalties for officials who dont honor immigration detainer requests at jails.

A San Antonio federal judge had blocked portions of the law, most notably the requirement to honor detainer requests, but on Tuesday a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans put almost all of the its provisions back in place.

Today, were calling on our local officials and law enforcement to do everything in their power to protect our immigrant communities by stopping the arrest and deportation pipeline, Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, said Wednesday. This starts with finding ways to keep people out of jail when all that is needed is a citation, and instituting strict policies that ensure that police officers wont ask for immigration status based simply on a persons skin color, language spoken or accent.

State law permits police to issue citations for some Class A and B misdemeanors. Earlier this year, Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood and Sheriff Javier Salazar announced that deputies will issue citations rather than arrest people in some low-level misdemeanors, including possession of marijuana up to 4 ounces, criminal mischief and driving with an invalid license.

The San Antonio Police Departments policy gives officers some leeway in making arrests for misdemeanors.

District 2 Councilman Cruz Shaw, an advocate for a formal cite and release policy, said Wednesday that police still need to iron out the details with the district attorneys office.

He said the 5th Circuits ruling increases the need to reduce the numbers of people who are incarcerated before their cases are resolved. Pretrial incarceration disproportionately affects people who cant afford bond, as well as black and Hispanic communities, Shaw said.

We have to do what we can to protect our community, he said. We have a lot of great diversity in our community, and we have to do what we can to make sure these families stay together.

Speaking at a protest Wednesday in front of City Hall, Catalina Adorno, a volunteer organizer with Movimiento Cosecha, called on the city to do more.

If SB 4 is going to fine anyone who doesnt comply, the city needs to take the risk, said Adorno, an immigrant from Mexico who said shes received temporary protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Those of us who are undocumented, who have DACA, were taking the risk.

San Antonio was among the cities and counties that challenged the constitutionality of SB 4. Last year, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia struck down the requirement to honor detainers and several other provisions but left in place one of the most controversial measures, which punished local officials who prevent police from asking about immigration status.

The Supreme Court had already found that police may ask about immigration status, Garcia wrote in his opinion, but warned that officers may do little more than pass that information on to federal authorities  local police are prohibited from extending traffic stops for immigration purposes.

As a result, SAPD changed its policy to allow officers to ask about immigration status but instructed them to make such questions a low priority.

After Tuesdays 5th Circuit ruling, city officials said they wouldnt change their policy, which allows officers to cooperate with federal immigration officials and allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents access to the municipal detention center. Lawyers involved in the case pointed to language by the appellate judges that gives local governments some discretion in allocating resources.

Garcia had enjoined the provisions requiring counties to honor ICE requests to detain for up to 48 hours people suspected of being eligible for deportation even if they were ordered released by a judge or their criminal charges dropped. Hed found this violated the Fourth Amendment.

A separate panel of the 5th Circuit had temporarily put that provision back in place, and on Tuesday the appellate court found that such detainers are constitutional if theyre accompanied by an administrative warrant. Bexar County officials have said that they honor all ICE detainers.

Texas Republicans who supported SB 4 have said that opposition to the law is overblown and that its intended to help ICE ferret out criminals who are in the country illegally.

It simply requires that local authorities cooperate with federal immigration officials, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement after the 5th Circuits decision. Hopefully this ruling will make the law crystal clear for those liberal public officials in some Texas cities who have flaunted their opposition to SB 4 and misrepresented its intent. SB 4 will prevent the release of dangerous criminals into our communities and will make us all safer.

But speaking at Wednesdays rally, District 4 Councilman Rey Saldana said he cant assure his constituents that police wont ask about their immigration status.

Cooperation with law enforcement is the basis of a safe community, and if I have to tell these folks that I dont know the answers about how they should interact with law enforcement, they are going to  go further into the shadows and may not report issues going on in the neighborhood, may not report things going on on their own roof if they live in a mixed-status home.JOURDANTON  In a halting, often vague and sometimes inaudible recording of his interrogation in 2013 by San Antonio police, capital murder suspect Shaun Puente appears to confess to armed robbery and firing at various law enforcement personnel during a multicounty chase that ended in the fatal shooting of an officer.

Puente seemed to cry early in the interrogation after blurting out, I didnt mean to.  I do feel sorry, while being questioned by San Antonio police Sgt. Raul Cardenas just a few hours after officer Robert Deckard was shot on the morning of Dec. 8 off Interstate 37 in Atascosa County.

Deckard, 31, died about two weeks later.

Puente and Jenevieve Ramos, 28, were apprehended after a brief second shoot-out with officers in an open field near Poth in Wilson County.

Most in the Jourdanton courtroom, including the judge, strained to hear Puente, then 32, on a digital recording that showed him slumped in a chair in the Wilson County Sheriffs Office, slurring his speech and seemingly under the influence of the drugs to which his defense attorneys said he was addicted.

In a pretrial motion, defense attorney Anna Jimenez asked State District Judge Donna Rayes to suppress the interrogation recording, but Rayes denied the motion.

Puente tells Cardenas during the 90-minute interrogation that he did shoot a 9 mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol at officers who had pursued him from downtown San Antonio, where he and Ramos were allegedly caught on tape robbing a convenience store on San Pedro Avenue.

Its bad, says Puente. This is bad.

Cardenas asks if he shot at the officers because he was afraid of being caught with drugs in their Mitsubishi Lancer.

Scared, I guess, says Puente.

How many times did you shoot? asks the 24-year veteran homicide officer.

Maybe once, replies Puente, whose attorney conceded in her opening remarks to the jury that Deckard was killed by a single shot to the forehead, a one in a million shot fired backward from the Lancer during a chase that at times reached 115 mph on Interstate 37.

Jimenez, part of a five-person team of public defenders hired by Atascosa County to defend indigent clients, hammered Cardenas about his interrogation, accusing him of jumping around from different crime locations in the questioning. She suggested that Puente was clearly under the influence of drugs some nine hours after Deckard was shot and could not intelligently waive his Miranda rights against self-incrimination.

Puente has no idea which officer youre talking about, isnt that true? Jimenez grilled Cardenas.

That was not my perception, said Cardenas. I think he knew that the officer (near Poth) was still alive, so the only officer we could be talking about would be Deckard.

Cardenas countered that Puente never asked him to stop the interview, after reading him his rights, and that Puente was well-aware he was being questioned about the death of a police officer, not simply a robbery or merely firing at some officers near Poth.

In a somewhat unusual move, Judge Rayes allowed the jury to read from a prosecution-produced transcript of the interrogation  though the defense agreed to this  yet the transcript was not admitted into evidence. Copies of it were taken from the jurors when they finished the day, and reporters were not allowed to see it.

The defense never suggested any impropriety by the judge or prosecution but clearly wanted the whole interrogation tape to be tossed. They lost.

The trial continues today in the Atascosa County Courthouse in Jourdanton, with the defense expected to begin its case by the end of the week.LAREDO  U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen has retired after nearly 40 years on the bench, 20 as the sole federal judge in this border city.

Judge Kazen was the consummate jurist, with a superior intellect  a judge everyone respected, said David Almaraz, a criminal defense attorney who served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the 1980s. You had to be very well prepared before you went into his courtroom. He kept me and everyone else on our toes.''

The unexpected announcement came Friday with little fanfare at the end of an awards ceremony for court employees. It was Kazens last day at the courthouse.

We would all 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, said U.S. District Judge Diana Saldana, who made the announcement. It was really very difficult to get to the realization that all good things do come to an end.

Kazen, 78, went on senior status in 2009 but continued to carry a full docket even after Saldana was named to fill his post.

Attorneys across the area had high praise for the judge.

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, said attorney Oscar J. Pena Sr. I wish we had more like him. Im sorry to see that he is stepping down.

Attorney Donato Ramos Sr. agreed.

He is, without a doubt, the smartest man Ive ever met, Ramos added. 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.

Nominated by President Jimmy Carter and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1979, Kazen was the first permanent sitting federal judge in Laredo. Previously, judges from other divisions in the Southern District would preside at trials in Laredo several times a year.

He remained the sole federal judge in Laredo for two decades, presiding over criminal and civil cases. He was chief justice of the Houston-based Southern District, which includes Laredo, from 1996-2003. In 2003, he began a seven-year term on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which hears government requests for warrants and wiretapping involving homeland security. Kazen is a veteran, having served in the U.S. Air Forces legal JAG Corps, 1962-65.

A leap year baby, born on Feb. 29, 1940, the Laredo native comes from a family of attorneys and judges; his father was E. James Kazen, who served as Webb County district attorney from 1942 until 1958, when he won election as a state district judge and served several terms. The retiring judge has connections to the Alamo City; his sister, Virginia K. Van Steenberg, lives in San Antonio and a nephew, Philip Kazen, is a senior district judge.

Kazen has been active in the Laredo community in various civic and charitable organizations, even portraying George Washington one year during Laredos annual festivities honoring the first president. He was married to the late Barbara Ann Kazen, herself a prominent civic leader, known for her work with the Bethany House. The couple had four children.

Some of the cases he presided over include that of Nelda Colwell of Utah who was found guilty in 1984 of smuggling infants from Mexico into the United States for prospective adoption by couples in Utah.

In 1982 he issued a landmark ruling, invalidating a Texas statute that allowed the detention of people believed to be mentally ill for up to 14 days without a commitment hearing.

In 2007, former Laredo police chief Agustin Dovalina III pleaded guilty before Kazen to taking bribes from the owner of a gaming room.

Several years ago, U.S. Sen, John Cornyn and Congressman Henry Cuellar proposed naming the federal courthouse in Laredo after Kazen once his retirement became official.

Several people said the thoughtful and self-effacing Kazen would have done well on 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, attorney Ramos said. He could have  sat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Hes that caliber of jurist.The crowds swarming Alamo Plaza and the River Walk, the full parking lots at the San Antonio Zoo and the lack of rooms at some local hotels make it clear  Spring Break is here.

No ones in the building, but were full, said Bill Brendel, general manager of the Crockett Hotel. Everybodys out, theyre doing stuff, theyre at the theme parks or theyre at the Alamo or theyre on the River Walk.

Long lines of visitors stretched in front of the Alamo on Wednesday afternoon, but remained orderly and moved briskly.

This weeks good weather helped ensure stronger traffic numbers than last years Spring Break, when colder temperatures and clouds prevailed.

Most hotels surveyed by the private San Antonio Area Tourism Council are seeing revenues 20 percent higher compared to last year, President and CEO Marco Barros said.

The 138-room Crockett Hotel is booked to capacity this Friday and Saturday. Its been full almost every night since last Thursday, Brendel said.

March historically is our busiest month of the entire year, he said. It looks like it will be so again this year.

The Hotel Emma is essentially sold out the entire week, President Bill Petrella said in an email Wednesday. The 146-room hotels revenue per available room is up 16 percent this week from last years Spring Break, he reported.

This Spring Break has been strong for the market, Petrella said in his email.

San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association Board Chairman Justin Holley said the four local hotels operated by his management company are hitting a budgeted 5 percent increase in revenues over last year.

Its a strong year, which we had anticipated, Holley said. 2018 has gotten a lot of notoriety because of Tricentennial.

Electronic highway signs indicated the San Antonio Zoos parking lots were full Wednesday, while traffic was congested at U.S. 281 and St. Marys Street nearby.

The zoo declined to disclose exact attendance figures, but spokesman Chuck Cureau said the facility has gotten close to its maximum daily attendance of 10,000 guests in the past couple of days.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas and SeaWorld San Antonio officials said they dont release attendance figures and wouldnt say if customer traffic is up this week compared to last years Spring Break.

Visit San Antonio, a public-private nonprofit that sells and markets the city as a tourist destination, said it couldnt project how many visitors might travel here this week  or what the economic impact of this years Spring Break would be. The group generally avoids making such predictions, spokesman David Gonzalez said.

Daniel and Cheryl Caceres of Fort Worth visited San Antonio this week for the first time since their honeymoon in 2000, bringing their children.

It was a short drive from home, Daniel Caceres said as the family walked through Alamo Plaza on Wednesday.

I want to come back to San Antonio for more days because theres a lot of stuff to do, said the couples 8-year-old son, Gideon Caceres.

I think its really cool. I would definitely love to come back here, said Bethany Caceres, his 11-year-old sister.

Patty Blomenkamp of St. Louis is in San Antonio for the first time. On Wednesday, she walked through Alamo Plaza with her cousin, Chad Baumgarte of Houston.

She said she was most intrigued about seeing the Alamo and the River Walk. Just to say Ive been there, she said.Does a trade war begin only when the victim begins to fight back?

When I was a partner in a New York City-based advertising and public relations firm, we represented a furniture company from a communist country. Unlike U.S. companies, which must earn a profit, that government-subsidized company considered breaking even a worthy marketing goal. What that company and its country wanted was to keep its employees working, fed and under control.

China has done considerably better, to the point that the U.S. has a tremendous trade deficit. Our factories have closed, and economists cheerfully declare ours a service economy. Make that a servant economy, a position willingly entered into. Loss of manufacturing necessary to produce military equipment portends a less happy, unwilling servant nation.

Is fighting back worth the effort?

Pat McMillan

Union should pay

Re: Fire union boss has cost the taxpayers $3 million, Brian Chasnoff, March 1:

I guess Im a bit naive, but when I read this piece about the president of the firefighters union costing San Antonio taxpayers a few million dollars, it came as a shock.

Why are taxpayers paying for the unions president? In every other union environment I have ever known, the union staff costs are the responsibility of the union membership.

James Council

Partisanship relief

Has the tide turned against partisan gerrymandering?

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in January struck down the states maps as too heavily biased toward Republicans, the latest ruling in the battle over legislative districts.

An earlier ruling struck down North Carolinas boundaries.

The Supreme Court will consider other cases from Wisconsin and Maryland, but rejected a case from Texas on procedural grounds.

It is unfortunate that the court will not hear the Texas case, because Texas voters need relief from the extreme partisanship.

Mary Catherine CompeanFAIRFIELD  Its been seven years since the horrific outbreak of the Syrian civil war. An estimated 6 million Syrians are internally displaced. Five million more have left their homes and sought refuge outside the country. An estimated 400,000 Syrians have lost their lives.

And still, the carnage continues.

In the past month alone, more than 1,500 Syrians have been killed in the countrys eastern Ghouta region, just outside of the capital Damascus, with many thousands more trapped and without medical care, food and water, according to reports from the U.N. Refugee Agency and Doctors without Borders.

From the window of Dima Akachs high rise apartment outside Damascus, where she recently visited for more than two months, the wreckage was visible.

What I saw  I was weeping. Truly, its so scary. Its devastating. Its like a haunted area, Akach told a crowd at Fairfields offices of Save the Children, which hosted a Solidarity with Syria event on Wednesday to mark the seventh year of fighting and raise community awareness.

The sounds of bombs and gunshots kept her up at night for her first two weeks until, eventually, she learned to sleep through the explosions.

Akach was born in the United States but lived much of her life in Syria. She works as a translator for the Bridgeport-based nonprofit Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI) which, among other things, helps to resettle refugees, including several members of the local Syrian community present at the event.

Maha Karahamad, who fled Syrian in 2012 with her three children and now works for Save the Children in Greenwich, and Sleman and Mariam Mansour, who arrived from Damascus in early 2016, were also present to share their stories.

Karahamad, 31, is a former private school teacher with a bachelors degree in English literature from Damascus University. Before the war, she lived a happy live in Syria with her children and parents nearby.

More Information Save the Children calls for aid According to Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children, 5.3 million Syrian children, one-and-a-half times the entire population of Connecticut, are currently in need of help. Many families under siege lack food, fuel and medicine and are forced to pay 800 percent more than in government-controlled areas of Syria. Since the beginning of the year, 45 schools in eastern Ghouta have been attacked. Eleven have been fully destroyed. More than 4,100 families are currently sheltering underground. Schools and hospitals have been targets of bombs in recent weeks, Miles said. Through its partners, Save the Children has provided food baskets, education, health services, clean water, warm clothes and psychosocial support to 3.3 million people to date, including more than 2.1 million children. For more information on the war and to find out how you can help Syrians in need, visit savethechildren.org/syria. For more information on the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, or to get involved, visit cirict.org See More Collapse

We lived in peace. Life was normal, safe. Parents go to work, kids go to school  until the year 2011 when the crisis started, Karahamad remembered. It was only a few months before the bombs started to hit civilians and their homes.

She recalled the last time she saw her home in Syria. There was an incoming siege on the area, and Karahamad had 45 minutes to ready her kids and grab all of the possessions she could before hopping into the back of a truck and driving away as bullets flew around the vehicle.

After moving multiple times within Syria, Karahamad decided to sacrifice her career and the life she knew in exchange for the safety of her children and fled with her family to Egypt in 2013.

You would think people get used to the noises of war, smoke from explosions and that constant fear, Karahamad said. In fact, it gradually wears you down emotionally and you enter a state of weary acceptance and then, at some point, you actually forget what life was about before.

By the time Karahamad abandonded her home country, one million other Syrians had also fled to the north African country. She worked in Egypt for a while as a teacher and as a translator for Syrian refugees, all the while undergoing the extensive vetting process to resettle in the U.S. that would take her more than two years to complete. On Aug. 21, 2016, she and her children arrived in Fairfield County, thanks in part to sponsorships from a Greenwich church, and began to rebuild.

Were safer from the crisis that drove us away from our country, but the reality hits hard. Were back to the beginning and were starting to build a life all over again, she said.

The Mansours, who were resettled in Fairfield thanks to CIRI, spoke about their three children through the translation of Akach.

We lived in very harsh circumstances, we lived in fear  fear of the future of our children and whats going to happen to them if we stay in our country, Mariam Mansour said.

In the U.S., the Mansours hope their children will be safe and free to follow their dreams.

My dream is to have my children continue their education. One of them wants to become a doctor. The other wants to become an engineer, Sleman Mansour said. And I hope they accomplish their dreams and I hope someday theyll be able to go back to their country so they can rebuild and repair.by Ryan Patti | Nets Correspondent | Thu, Mar 15th 1:15am EDT

James Johnson totaled 18 points on 7-for-11 from the field (0-for-1 on threes, 4-for-4 at the line), 10 boards, seven assists, two steals and a block in 34 minutes of work on Wednesday.Fake news is as old as Adam, Eve and the apple. At least weve learned not to trust a snake.

Some would have you think its a new phenomenon or its all politics these days, but its everywhere and it has been for ages.

Mistaking opinion for fact happens across all groups and demographics. My son comes home from elementary school with a truth he heard from a classmate and tries to argue with his mom and dad about what he thinks he learned in science class. (Not a good idea when both parents deal with quite a bit of science in their chosen career paths.)

Sometimes in the same day, I find myself telling friends or relatives, thats simply not true, when it comes to a story on Facebook or something theyve gleaned from the Internet. Im not above making these mistakes, either.

Know the source

Once, I was watching a late-night newscast with disgust at how a certain group of people lived and treated their community members, and then a little alarm when off in my head. The same journalist had aired an entirely inaccurate picture of agriculture just weeks before.

Who was to say that what I was watching was the whole story? Increasingly it seems, news reports include the authors opinion. Sometimes the fake news is a harmless misstep in the retelling of a story or spreading some silliness, such as putting onions in the refrigerator will kill you.

But other times, people make medical, financial and lifestyle decisions on it. Thats when the problem becomes real. Cattlemen arent immune from the nonsense. A few months ago, I read with disbelief as a veterinarian was allowed column space to espouse his views on the ideal cow size, naming 750 to 900 lb. as the ideal with little more than observations to back it up.

His main citations? What older colleagues and ranchers told him when he started in the business decades before. I do think there are plenty of ranchers who could benefit from reining in mature weight, but his dramatic stance, benefits from going smaller and suggestions on how to get there left my team a bit amazed.

The author said cattlemen should find someone who is good at weighing with their eyes to help them provide selection pressure. Never mind modern-day tools like scales and expected progeny differences (EPDs).

My first thought was, somebody ought to write to the editor, but on second thought, nobody would take this guy seriously, right?

Critical thinking

I hope not. I hope that we all have our critical thinking skills fully engaged whether were reading an article, listening to a presentation or swapping stories at the sale barn. Its cliche, but true: We live in a world where data is available at our fingertips.

Our ability to fact-check what dad taught us or what the feed salesman said 20 years ago has never been greater. I encourage you to look at the data, read the articles and ask the questions.

Check with several advisors you trust or look for published Extension trials. Maybe youll find yourself wanting to reduce cow size, and maybe youll want to increase quality grade.

Maybe youll switch up pasture management or maybe youll reroute your marketing. Change is often good, healthy and needed. Change can be positive.  so long as its rooted in reality.Commentary by Susan Crowell / editor@farmanddairy.com

Monday night, a woman from church asked me what was happening to dairy farmers. She had seen the evening news about the Dean Foods announcement, and wanted to know what it really meant for local farmers.

I tried to explain in very general, laymans language, but dont know that I did a very good job.

See related article: Dean Foods drops more than 100 dairy farmers

The U.S. milk market is confusing. Even most dairy farmers have a hard time understanding the intricacies of the global milk market and domestic milk pricing.

Early in my career, Tim Houck, a former fieldman for Milk Marketing Inc. (now Dairy Farmers of America), used to sit in my office and patiently try (over and over) to explain it all. And the only time in 33 years Ive sent an article to a source for review before publication was when the local federal order switched to multiple component pricing.

Todays depressed dairy situation has lots of layers and moving parts. And even beyond milk pricing, there are other triggers of trouble in the dairy industry, including a trucking shortage, and bad weather.

Lets look closer at the Dean Foods announcement, which is basically the result of Walmart building its own milk processing plant near Fort Wayne, Indiana. It will supply more than 600 Walmart stores and Sams Club stores in five states, including Ohio, which are currently supplied by Dean Foods.

Whats particularly troubling about this announcement is that very few places are taking new milk from displaced producers right now. One Pennsylvania dairy farmer called eight milk marketers after receiving her notice from Dean Foods. None are taking new farms. Their familys conversations now include the possibility of selling the cows if they cant find a new market, Lancaster Farming reports.

Its widely known that retailers often price milk to drive traffic to stores  the idea being that you pop in for that cheaper milk and end up with a full cart of other items too. So if Walmart has the potential to control and source its milk at a lower cost, it can pass that along to consumers (in theory).

One source indicated that Walmarts Indiana plant will get its milk from Michigan and within Indiana, and that a Wisconsin processor is handling contracts

And in todays full-traceability, food-safety-driven atmosphere, Walmarts strategy makes sense.

So dont blast Walmart, as it should be no surprise that retailers are trying to become more vertically integrated. That has always been a model within the dairy industry (think United Dairy). Today, Kroger operates 15 dairy manufacturing plants; the grocer Albertsons Safeway also operates 19 manufacturing plants, including six dairies; and Meijer also moved into milk processing, and now operates the Purple Cow Creamery near Tipp City, Ohio, as well as a plant in Holland, Michigan.

Speaking of the state up north, where milk production in Michigan grew 77 percent between 1992 and 2014, there are two processing plants on the drawing boards there, including a 55,000-square-foot dairy processing facility in Greenville, Michigan, operated by Greenville Venture Partners, a subsidiary of Foremost Farms USA Cooperative, and a cheese and whey production facility, a joint partnership of Irish-based food and dairy company Glanbia, Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Producers.

Unfortunately, it remains to be seen how many dairymen can hang on until these plants are operational.

If you dont have a market for your product, what do you do today? I dont have an answer.MARIETTA  In 1956, as John Edward White Sr. and his wife, Mary Ruth, and their two children left Marietta to visit family in Detroit, the fog was so heavy along state Route 60 near McConnelsville that John had to hold his head out the window to see the centerline. This got John thinking about putting an edge line on the highway to aid in driving in inclement weather.

Plan

After returning to his Ohio Department of Highways job in Marietta, John gave a demonstration to state government officials, and he was given the OK to pursue methods to lay the highway edge line.

During the winter of 1956 and spring of 1957, he invented the first edge line machine using the body of a Crosley car. The machine was used with a District 10 centerline truck to paint the centerline and edge line simultaneously. The first edge line  the white line painted along outer edges of roadways  was placed on what is now state Route 550, just south of Marietta. John was awarded a commendation from the State of Ohio for his invention.

Other states followed suit as Ohio began laying edge lines on all state highways in 1957. Before Johns invention, only a centerline marking was used. In 1961, the American Association of Highway Officials released its updated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices illustrating and recommending the use of the edge line.

John retired from the Ohio Department of Transportation in 1979 and died in 1980. In 2014, there was a ceremony honoring John. Johns sons, John Jr. and David, attended.

Rest area

In honor of this innovation to highway safety, a display, created by David, with the history of the line, is housed at the Washington County Interstate 77 northbound rest area.CANFIELD, Ohio  The Capriculturist 4-H meeting was held Feb. 26, on the Canfield Fairgrounds. There were 24 members present. Old business included members attending the 4-H open house to inform others about 4-H and running a concession stand as a fundraiser.

Kylie Nash was awarded the best record book for her organization and detail. Emily Conrad talked about gun safety, while Ashley James and Molly St. John presented a health report on left and right handedness as a team.

Judson Weingart, with the help of his brother, Colton Weingart, demonstrated how to check if a swimming pool is sanitary. New officers were elected and include Cherokee Mellot, president; Ashley James, vice president; Molly St. John, secretary; Abi Downs, treasurer; and Katie Downs, news reporter.

  

BURTON, Ohio  The Geauga Beef and Swine 4-H Club met March 4, at 4 p.m. at the School Building on the Geauga County Fairgrounds.

The club discussed a window display put up at Mapledale Farm promoting Ohio 4-H Week. The club will participate in a community service event called Family-A-Fair which helps a family go to the Geauga County Fair that normally wouldnt be able to attend.

Reports were given by Austin Wetzel on iletis, Riley Stump on atrophic rhinitis, Brandon Christian on marketing, Trevor Christian on getting ready for a show, and Taylor Poff on circling disease.

The club learned about beef and swine feed, breeds and leg structures, and understanding the Veterinary Feed Directive. The club will meet again April 22, at 4 p.m.CRESTON, Ohio  Local residents packed a former middle school gymnasium March 14 to air concerns over plans to build a 10 million gallon waste storage lagoon between Wooster and the village of Creston.

The town hall meeting was organized by the Canaan Residents Against Pollution, and included farmers and nonfarmers, as well as local government leaders.

Known as the Wiles Storage Pond, the earthen-lined storage structure would hold both anaerobically digested biosolids and up to 300,000 gallons of hog manure annually from the landowners hog farm, according to permit applications filed with the Ohio EPA.

The developer, Quasar Energy Group, plans to construct the lagoon on land it is leasing from Wayne County farmer Jason Wiles.

The Ohio EPA has scheduled a public hearing on the lagoon April 17, at 6 p.m. at Fisher Auditorium on the Wooster campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

The developer says the processed waste will provide an organic source of fertilizer, but residents, including some farmers, say there are concerns about odor, environmental impact, noise, and where exactly the material will originate.

The company plans to use processed waste from its energy-producing digester located on the Wooster campus of Ohio State University, but would not disclose which sources or cities supply the digester, citing confidentiality agreements with customers.

Protecting the roads

At the March 14 meeting, Wayne County Engineer Scott Miller said, like residents, hes concerned about how the roads will be used.

Miller said he recently met with Quasars public relations coordinator, who told Miller the company planned to install the lagoon by July.

Theyre definitely trying to shove this in as quick as possible and we warned them that thats not a good idea when youre trying to put something of that nature in the backyards of so many people, Miller said.

According to Miller, his office is working through the county commissioners to enforce a road-use maintenance agreement similar to what is used with petroleum pipeline projects being constructed in the county.

He said the agreement would determine the location of where the product will be transported, identify the subcontractors, and require a $250,000 bond per mile, to protect against damages.

Quasar said its operation will only require two to three trucks per day, with slight increases during application season.

Miller said bore testing would need to be done to determine the weight limits for the roads, and it would be up to the company to either improve the roads they intend to use, or haul smaller loads.

Manure application

Miller said the company disclosed a plan to pipe the material within a two- to five-mile radius.

A manure applicator at the meeting who is not affiliated with the project said the piping system is part of the reason fewer trucks would be needed.

Sam Carmony, whose family operates a custom manure application business called Carmony Stock Farms, said the pipelines allow the applicators to use a process of continuous flow, so manure can be applied without using as much trucking.

Carmony said he works with livestock and municipal waste on a regular basis and believes its a safe product. He said hes not part of the lagoon project, but as an area applicator, he could possibly apply waste from it, if installed.

But his time with the microphone was limited, as residents continued to raise concerns.

Whats in it?

The biggest concern was that this lagoon would store municipal waste and processed sewage. Quasar has previously said the material entering its digester contains less than 20 percent biosolids.

But farmers at the meeting, who declined to be named, said the county already has an abundance of organic fertilizer from its livestock and dairy farms. Wayne County leads the state in total number of dairy cows, and is among the top in livestock production.

Lack of communication

Dan Armstrong, a local resident who said his family has lived in the township for more than 200 years, said the biggest problem was the way residents learned about the project  from each other and not from the developer.

Its their PR that got them in a lot of trouble, Armstrong said.

Barb Kinney, a Realtor with Gray Estates, said a structure of this kind has a negative environmental stigma that could result in a 15 to 30 percent reduction in property values within a mile, and 5 to 10 percent reduction within 1 to 2 miles of the project.

Brandon Mantel, president of the Akron-based water treatment and testing company known as Donamarc Water Systems, told landowners to consider getting pre-construction well tests, so they have comparable data if an issue arises.

Most of the people at the meeting indicated by a round of applause that they do not want the lagoon built. But other speakers tried to prepare the residents for all outcomes.

Dave Bell, an environmental lawyer representing the local citizens group, said the U.S. and Ohio EPA have provisions that allow for biosolids management and permitting, and that without local zoning, the project may be difficult to stop.

It is really rare for an (government) agency to simply refuse a permit because people dont want it, Bell said.

However, Bell said residents can be effective by talking to their legislators and government leaders, and that its his intention to make sure the developer follows the rules. Should the lagoon be built, Bell said he wants to minimize the impact that it has on the community.

Related article:

Wiles lagoon stirs debate in Wayne County  March 1, 2018Local authorities have been urged by a farming union to use Dog Control Notices to stamp out the "ongoing blight" that livestock worrying has on farmers.

NFU Scotland has used its latest meeting of the Scottish National Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC) to highlight an increase in livestock worrying.

Following on from recent incidents in the Scottish Borders, North East and Argyll, which saw uncontrolled dogs kill and inflict injuries on a significant number of sheep, the union expressed its frustration that the issue continues to occur.

Leading rural insurer NFU Mutual recently revealed that the cost of claims related to livestock worrying has reached a record level of 1.6 million across the UK.

The cost of dog attacks on Scottish livestock reported to NFU Mutual has quadrupled in the last two years to more than 50,000.

A report released last year by the All Party Parliamentary Animal Welfare Group which shows more than 1,800 farm animals have been killed by dog attacks in the space of four years.

With lambing now underway on farms, NFU Scotland joined Police Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Land & Estates, National Sheep Association and the Kennel Club in a campaign that started in February and will run until May, raising awareness amongst dog owners about the devastating effects of livestock worrying.

Dog control notice

At the SPARC meeting, which was attended by Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy Fergus Ewing, the farming union said local authorities should give out Dog Control Notices (DCN) to offenders.

A DCN is a notice issued to a dog owner whose dog has been found to be out of control.

It outlines the measures the owner must take to make sure the dog is controlled in a manner which ensures the safety of others and prevents further incidents/attacks.

Measures taken include keeping the dog on a lead in public, muzzling the dog, attending and completing suitable training courses.

All dogs issued with a DCN must also be implanted with a microchip. The DCN is effective from the date it is issued and is specific to each dog.

Failure to comply with a DCN is an offence and can incur a fine of up to 1,000. A court may also make an order to disqualify a person from owning or keeping a dog for a period of time.

In cases where the court has decided that the dog is dangerous, it may make an order for the dogs destruction.

'Sheer devastation'

NFU Scotland's Legal and Technical Chairman Jamie Smart said recent sheep worrying incidents have demonstrated the "sheer devastation" that is caused by out of control dogs.

The graphic images of dead and mauled sheep underlined that the impact of irresponsible dog ownership on farmers livelihoods cannot be underestimated, Mr Smart said.

Whilst Police Scotland has responded positively to this issue, there is a real lack of awareness at local authority level about the true impact of this problem.

Local authorities are responsible for upholding access rights under the 2003 Act, but NFUS is not convinced that this is translating into the assistance that is required for farmers where things go wrong.

There are some interim steps which can assist where dogs are repeatedly out of control, including the use of dog control notices. However, we know anecdotally that not all local authority dog wardens are keen to use these. Once in place, if breached, then problem dogs can be removed or destroyed.

Mr Smart said the farming union would like to see all local authorities using these as to deal with repeatedly straying dogs. NFU Scotland will be writing to all local authorities to highlight these and encourage their use.

He continued: In addition to this, the Union is looking further into areas where legislation could be improved to help deal with these issues where they occur.

'Irresponsible dog owners'

Gemma Cooper, Policy Manager at NFU Scotland said that despite awareness raising, livestock worrying remains a "blight" on Scottish livestock farming.

There is no such thing as an irresponsible dog, only irresponsible dog owners, Ms Cooper said.

With lambing underway across Scotland, NFUS welcomes the current campaign and urges the public to ensure that, when out and about, all dogs are under proper control and the public should not take access in fields where heavily pregnant ewes or young lambs are present.

Last year there were a number of instances where farmers were left with no choice but to destroy dogs they caught worrying their stock, and in addition to this a number of owners received hefty sanctions.

Ms Cooper added: We welcome robust enforcement of the legislation in this area and urge our members to continue to report all incidents of livestock worrying to Police Scotland.The number Eastern Europeans searching for UK agricultural jobs using Google has fallen by 34 percent in the past year.

New analysis show that Google searches by Romanian, Bulgarian and Polish citizens for agricultural jobs in the UK have fallen by over a third.

Bulgaria saw the largest drop, with 2000 fewer searches in January 2017, compared to the same time the year before.

The fall in interest from abroad has not been matched by an increase in searches for agricultural sector jobs in the UK.

As people increasingly research potential employers online, Google search data is a sound early indicator of changing behaviour and provides insight into the shifting patterns of EU nationals searching for work in the UK.

This decline in interest, following the UKs decision to leave the EU, could lead to a potentially serious recruitment crisis for the UKs agricultural sector, which already has a 29% shortfall in seasonal workers.

Interest in agricultural jobs is heavily influenced by season, with peaks between December and April, although the window interest has shortened and become more pronounced in 2017, compared to 2016.

Robin Grainger, Group CEO at strategic communications firm GK Strategy, said the declining online interest indicates an "emerging workforce crisis" for Britains agricultural industry.

In the short term producers and representative bodies should work with Government to protect that vital pipeline of workers from abroad, Mr Grainger said.

In the longer term they should push for the implementation of a new migration system which recognises the reliance of our agricultural production on talented overseas staff.Farmers are encouraged to fill a survey that aims to find out the different ways in which the challenges of remote rural are being experienced by people.

The Princes Countryside Fund with Professor Sarah Skerratt from Scotlands Rural College (SRUC) is inviting anyone living in rural areas of the UK to contribute to their latest research, Recharging Rural.

Professor Skerratt and the Fund want to find out the different ways in which the challenges of remote rural are being experienced by people and communities across the UK.

Participants are encouraged to fill in the survey regardless of their location in the countryside  whether they live and work somewhere traditionally seen as geographically remote, or places considered within easy reach of towns and cities but that feel remote owing to a lack of connections, such as transport, broadband, or social links.

This research project will discover what makes communities in remote rural parts of the UK sustainable, and aims to identify ways forward into 2030 and beyond.

'Improve understanding'

Professor Skerratt said the survey wants to "improve understanding" of what life feels like in these rural areas and gather views on what should be done to address and reduce the challenges they face.

Some of these experiences are determined by where we are on a map. Other experiences of feeling remote are the result of the layering of our personal circumstances or challenges, including economic, social, health, or opportunities available to us, Professor Skerratt said.

Some communities are already actively overcoming these challenges. We want to hear about their projects and programmes too, so that the final report can share the great work that is happening across the country. We also want to know peoples thoughts on what must change to enable more communities to be stronger into the future.

The Princes Countryside Fund uses its research, such as Recharging Rural, in part to plan its future support for rural communities.

Their 2016 research into small family farms aided the development of The Princes Farm Resilience Programme, a 1.5 million programme that helps farming families become more resilient and gain better business skills.

This survey is open to everyone who lives or works in or for rural areas of the UK. It will remain open until Wednesday 18th April 2018.Tea tree oil, scientifically known as melaleucaoil, is an essential oil that is finding many takers because of its benefits for skin and hair. It has a fresh camphoraceous odour and its colour ranges from pale yellow to nearly colourless and clear. It is made from the leaves of the tree, Melaleucaalternifolia which is native to Southeast Queensland and the Northeast coast of New South Wales, Australia. Tea tree oil is not fit for consumption. In high concentrations, it can be toxic. But if used in a low concentration topically, it has many benefits.Many beauty brands are using tea tree oil as one of their main ingredients these days. From moisturising creams to shampoos to face wash and as an essential oil to be added to hair oils, the tea tree oil has multiple uses. With so many hair products flooding the market, one still wants to have a natural and DIY recipe to address their hair woes. Tea tree essential oil can be used effectively to treat various scalp and hair-related problems, such as hair loss, dandruff, scalp dermatitis, etc., Shubhika Jain, founder of RAS Luxury Oils explains. Amit Sarda, MD, Soulflower summarises, Tea tree oil strengthens your hair and prevents damage from frizz, dandruff, loose ends and split ends. It is an effective cure for dandruff and lice. Tea tree oil makes dealing with itchiness, dandruff and dry scalp easy. It treats dry and oily scalps and restores the pH levels of your scalp.Using tea tree oil ensures that your scalp remains clean and healthy. Jain points out, Being highly antifungal and antibacterial, it is very effective in treating microorganisms that thrive on the scalp. Massaging with this oil will not only moisturise and soothe the dry itchy scalp but at the same time control excess oil production that can block hair follicles, preventing hair growth. Tea tree oil improves scalp health on the whole with its antimicrobial properties. The improvised scalp health makes the follicles more receptive to nutrition and the unclogged pores help promote unhindered hair growth, Sarda shares, It is non-comedogenic and hence, will not clog the pores thereby decreasing bacteria on the skins surface. The oil helps unclog pores and reduces itchiness and the resulting boils on the scalp. Tea tree oil helps cleanse the scalp and clear theclogged pores that block hair growth. Dirty and clogged pores are also the reason for hair loss and dandruff. Add a few drops of tea tree oil to jojoba oil and massage it gently but thoroughly onto your scalp for 10  15 minutes. Rinse it off completely afterwards. You can also add a few drops of tea tree oil to your conditioner. Apply it to your hair after shampooing it. Leave it on for a few minutes before washing it off.The antifungal and antibacterial properties of tea tree oil also help in getting rid of dandruff. It is a natural conditioner and moisturiser. It removes any agents that cause drying of scalp and its flaking. It also soothes the resulting itchiness if you do have dandruff. Add tea tree oil to your favourite shampoo. Gently massage it into the scalp when applying it. Jain explains how, Add few drops of (maximum 5 drops) tea tree oil to your shampoo. Take the required amount of shampoo, mix tea tree oil apply and leave for 5 - 7 minutes. Rinse off with normal water.Lice on scalp are caused because of bad scalp health to begin with, and are spread by contact. They suck the blood from the scalp, and cause a lot of inflammation and itchiness. Tea tree oil contains 1,8-cineole and terpinen-4-ol which have insecticidal properties that help kill lice in the head. Mother lice lay their eggs along the hair shaft and they get strongly attached. This connection is broken by using tea tree oil on hair making it easier to remove the lice while combing. Take five to seven drops of tea tree oil and add to one tablespoon of any vegetable oil. Apply this to the scalp. Wear a dry shower cap and leave it overnight. In the morning, use an herbal shampoo to wash your hair. Repeat thisthree to four times a week to get rid of head lice.Tea tree oil helps betterblood circulation which in turn helps remove any toxins from the hair and the scalp.It also stimulates the dormant hair follicles. Sarda shares, Its antiseptic, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties ensure that hair stays clean and healthy by reaching the roots in the scalp and promoting hair growth.Better scalp health ensures in making the follicles receptive to nutrition, and unclogged pores help in promotingbetter hair growth. Tea tree oil when blended with carrier oils like almond oil, jojoba oil, makes one such hair oil which promises to give you a healthy hair growth, Jain informs. Warm the carrier oil of your choice for a few seconds.Add three to five drops of tea tree oil. Apply this to scalp and hair daily for three weeks for best results.Tea tree oil also ensures that your hair gets longer, thicker and beautiful. Use a deep treatment for your hair. Add a few drops to warm carrier oil and massage it into your scalp. Then wrap your hair up in a warm towel and allow it to sit for about 30 minutes so that the heat helps to open up hair follicles, helping the oils to penetrate the scalp. Do this once a week to have shiny and smooth hair, Jain notes. If youre looking for a regular treatment, she informs to take three tablespoons of warm carrier oil of your choice in a small bowl and add seven to 10 drops of tea tree oil to it. Mix well and apply on the scalp, leave overnight. Shampoo as usual.Better scalp health also ensures that there is no or very less hair loss. Hair loss is a direct result of clogged follicles and an irritated scalp, Sarda points out. You can use a tea tree oil and egg white hair mask to decrease hair loss. Take one or two eggs and separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Take the egg white, and add five drops of tea tree oil. Massage this mix onto the scalp for five to 10 minutes. Keep it on for 30 to 40 minutes before washing it off using an herbal shampoo. Do this twice a week.For this, you can choose any carrier oil like olive, jojoba, castor, sesame, coconut oil or almond oil. To half a cup of the carrier oil, add one to two drops of tea tree oil. If you have oily hair, use a lesser amount of tea tree oil, and increase its quantity if you have dry hair and scalp. To warm this oil mixture, heat plain water on the stove. Once the water comes to a boil, remove the pot from the stove. Put the oil mixture in a bowl and place this bowl in the warm water, so that the oil warms up by heat transference. You can test the temperature of the oil on your wrist first before use. You can make the application of the oil better distributed and even by sectioning your hair into four sections. Apply the oil to your hairusing an applicator brush or bottle, or even your hands.Massage it carefully into your scalp and coat your hair through to your ends. Wear a plastic shower cap to cover your hair, and let your hair rest for at least 30 minutes. Afterwards, you can shampoo and condition your hair as usual.A hair mask using tea tree oil can is helpful in eliminating dandruff, dryness and itchy skin. Select a base for the mask: a whole mashed-up avocado, or one cup of plain yogurt. The two ingredients are thick in texture, and form a paste. They have loads of healthy fats that help moisturise your hair. To the one of your choice, proceed to add two tablespoons of honey and 10 drops of Argan oil. These two help hydrate the hair, as also work as an adhesive. To this mix, add a few drops of tea tree oil and mix it well until the texture is creamy and smooth. Apply the mixture directly to your scalp, using gloved hands. Massage gently with your fingertips. Leave on for 10 minutes, before you rinse it all out thoroughly.You can mix baking soda and tea tree oil together to get rid of the harmful bacteria on scalp. Baking soda also has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties which kill the skin damaging microbes. Its anti-inflammation property helps maintain the skins pH balance. The excess oil on the skin is also absorbed. It, like tea tree oil, helps unclog the skin pores. Together, they fight the bacteria and help maintain healthy scalp. The mix also helps removing dead skin cells. Take one tablespoon of baking soda and addthree to five drops of tea tree oil and three tablespoons of honey to it. Apply this mix to the scalp and gently massage it onfor five to 10 minutes. Keep it on for 30  40 minutes. Rinse it using an herbal shampoo. Repeat this twice a week.Apple Cider Vinegar has some magical properties that help give you beautiful skin and hair. Itsclarifyingandcleansing properties helpsrejuvenate the hair. It helps remove any skin pore clogging, and residue build-up of hair products. It also makes the hair shine, and helps in treating the split ends in hair by shutting off the hair cuticles. A mix of ACV and tea tree oil helps in making the scalp healthy and also for hair growth. Take one part ACV and one part water.Add 10 to 15 drops of tea tree oil to the mix. Use this to rinse your hair for healthy hair.Coconut oil is a wonder product for hair. Its ability to easily penetrate hair shaft, makes it ideal to use as carrier oil. Coconut oil, like tea tree oil, helps improve scalp health, betters the hair growth, and fights fungusand infections. It also adds shine and volume. Wash your hair and towel-dry it to make it moist. Add a few drops of tea tree oil to coconut oil and massage it into the moist hair. Leave on for the night before you wash it off in the morning with an appropriate shampoo and conditioner.Use aloe vera gel for this. Aloe vera has vitamin A that produces healthy sebumwhich keeps the scalp andhair from drying and flaking. Vitamin A also helps fight free radicals present on scalp or in the hair. Aloe vera gel also has vitamin B12 that aids in getting rid of the hair follicles debris and also encourages new hair growth. Mixing tea tree oil to aloe vera gel puts together its many benefits and the resulting mix makes your hair healthy and beautiful. Add five to seven drops of tea tree oil to three tablespoons of aloe vera gel. Apply this mix to the scalp. Keep it for overnight for better results. If youre short of time, just leave it on for 30 to 40 minutes before washing it off. Use an herbal shampoo to wash your hair.You can make tea tree oil spray to use as a leave-in conditioner for your hair. Take distilled water and mix in tea tree oil with it. The quantity of the oil must be 5% of the water. Pour this mix into a spray bottle and shake it well to ensure that the oil and water mix. Spray on this mixture after you towel dry your hair.Fans and friends are pouring their heartiest wishes for Alia Bhatt as the super talented, gorgeous girl turns 25 today. Even though Alia is not in town with her family and friends, the actress is still having a great celebration. And we are not saying it just like that. We do have enough proof of the same.Alia, whos currently in Bulgaria shooting for her next with Ranbir Kapoor, was surprised by her Brahmastra team there. We have got our hands on this special picture in which birthday girl Alia is seen cutting her birthday cake. Shes looking super happy with the sweet surprise planned for her. Check out her picture here.Various celebrities took to their social media handle to wish this beautiful bunch of talent. Amongst many was her mother, actor Soni Razdan, who took to her social media handle to wish Alia. She wrote, On this day, 25 years ago, you were born Alia. Your name had already been chosen in my head. Alia Knightly was a lovely British Indian model and when I read that name I had decided if I had a girl we would call her Alia. Luckily, your father agreed. I had no idea what the name meant then. It was many years later that I found out it means exalted. And that you most certainly are. A month before you were born I had a dream. I saw your face clearly in that dream. Since then in these 25 years you have scaled great heights in your young life... true to your name. On this day, your birthday, I wish you all the best as always... but I also wish that you keep your core self intact. Your special simple sweet self intact through all the craziness and the heady ups and the not so heady downs of life ... dont lose sight of who you really are inside. Because its that self that will be your guide and your most precious companion. Wish we were with you today... Happy Birthday sweetheart. Have a glass for me. Love always ... Mama Description: aADescription: aADescription: aA Other than Brahmastra, Alia is looking forward to her other releases including Meghna Gulzars Raazi and Zoya Akhtars Gully Boy.The Life Of Terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh

"Omerta takes a look at this complex paradox of a man called Omar Saeed Sheikh. It was a difficult subject to choose and a challenge to make."

Hansal Mehta Praises Rajkummar Rao

"However, with an actor like Rajkummar, no challenge seems insurmountable and this was the ideal film to hurtle us out of our comfort zone to make something that is uncomfortable."

Terror Must Be Taken Head-on

"But that is the burden of truth - it is uncomfortable and it must be faced," said director Hansal Mehta.

Rajkummar Rao Also Opened Up About Omerta

"Omerta is among the most researched films that I have worked on till date. We actually visited some of the places frequented by Omar in London during his transformation from a LSE graduation student to becoming this deadly terrorist."

Understanding The Mindset Of A Terrorist

"I needed to feel and touch this man's past - to ingest him. It was not an easy journey for me to take. With Omerta and Hansal sir, we have a combination that will probably leave you stunned."

Rajkummar Rao's Stern Warning

"There will be this moment of shock and silence as the end credits roll," Rajkummar Rao summed it up to HT.

Grand Release

Omerta starring Rajkummar Rao and directed by Hansal Mehta is all set to hit the theatres on April 20, 2018.Avantika Enjoyed Playing Negative Role!

Talking to India Forums, the actress said, "I've played grey shades earlier. I enjoy playing any character, positive or negative as long as it challenges my potential. If I'm happy at the end of the day, that's all that matters."

Playing A Negative Character Was Too Much Fun

She further added, "Playing a negative character in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein was too much fun, although it was temporary and all planned. Mihika is a positive character, but if she turns grey there has to be a solid reason or plan behind it."

The Actress Got Threat Messages!

Avantika also revealed that she got threat messages. She said, "I'm very elated with the feedback. There were a set of people sending me threat messages on social media platforms."

Avantika Is Elated With The Feedback

She further added, "But, there were others who understood it's all acting and very kindly appreciated my work and loved the shades I've added to Mihika's character."

Actors Get Threat Messages For Playing Negative Roles

Well, this is not the first time that any actress is getting threat messages on social media! Pavitra Punia, who was seen as Nidhi on YHM, too received threat messages for plotting against Ishita and Raman. Other (villains) actors from other shows too, keep getting abusive messages from fans on social media.

YHM Latest Update

Currently, on the show, Simmi and Param continue to plot against Ishita, Raman and their family members. Simmi wants to ruin Raman by sending him to the mental asylum and she almost gets successful in her attempt.

YHM Cast To Shoot In London!

There are also reports that the team will be flying to London to shoot an interesting sequence. It is said that apart from Divyanka Tripathi, Karan Patel and Anita Hassanandani, Abhishek Verma and Krishna Mukherjee might also travel to shoot for the sequence.Whoops! United Flies Missouri-Bound Dog to Japan

United Airlines mistakenly flew a dog bound for Kansas to Japan on Tuesday.

A local news outlet reports that Kara Swindle and her two children were headed from Oregon to Kansas, City Missouri on Tuesday. When they headed to the cargo hold to pick up their German Shepard, they were handed a Great Dane instead!

They later learned that that dog was supposed to have landed in Japan  where their dog ended up.

United Airlines officials say that their dog is now on its route back to Kansas City but its unclear when hell arrive.

This unfortunate mixup comes on the heels of a more tragic pet mishap on United when a puppy died on a flight after the flight attendant put him in the overhead bin.

For more on this story, head to CNBC.This week Microsoft formally took the wraps off a new business division, Gaming Cloud, led by some of the team that helped launch the Xbox One X and aimed at strengthening the company's foothold in remote computing in games.

What that means, for game developers, seems to be that Microsoft is going to be doing its best to get you using its game dev tools and services to build and operate games -- even if they're not running on Microsoft-owned platforms like the Xbox or Windows.

"We're taking a very device-agnostic approach," Gaming Cloud general manager Kevin Gammill told Gamasutra this week. "It doesn't matter whether you're a game developer focused on console devices, or PC -- that could be either our store or Steam or GoG -- or the mobile or indie market, be it iOS or Android. With our cloud services, we want to deliver a first-class experience, regardless of platform. That's one aspect you could argue is slightly different from Microsoft's old-school approach."

With that in mind, Microsoft is expected to announce a special promotion during GDC next week that will give interested developers roughly $2,500 worth of PlayFab, Visual Studio App Center, and Azure services for free to, in the words of Gammill, "kind of kick the tires, and explore what developing on Microsoft services for games may look like in the cloud."

As you might expect from a new business unit with the word "Cloud" in the title, Microsoft's longstanding Azure platform is a key focus of the new division, as is Xbox Live. Alongside them stand the lion's share of Microsoft's game dev services, including the afore-mentioned Visual Studio, Havok, Simplygon, and the recently-acquired backend service platform PlayFab.

PlayFab was brought into the Microsoft fold just two months ago, but in a recent call newly-minted Gaming Cloud corporate vice president Kareem Choudhry said that the origins of this new division can be traced back to conversations ex-Xbox chief Phil Spencer had with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as Spencer was promoted to executive vice president of gaming last year.

"One of the main things that Phil and Satya talked about as a part of that transition was, where do we combine the assets Microsoft has in gaming with the rest of the company?" Choudhry recounted. "From that conversation, a new organization was born, which Phil has asked me to lead."

While Gammill says the division's current focus is on beefing up its game dev tool offerings (so getting more people using the services in more parts of the world, more data centers to support them, etc.), he also expects the business will seek to woo more developers by offering to help them deal with the ever-present discoverability problem that plagues many game marketplaces.

"Right now we're really focused on game developer muscle, helping developers iterate on, develop, distribute, operate," Gammill says. "You're gonna see us shift more over to the marketing aspect, where we can bring some business intelligence to the table to help devs acquire the players they want, retain them, and help monetize them better as well."

If Choudhry and Gammill's names sound familiar, it's because they were two of the leads on Project Scorpio, which debuted as the Xbox One X in November. They both spoke with Gamasutra last year about the process of designing the console with developers in mind; now that the console is shipped and they've moved on to these new positions, Gammill says they expect to apply what they learned from the Scorpio project to their current work with game developers.

"I'd shipped a console end-to-end, learned a ton, and I was ready to learn something new," adds Gammill, noting that he's enjoying the opportunity to work on something that doesn't have a hard release date.

"When we kicked off Xbox One X, it was probably a little more than 3 years before we actually launched, so we were taking some very...calculated estimates. Guess is probably the wrong word, but we made a calculated argument that 4K TVs were going to be big about the time we thought we'd be ready to ship Xbox One X," he says. "One thing I love about the cloud is...you're able to iterate much more quickly in the cloud, learn from those mistakes, and self-correct. When you burn things into silicon, it's much harder to accomplish that."Square Enix yesterday launched a new teaser site for the next game in Tomb Raider video game franchise. The announcement was scheduled for March 15, 2018 (i.e. today). Twitter user Nibel decided to dig a bit deeper in this newly launched website of Square Enix and guess what  he came back with tons of information  the exact name of the new Tomb Raider game: Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, the exact release date: September 14 and the tagline: It is going to be a Climatic Finale of Laras Origin story.

Today, we received a new Shadow of the Tomb Raider leak and its none other than the debut teaser trailer. It is available in off-screen quality but gives us a good glimpse at how the next journey of Lara Croft is going to be. The release date and the platforms are confirmed at the end of the trailer.

What I am of the opinion is that this was the teaser trailer of Shadow of the Tomb Raider that was scheduled to go live later today, and the full reveal i.e. actual gameplay reveal or new full-fledged trailer is scheduled to take place on April 27 (this date was discovered in the HTML code of the newly launched website).

You guys can watch the leaked trailer below.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been rumored for a while now, the first existence of it was discovered by Reddit user Tripleh280  a member of the development team was caught working of PPT at Montreal subway (check out the image below). Crystal Dynamics is not coming back for the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, they are working on a new Avenger game. A development team at Eidos Montreal is working on it.US Congressman: Russia must pay a price for crimes against the people of Georgia - GeorgianJournalDesign

The Redmi 5 and Redmi Note 5 have a similar design and it is not surprising as the latter is said to be the Redmi 5 Plus outside the Chinese market. Both the smartphones embrace the full-screen design and have screens with an aspect ratio of 18:9, which gives a tall look to the smartphone despite the bigger screen size.

Both these smartphones have a similar rear panel with a single rear camera positioned at the top center of the rear panel. Below the camera is the LED flash unit and a circular fingerprint sensor as seen on the Xiaomi smartphones.

However, the Redmi 5A is different in terms of design as it does not have the full-screen design. The smartphone features the usual display with the conventional 16:9 aspect ratio. The rear camera arrangement is different as it is positioned at the top left corner of the back cover above the antenna line and the LED flash is positioned next to it.

None of these smartphones have a groundbreaking design though we would appreciate the thin bezels on the Redmi 5 and Redmi Note 5 in comparison to those of the Redmi 5A.

Display

The Redmi 5 flaunts a 5.7-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels while the Redmi Note 5 adorns a 5.99-inch FHD+ display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. On the other hand, the Redmi 5 has a smaller 5-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution.

Having given the screen sizes and resolutions of all the three smartphones, I personally like the display of the Redmi Note 5 has it is bigger than the rest and packs in more pixels as well. Moreover, the full-screen design doesn't give the feel of actually holding a 6-inch smartphone as there are slim bezels at the sides.

Camera

When it comes to the optics department, the Redmi 5 and Redmi Note 5 have similar specifications. Both smartphones sport a 12MP main camera at its rear with PDAF, HDR, f/2.2 aperture and LED flash. Up front, there is a 5MP selfie camera with LED selfie flash. On the contrary, the Redmi 5A flaunts a 13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture and PDAF and a 5MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture.

We cannot expect a lot of advanced features from these Xiaomi smartphones in terms of imaging. However, during our review and first impressions, we have found the Redmi Note 5 (check out Redmi Note 5 review) and Redmi 5A to do justice to their pricing. We will get to know the Redmi 5 camera performance in our review but it could be similar to that of the Redmi Note 5 in terms of performance.

Performance

Performance is something that many of you might be concerned about and here it is. The Redmi 5 makes use of a 1.8GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC. And, gets the power from a 3300mAh battery. The Redmi Note 5 employs a 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC and a capacious 4000mAh battery with support for fast charging as well. The Redmi 5A is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon 425 SoC and a 3000mAh battery.

Of these, the Redmi Note 5 has an advanced processor, which is better than the ones used by the other two models. While the 3000mAh battery in the Redmi 5A is itself claimed to render a long lasting battery life to the smartphone, the 4000mAh battery in the Redmi Note 5 will undoubtedly render a better performance. Having said that the Redmi Note 5 has a larger display and better processor, it makes sense for the device to have a juicier battery than the rest.

All these smartphones from Xiaomi run MIUI 9 based on Android Nougat and come packed with connectivity features such as 4G VoLTE among other common aspects. The Redmi 5A comes with a dedicated microSD card slot and dedicated dual SIM card slots.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro First Impressions

Variants and pricing

In a price conscious market such as India, the pricing of the smartphone is very important for its success. Xiaomi has been pretty good in terms of its pricing strategy, which has helped it gain massive success in India.

Talking about these smartphones, Xiaomi has launched multiple variants of these devices with a marginal price difference. The Redmi 5 is available in three variants - 2GB RAM and 16GB storage space priced at Rs. 7,999, 3GB RAM and 32GB storage space priced at Rs. 8,999, and 4GB RAM and 64GB storage space priced at Rs. 10,999.

The Redmi Note 5 launched back in February is available in two variants - 3GB RAM and 32GB storage space priced at Rs. 9,999 and 4GB RAM and 64GB storage space priced at Rs. 11,999. The Redmi 5A, the most entry-level smartphone from Xiaomi among the trio comes in two variants - one with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage priced at Rs. 5,999 and the other with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage priced at Rs. 6,999. Notably, until recently, Xiaomi was selling the Redmi 5A's base variant at Rs. 4,999, which is Rs. 1,000 discount on the original pricing.

Verdict

Xiaomi smartphones are highly popular and the company has gained immense success in India. The flash sales of these smartphones leave the devices out of stock in a matter of a few minutes. And, this is because, the smartphones from the Chinese manufacturer do not compromise on specifications to stick to the budget.

If you are looking at performance, then you could opt for the Redmi Note 5. And, if your choice is to stick to the sub-Rs. 10,000 price bracket and still get a decent performer, then you should opt for the Redmi 5 via Amazon and Mi.com. However, if you choose the Redmi 5, you need to know that the sale debuts on March 20 and it might take a considerable time for the device to be made available offline.

On the other hand, if you have a tight budget and you are confined to the price bracket of Rs. 7,000, you can choose to get hold of the Redmi 5A also called the Desh ka Smartphone. Though it misses out some aspects seen on the other two Redmi phones such as a fingerprint sensor and full-screen design, it will not leave you disappointed on its battery performance.The AI tool

Earlier this week, the company in a blog post announced that it has open-sourced a lump of code name DeepLab-v3+.

The tool is built using convolutional neural networks: a machine learning method that excels in analyzing visual data. The tool analyzes the subjects in a picture and divides the foreground elements from the background elements.

Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

What's the use?

This sounds normal, but it is actually a very useful skill for cameras, and Google makes use of the tool for its portrait mode images on the Pixel smartphones. The portrait mode captures photos with a bokeh effect that blurs the background of the subject in focus. The feature was first popularized by the iPhone, but it's worth noting that the Pixel does it with only one lens while the iPhone uses two lenses.

Google hopes that by sharing the system with the public, "other groups in academia and industry [will be able] to reproduce and further improve" the company's work.

What else?

Besides, Google is also reportedly working on developing new gesture control features for its wireless earphones Pixel Buds. According to some reports, 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.Vivo X21 UD with Snapdragon 660 SoC visits Geekbench News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Upcoming Vivo flagship appears to use the same processor as its predecessor.

Vivo may be yet another Chinese smartphone brand but the company is up to some innovation as it is the first one to feature an under-display fingerprint sensor. The Vivo X20 UD unveiled at the CES 2018 features the fingerprint module from Synaptics under its screen. Now, we already know that the company is all set to unveil another such smartphone called Vivo X21 UD on March 19.

The Vivo X21 has been surfacing on rumors and speculations since the past weeks. Until now, the device was rumored to make use of a Snapdragon 670 processor under its hood. The situation has changed now as a leaked Geekbench benchmarking database shows that the smartphone might be powered by a Snapdragon 660 processor.

In the mid-range category, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 SoC is the most powerful one right now and brands such as Vivo and Oppo are left with no other choice for their upcoming flagship smartphones. Eventually, it is not surprising to see the use of the Snapdragon 660 SoC in the Vivo X21 with an under-display fingerprint sensor.

Notably, the Vivo X21 is expected to announced in multiple variants. Having said that, the one to be spotted on the Geekbench database seems to be the variant with an under-display fingerprint sensor as the benchmark listing has the name Vivo X21UD A. The listing spotted by GSMArena shows that the Vivo smartphone might run Android 8.1 Oreo and arrive with 6GB of RAM.

Though the processor appears to be the same one as seen in the yesteryear model, the RAM appears to be upgraded from 4GB to 6GB and the device will run the latest Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. We can expect other significant changes as well in terms of battery performance and imaging thought these remain unknown for now.

Vivo V7 Unboxing and First impressions

Talking about the benchmark scores, the Vivo X21 UD appears to have scored 1608 points and 5852 points in the single-core and multi-core tests respectively. Let's wait for more details regarding the upcoming Vivo flagship smartphone to come to light in the coming days.

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Trump's Choice for CIA Director Courts Respect, Controversy

By Jeff Seldin March 13, 2018

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."

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Statement by the North Atlantic Council on the use of a nerve agent in Salisbury

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

14 Mar. 2018

Press Release (2018) 033

Issued on 14 Mar. 2018

The UK briefed the North Atlantic Council today on the use of a nerve agent in Salisbury on 4 March.

The UK confirmed the use of a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia and briefed Allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible. The UK also confirmed that this was an indiscriminate and reckless attack against the United Kingdom, putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk.

Allies expressed deep concern at the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATO's foundation. Allies expressed solidarity with the UK, offered their support in the conduct of the ongoing investigation, and called on Russia to address the UK's questions including providing full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Allies agreed that the attack was a clear breach of international norms and agreements.

Since its entry into force in 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention has become one of the pillars of the global non-proliferation regime. The Convention prohibits the development, transfer and use of chemical weapons. States Parties to the Convention take on a duty to uphold and enforce its fundamental tenets. States Parties commit not to develop, produce or otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, nor to transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone. States Parties also undertake not to engage in any military preparations to use chemical weapons, nor to commit to assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in prohibited activity.

NATO has repeatedly condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria and called on those responsible to be held to account. NATO regards any use of chemical weapons as a threat to international peace and security.

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Showdown Looms Over Poisoned Spy As Russia Fails To Respond To U.K. Deadline

RFE/RL March 14, 2018

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to announce measures against Russia on March 14, after Moscow ignored a midnight deadline to explain how a nerve agent developed during the Cold War was used to poison a former Russian spy in Britain.

The United States, European Union, and NATO all said they supported Britain after May said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a deadly chemical substance developed by the Soviet military -- part of a group of nerve agents known as Novichok.

May gave Moscow a deadline of midnight on March 13 to explain how the rare nerve agent made its way to England. She said she is reviewing a range of economic and diplomatic measures in retaliation for the assault.

The prime minister is due to host a meeting of her national security council. She is then expected to give an update to lawmakers.

Ahead of May's expected announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman reiterated Russia's denial of involvement, saying that Moscow is in no way connected to the poisoning and will not accept "unfounded" accusations or ultimatums.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that any measures by London will be based on "common sense," warning that actions against Moscow will trigger a response. He did not elaborate.

British police, meanwhile, said the probe into the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, 66, and Yulia Skripal, 33, will last many weeks and that they are not ready to identify any persons of interest in the inquiry.

The two remained in critical condition in a hospital in the southern English city of Salisbury, where they were hospitalized on March 4 after being found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping mall.

The White House joined Britain in calling on Russia to provide "unambiguous answers regarding how this chemical weapon, developed in Russia, came to be used in the United Kingdom," after a phone call between May and U.S. President Donald Trump on March 13.

"The two leaders agreed on the need for consequences for those who use these heinous weapons in flagrant violation of international norms," it said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the attack and offered support to Britain.

Both before and after the deadline had passed, Russia's Embassy in London said Moscow will not respond to London's ultimatum until it receives samples of the chemical substance.

"Any threat to take 'punitive' measures against Russia will meet with a response. The British side should be aware of that," it said on Twitter.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that his country's requests to see samples of the nerve agent have been turned down. He denied Moscow was behind the poisoning, saying that "Russia is not guilty."

Lavrov called the accusations "nonsense" and said, "We have nothing to do with this."

A Russian chemist who helped develop the nerve agent in the Soviet era and now lives in the United States said that only the Russian government could have carried out the attack with such a deadly and advanced toxin.

Vil Mirzayanov, 83, said that Russia maintains tight control over its Novichok stockpile and that the agent is too complicated for a nonstate actor to have weaponized.

"The Kremlin all the time, like all criminals, denying -- it doesn't mean anything," Reuters quoted Mirzayanov as saying in an interview at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.

Britain's ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that Russia had failed to declare its full stockpile of nerve agents to the global oversight body.

Peter Wilson told reporters that Russia, which President Vladimir Putin said in 2017 had destroyed all its chemical weapons under OPCW supervision, has in fact "failed for many years" to fully disclose its chemical weapons program.

Wilson repeated assertions by the British government that Russia was "implicated" in the attack and demanded that Moscow now declare its undisclosed program.

Also on March 13, the chief of the OPCW said 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," OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said in a speech to the group's executive council.

Uzumcu said that British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called him on March 12 to inform him of the results of investigations into the attack on Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia.

Meanwhile, British broadcasting regulator Ofcom has warned it could review the license of Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT.

Ofcom said it had written to ANO TV Novosti, which holds RT's British broadcast licenses, saying that if Moscow 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."

In response to Ofcom's statement, Moscow threatened on March 13 to bar all British media from working in Russia if British authorities ban RT.

"No British media will work in Russia if they close down RT," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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 in one of the biggest spy scandals since the Cold War.

Police have confirmed that Sergei Skripal is a British citizen. Lavrov said that Yulia Skripal has Russian citizenship.

With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/showdown-looms -russia-fails-respond-british-deadline-skripal-nerve-gas-novichok -poisoning-case-may-trump-nato/29097843.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Philippines Buys Six US Reconnaissance Drones to Fight Jihadist Insurgency

Sputnik News

22:08 13.03.2018(updated 22:12 13.03.2018)

The US sent Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's government six brand new unmanned aerial vehicles this week to provide another tool for suppressing domestic terror threats from insurgent groups like Abu Sayyaf.

"Assets like the ScanEagle will significantly improve the [Philippine military's] ability to detect terrorist activities, piracy activities and territory encroachment," said Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, during a meeting with reporters on Tuesday.

The Philippines government purchased the six ScanEagle drones for approximately $13 million. While unarmed, the drone fleet is expected to gather valuable information during reconnaissance missions. The aircraft are also expected to conduct humanitarian assistance and support disaster relief efforts when needed, Philippine Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana said Tuesday, Channel News Asia reports.

According to the US State Department, Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern part of the Philippines have been friendly with Daesh and Osama bin Laden and they engage in kidnappings for ransom, beheadings, extortion and assassination. The group "seeks a separate Islamic state for the country's Muslim minority," a Council on Foreign Relations fact sheet on Abu Sayyaf noted.

Abu Sayyaf and the Maute militant group fought a five month battle with Philippine government forces last year in Marawi, in the south of the country. The terrorist alliance sought to raise a Daesh flag in the city, the Philippine armed forces said at the time. More than a thousand fighters died during the conflict in total, while 87 civilians were killed. An estimated 1.1 million people were displaced by the crisis.

"With a number of security issues confronting our country today, there is a need to upgrade our nation's armed forces," Lorenzana noted.

 Sputnik

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Turkey-Qatar Defense Cooperation Stepped Up As Regional Crisis Drags On

Sputnik News

15:48 14.03.2018(updated 16:30 14.03.2018)

In mid-2017, Saudi Arabia and a range of other regional powers severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, accusing Doha of funding terrorism and destabilizing the region. Qatar has denied the allegations, and is solidifying military ties and defense cooperation with Turkey to counter the threat posed by the Saudi-led bloc.

Turkey signed an agreement with Qatar on Tuesday, agreeing to supply the Qatari Emiri Navy (QEN) with two training warships, according to Turkish media citing the chairman of the Anadolu shipyard, Sualp Urkmez.

"Qatar needs these ships to provide its naval personnel with sufficient training," Sualp Urkmez told Turkish media, while adding that the training vessels will be delivered within 36 months.

Mr. Urkmez went on to state that Turkish is one of only ten countries that can "design and build its own warships."

The deal was inked on March 13 at the Doha International Maritime Defense Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX 2018)  a military exhibition which has seen over US$30 billion worth of arms deals signed in 7 years of running.

In late 2017, Turkey deployed additional troops to its Al-Udeid airbase in Doha, and is close to its target of stationing 3,000 troops in the country.

The UK and other world powers have called on Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade, but the Kingdom's Crown Prince's stance has proved to be unwavering. Qatar's economy has not significantly been affected by the sanctions, as most key economic partners, especially in Asia, have continued to trade with Doha.

Kuwait has mediated between the Saudi-led bloc and Qatar to deescalate the situation and facilitate negotiations. However, despite some dialogue, there is yet to be any significant breakthrough, and it remains unlikely Qatar will yield and make the proposed concessions.

 Sputnik

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Sierra Leone Front-runners to Contest Runoff After First-Round Stalemate

By Jason Patinkin March 14, 2018

Sierra Leone will hold a runoff presidential election in two weeks after the country's 16 candidates failed to clinch the 55 percent of votes necessary to win in the first round.

National Electoral Commission chair Mohammed Nfa'ali Conteh made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday night, a week after the country went to the polls.

"There will be second election, runoff, exclusively between the All People's Congress presidential candidate Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara, and the Sierra Leone People's Party presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio," he said.

Kamara, a former minister, is the ruling APC's presidential pick. He took 42.7 percent of the vote, slightly behind opposition SLPP's Bio, who took 43.3 percent of the ballots. President Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC must step down this year after serving two terms.

Kamara ran on a platform of continuing the APC's track record of infrastructure development. But opposition groups pointed to alleged corruption by the ruling party, as well as poor handling of crises such as the ebola outbreak in 2014.

This is the second time opposition candidate Bio has run for the country's top government job. He lost the 2012 election to Koroma.

Despite Bio's slight lead this time, reactions from his supporters, who hoped for a first round win, were subdued.

Mutaru Kamara was part of a small crowd of SLPP supporters who gathered quietly outside Bio's house on the outskirts of Freetown.

"I'm not really happy regarding the outcome of the results because we are expecting victory tonight," said Kamara.

At the APC headquarters in the capital, the crowd was more jubilant, even though they lagged in the poll. Party members wearing red cheered in front of television crews.

Mohamed Sise, a carpenter who voted for Kamara, looked for a silver lining.

"It's not a disappointment because we have 15 parties against the ruling party, so if we come second it's a blessing in disguise... We have the power to defeat them second round," he said.

Both APC and SLPP may need to form coalitions with smaller parties to win a majority in the runoff, but analysts say APC faces an uphill battle to do so given widespread anti-establishment sentiment.

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India Lands Its C17 Globemaster Heavy Transport Aircraft at China's Doorstep

Sputnik News

15:28 14.03.2018

In 2009, India started reconstruction of disused advanced landing grounds in Arunachal Pradesh  just 29 kilometers from China. Six of them have become operational, and work is in progress to make the seventh operational. Construction of the eighth is pending, due to connectivity issues.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday landed its heaviest transport aircraft at the Tuting advanced landing ground (ALG) which is a few miles away from the line of actual control (LAC)  the de facto border with China. Tuting is part of a disputed swathe of land claimed as South Tibet by China and Arunachal Pradesh by India. It was this area in which Indian troops claimed to have intercepted a Chinese civilian team carrying out road building activity in December last year. The Indian side had claimed it sent back the Chinese team after confiscating their construction equipment.

"The IAF C17 Globemaster carried out a historic landing at Tuting ALG, Arunachal Pradesh. The challenging airfield is in midst of high hills in a narrow valley. The mission was executed flawlessly due to the superlative performance and excellent flying skills of the pilots," the IAF tweeted.

After the completion of the trial landing, the C17 carried out an operational mission, airlifting a load into the plain airfield. In November 2016, the IAF had successfully landed the C-17 Globemaster at its strategic Mechuka ALG in the West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, which is just 29 kilometers away from the de-facto border with China.

The process of reconstructing seven ALGs along the border with China was started by India in 2009. Of the seven ALGs in Arunachal Pradesh which are being upgraded, works and services at six ALGs have been completed, while only 3% of the work is s left at Tawang. The IAF has already landed the Sukhoi and C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft at most of the ALGs.

India had also planned to develop an eighth ALG at Vijayanagar but the work could not be taken up due to the non-availability of road connectivity. Now that road projects are being laid in its neighborhood, work is expected to start at Vijayanagar as well, according to a parliamentary standing committee report tabled on Tuesday.

The IAF has also identified 24 disused airfields for other purposes such as the deployment of long-range radars, weapon storage, and the dispersal of strategic assets during operations, emergency recovery strips, the deployment of AD weapons, and helicopter operations.

 Sputnik

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Iran warns US against 'foolish' moves against Syria

Iran Press TV

Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:46AM

Iran has warned Washington against taking any "foolish" decisions with regards to Syria, as speculation mounts that the administration of US President Donald Trump is gearing up for a military strike against the country.

Speaking to reporters in a briefing on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi advised Washington to carefully consider the implications before adopting any interventionist policies in the Middle East.

"That America takes hostile actions against the countries of the region is nothing new but the US cannot intervene and this is a kind of invasion nonetheless," said Qassemi.

"Nations in the region have shown that they will not accept foreign presence and we hope the US reconsiders this foolish decision," he added.

There have been reports that the US and some of its Western allies partaking in an airstrike campaign against purported terrorist positions inside Syria are considering a large-scale military action against the Arab country under the pretext that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons against its people.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley stirred more concerns on Monday, saying Washington was ready to unilaterally "act" against Syria, just as it did last year when it bombed a Syrian government air base.

The Trump administration used a similar excuse in April 2017 to fire a barrage of cruise missiles against an airbase that Washington claimed Damascus had used to conduct a sarin gas attack on Khan Shaykhun village in Idlib Province days earlier.

Syria has denied the allegations, arguing that it has no reason to resort to chemical weapons while its forces have the upper hand in the fight against terrorists.

Iran's advisory role

Defending Tehran's military advisory role in Syria, Qassemi said Wednesday that unlike the US-led coalition, Iran's presence in Syria has been based on an official request by Damascus to help it with the fight against terrorism.

"We hope that peace returns to Syria through diplomacy," he said.

The possibility of a new US-led attack against Assad's government has gained more weight in the recent weeks, following the Syrian military's advances in Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb and one of the last strongholds of Daesh terrorists.

Russia's concerns

Moscow has also warned Washington that, unlike the last time, it will respond if Syria is attacked once more and its servicemen there are threatened.

The Kremlin fears that any attacks against Syrian military sites would put in harm's way the lives of thousands of Russian military forces who are stationed across Syria to help the country with its ongoing fight against terrorists.

"There are many Russian advisers, representatives of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and servicemen in Damascus and at Syrian defense facilities," the RIA news agency quoted head of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov as saying on Tuesday.

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Turkish Armed Forces Reportedly Lost Over 40 Servicemen Since Start of Afrin Op

Sputnik News

17:05 13.03.2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag announced that the country's armed forces had lost 42 soldiers since the start of the Operation Olive Branch in Syria's northern district of Afrin, while 202 servicemen had sustained injuries, local media reported on Tuesday.

The Turkish troops have managed to seize 1,102 square kilometers (425 square miles) of territory belonging to the Syrian-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), Bozdag said on Monday, according to the Hurriyet Daily News newspaper.

On Monday, the Turkish General Staff announced that another Turkish officer was killed during the operation on March 12, while one more was injured.

On January 20, the Turkish Armed Forces launched the operation against Kurdish forces in Afrin, an area controlled by the US-backed YPG, which is considered by Ankara to be an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey and several other countries. Damascus has strongly condemned Ankara's actions, with the Syrian Foreign Ministry calling them a violation of the country's sovereignty.

 Sputnik

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1. Issue details:

The issue will comprise a fresh share issue of 977 lakh equity worth upto Rs. 3663 crore. Existing shareholders including International Finance Corporation and IFC FIG Investment Company will offload their existing stake in the bank worth Rs. 811 crore. After the IPO, promoter equity will reduce to 82.3% against the current 89.6%.

The price band for the issue is Rs. 370-375 of face value of Rs. 10 per equity. The issue remains open until March 19, 2018.

Before the issue on March 14 the bank raised Rs. 1342 crore through anchor investment by selling shares to some 65 anchor investors that include Nomura Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Amansa Holdings, ICICI Prudential, Blackrock India Equities (Mauritius) etc.

The lead managers to the issue are Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, JM Financial, and JP Morgan India, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities and Axis Capital

2.IPO objective:

The proceeds from the issue will improve the bank's tier I capital to manage future capital needs. As per the prospectus, the main objective with which the issue is being floated is to achieve the benefit of listing equity shares on stock exchanges and also to comply with RBI's licensing guidelines.

3. Company profile:

The Kolkata based-bank is the biggest microfinance institution in India that caters primarily to the underbanked regions of East and North east India. As on December 2017, the bank's loan book amounts to over Rs. 24,364 crore while its CASA deposits has also improved to 33.2% during the period. The bank enjoys benefits of priority sector lending.

4. Financials:

With focus on the underpenetrated and underbanked markets, the bank's NIM has stood at the highest of 9.9% in December 2017. Also, the cost to return ratio of the bank are well managed in comparison to other peers. Return on equity at 25.6% is also the highest in comparison to other banks. Also, the bank's asset quality is strong with a GNPA rising to 1.67% in December 2017 mainly due to demonetisation. The bank posted a net profit of Rs. 331 crore in the quarter ended September of the current FY.

5. Valuations:

Brokerages are of the view that the Bandhan Bank issue is steeply priced at a price-book value (P/B) multiple of 4.9. Large established players in the retail banking space including HDFC and IndusInd Bank are available at similar valuations with a P/B multiple of 5. So, investors subscribing to the issue will not be able to lap up listing gains. At the upper end of the price band, the issue is valued at 8.3x 3QFY18 book value.

However, investors with higher risk appetite and long-term horizon can still subscribe to the issue as the high valuations are well supported by healthy return of over 25% RoE and focused management team.Elizabeth David, one of my favorite writers on Italian food traditions, has always put effort into teaching about risottoand as a result, she has written some of the best material on the dish. In Italian Food (1954), she laid down rules that still should ring true: In a good and conscientious restaurant, say, in Milan or Venice or Turin, you must wait for your risotto, just as in a French restaurant you would expect to wait for your souffle.

David's book, Is There a Nutmeg in the House?, released posthumously in 2000, includes a collection of previously unpublished articles. In the book, she specifies the many facets of a true risotto, including the right type of rice; unsurprisingly, she blasts a 1970s London Times recipe for A Versatile Risotto (containing bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, scraps of cooked chicken, peas, and fried chicken livers, and grated cheddar cheese, all cooked with the inevitable chicken stock cube) in her usual sharp and witty way. I am well aware that such a dish may have its appeal to those with more appetite than discrimination, she says, and especially to those brought up in the British tradition of jumbling together a number of incompatible ingredients and eating them all at once off the same plate.

David understands very well that more is not more in Italian cooking, and that only a small proportion of other ingredients belong with the rice in a risotto. With this logic, she spent decades trying to show people the way to a more elegant and distinct dish.

Shrimp and artichokes Photo by Emiko Davies

In her recipe for Vegetable and Shrimp Risotto, she describes beautifully the delicate texture of a true risotto: If you have never eaten a risotto correctly cooked in Venice or in Milan, it is difficult to appreciate that there is a split-second in the cooking of the ricejust as for scrambled eggswhen the consistency is exactly right. It is neither too liquid not too compact. It is light, [and] every grain is separate, although bound together in a homogeneous whole by the starch, which has amalgamated with the cooking liquid.

David's recipe, inspired by the two staple ingredients of a typical Venetian risotto (green vegetables and shellfish), includes lettuce, fennel, and dried shrimp, and the dish is brought together with boiling waternot stock, which she notes is unnecessary.

Risotto ready for plating Photo by Emiko Davies

My take on this Venetian classic, packed with fresh artichokes and whole, sweet, juicy shrimp, is a combination I love when fresh artichokes abound, in late winter and early spring.

If I'm using fresh, whole shrimp (which is almost always the case), I love making a quick stock with the head and shells, and using this stock to cook the rice. You might as well get as much flavor from them as you can, so do not throw them away.

And if you can't get good artichokes when you're making the dish, don't worrytry substituting with new peas or asparagus, if they're in season, as both go beautifully with shrimp, too. Or if you'd prefer leaving out the artichokes completely, you can take a page out of Venetian food writer Valeria Necchio's cookbook, Veneto, and simply go with the shrimp and a generous pour of prosecco in the dish. As I said, less is more.

Shrimp and artichoke risotto

By Emiko

8 large, whole shrimp

4 cups (1 litre) water

1 lemon, zested and then juiced

2-3 medium fresh artichokes

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, diced finely

3/4 cup (150 grams) rice for risotto (such as arborio or carnaroli)

1/3 cup (80 ml) dry white wine

knob of cold butter

fresh thyme or oregano

freshly ground pepper

View Full Recipe

Are you a risotto minimalist, too? Tell us about your few & favorite toppings in the comments.GREENWICH  Greenwich High School administrators and students said this weeks rally for school safety empowered teenagers at the school to make their voices heard on subjects important to them.

What was really so powerful about this event was all of us together in one room united around a common goal, said Willa Doss, a member of GHS student government. We were able to put aside partisan differences because school safety we believe is an innately apolitical issue. Students and teachers being killed is something all of us recognize is an issue we need to act on.

Sophie Lindh, a member of student government, added that after the rally students, even those who had been reluctant to go, came out inspired and eager to get involved.

Thats exactly what we wanted from this, Lindh said.

Student leaders and administrators met with members of the media Thursday morning to discuss the previous days rally, and to defend decisions to hold it inside the school and to not allow live press coverage, subjects that have come under some criticism.

This was a conscious decision made by the administration, I think all of us completely supported it, Doss said of the choice not to allow media coverage. School administrators released a video of the event later in the day Wednesday. While we are all strong advocates of freedom of the press, this was an event that was about the students and about our GHS community and family. Without the media there it allowed it to be a lot more intimate, and what we wanted to accomplish together.

Doss said she was a little disappointed to see much of the coverage of the event focused on the media ban.

The rally was one of thousands of events that took place across the nation Wednesday, including student walk-outs, protest rallies in Washington D.C. and outside Trump Tower in New York City, and moments of remembrance in honor of 17 students and staff murdered last month in a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Television crews from coast to coast Wednesday broadcast images of students leaving their schools, holding up signs and demanding that lawmakers do something to help bring about an end to gun violence. GHS was one of several schools, including some others in the region, that chose not to hold a walkout protest but instead an indoor unity rally, a decision that raised eyebrows in some circles, garnered praise in others. Students Thursday said they made the decision about the type of rally they would hold in conjunction with school and district administrators, and the event was organized, created and executed entirely by them.

Wednesdays rally was moving event for them, and brought them together during a difficult time in a way that a walkout would not have been to do, they said.

We had 2,700 kids come together in one room under one roof, which is something that really no other school that I know of can do, said Greg Goldstein, GHS student body president. If you have kids scattered all over campus, you arent able to have a message heard. We were able to have our message heard. We were able to come together and show how we grieve for those in Parkland and get the message across that enough is enough.

Alissa Landberg, senior class president, added, If we had a protest and we had a walkout, we would have had people walking out of every random door and it wouldnt have been as strong as it was.

Lindh noted pictures and posts about the rally went viral and were even picked up by CNN for broadcast. Goldstein and others said they hoped by bringing everyone together it would inspire further action.

Our main argument in the rally was about youth advocacy and how no matter what side of the aisle you stand on you can get involved and have your voice heard, Goldstein said. Voter turnout among kids our age is on a straight decline and we want to get that going back up. ... While gun control is a part of school safety, our mission was not to focus straight on gun control but how you can get involved as a person.

A decision was made that this would be an event for our students and staff, said Greeniwch high Headmaster Chris Winters. We wanted to keep it a closed event for that reason  This was a student-led rally. I had a very small part in organizing and speaking because it was meant to be student voices who were heard. It was a great example of students putting aside their politics but coming together around a message that we need to do more in our schools to keep us safe. We dont want students coming to school feeling unsafe. While the adults bicker about how to get that done, the students are saying enough is enough.GREENWICH  Greenwich police are mourning a retired colleague, Lt. Robert Brown Sr., who died recently at the age of 74.

Brown, who joined the department in 1969, retired as a lieutenant in 2002.

He was born in Greenwich on July 13, 1943, and graduated from Greenwich High School. He also studied at East Stroudsburg University and Norwalk Community College.

Born and raised in Greenwich, he served with the U.S. Air Force from 1962 and 1966 and was honorably discharged.

Brown was promoted to sergeant in 1987 and to lieutenant in 1992. He was active in the police union.

During his career in the department, he earned five commendations, and he was the recipient of the Meritorious Police Duty Medal.

Brown also served as a special police officer upon his retirement, taking part in community events.

The retired lieutenant belonged to the Knights of Columbus.

Memorial arrangements have not been announced to the public.The following is an extended excerpt of Javier Hasses book Start Your Own Cannabis Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Hunter Garth, bearded, 27, seems to be as chill as they come. After all, he works with marijuana.

But this was not always the case.

Returning home after serving with the United States Marine Corps in Afghanistan for four years was not easy. Readapting to civilian life was not easy. And, as you might imagine, overcoming the trauma of war was not easy--is it ever?

During my life in deployment, I was hyper-exposed to trauma, but I really negated it all, telling myself that it was not that bad. I really took a tough guy approach while I was in the Marine Corps, Garth reveals.

However, coming back home was a whole other issue. He could no longer live in denial. My deployment had pretty extensive consequences. During my transitional period, I was not thinking right, I was not sleeping well, [and] I wasnt handling things in an appropriate manner, he continues.

Despite being among the lucky ones, counting on the support of friends and family at the time of his return, Garth marks the moment of getting out of the Marine Corps as the one where things really went South--not only for him but also for almost every one of his comrades. There was not a lot of time to process things in Afghanistan; back home, they were all alone with their thoughts.

A few of the guys that I served with killed themselves; a few of them got in adrenaline-based accidents Basically, we were all self-medicating and acting in a way that was incredibly dangerous as a group of people and as individuals.

I can tell you with certainty that I thought about killing myself more than once. And so did one of my best friends and former unit companion, Caleb Patton, he adds. It was the guys around us, who are now part of IPG, that saved us.

Garth had gotten his stuff on a U-Haul, with 400 bucks in his pocket, moved from his home state, Florida, to Colorado and never looked back. Pretty much the opposite: he was now incentivizing his friends to do the same.

Caleb Patton had served in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside Hunter Garth. Upon returning home, he had to undergo a Calvary of his own. Suffering from excruciating physical and mental pain deriving from an injury he got during a training accident--in which seven of his fellow Marines were killed--Patton had turned to alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs, which the United States Department of Veterans Affairs was feeding him, Garth points out. After a long quest, he found comfort in cannabis. He never imagined weed would change his life, not only on a personal level, but also on a financial one.

When Garth returned from Afghanistan, he found himself without a job, without a college education and without any experience beyond being a Marine. He was 23 years old, and to a certain extent, it looked like everything was said and done.

One day, already in Denver, he walked into a dispensary to get some cannabis, which helps him soothe and deal with posttraumatic stress more easily, and saw an armed guard. His behavior, how he presented himself, and his general attitude were very off-putting, he describes.

He immediately thought that nobody wants to feel uncomfortable when buying weed. This was his a-ha moment: Ive got extensive knowledge about cannabis and a military background. I can do this better, he thought.

That same day, he decided to reach out to his friend Caleb Patton to discuss this idea. This is how Iron Protection Group (IPG) came to be, formed by four former Marines without any additional outside funding or help from business-savvy people.

IPG is not a security company that specializes in marijuana; its a marijuana company that specializes in security, the co-founders often mention. The concept is not hard to grasp: in an industry where each batch of product is worth tens of thousands of dollars and is not covered by insurance; where almost every transaction is made in cash; and where access to traditional banking is pretty limited, danger abounds. There are millions of dollars in product and actual bills sitting around at any given moment.

So, what IPG does is make sure that everyone involved in producing, selling and moving the product and the money derived from it is safe--and feels that way.

People are not necessarily afraid of guns but rather of the people using them, Garth argues when confronted with the issue of IPG personnel carrying guns. All of our team served in the military and was in combat; we would literally go out and fight the Taliban. So, we have extreme confidence around firearms and extreme training to use them correctly. However, we are also all very calm in our approach to threats and danger. We are quiet professionals: this means we know our jobs and our skills; we dont need to prove we are bad-ass.

This is an industry where there is space for anyone with good ideas and good intentions.

As youll find out in the next few paragraphs, Garths story is the embodiment of the cannabis industrys values; it shows that the cannabis industry is not just about growing and selling weed.

This is an industry that loves the Wall Street suit-type as much as it loves the underdog and the least likely to succeed. This is an industry where there is space for anyone with good ideas and good intentions. This is an industry where everyone will find a role that suits him or her. And this is the industry that saved, in more than one way, all of the war veterans involved in IPG: people who gave up what many consider to be the best years of their lives so that Americans in every corner of the country can enjoy the liberties they adore.

We started IPG with four guys, and in about 60 days, we already had 30 employees, Garth says. We went from nothing to a multi-million-dollar business in literally two months, but none of us had business knowledge--we werent even 25 years old. All we knew was there was a problem in the industry and we could help fix it.

The complete lack of business knowledge was not a problem at first. However, as time went by, what Garth and Patton learned (the hard way) was that clients would get delayed with payments and, in occasions, would not pay at all. In fact, this is something that every entrepreneur in every industry should know: shut up and take my money is an expression that only exists on memes. In real life, people are very often unreliable payers.

Questions emerged quickly. How would IPG continue to cover its expenses as delinquency rates surged? How would they stay afloat with no financial backers other than its owners? If this were your business, how would you?

Faced with these hard questions, Garth decided to stop taking on new clients and instead dedicate his time to getting educated on entrepreneurship and business issues. Six months later, he felt he was ready to go back to taking on new customers and managing the cash flow resulting from these contracts.

But, probably the most important lesson Garth got from his business education was that his company needed expert help. Remember this because you will, too!

Consequently, he decided to reach out to Advanced Cannabis Solutions, which is now a $24 million, publicly traded company that goes by the name of General Cannabis and trades over the counter under the CANN symbol. After presenting his business over a breakfast meeting, Advanced Cannabis Solutions Chairman committed to helping Garth get the $200,000 he needed to finance and grow his operation. After looking into it in detail, they decided they would rather acquire IPG, but none of its co-founders were willing to sell.

This is my baby. I need help, but I am not ready to let go, Garth told them.

When discussing this story with Tyler Stratford, whos also a veteran and now serves as director of client operations at one of North Americas top cannabis consulting firms, Canna Advisors, he stopped us at this point. I love that these guys are still in the business. I dont like to see people come into the industry, make a quick dollar and then leave, he commented.

Instead of just making a profit from his company and running, Garth agreed to an acquisition where General Cannabis would give him and his partners equity in the parent company, finance IPG and retain the entirety of the team. What this meant was that IPG would now count on the support of a corporate structure (back office, legal, and financial backing) without having to actually sell out.

This company was built by brothers helping brothers, and we intend to follow that path, Patton adds.

This company was built by brothers helping brothers.

This success story clearly shows how anyone like yourself, educated or not, connected or not, experienced or not, can make it in the cannabis industry. I had made a million dollars, personally, by the time I turned 26, Garth discloses.

On the other hand, this story also provides numerous lessons about whats important when creating a business. Funding and expert advisory are central to the realization of a business idea; the fact that the guys at IPG got lucky does not mean anyone else will. In order to make it in the cannabis world, youll need to plan ahead, raise money and get good advice.

Having said this, know that youll have to put a lot of effort into your business. People think they will become rich overnight. But this is rarely the case. Cannabis today is a long-term play, Marvin Washington, Super Bowl champion turned cannabis investor and activist, points out.

We could have been eaten alive in this process. Someone could have easily taken the company from our hands, Garth reflects. I now understand the public space and the nuances of finance, but I didnt at the time. Education and mentorship were the most important takeaways from this experience.

You need to be extremely confident on what you know and get help with what you dont know.

Related:

How This Former Marine Turned His PTSD Into a Multi-Million-Dollar Business in 60 Days

These Shepreneurs are Scripting the Next Chapter of Entrepreneurship

To Learn the Secrets of Long-Term Success Just Study This 50-Year-Long Wrestling Career



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Startup database Crunchbase in April 2017 released some unsettling, if unfortunately not unexpected, data about who exactly receives venture capital money.

In 2016, $94 billion was invested in companies that had only male founders, while $10 billion went to businesses with at least one female founder. Not only that, but 17 percent of VC-funded startups are led by women, which is a number that has remained stagnant for the last five years.

And this kind of disparity doesn't only exist in the United States.

Related: Only 17 Percent of Venture-Backed Startups Are Led by Women

To investigate the role that gender stereotyping plays in these types of decisions, a trio of Swedish researchers sat in on closed-door conversations between venture capitalists to get a better understanding of how they view the pitches brought to them by male and female entrepreneurs.

In Sweden, as a basis of comparison, one third of businesses are owned and led by women, but they only receive 13 to 18 percent of government venture funding.

Throughout the course of the experiment, the researchers chronicled the decisions made about 125 companies, 99 of which were pitched by men and 26 by women.

Related: Women Won't Have Equal Numbers of Board Seats Until 2055, New Study Finds

Describing their experiment in May 2017 in the Harvard Business Review, Malin Malmstrom, Jeaneth Johansson and Joakim Wincent wrote, "Aside from a few exceptions, the financiers rhetorically produce stereotypical images of women as having qualities opposite to those considered important to being an entrepreneur, with VCs questioning their credibility, trustworthiness, experience, and knowledge."

And how did the men fare? "Financiers leaned on stereotypical beliefs about men that reinforced their entrepreneurial potential," they explained. "Male entrepreneurs were commonly described as being assertive, innovative, competent, experienced, knowledgeable, and having established networks."

So what are the phrases that the researchers identified that give voice to this financial divide?

Related: 10 Facts That Will Change How You Think About Opportunity and Entrepreneurship

Where men were "young and promising," women were "young, but inexperienced." When a man was "cautious, sensible and levelheaded," a woman was "too cautious and does not dare." When a male entrepreneur was "experienced but knowledgeable," a women entrepreneur was "experienced but worried."

Of the 125 pitches put to the VCs in the study, female entrepreneurs on average were given 25 percent of the amount of money they applied for, while men got on average 52 percent of the figure they wanted. Nearly 53 percent of their applications were rejected altogether, while that happened to only 38 percent of men.

Update, March 15, 2018

The same group of researchers built on this study in March 2018, and asked 11 venture capitalists from two Swedish government organizations about how gender stereotypes might have influenced the decisions they made about finance applications from 126 entrepreneurs.

They took four core assumptions: that women are risk-averse while men are not, that women are more cost-conscious and have a reluctance to grow big businesses, that women don't have enough resources to develop a high growth company and men do and that women's companies underperform while men's startups do not.

In assessing how both the male and female entrepreneurs fared with regard to things including earnings, turnover, number of employees, operating margins and literally how much money was in the bank, the researchers came to one solid conclusion. According to a summary of the findings from the researchers in Harvard Business Review, there were "no statistically significant differences between women and men who apply for finance. In total, none of the beliefs VCs expressed about female versus male entrepreneurs could be backed up by data related to how ventures actually performed."

Related:

New Data Illuminates VC Bias Against Women

Why Women Make Better People Managers Than Men

#3 Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Women-centric Social Media Campaign



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Inclusive capitalism is a new measurement framework to help companies restore trust in today's society and is designed to help capture value from socially responsible business activities. For the past year, chief executive officers have often talked about the new sense of moral responsibility that corporations have to help their communities and confront social challenges, even when Washington has not yet taken the initiative.

Since the end of 2016, the world has become more uncertain, as voters have continued to voice their concerns and frustrations over a number of matters, including being left behind in the global economy, privacy and data breaches, or an epidemic of shootings, to name a few. One issue that appears to get under people's skin is how technology companies keep getting richer, while having almost no safeguards against fake conspiracy stories spreading through Russian bot meddling. Technology continues to play a huge role in people's lives, and it can be argued that it comes with positives and negatives. All of these have had an effect on driving the public trust in institutions, especially in business, to near record lows.

What's the antidote?

It's crucially important to restore that trust, which is why there is a new phrase gaining popularity among business leaders: inclusive capitalism. This is an idea that is as simple as it is compelling. It is the concept that a company should create not just profits but also value that reaches stakeholders and their communities.

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter all have a section designed to elevate the most newsworthy, relevant information from a vast sea of content. But time and again, they have failed to properly flag non-legitimate (fake) news. In the worst cases, the algorithms behind these trending sections drive bot-fueled hashtag campaigns promoting gun rights to the top of Twitter Trends, push fake Megyn Kelly stories in Facebook's trending topics portal, and promote a recent far-right conspiracy "crisis actor" video about Parkland high school mass shooting to YouTube's #1 trending list.

Related: Analysts Predict the YouTube Advertiser Boycott Will Cost Google $750 Million

In February 2018, actor Jim Carrey tweeted that he was quitting Facebook, dumping his stock and urging other investors to do the same, due to the company profiting from Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. election. "We must encourage more oversight by the owners of these social media platforms," Carrey told CNBC in a statement. "This easy access has to be more responsibly handled. What we need now are activist investors to send a message that responsible oversight is needed. What the world needs now is capitalism with a conscience."

A week earlier, the CEO of $6.3 trillion asset management company Blackrock sent a warning shot letter to corporate CEOs around the world: Start accounting for the societal impact of your companies, or risk disappointing the largest asset manager in the world.

"Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose," wrote Larry Fink of Blackrock. "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 their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers and the communities in which they operate."

What should companies do differently?

In the case of the recent issue about regulating semi-automatic gun sales, Andrew Ross Sorkin, a New York Time's columnist, posed the question, Do public and private corporations (banks in this case) have a moral obligation or responsibility to step in and take a moral position on an issue, risking backlash or boycott of their customers, even when politicians have not changed laws yet?

Walmart's former CEO Bill Simon thinks not. He believes gun sales should be regulated by state and federal legislators, not by retailers. And, said, "CEOs should talk about these issues, but maybe not take sides." Others disagree: Three top car rental companies National Car Rental, Enterprise and Alamo recently decided to end their corporate discount program relationships with the NRA.

Related: Politically Charged Boycotts Explained, From Uber to Under Armour

For some companies, it could mean finding ways to support the community in which your company operates. For other organizations, this could mean providing more training/retraining or better benefits to its employees. But for all businesses, inclusive capitalism is guided by the premise that we have a crucial role to play in building a more prosperous society, aiming for long-term value creation and financial performance instead of short-term shareholder profits.

For most companies, it is harder than ever before to make the investments they need to grow and to create new jobs sustainably for the long term. Businesses are under more pressure than ever to achieve short-term profits -- thanks to circumstances such as 24-hour news cycles, instantaneous access to information online, activist investors and analysts' focus on quarterly reports.

This pressure is a common theme in conversations among business leaders, academics and investors who support the idea of inclusive capitalism. Another topic that is often mentioned is that even when a company does take action to create long-term value for its shareholders, it can be difficult to demonstrate or easily measure how it actually benefits the business. In a world with so many short-term pressures, it can be hard to justify these actions to venture capitalists and investors -- thereby creating another obstacle that holds back progress to society at large.

Can inclusive capitalism measure value differently?

The big four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) made a new partnership initiative in 2017 with the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism. An invite-only conference founded by Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the coalition will help solve this challenge and promote long-term value creation to make capitalism more equitable, sustainable and inclusive. They are calling it the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism. The purpose of this is to develop a new framework tool for businesses and investors that will better reflect the full value companies create through human, financial and intellectual capital deployment and its impact on the world.

Related: Meet the Business Leaders Serving in Trump's Administration

This 18-month project involves 20 global companies working across three economic sectors: consumer products, health services and heavy industries. In addition, 15 investment and asset management organizations will work on a proof of concept to encourage and measure long-term value creation. Collectively, they represent over US $20 trillion in assets -- and include some of the most respected names in the corporate world. Here is a list of a few of the high-profile leaders and companies involved.

The Embankment Project goes to activities that are at the very heart of value creation, but are not now always fully captured on a company's profit and loss or balance sheet. Mark Weinberger, EY Global Chairman and CEO, said, "We're working to make a new tool because the ones we have right now are trapped in the past. They value investments in physical assets like buildings and machinery, instead of investments in areas like human and intellectual capital." Weinberger adds, "As a result, if you spend $100 on a building, it's considered an asset. But if you spend $100 training your employees, it's an expense. Similarly, if you spend $100 to hire a new employee, it counts as an expense. But if you spend $100 to build a new robot, it counts as an asset."

Can valuations be redefined?

Common sense would say that to most people there is obviously something backward about the current valuation model. Making investments such as hiring and training employees are some of the main concepts of the inclusive capitalism framework. This new program is working to give entrepreneurs and business owners the metrics they need to explain the benefits of building value for the long term and, most importantly, being able to justify those investments to their shareholders, employees and customers, and to the communities in which they operate.

Now thanks to the emergence of big data, companies potentially have access to more information than ever before -- and they can use data analytics to mine, extract, analyze and report on it.

Related: Big Data, Big Deal! 5 Ways It's Going to Be Revolutionized In 2018

Using these tools, the project tests ideas such as, does a company that has more engaged employees mean it should be valued more? And if so by how much? A few other aspects they are working on include:

measuring the value of a company's brand and the investments it makes to innovate for the future;

Analyzing how purpose and ethics are drivers of shareholder value and risk mitigation; and

Looking at the way a company's strategy creates benefits for all of its stakeholders -- employees, society and shareholders, alike.

Ultimately, the goal is to empower investors and business leaders to make informed decisions with all of these details in mind. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, was quoted as saying, "Long-term investment and sustainable growth models go hand in hand. Businesses must operate with purpose embedded in their strategy, serving their shareholders and wider society. The ability to articulate this in a standardized, meaningful way has long been needed so markets can properly measure this broader approach to value creation."

Related: No Capitalism, Business For Social Change

The chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, declares, "Business must do more than simply turn a profit. We must also be guided by a deep sense of purpose. This means measuring our success not only quarter to quarter, but also year to year and decade to decade. It means creating value for shareholders as well as society. Companies that embrace this mindset will be the ones to thrive long-term."

How can inclusive capitalism strengthen society?

Ernst and Young's Weinberger observes that trust in business, financial institutions and society as a whole is at an all-time low and if they hope to make any progress they have to address the issues behind these problems. "We believe we can help by working with The Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism to bring together diverse stakeholders to create a framework which is a consistent model for how companies can measure and report the long-term value they create," he says. "Such a framework can supplement currently available financial information. This won't be easy, and while we may not reach a successful solution applicable to all businesses, in trying, we will further this important dialogue, which will be valuable progress."

These are lofty goals that will not just be a boon for corporations, they will also benefit society at large. By creating a standardized reporting metric framework, companies may be more empowered to make more investments that create long-term value for all of their stakeholders. They will, in theory, be able to grow and create jobs more sustainably, while helping people enter new fields, take up new jobs and join the global economy in ways we have yet to imagine. This is a first step for private corporations to begin earning back public trust. Innovation, automation and globalization are not going to slow down. As a result, companies need to do everything they can to make sure people are prepared to succeed in a changing world.

Related: Sustainable Capitalism Is the Next Big Thing in Investing

This is what the premise of inclusive capitalism is all about, creating a virtuous cycle that brings the benefits of capitalism to all stakeholders. Generally, In business, there are very few win-win situations, but putting real numbers to the very real long-term benefits of inclusive capitalism is one of them.

Related:

Visionary Entrepreneurs Are Humanely Creating Lasting Value

Moving from Capitalism Towards a Giving Economy

Winter is Here From a Funding Perspective and Will Continue



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Google has announced that Android Wear will henceforth be called Wear OS by Google. The new branding will show up on some of the watches and the mobile app over the coming weeks.

If you were looking for something more meaningful, you won't find it here. Android Wear was a dying platform and a change in branding is not going to save it; it's like renaming the Titanic and hoping it wouldn't sink. Smartwatch sales are dying and the only one anyone interested in buying anymore is the Apple Watch.

Even before that Android Wear, nee Wear OS by Google devices were plagued with high pricing, large, bulky models with poor battery life, major OEMs pulling out leaving only marquee fashion brands with overpriced products, and a lack of updates for older models. Application support is also largely non-existent and most of these devices get relegated to notifications and fitness tracking in which case, why wouldn't you just buy a cheaper fitness tracker?

A new name when your platform is facing very serious issues like these is the very definition of too little, too late.

SourceLast month Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5 Pro, also known as Redmi Note 5 in China. After its debut in India, the phone is set to arrive in Europe, according to popular Twitter tipster Roland Quand.

He revealed the dual-cam midranger is being prepared with all the appropriate LTE bands and should be launched soon.

According to @rquandt, the new phone will cost 230, but there is a catch - this will be a variant with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage that was not announced by Xiaomi India. The 4/64 GB option will go for 270 - notably up from the Indian price of INR13,999 (175).

There is no info if Xiaomi is going to push the 6/64GB phone to other markets just yet.

ViaBy Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/03/14

We finally have the double confirmation from Namgoong Min and Hwang Jung-eum for the cheekily titled "The Undateables", which gives us quite the exciting duo to work with. The two will be leading this series full of disappointment in, and eventually the rediscovery of love.

Advertisement

Namgoong Min plays Kang Hoon-nam, an "anti-romanticist" who refuses to have a relationship. Namgoong Min says that he was attracted to this romance shunning love theorist role, while he hopes that viewers will look forward to a side of the actor they have never seen before.

Hwang Jung-eum plays Jung-eum, a romanticist who dreamed of love and marriage, but had to give up in the face of a harsher reality. Jung-eum is a former diving athlete turned relationship counselor, so I expect that she channels her want for a relationship into helping others with theirs. The actress has stated that she finds this to be a very heartwarming story, and that she can't wait to share it with viewers.

This sounds like an uplifting, romantic comedy style show, although both characters seem to have a past filled with relationship woes, so I expect some tears as well. As this is a reunion between Namgoong Min and Hwang Jung-eum, who worked together in 2011 drama "Can You Hear my Heart", I expect the chemistry to be solid, at least.

"The Undateables" is written by Lee Jae-yoon-IV and directed by Kim Yoo-jin. I can't find information on which Kim Yoo-jin we are talking about here, but we'll know in good time. The drama will be airing on SBS in May.

Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'

Sources (1)Published on 2018/03/15 | Source

Added episodes 3 and 4 captures for the Korean drama "The Great Seducer" (2018)

Advertisement

Directed by Kang In-I, Lee Dong-hyun-IV

Written by Kim Bo-yeon-I

Network : MBC

With Woo Do-hwan, Joy, Moon Ga-young, Kim Min-jae-I, Kim Seo-hyung, Shin Sung-woo,...

32 episodes - Mon, Tue 22:00 (2x35min)

Formerly know as "Love Game" and "Love Game: The Great Seduction" ( -  , leo-beu-ge-im - wi-dae-han yu-ok")

Synopsis

Based on the 2003 "Untold Scandal", this drama centers on an aristocratic man and woman engage in a bet. If the man can convince a virtuous widow to sleep with him, then he can finally have the aristocratic woman.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2018/03/12

MoreAs God in Heaven called our mother, Dorothy Ann Cormany, she answered and passed peacefully early Sunday on a cold and snowy March 4, 2018.

Our mother was born on a cold and snowy Jan. 11, 1928, on the family farm southeast of Havre to Charles and Anna Seidel. This year she celebrated her 90th birthday. Mother had nine brothers and sisters; Ester "Sis," Donald "Sonny," Gertrude "Swede," Raymond "Deemer," Marion "Chick," Joseph "Joe," Helen, Agnes "Toots," and Loretta "Skeets" - Mom's nickname was Dottie. We were told many stories about her farm days.

Mother attended St. Jude Catholic School and graduated from Havre High School in 1946. Mom followed her sisters and attended nursing school at Sacred Heart Hospital in Miles City. She was very proud of her further training at Creighton University. It was in training where she met Marion of Circle who always called her Pinky.

Mother met our father on a blind date. Even though Dad didn't call her for a month, they continued dating and were married Sept. 22, 1956. We came along in 1958 (Allen) and in 1964 (Arlee), and we made our home on Maple Drive in Havre.

Mother started her nursing career in September 1950 as a night shift nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital in Havre. One year later she accepted a position with the Havre Clinic and spent 46 great years at the clinic. Mom worked with the best doctors, nurses and staff but will always be best remembered as part of the team of Dr. Elliott, Janet Bronson and Dorothy Cormany. Mom worked at all three Havre Clinic locations. Mom was also the Hill County 4-H Camp nurse for many years.

During retirement, our mother continued her involvement with Hill County 4-H, St. Jude parish, VFW and the Eagles, and visiting with friends and relatives. Even though Mom was German, she was known as the "lefse lady." Every Christmas our mother made lefse and sandbakkels for friends and relatives, and she always made sure we had enough for the annual St. Jude Christmas Bazaar (and Mike Tilleman, Nancy and Ken, Janet and Mary Beth and Dave).

Mother was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Anna; husband Wayne; sisters Ester, Gertrude, Marion, Helen and Loretta; and brothers Don and Ray.

Dorothy Cormany

She is survived by many friends and relatives in Montana and throughout the northwest including her son, Allen, daughter, Arlee Jene, brother Joe, sister Agnes and her "adopted" grandchildren, Chazlie Cripps of Havre, the Clintons of Circle, the Coleman's of Helena, the Marshall's of Havre, the Halls of Bozeman, the Osborne's of Butte and the Loeffler's of Whitefish and Columbia Falls.

Mom recited the Rosary every day. A vigil service will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, 2018, with Mass held at 11 a.m. Friday May 18, 2018, all at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church in Havre. Burial will follow in Highland Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the St. Jude Parish, PO Box 407, Havre MT 59501 or the Hill County 4-H Chuckwagon building fund, C/O Hill County Extension Service, 315 Fourth Street, Havre MT 59501.

Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with services and arrangements.

Please visit Dorothy's online memorial page and leave a message of condolence for her family at http://www.hollandbonine.com/.A Response to Corey Swanson

Hiding under the labels of conservative, Republican and federalism, Broadwater County Attorney Corey Swanson attempts to justify his support for the CSKT Compact in a column in the Havre Daily March 2, 2018, and carried in the Helena Independent a few days later.

Swansons taunting of conservatives who oppose the compact as being opposed to federalism is misplaced. The compact does not embrace federalism; it embraces federalization  or federal control of the waters of western Montana! Most conservatives, Republicans and thousands of Montanans reject that idea. For many, federalization of the states natural resources is unnecessary, antithetical to property rights, and repulsive to the Montana and U.S. Constitutions.

What Really Changed Your Mind?

Mr. Swanson is an I was against it before I was for it conservative Republican compact proponent, who was initially against the CSKT compact because he thought it was a water grab. He then went on to the Attorney Generals office and saw the light  the compact was good.

There are two reasons Mr. Swanson changed his mind on the compact. First, Swanson believes that irrigation water users on the Flathead Indian Reservation got a better deal in the Compact than they could through litigation. And second, Swanson believes the Compact prevented the CSKT from asserting ancient fishing water rights secured by the Hellgate Treaty across half of Montana.

Unfortunately, both these reasons for Mr. Swansons enlightenment are arguably incorrect. Contrary to Mr. Swansons view, the adjudication offers a fairer representation and better outcome for the irrigators than the Compact does. Privately owned lands comprise 90 percent of the lands served by the Flathead Irrigation project and without the compact, the legal playing field is level, and irrigators maintain their equal opportunity before the Water Court. With the compact, however, irrigators enter the water court unequally because their claims have already been usurped by the Compacts transfer of the bare legal title of the water right to the federal government for the benefit of the Tribes alone, excluding the project users.

Mr. Swansons second rationale for changing his mind on the compact was that the Compact would prevent the CSKT from filing water claims in eastern Montana. Well, that is also incorrect because passage of the compact had no effect and the tribes filed their off-reservation claims anyway. These additional off-reservation eastern Montana claims extend from the continental divide nearly to Billings.

The CSKT Off-Reservation Water Rights: A Colossal State Mistake?

The state of Montana offered off-reservation water rights to the CSKT but did not do so for any other tribe. Why? And more to the point, do those off-reservation water rights even legally exist?

Mr. Swanson asserts that the Treaty of Hellgate secured off-reservation water rights for the CSKT into eastern Montana. That statement is historically, legally, and factually incorrect. The Treaty of Hellgate covers only the aboriginal territory of the CSKT in western Montana and does not include any land east of the continental divide. Article III of the treaty secures access to, not a water right for, aboriginal lands in western Montana. And the Winters Doctrine restricts federal reserved water rights to the reservation.

The truth is that through the CSKT compact, the state of Montana ceded its authority for the ownership, management and development of the states water resources in western Montana to the United States. The Attorney Generals office also improperly allowed both the U.S. and tribes to file claims in eastern Montana despite their public promise to not file eastern Montana claims if the compact was passed by the legislature.

Mr. Swanson concludes his opinion piece by posing two questions to those conservatives who oppose the water compact.

His first question asks if compact opponents are going to foot the bill for re-opening the state-wide Water Court adjudication or pay for all the individuals who must hire their own lawyers? Doesnt Mr. Swanson know that the water court adjudication is still on-going, no re-opening is required, and that 90 percent of the cases are resolved without a lawyer? Or is Mr. Swanson suggesting that the state will not defend its citizens and will make them hire their own attorneys?

Hey, Lets Not Look at It Again! The Pelosi Approach?

Mr. Swansons second question to compact opponents goes to the issue of federalism and suggests that because the CSKT Compact was passed in the state with a republican legislature, with republican members of congress, and signed by a democrat governor, that the CSKT compact is entitled to be submitted as a bill and passed as is by Congress with no changes. This obviously would bypass the required federal agency legal, constitutional, economic, environmental, administrative, and policy review of the compact.

The 2015 legislature was prevented from fixing the factual flaws in the compact by a coalition of republicans supported  perhaps even directed-- by the executive. Does Mr. Swanson really think that our congressional delegation should also just skip the required federal review and pass the CSKT Compact as is?

Labels and terms aside, lets not take the Pelosi Zip Line over the CSKT Compact federal review!



Catherine Vandemoer is a water resource consultant and Chair of the Montana Land and Water Alliance based in Polson. The MLWA focuses on the protection of property rights. She can be contacted through http://www.westernmtwaterrights.wordpress.com/.The Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2011, used as a defence for the first time in Martin Keenan's trial, allows people to use reasonable force if they find an intruder in their home.

It was introduced in the wake of the Padraig Nally case, which sparked a debate about the rights of home and landowners to defend their properties.

Mayo farmer Mr Nally was charged with murder after he shot dead John 'Frog' Ward, a notorious criminal he found trespassing on his property.

Retreat

He was acquitted of murder but sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter in 2005.

The conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal and he was cleared of manslaughter at a subsequent retrial.

In the wake of the case, rural interest groups sought clarity on the rights of a person to protect their home.

Although that right had long been recognised by the courts, the then justice minister Alan Shatter introduced the act to provide further clarity.

It removed an obligation on householders to retreat and allowed them to stand their ground and use reasonable force against intruders.

Under the act, a jury cannot have regard to the fact that a householder who comes across an intruder may have had an opportunity to retreat.

It has to consider only whether the force used in tackling the intruder was reasonable and justified.Eddie Redmayne has led tributes to Professor Stephen Hawking following the physicist's death at 76, describing him as "the funniest man" he has ever met.

The actor, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Prof Hawking in 2014 film The Theory of Everything, said: "We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

"My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family."

The wheelchair-confined scientist passed away peacefully at his home in the early hours of Wednesday, his family said.

Within hours of the announcement, tributes were pouring in from around the globe - not just from scientists but also actors, musicians, charities and politicians.

Prof Hawking's career looked like being cruelly cut short in 1964 while he was still studying for his PhD at Cambridge University. He was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease and given just a few years to live.

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Illness

His illness left him crumpled in a wheelchair and dependent on a computerised voice system for communication.

Yet, defying all expectations, he went on to become a towering figure in the world of physics, a bestselling author, a father of three and a TV celebrity.

His book A Brief History of Time, published in 1988 - in which he explained the Big Bang and black holes in simple terms, was an unlikely megahit, selling more than than 10 million copies.

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In a statement, his children Lucy, Robert and Tim said: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years.

"His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.

"He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love'. We will miss him forever."

Benedict Cumberbatch also paid tribute to Prof Hawking - who he played on screen - calling him "a true inspiration for me and for millions".

Cumberbatch starred as the scientist in the first portrayal of him on-screen before Redmayne took on the role.

The Sherlock actor, who played Prof Hawking in the TV film Hawking in 2004, said he was "so sad to hear that Stephen has died" and that he would raise a margarita, which they once shared together, "to the stars".

Wondrous

"I feel so lucky to have known such a truly great man whose profundity was found both in his work and the communication of that work," he said.

"He virtually created the publishing genre of popular science, a heroic feat to bring the wondrous complexities of the universe to all outside of specialists in this field.

"It was truly courageous considering it was achieved by a man who lived a life trapped in his body from the age of 21 when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

"His support of the sciences, art, education and charities such as the MND foundation will also live on, as will his wickedly funny sense of humour.

"I will miss our margaritas but will raise one to the stars to celebrate your life and the light of understanding you shone so brightly on them for the rest of us.

"You were and are a true inspiration for me and for millions around the world. Thank you."

Former US president Barack Obama also paid tribute to Prof Hawking, who he once awarded America's highest civilian honour.

"Have fun out there among the stars," he wrote alongside a photo of himself speaking with the physicist at the White House.

In 2009, the then president awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

British prime minister Theresa May was among others to pay tribute.

"Professor Stephen Hawking was a brilliant and extraordinary mind - one of the great scientists of his generation," she said.

"His courage, humour and determination to get the most from life was an inspiration. His legacy will not be forgotten."

Scientist and broadcaster Professor Brian Cox said Prof Hawking was "one of the greats".

"There are many good theoretical physicists who make a big contribution, but there aren't that many greats," he said.

"By that I mean that I think there are physicists in a thousand years' time, they will still be talking about Hawking radiation, they will be using his fundamental results on black holes.

"Actually, the last time I saw him, at his 75th birthday party, he was talking about the new gravitational wave experiment where we've seen the collisions of black holes, and speculating that those results might be able to prove some of his theorems once and for all.

Mourning

"Plus his contributions to the physics of the very early universe, so there are at least three and possibly more areas where his work will be remembered as long as there are cosmologists, and that's the best you can hope for as a scientist."

The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki wrote on Instagram: "RIP #stephenhawking. Not only your brilliance, but your sense of humour will be sorely missed by all."

Like the mathematics Prof Hawking grappled with from his wheelchair, his domestic life was complicated.

In February 1990, after 25 years of marriage, he left the wife who bore him three children to set up home with one of his nurses, Elaine Mason. The couple married in September 1995, but divorced in 2006.

Prof Hawking was no stranger to controversy and seemed to relish it.

His proposal that black holes could lose energy and evaporate contradicted the prevailing view that nothing could escape from one of the infinitely dense regions of space-time.

"Hawking Radiation" was a brilliant concept, but remains unproven by observation. For this reason the greatest scientific prize of all, the Nobel, eluded Prof Hawking up to the time of his death.

Later in his career, he ruffled academic feathers with bizarre statements about extraterrestrials, time travel, and human genetic engineering.The Lidl store in Jobstown that was destroyed during a looting spree at the height of Storm Emma will re-open this summer.

The German discount supermarket chain announced yesterday that it will demolish what is left of the outlet on Fortunestown Lane, which suffered significant structural damage when looters stole a JCB and crashed into the building in order to steal a safe a fortnight ago.

Demolition is expected to be complete in the coming days and construction of the new facility will begin in the next few weeks, a spokeswoman said.

"It has to be rebuilt from scratch," she said of the irreparable damage to the store.

However, there is a "silver lining", she said, noting that the new store will be bigger.

The store measured 1,012 square metres, but the new one will be 1,700.

Although the layout of the store will be the same as other outlets, the new one will have much wider aisles with higher ceilings, she said.

Construction will take place over the spring and summer, and it is expected to open by the end of August.

Despite the negative publicity the incident drew around the world, Lidl said the company is delighted with how the local community has responded.

Loyal

"We have been blown away by the level of support received from our loyal customer base in the Fortunestown area over the past few weeks," said the spokeswoman.

"We recognise that our service and store team have been greatly missed by the local community over the past few weeks and the team look forward to welcoming back our loyal customers once the rebuild is complete."

Customers have been availing of a free daily shuttle bus the company has been offering to another outlet nearby since last Friday.

The bus will run until at least the end of this week, when Lidl will decide whether to continue it.

Meanwhile, Dublin South-West Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy praised Lidl for its decision to re-open.

"This is a terrific endorsement of their relationship with the local community," he said.Transport Minister Shane Ross is demanding a meeting with Luas chiefs to discuss delays to the service.

Frustrated commuters were left standing in the rain for almost half-an-hour yesterday after a breakdown.

Passengers experienced delays on the Green Line because of a technical fault on a tram at Stillorgan.

Luas management has come under fire from the Government as a result of disruption on the lines in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for Mr Ross told the Herald he shares the deep frustration of Dublin commuters over "unacceptable" Luas capacity problems.

"He has already arranged to meet all relevant stakeholders this week to demand full explanations and an immediate plan to address them," the spokesperson said.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) agreed service levels and reliability on the Luas Green Line have fallen below what passengers are entitled to expect.

"On behalf of ourselves, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Transdev, we would like to apologise unreservedly," said a spokesperson.

"NTA, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Luas operator Transdev and tram manufacturer Alstom have been meeting to discuss the issues that have caused the drop in the quality of services, and to come up with specific proposals to resolve these problems."

Stranded

Dublin Fine Gael senator Neale Richmond said the capital's Luas service is constantly leaving commuters frustrated, stranded and late for work.

"On Wednesday, Luas users experienced lengthy delays trying to get on trams and were left standing on platforms as the Transdev service clearly cannot cope with the demand from the travelling public," he said.

"It seems now that lengthy delays have simply become the norm for Luas commuters, as trams are increasingly overcrowded and frequency is becoming ever more sporadic."

He said vexed commuters inundated his office all day yesterday and on Tuesday with complaints.

"We are encouraging people not to use cars, yet many who would ordinarily use the Luas Green Line are forced to take taxis to avoid being late for work, or walk," said Mr Neale.

"On Tuesday evening, commuters found themselves dumped out at stops such as Harcourt, Beechwood and Milltown, being told to walk the line as far as Balally as yet another tram had broken down.

"As Luas chaos continues, the commuters are rightly asking when this sorry mess will be fixed."

Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin said there cannot be a situation where a rainy day grinds the whole city to a halt.

"Even though passenger numbers on the Luas increased by 10.2pc in 2017, and the Luas has approximately 30pc more track on the Green Line to service since the opening of the Cross City, only seven more trams will be in circulation this year over last," she added.1 / 6 Kristi Wilkins, of Spanish Fork, talks about national suicide statistics per 100,000 people during QPR training held Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Offices. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, which are three steps the training teaches to help prevent a suicide. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald Isaac Hale, Daily Herald 2 / 6 Nichol Holwege, of Spanish Fork, watches an informational video about suicide prevention during QPR training held Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Offices. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, which are three steps the training teaches to help prevent a suicide. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald Isaac Hale, Daily Herald 3 / 6 Kristi Wilkins, of Spanish Fork, talks with attendees during QPR training held Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Offices. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, which are three steps the training teaches to help prevent a suicide. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald Isaac Hale, Daily Herald 4 / 6 Kim Hall, of Spanish Fork, watches an informational video about suicide prevention during QPR training held Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Offices. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, which are three steps the training teaches to help prevent a suicide. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald Isaac Hale, Daily Herald 5 / 6 Kristi Wilkins, of Spanish Fork, talks with attendees before QPR training held Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Offices. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, which are three steps the training teaches to help prevent a suicide. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald Isaac Hale, Daily Herald 6 / 6 An attendee holds an informational brochure during QPR training held Tuesday, March 13, 2018, at the Spanish Fork City Offices. QPR stands for question, persuade and refer, which are three steps the training teaches to help prevent a suicide. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald Isaac Hale, Daily Herald  

Most people learn basic first aid at some point in their life for physical ailments, but learning first aid techniques for those in mental distress is far less common.

A few people are hoping to change that in Spanish Fork.

In 2016, Spanish Fork was awarded a $225,000 grant to promote both physical and mental health in the community. One of the ways that grant has been put to use is by paying for QPR training.

QPR, which stands for Question, Persuade, Refer, is a program that teaches people how to respond if they think someone in their life may be contemplating suicide.

QPR is similar to CPR, said Kristi Wilkins, who co-taught a CPR training in Spanish Fork on Tuesday night. And in CPR, you learn the skills to help individuals until help arrives. Were not doctors, were not trying to fix people, were just trying to help them until we can get them to an expert.

Wilkins highlighted statistics showing that suicide rates are higher in Spanish Fork than the national average. Nationally, there are 15 suicides per 100,000 people. In Spanish Fork, that number is 25. In Southern Utah County generally, it shoots up to 35.

Its our business because its happening all around us, Wilkins said.

The city has already hosted about 10 classes, including QPR training for all city employees and many large businesses and faith organizations, said Susan Chapman, who co-teaches the QPR classes with Wilkins.

Our (suicide) rates are high here in Spanish Fork and in Utah in general, and all over the nation, we are just high, Chapman said. Its an issue that is not going away, and its getting worse. So we have to do something about it.

The classes teach people to question people who might be contemplating suicide, persuade them to reconsider then refer them to get help. The classes include role-playing activities for participants to practice their newly-learned information.

Its important to teach people these skills, Wilkins said, because trained mental health professionals dont have the ability to reach people contemplating suicide like their own friends and family members do.

All these behavioral clues and situational clues are the reason we want to go over them is because you are the ones that know your friends and family, Wilkins said. You are the ones who are going to see these changes in them. Its not going to be some stranger, its going to be people that you know.

A mixture of people have been taking the classes, Chapman said. Some have family members with suicidal thoughts and want to know how to deal with it, some have experienced suicide in their own circles and others work in professions where they frequently come into contact with those contemplating suicide.

Chapman said shes been trying to reach as many people as she can with the trainings, because she feels its something that can legitimately make a difference in the community.

The more people getting trained in QPR, the less likely we are to see suicides in our community, Chapman said.

Those interested in attending a training can contact Kim Hall at (801) 804-4504 or khall@spanishfork.org.

Utah County 24-hour Crisis Line: 801-691-5433

Wasatch Mental Health 24-hour crisis line: 801-373-7393

Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255 or text to 838255Robert Bartley, the late editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, was a free trade zealot who for decades championed a five-word amendment to the Constitution: There shall be open borders.

Bartley accepted what the erasure of Americas borders and an endless influx or foreign peoples and goods would mean for his country.

Said Bartley, I think the nation-state is finished.

His vision and ideology had a long pedigree.

This free trade, open borders cult first flowered in 18th-century Britain. The St. Paul of this post-Christian faith was Richard Cobden, who mesmerized elites with the grandeur of his vision and the power of his rhetoric.

In Free Trade Hall in Manchester, Jan. 15, 1846, the crowd was so immense the seats had to be removed. There, Cobden thundered:

I look farther; I see in the Free Trade principle that which shall act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation in the universe  drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonisms of race, and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace.

Britain converted to this utopian faith and threw open her markets to the world.

Across the Atlantic, however, another system, that would be known as the American System, had been embraced.

The second bill signed by President Washington was the Tariff Act of 1789. Said the Founding Father of his country in his first address to Congress: A free people  should promote such manufactures as tend to make them independent on others for essential, particularly military supplies.

In his 1791 Report on Manufactures, Alexander Hamilton wrote, Every nation ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply. These comprise the means of subsistence, habitat, clothing and defence.

This was wisdom born of experience.

At Yorktown, Americans had to rely on French muskets and ships to win their independence. They were determined to erect a system that would end our reliance on Europe for the necessities of our national life, and establish new bonds of mutual dependency  among Americans.

Britains folly became manifest in World War I, as a self-reliant America stayed out, while selling to an import-dependent England the food, supplies and arms she needed to survive but could not produce.

Americas own first major steps toward free trade, open borders and globalism came with JFKs Trade Expansion Act and LBJs Immigration Act of 1965.

By the end of the Cold War, however, a reaction had set in, and a great awakening begun. U.S. trade deficits in goods were surging into the hundreds of billions, and more than a million legal and illegal immigrants were flooding in yearly, visibly altering the character of the country.

Americans were coming to realize that free trade was gutting the nations manufacturing base and open borders meant losing the country in which they grew up. And on this earth there is no greater loss.

The new resistance of Western man to the globalist agenda is now everywhere manifest.

We see it in Trumps hostility to NAFTA, his tariffs, his border wall.

We see it in Englands declaration of independence from the EU in Brexit.

We see it in the political triumphs of Polish, Hungarian and Czech nationalists, in anti-EU parties rising across Europe, in the secessionist movements in Scotland and Catalonia and Ukraine, and in the admiration for Russian nationalist Vladimir Putin.

Europeans have begun to see themselves as indigenous peoples whose Old Continent is mortally imperiled by the hundreds of millions of invaders wading across the Med and desperate come and occupy their homelands.

Who owns the future? Who will decide the fate of the West?

The problem of the internationalists is that the vision they have on offer  a world of free trade, open borders and global government  are constructs of the mind that do not engage the heart.

Men will fight for family, faith and country. But how many will lay down their lives for pluralism and diversity?

Who will fight and die for the Eurozone and EU?

On Aug. 4, 1914, the anti-militarist German Social Democrats, the oldest and greatest socialist party in Europe, voted the credits needed for the Kaiser to wage war on France and Russia. With the German army on the march, the German socialists were Germans first.

Patriotism trumps ideology.

In Present at the Creation, Dean Acheson wrote of the postwar world and institutions born in the years he served FDR and Truman in the Department of State: The U.N., IMF, World Bank, Marshall Plan, and with the split between East and West, NATO.

We are present now at the end of all that.

And our transnational elites have a seemingly insoluble problem.

To rising millions in the West, the open borders and free trade globalism they cherish and champion is not a glorious future, but an existential threat to the sovereignty, independence and identity of the countries they love. And they will not go gentle into that good night.MT. PLEASANT  Sanpete Valley Hospital (SVH), in an on-going effort to support the students in our communities, is proud to announce the annual Sanpete Valley Hospital Scholarship program. This program will donate three (3) $1,000 scholarship awards to high school seniors in Sanpete County.

To be considered

Applicants must currently be a high school senior at a Sanpete County High School or participating in an accredited HS curriculum and reside in Sanpete County. Applicants must also hold a current GPA of 3.6 or higher, plan to pursue a career in healthcare and be actively involved in community service.

Applicant process

Applications may be obtained at sanpetehospital.org, front desk of administration building located at 1100 S. Medical Drive, Mt. Pleasant, Utah or from high school counselors.

Completed application, along with resume, and a 300  500-word essay must be emailed to shauna.watts@imail.org by Friday, April 27. Applicants may also mail their application in via U.S. Postal Service. It will need to arrive by the April 27 deadline. The address for all mail-in applications is: 1100 South Medical Dr., Mt. Pleasant, Utah 84647, Attn: Shauna Watts.

Essay information

The essay should provide details on the students experience with community service as well as plans for pursuing a career in healthcare, and how they would use the scholarship award if selected.

Selection

Representatives from Sanpete Valley Hospital will review the applicants and select three students to receive the $1,000 scholarship awards. Selection will be based on the students application, resume, and essay.

Award Process

Scholarship recipients will need to provide proof of registration at Snow College to Sanpete Valley Hospital and complete applicable tax forms in-order-to receive the award.

Sanpete Valley Hospital will then make the $1.000 donation towards the students tuition or other schooling expenses (please allow for at least four weeks processing time from when the forms are submitted to the time that the award check is received).

Scholarship awards will be held for up to three years for those recipients(s) who will not be attending college for the following school year(s). Recipients are under no obligation for employment at Sanpete Valley Hospital or any Intermountain facilities once schooling is complete.

More information

Further details, along with application and the award process, can be found online at: sanpetehospital.org or contact Shauna Watts at Sanpete Valley Hospital via email at: shauna.watts@imail.org or by phone (435) 262-1381.Man wanted in Hagerstown shooting death shot in D.C., police say

A Hagerstown man wanted in the shooting death of a Martinsburg man was himself shot several times in Washington, D.C., according to Hagerstown police.When Navjot and Altaf Mohammedi met on the pavement outside the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, in 1970, little did they know that their lives would take them to a point where the role of the street, both as politics and an inspiration, would be crucial. At that time, Mohammedi, a 27-year-old artist, had other things besides art on his mind.

By the time he met Navjot, he had already become active in Left-leaning politics in an increasingly unsettled Bombay. But this was a Bombay that, with its capacity to host dissent, gave us fine artists, writers and thinkers. In the pantheon of unambiguously radical artists, Altaf Mohammedi stands tall. In a first retrospective of the artist in Delhi, his oeuvre shines through, with a prickly conscience at its heart and stirring politics in its mindspace.

The younger brother of the already established artist Nasreen Mohammedi, Altaf spent the first half of the 60s in London. But while he aspired to train in the methods of the West, he found himself at odds with it; dropping out of Central Saint Martins (a well-known centre for art and design education), he took to the streets to protest for nuclear disarmament and other issues. He returned to Bombay in 1967. Altaf came in with a freshness... He was still the kind of artist who would struggle to find patronage, as in people who would be willing to pick up his art, given his Left-leaning politics and the things he was involved in, says Kishore Singh, curator of the exhibition.

Untitled from 2002, is part of Altafs Turmoil series. It evokes the suppression of freedom of speech during the 2002 riots.

After returning from London he began frequenting cafes, reading Marxist literature and discussing ideas with the likes of filmmaker Mani Kaul, artist Akbar Padamsee and other such notable figures. Both Navjot and Altaf joined PROYOM (Progressive Youth Movement), a group of young Marxist scholars and writers, and held exhibitions together on the streets, and in the chawls and bastis of Bombay. They would later become part of Namdeo Dhasals Dalit Panthers as well.

I remember those numerous conversations, exchange of ideas, sharing of books, with baba (my father) making newspaper clippings of articles for Navjot and me, based on what would interest us, to read. I remember the Marxist meetings that would take place in our home, their activist, sociologist, psychoanalyst, filmmaker friends constantly coming over, says Sasha, Altafs daughter. Baba positioned his critical reasoning as a process of intense reflection and often quoted Rilke, the point is to live everything..live the questions now and perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

Despite his obvious connection with Baroda (where he was born in 1942), and his life spent in Bombay, Altafs work mirrors an unequal, oppressive society. He has that edge of political activism in his work. He was very literate in the way he interpreted things, says Singh. Often this politics overrode the aesthetic, like his works during the Emergency. And then there was always also the spectre of death over him. His mother died giving birth to him. His father died young as well. So he was not in any sense celebrating life as much as he was anticipating its end.

Both Altaf and Navjot continued their activism through PROYOM during the years of the Emergency, printing pamphlets and posters to try and mobilise people.

Hospital series 3, from 1987, is a meditation on the inevitability of death and what is perhaps its doorstep, the hospital)

In todays day and age of capitalist corruption and fanaticism of one kind or the other, Altaf feels like a find, a reassuringly strong hand raised in protest. The melancholia of his work, his unflinching dissection of social order, though heavy for some people, resonates with the dead-eyed existentialist angst of today. Whether it is the Turmoil series or the inevitable dread of the Hospital series, Altaf has a narrative running through each work, positing constantly the degradation of the lowly and the loneliness of the highly placed in society. We are living in a time when political art is all the more significant, not just in India but all over the world. Given the context, to reassess Altaf makes more sense than ever. But not just his work, but his letters, his posters, his writings as well, Singh says.

Though Altaf turned to teaching in the 80s, the activist inside him never quit. He held exhibitions at the site of the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal and at places where the coal mafia belt was located in Dhanbad.

One cant help but wonder about the many thoughts a child growing up in the care of parents so well-read, so active with their opinions would have had? They were each others strength -- I recall them having long discussions on their art practice, their concerns ranging from their art, domestic [affairs], raising me etc. I could not say what set them apart from other couples, but they shared a valuable friendship, Sasha says.

Altaf passed away in 2005, after a brief illness, his last canvas unfinished, much like the idealism he wanted to perpetuate. In doing so, he was relentless and uncompromising, essaying several roles in activism, art and politics. None more so than the loving husband and inspirational father that he was. My father was the closest I could come to a best friend. He did discuss his angst as I grew older, but there too, there were so many layers to our friendship. One thing he did say and has stayed with me was hope the fire of life always remains with you, Sasha says.

DETAILS

What: Retrospective of Altaf Mohammedi

When: Till March 17, 11 am  7 pm.

Where: Delhi Art Gallery, Hauz Khas village

Nearest metro station: Green ParkOutside the art gallery at the India International Centre in New Delhi, spring puts on exhibit lush bougainvillea trees and a seamless blue sky. Waiting inside, are stark black and white photographs of women who lost their fathers, husbands and families to farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana between 2015 and 2017. Filmmaker and photographer Vijay Jodhas The First Witnesses couldnt have been better timed to be on view.

Nearly 2,000 farmer committed suicide in Telangana from 2016-2017. (Photo: Vijay Jodha)

Earlier this week, after a gruelling 200 kilometre walk to Mumbai from Nasik, over 35,000 farmers got their demands of loan waivers and right to forest land, among others, met by the government. Farmers have also been protesting in the capital under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union. The recent events make Jodhas work even more relevant and necessary, for the ephemeral recall value of daily news doesnt impress upon the graveness of farmer suicides in India.

Jodha travelled to both states of his own accord to meet the women who were left behind after their husbands, fathers and other family members took their lives. Climate change, which has resulted in crops maturing early and the productivity of soil go down over the years, has made it impossible for tenant farmers to survive, says Jodha, standing solemnly in front of his work. What is even more important is that subsidies are largely offered to owners of the farm lands and tenant farmers end up with nearly nothing. This is barely discussed in the mainstream media and the purpose of my photographs is to put the witnesses faces back into the mainstream, he adds.

Bocha Manisha, daughter of the late Mallesham and Lakshmi, all residents of Telangana. (Photo: Vijay S. Jodha)

The Telangana government, for instance, does not know the exact number of tenant farmers in the state, though they are estimated to be 25% of all farmers there. In an ambitious input-subsidy scheme to be launched in May, all land-owning farmers will receive Rs 4,000 per acre to help them with fertilizer and seed costs.

However, this doesnt trickle down to tenant farmers, who lease most of the land from these owners. The reason for this is the absence of proper documentation. For me, a primary function of documentary photography is to create a record. Photographs serve as recordseven evidence of injustice. If years later, my images can serve as documents, thered be no better reward for my effort, says Jodha.

His style of portraiture remains uniform across the exhibition, and deliberately so. One after the other, women are seen holding either framed photographs or just physical copies that bear the portrait of their deceased fathers, husbands and other family members. They look straight at the camera, just like the faces in the photographs theyre seen holding. Theres an uncanny similarity between the women and the people in the photographs theyre holdingtheir faces are grim in the wake of the agrarian crisis and its aftermath, the burden of life looming large before their eventual death.

Venela with a photo of her father W Srinu, a Telangana farmer who had an outstanding loan of Rs 13 lakhs. (Photo: Vijay Jodha)

A portrait inside a portrait isnt a new device in photojournalism, especially when depicting death. However, Jodha makes the images seem like theyd been shot on large format just like they used to do with royal portraits back in the day.

I wanted to focus on the women, just like the way we are used to seeing well exposed and composed images of public figures. I wanted to express their individuality and dignity even in the face of such personal loss Jodha elaborates, when asked about the aesthetic of the observed portraits. This year, in January alone, 104 farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, continuing over a decade-long trend of agrarian distress and uncertainty. Jodha plans to head there in July, and then to other parts of India to continue his work in the hope that India never forgets the faces that feeds its people.

Yatam Rajitha, widow of Nagaiah, a tenant farmer of Telangana. (Photo: Vijay S. Jodha)

DETAILS

What: The First Witnesses

When: Till March 18, 11am - 7pm

Where: Art Gallery, Kamladevi Complex, India International Centre, 40, Max Mueller Marg

Nearest metro station: Khan MarketOne of Picassos most unsettling paintings returns to Paris on March 16 more than a century after he painted it here, as a taster for what is being billed the art sale of the century.

With the art market surging, the nude Young Girl With a Flower Basket is expected to make at least $100 million (nearly Rs 649 crore) when it goes under the hammer in New York in May along with works by Monet, Renoir and Gauguin from the private collection of US billionaires Peggy and David Rockefeller.

Auction house Christies expects the sale of the 1,600 works of art amassed by the couple to top $600 million (approx Rs 3,896 crore)  easily beating the world record set in Paris in 2009 when the collection put together by the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge made $484 million.

A man looks at the painting "La vague" 1888 by French painter Paul Gauguin at Christie's France. (AFP/Bertrand Guay)

They include one of Monets waterlily paintings as a well as one of his famously smoky views of St Lazare station in Paris and three Miro murals which are expected to fetch $25 million.

Its a really historic moment, the biggest private collection ever put up for auction, Christies French head Francois de Ricqles told AFP. It not only represents the works collected by a couple of great taste, he said, but with the addition of the items they inherited reflects the passion of generations of the Rockefeller family for art.

David Rockefeller, the former head of Chase Manhattan Bank, died last year aged 101, two decades after his wife.

A visitor admires "Exterieurs de la gare Saint-Lazare" 1877 (left) by French painter Claude Monet and "La rade de Grancamp" 1877 by French painter Georges Seurat at Christie's France. (AFP/Bertrand Guay)

Canvas never left their home

The entire proceeds of the sale will go to charitable causes including Harvard University and conservation groups in the state of Maine, where the Rockefeller family had summer homes.

The Picasso, a masterpiece from his pink period in 1905, is one of 10 works being shown by Sothebys in the French capital in the run-up to the sale.

A man looks at the painting "Venise ,vue du quai des Esclavons" 1845 by French painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot at Christie's France. (AFP/Bertrand Guay)

Once owned by Picassos friend, the American poet and novelist Gertrude Stein, it has not been shown in Paris in more than 50 years. Stein initially was troubled by the side-on view and the girls repulsive feet, but her husband Leo loved it. When they split up, however, she kept the painting for herself, leaving him their Cezannes.

The Rockefellers were equally attached to it, not allowing it to leave their home on 65th Street in New York after they bought it in 1968.

Selected works from the collection are being displayed around the world leading up to the sale.

A man looks at the painting "Pomme" 1914 by late Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. (AFP/Bertrand Guay)

The Paris show also includes Georges Seurats picture of sailing boats, La Rade de Grandcamp, which is expected to make up to $30 million and Eugene Delacroixs Tiger Playing with a Tortoise (1862), which has an estimate of $7 million.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreBollywood actor Alia Bhatt, who turns 25 on Thursday, is currently in Bulgaria where she is shooting for Ayan Mukerjis Brahmastra, which also stars Ranbir Kapoor. Bollywood stars Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, alongwith several others wished the Highway star.

Akshay Kumar appreciated Alias good work and tweeted his wishes.Happiest birthday to the immensely talented @aliaa08. Youre the perfect example of good work speaks for itself. Keep shining, he wrote.

Happiest birthday to the immensely talented @aliaa08. You're the perfect example of 'good work speaks for itself.' Keep shining   Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) March 15, 2018

Karan Johar, the one who had launched Alia Bhatt in Bollywood with his 2012 film Student Of The Year, shared some of the actors looks from the upcoming highly anticipated film Raazi.

Happy birthday fellow fishie!!! @aliaa08 Wish you endless peace, harmony, & all things wonderful. May all your dreams come true!, wrote Shraddha Kapoor.

Happy birthday fellow fishie!!! @aliaa08 Wish you endless peace, harmony, & all things wonderful. May all your dreams come true!        Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) March 15, 2018

Her Raazi co-star Vicky Kaushal tweeted, This amazing human turns 25 today... Happy Birthday Alia Bhatt! @aliaa08 

This amazing human turns 25 today... Happy Birthday Alia Bhatt! @aliaa08  pic.twitter.com/n4IKdVpqlX  Vicky Kaushal (@vickykaushal09) March 15, 2018

Alias father and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt posted a nostalgic photograph and captioned it as, Such a BIG miracle in such a LITTLE girl ! Happy birthday Alia

Such a BIG miracle in such a LITTLE girl ! Happy birthday Alia  pic.twitter.com/oL6GQ4EqZ5  Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) March 15, 2018

Riteish Deshmukh tweeted, Love watching this actor on screen.. wishing her a fabulous birthday... @aliaa08 ... much love.

Love watching this actor on screen.. wishing her a fabulous birthday... @aliaa08 ... much love  Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) March 15, 2018

Anil Kapoor also took to Twitter to wish a happy birthday for Alia. Happy Birthday, @aliaa08! Your growth as an actor has been phenomenonal and this is just the beginning. Keeping doing what you do best! Good luck!, he tweeted.

Happy Birthday, @aliaa08! Your growth as an actor has been phenomenonal and this is just the beginning. Keeping doing what you do best! Good luck!  Anil Kapoor (@AnilKapoor) March 15, 2018

Nimrat Kaur also extended her wishes for Alia and wrote, Happy happy birthday @aliaa08 .... stay pure and thrilling always ! May your achievements surpass all your dreams

Happy happy birthday @aliaa08 .... stay pure and thrilling always ! May your achievements surpass all your dreams   Nimrat Kaur (@NimratOfficial) March 15, 2018

Director Shashank Khaitan revealed his plans to celebrate Alias silver jubilee. @aliaa08 ... Happy Birthday Aaloo... not just me but the whole of India is missing you and your dimpled smile ... get back quick and lets celebrate your Silver Jubilee ... lots of love, he tweeted.

@aliaa08 ... Happy Birthday Aaloo... not just me but the whole of India is missing you and your dimpled smile ... get back quick and lets celebrate your Silver Jubilee ... lots of love pic.twitter.com/uv87VPvu82  Shashank khaitan (@ShashankKhaitan) March 15, 2018

Born on March 15, 1993 in Mumbai to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan, Alia is best known for her roles in films like Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Highway, Udta Punjab, Dear Zindagi. While Highway won her the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and Udta Punjab won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Alia will soon begin work on Zoya Akhtars Gully Boy alongside Ranveer Singh.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreIt was Aamir Khans birthday on Wednesday and wishes poured in from his fans and colleagues alike. From Katrina Kaif to Madhuri Dixit, from Sachin Tendulkar to Priety Zinta, everyone wished the actor as he turned 53. However, one birthday wish which has us intrigued came from Fatima Sana Shaikh, Aamirs co-star of Dangal and Thugs of Hindostan.

Taking to Instagram, Fatima posted a bunch of photos from shooting of both the films and wrote, Happy walla birthday tauji. Now, this appears to be an in-joke we would like to be privy to. She also shared a throwback photo of Aamir with her brother and captioned it: Look what I found! Such an old picture of my brother shaanib and ak! Happy birthday #fanpicture.

Happy walla birthday tauji  A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Mar 14, 2018 at 7:08am PDT

On Wednesday Aamir also made his Instagram debut and dedicated his first post to a very special person. Comprising a grid of nine photos, the Dangal star shared a photo of his mother. He captioned the post as, The person because of whom I am who I am...

Talking to media after flying into Mumbai from Jodhpur where he is shooting for Thugs of Hindostan, Aamir said, One bad habit that I have is that am a very obsessive personality. I think thats a problem. To this, wife Kiran replied, Thats not your habit thats your personality.

She believes Aamirs good qualities outdo his bad ones. The things I like the most in him are his sensitivity and intelligence for which I married him. The deep understanding that he has of people, his love for people and his sense of caring and empathy, I think those are the qualities that most attracted me to him. Also his incredibly sharp mind and his ability to understand ideas. I really hope he doesnt change, she said.

Kiran said she was sure that the actor, who was in Jodhpur for the shooting of Thugs of Hindostan, would come home to celebrate his birthday today. I had this plan to go there (Jodhpur) and surprise him but yesterday he called me and said I will come so I thought at least I would go till the airport to surprise him, she said. The actor said his son Azad gave him a handmade birthday card and a dart board.

(With inputs from PTI)Alia Bhatt, whose look from her upcoming film Raazi was unveiled on her 25th birthday on Thursday, says movies keep her alive.

Alia and Raazi producer Karan Johar treated her fans to a glimpse into her look for the film, which is directed by Meghna Gulzar. It is a period drama based on Harinder Sikkas novel Calling Sehmat, about a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani man during the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

Alia, who started her film journey with Student of The Year and has impressed critics and audiences with projects like Highway, Udta Punjab, Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Dear Zindagi among others, shared two images from Raazi on Instagram.

Movies, or in this case my movies, arent just something I do for a living. Its kind of the reason I feel like Im alive. So... On my 25th birthday Ive randomly picked out two images from the 25th day of shoot of Raazi and the trailer will be out 25 days from today (April 9)... Happy Birthday to me, wrote the daughter of cinema veterans Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan.

Alias Raazi look, as shared by Karan, features a close shot of the actress face, which has minimal make-up. She is seen wearing simple golden earrings and a nose stud for jewellery. Vicky Kaushal, her co-star from the film, described her an amazing human.

The Twitter world was abuzz with wishes for the young talent, who is counted amongst the best actresses in Bollywood today.

Your growth as an actor has been phenomenal and this is just the beginning. Keep doing what you do best! Good luck, wished Anil Kapoor via Twitter.

Akshay Kumar called her immensely talented, and said, Youre the perfect example of good work speaks for itself.

Composer Shankar Mahadevan wished Alia a journey full of happiness and success ahead.

Her Udta Punjab and Shaandaar co-star Shahid Kapoor had a word of advice for Alia.

Happy birthday! Enjoy these years, they dont come back. May you grow creatively even more than you already have. And may you be happy... always.

Designer Masaba Mantena, who lovingly calls Alia as Aloo, said, Its hard to believe youre just 25. Youve come a long way and I can hardly wait to see what you do in the next leg of your incredibly inspiring life.

Others who wished her include Neha Kakkar, Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor, Pulkit Samrat, Maniesh Paul, Sophie Choudry and Nimrat Kaur.Early on Alia Bhatts birthday on Thursday, the actor and Karan Johar shared new photos from her upcoming film, Raazi. Directed by Meghna Gulzar, the film is a period drama based around the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Vicky Kaushal is her co-star in the film.

Alia wears a grey-coloured burqa with her face exposed in the photo. She is looking away from the camera and wears a serious yet sombre look. With minimal makeup and only ear rings and nose stud for jewellery, she completes the average Kashmiri girl look. Alia has been growing as an actor with every film and she is expected to do justice to this serious drama set in the backdrop of war as well.

Alia wrote with the photos, Movies or in this case MY movies arent just something I do for a living.. its kinda the reason I feel like Im alive  SO...On my 25th birthday Ive randomly picked out two images from the 25th DAY of shoot of RAAZI and and and the TRAILER will be out 25 days from today(9th April).. Happy Birthday to me.

Her good friend and films producer, Karan Johar wrote, On Alias 25th Birthday, heres her look from RAAZI. Happy Birthday Alia Bhatt! 

Raazi is based on the book, Harinder Sikkas Calling Sehmat, which is about a Kashmiri girl who marries an Indian army officer. In February, Meghna shared the first look from Raazi. In that picture too, Alia is dressed in a cream-coloured sari (again with a minimal makeup), while Vicky dons a formal suit. They look lovingly at each other.

Talking about the film, Alia had earlier said, I think in Raazi audience will see me in completely different avatar at least that is my wish because Raazi as a film is very different. Its the first time I am doing a period film and it is based on true story as well, so I am very excited for it and I hope audience will like it.

Vicky, who is paired opposite Alia, is excited to work with the Udta Punjab star, had said earlier, Getting a chance to work with Alia Bhatt, inarguably one the finest actresses in our industry at the moment, is a big deal for me. I am really very excited to be a part of the film.



Raazi is being produced by Dharma Productions and Junglee Pictures.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreMost creditors of Indias Binani Cement Ltd., which is being sold under the countrys insolvency process, will support the bid by an investor group backed by Bain Capital, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The consortium led by Dalmia Bharat Ltd., which was competing with billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birlas UltraTech Cement Ltd., was chosen by almost all the lenders as the preferred bidder, according to the people. The banks will send their decision to the National Company Law Tribunal for final approval, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The Dalmia Bharat consortium bid about 63.5 billion rupees ($978 million), which included offering a close to 20 percent stake in Binani Cement to its lenders, Bloomberg News reported last month. It made a a joint offer with India Resurgence Fund, which is backed by Bain Capital Credit and local conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter have said. A spokeswoman for Dalmia declined to comment.

Shares of Binani Cements parent company Binani Industries Ltd. were up 5% to 101.65 rupees at 10:09 a.m. on the BSE.

A successful sale may lure buyers for assets in Asias third-largest economy as authorities push lenders to clean up $210 billion of stressed debt. The RBI has already asked commercial lenders to resolve bad loans of the 40 biggest defaulters within a year as overdue borrowings hamper fresh investment and slow economic growth.

The process could be delayed as UltraTech, Indias biggest cement maker, has approached the NCLT with complaints on how the Binani sale process was run. A hearing will be held March 19 to consider UltraTechs case, Chief Financial Officer Atul Daga said in an interview on Wednesday. UltraTech has also written to the resolution professional overseeing the Binani sale, offering to increase its bid to about 69 billion rupees from about 62 billion rupees earlier, he said.India struck a conciliatory tone, and ruled out a full-blown trade war with the US after the Donald Trump administration on Wednesday night launched a trade dispute against India by filing a complaint about the countrys export subsidy programmes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), days after threatening Indian exports with reciprocal taxes.

Indias commerce secretary Rita Teaotia said the use of trade remedies under WTO is an ongoing process and she doesnt see both countries escalating the situation to a trade war. I believe we both have very significant interest in each others markets. We are friendly countries. We wish to engage with each other and certainly wish to do business with each other, she said.

The programmes challenged by US include almost all of Indias export subsidy programme including Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme; Special Economic Zones; Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme; and a duty-free imports scheme for exporters.

According to a notification by the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures last year, Indias gross national income (GNI) crossed the $1,000 mark for three consecutive years in 2015. Teaotia said like other developing countries whose GNI went above $1000 mark and who got eight years to phase out export subsidies when the agreement came into force, it deserves to get eight years. We will engage in consultation with US and place our position within the 60 days. We hope they will understand our position, she added.UltraTech Cement Ltd. has increased its bid for Binani Cement Ltd. in an email to the resolution professional overseeing the companys bankruptcy proceedings as it tries to beat a consortium backed by Bain Capital.

The company has raised its offer to about 69 billion rupees ($1.06 billion) from about 62 billion rupees earlier, chief financial officer Atul Daga said in an interview on Wednesday. UltraTech, controlled by billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla, is competing with the consortium led by Dalmia Bharat Ltd., which has been chosen as the highest bidder. Vijaykumar Iyer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP is the resolution professional overseeing the bidding.

We are not happy with the way the process has been dealt with, Daga said. Its not transparent and equitable. Specially when there was only a marginal difference in both the bids, the lenders should have called both the bidders to maximize the value.

UltraTech, Indias biggest cement maker, has approached the National Company Law Tribunal and the matter will be heard on March 19, he said. Deloitte declined to comment.

Dalmia Bharat had put in a bid of about 63.5 billion rupees, people familiar with the matter said last month. The consortiums proposal included offering about a 20% stake in Binani Cement to its lenders, the people said. Dalmia Bharat made a joint offer with India Resurgence Fund, which is backed by Bain Capital Credit and local conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd., the people said.

UltraTechs earlier offer would rise to about 72 billion once working capital is included, Daga said. Our resolution plan is balanced, he said. We are also paying the trade creditors.

UltraTech is also unhappy that past industry issues with Indias competition commission were considered when scoring the bids, Daga said. The company has made two acquisitions since 2012 and both have been approved by the commission, he said.

Shares of Binani Industries Ltd., the parent company of Binani Cement, were up 5% to 101.70 rupees at 10:25 a.m. in Mumbai. UltraTech shares fell 0.6% to 4,205.15 rupees a share.

UltraTech has served notice to the resolution professional asking for bidding details, Business Standard reported March 7, citing unnamed sources.

Binani has secured lenders of about 40 billion rupees and unsecured lenders of about 25 billion rupees.The United States on Wednesday challenged a number of Indian governments subsidy programmes, calling them unfair and sought dispute settlement consultations at the WTO.

The office of the US trade representative identified these programmes as Merchandise Exports from India Scheme; Export Oriented Units Scheme and sector specific schemes, including Electronics Hardware Technology Parks Scheme; Special Economic Zones; Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme; and a duty free imports for exporters program.

Consultations are the first step in dispute trade dispute resolution between WTO member nations, and if it doesnt work, parties can seek a dispute settlement panel.

These export subsidy programs harm American workers by creating an uneven playing field on which they must compete, said US trade representative Robert Lighthizer in a statement. USTR will continue to hold our trading partners accountable by vigorously enforcing U.S. rights under our trade agreements and by promoting fair and reciprocal trade through all available tools, including the WTO.

These challenges come amid a stepping up of pressure by the Trump administration on trading partners around the world, including allies in an overarching attempt to bring down Americas trade deficit from around $800 billion annually.

Last week the Trump administration announced tariffs of 25% and 10% on all steel and aluminum imports.

These export subsidies extended by the Indian government, the USTRs office said provide subsidies provide an unfair competitive advantage to recipients, and WTO rules expressly prohibit them

In fact, India has increased the size and scope of these programs, the statement said, adding, For example, India introduced the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme in 2015, which has rapidly expanded to include more than 8,000 eligible products, nearly double the number of products covered at its inception.

According to the American trade office these subsidies apply apply to a range of products including steel, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, information technology products, textiles, and apparel.

And it added, citing Indian government documents, thousands of Indian companies are receiving benefits totaling over $7 billion annually from these programmes.In recent months, the BJP government has missed no opportunity to seek public support for the one nation, one election project. The goal of simultaneous elections lays bare this governments deep centrist bias. This is a marked shift from its early days when it sought to position itself as a champion of State autonomy and co-operative federalism. Understanding the full import of the centralising nature of this proposal requires engaging with the vulnerabilities inherent in Centre-state relations today and the effects that varying degrees of political, administrative and fiscal decentralisation have had in shaping this relationship.

The One Nation, One Election project is being sold to the public as a far-reaching reform that will reduce costs and improve governance by freeing politicians and administrators from the constant demands of electioneering. The questionable validity of this claim aside, it is hard to ignore the centralising nature of this proposal. The practicalities of ensuring synchronous elections, especially in the event that elected governments lose their majority mid-term, requires crucial amendments to the Constitution that will modify terms of the legislature and extend the powers of the President. This as critics such as C Rammanohar Reddy and K Ananth have argued in a recent essay, can serve to alter the basic structure of our federal architecture and, in so doing, undermine the political autonomy of states.

Moreover, the One Nation, One election proposal holds the potential of significantly altering the dynamics of political decentralisation in India and in this process shift the trajectory of Centre-state relations. As this column has argued, when viewed through the lens of administrative and fiscal decentralisation, India is an extremely centralised country. But this centralisation co-exists with increased decentralisation in the political arena. Since the 1990s, states have emerged as the primary sites for political contestation. Consequently, regional parties and state political dynamics matter significantly to national electoral outcomes today.

Somewhat paradoxically, this increased political decentralisation created the opportunity for chief ministers to aggregate power within their offices and run states in a centralised, personality-driven manner. These chief ministers, as political scientist Louise Tillin argues, have been deft at leveraging Indias centralised fiscal architecture, claiming credit for central schemes when implemented well and, I would add, blaming the Centre when implementation is uneven. The Centre, too, has taken advantage of this decentralised political environment to blame states for policy failures, paying scant attention to its own role in promoting centralised schemes and failing to build consensus on crucial issues.

This ability to apportion blame and credit as convenient has influenced voting behaviour. Drawing on CSDS data which shows that in both the 2009 and 2014 national elections, over half of all voters gave more or equal importance to the state government as compared with the central government in making voting choices, Tillin argues that voters in national elections are likely impacted by state government performance. In other words, state politics can influence the fate of the party in power at the Centre, even in the case of a single-party majority government. This reality has framed the often conflictual dynamic of Centre-state relations in recent years.

Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modis early slogans of co-operative federalism and Team India held some promise for building a new consensus-driven approach to Centre-state relations, one that would complement political decentralisation with greater administrative and fiscal decentralisation, thereby deepening federalism. But in promoting the One Nation, One Election project, Modi is clearly signalling that the pendulum has swung the other way.

Evidence from India and across the globe shows that simultaneous elections have the potential of aligning outcomes of state and national elections, creating the possibility for national parties to make greater gains in the long term. In other words, simultaneous elections can serve the objective of centralising politics. This is the anti-thesis of co-operative federalism and runs the risk of undermining the representative gains that political decentralisation of the last two decades have made.

The increased importance of state politics and enhanced multiparty political competition in India over the last two decades is a direct consequence of the deepening of our democracy and the concomitant demand for greater inclusion and more effective representation. It has also fuelled much-needed innovation in states, especially in social policy. This ought to be celebrated, preserved and improved through more effective decentralisation. The One Nation, One Election agenda threatens the one thing that is right about our democracy.

Yamini Aiyar is president and chief executive, Centre for Policy Research

The views expressed are personalIn the mid-1990s, as a non-BJP, non-Congress United Front government was being formed, we asked former Prime Minister VP Singh if such a khichdi government was good for the country. I dont know about it being desirable, but it is inevitable, was his sharp response. Singh was the original mascot of third front politics. In 1989, he became PM by forging a coalition with, quite miraculously, the outside support of the BJP and the Left. The single point agenda then was to remove the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government. The question that is now blowing in the political wind: will a similar anti-Narendra Modi coalition be forged in 2019?

The successful alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the recent UP bypolls is seen as a pointer to the future. Sworn enemies are now seeking to somehow stop the Modi juggernaut in Indias most populous state. In Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has already announced her desire to forge a federal front of regional parties. In Telangana, K Chandrasekhar Rao is also dreaming of a similar national alliance. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, one time flag-bearer of Third Front politics, is weighing his options after withdrawing his ministers from the NDA government. Sensing an opportunity, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has held a dinner for potential anti-Modi allies. Sharad Pawar, another perennial prime ministerial contender, is set to host one.

If in 1989, it was anti-Congressism that brought Right and Left together on one platform, this time it is not even anti-BJPism but an unambiguous anti-Modiism which is seen as the unifying factor. The distinction is important. The push towards forging a grand Opposition coalition is not driven by hostility towards the BJP as much as the fear of a larger than life figure such as Modi and Amit Shah monopolising the political space. In 1996, the 13-day-old AB Vajpayee government was toppled because many smaller parties were hesitant to associate with the communal politics of the BJP in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition. Today, it isnt the Hindutva tag of the BJP which is leading to its isolation but the anxiety in the Opposition that a Modi-Shah-led BJP is a ruthless election machine that will eventually devour every other political party. That even the Shiv Sena, the original Hindutva ally, has perhaps been the most vociferous in criticising the BJP leadership, is further evidence of the fact that battle-lines are being drawn this time over personalities rather than ideology.

But can this obsessive urge to defeat Modi become a game-changer for an incongruous Opposition? In terms of pure arithmetic, the answer has to be in the affirmative. Based on 2014 Lok Sabha figures, an SP-BSP alliance, for example, could bring the BJP down by around 35 seats in UP, a state which the saffron forces had swept . But elections are as much about chemistry as about the maths. Forging alliances may make numerical sense but they carry the risk of conferring on Modi the halo of political victimhood. In 1971, Indira Gandhi artfully used the gathering coalition of disparate forces against her to send out a powerful slogan: Woh kehte hain Indira hatao, main kehtee hoon garibi hatao. She swept to power and there is every possibility that Modi, in some ways the true inheritor of the Indira political playbook, will pose the options before the Indian voter in similar stark terms.

Moreover, while the anti-Modi Opposition may dread the prime ministers authoritarian instincts, they remain wary of the Congresss electoral preparedness. Which is why a Congress under Rahul Gandhi may find it difficult to become a magnet for a nationwide coalition. A Mamata or a Pawar, for example, are highly unlikely to accept Rahuls leadership. A Modi versus all presidential-style contest where the Opposition cannot agree on a single credible leader as its prime ministerial candidate is a risky proposition. The more logical option for the Opposition is to have a series of regional match-ups where each local team seeks to take on Modi on their home turf . Since the IPL is around the corner, expect the 2019 Indian Political League to be also played on the lines of a franchisee model. The BJP remains the dominant national player, but the principle political contestation could well revolve around who wins their home ground matches!

Post-script: At a recent gathering, a leading industrialist was overheard whispering, Whatever happens, no third front leadership please, that would be the end of the India growth story! Interestingly, the same leader had been spotted at Mamata Banerjees Bengal investment summit earlier, extolling her virtues as a national leader for the future!

Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author.

The views expressed are personalThe public health sector may have remained in the limelight for all the wrong reasons in the recent past, but Dr Navin Baluni, the chief ministers health advisor, presents a rosy picture of the future  more medical professionals being appointed, more doctors to be posted in hills, and new medical college to be functional soon.

Excerpts from an interview:

Chief minister has kept the health portfolio with himself. What are the major achievements in the last one year?

The biggest achievement is that we have been able to get nearly 1,000 new doctors, 481 of them will be given appointment letters on March 18. There are around 2,700 sanctioned posts of doctors in the state, once the new doctors join, the number of doctors on duty will reach around 2,100. Recruitments for the remaining posts will be carried out in the next financial year.

Has the government opened any new hospitals, especially in the hills where health facilities are at distant locations?

At present, our focus is on strengthening the existing infrastructure.

Why are projects like Government Medical College, Almora, and Doon Medical College, Dehradun, pending for long?

The medical college in Almora will become operational from next year. The infrastructure is almost ready. We are facing a major deficiency of faculty for medical colleges. The new guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI) mandate that colleges should have permanent faculty. We are working on clearing pending promotions and hiring new faculty to meet MCI norms.

NITI Aayog in its report says 60% posts of specialists in the state are vacant

This is a pan-India problem. There is a dearth of post-graduate medical seats in the country, and Uttarakhand is no exception to it. Medical colleges in Uttarakhand have few PG seats. It needs a long-term strategy to correct the situation.

The CMs proposal to handover the administration of Government Medical College in Srinagar to the army did not materialize. Why?

We tried to pursue the proposal and the chief minister even had three-four meetings with army chief General Bipin Rawat. But, the effort could not materialize as the defence ministry wasnt much interested. The chapter isnt closed yet. The CM will hold fresh talks on this soon.

It is said that doctors are unwilling to serve in the hills. How does the government plan to overcome this?

The problem was that we had only approximately 1,000 doctors. All new doctors will be posted in the hills.A 40-year-old wild male elephant was on Thursday saved from drowning in the Ganga in Uttarakhands Rishikesh after a two-hour rescue operation, officials said, in the first such incident in the Himalayan region.

Raju Nautiyal, the range forest officer of Gaurhi range of Rajaji National Park, said watchers at the Chilla barrage first spotted the elephant stuck between the gushing flow of the Ganges and a channel.

They thought the elephant will manage to come out of the water but the current was so strong that the animal was struggling, he added.

We were informed around 2.30am and the team was there (at the barrage) within minutes. We made a strategy to save elephant by diverting the water flow and guiding the animal to an exit point. Finally, we did it in two hours operation Nautiyal said.

We coordinated with the barrage officials, stopped the water supply in the canal for a few moments and at the same time opened a gate towards the main course of the Ganga river. It was well synchronised and happened very fast. The animal was flushed into the river and reached the shore from where he was escorted to the forest, the ranger added.

Nautiyal, who monitors the movement of tuskers in his range, identified the elephant and said he remained calm and friendly. The official said elephants are good swimmers and drowning is something unusual.

The pachyderms from the reserve often come to the Ganga to quench their thirst after the 144 megawatt Chilla canal and power project built in 1984 blocked the elephant corridor.

Officials suspect that the rescued elephant could have slipped or pushed in the barrage lake by another young male involved in a territorial fight with him.

According to last years report of Project Elephant, a wildlife conservation programme, there are 1,839 elephants in the Himalayan state out of 27,312 across the country.With the numbers of vultures dwindling across the country as well as Uttarakhand, the state forest department has decided to breed and conserve the critically endangered winged scavengers at the proposed zoo in Haldwani, an official said.

The Haldwani Zoo has got the approvals and the construction work of the vulture breeding and conservation centre will begin soon for which there is no time frame, said Parag Madhukar Dhakate, conservator of forest (western division)

The zoo will be spread across 450 hectare of land and will cost 200 crore, he said.

The vulture conservation centre will be built at the cost of 5 crore spread across two hectare area, which will be not be open to people.

Dhakate further said that though the vulture breeding centre will be located within the zoo premises, it will be a totally separate entity.

This will be a big centre for the state and will serve as a milestone in the field of vulture conservation in not just the state but whole of North India, said Dhakate.

The endangered winged scavengers and have an important place in the eco-system and India has nine species of vultures.

A vulture breeding centre has been set up in Haryanas Pinjore town which is known as the Jatayu Breeding Conservation Centre and is run jointly by the Haryana forest department and the Bombay Natural History Society.

From population of millions in 1980s, the number of vultures has come down to a couple of thousands due to the use of medicines like diclofenac--a drug used as a painkiller for animals.

Forest officials are also trying to curb the use of diclofenac, which hampers the functioning of kidneys and other organs of the winged scavengers.

Conservationists say four out of the five major vulture species in India are critically endangered because vultures have been badly affected by the use of the painkiller diclofenac in cattle.

Vultures feeding on the cattle either die of acute kidney failure within a few days or lose their ability to reproduce.

Apart from the centre in Haldwani, there are other vulture conservation and breeding centres in Pinjore in Haryana, Buxa in West Bengal, Rani in Assam and one on the outskirts of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh to breed these birds in captivity, run by Bombay Natural History Society in cooperation with state forest departments.

There are four more centres that are managed by the Central Zoo Authority.Customs officials at Delhi airport on Wednesday seized cylindrical-shaped gold bars that was being smuggled into the country inside hollowed-out dates.

On Wednesday, around 10am, a passenger arrived from Riyadh by Jet airways flight 9W-509. Nothing suspicious was found until we decided to check the packet of dates he was carrying. One date was opened and instead of seed, cylindrical shaped gold bar was found inside. A total of 34 such bars, weighing 350 grams, was recovered, said a customs officer.

Another customs officer said that this was the first time such a modus operandi was noticed and they will alert their counterparts at other airports to look out for such cases.

The second case happened in the same evening when a passenger coming from Jeddah by Saudia airline SV 758 was stopped. The packet of dates he was carrying was checked and a total of 25 pieces of gold, weighing 250 gm, was seized, the officer added.

Both passenger, however, was not arrested as the value of gold was less than Rs 20 lakh.

Customs officials at Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have bene witnessing unique modus operandi to smuggle gold. Last month, three passengers had tried to smuggle in gold by powdering it and mixing it with an energy drink powder.

Customs officials have seized 214 kg gold this year worth Rs 59.92 crore in 2017. While in 2016, 180 kg gold was seized.

Delhi airport is connected to 70 international cities and with 25,000 passengers arriving everyday from these cities. So, officials said, it becomes impossible to check every passenger. Customs rely on technology and profiling to catch smugglers apart from short listing cities from where gold can be smuggled in.A group of women students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday levelled allegations of sexual harassment and financial irregularities against a professor of the School of Life Sciences (SLS).

However, talking to PTI, the professor, a vocal supporter of the university administrations compulsory attendance initiative, claimed that he was being targeted for his stand on the issue.

At a press meet held on the campus, the women students of the SLS issued a statement that said, The professor often makes sexually-coloured remarks, open demands for sex and comments on the figure of almost every girl. If a girl objects, he holds a grudge against her.

Another statement issued by the students said, There is a financial nexus between the professor and the administration. No instrument has been purchased for years, but still crores of rupees have been spent.

A 26-year-old student, who went missing and was later traced to her relatives house, had also sent an e-mail to the professor, saying, I am leaving your so-called prestigious lab, just because you are a characterless person and have no manners when it comes to talking to girls.

Denying the allegations, the professor said, Some girls, who have levelled the allegations against me, had received a mail from me on February 27 regarding their irregular attendance in the lab. So, they are targeting me.

He also shared the group mail with PTI.

The mail, which was marked to some of the students who have levelled the allegations against the professor, read, Dear all, you are not coming to the lab on time. In many cases, even if you come, you are not in the lab the whole day.

Referring to the 26-year-old student, the mail said, Most of the time, you are absent. Please find another lab, it is very difficult to finish PhD on time. You have already used 30 days of leave.

It is because of these mails that I have been targeted by the students, the professor said, adding that no complaint was filed against him either with the discarded GSCASH or the Internal Complaints Committee.

The students said they were considering filing a police complaint.It is a rare display of displeasure by the countrys armed forces. In a report presented to Parliament on Tuesday, the Standing Committee on Defence said the funds allocated to the armed forces in the defence budget for the next fiscal were inadequate to address the security challenges staring India in the face. There are huge deficiencies and obsolescence of weapons, stores and ammunition existing in Indian Army, said the report. Vice Chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand told the House panel that the sum earmarked for modernisation (Rs 21,338 crore) wasnt enough to fund the 125 ongoing schemes, emergency procurements and weaponry for 10 days of intense war. The government has allocated Rs 2.95 lakh crore for military spending during 2018-19. Of the Rs 2,95,511 crore, Rs 99,947 crore is pegged for capital outlay which includes expenditure on modernisation.

One implication of this shortfall is that the Indian Army will not be able to acquire new major weapon platforms during 2018-19. New acquisition deals, such as those for artillery guns, attack helicopters and infantry weapons, likely to be signed in this period, could be delayed. The implementation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission and the One Rank One Pension formula means that the Armys wage and pensions bill has seen a spike. Payroll and pension costs will constitute 56% of defence expenditure. In effect, in 2018-19, the army is likely to spend significantly more on pensions than on acquiring new weapons platforms.

Lack of modernisation and shrinking defence spending are not the only problems the Army is confronted with. The procurement process is often onerous. An internal ministry study reportedly said the process was so slow that, in the past three years, less than 10% of proposed arms deals met their timelines. Make in India remains a mere slogan in the worlds largest importer of defence equipment. No wonder, to expedite capital acquisitions, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman set up a Raksha Mantri Advisory Committee on Ministry of Defence Capital Projects last month.

Analysts perceive it as a case of misplaced priorities. Indias share of the defence budget as a ratio of the Total Central Government Expenditure for 2018-19 is 12.1%. In Pakistan, it is to the tune of 25-30%. India has just 1.25 soldiers per 1,000 people compared to Chinas 2.23 and Pakistans 4.25. Also, for the last six years, Indias defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP has been shrinking  this year it slipped to a new low of 1.57% of the GDP, the lowest ever drop in defence expenditure as a percentage of the GDP since 1962 when India was at war with China.

With respect to the increased threat perception, the possibility of a two-front war, flashpoints such as Doklam, rampant cross-border firing and militancy, there appears to be a mismatch between the operational needs of the army and the monies allocated to it. Critics say the Indian Armed Forces (especially the Army) is arguably too person-heavy and needs force rationalisation. Still, till the time the Armys pensions and wages bill continues to weigh down its finances, the push for modernisation and battle preparedness  and meeting urgent requirements for light machine guns, rifles, ammunition, tanks and combat vehicles  may have to wait.Students, who appeared for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 accountancy paper on Thursday, said the exam was easy but long and had tricky calculations amid reports that the questions were leaked and being circulated on social media.

Some of the students said they were not aware of reports about the paper leak that surfaced while the exam was being held, a charge denied by the education board.

A statement released by the board said a complaint will be filed and action taken.

In Jaipur, Sanya Agrawal of Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls School found the paper easy but said that the calculations were tricky.

The paper was easy albeit a bit lengthy. The questions were mostly straightforward, Priyank Gupta of Jayshree Periwal High School also said.

Himanshu Meena of Tilak Public School, however, found the paper tough and lengthy.

In Uttar Pradeshs Allahabad Vartika Srivastava, a student at Gangagurukulam School, said the paper was average but scoring. Similarly, Sahil Kesrwani, another Class 12 student, also found the question paper of average difficulty level.

Raj Kumar Poddar of Notre Dame Academy in Patna said the questions were easy but a bit lengthy. He added that some of the questions were unnecessarily lengthy and some were made tricky and that the questions would be a bit difficult for average students.

The question pattern was a bit different this time. The questions that were asked for four marks were asked under the eight mark questions. This was done for the first time that the questions from partnership fundamentals were asked in an 8 mark question. The paper was lengthy as well, Priyanka Kumari of BD Public School said.

Vipin Sahani, a student of Bhopals Vikram Higher Secondary School, said managing time was necessary to complete the paper as it was a lengthy one.

I didnt find any difficulty in answering the questions, he added.

Central Schools Ujma Siddiqui said the paper was too easy as compared to last years. The questions were direct. However, it was a lengthy paper and I took an extra copy to answer the questions, she said.

Students in Uttar Pradeshs capital Lucknow also found the paper lengthy but easy.

It was altogether an easy paper. Though it was a little lengthy, I managed to complete it within the time, Vaibhav Singh of Rani Lakshmi Bai (RLB) School said.

Singh said the paper was based on the sample papers, hence many students found it scoring. It was, he said, scoring as compared to the sample papers that were a little difficult to attempt.

Utsav Gupta, another student, also found it easy but said the pattern of the question paper was different this time. Gupta said part B was scoring but it didnt touch many popular questions based on past adjustments, admission and retirement, and were instead on admission and death.

Gupta said the students had no idea about reports that the paper had been leaked.

We are not aware of the reports on paper leak as we were too much engrossed in our studies. But we hope that CBSE does not cancel the paper as it would be a problem for those who studied sincerely, he added.

Many teachers also found the accountancy paper of average difficulty level -- neither very easy nor tough.

The paper is scoring like mathematics but students generally make mistakes in carrying forward of accounts in different forms of statements. However, to compensate petty calculation mistakes, step marking gave students some marks for attempting questions, Akansha Pandey, accountancy teacher at Gangagurukulam School, said.

Deepika Joshi, another teacher of the subject at Allahabads Maharishi Patanjali Vidya Mandir, said the question paper was in accordance with the prescribed syllabus and pattern and students were well acquainted with it.

Accountancy as a subject is interesting and performance of a student depends on the practice of accounts he or she had undertaken, she added.

Commerce teacher Shyam Singh in Bhopal said students can score well in the exam as it was overall a very easy and good question paper.The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said on Thursday that the Class 12 accountancy question paper hadnt been leaked, after purported copies of the question paper emerged on WhatsApp during the exam, causing confusion across schools.

The board ruled out any repeat of the examination as it had no evidence of any question paper being removed from sealed packets before reaching about 4,000 examination centres in different states.

The CBSE blamed mischief makers for sharing copies of a paper on social media only to disturb the conduct of the exam taken by students of commerce on Thursday.

The board now plans to register a police complaint though it could not explain how the questions in 10 pages circulated on WhatsApp matched those in the question paper of Set 2 handed to students by invigilators in the Delhi region.

The three-hour-long exam started at 10.30 am.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia tweeted at 11.55 am that there were complaints of a paper leak and that he had directed his officials to investigate it, citing alleged negligence by the CBSE.

Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE. Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students dont suffer due to negligence of CBSE, he wrote. It had been retweeted 552 times by 8.30 pm.

Less than two hours later after the tweet, CBSE issued a statement denying any leak. There has been no leak of the question paper. All the seals have been found intact at the exam centres. During the process of examination, however, at a local level, some miscreants have tried to play mischief by circulating messages through WhatsApp and other social media to disturb the sanctity of the examination, CBSE spokesperson Rama Sharma said.

Later in the day ,at a high-level meeting at the CBSE headquarters in east Delhis Preet Vihar, officials discussed that it was not possible to verify if the message on WhatsApp originated before or after the exam started as the time stamp on a mobile phone could be changed by anyone.

The paper seal was found intact which means it didnt get leaked till it reached the examination centres. So the sanctity of the entire exam process has been maintained. However, as there are some similarities in the allegedly leaked paper and the original one, we are verifying if at all someone sent it from a centre. Though it seems unlikely, an official familiar with the developments said on condition of anonymity .

There were unconfirmed reports that a paper might have leaked from a centre in north Delhis Rohini. Rajneesh Gupta, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), confirmed having received a call from a student informing the police of an offer to buy the accountancy question paper for~4,000. The caller could not be traced by the police and the address on which the phone number was registered was found to be incomplete and hence unhelpful. We were unable to pursue the case any further because of the hindrance, Gupta said.

Officials at CBSE also said that some images being circulated on WhatsApp were of last years accountancy paper. We are going to come out with an action plan to ensure such incidents dont take place, said a CBSE official on the condition of anonymity.

An official from Delhis Directorate of Education said on condition of anonymity that they had been asked to check if the images sent via WhatsApp matched the question papers given to students. Students had already started the exam by then. It was seen that it was a direct match with Set 2. But the Directorate of Education cant do much here as the CBSE directly conducts these exams, said the official, who added that they had not received any complaint other than the images shared by a reporter.

Sisodia also denied having received any complaints. No, Sisodia replied on WhatsApp, when asked if he had received any complaints. Although students discovered only after the end of the exam at 1.30 pm that the paper had run into a controversy, their parents had been in panic for several hours. If the government is saying one thing and the CBSE another, it is not a healthy sign. Before making things public, they should at least talk to each other. The entire nation got panicked with the ministers confirmation, said Akshat Kumar, father of a class 12 student.

I got to know about the paper leak after the exam. My friends were discussing it on WhatsApp. The paper was easy but a little lengthy, said Shayantani Sarkar of DAV Hehal, Ranchi.Donatella Versace has said her familys luxury fashion label will no longer use real furs in its products, according to an interview with a British magazine.

The Italian fashion queen and Versaces creative director told The Economists 1843 magazine that it would stop the practice, without providing further details on the change.

Fur? I am out of that, Versace said. I dont want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesnt feel right.

Versaces headquarters in Milan, Italy, could not be reached for comment.

In this file photo taken on February 24, 2018, activists wearing fox masks take part in an anti-fur protest outside the venue of the Hong Kong International Fur and Fashion Fair. (AFP/Vivek Prakash)

1843 noted the announcement was such a volte-face that at the time of the magazine writing its article, which was published online on March 14, Versaces website was still urging customers to buy fur-embellished coats that turn heads.

Versace had previously resisted pressure to join a host of other fashion brands, including Armani, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren which had all already ditched furs from their collections.

The luxury label has historically included lots of furs across its ranges, from a variety of species including mink and raccoon dog, according to the Humane Society International (HSI), which campaigns globally for an end to the fur trade.

It noted Versaces autumn / winter 2017 collection included laser cut mink and fox coats.

Donatella Versace acknowledges the applause with former top models Carla Bruni (left), Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen (right) at the end of Versace Spring/Summer 2018 show at the Milan Fashion Week in Milan, Italy in September 2017. (REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo)

Versace is a massively influential luxury brand that symbolises excess and glamour, and so its decision to stop using fur shows that compassionate fashion has never been more on trend, said Claire Bass, executive director of HSIs UK arm.

However, the International Fur Federation said it was disappointed by the decision. The majority of top designers will continue to work with fur as they know it is a natural product that is produced responsibly, said its CEO Mark Oaten.

With growing concern about the environment and plastics in fashion, I truly believe fur is the natural and responsible choice for designers and consumers.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreDenim is a year-round staple, but in the summers, we naturally gravitate toward tinier pieces and lighter hues. But because we dont want to neglect our favourite denim pieces, were looking at stylish actor Alia Bhat for looks and ideas on how to wear denim during the warmer months. The Brahmastra star celebrates her birthday on March 15.

Below youll find eight full-on denim ensembles the star wore for a fashion shoot with Vogue India magazine in 2017. Styled by celebrity stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania and photographed by New York-based Greg Swales, these breathtaking pictures were shot at Rajasthans blue city, Jodhpur.

From rocking an unbuttoned chambray jumpsuit with black chokers or styling high-waist blue jeans with matchy ripped crop top, heres the ultimate Alia Bhatt guide to mastering denim-on-denim, once and for all:

A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Jan 27, 2017 at 9:49pm PST

1. Alia looked both relaxed and polished in this cool girl ensemble. To give your sundresses a casual spin, throw on an oversized denim jacket. She layered her ivory slip dress with a light wash denim jacket and dainty diamond jewellery.

A post shared by Greg Swales (@gregswalesart) on Feb 1, 2017 at 12:18pm PST

2. Alias denim-on-denim mix is an undeniably cool summer look. Just pair a denim blouse with your denim jeans, and youre good to go. Shes wearing denim blouse and matching trousers from Haizhen Wang, metallic sandals from JF London, Jimmy Choo sunglasses and diamonds earrings from Anjali Bhimrajka Fine Jewels.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on Jan 31, 2017 at 9:56pm PST

3. In another posh denim-on-denim look, Alia wears a sequinned denim jacket and matching trousers from Ashish, her vest is H&M and suede sandals from Christian Louboutin. Dont forget to add posh accessories to break up the look: Alias wearing bracelets from Anjali Bhimrajka Fine Jewels and rings from Gehna Jewellers.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on Jan 31, 2017 at 9:51pm PST

4. Dare to wear a denim jumpsuit like Alias Red Valentino one. She gave her denim a major jolt via a lace bra from La Perla and interesting jewellery  long diamond and gold necklace from Anjali Bhimrajka Fine Jewels and pendants, earrings and rings from Gehna Jewellers  and you should do the same.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on Jan 31, 2017 at 9:49pm PST

5. Alias Dolce & Gabbana embellished T-shirt, denim jacket from Victoria Beckham, patchwork denim trousers from Osman and Aquazzura senim and leather sandals, make an entirely edgy combo. Giving her look a major lift is a statement Anjali Bhimrajka Fine Jewels necklace, as well as, gold, blue sapphire and diamonds rings and bracelets from Gehna Jewellers.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on Jan 31, 2017 at 9:01pm PST

6. A denim jacket  like the ripped Alexander Wang one Alia sported  is a great way to look laid-back and chic at the same time. Her statement laser-cut briefs from Moeva London, a lace bra from la Perla and a satin Victoria Beckham bralet help dress things up just a tad. Add standout jewellery  shes wearing diamonds and gold from Gehna Jewellers  for an eye-catching combo.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on Jan 31, 2017 at 8:54pm PST

7. Like Alia, give your denim a girlie update with a pretty lace top paired with edgy booties and an edgier denim skirt. Her denim vest is from Levis, lace bra from La Perla, satin bralette from Victoria Beckham, frayed-edge denim skirt from Fyodor Golan and embellished leather peep-toe boots from JF London. Dainty diamond necklaces, pendants, bracelets and rings from Nirav Modi further jazz up her look.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on Jan 31, 2017 at 8:49pm PST

8. Your high-waisted wide-leg denim can give a summery spin and retro flair to your look. For proof, just look to Alias classic-cool creation: Dsquared2 jacket, Rejina Pyo jeans, JF London shoes and patchwork denim jacket from Frame Denim.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreIn yet another case of medical negligence at Fortis hospital, the father of a one-and-half-year-old boy from Ranjeet Nagar in New Delhi has lodged a police complaint against the hospital.

A five-member panel of medical experts had last September held the hospital responsible for the death of the child, who had succumbed to an infection.

Refuting allegations of negligence, the hospital said the child was treated as per the best medical protocol and parents were informed of risks involved in the procedure.

In his complaint, Sanjeev Sharma, father of Vansh, said his son suffered from a genetic disease and required a bone marrow transplant (BMT), for which the hospital gave him a package of Rs 13 lakh but he ended up paying nearly Rs 27 lakh.

The boy was admitted to the hospital on April 24, 2017, and the BMT was conducted on May 1. The child suffered from fever and was given antibiotics and shifted to the paediatric ICU on May 15. He died the same day.

Sharma had filed a complaint at the CM Window after which a medical board was formed on September 13 to study the matter. The board was headed by Dr SS Saroha; two paediatricians from Civil Hospital Dr Rakesh Pathak and Dr DS Yadav, Dr Sanjay Narula, and Indian Medical Association (IMA) Gurgaon president Dr Naresh Kumar.

It was the responsibility of hospital to provide an infection-free environment to patients. The hospital claimed that his room was the most sterile room and the parents were charged for it. But Fortis hospital could not ensure an infection-free environment due to which the patient caught infection that further led to complications. In the boards opinion, infection to the patient was due to the hospitals negligence, the two-page report concluded in January this year.

My father died on January 22 due to which I could not pursue the case. Now, I want action against the hospital and I have approached the police, Sharma said.

Sudeep Singh, SHO Sushant Lok 1, said, The complaint has been received today. We will seek a medical opinion in the case before filing an FIR.

The board had found that the child suffered from a rare disease and the team of doctors that carried out the BMT was qualified. The transplant was also of a rare kind. But medical negligence was found in not providing an infection-free environment, Dr Naresh Sharma said.

A hospital spokesperson said, While we have not received any formal information from any authority, we refute all allegations of negligence in the case related to Vansh. The patient was suffering from Hunters Disease, a rare genetic disorder with very high mortality rate, for which he underwent a bone marrow transplant, a procedure that is conducted in very few specialised hospitals in the country. The family was duly informed about the risks and benefits of the procedure and all consents were taken, as per protocol. The patient was critically immuno-compromised and the family decided to opt for BMT at FMRI, after taking the opinion from multiple hospitals of international repute. The child was treated as per best medical protocol available in the country. While the pain and despair of the family is understandable, blaming doctors and the hospital is unfair without understanding the medical facts of the case.

On December 9 last year, an FIR was filed against the hospital under section 304 (2) of the IPC against a doctor of the hospital who was involved in treatment of 7-year-old girl Adya Singh, a dengue patient who died in September.Hollywood actor Pierce Brosnan, who ran into rough weather with his appearance in a surrogate advertisement of an Indian pan masala brand, has stated that he was cheated by the company which kept him in the dark about the hazardous nature of the product.

In a written reply to the Delhi State Tobacco Control Cell, the actor stated that he got cheated by the company as the latter did not disclose the hazardous nature of the product and other terms and conditions of the contract of advertisement, Additional Director (Health) S K Arora told PTI.

The Delhi government had recently issued a show-cause notice to Brosnan and asked the pan masala group why appropriate punitive action be not initiated against its directors and office-bearers.

In his reply to the legal notice, Brosnan also said that his agreement with the company was over and he was ready to extend all kinds of support and cooperation to our department against such campaigns.

He has given an undertaking in writing that he would never assist any company with regard to promotion of such products or other such harmful products in future, Arora said.The official appealed to all celebrities and mass media agencies to not indulge in surrogate advertisements of tobacco in the name of pan masala, tea, ilaichi or other goods as these are prohibited under section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003.

Celebrities must realise their responsibility towards society, especially the youngsters who treat them like God and follow them blindly. Such advertisements influence the minds of youngsters adversely, he said.

The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act, 2003 bans all kinds of direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products.Assam Rifles personnel apprehended an alleged drug peddler with brown sugar and WY (World is Yours) tablets worth over Rs 11 crore in Manipurs Tengnoupal district on Tuesday in one of the biggest recoveries of contraband drugs in the recent times.

The paramilitary force in a press release said the recovery was made from a Tata Sumo (TR01-U-0250) at a check post at Tengnoupal around 6pm after the vehicle was stopped by the 12 Assam Rifles based on specific inputs.

On through checking of the vehicle, 138 packets of brown sugar weighing 1.865 kgs and 450 packets containing 90,000 WY tablets were found, PRO Assam Rifles (South) said in the release issued on Wednesday evening.

Sources said the market value of the recovered contraband would be approximately Rs 11.96 crore.

Tengnoupal is a picturesque hill station located about 70 km south of Imphal along Imphal-Moreh sector bordering Myanmar.

The Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) officials in Imphal made the formal seizure of the recovered drugs under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, sources said.

The accused Paokholen Baite (21) of Tuipi Lokchao, Moreh town was produced before the court.

The source of the contraband drug is Moreh (a border commercial town in Manipur) and further destined to other parts of the country through Meghalaya, an official of the NCB said when contacted.

This is the second major seizure of drugs in the area. On March 11, a joint team of the 12 Assam Rifles and Tengnoupal district police apprehended one Ningthoujam Ningol Tombimacha Devi (66) and recovered 356 gms of heroin and 215 grams of brown sugar.The West Bengal education department has sought a report from authorities of a Kolkata-based girls school after they levelled allegations of lesbianism against 10 students and forced them to give written admissions of their sexual activities within the school premises.

State education minister Partha Chatterjee confirmed that he has sought the detailed report following the controversy at Kamala Girls High School in south Kolkata.

Yes, I have sought a report from the school authorities since I want to know what has actually happened. The complaints of the guardians are that the school authorities have forcefully taken written admission from students. If that is true it is not acceptable, since if the students are not guilty it is unfair to force them to give a written admission, Chatterjee said.

At the same time, any kind of sexual activity within the school premises cannot be entertained. So I have sought a detailed report to know the truth, he added.

However, the minister denied making any comments against lesbianism or homosexuality as reported by a section of the media.

What I said before I am saying it again. My objection is against any kind of sexual activity within the school premises and my observation is not restricted to any particular orientation, Chatterjee said.

Parents of the 10 students staged a protest on March 12 inside the school alleging that the acting headmistress forced their children to give written admissions that they were practising lesbianism in school. They alleged that Sikha Sarkar was overreacting since keeping hands on the shoulder of a fellow student is not lesbianism.

However, Sarkar was adamant on her point and said she questioned the 10 students on March 8 on the basis of complaints from other students.

In the face of questioning, they admitted about their lesbian activities within the school premises. So, I asked them to give their admission in writing, she said.

The parents made a verbal complaint to the local Rabindra Sarobar police station, but no FIR was filed.Buoyed by the bypoll victory in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs on Thursday staged a demonstration outside the state assembly demanding resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar over the ruling coalitions defeat in the by-elections.

The RJD registered emphatic victories in Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad assembly seats on Wednesday. The BJP was defeated in Araria though it succeeded in winning Bhabhua assembly seat.

The ruling JD(U) suffered a crushing defeat in Jehanabad.

RJD legislators gathered at the main gate of the state assembly and shouted slogans against the NDA coalition in Bihar.

The results of the bypolls are an expression of public resentment against Nitish Kumar, who betrayed the mandate by walking out of Mahagathbandhan, RJD MLA Bhai Virendra, who led the slogan-shouting MLAs, told reporters.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav had on Wednesday evening demanded Nitish Kumars resignation.

The voters have rejected double engine governments of NDA at the Centre as well in Bihar. Hence, Nitish Kumar should tender resignation, he said.

HAM president Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had quit NDA on the bypolls eve to join hands with RJD, was present with Tejashwi Yadav last evening to celebrate the victory at Araria and Jehanabad.

Tejashwi Yadav, who had attended UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis dinner for non-BJP parties on Sunday last, had spearheaded the RJD campaign for the bypolls in absence of Lalu Prasad, who is in Ranchi jail in connection with fodder scam cases.

Nitish Kumar, who fought the assembly polls of 2015 as part of the Grand Alliance comprising RJD and Congress, walked out of the coalition last year following corruption cases against his then deputy Tejashwi Yadav.

The BJP, which was till then in opposition, offered its support to Kumar following which the latter formed a new government and returned to the NDA.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and state minister Nand Kishore Yadav rubbished the demand raised by RJD MLAs.

They must remember that we won Bhabhua. Moreover, they should analyse the results of Araria, which comprises six assembly segments. In four of these, BJP candidates had a lead. Massive leads in just two assembly segments tilted the result in favour of the RJD candidate, Yadav said.A court here on Thursday allowed former Haryana chief minister OP Chautalas son Abhay Chautala, accused in a disproportionate assets case, to travel to Lahore in Pakistan.

Special judge Arvind Kumar gave his nod to Abhay to travel from Thursday till March 19 to Lahore for a wedding on furnishing a security of Rs 2 lakh, saying there was no tangible ground made by the CBI to deny him the permission.

The present case relates to accused having possessed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. It is not the case of CBI that accused had tampered with evidence or there is a chance of accused absconding from justice, the court said.

The only grievance of the CBI is that the accused had filed his application at the fag end and CBI did not get the time to verify the facts stated in the application by the accused. No tangible ground is made by the CBI for not granting the permission to go abroad, it said.

The court while allowing Abhays plea also imposed conditions, including not contacting or influencing any witness and intimating the court prior to leaving and within 48 hours of return from abroad.

It also directed him to provide his travel itinerary and an attested copy of his passport and visa once he returned.

The court had on Wednesday reserved its order after Abhays counsel Harsk K Sharma submitted an application before the special judge seeking permission for the accused to travel to Lahore.

The plea was opposed by the CBI, which had lodged the DA case against Abhay, his father and INLD chief O P Chautala and brother Ajay on the complaint of Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala.

Surjewala had alleged that the three accused had amassed wealth worth several times more than their income.

Objecting to Abhays application, CBI Special Public Prosecutor Ajay Gupta had said there was an inexplicable delay in filing this plea as he made the request only today for travelling to the enemy country tomorrow.

Why is the plea filed at the 11th hour? They are not seeking permission, they are informing the court about travel, Gupta said.

To this, Abhays lawyer had said the wedding invitation card was received via WhatsApp only a day before and they moved the court for its nod immediately thereafter.

The CBI has alleged that Abhay owned assets worth over five times his income of Rs 22.89 crore as per income tax records during the 2000-2005 period. It has also claimed to have found Rs 119.69 crore worth of assets.

The CBI had also alleged that Ajay possessed assets exceeding his legal income by 339.27 per cent. His legal income between May 1993 and May 2006 was Rs 8.17 crore, but had acquired assets worth Rs 27.7 crore, it had alleged.

Earlier, all the three cases, which were being heard in different courts, were transferred to a single court on CBIs plea on the ground that trials in different courts will lead to inordinate delay in concluding them.

All charges have been denied by OP Chautala and his sons.

The former CM and Ajay were sentenced to 10 years in jail early this year by the high court in the 1999-2000 junior teachers recruitment scam.

The CBI had on March 26, 2010, charge sheeted Chautala indicting him for allegedly possessing assets worth Rs 6.09 crore, far exceeding his legal income between 1993 and 2006.

Two such cases are going on against his sons, Ajay and Abhay.

In its charge sheet, the CBI had alleged that Chautalas wealth was 189% more than his income of Rs 3.22 crore during the period.Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday paid rich tributes to Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram on his birth anniversary, hailing him as a great social reformer.

The remarks came a day after the Samajwadi Party, aided by the BSP, scored two stunning wins in Uttar Pradesh wresting two Lok Sabha seats from the ruling BJP.

Kanshi Ram was a great social reformer. His untiring efforts to bring the oppressed social groups in the mainstream had left an indelible remark on Indian polity, Gandhi said, paying respects to the late leader on his 84th birth anniversary.

                                        Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 15, 2018

The remarks are being seen as an attempt by the Congress to reach out to BSP president Mayawati, who was mentored by Kanshi Ram.

Mayawatis decision to back archrival SP in the bypoll led to the BJPs rout in Gorakhpur, the seat vacated by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and Phulpur, which was the Lok Sabha constituency of deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav met Mayawati on Wednesday evening, leading to speculation the arrangement may well continue into the 2019 Lok Sabha election, making for a formidable caste combination.

The Congress, which forfeited its deposit in both the constituencies, has been relegated to the margins in Uttar Pradesh hat sends the most  80 -- members to the Lok Sabha.

It had tried to revive its fortunes by tying up with the SP in 2017 state election but the alliance was wiped out, with the BJP sweeping to power with a brute majority.The Delhi high court on Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail a man accused of kidnapping and raping a minor girl, terming his acquittal by the trial court in January 2017 shockingly absurd.

A bench comprising justice Vipin Sanghi and justice PS Teji sentenced Sonu Kumar for the offence and also imposed a fine of R25,000 on him for raping the 10-year-old girl in 2010.

The case is one of over 40 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases decided by trial court judge Sunil Chaudhary that are now being reviewed by the high court.

The high court criticised the logic behind the trial court treating the victim as an adult and not as a minor.

The reasoning adopted by the trial court judge to conclude that the minority of the victim on the date of the incident was not established, to say the least, borders perversity, it said.

Reasoning adopted by the trial shocks the conscience of the court in the factual background of the case, the court said.

The trial court reasoned that no birth certificate or other reliable document on the date of birth of the victim had been presented in evidence to establish the age of the victim. So the trial court held that it could not be accepted that she was below the age of 18 years on the date of the rape -- a stance the high court found to be shockingly absurd.

The high court also held that the testimony of the victim was believable. The trial court judge had raised doubts on the statement given by her.

The prosecutrix was a small child...at the time of the incident. She has been subjected to physical abuse -- an experience that she could not have comprehended at her age. Not only would she have been traumatized, but she would have also experienced a sense of shame on account of her being subjected to rape and oral sex, the high court said.

It also said that the lower court had completely ignored the medical examination report as well as the FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) report.

We find the approach of the court in dealing the matter is extremely casual, the high court said and convicted Kumar under section 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.

Last year, the Delhi high court had called for all case files of decisions delivered by additional sessions judge Chaudhary, citing fundamental and serious error in the approach of the learned Judge in deciding the cases.The parliamentary panel reviewing the contentious Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill is likely to seek more time to submit its report, officials of the panel said on Thursday.

The delay will dampen chances of the legislations early enactment. The first extension to the panel was granted in 2017.

At least three members from the panel said the decision to seek a second extension  till the end of the monsoon session  was taken in a meeting on Wednesday.

It (FRDI Bill) has almost gone into cold storage. We dont see any political will to push the financial reform bill. If the NDA was adamant on the bill, the report would have been given by now, said a member of the panel.

Another member maintained that passing the legislation might be difficult for the BJP with general elections nearing. The bill may hurt sentiments of millions... the member said.

The bill, which aims to set up a resolution corporation (RC) for tackling crisis in financial firms, faced widespread opposition from different quarters over a bail-in clause in the draft.

Under the controversial clause, in case a bank fails, the money of the depositors can be used to bail it out, among other things. RBI governor Urjit Patel had stated last month that the countrys central bank is not opposed to the proposed law and also supported the guarantee of 1 lakh to depositors under the bail-in clause. He wanted to retain public sector banks under the purview of the bill.

The panel, in its last meeting, decided to meet more entities for deposition.

Ministries like the economic affairs and legal affairs would be called for their views... a third member said.India ranked 133rd in the global list of the happiest countries, coming after terror-riven Pakistan and poorest-of-poor Nepal, according to a UN report released on Wednesday.

India dropped 11 places from its previous rank of 122 in the list of 156 countries and was behind the majority of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, apart from war-ravaged Afghanistan, that stood at 145.

The annual World Happiness Report was released ahead of the International Day of Happiness on March 20.

Among the eight SAARC nations, Pakistan was at 75, Bhutan at 97, Nepal at 101, Bangladesh at 115 while Sri Lanka was ranked 116. However, Maldives did not figure in the World Happiness Report.

Finland topped the list that combines economic, health and polling data compiled by economists that are averaged over three years from 2015 to 2017.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.

Ive joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland, said Brianna Owens, who moved from the United States and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finlands second biggest city with a population of around 280,000.

I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well, Owens told Reuters.

Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot. The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, are Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

Studying happiness may seem frivolous, but serious academics have long been calling for more testing about peoples emotional well-being, especially in the United States. In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report recommending that federal statistics and surveys, which normally deal with income, spending, health and housing, include a few extra questions on happiness because it would lead to better policy that affects peoples lives.

The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.

One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.

(With agency inputs)A cloned Assamese buffalo male calf has been born for the first time, the Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) claimed in Hisar.

We used unique methods and produced this clone calf, Sach-Gaurav, on December 22, 2017 through a normal delivery, CIRB cloning team head PS Yadav said on Thursday.

The calf was born to a Murrah buffalo. It was also the first to be born in the field, 100 km from the cloning laboratory at Hi Tech Sach Dairy Farm, he said.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research-CIRB is a central institute and it has a mandate to conserve superior animals of all buffalo breeds.

ICAR-CIRB Director Inderjeet Singh said the Assamese buffaloes were found only in the north-eastern part of the country and they were used mainly for agricultural work.

He said this was the second cloned male produced by ICAR-CIRB after Hisar-Gaurav, born December 11, 2015. Hisar-Gaurav was producing quality semen from the age of 22 months and ten females of the institutes herd were pregnant with its frozen semen.

Yadav said the birth weight of the calf was 54.2 kg and it was in good health. It had normal physiological parameters and blood profile, he said.

The genotype of the calf was confirmed by microsatellite analysis (parentage verification) and chromosome analysis, he said.

Animal cloning can be an excellent reproductive tool for conservation and multiplication of selected superior animals of buffalo breeds, he said.

He said it was Indias first cloned Assamese buffalo calf and the embryos were transported for about two hours before being transferred into the recipient mothers.

The ovaries of Murrah buffaloes were used as a source of recipient oocytes...Small tissue of Assamese buffalo was airlifted from Veterinary College, Khannapara, Guwhati, 2000 km away from our cloning laboratory, to culture establish the donor cells, he said.The Supreme Court extended the interim protection against arrest to Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, in the INX Media case and directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) not to arrest him until March 26.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also transferred to itself Kartis petition in the Delhi HC, questioning the money laundering probe against him, which he said has been initiated without filing a formal complaint. Karti has challenged the power of the ED to arrest under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The HC on March 9 restrained ED from arresting him till March 20. But hours before the Supreme Court took up his case on Thursday, the HC extended protection by two more days, until March 22.

Karti is accused of having received a bribe in 2007 for allegedly facilitating foreign investment worth Rs305 crore for INX Media, owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, when his father headed the finance ministry in the UPA-II government.

Aggrieved by the high court order, the ED had rushed to the Supreme Court, saying it would set a bad precedent and could hamper probe in other cases such as the PNB fraud involving jeweller Nirav Modi. The order, it said, amounted to grant of pre-arrest bail to Karti.

The bench agreed to transfer Kartis petition after it was informed that different high courts had passed conflicting orders on the powers of the authorities to arrest a person without registering a first information report (FIR) as it involved interpretation of the statute. Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta argued that clarity is needed on the subject from SC.

The court said it would examine if HCs can grant anticipatory bail. Mehta contended the registration of an ECIR (Economic Case Information Report) is itself based on a cognizable offence and ED has the power to arrest, search, seize and attach properties under the law.A former Akali Dal minister of Punjab, Bikram Singh Majithia, on Thursday decided to withdraw his defamation case against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal after the latter apologised for accusing him of involvement in the drug trade last year.

The AAP later said Kejriwal would opt to amicably sort out other legal cases mostly of defamation  filed against him. One of the most prominent defamation cases against Kejriwal has been filed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who sued the Delhi chief minister for Rs 10 crore in December 2015 for accusing him of corruption when he was Delhi and District Cricket Association president.

Kejriwal is also facing defamation suits from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament Ramesh Bidhuri, Congress leader Pawan Khera and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, among others

A statement released by the AAP on Thursday said Kejriwal was facing dozens of civil and criminal cases related to defamation, putting up hoardings and posters during election campaigns, violation of orders banning public assemblies and staging public protests in Delhi.

There are similar cases in other parts of India like Varanasi, Amethi, Punjab, Assam, Maharastra and Goa.

Most of these cases require a personal appearance. These cases have been foisted by our political rivals to demotivate us and keep our leadership busy in these legal matters. The decision to amicably sort out all such legal cases is a strategy as devised by the legal team of the party, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a statement.

He said that the cases in Delhi had been put on the fast track, forcing AAP legislators and ministers to attend hearings virtually on a daily basis in the courts in Delhi and other states.

Contesting court cases is taking a toll on already constrained resources of the party and individuals, Bharadwaj said.

Asked whether Kejriwal would also apologise to Jaitley, Bharadwaj said he had no such information.

Majithia announced that he had decided to withdraw the defamation case filed against Kejriwal in an Amritsar court last year after receiving a written apology from Kejriwal for the accusation he made at an AAP rally in the city.

In the past, I made certain statements against you regarding your alleged involvement in the drug trade. These statements became a political issue. Now I have found that the allegations are unfounded, and hence, there should be no politics on such issues. I hereby withdraw all the statements and allegations made against you and apologise for the same, Kejriwal wrote.

Majithia said he will also withdraw a case filed against another AAP leader, Ashish Khaitan, as he too had apologised.

I am thankful to my party, its leaders, my family and the lawyers who stood by me in these tough times, he said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Meanwhile, senior AAP leaders from Punjab, including leader of opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira said they were appalled by Kejriwals apology, which was a meek surrender.Islamabad on Thursday called to Pakistan its high commissioner to India to discuss the alleged ill-treatment of diplomats and their families in New Delhi over the past few days.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar termed Pakistan calling back the envoy for discussion as nothing out of the ordinary and said New Delhi wanted Islamabad to resolve the issues being faced by Indian staff and ensure their safety.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal said India failed to take notice of the increasing incidents of intimidation. Our high commissioner in New Delhi has been asked to come to Islamabad for consultations, he said.

In New Delhi, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media, The Pakistan high commissioner has been called for consultations; it is normal and routine. It is not a recall.

Kumar added: We want Pakistan to resolve the issues being faced by our staff and ensure their safety...We are looking into issues raised by the Pakistan high commission here.

Faisal claimed that the Indian government had not taken measures to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, adding that the Pakistani government lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy high commissioner as well as Indias external affairs ministry.

India and Pakistan have in recent days accused each other of ill-treating diplomats and their families.

Responding to complaints by Islamabad, New Delhi assured last week that India makes all efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for diplomats to work in. It added that Indian officials had also faced harassment last year in Pakistan but they chose to deal with it through quiet and persistent diplomacy.

Indian officials, who wished not to be named, have pointed to a series of incidents allegedly indicating harassment of Indian diplomats in Islamabad  forcibly stopping high commission vehicles, hampering the work of a residential project, and threatening a contractor who maintains the Indian chancery building.

Meanwhile, days after Iran invited China and Pakistan to participate in the development of the Chabahar port, India today said it was the prerogative of the Iranian government to choose its partners for the project.

Irans foreign minister Javad Zarif, during a three-day visit to Islamabad, invited Pakistan and China to participate in the strategic Chabahar Port project, saying it was not aimed at strangulating or encircling anybody.

It is the prerogative of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to choose its partners for the development of infrastructure facilities there, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a media briefing.

The first phase of the Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman was inaugurated four months ago, opening a new strategic route connecting Iran, India and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.Over the past month, India has made a conscious effort to recalibrate ties with China. After a year of stress in the relationship, Delhi appears to feel that it is time to get ties back on track.

Last Friday, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters India was willing to work with the Chinese side to develop our relations based on commonalities while dealing with differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each others interests, concerns and aspirations. He also emphasised that ties between the two were important bilaterally, but also had regional and global significance.

On Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said that China had noted positive remarks by the Indian side. He had, last week, also said, Chinese dragon and Indian elephant must not fight each other, but dance with each other. If China and India are united, one plus one will not include two, but also 11.

Significance

In diplomacy, statements matter  and so does context. There is definitely a degree of positive signalling on between the two countries. The statements follow foreign secretary Vijay Gokhales visit to China last month. A note by the FS to the cabinet secretary, and his subsequent directive, that senior political leaders and government functionaries should stay away from events to commemorate Dalai Lamas 60th anniversary in exile became public. It was widely interpreted as a move to assuage Chinese sensitivities, since Beijing views Dalai Lama with suspicion and Tibetan activities in India as political.

A series of high-level visits are lined up between the two countries, including visits by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is buzz about a high level visit from China.

The debate

There are two broad schools of thought within the Indian foreign policy establishment, and the wider strategic community, about the reset.

The first is those who believe this is essential. The argument goes something like this. India and China have had a turbulent time over the past few years. Chinas decision to block Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG); its position on black-listing Masood Azhar in UN; Indias opposition to Chinas flagship Belt and Road Initiative; and its deepening strategic engagement with Washington and positions on South China Sea have all contributed to trust deficit. The standoff in Doklam was a big blow to ties. And while an accident in terms of a larger conflict  was averted, it showed the dangers inherent in the relationship.

India cannot afford a conflict; its power gap with China is too large; it is neither militarily equipped nor economically positioned to take on Beijing; the US  under President Trump  is not a reliable partner. And thus, while protecting core interests like in Doklam, there must be an effort to normalise ties and build trust. It does not help to make China insecure.

The second school of thought does not want confrontation either. But it believes that any effort to reset actually smells of weakness and could well reduce Indias leverage further. They hold that recent tensions are due to Chinese assertiveness  a result of its growing power and a reflection of President Xi Jinpings personality. Chinas deepening political engagement with Indias South Asian periphery; its expansion in Pakistan; its aggression on the land borders and Doklam are all instances of this new Chinese mood, which hurt India.

In this backdrop, any appeasement of China will embolden it further. India thus has no choice but to hold strong to any cards it may have, including Tibet. It must bet on deepening strategic partnership with US as well as other countries with the ability to take on China. It must qualitatively step up the Quad (an initiative of India, Japan, US, Australia). And it must not worry about Chinese reactions. If anyone, it is India which has reason to be insecure  not China. When India is seen as strong, with options, Chinese behaviour will change. At the moment, the first school is dominant. Over the year, the equations in the India China relationship will be a key foreign policy story to watch.The Prasar Bharati Act does not bar the appointment of IAS officers as member (personnel) on the public broadcasters board, Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore informed Parliament on Thursday.

He was responding in the Lok Sabha to a query on whether the ministry of information and broadcasting had proposed the appointment of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer as full-time member (personnel) on Prasar Bharati Board in violation of its Act.

Media reports, quoting sources, had claimed that the Prasar Bharati board in its meeting on February 15 dropped the ministrys proposal for appointment of IAS officer as member (personnel) as some of the board members felt that such appointments would amount to contempt of the Prasar Bharati Act.

As per the Prasar Bharati ((Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, member (personnel) shall be a person having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of personnel management and administration. The Act does not bar IAS officers from being appointed as member (personnel) on the Prasar Bharati Board. In the past, such officers have been appointed as member (personnel)," minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said in a written reply in the Lower House.

He said the appointment of any member on the Prasar Bharati Board was made by the president on the recommendation of a committee consisting of vice president, chairman of the Press Council of India and one nominee of the president.

The information and broadcasting ministry is the nodal ministry for the Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR).

To another query on whether the government had proposed to terminate the services of all contractual employees of the Prasar Bharati, Rathore said, There is no such proposal by the government.

However, he said after receiving a complaint alleging engagement of consultants in Prasar Bharati without assessment of need, formal approval or selection by transparent manner with reference to a set of qualification, skills and experience, the I&B ministry had on February 5 suggested the national broadcaster to stop such engagements as also not to grant extension/renewal to consultants, as it contravenes the order of Department of Expenditure and to discontinue contracts of other consultants.

Media reports had also stated that the board members of Prasad Bharti during the February 15 meeting took objection to the I&B ministrys directive regarding termination of contractual employees of the national broadcaster.All the Rajya Sabha candidates from Gujarat are likely to be elected unanimously on March 23, with both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress withdrawing their third nominations on Thursday.

Now, two candidates each from the ruling and opposition parties are in the fray for four seats. Each nominee will require 38 votes each to be elected from the 182-member state assembly. While the BJP has 99 MLAs, the Congress lays claim to 77.

The BJP has repeated its two Union ministers for state  Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Manaviya  for election to the Upper House. The Congress, for its part, has fielded veteran tribal leader Naran Rathwa and high court lawyer Amee Yajnik.

While the BJP withdrew the nomination of former state minister Kiristsinh Rana, Congress leader PL Valera  who had filed as an independent  followed suit soon afterwards. Their nominations were filed after the BJP kicked up a row over the validity of Rathwas nomination March 13  the last day of registration.

With the saffron party raising doubts over a no-dues certificate attached by Rathwa, the Congress decided to play it safe by fielding Valera as an independent. This prompted the BJP to field Rana as its own third candidate. Later, when the returning officer cleared Rathwas form, it moved the Election Commission in Delhi to demand rejection of his candidature.

The terms of four BJP Rajya Sabha MPs  Arun Jaitley, Rupala, Mandaviya and Shanker Vegad  will end this month. The party, however, could field only two candidates in the upcoming elections due to its reduced tally from 115 to 99 in the 2017 assembly elections. Jaitley will contest the elections to the Upper House from Uttar Pradesh this time.

The Congress, on the other hand, is at a comparative advantage. With its Gujarat assembly strength increasing from 61 to 77, it will be able to send two nominees to the Rajya Sabha for the first time since 1995.Odishas only central university, in tribal-dominated Koraput district, was closed indefinitely on Thursday after an agitation by students seeking immediate filling up of teaching vacancies and improved hostel facilities, among a host of other demands.

Professor Sachidananda Mohanty, vice-chancellor (VC) of the Central University of Orissa, ordered the students to leave the hostel premises by 10am and college by 11am as they staged a sit-in protest on campus.

The students were out of control and there were chances of violence, so we had to declare sine die to maintain discipline on campus, said Mohanty. He alleged that a former registrar of the university, situated in Sunabeda, was inciting the students to agitate.

The agitating students had staged a sit-in protest in front of the administrative block on Wednesday, following which the university authorities met them for discussion.

The discussion, however, remained inconclusive and led to the students demanding that the VC resign if he could not solve their problems.

The students have a 60-point charter of demands, which includes setting up more departments, medical facility, purchase of laboratory instruments, more books for the library, free Wi-Fi, auditorium, and ATM on campus.

The students alleged that shutting down the university was a ploy to harass them. If necessary, we will meet the governor , said a student. The university started in 2009 during increased Maoist activity in the district.The death toll in the Kurangani forest fire in Theni district rose to 12 with one more woman succumbing to her burns at a private hospital in Madurai on Thursday, the police said.

The victim was identified as Divya Viswanathan of Coimbatore district, they added.

All the victims belonged to a 36-member trekking team that was caught in the fire in the Kurangani Kozhukumalai hill ranges, near Theni, some 500 km from Chennai. The team comprised 24 people from Chennai and 12 from Tiruppur and Erode districts.

The trekkers, including 25 women and three children, had reached the Kurangani hills on March 10. Three of the team members had opted out of the trek.

After staying at an estate in Kozhukumalai overnight, the trekkers had started their return journey on March 11 (Sunday), when they heard of the forest fire and got separated from each other while trying to find a way out of the forest.

The hills are in the Western Ghats near Bodinayakanur, about 40 km from Theni.

The forest department has suspended Forest Officer Jaisingh in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, the police on Thursday lodged a case against Peter Van Geit, the owner of the Chennai-based trekking club that had organised the trek.

He was charged under section 304 of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), the police said.

Two people, including an agent of the club at Erode, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Officials on Wednesday said the search operations were called off as all the trekkers were accounted for.

Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami has announced a solatium of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh each to those seriously injured and Rs 50,000 each to those with simple injuries.For the first time in its term, the Narendra Modi government may face a no-confidence motion on the floor of the house.

Andhra Pradeshs YSR Congress Party led by Jagan Mohan Reddy, has given a notice to move a no-confidence motion against the government in the Lok Sabha over the issue of not giving the so-called special category status to his state. But before any vote takes place, the notice needs the support of 50 MPs in an orderly house. It is not clear the notice will get that.

With a comfortable majority in the house, the government is safe and will cruise through, even if the motion is admitted. The move is however expected to hasten the exit of The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which pulled its ministers out of the Bharatiya Janata Party led government, from National Democratic Alliance. The YSRCP has nine MPs, but four have defected, leaving it with an effective strength of five; the TDP has 16 MPs, and it cant risk not supporting a motion that purportedly has the states best interests in mind.

TDP MP Thota Narasimham told PTI that the party will also support the motion. Later, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu too said the TDP would support the no-confidence motion.

We will support a no-confidence motion, whoever moves it. We will be ready for that and our 16-17 MPs will fully support that. We will cooperate with whoever fights for the states rights, Naidu told the state assembly, according to PTI.

YSRCP MP YV Subba Reddy submitted a notice with the Lok Sabha secretariat, desiring to move a no confidence motion on Friday. Reddy has also written a letter seeking support from all non-NDA parties. The party initially planned to the motion on March 21, but advanced it amid apprehension that Parliament might adjourn sine die early in the wake of disruptions.

It has also suggested that its MPs will quit from Lok Sabha at the end of the session if the demands are not met.

The budget session is scheduled to end on April 6.

The Congress, with 48 MPs, and the Trinamool Congress, with 34, were yet to take a call on the no-confidence motion late on Thursday. We will firm up our strategy by Friday morning, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. A TMC leader said the YSRCP had not reached out to the party yet. The Biju Janata Dal is unlikely to support the notice. A party leader said, It is for a parochial issue. We may not support it.

The government, which has 307 MPs in the Lok Sabha (excluding TDP), is confident that the notice itself will not amount to much.

Two union ministers said the YSR Congress will find it difficult to get its motion admitted for technical reasons. A no confidence motion has to be supported by 50 members who will stand up as a mark of support. When there is so much chaos in the house, and MPs belonging to half a dozen parties are either standing in the well of the house or at the seat, how do you determine if the motion has support of 50 MPs? the first minister said.

The second minister said the house has to be in order for a no-confidence motion to be taken up, but given the experience so far in the current session, such a situation is unlikely. Voting on a no confidence motion also has to be conducted when house is in order and every member is seated at his designated place to vote, this person added.

The motion is being seen as a result of competitive Andhra politics, where different parties are projecting themselves as more committed to getting the state the special category status. TDP leaders are meeting in Amravati on Friday to take a final call on their continuation in the NDA.

The sudden outburst of popular Telugu actor-turned-Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan at a public meeting in Guntur on Wednesday night (he targeted the TDP and the YSR Congress) is understood to have made CM Naidu shift even further from NDA. In his teleconference with party MPs on Thursday morning, Naidu said he suspected that the top BJP leadership could be behind the actors aggressive attack on the TDP government.

The TDP president alleged the top leadership in Delhi was trying to replicate the Tamil Nadu experiment in Andhra Pradesh.

There are some big elements behind the conspiracy. The players in the game are in the state. They are trying to weaken the politically strong states through the Tamil Nadu type politics. But, neither Andhra Pradesh nor TDP is so vulnerable to become victims. We will thwart those attempts. Those who conspire will bite the dust, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister is said to have told his MPs.

(With inputs from Srinivasa Rao Apparasu in Hyderabad)The Ajmer police Thursday unearthed yet another online cheating racket in the ongoing constable recruitment examination and arrested eight people.

Ajmer Range inspector general (IG) Malini Agarwal said the racket was working in the same fashionremotely accessing the candidates computer  as the ones busted in Jaipur.

Those arrested include Vikas Jat, owner of Ajmer Info-Tech exam centre, who the seluths claimed to be the main conspirator behind the racket. Among others, Hanuman Bhakar collected the money from candidates while Intezar Ali, Ranjeet Chudhary and Suresh Jat were accomplices in the crime.

The gang members charged Rs 4 lakh per candidate to help them cheat in the exam, said Agarwal. She added that it was the same gang that had helped applicants cheat in jail guards recruitment exam two years ago.

In a related development, the special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police arrested five persons who were involved in an impersonation racket in the exam at Dolphin Kids International School, the centre where it had unearthed the online cheating racket Tuesday evening. Further, two more people were arrested for their involvement in the two rackets busted in Jaipur in the past week.After a poor show in urban local bodies polls in Rajasthan, the BJP has asked its municipal chairpersons to ensure that development works are implemented effectively.

The Congress not only won two Lok Sabha and one assembly by-elections in February, but also 21 of 30 urban local bodies polls, results for which were announced on March 8.

At a meeting of the nagar palika and nagar parishad chairpersons here on Thursday, BJP leaders asked them to focus on performance and ensure delivery, a move that indicates that the party is in a damage control mode.

BJP state in-charge V Satish chaired the meeting that was attended by 71 of the 127 chairpersons. State BJP president Ashok Parnami, organisation general secretary Chandrashekhar and urban development and housing minister Shrichand Kriplani addressed the meeting.

Worried that the BJP seems to be losing its grip on the cities and urban areas which were once considered its stronghold, the party asked the heads of the urban local bodies to ensure that the governments policies reach the ground level, a participant in the meeting said.

The civic bodies heads were also asked about problems they face in their functioning, the participant said.

It was called to address problems being faced by the chairpersons in day-to-day functioning, to ensure proper coordination between departments and proper utilisation of the additional budget given to the local bodies, Parnami told the media after the meeting. We also discussed how the chairpersons can contribute to strengthening the party.

Asked why only 71 chairpersons turned up, Parnami said the meeting was called at a short notice and some functionaries already had fixed programmes.

Parnami claimed the BJP was no longer a party confined to the cities but had spread its roots to rural areas as well. BJP has won 163 panchayat samitis, the first time any party has won so many seats. The Congress has won a maximum of 144.

Raje in Delhi to discuss state tour, cabinet reshuffle

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje is set to begin a statewide tour as the BJP gears up for the assembly elections due at the year-end.

The CM will begin a statewide yatra soon, but the programme and the date are yet to be fixed, state BJP president Ashok Parnami said on Thursday.

Party sources said Raje is likely to begin the tour from mid-April in a bid to motivate BJP workers and woo the electorate.

Raje was in Delhi on Thursday to meet senior party leaders and discuss the proposed statewide tour and a cabinet reshuffle likely to take place next week.

Raje had taken out a statewide Suraaj Sankalp Yatra before the 2013 assembly elections, which got a good response, and the BJP ended up getting 163 of 200 seats.

Parnami added that Raje has been consistently touring the state in the past four years and has been among the people to resolve their problems. On the cabinet reshuffle, Parnami said, It was the prerogative of the chief minister.

Follow Meena, return to BJP: Parnami

Ashok Parnami welcomed MLA Kirori Lal Meenas return to the BJP, saying other dissenting leaders should also be large-hearted and return to the party fold.

Meena is an old party worker and a strong pillar of the party. He said he had left the party for 10 years which was a mistake. His return will strengthen the party, said the BJP state president.

Asked if the BJP would try to pacify rebel BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari, he said any party worker who is angry should sort out his grievances and return to the party fold. We will work to resolve their complaints.

He evaded a reply on whether action would be taken against MLAs Tiwari and Ghanshyam Gyandev Ahuja who have made statements against the chief minister. The party has referred their matter to the central disciplinary committee and no decision has been taken. Parnami added that action would be taken against anyone who resorted to indiscipline.

He said, Like Meena has shown magnanimity and returned to the party, others should come forward and do the same.From the forthcoming kharif season, subsidy on fertilisers will be credited to bank account of farmers through direct benefit transfer (DBT), an official said on Thursday.

The agriculture department started preparations for the same as per guidelines of the central government.

Agriculture commissioner Vikas Sitramji Bhale said at present, farmers were getting fertilisers on subsidised rate as the subsidy was transferred by the government to companies based on the fertiliser dealers uploading the details of fertiliser sale on website.

Dealers sell fertilisers to the farmers using PoS (point of sale) devices.

He said: From April, the farmers will have to pay the MRP of the fertilisers and the subsidy amount will be credited to his account through DBT.

The dealers sell fertilisers to the farmers as per demand using their Aadhaar number and biometric details and on sending the details to the government the companies get the subsidy amount through DBT.

MRP on urea is 1,395.40 for the indigenous brand for a bag of 50 kg and 1,275.40 for the imported brand. Farmers get it for 295.40 per urea bag of 50 kg.

MRP on diammonium phosphate (DAP) is 1,187, but farmers get it for 153.73 and the subsidy amount of 1,033.77 goes into the account of companies through DBT.

Bhale said Rajasthan has 13,345 fertiliser dealers, the department procured 10,718 PoS machines, of which 10,198 dealers took the machine and 10,011 dealers got themselves registered on PoS machines.

From November 1, all fertilisers were being sold to farmers through PoS machines only in the state, he said.

He also mentioned that RD 2.0 software for Goods and Services Tax (GST) came late, so at present fertiliser dealers give the bill manually.

Now, dealers are being trained to use the GST software after which they will give computerised bill to the farmers from the forthcoming kharif season.

Rajasthan has 183.49 lakh hectares of area for farming. A of total 20 lakh metric tonne urea is used during rabi and kharif seasons, while 7.51 lakh metric tonne DAP is used during the two seasons.The state education department has issued an order prohibiting the use of pass books, or guide books, in government schools. In the order, issued Tuesday, the department said it was committed to develop among students a keen understanding of subjects and their basic concepts, and pass books are adverse to these goals.

According to the stakeholders, the use of pass books is rampant in the state with a vast majority of students using them. Experts are now asking how effective the government order would be in wiping out a deeply entrenched culture.

Ramesh Chand Gupta, owner of a book store in Chaura Rasta area, said that about 80% of the students buy pass books. Another book store owner said that the percentage was even higher. In higher classes  10, 11 and 12 almost all the students purchase pass books, said Rajesh Khandelwal, owner of Khandelwal Stationers, Pratap Nagar.

The teachers and school principals, welcomed the order. When I joined this school two years ago, students were often seen with pass books in class rooms. Gradually we brought down their usage but elsewhere they are used widely, said Surendra Dudi, principal of a government school in Jhunjhunus Hameeri Kala.

Pass books only focus on helping the students clear the exam and relegate the learning part, basic concepts, context, themes, activities, etc to the sidelines, he said. In addition, the pass books cost money whereas the textbooks are available to students free of cost. Kids from poorer section couldnt afford the guides, Dudi said.

He added that often the teachers used to recommend the pass books. The implementation of order will require effort from teachers. If they explain the topics well, the students wont have to opt for pass books, he said.

Another school principal, Paramjeet Kaur, said that the information in pass books was often wrong. The pass books are like crutches and their use affects the creative development of students, said Kaur, principal of government school in Jaipurs Laxman Dungri.

According to some, the sellers of pass books were till now visiting schools and doling out sample copies. This will now stop, said Sunita, principal of government school in Nagaur.

Educationists, however, say that the textbooks on their own do not form meaningful independently-readable learning material for students. The textbooks of a class are generally found to be of a difficulty level one or two notch higher than the required level. The students are unable to comprehend the books on their own, as has been proved by several learning surveys, said Kul Bhushan Kothari of Pratham, an NGO working in the education sector.

He added that the government has made various efforts in the past to curb the use of pass books but has been unsuccessful. The government urges guardians against private tuitions, government doctors against private practice, but fails to enforce them. Same is the case with use of pass books, said Kothari.The Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of Rajasthan police has urged the state government to hand over the licence racket case to the CBI.

So far, the ATS arrested 40 people, seized 55 weapons and 1,181 fake arms licences in connection with the case that was uncovered in September last year. The fake licences were all made from Jammu and Kashmirs districts Kathua, Kupwara, Jammu, etc.

We want the CBI to take the case as the racket involves four states and there appears to be involvement of public servants as well, said Biju George Joseph, inspector general (ATS).

According to the IG, the main conspirator in the racket was Zuber Khan (27) whose family has a gun shop in Ajmer.

He would charge money from people for getting their arms licences made. Initially, the licences were obtained using forged documents such as fake address proof of J&K but later he started forging the licences themselves. We believe the officers of J&K are complicit in this as the verification of applicants was not done in a lot of cases, said Joseph.

He said Zuber worked in tandem with Vishal Ahuja of Punjab, Mohammad Zafar of Madhya Pradesh, and Rahul Grover, Sunil Sharma and Deepak Gulati of J&K.

Among the arrested, these six were the main conspirators while the remaining were beneficiaries of the racket, having obtained licences through their help.

The conspirators in J&K allegedly liaised with the officers there and helped the applicants in obtaining the licences, Joseph said.

Zafar was a relative of Zuber and had a gun shop in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. Most of the weapons bought by the beneficiaries of the racket were from the shops of Zafar and Zuber.

Zubers father, Usman, is also one of the key accused and is absconding. Upon raiding Zubers house, the ATS found equipments used for forgery such as seals, stamps, fake pro forma, etc.

The beneficiaries of the racket include wealthy businessmen as well. One person in Udaipur who obtained a fake licence and a weapon through this racket is also accused of murder that was committed with the same weapon, the police officer said.

The ATS initially took the case as it suspected that an arms licence racket of this magnitude was likely to have a terror angle but nothing of the sort emerged, he said.Rajab Ali wants to do everything possible to ensure his only son does well in life.

So, the poor farmer in West Bengals Murshidabad district invited around 700 villagers for lunch to seek their blessings for Shamim Sheikh, the first person in the family to appear for the secondary or Class 10 board examination.

Ali, who owns a small plot of ancestral land at Charbabupur village in Bhagabangola area, said he had been saving for the last one year for the event.

Some people told me a year ago that if I treated villagers and sought their blessings, my son would do well in the exams. So, I started saving money. I even printed an invitation card so that nobody could say that I did not invite the guests properly, said Ali.

The exams for Shamim Sheikh, a student of the Charlabangola High Madrasa, began on Monday.

When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor. But poverty had other plans in store. My father could afford food for his six children but not education. I had to drop out of school when I was in Class 3. I was not even 10 when I started helping my father in the field, said Ali.

I saw my father fight the odds. Every monsoon, the Padma used to flood its banks and farmers paid the price. I dont want my children to go through the ordeal. I want them to have decent jobs in some city, the farmer, who also has a daughter, added.

I want to see my son fulfil my dreams.

Ali could not afford a lavish lunch but the spread five days ago comprising rice, chicken curry, dal, fried vegetables, sweets and curd made the guests happy. Shamim was showered with gifts as people turned up with pens, pencils, books and even wrist watches.

The gifts really dont matter. Whats important is that they blessed my son and prayed to the almighty for his success, said Ali.

Nobody in my family ever passed the secondary examination. Shamim said he has answered all the questions so far. If he passes with good marks I will distribute sweets in the village, said Ali.

A decade ago, Mamata Banerjee -- then an opposition leader -- made the Sachar Committees report about the high illiteracy rate among Muslims in West Bengal a raging issue against the Left Front government. With 66% Muslims, Murshidabad has the states highest minority population among all districts.

I am working here for the eight years but I have never seen anyone treating an entire village to seek blessings for a board examinee. This is unique indeed, local school teacher Sushanta Chowdhury said.The CBI on Thursday arrested two top officials of a Kolkata-based firm for allegedly defrauding a consortium of banks of Rs 515.15 crore.

RP Infosystems directors Shivaji Panja and Kaustuv Ray were taken into custody around 5.30 pm at the Central Government Officers Complex in Salt Lake following an interrogation session that extended over four hours. The duo will be produced in court on Friday.

They submitted forged documents and failed to provide satisfactory answers to some questions, a CBI officer said on condition of anonymity.

The investigation agency had registered a case against RP Infosystems and its directors on February 28 in connection with a number of loans sanctioned between January 2012 and September 2013. The FIR filed in this regard also mentioned co-director Vinay Bafna, vice president (finance) Debnath Pal as well as unidentified bank officials. They have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, dishonestly inducing delivery of property, forgery for the purpose of cheating, using a forged document as genuine and criminal misconduct by a public servant, among others.

It was also alleged that the debtors list submitted by the accused to the lending banks was fabricated. Officials familiar with the matter said the companies depicted as debtors had not purchased any computers or accessories from RP Infosystems, although payment from them was shown as due.

It has come to the notice of the consortium bank that the company availed bank finance/funds by submitting fabricated debtors/receivables/inflated stock statements, a complaint submitted by Canara Bank to the CBI stated.

Ray had claimed on the day of the FIR registration that the matter has already been investigated by the CBI, and a charge sheet filed in this regard. We have already obtained a stay against it from the Calcutta high court, he added.

According to the complaint lodged by Canara Bank deputy general manager DV Prasad Rao on February 26, the directors had cheated ten banks of a consortium (including his institution) to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore. Letters of credit opened by different members of the consortium began devolving from 2012 due to non-maintenance of funds.

The borrower company dishonestly and fraudulently refrained from routing the sale proceeds through the loan account, and siphoned off the entire amount, the FIR read.

RP Infosystems had launched its business of computer hardware assembly under the Chirag brand name in 2005. Ten years later, the CBI booked Panja for allegedly duping a Delhi-based company of Rs 18 crore while he was returning from a trip to Dhaka with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The state police detained him on the basis of a lookout notice issued by the Delhi polices economic offences wing.

The two accused were asked to appear before the CBI at 10 am on Thursday. While Panja arrived on time, Roy came around 12.30 pm.The son of senior leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Lalji Verma shot himself at his residence in Gomti Nagars Vijayant Khand area on Wednesday morning, police said.

Inspector, Vibhuti Khand police station, Satyendra Rai said Vikas Verma, 39, shot himself in his chest with a licensed short DBBL gun at around 11 am.

Rai said Madhuri Verma, the wife of Vikas, found him lying on the floor when she rushed to the room after hearing the gunshot. The family rushed Vikas to trauma centre of the King Georges Medical University (KGMU) where doctors pronounced him dead.

BSP president Mayawati visited Vermas house to express condolence. Many BSP and BJP leaders also met Lalji Verma at KGMU.

The family members said Vikas was suffering from some disease for the last few years and remained disturbed due to this. Initial probe suggests that he took the extreme step due to acute depression. We have not recovered any suicide note so far. The firearm has been seized for further examination, Rai said.

He said the body had been handed over to the family after post-mortem examination.

They have left for their native place Ambedkar Nagar to conduct the last rites, Rai said

Vikass friends claimed that he had tried to shoot himself at his residence in Akbarpur, Ambedkar Nagar, on March 12 last year.

They said Vikas had suffered a bullet injury on the left side near his ear and the shell got stuck inside leading to a fracture in the jaw.

Before his first suicide attempt, Vikas had posted a message on his Facebook wall saying he was ending his life due to long-term illness and his inability to stay connected with his friends.

Vikas was the eldest among three siblings, including two daughters. He is survived by his wife Madhuri, who is a drug inspector, and sons Ansh and Abhay.

The children were at the school when the incident took place.

Lalji Verma was the cabinet minister in the BSP government in UP from 2007 to 2012. He is a sitting MLA from Katehari assembly constituency of Ambedkar Nagar.Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who fascinated the scientific community with his theories and lived his life battling Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), had a Lucknow connection.

His father Frank Hawking, who was the head of the National Institute for Medical Research in England, lived in the state capital in the late 1950s.

Bibliophile and book seller late Ram Advani told Hindustan Times in a chat a few years ago that back then Frank Hawking worked with the Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), which was then situated at Chattar Manzil. Advani had recalled meeting Frank and some other CDRI scientists, and had said that Stephens sister also studied in a school in Lucknow.

Stephen Hawking, whose family spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that he had passed away at 76 years of age, also wrote about his Lucknow connection in his memoir My Brief History, published by Bantam Press.

The memoir mentions his visit to the city. In the chapter titled Oxford, Hawking said, In summer holidays, I went to India to join the rest of the family, who were living in a house in Lucknow rented from a former chief minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh who has been disgraced for corruption.

He further wrote, My father refused to eat Indian food during his time there, so he hired an ex-British Army cook and bearer to prepare and serve English food.

Hawking also mentioned his visit to Srinagar, J&K, and his stay in a houseboat. This was in 1959, when he was preparing to apply to the Oxford University.Commuters can expect relief from traffic jams as the UP government is going to construct three flyovers in jam-prone areas of Lucknow.

DETAILED PROJECT REPORT (DPR) PREPARED Rs 188 cr : The estimated cost of flyover from Hussainganj crossing to DAV College, as per the DPR. Rs 142 cr: The estimated cost of flyover from Charak crossing to Haidarganj. Rs 70 cr: The estimated cost of flyover from Charak crossing to Meena Bakery exit.

Initially, the departments concerned have identified three stretches Hussainganj crossing to DAV College, Charak crossing to Haidarganj and Charak crossing to Meena Bakery exit  for the construction of flyovers.

District administration officials said the UP Bridge Corporation, LMC and Jalkal Nigam  the agencies to be engaged in the proposed construction of the flyovers have prepared a detailed project report (DPR) and blueprint of the project.

The three flyovers would play a major role in easing traffic congestion. The departments have submitted the DPR that would be forwarded to the government for release of funds, said Kaushal Raj Sharma, district magistrate in a meeting with the construction agencies late on Tuesday evening.

As per the DPR, the estimated cost of constructing flyover from Hussainganj crossing to DAV College would be around Rs 188 crore, the cost of flyover from Charak crossing to Haidarganj would be around Rs 142 crore while the estimated cost of Charak crossing to Meena Bakery exit flyover would be around Rs 70 crore.

These areas would also witness other development work that would include laying of sewage pipelines, water pipelines and illumination, the estimated cost of which is around Rs 41.85 crore.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last week sent a notice to film production company Yash Raj Studios over alleged illegal extensions to their studio in Andheri.

The company has been given a month to comply with the rules under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act. The notice warns of strict action against the studio, if they fail to demolish the illegal construction.

Prashant Gaikwad, assistant commissioner of K-West ward, which covers Andheri, said, There are some violations on each floor of the studio building, including unauthorised partitions and floor extensions. Besides, the basement, meant for parking space is being used for storage.

The BMC had first sent a letter to Yash Raj Films Private Limited in February, pointing out the illegalities. According to Gaikwad, neither did the studio did not remove the extensions or regularise them, nor did they reply to BMCs letter. So a notice was sent to the studio.

A senior civic official from K-West area said, The basement is crammed with material needed during film shoots, such as electric wiring, studio lights, and some props. Most of this is inflammable.

A massive fire broke out at Kanjurmargs Cinevista studio in January, following which BMC began inspection of studios across the city. The constructions were first noticed by the BMC during the routine inspection.The Bombay high court on Thursday rapped the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) for failing to declare the Sawantwadi-Doddamarg wildlife corridor as an ecologically sensitive area, as promised to the high court earlier.

The division bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Riyaz Chagla said they will initiate proceedings against the secretary of the union ministry for contempt of court if the ministry failed to fulfil the assurance.

It was referring to an earlier high court order recording MoEFs assurance that it would include the SawantwadiDoddamarg wildlife corridor in the list of ecologically sensitive areas in the Western Ghats. The only thing left to do at the time was to finalise the procedural modalities for declaration of the corridors as an eco-sensitive area.

The court was hearing Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by city NGOs Awaaz Foundation and Vanashakti seeking orders to declare the wildlife corridor as an eco-sensitive zone.

As we see it, the only way to secure implementation of the order is to initiate proceedings for contempt of court against the secretary of this department, said the bench.

Advocate Rui Rodrigues, who represented the MoEF, said that last month they received a fresh recommendation from the Maharashtra government. The recommendation excluded 358 villages, including the corridor, from the originally recommended 2,123 villages from the state to be included in said list.

What annoyed the judges more was the fact that the corridor has been purportedly excluded on the basis of demands made by a local MLA, now a minister in Devendra Fadnavis government.

According to Awaaz Foundation, the corridor has 303 species of plants, shrubs and trees, several with crucial medicinal values; 18 species of wildlife, including Bengal tigers, leopards, black bears and wild buffalos; and 13 species of birds. Additionally, the 35-square kilometre stretch facilitates the movement of wild animals such as the Asiatic elephant, an endangered tiger, between Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary, Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary, and Chandoli National Park.

The NGO has sought the inclusion of the corridor in the list of ecologically sensitive areas on the basis of various studies by volunteer groups that concluded the area needed to be protected. If developmental activities such as mining were allowed, the wildlife corridor would be destroyed, stated the studies.

The NGO has alleged that during the last two years, more than 18 lakh trees in Doddamarg Forest Circle have been destroyed or felled to facilitate mining activities and therefore, sought restraint on the bauxite and iron ore mining in the area.

Vanashakti recently filed an application in the pending PILs claiming that a 3,000-hectare forest cover in the corridor has been cleared for a rubber plantation. Assistant government pleader, Manish Pable, said that no fresh permissions for rubber plantation or mining have been given after 2012.The Bandra Government Railway Police (GRP) have recovered the CCTV recording of the robber who snatched the mobile phone of an 18-year-old girl seated inside a local train when it halted at Santacruz station and fled after jumping on to the tracks.

The incident took place on Saturday night. Bandra GRP officials said after registering a case in connection with the incident, they scoured through the CCTV recordings of the station and platform number 4 at the Santacruz station, to get a glimpse of the robber. Although the scene inside the train was not captured by any camera, the police had searched for the recordings of the platform to find out from where the man entered the premises, said Sunilkumar Jadhav, senior inspector, Bandra GRP.

Jadhav said although they have not been able to identify the robber yet, they are trying to catch him. This robber does not feature in our record criminal list, which means he has not been caught by the GRP in any crime in the city. We are now trying to identify him with the help of the CCTV footage, he said.

The incident took place on Saturday around 10.30pm, when the victim Miloni Parekh, a student of fashion design, was travelling from Kandivli to Grant Road. Parekh said everything had happened in a flash, within 20 seconds  the duration a local train halts at a station. Parekh said she and her mother were seated in the second-class ladies compartment with their backs facing the door when the robber entered the compartment.

I was seated on the third seat of the bench with my phone in my hands, Parekh said. As the train reached Santacruz station, a man jumped inside and within the blink of an eye, tried to snatch her phone from her hands. Parekh said she had tried to hold on to it but the young robber, who she said was wearing a white T-shirt, pulled at the phone and dragged Parekh till the footboard of the train door. When Parekh let go of her phone, he hit her on the back of her hand and fled after jumping out on the tracks.

Parekh said there were about 12 other women in the compartment who shouted at the robber, but none had come to her aid. She said there was no police constable in the train, either. The police had then registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.The Powai police on Wednesday arrested a man and his driver for allegedly extorting money from a major construction company.

The liasoning officer, in his complaint said the accused Gulab Parkhe had worked with their company for 27 years and had resigned in November 2016.

According to police, Parkhe had been blackmailing the complainant and his company after he resigned. His driver was aware of the happenings.

Time and again Parkhe had been sending complaints to the district land records and the BMC regarding the work of his previous company. All complaints were frivolous in nature, said Navinchandra Reddy, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 10).

Police said, in November 2017, Parkhe had demanded Rs20 crore from the complainant.

When the complainant told him that the extortion amount was too much, he settled down at Rs6 crore. The first instalment of Rs10 lakh was paid in January 2018. On March 14, it was decided on call that the complainant would give Rs1 crore to Parkhe. The complainant recorded that call and then approached the police with the recordings, said an officer.

Parkhe was supposed to meet the complainant at a hotel in Mulund (West). After the complainant approached the police, a trap was laid and Parkhe was caught red-handed.

Police said Parkhe belongs to Junnar in Pune rural and is an elected member of the Zila Parishad from Junnar. A case of extortion has been registered and investigations are on.Three men have been arrested for allegedly kidnapping an imitation jewellery factory owner in Malad (East) because he failed to pay the Rs16,000 he owed one of the kidnappers.

According to the Kurar police the complainant Rajesh Yadav, 38, is a resident of Kurar village and runs an imitation jewellery factory there. Three months ago, he had bought casting material from the main accused Joginder Yadav, 38, worth Rs40,000.

After paying Joginder Rs24,000, Rajesh told him he would pay the remaining amount of Rs16,000 later. However, as months passed by Yadav could not return the amount and said he would return it once he got it from his brother, Dinesh.

On March 12 at around 10.30pm Joginder went to the residence of Rajesh and with the help of his aide, kidnapped Rajesh. They took Rajesh to a lane in Kandivli (East). There, the duo was joined by three more men and they bashed up Rajesh.

They later contacted Rajeshs brother Dinesh, saying they would kill him if the money was not returned. Dinesh managed to pay them Rs12,000, saying he would repay the remaining amount soon. The kidnappers beat up Dinesh as well and then allowed them to leave, warning them against informing the police.

The duo, who suffered injuries in the assault, lodged a complaint with the Kurar police on Tuesday. Following this, the trio was arrested. Two more accused are wanted in the case. The arrested accused have been identified as Joginder, Shamil Mane, 44 and Irshad Khan, 29.The most remarkable aspect of the Kisan March was that it broke some time-held stereotypes.

The farmers delivered a powerful message with utmost restraint, and Mumbai took the protest in its stride uncomplainingly. This has not usually been the case: in fact, to the contrary.

Protests, from those within the city and certainly from those coming here from outside, are seen as severely disruptive. For protestors, Mumbaikars are insular, stonyhearted, uncaring.

Considering that one of the greatest civil disobedience protests  Quit India Movement  began in this city (Gowalia Tank, August 2, 1944) this must seem strange. But there is a backdrop as to why sentiment swung to the other extreme.

In the past few decades, morchas, protests and the like have often slipped out of hand, causing loss to business and property, sometimes to life, generally bringing Mumbai to a standstill.

Over the years, this has developed a certain fear and frustration in the citizenry that now manifests itself as apathy. Given its pace of life, Mumbai lives on edge anyway. Even a minor disturbance in the equilibrium can create mayhem.

The ordered, almost tranquil Kisan March was a dramatic departure from the usual. Not only were there no untoward instances, the farmers made it a point to not intrude into the citys everyday life.

They even chose to get to the epicenter of the protest at Azad Maidan before dawn on Monday so as not to inconvenience students appearing for their Board exams, and regular office-goers.

That those who had trudged for miles over a fortnight and in great hardship should show such fine sensibility instantly melted the hard-boiled resistance of Mumbaikars.

The farmers were hailed, supported and fed along the way to Azad Maidan in the middle of the night  and the next day  by all sections, without consideration of caste, creed and class.

By Tuesday, all protestors had departed peacefully, their demands met by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Frankly, Mumbai hasnt quite seen something like this in several decades, though sections still had compunctions.

Some believed the media could have been more purposeful and given the protest wider coverage. This may be correct to the time the march reached Mumbai, but thereafter the media, particularly newspapers, were not lacking.

Television news can be terribly abstruse, depending on which channel you watch, and social media can pull in all directions breathlessly. In any case, there can never be complete conformity on what makes `news.

A strange note of discordancy came from BJP MP Poonam Mahajan who cavalierly stated that the Kisan March was a political exercise and propped up by `urban Maoists, or words to the effect.

This betrayed ignorance of how politics has evolved in the state Mumbai and the contribution of stalwarts from the Left and socialists like S A Dange, B T Ranadive, Ahilya Rangnekar, Mrinal Gore to name some. To compare them to Maoists was pathetic.

Of course, the march was political. All protests are and the Left was clearly at its core. But every other party  Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and Mahajans own  was also trying to extract mileage from it.

The more pertinent aspect in the current context, however, is the grave insensitivity shown by Mahajan to the reasons behind the march. This is acute and large-scale agrarian distress that has been bereft of remedy at the human level.

In a way, it reminds one of Ajit Pawars (in)famous address to a rally of farmers in 2013 seeking a solution to drought related problems.

`` But where are we going to get water from? Should we urinate? And when we are not getting water to drink even urine is not coming easily, the then deputy chief minister said mockingly. The rest is history.

The tragedy of land usurpation and unfair prices for produce leading to farmers being trapped in never-ending debt and penury hit Mumbaikars powerfully this time, not the tugs and pulls of ideologies.

To be dismissive or blase about it, however, reveals an arrogance of power that could be politically fatal.Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis sent Aurangabad police commissioner Yashaswi Yadav on forced leave for allegedly mishandling the public outcry and protest against piled up garbage in the city last week.

An inquiry against the IPS officer will also be conducted by a panel comprising additional chief secretary and director general of police, the CM announced in the legislative assembly.

The issue of the piled up garbage in the Aurangabad city over the last few days and the subsequent protest that took a violent turn was scheduled to be discussed through calling attention in the Assembly on Thursday. Citizens of an area where the civic body was supposed to dump the garbage objected to the same, following which the civic body could not dispose off the garbage in the city.

Leader of opposition in the legislative assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, demanded action against the commissioner. He said that the protesting citizens including women and children were brutally beaten up by the police and the responsibility should be fixed on the police chief. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar demanded suspension of the civic and police chief of the Aurangabad.

Members from other parties too demanded strict action against the police chief for the atrocities against the protesters. The members narrated atrocities against the protesting women, patients and children, and how the police resorted to stone pelting.

The uproar by the opposition led to adjournment of the house on five occasions, followed by a meeting of leaders from both the sides. CM Fadnavis later made a statement in the lower house, announcing that the probe in the case will be complete in one month, and the officer will be sent on the forced leave until then.

The additional charge of city commissioner has been handed over to inspector general of police of Aurangabad range.

Yadav was not available for a comment.The Samta Nagar police on Wednesday, arrested 42-year-old Jagdish Pawar, alias Jagya, the prime accused in the murder of former Shiv Sena corporator Ashok Sawant.

Pawars aide, Abhishek Mane, 28, was also arrested. The duo was caught in Nerle village in Sangli district, nearly 380kms from Mumbai after the police intercepted a bus on a highway. On January 7, Sawant, a two-time corporator, was stabbed to death near his Kandivli (East) apartment while returning home.

The police had arrested six persons  Sohail Dhodiya, 30, former assistant sub-inspector Deepak Hanawate, 50, along with four others, including a minor. Pawar and Mane were on the run for nearly two months.

Senior inspector, Anil Mane, said, Acting on a tip off, we arrested them from Sangli. The duo was produced before a court and has been remanded in our custody till March 23. Before this, the duo was in places such as Kolhapur, Raigad, Pune, Goa and Virar. The police teams were behind them but the duo had switched off their mobile phones.

Apart from Sawants murder, Pawar was booked for another murder in 1992. Mane a high school dropout, has an assault case against him.

Sawant had complained about extortion calls and threats from Pawar in 2017. Sawant had complained against Pawar to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) against an illegal hall because of which Pawar had to pay huge penalty, the prosecution submitted.

A sessions court recently rejected the bail application of two of the other arrested accused. The prosecution referred to the Bhima-Koregaon violence and told the court there will be law and order problems if the accused are released on bail.The Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday arrested the kingpin and three others for allegedly running a fake online lottery with its server based in Canada under the name of state-run Rajshree Lottery.

According to officials of Unit 11 in Kandivli, they raided the shops and found the lottery was being operated by the name of Bhagyashree lottery. The owner and developer had also developed an app called RB.

The accused, identified as Kadar Badshah Allhabaksh Shaikh, 42, had bought the rights of Rajshree lottery. However, when he realised he was not making much profit, he developed a similar platform by the name of Bhagyashree lottery.

The officers raided a franchise at Malwani and arrested two men. They then tracked another franchise in Charkop, Kandivli and arrested Badshah along with others. The four were booked and remanded to police custody till March 20.More than 13 lakh Thane residents may soon get homes under the cluster development scheme of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). Civic commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal said Thane will be the first city in the country to be redeveloped under the cluster scheme.

The corporation has prepared 43 urban renewal plans (URP), which aim to provide homes and employment in the neighbouring areas.

On Wednesday, Jaiswal presented the 43 URPs before the politicians and the media.

The scheme aims at all-round development of the city by increasing road network, open spaces, green zones and civic amenities.

The first phase of the scheme, which includes redevelopment of 43 URPs, will take around 15 years for implementation. The URPs have been planned keeping in mind the citys requirement till 2041.

The work on the first cluster is slated to begin in October this year, after the monsoon.

Jaiswal said, We have prepared detailed URPs of 43 clusters in eight sectors in the city. The URPs will not only provide homes but also employment opportunities for the people of that area. Each URP will have commercial centres, city centres and community centres. The community centres will house the local small time vendors in that area. Based on the expected population of the URPs, a study on the amenities required was conducted. All

he URPs will have roads networks, playgrounds, hospitals, green areas and public transport.

He added that the reservations of coastal regulation zones (CRZ) or forest, which had hampered development, have also been addressed under the cluster scheme. The citys resources such as lakes, creeks, monuments or historical settlements will also be restored.

The planning is done after studying several such successful clusters across the world. The city has around 5,903 hectares of developable land, of which 1,477.18 hectares (around 23 percent) will be developed in the first phase. Residents can get free homes up till 300 square feet and will have to pay if they want additional area.

The project also aims at creating equal housing stock in the city. Currently, the housing stock is concentrated mostly along the Ghodbunder area.

The URPs are planned for the next 25 years. We will require 15 years to implement these 43 URPs. This will, however, be the first city in India to be redeveloped completely under the cluster scheme. The earlier projects were implemented in isolated areas. The Thane cluster pattern can easily be replicated by the other cities in the future, Jaiswal added.

The URPS will be published by March 20, following which citizens are invited to give suggestions and objections for a month.

Lakes to be restored

The city of Thane is recognized for its lakes, which TMC has planned to revive under the cluster schemes. Lakes that have been encroached upon will be dug up to restore its original size. Creeks and settlements belonging to the koli, fishing and agricultural communities will also be restored in the cluster. The scheme will also benefit from upcoming projects like water front development, water transport, internal metro and PRTS (personal rapid transit system).

TMC to demand housing stock from developers

The civic body will require enough housing stock to rehabilitate people while implementing the cluster development scheme. To provide these transit camps, the corporation has proposed to undertake housing projects. However these affordable housing will take time for construction. The civic commissioner has now decided to approach the developers and real estate organisations.

Most developers have many unsold flats which do not sell for two to three years. They can give these flats on rent to us for ten years. The residents can use these flats as transit camps, Jaiswal said.Five persons, including three minors, were killed and five others suffered serious injuries when their car hit the rear of a truck near Deri Machha village of Badalpur in Greater Noida on late Wednesday night.

All the members are from a joint family from Badhpura village in Greater Noida and were travelling in their car back home on GT Road.

According to police, a loaded truck was moving on the GT Road around 12.30am when the WagonR car, driven by Manveer, rammed the rear of the truck. Manveer is second of the four brothers, Karamveer, Satveer and Jasbeer, who are farmers and run dairy business at Badhpura.

The car was headed towards Greater Noida when it hit the truck. The victims were rushed to hospital for treatment. On Thursday morning, the agitated villagers tried to block the Dadri-Badalpur Road but were pacified by the police, said Love Kumar, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Irate villagers blocked traffic on NH-91 for about 15-20 minutes around 11 am, according to the area police.

The family said that the victims had gone to attend a wedding reception after their nephews wedding at Bhowapur in Ghaziabad. The police said that five of the dead were identified as Manveer, 38, Satveers wife Neetu, 26, Satveers daughter Nisha, 8. Apart from these, Manveers 12-year-old son Arjun and daughter Khushi, 6, also died on the spot.

The front portion of the car was completely crushed as it hit the truck loaded with goods. Five people succumbed on the spot while five others were rushed to a private hospital in Ghaziabad, said Mukesh Kumar, station house officer, Badalpur police station.

The five injured included Manveers wife Sanju, 32, Satveers three minor children  Prashant, 4, Deepanshu, 2, and Kashish, 5. Karamveers daughter Anjali, 14, also suffered injuries. All the five victims suffered multiple injuries and presently under treatment at Ghaziabad hospital.

Of the five injured, Kashish is on ventilator while Manveers wife Sanju has also suffered head and facial injuries. Other children are also under treatment, said Ravi Kumar, one of the villagers attending to the injured at Ghaziabad.

The incident took place around 12.30am on late Wednesday night near Fauji Dhaba which is nearly 5 km away from victims village. The police said that they are tracing the driver with the help of trucks Delhi registration number. The police have also registered an FIR under IPC sections for rash driving, causing grievous hurt by acts endangering lives of others and causing death due to negligence at Badalpur police station.The atmosphere outside the Bhatis house at Badhpura village in Greater Noida was one of despair. For them, the wedding celebrations turned into tragedy in a matter of minutes when five members of their family, including three children, were killed during a collision.

Barely five kilometres from their home, the WagonR, in which 10 members of the Bhati family were travelling, collided with the rear side of a truck, leading to the death of five members on the spot while the other five were admitted to Sarvodaya Hospital at Razapur in Ghaziabad.

Grief-stricken family members and relatives assembled at the courtyard of the house, in which the four Bhati brothers lived along with their families. Manveer Bhati, 38, the second oldest brother of the four, died in the crash.

Two of Manveers three children  12-year-old Arjun and six-year-old Khushi  also died in the incident, while 32-year-old Sanju, Manveers wife, is undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Its a tragedy unlike any other, sobbed 19-year-old Robin, a son of Karamveer, Manveers older brother.

The family had been jolted by the news around 12.30am on Thursday.

Robin said he did not even have time to comprehend the loss of so many family members. Being one of the older members of the family, Robin was running around taking care of things at home, as half the family members were indisposed having gone to the hospital to take care of the injured members.

Robin said that his uncle, Satveer, has been severely affected by the incident as his 26-year-old wife Neetu and eight-year-old daughter Nisha died in the incident. Satveer was in a state of shock and refused to accept that they had died. He kept saying, I did not want them to go.

Who would have known that it would be the last time he would be seeing them, said Robin.

According to the neighbours, the Bhati family was among the largest and oldest in the village. The brothers had lost their father only last year, said a neighbour.

The family had been dependent on farming and animal rearing for income and on occasion, would loan out the family car as a taxi.

The village stood with the Bhati family in solidarity. Half the villagers are in the hospital to support them, said one of the many neighbours who was present outside the Bhatis residence. They said that their village had been struck by tragedy and they are ready to help the Bhatis in their hour of need.

Manveers wife 32-year-old Sanju is undergoing treatment at Sarvodaya Hospital in Ghaziabad. Three of Satveers children  four-year-old Prashant, five-year-old Kashish and two-year-old Dipanshu  and 14-year-old Anjali, Robins sister, are also undergoing treatment at the hospital.Five persons, including three minors, were killed and five others suffered serious injuries when their car hit the rear side of a truck near Deri Machha village of Badalpur in Greater Noida on late Wednesday night. All the members are from a joint family from Badpur village in Greater Noida and were travelling in their car back home on GT Road.

According to police, a loaded truck was moving on the GT Road around 12.30am when the WagonR car, driven by Manveer, rammed into the rear of the truck. Manveer is second of the four brothers, Karamveer, Satveer and Jasbeer, who are farmers and run dairy business at Badpur.

The car was headed towards Greater Noida when it hit the truck. The victims were rushed to hospital for treatment. On Thursday morning, the agitated villagers tried to block the Dadri-Badalpur Road but were pacified by the police, said Love Kumar, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Irate villagers blocked traffic on NH-91 for about 15-20 minutes around 11 am, according to the area police.

The family said that the victims had gone to attend a wedding reception after their nephews wedding at Bhowapur in Ghaziabad. The accident took place while all the family members, including minor children, were returning to Greater Noida, said Praveen Kumar, Manveers brother-in- law.

The police said that five of the dead were identified as Manveer, 38, Satveers wife Neetu, 26, Satveers daughter Nisha, 8. Apart from these, Manveers 12-year-old son Arjun and daughter Khushi, 6, also died on the spot.

The front portion of the car was completely crushed as it hit the truck loaded with goods. Five people succumbed on the spot while five others were rushed to a private hospital in Ghaziabad. The locals rushed to the spot when they saw the accident and pulled out the injured. The driver of the truck fled the spot leaving his vehicle behind, said Mukesh Kumar, station house officer, Badalpur police station.

The five injured included Manveers wife Sanju, 32, Satveers three minor children  Prashant, 4, Deepanshu, 2, and Kashish, 5. Karamveers daughter Anjali, 14, also suffered injuries. All the five victims suffered multiple injuries and presently under treatment at Ghaziabad hospital.

Of the five injured, Kashish is on ventilator while Manveers wife Sanju has also suffered head and facial injuries. Other children are also under treatment, said Ravi Kumar, one of the villagers attending to the injured at Ghaziabad.

The incident took place around 12.30am on late Wednesday night near Fauji Dhaba which is nearly 5 km away from victims village. The police said that they are tracing the driver with the help of trucks Delhi registration number.

The police towed away the damaged car to Badalpur police station while the truck left behind by the driver was also seized after the incident.

The police have also registered an FIR under IPC sections for rash driving, causing grievous hurt by acts endangering lives of others and causing death due to negligence at Badalpur police station.

Following the five deaths, grief stricken family members and relatives of the victims assembled at the courtyard of the house in which the four Bhati brothers lived along with their families. Manveer Bhati, 38, the second oldest brother lost his life in the crash. Along with him died the hopes of a bright future for his family, when two of his three children  son Arjun and daughter Khushi  also passed away. His wife Sanju is undergoing treatment in the hospital.

Its a tragedy unlike any other, sobbed Robin, 19, the son of Manveers older brother Karamveer. They had been jolted with the news at around 12.30am.

The one person who had completely lost his wits was Satveer, Manveers younger brother. His wife Neetu had also passed away along with his daughter Nisha. He refused to accept the fact that they were gone. All he kept saying was I did not want them to go.Farmers whose land is required for the development of passenger facilities under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) are still undecided about parting with their land.

The project is aimed at running regional flights from Hindon airbase, to ease the burden on the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

For the RCS, Ghaziabad officials need to lease nearly 7.5 acres from farmers for development of passenger facilities at Sikandarpur, near the Hindon airbase.

The land is needed to set up entry/exit gates and waiting facilities for passengers, while only the runway of the airbase will be used for running the flights.

The UP chief secretary on March 7 had finalised the lease rent rate at Rs200 per square metre per year for the land.

The administration has set us a rate of Rs200 sqm per year while we have proposed Rs500 per sqm per year. Earlier, we gave them a notarised lease agreement of our land (for asking Rs500 per sqm) but the officials did not accept it and claimed it has no legal validity. Apart from this, we have given them our representation, Abhishek Garg, whose family owns nearly half of the land required for RCS, said.

Landowners said they are willing to lease out their land only for three years and want it returned. They also demand a 10% yearly hike in the lease rate.

In case they force us, we will resort to legal recourse, Garg added.

The landowners said that the administration is resorting to pressure tactics by repeatedly calling meetings with farmers/landowners while only a few of the 30-odd landowners may have agreed to the lease proposal.

However, the district officials had said that a majority of landowners have agreed to lease their land for the project.

A majority of landowners have given consent on the price that was recently finalised. We are preparing the draft of the lease agreement, which is chalked out. The points of the lease deed will also be sent to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and finalised later. The AAI will also decide the lease period, Sunil Kumar, additional district magistrate (finance & revenue), said.

Officials also said that now, nearly 10 acres of land is required as against the previous demand for 7.5 acres. Some of this land also belongs to UP Avas Vikas.

After the approval of the lease rate of Rs200 per sqm per year, officials said that the rates were also in-principally agreed by the AAI.

The work of development of roads and electricity were assigned to the municipal corporation and public works department by the state officials.A director of an event management company was allegedly robbed of Rs8 lakh at gunpoint around 11.30am at Sector 81.

A case was registered on the complaint of the woman at the Phase-2 police station.

Ritika Arora, a resident of Jangpura in Delhi, was travelling to work in her Innova car. She was accompanied by an employee, identified as Vaishali, and her driver Dharmendra.

She alleged that she was chased by four masked men in a Hyundai Accent car, who overtook her vehicle and then blocked their way in Sector 81. Then they allegedly forced her to hand over the bag that contained the cash and threatened to shoot her if she resisted.

Arora said that she was carrying Rs8 lakh in order to pay the salaries of the companys employees on Thursday.

According to police officials, the robbery was pre-planned. The robbers had prior knowledge that she would be carrying the money. That is why they could target the vehicle and rob them of the money at a place suitable to them, Shwetabh Pandey, circle officer-3, Noida, said.

The police said that as this could be an inside job, they are also questioning the driver.

The incident took place barely 500 metres from the office of the victim at Sector 81 in the Phase-2 industrial area, which further implies that an insider was involved in the incident, the police said.

It was alleged in the complaint that four robbers were involved in the incident. Three of the masked men got out of their car after blocking the womans vehicle and smashed the Innovas windshield, the police said.

They pointed the gun at the occupants of the car and made off with the bag, it has been alleged. The woman said she could call the police for help only after the robbers had left the spot.

The police reached the spot as soon as they received a call. The superintendent of police (city) Arun Kumar Singh also visited the spot.

Pandey said that a full-scale investigation has been launched and an enquiry is being conducted to nab the culprits.With a year left for Lok Sabha polls, various Members of Parliament (MPs) from Pune and others have swung into action. They are clearing pending files and focusing on completion of developmental work. There are, however, representatives, whose overall performance has not been up to the mark.

The latest report by PRS legislative research throws light on the performance of MPs from Lok Sabha (LS) and Rajya Sabha (RS), indicating that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported Member of Parliament (MP) in Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Kakade, has been the lowest performer as far as attendence, debate and raising questions in the RS is concerned while BJPs Amar Sable has excelled in his performance on these parameters.

Similarly in the Lok Sabha, Shiv Sena leader Shivajirao Adhalrao Patils performance has been poor while Supriya Sule of NCP and Shrirang Barne of Shiv Sena have excelled in their performance, according to PRS legislative research, a Delhi based non-profit established in September 2005. The non-profit has used multiple parameters to judge the performance of MPs.

Kakade, who was elected as MP in the Rajya Sabha on April 3,2014, has raised only five questions in four years and attended only 18% of the sittings of the Rajya Sabha, according to PRS legislative. His attendance has been much lower than the state and national average which is 76% and 78%.

All through the tenure, Kakade did not participate in a single debate held in the Parliament and raised only five questions, which is also much lower than the state and national average which is 346 and 216 respectively. He has asked one question related to agriculture as he is a member of the standing committee on chemicals and fertilisers.

According to the report, Kakade has not presented a single private members bill in the Parliament. As far as the private members bill is concerned, 3.3 and 1 is the state and national average respectively.

Despite repeated attempts, Kakade could not be contacted. An email and text messages sent to Kadade went unanswered.

As far as spending of funds are concerned, Sable has spent 67 % of the funds allocated to him under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Division while Vandana Chavan has spent 73% of the funds from the Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, Sule has spent 78% of the MPLAD fund while Anil Shirole of BJP has spent only 50% of the funds.

Among other MPs representing the city, BJP MP Anil Shirole has a good parliamentary performance record. Shirole has currently raised 110 questions with a participation in 13 parliamentary debates. His attendance in the Lok Sabha sessions has been 94%, which is above the state and national average. But Shirole has not presented a single private members bill in the Parliament.

Sable, in his very first term shows 91% attendance in the Parliament and has participated in 21 debates and raised 209 questions during the session. Sable has not presented a single private members bill in the Parliament.

Sule, an MP from Baramati constituency, has much better record in parliamentary performance. In her second term, Sule has raised 901 questions (highest in Maharashtra) with 96% attendance in Lok Sabha proceedings. Sule, in her tenure of four years, participated in 82 parliamentary debates. As far as a private members bill is concerned, Sule presented 16 in the Parliament.

Adhalarao Patil, representing Shirur constituency for the third time, also has a low attendance record in the Lok Sabha as compared to the state and national average. According to PRS legislative research, Patil has attended only 66% parliamentary sessions with 28 debate sessions. However, he has a good record of raising questions in the Parliament. Patil has asked 850 questions which is almost three times higher than the national average.Patil presented eight private members bill in the Parliament.

Barne, an MP from Maval constituency, has 94% attendance in the parliamentary session. He also participated in 255 debates (highest in Maharashtra) and raised 869 questions which is almost three times higher than the national average. Barne presented 16 private members bill in the Parliament.

Vandana Chavan, who has been renominated to the RS for the second term, has 69% attendance. Chavan participated in 36 debates and raised 237 questions. Chavan presented only one private members bill in the Rajya Sabha.A day after the Border Security Force (BSF) recovered 9kg of heroin from Khalra border outpost in Tarn Taran, it seized 11kg of contraband along the Indo-Pak border at Ramkot border outpost in Amritsar sector on Wednesday night.

Another 4kg of the contraband buried in a field was recovered by a joint team of the BSF and special task force (STF) at Mutheyanwali village of Tarn Taran district.

In Amritsar, the contraband was found in a PVC pipe pushed into the India-Pakistan barbed fence, said officials.

Before seizing the contraband, troops of the 88 Battalion opened fire on Pakistani smugglers, who managed to flee.

At around 2.15 am in the area under Ramkot outpost,

personnel observed suspicious movement across the international border, BSF deputy inspector general (DIG) JS Oberoi said. BSF personnel initially thought the movement to be an animal, but soon observed shadow of a man, he added.

The BSF men then observed that one or two Pakistani smugglers were trying to insert a plastic pipe into the fence to push the contraband consignment into Indian territory, he said.

To stop the smugglers, troops opened fire towards the Pakistan side but the men managed to escape, taking advantage of the fully-grown wheat crop and the dark. After the firing, BSF men searched the area thoroughly and found a plastic pipe containing 11 packets of heroin, the

DIG said.

The weight of the seized contraband is over 11kg, he said. The DIG said soon after recovering the contraband, a flag meeting with Pakistan Rangers was conducted.

We have given evidence, including foot marks of the smugglers, to the Pakistan Rangers. Footmarks of entry and exit clearly indicate that the men tried smuggle contraband into the Indian territory. The rangers assured that they will help

investigate the matter, a BSF official said.

Oberoi said Pakistani smugglers often take advantage of the fully gown wheat crop as it

gives them cover and they can easily escape by taking the advantage of it.

After harvesting of the wheat crop, it will become difficult for the smugglers to roam near the fencing. But now, it is relatively easy for them to approach the barbed fence, he said.

Joint op in Tarn Taran

A joint team of the Punjab Police special task force and BSF recovered 4kg heroin buried in a field along the India-Pakistan border at Mutheyanwali village of Tarn Taran district on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, STFs

assistant inspector general (AIG) Rashpal Singh said that acting on a tip-off that one Balwinder Singh had received heroin from Pakistani smugglers and the

contraband was concealed in the field of Vajir Singh across the Indo-Pak fencing in Tarn Taran district.

During the search, four packets of heroin were recovered from the field ahead of the fence. The STF official said Balwinder and his associates used to supply heroin to other states.

A case under Sections 18-21-61-85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act has been registered at state special operation cell police station in Amritsar against Balwinder and his unidentified aides.

The role of Vajir Singh was being investigated.After winning over audiences and critics alike with his latest outing Tholiprema, a moving story of first love and separation, actor Varun Tej will next collaborate with Sankalp Reddy, director of the critically-acclaimed submarine-based war film Ghazi. Their new film will be a space drama which will feature Varun in the role of an astronaut. The latest update is that actress Aditi Rao Hydari, last seen on screen in Padmaavat, is in talks for the project and shes expected to be signed soon. Having recently joined her maiden Telugu film Sammohanam, this will be her second outing in the language.

The project is expected to go on the floors from April and the makers are planning for year-end release. According to producer Y. Rajeev Reddy, the team along with Varun and Sankalp will head to Kazakhstan for month-long training in zero gravity conditions very soon. Originally planned to be shot in the US, the film will now be shot in Georgia where special sets and rigs will be built. The team will rope in stuntmen from Hollywood to shoot the action sequences. Before the team leaves to Kazakhstan for training, the rest of the cast and crew will be finalised. Apparently, its said to be a story of four astronauts on a mission and Sankalp is busy scouting actors for other key roles in the film.

National award-winning director Krish, who is currently helming Kangana Ranauts Manikarnika, will be co-producing the film with Rajeev and his partner. Gnana Sekhar, who worked on Balakrishnas Gauthamiputra Satakarni, has been roped in to crank the camera.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopActor Arjun Bijlanis career has been growing with every project he takes up on television  from the studious boy in Miley Jab Hum Tum to the ambitious man in Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil. Amidst this popularity, the actor never forgets to thank his fans.

I think that fans are one of the most important part of my life now. They define who I am in terms of my career and they give so much unconditional love. It makes you want to work harder, makes you feel happy, says Arjun.

Actor Arjun Bijlani with an emotional fan.

The Ishq Mein Marjawan actor adds, I hope that this grows in the future and thats what I want to take away with me in this life  my fans love and care for me.

Besides India, Arjuns popularity has also grown a lot in Thailand, which is an expanding market for Indian television industry. The actor, who was seen in Naagin, recently went there to promote his show and was surprised to see that its not just Indian fans who love him unconditionally but local people as well. There were close to 60,000-70,000 people [at the event] as Naagin is one of the most hit shows there. So, it was an overwhelming experience and the fans out there are really loving, very warm. I had one of the best times at this event, he says.

Elaborating on reports of fans crying after seeing him, Arjun says, Yeah, a couple of fans and started crying. I didnt know how to react when I saw them. All I knew was that jaadu ki jhappi always works. I just hugged all of them.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreJagmeet Singh, the head of Canadas New Democratic Party (NDP), has disavowed all acts of terrorism even as he came into the eye of a storm over his appearance at an apparently pro-Khalistan event in San Francisco in 2015.

Singh, who was denied a visa by India in 2013 and had not spoken out against the practice of some guruwaras in Canada eulogising Sikh militants as heroes, had appeared at the San Francisco event on a platform with the backdrop of a large poster of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, considered in India as the person who birthed the violence of the Khalistan movement in the 1980s.

I condemn all acts of terrorism in every part of the world, regardless of who the perpetrators are or who the victims are. Terrorism can never be seen as a way to advance the cause of any one group. It only leads to suffering, pain and death, Singh said in a statement.

However, he maintained his stance as a human rights advocate who thought it important to name human rights atrocities, and cited the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India in that context.

I have seen pain and anger and my approach has always been to give space to those feelings in order to work through them, but never to condone acts of violence, Singh said.

Canadian media reported on the controversial video featuring Singhs speech at the rally held in San Francisco. Singh was at that time a member of the Ontario provincial parliament.

The daily Globe and Mail reported that the video showed Singh walking in the pro-sovereignty march behind a truck that displayed signs saying India out of Sikh Homeland, and 1984 Sikh Genocide Independence. Parade participants carried the same messages on placards as well as others including Sikhs Demand Independence.

In that speech, speaking in a mix of English and Punjabi, Singh said India was built on inequality before moving on to the theme of a separate homeland, though in a tangential manner.

If where we are living, we cannot remain freely, there is oppression, where your own government is trying to finish you off, then we have to think whether we can stay there or not, he said to the crowd.

If this is not our home, why cant we build our own? That is our right, he said, adding it was not an option to move elsewhere. He also said, This is our legal right, to talk about this openly.

Shinder Purewal, professor of political science at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, reacted: A spectre is haunting Jagmeet Singh, the spectre of Khalistan.

Accusing Singh of being a Khalistani, Purewal said, He used these connections to win nominations for his entry to provincial legislature and become the national leader of NDP in terms of both people and money. However, now he is running away from his past because this affiliation is not setting well with the Canadian people.

In his statement, Singh added, Questions regarding the future of India are not for me to decide. I am not a citizen of India or an Indian politician. Self-determination means respecting the views of people in whatever country to choose their own path.

Soon after he was elected leader of the NDP last October, Singh had spoken of self-determination for Punjab. He doubled down on that position in the statement, as he asserted his belief in human rights includes a fundamental principle that is written into Article 1 of the UN Charter: respect for equal rights and self-determination.

Canadian media also reported on a second video from February 2016, in which Singh appeared at an event in Southall in London organised by a group identified as the National Sikh Youth Federation, which advocates for a separate homeland.

While these videos have been available for some time and were posted on Twitter when he won the NDP leadership race, the flurry of coverage of Singhs presence at events that appear to be pro-Khalistan came as the Canadian media increasingly focuses on the issue of separatists using Canada to organise themselves.

This issue gained prominence during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus visit to India last month, when he was apparently snubbed by the Indian government in the initial days of the trip for being seen as soft on radical Sikh groups.Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed on Thursday filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, challenging a notification of the interior ministry of Pakistan to ban his social welfare activities.

Saeed filed the petition through his counsel advocate AK Dogar. He submitted to the LHC that the interior ministry on February 10 issued a notification with regard to freezing bank accounts and taking over assets associated with the Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-i-Insaaniyat Foundation under the Anti-Terrorism (amendment) Ordinance 2018.

The government of Pakistan acted under the pressure of foreign powers, including UN and India, he said and contended that Pakistan is a sovereign independent state and makes its own laws to govern its citizens.

If there is a conflict between the laws of the land and any provision of United Nations Security Counsel Act, 1948, the law of the land shall prevail, he said.

The founder of Lashkara-e-Taiba further said the FIF owns 369 ambulances, helped 72,000 persons to charity hospitals and treated 600,000 patients only in 2017.

JuD dug out 2000 wells for supplying water in Tharparkar, Baluchistan and Balochistan.

He pleaded the court to declare the impugned notification of the interior ministry null and void with regard to taking over the assets of the organisations.

Separately, Saeed last week challenged the presidential ordinance under which his group has been banned for being on the watch-list of the United Nations in the Islamabad High Court.

President Mamnoon Hussain last month promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 with regards to proscription of terrorist individuals and organisations to include entities listed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) -- in a move to declare Hafiz Saeed-linked JuD and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) as proscribed groups.

Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack, was placed on the terrorism black list by the United Nations in December 2008.

The banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head was released from the house arrest in November last year after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He was under house arrest since January last year.An Afghan man taken hostage by the Taliban made a dramatic escape by stealing a gun while his captors were praying and shooting dead seven of them and wounding 18 others, officials said on Thursday.

Awal Khan and a local police officer were kidnapped on Wednesday as they were driving in the eastern province of Paktika, provincial deputy security chief Abdul Rauf Masood told AFP.

Paktika is a Taliban stronghold bordering Pakistan.

The officer was killed and 36-year-old Awal taken to a Taliban compound in Gomal district where he was held for hours.

During afternoon prayers, Awal, who Masood said was handcuffed at the time, grabbed a weapon belonging to one of his captors and opened fire.

Awal Khan sprayed bullets on all of them, killing seven and wounding 18 others, provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Rahman Ayaz told AFP.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to AFP that the group had kidnapped the two men and that Awal had opened fire on the militants, killing three of them.

Awal then fled in a pickup truck belonging to his kidnappers, Ayaz said.

His brother, a local police commander, shared details of the incident with authorities.

The Taliban is often involved in kidnappings of Afghans and foreigners, sometimes holding people for years for prisoner exchanges.Britain, France, Germany and the US on Thursday abhorred a nerve agent attack on former Russian spy and his daughter, saying it is an assault on the UKs sovereignty and threatens the security of all nations.

In a rare joint statement, the four countries condemned the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War and called on Russia to address all questions related to the attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

We, the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, abhor the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal, they said.

The UK government has linked the attack to Soviet-designed nerve agents known as Novichok.

Novichok refers to a group of 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.

Russia should, in particular, provide full and complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the strongly-worded statement said.

The joint statement was issued a day after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers in the single biggest such expulsion in around 30 years.

Russia has said that it will retaliate with the expulsion of British diplomats from Moscow, describing the UKs allegations of Russian culpability in the Skripals poisoning as insane and absolutely boorish.

The four world powers in the statement said that the use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.

It is an assault on the United Kingdoms 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 said.

Our concerns are also heightened against the background of a pattern of earlier irresponsible Russian behavior. We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security, the joint statement said.

The United Kingdom thoroughly briefed its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. We share the United Kingdoms assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation, and note that Russias failure to address the legitimate request by the government of the UK further underlines Russias responsibility, statement said.

The attack on the former Russian spy, a British citizen, has revived fears of a new era of Cold War with Russia, with UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson admitting that relations with Russia were not good. Some people say it might not be a cold war, but it is chilly, he said.Senior Labour MP Virendra Sharma has asked Prime Minister Theresa May to join him and others to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre next month.

Jalandhar-origin Sharma asked May during Prime Ministers Question Time: This year, April 13 represents the 99th anniversary of what happened at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, India, known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which more than 1,000 peaceful protesters were murdered by soldiers under the command of General Dyer.

Will the Prime Minister join me in commemorating the massacre and meet me and others who are campaigning for this shameful episode to be remembered across the UK?

May replied: The honourable gentleman has raised a very specific issue and a very specific point. I will be happy to look at the question he has raised and respond to him in writing.

There have been demands in the past that Britain tender an apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

As prime minister, David Cameron visited the memorial in Punjab in 2013 and described it as a deeply shameful event, but did not apologise, saying: I think the right thing is to acknowledge what happened, to recall what happened, to show respect and understanding for what happened.

Hundreds were killed when troops from the British Indian Army led by Brig Reginald Dyer opened fire on unarmed protesters at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919.

A British commission that conducted an inquiry into the incident concluded 379 people were killed but Indian leaders estimated up to 1,000 people had died in the firing.Canadas top Sikh real estate tycoon Bob Dhillon donated $10 million (around 50 crore) to the University of Lethbridge in Alberta on Wednesday.

The university has renamed its business school after him and it now be called the Dhillon School of Business. Calgary-based Bob (Navneet) Dhillon is the president and CEO of the real estate giant Mainstreet Equity Corporation, which he started from the back of his car in the 1980s.

With its assets over $1.5 billion, the company owns over 10,000 apartment units across Canada.

The university said the Dhillon School of Business will drive futuristic learning and focus on new technologies such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies and new growth industries, including artificial intelligence and robotics.

Im a first-generation immigrant and Im very fortunate that Im in a position to make this contribution. This is my way of giving back to Canada, said Dhillon, whose family hails from Tallewal village near Barnala in Punjab.

Dhillon, who is an alumnus of Shimlas Bishop Cotton School, said: I am an immigrant and a businessman and Im extremely thankful for the opportunities Ive had growing up here in Canada.

I was very fortunate that the importance of education was drilled into me by my family, my parents, my brother, really everybody around me growing up.

The Sikh real estate tycoon, who also holds an MBA from Ivey School of Business at Western University, added: Education is what drives successful global nations and Canada is unique in that there is so much opportunity here. The UofL is a world-class university that the world needs to discover.

University president and vice-chancellor Mike Mahon said the donation from Dhillon will be transformational.

Our university was founded by forward-thinking mavericks...Here we are 50-plus years later and were still looking ahead, pushing boundaries and creating an educational experience like no other. This gift, this commitment from Dhillon, will help drive us forward, he said.The Sri Lankan government on Thursday lifted a week-long ban on access to Facebook, after officials from the US social media giant agreed to step up efforts to remove hate speech posted on its platform during the anti-Muslim violence in Kandy district.

The government imposed a state of emergency March 6 and blocked Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media sites following anti-Muslim violence in the islands central hills Kandy and Ampara districts.

It restricted the use of social media after police claimed that they were being used to spread hatred against the minority community.

The nationwide restrictions, however, on image and video sharing on messaging apps WhatsApp and Viber were lifted yesterday.

President Maithripala Sirisena ordered the telecom regulator to lift the ban following talks between the government, led by his secretary and head of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Austin Fernando and Facebook officials in Colombo.

My secretary has discussed with officials of Facebook, who have agreed that its platform will not be used for spreading hate speech and inciting violence, the president, who is currently touring Japan, said on Twitter.

According to an official statement, President Sirisena has ordered the countrys telecommunications regulator to lift the blockage on access to Facebook.

In the context, where the impact that could be made by social media to expeditiously increase violent actions based on racism and religious extremism has been internationally proven.

Sri Lanka was able to control the rapid spread of violence by temporarily imposing restriction on social media as an action to ensure the national and public safety of Sri Lanka, the statement said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had said the government would put in place a mechanism for social media to prevent the attempts to disturb the livelihoods of people through spreading ethnic-hatred and racism, and damaging the image of an individual through false allegations.

The government received flak from the Opposition for not lifting the ban despite improvement in the situation, which alleged that it was a move aimed at gaging the criticism of the government.

Sri Lankas minister of youth affairs and southern development Sagala Ratnayaka had also criticised the government for continuing with the ban on social media, saying blocking Facebook and messaging apps in long term was not an option in present times.

He said the social media ban makes a negative impact on the economy and hamper IT, E-commerce and tourism sectors.

Telecommunications minister Harin Fernando said the blockage through local service providers on Facebook and other social media were necessary to prevent an escalation of the anti-Muslim riots that left three people dead and arson attacks against over 200 houses and businesses in Kandy district.

A state of emergency was declared to rein in the spread of communal violence between the majority Sinhala and minority Muslims in the countrys scenic Kandy district.

Violence, triggered by the death of a Sinhalese man at the hands of a mob, erupted in the Theldeniya area of the central hill district popular with tourists.

The government deployed thousands of troops to restore peace and protect the minority Muslims and their property.

The area is currently peaceful and no attacks have been reported since Thursday.US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Lawrence Kudlow will be his new chief economic adviser and chairman of the national economic council

Kudlow, a prominent Republican economic analyst, will succeed Gary Cohn, who resigned earlier this month. He had earlier served in the budget office of former president Ronald Reagan and had advised the Trump campaign informally.

Larry Kudlow will be my Chief Economic Advisor as Director of the National Economic Council, Trump tweeted on Thursday. Our Country will have many years of Great Economic & Financial Success, with low taxes, unparalleled innovation, fair trade and an ever expanding labor force leading the way! #MAGA.

Though a long-time adviser and supporter of Trump, Kudlow  a believer in free-trade  does not agree with the president on his recent decision to slap stiff tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

We are imposing sanctions on our own country, putting up tariffs supposedly to make Americans more prosperous, Kudlow wrote in an article he jointly authored with two other people. In this issue, he agrees with Cohn, who was against the tariffs and protectionist leanings of the Trump administration.

Trump has acknowledged Kudlow differed with him on tariff, but told reporters he had come around.

However, Kudlow is a strong supporter of Trumps tax reforms and efforts to do away with regulations. He said Trump offered him the job in a phone call on Monday. I immediately accepted, he told The Wall Street Journal.The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against 19 Russian individuals and five entities for meddling in the 2016 elections and carrying out cyber-attacks in America and around the world, the treasury department said.

The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in US elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

He added that there will be additional sanctions

The targeted individuals and entities included those indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the elections and related issues.

The treasurys list of sanctioned targets also included Russian intelligence services, the Federal Security Service (FSB)  the KGBs successor  and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), which is a military intelligence agency.

The GRU was directly involved in interfering in the 2016 US election through cyber-enabled activities, the treasury department said.

US intelligence has said Russians interfered in the 2016 elections to damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help her Republican rival Donald Trump win the White House. They also intended to engender disaffection among Americans for their political system.

The Thursday sanctions are also related to the February 15 NotPetya attack, a cyber-attack that the US and Britain had attributed to the Russian military. It was called one of the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history.

Global shipping, trade, the production of medicines and other sectors were impacted around the wold leading to damages worth several billions.

These new sanctions are in addition to those already in place, which include measures linked to the Russian efforts to destabilise Ukraine and occupy Crimea and violation of the sanctions programme against North Korea.

As a result of the sanctions properties and assets held by the targeted individuals and entities in American jurisdiction will be blocked and they will be prohibited from travelling to the US.Appointment

15 March 2018

Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd., a hotel ownership and management group with an upscale portfolio of 18 distinct and visually captivating properties spanning the U.S., today announced the appointment of Michael Feeley as general manager of Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa on Mission Bay. Bringing more than two decades of hospitality expertise to the role, Feeley will oversee all operations, financial performance and guest satisfaction at the resort. Before joining Noble House, Feeley's most recent role as general manager at The McCormick Scottsdale, had him focus on all areas of resort operations, financial performance and guest satisfaction. He increased revenue from $2.6 to $6.18 million, increased occupancy rates by four percent and improved guest service scores in just two fiscal years.

Previously, Feeley worked with Saguaro Resorts as regional director of food and beverage after eight years as general manager for We-Ko-Pa Resort & Conference Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. He began his career with Spring Creek Hospitality as food and beverage manager for two properties. In these leadership roles, he contributed to the strategic planning of property development, revenue management, operations, events, renovations and guest satisfaction programs. Feeley is a graduate of Boston College where he received a bachelor's degree in business management. A leader in the hospitality industry, he has served on the boards of multiple charity, commerce and tourism associations.Supplier News

15 March 2018

NAVIS, the leader in reservation sales and marketing technology for the hospitality industry, today announced that it achieved Level 1 Compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). The company has now reached the highest industry rating any business can attain for payment data security.

The PCI standard is the most rigorous payment-card security standard available globally and is designed to minimize the exposure of credit card data to risk of fraud or compromise. NAVIS recently underwent a stringent independent audit to ensure that it meets industry best practices and security controls required, surpassing all expectations and passing with flying colors.

Amber Mayer, Vice President of Product Solutions at NAVIS explains, "Although the PCI Standard is more commonly associated with merchant activities, call centers and technology partners that capture sensitive data must also follow strict security protocols before their operations can be deemed safe for capturing guest information."

Data security and breaches are still making headlines in the hospitality industry. According to a 2016 Verizon report, the accommodation (lodging) industry was second only to financial services when it comes to being impacted by security breaches. Security experts are even advising travelers to be on heightened alert when using hotels.

"Some hotels are not in compliance and don't even know it," adds Mayer. "There are significant penalties associated with noncompliance including lawsuits, audits, fines and even losing the ability to process credit card payments. The level of liability hoteliers and vacation rental owners carry is high, so it's more important than ever they choose technology partners who've been certified by approved 3rd party PCI auditors."

"We take data security seriously, and have invested heavily these last few years to ensure our technical and behavioral practices meet the most demanding requirements required for PCI DSS Level 1 certification," said NAVIS CEO Kyle Buehner. "Our clients and their guests demand that sensitive information is never compromised; achieving this standard reassures them of that."

To learn why leading lodging providers and management companies rely on NAVIS technology and services to help them maximize direct booking revenue and guest service, please visit TheNavisWay.com or call 866-712-3439.Supplier News

15 March 2018

The 2018 TechOvation Award was presented yesterday to Beekeeper by Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) during the HT-NEXT Award Ceremony in San Diego. The TechOvation Award recognizes companies for innovative products new to the marketplace from 2017 or coming in 2018. Beekeeper earned the coveted award for its workplace app that digitizes hospitality workers who don't sit behind a traditional desk and don't have access to work email. By connecting operational systems and communication channels within one secure, intuitive platform, Beekeeper is helping hoteliers exchange information, share property updates, and communicate best practices within or across departments in 30 languages.

"The Beekeeper app uses both factors of convenience and mobility that we see rapidly growing in the hospitality industry," said Michael Blake, CEO of HTNG. "We recognize Beekeeper for their innovation and are very happy to announce them as HTNG's 2018 TechOvation Award Winner!"

The TechOvation Award Contest began in December with contestants producing creative videos featuring their products. During the first round of the competition, Beekeeper was chosen as a semi-finalist after its video explained how the app connects desk and non-desk employees across locations and departments in real time via mobile or desktop, and how its intelligent dashboard improves internal communications and streamlines business processes. During round two, and after presenting its workplace app solution to a panel of 34 distinguished judges comprised of individuals of HTNG's global leadership councils, Beekeeper was named a Top 3 Finalist. In the final round, it was the audience of more than 600 hospitality technology professionals that ultimately voted Beekeeper as hospitality's most-innovative technology solution for 2018.

"Because hotel employees do not have traditional desk jobs, and therefore emails are ineffective, many properties rely on bulletin boards for internal communication, and it isn't resonating well with today's employees, especially Millennials," said Corey McCarthy, Beekeeper VP of Global Marketing. "We entered the TechOvation Award Contest because we are successfully accomplishing what no one else can, the ability to reach every single hotel employee via a web platform, mobile app and digital signage. This critical information app is also integrating with other popular applications and seamlessly bringing other tools and information to hotel employees' fingertips, such as scheduling shifts and managing tasks in real time.

"Hoteliers are unaware that a workplace app of this magnitude exists, and being named the 'most innovative' technology of 2018 signifies that the industry is in dire need of this digital transformation," she said. "Beekeeper is proud to have been among such prestigious companies vying for this top honor. We owe this achievement to our staff and development team who share our vision for success. We would also like to thank HTNG for creating this award program that recognizes technological disruptors and rewards them for their unwavering commitment for enhancing the guest experience."

About Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG)

The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, nonprofit organization with members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 21 top IT leaders from hospitality companies around the world, itself has technology responsibility for over 2.5 million guest rooms and world-leading venues. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups. For more information, visit www.htng.org.Opinion Article

15 March 2018

Introduction

ALICE has been working hard to fully understand the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and its obligations on us and our customers. We'd like to share what we've learned in order to help hoteliers and anyone else who has to figure out what is going on.

1. What's the GDPR and why should I care?

In essence, the GDPR was brought into effect to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). Building upon the 1995 Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC), the GDPR was approved by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission on April 14, 2016. After a two-year transition period it will become enforceable across the 28 member states on May 25, 2018.

The GDPR gives power back to the consumers by forcing companies to become transparent in how they are collecting, storing, and sharing their customers' personal data information. Although the GDPR applies to any organization or business collecting data on EU citizens, the nature of hotels and the various data holding sources such as OTA bookings and PMS systems escalate the regulation for travel and hospitality industries.

As ALICE grows and expands to new markets, we are complying with the GDPR to ensure our privacy settings are being adequately integrated, allowing our partners to adapt at every stage of the life cycle of customer personal information data.

2. Which hotel staff need to know about the GDPR?

Decision makers and key people in EU and EEA-based hotels should be aware that the law is changing to the GDPR. This would include at least the following roles, if they exist: General Manager, Head of Marketing, and the Revenue Manager. Each of these roles deals with a significant amount customer and employee data. These leaders should read this FAQ and look further into how to comply within the areas they are presiding over.

3. What kind of information should a hotel be cautious with?

All data about persons in the EU are covered under the GDPR. This includes both guests and employees. Hotels should document what personal data they hold, where it came from and with whom it is shared. Hotels may need to organise an information audit.

"Personal data" is any data about an identifiable person. A person can be identified by their name, phone number, email address, reservation number, IP address, or any information that allows them to be uniquely identified.

The GDPR grants extra protections for "sensitive data." This includes personal data that reveals any of the following:

trade union membership, which may be revealed by event attendance

biometrics for the purpose of uniquely identifying someone, such as a fingerprint stored for opening doors

health status, which may be disclosed in guest requests

sex life or sexual orientation, which may also be disclosed in some guest requests

The following are less likely to show up in hotel systems, but should still be understood to be sensitive in case they do show up:

genetic data

racial or ethnic origin

political opinions

religious or philosophical beliefs

All of the above types of sensitive data can only be handled with explicit consent. If this kind of data is collected incidentally, it should be removed immediately to avoid undertaking new obligations for the protection of that data.

4. How does GDPR affect the software hotels can use?

All rules that hotels must follow also apply to the software they use. If a hotel uses a product to process its data, that product must adhere to all the same obligations that the hotelier has. Every single vendor who receives personal data from a hotel must share a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with the hotelier to confirm that the vendor is compliant with the rules of the GDPR. The DPA must dictate the purposes for which the processor is processing the data.

If a hotel is using a software given to it by its brand or flag, it may not be in complete control of how the gathered information will be used. In that case, as joint controllers of the data, the hotel and its brand would need to draw up a contract that explicitly states their relationship with regards to managing data. Both parties would need to communicate the relationship to both guests and employees.

5. Can EU hotels use software vendors or software on servers based outside the EU?

Yes, but there are limits to how data can be transferred outside of the EU/EEA. Most major cloud service providers and many other companies, such as ALICE, have systems in place to address these rules. To confirm that a cloud service is compliant with the GDPR, hoteliers need to make sure:

They have a Data Processing Agreement in place. These agreements are required for all data processors, not just international ones (GDPR Art.28[3]).

There is a lawful basis for transfering the data (GDPR Rec.39, 40, 41; GDPR Art.6[1]), which can be through the service provider's membership in the Privacy Shield, signed standard contractual clauses, or other mechanisms allowed under the GDPR. Most companies will be relying on the GDPR's standard contractual clauses.

The transfer is mentioned in the hotel's privacy policy and the purpose of the transfer is explained.

6. What do hotels need to do about their vendors?

For each vendor that processes guests' personal information, a hotel needs to do the following:

Determine the type of data the vendor processes. Determine the purpose for which the processing is happening. Obtain a Data Processing Agreement. If the vendor is outside the EU, sign the standard contractual clauses (usually part of the Data Processing Agreement mentioned above), or confirm that the vendor is a member of the Privacy Shield. Mention the vendor in the hotel's privacy policy, along with the purpose of the vendor and how the data will be used. Confirm that the vendor can handle data rights requests with a SLA under one month (e.g. 25 days).

7. How should a hotel communicate privacy notices to guests?

You should review your current privacy notices and put a plan in place for making any necessary changes in time for GDPR implementation. You should review how you seek, record, and manage consent and whether you need to make any changes. Refresh existing consents now if they don't meet the GDPR standard.

Hoteliers may need to speak with customers at check-in if explicit consent is required for any forms of data collection that require it, such as consent to marketing communications. All loyalty programs need to be examined for similar requirements if data is used in a way that requires consent.

8. Do hoteliers or vendors need to encrypt their databases?

It depends. The GDPR recommends that companies take steps to protect all personal data, but it does not specify what those steps have to be. Instead, companies are asked to identify the risks to personal data and do what is appropriate for those risks. Encryption is one of many options available to protect data, but it is not specifically required by the GDPR.

Article 32 of the GDPR gives the following options, none of which are strict requirements, but which should be considered for their benefits to your guests' data privacy:

the pseudonymisation [obscuring the identities] and encryption of personal data; the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services; the ability to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident; a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organisational measures for ensuring the security of the processing.

9. How can hoteliers make sure they are able to honor requests for data portability, correction, or erasure, a.k.a. "the right to be forgotten"?

Customers, employees, or anyone whose personal data is stored at a hotel may request that their data be erased. They can also ask for a copy of all of their data (right to data portability) or for their data to be corrected. There are cases in which this does not need to be honored, for example if there is an ongoing contractual or legal requirement to retain the data. But in most cases, the request will need to be honored. Recital 59 of the GDPR requires these requests be answered within one month. This period can be extended under exceptional circumstances, by requesting for another month.

In order to be able to handle these requests in time, hotels need to plan in advance how requests can be honored. Each location where data is stored should be mapped out with a plan on how to address the rights request for data in that location. Each vendor also needs to be vetted to confirm they have a similar plan in place. Vendors should have an SLA that is less than a month (e.g. 25 days), in order to give time for communication between you and the vendor on each end of the process when a request happens.

For data portability requests, the law requires the data be given to the customer in a standardized format for transfer to other companies. Since at the moment there is no industry standard for this kind of data to be transferred from a hotel, you must use a generic but easily transferable format, such as text files with headers and comma-separated values.

10. How should hotels handle children's data?

Within the EU/EEC, a "child" is defined as someone younger than a country-defined age between 13 and 16. For most cases, hotels will not need to rely on children's' or parent's consent to process guest information, since the primary basis for data processing is handling reservations. However, in cases where consent is the basis for data processing, for example, for marketing purposes, children's data needs to be handled with extra care.

You should start thinking now about whether you need to put systems in place to verify individuals' ages and to obtain parental or guardian consent for any data processing activity. Children's data can only be handled with explicit consent when consent is required.

Best practice is to avoid collecting and storing data about children unless it is legally required or absolutely essential for handling a reservation.

11. Do hotels need to hire Data Protection Officers (DPOs)?

You should designate someone to take responsibility for data protection compliance and assess where this role will sit within your organisation's structure and governance arrangements, even if you are not formally required to have a DPO. You should consider whether you are required to formally designate a Data Protection Officer, and this designation depends on the volume and sensitivity of the information. At the chain and large group level, a DPO is almost certainly required, but for individual hotels, the law is not yet clear and you should seek guidance from your local counsel as to whether it is required.

12. Do hotels outside the EU/EEA have to do anything to comply with the GDPR?

According to Article 3 of the GDPR, the regulations cover activity happening within the EU or data processing by organizations based in the EU. When an EU citizen travels outside the EU, their activities outside the EU are no longer protected by the GDPR unless the organization processing the data is based in the EU.

However, a booking process that happens between a person in the EU and a hotel outside the EU is considered covered by the GDPR. Data that is collected in the EU during that process is an activity happening within the EU. So hotels outside the EU do collect data that is covered by the GDPR as part of the online reservation process. This data needs to be protected with the appropriate safeguards dictated above.

13. What are the consequences for not complying with GDPR?

Businesses can have fines of up to 4% of annual global turnover or $24.6 million (20 million), whichever is higher for not complying with the GDPR rules.Opinion Article

15 March 2018

Recognized as an industry expert on hospitality technology, eCommerce, and business intelligence, Terri Miller, CEO and co-founder of Concilio Labs, discusses the impending European General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) and what that means for hoteliers.

Why has GDPR become such a top-of-mind issue for the hospitality industry?

The May 2018 deadline for GDPR implementation will significantly change the way hoteliers handle guest data. Having guest's personal data stored in the cloud has become a necessity for today's hotelier.

Until now, fines for breach of data protection regulations were limited and enforcement actions infrequent. GDPR, on the other hand, promotes the risk of costly penalties in the event of incompliance and data breaches.

Even though GDPR applies specifically to EU countries only, in today's global society, it is likely that most hotels touch EU citizens in some form or fashion  and so they must comply with regulations. GDPR is also seen as a "first move" towards greater information transparency and security overall, and thus many savvy hoteliers, even those outside of the EU, are using the new regulations as a way to get their marketing, data management, and privacy programs into shape.

How do you see the GDPR affecting hotel companies' strategies and habits over time?

Fundamentally, GDPR requires hotels to be transparent about what data they collect as well as to take responsibility for what theyand their partners do with that data. Many industries, including hospitality, are struggling when it comes to winning and keeping their customers' trust. GDPR is about bringing consumers into the data ecosystem by allowing them to see, access and consent to the data that companies have and utilize.

How do you see the GDPR affecting guest expectations and behaviors?

The processing of personal data should be designed to serve the guest. If hotels don't honor that principle, guests will become distrustful and certainly less loyal. They may even begin to lie when asked for non-essential information. They may also shame brands that don't follow the GDPR standards of transparency and choice.

We need to make guests feel as if a data exchange is beneficial  better data for better guest experiences  vs. data used simply for the purposes of mass-distributed marketing.

In the short term, hotels can look to GDPR as an opportunity. Among many regulations, GDPR requires hotels to ask customers to "opt in" to marketing communications. By playing their cards correctly, hotels can use their opt-in as a chance to re-engage with guests and educate them on the benefits of data sharing to improve the guest journey.

I believe that most guests will be happy to grant access to their data if their needs are being met.

The GDPR introduces the concept of profiling. How will that impact hotel marketing and personalized guest service practices?

The GDPR describes profiling as any form of automated processing of personal data, in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location or movements.

For hoteliers, the ability to leverage guest profiling is essential when it comes to personalized, relevant marketing and services. Not only can profiling deliver benefits to the hotel it can also deliver benefits to guests by tailoring services and offers to align with their preferences, interests and guest history. Hoteliers will need to ensure that all profiling has met the core GDPR requirements including data permission, data access, and data focus  and honor any requests or objections from guests.

For some hoteliers, it will require very little change. For others, it will require a whole new set of data management systems and processes.

What do hoteliers need to do next when it comes to GDPR?

To start, hoteliers must prioritize based on their resources, locations, guest expectations and risk profile. I think the most critical first phase is to audit the data they already have and develop an efficient and robust record-keeping system to prove compliance. The next step is to do a privacy impact assessment of all sources to determine when it seems data could be put at risk and respond quickly to mitigate it.

GDPR offers a unique opportunity to develop completely new ways of working that are based on the key principles of trust and transparency. Ultimately, in the long run, data protection and privacy will become more of a brand differentiator, so those who do the right thing will win.

Concilio Labs is working with clients to ensure their data gathering and storage protocol for its Insight Engine product remains compliant with GDPR regulations.

To learn more about Concilio Lab's Insight Engine and how it can transform your guest personalization, visit conciliolabs.com.Mac Miller and Ariana Grande have been linked together since September 2016 and, in Hollywood time, that's about ten years. When you're a celebrity, relationships seem to advance pretty quickly and the couple may be ready to take the next step in their lives if fan theories are to be believed. Ariana has been noticeably absent from her social media outlets after tweeting to her fans on New Year's Eve that she'll see them in the following year. While the message seemed to be a cheeky bit of humor from the pop star, it looks like she may have literally been alluding to the fact that she wouldn't be on social media for 12 months.

The last celebrity to fully hide from the spotlight during their pregnancy was, of course, Kylie Jenner, using her free time to enjoy her pregnancy alone with her family. Ariana has been MIA since the last day of 2017 and fans are beginning to wonder if she's pulling a Kylie.

Her boyfriend Mac Miller has been active on his Instagram account since the beginning of the New Year but he has neglected to post any couple photos with Ariana. If the couple is indeed pregnant, Mac would have relatively nothing to hide as his body would not be physically changing. Do you think a Grande-Miller baby could be on the way or are their fans simply reaching?New reports indicate that Bitcoin's value plunged nearly 13 percent on Wednesday, following a move from Capital Hill lawmakers to regulate the fledgling cryptocurrency market. Members of the House Financial Services Committee met with experts to discuss the possible risks posed to investors by digital currencies.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) has proclaimed that "cryptocurrencies are a crock, what social benefit do they provide?  Youre gambling on its value for no social benefit. Theyre popular with guys who sit in their pyjamas and tell their wives theyre going to be millionaires."

Bitcoin's price has decreased following Google's decision to ban any advertisements for cryptocurrency-related products from its servers, effectively stunting the company's reach. Their value has now dipped another 13% to $7,979.58 Wednesday evening.

Back in December, Bitcoin had a value of over $20,000, which was apparently just a transient milestone for the world's leading cryptocurrency. Recently, the company has drifted around the $10,000, before they began to experience some crushing defeats.

Some lawmakers remain particularly optimistic about the potential of cryptocurrencies in the future. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), chair of the Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment Subcommittee has pondered "how do we protect consumers without strangling technology that has great potential?" However, Huizenga was speaking about blockchain, the fundamental technology which effectively allows Bitcoin to function.Former ESPN President John Skipper recently revealed that he resigned as president of ESPN and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks after being extorted by a man he bought cocaine from.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Skipper explains that he had never done cocaine at work at ESPN and had used "quite infrequently" over the past 20 years. If he truly had a substance abuse problem, as he states in the interview, it's hard to believe he used infrequently.

Skipper, who had worked at ESPN for 27 years, says he was careful about hiding his use, including who he bought from, but that changed last year when he picked up from someone different for the first time.

"In December, someone from whom I bought cocaine attempted to extort me," Skipper told the Hollywood Reporter. They threatened me, and I understood immediately that threat put me and my family at risk, and this exposure would put my professional life at risk as well, Skipper says. I foreclosed that possibility by disclosing the details to my family, and then when I discussed it with [Disney CEO] Bob [Iger], he and I agreed that I had placed the company in an untenable position and as a result, I should resign.

Shortly after the extortion plot, Skipper resigned as President of ESPN on December 18, 2017. He has since been to therapy and sought treatment for his addiction, telling the Hollywood Reporter, Im actually quite excited. In some ways I have no choice but to make the best of it. And I do intend to make the best of it. Ive been meeting with people, and that has gotten me even more excited. Im healthy, and Im ready to plunge back in."The #FreeMeek movement has been going strong since the rapper was incarcerated at the top of November. While several motions to have been filed for his release, none of them have been successful. Much of his unjust sentence is due to the judge that was on the case. The prosecutor, D.A. and his probation officer were against sending him to jail. It looks like the rapper might be getting released sometime soon and it doesn't look like anyone's fighting against it.

According to TMZ, Meek Mill has a good chance of getting his sentence reversed and the D.A. has no intentions of trying to stop it. Due to the police corruption scandal, the District Attorney says there's a "strong showing of likelihood" that his conviction will be overturned. There's been hundreds of other cases that have been reversed due to the noted police corruption and the prosecutor thinks that Meek's case with also follow the same path.

Prosecutors now believe there's no point to hold Meek in prison without bail.

His mother shared a statement to the publication about his current case and the possibilities of his release.

"I would like to thank the Philadelphia District Attorneys office for carefully evaluating my sons matter and not opposing the request for bail. The fact that Roberts entire conviction could be overturned is a blessing and I pray that God gives Judge Brinkley the wisdom to make the right decision and allow my son to return home to his family. I truly believe justice will prevail. She said.

We'll keep you updated on more information pertaining to Meek's case as it comes.Virgil Abloh's Off-White will continue its partnership with Nike in 2018, as the two brands ride the wave of their highly coveted collection of ten sneakers that released not long ago.

And once again, the Air Jordan 1 will be featured as part of the new collection.

The upcoming "Dark Powder Blue" Off-White x Air Jordan 1 features the same color blocking as the "Chicago" colorway that dropped in 2017. The UNC inspired kicks include all the familiar attributes of a Virgil Abloh AJ1, most notably the "AIR" text on the midsole and orange stitching.

The "Dark Powder Blue" Off-White x Air Jordan 1 is reportedly set to release sometime in May for $190. As of now it's still unclear how many pairs will be available or exactly where they will be released. Check out early images of the shoes in the IG post below and stay tuned for more details.If you're reading this, you're no doubt familiar with R-Mean's weekly tradition by the name of Mean Mondays. In 2017, the man pretty much dropped a new song every week, before vowing to continue the tradition into the new year. Now, we're nearly one season deep into 2018, and by God, R-Mean has proven a man of his word. While it's not exactly Monday, Mean has nevertheless made good on his delivery. As explained in a press release, the collaborative nature of this one simply elongated the process by a couple days.

Up-and-coming rapper VI Seconds has joined forces with the Armenian emcee, and together, the pair unleash a lyrical barrage on the "Lils" of the world. It's not exactly perpetuating a narrative of hip-hop unity, but than again, disrespecting 2Pac is a surefire way to infuriate a purist. Be sure to check this one out if you're into punchlines and hard-hitting bars.

Quotable Lyrics

So I dive in, might just directly insult ya

These lil Lil rappers keep disrespecting the culture

And ya'll just give em a passes, excuses cause ya'll hoes though

What's the problem, I'm just being vocal?In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Donald Glover offered his take on the success of his critically-acclaimed show Atlanta and dissected how television has changed over the years. Yet one part in particular stood out the most. While discussing Tay-Ks controversial hit single The Race, Glover had this to offer: Look at this kid! Hes a baby! He never had a chance! Yall are forgetting what rap is. Rap is I dont care what you think in society, wagging your finger at me for calling women bitcheswhen, for you to have two cars, I have to live in the projects. Calling it a real Jesse James story, Glover expanded on this thought process further. Young black kid in Texas with a murder on him, he said. Hes definitely going to die, and its sad.

As it turns out, the song appeared in the highly-rated season two premiere of Atlantaon March 1, kicking off Robbin Season with a bang. Theres no denying that The Race is a hit, with its melodic opening flute and simple, booming percussion over which Tay-K breaks down the door to deliver the catchy chorus: Fuck a beat, I was tryna beat a case/But I aint beat that case, bitch I did the race. The song draws its name from the fact that Tay-K recorded it while on the run from the law, and it quickly blew up in the summer of 2017 following his arrest. The music video for the song now sits at 120 million views on YouTube, and the hashtag #FreeTayK has been making its rounds on the internet for quite some time.

Yet if you do a little digging into the story of Tay-K, what you will find is rather troublesome. Last March, the viral rapper from Arlington, Texas cut off his ankle monitor and fled, disappearing for three months before finally being apprehended by U.S. Marshalls in New Jersey on June 30. He had been under house arrest due to his involvement in the home invasion and fatal shooting of 21-year-old Ethan Walker in Mansfield, Texas. It is believed he fled the state because prosecutors were seeking to try him as an adult, which would make him eligible for the death penalty. Tay-K is also a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old man at a Chick-fil-A in San Antonio, Texas, and the attack and robbery of a 65-year-old man at a park in Arlington, Texas. The now incarcerated rapper will stand trial as an adult in Walkers case, and only time will tell his fate. Things are looking grim given the fact that one of his accomplices in the robbery and murder of Walker was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison on February 23.

However, Tay-K certainly isnt the first rapper to have a history of violence and run-ins with the law. In fact, many of the most recognizable names in hip hop have storied and dark legal histories. For example, Tupac Shakur, who is an undeniable cultural icon, was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in November 1993. Although Shakur denied the charges, he was later convicted in 1994 of first-degree sexual abuse. He ended up serving four months in prison, during which he released his multi-platinum classic album Me Against The World, becoming the first artist to have a number one album on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. Snoop Dogg is another rapper who almost faced a lengthy period of time behind bars. In August 1993, Snoop and his bodyguard McKinley Lee were charged with first and second-degree murder for the death of Philip Woldemariam. Although they were both acquitted, Snoop continued to deal with ongoing legal issues stemming from the incident. Still, the high profile nature of the case undoubtedly boosted the sales of his debut album Doggystyle, which went on to sell over eleven million copies worldwide and was supported by the popular single Murder Was The Case. Ultimately, the individual careers of Tupac and Snoop werent negatively affected by their respective criminal histories; rather, such controversies added to their unique legacies.

As for Tay-K, his spate of violent crimes have made him famous, but for all the wrong reasons. His enormous rise in popularity and the outpouring of support he has received point to glaring issues, particularly when it comes to the ways that we as consumers choose to support artists who are inherently problematic. Now, more than ever, it is easier to consume music on a large scale, what with the advent of streaming and YouTube. Given how easy it is to access the internet, it is just as easy to forget that when we stream a song or watch a music video, we are making a choice to actively support the artist whose music we are consuming.

Its a disturbing reality: hip hop audiences have long turned a blind eye to the troubling pasts of many rappers. Fans, members of the community, and even other artists continue to have difficulty holding those who are violent and unlawful accountable for their actions. This raises the question: how are we supposed to deal with the conundrum that arises when a talented artist whose work we admire commits heinous acts of violence? Where do we draw the line between the artist and the individual, particularly if songs are getting a lot of air time and we feel the need to acknowledge them, while at the same time recognizing that we don't want to give more attention to someone who has been violent and unlawful? Popular contemporary artists like XXXTentacion and Tekashi 6ix9ine have blurred the line even further with their work and with the support of their almost cult-like fan bases. The ever controversial X has a long and tumultuous legal history, punctuated by a series of deeply upsetting acts of violence. He is currently on house arrest and awaiting trial for a 2016 domestic-abuse case; he also faces charges of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. 6ix9ine, the braggadocious Brooklyn-bred rapper with rainbow colored hair and grill to match, pled guilty to one felony count of Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance in October 2015. To make matters even worse, in an interview with DJ Akademiks, 6ix9ine admitted to uploading a video of the act and stated I was doing it for my image.

Yet none of this has dissuaded fans from continuing to support Tay-K, X, and 6ix9ines music. Tay-K officially signed a record deal with 88 Classic back in December, and his hit single "The Race" was certified platinum. X continues to put out songs that attract millions of plays across all platforms, and his most recent hit record SAD! has close to 20 million views on YouTube and debuted at the number 17 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart last week. Kylie Jenner, who remains one of the most followed people across the internet, was recently spotted playing SAD! on her Snapchat, an act that likely boosted the record even further. As for 6ix9ine, his premiere commercial mixtape Day69 debuted at the number four spot on the Billboard 200 with 55,000 album-equivalent units, and there are currently three charting songs from the project: Gummo at number 28; Billy at number 53; and Keke featuring Fetty Wap & A Boogie Wit da Hoodie at number 90. What these numbers reveal is that not only are fans choosing to remain willfully ignorant to the past history of such artists, but also that other artists and celebrities dont seem to be bothered by it either. And the worst part is that artists like Tay-K, XXXTentacion, and Tekashi 6ix9ine, who are highly influential public figures, have been deemed by their fans to be above the law and entirely blameless for their actions. What kind of message is that sending? Though individuals should be allowed to choose which artist(s) they want to support, that support should come from a place of knowledge and awareness of what the artist represents as an individual. Its one thing to engage with an artists music, but another thing entirely to do so at the price of ignoring their past.Rosa Perez stood in her Kingwood restaurant, surrounded by patched-up drywall, plastic-covered light fixtures and a half-finished tile floor.

Beyond the dust-streaked windows, past the empty patio, Lake Houstons waves lapped against a wooden pier. Diners for nearly a decade had docked their motorboats there to enjoy plates of churrasco, ceviche and chorizo at Chimichurris South American Grill.

Perez and her husband, Ronald Perez, last year began planning a big party to celebrate Chimichurris 10th anniversary this April. But six months after Hurricane Harvey, all they hope to do is reopen their doors.

We cant wait to get back in, Perez said, scanning the reconstruction progress.

In the aftermath of Harvey, retailers and restaurants across the Houston region have faced the difficult choice of rebuilding or walking away. Those tough decisions are now playing out in Kingwood, one of the hardest hit neighborhoods for local businesses.

Chimichurris is one of 266 storefront businesses in the Kingwood area that flooded during Harvey, according to the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce, which has more than 900 members in the northeast Houston region.

EDITORIAL: Dont forget Kingwood in post-Harvey efforts

Six months after Harvey, nearly two-thirds of flooded Kingwood-area businesses have reopened, and the local chamber forecasts that 83 percent will open their doors by the end of the year.

But for dozens of other small businesses, recovery is still months if not years away. Many retailers and restaurant owners like Perez have only just started to rebuild.

Kingwood was hit hard by Harvey, said Andrew Cardenas, the chambers business recovery coordinator. Businesses are struggling to come back.

Chimichurris was one of the first tenants inside Kings Harbor, the first urban-style, mixed-use development in Kingwood and a predecessor to CityCentre in Houston. The 75,000-square-foot commercial, retail and dining destination is one of a few commercial properties fronting Lake Houston, and drew crowds of Kingwood families looking for a relaxing evening watching the sunset over the water.

Were always trying to create things that are unique and enhance communities, said developer Jonathan Brinsden with Houston-based Midway Cos. Here, the water was the attraction.

The lakeside view drew the Perezes, who poured their life savings into the restaurant. Their family, including Perezs parents, sister and aunt, got involved. They obsessed over every detail, upgrading lights, china, chairs and the patio area several times over the course of a decade.

The family and their 50 employees kept Chimichurris open all but three days of the year, closing only for Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Super Bowl. Patrons came from across the Kingwood area to experience the kind of fine dining one would expect closer to downtown Houston, Perez said.

This is what we give to Kingwood, she said.

It never crossed her mind that scenic Lake Houston, with its sunsets, boats and birds, would one day bring so much devastation.

Faced with unprecedented rainfall during Harvey, officials at the Lake Conroe dam upstream from Kingwood discharged billions of gallons of water into the San Jacinto River. The water gushed downstream into Lake Houston, eventually overflowing into Kings Harbor and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Ten out of 13 tenants in Kings Harbor  including Chimichurris  took on as much as six feet of water. The flooding overwhelmed grocery stores, strip malls and shopping centers more than a mile away from Lake Houston.

In a million years, you couldnt comprehend that could happen, said Brinsden, who was rescued with his family from their Kingwood home by a Coast Guard boat.

The Perezes, who had evacuated their four-story brownstone catty-corner from Chimichurris as the lakewater rose, found another mess when they returned to their restaurant. Booths and chairs were upside down. The sofa in the foyer had floated to behind the bar. The heavy ice machine was turned sideways. Mud was everywhere.

Everything we had worked for was gone, Perez recalled, with tears in her eyes.

Felicia Cumby remembers surveying the damage to her childrens boutique, Dapper Darlings, across the way from Chimichurris. The Kingwood woman had opened her 1,200-square-foot store, which sold childrens clothes from newborn to 9 years old, less than two weeks before the storm. Her other business, an Edward Jones financial advisory firm a few miles away in Kingwood Town Center, also flooded.

Both of my businesses got wiped out, Cumby said. Emotionally, thats hard. Financially, were looking at a six-figure loss.

After cleaning up the debris at her womens fashion store, Pretty Little Things, Nikole Davis refused to come back for three months because it depressed her so much.

Every time I would come, I would feel heavy and sad and heartbroken, Davis said. Within 24 hours, every material thing I had was gone.

The biggest challenge now facing Harvey-ravaged businesses in Kings Harbor is finding the funding to carry on and rebuild, the chambers Cardenas said. Most area businesses did not carry flood insurance, which complicates the recovery effort, he said.

When youre an entrepreneur, starting again from scratch is always hard, Cardenas said. Just closing your business for one day is bad enough, but if you have to close for months without financial options, that becomes incredibly stressful.

Davis, who had been saving up for her wedding and a downpayment on a house, diverted her savings to rebuilding Pretty Little Things. She leased a house and plans a more modest wedding.

ON THE RIVER: Dredging San Jacinto River for flood protection a priority, officials say

Perez, who opened Chimichurris without incurring debt, took out a Small Business Administration loan to fund rebuilding efforts. She hopes to reopen by summer, but worries how much of an appetite there is for fine cuisine in a town filled with flood victims.

You see disasters put pressure on businesses to do things theyve never do before, like go online and buy more ads to market themselves, Cardenas said. All of that will help their business in the long run.

Three weeks after Harvey, Davis signed a lease in a vacant storefront in nearby Atascocita and opened a pop-up shop for Pretty Little Things where she sells seasonal clothes that had been ordered right before the hurricane hit. The Kingwood native put together the temporary store in a matter of days, using salvaged metal displays and tables from her Kings Harbor store.

I didnt want to sit still and wait, Davis said. I needed the revenue, but I also didnt want to get lost in the storm. There are hard moments, but the pop-up shop has given me something to look forward to.

As businesses rebuild, many stores and restaurants in Kingwood are paying homage to their Harvey experience. Some, like Pretty Little Things, plan photo displays. Others, like Dapper Darlings, are adding water-line plaques. H-E-B, Torchys Tacos and Mod Pizza have also added water lines to their stores as they have reopened.

Its a display of pride, kind of like a battle scar, Cardenas said, and a measure of the confidence they have in the area.

Perez has something else in mind. She intends to hang a piece of artwork above one of her tables where there used to be a decorative wall. Her husband found it at a hospitality convention a few months back, a large wall piece with brown squares, the color of the lake silt inside her restaurant after Harvey.

The artwork is called Mud.WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday passed the biggest loosening of financial regulations since the economic crisis a decade ago, delivering wide bipartisan support for weakening banking rules despite bitter divisions among Democrats.

The bill, which passed 67 votes to 31, would free more than two dozen banks from the toughest regulatory scrutiny put in place after the 2008 global financial crisis. Despite President Donald Trump's promise to do a "big number" on the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the new measure leaves key aspects of the earlier law in place. Nonetheless, it amounts to a significant rollback of banking rules aimed at protecting taxpayers from another financial crisis and future bailouts.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders praised the legislation's passage. "The bill provides much-needed relief from the Dodd-Frank Act for thousands of community banks and credit unions and will spur lending and economic growth without creating risks to the financial system," she said.

Given the bipartisan support for the bill, Wednesday's passage was expected. But for the first time since Trump became president, the divisions lurking within the Senate Democratic Caucus burst into full view, with Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Mass., and Sherrod Brown, Ohio, leading vehement opposition to the bill, even as supporters - including Democrats up for reelection in states Trump won - supported it with equal vigor.

Warren and Brown argued the bill amounts to a gift to Wall Street that increases taxpayer risk while boosting the chances of another financial crisis. Supporters of the legislation - including endangered Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, N.D., Joe Donnelly , Ind., and Jon Tester, Mont. - disputed that characterization, contending that the bill's aim is to loosen onerous regulations on local banks and credit unions, freeing them to focus more on community lending, particularly in rural states.

"It is a bill that I am incredibly proud of," Heitkamp said in a Senate floor debate this week. "Dodd-Frank was supposed to have stopped too big to fail, but the net result has been too small to succeed. The big banks have gotten bigger since the passage of Dodd-Frank, and the small banks have disappeared."

Following Heitkamp on the floor, Warren condemned the legislation as "the bank lobbyist act" and said it "puts American families in danger of getting punched in the gut."

"Washington is poised to make the same mistake it has made many times before, deregulating giant banks while the economy is cruising, only to set the stage for another financial crisis," Warren said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opposed the legislation but has played little role in a debate that has allowed liberals and moderates in his caucus to stake out positions tailored to their own political needs. But after Warren called out red-state Democrats and other supporters of the bill by name in a fundraising appeal, Schumer encouraged her to stay focused on the substance in the debate, according to a person familiar with the exchange who requested anonymity to discuss it.

Few of the Democrats named by Warren wanted to comment publicly on dissension within the caucus. Heitkamp downplayed their disagreements, saying of Warren in an interview, "She feels very, very strongly about this. I think it's a difference between where we've always been on these banking issues. And you know obviously as you're moving the bill forward, these differences were going to come to a head, and we were going to see a conflict because I just don't see the bill the way she does."

It's not clear whether the Democratic divisions laid bare by the banking bill will resurface anytime soon, given the light legislative schedule expected in the Senate for the remainder of this midterm election year. But the debate highlighted how the political imperatives for red-state Democrats can collide with those of liberals such as Warren, who's seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2020, creating the potential for conflict that could flare anew in future.

Banks with more than $50 billion in assets are now considered "too big to fail" and are subject to the toughest regulations, including a yearly stress test to prove they could survive another period of economic turmoil. The Senate legislation, shepherded by Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, would raise that threshold to $250 billion in assets, potentially allowing several high-profile financial institutions, including American Express, Ally Financial and Barclays, to escape the extra regulatory scrutiny.

The bill's supporters say these banks have been unfairly saddled with regulations originally intended for global behemoth banks such as JPMorgan Chase, not regional or midsized firms. Lifting the restrictions would save the industry billions a year in compliance costs, industry analysts say. It would also make it easier for them to reward shareholders with dividends and stock buybacks, they say.

Democrats and advocacy groups warn that the push to loosen the regulations fails to recognize that many of the midsized institutions that would be helped by the Senate legislation fell into dire financial straits less than a decade ago and needed more than $40 billion in taxpayer bailouts. During a financial crisis, they say, banks tend to fail in tandem, suffering from similar ailments. And the failure of several in a short time period could strain the U.S. economy.

The bill has largely been marketed as long-overdue help for small community banks and credit unions. The legislation, for example, would exempt banks with less than $10 billion in assets from the "Volcker rule," which bars banks from making risky wagers with their own money. The bill would also exempt many small banks from a Dodd-Frank requirement that financial institutions report more detailed data on whom they lend to. The industry has complained that both measures are too cumbersome and time-consuming.

Exempting small banks from the mortgage data requirement would weaken the government's ability to enforce fair-lending requirements, making it easier for community banks to hide discrimination against minority mortgage applicants and harder for regulators to root out predatory lenders, consumer advocates say.

The bill still needs to be approved in the House, where Republicans have been pushing a more aggressive rollback of financial regulations. That chamber passed a bill last year that stripped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created under Dodd-Frank, of much of its power, for example. But the future of the CFPB is not addressed in the Senate bill.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has said that House Republicans will want to alter the Senate bill to reflect their priorities. But that could drive away the Senate Democrats needed to pass the legislation, and so the House will face significant pressure to accept the Senate legislation with few, if any, changes.

Although the banking bill marked the first bipartisan legislation of the Trump era aside from must-pass spending deals, it was far from a freewheeling debate on the floor. Because of disagreement between the parties that has become routine, no amendment votes were permitted, frustrating senators in both parties who hoped to advance favored policies.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the Banking Committee, had been pushing an amendment to strike a section of the bill that could reduce the capital cushions of five of America's biggest banks. Though supported by liberal Senate Democrats, it never came up for a vote amid the wrangling over the amendment process.

---

The Washington Post's Jeffrey Stein contributed to this report.Some of Broadway's biggest new musicals and most prominent revivals will be coming to Houston during the 2018-19 season.

Contemporary musical titles like "Waitress" and "Anastasia" will be part of the next season. The recent, Tony-nominated revival of "Miss Saigon" arrives next May, and the 20th anniversary tour of the classic 1996 rock musical "Rent" will have a one-week engagement in August of 2019.

Popular long-running shows also will be gracing the Hobby Center: "Aladdin," "Les Miserables," "The Book of Mormon" and "The Phantom of the Opera."

Some of the titles were seen as star-driven productions during their original runs. "Waitress" starred Jessie Mueller ("Beautiful: The Carole King Musical," "The Post") and then Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music. The touring cast is led by Desi Oakley as Jenna.

"Miss Saigon" often is associated with Lea Salonga's original star turn as Kim, and the 2017 revival won accolades for the performance by new star Eva Noblezada.

But musicals such as "Rent," "The Book of Mormon" and "Aladdin" proved that productions take on new life and interest beyond their original casts.

And, in a bit of a twist, musicals aren't the only type of production in this touring Broadway season. The successful theater spoof "The Play That Goes Wrong," an actual play, also is part of the lineup.

The announcement also provided a reason to get eager for the following season, too, as it's been revealed that "Dear Evan Hansen," a Tony Awards darling and one of the more popular shows on Broadway, is confirmed for an engagement in Houston sometime during the 2019-20 season.

But first, we have the 2018-19 season. Here's the full lineup.

"Les Miserables"

Sept. 25-30

This is the new Broadway production, the one with a set based on paintings by Victor Hugo. Though, it's still the classic tale people have loved for so long.

"The Phantom Of The Opera"

Nov 7-18

Billed as "bigger than ever before," this production boasts a cast of 52.

"The Book Of Mormon"

Jan. 15-20

Don't forget, before "Hamilton" become a cultural phenomenon, this irreverent musical about Mormon missionaries was being hailed as the greatest of this century.

"Waitress"

Jan 29-Feb. 3

Based on the 2007 film, the musical follows a small town waitress and pie maker who dreams of more.

"Anastasia"

March 5-10

A woman fleeing the Russian Empire of the early 20th century joins a man to find her path to freedom and love.

"The Play That Goes Wrong"

March 26-31, 2019

"Madcap" is one way to describe this play within a play plagued by an inept cast and unexpected situations.

"Miss Saigon"

May 7-12, 2019

This revival by the "Les Miserables" team ups the spectacle of this musical about a romance set against the Vietnam War.

"Disney's Aladdin"

June 26  July 14, 2019

Based on the animated film and featuring its popular music, this production capitalizes on what made the Disney movie so beloved.

"Rent"

Aug. 6-11, 2019

The 20th anniversary tour of this classic rock musical continues spreading its message of love, hope and acceptance.Marco Torres/Houston Chronicle

The Fader Fort returned to SXSW Music Week as it opened it's doors on March 14, 2018 in Austin, Texas. The event was relocated again this year to a larger venue on the corner of East 7th Street and Comal Street in the Eastside of Austin. One of the most popular showcases during SXSW, the lines to pick up one of the coveted wristbands was long, but entry on the first day was surprisingly brisk.

The event began with a set by popular music tastemaker DJ Sober from Dallas, Texas. Along for the ride was the always animated Mel of rap crew The Outfit TX. The set ranged from dirty south classics to what Mel described as "black wedding reception songs", a throwback selection of R&B and Hip Hop. Rounding out the Dallas connection was rapper Bobby Sessions, who kicked off the three day music event.Jotina Buck just didn't wake up one day and shave off her hair.

It was a gradual process that, in a way, had been formulating since she was a little girl. The second-grade teacher at North Belt Elementary in Humble had always struggled with her hair, which was naturally "kinky" and deemed "bad," in certain societal constructs.

She had her first hair relaxer at age 5 and had been wearing hair extensions and weaves since the first grade.

"All I wanted was to go to school with straight hair, so as an adult investing in hair weaves and spending an absurd amount of money on hair was my validation," she said.

The 34-year-old would spend up to $2,000 every three months on hair weaves, coloring and styling, but shaving off her hair completely in late 2011 gave her a financial and emotional freedom that she had never known.

Buck, who is also an author and a sought-after empowerment speaker, has fully embraced her bald beauty. Last year, she was the keynote speaker for her school district's "No Place for Hate" week, which celebrates kindness, anti-bullying and empowerment.

She and several other Houston women - a hair salon owner, a corporate trainer and a critical-care nurse - who are bald, by choice or circumstance, are helping to expand, maybe even redefine, what it means to be beautiful.

It's a concept that's even more magnified with the recent blockbuster Marvel movie, "Black Panther," in which the black female warriors are all bald. At one point, General Okoye, played by Danai Gurira, wears a wig as a disguise. She calls it a disgrace and flings it off the moment she has to fight the bad guys.

The movie comes at a time when more black women are forgoing chemical relaxers amid health concerns, as well as hair breakage and loss. Instead, they are wearing afros, locks and other natural hairstyles. Celebrities such as Lupita Nyong'o and Viola Davis are helping to fuel the natural-hair movement in Hollywood.

The bald look, which requires more skin care than anything, seems to run counter to society's overall obsession with hair. Women nationally are spending more and more on hair products. According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, women in the U.S. spent nearly $487 million in 2017 on hair-care products, including shampoo, conditioner and styling products, at department and beauty-specialty stores. It's a 15 percent increase over 2016.

For Hahleemah Wright Ellison, 38, who has been bald for 16 years, seeing shaved heads and natural-hair styles in "Black Panther" gave her a sense of overwhelming pride.

"It was beautiful to see the representation (of bald beauty) finally being brought to the forefront," said the hairstylist and salon owner of The Way of Life Natural Hair Salon in Pearland. "When I was watching the movie, inevitably I saw myself. I felt like I am them and, in my own way, I fight like they fight, I lead like they lead, and I move the way that they move."

Buck's bald head was an adjustment for both students and administrators, many of whom assumed she was ill.

"I got everything from 'Are you OK, Ms. Buck?' to 'You look like a boy,'" she said. "Some students even said I was ugly. Kids are very frank, and so many of them were fixated on me looking like a boy that it didn't matter why I did it."

It took weeks for the classroom chatter about Buck's bald head to quiet down and for her to fully accept her new look. She wore head wraps at first to ease into the style.

"There were moments when I held my head high and shoulders back, but I was shriveling up inside," she said. "I felt this duality that even though I was trying to affirm that I was beautiful, I was like, 'What did I do?!"

Now, her students tell her that her bald head is beautiful. Their parents tell her she's brave.

"This has been a huge statement in owning my beauty and telling the little girl inside of me that she's beautiful," Buck said. "Bravery grew on me. It took some time for me to be able to walk into H-E-B with a bald head and just earrings. But we are only as brave as we are willing to be and the only way to discover your braveness is to just do it."

Like Buck, Wright Ellison is often stopped by strangers, particularly women, who express their admiration for her baldness and, moreover, her boldness to wear it that way.

She hadn't thought about being bold when she cut off her long hair in her early 20s as way to shed negativity in her life.

ICYMI: The vision behind 'Black Panther's' stunning look

"I needed to start new and fresh," she said. "It was a way of cleansing. I didn't plan to stay bald, but it just stuck and worked for me. I feel beautiful and desirable so this was a selfish act. I did this for me."

At the time, Wright Ellison didn't know one woman who was bald. Her father even told her that "no man wants a woman with hair shorter than him." But it didn't deter her.

"I believe people feed off the energy you give," she said. "I was extremely confident when I cut my hair. I knew I needed to do it. I was firm and grounded in my decision. I walked like you couldn't tell me anything."

With time, her father came around, and, last year, Wright Ellison married Brian Ellison, who is also bald. They have double bathroom vanity and shave their heads together.

"I feel like going bald was me being me. There's definitely a feeling of being exposed, vulnerable and naked when you are bald. But in that, there's also a level of beauty, uniqueness and authenticity," she said.

According to a recent University of Pennsylvania study, men with shaved heads were rated as more dominant and even perceived as being attractive. There are a variety of studies on baldness and how men are perceived. But studies about perceptions of female baldness are hard to find.

According to the American Hair Loss Association, 40 percent of people in the United States with hair loss are female, but many women are too embarrassed to discuss it.

Until last July, Rhonda Robeaux hid her thinning hair by wearing wigs and weaves. The 48-year-old corporate trainer who lives in Dayton said it started in her 20s.

She eventually reached a point when she was done with trying to find the right wig. It had become an exhausting chore, so Robeaux shaved her head.

"I had a wig on the day I shaved my head. I figured the worst case scenario was that I would have to put the wig back on," she said. "My brother told me to just throw my shoulders back and keep it moving."

That's what Robeaux did, but she was still concerned with how her baldness would go over in the workplace.

"I flew to New York for a corporate meeting and walked into the conference room bald," she said. "Of course, the initial response was, 'Are you OK?' Then everyone started with compliments and telling me how bold I am."

Robeaux said shaving her head opened the door to other changes in her life.

"I started to purge things that didn't bring value to my life," she said. "That included furniture, clothes and, yes, some people. I had worn wigs and weaves for so long, I got to a point I wanted to divorce myself from it all and be free. We all hide behind so many different masks. In order to wear a bald or shaved head you actually have to have a certain level of power and confidence to be able to pull the look off and risk what society or people may say about you."

Baldness also has given Robeaux freedom to do things she's never been able to do - like swim.

"The moment I was able to dive into a pool and come up straight out of the water and not worry that anything (hair weave) had come loose. That was amazing. That was freedom."

For some women, like Simone Dobbs, 42, of Richmond, a bald head is a symbol of her battle with cancer.

Dobbs went bald as a result of chemotherapy treatment after a cancer diagnosis in November. The critical care nurse at Memorial Herman Hospital said her hair fell out in patches after the first treatment. But instead of wearing wigs, she had a barber cut off her remaining hair. It was a bold move that gave her strength to continue to fight the disease, she said.

"I'm bald because of cancer," she said. "It was scary at first, but I've embraced it. I never wanted to wear wigs or anything. I've gotten so many compliments, and I think that helps build your confidence."

Dobbs said she plans to keep the bald look even after her treatment is done. It's easy to maintain, but it's also her new symbol of beauty.

"I think more than anything it's about feeling beautiful on the inside," she said. "This wasn't a personal choice for me, but now it is. I will be rocking my bald head."Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil and outgoing Secretary of State, has never struck me as a thin-skinned or particularly egocentric person.

He is, of course, an engineer by training, who joined Exxon in 1975 and spent his entire career there until retiring in 2017 to join the Trump administration.

Tillerson wasnt a traditional pick for Secretary of State. And the civil servants who work at the State Department werent entirely enamored of his leadership. Some of them may even have been relieved by the news that President Donald Trump had decided to give him the boot.

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning.

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! the president continued.

Tillerson, who had been in Africa on a goodwill tour, was reportedly caught off guard by the news. By the end of the day, Stephen Goldstein, the undersecretary who reported that detail, had been unceremoniously fired, too.

Read more: Bigotry and ignorance shouldnt be Americas reality

In any case, Tillerson returned to the United States and spoke to the press.

He began by confirming that the president had called him shortly after noon and that in light of their conversation, he had decided to delegate his responsibilities to Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan, so that the latter could more effectively lead the department until Pompeo is confirmed.

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 explained.

Its hard to argue with that logic. And I would guess that from Tillersons perspective, whether he was treated fairly by the president  or the peanut gallery known as the American public  is hardly among the serious questions currently facing the country.

I think the question is nonetheless worth considering, though. Tillerson himself will presumably be fine. But his sojourn in Washington tells us something about the Trump administration, and the degree of criticism he received along the way has been unsettling.

Tillerson was not, in my assessment, the greatest secretary of state in modern American history. But I didnt expect him to be, and no one should have, because he was nominated to serve as Americas chief diplomat under a president who has no respect for the art of diplomacy and who often appears to be contemptuous of the very concept.

Read more: George P. Bushs biggest problem could be Trump Jr.s endorsement

When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? Trump asked in June 2015, in a speech announcing his bid to be president of a nation that has considered Japan one of its closest allies for most of my lifetime.

That line didnt get as much attention as his jabs at Mexico and China, but I found it telling. And as president, Trump has continued to opine freely about other countries, even in cases where doing so risks needlessly antagonizing our allies or provoking rivals like North Koreas Kim Jong-un, who has access to intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works! Trump tweeted in January.

Im not above chuckling at jabs like that. But I think they would be funnier, and less dangerous, if directed at Russia. The president, needless to say, does not share my perspective on that subject  or the secretary of states, as it happens.

Read more: Lying to the American public is wrong

Tillersons refusal to defend Vladimir Putin may have been the catalyst for his ouster, actually. He and Trump have never had a particularly harmonious relationship; in October, Tillerson declined to deny reports that he had referred to the president as a moron. And they have had substantive disagreements about a number of subjects.

But the most recent one came on Monday, after the White House refused to say whether it agreed with our allies in Britain that Russia had been behind the recent poisoning deaths there of a former Russian spy and his daughter.

It came from Russia, Tillerson said to the reporters traveling with him on a flight from Nigeria.

In fairness, TIllerson was not a natural fit for the job he continues to hold. But Im not sure whether someone like James Baker, who served as secretary of state under George H.W. Bush, would have been able to avoid getting crossways with Trump either.

And Trump had no interest in nominating someone like Baker, or Mitt Romney, for this position. None of the candidates he considered seriously, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, had the traditional qualifications.

Tillerson had, at that point, a record of public service; a former Eagle Scout, he spent several years as the national president of the Boy Scouts of America. And having served as the chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil since 2006, he had plenty of international business experience.

But Tillerson had never sought the limelight, and he seemed reluctant to wade into the political fray. He donated a lot of money to various Republican candidates and causes over the years. But he has a lot of money and, unlike many donors, he never seemed too inclined to use his money or his power to advance his pet priorities.

All of us, we know, want to leave this place as a better place for the next generation, Tillerson said on Tuesday.

Ill now return to private life as a private citizen, as a proud American, proud of the opportunity Ive had to serve my country, he continued.

Theres no evidence that Tillerson wanted the opportunity, or that he benefited from having accepted it, but Im glad he did, too. It was bound to be a thankless job, but its an important one; and thats especially true when the president doesnt think so.PAT SULLIVAN/associated press

Rice University is considered one of, if not the top, most selective school in the state of Texas, and it looks like people are starting to take notice of its prestige.

The private research university received a record 20,900 applications for the upcoming Fall 2018 semester, which represents nearly a 20 percent increase in applications. The largest year-over-year growth in the history of the school, according to the Rice website.One of Houston's most frustrating sections of highway is going to change much sooner than expected.

Texas transportation officials are moving forward with a plan to demolish the elevated portion of I-45 near Pierce Street and shift the interstate to the east side of downtown.

The plan was pitched a decade ago, but many officials thought the project would be too disruptive and costly to attempt.

OTHER PROJECTS: I-45 widening heading north to Huntsville

But now, the ambitious improvement is part of an expanded statewide transportation plan.

"We are turning the key and starting the engine and moving," Quincy Allen, district director for the Texas Department of Transportation in Houston told the Houston Chronicle's Dug Begley.

The project is part of a $1 billion state investment into Houston, where three major transportation projects will reconfigure some of city's most important highways: I-45, I-69 and Interstate 10.

Construction is set for late 2020 or early 2021.

You can read more about how this project will be carried out and the hangups that still have to be tackled in Begley's report on Houstonchronicle.com.

SILVER LINING: Houston's traffic is terrible, but it's far from the worst in America

Click through above to see the most congested freeways in America.PENSACOLA, Fla.  Christina Martin sat in the chair where she had slept at her only childs bedside. It was a moment of calm for mother and daughter, both scraped and bruised. They had been together on the charter bus carrying the Channelview High School band from Disney World back to Houston when it crashed Tuesday morning and plummeted 50 feet to the bottom of an Alabama ravine.

It was hard to believe the nightmare they had endured not quite 30 hours before. They remembered the band director jumping behind the wheel of the bus to steer it away from oncoming traffic after the driver slumped over.

The screams of the students now seemed surreal. The silence that fell after the bus landed with a thud still rang in their ears.

Martin, 48, a lab scientist who had been a chaperone on the trip, emerged largely unscathed, except for a cut on her chin. Her 74-year-old mother, Otila Dominguez, also chaperoning, hadnt been so lucky: She suffered a broken scapula and was over at the hospitals Ronald McDonald House, where she had spent the night. The youngest of the family, Annalise, 18, lay curled on her side in the hospital bed  her tailbone bruised, a heating pad on her shoulder.

She was among five patients, including the band director, still under the care of Sacred Heart Hospital on Wednesday morning after the Disney trip had ended so wrong. At least six others also remained hospitalized in Alabama.

MASS CASUALTY: At Pensacola hospital, Channelview bus crash triggers "code green" and community support

Martin and her daughter believed the band director, Aaron Allison, had saved them with his heroics, grabbing the buss steering wheel when the driver slumped over. Allison was badly hurt in the crash.

Looking at her daughter, who plays the trumpet, Martin had thought about how lucky they were.

That could have been our last moment, she would later say. But it wasnt.

Were a family

There was a knock at the door. Greg Ollis, the Channelview ISD superintendent, came in with his wife, who is the high schools former principal, and the assistant band director.

We were trying to get here as soon as we could, said Ollis. Got here at midnight last night.

The Martins were the first crash survivors Ollis had been able to visit. The students had departed last week, after school on Thursday, and driven through the night, arriving in Florida on Friday morning.

They hit the ground running. Three days at Disney. A band competition. One day at Universal Studios Orlando.

Ollis had seen other students in their hotel on the morning after the crash, that morning, preparing to head home, as the Martins planned to do later Wednesday. He was filled with tearful joy when he saw that Annalise and her mom were all right.

How are you? he asked, standing at the end of the bed. You doing OK?

The room filled with energy. They exchanged stories about their experience. Martin told the assistant band director, Alexa Thibodeaux, about how well she had slept in the chair.

Thibodeaux had been on the second bus, which did not crash. Too wired to sleep long, she had spent the morning fielding messages and trying to check on as many kids as possible.

Already, Thibodeaux had twice delayed her flight home.

Were a family, Martin said, explaining how the kids in the band had grown up together. Their mothers knew each other, if not by name, then at least by face. They knew the band staff.

Were blessed, Ollis said.

Yes, we are. Martin replied. Very lucky, and its more than luck. This was way beyond luck. I would never have guessed that  only one casualty. Never. But Mr. Allison, hes the man of the hour.

Emily Foxhall

Martin had felt the bus jostle and swerve to the right, off the road. It careened toward the guard rail on Interstate 10, above the steep ravine. Her stomach sank. She thought, This cant be happening.

She heard the band director yell at the driver. She turned around and yelled at her daughter and the other kids. Wake up and hang on, she shouted.

She grabbed her mothers hand and braced for the impact.

'I have a visitor'

Another knock came at the door shortly after Ollis and Thibodeaux left to visit Allison, everyones hero.

I have a visitor, a cheerful voice called. Your grandma!

A woman from Ronald McDonald House, Krystal Howell, pushed the 74-year-old Dominguez in a wheelchair from the bright hallway into the darkened room.

Hi, Nana! Martin called to her mother, who still had on her pale pink Disney World zip-up. Her arm was in a sling.

The Ronald McDonald House delivers, Howell said, to laughter. I really dont want to send her home because weve already fallen in love with her.

Howell gave the three women tote bags. She patted Annalise on the leg. She hugged Annalises mother and grandmother.

Visitors had been coming and going all morning. Did they need help arranging flights back to Houston? United Airlines was offering seats for victims and their families.

Martin was touched by how nice and accommodating everyone had been, both in Florida and in Alabama.

She hadnt been taken to Sacred Heart hospital at first but to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Alabama. A nurse manager from Sacred Heart had driven her own car Tuesday night to pick up Martin and her mother and drive them to be with Annalise  a great act of kindness, Martin thought.

When they arrived at last, Annalise said, It felt so good.

They had many notes to compare: Martin was tossed several rows forward in the crash. Kids had landed on top of her. She found it hard to breathe beneath the pile, and she thought she might die. Annalise, somehow, thought she had flown backward.

It was complete chaos, Martin remembered. It was awful. I mean you can watch all the movies you want on the planet, but to actually be in a situation like that. ... Its worse.

The mother sat now with her chin bandaged. A piece of it had been scraped off, but she didnt notice it at the time, until a student mentioned the bandage. Neither she nor her daughter had felt anything when the crash occurred.

They were in shock. They searched for stray shoes to put on their feet. Glass had shattered. Annalise put on two boys left shoes.

The bus had landed on its side. One by one, students had begun to slide out a window, letting people with head injuries out first, Annalise said. It began to smell like gas. Annalise worried the bus would explode.

HELP: Ropes, phone lights used in rescue after deadly bus plunge

The kids were so good, Martin said. They got up and they started moving around. Some of them lost their minds, of course, and others helped them. They helped each other and they got out of the bus.

The mother and grandmother stayed in the bus along with the band director, a student and another chaperone. They were stuck inside. Students relayed back to Martin that her daughter was OK.

We were born again

Annalise had called while her mother was in the ambulance. A friend had found her grandmothers phone. In its see-through case was a list of students she was charged with chaperoning.

She had that phone now, scrolling through it on the bed in her band sweatshirt. Her mother had somehow found her own phone too. Shed grabbed all the wallets and cellphones she could, ignoring all the Harry Potter wands the kids had brought with them from Disney World.

Lunch arrived for Annalise: chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans.

They had been born again, said Dominguez, Annalises grandmother.

Yeah, we were born again, Martin said. We went through all kinds of hell and eventually came out.

Dominguez remembered the bus driver, Harry Caligone, who died in the accident: And Mr. Harry gave his life up so that we could live.

THE LIFE LOST: Houston man killed in Alabama bus crash remembered as kind, careful driver

Annalise had been cleared to leave after lunch when her blood test results came back normal. Martin, still sore, was having trouble lifting her arms.

Another knock.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigators had arrived.During her Senate confirmation hearings in 2017, Betsy DeVos clearly demonstrated that she was unqualified to be U.S. Secretary of Education. In a recent interview with the CBS television program 60 Minutes, DeVos showed that on the job training hasnt helped.

At the root of DeVos shortcomings is a belief that the complex challenges facing our education system can be solved with some magic bullet. In her 60 Minutes interview, DeVos repeated her mantra that school choice would fix what ails education, but she was woefully unprepared to make her case.

Before becoming education secretary, DeVos had used her immense family wealth to fund school choice initiatives particularly in her home state of Michigan. When 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl asked if Michigan schools had gotten better as a result, DeVos gave a stunning response.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: I hate to see DeVos ruin public schools

I dont know. Overall, I, I cant say overall that they have all gotten better, she said.

Is this the best that school choice advocates have to offer?

DeVos promotes her charter and voucher plans as a panacea for the nations education woes, but doesnt know if theyve made a difference where shes been most directly involved.

The secretary of education should know better than to show up for class unprepared.

We cant say we werent warned. In her confirmation hearing after being nominated by President Trump, DeVos showed a woeful lack of understanding of education basics, such as whether testing should be used to measure student proficiency or growth.

CEPEDA: Betsy DeVos may be the least of public education's worries

The promotion of school competition as a cure-all for education struggles should be familiar to Texans. The state has expanded charter school offerings in recent years, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wanted to go even further in 2017, proposing that taxpayer money be diverted to private schools in the form of vouchers. DeVos also is a big fan of vouchers.

I intend to fight for school choice session after session after session, Patrick said in 2016. And it's not going to hurt public schools. Its going to make them better.

The House blocked Patricks voucher plan in 2017, but hell undoubtedly be back with this dangerous idea in 2019.

PATRICK: In Texas, school choice is necessary for change

In supporting school choice, DeVos and Patrick make the claim that taking money away from existing public schools will make them better because theyll be forced to compete for students. At best, studies are quite mixed on whether diverting money from traditional public schools to charters or private schools can lead to improved overall student performance.

In the 2010 documentary Waiting for Superman, education reformer Geoffrey Canada talks about his realization that Superman was a fictional character and would not be coming to the rescue. In the years since, school choice itself has become something of a Superman for its advocates  a fictional character imbued with supernatural abilities.

Our nations education system has become more complex over time. It serves a student population today that is vastly different than that of 50 years ago, or even 20 years ago. Nowhere is that more clear than in Houston.

HISD PARENTS: Don't shortchange HISD's neighborhood schools

The district faces class and racial divides over resource allocation. It is hamstrung by an inequitable school finance system and a Legislature lacking the political will to fix it. Many Houston ISD campuses are struggling, prompting the threat of a state takeover. And Hurricane Harvey disrupted the education of tens of thousands of Houston students.

In the midst of this, Superintendent Richard Carranza resigned after 18 months on the job to become chancellor of New York City schools.

Much hope will be placed in the next superintendent to solve Houston ISDs woes. The same happened with Carranza. But there is no Superman.

One person, or one plan, will not be enough to get the district on track. It will take the combined efforts of parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders. They should have a major voice in what comes next. That holds true in the rest of Texas and the rest of the nation. Thats not easy to do, but its the only realistic path.Vaccines did not cause Rachels autism.

Those words were spoken by Dr. Peter Hotez last week at a breakfast hosted by the American Leadership Forum. Hotez serves as director of Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and Rachel is his adult daughter.

Why does this parent of an autistic child and foremost expert on vaccinations in Texas, if not the world, feel compelled to speak about his daughters condition before one of the citys preeminent nonprofit leadership groups?

Because vaccines, a miracle of modern medicine, are the subject of an anti-science smear campaign. It started 20 years ago, when a doctor published a study purporting to show a link between childhood vaccines and autism. His data was later found to be falsified, the study was retracted and the doctor lost his medical license, but the virus of vaccine hesitancy began to spread.

EDITORIAL: The long vaccine war

In the last decade, the number of non-medical exemptions for school vaccine requirements in Texas has grown to 52,000 students, kindergarten though high school.

This figure does not include the vaccine delinquent or any of the high number of children who are homeschooled and who are not legally required to be vaccinated.

Given the surge in numbers, Texans can no longer take for granted their right to safely take a baby too young to be vaccinated into the public. This ominous trend is especially troubling for children with true medical exemptions who are too ill to be vaccinated and now risk exposure to serious childhood diseases.

MCGEE: To keep kids healthy, vaccine knowledge is power

During the breakfast, Hotez referenced research showing how the developmental patterns in the brains of children on the autism spectrum occur during pregnancy long before children are either vaccinated or typically diagnosed with autism. But it turns out that citing irrefutable science disproving any link between vaccinations and autism may not be the most effective way to change minds or encourage the vaccine hesitant, a reality acknowledged by Hotez and others on the ALF panel.

More scientific information can even cause a backlash by parents with the least favorable attitudes toward vaccines, and a further decrease in their intention to vaccinate their children, according to experts.

The way forward is for Texans to talk openly about their decision to vaccinate their children and to show their neighbors and fellow parents that vaccinations are the social norm.

EDITORIAL: Texas needs to keep track of unvaccinated students in schools

If challenged on social media by an anti-vaxxer, Dr. Lindy McGee, a pediatrician and panelist at the forum, said the best response is to say something along the lines of: I believe in vaccinations. Ive linked to some accurate information. Im happy to talk to you in person.

In the year 2018, promotion of vaccinations seems a throwback, but modern medicine is the victim of its own success. The relative rarity of outbreaks of measles and mumps provide families with a false sense of security.

Parents of todays young children werent living in the 1960s, prior to widespread vaccination, when a typical year meant 4,000 cases of measles encephalitis, which leads to permanent neurologic complications, deafness and death.

Whatever the reasons for the anti-science fervor, its clear that its not abating.

In state Rep. Sarah Davis Republican primary race, Gov. Greg Abbott backed challenger Susanna Dokupil, who had the full-throated support of Texans for Vaccine Choice, a group that favors non-medical exemptions for vaccines.

READ MORE: Vaccination debate sparks cartoonists to put pen to paper

While Davis won her Houston-area seat, Republican state Rep. Jason Villalba, who had introduced legislation to shore up Texass lagging vaccination rates, lost his Dallas primary race to Lisa Luby Ryan.

Anti-vaxxer groups claim that vaccination is a parental rights issue, but the consequences of their decisions arent limited their own families.

[T]he right to swing your fist in America ends at my face, Villalba told the Texas Observer before the primary race. If we dont do something quickly, the blood of our children will be on our hands.

Unfortunately, theres no vaccine against fraudulent information, which spreads like a pernicious disease, and often faster than reliable information. The only antidote is for Texans who vaccinate their children and who believe in science to start speaking up.Shining light on government to hold it accountable is hardly a new idea. In fact, Texas was a national leader in this realm for more than 40 years.

Sadly, the flow of public information in this huge state is slipping from the sunshine into the shadows.

Some state leaders have been dimming the lights, ensuring that even the most basic information about our government is getting more difficult to uncover: Who, really, is that candidate running for office? How are our hard-earned tax dollars being spent? Remember the Alamo, and how do we track its restoration money?

Texas Supreme Court rulings favoring secrecy plus inexcusable inaction in the state Legislature have severely weakened the Texas Public Information Act, a law rooted in the open government reform era of the early 1970s. For many years it was one of the strongest transparency laws in the nation.

COMMENTARY: Why strengthening the FOIA is so important

But lets not be sad for long. Its time to get to work and renew Texas commitment to government in the sunshine.

Theres no better time to launch this renewal effort than during Sunshine Week, March 11-17, a national celebration of open government and the peoples right to know.

Access to public information is essential to our precious First Amendment right of free speech to speak out about government.

In Texas, where everything is bigger, and where we need all the sunlight we can get shining on government, were going beyond a single week. Were celebrating Sunshine Month throughout March.

The nonprofit Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas is working with other public interest groups to highlight open government activities this month and the months to come with the aim of repairing the Texas Public Information Act in the 2019 Legislature.

Several state lawmakers are already committed to this mission, including state Reps. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi and Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake and state Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin.

EDITORIAL: A Texas law protecting hospitals' secrets must be repealed

Hunter recently told transparency advocates he plans to step up his leadership on open government and free speech rights.

What is positive? First Amendment, freedom of speech. Thats positive, he said. Some of us must stand up, be vocal and take a positive, constructive approach.  Bottom line is, good government, open government, settles everybody down.

Hes particularly interested in working again on the common sense issue of ensuring dates of birth remain accessible in public records, despite a court ruling to the contrary. Among other things, birth dates on candidate applications help voters scrutinize the background of someone running for public office.

In last years legislative session, Watson and Capriglione authored bills that would have improved the ability of citizens to see how their tax money is spent on contracts with private companies and on taxpayer-funded nonprofits performing traditional government duties. Those measures didnt pass, so theres more work to do.

The FOI Foundation of Texas is joining with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Public Citizen, Texas Press Association, Texas Association of Broadcasters and other organizations to promote government in the sunshine.

This new coalitions website is www.txsunshine.org. Look for plenty of action on social media channels, too.

On March 29, the Texas Public Policy Foundation is hosting Open Government, Engaged Citizens: A Conversation on Texas Public Information Act, a free panel discussion in Austin featuring Watson and Hunter and moderated by Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune.

EDITORIAL: The Texas lottery is no place for anonymous winners

In April, the FOI Foundation of Texas in cooperation with the Texas Attorney Generals Office will kick off this years regional Open Government Seminars, offering detailed training in state open government laws. The first one is April 17 at the University of Texas at Arlington.

We need ongoing attention paid to peoples right to know. Information is what helps you speak out and hold government accountable, whether you are concerned about property taxes, education, the environment, health care or any other issue.

Lets get the sun shining again in Texas.Eighteen animals died on United Airlines flights in 2017, a fatality rate substantially higher than that of other domestic carriers.

Animals rarely die aboard planes. Of the 17 airlines surveyed for a recent Department of Travel report, only four reported pet fatalities and injuries.

Two animals died aboard Alaska, Delta and American flights last year, a rate nine times lower than United. Thirteen animals were injured on United in the last year, the report says, while Delta and America had only one such incident apiece. Alaska Airlines reported no injuries, but the loss of one animal.

United and Alaska transported the highest number of animals in the past year, carrying about 140,000 and 115,000, respectively.

"The overwhelming majority (of deaths), according to medical experts, were due to a pre-existing medical condition or the animal wasn't properly acclimated to its crate," said United spokesman Charles Hobart.

Now Playing: Just one day after the news spread of a family dog's death during a United Airlines flight because an attendant demanded the pet be put in an overhead compartment, the same airline is facing further criticism over a new unsettling incident Video: People

The data comes to light after a series of highly publicized incidents aboard United planes  an airline that touts its PetSafe shipping program.

On Monday night, a French bulldog puppy died after a flight attendant put its animal carrier in an overhead bin, despite the family's alleged protestations.

"Our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin," United said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the airline sent a German shepherd to Japan, instead of its intended destination of Kansas City. When the Swindle family went to a cargo facility to pick up the 10-year-old pooch, they were instead given a Great Dane. Their shepherd, Irgo, was en route to Asia, attendants told them. Irgo was put on a return flight to Kansas City.

It's been a year of bad publicity for the airline, which faced criticism in April after video surfaced of airport security dragging a 69-year-old passenger off a United plane. One month later, a 10-month-old Continental giant rabbit that was likely to outgrow its record-holding sire and become the world's largest bunny, was found dead after flying United. Its owner claimed the airline cremated the rabbit, Simon, to destroy evidence.

Mike Moffit, an SFGATE staff writer, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.



Polisario urges UN chief to condemn exploitation of natural resources of Western Sahara

March 11,2018 | Source: MWN

The leader of the Polisario Front, Ibrahim Ghali, addressed a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, urging him to condemn any illegal exploitation of natural resources of Western Sahara that would hinder the UN political process.



In the letter, printed in the official separatist news agency and Algerias official news agency, Ghali urges the UN top chief to put pressure on Morocco and the European Union, calling for the suspension of the signed agreements, including the fisheries deal.



I urge you to call on the European Union and its member states to abandon their ongoing negotiations on trade and fisheries agreements with the Kingdom of Morocco in case [those agreements] include Western Sahara, said the separatist leader.



Recalling the ruling of the European Union Court of Justice (ECJ), Ghali said that  the EU-Morocco Fisheries agreement cannot be applied neither in Western Sahara nor to the waters adjacent to it.



On February 27, the ECJ decided that if the EU and Morocco included the Western Sahara territory in the scope of their fisheries agreement that would be contrary to certain rules of general international law that are applicable in relations between the EU and Kingdom of Morocco.



The EU court added that the fisheries deal is applicable to waters falling within the sovereignty or jurisdiction of Morocco.



The separatist representative claimed that this ruling confirms that Western Sahara does not form part of the soil of the Kingdom of Morocco.



Reacting to the ECJ, Moroccos Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, hinted at the possibility that Morocco may suspend its fisheries agreement with the EU.



In an interview that aired on March 4 on Moroccan TV channel 2M, Aziz Akhannouch did not exclude the possibility of the suspension of the fisheries agreement if it affects Moroccos sovereignty.



When asked about the possibility of ending the EU-Morocco agreement, Akhannouch remarked that Anything is possible. It could stop [this week], but that depends on the position of the European Union because we are not part of the ECJs decision.



The Moroccan official added that the ECJs decision did not recognize the role of the Polisario Front in this matter, as the separatist group has long-been appealing against the EU-Morocco Fisheries and Agriculture Agreements.



According to Akhannouch, the interests of Morocco and the EU require a review of the ECJs decision with the aim of a final result.



It is Europes duty to give Morocco the value it deserves, Akhannouch added.If the EU offers a positive interaction that meets Moroccos conditions, we will work together, if not, we will abandon the agreement without any problem, stressed the Moroccan official.

 Morocco World News

Theme(s): Fisheries Resources.New Zealand moves to compensate slave-like fishermen

March 11,2018 | Source: MarEx

New Zealand lawyer Karen Harding has secured the first stage of review of existing New Zealand legislation to improve the working conditions of fishermen.



In particular, the move has given a lifeline to a group of Indonesian fishermen seeking compensation against their former South Korean employers for unpaid wages and slave-like treatment. The men reportedly worked up to 24 hour shifts with few breaks. They were forced to live in cockroach-riddled spaces, sleep in wet bedding and eat flea-ridden food, reports Radio New Zealand.



The Supreme Court has ruled that the men can claim proceeds from the sale of vessels seized by the government. The issues of the case required the Supreme Court to consider the relationship between the provisions of two separate pieces of legislation, the Fisheries Act and the Admiralty Act.



Harding has worked on the men's case for several years without payment. They were promised what were said to be good jobs, to come to New Zealand on work permits to work on these Korean fishing vessels. They came and they got raped, they got abused, they got molested, they had insects in their food, their rooms were full of cockroaches and mice.



"They had to put their houses and paddy fields up to guarantee these fantastic jobs in New Zealand, so if they tried to get off the boats or resign they would have that property forfeited from them and make their families homeless."



Over the last decade, the New Zealand fishing industry has been shaken by a series of high profile allegations of abuse and exploitation of foreign crews working on foreign fishing vessels within New Zealands waters. Following a series of non-legislative measures, the Government responded with the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Act which came into force on May 1, 2016. This Act requires any foreign fishing vessel operating in New Zealand waters to reflag as a New Zealand ship, removing their right to fish in New Zealand waters until they do so.



According to the Government, this measure is intended to help identify issues of forced labor earlier and to ensure New Zealand employment law is applied uniformly at sea. In the first reading of the Act, the Government acknowledged that forced labor in the fishing industry has resisted successive Government measures for at least the last two decades.



Numerous independent organizations have produced data suggesting abuse has become endemic. An analysis by Bloomberg, for example, estimates that approximately 40 percent of squid exported from New Zealand has been caught on a vessel using forced labor, as well as 15 percent of Hoki exports and eight percent of Southern Blue Whiting.



The issues of slavery in New Zealand's fisheries industry has been highlighted though the New Zealand NGO, Slave Free Seas, and the U.K.-based charity Human Rights at Sea.

 2018 The Maritime Executive, LLC

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.Cambodia creates its first marine national park where pirate fishers prowl

by Matt Blomberg

March 12,2018 | Source: Mongabay

In February, Cambodia announced the establishment of its very first marine national park, covering 524 square kilometers (202 square miles) in the Gulf of Thailand. But the declaration does nothing to protect the environment, at least in the short term, with no new patrols of the heavily fished waters until next year, and a $2 billion island development plan allowed to continue unhindered.



Declared in the name of protecting biodiversity and encouraging tourism, the Koh Rong Marine National Park takes in the seven islands of the Koh Rong archipelago, 10.5 kilometers (6.5 miles) offshore, and the web of coral, seagrass and mangrove ecosystems around them. It expands upon a conservation area set up in 2016 that already restricts certain kinds of fishing.



The existing plan is not enough; the new area extends to protecting terrestrial, as well as marine [areas], Thay Chantha, director of marine conservation at Cambodias Environment Ministry, which is charged with managing the new park, told Mongabay.



Wedged between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodias tiny territorial waters have long been plundered by illegal fishing gangs feeding an ever-rising demand for seafood. Under the 2016 conservation plan, island locals were put to work patrolling their waters. The scheme appears to have curtailed illegal activity, but in no way eradicated it.



We cannot say they have been successful, Chantha said of the patrols, which are managed by the Fisheries Administration, a government agency dogged by corruption and hamstrung by a severe lack of resources.



With Cambodias tourism industry and economy booming, its tropical islands and coral reefs are becoming increasingly popular among domestic and foreign tourists. The Environment Ministry plans to assign at least 30 full-time rangers to patrol the new parks waters. They will also begin policing environmental issues on the parks islands, which are home to dozens of beach bars and guesthouses and a few thousand locals living in rudimentary villages. (The Fisheries Administration has no jurisdiction on land.)



However, the new rangers wont arrive until 2019 at the earliest, Chantha said, citing a lengthy formal process for recruiting civil service staff. And when they do start, those patrolling for violations on land will be hitting small targets only.



We are worried about households, about private restaurants and such that sometimes open in the community without conducting an EIA, or environmental impact assessment, he said. But the main developers, such as Royal Group, they already have their agreements with the government. For my department, thats not our responsibility.



The Royal Group is Cambodias largest conglomerate, headed by Kith Meng, an Australian-educated tycoon and adviser to the Cambodian prime minister. In 2008, Royal Group was granted a 99-year lease on the jewels in the archipelago, Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem. In December, the companys flagship $30 million Royal Sands Koh Rong resort finally opened for business, more than two years behind schedule. Planned casinos, an airport, golf courses and a marina on the two islands have yet to break ground.



In 2016, local officials ordered Royal Group to tear down a mainland pier and cease construction of an island port, saying they lacked proper paperwork, which scuttled plans to transport building materials. The conglomerate has also battled island residents over land ownership. Vice chairman Kith Thieng, Kith Mengs brother, told Mongabay that Royal Group was not building on the island at present and that its newly minted 67-villa resort had taken steps to control its environmental impact. There are systems in place to dispose of all waste, he said.



Remote and largely lawless, the Koh Rong archipelago makes an ideal staging ground for outlaw fishing operations. Some of the most destructive techniques  such as blast fishing, which stuns schools of fish with explosives, and cyanide fishing, which mildly poisons fish  were once common in the area. Todays criminal fishermen, though, are generally more discreet.



Some use the islands for cover between stints fishing further out to sea for high-value catches like sailfish and mackerel, or for large quantities of lesser-value species like squid. Others trawl weighted nets through the shallow waters around the islands, laying waste to seagrass meadows in the hunt for shrimp and crabs.



However, Cambodias 2006 fisheries law provided the impetus for authorities to begin reining in  ever so slowly  an anarchic fishing scene, giving ecosystems that host species such as seahorses, sea turtles and dugongs a chance to recover.



The health of the coral reefs is always improving, said Pierre Kann, a dive instructor at the Koh Rong Dive Center. Foreign fishing boats used to be everywhere, he said. Now you barely see them.



Kann has lived on and off the islands for much of his adult life. He said he is seeing thousands of recreational divers come through each week, up tenfold in three years. A lot of high-ranking people are coming to dive, a lot of wealthy people coming to learn before they go on a holiday to the Maldives, he said. It is becoming very popular among Cambodians.



Expanding on the pre-existing 405-squarekilometer (156-square-mile) protected area, the new park takes in five additional islets to the north: Koh Koun, Koh Tatiem, Koh Touch, Koh Manoa Krav and Koh Manoa Knong. Some of these areas are still being discovered  or rediscovered  as illegal fishing activity recedes.



We spent days clearing away the ghost nets, Kann said of old fishing nets entangled in coral at a new dive spot. And underneath was the most beautiful thing. We called it Secret Reef.



In spite of the archipelagos visible recovery, a number of people interviewed by Mongabay said that illegal fishing by local and foreign vessels and the illegal trade of marine life have remained ubiquitous, even with fishing laws and a conservation area in place.



Two or three Vietnamese boats land on Koh Rong every day, sell their catch and go back to work, one boat captain, who asked to remain anonymous, said of crews that sweep the ocean floor for species such as clams and sea urchins.



There is very little enforcement, he said. The marine police come to take payments and people are allowed to fish as they wish.



Policing Cambodias waters is a complex task. While the Fisheries Administration is barely equipped to fill its mandate enforcing fisheries laws, its work is multiplied and complicated by the presence of illegal foreign vessels. At the same time, its mission can easily be undermined by corruption among low-level officials with little incentive to venture out to sea at night to confront fishing gangs.



Meanwhile, authorities charged with border enforcement are routinely accused of taking money in exchange for granting passage to foreign vessels  a type of arrangement that is pervasive in a nation of poorly paid civil servants. Foreign fishermen have told this reporter that they pay authorities for the privilege of fishing Cambodias waters, and produced receipts as evidence. Cambodia ranks 161st out of 180 countries in Transparency Internationals latest Corruption Perception Index, falling five places from the previous years index.



For decades, networks of crooked businesspeople and government officials have stripped Cambodia of its natural resources. But the country has recently reformed its Environment Ministry, and, it appears, sent it to begin sorting through a quagmire that stretches the length of the coast. Two years ago, the ministry was similarly handed control of the countrys forests, which, for decades, have been looted while ostensibly protected.



Since 2012, the U.K.-based NGO Fauna and Flora International has been doing conservation work in the Koh Rong archipelago, including establishing and managing the original protected area alongside the Fisheries Administration. Its project manager for coastal and marine conservation in Cambodia, Marianne Teoh, welcomed collaboration with the Environment Ministry. Teoh said it was vital, however, that the ministry took into account the non-profits six years of research, planning and on-the-ground work when setting up the new marine park. There is the opportunity now for the new legislation to build on the work at the site, to reinforce existing management capacity and enhance ongoing efforts, she said.



While the declaration of Cambodias first marine national park comes with no new patrols of its waters, discussions to redesign protection efforts in the archipelago are underway, according to Ouk Vibol, head of marine conservation at the Fisheries Administration. For now, the community patrols will continue. Vibol called them a success, saying they had reduced illegal fishing by 80 percent in less than two years. And Environment Ministry rangers will be welcomed to the fold, whenever their day comes, he added.



We dont know about the Ministry of Environment side, but we will continue to do our work, he said. We all want to see more coral, more seagrass, more mangroves, more tourism and more income for locals. I hope the two ministries can get along.

 2018 Copyright Conservation news

Theme(s): Others.WHO to roll out integrated disease surveillance training in districts in Zambia hosting refugees

March 13,2018 | Source: Reliefweb

In response to the influx of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into Luapula province, the WHO Country Office is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to strengthen disease surveillance in order to reduce the risk of spread of communicable diseases. The WHO Representative, Dr. Nathan Bakyaita undertook a familiarisation tour of the refugee camps at Mantampala and Kenani in Nchelenge district from 23 February - 1 March 2018 in order to assess the health situation, the health services available for the refugee population and to identify areas which needed WHOs immediate and long term support. Dr. Bakyaita paid a courtesy call on the Provincial Permanent Secretary, Dr. Buleti Nsemukila and also held meetings with the Provincial Health Director and District Director of Health to gain an insight into the situation. Dr. Buleti Nsemukila informed Dr. Bakyaita that the border between Zambia and DRC was long and that 8 out of the 11 districts in the province shared boundaries with the DRC while illegal and uncontrolled border crossing points were common. He also said that the Zambian health facilities located near the border were constrained by unplanned population movement. Moreover, the districts of Nchelenge and Chiengi were prone to cholera outbreaks due to existence of illegal fishing camps with inadequate water supply and sanitation facilities.



The refugees at the border site in Chiengi are being screened following the disease surveillance guidelines and they are then moved from Kenani transit centre to Mantampala on a weekly basis. However, caution is being taken to ensure that the chronically ill, children under two years, pregnant women and those with mental disorders are not moved as the health services in Mantampala are not yet well established. A public health specialist has been deployed by UNHCR while MSF is to construct 2 treatment centres in case of any outbreak of diseases of public health concern. Although the Mantampala settlement reception area has adequate water supply and sanitation facilities, the residential area to be allocated for permanent settlement has not yet been covered.



The refugee camps face a number of challenges which include: the slow development of the camp at Mantampala due to heavy rains, lack of access roads in the camp to allow demarcation of plots and construction of houses for the refugees because the forest has not yet been cleared. Some cases of diarrhoea and malnutrition as well as community deaths have occurred as a result of poor health care seeking behaviours, limited transport and ambulance services, compromising for the quality of health services. There are inadequate human resources to provide health services in the refugee camps since no staff have been deployed by government due to lack of accommodation. In the meantime, staff from Nchelenge and Chiengi districts health facilities are temporarily deployed to serve the refugee population, stretching the capacity of the existing health facilities. The UN agencies using CERF resources are procuring an inter-agency kit, will construct a temporary health facility and improve the provision of sexual and reproductive health services.



The WHO Representative emphasised the importance of strengthening disease surveillance to prevent disease outbreaks. He said that WHO provided technical and financial support for disease surveillance and stationed a Surveillance Officer at the Provincial Health Office in Kasama to support IDSR activities in Luapula, Muchinga and Northern provinces. Dr. Bakyaita said that using CERF resources, WHO would support training of community agents in disease surveillance. Furthermore, through support from DFID, WHO was in the process of delivering boats to enhance service delivery to areas where water transport was the only means of reaching the needy populations.



The government has placed priority and effort in responding to the refugee situation working with a number of partners including MSF, the UN family and NGOs . An inter-ministerial Steering Committee has been set up to oversee the response to the influx of refugees comprising 8 Ministries, Permanent Secretaries and the UN Resident Coordinator.



The WHO Representative also visited Mansa General Hospital and School of Nursing, the Tropical Diseases Research Centre (TDRC) in Ndola, the Provincial Health Office for Copperbelt Province in Ndola, and the Ndola Teaching Hospital and Copperbelt Medical University.

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.Diljit Dosanjh Does Not Give a 'Damn' About His Career in Bollywood, Read to Know WhyTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with defrauding investors of $700 million. As a part of her settlement, Holmes will step away from the company and pay a $500,000 fine.

It's worth asking how someone could commit nearly a billion dollars of fraud and now just lose control of her company. Of course, at one point it was worth asking how a company founded by a then 19-year- old could invent a new, less-invasive way of drawing blood from patients. Such an innovation has long eluded the medical community--until Holmes came along.

Or at least that was the story she was trying to sell.

Writers who create glowing profiles of entrepreneurs and celebrity CEOs did their best to help Holmes sell her story. Magazines, including Inc., wrote about how she was "America's New Entrepreneurial Icon." They called her the "Achiever of the Year." They shared "21 Surprising Facts" about Elizabeth Holmes, which included information about what she wore to the office (a black turtleneck, like her hero Steve Jobs) and what she learned in high school (Mandarin).

The list did not include the most surprising fact of all, which was that (at least at the time) Theranos was a sham and Holmes was engaged in fraud.

In the collective rush to feed a constant hype machine and make celebrities out of anyone with even the slightest bit of charisma, the media helped create the legend of Elizabeth Holmes. That legend enabled Holmes' fraud, and the victims of her fraud weren't just yacht-owning venture capitalists. Employees who believed in Holmes and Theranos lost their jobs, and now must contend with a resume that includes the Silicon Valley equivalent of Enron.

The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes is a reminder that just because someone seems dynamic does not mean there is actual substance beyond the black turtleneck. Sometimes--especially in the startup world--what exists behind the buzzwords is little more than ruthless ambition and unrestrained greed wrapped in good PR.

Those reporting on people like Holmes can do better. They can hold ourselves to a higher standard. They can focus on issues of substance and avoid the click-driven temptation to celebritize anyone with a good story and a camera-friendly face.

They can strive to write and create things that they can be proud of years after they've written them.

They can also use a little common sense. Doctors and healthcare professionals do not know everything and are not perfect, but if millions of them haven't figured out how to reinvent a basic and very unpleasant procedure, the odds that a 19-year-old college dropout has the solution is remote.

Frauds and corporate con artists have always existed.

But their cons were a little harder to pull off in an age when there weren't thousands of bloggers rushing to be the first to publish a post raving about what the visionary con artist said at the latest festival fetishizing "innovation."

Elizabeth Holmes would have tried to defraud investors with or without the help of writers like me.

Still, when the next Elizabeth Holmes walks onstage in his or her turtleneck, lake a moment before writing a 600-word post anointing them as the savior of whatever industry they are trying to disrupt.Emma Toshack always enjoyed having some wine when she went to the beach or the pool behind her Los Angeles apartment building, but glass containers and public consumption of alcohol weren't permitted. So to get around the rules, she would pour a $30 bottle into an empty San Pellegrino can.

It was not an ideal solution. There were canned wine options, but she felt none offered both the convenience and premium quality she craved.

"There was a perception that the drink doesn't matter in those formats," Toshack, the founder and CEO of Nomadica, an L.A.-based canned wine company that launched in 2017, says of the quality of canned wine. "I think the wine space has been ripe for doing things differently and starting to break the rules for a while."

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Toshack's two-employee company aims to do just that, starting with its cans, which are decorated by illustrators and street artists. And Nomadica doesn't own a vineyard, instead collaborating with winemakers to provide its varietals. The company pays the winemakers a fee up front rather than giving them a percentage of sales.

Toshack says these collaborations keep costs low, and allow her to sell a wide variety of wines from different parts of the world. A 187-milliliter

can costs $5, the 250-milliliter option sells for either $6 or $7, and a case of 24 cans--the equivalent of about eight bottles of wine--is priced at between $115 and $130.

"I thought, 'What if there was a wine brand that was nomadic in a way and takes people on a wine journey around the world?'" Toshack says. "That way, they feel more comfortable trying something from a new region because they recognize the brand and know they can trust us."

Her company is achieving that goal by selling wines--selected by wine director Kristin Olszewski--that include a white blend made from Oregon grapes, a Pinot Noir from California's Mission Ranch Vineyard, and a sparkling rose made from Santa Ynez Valley, California, grapes. Nomadica is sold online and in restaurants, hotels, bars, and boutique liquor and grocery stores.

Nomadica sells in California, New York, Vermont, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C., areas that Toshack picked to gauge interest in her wines. She plans to expand to another 12 states and Australia later this year.

Toshack declined to share Nomadica's sales, but says revenue was in the low six figures last year, and grew 1,400 percent in January 2018 compared with the same month in 2017.

Canned wine's growing popularity.

Canned wine is still a niche within the wine industry, but it's a rapidly growing one. Total U.S. sales for canned wine jumped to $32.3 million last year from $3.3 million in 2014, according to Nielsen. A major force in the industry's expansion is Millennial wine drinkers who want a beverage they can take on the go. And in contrast with bottled wine, most people don't feel they need a special reason to purchase wine in a can, says Nielsen senior vice president Danny Brager, citing a November 2017 survey by the data and analytics company.

The industry's fast growth has made the competition fierce for entrepreneurs. Nielsen estimates there are more than 60 brands that either exclusively sell canned wine or offer a canned option in addition to their bottled varietals. Toshack says Nomadica competes with wine bottles priced between $18 and $30.

Despite the crowded market, Toshack says one of the major challenges she faced early on was skepticism about wine in a can. She says that hesitation already has declined since Nomadica's launch, as people have become more comfortable with the product, but there are still some traditionalists who prefer bottles. Another obstacle is juggling the many disparate roles required of a wine startup founder--she's the one responsible for finding collaborators, canning the wine, and delivering it to distributors.

Toshack's winding career path mirrors her company's nomadic theme. The 33-year-old founder dabbled in multiple fields before starting the company. She grew up in Sydney and enrolled in law school, but dropped out before earning her degree. She then started a modern Australian restaurant, where she served as head chef and got experience buying and tasting wine. When her restaurant burned down a year later, Toshack went back to law school.

Following her graduation in 2009, Toshack spent several years working at the Boston Consulting Group in Sydney before enrolling at Harvard Business School. It was there she got the itch to start something of her own but didn't yet have the right business idea. She worked at Snapchat in Los Angeles for nearly two years before launching Nomadica.

While Toshack says her experience and education helped prepare her for entrepreneurship, she didn't anticipate her work's being such a heavy load--literally. She jokes she's eager for Elon Musk to finish his driverless Tesla trucks so she won't have to lift and haul heavy boxes of canned wine.Rinse co-founders James Joun (left) and Ajay Prakash, at their company's San Francisco headquarters. Joun's inspiration for the company stemmed from a fateful visit to the mom-and-pop dry cleaner his parents have run for more than 25 years. Justin Kaneps

The delivery man in the bright-blue fleece rings the intercom at a home in the Richmond district of San Francisco. "It's James from Rinse," he says when the homeowner's voice crackles through the speaker. With that, the entryway light goes on, the door opens, and the occupant arrives to retrieve the bag of laundry that Rinse had picked up, in a considerably dirtier state, a couple of days earlier. James scans the QR code on the bag with his phone, and hoofs it back toward his Prius to head to the next stop.

The customer couldn't have known that he had just been handed a sack of cleaned-to-order laundry by one of the nation's most exquisitely educated delivery guys. James Joun has degrees from Dartmouth and Harvard Business School. He also doesn't do this much anymore, since he's the co-founder and COO of Rinse, a rapidly growing laundry and dry-cleaning startup that is trying to become the first nationally scaled company in what has always been a very local business. This Joun knows intimately: His Korean immigrant parents have run a dry-cleaning shop in South San Francisco for more than 25 years.

There, he was schooled in operations, such as running contraptions like the topper, which presses pant tops, and in the finer points of separating dirt and stains from all manner of fabrics. This means, in certain respects, Joun competes against the people who brought him into the business--who also happen to be his parents. So do a half-dozen other startups that see in your soiled laundry a potential IPO.

"I was exploring startup ideas around bringing technology to old-school industries and removing friction from customer experiences," says Rinse co-founder and CEO Ajay Prakash, who befriended Joun at Dartmouth. "I hadn't found the one that got me really excited." Until, that is, he and Joun identified the laundry and dry-cleaning sector--fragmented, undercapitalized, perhaps $40 billion big.

What excites Prakash and Joun is freeing us from drudgery--so long as you're in a big American city or possibly Paris, where one of their backers lives--while providing cleaner clothes. From 8 to 10 p.m., seven nights a week, Rinse will gather your dirty laundry and dry cleaning, and then, 24 to 72 hours later, deliver it in that same window.

Having raised more than $23 million, Rinse has gone beyond its San Francisco home base to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Boston; soon it will be in New York City. "Rinse can be a multibillion-dollar business operating just in the U.S.," says Paige Craig, the head of Arena Ventures, which funded Rinse's A round. He calls Prakash and Joun "execution heroes" who have thought through everything from fine-tuning driving routes to cleaning processes. (Perchloroethylene, or perc, a less-than-green dry-cleaning chemical, never had a chance with these guys.)

"You already outsource housecleaning and lawn care. Why not outsource laundry?" asks a co-founder of a Rinse competitor.

Once customers establish a Rinse account, they request a pickup via text, phone app, or website, and choose scented or unscented detergents, dryer temperatures, and the handling they want--wash and fold, or wash and hang dry. Rinse then farms out the actual cleaning, sometimes to a local shop, but more often to a commercial operation that meets its stringent specs. The cleaned clothes are then returned to Rinse and sorted for delivery.

Its prices are competitive with local shops: Wash and fold is $1.75 a pound (with a 15-pound minimum); a dress shirt costs $2.50 to launder; dry cleaning a suit costs $16. Standard delivery is $3.99. (Prices do not vary by city yet.)

And you don't have to be home when Rinse delivers: Valets can drop the bag by your door, or garage, or in your apartment hallway, and then take a picture of the dropped bag to confirm delivery. Somebody else does your dirty work, to your specifications, for a good price. Who wouldn't want that? "Laundry is hated," says Dan D'Aquisto, co-founder of one of Rinse's competitors, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based 2ULaundry. "You're already outsourcing housecleaning and lawn care. Why not outsource laundry?"

When Rinse gets to New York, Tom Harari will be waiting. In Brooklyn's rejuvenated Bushwick neighborhood, Harari and his co-founders have been building out their own service, called Cleanly, which has been blessed by Y Combinator and armed with $11 million of funding.

Harari, who's 33, is happy to tell you how Rinse is wrong: Joun and Prakash, he says, are expanding far too rapidly. Cleanly stayed home and tightened its operations until it could deliver within 24 hours--with one-hour pickup windows--morning and night.

Harari began by essentially taking on the more than 3,500 local storefronts and dry cleaners that launder Gotham's shirts and skirts, mostly on a walk-in basis. Then he moved on to challenge Rinse on its home turf out west last October. "If I could take you to our San Francisco warehouse, you'd see a bunch of their bags"--from former Rinse customers--"lined up on our racks," Harari boasts. "We offer a superior product." The spin cycle has clearly started.

Harari's business found him when he wasn't looking. Five years ago, he was an overworked digital marketer with the ad giant Omnicom Media Group who lacked the time to get his wash done. "What do I know about this? I've never done this. I don't have a cleaning background. I haven't started a company before," he says, outlining reasonable reasons for avoiding entrepreneurship. But an idea had captured him. "I would walk by local laundries, and I would just see the machines spinning. I was like, 'You know what? Someone's gonna do this. Maybe it should be me.'"

Alex Smereczniak, on the other hand, more or less majored in laundry at Wake Forest University, where he bought the student-owned and operated Wake Wash in his sophomore year. Later, he quit a corporate job to start a laundry and dry-cleaning service for grownups--he and his boyhood friend D'Aquisto co-founded 2ULaundry, which perfected its service in Charlotte before expanding to Atlanta.

The two 26-year-olds say they compete with what the tech crowd might call the "installed base"--washers and dryers in most every middle-class abode--and that they're selling an increasingly precious commodity. "Time is delicate" is one of 2ULaundry's slogans.

Laundry doesn't ask for much: It just wants to be cleaned. It piles up in a hamper or basement until, once a week or so, it demands attention. That's not the only reason Rinse, Cleanly, 2ULaundry, and others sense something big. "There's no market leader," says Harari. "The top 4 percent of revenue is driven by three companies"--among them Martin Franchises, which brought Martinizing to the world--"but the rest is mom-and-pops. There's no national brand."

It seems inevitable that a service that almost everyone might want would attract entrepreneurs. But inevitable has not translated to successful. Scaling something as personal as laundry--and delivering it on schedule--has proved difficult. There's already a laundry list (sorry) of failures: The biggest washout was Washio, which raised nearly $17 million from the likes of Ashton Kutcher and Nas before circling the drain. (Rinse absorbed Washio's customer list.)

To Prakash, Washio's demise demonstrated that the laundry game couldn't be played as a purely on-demand service, and that it needed a more finely-honed approach. "Everybody was saying, 'Be Uber for X,' " says Prakash. "We knew right away, when we started talking to our customers, it wasn't about just taking the Uber playbook and applying it to this business."

Prakash, who's 37, and Joun, 36, both envisioned starting businesses, although not necessarily with each other. After scoring MBAs, each went on to predictable pursuits in New York. Joun worked for Essex Woodlands Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm. Prakash took a more winding route that included stints at Bain & Company, the NBA, Berkshire Partners, Bonobos, and a subscription deodorant startup.

Both had moved back to San Francisco intent on launching something. All they lacked was an idea. Then, one morning in 2013, Joun stopped at his parents' shop. "These machines that I'm used to hearing whir in the background as I walk in," he says, "just weren't running." His parents had excess capacity. By extension, so did all the dry cleaners in the country that, like his parents', are running 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days a week.

Joun and Prakash quickly figured that their combined experience addressed both ends of the business: Joun knew cleaning operations, thanks to all those summers and weekends at his parents' store; Prakash could lean on his background to manage customer service. And in San Francisco, they could easily find someone to build the technology platform to link the two. Their premise: The laundry process is a series of minor annoyances that they could make invisible. "There were all these little friction points," says Prakash. "For example, you don't know who's a good dry cleaner."

They started with three ZIP codes in San Francisco in 2013, using friends and their extended networks as beta testers. Joun served as the valet, collecting laundry bags and delivering them to his parents' shop, where he supervised the cleaning. "I was the only driver," he says. "I personally met our first 300 or so customers."

They initially limited service to Wednesdays and Sundays between 8 and 10 p.m. Now it's seven days a week. "Forcing that constraint allows you to build density much quicker," Prakash explains. Density--the number of customers in a defined delivery route--is vital to Rinse. The more customers in a given neighborhood, the more that can be handled by one valet. You basically want a valet driving in a tight circle.

Rinse has about 105 valets in San Francisco, who assemble at the company's distribution center on Brannan Street at 7 p.m. Each bag is logged in to their smartphones; the exact order of delivery is determined by a mapping algorithm that Rinse developed. In a departure from the gig economy, the valets are employees who are paid $18 to $21 an hour plus mileage. Joun and Prakash believe that having W-2 workers is critical to the service (as do the founders of Cleanly and 2ULaundry). It allows the company to invest more in training, and to expect more of the valets, says Joun.

Once they had ironed out the kinks, in late 2013 the founders began adding ZIP codes and valets, and raising money from friends, family, and angel investors. "The barriers to entry into this space--to get up and running and start serving a handful of customers--are pretty low," says Prakash. "It's the barriers to scale that are incredibly high."

That part--the operational complexity--has kneecapped earlier laundry startups. There is plenty of extra capacity in the dry-cleaning industry, but it's scattered, quality varies greatly, and it isn't always available at the right time. Joun focused on finding retail and commercial vendors who could meet Rinse's capacity requirements and quality standards.

"We knew right away," says Prakash, "that it wasn't about just taking the Uber playbook and applying it to this business."

One is Douglas Waters, owner of Laundry Express, who arrives around midnight every night to pick up 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of laundry. He hauls those clothes to his commercial facility in Richmond, California, which is stacked with high-speed, high-capacity Electrolux washers and dryers. There, a crew sets aside high-risk garments and then loads the machines. (All processes are recorded by cameras.)

Waters was a general contractor before putting his hammer down and entering the laundry business. ("The attraction," he says drolly, "was that it is not general contracting.") But he quickly found that the retail laundry he built was underutilized--that problem again. He made a pitch to Rinse for business and won it. When Rinse expanded to Los Angeles, so did he, in the way that key suppliers often accompany automakers when they build new plants.

Rinse, Cleanly, and 2ULaundry, having broken out of their home turfs, are studying the map for their next opportunities. Rinse is eyeing Houston and Dallas. 2ULaundry aims to spread through the Southeast, perhaps to Miami. At presstime, Cleanly, now in San Francisco and D.C., was nearing a $15 million to $20 million funding round to underwrite a significant expansion.

There's a bit of a trojan horse strategy developing too. If you are a Rinse or Cleanly or 2ULaundry customer, you have given these companies permission to enter your home. What else can they offer? Rinse and Cleanly are collecting tons of data about what their customers buy and wear--both photograph all dry-cleaned items. Craig, Rinse's VC and adviser, suggests the company could "have the largest collection of data in consumer wardrobes"--so "we could help brands and retailers sell into your closet."

That's either very creepy or very helpful to you and the companies that want shelf space in your closet. This closet play is predicated on Rinse's having a national footprint. Craig says Joun and Prakash have the operational chops to pull that off, which is why he's betting on them.

"When we started, we had ambitions to be the first and largest national brand," says Prakash. "If we can create the best customer experience, and also remove the friction for the vendors, we have the opportunity to really be that dominant brand."

So are mom-and-pop dry cleaners--and, for that matter, Joun's mom and pop--doomed? Not necessarily, he says: The best will be partners to the new national brands. Assuming, of course, Rinse and its rivals have the right formula to win business from the rest of us--the great unwashed.

Rinse and Repeat

To you, it's sweaty shirts. To Rinse, it's more complex. The company handles tens of thousands of pounds of laundry daily--which means solving a multidimensional logistics puzzle. 

1. Collection

Customers separate their wash into bags, which valets retrieve every night between 8 and 10 p.m. Route maps are planned by a proprietary algorithm for maximum efficiency. Valets return to a warehouse, where Rinse distributes the clothes to dozens of cleaning partners on the basis of their location and capacity. Ideally, customers have the same cleaning partner every time.

2. Cleaning

At Oakland's Express Laundry, workers arrive around 2 a.m. Overhead cameras record them sorting darks and lights and flagging high-risk garments to avoid washing dry-clean-only items. Each customer's clothes are washed separately--no mixing with your neighbors'--in machines that spin more than three times as fast as household models and compress the wash-and-dry cycle to 45 minutes.John Malloy owns exec search firm Sanford Rose Associates-Santee, but he once owned a manufacturing firm whose workers were mostly male. "It was very clear we could be subject to issues if we didn't have the right policies in place," he recalls. So he and his staff crafted a sexual harassment policy after getting legal guidance and then trained the entire company.

Within weeks, a female employee complained that a male co-worker had made comments that were "a blend of obscenities and sexual innuendo," Malloy recalls. "He said things you wouldn't say to your wife or mother."

The guy refused to apologize. In fact, he made similar comments the following night. "He was great in terms of doing his job. He was very well liked," Malloy says.

Reporting Harassment 60% of women say they experience "unwanted sexual attention, sexual coercion, sexually crude conduct, or sexist comments" in the workplace. 165 million was collected by the EEOC from offending firms in 2015 for workers alleging harassment. 90% of employees who experience harassment never file a formal complaint; 75% never complain to their employers either. Source: 2016 EEOC Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace

Nevertheless, he was history. "We followed the procedure. He was suspended for a few days," Malloy says. "He came back and resumed the same behavior. So we terminated him."

The scandals that toppled high-profile figures such as NBC's Matt Lauer, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, and even beloved NPR icon Garrison Keillor have awakened enormous interest in the harassment issue. And the #MeToo movement has inspired thousands of women to air their complaints. In an era of heightened risk, learn how to protect your company.

1. Your harassment policy needs regular review.

If you don't have a written sexual harassment policy, get one. Now. Already have one? Make sure to review it every three to five years so it's up to date and accurate, says Nicole Sodoma, managing principal of Sodoma Law. For instance, an older policy might not mention social media, or may have outdated instructions on how victims should report an incident.

2. Your entire company needs regular training.

"We recommend training once a year," says Jay Starkman, founder and CEO of Engage PEO, a professional employer organization. "It should touch on exactly what the company will do once a complaint is made, and what the ramifications will be." Live training is better than online, and the owner or CEO and other executives should attend. Their absence would be noticed and could be used as evidence of a harassment-tolerant culture.

3. Don't insist that all complaints go through you.

Experts say harassment victims should have choices about whom they report their stories to--the company owner or CEO should be just one option. "Ideally, where the alleged abuser and the victim are of the opposite sex, you want a female to interview the accuser if she's female, and a male if he's male," adds Russ Brinson, attorney at Sodoma Law.

4. Even if no one complains, you can still get in trouble.

Think that no complaints means everything's fine? That could be a mistake. Harassment victims have no legal obligation to alert their employers to the problem. If management has witnessed harassment or a hostile work environment and failed to take action, the company can be held liable.

5. Lack of intent doesn't matter.

"You hear from people that they didn't intend to offend anyone, were only joking, and when they put their arm around someone, it wasn't meant to be sexual," says David Lewis, CEO of HR consultancy OperationsInc. "That's almost irrelevant. The victim's viewpoint matters most." Employees have the right not to be touched at work, or addressed in a diminutive way or hear jokes about the tightness of their clothing, Lewis says. "People put way too much emphasis on intent rather than perception."

Managing claims.

Is one of your workers being accused of sexual harassment or misconduct? These guidelines can help you manage a difficult issue.

Take immediate action.

The longer you wait to investigate, the greater the likelihood a frustrated accuser will look elsewhere for help. He or she might contact an attorney, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or an equivalent state agency. If the accuser does contact the EEOC, you can usually expect to spend a lot of time and money dealing with attorneys.

"They may not say who complained. They may just contact you and announce they're doing a general audit," says David Lewis of OperationsInc. "And they have a lot of latitude." If, say, the EEOC finds other employee issues such as wage unfairness or discriminatory hiring, it can pursue these as well. This is why you should deal with harassment claims swiftly and efficiently--before the EEOC gets involved. "Besides protecting employees, it saves time and money," says Russ Brinson of Sodoma Law.

Protect the accuser.

Other workers may be tempted to seek revenge, especially if the alleged harasser is well-liked. Even before there's an issue, says Brinson, "everyone must know that they can't retaliate." You need to figure out how to separate the accused and the accuser without it seeming like retaliation. The best solution may be for them to work from home or get paid leave.

Seek other victims.

Sexual harassment is rarely a one-time thing. Use due diligence to confirm there are no other victims or witnesses among people the accused has worked or traveled with. "Generally, when you go to other people, they say, 'Oh, he said this to me, too.' It's easier to come forward," Brinson says.

Be willing to terminate the perpetrator.

Some employers try to avoid firing a key employee by sending the person to counseling. But if the victim considers your response inadequate, he or she might still seek redress. Sanford Rose Associates' John Malloy says that after he fired an abusive employee at the factory he once owned, "there were no issues for several years."Suppose an entrepreneur came to you and said his company could "back up your mind," preserving your brain so future scientists could extract or even update its data? Pretty cool, yes? And what if he said he could do so right down to the synapse level, so the brain data might let you be, in a sense, reborn or, in another sense, immortalized? Still cool, right?

OK, great! Just sign on the line! You won't even feel it as the company--Nectome--offs you.

Wait, what?

Nectome's co-founder, Robert McIntyre, is in a certain way following precedent, since scientists have been preserving brains and other body parts for research for years. And he's not alone in comparing the brain to a computer, with a vision of one day being able to upload and simulate the data it holds. But as Antonio Regalado writes in his article for MIT Technology Review, McIntyre veers from convention in that his new preservation process, aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation, pumps special embalming chemicals into the carotid arteries of the neck while you are still alive. The technique, which is done under anesthesia, means the brain can be kept intact for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years. But it also kills you.

The very tiny target market.

Now, just calm down a little.

McIntyre doesn't want just anybody to walk into his offices and get preserved. He's got a very specific niche market in mind: The idea is to present the service to terminally ill individuals who want to undergo doctor-assisted suicide. These individuals might feel empowered by being able to choose the time and method of their death. And like others who donate their bodies to science, they might take solace in knowing that, if they do have to die, researchers can learn from them and use the knowledge to advance the world.

Some very big hurdles.

Critics of Nectome say McIntyre (and anyone else who would start a similar company) is preying on people's natural fear of death. They say individuals like McIntyre know that people take some comfort in the idea of somehow living on after they pass away, and that businesses promise this to clients even though the techniques required for actually simulating brain data haven't even been invented yet. And scientists still don't yet know what the actual results of the simulation will look like. What's truly required to preserve memories, a state of consciousness or personality, for example? And wouldn't brain banks be an additional burden on future generations?

But the biggest hindrance to Nectome might be in the law. Currently, physician-assisted suicide is legal in just six states and Washington, D.C. (The states are Oregon, Vermont, California, Montana, Colorado, and Washington.) That means even if McIntyre's niche market responds well, many terminally ill patients won't have access to the service unless they are willing to move to a region that accepts the process. Whereas other companies can grow at a rate based on demand, McIntyre can grow only as fast as each state is willing to change its legislation, which can be slow to pass even with popular support.

But change with big ethical implications has happened before. The biggest, most recent example might be within the cannabis industry. The legal status of marijuana is evolving rapidly, with nine states and Washington, D.C., having passed legislation for recreational use since 2012. The legalization of same-sex marriage is another example of quickly shifting viewpoints that have influenced many businesses. McIntyre might find that views on doctor-assisted suicide will shift in a similar way, especially given increasing pollution, and the growing size of the senior population might continue to increase the number of individuals found to have terminal conditions.

Putting money behind the concept.

Make no mistake--investors and customers already are at McIntyre's door. At least 25 people have paid $10,000--fully refundable if they change their minds--to be put on Nectome's waiting list. The company has $1 million in funding so far and even has won a grant worth $960,000 from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health for its technology. And next week, McIntyre, who believes we have an obligation to preserve the collective wisdom of generations, plans to pitch the idea to investors at Y Combinator's demo days.Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal launched their New York City eyeglasses retailer, Warby Parker, back in 2010. Since then, the e-commerce first business has raised nearly $300 million in funding, expanding to more than 1,400 employees and 65 brick-and-mortar stores across the country. But to hear Gilboa tell it, they're just getting started.

"We're still just scratching the surface, with less than 1 percent of the U.S. market share," Gilboa tells Inc. "There's still huge potential in our core market, and we think there's also potential globally."

With an eye toward that potential, the company on Wednesday announced that it had raised $75 million in a Series E funding round, led by the existing investor T. Rowe Price. It's worth noting that the private equity firm has a track record of investing in companies that are nearing a public listing, and while the founders are mum on when an IPO could happen, Gilboa suggests that it is on the horizon. "We have a very long-term vision for what Warby Parker can be and the impact it can have on the world, and we think that the best way to execute on that vision is by being an independent company," he says. The firm also announced that it will generate a profit for the first time this year.

In the interim, Warby Parker plans to use the cash to continue expanding and solve what Gilboa sees as systemic problems for customers. First on the docket: a way for users to seamlessly re-up their glasses prescription, and therefore order a series of new frames from the company over time. As recently as last year, the founders launched a Prescription Check app that lets users download and complete a vision test from home, which a team of remote ophthalmologists can then check and write a prescription for accordingly. Since the debut, "we have dramatically increased the number of states that people can use the service in, and we've seen a strong uptick in volumes," Gilboa notes. The company plans to continue building out the feature, as well as another app that effectively lets customers try on glasses virtually. The feature, called Find Your Fit, is designed to work with the new iPhone 10, taking exact measurements of the customer's face and then recommending frames that are sure to fit.

In the meantime, Warby Parker plans to continue growing its physical presence. Like many e-commerce first companies, analysts suggest that Warby Parker is realizing the limits of tapping customers online, given that some 90 percent of retail still happens in stores, according to Forrester. The company plans on adding 35 retail stores by the end of the year.

Still, and despite the fact that Warby Parker is all but certainly headed for an IPO in the not-too-distant future, challenges remain. "Something that is top of mind for me and Neil [Blumenthal] is how we become a bigger company without slowing down and without becoming bureaucratic," says Gilboa. (Warby Parker does not speak publicly about its revenue, though Inc. estimated that it was on track to book $250 million in 2017.) With more than 1,400 employees--some of whom work more than 3,000 miles away from the company's New York City headquarters--managing workflows and morale can be difficult. "The things that cause a pit in my stomach are people related," Gilboa adds, referring to when employees opt to leave the company, or aren't performing to their potential. To help foster communication, Warby Parker holds weekly all-hands meetings, and a three-to five-minute "highlight reel" showcasing some of the most positive moments of the past few days.To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lees estate is suing the producer of a Broadway adaptation of the novel, claiming the play strays too far from the spirit of the book.

The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkins script for the play, which is being produced by Oscar-winner Scott Rudin, deviated too much from the content of Lees novel, the lawsuit claims.

It alleges the play adds two new characters, changes the character of lawyer Atticus Finch to make him initially naive to racism, and did not present a fair depiction of 1930s small-town Alabama because it introduced elements of todays social climate.

Lee died in February 2016 at the age of 89, but the lawsuit filed in an Alabama court refers to a copy of a contract signed by her about eight months before her death, in which Rudins theatrical production company Rudinplay agreed to pay her $100,000 (71,775) to adapt the novel for the stage.

The lawsuit says the contract also obliged Rudinplay to remain faithful to the spirit of the book and its original characters.

Asking the southern district court of Alabama to rule that the play violates the contract, the lawsuit cites interviews about the play, which is due to open on Broadway in December, with Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch.

The lawsuit quoted Sorkin telling Vulture in September 2017: As far as Atticus and his virtue goes, this is a different take on Mockingbird than Harper Lees or Horton Footes [the screenwriter of the 1962 film starring Gregory Peck].

He becomes Atticus Finch by the end of the play, and while hes going along, he has a kind of running argument with Calpurnia, the housekeeper, which is a much bigger role in the play I just wrote.

He is in denial about his neighbours, and his friends and the world around him, that it is as racist as it is  He becomes an apologist for these people.

The lawsuit  filed by attorney Tonja B. Carter, the executor of Lees estate  also quotes the article as saying: That adjustment not only gives Atticus a character journey from naivete to righteousness, it ties the 1930s-set Mockingbird to todays social climate.

The lawsuit then cited another of Sorkins interviews, with Playbill, which reported: When the curtain rises on the world premiere of Sorkins To Kill a Mockingbird, audiences wont encounter the morally sound Atticus Finch they know.

Playbill, the lawsuit noted, also referenced a 2016 interview where Sorkin had said it doesnt work at all just to take the scenes from Lees novel and dramatise them.

 Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird - Best Quotes

The lawsuit says when concerns were raised in response to these interviews, Rudin, who won a best film Oscar for No Country For Old Men, emailed the Lee estate to say: The Atticus of the book is the Atticus of the novel  I am never going to fall anywhere outside the agreement.

Rudin also added that the script was still only in draft form and would evolve.

Harper Lee: Life in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 Harper Lee: Life in pictures Harper Lee: Life in pictures Harper Lee smokes a cigarette as she sits on the porch of her parents home, Monroeville, Alabama, 1961 Getty Images Harper Lee: Life in pictures Harper Lee holds tire swing with child actress, Mary Badham, who played the role modeled on Lee's childhood, 1961 Rex Features Harper Lee: Life in pictures Harper Lee, in her father's law office while visting her home town in 1961 Donald Uhrbrock Harper Lee: Life in pictures Harper Lee greets well-wishers and fans at a reception before a luncheon, in Hoover, where she was honored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, 2002 AP Harper Lee: Life in pictures Writer Harper Lee attends the Library Foundation of Los Angeles 2005 Awards Dinner honoring Harper Lee at the City National Plaza in Los Angeles Getty Images Harper Lee: Life in pictures Harper Lee and actress Annette Bening attend the Library Foundation of Los Angeles 2005 Awards Dinner honoring Harper Lee at the City National Plaza in Los Angeles Getty Images Harper Lee: Life in pictures Pulitzer Prize winner and 'To Kill A Mockingbird' author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the 2007 Presidential Medal of Freedom in the East Room of the White House in Washington Getty Images Harper Lee: Life in pictures

Six days ago, on 9 March, Rudinplays lawyer wrote to Ms Carter denying that the play departed in any way from the spirit of the novel. The lawyer also argued that even if the play did deviate from the spirit of the novel, the estate only had the right to discuss its concerns, not enforce them.

According to the lawsuit, Rudinplays lawyer wrote: Even if the author believes that the play derogates or departs from the spirit of the novel, or alters its characters, the authors remedy is that the author will be afforded an opportunity to discuss with [Rudinplay] resolutions of any such concerns.

The author is therefore not the final arbiter of what derogates or departs from the spirit of the novel, or alters its characters.

And, the lawyer was said to have added, it was too late to make wholesale changes to the play, because the actors were now five weeks away from doing their second preparatory workshop.

The lawsuit quoted Rudinplays lawyer as informing the Harper Lee estate: It is unreasonable to expect that extensive changes can be achieved five weeks before the second workshop. It simply is no longer possible, even if [Mr.Rudin] were in agreement with everything [you say].

After news of the lawsuit emerged, a statement issued on behalf of Rudinplay said Sorkins script is a faithful adaptation of a singular novel which has been crafted well within the constraints of the signed agreement.

The statement also alleged a history of litigious behaviour by Lees estate, saying: This is, unfortunately, simply another such lawsuit, the latest of many, and we believe that it is without merit.

While we hope this gets resolved, if it does not, the suit will be vigorously defended.Miley Cyrus has been sued for alleged copyright infringement over her hit single "We Can't Stop", according to Reuters.

Jamaican dancehall artist Flourgon, born Michael May, claims the 2013 song from Cyrus' album Bangerz infringes on his 1988 track "We Run Things".

In the complaint, May argues that Cyrus and her co-writers "substantially incorporated" his vocal melody, cadence, inflection and vocal rhythm.

It also claims "We Can't Stop" features a "substantially similar hook" and cites the lyrics "we run things, things don't run we". His lyrics in "We Run Things" are: "We run things. Things no run we."

May's lawyers argue that Cyrus' song "owes the basis of its chart-topping popularity and its highly-lucrative success to plaintiff May's protected, unique, creative and original content."

Also named in the lawsuit are Mike WiLL Made-It, Rock City (Timothy and Theron Thomas), manager Larry Rudolph, RCA Records, and Sony Music.

May is seeking a trial by jury, an injunction to halt sales and further performances of the track, and lawyer's fees. While the complaint does not specify damages, his lawyers described it as a $300m case in a press statement.

The Independent has contacted Miley Cyrus' representative for commentOUTLYA are a three-piece indie-pop band who caught our attention last year with their brilliant EP Volcano - they make super-catchy, arena-sized pop that recalls the likes of Coldplay, Bastille and Imagine Dragons.

Following festival appearances at Reading & Leeds and The Great Escape, plus support slots for the likes of Norwegian pop artist Dagny and the great Maggie Rogers, they're sharing their infectious new single "White Light" which you can listen to first via The Independent.

Check it out below:

Loading....

Q&A with OUTLYA

What are you listening to at the moment?

There is so much good music out at the moment - we're loving all the new releases from Submotion Orchestra, Janelle Monae and Superorganism. Our friend Westerman is putting out some of our favourite music at the moment. His new song 'Confirmation' is an absolute triple threat: an incredibly catchy hook, some lush production by Bullion & a mesmerising video directed by another amazingly talented friend Jonjo Lowe - a must watch.

What are your plans for 2018?

Aside from releasing our new single White Light - we're heading out on our first ever headline tour around the UK (13th  23rd March) and then lots more writing, recording and some festivals to get us out of the house & keep us sane.

What was the first gig you ever played and whats been the best so far?

Our first ever show was supporting James Bay at an acoustic gig for Wateraid at Hoxton Hall. We hadnt put out any music, still hadnt fully settled on a name or what songs to play and yet somehow it wasnt a total disaster? Everyone was very nice about it. Our favourite show to date was supporting Maggie Rogers at The Electric in Brixton - it was the hottest day of the year with no air conditioning but the crowd were so exited to see her and she was an absolute pro and put on an amazing show. She's incredibly talented & gracious too - overall a dream gig, take us back!

'White Light', the new single from OUTLYA, is out on Friday 16 MarchCreep Show, Mr Dynamite



Download this: Mr Dynamite; Modern Parenting; Tokyo Metro; Fall; Safe And Sound

Youve probably seen the TV advert for the BBCs 6Music service, in which sundry lounging uber-cool hipsters in shades cite their own favourite listening tastes, most precariously poised between the populist and the outlandish. Early on, a luxuriantly-bearded John Grant mutters just Cabaret Voltaire, an influence clearly in evidence on his last two albums. And now, Mr Dynamite records what happens when that influence is pursued further still, the Creep Show pseudonym uniting Grant with former CV frontman Stephen Mallinder alongside Phil Winter and Benge, Mallinders current partners in electro trio Wrangler. The result is a full-blown, fun and fearless blast of analogue synthesis spawned, according to Mallinder, from spores of Seventies sci-fi, post-punk electronic music, bad taste, broken synthesisers, luscious film soundtracks, and dubious band t-shirts.

At the heart of Creep Shows singular aesthetic is the contrast between Grants upholstered croon and Mallinders more fragmentary vocals, as heavily treated here as in Cabaret Voltaire. With both vocalists adopting several different personae, its a crowded and frequently confusing experience: one moment, Grants droll, hipster tones are sailing over the squelchy electrofunk groove and fizzing synth tendrils of Modern Parenting; the next, Mallinders answering the PA machine-voices of Tokyo Metro with soft, subtly-treated responses in Japanese.

Then Grants back for the bustling techno of Endangered Species, warning that its not other species that are endangered, but ultimately our own. On the title track itself, so heavily treated and pitch-shifted is the montaged greeting Hullo! Im Mr Dynamite that it could be either, or both of them essaying its curiously catchy alienation over the few abject, wistful wisps of electronic tones.

Behind their voices, the album asserts the great variety and malleability of electronic music, from the electro breakbeat of Lime Ricky and the languid offbeat groove of Pink Squirrel to the synthesised collage of K Mart Johnny. The most satisfying piece may be the classic cosmic-electronica of Fall, a sumptuous space-scape rooted in The Man-Machine-era Kraftwerk, its simple, logical progressions pursued over seven minutes to a gently galactic conclusion. It offers a suitably calm, considered prelude to the albums nine minute closer Safe And Sound, on which Grant proclaims his faith in his aesthetic direction, both singularly and as part of something bigger, over a warm, engaging squelchy synth groove coloured with background electronic tints.

Im exactly where I was meant to be, he asserts, safe and sound in the arms of my destiny. And on the strength of Mr Dynamite, who could gainsay him?

The Decemberists, Ill Be Your Girl



Download this: Cutting Stone; Severed; We All Die Young; Rusalka, Rusalka/Wild Rushes

Its quite a week for surprising new directions, though few are quite as unexpected as The Decemberists on Ill Be Your Girl, which finds the folk-rockers employing electropop riffs influenced by Roxy Music and New Order. Who saw that coming? Opener Once In My Life uses expansive synth textures to underpin the bands familiar folk-rock sound, while at its most extreme, the mordant pessimism of We All Die Young is delivered as a glam stomp, further estranged by a childrens chorus. It makes for some intriguing collisions of ancient and modern: Cutting Stone is a murder ballad set to bustling synth arpeggios, while the menacing harbinger of Severed is borne on fizzing electronic riffs.

But theres plenty of room for movement within songs, most notably in the shift which yokes together Rusalka, Rusalka/Wild Rushes, where the first parts suicidal riverside yearnings, set to solemn piano and funereal organ, segue disarmingly into the welcoming, wave-like strummings which eventually lure its narrator to a watery grave.

Meshell Ndegeocello, Ventriloquism



Download this: Sometimes It Snows In April; Waterfalls; Atomic Dog; Private Dancer

As her 2012 tribute to Nina Simone, Pour Une Ame Souveraine, demonstrated, Meshell Ndegeocello is a skilled interpreter whose cover versions seek out an unusual equilibrium between empathy and originality. Those featured on Ventriloquism relate specifically to her own development, forged in the white heat of 1980s nu-soul, particularly from Minneapolis: the album includes three tracks sourced from Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and most impressively a riveting take on Princes Sometimes It Snows In April, pared back to bare emotions.

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

Her questing spirit leads Ndegeocello in some strange directions, such as the tricksy 5/4 reading of Smooth Operator, or Private Dancer done as a slow waltz; but it often pays huge dividends. A slow acoustic take on TLCs Waterfalls, for instance, acquires a lush, folksy charm, whilst her sparkling 12-string guitar arrangement of George Clintons Atomic Dog develops a hypnotic, cyclical groove that echoes Malian desert-blues more than cosmic funk. The results are frequently transformative, and always enjoyable.

Yo La Tengo, Theres A Riot Going On



Download this: Shades Of Blue; For You Too

In 1971, the dark torpor of Sly And The Family Stones Theres A Riot Goin On uncannily evoked the uncertainty following the Sixties collapse into turmoil; sadly, its unlikely that this album will capture the current situation with equivalent potency. In part, thats due to its different agenda: seemingly befuddled by the state of things, it seeks only to apply a cooling salve to the furrowed brow, through a succession of drifting ambient throbs and gentle, folksy strummings whose melodies persist in evading capture. Which doesnt really seem much of an ambition.

You Are Here sets the tone, a nearly six-minute shuffle of sleighbells and amorphous keyboard textures, its diffidence echoed in the miasmic reeds and piano of Above The Sound and the paradisiacal piano, chimes and guitar of Ashes. The occasional cut slices through the general blandness  the lilting Shades Of Blue is a winsome folk-pop lollop, and the Neu! motorik groove gives For You Too a rare drive  but overall this seems more escapist than reactive, not much help at all.



Download this: Constantinople; Sinister Exaggerator; Laughing Song; Birthday Boy; Hello Skinny

The Residents reissues programme reaches its most welcoming stage with this expanded edition of 1978s Duck Stab/Buster & Glen, which the new sleeve note astutely describes as the gateway drug into the bands absurdist world. Its certainly their most pop-conscious album, with the bands cast of cartoonish voices applied to singalong nursery rhymes about characters called Lizard Lady, Krafty Cheese and Birthday Boy, their narratives driven less by logic than assonance and alliteration: an oily old egg with a red peg-leg thought a porcupine was its daughter, runs the opening line of Laughing Song, a jocular cousin to The Laughing Policeman seemingly escaped from Caligaris Cabinet.

As nursery rhymes, they blend the sinister with the simple; and as cartoons, theyre the musical equivalent of Tex Avery, constantly playing with their medium and breaking the frame. Sonically too, its an enticing mix of oddball amusements, from brief musical jokes like Bach Is Dead and The Booker Tease to eerie, tingling masterworks such as Sinister Exaggerator and Hello Skinny: cautionary tales for a strange new world.

The Magic Gang, The Magic Gang



Download this: Oh Saki; Caroline

Brighton-based combo The Magic Gang have been so widely and enthusiastically tipped as the Next Big Thing that its hard not to feel let down by their underwhelming debut album.

The monotone fuzz-chord riff and plangent harmonies of Oh Saki sets out their stall as UK inheritors of the US slacker-pop sound of such as Weezer and The Lemonheads, which translates on the ardent strumming of Getting Along into something closer to McBusted-style lovelorn pop-rock. But its all a bit stiff: the methodical chording of All This Way lacks swing or swagger, as if too tightly corsetted, and Take Care displays similar restrictions applied to their keyboard-led material: the plonking piano and falsetto refrain suggest someones trying for Brian Wilson magic, but falling well short.

Even when theyre not singing directly about girls called Jasmine and Caroline, the sad-lad focus on romantic disrepair is ultimately wearying: just once, itd be nice to hear them sing about blood, or toast, or buses, or anything other than being a hapless dweeb.

The Fratellis, In Your Own Sweet Time



Download this: Stand Up Tragedy; Laughing Gas; The Next Time We Wed; Advaita Shuffle

Though not as single-mindedly potent as The Fratellis earliest work, In Your Own Sweet Time is a huge improvement on 2015s lacklustre Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied. The tart, brittle guitar riff to Stand Up Tragedy serves notice of their focus, as does Jon Fratellis typically wry reference to being just another punchline in your stand-up tragedy. But for a while, the general sense of bustling activity doesnt go anywhere too interesting, and too many tracks seem overstuffed with words, as if trying to distract from their emptiness  a strategy that works best on the bubbling electropop of The Next Time We Wed.

Things pick up in the latter stages, starting with the ebullient Laughing Gas, which wouldnt be out of place on any Tom Petty album. As they proceed, the bands stays seem to loosen up, and they explore different avenues with commendable spirit, from the loping boogie of I Guess, I Suppose to the Harrison-esque Indian tinges that spice up Advaita Shuffle.Donatella Versace has revealed that her eponymous luxury fashion label will stop using real animal fur in its products.

Despite fur once being a staple component of Versaces opulent aesthetic, the Italian designer explained that she no longer feels comfortable with the concept of using real fur in an interview with The Economists 1843 magazine.

Fur? I am out of that, she said, I dont want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesnt feel right.

Donatella revealed no further details about the landmark change for the brand, which has been using fur in its collections since its launch in 1978.

Fur products featured in Versaces collections as recently as autumn/winter 2018, which debuted at Milan Fashion Week in February.

The 1980s-inspired show was mix of brash tartans and uniform-like co-ords, reinvigorated with a punkish edge.

While fur was not a prominent feature in the collection, one model took to the runway in a black, fur-lined puffer jacket.

A model wears a fur-lined jacket on the Versace autumn/winter 2018 runway (Rex Features)

By imposing a ban on fur products, Versace joins a number of other high-fashion labels that have committed to using faux alternatives including Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Armani and Hugo Boss.

Gucci revealed they would be going fur-free in October 2017, while Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo followed suit just two months later.

British model Erin O'Connor dons a floor-length fur coat on the Versace Haute Couture autumn/winter 2001 runway in Paris. (AFP/Getty Images)

Killing animals for fur is cruel and outdated, Kitty Block, Humane Society Internationals president, said at the time.

Its hugely exciting to see forward-looking fashion designers such as Michael Kors take fur out of their collections.

Its clear that consumer demand for ethical fashion includes a strong desire for an end to fur and so we are delighted to welcome Michael Kors as a fur-free leader in luxury fashion.

The Independent has contacted Versace for comment.Today, Starbucks has announced that people working in the emergency services will be offered a 10 per cent discount in all of their branches across the UK.

Those who work in the emergency services spend their days looking out for others, putting themselves last and saving lives.

To say that they deserve a little bit of extra recognition and respect once in a while is a massive understatement.

Starbucks has now officially teamed up with Blue Light Card and Defence Discount Service to provide a multitude of emergency service personnel with a ten per cent discount off every purchase for them and their family and friends.

The Blue Light Card and the Defence Privilege Card each cost 4.99 for a five-year membership, and anyone who works in the UK emergency services, the NHS, the armed forces or is a military veteran can sign up for one.

Weve always championed those who have done brilliant jobs in the community, so its time to thank our everyday heroes who are devoted to helping our communities by partnering with Blue Light Card and the Defence Discount Service, said Robert Lynch, vice president of operations at Starbucks Europe.

Anyone who works in the UK emergency services, the NHS or the armed forces can apply for the Blue Light Card or the Defence Privilege Card and receive a ten per cent discount at Starbucks (Starbucks)

Working in the emergency services can be very stressful, with many suffering from mental health issues due to the nature of their work.

According to a study conducted by Mind in 2016, two thirds of staff and volunteers working for Blue Light in England and Wales had considered leaving their jobs due to stress or poor mental health.

Of the 1,600 staff and volunteers assessed, one in four had even contemplated taking their own lives.

Recommended Emergency services rescue around 40 army cadets stranded on hike

Providing those who work in the emergency services with little perks is just one small way of letting them know how valued they are by the rest of society.

We are proud to welcome Starbucks to Blue Light Card and Defence Discount Service, said Tom Dalby, managing director of Blue Light Card and head of Defence Discount Service.

It is great to see Starbucks recognising the hard work that the UKs emergency services, NHS and armed forces do within our communities and it is their way of saying thank you.

Our members love saving on the high street, and all the coffee fans will be very pleased to hear that Starbucks is involved."The price of bitcoin and its competitors has fallen dramatically over the last three days, with all but two of the top 50 cryptocurrencies further tumbling in value this morning.

Bitcoin, ethereum, ripple and bitcoin cash have all dropped in value by at least 7 per cent in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, having slid steadily since Monday.

One bitcoin is worth $8,118 (5,826) at the time of writing, down 7.15 per cent compared to Wednesday morning, 13.48 per cent on this time last week and 4.41 per cent on mid-February, going by Coinbase data.

Of CoinMarketCap's top 50, only tether and digixDAO - two comparatively obscure coins - saw any growth at all.

The biggest slumps were suffered by nem and steem, which lost 25.06 per cent and 17.93 per cent of their values respectively in 24 hours.

The virtual currency market has endured a torrid week, with Google announcing plans to cull cryptocurrency advertising from its search results, purging initial coin offerings and other speculative investment promotions on the grounds that they represent "deceptive content" consumers cannot trust.

The crypto-sector was also prominently mocked by John Oliver on his popular HBO show Last Week Tonight and saw security questions raised after an attempted heist on China's Binance exchange.

Binance has since offered a $250,000 (179,000) bounty for information that led to the thieves' arrest, a gesture doing nothing to quell comparisons between the unregulated digicoin scene and the Wild West.

The spectre of regulation continues to cast a shadow, with India's former Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das the latest to reassert doubts about the market's safety, arguing that online coin transactions were too complex to regulate and should instead be banned outright.

China and South Korea have expressed similarly conservative attitudes towards cryptocurrencies in recent months.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Bitcoin still dominates the market with a 42.2 per cent share but is increasingly being challenged by the impressive performance of its nearest rivals and today's declines again underline the core vulnerability of an industry still in its infancy and still very much open to question.

Bitcoin's pre-Christmas boom in value to $19,850 (14,214) suddenly seems a long time ago.Russia will head to the moon and Mars as part of a re-invigorated space programme, Vladimir Putin has said.

The country expects to start the missions next year. They will begin by sending landers to the red planet  but the country hopes to send people there soon after that, said the Russian leader.

Russia's space agency will also look to people at the poles of the Moon, he said. Mr Putin described that as a continuation of the work done during the Soviet space programme.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427  more commonly known as WR 124  and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead  sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later  having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

That work reached its peak in the midst of the Cold War, as the US and Russia battled it out to get the first person into space and then onto the moon. Russia won the race to send the first person into space, but has never put one of its cosmonauts on the moon.

Recommended Elon Musk claims SpaceX will launch rocket to Mars in 2019

This time around, Russia will not only be competing with the US to get to Mars first, but also with private companies. Elon Musk, for instance, has said that he hopes his firm SpaceX can send a rocket to Mars in the near future  and has spoken about sending people there too.

Russia will aim to put people on the moon who can land at the poles and explore them, he said. The moon's poles are of special interest because some have suggested they may contain water.

Mr Putin also said that the moon will be helpful as a launching off point to study other planets in more distance space.Morals, emotion and sympathy should not be considered in the rape trial of two high profile rugby players, a defence barrister has said.

Instead, the jury of eight men and three women must decide the innocence or guilt of Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding based solely on the evidence.

Brendan Kelly QC said: A warning to everyone. It is not a court of morals. Nor will you try this case on any emotion, or sympathy.

Mr Kelly, representing Jackson, was the first of four defence lawyers to make his closing submission at Belfast Crown Court, where he suggested the prosecution case was critically flawed.

A drunken consent is still consent. Regret has no bearing on consentDefence lawyer Brendan Kelly QC

Directing remarks to the jury panel, he said: This particular case is critically flawed and has been so flawed since June 28 2016.

It is critically flawed by inconsistencies and it is flawed by untruth; flawed, we will submit, to its core.

Jackson, 26, from Belfasts Oakleigh Park denies rape and sexual assault.

Stuart Olding, 25, from Ardenlee Street in the city also denies rape.

Two other men on trial on charges connected to the alleged assault on June 28 2016 have also pleaded not guilty.

Mr Kelly told the jury: You need to be convinced. Convinced of a mans guilt before you can convict.

If you are sure, no hesitation your duty to convict. If you are less than sure, your duty to acquit. It is as stark as that.

The purpose of the defence submission was to test the evidence, the court was told.

It is perhaps common sense but it is what we all know, consistency is the hallmark of truth. Liars deviate, said Mr Kelly.

The case, originally scheduled for five weeks, is approaching the end of its seventh week.

Consent was at the heart of case  a key matter for the jury when considering the grave charges, said the defence counsel.

A drunken consent is still consent, said Mr Kelly.

Regret has no bearing on consent.

Bear that in mind when you try these counts.

Mr Kelly moved through the chapters of his submission slowly and methodically.

He contrasted Jacksons account that he did not penetrate the complainant with his penis with what was branded the inconsistent word of the woman.

Reference was also made to prosecution witness Dara Florence who believed she had walked in on a threesome and was invited to stay.

Mr Kelly said: She walked into the room where, if the prosecution are correct, a rape was taking place times two.

She was invited to join in. She said no and Jackson said are you sure?.

To join in a rape?

Ask yourself this, if (the complainant), as she tells you, was not consenting and Dara had said yes Id love to, picture what would the scene be  those on the left not consenting, those on the right consenting.

He continued: Is it really the Crowns case that half the bed would have been consenting and half not?

As far as (the complainant) was concerned she was on a mission to party that nightBrendan Kelly QC

The defence said they had shown CCTV footage of inside Ollies nightclub to illustrate Jacksons description of the womans tactile, forward and flirtatious behaviour.

She did touch Kyle Lafferty on the leg, for what it is worth, he said.

She did grab Will Grigg. She did stroke the face of the doctor.

Claims the woman had lost her friends were also dismissed.

Its more like ditched her friends, said Mr Kelly, suggesting she was waiting for someone else.

A crowbar would not have moved her that night, he said.

As far as (the complainant) was concerned she was on a mission to party that night.

After almost two hours, Mr Kelly told the court the headline in the case was consent.

Have the prosecution proven a lack of consent? he asked jurors.

There was no DNA evidence to suggest Jackson had penetrated the woman with his penis and his account to police could have easily been discredited, the lawyer suggested.

Mr Kelly said: If there had been some forensics, which we all know there are not, that would be a reckless act of his.

He went in, never before in a police station, at 8.30pm at night, gave an account that could have been blown out of the water.

Mr Kelly is expected to complete his closing submission on Friday.

As he drew to a close for the day, he rejected as nonsense questions raised by the prosecution about the need for the woman to take the morning after pill.

If you are right that she has chosen to invent that account so as to persuade her mates and derail the rumour she is in lie mode.

That morning when the dawn is my God this could be on social media, I have to run the lie of the classic rape victim otherwise my life is ruined.

The case has been adjourned until Friday.

Dismissing the jury for the day, Judge Patricia Smyth reminded them to keep their minds open.

The judge said: We still have some way to go before hearing everything there is to be said.Donald Trump has pledged to find a solution for the thousands of undocumented Irish living in the US.

The president discussed the issue with Irish premier Leo Varadkar during a meeting in the White House on Thursday.

There are between 10,000 and 50,000 Irish people living in the US without documentation.

Many of those without legal permission overstayed a visitors visa and currently work and have families in the country.

Following the meeting the Taoiseach said Mr Trump told him it was an issue very much on his mind.

Thanks to @SpeakerRyan for an excellent Friends of Ireland lunch on Capitol Hill. Real celebration of all things Irish for #stpatricksday pic.twitter.com/lElFyzTJkZ  Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 15, 2018

He said the president was supportive of working to find a solution.

We have a measure of support and degree of enthusiasm from the administration to work on a solution for thousands of Irish people who are here undocumented but who are hard-working, tax-paying people

who are very loyal to America, Mr Varadkar said.

Mr Trump has in the past vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration in the US.

Last year the then taoiseach Enda Kenny made a speech in front of Mr Trump on the value of immigrants.Ireland believes in equality for all citizens, irrespective of gender, religion, race or sexual orientation, Irish PM Leo Varadkar has said.

The Taoiseach added that his home country championed free speech and Irish people believed in free trade and free enterprise.

Mr Varadkar made the comments ahead of his bilateral meeting with President Trump in the White House on Thursday.

American ideas and American values that spread around the world meant that a young boy growing up in Ireland, with an Indian father and an Irish mother, could dream of one day becoming the leader of his country, believing that the time would come when people would be judged on their principles and their ideals, on the content of their character and the quality of the work, and not on their sexuality or the colour of their skin, Mr Varadkar said.

The Taoiseach said these were Irish values today.

Announcing the formal launch in Washington DC of https://t.co/Mmd4OYh0lt: our plans to double Irelands footprint around the world pic.twitter.com/j8ragWTvCR  Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 14, 2018

We believe in equality before the law for all citizens, irrespective of gender, religion, race or sexual orientation, he said.

We believe in free trade and free enterprise. We champion free speech and freedom of association.

And we are proud to assert that democracy and multi-lateralism are the best way of solving the worlds problems.

Mr Varadkar made the comments at the Ireland Funds Gala in Washington DC on Wednesday night, ahead of his meeting with Mr Trump.

The theme of this gala was the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is travelling to Washington today where she will represent the United Kingdom Government at a number of events to mark St Patricks Day https://t.co/2CgQjHjwHj  Northern Ireland Office (@NIOgov) March 14, 2018

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley, congressman Peter King, congressman Richard Neal and Bank of America vice-chairwoman Anne Finucane were among the attendees.

They enjoyed a performance by flute player Sir James Galway.

Mr Neal told the attendees that there should be no return to a hard border.

The Taoiseach said the Good Friday Agreement was painstakingly put in place to bridge Northern Irelands divisions.

[It] set us on a path towards lasting reconciliation, he said. In the face of difficulties, we are resolute in our determination to protect all that has been achieved.

He added the influence and encouragement from the Irish in America would continue to be crucial in the coming period.

The Taoiseach will hold a bi-lateral meeting with Mr Trump at the White House. Other engagements on Thursday will include an annual lunch hosted by the Speaker of the House at Capitol Hill.

Mr Varadkar will use these opportunities to emphasise the strength of Irish-US relations and to highlight the case of the undocumented Irish.

In the afternoon, the traditional shamrock ceremony will take place as part of the White House Saint Patricks Day Reception.

On Friday, the Taoiseach will be guest of honour at a breakfast hosted by Vice President Pence. He will then head to New York for the final leg of the week-long visit for St Patricks Day.

It will conclude on Saturday, 17 March with the traditional New York Saint Patricks Day programme, including a meeting with Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Saint Patricks Cathedral mass and walking in the Fifth Avenue parade.Enterprise Ireland unsuccessfully lobbied Government to revive a large-scale business rescue fund that was used in the crash in order to help cope with Brexit, the Irish Independent has learned.

The head of Enterprise Ireland warned Government before the October Budget that it should create a funding pot of around 40m for Brexit-hit firms given the "gravity" of the situation. Julie Sinnamon said the Government would "very likely" need to revive the Enterprise Stabilisation Fund, that was introduced for a year during the financial crisis to provide loans to vulnerable, but viable, businesses.

Ms Sinnamon also warned that the Brexit loan guarantee scheme - which was announced in Budget 2018 - may not fit requirements, in part because it believed large companies would be excluded.

In a letter to then Tanaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald in September of last year, Ms Sinnamon warned that Irish exporters were facing an "unprecedented" challenge from both the devaluation of sterling, and having to prepare for a hard Brexit.

She noted that more than 1,500 Enterprise Ireland client companies export to the UK, and employ more than 100,000 people.

"These companies that are deemed to be particularly badly exposed employ 40,000 people," Ms Sinnamon wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Irish Independent under Freedom of Information.

"The majority of this employment is in the regions outside of Dublin. Job losses in these locations would erode employment in indigenous industry and the employment would be very challenging to replace considering their rural locations, sectors, and the nature of the employment."

Ms Sinnamon set out four specific Brexit-related initiatives to help companies prepare for Brexit and "deal with the current crisis", including expanding the agency's footprint overseas, a campaign to support market diversification, extending business angel funding and rolling out a Brexit Enterprise Stabilisation Fund.

She estimated the additional spend required for these initiatives in 2018 to be 35m, including 4.5m to recruit extra staff and expand the agency's operations.

In Budget 2018, the agency received 1.3m in additional Brexit funding, in addition to an increase in its existing budget.

Ms Sinnamon also raised concerns about the proposed Brexit loan guarantee that will provide working capital at rates of around 4pc to small- and medium-sized businesses that are impacted by Brexit. The State, in conjunction with the European Investment Bank, will guarantee loans rather than provide the funds.

"In face of the increasingly challenging environment and considering the increasing concern being expressed by our clients this initiative [Brexit guarantee] may not meet the needs of all Enterprise Ireland client companies as normal credit scoring processes will still apply and large companies will also be excluded," Ms Sinnamon wrote.

She said the Government will "very likely" need a fund similar to the Enterprise Stabilisation Fund used in 2009/2010 to help firms. She said this could take the form of either a lending scheme for Enterprise Ireland companies, or the agency lending directly to firms following amendments to legislation.

"As a contingency, it would be remiss of me not to highlight than an initial 40m may be needed given the gravity, scale and potential negative impact of the current situation," Ms Sinnamon wrote. She said monies could be drawn over two years, with funding of 20m required in 2018.

An Enterprise Ireland spokesman said: "The four proposed Brexit initiatives outlined in the communication are now being looked at in the context of Enterprise Ireland's sustained existing budget, the 1.3m allocated in Budget 2018, use of own resource income, the introduction of the new 300m guaranteed loan scheme, 122m R&D capital funding and the Government's 'Global Footprint Initiative'."

Asked if Ms Sinnamon still holds the view that a stabilisation fund is required, the spokesman said it continues to closely monitor the impact of Brexit. The overall budget allocation for EI in 2018 is 146,676,448, according to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation.

This compares with 143,380,248 in 2017. Funding is also received from other sources.

The Department said that most of the cost of the many EI Brexit-related activities has been met from existing resources. It said 3m was secured for the Department for its Brexit response, with 1.3m being given to EI for recruitment.

The Department also said that it is looking at proposals for a longer term business investment loan scheme to support firms, as well as working with the European Commission to look at schemes within state aid rules.

A rescue and restructuring scheme was approved by Brussels in November.Industrial, and specifically logistics, is the most sought-after real estate sector for European investors, overtaking office for the first time, according to CBRE's annual 'EMEA Investor Intentions Survey', released yesterday.

With the growth of e-commerce, a third (33pc) of respondents in Europe expressed a preference for industrial property, mirroring the trend globally, and reaffirming its status as an institutional asset class.

This trend is also being experienced in Ireland according to Marie Hunt, Head of Research at CBRE Ireland with an increasing proportion of investors seeking prime industrial and logistics assets over the last 18 months in particular.Troubled baked goods firm Aryzta is being sued in the United States by kiosk-maker Groom Construction, which claims the Swiss-Irish firm intended to buy hundreds of units from the Massachusetts company as it planned to roll out 2,500 in-store bakeries under its Fornetti brand by 2020.

It's another sign of the fall-out from Aryzta's challenging position in the US, where it is under significant pressure.

Aryzta, now headed by Kevin Toland, acquired the Hungarian Fornetti bakery business in 2015. In 2016, Aryzta launched plans to introduce the Fornetti brand to the United States.

In court documents, Groom Construction said it was approached by Aryzta in February that year. It claims that Aryzta and its agent told the company that the baked goods group intended to introduce the Fornetti in-store bakeries across the United States. It would initially involve the rollout of 250 in-store bakery kiosks, with another 750 to be deployed in 2017, Groom has claimed.

In February 2016, Groom claims Aryzta and Fornetti executives agreed to hire Groom to design, manufacture and install between 250 and 700 kiosks.

Groom has claimed that Aryzta told the Massachusetts company that in-store bakery units would be installed in 50 Coulson Oil-owned convenience stores in Oklahoma in two phases, beginning in summer 2016. Coulson operates a chain called Road Runner.

That would be followed later that summer by 50 in-store units for outlets in Tampa.

Groom Construction claims it was also informed that discussions were continuing for up to 250 kiosks to be potentially installed at Menards, a US DIY chain. The company maintains it was informed that 150 kiosks could also be installed at separate locations in Arkansas and Texas.

Groom Construction contends that it was informed that it would be the exclusive partner for Aryzta and Fornetti as they eyed 2,500 kiosks by 2020.

With a contract secured to deploy 14 kiosks at Coulson stores in Arkansas, Groom claims it agreed in 2016 to manufacture 24 units.

By September 2017 - by which time Aryzta was in crisis mode - Groom claims it had not heard from the Swiss-Irish company for a number of months. Groom claims it submitted an invoice for just over $577,000, which it insists has not been paid.

Aryzta declined to comment.Former top National Hunt jockey Charlie Swan has seen his training company go into voluntary liquidation. Mr Swan is pictured above taking a tumble on Istabraq, with whom he won three Champion Hurdles

As Cheltenham week reaches its peak tomorrow with the Gold Cup, one of its greatest participants, jockey Charlie Swan, has seen his training company go into voluntary liquidation.

Based in Co Tipperary, Mr Swan confirmed that the company - Charlie Swan Racing Ltd - was connected to his training activities, which he ceased around 2015. The company had 138,000 shareholder deficit at the end of 2016, with net current liabilities of 232,000 at the time.

Mr Swan, a three-times winner of the Cheltenham Champion Hurdles on the famed Istabraq, made a 123,000 settlement as a tax defaulter in 2015. He had announced earlier that year that he would quit training.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Swan said that the overheads associated the training were too high to make it viable in the long-term. He said it was "too difficult" without having deep pockets and that he was unlikely to ever train again, despite having been reasonably successful. "I really enjoyed it," he said.

However, Mr Swan said he will continue his long-term relationship with horseracing tycoon JP McManus, who owns Istabraq, helping him to buy horses. "I buy foals and sell them as three-year-olds and help JP a little bit buying horses in France and things like that," he said.

A legendary national hunt jockey, Mr Swan rode his first Cheltenham winner on Trapper John in the 1990 World Hurdle. The horse was trained by Mouse Morris. In 1993, he rode four horses to victory at Cheltenham - Montelado, Fissure Seal, Shawiya and Shuil Ar Aghaidh.

In 1994, he had three wins at the festival, on Danoli, Time for a Run, and Mucklemeg.

Mr Swan said this year's festival, with heavy going, should favour the Irish contingent. "It plays into the hands of the Irish horses because we're more used to running on it," he said.Ireland's tax regime has come under fire during a heated debate on corporation tax in the European Parliament.

The vast majority of MEPs who participated in the discussion pledged their support for major changes to how multinationals pay tax across all EU member states.

Ireland was singled out several times for its low-tax model, and its consistent refusal to agree to a Europe-wide method of taxing corporations.

"I hope the larger countries like Germany and France will put the pressure on the smaller countries - countries like the Netherlands, Ireland, Malta, Luxembourg that are the pirates within the European Union", said Dutch MEP Paul Tang.

European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici outlined his proposals for the CCCTB - Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base.

The CCCTB would see one set of tax rules applying to all large-scale multinationals operating within the EU.

Each member state would apply their own tax rate after that, but the advantages gained by tax offerings in places like Ireland would be seriously reduced.

As would the amount of corporate tax paid in to the Irish coffers as the CCCTB proposes to tax revenue where sales and activity is generated, as opposed to profits from where the company is headquartered.

Supporters of the approach say it will make taxation more transparent and will put an end to aggressive tax avoidance by mega-rich tech giants who pay little back in to the exchequer of the countries they operate in.

"My main concern is that member states are being asked to transfer further powers to the Commission in exchange for the promise that this new system will end the ability of multinationals to shift profits - but this goal is unlikely to be achieved," said Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy.The "lost decade" in jobs is over as new figures suggest the number of people at work has hit an all-time high.

Employment soared to just 12,000 short of its peak 10 years ago on the eve of the recession in the final months of last year, according to the latest official figures.

Economist Dan O'Brien predicted we are now likely to be living through a new peak for jobs if growth has continued at the same pace over the last three months.

But the dramatic growth figures were accompanied by warnings from the business community that the Government must take action to prevent the economy overheating again.

There were 2,231,000 people at work last December, 12,000 shy of the peak at the end of 2007.

"With strong growth continuing, it is very likely that the 2007 high has been surpassed in the first months of 2018," said Mr O'Brien.

"The lost decade in jobs is over."

He said the strong rate of employment growth, which most sectors are contributing to, could continue for at least another couple of years once we do not suffer a difficult Brexit or transatlantic trade war.

However, population growth of more than 400,000 between 2007 and 2017 means the employment rate, or share of the population at work, is still well below the 2007 peak.

He noted the figures also reveal that the number of women employed in Ireland has passed the one million mark for the first time.

Reflecting the big hit the male-dominated construction industry took, there are almost 70,000 fewer men employed compared to 2007.

However, there were an additional 12,000 jobs created in the sector, which was one of the key industries driving the employment growth.

Austin Hughes, chief economist at KBC Bank, warned there is a possibility of the economy overheating and going from boom to bust in light of recent history. However, with "appropriate policy settings", Mr Hughes said that there remains scope for robust increases in jobs for some time "without triggering a significant risk of overheating".

Employment grew by 3pc or 66,800 people last year to 2.23 million people, while unemployment fell 14pc or 23,400 to 144,100.

The 3pc increase of 66,800 in employment since 2016 was made up of 35,100 men and 31,800 women.

Employment rose in 12 of the 14 economic sectors. The biggest hikes were in administrative and support services, which saw a rise of over 11pc and 9,800 extra jobs.

In construction, there was a rise of almost 10pc in employment. An extra 12,000 people got jobs.

The biggest fall in employment was in professional, scientific and technical activities.

The long-term unemployed accounted for 40pc of the unemployed and there was a 2.5pc increase in the number of self-employed to 331,700.

Brian Ring of the Central Statistics Office said since the low point in employment, there are 350,000 more people at work.

"There's an increasing population and there will be a lot of words written if and when we go above the peak employment figure," he said.

"As the population gets bigger, you expect to see more people participating.

"For 22 quarters in a row there has been growth, a continued evolution.

"There are ups and downs and varied levels of unemployment, but today's figures are relatively strong.

"There's a trend evolving still and it's positive around employment."

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the figures are evidence the economy is performing well and generating "jobs-rich" growth.

"The Government is committed to ensuring these positive trends continue, by safeguarding the gains in competitiveness made in recent years," he said.

"Recent policies such as progressive reductions in the labour tax burden are contributing to these positive trends."VACANCY. Due to the imminent retirement of the present incumbent, applications are invited for the position of leader of the Awkward Squad in the European Union Project.

It looks as though the Netherlands has already staked its claim. Prime minister Mark Rutte chose Berlin to make a speech in typically blunt Dutch terms, dismissing the idea of a new Franco-German push towards further integration, and much else besides.

Some commentators even used that cliche of the hour, 'red lines', to describe the contents of Mr Rutte's speech, but that is the language of the departing member. As one of the original Six, Holland's European credentials are impeccable - but what kind of Europe?

It is still mainly about the euro. Everyone agrees that its incomplete design makes the single currency vulnerable to another crisis. But there agreement ends. With debt still breaking new records in the advanced economies, including the eurozone's, another crisis cannot be ruled out. There has been only limited changes in how to deal with one.

Going further inevitably raises the question of the EU's political structures. New alliances and fault lines are emerging and Ireland is caught in the middle. As well as being the most vulnerable to the economic consequences of Brexit, its own model is the most vulnerable to eurozone structural change.

There is more involved than corporation tax, although the consequences of the kind of change proposed by the Commission, following hard on Brexit, is the stuff of nightmares. Ireland needs to find a new place in Europe, and a new story about itself. Its participation in last week's statement by several EU governments can be seen as part of that process.

It was an interesting group. As well as the Netherlands, there was Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. From the point of view of Paris at least, there you have the awkward squad.

They have already been dubbed the new 'Hanseatic League', after the 13th-century combination of merchants across in what is now Belgium, Holland, bits of Denmark and Germany, and up to the Baltics.

Ireland was a long way from the real Hanseatic League, but was at the finance ministers' lunch last November which is seen as the beginning of the new one. The Dutch and German ministers were invited in for the coffee.

Irish participation is significant but the country is still a bit of an outlier in such a gathering - and not just in geography either. The press release from the Department of Finance last week put it all in the context of the EU-wide effort to create a stronger economic and monetary union.

Further deepening of EMU should stress real value-added, not far-reaching transfers of competence to the European level, and discussions about the future of the EMU should take place in an inclusive format.

This may be read as a not-so coded version of Mr Rutte's plain speaking, when he said the EU was not a "Franco-German Europe" and, more startlingly, that neither was it "an unstoppable train speeding towards federalism", adding for good measure that the Commission should work more for EU governments and "not the other way round".

The role of the Commission is central, but it is a complicated story. The EU executive was both sidelined and damaged by the euro crisis and has been trying to enhance its political standing since. But it has run into more criticism over its perceived failure to apply the budgetary rules, especially to France.

The curious appointment of the feared Martin Selmayr as secretary-general of the Commission does not help, but the apparent threat of trade war with the USA by trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem points to a deeper problem. Trade is the responsibility of the Commission but, as far as the public could tell, her hit list for retaliation was drawn up without any political input from elected governments.

Mr Rutte thinks the Commission has become too political and would strip it of one of its most important functions. A new European Monetary Fund (EMF) would take over the enforcement of budget rules and do economic analysis of the kind which the Commission produced on Ireland last week.

There lies the rub. Ireland has joined a group which believes that strict obedience to the fiscal rules is the key to avoiding further crises, and is determined to see them enforced. Meanwhile the Commission joins local critics in saying that Irish fiscal policy is still too reliant on boom-time tax revenues.

The new group may be opposed to Franco-German hegemony but it mostly agrees with German policy that tighter controls of budgets, and not debt-sharing or aid from Brussels, are the way to avoid future crises. Ireland has always talked that talk but, as the Commission said, there is still not much sign that it is keen to walk the walk.

More fundamentally, Ireland has always seen the Commission as the guarantor of the legal rights of small member states against the political power of the big ones. It should be a matter of concern to the Brussels bureaucracy that this is less and less the perception among small eastern states, as well as Ireland. The EU institutions now exercise powers that stretch their political legitimacy to the limit, but we might not like the consequences of strengthening that legitimacy.

The new league is determined to have 'bail-ins', where bondholders take losses, imposed by the proposed EMF. Not just bank bondholders either, but also those who lend to governments. There would be provisions for the restructuring of unsustainable government debt but they would be applied, not by the Commission, but by the existing system of voting by member states.

One can almost hear the cheers from Irish rooftops but let's hope we never find out whether such cheers were justified. With Denmark and Finland among the signatories, it would certainly not mean an absence of austerity. As a heavily-indebted country, even qualified majority voting on such matters could be alarming for Ireland.

The difficulties are recognised by the group's call to start with the tasks on which there is some measure of agreement. Disagreements are largely political, based on what voters will tolerate. As our description of media coverage the other week showed, national attitudes and stereotypes determine how things are seen.

That may be why there is more agreement among economists and technocrats than among governments. An eminent group of these, brought together by the German business think tank Ifo, set out their priorities in a statement last week.

They too want bail-ins and a banking union to end the 'doom loop' between states and their banks. They also advocate that an EMF administer fiscal rules, backed by independent national fiscal councils - but say the rules should be much simpler.

As simple as can be, in fact. They would concentrate on spending, rather than abstract definitions of deficits, and in general limit spending to sustainable economic growth. One would think it should be easy to get agreement on something as straightforward as that. The main objection may be that it is too simple - which is why it just might work.The TV series Vikings is inspired by the sagas of Danish/Swedish Viking Ragnar Lothbrok, one of the best-known legendary Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of England and France

Planning permission has been granted for a 90m extension to the Co Wicklow studios where the hit series Vikings is shot.

The plan by Ashford Studios has the potential to create 1,500 movie related jobs and the plan includes four new film studios of 40,000 sq ft each, a TV studio, offices and support space. Phase one of the studios was completed in May 2012 and during six years of operation, the Vikings series has been located there, utilising 33 acres of space and hiring up to 450 people.

Yesterday, Ashford Studios MD Shelley Hargadon welcomed the decision and she said that the target is to commence work on the project in mid-June once the prior to commencement conditions have been signed off.

She said: Wicklow has a long history of filmmaking. We have highly-skilled crews in the area, beautiful locations and are close to Dublin International Airport but we have been lacking infrastructure.

With this permission, investment can now be made in purpose-built studio infrastructure of scale that can compete with other jurisdictions.

Ms Hargadon stated that Ashford hopes to build on the success of Vikings.

On the prospect of Ashford Studios securing new clients, Ms Hargadon added: Without the green light on planning, obviously there is zero chance of attracting studio-based film productions of scale.

She said that the planning approval gives the opportunity to market Ireland and particularly Wicklow, as a serious film destination.

Having said that, as film production is transient and temporary, there is financial risk vis-a-vis investment versus return.

So while we are confident the studio will secure more business we are also unclear of how successful it can be as there are so many variables.The most expensive houses are in Dublin, with an average price of 429,000. Stock photo: PA

Property prices are now rising at the fastest pace in almost three years.

New figures for January show another double-digit increase.

Prices in the first month of the year were up 12.5pc when compared with the same month a year previously, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Prices were up almost 1pc in the month.

January's rise compares with an increase of 12.2pc in the year to December and an increase of 8.8pc in the year to January 2017.

In Dublin, residential property prices increased by 12.1pc in the year to December.

Dublin prices are up almost 90pc in six years, but are still 24pc below the high reached in February 2007.

Prices in the rest of the country were up 13pc in the year to January, according to the CSO.

The west region showed the greatest price growth, with house prices increasing 17.2pc.

The south-east region showed the least price growth, with house prices increasing at 9.9pc.

Overall, the national index is 22.3pc lower than its highest level in 2007.

The average price for a property nationwide was 274,000, down around 7,000 from the average price in December.

The most expensive houses are in Dublin, with an average price of 429,000. Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown has the most expensive properties, with average prices of close to 600,000. The least expensive county is Longford, with a mean price of 99,876.

Prices outside of Dublin have now shot up by 66pc from the low they reached in May 2013.

In the year to January, there were 43,508 residential property purchases filed with Revenue. A third of these were first-time buyers.

Dermot O'Leary, of Goodbody Stockbrokers, said the Government's help-to-buy scheme was behind the fact that one-third of purchasers of new homes are first-time buyers.

But given the low level of transactions overall, it cannot explain the ongoing rapid growth in house prices overall.Entrepreneurs with a vision for change and an ambition to succeed are tackling social issues in Ireland, and their efforts are not going unnoticed - nor unsupported.

Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI) are providing much-needed funding and a wealth of networking and mentoring support to these startups allowing them realise their problem-solving concept or scale up their solution.

'Don't let a good idea go to waste!' has been the beckoning cry from the privately-funded group which invites high-potential startups to take part in an annual awards programme.

Dragon's Den investor Alison Cowzer told Independent.ie she was "inspired" after attending an SEI ceremony a number of years ago.

Expand Close Darren Ryan, CEO of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland at the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Bootcamp in 2017 with bootcamp judges Alison Cowzer, Norah Casey and Eamonn Quinn. / Facebook

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"It was an amazing event; to see the winners and to see how much that meant to them, to be able to scale their idea," she said.

"It's a real shot in the arm for them, not just the cash rewards but also the mentoring and guidance that will really drive them forward."

Following in the footsteps of success stories such as FoodCloud's Iseult Ward and Aoibheann OBrien, John Evoy of Irish Men's Sheds and Michael Kelly's Grow It Yourself (GIT), passionate entrepreneurs are looking to change Ireland for the better.

Of 50 finalists pitching for a place on the SEI Awards Programme, some 16 successful projects go through to the final stages of the selection process every year.

The top eight entrepreneurs now receive a prize valued at 25,000, with 10,000 in direct funding, and potential for further funding and investment following the programme.

Up to 30 people with early-stage ideas will also win a place at the Academy for Social Entrepreneurs where they will receive mentoring and support and the opportunity to pitch for seed funding.

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Successful applicants to the academy programme now also have the chance to pitch for part of a 20,000 funding pot.

Ms Cowzer has become involved herself with some of the groups that have come through the SEI door, not least 'Women for Election', which she currently sits on the board of.

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As a bootcamp judge for SEI, she said that while some groups may have the right idea and the passion for solving an issue, "at a judging level, it's about choosing the ones that are able to really scale, that is going to develop and really influence at a national level".

"What's wonderful about social entrepreneurship, however, is that even if the entrepreneur doesn't win, they're learning every day, sometimes transforming their model in line with the sector that they're working in," she said.

"After becoming involved with SEI, they've gotten some encouragement and mentoring, and they have come back in a different shape. That's the whole beauty of the social entrepreneur process."

Ms Cowzer said that she is impressed by how brave some of the entries are. While many of them have really limited resources, they still manage to get people on board.

"Ultimately we will never live in a perfect world; there will always be challenges that can't be solved by Government. And not all at the same time with the same level of energy.

"So for me, it's inspiring to see those who have the guts and the gumption to stand up and say 'I know how to solve this'.

"There's huge lessons for all for us in that."

SEI was founded in a booming 2004 Irish economy in an attempt to combat social issues that weren't being adequately addressed, despite the country's prosperity.

Over the last 14 years, as Ireland travelled a financial U-bend, the not-for-profit group has supported over 200 social entrepreneurs, who in turn are providing services which reach over 1.7 million people across the country.

The group has attracted the support from a number of well-known and leading industry figures who believe in what the initiative can achieve.

The former MD of Microsoft Paul Rellis, also former head of IBEC, who now sits on the SEI board, said he was "blown away" when he was invited to an SEI event two years ago.

"The fabulous thing about these entrepreneurs is that they're applying their great minds to social issues. And these are real businesses solving real social issues," he said.

"The fact that it is all privately funded and doesn't have Government support is amazing; I love it from both a social and a business side of things."

"More and more people are increasingly interested in solving societal problems; we have a thriving sector who wish to help solve these problems and that's really good for business, and really good for the country."

Mr Rellis is currently assisting the SEI to help raise awareness of what social entrepreneurship can achieve, while helping the team set the right path for the business.

He advised those applying to this year's SEI programme to 'think big'. "This isn't just solving the problem in your town or village. It's about the big impact, in Ireland and beyond."

"With SEI, you get the funding, the mentoring and the support to do that, access to a network of people to help you set up properly," he said.

Mr Rellis said that he would like to see startups addressing some of the big pressing social issues that Ireland is facing today like housing, food, and education.

"Obviously these issues are especially hard to solve but they are still really basic things that people here need. I'd be interested in seeing ideas that help people approach those issues in a different and potentially new ways that could be extremely effective."

The deadline to apply for the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awards 2018 has been extended to March 23rd at 5pm.When we talk about superphones, two models are universally regarded as the creme de la creme: the flagships of Apple and Samsung.

Against this backdrop, can Samsung's Galaxy S9 Plus, which goes on sale in Ireland tomorrow, keep up appearances? Is it a worthy upgrade to the S8 and S8 Plus? Will it compete effectively with the iPhone X?

We've been using and testing the larger of the S9 handsets over the last week and now have a good idea of where its strengths and weaknesses lie.

If you're feeling lazy and just want the review in one line, here it is: this thing has an unbelievable camera, is mega-powerful and looks great - but it feels more like a natural upgrade to a Samsung phone of two or three years ago than last year's (still excellent) Galaxy S8.

A slightly longer interpretation is that the S9 Plus makes for one of the best-ever smartphones that will be coveted by many power users for its incredible screen, decent battery life and lightning-fast engine. But Samsung still has a bit of work to do in sorting out some of its software and proprietary systems, such as its AI assistant Bixby and the host of Samsung apps that get in the way as much as they help the user.

Still interested in more detail? Read on, so: here is a complete review of the Samsung S9 Plus's good and bad points as I've been able to muster from a week's usage. Note that the issues as they relate to the S9 Plus are also valid for the smaller S9 as both models are essentially the same except for the extra screen size, larger battery, slightly more Ram and an additional rear camera on the S9 Plus.

1 CAMERA - 9/10

I'll start with what is probably the biggest actual upgrade in the S9 Plus compared to its predecessor. The S9 Plus's camera system is, frankly, astonishing. I don't think any other phone lens picks up detail so consistently well in low light as this one. The iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus are superb in low light, but the S9 and S9 Plus match them.

This seems to be because of two factors introduced by Samsung.

The first is that the S9 has what's called a 'variable aperture' on the 12-megapixel lens. When it detects dark conditions, it opens up wider than any other camera can (to a setting of f1.5). Doing this means that it physically lets more light in than other cameras.

It also has a second setting of f2.4 for better, brighter lighting conditions where it can focus on sharpness.

This is the first modern smartphone to pull this 'variable aperture' trick off - almost all other handsets have one constant 'aperture' setting, which they have to make do with.

But Samsung didn't leave it at that. It has mined the S9's extra engine firepower to perform the novel task of taking five photos each time you press the shutter button. The phone then combines the five photos and takes the best bits from each one to eliminate 'noise' artefacts that often make low-light photos look a bit shabby and sub-par.

It's a pretty amazing combination that happens almost instantaneously and is buttressed by optical image stabilisation, which cuts down even further on blurriness or noise.

This process only applies to one of the two rear cameras, the wide-angle 'normal' one. The second telephoto lens has a constant f2.4 aperture which doesn't give you the same low-light performance.

It's not just the raw capability of the camera, either. Samsung has a lot of experience now in how to render photos so that colours and contrasts are balanced well. I found the results really, really good - it was able to render dark and bright colours side by side in a very clear, smooth way.

The only negative I could find with the S9 Plus's camera was that, like other Samsung phones, it sometimes defaults to slightly overexposing features in photos when in automatic mode (which is what almost everyone will use).

This is sometimes a little irritating as you can always brighten something up in a photo, but it's very hard to recover detail from something that's overexposed.

Nevertheless, this also has some impressive video features, most especially 'super slow motion' (at 960 frames per second).

In short, this is now arguably the best cameraphone on the market.

2 BATTERY - 9/10

This is another strong point of the S9 Plus. It has a bigger-than-usual battery (3,500mAh) that lets it comfortably last through a full day's use except in exceptional circumstances, such as a day spent between trains and waiting rooms. In fact, the only phone I've tried that clearly gives better battery performance is Huawei's six-inch Mate 10 Pro (which happens to have a 4,000mAh battery).

Indeed, this is now Samsung's best battery phone since they had to reduce the size of the Note 8's battery in line with design alterations to remedy the overheating defects experienced by the ill-fated Note 7. Once again, this applies to the S9 Plus - the S9's battery life wasn't tested as part of this review.

3 DESIGN - 9/10

Both the S9 and S9 Plus are almost indistinguishable from their predecessor devices, the S8 and S8 Plus. Is this something to put one off? I don't think so. The flagship Galaxy S phones are probably the best-looking handsets on the market (although the iPhone X also has a claim to that title). Samsung's edge-to-edge screen has widely been acknowledged as setting the design template for the newest smartphones, but Samsung still arguably does it best.

Does this mean the design is flawless? To my mind, no - the one disadvantage of the gorgeous-looking curved glass edges is that it makes gripping the phone a little more uncertain, as well making the overall handset a bit slippier. My experience so far is that even a slight incline on a surface you place this on could see the phone start to slide. (Pro tip: don't plop it on top of a bunch of tissues.) Obviously, this can be remedied by a case, which most people will probably get.

There also arguably isn't enough space between the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and the vertically-aligned dual-camera lenses, meaning that your finger might sometimes stray onto the lower lens by mistake, smudging it. (The fingerprint sensor is a little shallow, too.)

4 SCREEN - 9/10

The 6.2-inch display on the S9 Plus vies with Apple's iPhone X as the best screen on the market. Both are 'Oled' screens as opposed to the LCD displays that most phones have. That means colours render in a better way, as do blacks. Some independent testing outfits (such as DisplayMate) say that the S9 Plus is now the best screen on the market (and even better than almost any high-end 4K TV or monitor) based on in-depth measurement of colour accuracy, brightness, outdoor visibility, and reflectivity. The S9 Plus is certainly crystal clear, bright and luminous to look at and use.

But it may only be side by side with a regular phone that you can really notice the extra resolution and detail that its 3K screen offers. The S9 Plus's display is set to 'full HD' (2220 x 1080) by default, but you can dial it up to 'WQHD+' (2960 x 1440). Again, it's hard to really notice the difference in quality here. But some do. For them, this is probably the phone to get.

5 OTHER FEATURES

(i) Emoji: Samsung has added an augmented reality ('AR') emoji feature to try and liven things up a little. The idea is that the front-facing camera sensor takes a good look at your face, asks you to smile and then presents you with an animated version of yourself. Once you accessorise (skin tone, hair colour, clothes and glasses) you can then watch it mimic your expressions. The idea is that you can save and share your messages as Gifs or messages, spendable to contacts that use any type of phone. Clearly, the feature is supposed to compete with the iPhone X's Animoji.

In our limited experience so far, the facial movements aren't as accurate (or as funny) as Animoji, but it's possible that some will view this as a fun addition.

(ii) Speakers: these are 40pc louder than the audio speakers on the current S8. Samsung has Dolby Atmos embedded here and the results are genuinely impressive. While this won't replace your home stereo speaker, it's enough of a jump to act as a standalone radio, podcast speaker or even Spotify speaker for a small, enclosed area.

(iii) SmartThings: Another thing that might become very useful is that Samsung has embedded its SmartThings app into the phone with the intention of simplifying its smart device ecosystem. At present, there are a couple of competing Samsung smart control setups with the result that plenty of us have to pause a second to guess which control setup works with which system. With Samsung promising that everything it makes will be connected by 2020, the new idea is that you can buy a Samsung telly and it will automatically glean from your Galaxy smartphone which wifi network to connect, as well as making it easy to 'throw' content (such as photos or videos) from the phone to the TV with no more than one or two taps.

(iv) Storage: both the S9 and S9 Plus come in either 64GB or 256GB versions. They also sport an additional MicroSD expansion slot for an extra 400GB of capacity.

(v) Headphone jack: it has one!

6 CONCLUSION: SHOULD YOU UPGRADE?

If you're a Samsung user with an S7, S6 or older phone, this is a prime upgrade phone. You'll notice the different features straight away. You'll also be very happy with it as this is a superb handset. The same goes for those thinking of a high-end Samsung phone and who currently use another Android device. This is indisputably the top of the pile in Android land.

If you already have last year's S8 or S8 Plus, it's a slightly different story. Other than the camera, there arguably isn't enough to justify replacing your S8 or S8 Plus with this year's model. It looks the same and, other than the camera in low light and some emoji, acts the same as the phone you already have.

Of course, there will be those who simply want the newest model or who can really benefit from the new low-light camera performance. But for most who have an S8, I suspect that there isn't enough that's new with the S9 to justify spending a few hundred euro on an upgrade.French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has vowed to fight the US tech giants on behalf of the developers selling apps via US firms online stores

France will take legal action against Alphabet's Google and Apple for what it called "abusive commercial practices," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said, accusing them of taking advantage of French developers.

"I learned that when developers develop their applications, and sell to Google and Apple, their prices are imposed, Google and Apple take all their data, Google and Apple can unilaterally rewrite their contracts," Le Maire said on RTL radio.

"All that is unacceptable and it's not the economy that we want. They can't treat our startups and developers the way they do."

Le Maire said the fines could be in the "million of euros".

Representatives for Apple and Google couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Le Maire's office said an investigation by the ministry's fraud office determined that between 2015 and 2017 there were "significant imbalances" in the relationship between the two companies and developers who sold via their application stores.

The findings of a similar probe into Amazon last year are being reviewed by a tribunal, his office said. 'Le Parisien' reported last December that the Finance Ministry is seeking to fine Amazon 10m.

France has had a complicated relationship with Internet giants, on the one hand courting them to set up operations in the country and on the other hand leading efforts at the European Union level to force them to pay more taxes in the countries where they operate, rather than in low-tax countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg where they've based their European subsidiaries.

Google, Amazon and Facebook have consistently praised France for its talent pool of engineers and researchers over the past years.

They've cited the quality of candidates as the main reason for setting up labs in and around Paris on themes from artificial intelligence to delivery drones.

France has been promoting its startups to grab part of the spotlight on the global tech scene.

While the country hasn't produced technology giants, it has had smaller successes like Criteo, Blablacar, and Sigfox. (Bloomberg)Nuritas CSO and founder Dr Nora Khaldi and CEO Emmet Browne  the high-tech food analytics firm raised 16.5m in December

Ireland's venture capital boom continues to grow with new figures showing that Irish tech firms raised 994m last year, a new high for the industry.

The record cash haul was fuelled by a handful of huge individual rounds, such as 100m raised by Belfast-based financial cloud firm Options and 90m raised by the Dublin-based IT service company, Version 1.

However, hundreds of companies managed to raise money here last year, with the majority of the rounds under 10m and going to firms seeking expansion capital.

The figures comes from a survey completed by the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA) in association with William Fry.

The 994m tally indicates that venture cash is now a mainstream source of funding for thousands of Irish startups, businesses and entrepreneurs.

The figures do not include a number of financing arrangements involving 'friends and family' deals or some state-backed schemes.

Software firms led the funding league in volume of individual rounds, with 28 deals done.

Life sciences companies were next, with 23 deals recorded, while financial technology firms saw 18 funding deals completed.

"While 2017 was a record year it is worth noting that the year-on-year growth rate of 12pc compares to a 70pc growth rate in 2016 so there is no room for complacency," said Peter Sandys, chairman of the IVCA.

"With continuing uncertainties over the impact on Ireland of Brexit, lower US corporation tax rates and possible US trade wars, it is more important than ever that we continue to build an indigenous knowledge-based economy."

Other significant deals last year included Barry Napier's Cubic Telecom, which raised 40m, bringing the company's total funding close to 80m.

The company, which employs 160 people in Sandyford, has deals in place with approximately 80 mobile operators around the world. It recently began trials with China Mobile, the world's biggest operator.

Transfermate, a Kilkenny-based payments firm co-founded by Sinead Fitzmaurice, raised 30m in November. Smaller rounds included 10m each for telecoms firm Blueface and Atlantic Therapeutics.

Transfermate was the high point for venture rounds going to companies with at least one female co-founder.

However, Nuritas, a high-tech food analytics firm founded by Dr Nora Khaldi, also raised 16.5m in December.

The new figures again show that where female-founded startups do land funding rounds, they still get far less than that allocated to their male peers.

The average funding round in Ireland for a tech firm with at least one woman founder is less than 2m, compared to 6m for a startup founded by a man.

The survey also shows that women have almost no chance of becoming CEO in an Irish VC-funded tech company unless they personally start the company.

However, Sarah-Jane Larkin, IVCA director general, said that funding for growth and expansion represented 85pc of the total funds raised.

"It is noteworthy, however, that seed and early stage [funding] grew significantly, reaching a high of 131m for the year, up from 70.2m in 2016," she said.

Larkin said that international investors accounted for 63pc of the funding raised by Irish SMEs in 2017.

"It is important to recognise the role of Irish-based venture capital firms both through direct investment and as the local lead investor for international syndicate investors," she said.

"International VCs are often encouraged by the due diligence implications of early stage funding by a local VC."

Larkin said that the sectoral spread of investments in 2017 reflects Ireland's growing tech capability and clusters that have developed like the medical device sector in Galway.

She said that since the onset of the credit crunch in 2008, in excess of 1,400 Irish SMEs have raised venture capital of 4.5bn.

"These funds were raised almost exclusively by Irish VC fund managers who during this period supported the creation of up to 20,000 jobs, attracted over 2bn of capital into Ireland and geared up the State's investment through the seed and venture Capital Programme by almost 16 times," she said.

The IVCA VenturePulse survey shows that Irish companies raised 994m from investors in 2017. This compares with funds raised of 888m in 2016 and 522m in 2015.

Fourth-quarter funds raised in 2017 were 177m compared to 154m in the same period in 2016.Broadcom expects to continue with its plan to redomicile to the US. Photo: Reuters

Singapore-based Broadcom has formally withdrawn its $117bn (94bn) bid to acquire Qualcomm - two days after US President Donald Trump blocked the attempt, citing national security concerns.

The company said it has also withdrawn its slate of independent director nominees for US-based Qualcomm's annual shareholder meeting.

Broadcom, however, expects to continue with its plan to redomicile to the US, which will give it a freer hand to pursue acquisitions there.

"Although we are disappointed with this outcome, Broadcom will comply with the order," the chipmaker said. Broadcom's board met late on Tuesday to formalise plans to move its base to the United States, at a cost of about $500m a year under a higher tax rate, the sources told Reuters.

Being based in the United States as opposed to Singapore should make it easier for Broadcom to make acquisitions of US companies without falling under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews purchases of American businesses by foreign investors.

An investigation of the Qualcomm deal by the committee had confirmed national security threats related to the acquisition by Broadcom, the Treasury Department said in a letter to both companies made public on March 12.

Later that day Trump took the committee's recommendation and banned the deal.Zara is just one of the brands controlled by Inditex

Shares in Zara owner Inditex rose by just over 3pc yesterday in Madrid after the company reported a 41pc increase in revenue from online sales in 2017.

Revenue from online sales now accounts for 10pc of the total group revenue, with its websites attracting more than 10 million visits per day.

Overall, total revenue for the year at the group behind Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, and Pull and Bear was 25bn, while the group saw its earnings before interest and tax increase to 4.3bn, a 7pc increase year-on-year, according to the group's annual return.

Like-for-like sales at the Spanish company expanded by 5pc during the year, with all geographies and brands delivering growth by this measure, contributing to a net profit of 3.4bn, a 7pc increase year-on-year.

However, while sales increased, they grew at the weakest pace in three years, and the company's gross margin fell to its lowest level in a decade, with investors raising questions about chief executive Pablo Isla's strategy.

The group's store count at year-end 2017 increased by a net 183 stores to 7,475 stores in over 90 countries worldwide. This included the opening of 524 stores in 58 markets, offset by 341 smaller units which were replaced or absorbed by larger stores.

Mr Isla described it as a year of "solid growth" for the company, and highlighted, "the unique strength of our integrated stores and online model and its significant growth potential". He said "the prescient investments made in technology and logistics in recent years, coupled with space optimisation, mean the company is well placed for continued growth across all its markets".

Since the year-end, store sales in local currencies increased by 9pc between 1 February and 11 March 2018.

thomas Mulier/BloombergChannel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman has hit out at her employer ITN after it revealed its 19.6% gender pay gap.

The media company, which makes daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, also announced a bonus gap of 77.2% on Wednesday.

Newman, 43, was not wholly surprised by the revelations, but added she was shocked at the extent of the disparity  worse than the national average, and worse than the BBC.

She said ITNs chief executive John Hardie had briefed staff on Wednesday and both men and women expressed palpable anger.

Mr Hardie has vowed to pledge the pay gap in half within five years and ensure half of all senior roles are filled by women during the same period.

Newman said she and the women at ITN are not going to let this go, and we will be pressing management to deliver on their promises.

She also raised suspicions that ITN and other companies are only taking action because they are obliged by law to publish figures and called for similar transparency over a possible pay gap for black, Asian and minority ethnic employees.

Senior women have been pressing the company for years to be transparent on the gender pay gap, she added.

Key reason for @itn pay gap is there are far fewer women than men in top roles - 17 out of 20 highest paid roles occupied by men #itnwomen #glassceiling  Cathy Newman (@cathynewman) March 14, 2018

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A report on BBC staff found the equivalent gender pay gap was 10.7% and as part of Channel 4 News coverage Newman conducted a sit-in at the BBC in order to secure an interview with the corporations director-general Lord Tony Hall.

Newman wrote: The irony is journalists at ITN have been robust in tackling the BBC on this issue. Were employed to ask tough questions: now our own bosses are having to answer some themselves.

The broadcaster labelled the gap an endemic problem across society and recalled having to challenge her former boss at the Financial Times earlier in her career when she learned a male junior colleague was paid considerably more than her.

Today, Im happy to say I personally am paid fairly at ITN, but Im angry that so many years on, many of my female colleagues are still having to argue for the top roles and the top pay.

She added the latest figures prove the pay gap exists and called on companies such as ITN to be nurtured and promoted.

On Wednesday ITN said the gap was mainly caused by there being fewer women than men in many of the most senior roles in the company.

ITNs report pledged to achieve equal representation between men and women at every level of seniority.

The gender pay gap has been in the headlines since the salaries of top BBC talent were revealed.

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Radio 2s Chris Evans topped the list on more than 2 million, while the highest paid woman was Claudia Winkleman on between 450,000 and 499,999.

A review, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, said there was a lack of clarity and openness about the basis for pay decisions at the BBC.

It found no evidence of gender bias in pay decision-making, although BBC Women  a group that includes presenters such as Jane Garvey, Mishal Husain and Victoria Derbyshire  have rejected the on-air review.

The BBCs former China editor Carrie Gracie resigned from her role in protest at inequalities.

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ITNs report came after it emerged Claire Foy earned less than Matt Smith for Netflix drama The Crown, despite Foy starring as the Queen.

ITN said it will introduce published salary bands for all roles, as well as eligibility criteria for bonuses and commission.

Other measures include reviewing the salaries of all women returning from maternity leave."Sound the horns. Stock up on Guinness. The Irish are coming," wrote The Daily Telegraph of Ireland's illustrious sporting week, both at Cheltenham and the incoming Irish pitch invasion at Twickenham on St Patrick's Day on Saturday afternoon.

"It could be some party."

Correction: it will be some party after Joe Schmidts warriors seal the Grand Slam at Twickers.

And the party is set to continue back in London that night as the Irish invasion reaches Camden Town for Damien Dempseys concert at The Roundhouse.

Its going to be some Saint Patricks Day for the Irish in London this Saturday, Donaghmede troubadour Damien Dempsey told Independent.ie exclusively.

With the mighty Irish rugby team being the best team in the Northern Hemisphere this year coming as champions to TwIckenham, but also with the blood of the Grand Slam in their nostrils for to try to vanquish the old foe who will no doubt try and muster a Rorkes drift last stand performance to prevent humiliation  and win back some dignity rather than be annihilated by a rugby team from an island with a less than a tenth of their population.

And all on our National day! continued Damo who was once described by Hot Press as being the spiritual off-spring of James Connolly and Bob Marley.

Its a dream. And more of a dream for me as its the first day of my annual Saint Patricks weekend Fleadh in London,the DamoFleadh in the stunning Roundhouse in London. Myself and band, the wonderful Beoga, Wildwood Kin, Morrissey and Marshall and Jerry Dammers of the Specials will be aiming to blow the roof off the majestic Roundhouse from 6pm to 11pm!

Eireann Abu in London this Paddys Day! Its gonna be epic! said Damo whose many admirers include Sinead OConnor, Morrissey, Glen Hansard and Bruce Springsteen.

On Saturday night the illustrious Damo fanbase will now also include a few thousand Ireland rugby fans on a night of  hopefully  epic celebration in London.Broadcaster Niall Boylan has been praised on social media for sharing his "courageous" and "extraordinary" story of his experience at a Mother and Baby Home.

Speaking on Brendan O'Connor's 'Cutting Edge' Niall spoke about his anger towards the Catholic Church and his time spent at the home.

"If you look at the Catholic Church as an organisation, if it was a company, and they employed people who were responsible for genocide, rape, the abuse of children ... misogyny, homophobia... you wouldn't want to have anything to do with that company and you would make sure that the Government closed that company down and got rid of it out of the country.

"My biological mother was in a Mother and Baby Home. She was in there for three years and she had my sister who I only found out about three years ago at 50 years of age and I was born there. I spent 18 months of my life there.

"The reason that she couldn't keep me was because the church were building literal baby factories because they were selling babies to Americans and all over the country. I found a small receipt many years ago that showed my father paid 300 at the time in 1963 to an adoption agency. I was literally bought."

Niall said that during the first 18 months of his life, which he spent in the Mother and Baby Home, his mother wasn't present.

"She was sent out to clean the church in Phibsborough and when she came back I was gone. That was the way mothers were, screaming and crying. She told me stories about mothers that used to put phone numbers or addresses into babies' nappies in case the babies were taken when they were gone."

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He added that he rang Tusla to see if they had any information about him.

"They gave me three pieces of paper. That was my life. I couldn't read most of the handwriting but it did say that I had the chicken pox. The one thing that really upset me at the time was at the top of it it had a box saying legitimate and illegitimate and the illegitimate box was ticked. You're branded and stigmitised. That was the church that did that."

Niall said that he was 13-years'-old when he heard he was born in the Mother and Baby Home.

"I found out on New Year's Eve. My father had a few drinks on him and I remember hearing my mother and father arguing and he called me down and said 'I just want to tell you something, you're adopted. You can go back to bed now'.

"It played on my mind for years and then I got into this obsession trying to find out who my mother and father was. I went down to the registered births office and literally went through manuals. I got a first name so I went through the manuals looking for the name. Because she was a single parent, the same name would be down for mother and father. So I narrowed it down to three. I went to the nuns and they arranged a meeting in the end."

Niall told Brendan O'Connor that while he had a "good life", he was "denied the life he was supposed to have".

"I was denied the relationship with a person who is now in her 80s that I should have had. I felt so sorry for this woman. She gave birth to me and she doesn't know me. She wanted to have a relationship with me.

"I met her about four times and the last time I spoke to her she said to me 'you know you can call me mam if you want', but I just couldn't bring myself to do that even though she is my mother. To me my mother is my adopted mother. I couldn't bring myself to do that.

"That could be why I have an inherent hatred towards the church. I got my birth cert three weeks ago by mistake. For the first time in 50 years, I saw my birth cert.

"I was told for the first time in 52 years that I had a sister. They told me over the phone 'by the way, you have a sister'. There was no counselling or anything."A woman whose sister was murdered by the IRA has called on the American public to boycott a new US beer named in honour of Gerry Adams.

'Adams' Best' is the latest product from the Chicago-based craft beer company Revolution Brewery.

According to the company's website, Adams' Best "is named for Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, who was instrumental in the development of the Belfast Agreement in the late 1990s, which brought a ceasefire to Northern Ireland".

The profile of the new product makes no mention of the former Sinn Fein leader's association with the IRA.

Terror

Mr Adams has always denied membership of the IRA - but never distanced himself from the terror group.

Ann Travers, whose sister Mary (22) was shot dead by the IRA in Belfast in 1984 as she walked home from Mass with her father Thomas, said commemorating Mr Adams through a craft beer was "shameful".

She has called on Americans to boycott the brand. "It is absolutely unbelievable. I'm actually lost for words," she said.

"How can anyone be so insensitive? It doesn't matter where you're from or what political persuasion you may have, this is below poor taste."A former Anglo Irish Bank dealer told the Financial Regulator the bank's customer funding figure was "not a real number" and it was "trying to manipulate our balance sheet", a court heard.

Ciaran McArdle was on a phone call to Regulator officials the day after Anglo carried out a series of multi-billion euro interbank transfers in the run-up to the struggling bank's year-end at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

A tape of the conversation was played to the jury in the trial of Anglo's former CEO, David Drumm.

Mr Drumm (51) is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors by dishonestly creating the impression that the bank's customer deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

The case centres on interbank loans which circulated between Anglo and Irish Life and Permanent in September 2008. Mr Drumm also denies false accounting. Mr McArdle's understanding was that the transaction was going to be a "repo" trade (sale and repurchase of bonds) with ILP, he agreed with Mary Rose Gearty SC.

On the morning of September 30, the Government issued a guarantee scheme for bank deposits.

In the call to Financial Regulator officers the next day, Mr McArdle gave an update of the bank's situation.

"It's a different picture to where we were this time last week, it's a different picture to where we were on Monday, but the overall reaction to the scheme has been very, very positive," he said.

"The momentum has swung and the momentum is probably going to continue as long as there isn't a change in the legislative paperwork going through the Dail," he went on.

Asked about the interbank market, he said "we haven't gone chasing it" and that it was mostly on an overnight basis.

"This most certainly has fixed us somewhat but the system is broken. We need the State tonight to probably bring a little bit more confidence.

"We need more positive stories from the papers... we need this thing signed, sealed and delivered to see where the lie of the land is," he said.

"Can I ask you about the corporate figure - is that still a net figure?" regulatory officer Clare Taylor asked later in the call.

"That is still a net figure, that is correct," he replied.

"It's trying to manipulate our balance sheet for our financial year end last night. What we have done is we have boosted our customer funding number which we didn't include in our liquidity number so when our snapshot is produced at the beginning of December, it looks as good as possible," Mr McArdle said on the tape.

"It's not a real number. I wouldn't read too much into it. It just happened to fall on the last day of the month. It's just something we did."

The trial continues at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.A bioscience student who was caught in possession of just under 19,000 has received a three year suspended sentence.

Dayo Awosanya (20) of The Boulevard, Bealing Village, Tyrrelstown, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing the cannabis herb at his address on June 12, 2017. He has no previous convictions.

Gda Alan Barry told Diarmuid Collins BL, prosecuting, that Awosanya said he was holding the drugs for a friend and was to be given some money for the job.

Awosanya said he had thought the cannabis was worth about 1,000 and wouldn't have become involved had he known its true value.

The student said he had been spending 50 a week on cannabis for personal use.

Gda Barry agreed with Richard Wixted BL, defending, that his client had been fully co-operative in interview and expressed remorse for getting himself into a stupid mess.

Mr Wixted submitted to Judge Nolan that Awosanya had started using cannabis recreationally to deal with a relative's cancer diagnosis around that time.

Counsel said his client had since stopped using cannabis and had broken away from his peer group.

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Awosanya probably had an obligation to third parties to hold the drug. He took into account Awosanya's previous clean record, his early guilty plea, full co-operation and the fact he had good career prospects.

He suspended the sentence for three years.The association representing judges has condemned what it described as personalised attacks by elements of the media in Poland of an Irish judge who expressed concerns about the rule of law there.

One outlet described Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, who is gay, as "an Irish lesbian judge" after she suspended the extradition of a Polish man and sought a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union on the effect of recent legislative changes.

In a statement, the Association of Judges of Ireland said it wished to deprecate in the strongest terms the personalised attacks and invective directed Ms Justice Donnelly.

Any interested person or party is entitled to criticise a judgment or ruling of a court, and even to do so in robust terms. However, a judge is a public office holder, and if a party wishes to criticise her for the manner in which she has performed her public duty, the criticism should be confined to that and directed at the court's decision and not at the judge personally, the statement said.

The irrelevant references to Ms Justice Donnelly's personal and private life are utterly unacceptable and we condemn them unreservedly.

Lawyers for Artur Celmer, who is wanted on drug trafficking charges in Poland, opposed his extradition in light of recent legislative changes concerning the Polish judiciary, courts and public prosecutor.

In making her decision, Ms Justice Donnelly referred to a European Commission document, which she said set out, in stark terms what appears to be the deliberate, calculated and provocative legislative dismantling by Poland of the independence of the judiciary, a key component of the rule of law.

Ms Justice Donnelly was heavily criticised by some media outlets in Poland.

One newspaper, Dziennik Narodowy, appeared to make a link between her sexuality and her decision.

Another news website, wpolityce.pl, also cited the judges sexuality in its coverage of her decision.

The judges decision has also been criticised by the Polish government.Morals, emotion and sympathy should not be considered in the rape trial of two high profile rugby players, a defence barrister has said.

Instead, the jury of eight men and three women must decide the innocence or guilt of Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding based solely on the evidence.

Brendan Kelly QC said: "A warning to everyone. It is not a court of morals. Nor will you try this case on any emotion, or sympathy."

Mr Kelly, representing Jackson, was the first of four defence lawyers to make his closing submission at Belfast Crown Court, where he suggested the prosecution case was "critically flawed".

Directing remarks to the jury panel, he said: "This particular case is critically flawed and has been so flawed since June 28 2016.

"It is critically flawed by inconsistencies and it is flawed by untruth; flawed, we will submit, to its core."

Jackson (26) from Belfast's Oakleigh Park denies rape and sexual assault.

Stuart Olding (25) from Ardenlee Street in the city also denies rape.

Two other men on trial on charges connected to the alleged assault on June 28 2016 have also pleaded not guilty.

Mr Kelly told the jury: "You need to be convinced. Convinced of a man's guilt before you can convict.

"If you are sure, no hesitation your duty to convict. If you are less than sure, your duty to acquit. It is as stark as that."

The purpose of the defence submission was to test the evidence, the court was told.

"It is perhaps common sense but it is what we all know, consistency is the hallmark of truth. Liars deviate," said Mr Kelly.

The case, originally scheduled for five weeks, is approaching the end of its seventh week.

Consent was at the heart of case - a key matter for the jury when considering the "grave" charges, said the defence counsel.

"A drunken consent is still consent," said Mr Kelly.

"Regret has no bearing on consent.

"Bear that in mind when you try these counts."

Mr Kelly moved through the "chapters" of his submission slowly and methodically.

He contrasted Jackson's account that he did not penetrate the complainant with his penis with what was branded the inconsistent word of the woman.

Reference was also made to prosecution witness Dara Florence who believed she had walked in on a threesome and was invited to stay.

Mr Kelly said: "She walked into the room where, if the prosecution are correct, a rape was taking place times two.

"She was invited to join in. She said 'no' and Jackson said 'are you sure?'.

"To join in a rape?

"Ask yourself this, if (the complainant), as she tells you, was not consenting and Dara had said 'yes I'd love to', picture what would the scene be - those on the left not consenting, those on the right consenting."

He continued: "Is it really the Crown's case that half the bed would have been consenting and half not?"

The defence said they had shown CCTV footage of inside Ollies nightclub to illustrate Jackson's description of the woman's tactile, forward and flirtatious behaviour.

"She did touch Kyle Lafferty on the leg, for what it is worth," he said.

"She did grab Will Grigg. She did stroke the face of the doctor."

Claims the woman had lost her friends were also dismissed.

"It's more like ditched her friends," said Mr Kelly, suggesting she was waiting for someone else.

"A crowbar would not have moved her that night," he said.

"As far as (the complainant) was concerned she was on a mission to party that night."

After almost two hours, Mr Kelly told the court the headline in the case was consent.

"Have the prosecution proven a lack of consent?" he asked jurors.

There was no DNA evidence to suggest Jackson had penetrated the woman with his penis and his account to police could have easily been discredited, the lawyer suggested.

Mr Kelly said: "If there had been some forensics, which we all know there are not, that would be a reckless act of his.

"He went in, never before in a police station, at 8.30pm at night, gave an account that could have been blown out of the water."

Mr Kelly is expected to complete his closing submission on Friday.

As he drew to a close for the day, he rejected as "nonsense" questions raised by the prosecution about the need for the woman to take the morning after pill.

"If you are right that she has chosen to invent that account so as to persuade her mates and derail the rumour she is in lie mode.

"That morning when the dawn is 'my God this could be on social media, I have to run the lie of the classic rape victim otherwise my life is ruined'."

The case has been adjourned until Friday.

Dismissing the jury for the day, Judge Patricia Smyth reminded them to keep their minds open.

The judge said: "We still have some way to go before hearing everything there is to be said."The State does not accept Graham Dwyer's constitutional right to privacy was breached when retained data generated by his mobile phone was accessed by gardai investigating the murder of childcare worker Elaine O'Hara.

Sean Guerin SC, for the State and the garda Commissioner, told the High Court on Thursday that his side was not making a submission to the court that Dwyer's privacy had not been in some way interfered with when his phone data was accessed.

Under the 2011 Act telecommunication data from Dwyer's personal mobile phone was retained and accessed by Gardai investigating Ms O'Hara's death.

Data generated by his phone was put before the jury by the prosecution during Dwyer's 2015 trial at the Central Criminal Court for Ms O'Hara's murder.

Dwyer's right to privacy in relation to his phone data had to be weighed against other competing rights, counsel said.

In the hierarchy of rights under the Constitution, the right of gardai investigating Ms O'Hara's death to access retained data generated by Dwyer's phone, which placed him at certain places at certain times, came ahead any right to privacy Dwyer enjoys under Constitution, counsel said.

Counsel said gardai investigating Ms O'Hara's murder established Dwyer had an extra marital affair with Ms O'Hara.

While the State had no business to look into any extra marital affair, in this case where Ms O'Hara went missing before her body was discovered , the State had a clear right to look into the relationship between her and Dwyer and seek data retained by the telecommunications provider in relation to his phone.

In all the circumstances it could not be said that the retention of the data and the access of such data by gardai breached Dwyer's right to privacy counsel said.

Mr Guerin was making submissions before Mr Justice Tony O'Connor on the aspects of Dwyer's challenge against Ireland's data retention laws concerning the Irish Constitution.

In his action against the State and the Garda Commissioner the Cork born architect, who denies killing Ms O'Hara, claims the 2011 Communications (Retention of Data) Act, is unconstitutional and breaches his rights under the EU Charter and the European Convention on Human 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.

The action continues.Stuart Olding and Paddy Jackson are accused of raping the woman in June 2016. Both deny the charges.

Closing arguments in the rape trial of Ireland and Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding are continuing.

The prosecution has summed up their argument.

Prosecution lawyer Toby Hedworth QC said, on the night in question, a young 19-year-old went out with her friends to celebrate the end of their exams.

He said: "She ended up in the early hours of the morning back at an after party. During that party she consensually kissed a young man... this was as far as she wanted it to go.

"When that man tried to undo her trousers she made it plain she was not interested in taking matters further. That is what she was entitled to do.

"The law of this land says a young woman is allowed to say no."

Mr Hedworth told the court the law is not 'Oh well, you let me kiss you so I can force myself upon you. I, the male, shall decide how far this will go'.

He continued: "The law is not 'if my friends fancy joining in they can do as they and I please'."

Mr Hedworth told the jury: "The world has moved on. The behaviour of some has not."

He said what happened at that party was a "throwback to the days of male entitlement".

"We are not talking about MeToo and gender politics. We are talking about the conduct of some males and the first three defendants in this trial," he added.

Mr Hedworth told the court the defendants were "not interested in the view of a young woman if their passions are up and they're full of drink".

"If they want to take sexual advantage of that young woman they will do so. Her views are not sought."

He added: "If the complainant realises the power of the male is such it is easier to just comply, and that can be taken as consent.

"If she tries to complain thereafter then she's just a silly girl.

"That's not the modern world. These are not the rules of the modern world. These are not the rules of our present day society as reflected by our laws.

"I'm not talking about some agenda for radical feminism. I'm talking about proper relationships you have with each other. The sort of limits of conduct any man would expect for his daughter and sister."

Mr Hedworth told the jury the defence case is that the alleged victim "was in control of the three defendants, using each of them in turn for her own sexual gratification at the age of 19."

Referring to her evidence that after the alleged attack she wanted to get the morning after pill, Mr Hedworth said: "According to the defence nobody had sexual intercourse with this young woman... So why, if that's right, is she so anxious to get the morning after pill?"

Reminding the jury of a text from Harrison to McIlroy that said she was "just a silly girl who has done something and regretted it", Mr Hedworth said: "That's exactly what she knew would happen if she took this further."

Mr Hedworth said the prosecution was not hiding from the fact there were differences and inaccuracies in the alleged victim's account of what happened.

"We invite you to consider what state this woman must have been," he said.

"Genuine complainants, whether because of trauma, shock or confusion, can give inconsistent accounts.

"What you have to do is, having heard all the evidence, is whether or not you can be sure the central allegations before you are true.

"That's what we invite you to do," he added.

The court was told the woman did not immediately go to the police.

Mr Hedworth said that after a trip to the cinema with her friends she realised "she could not let the matter go so she makes that call to police".

He pointed out that initially she did not name the alleged attackers.

"This isn't someone going after celebrities," said Mr Hedworth.

Referring to the account of a woman who walked in on the alleged victim engaged in sexual activity with Jackson and Olding, but did not think she was being raped, Mr Hedworth said what the eyewitness was confronted with "was a complete surprise".

"And she was certainly not expecting to walk in on non-consensual activity," the lawyer added.

He also told the jury that the eyewitness only witnessed the sexual activity "for a short period of time".

He added that the eyewitness "had not seen how they had come to be involved in sexual activity in the first place."

Referring to the evidence of a taxi driver who took the woman and Harrison home, Mr Hedworth said: "(The driver) said when the police got in touch via the taxi company he knew straight away what it was in relation to."

Mr Hedworth asked the jury why the alleged victim would report a rape.

"What does this young woman seek to gain by putting herself through the ordeal? The shame, the indignity of a physical examination, going to the police reliving all this knowing what is likely to be deployed against her ... unless, of course, she is telling the truth.

"Because a woman is entitled to say no regardless of how much testosterone is kicking about."

Turning to Jackson, Mr Hedworth said that having already been told by the woman she was not interested in going further "he forced himself on her, raped her from behind before Mr Olding came in and raped her after Mr Olding came in", he said.

Referring to Olding he said he was "someone who you will recall (the woman) hadn't even spoken a word to. A person who she said 'no, please, not him too', joined in sexually assaulting her."

Mr Hedworth said both men knew it was not consensual but they "carried on regardless for their own sexual gratification".

He said that McIlroy, having been knocked back by another woman at the party, asked Jackson by text if there was a chance of a threesome.

He added that when he arrived at the bedroom door it was "the straw that broke the camel's back" for the alleged victim.

"Mr McIlroy never gets beyond exposing himself", added Mr Hedworth.

Referring to Harrison he said he was "the gallant hero of the hour but his apparent concern for (the woman) were merely weasel words".

He said Harrison was a "heartless young man who found the whole thing so amusing."

Referring to Jackson and Olding, Mr Hedworth said: "Who cares where they went to school? Who cares about what junior team they played rugby with? Who cares which academy team they played for? Who cares about their level of success on a rugby field?

"It matters not whether a prince or pauper. You are just as capable of getting yourself extremely drunk and doing something - no doubt in the cold light of day when you realise the consequences - you come to regret."

He told the jury: "A good school, a good rugby career, even an act of kindness at a bus station, counts for nothing when used to disguise the realities of what overbearing, drunk young men will do when their passions are raised and they have available to them a young woman whose own view of what's being done to her matters not.

"They knew she did not consent, but they didn't care."

Referring to a WhatsApp message between Jackson, Olding and some other friends that described them as "legends", Mr Hedworth said to the jury: "The lads. The legends. You decide".

The prosecution has concluded its summing up of evidence.

Jackson's defence lawyer Brendan Kelly QC told the jury before they can convict they must be convinced of Jackson's guilt.

He told them that the prosecution case is flawed.

"(Trying the case) is not so you can tell us what you think or how you feel having heard the evidence or what you suspect might have happened.

"That might be all very interesting to you and even others. This is not a form of public inquiry into what may or may not have happened. This is a trial and a trial by you the jury," said Mr Kelly.

He added: "This case is critically flawed by inconsistency and it's flawed by untruth. Flawed, we will submit, to its core."

Mr Kelly continued: "Consistency is the hallmark of truth. Liars deviate."

Mr Kelly told the court: "A drunken consent is still consent. Regret has no bearing on consent."

He added: "(The woman) was consenting."

Mr Kelly said: "This is not a court of morals, nor will you try this case on any emotion or sympathy.

"You may all have daughters, you may all be fathers. That is not what this case is about."

He told the jury to set aside emotion to try the case "with a clear head and an objective mind".

He referred to evidence to the court that Jackson asked another woman who walked in on the sexual activity if she wanted to join in.

"Join in on a rape?... Is it really the Crown's case that half the bed would be consenting and half not?" Mr Kelly asked."She was very forward. She was tactile and she was flirtatious.

"Paddy Jackson made those comments before he knew there was CCTV in Ollies (nightclub). But Mr Jackson came out with those particular lines. That's why we went to Ollies," said Mr Kelly.

Referring to the CCTV of the woman in Ollies, he added: "That's why we shared Ollies with you to see if what Jackson was saying... might be more reliable.

"Look at the video yourself... Does it suggest someone who was forward, someone who was tactile, someone who was flirtatious?

"Does Ollies inform you as to whether or not Jackson was telling the truth when he first talks to police.

"Ollies was not to belittle (the woman). It was to fill in some of the gaps she had forgotten."During Leaving Cert year there is an understandable focus on college, CAO and post-Leaving Cert courses, but not everyone wants to start their career path with the CAO. These students can often feel overlooked.

Thankfully, there has been a massive increase in the number of apprenticeship options available in recent years. These programmes allow participants to study, work and earn all at the same time.

There are many ways of gaining an apprentice role, including private companies and public bodies. Apprenticeships are now available in non-traditional areas such as accounting, finance and insurance, with a logistics apprenticeship due shortly. However, some excellent opportunities in more traditional areas are currently open for application.

Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann

Over the last number of years, Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus and Iarnrod Eireann have all recruited apprentices. While Iarnrod Eireann has not yet announced a 2018 competition, both Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann are currently recruiting. Educational requirements are standard and applicants will be required to present at least a Junior Cert in maths, English, Irish, science and two other subjects. Applicants must apply online by March 24.

ESB

Today is the final day to apply for places on the highly sought-after ESB apprenticeship. Applicants will be trained as electrical apprentices and the deadline for applications is 11.59 p.m. today. Applicants must hold at least a Junior Cert with Irish, English, maths, science and two other subjects. However, as competition is likely to be high, a strong Leaving Cert may be helpful. The application takes about 60 minutes to complete and will time out if left inactive for too long. Applicants will then be asked to take an online aptitude test. More information on esb.ie/careers.

Air Corps Technician

For those interested in a career in the military or working with aviation, the Air Corps is recruiting trainee aircraft technicians. After training, successful candidates will work to maintain and service aircraft, equipment and weapons. Training will be based in Casement Aerodrome and apprentices will receive a Level 7 Bachelor of Engineering in Military Aviation Technology from DIT. Applications should be submitted online on military.ie no later than May 25.

Aerospace

For those who do not wish to join the Defence Forces, Dublin Aerospace is also currently recruiting apprentice aircraft mechanics. Applications close on May 4. This programme trains apprentices to work hands-on with the electrical and mechanical engineering aspects of aircrafts. It leads to a Level 6 qualification as well as an aircraft maintenance engineer's licence. Applicants to be over 18 years of age on commencement.

GSK

The pharmaceutical multi-national is open for applications for engineering apprenticeships at its manufacturing plants in Cork, Dungarvan and Sligo. These offer four years on-the-job training, fully funded study towards nationally recognised qualifications, a salary and access to the company's benefit scheme. A minimum of five Leaving Cert subjects, including maths and English, is required. Applications are being accepted until March 19 at http://ie.gsk.com/ie/careers/apprenticeships/engineering-apprenticeship.

Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co DublinIrish Life Health will be reducing health insurance premiums by an average of 2.4pc

VITAL investigations used to identify cancer and other serious illnesses have been put on hold at a major city hospital in a bid to free up space for A&E patients.

Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown has been forced to give over its endoscopy suite to make room for emergency patients.

It means patients who should be in wards are being put on stretchers in the endoscopy area meant for short-term use.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the move was due to the influx of patients at A&E.

"Non-urgent endoscopy cases were cancelled this week with all urgent cases proceeding as planned," she added.

However, Fianna Fail Dublin West TD Jack Chambers said he had major concerns about the impact on patient care.

Hospitals should not have to suspend vital screening of patients that may show up cancer, he added.

Such procedures can "detect life-threatening illness", he said.

"It is unacceptable that hospitals are cancelling gastrointestinal investigations and cancer screenings because of the overcrowding chaos in emergency departments," Mr Chambers added.

"These day wards and beds are inappropriate to be used as a spillover for seriously ill inpatients being admitted to overcrowded A&Es.

"It is particularly troubling when this surge in emergency departments' admissions was entirely predictable.

"Our hospital system's repeated cancellation of elective procedures and diagnostic investigations shows the system is at a continuous breaking point."

Mr Chambers said that while Health Minister Simon Harris had cancelled plans to travel abroad for St Patrick's Day he was "silent" on how he proposed to end the crisis.

STRUGGLING

"Continued announcements about throwing more money at our health service will not change the dysfunctional health system he refuses to reform," Mr Chambers said.

"He must show real leadership in the coming days and weeks and explain to patients and overworked staff what immediate actions are being taken to address this problem."

The warning comes as hospitals saw little respite in overcrowding yesterday, with 585 patients waiting for a bed across the country.

The highest numbers in Dublin were in Tallaght Hospital where 29 patients endured delays on trolleys. The Mater Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital were also struggling.

There are fears that next week will see another dangerous spike in trolley numbers as patients crowd into hospitals after St Patrick's weekend.

The HSE said the emergency response this week had led to the cancellation of non-urgent inpatient procedures across most hospital sites.

"In all cases the hospital will contact patients to let them know if their procedures are going ahead," a spokesman said.

"In some sites, day surgery will be postponed in order to allow hospitals to provide beds for emergency patients.

"Where necessary, hospitals will contact patients directly to advise on any postponements."

The spokesman said hospitals were continuing to focus on discharging patients.

"Last week a further 5m was allocated to 13 hospitals to support the purchase of home support packages for the next four weeks," he added.

GRIDLOCK

"Public hospitals continue to engage with private hospitals to transfer suitable patients where clinically appropriate, and beds are available in major urban centres.

"We continue to utilise a significant number of additional beds which are open across the system with 621 additional beds open."

Hospital emergency consultants have warned it is essential that plans are made now to ensure that the gridlock in A&Es next winter is not even worse.

Although extra beds are promised, it is unclear how many will be in place and there is the added obstacle of trying to find staff to cater for them.

Meanwhile, GPs who are seeing a spike in their workload are becoming increasingly angry at the failure of the Government to reverse cuts in fees imposed during the recession.

Dr Padraig McGarry, GP leader in the Irish Medical Organisation, said Health Minister Mr Harris had indicated negotiations on reversing the cuts and drawing up a new contract for family doctors would begin in April.

He said it was essential that the talks produced a "roadmap".

The aim is for GPs to provide more patient care in areas such as diabetes and respiratory illness in the community.

This would help to take some of the pressure off hospitals and free up space.Voices of the Silenced was aired at Ballynahinch Baptist Church on Tuesday Photo: Google Maps

The pastor of a church which screened a so-called "gay cure" film claims his place of worship has been subjected to violent threats on social media.

Rodney Stout spoke out after Christian group Core Issues Trust held the all-Ireland premiere of its film, Voices of the Silenced, at Ballynahinch Baptist Church, Co Down, on Tuesday night.

The film, which says that gay people can "choose not to live out their homosexuality" had previously been turned down by Queen's Film Theatre and The Vue in London's Piccadilly.

On Tuesday morning, the Core Issues Trust held a protest outside Queen's University, Belfast over the refusal.

It is understood around 100 people attended the screening in Ballynahinch later that night.

Before the screening got underway a group of around 30 protesters, including Sinn Fein MLA Emma Rogan, gathered outside the church.

Pictures also show a police presence at the scene.

Pastor Stout said he supported the protesters' right to freedom of speech.

However, he slammed those who had taken to social media to threaten what he described as "extreme violence" against the church.

"I went out and welcomed the protesters - I was totally behind their right to be there," Pastor Stout said.

"Some were angry, but several of them agreed that we had the right to screen the film.

"I asked them if any minority group should have its right to be heard suppressed, and they said no."

However, Pastor Stout said that other individuals had taken to social media to "scaremonger" and to "use the threat of extreme violence to try to prevent the film being shown".

"People were trying to stir up controversy against us," he continued.

"I think it is just hot air.

"I don't regret allowing the film to be screened in the church, not at all. I don't think anyone should capitulate to threats.

"I'm not afraid for my safety or that of the people using the church building, I'm more afraid for the disservice it has done to the gay community."

Mike Davidson, the director of the Core Issues Trust, said he felt that the premiere had "gone well," adding that he is in talks with a Belfast church to hold another screening here.

"We asked the protesters if they wanted to come in to see the film, but they declined," he said.

"After the screening, a couple of people did come up and ask me about sexual fluidity exploration therapy.

"I'm not disappointed there weren't more people, as it wasn't about getting people into therapy - it's a critique of the sexual politics in the Western world."

However, Ms Rogan called for so-called 'conversion therapies' to be banned.

The South Down MLA stated: "Sinn Fein will continue to stand alongside the LGBT communities.

"There is nothing wrong with being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender and Sinn Fein totally oppose the use of 'therapies' which are aimed to change, repress and/or eliminate a person's sexual orientation, gender identity and, or gender expression.

"These 'therapies' are damaging, extremely dangerous and can have a very damaging psychological effect on people.

"The practice of conversion therapy has been condemned and discredited worldwide by institutions such as the UN Committee Against Torture, the European Parliament and by the Irish Council for Psychotherapy."

Ms Rogan added: "Sinn Fein believe that 'conversion therapies' should be a banned throughout Ireland."

A PSNI spokesperson said that police are "aware of comments made on social media which have since been removed".

They added: "No complaints have been made to police and no investigation is taking place."

Inspector Darren Hardy said that the protest had concluded "without incident" and they had "not received any complaints in relation to this event".Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks at the global Irish lunch at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC yesterday. Photo: Niall Carson

The much-anticipated meeting between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and US vice president Mike Pence will be held behind closed doors.

Traditionally the St Patricks Day breakfast meeting between the Taoiseach and the Vice President is open to the media and their comments can be reported to the public.

However, on Friday morning the media will be prohibited from reporting the remarks of both leaders.

Mr Varadkar is one of few openly gay world leaders and Mr Pence has been criticised for his views on LGBT rights.

It is understood the decision to bar the media was taken by the vice presidents Office.

Irish Government sources said they are not happy that the media are being prevented from reporting on the event.

Its the decision of the vice presidents Office, the source added.

It is understood Department of Foreign Affairs staff are still consulting with Mr Pences Office about the situation.

Mr Pence has long been criticised for his opposition to gay rights and is a rumoured supporter of conversion therapy  a discredited practice that proponents claim can make gay people straight.

The Taoiseach was asked on Wednesday if he will raise the issue when they meet.

"I'm told Vice President Pence is not a supporter of conversion therapy even though some people have alleged he is," he said.

"But I imagine if I have the opportunity - I'm going to meet him over breakfast - so if I have the opportunity I'll certainly be mentioning the wider issue of equal rights and freedoms for LGBT."

Last years meeting between Mr Pence and former Taoiseach Enda Kenny was open to the media.Mr Yury Filatov speaking to the media on the grounds of the Russian Embassy on Orwell Road Dublin 6. Photo: Justin Farrelly.

Russia's ambassador to Ireland has launched a scathing attack on the UK government, saying they are taking absurd, hostile action.

Yury Filatov believes the British Prime Minister has engaged in hype and propaganda for her political reasons.

And he claimed the UK are illegally preventing Russian authorities from gaining access to Yulia Skripal, who is seriously ill in hospital after being poisoned alongside her father Sergei.

The pair were found slumped on a bench in the Salisbury on March 4. The chemical used in the attack has been identified as part of a group of nerve agents developed by Russia known as Novichok.

Theresa May yesterday expelled 23 Russian diplomats from Britain but Valadmir Putins official rigidly deny any involvement.

On foot of recent reports that the Russian Embassy in Dublin is expanding its operation here and has been involved in spy activity, the Ambassador invited a select group of journalist to their property in south Dublin today.

He claimed reporting on their activities in Ireland was part of a massive propaganda campaign against Russia.

And referencing events in the UK, Mr Filatov said: Its a very sad case and affair. Not only because we are taking about harm done to people, not only because of some kind of chemical agent used in European countries, but also because of the highly irresponsible way the British government handled the whole incident.

He said that from the beginning the whole intention of the UK authorities was not to really investigate but to gain some political points, which is certainly obviously to an indiscriminate observer who is familiar with the political landscape now in London.

This is a most unfortunate turn of events, he said.

Mr Filatov, who took up position in Dublin last November, said Moscow will quickly retaliate against the decision to expel diplomats.

At this point in time the British government has taken absurd, hostile action against our diplomatic representation in the United Kingdom. Im sure that, if not today, then certainly very soon we will give an answer to that. It will not go unanswered.

Its very worrisome situation when we have a government who are a nuclear power behaving in a most irresponsible, aggressive way.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking at the American Ireland Gala Fund dinner in Washington DC as part of his week long visit to the United States of America. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The Taoiseach has issued a rallying call for the American Dream ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump today, saying the dream of freedom, opportunity and hope for all citizens  regardless of race, gender, sexuality or religion  must survive.

Leo Varadkars remarks  which drew on his personal experience of growing up gay with an Indian father - will likely be seen as strong criticism of the stance taken by Mr Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, on various social issues, including LGBT rights and migration.

He spoke just hours after it emerged that his much-anticipated meeting with Mr Pence on Friday will now be held behind closed doors, breaking with tradition.

Mr Varadkar is one of very few openly-gay world leaders and Mr Pence has been criticised for his views on LGBT rights. Breakfast meetings between various vice presidents and Taoisigh dating back a number of years have allowed media access.

Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Karen Bradley at the American Ireland Gala Fund dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington DC as part of his week long visit to the United States of America. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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American ideals and American values that spread around the world meant that a young boy growing up in Ireland, with an Indian father and an Irish mother, could dream of one day becoming the leader of his country, believing that the time would come when people would be judged on their principles and their ideals, on the content of their character and the quality of the work, and not on their sexuality orientation or the colour of their skin, the Taoiseach told the Ireland Funds dinner on Wednesday night to sustained applause.

These are our Irish values today. We believe in equality before the law for all citizens, irrespective of gender, race or religion.

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This will all sound very familiar to you, because these were American values long before they were ours, he added.

The Taoiseach has said repeatedly that he planned to talk about various social issues with members of the Trump administration during his high-profile visit.

Last night he warned that sometimes fires can be extinguished, and sometimes freedoms can die.

Thats why from time to time it can concern us if it seems that America falters in any way from that path but we know that the American spirit and American values remain strong, Mr Varadkar told an audience of 800, including approximately 25 members of the US Congress.

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In these challenging times, it is our responsibility to keep all those challenging dreams alive.

His scripted remarks came a few hours after it was learned that the media will be prohibited from attending the breakfast meeting at the Vice Presidents residence on Friday, and reporting on the remarks.

It is understood the decision to bar the media was taken by the Vice Presidents office.

Irish Government sources said they are not happy the media are being prevented from reporting on the event, and are working to revert to the original itinerary which included media access.

Mr Pence has long been criticised for his opposition to gay rights and is a rumoured supporter of conversion therapy  a discredited practice that proponents claim can make gay people straight. He has denied it.

The Taoiseach was asked earlier yesterday if he will raise the issue of conversion therapy when they meet.

"I'm told Vice President Pence is not a supporter of conversion therapy even though some people have alleged he is," he said.

"But I imagine if I have the opportunity - I'm going to meet him over breakfast - so if I have the opportunity I'll certainly be mentioning the wider issue of equal rights and freedoms for LGBT."US President Donald Trump, his wife Melania and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar arrive at the annual shamrock presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

US President Donald Trump, his wife Melania and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) attend the annual shamrock presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar presents US President Donald Trump with a bowl of shamrock as Melania Trump looks on during the annual presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said he is now "fast friends" with Leo Varadkar, despite only meeting him for the first time on Thursday.

At the traditional handover of the shamrock at the White House, Mr Trump said he looked forward to the Taoiseach's return next year and "for seven more years", another indication that he will seek re-election.

Mr Varadkar used the occasion to again highlight the plight of the undocumented Irish, and to once again push the possibility of a reciprocal exchange of various rights that would effect Americans who want to live in Ireland.

Neither leader took questions, ensuring that Mr Varadkar's earlier comments about making a call to Clare County Council after Mr Trump raised concerns about a wind farm near his golf club in Doonbeg were not clarified.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the annual shamrock presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire US President Donald Trump makes a speech as (left to right) Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Melania Trump, US Vice-President Mike Pence and Karen Pence look on at the annual shamrock presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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"Taoiseach, I'll tell you, we've become friends -- fast friends -- over a short period of time," Mr Trump told a group of a couple of hundred people, including Irish politicians and senior White House staff including the Vice President Mike Pence. The First Lady was also present, unlike last year.

"I look forward to your return next year," he added. "In fact, we'll see you for about, what? Seven more years, I think. Right? Right? About seven. That's sort of an interesting concept. Right? That's what is going to be.

"But I do look forward to your return. I look forward to you being here anytime you want -- and that includes you, folks. This is a very, very special group of people, and a very, very special place, Ireland."

Among those in the audience of the East Room was the President's adviser Kellyanne Conway, and his former press secretary Sean Spicer.

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Mr Spicer joked that "I was wrangling today" but said he hadn't yet spoken to the president.

Mr Varadkar, meanwhile, said that any deal on immigration would be reciprocal between the US and Ireland.

"President Trump and I met earlier and I believe by talking and listening we both learned things that will help our two countries move forward," he said.

"I know that the Irish people who have made their lives here, including those who are undocumented and living in the shadows, love this country dearly.

Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar presents US President Donald Trump with a bowl of shamrock as Melania Trump looks on during the annual presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington DC, USA. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire / Facebook

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"I want to assure you, Mr. President, that the Irish Government will continue to work with your Administration to find a solution to this important issue. And we are willing to match any move with the same or better for Americans in Ireland."US President Donald Trump during the Speaker's Lunch at Capitol Hill in Washington DC, USA. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday March 15, 2018. See PA story IRISH Taoiseach. Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar makes a speech during the Speaker's Lunch at Capitol Hill in Washington DC Niall Carson/PA Wire

US President Donald Trump during the Speaker's Lunch at Capitol Hill in Washington DC, USA. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo Niall Carson/PA Wire

US President Donald Trump joked about Ireland's low corporate tax rate being difficult to compete with as the annual Irish blitz of Washington continued on Thursday.

Mr Trump was speaking at the Speaker's Lunch on Capitol Hill following a bilateral meeting with Mr Varadkar.

The pair spoke about trade during the Oval Office and Mr Varadakar said he raised the idea of a new trade deal between the US and the EU which he said the US President seemed open to.

Later at the second of three official engagements the issue of trade was raised again but this time in a more light-hearted manner.

"Whenever there's a problem you call - we'll solve it," Mr Trump said, before adding: "except trade".

"They've got those taxes so low....you're a tough one to compete with with the taxes," the US President said to laughter from the packed room.

Mr Trump also said he hoped to see Mr Varadkar "often".US President Donald Trump meets with Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 15, 2018. Reuters: Kevin Lamarque

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Ireland's Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 15, 2018. Reuters: Kevin Lamarque

US President Donald Trump as he meets and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for talks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC, USA. Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken about his meeting with Donald Trump and said he believes the US President will be "very much on our side" in working towards ensuring there is no hard border post-Brexit.

The pair met at the White House today for the first time, in what was described by the Taoiseach as a "good meeting".

Trade, Doonbeg and Northern Ireland were all discussed during the meeting which lasted around 40 minutes.

"We also had an opportunity to talk about the Border and the President is very aware of the issues that could affect Northern Ireland if there was a return to a hard border. I think he'll be very much on our side in working for a solution to make sure that does not happen," Mr Varadkar said.

The European Union has backed Ireland on the retention of a soft border and have called on the UK to show clear progress on the issue before Brexit talks can progress.

Ahead of today's bilateral meeting Mr Trump referred to the border issue, something he had indicated an interest in when he last spoke with the Taoiseach last summer.

"That's an interesting border also," he said today. "We have two interesting borders - one happens to be where you are, right? It's going to be interesting to see what happens."

Briefing the media after the meeting Mr Varadkar said a number of issues were raised, including the undocumented Irish.

"We had a chance to talk about a number of different options, obviously we spoke about Doonbeg and the President is very proud of his property there and keen to visit it," he told reporters.

"We also spoke about trade - the President has enormous concerns that the US isn't being treated fairly when it comes to trade by China and Europe.

"I put across the view that maybe the best way to resolve this is a new trade deal between America and Europe - and the President seemed very open to that.

"The President brought up the issue of the undocumented Irish and I think we've got a measure of support and a degree of enthusiasm from the administration to work on behalf of thousands of Irish here undocumented."Revellers have been warned that snow, rain and "significant wind chill" are all forecast for St Patrick's Day.

Just two weeks since Storm Emma battered Ireland, wintry weather conditions are forecast once again.

Many of us are waking up to some flooding after heavy rainfall overnight the weather will remain unsettled as we reach the Bank Holiday weekend.

Met Eireann has said that this morning will be mostly dry but it will be cloudy and misty, we can expect top temperatures of 12C.

There will be more showers tonight but it will be mainly dry in the southwest.

A Met Eireann spokesperson said in a statement on their website: "Friday will see further showery outbreaks of rain with a few sunny spells as well.

"Breezy on Friday night with showers affecting east and south coasts, but drier elsewhere. Lowest temperatures of 2 to 5C in moderate to fresh easterly winds.

"Cold and breezy on St Patricks Day, with a significant wind chill due to fresh and gusty easterly winds. Afternoon temperatures will be just 1 to 3C in eastern half of the country and between 4 to 6 degrees further west. Most places dry, but a few wintry showers are likely in the east and south.

"Very cold Saturday night, with mainly clear skies and some snow showers in the east and southeast. Amounts are looking small at this stage. Lowest temperatures -1 to -4C."

It is expected to be cold and breezy on Sunday again, with temperatures expected to peak at around 4C, but easterly winds will make it feel even colder.

Met Eireann said: "Some sleet or snow showers will occur again, mainly in eastern areas. A few flurries are possible elsewhere.

"Another very cold night on Sunday. Lowest temperatures 0 to -5 degrees with a widespread severe frost. Less cold perhaps on Leinster coasts. "

Monday will be dry and sunny overall but there will be some showers in the east.

Temperatures will plummet to around -4C on Monday night, while Tuesday will be dry and bright during the day before turning frosty overnight.

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Meanwhile, a mother and her child were pulled from their car by emergency services after flood waters threatened to engulf them during heavy rain on Wednesday evening.

The incident happened on the Johnstown Road in Freshford, Co Kilkenny around 6.30pm when the River Nuenna that runs through the town burst its banks in several locations, according to local councillor Michael McCarthy.

The woman's car had stalled in heavy flooding as the waters were rising around them, he said.

The local fire brigade was able to get them out of the car without further incident, he said.

Local council crews were also able to get to 14 houses in the area that were threatened by flooding and sandbag them in time, he said.

However, two houses had water seeping into them from the road, but they were not badly flooded, he added.

"Luckily there was a good response by the council and most of the danger was eliminated," he told Independent.ie

Meanwhile, the Dublin Fire Brigade and local council crews were dispatched to mop up after the Dodder River burst its banks this evening due to persistent heavy rain all day.

Officials from the Dublin Fire Brigade said there did not appear to be any homes at risk of flooding.

Crews from South Dublin County Council were in the process of closing off the Dodder Road Lower in Rathfarnham this evening because roads were impassable. The Orwell Road was also impassable from the same flooding.

A Status Yellow rainfall warning was issued for Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Laois, Kildare and Wicklow until midnight on Wednesday.

RTE reports that a number of homes in the Rathdrum and Kilmaconogue area have been hit with flooding during the heavy rain.

In Kilkenny the local authority issued a flood warning for Thomastown and Inistioge.

***Flood Alert Thomastown and Inistioge***

There are now indications that Thomastown and Inistioge may flood. Locals are advised to make the necessary preparations.  Kilkenny Council (@KilkennyNotices) March 14, 2018

Cork County Council also issued a flood warning in Mallow and Fermoy.

As a precaution flood barriers in Mallow & Fermoy have been erected - possible flooding Park Road in Mallow this evening may result in its closure. While some localised flooding there is no expectation at this time of flood risk to properties or businesses in these areas. pic.twitter.com/j2FKFrfAcz  Cork County Council (@Corkcoco) March 14, 2018

AA Roadwatch has also warned of a number of roads which are affected by flooding in Tipperary, Kilkenny and Cork.

In Kilkenny people are advised to avoid Freshford and take the N77 via Ballyragget instead.

In Thomastown near Moanroe Cross the road is impassable, as is the Thomastown/Instigoge Road.

In Cork part of the Mallow Road is closed due to flooding.

In Wicklow the road is impassable at the Roundwood/Sally Gap Road according to the AA.

Flooding is affecting several routes, esp in the Clonmel & Tipperary Town areas of Tipperary, around Freshford & Thomastown in Kilkenny & the Roundwood area of Wicklow.



Latest updates at https://t.co/PSzIBsvOzE pic.twitter.com/kovaORswHN  AA Roadwatch (@aaroadwatch) March 14, 2018

Persistent and heavy rain is due to continue for much of the night with an ongoing risk of flooding.Finland is the world's happiest country, according to an annual survey issued yesterday.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.

"I've joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland," said Brianna Owens, who moved from the United States and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finland's second biggest city with a population of around 280,000.

"I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well," Owens said.

Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network's (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.

Burundi came bottom.

One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.

While U.S. income per capita has increased markedly over the last half century, happiness has been hit by weakened social support networks, a perceived rise in corruption in government and business and declining confidence in public institutions.

"We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality, less trust, less confidence in government," the head of the SDSN, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of New York's Columbia University, told Reuters as the report was launched at the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

"It's pretty stark right now. The signs are not good for the U.S. It is getting richer and richer but not getting happier."

Asked how the current political situation in the United States could affect future happiness reports, Sachs said:

"Time will tell, but I would say that in general that when confidence in government is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality is high and health conditions are worsening ... that is not conducive to good feelings."

For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organisations, official figures and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries.

Finland took top honours in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.

The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years.

"The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born," said Professor John Helliwell of Canada's University of British Columbia.

"Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries," he said.

"Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose."A married couple in China have realised their paths crossed 11 years before they met when the husband appeared in the background of a picture of the wife.

Mr Ye and his wife Ms Xue were both visiting May Fourth Square in Qingdao, China and had pictures taken of themselves at the same time.

As Ms Xue poses for her photo, a man posing for his own photo can be seen in the background.

Little did Ms Xue know, however, that that man would later become her husband.

The couple, who have twin daughters, met and fell in love in 2011 in Chengdu, but it was in July 2000 that their paths first crossed, unbeknownst to them until this month when Mr Ye was looking through old photographs in a family album.

Mr Ye was trying to work out whether his daughters most resembled him or his wife, so on a visit to his mother-in-laws house, he decided to rifle through an old photo album.

It was then that the discovery was made.

And in another strange twist of fate, it emerged that both Mr Ye and Ms Xue had been visiting the square thanks to their mothers.

Mr Ye was with a tour group but was only there because his mother had fallen ill with appendicitis after booking the trip so he had stepped in to take her place.

Ms Xue was actually there with her mother, who was recovering from an operation three months earlier and decided to go on a relaxing trip to the city.

And Mr Ye says as soon as he saw the photo, he recognised himself and was then able to find his own photo to prove his point.

I heard her mention before that she had been to Qingdao, while I also went to Qingdao and took pictures at the May Fourth Square. We didnt know it yet, Mr Ye told Sina News.

When I saw the photo, I was taken by surprise and I got goosebumps all over my body... that was my pose for taking photos. I also took a photo, it was the same posture (as captured in Ms Xues photo), just from a different angle.

After Mr Ye shared the images on social media, the story quickly went viral, with many people expressing their delight at the strange twist of fate.

Mr Ye says the square will now hold special meaning for the family, and he hopes to return soon with his children.

It seems that Qingdao is certainly one of the most special cities (for us), he said. When the children are older, we will go to Qingdao again and the family will take a photo again.Walkers on the slopes of Croagh Patrick, above Clew Bay, Co Mayo. Photo: Gareth McCormack/Failte Ireland

Walkers are able to aquire a Camino-style passport by taking a selfie at particular locations on Irelands pilgrim routes

Did you know pilgrims don't have to start their 'Camino' in Spain? That a 'Celtic Camino' allows you to kick off the route in Ireland?

For just over a year now, walkers who complete a 'Celtic Camino' - by walking at least 25km of a pilgrim trail in Ireland - can collect a special certificate issued by the Camino Society Ireland at St. James' Church in Dublin.

The certificate - gained after walking routes like Tochar Phadraig, Co. Mayo or St. Kevins Way in Co. Wicklow (see caminosociety.com) - can then be taken to A Coruna and combined with a further 75km walk to receive the full compostela.

Typically, official Camino certificates are given only to walkers who complete at least 100km of the famous route. But the Cathedral of Santiago and A Coruna Tourism have agreed that 25km of Irish pilgrim trails can now be included.

"It's been very popular," says Jim McNicholas, Director of the Society.

"People do Caminos for all sorts of reasons... I was in Mayo this weekend gone by, and there were about 50 people out walking the Croagh Patrick heritage trail towards Murrisk, despite the weather. And they were loving it."

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They're not the only ones. In fact, Irish pilgrim paths are enjoying something of a second coming, as long-forgotten routes are cleared for use again.

Growing numbers are taking to Ireland's penitential trails "to escape the daily grind of life," says walking expert John G. O'Dwyer, chairman of Pilgrim Paths Ireland, which is running a Pilgrim Paths Week from March 31 to April 8.

The event, which features guided pilgrim walks (pilgrimpath.ie; 5-20pp), is targeted not just at hikers, he says, but the increasing number of people wishing to "take time out to reflect and meditate a little while enjoying the outdoors."

''Pilgrim paths have some kind of introspective or contemplative aspect to them, a link with the past and your personal heritage," he explains.

"There feeling is like you are entering a different space, and there has to be some kind of personal discovery involved."

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A week later, the Camino Society Ireland is gearing up to launch another new initiative - Ireland's first ever 'Celtic Camino' festival.

The festival, which takes place in Westport, Co. Mayo from April 13-15 with support from CaminoWays.com, includes speakers like Camino guidebook author John Brierley and a guided hike on part of the Croagh Patrick trail.

It will also feature a screening of The Camino Voyage, a new movie by Donal O Ceilleachair that McNicholas says sold out its premiere at the IFI in Dublin.

Bit by bit, more pieces are falling into place.

In 2016, for example, O'Dwyer's Pilgrim Paths group teamed up with the Heritage Council to launch a 'Pilgrim Passport' for Irish trails.

With it, walkers can apply for a Teastas Oilithreachta (Completion Certificate) from Ballintubber Abbey, Co. Mayo after completing 125km on five flagship trails.

Another development sees the re-opening of the 104km St Declan's Way, a five-day trail between Cashel, Co. Tipperary and Ardmore, Co. Waterford.

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The route has been fully way-marked and de-vegetated by local groups with the aid of 150,000 from the Rural Recreation Fund. A staged, guided walk of the route is planned between March and June (see KnockmealdownActive.com).

Linking the Rock of Cashel to Cahir Castle, Mount Melleray, Lismore, Cappoquin and Ardmore, it has already been described as an "Irish Camino".

Both O'Dwyer and McNicholas point to the growth in low-cost air routes between North America and Ireland as a further spur for spiritual tourism.

"When we were founded in 2013, I'd say there was literally no footfall on the pilgrim paths of Ireland," O'Dwyer says. "We've now reached the stage where we have groups of over 100 people... and we're also seeing first-time interest from abroad."

"The Celtic Camino is a lovely idea, because you are linking the two countries together," he adds. "It's only a short hop down to Spain."

"There are countless reasons to do Caminos," McNicholas concludes - from mental and physical challenges to carving out simple "time to think."

Increasingly, those journeys are starting in Ireland.

Read more:Hainan Airlines has confirmed new flights between Dublin and Beijing, with a service from Dublin Airport set for take-off on June 12.

Hainan, Chinas largest independent airline, will fly the route four times a week using an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, it says.

Not all of the flights are direct. While two services per week are non-stop, the other two will operate with a stopover in Edinburgh.

The route had been flagged for some time, but was formally announced at the Irish Embassy in Beijing at a reception attended by Tanaiste Simon Coveney and representatives from Dublin Airport, Hainan, Beijing Airport and Tourism Ireland.

An Tanaiste described the route as "a major achievement, which will prove transformational to the bilateral relationship between China and Ireland."

It follows the announcement of direct flights with Cathay Pacific from Dublin to Hong Kong - a four-times weekly service set for take-off on June 2.

Tickets for the service will go on sale shortly. Prices have not been announced, but a similar route from Manchester starts from around 382/430 each-way in June.

A 'major game-changer' for tourism

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Direct flights to China, with the enormous business and tourism potential they bring, have been in the works for years. Government departments, State agencies, daa, Tourism Ireland and others have worked in tandem to get them over the line.

Two-way trade between Ireland and China is estimated to be worth more than 14.9 billion per year, according to a statement by daa, with about 120,000 Irish passengers estimated to have travelled between the counties last year.

We look forward to welcoming many more Chinese visitors to Ireland with this new service in the months and years to come, said Dublin Airport's Managing Director, Vincent Harrison.

China is also the world's largest outbound tourism market, with Tourism Ireland estimating some 70,000 Chinese visitors to Ireland last year.

Todays announcement is excellent news for Irish tourism in 2018 and beyond," said Niall Gibbons, its CEO. The marketing organisation has been seeking to diversify inbound visitor markets in the wake of Brexit.

The flights will be "a major game-changer" for Chinese visitors, Gibbons said.

He added that the British-Irish Visa Scheme allows Chinese travellers to visit both Ireland and the UK on a single visa of either country.

Hainan Airlines is part of the Chinese-based global HNA Group, which also owns the Dublin-based aircraft leasing business Avolon. It carried almost 72 million passengers to 110 destinations last year on a fleet of 300 aircraft.

Read more:If you're going on holiday you might think a Vicks inhaler or a Buddha tattoo are harmless.

But these could get you thrown out of some countries - or even put in jail.

The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth office has issued a warning to millennials amid a rising number of arrests abroad for drug offences and offending local customs.

American actor Johnny Depp was investigated by the Australian authorities after bringing his dogs Pistol and Boo into the country in 2015 alongside then-wife Amber Heard.

In Turkey, insulting the national flag or defacing or destroying currency could land travellers in prison for up to three years.

And raucous travellers in Greece should note that behaviour such as mooning can lead to arrest followed by a fine or prison sentence.

The FCO's advice on rules abroad

Sri Lanka: The mistreatment of Buddhist images and artefacts is a serious offence and tourists have been convicted for this. British nationals have been refused entry to Sri Lanka or faced deportation for having visible tattoos of Buddha. Dont pose for photographs standing in front of a statue of Buddha.

Thailand: You cant bring vaporisers, such as e-cigarettes, e-baraku or refills into Thailand. These items are likely to be confiscated and you could be fined or sent to prison for up to 10 years if convicted.

Japan: The use or possession of some medicines like Vicks Inhalers or painkillers containing Codeine is banned in Japan and can result in detention and deportation.

Caribbean: Many Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia ban the wearing of camouflage clothing, including by children.Today in Dublin 1, a one-bed flat rents for 1,700 to 2,000 per month while Cork City Centres equivalent is now almost 1,000 per month. Stock photo: GETTY

Back in the 1980s the State introduced Section 23 apartment development incentives to solve the dual problem of dereliction and a lack of housing for students and singles. As an emergency measure it worked.

Blocks of studios, one and two-bed flats immediately shot up. But aside from later inflating the property market through its unnecessary retention, the fallout of Section 23 has been largely social. Those same apartments are now filled with families struggling with monthly rents of 1,700.

Now there are new apartment building guidelines from Department of Housing, changing content and parking restrictions which will permit more studio and one-bed units. It represents a similarly potent solution - but also with a possibility of a dangerous double edge.

As an emergency measure, the new guidelines will help provide a large amount of housing in a short amount of time - which is urgently needed.

Blocks will become economically plausible to build. Once height limits are clarified, developers who have hitherto stayed off-site will get down to building new blocks in numbers.

The new guidelines specifically mention the Build to Rent model, which will see Irish REITS, pension funds and foreign investment funds to invest large in apartment blocks. The fact Build to Rent is namechecked also tells us implicitly that Government is now actively ushering us into the realm of the "super landlord" as a solution to the crisis - with private funds from home and abroad lining up.

Homes of all shapes and sizes are required and while households have indeed been shrinking, families with two or three children are still commonplace. Little is being done here.

Government social housing policy has been so far structured with an over-reliance on the private sector and on charities.

If this continues, and larger social housing lags behind, a good many new one-bed apartments will be occupied straight away by families priced out of larger accommodation. Only a wealthy single could afford current rents for one beds.

Today in Dublin 1, a one-bed flat rents for 1,700 to 2,000 per month while Cork City Centre's equivalent is now almost 1,000 per month.

These are not rents young single professionals or students can afford on their own. They are amounts low to middle income families might just scrape.

As we can already see by the children's clothes hung to dry from the balconies of apartments in our cities, Section 23's one beds - designed for students - are now family homes by default.

If building surges ahead without a wider provision of larger affordable homes, then the legacy of these guidelines could be damaging - more families paying out large to even bigger landlords to live in smaller one-bed spaces.

City living for 1918 rather than 2018.Actress Saoirse Ronan poses with the trophy for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy during the 75th Golden Globe Awards on January 7, 2018, in Beverly Hills, California. / AFP PHOTO / Frederic J. BROWNFREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Saoirse Ronan attends the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 4, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

Pastels ruled at the Oscars this month, most spectacularly on Saoirse Ronan in a show-stopping Calvin Klein by Appointment gown. Photo: 2018 Getty Images

Hollywood actress Saoirse Ronan came off the Oscars red carpet and straight onto Derry's historic walls.

Fresh from being nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in Ladybird, Saoirse was in Derry with a male friend, seeing the sights and taking a tour of the city with the renowned, celebrity favourite Martin McCrossan Tours.

Tour guide Charlene Blackburn (30) says the Hollywood A-lister and three-time Oscar nominee was 'funny, polite and down to earth' as she took in the sights. "Saoirse had booked for a private tour of Derry's Walls," she said.

"We didn't know it was her as she didn't give her full name. We just knew that there was a private booking for two people but we didn't know it was a Hollywood star until she showed up.

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"She loved the tour and I met her afterwards. She was with a male friend, I think it was her boyfriend.

"He was from Scotland and she said she was showing him around. And she said that afterwards she was going to Sandinos Bar to watch the rugby. She said she had been in Derry a few times before and she wanted to show her friend how great it was. And obviously to illustrate how great it was she took him on one of our tours, which was brilliant.

"I had just watched Brooklyn on a flight to America.

"I had told her I saw it and loved it and how my two kids were making so much noise on the flight and I was asking them to be quiet as I was so engrossed in the film. She was laughing at that. She was such a nice person, so down to earth.

"She was absolutely lovely, so grounded and so polite. She posed for photographs no problem, she was so nice. You wouldn't have known she was a Hollywood superstar. She had a big coat and hat on and just looked like a tourist.

"We have had several Hollywood stars on our tours over the years. My father, I remember, took Will Ferrell around on a tour. It doesn't faze us.

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"I haven't met as many and I thought meeting someone like Saoirse, I might be nervous, but I wasn't.

"She was just so lovely. We chatted and laughed away. It was lovely to see her."Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle during an official photocall to announce their engagement at The Sunken Gardens at Kensington Palace on November 27, 2017 in London

US actress Meghan Markle (L), fiancee to Britains Prince Harry and Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum on February 28, 2018 in London. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Chris JacksonCHRIS JACKSON/AFP/Getty Images

Britain's Prince Harry (L) and his fiancee US actress Meghan Markle attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum on February 28, 2018 in London. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Chris JacksonCHRIS JACKSON/AFP/Getty Images

US actress Meghan Markle (L), fiancee to Britains Prince Harry and Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum on February 28, 2018 in London. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Chris JacksonCHRIS JACKSON/AFP/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leave after a visit to Millennium Point in Birmingham, as part of the latest leg in the regional tours the couple are undertaking in the run-up to their May wedding

(L-R) Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend the 2018 Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 12, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Meghan Markle is juggling a jam-packed schedule ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry.

The 36-year-old beauty - who is poised to marry the British Prince at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19 - is trying to balance her wedding preparations with her new responsibilities with various organisations around the UK.

A source explained: "Meghan has been regularly making private visits to organisations as she gets to know the UK charity sector."

The former 'Suits' actress has been busily attending events up and down the country since she relocated to Britain, where she's quickly become one of the most recognisable public figures. But, at the same time, Meghan is also having to make plans for her eagerly-anticipated wedding day.

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The insider told People magazine: "She's on a very busy schedule behind the scenes. She has her wedding preparation and is meeting a number of people all the time - from Harry's charities, staff at the household and the Royal Foundation."

This comes shortly after it was claimed that Meghan is receiving etiquette lessons on royal protocol ahead of her wedding. The American star is said to be hard at work studying everything from how to walk to how to dress, ready for her transition into becoming amember of the royal family.

Grant Harrold, Prince Charles' former butler, said: "She has to be careful what she says, how she says it, and how it's taken because after the 19th of May, it will be a reflection of the royal family.

"It's everyday things - from the way she walks, the way she speaks, the things she does, how she eats, how she holds her cup, how she dresses - everything will be looked at. There will be a lot for her to adapt to."

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Whatsapp Britain's Prince Harry (L) and his fiancee US actress Meghan Markle attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum on February 28, 2018 in London. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Chris JacksonCHRIS JACKSON/AFP/Getty ImagesThe once-troubled marriage of Beyonce and Jay-Z looks like it's stronger than ever after the couple announced that they'll be hitting the road together for a worldwide tour in June.

Beyonce came to terms with her husband's affair in her groundbreaking 2016 album Lemonade, and a year later, Jay-Z made a lyrical apology in his own album 4:44. Since then, they have welcomed twins, and are set to bring their projects together for the 'On the Run II' stage show.

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Beyonce is naked and straddling her husband on a motorbike in the promotional image for the tour, which was clearly designed to show that the couple have recovered from the infidelity that rocked their marriage.

Actor Colin Firth also issued his own statement of togetherness this week when he stood by his wife, Livia Giuggioli, after it was revealed that she had an affair with an Italian journalist.

Even more intriguingly, he allegedly sent his wife's former lover a sympathetic email. "You have made me suffer," it reportedly read, "but I know you are suffering too." (It's impossible to read that line without hearing Firth's cut-glass British accent in a Regency-era period drama).

Affairs are invariably devastating but these celebrity couples have proved that they don't always forebode the beginning of the end. Indeed, psychotherapist Esther Perel, author of The State of Affairs, says an extramarital affair can break - or remake - a marriage. And those who don't believe her need only look at these two couples, who have become the poster couples for living happily ever after, after an affair.

Here's what we can learn from them...

Establish a common enemy

Livia Giuggioli's former lover Marco Brancaccia is better known as her "stalker" after he was accused of harassing her with a "frightening campaign" of messages once their affair ended.

It's an additional upset for Firth, but probably not an unwelcome one. Couples that survive infidelity often villainise the third person. They shape a narrative that makes them feel like the co-targets of an interloper and then they rebuild their bond through their shared experience of a common enemy.

Monica Lewinsky was "that woman" (said in a tone that suggested she was a nosy neighbour or a local lunatic) and the female comedian Kevin Hart allegedly cheated with was called an "extortionist". It looks like Brancaccia, who has been conveniently relegated from man on the side to stereotypical man on the edge, will be joining their ranks.

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Have a shared purpose

Modern couples share more than homes and families so they tend to have much more at stake when infidelity rocks their relationship. David and Victoria Beckham overcame his alleged affair with former PA Rebecca Loos because they had the image of Brand Beckham to protect. Huma Abedin initially stood by her husband, disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, because they had a shared political vision.

Similarly, Firth and his wife are in the same industry and no doubt have various projects they are working on together. The same goes for frequent musical collaborators Beyonce and Jay-Z. The takeaway? A shared purpose matters almost as much as a shared history when trying to overcome infidelity.

Come clean

The more secrecy and subterfuge, the more pain and suffering. Marital miscreants who try to play down the significance of the affair, or who reveal details piecemeal, only prolong the devastation. Giuggioli shared all of the emails, texts, photos and videos that she exchanged with her former lover with her husband (and the police). It can't have been easy for Firth to read through them, but at least he could rest assured there was nothing else she was hiding.

Get therapy

Jay-Z admitted to cheating on Beyonce in a 2017 magazine interview before revealing he has been working through it with a therapist. "You shut down all emotions," he said. "So even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can't connect In my case, like it's, it's deep. And then all the things happen from there: infidelity."

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And remember, status is everything

There's a great line in The Kid Stays in the Picture when movie producer Robert Evans reflects on the period when his wife, Ali McGraw, left him for Steve McQueen. "When a woman leaves you, it ain't easy," he says. "But when that woman leaves you for the biggest movie star in the world... well, let's just say it makes you feel small."

The truth is that not all affairs are created equal and who it was with is just as important as how it was done. We all worry about our standing in the world and an affair can easily trigger our status anxiety. This is probably why celebrities are much more forgiving of affairs with lower-status individuals: hired help, bodyguards, strippers, cocktail waitresses and, as in Firth's case, journalists.The City of London skyline, seen from City Hall (Victoria Jones/PA)

Unilevers decision to consolidate its dual headquarters in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, and not in London, comes at a sensitive time for the British capital.

The consumer goods maker said the decision was not related to Britains vote to leave the European Union, which has created uncertainties among businesses about retaining tariff-free access to the blocs states.

But it is another symbolic loss for London and Britain more widely, which has already seen several companies and organisations announce jobs or office relocations.

Here is a look at some key announcements since the June 2016 Brexit vote.

-HSBC: moving 1,000 jobs from London to Paris, where it will set up its EU headquarters.

-Lloyds of London: moving 100 jobs from London to Brussels; EU headquarters from London to Dublin, Ireland.

-JPMorgan: hundreds of jobs from London to Dublin, Frankfurt, Germany, and Luxembourg.

-Barclays: 150 jobs from London to Dublin, where it will set up EU headquarters.

-Bank of America: moving EU headquarters from London to Dublin.

-UBS: under 1,000 jobs from London to EU offices, including Frankfurt.

-Moneygram: moving EU headquarters from London to Brussels.

-European Medicines Agency: moving from London to Amsterdam, including 890 jobs.

-European Banking Authority: moving from London to Paris, including 180 jobs.Stephen Hawking, the renowned British physicist and author of 'A Brief History Of Time', has died at the age of 76.

He died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the early hours of yesterday morning, his family said.

Professor Hawking, one of the world's finest scientific minds, was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease (MND) in 1964 at the age of 22 and was given just a few years to live.

He eventually became confined to a wheelchair and dependent on a computerised voice system for communication.

Despite this, he continued to travel the world giving lectures and writing scientific papers about the basic laws that govern the universe. Prof Hawking explained the big bang and black holes in his best-selling 'Brief History Of Time'.

As tributes to the acclaimed physicist poured in from around the world, the University of Cambridge said he was "an inspiration to millions" and his work will leave "an indelible legacy".

Actor Eddie Redmayne, who starred as Hawking in 'The Theory Of Everything', said in a statement: "We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet."

In a statement Prof Hawking's children Lucy, Robert and Tim said: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today."

Prof Hawking arrived at the University of Cambridge in 1962 as a PhD student and rose through the ranks to become the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics - a position once held by Sir Isaac Newton - in 1979.

His most famous insight concerned black holes. He discovered the phenomenon which has become known as Hawking radiation, where black holes leak energy and fade to nothing.

Nasa remembered Prof Hawking as a "renowned physicist and ambassador of science", while inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, said: "We have lost a colossal mind and a wonderful spirit. Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking."

Prof Hawking was left having to use a wheelchair by the time he was 30. In 1986, aged 44, his voice was removed to save his life after an attack of pneumonia.

From then on, he spoke through a computer synthesiser on the arm of his wheelchair.

"I am quite often asked: how do you feel about having [MND]?" he once wrote. "The answer is, not a lot.

"I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many."

Prof Hawking was Britain's most famous modern day scientist, a genius with a razor-sharp wit who dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of the universe. "My goal is simple," he once said. "It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."

Much of Prof Hawking's work centred on bringing together relativity (the nature of space and time) and quantum theory (how the smallest particles in the universe behave) to explain the creation of the universe and how it is governed.

Prof Hawking shot to international fame after the 1988 publication of 'A Brief History of Time', one of the most complex books ever to achieve mass appeal and which stayed on the Sunday Times best-sellers list for no fewer than 237 weeks. An estimated 10 million copies have been sold worldwide.

He said he wrote it to convey his own excitement over recent discoveries.

Prof Hawking retired from his position as Lucasian Professor in 2009 and became the Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery director of research in the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics until his death.

Astronomer Royal, Prof Lord Martin Rees, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics at Cambridge, said: "Soon after I enrolled as a graduate student at Cambridge University in 1964, I encountered a fellow student, two years ahead of me in his studies; he was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty.

"This was Stephen Hawking. He had recently been diagnosed with a degenerative disease, and it was thought that he might not survive long enough even to finish his PhD. Amazingly, he lived on to the age of 76.

"Even mere survival would have been a medical marvel, but of course he didn't just survive. He became one of the most famous scientists in the world."

Prof Hawking's groundbreaking work earned him dozens of accolades over his lifetime, but the coveted Nobel Prize always eluded him. His discovery in 1974 that black holes should emit radiation was initially controversial as it was widely accepted that nothing, not even light, could escape their gravity.

His theory was based on mathematical concepts arising from quantum mechanics. It stated that the emission of radiation eventually causes black holes to "evaporate" and vanish.

Although it became widely accepted, Hawking Radiation was never proved by astronomers or physicists - if it had, it would almost certainly have earned him the Nobel Prize.

In January 2016, he joked that his lack of a Nobel was "a pity". He said: "A mountain-sized black hole would give off X-rays and gamma rays, at a rate of about 10 million megawatts, enough to power the world's electricity supply.

"It wouldn't be easy however, to harness a mini black hole - about the only way to keep hold of it would be to have it in orbit around the Earth. People have searched for mini black holes of this mass, but have so far not found any. This is a pity because if they had I would have got a Nobel Prize."

After the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2013, almost five decades after British physicist Peter Higgs developed the theory in the 1960s, Prof Hawking admitted he was disappointed the so-called "God particle" had been found.

The Higgs boson is theorised to give other particles mass, but Prof Hawking said in a speech at London's Science Museum: "Physics would be far more interesting if it had not been found" - it would force scientists to develop alternative solutions to the problem of mass.

He joked: "I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn't be found. The Nobel Prize cost me $100."

Prof Higgs also held some controversial views. During a video presentation at the Tencent Web Summit in Beijing, he warned that the ever-rising human population, and its mounting energy needs, could render Earth uninhabitable by the year 2600.

The response from Prof Hawking was: "Shouldn't we be content to be cosmic sloths, enjoying the universe from the comfort of Earth? The answer is no."

Although in June 2017 at Starmus, an arts and science festival in Norway whose advisory board he sat on, he concluded: "The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive."

"One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this," he warned, referring to the potentially habitable alien planet Gliese 832c. "But we should be wary of answering back.

"Meeting an advanced civilisation could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well."

Prof Hawking was scathing about global warming denial.

He had other fears and warnings for the future, stating in 2014: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union would present a common stance over a nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy in England for which British Prime Minister Theresa May holds Moscow responsible.

"We take the findings of the British government very seriously... We will present a common European view here," Ms Merkel told German broadcaster ARD, noting that European leaders would meet next week.

"Nonetheless, I say we can't break off all contacts now. We must still talk with the Russians despite all differences of opinion," she added.

Yesterday, Ms Merkel was sworn in for her fourth term as German chancellor putting an end to nearly six months of political drift in Europe's biggest economy.

Lawmakers voted 364-315 to re-elect Ms Merkel, Germany's leader since 2005. The coalition of Ms Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union, and the centre-left Social Democrats has 399 of the 709 seats in parliament.

In what is widely expected to be her last term, Ms Merkel will have to hold together what is potentially her most fragile coalition yet, while also addressing challenges such as a potential Europe-US trade war and seeking agreement with France and others on the future of a fractious European Union.

"The expectations of our friends and partners are huge, particularly in Europe," President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Ms Merkel and her ministers as he formally appointed the new cabinet. "Many hope we in Germany will show that liberal democracies are capable of acting and facing the future."

Ms Merkel will travel to Paris tomorrow for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The chancellor heads a much-changed Cabinet, with the governing parties - which are traditional rivals - keen to send signals of renewal after a September election in which all lost significant ground.

There are new faces in the most important posts, the finance, foreign, economy and interior ministries.

Yesterday's parliamentary vote came 171 days after the election, nearly double the previous record. The Social Democrats initially planned to go into opposition after crashing to their worst result since World War II, but Mr Steinmeier nudged them into a reluctant about-turn after Ms Merkel's talks with two smaller parties collapsed in November.

Ms Merkel was able to take office only after two-thirds of the Social Democrats' members approved in a ballot the coalition deal clinched last month.

Politicians and observers say that the new coalition is likely to last its full term until 2021, not least because none of the governing parties is keen to face a new election.Nikolai Glushkov was always adamant that his friend Boris Berezovsky had not taken his own life.

The idea that the oligarch and self-appointed chief nemesis of Vladimir Putin had committed suicide was, he insisted, "bullshit".

"I will never accept the idea," he said after coroners recorded an open verdict in his fellow exile's death in Berkshire in 2013.

Five years on, the same questions will be asked of his own death. Glushkov, who was 68 when he died on Tuesday, rose to wealth in the 1990s as a lieutenant of Berezovsky, the oligarch who amassed immense wealth and influence under Boris Yeltsin's government but fled to Britain after falling out with Vladimir Putin.

The two men would later become part of a London-based coterie of fugitive Russian businessmen and critics of Mr Putin that has been wracked by unexplained deaths.

Besides Berezovsky and Glushkov, the network included Badri Patarkatsishvili , a Georgian businessman who died in 2008, apparently of a heart attack.

And they had close links not only to Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy assassinated in London and 2006, but also to Andrei Lugovoi - the man Scotland Yard believe carried out that murder.

Boris Berezovsky made his fortune via a combination of sharp operating in the car dealing trade and snapping up state-owned enterprises in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse. On his rapid rise to phenomenal power and wealth, Berezovsky had no closer confidante, said Sergei Migdal, a former Israeli Secret Service officer who worked in Berezovsky's Israeli office from 2005 to 2010.

"Glushkov has known Berezovsky since the 1980s. He was one of the few people who was close to Berezovsky during the 90s and was involved in many of his business dealings. "They were also very close friends," Mr Migdal said.

Among their most prominent joint projects were AvtoVAZ, the car maker that produces the Lada, and Aeroflot, Russia's national airline, which Glushkov ran for Berezovsky as its financial chief.

Meanwhile, Berezovsky had acquired another loyal lieutenant - a KGB officer called Andrei Lugovoi who took leave to work as the oligarch's personal bodyguard.

By the end of the 1990s, Berezovsky, with Glushkov at his side, was wielding immense political power. He controlled Russia's main television channel, Channel One, sat on Boris Yeltsin's security council, and is said to have been instrumental in choosing Putin as Yeltsin's successor in 1999.

But when the oligarch dramatically fell out with the new president in 2000, Glushkov's fortunes changed too. While Berezovsky fled Russia for France, Glushkov was charged with defrauding Aeroflot and slung into Lefortovo prison, the top-security facility used by Russia's Federal Security Service.

That led to one of the most bizarre incidents in the saga.

"The general consensus is that Glushkov was kept hostage [by the authorities] because they really wanted to get Boris," said Mr Migdal. "And the suspicion was that Berezovsky asked Lugovoi to spring Glushkov from prison."

Glushkov later denied knowledge of the botched escape attempt, which some allies of Berezovsky have claimed was staged as a pretext to extend his jail term.

Whether he was in on it or not, the plan went drastically wrong, and Mr Lugovoi found himself serving time. Both men were later released. But while Mr Lugovoi stayed in Russia, Glushkov joined his business partner in Britain.

In 2017, Glushkov was convicted in absentia on fresh charges of defrauding Aeroflot of $123m. He was sentenced to eight years in jail. He always denied the charges.

Berezovsky and another close associate, Yuli Dubov, had been granted asylum in Britain in 2003.

The decision caused fury in the Kremlin, which saw the move as a political decision to harbour government critics.

That antagonism only increased when Berezovsky used his exile to style himself as Mr Putin's most vociferous critic, openly saying he wanted to overthrow the president.

The antagonism came to a head in 2006 when Litvinenko - another former KGB man and close associate of Berezovsky - was murdered in London with Polonium 210, in what the British government believes was an assassination "probably" ordered by Mr Putin himself. Scotland Yard believes Mr Lugovoi carried out the killing, in a dramatic inversion of his former loyalties. Mr Lugovoi, who is now a Russian MP and a supporter of Mr Putin, has always denied the charge.

There followed a series of unexplained - but far less clear-cut deaths. Two years later Patarkatsishvili, the Georgian businessman, collapsed at his Surrey mansion the evening after a meeting with Berezovsky, Glushkov, and Mr Dubov.

Berezovsky was found hanged at his own home in 2013 in an apparent suicide. With Glushkov's death, Mr Dubov is now the only survivor of that meeting.

Foul play has not been established in any of those deaths. Some associates of Berezovsky have contested Glushkov's insistence that is was not suicide, saying the oligarch had become a recluse after the humiliating collapse of his attempt to sue the oligarch and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in the London High Court in 2013. ( Daily Telegraph London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Bangladeshi people light candles in front of the parliament building in Dhaka to pay homage to the plane crash victims (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

The authorities are struggling to identify the survivors of a deadly plane crash in Nepal, with many of the injured badly burned, in critical condition and unable to speak.

Extensive burns, in both the living and the dead, have made identifications far more difficult, said police spokesman Manoj Neupane.

The flight from Bangladesh, which was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members, slammed into a field beside the Kathmandu airport runway on Monday, bursting into flames.

Mr Neupane said at least 11 of the survivors have been identified but did not have an exact total. The crash left 49 people dead.

Of the 22 survivors, 19 are still being treated in Kathmandu hospitals, he said, and another has been flown to Singapore for more medical care.

Two surviving passengers, both of them Nepalese, have been discharged and gone home.

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Doctors at the citys morgue have carried out post-mortems on only about half of those killed so far, and are struggling to identify many of the bodies, said police official Bijay Bhandari.

Authorities hope to release the first bodies to their families over the weekend, he said.

The US-Bangla Airways flight 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.

On Thursday, a team of Bangladeshi doctors left for Nepal to help the injured and help with identifications.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered national flags be flown at half-mast at all government buildings at home and at embassies across the world, while special prayers are planned for Friday at mosques across the country during weekly prayers.

Dhaka-based US-Bangla operates Boeing 737-800 and smaller Bombardier Dash 8 planes, including the Q400, the model that crashed.Democrats claimed victory in a special congressional election in a Pennsylvania Republican heartland, a vote seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump's performance, although the vote remained officially too close to call yesterday.

The district was previously a solidly Republican one that Trump won by almost 20 points in the 2016 presidential election. However, official results after a nail-biting count on Tuesday showed moderate Democrat Conor Lamb leading conservative Republican Rick Saccone by a fraction of a percentage point with votes counted from 100pc of precincts.

Officials then started counting several thousand absentee ballots to try to decide the result but Mr Lamb claimed victory ahead of any official announcement and before TV networks, which often call US elections, had predicted a winner.

"It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it," Mr Lamb (33), a US Marines veteran, told cheering supporters.

Democratic sources said absentee ballots were expected to show Lamb winning the election by more than 400 votes, but Mr Saccone did not concede.

"We're still fighting the fight. It's not over yet. We're going to fight all the way to the end. You know I never give up," state legislator Mr Saccone (60) said before his rival claimed victory.

The strong showing by Mr Lamb buoys Democrats nationally as they seek to win control of the US House of Representatives from Republicans in the November midterm elections.

"This is one extra indicator that confirms a fairly pro-Democratic environment, pro-Democratic enough that the House should be in play. Democrats should be able to compete in a lot of different places across the country," said Kyle Kondik, an analyst at the University of Virginia Centre for Politics.

GOP dominance had been so strong in the district, a patchwork of small towns, farms and Pittsburgh suburbs, that Democrats ran no candidates in the previous two US House elections here. Mr Lamb's image as a moderate seemed to have worked in his favour.

Mr Saccone, who has described himself as "Trump before Trump was Trump", led the race by more than 10 percentage points in January.

But Mr Lamb, a pro-gun Democrat with strong backing from unions, has since surged in polls as Democratic voters sensed a chance to show their opposition to Mr Trump.

Mr Saccone, a former Air Force counter-intelligence officer, drew criticism toward the end of the campaign by saying that some of his opponents "have a hatred for God".

The White House arranged a string of visits to energise Mr Saccone supporters. Mr Trump himself held a campaign rally for Mr Saccone last weekend.

"The economy is raging, at an all time high, and is set to get even better.

"Jobs and wages up. Vote for Rick Saccone and keep it going!" Trump said on Twitter.

The contest, to replace a Republican who resigned amid a scandal last year, was the latest good election showing for the Democrats, who also won a governor's race in Virginia and scored a US Senate upset in conservative Alabama.Concerns have been raised about Gina Haspels role in the CIAs waterboarding of terror suspects. Photo: Getty Images

Back in 2017, the US Senate gave quick confirmation to President Donald Trump's national security team and his first secretary of state. But it's not likely to go as smoothly for Trump's new nominees to run State and the CIA.

Senate Democrats - and some top Republicans - are slow-walking the process amid fresh questions over the Trump administration's stance toward Russia and revived inquiries into the CIA's dark history of torture.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," said Senate Minority Leader and Democrat Chuck Schumer.

The president's firing of secretary of state Rex Tillerson touched off a Senate confirmation battle that will play out this spring ahead of midterm elections when control of Congress hangs in balance.

By selecting CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson, the White House is counting on a repeat of Senate support for the former Kansas congressman confirmed last year to lead the clandestine agency.

But the political ground has shifted since the 66-32 vote to confirm Pompeo in January 2017 when the GOP-led Congress was eager to put the new president's team in place and Democrats were unwilling to stand in the way. More than a dozen Democrats joined all but one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, in backing him.

In the year since, Pompeo has drawn scrutiny for actions and statements showcasing his loyalty to Trump and his approach toward Russia.

Meanwhile, Senator John McCain made it clear he had plenty of questions for Trump's choice of Gina Haspel to head the CIA over the "nature and extent" of her involvement in the agency's waterboarding of terror suspects.

McCain has been among the GOP's most outspoken opponents of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques that Congress did away with in 2008 but Trump has said he would consider reviving.

As a career intelligence officer, Haspel oversaw a secret CIA prison in Thailand from 2003 to 2005 where top terror suspects were waterboarded, and she later helped carry out an order to destroy waterboarding videos.Perus congress has voted by a wide margin to reopen impeachment proceedings against President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, thrusting the Andean nation into renewed political turmoil.

The move comes as Peru prepares to host President Donald Trump at a regional summit less than a month away.

It is the second time politicians have threatened to remove the former Wall Street investor over his ties to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which is at the centre of Latin Americas biggest corruption scandal.

In December, Mr Kuczynski narrowly avoided being voted out of office after a small opposition faction including the son of then-jailed former President Alberto Fujimori abstained.

Days later, Mr Kuczynski pardoned Mr Fujimori from a 25-year jail sentence for human rights abuses committed during his decade-long rule.

But analysts say his chances of survival look slimmer this time.

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The deeply unpopular president has become increasingly isolated as one-time allies abandon him and polls show a majority of Peruvians want Mr Kuczynski out.

Hes going to have a lot more difficulty, said Eduardo Dargent, a political science professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

The measure adopted on Thursday inviting Mr Kuczynski to appear before congress next week to defend his actions had the support of 87 politicians, the same number needed to eventually oust the president on grounds of moral incapacity.

Fifteen opposed the action and another 15 abstained.

At the heart of Mr Kucyznskis troubles is 782,000 dollars in payments that Odebrecht made to his private consulting firm more than a decade earlier.

For months, Mr Kuczynski had denied having any political or business ties with Odebrecht even as three of his predecessors were investigated for taking bribes from the company.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying some 800 million dollars in bribes to officials across Latin America, including 29 million dollars to politicians in Peru, as part of a plea agreement with the US Justice Department in 2016.

The Odebrecht scandal has ensnared some of the regions most prominent politicians and jolted Peru, where two former presidents stand accused of accepting money from the construction empire.

Analysts say the latest rocky chapter in Mr Kuczynskis presidency could negatively impact the nations economy.

The timing of the impeachment proceedings could not be worse.

As I've said from the beginning, I don't have anything to hidePedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peru's president

In less than a month Peru is scheduled to host Mr Trump and other leaders for the Summit of the Americas, whose main theme is how to combat corruption in the Western Hemisphere.

Perus prime minister Mercedes Araoz said after Thursdays vote that the attempt to oust Mr Kuczynski destroys Perus image as a country built on clear, democratic rules.

Mr Kuczynski has denied any wrongdoing and says he will not step down.

If he is removed he would be replaced by Vice President Martin Vizcarra, a former governor who is currently serving as Perus ambassador to Canada.

As Ive said from the beginning, I dont have anything to hide, Mr Kuczynski wrote on Twitter.

And I am willing to give evidence with absolute transparency.Republicans are eyeing a recount and a lawsuit over perceived irregularities in a closely watched US election where the Democratic candidate is claiming victory in a Trump stronghold.

Conor Lamb is clinging to a slender lead in the House of Representatives race in Pennsylvania.

With the last batch of absentee ballots counted, Mr Lamb, a 33-year-old former prosecutor and first-time candidate, saw his edge over Republican Rick Saccone shrink slightly, to 627 votes out of more than 224,000 cast, according to unofficial results.

We did it.



From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I'm so grateful to everyone who made this possible.



I'm proud of what we accomplished last night. I'm proud to be a Western Pennsylvania Democrat. And I'm ready to get to work for the people of #PA18.  Conor Lamb (@ConorLambPA) March 14, 2018

The four counties in the Pittsburgh-area district reported they had about 375 uncounted provisional, military and overseas ballots.

They have seven days to count the provisional ballots, and the deadline to receive military and overseas ballots is Tuesday.

With the margin so close, supporters of either candidate can ask for a recount.

The Republicans are considering lodging a recount request, and county officials reported receiving a letter from a law firm requesting that they preserve their records, something the counties say they do under state law.

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Separately, Republicans mulled legal action, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.

Complaints could include that party lawyers were prevented from observing the counting of some absentee ballots, voting machines erroneously recorded votes for Mr Lamb, and voters were confused by some information from the state elections website.

Officials in Allegheny County, the most populous and Democratic-leaning county in the district, pushed back on Republican claims, saying the lawyers lacked written authorisation from Republicans and they had received no reports by Tuesday of malfunctioning voting machines.

The race is seen nationally as an indicator of Democratic enthusiasm and Republican vulnerability heading into the November elections that will determine whether Republicans retain their control of Congress.

Mr Lamb has declared victory, but Mr Saccone, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran turned state lawmaker and college instructor, has not conceded. Mr Saccones campaign said he had no plans to concede before vote counting was finished.

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Regardless of the outcome, Mr Lambs showing seemed certain to stoke anxiety among Republicans nationwide and renew enthusiasm among Democrats.

President Trump won the district by about 20 percentage points in 2016, and the seat has been in Republican hands for 15 years. It was open now only because Republican Tim Murphy, who espoused strong anti-abortion views, resigned last autumn amid revelations that he had asked a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to have an abortion.

Democrats must flip 24 Republican-held seats this autumn to seize control of the House, and months ago few had counted on this district to be in play.

Mr Lamb asserted his independence from national Democratic leaders and played down his opposition to Mr Trump, but he also fully embraced organised labour in a district with influential labour unions and a long history of steel-making and coal-mining, hammering Republican tax cuts as a giveaway to the rich and promising to defend social security, Medicare and pensions.

Mr Trump and his allies invested tremendous time and resources in the seat, mindful the contest could be used to measure his lasting appeal among white working-class voters.Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has resigned amid a crisis over the death of Jan Kuciak ( Dano Veselsky/TASR via AP)

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has resigned following a crisis over the killing of a journalist.

President Andrej Kiska has accepted the resignation and asked Peter Pellegrini, Mr Ficos deputy prime minister, to form a new government.

Tens of thousands of Slovaks rallied last week to demand the governments resignation over the deaths of Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova.

Mr Ficos resignation is meant to keep the current three-party coalition in power and avoid the possibility of early elections.

Mr Pellegrini, who is from Mr Ficos leftist Smer Social Democracy, will form the same coalition with the Most-Hid party representing ethnic Hungarians and the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party.

The coalition has a majority in Parliament.North Koreas foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and his delegation arrive at the North Korean embassy in Stockholm, Sweden (Vilhelm Stokstad/AP)

North Koreas foreign minister has arrived in Sweden for talks with his Swedish counterpart.

The surprise trip could be a step toward a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on a direct flight from Beijing.

If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do thatSwedish PM Stefan Lofven

Mr Ri will meet Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom at an undisclosed location on Thursday or Friday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973 and is one of the few Western countries with an embassy in Pyongyang.

It provides consular services for the United States in North Korea.

If the key actors want Sweden to play a role, facilitate (talks), be a forum or a link or whatever it may be, then we are prepared to do that, prime minister Stefan Lofven told Swedens TT news agency earlier Thursday.

We shouldnt be naive and believe it is Sweden that solves these problems, Mr Lofven added.

Swedens foreign ministry said the talks between Ms Wallstrom and Mr Ri will focus on Swedens consular responsibilities as a protecting power for the United States, Canada and Australia, but also will address the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry referred to the UN security councils condemnation of North Koreas nuclear weapons and missile programs, saying the UN emphasised the need for intensified diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The Swedish ministry said a statement summarising the talks will be made available on Friday.

Mr Ri, a former diplomat in Stockholm and London and an ex-nuclear envoy with broad experience in negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States, was chosen as Pyongyangs foreign minister in 2016.

In a letter to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres last month, he urged the United Nations not to remain silent about what he called the US dangerous game of aggravating (the) situation in and around the Korean peninsula and driving the whole world into a possible disaster of nuclear war.

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The trip by Mr Ri is being closely watched because there remains a huge amount of preparation that needs to be done and relatively little time before Mr Kim is supposedly planning to sit down for summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Mr Trump.

Mr Trump has agreed to meet Mr Kim by May.

So far, North Korea has yet to publicly comment on what it hopes to gain from the summits, adding an extra element of mystery and scepticism.

Sweden has been rumoured as a possible site for the summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump, though a truce village on the South Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone between the Koreas is seen as more likely.

Senior South Korean officials who travelled to Pyongyang earlier this month and met with Mr Kim say he is willing to discuss the Norths nuclear weapons programme.A convoy delivering aid to thousands of displaced Syrian families has entered the besieged rebel-held region of eastern Ghouta, as Russia announced an extended humanitarian pause in fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the joint convoy organised with the United Nations and the Syria Red Crescent Society consists of 25 trucks.

The ICRC said: This is just a little of what these families need.

The convoy is heading for the town of Douma, the largest and most populated in eastern Ghouta, just outside Damascus, according to Douma-based media activist Youssef Boustani.

Entering #EasternGhouta now.



Our convoy with @SYRedCrescent and @UN is bringing aid to thousands of displaced families. pic.twitter.com/yQCiEY1CZn  ICRC Syria (@ICRC_sy) March 15, 2018

Aid deliveries last week were mired in violence that disrupted its distribution, with shells slamming into the town as the aid workers were inside.

The Russian military said it had extended a humanitarian pause in fighting for two days in Douma.

The Defence Ministry claimed the pause on Thursday and Friday has allowed growing numbers of civilians to reach safety.

Major General Yuri Yevtushenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying 131 people left the area through the humanitarian corridor on Wednesday.

Major General Vladimir Zolotukhin said 100 people are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.

Syrian state-run TV and pro-government stations later showed footage of civilians streaming out of Hamouria, heading into government-held territory near the capital, Damascus.

The al-Ikhbariya TV and Lebanons al-Mayadeen and al-Manar channels said the civilians are eastern Ghouta residents whom government forces have liberated from rebel rule.

The broadcasts appeared to show hundreds of men, women, and children walking out of the town. Al-Mayadeen showed buses waiting to pick up civilians. Al-Ihkbariya says they will be taken to a centre for identification and relief.

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The exodus is a major media victory for the Syrian government, and appears to be the largest departure of civilians from eastern Ghouta since the government launched a punishing assault on the rebel-held region more than three weeks ago.

Activists and monitoring groups said government and Russian forces were still blanketing the Ghouta region with air strikes and rocket fire.

They said government shelling and air strikes killed at least 20 civilians on Wednesday in eastern Ghouta.

The assaults come as Syria marked the seventh anniversary of the popular uprising that sparked the countrys vicious civil war.

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The Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said its first responders were not able to reach the wounded in towns in rebel-held eastern Ghouta because of the intensity of the assault.

It said one of its rescue workers was killed in an air strike in Hazeh on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a column of civilians trying to flee government advances in Hamouria were targeted with shelling early in the day that wounded several people.

It said 26 people were killed in Hamouria on Wednesday.A new US advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some members with direct ties to President Donald Trump and his family.

A review of the backgrounds and social media posts of the 16 board members appointed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke indicates they will agree with his position that the best way to protect critically threatened or endangered species is by encouraging wealthy Americans to shoot some of them.

One co-owns a private New York hunting preserve with Mr Trumps adult sons.

The oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, drew the ire of animal rights activists after a 2011 photo emerged of him holding a bloody knife and the severed tail of an elephant he killed in Zimbabwe.

The first meeting of the International Wildlife Conservation Council was scheduled for Friday at the Interior Departments headquarters in Washington.

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Council members are not being paid a salary, though the department has budgeted 250,000 US dollars in taxpayer funds for travel expenses, staff time and other costs.

Mr Trump has decried big-game hunting as a horror show in tweets.

But under Mr Zinke, a former congressman who is an avid hunter, the Fish and Wildlife Service has quietly moved to reverse Obama-era restrictions on bringing trophies from African lions and elephants into the United States.

Asked about the changes during a congressional hearing on Thursday, Mr Zinke said no import permits for elephants have been issued since the ban was lifted earlier this month.

This council will provide important insight into the ways that American sportsmen and women benefit international conservation from boosting economies and creating hundreds of jobs to enhancing wildlife conservationRyan Zinke, US Interior Secretary

The Fish and Wildlife Service said permits for lion trophies have been issued since October, when imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia were first allowed, though they could not immediately provide a number for how many.

A licensed two-week African hunting safari can cost more than 50,000 US dollars per person, not including airfare, according to advertised rates.

Advocates say money helps support habitat conservation and anti-poaching efforts in some of the worlds poorest nations, and provides employment for local guides and porters.

In a statement last year, Mr Zinke said: The conservation and long-term health of big game crosses international boundaries.

This council will provide important insight into the ways that American sportsmen and women benefit international conservation from boosting economies and creating hundreds of jobs to enhancing wildlife conservation.

But environmentalists and animal welfare advocates say tourists taking photos generate more economic benefit, and hunters typically target the biggest and strongest animals, weakening already vulnerable populations.

There is little indication dissenting perspectives will be represented on the Trump administrations conservation council.

Appointees include celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers, and wealthy sportspeople who boast of bagging the coveted Big Five, elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo.

Most are high-profile members of Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, groups that have sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the list of countries from which trophy kills can be legally imported.

They include the Safari Clubs president, Paul Babaz, a Morgan Stanley investment adviser from Atlanta, and Erica Rhoad, a lobbyist and former Republican congressional staffer who is the NRAs director of hunting policy.

Bill Brewster is a retired Oklahoma congressman and lobbyist who served on the boards of the Safari Club and the NRA.

An NRA profile lauded Mr Brewster and his wifes five decades of participation and support for hunting, and his purchase of a lifetime NRA membership for his grandson when the boy was three days old.

Also on the board is Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmens Foundation, a group that lobbies Congress and state governments on issues affecting hunters and fishermen.

Mr Zinke described the purpose of the council as representing the strong partnership between federal wildlife officials and those who hunt or profit from hunting.

Council paperwork said the panels mission was to increase public awareness domestically regarding conservation, wildlife law enforcement, and economic benefits that result from United states citizens travelling to foreign nations to engage in hunting.

In its charter, the councils listed duties include recommending removal of barriers to the importation into the United States of legally hunted wildlife and ongoing review of import suspension/bans and providing recommendations that seek to resume the legal trade of those items, where appropriate.

In a letter this week, a coalition of more than 20 environmental and animal welfare groups objected that the one-sided makeup of the council could violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires government boards to be balanced in terms of points of view and not improperly influenced by special interests.

The groups said they nominated a qualified representative, but Mr Zinke did not select him.

If Trump really wants to stop the slaughter of elephants for trophies, he should shut down this biased, thrill-kill council, said Tanya Sanerib, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Biological Diversity.

The administration cant make wise decisions on trophy imports if it only listens to gun-makers and people who want to kill wildlife.Unilever has confirmed that it has chosen Rotterdam over London as its new legal headquarters, dealing a major blow to the UK Government as it tries to uphold Britains status as a centre for business after Brexit.

Following a board meeting on Wednesday, the consumer goods giant said that it intends to simplify from two legal entities into a single one incorporated in the Netherlands.

The proposed simplification will provide greater flexibility for strategic portfolio change and help drive long-term performance, the group said.

Unilever insisted that its 7,300 workers the UK and 3,100 in the Netherlands will be unaffected by the changes.

Unilever has today shown its long-term commitment to the UK by choosing to locate its two fastest-growing global business divisions in this countryGovernment spokesman

It added that Unilever will continue to be listed in London, Amsterdam and New York.

The announcement comes after a review of Unilevers dual-headed legal structure in the UK and Netherlands, which was part of a rethink of the business following a hostile takeover attempt by Kraft Heinz last year.

Unilever, which is behind well-known household brands such as Dove, Marmite and Ben & Jerrys ice cream, employs around 169,000 people around the world.

Unilever executives claimed that the move to Rotterdam has nothing to do with Brexit, but the decision will cause embarrassment for the Conservatives and Prime Minister Theresa May, who is struggling to contain a flow of businesses and their staff to the EU.

British Government officials reportedly met with Unilever to express their concerns that the London headquarters would be axed in favour of the Netherlands, but failed to convince them over the benefits of basing its main offices in the UK.

The Government is already under fire for failing to provide adequate assurances to businesses mulling their post-Brexit futures, particularly in light of plans to leave the EU single market.

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The company confirmed that only a minimal number of people would move from Unilever House in London to the Dutch city.

A Government spokesman said: Unilever has today shown its long-term commitment to the UK by choosing to locate its two fastest-growing global business divisions in this country, safeguarding 7,300 jobs and 1 billion a year of investment.

As the company itself has made clear, its decision to transfer a small number of jobs to a corporate HQ in the Netherlands is part of a long-term restructuring of the company and is not connected to the UKs departure from the EU.

As part of the rejig, Unilever will also restructure into three divisions  beauty and personal care, home care, and foods and refreshment  which will each have different headquarters split between the UK and the Netherlands.

The beauty and personal care, and the home care divisions will be headquartered in London, while the foods and refreshment arm will have its HQ in Rotterdam.

Unilever chairman Marijn Dekkers said: Our decision to headquarter the divisions in the UK and the Netherlands underscores our long-term commitment to both countries.

The changes announced today also further strengthen Unilevers corporate governance, creating for the first time in our history a one share, one vote principle for all our shareholders.

Its announcement also comes amid speculation over the timing of chief executive Paul Polmans retirement, with reports last autumn suggesting a search for his successor had already begun.

Unilever last month reported a 9% increase in annual profits to 8.15 billion euro (7.1 billion), having been boosted by a strong performance in emerging markets.

The group fended off a 143 billion US dollar (115 billion) takeover attempt from Kraft Heinz last year, after which it offloaded its spreads business for 6.8 billion euro (6 billion) to KKR.The third edition of Tax, Accounting and Audit in India is updated for 2017, and provides an overview of the f...In this edition of India Briefing Magazine, we make the case for why now is the right time for foreign firms t...Brasilia, Mar 15 (IBNS): A new initiative to return trafficked reptiles to the wild has been launched with the successful release of 79 turtles and 10 tortoises in the Peruvian Amazon.

A collaboration between Animal Defenders International (ADI), government authorities ATFFS Lima, the Regional Government of Madre de Dios, and organizations IRUPA, UPA, and Animal Voice, the release is intended to be the first of many, ensuring the future survival of the species.

Sponsorship for the relocation of the animals to Taricaya Ecological Reserve was provided by publishers Bizarro Ediciones and UPA.

ADI President Jan Creamer said: It is such a joy to see these animals go back to the wild where they belong. A life of captivity is no life for a wild animal, and we look forward to returning many more to the habitats from which they were torn.

ADI veterinarian Ines Nole, who assisted in the relocation said: We are very happy to give these animals their freedom and hope it will help highlight why wildlife should not be traded or kept in our homes.

IRUPA coordinator and veterinarian Milagros Ramos who helped care for the turtles, and assisted with their relocation said: This is a new beginning and it is immensely satisfying to know that we can rehabilitate more turtles and tortoises, giving these neglected species the attention they deserve.

Wildlife trafficking is one of the biggest problems faced in Peru, and the authorities have sought the help of ADI and other animal protection groups as part of their efforts to end the illegal trade.

Most of the yellow-spotted river turtles, a species listed as Vulnerable, were seized from traders keeping them illegally in tubs, fish tanks or buckets.

Sold as pets, members of the public are mistakenly advised the animals are easy to care for. Rehabilitated at authorized establishments in Lima over several months, the turtles, and tortoises, were transported to Taricaya Ecological Reserve near Puerto Maldonado, where they were released.

ADI has previously worked with the Peruvian authorities to enforce a ban on wild circus animals in Peru; during the mission over 100 animals were rescued from circuses, and the illegal wildlife trade, including lions, bears, monkeys and other animals. Native species were rehomed in their natural habitats, while the lions were returned to their native Africa, and a tiger to a sanctuary in Florida.

Taricaya Ecological Reserve is home to Andean bears Cholita, Dominga, Lucho and Sabina, who had been torn from the wild as cubs, and were trafficked, before being rescued by ADI from three separate zoos. It is also where Lily and Luciano, rescued by ADI from the illegal wildlife trade, were taken to join a spider monkey rehabilitation program. As wildlife officials cleared the group of seven monkeys for wild release, Lily gave birth to Litanji and two months later the family were taken to a safe release site with the rest of the group where they are now living free.

Kolkata, Mar 15 (IBNS): Trousseau Closet 2018, a fashion pop up of designer pret apparel, jewellery and accessories from across the country, is to be held in Kolkata on March 24.

Organised by Shaadilogy, it will be held for a day only, at the The Oberoi Grand, from 10.30am to 8pm.

A few of the things you may look out for are Stationery, Bar-ware, Home Decor, and Gift Hampers.

Shaadilogy, promoted by Aayshya Jhunjhunwala and Vasundhara Mantri, is a curated portal, which includes Designer and Wedding Shopping, a Designer Concierge, a Gift Registry and a Gifting Store, among other things.Bengaluru, Mar 15 (IBNS): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has taken a dig at his Uttar Pradesh counterpart, Yogi Adityanath, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to win by-polls in two Lok Sabha seats, which were earlier under the saffron party, in the state.

Siddaramaiah, in a sarcastic tone, advised Adityanath to spend less time in Karnataka as the UP CM was recently seen taking a lead in several BJP's rallies.

The Karnataka CM also did not miss the opportunity to congratulate Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati for defeating BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies by forming an alliance.

Siddaramaiah's tweet reads, "BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role. Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development."

BJP has suffered humiliating loss in the Lok Sabha seats held by the CM & DyCM of UP. Congratulations to SP & BSP for this historic victory. Unity among the non-BJP parties has played a key role.



Perhaps Yogi Adityanath should spend less time lecturing Karnataka on development.  Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) March 14, 2018

The state election in Karnataka is scheduled to be held in two-months time from now.

Both Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats were the bastions of CM Aditayanth and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Both the seat fell vacant after Adityanath and Maurya resigned to assume their respective offices in 2017.

In 2017 state election, the BJP had registered a landslide victory by winning 325 in a 403-member Assembly.



Image: Facebook page of SiddaramaiahNew Delhi, Mar 15 (IBNS) : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has ordered an investigation into the complaints of leakage of CBSE Class 12 accountancy paper.

"Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE,"

Copies of the alleged question paper have reportedly been in circulation on WhatsApp.

Sisodia said, "Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to negligence of CBSE."

He said he had asked the Directorate of Education to investigate. He also said a complaint must be filed with the CBSE which conducts the exams.

. Meanwhile, CBSE said an expert committee will investigate how the leak occurred.Kabul, Mar 15 (IBNS): At least 11 Taliban militants, including two commanders, have been killed in an operation conducted by security forces in Afghanistan recently.

The Afghan Ministry of Defence said that 12 other militants were wounded.

The anti-terrorism operation was launched in Faryab, Helmand, Uruzgan and Farah provinces on Wednesday.

The Taliban hasn't commented on the report so far.New Delhi/Islamabad, Mar 15 (IBNS) : Pakistan has called back its High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood, for a meeting on the alleged harassment of its diplomats posted in New Delhi, media reports said.

NDTV quoted Government sources as saying that there is "nothing unusual" in the act as "Consultation is routine process between the embassy and the foreign office, it is nothing unusual."

However, Pakistan's Geo News quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal saying at weekly briefing that there will be consultations with the high commissioner over recent incidents of harassing of the embassys staff.

Faisal said the Indian Government has not taken measures to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, adding that the Pakistani government lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy high commissioner as well as Indias External Affairs Ministry.

On complaints from Islamabad, New Delhi had said last week that "India makes all efforts to provide a safe, secure and hospitable environment for diplomats to work in" but added that Indian officials had to face "tremendous harassment" in that country.

"Harassment is the new normal for Indian High Commission personnel in Islamabad," said the foreign ministry in a statement.

Pakistan has recently complained that there has been six cases of intimidation of its officials within three days in Delhi, while India has cited umpteen number of such cases, the latest being the Inter-Services Intelligence raid on a residential complex under construction for Indian diplomats in Islamabad on February 16 where the Pakistani agency reportedly disconnected power and water supply.

In a demarche to the Indian high commission in Islamabad and the external affairs ministry in Delhi, Pakistan has raised serious reservations and concerns over the safety and security of its staffers and their families in India, threatening to pull out the families if the alleged coercion did not stop.

Pakistan has lodged four harassment charges, known as note verbale, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), alleging incidents of harassment and intimidation of its diplomats.

Highlighting one of the recent episodes, Pakistan High Commission said on March eight, two cars carrying Pakistans Deputy High Commissioners children to a school in New Delhi were followed and obstructed. The driver was also, apparently, threatened later. A note verbale is unsigned and prepared in third person, therefore making it less formal in nature.

Pakistan's leading newspaper Dawn reported that a number of other Pak diplomatic vehicles have also been stopped and searched. The members of Pakistans diplomatic staff have allegedly been abused in public and a number of these vehicles have been involved in accidents.

Media reports quoted sources as complaining that the Pakistan high commission staff has not received milk for the past 20 days. Also, diplomatic vehicles were allegedly being stopped on different pretexts and searched.

While assuring action, Indian officials spoke out on the "tremendous hrassment" that Indian diplomats have been facing continuously in Islamabad, particularly in the last year. They said they have been pursuing the matter with Pak authorities with "quiet and persistent diplomacy."

According to media reports, the hostility towards the Pakistan diplomats was triggered by an ISI raid on a residential complex under construction for Indian diplomats in Islamabad. During the raid, which took place last month, a group of 7-8 men disconnected the electricity and water supply to the property which is owned by India.New Delhi, Mar 15 (IBNS) : After Pakistan summoned its High Commissioner to India back home for "consultations" amid reports of harassment of diplomats, New Delhi on Thursday said it is "pretty normal and pretty routine" and it is not a recall.

"I am a bit surprised about the question about Pakistan High commissioner going back. It is pretty normal and pretty routine. I leave it at that. It is not a recall. It is very routine," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesman Raveesh Kumar said at a press conference.

Commenting on the allegations of Pak diplomats being harassed in New Delhi, Raveesh Kumar said, We take note of their concerns. We are looking into these issues highlighted by Pakistan."

He, however, said, "We don't wish to respond the issues through the media, but through diplomatic channels. We have taken this matter up several times. We expect it to be solved."

He also said that India respects the Vienna Convention of 1961 and Pakistan must do the same.

Earlier, Pakistani media claimed that Sohail Mahmood, the country's High Commissioner to India, has been called back to home for an unspecified time for consultations after alleged incidents of harassment of its diplomatic staff in New Delhi.

Pakistan's Geo News quoted Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal saying at a weekly briefing that there will be consultations with the high commissioner over recent incidents of harassing of the embassys staff.

Faisal said the Indian Government has not taken measures to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, adding that the Pakistani government lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy high commissioner as well as Indias External Affairs Ministry.

a day ago, Pakistan had summoned Indias Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh over the alleged harassment of officials and families of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and said such despicable incidents indicate complicit unwillingness of the Indian government to protect foreign diplomats.

On complaints from Islamabad, New Delhi had said last week said, "India makes all efforts to provide a safe, secure and hospitable environment for diplomats to work in" but added that Indian officials had to face "tremendous harassment" in that country.

Pakistan has recently complained that there has been six cases of intimidation of its officials within three days in Delhi, while India has cited umpteen number of such cases, the latest being the Inter-Services Intelligence raid on a residential complex under construction for Indian diplomats in Islamabad on February 16 where the Pakistani agency reportedly disconnected power and water supply.

In a demarche to the Indian high commission in Islamabad and the external affairs ministry in Delhi, Pakistan has raised serious reservations and concerns over the safety and security of its staffers and their families in India, threatening to pull out the families if the alleged coercion did not stop.

Pakistan has lodged four harassment charges, known as note verbale, with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), alleging incidents of harassment and intimidation of its diplomats.

Highlighting one of the recent episodes, Pakistan High Commission said on March eight, two cars carrying Pakistans Deputy High Commissioners children to a school in New Delhi were followed and obstructed. The driver was also, apparently, threatened later. A note verbale is unsigned and prepared in third person, therefore making it less formal in nature.

Pakistan's leading newspaper Dawn reported that a number of other Pak diplomatic vehicles have also been stopped and searched. The members of Pakistans diplomatic staff have allegedly been abused in public and a number of these vehicles have been involved in accidents.

Media reports quoted sources as complaining that the Pakistan high commission staff has not received milk for the past 20 days. Also, diplomatic vehicles were allegedly being stopped on different pretexts and searched.

While assuring action, Indian officials spoke out on the "tremendous hrassment" that Indian diplomats have been facing continuously in Islamabad, particularly in the last year. They said they have been pursuing the matter with Pak authorities with "quiet and persistent diplomacy."

According to media reports, the hostility towards the Pakistan diplomats was triggered by an ISI raid on a residential complex under construction for Indian diplomats in Islamabad. During the raid, which took place last month, a group of 7-8 men disconnected the electricity and water supply to the property which is owned by India.Srinagar, Mar 15 (IBNS) : A gunfight between militants and security forces has reportedly raged in Balhama Khanmouh on the outskirts of Srinagar city.

Reports said that shortly after a group of militants attempted to decamp with the rifles of security personnel guarding a BJP leader, Muhammad Anwar Khan, Government forces cordoned off the area.

A Personal Security Officer of the BJP leader has reportedly suffered minor injuries in his leg.

Reports said that during the cordon and search operation forces established a contact with the militants.

Locals and eyewitnesses said that intermittent firing is going on between the militants and forces.

According to them, two to three militants are trapped in the area.

A BJP Spokesperson claimed that the militants attacked their district general secretary of Baramulla, Muhammad Anwar Khan at his Arsh Medical

Institute.

Spokesperson Altaf Ahmed Thakur said that Khan escaped unhurt, however, one of his security guards sustained injuries.

Shortly after the incident government forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation and established contact with militants.

A police official said that militants tried to snatch service rifles of security guards; however, they exhibited valour and foiled the

attempt. He said that injured policeman suffered grazing injury in leg and is stable.

The official added that no collateral damage was done while the area was cordoned off after the incident.

The exchange of fire was going on till the reports last came in.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)twitter.com/AmitShah

Agartala, Mar 15 (IBNS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday won the Charilam seat in Tripura, the state in which the saffron party wrested its power recently, media reports said.

BJP's Jishu Debbarma, who is also the new deputy CM of the state, has won from the seat.

The poll in the particular seat was postponed after the Left candidate had died before the election in the state.

Following the post-poll violence, the Left had withdrawn its fresh candidate on last Friday, report said.

The BJP-IPFT alliance has uninstalled the 25-year old Leftist government on the state.

After the win in Charilam, the BJP and IPFT are having 44 seats in a 60-member Assembly.

The Left has been reduced to just 16 seats.

Biplab Deb has already been sworn-in as the new CM of the state.

After the poll victory, BJP President Amit Shah tweeted to say,Guwahati, Mar 15 (IBNS): The troops of Assam Rifles apprehended a hardcore militant belonging to banned outfit NSCN (K) in Nagaland and recovered arms and ammunition on Wednesday, officials said on Thursday.

PRO, HQ IGAR (N) Lt Colonel Amitabh Sharma said that, based on intelligence input, the Medziphema battalion of Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ IGAR (North) launched the operation along with police representative at Medziphema area in Dimapur district and nabbed the militant.

The nabbed militant was identified as Thang Khomang and security personnel recovered one point 22 mm pistol along with magazine and one Mobile Set with SIM Card in possession from him.



Later, the apprehendee along with recovered items was handed over to police station Medziphema for further investigation.



(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)Guwahati, Mar 15 (IBNS): The Government Railway Police(GRP) on Thursday seized 9 gold bars weighing approximately 1.5 kg from the Dibrugarh-New Delhi bound Rajdhani Express train at Guwahati railway station.

During the regular checking, the GRP personnel recovered the gold bars from two persons who carried it from Dimapur in Nagaland to Delhi.

The recovered gold has been valued that of Rs 45 lakh.

The GRP personnel arrested Bikash Khanna, resident of Tiloknagar in New Delhi and Ajoy Bhalla of Matiawalli Gali, Delhi

A top official of GRP said that, the seizure gold bars were hidden on their waist.

In past five years, huge quantity of gold valued of over Rs 100 crore were seized by security personnel at Guwahati and other parts of the state.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)Guwahati, Mar 15 (IBNS): The Assam government on Thursday informed the Assam Legislative Assembly that, over 22 percent of the total forest areas in Assam are under encroachment.

Replying a written query raised by Asom Gana Parishad MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita, Assam forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma said that, 3,87,885 hectare areas of the total forest areas in state are under encroachment.

Out of the total 17,36,301.72 hectare forest areas, over 22.33 percent areas were encroached.

The Assam forest minister said that, the state has covered 13,54,467.62 hectare Reserve forest areas, 1,97,826 hectare areas in 5 National Parks and 1,84,008.10 hectare areas in 18 Wildlife Sanctuaries.

Out of these, 3,73,876.95 hectares of Reserve forest areas, 3,971 hectares National Park areas and 10,037.50 hectares Wildlife Sanctuary areas are under encroachment, Pramila Rani Brahma said.

The government data revealed that, 12,190.83 hectares areas were encroached in 11 Reserve forest in Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong districts.

According to the state government data, 3355.46 hectares encroached in Selabor reserve forest in the hill district while 3339 hectares encroached in Rongkhang reserve forest, 1708.32 hectares in Amreng reserve forest, 1263 hectares in Dhansiri reserve forest, 1235 hectares in Jokota reserve forest.

The Assam forest minister informed the house that, the forest department has taken initiative to evict illegal encroachers.

On the other hand, the Assam government has admitted that, illegal coal mining is going on in Karbi Anglong district.

Replying an another written query raised by BJP MLA of Bokajan constituency Dr Numol Momin, the Assam forest minister said that, the state Home and Political department has recently sent a letter to the Special Director General of Police (CID) and ordered to probe against the coal syndicate.

In the letter no HMA-19015/7/2018-POLITICAL (A)/((eCF No.58416)/4, the state Home and Political department said that, the Mines and Minerals department has already issued instructions to the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts to take stern action against the illegal coal mining activities.

The Assam forest minister said that, her department has taken all measures to stop illegal coal mining in the state.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)New York, Mar 15 (JEN): Two United Nations relief agencies on Wednesday joined a chorus of international organizations and partners in the quest to end seven years of conflict in Syria, urging warring parties to allow humanitarian access for the delivery of life-saving assistance to those desperately in need.

Every day that goes by without a resolution to this crisis is another day where we have failed the people of Syria, Jakob Kern, World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director in Syria, said in a news release.

The single greatest priority must be an end to this conflict. History will hold us accountable, he added.

The conflict, which is entering its eighth year, has brought intolerable suffering to millions of people. In many parts of the country, the violence has reached unbearable levels.

Every day, families under bombardment and shelling face a nightmare and more innocent lives are lost. More than a third of Syrias population is internally displaced.

Since the conflict started, food prices have soared beyond the reach of many. Bread is now eight times more expensive compared to pre-crisis times. Today, a shocking seven in ten Syrians live in extreme poverty.With this continuous displacement come alarmingly high levels of hunger and need. Some 6.5 million people in Syria are food insecure and another four million people  twice as many as a year ago - are at risk of becoming so.

In 2017, UN-led humanitarian convoys reached 820,200 people inside Syria, according to UN relief agencies.

We are humans. We are civilians. We do not deserve this. My children are hungry and have no food to eat, a resident in Eastern Ghouta told WFP during a rare delivery of humanitarian aid in February  rare because the fighting hardly ever lets up long enough for humanitarian convoys to reach the besieged enclave.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also renewed its call for the protection of health workers and for immediate access to besieged populations.

This health tragedy must come to an end, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Every attack shatters communities and ripples through health systems, damaging infrastructure and reducing access to health for vulnerable people, he added.

An estimated 2.9 million Syrians live in UN-declared hard-to-reach and besieged locations. WHO is providing health assistance to many of these areas but lacks consistent access.Attacks on the health sector have continued at an alarming level in the past year. The 67 verified attacks on health facilities, workers, and infrastructure recorded during the first two months of 2018 amount to more than 50 per cent of verified attacks in all of 2017.

Last year, WHO delivered over 14 million treatments across the country, including through cross-border and cross-line services.

The suffering of the people of Syria must stop. We urge all parties to the conflict to end attacks on health, to provide access to all those in Syria who need health assistance, and, above all, to end this devastating conflict, said Mr. Tedros.



UNICEF/UN07229/Al Saleh, WFP



New York, Mar 15 (JEN): As fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced 4.5 million people to flee their homes over the past year and left more than 13 million in need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator has called on the international community to urgently address the crisis.

"We heard their heart-wrenching stories, their descriptions of what they need, but also their hopes and their stories of resilience and courage in the face of unimaginable challenges, said Mark Lowcock, who is also the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, wrapping up his visit to the country with Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation for the Netherlands.

With humanitarian needs having doubled since last year, more than 4.6 million Congolese children are acutely malnourished, including 2.2 million severely acute cases. Moreover, epidemics are spreading  counting the worst outbreak of cholera in 15 years.

What we know is happening in many parts of the country, doesnt need to persist if we work together, continued Lowcock. Every vulnerable Congolese family deserves all our support to rebuild their lives.

Lowcock and Ms. Kaag Tuesday travelled to Kalemie in the south-eastern province of Tanganyika where they visited the Katanika displacement site and spoke with some of the over 13,000 people who live there, having fled ethnic violence.

Kaag joined a group of women, including survivors of sexual violence, to listen to their experiences, needs, and hopes for the future. In Katanika, as in most Congolese provinces affected by displacement, women and children make up the majority of the severely affected people.

They also travelled to the Kalunga displacement site, which, since November 2016, has received nearly 3,500 displaced families. Humanitarian partners there have established education; water and sanitation; and agricultural to help meet the needs of displaced people.

On Monday, Lowcock and Ms. Kaag met with Jose Makila Sumanda, acting Prime Minister, and Bernard Biando Sango, Minister of Solidarity and Humanitarian Action and discussed the impact of insecurity on aid operations.

The Government representatives said they would facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations and reduce tariffs for humanitarian imports, including medicines and food

Humanitarian partners require nearly $1.7 billion this year to address humanitarian needs in the country, including for 4.5 million internally displaced people. On 13 April in Geneva, the European Commission, the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates will co-host the first-ever DRC humanitarian donor conference.

OCHA/Eve Sabbagh



New York, Mar 15 (JEN): With 700 million people worldwide at risk of being displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030, water infrastructure investment must be at least doubled over the next five years, a panel set up by the United Nations and the World Bank recommended on Wednesday.

Making Every Drop Count: An Agenda for Water Action, released by a panel of 11 Heads of State and a Special Advisor, calls for a fundamental shift in the way the world manages water so that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 6 on ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, can be achieved.

According to the report, 40 per cent of the worlds people are being affected by water scarcity. If not addressed, as many as 700 million could be displaced by 2030 in search for water. More than two billion people are compelled to drink unsafe water and more than 4.5 billion do not have safely managed sanitation services.

It is my deep belief that water is a matter of life and death, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented upon receiving the report on Wednesday, noting that 60 per cent of human body is water.The report says women and girls suffer disproportionately when water and sanitation are lacking, affecting health and often restricting work and education opportunities. Some 80 per cent of wastewater is discharged untreated into the environment and water-related disasters account for 90 per cent of the 1,000 most devastating natural disasters since 1990.

He said that water-related natural disasters are occurring more frequently and becoming more and more dangerous everywhere, which means water is indeed a matter of life and death and must be an absolute priority in everything we do.

In a press release, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim stressed that Heads of State and Government make up the panel because the world can no longer afford to take water for granted.

The ecosystems on which life itself is based  our food security, energy sustainability, public health, jobs, cities  are all at risk because of how water is managed today, he warned.

The panel calls for policies that will allow for at least a doubling of investment in water infrastructure in the next five years.The panel, created in 2016 for an initial period of two years, is advocating for evidence-based policies and innovative approaches at the global, national and local level to make water management as well as water and sanitation services attractive for investment and more disaster-resilient.

The report also highlights the essential need for partnerships between Governments, communities, the private sector and researchers.

The members of the panel are Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Mauritius President (Co-Chair); Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexicos President (Co-Chair); Malcolm Turnbull, Australias Prime Minister; Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshs Prime Minister; Janos Ader, Hungarys President; Hani Mulki, Jordans Prime Minister; Mark Rutte, Netherlands Prime Minister; Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard, Perus President; Jacob Zuma, South Africas President; Macky Sall, Senegals President; Emomali Rahmon, Tajikistans President; and Han Seung-soo, Special Advisor and former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea.

In an open letter, they conclude: Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you live, we urge you get involved, and contribute to meeting this great challenge: safe water and sanitation for all, and our water resources managed sustainably. Make every drop count. Its time for action.

Imal Hashemi/Taimani Films/World Bank



Toronto, Mar 15 (IBNS): The Government of Canada and the provincial government of Ontario have earmarked almost $9 billion for Toronto's priority transit projects as part of their transit infrastructure funding plans, according to media reports.

The announcement was made by Mayor John Tory of Toronto on Wednesday.

Said Mayor Tory, "The federal and provincial government are pledging almost $9 billion for our priority transit projects. This funding is only possible due to the cooperation and mutual respect between the City, the province and the federal government."

"I spoke with Infrastructure and Communities Minister Amarjeet Sohi to thank him and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for coming forward with this major investment in the future of the City of Toronto and the Toronto Region," he said. "During the call, the Minister made it clear that their intention is to continue to fund any projects that stretch beyond the time-frame of this 10-year program in the next phase of infrastructure funding."

Mayor Tory also thanked the Toronto MPs who, according to him, "stood up for Toronto and joined the push by the Big City Mayors for a per rider funding formula that recognizes the important role that the TTC plays in transit for our province."

"I have also been in touch with Premier Kathleen Wynne to thank her for coming to the table to make these needed investments in Toronto transit," he said.

The funding is expected to help speed up the construction of the Relief Line, SmartTrack, the Scarborough Subway Extension, waterfront transit, and the Eglinton East LRT.

Images: sourced from FacebookOttawa, Mar 15 (IBNS): Ontario has become the first province in Canada to introduce pay transparency to promote women's economic empowerment, media reports said.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne had introduced Ontario's Strategy for Women's Economic Empowerment and Legislation last week to increase pay transparency.



This strategy will receive up to $50 million in funding over three years.

According to official reports, the gender wage gap in Ontario remained stagnant over the last decade, with women earning around 30 per cent less than men.

Its been more than 30 years since Ontario first passed pay equity legislation, but we are still working to close the gap," said Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. "We know that too many women still face systemic barriers to economic advancement. When women face increased harassment, violence, poverty and discrimination, it hurts our society and our economy. Its time for change."

"Then Now Next: Ontarios Strategy for Womens Economic Empowerment shines a spotlight on compensation and improves conditions for everyone in Ontario applying for a job. Thanks to this first-of-its-kind strategy, were building a fairer, more dynamic, forward-thinking and prosperous Ontario  for everyone, Wynne said.

By improving gender equality in workplaces and society, the reports said, could add as much as $60 billion to Ontarios Gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade.

Equality is the hallmark of a fair and just Ontario, yet equality is still out of reach for many women, especially racialized, Indigenous and newcomer women. Ontario is changing that by being a leader in Canada and investing in womens futures at all economic levels, said Harinder Malhi, Ontario Minister of the Status of Women.

This issue of pay transparency requires some employers in their organizations to both track and publish information about compensation, reports said.

Ontario government's proposed multifaceted strategy, including more transparent hiring processes, is expected to remove long-standing barriers that prevented women from benefiting equally in Ontario's rapidly changing economy.

By taking immediate and meaningful steps, Ontario stands out as a true leader when it comes to ending income inequality. Our government is committed to breaking down barriers to employment, closing the gender wage gap and helping to support all women in the economy, said Kevin Flynn, Ontario Minister of Labour.

It is reported that if this legislation is passed, job candidates will receive protection with compensation based both on job's requirements and the candidate's qualifications.

All public job postings advertisements will include a salary rate or range, and job candidates will not be asked about their past compensation.

Once these measures are fully implemented employers would be required to publicly post that data within their own workplaces as well as report them to the province, reports said.

The strategy, according to media reports, will also promote enhanced parental benefit entitlements; provide skills training to women including immigrant, those racialized and women experiencing violence; promote women in corporate leadership; support women entrepreneurs and creating the Ontario Women's Entrepreneurship Association; launch a social awareness campaign to promote gender equality at work, at home and in communities, among other things.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Images: sourced from FacebookOttawa, Mar 15 (IBNS): Amid the ongoing row over his attendance at a Sikh rally, New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh has condemned all acts of terrorism, media reports said.

Singh has condemned any terrorist act without regarding anyone who is responsible for it.

Singh's comment came at a time the NDP chief is facing heat over his presence at a rally, where song of Sikh separatism was sung, three years ago.

However, Singh went to a defensive mode as the reports over his presence surfaced.

He said the rally was organised to commemorate the death of Sikhs in India in 1984 following the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Singh also termed the attack on Sikhs as "genocide".

But Singh is not the only Canadian leader to be caught in the Sikh separatism row.

Weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the one who faced criticism after his wife Sophie was caught in a single frame with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal during India visit.

Atlwal was also invited by the Canadian High Commissioner to India though the invitation was later rescinded.

Gandhi was assassinated by few of her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

Post assassination, several Sikhs were killed across the country.Mississauga, Mar 15 (IBNS): The governments of Canada and Ontario are working together to make long-term infrastructure investments that will create economic growth, sustain well-paying jobs, build inclusive communities and support a low carbon, green economy.

Ruby Sahota, Member of Parliament for Brampton North was on hand as Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and Bob Chiarelli, Ontario Minister of Infrastructure, announced the signing of a bilateral agreement that will provide more than $11.8 billion through the Investing in Canada plan over the next decade in federal funding dedicated to infrastructure projects.

The projects supported through this agreement will have a total value of over $31 billion, including $10 billion committed by the Ontario government.

These projects will be cost-shared with the Ontario government, municipalities and other partners.

The funding announced builds on Ontarios $190 billion commitment to infrastructure over 13 years.

Across Canada, more than $33 billion in federal funding will be invested through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories.

Provinces and territories will develop three-year plans that will provide information on how they will implement their infrastructure projects.

Sohi said: "This funding will make a real difference in Ontario communities. Long-term investments in infrastructure are key to building a strong Canada connecting people, creating good jobs for the middle class, and building our economy and our communities for the future."

"Collaboration and partnership have been at the heart of the success of our Investing in Canada plan and we will continue to work with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous communities, stakeholders, and Canadians from coast to coast to coast."

Sahota said: Long-term investments in infrastructure are key to building a strong Canada. Efficient and sustainable public transit across Brampton plays an important role in keeping our communities among the best places in the world to live, while contributing to clean economic growth."

"As Brampton continues to grow, it is important all levels of government partner together to ensure the citys infrastructure needs are met."Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors." | "KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary." | "No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.Students across the nation, including many in Indian Country, are demanding action on gun reform in hopes of preventing violence at their places of learning.

Students at Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico were among the thousands who took part in mass walkouts on Wednesday morning. Their action came a month after a deadly shooting in Florida prompted young people to declare #NeverAgain when it comes to gun violence.

"We shouldn't have to live in fear of going to school, or going to a concert or going to places that we were promised would be safe," the Braves and Lady Braves Against School Violence, a student-led group, said in a statement from their campus in New Mexico's capital city.

"We shouldn't have to be fighting for our lives and the lives of students across the country," the students, who represents tribes from throughout the Southwest, said.

The walkout lasted 17 minutes , to honor the 17 people who lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14. But the Braves and Lady Braves also recognized a tragedy closer to home -- barely three months ago, two students were killed in a shooting at a school near the Navajo Nation

Santa Fe Indian School Music Department on Facebook: Walkout on March 14, 2018

Though it didn't occur on the reservation, the December 7, 2017, incident at Aztec High School in New Mexico wasn't the first to affect Indian Country. In March 2005, seven students were among the nine victims in a shooting on the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota. In October 2014, two students lost their lives at a school that serves the Tulalip Tribes in Washington.

The frequency of school shootings -- there have been several gun-related incidents so far this year, although some reform groups insist the number is higher -- has politicians from both parties paying attention. As the students were staging walkouts across the country, the House passed H.R.4909 , the STOP School Violence Act, on Wednesday.

If there is any place our children can feel safe, it should be our schools," Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), the Speaker of the House, said in a statement

The bill, which cleared the chamber by a bipartisan vote of 407 to 10 , would provide $75 million a year in grants to tribes, states, school districts and law enforcement agencies. Recipients could use the funds to develop intervention and prevention programs in hopes of stopping violence before it occurs.

The Senate is considering a similar version of the measure. President Russell Begaye of the Navajo Nation has endorsed S.2495 , which also enjoys bipartisan backing.

"Children in our school system and their educators should not be burdened with fearing for their safety while attending school," said Begaye, who was among the many leaders who responded to the Aztec shooting in December. "The timing of STOP is imperative to provide our students with a safe environment to facilitate their educational growth and confidence."

Despite the broad support on Capitol Hill for the grants, lawmakers have yet to take action a key demand voiced by students and other advocates: changing the nation's gun laws. While H.R.4909 and S.2495 would not allow the use of federal funds to arm teachers, neither bill includes provisions to limit the access or sale of firearms.

"Today was wonderful. Today was important. Today was historical. But sadly, today was not enough," a group called March For Our Lives said of the walkouts on Wednesday. The group is organizing a march on the U.S. Capitol on March 24 to call for changes to gun laws.

The overwhelming majority of American Indian and Alaska Native students attend public schools, whether on or off reservations. But many also attend schools funded through the Bureau of Indian Education , a federal agency. The Santa Fe Indian School is among those in the BIE category.

According to the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of the Interior , the BIE has failed to ensure that all employees, contractors, and volunteers who come in contact with Indian children have completed background checks.

"These issues leave children vulnerable to contact with persons who would be determined unfit if background checks were completed before hiring and then reinvestigated every 5 years as required," a report, which was completed last month stated.

2016 report also found lapses in BIE school safety . Of the 16 schools visited, only four had emergency plans to cover incidents like bomb threats, shootings and hostage situations. Only seven offered violence prevention training, the OIG said.

Join the Conversation

Related StoriesEvery year, hundreds of thousands of pets are snatched and smuggled into Vietnam and destined to become meals at top restaurants and street stalls.

storytrender.com

Up until now we've all been aware of the harrowing dog meat trade, but that's not the only animal that's being butchered, it's cats too.

According to a Dailymail report, a local reporter recorded a harrowing video in Quan Binh Tan, Ho Chi Minh City, last month in a quest to raise awareness about the so called superstitious trade.

WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

The video shows some of the cats are wearing collars, which means they were kidnapped from their owners and it's absolutely sickening.

Known as little tiger, cat meat is considered a source of strength, warding off bad luck and acquiring feline agility in the South-East Asian nation, state local reports.

Australian Michele Brown, the CEO of Fight Dog Meat charity told Daily Mail, "Cats are the forgotten victims of the dog meat trade. Recently dog meat has drawn a lot of attention, but cats get almost none."

WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED

"Its a dreadful situation. The butchers want tough meat so they terrorize the cats in the belief it will flood them with adrenaline. Cats are space sensitive, so they throw them all in the death cages and kill them outside then lay the carcasses on top. "

Apart from this disturbing detail, consumption of cat meat has also led to a lot of deaths, because of spread of incurable diseases.

Yet people continue with this heartless practice of killing animals, all in the name of baseless superstition.Aahana Kumra got recognition with her bold act in Lipstick Under My Burkha. She received all the applauds for being so fearless and carefree in the film. In real life too Aahana is as fearless she was in her film. Indiatimes met the actress and spoke at length with her on films, nepotism, casting couch and trolls.

1. Theatre Actors Are Not Given Importance At All In This Industry

Aahana has been doing theatre from a very young age and said that theatre artists get zero importance in Bollywood, I dont think I have reached where I expected to be. I started very early with theatre and unfortunately, that medium doesnt get any recognition in India. Even when I go for a casting meeting, they call us a theatre artist. In India theatre artists, are treated in a very weird way. This dont happen in aboard, all the actors are treated equally. Lipstick Under My Burkha has definitely brought me recognition but still I really have a very long way to go. This industry is very strange, you dont know when you can make it, you cannot fly high, because its a roller coaster ride, one day you feel high and another day you feel very low, someday you have work and someday you dont. There is no criteria or frame to judge fame in this industry.

Twitter

2. Do Theatre Actors Not Get Importance Due To Star Kids or Star Actors?

"If I was a doctor, my child would have been a doctor; he will get some sort of benefit. For example, my mother is a police officer and if I had chosen that profession, I too would have been treated differently, same goes with this industry. But their struggle is not like ours, they dont have to give 30 auditions a day, their struggle is to lose weight, look pretty and get surgeries done. They get packaged success, their struggle is which production they should choose to get the right launch and thats the biggest problem in India, they equate family background over talent which I have not seen in any other industry. I was in LA for a while and people there treat you very nicely. They will give you work on your talent and not on the basis of your last name."

Twitter

3. On Her Struggle To Convince Her Family To Get Into Films

Aahana revealed how her father was not happy with her decision to pursue her career in Bollywood,  My father is still expecting me to leave this industry any day and join his work in pharmaceuticals. I come from a very difficult family. When they see me at home, at times, when I have no work, they are like oh, you have no work. Its difficult to explain to them that the nature of my work is different. I dont have to get up in the morning and go to work like they do. In fact, it was very difficult to convince my father. My mother always supported me, but she wanted me to first complete my education. And now my father is very happy when I did my first show Yuddh with Amitabh Bachchan and that was a very big deal for him. People in his circle tell him that I have seen your daughter's work and that makes him very proud."

Twitter

4. Never Sleep With Someone For Work

Aahana declared that no one even thinks of couching her, she said, "I think when I work in anybodys office they drop the idea of couching me because I have a very straightforward way of working. If you like my work, hire me, if you dont lets call it quits. I am not going to hang with you, or have a drink or get into your bed because I need work. I am very happy with the kind of work I am doing, there is so much work around, some people, think that this is the be all and end all, there is not only one producer or one film thats going to hire you, so you need to have faith in youself. I think those who dont have faith in themselves, they go around and do the business they want to and its fine with them, but not with me because it doesnt resonate with my principles. My parents have given me certain principles which will stay with me for life, so if you dont like me leave it, I dont care."

Instagram

5. Why To Sleep With Someone If You Have Talent ?

The actress says, "It's easy to get carried away in this industry, but one has to hold on to themselves. Its very easy to get swayed in this industry, you have a couple of drinks with them and you feel they are very nice, you sleep with them and feel you will get work, but it doesnt work like that. There is no producer who will put crores for you because you slept with that person, so thats never going to happen. I think the girls have a lot of fear, they feel - I will sleep with them, I will get the job but that never happens. There are millions of girls who are ready to sleep with one producer or director to get work, but then whats the difference between you and them? Better get work on your merit."

6. Big Banners Pay Very Less

Aahana confessed that big banners feel they do favours on giving you a job, I have also dreamt of becoming a Yash Raj or A Dharma heroine and dancing around the trees, but whats next? Also, the Dharmas Or Yash Raj's dont pay you well as actors because they are big films and they feel they are doing favours on you by giving you a job. I understand their point of view. Having said that even big banner films dont work nowadays like Jab Harry Met Sejal was trash and completely bashed by people, WHY? Because you are doing a formula film and that doesnt work today."

7. How To Tackle With Trolls

Aahana was trolled for sharing a bikini picture on social media, we asked her how she tackles with such trolls, she said, I still get trolled. Even today morning I woke up to a comment Tumhari sex scene bahut achcha tha us film mein. I get such kind of messages every day. Sometimes I feel like taking screenshots and put them up on my social media, and then I feel why am I am giving them so much importance, its better I delete and block them.

She is one fearless woman and we love her for that. Never change, Aahana!

"The cities haven't been finalised yet, but they want to check out some historical sites. Visiting a film set and indulging in local shopping are among the activities planned. They will go shopping in Colaba and try desi food in Bandra."



Be it Veera from Highway or Kumari Pinky of Udta Punjab, Alia Bhatt has proved that age has nothing to do with talent and she's here to conquer. She might be a 'star-kid' and a full-fledged superstar in herself but how is real Alia Bhatt like?



Now, the actor is all geared up for his upcoming release Omerta, which has been helmed by Hansal Mehta and revolves around the life of terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who has been held responsible for the 1994 kidnapping of four foreign tourists in Delhi and the 2002 kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan among others. He is also considered as one of the masterminds behind the deadly 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008.

Thank you dearest @priyankachopra for your love & warmth. It was wonderful to come & see you on the sets of #Quantico. You are a STAR. As a fellow Indian I am so proud of you and your achievements. Keep our flag flying. You are the best. #IndianActor #OurAmbassadorAbroad pic.twitter.com/qT56R83xo3  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) March 14, 2018



Kher too is in America to shoot for a TV pilot and he couldn't stop himself from visiting her. Anupam Kher took to Twitter to post some really sweet pictures from their brief meeting. He captioned the pictures as:



He is one actor people look forward to see on the silver screen but he somehow does selective roles. His dimpled cheeks makes all the ladies weak in their knees but he seldom makes appearances. He is the Devdas of our time.

We're talking about none other than, the charming and eloquent Abhay Deol. The graceful star, whose acting comes naturally and effortlessly, turns 42 today. Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif took to Instagram and it's the cutest photo of him we have seen in a long time.He is one actor people look forward to see on the silver screen but he somehow does selective roles. His dimpled cheeks makes all the ladies weak in their knees but he seldom makes appearances. He is the Devdas of our time.

We're talking about none other than, the charming and eloquent Abhay Deol. The graceful star, whose acting comes naturally and effortlessly, turns 42 today. Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif took to Instagram and it's the cutest photo of him we have seen in a long time.

Here's taking a look at reasons why this powerful of talent is so uncelebrated:

1. Because despite being a Deol, he's not boisterous

Twitter

It's been long since we saw Mr. Deol on-screen and we really miss his drool worthy rawness, those dimples and unconventional looks! Unlike his other older brothers, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol who may have walked the path of safe and dull movies choices, his career choices have been different and notice worthy.

Junior Deol has not featured in a Yamla Pagla Deewana or is coming in Race 3. He believes in taking his career choices it to the edge, just to see if he'll fly, jump or fall. From a Manorma Six Feet Under to a Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Abhay is the free spirited actor who experiments despite having an advantage of being into a filmy lineage

2. Because he opts for smaller/offbeat but meaningful projects

Screengrab

Sochna Na Tha, Chakravyuh, Shanghai are some of the movies he could have declined and stuck to rom-com. But what did he exactly do! He continued featuring in a Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local to Happy Bhaag Jayegi. Small budget cinema and content driven movies have forever been the flavour for Abhay.

3. Because Abhay has no qualms about playing a second lead

Screengrab

Raanjhana, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Happy Bhaag Jayegi are just few films, Abhay shared the screen space with another actor. In fact, Aisha was also a Sonam Kapoor dominated film. Deol has always given scripts his first priority, which is why maybe big commercial movie offers take a backseat.

4. Because he's not seen at the most populous parties

Twitter/Abhay Deol FC

Everybody who is a somebody attends A Karan Johar party or a Manish Malhotra event. If nothing works, they make a quick visit to Mumbai's Olive restaurant or at the airport, but Abhay refrains from being in the public eye when it's not required. In fact, he is on social media but limits his posts to few pictures or important messages. You will never see this tall, fair, handsome boy tweeting about his movies or promoting someone else's unnecessary .

5. Because he keeps his personal life under wraps

Twitter

He was dating Preeti Desai for several years before they amicably called it quits. He always kept the relationship low key till the time she decided to become an actor too Speaking to TOI once, Abhay revealed, "The desire to protect your relationship when you are open to public scrutiny is natural. There is too much guessing, speculations et al happening. In such a scenario, it gets more difficult to let go (for both you and your partner)."

It's been over 2 years and we haven't heard of another relationship rumour of him.

6. Because he took a jibe on A-listers for endorsing fairness creams including his co-stars

In a series of Facebook posts last year, Abhay mocked Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Sonam Kapoor and John Abraham for featuring in ad campaigns that promote the usage of fairness creams.

He posted individual adverts of everyone and shamed them in public. He spoke his mind without realising the consequences. Infact, during one of the episodes of Koffee With Karan, Anil Kapoor was asked, "Who is one person from Bollywood who needs serious help?". Without mincing words, he said, "Abhay Deol."

Anil Kapoor had produced Aisha. Despite the allegations, he went onto star in his daughter Sonam's film, Raanjhana.

ABhay Deol/Facebook

7. Because he protested against T-series by posing with a black eye

Twitter

Abhay Deol attended the Screen Awards on January 14, 2014, with a black eye. Though the actor did not get the same from a fist fight, he said that it's a sign of protest against music label T-Series for not releasing his film 'One By Two's' music. Trust Abhay Deol to do this.

Not many A-listers will actually come out in the open and speak their mind against big labels or big names. He has done it every single time. Abhay is breaking stereotypes in his own little ways in real life. And of course, looking at his jaw-dropping films like, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye, Happy Bhaag Jayegi and Dev D, we for sure know that this powerhouse of talent is here to stay!

Happy birthday, Abhay! Continue to be badass!Rajkummar Rao is not just a star but he is a performer who believes in taking up bigger and tougher challenges everytime. For him, script and the story matter more than big banner films and all his successful films in the past are a testimony to this very fact.

Rajkummar Rao is an actor who believes in getting into the skin of the character by taking the route of method acting and films like Bareilly Ki Barfi, Trapped and Newton have reflected his supremacy in the best possible way.

Now, the actor is all geared up for his upcoming release Omerta, which has been helmed by Hansal Mehta and revolves around the life of terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who has been held responsible for the 1994 kidnapping of four foreign tourists in Delhi and the 2002 kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan among others. He is also considered as one of the masterminds behind the deadly 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001 and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008.

In an interview with Indianexpress, Rajkummar Rao revealed all the challenges that he had to face during the shoot and how he has no reason to complain because that's exactly what he enjoys as an actor. Here are excerpts from his interview that are worth reading.

1. Talking about the challenges, he said:

I think it (Omerta) was even more difficult than Trapped. That film was physically taxing but this one mentally shook me up. I was exploring the world which I had no idea about. I was exploring dark roots and secrets about that world and I was very disturbed while shooting for it because I had to play him for that. I had to believe in his ideologies and that was an extremely disturbing process. It is not something I really enjoyed doing.

2. Describing several challenges that he had to face in order to get into the skin of the character, he said,

#Justlikethat A post shared by Raj Kummar Rao (@rajkummar_rao) on Dec 21, 2017 at 8:03am PST

I could not connect with him at any level. I dont think anyone would agree with his ideologies. There is no way any sane person would connect to him. What these guys do is extremely inhumane. We all strongly condemn them. But yeah I chose to do this and had to start my process by watching those disturbing videos and documentaries. I would listen to his hate speech over and over again, trying to get myself charged up and gather a lot of hatred and anger inside me which I used while playing the part.

3. He recalled how his personal life too was affected by his preparation. He said,

Patralekha once came on sets while we were shooting in Delhi. She was like you know what? Something is wrong about you. I do not feel the same. Your energy does not feel the same. I will see you later. But I was like  what why I am the same."

4. Challenges help Rajkummar Rao in taking up roles that matter. He added,

That is the fun. I love challenges. I get very bored if I do something easy. I have done some stuff in past which were easy and I did not really enjoy them. If there is no challenge, I would want to get some into it. There has to be a sort of excitement.With the population of over 1.3 billion people, out of which over 50 per cent are below 25 years of age, does India need to make service in armed forces mandatory? Until now to serve in armed forces or not was an individuals choice.

afp

In fact, Indian Army is the worlds largest voluntary force. But a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has advised the government to make the five-year service with armed forces mandatory for those who seek government jobs.

Though the advice does look good on paper given the amount of patriotism we have been fed with in recent times but is it pragmatic, possible and even beneficiary to make such a massive move?

Here is the deficit the committee talks about

The committee argues that the move will remove the deficit of officer and soldiers in the armed forces. Indian Army alone is short of over 7,000 officers and over 20,000 men. Likewise, the Indian Air Force has a shortage of nearly 150 officers and over 15,000 men and the Indian Navy is short of 150 officers and nearly 15,000 men.

BCCL/Representational Image

But the same committee has also said that all the three- Army, Air Force and Navy have crunch of resources to buy equipment. The statement of army chief days back also states the obvious, therefore, given the resource crunch, can the armed forces afford to pay salary to such a massive population?

Despite more lucrative options, youth still apply for armed forces

Over the years, it has been seen that youth is losing interest in joining the armed forces, but despite several claims, the youth still applies in large numbers to join the army, IAF and navy. One may associate this with the paucity of employment opportunities and social and financial security associated with a government job. But whatever the reasons are, the youth still applies for armed forces.

An emotional cadet after the parade, PTI

The forces get officer recruits though National Defence Academy (NDA) and Combined Defence Services (CDS) exam. Both the exams are conducted twice a year by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Roughly 3-4 lakh people take the exam for 300 odd posts in all three services.

AFP

CDS exam has seen a decrease in applications over the years, but still large number of candidates are applying for this exam too. Data from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which conducts the biannual written test for admission to the Indian Military Academy, Officers Training Academy, Indian Naval Academy and Indian Air Force Academy, shows that 183,884 applications were received January 2017 compared with 274,835 in October 2016. The commission had been receiving, on average, 235,000 applications for every examination held since 2013, data shows. However, nearly 40 per cent of the candidates dont take the exam.

But if its made mandatory, where would govt place them after 5 years?

AFP

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)- a wing of government that reports to the Prime Minister have been asked by the committee to see whether it can be done. But can government accommodate these personnel in other government services after they complete five years?

The biggest civilian employer is Indian Railways with about 30 lakh employees.

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The state governments across India give jobs to about another two crore people including services like the police. Therefore, it will be hard for the government to accommodate a large number of people.

The defence budget is far stretched anyways

PSC has said that army, air force and navy does not have enough funds to buy new weapons system required to fight even 10 days in an intense war.

As per the committee report, the shortfall of funds for army alone is Rs 42,512.14 crore. Similarly, the Navy has been allocated only 70 per cent of the funds required. Navy had projected and asked Rs 11,320.39 crore, but the government only made an allocation of Rs 7,985.06 crore.

IAF too has its share of issues as it asked the government to allocate Rs 1,14,526 crore, but only Rs 65,891 crore has been allocated.After years of being critical of the Tejas fighter, which is still not combat-ready 35 years after the light combat aircraft project was first approved by the government, the IAF has now agreed to induct 324 of the indigenous jets in the long-term to make up for its fast-depleting number of fighter squadrons.

IAF has firmly committed to 123 Tejas jets at present, which will come at a cost of over Rs 75,000 crore if both developmental and production costs are taken into account.

But it wants the next 201 Tejas Mark-II jets to be entirely new fighters with much better avionics and radars, enhanced fuel and weapons carrying capacity, and more powerful engines, say top sources.

bccl

The existing single-engine Tejas has limited endurance of just an hour, with a radius of action of only 350-400-km, and weapon-carrying capacity of 3-tonne.

Other single-engine fighters like Swedish Gripen-E and American F-16 have roughly double the weapon-carrying capacity and triple the endurance.

But IAF, down to just 31 fighter squadrons (18 jets in each) when at least 42 are required to tackle the collusive threat from China and Pakistan, realises inducting expensive foreign fighters in large numbers is simply not an option.

bccl

The 36 Rafale jets, ordered from France in September 2016, for instance, have cost India Rs 59,000 crore. The total cost, of course, includes a decidedly deadly weapons package, all spares and costs for 75% fleet availability and performance-based logistics support for five years.

The Tejas Mark-II is still on the drawing board. But if DRDO, Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd deliver the required Mark-II fighter, IAF has agreed to have a total of 18 Tejas squadrons, said a source.

This comes after a flurry of top-level meetings in South Block, with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman herself announcing earlier this month that the government is not ditching the home-grown Tejas and putting all its energies into ensuring the fighter is delivered at a much faster pace.

bccl

Only six of the 20 Tejas ordered by IAF in their IOC (initial operational clearance) configuration, which basically means the fighter is airworthy, have been delivered by HAL till now under the first Rs 2,813 crore contract inked in March 2006.

Another 20 Tejas in their FOC (final operational clearance) or combat-ready configuration were to be delivered by December 2016, as per the second Rs 5,989 crore contract inked in December 2010. But the Tejas will get its FOC only by June at the earliest, with IAF now hoping to begin inducting these 20 jets from 2019 onwards.

bccl

The contract for 83 Tejas Mark-1A fighters, which will cost around 50,000 crores, is in the process of being finalized now. These jets will have 43 improvements to improve maintainability, AESA (active electronically scanned array) radar to replace existing mechanically-steered radar, mid-air refuelling capability, long-range BVR (beyond visual range) missiles and advanced electronic warfare to jam enemy radars and missiles. The delivery of these 83 jets is slated to begin in 2023.Chief of Staff of US Air Force, General David L Goldfein, reached India on Thursday. He flew India's indigenous light combat aircraft, the Tejas. He took off from the Jodhpur Air Force Station.

Twitter / Indian Air Force

Under development for more than three decades, the indigenous Tejas, earlier known as the Light Combat Aircraft or LCA is the first fighter jet to be built in India since the HF-24 Marut designed several decades earlier, reported NDTV.

Twitter / Indian Air Force

"The IAF operates the second largest C-17 fleet in the world and continues to mature their fleet operation to support regional mobility needs," the US Air Force Chief said.

He wrote in a Facebook post that there is already a strong relationship between our two air forces and that he was looking forward to making it stronger, after he was welcomed at Air Headquarters in the national capital. For the Tejas that is being inducted in the Air Force, it is also seen as the biggest endorsement of the fighter that has been in the making for more than three decades.Sporting a beard nearly cost a groom his marriage in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh after the brides family objected to his stubble and refused to marry off the girl till he comes clean-shaven.

The groom resisted to the demand for over 12 hours but conceded following the intervention of police. He shaved off the beard and the marriage was solemnised in Anjati village on Tuesday.

The hilarious sequence of event though tickled the funny bones of the guests, the brides family was dead serious against marrying off the girl to a bearded man.

toi

Mangal Chouhan was in for a surprise on March 12, when he reached his would-be wifes house decked up in a three-piece suit on a horse. Bride Rupalis father, Radheshyam Jadhav, stopped the procession and announced, Everything is in order, but the beard. Shave it off and then we will go ahead with the marriage.

Shocked, Chouhan resisted. His relatives also put their foot down. How can we allow the brides family to bully us? they announced.

As the matter escalated, Moghat Road police rushed to the spot to prevent any flare up. Constable Dharmendra Mandloi, who mediated between the families, told TOI, Both the families were not agreeing to budge on the beard. After holding long discussions, the groom finally agreed to shave his beard, but announced that he will keep a moustache.

It was a minor hiccup. My father-in-law wanted me to shave my beard. But now everything is fine. Rupali is also okay with this, Chouhan told TOI over phone from his native village Junapani.

He left with the bride on Wednesday afternoon after the marriage was solemnised at the same venue.

I had to pay Rs 4000 extra to the tent owners to leave the arrangements as it was, overnight, Jadhav said, claiming he had warned Chouhan of the beard on several occasion before the marriage.

My friends were telling me: how can you get your beautiful daughter married to a man who looked mad due to the beard, he said, claiming that he did not buckle under the pressure of the grooms family and stood his ground.

Constable Mandloi said the brides family had got the couple some gifts. The groom left them behind while taking his bride home, fearing dowry charges after the matter got so much publicity in and around the village.On March 14, we lost one of the greatest minds of our time. Iconic physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking passed away at age 76, after a decades long battle with ALS.

Its a pretty crazy coincidence that, being a mathematician as well, he dies on Pi day, which also happens to be the birth anniversary of Albert Einstein. In fact, Twitter was quick to note that Einstein also passed away at the age of 76.

So what else do the two legendary minds have in common?

1. Brains built for only one purpose

Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) at a very early age. ALS is a neuro-degenerative disease that slowly erodes nerves that control voluntary movement, rendering him wheelchair-bound for most of his life. However, even Einstein wasnt entirely fully functional. He suffered from a mild case of Aspergers syndrome, a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, as well as attention deficit disorder (ADD)

2. Both Einstein and Hawking married twice in their lifetime

Einstein divorced his first wife Mileva Maric to marry Elsa Lowenthal, whom he stayed with till her death. Hawking also divorced his wife of 30 years, Jane Wilde, to marry Elaine Mason but later divorced her too.

Albert Einstein with Rabindranath Tagore

3. Einstein and Hawking were captivated by the universe

Both Hawking and Einstein were interested in the vastness of space, black holes, wormholes, and time travel. However, Einstein looked at things from a relativistic point of view while Hawking focused more on quantum physics.

4. Hawking and Einstein thought their ideas were stupid

Both scientists deemed one of their ideas the biggest blunder they had made. For Einstein, that blunder was the cosmological constant he introduced into equations for general relativity. For Hawking, the blunder was supposed information loss in black holes.

reuters

5. Both of their lives captivated popular culture

Einstein has been revered by Hollywood, with movies like Einstein and Eddington (2008), Young Einstein(1988), Einsteins Big Idea(2005), and Einstein Revealed (1996), all celebrating his life and work. Hawking also inspired movies like The Theory of Everything (2014), A Brief History of Time (1991), Beyond the Horizon (2005), and Hawking (2013). However, he was a familiar face in pop culture as well, having appeared for cameos in shows like The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, Futurama, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as part of his science outreach efforts.

6. They had a great sense of humour

A healthy sense of humour is considered a sign of intelligence. When a photographer persuaded Einstein to smile during his 72nd birthday, he stuck out his tongue, creating one of the most iconic pictures of all time. Einstein was known for his childlike sense of humour, and he also claimed that humour powered his brilliant intellect.

AFP

The great thing about Hawking was his incredible sense of humour. Everyone from classroom students to celebrities like John Oliver, fondly remember Hawking's amazing one-liners that underscored his genius.

7. March 14 connection

Hawking passed away on Einstein's birthday -- March 14. Coincidence? Maybe. Also both Einstein and Hawking passed away when they were 76 years old. Gone but never forgotten!Forget about flying men tied to a jet pack for a second, we may finally have the world's first commercial flying taxi. US based company Kitty Hawk has unveiled the Cora, a Vertical Take-Off and Landing flying taxi.

It didn't happen by December last year, as originally planned, but the flying prototype was recently unveiled in New Zealand where it will soon get regulatory approval.

Kitty Hawk

In fact, the government of New Zealand and Zephyr Airworks (setup by Kitty Hawk as the operator of Cora in the country) have been in talks for more than 18 months about introducing the air taxi.

Kitty Hawk is not just any run of the mill start-up either. It has the backing of Google co-founder Larry Page and the CEO of the company is an ex-Google employee Sebastian Thrun who was the founding director of Googles X Labs.

The company has released a video of the Cora which shows the tiny air taxi taking-off, flying and landing back again.

Kitty Hawk

Cora is powered by 13 electric motors, a dozen of which are vertical lift fans while another one is a pusher configuration. The Cora is claimed to have a top speed of 177 km/h and a range of a 100 kms. It can carry two passengers autonomously and hence, the users dont even need a pilots license to operate it.

The company is also reportedly working on an Uber-like app for users when the service is commercially launched in 2021.When Stephen Hawking came to Mumbai in 2001, he was already succumbing to ALS, his body slowly giving up on him. He had already lost his voice in 1985 to a tracheotomy. With only the use of his fingers and thumbs left (to some extent) he was using a voice synthesizer program called Equalizer to communicate. However, it was far too slow for his liking, so Hawking turned to a couple of Indian engineers to help.

In 2000, Arun Mehta and Vickram Crishna started radiophony.com, a platform to develop audio-centric solutions to help the under-privileged. A year later, during a visit to Mumbai, Hawking met the two and asked if they could develop a better alternative to his speech output process. The result of that, was eLocutor, a single-button typing and speaking software, allowing Hawking to select the words he wanted even with limited mobility. The best part was that it had predictive language software that would learn from his habits over time, allowing him to type only pieces of most words to get full sentences. Mehta and Crishna also released the software online as open source, allowing anyone to embrace and tweak it for their own solutions. But eLocutor had to have hardware Hawking and his assistants could work with .

(L-R) Travis Bonifield & Rob Weatherly from Intel, Hawking

Thats where Intel comes in. Over the years, the company has been innovating in various ways in order to give Hawking his voice back. Working with Stephen was the most meaningful and challenging endeavor of my life, Intel Fellow Lama Nachman said. It fed my soul and really hit home how technology can profoundly improve peoples lives. We will continue developing and refining this technology in the open source community in his honor, to reach all people in need. This is something he cared about deeply.

Hawking met Intel co-founder Gordon Moore at a conference around 1997. Gordon noted that Stephen was using an AMD machine and asked him, Would you like to use an Intel computer moving forward?

In January 2001, Hawking got his first custom-built computer from Intel at age 59. It was the start of a decades-long relationship with Travis Bonifield, and application manager for Intel. In fact, Bonifield traveled to the UK every few years after that to hand-deliver a customized system to the scientist. Hawking even has dedicated tech support in the form of Robert Weatherly, in Intels Swindon office a couple of hours away from his residence.

Hawking's own PC

In 2012, Stephen Hawking was using a system of three major parts; a Lenovo X220 tablet PC with an Intel Core i7 processor, a custom black box containing various peripherals and the hardware voice itself. The PC also had a forward-facing webcam Hawking would use to make Skype calls. The black box was mounted under the wheelchair, containing an audio amplifier, voltage regulators and a USB hardware key receiving input from the IR sensor on Hawkings eyeglasses. The voice synthesizer meanwhile was located in another black box on the back of the chair and received commands from the computer.

A decade before then, Hawking still had some use of his thumbs. In fact, hed still attempt to drive his own wheelchair. He pinned me against the wall once, Bonifield laughs. So Hawking had a binary switch in his hand, basically a clicker, that he would use to highlight words or commands on the computer screen. Because of how tedious the process was, he was typing at about one word a minute.

However, over time even that little bit of movement left him by 2012. The solution Intel came up with was the IR sensor hanging off his glasses. It would detect whenever Hawking twitched his cheek, letting him find an alternate way to type with a cheek switch instead of his clicker. Unfortunately, it was still really slow.

Intel

A communication breakthrough

Eventually, Hawking sent an email to Moore asking, My speech input is very, very slow these days. Is there any way Intel could help?. In response, Intel was able to develop a newer system in 2014, one that used multiple facial expressions for speech input like mouth and eyebrow movements. They also improved his systems word predictor, so he would have to make fewer selections in order to select the words he wanted to use, improving his speed for all basic computer tasks by a factor of ten. The tool was such a success that Intel later released the toolkit online for free in 2015, so other researchers and technologists could create customized solutions of their own.

Hawkings computer system used a rudimentary timed interface. A cursor automatically scanned across an on-screen keyboard, and whenever he blinked it would trigger an infrared sensor on his cheek. This stops the moving cursor and selects whatever key or option the cursor was highlighting at the time. Intels engineers claim they mightve built a better method, but Hawking didnt want a completely new system.

In 2014, Intel decided Hawking needed two separate communication systems. Everytime the scientist took a trip, his assistants would have to remove the various pieces of the computer, voice synthesizer, etc from his main wheelchair (which he only uses in the UK), and mount them onto a folding travel wheelchair. Setting up the same system on both wheelchairs helped save a massive amount of time for the ailing genius.

His assistants could then simply disconnect his laptop, without even turning it off, and shift it to the travel chair along with him. In addition, it also helped save time whenever Intel engineers came over to set up new parts. Instead of Interrupting Hawkings work, they could just install and test on the travel chair, before shifting Hawking and installing everything on the regular chair.

Bonifield says that hes often asked what it was like to work with Hawking and notes that in his experience the renowned physicist was simply Stephen and no one who knew him for more than a few minutes kept up with formalities.

But Hawking himself is, out of necessity, a person of few words and the words he does choose to share are direct and purposeful, but also kind.

ALSO READ: 7 Awesome Similarities Between Stephen Hawking And Albert Einstein That Will Blow Your Mind AwayChart of the Day: Greene County Bancorp Barchart - 12 minutes ago The Barchart Chart of the Day belongs to the New York bank Greene County Bancorp (NASDAQ: GCBC ). I found the stock by sorting Barchart's Top Stocks to Own list first by the most frequent number... GCBC : 34.60 (+0.49%)

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Barker, on the other hand, joined Zurich in 2014, and was most recently leader of Zurich's 'Broker Edge' team. He has experience working across a range of underwriting, relationship management, and leadership roles.

Were pleased to welcome both Darren and Thomas to their new roles, and very confident they will bring their passion for great client outcomes to bear for the benefit of our broker partners in Victoria and Tasmania, said Steven Ord, chief distribution officer at Zurich. These are crucial markets for us and their importance is reflected in the investments were making. Zurich is focused on being a much stronger, simpler and better connected insurer, and the appointments weve announced today are firmly in line with that ambition.

Related stories:The excellent results that we presented today confirm the validity and effectiveness of our strategic plan in this current market context, said Generali Group CEO Phillippe Donnet. We are perfectly positioned to reach all of our objectives that we had set for 2018.

On the back of the results, the firms board of directors has proposed a dividend of 0.85 euro per share, an increase of 6% from 0.80 euro in 2016.

Our focus on technical excellence, combined with the results of our investments, asset & wealth management business and the cost reduction target hit two years ahead of schedule, have pushed the operating result to record levels, continued Donnet. In 2017, we implemented a series of important projects, such as the launch of the new asset management strategy, the rationalising of the international footprint and the transformation of our German business - all initiatives that contribute to the overall resilience of our Group.

Elaborating on its performance, the firm noted a 1.8% increase in its life business due to a better investment performance, as well as a boost to asset management division. Its P&C operating result was down 4.9% - this being largely linked to 416 million in natural catastrophe claims.

Related stories:Among the surveys key findings were:

Insurance CEOs three biggest concerns are over-regulation (95%), cyber threats (93%) and the speed of technological change (85%).

More than 80% of insurance CEOs are concerned about a shortage of digital skills. Thats the highest percentage in any industry.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of insurance CEOs are planning a new strategic alliance or joint venture to push profitability and growth over the next year.

The pace of technological change may concern insurance CEOs  but it also opens up opportunities for them, according to PwC. With more business owners moving into the digital realm, for instance, the demand for cyber insurance is on the rise.

Insurance continues to be one of the most disrupted sectors in the global economy, but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, said Jim Bichard, UK insurance leader at PwC. Technological change is impacting all industries, and as companies across the world change the way they do business, they will be looking to the insurance industry for help in guarding against new risks and fuelling their own growth. This is a huge opportunity for insurers to provide innovative new products and help protect society from the new risks associated with flexible workforces, connected homes and cyber threats.

Thats not to say insurance companies dont need to adapt. Sixty-six percent (66%) of insurance CEOs told PwC that theres increasing pressure on their companies to deliver results in shorter timelines, and 78% see changes in consumer behaviour as a threat to growth.

Insurers shouldnt be underestimating the need for longer-term transformational change into digitally enabled, customer-focused organisations, PwC said.

Related stories:

The problem with increasing insurance regulation

Cyber in the spotlight  the evolving role of the CISOApplications must be lodged before June 26 at 5pm. The winner, who will be announced on Aug. 21, will travel to London to attend the 53rd annual Aon Benfield Global Clients Reinsurance Seminar from Sept. 10  20.

With an opportunity to explore, analyse, and discuss issues significant to our industry, the scholarship provides insurance professionals the opportunity to help navigate our industry and inspire and evoke possible change, said Robert De Souza, president APAC and CEO Aon Benfield Australia and New Zealand. This years topic will create excellent discussion and debate and I look forward to seeing what the submissions have to offer to the industry.

This scholarship offers insurance professionals a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the Aon Benfield Global Clients Reinsurance Seminar where they will have the opportunity to continue their development, build their international business networks, and increase their industry knowledge, ANZIIF CEO Prue Willsford said.

For more information and a copy of the application form, visit the ANZIIF website.

Related stories:Citing people familiar with the probes, Reuters said the new sanctions will centre on the fact that the troubled company stood to gain from the motor insurance programme. That while it has pointed the finger at a third-party provider, it receiving commissions  something that was not disclosed earlier  is a different story.

According to the report, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is looking into whether the payments should have been halted sooner and which bank executives had knowledge of the money coming in. The policies were force-placed on borrowers who supposedly let their own coverage lapse.

It was noted that the unnamed vendor mistakenly did so when in fact motorists had insurance in place.

We should have caught that and we should have dealt with it, chief executive Tim Sloan said previously.

Related stories:

USI Insurance closes deal for Wells Fargo Insurance

Wells Fargo reveals insurance business departureThe open-door helicopter tour in which five people died in a crash landing in the East River off Manhattan on Sunday was operating under safety restrictions reserved for photography flights that are looser than those for commercial air-tour rides.

Federal regulations exempt certain operations, including crop-dusting and aerial firefighting, from some of the safety rules that apply to commercial operators. It includes aerial photography or survey operations in that category.

The ill-fated New York flight was operating under that standard, according to a person familiar with the operation, who asked not to be named because the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating. Commercial air tours are governed by separate regulations.

The passengers, who booked a photo tour of New York City at sunset, were wearing harnesses that tethered them to the aircraft and were equipped with knives designed to cut themselves free in the event of an emergency, photographer Eric Adams, who was on another helicopter operated by the same company at the same time, wrote in an account for an online publication called The Drive.

The harnesses were required because the helicopters doors had been removed so that participants could more freely photograph New York. Such a flight would not have been permitted under the regulations that govern air-tour flights, said the person.

We are giving urgent attention to the use of harnesses specifically for aerial photography flights, the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees the aerial industry, said in an emailed statement. We are supporting the NTSB and we will take appropriate action based on what we learn from the investigation.

As a matter of overall safety awareness, we are preparing further communications and educational outreach to aerial photography operators and consumers on the use of these harnesses, the agency said.

The helicopter went down in the East River about 7 p.m. after the pilot radioed that hed lost power. Within seconds, the Airbus SE AS350B2 helicopter turned over and sank. The pilot was able to escape and was rescued, but the five passengers had to be cut loose from the craft by divers, New York Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

The NTSB hasnt yet released detailed information on what regulations governed the photo flight. Investigators have recovered a GoPro camera from the wreckage and will attempt to analyze any video it captured of the accident, the NTSB said in a statement Tuesday.

Im shocked by the tethering and the lack of a quick release, said Shawn Coyle, a helicopter pilot, safety consultant and author of books on flying. The fact that five of them couldnt get out means that it was pretty desperately bad. Its not like seat belts on an airplane where you just undo the buckle and away you go.

$99 for 10 Minutes

Tickets for the doors-off photography flight were sold by FlyNYON, which advertises on its website such services in cities including New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Prices range from $99 for 10 minutes to $2,000 to photograph New Yorks New Years celebration, according to the website.

FlyNYON takes the thrill of shooting images from an open-door helicopter and makes it accessible to everyone, the company says on its website.

The helicopter was operated by Liberty Helicopters, which conducts air tours in New York.

The companies didnt respond to telephone and emailed requests for comment but a statement on Libertys website said it was fully cooperating with the FAA and NTSB investigations.

The growing number of air-tour companies operating similar doors-off flights has been alarming to some in the helicopter industry, said one person familiar with internal debates on the subject.

Allowing passengers to dangle their feet out of helicopters hundreds of feet in the air and using the harnesses designed for professional aviators runs counter to the safety goals of more traditional operators, said the person, who asked not to be named while the NTSB is investigating.

The accident has prompted several lawmakers to call for a temporary halt of helicopter tourist flights around New York.

At minimum, these flights should be suspended until there can be an exhaustive review of the safety hazards of operating these flights in such a congested urban airspace, said a release Tuesday from Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Carolyn Maloney, all New York Democrats.

The Senates top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, issued a similar call aimed at Liberty on Monday.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Legislation New York Agribusiness Aviation TransportationAfter gaining success in ride-hailing, Grab co-founder Anthony Tan is pushing his startup into a new challenge: catering to those under-served by traditional financial institutions in Southeast Asia.

Tan, together with GrabPay Southeast Asia Managing Director Jason Thompson, laid out his vision on Tuesday [March 13] as the company tries to become a major financial services platform in the region.

Grab, once an underdog compared with bigger rival Uber Technologies Inc., has become the dominant player in Southeast Asia after winning customers from Singapore to Vietnam. Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that the two companies were close to finalizing a deal under which Uber would sell its operations in the region to Grab.

I wake up every day thinking about how we are going to empower the next 100 million micro entrepreneurs by 2020, Tan told the Money 20/20 conference in Singapore. I know its tough. People called us a taxi app. Dealing with competitors was impossible. But our job is to make impossible possible.

Even though Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing regions for smartphone adoption, only 27 percent of adults have a bank account, according to the World Bank. With more than 86 million downloads, Grab already has a solid base of customers who can start using its app for their financial needs.

Tan is encouraging other financial institutions to join a new joint-venture with Credit Saison Co. called Grab Financial Services Asia. By using its rich data on customer behavior, the platform plans to provide loans to millions of people who are not served by traditional banks. Grab is also teaming up with insurer Chubb Ltd. to offer policies to its 2.6 million drivers.

Thompson echoed Tans vision to serve the invisible people who will benefit from having access to financial services.

Nobody has any data on them; the platform is all designed around them, Thompson said in an interview. Weve built the largest internet platform in Southeast Asia and this is another extension of that story.

With assistance from Chanyaporn Chanjaroen.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.BMS Group Ltd., the London-based re/insurance broking arm of Minova Insurance, announced the launch of BMS Innovation Labs, a platform that aims to drive change and innovation within the company and the wider insurance industry.

BMS Innovation Labs will focus on how to deliver the best possible outcomes for clients using all available tools, including new technology and business approaches that can add value to and enhance BMS offering, the company said in a statement.

BMS Innovation Labs will be employee-led, providing a forum for individuals from across the business to contribute to the development of innovative and disruptive approaches and technologies.

During the March 15 launch of BMS Innovation Labs, BMS employees were introduced to the Design Thinking tools and techniques developed by Pancentric Digital, a specialist in disruption in insurance.

Nick Cook, CEO of BMS Group, said: Through the creation of BMS Innovation Labs, we are declaring our intent to remain at the forefront of innovation in our industry as we deliver further targeted, bespoke solutions to our clients.

Source: BMS Group Ltd.

Related:

Topics Agencies InsurTech New MarketsGeneral Motors Co., Volkswagen AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Daimler AG knew of problems with Takata air bag inflators and should have moved faster to recall vehicles, according to company documents cited on Wednesday by owners suing the automakers.

Amended class-action complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Miami say the four automakers knowingly misrepresented their vehicles as safe. The lawsuits, which claim economic losses, cite internal company documents that suggest the automakers knew of issues earlier than previously known  and well before issuing recalls.

These auto manufacturers were well aware of the public safety risks posed by Takatas airbags long ago, and still waited years to disclose them to the public and take action, said Peter Prieto, a lawyer for the owners.

At least 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries worldwide are linked to the Takata inflators that can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks. The defect led Takata to file for bankruptcy protection in June.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said there were no ruptures of GM inflators at issue. The lawsuit is baseless and without merit and misstates a host of material facts. We intend to defend it vigorously, he said.

Fiat Chrysler and Volkswagen declined to comment. Daimler said in a statement it regarded the accusations as unfounded.

Takata said in June it had recalled, or expected to recall, inflators in about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019, including more than 60 million in the United States in vehicles built by 19 automakers.

Other automakers have settled economic loss cases that are part of the same legal battle in Florida, worth more than $1.2 billion in total. In September, Honda Motor Co. agreed to a $605 million settlement.

A federal judge in Miami previously approved settlements with Toyota Motor Corp., Subaru Corp., BMW AG , Nissan Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. totaling $650 million. A similar suit against Ford Motor Co. is pending.

The settlements covered several forms of economic damages linked to the inflators, including claims that vehicles were inaccurately represented to be safe, and that buyers had overpaid for cars with defective or substandard air bags.

All but two of the 22 deaths occurred in Honda vehicles. The remaining two deaths occurred in 2006 Ford pickup trucks.

In 2017, Takata pleaded guilty to criminal wrongdoing and paid nearly $1 billion to resolve a U.S. federal investigation into its inflators.

A U.S. Senate panel will hold a hearing next Tuesday on the Takata recalls.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Topics Lawsuits USA Abuse MolestationNearly one in eight U.S. motorists is driving around uninsured and putting insured drivers at greater risk in the event of an auto accident, according to a study.

The study, directed by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) and co-sponsored by The Hanover Insurance Group, found that 13 percent of all U.S. motorists were uninsured in 2015, up from 12.3 percent in 2010, following a seven-year decline from a high of 14.9 percent in 2003.

When an uninsured driver is at fault in an accident, insured drivers or their insurance companies often are left to pay for the resulting physical damage and health costs. Similarly, an underinsured driver may not have high enough policy limits to cover all costs of damage.

The results of the survey sound an alarm, said Daniel Halsey, president, personal lines, at The Hanover. Uninsured motorists represent a significant risk to insured drivers.

Halsey said the average cost of an uninsured motorist claim is about $20,000, excluding any physical damage to the vehicle.

Despite the fact that 49 states require car insurance, some drivers choose to drive without coverage. The number of uninsured motorists varies by state, ranging from a low of 4.5 percent of all drivers in Maine to a high of 26.7 percent in Florida, according to the IRC.

Mississippi, New Mexico, Michigan and Tennessee are with Florida in the top five states based on rate of uninsured motorists, while North Carolina, Massachusetts, New York, and Maine have the lowest rates.

Despite the recent increase in the countrywide rate, several states experienced significant declines. Oklahomas UM rate in 2015 was 10.5 percent15.4 percentage points lower than in 2012. New Mexicos fell from 29.8 percent in 2006 to 20.8 percent in 2015.

However, twice as many states saw their UM rate increase as decrease from 2010 to 2015.

While some states saw significant drops in their uninsured motorists rates, overall, the rate is increasing nationwide, said Elizabeth A. Sprinkel, senior vice president of the IRC. This can mean added risk for all motorists.

The Hanover used the results to urge drivers to discuss uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage with their independent agents. Generally, it is a good idea for motorists to have the same amount of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage as bodily injury coverage, according to the insurer.

Th IRC study, Uninsured Motorists, 2017 Edition, examined data collected from 14 insurers representing approximately 60 percent of the private passenger auto insurance market in 2015.

Topics Personal AutoAn appeals court in Dallas has reversed a lower courts denial of a motion to compel arbitration in a dispute between a night club and its contracted entertainer.

In Dallas Food & Beverage LLC d/b/a Bucks Cabaret v. Lantrip, Joy Lantrip, a dancer at Bucks Cabaret (Bucks) in Dallas, asserts claims for negligence, gross negligence and violations of the Texas Dram Shop Act after the club overserved her alcohol and allowed her to drive from its premises.

According to the written opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas, Lantrip worked at Bucks as an entertainer under a Dancer Performance Lease that she signed on Nov. 28, 2016. The contract states that any dispute with Bucks related to the performers work at the bar would be resolved through binding arbitration. The lease agreement states in part: The parties waive any right to litigate such claims in a court of law, and waive the right to trial by jury.

After leaving Bucks on Nov. 29, 2016, Lantrip was involved in a single car accident in which she was severely injured. In her suit against Bucks, she alleges that the bar was negligent in serving her alcohol although she was clearly intoxicated and in allowing her to drive away.

Under the condition of her employment, Lantrip was required to drink alcohol and had to pay for the drinks herself. She alleges in her suit that Bucks was negligent in requiring Lantrip to consume alcoholic beverages, violating its duty to use ordinary care to provide a reasonably safe workplace.

Her petition maintains that the arbitration agreement doesnt apply to her complaint against Bucks because she had to buy her own drinks, which made her a customer, not an employee.

Bucks countered that the arbitration agreement is valid and that arbitration is required in the case because Lantrips claims arise out of her allegations that the she was overserved alcohol while working at Bucks.

Lantrip didnt dispute the validity of the arbitration agreement. She asserted, however, that her claims are independent of the lease agreement and outside the narrow scope of the arbitration provision because Bucks made her a patron by selling her alcoholic beverages.

The trial court denied Bucks motion to compel arbitration and Bucks appealed.

Responding to Bucks appeal, Lantrip asked that the case be remanded to the trial court for limited discovery on whether her claims fall within the scope of the arbitration provision.

In the opinion written by Justice Ada Brown, the appeals court recognized that the arbitration provision in the entertainers contract unambiguously requires binding arbitration for any claims arising out of Lantrips performing and/or working at Bucks.

Lantrips claims assert that Bucks sold her alcoholic beverages after it was clear she was intoxicated and that by requiring her to consume alcohol Bucks breached its duty to provide a reasonably safe workplace. But the appeals court said the fact that Bucks required her to purchase those drinks is not necessarily inconsistent with her working under the terms of the lease agreement. In fact, the court said, Bucks could not require Lantrip to purchase drinks if she was merely a patron.

As such, the appeals court concluded that Lantrips personal injury claims fall within the scope of the Leases arbitration provision and found that the trial court was wrong to deny Bucks motion to compel arbitration.

The case was remanded to the trial court for entry of an order compelling arbitration between the two parties.

Topics Texas ClaimsFour black police officers are suing the city of Little Rock alleging age and racial discrimination, underscoring a growing divide between the citys police chief and an organization for black officers.

The federal lawsuit filed March 12 argued that Lt. Earnest Whitten, Sgt. Derrick Threadgill, Sgt. Willie Davis and fired officer Jackie Parker faced disparate treatment because of their race and ages, and that management violated whistleblower laws by retaliating when officers complained.

We want them to justify their personnel decisions, said Mike Laux, an attorney for the officers. Ive looked at them. It doesnt make sense to me. Lets not beat around the bush. There is rampant racism and racial discrimination that riddles the Little Rock Police Department.

The lawsuit also alleged Police Chief Kenton Buckner, who is not listed as a defendant, subjected the officers to a hostile work environment because of their involvement in the Little Rock Black Police Officers Association. The organization has criticized the chiefs leadership, accusing him of disciplining white officers with more hesitance than with black officers.

There are many instances of similar conduct by white LRPD officers who were either not disciplines or disciplined  less harshly, the lawsuit stated.

The hostile work environment included harassment, suspensions and threats of demotion, according to the lawsuit.

I dont know if he has made his career out of being the African-American who is tough on African-Americans and thereby useful to white leadership, Laux said of Buckner, who is black. He relieves white folks of a lot of their guilt.

Laux said there are plans for Capt. Tanya Washington and Lt. Johnny Gilbert to also join the complaint. The two are waiting on right-to-sue letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The lawsuit is seeking relief that includes punitive damages, compensatory damages and a declaratory judgment that Little Rock engages in discriminatory practices.

Buckner, City Manager Bruce Moore and City Attorney Tom Carpenter all declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Law EnforcementA deadly fire in a high-rise Florida condominium had firefighters pulling people off balconies as smoke quickly spread early Tuesday. One man was killed, seven other residents were hospitalized and about 100 people have been displaced from the building.

Pompano Beach spokeswoman Sandra King says firefighters extinguished the blaze on the seventh floor of the 15-story building early Tuesday.

A resident who was able to safely get out told firefighters that she walked out of the bathroom and found her apartment on fire.

Smoke spread quickly down the hallway. King says firefighters pulled three people from seventh-floor balconies.

Sheriffs officials said in a news release that 80-year-old Vincent R. Andretta died, likely of smoke inhalation.

The state fire marshal is investigating. Pompano Beach is just north of Fort Lauderdale.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics FloridaKentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is requesting a presidential disaster declaration for 22 eastern Kentucky counties where damage occurred during severe flooding last month.

Bevins office said in a news release Monday that the flooding caused over $18 million in damages to highways, bridges and local infrastructure. Bevin said the declaration will provide federal assistance for repairs.

The release said the counties are located in eastern Kentucky. Kentucky Emergency Management Director Michael Dossett said the state is helping western Kentucky counties with damage assessments from flooding that occurred within days of the initial damage.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood KentuckyEfforts to curb the use of opioids in Californias workers compensation system appear to be paying off.

New research from the California Workers Compensation Institute on prescription drugs used to treat injured workers shows that opioids now account for less than a quarter of all workers comp prescriptions in the state, down from nearly a third a decade ago.

Other drugs, such as anti-inflammatories and anticonvulsants, often used as alternative painkillers, now represent a much larger share, the CWCI report shows.

Interestingly, while public attention to the national opioid epidemic began ramping up only in the past few years, the downward trend in California workers comp has been going on for longer than that, the report shows.

This is an issue that has been with us for quite some time, albeit under the radar of mass media coverage until I would say the last five to seven years, said Alex Swedlow, president of the CWCI. This problem was some 30 years in the making. It will take a lot of time to fully resolve it.

The CWCI studied a sample of 12.5 million prescriptions dispensed to injured California workers between 2007 and 2017, and focused its research on drugs that were used to treat injured workers with lost-time claims. The study tracks changes in the prescription and payment distributions among major therapeutic drug groups.

Opioid prescriptions fell sharply over an eight-year period  from a record 32 percent of all prescriptions dispensed on 2008 and 2009 indemnity claims to 23.2 percent of the filled prescriptions in 2017, according to the study.

The study shows that opioids share of the total indemnity claim drug spend fell to 18.6 percent in 2017, the lowest level in more than a decade and well below the record high of 30.5 percent in 2009.

Swedlow said the positive trend is the result of ongoing efforts by numerous stakeholders in Californias workers comp system over several years.

I would say there is an association that we see in the decline of opioid use and the concerted efforts by physicians, and payors, as well as injured workers, to be more educated and more cautious about prescribing and using opioids and the level of opioids that are prescribed for occupational injury, Swedlow said.

However, opioids remain the number one drug category for California workers compensation indemnity claims. Opioids, anti-inflamatories and anticonvulsants were the most common drugs dispensed on the indemnity claims in 2017, accounting for more than half of all filled prescriptions. In terms of payments, opioids, dermatological drugs, and anticonvulsants ranked as the top three drug categories, together consuming 46.5 percent of the indemnity claim drug spend.

The study is not suggesting that the opioid epidemic has been solved, Swedlow cautioned. Hardly. Its improving, but still have a long way to go.

Key findings from the CWCI report include:

Opioids were far less prevalent in the early stages of accident year 2015 and 2016 indemnity claims in earlier accident years. Among AY 2016 lost-time claims, 21.6 percent had opioids prescribed in the first three months, down from 29.1 percent of the AY 2015 lost-time claims and down from the record 37.1 percent of the AY 2008 indemnity claims. AY 2007-2014 data show the prevalence of opioids in indemnity claims prior to AY 2015 was far more stable, as the percentage of claims involving opioids at 12 months post injury and beyond was typically around 40 percent.

Among indemnity claims, the number of opioid prescriptions per user at different levels of claim development has now been trending down for several years. For example, the average number of opioid prescriptions in the first three months post injury fell to 1.8 in AY 2016, well below the peak level of 2.5 prescriptions in AY 2009.

While both the prevalence and volume of opioid prescriptions in the early stages of a claim have declined, the average strength of the opioids dispensed in the first three months, measured by morphine milligram equivalents per prescription, has shown little change, suggesting that similar strength opioids are being used in the early stages of a claim. The average strength per opioid prescription dispensed to an injured worker continues to increase sharply within each accident year as the claims develop, often doubling between the the-month and the 60-month benchmarks.

Hydrocodone was the leading opioid dispensed to injured workers in each year of the study, accounting for between 50.1 percent and 62.9 percent of all opioids dispensed on indemnity claims during the 9-1/2 year span, followed by Tramadol and Oxycodone. Together these three chugs accounted for at least 80 percent of the opioids dispensed on indemnity claims for each year in the study.

Hydrocodone also accounted for the largest share of the indemnity claim opioid chug spend m each year of the study. However, that share has dwindled from 39.3 percent in 2009 to just 21.2 percent in 2017 the combined effect of Hydrocodones declining percentage of the opioid prescriptions and a 20 percent reduction in the average amount paid for Hydrocodone. Tramadol, with 19.3 percent of the payments, now ranks second among all opioids in terms of drug spend, though Buprenorphine, used as a painkiller and an alternative to Methadone for opioid addiction, surpassed Oxycodone as the third most costly opioid in 2016 and in 2017 its share of the opioid dollars continued to grow, increasing to 17.2 percent.

Full results of CWCIs study have been published in a CWCI research update, California Workers Comp Prescription Drug Distributions & Opioid Trends. CWCI members and subscribers can access the on the CWCI website. The report can also be purchased on the site.

Swedlow said he believes the states workers comp system may see further declines in opioid usage, thanks in part to a new drug formulary.

That and the medial treatment utilization schedule together should continue the effort to reduce unnecessary opioid utilization, Swedlow said. Also, payers are improving their oversight abilities by leveraging managed care principles, PBMs (pharmacy benefit management groups) and other tools.

Related:

Topics California Claims Workers' Compensation DrugsWhat Are Social Security Benefits?

Social Security benefits are payments made to qualified retirees and disabled people, and to their spouses, children, and survivors. Social Securityofficially the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program in the U.S.is a comprehensive federal benefits program designed to provide partial replacement income for retirees and their spouses, those whose spouse or qualifying ex-spouse has died, and the disabled. Under specified conditions, it also supports children of beneficiaries.

President Franklin Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act into law in 1935. The current law, after a number of amendments, encompasses several social insurance and social welfare programs, including the issuance of Social Security benefits. Benefits are determined by a specific set of criteria issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Key Takeaways Social Security benefits provide partial replacement income for qualified retirees and disabled individuals, as well as for their spouses, children, and survivors.

An individual must pay into the Social Security program during their working years and accrue 40 credits in order to qualify for benefits.

The benefit amount someone receives is based on their earnings history, the year they were born, and the age when they start to claim Social Security.

Spouses who don't work or haven't amassed the requisite number of credits can receive benefits based on their spouse's work record.

Benefits may be taxed depending on one's income and tax filing status.

How Social Security Benefits Work

Payroll taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or the Self Employed Contributions Act (SECA) (for self-employed individuals) fund Social Security and all of its benefits.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects tax deposits and formally entrusts them to the Social Security Trust Fund, which is made up of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund.

You qualify for Social Security old age (or retirement) benefits by paying into the program during your working years. Full insurance is based on accumulating 40 quarters or "credits" from covered wages, and a worker can earn up to four credits a year. One credit is awarded for every $1,470 in earnings for 2021 (up from $1,410 in 2020), an amount that is adjusted annually to keep up with inflation. A payroll tax cap sets the maximum amount of earned income that is subject to the Social Security payroll tax. The payroll tax cap in 2021 is $142,800 (up from $137,700 in 2020).

The SSA keeps track of your earnings throughout your career, indexes each year's total earnings, and uses the 35 highest-earning years to determine your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Next, your AIME is used to arrive at your primary insurance amount (PIA), the monthly amount you can begin to collect when you reach full retirement age.

For individuals born in 1938 or later, full retirement age gradually increases from 65 until it hits 67 for those born after 1959. You can collect Social Security retirement benefits at age 62, but the amount of the benefit will be reduced to compensate for receiving it earlier and, presumably, for a longer period of time.

In 2021, the maximum monthly Social Security payment for retired workers is $3,148. The SSAs retirement calculators can help you determine your full retirement age, the SSAs estimate of your life expectancy for benefit calculations, rough estimates of your retirement benefits, actual projections of your retirement benefits based on your work record, and more. Retirees with non-FICA or SECA-taxed wages will require additional help because rules for those individuals are more complex.

If you wait until you're 70 instead of 62 to collect benefits, you'll get an extra 8% a year, which means you'll collect 132% of your PIA for the rest of your life. Once you reach 70 the increases stop.

Spousal and Survivor Benefits

Spouses who didnt work or who didnt earn enough credits to qualify for Social Security on their own can receive benefits starting at age 62 based on their spouses work record. Similar to claiming benefits on one's own record, a spouse's benefit will be reduced if they claim benefits before reaching full retirement age. The highest spousal benefit someone can receive is half the benefit their spouse is entitled to at their full retirement age.

When a spouse dies, the surviving spouse is entitled to file for a survivor's benefit as early as age 60. The benefit will be reduced if they file prior to reaching their full retirement age. They are permitted to switch to their own benefit at any point they wish starting at age 62 and through age 70 if that benefit is higher than the survivor's benefit.

People who were married for 10 years or longerand are divorced and have not remarriedare entitled to collect the spousal benefit and the spousal survivor benefit. The rules are complicated so review them carefully.

Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) are made annually to Social Security benefits to counteract the effects of inflation, although there have been years with no increase due to negligible inflation rates.

Social Security Benefits and Taxes

If an individual taxpayer's income exceeds $25,000, or a married couple filing jointly has income that's more than $32,000, they will be required to pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. The portion of benefits that is subject to taxation depends upon income level, but no one pays taxes on more than 85% of their Social Security benefits, regardless of income. Benefits received due to disability are, in most cases, tax-free. If your child receives dependent or survivor benefits, this money does not count towards your taxable income.By Padraig Hoare

The use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering and terror financing could set Irish crime detection back 20 years, an accountancy body has warned.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Acca) said it was vital that Irish members of the profession kept up with the rapidly-evolving cryptocurrency space, which includes Bitcoin.

Acca director of professional insights, Maggie McGhee, said Bitcoin caused concern because its pseudonymous nature gave rise to the risk of illegal activities such as money laundering and terror funding.

She said Bitcoins high volatility made it inherently risky and unstable, adding that it was funding a speculative bubble in other areas like initial coin offerings (ICOs) with speculators chasing poorly formed business propositions.

However, she said the underlying technology had huge potential for good.

The underlying blockchain technology behind Bitcoin could revolutionise how financial transactions are done and have a positive impact on business globally. This potential must be viewed separately from the risks of Bitcoin.

Acca Ireland technical director Aidan Clifford warned the Republic and the North could be attractive for criminals to launder money.

The historical prevalence for money laundering across the border makes Ireland particularly at risk to cryptocurrencies by providing a clear route to enabling the proceeds of crime to go undetected.

Cryptocurrency could bypass all the current controls and with the pending challenges of Brexit, it could set crime detection back 20 years. As an important line of defence it is incumbent upon all accountants to be informed and knowledgeable about the evolution of these evolving assets, he said.

Meanwhile, Google said it will ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content starting in June. Under the new policy, it will ban ads for unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency and financial spread betting.

In January, Facebook said it will ban ads promoting financial products and services tied to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings. The policy will be implemented across its platforms, including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram.

Additional reporting, ReutersBy Eamon Quinn

The chief executive of Permanent TSB has said that he has every confidence in the future of the Government-owned mortgage lender, as it pledged to go ahead with its sale plan for 3.7bn of troubled loans. That plan has aroused deep criticism.

Outlining details of the so-called Project Glas, which consists of 2.8bn in residential mortgages and buy-to-let loans, and, even more controversially, 900m of so-called split mortgages, Jeremy Masding said that although at an early stage, the sale plan was part of the strategy to return the bank to a sound financial footing.

The loans sale and a similar, tentative plan by fellow State-owned bank, AIB, have been attacked by politicians and debt advocates, who say the Irish banks havent done enough to strike sustainable deals with their customers, 10 years after the onset of the financial crisis.

They are accused by critics of being too ready to offload troubled loans to vulture funds  who currently control around 10% of the residential loan market here  and who will seek to again offload what are long-term mortgage commitments in a few years time.

But Mr Masding told reporters: We launched a strategy a few week ago. We are executing that strategy, adding that working within legislative and regulatory constraints, at this point of time, the plan is the plan. We are going to execute the plan.

Mr Masding said that consumer protections for Permanent TSB customers would travel to whoever bought the loans.

On the significance of Project Glas and the long-term viability of the lender, Mr Masding said: I would make the case that PTSB is a really good and important institution for the Irish economy.

He said that its branch network was embedded in communities and helped drive the mortgage market.

The bank cut the NPLs on its loan books by 500m last year, and by 4bn in the last five years, but 26% of its loan book is still classified as non-performing.

It insisted it had used all available tools to reduce the NPLs, including 13,700 cured and performing home mortgages, which represented a huge success for families, as well as the bank.

It had an increased share, of over 12.5%, of the mortgage market last year.

Reporting of full-year pre-tax profit of 52m for 2017, it said it will continue to boost profitability.

On its part in the industrys tracker scandal, Mr Masding said that, amid the enforcement investigation by the Central Bank, it had offered all its customers redress and compensation, though not all had accepted the offers.Update 5.45pm: The European Association of Judges has said that in view of the recent "personalised attacks and offensive criticism directed at Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly" reportedly emanating from sections of the Polish media it expressed "total solidarity to all Irish judges and, in particular, to the concerned colleague".

The EAJ wished to "strongly and unreservedly condemn" the "unacceptable references" to Ms Justcie Donnelly's personal and private life, a statement today said.

"In a democracy, any citizen is entitled to criticise a ruling of a court. However, the disapproval should not be addressed in a manner that encourages a culture of disrespect for the judiciary and, in any case, should never be directed at a judge pesonally but to the decision itself."

The EAJ went on to emphasise the "vital importance of the independence of judges in making decisions in a vibrant and plural democracy which promotes equality and diversity".

[Earlier : The Association of Judges of Ireland has condemned personalised attacks in the Polish media on a High Court judge, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, for suspending the extradition of a Polish man, writes Ann O'Loughlin.

In a statement issued today, the AJI said it "wishes to deprecate in the strongest terms the personalised attacks and invective directed at our member, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, reportedly emanating from some sections of the Polish media."

"Any interested person or party is entitled to criticise a judgment or ruling of a court, and even to do so in robust terms," the statement said.

"However, a judge is a public office holder, and if a party wishes to criticise her for the manner in which she has performed her public duty, the criticism should be confined to that and directed at the court's decision and not at the judge personally.

"The irrelevant references to Ms Justice Donnelly's personal and private life are utterly unacceptable and we condemn them unreservedly."

The statement also said, in condemning the attacks, the AJI is "not to be taken as commenting in any way, or as expressing any views whatsoever, concerning the case at issue (which is ongoing) or the ruling in controversy, as it would be wholly inappropriate for us to do so".

The statement comes after a conservative newspaper Dziennik Narowowy and website wpolityce.plmade a link between the judge's decision and her sexual orientation.

The newspaper ran a headline referring to an "Irish lesbian judge" suspending the extradition "because she is concerned about the rule of law in our country".

The report also referred to Ms Justice Donnelly as the "first openly homosexual person working at the High Court" and also noted she had worked for the Irish Council and Civil Liberties (ICCL).

The Polish website also referred to Ms Justice Donnelly's sexual orientation in its criticism of her decision last Monday.

In her decision, the judge asked the European courts for a ruling on the effect of recent legislative changes in Poland.

The referral was made in the extradition case of Artur Celmer, wanted to face trial in his native Poland on drug trafficking charges. He was arrested in Ireland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant last May.

In what Mr Celmers lawyers have called the lead test case in Europe on extradition to Poland, they opposed his surrender in light of recent legislative changes concerning the Polish judiciary, courts and public prosecutor, among other issues.

Referring the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Ms Justice Donnelly said a number of legislative changes in Poland in the last two years were so immense that the High Court was forced to conclude that the rule of law in Poland has been systematically damaged.

She said the Polish supreme court has been affected by compulsory retirement and future appointments, and by the newly composed National Council for the Judiciary which will be largely dominated by political appointees.

Referring to a new regime which reduced the retirement age for female judges from 67 to 60 and for male judges from 67 to 65, Ms Justice Donnelly said that by legislating for gender discrimination amongst the judiciary, Poland had shown a significant disregard for what is recognised in the Treaty of the European Union. It simply emphasises that Poland appears no longer to accept that there are common European values which must be respected.

She said the integrity and effectiveness of Polands constitutional tribunal or constitutional court had been greatly interfered with. There is now no guarantee that laws in Poland will comply with the Polish constitution.Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy and his department have defended moves to lower minimum standards for new apartments, despite widespread concerns being expressed, writes Daniel McConnell.

Mr Murphy and the Government have moved to reduce the minimum size of apartments, increase the number of apartments that can be built per development and remove the need for car parking for residents in central locations.

Under his plan, Mr Murphy also intends to increase the cap on the number of units that can be on a floor for every lift or staircase from eight to 12.

Opponents have hit out at the plans saying they will not address the housing crisis nor will they encourage developers to build.

They are very disappointing, said housing analyst Mel Reynolds.

The overarching rationale for this should be affordability and affordability isnt mentioned once. My impression is that it is trying to bring in a bit of flexibility into the market.

The two short-stay solutions put forward here, build to rent and shared accommodation, there is no research or evidence to suggest there is a market for them.

Mr Reynolds, speaking on RTE radio, said builders are holding off on developing now because they are awaiting the introduction of the new guidelines despite the crisis.

He added that the delivery of these short-term types of accommodation also has the impact of inflating prices for normal longer-term accommodation and making homes more expensive.

Lorcan Sirr, a housing policy lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), said the changes would put an emphasis on smaller units without any guarantee of affordability.

Theyre turning the planning system into a system to facilitate development rather than to balance the needs of society versus commercial needs, he said.

However, the Department of Housing said the new apartment guidelines are just one of a suite of measures to encourage and increase the supply of homes.

Under Rebuilding Ireland 6bn has been earmarked to provide 50,000 affordable social homes through a range of measures including building, acquisitions, leasing and regeneration/refurbishment during the period 2016-2021.

We have already provided a new fast-track planning process for large developments and apartments to speed up decisions and provide greater certainty, a spokesman said.

It added that funding of some 226m has been given over to open up housing lands through the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund for the delivery of 18,000 homes by 2021.

- Irish ExaminerThe Russian ambassador to Ireland has described the response to the Salisbury attack as hype and propaganda.

Moscow is expected to expel a number of British diplomats in response to the expulsion of 23 diplomats from the UK.MANY times during the 25-year history of Feeder, frontman, Grant Nicholas, thought it was all over for the band. The darkest hour was in January 2002, when Jon Lee, Nicholass childhood friend and Feeders drummer, died by suicide.

When Jon took his life, it was kind of the end for us, says Nicholas, 50. We were a three-piece, and the drummer with whom I had started it wasnt there any more. He was a great personality and a great drummer, as well as a friend.

In the face of adversity, Nicholas found a strength he hadnt known he possessed. Feeder, a Nirvana-esque outfit from south Wales, had built a loyal following. Now, all the hard work looked in danger of turning to ashes. Refusing to give up, Nicholas knuckled down and Feeder returned, scarred yet stronger, with their most successful album, 2002s Comfort In Sound, a UK top-10 hit.

It was a case of start a new band or carry on with Feeder, he says. I was lucky that the whole shock of it inspired me to work a bit differently.

Feeder had emerged in the mid-1990s, when Britpop was at its height. With a grungy sound and a transatlantic inflection, they didnt fit in.

This was a product of their upbringing in provincial Wales as much as their artistic outlook. As a child, living in Newport, it didnt seem possible he might end up on the cover of the NME or on the BBC Radio 1 playlist. So he wrote the sort of songs he wanted to hear, rather than what might catch the ear of scenesters hundreds of miles away.

Coming from a small town, we werent close to the trends of the day. I discovered music though my older brother and also, bizarrely, through a friend, who moved from New York to Wales when his parents got divorced. That was bizarre, but he introduced me to a lot of American stuff. I grew up with heavy guitars. I used to love Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. At that point, the American grunge scene was starting to bubble up. We were on the wrong side of the Atlantic. When youre in a small town, your tastes are probably going to be different from what is going on in London.

Keeping a band going for more than two decades is never easy. Feeder have had commercial highs and lows. The nadir, arguably, was 2005s Pushing The Senses, a more reflective record that critics savaged on the (wildly inaccurate) basis that it sounded a bit like Coldplay.

Ten albums in 25 years, says Nicholas, who sounds faintly astonished to still be around. Theres a good vibe in the camp and Im still writing new music. We had a little break for a while, during which I did a few solo records. It might have been frustrating for the team and for Feeder fans, but that was the first proper time away wed had and it brought back a fresh spark. The music business has changed beyond recognition since Feeder started, says Nicholas. On balance, hes glad he began when he did.

I dont know whether we could be successful now. Some things are better; others are worse. Back then, there was no way you could get discovered in Wales, so I had to move to London.

Nowadays, with the power of the internet, you can get discovered no matter where you live. But it makes it more competitive, and sales are tiny, compared to what they used to be. If youre a small band, unless you are very lucky, its quite hard to earn a living from it.

The Best Of Feeder is out now. The band play Dublin Olympia, this Wednesday.

Ed PowerWes Anderson has enlisted such longterm chums as Bill Murray and Frances McDormand to provide the voices for

Isle of Dogs, writes Helen Barlow

NOW that the Oscars are done and dusted, Wes Andersons Isle of Dogs is already emerging as a prime contender in the animation stakes for the 2019 event.

His previous film, The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, where Saoirse Ronan made such an impression, became his biggest commercial success ever. In the intervening years, he has returned to stop-motion animation, the painstaking art form he used on his 2009 Roald Dahl adaptation, Fantastic Mr Fox, starring the biggest grey-haired fox of them all, George Clooney.

Everyone wants to work with Anderson and he makes voicing his furry friends  this time dogs  surprisingly easy.

One thing about an animated movie is you cant really say youre unavailable, Anderson quips. We can do it anytime. We can do it at your house! There is just no excuse.

A boyish 48-year-old, Anderson is one of a kind. Old-fashioned in his demeanor, he invariably wears a tweed suit for public appearances and resides in Paris, the stronghold of auteur cinema of which he is definitely a member. He lives together with his partner (Lebanese writer Juman Malouf) and daughter in Montparnasse.

Isle of Dogs is set in Japan. While Anderson unashamedly draws on the work of Japanese directors Akira Kurosawa (who himself made the 1949 crime drama Stray Dog) and animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki, he also wanted to tell the story of a pack of dogs abandoned on a garbage dump, seemingly a parable on the refugee crisis. Though Anderson says the story could be set anywhere.

Its probably more true to Texas, the Houston native notes.

The thing that made it come to life for us was when we decided it should be a fantasy version of Japan. One thing I like to do, or that I just find interesting when I make a movie, is to try to devise a world for the movie to take place in, some setting for the characters that we can create that you cant just walk outside and find.

Ultimately the action takes place 20 years in the future in the fictional city of Megasaki where the evil cat-loving Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) has banished the dogs to an island used as a garbage dump. (Such an island exists in Japan.) Local boy Atari (Koyu Rankin) embarks on a rescue mission to track down his beloved pet Spots (Liev Schreiber) with the help of the islands furry occupants headed by Chief (Bryan Cranston).

Anderson loves using puppets to bring his creatures to life. Were embracing old methods but we pushed that, he says. I love using models, theres just some kind of charm, but there are things that we combined in the digital process.

He explains that his new film is far more complex than Fantastic Mr Fox even if he had to make it with the same amount of money.

Isle of Dogs has three times as many characters and twice as many sets  its just bigger. Making the movie was a totally instinctive thing. My hope is that whatever were finding is making the experience more interesting. The process is to mix simplicity with shots that are jammed with stuff. We learned so much making Fantastic Mr Fox about how to be efficient and economical.

He wrote the screenplay over four years with the Coppola clan cousins, Roman and Jason (Schwartzmann), his collaborators on The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom. To consolidate the Asian theme he enlisted the advice of Nomura, who had appeared in Sofia Coppolas Lost in Translation (Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson voice dogs here) and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Interestingly he met early in the piece with the actors who voice what he calls the the group hero pack of dogs, his old buddies Bill Murray, Ed Norton and Bob Balaban and newcomer Cranston. It was great, a fun way to start.

Even if Cranstons Chief is the nominal head of the pack, theres no doubting that Murray took the lead when promoting the film in Berlin.

I have a little gang of people and Bill is one of the central people in that, Anderson notes. But Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson and their brother Andrew are the ones I really started making films with. Together with Jason and Roman its a group thats grown over the years.

Anderson explains how Owen Wilson, his college friend with whom he wrote Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums, was always more oriented towards America, while Murray, especially during his career resurgence after Lost in Translation, has been more a man of the world, expressing his love of Japan and Europe. So he is more in tune with Andersons current inclinations.

As Isle of Dogs opened the Berlin Film festival, Murray  a keen musician  took to the taiko drums as he joined the Japanese drummers playing the kind of music that thunders throughout the film. The far more timid Anderson briefly joined in. Murray also did the honours in accepting the best director award for Anderson who could not attend the ceremony.

I never thought Id go to work as a dog and come home with a bear, Murray quipped. Im very grateful to have been able to spend time here again. Ich bin ein Berliner Hund.

French composer Alexandre Desplat, who has won two Oscars for best original score, this year for The Shape of Water and in 2015 for The Grand Budapest Hotel, is another Anderson regular. They started out on 2012s Moonrise Kingdom and Desplats score for Isle of Dogs will no doubt be up for awards in 2019.

I loved Alexandres music for Birth, Anderson says, noting the 2004 film starring Nicole Kidman. I found out he lived two blocks away from me, so at that point I knew I had to work with him.

It probably also helped that Scarlett Johansson lived in Paris as he was writing the Isle of Dogs screenplay, while Greta Gerwig, the Oscar-nominated director of Lady Bird (starring Saoirse Ronan) and partner of Andersons other co-writer Noah Baumbach (Fantastic Mr Fox, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) was happy to be part of the voice cast too. Anderson regular Tilda Swinton, Oscar winner Frances McDormand and even Yoko Ono also provide voices.

It remains to be seen whether Andersons young daughter, who was born while he was preparing the film and is named after a character in the 1940 movie The Mortal Storm, becomes part of his ensemble.

Shes seen me sitting at the computer and knows every detail of this movie. She knows this movie better than anybody. It seems that becoming part of her fathers gang just might be inevitable.

Isle of Dogs opens in Irish cinemas on March 30

Wes Anderson has enlisted such longterm chums as Bill Murray and Frances McDormand to provide the voices for Isle of Dogs, writes Helen BarlowOn 43 occasions this year alone, the trolley count has broken the 475 level described by then health minister Mary Harney as a national emergency in 2006. Yet todays Government is pointedly avoiding the label, writes political correspondent Fiachra O Cionnaith

LOOK at the cold, hard numbers, because as ever while promises can over time be altered, the numbers never lie.

On March 28, 2006, after the first meeting of the inaugural emergency department taskforce set up to tackle the trolley count crisis, then health minister Mary Harney declared it a national emergency.

Describing the fact 495 people were waiting on trolleys in overcrowded emergency departments as a breach of basic human dignity, Ms Harney said anything less than ending the scandal is not acceptable to the public, not acceptable to me, and not acceptable to the HSE.

Since the watershed moment, when the inhumane trolley crisis was finally called what it really is, the national emergency record rate has been broken 102 times.

It has been dwarfed by records of 500 people on trolleys in January 2010, 569 in January 2011, 601 in January 2015, 612 in January 2017, 656 in January this year and 714 just this week  in March, a month not normally associated with surging trolley figures.

Instead of fixing the problem, Ms Harneys national emergency figure of 495 trolley figures was topped once in 2010, twice in 2011, 15 times in 2015, 20 times in 2016, 31 times in 2017 and 43 times this year alone.

The figures dont lie. The annual trolley count rates have nearly doubled from 55,720 in 2006 to 98,981 last year, with more than 35,000 people already faced with trolley waits this year.

So while the minister in charge of the health sector has changed, the crisis not only still exists, but has worsened.

Yet, asked for a response in recent days, Health Minister Simon Harris and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar have pointedly declined to admit the obvious.

Im not one for labels, my predecessors put labels in the past and Im not sure it helps.

But if the question is do I accept there is a need for a real urgent and renewed focus on hospital overcrowding  absolutely, Mr Harris told reporters as he attended the emergency department taskforce meeting on Monday in response to that days 714-person trolley count.

Asked a similar question during his whistle-stop St Patricks festival trip to the US in Oklahoma, Mr Varadkar was equally reluctant to name the elephant in the room, controversially claiming it is not entirely clear what is going wrong before referencing the recent snow storms and very long flu season, but thats not an excuse.

Since 2006, the current Fine Gael-led Government, its Fine Gael-Labour predecessor, and the boom and bust Fianna Fail-led coalition have all published comprehensive plans on how to address the trolley scandal.

However, instead of fully implementing the reforms, the reports recommendations have too often been reduced to bit-part roles in the wider reform agenda, either not being properly acted on or not receiving the supports required.

In the aftermath of Ms Harneys 2006 national emergency admission, the newly formed emergency department task-force put forward a number of suggestions for how the crisis could be addressed.

They included:

Linking hospital managers pay to trolley levels, a suggestion since made by James Reilly, Leo Varadkar and Simon Harris;

Targets intended to guarantee no patient waits longer than 12;

Plans to open more than 2,000 new hospital beds to cope with demand;

Commitments that no emergency department was to have more than 10 patients waiting on trolleys at any one time.

However, the pay plan was quickly shot down due to employment law while the six hour target soon fell by the wayside. And the 2,000 new beds initiative soon fell victim to the economic crash.

A year later, in June 2007, a damning independent PA Consulting report for the HSE leaked just days before the general election said seven emergency department were unfit for purpose, including the Mater, Beaumont, the Mercy University Hospital in Cork, Wexford General, Cavan General, Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Letterkenny General.

As such, the HSE repeated its waiting time target, to be reduced in months to six hours, and claimed the report crystallised the problems so they could now be resolved.

However, the subsequent economic crash meant that instead of increasing bed capacity, upgrading existing emergency department units and retaining and raising staff numbers, financial needs meant none of this occurred.

Between 2008 and 2011, a series of cuts to hospital budgets saw the HSEs budget slashed by 2.7bn and nursing levels cut by 5,000.

The situation was further exacerbated by a well-intentioned attempt to re-configure hospital services between 2011 and 2013 which saw emergency departments at Bantry, Ennis, and other areas shut so they could be centralised in larger hospitals.

While in the health minister hot seat between 2011 and 2014, Dr James Reilly had some success with his Special Delivery Units (SDUs), which was specifically designed to force hospitals to comply with the still in place but largely ignored 12 and six hour waiting time limits.

However, while HSE director general Tony OBrien said the SDUs would be used to ensure no stone will be left unturned, since 2014 the emergency department figures show the initial reduction has been short-lived.

Late last year, Health Minister Simon Harris published the latest plan to fix the health service. The bed capacity review called for 2,500 new hospital beds to increase capacity over the next decade  with a similar call being made by the cross-party Slaintecare report.

HSE director general Tony OBrien

However, like the reports of the past, the latest plans have no guarantee of being acted on, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar lukewarm at best on Slaintecare and 10-year bed increase plans too often becoming the victims of financial misfortune.

Twelve years on from Ms Harneys national emergency admission, the crisis remains just that a national emergency.

Ignoring the numbers will not end the scandal, but a decision to stop ignoring the well-aired plans that should be fully implemented will.

By the numbers

March 28, 2006

Mary Harney declares the trolley count a national emergency at the inaugural meeting of the emergency department taskforce after 495 patients are treated on trolleys.

Annual trolley total: 55,720.

June 1, 2007

A detailed HSE review finds seven emergency department are unfit for purpose: The Mater, Beaumont, the Mercy University Hospital in Cork, Wexford General, Cavan General, Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda, and Letterkenny General.

The HSE repeats its 12-hour waiting-time targets, to be reduced in months to six hours.

Annual trolley total: 50,402.

January 12, 2009

Staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda warn conditions are inhumane after 40 people are treated on trolleys, including 15 for a number of nights. The number of people on trolleys this month averages 450.

Annual trolley total: 63,713.

January 20, 2010

For the first time, 500 people are treated on trolleys in a single day.

Annual trolley total: 75,859.

January 4 and 5, 2011

The 500-person daily rate is broken twice, with new records of 511 and 569 set.

Annual trolley total: 86,481

2012 to 2014

James Reillys special delivery unit brings initial reductions to trolley numbers, with the 500 mark not hit again, but nurses and doctors continue to warn of an ongoing overcrowding crisis.

Annual trolley totals: 66,308 in 2012, 67,863 in 2013, and 77,091 in 2014.

January 6, 2015

The 601 daily trolley count means that for the first time there are more than 600 people being treated on trolleys at any one time. The HSE deputy national director of acute hospitals, Angela Fitzgerald, cannot say A&Es are safe, despite being asked on RTEs Morning Ireland programme eight times.

Annual trolley total: 92,998.

January 3, 2017

A new record is reached, with 612 people treated on trolleys in a single day. The 600-mark is broken twice more this year: On January 4 (602 on trolleys) and February 1 (601 on trolleys).

Annual trolley total: 98,981.

January 2 to January 30, 2018

Another record is set, with 656 people treated on trolleys in a single day. Despite the previously unheralded prospect of a 600-person daily trolley count, over the following month the ceiling is broken another four times, including a new 677-person record on January 3, 668 on January 23, 601 on January 24 and 644 on January 30.

February 14 to 26, 2018

Over a 13-day period, the 600-person mark is broken a further four times, with 623 people treated on trolleys on February 14, 643 on February 19, 621 on February 20, and 638 on February 26.

March 5 to 9, 2018

Over an unprecedented five-day period, the 600-mark is broken five days in a row: 654 people treated on trolleys on March 5, 620 on March 6, 613 on March 7, 614 on March 8 and 601 on March 9. The HSE and the Government blame the snow storms and a longer-than-expected flu season.

March 10 to 11, 2018

As repeatedly warned by emergency department staff in recent weeks, the 700-person mark is finally broken, with a shocking 714 people treated on trolleys in a single day. While the rate drops to 649 the following day, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation insists the Government must declare an A&E national emergency.Peru's congress has voted by a wide margin to reopen impeachment proceedings against President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, thrusting the Andean nation into renewed political turmoil.

The move comes as Peru prepares to host President Donald Trump at a regional summit less than a month away.

It is the second time politicians have threatened to remove the former Wall Street investor over his ties to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which is at the centre of Latin America's biggest corruption scandal.

In December, Mr Kuczynski narrowly avoided being voted out of office after a small opposition faction including the son of then-jailed former President Alberto Fujimori abstained.

Days later, Mr Kuczynski pardoned Mr Fujimori from a 25-year jail sentence for human rights abuses committed during his decade-long rule.

But analysts say his chances of survival look slimmer this time.

The deeply unpopular president has become increasingly isolated as one-time allies abandon him and polls show a majority of Peruvians want Mr Kuczynski out.

"He's going to have a lot more difficulty," said Eduardo Dargent, a political science professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

The measure adopted on Thursday inviting Mr Kuczynski to appear before congress next week to defend his actions had the support of 87 politicians, the same number needed to eventually oust the president on grounds of "moral incapacity".

Fifteen opposed the action and another 15 abstained.

At the heart of Mr Kucyznski's troubles is 782,000 dollars in payments that Odebrecht made to his private consulting firm more than a decade earlier.

For months, Mr Kuczynski had denied having any political or business ties with Odebrecht even as three of his predecessors were investigated for taking bribes from the company.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying some 800 million dollars in bribes to officials across Latin America, including 29 million dollars to politicians in Peru, as part of a plea agreement with the US Justice Department in 2016.

The Odebrecht scandal has ensnared some of the region's most prominent politicians and jolted Peru, where two former presidents stand accused of accepting money from the construction empire.

Analysts say the latest rocky chapter in Mr Kuczynski's presidency could negatively impact the nation's economy.

The timing of the impeachment proceedings could not be worse.

In less than a month Peru is scheduled to host Mr Trump and other leaders for the Summit of the Americas, whose main theme is how to combat corruption in the Western Hemisphere.

Peru's prime minister Mercedes Araoz said after Thursday's vote that the attempt to oust Mr Kuczynski "destroys Peru's image as a country built on clear, democratic rules".

Mr Kuczynski has denied any wrongdoing and says he will not step down.

If he is removed he would be replaced by Vice President Martin Vizcarra, a former governor who is currently serving as Peru's ambassador to Canada.

"As I've said from the beginning, I don't have anything to hide," Mr Kuczynski wrote on Twitter.

"And I am willing to give evidence with absolute transparency."

- PAThe sister of convicted church shooter Dylann Roof was arrested yesterday for bringing a knife to her South Carolina school.

Morgan Roof, 18, was charged with being in possession of marijuana, pepper spray, and a knife at A.C. Flora High School.

Richland County Sheriffs Department said that Roof had also made a social media post on Snapchat which caused alarm to the student body.

Morgan Roof, sister of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, arrested after making threats to students who walked out today. She was charged with possession of marijuana and weapon on school grounds. pic.twitter.com/On9HFPd6Nu  Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) March 15, 2018

Sheriff Leon Lott said in a statement that no students were harmed as a result of this incident.

Two other students were arrested at the school on Tuesday after a gun was found on campus. School principal Susan Childs posted a letter to parents on the school's Twitter page explaining what occurred while students walked out of class as part of a national protest calling for gun reform.

AC Flora eFormation - A Letter From Principal Childs - https://t.co/oZifzHEgmT  AC Flora High School (@acflorahigh) March 14, 2018

Ms Roof was taken to the Richland County Detention Center where her bond was set at $5,000 and she was screened for a public defender.

Her brother, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death last year for killing nine parishioners attending a Bible study in a Charleston church in 2015.

#BREAKING: @RCSD tells me the sister of Dylann Roof, Morgan Roof, was arrested A.C. Flora today for "being in possession of marijuana, pepper spray, and a knife. Roof had also made a social media post on Snapchat which caused alarm to the student body." #sctweets @wis10  Chad K. Mills (@ChadKMills) March 15, 2018

- Digital DeskThe biggest challenge for those who take up nearly 400 extra teacher training places in the seven universities, from next year, will be finding schools where they can do their practical training.

At least 100 of the 280 extra undergraduate places will lead to a qualification to teach second-level subjects that have teacher shortages: for example, maths, science, Irish, and foreign languages.

The 100-plus places on postgraduate masters in education (PME) programmes will be exclusively for those seeking to teach these subjects, according to Mr Brutons announcement yesterday.

Anne Looney, dean of Dublin City Universitys Institute of Education, said it is great that they, and other universities, can make additional places available to support the initiative. But, she said, catering for more students will require extra resources.

The Department of Education will provide colleges with the normal funding levels for every extra student, but Ms Looney said there are also staffing implications.

But the biggest challenge of all will be to provide school placements for them. Its really challenging to get school placements for student [numbers] we already have, across a range of subjects, not just the priority subjects, she said.

A further difficulty may arise around priority subjects. Schools that have dropped a subject, due to staffing or other difficulties, will no longer have classes in which students can undertake their teaching practice.

The placement of student teachers has been more challenging, since the two-year PME replaced a one-year postgraduate qualification, for second-level teaching, in 2012.

Schools are busy places and, with the longer teaching practice placements now, theres also a bigger role for mentor teachers in those schools, Ms Looney said.

The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals also welcomed the extra teaching places, but its director, Clive Byrne, said extra incentives to attract students to a PME are needed, such as waiving fees for those training to teach priority subjects.

Fianna Fail education spokesperson, Thomas Byrne, said high fees should be addressed, as there is little point expanding places, if people can not afford to pay for a postgraduate teaching degree.Doctors, nurses, and opposition parties have insisted Health Minister Simon Harris face reality.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation figures published in todays Irish Examiner show since Ms Harneys national emergency label 12 years ago, there has been a consistent upward surge in overcrowding.

Ms Harney declared a national crisis on March 28, 2006. However, in the first 73 days of this year alone, that figure has been exceeded 43 times  an unprecedented rate medics and politicians warn has brought the system to its knees.

Between March 5 and yesterday, the figure was broken eight different times, ranging from 585 yesterday to a record 714 on Monday.

In February, the figure was breached a further 16 times, while in January it was broken on 19 occasions.

Asked if the trolley crisis is again a national emergency, Mr Harris on Monday accepted while there is a need for a real urgent and renewed focus on overcrowding, he is not one for labels.

Speaking in Oklahoma on Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it is not entirely clear what is going wrong, before referencing the recent snow storms and very long flu season, but thats not an excuse.

However, politicians and medics have said the crisis will only get worse until the Government declares a national emergency and responds accordingly.

It is a national emergency. It has gone past a national emergency, it is now a national disgrace, Fianna Fail health spokesman Billy Kelleher said, who said the Government must publish a short and medium term blueprint on how to address the issue immediately.

Labour and Sinn Fein agreed, with Labour health spokesman Alan Kelly saying they need to put in emergency protocols now to deal with this because it is clearly a national emergency. Sinn Fein health spokesperson Louise OReilly saying the Taoiseach and Mr Harris should apologise to medics and patients.

IMO vice-president and emergency medicine consultant, Dr Peadar Gilligan, said the crisis is due to the fact there are not enough beds, not enough consultants, and not enough resources for GPs, adding there is nothing surprising about what is happening.

The INMO repeated general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdhas warning the Government and the HSE must impose emergency hospital protocols immediately.President Michael D Higgins described it as an important and lasting legacy after news of the 72-year-old Co Kildare natives passing emerged yesterday morning.

Best known to many for his work in the 1970s and 1980s with folk group Planxty, Mr OFlynns collaborations with international performers like Kate Bush and Mark Knopfler also put him on the international stage.

However, it is his role in preserving Irelands musical heritage that will be strongly remembered at home in Ireland.

He was honorary president of Na Piobairi Uilleann (The Society of Uilleann Pipers), which described him as a great ambassador for Irish traditional music in Ireland and around the world.

President Higgins said that, as one of the sources of inspiration behind the founding of Na Piobairi Uilleann in 1968, Mr OFlynn can be credited with having contributed to the revival of the uilleann piping.

It must to him have been a source of great pride and satisfaction that Unesco...recently added the uilleann pipes to its register of important and unique cultural heritage symbols, the President said.

He began learning from King of the Pipers Leo Rowsome before he was a teenager, having grown up in a musical family.

However, just as he drew inspiration from Mr Rowsome and other legendary players like Willie Clancy and Seamus Ennis, Na Piobairi Uilleann said Mr OFlynn himself went on to inspire generations of pipers with his tuition and performances.

It said his solo recordings have given emerging players a great source for their own repertoires.

In Washington, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described Liam OFlynn as a true musical genius and a great Irishman in this most Irish of weeks.

In a solo career following his departure from Planxty, Mr OFlynn worked with composer Shaun Davey on the popular Brendan Voyage musical suite, Granuaile, and other orchestral works created for the uilleann pipes.

One of his celebrated collaborations was with poet Seamus Heaney on the 2002 album The Poet & The Piper.

It was one of many he made with Claddagh Records, founded by his lifelong friend Garech de Brun, who died last weekend.

Liam OFlynn had been ill for more than a year and he is survived by his wife Jane.Mr Trump has cited Ireland when promising to cut Americas corporate tax rate to lure US firms back.

Mr Varadkar will have the chance to raise issues, including a possible trade war between EU and US, in the White House today, adding that the issue of tax is part of the reason Im keen to meet him.

Speaking in Washington, the Taoiseach said: I think what President Trump has actually done in many ways is emulated our tax policy.

Hes decided that it makes sense to have lower tax for business and that it makes sense to tax companies on the money they make in your country rather than trying to tax them on money they make in other parts of the world.

If anything Ill be congratulating him on the fact that hes successfully changed Americas tax laws and brought them more into line with ours.

Im certainly not going to criticise him for going a long way towards the tax system we have in Ireland which I think is going to benefit America and I think is going to benefit Ireland too.

He stressed many US firms have chosen Ireland as a base not only because of our 12.5% corporate tax but also because we are in the eurozone, have a good talent pool, and because of our approach to business and trade.

The Taoiseach yesterday met with the US Chamber of Commerce and had a roundtable discussion with some companies that are big investors to Ireland, such as Allergen, Intel and Boeing.

I was very encouraged by every company around the table that said they continue to be committed to Ireland and if anything, they would be intensifying their relationship with Ireland and pursuing further investment into the future.

The United States has changed its tax laws but Ireland still has a lower rate of [corporation] tax than the United States, and of course these companies are in Ireland for a lot more than tax reasons.

He said one of the major issues discussed was Brexit and how Irelands role as a friend and ally of America is going to be enhanced in some ways by Britains decision to leave the EU.

After his meeting with Mr Trump in the Oval Office, which Fine Gael TD John Deasy will also attend, Mr Varadkar is to visit Capitol Hill for the speakers lunch.

Mr Varadkar will have a breakfast meeting with Vice President Mike Pence tomorrow morning before travelling to New York where he will walk in the St Patricks Day parade on Saturday.While the Taoiseach has enjoyed a successful State-side trip so far  bumping into Arnold Schwarzenegger, visiting the site of JFKs assassination, and thanking the Choctaw Native Americans for their donations during the Great Famine  he has failed to tackle the thorny issue of marriage equality and other gay rights.

In fact, he remained mute on the issue when meeting staunchly conservative governors during his tour of Texas and Oklahoma.

When he does meet President Trump he will not have his partner Matthew Barrett by his side.

A spokesman for the Taoiseach said Mr Varadkar had made it clear at the start of his term that he would not be accompanied to international functions; however, there have been a few exceptions, including the Montreal Pride parade where both men marched alongside Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

In Washington yesterday, he indicated that he will bring up LGBT rights with US Vice President Mike Pence, who is known for his conservative view on gay marriage  but only if he gets the opportunity.

Im told Vice President Pence is not a supporter of conversion therapy even though some people have alleged he is. Im going to meet him over breakfast  so if I have the opportunity Ill certainly be mentioning the wider issue of equal rights and freedoms for LGBT.

Mr Varadkar shied away from mentioning anything when he met governor of Texas Greg Abbott during his first engagement in the US. The Republican governor has sought to ban transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice.

Speaking out on LGBT rights in front of receptive audiences is the easy way out. And while a few in the Library of Congress audience on Tuesday night did not clap when Mr Varadkar raised the lack of marriage equality in Northern Ireland, his comments were greeted with applause.

It seems so strange for me that in Northern Ireland we have a policy in that marriage equality is not allowed, because to me any rights or freedom that the British have in Britain and the Irish have in Ireland, surely people in Northern Ireland should have as well, he told the event.

Mr Varadkar should learn from his predecessor Enda Kenny who gained the attention of the US and international press when he urged Donald Trump to help Irish people living in the US illegally and turned his own catchphrase back on him by telling the president they just want to make America great.

Although little has progressed on the issue of the undocumented Irish, Mr Kenny showed Ireland is not afraid to raise difficult issues and stand up for minority groups.

Mr Varadkar should do the same.Barry Buckley, aged 32, pleaded guilty yesterday to five charges of engaging in threatening behaviour at different locations in Cork City and once in Ballincollig.

Inspector Brian ODonovan told Cork District Court that in one of the incidents, Buckley, of 6 Fr Dominic Place, Ballyphehane, Cork, and previously of Aylsbury, Ballincollig, came to the attention of gardai at Washington St, Cork City.

Mr Buckley was being restrained outside Chambers Bar on Washington St having been refused entry. He had to be arrested for his own safety. He refused to co-operate, said Insp ODonovan.

Mr Buckley was highly intoxicated and said to Garda Niall Comerford, I will have you killed. You are going to get a bullet.

This incident occurred on October 25, 2015.

In another incident, on February 18, 2014, Buckley was arguing with security on Oliver Plunkett St and threatened Garda Darren Cahalane that he was going to shoot him.

Judge Olann Kelleher said there were guilty pleas to five separate incidents of engaging in threatening behaviour and that, in four of them, Buckley had threatened to shoot a garda.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the accused had been out of trouble since this series of similar incidents in 2014 and 2016.

Judge Kelleher said Buckley had refused to co-operate with the probation service.

Mr Buttimer said Buckley had been doing well in a kind of ad hoc support group for people who had similar problems to himself.

Judge Kelleher said the threats were very serious and he imposed an overall jail term of three months on Buckley.Food Babett Eatery & Bar Joins 4th Annual Gout de France

A full set menu prepared by Babett for Gout de France / Good France, a weeklong celebration of French cuisine.

The fourth edition of Gout de France / Good France, a weeklong international celebration of French cuisine, starts on March 21. One of the participating venues is Babett, a trendy restaurant and bar in Yangon.

The event will bring together over 3,000 restaurants around the world and 150 embassies on five continents are participating in a celebration of French gastronomy all this month.

To mark the event this year, six participating restaurants in Yangon  Babett, Le Planteur, Alexs Gastro Bar, Orng Kitchen, Le Cellier and 369 Ibis Hotel Restaurant  will feature special set menus offering a taste of France.

Babetts head chef, Christophe Buzare, has put together a five-course set menu inspired by Frances mountainous Auvergne region.

I chose this five-course set menu because those dishes are my personal favorites, and its very traditionally French food  and healthy food too. Foie gras terinne is a French national dish  all French people like it. I would love to serve the experience of this type of food to Myanmar people, he said.

All of the meats are imported from France. Other ingredients like strawberries, tomatoes and cabbage are sourced locally to ensure freshness.

The starter, Foie Gras Terrine in Armagnac, is served with a small amount of onion marmalade and a mix of pear and dried grapes served chutney style with French bread.

A menu like this with foie gras, wine and soft, pungent cheese is a rarity in Yangon but Babett will be serving it throughout March.

Next comes the soup, which has a duck base mixed with cabbage and black mushrooms. Its deliciously sweet, but leave room because there are three more dishes to come.

The fish course is Sea Bass Steak with Steamed Mussels. The salty sea bass fillet is served atop a butter reduction sauce with the delectable mussels, as well as asparagus.

The main  Grilled Lamb, Braised Prunes  features charcoal-grilled lamb, lightly charred and roasted slow. The aroma of charcoal is mouthwatering.

Both of the main dishes were delicious and attractively arranged on the plate. For those who have the taste for it, the lamb was exquisite.

Finally, the dessert waitress emerged with her wooden board, on top of which sat a small glass dish. When I removed the cover, a cloud of applewood smoke rose, releasing a tantalizing aroma. The strawberries were very fresh but not super sweet. This dessert was Warm Strawberries in Red Wine, Toasted Brioche, and Gingerbread Ice Cream.

The five-course menu costs 75,000 kyats per person. With the Ossau-Iraty  a sheeps milk cheese that is a specialty of the Basque country  its an extra 7,000 kyats.

French-born chef Buzare has lived in Myanmar for eight years. In 2010 he worked for Le Planteur restaurant in Yangon. Then he moved to the Strand Hotel and finally he joined Babett Eatery & Bar.

He began his culinary career as junior chef at the Plaza Athenee in Paris. After seven years he joined the Michelin-starred La Cote St. Jacques in Joigny, central France.

My favorite cuisine is French and I cook French cuisine mostly in Babett, but I love to experience other cuisines as well, he said.

The first Gout de France / Good France was held in 2015, following the inscription of the French gourmet meal on UNESCOs intangible heritage list.

Every year on March 21 participating restaurateurs from all over the world offer their customers the experience of the French way of life and showcase French cuisine made with fresh and seasonal produce.News General Who Ran Rakhine Operation Still Under Investigation, Govt Says

Maj-Gen Maung Maung Soe (front row, at right). / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  The Presidents Office on Wednesday said Major General Maung Maung Soe, the former head of the militarys Western Command, was still being investigated for his operations in northern Rakhine State.

Action had also been taken against a brigadier general of the Myanmar Police Force while other officials of varying ranks were being investigated, U Zaw Htay, the offices director general, said at a press conference in Naypyitaw.

The Tatmadaw has taken action against a military commander and a police brigadier general in accord with military regulations and procedures in response to military operations in northern Rakhine State, he said.

Four other military officers, two policemen and three civilians were also found to have violated the law. Of the three civilians, he added, two were still at large.

Maj-Gen Maung Maung Soe was replaced as head of the Western Command by Supply and Transport Directorate chief Brigadier General Soe Tint Naing in November, following militant attacks on security forces in northern Rakhine in August that triggered a massive military response that has sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.

The major-general was transferred to the Defense Ministry without a new assignment and placed on a reserve list.

The Tatmadaw, the common name for Myanmars military, gave no reason for the transfer, though it coincided with the disclosure of US plans to impose targeted sanctions on Myanmars military leadership. The Tatmadaw also replaced Major General Min Zaw, the director general of the Supply and Transport Directorate, with Brigadier General Zaw Lwin Oo. Maj-Gen Min Zaw was also put on the reserve list.

But U Zaw Htay refused to confirm speculation that the police brigadier general in question was Brigadier General Thura San Lwin, the chief of the border guard police force in Rakhine States Maungdaw Township.

Brig-Gen Thura San Lwin was replaced by the former chief of Mandalay Region No. 3 Security Police Command, Brigadier General Myint Toe, in October.

Brig-Gen Thura San Lwin had replaced Police Brigadier General Maung Maung Khin in the aftermath of attacks on border guard police posts in Maungdaw on October 9, 2016. Nine police officers were killed in the attacks and a large amount of ammunition was stolen.

Brig-Gen Maung Maung Khin and two other police officers were imprisoned for negligence after those attacks. The government said seven military officers and soldiers were killed during the clearance operations that followed.

The Presidents Office said in February that four military officers, three soldiers, three police and six villagers were involved in the killing of 10 Muslims in Inn Din village, in Maungdaw.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.News KNLA, Tatmadaw Clash Again as Fighting Spreads in Hpapun District

Karen National Liberation Army soldiers parade to mark the 67th Karen Martyrs Day in August 2017. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Tatmadaw troops exchanged fire near Wah Tho Kho village in Kama Maung sub-township, Hpapun district, Karen State on Thursday afternoon, local sources said.

The clash, which broke out around 1 pm, lasted about 15 minutes after Myanmar Army soldiers under Military Division No. 22 came into contact with troops belonging to the KNLAs Brigade No.5. There were no casualties, according to the local source.

Padoh Saw Shwe Maung, secretary of the Karen State Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, told The Irrawaddy that the JMC was informed of the clash at 1:20 pm.

Thursdays skirmish was separate from another standoff also involving KNLA Brigade 5 that has seen the two sides clash at least eight times since Mar. 4, most significantly on Mar. 8, after the Tatmadaw resumed construction of a road in Hpapun district, according to local sources.

Until early March, there had been almost no fighting in those areas since the Karen National Union, the political wing of the KNLA, signed bilateral and national ceasefires with the government in Yangon five years ago.

On Mar. 8, KNLA Brigade 5 sent a letter of complaint to the union-level JMC over the Myanmar Military Southern Commands deployment of troops in KNLA-controlled areas to resume the halted-road construction.

The KNLA said in its letter that it viewed the Tatmadaws plan to re-start the road building as preparation for military operations in order to expand the area under its control, as the local residents did not use the route.

KNLA Brigade 5 said the action of the Southern Command was a violation of Clause 8 under Session 2 and Clause A under Section 3 of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), and warned it could impact the peace process.

Padoh Saw Shwe Maung said his group had raised the issue with persons of authority in both armed forces, in accordance with the principles of the NCA.

In the 20 months since the JMC-s Karen State was established, the monitoring body has received over 100 complaints from the administrative body, the Tatmadaw and the KNU, according to the JMC-s secretary. The latters objections have been fewer, as most of the complaints were related to administrative affairs, land and taxation issues, he said.News Meikhtila Govt Warns Against Religious Practice in Unauthorized Buildings

A Muslim girl stands at the entrance of a mosque in Yangon. / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  Authorities in Mandalay Regions Meikhtila Township have issued a sweeping warning against the use of unauthorized buildings for religious purposes, calling the move a community safety precaution.

The letter was signed by Meikhtila administrator U Ohn Htay on March 6 and has been shared with the areas religious leaders.

It says that Meikhtila, as a transport hub in central Myanmar where Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus all live, was a sensitive location that could erupt into violence at any moment.

To prevent instability, violence and threats to the lives of the people who live in Meikhtila, using unauthorized buildings for religious affairs must be avoided, the letter states.

It adds that local authorities will take legal action against anyone who does not follow the order. And though the letter appears to be enforcing existing laws, it says the order would remain in effect for one year starting March 6.

The letter says unauthorized buildings are those not authorized for religious practices by authorities and which lack a proper trustee committee. It does not elaborate on why Meikhtila was at risk of violence and instability.

Meikhtila Township administrators could not be reached for comment.

A local Islamic leader, who asked that his name not be used for his safety, said the administration office also issued a verbal order in February against Arabic summer schools.

Since then all of the Arabic schools were closed. We were sad when we got the warning because no reason was given, he said.

The authorities told us to seek permission to run the schools. The Arabic summer schools never needed permission in the past and we do not understand why they want to close the schools.

The man said the summer schools remained open even when Meikhtila was hit by past bouts of communal violence and never had to inform authorities, let alone seek permission.

The summer schools are just summer programs for the children to learn Arabic and the Quran. We submitted the letter to seek permission. However, we have received no word from the authorities yet, he said.

He was worried of a repeat of the communal violence that rocked Meikhtila in March 2013, when at least 10 people were killed and hundreds of Muslims were displaced.

Since we received these warnings we have been worried that there will be violence in our town. We have suffered enough and all of our lives were affected. We just want to stay in peace, the man said.

In July 2016, a Muslim prayer hall in Kachin State was burned down by ultra-nationalists. The Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs later announced that the prayer hall was built illegally and said it would take legal action against those who built it.

The following April, a nationalist mob forced the closure of two Islamic schools in Yangon accused of operating as mosques without official permission.News Myanmar Says it Has Verified Fewer Than 400 Rohingya for Repatriation

A man crosses a bamboo bridge over rice paddies in the Chakmakul camp for Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh on Feb. 13. / Reuters

YANGON  Myanmar has only been able to verify 374 Rohingya Muslim refugees for possible repatriation from Bangladesh, officials said on Wednesday, blaming their neighbor for not providing the correct information about the refugees.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar after militant attacks on Aug. 25 sparked a crackdown led by security forces in the western Rakhine State that the United Nations and United States have said constituted ethnic cleansing.

The administration of Nobel peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has sought to counter the allegations by forging ahead with development in Rakhine and by readying reception centers and a camp for returnees.

The two countries reached a deal in November to begin repatriation within two months, but repatriation has not begun, with stateless Rohingya, who face restrictions on their movements in Myanmar, still crossing the border.

Myint Thu, permanent secretary at Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said officials had checked documents handed over by Bangladesh in February relating to 8,032 refugees.

Out of 8,032, we verified 374. These 374 will be the first batch of the repatriation, Myint Thu said at a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw.

They can come back when its convenient for them.

It was unclear whether the 374 people had agreed to return to Myanmar.

Myanmar was unable to confirm whether the rest of the refugees had previously lived in the country, he said, because some documents did not include fingerprints and individual photographs.

The documents were not in line with our agreement, police Brigadier General Win Tun said at the same news conference.

Myanmar had found three terrorists among the people Bangladesh was proposing for repatriation, Win Tun added.

Bangladesh officials have expressed doubts about Myanmars willingness to take back Rohingya refugees.

Abul Kalam, Bangladeshs Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner, said he could not comment in detail because he had not yet received Myanmars response. But he questioned how more than 300 people could have been verified if the documents were in the wrong format.

At the Naypyitaw news conference, Myanmar officials sought to counter accusations heard at the UN Human Rights Council this week.

The head of a UN fact-finding mission denied visas by Myanmar and a special envoy on human rights in Myanmar who has been blocked from visiting the country both spoke in Geneva on Monday. Yanghee Lee, the envoy, said atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar bear the hallmarks of genocide.

We have a clear conscience, said Aung Tun Thet, coordinator of a public-private partnership set up by Aung San Suu Kyi to rehabilitate Rakhine.

There is no such thing in our country, in our society, as ethnic cleansing, and no genocide.News Myanmar Urged Not to Drag Out Case Against Reuters Reporters

Detained Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar February 28, 2018. / Reuters

YANGON  Some international observers urged Myanmar on Wednesday not to drag out legal proceedings against two Reuters journalists, as they appeared in court for the 10th time since they were arrested in December and accused of possessing secret government papers.

A Yangon court began preliminary hearings in January to decide whether reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, will face charges under the colonial-era Officials Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

Denmarks embassy in Yangon, which has closely followed the case, said ahead of the latest hearing that the journalists should be thanked and not punished for their reporting on northern Rakhine State  where they found evidence of security forces involvement in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men.

Nor should they be subject to a dragged out trial that appears to be set to last for months while keeping Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo incarcerated, away from their families and their work, the embassy said in a statement.

Two civilians that police brought to witness a search of Wa Lones family home the evening after the reporters were arrested gave testimony on Wednesday.

Min Min, a neighborhood official in north Yangon, told the court he joined nine or 10 policemen searching the residence and signed a form to confirm a laptop with a charger and a bag, a hard drive and a notebook were discovered there.

Asked by defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung during cross-examination whether any government papers were discovered in the search, he said no.

Min Aung, a ward administrator who joined the search and gave testimony, said he could not remember seeing police find official documents.

Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung left the court building before Reuters was able to put questions to him after the hearing. Government spokespeople have declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing court proceedings.

The government prosecutor has now called 12 of 25 listed witnesses to hearings that have been taking place weekly. The court agreed to hear three witnesses at its next session on March 21.

Held in Custody

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in custody since their arrest on Dec. 12.

The pair had been invited by police officers to a restaurant in northern Yangon. They have told family members they were arrested by plainclothes officers almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers by the policemen, whom they had not met before.

Previous police witnesses have said they were stopped and searched at a traffic checkpoint by officers who were unaware they were journalists, and found to be holding in their hands documents relating to security force deployments in Rakhine.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, wearing handcuffs, were rushed in and out of court by police on Wednesday, giving them only a brief opportunity to talk to their families or reporters. Kyaw Soe Oo was prevented by police from hugging his young daughter.

Myanmar has denied accusations the two reporters were targeted over their reporting in Rakhine, where a security response to insurgent attacks has seen nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to Bangladesh since August.

Last week, responding to comments from UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein who said he strongly suspected acts of genocide had taken place in Rakhine, Myanmars national security advisor Thaung Tun said the country wanted to see clear evidence to support such allegations.

Sean Bain, a legal adviser in Myanmar for the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights group made up of 60 senior international judges, lawyers and legal academics, called for the case against the reporters to be dropped.

The government has asked for concrete evidence of alleged rights violations in Rakhine State, said Bain, who attended Wednesdays hearing. These journalists produced it, but they remain imprisoned.News Myanmar's Presidents Since Independence

Myanmar's presidents from 1948 to the present.

YANGON  Since gaining independence from the British in 1948, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) has been governed by two types of president. From the post-independence period until dictator Ne Wins coup detat in March 1962, the country had democratically elected heads of state. Under military rule from that year to the end of the quasi-civilian government that was in power from 2011-2016, successive generals installed handpicked proteges. But with the inauguration of President U Htin Kyaw in March 2016, the people of Myanmar witnessed the return of civilian government for the first time in 54 years.

Meet Myanmars post-independence presidents.

Sao Shwe Thaik (1894  1962)

Sao Shwe Thaik, an ethnic Shan, was the first president of the Union of Myanmar and the last Saopha  or hereditary prince  of Shan States Yawnghwe. Sao Shwe Thaik served as the head of state alongside Prime Minister U Nu, from the date of Myanmars independence on Jan. 4, 1948 until March 12, 1952. Before he was President, Sao Shwe Thaik had served in the British army. When General Ne Win took power in a military coup in 1962, the Shan prince was arrested. He later died in prison.

Dr. Ba U (1887  1963)

Dr. Ba U was the second president of Union of Myanmar and an ethnic Bamar. Ba U graduated with a law degree from the University of Cambridge and served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Myanmar before he succeeded Sao Shwe Thaik as president in March 1952. He served in the position for five years, until March 1957.

Mahn Win Maung (1916  1989)

Mahn Win Maung was an ethnic Karen Buddhist and the third president of Union of Myanmar. As a former government minister, he was selected by Prime Minister U Nu for the presidency and succeeded Dr. Ba U in March 1957. Mahn Win Maung served until March 1962, when General Ne Win ousted U Nus government in a military coup. He was then imprisoned for five years.

General Ne Win (1910  2002)

Born as Shu Maung, U Ne Win briefly took control of Myanmar in 1958, during a period of military rule known as the Caretaker Government. He came to power more permanently in March 1962 through a military coup and would act as Myanmars head of state for nearly 20 years, until Nov. 9, 1981. A military commander of Bamar-Chinese descent, he founded the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP) in 1962 and served as its chairman until 1988, resigning during the student uprisings that year. Throughout this period, the BSPP was the only legal political party in the country, and through it U Ne Win championed the nationalization of business and ushered in a period of intense xenophobia. U Ne Win remained the commander-in-chief of the military for a total of 26 years. He later died while under house arrest in Yangon.

General San Yu (1918  1996)

Gen. San Yu, also of Bamar-Chinese descent, was the commander-in-chief of Myanmars military and the fifth president of the country, which was then known as the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. He served from November 1981 until July 1988, a time during which U Ne Win was still the BSPP party chairman. Before Gen. San Yu became president, he played an integral role in drafting the militarys 1974 Constitution.

Brigadier General Sein Lwin (1923  2004)

Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin, an ethnic Bamar, served as the sixth president of Myanmar for only 17 days, during a period of intense pro-democracy uprisings. During his rule  from July 27 to August 12, 1988  he was better known as the Butcher of Rangoon for giving the order on Aug. 10, 1988, to open fire on student demonstrators near Yangon General Hospital. The protests continued until Brig. Gen. Sein Lwin stepped down. He was reportedly taken care of by the government, and provided with cars, food and support for many years that followed.

Dr. Maung Maung (1925  1994)

Dr. Maung Maung, an ethnic Bamar, was the seventh president of the Union of Myanmar and a well-known writer. He studied law at the Netherlands Utrecht University and at Yale University in the US, and served as chief justice under U Ne Wins BSPP government. He served as president for only one month  from Aug. 19 to Sept. 18, 1988  before being ousted in a military coup led by General Saw Maung. Myanmars government would undergo name changes, from the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), led by military men like Senior General Than Shwe. The country would not have another leader with the title of president until 2011.

U Thein Sein (1945  )

Selected by the Union Parliament for the presidency in March 2011, the general-turned-politician became Myanmars eighth president after an election that was boycotted by the NLD and described by Western countries as neither free nor fair. U Thein Sein served as the prime minister in the previous military regime from 2007 to 2011. In 2010 he retired from the military, where he had attained the rank of brigadier general, and instead led the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. His tenure as the countrys president ended on March 30, 2016.

U Htin Kyaw (1946  )

Current President U Htin Kyaw was born in Yangon in 1946. The second son of respected national poet Min Thuwun, he graduated from the University of London, where he studied computer science. His family has a political pedigree: Min Thuwun was elected to Parliament in 1990 and U Htin Kyaws father-in-law, U Lwin, is one of the NLDs founding members.

U Htin Kyaw was a senior executive with the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a non-profit health and education charity named for Daw Aung San Suu Kyis mother. He is believed to be one of The Ladys right-hand men and has a reputation within the NLD as an honest man. His wife, Su Su Lwin, was a Lower House NLD lawmaker and the chairwoman of the chambers international relations committee.

U Htin Kyaw is also an author who, being of both Mon and Burmese heritage, wrote under the nom de plume Dala Ban, the name of a famous Mon warrior chosen by his father. He published a book about his father in 2009. His term as president will end on March 30, 2021.

U Win Myint (1951  )

With his inauguration on Friday, U Win Myint has become Myanmars tenth president.

The House speaker-turned-president is the second head of state elected by the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government in two years time, following U Htin Kyaws sudden retirement from the post in the third week of March 2018.

Like the former president, the one-time lawyer is one of the State Counselors allies. A hardcore NLD member since the formation of the party in 1988, the 67-year-old had three electoral victories on the party ticketbeing elected for the seats in his hometown Irrawaddy Deltas Danubyu in the 1990 election, Irrawaddys Pathein Township in the 2012 by-election and Yangons Tamwe township in the 2015 election.

During his time in the Lower House, U Win Myint was known to be a strict taskmaster. He often warned lawmakers to do their homework before the parliamentary session and to keep their proposals and questions specific and to the point. The lawmakers were not alone in receiving his stern warnings. Union ministers were also among those faulted for poorly prepared answers in Parliament. Moreover, he has occasionally given military appointees in Parliament a hard time.

Like many other political activists and politicians, U Win Myint was arrested several times by the previous military regime.

Editors note: This story was updated on March 30 to include President U Win Myint.News Son From Army Family Ordered to Leave Base After Joining Student Union

Thet Maung Maung, standing, tells reporters how he was forced to leave his home on a military base at a press conference in Yangon on Thursday. On the right is Zay Yar Lin, another member of the ABFSU, and closest on the left, Aung Khine Lin, Aung Khine Lin, chairman of the ABFSU in Pakokku. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

The son of a soldier serving with Myanmar Army Infantry Battalion 256, was banished from the base in Pakokku Township, Magway Division, apparently because of his involvement in the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU).

Thet Maung Maung, who had grown up on the base, said that before he was ordered to leave, battalion officers had called his mother and told her to warn him to cut his ties to the student movement.

My mother told me on the phone when I was at university. She said the battalion officers had told her to sign a piece of paper, but she did not know for what reason, Thet Maung Maung told a press conference held in Yangon on Thursday.

Then, I came back to the battalion base and asked them why they had told my mother to sign the paper, he said. They asked me whether I was involved with the ABFSU and I told them I was a secretary for the group in Pakokku.

The army then ordered him to immediately leave the base. That was on Feb. 13 and Thet Maung Maung said he was now staying at a monastery as he had no other place to go that would enable him to continue his studies at Pakokku University.

I did not violate the battalion rules. I did not plan to do anything against the army, he said.

The student held the press conference along with some fellow members of the ABFSU. He said he wanted to give his side of the story after the Ministry of Defense issued a statement on March 13 claiming the Tatmadaw had the agreement of Thet Maung Maungs parents to kick him off the base. Thet Maung Maung said he tried to discuss the issue with the officers, but they demanded he sign a promise to end his involvement with the ABFSU.

The statement from the Ministry of Defense said the Tatmadaw needed to have solidarity within its ranks as it was an armed group. The army has issued a standing order that all persons who stay with battalions have to show respect to the army, and they cannot communicate with any political parties, nor participate in any political movement or group discussions against the army or the government. All persons have to abide by these rules. If not, they cant stay with the battalion, the ministry said.

The statement also claimed that the Tatmadaw had the agreement of Thet Maung Maungs parents to order him off the base, because he had violated the battalions rules.

Thet Maung Maung told the press conference that he was born into a military family and had grown up in the army. He said he would have face many difficulties as a result of being kicked off the base, but he would not return.

The ABFSU is not a political party or an armed group opposed to the army. It is a group for students to work for a better education system, he said.

His parents had urged him to leave the ABFSU, but he made the decision to stay, he said.

It is rare to see a person from an army family challenge the military in this way. Thet Maung Maung said he was within his rights to join the ABFSU based on the constitution. He said his constitutional right to associate with a group like the ABSFU had been violated.

Speaking at the same press conference, Aung Khine Lin, chairman of the ABFSU in Pakokku said: The need for discipline within the Tatmadaw should not be above the constitutional rights of citizens. Every citizen can make their own decision. Discipline in the army should not be above the rights of citizens.

He said the case was evidence the Tatmadaw did not respect the constitution. They just do whatever they want. They like to say this constitution is great, but they do not even follow it.

Zay Yar Lwin, another member of the ABFSU, called the incident a clear case of rights abuse. There are many other children who are from army families and their rights may have been violated but we do not hear about it, he said. We can now prove it if we look at the Ko Thet Maung Maung case.Editorial Two Years of Effort but Not Many Results for President U Htin Kyaw

President U Htin Kyaw speaks during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the prime ministers official residence in Tokyo on Dec. 14, 2017. / Reuters

Thursday marks the second anniversary of President U Htin Kyaws election by the Parliament. A comparison of photographs taken in March 2016 with those taken this year shows that he has aged markedly; he looks noticeably paler and bears the telltale signs of stress. His health is unmistakably in decline.

The then 70-year-old was the first civilian head of state elected since 1962  his five immediate predecessors were military officers. When his election was announced in Parliament, the National League for Democracy partys lawmakers erupted in applause. Among the partys supporters, there were scenes of jubilation across the country at the election of this confidant of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

In his critics eyes, this soft-spoken elderly man is merely a puppet president. While he is formally the head of state and constitutionally the highest authority in the land, the amount of actual power he wields is questionable. The Lady, as the State Counsellor is known, had already made it known during the election campaign that she would be above the president, as the Constitution bans her from holding the office. It is an open secret in todays Myanmar who has the final say on matters of state. (Military power is another matter all together.)

Inevitably perhaps, since he took office at the end of March 2016, U Htin Kyaw, along with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has ruled over a country in near total disarray after more than five decades of military rule that favored loyalty over competence. They have faced resistance from ministerial officials, most of them installed by the previous quasi-military government.

One of the NLDs top men, U Win Htein, once expressed how annoying it was to deal with horses trained by previous people.

We are the new jockeys riding old horses, trying very hard to take them in the direction we want. They do what we want in our presence but do something different when we turn our backs, he said.

Apart from this resistance, peace with the ethnic armed groups that have been warring with the central government for decades remains elusive. The Rohingya issue in northern Rakhine State has been the biggest headache for U Htin Kyaw and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi so far, amid mounting international pressure of the kind Myanmar has never seen before. No wonder they both look weary.

In his inauguration message, the president pledged that his government would try to meet the peoples hopes while carrying out his obligation to implement, as the head of state, national reconciliation, the national peace process and a redrafting of a federal, democratic Union-oriented Constitution and to improve peoples lives.

Two years on, sadly, he still hasnt achieved any tangible results. This doesnt mean his government has been idle. Since the day his government assumed its duties, it has undeniably tried to make those things happen. But with few results to point to, it needs to come up with better implementation strategies.

On the first anniversary of the NLDs government last year, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi claimed that having a pure civilian government was a significant change and boasted that during its first term, the NLD government has shown itself to be the least corrupt government Myanmar has ever seen.

Thats still true. But as time goes by, we need to see progress on more than those two fronts. There are few signs of any breakthroughs, however. As Myanmar prepares to ring in the traditional New Year next month, the majority of Myanmars people, who heartily voted for the NLD, wish you a healthy and productive year, Mr. President!Thursday, March 15th, 2018 (12:01 am) - Score 15,523

The UK government has launched a new nationwide Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), which is funded by a pot of 67m and aims to provide vouchers worth up to 3000 for businesses (SME) or 500 to residents to help with the costs of connecting to full fibre (FTTP/H) broadband.

The GBVS scheme is said to build on the wider 200m Local Full Fibre Networks (LFFN) programme (weve been told the 67m is new spend from the 31bn National Productivity Investment Fund), which earlier this week allocated 95m of its funding to help stimulate commercial investment in gigabit capable broadband across 13 areas (mostly urban locations). More details of how that 95m is being spent can be found here and here.

All of this is intended to help support the governments commitment to make full fibre broadband available to at least 10 million homes and businesses by 2022, which they consider to be the gold standard of connectivity alongside the forthcoming rollout of ultrafast 5G based Mobile technology. However course most of that FTTP/H coverage will come from commercial investment (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media, Hyperoptic etc.).

The above is also being supported by Ofcoms recent regulatory changes (e.g. easier access to Openreachs (BT) cable ducts and a simpler electronic communications code), as well as the governments 5 years business rates holiday for new fibre optic lines and their 400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund (DIIF); the latter is targeted more at alternative network providers.

Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: Were backing Britains small businesses by investing 67 million to bring full-fibre broadband to more businesses up and down the country. This means faster, more reliable broadband access as we build the digital infrastructure we need to make our economy fit for the future.

Matt Hancock, DCMS Secretary of State, said: Small businesses are the backbone of the British economy and now they can turbo-charge their connectivity with gigabit speeds. By building a full fibre future for Britain we are laying the foundations for a digital infrastructure capable of delivering today what the next generation will need tomorrow.

We should point out that some local authorities already have similar broadband voucher schemes of their own, such as the 2.8m Connect Westminster project in London or the Ultrafast Connectivity Voucher scheme in Wales.

The new one is also similar to the old Connection Voucher Scheme for UK businesses, which gobbled 81m+ of public funding and approved grants for 54,000+ SME businesses (15,000 in Greater London alone) across 50 UK city areas, enabling them to install a superfast broadband (30Mbps+) service via individual vouchers worth up to 3,000 (here).

Sadly the old scheme came to an end in October 2015, after the funding dried up (here), but now the government seem to be trying it again for ultrafast gigabit capable (1000Mbps) broadband ISP services. In addition, the new scheme is also open to residential use, albeit only up to 500 per voucher but we understand that it may be possible to aggregate these (very useful for community builds).

The new voucher scheme has already been trialled in four areas at a cost of 2m (here) and as a result of that around 1,000 vouchers were issued to small businesses. Vouchers may only be used to support the cost of installing eligible connections. Suppliers can offer vouchers to both new and existing customers.

Sadly the only way residents can benefit from the voucher scheme is as part of a local community group, which must also include small businesses. Residents and businesses taking part in a group scheme are able to join together to pool the value of their vouchers. Within this group the total value of vouchers used by businesses must always be greater than the value of vouchers taken by residents, said HM Treasury in a statement.

The fact that vouchers can be aggregated in this way is vitally important because the government recognises that in some areas the value of a single voucher will not fully meet the installation costs of a gigabit capable full fibre connection. Indeed such connections can cost tens of thousands to deliver and possibly even more in a few very remote areas.

Registration for new suppliers (ISPs) will open before the launch of the scheme at the end of March 2018. The scheme will be open until March 2021 or until all available funding has been allocated.

Floyd Widener , Hyperoptics Chief Sales Officer, said: We fully support the formation of a National Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. Hyperoptic will absolutely be joining the programme. We have already had great success with local schemes  we are the leading provider in the Connect Westminster Scheme via number of vouchers issued. Gigabit connectivity revolutionises the way a business can operate and allowing residents to become part of the scheme will expedite the deployment of full fibre networks to even more of the UK. We are convinced that strategic application of Connection Voucher Schemes that encourage businesses and residents to opt for full fibre not only helps encourage and facilitate the rollout of full fibre more than large projects of simply putting fibre in the ground, it also supports the output of our digital economy.

We believe that fixed wireless networks might also be able to apply, provided they can meet the minimum criteria of being able to deliver a 100Mbps+ connection with the potential to reach 1Gbps speeds (download and upload). The upgraded broadband service must also deliver a step change in service which, for the avoidance of doubt, needs to be at least a doubling of speeds compared to the connection currently being consumed (guide).

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS)

https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk

UPDATE 8:50am

Weve had some new comments.

Evan Wienburg, TrueSpeed CEO, said: What we achieved during the pilot sets a blueprint for the rest of the country as the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is rolled out nationwide. The 67 million investment announced today is a very welcome move, and a catalyst that will enable hundreds of millions of pounds of private money to be invested across the country. It provides a cost-effective way for the Government to support privately funded full fibre infrastructure providers in their efforts to connect the digitally left behind. This is a vital building block in the creation of a nationwide digital economy that will help the country to thrive.

Malcolm Corbett, CEO of INCA, said: Its great news that the voucher scheme is being extended. The scheme helps improve the investment case for new digital infrastructure and speeds up the UKs shift towards a full fibre and 5G future.

UPDATE 9:40am

The national telecoms giant, Openreach (BT), has also welcomed the news.

A Spokesperson for Openreach said: Our network is the digital platform for millions of small businesses across Britain, so we welcome the Governments new scheme as it will help them access the faster, more reliable full fibre services we build. Well be working closely with our wholesale customers, and directly with business communities, to help small businesses take advantage of the scheme.

UPDATE 11:04am

Another comment, this time from rural FTTH ISP Gigaclear.

Joe Frost, Business Development Director at Gigaclear, said: We hear first-hand how frustrating sub-par internet connections can be, so welcome the decision to roll out the broadband voucher scheme nationwide. We have already become a registered partner and are fully supportive of initiatives that encourage adoption. This is a further step towards a nationwide full fibre roll out that is crucial for the future our digital economy.

UPDATE 1:02pm

Weve had a bunch of new comments.

CLA Senior Economist, Dr Charles Trotman, said: Poor broadband remains one of the biggest barriers to rural economic growth. The CLA called for schemes such as this gigabit voucher to meet the connectivity needs of rural communities so we are pleased the investment is being made on a national scale. The ability of rural businesses and homes to pool vouchers will also be essential in ensuring that the momentum towards universal connectivity is maintained. When used together with other schemes, such as Openreachs Community Fibre Partnership, hard to reach rural areas will finally realise the advantages of superfast broadband.

A Spokesperson for the ISPA said: ISPA welcomes the roll out of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) at a national level, and is greatly encouraged by the Governments commitment to encouraging ultrafast infrastructure deployment. ISPA members have been instrumental in the proliferation of fibre connections in the UK, and many have had success with existing voucher schemes in local areas. Widening the scope of the scheme is a welcome step towards future-proofing the UKs digital infrastructure and reaching the Governments target of 10m premises with access to full fibre broadband by 2022.BlackBerry has sued Facebook for IP theft. This is a tad like David calling out Goliath. Facebook is massive and is arguably the most successful of the social media companies, second only to Alphabet (Google) in terms of success with regard to ad revenue. Its model, once thought to be unsustainable after the dot-com collapse, is based on monetizing information and access from and to its customers. In effect, you are its product.

BlackBerry is a far smaller company. Once one of the smartphone powers, it and its peers were displaced by Apple and Google, forcing the company to pivot. This pivot, one of the most difficult, changed the firm from a smartphone company to a software/services company focused on security, autonomous cars, IoT, and fleet management (among other things). In effect, it went from a hardware company that was very insular, to a software/services company that operated under a licensing model that forces far more aggressive collaboration. The pivot was successful, though the company is still having issues transitioning how people see it.

Litigation isnt an absolute process and generally favors the firm that can afford to spend the most on the effort. Here, that would be Facebook. However, there are exceptions to this rule and one of them is tied to whether the smaller firm has adequate resources and a greater will to win. That, I think, will eventually allow BlackBerry to win, but this will be an expensive process for both firms. Two things that could affect this, and also favor BlackBerry, would be if the firm were acquired or the Canadian government were to intercede on BlackBerrys behalf. Both are possible, but unlikely, at this time.

Three Pivotal Points

With litigation, you want to look at three things. First, the merits of the case. In this case, whether there is a reasonable belief that IP ownership is clearly BlackBerrys and Facebook infringed. Second, which of the litigants has the greatest need to prevail, mitigated by any differences in resources. And finally, what are the additional advantages and disadvantages both firms have (like can Facebook move against BlackBerry the way Apple moved against Qualcomm and adversely affect revenue).

Merits of the Case

Since BlackBerry is now a licensing company and Facebook is not (it is more commonly accused of IP theft), it is reasonable to assume BlackBerry would have done its due diligence before filing action. Knowing full well that Facebook would rigorously defend, it would not have entered into either the negotiation or litigation frivolously. This doesnt assure a win, but the level of work that BlackBerry would need to do before filing, because this is its business, would typically be substantially greater than Facebooks initial efforts to defend, given this isnt Facebooks business. Neither firm is a novice when it comes to litigation, but in terms of IP litigation, BlackBerry, due to its nature, would have to be more competent in this type of litigation, suggesting the merits of the case to support BlackBerrys position more strongly.

Will to Win

BlackBerry is now an intellectual property company, in that a sizable portion of its revenue comes from licensing its intellectual property. It isnt a troll, as Facebooks legal counsel seemed to imply with this statement, BlackBerrys suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, BlackBerry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight. This was from Paul Grewal, Facebook deputy general counsel. While it is fun to see an attorney talk smack, the reality is that BlackBerry has no choice but to defend its intellectual property because licensing that property is how it makes money.

This position is a tad troubling for Facebook because the attorney comment implies that Facebook believes theft and innovation are interchangeable and that everyone elses intellectual property, by default, is legally part of Facebooks innovation.

Intellectual property isnt as big a thing to Facebook as it is to BlackBerry because Facebook isnt viewed as a licensing company. Thus, its interest in fighting this case is largely tied to a need to make sure everyone whose patents and copyrights it has infringed dont look at the firm as an effortless way to make money. But, paying licensing fees to BlackBerry clearly wouldnt put Facebook out of business.

In contrast, BlackBerry must defend its intellectual property because, should it lose control of it, the impact to BlackBerrys bottom line could be catastrophic. It cant let Facebook prevail here because such a result might put it at mortal risk, allowing others to steal its intellectual property, using the Facebook win as a precedence. As far as litigation resources, while Facebook can afford to spend more, BlackBerry isnt in financial distress and can afford to match Facebook even if Facebook unreasonably increases litigation expense.

Facebooks Unique Risk

As noted above, the risk to BlackBerry is monetary and significant. However, there is also a significant risk to Facebook, win or lose. As noted, Facebook largely monetizes its customers by taking something the customers dont value and selling it, in exchange for allowing those customers to access some of this information. Most recently, it has been under a cloud for supplying false information and potentially altering the U.S. presidential election and being part of a hostile effort by the Russian government. This speaks to ethics and places a cloud on Facebook and related potential vulnerability that BlackBerry doesnt face. In short, depending on how public this dispute becomes and how aggressively BlackBerry fights in a public forum, Facebook could gain the image of a pirate, which would likely propagate additional litigation from other companies, private parties and governments.

Given this extra exposure, the strategy for making the fight more public, driven by the Facebook attorneys comment above, is particularly problematic. A public dispute between the firms would seem to benefit BlackBerry more than Facebook. Put a different way, positioning BlackBerry as a failed smartphone vendor does Facebook little good because BlackBerry readily admits to the pivot. But Facebook, which largely lives under a questionable revenue model (its ownership over what it sells, personal information on its users, is questionable and it monetizes harmful fake news), is under greater risk.

In the end, this should make it so that Facebook is more motivated to settle than BlackBerry is, and given that BlackBerry is better structured for this fight, this should give BlackBerry a significant edge in the litigation.

Wrapping Up: Long List of Dangers in Corporate Litigation

Litigation at the corporate level, particularly over intellectual property, is risky for both parties. Not only is the process very expensive, but it can damage the brand image of the litigants. BlackBerry cant allow the theft of its intellectual property, particularly given that licensing that technology is now how it largely makes its money. Facebook can afford to license, but is part of a wave of companies that didnt believe in software patents and licensing and seemingly gives its products away for free. The issue for Facebook, and other firms like it, is that the free concept is false. Should this, or any future litigation, convince a critical mass of people, or a government, that Facebook is an unapologetic IP thief, the resulting regulations, charges and taxes could eliminate Facebooks ability to profitably function.

One final point: Generally, when one side of a conflict resorts to ad hominem attacks, it is a signal that it knows it is on the losing side. The Facebook attorneys comments suggest the company is well aware it is on the losing side of this, but it seems very unlikely that BlackBerry will fold just because Facebook is calling it names.

There are other aspects to consider in this case, like which government better supports its respective firms. But Canada appears to support BlackBerry (something BlackBerry CEO John Chen has fostered), while the fake news issues and personal conflicts with the Trump administration have Facebook in a far weaker position.

Thus, BlackBerry will prevail, though the process will likely be expensive and lengthy for both firms.

Rob Enderle is President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, a forward-looking emerging technology advisory firm. With over 30 years experience in emerging technologies, he has provided regional and global companies with guidance in how to better target customer needs; create new business opportunities; anticipate technology changes; select vendors and products; and present their products in the best possible light. Rob covers the technology industry broadly. Before founding the Enderle Group, Rob was the Senior Research Fellow for Forrester Research and the Giga Information Group, and held senior positions at IBM and ROLM. Follow Rob on Twitter @enderle, on Facebook and on Google+The London-based global consumer activist group, Consumers International, has called for access to fair and secure internet for all, action against scams and fraud, and better consumer protection online.

The groups call came on Thursday to mark World Consumer Rights Day and was supported by Australia's peak telecommunications consumer body, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, which is a member of Consumers international.

ACCAN chief executive Teresa Corbin says Consumers International is highlighting how e-commerce has transformed the way that people shop, giving consumers more choice than ever before through online shopping.

Online shopping is convenient and has opened up markets to consumers, but consumers should also remember that they have rights under the Australian Consumer Law when shopping online that they can exercise if anything goes wrong, she said.

Corbin issued a caution to consumers, saying they need to be wary of scams and online fraud which can come in different shapes and sizes.

We urge consumers to sign up to Australian Government scam alerts to stay on top of these issues and report scams when they encounter them, she said.

Corbin said consumers can stay informed about scams by following Scamwatch and Stay Smart Online, and can learn about cyber crime from the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network.

She also says scams can be reported on the Scamwatch website and cyber crime can be reported on the ACORN website, while consumers can learn more about their rights under the Australian Consumer Law from the Consumer Law website.Giant Indian IT services company Wipro has signed a definitive agreement to sell its hosted data centre services business to US-based hybrid IT services provider Ensono.

The deal, valued at US405 million will see Wipro transition eight data centres, and over 900 employees of its hosted data centre services business, to the Chicago-based Ensono.

Ensono says the acquisition significantly expands its geographic footprint and global service capabilities, taking the company one step closer to achieving its vision of helping clients harness the power of hybrid IT to transform their businesses on a global scale.

Wipro and Ensono have also signed a long-term partnership agreement to jointly address the hybrid IT requirements of Wipros new and existing enterprise customers.

As part of the agreement, Wipro will make a strategic investment of US55 million in Ensonos combined entity.

The hosted data centre services business is one of the three businesses that became a part of Wipro when it acquired Infocrossing in 2007. The other two businesses -- Medicare & Medicaid services in the health insurance space and ERP implementation services -- have been integrated with other Wipro businesses and are not part of the divestment to Ensono.

As we embrace our strategy of focusing on newer digital areas of spend, our strategic investment and partnership with Ensono will enable us to remain committed to meeting the hosted data center services requirements of our customers. This partnership will enhance the global data centre footprint and expand the available talent pool which will give us economies of scale and allow us to offer end-to-end capabilities in the infrastructure space, better than ever before, said Kiran Desai, Senior Vice President, Global Infrastructure Services, Wipro.

Ensono provides hybrid IT services, from cloud to mainframe, that enable clients to digitally transform their business.

Through the acquisition, Ensono is doubling in size, diversifying its client portfolio and increasing its annualised revenue to be in excess of US550 million.

Ensono CEO Jeff VonDeylen said the acquisition of Wipros data centre business was the third acquisition in less than three years for Ensono.

This particular acquisition and partnership with Wipro substantially increases our ability to scale and service our growing client portfolio. We are increasing our geographic presence by expanding our data centre operations in Germany, UK and the US, as well as establishing an operational presence in India.

These are strategic moves that bring us one step closer to our vision of being a recognised leader in true hybrid IT and a relentless ally to our clients.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the quarter ending June 2018.It might not be healthy to conflate "Slainte!" with Santa, but Amaysim wants to toast good health to not only two million Irish-Australians celebrating St. Patricks Day this Saturday, but specifically to Patricks and Patricias, too.

In what is presumably a piece of positive discrimination that you'd possibly imagine wouldn't be frowned upon by Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Amaysim is not celebrating April Fool's Day early, but is instead celebrating St Patrick's Day by doing a special deal for people named Patrick or Patricia.

Apparently everyone else won't be blessed with the luck of the Irish unless their names are of the right Saintly sort, but if your name starts with P but doesn't end with "atrick" or "atricia" then, possibly, you can "p off" as Basil Fawlty put it, except down to the pub, and drown your sorrows in a pint of Guinness.

Presumably anyone wishing to change their name by deed poll to take advantage of the deal will find it's way too late to do so, with this article suggesting any name change takes weeks to take effect.

So, what the heck is this special deal for people with the right name?

Well, for St Patrick's Day only, Amaysim says that "anyone in Oz named Patrick or Patricia that signs up to one of amaysims amazingly simple plans across mobile, energy or broadband for the first time will get one on us. One free mobile or broadband renewal via cashback or $125 energy credit".

Amaysim says its "foireann sonrai," which means "data team" in Irish, reports "also been having some fun of its own, with a scan of its 1.1 million-strong customer base revealing":

Over 64,000 text messages were sent from Australia to Ireland in 2017;

More than 58,000 calls were placed from our shores to Ireland, across 648,000 call minutes;

To put those minutes into context, that is the Irish national anthem Amhran na bhFiann over 230,000 times, or Westlifes #1 album Coast to Coast over 14,000 times; and

Responsible for most of these calls and texts traveling over 15,000 km to the Emerald Isle are people with the surnames Byrne, Ryan, OBrien and Murphy.

Julian Ogrin, chief executive of amaysim, who clearly has no fear of Dr Soutphommasane, said the companys mission is "to help customers untangle lifes complexities and give them just what they need  whether its the ability to change plans every 28 days, or to wish their family back home top of the morning."

Orgin said: On this occasion, those called Patrick or Patricia are holding the four-leaf clover with the offer of our home services on us, but irrespective of their name, nation or craic, all amaysim customers receive the celebratory benefits of our transparent pricing and no-lock in contracts.

Naturally, Amaysims has plenty more information for everyone, whether named Patrick, Patricia or anything else, on its range of "no lock-in contracts across mobile, energy and broadband" here.

As per usual, Terms and Conditions Apply, whether you're named Patrick or Patricia, and you can purposefully pore over them here (PDF link).Telecommuting has become well accepted in many industries with large numbers of people regularly working remotely and rarely traveling to the office. This shift is in large part fueled by the evolution of collaboration and communication tools that are facilitating remote work, improving the telecommuting experience for both employees and employers.

Telecommuting employees have more schedule flexibility, lower commuting costs, and reduced travel time. Improved communication tools allow managers or other individuals who travel regularly as part of the job to provide direction, approve actions, and make decisions while away from their regular office.

Employers benefit as well; office space costs are lower, employee satisfaction is higher, and the enterprises carbon footprint is reduced.

Unfortunately, telecommuting can create unexpected liabilities for both small employers and large enterprises. Until the courts determine how to apportion liability for telecommuting issues, the waters are murky. Dont wait; create policies for the following situations.

Injuries

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), businesses need to provide employees with a safe work environment. Home-based employees are entitled to the same workers compensation benefits as office workers. In Sandberg v. JC Penney (2011), an employee who had fabric samples stored in her garage tripped over her dog while retrieving some samples. She was awarded workers compensation because the court determined that she was working for her employer when she was injured. The Court also found that she worked from home at her employers request and not just for her own convenience. Given the Sandberg case, it is not hard to imagine that an employer could be held liable for injuries sustained by customers or other employees who meet with a telecommuter in a home office.

Before employees begin telecommuting, require them to complete a home safety survey. Require adequate lighting, ventilation, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, along with an ergonomic chair and desk. Ensure exposed extension cords, phone lines, or other hazards are remediated. If possible, require the employee to designate a separate room for exclusive use as an office. Document the workspace with pictures and a video. Finally, make sure the home owners or renters insurance policy is current. Update the safety survey at least annually.

Damaged equipment

Business insurance should cover cellphones, tablets, laptops, and other equipment that normally accompanies an employee throughout the day. Other office equipment can be tricky. Damage claims for desktop computers, copiers, and other office equipment that is not portable may be denied unless the work space is specifically designated as an office. Check your business insurance and the telecommuters insurance to determine which equipment is covered and under what circumstances. Obtain office equipment riders as necessary.

Cyber security

As networks become larger and more complex they become more difficult to secure. Unfortunately, few individuals are as careful as IT security professionals. When security is not part of an employees job, it is easy to miss patches, inadvertently disable a firewall, or fail to encrypt documents. Even security-savvy professionals can miss baby monitors, smart appliances, and other IoT devices that can be entry points for hackers.

While many employees prefer to use a single set of devices for both personal and professional use, BYOD environments are more difficult to defend. To maintain a high level of security, have IT provision and maintain the authenticity of all devices that connect to the network. Even if your organizations culture will not tolerate this level of control, standardize as many security tools as possible, including anti-virus, firewall, encryption, patch management, multi-factor authentication, and so on.

Enterprises, particularly small ones that have not yet created a security program, can find a great deal of information at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Physical security

Ideally the home office should be locked when the telecommuter is not working. Paper documents should be protected from fire or theft in a fireproof safe or filing cabinet. The entire house should be protected with a monitored security system. Other adults and children living in the house should be prohibited from accessing or using the office equipment, particularly when the telecommuter is not home. Establish home office physical security standards and evaluate each telecommuters workspace against those standards.

Local zoning or association rules

Some condos, co-ops, townships, or homeowners associations limit or prohibit home-based businesses. Generally, there are no restrictions on an individual working alone in an office. However, issues can arise if customers or co-workers regularly visit the telecommuter or if the employee has to assemble equipment in the home. Check local rules carefully for restrictions on property use and for potential business taxes.

Inappropriate communications

Telecommuters typically interact with fewer individuals than office workers with similar jobs. Over time, many telecommuters feel they know the people with whom they communicate well enough to drop formalities. It is easy for telecommuters communications to become sloppy since their primary communication vehicles  email, text, and collaboration tools  promote informality. Telecommuters need to be reminded that all electronic communications sent and received as part of doing business, will be treated as official documentation in any legal dispute. Telecommuters should be trained not to use sexual innuendos, or make any libelous, slanderous, racist, or other off-color comments. In addition, they need to avoid using certify, promise, guarantee, or other words that could create legal obligations for the enterprise.

Harassment

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires enterprises to ensure that employees do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, age, and so on. Unwanted sexual advances, ethnic slurs, or bullying can be considered harassment that results in fines and other penalties. While harassment is highly unlikely when telecommuters work alone at home, it is possible. Opportunities for harassment increase if two employees decide to work in one employees home office. While harassment is still unlikely, it is prudent to get both employees to document that the shared office is for their convenience and is not an employer requirement.

Long haul truckers are an extreme example of potential remote workplace harassment. The truck cab is a work environment with one person driving while the other sleeps. To address the shortage of licensed drivers, some trucking companies operate driver schools. Unless two drivers request each other, upon graduation drivers are paired randomly. EEOC rules prevent the company from pairing female drivers only with other females or from pairing minorities only with someone else from the same minority. Any suggestion of harassment is taken very seriously by trucking company HR staff.

Dont skip workplace training for telecommuters just because they appear to have fewer opportunities to harass or be harassed by other employees. Include them in all training and require them to sign all workplace policies.

Software licensing

Improperly licensed or pirated software can result in large fines for employers. The Business Software Alliance attempts to stop copyright infringement and make sure that all software is properly licensed. If a computer used for business purposes contains improperly licensed software, even if that software is not used in the course of the employees job, the company may still be liable. Even if the enterprise is not at fault, management will waste a lot of time defending the enterprise.

Staff cohesion

Most humans are social beings who seek a feeling of community in both their personal and professional lives. Most humans prefer to be part of a team that is working to achieve some shared goal.

Although collaboration tools are improving dramatically, they still lack the intimacy of real life interactions. According to Albert Mehrabian, UCLA Professor Emeritus of Psychology, information is communicated through words, tone of voice, and body language. Telecommuters lose some communications subtleties. Even the best video conferencing or augmented reality tools do not convey voice tone or body language nearly as well as face to face communications.

In the absence of a specific program to include telecommuters in enterprise activities, they can be overlooked and begin to feel like second-class citizens. Service firms providing on-site desktop support, project management, or other services requiring long-term assignments in customer offices, regularly encounter this problem. Remote employees can go native, shifting their loyalties to the customer.

Improve staff cohesion by making it clear that remote workers are an important part of the team. Make communications, particularly with management, more personal by periodically using the phone or a video instead of always relying on email and text. Periodically bring remote workers to the office even if a plane ride is required. Visit remote workers in the field. Create a buddy program to link telecommuters from different parts of the enterprise. Use video conferencing for department meetings and encourage telecommuters to join. And if layoffs become necessary, dont use email or text. While many people will be angry, they will appreciate a personal call.

As the boundaries of the enterprise shift, ITs ability to support and protect the remote work environment must shift correspondingly. Develop a comprehensive telecommuter policy to mitigate potential liabilities. Train the staff to adhere to the policy and protect the enterprise with the appropriate insurance. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Because a problem in a telecommuters IT environment is a problem within the enterprise. Dont allow exceptions in the field that would never be allowed down the hall.

Related hiring and staffing articles:Youd be forgiven for passing by the announcement of Apache Spark 2.3. After all, its a point release, isnt it? Sure, there will be some bug fixes, maybe an improvement or two to the MLLib framework, maybe an extra operator or something, but nothing all that major. That will be saved for Apache Spark 3.0, surely?

In fact, this is no mere point release. Apache Spark 2.3 ships with two major new features, one of which is perhaps the biggest (and often-requested) change to streaming operations since Spark Streaming was added to the project. The other is native integration with Kubernetes to execute Spark jobs in container clusters.

Apache Spark on Kubernetes

For several years now, Apache Spark has offered a trio of cluster deployment options: standalone mode, Apache Mesos, and Apache Hadoop YARN. In practice, this has meant that most enterprises find themselves running Apache Spark on YARN, which means running an Apache Hadoop stack.

Meanwhile, the past couple of years have brought the astonishing rise of Kubernetes, the open source container orchestration system. Drawing on Googles 15 years of deploying applications at huge scale, Kubernetes is seeing rapid adopted across the industry. With Apache Spark 2.3, Kubernetes support is finally bundled into the project, albeit behind an experimental label. You will be able to run your Spark applications as pods and have them managed, monitored, and maintained by Kubernetes.

Kubernetes support in Apache Spark is likely to be game-changing as it moves out of experimental status. Apache Hadoop deployments can be temperamental beasts. Many enterprises will eliminate the need for YARN entirely by moving their Apache Spark deployments onto Kubernetes, either on-premises or in the cloud. One fewer system for our infrastructure teams to care for!



Also, if they are running their clusters in the cloud, they may be able to replace HDFS with a managed storage system such as Amazon S3, Azure Data Lake, or Google Cloud Storage, once again bringing cheers from the infrastructure team. It also raises questions about what the future holds for Apache Hadoop in this new container-based world. Now that many of the features we relied on Hadoop for in the past are being provided by Kubernetes, many of us will finally be able to leave Hadoop behind.

Continuous Processing in Spark Structured Streaming

For as long as Ive used Apache Spark, there has been a cloud hanging over Spark Streaming, in that the micro-batching approach that it uses for processing data means that it cannot guarantee low-latency responses (I discussed this here two years ago!).

For the vast majority of applications, this isnt a problem, but when you really need that low-latency response (for example, ad-bidding platforms or bot fraud detection), you have to turn to something else, perhaps Apache Storm or Apache Flink, that can make these guarantees.

When Structured Streaming arrived in Apache Spark two years ago, people noticed that the micro-batching architecture of Spark Streaming was abstracted away from the new API. If the micro-batches could be hidden, then perhaps they could be swapped out for a different system?

The answer to that question has turned out to be a resounding yes. Apache Spark 2.3 brings Continuous Processing to Structured Streaming, which can give you low-latency responses on the order of around 1ms, instead of the 100ms youre likely to get with micro-batching.

While this mode currently has experimental stamped all over it, and you cant currently use certain Structured Streaming features such as SQL aggregations, I know that a few companies are already using it in production.

If nothing else, Continuous Processing will remove one of the big reasons companies choose Apache Storm, Apache Flink, or Apache Apex over Apache Spark, and shows that the developers behind the Spark project are still bringing major new features to the table. Death to micro-batches!

Faster Python on Spark

It almost goes without saying that Apache Spark 2.3 brings a bunch of needed bug fixes and minor improvements to the platform. Most of these arent so exciting to talk about, but one area worth mentioning is the ongoing work to improve the performance of Python.

As one of the leading languages used by data scientists, PySpark is a popular way of writing Apache Spark code right up until you need to wrangle more performance out of the system. Because PySpark needs to copy data back and forth between the Python runtime and the JVM that Apache Spark runs on, there has always been a lag in performance between Java or Scala and Python code.

Using dataframes/datasets and code generation techniques, a lot of this lag has been removed, but if youre using something like Pandas in your Python code, that data still has to cross the JVM/Python boundary. Apache Spark 2.3 includes a lot of new code that uses Apache Arrow and its language-independent memory format to reduce the overhead of accessing data from Python. Theyve also expanded Pythons SparkSQL UDF support to fully-vectorized execution, allowing the Python runtime (and perhaps native extensions) to process blocks of rows at once, instead of the slower row-at-a-time method previously provided.

Download Apache Spark 2.3

For a point release, Apache Spark 2.3 includes several compelling new features. If you evaluated Spark in the past and had to dismiss it due to low-latency requirements, you should check out whether Continuous Processing will meet your needs. As for the rest of us, lets begin the march to Kubernetes and the day when we can send the Apache Hadoop cluster to the farm upstate. We will all be in a better place.Illinois Wesleyan Launches First-Year Experience Program

March 15, 2018

Illinois Wesleyan First-Year Humanities Fellows visited the Garfield Park Conservatory on their Spring Break trip to Chicago.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  Incoming Illinois Wesleyan University students who are excited about exploring ideas  and their implications  have the opportunity to participate in IWUs new First-Year Experience (FYE) program, which is set to launch in the fall of 2018.

Approximately 150 incoming Illinois Wesleyan students will become a First-Year Experience Fellow, Scholar, Partner or Titan through the FYE program, which offers nine distinct fellowships related to the Universitys academic mission.

"This is Illinois Wesleyan at its best," said Provost and Dean of the Faculty Mark Brodl. "It demonstrates our commitment to enhance learning with distinctive cross-disciplinary experiences that directly prepare our students for success after IWU."

The FYE fellowship topics include: Animal Studies Scholars, Citizen Scholars, Creativity Scholars, First-Year Humanities Fellows, Global Titans, Innovation Fellows, Policy and Ethics Partners, Scholars for Youth Advocacy, and Titans for Change.

During the fall semester, students will be enrolled as a cohort in a First-Year Experience course that provides extended opportunities to engage with FYE professors and classmates both inside and well beyond the classroom. Engagement examples include participating in field research or meetings with authors, or visits to state-of-the-art design studios. FYEs emphasize learning by experiencing and doing.

First-Year Humanities Fellow Gabriela Manzanares Jule '21 visited the Chicago History Museum exhibit titled "Race: Are We So Different?" on a Spring Break trip to Chicago.

In the spring, the FYE will become more project-based and even less classroom-bound. Students will travel with FYE professors over Spring Break or over extended weekends to elevate learning through visits to conferences or sites relating to the course topics. There is no cost to participate, as these trips are funded through a fellowship. The semester will conclude with presentations at IWUs John Wesley Powell Research Conference in a culmination of the FYE program which Brodl describes as a "breakthrough" opportunity for first-year students.

"Unlike typical first-year seminar courses, Illinois Wesleyans FYE program builds very strong academic relationships among faculty and students from the get-go, by extending the learning experience well beyond the classroom and keeping the work engagingly project-based," Brodl said. "Close academic relationships with faculty across all disciplines are foundational to the excellent education that students receive at Illinois Wesleyan. With FYE, our students dont need to figure out how to build those relationships for themselves -- they dont skip a beat."

Admission to the FYE program is based upon materials submitted to Illinois Wesleyan during the admissions process along with a brief response by incoming students to a question specific to each programs application.

FYE applications are due by April 15, and students will be notified if they are selected for the program beginning June 1. For more information, visit: https://www.iwu.edu/first-year-experience/.

By John TworkProf Bernard Hoekman of the European University Institute says that the Buy Uganda and Build Uganda Policy presents both advantages and economic risks to Uganda.

In a research report published last month and launched this morning at the Statistics House in Kampala, Prof Hoekman says that whereas the private sector reaps big by selling to government, ring fencing business endangers regional integration goals.

The Professor also says that overemphasizing Local Content is inconsistent with World Trade Organisation rules, in regard to open border policy on trade.By Ssebuliba Samuel.

The outgoing inspector general Gen kale kayihura has officially handed over his office to his successor Martin Okoth Ochola.

While handing over to Ochola, Kayihura described the new team as a sign of confidence in his 12 year tenure as the police chief.

He said the decision by the president to appoint his deputy is enough evidence that their relationship was commendable.

Kayihura says much as he has made many achievements during his tenure, he also acknowledges the mistakes he made which were inevitable.

On his part the new inspector general of police Martin Okoth Ochola has appreciated his former boss Gen kale kayihura for leaving a lasting legacy that will always be remembered.Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.On Feb. 22, 2017, ProPublica published a story that inaccurately described Gina Haspels role in the treatment of Abu Zubaydah, a suspected al-Qaida leader who was imprisoned by the CIA at a secret black site in Thailand in 2002.

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.

Our account of Haspels actions was drawn in part from declassified agency cables and CIA-reviewed books which referred to the official overseeing Zubaydahs interrogation at a secret prison in Thailand as chief of base. The books and cables redacted the name of the official, as is routinely done in declassified documents referring to covert operations.

The Trump administration named Haspel to the CIAs No. 2 job in early February 2017. Soon after, three former government officials told ProPublica that Haspel was chief of base in Thailand at the time of Zubaydahs waterboarding.

We also found an online posting by John Kiriakou, a former CIA counter-terrorism officer, who wrote that It was Haspel who oversaw the staff at the Thai prison, including two psychologists who designed the torture techniques and who actually carried out torture on the prisoners.

The nomination of Haspel this week to head the CIA stirred new controversy about her role in the detention and interrogation of terror suspects, as well as the destruction of videotapes of the interrogation of Zubaydah and another suspect. Some critics cited the 2017 ProPublica story as evidence that she was not fit to run the agency.

Those statements prompted former colleagues of Haspel to defend her publicly. At least two said that while she did serve as chief of base in Thailand, she did not arrive until later in 2002, after the waterboarding of Zubaydah had ended.

The New York Times, which also reported last year that Haspel oversaw the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and another detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, published a second story this week making the same point. It quoted an unnamed former senior CIA official who said Haspel did not become base chief until late October of 2002. According to the Times, she was in charge when al-Nashiri was waterboarded three times.

James Mitchell, the psychologist and CIA contractor who helped to direct the waterboarding of both suspects, said in a broadcast interview on March 14 that Haspel was not the chief of base whom he described in his book as making fun of Zubaydahs suffering.

That chief of base was not Gina, Mitchell told Fox Business News. Shes not the COB I was talking about.

Mitchells book, Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying to Destroy America, referred to the chief of base in Thailand as both he and she.

We erroneously assumed that this was an effort by Mitchell or the agency to conceal the gender of the single official involved; it is now clear that Mitchell was referring to two different people.

ProPublica contacted Mitchell in 2017 to ask him about this passage in his book. Facing a civil lawsuit brought by former CIA detainees, he declined to comment.

At about the same time, we approached the CIAs press office with an extensive list of questions about the cables and Haspels role in running the Thai prison, particularly her dealings with Zubaydah.

An agency spokesman declined to answer any of those questions but released a statement that was quoted in the article, asserting that nearly every piece of reporting that you are seeking comment on is incorrect in whole or in part.

The CIA did not comment further on the story after its publication and we were not aware of any further questions about its accuracy until this week.

The February 2017 ProPublica story did accurately report that Haspel later rose to a senior position at CIA headquarters, where she pushed her bosses to destroy the tapes of Zubaydahs waterboarding. Her direct boss, the head of the agencys Counterterrorism Center, ultimately signed the order to feed the 92 tapes into a shredder. Her actions in that instance, and in the waterboarding of al-Nashiri, are likely to be the focus of questions at her confirmation hearings.

Dean Boyd, director of the CIAs office of public affairs, praised Haspels 30 years of public service and said Thursday in a statement that her qualifications and capabilities would be evident in the hearing process.

It is important to note that she has spent nearly her entire CIA career undercover, Boyd said. Much of what is in the public domain about her is inaccurate. We are pleased that ProPublica is willing to acknowledge its mistakes and correct the record regarding its claims about Ms. Haspel.

A few reflections on what went wrong in our reporting and editing process.

The awkward communications between officials barred from disclosing classified information and reporters trying to reveal secrets in which there is legitimate public interest can sometimes end in miscommunication. In this instance, we failed to understand the message the CIAs press office was trying to convey in its statement.

None of this in any way excuses our mistakes. We at ProPublica hold government officials responsible for their missteps, and we must be equally accountable. This error was particularly unfortunate because it muddied an important national debate about Haspel and the CIAs recent history. To her, and to our readers, we can only apologize, correct the record and make certain that we do better in the future.

Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief

Update, March 13, 2018: President Donald Trump has nominated CIA deputy director Gina Haspel as the agencys new chief. We published the story below on Feb. 22, 2017.

In August of 2002, interrogators at a secret CIA-run prison in Thailand set out to break a Palestinian man they believed was one of al-Qaidas top leaders.

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.

When questions began to swirl about the Bush administrations use of the black sites, and program of enhanced interrogation, the chief of base 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.

By then, it was clear that 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 chief of bases role in this tale of pointless brutality and evidence destruction was a footnote to history  until earlier this month, when President Trump named her deputy director of the CIA.

The choice of Gina Haspel for the second-highest position in the agency has been praised by colleagues but sharply criticized by two senators who have seen the still-classified records of her time in Thailand.

Her background makes her unsuitable for the position, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., wrote in a letter to Trump. We are sending a classified letter explaining our position and urge that the information be immediately declassified.

Thats not likely to happen. ProPublica has combed through recently declassified documents, including CIA cables and Zubaydahs own account of what he endured, and books by officials involved in the CIAs interrogation program to assemble the fullest public account of Haspels role in the questioning of Zubaydah. The material we reviewed shows she played a far more direct role than has been understood.

Asked to respond to the specific allegations about Haspel, a CIA spokesperson said only that, Nearly every piece of the reporting that you are seeking comment on is incorrect in whole or in part. We reminded the spokesperson that many of the specifics came from books written by former CIA officials and cleared before publication by the agency. He declined to say which aspects of the reporting, or those books, were incorrect but did provide a long list of testimonials to Haspels skills from present and former intelligence officials.

Critics of Haspels appointment argue that her past is particularly relevant in light of Trumps shifting statements on the value of torturing terror suspects. During the campaign, former director of Central Intelligence Michael Hayden said in response to Trumps endorsement of torture that if any future president wants (the) CIA to waterboard anybody, hed better bring his own bucket. After he won the election, Trump said he was persuaded by his secretary of defense, James Mattis, that torture is not effective. The Trump administration recently drafted and then withdrew a draft executive order asking American intelligence agencies to consider resuming enhanced interrogation of terror suspects.

Much of the material we reviewed for this story referred to Haspel only by her title, chief of base, or COB. Three former government officials, however, said the person described by that title in books and declassified documents was Haspel. As chief of base, these officials said, Haspel signed many of the cables sent from Thailand to CIA headquarters recounting Zubaydahs questioning. The declassified versions of those documents redact the name of the official who sent them.

One declassified cable, among scores obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the architects of the enhanced interrogation techniques, says that chief of base and another senior counterterrorism official on scene had the sole authority power to halt the questioning.

She never did so, records show, watching as 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, the chief of base came to his cell and congratulated him on the fine quality of his acting. According to the book, the chief of base, who was identified only by title, said: 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 sent by the chief of the CIAs counterterrorism section, Jose Rodriquez, the handpicked warden of the first secret prison the CIA created to handle al-Qaida detainees, according to a little-noticed recent article in Reader Supported News by John Kiriakou, a former CIA counterterrorism officer. In his memoir, Hard Measures, Rodriquez refers to a female chief of base in Thailand but does not name her.

Kirakou provided more details about her central role. It was Haspel who oversaw the staff, at the Thai prison, including James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the two psychologists who designed the torture techniques and who actually carried out torture on the prisoners, he wrote.

Kiriakou pleaded guilty in 2012 to releasing classified information about waterboarding and the torture of detainees, and served 23 months in prison.

The CIA officials in Thailand understood that the methods they were using could kill Zubaydah and said that should that happen, they would cremate his body. If he survived questioning, Haspel sought assurances that the subject will remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life.

So far, that promise has been kept. Zubaydah is currently incarcerated at Guantanamo. His lawyers filed a court action in 2008 seeking his release, but the federal judges overseeing the case have failed to issue any substantive rulings.

Zubaydah was seized in a raid in Pakistan in late March 2002, during which he suffered life-threatening bullet wounds in his leg and groin. The CIA had long been hunting for Zubaydah, who had worked as what one former government official described as administrator at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. The camp was started by the CIA during the Soviet occupation, was not under the control of al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden, the official said, but Zubaydah had on occasion supplied false passports and money to al-Qaida operatives.

American doctors saved Zubaydahs life, and after he was stable enough he was drugged, gagged, trussed and blindfolded, and put on a CIA charter flight. In order to avoid being traced, the plane flew around the world, stopping in several places, including Morocco and Brazil, before landing in Thailand.

While still hospitalized, Zubaydah was interrogated by the FBI, led by Ali Soufan, an Arabic speaker. According to Soufan, Zubaydah, who was generally cooperative, provided the FBI interrogators with valuable intelligence on the overall structure of al-Qaida.

His information also confirmed what the CIA already believed, that Khalid Sheik Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. A talkative sort who expressed a willingness to cooperate, Zubaydah gave the FBI information that led to the arrest of Jose Padilla for plotting to detonate bombs in the United States. Zubaydah, who was born in Palestine, said that while he believed in jihad, the 9/11 attacks were not justified because they killed innocent civilians.

CIA officials were convinced that he knew about plots in America, and with the horror of 9/11 still fresh, the agency was determined to prevent another attack. A month after Zubaydah was captured, Haspel drafted a cable titled Turning Up the Heat in AZ Interrogations.

Soon after, he was put into isolation for 45 days, kept awake with loud music and doused with cold water. During this time, the ALEC team at CIA headquarters, which was assigned to find Osama bin Laden, sent questions to Thailand for the team to ask Zubaydah; they went unasked, and unanswered, because he was in isolation.

The FBI and CIA clashed over whether or not Zubaydah was fully cooperating on the subject of possible future attacks. The agencys view prevailed, and counterterrorism officials sought permission for harsher measures.

In late July, the CIA team conducted a dress rehearsal  which choreographed moving Abu Zubaydah (Subject) in and out of the large and small confinement boxes, as well as use of the water board, Haspel notified Washington.

A few days later, she wrote, Team is ready to move to the next phase of interrogations immediately upon receipt of approvals/authorization from ALEC/Headquarters. It is our understanding that DOJ/Attorney General approvals for all portions of the next phase, including the water board, have been secured, but that final approval is in the hands of the policy makers.

By this time, the source on whom the CIA had based its assessment that Zubaydah was number three or four in the al-Qaida organization had recanted his testimony, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture released in 2014. The agency would ultimately conclude that Zubaydah was not even a member of al-Qaida.

So it begins, a medical officer on Haspels team wrote on the morning of Aug. 4, 2002.

Later that year, when journalists began asking the CIA and the White House about a black site, in Thailand, the CIA rushed to close it. Zubaydah was again drugged, trussed, blindfolded, and put on another secret CIA flight to another black site, this time in Poland.

Haspel moved to cover up the agencys operations at the Thai base. The chief of base told the security officer to burn everything that he could in preparation for sanitizing the black site, Mitchell wrote in his book, Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying to Destroy America, which was published late last year.

According to Mitchells account, the security officer asked the chief of base whether he should include the tapes; he was told to hold off until she could check with Washington.

She was told to retain them. A few years later when she was back in Washington and chief of staff to the director of operations for counterterrorism, Jose Rodriquez, the man who had sent her to Thailand, she continued to lobby for destruction of the tapes.

My chief of staff drafted a cable approving the action we had been trying to accomplish for so long, Rodriquez writes in his memoir. 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.

Without approval from the White House or Justice Department, Rodriquez gave the order.

In a twist of fate, destroying the tapes drew more outside scrutiny of the program. Disclosure of the shredding prompted the Senate Intelligence Committee to begin its long-running examination of the torture program. The result was a 7,000-page report that drew on thousands of highly classified cables relating to the Bush administrations rendition and detention program and concluded torture was not effective.Reddit Email 124 Shares

Middle East Monitor |  

US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, one week after the BBC obtained emails revealing efforts by the UAE to have him sacked at a politically convenient time.

Was this an unlikely coincidence? Should Americans not wake up to the power of lobby groups that are threatening to undermine their countrys democracy?

The former chief executive of ExxonMobil, regarded by many as the lone voice of reason in the Trump Administration, is the latest in the long line of senior officials who have been ousted by the president. Explaining the dismissal a senior White House official said, 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.

Its not clear how the dismissal of a steady figure like Tillerson amidst the mayhem surrounding Trump helps the US during the sensitive talks with North Korea. Tillerson wanted to continue and had every intention of staying, according to statements released by the State Department.

Despite his desire to remain, Tillersons job security had always seemed precarious. Trump summed up his tension with Tillerson telling reporters that he had made the decision to sack Tillerson by himself and alluded to their disagreements saying, We were not thinking the same. Trump even made it seem as though the sacking was to please Tillerson himself, predicting that Rex will be happier now.

Tillerson had outlasted his compatriots and managed to steer clear, until now, from the turbulent revolving door that has become characteristic of the Trump Administration. By his own admission, he wanted to remain presumably because he felt America needed to be rescued from a president he described as a moron.

The two men often contradicted each other on major issues. While at times their differences appeared juvenile  Trump once joked he should compare IQ tests with Tillerson after being called a moron,- the extent of their disagreement is quite unprecedented in US history. Their contrasting views over the Saudi-led blockade on Qatar probably best typify the rift between the two leading figures in the US administration.

Rarely had the White House and the State Department been so at odds. On Qatar, the two appeared to have adopted distinctively contradictory policies. Tillerson and Secretary of Defence James Mattis were both said to have been surprised and shocked by the sudden move to blockade and punish the Gulf nation. Having overcome the shock and disbelief, Tillerson was reportedly scrambling to undo the damage caused by the blockade. Within days of its announcement, Tillerson called on Riyadh to ease the siege, while lending American support for the Kuwait-led mediation.

Tillersons intervention may have surprised the UAE. They probably assumed that the deals struck during Trumps Riyadh visit in the summer of 2017 ensured US silence over their plans to attack another sovereign country. Tillersons persistence, in contrast to Trumps nod, likely turned him into public enemy number one in the eyes of the Emirates.

Tillersons position became tenuous the moment he became a marked man; but, did it cost him his job? The timing of Trumps decision suggests that his strong backing of the Qataris may have been a key factor; Trump, after all, was goading the UAE and Saudi Arabia to embark on a foreign policy venture that was independent of the US, despite its damage to US interest in the region. Unlike Trump, the truth of this fact would not have been missed by realists within the State Department.

Speculation that the Emirates played a hand in Tillersons dismissal has also been fuelled by the BBC. Leaked emails obtained by the BBC revealed UAE-linked lobbying efforts to have Tillerson sacked for failing to support Abu Dhabi against its Gulf neighbour, Qatar.

The emails which were addressed to Trump urged the President to sack the top diplomat who was described as a tower of Jello, weak and needed to be slammed. In this regard, Trump was further advised not to get involved in the Gulf rift. It accused Al Jazeera of doing nothing positive. The emails went on to suggest a sit down between Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, a top UAE military commander and President Trump.

Tellingly, the emails went on to advise Trump over Tillerson who was described as performing poorly and should be fired at a politically convenient time.

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:

Aljazeera English from last week: Emails show UAE-linked lobbying effort to oust Tillerson: reports | Al Jazeera EnglishReddit Email 83 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The World Happiness Index is out this year, and the United States is ranked only 18 for the years 2015-2017 lower than Iceland or Costa Rica, and not much ahead of places with real problems like Mexico and Brazil.

And, the US has fallen 4 spots in recent reports.

The US is still the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, so why isnt it the happiest?

Because although a good income contributes to happiness, power doesnt seem to, and wealth is only one of six things that makes a person happy (or else millionaires wouldnt commit suicide).

Although income is associated with happiness in general (up to about $75,000 a year after which it doesnt seem to matter), it isnt correlated with what psychologists call affect, which in this study has to do with laughing, joking, and experiencing joy in social settings.

Experiencing positive emotions has a much bigger impact on happiness than negative emotions. That is, we can get through some hatefulness if only we have love (Paul of Tarsus was right about that). Daily laughter and enjoyment is really important. The barracuda American style of being work-a-holics, which interferes with just sitting around with family members and/or friends and joking around, detracts from our happiness. Isolation and loneliness are a bigger health problem for Americans than obesity. Binge-watching t.v. and being a good little consumer the way the advertisers want apparently induces the blues, big time. Reading and hanging around with friends are much more satisfying.

Speaking of which, social support is another biggie. The researchers measured that variable by asking the question, If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not? Ideally, all Americans should have each others backs. But we have entered an era where if youre down, the fatcats will kick you instead of helping you up.

The Trump administration in particular and right wing politicians in general completely misunderstand what makes people happy, or perhaps they do not care if people are happy as long as their billionaire campaign donors are.

It turns out that being generous to others makes you happy. Studies have shown if you just help a challenged person to cross the street or do other acts of random kindness everyday, your happiness increases. The World Happiness survey study finds that being welcoming to immigrants is a factor in a society being happy. The Trump administration is making us positively miserable on that scale.

Right wing politicians and Trump in particular, in contrast, take delight in screwing people over. Reducing Federal aid to poor children, taking away health insurance, destroying social securityall of these legislative actions about which Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are so enthusiasticall of them make us sad. Because we arent helping people, we are hurting them, and only sadists get a kick out of hurting people.

A perception of lack of corruption is also a big contributor to happiness. If so, under Trump we must be the saddest people on earth.

Since our # 18 ranking is a three-year average, the full extent of our current doldrums wont be apparent for a couple of years.

Good health and a long life expectancy are also extremely important to happiness. Trumps head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has systematically done everything he can to reduce the life expectancy of the average American, overturning regulations intended to prevent corporate pollution from harming our health. When the Republican Party complains of regulation, they are complaining that the government is preventing rich people from making more money in ways that might harm peoples health. Unlike all other technologically advanced countries, life expectancy in the US is actually falling. African Americans and minorities have long suffered with health statistics similar to the Third World, being deliberately excluded from the good life in white America. But now even white people are seeing their health go down the tubes.

One driver of the fall in life expectancy for two years in a row is the opioid epidemic. It has been shown that marijuana legalization reduces use of opioids, so one obvious response to the epidemic (about which Trump and the GOP appear simply not to care) would be to legalize marijuana for over-21-year-olds nationally. (There is some reason to think teenagers shouldnt be smoking pot, but it doesnt harm adults).

Instead, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced a jihad against pot. Sad.

The US Right Wing wants to regiment Americans and deprive people of the ability freely to make life choices. It wants to roll back legalization of gay marriage and to impose social costs on LGBTQ people making the choice to seek life liberty and happiness in accordance with their own personalities. It has more or less made abortion impossible to obtain in much of the country and wants to deprive women of the choice not to have the baby of their rapist or not to bear to term (if they do not want to) a seriously damaged fetus.

Promotion of dangerous climate change and global heating through favoring the burning of fossil fuels and the emission of more deadly carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will also reduce our choices as we flee wildfires and other extreme weather events and our white sand beaches are swallowed up by angry rising seas.



Bonus video:

WatchMojo.com: Top 10 Happiest Countries In The WorldVANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Exploration Inc. (NGE or the Company) (TSX-V:NGE) (OTCQB:NVDEF) is very pleased to report that the results of its infill borehole program at the South Grass Valley Project have identified a 1,000 x 4,000 metre Carlin-type Gold Deposit (CTGD) target defined by a focused zone of enriched gold in groundwater coincident with the projected intersection of favourable lower-plate host rocks and a major high-angle fault corridor. With strong support for mineralization along the projected fault corridor, NGE is preparing for a deeper drilling program to test for the structural controls of the potentially large system.

NGEs 100% owned 22 km2 South Grass Valley Project is located at the southern end of Grass Valley, the covered valley immediately south of Barricks Cortez complex (Pipeline, Cortez Hills, and Goldrush), one of the worlds largest and lowest cost gold mines with annual production of approximately one million ounces. Two bedrock outcrops spaced 5 km apart at the South Grass Valley Project exhibit CTGD-style alteration and geochemistry within a 700-metre-thick sequence of lower plate carbonate host rocks immediately below the Roberts Mountains Thrust. Based on gravity and air magnetic geophysics, these favourable host rocks project under relatively shallow cover across a large portion of the Project. This large area of favourable geology is intersected by a N-S high-angle fault corridor that projects under the cover from the exposed range front based on mapping and gravity geophysics, providing a potential major conduit to expose the known favourable host rocks to mineralized hydrothermal fluids.

From November 2017 to January 2018, NGE completed 69 infill groundwater sampling boreholes at South Grass Valley to follow up on a gold-in-groundwater anomaly identified during a regional-scale, generative exploration program. The objectives of NGEs infill program were to establish the extent, size, and magnitude of the gold-in-groundwater footprint at South Grass Valley and its relationship to the larger prospective geologic setting, and to build support for a deeper drilling program. NGE reported results from the first 44 boreholes on January 22, 2018. In total, NGE has now completed 135 boreholes across the Project area, collecting samples from most boreholes at multiple depths, for a total of 234 groundwater samples.

The results of NGEs infill borehole program have defined a focused 1,000 x 4,000 metre N-S oriented zone of enriched gold, arsenic, antimony, barium, thallium, tungsten, and sulfate in groundwater, representing a hydrogeochemistry footprint consistent in size and magnitude (with gold up to 800 times background) as those seen around Lone Tree and Twin Creeks, large known gold deposits on the Cortez Trend, as well as at NGEs Kelly Creek Project. Importantly, this zone of enrichment is coincident with the projected intersection of the major N-S high-angle fault corridor and the favourable lower plate carbonate host rocks known to exist at the Project. At 4,000 metres in length, NGE believes that the size of the target is large enough to support a district-scale mineral system, and at 1,000 metres in width, NGE believes that the target is now suitably constrained for a focused deeper drilling program to evaluate the potential for economic mineralization associated with the projected major structural controls.

Results of infill borehole program

Discussing the results of the infill borehole program at South Grass Valley, Wade Hodges, NGEs CEO, explains: With characteristic CTGD lower plate host rocks exposed in outcrop at the Project, and with strong support from mapping and geophysics that these favourable host rocks continue under cover and intersect a major high-angle structure, this project area has drawn the interest of many exploration companies. As the first group to use hydrogeochemistry at the Project, we are the first to have been able to integrate this new geochemical filter into our exploration program to systematically evaluate this highly-prospective covered target. We are very pleased to share with our stakeholders that the results from our infill program have provided the required, but up-until-now missing, support for gold mineralization at the Project. We have constrained this large prospective area to a focused and compelling target that is now ready for a deeper drilling program.

About Nevada Exploration Inc.

NGE is an exploration company advancing a portfolio of new district-scale gold exploration projects along Nevadas Cortez Trend. NGE is led by an experienced management team that has been meaningfully involved in several significant discoveries in Nevada, including the discovery of Lone Tree and Rabbit Creek (part of the Twin Creeks Mine). NGEs team has spent the last decade integrating the use of hydrogeochemistry with conventional exploration tools to develop a Nevada-specific regional-scale geochemistry exploration program. With innovative technology, NGE has completed the worlds largest groundwater sampling program for gold exploration, collecting more than 5,500 samples to evaluate Nevadas covered basins for new gold exploration targets. To advance follow-up targets, NGE has overcome the high drilling costs that have previously prohibited the wide-spread use of drilling as a prospecting tool by developing its Scorpion drill rig, a small-footprint, truck-mounted, small-diameter RC drill rig specifically tailored to the drilling conditions in Nevadas basins (analogous to RAB drilling in other parts of the world). By integrating hydrogeochemistry and early-stage low-cost drilling with conventional exploration methods, NGE is overcoming the challenges and radically reducing the costs of exploring in Nevadas covered basins, and taking significant steps to open this important new search space up for district-scale exploration.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations

Nevada Exploration Inc.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tel: +1 (604) 601 2006

Website: www.nevadaexploration.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Wade A. Hodges, CEO & Director, Nevada Exploration Inc., is the Qualified Person, as defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has prepared the technical and scientific information contained in this News Release.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, without limitation, expectations, beliefs, plans, and objectives regarding projects, potential transactions, and ventures discussed in this release.

In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made numerous assumptions, regarding, among other things, the assumption the Company will continue as a going concern and will continue to be able to access the capital required to advance its projects and continue operations. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies.

In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are the risks inherent in mineral exploration, the need to obtain additional financing, environmental permits, the availability of needed personnel and equipment for exploration and development, fluctuations in the price of minerals, and general economic conditions.

A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company is disclosed in the Companys continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.62 feet assaying 21.4% combined zinc-lead; and 4.0 opt silver (TVS)

90.5 feet assaying 28.7% combined zinc-lead; and 18 opt silver (TS)

223 feet assaying 20.3% combined zinc-lead; and 8.4 opt silver (TDS)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arizona Mining Inc. (TSX:AZ) (Arizona Mining or the Company) announces strong results for five drill holes from the current program focused on expansion of the Trench Vein System (TVS), Taylor Sulfide Zone (TS) and Taylor Deeps Zone (TDS) located on its 100%-owned Hermosa-Taylor Project in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The drill holes highlighted in this release are successful step-out exploration and infill drill holes highlighting the continued potential for resource growth and increased grades, as distinct from the Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) (see Press Release dated January 16, 2018).

Our exploration drilling continues to find additional high-grade areas well outside of the PEA resource boundary, such as that highlighted in HDS-501 in our last press release, and step-out hole HDS-491 on the northern arm of the Trench block in todays results. These holes are in close proximity to planned mine infrastructure and have the potential to both significantly add to our already world-class resource for the feasibility study and add more high-grade material into the early part of the mine plan, said Chief Operating Officer Don Taylor. In addition, our infill drilling is demonstrating excellent continuity between areas, which will further support our planned low-cost mining methods.

HDS-491 is a vertical step-out hole targeting shallow Trench Vein System (TVS) mineralization on the northern arm of the Trench claim. The drill hole intercepted two veins, one of which was very significant. The Trench Vein intercept demonstrates 1,700 feet of continuity along strike between previously reported HDS-395 (see Press Release dated April 20th, 2017) and HDS-492. Significant mineralization in the intercepted Trench Vein includes:

62 feet assaying 21.4% combined zinc-lead; and 4.0 ounces per ton (opt) silver (TVS)

HDS-492 is a vertical step-out hole also targeting Trench Vein mineralization. The drill hole intercepted one mineralized horizon linking HDS-395 and HDS-491 from northwest to southeast, respectively, confirming the continuity and robust mineralization. The noteworthy mineralized interval was:

34.5 feet assaying 15.6% combined zinc-lead; and 2.3 opt silver (TVS)

HDS-496 is a vertical step-out drill hole targeting Taylor Deeps mineralization. The drill hole intercepted one vein and one substantial mineralized interval in the Taylor Deeps Zone. The Taylor Deeps intercept extends the mineralization 1,000 feet northwest of the 2018 updated PEA Taylor Deeps Resource Outline (see Press Release dated January 16, 2018). Significant mineralization in the Taylor Deeps includes:

91 feet assaying 4.8% combined zinc-lead; and 2.8 opt silver (TDS)

HDS-507 is an angled step-out hole targeting Taylor Deeps mineralization. The drill hole intercepted a mineralized horizon within the Taylor Sulfide Zone (in the Epitaph domain) and a considerably well mineralized Taylor Deeps Zone. The Taylor Deeps intercept extends the mineralization 300 feet west of HDS-497 (reported January 24, 2018). Significant mineralized intervals in the Taylor Deeps include:

223 feet assaying 20.3% combined zinc-lead, and 8.4 opt silver (TDS) including 40 feet assaying 30.3% combined zinc-lead; and 13.5 opt silver (TDS) including 23 feet assaying 30.5% combined zinc-lead; and 12.5 opt silver (TDS)



HDS-508 is an angled infill hole targeting Taylor Sulfide (TS) mineralization. The drill hole intercepted one very robust zone of mineralization in the Taylor Sulfide (in the Concha domain). Significant mineralization includes:

433.5 feet assaying 15.1% combined zinc-lead; and 7.3 opt silver (TS) including: 90 feet assaying 27.3% combined zinc-lead; and 9.1 opt silver (TS) AND 90.5 feet assaying 28.7% combined zinc-lead; and 18.0 opt silver (TS)



For a full list of the Trench Vein, Taylor Sulfide and Taylor Deeps Sulfide mineralized intervals from these holes please refer to Table I.

Table 1. Drill Hole Assay Summary DH_ID From (feet) To (feet) Interval (in feet) From (meters) To (meters) Interval (meters) Ag opt Pb% Zn% Cu% Zone HDS-491 795 798.5 3.5 242.3 243.4 1.1 6.62 4.36 5.99 0.30 TVS* HDS-491 1253 1315 62 381.9 400.8 18.9 4.01 8.29 13.14 0.39 TVS* HDS-492 1726.5 1761 34.5 526.2 536.7 10.5 2.34 5.82 9.81 0.17 TVS* HDS-496 947 957 10 288.6 291.7 3.0 2.25 4.14 1.05 0.12 TVS* HDS-496 4502 4593 91 1372.1 1399.9 27.7 2.79 2.48 2.36 0.64 TDS HDS-507 2442 2468 26 744.3 752.2 7.9 6.46 8.61 11.86 0.68 TS HDS-507 2894 3117 223 882.0 950.0 68.0 8.43 10.54 9.80 0.72 TDS Including 2997 3037 40 913.4 925.6 12.2 13.48 14.95 15.39 1.22 TDS Including 3077 3100 23 937.8 944.8 7.0 12.45 13.29 17.21 1.22 TDS HDS-507 3227 3242.5 15.5 983.5 988.3 4.7 7.40 2.00 4.32 0.40 TDS HDS-508 2134.5 2568 433.5 650.6 782.7 132.1 7.30 12.25 2.81 0.15 TS Including 2172 2262 90 662.0 689.4 27.4 9.11 19.69 7.65 0.48 TS Including 2337 2427.5 90.5 712.3 739.9 27.6 17.99 28.36 0.35 0.01 TS HDS-508 2977 2980 3 907.3 908.3 0.9 65.04 42.73 10.00 1.09 TVS*

Drill intersections with a combined zinc and lead grade of greater than 9% are bolded. Sulfide drill intervals from the Taylor Sulfide Zone and Taylor Deeps Sulfide Zone are down-the-hole drill intervals. Vertical drill holes are considered to be within +5% of true width based on the dip of the mineralized stratigraphy at 20-25 degrees. Angle drill holes are considered to be within +15% of true width based on the dip of the mineralized stratigraphy at 20-25 degrees.

*The exception to this are the intervals noted as veins. It is not possible to determine the true width of the veins based on the drill density and no representation is made here regarding true width of the veins. Zones shown include: Taylor Sulfide Zone (TS); Taylor Deeps Sulfide Zone (TDS) and Trench Vein System (TVS).

Figure 1. Drill Hole Location Map

Figure 2. Plan View of Taylor Deeps with ZnEq Grade Contour

Figure 3. Long Section of Hermosa Geology and Ore Deposit

Figure 4. Plan View of Trench Vein System

Figure 5. Land Status Map

Qualified Person

The results of the Arizona Mining Inc. drilling have been reviewed, verified and compiled by Donald R. Taylor, MSc., PG, Chief Operating Officer for Arizona Mining Inc., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). Mr. Taylor has 30 years of mineral exploration and mining experience, and is a Registered Professional Geologist through the SME (registered member #4029597).

Assays and Quality Assurance/Quality Control

To ensure reliable sample results, the Company has a rigorous QA/QC program in place that monitors the chain-of-custody of samples and includes the insertion of blanks, duplicates, and certified reference standards at statistically derived intervals within each batch of samples. Core is photographed and split in half with one-half retained in a secured facility for verification purposes.

Sample preparation (crushing and pulverizing) has been performed at ALS Minerals Laboratories, an ISO/IEC accredited lab located in Tucson, Arizona. ALS Minerals Laboratories prepares a pulp of all samples and sends the pulps to their analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. Canada for analysis. ALS analyzes the pulp sample by ICP following a 4-acid digestion (ME-ICP61 for 33 elements) including Cu (copper), Pb (lead), and Zn (zinc). All samples in which Cu (copper), Pb (lead), or Zn (zinc) are greater than 10,000 ppm are re-run using four acid digestion with an ICP  AES finish (Cu-OG62; Pb-OG62; and Zn-OG62) with the elements reported in percentage (%). Silver values are determined by ICP (ME-ICP61) with all samples with silver values greater than 100 ppm repeated using four acid digestion with an ICP-AES finish (Ag-OG62) calibrated for higher levels of silver contained. Any values over 1,500 ppm Ag trigger a fire assay with gravimetric finish analysis. Gold values are determined by a 30 gm fire assay with an ICP-AES finish (Au-ICP21).

About Arizona Mining

Arizona Mining Inc. (an augustagroup company) is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Hermosa Project located in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The Taylor Deposit, a zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement deposit, has a resource of 15.2 million tons in the Measured Mineral Resource category grading 4.0% zinc, 4.0% lead and 1.6 opt silver, or 9.6% ZnEq, plus 85.8 million tons in the Indicated Mineral Resource category grading 4.2% zinc, 4.3% lead and 2.2 opt silver, or 10.5% ZnEq, and 43.6 million tons of Inferred Mineral Resources grading 3.9% zinc, 4.8% lead and 3.4 opt silver or 11.9% ZnEq, all reported in accordance with NI 43-101 guidelines utilizing a 4% ZnEq cutoff grade. The Taylor Deposit remains open to the north, west and south over land controlled by the Company and will be aggressively drilled to test the limits of the resource. The Companys other project on the Hermosa property is the Central Deposit, a silver-manganese manto oxide project.

For additional information please contact:

Jerrold Annett

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Telephone: 416-366-5678 ext. 207

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Susan Muir

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Telephone: 416-366-5678 ext. 202

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward looking statements including statements with respect to the Companys intentions for its Hermosa Project in Arizona, including, without limitation, performing additional drilling, a resource update, permitting and a feasibility study on the Taylor Deposit. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as may, will, seek, anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, budget, schedule, forecast, project, expect, intend, or similar expressions.

The forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which, while considered reasonable by Arizona Mining, are subject to risks and uncertainties. In addition to the assumptions herein, these assumptions include the assumptions described in Arizona Mining's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2016 ("MD&A"). Arizona Mining cautions readers that forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements and forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results, performance or achievement. These risks, uncertainties and factors include general business, economic, competitive, political, regulatory and social uncertainties; actual results of exploration activities and economic evaluations; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; changes in project parameters; changes in costs, including labour, infrastructure, operating and production costs; future prices of zinc, lead, silver and other minerals; variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, development or mining activities, including the failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; delays in completion of exploration, development or construction activities; changes in government legislation and regulation; the ability to maintain and renew existing licenses and permits or obtain required licenses and permits in a timely manner; the ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms in a timely manner; contests over title to properties; employee relations and shortages of skilled personnel and contractors; the speculative nature of, and the risks involved in, the exploration, development and mining business; and the factors discussed in the section entitled "Risks and Uncertainties" in the MD&A.

Although Arizona Mining has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking information, there may be other risks, uncertainties and other factors that cause performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Unless otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements contained herein are as of the date hereof and Arizona Mining disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.TORONTO, March 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC or together with its subsidiaries, the Company) (TSXV:LSC) is pleased to announce the completion of its initial Mineral Resource delineation phase with the recently announced delivery of Mineral Resource statements on its Pozuelos Project and Rio Grande Project. The imminent commencement of both the upgrading of the Pozuelos and Rio Grande resources and the planned start of engineering studies will culminate in the completion of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project this year.

HIGHLIGHTS

Pozuelos NI 43-101 technical report filed with Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,296,000 tonnes LCE and Inferred 497,000 tonnes LCE 1

Rio Grande Maiden Resource delivered with Inferred Mineral Resource of 2,190,000 tonnes LCE 2

Lithium brine bearing formations indicated to 500m+ depth on Rio Grande

High grade lithium footprint established on Pastos Grandes

High grade surface sample results on Salinas Grandes reported

2018 PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Deliver PEA on Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project

Deliver NI 43-101 Mineral Resource on Pastos Grandes

Deliver upgraded NI 43-101 Mineral Resource on Pozuelos

Deliver NI 43-101 Mineral Resource on Salinas Grandes

Deliver upgraded and expanded NI 43-101 Mineral Resource on Rio Grande

LSCs President and CEO, Ian Stalker, noted, The Companys decision to accelerate its key projects through initial mineral resource generation has resulted in the delivery of key mineral resource estimates at Pozuelos and Rio Grande. The Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project will continue to be fast tracked to production with a PEA being produced by year end and thereafter planned to be in production by 2021. We are extremely pleased with the progress to date and look forward to the imminent commencement of engineering studies on Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project and delivery of the PEA this year.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

POZUELOS-PASTOS GRANDES PROJECT

The Company has decided to study the potential for combining its Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes projects. Being only 17km apart, both projects may potentially benefit from common infrastructure and plant facilities thereby reducing the capital and operating costs. As a result, a combined PEA for the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project will be completed by year end. As this would result in blending of brines from both salars, it potentially represents an opportunity to optimise the overall average grade of the combined operation. By combining production from both projects, LSC anticipates that higher production levels may be possible on a sustainable basis. LSC has assembled the team to drive the PEA and test-work during 2018 and 2019 and is in the preliminary phase of requesting expressions of interest from engineering firms.

The Company also recently announced its maiden Mineral Resource on the Pozuelos section of the project. This NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimate included 1,296,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate (Li 2 CO 3 ) equivalent (LCE) in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource category at an average grade of 387mg/l Li and 497,000 tonnes LCE in the Inferred Mineral Resource category at an average grade of 340mg/l Li.3 The phreatic level of the brine is within 1m of the existing halite surface and there may be additional potential below the current limit of drilling as indicated by the recently acquired seismic data, for those holes which did not reach the basement.

The planned exploration program for 2018 on the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project includes the following:

Pozuelos Section

Additional core drilling to expand and upgrade the current Mineral Resource and to test deeper intervals of the deposit below current drill holes. The northern third of the salar has not been drilled as of yet and surface sampling indicates increased grades in that area.

Step out drilling will be conducted to expand the high-grade zone around the salar nucleus which returned high grades during pump test work consistently between 480mg/l Li to 627mg/l Li. 4

Pump test work is also designed to test consistency of lithium grades and other parameters while under production equivalent pumping conditions and to be included in the dynamic hydrogeological model to allow for conversion of resources to reserves.

Pumping tests have re-started with pumping wells completed in the south-west on previously drilled hole SP-2017-10 which returned an average grade of 458mg/l Li which is aimed at testing deeper brine bodies in clastic formations. Similarly, pump test work is planned at the previously drilled site SP-2017-02 which returned an average grade of 446mg/l Li.5

Pastos Grandes Section6

As recently reported, a large mineralized footprint has been established on the Pastos Grandes section of the project. Drill hole SPG-2017-5B delivered results which included an average of 569 mg/l Li over 430m and a range of between 543mg/l Li and 637mg/l Li. Drill hole SPG-2017-2B returned a peak value of 511mg/l Li with 3 main mineralized zones including 91m at 377mg/l Li from 57m, 38m at 459mg/l Li from 354m, 14m at 466mg/l Li from 466m with mineralization being present to 512m and is open at depth. Drill hole SPG-2017-4A returned a peak value of 528mg/l Li with 3 principal mineralized zones including 62m at 500mg/l Li from 342m, 110m at 388mg/l Li from 192m and 83m at 326mg/l Li from 9m.

The 2018 Pastos Grandes section development work includes additional drilling, a seismic survey and pump test work. The issuance of a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource in Q3-2018 is planned.

RIO GRANDE PROJECT

On February 15, 2018, the Company announced its maiden Mineral Resource on its Rio Grande Project which included a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource of 2,190,000 tonnes LCE in the Inferred Mineral Resource category with the top 50m of the deposit amounting to 1,375,435 tonnes grading at 338mg/l Li and the lower 50m to 100m amounting to 814,582 tonnes grading at 410mg/l Li.7 Available brine assay data shows a trend to increased lithium grades between 50m to 100m below surface and this trend indicates potentially improved grades at depth.

The Company also recently completed a CS-AMT subsurface conductivity survey which indicates that there could be significant depth to the lithium bearing formations on the project with two deep depocenters being present in excess of 500m, one of which is open ended at depth and to the north and the second centrally located on the salar. The salar was historically a sulphate producing operation which successfully extracted sulphate from the brines on the property.

The 2018 drill program will investigate both the deep targets and is designed to deliver an upgraded NI 43-101 Mineral Resource.

SALINAS GRANDES PROJECT

As previously reported by the Company on January 15, 2018, the Company completed a surface sampling verification program designed to validate assay data used in the Orocobre Ltd. Mineral Resource8 estimate on the Salta portion of Salinas Grandes, which will allow for a revised Mineral Resource to be issued by the Company. High grades were confirmed peaking at 2,736mg/l Li with 80% of assays >500mg/l Li and 44% >1000mg/l Li. This confirms the Companys belief that the Salinas Grandes salar represents a high grade and potentially large lithium in brine opportunity.

Historical geophysical information including a gravity and AMT survey indicates that the Salinas Grandes salar basin could host a deep target which could be in excess of 400m deep.9 Exploration work for the 2018 year includes seismic and CS-AMT surveys to establish the depth of the Salinas Grandes basin and confirm the historical information referred to.

A recently completed surface sampling survey conducted on the Companys joint venture property on the San Jose/Navidad tenement located in the Jujuy section of the Salinas Grandes project returned a peak grade of 1,353mg/l Li with 60% of the assays >500mg/l Li and 8% > 1000mg/l Li. These results indicate a continuation of high grade that extends to the east of the current established mineralised footprint on the project.

The Company has recently consolidated and expanded its land holding over the majority of the salar surface and also controls the majority of the surrounding alluvial fan areas adjacent to the salar. With the completion of the previously announced acquisition of the Bolera tenements and Mina Teresa tenements, LSC acquired an additional 3,178ha in Salinas Grandes and now controls approximately 95% of the salar surface on the Salta side and approximately 44% of the salar surface of the Jujuy side.

JAMA

An 80km seismic survey was recently completed with results pending and expected shortly.

Qualified Person/Data Verification

The scientific and technical information included in this press release is based upon information prepared and approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Mr. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC. Mr. Hains has verified all sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information contained in this press release by on-site inspection during drilling, brine sampling, and selection of RBRC samples; review of drill core photographs to verify lithology; review of certified assay certificates against the assay data base; review of pump test data; and review of RBRC results received from DBSA. There are no drilling, sampling, recovery or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy and reliability of the data.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION:

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its tenements located in five salars: Pozuelos, Pastos Grandes, Rio Grande, Salinas Grandes, and Jama. All LSC tenements are located in the Lithium Triangle, an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the worlds most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.

For further information please contact:

LSC Lithium Corporation

Ian Stalker

President & Chief Executive Officer

151 Yonge Street, 11th floor

Toronto ON, Canada M5C 2W7

(416) 304 9384

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Web: lsclithium.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the ability of LSC to confirm prior historical exploration work conducted on Salinas Grandes, ability and anticipated timing to complete an upgraded NI 43-101 report on the Salar de Pozuelos and Salar de Rio Grande, ability and anticipated timing to complete a NI 43-101 report on the Salar de Pastos Grande and Salar de Salinas Grandes, anticipated timing to complete a PEA on the Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes Project, timing for commencing engineering studies, timing of planned production, potential reduction of costs, optimization of grades and higher production levels as a result of combining the Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes projects, ability, timing and successful completion of the drill and exploration program at all the Companys properties, LSCs overall contained lithium inventory, ability to produce more results on the Companys property, the existence of extensive and open ended mineralization and improved grades at depth at Rio Grande, existence of large grade lithium opportunity at Salinas Grandes, ability and timing to complete seismic survey on Jama and commencement of CSAMT. The use of any of the words could, anticipate, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to: title, permitting and regulatory risks; exploration and the establishment of any resources or reserves on the LSC properties; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSCs share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information, see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

__________________________________________________

1 See LSCs press release dated March 5, 2018 and Technical Report titled Mineral Resource Estimate & Technical Report on the Salar de Pozuelos Project, Salta Province, Argentina with an effective date of February 28, 2018 (Pozuelos Report) filed on the Companys SEDAR profile.

2 See LSCs press release dated February 15, 2018.

3 See the Pozuelos Report.

4 See the Pozuelos Report.

5 See LSCs Press Release dated November 13, 2017.

6 See LSCs Press Releases dated November 14, 2017, December 11, 2017 and February 21, 2018.

7 See LSCs Press Releases dated February 15, 2018.

8 Orocobre Ltd completed a NI 43 - 101 technical report with an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate on its Salinas Grandes tenements in 2013. See Technical Report on the Salinas Grandes Lithium Project  April 16, 2012, amended August 12, 2013, prepared for Orocobre Ltd. and filed under Orocobres SEDAR profile.

9 See the Technical Report titled, Technical Report on the Salinas Grandes and Guayatayoc Project, Jujuy-Salta Provinces, Argentina dated April 30, 2010prepared for Orocobre and filed on Orocobres SEDAR Profile.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2018) - Lupaka Gold Corp. (TSXV: LPK) (FSE: LQP) ("Lupaka Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results from a recent comprehensive and systematic underground sampling program on the 3400 Level at the Company's 100% owned Invicta Gold Development Project ("Invicta Project" or "Invicta").Highlights:

Sample assay values over the footwall vein averaged 9.86 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent* (Au-Eq.) over 130 metres , with an average width of 6.1 metres

, with an average width of 6.1 metres Sample assay values over the hanging wall split averaged 7.00 g/t Au-Eq. over 70 metres, with an average width of 6.0 metres

Average grades are in-line, or higher, than grades within the same area of the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) mine plan

* Au-Eq. calculations are based on US$1250 for gold ("Au"), US$17.00 for silver ("Ag"), US$3.00 for copper ("Cu"), US$1.25 for zinc ("Zn"), and US$1.05 for lead ("Pb"), with assumed mill recoveries of 85% for Au, 80% for Ag, 82 % for Cu and Pb, and 77% for Zn.

"These results demonstrate the high-grade, continuous nature of the mineralized system at Invicta and help validate the expected grade in our mine plan from the 3400 Level. The average sampled grades are in-line, or higher, than grades within our mine plan, derived from the PEA. With a combined average width of over 12 metres, the sub-vertical Invicta Deposit extends for over 130 metres in strike length on the 3400 Level and will be immediately accessible for extraction when the Invicta mine becomes operational later in 2018."

Will Ansley, President and CEO of Lupaka

Sampling Program and Results

To better appreciate the grade continuity within mineralized veins at the Invicta Deposit and to confirm modeled grades within the current Invicta Mineral Resource model, the Company recently completed a comprehensive underground channel sampling program over the entire western section of the Atenea vein on the 3400 Level, using a 5-metre sample spacing interval (Plan shown in Appendix A). The 2018 program, designed to augment previous sampling work performed in 2014, commenced at the 2SW cross cut (on the western side). Channel sampling was performed across each wall (west and east) as well as over the ceiling on the same plane. Further channel sampling was performed systematically every additional 5 metres, similar to the mineral resource block model size, and over both walls within the six-additional cross-cuts (seven in total) ending on the eastern wall of the Level.

Polymetallic mineralization within the Atenea Vein on 3400 Level is hosted by structurally-defined footwall and hanging wall components which were mapped and sampled separately. Summarized assay sampling results are tabulated in Table 1 with a summarized and detailed sampling plan provided in Appendix A.

Table 1: Average Sampling Results from 3400 Level Atenea Vein Sampling Program

Atenea Vein Length

Metres Width

Metres Au

g/t Ag

g/t Cu% Pb% Zn% Au-Eq.

g/t Footwall Vein 130.0 6.1 5.20 68.69 1.53 1.38 0.97 9.86 Hanging Wall Vein Split 70.0 6.0 2.74 62.18 1.33 1.52 0.86 7.00

Summary results obtained from 331 samples taken in the drift and crosscuts, over spacing of approximately every 5 metres, are tabulated in Table 2 (Footwall Vein) and Table 3 (Hanging Wall Split).

Table 2: Summary Assays from Atenea 3400 Level  Footwall Vein

Width Au Ag Cu Pb Zn Au-Eq. Metres g/t g/t % % % g/t 5.00 7.24 8.60 0.33 0.07 0.13 7.99 5.05 4.05 29.43 1.26 0.20 0.50 6.84 4.50 0.35 14.44 0.39 0.15 0.25 1.39 3.20 0.38 32.19 1.05 0.86 4.68 5.73 7.80 8.71 22.21 0.35 0.19 0.61 10.03 8.30 3.19 20.81 0.69 0.12 0.87 5.14 3.00 4.72 5.00 0.17 0.02 0.14 5.16 3.20 2.02 5.00 0.13 0.14 0.43 2.63 2.00 0.49 2.67 0.17 0.08 0.06 0.87 4.20 4.86 41.57 0.82 1.10 2.89 9.03 6.15 2.54 55.30 2.02 0.95 0.44 7.25 2.60 12.48 116.50 2.28 3.24 0.97 19.96 3.60 1.42 53.25 1.18 1.84 0.56 5.33 2.80 11.79 132.57 2.74 0.98 1.91 19.52 9.20 3.76 75.48 1.78 2.00 1.43 9.52 14.40 4.40 99.78 2.35 3.15 0.99 11.75 3.80 6.31 98.05 2.34 2.04 2.03 13.63 3.20 1.08 38.31 1.21 0.47 0.11 3.81 12.70 3.15 88.59 1.65 4.25 1.19 9.97 13.40 1.27 45.94 1.58 1.10 0.63 5.35 5.15 9.21 95.71 1.90 0.36 0.27 13.81 4.80 5.17 74.13 2.17 1.53 1.09 11.06 12.00 11.92 121.17 1.87 1.88 1.08 18.12 9.00 14.72 168.36 1.74 0.76 0.83 20.54 5.70 13.23 110.37 2.17 2.76 1.62 20.59 5.80 5.49 92.91 2.39 1.31 0.95 11.77 5.85 3.23 57.26 1.84 1.38 1.70 8.66 8.00 3.10 74.50 2.31 0.86 1.32 8.98 8.00 1.41 32.96 0.86 0.53 0.39 3.73 3.30 1.37 53.36 0.85 0.33 0.23 3.71 3.20 1.12 40.50 1.44 0.15 0.05 4.04 Weighted Averages 6.1 5.20 68.69 1.53 1.38 0.97 9.86 Length (metres) 130

Table 3: Summary Assays from Atenea 3400 Level  Hanging Wall Split

Width Au Ag Cu Pb Zn Au-Eq. Metres g/t g/t % % % g/t 3.75 0.41 37.37 1.26 0.78 0.29 3.49 3.00 1.01 99.53 0.99 0.56 0.33 4.37 5.45 2.41 86.65 1.13 0.47 0.48 5.85 10.80 3.06 49.37 1.22 0.89 0.89 6.65 8.00 4.66 58.36 1.66 1.96 0.77 9.58 4.90 2.08 65.51 1.56 4.49 2.09 9.12 Weighted A verages 6.0 2.74 63.18 1.33 1.52 0.86 7.00 Length (metres) 70

Project Background

Lupaka's Invicta Gold Project is a polymetallic development project located approximately 120 kilometres north of Lima, Peru. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) was completed on the project by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. March 1, 2018 which evaluated the economic viability of underground extraction of the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources from the Atenea Vein close to the existing 3,400 Level adit (up to 130 metres above the 3400 Level) utilizing a sub-level long hole open stoping mining method supported by initial toll treatment processing options. The PEA has robust economics with the following highlights:

Mineral Resource Statement of 3.0 million tonnes of Indicated Mineral Resources at 5.78 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent ounces (Au-Eq.) using a 3.0 g/t Au-Eq. cut-off, and 0.6 million tonnes of Inferred Mineral Resources at 5.29 g/t Au-Eq.

Initial 6-year mine plan (underground) designed on a portion of the mineral resource utilizing the existing infrastructure and minimizing capital start-up costs

Sub-level open stope mining producing ~ 670,000 minable tonnes at 8.6 g/t Au-Eq.* with production of ~ 185,000 Au-Eq. oz (within initial 6-year mine plan)

Average annual pre-tax cash flows of US$10.2 million, average annual after-tax cash flow of US$8.2 million

Annual production of 33,700 Au-Eq. oz, during steady state

Annual payable metal of 26,700 Au-Eq. oz, during steady state

All-in Sustaining Costs of US$575 Au-Eq. oz over initial 6-year mine life, average annual pre-tax operating profit of US$12.3 million

Pre-tax 5% NPV of US$53.6 million

Low capital investment: US$4.3 million in pre-production capital with a payback of less than one year

The PEA considers only part of the reported Mineral Resource (the Atenea Vein close to existing infrastructure) with the objective of generating positive cash flow from a low-cost operation while simultaneously re-investing in and further evaluating the deposit to potentially expand production in the future.

The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Quality Control and Assurance

The analyses for this sampling campaign were carried out by ALS, an accredited laboratory, in Lima, Peru, exercising a thorough Quality Assurance and Control program (QA/QC). As part of QA/QC protocol, duplicates, standards and blanks were inserted into the sample processing stream. The sample locations were mapped, surveyed and photographed for reference. Individual sample channels vary between 0.2 to 2.5 metres wide. Samples were bagged, sealed and delivered to the ALS sample preparation facility in Lima, Peru. Gold was assayed by a 50-gram fire assay and re-assayed for the overlimits, with an AAS finish. All ALS labs are ISO 9000 registered.

Technical Report

Further information about the PEA and the resource estimate referenced in this news release, including data verification, key assumptions, parameters, risks and other factors, will be provided in a technical report prepared following Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument (NI) 43-101 and Form 43-101F1 guidelines for the Invicta Project that the Company will file on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) within 45 days from March 1, 2018.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of this news release.

About Lupaka Gold

Lupaka is an active Canadian-based company focused on creating shareholder value through discoveries and strategic development of its assets in some of the most prolific mining regions of Peru.

Invicta Gold Development Project  100% owned, the Company's flagship project is an advanced stage gold-copper polymetallic underground deposit located approximately 120 kilometres north of Lima. Over $12 million of capital has been spent by previous owners on development and infrastructure at Invicta, and management expects to commence potential production in the second half of 2018 by using third-party mining contractors and utilizing the existing adit and workings. The Invicta project is fully permitted and community agreements are in place.

The potential underground operation will be focused on underground extraction of Indicated Mineral Resources and Inferred Mineral Resources from the Atenea vein within close proximity to the existing 3400 Level adit (up to 130 metres above the 3400 Level).

Invicta's approved EIA allows for mine production of up to 1,000 tpd, although the current mining plan is targeting 350 tpd.

Cautionary Note Regarding the Invicta Production Decision

The decision to commence potential production at the Invicta Gold Project and the Company's plans for a mining operation as referenced herein (the "Production Decision and Plans") are based on economic models prepared by the Company in conjunction with management's knowledge of the property and the existing estimate of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources on the property, supplemented by the 2018 PEA. The Production Decision and Plans were not based on a preliminary economic assessment, a pre-feasibility study or a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Accordingly, there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with the Production Decision and Plans, in particular the risk that mineral grades will be lower than expected, the risk that construction or ongoing mining operations are more difficult or more expensive than expected, the risk that the Company will not be able to transport or sell the mineralized material it produces to local custom toll mills on the terms it expects, or at all; production and economic variables may vary considerably, due to the absence of a detailed economic and technical analysis according to and in accordance with NI 43-101.

Josnitoro Gold Project  the Company holds an option to earn a 65% interest on this project from Hochschild Mining PLC. The project is located approximately 800 kilometres by road southeast of Lima in the Department of Apurimac, southern Peru, within the Andahuaylas-Yaury Belt, in which the Las Bambas mine (MMG Limited) and the Constancia mine (HudBay Minerals) are located. Historical work on the disseminated gold zones includes over 170 shallow drill holes and extensive surface trenching, as well as artisanal mining.

About SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc.

SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. form part of the SRK Consulting Group which is an independent, international consulting company that provides focused advice and solutions to clients, mainly from earth and water resource industries. Formed in 1974, SRK now employs more than 1,400 professionals in over 40 offices on 6 continents. Among SRK's 1,500 clients are most of the world's major- and medium-sized metal and industrial mineral mining houses, exploration companies, banks, petroleum exploration companies, construction firms and government departments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Will Ansley, President & C.E.O.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Tel: (416) 862-5257



or visit the Company's profile at www.sedar.com or its website at www.lupakagold.com

Qualified Person

The technical information in this document has been reviewed and approved by Julio Castaneda Mondragon, MAIG, the President of Lupaka Gold Peru S.A.C., a Peruvian subsidiary of the Company, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Castaneda has verified the scientific and technical information, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in this news release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release relative to anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to improvements in the road to the Invicta Project and its anticipated benefits and the timing of completion of the improvements, the timing of the commencement of potential production from the Invicta Project and the generation of cash therefrom, the anticipated methods of production, the receipt of and anticipated use of proceeds of the PLI Financing, the Company's plans and intentions for Invicta, mineral resource estimates, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made that the Company believes are reasonable, including: that the repayment of the PLI Financing is consummated on the anticipated terms, that the supplies, equipment, personnel, permits, and local community approvals required to conduct the Company's planned pre-production and development activities will be available on reasonable terms, that the Company will be able to comply with the delivery and other obligations in the PLI Financing Agreement, that results of exploration activities will be consistent with management's expectations and that the Company will not experience any material accident, labour dispute, or failure of equipment and with respect to the planned mining operations at Invicta; that pre-production mine development can be completed in the time and for the cost projected; that the Company will be able to obtain funding for planned production expenses; that mineralization at Invicta will be of the grades and in the locations expected; that the Company will be able to extract and transport mineralized rock efficiently and sell the mineralized rock at the prices and in the manner and quantities expected; that permits will be received on the terms and timeline expected and that other regulatory or permitting issues will not arise; that mining methods can be employed in the manner and at the costs expected and that such methods yield the results the Company expects them to. However, forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: all of the risks described in this news release; failure of the PLI Financing to complete on the proposed terms or at all, including due to the Company's inability to complete the conditions precedent, the risk that actual results of exploration and development activities will be different than anticipated; that the Company will not be able to comply with the delivery or other obligations in the PLI Financing Agreement and the risk that PLI will enforce its security over the Company's assets, including its mineral properties; that cost of labour, equipment or materials will increase more than expected; that the future price of gold will decline; that the Canadian dollar will strengthen against the U.S. dollar; that mineral resources are not as estimated; unexpected variations in mineral resources, grade or recovery rates; risks related to shipping mineralized rock; the risk that local mills cannot or will not buy or process mineralized rock from the planned production for the prices expected or at all; risk of accidents, labour disputes and other risks generally associated with mineral exploration; unanticipated delays in obtaining or failure to obtain community, governmental or regulatory approvals or financing; and all of the risks generally associated with the development of mining facilities and the operation of a producing mine, as well as the risks described in the Company's annual information form, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to not be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information due to the inherent uncertainty thereof. Lupaka Gold does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

APPENDIX A



Figure 1: Summarized Assay Results from Underground Channel Sampling of the Atenea Vein on 3400 Level, Invicta Gold Mine

Figure 2: Detailed Assay Results from Underground Channel Sampling of the Atenea Vein on 3400 Level, Invicta Gold MineThe Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Herman von Hebel, decided on March 13 to withdraw as candidate for a new five-year mandate, JusticeInfo.net has learned.

Von Hebel of the Netherlands had been sharply criticized for his management of the Court, especially in the context of the ReVision reform plan, aspects of which were deemed illegal by the administrative tribunal of the International Labour Organization (ILO) at the end of January. In total, these reforms may have cost the Court nearly 7 million Euros.

Twelve candidates are still in the running to succeed him. But the date of the future Registrars election by the 18 ICC judges has not yet been announced. On March 9, the six new judges elected in December by the Assembly of the ICCs 123 States Parties were inaugurated, and then elected Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji as Court President.For well-off people like politician Pantaleon Alvarez, getting out of a bad marriage in the Philippines is pricey but feasible  but for the nations poorest and most vulnerable citizens it is nearly impossible.

Thats because heavily Catholic Philippines and the Vatican are the last two places on Earth where divorce is outlawed.

For the nations 100 million people, the only exit from a union gone wrong is an embarrassing  and labyrinthine  process that often amounts to a luxury.

But lawmakers, including Alvarez, have launched a new legislative effort to legalise divorce which activists believe could transform the lives of impoverished women trapped in toxic marriages.

The bill has been propelled forward by Alvarez, who is speaker in the lower House of Representatives and an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte.

In an interview with AFP, he said ending his first marriage cost him a million pesos ($19,200), which is more than triple what an average family in the Philippines makes in a year.

Like thousands of Filipinos, he did it through a civil procedure called annulment, whereby a judge declares a marriage invalid, generally because the spouses had a psychological incapacity.

It requires applicants to undergo a mental exam, testify in court and sometimes even claim they or their spouse entered the union with a disorder like narcissism.

The process can take anywhere from one to 10 years to wind through the creakingly slow and overburdened Philippine court system, costing at least $4,800.

Since 1999 lawmakers have regularly filed a bill to legalise divorce, only to see it languish in committee limbo  until now.

For the first time ever, House of Representatives lawmakers are poised to approve the bill after backing it in preliminary votes. It would then head to the Senate where it faces opposition from conservative members.

However, the bill enjoys rare bipartisan support, a sign Alvarez says of the urgency of addressing broken marriages.

Its a badge of stupidity because we are the only nation that does not see the problem, Alvarez, 60, told AFP.

The legislation would allow divorce and exempt poor people from legal fees, listing domestic violence, attempts to engage a spouse in prostitution and irreconcilable differences among the grounds for splitting up.

 Not the will of God 

Not surprisingly, the countrys powerful Catholic Church, which counts about 80 percent of Filipinos as followers, has fiercely opposed the bill.

It is not according to the scriptures, to the will of God and it does not help, Manila bishop Broderick Pabillo told AFP.

The church fought a pitched but ultimately unsuccessful battle in 2012 to halt a law providing free contraceptives to poor couples and teaching sex education in schools.

It has also backed an existing ban on abortion and gay marriage.

Surveys show a majority of Filipinos have supported legalising divorce since 2014.

At the same time the number filing for annulments has grown steadily in the past decade, hitting over 10,000 in 2017, according to government statistics.

Filipinos have become more open. Theyve been exposed to norms from other countries, said Jean Franco, political science assistant professor at the University of the Philippines.

But with Catholic clergy lobbying and protesting against the bill, its final passage is uncertain.

The countrys outspoken leader Duterte, whose own marriage was annulled, has yet to wade into the debate.

Although he spoke in favour of upholding the ban during his 23 years as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he is mercurial on social issues.

A longtime critic of the church, Duterte voiced support for gay marriage in 2015, only to backtrack after securing the presidency in 2016, before endorsing it yet again last December.

He also has plenty on his plate, with international war crimes prosecutors launching a preliminary probe into his deadly war on drugs, which has also aroused the ire of the church.

 Strangling, screaming 

Campaigners say the bill could offer a lifeline to women trapped in violent marriages.

Divorce is a womans issue, especially for poor women who are being abused because it could provide them an out legally, Elizabeth Angsioco, national chairwoman of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, told AFP.

For women like Melody Alan who says she has endured 14 years of abuse from an unfaithful, alcoholic husband, the ban cannot be overturned soon enough.

He strangled me, pushed me against a wall. I was crying and screaming. I couldnt breathe, Alan, secretary-general of the Divorce Advocates of the Philippines, told AFP.

Alan, 44, said her husband agreed to accept an annulment if she paid for it  something she could in no way afford while raising four kids.

In 2010 she separated from her husband, who now has two children with another woman, but they remain legally married.

I will file for divorce to get freedom (to say) that this is who I am now, she said. I can start anew.Spanish police searched the seat of the Catalan regional government in Barcelona on Thursday as part of an investigation into how last years banned independence referendum was funded.

A Civil Guard spokesperson said the operation targeted the citizens assistance office and the offices of the grassroots separatist group Omnium Cultural, whose leader was jailed last year pending a probe into his role in Catalonias breakaway bid.

During the raid, police detained the head of the citizens assistance department, Antoni Molons, and said his home would also be searched.

Officers were looking for documents of an economic nature, according to Omnium Cultural spokesperson, Roger Rofin, who denied the use of any public funding.

We have not received a single euro from the (Catalan parliament) since 2012, he said.

According to Spanish media, police are seeking evidence into the public financing of the referendum, organised by pro-independence leaders on October 1 despite a court ban.

We launched an operation in the context of the inquiry heard by the judge of court number 13 in Barcelona, said the spokesperson.

The Catalan parliament was dissolved by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after it unilaterally declared independence on October 27 following the banned referendum on secession.

Since then, the region of 7.5 million people has been under direct rule from Madrid.

Catalonias ousted leader Carles Puigdemont, in self-exposed exile in Belgium, faces arrest if he returns to Spain.The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Thursday renewing for a year its peace mission in South Sudan, while also threatening to later impose an arms embargo if necessary.

The strongly-worded US-drafted text is aimed at piling pressure on South Sudans warring sides as they head into a new round of peace talks in Ethiopia next month to end the four-year war.

The measure expresses the councils intention to consider all appropriate measures against those who take actions that undermine the peace, stability and security of South Sudan, including an arms embargo, to deprive the parties of the means to continue fighting and to prevent violations of the cessation of hostilities agreement, a Security Council diplomat said.

Under the text, the UN force would still be staffed by 17,000 troops and police, including a 4,000-strong regional protection force and 2,101 police.

A diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity stressed the resolution was primarily focused on renewing the peacekeepers mandate, with an arms embargo  long sought by the US  a theoretical possibility only.

More than half of South Sudans population, ravaged by a civil war since December 2013, faces extreme hunger  a 40 percent increase over last year  according to a recently published report by three UN agencies.

A UN rights commission last month said there was sufficient evidence to charge at least 41 senior officers and officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, with critical backing from the United States, which remains Jubas biggest aid donor.

With the war now in its fifth year, Ethiopia is leading a regional peace effort, hosting talks between the government and rebel groups that have yet to produce a breakthrough.

A ceasefire deal agreed in December has not taken hold, even though the level of violence has decreased.

The United States failed in late 2016 to garner enough support for a ban on weapons sales after eight countries including Russia, China, Angola, Egypt and Senegal abstained.

Nine votes are required to adopt a resolution in the 15-member council.

Despite the defeat, the United States has continued to call for an arms embargo, with the support of Britain and France.

A UN rights commission last month said there was sufficient evidence to charge at least 41 senior officers and officials with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The commissions report documented extraordinary cruelty. Some victims were beheaded, burned alive or had their throats cut, others had their eyes gouged out or were tortured.

Addressing a recent African Union summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dropped his usual reluctance to criticize leaders and bluntly said of South Sudans leaders that he had never seen a political elite with so little interest in the well-being of its own people.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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Support our mission and join our community now.Sixty people were arrested during Operation Storm, a high visibility garda operation which took place in South Kilkenny in recent days.

The main day of action took place on Wednesday (March 14) between the hours of 8am and 5pm covering Thomastown District within the Kilkenny/ Carlow Division. A number of planned searches were undertaken by search teams deployed in South Kilkenny. In total 12 properties were searched, seven of which were positive for controlled drugs including cannabis and cocaine.

36 people were arrested in relation to crime investigation, with 31 of these being detained under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984, at Kilkenny and Thomastown Garda Stations. The offences for which persons have been arrested include thefts, assaults, fraud, burglary and breaches of section 15 Misuse Drugs Act 1977/84. 21 of these have been charged and will appear at local sittings of Kilkenny District Court in the coming weeks. The arrests were made in counties Kilkenny, Monaghan, Carlow and Dublin.

24 persons were arrested on foot of existing warrants, with a total of 28 warrants executed.

Gardai monitored Operation Thor targets and the activities of local criminals by means of checkpoints. Crime Prevention leaflets were handed out to members of the public to increase the awareness of protection of personal property and possessions.

Automatic number-plate recognition vehicles were deployed on the off ramps of the motorway which runs through the District with the aim of identifying criminals entering the district.

Chief Superintendent Dominic Hayes and local garda management met the local business community in Kilkenny and there were number of community engagement activities conducted, including visits to local national schools at St Patricks De La Salle and St John of Gods with Community Engagement teams and Garda Mounted Unit.

Superintendent Derek Hughes, District Officer, Kilkenny liaised with local media. Members were also deployed on beat duty and a number of visits were conducted to more vulnerable older persons and nursing homes in conjunction with the Divisional Age Action Strategy.

A total of 25 trainee gardai from the Garda College Templemore assisted with the operation. While providing an extra visible presence they gain valuable learning experience regarding the running of a major policing operation. They observed the execution of warrants, arrests of suspects, prisoner management, conducting of checkpoints, court procedure and community engagement.A charity hurling match between the Kilkenny and Waterford legends will take place at Kilmacow GAA Grounds on May 6.

Hurling giants, Brian Cody and Jim Greene, who are both 1982 GAA All-Stars for their respective counties, were in Nowlan Park earlier today for the launch.

A host of talented All Stars will line out on the day including DJ Carey, Charlie Carter, Noel Hickey, Eddie Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Henry Shefflin, Ken McGrath, Tony Browne, Eoin Kelly, Fergal Hartley, Paul Flynn, John Mullane and Dan Shanahan.

"It is a very important event, everyone is affected by mental health and people can identify with these GAA players. We need to send a message out that there are safe places to go and get help," said Kilkenny hurling manager, Brian Cody.

Jim Greene, who hurled full-forward for Waterford in the 1970's and 1980's said that it is only appropriate that the GAA support and promote positive mental health.

Proceeds from the event will be donated to Teac Tom and Pieta Waterford.

Kilmacow man, Damien O'Sullivan is organising the legends match. "Both of these charities are doing great work in the Southeast. There is not a lot of information for people who are in trouble on where they can go and talk and get help. We need to raise awareness, especially nowadays when young people are faced with difficulties with technology. There is a lot of pressure on young people," said the social care worker.

"We need to spread the word about the good work that is being done locally," he added.Islamic terror attacks in the West are far less common since 2017Seen is a perspective image view of Novotel Ambassador Hotel and Residence being built at the disused site for KT's Euljiro office in Seoul. / Courtesy of KT estate



By Jun Ji-hye



KT is putting the spurs to its hotel business, moving to build its fifth hotel in the downtown Seoul shopping district of Myeong-dong.



The company has already opened or has been building hotels in four other parts of Seoul _ downtown's Euljiro, southern Seoul's Yeoksam and Sinsa-dong and southeastern Songpa-gu.



Sales of the firm's real estate business were estimated at about 400 billion won ($375 million) last year, with the firm seeking to increase the figure to 700 billion won by 2020, KT officials said in a conference call held right after the announcement of their third-quarter performance last year.



The firm's hotel business utilizes disused sites of its telephone offices built at prime locations nationwide.



The company, which was a public enterprise until the Kim Dae-jung government privatized it in 2002, operated such offices around the nation, but the properties have been increasingly merged, with some of them falling into disuse amid the relentless march of technology, which has led to the phasing out of corded telephones.



KT's 450 properties for operating telephone offices are estimated to be worth more than 4 trillion won, according to market observers.



To carry ahead with real estate development on the disused properties, the nation's biggest fixed-line internet operator and its second-largest mobile carrier set up KT estate, a subsidiary dedicated to the real estate business, in 2010.



Then in 2015, KT CEO Hwang Chang-gyu established a task force to serve as a bridge between KT and KT estate.



"In the same year, KT also created a separate department in charge of overseeing the firm's real estate," a KT official said Thursday.



In the latest move, KT estate earlier this year received approval for its plan to build a 336-room hotel near the Chinese Embassy in Myeong-dong from an architectural commission of Seoul's Jung-gu Office, a KT estate official said.



Final construction permission would be issued in one to two months after carrying out some more assessments including a traffic impact assessment, he added. It would be the firm's fifth hotel.



According to a report issued by Cushman & Wakefield in November 2017, Myeong-dong was the world's eighth-most-expensive retail district, among main streets across the world, with annual rents at $914 per square foot.



KT estate already built a 306-room hotel in Yeoksam which opened in 2014.



The firm's Euljiro office is being turned into Novotel Ambassador Hotel and Residence with 528 rooms, which will open in July.



The company is currently developing the site for its Sinsa-dong office with an aim of constructing a 283-room hotel by 2019, and is searching for a hotel firm to handle facilities management.



A development project is also ongoing at the site for the Songpa-gu office with a plan to build a complex facility comprised of a hotel, residences and offices by 2021. The firm consigned the management to Accor Group's Sofitel Hotel.



The KT official said members of the task force have scattered to KT estate or the real estate department at KT, noting the two bodies are taking full charge of its real estate business.



"Real estate and relevant business is an important property to KT to ensure a virtuous circle of assets," the official said.



She added building hotels is not the company's only option.



"We need to review locations of telephone offices and their profitability to make the most of disused real estate," she said.



Real estate is not the only business to which KT has devoted its efforts.



The company is also playing a leading role in the electric vehicle (EV) business, contributing to the government's eco-friendly moves.



The firm said earlier this year it is currently testing a new business model, called electric vehicle-demand response (EV-DR), which will enable factories or buildings to utilize electric cars as supplementary power supplies to cope with blackouts and other emergencies.



For a demonstration, the firm established a vehicle-to-grid testbed at its building in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, and is testing technology that enables plug-in EVs to communicate with the power grid to offer demand response services by, for example, returning electricity to the grid.



The firm said this technology can help minimize losses and confusion that would be caused by suspension of operation, stressing the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy cited it as one of the core new energy services in January.

New Delhi, Mar 15: Two Bills and 218 amendments were rushed through the Lok Sabha within 30 minutes on Thursday, as the House witnessed chaotic scenes after Opposition MPs stormed the Well seeking debates on Delhi sealing row, special status to Andhra Pradesh and Nirav Modi-linked PNB scam.

Among the slew of amendments cleared by the Lok Sabha, includes a controversial revision to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

The Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR), which has petitioned the Delhi High Court for action against the BJP and Congress "for violating the FCRA norms", called the amendment to the law as "a boon to political parties with 42-year retrospective effect".

What is the FCRA law?

The FCRA law, first introduced in 1976, barred political parties to accept funds from entities with over 50 per cent foreign ownership. The Bill was later repealed and replaced with the FCRA Act, 2010, with similar provisions.

The law also drew lines for the NGOs, making it mandatory to avail MHA clearance for receiving donations from foreign entities.

In 2014, the Delhi High Court found both Congress and the BJP violating the FCRA Act, as it accepted donations from UK-based Vedanta group in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Amendments via Finance Act 2016 to evade legal scrutiny?

According to the ADR, the Finance Act 2016 was introduced by the government to evade legal action after the Delhi HC red-flagged the foreign donations in 2014.

In what was viewed as a bid to evade the consequences of the violation, the Finance Bill of 2016 introduced an amendment which said a donator shall "not be deemed a foreign entity" if the nominal value of share capital is within the limits specified for foreign investments.

"This move of the government to amend Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 was aimed at bailing out the two national political parties BJP and INC from facing legal consequences for violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 and 2010," said the ADR petition filed before the High Court.

Why fresh amendment was moved in 2018?

The 2016 amendment, while redefining "a foreign entity" with retrospective effect from 2010, failed to take into consideration the donations accepted by political outfits since 1976.

Subsequently, ADR moved the Delhi HC seeking contempt action against the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for not taking action against the BJP and Congress for donations received from "foreign entities" before 2010.

The 2018 amendment, as per the ADR, is aimed at providing respite to political parties for any foreign donation availed since 1976.

What the amendment actually states?

In Part XIX of the list of amendments in the 2018 Finance Bill, the Amendment to the Finance Act, 2016, entry number 217, reads: In Finance Act, 2016, in section 236, in the opening paragraph, for the words, figures and letter the 26th September, 2010, the words, figures and letter the 5th August, 1976 shall be substituted. The FCRA Act, 1976, commenced on August 5, 1976. This was later repealed and replaced with FCRA, 2010.

Did Congress and BJP accept donations before 2010?

As per the data compiled by ADR, both the BJP and Congress have accepted donations from the Indian subsidiaries of a range of foreign entities, including the Vedanta, Dow Chemicals and Switzerland-based Mundipharma. Here are the foreign donations accepted by the BJP and Congress between 2004 to 2010:

Company Amount (In Rupees) Year of Donation Political Party Parent Company Hyatt Regency 5,00,000 FY 04-05 INC American Origin Company Sterlite Industries Ltd 100,00,000 FY 04-05 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 5,00,000 FY 04-05 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 5,00,000 FY 04-05 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 2,00,000 FY 04-05 INC Vedanta Adani Wilmer Ltd 2,50,000 FY 05-06 INC Adani Wilmar Limited is a 50:50 joint venture between the Adani Group and Wilmar International Limited Sesa Goa Ltd 5,00,000 FY 05-06 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 5,00,000 FY 05-06 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 2,00,000 FY 06-07 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 15,00,000 FY 07-08 INC Vedanta Adani Wilmer Ltd 5,000,000 FY 08-09 INC Adani  Wilmer JV Solaries Holding Ltd 5,000,000 FY 09-10 INC Vedanta Solaries Holding Ltd 5,000,000 FY 09-10 INC Vedanta Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. 50,000,000 FY 09-10 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 30,00,000 FY 09-10 INC Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd Sesa Ghor 5,00,000 FY 05-06 BJP Vedanta Win Medicare (P) Ltd 25,00,000 FY 05-06 BJP Swiss origin company Sesa Goa Ltd 2,00,000 FY 06-07 BJP Vedanta Dow Chemical Int (P) Ltd 1,00,000 FY 06-07 BJP Union Carbide acquirer Sesa Goa Ltd 15,00,000 FY 07-08 BJP Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 12,50,000 FY 07-08 BJP Vedanta Adani Wilmar Ltd 50,00,000 FY 08-09 BJP Vedanta Vedanta The Madras Aluminum Ltd 30,000,000 FY 09-10 BJP Vedanta Vedanta The Madras Aluminum Ltd 50,00,000 FY 09-10 BJP Vedanta Sesa Goa Ltd 50,00,000 FY 09-10 BJP Vedanta Win Medicare (P) Ltd 25,00,000 FY 09-10 BJP Swiss origin company Sesa Goa Ltd 10,00,000 FY 09-10 BJP Vedanta

The data compiled above shows foreign donations amounting in the range of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 5 crore.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 15, 2018 07:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Siblings from Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh are fighting a tough battle against a rare Leptin deficiency, a condition that causes severe obesity. Distressed by the growing weight of his kids and their habit of overeating, Khadar Hussain, father of two desperately began to look for help. He first consulted a bariatric surgeon at Rayavellore in Tamil Nadu and later shifted the kids to Livlife Hospitals in the city. The doctors informed him that his sons disease was not just rare, but there was no treatment available in the country and the kids should be shifted to the USA for further treatment. The struggle has become more difficult as the parents are poor and are unable to bear the cost of the treatment that may cost around Rs50 lakhs for the duo.

One of the kids Sufiyan, five, weighs 42kg and brother Tabish, two, weighs 32kg. The father said, We have to hide biscuits or other food items in the kitchen and take turns to make them walk before each meal. Currently treating the toddlers, Dr Dukkipati Nanda Kishore of Livlife Hospitals said that the children were brought to the hospital two months ago by their parents with the complaint that the kids were overweight and were eating excessively. Dr Kishore said, After proper medical examination, the duo was diagnosed of Leptin hormone deficiency and consanguineous marriage of their parents has also been one of the reasons for the deficiency."

The father explained to the media that the hospital authorities had contacted doctors in the United States who acquire the medicine for the problem. They asked to include the two kids in the research protocol for the treatment of Leptin hormone. At present the US has restricted to enrol research protocol only to US citizens. The doctors at Livlife Hospitals requested the US to at least send the medicine which would be very helpful to the children. The hospital and the parents have requested the Andhra government to intervene and extend its support to contact the US research. The doctors also said that if not treated, the toddlers would develop hypertension, diabetes, breathing and kidney problems which would lead to further health complications.

According to the doctors, these are perhaps the first two such cases in Andhra Pradesh and the third case in India. Congenital leptin deficiency is a condition that causes severe obesity, which begins within the first few months of life. At birth, affected kids are of normal weight. However, they gain weight quickly as they are constantly hungry and overeat.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 15, 2018 02:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Geneva: Tensions between India and Pakistan are on the rise with evidence visible in the spate of cross-border firing exchanged between the countries to most recently trading charges of harassment of foreign office staff in their respective countries. In the latest salvo, the India government on Wednesday told the United Nations that Pakistan is a major source of terrorism all over the world.

Exercising its second right of reply (RoR) to a Pakistani statement, India said, "It is most regrettable that Pakistan has yet again chosen to consume the Council's precious time for making claims and allegations against India when Pakistan's own deplorable record on human rights and its dubious history as a major source of terrorism in our region and beyond is already widely known."

India highlighted the atrocities carried out by the Pakistani establishment and its military arm on the innocent civilians of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh, "Where people are routinely abducted and unlawfully killed. More than a million people remain displaced as a result of the current and past armed conflicts in the northwest of Pakistan." "Women and girls, especially from minority communities, are abducted and forcibly married. The minorities are persecuted, including through notorious blasphemy laws," it added.

India further highlighted Pakistans continued support to cross-border terrorism to destabilize the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi accused Islamabad of using terrorism to mask its territorial ambitions to Jammu and Kashmir. "(Pakistans) Use of terrorism as a state policy (continues) under the guise of concern for human rights. Pakistan has continued to support cross-border terrorism in India. We await credible action by the Government of Pakistan to bring all those involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack and the 2016 Pathankot and Uri attacks - to justice," it said.

India highlighted Pakistans track record on a global scale of shielding terror-group heads like Al Qaedas Osama Bin Laden and Taliban founder and former leader Mullah Omar.

The Indian representative asked, Is it not woefully farcical that the state which protected Osama Bin Laden and sheltered Mullah Omar should make the pretence of being a victim?"

It added, "In gross violation of UN Security Council resolution 1267, the UN designated terrorists like Hafiz Mohammed Saeed are freely operating with State support, and the UN designated entities are being politically mainstreamed in Pakistan. Do we all need lessons on democracy and human rights from a country with such a track record, a country whose own situation is charitably described as a failed state?"

India also rejected attempts of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations, stating that it has no locus standi to comment on India's internal affairs.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 15, 2018 12:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).FCA teases Easter Jeep Safari concepts

Mar 15, 2018, 3:50pm ET

The company typically brings a handful of unique one-off concepts to Moab for the annual jamboree.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has released its first teaser sketches for the upcoming Easter Jeep Safari.

One concept appears to be inspired by the classic Jeepster Commando, with a bold two-tone color scheme and a raked rear window.

The second sketch hints at a more modern Wrangler outfitted with lots of off-road accessories.

Jeep and Mopar designers collaborate on several concepts for the annual gathering in the off-road mecca of Moab, Utah, scheduled for March 24 - April 1 this year.

The company promises to release more information and images next week.Probate is the legal process through which the court oversees how an estate will be distributed. If you signed a last will, your estate passes to the beneficiaries named. If not, your estate passes to relatives based on state law. Generally, a formal probate action is required if an estate includes real property. But in many states, probate isn't required and other legal remedies are available if the estate is of minimal value. If you do not have a last will, the court will assign someone to manage your estate and its distribution, which will be based on your state's laws.

Some people think having a last will allows them to avoid probate. This isn't true. A last will is submitted to probate court to determine who receives your property, who is appointed as guardian of any minor children, and who will be responsible for carrying out the last will's requirements. If the total value of your estate is below a certain amount, which varies state by state, a probate may not be required. Depending on where you live and the size of your estate, probate can be very expensive and time consuming, with court costs, attorneys' fees and other expenses either paid directly out of, or reimbursed by your estate.The nation holds its breath this morning, with only hours to go to find out who will be entertaining us at Electric Picnic 2018.

The Electric Picnic 2018 line up is HERE.

Organisers have promised to announce the initial wave of performers at 12 noon today, there won't be a tap of work done nor a child washed until then!

Possibilities include Arctic Monkeys, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and The Killers who have all released new music in the last year and are headlining Firefly Festival in Dover, USA in June.

Festival Republic, who organise Electric Picnic, also run festivals like Reading, Download, Community, Leeds and Latitude.

Headliners at Reading Festival this year include Fall Out Boy, Kendrick Lamar, Panic at the Disco and Kings of Leon while Two Door Cinema Club, The Vaccines and You Me At Six will headline Community festival.

The young ones will be hoping Ed Sheeran will return to Laois or perhaps Picture This might swing by Laois as they have a couple of big gigs this summer including a night at the RDS in June. One thing is for sure, August 31 to Septemeber 2 will once again be the highlight of the summer for thousands of music, comedy, arts and dance lovers of all ages.

The final round of weekend tickets went on sale at 9am last Saturday morning with queues forming at ticket outlets around the county. Weekend camping tickets are still available online but are expected to sell out very quickly.

See the Electric Picnic ticket information page here.

There will be a warm welcome for the festival again in Laois as it was revealed last year that it is worth 8m a year to the county, with half of that spent in Stradbally village alone.

Take a trip down memory lane with these Electric Picnic pictures.A hilly area of narrow roads in Laois used by a 56 seater schoolbus is not salted in icy weather by Laois County Council.

Now local councillors from east Laois are offering to pay for gritting trucks to make the roads safe.

Schoolchildren going to Killeshin National School, Knockbeg secondary school and St Leos College in Carlow, all use the roads in Coolane, Killeshin and New Line, Rossmore.

However they remain off Laois County Councils salting route, despite repeated requests by Cllr Ben Brennan.

Cllr Brennan made another request at the February meeting of the Portarlington Graiguecullen municipal district.

He got another negative response from the council.

The specific roads are not included in the Priority 1 or Priority 2 network was the reply from engineer Philip McVeigh. He added that routes are based on traffic volume and designation, and are also dependent on the capacity of the councils fleet and the funding for gritting.

I am actually disappointed. A 56 seater bus runs on that road. I defy anybody to come down there in a car on a frosty day, let alone 56 children in a bus. Fifteen minutes would salt that road, it would take feck all salt. It will go on it, but only when theres an accident. Its looking that way because there is water running on that road as well.

The road rises to a height enough to view five counties, Cllr Brennan claims.

If a bus hits the bank, it will fall off that road. They cant go another way, its not on their bus route, he said.

Status yellow rain could be followed by more snow this weekend

Cllr Padraig Fleming seconded his motion asking to salt the roads.

In fairness these are very dangerous hills, and narrow roads. These issues have been raised before, i think it should be looked at again, he said.

Cllr Willie Aird suggested that Laois salting routes be reviewed.

Sometimes they can be categorised incorrectly, he said.

Cllr Brennan then offered to give 1,000 from his annual Discretionary budget to the cost, for the safety of children and people on that road. I fear it, God almighty I fear it, he said.

Cllr Paschal McEvoy later offered to match that amount from his budget.

The area engineer John Ormond agreed to review the salting routes.A young Athy man who was before Athy District Court last Tuesday for being in the possession of 200 worth of cannabis with the intention to sell it to school kids was sentenced to 11 months in custody.

James Broughall, who pleaded guilty, with an address listed as 77 Rathstewart Crescent, Athy came to the attention of gardai on April 6, 2017 when he was found hanging around the two main secondary schools on the Monasterevin Road in Athy at 3pm.

He was found to be in possession of 200 worth of cannabis.

He is 21 years old and has 49 previous convictions. He is currently in custody serving a sentence.

"I first saw this man when he was 14," said Judge Zaidan

The court heard from his solicitor Jackie McManus who said that her client was strung out at the time but he has since been drug free and is engaging with the prison services

"He will be a new man when he comes out of prison," she said.

Judge Zaidan said that it was serious to be targeting the local schools with drugs.

"It is bad," he said

"Do you see any hope for him?"

The defendant said that he would prove everybody wrong and turn his life around when he gets out of prison

He was given an 11 month prison sentence.Fireman last night tackled a blaze at a disused commercial premises in the centre of Naas.

The fire broke out at the long closed Forge Inn pub at about 11pm. It was brought under control within an hour.

This morning the area immediately outside the premises was cordoned off with emergency services plastic tape and a garda was on duty - pending the arrival of technical experts who will establish the cause of the blaze. Part of the redbrick exterior of the building has been blackened by the smoke.

Two fire tenders were at the scene last night along with two water tankers.

At least two garda vehicles were also at the scene and for a time traffic was moving in one direction only along a section of South Main Street.

Smoke billowed from two second floor windows in the three storey building and firefighters used two ladders to access the source of the fire. Sparks could be seen coming from the building as the firefighters directed water hoses from atop the ladders to the fire source.

At one point flames were clearly visible.

The Forge Inn this morning

Its understood nobody was injured in the incident. The Firemen also broke an entrance through a wooden structure between the pub and the Bank of Ireland branch.

The building has not been occupied for some time and it is part of the derelict Naas Shopping Centre.

The receiver appointed by the National Asset Management Agency to find a buyer for the NSC sought to have the licence for the premises transferred to him from the developers of the shopping centre six months ago. The developers acquired a number of premises in that part of the town as part of the shopping centre development a decade ago.

A much more serious fire broke out within the shopping centre itself in July 2017, not long after the receiver was appointed. Shortly afterwards a round the clock security presence was deployed.

The incident is sure to add to local frustration at the failure of the centre to open and to date the building has not been put up for sale.Trainer, Willie Mullins, said following Ruby Walshs fall at Cheltenham on Wednesday, "the information I have is that Ruby has a stress fracture on the old break. He might need a cast for maybe three weeks or a month and then he could be back. Instead of being back for Galway, he could be back for Punchestown. That would be a fantastic result," the champion trainer said.

The 38-year-old jockey from Kill, made a successful return to riding only last week after being out since November following a fall in Punchestown. He returned with a winning ride in Thurles last Thursday and they rode two winners at Cheltenham on Tuesday.

Following his fall yesterday (Wednesday) the champion jockey told Racing UK "My right leg is in a cast and the fall opened the fracture at the back, "I won't know the full extent until Tuesday."

Initially it was felt that Walsh had broke his leg after the fall from Al Boum at the second last fence in the RSA Chase, but that hopefully now is not the case.

A statement issued by his sister and agent, Jennifer, said: "Unfortunately he has aggravated a recent leg injury and will see his consultant in Dublin next week for further assessment."Liam O'Flynn  Kildare

March 14, 2018, (very peacefully), at the Mater Private Hospital, Liam, beloved husband of Jane; Sadly missed by his loving wife, sister Maureen, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives and his many friends. Reposing at his home on Thursday (March 15) from 11.00am to 9.00pm. Removal on Friday (March 16) to St. Brigids Church, Kill, arriving for 11.00am Funeral Service followed by Cremation at Newlands Cross Crematorium. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to www.pipers.ie (Ph: 01 8730093) or The Irish Cancer Society.

Vincent Carr  Betaghstown, Clane

March 13 2018, peacefully at his residence, deeply regretted by his loving wife Marion, daughters Deirdre, Elaine, Frances and Teresa, son Michael, brother Gene, sisters Maura and Betty, sons-in-law, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. Reposing at Reilly's Funeral Home, Clane on Thursday (March 15) from 5pm with prayers at 8pm. Removal on Friday (March 16) at 10:30am to St. Patrick and St. Brigid's Church, Clane arriving for 11am Funeral Mass, burial afterwards in Mainham Cemetery. Family flowers only please, donations, if desired, to Motor Neuron Ireland.

Aaron John McGrath  Coill Dubh, Naas

March 13 2018, Suddenly at Naas Hospital surrounded by his loving family. Sadly missed by his loving mother Mary and her partner Peter, brothers Dale and Carlos, sisters Elizabeth, Cryslea and Amy, aunts, uncles, cousins, granduncle Joe, neighbours and friends. Reposing at Glennons Funeral Home, Allenwood from 5pm on Thursday (March 15) with rosary at 8pm. Reposing on Friday (March 16) from 3:30pm with removal at 5:15pm to arrive at the Church of Christ the King, Cooleragh at 6pm. Funeral Mass on Saturday morning at 10am followed by burial in Allen Cemetery.

Mary (Moll) Stynes (nee Donovan)  Leinster Lodge, Ballyroe, Athy

March 14 2018, Wife of the Late Pat. Mother of the Late Paul and Anthony. Deeply regretted by her son John, daughters Bridie, Teresa, Nuala and Maria, brother-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchild, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends. Reposing at the Chapel in St. Vincent's Hospital, Athy from 6pm on Thursday evening (March 15) with Rosary at 8pm. Removal by Rigneys Funeral Directors at 10.30am on Friday morning (March 16) to arrive at St. Michael's Parish Church, Athy for Requiem Mass at 11am. Burial afterwards in St. Michael's New Cemetery, Athy.

Edward (Eden) Ward  Coill Dubh

March 14 2018, in his 103rd year, Coill Dubh, peacefully in the wonderful care of the staff at Parke House Nursing Home, Kilcock, beloved husband of the late Rose. Deeply regretted and sadly missed by his nephews J J, Butsy, Johnny and Gerry, nieces Teresa, Mary and Breda, brother-in-law John and his wife Mary, Mary Balfe and all his carers, neighbours and friends. Reposing at Reilly's Funeral Home, Prosperous on Wednesday (March 14) from 6pm with prayers at 8pm. Removal on Thursday (March 15) at 6:30pm to Christ The King Church, Cooleragh arriving at 7pm. Funeral Mass on Friday (March 16) at 10am, followed by burial in Killybegs Cemetery. Family flowers only please, donations, if desired, to St. Vincent De Paul, donations box in the church.The Sligo Leitrim Roscommon (SLR) Film Project will host the third meet-up for filmmakers in the region on Thursday March 22 in Sligo Chamber, City Hall.

The SLR Film Project is a collaboration between Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon Arts Offices and aims to promote and support filmmakers in the three counties. Each of the three local authorities involved in this project recognise the value of film as an art form and the contribution that film can make to the region - socially, culturally and economically.

Mary Mullins, Roscommon County Council said This project is very much in keeping with the Local Economic and Community Plans for the three counties, which all prioritise the digital and film sector in the area.

Mary McDonagh, from Sligo Arts Office explained In adopting a regional approach, we recognise that we can achieve a lot more by harnessing the capacity, resources and energy of agencies and practitioners of all three counties. One of the principal aims of the project is to support the professional development of those working in the sector and to support the development of new work. As part of that we have developed a new bursary for film she added.

The bursary is to encourage practitioners to work together, learn from each other and to seed the development of new ideas that may be made into films.

This year sees the second phase of the SLR Film Project kick into action, beginning with the first meet-up of 2018 on Thursday 22nd March in City Hall, Quay St. Sligo from 6:30-8pm, refreshments will be served at 6pm. This free event will be an opportunity for local filmmakers, video artists and others involved in film in the region to come together, network and hear details of the new film bursary.

Philip Delamere, Leitrim County Council said We will also be showcasing the new website that we are developing for the SLR Film Project and the evening will end with speed networking. As this bursary will encourage collaboration, we felt it would be helpful for people to get to know more about each others skills and interests so they can work together.

The project will host several events and opportunities throughout the coming year. We will also continue to promote the region as a film location with the Irish Film Board and we will be delivering training in partnership with Creative Frame Mary McDonagh stated. This is the beginning of an exciting project for film in the Northwest.

The event is free, reserve tickets at www.eventbrite.ie/e/slr-film-project-3rd-meet-up-tickets-43537751587.



To join the SLR Film Project email list, contact slrfilmproject@gmail.com. For training events, register with Creative Frame at www.creativeframe.eu

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Four Leitrim projects awarded funding under Energia Get Ireland Growing awardDr Aedin McLoughlin, Director of Good Energies Alliance Ireland, spoke before the United Nations 62nd Conference on the Status of Women on Wednesday, March 14th as part of a session on the global resistance to fracking and its infrastructure.

Aedin was among five panelists to talk about Frontline Leadership: Rural Women in the Anti-Fracking Movement.

The priority theme of this years Conference on the Status of Women and Girls is the challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls. The review theme is the participation in and access of women to the media.

I was very honoured to be asked to speak at this important side event associated with the annual U.N. conference seeking solutions to problems facing women and girls around the world, said McLoughlin.

The story of our successful campaign against fracking has yet to be told and this was the perfect opportunity to not only tell that story but also to honour the vital role that women played throughout the campaign in Ireland. We can be proud  Irish women rose to the challenge of the threat of fracking in so many ways and now we described to the world how the campaign was successful, with a complete ban on fracking in Ireland signed into law in July 2017.

McLoughlin was invited to speak by Rev Debbra Gill, moderator of the event. Rev Gill represents United Religions Initiative on the Mining Working Group, a coalition of NGOs that advocates at the United Nations for human and environmental rights as related to extractive industries.

Fracking is only one of the global extractive industries that are laying waste to places where people live, polluting their air, their water and their health, concluded McLoughlin.

Mining for precious metals or rare elements also has a long history of polluted air, rivers and lakes, and devastated and exploited communities. We in Ireland can give examples of how rural women achieved roles of leadership in our campaign against fracking; hopefully, this will contribute to empowering others around the world to insist on their rights to clean air and water and a safe environment.Mar 15, 2018, 7 AM

"Postmasters Provisionals, United States and Confederate States," a 170-page hardcover edition speciale book from the Global Philatelic Network. The cover of the book pictures the Alexandria Blue Boy, the famous cover franked with the unique 1846 5 black on blue Alexandria, Va., postmasters provisional stamp (Scott 1X2), one of the most highly valued items in all of American philately.

By Linns Staff

Erivan Haub, a leading collector of United States postmasters provisionals, Confederate States postal history and other areas, died March 6 at age 85.

Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1932, Mr. Haub studied economics at the University of Hamburg and eventually became the sole managing partner of Tengelmann Group, then one of the largest retail food chains in the world.

He transferred control of the company to two sons in 2000 but served on the board until retiring in 2013.

Stamps first intrigued him at age 3, Mr. Haub wrote in Postmasters Provisionals, United States and Confederate States, a 170-page hardcover edition speciale book from the Global Philatelic Network.

The cover of the book pictures the Alexandria Blue Boy, the famous cover franked with the unique 1846 5 black on blue Alexandria, Va., postmasters provisional stamp (Scott 1X2), one of the most highly valued items in all of American philately.

His love of philately was sparked at a very young age by his mother, who gave her son letters she received from around the globe, according to the H.R. Harmer auction firm.

Stamp collecting has remained a part of his life ever since. Mr. Haub has a number of fine collections, including world-class material from Canada and Germany.

Mr. Haub traveled to the United States in 1952 and worked in retail businesses before returning to Germany to complete his schooling. Stamps took a back seat to his growing family and the demands of his business responsibilities, but when he found he was able to return to active collecting, he did so with enthusiasm.

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My love for stamped covers always remained my main focus, Mr. Haub wrote.

The esteemed collector John R. Boker Jr. (1913-2003), became a trusted friend and advisor, and Mr. Haub purchased important items at auction and from the Weill brothers stock.

However, Mr. Haub never sought to exhibit his collections. When Postmasters Provisionals, United States and Confederate States was published, he acknowledged that many items pictured therein had not been seen publicly for years or even decades.

That changed in 2016, when many of Mr. Haubs magnificent rarities were displayed in the court of honor at World Stamp Show-NY 2016. At the same time, H.R. Harmer conducted the successful Erivan collection auction at the Javits Center.

Sharing a love of art and philanthropy, Mr. Haub and his wife of 60 years, Helga (also an accomplished philatelist, who survives him), found themselves at home in the American West as owners of a Wyoming buffalo ranch.Apr 30, 2021, 3 AM

United States forever stamps celebrating the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math to be issued April 6 in Washington, D.C.

By Michael Baadke

The United States Postal Service is issuing a set of four nondenominated (50) forever stamps April 6 to commemorate the subject of STEM Education. Each stamp characterizes one of the four educational disciplines represented by the STEM acronym: science, technology, engineering and math.

The 11 a.m. first-day ceremony will take place in association with the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Hall E of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW, in Washington, D.C.

The convention center is located between 7th and 9th Streets, and N Street and Mount Vernon Place, across from the Carnegie Library.

To check in, ceremony attendees will use the main entrance on Mount Vernon Place. Advance online registration is required to attend the event.

Postal Service Vice President of Marketing Steven W. Monteith will dedicate the stamps, which are being issued in a pane of 20.

David Plunkert of Baltimore, Md., designed and illustrated the stamps, working with USPS art director Antonio Alcala.

Each stamp shows a young persons face in profile, the name of the education field represented on the individual stamp, and design elements associated with that branch of learning.

Designed to pique the curiosity of the viewer, the Postal Service said, each stamp features a collage of faces, symbols, drawings, and numbers that represent the complexity and interconnectedness of the STEM disciplines.

In the lower left corner of each stamp is one large letter from the STEM acronym next to three stars on a blue field.

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The Science stamp shows the letter S, plus part of a molecule model, a small part of the periodic table of elements identifying transition metals, a sine wave and other symbols.

The Technology stamp, with the letter T, features circuitry, binary code and more.

Along with the letter E and other design elements, the Engineering stamp shows what appears to be a schematic design of the command and service modules of the Apollo spacecraft.

The Math stamp with the letter M depicts numbers, letters, symbols and equations, including an infinity symbol (or lemniscate), a dodecahedron, the pi symbol and an equals sign.

In 2010, the American Society for Biochemistry and molecular Biology stated: There is growing concern that American education in science, technology, engineering and math  known as STEM  is coming up short. Worried about the long-term health of the American economy, industry leaders recently testified before a congressional committee that American students are not prepared adequately for careers in STEM disciplines.

Addressing those concerns has been a priority at the highest levels of government.

The U.S. Department of Education advanced efforts to improve and expand STEM teaching and support active learning during the administration of President Barack Obama.

[T]here are huge challenges that we have to solve in how we have clean energy, and how do we clean up our environment, and how do we solve crippling diseases like Parkinsons or Alzheimers, Obama said.

And when we give students the inspiration not just that math and science are inherently interesting, and technology and engineering are inherently interesting, but theres actual problems to solve, it turns out that young people, they rise to the challenge.

On Sept. 26, 2017, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum expanding access to high-quality Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and Computer Science education to K-12 students.

Trump said, [W]e will help give our American children a pathway to success in the workforce of tomorrow.

In its announcement of the new stamps, the Postal Service said, These stamps celebrate the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in keeping our nation a global leader in innovation and providing new opportunities for all Americans to learn and explore the world.

The Postal Service has prepared a partial press sheet with die cuts that includes 120 stamps (six unsevered panes), selling for the face value of $60.

The stamps will sell at post offices in panes of 20, and the panes may not be split for individual stamp sales, according to the Postal Service.The theoretical physicist, who died yesterday (March 14) at age 76, repeatedly stressed that humanity must expand beyond its birth planet  or face extinction.

"I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space," Hawking said in a 2010 interview with BigThink. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load." [Stephen Hawking: A Physics Icon Remembered in Photos]

He reiterated that sentiment more recently as well. For example, at a conference in Norway in June 2017, Hawking said, "We are running out of space, and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth."

Physicist Stephen Hawking delivers a speech titled "Why We Should Go to Space" during a lecture honoring NASA's 50th anniversary in 2008. (Image credit: NASA)

The late cosmologist wasn't all talk on this issue, either. Hawking served on the board of Breakthrough Starshot, a $100 million project that aims to launch fleets of tiny, sail-equipped probes to other star systems. If all goes according to plan, powerful lasers will accelerate such "nanocraft" to about 20 percent the speed of light, meaning they could get to Proxima Centauri, the sun's nearest neighbor  which hosts a potentially habitable planet, by the way  just 20 years after liftoff.

Hawking also helped announce the existence of Breakthrough Starshot in April 2016. The project, which is bankrolled by Russian-born billionaire Yuri Milner, could launch its first interstellar probes within the next 30 years if everything goes well, Starshot representatives have said. (Milner also funds the alien-life-hunting Breakthrough Listen initiative, with which Hawking was involved as well.)

The Starshot nanocraft won't carry humans, of course. But the basic laser-sailing technology could theoretically be scaled up to crew-carrying dimensions, eventually allowing astronauts to get to Mars in just a few weeks, Starshot researchers have said. (It takes six to nine months to get to the Red Planet using current rocket technology.)

And Hawking longed to fly in space himself. In 2007, he flew aboard Zero Gravity Corp.'s Boeing 727 aircraft, which takes parabolic paths that allow passengers to experience brief stints of weightlessness. Hawking said at the time that he viewed the flight as a step toward bona-fide space travel.

Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson wanted to help Hawking achieve that dream. About a decade ago, Branson called Hawking and offered him a free ride on Virgin's suborbital SpaceShipTwo space plane, Hawking said in February 2016.

"I said 'yes' immediately," Hawking recalled in a video message that was played at the unveiling of Virgin Galactic's new SpaceShipTwo vehicle. That message served to announce the space plane's name  VSS Unity.

"Since that day, I have never changed my mind. If I am able to go, and if Richard will still take me, I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship," Hawking added.

Hawking is the only person ever offered a free seat aboard SpaceShipTwo, Branson has said. Tickets to ride in the six-passenger vehicle, which is still in the testing phase, currently sell for $250,000.

See more

Branson paid tribute to Hawking in a blog post today.

"He was part of our Virgin Galactic family from day one. His support for opening space, his enthusiasm to fly, humbled and inspired us all," Branson wrote. "I am so sorry we didn't get him into space as he so dearly wished, but so thankful he was able to play such a meaningful role in the development of a new frontier he was so passionate about."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.According to Lord Martin Rees  astronomer royal, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, and fellow student of Hawking at Cambridge  Hawking viewed everything that happened after his devastating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis as a bonus. And he certainly didn't waste a minute of that time.

"He didn't just survive," Rees said in a statement. "He became one of the most famous scientists in the world  acclaimed as a world-leading researcher in mathematical physics; for his best-selling books about space, time and the cosmos; and for his astonishing triumph over adversity. Few, if any, of Einstein's successors have done more to deepen our insights into gravity, space and time." [Stephen Hawking's Far-Out Ideas About Black Holes]

"His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who in 2017 became the first American to receive the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. "But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of space-time that defies measure."

A science icon

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking delivers a speech titled "Why We Should Go to Space" during a lecture honoring NASA's 50th anniversary in 2008. Hawking died at age 76 on March 14, 2018. (Image credit: Paul E. Alers/ NASA)

At only 32, Hawking was elected a fellow of the U.K.'s Royal Society, the oldest national scientific institution in the world, for his work on radiation that escapes from black holes, later dubbed Hawking radiation. But his scientific interests were much broader.

"He had the ambition and the ability to tackle fundamental questions about gravity and quantum mechanics, their role in black holes and the origin of the universe," said David Wands, director of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, in the U.K., and a former student of Hawking at Cambridge.

"He realized that black holes can emit radiation, which eventually leads them to evaporate," Wands said. "He also discovered that the same quantum effect in the very early universe can lead to small fluctuations in the density of the hot thermal plasma, a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and this could lead to all the structures that we observe in the cosmos around us, galaxies, stars and, ultimately, planets and people."

A pop-culture physicist

In addition to pushing the boundaries of theoretical physics and stunning his doctors with his persistent survival against all prognoses, Hawking managed to accomplish something that many of his predecessors would deem impossible: He made a subject as complicated as astrophysics a matter of wide public fascination. His popularizing book "A Brief History of Time" (Bantam Books, 1988), in which he explains in layman's terms the evolution of the universe, occupied the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

"He was a true genius who had a great admiration of and connection to the public," said Katherine Mathieson, chief executive of the British Science Association. "He simplified and explained, but without gimmicks. His assumption that people are curious about the universe and black holes was true. He inspired us all to wonder."

Hawking  who used a wheelchair due to ALS and spoke with a machine-synthesized voice due to a life-saving tracheotomy he had in 1985 after contracting pneumonia during a trip to CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research)  became a true pop-culture icon. The outpouring of condolences and expressions of respect on Twitter following the announcement of his passing has extended far beyond the scientific community.

"In loving memory of Stephen Hawking. It was an honor to have him," tweeted the team behind "The Big Bang Theory" TV series, where Hawking appeared on three separate occasions, the last of which was less than a year ago. "Thank you for inspiring us and the world."

Hawking, according to his long-term scientific collaborator Roger Penrose, always enjoyed his role of "the No. 1 celebrity scientist." He also appeared in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and voiced himself on "The Simpsons" and "Futurama," to name just a few. In 2015, British actor Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for portraying Hawking in the biographical drama "The Theory of Everything."

Despite his popular appeal, Hawking remained firmly rooted in the scientific world, having served as the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a highly prestigious position once held by Isaac Newton, for 30 years until he reached retiring age in 2009. He authored technical papers until his final decade, according to Rees.

"Huge audiences would attend his public lectures, perhaps not always just for scientific edification," Penrose said in an obituary in The Guardian. "The scientific community might well form a more sober assessment. He was extremely highly regarded, in view of his many greatly impressive, sometimes revolutionary, contributions to the understanding of the physics and the geometry of the universe."

A vocal advocate of the rights of people with physical disabilities, Hawking showed the world that people can live full lives despite having severe physical ailments.

In 2007, the then-65-year-old took part in a zero-gravity parabolic flight that gave him a 4-minute taste of weightlessness. Hawking was also scheduled to fly on one of the first suborbital flights of Virgin Galactic. Unfortunately, this last dream of Hawking will not come true.

In a touching tribute, Virgin Galactic's billionaire founder, Sir Richard Branson, said he was honored to know Hawking, who helped name the company's VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo vehicle in 2016. The spacecraft carries Hawking's iris pattern, said Branson, who lamented never getting the chance to see the physicist fly in space.

"I am so sorry we didn't get him into space as he so dearly wished, but so thankful he was able to play such a meaningful role in the development of a new frontier he was so passionate about," Branson said in a statement. "It was a huge privilege to have him name VSS Unity, and we are honoured to fly his iris on our spaceship."

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Sometimes you don't need to follow a rainbow, but rather a drain pipe, to find a pot o' gold.

That's what happened for utility workers in the Netherlands, who stumbled across a centuries-old pot of gold earlier this month while laying down new pipes, according to news reports.

The remarkable find includes 500 coins  12 of them gold and the rest silver  dating to the 15th century, which were nestled inside of a glazed, earthenware cooking pot, according to the NL Times.

Employees of Oasen, a drinking-water company, discovered the treasure on March 1, when they were laying down pipes in Hoef en Haag, a new town in the central province of Utrecht. As soon as they found the coins, the workers called Utrecht's archeological hotline, which sent archaeologists to inspect the area and gather the artifacts. [Top 10 Rare U.S. Coins]

The prize pot also contained textiles, which may have once served as moneybags of sorts to hold the coins, Peter de Boer, an archaeologist at Omgevingsdienst Regio Utrecht (Environment Service Region Utrecht), told RTV Utrecht. The majority of the coins date to the 1470s and 1480s, and some have imagery depicting King Henry VI of England (and the disputed king of France), Pope Paul II, and David of Burgundy, who was bishop of Utrecht.

"Every coin in this treasure is a story in precious metal," de Boer told RTV Utrecht. "Every gentleman gave out his 'business card' by way of a coin, and therefore, there is a lot to discover."

Moreover, the coins may shed light on what happened to the medieval city of Hagestein after it fell in a siege in 1405, de Boer said. "In this sense, we now have a 'pot full of stories,'" De Boer added.

The artistry on the coins may also help researchers learn more about the Burgundian Netherlands, a collection of fiefdoms that included parts of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern France that were ruled by the dukes of Burgundy, an ancient lineage of French nobility with deep ties to France's royal family. The Burgundian Netherlands existed from 1384 to 1477, and during that time, some of the coins were still in use, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The coins are now being appraised and studied, but will soon be returned to their new owners  Oasen, the project developer and the people who own the land where the coins were found, according to NOS, the Dutch broadcasting foundation.

Original article on Live Science.What does coffee have to do with cannabis? According to a new study, your morning joe causes a drop in the levels of certain substances that are linked to the body's system for responding to marijuana.

The levels of these substances  metabolites found in what's known as the endocannabinoid system  decrease in people who drink between four and eight cups of coffee a day, according to the study, published today (March 15) in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Endocannabinoids are molecules that bind to cannabinoid receptors, which are found all over the nervous system, as well as in immune and endocrine tissue. The body makes its own endocannabinoids, but it also responds to foreign cannabinoids, like the ones found in the leaves of plants of the Cannabis genus.

Coffee suppresses the endocannabinoid chemicals that smoking marijuana boosts, said Marilyn Cornelis, an assistant professor of preventative medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, who led the new research. [25 Odd Facts About Marijuana]

That would suggest that coffee might generate the opposite effects as cannabis on the endocannabinoid system, Cornelis told Live Science.

Your blood on coffee

The research didn't look at the sensations or behaviors that coffee produces compared to cannabis, only at the rise and fall of chemicals in the blood after coffee consumption. Endocannabinoids were just one set of the chemicals  or metabolites  that changed, the researchers found. All told, coffee altered 115 different metabolites in the blood. Thirty-four of those metabolites don't even have names or known roles in the body. The other 82 known metabolites play roles in 33 different biological processes.

Cornelis and her team focused on five of these specific biological processes where numerous metabolites seemed to cluster. Two of the processes were expected: One was xanthine metabolism  a set of processes that includes caffeine metabolism, which made sense, because the body naturally has to metabolize the caffeine in coffee once it is consumed. The other pathway, benzoate metabolism, in involved in breaking down other compounds in coffee called polyphenols. The compounds are broken down by microbes that live in the gut, Cornelis said. The gut microbiome is under increased scrutiny for its role in health, so the finding is intriguing, she said.

But the real surprises were three other metabolic processes never before linked with coffee. Endocannabinoids were clustered in one of those processes.

"What we're seeing here is that the systems that are impacted by coffee and cannabis overlap," Cornelis said. That could mean that drinking coffee with marijuana in your system could create interacting effects, she said, though the nature of those interactions isn't yet clear. Typically, she said, the same endocannabinoids that declined with coffee also decrease when the body is under stress. It's possible that the amount of coffee that participants were drinking (four to eight cups a day) caused stress, which led to a drop of endocannabinoid levels as some kind of protective measure.

Cornelis and her team also found that coffee consumption increased the concentration of steroid metabolites in the blood, possibly because coffee contains plant steroids called phytosterols. In particular, the metabolites that increased are linked to steroid excretion, Cornelis said, so it's possible that coffee could boost steroid breakdown in the body. (Greater steroid breakdown would lead to greater steroid excretion.)

What this finding means for human health remains a mystery. Some steroid processes have links to certain cancers, Cornelis said, and the link between coffee itself and cancer is fuzzy, so the steroid finding could provide a new place to look to understand whether coffee consumption affects the likelihood of a person developing cancer.

The final grouping of metabolites changed by coffee consumption consisted of fatty acid acylcholines, which may be linked with the endocannabinoid pathway, Cornelis said. But the changes there are the most mysterious of all.

"That's a novel set of metabolites that we don't really know how to explain," she said.

Coffee and health

That the study raised more questions than answers is no surprise: Cornelis went into the research hunting for new links between coffee and health. Plenty of research has associated coffee drinking with health effects, she said  so much so that Coffee Is Good For You/Coffee Is Bad For You headlines are almost a cliche. [10 Things You Need to Know About Coffee]

But those are just statistical associations, Cornelis said. "The goal of my research is to understand the causal reasons that link coffee to those outcomes."

The current study is based on a years-old clinical trial conducted in Finland, where 47 coffee drinkers were asked to abstain from the brew for one month, then drink four cups a day for a month, then escalate to eight cups a day for the final month of the study. All participants drank the same medium-roast arabica blend, which is also the most popular type of coffee in the United States, Cornelis said. Cornelis and her team used the blood of these participants to test 733 metabolites.

The same people were also tested for changes in their levels of lipids and proteins, which is what Cornelis is studying next. She also hopes to use other data from large, population-based studies that included data on coffee consumption to see if the same metabolites change in broader populations.

"It would be interesting to see if there were some genetic differences in the response to coffee as well," she said.

Originally published on Live Science.Bottled water may be riddled with microplastics, according to a new report, and there are some very good reasons why you needn't panic about that.

Bottled water sampled from manufacturers around the world is teeming with microplastics  tiny plastic particles that are often too small to see  according to a new report.

Tests of 250 bottles from 11 bottled water brands revealed microplastics in 93 percent of the samples, with an average of 325 particles per 34 fluid ounces (1 liter) of water.

These findings, discovered by scientists at the State University of New York in Fredonia, sound alarming. However, the report was not submitted for publication in a scientific journal, a process that involves extensive review of a study's methods and findings by scientists who were not involved in the research. Rather, the investigation was launched and then released by Orb Media (OM), a nonprofit that uses journalism and data science to investigate global environmental issues, according to the company's website. [Why Doesn't Plastic Biodegrade?]

The consequences of these findings for human health are "unknown," OM representatives said in a statement.

Microplastics measure under 0.2 inches (5 millimeters) in length  about the size of a sesame seed or smaller  and they originate from many sources, such as microbeads that are commonly found in health and beauty products, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Humans have produced an estimated 9 billion tons of plastic, Live Science previously reported. Plastic is the most common form of rubbish found in the world's oceans, and microplastics are so small that they can evade methods for collecting or filtering plastic trash; studies have shown that microplastics are present in nearly every environment on Earth and can be found in the guts of many types of sea birds and marine life, according to NOAA.

And according to the new report, microplastics are also widely distributed in bottled drinking water. Regardless of whether the findings are verified by scientists unaffiliated with the study, the health risks of microplastics are far from known and depend on the quantities that are ingested and how long the minuscule particles linger in a person's gut, experts say.

"Painting" particles

For the study, reporters with Orb Media bought prepackaged cases of water from locations in nine countries and across five continents, examining internationally distributed brands that included Dasani, Evian, San Pellegrino, Nestle Pure Life and Aquafina.

A dye called Nile red helped researchers to find the microplastics. First used in 1985, Nile red adheres to plastic and fluoresces through an orange filter when viewed under a blue-green wavelength, which enables scientists to distinguish plastic particles from sediment, according to a study published in October 2016 in the journal Scientific Reports.

The study authors then filtered the water to 1.5 microns (0.0015 millimeters)  an area "smaller than a human red blood cell"  and counted the trapped fluorescing particles using an application called Galaxy Count. Molecular analysis identified particles such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), nylon and polypropylene in quantities of up to 10,000 particles per 34 fluid ounces (1 liter) in the water tested, according to the report.

However, bottled water manufacturers contacted by OM regarding the study claimed that the findings greatly overstated the amount of microplastics in their water, and Nestle handed over their own test results from six bottles that contained "between zero and five plastic particles per liter," according to the report.

Concerns about ingesting microplastics stem from their ability to accumulate high concentrations of pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can then be absorbed into gut tissue, scientists reported in a study published in June 2016 in the European Food Safety Authority Journal.

Limited data

OM partnered with media organizations in 10 countries  the U.K., Canada, Spain, Finland, Bangladesh, Brazil, Sweden, Germany, Indonesia and India  to distribute the study's results, representatives said in the statement.

Coverage of the study by the BBC  one of OM's media partners  announced that the World Health Organization (WHO) is gearing up to "launch a review" into microplastics and their impact on public health, following the study's findings.

However, though WHO is aware of the study and its findings, much more data would be required on microplastics' impact on human health for the health organization to take action, WHO representative Fadela Chaib told Live Science in an email.

"For WHO to make an informed risk assessment, we would need to establish that microplastics occur in water at concentrations that would be harmful to human health," Chaib said. But for now, information on microplastics in drinking water is "very limited," and there is no information to suggest that its presence is dangerous to people, Chaib said.

As part of the organization's ongoing analysis of emerging evidence about microplastics, WHO will monitor and review evidence gaps to determine where more research is required, according to Chaib.

"WHO's priority remains promoting access to safe water for 2 billion people who currently use and drink contaminated water," she told Live Science.

The report has been submitted for peer review; the methods that the group used to test for plastic particles "are readily available," according to an OM FAQs document about the project.

"We encourage additional testing by others following the same rigorous standards," OM representatives said in a statement.

Original article on Live Science.After an ongoing shortage of execution drugs that has left states scrambling, Oklahoma authorities have announced that it will use nitrogen gas to execute death-row inmates.

Death by nitrogen inhalation could potentially skirt the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment," because inhaling this inert gas can render people unconscious within a breath or two. However, Oklahoma has yet to detail an execution protocol for using nitrogen gas, according to The Washington Post, and it's likely that any new execution method will be challenged in court.

"This method has never been used before and is experimental," Dale Baich, an attorney representing 20 of the state's death-row inmates, told the Post. "Oklahoma is once again asking us to trust it as officials 'learn-on-the-job,' through a new execution procedure and method." [Mistaken Identity? 10 Contested Death Penalty Cases]

The trouble with executions

Capital punishment has become increasingly challenging for states to carry out in recent years, as drugmakers have refused to sell their products to states for use in executions.

Because of this, prison officials have experimented with new drugs, and the results have sometimes been grisly. In Oklahoma in 2014, the execution of Clayton Lockett went terribly awry when prison officials used an untested three-drug injection to kill him. Lockett failed to slip into unconsciousness and spent more than 40 minutes writhing and mumbling before dying of a heart attack. In 2015, Oklahoma executed inmate Charles Warner with the wrong drug, using vials of potassium acetate either instead of or alongside the approved drug, potassium chloride. In his final moments, Warner complained that he felt like his body was on fire. Oklahoma has not carried out an execution since.

That same year, the state officially adopted nitrogen gas as a backup method of execution. Now, the state's attorney general and corrections director have announced that the gas will be the primary method of carrying out executions in Oklahoma due to the difficulty of getting lethal injection drugs.

How nitrogen kills

Nitrogen is an inert gas  meaning it doesn't chemically react with other gases  and it isn't toxic. But breathing pure nitrogen is deadly. That's because the gas displaces oxygen in the lungs. Unconsciousness can occur within one or two breaths, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

Nitrogen inhalation doesn't cause the same panicked feeling that suffocation does, because the person continues to exhale carbon dioxide. Rising carbon dioxide in the blood is what triggers the respiratory system to breath. These levels are also responsible for the burning and pain that happens when you hold your breath for too long. Because the carbon dioxide levels in the blood never rise with nitrogen inhalation, these symptoms don't occur.

Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, kills pretty quickly. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, brain cells start dying within 5 minutes of oxygen deprivation starting. Death follows rapidly.

In the report favoring nitrogen as an execution method supplied to Oklahoma state legislators in 2015, the authors cited a 1961 study. That research found that human volunteers who hyperventilated, or rapidly breathed, pure nitrogen fell unconscious within 20 seconds. However, the World Society for the Protection of Animals lists nitrogen inhalation as "not acceptable" for animal euthanasia because loss of consciousness is not instantaneous, and dogs euthanized by nitrogen gas have been observed convulsing and yelping after falling unconscious.

Original article on Live Science.Joaquin Avila, a pioneering voting-rights attorney whose victories at the U.S. Supreme Court and the California Legislature helped to empower Latinos and other minorities at the ballot box, has died of cancer at his home in Seattle. He was 69.

Our nation has lost a steadfast hero-warrior for the Constitution and for human rights, said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, positions that Avila held from 1982 to 1985. He had previously worked as a staff attorney for MALDEF in California and Texas, and remained in voting-rights work throughout his career, litigating more than 70 cases.

In Californias Central Valley his name is mentioned in reverent tones, and with good reason, said San Francisco civil rights attorney Robert Rubin, who worked on cases with Avila. Hes been responsible for so many legal victories that have protected and advanced political empowerment of Latinos and other groups.

One such case came from Monterey County, where county supervisors had changed judicial elections from a system of individual districts to countywide at-large votes, diminishing the prospects of Latinos, who made up one-third of the countys population, of being elected to a judgeship.

Because of a history of voting discrimination, the county was required to seek U.S. Justice Department approval for changes in its election laws. County officials argued that no approval was needed because a state law had ratified its action. But Avila and Rubin, in a suit by MALDEF and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights on behalf of Latino voters, won an 8-1 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999 requiring the county to seek federal clearance for any such changes.

Avila also won a precedent-setting ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1989 requiring Watsonville to switch from at-large to district elections, paving the way for the first election of Latinos to the City Council.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the section of the federal Voting Rights Act that had required many state and local governments to clear new election laws with the Justice Department. By then, however, California had its own Voting Rights Act, which Avila drafted and helped to steer through the Legislature in 2002.

The law, the only one of its kind in the nation, allows minorities to challenge at-large elections in cities and local agencies that have a history of racially polarized voting and a likelihood of diluting minority voting power. Lawsuits and even the prospect of suits under the law have caused hundreds of local governments to move to district-by-district elections.

Avila was still defending the law at the end of his life, fighting a conservative groups suit that contended the redistricting was unconstitutional race-based discrimination, said Denise Hulett, a MALDEF attorney also working on the case. A federal judge in San Diego has upheld the law, but opponents plan to appeal.

After he left MALDEF, he continued to do (voting-rights work) on his own dime. It was not something that made him rich, Hulett said.

That was evident in 1996, when Avila won a genius grant fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation and said he would use the $295,000 award to pay debts from the costs of his voting-rights suits.

Avila was born in Compton (Los Angeles County) and attended Yale University, becoming one of the first Mexican-Americans to enroll there, and Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1973. He maintained a law practice in Fremont after leaving MALDEF, then became director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law.

His son Joaquin Avila Jr. described his father as a kind and caring person who helped people who were in trouble, just as he did during his career.

Avila died Friday, surrounded by family members at his home. He is survived by his wife, Sally Avila; his children, Joaquin, Angelique and Salvador Avila; and a brother, Jaime Avila.

Plans for a public memorial are pending.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.

READ ALSO: Top Gulf cartel boss captured, Mexico says

A spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services said state law allows the release of autopsy information only 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 in 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.

READ ALSO: Mexico's "I stole a little" mayor allegedly stole a lot

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.U.S. consumers and businesses installed 30 percent less solar power in 2017 after setting a record for panel installations in 2016  which was credited largely to a rush to take advantage of federal tax credits before they expire.

In 2016, a record 15,128 megawatts of solar power was installed across the country; in 2017, that fell to 10,608 megawatts, according to the Solar Market Insight Report 2017 Year Review released by industry trade group Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA.

One megawatt can power between 200 and 300 homes in the winter, and 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas.

Figures for individual states varied drastically, with California  the top solar state in the U.S.  seeing installations drop by half in 2017 compared with 2016. Despite the decline, California installed more solar power than any other state last year.

Texas ranked No. 4 nationally for the addition of solar power in 2017 with 654 megawatts installed, a 3.3 percent decrease compared to 2016. With nearly 1,900 megawatts of solar, Texas is ranked seventh in the country.

Sean Gallagher, the trade groups vice president of state affairs, said part of the reason for the decline in installations was that federal investment tax credits were on the chopping block in 2016, leading to a rush by developers to complete solar projects to take advantage of tax benefits.

By the time the ITC was extended at the end of 2015, many of those projects already had some kind of contractual requirement or were otherwise on track to come in before the end of 16, Gallagher said.

The investment tax credits, which allow people and companies to deduct 30 percent of the cost to install new solar power, were extended in 2015. But theyre gradually reduced through 2023 when the tax credit becomes available to only commercial and utility-scale projects.

Thomas Koch Blank, a principal with the electricity practice at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit energy research and consulting group, said the 2016 numbers were likely inflated by project developers trying to take advantage of the tax credits.

In 2017, he said, questions about future policies, such as possible trade tariffs, arose.

Uncertainty is really the deal killer here, to be honest, Koch said of about 2017.

Gallagher said Texas year-over-year drop was smaller than the U.S. figure because more of the states solar is tied to utility-scale projects driven by municipal utilities, such as San Antonios CPS Energy and Austin Energy.

CPS recently completed the buildout of at least 400 megawatts of solar installations, while a $260 million, 182-megawatt solar array that will provide power to Austin Energy broke ground in January in Pecos County.

Gallagher blamed a fall in solar employment last year on the drop in installations, with such solar jobs falling for the first time by nearly 10,000, a 3.8 percent decrease, according to the National Solar Jobs Census for 2017 released by the Solar Foundation in February.

At the release of the report, co-author Zoe Ripecky described 2017 as a cooling off period after record-setting 2016.

We definitely see a correlation between installed solar capacity and job growth over the past eight years that weve been tracking this, Ripecky said in February.The Oakland Police Department identified the man killed by officers on Sunday about a half-mile from the MacArthur BART station as 32-year-old Joshua Pawlik.

Officers responding to reports of a person down and armed with a gun in the 900 block of 40th Street found Pawlik on the ground between two buildings, holding a semi-automatic firearm, police said.Thousands of University of California students from out of state can expect their annual tuition to rise by $978 next fall, after a UC regents committee approved the increase over the objections of two candidates for governor.

The full Board of Regents is expected to adopt the 3.5 percent increase for nonresident undergraduates Thursday at its meeting at UCLA. The higher price tag would raise nearly $35 million for the university and bring out-of-state tuition and fees to $41,622 a year.

UC officials say the increase is needed because Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed giving UC a 3 percent increase in state funds for next year instead of the 4 percent that the university requested. UC officials are still lobbying state lawmakers for more, and say that if they fail, they will ask the regents in May to approve higher tuition for state residents as well.

Dozens of students joined Democratic gubernatorial candidates John Chiang and Delaine Eastin on Wednesday in speaking against all UC price hikes.

I urge you to suspend any consideration of tuition or fee increases until 2019, Chiang, the state treasurer, told the regents finance committee.

Eastin, a regent during her years as state schools chief in the 1990s, said tuition is becoming prohibitive for too many students.

You find kids that are couch surfing to make ends meet, Eastin said.

An out-of-state student who identified herself as Emma told the regents that she has rheumatoid arthritis, and that paying nearly $1,000 more in tuition would force her to cut back on the medicine she needs.

I shouldnt have to make this choice, she said.

Another student, Aisha, said her parents would be able to afford to send only one child to school  and it would be her brother.

I might have to go back to Pakistan, she said, and chastised the regents for treating nonresident students as cash cows for the university.

Nonresidents pay three times the $13,900 in tuition and fees that Californians pay, and UC has given the higher-paying students an increasingly warm welcome in recent years.

Nonresident enrollment has risen by 71 percent since 2013, to 37,217 students this year, with two-thirds of them from other countries.

These additional revenues are critical to 2018-19 campus operating budgets, finance officials told the regents in recommending the higher price.

They said three campuses benefit the most from nonresident tuition: UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, where the added revenue pays for a Student Learning Center at which 9,000 undergraduates find academic support.

Also on Wednesday, a regents committee approved higher fees for 24 professional degree programs, including a new masters program in serious games at UC Santa Cruz.An "American Idol" contestant has tried to tamp down the controversy over judge Katy Perry unexpectedly kissing him on the lips during his audition.

"I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry and I am thankful for the judges comments and critiques," said Benjamin Glaze, who had revealed during the two-night premiere of the ABC reboot that he had previously never kissed a girl. "I was uncomfortable in a sense of how I have never been kissed before and was not expecting it."

Glaze, who the wrote a statement on Instagram on Wednesday night, added: "My main goal is to reach people through the universal love of music and not cause strife or anger against anyone or about any situation."

"American Idol" had heavily promoted the kiss moment. Before his Instagram post, Glaze told the New York Times in an interview published earlier Wednesday, that he was "a tad bit uncomfortable." The newspaper reported that he had put off his first kiss and "wanted to save it for my first relationship. I wanted it to be special."

"Would I have done it if she said, 'Would you kiss me?' No, I would have said no," he told the Times. "I know a lot of guys would be like, 'Heck yeah!' But for me, I was raised in a conservative family and I was uncomfortable immediately. I wanted my first kiss to be special."

The Times also reported that he didn't feel he had been harassed by Perry and was grateful she tweeted about him. Since the October audition, Glaze said he's talked it over with friends and they agreed with him the kiss "didn't really count. It was lip contact versus a romantic situation with someone you care about. That's what a real first kiss is."

Still, the interview and subsequent attention on the audition sparked criticism of Perry, ranging from calling it a "#HimToo" moment, to arguing that the exchange would have been considered assault had an older male judge kissed an unsuspecting 19-year-old girl.

On Wednesday, Glaze's Instagram post conveyed that he wanted "to clear a few things up for anyone who is confused, concerned, or angry" after his news interviews, that he didn't think his views "have been appropriately communicated through the media."

"The way certain articles are worded is not done by me, and my true intentions are not accurately represented in every article you read about the situation," he wrote. "I am not complaining about the kiss, I am very honored and thankful to have been apart of 'American Idol.' The main purpose for the show is to find stars and new music artist. I do wish I would have performed better in the moment. I should have picked another song to sing and calmed myself down regardless of the kiss. I should have been able to perform under pressure."

Glaze, who at the time of his audition was a 19-year-old cashier from Enid, Oklahoma, walked in and told the judges he liked his job because he could meet cute girls. Judge Luke Bryan, quoting a Perry song, asked Glaze "have you kissed a girl and liked it?"

"No, I've never been in a relationship," the contestant responded.

Perry asked, "Really?"

"I can't kiss a girl without being in a relationship," Glaze said.

Perry then ordered him over, and offered him her cheek as the Bryan and judge Lionel Richie egged them on. "He didn't even make a smush sound!" Perry said, and they repeated it again.

But as he went in for another kiss on the cheek, Perry quickly moved her lips over to meet his. He fell to the ground with a nervous grin and a shocked expression, as Perry and the judges celebrated.

"Katy!" he yelled. "Well, that's a first."

He clearly was nervous after the exchange and asked for water before he sang. He then gave what the judges deemed was a hurried and lackluster performance. Perry said, "I really enjoyed meeting you" but "there are some people who are just out-singing you right now, so I don't think it'd be fair to put you in that kind of competition."

She added: "Next time, just take a little bit more time. You were a bit rushed."The Crock of Gold

By James Stephens

Dover. 240 pp. Paperback, $17.95

---

As St. Patrick's Day approaches, what could be better than a book about Ireland, and what book about Ireland is more delightful than James Stephens' 1912 classic, "The Crock of Gold"? Listen to its opening sentences:

"In the centre of the pine wood called Coilla Doraca there lived not long ago two Philosophers. They were wiser than anything else in the world except the Salmon who lies in the pool of Glyn Cagny into which the nuts of knowledge fall from the hazel bush on its bank. He, of course, is the most profound of living creatures, but the two Philosophers are next to him in wisdom. Their faces looked as though they were made of parchment, there was ink under their nails, and every difficulty that was submitted to them, even by women, they were able to instantly resolve. The Grey Woman of Dun Gortin and the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath asked them the three questions which nobody had ever been able to answer, and they were able to answer them. That was how they obtained the enmity of these two women which is more valuable than the friendship of angels. The Grey Woman and the Thin Woman were so incensed at being answered that they married the two Philosophers."

In due course, these two marriages produce two children, born on the same day and in the same hour, a boy named Seamus and a girl named Brigid. "The Philosopher who had the boy was very pleased because, he said, there were too many women in the world, and the Philosopher who had the girl was very pleased also because, he said, you cannot have too much of a good thing."

Soon one of these couples drops out of the story, leaving only a single philosopher to answer a perplexity posed to him by a farmer named Meehawl MacMurrachu. The farmer's wife has lost her washboard, and she is convinced that it was taken by the fairies or by her neighbor Bessie Hannigan. The correct answer is, of course, the fairies, more exactly the Leprechauns of Gort na Cloca Mora. The Philosopher directs Meehawl to the tree under which they live and there, in a hole, he discovers a little crock of gold.

As it happens, Meehawl MacMurrachu already possesses a treasure far greater than gold, for his daughter is "the most beautiful girl in the whole world. The pity of it was that no one at all knew she was beautiful, and she did not know it herself." However, one day, while tending the family's goats, Caitilin hears unsettling flutelike music in the hills. Eventually, a piper draws near and she sees that his legs are "shaggy and hoofed like the legs of a goat," and his face is irresistibly sad.

Following Caitilin's inexplicable disappearance, a worried Meehawl again consults the Philosopher, who in his pedantically humorous manner quickly deduces that the great god Pan has wandered into Ireland. "He has power over all grown people so that they either go and get drunk or else they fall in love with every person they meet, and commit assaults and things I wouldn't like to be telling you about. The only folk who can go near him at all are little children, because he has no power over them until they grow to the sensual age." Inevitably, little Seamus and Brigid take Pan a message about Caitilin, one stressing that "he isn't doing the decent thing, and that if he doesn't let the girl alone and go back to his own country," he will have to face Angus Og, Ireland's own god of love, youth and poetry.

Ignoring this threat, Pan - a sybaritic aesthete by his very nature - gently catechizes about hedonism like some goat-footed Oscar Wilde. The beginning of wisdom, he says, lies in "carelessness." Virtue is simply "the performance of pleasant actions." And what is vice? "It is vicious," Pan replies with inflexible logic, "to neglect the performance of pleasant actions."

Unable to rescue Caitilin by himself, the Philosopher sets forth to discover the abode of Angus Og. During this quest, he hears stories that, beneath their surface whimsicality, describe want, hunger and broken homes, but he also learns that goodness and kindness may be more important than wisdom. Above all, the many characters of these on-the-road chapters allow Stephens to demonstrate his ear for every kind of Irish-inflected English.

Because of his adventures, the Philosopher eventually recognizes that life shouldn't be complacently "consecutive, but explosive and variable, else it is a shackled and timorous slave." Alas, he soon finds himself unexpectedly and wrongly arrested - by policemen who cross-talk like Pat-and-Mike vaudeville comedians - and then sentenced to death. Desperate to save her husband, the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath summons the Shee, the immortal fairy folk of Ireland. "The eyes of those who did not hesitate nor compute looked into her eyes, not appraising, not questioning, but mild and unafraid. The voices of free people spoke in her ears." Stephens' last pages swell into an ecstatic ode to joy, as the host of the Shee sweeps across the land:

"Come to us, ye lovers of life and happiness. Hold out thy hand - a brother shall seize it from afar. Leave the plough and the cart for a little time: put aside the needle and the awl ... Come away! For the dance has begun lightly, the wind is sounding over the hill, the sun laughs down into the valley, and the sea leaps upon the shingle, panting for joy, dancing, dancing, dancing for joy."

So, all you lovers of life and happiness, raise high a glass this weekend, then track down a copy of "The Crock of Gold." Come away, come away!Normally on her birthday, Eva Longorias Twitter feed is filled with all sorts of exciting plans to celebrate.

But this year, San Antonios adopted A-lister, who turned 43 Thursday, has another birth on her mind: that of her first child, a boy, with husband Jose Pepe Baston. The baby is expected in May.

I cant believe on this birthday I have a pending birth inside of me! Thank you all for the birthday wishes already! Its been an amazing year, but my greatest gift? Already got it, she tweeted.

RELATED: San Antonio notables bumped elbows with celebs at Longoria wedding

The star can be seen on the big screen soon with Anna Faris in the gender-flipping remake of comedy Overboard. She will be peddling her fashion collection next Wednesday and Thursday on the Home Shopping Network.

But articles about her of late focus on her upcoming blessed event, how shes living in leggings and what she misses most.

She recently joked about that on Instagram, flashing a photo of a maternity T-shirt that reads: I like to think wine misses me, too.

Moreover, shes been thankful for some help from celebrity friends, particularly Kerry Washington of Scandal fame.

Of the actress and two-time mom, Longoria told People Magazine recently: She helped me find a baby nurse, and (figure out what) a doula is. Shes been an endless source of information.

She gave me this suitcase of maternity clothes, she added. Its like the traveling suitcase  it just gets passed on. Then I have to add to it and then Ill pass it on. Kerrys been amazing.

She also said she couldnt be happier that her first child is a boy.

Im so excited, she said recently on an Instagram video, because I think the world needs more good men. This boy, my son, will be surrounded by very strong, educated, powerful women, and I think its important that he sees those types of role models in his life so he knows how to support it, how to applaud it and how to honor it.Albany

Let's revisit a memorable moment from the 2014 governor's race. It happened during the Labor Day parade in Manhattan.

There was Zephyr Teachout, then challenging Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, attempting to approach the governor to say hello, only to be repeatedly blocked by a balding man in a button-down polo shirt.

And who was that guard dog willing to bravely put his body between the governor and his slight female competitor?

Why, it was Joe Percoco.

I've watched video of the moment, filmed by John Kenny of NYTrue.com, more than a dozen times, and it never looks anything but terrible for Percoco and Cuomo. How small the men are, refusing to grant Teachout the decency of a handshake. What bullies.

Well, it's safe to say that Percoco, newly convicted of bribery and corruption, won't be running interference for the governor should actress Cynthia Nixon dare say howdy during a future parade.

Nixon? Oh, yes.

More and more, it looks like the actress best known as Miranda from "Sex and the City" is going to challenge Cuomo in the Democratic primary. Would she win? Probably not. But she's a bigger threat than Teachout ever was.

In part, that's due to timing.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Percoco's conviction has tainted and weakened the governor. (More on that in a bit.) The #MeToo era is filling the sails of female candidates  and Cuomo's alpha-male thunder won't help him fight the headwinds.

In part, it is due to fame.

Nixon has it, more or less, while Teachout didn't.

The Fordham Law professor and Vermont native still did surprisingly well, especially upstate, where she won 31 counties. Here in the Capital Region, Teachout's bare-bones campaign garnered 62 percent of the primary vote. And no, the lopsided result wasn't just about disgruntled Albany state workers taking out their frustrations.

In Columbia County, an eye-popping 78 percent of voters chose Teachout. In Otsego County, it was 72 percent. (Remember, this is among Democrats.)

But Teachout couldn't get traction in New York City, and that's where Cuomo walked away with the election and won easily.

Nixon, 51, could be different. She's a lifelong New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan. She has three children in city public schools and is known for her passion for education equality. She has the progressive street cred needed to challenge the governor from the left.

I was never in the core "Sex and the City" demographic, but I don't think I'm wrong in saying Nixon isn't household-name famous. Still, she has enough star power to keep the downstate media, the tabloids especially, interested in what she's doing. Her nascent campaign has already received more attention than Teachout received.

If nothing else, the spotlight will force Cuomo to give the primary respect.

In 2014, the governor refused to acknowledge Teachout's challenge. Cuomo wouldn't debate, wouldn't say his opponent's name and, as we've seen, even used a blocker to avoid saying hello.

With a reality-TV star bringing chaos to the White House, it's fair to be skeptical of celebrities running for office. But a benefit of Nixon's fame is the pressure it would apply to Cuomo. He would be compelled to debate, and Nixon's celebrity would guarantee a big audience for the show.

If she did well? We might get to see Cuomo sweat. Fun!

But let's get back to Percoco, a Cuomo family friend found guilty of swapping his insider influence for more than $300,000 in bribes  ziti, in Percoco's parlance.

So far, the governor's response to the conviction has been awful.

Cuomo has tried to dismiss Percoco's behavior as an aberration in an administration that demands high standards. The claim would be easier to swallow were the corruption trial of another ally, Alain Kaloyeros, not looming.

Cuomo says he thought Percoco was doing some sort of vague "transition work" when the latter illegally used a state office for months while serving as the governor's campaign manager. The claim is beyond ludicrous.

The governor says the trial had so little to do with him that his name was never mentioned in court. Not true. In fact, Cuomo loomed over the trial, though prosecutors never accused him of illegality.

Cuomo also says Percoco's misdeeds show the need for "additional safeguards to protect the public."

That's actually true! But Cuomo acts as if he didn't launch his 2010 campaign vowing to deliver tougher ethics laws and cleaner government, only to ignore his promises during seven years in office.

Of course, an effective safeguard against corruption would be electing a governor who wouldn't hire scoundrels. You are the company you keep, governor  which brings us back to the 2014 parade.

In the wake of Percoco's conviction, Teachout retweeted video of the unfortunate moment. "Maybe if I'd paid him," she wrote, "we could have shaken hands."

In other words, ziti equals access.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchillClean-water activists protested a planned natural gas pipeline on Wednesday, demanding from the steps of the Maryland State House that Gov. Larry Hogan, R, halt the project before the state loses the power to intervene.

But a spokeswoman for the governor says the issue is for the federal Army Corps of Engineers to decide.

About 30 environmentalists rallied outside the State House with Del. Jheanelle Wilkins, D-Montgomery, and Robbyn Lewis, D-Baltimore. Five women holding signs blocked an entrance to the complex for more than two hours until Capitol Police stepped in to arrest them.

Environmentalists spent much of last year trying to stop construction of the 3.5-mile pipeline beneath the Potomac River and C&O Canal in Western Maryland. They say the pipeline could jeopardize the drinking water supply of about 6 million people, many of them in the Washington metropolitan area.

Proponents of the pipeline, which would bring natural gas from Pennsylvania to West Virginia, say it would be safe and bring much-needed economic development to an area that is short on jobs.

Opponents faced a Thursday deadline to persuade Hogan to direct the Maryland Department of the Environment to do a state-based certification process under the federal Clean Water Act that would examine any potential impact on Maryland's water system.

A spokesman for the state agency declined to say whether it would launch such an effort.

But Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles said in a statement that the agency will complete "a robust review" of the project as part of a separate state permitting process.

"We will insist that any energy facility or infrastructure project that moves forward complies with our state environmental safeguards," Grumbles said.

Brooke Harper, policy director for Chesapeake Climate Action Network, which organized the protest, said police did not intervene until the protesters said they planned to move to the governor's mansion.

Hogan spokeswoman Amelia Chasse said the governor "supports all Marylanders' right to advocate for their views; however, these protesters appear to have the wrong address."

"This issue is under the purview of the federal Army Corps of Engineers, not our administration," Chasse said. "The Maryland Department of the Environment has and will continue to ensure that Maryland's environmental standards are upheld."

Denise Robbins, communications director for the climate network, said many activists feel betrayed by Hogan, who earned some credit with environmentalists last year when he signed a law banning hydraulic fracturing in the state.

Now, she said, he is "going back on his promise to protect Maryland from the risks of fracking."

The pipeline would not involve fracking in Maryland, but would transport natural gas through Maryland from Pennsylvania to West Virginia.A stunning setback in a reliably Republican Pennsylvania congressional district has unnerved many GOP elected officials, who are bracing for a potential Democratic wave in the midterm elections without any proven strategy to fight back.

Publicly, party leaders tried to cast the special election as a fluke, won by an idiosyncratic Democrat who ran to the right. But privately, strategists, donors and elected officials expressed alarm, with the November midterms looming. "Horrid" was how one Republican in frequent contact with lawmakers described the political outlook.

"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. This is a real problem," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., who has chosen to retire. "You better have your own brand, your own image, and you better be able to sell it. You can't count on somebody else dragging you across the finish line in this type of environment."

As of late Wednesday, Democrat Conor Lamb was the apparent winner, holding a lead of 627 votes over state Sen. Rick Saccone after more than 224,000 people cast ballots Tuesday. The race, in a district President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2016, has not been officially called because state officials continue to count provisional and military ballots, a process that could last until at least March 21.

Republican officials, who are looking for irregularities, have written to each of the counties in the district to demand that they preserve all ballot boxes for a potential recount, as required under state law.

Pennsylvania provides no mechanism for parties or candidates to directly request a recount in this kind of election. Absent a court order, a full recount would need to be requested by a petition from three voters in each of the district's 593 precincts, said Wanda Murren, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania secretary of state.

Republicans had worked for months to turn the House race in Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district into a demonstration of GOP staying power, deploying their best messaging ideas, spending more than $10 million and receiving the full backing of Trump in a district where he polls over 50 percent.

None of it worked, and the apparent loss has left the party without a clear Plan B just eight months before midterm elections that threaten to give Democrats control of the House, if not the Senate as well.

"What changes for our strategy? Nothing," said Corry Bliss, executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC that spent more than $3.4 million on ads in the race as part of a 2018 campaign budget of more than $100 million. "However, everyone has to do better."

The dynamics in Pennsylvania continue a clear pattern that began in elections last year, including statewide Democratic victories in Virginia and Alabama. In the era of Trump, Democrats have shown they can drive suburban voters to the polls and generate real liberal enthusiasm for moderate candidates.

Meanwhile, Republicans have found themselves unable to replicate the exuberance that propelled Trump to the White House in 2016, let alone the off-year elections during the presidency of Barack Obama. Now, strategists worry that the outcome will prompt further congressional retirements while driving more money into the coffers of Democratic election efforts this fall.

But in public comments, party leaders downplayed the significance of the loss, arguing that Lamb ran to the right of most Democratic candidates who are nominated through normal primaries.

"I don't know that there's a big surprise," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said at a news conference. "This is something that you are not going to see repeated."

Republicans had hoped to demonstrate to their donors the efficacy of a twin messaging strategy that can be transferred to other races in the fall. Starting in January, they committed millions to largely unanswered television ads that sought to tie Lamb to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Calif., the Democrat who polls showed was poorly regarded in the state. They also blanketed the district with spots promoting the Republican tax cuts passed in December. They also sent dozens of field staff to the state to turn out the party's base.

Republican internal polling showed that the popularity of the tax cut rose over the last two months in the district, outstripping gains elsewhere in the country, and Pelosi remained far less popular than Trump in the final weeks of the race. But the strategy did not prevent a massive swing in support to the Democratic candidate.

"We spent an awful lot of money," said one Republican strategist involved in the race who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. "It's difficult to spin this one."

Ultimately, Republicans said, it was the effectiveness of Lamb as a candidate and the struggles of the Saccone campaign that doomed the strategy. Lamb, who said early that he did not support Pelosi as a Democratic leader, cast himself as palatable to conservatives, saying he personally opposed abortion and supported Trump's plan for new trade tariffs. In one campaign ad, he fired a semiautomatic gun.

Trump appeared to reference Lamb in a speech at a fundraiser in Missouri on Wednesday.

"He said very nice things about me. I kept saying, is he a Republican? Sounded like a Republican to me," Trump said.

"It's very confusing to voters when Democrats run on traditionally Republican platforms, and I think Saccone's opponent did that pretty darn effectively," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said.

Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, head of the House GOP campaign arm, briefed Republican members in a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning, encouraging them to define themselves and their opponents more effectively than Saccone did.

With outside groups included, Republicans spent more on the race than Democrats, but Saccone struggled to raise money.

"This is a wake-up call. If you're getting outraised, this is a wake-up call. Prepare to bear down," Stivers said, according to a Republican present for his remarks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting.

Stanley Hubbard, a Minnesota broadcasting executive who donated $70,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund in January, pinned the Pennsylvania result mostly on Lamb being young and telegenic and Saccone looking like "an old-timer." Still, he said, he also sees a political template Democrats can use effectively in future contests.

"I think the chance the Democrats have is to come back to the middle," Hubbard said. "If they come back to the middle the way this guy did, they have a chance."

The district, a stretch of suburbs and small towns that was drawn to elect a Republican has not been competitive in recent years. Obama won just over 40 percent of its voters in 2012, and Hillary Clinton received only 38 percent support in 2016.

The Cook Political Report, which ranks the partisan bias of congressional districts, lists 114 Republican-held seats as more competitive than the district where Lamb appears to have won, a fact that Democrats have seized upon to suggest an electoral wave is coming that will wipe out the 24-seat advantage Republicans hold in the House.

The White House tried to capitalize on Trump's relative support in the district by sending him in twice for rallies, as well as deploying Vice President Mike Pence, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., to tour the district.

"The Economy is raging, at an all time high, and is set to get even better," the president tweeted Tuesday morning. "Jobs and wages up. Vote for Rick Saccone and keep it going!"

Despite the result, White House aides argued that Trump had a positive effect on the race, citing internal Republican polls that showed Saccone losing by a greater margin than the vote count.

"The Democrat in the race really embraced the president's policies and his vision, whereas he didn't really embrace Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader," White House spokesman Raj Shah said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis, David Weigel, Seung Min Kim and Erica Werner contributed to this report.The U.S. Department of Education is granting full forgiveness of $322 million in loans made to four historically black colleges and universities that suffered damage after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.

"This additional disaster relief will lift a huge burden and enable the four HBCUs to continue their focus on serving their students and communities," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement. "This relief provides one more step toward full recovery."

In the aftermath of the storms, Dillard University, Southern University at New Orleans, Tougaloo College and Xavier University of Louisiana collectively borrowed more than $360 million through the HBCU Capital Financing Program in 2007. The money was used to renovate, refinance existing debt and build new facilities. The schools struggled to repay the debt amid depressed enrollment, and in 2013 received a five-year reprieve on payments that was set to expire this spring.

A provision in the two-year budget deal signed into law this year gave DeVos leeway to forgive the outstanding balance owed by the four schools.

"We are deeply grateful for the bipartisan legislative efforts and to the Trump administration for relief of the Katrina loans to Xavier University of Louisiana," said C. Reynold Verret, president of Xavier. "Forgiveness of the loans removes a great impediment to innovation and the delivery of superlative education to talented women and men who build and sustain our communities, cities and nations."

At Dillard, President Walter Kimbrough expressed his gratitude and talked about the level of devastation the university faced after the storms. "Dillard had six feet of standing water inside of its buildings, and was the most physically devastated institution of higher education," he said.

Established in 1992, the HBCU Capital Financing Program provides low-cost capital to help historically black institutions upgrade their campuses and refinance debt. The program is meant to provide a lifeline to schools, many with small endowments, that face challenges in accessing traditional financing at reasonable rates.

The federal government guarantees the payment of principal and interest on qualified bonds, with the proceeds used to finance the loans. To date, the Education Department has approved more than $2 billion in loans to 45 historically black colleges.

The program has had its share of problems. Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Barber-Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina, defaulted on their loans, while other schools have had spotty repayment records over the years. Proponents of the program say stronger oversight from the advisory board charged with managing it could improve the way the program runs, as could financial counseling for institutions and annual reporting to Congress. Several bills over the years have proposed those solutions but failed to gain much traction.

President Donald Trump cast doubts on the program's future in May when he questioned its constitutionality. In a signing statement tied to a federal funding measure, the White House said it would treat the financing program "in a manner consistent with the (Constitutional) requirement to afford equal protection of the laws." The statement left some in the higher education community wondering whether the program's days were numbered, but the White House said the statement was only intended to preserve the president's legal options down the road.

The Trump administration has had a rocky relationship with historically black colleges. Barely a month into her tenure, DeVos drew criticism for calling the group of schools forged at the height of racial segregation "pioneers" of "school choice." University leaders were also dismayed that the first White House budget held the line on their funding, despite what many believed were assurances from the president that they would receive increased appropriations.

The selection of Johnny C. Taylor Jr., a prominent advocate for historically black colleges, to lead a board that advises Trump on the schools has signaled to some that the administration is making an effort to improve its relationship. Taylor previously headed the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports dozens of historically black schools.

"This administration's support of the congressional action to eliminate over $300 million in Hurricane Katrina loans taken out by four HBCUs was the right thing to do and was a big deal," Taylor said.WASHINGTON - The nomination of Mike Pompeo to be the next secretary of state signals President Donald Trump's determination to quit the landmark Iran nuclear deal, which could cause it to unravel, according to national security and arms-control experts.

If Pompeo is confirmed, Trump will have at his side an adviser who is equally as hard line on Iran and a harsh critic of the 2015 multilateral agreement between the United States and other world powers.

"Now you have the appointment of someone who has made it an article of faith that the Iran deal is a bad deal that needs to be ripped up," said Robert Malley, president of the International Crisis Group who helped broker the Iran negotiations under the Obama administration. "It may well be the first casualty of Tillerson's ousting will be the end of the Iran deal."

Pompeo has frequently expressed scorn for Iran, which he once characterized as "a thuggish police state" and a "despotic theocracy." Just before Trump named him to head the CIA, Pompeo tweeted that he looked forward to "rolling back" the nuclear deal, which he called "disastrous."

As secretary of state, it will fall to Pompeo to certify whether Iran is meeting its nuclear commitments under the deal, as required every 90 days under U.S. law.

Rex Tillerson, who was fired Tuesday as secretary of state, always concluded that Iran was complying as international monitors have reported, although not in its "spirit." He had urged the president to stay in the agreement to keep leverage over Iran's ballistic missile testing and other actions not covered under the agreement. Although they disagreed on many foreign policy issues, Trump mentioned only the Iran deal in explaining why he thought it was time for Tillerson to go.

After Trump named Pompeo as Tillerson's replacement, Mark Dubowitz, head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tweeted that Pompeo is "Exhibit A" of Trump's seriousness about walking away from the deal if there is no agreement to amend it.

"Now he has a secretary of state who 100 percent shares his views on the nature and gravity of the Iranian threat and the fatal flaws of the JCPOA," Dubowitz said in an interview, using the initialism for the deal's official name. "Now there is no daylight between the president and the secretary of state."

Pompeo is expected to have his confirmation hearing in April, the month before a May 12 deadline for Trump to decide whether to reimpose sanctions that were suspended in exchange for Iran's acceptance of limits on its nuclear program. However, nothing would prevent Trump from withdrawing at any time before then.

A U.S. pullback probably would kill the deal outright, even if the Europeans and other parties to the agreement strive to keep it alive. That is because other countries, businesses and financial institutions would be inclined to curb their interactions with Iran, eroding any motivation for Iran to stay in it.

Russia, another signatory to the deal, has said the agreement will collapse if one party withdraws. Some Iranian officials have said the same, although others hope to stick with it because it has ended the country's economic isolation.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was a member of the Iranian negotiating team, said that "if America withdraws from the nuclear deal, Iran will follow suit," Iranian media reported.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said it could resume its production of highly enriched uranium, which it shelved under the deal, within two days. Ali Khorram, a former Iranian diplomat, wrote in his column in the daily newspaper Arman called Pompeo "cowboyish in character and eager to start a war similar to the war with Iraq."

One potential lifeline for the Iran deal comes Friday in Vienna. The United States, Britain, China, the European Union, France, Germany and Russia will meet there at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters for a meeting of a committee tasked with settling issues that arise.

The United States will be represented by Brian Hook, the State Department's head of policy planning. Hook has been negotiating with Europeans on possible "fixes" to the deal, primarily involving Iran's ballistic program, support for militant groups such as Hezbollah and sunset clauses that cause various limitations on Iran to expire years from now.

Those periodic meetings often are used for sideline meetings between delegations for the United States and Iran.

Some analysts believe that Pompeo may moderate some of his criticisms of the nuclear deal if he becomes secretary of state and slips into the role. As a member of Congress and then head of the CIA, his criticisms never carried the responsibility of coming up with solutions.

"The logic of the situation remains the same, no matter what Mr. Pompeo may want to do or Mr. Trump would like to do," said Daryl Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association. "It makes no sense for America to blow up the Iran nuclear deal, create a new nuclear crisis and undermine the president's new diplomatic initiative to start North Korea on the path to denuclearize. If Mike Pompeo is worth his salt, he will point this out."1 Church shooters sister: The younger sister of Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black parishioners during Bible study in 2015 at a Charleston, S.C., church, was arrested and charged Wednesday for possessing drugs and weapons on school grounds. Morgan Roof, 18, was charged with simple possession of marijuana and two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds, according to the Richland County Sheriffs Department. Morgan Roof had also made a social media post on Snapchat which alarmed the student body. In it, Morgan Roof said she hoped the students participating in the National Walkout Day, protesting gun violence, would get shot. Students across the U.S. participated in the walkout.

2 Executions: Alabama and Georgia executed men in decades old murders. Michael Wayne Eggers, 50, was put to death in Atmore, Ala., for killing his employer at a traveling carnival in 2000 and later dropped appeals and asked for the death sentence to be carried out. Georgia put to death a man known as the stocking strangler, who was convicted of raping and killing older women in attacks that terrorized a small city in the 70s, at the state prison in Jackson. Carlton Gary, 67, was convicted of killing three elderly women in Columbus in 1977 and 78. Though Gary was charged only in those deaths, prosecutors say he attacked nine elderly women in Columbus in 1977 and 1978. Most were choked with stockings, and seven of them died.Russian hackers are conducting a broad assault on the U.S. electric grid, water processing plants, air transportation facilities and other targets in rolling attacks on some of the country's most sensitive infrastructure, U.S. government officials said Thursday.

The announcement was the first official confirmation that Russian hackers have taken aim at facilities on which hundreds of millions of Americans depend for basic services. Bloomberg News reported in July that Russian hackers had breached more than a dozen power plants in seven states, an aggressive campaign that has since expanded to dozens of states, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

"Since at least March 2016, Russian government cyber actors" have targeted "government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors," including those of energy, nuclear, water and aviation, according to an alert issued Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Critical manufacturing sectors and commercial facilities also have been targeted by the ongoing "multi-stage intrusion campaign by Russian government cyber actors."

Cyber-attacks are "literally happening hundreds of thousands of times a day," Energy Secretary Rick Perry told lawmakers during a hearing Thursday. "The warfare that goes on in the cyberspace is real, it's serious, and we must lead the world."

Separately Thursday, the U.S. sanctioned a St. Petersburg-based "troll farm," two Russian intelligence services, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian citizens and businesses indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of meddling with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

A joint analysis by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security described hackers as extremely sophisticated, in some cases first breaching suppliers and third-party vendors before hopping from those networks to their ultimate target. The government's report did not say how successful the attacks were.

The Russian hackers "targeted small commercial facilities' networks where they staged malware, conducted spear phishing, and gained remote access into energy sector networks," according to the Homeland Security alert.

The hackers deliberately selected targets and methodically went after initial victims as a way to reach their ultimate prizes, including industrial control systems used by power plants and other infrastructure. Their tactics included sending spear-phishing emails and embedding malicious content on informational websites to obtain security credentials they could then leverage for more information and access.

And once they obtained access, the attackers "conducted network reconnaissance," and moved within the systems to collect information on industrial control systems.

The government's alert on Russian cyber-attacks does not cover suspected meddling by the country in the 2016 election.

An October report by researchers at Symantec Corp., cited by the U.S. government Thursday, linked the attacks to a group of hackers it had code-named Dragonfly, and said it found evidence critical infrastructure facilities in Turkey and Switzerland also had been breached.

The Symantec researchers said an earlier wave of attacks by the same group starting in 2011 was used to gather intelligence on companies and their operational systems. The hackers then used that information for a more advanced wave of attacks targeting industrial control systems that, if disabled, leave millions without power or water.

The disclosure comes amid mounting calls from lawmakers to step up protection of the nation's electric grid. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pushed for a cyberthreat assessment of the grid last year, to better defend the infrastructure against potential attacks.

"I hope today's belated response is the first step in a robust and aggressive strategy to protect our critical infrastructure," Cantwell said in an emailed statement.

U.S. intelligence officials have long been concerned about the security of the country's electrical grid. The recent attacks, striking almost simultaneously at multiple locations, are testing the government's ability to coordinate an effective response among several private utilities, state and local officials, and industry regulators.

Many of the targeted power plants are conventional, but the attacks included at least one nuclear power plant in Kansas, Bloomberg News reported in July. While the core of a nuclear generator is heavily protected, a sudden shutdown of the turbine can trigger safety systems. These safety devices are designed to disperse excess heat while the nuclear reaction is halted, but the safety systems themselves may be vulnerable to attack.

The operating systems at nuclear plants also tend to be legacy controls built decades ago and don't have digital control systems that can be exploited by hackers.

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Bloomberg's Toluse Olorunnipa, Ari Natter and Nafeesa Syeed contributed.The San Francisco Police Commission voted to adopt a policy Wednesday night regulating how officers can use Tasers, bringing a months-long debate over the electroshock weapons to an end and clearing the way for the rollout of the devices at the end of the year.

The Police Commission approved arming officers with Tasers in November, following years of debate, but waited to approve a policy on their use. The commission voted 6-1 Wednesday in favor of the policy developed by the Police Department and several community working groups.

The Police Commission ironed out 11 final items before the vote. Commissioner Bill Hing was the lone dissenter. Officers wont be equipped with the weapons until December at the earliest.

Im very happy, Police Chief Bill Scott said after the hours-long meeting. We can move now toward implementation. It was a well-vetted process.

The 24-page addition to the Department General Order encompasses a multitude of regulations on Taser use and accountability measures, including the appointment of a review board that will oversee and investigate cases in which stun guns are used.

Once armed with Tasers, officers will only be allowed to use them when a person is armed with a weapon other than a firearm, such as an edged weapon or blunt object and is injuring or intending to injure another person.

Tasers may also be used if a person is violently resisting, and only officers with crisis intervention training are authorized to carry the weapons.

Officers are limited in their use of Tasers in special circumstances, including when a person is pregnant, elderly, frail, appears to be a child or when the officer has credible information the person is suffering from a serious medical or psychiatric condition.

I know some people wont agree that we are going to have this weapon, this device, but the important part is that we invited the public to the process and they were an instrumental part of getting to this point, Scott said.

The department will begin purchasing the weapons while officials develop a plan for rolling them out.

Theres still a lot of work to be done, Scott said. At the end of the day, our officers will have equipment and the community will be safer, and I think we have a very thoughtful, well-thought out, vetted policy.

Still looming is a Taser measure on the June ballot put forth by the San Francisco Police Officers Association that would offer less-restrictive guidelines and overrule the Police Commissions authority on their use.

The commission was scheduled to vote on whether to oppose Proposition H, but declined to do so Wednesday.

If it passes, the proposition could be amended only at the ballot box or by an ordinance adopted by a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors.

Opponents of the measure, including Scott, said the legislation would restrain the Police Commissions power. In a letter to the citys Department of Elections, he called the effort the antithesis of the spirit of reforms recommended in 2016 by the U.S. Justice Department.

Scott was hired in late 2016 as a reformer chief tasked with implementing the Justice Departments reforms after former Chief Greg Suhr was forced to resign, following several controversial police killings.

Mayor Mark Farrell, a longtime ally of the police union, came out in favor of Prop. H earlier this month, but this week said he would back off his support if the Police Commission adopts a policy that works for both our officers and the community.

In an email following Wednesdays vote, Farrell said he was glad the Police Commission approved the policy.

I have always said that I would support a ... policy that works best for the community and for our officers, and the plan approved by the Police Commission does that, he said.

Police union representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Supporters of the Police Commission and departments work on approving a Taser policy hope Wednesdays vote will sway voters to reject Prop. H.

Proposals to arm police officers with Tasers in San Francisco have been debated and rejected for more than a decade, leaving the citys police force as one of the last major departments in the country without them.

Critics of Tasers have questioned whether the weapons are effective, pointing out that in some cases, officers have shot people when they cannot subdue them with a Taser. In some cases, shocks from stun guns have led to deaths.A teacher who is also a reserve police officer trained in firearm use "accidentally" discharged a gun Tuesday at Seaside High School in Monterey County, California, during a class devoted to public safety, school officials said in a statement. A male student was reported to have sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

The weapon, which was not described, was pointed at the ceiling, according to a statement from the school, and debris fell from the ceiling.

Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen told the Monterey County Weekly that a male student was "struck in the neck by 'debris or fragmentation' from something overhead." Pridgen said whatever hit the student was not a bullet.

However, the student's father, Fermin Gonzales, told KSBW 8 that it was his understanding that fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged in the boy's neck. The father said the teacher told the class before pointing the gun at the ceiling that he was doing so to make sure his gun wasn't loaded, something that can be determined visually.

"It's the craziest thing," Gonzales told the station. "It could have been very bad."

Gonzales said he learned about the incident when his 17-year-old son came home with blood on his shirt and bullet fragments in his neck.

The boy's mother, Crystal Gonzales, told the Associated Press Wednesday that the incident took place about 10:30 in the morning that the class continued after the gun discharge, even though her son was injured. She said she did not hear about it until her son called her hours later and went to a relative's home.

"I'm still really upset no one called a nurse or a paramedic to come check on the students," she told the AP. "They just sat there until the bell rang."

"He's shaken up, but he's going to be OK. I'm just pretty upset that no one told us anything and we had to call the police ourselves to report it," the father told the TV station.

The teen was treated at a hospital where the boy's parents took him.

A spokeswoman at the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District told The Washington Post Wednesday that they would not comment further until an investigation was completed.

The teacher was identified by police as Dennis Alexander, who teaches math as well as a course in the administration of justice. Alexander is a reserve police officer for Sand City and a Seaside city councilman. He did not respond to emails from The Washington Post seeking comment. He has reportedly apologized for the incident.

The Monterey County Weekly, quoting Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante, reported that Alexander had his last gun safety training less than a year ago. "I have concerns about why he was displaying a loaded firearm in a classroom," Ferrante told KSBW. "We will be looking into that."

Exactly why the teacher was displaying the weapon at all was not entirely clear. Police said he was "providing instruction related to public safety."

The father told KSBW that the teacher was preparing to use the gun to show how to disarm someone.

Daniel "PK" Diffenbaugh, superintendent of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, told the Weekly on Tuesday that the incident occurred during the administration of justice class, a career track course offered by the school. "Clearly, we will revisit this incident to ensure that something like this would never happen again."

Diffenbaugh noted that state law and school policy forbids carrying firearms on campus without authorization. Alexander, he said, was not authorized.

"I think a lot of questions are on parents' minds are, why a teacher would be pointing a loaded firearm at the ceiling in front of students," Diffenbaugh told KSBW. "Clearly, in this incident, protocols were not followed."

The teacher has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation takes place, according to the school. The Sand City Police Department also placed Alexander on administrative leave.

The incident comes amid a national debate on how to protect students from mass shootings like the one that took the lives of 17 people in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. Among the proposals advanced is training and arming teachers, an approach favored by President Trump, among others, but opposed by a majority of the teachers in the National Education Association, including many who said in an NEA survey that it would make them feel less safe.The U.S. solar industry had its second-best year on record for installations in 2017, despite the election of an administration that promotes fossil fuels and some worry injected into the market by President Donald Trump's import tariffs, an analysis found Thursday.

Utilities, individuals and businesses installed 10.6 billion watts of solar photovoltaic capacity during Trump's first year in office, according to the analysis by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Solar installations set a record in 2016, with 15.1 billion watts (or gigawatts) installed. But installations that year were boosted by companies racing forward on projects to ensure they didn't miss out on a 30 percent federal investment tax credit that was expected to vanish at the end of the year (which didn't end up happening).

But leaving aside that partial anomaly, installations were 30 percent higher in 2017 compared with 2015, and the industry anticipates that a further 10 billion watts of capacity will added in 2018.

"Several years ago, our industry had dreamed about reaching double-digit capacity," said Dan Whitten, vice president of communications at SEIA. "And so this was our second year that we had double digits . . . compared with historical sort of averages, 2017 was a darn good year."

The 2017 numbers are significant because virtually all of the solar industry's major growth occurred during former President Barack Obama's two terms in office, as the administration churned out favorable solar policies.

2017 is the first year with Trump at the helm, and he has been vociferous in his support for the coal industry, which competes with renewable energy.

The Trump administration has proposed slashing funding for solar energy programs - including the Energy Department division that houses the SunShot initiative, which aims to drive down solar's cost - and the recently imposed import tariffs are expected to lead to fewer installations by increasing the cost of panels.

"Solar faced a tough year in 2017, yet still enjoyed growth," Jason Bordoff, an energy expert at Columbia University, said in a statement on the new findings. "After a boom year in 2016 due to the expected expiration of tax credits, the pace of solar growth slowed in 2017, and the industry faces new policy headwinds from Trump's solar tariffs and a corporate tax cut that lowers the supply of tax equity available for the industry."

The solar market has several major tranches - panels can be installed on personal rooftops, at businesses and government or civic institutions, as well as at the utility scale. In 2017, residential and utility-scale installations fell from 2016 levels, but middle-range uses, which the industry calls "nonresidential," grew.

"It's understandable that residential and utility kind of fell," said Varun Sivaram, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies the solar industry.

Sivaram noted that these markets are shifting - at the utility scale, state-level renewables policies are providing less pressure to go solar, even as major companies are making up some of the slack by buying large solar contracts.

At the residential scale, meanwhile, there has been pushback in some states about net metering - the policy allowing solar panel owners to sell excess electricity generated back to the grid, Sivaram said. The industry report also said that some major installers have "shifted away from rapid-expansion strategies."

But the growth in midsize solar, or the nonresidential market, was driven in part in 2017 by a major "community solar" initiative in Minnesota. In community solar programs, large groups of individuals in a community in effect share solar power from a larger installation.

This is expected to be a growth area in coming years, in part because apartment and condo residents cannot put solar panels on their roofs but still may want solar power in some manner.

Whitten noted that uncertainty over Trump tariffs somewhat slowed the market in 2017, even though the tariffs were actually imposed a year later.

"He made his decision on the tariffs in 2018, but the uncertainty over what he was going to do with the tariffs probably didn't help," Whitten said.

The drag is expected to continue in 2018 and beyond, but what is noteworthy is that despite the tariffs, the industry is expected to install an additional 10 gigawatts this year and then grow steadily out to 2023, when about 15 gigawatts of capacity is forecast.

"Solar is standing on its two feet," Sivaram said. "The overall effect of Trump has been negative, and it will be more negative. . .tariffs will reduce growth 10 to 15 percent. But the industry is so strong that even with the tariffs, it's going to keep growing.""We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn't like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do. . .they almost all do. . .and that's how I know!"- President Donald Trump, in a tweet, Thursday

---

When The Washington Post published closed-door remarks about Trump recounting a conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in which he asserted the United States had a trade deficit with Canada even when he did not know the answer, the article included this line: "The Office of the United States Trade Representative says the United States has a trade surplus with Canada."

In apparent response to that, Trump tweeted:

Trump tweeted "We do have a Trade Deficit with Canada, as we do with almost all countries (some of them massive). P.M. Justin Trudeau of Canada, a very good guy, doesn't like saying that Canada has a Surplus vs. the U.S.(negotiating), but they do. . .they almost all do. . .and that's how I know!"

So what gives?

The Facts

In some ways, this exchange reflects the conversation between Trudeau and Trump. Trudeau said the two countries had a surplus, while Trump said, no, it's a deficit. Trump claimed one of his aides went to check and reported: "Well sir, you're actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesn't include energy and timber. But when you do we lose 17 billion dollars a year."

So, there was a $17 billion trade deficit in merchandise goods in 2017 between the United States and Canada, primarily because the United States imported about $77 billion worth of mineral products (primarily oil) from Canada - more than one-quarter of all Canadian exports - while exporting about $21 billion of mineral products back. There's also a big gap in timber, since Canada possibly has more trees than people.

But the overall trade figure is in surplus because the deficit in goods is wiped out by a big surplus in trade in services.

Apparently, in Trumpland, trade in services simply does not count, even though it's a big part of U.S. trade. In fact, the World Trade Organization says that trade in services is the "most dynamic segment in world trade, growing more quickly than trade in goods." The United States is the dominant player.

Trade in services, among other things, includes telecommunications, accounting and legal services, and tourism. It's not perhaps as solid and shiny as steel, but it's a real export. In 2016, the U.S. services surplus was almost $25 billion, resulting in an overall trade surplus with Canada of $12.5 billion, according to the U.S. Trade Representative.

More to the point, these deficit and surplus numbers are almost meaningless compared with the big picture: Canada is the No. 1 goods export market for the United States. U.S. goods and services trade with Canada totaled an estimated $627.8 billion in 2016,according to USTR.

The president frequently suggests the United States is losing money with these deficits but countries do not "lose" money on trade deficits. A trade deficit simply means that people in one country are buying more goods from another country than people in the second country are buying from the first.

Americans want to buy these products from overseas, either because of quality or price. If Trump sparked a trade war and tariffs were increased on Canadian goods, then it would raise the cost of those products to Americans. Perhaps that would reduce American purchases of those goods, and thus reduce the trade deficit, but that would not mean the United States would "gain" money that had been lost. Meanwhile, trade deficits are also affected by macroeconomic factors, such as the relative strength of currencies, economic growth rates, and savings and investment rates.

The White House did not respond to a request to comment on why Trump consistently says the United States runs a trade deficit with Canada when official government figures show a surplus. According to our database of Trump's false and misleading claims, he's made this false claim about Canada at least 10 times.

The Pinocchio Test

Someone needs to brief the president on trade in services. He admitted he simply assumed the United States ran a trade deficit with Canada, even if he did not know the answer. Bad assumption. If he had bothered to listen to Trudeau's explanation, he might have learned something.

Four PinocchiosAUSTIN  He was an aspiring bass cellist just accepted into the revered Butler School of Music at the University of Texas. He was advancing in the martial arts, and he yearned to one day become a neurosurgeon.

But all the promise ahead for 17-year-old Draylen Mason was snuffed this week when he was killed in one of the three package bombings that have Austin on edge.BROWNSVILLE  Osiel Cardenas Jr., the son of one of Mexicos most notorious drug lords, was arrested Tuesday night on charges of impersonating a law enforcement officer and illegal possession of a firearm.

He was in a bar waving a handgun around and causing alarm, said J.J. Trevino, a Brownsville police spokesman. Apparently he also had some sort of badge and was telling everyone he was a U.S. marshal.Amazon encouraged cities to think boldly about how its second headquarters can enhance and transform their communities. We urge both Amazon and the bidding cities to adopt the same enterprising and transformative mindset regarding HQ2s role in shaping the future of energy.

Amazon has impressive green credentials. The e-commerce giant is a top corporate purchaser of clean energy and is on its way to being 100 percent renewable. Buildings at its Seattle campus incorporate LED lighting and waste-heat recovery, operating at the forefront of energy efficiency. Now, by choosing which city will host its coveted HQ2, Amazon is paying close attention to sustainability criteria such as utility incentives for clean energy development and mass transit options for employees.

We encourage Amazon to reward proposals that extend clean energy benefits beyond the borders of HQ2, to enhance sustainability throughout the host city and state. Equally important, we call on the 20 finalist cities to make public all sustainability provisions of their HQ2 proposals. We understand that cities are keeping certain incentives confidential in order to maintain a competitive edge. However, clean energy commitments should not be treated as private trade secrets, but rather as public best practices to promote and share.

The 19 U.S. cities and regions vying to attract HQ2 demonstrate widely varying degrees of commitment to sustainability in their proposals. For example, Boston touts its top rank in energy efficiency and its Climate Action Plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. For its proposed site at Suffolk Downs, Boston presents a vision that features subway access, rooftop solar panels, geothermal energy and data center waste-heat recovery. Philadelphia trumpets its abundant mass transit and bike lanes. Its proposed uCity Square site could integrate a combined heat and power plant, and the Navy Yard site already features a nationally recognized electricity micro-grid with on-site solar generation and battery storage.

Other cities proposals offer little in the way of clean energy provisions, or they have not divulged such elements publicly. For example, Raleigh does not seem to discuss clean energy in its public proposal. New York City highlights its extensive subway system but does not outline specific clean energy plans. Austin has kept most of its proposal a secret, providing only vague references to sustainability in its public materials. Columbus proposes self-driving electric vehicles for sustainable transportation, but the environmental benefits of this strategy would likely be insignificant because Ohio relies on coal to produce more than half of its electricity.

On Amazons end, HQ2 can serve as a catalyst to accelerate citywide and statewide clean energy initiatives, extending well beyond the new campuss perimeter. Even though HQ2 may add up to 8 million square feet of office space, its energy consumption will be small relative to a large metropolitan area.

One venue where Amazon could maximize its sustainability impact is through securing access to renewable energy. Amazons ability to procure renewable power varies with the local electricity market structure. The company has an important choice to make.

Amazon can conveniently locate HQ2 in one of 13 American cities where deregulated power markets allow customers to choose their renewable energy suppliers. Alternatively, if located within a regulated market such as Atlanta, Denver or Raleigh, Amazon can buy renewable energy from the utility through existing green tariff programs. Even more ambitiously, Amazon can leverage HQ2 in Indianapolis, Miami or Nashville to enable renewable energy purchase by all state residents, pressing state energy commissions and utilities to either establish green tariff programs from scratch or allow retail choice.

As Amazon HQ2 promises to bring 21st century jobs to its new host community, we hope that it also brings the 21st century energy ecosystem with it: carbon-free, smart and accessible energy infrastructure, technologies and markets.The San Antonio Independent School District board is about to take another brave but necessary step to bring high quality education to all students, including the ones who have been assigned to failing schools for years. Forming a partnership with Democracy Prep to operate an in-district charter school at P.F. Stewart Elementary School is the best available choice for a turnaround.

In January, the SAISD board voted to approve an in-district charter application for Stewart Elementary, a campus that the Texas Education Agency has rated improvement required for many years. Unless the district takes action right away, the law will require the commissioner of education to either appoint a board of managers to take over SAISD or order the campus closed. Stewart is among a handful of SAISD campuses that have not met standard for many years.

The in-district charter school at Stewart would be operated by Democracy Prep, a New York-based charter school with a history of success helping underserved students. Democracy Prep has a mission to educate responsible citizen-scholars for success in the college of their choice and a life of active citizenship. It features an extended school day and a longer school year. Through civic activities, students are equipped with knowledge, skills and an attitude that they can change the world. In the classroom, a lead teacher will be joined by a teaching fellow, providing a smaller student-to-teacher ratio to increase opportunities for enrichment.

At an upcoming meeting, the board will be able to formalize its relationship with Democracy Prep by approving an operating agreement for the in-district charter school. The school will remain under the oversight of the SAISD board, with a contract spelling out those expectations. The district will ensure that the in-district charter school serves all students zoned to Stewart Elementary, including ones who are special needs or English-language learners. Once SAISD contracts with Democracy Prep to operate at Stewart, the school will have two years to achieve a met standard rating.

When the board met in January to approve the in-district charter application, members faced opposition from people who want things to stay the way they are. The opponents raised procedural objections to the boards actions. There likely will be further outcry at the next board meeting when the contract comes up for approval. However, keeping things the way they are is not fair to the students who have been zoned to failing schools for too many years. I encourage the board to be steadfast in its path toward a partnership with Democracy Prep.

Democracy Prep at Stewart Elementary will be a new type of school in the district  a school at an SAISD campus managed by an outside operator. Currently, Stewart teachers are SAISD employees; next year, teachers at the in-district charter would be at-will employees of Democracy Prep, the model that led to Democracy Preps success at its existing campuses. If we expect it to replicate that success in San Antonio, Democracy Prep needs the flexibility to hire teachers to work in that school model. This partnership may become a model for other SAISD campuses.

As a charter school parent, I am excited to see SAISD embracing the idea that it can best serve its families with a variety of school models, the best approach for bringing high quality education to every student. We should support the SAISD board for its courage in seeking a partnership with Democracy Prep.Two bits of news recently point to the veracity of what immigration observers have claimed for months. The Trump administration is purposely using various punitive measures on immigrants already here to deter asylum seekers and others. Lawsuits are the result.

In one article Saturday, Express-News reporter Jason Buch told the tale of Sadat Ibrahim, a gay man from Ghana, who credibly argues his life is in danger if he is returned to his country  where his partner was beaten, where he was stabbed and which has anti-gay laws. He presented himself to a border crossing seeking asylum during the Obama years. And he has been in detention ever since, about two years.A man who appeared before Longford Circuit Court charged under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act was remanded in custody following a recent hearing into the matter.

Sylvio Rose (51), Knockloughlin, Longford pleaded guilty to knowingly distributing child pornography that included 1,747 digital images of child pornography and a further 35,000 digital images of child pornography at Knockloughlin, Longford on dates between February 2012 and March 2013.

Outlining the case before Judge Keenan Johnson, Mr John Hayden, counsel for the State said that an investigation by gardai into the matter began when European authorities detected child porn images on an icloud server in Germany.

This was then traced back to an IP address here in Ireland, said Mr Hayden, before pointing out that after further inquiries were made, the IP address was subsequently traced back to Sylvio Rose, Knockloughlin, Longford.

Meanwhile, the court heard that the images from the IP address were reviewed by investigating officers in Harcourt Street and a search warrant was subsequently issued to search the defendants home in Longford.

Detective Garda Padraig Fahy told the court that when gardai arrived at the house, Mr Rose opened the door and told them that he was expecting them.

Mr Rose brought us to his office and showed us the external hard drives; he was fully cooperative, added Detective Garda Fahy.

Items were seized and Mr Rose made admissions in a memo of interview.

He also acknowledged that he had swapped some of the images that he had stored - he used a computer programme that allowed him to share images with other users.

The court then heard that gardai observed 11,019 images of males and females under the age of 17 years being subjected to oral and penetrative sex.

There was also 39,190 images, the court was told, of females under 17 years of age fully or partially clothed.

Detective Garda Fahy also pointed out that there was 847 videos that included males and females under 17 years being subjected to oral and penetrative sex and 900 videos with children under 17 years whose genitalia was exposed.

Mr Rose used certain search words to access sites in the dark net, added the detective garda, before pointing out that the defendant also shared software on his computer so that the material he possessed could be shared on the web.

The images indicate that there were children as young as three years of age being sexually abused.

Some of the images showed a child being abused by a woman - it cant get any worse than what we saw.

The court was then told that Mr Rose was born in Germany and moved to Longford with his wife in 2006.

The couple purchased a home in Knockloughlin and moved into the property with their daughter.

Judge Johnson heard that the defendant was a qualified mechanic and currently employed by a company in Athlone.

Defence counsel, Ms Flynn then said that her clients wife was a long distance lorry driver.

She also pointed out that difficulties for the defendant began in 2012 when he found himself unemployed.

She said, Mr Rose found himself alone a lot and began watching adult porn sites, and that after some time the situation became more compulsive for him.

He moved on to other communities and sharing child pornography images etc, she continued.

Ms Flynn went on to say that her client had attended counselling in an effort to deal with the compulsive side of his behaviour.

He hasnt done anything since 2012-2013 and has fully cooperated with the Gardai.

Detective Garda Paul Fitzpatrick, from the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, then gave direct evidence to the court.

These particular images are as bad as they can get, he said of the images and videos that had been in the defendants possession.

They consisted of thousands of children aged three and four years old being abused and are some of the worst images that I have seen in my nine years working in this area, Detective Garda Fitzpatrick continued.

Some of the images would have fallen into sadism and bestiality categories; one particular image showed a child being forced to have sex with a dog.

Mr Rose is regarded as an aggressive' collector of child pornography - there was tens of thousands of images and in one particular video there was a one-year-old child hanging from a chain from the ceiling being abused and sexually assaulted by her mother.

Some of the images were of the same child being abused numerous times while others were one-off images, he added.

In mitigation, counsel for the defendant said her client was 'certainly aware' of the gravity of what he had done.

He was born in Germany and at the age of 15 his father threw him out of the family home and he went to live with the family of his wife, she added.

He qualified as a mechanic in 2002.

He then came to Ireland where he bought the house in Longford.

He took an unfair dismissal claim against his employer and paranoia set in; he also began spending a lot of time on his own.

He began to follow links to porn sites and admits that he spent two hours a day pursuing these dark sites.

Ms Flynn went on to say that her client had cooperated fully with the gardai and she also pointed out that the defendant had spent the last few years rehabilitating himself.

I would ask the court for leniency for Mr Rose, she stated.

Meanwhile, Judge Johnson remanded the defendant in custody.

This is the worst case of possession and distribution of child pornography I have ever heard of, the Judge fumed.

This type of activity is essentially aiding and abetting what is going on in that world. The Judge subsequently remanded Mr Rose in custody until May 31, 2018.

Judge Johnson also indicated that he would deliver judgement in the case when the defendant returns before the court at the end of May.On March 8, Bridgeways Family Resource Centre based in Ballymahon hosted a very successful event to mark International Womens Day.

This event was planned and organised by the Womens Group in Bridgeways FRC and was supported by the staff.

There was a range of services provided including information stands, beauty and hair services, tarot card readings, an art exhibition and local inspirational women speakers.

The speakers Grace Kearney (Project Co-ordinator), Andrea Maher (Bridgeways Womens Group), Kathleen Dowd (Longford Womens Link), Helen OGorman (LWETB Tourism Course) and Valerie Masters (Local Poet) gave a fabulous overview of the issues affecting women in rural Ireland.

There was an emphasis on the importance of Belonging to something in order to build confidence and capacity and how education can play a key role in empowering women to become active agents in their own lives.

It was hoped that empowerment may lead to an increase of women at decision making tables and local politics.

Lus na Greine, Longford Womens Link & LCRL brought their Womens Groups to attend the celebration in the newly refurbished Dean Egan Library.

There were approximately 250 people in attendance; the atmosphere was full of positivity, hope and empowerment.

The event was an example of how collective action can bring about social change, in particular surrounding the issue of gender equality.

ALSO READ:

International Women's Day 2018: Long way to go to get gender parity - McFaddenNoise levels from a salt barn used by Longford County Council gritting lorries to treat the countys roads network during inclement weather conditions has been described as horrendous sparking calls this week for its relocation.

Local politicians want to move the facility, which is located along the Park Road, to a new home on the outskirts of town with direct access to the main N4.

Several elected members voiced their concerns at its monthly meeting after receiving a string of calls from local residents.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Mae Sexton said the location of the barn had been one which was reluctantly agreed to by the former Town Council.

The National Roads Authority (NRA), since rebranded as Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), had effectively forced the hand of the Council to proceed to a Part VIII public consultation process.

At the time I still didnt agree with it but we were sure that the silence that was required in a built up area at night would remain, she said.

We didnt expect that there was the kind of noise level that is there now and it is very significant.

I agree it (noise) only happens at this time of year but if you are trying to get up or or if you are on shift work in those houses above it or around it the noise is horrendous.

Cllr Sexton said the most opportune location for the barn was adjacent to a main carriageway like the N4 and away from built up residential areas.

In asking for a letter to be sent to TII outlining the Councils misgivings on the topic, she received strong support from Cllr Peggy Nolan.

There are people with very severe medical needs and their take on it was: Yes its an inconvenience, yes its waking me up at night but they were reluctant to complain because they might have been putting lives in danger, said the Fine Gael local representative.

They fully understand the importance of gritting but I think it behoves us now to write a very stiff letter to the relevant authority advising them that its not placed correctly and that its causing untold hardship to people living in close proximity to it.

ALSO READ:

1m financial boost for county's infrastructureBord na Mona has said it is remained focused on pressing ahead with its plans to construct a multi million euro wind farm in south Longford despite attempts by local politicians to hike development levies over their introduction.

County Councillors voted to introduce a charge of 70,000 per Megawatt (MW) for non domestic wind turbines at its monthly meeting last night (Wednesday).

That came on foot of an appeal by Cllr Mark Casey who called on his fellow councillors to stand firm in their previous moves to block the plan.

"Let's put this in context here," he exclaimed.

"We go out to Lanesboro and we can look at the power station chimney, we put another chimney on top and we go up another quarter again and put it on top of that.

"That is the height of these. Sixty tonnes of concrete into the ground, 37km of road through our bogs.

"This is absolute genocide to our local area."

Fianna Fail's Seamus Butler suggested the more moderate charge of 25,000, warning that if the 70,000 levy was introduced it risked being dismissed at planning stage.

"If we charge something that is so out of kilter with every other county it will be shot down on appeal," he said.

"It's a nice stand to make but you have to look at the bigger picture."

Cllr Casey hit back at those calls by accusing Cllr Butler's party of backtracking on what councillors had previously agreed.

"If Fianna Fail want to flip flop on this again, then let them flip flop," he stormed.

Cllr Colm Murray attempted to bring some structure to proceedings with the Kenagh politician pressing for solar and other renewable forms of energy to be capped at just over 7,000.

"It's no harm for us to encourage people of landowners to use solar energy and to have a reasonable charge," he said.

It was a plea which met the approval of the Chamber with Cllr Casey and Cllr Butler's counter proposal being put to a vote.

As it transpired, the former's demand for a 70,000 levy on non domestic wind turbines won out, with 13 councillors voting for the measure and four siding with Cllr Butler's alternative proposal.

In a statement to the Leader this lunchtime however, Bord na Mona insisted the events of last night have done little to alter their plans concerning a proposed wind farm in Derryadd.

"At present, Bord na Mona's focus is on submitting a planning application and will not be making any further comment on the matter at this time," said a spokesman.

ALSO READ:

New guidelines hold key to Derryadd wind farm proposalLong Island Business Directory

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Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 14 2018

NCPD: a male black entered the store displaying a handgun and demanded cash from the register.

New York, NY - March 14, 2018 - First Squad detectives are investigating a Robbery that occurred on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 3:00A.M. in First Squad detectives are investigating a Robbery that occurred on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 3:00A.M. in North Bellmore

According to detectives, a male black entered the 7-Eleven convenience store located at 2259 Jerusalem Ave displaying a handgun. The suspect while pointing the gun at the 25 year old male clerk demanded cash from the register. The victim complied and the suspect fled on foot eastbound Jerusalem Ave with an unknown amount of cash.

The suspect is described as in his 20s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black pants, black sneakers with a white stripe. He is approximately 170 pounds and wore a light colored bandana over his face. No injuries were reported.Music, Movies & Entertainment, School & Education, Local News, Arts & Culture

By Bay Street Theatre Published: March 15 2018

A workshop-style musical theater camp where students will learn a selection of scenes and musical numbers.

Sag Harbor, NY - March 15, 2018 - & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to offer a special three-day School Vacation Theater Camp for children ages 8 - 12 on April 4, 5, and 6 from 9 am  3 pm daily. Registration is $282 per child. Parents and Guardians can register their children by calling the Administrative Office at 631-725-0818 or by printing forms online at Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to offer a special three-day School Vacation Theater Camp for children ages 8 - 12 on April 4, 5, and 6 from 9 am  3 pm daily. Registration is $282 per child. Parents and Guardians can register their children by calling the Administrative Office at 631-725-0818 or by printing forms online at baystreet.org

In this workshop-style musical theater camp, students will work with teaching artist Bethany Dellapolla to learn a selection of scenes and musical numbers from the hit Broadway musical Annie! Students will work on acting, singing, and dancing skills which will culminate in a special presentation for family and friends at the conclusion of the camp.

Bay Street Theater's School Vacation Theater Camp is taught by teaching artist Bethany Dellapolla. Bethany is an actress, teacher, director, and choreographer based in New York City and Long Island. She received her BA in Theatre Performance from SUNY New Paltz, where she was named one of the Outstanding Graduates of her class. She then graduated (with honors), from LIU with her Masters Degree in Childhood Education, and holds teaching certifications in Childhood Education, Early Childhood Education, Special Education, and Theatre Education. Bethany is also the co-founder of NexGen Youth Theatre, a youth theatre company based out of New York City.

For more information or to register your child, call the Administrative Office at 631-725-0818. The office is open Monday-Friday from 10 am  6 pm.Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 15 2018

Paid Workers and Volunteers Should File a Notarized Form WTC-12 Prior to September 11, 2018.

Albany, NY - March 15, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today urged all workers and responders who participated in the rescue, recovery, or clean-up of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks to register their service with the New York State Workers' Compensation Board by September 11, 2018, in order to preserve their rights to future benefits. This will allow workers and volunteers to file a claim for medical care and lost wages in the event that they become ill from a qualifying medical condition as a result of their World Trade Center duties.

"There are no words to express the gratitude we as New Yorkers feel for those who risked their lives in the rescue and recovery efforts following the 9/11 terror attacks," Governor Cuomo said. "What we can do, is ensure that these brave individuals and their families are protected should their selfless efforts result in any harm to their health. I strongly encourage anyone who worked or volunteered at Ground Zero to register their service so we can provide benefits they deserve should they require them."

On September 11, 2016, Governor Cuomo signed legislation that extends workers' compensation eligibility and benefits for World Trade Center workers and responders. Most notably, the legislation reopened the World Trade Center Registry, extending the deadline period for registering their service to September 11, 2018.

Workers and responders, including volunteers, must have participated in rescue, recovery, and clean-up operations between September 11, 2011 and September 11, 2002, at any of the following locations: Ground Zero; Fresh Kills Landfill; on the barges; the piers; or at the morgues. Those who are part of the New York State workers' compensation system are eligible and should promptly register their service with the NYS Workers' Compensation Board, if they have not done so already.

New York State Workers' Compensation Board Chair Clarissa Rodriguez said, "The Workers' Compensation Board will assist World Trade Center workers and volunteers with this important registration any way we can, including providing forms in multiple languages and free notary services at any of our Board locations."

For workers and volunteers who have not yet registered, by September 11, 2018, you must:

For more information and assistance, please call 877-632-4993. Governor Cuomo also urges workers and responders to use the World Trade Center Health Programs for ongoing monitoring and care. For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/wtcLocal News, Community, Charity & Cause

By Long Island News & PR Published: March 15 2018

Lattingtown resident has always been active in her community, and has served for decades on the board of the Matinecock Neighborhood Association.

Mineola, NY - March 15, 2018 - Legislator Joshua Lafazan honors Diane Fagiola, the Senior Director of Philanthropy at Legislator Joshua Lafazan honors Diane Fagiola, the Senior Director of Philanthropy at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, at the Nassau County Legislatures 20th Annual Womens History Trailblazer Award Ceremony. Diane Fagiola is a key member of the development team that raised $275 million for the Laboratorys five-year 125th Anniversary Capital Campaign completed in 2016.

It is my honor and pleasure to recognize and acknowledge Diane as a trailblazer for women's history month. You are truly inspiring and an inspiration to those around you, said legislator Lafazan.

Diane has always been active in her community, she has served for decades on the board of the Matinecock Neighborhood Association, as well as a Meals on Wheels volunteer, Sunday schoolteacher, and club board member. She is currently president of the Locust Valley Cemetery Association. She and her husband Robert Fagiola, who is the Mayor of Lattingtown , grew up in Lattingtown where they continue to live.According to some of the latest rumors coming out of Cupertino, Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi is on a mission to get iOS to clean up its act. Bugs seem to be dominating much of the conversation around Apple as of late, and so iOS 12 will emphasize polishing whats there rather than introducing features that make us think different.

Federighi would do well to start with iMessage. Even iPhone users who barely know a Lightning port from a lightning bug use Apples text-messaging interface on a regular basis, which means that problems there that might have triggered minor PR tremors in other parts of iOS can erupt into full-on quakes.

We believe these are some of the most pressing issues, but weve tossed in a couple of extra features wed like to see as well.

Fewer bugs, please

When people talk about iMessage bugs with iOS 11, theyre usually talking about crazy, headline-grabbing stuff like the Telugu character bug that shuts down entire apps while iOS struggles to figure out how to interpret the entry.

Those are bad, no doubt. All the same, theyre not anywhere near so infuriating as the persistent bug that sorts your iMessages into the wrong order as they come in, resulting in a feed that shows answers bizarrely coming before questions. Like a mosquito in a Louisiana summer, its the bug that wont go away.

Leif Johnson/IDG

Apple supposedly fixed the problem with iOS 11.2.5, but it persisted even past the patch for many users. Some, including me, discovered that it actually got worse. Im now on the beta for iOS 11.3, though, and Im happy to report that the upcoming iOS Cloud Sync feature has apparently fixed it for now.

Some iOS 11.3 beta users dispute that. But the fact remains that this problem dragged on for months, prompting posts on the Apple forums and Reddit with complaints numbering in the hundreds, all with confused and frustrated users offering conflicting reports.

So much for It just works. We like you, Apple, but some more timely fixes for persistent problems like these would be greatly appreciated.

Give us a decent search tool already

We realize Apple isnt Google (which undeniably deserves its name as a titan of search technology), but cmon: Basic text searches shouldnt be this hard. And yet for years now, trying to find a specific text within iMessage has felt like trying to find Amelia Earharts plane (or at least a working Apple I).

Its awful. Enter a term in the iMessage search bar, and itll give you a single messageoften the most recent. Lets say you and friend are both professional cooks and youve used the word food a thousand times over the last five years. iMessage doesnt care. Pop food into the search bar, and itll probably show you the conversation the two of you had this morning.

Leif Johnson/IDG

And to think, this is an improvement! If youd searched for a message back during iOS 10, iMessage would have merely pointed you to the conversation where you said a specific term. If you wanted to find the exact message, you needed to scroll and scroll and scroll and hope your eyes catch it. Theres a good chance youd never find it at all.

In fact, even now, its often better to search for your iMessages through Spotlight from your iPhones home screen, as youll at least get around three search results there instead of one. Click on the suggested Search in App function from the home screen though, and youre back to square one.

As things stand, the best way to find specific texts is not to use iOS at all, but a separate Mac app called Chatology that lets you narrow down the exact message you want to find. Its not listed in on the App Store, which suggests Apple doesnt approve. After all these years, it totally should.

Send failed iMessages when you reconnect to the internet

This is a particularly obnoxious problem if you live in a place like San Francisco, Chicago, or New York, where youll frequently find yourself sending off text messages seconds before commuter trains enter tunnels that block cellular signals. If you didnt fire off the text in time, iMessage tries and tries, but eventually it just gives up. When you get a connection again, youll have to manually tell iMessages to send the message or else it just sits there rotting on the phone with a red Not Delivered warning.

Leif Johnson/IDG

And the person on the other end? If you dont respond in time, the missed text message can lead them to think all kinds of crazy things. On the bright side, it makes for some hilarious memes.

It seems easy enough to fix: Apple, make it so iMessages send once we get a connection again. Or, since this is technically the only way to delete a text you might regret sending later, at least give us the option to turn such a feature on and off.

Collect all links from friends in one place

Some of you still dont know this, so heres a little surprise: If you ever want to look at all the photos a friend has sent you through iMessages without all scrolling through screens of text, just click on the little circle with the letter i in the threads upper right corner. A screen will pop up showing all the images and attachments from that particular person without all the texts in between.

Leif Johnson/IDG Leif Johnson/IDG

Wed like to see this same feature with links. Keeping links in one place would do away with the awkwardness of those situations when a friend sends a link to a restaurant theyd like to meet up at weeks in advance, leaving you unable to find it when its piled under a bunch of newer messages. Or sometimes a friend might send a link with some helpful how-to information, but youll be unable to find it easily when youre confronted with the situation it was supposed to remedy.

Granted, every introduction of new features arguably clutters the interface, taking us farther and farther from that dream of simplicity Apple aims for. Honestly, though, its likely the last feature theyd need to add with this tool. Photos, videos, and attachments are already individually searchable in this manner, so why not links?

Allow rich-text editing in iMessage

Once upon a time in the grim days before emoji and animoji, we cued readers to prepare for puns or to pay attention with the use of rich-text tricks like italicizing or bolding words. At its most basic, SMS text messaging has none of these things. That has some good points, sure, as text messages present the written word in its purest form.

But iMessages have distinguished themselves for going beyond mere texting in order to offer a richer experience, whether its through the growing arsenal of emoji or fun textual toys like echoes or invisible ink.

Leif Johnson/IDG

So why not just add the option to be able to italicize or bold a word or phrase? These days iOS lets you scribble out entire notes with your finger, send animated Live Photos, and even send people cash through iMessages. Surely allowing friends within the Apple ecosystem to bold and italicize certain words would be a simple thing in comparison.

Not only would it be a welcome addition for we weird nerds who cringe at the thought of laying down a book title like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius without italics, but itd also help us explain our stupid puns to our clueless mothers.In partnership with Ted Baker Colour by Numbers.

When I boarded a plane from New York to London to study abroad during my junior year of college, I anticipated a challenging transition. The cities seemed so different in my head, from the public transportation to the food. And I was right that they had many distinctive traits, which I grew to appreciate, but over time I became acquainted with their similarities, as well. There was one in particular that really stood out to me: a palpable enthusiasm for style and its many modes of self-expression.

Both Londoners and New Yorkers wear clothes that tell stories about who they are or who they want to be, and living in either place is a lesson in interpreting them. The cities share a fascinating mix of ease and energy  a willingness to play and experiment complemented by a penchant for looking and feeling relaxed. UK lifestyle brand Ted Baker captures that precise combination in its Colour by Numbers collection, a curation of contemporary everyday items rendered in unique colors and shapes  something a denizen of either city might appreciate.

To highlight that versatility, I enlisted three Brits with cool style to model the Colour by Numbers collection and showcase some of its best statement pieces. Each of them happens to have lived in both London and New York, so I asked them a bunch of questions about their experiences hopping back and forth across the pond. Check out their outfits and answers below.

Phoebe Lovatt

Phoebe is a journalist, moderator, author of The Working Womans Handbook and founder of The WW Club. She currently lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

Where are you originally from and why did you relocate to New York?

Im a Londoner, born and raised. I grew up right in the middle of the city and went to school and university within a two-mile radius of my childhood home. When I was 24, I got a green card (long story) and decided to make the move to the U.S. I am the proudest Londoner youll ever meet, but I was already feeling the need to spread my wings and push myself to try a new way of life.

I started visiting New York when I was 17 and always knew Id live here one daybut I actually moved to L.A. first, despite having only been there once! At the time, I was working as a freelance music and lifestyle journalist, and I knew it would be really hard to make it work as a self-employed 24-year-old in New York. I wanted to give myself a bit of financial breathing room to continue my work as a writer, and also to figure out my next career steps. Plus, there are a lot of lifestyle parallels between London and New York, and I was really craving a culture shock. L.A. was certainly that.

After three years in L.A., with lots of back and forth to London and New York, I knew it was time to head to the East Coast. I was sick of driving everywhere, and I was craving street culture and general stimulation. More crucially, I had started The WW Club  a community and resource for working women  while I was in L.A., and I felt that New York was the right place for that venture to take its next step.

Im glad I waited until I was a little bit older to make the jump to New York. Its a fabulous adult playground, but the cost of living and the overall lifestyle can be difficult to hack if youre a creative kid without a trust fund (i.e., me!).

What was it like when you first moved? Did you experience any kind of culture shock?

Moving to L.A. was a much bigger culture shock for me than New York. I grew up right in the heart of London, walking everywhere and knowing a million people everywhere I went, so adjusting to L.A.s driving culture and much more laid-back lifestyle was tough at times. However, it was actually L.A.s sense of isolation that gave me the idea to create The WW Club, so every cloud has a silver lining.

Thats not to say my experience of moving to New York was entirely seamless either. Its no secret that this city is hard work, especially when youre juggling an independent business and a freelance career simultaneously. Having just spent three years in L.A., I was used to everyone being super-friendly and chill everywhere I went. New Yorkers are great people, but Im not sure super-friendly and chill is how I would describe them.

On a personal level, I think the biggest adjustment was learning how to manage my personal energy reserves because I definitely burnt out at numerous points. The amazing thing about New York is the dizzying sense of opportunity  socially and professionally  but that can be slightly dangerous if youre really ambitious and driven (which, of course, almost everyone who moves to New York is, whether or not theyre willing to admit it).

In your experience, what are the biggest differences between New York and London?

What do you miss about London?

Beyond the obvious like my friends and family, I miss Londons green spaces and its architecture. I actually miss British food; it gets such a bad rap, but there are incredible restaurants in London. I also miss walking streets I know like the back of my hand and seeing places that have sentimental history for me. Any expat will tell you theres no way to describe or replace the comfort of being on home soil.

What do you love about New York?

It kinda goes without saying that British weather isnt the best, so I can live without that. In terms of what I love about New York, at this stage of my life and career, Im grateful to live in a city that still feels limitless. New York is so vast, so dynamic. It pulses with some weird, crazy energy that Ive never really found anywhere else, and Im kind of addicted to it. I think its just that  its inexhaustible nature  that makes New York both exhausting and totally invigorating, depending on what stage of life youre in. Im not sure if Ill live here forever, but Im definitely not tired of it yet.

Jasmin Aujla

Jasmin is the Senior Partnerships Strategist at Man Repeller. She currently lives in London.

Where are you originally from and why did you temporarily relocate to New York?

Im originally from London. I first came to New York in 2013 to do a yearlong internship at a small design agency. It was one of the best years of my life. I had been back in London for a year and a half after graduating from university and I was feeling stuck in a rut, career-wise. New York had always been one of my favorite cities to visit and had great energy, so I applied to a program that facilitated internships in N.Y. for Europeans. I had absolutely no commitments at the time: I wasnt married to my job, wasnt in a relationship, was living at home, so it felt like a no-brainer to go off and spend a year having a New York experience.

What was it like when you first moved? Did you experience any kind of culture shock?

One of the main things that made my decision to move to New York so easy was that there was no language barrier. No one ever warned me that there would be an ACCENT-barrier. Simply ordering a glass of water quickly became something I dreaded because I knew the ask would be met with Wha t? or Huh? I slowly found myself altering words to make things easier for myself, like asking for the check (not bill), wearing sweaters (not jumpers), living in an apartment (not flat) and spelling words like color without a u. After four years, these things started to feel like second nature, which, unluckily for me, came back to bite me because when I moved back to London toward the end of last year, all my friends made fun of me for all my Americanisms.

In your experience, what are the biggest differences between New York and London?

What did you miss about London when you lived in New York?

Typically, in offices in the U.K., when one person goes to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, they ask if anyone would like one. On my first day at my internship in New York in 2013, thats what I did and everyone looked at me in utter shock. AND TWO OF THEM WERE ENGLISH THEMSELVES! (Theyd obviously forgotten the custom.) So, I missed the tea rounds, Colin the Caterpillar cakes for birthdays, Galaxy chocolate and the ability to have a Sunday roast without cooking it myself.

What did you love about living in New York?

I loved being freed from the obligation to ask if anyone wants a cup of tea at 3 p.m. because literally everyone says yes and you end up having to make 20 cups. On a more serious note, though, New York has taught me so much about myself and what Im capable of, lessons that Im not sure I would have experienced in any other place. It really does consume you and push you to your limits in a way that allows you to see how strong you really are. Even though Im back in London now, it will always be a special place for me.

Amanda Murray

Amanda is a stylist. She currently lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Where are you originally from and why did you relocate to New York?

I was born in the beautiful twin isles of Trinidad and Tobago. My mom is a chef and moved to Paris when I was pretty young, but the younger me was apprehensive about moving to Paris because I was reluctant to learn a new language (crazy!), so I didnt join her until she eventually moved to London. Thats where I spent my formative years.

I have a lot of family in New York, so I spent a lot of summers here, and for a very brief time I even went to high school here. I have a lot of happy memories about New York from that time. I decided to leave London after going through a bad breakup because I wanted to get as far away as possible. I was definitely running away from a problem, which in retrospect wasnt the best idea. I was very conflicted because London, to me, is the most amazing city in the world, and living there really defined and shaped me as a person, but I had to let go, sadly, in order to find peace of mind after the end of that relationship.

What was it like when you first moved? Did you experience any kind of culture shock?

I experienced a myriad of emotions when I first moved here. I was happy to liberate myself and begin an amazing new journey, but I was sad because I was mourning the end of a relationship. I moved during the summer, which is when New York really bewitches you. New York is AMAZING in the summer. Everyone is sweaty and happy, so its easy for people to get caught up in that excitement and drop everything and move here, all because they had one great summer in New York.

I will say the one thing that threw me was the rats. Im still not over the rats  in the subway, in the streets, in restaurantstheyre all over the place. I remember barricading myself into my bedroom because there was a mouse in my apartment. I stuffed towels under the crevice of my door, played music loudly and banged things together to make as much noise as possible so that even though I was scared, the mouse would know I wasnt one to be played with. At a certain point, I needed to pee so badly I had to throw my keys out of my bedroom window so my super could get into my apartment to catch the mouse.

In your experience, what are the biggest differences between New York and London?

New York and London are similar in many respects. They are both cosmopolitan cities, theyre both expensive and theyre both important centers of fashion. That being said, the extent of their differences is vast. For one, London is much cleaner than New York. It shocks me that with all the taxes we pay in the city, it is somehow still dirty. London is quite clean in comparison.

New Yorks lack of racial integration was another thing that really surprised me when I moved here. In New York, I am black first and Amanda second. In London, Im Amanda first and black second. I never thought about what that meant to me to until I moved here and felt the difference. London isnt perfect in regards to racial equality, but its better than New York.

Dating has been another challenge in New York  I think because the energy of the city is so fast-paced. Striving for success is more of a priority than finding love. Plus, there are so many beautiful people here, so many options. Why date one when you can have two? A guy said that to me on a date once.

What do you miss about London?

This is beyond sad, but I miss British television. The soap operas there are very intense and not as glamorous as American soaps. EastEnders and Coronation Street were my favorites. I also miss the food. There are many diaspora communities within London, same as New York I suppose, but theres something particularly special about the food from these communities in London. Chinese food is so different there; its more authentic. I remember asking for duck sauce once during a trip in London after spending a summer in New York, and my local Chinese restaurant in London was like, what is duck sauce? I genuinely miss London when Im in New York. I miss Portobello and Spitalfields markets on the weekends, the double-decker buses and the gray skies, which I love because they complement the architecture of the city. Theres a romanticism to it all.

What do you love about New York?

Despite the dirt and chaotic public transportation, New York is really a magical city. Things happen here that cant happen anywhere else in the world. Dreams come true here, but the city tests you first to see if you deserve them. People leave anything and everything behind to come here, with nothing in their pockets besides hope in their hearts. That in itself stands as a testament to this city  its very telling. New York epitomizes freedom and aspiration. I think thats what keeps us coming.

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Photos of Phoebe and Amanda by Edith Young at Chumleys New York. Photos of Jasmin by Frances Davison at Zetter Townhouse. Styling by Harling Ross.by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, March 14, 2018

Google continues to work hard to keep bad ads off the internet. On Wednesday it provided a look at how the company fought bad advertising practices in 2017, sharing details on technology and policies added to protect consumers, advertisers and publishers.

Providing some perspective on the enormity of the challenge, Google removed 100 bad ads per second in 2017, Scott Spencer, Google's director of sustainable ads, wrote in a blog post. We took down more than 3.2 billion ads that violated our advertising policies," he wrote -- up from 1.7 billion in 2016.

Google's ad network operates at a massive scale. The company blocked 79 million ads in its network for attempting to send people to malware-infested sites, and removed 400,000 of these types of sites in the past year. The company also removed 66 million of what it calls trick-to-click ads, as well as 48 million ads that attempted to get users to install unwanted software.

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Meanwhile, Google worked to develop better technology to protect advertisers, removing 320,000 publishers from its ad network for violating the company's publisher policies. It also blacklisted nearly 90,000 websites and 700,000 mobile apps.

In 2017, Google removed 2 million pages for policy violations each month. After expanding its policy against dangerous and derogatory content in April to cover additional forms of discrimination and intolerance, Google removed ads from 8,700 pages that violated the expanded policy.

The ad network is open to publishers that do not abuse the platform. Google paid AdSense publishing partners $12.6 billion last year. But to make money from Google ads, publishers must follow the rules that prohibit websites in the ad network from serving ads with content that is misrepresentative.

For example, a publisher is prohibited from serving ads if it pretends to be a legitimate news website based in London when its actually a content scammer in California. We found that a small number of publishers were responsible for the majority of these violations, Spencer wrote. Of the 11,000 websites we reviewed for potentially violating the misrepresentative content policy, we blocked over 650 of those sites and terminated 90 publishers from our network.

Google continues to write and enforce new policies to protect consumers and publishers. Too often, Google identifies violations of its scraping content policy. This type of policy violation occurs when bad actors try to make money as quickly as possible by copying news or content from other sites, Spencer wrote. So last year, Google estimates that it blocked more than 12,000 websites for scraping, duplicating and copying content from other sites, up from 10,000 in 2016.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 14, 2018

California lawmakers unveiled a bill Wednesday that would require broadband providers to follow the Obama-era net neutrality rules.

Among other restrictions, Senate Bill 822 would prohibit providers from blocking or throttling websites, applications, and services, and from charging companies for faster delivery of their content. It also would prohibit some forms of "zero-rating," which involves exempting some material from consumers' data caps.

The proposed bill comes three months after the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal a set of net neutrality rules that were passed in 2015. Those rules, like California's proposed measure, prohibited broadband carriers from blocking or throttling online traffic and from charging companies higher fees for prioritized delivery.

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Net neutrality proponents say the rules are needed to to prevent carriers from discriminating against competitors and small companies that can't afford high fees for fast-lane service. But FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who pressed for the repeal, says they rules were "heavy-handed" and depressed investment.

Since the repeal, the state of Washington enacted its own net neutrality rules. Around half of the other states are currently considering following suit. Governors in five states -- New York, New Jersey, Montana, Hawaii and Vermont -- also signed executive orders requiring state agencies to contract only with broadband providers that promise to follow net neutrality principles.

The California proposal's provisions about zero-rating would prohibit companies from exempting select content, apps or services from consumers' data caps, but would allow providers to exempt an "entire category" of content, apps or services. In other words, companies apparently would be allowed to zero-rate all streaming video, but wouldn't be allowed to only zero-rate streams from certain companies.

The Obama-era FCC said it planned to evaluate whether zero-rating practices violated the net neutrality rules on a case-by-case basis. In early 2017, shortly before President Donald Trump's inauguration, outgoing chairman Tom Wheeler said AT&T and Verizon were violating net neutrality principles by exempting some companies' video streams from consumers' data caps. (AT&T exempts data streamed through DirecTV's app from customers' caps, and Verizon zero-rates video streamed from its Go90 mobile app.)

But current FCC chairman Ajit Pai endorsed the companies' zero-ratings offerings and officially closed the agency's investigation into the matter.

It's not clear whether individual states can enact net neutrality rules. When the FCC voted to repeal the Obama-era regulations, the agency also attempted to block states from crafting their own rules. But some legal experts say the FCC may not be able to enforce that prohibition.New research suggests that targeting a particular cell signaling pathway with the diabetes drug metformin might offer a way to stop the progression and spread of pancreatic cancer. Share on Pinterest Pancreatic cancer kills more than 44,000 people in the U.S. every year. The study  which was led by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick  is to feature at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, which will be held in Chicago, IL. This study is not the first to suggest metformin as a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer, but it is the first to show that the underlying mechanism involves the drugs effect on the REarranged during Transfection (RET) cell signaling pathway. Our data, says senior investigator XiangLin Tan, who is an assistant professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, indicate that targeting RET with metformin may be an attractive and novel strategy for the prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis.

Pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer is a cancer that starts in the cells of the pancreas, which is an organ behind the stomach that helps with digestion and blood sugar control. The estimates for the United States suggest that around 55,440 people will find out that they have pancreatic cancer in 2018, and approximately 44,330 people will die of the disease. Though it is only responsible for 3 percent of all cancers in the U.S., pancreatic cancer accounts for around 7 percent of deaths from cancer. Because pancreatic cancer is hard to detect in the early stages, most cases are not diagnosed until the disease has started to spread. This makes it harder to treat and often leaves people with much poorer prospects compared with other types of cancer.

Metformin and cancer Metformin is a drug that is approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The plant it comes from, the French lilac Galega officinalis, has been used to ease the symptoms of diabetes since the Middle Ages. However, thanks to the evidence from extensive laboratory experiments and numerous studies that have followed large groups of people, there is now a lot of interest in the possibility that metformin might also be effective against cancer. This interest has led to clinical trials that are testing metformin not only as a cancer treatment, but also as way to prevent cancer in people at higher risk, such as those who have already had one cancer and have a higher risk of developing another type. Laboratory investigations have revealed several ways in which metformin interacts with cells and tissue that might explain its anti-cancer effects. These studies revealed, for example, that the drug can target and kill cancer stem cells, control inflammation responses, and block a cell signaling pathway  called mammalian target of rapamycin  that plays an important role in tumor growth and progression. None of these, however, have identified the specific mechanism by which metformin might act against pancreatic cancer.My initial thoughts as I stepped into the new venue for this years Wired Health conference were about the women of science and medicine, whose contributions have largely been rendered invisible. While past conferences took place at the Royal College of General Practitioners in London, this years event was held at the newly opened Francis Crick Institute. Share on Pinterest My colleague and I attended Wired Health 2018 at the Crick Institute in London on March 13th. Francis Crick is half of the duo credited with the discovery of the structure of DNA, along with his colleague, James Watson. They, together with Maurice Wilkins, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 for their discovery. But every time the names Crick and Watson make their way into my consciousness, I think about Rosalind Franklin  the woman whose work with X-ray diffraction was a pivotal contribution to their discovery. As with many women working in science and medicine in the past, her contributions went largely unrecognized and she remained in the shadows. Upon stepping into the foyer of the impressive Crick building, I mentioned this Rosalind Franklin factoid to my colleague. Little did I know that the space of women in health  and, indeed, the topic of womens health  would be a recurring theme throughout my day.

The vagina: Out of the shadows, into the light Being a woman is never dull, said Elvie co-founder and CEO Tania Boler as she took the main stage. She noted that, when it comes to womens health, technology has fallen behind. And she should know. After completing her Ph.D. in womens health, she held several leadership positions  some in research and innovation  and she has published books, advised on womens health issues, and published research studies on the topic. Interestingly, it wasnt until she got pregnant that she realized that there were so many things about womens health that even she didnt know. While 30 years ago breast cancer was stigmatized and women didnt feel comfortable talking about their breasts in the open, Boler explains that this is whats currently happening with the vagina. Now, menstruation, vaginal atrophy, pelvic floor prolapse are the stigmas, she noted, adding that she learned more about the pelvic floor from pilates class than from her doctor. But pelvic floor disorders are quite common, with 25 percent of adult women in the United States experiencing at least one disorder. Boler says that the gap in knowledge and understanding is due to a gap in technology. How to get women to make the mind-body connection when it comes to their pelvic floor is the challenge that she and her colleagues wanted to take on.

Small gadget, big change This is where their creation, the Elvie Kegel trainer, comes in. The trainer has two sensors inside: an accelerometer to show women if theyre exercising correctly, and a sensor to provide feedback on the mind-body connection. Share on Pinterest Tania Boler presents Elvie to the crowd at Wired Healths main stage. And, as with any successful behavior-changing technology, they have found a way to gamify it. Their piece of tech has picked up momentum in the past couple of years. More than 1,000 health professionals are promoting it, and they now have a British National Health Service (NHS) supply agreement, so women in the U.K. can access it for free through their GP. Elvie has even landed in Hollywood; the device was part of the Oscars goodie bags last year. Boler credits our current place in history with the uptake and visibility of Elvie. For big change to happen, you need the stars to align, and thats whats happening now, she said. The rise of so-called Femtech is part of three larger movements currently going on, according to Boler: the feminist surge (as well as the #metoo movement); the huge technological revolution thats yielding instant personal data; and the paradigm shift in health, in which the patient/doctor paradigm is giving way to individual control of our own health. However, it hasnt all been smooth sailing. Boler noted that the tech community took a bit longer to embrace what Elvie was trying to accomplish. She added, however, that change is happening at a faster pace; its becoming more of a no-brainer to investors that womens health is a big opportunity. She concluded by noting that change is happening on the edges, in start-ups. Given that she and her colleagues were at the other side of the Wired Health conference in the smaller start-up area just a few years ago, her assertion is accurate.

Mounting science, hidden women A few speakers after Tania Boler, the CEO of a biosciences company took the main stage to talk about the gut-body connection and using microbes in order to fight disease. It was a fascinating session that started with the CEO putting up a photo of Crick and Watson and talking about how their discovery influenced him personally. I thought to myself that perhaps this was the moment in the conference that Rosalind Franklin would be mentioned and would step out of the shadows of history. Alas, no. A new slide came up and and the speaker moved on without any mention of her. I caught up with my colleague in the lunch line and talked about my frustration over the lack of recognition for women in science and health, whose achievements are still not acknowledged. Ada Lovelace, whose bright ideas about computing and early computer programs contributed to potential uses of Charles Babbages concept of a programmable computer, was one such woman whose brilliance was completely overlooked until nearly a century later. Im tired of the lack of visibility about women like Rosalind Franklin and Ada Lovelace, I exclaimed to my colleague. And then, Ada appeared.

Giving technology a (womans) voice During the after-lunch session on the main stage, Dr. Claire Novorol took the stage. She worked as a pediatrician in London before specializing in clinical genetics, but now shes the chief medical officer for Ada, the company behind the app of the same name. Ada is a personalized artificial intelligence (AI) doctor, who works via an app on your phone. Users can have a conversation with Ada, which provides information about what might be going on. Dr. Novorol pointed out that 4 billion people across the world lack access to basic health services. In China and India, doctors are only able to spend an average of 2 minutes per patient in hospitals. And here in the U.K., the NHS is also very strained. With a shortage of doctors around the world  and with this gap growing  Dr. Novorol and her colleagues saw a role for tech and AI to tackle this problem. Ada is designed by doctors, for both doctors and patients. It works in the same way as a chatbot but is personalized for each patient. They will receive an initial diagnosis and can then take their Ada report to their GP. Were not trying to replace doctors, but often Ada is supporting consultations and helping people to spot whats going on when the doctor might miss it. Doctors cant know everything. Dr. Claire Novorol Currently, Ada has 2 million users and there have been 3 million assessments performed on the app to date. While its still early days, the app is growing quickly. Dr. Novorol noted that they are starting to hone the personalization that Ada can perform, using data from wider sources and tracking peoples symptoms over time. The company is also now connecting people with a wide range of next steps, helping patients to navigate their journey. What is more, Ada has a voice. The app can talk through Alexa, thereby giving users the sense of connection that tech often lacks. For me, hearing, Hi, Im Ada, was a reminder that Ada Lovelaces computing legacy does live on.No one is immune from bad news or disappointment in life. So, when you do get it, how do you process the information, deal with it, and move on with your life unscathed? Share on Pinterest Whatever the bad news you have received, there are strategies you can try to help you cope with the situation. During your lifetime, you may encounter many forms of bad news at separate times or even simultaneously. For example, you may experience job loss, a relationship breakup, miscarriage, a shocking diagnosis from a doctor, the death of a loved one, or any other upheaval that life throws at you. No matter what the bad news is that you have received, it can be devastating, jarring, and sometimes turn your world upside down. Receiving bad news of any form can have an instant effect on your body and cause your flight-or-fight response to kick in quickly. Your adrenaline may start pumping and your mind may begin to race to several worst-case scenarios in seconds. Furthermore, you may need to manage all the consequences that come with the bad news  such as looking for a new job, paying bills, doctors appointments, or informing friends and family, as well as coping with the way the news affects you both physically and mentally. Everyone responds to tension and trauma differently, but know that steps can be taken to tackle the mountain ahead, deal with the bad news, adopt coping mechanisms, and make the situation less traumatic. Medical News Today have put together some tips for how to cope when faced with bad news.

1. Accept your negative emotion Receiving concerning news can trigger a seemingly endless spiral of negative emotion. And, when confronted with negative emotion, it can be very tempting to try to resist acknowledging the dark emotions to protect yourself. Share on Pinterest Accepting your negative emotion can help you to feel better in the long-term. Research that was carried out by the University of California, Berkeley, found that attempting to avoid your negative emotion can, in fact, cause you more stress than confronting it head-on. The researchers led three separate studies online and in the laboratory and found that embracing darker moods, instead of resisting them, can help you to feel better in the long run. The participants who habitually accepted their negative emotions actually experienced fewer negative emotions and, therefore, improved psychological health compared with those who avoided negative emotion. The scientists explained that our approach to emotional reactions is essential for our well-being. Individuals who accept negative emotions without trying to change them are better equipped to deal with stress.

2. Repeat exposure to the news In a very similar way to avoiding negative emotions, many people who encounter bad news enter an avoidance mode. Avoidance mode involves attempting to shut out everything in your mind that is associated with the unwelcome news. Share on Pinterest Repeat exposure to the bad news to neutralize the effect on your mood. Most of the time, avoiding the situation at hand is counterintuitive and, ultimately, leads to you thinking about it more. Fighting the urge to think about your bad news can lead to tension in your stomach, shoulders, and chest, a distraction from completing tasks, and chronic stress, digestive problems, and lethargy. Your brain is more able to deal with negative news than you might realize. It is by processing and digesting experiences that you can let them go and move on. Tel Aviv University in Israel revealed that repeat exposure to a negative event could neutralize its effects on your thoughts and mood. The researchers say that if, for example, you read a newspaper article about a tragedy before you go to work, it is better to read the article thoroughly and repeatedly expose yourself to that information than read the headline and attempt to not think about the event. By having repeat exposure to the bad news, you will feel freer to continue to go about your day without any adverse effects and be in a better mood. Other research by the University of Arizona in Tucson agrees with the concept of repeat exposure. The team found that in situations that cause significant distress  such as a romantic breakup or divorce  repeatedly reflecting on the situation could speed up emotional recovery.

3. Reframe your thoughts Youve accepted your negative emotion and repeatedly reflected on the stressful news, so what now? Sometimes, reframing the way you think about the bad news can help you to view the situation in a new light and improve your overall perspective. Share on Pinterest Reframe your negative thoughts to improve your overall perspective. While you cant always be in control of all of the situations that happen to you in life, you can use a technique called cognitive reframing to alter your reaction to the things that happen to you and the way you view the situations, which, as a consequence, will change the way you experience them. The idea of cognitive framing is to find a more positive interpretation of an expected adverse event. Cognitive reframing challenges you to highlight the positive sides of a challenging situation and identify a brighter side to the event rather than just seeing the negative. For example, if you just lost your job, instead of focusing on the mistakes that were made in your role that lead to your current unemployment, look at the situation as an opportunity to try new things and creatively explore different work alternatives that might be more fulfilling. Research by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana uncovered that hitting rock bottom after losing a job could actually be beneficial and enable people to start a new chapter, create a new positive work identity, and free them from negative emotion. In addition to cognitively reframing a negative situation, researchers from the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported that it could be helpful to focus on contextual elements of a bad memory rather than the emotional experience. Florin Dolcos, from the Cognitive Neuroscience Group at the University of Illinois, explained that dwelling on how hurt, sad, or embarrassed you felt during an adverse event can result in you feeling worse. If you look away from the negative emotions and think about the context of the situation  such as a friend who was there or what the weather was like that day or any other non-emotional aspect of the memory  your mind will be taken away from the unwanted emotions that are linked with that memory.

4. Learn to overcome adversity Failing a college exam, being rejected for a job that you had your heart set on, or being belittled by a superior are just a few situations that may cause disappointment or a sense of failure. Share on Pinterest Writing a journal or blogging about bad news could help to alleviate distress. While almost everyone will experience these setbacks at one time or another, some people are better at dealing with adversity throughout life than others. Some individuals crumble at the first hurdle, while others have the resilience that enables them to stay calm when under pressure. The good news is that acquiring resilience and overcoming adversity can be learned, and it involves working on your thoughts and behaviors, as well as actions. One study, for example, focused on students who had failed academically and would find access to the job market restricted with their lack of qualifications. The study showed that by helping the students to bounce back from adversity by teaching them self-regulation skills  including goal-setting and how to adjust their path after a mishap  they were better equipped to do well in life and positively deal with any adverse situations they encountered. Other research has also shown that blogging about social distress can help people deal with adversity. Writing a journal or other forms of expressive writing are known to help release emotional stress. A study published by the American Psychological Association demonstrated that blogging might be an effective solution for teenagers who are facing distress. Compared with teenagers who did nothing or wrote personal diaries, those who blogged about their social problems had improved self-esteem, social anxiety, and emotional distress.Advertisement

The WHO South-East Asia Region, which comprises 11 countries including North Korea and India, is host to one fourth of the global population but a disproportionate 46 per cent of the global TB burden."Progress against TB in this region will have a major impact on the global progress. Too much is at stake, we cannot afford to fail," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization.On Tuesday, the Health Ministry and the WHO signed an agreement for enhanced cooperation in the health sector.WHO's Tedros met Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda and complimented the government's bold initiatives to expand universal health coverage through Ayushman Bharat An apex government body for biomedical research, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) functioning under the Health Ministry was awarded the International Kochon Prize 2017 for contribution to the National Programme in Tuberculosis research on Tuesday.ICMR through its TB consortium has accelerated efforts for research and development of TB in the country. The TB consortium is working with public and private institutes to guide the country's research towards development of point-of-care diagnostics, shorter treatment regimens, and effective vaccine for tuberculosis.The Kochon Prize, endowed by the Kochon Foundation, a non-profit foundation registered in the Republic of Korea, consists of $65,000 award.The summit, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, was attended by the Health Ministers number of countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan and Peru.Source: IANSIn 2016, Pan Bahar, an Indian pan masala brand shook the whole world by roping in Pierce Brosnan to endorse their product. While, they hit a jackpot with the Hollywood makeover, our beloved Mr. Bond found himself surrounded not by criminals but by memes and jokes, which were hilarious to deal with.

When someone shifts from liking his vodka martini 'shaken, not stirred' to chewing a pan masala because 'class never goes out of style', there was obviously no way on earth that he could have escaped being the butt of all jokes.

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And with the conviction he endorsed the pan masala, some of us were already considering chewing this elixir of success because this is 'Pehchan Kamyabi Ki'. I am sure the moment you heard Pierce Brosnan and Pan Bahar, you started imagining Brosnan as James Bond, introducing himself in the movie  Mah naeeee is Booon, thooo (spits pan masala), James Bond.

After being trolled for this endorsement, 'The November Man' has finally spoken. The 64-year-old actor stated that the company Pan Bahar cheated him and kept him in the dark about the hazardous nature of the product.

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After he was issued a show-cause notice, the actor sent in a written reply to the Delhi State Tobacco Control Cell. According to a report in The Times Of India, Additional Director (Health) S K Arora told PTI, In a written reply to the Delhi State Tobacco Control Cell, the actor stated that he got cheated by the company as the latter did not disclose the hazardous nature of the product and other terms and conditions of the contract of advertisement.

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In fact, Brosnan further said that his agreement with the brand was over, and he was ready to extend support and cooperation to the department against such campaigns. Arora further said, He has given an undertaking in writing that he would never assist any company with regard to promotion of such products or other such harmful products in future.He further appealed to all the celebrities to not indulge in such advertisements since they adversely influence the minds of youngsters.

Under section 5 of The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act (COTPA), 2003 direct or indirect advertisement of tobacco products is banned.

Not cool, Pan Bahar, not cool.Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Katrougalos, met today in Manama, Bahrain, with the countrys Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.



The meeting focused on issues of bilateral interest and matters concerning the two countries economic cooperation.



Earlier, Mr. Katrougalos met with high-ranking officials of Bahrains state investment fund, Mumtalakat. The possibilities of investments in Greece, via the fund, in sectors such as tourism, real estate, transport and logistics, and agriculture and agri-food products, were discussed.I was taken aback when I read Tribune Editor Kate Hesslings column on the opinion page in Saturdays edition, and learned there were negative online reactions to an article in the newspaper about some local students participating in the Wednesday's National Walkout.

I, for one, view the "March for Our Lives" movement and local participation in the event as encouraging.

To criticize teenagers for choosing to participate in a peaceful demonstration  a march, the likes of which true-blooded Americans have participated in since our nations birth  is disappointing, wrote Hessling. These kids are just as affected by the deaths of their counterparts in school shootings as the rest of us. And they have a voice. They want to be heard. They just want to march, and I think thats commendable.

I also think it is commendable.

The 17-minute long demonistration  one minute for each of the 17 who were killed during the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

School districts didnt use the event as a political platform, but as a learning experience, and the constitutionally protected right of free speech.

Those who criticized the article and Hessling's column, and the movement in general, have apparently forgotten history and the positive outcome that can happen from demonstrating to have your voice heard.

Taking a stance, along with demonstrations like throwing tea into water, heralded the end of British rule over what would become the United States, and demonstrations in India and Africa mades changes in those countries.

Closer to home, youths speaking up, standing up to the government, and marching also helped change the course of the United States. It was the action of youths that helped end segregation. It was youths who helped sway the Vietnam War.

Those who criticize the action have probably never been shot at. Nor have they likely had to worry that the person sitting next to them day after day could one day use a gun to end their life.

Ive read numerous newspapers covering school shootings that have happened over the years. The most moving image I have seen that underscores the impact of gun violence in schools was the site of 7,000 pairs of shoes displayed on the lawn at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. this week.

Since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, 7,000 youths have lost their lives to gun violence.

Those who think such a thing cant happen here are wrong. It can happen anywhere at any time. Within the last month and a half, there have been six alleged threats of terrorism in Tuscola Countys nine school district, resulting in five youths facing criminal charges.

I wholeheartedly support and applaud local students who participated in the movement and the school districts that support them.

Americas government is of the people, by the people, for the people  no matter the persons age.

Mary Drier, a veteran journalist, periodically pens columns for the Huron Daily Tribune.PIGEON  Dennis and Susanne Hugg have started to grow fond of Huron County.

The Harbor Springs couple owns the Caseville Family Market and the Pigeon IGA.

They purchased the Pigeon IGA in January 2017, and recently celebrated the four-year anniversary of owning Caseville Family Market, previously Jeffs Market.

The thing that I love about the Pigeon store, which appealed to us immediately, was that its such a classic, small-town America type place, Dennis said. It still has a railroad that goes through there and the big grain elevator, and its just a great little town.

The Huggs bought Jeffs Market in Caseville and their experience there gave them motive to buy the Pigeon IGA.

Because of the near proximity to the Caseville store, we felt that we could support it logistically, because we could marry the two stores together and use the labor force back and forth if we had to, Dennis said. In business, sometimes you look for efficiencies like that, and then we kind of just fell in love with Pigeon. Its a great little town, and the people there are nice  we just thought it was a great buy.

The Pigeon store has been a work in progress for the Huggs, as business was slow at first, but their hard work has started to turn the business around.

In the beginning, we actually saw a little bit of a decrease in business, the grocery business is in transition right now, Dennis said. Its a challenge because of the online sales, dollar stores and drug stores that sell groceries, so theres so many different places people are able to get their groceries. Thats why you really have to work harder than ever to maintain your market shares.

Weve gone in there, weve cleaned the store and weve made it more organized, Dennis added. Weve brought in some newer items, we just put a dollar section in the store. Recently, we have seen more response, people are starting to respond to us, and starting to see that we care about the business.

Like the business, the Huggs care about the communities of Caseville and Pigeon, even though their ties to the communities only started in recent years.

We always operate our stores like we are a community grocery store, Dennis said. Were running their grocery store for them. We know that in todays world, theres the big box stores that they can go to, and we understand that, but you still want to have a local store so that you dont have to drive to Bad Axe or Caro or all the way to Bay City. Were the type of operators that believe in being charitable to the community also. When organizations need donations, they need a local business that is willing to do that. Were also very proactive if theres any deaths in the community or any hardships, we always want to support those families.

While the Huggs also have a store to run in Harbor Springs, they try to get out to the Pigeon and Caseville stores as much as possible.

We are usually out there about once a month, Dennis said recently. We were in Pigeon this morning actually. My wife was making cream of mushroom soup and I was washing dishes. Were kind of hands on like that. Were starting to learn about the people in this community, and we hope to be here as much as possible to see them.

One of the Huggs favorite things about Huron County is a favorite of many locals.

We love the Cheeseburger Festival, Susanne said. It brings so many people into the community, and its just so full of life. Right now, its pretty quiet in both of the stores, but during those summer months its just so vibrant, so I love that time of year up there.

As for the day-to-day operations of the stores, the Huggs want Huron County locals to remember one thing.

I hope that people realize that when people shop in our store, that money stays right there in Pigeon, Dennis said. When you shop in Wal-Mart, that money flows to Bentonville, Arkansas. You need to have a local grocery store and you want to be able to support your local grocery store because we employ people that live right in the town.UBLY  Construction of a small section of sidewalk could result in criminal charges against a former Ubly Village official.

Investigation of the sidewalk issue started with the Ubly Police Department and was then turned over to the Michigan State Police, explained MSP Special First Lieutenant David Kaiser.

The investigation involves (the alleged) unauthorized use of (public) funds or inappropriate use of funds, said Kaiser.

MSP Detective Jeff Hook completed the investigation and turned it over to the Huron County Prosecutors office on Monday.

The investigation stems from last October over a disagreement about the former village president, David Jaroch, allegedly spending money on a sidewalk without council approval.

In October, someone requested that sidewalk. It went from questioning to a police investigation within a very short time. I dont know who made that decision. It was not discussed at a council meeting, but it had to have been discussed somewhere outside of a meeting, said Jaroch.

The sidewalk in question is less than half a block long. It is along Garfield between Main and Bingham streets. There is a sidewalk in front of the bank and its parking lot, and to the north there is a driveway. From that driveway, to the corner, is the new sidewalk.

That new section of sidewalk helps those walking back and forth from the park so they dont have to walk in the street.

Im turning the issue over to the (Michigan) Attorney Generals office because of my relationship to someone on the council, said Huron Prosecutor Tim Rutkowski. From there, the attorney generals office will then assign the case to a county prosecutor (in our district).

While the issue came up at an October council meeting with a council member questioning spending about $224 on a sidewalk, that amount was just for the sand used. The actual overall construction cost of the sidewalk was about $4,000.

Because of the brouhaha over the sidewalk, Jaroch resigned March 1. Also, Trustee Larry Western resigned Feb. 1, and Trustee Larry Gornowicz in October of last year.

I think those on the council should have questioned why so many were quitting all at once, Jaroch said.

Jaroch alleges before he and the others resigned, there were people sitting in the audience who were waiting to be appointed to the council.

On March 1, the same day Jarochs resignation was accepted, the remaining council members appointed Gabriel Turner, Jeffrey Rubin, and Brandon Zdrojewski as trustees.

According to Jaroch, he told the Department of Public Works supervisor a sidewalk would be nice to have along Garfield Street, and his suggestion was apparently taken literally, because the sidewalk was built.

That is the issue under legal review.BRIDGEPORT - Steffan Jamur Kelly is on his way back to Texas.

Have a safe trip, Superior Court Judge William Holden bade him as he ordered the 30-year-old Kelly returned to Texas Wednesday where he allegedly tried to kill two deputy sheriffs in January.

Kelly had been the subject of a nationwide search until he was found hiding in a basement here last month.

Police said U.S. marshals got a tip that Kelly was at a house on Rita Street off Reservoir Avenue. When they got there they were greeted at the door by a young woman who immediately directed them to the basement. There they nabbed Kelly without incident.

Kelly subsequently waived extradition and on Wednesday afternoon he was turned over to Texas authorities for the trip back to McLennan County.

Kelly is charged there with two counts of first-degree attempted murder.

Texas authorities said on Jan. 26, deputies approached Kellys car during a drug investigation. They said Kelly then took off nearly hitting two deputies.MIDDLETOWN  Middlesex Hospital is now using robotics to perform partial knee replacement surgeries, according to a statement.

Dr. Robert Geist and Dr. Terry Reardon, orthopedic surgeons, recently performed the first robotic partial knee replacement surgeries at Middlesex using new technology called the NAVIO Surgical System. This system is manufactured by Smith & Nephew, a global medical technology business.

The NAVIO Surgical System does not require a pre-operative CT scan. Instead, surgeons collect patient-specific data during the procedure to build a 3D model of a patients knee. This information is used to plan a surgery. The systems robotics-assisted handpiece is then used to prepare the bone and position cut guides based on the information that was collected. During the bone preparation process, the handpiece is continually tracked in real-time in relation to the intended surgical plan while its robotic-assistance allows the surgeon to remove only the bone required for the placement of the implant.

This device allows us to reliably place the components with accuracy and precision and improve outcomes, said Dr. Geist, who also serves as president of Middlesexs medical staff, in the statement.

Dr. Reardon said it is the orthopedic surgeons who actually perform the procedure using the NAVIO robots. The robot assists with planning the removal of the arthritic bone to get the optimal placement of the new knee. The robot then assists with evaluating the function of the knee replacement during surgery to confirm the accurate placement of the components.

Together, Dr. Geist and Dr. Reardon have 60 years experience performing knee replacements at Middlesex Hospital. It is important to note that not all patients are candidates for a surgery using the NAVIO Surgical System. It is important for patients to talk to their doctor to determine the best course of action. For more information about Middlesex Hospital Orthopedics, visit www.middlesexhospital.org.

Benchmark Senior Living gets Best Places acknowledgement

MIDDLETOWN  Benchmark Senior Living (www.BenchmarkSeniorLiving.com), a leading provider of senior living services in the Northeast, hasbeen chosen by the Hartford Business Journal as one of the 2018 Best Places to Work in Connecticut, ranking 15th in the large business category for the second year, according to a press release. The company is one of only 45 in Connecticut to make the list and the only senior living provider to be selected.

Having undergone a comprehensive, two-part assessment by workplace experts, Benchmark Senior Living ranked among the highest for employee satisfaction out of thousands of Connecticut businesses. The company, along with the other winners, is featured in a special March 5 issue of the Hartford Business Journal in print and online.

Founded in 1997 by Fairfield native, Tom Grape, Benchmark Senior Living is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of company culture.

We have created a values-based culture and take a deep interest in the professional development and personal well-being of each of our nearly 6,100 associates who are on the front lines every day working to transform the aging experience with meaningful connections, Grape said in the release.

Benchmark operates 17 independent living, assisted living and memory care communities throughout Connecticut. Its 18th, Sturges Ridge of Fairfield, is slated to open this fall and will be the towns first assisted living community.

Young widows, widowers can attend support group

MIDDLETOWN  Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center and Middlesex Hospital Hospice and Palliative Care are teaming up to facilitate a support group for young widows and widowers.

Losing a spouse is difficult at any age, staff members said. If your partner dies young, the loss can be especially difficult. Middlesex understands this and is starting a support group to help young widows and widowers cope with feelings, find meaning and deal with unfinished business. The group will also help them with memories and remembrances, maintaining and building relationships and with moving forward.

Meetings will be held at the Middlesex Hospital Outpatient Center. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. To register, contact Doreen Gagnon at 860-358-2053 or doreen.gagnon@midhosp.org, or Sherry Russenberger at 860-358-6091 or sherry.russenberger@midhosp.org.

Students can apply for Henries scholarship

MIDDLETOWN  Artist Doris Banks Henries grew up in Middletown, Connecticut and died in 1981. Pursuant to her will, a trust was established in 2003 to educate young adults in Middlesex County, particularly those who are under served or underrepresented in institutions of higher education.

The A. Doris Banks Henries Scholarship Committee intends to award a scholarship of $1,000 or more a year for up to four years. Any high school senior who is a permanent resident of Middlesex County, Connecticut, is eligible to apply.

The scholarship must be applied toward tuition or expenses at any certified post-secondary school. In order to be considered for this years scholarship, the application together with the necessary documents must be submitted to the high schools guidance office by March 14.

Goodspeed Musicals announces Andrew A. Isen Prize

EAST HADDAM  Goodspeed Musicals recently announced the establishment of The Andrew A. Isen Prize at Goodspeed Musicals. The prize, to be given annually, will recognize a young person between the ages of 20-29 who has demonstrated excellence in their work during the previous Goodspeed Musicals season. Each March, Goodspeed will award $5,000 to an honoree  chosen by committee  to aid in their pursuit of a career in musical theatre. The inaugural prize will be awarded in 2019 for candidates from the 2018 season. Application information will be made available to eligible candidates during their time at Goodspeed.

This award is funded through a generous gift given by DC-based entrepreneur and musical theatre devotee Andrew A. Isen and was created to give young people who are in the early stages of professional development financial assistance and encouragement to focus on artistic excellence. The establishment of this award with Goodspeed Musicals will also serve to enhance Goodspeeds efforts to recruit exceptional apprentices, technicians, designers and other theater professionals.Two aircrew who had been recovered and were receiving medical care after an F/A-18F Super Hornet went down off the coast of Key West, Florida have died, the Navy announced Wednesday night.

"We are sad to report that both aviators have been declared deceased," a statement posted to the Naval Air Forces Twitter account read. "Their families are in our prayers. Per policy, we will withhold notification pending [next-of-kin] notification."

No further information was available about the nature of the pilots' injuries.

The statement came roughly 6 hours after the aircraft crashed on final approach to Boca Chica Field following a training mission.

A spokesman with Naval Air Forces Atlantic, Cmdr. Dave Hecht, told Military.com earlier in the day that a pilot and weapons systems officer had been transferred to Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West after aircraft, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 213, out of Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, suffered a mishap approximately a mile off the runway.

Elements of the squadron, nicknamed the Blacklions, had been completing a detachment to Naval Air Station Key West.

The crash happened around 4:30 p.m., Hecht said. Both pilots onboard the Super Hornet ejected, he said. Initially, Hecht said a search-and-rescue effort for the aircrew was still ongoing around 6 PM, but later he said the pilots were recovered within minutes and taken by ambulance to the medical center.

An eyewitness, Barbie Wilson, told Military.com the crash "looked like something out of a movie."

Wilson, who lives on the back side of the air station, said she stopped to watch an F/A-18 flying overhead, as she often does, and was shocked to see what appeared to be a massive malfunction in midair.

"Literally, the wings went vertical, and there was a fireball, and it just literally dropped out of the sky," Wilson said.

She said she didn't see the plane hit the water, but observed the crash site in shallow water offshore. Wilson said she can still see the wreckage of the plane upside down in the water.

She did not observe the pilots ejecting from the aircraft, she said. A helicopter that appeared to be part of the search mission was circling overhead, she added.

It's not clear what caused the crash.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.Pentagon officials called Thursday for more funding to boost flying hours and improve maintenance in the wake of the deadly crash of a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet off the Florida coast.

"It's important that we not necessarily draw direct correlations" between the funding cuts under the sequestration process and the accident, "but it is important that we have stable funding," said Dana White, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson.

Without the funding, "capabilities erode and things are delayed," White said in urging the congressional appropriations committees to give quick passage to legislation that would give the Defense Department a total of $1.4 trillion for fiscal 2018 and 2019.

At a Pentagon briefing with White, Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the Joint Staff director, said, "I don't know how" funding cuts may have contributed to the Florida accident, "but I can tell you that pilots are going to be flying more and training is going to pick up."

The Navy said the two members of the Super Hornet's aircrew died as a result of the crash off Key West, Florida, on Wednesday in their final approach to Boca Chica airfield.

A spokesman with Naval Air Forces Atlantic, Cmdr. Dave Hecht, told Military.com the pilot and weapons system officer of the Super Hornet had been taken to Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West but died as a result of their injuries. Their names were being withheld.

President Donald Trump said in a statement posted on Twitter early Thursday: "Please join me with your thoughts and prayers for both aviators, their families and our incredible @USNavy."

The latest accident follows on numerous warnings from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the service chiefs that the forward deployment of forces in high-tempo operations has led to cutbacks in funding for flying hours, aircraft maintenance, and overall training for stateside troops.

Mattis put the onus on Congress. "We as a nation have got to come to grips with this," he said in unveiling the National Defense Strategy in January.

Citing the use of continuing resolutions and threatened government shutdowns in reaching defense budget agreements, Mattis said:

"For too long, we have asked our military to stoically carry a 'success at any cost' attitude, as they worked tirelessly to accomplish the mission with inadequate and misaligned resources simply because the Congress could not maintain regular order. Loyalty must be a two-way street."

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters at a Pentagon briefing last month, "The most important thing we need to do is we need to lift sequestration as it's currently structured.

"Risk accumulates over time, and you just don't know exactly when things will break," she said. "But we are stretching the force to the limit, and we need to start turning the corner on readiness."

At a House Armed Services Readiness subcommittee hearing last month, Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of Naval Air Forces, said, "We are meeting the combatant commanders' requirement for ready, lethal carriers and air wings forward, but at a tremendous cost to the readiness of our forces at home."

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has often stated that more service members now are being killed in training than on the battlefield.

In a statement Thursday, McCain said, "The tragic F-18 crash in Florida yesterday reminds us all of the dangers our service members face every day.

"With our men and women in uniform now suffering more fatalities during training than in combat, we must do everything we can to keep them safe," he said.

"We need to ensure we are providing our service members the resources they need to maintain the highest readiness levels -- from equipment to proficiency. Anything less is not only unwise, but an abrogation of our duty," McCain continued.

In an op-ed last September for The Washington Post, Rep. Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote, "A total of 185 service members lost their lives in non-combat accidents over the past three years -- more than four times as many as the 44 who were killed in combat."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.U.S. Army leaders mapped out a rough plan to lawmakers Thursday describing how the service has spent the past 18 months preparing for war with North Korea.

Members of the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee expressed a keen interest in possible contingency plans should the proposed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fail to result in an agreement over that country's nuclear weapons program.

Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley said the Army has conducted "a significant amount of training for contingency operations ... both on the peninsula itself with units that are stationed there but also with the units" in the U.S. Pacific Command area of operations.

"We've got, roughly speaking, 70,000 Army soldiers in the PaCom AOR and another 30,000 depending on exercise schedules," he said.

"And then in the continental United States, I guess it was a year or 18 months ago, we gave out guidance to our units that we would designate selected units to increase their readiness training specifically oriented toward high-end combined-arms warfare -- not specific necessarily to Korea but although it would be applicable to Korea.

"And we have been running those units pretty hard, getting them to a much higher level of readiness," Milley added.

Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Kentucky, wanted to know if the Army has done anything to prepare for a short-notice operation on the peninsula.

"In view of the unusual activities in the last few months, i.e., North Korea, what changes have you made, if any, in preparation for what may come?" he asked.

Recently sworn-in Secretary of the Army Mark Esper told lawmakers the Army will "hope for the best but prepare for the worst."

Esper recently visited American soldiers and leaders stationed in South Korea to observe the readiness posture firsthand.

"I can tell you everyone is working hard to ensure we are ready, that we are doing what is necessary to strengthen the hands of our State Department, our diplomats if you will, and to make sure we have all options available for our decision makers," he said.

Milley told Rogers that he could not get into specifics about North Korea.

"Congressman, I don't want to do a cop-out, but I would like to actually come by and brief you in a classified session on the details of what we are doing," he said.

Aside from training, the Army has taken steps to ensure that "all of the prepositioned stocks are full up" and increased the "personnel fill for the units that are both there and the units that are expected to first to respond," he said.

The Army has worked closely with PaCom leaders as well as commanders on the ground in South Korea to ensure units are ready a number of possible missions, Milley said.

"We have done a tremendous amount over the last 12 to 18 months or so in preparation for any possible contingency, so that the president has the widest latitude of options if needed," he said.

Defense subcommittee chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, said she plans to set a date for a classified briefing on North Korea, adding that "everyone on the subcommittee will be invited because I know we all have questions."

Rogers also asked why the Army is "requesting a huge increase in 155mm artillery shells" in the proposed fiscal 2019 budget.

The Army requested funding to buy 148,000 155mm artillery shells, compared to fiscal 2018's request to buy 16,500, he said.

"I'm an old 155mm artillery guy in the Kentucky Guard, so I have got an affinity for 155mm shells. What's going on here?" Rogers asked.

Milley said he wants to make sure the service has sufficient ammunition stocks of 155mm because the United States Army has been and still is a fires-based Army in order to create opportunities for maneuver and movement, so artillery is fundamental to our ability to do that."

"And in the event of a contingency, artillery and munition consumption rates would be really high, so I want to make sure that the ammunition stockpiles are significant enough to withstand any contingency," he said.

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.The three military exchange services and the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) would be merged into a single resale enterprise under a proposal backed by John H. Gibson II, the Defense Departments new chief management officer, who has been tasked to make DoD business operations more efficient.

Gibson and a team tasked with reviewing military community services -- base stores, recreation services, family support services and base schools -- have drafted a memorandum, apparently for signature by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan, that would order extensive streamlining.

If and when signed, the memo would have the Department of Defense under President Trump reconsider, and likely reverse, an Obama administration decision of two years ago not to consolidate DeCA with Army & Air Force Exchange Service and separate exchange services run by Navy and Marine Corps.

Because of their different approaches to fulfilling their specific missions and delivering their respective benefits, the creation of a single resale entity through consolidation is not recommended, Defense officials wrote in a May 2016 report to Congress on prospects for operating commissaries without cost to taxpayers.

It is more appropriate to focus on the short-term goal of achieving greater efficiency in the operation of commissaries and exchanges, and to defer consideration of the feasibility of any merger until these issues have been effectively addressed.

This administration, however, isnt waiting. The departments of Army, Navy and Air Force were given only a few days in mid-March to share their views on the consolidation for resale operations presented in the draft memorandum.

Sources said the services are concerned about the timing of a complex consolidation, given current challenges transforming DeCA into an exchange-like profitable enterprise, using variable pricing of items by region and introducing higher-margin DeCA brands. Brokers and manufacturers supporting base stores say the changes are aggravating an already sharp decline in commissary sales.

Exchange store operators see their own patron traffic as linked to base grocery stores, so as commissary sales fall so too do sales at exchanges, gas stations and other on-base retailers. Declining exchange sales mean lower profits, or dividends which the services rely on to fund on-base MWR or morale, welfare and recreational activities.

A Defense Department spokesman said no official could be made available to discuss the draft memo or concepts it embraces for store system consolidation, for at least a few more weeks. Officials wouldnt even provide written answers to questions, suggesting the time wasnt right.

Gibson became DoDs chief management officer Feb. 1. He told the Senate Budget Committee the department had formed nine project teams to draft recommendations to reform business operations to achieve near-term efficiencies.

Stacey Kiley, a Senior Executive Service employee who served on the Defense Resale Business Optimization Board, has led the team tasked with reviewing community services. The draft memo explains that, after receiving team briefings, the departments Reform Management Group, which Gibson leads, acknowledged that the defense resale enterprise, in particular, has been studied too much without recommendations being implemented. As a result, military stores now suffer from the same industry, generation and demographic trends negatively impacting private sector grocery and retail companies.

The team proposes that phased consolidation of DeCA and exchange services offers the greatest potential to achieve the economies and efficiencies necessary for the survivability of the defense resale enterprise.

The draft memo acknowledges that current law prohibits consolidating the commissary system with the exchanges so legislative relief would be sought as soon as practicable. Meanwhile, the team is to assemble a cross-functional task force no later than May 1, 2018, and to identify by April 15 a director to manage its work. This task force is to conduct due diligence, assess the business case and develop integration plans for DeCA and exchange services by Oct. 31.

The task force to brief the Reform Management Group upon business case completion. If it confirms the teams approach, consolidation shall be executed immediately by the task force director who will serve as the new organizations Executive Director, exercising authority, direction and control, until the permanent position is advertised and filled.

In other words, said one critic who reviewed the memo, the person leading the task force becomes director of the organization it proposes to create -- if the task force makes the appropriate business case to justify it.

This thing is toxic. Its putting the cart before the horse, the official said.

Even if the business case for consolidating systems is not confirmed, military resale will benefit from the standardization of its back-office processes and systems, the draft memo says. Therefore, in parallel with its other work, the task force shall begin standardizing those processes, beginning with financial management and accounting processes. To ensure proper focus on standardization, the draft memo says on the date it is signed, store systems are to freeze work on modernizing information technology and suspend executive hiring.

The success of this reform requires complete faith and active support of our decisions, the memo concludes. Therefore, all must know and believe that our intentions are to make these community services better for our members and their families, improve our support to commanders, be exceptional stewards of our appropriated funds and exhibit fiduciary responsibility over resale profits.

One exchange official grumbled that this last paragraph was particularly odd, a warning perhaps not to make familiar arguments to Congress, patrons or other stakeholders for protecting the status quo.

Consolidation of commissaries and exchange services has been studied for decades, with 11 major reports produced just since 1989. Congress finally agreed in 2016 to give Defense officials sweeping new authorities to transform commissaries into more business-like operations and to reduce DeCAs reliance on taxpayer funding, which last year and this still stood at $1.3 billion annually.

In the first year of transformation, however, commissary sales continued a five-year decline. Even if, arguably, rate of decline has slowed, it remains a dangerous trend that had put the entire military resale system in jeopardy.

Congressional committees that oversee military resale are monitoring sales closely. Two congressional staffers said they havent seen DoDs new ideas on consolidating systems but noted any merging would require changes to law.

They added that Congress allowed commissary reforms only on condition that savings to patrons be maintained and that revenues from exchange operations to support on-base morale, welfare and recreation activities not be reduced.

Those are priorities set in law, they added. That means that while Congress encourages efficient on-base store operations, current law requires that reforms be rolled back if the value of the shopping benefit cant be preserved for patrons or if exchange profits, so critical to on-base quality of life, fall victim to the changes.

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: @Military_Update."7 Days in Entebbe" (now in theaters) tells the story of Operation Thunderbolt, the daring 1976 rescue of 94 Israeli passengers and 12 crew members from an Air France grounded in Uganda after a hijacking by German PLO sympathizers. Inspired by the movie, we've got a list of the ten greatest operation names in military history.

The Entebbe raid was an enormous story back in 1976, so big that is wasn't totally overshadowed by the fact that the raid took place on the American Bicentennial on July 4, 1976. The popular fascination with the successful raid inspired two better-than-average, all-star TV movies that fall: "Victory at Entebbe" (starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Dreyfuss, Kirk Douglas, Helen Hayes, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Hopkins and Linda Blair) and "Raid on Entebbe" (starring Charles Bronson, Peter Finch, Jack Warden, James Woods, Sylvia Sidney and Martin Balsam. Plus Irvin Kershner of "The Empire Strikes Back" directed).

It's forty years later, so it's probably time to revisit one of the greatest military successes of the 20th century. Directed Jose Padhila ("Narcos" and the excellent "Robocop" reboot) and written by Gregory Burke ("'71"), the new movie tries to explore the motivations of the Palestinians and gives them more sympathy than the German terrorists but ultimately comes down firmly on the side of the Israelis and their rescue mission.

Thunderbolt was one of the greats, both in name and execution. Here are ten military operations with indelibly memorable names.

1. OPERATION OVERLORD

The photograph Into the Jaws of Death shows American troops, part of the U.S. 1ID, leaving a Higgins Boat on Omaha Beach.

The Allied invasion of France on D-Day may have been the best-kept secret in military history right up until landing on June 6, 1944. The outcome of the war in Europe was essentially settled that day, even though fighting with Germany carried on into 1945.

Overlord sounds like the Bringer of Doom from a medieval fantasy epic or sci-fi video game. Ultimate success must have seemed inevitable from the moment someone came up with the name.

2. Operation Rolling Thunder

North Vietnam: Rolling Thunder (National Museum of the USAF)

Rolling Thunder was the 1967-68 bombing campaign of North Vietnam that American generals were sure would break the will of the enemy and lead to victory in the war. It did massive damage but, as history later revealed, the United States underestimated the commitment of the Vietnamese people to unified self government and overestimated their commitment to Communism.

That doesn't make Rolling Thunder any less of a fantastic name. It perfectly evokes the waves of destruction wrought by the bombing campaign. Plus it later inspired the name of a powerful Vietnam vet B-movie starring William Devane and that movie, in turn, inspired the name of Quentin Tarantino's movie production company.

3. Operation Red Dawn

The Ace in the Hole: Saddam Hussein is found hiding in a small hole in the ground on December 13, 2003

Red Dawn was the mission to capture Saddam Hussein after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. American forces finally tracked him down in a spider hole in December and, unlike Osama bin Laden, he hadn't spent his last days of freedom living in relative luxury.

What lands Red Dawn on this list is the fact that it's named after the 1984 film that's one of the greatest pro-AMERICA!!! movies ever made. Faced with a Soviet invasion, a group of regular teenagers forms at guerrilla force that takes on the oppressors and fights to regain American freedom. Most of them already knew how to hunt and they even taught the girls how to shoot at the Soviets.

4. Operation Vittles

Berlin Airlift 1948

World War III might have started in 1948 after the Soviet Union blockaded access to the western sectors of Berlin. Faced with starving citizens, President Truman authorized the airlift of live-saving food supplies for nearly a year before the Soviets relented and allowed normal access.

Most military bureaucrats would've come up with a boring name like "Operation Food Basket" or "Operation Dinner Table." A Brit might have come up with "Operation Victuals." We all know it was a red-blooded American who had the sense to call it Vittles.

5. Operation Urgent Fury

M102 howitzers during Operation Urgent Fury.jpg (Wikimedia commons)

Was in totally necessary in 1983 for U.S. forces to invade a tiny (population: 91,000) Caribbean nation that was flirting with Communism? Were they a falling domino that would set off a flood of pro-Soviet regimes in the American sphere of influence? It was over in a week with 19 U.S. killed and 116 wounded.

The name, on the other hand, was one of the best. "Operation Urgent Fury" sounds like the title of a movie that would pair Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme as grizzled special ops leaders who join forces to put down the Sandinistas once and for all.

6. Operation Desert Storm

During Operation Desert Storm, American soldiers wave to the camera from a truck as their convoy moves into Iraq. (DOD)

Back in 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait and President George H.W. Bush sent American troops to the Middle East in hopes that Saddam would back down. He didn't and American forces launched a 6-week war to retake Kuwait and cripple Iraq. It was fast and won widespread home front support, partially because of the excellent live 24-hour television coverage from the fledgling news network CNN.

A Desert Storm is created by wind and sand. It's sudden, ruthless and incredibly disorienting. Not to take away from the men and women who have fought the War on Terror, but "Operation Iraqi Freedom" doesn't have the same unforgettable fury as a Desert Storm.

7. Operation Wrath of God

PLO terrorist on a balcony in the Olympic Village, Munich 1972.

Palestinian terrorists from Black September and the PLO attacked the athletes' village at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympic Games, taking the Israeli team hostage and eventually massacring 11 athletes and coaches. The horrific result of the standoff could have been at least partially behind the risky decision to attempt the risky Entebbe operation four years later.

Over the next 16 years, Israel's Mossad intelligence agency conducted a covert operation to retaliate against the terrorists responsible for the massacre and several of their most most important supporters. Since it was covert, the exact number of retaliation killings is unclear. Steven Spielberg dramatized the operation in his underrated 2005 film "Munich."

Does the name really need any explanation? Israeli Jews worship an Old Testament God, one who's known for his spells of anger and vengeance. The Mossad brought down the wrath on what Israelis justified as a mission from God. Black September didn't have a chance.

8. Operation Barbarossa

German troops crossing the Soviet Frontier June 1941 as part of the largest invasion force ever (over 3 million Axis troops)

In June 1941, German military leaders were looking forward to crushing Stalin as they invaded the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa. They would take the western lands of the USSR and put the people and natural resources to work expanding the Nazi war machine. Short version: Hitler underestimated this foe and the invasion was a huge misstep that led directly to Germany's defeat in World War II.

How did a German military operation get an Italian name? Barbarossa is Italian for "Red Beard." Frederick I was a king of Germany who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1155. A great military leader and charismatic ruler, Frederick died in Asia Minor while leading the Third Crusade. Which, come to think of it, foreshadows the practical end of Germany's attempt to rule Europe after their defeat at Stalingrad.

9. Operation Magic Carpet

DC-4 of Near East Air Transport on Airlift of Habbanim Jews from the South Arabian Peninsula, Operation Magic Carpet.

A 1949-1950 secret airlift brought almost 50,000 Yeminite Jews from Aden to the new state of Israel. Like most things connected to the nation of Israel, the mission attracted controversy, most notably from Israeli officials who focused on the number of Jews left behind by British and American rescuers.

Still, Operation Magic Carpet is the best possible name for an operation aimed at flying refugees to safety across the Arabian deserts.

10. Operation Dynamo

British expeditionary troops arriving home from Dunkirk, somewhere near the English coast, June 6, 1940. (AP Photo)

2017 was the year of Operation Dynamo at the movies, with both "Dunkirk" and "Darkest Hour" winning multiple Oscars. Dynamo was the hastily-conceived plan to evacuate British troops from French beaches after the German invasion of France in May 1940. Over 338,000 troops were rescued, a miracle that allowed Great Britain to regroup and eventually win the war in concert with its Allies.

The movie "Darkest Hour" suggests that the name was given to the operation in haste, after Churchill demanded that the rescue begin and telling his commanding officer that it needed a name. The officer glances up and sees a physical dynamo with a metal badge that says "Dynamo" and the movie cuts to the next scene without further comment. Sometimes the best names are the ones you don't think too hard about.Blog Archive Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (3) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (3) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 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(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 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Apr 08 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (1) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 24 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 21 (1) Mar 20 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (1) Mar 14 (2) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (1) Mar 04 (1) Mar 03 (2) Mar 02 (2) Mar 01 (2) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (1) Feb 26 (1) Feb 25 (1) Feb 23 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (1) Feb 02 (1) Jan 31 (1) Jan 22 (1) Jan 18 (1) Jan 16 (1) Jan 09 (1) Jan 01 (1) Dec 20 (2) Dec 15 (1) Dec 13 (1) Dec 11 (1) Nov 30 (1) Nov 27 (1) Nov 20 (1) Nov 11 (1) Nov 10 (1) Oct 23 (1) Oct 20 (1) Oct 01 (1) Sep 30 (1) Sep 29 (1) Sep 24 (2) Sep 15 (1) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 02 (2) Aug 31 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 27 (2) Aug 24 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (1) Aug 18 (3) Aug 16 (1) Aug 15 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 11 (1) Aug 08 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 03 (1) Jul 27 (1) Jul 26 (1) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (1) Jul 21 (1) Jul 19 (1) Jul 15 (1) Jul 14 (1) Jul 13 (3) Jul 10 (1) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (1) Jul 06 (1) Jul 03 (1) Jul 01 (1) Jun 28 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 20 (1) Jun 19 (1) Jun 18 (1) 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)CA Rudramurthy BV, Head-Research at Vachana Investments told CNBC-TV18, "I am very bullish on real estate sector. For me DLF looks a very strong buy. The stock is holding its strong support at levels closer to Rs 215-220 and is headed towards immediate target of Rs 231. Eventually it can even move towards levels closer to Rs 260 from a medium to longer timeframe. So, for me DLF is a buy on very dip. Have a stop loss of Rs 220 for the trading call."

"I have a buy call on Reliance Capital. The stock is finding strong support and dips are getting bought. Reliance Capital can be bought for short-term. Look at target of Rs 490 with a stop loss of Rs 445."

"I have a buy call on Jain Irrigation Systems , Rs 108-110 has been a very strong support. This stock can move immediately to levels of Rs 123 and eventually Jain Irrigation can even move to levels closer to Rs 150. I will have a stop loss at Rs 110 and will trade long for a target of Rs 123," he said.Rajat Bose of rajatkbose.com told CNBC-TV18, "I have two buy calls and one sell call. In Mindtree, I would put a stop loss below Rs 812 and targets are Rs 830 and Rs 836. The stock can even go higher."

"Bharat Financial Inclusion is another buy; Rs 1,057 is my stop loss, Rs 1,074 and Rs 1,081 are the two targets. It is also showing traction in today's session."business Government disbands high level auto panel says sources According to sources, the government has disbanded the high level, Indian only auto panel after foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) raised concerns over their exclusion. The high level panel was formed last year with an aim to push design work out of India.business United States protests Indian export subsidy programme The United States has challenged multiple trade promotion programmes administered by India. Watch accompanying video of CNBC-TV18s Rituparna Bhuyan for more details.Textile stocks like Arvind are in focus after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) discontinued issuance of Letters of Undertaking (LoU) and Letters of Comfort for trade credit. As well, Arvind SmartSpaces, the realty arm of fashion and apparel firm Arvind, is looking to cross the Rs 1,000-crore revenue mark in the next four years.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Kulin Lalbhai, Executive Director of Arvind spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

The 10-year old business of Arvind Smart Spaces started developing projects on Arvind land. Since last four-five years, company has become completely an independent entity developing new parcels of land, he said.

Since demerging, the company has seen a rapid growth, both toline and bottomline have grown at more than 30 percent, he added.

Next three years, the company has another 8 million square feet being developed primarily in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. We are focused on the mid-income residential segments in these two cities and we have recently made a foray into Pune, said Lalbhai.

The company is focused on the residential space. We are seeing a lot of traction in the mid-market space and affordable housing segment is an area we are already in, he said.

He believes that the governments focus on home ownership will create a lot of primary demand. We will definitely be in the affordable and the mid-income residential space, he added.

Speaking about letters of undertaking (LoU) instrument, he said we use all kinds of ways to raise capital but the LoU instrument is negligible. So it has no impact on the company.The final word on the resolution of the problems facing Jaypee Infratech isnt out yet but details emerging from Wednesdays meeting of committee of creditors seem to indicate that Adani Group could be entrusted with the task of completing the unfinished flats of the realty company besides ensuring that lenders face minimum haircut.

The bidders had to submit revised bids by Wednesday and also make presentations to the committee of creditors. Sources told Moneycontrol that going by the fresh bids and the interaction between the suitors and the lenders, the Ahmedabad-based group had nosed ahead of the other three contenders  a joint venture (JV) of Singapores Cube Highways and Kotak Realty Fund, Sajjan Jindals JSW Group and Lakshdeep Investments which is part of Sudhir Walias Suraksha Asset Reconstruction Company.

The successful bidder will displace Jaiprakash Associates as the parent of Jaypee Infratech. As its promoter, the bidder would have to hand over completed properties to the buyers while settling dues with the banks on mutually agreed terms. It will also come to own the Yamuna Expressway and the Jaypee Hospital.

Adani Group is offering about Rs 2,500 crore-Rs 3,000 crore to the lenders and Rs 1,500 crore to finish the completion of the under-construction properties, an offer the creditors seem amenable to.

Sources said the Cube-Kotak bid was most suitable for the home buyers  around 21,000 of them  but one of the factors that seems to have tilted the scales in favour of the Gautam Adani Group is a submission by the Cube-Kotak JV that post the deal, Cube would take control of the 167-km-long Yamuna Expressway while Kotak would take control of the land lying with Jaypee.

Cube-Kotak JV offered to put Rs 4,500 crore in an escrow account to help complete the unfinished flats and villas. The Cube-Kotak JV is also offering a land swap against the Rs 9,100-crore debt that Jaypee owes to the banks, something banks wont be inclined to accept  cash repayment being the preferred choice for any bank.

One of the sources said Cube-Kotak was no more in contention as the creditors found its bid to be complicated. The race is now among the other three, he said.

The demerger into expressway and the real estate proposed in the Cube-Kotak bid is not part of the terms of the agreement. So it is unlikely the banks would accept that kind of an offer, an official familiar with the development told Moneycontrol.

Jaypee Infratech owns 3,700-3,800 acres in Noida with another 858 acres under dispute. The insolvency resolution professional, running the company since August 2017, had earlier informed the Allahabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that Jaypee Infratechs parent Jaiprakash Associates and its promoters had coerced the company into mortgaging 850 acres of land to the lenders of Jaiprakash Associates.

The Jaiprakash subsidiary also owns Jaypee Hospital, a super specialty unit.

Once the final evaluation is done, the creditors will select the most suitable buyer for Jaypee Infratech. Following this, the insolvency resolution professional will move the NCLT to inform it of the decision.

This will then relieve Jaiprakash Associates from all encumbrances including the case against it at the Supreme Court as the promoter of Jaypee Infratech.Punjab National Bank has asked for certain information from peer banks but no condition has been set for payouts related to LoUs in the Rs 12,968 crore scam allegedly committed by Nirav Modi and his firms, sources said.

Bankers aware of the development said as the matter is under investigation by the CBI, no final call on LoU payouts can be taken as of now.

"PNB has been calling for certain information from other banks to ascertain if there were any deficiency or laxity on the part of those other banks, if they also had some system lacunae or might have compromised on their system, things like that," a bank official said on the condition of anonymity.

On what has been derived among the banks on the liability of PNB towards other banks to pay against the Letters of Undertakings (LOUs) on the basis of which peer lenders made import credit payments to Nirav Modi and his firms, the official said, "As the investigations are going on, there is no final call on LOUs payouts."

As the investigation process normally stretches long, the bankers fear they will be compelled to declare the portion of their exposure in the LoU fraud as non-performing.

"Those accounts will have to be declared NPA if our money is not back with us within 90 days," said another banker.

"If the money doesn't come back in days, technically I will have to make it as NPA in my books. This quarter (ending March 31), it looks unlikely to be any pressure. Even if it comes, it will be in the coming quarters," the official said.

The bankers said both the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank have asked all public sector banks to strengthen their systems. However, there are not any specific directions, they said.

To plug the loopholes, PNB has started the process of urgently integrating the global transaction system -SWIFT- with its core banking solution (CBS) system and initiated other remedial measures with regard to overall audit functions of the bank.

Besides, it is reviewing performance of external auditors.

A new software, Financle 10 version has already been installed and is in the testing phase, PNB said.

"It is a superior system and would enable the bank at mid office and head office to view transactions of all branches through one administration," PNB said in a communication.

Also, it has implemented a three level authentication with regard to SWIFT authentication and a terminal at head office/zonal office would be installed to monitor transactions immediately, PNB said.

The alleged fraud at PNB could be perpetuated as unscrupulous elements like Modi and Choksi in connivance with a few bank officials managed to bypass the systematic reporting of LOU issuance to the CBS and it was not integrated with the global transactions software SWIFT.

Over two dozen banks, including SBI, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Union Bank of India, ICICI Bank have taken a hit in this alleged fraud by making import credit payments to Nirav Modi and firms on the basis of fake LoUs of PNB.For the past two weeks we at CNBC-TV18 have been raising this issue of reimagining PSU banks. On Wednesday, Governor Urjit Patel did just that. In one of his most plain speaking speeches he said, "RBI's regulatory powers over public sector banks are weaker than those over private sector banks." Latha Venkatesh caught up with N Vaghul Founder of ICICI Bank to find what the government should do about the issue.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Q: You know that there are these problems of non-performing assets NPAs and one fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB). It is in this context that the governor Urjit Patel while speaking said that, just to simplify that if such a problem of fraud has risen in a private sector bank he could have removed the board, supersede the board, removed the CEO. But when it comes to public sector banks he cannot remove the board, he cannot remove the managing director, and he cannot supersede the board do you think that is a fair charge that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) doesnt have enough regulatory powers over public sector banks?

A: On this particular issue, there is no doubt that the mess that has been created today in the banking sector to a large extent owes itself to the fact that the banks have been under public sector for the 50 long years, without any improvement what so ever in their working. Urjit Patel has hit the problem right on its head.

Q: You were there in State Bank of India (SBI), I think were you executive assistant to R K Talwar at the time of nationalisation. Was this the intent that RBI should not have or should have truncated the regulatory powers? Was this the intent of nationalisation of bank, is it that the intent has got corrupted or is the act itself a problem?

A: I attended the first meeting of the public sector banks chairman the day after the nationalisation of the banks. In fact they all assembled in the State Banks boardroom and Lakshmi Kant Jha was the governor of the Reserve Bank of India. I was barely 33 at that time and I was sitting as the secretary of the coordination committee. I was taking notes of the meeting. Jha started of his speech with a statement that the nationalisation wont make any difference what so ever the way in which the banks are functioning. As far as the government is concerned the government will be just like any other shareholder and there will not be dual central power and the commercial banks will have to look to the Reserve Bank of India as the sole regulatory and supervisory authority. Only in matters of the public policy, if the government wants to issue a directive it will issue a directive to Reserve Bank of India and Reserve Bank of India will be the only organisation which the commercial banks will have to look into.

I think in the same breath he said  I dont whether he said it in the meeting or said separately in a meeting with R K Talwar which I happened to attend that he had been promised that there will not be a department of banking. Because the department of banking will go against the very spirit of the rationalisation of dual control. Precisely the terminology which Urjit Patel has raised now, Jha raised at that particular point of time.

Jha is not the only person who raised this issue. About 10 years earlier in 1959, there was a Mundhra scam. Mundhra scam was investigated by Chagla Commission. Just 24 days to investigate then T. T. Krishnamachari resigned as a finance minister and government appointed a Supreme Court justice by name Vivian Bose. I think I would like to quote if you dont mind that report  I think it fits in to the present position, he says it is unfortunate that the sensation surrounding the transaction has led public interest towards apportioning individual blame and away from the more important issues regarding the autonomy of public corporations and ministerial responsibility.

The expansion of the public sector in the country is bound to bring to the fore the problem of the firms of corporate ownership like nationalisation. If the dangers of centralisation and concentration of power are to be avoided the efficient working of autonomous corporations established along functional and regional line will assume particular importance.

One more sentence I will add  it is to be hoped when the reports are debated in parliament there will be lesser concern with allocation of blame and more attention will be paid to securing safeguards for a pre-functioning of the autonomous public corporations. This question is of concern to all modern stated which are tending to be leviathan. It is particularly of importance for our country where the politicians have only recently tasted the head of the wine the power and where we have as yet no strong tradition of independent corporate bodies which form the core of pluralistic society.

I think it fits in absolutely to the present situation. To me it is blessing in disguise - this fraud. This should open up their larger issue of government ownership of banks. I think one more important lesion from the past. M. Narasimham was appointed as the chairman of the banking commission in 1991 that is about 27 years back and I happened to be a member of that commission. There was a debate that whether we should privatise the public sector banks and almost all the members were unanimous in their opinion that banks will have to be privatised. But Narasimham wrote out a very interesting piece in that commission report. One is it is not about ownership of the banks that is important. It is their level of control over the government over the banks is important. He said that it doesnt matter if the government retains the ownership of the banks so long as they assure that they voluntarily abdicate their control functions over the banks in favour of the Reserve Bank of India. I think this is coming in handy today.

Q: How do we bring this to the present scenario, do you think that we could retain the legislative framework but merely abolish the banking department and go ahead or do you think the law needs to change?

A: I would go for a very stronger measure. You may say that I am pretty old and I can take a very radical view of this matter but in 1991, Narasimham did contemplate the idea that the governments control over the banks was no longer justifiable. If the governments control over the banks was no longer justifiable, I don't see any logic for the banking department to continue to function.

I think the Reserve Bank of India should be sole and only authority in order to supervise and regulate the banks. I saw today a statement by Bimal Jalan who said that if public sector banks are privatised, who will lend to agriculture and small scale industries? I think for 50 long years we have been lending and private sector banks are also obligated to lend to the priority sectors which consists of agriculture and small scale industries. So, that is no longer the problem. The problem today is, what Urjit Patel has said, that the duality of control will have to go.

In the PNB fraud, those who perpetrated the fraud, those who facilitated the fraud, those who had knowledge of the fraud, will have to be dealt with. However the larger issue of where does it lead us to, larger issue of the autonomy of the public sector banks, that I think will have to be raised to the fore instead of merely going on debating as to whom should we blame for this? Whether Reserve Bank of India should have known about this and prevented this? Such questions are no longer relevant. We should confine our issue that those who are guilty will have to be punished and how are we going to stop such issues from coming up to the fore in the future.

The only way in which you can stop it, is to give the autonomy to the public sector institutions and have the right people there. The only persons who can decide who are the right people must be the Reserve Bank of India, it can't be a whole lot of people.

Q: How do we set it right? You want a radical change and this law won't do. Urjit Patel makes the same statement, he says public sector banks don't have market discipline, they are not worried that their deposits would be pulled out even if a fraud or a large NPA is created. So, would you say, governments stake has to come down below 50 percent, is that the way out?

A: These two issues will have to be separated. One is the control function and another is the ownership function. I should credit Narasimham for his statement 27 years back that you can segregate these two functions. It does not matter who owns the banks, what matters is who controls the banks.

Today, it is not very clear who controls the banks - is it the central government who is controlling the banks or it is the Reserve Bank of India which is controlling the banks.

27 years back there was no problem whether the government owns or not, today I think it has assumed a further significance. It doesn't make sense for the government to continue to own even 51 percent or 60 percent of the banks because the government needs money for whole lot of other purposes. Why should they continue to hold it? If they are going to give up control, they can as well give up their ownership. So, that means a amendment to the legislation.

Q: As Urjit Patel points out in his speech that because of the Banking Regulations Act Clause 36, the RBI cannot remove board members of the PSU banks, cannot remove the management, the managing director or supersede the board. Is it those clauses that have to first change? How do you ensure that the government has no control functions?

A: The government has to give up that control function. The Reserve Bank of India Act will have to be strengthened. It can go in stages. The first stage is what was suggested by Urjit Patel that you have to amend the Reserve Bank of India Act, vest them with complete powers in order to deal with the public sector banks. He quoted that as in the case of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) if it can be done, why can't you do it for the public sector banks? So, those lacuna can be filled up in the first stage. However within very short time you will have to move to the final stage of the government getting out of the banking system.

Q: Bimal Jalan in this same series last week, his recommendation was that you must have a body like UPSC. India has produced some genuinely autonomous bodies like the UPSC or the CAG or the Election Commission, so have someone like that to appoint board members. Is that a fair mechanism?

A: No. I don't think that we can swim against the current. Banking sector has got an independent regulatory authority - the Reserve Bank of India. You cannot create a parallel authority to the Reserve Bank of India by diluting its powers. This system will not work.

Q: Do you think we have to first fix this control mechanism and only then go for ownership? In this same series, I also spoke with Raghuram Rajan a few days back, of course he thought that we should experiment with bringing down governments stake but he said at the moment the whole governance function is broken. So, if you reduce the government stake now then it becomes a problem as to who is responsible. So, let's first fix governance, would you say that should be the sequencing?

A: You can do one more thing, another possibility - I am just speaking off hand because I haven't applied my mind to that, one way in which you can do it is to transfer the ownership from the government to the Reserve Bank of India.

Q: Sometime back when the RBI still owned 28 percent stake in State Bank of India, they thought that this is anomalous that we own the bank and regulate it and they transferred their ownership to government of India. So, RBI finds its position anomalous if it owns a bank, you think that is an okay situation?

A: Today legislation permits divestment of the public sector banks to the extent of 49 percent, I think you now need to amend it only to say about 100 percent can go to the public. When you talk of privatisation of public sector banks, what do you really mean? You don't mean that you are going to hand it over to an industrial house or somebody who will take control over the banks. What privatisation means is, broad public ownership like what ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank is. No one individual family owns ICICI Bank or HDFC Bank. When I left ICICI Bank our shareholding - public was about 0.5 million shareholders. So, they are ones to whom the banks board is accountable. So, something similar to that will not hurt the interest of the public. Nobody can say that the government has sold their family jewels or family crown to somebody else, they are selling it to the public.

Q: I take your point then that you want government ownership to come below 50 percent rather dramatically as well complete dissociation of the government from appointing any board members or top management in public sector banks. That is the point you are making, right?

A: Let me add one more thing, small issue. So long as the government is holding that control function, the governments control function theoretically exercised by the department of banking or the finance minister, but still I suppose legally it is appointment committee which appoints everybody. The appointment committee appoints the chairman, the appointment committee appoints the managing director, the appointment committee appoints the board members and look at the bureaucracy that is involved in this whole process that every paper has to be processed, it has to be put up to the appointments committee. The appointment committee consist of the prime minister, home minister and the finance minister. I think we cant afford that luxury of this process to continue. I think we need to device a much better simpler mechanism of identifying the most appropriate people to run the organisation.

Q: I wanted your thoughts even on the other big issue that Urjit Patel raised in his speech about the amount of NPAs in the system-Rs 8.5 lakh crore and still counting and therefore defending the recent RBI circular that if large cases are not resolved in six months they should be send to the NCLT. Your general comment, do you think this is the way to go and the RBI is right in taking that stance, rather severe stance?

A: I fully agree. In fact I have been advocating it for quite a long time. If the default has taken place I think we have to fall in-line with the global practice. There is no reason why India should stand up apart from the global practice in respect of this matter. If a default has taken place and the default persist for some time, I think the only way in which is to take them to the insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC). We have tried so many measures including Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), Securities Act and also the Debts Recovery Tribunals nothing worked. We have to make this work insolvency and bankruptcy code, this is the only way in which it has to go and every defaulter if he cannot  I mean to take care of the default within specified period it has to go to the insolvency and bankruptcy code. Ultimately, the country to me comes first other than the promoter or the banker. Country's interest can be safeguarded.

Q: I just wanted to ask you since you are personally involved in the ArcelorMittal bid for Essar Steel and therefore you are the closer observer for the process you are happy with the way the process has gone? The amendment saying that defaulting promoters ought not to put their hat in, are you happy with the way things have panned out?

A: I am not interested party in the ArcelorMittal, I was director of ArcelorMittal about a year back and today absolutely no interest. I was in the board and I am no longer in the board and so there is no interest involved. To me these issues whether a person is eligible or not eligible will have to be decided by the bankers who are the most appropriate people to decide whether this scheme work, whether they will get their money back and whether the company will be managed by people who are best equipped to run the company.

I am not going to give them any suggestions  to me the letter of the law is not important. The spirit of the law is important. I think the spirit of the law you will have to bring the best person available to come and buy the assets. I take a very much boarder view. The assets that are being created at the ground has to be managed for the best interest of the economy. They have to be productive for the economy. Whoever can make it productive, whoever the lenders feel comfortable they can make it productive they should be brought to the aim. I think you cannot take shelter under one letter here, one clause there which disqualifies people.The government is planning to amend solar power project bidding norms to ensure that private developers benefit from any increase of duties on equipment, according to a report in The Economic Times.

"The government will amend bidding norms for pass through of duties on solar modules to de-risk the projects," power minister RK Singh said.

The private developers had been demanding for changes in the bidding norms so that they may benefit from increased duties, which was not passed under the existing norms.

Also Read  New norms for solar power bids to enhance transparency: MNRE

Currently the bid documents provide that any change in tax structure will be pass through. We will add duties to the provision so that any changes in taxes and duties will be pass through, Singh said.

The move will help attract bidders for this sector, which received less response to some of the recent solar auctions.

The bid rate that has been achieved in the past, it wont be possible in future if duties and taxes are not pass through, a senior government official told the paper on the condition of anonymity.

Also Read  Government brings in new norms on solar power procurement

Indias solar industry, which has been under the threat of high duty levies, has been waiting for key decisions on safeguards and anti-dumping duties on solar imports from China, Malaysia and Taiwan.

These changes may be included in the PPA (power purchase agreement) document, the report said.

In January, the Director General of Safeguards in January had proposed a whopping 70 percent safeguards duty on imports of solar cells and modules from China and Malaysia. The move, if approved, may affect the domestic solar manufacturers adversely.Suresh Prabhu

India's GDP could reach USD 5 trillion provided there is consistent growth in manufacturing, services and agricultural sectors, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

The minister underlined key role of the private sector to create new business models and strategies and leverage new technologies in order to fuel growth in the Indian economy. The government will act as the facilitator in this process, Prabhu said at a meeting of a working group on making India a USD 5 trillion economy in seven years.

The meeting was attended by heads of CII, FICCI, IFC, NASSCOM, NitiAayog and senior officials from the Departments of Commerce and DIPP.

The participants underlined the need to factor in technological disruptions, challenges due to climate change, positive use of India's demographic dividend, conscious effort to make manufacturing sector a part of global value chain.The Kolkata-based private sector lender Bandhan Bank has opened for subscription on Thursday, with a price band of Rs 370-375 per share.

Since the issue is priced to perfection it leaves little on the table for retail investors but it good for long-term investors, said Sanjiv Bhasin, Executive VP-Markets & Corporate Affairs, IIFL.

Over the last many years it has created a niche brand by focusing on the unbanked (microfinance) and focused on the retail side. The deposit ratio is 85 percent retail for the bank, said Bhasin.

It is a must have in a portfolio. One can buy at listing or wait for an opportunity, it could be one of the biggest gainers on back of PSU fiasco.

So aspects like focus on the unbanked, branch territory growth, pedigree management bodes well for the company, said Bhasin, adding that the stock over a period of time is likely to generate good returns.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

State-owned defence company Hindustan Aeronautics has opened its initial public offering for subscription on Friday.

Equity shares are proposed to be listed on the BSE and the NSE.

SBI Capital Markets and Axis Capital are the book running lead managers to the offer that will close on March 20, 2018.

Here are 10 key things you should know before subscribing the issue:

Company Profile

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) is engaged in the design, development, manufacture, repair, overhaul, upgrade and servicing of a wide range of products including, aircraft, helicopters, aero-engines, avionics, accessories and aerospace structures.

The Navratna defence company is the largest defence public sector undertaking (DPSU) in terms of value of production according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Annual Report 2016-2017. It was the 39th largest aerospace company in the world in terms of revenue (in USD million) in 2016 according to Flight International.

Its operations are organised into five complexes, namely the Bangalore Complex, MiG Complex, Helicopter Complex, Accessories Complex, and Design Complex, which together include 20 production divisions and 11 research and design centres located across India.

In addition, it has entered into 13 commercial joint ventures to grow operations.

About the Issue

Hindustan Aeronautics' initial public offering of 3,41,07,525 equity shares is an offer for sale by the President of India, acting through the Department of Defence Production.

The offer comprises a net offer of 3,34,38,750 equity shares and an employee reservation portion of up to 6,68,775 equity shares.

The offer will constitute 10.20 percent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of the company.

The company in consultation with merchant bankers has fixed issue price band at Rs 1,215-1,240 per share.

Retail investors and eligible employees will get shares at a discount of Rs 25 on final offer price.

Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 12 equity shares and in multiples of 12 equity shares thereafter.

Amount to Raise from the Issue

The state-owned defence company targets to raise Rs 4,144.06 crore and Rs 4,229.33 crore at lower and upper end of price band.

Objects of the Issue

The objects of the offer are to carry out the disinvestment of 3,41,07,525 equity shares by the selling shareholder constituting 10 percent of companys pre-offer paid up equity share capital; and to achieve the benefits of listing the equity shares on the stock exchanges.

Hindustan Aeronautics will not receive any proceeds from the offer and all proceeds will go to the selling shareholder - the Government of India.

It is a part of yearly divestment programme of the government.

Strengths

> It has long credible history of research, design and development, manufacturing and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services;

> It has established track record in offering product life cycle support extending to periods beyond four decades;

> It has strong design and development capabilities: In H1FY18, FY17, FY16 and FY15, research, design and development expenses were Rs 9.7 percent, 6.9 percent, 6.9 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, of revenue from operations during such periods;

> HAL has a leadership position in the Indian aeronautical industry as a result of long-standing relationships, particularly with the Indian Defence Services and the DRDO as well as with various academic institutions and regulatory agencies. It derives a strategic advantage from strong relationship with the Government of India;

> It has a diversified product portfolio includes fighter aircraft, trainer aircraft, transport aircraft, military helicopter and civil helicopters and their engines, avionics and accessories (such as special test equipment and ground handling equipment and ground support equipment), which are both indigenously designed or manufactured under licence;

> Its senior management team and key management personnel possess extensive management skills, operating experience and industry knowledge;

> It has a strong financial track record.

Financials

Its revenue from operations grew from Rs 15,648 crore in FY15 to Rs 18,554.9 crore in FY17, representing a CAGR of 8.9 percent.

As of September 2017, it has cash and cash equivalents of Rs 11,699.2 crore. It does not have any long-term indebtedness.

As of December 2017, its order book was Rs 68,461 crore, which generally includes products and services to be manufactured and delivered and excludes anticipated revenues from incomplete portions of existing contracts undertaken by joint ventures.

In addition to sales to the Indian Defence Services, which accounted for 91.4 percent, 93.3 percent, 94.2 percent and 92.6 percent of total sales in H1FY18 and in FY17, FY16 and FY15, respectively, it sells products and provide services to state governments, para-military forces and corporates.

It also export products and services, primarily spares, to more than 13 countries, which accounted for 3 percent, 2.6 percent and 2.7 percent of revenue from operations for H1FY18, FY17 and FY16, respectively.

Promoter

Hindustan Aeronautics' promoter is the President of India, acting through the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence.

Promoter currently holds, directly and indirectly (through his nominees), 100 percent of the pre-offer paid-up equity share capital.

After the issue, promoter's shareholding will be reduced to around 90 percent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital.

Management

T Suvarna Raju has been Chairman & Managing Director of the company with effect from April 1, 2015. He joined the company as a management trainee on July 28, 1980 and thereafter worked in various capacities. He has over 37 years of work experience in the aerospace industry and has held various positions in the company.

Damal Kannan Venkatesh is the Director (Engineering and Research and Development) of the company with effect from November 27, 2015. He has over 37 years of work experience in the aerospace industry and has held various positions in the company.

Dividend Policy

The board of directors of the company, on March 1, 2018, approved payment of interim dividend at Rs 23.92 per share, amounting to Rs 800 crore for FY18, excluding dividend tax and surcharge of Rs 163 crore.

Risks & Concerns

Here are some risks & concerns highlighted by several brokerage houses:-

> Heavy dependence on defence contracts (Indian Defence Services contributed 93 percent to FY17 sales);

> Delay in project implementation (owing to regulatory approvals/technology transfer);

> As the defence contracts are not always fully funded at inception and are subject to termination, inability of HAL to fund such contracts at the time of inception or contract termination could have a material adverse effect;

> The Governments significant influence over the functioning may restrict HAL's ability to manage its business;

> Overhang of losses in certain joint ventures and subsidiaries;

> Unfavourable outcome of an ongoing dispute with the MoD of Ecuador relating to the termination of helicopters supply contract may adversely affect HALs overseas revenue;

> Company may be adversely affected by sanctions on Russia, as many of the projects are done through transfer of technology from Russian OEMs, and company rely on Russian suppliers for support of these aircraft.A Jet Airways passenger plane takes off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad

Private carrier Jet Airways on Wednesday announced expansion of its domestic network, adding 144 new weekly flights comprising both non-stop and one-stop services as part of its summer schedule, which begins later this month.

The new services include flights to north-eastern cities of Imphal and Jorhat as well as Tiruchanapalli in the south from New Delhi and Mumbai, Jet Airways said today.

As part of the new schedule, Jet Airways will strengthen connectivity to the north eastern region from the national capital with non-stop services including thrice-a-week flights to Aizawl and Jorhat and four times-a-week flights to Silchar from New Delhi, it said.

The airline will also commence four times-a-week non-stop service to Imphal from Delhi, and will launch new non-stop services to Patna, Raipur and Chandigarh.

Additionally, Jet Airways will begin a daily, non-stop service for the very first time between Mumbai and Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu's temple city and a religious centre, besides a new direct service between Tiruchirappalli and Delhi.

"Our summer schedule has been designed with a combination of new services - non-stop as well as direct flights - between emerging cities, key metros and our hubs in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the company's senior vice president for network planning and revenue management Raj Sivakumar said.

The airlines is also commencing direct, one-stop services between Mumbai and the north eastern cities of Jorhat and Imphal, marking its return to the Manipur capital.

Imphal will also be connected with Pune with direct flights through Guwahati and Kolkata, enhancing access and connectivity between the north-east and its hubs in Mumbai and Delhi, according to the release.Answer: Nostrum (File imagDivis Laboratories share price performance in FY18: Up 75 percent | FY19: Up 56 percent | FY20: Up 17 percent.e)

Johnson and Johnson have put up a price proposal to ensure Indians get access to their tuberculosis medicines at cheaper rates once the free supply of their drug ends.

According to a report in The Economic Times, the company will provide a course of bedaquiline for free for every four courses bought by the government at USD 900 each.

A source mentioned in the report said that the USD 900 price tag was the norm in markets like South Africa. Bedaquiline sells for USD 30,000 in the United States. A single course consists of 188 tablets, and are said to last a TB patient for six months.

These two drugs are crucial for the fight against tuberculosis. The government does regulates their dosage to patients so as to not create resistance in them.

Mylan is also thinking up of a Make in India option for delamanid once their donations would run out. Officials from Mylan approached the health ministry last week as they looked to pursue local manufacturing for delamanid in India. The drug costs up to USD 1,500-2,000, ranging from market to market.

A senior official stated that negotiations are underway for both these options. This comes at a time when health activists call for the government to grant compulsory licences to ensure the sale of generics of Bedaquiline and delamanid without taking the patent of the parent company.

J&J is in the early stage of talks to provide a voluntary licence to Macleods Pharmaceuticals to be able to produce a generic version of bedaquiline.

The US Agency for International Development has promised close to 10,000 courses of which of which 3,500 have been donated, and 1,000 have been administered .

India is expected to receive 400 courses of delamanid for free. The government is expected to administer delamanid to patients across 21 sites as soon as the donations come in, said a senior government official requesting anonymity.Reserve Bank of India clearance for the Kerala Bank, an ambitious concept of CPI-M led LDF government, is expected by the end of this month.

This was stated by Minister for Law A K Balan, on behalf of State Minister for Co-operation Kadakampally Surendran in the state assembly today.

With the formation of the Kerala Co-operative Bank by merging district co-operative banks with state co-operative banks, affiliation of primary agriculture co-operative societies would be with the new Bank.

State government expect to get RBI clearance for the Kerala Bank by end of this month, Balan said during question hour.

Government was of the view that the functioning of the primary co-operatives would be strengthened with the formation of proposed Kerala Co-operative Bank, he said.

It was stated in a written reply in the assembly that steps have been taken for software integration of all Bank branches by according sanction to RFP (request for proposal, procurement, installation and commissioning).The market failed to hold on to gains on Thursday as benchmark indices saw selling pressure in late trade and Nifty, Sensex fell half a percent each despite recovery in Asian peers and positive trade in Europe.

All Nifty sectoral indices closed in the red. Banking & financials (except HDFC Bank), oil & gas and FMCG stocks pulled the Nifty below 10,400 levels.

The 50-share NSE index ended down 50.70 points at 10,360.20 amid volatility.

"The Nifty traded in a narrow range today & ultimately formed a bearish Inside bar for the day. It continued to face selling pressure near 10,400-10,500 zone. Multiple Technical parameters are placed in the range, which are restricting the upside," Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Senior Technical Analyst, Sharekhan said.

According to him, overall wave structure shows that the distribution phase can continue for few more sessions before the next leg down kicks in.

However if bears manage to break the swing low of 10,336 on closing basis, which means the Inside bar breaks out on the downside, then the index can resume the larger downtrend without further distribution, he said, adding from short term perspective, 10,141 & 10,000 will be the targets on the downside.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 150.20 points to close at 33,685.54.

Midcaps were off day's high in late trade, but still outperformed frontliners throughout the session. The Nifty Midcap index rose 0.4 percent and BSE Smallcap index gained 0.8 percent.

The market breadth was largely in favour of advances with advance-decline ratio of 3:2.

IOC was the biggest loser among Nifty50 stocks, falling 2.8 percent after the stock adjusted for bonus share issue.

HDFC was down 0.8 percent despite its AMC subsidiary filed draft red herring prospectus with the SEBI for initial public offering. ICICI Bank also declined 1.5 percent despite the company said its broking subsidiary ICICI Securities will open initial public offering worth Rs 4,017 crore for subscription next week.

The PSU Bank was biggest loser among sectoral indices, falling 0.7 percent amid banking fraud case. Punjab National Bank, the second largest public sector lender, detected another case of Letter of Undertakings (LoU) fraud worth Rs 9 crore in its Brady House branch in Mumbai, according to CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. The state-owned bank has field complaint with Central Bureau of Investigation against Chandri Papers and Allied Products.

State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda shares fell more than 1 percent.

Reliance Industries, ITC, Yes Bank, HUL, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, GAIL and Tech Mahindra among others were down 1-2 percent whereas HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, M&M and Indiabulls Housing gained 1-2 percent.

Fertiliser stocks like Nagarjuna Fertilizers, NFL, RCF, Zuari Agro, FACT, Coromandel International etc gained up to 10 percent after the government extended urea subsidy till 2020.

Jaiprakash Associates rallied 17 percent as investors cheered the developments around the bid for Jaypee Infratech. Details emerging from Wednesdays meeting of committee of creditors seem to indicate that Adani Group could be entrusted with the task of completing the unfinished flats of Jaypee Infratech besides ensuring that lenders face minimum haircut. Adani Enterprises and Jaypee Infratech gained nearly 2 percent each.

Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Future Retail, Future Enterprises, Mindtree, PTC India Financial, Prabhat Dairy, Eveready Industries, NIIT Technologies, NIIT and Kalyani Steels rallied up to 16 percent. Dish TV, Wockhardt, Tata Coffee and Hexaware fell up to 4 percent.

Global markets were higher in trade amid concerns over heightened global trade tensions. In Asia, the Nikkei 225 edged up by 0.12 percent and Kospi was up 0.25 percent. Hang Seng gained 0.34 percent.

European markets - France CAC, Germany DAX and Britain FTSE were up 0.3-0.6 percent at the time writing this article.Aegis Global, a portfolio company of Singapores Capital Square Partners (CSP) and business process outsourcing services provider STARTEK have entered into an agreement to merge the two companies.

Under the agreement, STARTEK will issue CSP 20.6 million shares of its common stock in exchange for all outstanding common stock of Aegis. Concurrently, CSP or an affiliate will increase its investment in STARTEK by purchasing 833,333 primary shares of STARTEK common stock at $12 per share, representing a $10 million investment.

CSP is expected to own approximately 55% of the combined company, while STARTEK shareholders will own the remaining. CSP will have the right to appoint majority of the combined companys board of directors.

This marks the return of Aegis into the United States and Philippines, a capability that will allow us to deliver enhanced value to global customers. Combining with STARTEKs expertise and valued long term client relationships, including the recent strategic opportunities in e-Commerce, allows us to accelerate our growth and value creation for customers, employees and shareholders as a public entity listed in the NYSE, said Aegis Global CEO Sandip Sen.

While STARTEK CEO Chad Carlson said: I am very excited for the STARTEK and Aegis employees, who will soon be a force in the global BPO industry in what I am certain will be a fun and rewarding family environment; for the clients of both STARTEK and Aegis, who will now have a global customer engagement partner to support their customer journey; and for the combined shareholders of Aegis and STARTEK. Im especially happy for the STARTEK shareholders who have been patient throughout this journey as we have worked to differentiate, diversify and grow your company. It gives me great comfort that STARTEKs shareholders will now have an opportunity for their patience to be rewarded with an investment in a global player with differentiation, scale and almost unparalleled diversification in the BPO industry. 

The companies integration plans and leadership structure are nearing completion and will be announced in connection with the preparation and filing of STARTEKs proxy statement to solicit stockholder approval of the combination transaction.

This transaction has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both companies, and is expected to close no later than the third quarter of 2018, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval and approval of the transaction by STARTEK shareholders.Answer: Tata.

Mukund Rajan, who heads Tata Sons' international operations, could exit the company by the end of the month, according to a Business Standard report.

A consortium, backed by TPG Capital and led by Mukund Rajan, has offered $1 billion for assets and related businesses owned by Tata Teleservices Ltd. unit, Bloomberg reported in January.

Tata Communications and TPG Capital are bidding for Tata Teleservices.

The TPG Capital bid is "off the table", an insider told Business Standard.

Rajan denied he was quitting the group but told Business Standard that he would lead the TPG Capital initiative, if it bagged the fibre optic business. Otherwise he would continue with Tata Group.

A spokesperson told the paper that talks of Rajan's exit were "speculation".

Some of Tata Communications' board member are against the bid, the report said. Even the government is not too keen on proposing an offer.

"The Indian government, which owns a 26 per cent stake in Tata Communications, is not inclined to take on more debt to take over the project," a source told Business Standard.

Mukund Rajan took charge of the international operations at Tata Sons in 2017. He joined the Tata Group in the 1990s.

He was previously chief brand custodian and a member of group executive council.US firms are reviewing their Research and Development (R&D) operations in India after the imposition of the Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) in the United States.

The United States passed BEAT in January to protect their local jobs from getting outsourced. The BEAT tax rate is 5 percent in 2018, and will double to 10 percent in 2019.

The US has also reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The tax cut is to incentivise US firms to invest more in their home country.

Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar told the Economic Times these tax reforms will have a significant adverse impact on expansion as well as new investments into India.

Countries such as the US and the UK are the largest markets for India's IT industry, with four out of five dollars in earning coming from these countries.

Chandrashekhar is optimistic about the ability of India to continue to attract investments due to the talent pool in the country.

India has close to 1,100 global in-house centres (GICs), of firms such as General Electric, Honeywell and Citibank, generating close to USD 23 billion in revenue, according to a 2017 report by researcher Bain and Co.

The Largest technology companies like Google, Microsoft and Adobe also have large R&D centres across the country.

Experts state large corporations would most likely not be affected by the taxes significantly as they have achieved the pre-requisite scale to not be disrupted by them.22:00 That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights.

21:15 Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypoll results beginning of "end of Modi government": Pinarayi Vijayan

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi

Vijayan today said the BJP's defeat in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypolls is the "beginning of the end of the Narendra Modi-led government."

The results reflected the sentiments of the people to throw the saffron party out of power, the chief minister said in a Facebook post. (PTI)

21:03 Indians leave behind phones, prawns and even LCD TV, says Uber report

India tops Uber's list of most forgetful countries in Asia Pacific region, with riders leaving behind not only their phones and bags but also items like Golda chingri (prawns), kid's tricycle and LCD TV.

Riders in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR were more forgetful than their counterparts in cities like Manila, Melbourne and Singapore in leaving behind items in their Uber cabs, according to the second edition of the Lost & Found Index by the US-based ride hailing platform.

Besides, Mumbai and Hyderabad were also part of the top 10 'most forgetful cities' list for the Asia Pacific region. (PTI)

20:43 Tata Sons buys shares worth Rs 1,100 crore in IHC, Tata Motors

Tata Sons today picked up shares worth Rs 1,088.88 crore of its two group companies, Indian Hotels Company (IHC) and Tata Motors, through open market transactions.

According to the block deal data, Tata Sons acquired 6.64 per cent stake in IHC. The shares were bought at a price of Rs 130.4 per scrip, valuing the transaction at Rs 1,029.80 crore. (PTI)

20:17 BREAKING | The Trump administration has accused Russia of ongoing, deliberate operation to penetrate United States energy grid, the Associated Press has reported.

20:16 The United States has imposed sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in 2016 American Presidential election, including 13 indicted by Robert Mueller, the Associated Press has reported.

20:12 Air India divestment update: A notification announcing sale contours of Air India is likely to be issued by early next week, CNBC TV18 has reported citing sources.

The notification may clarify on debt to be transferred to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) while the Expression of Interest (EoI) document is likely to be released after three weeks.

The government is likely to retain 24 percent stake in the flag carrier, the report suggests. Earlier, the government had allowed 49 percent foreign investment in Air India.

19:53 Public debt rose to Rs 66.61 lakh crore at December-end

India's public debt rose to Rs 66.61 lakh crore at the end of December 2017, representing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.22 percent.

The debt (excluding liabilities under the Public Account) of the government was Rs 65.80 lakh crore at the end of September last year.

Internal debt and marketable securities constituted 93.1 per cent and 82.6 per cent, respectively of the total public debt, at the December-end 2017, according to the quarterly report on debt management released by the Finance Ministry today. (PTI)

19:45 Mukund Rajan has resigned as the Chief Ethics Officer at Tata Sons, citing personal reasons, CNBC TV18 has reported.

19:28 SEBI raises currency derivative trade limit to USD 100 million

Capital markets regulator SEBI today raised the exposure limit under exchange-traded currency derivatives trading for residents and FPIs to USD 100 million across all currency pairs involving the Indian rupee.

The move will help entities engaged in forex transactions to maintain their currency risks in a better manner.

The decision comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in February raised these limits, beyond which market participants would be required to establish proof of underlying exposure in the currency derivatives segment. (PTI)

19:14 China gives Rs 48 million assistance to Nepal

China today agreed to provide Rs 48 billion assistance to Nepal for development, including post-disaster recovery plan for the strategic Tatopani border point that was damaged in a devastating earthquake in 2015.

China and Nepal have been stepping up efforts to improve road connectivity while speeding up plans to build a railway line connecting to Nepal's border after a Transit Trade Treaty was signed in 2016 with Beijing.

The Government of China has agreed to extend the assistance to Nepal for the projects on post-disaster recovery for Tatopani border point, the hospital reconstruction in Sindhupalchowk and reconstruction of Jiri Secondary School, the Nepal's Ministry of Finance said in a statement. (PTI)

19:00 Trial in rape case against Tarun Tejpal begins in Goa court

The in-camera trial in the rape case against former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal began today with a district court in North Goa recording the statement of the victim.

On the first day of the trial, the victim who had accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her, was examined.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Vijaya Pol at Mapusa recorded the statement of the victim during the trial, which began at 10 am and concluded at 5 pm.

Essar

Numetal

Reiterating that Numetal's proposal for Essar Steel is "very solid," a senior official of the VTB Capital-led consortium said that its bid is the best one, without any hurdles.

"We have a good bid, our resolution plan is quite attractive. We have addressed the short term challenges, demands of different parties. And in the long run we believe we are building a business that will participate in the growth story of India," Numetal Senior Advisor Antoine Chemali told Moneycontrol.

18:16 Mining industry crisis in Goa: Nitin Gadkari to visit state

With the mining industry in Goa set to come to a standstill from tonight, Union minister Nitin Gadkari will visit the state next week and hold discussions with the stakeholders, a senior state minister said here. The Supreme Court last month set aside second renewal of iron ore mining leases granted to 88 companies in 2015.

These companies must stop all mining operations with effect from March 16 until fresh mining leases (not fresh renewals) were granted, the apex court had said. According to the state government, nearly two lakh people would lose their jobs if the mining activity stops. (PTI)

18:00 Lok Sabha passes bill to enable government to double tax-free gratuity to Rs 20 lakh

The Lok Sabha today passed the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) bill which seeks to empower the government to fix period of maternity leave and tax-free gratuity amount with an executive order.

After the passage of the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha, the government would be able to enhance the ceiling of tax-free gratuity to Rs 20 lakh from existing Rs 10 lakh for employee under the Payment of Gratuity Act. (Reuters)

17:49 India says will engage with United States on concerns over Indian export subsidies

India will engage with the United States to discuss its concerns on India's export subsidies and respond within 60 days, the trade secretary said on Wednesday.

The United States on Wednesday had launched a challenge to Indian export subsidies at the World Trade Organization, saying they hurt US companies by letting Indian exporters sell goods more cheaply. (Reuters)

17:25 CoA takes away all functioning powers of BCCI office-bearers

Vinod Rai-led Committee of Administrators (CoA) has deciding to take away all functioning powers of acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry.

Having already sought their removal in the seventh Status Report filed in Supreme Court last week, the CoA has gone a step further by issuing the diktat to stop the office-bearers from taking any decision unilaterally. (PTI)

17:12 Let bygones be bygones, says Akhilesh Yadav on bitter past rivalry with BSP

Enthused by his party's strong showing in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav has indicated that his party was keen on burying its bitter rivalry with Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party saying sometimes "past incidents have to be forgotten". Yadav also said that his party's relations with Congress too continued to be good.

"Samajwadis always give due respect to all and that is why today we have good relations with all. People were recalling old incidents but sometimes they have to be forgotten," Yadav told media persons here. (PTI)

17:00 Over USD 60 billion wiped off value of cryptocurrencies in 24 hours as bitcoin slide continues

Prices of major cryptocurrencies saw a sharp downward slide today, amid closer regulatory scrutiny on the space and after Google announced plans to ban advertising related to the sector, CNBC has reported.

The market capitalization or value of all the world's digital coins stood at USD 310.4 billion early today, down from USD 72.9 billion a day before, according to Coinmarketcap, which tracks prices based on different exchanges.

16:48 Expression of Interest (EoI) invited for first pod taxi; to follow US safety norms

The government has invited expression of interest (EoI) to execute India's maiden pod taxi project on Delhi-Gurgaon corridor, Parliament was informed today.

The development follows a high-level panel recommending inviting fresh bids for the project, also known as Personal Rapid Transport (PRT), conforming to the strictest safety standards on the lines of those prescribed by an American body. The proposed Rs 4,000-crore pod taxi scheme is a dream project of Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. (PTI)

893m

Corporate India announced merger and acquisition (M&A) deals worth $1,893 million in February this year, registering a 40% increase in value terms over the year ago period driven by big ticket transactions, says a report by assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton. There were 40 M&A transactions in February, while in the corresponding period a year ago there were 32 such deals worth $1,354 million. This increase in M&A deal value in February was driven by big-ticket consolidation that saw four deals valued over $100 million contributing to 79% of the total M&A values.

3rd

Sensex

The BSE Sensex dropped by 150 points to close at 33,685.54 in a volatile trade, extending losses for a third day as banking, FMCG and IT shares fell amid fresh Letter of Undertaking fraud scare.

Banking stocks led by Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India came under heavy selling pressure after the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a fresh case relating to fraudulent issuance of Rs 9 crore of LoUs to Chandri Papers & Allied Products by Punjab National Bank's Brady House branch.

Asian markets ended mixed after the Wall Street declined amid concerns that the US could impose severe tariffs on Chinese imports and that the US Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as early as next week.

12bn

Trade deficit in February stood at $12 billion led by increase in imports due to higher oil prices, the Commerce Ministry said. Exports grew 4.5% YoY to $25.8 billion while imports rose 10.4% YoY to $37.8 billion.

PNB

unauthorised

LoUs

PSBs

SBI

All public sector banks have verified Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by them, and there are no other unauthorised authority letters except for those issued by Punjab National Bank, MS Sastry, Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India, told PTI. "Each bank has already scanned their LoU/LoC related transactions and have confirmed that all of them are properly assessed, genuine and accounted for except those reported."

180bn

India's real estate sector is projected to reach $180 billion by 2020 from $126 billion in 2015, according to a joint report by CREDAI and JLL.

15:38 HUL's

155cr

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever has offered another tranche of Rs 36 crore of GST benefits for January to the government, taking the total to Rs 155 crore since the tax rates were revised on November 15 last year.

Icra

Smaller towns contributed Rs 4.36 lakh crore to assets under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry at the end of February, over 41% higher than a year-ago period, rating agency Icra said. In February, the share of direct plans in B15 towns stood at 20.4% against 45.6% in top 15 cities.

15:23 Karti

INX

The Supreme Court has extended interim protection from arrest granted by Delhi High Court to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case till March 26, reports PTI. The apex court transferred to itself the matter pending before the Delhi High Court in view of conflicting views by different HCs on the Enforcement Directorate's power to arrest. It has also fixed the matter for March 26 and said it will deal with issue related to ED's power to arrest accused in the money laundering case.

14:57 CBSE

The CBSE denied allegations of paper leak of its Class 12 accountancy examination, asserting that all seals were found intact in examination centres, reports PTI. The board also said that it has approached the police against those spreading false news. The development comes after Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted this morning about the complaints received by him in this regard.

The law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers global tax evasion scandal that brought down two world leaders said it would shut down operations, citing negative press and what it called unwarranted action by authorities, reports AFP. "Reputational deterioration, the media campaign, the financial consequences and irregular actions by some Panamanian authorities have caused irreparable damage, resulting in the total ceasing of public operations at the end of this month," Mossack Fonseca said in a statement.

14:48 The Supreme Court asked a Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint filed by BJP president Amit Shah's son Jay Shah against the news portal The Wire and its journalists, reports PTI.

Surat-Paradip

licence

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has terminated GAIL India's licence to build a Rs 10,000 crore natural gas pipeline from Surat in Gujarat to Paradip in Odisha, saying the state-owned firm hadn't started work on the project even after six years, reports PTI. It also ordered encashing the company's entire performance bank guarantee of Rs 20 crore, according to the regulator's March 13 order.

14:30 Rahul

Sharad

Pawar

BJP

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has met National Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar to step up efforts and put up a united front against the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections, sources told PTI. The meeting with the NCP leader comes amid the party's poor performance and loss in the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Gandhi met Pawar last night within hours of the BJP's defeat in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh. The meeting took place at the latter's residence, sources said.

paralysed

Relentless protests by opposition and other parties again disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha but the government managed to get two bills passed amid the din, reports PTI.

Proceedings of the House were paralysed for the ninth consecutive day as opposition parties besides the TRS and the TDP, which is a member of the ruling NDA, stormed the Well as soon as it met and continued with their noisy protests over a number of issues, including the PNB scam, special status for Andhra and increase of quota.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan first adjourned the House till noon and then for the day. However, the government pushed two bills - The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill and The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill - amid this din and the House passed them with a voice vote.

13:50 Sensex

rangebound

Shares continue to trade in a tight range through the afternoon session, with the Nifty hovering around the 10,400-mark. Midcaps continue to outperform the benchmark indices. Cuts up to a percent are visible in metal, FMCG and energy stocks. Asian Paints, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Finance are the top gainers, while Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, Indian Oil Corporation and Reliance Industries have lost the most.

13:48 HDFC

Sebi

HDFC Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of Housing Development Finance Corporation, has filed its draft red herring prospectus with market regulator Sebi. "The public offer of up to 2,54,57,555 equity shares, consists of an offer for sale of 85,92,970 equity shares by parent company HDFC and 1,68,64,585 shares by other promoter Standard Life Investments," HDFC said in a filing.

Suddenly, Bitcoin seems a bit boring. It might be hard to believe. But after the 1,400% rally of 2017, with wild swings along the way, the great crypto craze has cooled, at least for now, reports Bloomberg. For the past month, Bitcoins price has stalled between $8,500 and $11,300 - a minuscule range by its standards.

And internet searches for Bitcoin have plunged, suggesting public interest has, too. Online searches for bitcoin fell 82% from December highs, according to Google Trends. Tweets that mention the coin peaked on December. 7, at 155,600, and are now down to about 63,000, BitInfoCharts said. And the number of bitcoin transactions is off 60% from its record on December 13, according to Blockchain.info.

Maruti

The first all-electric car from Maruti Suzuki, which is due for debut in 2020, will be all new and not an electric version of any of its existing cars, reports Moneycontrol News Swaraj Baggonkar. Indias car market leader will launch a battery-run electric car which will be developed by Suzuki Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation under an alliance announced in 2017.

13:10 Lok

Sabha

A bill proposing to grant a party the right to seek damages from the other side in case of a breach of a business contract and to reduce discretion of courts in such matters was passed by the Lok Sabha today. The House passed The Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2018 by a voice vote, reports PTI.

Private carrier Jet Airways announced expansion of its domestic network, adding 144 new weekly flights comprising both non-stop and one-stop services as part of its summer schedule, which begins later this month. The new services include flights to north-eastern cities of Imphal and Jorhat as well as Tiruchanapalli in the south from New Delhi and Mumbai, Jet Airways said.

13:00 CBSE

WhatsApp

The CBSE Accountancy paper of Class XII has been leaked on WhatsApp and social media. Central Board of Secondary Educations top panel is conducting a review meeting to look into the matter and determine if the exam needs to be scrapped today, reports CNN-News18.

rationalisation

PSUs

Rationalisation of sources of coal for state-run power plants has resulted in annual savings of Rs 3,354 crore, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended the protection from arrest to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case from March 20 to 22. A bench of justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta changed the date of hearing from March 20 to 22 after Karti's counsel said that senior advocate Kapil Sibal will not be available on March 20. The Enforcement Directorate counsel Vinod Diwakar said he has instructions from Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta that the ASG has no objection if the date of hearing is changed to March 22, reports PTI.

The government is said to have compiled a list of 91 people it is considering barring from leaving the country because of their involvement with companies that have defaulted on loans, sources told Bloomberg. The people were selected because of their roles as directors or owners of companies which have been identified as so-called wilful defaulters, firms which refuse to repay loans despite having the means to do so, sources added. Some 400 Indian companies have been classified as wilful defaulters.

Stephen Hawking was a brilliant cosmologist, who inspired generations around the world, making some of the most complicated physics of our time accessible to the masses, NASA said in honour of the space agency's 'long-time friend'.

Hawking, known for his work on black holes and relativity, died peacefully on Wednesday in his home near Cambridge University in the UK. He was 76. "The world lost a giant among men, whose impact cannot be overstated. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Stephen Hawking," acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said.

The biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Britain next month marks a 'great time' for India to lead the way on intra-Commonwealth cooperation, the chief of the 53-nation grouping has said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join heads of state from the member-countries at the summit in London and Windsor in April, during which they will get a chance to have 'very personal and direct' interactions, Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland said. "It is a great time for India and it is exciting to see the energised way in which new opportunities are being taken up," she said.

midcaps

The market continues to trade mildly lower amid volatility, with the Nifty struggling below the 10,400 level, weighed by index heavyweights ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC. Midcaps continue to maintain their outperformance against frontliners as the Nifty Midcap is up half a percent. MMTC shares are up 17% as the board will consider a bonus share issue next week.

11:49 CCEA

The government has approved a proposal to extend urea subsidy till 2020 and also implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) for disbursement of fertiliser subsidy.

11:47 LTCG

cos

Giving some relief to investors, the government extended indexation benefit for computing tax liability on sale of shares listed after January 31, though capital gains arising from such transactions will continue to be taxed at 20%.

11:38 Mini-ratna

Midhani

438cr

Mini-ratna speciality alloy maker Mishra Dhatu Nigam launched its Rs 438 crore initial public offer. The government is looking to offload 26% holding as part of its disinvestment programme. The company has fixed a price band of Rs 87-90 per equity share for the issue that will open on March 21 and close on 23. The entire proceeds from share sale will accrue to the government.

11:30 Urjit

Neelakantha

Expressing deep anguish over the spate of banking frauds, Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel said that like the 'Neelakantha', the central bank will consume poison and face brickbats, but will persist with its endeavour to become better with each trial. Breaking his silence over the Rs 13,600 crore scam at PNB, he said: "I have chosen to speak today to convey that we at RBI also feel the anger, hurt and pain at the banking sector frauds and irregularities."

11:19 The Delhi High Court has extended Karti Chidambarams protection from arrest in the Enforcement Directorate's INX Media money laundering case from March 20 to 22, reports PTI.

10:58 TTV

Dhinakaran

Jayalalithaa

Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran has floated a new party 'Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam', which roughly translates to Amma Peoples Development Party. He has named the party after late J Jayalalithaa, reports PTI. He also unveiled the party flag prominently featuring Jayalalithaas image.

HMSI

Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India has ordered an investigation against Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) for various anti-competitive provisions in its agreement with dealers, reports PTI. It was alleged that HMSI had perpetuated tie-in arrangements, imposed resale price maintenance and maintained a discount control mechanism through the standard form of dealership agreement.

Emerging-market stocks are the worlds best investment after Februarys rout cheapened valuations, according to Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Unlike previous market corrections, when developing nations suffered big outflows, clients have been adding more money to the riskiest assets, Sheila Patel, the Chief Executive Officer of International GSAM, told Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs Groups asset-management arm, which manages more than $1 trillion, joins GMO, Voya Investment Management and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in touting emerging markets to clients. Patel said the firm is particularly positive on Indian healthcare firms, Mexican consumer stocks and Argentine debt. She expects the Narendra Modi-led government to boost spending on public health under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

FY19

FY20

Rating agency Fitch expects India's economic growth to rise to 7.3% next fiscal and further to 7.5% in FY20. In its Global Economic Outlook report, the US-based agency forecast a growth rate of 6.5% for this fiscal, a tad lower than official estimates by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of 6.6%.

10:31 PNB

9cr

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has detected another small fraud at its Brady House branch which is at the centre of $2 billion fraud, according to a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation. The new alleged fraud of around Rs 9 crore involves officials of a little known company called Chandri Paper & Allied Products Pvt.

Rural Electrification Corporation and Power Finance Corporation are among the worst performers in an index of Indias top 100 companies this year. Analysts told Bloomberg that the lenders shares are cheap for good reasons.

The government-ordered restraint on lending to loss-making power distributors has marred the outlook for the state financiers, accelerating a slide thats put their shares on course for a third month of losses. Jefferies on Wednesday cut its FY20 earnings estimates by more than 25% for PFC and by over 8% for REC.

Medium- to long-term outlook is challenging as existing receivables are stuck with state distributors, said Deven Choksey, Managing Director at KR Choksey Shares & Securities. The shares may have fallen too far but theres no clarity at present and so it is futile to put money in them. It will be a blind bet, he said.

09:50 BJP

bypolls

In a stunning blow to the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections, the party lost bypolls to all three Lok Sabha seats it contested, including its bastion Gorakhpur, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides Araria in Bihar.

Midcaps

The market is trading mildly lower amid global weakness, with the Nifty hovering around 10,400 levels. Midcaps outperform frontliners, with the Nifty Midcap index rising 0.3%. Shares of Indian Oil Corporation falls nearly 4% as the stock goes ex-dividend from today.

09:44 ICICI

The price band for ICICI Securities' initial public offer (IPO) has been fixed at Rs 519 to Rs 520 per equity share. The IPO will open for subscription on March 22 to raise an estimated Rs 4,000 crore. ICICI Securities is a subsidiary of private sector lender ICICI Bank. The offer will be open for subscription to public on Thursday, March 22, 2018 and would close on Monday, March 26, 2018, ICICI Bank said.

09:37 Bandhan

342cr

Kolkata-based private sector lender Bandhan Bank raised Rs 1,342 crore from anchor investors, ahead of its initial share-sale today. It allotted 3,57,84,147 shares to 65 anchor investors at a price of Rs 375 per scrip, garnering Rs 1,341.91 crore, the lender said in a statement.

Among the anchor investors are Abu Dhabi Investment Authority - Behave, Blackrock India Equities (Mauritius), HSBC Indian Equity Mother Fund, UTI - Mastershare Unit Scheme, BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Amansa Holdings and Tata Balanced Fund.

The price band for the initial public offer (IPO), which will close on March 19, has been fixed at Rs 370-375 per equity share. The issue is expected to raise Rs 4,473 crore.

PNB

Nirav

Modi

321cr

000cr

The credit limit exposure of various banks to Nirav Modis group companies could swell to Rs 3,000 crore as around 26 banks may have provided credit limits to the group, reports Moneycontrol News Tarun Sharma and Beena Parmar. This is besides the Rs 321 crore that has been provided by Punjab National Bank. Almost 26 banks, including PNB, had sanctioned credit limits to Nirav Modi's companies, and the total amount may swell to Rs 3,000 crore. As of now, only PNB has given information on its exposure, a CBI source said.

IAF

15bn

The government has abruptly asked the Indian Air Force to consider Boeing Cos twin-engine fighter jet  the Super Hornet. The order is pegged at $15 billion, reports Reuters. Until recently, Lockheed Martin Corps F-16 and Saab ABs Gripen were in a two-horse race to supply at least 100 single-engine jets to build up IAFs fast-depleting combat fleet.

Both had offered to build the planes in India in collaboration with local companies as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modis drive to build a domestic industrial base and cut back on arms imports. But last month the government asked the air force to open up the competition to twin-engine aircraft and to evaluate Boeings F/A-18 Super Hornet, a defence ministry source said. That jet is a finalist for the Indian navys $8-9 billion contract for 57 fighters.

The US Senate voted 67 to 31 on Wednesday to ease bank rules, bringing Congress a step closer to passing the first rewrite of the Dodd-Frank reform law enacted after the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, reports Reuters. The draft legislation now heads to the US House of Representatives where Republicans in the majority say they want to add more provisions to ease financial regulations.

Those changes have some of the bills backers worried that late alterations could upend the deal struck in the Senate between Republicans and Democrats. The bill would ease tight restrictions on small banks and community lenders, and includes provisions beneficial to all but the largest US banks. The measure marks the first significant rewrite of financial rules since the passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Kudlow

US television commentator and conservative economic analyst Larry Kudlow will replace Gary Cohn as President Donald Trumps top economic adviser, the White House and Kudlow said, adding another loyalist to Trumps inner circle. Kudlow, a Republican who served as an economic adviser to former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and also worked on Wall Street, is an ardent advocate of supply side economic policies that focus on cutting taxes and reducing regulations.

The Trump administration is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion, a White House spokeswoman said, clarifying a tweet last week from President Donald Trump. Last Wednesday, Trump tweeted that China had been asked to develop a plan to reduce its trade imbalance with the United States by $1 billion, but the spokeswoman said Trump had meant to say $100 billion.

The spokeswoman declined to provide details about how the administration would like China to accomplish the surplus-cutting goal  whether increased purchases of US products such as soybeans or aircraft would suffice, or whether it wants China to make major changes to its industrial policies, cut subsidies to state-owned enterprises or further reduce steel and aluminium capacity. The request comes as the Trump administration is said to be preparing tariffs on imports of up to $60 billion worth of Chinese information technology, telecoms and consumer products as part of a US investigation into Chinas intellectual property practices.March 15, 2018 / 07:09 AM IST

100bn

The Trump administration is pressing China to cut its trade surplus with the United States by $100 billion, a White House spokeswoman said, clarifying a tweet last week from President Donald Trump. Last Wednesday, Trump tweeted that ChinaChinas cycle-sharing startup Ofo Bikes, which announced fresh funding of USD 866 million led by Alibaba Group, considers India an important market owing to the growth potential and talent resource.

India is strategically very important for us, for the kind of market that exists here, and also for the amount of resources in terms of talent that is available here. The funding will allow us to expand our services to more cities globally and within India itself, Rajarshi Sahai, Indias Director of Public Policy and Communications at Ofo told Moneycontrol.

In July, the Alibaba Group, along with cab aggregator Didi Chuxing and DST Global, had pumped in USD 700 million into Ofo, which triggered its global expansion, even as it faced stiff competition in its home market.

Ofos entry into India is a significant one, considering they are the first foreign player in the segment to do so. The funding, which is believed to be one of the largest fundraises by a bike-sharing company, is bound to add more muscle to the company.

With strong investors backing it, and deep pockets to compete, Ofos entry is sure to intensify competition in a nascent segment. Homegrown startups including ride-hailing firm Ola and Sequoia-backed self-drive car rental startup Zoomcar had announced their respective foray into the segment late last year.

Incidentally, Didi Chuxing, DST Global, and SoftBank, are also investors in Ola.

Zoomcar had announced its entry into the app-based bicycle sharing market with Zoomcar PEDL in mid-October, and had launched its services in select locations in several cities. Ola had launched Ola Pedal in the first week of November at the IIT-Kanpur campus and is looking to expand to other campuses. InMobi co-founder Amit Gupta, who had recently quit the firm, has also launched a bicycle sharing startup called Yulu.

Ofo launched in India in January, when it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), to create city-wide bicycle networks. Ofo has launched its service in seven Indian cities on a pilot basis, including Indore, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Coimbatore, and Chennai to start with.

The company, which handles about 32 million rides every day in 250 cities across 21 countries, is taking a cautious approach in India. We are studying each market carefully first and taking a decision on next city launch very carefully. There are certain challenges and we want to jump into it with proper knowledge and study, Sahai says.

The company did not reveal which city will be their next destination because theres no fixed plan. But Sahai explained that the company will take a government-first approach for expansion in India, tying up with state governments and municipal authorities to help smoothen out regulatory shortcomings.

Ofo had adopted a similar strategy in its home market also. It works very closely with the local governments to create a robust model for parking cycles at convenient access points across cities, and in many cases, the company signs MoUs with the local government to ensure that spaces are clearly defined. This helps the company scale up faster.

However, Chinese operators suffered from lack of technology that could track and monitor bike assets left at the docks, leaving them exposed to theft.

In India, Ofo has opted for a station-free bike-sharing concept. The company has placed a field staff at several hotspots, who keep an eye for the bicycles being dropped, which are taken back to a repair centre. We have also invested in technology. We monitor the cycles through telematics, geo-location to understand trends such as where people like the most popular hotspot for cycle pick up or drop, mileage progression, usage patterns, and so on, Sahai says.

While India is a different market than China, Sahai says, similar properties between the two countries, such as vast and heavily populated cities, will help the company deploy its expertise back in India.

Moreover, like China, India too has a burgeoning mobile payments ecosystem. Companies like Uber, Ola have made fortunes by adding a simple online payment gateway.

Similarly, Ofo has tied up with Indias leading digital wallet Paytm, which is also backed by Alibaba, to make it easy for customers to pay for rides. Paytm was also the first wallet to tie up with ride-hailing giant Uber in India.

Much like Ofo, Ola and ZoomCar are also adopting a similar approach and are targeting residential townships and educational institutions to build the market. Launched in December, Ola had said its Pedal service was gaining massive interest from campuses and cities across the country.

But Sahai insists there is no aggressive competition. I am personally working with all these stakeholders to come together and build an ecosystem. As many players there are in this segment more it will be talked about. Thats good for us.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 Glenmark Pharma with a stoploss at Rs 540 and target of Rs 585

Buy TV18 Broadcast with a stoploss at Rs 64.50 and target of Rs 73

Buy Indian Bank with a stoploss at Rs 292 and target of Rs 325

Buy Persistent with a stoploss at Rs 825 and target of Rs 893

Rakesh Bansal of RK Global

Buy Titan Company with a stoploss at Rs 797.8 and target of Rs 874

Buy KPIT Technologies with a stoploss at Rs 217.8 and target of Rs 245

Buy TV18 Broadcast with a stoploss at Rs 62.6 and target of Rs 75

Buy Pidilite Industries with a stoploss at Rs 883 and target of Rs 943

Jay Thakkar of Anand Rathi Securities

Buy Wockhardt with a stoploss at Rs 762 and target of Rs 825

Buy Canara Bank with a stoploss at Rs 252 and target of Rs 274

Buy Kajaria Ceramics with a stoploss at Rs 557 and target of Rs 587

Buy Bank of India with a stoploss at Rs 97.90 and target of Rs 115

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.live bse live

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Axis Direct's research report on KRBL

KRBL in Q3FY18 posted consolidated revenues of Rs 784 Cr. (down 2% YoY, up 10% QoQ), on account of GST related impact. However, due to companys brand strength, higher price realizations in domestic market and other efficiencies, led to KRBL posting EBITDA margins of 23% vs. 22.4% Y-o-Y. PAT was Rs 123 Cr. (up 11% YoY, down 19% QoQ) due to lower finance costs. The average realizations stood at 59 Rs/kg vs. 48 Rs/kg YoY.

Outlook

We believe that with GST impact getting normalized and changes in consumer preference towards branded Basmati rice in domestic market, also with Iran resuming purchases and entry into premium health foods segment, augurs well for KRBLs earnings. Due to market leadership position and strong pricing power, we value KRBL at 19x FY20E EPS and we recommend BUY with a Target Price of Rs 530.

For all recommendations report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies 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.

Read Morelive bse live

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Share price of Havells India rose 1.5 percent in the early trade on Thursday as the company signed an agreement with South Korean firm.

The company signed an agreement with South Korean major Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co. for manufacturing of magnetic contactor.

Under the agreement, Hyundai Electric will provide technology know-how and grant a license to manufacture and market magnetic contactors under Havells brand.

Ameet Gupta, Whole Time Director, Havells India said, This strategic alliance is in sync with the government Make in India initiative as it will not only fortify Havells position as a strong manufacturing base for global procurement but will also reinforce the companys commitment to manufacture quality acclaimed products.

The share gained 23 percent in last 1 year.

At 09:16 hrs Havells India was quoting at Rs 524.40, up Rs 7.60, or 1.47 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh PatilMaharashtras housing body, MHADA, has accused HDILs subsidiary, Guruashish Construction, of illegally selling land chunks to other companies. This, along with, failing to build 3,000 flats for a redevelopment project in Goregaon suburb of Mumbai, according to a report in The Times of India.

Shares of HDIL fell around 6 percent intraday, but soon cut some of its losses, after media reports emerged regarding a fraud of Rs 1,200 crore.

Maharashtras housing body, MHADA, has accused HDILs subsidiary, Guruashish Construction, of illegally selling land chunks to other companies. This, along with, failing to build 3,000 flats for a redevelopment project in Goregaon suburb of Mumbai, according to a report in The Times of India.

Guruashish Construction also did not rehabilitate any of the 672 tenants of the chawl, who were to get new houses under an agreement signed a decade ago, the report further stated. The project, spread over 10 acres in the vicinity is reportedly estimated at Rs 1,200 crore.

The company currently is before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for insolvency.

However, the management, in an interview to CNBC-TV18, assured that every outstanding due to the body will be covered in the NCLT resolution.

It clarified that the subsidiary was admitted under NCLT in April 2017 and that there has been a delay in handing over units to MHADA. But, the company has enough assets to ensure completion of projects and will give a resolution plan to NCLT in the next 15-20 days.live bse live

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Jaiprakash Associates rose around 11 percent intraday on Thursday as investors cheered the developments around the bid for Jaypee Infratech.

Details emerging from Wednesdays meeting of committee of creditors seem to indicate that Adani Group could be entrusted with the task of completing the unfinished flats of Jaypee Infratech besides ensuring that lenders face minimum haircut.

Shares of Adani Enterprises gained around 4 percent on the back of this development.

The bidders had to submit revised bids by Wednesday and also make presentations to the committee of creditors. Sources told Moneycontrol that going by the fresh bids and the interaction between the suitors and the lenders, the Ahmedabad-based group had nosed ahead of the other three contenders  a joint venture (JV) of Singapores Cube Highways and Kotak Realty Fund, Sajjan Jindals JSW Group and Lakshdeep Investments which is part of Sudhir Walias Suraksha Asset Reconstruction Company.

The successful bidder will displace Jaiprakash Associates as the parent of Jaypee Infratech. As its promoter, the bidder would have to hand over completed properties to the buyers while settling dues with the banks on mutually agreed terms. It will also come to own the Yamuna Expressway and the Jaypee Hospital.

Adani Group is offering about Rs 2,500 crore-Rs 3,000 crore to the lenders and Rs 1,500 crore to finish the completion of the under-construction properties, an offer the creditors seem amenable to.

Sources said the Cube-Kotak bid was most suitable for the home buyers  around 21,000 of them  but one of the factors that seems to have tilted the scales in favour of the Gautam Adani Group is a submission by the Cube-Kotak JV that post the deal, Cube would take control of the 167-km-long Yamuna Expressway while Kotak would take control of the land lying with Jaypee.

At 14:14 hrs Jaiprakash Associates was quoting at Rs 17.85, up Rs 1.55, or 9.51 percent. Meanwhile, Adani Enterprises was quoting at Rs 167.20, up Rs 3.45, or 2.11 percent.live bse live

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Share price of Suzlon Energy gained 2 percent in the early trade on Thursday as company completed commissioning of solar projects of 340 MW.

The company has completed the commissioning of 340 MW solar power turnkey projects across sites in the state of Telangana (210MW), Rajasthan (60MW) and Maharashtra (70MW).

The projects have been executed over a period of time, concluding in Q4FY18.

With the commissioning of the 340 MW Suzlon has completed delivery of its entire solar order book.

The projects have been executed by combination of joint ventures or formation of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with various partners.

J.P. Chalasani, Group CEO, Suzlon Group said, We have delivered the entire 340 MW solar project on turnkey basis. Our focus on solar will continue to be through wind-Solar hybrid projects, which will lead to better utilization of grid, due to complementary generation profile. It will also save on duplication of costs such as land and evacuation infrastructure.

At 09:44 hrs Suzlon Energy was quoting at Rs 11.60, up Rs 0.11, or 0.96 percent on the BSE.

The share price slipped 32 percent in last 6 months.

Posted by Rakesh PatilTelecom regulator TRAI has sought a reply from Bharti Airtel over complaints that the leading operator allegedly offered discriminatory tariffs and not reported these to the authority.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in a letter today asked Bharti Airtel to explain within 10 days whether the company has indeed offered the tariff plans under question to consumers and in how many service areas.

In the letter, seen by PTI, TRAI has also sought details of service area wise launch dates for these tariffs.

TRAI in amendments to the Telecommunication Tariff order last month barred telecom operators from offering predatory and discriminatory rates for telecom services.

"No service provider shall, in any manner, discriminate between subscribers of the same class and such classification of the subscribers shall not be arbitrary," as per the rules.

Reliance Jio Infocomm had filed a complaint with TRAI against Bharti Airtel alleging that the telecom major violated tariff rules by issuing misleading offers and arbitrarily discriminating among its own customers subscribing to the same plan.

When contacted, Airtel spokesperson said, "Airtel confirmed that it has received the notice. The company said that the matter is sub-judice and pending in the TDSAT and it will submit its reply as per timelines."

The regulator has further questioned Bharti Airtel on whether these tariff plans under scrutiny have been reported to TRAI, as the norms stipulate.

"...Whether these tariff offers have been reported to TRAI and if so (LSA wise) the date of reporting," TRAI said.

It has also questioned the company on the "criteria for classification of the consumers for availing these tariff offers" and sought details of the benefits that accrue to the consumers opting for the tariffs in question.

TRAI has also asked the company to provide service area wise details of the number of consumers who have opted for the tariff offers, and instructed the company to file its reply on all these issues "within ten days".

Taking note of the complaints of non-reporting and allegations of discriminatory tariffs, TRAI said that there has been "no exemption" on filing of retail tariffs with the authority and that the TTO amendment also "has not introduced any material change in the stated position".

"...it is stated that your plea for a stay on the 63rd Amendment to the TTO has not been agreed to by the TDSAT (Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal) as is evident from the TDSAT order," the letter said.Arvind Kejriwal AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday alleged that Centre was withholding funds to the civic bodies in the national capital and warned that more employees could go on strike if the issue was not resolved.

Modi government is not giving any heed to the issue, when local bodies in other states are given money, Delhi local bodies are not given anything, Rakesh Kumar, an AAP councillor and Leader of opposition in North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), said.

The AAP's claim comes in the backdrop of the BJP-led civic body alleging political vendetta behind the AAP government not releasing funds to it, which it claims owes Rs 2,600 crore as its legal share in taxes.

NDMC has reached a stage of bankruptcy, which is a serious issue and matter of concern for all us, Kumar said noting that the workers could go on strike.

More employees are going to come on streets if the issue is not looked into, he said, adding the situation today has reached a point where employees are on strike, including those from the malaria department.

In a day or two sanitation workers are going to be on strike," Kumar said.

The BJP has often claimed that the AAP government does not release funds to three civic bodies, which it controls.

On BJP's assertion that Delhi government owes money to the corporation (NDMC), AAP leaders outrightly rejected this and said the civic body has requested for a loan so that they can pay two months salary of its employees.

Also, a loan taken earlier has not been paid back by the corporation, they said.The Accountancy question paper of the CBSE XII Board exams has allegedly been leaked on WhatsApp and other social media channels in Rohini area of New Delhi. The education minister Manish Sisodia received the leaked paper on his phone a few minutes before the exam began at 10:30, earlier today.

The minister immediately called the CBSE head and education secretary to cross-check if it is the same paper and found out that it matched set-2 papers of the Accountancy subject.

CBSE later denied any leak of question paper. "All the seals have been found intact at all the centres. During the process of examination, however, at local level, some miscreants have tried to play mischief by circulating messages through WhatsApp and social media to disturb the sanctity of the examinations," the Board said in a statement, adding that it is lodging an FIR to take strict action against such activities.

CBSE has set up a panel to conduct a review meeting to look into the matter and ascertain if the exam needs to be scrapped. The New Delhi government has ordered a probe into the incident immediately.



Received complaints about the Class 12 CBSE Accountancy paper being leaked. Have asked officers of Directorate of Education to investigate and lodge a complaint with CBSE.

Swift action must be taken, so that hard-working students don't suffer due to negligence of CBSE.

 Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) March 15, 2018

Manish Sisodia took to Twitter to clarify the situation and said that swift action must be taken against whoever is responsible.

The board is still unsure whether it is a case of cheating or the paper was actually leaked before the exam. A source told News18.com , It is impossible for a student to leak a board paper without being in connivance with some insider as Board papers are kept with utmost security and top officials and teachers are only aware of it.The Supreme Court on Thursday asked a Gujarat trial court not to proceed till April 12 with the criminal defamation complaint of Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah, against news portal 'The Wire' and its scribes and chided especially the electronic media for projecting "whatever they feel like" against a person.

A visibly irked Chief Justice Dipak Misra tongue-lashed the media, especially the TV channels and portals, and asked, "Can somebody reproduce something in official/public domain and add something 'defamatory' to it. Are innuendos in the realm of defence or realm of freedom".

"Can they write whatever they want? What they write sometimes amounts to serious contempt of court. Is this journalism? Electronic media should be more responsible. I do not want to name channels, but some people think they are Popes sitting on the pulpit, passing judgement. They should be more responsible and the realisation must dawn upon them," the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said.

The bench issued notice to Shah and other co-petitioner who had filed the defamation complaint against the portal and its journalists including author Rohini Singh and asked them to respond in two weeks.

"In the meantime, counsel for complainant (Shah) shall apprise Magistrate about the pendency of matters before this Court. We are sure the Magistrate shall take note of it and may not proceed with the case till April 12," the court said.

At the outset, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the portal and scribes, said the article contained details from records which are in "public domain electronically". "This is how journalism is throttled in this country. A journalist has no right to question how profits went up by 80 crore," the lawyer asked and added how will journalism flourish.

The bench said there were two issues -- whether factual additions in the article were defamatory or not, and can the editors, who were not part of the article, be also made parties.

Another senior advocate Raju Ramachandran said that even the Managing Editor has been "roped in".

Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Shah, vehemently countered Sibal saying they say that facts are in public domain, but was it permissible to "selectively" use the information and lace them with innuendos. It was "scurrilous" reporting.

"Can you selectively pick up facts, concoct them with a motive. It is a manufactured controversy," Kaul said, adding that the controversy has been created because the father of Shah happened to be the head of a political party and they did not carry the version of Jay at the first instance.

The story published by 'The Wire' was a manufactured story and "an example of irresponsible journalism", he said, adding that the reasoned and detailed order of the trial court and the Gujarat High Court, which even quoted the apex court verdicts, should not be stayed.

The freedom of speech and expression cannot be used to damage the reputation of a person, Kaul said.

The CJI, who said his observations have "nothing to do with this case", was critical of the electronic media and said they sometimes wrote completely baseless stories on their websites to defame people.

Sibal said journalists vilify politicians and there should not be defamation in each case and added that if the son of a politician (Shah) has been vilified, there was another politician (Chidambaram) whose son is also being vilified.

He then referred to the tweet of an eminent person from Chennai who had allegedly tweeted about a Delhi High Court judge who had heard Karti's case, that he was once junior to Congress leader and senior lawyer P Chidambaram.

"No action was taken. This court should have taken a suo motu note of this defamatory tweet," Sibal said.

During the hearing, the CJI said "you all are responsible counsel of the country and now, anyone can write something and get away with it".

"I have told many times about Freedom of Speech and Expression. We are not going to gag the media.The question of gagging the media does not arise. But the press should be more responsible," the CJI said.

"How can anyone write whatever they feel about anyone. There are limits," the CJI observed. "... their writing sometimes amounts to sheer contempt of court," he added.

The high court had on January 8 rejected a plea filed by the news portal, seeking quashing of the defamation complaint filed against it by Jay over an article related to his company.

He had moved the lower court alleging defamation by the petitioners after the article published by the website claimed his company's turnover grew exponentially after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.

The complaint was filed against the author of the article Rohini Singh, founding editors of the news portal Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia and M K Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and the Foundation for Independent Journalism. The foundation publishes The Wire.Tripuras Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb made himself a laughing stock with a series of asinine statements transcending logic and facts in 2018. Whether it was claiming the existence of Internet in Mahabharat that was used by Sanjay to narrate episodes of war to Dhritarashtra or suggesting youths to rear cows instead of running after government jobs, the BJP CM gave series of chances to laugh.

Newly-elected Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said his priority was to provide a "corruption free, dynamic and transparent" government in the state, which was under the uninterrupted Left rule for 25 years.

He said his government would create an atmosphere conducive for industrialisation besides extending all help to the tribal population of the state.

"After assuming office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared that it was his objective to provide a corruption free government and as a first step he had introduced demonetisation", the BJP leader said.

"It is also our objective to provide a corruption free, dynamic and transparent government in Tripura so that the fruits of developments reach the grassroot level. We always remember that this government was formed by people", Deb, who took oath as the chief minister on March 9, told PTI in an interview here.

Asked about the CPI-M's allegation of post-poll violence in the state, he said, "Everyone knows what used to happen in the past after every election. I do not want to enter into any controversy.

"I have asked the police to maintain peace and given them a free hand to improve the law and order situation in the state. The state is peaceful now," he asserted.

Speaking on the unemployment problem in Tripura, the chief minister said despite the rate of literacy being more than 90 per cent in the north eastern state, unemployment was a major issue.

Deb said scope of government jobs was limited in Tripura and industrialisation had not taken place.

The state government will now concentrate more on skill development so that the young can be self employed under the Centre's 'Startup India', 'Make in India' schemes, he said.

"If you look at Gujarat, less than two per cent people are unemployed there because they are self-employed and have acquired the skills," he said.

The BJP leader said his government was also planning to develop tourism and thus create more job opportunities.

Deb said his government would lay more importance to entrepreneurship, adding that it would also work on creating a conducive atmosphere for setting up industries by using local resources like rubber, pineapple, wood and bamboo.

"At present, only 72,000 people are engaged in industry in the state which is very meagre. It can be seven lakh. We will try our best to engage more people in the industry," he said.

Asked about BJP's poll ally IPFT's demand for a separate state carving out some areas of Tripura, the chief minister said, "There are two ministers from the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and the tribal welfare department is also handled by one of them. Let them make an outline for the development of the tribals and I am always ready to help them".

On whether Hindutva had prevailed in the state after 25 years of communist rule, he said, "Hindutva is not a religion, it is a culture. Culture and religion are separate and cannot be mixed up".

Dev said his government wants a good work culture in the state and would not make politically motivated transfers.

The BJP and its ally IPFT had swept to power in Tripura securing a two-third majority. The BJP alone had bagged 35 seats and the IPFT captured 8 seats in the 60-member assembly.Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has decided to give the event a skip. Naidu also declined invitation to Jagan Mohan Reddy's swearing-in ceremony.

N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is likely to quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after a party meeting on Friday, according to a report by CNN News18.

Citing sources close to Chandrababu Naidu, News18 reported that TDP will be holding a high-level politburo meeting at 5 pm in Amaravati on Friday to take a call on the matter.

According to the report, Naidu is facing pressure from rival YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh.

In a teleconference discussion, Naidu is said to have told his party's Members of Parliament (MPs) that TDP is fighting for the self-respect and rights of the Telugu people and implementation of promises made to them.

The Andhra Pradesh CM reportedly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of being involved in collusion politics.

Earlier this month, TDP MPs Ashok Gajapathi Raju and YS Choudhary quit the Union Cabinet after the Centre declined to give special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The YSR Congress has also decided to move a no-confidence motion against the government in Parliament on Friday. Party president Jaganmohan Reddy has written to all parties seeking support in getting special status for the state.Rebel All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader TTV Dhinakaran on Thurday floated his new political party, the "Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam", named after late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

"From today onwards, we will function with a name to retrieve the great movement of AIADMK from the betrayers," Dhinakaran told a gathering on the occasion, challenging the ruling dispensation in the state.

Dhinakaran and his followers often use the word "betrayers" to refer to the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy, O Panneerselvam.

Announcing the name of the new party, "Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam", roughly translated as "Amma's party for people's development", thrice to a thunderous applause at Melur, near here, Dhinakaran said it was a party of the followers of "Puratchi Thalaivi Amma" (revolutionary leader Amma).

"This party will function in the name of Amma...The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam will capture power in Tamil Nadu," he said.

Before announcing the party name and unveiling its flag, Dhinakaran traced their background.

He recalled that the original party name  AIADMK  and its "two leaves" symbol were frozen by the Election Commission (EC), following a plea by the "betrayers"  Panneerselvam and E Madhusudanan  in March, 2017.

Subsequently, though the name AIADMK (Amma) was allotted to the faction led by him, eventually it could not be used since the poll panel had allotted the party name of AIADMK and the "two leaves" symbol to the unified factions of Palaniswami and Panneerselvam last November, Dhinakaran said.

"How long can the 1.5 crore cadres work without a name?," he asked, adding that for the last four months, the party workers had faced difficulties in securing permissions from the authorities for party events in the absence of a party name and flag.

Under such circumstances, Dhinakaran said he approached the Delhi High Court, which directed the EC to allot the "pressure cooker" symbol and a party name of his choice to the AIADMK faction led by him.

Even during last December's RK Nagar bypoll, which he won hands down with the "pressure cooker" symbol, "We made the rising sun (DMK's symbol) lose its deposit, and the 'two leaves' (ruling AIADMK) managed to scrape through," Dhinakaran added.

Regretting that party general secretary VK Sasikala could not be with them on the occasion, he said he was announcing the name of the party with her greetings and permission.

Later, Dhinakaran hoisted the new party flag on a 100-foot pole.

Party flag and Amma's legacy

Dhinakaran, who has the support of several dissident AIADMK workers and leaders, said the new outfit would capture power in the state and unveiled its flag, which features the image of a smiling Jayalalithaa.

The flag is black on top and red below with white in the middle.

The black and red colours are politically significant in Tamil Nadu and they feature in the flags of the two Dravidian majors  the AIADMK and the DMK  as well.

Making a pitch for the welfare legacy of late Jayalalithaa, Dhinakaran said the people of "Amma's constituency (RK Nagar) gave us a thumping victory" (in the bypoll).

Earlier also he had said the people of RK Nagar had chosen him as the successor to the late leader.

AIADMK mouthpiece Dr Namadhu MGR had yesterday refrained from using the word "party" and instead, used "organisation" to refer to Dhinakaran's outfit.

A name of the organisation, a flag and a symbol were needed till the AIADMK and the "two leaves" symbol, nurtured by "Amma", were retrieved, Dhinakaran had said, according to the party daily.

Former state ministers V Senthil Balaji and P Palaniappan, senior leaders such as S Anbazhagan, disqualified MLAs and Dhinakaran loyalists, including P Vetrivel and Thanga Tamil Selvan, were among those who took part in the event.

Speakers at the meeting lambasted the Palaniswami-led regime and alleged that it consisted of "betrayers".

Vetrivel presented a "veera vaal" (the spear of valour seen in the hands of Lord Muruga) to Dhinakaran, before the latter announced the name of the party.

Dhinakaran's style

Clad in a white shirt, Dhinakaran, in his characteristic simple Tamil, used popular phrases pioneered by late leader MG Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) like "Ungal veetu pillayai" (I am your son) to connect with the people.

Like Jayalalithaa, he welcomed the party workers, saying, "MGR-in rathathin rathamana udanpirappukaley," roughly translated as "you have mixed with my blood, you are my brothers".

The phrase, originally coined by party founder MGR, had a magical effect on the workers.

After MGR passed away, Jayalalithaa had added MGR's name as a prefix to the phrase.Posted Thursday, March 15, 2018 10:39 am

Rob McClure, who was nominated for a Tony last season for best performance by a lead actor in the musical Chaplin, is on tour with Something Rotten!, a musical that lampoons the Shakespeare era.

We managed to get him on the phone for a Q&A session about the show, which will be at the Wharton Center through Sunday.

Something Rotten! goes back to the dawn of musicals, telling of the fictional Bottom brothers, who realize plays can have not only drama, but singing and dancing. What can you tell us about them?

Nick and Nigel Bottom are writers in the Renaissance trying to compete with Shakespeare. Now, we say all of that tongue-in-cheek, because the show is a contemporary comedy. Its brought to you by the director of The Book of Mormon and Aladdin, so it has a very contemporary sense of humor.

There are no thees and thous of the Renaissance that the audience is going to have to translate to enjoy themselves. And the Shakespeare in our show is quite literally a rock god. Hes like a Freddie Mercury or a David Bowie sort of superstar of the age, and the Bottom brothers hate him.

As competitors, they are desperately trying to compete. And so they go to a soothsayer to find out what the future of theater will be in order to compete. And he informs them that it is the musical. So the brothers set out to write the worlds first musical.

You are very experienced with comedy, obviously since you starred in Avenue Q. How did you prepare for this role?

Well, Nick Bottom, as Shakespeare-aficionados will know, is actually a character lifted from A Midsummer Nights Dream. Theres a troupe of actors called the mechanicals and Shakespeare sort of writes them to be a troupe of buffoon actors.

The character of Nick Bottom is the one who famously gets turned into a donkey. We are sort of seeing a very comical take on his origin story. And that he was a competing writer with Shakespeare, and Shakespeare writes him into that play as a bit of revenge for what ensues in Something Rotten! So, in terms of research, I had to familiarize myself with all of the Shakespeare thats referenced. And being a guy who primarily works in the musical theater, I had a lot of that stuff up my sleeve already going into it.

Youve played Charlie Chaplin, who relied a lot on physical slapstick. Are you bringing that into Something Rotten?

Absolutely. I think playing Chaplin, changed the way I will do anything for the rest of my life.

When you dive into the mind and work of a genius like that, or a genius like Shakespeare, it cant help but influence the way you perform. Charlie taught me so much about comedy as an entity. You can slip and fall on a banana peel and somebody might chuckle for a second, but its the story of the guy who slipped on it, what his deal is and what hes going through that really makes it timeless.

And in Charlie Chaplins age, everyone was getting hit in the face with pies and falling off of ladders. What made him so universally renowned and such a superstar was the heart of the character that he created.

He was sort of like the downtrodden every man who is just trying to get by. Audiences were going to his movies to laugh and left with tears in their eyes, because he got them not only to laugh, but to care. And I think thats the root of any great comedy: getting the audience to sort of lean in and care about the characters, so the laughter is coming from a really honest place.

Youre working with one of the co-directors from The Book of Mormon, an absolutely massive musical. Whats it like working with him?

I mean, no one knows musical theater better than Casey Nicholaw does. He started as a performer, as a really incredible dancer, choreographer. So theres a reason the South Park guys reached out to him when they needed someone to co-direct Book of Mormon.

He gets funny, he gets comedy and he gets musical theater. Thats why when people come to see our show, theyre going to get everything they want in a really great musical comedy. Theyre going to get huge production numbers. Weve got a production number in act one called A Musical. Its the moment the soothsayers sort of revealing his visions of the future of theater to me.

That number can get standing ovations in the middle of the show. Hes crafted such incredible numbers.

We have extraordinary costumes. These gorgeous Renaissance costumes that were rocking out in, dripping with sweat onstage. And amazing tap numbers. Casey has a really strong tap background.

So, theres not a lot of people coming to a show about the Renaissance expecting these huge Broadway tap numbers, but theyll get them.

Theres so many surprises. I think thats what Caseys the best at, having a bag of tricks that the audience doesnt know is coming and revealing them in the most impressive way possible.

How do you think the actual Shakespeare would react to Something Rotten?

I would love to see that. Man, I would love to see that. Because we also poke fun at sort of the notion that maybe not all of his ideas were actually his ideas. So I would love for him to see this and maybe straighten out some of his reputation.

But, I would also like to think that he would really appreciate the sort of tried and true storytelling. Because we have two couples, and we have the young lovers, and we have the successful everyman and the tortured artist. We have things that he built, that are of his creation.

What can you tell me about the chemistry you have with your co-star, Josh Grisetti?

Hes a great guy. We got to do the show on Broadway for a while before we hit the road. And he is very much Nigel. Out of the two brothers, Nick, the character I play, is sort of the hot-headed, sort of success-driven brother. And he is very much the artistic type. He is the softer spoken poet of the two of them, who is responsible for a lot of the sort of romantic content that they write. And Josh is very much that way.

Hes pretends to be this super hip, cool guy, but the more you get to know him, he has a huge heart. And I think the audience responds to that heart every night onstage. And Im lucky, before we even met, we had people telling us most of our lives, Oh, you know Josh Grisetti? You guys should play brothers. And we had never even met, but when we met we finally shared with each other that everyone had been telling us, up until that point that we should play brothers.Representative Image

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar today demanded that the Maharashtra government arrest Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, failing which he will launch a protest.

Though Hindu Ekta Aghadi leader Milind Ekbote has been arrested, the government is yet to take Bhide into custody, he said.

A case was registered against Ekbote and Bhide, the head of the right wing outfit Shiv Pratishthan Sansthan, for allegedly inciting the anti-Dalit violence that left a man dead near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in Pune district on January 1.

The incident took place during an event to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.

Subsequent protests had disrupted normal life in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

The Pune rural police yesterday arrested Ekbote, after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea.

"We give an ultimatum to the government to arrest Bhide till March 26, failing which we will take to the streets," Ambedkar told reporters here.

He also demanded that the judicial commission, set up under retired Justice Jai Narayan Patel, to probe the Bhima-Koregaon violence be disbanded and a sitting judge be appointed to investigate the incident.

The new committee should be given powers prescribed under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), he said.

He alleged that false cases were filed against those who came out on streets to express anguish over the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1.

Meanwhile, Ambedkar also demanded that all scholarships of students belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) be given on time.

The income limit of the families of SC/ST/OBC students who seek scholarships should be increased to Rs 5 lakh and for the families of students of economically backward class, it should be raised to Rs 10 lakh, he demanded.

Also, the condition of 75 per cent attendance for SC, ST and OBC students to avail the scholarships should be done away with, said the Dalit leader and grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar.

The demands of students of the city-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) should also be addressed urgently, he said.

Ambedkar had last week come out in support of the TISS students, who have been protesting against the withdrawal of financial aid provided to them.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 today extended the interim relief from arrest granted by the Delhi High Court to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case till March 26 and said it would clear the "confusion" which has crept in due to divergent views of different high courts on ED's power to arrest.

The apex court also transferred to itself the matters pending before the Delhi High Court relating to the power of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to arrest in money laundering cases and also a plea filed by Karti seeking protection from arrest in ED's case.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the top court would answer the question about interpretation of section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) relating to ED's power to arrest and also deal with the issue whether high courts can grant protection from arrest in a plea under Article 226 of the Constitution which deals with high court's power to issue writs and orders.

"There is some kind of confusion in the high courts. The Delhi High Court has referred it (issue pertaining to ED's power to arrest) to its larger bench but it will not be binding for other courts," the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said.

The court observed this after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, referred to the orders passed by different high courts, including Delhi and Bombay, on the issue.

When the apex court was informed that the Delhi High Court has extended till March 22 the interim protection from arrest to Karti in the money laundering case, the bench said it would transfer to itself the matters pending there and hear the arguments on them on March 26.

"We are directing so (transfer of pleas pending in high court), as there are conflicting views of various high courts. Registry is directed to intimate the registry of the High Court of Delhi to call for the papers of the above mentioned case(s)...," it said.

"The interim relief granted by the High Court in writ petition (criminal) number 739 of 2018 (filed by Karti) shall remain in force till the next date of hearing, that is March 26," the bench said.

Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, is currently in jail in connection with the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI.

In his plea before the high court, Karti has sought to strike down ED's power of arrest under section 19 of the PMLA, besides seeking quashing of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) and the probe being carried out by the agency.

He has also sought striking down the presumption codified in section 24 of the PMLA which says that when a person is accused of having committed an offence under section 3 (money laundering), the burden of proving that proceeds of the crime are untainted property, shall be on the accused.

During the hearing before the top court, Mehta referred to sequence of events in these matters including the issues pending before the high court, and said the high court had on March 9 granted relief to Karti in ED's case while hearing his plea under Article 226.

He said that on February 19, a division bench of the high court had made a reference to a larger bench on questions pertaining to arrest by ED, the need to supply the grounds of arrest to an accused and whether the offence was cognisable or non-cognisable under section 45 of the PMLA.

"There are over 1000 plus cases where we (ED) have reached the stage of section 19 throughout the country," Mehta said, adding "my difficulty is that even if the larger bench of the Delhi High Court gives a finding, it will not bind other courts. So this court has to give a finding on it, otherwise people will come to Delhi High Court only."

"All will rush to the Delhi High Court for ad-interim protection and we will not be able to do anything," he told the bench and referred to cases like PNB fraud and Kingfisher.

"Are we not even entitled to investigate," he asked.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Karti, told the bench that they have filed a plea before the high court saying there was neither an FIR, nor a complainant in ED's case.

He said the top court had on March 8 asked Karti, who is in judicial custody till March 24 in the CBI's case, to approach the high court for relief after which they had filed the plea in the high court.

The bench, after hearing the submissions, said it would not go into the merits but interpret the provision related to ED's power to arrest under PMLA and deal with the issue whether high courts could grant such relief under Article 226.

During the hearing, the bench was also informed that the Madras High Court has reserved its judgement on the pleas relating to the issuance of two Look Out Circulars (LOC) against Karti and others in connection with a corruption case. ED has challenged in the top court the March 9 order the high court granting interim protection to Karti.

Karti was arrested by the CBI on February 28 in Chennai immediately after he had returned from abroad.Magnetic Maharashtra Convergence 2018, a three day Global Investor Summit was held at Mumbai.

The objective of the summit was to attract business investments both global and domestic so as to transform Maharashtras economic landscape and in the process achieve the governments vision of making it a trillion dollar economy.

On day two of the summit, one of the session focused on countrys export sector. The tone for the session was set by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Suresh Prabhu.

The minister lauded the Maharashtra governments objective of focusing on export oriented industrialization. This he felt will boost the countrys overall exports.India's new Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon held preparatory talks for the next first bilateral two plus two talks.

The two top diplomats held a wide range of talks on bilateral and regional issues in addition to laying the ground work for the two plus two meeting in April, sources told PTI.

While things are in a state of flux at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department, because of the firing of Rex Tillerson as the Secretary of State and his replacement Mike Pompeo is yet to be confirmed, officials said that as of now there was no indication from the American side on any changes in the forthcoming major talks between the two countries.

Officials from the either side have not yet announced any dates of such a dialogue, but it was previously scheduled for some time in mid-April.

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.

During his current visit, Gokhale is also scheduled to meet officials at the White House and US Trade Representative in addition to joining Defense Secretary Mohan Kumar for a joint meetings involving officials from the State Department and the Pentagon.

The Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Singh Sarna, also accompanied Gokhale at his meeting with Shannon, which was described as fruitful and result oriented.Pakistan and Russia on Wednesday discussed defence and security relations and held talks on various global and regional issues of mutual interest, the Foreign Office said.

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua elaborated on Pakistan's improved security situation and ongoing counter terrorism efforts, the Foreign Office said.

She also expressed satisfaction at increasing military and technical cooperation between Pakistan and Russia.

Russia's deputy secretary National Security Council Mikhail Popov expressed deep appreciation and acknowledged Pakistan's contribution and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and also recognised the need for joint efforts for peace, security and stability in the region, the Foreign Office said.At 9:15am this morning I was sitting at the train station. I was heading into central London for a couple of meetings.

I was happily enjoying the calm morning sun (yes, theres still a bit of sun here in the UK in March) when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Now Im a major geek when it comes to tech. If youve ever read any of my work before youll know this already. But these days Im actually able to tell from the vibration of my phone what its in relation to.

Sounds daft, right?

But I could tell you from the vibration on my leg whether I was getting an,

Alert from my RING doorbell

Notification of movement in the hallway (usually the dog) from my Nest Camera

A normal text message

A WhatsApp message

An email from Gmail

Or even an email through Outlooks Web Application

Yes I understand how peculiar that is. And perhaps I have a problem. Anyway, thats not the point here

The point is that this morning it was a WhatsApp message. Ive got a fairly good idea who would message me at this time of the morning. Its typically my brother.

Its evening for him in Melbourne, so hes probably put the kids to bed and is checking out something on Netflix Ive been pestering him to watch.

We usually throw a bit of banter about. Often its complete drivel. But sometimes its ideas that generate really interesting discussion.

Todays message was a doozy.

He said,

If you had to make $100,000 by tomorrow afternoon how would you do it? Without selling anything you already have?

My initial response to those sorts of questions is usually, why? But not today. I thought about it for a few seconds and fired back.

Id steal it.

Now I might add that Ive never stolen anything in my life. In fact, Im almost too adherent to rules and laws. Some would even call me a square.

So I was a little shocked at my response and the speed at which I sent it.

Then I thought about it a little more and added a caveat,

If someones life depended on it  yours for instance  then Id steal it.

I added a few more alternatives,

Id hit up a few mates I knew who could spare the cash and borrow it from them. Id go all in on a high risk crypto play. I could possibly tap into my social networks to crowd source it.

But it was possibly my last response, which was my finest,

I was going to say Id prostitute myself for itbut then I realised you said ONLY $100K and I didnt want to oversubscribe.

Ask yourself the same question. If you had to raise $100K by tomorrow afternoon how would you do it? And what lengths would you go to in order to get it done?

Of course this is a hypothetical. So any answer is a moot point.

However if you took that question and made it more realistic, then how you answer will say a lot about your investment mindset, your openness to risk and how you look at opportunity.

The new question

Now Ive changed the question slightly. The new question is,

If you had to raise $100,000 by the end of the year, how would you do it? Without selling anything you already have?

Now thats not a crazy question. It might sound crazy on the face of it, and to many people raising $100,000 in a year would be unheard of.

Most people dont make that kind of money to save it. And most people dont have enough money to invest into stocks to generate it.

But what if you could invest in opportunities to give yourself a real chance at turning just a few hundred bucks into potentially $100,000 or more?

The best way I know of to give you every shot at generating $100,000, I come back to crypto investing.

Understand, educate and invest

Now you must understand that crypto investing is extremely high risk. If youve never set foot into this wild world then you need to make sure you learn the basics. You need the right tour guide to show you the ropes and get you started.

If you take the steps to understand and learn about crypto markets then you put yourself in a position to cash in on its potential. You will learn about why they exist, what the dangers are, and the potential. Youll learn what separates the good cryptos from the bad cryptos. Youll learn how to sniff out a scam and to navigate this crazy world.

Taking these steps will help open your eyes to a high-risk, high-return world. A world that could potentially deliver gains of up to $100,000 in a year.

Weve seen it happen to investors before in crypto. Where a small stake can turn into $100,000 or more in a matter of months. It happened to early investors in ethereum, ripple, bitcoin, stellar, NEM and dash.

Today these opportunities still exist. Its why weve put together our crypto advisory service Sam Volkerings Secret Crypto Network. Its why we try and help educate everyday Aussie investors about the life-changing opportunities in play.

We think this is a market you simply cant ignore. Its a market thats going to be around, in our view, forever. And if you educate yourself now, we think $100,000 could be just a speck in the kinds of returns a long-term crypto strategy could deliver.

So if you asked us again how we would raise $100,000 in a year, our answer would be a small stake  one you can afford to lose  in crypto to ride this high-risk, potentially mega-reward market.

Sam Volkering,

Editor, Secret Crypto NetworkThe Finance of America Foundation has partnered with homeownership-nonprofit HLP to create a platform that addresses foreclosure and other financial problems of homeowners.

The foundation will fund the platform through a grant, while HLP will develop it. The foundations advisory board of executives and former government officials will provide guidance to HLP. Barney Frank, the former representative from Massachusetts, will advise the foundation on this effort.

The platform is set to launch in the third quarter and will be free for consumers, government agencies, nonprofit counselors, and the mortgage industry. Homeowners will be able to access information about aid programs through the platform, including state and federal government programs and private charitable resources. They will also be able to apply for many of the programs and get access to nonprofit HUD-approved housing counselors.